The Monday Tour

This great French event came within two miles of me today.  To avoid the crowds and the great danger of spending money I watched on TV.  I watched very carefully as they made their way from Cambridge down into Essex, through Saffron Walden and Finchingfield ('the prettiest village in England') and headed towards Rayne.  It certainly revealed a lovely country scene along the way.  The villages, ancient churches,crops almost ready for harvest and the sun shining of medieval but much upgraded buildings.  The commentators prattled on as always, inane ramblings needless facts read from a script, often at the wrong time revealing their ignorance, and as they did so I waited to watch for the pelaton taking the humpback bridge over the old railway at Rayne just up the road.  I wanted to see them as they took the immediate sharp, narrow, right hand turn.  Naturally as the leaders entered the village the telly went for an advert break!

Grrrrrrr!  

Now who wishes to see, for the fortieth time, five minutes of bad adverts? Meaningless and irrelevant to the programme, indeed even the commentators make more sense than the adverts, yet when we enter a village they leave us for them!  Why not on the long boring roadway you eejits?  Grrrrr!

On the first day the 'British' rider Mark Cavendish fell and broke his collar bone. He was one tipped to win the race.  If these commentators manage to get through any sentence, whether about the race, the churches and castles passed by, the crowd or the colour of the sky without mentioning Cavendish I have not heard them.  The bias is unavailing, constantly spouted at every opportunity. Cavendish of course is out of the race. 

Lady DiTn thinks the commentators ought to try Nascar!  I would like to see Phil Liggett there also! Heart attacks abounding!

.

I Got Sole....

 

Or at least I aint got sole.  As my feet ached as I walked it came to my attention the problem might have something to do with the soles no longer being of any use to anyone! This is annoying as these shows now fit my feet, or is it the other way around? Comfortable, waterproof unless it rains, and clearly fashionable, oh yes they are.  I suppose I will have to use the 'Sunday Best' shoes from now on, once I have wiped the dust from them. Things under the bed get very dusty I find.   

Only three more World Cup games to go.  One more week I reckon before normality returns.  I sat in front of the TV at five today and was somewhat shocked to find there was no more games!  Only the semi-finals and final to come. I began to see spiders after a while, then realised there were spiders on the telly!  I really must dust more. The 'Tour de France' which is running about Yorkshire at the moment is a nice alternative.  Watching the knees bending is very tiring to me but the scenery, without rain at that, is magnificent!
Tomorrow the 'Tour' comes past our way.  Two overcrowded miles up the road the race will flash past, except when crossing the humpback bridge with a sharp right turn, and ignore the crowds stuffing themselves with hamburger from the stalls ll over the fields in the village.  I should have gathered all the England flags thrown out by loyal fans after the World Cup games and taken them up there to sell!   I will watch on TV, I will see more this way.

Three weeks till our Great War exhibition opens.  We still have five weeks work in hand!!!  Lummy, as they used to say....

Warm Rain Saturday

I joined with this bird this morning to examine the rain and wondered if I ought to stay in rather than go out.  He was somewhat bemused as the sun burnt those of us lucky enough to be out in it while this morning the land was under a rain cloud.  bravely I went to the Museum where we were bored by the lack of custom.  Those that came, eventually, were very interesting but so few in number.  Something has to be done I say!

The press have indulged themselves once again over Rolfe Harris.  Pages are given over to the details of his 'shocking' activities and as many 'hurt' women as possible will appear in these pages, on TV and on radio, telling us of their despair.  Those who were there, and I know one who was, are somewhat skeptical.  It was clear then what was going on, so why the fuss?  Indeed why did the media not bring this into the open forty years ago?  Why was Saville allowed to continue, and why have MPs involved in abusing boys been a secret all this time when everybody knew?  Ah the hypocrisy astounds.
I note the same media make a fuss over the 'short' sentence given to Harris but fail to fuss over the even shorter sentence given to Coulson, the man who hacked phones and has become the fall guy for Murdoch's empire.  When it's one off their own they are less keen to talk, probably because they all (do) did it!

Not that I wish to complain but watching the World Cup I find the commentators talk rubbish, yes Jonathan Pearce I mean you, the pundits not much better, the constant search for pics of the crowd, senseless slow motions that are too slow, who needs to see celebrations in slow motion I ask you?  But worse are the fans.  Supposedly football fans whenever the camera picks on them they jump up and wave to the screen.  On many occasions these 'fans' were watching their team being humped yet they could ignore this to wave to the camera?  If you are losing and you support your team you do not react like this.  This I suspect is because most watched are female, accompanying the male but less interested in the game than the event and the holiday.  Dump them I say!

.

Quarter Finals

.

Sunshine!!!!

For reasons I fail to fathom the sun keeps shining.  Australia is colder than us today!  It is 43% in Perth and 53% in Brisbane, we reach 77% here today and it is past the zenith!  Jings, Crivvens and Help ma Boab Jimmy!   I spent twenty minutes in the sun and found it too hot.  Oh if this can last a few months I will be happy.  I was meant to live in hot places, with a Tesco close by.  
The swifts are racing across the sky chomping on beasties and screeching after one another, doing their best to avoid the police helicopter that has suddenly appeared.  Scattered around the part are half dressed young women, this is fine unless they are fat and insist on wearing shorts!  Worse still are men in shorts, it's not clever and not fashionable, especially at your age mate!  Fat men in T-shirts with ageing messages across the front is one thing, add shorts and it's a no go area.  Fine for the garden, not the street!  
A strong breeze is waving through the trees blasting warm air on everybody, this I assure you is unusual here.  Around the pubs in the town centre the 'continental layout' introduced by the council some years ago features folks sitting chatting at the tables while soaking in the sun and beer.  Whether the continentals fail to hold their drink like the English is a question others can answer.  The English flags that began to spring up a week or two ago have all but disappeared again.  I must check the recycled bins to see if there is one set apart for them alone.  

The gap in the world cup games has been useful, I have caught up on sleep!  I was so tired and feeling worn out that I fell asleep as the extra time began in the USA game the other night.  This half hour turned out to be the best of the tournament!  Typical innit?  The big four teams, all getting through by luck rather than talent, now face each other.  The 'smaller' nations who attempted to play with a bit of swagger are out but the usual crew are through.  Hopefully Belgium, the least of the four, will turn them over and take the cup home.  Any team that manages to beat Scotland deserves to win the World Cup I say!

I am touched by the birthday greetings I have received.  My great niece made a point about being an uncle, then changed it to 'Great Uncle' because I am old. Her Christmas has been spent on Amazon Books but she does not yet know this. Funnily enough I look at the cards and still expect to see one from my mum, yet she died almost five years ago.  How things stick in the mind.  I am grateful for those kind greetings, even though the poison bottle was empty......bah! 

   .

As if Life was not bad enough....

Today I became 63, now that is old.

I am celebrating with a bottle of this....   

.

Meat!

Having been convinced, by women as you may guess, that I am puny, weak, and a fat slob rolled into one ball of lard I decided to do something about this. So I struggled out to the shop and bought MEAT! Yes that red stuff that comes from cows, cows filled with antibiotics and other drugs, yes that stuff.  I went at a time when the cheap stuff was available, and it was not available, it had gone! I went to the not cheap at all stuff and it was not cheap at all.  I would be cheaper buying a cow! Anyway I came home with a few flat slabs of this red stuff and burnt some yesterday with tomatoes and mushrooms then washed it all down with 'Lucozade!'  Good old 'Lucozade,' the original stuff not the sports type that comes in bottles with 'teats' attached.  Just what is the point of those eh?  I forgot how useful Lucozade was.  I slept better after that meal, twice, and today I was busy at the museum, supported by 'Lucozade!'  Just as well as it was a busy morning and the staff all hopped it to a 'meeting.'  They were suitably bored while I entertained the visitors.  This use of the word 'entertained' does not require dictionary acceptance.  Hopefully I now have the rest off the week to myself, so I can do the woman's work that women will not do for me and iron some more shirts.  Thank you for your concern, I'm off to sleep again.....

.

Groan....

Sick, suffering, unwell, weary, .....ooooohhh  aaaarggh etc, let me sleep.....

The Weekend

Temporarily Lost

Friday morning brought a herd of these beasts hurtling through the museum. Naturally we ran! In time one of the herdsmen arrived and managed to corral them into some order.  Quite how teachers can gain control without the use of whips and chairs like those lion tamers do is a wonder to me.  Eventually all 58 kids had been through the shop, spent almost £5 each (not counting those that thought things worth £6:90 can be bought for £5) and running out off small change half way through, eventually everybody was happy.  Really nice kids but by the time the last fiver had been crushed into the till (with change obtained somehow) we relaxed, breathed deeply and drank tea.
I was knackered when I got home and had to begin sorting out stuff for the exhibition when my brain no longer functioned.  I started but did not finish and after a quieter time today just want to sit and do nothing.  However I did glance at the online press this morning to see the big news stories.  The Online Daily mail began today by revealing that the English queen has worn the same flat shoes for fifty years! How I wanted to know this!  The 'Daily Mail' reader you understand has little in their life.  The DM reader has only one real concern, money!  His wife cares what others wear so she can copy them or compare herself to them to see of she is better than they.  Nothing else matters to them but plenty of sex stories are required for them to feign shock.  I didn't bother with the rest but the BBC splashed on David Cameron's attempt to grab UKIP votes at the EU Summit and problems abroad.  What sells and what is news are different beings.   

A woman asked me a while ago what I did with myself now I am retired. "What do you do all day," she asked, implying I must be bored.  I strangled her.  It was the only way.....

.

Free Day eh?

The two crows moved steadily, intent on their destination.  Behind them transparent white clouds streaked the deep blue of the morning sky.  Two tall trees, resplendent in their greenery, brightened the day as their leaves twittered in the breeze.  A female blackbird hopped several paces and stopped, cocking her ear to listen for movement underground.  She hopped three steps more, then again, continuing on her way, coming close to me, happy that I was not going to disturb her routine.  In the distance a female form with white top stood in the shadow of the trees.  She gazed into the distance as if awaiting someone yet no other movement could be seen. Two cyclists, independent of one another passed by, both wearing those lime green 'Hi-Viz' vests, ideal for crossing a near empty park in bright sunshine.  A young women paced by with determined expression, laptop grasped tightly in hand. Someone out to change the world perhaps, a young lawyer about to save the needy, or a businesswomen heading for financial utopia I wondered.  My existence appeared to mean little to her. 'White top' had moved.  She had come out of the shadows and now at last I saw her understandable reason for hesitation, a small black dog.  This, possible a 'Scottie,' ambled slowly, content like me to let the world pass by but keeping at a distance from the woman just in case she urged speed upon him. 
So the world awake early today.  At last I had two whole days to myself, this was guaranteed yesterday when I covered for someone who was off, but turned up anyway.  This was my time, time to relax, sleep, consider the Great War only if I felt like it and iron those shirts the au pair ignored.

Having shopped even earlier I returned home to healthy thick brown bread full of bits and filled it with unhealthy bacon!  I read the grubby online papers full of wonder at how they failed to ask why that editor women got off 'scot free!'  Did David Cameron's brother defend her at a cost of £20,000 a day? Was the prime minister's intervention that came so close to scrapping the trial, at enormous cost, a deliberate device I ask?  Yet the papers appear to play this down.  The law works different for important people.  I mused for a while, looked at the ironing board, and sat in the bath even though it was not a Sunday.  This was a day for enjoyment.
Then I returned to my e-mail.  I like e-mail, it is a great way to stay in touch, it avoids needless chatter, gets to the point and brings folks together so well.  Not counting Mary who abused me for not liking tennis, something she has been glued to since this nonsense began!  Boring I say, get it off the screen.  I'd rather talk to a woman about her baby!
Then it happened.  I had finished one of the items I was writing, my delightful boss has now read it and sent it back using this 'word' system that allows corrections.  I had a long list of corrections, adjustments, recommendations to attend to.  This I did once I worked out what to do.  Helpfully I returned this and also finished the second piece this time readjusting it to make more sense.  However not long afterwards she enquired as to where the thing was, it had not arrived and the reason was simple, me!  Not only had I not linked it to her I had not saved the blasted thing after finishing it!  The only action was to redo the whole lot!  'Na Poo' to this I thought!  So back it went, no doubt the second one will have just as many red lines on it.  My teachers at school were not this bad!
Then the other e-mail arrived.  Tomorrow I must go in again, as well as Saturday, as a girls sick dad has died.  This was expected as he is aged and very sick.  A second lass is off tomorrow as her dad is close to following on also.  I'm going to ask for a wage soon!
The advantage of being in is taking the laptop and working at the desk.  Hopefully it will be quiet and I can get on but if busy I will just write a story, 'Living death in the museum!' Oh yes and now I must iron a shirt....
Time for football and sleep.  Who will join the USA in the next round, I know not as I have no idea who is playing yet.  Oh sleep, wherefore art thou mush?

  
.

Lazy Post

.

Sunday Sloth

I may have solved the T-shirt problem at last.  Having bought three which were size XXXL and worn and washed two of them I note the shrinkage is such that they are almost still XXXL but just a teeny wee bit shrunk.  Allowing for future washes I consider these three will now serve as the correct size!  The pile of too small t-shirts will soon be dumped on the charity shops, un-ironed! 
How can buying one item take such a long time to fix?  OK I could spend money on expensive t-shirts with stupid designs on the front but I am not 19 any more, that passed at least six years ago.  It seems to me many of those will not remain the same size after a weeks wearing and a wash either.  Those wee Bangladeshi's are earning fourpence a day for this and still cannot get the size right!  

  
In other news I am still zonked, energy of mind and body does not exist.  In spite of the hot sun I only ventured out for half an hour, and much of that was gossip with a neighbour, her gossip my concern for others you understand.  A quick wander round and I was back half dead.  All this work, all this late night football, how my bones feel it.  I had to curb the eleven o' clock game as I had work next day, now I just miss it and sleep instead.  I fear it is age as well as the bug.  

What has happened in the world outside?  I care not at the moment.  But those who wish to better understand the previous post concerning 'Just a Minute,' would do well to pop over to Soub and see the programmes he has discovered. You may well like these.

.

The Slow Death of a Good Radio Show

Since 1975 or 76 I have listened regularly to 'Just a Minute,' the wonderful radio panel show hosted by Nicholas Parsons. In fact Parsons has hosted every show since the first one way back in 1967.  The basic rules are simple.  Four panel members are given a subject, often obscure, and they must chat about this for one minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation.  This is of course much harder than it seems and at times has produced an excellent half hours worth of laughter.    
Throughout the show wit, repartee and a quick response has been the regular order with occasional bits of smut thrown in, usually by Clement Freud or Kenneth Williams.  Now however this programme has become a sad shadow of itself.  Wit is replaced by constant smut and the old fashioned seaside postcard 'dropped drawers' humour abounds.  Julian Clary and his one joke alongside Gyles Brandreth and his gay obsession reduces the programme to a low level, Brandreth being the worst offender.  He does indeed possess talent and ability to speak well but insists on jokes 12 year old's would not find funny yet appears with monotonous regularity on the show these days.  When the attempt to televise the show was attempted yet again recently it appeared more like 'Just a Gay' rather than 'Just a Minute,' the BBC liberal agenda being more important than the programme or the viewer.  That flopped as such programmes do on TV but the present show is a poor reflection of what was once humour at its finest. Wit, banter and laughs, sadly usually missing today.  Maybe this reflects society, maybe it reflects the small group from whom all panelists are chosen.  I myself have lost interest and Radio comedy is a lot less funny than it has been in the past.  Very sad that.   

.

Overwork, not enough sleep.

Being broken down and pooped yesterday I did nothing but grumble, and that's not like me. Today I forced myself awake and managed to work for at least fifteen minutes!  Then I had to pop down to the museum to cover for a lass who was not coming in.  She came in!  Bah!  Typical woman!  I could have spent that time asleep working.  Stopping off on the way home I bought meat, yes MEAT!  It was reduced.  I burnt it.

That sums up my exciting life just now.

Today we hear the Labour Party offering to reduce young peoples dole money until they obtain certain educational qualifications.  Why?  Because too many cannot find jobs and this will make them better candidates for any openings.
What rot!

The reason there are so many unemployed young is simple, there are no jobs! Not only have many thousand young folks arrived from eastern Europe, happy to accept low wages as they are higher than wages back home, but any vacancy has three hundred applicants!  Two and a quarter million are unemployed, the answer, cut the dole!  This from a Labour opposition that was built by the working class!  

The reason for this nonsense, the desperation of the failing Labour Leader Ed Milliband to get the votes from 'Middle England!'  He must appeal to these people as he thinks they consider all on welfare as robbing them through their taxes.  This is nonsense as the vast majority would take a job if it was available but the cost of creating jobs is to high, much better to attack the unemployed by using Tory values.

    

.

Me, asleep.....

.

Blogger Slow!!!

Why is Blogger so slow these days?  Why does it fail to 'save' constantly?  Why does the Comment Box take sooooooo long to come down?  On too many occasions I find 'service unavailable' when it is available.  Just what is going in?  Are they upgrading the servers or have they all died?  I think we should be told.  

What happens next.....?

.

Monday Miscellany

Watching the German 4-0 win over Portugal reveals the stupidity of footballers getting themselves sent off and the waste of money that is Ronaldo!  Real Madrid paid around £80 million for this man yet when the chips are down he disappears.  He is no Eusabio that's for sure.
In Iraq we are told the Sunni militants are killing everyone, and they claim to be doing so themselves. Being a cynic I wonder about propaganda but I cannot avoid the fact that this lot are more violent than others we have seen.  The Iraqis claim they have used 'targeted strikes,' which might mean little.  The US move an aircraft carrier into the Gulf.  Joining in is not wise chaps.  Meanwhile an al-Shabbab group attack a tourist area in Kenya killing almost 50 people but get little coverage.  Such groups fatalist attitudes reveal an emptiness at the heart of their beliefs.
Meanwhile Michael Schumacher has been brought out of a coma and moved to a Swiss hospital. This however does not mean his brain has recovered, that will take years if indeed he recovers at all.  I also note Russia has tactfully allowed tanks into East Ukraine and now has turned off the Gas pipes claiming Ukraine owe them millions.  Our gas comes this way also, I hope he doesn't affect us or the privatised pirates here will up the price!  Hackers have stolen thousands of details from Domino's Pizza website and demand vast sums of money to release them. This happened in Belgium not here and shows how easy it is to be robbed online.  Those people claiming to have a thousand or two friends can spread virii very easily.  I have no friends trouble, not having any..... 
The bug has returned today, I am falling asleep constantly being kept awake only by the fragrance of the Rodoh Rhoder the big bush opposite.  It is a fantastic aroma coming in the window.  
Maybe of course I'm just lazy...

.

Busy Day

Home from an enjoyable Sunday Service, cooked a bad lunch, fell asleep from watching late night football and had to watch another game after that.  Now I prepare for the second of the day, the third starts at eleven at night!  This means I have no time to scribble (can you scribble on a keyboard?).   So here is an old picture of Greyfriars Bobby.  Bobby is the dog not the pub but the pub is named after the dog and the publican may have fed the dog but maybe not and the pub is now named after the dog not the dog after the pub.  Is that clear?   Oh I have not got the time, the teams are coming out, read this Greyfriars Bobby.

.

Have I Got This Right?

Independent

So the Assad regime in Syria is bad, they say, even though the state is stable. His friends are Russia and Iran, a Shia state is Assad's best supporter.  We therefore support the rebels, mostly Sunni, who oppose him and are now dominated by Sunni extremists supplied by Sunni led Qatar and Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia.  We therefore are supporting the bin Laden so today who wish to attack and destroy us......
The Sunni led extremist group ISIS now dominates the Sunni areas that once supported Saddam Hussein.  He was a bad one and Bush and Blair dumped him. We now therefore support the Iran, our enemy, backed Shia in Iraq, our friend, against the Sunni, our enemy, in Iraq who are our friends in Syria because we need the Saudi, our friend, oil and we support them attacking Syria to destabilise Iran, our enemy, who support our friends in Iraq. I've not yet mentioned the Kurds....   

Did I understand this right or is all this late night football wearing out what remains of my little mind.....?

.

Friday

Thrice this day I left the dark, dank Black House in which I dwell to see light. Once to wander all the way up to Sainsburys, once to sit in the sun, which immediately and spitefully sat behind a cloud for ages while the north wind froze me so I went to Tesco for yet another ill fitting T-shirt instead, and once in the afternoon to sit in the sun which actually shone!  Actually after burning for a short time (burning, heat in the UK?) I wandered back to Tesco for another oversized T-shirt as they appear to be half price!  The reason I went to get another size XXXL T-shirt is that all the other T-shirts I buy shrink. This one will shrink to a proper size I hope and at £2 a time it is worth a try.  XL shirts are medium, XXL and not quite XL after a wash and hopefully I have found the right sizes now, after they have been in the machine!  You might be suggesting I buy better quality items, I agree, but they too are often lie about the size. Anyway cheap is good, I'm not female!

Day two of World Cup. Yesterdays game was not great, Brasil were lucky. Today we are playing in torrential rain, it is like being in Kilmarnock again! 

However behind the numpties in the studio a long sweep of beach leads away to the north while the tide comes in with a slight breeze to ease the sunshine. Watching this on TV so far has been without incident.  Last night the ITV channel stream I watched on the laptop froze because this company is shocking! Why they cover football I fail to understand.  Their commentators are poor, the streams fail regularly and on occasion goals are missed because someone screens an advert before the time!  I had to move to STV, the Scottish Television Channel which as you would expect worked properly!  Bah!

.