So, 20,000 steps, 13.5 kilometres and two sore feet later, the Spring Fair 2016 at the NEC is done for another season. I was there mainly as a driver and bag carrier for my wife and associates and, beyond the inevitable kitsch and distressed homewares fatigue, there were a few things that caught my eye amongst the many thousands of willow wicker weaved hearts of all proportions …

Lit with LEDs

A couple of years on from observing how embedding LEDs in all manner of objects was clearly an emerging trend the fashion has matured a bit with some objects actually looking quite tasteful with a little LED enhancement and trendy lit lettering adorning the cover shot of the show catalogue as well as illuminating logos and messages of stands themselves.

Retro record playing

Hot on the heels of vinyl returning to popularity – a digital to analogue revolution that literally sounds great – the retail industry has been quick to reinvent the styles of record players that were first seen in the baby boomers’ bedrooms and the living rooms of their parents too – and why not. With recognition that with audio in particular, lossy digital formats and loudness wars have diminished the quality of recordings considerably the same observation could be applied to the playback devices themselves which are virtually invisible these days. I’m not sure the same could be applied to the other obvious retro trend of the moment – ‘analogue’ telephones. As I am old enough to remember having to ‘dial’ a telephone number that is not something I want to return to doing any time soon – even for a sense of nostalgic fun.

Scent delivery evolves

All corners of this show appeared to have stands with a product or two devoted to scent delivery – from traditional candles to LED enhanced, bluetooth connected devices. Less than a month on from the potential dangers of scented products in the home hitting the headlines again http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35281338 the sense of nausea and faint headache these stands induced at times with their overwhelming aroma had a more sinister undertone with the latest research highlighting carcinogenic dangers of some scent substances when released in poorly ventilated homes. Anyway, the latest thing being driven by Italian company Mr & Mrs is ‘sonic-fragrance diffusion’ with George – an electronic scent diffuser that’s also a bluetooth speaker.

Drones get bigger and smaller

A good five years on from the Parrot AR drone’s first appearance at CES, quadcopters have grown to sizes that would give you serious concussion and probable hospitalisation if they hit you but also shrunk to sizes resembling insects that could be feasibly swallowed if you were unfortunate to have your mouth open at the wrong moment.

Hand-crafted thermoplastic

I was anticipating seeing a MakerBot or two dotted around the stands and indeed there were a few printing the obligatory chains (an impressive output that demonstrates the amazing flexibility of 3D printing to create interconnected objects) and pen pots as well as displays of some of the more impressive outputs from the ‘thingiverse’ – including this T-Rex skull that apparently took the stand owner 17 hours to print http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:308335. Right now though, the analogue use of thermoplastics looks far more commercially viable with brands like Formesta starting to establish its use in DIY and hand-crafted modelling.

There’s a joke pill for that

The diabolical gift people are guaranteed to provide a laugh or two and amongst the old favourites of the ‘grow your own’ variety was this lovely take on pharmaceutical product display

Honourable mentions

Turbospoke – the 21st Century version of pegging playing cards to your bike spokes to make them sound like motorbikes.

Easylace – a simple, colourful and inventive alternative to shoe laces

Facematt

Gravecard

“There’s nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse.”

Lord Palmerston

I haven’t been the registered owner of a car for several years now since part exchanging my faithful and beloved Mazda for my wife’s new car – but since the end of last year I am the registered owner of a horse called Phacelia.

As a kid I couldn’t come within a few feet of any horse without my eyes puffing up and my nose running as they were, without doubt, the animals I was most allergic to.

So, the idea that I might own a horse, let alone spend time in its company, has never seemed a likely prospect. Even more unlikely is the idea that I would actually love this creature – but I do.

In fact, I will go as far as saying that owning and caring for this animal is one of the best things I have ever done. It’s not easy, it’s certainly not cheap but it is, in many ways, very therapeutic – particularly during a tough six months.

Up until now, I haven’t broadcast the fact that I ended up suddenly and unexpectedly in hospital during the early part of this year.

It’s the first time I’ve been admitted to hospital and hopefully the last – at least for many years to come I hope – and the aftermath has been challenging. Continue reading →

I never met my paternal grandfather, Frank William Hoskins, but his story is one of the biggest inspirations in my life.

He died aged 67 in 1961 after suffering a stroke and contracting pneumonia a few years before I was born.

He enlisted in the Rifle Brigade in 1911 at the age of 18 and was on active service in Africa and India prior to the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914 he was sent with the British Expeditionary Force to France and survived being posted for a year on the Western Front, including having to deal with the first use of poison gas and flamethrowers on the battlefields during the Second Battle of Ypres. In late 1915 he was sent to Salonika to fight on the Macedonian Front for the remainder of the war. He was discharged from the Southern Command malaria concentration centre in spring 1919 – marking the end of his military career.

Having contracted malaria twice during his time on the Macedonian Front I have no doubt that this contributed to his early death as it is well documented these days that the disease can lay dormant and recur for many years after early infections. Added to which were the after effects of the only known drug treatment for malaria at that time – quinine – a hateful substance that caused tinnitus, giddiness, blurred vision, nausea, tremors and depression.

So despite surviving at the vanguard of many battles as a sharpshooter, scout and skirmisher, the psychological and physical legacy of the  ‘Great War’ stretched beyond those early 20th Century years to finally claim him as a victim later in life. Continue reading →