[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-coffee-and-the-siege-of-lucknow":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"This morning I cycled down the road to the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.nmm.ac.uk\">National Maritime Museum\u003C/a> to get coffee and clear my head. It's been a bit claustrophobic at home in my workspace, especially when the construction workers outside turn on this earth flattening machine that makes everything rumble and sets my teeth on edge. I started sketching this statue because I thought it was funny, how the guy's cape from the back made him look like he had Marilyn Monroe hips. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/william_peel-1-b3f9142bb5.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen I came around to read the placard, the guy had an interesting history, being brave and getting caught up in some very dodgy stuff in the '\u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857\">Indian Mutiny\u003C/a>'. (Gotta love those post-colonial quotation marks sprinkled so lavishly around the building.) In particular, Peel was involved in the \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Lucknow\">Seige of Lucknow\u003C/a>. Here's a bizarre tidbit on Wikipedia. It puts the phrase 'bite the bullet' into a very different light: \\r\n\u003Ci>The flashpoint of the rebellion was the introduction of the Enfield rifle. The cartridges for this weapon were believed to be greased with a mixture of beef and pork fat, which would defile both Hindu and Muslim Indian soldiers. On May 1 the 7th Oudh Irregular Infantry refused to bite the cartridge and on May 3 they were disarmed by other regiments.\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nI did get some work done in the cafe, but it's too easy to get sucked into that place and emerging half a working day later... But next time I must make an effort to sketch something more than ten feet away from the table where I'm having my coffee.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Edit\u003C/i> And I just discovered Russian artist \u003Ca href=\"http://telefreak.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">telefreak\u003C/a>, whose lettering is the best thing ever.","2008-01-16T13:11:00.000Z","coffee-and-the-siege-of-lucknow",[],"coffee and the siege of lucknow",1776628722186]