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pomfob.bsky.social
@pomfob.bsky.social
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pomfob.bsky.social
Hey ho & away we go on décadi 20 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. The Winter Olympics are on, so let's celebrate something from it. Not the sordid nonsense from the men's ski jumping, or the look at me ice skating malarkey. Let's praise teamwork and being incomprehensible. Curling!
A photo of the curling. Either you know what curling is, or the two thousand character limit on alt text is nowhere near enough. Here goes though. Curling is a winter sport played on an icy surface. It's featured at the Winter Olympics on now. The photo shows the game in full flow, on an indoor ice rink with Olympic branding on the backdrop. There are five women on the ice, maybe Team GB as it looks like a Union Jack on one of the player's sleeves. All the women wear black trousers. Three of them have predominantly red tops. One has a yellow and blue top. Could be a Swedish player, could be the referee. There's another woman in a white jacket at the back. Could be a player, could be an official. The women are carrying brooms to help move several highly polished round grey stones with red or yellow markers on top. I think the object is to get as many of your stones into the green and blue circles, while keeping your opponents' stones out.
February 8, 2026 at 12:43 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Now then. How are we all on nonidi 19 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV? Is it time for a spot of DIY, fixing up those bits and bobs around the house because it's too wet to go outside? You're going to need your screwdrivers, so when you find them, remember to celebrate them too.
A photo of six screwdrivers on a white background. The top two are flat headed and have transparent yellow plastic handles. The bottom two are also yellow and are cross headed. The two in the middle have opaque handles, one green, one red. They have small tips and I've no idea what that's about. Not much of a handy person, I only know flat and cross.
February 7, 2026 at 8:34 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Would you believe it? Today is octidi 18 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. For no particular reason, other than why not, let's have another musical instrument to celebrate today. How's about the harp? Big ones, small ones, classic ones, oddly angular modern ones, whatever you like.
A rather blurry photo of a bald man in glasses playing a Welsh harp. That's a small, plain instrument that sits on a stool so it can be played. The man is Rhodri Davies. He's on stage, with a couple of monitors on either side of him so he can hear the sound being sent out to the audience. Someone has put their pint on the stage. There's a couple of blurry figures in the centre of the photo, presumably members of the audience. The colour scheme is dark blue with Rhodri and his harp spotlighted in pink. The venue is PopRecs in Sunderland in November 2025, first night of the excellent Boundaries festival. I know because I took the photo on my camera, and that's why it's a little out of focus.
February 6, 2026 at 8:09 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Afternoon all on septidi 17 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. To clarify, yesterday's celebration of snooker was posted before I heard about the death of John Virgo. The modern French Republican Calendar isn't a harbinger of doom. Or....no, safety first, we'll celebrate hand sanitiser.
A photo of three small bottles of Australian hand sanitiser. The middle one is called Brisbane Family Festival. Australia has a relaxed attitude to British versus American spellings, as one bottle is sanitiser and the other sanitizer.
February 5, 2026 at 3:11 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
A warm welcome to you all on sextidi 16 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today is a good day to celebrate a pleasant and relaxing pastime that some folk get rich from, but most just enjoy a zen like detachment and the occasional clunk of ball on ball. Yes comrades, it's snooker day.
A photo of a snooker table. Green baize with numerous coloured balls, mostly red. An arm holding a cue appears at the left. Not a lot else to say. Watching snooker is somewhere between self hypnosis and meditation really.
February 4, 2026 at 12:06 PM
Reposted
moleymole.bsky.social
Can’t have been the first to do this, but:-
Drake meme - but with Charlie Drake
February 3, 2026 at 2:22 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Alright then? Let joy be unbounded on quintidi 15 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. On a rather dull and gloomy day like today, I'm very glad for the artificial lighting in the house. That's a good idea, let's celebrate lightbulbs today.
A photo of a selection of lightbulbs on a pale blue background. They're all different types, ranging from the classic thought bubble through more globe like ones, spirals and the old long life ones that looked like a long tube bent round on itself. They're all white bulbs, and apart from a handful of small bulbs with pins, they're screw ins, not bayonet fittings. If you included all the colours and alternative connections, there would be ten times as many. And you know you still wouldn't have the type you needed.
February 3, 2026 at 8:56 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Rise and shine comrades. It's quartidi 14 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. In a better, brighter world, Les Dawson would be celebrating his 95th birthday today. Reason enough to celebrate, but with these excellent memes as well, we're being spoiled.
moleymole.bsky.social Moley𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕄𝕠𝕝𝕖 @moleymole.bsky.social · 6d
On Les Dawson’s 95th birthday:
February 2, 2026 at 8:58 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
It's tridi 13 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV &I'm later than usual. Hope you've not been on tenterhooks waiting for today's celebration. It's henges & standing stones. Lots of these have been around since long before the Revolution, but they're not celebrated, so I'm having them.
A photo of some Neolithic standing stones on a grassy field with blue skies and big white clouds behind them. It's the stones of Steness in Orkney, Scotland. There are four big uprights in the background , two on the left and two on the right. The largest is well over three metres high. They're surprisingly slim though. Two smaller stones are in the centre, with what looks like a small pavement or platform behind them. At the front in a low, bench like stone.
February 1, 2026 at 4:48 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Six Lads Up To No Good. Is that right @littlegingerkid.bsky.social ?
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 7d
2/2 How somebody else handled the syndics of the cloth guild 60+ years later... Also pretty good!
February 1, 2026 at 9:47 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Top of the morning to Bluesky on duodi 12 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Since it actually is a blue sky round here, it'd be good to get out in the garden. Maybe it's a bit early in the year for the lawnmower to get to work, but let's celebrate it anyway. Maybe give it a clean.
A photo of a lawn with some shrubs around the border. Standing proudly in the foreground ready for action is a bright, orange lawnmower. A proper, stand up, push along lawnmower with an attachment for catching the grass cuttings on the front. Say no to the petrol driven mower or worse, the mini tractor jobs. If you can, of course. No ableism here. It's good exercise pushing one of these around though. As an aside, it's getting increasingly difficult to find an actual photograph rather than some ugly, unconvincing AI slop. Makes me yearn for Photoshop.
January 31, 2026 at 9:24 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Would you believe it? Today is primidi 11 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Returning to the theme of wildlife, particularly birds, since they got a raw deal in the original version of the French Revolutionary Calendar. Let's celebrate the shelduck. Bigger than most ducks, growls too.
A photo of a male and female shelduck wading through shallow water. Shelducks are big ducks, mainly white with dark green heads, so dark green they look black. Shelducks have red bills, a ginger breastband and some black and brown flashes on their wings. In this photo, the male is on the left. Males have bigger bills, or as my bird guide phrases it, an enlarged knob. Ooh, matron.
January 30, 2026 at 11:32 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
A busy day today, so I've only just had a chance to tell you it's décadi 10 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We've not had any artists yet, have we? Let's start by celebrating MC Escher. He's known for works that mess with dimensions like the stairs in Ascending And Descending.
MC Escher's artwork Waterfall. It's a monochrome drawing or etching of a mill with a waterwheel under two towers. Everything looks slightly alien, from the tube shaped plants in the garden at bottom left to the terraces in the background or the crystalline shapes at the top of the towers. It's then you notice that the water falling from the tower into the mill wheel then flows along a zigzag brick aqueduct back to the tower to fall on the wheel again. Impossible in three dimensions. A figure at bottom centre is staring up at the towers, trying to work it out. You're 2D I'm afraid, that's how.
January 29, 2026 at 3:40 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Three CDs left, just saying...
worriedaboutsatan.bsky.social Gavin Miller @worriedaboutsatan.bsky.social · 11d
A real low effort skeet coming up, but I can't be arsed as I've just got in from having to drive to Derby and back for work, so pre-order the new satan album yeah? worriedaboutsatan.bandcamp.com/album/no-kno...
No Knock No Doorbell, by worriedaboutsatan
10 track album
worriedaboutsatan.bandcamp.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:48 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
It's nonidi 9 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV today folks. You've probably all had your breakfast, but if you're having a late one, consider adding a little bit of tasty HP sauce. That's what we're going to celebrate anyhow. Invented down the road from where I used to live in Basford.
A photograph of a bottle of HP sauce, sat on the pale wood kitchen table in the House of Poms. For the uninitiated, HP sauce is a tangy, slightly fruity condiment often added to a breakfast fry up. It's brown, and often simply referred to as brown sauce. HP stands for Houses of Parliament, and there's a small drawing of them at the bottom of the label. The label is mostly pale blue, with the letters HP in white on a dark blue background, and SAUCE in smaller white letters on a red banner. Around the bottle's neck is a pale blue label informing us it was made by appointment to the Queen, gawd bless 'er. The implication here is she liked HP sauce by Chucky 3 isn't so keen.
January 28, 2026 at 9:39 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Ah poop. It's come to my attention that it was fifty years ago yesterday that the first colour episode of Ivor The Engine was broadcast. So we're going to celebrate Ivor, Jones the Steam and the rest of the crew, but a day late on octidi 8 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV.
A still from the animated series Ivor The Engine. It was made by Oliver Postgate and Smallfilms. They also made Bagpuss, The Clangers and Noggin The Nog. The series was set in the top left hand corner of Wales, and follows the adventures of Ivor, a small green steam locomotive. The picture shows from left to right the morose, moustached station master Dai Station, Ivor The Engine, Idris the small red dragon and Ivor's fireman, the short, bespectacled Jones The Steam. The two men and the dragon are stood on the station platform, Jones and Dai looking quizzically at Idris. They appear to be discussing a picnic hamper that's also on the platform.
January 27, 2026 at 11:54 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Bonjour mes braves. Fit and well on septidi 7 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV? If you are, have you considered donating blood? We're going to celebrate blood donation today.

www.blood.co.uk/the-donation...

I'm getting back on the tilting donor chair this week after some time away.
Giving blood for the first time
There are very few immediate appointments for new donors as we've reduced the number of donation chairs to create more space to allow for better social distancing. It is also taking us some time to co...
www.blood.co.uk
January 26, 2026 at 10:53 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Hiya to all the other fans of the French Republican Calendar. The world would be a better place if everyone acknowledged today was sextidi 6 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. It would also be a better place if we all took a few moments to celebrate the existence of trumpets.
A photo of trumpets, six of them, laying on a sandy looking surface. I don't know the technical terminology for trumpets, so please excuse me for my clumsy attempts to describe them. I'm happy to take any clarifications and corrections. From left to right, the first trumpet is brass, the rest are silver. Apart from that, the first three look very similar, the bell like horn where the sound comes out, quite long curved tubing, three valves to change the sound. The fourth trumpet has slightly more complicated tubing, but is otherwise the same as the first three to the untrained eye. The fifth trumpet is noticeably shorter and chunkier than the preceding four. The last one is the smallest, with the most complicated tubing arrangement.
January 25, 2026 at 9:49 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
A busy day and checking in a little later than intended on quintidi 5 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Part of today was a visit to a branch of the finest veggie Indian street food chain there is. Let's celebrate Bundobust. I certainly did while scoffing Paneer Tikka and Okra Fries.
A photo of the sign above Bundobust Piccadilly restaurant. It says BUNDOBUST at the top and INDIAN STREET FOOD + CRAFT BEER at the bottom of the sign. In the middle is a drawing of a leaping tiger in front of a yellow explosion. The tiger is a rather chubby fellow and I doubt he could jump very far. If he's eating at Bundobust, he doesn't need to.
January 24, 2026 at 5:35 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
I don't normally do this sort of thing, but for this LP I'll make an exception. It said if you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it, so I did. It's a black and white photo of a Volvo estate I think. Sorry but I know fuck all about cars. Anyway, the car appears to be parked on a wintery county road. If you look closely, you can see a figure sat in the car. Hard to make out because of the reflections of trees on the windscreen. However, it's Will Oldham, but it's not a Bonnie Prince Billy record, nor Palace Brothers or any other of his bands. It's from before he was releasing music I think. There doesn't appear to be anything on the record sleeve to tell you who it is or what it's called. But look at the car's grill and you'll see two words where the make of the car would be. They are SLINT and TWEEZ. This is the first and best album by Slint, though the second one, Spiderland, is better known. This one was engineered by Steve Albini. It really is very good.
January 23, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Reposted
cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social
Veronika, our queen 👑 🐮
Edited far side cow tools cartoon. A cutout photo of Veronika the brown cow stands behind a table with a push broom on it. Caption reads "cow tools".
January 23, 2026 at 3:05 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Would you believe it? Today is quartidi 4 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. In the UK, it's the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend, where people note down all the birds they see over an hour. Usually this means our feathered friends disappear. You're most likely to see the dunnock.
A photo of a dunnock sat on a twig against a green background. The dunnock is a small brown and grey bird. Looks a bit like a sparrow. Hedge sparrow is one of the dunnock's alternative names. Often seen poking around in hedges. Interesting breeding habits.
January 23, 2026 at 11:05 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
A cheery wave to you all, especially anyone who was intrigued by the cow tools yesterday. I'm rarely that sophisticated, but I am conscientious. Today is tridi 3 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today, for no reason other than I feel like it, we're celebrating fridge magnets.
A photo of some fridge magnets on a white background. That'll be our fridge then. From left to right, the magnets are Rectangular black of Flying Nun Records' mascot, Fuzzy Rectangular pink with the Louise Bourgeois quote, Art is a guaranty of sanity. Round blue Kraftwerk Autobahn logo, with the words at top and bottom. Text & logo in white. This one also doubles as a bottle opener. Hello Alex! Small round white with a kaleidoscope branch effect in grey, the logo of the band Sinnen. Hi Darren! Square with a drawing of an olde worlde shop on sandy ground against a blue sky. There's a round sign above the door, but it's too small to work out what it says.
January 22, 2026 at 1:19 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Good afternoon. It’s duodi 2 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today’s celebration is a multi layered affair about the excellent Bluesky account Cow Tools Daily, @cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social. In fact it’s so sophisticated, I’ll stop here and put a half arsed explanation in the alt text.
The picture is the Cow Tools cartoon by Gary Larson for his series, The Far Side. It’s a one panel black and white cartoon depicting a cow standing on its hind legs at a table, with a barn in the background. The cow is drawn so it appears to be looking at the reader through narrowed eyes, daring anyone to criticise the tools on the table in front of them. The tools are from left to right the lump, the lump with a handle, a stick with some prongs that has come to be known as the prongler, and a crude hand saw. The caption beneath the cartoon simply reads "Cow tools". Today’s celebration of Cow Tools Daily was inspired by the recent news about Veronika the Austrian cow having learned how to use a stick to scratch her back, the first time a cow has been observed using tools. Cow Tools the cartoon caused such consternation among readers that many wrote to the papers the cartoon was published in demanding an explanation. They didn’t think it was funny that a cow would make tools lacking something in sophistication. Confused? There's a Wikipedia page for it, but it won't help much.
January 21, 2026 at 12:36 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
We begin another month in the French Republican Calendar. Today is primidi 1 Pluviôse in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Pluviôse is the month of rains, don't you know. Let's celebrate a home of great art, the Prado in Madrid. Last Meninas by Velasquez, loads of Goya, loads more but I've run out.
A photo of the Prado in Madrid on an overcast day. A brick red and stone grey building with some green space in front of it, steps leading up to the entrance. People walking in the plaza below the entrance. There's a couple of big posters over the doors, presumably for an exhibition, but I can't make out what they're for. It's not that imposing a building, but it has some of the finest seventeenth and eighteenth century art in the world. A must for goths, the Prado has Goya's Black Paintings. Ooh, I should do a celebration for Goya, shouldn't I? Yes Pom, you should.
January 20, 2026 at 7:28 AM