Monday Post...

Remembrance 2016

Remembrance 2016 has been well and truly dealt with today.
In the morning the church had a special Remembrance service, as Anglican churches do, and we read out some names of the fallen, four I had provided then others offered the names of their relatives or known friends.  I read out the Binyon piece, aided by a young lass and the two minutes was observed.  It appeared more like three to me!

 
In the chilly windy afternoon the Royal British Legions main District Remembrance Service was held as it has been annually since the War Memorial had been erected in 1921.  The crowd gathered rather slowly today, the wind chill, fussy sergeants, and lots of parading kids probably to blame.  The crowd arrived, the dignitaries shivered into place, the troops paraded, the Sergeant cried "At Ease!" and so the Vicar began the service.

Unlike St Paul's I felt this service somewhat 'religious' and 'British.' That is there were no names read out bringing it home to people and the words here were rather supporting 'our glorious dead' rather than all dead.  Our curate touched upon sacrifice as he would but never in a jingoistic manner. Rather he clearly showed the difference between soldier sacrifices and the sacrifice of Jesus himself for our sin.  He did not limit  himself to 'our dead' but 'all dead' and looked to Jesus rather than a bland religious offering.  After that this vicar hear appeared rather dismal to be honest, I was disappointed. 

  
In most remembrances these days it has become common to remember all war dead not just ours, and we are aware of the bad amongst the good, and desire less war than some appear to desire.  A bringing enemies together is uppermost.  This service today did not mention this and was similar to those I saw as a child in the 50's when a forgiving attitude was harder to propose.

Several men who attended in the past were not there today, the aged soldier is fading away.  At one point I attempted to speak to one but his hearing had gone long ago and his hips were following.  Poor old lad was struggling up the road and I wish I had offered some help, I do not know if he would accept this of course, old soldiers are still soldiers, and he may have had a car waiting.  The others I wanted to speak to had run.  We need to speak to these old men before it is too late.

The people gather and I wonder what they think of the names on the memorial?  Do they consider them or just their namesakes or relatives?  They must have some regard as they turn up in cold dreich weather to attend this meeting.  On the other hand with 40,000 population, at least half adults, why do only a few hundred show up?

 
Amongst all these faces I recognised a few, but only a few.  Where do all these people come from?  It never ceases to amaze me that a crowd shown on TV at a football match in the town or in the local paper always contains 100% total strangers!  Twenty years I have been here and nobody I know wishes to be famous!   

Next to the Memorial stands a separate memorial to HMS "Kite" a Sloop sunk while supporting the the 'Arctic Convoy.'  Two torpedoes hit the ship and she sank in a ball of flame in 90 seconds.  A handful of men were picked up.  The U-Boat that sank the ship was on its first patrol and the next day aircraft from the accompanying Aircraft carrier sunk that submarine.  Such is war.

 
In our minds we have an image of the Great War and a differing image of the Second World War.  These images vary sharply from the minds image of wars in other lands today.  While we will consider actions in which 'our boys' have participated, Falklands, Northern Ireland, Iraq etc we keep an image there in our minds.  That image differs sharply from how we see Syria or Democratic Congo today.  Those wars do not interest us and we would rather be free from them and the affects thereof.  People die, civilians suffer, while the weapons are more effective the situation changes not for those suffering.  However we see these wars as different and wish to be free from them.  Sadly war will continue because human nature never changes.

Fair Drookit!

As soon as I rose and greeted the dawn (long gone) it began to rain.  It has not stopped since trapping me inside with the heating on.  How unfortunate as I wished to spend money today but have failed in that endevour. 
I glance at the news and find nothing new, a bomb in Pakistan killing 30 and another in a US base in Afghanistan kills four but neither appear in the 'Daily mail' for some reason.  A few slappers do however and the usual crew of minor crime, serious crime and attention seekers that fill the paper.  There was even something about remembrance but that has moved down the page in the 'Online Mail.'  'Lego' those folks who make the wee plastic bricks that you find when wearing no shoes have  ceased advertising in the 'Mail' as it offers too  much 'hate' and incites 'racism.'  Those are my words not theirs but we know what they are saying.  'Brexit' means 'Lego' will increase in price and few will buy the goods and as 'Lego' is based in Denmark we will be losing them once the grasping Tories get to work.
I will have nothing to play with...

When I first moved south a lifetime or two ago I spent a long time walking the streets of London with my head hanging down.  I had been told the streets were paved with gold but no matter where I wandered I never came across those streets, litter, leaves and puddles aplenty certainly but no gold that I could see.  Some people have all the luck, or maybe they just lied to me.  
Our street has just ran with leaves and water, with added litter, today.  The poor birds will soon have no cover in the trees and will face the winter unprotected.  The Starlings will do all right however the brutes have spent today emptying the feeders as if they had been starved for days.  Maybe the cold weather makes them hungry?  Whatever several times they have squawked at the window fighting over the feeder.  One big happy family and all they do is push one another aside to eat, I know a few families like that.

Time to 'hit the road' not that I will in this weather...

Armistice Day

Being the eleventh of the eleventh this Friday saw a commemorating two minutes silence in the town.  I wandered across to see if the memorial had been dressed up as it usually is but nothing was done this year, so far.  The town had the Legion standing in the centre, ex WW2 men and some from later 'end of empire' wars, no less dangerous for those involved.  There are no memorials for such as they who fell in Israel, Korea, Malaya and the like and few seem interested in those who fell in Northern Ireland, Iraq or Afghanistan, maybe it is time we remembered them also?

The first of what is usually a dozen crosses appeared today at least.  This one was there last year also and you note it commemorates a member of the Canadian Forces.  He was one of three thousand casualties, out of five thousand who participated in the 'Dieppe Raid' in 1942.  This was a foolish project, badly organised and badly led, which in part was to show to the inexperienced US generals the impossibility of making a landing in the Continent during 1942.  The rather daft idea was put in its place when this shocking event occurred.  It has yet to be explained where the Americans were going to get the boats to take their 'green' troops over the channel but the idea was dropped when they realised, eventually, just how badly the Canadians had been cut up.  Those who headed up this event were put on to work more suitable.

Wandering around the damp and rather dreich Gardens I found these Fungi growing happily.  Quite what they are and whether they are edible I know not, someone will know, and they just intrigued me for some reason as they were the brightest thing outside apart from the Autumn leaves.  

I must confess I had a lot of the Great War today, more to come on Sunday.  I have just asked for a three day pass...

Non Political Blether

I spent the day in the Great War!
Researching info for the museum handout for schools I have no made the one page handout three pages long and have nowhere near finished.  It was interesting to remember things forgotten and helpful for what I scribbled down however it may not be what the boss woman wishes.
Add to this a short search for info on four men for a remembrance service, which probably will not be used, and altogether I ahve spent much of the day wasting my time.
No change there.

The boiler plays up.
It will not switch on, at least it switches on and goes off.  The thermostat is never at the right temperature for the brute and I keep fiddling with it and waiting, and waiting, and waiting until something happens.  I began at ten past seven this morning and it finally lit up around one!!!
We shall set it again tonight and see what occurs in the morning - frostbite and chilblains I suspect. 

To get warm I went out, it was warmer in the wind than inside.  
I went to 'Poundland' (actually I think ours is a 'Poundworld') for cheap feed for the Starlings that squabble at the feeders.  They are chomping away good style at the moment, I wonder if the cold and wet is making it hard for them to feed elsewhere?  There is usually plenty of places for birds to feed around here but I eventually got what I wanted this morning and before I shut the window the brutes were arriving.
'Poundworld' is full of cheap Chinese trash, ideal for my Christmas shopping!  I usually send gift cards up north, I wonder if they do them...?
I also searched charity shops for a waistcoat for  'do' at the museum coming up soon.  We are supposed to dress up and the women always do it well but I have nothing to suit.  I may have to travel in the zimmer bus tomorrow as the charity shops here are stocking only winter stuff now.

The TV news is full of the election still, I turned it off.  
It's over, the mistake is made, President Putin has him under control, the world is safe.
I bet the secretaries are worried mind! 

Today I began the Christmas shop.  One or two cards, I don't need many, and planning what to buy. "Don't buy for me," they cry, meaning "I am not buying for you!"
Why can't they be honest?
I wish for nothing but to give to them and what I wish for they canny give anyway.   Still it has begun and I will have mine done by next week, all posted on the 1st December and just my fat slob stuff for Christmas to buy.

Tsk! What a Mess!

I slept well last night.  
Climbing in between the gray ex-army blankets (marked WD 1940, I think Dad acquired them) I snoozed away listening to the BBC's over the top coverage of the US election.  At one point I changed channel to find both R4 & R5 offering the same thing so put on a cassette tape (ask your dad) and slumbered away.  
The morning brought the same programme still full of loud Americans denouncing one another and speaking without listening but in between I realised the Trump had won.  Dearie me, what does this mean?  I am convinced Trump stood for the Presidency on the basis that he would be soon rejected as a self seeking liar and now he has ended up as president!  The UK had a similar game played recently between the Public Schoolboys and two of them have departed yet one remains in the foreign Office.  Dearie me, we vote for such as this and they vote for that!

Trump, famed for tax dodging, bullying and lying in his teeth was selected as their man by the evangelicals in the Midwest.  This adulterous liar was seen as better than Hilary?  How come?
Even Billy Graham, famed for supporting all Republicans even though their character was clear to all, Nixon, Regan and Dubya  gave his support to Trump for the sake of America, because of the 'All American Image' he proposed.  Unbelievable!  
The Evangelical side of US Christianity failed here.  The 'Good News' is replaced by a US myth and at the root of that myth is false freedom and the love of money.  It is self and self alone that is worshiped, greed is good while care for others is ignored.  We only have to look at the relations with Blacks (oh sorry, African Americans) or the residue of the Indian nations (oops, sorry Native Americans, I love the way white liberals change the names but don't actually change their prospects) and the millions living in real poverty and without adequate health care throughout the States to see how Christianity has been replaced by Republicanism and white Republicanism at that.
The Book of Amos ought to be compulsory reading for those 'evangelicals' who backed Trump.  I suspect however they do not have that book in their book!

How a woman who accepts abortion and gay sex as normal can be opposed while an adulterer and four times married man can be accepted and supported beats me.  Both are wrong and both ought to be opposed.  Far better for the church in the US to stand up for Jesus instead of looking for worldly goods and myths.  Far better to attempt to change the political system and seek a better one that was fair to all that perpetuate one that has failed so blatantly.  However they did not oppose they merely took sides and ensured a disaster for the world.  Those that have the book must read it and put Jesus words before their own social background and its many myths.  
Trump may not be the worst ever President, he may even do some good, however he ought not to have been there.  What a mess and the only one happy is President Putin!   Today he begins his assault on..well anywhere he chooses now...

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,

 but see to it that you are not alarmed. 

Such things must happen, 

but the end is still to come. 

Matthew 24:6

Zzzz For Me!

Tonight I sleep!
Too many long days and too much energy wasted along with a touch of something has left me weary and those light migraines are bothering me again.  One arrived last night and another this morning when I was trying to explain something to a woman visitor.  Not nice when the vision is impaired and you are pointing to things on a map!  
Not enough sleep I say so I am following the advice of the cat. 'Sleep at every opportunity.'  Seems good to me.

Worried Yet?

Within the next twenty four hours this man could be President of the United States and have his hands on the nuclear button.
Now stop and think about that!


That's enough thinking.
It may well be that Hillary will win anyway and for yonks afterwards we will hear nothing but cries of "We were robbed!" from his support.  I hope they cry loud.  The world will be safer, though I doubt America will be!  The loonies from the backwoods will probably declare civil war once again.
Repent now, while there is still time....

 
In the more civilised Free World such attitudes never appear.  All is done in a sporting manner and each politician 'plays up and plays the game,' like they ought. I did however notice the desperation of the Conservative leader to hurry through this 'Brexit' plan that will bankrupt England & Wales (Scotland will become independent) and line the pockets of her friends Boris Johnson & Liam Fox.  How she squares this with her intention to move the 'Nasty Party' into the centre ground I know not as all her policies are of the extreme left.
The three judges who insisted that parliament must have its say have been disgracefully treated by low slung attacks of vile quality that even the 'Daily Mail' gave up all pretence to objectivity in its coverage.  There is a new Nazi Party afoot and the week, the old, the disabled and other non millionaires are about to suffer for it.

Drizzling Dunmow

Drizzle is not the ideal weather in which to wander around looking at old buildings, only someone with a lump of wool for a brain would do such a thing. 
I caught the 9:10am bus!
For half an hour we wended our way passing ploughed fields and acres of grass, rolling hills and rows of trees decorated with rust coloured leaves, many littering the roadside as we pass.  Typical Essex villages with houses dating back before the English Civil War, the churches a great deal older.  

This interesting building rears it head round the corner from the main street and appears to be the 16th century Town Hall.  I can see no other reason for such a delicate but expensive building to have been erected here.  The town was a commercial success in medieval times, a market was established and prosperity has never left the town, it is a step up from Braintree I tell you.

I doubt these delicate looking lodges were here when the Romans established the settlement on the crossroads.  The town was a days march from Braintree and ideal for a stopping place and once they had moved back home to defend the empire the Saxons quickly arrived and continued to make use of the agricultural lands.  Agriculture would have been a major occupation over the piece however pigs were also a major part of the commerce.
Not far from the town, Great Dunmow if you have not worked it out yet, lies the village of 'Little Dunmow, where the one time pub is called the 'Flitch of Bacon.' This relates the tale of the 'Flitch Trials' in which a couple have to testify before judges who have been married in church and over the last year have remained 'unregreted' the marriage.  The winners then receive half a pig, a 'Flitch of Bacon.' This dates back several hundred years and continues to this day, anyone wish to try it?

 
As always a War Memorial dominates the town commemorating the men of the district who fell during the Great War, those who fell later in the second war were also added.  For a town which even now contains merely some ten thousand souls the loss of almost seventy men at the time must have left a big hole in the town.  The returnees would of course have contained many damaged men.

 

How many of those men carried buckets and pails of water from here I do not know, however I suspect the wives and kids were responsible for that duty.  This Water Pump now stand in the centre of the High Street but I wonder if it stood elsewhere and was relocated?  No reason why it would not be found here, it is the centre of the Victorian town that erected it, it looks at least to me as a Victorian Pump, and it would be reachable for all from here.

The citizens were not always happy, cheery, well behaved souls as they no doubt are today.  In times past several towns and villages had their 'Lock up' or 'Cage' in which drunks were deposited to sober up or felons awaited further punishment.  This one has windows albeit they may well have had wooden shutters over them in the past also.

Lady Warwick, Frances Evelyn "Daisy" Greville, Countess of Warwick, was well able to care for the poor of the parish.   Lady Warwick was to put it mildly, a 'right little goer!'  Marrying well did not stop her, or her husband, making use of other people, the 'elite' are not renown for their fidelity, and she managed to find the Prince of Wales, later 'King Edward VII' as a lover.  She was inbetween  playing the field a bit of a socialist and participated in many 'good works,' even becoming a member of the Labour Party in time.

  
Clearly not all were impressed by the woman!  The deterioration of the weather is seen when Canada Geese are seen trying to keep one leg warm while they sleep!  If he finds it cold so do I!

The cold water of the 'Doctor's Pond,' a doctor in times past is reputed to have made use of the pond to breed Leeches used in medical treatment, makes for a decent photograph.  I like the rippling water stretching out across the pond.  The Geese ignored it.

Not far away a house stood with this excellent Grouse flying across the wall.  Is 'Parqueting' the word I am looking for or does that just involve floor tiles?  There is a name for the artistic rendering of these plaster walls.  All Essex contains houses emblazened with such decoration and this is an excellent large example.  It was lot yellower in reality I have to say, I used the wrong setting.

At this time of year when 'remembrance' is in vogue it is common for stupid people to complain that today's 'soft youth' are not like the youth of yesterday who fought in two world wars.  The normal response from me is to indicate 'you' didn't do that either and 'you' are no better than these.  
I did wonder what goes through the mind of young men in the Air Training Corps (ATC) when there is talk of war in the air. 
"What would you do if war was declared?" I asked.They looked a bit askance as if they had never really given it much thought.  
"A bit scary but exciting" said the one hidden behind the fat controller there.
Both gave sensible answers and left me in no doubt that when they join the RAF, as the tall one seen will be doing, the RAF will benefit from the right kind of man.  These two young men with their lives before them will give a dozen years of their lives in service for their country not for the rewards and not unaware of the possible dangers.  Two sensible good men, I suspect there are more like them in the ATC.

Friday Frippery

I thought of this when watching Donal Trump slag off Hillary tonight.  I say watching but I was looking and not listening at the time, I was waiting for the news to start.  The US elections of course differ from ours in that they speak only to their hearers, that is those who support them.  There are no awkward people asking awkward questions like there ought to be, no one disagrees, all merely attend, scream and shout and wave their placards when the moment arrives and like sheep speak the words offered by the great leader. 
Interestingly the Soviet Unio...sorry, president Trump has all Russia rooting for Trump and he has had contact with him before, this is just what we need, an all American guy obeying the Ruskies!  peace on earth at last - unless you are in Ukraine of course.
Not long to go now to discover which lying good for nothing has bought their way into the White house.  I was reading in an Alistair Cook book a broadcast  he gave during Regan's second election victory.  This man was considered unstable by the population of the world at the time, and they were proved right, yet vast numbers of Americans voted for him!  This makes clear to me that the people of the US, especially in the backwoods, will vote for Trump and I suspect he will gain a huge victory!
Now I will not sleep tonight!

Now for something relaxing....


That's better...

A Shop for Books!

This is one of my favourite shops these days, mostly because of the books the offer.  I keep getting large hardbacks at Two for £1 and that is better than most such shops round here.  On top of this they are books worth having, not the usual rubbish that fills these shelves. 
At the moment I am reading about six books at once, by this I do not mean I hold them all in my hand as I read, I pile them up and pick which one suits the mood.  I've done this for years as books can get dry or the mind requires some stimulus and swapping to another book is an easy option.  Some of course make the brain think and as I am not one for story books (there is a bin for those) I look to easy reading in biographies or travel books or the like.  This procedure extends not just my vocabulary and knowledge it does me absolutely no good at all.  In all the years I have rarely been able to put the reading to profitable use!  I will however continue this endevour and one day I shall be rich.  

One of the prize finds in the shop was this excellent £16:99 worth which cost me a single pound coin, and I could have got two for that price if there had been another worth buying at the time.  That there was another became clear the next week when I went in!  Bah!
After the Second World War comedy in Britain changed greatly.  Before the war US films had brought the fast one liners into the country rather pushing aside the comedians who made their money touring the Music Halls keeping the same script for many years, adapting this depending on the audience and the part of the country in which they performed.  The fast talkers had reached a peak during the war with Arthur Askey and Tommy Handley making great use of the BBC to stimulate the war effort by keeping people laughing.  Askey of course was removed as some of his comments were a wee bit too socialist for the Beeb.  Handley's fast patter was difficult to remove as the nation, and I mean nation, listened in weekly desperate for his humour.
However as the forties were ending and the fifties arrived new humour erupted into the world and two men were leading the change, Frank Muir & Dennis Norden!  Between them their clever humour introduced new characters into the world especially in their programme "Take it From Here." Among the characters were a broken family called "The Glums," this in satirical take off from the more normal cosy middle class families then portrayed on the Wireless.  'Eth' and her dumb  fiance 'Ron' were hysterical listening in the fifties, and the show ran throughout the fifties from 1948 to 1959 and is much missed to this day.  This brought a more realistic type of person into the home via the wireless one people could identify with, we all know a family like the "Glums!"  The show rarely gets thecredit for the use of the line "Infamy! Infamy! They have all got it in for me," which became famous when used by Kenneth Williams in "Carry on Cleo" much later.
Along with Dennis Norden they produced two panel games that also ran for years "My Word" & "My Music," both of which programmes featured them as part of the teams, this in spite of their inability to sing and Nordens unwillingness to appear.  
The Muir & Norden team split up to do their own thing but never actually parted, their differing tastes led them into other spheres and they continued as friends for life.  They had moved into TV creating many long running series for the BBC often featuring 'Jimmy Edwards.'
Muir became responsible for creating TV comedy at the BBC and later at London Weekend Television where he introduced many comedies including the long running "Please Sir," starring John Alderton. 
Frank Muir enjoyed the limelight participating adverts as well as panel shows and put together several books which led him to many signing days at home and abroad all of which he hated.  

Frank Muir's early life was spent in Ramsgate, Kent, hence the title of his book.  A happy life interrupted when his fathers work took them to Leyton, a much better place then than now.  Frank often appeared well educated but the grammar school boy ensured folk knew he was educated in 'E10' not Eton!'  The King requested his attendance at World War Two and Frank enlisted in the RAF in the photography section and spent much time in Iceland where much of his time was taken up in learning how to write for the company.  Later his photography skill was put to use with slow motion film was used in parachute experiments in an effort to end the 'Roman Candle' that is a 'chute failing to open.  Many lives were saved through this work.  He also produced photo's for SOE agents heading for a parachute jump into France, at night at that! 
Frank Muir worked all his life either scribbling books or connected to media work, happily married to Polly he produced two children.  He died in 1998 at the ripe age of 77 and is much missed.

  

Nothing Happened Today

Nothing happened today so I just sat here and 

watched the leaves fall off the trees.

 

Tuesday Twaddle

Tonight I will sit in the dark.
I spent the whole day doing almost nothing at the museum.  Hardly a soul came in and when they did I was busy at my laptop and they interrupted me.   Tsk!  Now I am exhausted.  Innit always the way?
Nothing happened, all day!  Now my brain is dead and off little use to me.  Not much change.

I so wish I had taken this photo!  It does not matter if it is a set up or not it is a marvellous slant on so many things.  The cat looks somewhat bewildered to me, possibly wondering what he was there for, but being a cat I am sure he will do it anyway.  If he cannot do it he will just eat whatever is lying around and go to sleep.

On days like this, gray, dreich, depressing, when the sky never clears and the sun remains hidden I just want to be by the coast far from it all.  I want clear air, sea, sky and few people around as I wander about.  
There is something about the sea that speaks of freedom, possibly because you can jump on a boat and sail away, whereas being in the country, though enjoyable, means it goes on for ever and often does not get you away from whatever is around you.  
Not that I recommend travel by small boat around the world, or indeed large liner, the sea is its won master and those waves get very large in some areas and storms can continue for days.  In those conditions being on land is superiour.  The only thing I miss about this area is the absence of sea.  I must travel a distance to find it and then travel all the way back when I have put it away for the night.  One day I will be rich enough to own a home there.  One day I will be rich?  Those tablets are wearing off!

The noise of an explosion outside reminds me that November 5th is the time we fill the world with fireworks, bonfires and visits to the accident & emergency services.  While a good fireworks demonstration is appealing I find the needless desire to fill every night of the week with the noise a bit of a pain.  I do realise that many animals also get terrified when such noise erupts, cats & dogs wonder what is going on with little enjoyment from the sight of the things high above.  I'm not one for banning them but restricting their use would be worth considering.  There is a man nearby who considers any event an excuse to set of fireworks, birthdays, weddings, having a cup of tea, it all brings out a few bangs in the sky.  I say control yourself man!