Having a Break ...

 ... but Not a Kit-Kat ...

... even though Nestlé have come up with a revolutionary new outer wrapper made of ...

... paper! Maybe they have forgotten the rain forests?

Anyway, after a ridiculously busy few days, fbb is "taking it easy" and relaxing in his comfy armchair complete with pipe and slippers with bobbles! 

Actually fbb has never smoked a pipe, never smokes anything, and rarely wears slippers, but you get the idea. But he has cobbled together a less than homogeneous blog!

The Way We Were

Can you identify these old photographs?

1. A former terminus

2. A former now-rebuilt through station 

3. A former bus station

4. And electrified terminus

5. A London terminus with through platforms

6. A quiet corner of the East Midlands

 

7. A 'kit bashed' model, but whose kit of what

8. A trolleybus, but where

Answers to follow.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

A blue plaque for the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and fbb's favourite character ...

... The Fat Controller.

P.S. More for Wilbert

A smaller model company, Buggleskelly Station, has produced a tribute wagon, in N gauge ...

... and OO gauge ...

... with TT120 to follow next year. fbb thinks the Rev would be embarrassed to be lauded in all these ways, but quietly pleased at the same time.

 And The Spectator Agrees

If the text is too small, please be assured that The Spectator feels the same way about the new livery as fbb does.The author ends with an hilarious joke (well, hilarious for The Spectator}. "It would have been better if it was not so much on time as cancelled altogether"!

Chortle, chortle?

It Pays To Shop Around ...

... for an O gauge tank wagon on EBay.

That's  almost £19 ...

... or just over £68 for what appears to be an identical model.

fbb does not collect O gauge; too big and usually too expensive!

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 K aleidoscope of  K ings

Quirky Answer : keep reading and you will find it.

God's people were ruled by Kings from 1025 BC to 586 BC and it was horrendously complicated. 

Don't try to understand it - it takes years of academic effort to even begin to follow it!

The Kingdom split apart, the Northern bit was obliterated by the Assyrians and, later, the Southern bit was destroyed by the Babylonians. The concept of Kings never worked for long, mostly it was a disaster. That much had been prophesied by a pre-king, the "Judge" Samuel.

The very first King, Saul started off well but bodged it.

He couldn't bothered to wait for the official celebrant at a festival so, arrogantly, offered the sacrifice himself. This was blasphemy back in the day and for his rejection off God, he was deposed. He never was a fully paid-up King for the whole nation.

Next came David, something of a hero in the Bible. He was appointed by big cheese Samuel as inspired by God's Guidance.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Pay no attention to how tall and handsome he is. I have rejected him, because I do not judge as people judge. They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.”

Each of Jesse's sons failed the Samuel test.

Then Samuel asked him, “Have you any more sons?”

Jesse answered, “There is still the youngest, but he is out taking care of the sheep.”

So Jesse sent for him. He was a handsome, healthy young man (as they all were), BUT ...

Quirky Answer coming up!

... his eyes sparkled. 

The LORD said to Samuel, “This is the one — anoint him!”

But even the hero David blotted his copy book big time with Bathsehba ...

... and by engineering the death of her husband. Their son was Solomon who succeeded him as king, famous for his three Ws; his Wisdom, his Wealth and his Worship at his new temple.

But it seems that his wealth went to his head, he married foreign wives and instituted pagan worship at their behest.

Morality declined, his son was weak and thus it was that the Kingdom split in two and decline was inevitable thereafter. There were a handful of good and God-fearing Kings thus things were settled and stable - but not many and not for long.

We see God's chosen people, warts and all - and there were plenty of warts.

But, without God, without the Jesus of CHRISTmas, a fractured society seems inevitable.

How many of our present political leaders acknowledge the authority of God in any way?

Q E D

Quirky Question : which English poet reports on the obliteration of the biblical  Northern Kingdom?

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 Next Book Review blog : Fri 12th December