Into The Tardis Again - Berlin, 1900

Paul in NY just made some slight and wistful noises about my 'Berlin in 1900' post on the old blog - it was more than enough to provoke an instant re-post here!

Time to time travel again - I've already buckled up my seat belt and am set to go!

This particular journey is the result of seeing a most poignant piece of footage - Berlin between 1900 and 1910, just before the carnage that was World War One.

People seem prosperous and confident, a world of such seeming certainties - the ultimate calm before the storm.

There's the hustle and bustle of the streets - just a slice, across the social spectrum, of ordinary people going about their daily business ...

And images of individual people, close-ups of shadowy often unsuspecting figures, frozen in time ...

... people about whose lives I can't help speculating about!

There are snatched impressions of old and new forms of transport ...

... and famous landmarks ...

Brandenburg Gate

There are examples of new social activities, such as bicycling ...

... and new jobs, like directing traffic ...

...and those minuscule usually unrecorded commonplace business activities, such as paying for a cab ...

Finally, there's a bunch of folk out on that new-fangled contraption, the bicycle - performing a cute though perhaps not-quite-Busby-Berkley-standard routine for the camera ...

So, without delay, to the video ...

... which I hope you'll like.

To Nip and Tuck or Not - Voting of a Different Kind

It's Saturday morning and, as you do, I was online browsing 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom 1s for sale.

Usually of course they come like this ...








... and very nice indeed, well, at least for me.

Then to my real surprise I happened across this 1925 Phantom 1 curiosity ...


... which had started life in the above manner, bodied by Hooper.

In the 1930s, it was bought by the Raja of Nanpara and transformed by the Belgian coachbuilder, Jonckheere, into something more befitting the style of that decade, undergoing a number of more minor 'face lifts' over succeeding years ...


... before reaching it's present state of restored glory in 2005 ...







... winning many awards, including its first concourse entry in le Prix de Cannes (whatever that might be).

As I browsed over the site again, the question for me was which did I prefer - the 'before' or the 'after' version.

While it seemed somewhat sacrilegious to tamper with a classic Roller design, I must say the result was something unique and wonderful.

What's your opinion?