Iceland Make me Giggle.

The sad faces around town today after England's ignominious defeat by Iceland in the European Championships has really made my day.  All the vehicles yesterday festooned wth little England flags are suddenly  without them and nobody wishes to bring them back to memory.
It's a giggle innit?
Naturally I have said little, few at work care, but it is clear if I play my cards correctly I can wander round to the 'Iceland' supermarket and carry one of their bags for a few days in an irritating manner just for fun.  Well fun for me anyhow.
The TV & radio appear disinterested in the result.  An attempt at hanging them all has been underway but there is no real heart in it.  Before they went they knew deep inside they would fail so resentment is hard to collect.
In fact so little trouble was caused in this small town that it took over an hour before a set of blue flashing lights made its way towards the pubs.  In the past it would take around ten minutes for trouble to brew.  
Ah well, real football begins on Thursday anyway.

     
A hard slog today.  Suddenly I was ordered to dig out material so that we could put something in the local paper.  
"When do you want it?" I foolishly asked. 
"By three!" Shae replied.
 Yikes! It's half one now!
Coming home the workman was next door and he started to ask about his dead uncle who served in the war.  Foolishly I began a search.  Finding nothing Idiscovered I had ten minutes to send something I had not done by email.
Doing said project I discovered it was a daft idea.  So I did another relevant one and sent it on.
"Good."  Came the reply,  "I can make use of this mess and rewrite in English."
Happily I relaxed.
"And I want a full blog on this NOW!" 
I have started it and have been given the impression it must be in by tomorrow or bits will be cut off.
Women are such hard taskmasters.
I have not had my siesta because of this and I feel the lack of it now.
Bah!

Spy Woman, Fat and Mess

Last night, as there was no football to stimulate the mind, I wandered round to the museum to hear a talk on Krystyna Skarbek by a local author Clare Mulley.  It seems this was a well to do Polish lass who  was a bit of an adventure seeker.  When the Germans invaded she was in South Africa for reasons I forget and made her way to London and offered herself for spy work.  The British of course had no women in such roles and espionage and behind the lines work was considered somewhat dangerous for wee lassies early in the war.  Later when things were organised several women died, often horribly, for work behind the lines in France.
Eventually Krystyna got work via the Polish forces and spent some time gathering information and boyfriends along the way, I told you she was adventurous, predatory possibly one said.  She worked in dangerous situations in Europe with a husband/boyfriend I forget which there were lots, and only by feigning TB did she manage to get the Germans to throw both of them out.  Their escape across Europe led them to Cairo where the British considered her a German double agent!  Lifes like that.
Later from London she entered France and worked alongside several others annoying the Germans before and after D-Day.
She was awarded many medals including a George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery, an OBE and the Croix de Guerre plus the usual things.  Not bad for a wee lassie.  She also ended up with two husbands, several men and lots of associations.  As the Soviet KGB also knew about her she was of no use after the war to the British spy network so she was dumped.  She was also refused British citizenship, something this continues today where such folks are concerned, but eventually settled under one of her many names in London. 
Here however an angry boyfriend stabbed her to death and ended her life in 1952.  A somewhat sad end to a woman of adventure and er, romance.
The talk was interesting even though the acoustics are not great and my hearing failures meant I missed much of it.  I would have bought the book but through no fault of my own I ended up washing the cups! 

Before the thunder & lightning returned this morning I headed East into the sun on my rusty old bike and made my way around town in an effort to get fit.  I got stiff knees and aching back so this fitness idea is working.  However the weight is creeping up rather than falling and later today as I visited the Turkish Market that appeared the other day for the second time and came home with a large bag of Mediterranean sweet cakes I wondered why?  You know what I refer to?  The Middle East sweet cakes stuffed with healthy things and wrapped in greasy unhealthy stuff?  I love them and rarely see them so I bought too many the other day and foolishly ate them!  I may need to ride the bike to Inverness to lose the weight I am putting on today!   
However I managed to buy the black cord jacket I have been looking for since three years ago for £12 in an expensive charity shop.  This idea of smartening myself up appears to be working.  Now I look like a poor man's Jeremy Clarkson but without the talent!
Good news however football has returned for a while.  Are you not all glad?

Well it worked!  Farage told them what they wished to hear, Boris scared them with talk of millions of immigrants and the people who read the 'Sun,' 'Daily Express' & 'Daily Mail' fell for it.  Now everyone with an Irish ancestor is applying for an Irish passport so they can travel in Europe, buisnessmen will have to fill reams of paper to visit EU nations, young folks are unable to work in EU as they are no longer part of it and even today some nations will not exchange the pounds in tourists pockets because they do not know hos stable the Pound actually is.  Well done Boris!
Interestingly the people who will discuss the leaving strategy have excluded Nigel Farage the rabblerouser who led from the front with his lies.  Poor thing how I feel for him!  
We now have a 'lame duck' Prime Minister who will not do anything to help the Brexit folks who have cost him his job, he cannot bring in legislation as he has no control over his party, the main contenders for his job, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Theresa May are collecting friends and stabbing each other in the back as we speak, well they are stabbing Boris as no Conservative member really wishes him as leader.  George Osborne however has disappeared altogether, where is he?  His faulty handling of the economy, his high handed approach to the nation and his failing budgets mean few Tories will vote for him. The Labour Party is divided and the lack of leadership worrying, The Lib-dems mean nothing and only the Scots nationalists have a clue what to do.
Another independence vote is on the cards soon.  Just see how many companies cross the border and settle in Edinburgh then!  In Ireland even those who wish to remain 'British' and looking for Irish passports, and the Belfast government has no choice but to discuss unity with Dublin.  Europe on one hand laughs, on the other is afraid others will wish to join England.  
All is amiss and if Putin wishes to invade now is the time!

  

No Euro, Music

This was all I saw on TV this afternoon. 
NO FOOTBALL!  On a Sunday!  By three o' clock I was seeing spiders let alone cats! 
By the time I returned from St P's I had developed an appetite having forgotten to eat properly before I went out and combined with hunger and tiredness came the empty TV screen.  No football!
What a cruel world.

While I await the football here is some wonderful music.

Spaced Out Saturday

How the hacks must be happy tonight.  Tim Peake the 'Brit' in space has returned safe.  This means they can move on from the tale of the shot MP and talk about something different.  The caring media love a new story as yesterdays news does not sell, especially when the story has been told and you are merely filling space in both print and sound and vision rather than acting like a journalist.  A new story, and this man has been a news story since he went up six months ago, a new story is a delight to the media.
For me it means nothing.  Certainly he has had fun in space, certainly he has done decent experiments and taught children from up above live into their classroom or school hall, certainly it is a difficult thing to be weightless for six months.  However as a woman 'Brit' has already been up in the shuttle some time ago I fail to see the adventure here.   Add to this the fact that the 'Brit' had to take US citizenship before he could go means that he is now a 'US, Brit' and not a 'Brit!'  Add also the fact that a Russian and an American were also up there with him and they were almost never mentioned at any time and I see the union flag waving as a wee bit of rampant English imperialist xenophobia.  That at least is something they are good at.  I suppose it would be tedious to point out that such flights into space have gone on for years and this man is not therefore that special, so I will not point this out in case it upsets someone.
He knows a great deal, he has done his job, he has had fun but spare us the rest please.

At a few minutes before seven this morning I stopped to allow the defibrillator to be used on me at the top of the slope and cogitated at the sky above.  It may interest you to know that according to some Monday the 20th of June will be the longest day this year, that is the Summer solstice!  Today is the 18th day and the weather is not yet very Summery.  I may have burnt myself on one of the two days hot weather we have so far noted but I wish summer to be more of a length than this.
It's just no fair so it's no!

 
Sad for the relatives and especially the husband of Jo Cox the lass who was gunned down.  The man accused when asked his name in the dock did not answer "Thomas Mair" as he ought but "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain."  One suspects he will be locked up under a law which regards him as mentally insane and unfit for prison but given a kind of life sentence in a secure unit.  
This is hard for some and a friend of mine today notes a year since his wife passed on.  How hard this has been for him even allowing for the many friends praying for him.  In the end he goes home alone and still has that empty space beside him.   Jo Cox's husband is young enough to remarry, and indeed with two young children ought to, but many others are alone and no-one can comfort them.

 
One more football game tonight.  From tomorrow the games will be played at a more social time, five in the evening and eight for the last game.  How glad am I to be able to get some sleep at last!  All this action has been ruining my social life.  Social life in this context is not to be confused with actually having a social life!  My life has however been out of context, I have missed many radio programmes I would otherwise have heard, missed much sleep and trips to far off towns to buy cheap meat and other requirements.  Little has been done in the abode either, not that this makes much difference as you know.  Roll on tomorrow.

Wires

For some reason my eye keeps catching the telephone wires that hang rather untidily around this town.  I suppose when in London I rarely saw such things yet out here they are not hidden.  Often I note the lines and their relationship to the colour of the sky behind (oops, reading too many art mags at work) and know there is a photograph in there somewhere.
Today the black clouds forming in the east (much darker in real life than shown) warned of heavy rain and possible thunder.  This clashed with the bright sun behind me as I sauntered home from my airing this afternoon.  I didn't mean to saunter, I just do!  
The rain came when I settled down to watch the first failing football match of the day.  Another poor effort yet the one that followed was much better.  This was being won by Croatia by two goals to nil until the Croatian fans, or one of the far right gangs of thugs that follow them, threw several flares onto the pitch five minutes from the end.  Sadly for them their opponents the Czech Republic had scored one goal by then and this interruption disturbed both teams allowing mistakes to be made and a penalty given to the Czechs.  A 2-2 draw resulted and EUFA will no doubt sanction Croatia and possibly throw them out!
Croatian fans are notorious for bother.  Racism, flares, fighting, destruction is common enough there during games.  Various right wing gangs are involved, the Croatians supported the Nazis during the second world war and are still inclined to support such policies now, just remember the troubles in the Balkans just a few years ago.  Of course if they survive they may meet England, that might be an interesting outcome.

Unending Euros, Boring Work and Murder

These Euro games are unending.  They are on three times a day every day until the sections have been decided and then some form of normality returns sometime next week.  This means I miss my afternoon siesta when I have to enter the historical world and even on my days off I miss the sleep that my beauty desperately requires and it is beginning to show.
Work today was slow, my mind was slower, little happened to keep me awake and with so many missing the place was quiet.  Much time was spent watching threatening clouds pass over.  These refused to drop rain on the town until after I left and went to Tesco's.  On the way home I was drenched thank you so much!   Fair drookit I was and I had hurried home to watch the Wales v England match in the afternoon.

 
This was a disappointing affair, not only did the referee not allow Wales to win he did allow two lucky goals for England (BOO!) which were not what I or the rest of the world ordered.  Hopefully however the Welshmen can still progress when England (BOO!) lose their last match against Slovakia on Monday while Wales manage to beat shoddy Russia.  Hope spring eternal mush.

Unbalanced gunmen however are not it appears the sole property of the USA.  This afternoon a Labour Member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was attacked in her home town outside her constituency office by a member of the public.  She was it appears both shot and knifed.  A few hours later she sadly died in hospital.  Some reports claim the attacker cried "Britain First," as he assaulted her.
'Britain First' is the name of one of the lunatic far right parties but it could just be that his cry was in some strange way support for Britain leaving the EU which he clearly thought she opposed.  At this time his motives and mental health are unclear however a 52 year old man is in custody and the police are looking for no other regarding this attack.
I grumbled rightly that the gay lobby were using the Orlando assault as an attack on them, their usual 'victim hood' status.  That man chose that club as it was there, and he apparently knew it well, however had that club not existed he would sooner or later have turned his guns on someone somewhere as his problem was not Islamic or gay but mental unbalance.  Today we see the British version of this.  Many questions must be asked, the gun for instance is not something the man in the street here would carry nor find easy to obtain, so where did it come from and what does possessing one say about him?  
What does it say about us?
We tend not to attack people in the normal course but just how much, or indeed little, pressure is required to lead us into a situation where we lash out in anger and destroy another life?   As john Bunyan said when watching a man being taken to be hanged There but for the grace of God go I."
Jo Cox leaves a husband and two children, she was 41 years of age.

Nothing Happened Again

Nothing happened today.  
This is good.  I did walk all the way to the Post Office to post a small packet but nothing else.
The packet contained a small gift for a baby who weighed between 11 and 12 pounds when born.
I enclosed a small cuddly elephant.
Mum and dad are slim and this is the result of allowing a 17 year old to go to Spain with her boyfriend.  Hmmm is it just me that wonders how fat the postman is around there...?
Anyway I slowly pottered my way home via the grassy bits and took in some sunshine.  I am not too keen on this as the day I sat in the sun, shirt wide open to attract women, has left me with a blotched red facade which itches, hurts and reminds me of what a stupid man I can be.  Hot sun is a good idea but not when you are imitating Moby Dick!
Nothing happened on the way back.
Traffic past hastening to important events.  A woman trailed across the field behind a dog, a youth passed stuck to a pink iphone (pink!), and a couple of men in a parked car laughed nearby giving the impression they were coppers watching someones house very badly indeed.  It is no fun being a copper in such situations.  Years back my brother ran a newsagent shop until it nearly killed him and his wife forced him to forget it.  The normal procedure for him was to leave the house at four in the morning where a police car ending his evening shift would almost always collect him and run him down to the shop.  One chilly day this did not happen.  He wandered on down and as he turned the key in the shop door several men flung themselves at him and barged him into the shop.  They were frozen policemen who had been spending the night in the cars watching for an event that did not occur.  Instead of opening the shop my brother was forced to make breakfast for several half dead bored officers.   
The sun shone on the way home, the large clouds gathered and threatened yet more short lived downpours, yesterday the museums lights dimmed and the alarm system went mad as thunder rolled and possibly a lightning flash hit the building.  It took three hours to put that right, I watched.
Nothing continued to happen here however.
I ate an early lunch, around 10:30 and by eleven I was asleep, a point I have since indicated to all those hard at work at that time.
Their replies I do not publish.
Nothing has happened since because the Euro games continued.
Slovenia swept aside Russia, although they almost through it away at the end and another game is about to begin soon, Romania and Switzerland, how wonderful!  I feel sympathetic to those in Aussieland who have to get up in the middle of the night to watch these games I really do, however I suspect none of my friends are among them!
How lucky for the Americans who in between local shootings can watch these games early in the morning while having breakfast!

Euro, Cycling, Gunmen etc

All this Euro football is wearing me out.  Not that the games are that exciting, indeed I have been disappointed with the show so far and this afternoon I spent more time ironing shirts for what I call work than watching Spain struggle against the Czech Republic.  Three games a day at the moment and few really exciting incidents.
However the fitness of such young men was in my mind as I struggled up the old railway this morning.  The slope was steeper today than yesterday, do you think they were working on it to spite me?  Monday brings a different crowd from the weekend as a few have to walk the dog before work and others are met cycling past in haste, especially downhill, to get in before seven o'clock. I joined the retired set and the 'so late it's not worth rushing set' as I dawdled downhill on my way home.   
How would fit footballers find this slope?  Considering that forty years ago most footballers idea of healthy eating was fish and chips, which indeed are good for you, and two or three or more pints of beer, which are less kind, I suspect older footballers would struggle and today's athletes would find cycling up here very easy indeed.  The transformation in footballers fitness is quite something, all based on proper exercise and eating habits.  Must stop, the chips are burning...

    
Ignoring the news for the most part these days gives me a much better understanding of the world around us.  It avoids the news being forced down the throat and allows us to stand back and consider the news we do see.  Take the fuss over the latest mass killing in the US for instance, lots of reactions in the media and much condemnation for those who do not react, also in the media.  This of course is because this time the gunman (I refuse to say 'shooter') chose a gay bar as his target therefore as we know this makes this killing worse in the medias eyes than if it was a run of the mill school shooting.
The With little news other than a killing and the continuing but boring referendum lies the hack journalists must be delighted with a an outrage they can get their teeth into, much lamenting, a great many stories (some true) and an opportunity to ask the eternal 'Why?' question that they know will not be answered.  Others have jumped on the bandwagon, Nicola Sturgeon the Scots First Minister has flown the gayboys flag outside the Scots Parliament in a show of support.  She of course has a deluded view that she can introduce a 'third gender,' and this also gets her support from the younger chattering classes around her, even the English queen sent a message though to be honest she usually does this in any disaster but it is not often quoted.
The arguments rage concerning the motives, hatred of gays, Islamic terrorism or just another unbalanced crank?  Well of course the answer is all three.  This guy was it appears, and I have not tried to delve deeply into the half truths and lies published concerning him, this guy appears to have been influenced by some 'radical' preachers offering an ISIS type approach to Islam, he also was possibly a bit slow in understanding but as he was born in Afghanistan I believe his culture has not developed into a normal US culture.  A culture that carries guns and often shoots people.
Guns, the carrying of anything outside a small pistol in a town or city where there are no dangerous animals walking the streets would be banned in any sensible nation, in the US however almost anyone can walk into a gunshop and leave with a Kalashnikov or even a Second World War anti aircraft gun if they so choose, this must be seen as absurd but for reasons of their own it isn't seen that way by the National Rifle Association!  Carrying a nail file onto an aircraft is seen as dangerous, carrying a sub machine gun is however OK to them!  These are the people who will vote for Trump!
Was this gunman anti gay?  Probably.  Was he an ISIS terrorist?  Probably not but certainly impressed by them.  Was he under orders?  I doubt it, he was just doing what he understood to be his duty before his god.  Such a shame he did not discuss this with others, as is often the case such people act individually with no contact with any varying opinion.
Forty people are dead, possibly more depending on which paper you read, much pain and sorrow is left behind.  While many grieve the gay lobby is making the most of the opportunity to gather support and suppress opposition as they always do.  I wonder if they condemned the killing of just as many in Turkey a short while ago, or the treatment of migrants in several European countries?  It is  a sad fact but this nation and the west in general lives under a fear of Islamic terrorism yet forgets and under reports the plain truth that more Muslims are killed by Muslims than anyone else!
Shia kill Sunni, Pakistan has seen hundreds of thousands killed yet we offer no sympathy, wars in Iraq and Syria are encouraged and paid for by Islamic states (and we give the bombs to Saudi to drop of Yemen's children) and horrendous treatment is offered in many Islamic countries to their own people yet we tend to fear killings here
I fifty people have died here it is a tragedy however thousands have been killed by everyday Americans this year alone and it is taken for granted!  The US Police have killed more than any terrorist this year that's for sure!
I'm irked because the gay lobby are taking advantage of this tragedy while elsewhere suppressing people who disagree with them, I'm irked because people use tragedy for political or personal advantage, I'm irked because until we give ourselves in repentance to Jesus this will continue, lie after lie and tragedy after tragedy.   

On a lighter note I did not get knocked off my bike by a horse on the bridleway this morning.  Finding horses that early is hard in these parts.  Finding ducks at the pond was also difficult, I could hear them making gruff noises but could not see them for the undergrowth.  How lovely that growth is at this time of year.  The overnight rain brought out the deep atmospheric aroma vegetation offers, birds of many kinds singing in the trees enlightens the mood and knowing the trip is downhill now and I will not be impersonating the wee J5 engines that used to puff up and down the slope cheers me greatly.  Getting fit is a good idea but it is killing me!

Weather, Euro 16, Carnival!

The weather being better and my knees being in agreement I toddled around slowly on the bike early yesterday morn.  The aches from this were noticeable this morning as I tried the same trick once again.  However even though the bright and hot sunshine has dissipated somewhat it was decent enough to trundle around for half an hour on the dilapidated bike.  It is always good circling around early in the morning, better when the weather is sunny, the world is different then.  People are often friendlier, quiet streets make movement easy, the near silence allows birds to be heard and today one cat desperately looking for a mate.  Now I am beginning to feel the benefits of slight exercise the weatherman, nasty piece of work that he is, has informed us rain is on the way.  Don't it make you sick!

The football started last night and many things disappointed.  From what little I saw of the opening ceremony I was once again aghast at the irrelevance to what was to follow.  Banal empty music loudly ringing out while absurd and needless dancers bounced about an even more absurd layout.  Why not have some football connection to this?  How about young kids kicking the ball or playing 'keepie up?'  This stuff is rubbish.
The game itself was not worth paying for.  France ought to be winning this tournament and Romania were well on top of them at times.  Disappointing starter game though the winning goal was superb! Today Wales play Slovenia and I will watch this while later England get beat by Russia, that I will enjoy...

The carnival usually has a band of some sort at the front and this year these imitation guardsmen did an excellent job of leading the parade.  The usual assortment of floats, majorettes and other carnival queens passed by.  Thousands lined the streets, well half the population, there is little else going on and kids love it, the sun came out and we all had a laugh.  Money is collected towards a good deed but unfortunately we were out of reach of the buckets catching donations.
  

You are asking "What...?"  I am answering with a shrug.
  

This float carried those deemed 'learning difficulties'  however these two lassies were far from that and just enjoying their time on the float.  how much wine had they before the show I ask?

  
A large group of scooter fans gather weekly in town and they are always present.  This year they were at the back where the smoke filled the air!
I am so busy watching football, Russia are disappointing me badly here, that I am unable to show more of these - until tomorrow!

Euro 16

So the European Championships are upon us at last!  We have waited eons since the end off the last season for some football action - that's about ten days as far as I can see!  Now tonight football returns.  Of course Scotland did not bother going this time as the hotel bills were considered too
 expensive by the SFA suits.  Instead we Scots simply check who England is playing and give them our support. This time it is Russia, a team that can be either great or feeble, Slovenia, who fail to make it but play well and Wales our Celtic cousins who at least have one or two decent players and I look forward to encouraging them to stuff the English imperialists right and proper!
Of course neither will win the thing, France, Germany, Spain and Italy must always be the front runners and one or two others will be able to challenge them this time.  The two Irish sides will put up a good show, scared of no-one and with nothing to lose they will have a hard time as they meet decent sides but hopefully they will put on a good show.
English folks around me are dubious about their chances so I am helpfully indicating to them just how rotten they are in the hope that their depression will stop the needless press hype that follows England everywhere.  The English press work on the principle that they call them 'heroes' and 'greats' and when they lose the knife is then stuck in and they crucify them, objective fact is ignored to sell grubby papers.
At least there will be something to watch in the evening as the sun goes down.

At this point I was going to scribble a new topic of enduring importance however I notice it is getting near time for the first game tonight so I must go and prepare.....