I've no idea why.....

.....I've got a milk jug from the Alwiyah Club, Baghdad (actually I've got 2, the other one is a bit bigger), it's one of those things that have been around for so long I'd actually stopped seeing it for what it is....a link with a very different past.....

Apparently the Alwiyah was founded in 1924 by Gertrude Bell, a local lass from just over the river Tyne....I sort of hope she slipped the milkjug in her handbag at an Embassy reception for visiting dignitaries and then decided to 'dispose of the evidence' to a jumble sale back home later when the guilt got to her! The Alwiyah is still standing but these days it's more about Bingo apparently......

EDIT.....just found the Gertrude Bell Archive at Newcastle Uni.....interesting stuff, bang goes another afternoon!

And a big old Happy Birthday to the firstborn if she reads this......emphasis on the 'old'!