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[wardytron]

I was in London earlier this week, halfway between Marylebone Station and Vine Street, when an annuity matured and I won £100. I was blessing my good fortune when I realised I wasn't in London at all; I was at home playing Monopoly. Packing the board away I logged onto Livejournal and noticed that publicansdecoy had mentioned a one day "content strike" on LJ

Comments

[pippaalice]

Nickyboy, Rhoda, Airhead, Chris, Jo, Isabelle and I went to the pencil museum! There is a picture of us outside with our free pencils! :D

[wardytron]

The way I discovered it was by trying to imagine the most boring attraction I could think of. After coming up with "pencil museum" I googled it to see if any actually existed, and found the one in Keswick. To be fair, given the hand they've been dealt - ie trying to make the history of pencil-making into something interesting - they don't look as though they've done that badly.

Also, free pencils!

[katstevens]

My sister emigrated to a small town in Provence that takes pride in its Cardboard Box Museum, or as they like to call it, the Mus du Cartonnage et de l'Imprimerie.

[steer]

A friend of mine went on a school trip there -- from Cumbria where presumably there's not a lot going on. Apparently it's "more interesting than you'd think". Then she used to go to the motorway to watch cars for entertainment.

[oldbloke]

I touched the Biggest Pencil In The World, despite the sign saying not to.
I don't remember getting a free pencil though, chiz.

There's a motorbike museum down the lakes a bit in Broughton which might be more interesting to some people.

But if you're in Keswick, there's a stone circle somewhere on its NE outskirts.

[steer]

You should also consider checking out these:

Lawnmower World (including "the lawnmowers of the stars" -- unless they dismantled that exhibit since I last bothered to look at the website).

Barometer World.

I do have flyers for both of these but I can't let you have them because they're part of my soon to be opened "Really-far-too-specialised museum of flyers for really-far-too-specialised museums". I have nearly five leaflets now, including Lavendar world and the Danish museum of pipe-smoking and yodelling (so my Danish friend told me, I don't speak Danish but the leaflet does have pictures of pipes and people with their mouth open).

[wardytron]

I quite like the look of Lawnmower World. The "LAWNMOWERS OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS" section is still there, although the only one they appear to have is from the woman who used to play Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street.

Did you read about the Buddhist monk who died after being run over by his own lawnmower while cutting the grass at the Peace Pagoda in Milton Keynes? A bit like Brian Harvey out of East 17, but with religion and death thrown in. There's a reader's comment on the Times article about it that says:

"The person solely responsible for safety and maintenance of the machine was himself killed by a machine not properly maintained. What more appropriate standard could apply? Doubly appropriate is that he was a Buddhist monk who no doubt taught a doctrine of karma which, simply put, says we are all subject to the consequences of our own actions."

Which is harsh but fair I suppose.

[steer]

That's a bit of a comedown. They used to have princess Diana's mower -- perhaps that was in a crash.

I wonder if you can be reincarnated as a blade of grass?

[wardytron]

Am I the only person I know who hasn't been to the f#cking Cumberland Pencil Museum?

[robsoft]

Nope.

[pippaalice]

Yes. Hang your head in shame.

[mirrorblue]

The pencil museum is great! My friend was in the Lakes only this weekend and brought me back a special set of Derwent draftman's pencils. Imagine my delight when I opened the tin to find they've now found space for a free purple pencil sharpener in its own nest set into the plastic tray!

So anyway, I've made all the pencils needle sharp and if you ever sit in front of me in class wardytron I'm going to jab you in the nape with one of them to serve you right for taking the piss out of such an august and worthy place to go when one is in Keswick and it is raining as bloody usual. And I hope it comes keen.

[wardytron]

I never sit in front of anyone in class; I always sit at the back, seeing how many crocodile clips stolen from Chemistry I can attach to the back of Andrew Barr's blazer before he notices and stabs me in the hand with his compass. Andrew Barr Buckaroo.

[mirrorblue]

So you claw at his back until he pricks you? That's just the sort of self-tantalizing homophobic behaviour I'd expect from a lad who always has to sit with his back to the wall.