Monday 2 December 2013

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                                             BRUSSELS
                          P1010549---Copy_thumbMannekin-Pis---Brussels_thumb
                               Jeanneke Pis          Manneken Pis
                              WIND AND PISS 

                            Poet on a Hill 



 
        
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Garth, Glamorgan
To Begin at the Beginning…
New posts will be displayed here. Then, as other items get published, they will be moved to a position underneath Times Square, below.
Idiots in Vietnam’ is now  displayed below ‘The Way it Was,’ the story of a city kid during the Second World War – both are on the next page.

Co-pilot of passenger jet didn’t know where Biscay was when he was flying over it. I wouldn’t use him as an Uber driver.

If  you promote a pathetic little depression to a storm and call it a stupid name - it'll piss on you!

 Dear Whoever,
Hi –
     You’ve accidently stumbled on my yearly therapy session, where I ponder over the events of the past year and check to see if I can still touch-type. I find the touch-typing impossible unless the computer is in exactly the right position. If it isn’t, I end up with a page of cipher that even GCHQ would have a job de-coding. With the keyboard in the right place it works reasonably well until I go walkabout. That’s when everything has to be re-aligned. Letter finished, I edit out the bits I don’t want you to see, and this is what’s left.
     Last year, 2014, Liz and I were both in Canada twice. On the first visit we went together. But we then made our second trips separately. Not because we were planning a divorce or anything. But, on the second visit, Liz was going with her aunt to visit Diz our daughter. And there was no way I could handle three women.
This year, 2015, Liz and I planned another visit together. The idea was to go out there in October-November to see the fall. But, like the man said, “The best laid plans of mice...” But more of that later.
As a matter of fact, travelling has been a bit curbed this year. We had the builders in at the beginning of the year, doing major constructional changes to the house. They were followed by decorators who ate up another fortnight of the year. So you could say that the first half of the year was a no-go area for anything remotely approaching pleasure.
     Mind, in February we did do a day trip to Portsmouth Harbour on the train, because I wanted to go aboard HMS Warrior for a nostalgic look round. When I first came to Cardiff, she was tied up at Neyland in Pembrokeshire and used as a jetty. I used to go down there and do surveys on the ships that tied up to her.  In those days she was lying in a creek near what is now the Neyland Bridge, and you had to get to her by driving through a rubbish dump. When you got there all her top deck was a concrete quayside and there were oil-pipes everywhere. Everything in Neyland has changed now. The rubbish dump has gone and there’s a posh new road called Warrior Way.
     Everything has changed on the ship too. She is now 100% restored and lies there in all her former glory. The first ironclad and biggest warship of her day, she never fired a shot in anger. She didn’t have to. Her very presence made the French think twice. Bit like today’s nuclear subs when you think about it.
     We went to Padstow for a couple of days in July, where we met up with David and Penny, and Sylvia, Jon and Saga for fish and chips in Rick Steines, followed by a few bevies in a pub afterwards. The fish and chips were disappointing. We get better stuff in Porthcawl for less money and no queuing. The beer was fine. Cornish ale is up with the best. On the way home we visited Tintagel Castle with Sylvia, Jon and Saga. Legend has it that King Arthur was born there. Like all the Cornish coast, it’s impressive and worth a visit.
     Then, still in July, we had a week in the Azores. The story behind that is that David’s ship was docking there for a week to replenish fuel and victuals, so he suggested that we go out to meet him and have a few meals and sample the local wine together. Which we did. I once told David that I had always wanted to go to the Azores. And, while we were there, he asked me how long I had wanted to go? When I said, “since 1942,” he stepped back in amazement. But I remembered that, during the war, my Uncle John was there in the navy. And he brought back a bunch of bananas, something unseen in those dark days. And that fired my imagination. So now I’ve been and, guess what? I brought back a bunch of bananas. And this has to be said, Azores bananas and organic pineapples are the best in the world. It’s all to do with the fact that the islands are active, living volcanoes. Apparently the milk has a special quality too. So much so that  Cow and Gate are building a factory there.
     Still on the subject of the Azores, when David’s ship, HMS Scott, was coming into port, Liz and I stood on our balcony watching as the tug hitched to her and the manoeuvres got underway. I was engrossed in taking photographs at the time. Then Liz says, “There’s a light flashing.” And when I looked I saw that the ship was signalling to the shore on the Aldis lamp. “They’re sending a message,” I said, “there must be a signal station here.” Then I bent over the balcony and looked both ways along the promenade, but there was nothing. When I looked at the ship again I realised that the lamp was aimed at us, so I started reading it. “...cpo david gregorys ship is tying up alongside you,” it spelt out, “and he will meet you for dinner tomorrow night.” Yikes! Here was the fourth biggest ship in the British navy coming into port and sending a personal message to me.
     The rest of that week was brilliant. The Island is beautiful with dramatic scenery, geysers, volcanoes, history, good food, cheap beer and wine... and whatever else you wish for. It’s all there. One fascinating aspect is the village down in the hollow of a volcano. The air there is heavy with the smell of sulphur. And, in the local inn, they serve you a dinner, cooked in the ground from the heat of the volcano. There is also another village where, for some unexplained reason, the villagers are a crowd of dead-legs, won’t work, just live off benefits, and spend all day loafing around. We went through the place on a tour. And everything we had been told was dead obvious. Groups of men loitering; people sitting on doorsteps watching life slip by...The Portuguese government have tried everything in their power to sort them out. But the more benefit they give them, the more they demand, free houses and all that goes with it. All to no end. There must be a message there. But nobody knows what it is.
     August turned out to be our most dramatic month. First of all, we had Diz and the kids over from Canada. It was a flying visit really, but lovely. We didn’t get to do any trips with them, but then we had seen them plenty during the previous year and we were going out for another trip at the end of the autumn.
     Next we took a trip to Callington, where David and Penny live in Cornwall. There, we met up with David and Penny and Jon and family again for a couple of days. Sylvia and Jon had their caravan parked on David’s drive and Liz and I stayed in a beautiful farmhouse just outside the village. On the way home, Liz and I took the North Devon and Somerset coast-road, which included a cream-tea in Porlock. By any standards, that is a fantastic run, moors on one side and dramatic cliffs and sea on the other, with views across the Bristol Channel to South Wales. Where’s better?
Towards the end of the month, David went back to sea on the Wednesday. Diz and co were already back in Canada, and Liz and I settled down for our normal routine. So, that week, Thursday was a shopping day. We got back early from the shops because Liz was going to Dyffryn Gardens, a local NT property, with some ladies from the WI. A trip Liz had organised. With everyone out of the way, I settled down in a chair to read, and fell asleep.
I was woken a by a tremendous banging on the door. When I eventually came round enough to open it, Sally and Peter, neighbours and friends, were there. “Liz is in hospital,” they said. “She’s had a stroke.” The nightmare had begun.
Sally and Peter then ran me to the hospital in their car. On the way, they put me in the picture. Liz and her friends had just got into reception at Dyffryn when, without warning, Liz collapsed. Fortunately there were two doctors going through reception at the same time. They diagnosed a stroke and phoned for an ambulance, which arrived within minutes. At the hospital the stroke team lost no time in going into action. When I got there, there was a bunch of eight nurses and doctors already round her bed, doing their stuff. Liz was conscious but paralysed down one side and could only talk in grunts. Now came a dramatic moment. They said that they could give her a treatment that was fairly new to Wales. But they can only give to patients who get to the hospital within four and a half hours of having the stroke. The trouble is, it’s kill-or-cure. If it works, you are well on your way, if it doesn’t work you are dead... or worse. They then said that there is a one in eight chance of failure. I gulped.
Liz didn’t hesitate. “I wa’ i’,” she grunted. No sooner said than done. The team went into action immediately. At the same time they all said that, under the circumstances, everyone of them would have gone for the treatment. Enough to say that, within a few days, Liz went from being paralyzed down one side and hardly able to talk to being able to walk about and hold a lucid conversation. And now she is virtually fully recovered.
Contributing factors to her recovery were definitely the fact that the navy turned up trumps. David had only just arrived on the ship when he got our message. The navy sent him home immediately and his mates covered his job for him. So he was back with us within 24 hours. Diz dropped everything and was back in Cardiff a few hours after him. Jon and Sylvia, who had just arrived at Gatwick on their way to Norway, spun the car round and were back in Cardiff that evening. Then granddaughter Katie, who was at sea with the RN reserves, was with us shortly afterwards. I say that all this was a contributing factor for recovery because the whole family spent most of each day evening with Liz. There was lots of lively conversation and a lot of laughter – the best medicine.
Even so, for a couple of weeks after that, life was not nice. It was mainly spent on hospital visits and learning about strokes and all kinds of things you don’t want to know about. But that’s the life-game.
Liz is back home now and doing all the things she did prior to the stroke, except drive the car. But that’s only a matter of time.
Then, more fun in October, Liz and I were out shopping. We were in Homebase looking for paint, when I suddenly blacked out and collapsed. I was only out for seconds and never actually hit the floor. But the para-medics came and did all their stuff and an ambulance took me to LLandough Hospital. They kept me in the rest of the day, monitoring me. And the conclusion was that the beta-blockers I get for a heart murmur are too high a dose. Which meant my blood pressure dropped and – and then I dropped. Funny thing is though, they keep checking me and monitoring me for this murmur thingy, but everything always turns out to be normal. I was back at the consultant last week and he doesn’t want to see me again for another two years.
On another subject.  I downloaded Windows 10 onto my laptop. Then a couple of days later I found that I couldn’t get onto the internet in any way shape or form. Funnily enough, Liz couldn’t get on the internet either. Nor would my PC, which is in the loft. But if I switched my laptop off, the other two computers were OK. But whenever I switched the laptop on, every computer in the house lost the net.
This was a job for Jon. After an investigation, he found out the following, which is worth knowing. I put my documents on one-drive. That was fine. Then, in all innocence, I put my pictures across also. But my pictures included videos, which use a hell of a lot of memory. So the picture transfer takes up the whole of our broadband. Which means that until these pictures are all downloaded no-one can get broadband when this thing is switched on.
This download has been going on for 4 or 5 weeks now, stop start because if we want to go on the internet we have to switch my laptop off and use one of the other machines. I’ve searched Google for answers. There are none. Apparently Windows 10 is missing a “pause” facility. One bloke says that he was downloading some music and he lost his internet for 5 days solid. Thought you might be interested.
More recently, yesterday in fact, Jon, Sylv and Saga picked us up the car and took us to the edge of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. We went to the free-range bird farm where they pick up their yearly three-bird-roast. Like them, I’m a solid free-range freak. OK, so I’ve no conscience about the fact that beast on my plate has been killed for food. But, as far as I can, I try to insist that it had a happy innings and was well cared for and looked after.
I’ve always known that hens and turkeys have a crap life. But, in my naivety, I used to think that ducks and geese live by the side of ponds and spend all their days on a muddy beach holiday. Then, in a TV programme, I saw what passes for the humane standards that the law insists on. The poor buggers spend their lives crammed shoulder to shoulder in a shed. Apart from that, I’ve seen enough and know enough to realise that the red-tractor sign doesn’t come anything near what I want for the little fellah who will end up cuddling my roast potatoes.
But this farm brought back my faith in human nature. There are fields and fields where ducks and geese are running about freely, well fed and well cared for and with more personal space than the average human can hope for. Every beast has to be up to a certain health standard, and there are vets ensuring that everything meets the free-range organic requirements. It’s like a health farm for birds – except that all the inmates are electrocuted every December. Never mind. All in a good cause.
A really nice thing about it all is that you are served with a cup of mulled wine and mince pie while you are being served. And the farmer and his wife are around to tell you all about the workings of the place. And you are free to take a gander for yourself.
After that we went to an Old English Pub that dates back to the 13th century. The owner tries to preserve as much of the old style as possible. So much so that he insists that you switch off your mobile phone as you go in. The ladies ate a meal of roast duck, while Jon and I had game pie.
Now that kind of day is a brilliant kick-off for Christmas.
Anyway, that’s my lot for this year.
So here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
From Us


Multiculturists share the blame for Muslim ghetoism – and the consequences.

The EUs existence depends on Open Borders & The Euro. Both are proven to be unfit for purpose. Therefore the EU is unfit for purpose

Want to let more immigrants in? Love the British way of life. Then you are an oxymoron my friend.
Love wildlife? Want more housing? Then you too are an oxymoron. Maybe more moron than oxy.
Putin wants us all to club together to hammer ISIS. What’s wrong with that? I’d like to know.
EU re-negotiations. Watch tricky Cameron and his EU cohorts. Read between the lines.

Fashionistas
Hijabs storm catwalks.
Beards takeover trendy chins.
Fashion worships faith.


Jihadis are the common enemy. Don’t pick a fight with Russia or Assad.
...dead right –

Haiku

humans have rights.
The killer is still human.
The dead cannot cry.
...and God’s a lady  - Haiku C of E withers
mosques springing up like Asda
trendy men grow beards

Why do the lib-left always want to attack those who attack those who would attack us?

A Saudi mullah has condemned snowmen as “anti-Islamic” ...Some prophets do ‘ave ‘em!

Was at Cardiff’s Je suis Charlie rally. Everyone had their own reason for being there. Mine was... VIVE LA FREE SPEECH!

A paradox: In a land obsessed with diversity, we must all toe the same PC line.

Glory be! Scrappies collect metal body implants from crematoriums! Quick – is granny’s knee in that box with her ashes?

Dear Passerby This is just a personal rundown of our 2014. The more amusing snippets from the year are displayed further down the page. Read them and have a laugh at my expense. That’s what it’s all about. Well suddenly I’m an octogenarian and for the first time I realise or, more to the point, admit that I am old. Suffice to say that the grinning head of John Donne often pops out of my porridge sniggering something about, “send not to know for whom the bell tolls...” A jug of ice-cold milk poured over his nut soon shuts him up. Looking back over the past year, Liz has been her usual busy, productive, energetic self whilst I have made a couple of feeble efforts to motivate myself. So, starting with Liz: - Well, she is still the chair... man/woman/person... take your pick, of the local WI, with all that entails. And she’s still on the PCC and an enthusiastic member of the local village church which seems to produce a growing workload. She’s also a bright light in the local sewing club, as well as being a member of a craft group. More important, she child-minds our 3 year old granddaughter, Saga, every Tuesday, and takes her for swimming lessons – which entails Liz actively getting in the water and surviving. As for me:- Well... to put it mildly, things have been drawing in a bit. It used to be all long distance walking or jogging then down to the pub for the craic and a laugh with the boys. Along with that came the hours of pouring over maps and books while planning more walks, drives or foreign holidays. But, for these last 3 years, that’s all been a memory because my right knee finally packed in. And... no right knee... no Right to Roam. So my main activities have been gardening, shopping expeditions, and anywhere Liz forced me to go. However, this year I have been having knee therapy – Private not NHS - which entails wearing heavy boots that train me to walk on the undamaged part of my knee. So the mobility situation has improved a bit. So much so that, in March, Liz and I had a holiday in Toronto. Why Toronto? Well, it’s a long story, but suffice to say that daughter Diz and her family have gone out to Canada for 3 years and, for them, Toronto is their present home. So Liz and I paid them a visit and stayed at their place for a couple of weeks. It’s a bit more complicated than that really. The family moved to Canada in January. And Diz anticipated being homesick so she tried to persuade us to go out there for the month of March to help with the acclimatizing process. But I dug my heels in and said there was no way I would go out in winter but I would gladly go out in May. But, as usual, they brought pressure to bear until I gave in and agreed to March. However, I did stick to the point that a month in a strange city would drive me round the bend. So we ended up with a compromise. I stayed for a fortnight and Liz stayed for 3 weeks, and that worked out perfect. Even better, when we arrived, the city was clothed in snow. Then, during our stay, we had snowstorms and temperatures down below -20 degrees. On the face of it, that doesn’t sound much like perfection. But it was lovely to experience that side of Canadian life, like seeing everyone moving around on foot in the snow, with groups of mothers taking their infants to school on sledges. Life out there still has the laid-back quality that you might have seen here 60 years or so ago. They are not as PC or obsessed with health and safety as the Brits. For example, our 12-year-old grandson, Charlie, was off camping with the scouts, in tents, with the temperature down to -30c. Then, when they swore Isobel, 9, into the cubs... OK so she’s a tomboy... the symbol they had at the ceremony was the head of a decapitated wolf on a pedestal. In both the scouts and the cubs the kids go into the forest armed with axes and knives. The place is full of nice little touches like that... which helps to keep the little darlings amused. Then, in the summer, the Canadian side of the family came over here and stayed with us for a time. While they were here we had a few days in West Wales, which has always been one of our favourite stomping grounds. Along with that, as a special birthday treat for me. Diz had booked us all in to see War Horse, which was in Cardiff at the time. Then, in September, Liz was back out to Toronto for a fortnight. This time she took her Aunt Babs with her. I opted out of that trip, mainly because I didn’t fancy a holiday with 3 women, Liz, Babs and Diz. To make up for it, I went out to Toronto, for a week, on my own in October. When I say on my own, I mean I travelled on my own. When I got out there I had either Diz, or Diz and the family, for company every day. During that week, Diz and I did a lot of walking... one was a 5-mile walk, which took in the boardwalk beside Lake Ontario. Then there were a couple of 3-mile walks. So I gave my knee and its therapy a severe testing. They passed with flying colours. But I have to admit that, by the end of the week, I definitely knew that I had a knee. My trip in October carried an added bonus, in that it was the Canadian Fall. I didn’t manage any trips out to the forests, but you could see plenty of lovely colours around the city and in the parks. A couple of days after I got back from Canada we were off to Devon for a couple of days, to mark Liz’s 73rd birthday. This time we stayed in Buckfastleigh and did a bit of touring from there. In the past we have often sped past the place on our trips down the motorway to Plymouth when we’re off to visit David and his family. But this is the first time we’ve ever been ashore there. It’s a beautiful part of the world, and the Abbey, on the edge of Dartmoor is a haven of tranquillity. Then, last Sunday we were off with our youngest son Jon and his wife, Sylvia and 3-year-old Saga, for a trip to the Medieval Fair in Ludlow Castle. The weather was good and the atmosphere was great. I love these Olde Worlde historical things. Jon and Sylvia are still composing and producing music in their miner’s cottage at the top end of Rhondda. Most of their stuff is atmospheric background music for nature films on Norwegian TV. But now they have also got a mammoth project on, landscaping the garden behind their house. It is very steep, as you would expect up the valleys. So they are converting it into terraces. On the face of it, it appears to be an impossible task because there is no real access into the back garden – they are in the middle of a terrace. So they are using gabeons to make containing walls. They fill the gabeons with boulders they dig out of the ground. Then face them with quarried stones. And, by jove, it works; and it’s beginning to take shape and look good. So here’s to ingenuity. A couple of weeks ago you would have found us in Portsmouth where we spent a couple of days. This time it was to see Vice Admiral Sir Philip Jones awarding David with the Admiral’s Commendation for his exceptional services aboard HMS Scott while she was taking part in a military operation off the coast of Somaliland. The ship was suffering catastrophic engine problems during the operation, but it was essential that she completed the job. David, the head of propulsion, located complex faults then led his undermanned team to carry out heavy and hazardous operations that have never been attempted at sea before. They would normally get help from a shore-squad when the ship reached port. On top of that, David and his boys carried out a total of more than 30 cylinder head lifts on the two main engines in temperatures well over 50c. (The engines only have 9 cylinders each, which gives you an idea of the state they were in). Notably, this is David’s second Admiral’s Commendation. He got the first one for bravery on his first ship. That was when HMS Southampton was foundering after a collision. That time he spent 8 hours diving through manholes into dark mess rooms to free the pumps from loose debris. That was after he had run round closing hatches and watertight doors. He also got a 6-page letter from his captain that ended... “thank you for saving my ship.” clip_image002 David with his wife, Penny, daughter Katie – a middy in the RNR – and Ma and Pa Well, that’s all our bigger news for 2014. So here’s wishing you and yours all that you wish yourselves for 2015. Happy Christmas and a Peaceful 2015
 
Night flight...
Luna’s shadow glides over the globe, silent and black as a phantom panther. The silver bird thunders along the runway and leaps, roaring, at the glow where conquering night swallows embers of the deposed sun.
Engines scream as the jet spins, full throttle, into the Great Circle, ripping up charted miles in a desperate dash to escape the terrors of the night. Darkness, black as Satan’s lum, rolls over the wild Atlantic, enshrouding all in a raven cloak. The plane, racing for the retreating light, forever butts into the relentless headwind.
The old man in 3c ponders, dozing, over his brief-role in the unending earthly drama. Sensing the unstoppable shadow speeding over the vast Americas, casting its sleep-spell over the wilting ground, he shivers at the chill of the unknown.
Suddenly the man is aware of a dazzling light stirring the hordes of Asia, infusing all with energy and life. Brilliant brightness illuminates the earth, searing away the tar-black stain and banishing the fears of night.
At peace now, the man drifts, smiling, into slumber...
 
                                Rocky Road to Dublin...

There has been a sea-change at Heathrow. At least, in terminals 2 and 5. Get your boarding pass online then just roll up and drop your baggage at any check-in. No queuing. No hassle. Travelling is back to being a pleasure.
The last time I was in Toronto, Pearson International was just as good; passenger friendly and running like a Swiss watch. I was travelling BA that time. This time I’m with Air Canada and things are slightly different:-

***
I arrive at Pearson Terminal 1 armed with a boarding pass, cocky as you like. There are queues at all the check-ins. After my recent experiences, that comes as a surprise. “Ah well, must be a busy time,” I tell myself as I happily tag on the end of the first file I come across.
When I get to the desk, the woman says, “We don’t do Heathrow here. Go to Aisle 5.”
That’s a setback. I thought we’d sorted this nonsense out. But OK, on the face of it, it’s fair enough. Even so, the first feelings of doubt begin to creep in. Still confident in the brave new world I march off in search of Aisle 5.

***
“My God!” Aisle 5 is like Kaaba Square, Mecca, the first Friday in Ramadan, a teeming mass of bodies shuffling round in circles, going nowhere.
This is scary. I’ve a plane to catch and time’s flashing by like a peregrine with a lunch date. “Where do I go? What do I do?”
I’m getting anxious now. But I’ve no option but to slither along with the mob and hope for the best. On the plus side, I’ve got my boarding pass, so I’ll be all right when I eventually get to the check-in. Eventually... that’s the key word.
Somewhere ahead I can hear a woman’s voice squawking orders. The voice grows louder and louder. Then she’s there, like a force-fed turkey, controlling the poultry-run. “Where are your luggage labels?” she screeches. “Show your labels!”
People around me raise their hands, timidly displaying white ribbons of paper. This is new. I don’t have a ribbon so I keep shuffling. “Stop!” she screams at me. “Where’s your label?”
“That’s why I’m here,” I tell her. “They put the labels on at check-in.” She must be thick or something.
“You can’t go past here without a label,” she screams.
“Eh? So what do I do?”
“Print one at the machine!” she orders.
“I wouldn’t know how,” I tell her.
“Someone will show you,” she tells me. “You can’t go any further without a label.” This woman has power. She ain’t going to budge.
My body sags in disbelief. I turn and shuffle back through the crowd like a shell-dazed squaddie in a defeated army. Time is on the wing, but I can’t get to the plane without a label. And, to the best of my knowledge, they’ve blocked the only way to get the damn things. Clear of the crowd I see tense couples standing by machines peering at bright screens; scolding wives with browbeaten husbands poking at key-pads. I’ve developed a dread of such things. I look round for someone official who will offer guidance. Not a sausage.
Finding myself on Aisle 6 I spot a woman in uniform. She has a kind face so I ask her, “How do you get luggage labels these days?”
“You print them at a machine,” she says.
“Say you can’t use the machine?” I wonder.
“Just stand there until someone helps you,” she says. “Where are you going?”
“Heathrow.”
“You can’t do Heathrow here. Go to Aisle 5.”
I’m back on Aisle 5 now. Somehow, I don’t think the idea of standing around waiting for the cavalry is going to work. I bite the bullet and confront a machine. I poke the screen. It tells me to put in my Reference Number. I put in the Reference printed on my ticket. The machine says “Not Recognised.” I panic. Time’s running out. There are massive queues. The only airport employee for miles around is there to browbeat me – not help me. I have to print my own luggage label. But, as I expected, the machine is making life difficult.
I poke in another number. It’s not the Reference Number. It’s just a number that’s there. This time the machine says, “Welcome Mr Gregory.” What’s that about? It rejects the correct number then gets all buddy-buddy when I put in a random number. They do it on purpose to keep you cowed. Never mind, we’re getting somewhere. “Great.”
The machine offers me a boarding pass. I tell it “No.” Because I’ve already got one.
“Do want your boarding pass texted?” It asks.
“No...” I’ve got a bloody boarding pass.
“Printed?”
“No!” For God’s sake.
“Emailed?”
“No! No! No! No...!” I just want bloody labels.
I’ve got a plane to catch and this machine’s in a world of its own, asking damn fool questions. I look round for help. There is no help.
“Scan Your Passport,” the machine tells me.
“Yikes!” Now I really panic. If I put my passport in that slot, and the machine swallows it, and instinct tells me that it will swallow it, I’ll be stateless – doomed.
I’ve run out of options. I’ve hit a brick wall and the window of time is closing. I stand there trembling. I don’t know what do... My eyes are
rolling round in my head. Then I catch sight of something hanging from a slot, lower down the machine. “What’s that,” I wonder, stooping to examine it. And... “Yes!” It’s a luggage label. “I’ve printed a luggage label! I’ve won! I’ve won!” I cry.
It’s a hollow victory. They’ve built in another problem. There are two instructions on the back. “Peel Here... and... Stick Here.”
Simple enough on the face of it; but the glossy backing is designed to be immovable. It’s a clever idea. You think you’ve won. So you drop your guard. Then you find you’ve lost. I’ve got to get past the turkey-woman. That means I need labels. But I can’t get the label on the case... So I’m barred from the check-in. There’s no end to the punishment.
Twenty nerve-racking minutes later, miraculously, the backing peels off... just like that. I’m sure they designed it like that on purpose. In the nick of time, I’m off to join the Kaaba Square shuffle. As we approach the squawking turkey-woman, people around me nervously hold up their labels. Now I discover that no-one else has been able to peel off the backing. I’m the only one. Like a triumphant football captain after the World Cup, I hoist my case up high, proudly displaying the finished product.

***
“Who’s travelling with you?” the woman at check-in wants to know.
“No-one,” I tell her.
“So you’re alone.”
“Alone as can be.”
“And you are going to Heathrow?”
“Yep.”
“So why is your luggage going to Dublin?”
I look in disbelief as she shows me the destination on my beautiful label... DUBLIN. “That’s what came out of the machine,” I tell her.
“Do you want it to go to Heathrow?”
“It will make life easier,” I tell her.
“No problem.” She rips the Dublin label off my case; presses a button; out pops a Heathrow label; she peels back off; whips it on my case... and job done.

***
So, if check-in did it as quick and easy as that, why the hell did I, a paying customer, have to go through purgatory to get there?

                                   There’s one on every flight

As we claim our seats and rearrange our meagre bits and pieces, this Chinese bloke rolls up, arms outstretched. He’s balancing two items, one on top of the other, each pushing the allowable limits in size and weight. One is a case. The other is a box, which I presume he has bought in duty free. How else did he get aboard with two pieces?
After they expel him from two seats further down the plane, he ends up in his own seat, across the aisle from me. He now decides to put his hand luggage, the case, in the empty locker above his head. He’s a bold boy, I think, because from where I am sitting it is obvious that the item is much bigger than the space he is trying to fit it in. Undaunted, our hero tries every which-way to get it in, rotating it through every angle between and zero and infinity and back. He fails.
He looks intelligent enough; young... early twenties; mop of dark hair; horn-rimmed glasses; smart suit. He could be a student or an escapee from a science lab. Unfortunately, he was off school sick on the day his class got the lecture on The Square Peg Theorem.
“Ahhh!” His little eyes light up. He’s spotted the empty locker above my head with its door hanging open. It’s bigger than his locker and I don’t have anything in there. I travel light. Same goes for the Dutchman sitting next to me.
Chinaboy points at the locker and looks at me. “OK?” he pleads.
“Be my guest,” I tell him.
He tries to put his case in this locker. But, struggle as he does, he is heading for failure – only because he’s trying every way except the right way. He’s tiring now and there is a real danger the case will come down on my head. I wonder if my insurance company will quibble at compensation for a broken neck.
“Ah so!” He gives a great yelp of delight as the case, accidently, falls into place and the door closes. “Thank you, thank you,” he says to me, bowing profusely, as if I’d just solved the problem.
“Shucks,” I tell him.
He now turns to his next problem – the box, similar in size to his hand luggage. He stands for a while looking down at it with his mouth open. Then he looks at his empty locker. No, he decides, it won’t go in there. Then he looks at my locker. Full.
“Ahhh!” Suddenly seeing a solution he forces the box into the space between his seat and the one in front. Now he clambers onto his perch
and sits with his feet on the box and his face peering at the gap between his knees.
The penny drops. He can’t sit in that position for eight hours. He looks for another solution. Spotting one, he drags the box into the aisle, leaves it there and clambers back into his seat.
He has no sooner fastened his seatbelt than a massive stewardess appears. “You can’t leave that there,” she roars. “Put it under the seat in front of you.”
Now, on his knees, he goes through the same performance he did with the lockers. This boy has not been headhunted by The Canadian Space Programme, I decide
.


Fall Guy
I always fall for the sucker punch. We buy a new shed. The door’s too low and scalps me. My wife puts up a hanging basket. I walk into it twice a day. Now I think I’ve got concussion. I decide to feed the roses and go into the house so the stuff won’t blow in the wind. I pour fertilizer into a plastic container; pick the container up and find there’s no bottom in it. I don’t know why there’s no bottom in it, but now there are pellets all over the kitchen. I hate roses anyway, more claws than a feral cat. The bastards can starve from now on.

                                   Jonny on Sunday
“I hate Sunday.
There’s nothing on Sunday, unless you’ve got money. And they’ve stopped my spends.
I woke early this morning and set up the drums all round my bed. They’re not really drums, just boxes and tins; and Granny’s old jar that rings when you hit it.
I must practice, you see. I’m starting this group when I leave school... Heavy Metal... or something like that.
I was drumming real good when Granny burst in. “Stop it!” she yelled. “Stop all that noise!”
I hate my Granny. She’s always complaining about me and my noise. I’ll be glad when she’s moved to that old folks’ home that Dad shouts about when she’s gone off to bed.
She knocked the jar off the stool when she opened the door. It fell on the floor and smashed into bits. She burst into tears and fell on her knees to pick up the pieces. She’s a big baby sometimes.
Then she rabbited on about crystals and things. But there were no crystals there – just a broken old jar.
She shouted for Mam and kept blaming me. But it wasn’t my fault. She broke it herself when she opened the door.
I tried to explain, but she only got worse. So I grabbed for my clothes and ran down the stairs.
I got my football and went out for some training. I use the old shed because it makes a good noise. The harder you kick, the louder the bang. You can spot all your best shots. I might turn professional when I leave school.
Dad charged from the house in his vest and pyjamas. “I’ll kill you,” he yelled. “Yer all flamin’ noise.”
He’s ugly, my Dad. He looks worse in the mornings. Mam says it’s the beer. His hair hangs down over his face and his eyes are all red. He’d look like a monster if he had any teeth.
He tried to hit me and missed. His hand caught the wall and started to bleed, so he danced up and down, howling and cursing.
I was glad. I hate my Dad. He shouts too much and spoils all my fun.
Then next door’s barred cat jumped over the wall into their garden. It looks like a tiger. So I climbed over myself and started to stalk it, on my hands and knees through all the flowerbeds. I might be a trapper when I leave school.
When it went in the coal shed I set up an ambush. I hid in the sheets on the whirly bird clothesline with a handful of mud. Then, when it came out, I let fly – splat! Right on its head.
Then fat Mrs Bailey came waggling out, shrieking and skipping and flapping her arms, like a panicky old hen trying to fly.
“Oh, my sheets!” she screeched. “Oh, my flowers! Oh, my cat!”
I kept saying, “Shush, you’ll bring out my Mam.” But she just wouldn’t listen.
Mam came out then and they both got me cornered. They dragged me into the house and kicked up the stairs. Mam clouted my head and yelled, “Get in that bath!” She knows that’s the worst thing that can happen to me.
I hate my Mam. She sides with others and keeps on about bathing and washing and things.
I ran the water and splashed it around so they would think I was in it. I got this tray that they use for the soap, and set it afloat. It made a good boat. I stood a plastic bottle on top of the tray and it was just like a mast. Then I got my sister’s clean knickers from over the towel rail and rigged them up as a sail.
I like sailing boats. I might be a sailor when I leave school.
Then my sister came in, bleating as usual, about the wet on the floor. She ran to my boat and snatched off its sail and shouted and thumped me and called me bad names.
I hate my sister. She’s always like that. She stands for hours in front of the mirror, squeezing her zits. That’s why she can’t get a boy with a motorbike – because she’s got zits. She reckons Roger’s a boyfriend. But he hasn’t got a motorbike, only a car.
I gave her a kick, hard, on the shin. She shouted for help and screamed when it bled.
Dad and Granny ran out of their bedrooms. They all tried to punch me, Granny and Dad and my sister. But I gave them the slip and dashed down the stairs.
Mam went to grab me, but I pushed her aside and ran out of the door.
I ran to the woods. I like the woods. There’s a swamp, with water and mud and all that kind of thing. Billy was there, making a damn.
Billy’s dead lucky. He gets loads of money. That’s so he’ll be good when his Mam and Dad go down to the pub. And he gets pounds from his brother, so he won’t grass about the glue and cannabis and that.
I helped him with the damn. It’s good practice really. I’ll build a big damn when I leave school, then let the water run out and drown all our family. After that, I’ll move into Billy’s and get lots of money.
I slipped and fell in. I was wet through and cold and covered in mud. So I ran home and sneaked in through the back door, and crept upstairs to the bedroom to change.
That’s where I am now.
Mam’s running upstairs. She’s screaming again, about the mud in the kitchen and over the stairs. The rest of the family are running up with her, Dad and Granny and spotty daft sister.
I hate Sunday.

A delicate subject...
but I have to tackle it. The cabin of a Boeing 767, stuffed with 300 human beings, is not a place where a man can happily break wind.
I come across this problem an hour into the flight. Being of a diplomatic disposition I decide to do battle with nature. This consists of a never-ending succession of bottom shuffling, muscle winking and facial contortions.
Six hours later I’m so full of methane I fear I will float from my seat and drift round the cabin like a stray hydrogen balloon. I batten down with my seat belt and continue the self-flagellation.
A glance round the plane reveals many strained faces and clamped seatbelts. Is this how a jet-plane defies gravity? I wonder.

Another Brainwave
When I was on my bike the other day, a ray of sunshine revealed a forest of wind turbines covering one of our beautiful wild hills; grotesque, like the stubble on an old man’s chin. When the sun went in, the turbines disappeared and I had my hill back.
That gave me another brainwave. I get lots of them. They’re all as good as this. If they painted the turbines purple, they would blend in with the heather and we wouldn’t see them anymore. In the army they call it camouflage.
All we need is a few volunteers with tins of purple paint and oilcans. They could start at the bottom, paint their way up to the top, oil the wheels, then come down and start all over again – forever.
Then, in one fell swoop, bingo! No more windmills, free electricity for all – and a booming Purple Paint Industry.
I can’t join in myself. I’m too busy thinking up ideas. But the best of British luck to the public spirited
.


Junior officers score higher in the UK army than the US military. Left–tenant may sound a bit AWOL, but Loo-tenant sounds shitty.

This dog just licked his balls. He liked it so much he wants to give us all a kiss.

This e-mail is offering to put me in a prize draw for eye surgery. Damn! I’ve just bought the “Teach Yourself” book.

I hate time. If I manage to dodge all these scary diseases, time’s gonna kill me.

My spelling is so dab, I fink I must have sexilaDy

You Can Make It Up

OK. So this week’s best story is about the pilot whose false arm fell off when he was landing a passenger jet at Belfast airport. My first reaction was, “you couldn’t make it up.”

Then I remembered that, when I worked as a bus conductor, we had this awful driver who used to throw me and the passengers all over the place, like bingo balls in a barrel. Like they do, the British public took it out on me, whining and moaning at every bump of the head.

So there was me in the back, taking all the stick, while the culprit lounged in his cab sucking a fag. To get them off my back, I started telling the passengers, “It’s all right for you lot, but that poor bloke’s got a wooden leg and a glass eye. Could any of you do any better?”

That story got a mixed reaction, ranging from cries of horror and screams of disgust – to sympathy and a steady supply of sweets, ”for the poor man up front.”

Unfortunately some of them wrote letters of complaint about the one legged driver and I lost a month’s bonus for, “making it up.”

Fate has a way rubbing these things in, and a few months later I found myself working as the mate for a Magoo-like truck driver who went by the nickname of “Blindie...”

This week’s Prize Headline
A Malaysian man who purchased a penis enlargement device online was unhappy to receive a magnifying glass in the post.

Nature
I come down stairs, yawning, and rustle up coffee for Liz and me. The cat rubs round my ankles so I pour him fresh water while telling my Kindle to download the paper. Through the window the morning vapour is paling a cloudless blue sky. Transatlantic jets trace countless lines of white cirrus. The cat is back at my ankles so I rattle some biscuits onto his plate. The morning sun casts long shadows across the garden as I scatter a few Dreamy Treats on the moggie’s breakfast. Outside, the trees in the copse and distant woods are clad in thick fresh coats of early summer green. I add a handful of Hairball medication to the cat’s breakfast so he won’t feel the need to eat grass and spew on the carpet. In the world beyond, blackbird is singing in his tree. Swifts dart after invisible insects. I scoop the cat from the floor and give him his dose of Metacam to ease his arthritis. A crow, perched on a chimney, eyes the world through beady eyes. I pop a pill into the cat’s mouth to control his heart condition. A couple of magpies skulk round the gardens, up to no good. The cat picks at his breakfast. The rooks have left their home in the trees and headed for the fields. Branches sway lazy in the breeze that flickers leaves among the shrubs. The cat makes for the door and stands like a pointer. I pick him up and rub sunblock on the bare skin of his nose and ears so he won’t burn. I open the door and gulp the morning air. The cat shoots past and rips the throat out of a sparrow that was foraging on the lawn. I close the door and read crap in the paper
.


Euro Elections Next Thursday... Never generalise. Some are nutters, some racists; but that doesn’t make all Torys and Socialists fruitcakes.
Crimewatch
It is the best of spring days in Porthcawl, warm sunshine and a balmy breeze off the ocean. Topped up with fish and chips we decide on a four mile hike along the coast. Seabirds wheel and cry over the dunes beside Rest Bay. A skylark, fresh down to earth, dances, singing among the scrub. Breakers crash on a distant sandbank in a streak of white foam. Beyond, lies England, shrouded in mist.

The bus is about half full. We sit, relax, and people-watch. On the seat in front of us, a middle-aged man talks into his mobile. In front of him, a young bearded chap sits reading notes. Over to our right, a fat woman stares into space.

In Bridgend, most of the passengers decide to leave and form an orderly queue in the aisle. A similar sized queue stands in the bus station, waiting to board. It’s always the way hereabouts.
The young bearded man stands and joins the rear of the disembarking queue. The fat woman prizes herself out of the seat to the right, stands at the back of the queue for a moment, then drops onto the seat vacated by the beard. Now the middle-aged man puts his phone away and joins the queue as it speeds up. As he passes the fat woman, she once again decides to leave and follows on.

As the new arrivals settle into their seats, the bearded man reappears and boards the bus, mutters something to the driver, then makes for the seat he has just vacated. “I think I left my wallet behind,” he says anxiously. With that, we all stand up and peer under our seats. But there is no wallet to be found. The bearded one turns, defeated, and hurries back into the bus station.

“That lady sat on that seat for a moment,” Liz reminds me. “I thought she was changing seats. But then she got off the bus.”
“So she did,” I say, getting up and heading for the driver. I tell him the story. Then an official from the bus station boards the bus and the driver repeats the tale to him.

As the bus pulls away we catch a glimpse of the bearded man standing alone and crestfallen in the concourse. The fat woman has melted.

“Spoils a nice day,” says Liz.


Fast Food

Ages ago, Liz enrolled us both as members of the M&S Premier Club. That means that, for £10 a month, we get a “Free” cup of coffee every week. Yeah, we know there’s a catch but we can’t work it out. To even things up, Liz gets a £5 bonus every now and again, in gift vouchers which she can only redeem in a Marks’ store. That’s the best bit, ‘cos to get the £5 she has to spend about £20 on something she didn’t want in the first place.
I’m always taking the Mickey. But to be fair, they do give us “Free” worldwide travel insurance until the age of 80 which, in reality, is worth hundreds of pounds.

That brings me to the point. The other day, on one of our trips out, we go into the local M&S store to grab a brunch. The only difference this time is that we are accompanied by Saga, aged two, who doesn’t want to be there anyway. She doesn’t say that she doesn’t want to be there, but she develops symptoms. The first sign is that she loses the power of speech. The second is that her lower lip inflates into a big red balloon. And the third, and most problematic, is that she loses all flexibility. It’s like she’s suddenly been dipped in starch. She won’t bend. I lift her from her buggy and attempt to sit her on a chair, but it’s like trying to fold a railway sleeper.

While I’m trying to fathom out a way of bending a two year old child, Liz has gone up to get coffee and order food. By the time she returns, Saga is lying prone on the long seat that runs along the wall and I’m pretending that’s what I wanted all along. However, among the drinks, Liz has a fruit juice and a straw which seems to render the child more flexible, though it doesn’t deflate the lip or cure the speech impediment.

Liz says that she has ordered a sausage toasty for me and she will share a cheese and ham toasty with Saga. “Great,” I say. “Bring it on.” The only obvious snag is that we don’t have a number. Usually, when you order food they give you a stick with a number on it. Then you balance the stick on the table and, somehow, that tells the serving wench who is waiting for what.

But we don’t have a stick. Liz ponders over this for a moment and says, “The chap behind me was given number 5, so we must be number 4.” At that moment, her eyes fall on the empty table next to us where there is a stick with a number 4 on it. “Oh,” she says, “maybe they gave me a number 4 after all,” and sticks it on our table. Then we wait. We wait for ages, but nothing happens. Table number five are served and tuck into their grub but we, on table number 4, have nothing.

I must say that during this waiting period that Saga behaves extremely well. She still exhibits some of the symptoms, but conceals her inner feelings with aplomb.

After an age, Liz decides to go back to the order-counter and find out what the delay is. “No problem,” they tell her. “brunch is on its way.” So, again, we sit and wait. But there is still no food.
After another age, the manageress of all the caterers approaches our table. “I’m very sorry,” she tells us, “but we are out of sausages can we offer you something else?”

I have a flashback of Basil Fawlty and the ruined dinner. I see the M&S kitchen in chaos as the chef runs around swatting porters with a spatula and screaming that someone has wolfed his last sausage. I decide to put them out of their misery. “I’ll settle for a mushroom toasty,” I tell the boss-lady. “Oh, thank-you,” she says, gratefully, “we’ll reimburse you for the sausage and give you the mushroom for nothing.”

I nod. Saga remains unimpressed.

We enter another period of waiting. Then the original serving wench comes up and says, “can we give you another coffee to thank you for your patience.”

“We’d love a coffee,” I say. “But we’d prefer the toasties.”

“I thought you’d had them,” she says.

“This is where we came in,” I tell her.



Is it logical to support multiculturalism and yet oppose Scottish Independence?
Same Paper. Same Day. Different PlDaily Express PNGaces.

 

This week’s class headline:- That Cyril Smith was a paedophile is known. But a brilliant book by the MP who now holds his seat...

Contrasts

There are some feelings, no matter how basic, that I cannot capture on paper. Not even in a poem. For me, one such experience would be walking with Liz along the front at Porthcawl on a sunny spring morning, with a fresh breeze gusting off the Atlantic. On such a day you find yourself looking over the Bristol Channel to the Devon hills, or along the Welsh coast to the where the Celtic Sea embraces the Mumbles; whilst, in the other direction, the white village of Southerndown straddles the road to Nash Point. There are fine south-facing bays of golden sand here too, at Treco and Sandy Bay. And, over there, just round the corner on the Gower, is Rhossili, the third best beach in Europe and ninth in the world. Maybe the words I’m looking for are freedom, nature and love. But I can’t string them together.
Talking of freedom reminds me of an article I read in the Huffington Post, based on a BBC report of conditions in the Amazon warehouse, where I shop for bargains. Apparently, the employees there are working under sweatshop conditions. At the start of a shift they plug their scanner into the system and, for the next 10 hours, they become little more than robots, following one instruction after the other with no time to think or rest. Like machines, they traipse up and down the warehouse floor, covering as many as 11 miles in a shift. I suppose that earning a living is the antitheses of freedom. Though work isn’t always the flip-side of the happiness coin.

That brings me to another point. Accompanying Liz around the vast blue characterless shed of IKEA in Cardiff, an escalator spits me out on the road to nowhere. I find myself drifting along in a procession of the living-dead, on a trek that goes on forever through an endless forest of chunky square lumps of wood.
After an age, the forest gives way to the suburbs of some vast abandoned city, as mile after mile of uninhabited living rooms merge into abandoned bedrooms and lifeless bathrooms. From time to time, my zombie companions drift to a standstill, peer haplessly this way and that, as if looking for a way of escape, then meander resignedly on. Is this an away-day for the Amazonian androids? I wonder.
The IKEAN inmates render the experience evermore disturbing. Poor pasty-faced creatures, men and women alike,
clad in sinister yellow shirts with blue vertical stripes which conjure up nightmares of those pictures that appeared in the papers at the end of the war – gaunt figures in striped uniforms peering through the bars of concentration camps.
“Look! A Scotsman in a kilt,” Liz breaks the eerie silence, gesticulating at a solitary man-mountain who stands, dominating an otherwise empty bedroom.
“That’s not a kilt,” I tell her, weighing-up his sand-coloured skirt, “It’s a skilt”
“Does that mean he’s an Australian clansman?” she wonders.
“Dunno,” I say. “He looks like the last of the desert rats.
“I thought they were all dead.”
“They probably are. Keep moving.”
At that moment, a yellowshirt appears at the door of an otherwise empty bathroom and stares at us blankly. I get a flashback from that film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Whatever became of Anne Frank? I wonder. “Keep your head down,” I tell Liz.
Then, at last, we are outside in the car-park with Liz clutching a cut-price lavatory-brush – our only purchase – as we argue about where we left the car.
“Where do we go now?” Liz wonders, when we accidently stumble on the vehicle.
“Dunno,” I say.
“It’s our 51st Wedding Anniversary,” she reminds me.
“We could go for a curry,” I say.
“Curry?! Where?”
“That Indian on the cliffs, overlooking the sea in Fontygary. Remember?”
“Where we stayed with the kids in a caravan, 39 years ago,” she says.
“Yeah. It was great. It was that long hot summer. I used to come home from work in the evening and jump in the pool for a swim.”
“And you took us to Swansea and went round a roundabout seven times, arguing about which was the road home.”
“Fifty-one years, eh,” I say, adjusting the rear-view mirror, “and never a cross word.”

                                               W
I’ve just been looking over this year’s April Fool spoofs and trying to work out which I like the best. First off is the Daily Mail, which said that it had seen a government approved plan for the new UK flag, which we must fly after Scottish Independence in September. It was a red saltire superimposed on a StGeorge cross on a white background. It looked a bit like the Japanese Rising Sun. The Guardian beat that with the story that Salmond will make the Scots drive on the right-hand side of the road after the referendum. Getting in on the act, some wag in the Welsh Assembly said they would ban make-believe cigarettes. Getting one up on the Welsh, Westminster played a blinder by announcing that the five a day mantra had been a load of rubbish all along. You should have been eating seven a day. As send-ups go, those are all pretty good. But, most of all, I like the one from the Department of Health and Safety. Not because they came up with the best joke, but because you don’t normally associate them with a sense of humour. One of their comedians said that, “From now on, all British chips must be half-an-inch thick; and chip-shop salt dispensers must only have three holes in the top.” Brilliant. But, as usual, this guy seems to have fallen foul of the PC mob. Because, scared of the Brits playing the race card, he followed it up by announcing that, “The Italians will have to make their pizzas one inch smaller... and the Indians can’t give away free poppadoms any longer. Browning, the English poet, said, “Oh to be in England now the April’s there...” Why April? Why not keep the jokes coming all the year round.
                                                        
                                            Musings
                                         Outward Bound:

We are off to Toronto to see our Canadian branch, flying British Airways... I’ve been here before... you know, flown places with BA. The initials, BA, say it all, especially when it comes to allocating leg space to passengers... BA = Bugger All.
This one’s a 787 Dreamliner, straight out of the box. The captain’s just been on the intercom, boasting that it’s brand new. Brand new? The top’s missing off my armrest. My right elbow’s jammed in among the cogs and wires of the mechanism. Dreamliner... Now where do I put my feet?
I was watching a film just now on this personal video thing they give you these days. Suddenly the screen flies back and arrives on the end of my nose, like something leaping out of a 3D film. I thought it was a poltergeist. But it turns out that the dude in front can’t support his body any longer. So, at the poke of a button, he prostrates himself and sends the back of his chair, which includes my TV and table, flying through my space. He’s trapped me in a straightjacket. The only way out is to hurl the back of my seat at the bloke behind. If everyone does it, it’ll be like the collapse of a domino run.
Now it’s victual time. This woman dragging the trolley tells me I can either have chicken or Vegetable Bolognese. It’s what my granny called Hobson’s choice. Vegetable Bolognese? That’s like saying, “Vegetable Pork Chop.”
The alternative is chicken. Now don’t get me wrong. I love chickens. When I was a kid I nursed day-old chicks until they were big enough to kill the cat. Chickens grow into Hens. They lay eggs and things. They look beautiful going round on spits in butcher’s shops. They smell even better. But... and it’s a big but... where has this chicken come from? What are it’s credentials?
OK. So I sound faddy. And I am – now. I didn’t used to be. I would eat anything they put before me. No questions asked. Faddy is a luxury that comes with age. I now have the time and money to worry about animal welfare. I like to think my lamb chop has gambolled in a meadow and my chicken can tell tales of outwitting Reynard the fox. So I only do certificated ‘free range’ these days. OK, so the ‘free range’ animal that I am eating is reluctant to be on the end of my fork. But, at least, it had a happy, if unavoidably, short life.
But... Vegetable Lasagne? I settle for chicken.
Six sleepless hours later, the woman returns with her trolley and a second meal. There’s no choice this time, “Chicken sandwich,” take it or leave it...

Motorists:

Back in the UK, in my beloved roll as a pedestrian, motorists are my pet hate. They charge around in their steel missiles like Roman conquerors in chariots, sending sheets of filthy water over the poor peasants fighting the wind and rain on the pavement.
What really annoys me is when I arrive at a pedestrian crossing and find that no one has pressed the button. Then, when I press it, someone says, “I never do that, in case I inconvenience the drivers.”
What!? Inconvenience that lot, sat there in their mobile palaces, listening to the radio, talking on their mobiles; left home at the last minute, so now they’re charging along, cursing inanimate traffic lights
and cyclists while blasting each other out of the way... “You’ve got to be joking mate. Press that so and so button and make ‘em stop. I’ve stuff to do.”
But it’s not like that on other side of the Atlantic; not in Canada anyway. The motorists just tootle along and stop at every intersection. And if a pedestrian wants to cross the road, the motorist waits and lets him amble across. On a busy road, when motorists want to turn into a side-street, they stop and give the pedestrians right of way. Sometimes they’ll be there for ages, waiting to turn while people just wander across the road in front of them, and nobody dreams of giving way to them.
Coming from the UK I find this difficult to live with. I’m used to half-crazed drivers bullying and honking me out of the way. I’m full of inhibitions. I feel quite guilty and find myself giving them little waves and mouthing, “Sorry...Thank you...” Poor drivers, I think. Nobody cares about them. Funny how the mind works.

The Pie:

I was out shopping with Liz, and we were wondering what we would get for the evening meal. We ended up in Maxi’s Deli on Bloor Street. Now that really is a shop worth looking into. There’s a glass-covered display-counter that goes on forever, full of all kinds of delicious dishes.
Being me, I spot the pie. This is no ordinary pie. “This is the mother of all pies,” as my old friend, Sadam, would say. The little card by its side announces that it is, “Silverside, simmered in Guinness.” But it is the pastry that mesmerises me. I’m a pastry connoisseur. I come from Manchester. They weaned me on homemade meat-and-potato pie. After a few pints of beer, my soul still guides me to the chippy for pie and chips.
But of all the pies I have ever seen, I know, instinctively, this is the best. That pastry is melt in the mouth short-crust – and silverside, slow simmered in stout – say no more. “That’s what we’re having,” I tell Liz. “There are six of us, so we’ll need two.”
Now Liz is a thrifty housewife. And that’s good. But it has its drawbacks. “One will be enough,” she tells me, “with some nice vegetables.”
“But...”
“One!” she decides.
Comes the long awaited mealtime and my loved-one places my plate before me. But... my piece of pie is a mere slither. If it was wine, it would be the gulp they give you to see if it’s corked. I look at Izzy’s plate. She too, has a slither. Then Diz’s and Liz’s plates – slithers! The best pie I have come across in my life, and we’re down to slithers. I told Liz we needed two.
Then come Dan’s and Charlie’s, aged 12, portions. And they are comparatively massive; man sized helpings. “What the...?” I do some crafty scrutiny and mental arithmetic. Liz has given Dan and Charlie, age 12, a quarter of the whole pie each. She has given me, the senior, a quarter of the remaining half. What’s that about?
The way to a man’s heart, I muse... I bite my tongue. I might as well. There’s precious little pie.
In my other world we had a thing called pecking order. You got points for being male. Then you got extra points for age. I didn’t agree with that system, but it’s all the rage again these days. They call it positive discrimination.
My old granny will be spinning in her grave.

The Toilet:

When you think about it, toilets, everywhere in the world, fill the same function. So you’d expect them all to be pretty much the same. But they’re not. They vary from country to country. I don’t know why. I can only think that it has something to do with evacuation procedures.
Without going into any unnecessary detail, in the UK you aim everything into a cupful of water at the bottom of the pedestal, then try to flush it down with another cupful of water from the cistern.
In Canada, on the other hand, the pedestal is half full of water, so your target area is vastly enhanced, and the flush turns into a whirlpool that sucks everything into oblivion before half filling the pedestal again – much more efficient.
Ah but, in the UK the pedestal is designed like a throne, so you sit like a king, or queen, in state. So there is no problem until you come to the flushing bit. While in Canada, the pedestal is designed like a footstool, so the problem, at least when your joints begin to creak, is getting yourself down there, then hauling yourself back up. But that’s not the problem today.
I’m in Toronto airport and I need the loo. Right, I go into the first gents I see and head for the cubicles. The first one is empty – but there’s no paper. I try the second; the door is part open, but there is someone in there, and he is trying exclude the world by keeping one leg straight out, jamming the door with his foot while trying to perform his number two’s. There is either no lock on the door, or this bloke is some kind of masochist.
I head for the third and final cubicle. It’s almost the same story, except this dude has got the door jammed part closed with a massive rucksack. He’s either on the toilet or squatting.
I leave that place behind and continue my trapes to the distant boarding gate. Then, spotting another toilet, I wheel in and head for the first cubicle. It’s empty; with paper; great! I lower myself onto the dwarf-sized pedestal then – “Yaah!” My dangly-bits are suddenly submerged in ice-cold water. This is a problem. I don’t want these bits in there when the other bits arrive. And, worryingly, how do I dry them? The economy paper they have in these places has about as much substance as cappuccino-froth.
In the split second that all these thoughts fly through my mind, the toilet gives an automatic flush, and my buttocks are now immersed in that same ice cold water. I leap up. “Damn!” No wonder these people call it a “Washroom.” But I’ve nothing to dry myself with. If I pull my trousers up now, I’ll look as if I’ve wet myself. But I still need the loo. Stupidly, I squat down. But the same thing happens over again; dangly bits submerged; automatic flush; even wetter buttocks. I leap up and listen. No other toilet is flushing. Neither is this one. But once bitten, twice shy. Out comes my handkerchief. I’ll try my luck on the plane.

Homeward bound:

This is the same plane I flew out in; different seat. We’re getting ready for take-off and there is already a bit of commotion a few seats down. The steward is bending over these people and trying to reason with them. Now this big fat woman has stood up and agreed to follow him to the back of the plane. “You’ll be fine back here, he assures her. “You will get a full row to yourself.” No wonder she has a self-satisfied smile. The two
people she left behind have now stood up and are sorting themselves out. Neither of them would qualify as a sylph.
Now I see what’s happened. This obese woman has sat down on the middle seat and seeped over the people on either side of her. Then, half crushed, half suffocated, they’ve pushed the help-button and summoned the steward who has gone all diplomatic and led the problem away.
That’s all very well, but she now gets a full row to herself, without paying extra. That’s not right. What about us anorexics? We’ve worked hard to look like the boys from the Burma Railway. All that exercise on five a day. This is how class warfare begins.
The solution to the problem is staring us in the face. In Toronto airport you put your hand-luggage into a frame at the check-in desk. If it fits – pass. If it doesn’t, it goes in the hold and you pay extra.
So why not have a buttock-box as well? “OK madam, your hand-luggage is fine. Now wedge your backside in this...”
At an opportune moment I nip to the toilet. There is already somebody in there. I wait for ages. In the meantime, a queue forms behind me. Then, after a wrestling match with the door, this woman emerges, like a glassy-eyed zombie, then staggers off down the cabin. I step inside... “Ah,” the place is covered in spew. There is nowhere to sit or stand. I decide to abandon ship. I give a cheery smile and nod to the next person in the queue. “All yours,” I tell her.

                                          
                                  Place Your Bets
An old Mystic once told me that, “Life is a cryptic crossword, clues about the present and future are concealed in the past.” His words came into my mind during the recent rains, as I watched politicians of all hues turning Green, paddling about in floodwater and promising to mend it all with a forest of windmills and Green taxes.

Has anything on this scale happened before? I wondered. If so, when and where? What caused it and what were the consequences? And does any of that have any relevance today? A bit of simple research produced some interesting answers.

During a period lasting from around 950 to 1350 AD the world went through a bout of global warming, known as the Medieval Warm Period. This warming coincided with increased activity on the sun that produced temperatures on earth that were on a par with those experienced in recent years. So warm, in fact, that the Vikings were able to explore and colonise the far reaches of the North Atlantic and establish farming communities in Greenland that were a going concern for nearly 500 years. At the same time, Europe enjoyed bountiful harvests and fine summers. These easy years resulted in a population explosion.

As this warm phase ended, the world went through nearly 400 years of global cooling. This cold phase culminated in the Little Ice Age, which lasted from 1645 to 1715 AD, when the winter weather turned rivers like the Seine and Thames into ice-skating rinks. This era of global cooling goes by the name of “Maunder Minimum” – a time when sunspots were few and far between.

The years from 1310 onwards saw marked changes in weather patterns as the Medieval Warm Period began to collapse. There were storms in early autumn, and a series of cooler and wetter summers had an adverse affect on agriculture. The weather was worsening all the time; 1312 and 1313 were particularly bad in Germany. Heavy rain hit England in June 1314, wrecking the grain harvest and causing a famine. Then, in the spring of 1315, the continuous rain was especially heavy and made it impossible to plough the fields. The few seeds that people did sow began to rot before they could germinate. The rain went endlessly on throughout the summer.

By now, right across Northern Europe and the UK, the winters were longer and the summers cooler and wetter. The Baltic Sea froze; fisherman couldn’t sail and merchant ships couldn’t bring in much needed supplies. Salt, which was the only way to preserve fish and meat, was in short supply because the wet conditions prevented the evaporation process by which they obtained salt. As crops failed, there was a scarcity of straw and hay for the animals. Wheat prices rose by 300%.

The Great Famine really began to bite in 1315 when it wiped out a quarter of Europe’s inhabitants. Life expectancy fell to 30-35 years.

The harsh winters were not only hard on people, trees and animals, but also on buildings and bridges as ice floes battered the foundations. Builders and thatchers had no turf or straw for roofs. Quarries flooded, so there was a shortage of stone. Watermills flooded. Snow in winter, and deep mud in the wet summers, made roads impassable. Rain washed away topsoil and flooding was everywhere. And so it went on: Normandy saw terrible windstorms in 1319. Flanders flooded in 1320. It took until 1322 to restore some kind of normality. Even then, everything went downhill towards the Little Ice Age.

Adversity never comes alone. There were side effects, like extremely high levels of crime when the weather deprived people of life’s necessities. There were epidemics of disease and pneumonia. There was infanticide and parents abandoned their children. Some older people starved themselves to death so that the younger ones could have their food. There were tales of cannibalism – the story of Hansel and Gretel has its origins in this period.

Then, as now, people looked for scapegoats. Who, or what, was to blame for the bad weather? This was before the days of motor cars and gay marriage, so it wasn’t CO2 or the Government’s fault. The unknown author of Vita Edwardi Secundi, written in 1326, blamed it on the wickedness of the English people who were “too proud and crafty.” But, in most people’s minds, the church was responsible. In those days, that meant the Catholic Church. People turned to the church for help, but the clergy were powerless against the weather. Prayer didn’t work. For the first time, people began to question the power of the Pope. Although nothing happened immediately, the tide of discontent began to flow. This paved the way for the birth of Lutheran Protestantism in 1529.

So, how is all this relevant to today’s world? Well, it boils down to cause and effect. Remember that, in medieval times, there was a period of global warming, followed by a period of cooling and a Little Ice Age. These different phases depended upon the amount or lack of solar activity. And, for a short period during the transition from one state to the other, there was a period of unsettled and unpredictable weather. Bearing that in mind, we can compare conditions as they are now with those of the medieval years.

The current solar maximum has run from 1900 to the present day, accompanied by the well-documented rise in global temperature. This mirrors events in the Medieval Warm Period. But now, scientists have observed that solar activity is on the decline. As solar activity decreases, we can, by the laws of probability, expect colder winters to become the norm in the UK and Europe – as they were in the Maunder Minimum. If the predictions are correct, we are now going through the transition from a warm period to a cold period. And, by coincidence, we are going through the wettest winter since records began. This is similar to what happened in medieval times.

Keeping to the available facts – in November 2013, scientists at CERN said that, “If the current lull in solar activity continues until 2015 it could bring about conditions similar to the Maunder Minimum that caused the 17th Century Little Ice Age.”

In 2000, two scientists, Perry and Hsy, both predicted a gradual cooling over the coming centuries that could bring about a Little Ice Age.

Experts at NASA have observed that Mars has experienced a period of Global Warming over the same period as we experienced it on earth. At
the same time a Russian solar physicist, Habibullo Abdussamatov, based at St Petersburg Astronomical Observatory, one of the world’s best-equipped observatories, came to the same conclusion.

Habibullo Abdussamatov says: "Mars has global warming, but without greenhouse gases and without the participation of Martians. These parallel global warmings, observed simultaneously on Mars and Earth, can only be a straight-line consequence of the effect of the one same factor: a long-time change in solar irradiance... The sun's increased irradiance over the last century, not C02 emissions, is responsible for the global warming we are seeing... and this solar irradiance explains the great volume of C02 emissions... It is no secret that increased solar irradiance warms the Earth's oceans, which then triggers the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So the common view that man's industrial activity is a deciding factor in global warming has emerged from a misinterpretation of cause and effect relations."

Habibullo Abdussamatov has even more to say on the subject: "Ascribing the 'greenhouse' effect to the Earth's atmosphere is not scientifically substantiated," he says. "Heated greenhouse gases, which become lighter as a result of expansion, ascend to the atmosphere and give the absorbed heat away." Abdussamatov goes on to say that, “The cooling that is now occurring in the upper layers of the world's oceans demonstrates that the Earth has hit its temperature ceiling. Solar irradiance has begun to fall, ushering-in a protracted cooling period beginning in the years 2012 to 2015. The deepest depth of the decline in solar irradiance reaching Earth will occur around 2040, and will inevitably lead to a deep freeze around 2055-60, lasting some 50 years, after which temperatures will go up again.”

So where does all this leave us – the punters?

Politicians want to be seen as good fairies with magic wands in times of crisis... So they tell us the present flooding in the UK is due to global warming and, somehow, it can be cured if the willing European countries, unilaterally, cut back on CO2 emissions and, inevitably, pay higher Green taxes.

Well – maybe. But many eminent scientific bodies tell us that we are heading into a period of global cooling and that, for the next century, the problem is ice, not heat.

History, and nature, tells us that this has all happened before and, no matter what politicians, scientists and the clergy do, it will all happen again.


When a man a man stops believing in God he doesn’t believe in nothing, he believes in anything – G K Chesterton. Yesterday afternoon my wife bought a top for our 10-year-old granddaughter. Then, last night, as I watched my wife showing it to our daughter and getting a second opinion, I found myself agreeing with the Pope. You see, we live in Wales and our daughter in Canada, and the Pope said Skype is a, “Gift from God.”

This week’s classic headline... “Judge peers through eye slits to identify woman behind a veil.”
 

Crazy
I decided to buy a cover for our Kindle Fire so I went to Tesco Online. I filled in all the nonsense on the form. Then they asked for my address, which I gave. Next, they wanted to know the nickname of my address. Now this may sound a bit strange, but I don’t have a nickname for my address. So I left that line blank. But when I pressed the “continue” button, it wouldn’t take me forward unless I put in a nickname. I tried three times, and three times it rejected me. I wouldn’t mind if it had caught me out telling a lie. But it’s a fact – I don’t have a nickname for my address.
I must admit that I’m a bit nonplussed. Not selling alcohol to someone under 18 is one thing. But refusing to flog a Kindle Cover to a guy who hasn’t got a nickname for his address is something else.
                                       ***
I watched The House of Fools on the tele the other day. Afterwards, I moseyed around to see if there was anything else worth watching, and stumbled on Benefit Street on channel 4. Some up-and-coming television producer should combine the two. It would be hilarious.
                                      ***
                                   Cold Caller
As always, no names no pack-drill.
A golden rule of mine is that I never buy anything offered by someone knocking on door with another bargain. This is based on the old adage, “Don’t you call us, we’ll call you.” But, like all rules, it’s there to be broken.

The other day, your man knocks on the door and says, “Your roof is getting past it’s sell-by date. We’re offering a free survey, with a no obligation price-quote for a renovation, guaranteed for 12 months. Our surveyor will only take up 20 minutes of your time.”

Now time is worth more than gold. I don’t like wasting it. But a free survey and no-obligation quote – in exchange for a mere 20 minutes? OK. Why not? “Your on,” I said.
“Our surveyor will be here tomorrow at 1400 prompt,” says your man.

Comes 1400 the following day, and there’s no surveyor in sight. Two-fifteen came, and that was me browned off. If he found himself held up somewhere, then a phone call would fix it. But there was nothing. This guy was wasting my time so I went out and pumped-up the car’s tyres.

Then, at 1430, he arrives and, sans apology, goes into action with his tape measure and binoculars. Then we go indoors to get the price. This is when the, no obligation, free-quote, turned into a hard sell.

First of all, there was a lecture on how a roof is constructed. OK, it was very interesting, if that’s what you wanted to hear, but a slate-by-slate commentary on how to put a lid on a house is not my way of passing a rainy Tuesday afternoon.
Then came the bad news. Our roof was at the end of it’s life expectancy and was already showing the first signs of rigor mortis. But, thank God, this man knew the cure and had a gang of experts on tap.

He followed this with a blow-by-blow lecture on how these guys would renovate our failing dome. I’m too well mannered to tell people to bugger off but...

To cut a long story short, he now pulls out his calculator and does a complex calculation before announcing that all will be well if I part with £4,465 sometime in the next 12 months. “How does that sound?” he wants to know.

“Not a clue,” I tell him. “I’ve nothing to compare it with.”
“Did my colleague leave a pamphlet?” he wants to know.
“Yep,” I said, producing the folded paper and stuffing it in his hand.
“Ah,” he exclaims in surprise, opening the pamphlet and producing a voucher. “You qualify for a 25% discount. That’s very rare. I’ve only ever seen three of these since I started with the firm. Let me see...” He does another calculation. “Ah!” he exclaims, “that brings it down to “£3,349. How do you feel about that?”

“Fine,” I say, because I do feel fine.

“My colleague must have spotted something special about your location,” says the chancer. “I’ll have a word with my boss and see what he says.” He now produces his mobile and proceeds to call his boss – in my time.

After a load of verbal play-acting on the part of himself and his master, he says, “My boss is looking at your house on Google Earth right now, and he says it would make an ideal show-house. If you agree to have an advertising board in your garden we can drop the price to £2,500.”
“I’ll think about it,” I tell him.
“With an offer like this, you have to make the decision today,” he says, producing a wad of papers. “If you put £650 down, we’ll arrange the rest of the payments by instalments.”
“I was offered a free quote, valid for 12 months,” I told him.

“But if you don’t take the offer now, it will revert to £4, 465,” he told me.

“Well, if that’s the quote, that’s the quote,” I told him.

He finally departed at 1600, having wasted 2 hours of my precious time.

So there you are. The man could come and go with £2,000 and still make a profit. So, if he had started at £2.500 he might have been in with a chance... I said, “Might have.”

Moral: never break your own golden rule.
                                           
Today's best headline: "I gave my husband a kidney but he left me and now I want it back."

The UKIP councillor who thinks that David Cameron caused the flooding because of his support for gay marriage is obviously bonkers. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that Harriet Harman caused the floods with all this nonsense about women’s rights.
AW The latest war cry, after units of alcohol and five cabbages a day, is “Sugar is the new tobacco.” Rubbish! Sugar is just the latest thong in the whip for lashing the plebs. They’ve killed off hunters and smokers. Now they’re after the fatties. Chocoholics are the new drink-drivers. If you’ve not had your turn yet, don’t worry, it’s in the pipeline. The nannies are coming.
 
Why do I do It?
I’m sitting here sucking my thumb and banging myself on the head with a frying pan. It’s not serious, just a bit of therapy. You see, I’ve done it again. I’ve tried to book something over the internet. On the face of it, it’s an easy trap to fall into. But I’ve been down this road so many times that you’d think I would have learned by now. But, oh no, not me.

You see, Liz and I decided that this was the day that we would book airline tickets to go and visit our daughter and her family in Toronto; and we plumped for a date in March as a good day for the outward journey. So far so good. But being us, we can’t agree on a return date.
Liz thinks that, if we are going all that distance, we should stay out there for 3 weeks. Which makes sense. But we have a cat. And the cat needs looking after. And I’m the one nominated by the cat, and tout le monde, to be the keeper. OK, so we have a neighbour who will feed the beast whenever we go away. I’m very grateful for that, but this animal is growing old like me. In fact, my abacus tells me that, in cat years, pussy is exactly the same age as me. And the animal is beginning to feel its age. He’s got arthritis and a heart condition, so he needs medication. Unfortunately, though my friend down the road is quite happy to run around after a moggy, he draws the line at shoving pills down its throat. Fair enough.

Jon, our youngest son, and his wife, have volunteered to do the pilling. That’s brilliant, but they live 20 miles away, so every pill means a 40 mile round trip. There’s a limit to what you can ask of people. Please don’t suggest a cattery. This fellah gets a nosebleed if he goes past the gatepost. So that’s it. I’ve put a 14-day limit on my stay in Toronto.

So, getting back to the booking fiasco. Liz and I decide to travel out on the same plane, but come back on different planes, a week apart. Great. So, as you do, I Googled a flight-price comparison outfit, then set about booking. Unfortunately, most of these booking thingies gear themselves to normal people, so they don’t cater for couples who decide to travel out together, then come home separately. Come to think of it, I bet that happens more often than people are prepared to admit. There could be a business opportunity for someone here.

No problem, I found an outward flight that suited us fine and then did a price and availability check... £497 return for me and £447 for Liz. I can’t fault it for the flights and operator we chose. So, because I had to book our tickets separately, I booked my round trip first. Then I went to book Liz’s ticket. But now the computer said, “Can’t do. No outward seats available.”

“But, just five minutes ago, you said there were seats,” I screamed.
“No outward seats available,” replied the computer. And it kept saying that, no matter how many times I asked.

Right, because we were determined to travel together, I decided, to cancel my flight, then start again from scratch. But, search as I might, there was no escape button anywhere on the site. So I went through to the outfit’s main website and searched. But there is no way to cancel a ticket that you’ve just bought. So, as so many times before, while sitting fuming at a stubborn laptop, I felt the will to live ebbing away.

It was then that I found the phone number. “My God,” I thought, “there might still be humans out there.” So I dialled this number and, lo and behold, a woman answered. OK, so she had a Yorkshire accent – but she was decipherable. “What’s your problem?” she wanted to know.

I told her the story, then said, “So I want to cancel my booking.”
“I’m just checking,” she told me. Then she said, “The tickets have been issued, so they won’t cancel them.”
“But I don’t want the flight,” I said.
“But they won’t refund the money,” she said. At this stage she must have sensed that I was edging towards the gas oven, because she said, “Explain why you don’t want to make the flight.”

“Because I want to travel with my wife,” I told her.
“But there are lots of empty seats on that flight,” she told me. “I’ll book one for your wife.”
“But the computer said it was full,” I sobbed.
“Don’t believe what the computer tells you,” she said...

***

On a completely different note, but still on the subject of business opportunities, the phone went this afternoon. I don’t often answer the phone, and the chances of me answering a number that I don’t recognise are negligible. But on this occasion I did answer.

“Mrs Gregory?” a woman wanted to know.

“Mr Gregory,” I said, coughing, and trying to make my voice deeper.

“My name’s Claire, and I’m from the refund department,” she told me.

“Well done,” I replied.

“I think you might be due a refund,” she went on, “can I ask you a few questions?”

“No!” I told her...

That struck me as odd. Who in their right mind would start a Refund Business? Let’s face it, there can’t be a lot of profit in it. You’d definitely need a bank loan to start with. Then you’d probably need many more as business picked up. But then, who would want to spend time and money, phoning people and offering a refund?

We have a saying up north, “There’s nowt so queer as folk.”

Continues hitting himself on the head with a frying pan.AW
  My Year 2013                                        clip_image002

                                                                                            Hi
Dear anyone happening along.

The Chinese think this is a year of the snake, but I disagree. This is the year of the anus. I know that, from personal experience. A few weeks ago, I had this sciatic pain in my leg. So, mainly because it was a damn nuisance, I eventually went to the surgery and took potluck on seeing a doctor... A young lady doc eventually called me in. “What’s your problem?” she wants to know. “It’s my leg,” I tell her. So, OK, when we finish with the leg she says, “We don’t often see you in here.” And I say, “That’s ‘cos there’s nothing wrong.” And she says, “I think it’s about time you had an MoT. How are your waterworks?”
“Seen better days,” I say, “but I get by.”
“Do you want me to check your prostrate?” she wants to know.
The next thing is, I’m lay on the bed, trousers round my ankles, with an attractive young lady standing beside me with her finger rammed firmly up by backside. OK, so it makes your eyes water, but you have to count your blessings. As we speak, there’s many a shifty-eyed bloke trawling the internet, credit card in hand, hoping to get anything approaching that experience for less than a three-figure sum...

Going back to the MoT, well this thing covers every intimate aspect of your being, from blood to spittoons, from your heart to your bowels – and all nooks and crannies in-between. It’s all good fun, put the pièce de résistance is Sigmoidoscopy. Your mother doesn’t tell you about such things, so let me enlighten you.

You end up on a bed again, with a giggle of women around you and your trousers round your ankles – all on the NHS. At first, you think it’s going to be as much fun as the prostrate exam, but they soon put paid to that. You can’t see what’s going on, but a sudden searing pain tells you that one of these madwomen has leapt on a forklift truck that has a camera tied to a boom, and she has driven at you at full speed and rammed the lot up your backside...

Over the years, I have heard many a woman shooting a line about the terrors of childbirth. They assure you that birthing pains are the ultimate torture. And, as a man, you can’t argue. Then, as if to drive the point home, the posh actresses who, in real life, always opt for sedated caesareans, build on the myth by issuing end-of-life screams as they give birth to a doll in the comfort of a soap opera studio.
Well, let me tell you, Sigmoidoscopy is like having the world’s biggest baby rammed the wrong way up your private parts, without the aid of a water bag. Then, to prove the point, it traps a room-full of air in your guts, which turns into the devil’s own excruciating form of agony. So, in the end, you’ve not only experienced a reverse dry childbirth, but you’ve also got the equivalent of galloping labour pains, from which there will never be any relief until you manage to force a zeppelin’s worth of air through the tattered remnants of your rectum. It’s significant to me that smirking females performed both these internal examinations.

I had a nightmare the night after the examination. In it, I saw two witches, Sigmoid and Oscopy, talking wicked...
“Have you come up with any more evil spells recently?” croaks Oscopy, “because I’m fed up with all this cat’s eyes and skinned babies nonsense.”
“Yep,” squawks Sigmoid, “dreamed of a lovely one, last night.”
“Aaah, tell me about it,” croaks Oscopy, rubbing her arthritic claws together in glee.
“Tee hee,” squawks Sigmoid, “in my dream I saw this innocent man. ‘Ahha,’ I said to myself, ‘the perfect victim.’ So I leapt on me broomstick and began to circle him. Then I started going faster and faster and ever faster in ever decreasing circles. Until, at last, I put on a mighty spurt and rammed the thick end of me broomstick up his arse!”
“Wonderful,” screamed Oscopy, “let that be our new evil spell for the 21st century. And, even better, let’s tie a camera on the end, so we can see...” That’s when I woke up, leapt out of bed, fled to the kitchen, and rammed a bunch of garlic down my pyjamas.

Talking of hospitals and things, reminds me. The world gets ever madder. Everyone is talking in numbers these days. These things sneak up, without you realising. But looking back, I can see that it all started with the Chinese. When their junks first sailed up the Mersey, no one thought much about it. Then they all swarmed ashore and opened duck and noodle restaurants. But we didn’t know what it was all about because they were all yodelling at each other, and writing in hieroglyphics and stuff. Being in a Chinese restaurant was like being in a Mumbai call-centre. Nobody knew what anybody was saying. When the first Chinese takeaway opened in Liverpool, a man and a woman ran it. He did the cooking while she served. But she only knew a couple of words of English. The Scousers called her, “Effin Else,” because, after every transaction, she always said, “effin else?” That’s what started the numbers game. Customers wanted to know what was in everything. And she either didn’t know or wouldn’t say. In the end, to shut people up, she put numbers against the names of the meals. I don’t blame her, “I’ll have a number sixty-three,” sounds far more appetising than, “Fried rice and a boiled dog’s thingamajig.”

I can see the point in the number-language of course. In a country where we have over 50 lingos on the go at any one time, you can’t show favouritism by saying that one tongue is more important than the others. That’s racist. So it makes sense to invent a new idiom unrelated to any of the other languages. And what better than numbers? Numbers are international. After all, a number two is a... But, the trouble is, people like me have a problem.

You see, I’m mathematically challenged. I failed the 11+. It runs in the family. I remember the last time that we took my dad to A&E. He was lying on a bed, writhing in agony with terminal bowel cancer. When up comes this nurse, armed with a tick sheet. “On a scale of 1 to 10,” says she, “how bad is your pain?” Need she ask? I wondered.
“Agony,” gasps my dad.
“Where would it be on a scale of 1 to 10,” says she.
“Aaahh...” groans my dad, beads of sweat bursting out of his brow.
“But what is that on a scale of 1 to 10?” she insists.
“Agony,” he moans...
And so it goes on, until a porter comes up and wheels the old man behind a curtain, where a doctor, blessed with a smattering of English, takes over.

That was over ten years ago. Number-speak was in its infancy then. But numbers are now the lingua franca of that same hospital. Even the doctors are into it. They all carry clipboards for use when they give
patients the third degree. If you go into the knee clinic and score 20+ correct answers, you get a new knee; 15-20 and you come out with a Zimmer frame; 10-15 is a walking stick... and under 10, “You’re wasting my time – hop-off home.”
It’s just as bad in the psychiatry shop; 20+ on the Richter scale and they put you in a straight jacket; 15-20 and you’re in a padded cell; 10-15 is Care in the Community, and under 10... “You’re just thick. Live with it.”

Going back to my labour pains. When I doubled up with a spasm, a fully-baked nurse asked me, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the pain?” How does a mathematical dummy like me answer a question like that? “I’m only trained in English,” I told him. “I don’t do numbers. But every time the pain hits, it doubles me up.”
Then, when I got the next wave of cramps, he was at it again. “Where was that on a scale of 1 to 10?” he wanted to know. I wouldn’t mind, but this guy could actually speak English. He was Scottish. But he kept on with the mathematical interrogation until a Filipino nurse came up and rammed a fistful of ginger-biscuits in my hand. “Get those down you,” said the Filipino. “They’ll make you fart.”

I’m getting old now. So, eventually, I will have to accept the fact that I will be spending more time in institutions. Being aware of the pitfalls, I have now embarked on a teach-yourself numbers project, so that I can talk on equal terms with mathematical nurses.
You need a reference point for such a project, and it has to be something that you are sure about. So I thought that the best place to start was 10 = Dry Reverse Childbirth – as being the most painful thing in the world. But, almost immediately, the voices in my head challenged me. “Is that more painful than being boiled alive?” said the first voice... “Or eaten by a lion?” said the second voice... “Or mangled by machinery?” asked a third. “Or hung drawn and quartered?” challenged a fourth. “Burnt at the stake?” whined another. Hmmm... In comparison to these more mature forms of suffering, having a baby backwards sounds like... well... child’s play – even if you are doing it dry. So it’s back to the drawing board. Effin Else has a lot to answer for.

We’ve not been travelling this year, what with one thing and
another. But we did nip up to Sheffield a few months back, to see granddaughter Katie in a fencing tournament. We stayed in Chesterfield for a change. It’s a great little place, in Derbyshire, just over the border from Yorkshire. This is real Robin Hood country and well worth a visit. It was good to be back in a north-country town. Good atmosphere, friendly and... well... northern. I knew I was on home territory when the dinner waitress asked if we wanted a bread-roll. “They’re mad ‘ot,” she says. “Just out o’t’ th’oven.” I visualised this girl in a stone floored farm kitchen on a Peakland hillside. But I won’t go into my fantasies here... At half-eight the next morning we walked along a street with the market in full swing, and the local worthies already on the go.
040041
That’s Liz and Jacqui strolling along; with David, in the road, striding manfully ahead.
In the local Weatherspoons, where they do an excellent tailor-made breakfast at a fair price, it was lovely to see the dear old ladies, in town for a bit of shopping, sitting there gossiping and drinking pints of real ale for breakfast. Ye Olde England still exists, if you know where to look. I love it. Mind you, it looks as if the bloke who put the spire on the parish church had spent a bit too long in Weatherspoons.
055
069067






Everything is fine with Liz and me. We are still plodding on with our weekly routine. The Wednesday shopping expedition usually takes up the best part of a day. Then we either go out for a meal, or take in a film and pizza, down in Cardiff bay. My knee has put paid to all my walking and jogging escapades, but Liz is walking big time. She walks with the WI and they have been having a monthly hike of between 5 and 7 miles. The plan being, that if you went on all the planned routes, you would end up walking 90 miles within the year – which is the Glamorgan Area’s 90th year in existence. On every second Monday, Liz has another kind of Marathon. She goes to a sewing group in the morning, skittles in the afternoon and WI in the evening. On the top of that, she is on the Parish Council and reads lessons in church. As if that isn’t enough, she baby-minds Jon and Sylvia’s two year old daughter Saga every Tuesday, which includes a swimming lesson in the afternoon. Until now, she has also child-minded Diz’s two children, Charlie and Isobel, for two half days a week. So, all in all, she gathers little moss. My social life is down to the pub twice a week, one evening with Liz and Sunday evening with my mates. I get my fresh air in the garden and do some exercises plus a good gallop on the exercise bike 4 times a week, so I’m reasonably fit.

David is still in the navy after 28 years. He’s still the Chief PO Engineer on HMS Scott, a survey ship. This is his second draft on that ship. He did a three year stint once before. This ship’s got some advantages for him. He has his own decent sized cabin and works 2
months on and 1 month off. His wife, Penny, is still working in a hospice, and daughter, Katie, is at university. Katie is also in the naval reserve, which supplements her income. Time will tell if she intends to go into the navy proper.

Diz has just given up her job as head of child psychology in Gwent because her husband, Dan, has accepted a move to Toronto. So that part of our family will be moving oversees in January. Charlie and Isobel are not too keen because they have loads of friends in Cardiff and have an incredible amount of activities, which includes brownies and scouts, music lessons and drama school. They have both been in loads of performances in front of paying audiences. And, at the moment, they are appearing in a professional production of Aladdin. As well as all that, Charlie got about 5 accolades for achievement in various fields of endeavour in the junior school that he left in the summer. And now they have named him as the star pupil in his year, after one term at Cardiff High School. So you can see why the kids are not keen to move.

Jon and Sylvia are still running their music producing business up at the top end of Cwm Rhondda. They are having a lot of success in Norway, writing and producing the scores for a series of nature films, which the Norwegian and other Scandinavian television companies then screen. They still love life in the valleys. It’s seems to be a lot freer than it is in the cities. And the place full of characters, like the bloke who takes his goat for a walk on a lead, as if it was a dog. Their little girl, Saga, is two now and has started to attend a Welsh nursery. It’s funny to hear her. She holds conversations with her mother in Norwegian, and with her father in English, and now she is breaking into Welsh. When she is at our house for a babysitting session, she sometimes comes out with a Norwegian expression that we can’t make head nor tale of, and she can’t translate. I think she thinks we’re a bit thick.
Well, that’s the letter from Cardiff.
All I can say now, is that we wish all who pass by
A Merry Christmas
and a Peaceful and Contented New Year.


clip_image002[1]Byee…
 

Er... Thanks for the birthday gift – but don’t give me a Christmas present. My wife’s Birthday present from the Marks&Sparks Premium Club was a “free” afternoon tea for two, valid until the 20th December. When she redeemed it this afternoon, she was charged 60p. “But it’s free,” said my wife. “Computer says – 60p,” says the cashier. “How is that possible?” asked my wife. “It must have gone up,” says the cashier. “How can a free gift go up?” says my wife. “Dunno, but it has,” says the cashier. I’ve spent the entire evening with a slide rule and abacus trying to work out the percentage inflation of 60/0. I failed. But if all M&S stock goes up at the same rate, we’ll have to buy our mince pies from Aldi.
                                      Units for You Nits
I see that the panel of “experts” who invented units of alcohol, and then told us what quantities of their invention it is safe for men and women to consume, have now come clean and admitted that they picked the figures “out of the air” based on no scientific basis. What’s more, it turns out that every country has its own “safety limit” and no two “limits” are the same. Smell a rat?
For example, in Saudi, the limit is zero-blank all round. You can’t even get a packet of bacon-flavoured crisps in an Arab pub. “Ganja flavour? Yes pliz mister,” but, “Bacon flavour? Oh no, mister. And pliz removing shoes!”

I’m 79 and I’ve been a happy drinker since I was 17 – beer, whisky and, for the last 15 years, wine as well: and I am reasonably fit; no prescription drugs whatsoever – zilch! I don’t have a beer gut either. I’ve got piles and a bad knee, and that’s enough to be going on with. The doc says that the knee is not alcohol related. But he’s not sure about the piles, because larger drinkers spend a lot of time on the thunder-box. I didn’t mention that, for the last 60 years, I’ve spent most weekends bouncing off my knees on the way home from the pub.

I’m no alcoholic though, oh no, not me. I may be an ageing piss artist, but I‘m no alcy. How do I know? Well, one of the symptoms of being an alcoholic is that you keep denying it... and hiding the evidence. Is that one symptom, or two? I have difficulty focussing at this time of night. But I’m not alcoholic, oh no, definitely not. And anyone who says I am an alcy is lying. I hardly drink really. All that stuff I keep among the gardening tools in the shed keeps disappearing. So does that stuff behind the paint tins in the garage. That’s why I keep renewing it. Every time I go back, it’s just empty bottles. So I can’t be alcy... there’s nothing there... nothing... I think the wife’s drinking it. Shhhh...

How can I be sure that my hobby isn’t eating away at my insides, and that my liver doesn’t look like a sponge that’s been festering in a sewer for the last 10 years? Well... at my age, it wouldn’t matter anyway. But the fact is that my liver is not disintegrating. I know that, because I’ve been for a voluntary medical look-see...
...Which brings to mind another medical I had about 10 years ago. It was one of those things that was on a half price offer, like smelly fish. So I went for it. A nurse checked me from head to tail, and then, while we waited for the results, a doctor interrogated me about my vices.
“Do you drink?” he wanted to know.
“Of course,” I replied.
“How many units do you drink in a week?” he wanted to know.
“None,” I told him.
“But you said-:“
“I said, I drink; but I don’t drink units; just pints of beer and litres of spirits and wine.”
“OK,” he conceded, “how many pints and litres would you consume in a week?”
I rattled off some figures. It was easy. I’m a creature of habit.
“My God,” he croaked, scribbling on a note pad, “that’s nearly ninety units.”
“They don’t do units where I live,” I told him, “only pints and litres.”
“Nevertheless,” he said, “we’ll have to have a close look at your liver result, and then move forward from there.”
Needless to say, my liver was tickety-boo, as was my cholesterol and sugar, blood pressure and any other result you can think of. Funny thing is, that doctor looked at my bottom too, but he didn’t spot my hemma... haemi... emmaroy... piles – even though they were hanging down like a bunch of grapes. Wonder what he was looking for down there.

It’s over a decade later, and nothing has changed much. Maybe I don’t drink as much as I did. You slow down as you get older. But, all the same, I drink a full bottle of red wine every weekday evening. Then, over the weekend, I’ll clear a reasonable amount of beer and about a third of a bottle of whisky. So why don’t I put on weight? Well, alcohol is liquid. You pee it out. Yes it’s calories. But so is food. And food contains fat. Fat clings. So when I go on a diet, I keep my alcohol supply steady and cut down on food, either carbs or fat, sometimes both. And it works. I take a modicum of exercise too. I burn about 500 calories on the exercise bike, four times a week, plus plenty of stretching. I used to hike for miles and run and jog for a hobby, but the knee put paid to that. Mind you, piles can be a menace on a bike... They keep getting tangled in the moving parts.

So what is all this unit nonsense about? It’s about control, that’s what it’s about. They use units of alcohol and the 5 vegetables a day dogma as steps towards controlling your leisure activities. Then the PC doctrine kicks in to control your thoughts, speech and behaviour. The commies and Nazis have done it all before. Granny covered all that by giving us a healthy diet and teaching us to be well mannered and to accept people for what they are – like, “Do onto others as you would have them do on to you.” To my mind, that covers about everything. Mind you, Granny didn’t have to contend with all these foreign weirdos we have today.

It’ the same story with the immigration freaks...
“Mass immigration’s good for the economy,” they told me.
“Whose economy? Because it ain’t mine,” I answered.
“Racist!” they snapped – another control word, like units and portions – “it’ll be a different story when you need a plumber.”
“I don’t need a plumber I told them. At least, not a CORGI. I want a stomach plumber to fix my hernia.”
“You’ll be grateful when you meet all those nice foreign nurses in hospital,” they told me.
“Hospital?” I echoed. “What hospital? I’ve been waiting 12 months on a 6-month waiting list.”
“Ah, you just wait ‘til 2014 when the Romanians and Bulgarians get the go-ahead. There will be over a million brilliant surgeons on the boat from Calais – all armed with scalpels of one sort or another,” they assured me.
“Hope they’re as well qualified as the Roma cash-machine technicians who photographed my bank card,” I replied.
“Racist!” they screamed.
“Shurrup. I’m going for a hike,” I told them, tucking in my hernia and folding my piles into a nosebag, before limping towards Windturbinewoods, singing “There’ll always be an England” – quietly to myself, lest I upset my neighbours who gabble in strange tongues.

 Loyalty Disbenefit

No names, no pack drill; but we’ve always used Company-A to insure our household utilities. They are probably the biggest player on the field, so everybody knows them. Liz always maintained they were too expensive, and didn’t give value for money. But, being a logic-master, I explained that we were purchasing cover, not a commodity, and you can’t see a cover, it’s just there when you need it. Mind, I had to agree that at £549 a year, £45.75 a month, they didn’t come cheap.

I don’t know how this guy from Company-B contacted me on the phone, because I don’t answer cold-callers. In fact, I don’t answer warm friends unless my conscience tells me it’s time to do penance. But he did get hold of me and offered 15 months cover for £300. OK, his offer wasn’t as comprehensive as company-A. But it was far better value, so I took him up on it.

Now I went back to Company-A to cancel my insurance, and spoke to Wee Willy or someone. “I want to cancel my cover,” I told him. “Why?” he asked. “I’ve found someone cheaper,” I said. “I can give you a £60 discount if you stay with us,” he offered... Cheeky sod, I thought, why didn’t you offer me that before I threatened to leave...? “Peanuts,” I told him. “OK, I’ll make that £100,” he said. “You’d have to up your game by £250,” I said. “Give me a moment,” he told me, pretending to do a calculation, “OK,” he said finally, “I can drop your monthly payments to £21, if you stay.”

Do you get that? When I said I was leaving the company they were willing to cut my payment by more than a half. That means that they have been ripping us off for years. “No thanks,” I said. “Why not?” he asked. “When it’s time to renew, you’ll rob me again,” I told him. “We’ll negotiate,” he said. “You bet,” I told him. “Goodbye!”
This Happy Land
Brits are always moaning. If it’s not the weather, it’s the government, immigration, royalty or the Daily Mail. But, come on, be joyful, this place is brilliant. Like the bard nearly said, “We’re all players in the pantomime.” Take the last few days: An Al Qaeda terrorist, wearing an electronic tag, walked through an MI5 cordon disguised as a mobile tent, while the Prime Minister was playing at being a Diwali... or should I say doolally... Indian: Paxman, the BBC’s political Rottweiler, says he can’t find anyone to vote for: A council in Derbyshire towed away the wood for the November bonfire and accused the villagers of fly-tipping: Two policemen took time off from the war on crime to interrogate a 12 year old boy about flicking an elastic band at another boy in the school playground: A woman who was sacked from work is claiming £5M compensation: And, thank goodness, the UK has plummeted to 23rd in the world education league: Which guarantees us plenty more comedians in the pipeline. Bring on the clowns and follow Maggie Thatcher’s advice. “Rejoice!
Rejoice!”                                                                                              Last of the Brits
We tend to leave home around about ten in the morning when the world is having its second mug of tea. The travellers haven’t hit the road yet and every-where is quiet. We’re on our way to town today. We don’t go there all that often, maybe once a month, but it’s always worth the trip. No need to spend a fortune on foreign travel anymore; the circus has come to town.

Take this trip, for example. We’re cruising along, half-chatting, half-listening to Ken Bruce on Radio-2, when a Chinese woman zooms past on a motorbike with a toddler sprawling on the petrol tank. There is nothing holding the kid in place, and neither of them is wearing a helmet. “My God,” I tell Liz, “That poor woman’s taken a wrong turn coming out of Manky Pooh and ended up in South Wales. She’s probably trying to find her way back home, but the signposts are in gobbledegook. Poor girl; she’s doomed to wander the valleys forever.”

“How do you know she’s from Manky Pooh?” Liz demands cynically. She challenges all my deepest revelations.

“It doesn’t matter,” I snap. “The implications are horrendous. There are umpteen zillion motorcyclists in China. If they all make the same mistake and come zooming through the Channel Tunnel like a plague of locusts, they’ll end up choking our motorways and roads like so much sludge in a gutter, to say nothing of the towns and villages. Before we know it, everywhere will be knee deep in noodles and fried rice, and we won’t be able to move.” As a responsible citizen, I take these things seriously. “Something has to be done, and quickly,” I tell her. That’s when I was inspired to start my online petition to have the Channel Tunnel bricked-up at Folkestone.

“In the meantime,” I tell Liz, “we should get everyone to lobby their MP to have all road-signs displayed in English and Chinese, in the hope of helping these lost souls to find their way back to Yingyang County. Get the WI onto it.”

By now we are moving through the inner city. Bearded men in white nightshirts walk paces ahead of black shrouds that glide over pavements, silent and unswerving in hypnotic obedience. The ghosts of the night being led back to their daytime hidey-holes, I deduce. “Hold on,” I whisper, and step on the juice.

In town, we mosey up High Street on the way to the market. Along the way we pass a gypsy woman. She’s been standing there ever since Romania boarded the EU gravy train, pumping furiously on a tuneless accordion, like a desperate blacksmith aiming bellows at the last spark. I’ve mentioned this girl before, not a note in her head, poor soul. I’m no virtuoso myself, but this critter has been practising for months and getting nowhere. “I hope she’s saving up for lessons,” I mutter.

In a department store, I need to powder my nose and head for the toilet. A gathering of Muslim women is blocking the foyer. They’ve kicked off their shoes and are having a prayer session, facing Mecca via the urinals. I navigate through them and point Percy at the wall. If I felt the need to pray while I was in this place, I muse; I would head for the Lingerie Department and meditate among those shapely dummies in flimsy knickers...

Outside, we encounter the last of the Brits; teenage girls with glazed eyes and heads full of din, lugholes bunged-up with earpieces. They could be robots; electronic cigarettes sticking out of their mouths like teats. Further along, a posse of women gather at a bus stop, singing protest songs... They carry placards that announce, “Every woman has a right to abortion.” I avert my eyes. I don’t know the rights and wrongs, but I am scared of madwomen.

A young bum sprawls in a doorway, unshaven, unwashed and unkempt, begging for, “Any loose change.” The Asian shopkeeper comes out and moves him on. “I hate this place,” growls the bum, as he stands in the rain wondering where to waste his life next, a derelict on a sea of hopelessness. The guy needs a job. He should link up with that gypsy woman. They’d make a great team. He could take over the accordion and attract attention with the cacophony. She could squat beside him, carving pegs out of twigs and hissing curses at anyone who won’t buy. Find your niche... that’s the road to success.

On the way home, we see that a main police station has closed-down and the building is up for sale. Nearer home, the police station has gone on part time. The law has capitulated and I’m reaching for the whisky bottle.

Honour the Alter Ego
I see there were plans to erect a 6 foot statue of a football referee in a park in Cambridge. That’s where they drew up the rules of Association Football in 1863. But the PC Diversity Equality Squad said the statue was too male and too white, so it was called off. Seeing that all Association Football referees from 1863 to 2013 have been male and white, the statue of a white bloke seemed to hit the nail on the head. But maybe not. People are more complex than they appear. Let’s face it, some of those early referees must have had kinky thoughts. So why don’t we erect statues of their alter egos? Instead of a six foot, white, hairy arsed macho man in referee’s kit, why not have a little mini skirted black girl with the caption, “Big Jock blows the Final Whistle.” Better still, you could apply a nice diversity touch to all our statues. We could have Jolly Jack Nelson in drag, preening himself in Lady Hamilton’s cast-offs, complete with bustle and a balloon coming out of his mouth saying, “Kiss me Hardy!” Then there would be Prince Albert in a harlot costume, trying on the crown, with an angry Victoria in her old bloomers, screaming, “We are not amused.” As well as pleasing our PC friends, these updated statues would be a fantastic tourist attraction. We would have armies of Jap happy-snappers scrambling over each other to get pictures of a troupe of Beatles skipping across a zebra crossing, handbags swinging and skirts billowing in the breeze. Others would jostle to be pictured alongside Churchill, done up as a butcher, brandishing a cleaver, shouting, “Some chicken...” at a schoolgirl Hitler, cowering in the ladies toilets, knees together, protective hands over his privates and knickers round his ankles.
 

                       Sam.
            Poky dingy café;
         workmen shout and curse;
      she floats among the tables,
      tending like a nurse.
       She pauses when she sees me;
         breaks into a smile;
      skips behind the counter,
  lingers for a while.
     chatting while she's serving,
      shedding all her pain …
         then, when
                    I am leaving,
                     becomes
                    a nurse again
.


Meet my Stalker
Face at the Window

Week’s Best Headline: “GUN PC CAUGHT IN TRYST WITH HIS TROUSERS ROUND HIS ANKLES... HE COULD STILL REACH HIS WEAPON, SAYS TRIBUNAL” Say no more.


If it’s good when house prices rise, then, logically, it must be good when other possessions cost more, cars etc... Funny old world. 

Oxymoron? Arguing in favour of multiculturalism and a United Kingdom at the same time.

Funny way to run a country: Kick out a decent hard working Indian because his visa expires. Open the door for East European child killers.

 
Dear diary, went shopping with the wife today: Anything worth buying was German. Everything else was Chinese, PS. Bought a pint of British milk.
 
Green Windfarms? We’re gonna lay a £500M cable, to buy French nuclear energy when the breeze don’t blow. “Whistle for a wind, Jim lad!”

Advert in todays post: ARE YOU FEEDING YOUR PROSTRATE AND STARVING YOUR PENIS? ...Hmm I thought the crumbs I put in my Y-fronts fed both.

Girl Guides, run by PC madwomen, now serve “self” and insular “community” instead of God and country. Another step in splintering the UK.
AW Like I say... I’m the fall guy. I said I would like a splash of colour outside the French windows, so Liz brought home these exotic plants from the garden centre. They were beautiful, red patterns on a bright yellow background, “Hand-painted by God,” I thought.
The label said they were “Gazanias.”
“Dodgy,” I thought, “Gazania’s a country. Went there on safari once. Full of lions and mambas and things that give you the squits. So what do the flowers get up to?” Anyway, nothing ventured nothing gained. I put them in the ground and rewarded myself with a whisky-beer chaser, like you do. The next time I squinted out of the window, all these Gazania things were slouching, shoulders hunched, petals over their heads, sulking like Friday night girls when it rains on the queue at the Club Kids. Now I read the label. It says, “Must be in full sun.” Full sun...? We live in Cardiff, the wettest place outside Dogger Bank. We don’t do full sun. So that’s another thirty quid down the plughole. Like I say... I’m the fall guy.
AW Headline:” The elderly are draining the NHS.” Hang on... I paid the insurance all my working life. Mass immigration is draining the NHS.

 Is it an age thing?

I dunno why, but my logic seems to have been twisted along the way. Some things that appear normal to the rest of humanity, seem out of kilter to me. Take our local surgery – again... One day a couple of weeks ago, Liz was feeling poorly. In fact, she felt she needed a word with a doctor.

So, at 0830. she starts dialling the surgery to make an appointment, like you do. As usual, all she got was the engaged tone until 0825. Then she got through to reception, who told her that, “All the appointments have been taken, so you don’t get to see a doctor today.” That’s not good when you feel ill, but you can’t fault the logic.

Anyway, a week later it was my turn. I had a weird pain, so I thought that I had better get some medical advice. But now, this is my logic, I knew that there was no point in joining the 0830 scramble, only to be told that, “You can’t see a doctor today.” So I waited until the rush was over, then I dialled and asked to make an appointment for the following day, which was Thursday. Clever?

A woman with a mechanical voice, who sounded as if she had swallowed a computer, answered me. She said, “Appointments for the day are released in the morning.”

“I don’t want an appointment today,” I told her, “I want if for tomorrow.”

“Appointments for the day are released in the morning,” she told me, “call tomorrow.”

“But it takes half an hour to get through,” I told her, “and by then all the appointments are taken.”

“Appointments for the day are released in the morning,” the computerised person replied, “call tomorrow.”

“Friday?” I ventured.

“Appointments for the day are released in the morning,” she repeated mechanically.

“Say I want to see Dr X?” I wondered.

“Dr X has an appointment vacant next Wednesday,” said the mechanical one...

Now this is where my logic falls down. If they only release appointments on the day in question – so you can’t book them one or two days in advance – how come you can book them a week in advance, like next Wednesday. See what I mean? I’m out of kilter.

Says here: “Two lesbians went to a fire station for help - handcuffed together for SM and lost the key.” Lucky they weren’t top’n’tail...
Scaremongers are at it again. Now they tell us that summer causes the hot weather.
Brilliant cartoon. Caption says: “Fracking, the plus side.” Picture of cracks in the earth with the tops of wind turbines sticking out.
Daily Mail quote: “gay Stephen Twigg snatched the seat from Michael Portillo in the 1997 Blair landslide.” If the earth moves, just grab.
Froggy Hollande has a hissy fit when he hears that the CIA spies on the EU. What does he think spooks do?
 
Agnostic Agnostic
When I was a kid they made me pray. There was a war on at the
time, so the main bargaining point in any prayer-deal was that
if I was goo... not as bad... God must let our side win. Which,
fair doos to the bloke, he did. However, another part of the deal
fell down badly, because I asked him to, “Bless all our
soldiers, sailors and airmen and keep them safe.” This last
bit didn’t come off. I knew  that because, every day, our local
rag sported a list of the latest hometown war-dead. So,
for me, God fell at the first post and I matured into a
potential agnostic.
As time went by I developed a cynicism for the very idea
of prayer. “It’s ridiculous,” I thought, “for me, a grown man,
to expect another grown man, i.e. – God, to sit there, up
in  the sky, and hear and understand every prayer in
every language that comes
bellowing out of his loudspeaker
from every quarter of the globe. “Even madder,” I thought, “is
to expect this guy to attempt to fix everyones’ problems at the
same time.” With those words, I closed the book and became
a fully-fledged doubter.
But hang about. Here’s me, today, wandering around my
personal neck of the woods, and asking my satnav, in my
language,  to,  “Guide me,” to some obscure alleyway in
some one-horse town that even my neighbours haven’t
heard of – and it does. And, I presume that, at the same
time, millions of other people are, in their own language,
asking similar questions about their space in their part of
the world,  and getting... “Guidance.”
Now, as an agnostic, my argument has always been, “I’ll
believe  it if you prove it.” So, true to my beliefs, I think
God’s a satellite.

Sitting here on the patio in the cool of an evening, sipping whisky. Lone birds, wending home across the heavens; fleecy cirrus,
pink-tinted by the setting sun, drifting in from the sou’west, like
exotic  fish in my vast aquarium of deepening blue sky. Bedtime
rooks shout from the copse beyond the roofs, last of the birds
chirping in the trees; flowers closing for the night, cool air
drifting in with  a damp night-smell of nearby fields where a
crow coughs and scours for supper, cat slinks by with wicked
eyes, on the prowl for a vole or mouse... I open a beer and
thank God that my love is by my side.


Wife of Bank of England guv says teabags waste paper and wreck
the planet. Maybe Basildon Bond eats a bit of rain forest, but
Brooke Bond?
 
image

Wick Marine Radio Station, Caithness, Scotland, GKR (Now defunct)
While you’re passing why not pop inside and see the actual staff demonstrating
how they react when they intercept a distress call from a ship.
The film was made in the 1960s, the era of my two true stories Fated and Sailing with Hunters.
I’m the guy who talks to the French ship. Grab a glass of something and come inside by clicking HERE

Time to get back to the present day rat race.
TIMES SQUARE NEW YORK
Click HERE to join the fun.