Biscuits or Taking the Biscuit?

First job today was to fill the biscuit barrel.  An exciting job as I am never quite sure as to what will result.  Today I had once again produced two lots of very thick biscuits, though some may object to the use of that term.  Junk food is an alternative opinion of some.  

Whether such beats made of imitation 'Stork,' flour, oats and syrup from a plastic bottle are healthy and nutritious is a debate I will not waste time upon.  I have noted however, that my weight has increased since I made the last lot, not that long ago.  

Maybe I ought to try selling them at the monthly market, without giving my address, obviously.

I note Ed Milliband has suddenly appeared on TV informing the world that he did not trust Mandelson.  This is indeed true, he kept well aware from him when he failed as Labour Leader.  Now he is reappearing, alongside Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham, and I expect our friend Wes Streeting with be stabbing other cabinet ministers in the back, all to take the place of the soon to depart Prime Minister.

Are any of them worth it?

Half the cabinet is owned by Israel.  Whoever takes over has to deal with that one way or another.   

In the meantime we await the news from No 10.  Who will Israel appoint as its next lackey?

I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue.

 

These programmes have appeared on YouTube recently, well, I have just found them there, and these have been making me laugh at times, almost laughing too much.  Of course they tend to have episodes that are a wee bit too crude for us decent folks, but they are funny other than that little drawback.  

I find it strange that someone is able to make money from these old programmes, it must be legal or it would have been stopped.  

I much prefer the older versions with Humphrey Lyttleton, the Toff, educated at Eton, served in the Grenadier Guards, and became a beatnik while also becoming the UKs leading  Trad Jazz trumpeter.  A firm favourite with Jazz lovers everywhere, and plays a grumpy host awaiting a gig in Hull extremely well throughout each series.

Worth a listen at least once.

Day Trip

Tuesday saw me travel down to Liverpool Street Station to meet a friend.  This is becoming a habit.

The smooth train, for the most part, people quiet, getting busier as we neared Liverpool Street itself, and without a cow on the line, signal failure, or pedestrians blocking the line at Shenfield we made it on time.  

This time I found I had forgotten my wallet so he generously paid for the coffee and cake.  A place called the 'Black Sheep,' fed us by inserting the details on a screen on the wall, watching another screen as your number informed you of the orders progress, and going to the bar to collect.  However, even he with a Cambridge degree could not make it work, so he talked to the young woman at the bar and got through via a human.  

Another good time, another tip back though this time I got an early train and changed at Chelmsford.  With the wait I took out the mobile and found the camera is not very good.  I forgot to take his picture, rather annoying as as he moves away I might never see him again.  

Having retired from leading a church they are now heading off into the seaside parts of the world.  Even if their house sells for a good bit they will not find a cheap one where they wish to go.  Having not seen him for years it was a good time.  

I cogitated on the return on housing.  How do you house so many people?   These five storey flats look quite good, but so many, so close together, no escape from people or noise at any time.  I wonder if any have been sold?  

Even these green fields are being planned for housing.  In some areas early building work has commenced, and I doubt these will be much needed council homes.  Anyway, I got home, via Tesco, where I was so tired by now I bought plenty, but forgot to buy my dinner.

Sunday Sermon

 

Cat

Meet Cheeky.  This was our cat a great many years ago.  I mention him because of a clip on Twitter of a Turkish mayor.  He was sitting in his chair, addressing the meeting of the council when a kitten appeared climbing up upon him.  Laughter all around as the kitten rubbed itself onto his face, climbed up onto his shoulders and eventually he was seen trying to settle it on his knee.  He can control a budget and a police force but kittens are harder to deal with.  

Cheeky, back in the early 70s, would lie on me until 1:30.  Then he would wake me, force me downstairs, through the stair back door, pictured here, and stare into the gardens meaningfully.  Quite how I got the picture I canny mind.  After his study of the land he took off round the building, I went to the front stair door where he returned, but only half way in, so he could examine the darkness in the front area.  All the time he was seeing things I could not see.  Satisfied, he went back upstairs, climbed upon me as I tried to sleep, and did this night after night!

 We were given the cat as a kitten.  My brother-in-law worked in Bathgate's truck plant where the factory cat had given birth to 8 kittens.  He took one for the kids, but they were too young to appreciate the care required, and he was to violent a kitten for them.  This meant he was dumped upon us, and lived a full life.  He took to owning us, and ensuring we followed his advice.  When my young niece was living with us he took to drinking tea from her cup.  We obtained a new cup for her, but any time we had tea Cheeky also had to have one, or he gave us one of those Margaret Thatcher glares.  

This got me to thinking about the public up and down the land all obeying the dog, cat, parrot or exotic animal that owns their house.  Big or small, the creature is lord of the manor, all have to meet the animals needs and all must obey his moods.  Failure to obey can cause trouble.  

Rescue animals often require further help.  My sister was given a cat a while after her man died, this was to keep her company.  The rest of the family are afraid of it!  He does not like being touched, disturbed or you being near, but he will remind my sister re feeding and bedtime.  He also wakes her at 3 am to have his head scratched.  Reiko, is a step back from this, but both animals having been badly treated before are coming round to the new home.  It takes time but will have some degree of success.

Money is made with animals!

Around £10 Billion is spent on animals each year in the UK.  A dog costing around £500 for food, depending on how you feed it, a cat less so, at least that is what they say.  Insurance might be more for a dog, but vet fees are huge at all times, the majority of vets now being owned by US conglomerates, so prices rise.   Animals are more fun than a child, and less expensive, some say.  Girlfriends are of course more expensive...

Artemis II

Wired

Artemis II flew around the moon recently, the media everywhere was full of praise.

Why?

I saw them fly around the moon many years ago, and then I sat up late at night watching a man or two walk around on the moon itself.  Unless it was staged in Arizona of course.

Several US men walked across the moon, the Chinese, who years before had photographed the back side of the moon have also been landing things there.  NASA have machines crawling across Mars so why all the excitement about a well chosen crew, political correctness enforced, flying around it once again while sending back more photographs similar to those we already had 70 years ago?

Now such activities are difficult, much easier with today's computers in comparison with the ones from the past.  Those were less powerful than my calculator, but they made it there and back again.  

Could it be that this was another excellent opportunity to praise the power of the United States while avoiding talking about the child rapist in the White House and the war he lost while following Bibi's orders?  Flying around the moon is not easy, but propaganda has always been easy, and we have some here in front of us.

'Communities,'  what does this mean?

Every day and everywhere you go this word crops up.  Governments and councils talk about 'Helping our communities,' what?  What communities?  This town has around 40,000, how many 'communities' are there within?  

There are the old and the young, those working and those disabled, shops and shoppers, transport links and users, what communities can they mean?  People get involved with the gym, or the pub, kids work or libraries, volunteering or mini cabbing, what do they mean by communities unless they mean people living and doing what they do in town?  

The word 'communities,' implies lots of different communities.  In a town there is only one, the people living there, and many of them we do not wish to have near us, is this a 'community?'  Various colours can be seen, is communities a word used to integrate or divide?  Tell me!   I once heard a London police officer, under stress from the press, say "We are in the community to help the community for the sake of the community."  Whatever that is supposed to mean I fail to comprehend.  

There are no 'communities, only people.  These live in cities, towns and villages, those are their community, but they do not always like one another, so is it a community, or just people living near one another?  

Language changes constantly, sometimes the words used ought to be dropped in my view.

Heritage railways

Geof Sheppard

It's that time of year again.  The time when the once great railway engines from the past race at 25 mph across the countryside bringing joy to many, and an occasional fire to the farmers.  

These trains do not reach excessive speeds these days, they travel on lines that once connected small places to large, brought milk, vegetables, and meat into town centres, and brought people a life they could never have experienced before 1825 as walking was for most the only travel option.  By 1851 travel between Edinburgh and London, that took up to 14 days by stagecoach, was shortened to 12 hours, give or take a breakdown or two.  By 1914 railways covered the land, and indeed much of the rest of the world, the real superstar of the 19th century.  Railways changed the world in a way nothing else had until computers came into desktop size.  

The West Somerset Railway, not only covers a line that was ended by the 'Beeching Report,' back in the 60s, it covers it with cameras at many of the stations.  Thus we can see how life was, and the many tourists and holiday makers making the most of it, as the steam engines or aged diesels make their way from Bishops Lydeard to  Minehead.  The sounds are evocative.  A train leaving the station brings back memories for many over, er 35, and as it chuffs away the image of such trains, black and often only basically treated by the late 60s, comes to mind.  Other sounds also stir the heart, the slamming of doors, the cries of the porters, the seagulls cry as the sea is not far from many stations on this line.  How many took this train for a day out, or later for the one weeks holiday granted them, by the sea?      

Today this railway teaches and informs many young of a daily life now long gone.  Some would bring it back, but once it has passed it must remain in the memory and the heart, but never return, todays trains are really much better, and the fireman no longer is required to shift several tones of coal each trip.  I bet he is glad about that.  Also, the young lads, 13 or 14, who had to start work at 2 or 3 am and clean out the smouldering fires from engines that had finished their day, or build the fire on those preparing to work.  Fine in July and August, terrible in winter!  They would consider todays railway much better for their health I think.

Easter Sunday 2026

 

Fruit!

This off colour picture reveals the latest fad.  A mix of South African Figs (fresh, reduced ), raisins (South Africa), Blueberries (Peru), Medjool Dates (Jordan, the best ones) Strawberries (Spain, also reduced), and I forgot to add the apple and orange that were far from me.  Add to this single cream and I have my fruit for the day.

Several short jet trips, soon to cease as there will be no fuel because of the child rapist in the White House, a little pollution and a vast increase in profit for Mr Sainsburys and 'fresh' fruit is on my table.  Quite how fresh this is can be questioned.  Peru is six thousand miles away from here, Spain a shot flight, South Africa another continent away, so how 'fresh' is fresh?

I find Blueberries last several days in the fridge, strawberries about an hour!  However, I like these dates and even though I actually prefer dried figs I will have more of these even if £2 a go.  Tesco will be cheaper and they have more choice than the 'get rich quick' people at Sainsburys.  

Such delicacies were unknown in my childhood.  Moroccan dates Christmas, in a long box with a plastic or wooden stick inside, could be found, but not during the year.  Figs were heard off, raisins common, probably because they were cheapest fruit, strawberries were a luxury but only in season.  Blueberries of course we had never heard off, brambles found on hedges sometimes could be obtained, some folks gathered them to make jam.  

It was the arrival of Asians from West Africa in the 70s that changed things.  They offered fruits and veg that only the rich could afford, and then they offered them at an affordable price.  Opening their shops for longer hours and stocking almost everything under the sun made them popular and very useful.  

Such luxury items are good for the health, and keep you on the run...

Good Friday

 

Mons Meg