Zwei Dinge: Litfass and Die Haard

A little off-piste, a couple of late reflections of our trip to Germany last Autumn.

Borrowed from the web, an old still in black and white, this recalls all the Litfaßsäule [pronounced Lit fass zoiler] I saw on many German street corners.

The tall tubular advertising columns were everywhere and posters and flyers to be seen on all sides. They were invented by Ernst Litfass in 1854.

Personally I think they're really cool and a delightful element in the German street-scene. Some even have secret doors!

Exported to other countries, I don't think they made it here the UK, where fly-posting on walls still prevails.

One famous example is the Litfass column on the 1929 Walter Trier cover art for Erich Kaestner's book Emil and the Detectives.

Another memory of our trip is this picture and map showing the local forest near Recklinghausen. I had to chuckle. 

Die Haard! [pronounced Dee Hard]

It's like a extended version of the film title Die Hard. As in, don't just Die Hard, Die Haard! ha ha. Maybe its just me!

Have you any strange observations from the world around you readers?

Flat Battery in Thackley

Well, we are finally away from our daughter's snowbound Thackley Hill, but it wasn't easy.

After abandoning the car on Tuesday half way up the hill, we returned today to find the battery flat.

Being members of the RAC we asked for assistance and five hours later (we went back to our daughter's!) a very amenable RAC chap arrived in the dark. Sadly the battery was shot and a new one was needed. The RAC mechanic fitted it, helped us dig out the tyres and reversed us into a much safer downward hill start position.

£150 paid and we were away! Yay! 

A quick stop at McDonalds for some grown-up food and we're Moonbase bound!

Phew!

Have you ever had car battery problems readers?

Dream Stopping

Dreams are strange. Like a drunk projectionist staggering round your brain, you never know what's going to be shown on those juddering spools.

Unless, of course, it's a recurring dream that's topping the cranial bill.

I'd love to dream about running toy stalls or Thunderbirds or my Grandchildren.

But the projectionist has other ideas. My top billing is always the same. My old job.

I worked for a urban charity for 20 years, working my way slowly up to the position of deputy dog. I enjoyed the first - sort of - 15 years but the final 5 were horrendous. Stress Central and then some. I hated it and dreaded every single day. My health suffered and couldn't wait to get out, which I did in 2005, thank God! 

You would have thought that nearly twenty years later I would have got it out of my system. Dreamt it out like sweat.

But no, my dreams, the ones I remember, are most often back there, with me facing the same interminable problems I faced in reality: my beleaguered team, the pompous Board, a skeptical City Hall, ambitious colleagues, ailing funds, headstrong personalities, bitter rivalries, major cock-ups and abject failures.

Usually, at some point, after the palpable tension peaks, I get sacked or walk out and the night's dose is thankfully over.

As I say, I'd love to dream about nice stuff. I've been running this blog for nearly as long but never dream about it. It's obviously too nice! 

C'mon Thunderbirds! I need my dreams rescuing! Send in the Mole!

A new dream for a new year! 

Do you dream readers? Are any recurring? 

Ruby Ruby

 It's Mrs MoonBase and my Ruby Wedding today.

Forty years over the moon.

Just want to wish everyone a very pleasant day.

We got wed in 1984. It was Orwellian. Our witnesses were our friends Pete* and Cath. We had Knickerbocker Glories in Penmaenmawr and honeymooned on Skye.

What were you doing in '84?

🍦

* Pete tragically died in 2021 in Oz. We dedicate our Ruby day to him.

DON'T MOVE MY STUFF!

Yesterday morning Chewbacca went missing.

It was one of those classic moments where the Missus moved some of my stuff in the front room and Chewwy vanished.

The Chewwy in question was a tiny plastic game piece from the Sarlacc Pit game 1983, which I picked up at the local boot sale a week ago, together with a Luke and two Gamorrean Guards.

I actually heard myself saying 'Why did you move my stuff?' like a fifteen year old!

The Missus was inevitably defensive and reposted with 'I needed to get to my own stuff!'

An hour later, the front room turned over, my need for Chewbacca's return ludicrously real, the wookie emerged from a bag of Matchbox track it had fallen into, in the hall!

In the end my Missus had nothing to do with it. I'd moved the Matchbox track bag! I was suitably humble when I said said sorry to the Missus for accusing her!

Does this sound familiar readers?

A BOY WITH ANTLERS AND SHARKS IN PARIS

Watched a few things of late on the telly. Here's a few thoughts. Wonder if you've seen them?

1. Travellers - the Missus and me really enjoyed this, like we did Manifest. A longer box set challenge with lots of episodes, the central premise of time travel was really interesting. Its talky for sure but the characters are worth it. Quite an old series now, pre-Covid.

2. Eric - this is a recent production. A sort of adult Sesame street set in a dingy 1980's New York, its quite a sad tale of loneliness and decay. Not everyone's cup of tea, we sort of enjoyed it, if that's the right word. The 1980's American sets and props were fabulous though and the acting was brilliant.

3. Sweet Tooth - our current watch, a long series about a boy with antlers. A sort of dystopian viral fairy tale, we'll see how it goes. Enjoying it at the moment.

4. Under Paris - a film. The title should have been Sharks in the Seine because that's what it is. A novel idea but a complete Jaws rip-off [can a shark movie be anything but?], even including yellow barrels being dragged forcibly through water. Having said that, the Missus enjoyed it.

5. DC - my own late night telly watching when the Missus is in bed are currently DC flicks. I do love the modern Superman trilogy. For some reason I'm re-watching it in reverse order. Zack Snyder's 4 hour epic The Justice League is simply phenomenal; Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice in the middle is a real diamond and the film I'll watch again next week, Man of Steel, is goosepimple perfect. My favourite Super Hero trilogy.

What are you watching readers?

The Rain... its a Killer!

Like many of you I love Sci-Fi.

But, what can I say about  a show we caught this week on Netflix called The Rain. Well, its a Danish Sci-Fi series about a deadly virus thats in the ...rain! Its a great premise and promised much. Or so I thought.

Seldom have I been so incensed by a TV series opener than this. Within the first few minutes I was shouting at the telly 'how can you be so *ing stupid!' Alas, this was only the beginning and after another half an hour I was hoarse from shouting!

Clearly the writers decided that from the off the two main characters would be called Stupid and Moronic. They make Dumb and Dumber look like geniuses! To add a further layer of sheer annoyingness the two main characters are children, one about 6 and the other ... well, a teenager. Enough said!

Why the writing team had to make the youngster and the adolescent quite so lethally imbecilic I cannot fathom. Within minutes people close to them start dying around them and not because of the viral rain. No, its because of their monumentally selfish decisions. I won't expand on who dies just in case you feel the need to torture yourselves with this ordeal.

Trying to understand my anger towards the two children, especially the teenager, I've come to realise that I don't really like them. Teenagers. The girl in the show is portrayed as incompetent and non-resilient, the epitome of the snowflake generation. But my antipathy seems misplaced. I too was a teenager and no doubt just as selfish and irritating to everyone around me back in the 70's. So why this angry am I? I get equally antsy in McDonalds when the entire outlet is staffed by pubescents. There's just something about them.

I wonder if something is going on with Nature here. After all, I am 63 and retired, officially on the scrap heap of Society. Are OAP's and the teenage generation meant to stay apart, to give each other space to do what needs to be done; The Young carrying the torch, the old, like me, passing it on and basically slowly passing away! Never the twain shall meet [unless you're a teenager's parent or teacher/ teaching assistant like I was for my sins]. 

Yes, I wonder if I'm so peeved by the teenage ineptitude in The Rain because I'm jealous and I want to be an inept teenager again myself?

Evolution theory over, I had to check if I was alone in my outright dislike of this series. After all, I had only watched half of the opening episode and found it so unbearable that I cannot conceive of how there are 3 whole seasons of this dross! Still, this is my personal opinion.

I'm not alone though, thank God. The Rain garners either deep love but mostly intense rage in the many many reviews there are online since it was released in 2020. Some poor souls even watched it all because there was nothing else to do during Lockdown! 

Yes, The Rain is the Marmite of Sci-Fi and I for one can't stand the savoury spread. The Missus put me out of my misery and switched to Travellers, a much more enjoyable and altogether more adult effort.

Rant over.

Have you seen The Rain?

Das Boot Sale 2

 We had a stall at a large local German car boot sale, a Flohmarkt,  this morning in our continuing bid to empty my Wife's parents' full apartment.

We did OK and aim to do at least three more whilst we are here, though we have enough stuff for at around ten more sales! At 92, my Father in Law had accumulated a lot of things and never threw anything away!

I managed a wander round too and bagged two old Hot Wheels, an unusual 1998 motorised one and a blue 1979 Corvette Stingray.

Amongst the vast quantities of Playmobil, Some of the other toys I saw included these (photos from the net). All quite dear.

Lehman RIGI boxed cable cars.

A GAMA shell petrol station.

A GAMA mobile crane.

Did you or do you have any of these?

Nobody Does it Wetter

 I'm pretty sure my Missus was a secret agent in a previous life. She has field craft. She just knows stuff.

Last year she left matches in a caravan loo we were sharing with friends. Apparently lighting one rids the smallest room of unwelcome nasty niffs! Who knew!

This year I am looking at wet paper balls.

 What are they? Well, turns out that soaking sensitive documents in water and rolling them shredded into balls renders them impossible to read. Once dry they can bec Chucked in the recycling bin! 

Obviously if you have a shredder or incinerator then the above wet work is unnecessary.

I am planning on issuing my Missus with a Secret Sam Attache Case before SCMURSCH blows her cover!

This post will self-destruct after a short nap.

The End of a Collection

We are currently beginning day one of our second go at sorting out our late Father in Laws flat on the Continent. A very sad necessity. 

We are not here long enough to eBay stuff, so the selling - sorting routes will include local FB Marketplace, car boots, charity shops and specific dealers.

It's so sad to be faced with someone's possessions and collections like this. Persian rugs, Brasses, huge copper kettles, grandfather clock, oils, furniture, vitrines, old glasses, coffee services, bric a brac and a record player. 

My wife's Dad was a magpie and it's a bit like a dusty cobwebbed museum.

We haven't even touched the cellar yet. There's white goods, a thousand tools, a fox scarf, hundreds of coats, religious ornaments and a fondue set.

Have you had to empty a relatives home readers?

Back to Normal for Me Soon

Tomorrow the everyday of the new year starts again. Our New Year holiday on the coast is over and our guests leave for the continent this afternoon after we drop them at the Station. Christmas is well and truly done.

Tomorrow I'll start to catch up on emails, comments and posts. If I haven't got back to you yet then I will soon. Sorry for any delay. I blame Father Christmas and Old Father Time!

In the meantime, Happy New Year everyone,

Woodsy

DO YOU STILL GO OUT FOR A DRINK?

Being Sixty plus now I don't go for a drink as much as I did when I was young. I've never been a huge pub fan and I'm not really bothered about drinking but I do appreciate the social side of it.

I went to a bar tonight with the Missus and some mates, another couple. We are all of the same age and the drink was a pre-cinema drink. I had half an IPA, which was very nice. The Missus had lime and soda. We went to see the Miracle Club in an old fashioned cinema in Penistone celebrating 100 years of being open, a huge achievement for a small town picture house these days. Can you imagine the films that have been shown there over the last century!

En route the Missus and me noticed various pubs closed along the 30 minute journey. Shut on a Saturday night! Maybe shut permanently!

So, I wanted to ask two things. In your neck of the world are pubs closing? And do you still go out for a drink?

Pete

 When I was young I had a best mate called Pete. We went through 11 years of school together culminating with a fistful of O Levels each.

In our teens we shared a love of rock music - we both cried when most of Lynyrd Skynyrd died - We loved the Lakes - Pete went climbing and I played guitar outside the Old Dungeon Ghyll - we played music in his magnificent shed like Neil Young, Sad Cafe and Pink Floyd - and Pete was there for me when my Mum died. We were 15.

In the late Seventies we went to Germany on his motorbike. I was in his sidecar. I was meant to be reading the map but I kept falling asleep!

In the early 80's Pete was doing well and had his own house which he shared with his brother. Me and my future wife went round for home-made chips and we all watched the Kenny Everett Television Show.

In 1984 Pete was a witness at the Missus' and I's marriage and because we were penniless he graciously  let us join him and his girlfriend on Sky for our honeymoon! 

By the mid 1980's I'd moved away permanently from our home town, was married and a had a baby daughter. I began to lose touch with Pete.

Always a restless soul, he emigrated to Oz sometime around 1985.

I saw Pete again at his own wedding reception in the early 90's. I'll never forget his new Australian accent.

Pete visited us at Moonbase in the early Noughties on his month long trip home.

After that I became lazy and completely lost touch sadly.

Pete died in 2022, aged 61 I guess, like me. I only found out recently from his younger brother who had also emigrated.

I can see Pete now climbing the fells of Heaven singing his favourite Dire Straits tune, his infectious smile lighting the dark.

I only have a few pictures of Pete. This is my favourite, sharing a pose on our German bike trip in 1979. Pete's on the left.

RIP mate. Keep Ridin'

Hall of Dark Shadows

 Some Autumnal snaps of the local country pile we visited today in Brodsworth. Some spooky takes for the dark season too.

Brrrr.

This final shot of a small columned folly on a hill totally brought back the creepiest book cover art I saw as a kid, Dracula's Guest published by Arrow. Now that's eerie! What do you think? 

Hand Me Downs. Or Not!

I had a discussion with a friend recently who has some of his childhood toys still. He's 75 so we're talking about the 1950s.

It transpires that none of his children or Grandchildren want his old toys, which I found quite sad. 

Do you think this may happen to you readers, that your well-stored collections will be unwanted by family or friends one day?

Falling Asleep in Front of the Telly

They say that we gradually turn into our parents don't they.

I remember my Dad falling asleep in front of the box in the late Seventies, the UK late-night telly whistle not even waking him up [was that high pitch noise after midnight?]. That would be my job for a while back then.

Last night, I did the same, fell asleep watching TV. It fell to my Missus to wake me up at an embarrassing 9.30pm!

After half a days gardening I was cream crackered and took myself off to bed.

I actually fell asleep during a film I had wanted to watch, The House of the Long Shadows. I was aware of this film already as its known among monster nuts like me as one of the last, if not the final movie that four of the greatest veteran horror actors came together in one project: John Carradine, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

Alas, despite being a Pete Walker film and featuring the super-scary Sheila Keith [I only need to think of her Frightmare] , it didn't grab me and sleep took me instead!

Have you seen The House of the Long Shadows?

PLEASE HAND YOUR KEYS AND LANYARD OVER ON YOUR WAY OUT

Yep, it's happening. I'm a day away from finishing work for good.

I'm retiring.

I imagine a few of you Baby Boomers have done already too. Its our time isn't it!

Its a happy but sad feeling finishing work as a teaching assistant, especially after being at my High School for 13 years.

In all of that time I've come home and added something to this blog for the next day's post, so I associate Moonbase with coming home from my job. It'll be strange having so much more time on my hands and not coming home!

At the moment I've no great plans. I'll carry on buying and selling old toys, which I love to do [especially the finding at boot sales and in charity shops], restore old toys [my new passion], carry on with Moonbase Central of course, finish a second book I started ages ago about more JR21 toys and spend a lot more time with wider family and friends, who for one reason and another [work, Covid, Grandkids] I've probably neglected.

If any of you who've retired can offer me any pearls of wisdom regarding what to and what not to do in the next few months I would be most grateful!

Scrapheap? Rocket Base? At the moment I'm unsure what retirement means!

ZEITGEIST

I've just got back from a close family funeral overseas in Germany. 

Its been a trying week for the family but we sent my wife's father off with quiet dignity, now resting with his own beloved in a peaceful Friedhof in the Ruhr valley with a glimpse of the church spire under which they got married in in the 1950's across the city fields.

Thank you very much for your words of support readers. It meant a lot at a difficult time.

*

As you'll appreciate there wasn't much time for toys and collectables, although there was some much needed relief now and then from the business of bereavement.

The local Bahnhof bookshop is always interesting and captures the Zeitgeist. There is a avid readership of magazines and comics in Germany and the store reflects this.

Lots of mid-sized pulps covering horror, cowboys and romance, all produced in the country and all long established titles.

Modelling is popular and the two stand-out magazines on the shelf were Modell Panorama ..

... and ModellFan.

There used to be German toy collecting magazines but I couldn't see any anymore. Car Booting/ Flea Marketing is popular and that hobby still has its own magazines.

I was well impressed with the range of home-grown horror comics still being published like Horror Schocker and Feral. I'm unsure f there are any modern horror comics being published in the UK. What about your neck of the woods readers?

Phantom was there too and all had quite wonderful artwork.

These were in the wider Youth section of publications. You can see Pokemon and Genshin.

Marvel, DC and Star Wars are always popular too.

I didn't buy any comics or magazines. They are, like here in the UK, all quite dear and to be honest I have stacks of comics, mags and pulps in the attic.

This old red Feuerwehr Wagen in an antique shop window caught my eye too. Dated 1935 it looks to be home-made to me and an excellent job some old Opa has done too!

My late Father-in-Law would have liked it. The handiwork and perseverance would have appealed to him, attributes that helped him survive the horror of World War Two as a young boy evacuee on a farm in Munster.

Finally in this post here's a small item I did actually buy in a Charity shop, as a gift for a German friend who collects small wooden games.

Having Google Lensed it, this one is called Crazy Fours and there are 14,000 possible combination of colours using the multi-coloured dice. Just the green face is shown here. Beyond that I'm unsure how you play it but my friend seemed pleased!

There were a few more purchases whilst abroad and I shall blog them later.

Till then, auf wiedersehen.

Notes from Abroad .... Well, the Airport

 It's odd what you think about on a train journey.

Pulling up to Deansgate in Manchester I could have sworn I was looking at a Andersonesque Thunderscape of Corgi Rockets Skyparks!

Amazingly tall thin towers everywhere just like my beloved Skypark toy high rise car park. Did you have a Skypark?

In the midst of all this Utopian might was a squat derelict red brick factory called the Hotspur Press/ Percy Brothers nestled among steel and glass giants. It looked so out of place but I'm glad it was there. 

I've no idea what they printed. Surely not the Hotspur comic!

Another pop culture reference popped up just now too. 

At Archie's I had that most Travolting of burgers, the Royale with cheese. You know, the one Vincent Vega describes early on in the film Pulp Fiction before all Hell breaks loose. OK, he was on about McDonalds in Paris but I'm in Manchester. 

Have you had one?

OPEN WIDE!

I've just been to the Dentist to have my chompers cleaned. 

Its called a Scale and Polish and performed by a masked hygienist, although there were three mask-clad technicians in the small room too. I was outnumbered 4 to 1! 

After applying vegetable dye to my teeth, so that any bacteria would leap out, the friendly hygienist proceeded to jet-wash my nashers. In the past this deep clean used to be painful around the gum-line, but this was just wet. Very wet. I was showered with a fine mist of dental water, whilst watching a slow video of the Greek island of Santorini on the ceiling.

Some stubborn plaque - or tartar - or calcium - I'm unsure what it is but it was stubborn, had to be zapped with a more traditional road drill. With the ever-present suction pipe in there too and a mouthful of plaquey water I did gag a bit, which is always rather embarrassing!

Fluoride paste was then blathered all over my polished chucky pegs and I was told not to drink any tea or coffee for an hour or it would stain the newly whitened 'Barry' sheen.

To finish there's always a little tipple in a plastic cup waiting on a dinky sink. The mini-bar! I was disappointed this time that it was just pure water and not the pink medicated mocktail I'm used to. 

Alas, I have to return on the morrow for a less pleasant procedure. The removal of a small toothlet sticking out from my lower gum. I think they may have described it as a lost root. I personally think it may be the beginnings of a tusk, you know, like a Gamorrean Guard!

Its sore as hell though, the tusklet, when I eat on it, so the little sod has to go. It requires someone with Dr in the title to do the job this time, along with her friend Mr. Needle to make me comfortably numb!

All this makes me realise why there have been few, if any, dentist toys! 

The law-suits would pile up like unpaid dental bills! There really can't be any dental toys. Or?