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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