Christ Church Huntingdon Blog

  On this day in history 173 years ago a French man by the name of Jolly-Bellin spilt something all over his wife’s table cloth while she was out shopping. The substance was a turpentine-oil mix from an oil burner. Oh no, disaster. Well as he started to try and clean up the mess before his wife came home, he discovered something rather fascinating. The parts of the table cloth that had been spattered with this mixture had become cleaner than the rest. So he started to experiment and he started to discover the process that we now call “ dry cleaning ”. It became hugely useful for the clothes cleaning business and within a few years had spread all over the world. All from that little accident with the turpentine lamp. Well after a little internet search, I found that many great inventions have been discovered by accident. Matches, Coca Cola, X-Rays, Shatterproof glass, microwave ovens and superglue were all discovered by accident. Maybe we have the makings of a ser...

Mark it’s great to be here live to share my first Thought for the Day in person since before Covid , and actually my 100 th ever Thought for the Day on HCR! And the title ? “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”. You probably know, Mark, that “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas” (written by Irving Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the film Happy Holidays) is the best-selling song ever . I wonder what it is about it that makes it such a popular classic? I think in part it’s the crooning voices, but also it’s because a white Christmas is so rare (like England winning a major football tournament!!) that it kind of taps into childhood memories and fairy tales. Proper snow on the ground has only happened 4 times in 51 years apparently. Apparently it’s Charles Dickens who is to blame who wrote a lot about snowy Christmases, probably inspired by his childhood, growing up in the coldest decade in England for more than a decade- a time when the Thames froze over. (s...