Sir Pieter-Paul and Sir Anthony

This is a small painting of the Descent from the Cross (Het Afdaling Van het Kruis) by the Flemish painter Pieter-Paul Rubens. The final work is the huge painting behind the altar in the Cathedral in Antwerp, which is Ruben's home town. There is also a small copy in Christ Church St Lawrence in Broadway in Sydney.

In the galleries here, he is referred to as "Sir" Peter Paul Rubens. Apparently Charles I knighted this Flemish boy when he lived in England (Philip IV of Spain also knighted him, but they might have been occupying Flanders St the time.) Charles I also knighted "Sir" Anthony Van Dyck, so the English were happy to throw around knighthoods to foreigners, just like Tony Abbott.

Pub trivia

I go to a pub trivia contest, and one question was "what was the first domesticated pet?"
The answer was geese, and this statue from 300BC in the British Museum is evidence that this is correct

Vanguard

I visited the RAF museum north of London. Apart from planes, they had related machines, such as cars used around the airports, here is the Vanguard Standard. My first memory of a car was the Vanguard Spacemaster that my parents owned at the time. Apart from its great name, it had a conventional boot compared to this model, but otherwise was very similar.

The museum is huge and interesting, but these memorials to war can sometimes be unfortunate. There were many groups of small boys being led around the exhibition, and I overheard one say "I don't like Germans". Sad.