So my final camp is now complete. I’ve spent a week at RAF Henlow and it was a great time. I spent the week driving around in the party bus and singing along to all the great tunes we had playing. It was really nice being back with staff who I hadn’t seen for half a year and also meeting new staff from the other CCF unit there.
Bombardier Global Express Undercarriage
Here’s a list of the things we got up to during the week:
Archery, raft building, high ropes.
Shuttleworth Collection – anti aircraft Bofors training, bus ride, searchlight training, camp photo.
Leadership tasks.
Live 5.56mm 25m range at RAF Wittering using L98A2 weapons.
Martin-Baker factory visit.
DeHavilland museum visit and Link Trainer experience.
Harrods Aviation visit.
Voyager Simulations visit.
Elstree Aerodrome visit.
Duxford IWM.
Awards ceremony.
It was a camp worthy of my last CCF adventure and I look forward to seeing the section continue. The boss and I had loads of ideas and some plans fell through but that is how it goes. Overall I think we did a really good job.
Last night Smith and I went to the Angel and our favourite little music venue in Torrens Street. I drove into the big smoke and parked in some driveway using the Just Park app. Now, let’s be clear, the app doesn’t park the car but it allows you to find a space that is convenient and, normally, quite local to your destination. It was a much nicer drive than on Wednesday when I met up with the Fulham Five for a leaving party – one of our number is heading to the US to live. There are now three of us in the USA and three and a half in the UK. Back to the gig.
First band on were Machine Vein. I spent most of the gig thinking they were j:dead because I wasn’t aware there were three bands on. While driving in to the gig I thought it would be funny to see Biomechanimal again as they have been support for many bands I have seen. It turns out that Machine Vein have some of the same members of Biomechanical. I quite enjoyed their set. It was heavy bass with tiddly sounds over the top. I had a good time.
Second band were j:dead and I thought I had seen them before somewhere, sometime, but now, having seen them I suspect not. I also thought I had some of their music on my phone but that was also not a correct thought. I think they pop up in a lot of the social media I have because of their close links to the EBM – Aggrotech genres. I didn’t find their set as much fun as Mechanical Vein but they were definitely a more polished live band to see, you could tell there was plenty of experience. I was also surprised they were British. Not sure why that surprised me but it did.
j:dead at Electrowerkz
Then we were on to Faderhead, a singer I had seen before twice at a music festival and one whose shows were great. I’ve even helped fund their albums at times and there are communications somewhere in this site. I’m quite happy to pay for things that make me happy, hence I even pay for free podcasts, I will recognise that being able to do that is from a position of privilege. So, Faderhead. I really enjoyed the show. It was great to see him in London and the crowd was pretty darn good. He has a load of songs that are really good for singing along with. Some of my favourites are “No gods, no flags, no bullshit”, “Destroy, improve, rebuild”, “Fistful of fuck you”, and “Swedish models and cocaine”.
Faderhead @ Electrowerkz
Earlier in the day Faderhead had said that he wasn’t feeling well and that his voice was struggling. I think this showed in the early songs and he clearly didn’t feel healthy-well. He sounded better about halfway through the gig and then his voice declined more towards then end. They had decided to put some extra ballads into the set to ease his voice and I didn’t mind this. Overall I really enjoyed the show. It was great to see them play a smaller venue and I look forward to seeing them again sometime.
Yesterday the Legend crew took a trip to West Horsley House. It’s the location where most of the BBC series Ghosts was filmed. If you like the series then you’ll understand that the house is a pretty big feature of the show.
West Horsley Place – BBC Ghosts Filming Location
The open day was ticketed to avoid there being too many people around, also the car parking was somewhat limited. We rolled up in our luxury minibus, hired for the day, but not quite luxury enough for the wheels to be correctly balanced or the doors to close without needing an extra shove. Coffee and some snacks were downloaded into the living bodies and then we wandered around the place.
West Horsley Place – Fanny’s Window
There were plenty of Ghosts fans and superfans wandering around. I found it fascinating how much they changed the look of the interior for the show and the dressing that was required to do that. I also liked the fact that filming the show used almost every part of the house.
West Horsley Place – The Drawing Room
Seeing the same rooms and furniture that was used for Ghosts, and also some feature films, it was a lovely sense of familiarity along with the first time of being there. A bit like when I went to LA and saw things that I’d seen all along on TV and film. I think to get the most out of the time at the house it’s probably important to have recently watched the show and then re-watch it all upon return.
I was recently wandering around one of the largest shopping centres in this area with the wonderful Legend when I spotted a dispenser of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I had noticed this shop in the past but hadn’t been bothered to take a photograph. Not this time though. I managed to use my phone to collect the lovely information on their sign.
To Be Honest The Answer Is “Nope”
I think I was drawn to the sign because of the very opaque tape over some of the health claims and I was tempted to look further into what had been once claimed. But let’s have a brief about the things that are problematic. This would be ALL OF IT.
Traditional Chinese Medicine – TCM – is absolutely not a thing that works. During the post WWII period China sent doctors out to the countryside to look after people. Well aware that some places would not have drugs or suitable medicine (defined as stuff that works) the government sent the doctors out with a book that also had a load of stuff that didn’t work. This book had a list of medicine and, for the worst case scenario of no kit, a list of not-medicine that might keep the locals thinking they were being helped. So most of this traditional “medicine” is not.
A Barefoot Doctor’s Manual instead showed what the worst equipped Chinese medics would have to resort to under the worst circumstances.
Dunning, B. “Mao’s Barefoot Doctors: The Secret History of Chinese Medicine.” Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, 24 May 2011. Web. 16 Nov 2023. <https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4259>
So, Traditional Chinese Medicine does not work. I am quite concerned about a number of the conditions that the shop claims they can help with; infertility and miscarriage seem to be playing on the emotions of people going through tough situations. A lot of the others are of a similar vein. I’ve looked at their website to gain a better understanding of what they claim but the website just seems to sell boring things and cleverly makes no actual medical claims. They sell; tea, soups, capsules of some various herbs and stuff. It’s all pretty boring “boost your immunity” stuff. The website does have a blog page but the most recent post was 2021.
I do find it amusing and worrisome that people will pay money for this and that practitioners have probably paid money to get “trained” in this stuff. Just think of all that effort and resource that could be put to use in something that actually works.
Smith and I went to see perennial favourites Combichrist play at The Garage in Highbury last night. I’ve seen this band loads and really enjoy their gigs. The last one was in the Assembly Rooms in Islington and I wasn’t in the right place to enjoy the gig [and there was an annoying person in the pit]. It does feel like I see Combi about once a year which is nice. I drove and parked on someone’s drive near the venue while Smith got the trains [there’s an overtime strike on at the moment. I believe that if your system requires people to work beyond their standard contract hours to be efficient then your system has a problem]. After applying makeup we had a drink in a pub and then went to the venue.
The first band/artist on was Janosch Moldau. They were a singer/songwriter who played guitar while singing along to electronic music. It was ok as a starting act but I don’t really feel the need to see them again.
Janosch Moldau
The next band were Megaherz. This is a German band who I’ve seen a few times at M’era Luna in the past. In this August I saw their entire set and my comments were:
Megaherz – main stage – good German rock. Enjoyed it. Proper rain shower. Heavy rain.
Parish – this website
Their gig at The Garage was good fun. They put on the best show they could on the tiny stage. Having seen them play to 20,000 on a massive stage made the small stage seem really incongruous. They wore Kiss type make-up which meant they had black crosses of various types on their faces and white all around that. I’d made myself up with a “joker” type smile but in black.
Megaherz at The Garage
The headliners were amazing. I stood a couple of rows back in the middle at the front. I knew that at some point there would be a pit and I wanted to be on the edge of it. I wasn’t in the mood for full pitness but the odd bounce here and there I knew would be fun. Combichrist played well and they sang a number of crowd pleasers and I think there were two new songs, at least I didn’t recognise them. I’m still not sure about the whole move into a metal sound but it works and adds a little to some of the songs. Their Old School gig was the best I’ve been to.
Combichrist at The Garage
According to a website somewhere this was their setlist:
Blut Royale
Maggots at the Party
Modern Demon
Scarred
Get Your Body Beat
Can’t Control
Denial
Compliance
Heads Off
Fuck That Shit
Hate Like Me
Not My Enemy
Never Surrender
Encore – My Life My Rules
So, I had good fun and enjoyed the music. Somehow, a few days after now, I think I preferred the Megaherz set but that may be because I’ve seen Combichrist so many times. I think it’s nine times now. To give you some context there are bands I’ve seen once and am not that fussed about seeing again because, I’ve seen them, they don’t offer anything new.
Because I’ve seen Aesthetic Perfection a lot and also I’ve seen Combichrist a lot it turns out that members of those bands I have seen more than any other. Especially when the drummer from Combi moves to AP and the keyboardist for AP moves to Combi. I don’t know who I’ve seen most and to figure it out would require some hardcore research so I won’t really bother. I nice part of the gig was Elliot Berlin [formerly of AP] being carried by the audience to the bar at the back of the venue.
I recently attended an Expo thing and it’s somewhere I’ve been a few times. Whenever I go members of the group I take get a goody bag. While, in the past I have also been given a goody bag I haven’t received a branded Teddy Bear. So, at the most recent event I all-out asked for a teddy bear.
Upon collection it turns out that there are two teddy bears. One dressed in blue and which looks like a standard teddy bear and the other dressed in white with a ribbon in its hair. Apparently the ribbon indicates that the teddy bear is “female”. I didn’t raise a complaint at the time but I do think that teddy bears are literally un-gendered and so can be any gender that the owner wants. It’s a toy. Why does it have to have a gender pre-associated with it. I don’t really understand the idea of making gendered toys. Just make toys for everyone. It’s a bit like Lego releasing pink Lego sets. Lego was already agender. Anyone could play with any of the sets. I suppose if more girls play with Lego and enter traditional male dominated areas of society because of pink Lego then maybe I need to be corrected.
Ever noticed that to describe with images, something as female we ADD to the male image. Male toilets have a stick person, generally, but female toilets have a stick person with extra lines to create a skirt. To show a female character in comics extra is drawn on them to highlight the femaleness [eye lashes, eyebrows, bows, longer hair etc]. It is a sad state of society when signs for female things are only the male with extra. It shows a lack of understanding over the years of designers and artists to match how society has been.
Also, while I’m on the topic of gender, I absolutely do not like “gender reveal” parties. Firstly it’s a sex-reveal and even then it’s very problematic. Biological sex isn’t binary. There are many variations that can, and do, occur. To describe the human species as binary in terms of biological sex is scientifically incorrect and actually incorrect. We have a massive problem with society that is unable to accept the truth of our biology. We know these things now and we should be pushing as a society to change our historical mistakes. Sports shouldn’t be divided into two categories. I’m not sure what the answer is but I definitely think we categorise everything wrongly. We could just have “toilets” instead of male and female categorised toilets. We could change the historical mistakes for the better to be a more inclusive society.
Gender is a problematic term for the reveal parties because who the fuck are parents to describe the gender of their child? Firstly, using a penis or lack thereof to define biological sex is ultimately flawed. Secondly, gender is about how people identify themselves. You can’t reveal gender because you don’t know how your child will be. It is up to the child to define who they want to be. Not you. I won’t go into sexuality in this communication because that is another separate issue although media and people in power don’t seem to realise that all these things are exclusive. We have such a long way to go as a society and the last ten years have seen us move backwards into a more divisive unaccepting society. I hope the future is less bleak than I imagine it.
As part of the journey to M’era Luna 2023 I had a little less than a day in Hannover, or Hanover as apparently we British spell it. Smith and I flew to Hannover, stayed the night in a hotel room and then travelled to M’era Luna in Hildesheim.
Pentagram Church, Hannover
There’s a website that gives information about curios in different places. You let it know where you are going and then the return data are interesting things. The first one we wanted to see was the church with the pentagram built into the walls. In the above picture you can see the pentagram [traditional sign of the devil] and also the Star Of David around the clock. I’m not sure why either are there, but also, I don’t really care. It was pretty nice to see.
Next on the list was the musical manhole cover or drain cover I guess they should be called. Trying to explain manhole cover to a German native was interesting. Their language didn’t have the male-ness of it in their word so English gets called out, quite rightly, for being misogynist.
Hannover New Town Hall
The new town hall in Hannover was spectacular and very pretty. The whole centre of the city was a delight, even with the mentally unstable people we saw. I found the basement level shopping mall quite a surprise but understandable. It’s hard talking to Germans about their cities when they talk about “it was bombed and we built it back the way it was before”. I’m not sure of the correct response to that. I know when in Washington DC I was almost proud the Brits had burnt the White House to the ground, but these war actions felt different.
Wandering around Hannover it was strange to see emblems of the British royal family. But then I remembered that the current royal family are literally descended from the Hanoverians who ruled Britain in the past. Once I remembered this I felt a kind of kinship with the city and I’m not even a royalist. I’m definitely a not-royalist. But there we go.
Hannoverian Royal Standard
I’m trying to upload the musical drain cover to YouTube but am struggling slightly, I think that the music might be missing for some reason, but that’s the main reason for uploading. I will try again in a moment.
During our visit to the Harry Potter Studios I made sure to do a “deep look”. There’s no point just observing the surface stuff. It’s more fun to casually observe that and then look closer at the design and construction of everything else. Enjoy the overall spectacle and then look to see how it’s put together. During a drink break I noticed these:
Leavesden Being Really Clever
These plants were visible through one of the sky lights and I decided that the studios were either really clever or just plain fortunate. So, plants are great. They like the sun (mostly) and they produce natural shade. The make places “warmer”, we all like plants in rooms or buildings, they add nature back into our sterile buildings. So, firstly, just seeing plants was nice. Then, they also filter the sun light heading into the building, making it less harsh, providing a more comfortable indoors. Finally, they just look good.
This has made me think more about the imminent crisis of climate change – I say imminent but it is happening now and has been happening for a while, history will judge the 1980s as the start of it all – we have to start doing things now to maintain a habitable country. We need to start planting trees in our streets. Right down the middle. We need to reduce car usage. But the trees would be nice. Imagine looking down most streets and seeing trees and flowers. The impact of extra trees in terms of CO2 capture would be minimal. But the cooling effect and shade provided by those trees would be immeasurable over the country. Actually that’s hyperbole, it could be measured, quite easily, but I’m trying to make a point. Now I’m starting to think that I should start a movement to push for trees and plants along all streets, let’s turn our country into one of boulevards.
The Legend and I went for a tour around the Harry Potter studios near Watford in the recent past and I thought I would add my impressions of the place here.
Welcome To The Office
It was a hot day when we travelled and I was very glad that there was some form of cooling system in the buildings. Our tour started at a particular time with some small talks and a grand entrance to the Hogwarts dining room hall. I was impressed and the production and direction was impressive. They did shove us out of the hall quite quickly but I had seen enough of it by then. None of the staff were rude, they were all remarkably upbeat and chipper.
Being able to see the movie sets used in the real films was really quite amazing. I really liked the Great Hall. Some of the smaller sets were really interesting and to see the level of detail that the prop makers had achieved was amazing. Every book had proper writing all the way through and all flasks were labelled etc. Absolutely amazing.
There were plenty of animatronic beasts lurking around and the detail and complexity that went into all the beasts was second to none. I was reminded of how much effort and planning goes into making a movie like this. After the script based on a book you then have all the art work that helps make the creations come true. After the development art work there’s more development and making the animals, sets and costumes. Then there’s the main act of filming it all.
Hogwarts School Of Wizardry
It was a curious site to see the sets built up and looking remarkably real inside but then noticing that the outside is just scaffolding with wood work. Such a simple background to a complex interior. Of the large sets on display the interior of Gringots Bank, I think, was the one that I was most impressed with. A magnificent sight of marble (fake), gold (fake) and dragons (fake). Diagon Alley was recreated along with Kings Cross Station Platform 9 3/4. The whole tour is a very impressive sight. To see these places in reality was like those dreams when you are just waking up, seemingly real and unreal at the same time.
I recently visited my ancestral home village and read through the local magazine. My parents still live in the house I grew up in and so they are known in the village and are part of the fabric I guess. Somehow this area still has a Lord Of The Manor. I honestly have no idea what this means but the locals seem to have some sort of natural deference to this person, local societies have them as their patron, and it irritates me an awful lot. Imagine some twat being given deference just because they were born into a title or even bought it. This annoys me so much about this island we live on where the ideals of meritocracy are constantly overshadowed by the rights of those entitled (literally).
I read the local magazine during the visit and I have to say I want to write to them. There was a lovely little article responding to some criticism that had been placed at the door of the local GP surgery. I didn’t see the original argument but I imagine someone was annoyed at the “service” they had received. The Practice Manager had a short response piece along with a local asking that we all be nice and understand the pressures that the NHS are under. This is all positive community stuff. The local practice needed defending and so the locals defended the practice.
My message for the residents of that village is somewhat different. I’ve looked up who represents them as a local councillor and, as you would expect, I suppose, they are pale, male and stale. A classic tory. He even has the full name of the tory party next to him, which I don’t think I’ve seen that often. The conservative and unionist party. Next I looked up the local election results for the most recent polling date. I could only find the 2019 results, for some reason the 2023 results are not on the local website. This person gained 77% of the votes cast. But the votes cast only account for a turn out of 32%.
The slightly bigger picture in that area is that the Member of Parliament is Kemi Badenoch. A tory of the worst kind and utterly useless. Their election results was 37,629 votes. A majority of 24,966. That whole area is full of tories who, by definition, are selfish. This saddens me. People who complain about the struggling local services and yet they are resoundingly a tory area. What do you expect from these government services following twelve years of austerity – a political choice? Rather than moan to the local magazine how about you actually do something and vote for a different party? Vote for change. Vote for anyone but them.
The recent local elections where I live were just as depressing. I live in a small, mostly working class, village. There are some large properties but I had hoped that overwhelmingly the village would be left leaning. I was so wrong. The results were that all three tory councillors got re-elected. The village faces threats from lack of public transport, the doctors moving and nine hundred new houses being built to more than double the size of this place. And yet most people still vote tory because they are too scared to vote for anything else. Have you looked at the labour party? They are just tory-lite but would be so much better for nearly everything. They wouldn’t be the best party to lead this country but they would certainly be better than the current bunch of shits.
