THE PARK

When you have Black Friday and Cyber Monday you inevitably have Parcel Delivery Day. My online shopping has started arriving. 4 different deliveries today. And 4 lovely boxes in different shapes and sizes for Tino and Lily to enjoy.

I had a surprise phone call from my daughter around 2pm. She was on her lunch hour and taking a walk as usual. Lovely to hear from her.

I didn't go far today - just to the village. I tried out one of my new purchases. A shopping trolley. Very useful for carting the heavy shopping home - but a bit of an encumbrance whilst I was in the supermarket.

I came home via the park where I took today's blip. It was bitterly cold. Don't think the temp went above freezing all day.


Something else from the list of 26 Glorious Things Newcastle Gave The World

The Windscreen Wiper.

Dreamt up by Gladstone Adams.

Captain Gladstone Adams (16 May 1880–1966) was a professional photographer and he owned two studios, one in Barras Bridge in Newcastle and the other at 18 Station Road, Whitley Bay, which is still standing and is now a florist's shop. At one time he was the Chairman of Whitley Bay Urban District Council.

In April 1908, he drove down to Crystal Palace Park in a 1904 Daracq-Caron motorcar to see Newcastle United play against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup final. It was such a novelty to see a car in those days that it was put into a car showroom window while he was there, because so many people wanted to see it. On the way back from the cup final, snow kept getting on the windscreen and Gladstone had to keep getting out of the car to clear it. This experience led to his invention of the windscreen wiper. Gladstone and his brother also invented the sliding rowing seat and the trafficator, the forerunner of the indicator.

In World War I, Adams served in the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the RAF, as a photograph reconnaissance officer. One of his duties was to prove the death and then arrange the burial of Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the 'Red Baron', after he had been shot down and killed. When World War II broke out, Adams was sixty years of age, too old for active service. However, he joined the Whitley Bay Air Training Corps, and a trophy given by him to the cadets is still awarded each year and bears his name, the Gladstone Adams Cup.