When I closed the old blog, SilverTiger, I posted a closure notice and, as far as I knew then, that was that. Since then, however, I have kept an eye on the blog and the number of visits that it receives. I expected numbers to gradually decrease but that has not happened. The blog continues to receive a fair number of visits each day.

I wondered whether I should just ignore this or perhaps close the blog definitively, that is, delete it. On the other hand, I am rather fond of it and if people find it useful (I have had a number of requests for permission to use photos since closure), it seems reasonable to leave it open.

A dead blog is rather a sad thing but I cannot commit myself to running two separate blogs. The idea I have come up with is to repeat certain posts from this blog and publish them on SilverTiger. This is an experiment and I cannot say at this stage whether it is a practical proposition. We shall see!

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In our examination of the names of the days in English and French (and incidentally, in Babylonian and Latin), we have reached the middle of the week (Mittwoch in German) with Wednesday.

While most people pronounce Wednesday as two syllables – “wenzday” – a few, perhaps considered “old school” by the majority, pronounce it with three: “wed’nsday”, which, as we shall see, is slightly nearer the original from which it derives. With 9 letters, it is also the longest of the English day names.

Here is a reminder of these names in the 5 languages we are considering:

The significance of Nabû to the Babylonians is succinctly described in its Encyclopædia Britannica entry as follows:

Nabu, biblical Nebo, major god in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was patron of the art of writing and a god of vegetation. Nabu’s symbols were the clay tablet and the stylus, the instruments held to be proper to him who inscribed the fates assigned to men by the gods.

The Germanic tribes, among whom were the invaders of Britain who would become known to history as the Anglo-Saxons, named this day after the god Woden.

Woden was also known as Odin, a god with many and somewhat confusing characteristics. He seems to have shared with Tiw the quality of being a warlike god whose protection could be sought in battle. In Norse mythology, Odin presided over Valhalla where he was joined by warriors fallen in battle. His favourite weapon was the spear, with which he was often depicted, and he had only one eye, having given the other in exchange for wisdom. For more details, see the Wikipedia article on Odin.

In the Anglo-Saxon language, the genitive (possessive case) of Woden is Wodnes, giving Wodnesdæg for the name of his day and, ultimately, our modern Wednesday.

The Romans dedicated this day of the week to Mercury or Mercurius in Latin. This god’s Greek equivalent was Hermes, the two of them having many traits in common. Mercury was the god of commerce and communication and as such was the messenger of the gods and the patron of merchants and messengers. He was also known to be a trickster and was the patron of thieves. For more details, see the Wikipedia article Mercury (mythology).

The genitive of Mercurius is Mercurii and so his day was called by the Romans Dies Mercurii or Mercurii dies. As Vulgar Latin evolved into modern Romance languages and their dialects, Mercurii was often mutated into Mercuris by analogy with Martis (genitive of Mars) and Veneris (genitive of Venus). Sometimes the name alone became the day name and thus Mercuris became the Spanish miércoles. The French kept to Mercuris dies which eventually mutated into the modern mercredi.

As tomorrow is the repositioned May Bank Holiday (moved to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day), Tigger thought we should celebrate with a takeaway meal for supper. To check on which restaurants were operating, we walked through Chapel Market.

Chapel Market

As it was sunny today and warmer even than yesterday (21° C, 70° F), there were quite a few people about though not as many as there would be in “normal” times.

I notice that these days more people wear face masks than before although mask wearers are still a minority. The government is still vacillating over whether to make masks obligatory or at least to advise their use. If they do make masks obligatory, then I will wear one but until then not because the World Health Organization whom I trust over the likes Blundering Boris is still not advising their general use in the community.

I note also the increasing use of homemade and bought “fashion” masks which are probably ineffectual and may actually increase the risk of infection to the user.

Not all is gloom, however, and I was cheered to see that some members of the community are enjoying the quieter conditions resulting from lockdown.

Pigeon taking his ease

This is just one of several pigeons I saw taking their ease right on the carriageway. Busy taking a photo, I accidentally disturbed one but instead of flying off in a panic as they usually do, it simply fluttered a few feet further on and settled down again.

I don’t know how they are managing for food, however, especially here in Chapel Market. When the market was functioning, there were rich pickings for the pigeons but the market has been closed now for weeks, along with most of the shops. The bins and the gutters are therefore empty.

High Street, Islington

We walked down to the main road and thence to Jusaka for our coffee. The picture was much the same as everywhere: pedestrians and vehicles circulating but much fewer than in “normal” times.

We passed the cheapie hairdresser’s where we have our hair cut. It was closed, of course, so we may finally have to come to terms with that hair trimmer that Tigger bought by mail order!

We have quite a few lamps dotted about the place and they each require their individual type of light bulb. As anyone knows who has anything to do with light bulbs, you can forget the nominal lifetime suggested on the packing because they are likely to blow at any time and for no apparently good reason.

Being the provident type, I have a plastic box containing at least two spares of every kind of light bulb that we use, plus batteries for torches and other devices. I like to boast that it’ll be a cold winter’s day before you catch me without a replacement for a blown bulb.

Well, suddenly, it’s a cold winter’s day. The bulb in Tigger’s desk lamp failed the other day. I pulled out my plastic box, selected a replacement and screwed it into the socket. (Yes, “screwed”, because surprisingly many of our lamps have screw fittings for their bulbs.) When we switched on the lamp, nothing. No light. The new bulb was apparently a dud. I tried the second spare and, happily, it worked.

As an aside, do you remember those long-gone days when you bought a light bulb which came in a packet with open ends and the shopkeeper inserted it into an electric socket to make sure – and prove to you – that it worked? I do, but these days bulbs come in closed boxes and nobody bothers to check them. Well, it seems that they should.

I placed the two dud bulbs on my desk intending to purchase new ones by some means or other. There was no hurry, I thought, because… well, how often does a bulb blow? Quite often, apparently, because yesterday evening, the bulb in Tigger’s lamp failed. Yes, again. I was caught with my electrical pants down, so to speak.

Near to us is a branch of Ryness, the electrical suppliers. In fact, it is on the corner with Baron Street and White Lion Street (see yesterday’s blog post) and in “normal times” I buy all my bulbs there. In passing yesterday, we had looked to see whether by any chance they were open for business. A notice on the door gave a phone number to call and stated “TRADE ONLY”. Not being “trade”, I had to think again.

This morning, I had my “light bulb moment” and searched for “Ryness” online. Yes, they do have a website and, yes, they do sell online, promising a delivery time of one to two working days. Fortunately, I always keep the spare bulbs in their boxes so I had the complete details of the bulbs I needed, including the product number.

I ordered three bulbs – one for immediate use and two spares. The annoying thing is that I have to pay £5.99 for delivery when their shop is just a few minutes’ walk away… But that no longer counts in these Days of the Pandemic. I suppose I should count myself lucky that it is even possible to order online and have goods delivered.

It was another sunny day today which felt much warmer than the forecaster’s 17° C (63° F). This encouraged us to take a more roundabout path.

Baron Street

This is Baron Street which gives its name to the nearby bus stop. It runs at the far end into Chapel Market, originally called Chapel Street, which became a market officially in 1879.

Mount Zion Chapel Sunday School

White Lion Street crosses Baron Street and we turned into it on the left where I photographed this building bearing a plaque that identifies it as the Mount Zion Chapel Sunday School. It was built in 1896-7 as a dependency of the Baptist chapel of that name which was in Chadwell Street. The chapel is still there, and is still a place of worship, but has changed its name several times since the 1890s. I don’t know what purpose the Sunday School performs today or whether it still belongs to the chapel.

Dated 1923

Further along White Lion is this attractive façade. All I know about it so far is that it prominently displays the date 1923. It has two pedestrian entrances, suggesting that it might have been a school (with entrances for boys and girls), though the large central gate for vehicles suggests otherwise. Perhaps it was a warehouse or factory.

Turning down Penton Street, we crossed Pentonville Road into Claremont Square and more usual territory.

Inside the reservoir enclosure

I took this photo through the railings of the reservoir to show how nicely wild it is and how attractive it is to birds and other wildlife.

Triumph Herald

Shortly beyond where Claremont Square becomes Amwell Street, we spotted this old-timer, a Triumph Herald convertible. This model was made between 1959 and 1971, and so this one is in good condition.

I am not particularly a car enthusiast but I do remember when these were launched. I was a university student in Sheffield and remember that in advance of the launch date, they put a Herald in the local car showrooms but covered it up, presumably hoping this would arouse people’s curiosity. It certainly aroused mine! Though I never owned one of these.

As an aside, I could mention that at that time, I lusted after the Triumph TR2. Sadly, I never owned one of them, either!

And so to Myddelton’s, as Samuel Pepys might have expressed it.

Myddelton’s

This is an interior view of the famous Myddelton’s (famous to us, anyway!), taken as our coffee was being prepared. And yes, I did ask permission to display the photo on the blog as this is the courteous way to proceed.

It was now time to take our coffee home, our outing concluded for today. Such are our little adventures in this time of pandemic.