You're Toast!

So there I am for another night sitting in front of a television at three thirty in the morning unable to breathe or sleep and watching a man attempt to sell a toaster to nine enthusiastic disciples.  Quite why anyone would spend over £60 on a toaster, no matter the many additional super facilities it offers, beats me.  It is just sliced bread burnt slightly does that require paying out £60?
I turned off and eventually after slogging through several channels of the same advert offering gym equipment you don't need found an old US WW2 documentary on the fall of Berlin.  It was that or another unfunny US sitcom full of bright young things with no future until they sell their trauma stories to the media in ten years time.

  
Somebody out there is buying this stuff!
Who are they?  Do they live near you?  What makes them appreciate an object like this with a tosser salesman like that selling it?  The audience, both male and female, were enthusiastic thereby proving they were actors taking what jobs were on offer.  
Would it not be a better idea for Amazon to sell books here during the night?  How about an E-Bay channel where items could be auctioned all night?  Something needs to be done to improve TV for the sick watching life pass by ...

 

Smoke Gets Up My Nose

The air has been heavy with the scent of someone's fire this afternoon.  I note, and you can see, how the mist has surrounded us this evening seemingly still full of the residue from those Portuguese fires at the weekend.  Maybe it is the general stour that fills this land of course but either way it is getting up my stuffy nose.

I did not realise that Portugal was so densely forested until now.  Apparently it is one of the most wooded parts of Europe.  Now consider a government struggling with a poor economy, the forested areas owned mostly by private companies and organisations and a lack of proper fire control ( a little bit like our tower blocks) a land dry from hot sun and climate change and trees soaking up what water there is and a tinder box appears.  Dry ground, badly organised woods, scrub for kindling and a couple of arsonists arrive and there will be trouble.  
Several have died in this latest fore, 60 died in June, and today the minister resigned, more for her own good rather than for shame it appears and the government might yet fall in consequence.  
It causes me to wonder how a fire so far away can get up my nose here.  I wish it would blow over the Atlantic next time as I find it hard enough to breathe today anyway.

I have been subject to much sarcasm from a woman.  My 'friend' Peggy has seen fit to question my situation with sarcasm and satire, offering contempt and a distinct lack of sympathy.  This is because as I was shown the door at the museum yesterday for being sick she had to work for a change.  The caring staff sent me home as they did not wish me to die on the counter and coughing over the visitors, both of them, was considered bad form.  
Much sarcasm has been offered.  Remember this you females of the species:-

Now excuse me while I get matron to fix up that intravenous 'Hot Toddy' drip and wipe my brow while muttering "There there," "Poor boy," and "Be brave," instead of the present cries of "Wimp," "If you knew what a woman goes through," and "Try having a baby!"  All of which cut no ice with me!  Now where is the paracetamol...?  

Cogitation on Silence and Noise

Late Sunday night and the world feels different.  It does not take long to recognise the reason, it is the resounding silence.  There is no football hullabaloo in front of me, no cars passing by outside, no young girls screaming in the park, no young males impressing them with their noise, there is school tomorrow and all that homework still to do.  There is even an absence of aircraft overhead, no quiet voices of passers-by, no footsteps.  All is still.  

Silence, something we are no longer used to.  Something I notice only when I have no radio or TV blaring, no football in front of me, no music, no sound.  All this silence appears a strange experience to me now.

Once, before the motor car and the radio it was always like this.  Small market towns had their own daily sounds, loud voices were not uncommon then as now especially when the pubs emptied but there were few if any motor vehicles with polluting engines, pollution was the responsibility of factories and they were closed on Sunday nights.  No workmen's carts would trot slowly by however the local gentry might pass in their Brougham on their way home from a free dinner.  On the edge of town animals in the fields might be heard, nocturnal creatures on the hunt, an owl or a few bats and in the country there are always noises nobody comprehends and does not wish to investigate. 

How quiet life could be before the motor car and electronic devices.

Perhaps we avoid life by hiding behind such electronically produced sound and thus fend off the need to think and face the reality of our lives.  Bread and circuses for the many in the modern day.

   

After eight in the morning the contrast is clear.  Already the barking of happy dogs with wagging tails with torpor filled owners following has been heard.  The bread van snarls it pollution spreading diesel 7:5 tonner up to Sainsburys, cars driven by Monday morning blues ridden owners head for work in shop or factory, and soon dragging schoolbags behind them the future of the nation appear slowly making their way to the school Stalag.  By nine the streets are busy, shoppers appear and the sun decides to shine when most folks are in work, isn't that always the way.  On Radio 3 a soprano warbles uninvited and behind me the kettle boils noisily for third, or is it fourth time drowned out by passing white vans rushing into their busy day.  All we need is the police round the corner or the ambulance from up the road to announce their arrival by blare their siren and the day will be complete.

Maybe I ought to go back to bed...?

Going back to bed was a good idea, I heartily recommend it.  In fact I recommend it so much I may return there once I have eaten something for lunch.  

Lunchtime certainly is not quiet.  Next door the builders hammer and bang, lorries back up across the street, cars waiting for builders lorries to move allow me the pleasure of their poor taste in music while they wait, and on top of this I have been back in the BBC iplayer.  This gave me five Radio 3 Essays on the Great War by Sir Hew Strachan a historian of repute.  (Do you ever hear of a historian being called anything else?  They are never referred to as 'dodgy' are they?)  This series is about 'The Long Road to Peace' and well worth a listen.  These fifteen minute programmes suit me as if they get wearisome you can dump them soon enough, I listened to all five.

The noise levels grew also as the street life became busier and the world went about its busy business.  I added to the cacophony by setting aside a few minutes to listen to AC/DC offer us one or two of their melodies, well if 'melodies' is the correct term with AC/DC that is!  Just in case a neighbour was in I used small earphones and now I am not sure I can actually hear the traffic outside as tinnitus appears to last longer than I thought.  

Storm Ophelia has been filling the news today.  This was a hurricane at one time but now is referred to as a mere storm even though it manages to reach over a hundred miles an hour in parts of the Republic of Ireland.  This is not one of the usual left over US hurricanes, Ophelia never moved from the eastern Atlantic and has begun to move north picking up large portions of Sahara sand with it.  This sand is they say much finer than that found elsewhere, whether this is true or not the sky has turned a yellow colour above us this afternoon and in some places a deep red has appeared in the hazy clouds.  The picture is quite close to how it looked at one point and the air is filled with a heavy scent, with fine bits going up the nose I noticed.  As darkness falls the sky changes colour and with the storm heading north the sky will clear by the morning I suspect.  The storm has caused much damage and several people have been injured and a few killed.  Here the sky has changed colour, the trees shiver in the wind and the slow traffic reveals the rush hour at its height.
I may as well go back to bed...

Another Weekend Over

Another weekend almost over and what a waste of time this has been.  The coughing and spluttering bug has visited which left me unwilling to venture far... this is not new these days.
Instead I have read the good book, other books, and insulted peoples intelligence on social media while downing prodigious amounts of tea, coffee and rum toddies.  None of this helped but it passed the time.  

This did mean I did not wander out and therefore managed to be available to watch the BBC Alba 6pm Saturday night football, Ross County v Heart of Midlothian.  One of TV's better idea is the covering of football by BBC Alba.  The commentary is wonderful, all in Gaelic and therefore the drivel spouted means nothing and you can concentrate on the game rather than the needless statistics and information normally dumped on your unwilling ears.  
This was followed by an interesting programme, with subtitles, concerning the origin of 'The Celts.'
Many see them as a 'race' moving into Scotland, Wales and Ireland from the continent, however this has long been disproved and the real 'Celt' is more likely to be someone who speaks the language of the 'Celt' which goes back into history, possibly into the neolithic age.  From what I have read before this makes sense, the peoples of France and Flanders, Belgium and Spain were in contact with Britannia and it is likely a common language was spoken from distant time.  There is no evidence, historical or via DNA testing to prove an invasion at any time though peoples did move around.   
This was an excellent programme probably still on the TV iplayer, though it was entitled in Gaelic so you can guess that I do not remember the title.

Now I am off for yet another football match, Inter Milan v AC Milan.  At least good football and several sendings off!  Just what we want late at night!

Hypocrisy/Same Old

Daily Mail

There has been a lot of fuss about one Harvey Weinstein  in recent days.  The tabloids are having a great time destroying someone who apparently was awfully important in Hollywood.  Personally I have never heard of him until now and this has not made any difference to my life nor I suspect to his.

This is the usual tale of abused suffering females and nasty horrid man in a corrupt organisation that has gone on for years and no-one bothered to do anything about it.  Isn't life hard for women?  

This man sexually satisfied himself with many up and coming actresses who understood their career would be harmed if they did not meet his requests.  Now one after another attention seeking women appear telling us of their woes filling the media with lurid tales some of which are no doubt true.  Poor girls the things they went through just to be a star!

Several things strike me here.

First any woman who thought much of herself would not have submitted to his desires putting their reputation and indeed life before any desire to become a film star.  How many of them were more than willing to play with anyone who could get them where they wished to be, yet now cry out years later?  

Second why did they not report it at the time?   There is a police force nearby, with female police officers sympathetic to the cause, why not seek them?  They did not report things because a career was more important so they kept quiet.  How many in the media have done the same?  How many knew of Jimmy Saville and kept quiet in spite of the suffering adolescent girls endured from him because had they spoken out their TV/radio/film career was over, so they let others suffer?  

The third thing to note is the acting required usually meant lts of undressing on screen and bonking anything that appeared 'in character' thus happy to endure on screen what they would not on the casting couch?  Hypocrite somewhat?  Most films are sex films these days, women's porn and not much else, so where is the problem doing same in real life?

The chattering classes have appeared full of judgement and condemnation and yet not one has queried the willingness of these women to use a man just to 'get on in movies.'  None condemn the women who seduce men to climb the greasy pole in business or media or any other walk of life and we have all met them.  No condemnation for men abused or pushed aside by women on the make.  Just loud voices once again in which women are good and men bad and isn't it awful yet none who accept that women use their bodies to get men on their side as much any man uses women. 

Such a hypocritical world, encouraged by the media, a media run by men who enjoy destroying other men by selling stories to women who think they then have some power but in truth are just being used.

Whether these tales are true or not, and I suspect most are, we all know this has gone on for ever and will do so still.  Men use women, women use men, pretty young girls who think moving into the movie world will be straightforward are rare.  Too many books, films, stories have shown this to be nonsense so why are these lassies upset?  Indeed why are so many others keeping quiet?  Because they have been paid to keep quiet or their career is more important still.

Ah money!  I note his wife has left him.  Poor dear, she maybe didn't know anything about his behaviour all this time and now she leaves and with little in her hand bar around $20 million dollars.  I don't know how she will get over the emotional shock.  The others in the bread line might get over it with a few million however...

 

On a more important note I see Gordon Strachan has parted company with the Scotland managers job 'by mutual consent.'  That means they agreed how much to pay him off.  

It was inevitable that after five or so years in the job he ought to go.  Gordon had his moments and in the end he almost got us into the World Cup once again but narrowly failed.  That is the story of his management.  He succeeded at Celtic with money behind him, managed Coventry for five years successfully getting them relegated and himself sacked, took Southampton to a losing English cup final, went to Celtic then failed at Middlesbrough and walked away without claiming a pay off.  

He took over Scotland after Craig Leveins famous 6-4 formation failed and sometimes produced good results and occasionally very bad ones.  He was not the worst manager Scotland has ever had and leaves at the right time with some decent young players appearing which the new manager ought to develop.

Ah the new manager.  The whole of Scotland wonders who this will be while the Scottish Football Association suits wonder which Old Firm name they can get to fill the job.  Once again they will fail to show intellectual depth and will concentrate of one of the Glasgow mafia as always.  Just who it will be matters not as long as it is one of their boys.  The bright new future we all hope for is still a pipe dream, it will be same old, same old.

A Gray Day

A gray day that saw me wandering about our limited town looking for a Teddy Bear.  People keep having kids and the only gift is a Teddy Bear and could I find one?  No!  There were varieties of soft toys, some affordable, but no actual Teddy Bear available.  I was about to give up and search online when I passed the charity shop with one in the window, cheap but nice.  I had to check it was a special buy and not a second hand thing, I am not that mean, but it was indeed a special purchase so in the pocket it went and soon, after I have adapted the price ticket, it will be prepared for handing to the happy worn out mum. 

 
Once I decided to search the web for Teddy Bears I discovered just how many people sell them, often hand made, jolly expensive but decent bears.  There is a big business in old bears often worth vast sums of money.  New bears, Steiff of Germany is a great name, retail for over a hundred or more pounds, and vintage ones cost thousands!  If I ever have money I will ignore banks and out my money into vintage Teddy Bears and these will definitely keep their value.  

 
Ma hoose...honest!

Another Day Another Doll.. Hold on..

Once more the shortage of staff forced me out of bed and into a clean shirt for museum duty.  Imagine having to shave on a Saturday rather than a Sunday!  This puts my body clock right out and I will be confused all week.  
As expected little happened though having decoration work under way we allowed folks in free of charge which brought a few smiles to faces.  At least one or two spent money in the shop afterwards.   This always pleases me and it pleased the kid who left with a pair of Harry Potter glasses also!
The main bulk of the morning was spent watching a cha stick stuff up his nose outside.  I spoke to him somewhat roughly and while I wish I had just lifted him and dumped him outside I was wary of folks passing and also me losing out!  The boss called the 'town security' who never appeared and eventually he wandered off.  If he returns I may get annoyed and dump him with or without security. Sticking stuff up his nose with kids around is not on and it is not going to happen in our garden.
I have been running this through my head since and it annoys me.  Some folks need help, others need removed from society while they kill themselves slowly, he was one of the latter.  
On the Twitter feed I watch the local police and they are constantly picking up drug dealers with thousands in their pockets yet people say legalise drugs and end the crime?  It may end crime but will still have thousands dying on our streets hooked on this junk.  Legalising it will not save them.

The drizzly day sauntered on after this, happy dealings with the families that arrived, happy dealing with a lovely young woman who spent money, and happy to leave not long after noon and head for home.  Life has been dead since!

The problem with weekends is a simple one, if there is no football there is nothing happening.  No political stories, no tragedies, no events that need mentioning in fact no news at all which must really annoy those having to work the weekends.  Once I have shopped there is little else to do when the rain drizzles uncomfortably down TV and radio are poor and the web is not pleasing me.  Now I just sit and mope as I am too tired to think.  Bah!

 

The Post.

I drifted slowly down to the Post Office the other day to obtain stamps for Christmas.  Quite why I know not as I still have plenty from last year, indeed the year before!  It is however untrue that I still possess and make use of tuppence halfpenny stamps bearing George VI' image upon them!    
Now it costs 65pence for a first class stamp, 56 for a second class and while this sounds expensive to the pennypinchers amongst us I think that sending a letter/card from one end of the country to the other for that price is well worth it.  92 per cent get there the next day and from my own Royal Mail experience I know that most of those that don't have address problems which the postie has to solve and the sender will never accept.  
There is no doubt that Royal Mail for all its problems, mostly bad management, Royal Mail offers a great service.  When postmen are regular one a round they can deal well with the folks they meet, and avoid one or two others, each 'walk' has one woman who it is best to avoid!  I enjoyed that job even though my knees didn't and wish I had begun the work many years before.

Not that I send much through the post these days, mostly birthday cards and the like, but I am happy to receive this way.  Much better to have books delivered by post than by Amazon's awful own company that delivers when and if!  Buying second had books through Amazon means the sender uses Royal Mail thus making it easier all round.  What a shame Amazon think their way is better.
I had one card to send this week, having nieces is difficult as if I forget one the others gloat, if I forget them they grumble, and you know what girls are like when grumbling!  So off the card went, with gift cards inside though why I bother as she earns more in a year than I earned in a long lifetime.  I suspect her Xmas will be spent in New York or on the Spanish Coast where she and her man will swill lots of cheap beer, well he will, and squander their cash which they could make better use of by giving it to me!
Good job I'm not one to complain!

Bad Royal Mail management has led to the feeble union taking a stand at long last and calling a strike on Oct 19th.  Had they stood their ground years ago there might have been better conditions then but they kept quiet feared the union might end up in court and they would lose their jobs.  Over 60,000 men have been lost to RM because of this.  This strike concerns the pension which as is common these days the company is fiddling.  I doubt this will make much difference in the long run.

 

Laugh or Weep?

The 7:40 is heading for Waterloo and as it Passes Parsons Green a man stands up and begins to read from the bible and speak to the packed commuters on the train.  He mentions, so we are told repeatedly, 'homosexuality as a sin,' and 'Death is not the end.'  
At this the brave Londoners began to panic. 
A woman screamed and several began to prize open the doors and jump out onto the trackside.  The driver realising the danger called in and the power on the line, all electric on this line, was turned off ensuring the passengers (sorry 'customers') were safe and the entire line brought to a halt and hours of delays ensued.
As panic grew a man asked the preacher to stop and the guard arrived to speak to the man.  As the train continued, some power must have been returned, into Wimbledon he was spoken to calmly by the police.  No charges were brought, the guard congratulated on his approach and the many users of the railways out of the UK's busiest commuter station inconvenienced.

  
Well MR Khan I think you mistook the attitudes of those commuters hurtling in at 80 miles an hour yesterday morning.  They have not given the impression that they are 'Not broken' but have offered a glimpse of people either naive, ignorant or plain stupid!  
I accept that for most the bible is not a book they have read, nor have most been forced to attend a Sunday School of some kind when young and as such the nation is clearly bible ignorant.  However most understand the basics of Christian teaching, most in London have come across a 'preacher' in the streets, on a bus or train or in a large complex at one time or another, how come this lot failed to understand?  The pictures on offer do not show uneducated people leaving the train, a common lot of commuters only, yet they open the doors and flee!  A brief read of the good book will often force fear into people when the truth about judgement appears, many refuse to accept this and prefer the safety of the life we keep in our heads rather than allow eternity to break in however that was not happening here.  This was a confusion between the bible and the Koran.  These people could not understand that this man was not going to blow them up, his words spoke to them like ISIS had appeared in front of them!  The ignorance displayed takes some beating in my view.  

  
There is another reason for the panic and this can be traced back to Tony Blair and the deliberate attempt to increase awareness of Islamic terrorism.  During the years of the IRA Provos and their bombing campaign many bombs were left in stations and other public places yet the government propaganda never encouraged panic, indeed the opposite was the case but not now.
Blair even had 'Ferret tanks,' totally useless against terrorist attacks, placed outside Heathrow Airport just for a publicity stunt, what a waste of an army that was!  Today the fear has been raised both by government offerings and screaming headlines in the 'yellow press.'  
Of course there is a need to be wary of individual or organised ISIS type attacks at the moment but hysteria is not an answer.  This generation is not the one that either lived through a war or grew up in the years after one, no this generation has no concept of 'Getting on with it as there is no other choice' nor do they have the ability to be calm in difficult situations.  I would be far from calm in a bomb situation myself but I suggest most of us would react without panic if a preacher, even one with a koran stood up and spoke.  Two world wars, a couple of depressions and Margaret Thatcher yet let someone quote scripture and panic sets in.  What a world.

Viva Catalonia

The Atlantic

To most people Catalonia is probably famous mostly for Barcelona football club and the Gaudi architecture found in the city.  The Scots however appreciate the nationalistic emotions engendered by years of oppression by a bullying centre.  In the Spanish civil war this area suffered under General Franco's right wing army and since then the government in Madrid has not lessened the hold over the region.  The supposed United Kingdom comprises Four sovereign nations Spain about a dozen.  If Madrid and the corrupt government found there (are all governments corrupt today?)  allows independence for Catalonia then the Basque region and others may decide also to secede from Madrid rule and that would upset many people.

The Catalonia government decided to hold a referendum to gauge the desire for independence within the state.  The Spanish government took this to court and found this was against the constitution and the court banned the referendum.  Naturally this did not stop it!  Today the vote went ahead and heavy handed Spanish riot police, not the local Catalonian police, attacked the places where such votes were being held, crashing into the buildings, removing voting papers and fighting with those inside who resisted.  Men, women and children were abused, some indoors others attempting to vote.  Still others blocked streets and were forcibly attacked with clubs and violently removed.

  
While the thuggish police assault Catalonians attempting to vote peacefully many world leaders remain quiet.  Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have said nothing as far as I can see, Boris Johnson mutters about 'constitution' and keeps quiet, only Nicola Sturgeon has spoken out against the violence and a demonstration against the violent crackdown occurs outside the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh with no riots.  
The reason they keep quiet is the fear if Catalonia win independence others will follow Scotland certainly will and with Brexit bringing economic collapse sooner rather than later this is at least one good thing to come out of this corrupt and incompetent government.  
The sad thing is that had Madrid allowed a referendum, indeed encouraged one with appropriate questions (to their advantage) a peaceful result may have shown no complete desire for independence.  However now they have assaulted so many and revealed their desperation it is not unlikely that Catalonia may declare UDI and break away anyway.  What could Madrid do about that? What would the result be?  We wait and see.
The right wing media and the BBC are playing it down of course, they follow the Tory line.