onionbagblog

To the Wivenhoe Museum!… on Saturday lunchtime. Yep it was one of those kind of days. The pissing Estuary Wilds was getting right on my nuts. This was a kind of day for a five minute dash out somewhere within a local radius, and then be within safe distance to head back to base if need be.

Trouble is there’s not a great deal of options within a five minute radius of my house. The Wivenhoe Chapel Museum, to give it its full name, is the only option other than a trip to the shops. Needs must.

We’ve been meaning to go to the museum for a number of years now. It opened around a decade ago in an old chapel in the public cemetery. Each time we go past we joke we should pop in. We’re normally setting out on a bicycle ride and so stopping off is only a passing thought.

That all changed today. We were welcomed as we arrived by a couple of familiar and very friendly faces. We were offered the choice of either a guided tour, or just to ramble around and do our own thing. Being a loner in life, we opted for our own thing.

It is a pokey little place but full of many hidden surprises. I get kind of turned on by local history, but not in a massive BONER kind of way.

I did enjoy looking at the completest set of the Wiv miniature models. There was also some cracking map action taking place. Map makers from years gone by had little sense of scale - or even reality.

The 3D model from the bottom of the town dating back to 1959 was interesting. It showed the extent of the valley where some of the houses by the railway line peer up above from. There was even a replica model of an oak tree. Best not go trying to chop that one down, Comrades.

We were then kindly offered the opportunity to explore the magical software that J at the museum has put together as part of the Wivenhoe History Group. This is a unique package which takes in hundreds of old documents and allows you to merge them together.

In a very, very clever way we were able to see an early map of our road and house, and then overlay this with subsequent maps that followed.

We even ventured into the census to find out some names of past occupants. We knew our house was there but it didn’t appear on any census records. We have some more digging to do back at base with the deeds that were bundled up as part of the house sale.

I’m pleased we finally managed to pop into the Wivenhoe Chapel Museum. It brings an end to the running gag of: Hey! We should pop in there.

Been there, done that. We must do it again.

The great Gary Crowley was sitting in for Robert Elms on BBC Radio London this morning. Up for your listening pleasure was a four-fer made up of Stiff Records classics. It’s quite a back catalogue to dive into there.

The occasion was 50 years of Stiff. It’s not quite a continuous timeline, but 50 years is 50 years. I still love the Stiff Records mantra from back in the day: If It Ain’t Stiff, It Ain’t Worth a Fuck.

Best not saying that live on BBC Radio London.

Fittingly, the four-fer opened with the very first release on Stiff Records: Nick Lowe’s So It Goes. It’s a perfect power pop song and set the agenda for what was to follow.

Ian Dury’s is My Old Man followed. This is another great London song, as were the next two choices, Kirsty’s New England and Baggy Trousers. What a back catalogue.

A brief online shifty of the Stiff Records Discog, and it’s a case of being spoilt for choice here. Woh! Where to start?

You could have chosen The Damned’s New Rose, the very first punk single, or the Banshee’s Hong Kong Garden, although I doubt that will get any airplay any time soon with some very questionable lyrics.

There’s the whole early Elvis Costello back catalogue including the peerless Allison. And then we have Wreckless Eric with Whole Wide World, Jona Lewie and his Kitchen Song, plus some early Devo.

The label developed a little over the years with Madness always propping it up with their strong singles back catalogue. Every release from One Step Beyond right through to One Better Day came out on Stiff.

The later years as Stiff entered into the mid-80s, included the Belle Stars, Temple Tudor and even John Otway, with a ropey cover of Green Green Grass.

The Freshies also featured as an early incarnation of what would later become Frank Sidebottom. You can see what a diverse label it is when Stiff was also putting out side by side early singles by the Pogues.

Along came Tracy Ullman, Graham Parker and King Kurt. Yello somehow slipped in there, along with an unlikely release by Motorhead.

The very final releases included Furniture’s Brilliant Mind, as well as one of my favourites, the Every Kind of People cover by Mint Juleps.

That would all make for a bloody impressive compilation. There’s various Spotify playlists out there, but nothing covering the entire back catalogue.

Stiff is my new fave old label.

Sunshine down at the Oval for Friday evening. Make hay, etc.

The arrival of Hampshire in SE11 looked like being a lively contest for Surrey as they continued with their stop / start campaign in the T20 Blast this summer.

Surrey had themed the game as an LGBQT+ occasion. GOOD. We need to fight back against the pricks. Cricket shouldn’t be part of the culture wars. In fact, nothing should be part of the culture wars. We should be proud of who we are. Shout out to the official Surrey drag queen looking resplendent whilst on the piss in the Peter May.

The Surrey YouTube channel was superb as ever. The commentary may be a little hit and miss, but the production and TV angles are on par with anything Sky can deliver.

I was a little pissed off, however, to see them plugging a June Test match at the Oval. This is just completely wrong. The Oval Test should always be played around the second week in September. It puts your whole season out of sync. It’s like holding the FA Cup final in November and the Charity Shield in April. Cricket is bonkers.

t was good to see CJ back bowling for Surrey. This is his 20th year as a pro. The Dulwich DUDE may have lost a little pace in recent years, but he still has plenty of energy left in the tank.

Hampshire had a strong attack as they took to the crease. The onslaught was relentless. A fantastic final over from Fuller gave Surrey a tough ask of 215.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Oh dear, J-Roy.

Up stepped Ollie Pope for some showboating. He never really got going after one wild swing.

We needed a skipper’s knock from young Sam as he stepped up to the crease. No, that’s not gonna happen, is it?

It looked like Will Jacks would be on his Jack Jones as being the final hope for Surrey to try and get this over the line. We were helped out with a nightmare over from Lumsden, who went for 24. Thanks for coming, etc.

Desperate Dan Lawrence was our last stand. He’s not the most elegant batsman to watch, but he knows how to put on scoreboard pressure.

The final over was a little frantic. Surrey just fell short with the final ball in what was a great game of cricket.

This all leaves us in serious danger of not progressing to the next stage of The Blast. Oh well, there’s always the Metro Bank to look forward to.

Yeah, right.

I gave in and finally bought another bicycle. Don’t buy another bicycle, Jase. DON’T BUY ANOTHER BICYCLE! Oh dear. I only went and bought another bloody bicycle. Chapeau!

And so I’m now awaiting delivery of a budget iScooter U4. It’s a foldable, cheap as chips electric bike. But of course I don’t need it. But as ever, n+1.

I’m losing count of what n currently represents. I’ve gone through the calculations in my head and thought about where my various bicycles are located. I’ve come to the conclusion that n currently represents 9.

Where to store the U4 was the main stumbling block. It sat in my online cart for a few days, as I spent some time pondering a solution.

I think I’ve come up with a possible workaround. If all else fails, then I could do the dirty and reduce the bicycle count. I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve got bicycles locked away that haven’t seen any action in over a year.

That’s not really the point though, is it?

All the online reviews for the U4 paint a picture of a very functional and affordable workhorse. I will probably use it for getting around Sunny Colch and my increasingly frequent trips to Lidl.

Some self-assembly is needed for the. This worries me. There’s also limited options in terms of gears. Put bluntly, there aren’t any. It’s a fixed wheel bicycle where the only option in terms of speed is to choose which electric mode you want.

And yes, I am aware that I’ve become something of a hoarder of bicycles, CDs and G Force clothing.

“An empowered working class can offer an alternative. Soon, it must.”

Morning Star on how to defeat the far right.

There was a time in the late 90’s when this type of quirky US college rock threatened something decent, but failed to break through. Britpop drowned everything out. Which is a shame, as the likes of They Might Be Giants a little earlier, and Cake are worth a listen. Beck did cut through - he had the style as well as the substance. Fashion Nugget stacks up rather well. Mixing up indie with US hip hop and funk can be a disaster. It’s a delicate task. Cake manage to, erm, have theirs and eat it. Tuck in.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

The silent city: How London’s ghost districts are hollowing out the capital

Far Out Magazine on the Nine Elms ghost town.

The aim for the run on Thursday, as ever, was to beat the rain. I set off under bright blue Estuary Wilds skies. I returned with a darkened gloom spreading over the town.

This was a pacey run. I increased my speed significantly compared to yesterday. I’m still very much off the pace when compared to where I was pre-injury. I’m turning into the Dot Cotton of the Estuary Wilds.

Elsewhere, and it was fairly uneventful with little to see. The best it got was a comedy moment with a middle-aged couple fighting a losing battle in trying to keep their umbrella erect. It collapsed within and almost swallowed them whole.

I had a few twinges when I returned, not so much the calf muscle itself, but on my ankle where I think I pressed it a little hard. I admit to relying on the comfort of the Bionic Lidl running shoes.

There’s optimistic talk of a return to parkrun at the weekend. That’s going to go well, right? I always approach parkrun with the mentality that it’s not a race. But then you get sucked into the herd and the adrenaline takes over.

I expect this to be one of my final running updates as I succumb to yet another bloody parkrun injury and have another six months of no running.

Live to run, run to live.

“I really don’t mind if you sit this one out” …is the opening line. OK, I might just do that, fella. I can’t say I was TURNED ON by the idea of three tracks only, and then an interview bolted on at the end. It’s hardly C86, right? If you ignore the Jethro Tull name, then this is half decent. But I find it hard to escape all the Dungeons and Dragons bollocks. English folk music updated and refreshed can be uplifting. This was probably the case for Thick as a Brick back in 1972. Over forty years later and the folk tradition has developed. No genres should stand still. As a timepiece it’s half decent. As a daily listen in 2026 it rambled a little.

⭐ ⭐

And so Middlesex rocked up at the Oval for the London Derby in the Blast. Surrey are serial underachievers in this competition. There is some misconception in legacy media about how we are the short-format kings. That’s absolute bollocks. We’ve won it once and that was over a quarter of a Century ago.

Hey hoe. Derby days down at the Oval are always fun. It’s a shame that our friends over the river couldn’t return the favour with their poxy 7,000 crowd back at HQ when Surrey were the visitors at Lord’s. That Sunday midday scheduling was just bonkers and should never be allowed to happen again.

The talk ahead of the game on Wednesday evening was that the Oval was a sellout. It didn’t quite get there looking at the telly pictures but it came close. The demographic was the usual Bright Young Things, fresh from their day jobs in the city.

This was a key match for Surrey. A record going into the game of played 2, lost 2 shows that our progress in the Blast was in the balance.

The traditional pattern for Surrey in this competition is to rampage in the group stages and then fall apart when we get down to the business end of the competition. It seems that we have accelerated this pattern this season, with a super quick start and then a super quick tail off already.

Surrey did seem fired up, taking to the field when play started. There was in particular some tight bowling from Will Jacks. Middlesex were poor with the bat. TC has seen better death bowling overs as he delivered three wides and gifted Surrey a paltry more three runs to their final total.

The young Middlesex side came out looking a little sheepish in the field. The game never really got going as a spectacle or even a contest.

Shout out to J-Roy who fell for short on his 50. Olly Pope got us over the line with a timely half century. Surrey won the game with 35 balls to spare, which is something of a comment on the lack of parity between these two once great teams.