House Of Spoons

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 07:47:00 +0000

This Saturday

MILL ROAD ROCKS!

This Saturday outside Mickey Flynns the Mill Road Society are holding an event at 12 - 2pm to protest against the plan to close down Micky Flynn's and replace it with yet another chain store. It's only ten minutes walk to the existing Sainsbury's, even closer to Asda. If you want to keep Mill Road Independent please come along - support our local independent traders and say NO to Sainsbury.

Pool match Sainsbury v Independents - stall - music - snacks and games!

Get into new things for spring!

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Sun, 15 May 2011 13:25:00 +0000

All kitted out for the summer yet? Looking for some fresh t-shirts for your summer holiday? Something a little different from the same old same old on the high street? Without paying through the nose? In these times every penny counts and everyone one is looking for a bargain. Well from the 17 May through 31 May you can get 5 short-sleeve tops for the price of only 4 from the House of Spoons T-Shirt shop. This includes t-shirts, polos and others from our collection for men, women, kids & babies. Just use the the voucher code MAY2011 at the checkout and get out there into the sunshine.

If you want to check out all the t-shirt designs House of Spoons have available you can see them all here. If you would rather just check out all the shirts you can see them here.

Plus don't forget if you are looking for something truely unique you can always design your own shirt here, pick a personal message, add to one of our designs or upload your own picture!

You're a big man, but you're out of shape...

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:30:00 +0000

It's the fortieth anniversary of Get Carter this year. Originally hitting our screens in 1971 it's one of Michael Caine's finest hours. Extremely dark, cynical and tackling a bunch of subjects that were fairly shocking for it's time, it has come to be regarded as a classic.

I can't imagine these days you would be taken very seriously if you pitched the idea of a bunch of Geordie gangsters being terrified by a cockney who wears a coat, ahh simpler times. Still if you've seen the remake starring Sylvester Stallone you will already be able to believe that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of.

If you fancy celebrating it's fortieth anniversary and grabbing a little slice of retro cool for yourself check out these new shirts on the House Of Spoons. Taking one of the movies most memorable lines as its inspiration, here's hoping this is another classic that will be with you for forty years...

If you have never seen the movie then do yourself a favour and get along to Amazon and order yourself a copy of the movie now!

100 Thing That Make Cambridge What It Is...

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:34:00 +0000

So this month's explorer magazine is not only their Christmas issue but also the 100th edition they have published. Explorer is a freebie lifestyle magazine for Cambridge and the surrounding area, the usual kind of fluff, but distinguished from similar competitors by the fact they usually have nice high quality arty photos of the local area. As a 100th edition special they have put together a list of 100 things that make Cambridge what it is, a fairly daring undertaking on any ones part as no matter how you slice it you are probably going to wind someone up. Not such a good move when you're livelihood is based on other people advertising with you.

The magazine is usually well worth a browse through and has filled many idle moments for me as I have sat waiting in one the city's many watering holes for friends to arrive. The "one hundred things that make Cambridge" list however is a slightly baffling, surreal, idiosyncratic and amusing collections. I can only assume they were trying so hard to find things that wouldn't fall too strongly either side of the town V's gown divide that they found themselves walking some kind of weird alternate twilight tightrope Cambridge that lives between the two.

Anyway number one in their list of things in no particular order is "cows" not the first thing I would imagine that springs to mind for many people when they think of this ancient university town. I shouldn't be so hard though as you work your way through the rest of the list all of our favourites get a mention from Mill Road to Mitchams Corner. I particularly liked #64 "Cambridge eccentrics - There’s a lot of them about. And they’re probably mostly Nobel-prize winning physicists or something...". I suspect there may well be more "or somethings" than nobel prize winners, though with the city's ratio of mad scientists and absent minded professors you do get fairly good value on the nobel prize winner front. Still you can't help but wish they had grasped whimsy with both hands and embraced a few more of the off kilter things that make life around here so great, but it is the season of good will, so to all you somethings out there, enjoy everything Cambridge has to offer this happy inoffensive non-denominational capitalist winter solstice gift giving holiday and have a great new year.

Mill Road Photo Book

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 12:19:00 +0000

Here's a little something we spotted this week for all you lovers of Mill Road. Local photographer Daisy Zoll has just started selling her new photo book which beautifully captures life at the heart of one of Cambridge's busiest and most diverse areas. Mill Road is an extraordinary diverse street on which it is possible to drink Arabic coffee or fine wines; where you can worship in a Mosque, a Hindu shrine or a Baptist church; where you can eat pâté or fish and chips, tom yum or chicken tikka lababda; where you can stock up on herbs and spices from aam to zedoary, shop for free range eggs or lamb chops, fresh ciabatta or coconut milk; where you can buy the most up-to-date computer or widget, cookware or musical instrument; purchase an antique chair or a vintage hat; have your hair or your nails styled; do your banking or get personal counselling; select a good book and get your eyes tested so you can read it. Until the 1970's you could even have a bath there!

So if you are looking for something a little unusual for your Cambridge loving friends and family this Christmas check it out. Nothing beats local things for local people....

Looking For Something Different This Christmas?

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:49:00 +0000

Yes it's that time of year again, it is almot time to celebrate happy inoffensive non-denominational capitalist winter solstice gift giving day! Looking for something a little different for somone from Cambridge then check out our new shirts. The ideal something different for that certain special somone who you have no idea what to buy!

Firstly celebrate the unspoken pact of Romsey that can never be broken, if you were there you may discuss the events, but if you were not there, you get nothing. What happens over the bridge, stays over the bridge.

Then straight from one of Cambridge's most elite and exclusive seats of learning, let them know where they can get a real education with the classic Arbury University shirt.

And finally a Retro styled Romsey Town star shirt.

Have yourself a merry little time!

Mill Road Winter Fair 2010

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:42:00 +0000

It's that time of year again this saturday the 3rd of December is the annual Mill Road Winter Fair. They close a chunk of the road and a bit of Cambridge becomes pedestrianised and filled with arty and crafty fun.

To quote the official site:

"Mill Road Winter Fair is the essence of Mill Road distilled into a single day. Over 100 of the shops, cafés and restaurants open their doors and offer unusual dishes from their cultures, things which they might not usually ser...ve here in England. Talented local people from all over the world emerge from their homes with arts and crafts, performances, food, entertainments and a warm welcome in a day of general celebration."

Dr. Strangepunt or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Touts

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:16:00 +0000

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Rob Ellis MODEL: Liana

So according to our friends at the Cambridge Evening News the punt wars are back on but this year serious weaponry is being deployed. Those crafty punt pushers have deployed the most deadly weapon known to man and only gone and dropped the lady bomb.

As we stand on the brink of punt armegeddon, it's ten to doomsday, they're moving fast... heads up! Mind those boaters. No time to sleep, it's Def Con XX chromosome .

Some might think that in a university town as cosmopolitan and sophisticated as Cambridge sending pretty young belles in boaters down to the quayside to ply their wares might be seen as a little crass, mamas don't let your babies grow up to be punt touts, but many would say there is a long tradition of the daughters of the river god luring the unwary to the water with their enchanting music and voices.

Others may think however that as the old saying goes the female of the species is far deadlier than the male, if they want war they may just be about to get......

You Maniacs! You did it! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Lets get cheesy!

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:35:00 +0000

If you have checked out our blog before you might have noticed our tastes run to the cheesy, in fact we love the cheese! So it was very nice to get a name check recently on a blog that loves cheese just as much as we do, a blog overflowing with cheese facts, fun and photos, makes me hungry just reading it!

So a big thank you to to the cheese lovers at the Cheese Sheet, check it out when you get a chance:

It's been a while

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:16:00 +0000

Howdy All, everything has been a hectic whirl around here, time flies by and before you know it six months has passed without us updating you on what is going on in our shirty world.

Well as you will hopefully have noticed we have not been wasting our time, if you check out the House of Spoons shirt site you will see lots of tasty new shirts have been added to the collection.

First thanks to the wonders of modern science you can now take part in the most thrilling sport to walk the earth since the Jurassic period, the thrills, the spills, the occassional small animal eaten whole, nothing matches the excitement of dinosaur Rodeo, tell the world you love it with our new Jurassic County rodeo shirt:

You like "electro"? Does it make you sexy? Well snap out of your 'jazz trance' and check what we have for you. Whether it's four to the floor or funky old school, if an 808 gets you hot and bothered then this is the shirt for all you Electro Sexuals:

Think they are tasty? Well stay tuned there are more on their way very shortly... Tune in tomorrow — same shirt-time, same shirt-channel!

Recognition for Local Historian!

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:26:00 +0000

Here at Cambridge T-Shirts Allan Brigham is a bit of a hero to us, so it's nice to see him being recognised by Cambridge University this week with the award of an honoury Master of Arts degree!

Honoury degrees usually upset me, what with a real degree these days costing students three years of their life and up to £20,000 by the time tuition fees and living costs are taken into account, it seems particularly offensive to devalue this by awarding some reality TV star a degree just for having a perma tan and half a personality. You get so used to reading about universities awarding honoury qualifications to people who don't particularly seem to deserve any kind of honour that to see someone being honoured who actually knows what he is talking about, contributes to the local community and seems to be a genuinely nice bloke deserves celebrating!

You can read more at the Cambridge Evening news site here and the BBC actually has some footage of an interview with Allen here.

If you have never been on one of Allan's tours then we would thoroughly recommend it. You can find out more here.

If you are too lazy to actually get out of the house then you can also order the book Bringing it all back home half of which was written by Allan and provides some fascinating insights into how the Romsey area of the city developed.

Go on help celebrate a local hero!

Sub-Urban 3

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:44:00 +0000

This Saturday the 4th July sees the Sub-Urban 3 Art Show opening at CB1 Café, Mill Rd, Cambridge. This event hosted by Blight Society promises a graffiti garden party complete with tea and cake, featuring work painted by some of the UKs young up-and-coming graffiti and street artists. This graffiti garden party will also include an exhibition of prints and canvas work by Maya, the Cambridge stencil artist behind the Mill Road landmark depiction of the crucified Christ at St Phillips Church, joined by Snik, Site, Pahnl, Tom McDougall, Irony, Stagger, Mishmash, Opticnerve, eyesaw, Monky Arty Prints, Dell and Schlomo among others.

The show held in co-operation with Cambridge Open Art Space sounds like it shouldn't be missed if you are a fan of contempary urban and street art. For more details check out the Blight Society website here. What could be better than strong coffee, sweet cake and some tasty art at CB1 (apparently the oldest internet cafe in the world).

Punt Wars II - The Sequal

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:44:00 +0000

As the coverage of the "Punt Wars" continues in the national press, it's gets harder to work out what the truth of the story is. Are the independents the "good guys" or cowboys of the river? Is our modern age of health and safety strangling free enterprise or stopping the river Cam become the water bound grid locked equivalent of what has already happened to the local roads? Should we care about independents and independence?

It's hard not to find yourself asking what does independent and independence mean? Freedom? Freedom of personal choice, action and expression? John Stark the American general who fought in the War of Independence is generally credited with coining the phrase "Live free or die". Since then it has not only become the state motto of New Hampshire and but also for everyone from rednecks from the deep south to PG-13 Bruce Willis, the Vancouver punks D.O.A and Unix user groups.

With a bit of digging around it turns out that General John may himself have been a little free in borrowing the phrase from aa speech made by Camille Desmoulins titled "Better to Die than not Live Free" delivered early in the French Revolution. In fact the first Convention of the Delegates of the Scottish Friends of the People in Edinburgh on 11-13 December 1792 used the phrase "live free or die" and referred to it as a "French oath.

Still you get the feeling that what counted for all these people was not the precise origin or form of the words being used but the sentiment they were trying to express.

You can interpret his words as a battle cry or as a statement of the reality of our lives.

Do you believe others have the right or competency to choose where you live, what clothes you wear or even where you punt?

You can live as free men, but, if you choose not to, your society will die. If you don't exercise your freedom of expression when you have the chance you may find it is too late. So seize your freedom, get out on the water, raise your flag and Punt Free or Die Trying!

Punt Wars.....

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:08:00 +0000

If you believe the Daily Mail Cambridge is in the grip of "Punt Wars" as "rival touts sink boats, threaten each other with knives and left one tourist with a broken hip".

Now I know there have been allegations of strange happenings and suggestions that the some punters in town were exploiting their size to muscle out the competition..... How much of this is actually true? It's hard to tell.

As a believer in free markets I personally find it a little strange that it appears the local authorities seem to be fighting against the entrepreneurial efforts of local small businesses and trying to push the independents off the river. From the outside it would appear local policy is being used to force the independents to operate in increasingly dangerous ways and then punish them for doing so when they are trying to make a living.

The whole thing seemed to get slightly oppressive and scary when it got to the stage where the authorities appeared to be using "anti-terror" laws to spy on the independents. Are these "independent punters" really so dangerous that we need to use anti-terror laws to monitor them? What next detention without trial for being in possession of an unlicensed straw boater? Men in balaclavas making midnight raids on punting seditionaries found to be browsing for recipes for how to mix "Pimms" on the Internet? Waterboarding for using the water? Not very Cambridge, in fact from the outside it appears draconian, heavy handed and frankly just not cricket old chap.

Still while I may support the right of the independents to make a living without the threat of extraordinary rendition to Haverhill by the council there is one thing that drives me up the wall as a city resident and that is the damn "punt pimps".

I actually have nothing against these guys in particular
so the faces have been changed to protect the innocent...

These pushy touts desperate to sell tickets to tourists for punting on the Cam constantly harass anyone trying to peacefully negotiate their way through the middle of the City in the summertime. They are supposedly trying to persuade tourists to take a trip up the river, but as I got harassed for the fifth time as I tried to walk across the bridge over the river, a bag of shopping in each hand and a large packet of toilet rolls under my arm I did wonder exactly what you have to do to get these apparently myopic menaces to mellow out as I meander past the Mill Pond and the Quayside....

So drum roll please as Cambridge T-Shirts proudly presents our latest production, hope it makes your life a little better...... remember the old saying..... a T-Shirt a day keeps the punt pimps away....

Wordle Me Up!

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:42:00 +0000

If you have not encountered Wordle yet it is a very cool internet toy that generates word clouds from either a list of words or a RSS feed, a RSS feed like the one from this blog, who would have thought there could have been something so beautiful hiding in our random ramblings? If you want to try it out for yourself you can check out Wordle here...

Gwydir Street Party 2009 - Sat 27th June

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:23:00 +0000

The Gwydir Street Party is an annual community festival that takes place on Gwydir Street and Milford Street in the heart of Cambridge, UK.

The Street Party is a family event which includes children's activities, live music, street performers, 2nd hand stalls, food & drink + much more...

The aim of the event is to bring the local community together and to help raise money for various local charities. This years chosen charities are Friends Of Mill Road Cemetery, Arthur Rank, Cherry Trees & St Matthews Playgroup.

This years event will be on SATURDAY 27th JUNE 2009

You can find the Gwydir Street web site here and the Facebook group for the event here.

Depending who you listen to Gwydir Street in Cambridge is named for Baroness Gwydir, who owned the land of this area just before the area was redeveloped, it's translation seems a little muddled meaning either "Field of Blood" or "Sloping Street", given that it rises from the Upper Gwydir St end to the Mill Rd end by as much as 12 ft (almost a Cambridge mountain) I think I like the second one better....

If you want to show your Gwydir Streeet pride you can check out Cambridge T-Shirts Gwydir Street T-Shirt here.....

Town Not Gown? Gown Not Town?

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:35:00 +0000

So it's the 36th Cambridge beer festival this week, the oldest continuously running beer festival in the country and the second largest beer festival outside London. A festival of beards, tankards, cheese, pork pies, morris dancing and last but not least murky pints of old head stomper, badger botherer, stoat fancier and whatever other whimsical names have been attached to the alcoholic weapons of head destruction they have on offer this year.

Although I'm a lager man at heart I always like to head down for a spot of people watching, some quality cheese and and a few pints of worryingly strong continental "biers".

Every year the festival has an theme, this years is Town and Gown a subject close to our hearts at Cambridge T-Shirts. They have carrried this motif to the beer glasses.. The gown one shows the character drinking beer with a mortarboard, playing cricket and rugby, and with a spade. The locals one shows the mascot drinking beer. Is this a metaphor for student life? Who knows?

Anyway while we are on this subject it seems like an appropriate opportunity to recomend you abotu a couple of our choice local T-Shirts:

For those of you of a Town persuasion we have this lovely little beauty where you can proudly declare your allegiance to Town Not Gown.

For those of you on the other side of Reality Checkpoint we proudly present this other tasty T-Shirty morsal allowing you to proudly tell people you are Gown Not Town

Top Selling Cambridge T-Shirts

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:55:00 +0000

At Christmas all right thinking peoples thoughts turn to the Top of the Pops, the hits of the year, the very toppermost of the poppermost if you will. An event as much a fundamental part of the quintessential Yuletide experience as receiving unwanted presents, over eating, watching the great escape and falling asleep in front of the queen's speech after perhaps just one too many sherries before dinner.

Unfortunately we don't have the budget to bring you a televised Christmas countdown of the years biggest hits presented by our dream team of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand, with their special guest Pete Doherty, his hat at a jaunty angle as he incoherently burbles his way through Mull of Kintyre and dribbles down his own chin.

So in it's place we are proud to present the Cambridge T-Shirts Christmas top five count down, a seasonal chart of the most popular shirts we sell:

Number 5.

In with a bullet at number 5 a cheeky homage to the the 70's with the look that is all the rage on the throbbing metropolitan streets of Cambridge's fashion quarter. Sought after from Great Eastern Street to Brookfields, Romsey Girl, the only label to be seen wearing as you try to dodge the scary drunk bloke hanging around the bus stop at the far end of Mill Road. If you've got it, flaunt it! If it's clean wear it!

Number 4.

Exotic, enigmatic, intoxicating, but surprisingly easy to spell, Cherry Hinton is a not just for Christmas, it is a perennial favourite. A visit there is as magical as winning the lottery or finding something that still looks vaguely edible in the vegetable draw at the bottom of an otherwise barren student refrigerator. You know when you have hit the jackpot, so do not be afraid to share it with the world.

Number 3.

Impossible to avoid as you travel around Cambridge, the king sized "My Day in the City" adverts that encrust our local transport are nuggets of arsepirational 'lifestyle' ordure that are celebrated throughout Cambridge for their nauseating, shallow, tacky and intelligence insulting content. Our Day in The City T-Shirts on the other hand are actually quite popular as they let you choose the words and get your own back with something that is actually relevant to your life!

Number 2.

Cambridge is cycle city, the flatness of the fens, the gridlocked traffic, the students on a budget and the environmentally aware all combine to give a higher than normal percentage of pedal powered people. I assume it's them who are buying this shirt... otherwise it means there's a fairly weird set of cycle wannabes out there... still I guess it would not be the strangest thing on the internet.

Number 1.

Still at number one the Reality checkpoint shirt is an all time favourite on the site. So popular in fact we made a couple of different versions like this one and this one, which are deeply, deeply unpopular. This makes them feel sad and lonely, like a puppy abandoned on boxing day, how could you, it's heartless! Don't let the poor lonely T-Shirts go without care and affection for another Christmas get yourself over to the Cambridge T-Shirts web site and give them a loving and caring home.

The only way is up Castle Hill....

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Cambridge, for those of you unfamiliar with local geography, is flat, like pancake flat, flatest, flatmost, flatfull in fact. This is great for cycling and I'm sure part of what makes Cambridge such a cycle city. Once in a while though you can have enough flat and start to crave lumpiness, bumpiness and all things upwards pointing. Pretty much your only choice for what passes for a vertiginous ascent in these parts is the Castle Hill. It's called Castle hill because it used to have a Castle on it, though these days you would be hard pressed to really notice any crenellated evidence to prove it.

In Anglo Saxon times there was apparently a settlement on Castle Hill. As the high ground around these parts you could see anyone coming from miles away and then do whatever Castley things were on your mind, shout insults, throw stuff, you know.

When the Normans turned up around 1068 they built their own castle there, apparently if you go North in a straight line there is no higher ground until you reach the North pole! Though how anyone knows this stuff you do have to wonder, every time I watch that Tony Robinson and his time team I'm torn between thinking it's pretty cool and the fact they could tell me anything and thanks to my pitiful lack of knowledge I wouldn't be able to disagree. You could tell me the King of Sandwich build a magnificent bready castle from loaves, cheese and ham to protect the magical celery forest and, while I may think you are talking toilet, I would actually be fairly hard pressed to disagree on any kind of factual basis.

When I get right down to it there are only three facts I can quote with relative certainty:

1) There is a hill.
2) There is no Castle.
3) It is called Castle Hill.

Still several historically accurate and vital facts short of a prize winning round on Mastermind I tend to think. Though possibly enough riveting facts to get me a guest spot on breakfast television.

Which is quite shameful, a all time low to match Cambridge's all time high. In celebration of reaching not only the very literal peak of Cambridge but also this metaphorical peak of ignorance join us at Cambridge T-Shirts with this special T-Shirt to celebrate our conquest of these great heights.

Go on reach for the stars!

I love the smell of Milton in the morning....

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:02:00 +0000

Smell that? You smell that?
What?
Milton, son. Nothing in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
I love the smell of Milton in the morning.

I was cycling to the stinkiest place in town and I didn't even know it yet. Minutes away and fractions of miles up a river that snaked through the city like a main circuit cable - plugged straight into Milton.....

As I sedately pedalled my way up to the North side of the city this week through the wafting malodorous mist that marks the boundaries of that part of town on a bad day the horror stuck me... Milton sits on the North side of Cambridge, slap bang in the center of an olfactory perfect storm.

To one side the Cambridge sewage works to the other the land fill site, on a bad day the stench can be truly nose wateringly staggering. Now it's not like the people who live there are not trying to do something about it, but dear god, the horror... the horror... I wish I had words, man. I wish I had words.

The Early Bird catches the Christmas savings..

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:00:00 +0000

December is rolling nearer and our thoughts turn to traditionally the least financially prudent of all holidays, the birthday of the little baby Jesus and the requisite presents it's traditional to buy for your nearest, dearest and relatedest.

So as the financial weather worsens, the credit is crunching under foot and with only 6 Weeks until Christmas anyone who orders from the Cambridge T-Shirts website from the 1st to the 20th of November can save 15% on all purchases. All you have to do is to enter the discount voucher code:

"EARLYSHOPPING"

while in the shopping basket. The usual terms and conditions apply this offer cannot be combined with other discounts, it doesn't guarantee that too many mince pies won't make you sick and it doesn't mean that just because you buy people one of our cool t-shirts you are not going to get a custom knitted nose warmer in return from your mad Auntie Maude. It may not be guaranteed to improve your chances under the mistletoe, but take a chance, buy them something different this year, remember not only can you can pick one our designs you can also design your own and make sure your present is one of a kind!

Just think the more you spend the more you will be saving.... and if you save enough you might even be able to buy yourself something you actually want this year... and a merry bah humbug to you all!

The Cambridge Dark Arts......

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:50:00 +0000

Imagine my suprise on reading a survey by Varsity which reveals that 49% per cent of Cambridge students in their own words have committed "some form of plagiaristic act" whilst at the University and they are not just talking about the derth of new material in recent years footlights reviews! Boom, Boom! I thank you!

"Sometimes when I am really fed up, I Google the essay title, copy everything onto a blank word document and jiggle the order a bit" a Cambridge student explains in the article that I have copied directly and jiggled about a bit.

It would appear the University is full of cheaters! The most shocking discovery for me was that the department with the highest percentage of cheaters was Law with 62% of them admitting to breaking the university rules! 62%! Sixty-two! SIXTY TWO PERCENT! That means there are actually 38% of lawyers who are honest! Or alternatively not confident enough of their own ability to believe they could get away with it......

Still, every cloud has a silver lining and while this sounds like particularly bad news for Cambridge University, it sounds like great news for Cambridge T-Shirts! If the statistics are right this means there is a much larger market for our cheery pirate of academia T-Shirts than we previously thought.... that is assuming they don't just copy them....

Look out honey, cause I'm using technology....

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:21:00 +0000

Those of you who subscribe to this blog may remember us talking about new print technology back in July. The people who print the shirts for the Cambridge T-Shirts site are introducing something called Digital Direct which allows printing straight onto shirts.

This allows us to put more colour and detail onto the shirt while still giving you a hard wearing and long lasting design.

Unfortunately the technology is currently still being tested so we can't put it in the main shop yet, but we have just taken delivery of a sample shirt printed to test the colours and print quality and we got sooooo excited we thought we would share.

So here are some pictures of the first sample for your perusal, check out the lovely crispy colours on a fresh October day in Cambridge :)

If you can't wait to get you hands on some Cambridge based produce you can always check out the Cambridge T-Shirts site and see what products and designs we have available right now.

A fresh dose of reality...

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:35:00 +0000

We last featured a Reality Checkpoint T-Shirt from Cambridge T-Shirts on this blog back in May. Since then it has become one one of the best selling designs on the site.

Reality Checkpoint is the name given to a large lamp-post in the middle of Cambridge, England. The name comes from an unofficial inscription which has been painted on it since the early 1970s. It is also believed to be the oldest electrical lamp-post in Cambridge.

Marking the mid-point between town and gown the Reality Checkpoint stands proud in the middle of Parker's Piece. It's been a Cambridge landmark since the early 1970s. The name comes from an unofficial inscription which first painted on the lamp post (allegedly) by students from CCAT (now Anglia Ruskin University) under the guidance of one of their teachers.

It has been repeatedly re-painted since then in response to removal by the council or obliteration by graffiti. For the first half of 1998 the lamp-post carried an unofficial plaque bearing its name.

Whether it really marks the boundary between the 'reality bubble' and the 'real world' or just because it forms a useful landmark for drunk, befuddled or fog bound, whether it is a beacon for the bewildered because anyone walking whilst not tuned in to "reality" will likely collide with the lamp-post, it does not matter which side you are on, it is the only light for hundreds of yards and makes me smile every time I pass on my way home!

If you know which side of the Reality Checkpoint you are you can check out the full range of Reality Checkpoint T-Shirts on the Cambridge T-Shirts site here.

One for the Histon village people...

noreply@blogger.com (House Of Spoons) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Say this very, very quietly but I have friends in Histon, as wikipedia describes it "the farmstead of the young warriors", though I think I like the alternate meaning of the name, the "landing place", better, makes it sound all close encounters of the third kind.....

So how do I end up spending time in the village? Easy, that's where the job that pays my way is based, right next to the last outpost of Nadia's before you hit the fens....

So by popular request, in tribute to the home of the jam factory, here are some brand spanky new Histon T-shirts. Show some love for the northside of the city and check out these shiny new glad rags.

And remember you can always design your own at the Cambridge T-Shirts website!