crush by sonja berlin-jones

today the military museums in Winchester were all free to visit and in my desperation to get a good photo or 2 for my albums I and a couple of friends drove and Parked And Rode the bus into the city and I must admit we were all a tad bored but that was our fault more than the museums' fault - we were never likely to be interested in dozens of beautiful huge cabinets chock full of old medals. It was all a lot more boring than the recent visit (also free) to Gilbert White's house.

I didn't get the impression that anyone was having a very good time. But museums are always deadly and visiting them is usually only the recourse of the terminally ill, which I hope none of us are. Well obviously we all are. The museums were and of course are full of life-sized and very realistic dummies doing things like grooming similarly life-size and lifelike horses and wearing uniforms and striking poses and whenever you catch these people in a side-glance you politely apologise for nudging them or recoil from the rear legs of a horse before it kicks you in the clunge.

I found this all so unnerving that I couldn't go through with all the visits and had to recover my nerves at the nearby Wetherspoons. Oh dear, what a wimpish nation we have become. Glass cabinets full of photos of terrified young men (almost still children) who died in centuries of wars, all for nothing, but they did it anyway - and there was I clutching half a pint of cider to help overcome my PTSD. I'm afraid I really let you all down and if there is another war then I must hope that "failed musician" is on the list of reserved occupations.

recorded this evening, photo Winchester today

nothing is distorted, nothing is wrong