April's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast (try the Slide Show)

su 6 ap 08

1896  The Olympic games were revived by Pierre de Coubertin

What a swizz!  First the pavements were swept, then the bins were emptied, then an army of police and two helicopters all for a bus with Coca Cola written on it and half a dozen slappers on the back of a lorry.  Didn't get to see no Olympic flame but did get to see these protesters asking the PSO to take their pic, makes you proud to be British!

March's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast

tu 25 mr 08

1975  King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by his nephew

Remembering how confused film crews can be about what they're actually working on we were told this lot outside a pie and mash shop in a large

town near Chelmsford yesterday were making an ITV drama about a modern day Jack the Ripper called Whitechapel.  The general feeling around the Hackney pie and mash shop was why don't they go and make it in Whitechapel then instead of blocking our pavements:)

February's pics as prints, mugs and t-shirts at photoboxgallery.com/NearTheCoast

mo 18 fe 08

1901  Winston Churchill made his parliamentary maiden speech

This is the boundary of the main 2012 Olympics site in a large town near Chelmsford.  It took us a while to realise the message is partly a cleverly stuck on graffito.

we 26 de 07

1992  John Kemeny, who with Tom Kurtz created the programming language BASIC, died

Well, that's another one over.

mo 24 de 07

1946  France's Fourth Republic founded

One of the things they do in a large town near Chelmsford on a Christmas Eve.  This temporary ice rink at the back of Liverpool Street Station may be small and lack the dramatic setting of the rink in at Somerset House but a lot fun was being had ... though ice skating does inevitably involve a certain amount of falling over.  Now who could organise a rink round here next year?  Maybe for the Fram Street Fayre?

mo 17 de 07

1903  Orville Wright made the first flight in a powered aircraft

There was a pretty substantial film crew outside Hackney Town Hall yesterday morning.  "A drama piece for the BBC" said the soundman we asked so we went back to get the camera.  When we returned all that was left was this trolley and a runner who told us "It's a one off drama for ITV called Criminal Justice".

As you can see the Hackney Empire has fulsomely embraced the desperately pretending we're on Broadway look but inside it's still a magnificent red and gold, incredibly high ceilinged monstrosity.

sa 7 jl 07

1985  Boris Becker became the first German, unseeded and at 17 the youngest ever player to win the men's singles at Wimbledon

This is why we missed the Dave Berry memorial Big BSA Bash ... we were in a large town near Chelmsford watching reigning world time trial champion Fabio Cancellara (who despite the name is Swiss) win the prologue of this year's Tour de France.