iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

To the Miro Musée in Barcelona yesterday. Impressions: He wore a lovely suit and polished shoes to work at his ateliers. He has created a deadly fountain and mobile using gallons of mercury in the centre of the city. I love his artistic creations. I have one of his prints on my wall at home.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Nice work PortBou graffiti artists. Viva Catalunya

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I will never, ever, ever allow anyone to put a camera down into my lungs with just a local anaesthetic. Not even a doctor. It was truly gruesome this time, although not the first. Give me General Legrand!

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I do hope people are serious about taking out the trash on 13th August. Even nos amis here in France support the change. Come on @countbinface.bsky.social

My bin bags here in France just happen to have a huge NF written on them. Always makes me smile, as I hurl them into our communal bin storage.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

It is mullein time of the year in the UK. This enormous traditional medicinal plant grows over six feet high in scrubby grassland. You barely notice it, until it flowers around this time with a beautiful, wide triangular display of little yellow blossoms.

Mullein plants grow over six feet high. Its wide triangular green leaf stock is matched by the flowering triangular yellow blossoms that bloom at this time of the year. They are really handsome plants and when they catch the sunlight they really zing!!!

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

I just heard that Marjane Satrapi died. From the moment I read her beautiful "bande dessinée" Persepolis in 2000, through her films and her other works, until her work with other artists about Iran... well another gorgeous flame just left us xxx

Marjane Satrape 2024 volume of text and drawings with other artists "Femme, Vie, Liberté".

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TizzyWoman @tizzywoman.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

#MorningVibe Monroviaboy (IG) had me teary with this one. This is “heavy foot,” — a song for these times. Stay vigilant, stay together.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Are they permitted to have Red Lines (single or double) outside Central London? I only thought it was applicable to Red Routes, but I must have been in France too long. Anyway ha ha.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

The families, friends and teachers of these poor girls must be in torment yet again, but have a glimmer of hope for the truth after three years of unanswered questions. Now that this case will come before a magistrate's court, full disclosure is essential. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

theguardian.com

Woman charged over death of two eight-year-old girls after Wimbledon car crash

Claire Freemantle accused of causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving when vehicle hit school in 2023

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Thought i would come here to grumble. I bought two Presta valve inners from Amazon for my T-Line, as Brompton France seem to be out of stock. I put a few puffs of air in to test reliability, and one of them blew up in my face. Rubber everywhere!

This Specialised 16"/18" inner tube blew up in my face when I put a few puffs of air in it, to check if it would hold (a previous purchase from another seller did not). The inner tube just exploded and a good two-inch piece separated off from the whole inner tube and ended up in my dinner.

I trust that Amazon will be gracious and send me a replacement.

I have been cycling for over fifty years and never had a faulty inner tube BEFORE fitting it and riding it on the road. Recently I have had three - two just putting a feeble bit of air in to check if viable before fitting, and one once after a bleedingly difficult rear wheel fitting on my Brompton T Line.

What are they making these inners out of, gossamer? This photo is missing a bit of the inner tube that exploded, because I found about two inches of it in my dinner.

In the olden days they used to have inner tube competitions where you could blow up inners to the size of garden sheds before they would blow up. I insist modern manufacturers redesign accordingly.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Does anyone I know a dealer/shop in France that sells 16 -18 Brompton inner tubes with Presta valves- not Tubolitos ordinary black inners? Merci

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Happy St Patrick's Day and solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. Also a good time to remember St Patrick's namesake Padraig Pearse.

Medal struck to commemorate the life and death of Padraig Pearse, executed by the British after his part in the Dublin Easter rising in 1916. The medal shows the head of Pearse with his name and his date of birth (1879) and date of his execution (1916) around the edges. This medal belonged to my granddaddy.

The other side of the commemorative medal struck in memory of Padraig Pearse, "Poet, Author and Patriot", stating "Ireland unfree shall never be at Peace" - from an oration he gave at the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

On the €2 morning bus from Perpignan to Céret market. Le Canigou mountains and clouds. A beautiful tourbillon de la vie.

Le Canigou mountains in the distance, barely discernible from the clouds in the sky, as all are bright blue or pearl grey, white or a mixture of each. This is a lovely sky, so big and wide, despite being so cloudy. What brings it into relief is the railway track at the bottom and the roadway and the green strip of trees and bushes.

What you can't see in this photo is the intense tourbillon of the sky and the land today. The weather has been announced as a "vigilance orange" where everyone is advised to stay indoors, as it feels like a mini hurricane. Silly me I didn't notice this so got on the bus.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I love to see big snowy mountains on the horizon, on my walks under the hot sun. Here is Le Canigou.

Bright yellow flowers with bright green leaves seen on my walk around St Nazaire.

Le Canigou mountain covered in snow, with grassy fields before it and beautiful blue sky above.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

My bank just sent me an SMS alerting me to the fact that it is going to rain until tomorrow night.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

I can leave my house, where I have a stuffed flamingo at the top of my Christmas tree, and find hundreds of real flamingos within a few miles of here. How many of you can find actual fairies that you can watch with binoculars?

Pink felt flamingo at the top of my green and orange decked Christmas tree. The flamingo is wearing a cute little blue scarf and ear muffs.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Being ill on Christmas day can be ho hum but Santa has left you a cute little paint set and the best book you could have asked for! @willdalrymple.bsky.social

William Dalrymple's The Golden Road goes into amazing depth about the importance of ancient India and its influence on the world. So worth having to retire to my nice cosy bed to read.

Secret Santa left me this tiny water colour set with brush and little notebook, so tempting for one painting a week.

Page 2 of my notebook and I have done some swirly green grasses with made-up red and yellow flowers. Just realised with feeling of liberation I can paint what I like because nobody else gives a damn! SMILE

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

My first Christmas Day in a country of citizens, not subjects. Still ruled by wrong ‘uns, but not hereditary wrong ‘uns.

Huge anchor on the port in Collioure, doing a nice yoga pose. The sea and the sky are the same lovely blue. The jetty is grey-brown.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

The only downside to living in France is having to unwrap and un-label all those tea bags. Why can't I buy simple, strong tea bags like in the UK?

Lipton's Yellow Label tea bag packets and labels. They create quite a pile of unnecessary rubbish.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

I would have thought that Louis Aliot (see alt text) would be against refugees fleeing persecution in small boats. But here we are.

The Mairie de Perpignan, run by Rassemblement National Mayor Louis Aliot, has chosen to instal this bizarre nativity scene on the canal François Batllo in the centre of town. Is Aliot a secret supporter of refugees escaping in small boats?

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Disappointed to see this. 160 union workers are fighting for a fair contract at Individualized Shirts, a US factory that makes high-end men's button-ups. The managers there have rejected the union's request for fair wages and health insurance. The union is asking for support 🧵

A photo of workers at Individualized Shirts, a shirt factory in New Jersey. Each person has their fist in the air as a sign of solidarity. There's a sign behind them with photos and the words: "Fair Contract Now."

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Next time someone tells you that train drivers "just push buttons" show them this from the BBC

The driver "managed to contact the control
centre at Network Rail and get the train
diverted onto the slow line", Calder says.

"That was absolutely crucial because this
train was scheduled to be travelling through
Huntingdon station on the tracks with no
platform at 125mph."

"It didn't stop in the middle of nowhere,
which would have been very difficult."

Calder thinks this was handled in the "safest
possible way" thanks to the "incredible
professionalism from the driver and the
police". Train drivers are trained on how to
take appropriate action, he adds,

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

If Donald Trump ever came back in fish form…

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

On the train from Perpignan to Montpellier. I saw this man fishing in the étangs Bages-Sigean⁩, tout seule. He is that tiny dot in the water.

I am on the train from Perpignan to Montpellier. I saw this man fishing in the étangs Bages-Sigean⁩, all alone in an immense shallow étang. He is a tiny dot in the massive étang of salty water and nearby vegetation and a distant horizon.

He is wearing waders, I think, but the train was going too fast to clock it. I was just so impressed by someone who would wade out and fish, something that fisherfolk have been doing for centuries around here.

So my next question is - what kind of fish is he looking for? He has some competition with the flamingos, the egrets, herons and cormorants which abound here. I would love to know, but he is now a tiny speck in the distance as the train chugs on.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

If the Greens allow in Labour defectors, who stuck loyally to the LP during the "antisemitism crisis", the election of Starmer, saw the Labour Files, Martin Forde's report and the unfolding genocide and said...nothing... aren't the Greens cruising for a bruising sometime? Once bitten.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

This glorious Leucate day, I spotted 15 cormorants, c 100 great egrets, c 200 flamingos, a starling murmuration, one grey and one trotty wagtail, c 200 jackdaws and c 100 crows. The joy you get, watching things through binoculars. But fuksake what's with my neighbours complaining about my homework?

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

I have a little spider nursery on my variegated ficus plant - a present a month ago. The ten or 11 babies are smaller than a pin head, but already their tiny legs etc are ready to react to a puff of air. I am so proud to have my kindergarten.

Ten or 11 tiny cute weeny spiders have appeared on my variegated ficus plant this morning. They are mainly under a leaf and I think may have emerged from the corpse of a little moth - seen as a little ball beneath the leaf in the middle of the photo.

Their also-cute mum had been running about the plant since I got it a month ago, raising her first legs at me when I got too close.

I have a spider nursery! Love it.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Pigeon Toes, Collioure, France.

Little pigeon feet have left hundreds of imprints on the sand at Collioure, France. The sun picks out their imprints in little shadows.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Smoke last night from a wild fire in Jonquières, Heurault, which is over 150km from Perpignan. The smoke was all over town and day became night. Seven sapeurs pompiers have been injured fighting the flames.

Smoke from a wild fire in Jonquières, Heurault, which is over 150km from Perpignan. The smoke was all over and day became night.

Smoke from a wild fire in Jonquières, Heurault, which is over 150km from Perpignan. The smoke was all over and day became night. Seven sapeurs pompiers have been injured trying to put out the flames.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Hello ‪@worldbollardassoc.bsky.social. Are you on holiday in the south of France by any chance?

Two rising bollards in a quiet street in Perpignan, France, with signs of a vehicle having tried to bash through.

Behind there are two rows of bollards protecting people from pavement parking - and one white car parked on the pavement where the bollards end.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Please say somebody is keeping a photo tally of the little Palestinian children, murdered by the Israeli govt, and the T-shirts they are wearing? I recall seeing a "Girl Power" message on a little dead girl, and many other poignant T-shirt messages on sweet, innocent and dead children.

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Raimo Kangasniemi @rk70534.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

"child stands silently beside his wounded mother, holding the blood bag connected to her body, in an emergency room with no bed, no equipment. All he has is his small body and fragile will to save her - a scene that embodies the collapse of humanity." www.threads.com/@basem.in.si...

threads.com

Basem Alhabel (@basem.in.sign) on Threads

child stands silently beside his wounded mother, holding the blood bag connected to her body, in an emergency room with no bed, no equipment. All he has is his small body and fragile will to save her ...

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Oliver @oliver48.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

via Labour Heartland

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

The first cherries in France from Ceret at the cherry festival this weekend Everyone is cherry mad today!

Crate of cherries stacked five high. One of many thousands.

The Cherry Queen. I think you have to eat her or make her into the Mayor afterwards.

Crates and crates, lovely juicy cherries everywhere in every street.

Clafoutis tarts being sold everywhere. It is a great time of the year.

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Tom Flood @tomflood.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

🔥🔥 did this awhile back

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Raimo Kangasniemi @rk70534.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

" #Israeli authorities demolished on Wednesday morning all the tents & structures in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Araqib in the Negev desert for the 240th consecutive time, displacing its Bedouin residents." english.palinfo.com/news/2025/05... #Israel #IsraelNews #News #Palestine #WorldNews

english.palinfo.com

Israel razes Araqib village in Negev for 240th time

The Israeli authorities demolished on Wednesday morning all the tents and structures in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Araqib in the Negev desert for the 240th consecutive time, displacing its Bed...

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Is our 2,000+ year consumption of lead a contributory reason for Western's humanity's excessive aggression, cruelty, land-grabbing and warmongering? Lead piping for water, lead in your petrol, lead we still breathe... Discuss.

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Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Yet another "leaving bike behind unlocked" dream. This time my beautiful black Condor Potenza single speed. In my dream I just remembered that I left it outside mum's house on the East Lancs Road last year! Luckily I gave it my nephew four months ago in real life - whatever that is any more.

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KB @bkeithb.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

🤣 Sad but spot on!

Bernie Action Figure

Take the revolution anywhere-then politely fold it away for the DNC

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Reposted by Spoquey

Spoquey @spoquey.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

La Sanch, Perpignan, France. Good Friday display of penitential behaviour...for having mainly voted for Rassemblement National?

Perpignan, France: People watch the La Sanch penitents in their scary Ku Klux Klan-type robes and pointed hats and some in bare feet, as they wind their way through the town in their traditional procession. Here four black-robed penitents carry a statue of Jesus on his way with the Cross to Calvary. Behind them are some people in the crowd. It is very sunny.

Many penitents are women. I suppose this year you would hope they are regretful that they voted for Marine Le Pen's party, as most people in the region did - nearly 70 per cent in some small towns. This is an arty shot of a woman walking with her head bent, with vague parts of three other women in the shadows.

A shot of four black-robed penitents carrying a golden statue of Mary decked with flowers. Somebody, also golden, is kneeling praying to Mary. There are buildings behind them and a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds up above.

A statue of Mary looks down in horror/sadness as Jesus lies dead at her feet, having been taken down from the Cross. The pointed black hoods of four penitents can be seen carrying the tableau, which is decked with flowers and leaves.

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