Bénch

Thursday, May 31, 2018

i blame the hippy at southport station who came up to me & said he knew where I could buy some "cheap grass".......

Southport Lawnmower Museum

" Despite all this, I have sympathy for the obsessive photographers........ it’s easy to feel that a memory isn’t evidence enough that something happened. It’s too dreamlike......."

"if life isnt lived through a lens, is it lived at all?"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/27/life-lived-through-lens-photography-instagram-holidays

Me & Chris on the road through Sheranozy (photo taken by Cathy)

The French are so full of shit.

The two most famous things about France are "The Guillotine" and The Champs-Elysees,

. right?

Turns out, they were both stolen from the English.

The Guillotine was invented in

Halifax Yorkshire.

The Boulevards of Paris were the brain child of Louis Napoleon who was exiled in Southport in 1838.

He lived near Lord Street , and when he returned to France he remodeled the city to look like that bit of Lancashire!

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/apr/25/guardianleaders

Two further twists for me.

I was born on Lord Street in Halifax.

Once, when visting my Dad's birthplace in Eastern Poland my family proudly showed me the village's one & only Historical Landmark.

"Look" they said excitedly.I looked where they pointed, but saw nothing but a barren ,empty dirt track. "that" they said "is where "Napoleon's Army marched through on the way to Russia..."
Sometime, you cant see history?

Friday, May 25, 2018

"You're only young once, they say, but doesn't it go for a long time? " Hilary Mantel.

A few days after the Manchester Bomb 12 months ago a young Muslim lad called Baktash Noon walked into Manchester City centre..........
He then blindfolded himself.
He stood perfectly still. Arms outstretched and proceeded to offer hugs to the other grieving people of Manchester.
With a felt pen, he had written on a bit of cardboard:

"I'm a Muslim + I trust you.do you trust me enough for a hug?"

He then stood alone, blindfolded, for over an hour.
He was met with hundreds of ,all positive , returns of affection.
A wonderful display of mutual trust.
An example to us all.(I wouldnt ,as a wimp, have had the balls to do that!)
St Anne's Church in Manchester is currently holding a display of paintings recording this event .
Me & Cath went to look at this on Wednesday afternoon & to lay some flowers in memory of the 22 people ( the majority ,children)who were murdered.
https://www.manchester.anglican.org Cathy turned 60 this week. As well as this visit to Manchester on Wednesday, on Monday we went to Liverpool to see the newly opened John & Yoko Exhibition.http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/double-fantasy/
Here are a few photos of this week.
You can see all these individual images here at https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/
You may view in hi-res: download & share to your hearts content!(You may do this freely, in any manner desired, even without naming the source)