Portent

One weekend each year in September, London throws open its houses to anyone who wants to visit them. Not all houses, but designated buildings and houses. Lets face it London is full of them, but here you can go in places that are often never open to the public. But just for one weekend until next year.

They have a google maps and a half decent search, you can even see which are more children friendly (and visit the rest!). About the only annoying thing is the intro splash screen which is so 20th century and should be dropped immediately. I’ve linked directly to the search, not the intro page because of that.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

I bought a clock made from watch parts once, when I stayed in the Anjoa hotel in Leeds in 1991. The watch parts were arranged around the actual clock face i.e. decorative not functional. I think it cost me £35. The owner was selling them.

These 16 motorbike models are also made from watch parts. They are just exquisite.

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Popularity: 32% [?]

Imagine, there you are canoeing in Maine and all of a sudden a scaled down model of the Graf Spee goes sailing past!

This really impressive 30′ model took four years to build by William Terra of Maine,USA and weighs 700 lbs and can do 15mph as it has a small motor. In his next version the guns will all work..(Only joking!)

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Well we’ve seen innumerable uses of Lego, from making cars, in pop videos, and a Lego church but on this website, it is used to illustrate the bible and apparently seems very popular.

At first I thought it was a spoof site- with titles like “David mutilates 200- gets Married” or “The Great Pen*s Debate” (Yes that is a letter i lurking behind the *! Think of the filters!) but these scenes are lovingly created with Lego figures and then captioned. The first picture in “Stephen gets Stoned” is brilliant- that man is off his head er…

I’d say this site qualifies for a labour of love- there’s loads of stuff on it. I wonder when the Koran will follow and as for the Karma Sutra.. it’s probably been done in Lego (if you know where- do tell!)

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Popularity: 16% [?]

From ages 9-14, my childhood was spent building Airfix kits. At one point I had 83 aircraft hanging from my ceiling, mostly 1/72nd WWII but also a few modern aircraft including the Hercules transporter. For a kid with asthma this was probably most unwise, as model aircraft are a dust magnet, but every three months my parents got out the step ladder out and dusted the whole lot. No wonder my wife says I was spoilt!

Sadly Airfix went into receivership yesterday with 31 out of 41 of Humbrol’s employees (the owner of the Airfix brand) laid off. I wonder if the present Govt. will send in people to destroy all plans of the TSR-2 aircraft kit (shown) that was new this year, just like a previous Labour administration did with the real aircraft plans in the early 1960s. (To prevent any chance of a future Conservative Govt resurrecting it)!

Link (To Airfix Website)

Popularity: 18% [?]