Dawn

Stupidly I awoke long before I was awake this morning.  Why on earth do I do this I ask?  It was dark and as I struggled bleary eyed to find something for breakfast I could hear the birds in the trees beginning to waken also.  Maybe I disturbed them?  I took this pic at 7:20 a.m. long before the rest of world was awake and the birds and I ate our breakfast while we read the papers online.    
Another week has ended and I still have not got through Tuesday yet!  Time flies when you are having fun or if you look away for a moment.  Time flies though my mind confusingly today as I spent part of the morning researching a man from the Great War and in the afternoon I was after a sailor in world war two!  At times my little brain confused the lists I was searching and managed to be twenty years out several times.  I need to eat more fish!  

The day ended in the failure of the referee to abandon the game at Ibrox before the kick off like he ought.  Instead we struggled to watch the Heart of Midlothian kick a yellow ball in a snow covered pitch.  Imagine, Ibrox yet not one orange ball to be found!  After twenty minutes it alls topped, and probably for the best. However as we were well on top it is difficult to avoid thinking this was because Rangers did not wish to lose, as if!  Worryingly the weather man says some snow might land here tomorrow , how disgusting!
Kids like snow because they are stupid!  Snow freezes the streets, makes walking difficult, causes accidents and stops football getting underway.  Snow should either be banned altogether or sent to Norway where it belongs!  How can anyone like snow?  What is the point of it?  I agree it makes nice photographs, though the photographer gets frostbite taking pictures in it. Certainly it provides hours of amusement for kids, dogs and daft folks, but really can they not all jump on a plane and fly to Norway? Maybe I need to move to Australia?  Anyone willing to send the cash?  There you go, stupid question number one!
I now sit here, wrapped in old blankets, trying to keep warm while sleep that has never left me all day takes me into dreamland.  Unless of course I fail to dream.  Funny how some nights I have clear colourful dreams and on other occasions I am not away of any dream whatsoever.  The last one involved the building in London, clear as day from the outside but a bit jumbled indoors.  Not the first time I have dreampt of this place.  How strange the way memories come into dreams, a wee bit distorted but clear enough.  Tonight I expect to dream of sitting in front of a laptop, freezing, while searching for a man or his family and getting confused the further I seek.
Or did I dream that today and I am now asleep and will wake up any minute?
Oh I am confused now......  
    

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Thinking of Previous Post....

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Listen to the Silence

I switched off the TV, the laptop stood silent on the desk.  The kettle made no noise, the traffic was light outside the window.  I had no book in my hand, no letter to read, no booklet to study.
The silence suddenly appeared very loud.
I cogitated for a moment.  Maybe we use things to keep the world at bay, shielding us from that we do not wish to contemplate.  How much of the world is hidden behind the television set I wonder? How did we cope before Radio and TV?  I suppose we went to the pub, joined groups of like minded hobbyists, or, whisper it quietly, talked to one another.  Maybe that is pushing it a wee bit.
How often do individuals sit alone, quietly, and just listen?
We are only forced into this if we wake at three in the morning, then the silence can be agonising, the thoughts in our tired heads terror filled, peace hard to come by.  How strange, yet most people endure such moments.
That is different from silence by choice, a positive move I say.
Standing at Fort William looking over the Loch to the hills I was struck by the silence of such large objects, and the hills are very large.  A seagull swooped across in the far distance but no sound came, just loud silence.  Behind the town the bulk of Big Ben towered up into the clouds but again the silence was noticeable.  This type of silence refreshes the mind, encouraging thinking not making the mind afraid to think.  Silence amongst creation refreshes the mind and the heart.  
How rarely we listen to the silence, how often we block it out via the things that fill the mind.  Does this occur because that is what we wish or because we do not take time to stop, think, listen?
I will be silent now, for a time.     

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Another Day another Exhibition

Some are quite pleased that this exhibition is one put on by the lassies of E.A.S.T.  These girls offer high quality arty embroidery, if that is the right word. This show concerns the Great War and features their reactions to what they have investigated regarding the war.

It is I must say a very high standard, these are not amateur operators.  This exhibition has been shown in several places and is touring the world, quite rightly too.  Pictures, items such as the one shown, books and larger artworks complete the display.

One of the poppies that were planted in the moat around the Tower of London forms part of the show.

Some copy the style of the period and these represent the type of souvenirs sent home by soldiers based in France and Flanders.  These are somewhat bigger than the postcards sent by the troops however and several find a place on the walls.
  

Of course I don't always know what exactly the works represent, like this one for instance!

On sale we have items made by the artists, several little boxes such as this one, postcards, gift cards of various sorts and these will sell very well, in spite of the prices!

Close inspection reveals the words on these items.  Some make for very interesting reading.

I particularly like the medicine box complete with bandages, medical equipment and rats!

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Ham

SkyNews

I had a wonderful post in my head tonight, but sadly I got derailed when I realised Hamilton Accies were playing Dundee United, and very good it was too! So I forgot my post.  It might return later...

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Marching for Peace?

Daily Mail

A million or two, possibly more, people marched through Paris today, led by political leaders who knew that it was important for their standing at home for them to appear there, in a supposed support of the cartoonists murdered by Islamic extremists.  An interesting event supporting those standing up to such extremist violence.

This however is France.  France a nation capable of anti Jewish sentiment and one that may not notice the Muslim immigrant who saved many lives during the Kosher shop raid, but will notice how dangerous Muslims can be.  This also is a nation that is well aware of the troubles caused by Islamic groupings in Africa, their troops have been based in Mali for some time now for that very reason, yet how much publicity was given to the 2000 killed by Boko Haram in Nigeria the other day?  How many care if thousands are murdered in the Middle East or Pakistan daily?  It is troubles at home that worry us, problems in distant lands about which we know nothing can be ignored for the most part.

I wonder how many claiming to also be 'Charlie' had actually read the magazine he edited?  I had never heard of it, no surprise there, but how many French and looked at it or bought it - once?  Few I suggest. 

It may well be that underneath there is indeed a fear of extremists, which is understandable, or possibly anti-Muslim feeling now being allowed expression, it also may be the freedom to poke fun at or insult those we do not like being what many support.  Not so much freedom of expression but freedom of their expression.  These I say are the same individuals who scream with rage when what is important to them are laughed at or insulted.  Like the 'Daily mail' and the 'Guardian' such demand a free press yet refuse to publish comments that disagree with them or indicate where they go wrong.

The 'Guardian' also dislikes the reference to 'Nazis' when they do this I have discovered.   

Many differing opinions now coalesce into a movement with little depth.  A great many will wish for a peaceful world where all are accepted, many keen on all sorts of 'equality' even if only for their grouping, many among the marchers will seek peace, others have just attended an 'event.' Once again an event has arisen from a tragedy and when politicians are involved the words flow long and loud very easily - but the suffering in Nigeria will not be eased by that!  

We face trouble from several Islamic groups, none of them pleasant, most based in the Yemen or Iraq or Syria and out of our reach, except by bomber aircraft.  Young men, especially men, will be tempted to see such marches as an attack on their Islam, preachers will already be indicating this to those willing to listen.  A march for peace may well lead to more trouble to such men seeking a purpose in this world and a cause to fight for and who lack the world knowledge understand a wider picture.

I am wary of the reasons for the support for the cartoonists, I am wary of the words flowing onto our news sites, I know that much will be said and little actually done by the people who march.  It is clear nothing will be done in Nigeria, the President is after all attempting to be re-elected, and missing schoolgirls, slaughtered villagers, and an increasing death toll in Muslim nations may be sad and indeed bad, but surely the west will consider our few dead are more important and little needs to be done, or indeed mentioned on our newscasts or papers about such as they?

God bless the news media, as long as cameras are available, and 'our people' are at risk.  Three or four dead here are worth more in the media than a thousand or two dead way over there.

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Nothing To Say

I write this as I wish to write something.  I have nothing to write and nothing to say.  My wizened mind is slow tonight, dull and dreary would be appropriate words, inspiration is lacking and no-one is around to read or care what I write. However my fingers insist I type something and my mind is still gurgling away wishing to write even though it fails to provide energy nor subject.  
Thus I find myself crawling to a halt at this juncture.  I look around, as if late at night I can find creative subjects in the grime engrained curtains or the clothes strewn around the room.  Thankfully the dim light hides everything else or I may write about what lies in those dark corners! The bits of the failed shower gather dust in one corner, a picture frame that refused to stay on the wall another, dust that has hardened somewhat now lies deep on the mantelpiece, possibly it is time for a Spring clean after all?
A lone passing car reminds me of the quiet nature of this town.  Saturday night in the big city, as indeed most other nights, brought constant noise, here we occasionally hear an owl hoot in the distance, a plane very high overhead, a dog cheerfully walking the owner.  Of course when the pubs come out it will be different for a short while, and the weekend supermarket shoppers tail one another for miles down the road polluting the world while grasping their special offers that are rarely special at all.  In the big city lucky people have a park nearby or maybe a garden to remind them of the world underneath all that tarmac.  Out here a five minute drive, an hour at 'rush hour' takes in country views.  Rolling gentle slopes, wide open fields the colours varying with the seasons, trees standing tall after more than a hundred years, even cows and sheep desperate to be partitioned and sold in plastic wrappers throughout the land.  The opportunity to sit at a green lined avenue listening to chirping birds and squabbling squirrels means little to those brought up in such places, it is merely the background to their lives, but for city folks it is breathing afresh, inhaling real air and refreshing the tired weary mind.  Of course not all air is that pure, big cities send their pollution this way quite readily and when farmer Jones adds manure to his land the locals know about it. 
This land has been keeping farmers busy from dawn to dusk for thousands of years, even before farming as such began people harvested the deer, following them across what is now the north sea to Germany and back again.  Crops were farmed probably three thousand years ago and the same fields that saw Iron Age man, Roman villas, Saxon and Norman peasants now provides us similar crops.  Apart that is from the bits we have developed towns and industrial estates on of course! Then war needs meant more space was taken up by airfields and not all of that returned to the farmer.  This explains the planes high above climbing towards Spain and France, Norway and China, taking the masses on holiday or the businessman to his wealth.  Blue skies reveal white lines criss-crossing high above, drifting slowly as they fade defiling the clear blue of the sky.  Drunken revellers seeking the sun fail to notice nor care as they look to the beaches and cheap beer bottles lying ahead.  Their own corruption entices them too much to worry them.
The books piled on the table beside me appear to grow each time I notice them. Crossword books dating back years, quiz books, a bible, Tacitus 'Annuls,' and instructions for long dead electrical equipment form the basis.  I am now afraid to search further in case long ignored letters appear also.  There is the remains of a jam sandwich, a 'piece' as we called it back home, gathering enough mould for enough penicillin to supply the NHS. I will ignore that also.  
Nope, the mind has not woken.  Sloth remains.  Only sleep, and I have had three of those already today, can remedy things now.  Sleep, that strange unconsciousness that takes a third of our lives.  The coma that allows the mind to refresh, it's like when we turn off the computer and switch it back on again and it works!  I can mention some folks who do not appear to do this often enough in my view.  Sleep offers dreams, usually instantly forgotten on waking while the emotions remain.  Can this be a means by which the brain resets itself?  Everybody has them, sometimes filled with the actions of the day often bringing to mind people and places, somewhat confused maybe but clear, from many years ago.  I often dream of a building I lived in, a place I worked in, a dead relative, there appears to be no reason but they are real enough for a few minutes or is that seconds?  Like the need for food and water sleep is one of God's ways of reminding us we are just mortals, not gods ourselves, something we forget all too easily.  Sadly we are not the centre of the world, he is, and only when he is centre of our life, my life, can the world be seen for in reality.  
Look at that, having nothing to say, worn mind, so worn I could not watch the football as it meant little to me, tired body still aching from the exercise three days ago and no inspiration coming through the ether I have managed to misspell more words than normal!  That takes skill!  Enough, I canny see the screen for eyes half closed, which indeed is how they have been all day. 

Yaaawwwn!

Swanning Around

I was going to write something some would consider controversial but find that I am worn out with the pressure of the day.  It has been hard sitting inside watching rain fall heavily and constantly.  It was so bad I had to work on my great war men even though it was driving me up the wall.  I have around 25 more men to check up on and it appears to get slower rather than faster.  All morning it rained Highland style and up there they expect winds of a hundred miles an hour tonight. Sometimes it's good to be in the soft south.  The rain ceased long after lunch and allowed the people out once again.  

This was one of the better responses to the Paris attack.  However some papers were not keen to emblazon their pages with these cartoons.  The Express and Daily Mail cartoonists avoided the subject altogether.  

The sodden park opposite has daffodils growing through already!  These beauties that arrive in Spring are showing through, confused by the mild winter and find themselves surrounded by puddles of water.  The climate is indeed changing.  I tell thee Jesus is coming soon!  Not for the daffs by the way.

I am off to sleep, such hard work is wearing me out.....

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Paris Attack Today

BBC NEWS

The terrorist attack in Paris will make news throughout the world today.  At least a dozen dead, constant repetitions of the videos shot by onlookers, much, far too much speculation and needless chatter on the TV and Radio.

This attack on a satirical magazine which often laughs at Muslims, Catholics and Jews, was the scene, not for the first time, of an attack.  This shows at the very least that disagreeing with Islam can cause offence but with a variety of Jihadist organisations seeking recruits and publicity eventually leads to violent opposition.  Middle East Islam does not comprehend western liberal democracy. Lets face it 'Liberal' is not the most positive democracy, just look at the world around you, but it is better than rule by ISIS or some such group.

Islam of course is one of those religions that in theory is based on the Koran, however it is easily adapted to the culture in which it is found.  Therefore Islam in Lebanon has near naked women on the beach, Islam in Saudi Arabia will not even let them drive!  Just where this latest lot arise will be interesting to discover.

Some terrorist groupings can be dealt with.  The IRA, in spite of the cash flowing in from the USA came to realise that bombings would never get them power.  Islamist groupings will never understand that even after thirty years of so called war!  A quick look at the variety of murders in Pakistan alone over the past thirty years indicates that political understandings will be hindered by hard line groupings somewhere or other.  

It is important to remind ourselves that the fear of Islam in the west omits to point out that Islam kills more Muslims in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere than it does in the west.  Media outrage does not offer even handed journalism, especially when the readership do not wish to read it, and even more so in an election year!  The man in the corner shop is unlikely to offer danger to his customers, his son, growing up in a western society, well educated and talented in many ways may however find himself debating in his teenage years whether he really is a Muslim or a liberal westerner.  It is such as he who is tempted to extreme views, especially when at that age the desire to change the world is strong.  Far too many have been enticed through social media to extreme views, at least 36 have died in Iraq according to one report because of this.  Many have realised too late their mistake. 

More of this is to be expected in the days to come, the question however is how we respond to this. English extremists will no doubt rush to Islamic dominated areas to cause trouble, Islamic extremists will rush to meet them.  Lock them both up, together I say, and let decency prevail.

The thing to do now is for all media throughout the west to publish the cartoons that upset the extremists.  However, our media talk well but will never endanger themselves so that will not happen!

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Back to Work

What a rush there is in the morning to get out of the house.  Struggling to rise when the sun has not risen is not my favourite moment, let alone washing in cold water because the heated stuff has not yet come through the pipe.  Still in spite of the struggle I managed to get out of the house and into the museum five minutes down the road by ten o'clock!  How did I ever get out at 4:30 in the morning in days past?  
How lovely to be back once again, even though as I walked in they all walked out flinging the keys in my direction and rushed of to an important meeting over the road.  Are the pubs open I wondered? So I was left alone, bar Peggy that is, in charge of an empty building.  As always no-one came until around eleven when they all came at once, can they not get up either?  

While quiet I tidied up as best I could accidentally placing all my books in noticeable positions and making use of then'Macro' setting on the wee camera.   It enabled a better view of the little items I thought.  The Piggy Bank is life size in the picture, we have sold lots of those at £1:60 and the key rings sell well to kids.  It is a bit much that 'shillings,' once regularly bouncing along in my pocket, are now sold as keyrings in such places!  We also had a book, 'The 60's House' which regarded such furniture pictured as of a bygone era when it was only yesterday.  
Still the morning was reasonably quiet but I managed to sell a few books and took some cash so keeping me awake.  I would have drunk coffee to keep me awake but Peggy pretended she was busy and I had to make it myself when the rest returned worn out and bleating from their meeting. It is unfair, so it is I say.  Peggy also avoided coming near me while I was forced to listen to a woman talking, you know the type, once started it is hard to stop them.  Some of what she said was relevant to the point made!  She has promised to come back next week.  Indeed several visitors will return next week, I suppose not to see me but the new exhibition, but you can never tell can you?   
The Gas man has asked me to send him a meter reading.  This done I notice he suggests I alter the amount paid monthly but his suggestion is higher than I am willing to pay.  Funnily enough his online system will not work correctly unless I pay his 'suggested amount,' so I have left it unchanged and switched of the heating.  I can rough it.    
  

Laugh, Maybe...

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Frozen

Too cold to think or write, I'm going back to bed! 

Saturday Cogitating

I thought I was in Edinburgh when I awoke this morning, the rain was hammering down.  This continued until nearly four in the afternoon trapping decent people indoors, me too.  There was no choice but to do all those things left undone all Christmas/New Year week(s) but sadly I failed to do them.  I tried Oh I tried but by the time a small breakfast had finished it was time to prepare the early lunch before the Edinburgh Derby at 12:45.  So there was little space left to touch the things that have been untouched for too long. Anyway it is Saturday and such things should be done midweek when the building is quiet and I disturb none.  So I left them untouched.

The Edinburgh Derby, the most important football match since time began (time began on Christmas Day 1875 when the Heart of Midlothian defeated Hibernians (as they were then known) by one goal to nil as you know) takes place four time a season at the moment and the Heart of Midlothian are of course totally dominant in this fixture.  Easily worried wimps however have begun to fear that the revival amongst Hibernian (as they are now known) may lead to a historic defeat for the Heart of Midlothian. Such types are usually found among the younger element.  I was not born the last time the Heart of Midlothian lost this game.  Indeed this time the forces of wickedness put their thuggery to good use to obtain a draw, one goal each.  Totally undeserved as but for the brutal tackling of their ape like defenders we would have won as easily as usual.  Once again the Hibs manager claimed "We were the better team, we should have had a penalty," just like he did last time and all Hibs managers have claimed since 1875, which was surprising as penalties did not exist then.  So I watched this and attempted to watch an English game but they have no meaning after such an important event.

The rain dispersed at four and I ventured out into the dismal streets.  The market was closed and the stalls all packed up.  Business must have been bad as even my 'desperate for every penny' veg stall had almost completely packed away his goods.  Nothing remained but damp streets and rare soggy shoppers squelching their way homewards.  

I  sought a picture but found few.  Taking one I discovered a woman getting out of her car just below the shot I was taking, she very suspicious that I was photographing her!  How self obsessed are these women?  At your age dearie? Pah!  However I moved elsewhere before she started screaming.  I have not forgotten the last time and honest I did not realise her window was open officer!  

My diet has meant desperation to lose weight, today I realised I was not eating enough and have stuffed myself with carbohydrates (I canny spell 'chips') and Sticky Toffee pudding to make myself feel better.

I now feel sick.

Also on the agenda is a review of the budget.  Having been extremely poor for a while, I have moved from pauperism into poverty now, it became noticeable that I was spending just too freely.  Where once I shopped careful of every penny now I was losing control and spending with too little care.  It is time for a rethink.  However it is noticeable that while the supermarkets claim people are spending less I find prices have risen considerably in the past two years alone. No wonder some find themselves using 'foodbanks.'  In spite of fiddling the books in good Conservative style the Tesco's of this world have been losing cash while overcharging the rest of us and claiming we are saving money!  My budget review is nearly done, a walk round the grasping supermarkets once more is required to reign in the spending totally.  (I wonder if I can save enough for a new camera....?)  Look, greed appears again!  Tsk!  

Around me are piled lots of books and papers, none of which are completed or ever likely to be completed.  My life is always unfinished, should I compose a symphony perhaps?  Now I have decided to review the budget maybe I should review these undone things that need done and complete the half read books. There are several language books, Russian, so old it is all Communist in style, Latin, two at least, and English which is too complicated for me learning it as a foreign language.  A pile to my right concern the local scene, all pinched acquired from the museum and unread as we worked through the Great War, that is also unfinished and the names list is not yet completed, I have only got to 'R' jings! On top of all this lies that layer of dust that has to be dealt with also.  I wonder where that comes from, I only removed it a month or so ago.  

Considering all that has made me weary, I reckon the best thing to do is to lie down for a while and see if it is all different tomorrow, I'm sure it will be....

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Nothing to Say

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Dull, Dreich New Year.

The year begins as I suspect it wishes to go on, dull, dreich, dismal and damp. I took myself out after the Dundee derby played in the usual dull, dreich, Dundee derby style weather and sauntered around the empty streets.  Imagine my surprise to find a near empty 'Argos' shop open for business. One or two other shops also considered it worth while paying time and a half, or even double time, to lose money opening today.  Few people trawling the shops for bargains, clearly many still in bed judging by the closed curtains all around.  Scotland would have been entirely closed today, and probably similar tomorrow, as the effects of the season wore off.  I still after all this time find it amazing that so many folks are keen to work on such a day.   So it's a quiet dreich start, with little in the way of new years greetings from passers-by down here, but that is nothing new, and a new year full of promise and bad weather ahead of us.

The only smiling faces to be seen were those of the dogs in the park.  From the grubby window I watched several happily wagging tails sniffing their way through the early morning gloom.  Well wrapped individuals trailed along, desperate to get back to the fireside, while the dog rummaged through the grass for friends unseen.  Today one hairbrush with a collar noted a rabbit that lives near the car park on the other side and chased after it.  Bunny was quickly back inside the bushes and no doubt deep underground within minutes.  The hairbrush cared little at his loss and made off in the other direction with the owner.  Yesterday the man with several dogs was seen clearly on the white ice covered park. He stood out clearly from the white background as did the mutts wandering about, tails wagging in the frozen ground.  Did they realise it was ice cold?  Yes, but did they care?  No!  The dogs had a whale of a time as always, no matter the weather.  

I did manage to fit in almost three complete football matches but my attention was distracted by becoming hooked on 'Watson's Block Game.'  That irritating block game that is so difficult to stop!

In the real world people pay vast sums for an 'X'-Box or PS something or other and buy violent guns and explosions type games to while away the hours. Rarely do any of these hero's enlist in the armed forces but if they do the training helps.  Me, myself and I however find one of the Solitaire games exciting enough and occasionally something else comes along.  For some years now I have taken periods where I get hooked on the block Game and today has been one of them.  Luckily there were vast amounts of goals being scored to distract me now and again but I did lose concentration on the football.  The problem is I have become addicted to using the keyboard!  If I am watching something on here my fingers demand to press keys.  Therefore I must play the Block Game or find something similar if any exists to occupy my fingers.  Life is so hard when you are an addict!

I hope your day has been good and the new year portends well for each and every one, in spite of all those difficulties we all face.  Remember, it could be worse, you could be English!

       

A Guid New Year!

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Administration Day

I am ending the year with some administration.  Paperwork long left lying about has been put to use, calls made and services amended.  Among them is the change from 'TalkTalk' to 'BT Sport' so I can watch Scottish football legally and with a clearer picture than before.
The need to phone Mumbai to speak to someone who does not speak clear English is a nuisance no matter how well educated and willing they may be. Several times I failed to understand her speech, and she sounded irked by this, I know why as I often have that trouble with the folks here.  Still all went through and within the next month bit 'TalkTalk' and 'BT' will work together to cut me off from the web for a long period of time!  Quite when this will be I know not, but it will happen, won't it?
I have run several devices to clean up the laptop and it actually worked! Several things run faster and I suspect I have also mislaid one or two things on the way. I certainly pressed 'block' on one item when I meant to press 'allow' and now I canny unblock the thing!  I can look at email when half the page is missing I suppose.  
Now I note a new calendar lies awaiting my touch.  This one has those old pictures with word balloons added, you know, "I want to open a joint bank account." "Who with?"  "Whoever has lots of money."  It is a woman asking by the way.  Now I must go through this marking in all the birthdays, especially the ones I forgot last time.   Checking carefully to see just how many of these scurvy knaves have given me two dates for their birthday.  That has happened before.  
This calendar is OK in many ways but has two irritating aspects.  One is the unfortunate habit of beginning the week on a Monday, I always begin on Sunday.  The other is the holidays, they are all US! Who needs to know about 'Independence Day?'   Bah!  However with the birthdays marked in I can now forget about them until the time.
The thing about birthdays is the demand to send a card.  So when I can I buy a bundle of suitable cards and store them for the day.  On the day naturally none of them fit the recipient.  They are either all for girlies or all for men of action, the word 'action' need not be taken literally.  So once again I trek round the three or four places to find cheap cards and by the end of the year I have a bundle unused in the desk.  Mind you I have been known to reuse Christmas cards for birthdays, if I am not fussy why should they be I reckon?
The citizens of Edinburgh will be well into their midwinter celebrations by this time, even though midnight is still hours away.  Hogmany will be a big party for many and I suspect somewhere in Leith Mr S. is handing out the households cash via the bar of the 'Sarry Heid.'  In this dark land the area quietens, until the fireworks at midnight that cause so must pain to the town's animals, then a few drunks will despoil the place but most will remain quiet, apart from the ones punching one another 'up the throat,' an activity that has become commonplace after closing time these days.  The reason is simple, there are too few police now, the Tories have cut them and late night revels and punch ups are left to the idiots to sort themselves.  
I am heading for bed come what may.  In the past we went round folks houses having a drink and a party, today Hogmany appears more concerned with drink than party.  The ability to drink without endangering yourself or others is noted less and less it seems to me.  The 'First footing,' the whisky, the 'Black Bun' was all part of things then.  It still is but it appears to me listening to folks that life has changed greatly in the last twenty years.  The days of yore saw parties, conversation and much laughter, although the Latvian's amongst us could not half knock back vodka!  Not me, then or now! I reckon that is the stuff that has kept them going well into their eighties.  Ban it and they might disintegrate. The harder edge to the world has lost much at this time. 
The outside world has gone strangely quiet.  Few cars pass, no one walks, no talk, no cries from the brats in the park, nothing.  They must be rushing home to watch sad TV or are filling the pubs, and few will 'first foot' as they have no idea what that is here.  That reminds me, I musts secure that door...
   

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The Sky Above

Have you noticed how the days are getting, ever so slowly, longer?  The sun is slightly higher this afternoon than it was last week, and the darkness takes minutes less to arrive.  Spring is fast approaching and once this mid winter festival is out of the way and the drunks locked up we can look forward to better days.  It never ceases to amaze me the way the world works.  If the sun was closer we would burn, if further away freeze, life would not be possible.  How lucky it manages to stay in the right place.  Orion constellation is one I have know all my life, hanging high above us in the cold, clear nights Edinburgh folks are so used to.   Out side Edinburgh it could be seen clearly from the bus stop as we made our way home at nights.  I wonder if it is still there?  Once upon a time I was foolish enough to believe that there was life out there, possibly too many episode so 'Star Trek; or a reading of 'Dan Dare' in the 'Eagle.'  I no longer believe this now.  Vast area of South American desert show no life whatsoever and I suspect out there things are the same.  Not counting the many stars, especially in the far distance that no longer exist, they dying long ago and the light only now reaching us.
I used to enjoy science fiction type books but in the end all comes down to human nature and they way we behave towards one another.  Whether at sea, on land or in deep space science fiction folk always proved to human.  There must be a reason for this.  Still it would be enjoyable to sit in a warm comfortable spacecraft and make speed through the night sky visiting far distant planets, without dying of course, and having lunch at the restaurant at the end of the universe.

Back on earth there is the Blues.....

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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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A Dark and Cold Night

Not being one to grumble I showed concern for my readership by checking on the weather in their part of the world.  While we sit here enduring the 'cold snap' in which frozen fingers tend to fall of with amazing regularity and pipes freeze sufficiently to ensure the local plumbers will meet up in the Algarve in a few weeks time to sip cold drinks and laugh at the folks back home.  The temperature is minus one on the centigrade scale, 30F or so in real terms, or as it is termed here "Bloody freezing!"  
This caused me some concern regarding the shocking conditions in the colonies and I have been reliably informed that Queensland has drizzle while the temp remains at 72 F.  Please note it is 6 in the morning there!!!  Central America suffers 77% also while stuffing fattening food down their throats and only Edinburgh will be colder than this wilderness.  The poor folks in Texas are overcast and suffering 42%, I suspect they will invade somewhere if it does not improve soon.  It will be raining tomorrow in Georgia but a warm Edinburgh 60% will suffice.  How lucky can they be I ask?   Even Missouri is suffering like us, is this normal?  It is warmer in Cyprus but not much, 55F, which will annoy the landlords handyman as he spent Christmas there.  I suspect however he ventured rarely from the hotel bar once the food options had been devoured.  
Climate change, whether man made or just a happening is real and as usual politicians do little but talk about it.  Some island nations will soon disappear, the likes of Bangladesh will suffer terribly, and even the south of England will have inundations along the coast.  Politicians will do nothing until it hits home and then it will be too little and too late.  Still it has been a surprisingly warm summer, we cannot complain, but the energy robbers will, and if we have a mild winter in comparison to some I will not grumble, I rarely do.   

World Clock

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