Old Cameras and Suicide

It was the Christmas shopping wot done it.  

There I was, happily seeking items on various charity shop site when cameras came into view.  Now I have not been out and about enough to warrant seeking old cameras for a bargain price, but I looked anyway.  

So, much later on eBay I saw some of the ilk I desired, and cheap too I thought.  Discounting the many that said 'Please Read,' or 'For spares,' I ploughed through the offerings all the while ignoring the crazy priced items.  My eyes lit upon a prime suspect and for some hours I pondered as to whether I ought to spend money in a needless fashion, I did!  However, when I went for the thing it had gone!  

Somewhat deflated, it was cheap, missing only a battery, and I thought it worth a look.  The other suitable ones were either being bid for or were too expensive.  I pondered a wee bit, the craze of a new, wee camera upon me, and offered myself to buy one that looked good, but twice the price.  I bought and thought that was it.

As I went through the system, after having paid for my goods, I found the one I wanted still there!  They had hidden this from me.  In high dudgeon, and not mentally well, I bought that one also!  When it comes to shopping I am always in control except when I am not.  

So, my friendly postman has delivered two fine cameras, on looks at least.  Now to discover the battery I have does not fit.  Back to online shopping, battery ordered, quickly delivered.  Battery installed but no battery charger, that too is on order, as is a memory card, the ones I have are not working here!  So, day after day, in between looking for others stuff, I am spending money on myself.  This bugs me as I do not wish to do this.  At least it is second hand goods, sorry 'pre-used,' as they say now.  I am not spending hundreds on new items.  I boast about this as many professional photographers will tell you that is how they got their cameras, though of course they actually know what they are doing.

Now I have set up one of my cameras, the cheapest one, and it is not great but will do for carrying around.  The best camera can rest easy until important stuff is required.

Among the collection on view are the Russian cameras, Zenit and Zorki. These were cheap but efficient copies of other better brands and a great many of us learned photography on them.  My brother gave me a Zenit E, which cost him £5 in the 1970s, today I saw one on sale for over £200.  These cameras, dumped once digital took hold, were worth nothing for soo long, the Russian ones on view cost me around £2 each! I looked for a lens for one of them and found they could cost at least £20 and up to whatever you are willing to pay! 
I missed out on a good earner there!  

A cold icy and heartless morning is followed by the news that after a too short debate in the House MPs have voted to allow assisted suicide in the UK.  This is a disgrace!  Just as allowing abortion for the sake of a handful of women dying in backstreet abortions in 1967 so this bill will allow hundreds to die before their time under the pretence of 'care.'  

The aged and disabled, the mentally ill and those who have few friends will soon find themselves offered murder instead of care by the NHS, an NHS which is very keen on killing babies and will soon find it easy to dispose of those who are considered of no value to society.

Care and compassion replaced by an easy option with no care whatsoever. 

Murder Grannie for Her Cash

The sun graced us with its presence now and again today.  The blue of the sky being similar to the blue of people's hands as they trudged across the park with their dogs.  I remained indoors awaiting the return of the postman who I am making work this week.  

The pile of cards to my left, none of which suit the four people I must send one to, did not distract me from noticing the many Twitter posts objecting to the assisted suicide bill being voted on tomorrow.  Usually the House misses Friday as MPs, well not Farage, return to their constituencies, tomorrow however, a strange time, has been set aside for this badly written and unwelcome bill.  The sad fact is that many will vote for this bill because the PM wants them to.   Starmer wants them to because Esther Rantzen told him to push it through!  This is not a method to run a country!  The vote for murdering your old/sick/mental/anorexic or otherwise unwanted, especially if the old gran has money in the will, will end many lives.

The desire for this is based on Esther's selfish behaviour and the desire to end the pain of long time suffering people.  Many long time sufferers have opposed this bill.  The truth is human value is of no account.  People are of no worth if they do not earn the nation cash, and long time sick use cash.  The desire to end others lives, for their sake, is nothing more than accepting people have no intrinsic worth just by being alive.  This boll, like the one that allowed women to kill babies, is unhuman and has many precepts in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia and Mao's China, people are not important, we, the ones in control, are!  

This will be a good way for the 'elite' to cut costs and remove the lower orders.  It must be opposed.

The first four cards have been posted!  However, my niece beat me to it, her parcel arrived yesterday.  I am trying to see what is in it but cannot succeed.  It will not be worth much, that is certain!

Before Breakfast...

Long before seven this morning I trundled the bike up part of the old railway to look at the mist hovering over the land.  Even most dog walkers were still abed which indicates the chill in the morning.  The sun was dissipating the mist as I arrived, low lying clouds lay like an Edinburgh Haar over parts.  

To think a developer now wishes to plant several hundred houses here (plus GP etc) and the farmer is very keen to sell.  A couple of years ago similar plans for 500 houses were turned down after a long campaign, I suspect similar to arise now.  This is a wonderful natural spot, well cared for by the Park Rangers and so many houses will ruin it.  With this grasping governments attitude 'build and be damned' and a desperate need for housing this one may get some homes built.  There again maybe there is not so much need for housing after all, maybe stopping greedy Russians and Chines buying all of Central London and raising the cost of houses would enable Brits to obtain one already built?
Maybe encouraging people not to divorce might keep families together, support marriage rather than destroy it, tell single women to find their own accommodation when they have a baby rather than use council ones.  All such ideas will not get votes but could improve society.
We are being forced apart by the spirit of the air.  Independence and not community is the bias in the airways.  Self rights are more important than society duty, me first, and let others hang is the way.  Today parliament debate the 'assisted suicide bill.'  This is to allow people who wish to die to do so.  To many consider this a 'right' and others from compassion think it a good idea.  I remind them of the woman today who has been found to have written a note from her husband claiming he wished not to be revived, and she had poisoned him and written the note herself.  'Assisted suicide' is an excellent way to remove ageing or sick family members, especially if there is money to be found in the will.  I await their deliberations tonight.

I exchanged s few friendly words with one young lass as I grasped the camera expectantly noticing her dog, a golden retriever, wandering in and out of the wet grasses that abounded today.  I was glad I did not have to wash the beast when I got home, and she had another somewhere about also.  As I turned for home, my knees requesting this, I noticed this figure heading towards me.  She had the right idea, cycle alongside the dog, it makes him run faster and enables you to get home quicker! A not unusual idea and worth considering as the dog and you benefit.  Unless you fall off obviously!

   
High above holiday makers and a few business people headed elsewhere.  This may have been an inland flight to Edinburgh or Belfast possibly but it may well have had a European airport in its sights.  No-one appeared to wave from the window.   The thought that this seven in the morning take off meant the travellers probably left home at midnight or three in the morning to get to Stansted for the flight shows the problems re air travel today.  The flight to Edinburgh takes an hour, the preparation for take off three!  I may just cycle there next time.

After a massage from the Vietnamese Curry House and Takeaway Massage girls I might feel better however now I think I have been run over by a bus.  They say this makes you fitter, 'they' are not doing it....

Back to Normalish

Having spent some time in the morning rubbing whale oil all over my lithe muscle bound body I ventured out into the land of Nanuk.  Here I discovered the world returning to some sort of normality.  Some of the populace had work to go to, some went to work, others crowded the supermarkets desperate to refill the larder in spite of eating enough for the entire population of a small country over the past few days. The grumpy faces once more showed themselves, the kids trundled new scooters, bikes and other overpriced treasures and I merely passed amongst them unnoticed, at least according to all those who walked into me and carried on without apologising! 

Nothing happened otherwise.  The after Christmas, awaiting for New Year days are pretty quiet. The politicians hide away counting their expenses, run of the mill news is slack and even the sad tragedy of another airliner disappearing does not fill the news services timetables.  A fire on a ferry helps but sadly for them almost everybody escaped.  Poor reporters, how hard for them to fill their pages and hour long broadcast slots.

One sad news item concerned a lass who died.  This woman suffered Multiple Sclerosis, a horrible disease that kills you after around 20 years of suffering, and she had gone to court in a bid to prevent her husband being charged if they went to a place abroad where she could commit suicide. She won some degree of support from the judges yet sadly passed away today naturally I believe. Now one of the diseases that Maida Vale dealt with when I worked in that hospital was MS, and at the time I worked there my cousin, a physiotherapist who worked with Raith Rovers and Dunfermline football clubs, also contracted this vile illness.  He died years later, a fit healthy active man in his forties reduced to being trapped in a wheelchair.  How he and his wife coped I know not.

However the point is should people be allowed to assist others to die?  It is tempting to jump to a, shall we say emotional conclusion, and say yes!  End their suffering if they wish it.  However I would worry that such a decision cannot always be taken by someone confused and desperate under sickness and drugs.  I would also worry that such a right would easily lead to the removal of old folks that some no longer wished to care for, and that can be distressing, or those who wish to inherit Uncle Joe's vast fortune.  I caught a report on the radio claiming that such a law exists in the Netherlands today and there indeed have been problems caused by such events.  Peoples wish to die often forced upon them by others for whatever reason.  A difficult situation but in my view to open to abuse by many.  

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Viewpoint

I took this picture about 25 years ago.  I was standing on 'Suicide Bridge' at Archway.  The hills to the north of London give a wonderful view of the city, if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between.'  From here you can see the Barbican complex, originally built as council houses, now sold at huge price to the rich.  Many MP's reside there.  What was known as the 'Nat West Tower,' until the IRA blew up the street below causing the National Westminster bank to move elsewhere, towers above everything else.  The view must have been excellent but not when a thunderstorm raged.  

I wonder what the view is like today?  Huge ugly erections have arisen since I took that grainy picture.  Buildings climb into the sky, the creators 'making a name for themselves in the world.'  To my mind, tired of the emptiness that claims to be success, I find them unappealing.  The 'Shard' just looks ridiculous, as does the one called the 'Gherkin!'  More to do with an abundance of money and a desire to use it to do something different rather than fulfill a function artistically.  

'Suicide Bridge,' built in 1900, carries Hornsey Lane high above the 'Archway Road.'  The bridge was enhanced by a row of iron spikes in an attempt to stop people flinging themselves therefrom.  Sadly such measures failed to stop three men clambering over the bridge to their deaths in three short weeks in 2010.

Wiki

John Nash's original bridge shows the height above the road.  An excellent view from above, but a long way down for some.  The horses no longer struggle up the slope, instead expensive tin cans carry millions of canned people at high speed up the A1, the Great North Road.  That is the road the Londoners of yore took when running to Scotland for some fresh air.  Not far from here is found the hill where Dick Whittington and his cat turned around and went back to London, so he says, but as he was a politician I have my doubts.

Can I add that suicide is not a good idea.  No doubt we have all considered it at some time, even as a remote thought, but not only does it hurt others, especially if you fall on them, it fails to answer our problems.  It must be very difficult to convince someone that desperate or mentally unwell that Jesus gave us bright blue skies, green grass and sunshine to indicate life does have a meaning beyond out problems.  However it does!  One lass at the hospital killed herself one night, she had been crying for months, and nothing could be done.  I stopped her cutting her hand on one of the small windows she broke but during the night she ended it all.  Life may not be fun, but suicide does not improve it.

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Season Starts Again

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David Obua, Once much abused by the lesser intellects of the Heart of Midlothian support, he scored our first goal of the season today, and now that he is playing in his proper position, I suspect the first of many this season. Being played out of position has not helped this Ugandans performance, however I knew he had talent, and was shouted down when I said so.  I am being proved right! He may never be the greatest player in football but he does give his all and this is beginning to show through under JJ.  The diving Naismith may well have equalised, but we all know that was against the run of play, at least that is how it looked on radio. Anyway a draw at Castle Grayskull to start the season and a defeat for the wee team tomorrow to add the icing on the cake.  A decent start to the long, long, oh so very long football season.

  Daily Mail

Now here's a sad thing.  I clicked on the paper tonight and found myself taken aback by the headline "Amy Winehouse dead at 27." I was suddenly depressed by this, and I did not even like the woman.  To me she was a mixed up clot who spent far too much time appearing in the press, and rarely for any good reason.  Her music was stale, and while she had a voice it was wasted on her I thought. I first saw her on one of 'Jools Holland's Hootenanny's' one New Year and asked "Is this the future of music?" She pawed her thighs in a strange manner, all the world looking like a six year old, and her song was almost inaudible.  However the thought of her sudden death left me deeply depressed. The last thing I would wish was for her to die this way, probably a drug overdose, deliberate or accidental, and left me wondering why I could not do something to stop this.  Stupid question.  Had she lived next door I would probably have finished her off myself, but I did feel real unhappy at her death.  What a waste of a life, and what a sad end. 

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