Bleak Fair

Poor man has arrived here once again when the weather is gray and chilly.  He should know by now he rarely sees the sun when he arrives.  The shows themselves change each year, what once was lots of roundabouts this year is almost entirely bouncy castles!  The few kids I saw as I passed were happy enough with that mind.  Poor man had three of his expensive banners ripped by a passing thug late one night so already he is out of pocket.  With the weather as it is I suspect he will be struggling to break even.  A rather risky business travelling the country.

This is the only picture I have taken since being out the other day.  Dreich weather has put me off going anywhere.  On the other hand I have watched lots of football and spent a lot of time asleep!

There was a time when I never seemed to have time to myself, now I have plenty.  One of the advantages of my position is the lack of need to rise early, struggle to work by bike, bus or other means, spend a long day with people determined to ruin my life, earn too little cash, sometimes enjoy the life and often wish I could be elsewhere.  Now all I need is a large donation of twenty pound notes to ease the day.  

Actually having most of my needs met, the house with swimming pool is still outstanding, I suspect I may use such cash to travel around taking pictures or spend too much time in bookshops, charity and proper, lining the bookshelves with worthwhile and entertaining reading.  Finding decent bookshops is however very difficult unless you live in the big city.  So many have closed because of Amazon that only the strongest survive.  

I mention this because I am once again going through a 'Roman' period.  I am browsing through Tacitus 'Annuls' as find it interesting.  I bought this in a shop when I was looking for his 'Histories' and was fooled by the one word title.  The copy I already possessed is called the 'Annals of Imperial Rome' and the one I bought was a new version again by Penguin.  Fool that I am!  I still have not got the other. Interesting how Rome was governed in such a manner, the Emperor being almost totally powerful yet spending much time wary of others making bids for power, usually women!  Why Harridan Harman never mentions them I do not know.  

The rich and powerful in the senate could also fall from grace and lose their heads if luck goes against them, today they merely move to other lucrative jobs and write about their enemies. Nothing much changes with those in power, it was ever thus.  Jesus, Lord of all, washes his disciples feet, these men build empires to their glory walking over any who get in their way and excuse the deaths and destruction that happen to occur.  Big houses, vast bank accounts with no tax paid, 'Top Gear' used as a shopping mall for cars rather than watched to see three idiots driving, and nothing but enmity from so many around them, all who disappear when the money vanishes.    

I envy them not.

No news in the papers, just election lies, half truths and deception.  Lots more to come I fear.

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Books

Today is it appears World Book day.  This sounds good to me but it appears this is directed only at children!  That is somewhat annoying!  Books are so important as they open the world  to us. Everything involving human life, both good and bad, can be found on convenient small paperback books somewhere in this world.  I accept that most waste their lives by reading story books rather than something useful but nonetheless a vast library is available to us all.  

It is a wonder that writing took so long to emerge some three and a half thousand years BC.  The needs of trade among a growing population brought versions of writing into use in what is now south Iraq then India and China and South America.  The style was very different from today and tales until then spoken or acted by travelling minstrels were written down on a variety of materials. The clay tablets bearing Cuneiform writing found in Nineveh in the 19th century were only part of a huge library Assurbanipal collected during his forty year rein.  What is lost is the parchments that decayed during their stay under the sand or indeed were burnt during the loss to the victorious Medes an Persians.  The fantastic thing is that we can read their words today - in translation!  While no Akkadian books gather dust on the shelf those written in Greek or Latin do.  Not only but once copied laboriously onto long scrolls by hand we now have the delight of the concise books we see above.  How much easier it is to read today than it was 500 years B.C?

     
There is a strange fascination in reading the words of those who lived thousands of years ago.  No longer just a dot in history but a real individual struggling with the same problems facing us today, but with less complicated technology.  The sad thing is that many did not leave behind writing, often just designs on walls and large structure difficult to interpret.  If only Stone Age man could have found a way of communicating with us, or the people who wandered over the earth into China or South America.  What stories they could tell.  Indeed they would have been telling stories to one another, the lure of the 'soap opera' sadly is always with us!  Tales of daring do, romance and history of the people must have been told and retold for centuries before writing arrived.  Some are still kept in the tribal tales of some peoples.  

This World Book Day sounds as if they are scared kids do not read but as billions of books are thrust at them each Christmas and many happily read daily I see no problem.  They must use computers, there is no way of avoiding this, but they do read that is why so many books for the little horrors exist.  The brighter child reads about the subject that interests him, the dumb one reads stories but they read and this can only be a good thing.  One day this will pay off when reading the small print on all those documents that we face in our free world!

Oh and by the way, this one is still available:- Amazon

  

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Books

If there is one thing I could waste cash on it would be books.  Having bought a Gift Card from W.H.Smith the other day I was suddenly grabbed by a desire to get my £5's worth from my £5 off a purchase over £20 voucher.  The nonsense in spending money to save money when you don't require what you are buying does not escape me.  However I went forth regardless!  This enabled me to avoid the dusting, hoovering and other women's work that lay before me. Anyway I could not find the scraper to remove the dust from the mantlepiece.
After a great deal of pondering amongst the limited stock on view I made my decision, obtained three books, paid the surly, half dead employee (a grand example of why people under 21 should not be employed), and made my way home with a smile on my face.  
Much later, after lunch I made off to the shops, just to get out of the housework again, and found myself perusing the charity shops bookshelves.  Like W.H.Smiths trash dominates these shelves.  In this area tons of women's book line the shelves, with the '50 Shades of Gray' continuing to take an ever larger share there.  So large a share that the Dan Brown books are being shoved aside and sometimes even bought!  The nearby charity shop happened to provide me with another couple of tomes of interesting detail I hope, and I happily took them to the aged crone at the counter.  Bones creaking she struggled to her feet, considered slowly and demanded a pound.  Proffering a coin I smiled, a smile I offered just to annoy her as she appeared incapable of this action, and wandered home through the throng of grumpy Christmas shoppers gloating that my Christmas gift and card shop was over.
When I got home I realised I needed another card for someone I forgot! Bah!
Later I piled up the books I am reading, the ones I have to read, and pondered whether I need to review the way I am working through all these volumes.  I confess some are not easy reads, occasionally a book will begin to weary, and sometimes something arises that makes me head off in another direction.  By such methods I have a dozen books half read all over the place.  Now and then a book grips me so hard that I can do nothing but read through the thing, no matter what, but usually I plod along happily, pretending I understand all the big words and bigger ideas on offer.  On occasion I actually comprehend what they are saying, but this is rare.  
You will note none of these are story books, I do not harbour them.  Actually I lie, one I obtained in the charity shop was a Victorian detective novel set in Edinburgh, long before Ian Rankin arose with his rather dark books.  I think he needs some attention myself.  Story books are of low interest to me, I prefer the real world but now and then I will attempt a book that calls itself literature!  
Now I am writing this I am unable to read any of the books on the dusty shelf. There are just not enough hours in the day!

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Now I'm not one to Complain, but.....

I went down to board the 'Worst Bus' this morning and found it living up to it's name.  Who, I wish to know, considers using a single decker bus on a busy route that includes hordes of degenerates heading for Sixth Form College?   The bus filled with them, and at each stop, so many stops, more got on each one absorbed in his 'iPad' (who pays?), 'Walkman' or discussing (loudly) their lives with their neighbours!  The ability to absorb knowledge concerning the important subjects that cause the poor dears such trauma come exam time appears not to include an ability to move from the front door of the bus until the driver chides them, blocking access or escape, and general consideration for others!  Bah!  In my day we had jobs and kept the wheels of industry turning, none of this needless education until we sign on for three years for my generation.  On top of this the brats had the best seats, my late arrival meant I had one of those low slung seats where the sun is enabled to burn your face as you travel.  Oh joy!

Naturally all these creatures left the bus at my stop thus blocking the pavements for miles around and folks with important shopping had to force their way through as they discarded their breakfasts across the streets.  However was it worth the effort?  No it was not!  The desperately required jacket was not available in any shop that I entered, well once or twice something similar was on offer, at prices ranging from £65 - £180!!!!!  Yer having a laff pal!  In BHS (I think, they all look the same to me) not only did they almost have what I wanted, almost at the price I might pay but having a stand of some sort of cards next to the jackets, so close that I knocked the some off the rack, picked them up, as others fell, picked them up, carried on with my research while knocking more cards, hooks they were hanging on and then more cards off the rack, which I then just dumped on the floor under the stand.  Enough looking at their prices with restocking their display stands I thought.  No member of staff moved, or appeared to care.  I lost interest in the jackets and there were no lingerie nearby to ensure I remained in that store either!

  
The 'Castle' is undergoing a major renovation that must be costing millions of pounds.  Our little museum will be doing similar shortly.  The miserly government that happily encourages massive losses on privatised industries, MOD spending, and Tax dodging by their friends, has cut funding for 'Heritage' projects UK wide.  No moneyed friends in this business obviously, so all such organisations have to go into debt to prepare for self funding.  Many will close I foresee.  This little exhibition in the gardens can be given a well deserved Gold Star in my view.  They may have stolen Edinburgh's Chinese Pandas but they have done this very well.

St Botolph's admirable doorway.  Standing next to the old priory ruins mentioned earlier this year this impressive building is hidden behind the main road.  Once upon a time it must have been in an open space I reckon.  I called this 'impressive,' but really is dark gray, darkened by years of smoke soot, really the best brick to use for such a building?  At least this building is still in general use. 

It's tower is quite tall, too tall for my wee camera.

Good news and bad news!  The good news is the discovery of a proper bookshop!  Hooray!!  The bad news is the fact that it is closing down!  Boo!!  The only real bookshop, and this is a very real bookshop, in Colchester is about to end its days.  The owner is retiring, not going bust, so the shop surely can continue, however no-one is keen to take over and keep the shop open, this is very sad news indeed.  The shop contains lots of shelves, lined up in such a way as to make browsing enjoyable.  Books of all types are found there, even in boxes on the floor, with much more upstairs.  A proper bookshop with knowledgeable friendly staff and with no intention of buying books today, indeed I rushed about the Oxfam Bookshop with a less than friendly member of staff, as books were not in my mind today, yet I found myself missing my bus having browsed with no intention of buying for forty minutes.  As however the shop is closing and all books a re Half Price I managed to buy three for a mere £5, less than I thought as I did not really calculate the cost as I browsed, very unlike me I hear you say.  A wonderful place to go, especially when you have not found a proper bookshop for many year.  Want an investment?  Buy this shop!

St John's Gate is all that remains of a Benedictine Abbey built C.1400.  After the 'Peasant's Revolt' in 1381 it was decided to strengthen their defences, how these folks helped the poor eh?  After the English Civil War and Henry VIII all that remains is this gate.  Does it go anywhere?  I know not as I had no time, or energy, to clamber over all the roads to find out.  Shooting into the sun is not easy, especially as I had to cut out the road signs that made fitting the gate into a picture.  

At the bus station I decided to stay alive by spending big on a coffee.  Normally I would not waste my cash on such, grossly overpriced coffee from the abundant cafe's never appeal to me,  yet as I was close to death after running around I considered it worth a gamble.  "Cheapest Coffee Please," I requested, and was given the cheapest (£1:50) by the helpful friendly chap at the stall. Poor man, his sales are increasing while the weather deteriorates but he also is suffering from the weather, which will make him deteriorate as time passes.  However the coffee was good and kept me alive, much to many others displeasure, and I may well head for this place next time I am in town.

Happily the bus home appeared as a double decker!  I smiled smugly to myself and soon lost the leering grin as other degenerates appeared from cracks in the pavement and boarded in their turn.  At least upstairs I got a decent view from the front, everything looks better from high up. However the bus decided to pick up all the old folks with free bus passes ("cough!").  They take their time boarding, each stop provided more of them, and indeed at each stop we stopped!  I was beginning to wonder if we would ever leave the town and arrive at the countryside again.  After a short lifetime, and I have had a few of those, we eventually found the open road.  This, naturally, was blocked by a rubbish lorry and the following parade of vehicles each one determined to get through in spite of the bus blocking their progress!  Bah!  

When we eventually arrived at the village with its narrow streets we found a white van man buying his lunch.  His van allowing cars past but not our bus.  The driver had to get out and chase him from 'Spar' before we could continue.  Arriving in town again and dreaming of lunch he stopped the bus on the outskirts and switched off the engine.  Sighs, deep and heartfelt, were heard throughout the bus.  We have all been there, the bus stops and an announcement, "We have broken down, a replacement will be along soon."  The bus companies use of the word 'soon,' might breach the trades description act!  However after a radio conversation including the words, 'red button comes on,' and 'bus station,' we began to believe we might make it home.

We did, and I decided that I will adjust the hours in which I travel, but I must travel back there, the bookshop closes in October and it is a great shop.  Now I must find some money for my next trip, and I forgot all about the jacket....

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