Breakfast Grumbling

Having forgotten to eat properly yesterday I struggled to work out why I was so knackered last night.  In the end I worked it out.  Therefore, this morning I sauntered off to the café, the one I was going to was shut, I hope this is because of a holiday as they fill me up much better, and at the town's most popular eating place I found a seat in the corner, under the chefs cooking area. 

From here I had a good view, ignoring the two people sitting at the next table by the window, a good view of those coming and going and passing by outside.

For me it is unusual to sit people watching.  However, I was intrigued by what I was watching.  The number of fat young women for instance, not counting the ones carrying a child.  The lack of dress sense from almost everyone who passed, not counting those in work wear.  The weather indicated light outfits and for the most part this was what was to be seen, but a possibility of rain meant some protection, like my cheap jacket, was noted.  But the mixture of styles made me wonder where some folks get their ideas from.  Putting aside those faces covered in metal and chains, the fantastic perversion of fashion that appeared was laughable at times.  Have some folks no mirrors?  What TV shows do they copy?  Do they not realise those on TV programmes dress for the show, they do not dress like that at home.  

I was in danger of becoming one of the old maids who sat in Jenners café taking the world apart.  Yet it surprised me how the town has changed in the near 30 years I have been here.  The number of foreign faces has increased vastly.  When I came there were one or two black faces, and the owners of Chinese and Indian takeaways only.  There are a great many more today.  Indian, Arab, Asian of a few varieties, and the Turks who run this excellent café.   Allowing for two attempts to burn down the mosque, one man getting 3 years for his attempt, there appears to be little objection to this from most in the town.  Certainly many complain the place is dangerous at night, forgetting this was the case when they were young and did not notice this then, but rarely it seems to me are the foreign incomers responsible.  Drugs and the usual criminal, drink cause most crime in town.  Youths like drugs, I passed a couple who I thought looked like they indulged too much, and thus a 'county line' of young folks get caught up in this.  Not all parents care enough to stop them.  Late night troubles are usually from pub fights, an not as bad as this was a few years ago.  Now pubs close at different hours and do not all empty at once less trouble results.  

My biggest irk today was the tables outside the café.  Here the diners can smoke, and one woman of many years smoked constantly while yapping with friends and while sitting next to the door.  This allowed the smoke to gather within and thus spoiled the eating for me.  Funny how we never noticed cigarette smoke in days past.  Everyone smoked and nobody noticed we stunk because of it.  There was no indication that the pub, restaurant, café, or whatever was a smoke filled danger zone.  Now, one whiff and reach for the fire extinguisher!  

Anyway, I finished by breakfast, I still feel full now, gathered my rags together, paid my bill, left a tip, and having no guilt re my fashion choice, wandered into a crowded Tesco for milk.  This one bottle of milk cost me £19:35.  Someone stuck other things in my basket...

Watching...

FreeFoto

Sitting in the barbers for what seemed like an aeon I passed my time people watching.  This is not something I normally do, there again I do not normally sit in public places where I can people watch, but today as men with what I thought short hair queued up to have it shortened further I leered out the window as passing female shapes and became interested in what I fleetingly glimpsed.

With kids in school mums, young and old, passed by aiming for the shops to the right of us, occasional pushchairs accompanied them.  From the bus park opposite a flurry of movement as a bus arrived and disgorged its occupants, they clutching bags of treasures, some just clutching each other as they left the zimmer bus.  College youths passed by in groups, the girls likewise always in threes, never alone, each with an identification badge hanging round the neck in case they forget who they are.  I doubt anyone would wish to impersonate such as these badly dressed teens.  It is noticeable just how badly teens dress.  We must have done the same but to our minds we were 'cool,' these folks today are just a mess!  It is important t dress in similar fashion as your peers but with a clear personal slant that speaks of 'you,' so that by looking like everyone else you stand out from the crowd.

Men of a certain age ("cough") pass by dressed as they have done since around 35 years of age and finding no good reason to change now.  Some dressed by their woman in M&S outfits others are indicating a rock and roll past with a bright shirt more suitable for a man twenty years younger.  Still others walk in the sunshine wearing shorts and thin shirts determined to pretend summer is still alive.  

Those awaiting the shearing reveal their occupation by their dress sense let alone the constant calls on their mobile phones.  Well fed and well built men with a determined attitude, dressed in t-shirt and well pocketed shorts reveal they are builders.  Their short conversations offer us the chance to estimate how much the wood will cost, who is responsible for the TCU (what?) and nothing is mentioned about the price.  Presenting a macho, tough approach is important among such men, it would not do to appear to be human, however the conversation with the barber reveals that they are human and concerned about their kids in spite of appearances.  

A young estate agent in tight fitting suit is glimpsed, they all look the same and leave you asking if you would buy a used car from them.  A van delivering ice cream (ice cream delivery?) halts over the road leaving the question "Who gets ice cream delivered from the 'Aroma' company?'  The taxi drivers parked on the other side dress in well used shirts chatting aimlessly while attempting to make a living.  Some have been there for over twenty years at this job.  I was told about ten years ago that such taxis then cost £300 a week to hire, add to that a need to earn similar to pay your way indicated that you need a lot of journeys to break even.  Many people use the taxis while shopping, the bus does not always go near your door in the outer reaches.  Late night revellers require them long after the bus has gone home and many make money whenever the trains arrives at the station. However it must be profitable for some but seems a risky work to me.

Young women dressed to attract similar males pass by, usually accompanied again, only women in business dress walk alone while clamping a phone to the ear, not a few of them, I wonder what they do?  Women with little care for how they dress appear, down at heel or have they always been like this? It surprised me to see how many people suffering mental limitations went past, some clearly from birth others possibly from accident.  Does the sun bring them out I wonder?  How difficult some peoples lives have been, made much harder by this grasping governments refusal to pay benefits and allow many to be thrown onto the streets and for others to die!  Today I spent a little while getting angry at the 'Daily Mail' commentators who refuse to pay taxes for 'scroungers and layabouts!'  This is partly because that is what the paper has told them and party because they wish to believe it.  Basically they are just greedy and do not wish to pay a penny towards caring for others. That is the basis of the Conservative Party policy and many grasping greedy people rush towards it.

They will be the first to demand benefits when they become sick.

       

Palm Sunday with Jesus

An interesting Palm Sunday.  Once these were 'religious services' soon forgotten.  Today we had one that the kids will remember for a while, one they enjoyed.  Resetting the seats to form a central area allowed room for Jesus to parade.  On arrival Jesus was not expecting to parade but the eight year old entered to be volunteered to play Jesus.  Dressing in white surplice, large beard and vast wig Jesus spent the entire morning parading (over the curates cloak) into Jerusalem while other kids, one or two quite old ones, waved palms and other suitable accoutrements and sang and cheered along.
The congregation was also forced into readings, songs, and short discourse all of which told the story of Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem, an triumph that did not fool him, and brought about his death a week later.  How quickly people turn.  Those that love you today do not do so tomorrow.  Football managers and politicians note that daily.  Never rely on peoples opinion of you because tomorrow it will change when they decide you are not what they want you to be.
Jesus was not on for show, he did not come to gloat among his followers, he was however forcing the issue with the religious leaders and making them decide whether they would accept his claim to be the Son of God come to claim his people or not.  The leaders reject him knowing he was indeed God preferring to keep control themselves and in so doing lost their souls.
Many cheering him that day would do so also.
This week many will look forward to chocolate eggs, holidays but few will look to the reason for the season.

People

People are a nuisance!  The get in the way in shops, overcharge you when there, walk slowly on narrow pavements, drive fast on narrow streets.  Their cars block the path, their dogs bark late at night, their kids are unspeakable.  Their music is too loud and to awful, their dress sense is absurd, their manners non existent.  The hinder you at work, play, leisure and annoy you in your dreams.  Their football teams beat yours, their blogs get more followers, their writing makes them more money.  All such people are a pain!

Yet we canny live without them.  Good people, the ones you call friends, are important.  The lift you when down, help you financially, physically, emotionally, and wish nothing back in return.  They hurt you by not being there, and often by being there, they need you as much as you need them and sometimes you cannot live without them, except when you hate them.  When they pass by you feel warm and secure inside, when they leave you ache.

Life is strange sometimes ...  

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Wha's like us? A study in humility

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The Scotland Yard Store Wha's Like us? As the average Englishman moves about the home he calls his castle, watch him enjoy a typical English breakfast of toast and marmalade invented by Mrs Keiller of Dundee, Scotland; see him slipping into his national costume, a soiled raincoat, patented by Charles MacIntosh, a Glasgow druggist; and follow his footsteps over the linoleum flooring invented in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. On The Road Out he goes - along the English lane surfaced by John MacAdam of Ayr, Scotland (known as the MacAdamised road), smoking an English cigarette, first manufactured by Robert Croag of Perthshire, Scotland. He hops aboard an English bus, which is using tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop, of Dreghorn, Scotland and later completes his journey by rail. (A reminder the James Watt of Greenock, Scotland invented the Steam Engine).  At the office he is presented with the morning mail containing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland; and periodically during the day, he reaches for the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born of Scottish parents. At home in the evening, our English cousins wife is preparing his national dish of roast beef of old England - prime Aberdeen Angus, raised in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This sets the patriotic heart beating a little faster, and he enters the dining room whistling "Ye Mariners of England" written and composed by Thomas Campbell of Glasgow, Scotland. After dinner there follows a scene typical of English domestic bliss. Young Albert is packed off to Boys Brigade, founded by Sir William Smith of Glasgow, Scotland; Ted goes to the Scouts, the present Chief of which is Sir Charles MacLean of Duart, Scotland; and little Ethel plays on her bicycle, invented by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a blacksmith of Dumfries, Scotland. Mother, in the kitchen, bleaches clothes with bleach invented by James McGregor of Glasgow, Scotland. dad listens to the news on the television, invented by John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland, and hears an item about the United States Navy, founded by John Paul Jones, of Kirkbean, Scotland. Maybe, just maybe, he will remember that the radar with which the U.S. and other fleets are equipped was invented by Sir Robert A. Watson Watt, of Brechin, Scotland.  Once the children come home, Dad supervises the homework, using logarithms invented by John Napier of Edinburgh. The English course contains familiar books such as "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and "Robinson Crusoe", based on the life of Alex Selkirk, of, Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland. If by now he has been reminded too much of Scotland, he may in desperation pick up the bible - here at last to have something without Scottish associations; but he is disillusioned - the first man mentioned in the bible is a Scot, James VI, who authorised its translation. Its hopeless. Nowhere he can turn to escape the efficiency and ingenuity of the Scots. He could take a drink - but we supply the best in the world. He could stick his head in the oven - but the coal gas was discovered by William Murdoch of Ayr, Scotland. He could take rifle and blow his brains out, but. of course the breach loading rifle was invented by a Scot. Anyway, if he survived, injured, he would simple find himself on an operating table, injected with Penicillin, discovered by Alexander Flaming of Darvel, Scotland; given an anaesthetic discovered by James Young Simpson of Bathgate, Scotland; and operated on be antiseptic surgery pioneered at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. On coming out of the anaesthetic, he would probable take no comfort in learning from his surgeon that he was as safe as the Bank of England, founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland. Poor fellows only hope would be to receive a transfusion of good SCOTs blood which would entitle him to ask "Wha's like us? Gie few and thur aw deed!" More detail here And here p.s. it is a known fact that the vast majority of clever Americans have Scots blood flowing through their brains.

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