A few weeks ago I bought this little hand-held vacuum cleaner and I have become quite addicted to it. I have been known to hover over people eating breakfast with the machine already running to catch any crumbs they might create. It is also an excellent way of getting Amydog off my side of the bed when I eventually retire for the night. This morning I was briefly using it to pick the bits up off my office floor when I just managed to avoid sweeping up the British monarchy.
The monarch in question was King George VI, and more specifically a Canadian 1c green postage stamp dating back to the 1940s and featuring the King's image. How on earth this old stamp came to be on my office floor, I have no idea : it is at least forty years since I collected postage stamps, and none of my Canadian friends are anywhere near old enough to have been sending letters in the 1940s. Being a Yorkshire man I, of course, did a quick check to see if the stamp was worth anything, only to discover that it was as common as - well as common as the fluff on your average office floor. But enlarge the scan and it becomes a kind of graphic maze in which you can wander around the King's face in search of the prize you would win by finding your way into his left nostril. Unless the weather takes a turn for the better, I might well spend the afternoon hand-colouring all the little blocks in different shades of red, white and blue. It would be a patriotic activity and it might serve to make amends for nearing sweeping the monarchy into oblivion. It might also save me from having to go shopping again.
Adds a new meaning to stamp duty? By avoiding the demise of the monarch's image, you did yours! But take care not to deface him, if Sir Isaac Newton were around he would have you executed and would sit in the front row to make sure.
ReplyDeleteDouble row of oak leaves scrambled egg - Admiral.
ReplyDeleteI note that between 13 March 1928 – 6 February 1952 George VI was a Member First Class of the Order of the Supreme Sun - an Afghan order of merit.
ReplyDeleteI use a hair dryer to achieve the same result, vis a vie a clingy cat. George was a handsome and stalwart man. Steady, as they say.
ReplyDeleteGlad you rescued him.
ReplyDeleteQuite the mystery!
ReplyDeleteOh my god Alan you sound like my ghastly Aunt Mary Anne who everyone called Dodo (ask Desmond about her). When she cooked any meal at all her main aim was to get everything washed up and put away as quickly as possible. There was no chance to enjoy the food (quite apart from the fact that she was a rotten cook). She hovered over me when I was eating (aged about 8-10) to such an extent that I ended up with an eating disorder. Watch out with the hoover please!
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