Powerful Stuff

We went to see Senna at FACT in Liverpool this afternoon - phew. Its a quite remarkable documentary made up entirely from archive footage of motor racing, home videos, television news and interviews brilliantly edited together to create a compelling drama. Although the audience is completely aware of what the ultimate outcome will be, the film is like an action movie and you can't help wishing it might change. For a slow driver like me, the cockpit shots are genuinely terrifying and I found myself gripping my armrest as Ayrton approached bends at unimaginable speeds ...... in the rain. Even if, like us, you are not a F1 fan, this is a movie that is well worth seeing. Let's hope it gets a wider release.

Before the film we treated ourselves to a bite to eat at Salt House Tapas in Liverpool One. They serve a great lunch menu offering three tapas plus sourdough bread and dipping oil for £8.95. We both chose this option which gave us six tasty little dishes between us. The portions are a nice and manageable size and freshly cooked and the restaurant is bright with a pleasant atmosphere. Service was warm, friendly and efficient and we will certainly give it another try when we make another Orange Wednesday trip to FACT.

We've a bit of a day out tomorrow. Our financial advisers, Cumberland Place, have invited us to their summer party at The Foundling Museum in London. It's only a couple of hours on the train so we're catching the 13.59 from Preston and coming back on the 2100 from Euston. We're looking forward to this as we will get the chance to have a look around the museum which celebrates the philanthropists such as Hogarth and Handel who dedicated themselves to London's foundlings and orphans. Should be an enjoyable event.

And on Sunday we're going with a couple of friends to have a look at the monthly Farmers' market at Hoghton Tower between Preston and Blackburn. It's reported to be the biggest and best in the area so it should be interesting. If it's not we've got the fallback of lunch at the Freemasons in Wiswell which was introduced to us by friends Mark and Nita from Workhouse Marketing.


Amongst lots of other things, Workhouse produce great advertising. I always enjoy original advertising and loved this new film for Virgin Media that was on before today's film.

Getting Hammered

Whilst those readers who have been directed here from a link on one of the metal detecting forums will know what my headline alludes to, I must assure regular blog readers that this is not a reference to my embarrassing performance at last year's summer retirement party. No, it refers to what are known as hammered coins, so called as they were made by hammering a piece of metal (usually silver or gold) between two dies thus stamping them on both sides. They are something of a holy grail amongst detectorists and some even have a pet name for them (hammies) and we proudly proclaim how many we have found alongside our signatures in our forum posts -( or not in my case - until today that is).

It's been a fair few years since I found one of these elusive coins but equipped with my new XP Deus metal detector that has recently turned up twelve Roman coins and two brooches in fields that we had considered worked out, I was hopeful of breaking that duck. With my favourite fields either full of cows or with the grass too long I had to literally seek pastures new today and I headed to North Lancashire to a farm I had not visited before. It's a bit remote but there is a Roman road running through the middle of the fields that I had permission to search and I figured that a couple of Roman navvies might have lost something while they were on their break or maybe something had fallen from a chariot or cart into the fields.

Sadly there was no trace of the Romans and almost all I had to show for my labour was this motley collection of buttons, buckles, shotgun cartridge cases, horseshoes and a few old copper coins that were worn beyond recognition but probably Victorian. Apart from the coins and buckles the signals were not ones that I would normally dig but, as they were few and far between I dug whenever the machine beeped unless iron was an absolute certainty. But all was not lost. Halfway through the day, just as I was anticipating my ham buttty and a packet of crisps, the machine gave a delightful high pitched signal that was definitely not a cartridge case. I dug down to hit a huge rock. The pinpointing probe indicated that the item was beneath the rock which was good news and suggested something pretty old. After widening the hole sufficiently to be able to prize the mini boulder out and dig another small spade full of soil, there was the unmistakeable glint of silver. I saw the coat of arms and knew immediately that it was a hammered coin - at last.

It's a shilling from the reign of Charles I as far as I can tell. It would have been in great condition if somebody hadn't clipped it around the edges and a bit of a loss for the finder having the spending power of about a fiver today according to the National Archives currency convertor. It's not worth much in this condition but a nice addition to my display. I set out with the aim of just one displayable item per trip so it was a case of mission accomplished.

So I've found a hammered coin for the first time since retiring and I hope that it's a foretaste of things to come. I need to decide where to go next week now. There's half a mile of fields available on this farm but it wasn't a huge return from the day, although in beautiful weather and with superb views I think I may be tempted to give the fields another go.

Bad news for this lamb that I came across today. It hadn't been dead long and hadn't been killed by a fox or other animal as it's body was untouched. As it was at the foot of a telegraph pole I wonder if it was struck by lightning. There were some almighty downpours in the area over the weekend but I don't know if there was any thunder. 

Orange Wednesday tomorrow and, yet again, our film of choice is not showing at the local multiplex so, in order to see Senna, it's another visit to FACT in Liverpool . Not that I mind. I enjoy going to FACT it's a great little indie cinema, comfortable, friendly and with a decent cafe and bar.


Here's a taster. Wonder if Lewis Hamilton was watching this before his performance at the weekend.