Andrew McCabe

Travel watch for Dublin. Rolex Super Oyster semi-bubbleback perpetual with white honeycomb dial and gold batons on a steel Oyster bracelet

Large tub of double chocolate flavour whey protein powder

Might as well pour a quart of vodka and some instant coffee into a tub of protein powder, give it a shake, and pour

Tsukioka YOSHITOSHI (1839-1892) original woodprints of Samurai characters with text added to my library decor.

I'm a huge fan of the Prèt 99 pence filter whose loss-lead purpose is to draw you in to purchase a sandwich. Combined with a £2.99 half filled baguette makes the most sublime brekkie combo you could imagine for £3.98

99 pence filter is absolutely good coffee. Same beans as for their espresso blends

Double thickness. Traditional French mint term. Used for presentation quality proofs.

As silver prices rose recently, coin market didn't catch up, so it's possible to buy piedforts at a little over their metal value. So an attractive and economical way of collecting despite high silver prices.

King George VI definitive types. Almost the same designs as the King Edward VIII coinage, never issued.

UK current commemorative coins in sterling silver, mostly piedforts

UK definitive coins in sterling silver. Including the current King Charles III wildlife types

Charles III silver piedforts. I love well-engraved proofs with military themes. Unlike most coin peeps I unslab and handle. They arent museum pieces and I'm the final user.

In addition to health care being free at the point of use, we have prettier painted walls and ceilings in our hospitals. St. Bartholemew's hospital in London. But where are the beds?

A painting of a nude figure, sat and holding what is probably a sketchpad that was hanging around in the studio, but it's not impossible that the model is busy making their shopping list

🔸Milk
🔸Bread
🔸Mother's Day Card
🔸Something for dinner
🔸Squishy dishwasher tab things
🔸Little treat for me to say well done for going shopping
👍🏛️🍑 #MuseumBums

"Male Nude", c1805 Pelagio Palagi, from the @uffizigalleries.bsky.social , Florence

winter time is grim

So looking forward, along with most in the northern hemisphere, to daylight savings (summer time) kicking on 29th March

Bar opens in 5 minutes. The kids are getting warmed up.

Perfect bus to leave it on considering the 38 runs thru central London past the British Museum thru Piccadilly to Victoria. Surpassed only by the 19 that has the same central London sector but starts and stops in posh Islington and Chelsea respectively. Probably the best bus route in London.

I'm waiting on Gamay coming back. I want more of it in the shops.

Gamay was ruined by the 1980s Beaujolais Nouveau fad. Even Riesling, likewise destroyed by the 1970s popularity of the barely-related Liebfraumilch, is now more widely available in the UK.

Intrigued and I need to know more.

I sense that much of the portable antiquities from the ground of the city of Rome come from unidentifiable building excavations over the centuries, with no archaeological context. Not a criticism of building regs, more reality where every spade turns up something

That really looks like a cast fake (from a great deal of experience handling thousands of ancient bronze coins). It's not unusual for museum and private collections to have a small proportion of cast fakes, sometimes made a very long time ago.

Lear

Goes beyond storytelling and into the metaphysics of power and loyalty. Also the men-women nexus.

Walking the dog around 8am this am and came across many weirdly dressed kids heading towards school, mothers in tow

Did not remotely imagine a literary theme to the day

One grandad ran a pub in Ballybay, Monaghan, that served British soldiers from across the border in WW2. Sold up due an IRA bombing campaign against pubs late 1940s

One grandad fought in Irish war of independence 1918-1922, seen in these pics with Michael Collins, the Irish leader assassinated 1922

I've been in multiple repatriation. Coup in Guinea, death of Sani Abacha in Nigeria, Iraq-Kuwait war, hurricanes in Cuba, aircraft in Congo struck by gunfire, snow mayhem in Europe, and Eyjafjallajökull

Relax. Don't rush to the airport. Glean info from eg stranded flight crews. Have a Martini.

Belgrano?

Roman Republic, Didrachm. 275-270BC. 7.23grams. Struck in south Italy. Crawford 15/1b. Obverse: hd Apollo l, ROMANO. Reverse: horse r, star of 8 points

Irresistible comparison:

We really don't know very much about where or why these early Roman silver coins were struck, especially the rarer types

Totally inspired.

Am guessing tho the honey budget was lecturer funded. Only in education.

yeah "ranch" is up there with "moist" in flavours I'd rather my cocktails didn't evoke

Anotjer initial with a human head and a blunt in his mouth.

... clearly a blunt this initial is having in its mouth, but what do I know...

I also fostered two adult disabled (sickle cell disease) young persons bcos the hours when my brain isn't sharp for academia are still good for sitting in hospitals or for making soup or for persuading them to move their clothes from bedroom floor to washing machine.

Events. Strokes. You need a perfect brain that can reliably work 60 hour weeks to work in commercial management. So got a payoff and worked my ex hobby as if it were a career. Now I can work 15 hours a week on the ancient world and still match full time academics for work quality if not quantity.

I'm in a new career post 60. Antiquarian books, and ancient numismatics. From prior career in engineering and commercial oil industry. I regularly get published and give conference talks in the new career, which are the litmus tests. But it's unpaid save occasional expenses so is it really a career?

Being open (but not complaining) about complex family circs when peeps ask or when it's relevant to share. It disarms, opens up, and allows peeps to understand priorities and, in my view, enhances the value they see in your engagement with them and in your time contribution.