Saturday Entertainment

Summer Saturdays in small market towns brings out the varied entertainments that are on offer. The word 'entertainment,' depends on your age, openness and indeed desperation!   Here we see the 'Rock Choir' doing their thing.  A large group of "cough" 'young' folks who clearly enjoy such activity.  In my mind they were more 'Middle of the Road Pop,' but had they been headbanging, screaming guitar, long haired musical types they would not be appearing here in the middle of town.  The word 'Rock,' is used in a variety of ways these days.  Enjoyed by their audience, and clearly enjoying themselves also this appeared a marvellous way to pass the afternoon if this is your kind of thing.  

Yobs Youth were offered activities in the park, guarded by the St John's Ambulance Brigade, but it would not have done much for me in my day I must say.  What isn't shown is the 'Bucking Bronco.'  This is a machine that acts like the rodeo cow.  The rider climbs aboard and this spins this way and that throwing them off.  Sadly no necks are broken.  It looks quite deserted, but that's because it was!  

My entertainment was meant to come from the football, but no game that I want is being shown!  It's a disgrace!  Have these people no thought for my needs? 

Well no actually!

Summer Saturday and I am bored!  What a life, good job I am not one to complain......

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Now I'm Not One to Complain, But....

I wandered calmly around the town this afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun before the rain returned to refresh us once more.  The doleful experience of having the pathway blocked by inconsiderate people wandering with no thought for others, women barging their prams into anyone foolish enough to be consider they have a right to be alive, children, accompanied by doting parents, learning how to demand the right of way, was not one that I enjoyed thoroughly.  Not one person amongst the throng had the decency to realise that it was I passing through and move aside!  I found myself getting irked I can tell you.  

It brought to mind the programme about 'Juvenal' I heard on the BBC earlier this week. He was a Roman 'satirist,' who took to rants to express his opinion, and make his money!  His opinion of life in Rome touches the heart for anyone living in a town or city anywhere on earth.

232. "When the rich man has a call of social duty, the mob makes way for him as he is borne swiftly over their heads in a huge Liburnian car. He writes or reads or sleeps inside as he goes along, for the closed window of the litter induces slumber. Yet he will arrive before us; hurry as we may, we are blocked by a surging crowd in front, and by a dense mass of people pressing in on us from behind: one man digs an elbow into me, another a hard sedan-pole; one bangs a beam, another a wine-cask, against my head. My legs are beplastered with mud; soon huge feet trample on me from every side, and a soldier plants his hobnails firmly on my toe."
Satire 3

Juvenal has pages of rants in his book.  He appears to complain freely about everyone and everything.  A right miserable little git, or a comedian who knew his audience I wonder?  Either way I feel I could like him, I known where he comes from.  Having been young when brought up in Scotia's capital city I could cope with such crowds.  Twenty one years of London tended to give me a differing opinion.  People walk straight through you and wonder why you pick up bricks and throw them at them.  The 'elbowing' Juvenal suffered, the noise, and the noise in Rome caused much criticism, surging crowds and trampling feet all reflect life at it has been since man entered communal living around nine thousand years ago.  No wonder I enjoy the open air, the sky, and the green things that abound around here.  Why can't people just be as nice as me when out and about, that's what I want to know?  

This is irrelevant to the previous post, but funny.

So is this.....

Braintree Times

This is really a small quiet town, actually quite boring to be honest. It contains all most folks require, shops, rail and road connections, even if slow, a market, schools and well paid councilors. There are pubs, cafes, a cinema even a swimming pool somewhere and a dole office.  But it is somewhat boring.  For those with young kids it is ideal, teenagers however find it very boring indeed, hence the town has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the UK.  Many of these occur in the bushes of the park opposite as the kids gather during the summer evenings, I must remember my camera when I go out in the Spring....
Those who grew up here, and those of mature years find the town quiet but more to their liking, especially the rich with their automobiles.  They can run into more exciting places when they choose to.  The town has alongside an individuals needs one of the lowest crime rates in Englandshire. 


However the last week or two has seen the local paper decide to call it a 'Town in Mourning,' in large headlines.  The reason for the headline was the untimely deaths of three people, two from manslaughter and one lassie of a mere 28 who was found dead in a garden. As these deaths are under investigation it is not possible to do more than offer the bare facts as far as they are known.  However the three last week have been added to by two more on Sunday it appears.  Next door neighbours, possibly arguing about car parking, both end up dead!  Pictured above we see Essex's finest during their painstaking investigation.  It makes me think I would be safer in Edinburgh, among the drugdealing gangsters!    

Twenty years in London and I never came across anything like this.  Possibly it just happened round the corner and never came into my ken, but it appears arguments may well have led to deaths.  How easily we allow little things to grow and we lose control, especially serious when several of those involved were well into their 50's or above.  I must avoid getting too excited when confronted with the world's stupidity in the next few days, it could be dangerous!

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Misty Dawn

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The best part of this Saturday was the sight of mist rolling, cloud like, across the park. Dragging my bulk from the bundle of rags that for a bed I strolled out to take pictures.  A few moments later I returned and put some clothes on and tried again.  As luck would have it the mist was rolling away southwards which meant the park was being bathed in bright sunshine and high above the sky was increasingly turning blue.  The only thing to do was saunter around and hope the exercise would wake me out of my slumber.  As I sauntered I noticed how the mist was gathering over the town centre.  I headed that way and grabbed a couple of shots where the mist hid the run down appearance of one of the grubbier streets.  The houses are not actually bad, and the people whom I have met are indeed fine examples of decent humanity but the actual road is somewhat depressing itself.

  

I wandered around and ended up back in the park where the local drunk stood talking to the park in the manner he usual  keeps for the town centre.  Poor man, his head was blown away by drink and drugs long ago and now spends his days drinking himself into Hades.  What state his liver is in I hate to think.  We all talk to ourselves but not usually loudly amongst crowds in the busy Market Place. I pictured him from afar but fell some guilt.  I am not keen on 'candid' shots as this appears to me to be an intrusion.  However it did look a good opportunity, although I am not sure if he realised what I was doing or not.  

The bright weather that followed the removal of the mist by the suns heat was followed later by some of those big dark clouds that fill too many Autumn days.  Still, pics are possible here also, if the battery in the camera does not give out!  

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