Saturday 4 May 2013

It's Curtains for Me.



Life was hectic this morning.  I was out on the rusting bike by five past six, cycling slowly around as I refound muscles unused for a month.  Before seven I had cleaned the window.  That is I moved the plant, books and other detritus that have blocked it since Adam was a boy and mucked it out.  Then I replaced the curtains after their annual Spring wash, or is it bi-annual, I forget?  How long does it takes to place the brutes on the runner?  Why on earth does the bit to stop them running of the end not go back on?  What woman designed this thing anyway?  After almost killing myself hanging on to the brute, screwdriver in hand to turn the screw that would not turn, I gave up and am happy to let them hang badly until the next wash.  I then went for veg, had breakfast, had a 30 minute kip, far from curtains, and it was not even nine by the time I had finished grumbling my way through the online papers.  The light mornings do make it easier to get things done.

Later I decided to wander through the town watching the citizens rush about eager to get the shopping done.  Quite why such folk go shopping when the town is busy I never understood, and it's always the same people!  Try shopping early, or late even, and then you need not fret so.  I meanwhile smugly promenade.  This eventually took me past the cricket ground where the local team were struggling to beat their opponents.  I still find this a strange game this cricket.  One man throws a ball at another, he in turn swings a big stick at it.  All around a dozen others loiter in the sun.  A man wearing several hats and a white coat every so often makes strange hand signals, possibly Morse code I suspect, and after every thrown ball missed by the one with the big stick the others cry "Well done," and applaud even though nothing has happened.  You quickly realise this game was invented by an Englishman!  "Play up! Play up, and play the game!" This is what it says on the mural outside Lords Cricket Ground, once the home of cricket itself, until India nicked the game.  Yet the English have always cheated.  I watched the excitement for a while, none of the gentlemen noticed me, and I was impressed by the response of the other team members gathered around the scoreboard, they too were happily ignoring the, er, action!


One interesting aside from the County Council election came in the constituency for the other half of town.  The UKIP candidate was named as Philip Avramovich Maximenco PALIJ.  This made me laugh, as do those folks called Conneletti or Patel who stand as candidates for the Scottish Nationalists!


You may find this LINK useful at some time.




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10 comments:

Unknown said...

Alas, the title to this piece held such promise...

Helen Devries said...

The link explains a lot of political speeches.....

And yes, the hallowed founders of the game of cricket cheated like....the 'gentlemen' they claimed to be.
The life of Lord Frederick Beauclerk is instructive for those wishing to know how to lie, cheat and bully while laying down the law to others.

alan1704 said...

There is nothing quite like a game of cricket - The only game where everyone is not sure of the rules. Wonderfully English.

Mo said...

Cricket is a total mystery to me, as is the new found fame of UKIP

Mike Smith said...

I asked the woman next door to me why she never closes her curtains but she wouldn't be drawn...

Adullamite said...

Jerry, Sorry to disappoint.....

Helen, Ah yes, political speeches came to my mind also.

Alan, Beautifully put!

Mo, As a Scot I never indulged, but the English have a Strange mentality. UKIP will soon blow over however when the Tories change their ways.

Lee said...

Charles W. Kirsch by name and member...of the male gender, that is, was the MAN who invented the curtain rod/runner.

Jenny Woolf said...

What a fabulous sunset! And that reminds me. Time to wash my curtains. I wish I hadn't thought of that. Think I will switch to washing them every other year.

Adullamite said...

Lee, Kirsch was henpecked! It's well known.

Jenny, That's the best way I find.

Lee said...

He should've stayed out of the fowl house, then!!