Boxing Day Wander

As you can see Boxing Day brought out the crowds!  
Actually this was about 9:30 in the morning and the shops that were open did so at 10 am.  Up at the shopping centre one did open an hour and a half early as people were queueing outside for the so called bargains. I took the free bus up there but saw some crowds but few bargains.  One or two were on offer but far fewer than the advertisements loudly proclaim. 

At the Christmas morning service I did manage to be kissed by several women (not by those under 30 I noticed) and came home fair drookit with the rain that started while I was inside there.  The lunch was waiting almost ready for me and surprisingly not burned as it usually turns out.  The girls at work presented the other volunteers with a bottle of wine but I got two splendid bottles of beer.  It was only as I allowed the nectar like fluid go down easily I noticed it was Belgian beer!  OOPS I thought and checked the bottle, as I thought this stuff is much, much stronger than the usual stuff, good job I didn't start on the second, I had already begun a cheaper type earlier.  However it made watching yet more reruns of 'Top Gear' watchable!  Surprisingly in consideration of what I shoved down my gullet I appear to have lost a couple of pounds.  I think I may need to obtain a new set of scales as the old one may have had enough.  Still the day was satisfactory.

The rain on Christmas Day encouraged me to stay in and simper but early this morning, after nine anyway, I had to get out and get some air.  Wandering around the Sunday quiet streets I managed to take some pictures of things often seen but difficult to capture.  One was the bird that has been placed above the door in the shadow of an overpowering tree.  (It may be some sort of shrub I know not)  This hides the bird and makes it look real to those who just glance as they pass.  Very clever placing.  

The quiet day fools me into thinking it is Sunday when it is actually Saturday, only the football enables me to know the difference.  However with another Sunday tomorrow (the vicar Will be tired by the evening) and a holiday for many on Monday (bar those working in shops or those spending cash) this means yet another quiet day.  I might need to go outside and talk to somebody soon if this continues!  
I was hoping to get on the bike to remove some calories but the weather has made this impossible.  The rain is accompanied by high winds and further north terrible destruction is following on as for the third time huge rainfall is hitting those already suffering from floods.  Five inches of rain expected in 24 hours for them, makes our weather appear pleasant.  However with a week off I might yet get on the bike.  Might...

Still, might as well be happy anyway what sayest thou?

Christmas day 2015

 

Happy Christmas to all

 

End of the Working Year

The doors shut at twelve noon, or just after as a woman entered as we were locking the door, and I will not reopen them until January.  How nice to be free form it for a while.  How nice for them all to forget work and enjoy life once again.  Family gatherings, holidays in the sun, short periods in jail, all these are ahead of us during the next few days.  My fridge is full of everything I need except that one thing I will be missing when I find what one important missing thing is, then there will be trouble.   Folks were filling the shops late into the afternoon, many men only now beginning to realise that they have a wife at home and no present and they have to leave the pub and go get her whatever it is she wanted whatever that was.  
Passing down the High Street I noticed a lot of bright yellow jackets hanging around.  The sight of one young man making off and haring down an alleyway pursued by one bright yellow jacket indicated something was amiss.  The yelling, screaming lassie, hands waving foul mouth in action, indicated others were involved, as indeed was drink!  For some time the populace forgot their worries and watched as these lower orders, and lower orders indeed they were, assisted the security staff with their work.  As I passed on two ambulance vehicles and a two police vehicles arrived.  They are never there when you want them and when they turn up there are loads of them  arresting you, well that's what I find anyway.
Now here's a thing, in Australia soon enough kids will be up early tearing open overpriced presents and still demanding more.  In the UK folks have still to get home from work, the shops, the pub, to wrap said presents, and in parts of the USA people are reaching for coffee to aid their entrance into the world yet again.  If Santa existed how would he overcome that I ask?   
Anyway it's teatime here, I can tell by the burning smell from the cooker, so I leave you while I go and hang my largest football sock up and await developments.

Christmas by John Betjeman
 
The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
'The church looks nice' on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says 'Merry Christmas to you all'.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say 'Come!'
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

Time & Date

Xmas Shop

Christmas Shopping  
    Poem by Jim Yerman


This year getting in the Christmas spirit might have seemed a little quirky
As some people headed out to shop before finishing Thanksgiving turkey.

Stores tried luring in customers, (it’s a strategy that worked, I must say) .
By extending Black Friday from Thursday morning until well into Saturday.

Perhaps they didn’t understand to our initial confusion and eventual laughter
That Friday cannot start the day before itself or extend till the day after.

I know they did this to spawn interest and generate humongous lines
I wonder if it’s the same concept as happy hour from 5 to 9?

Why I even saw a story about a woman who missed Thanksgiving not because she was poor
Or stranded in an airport...no because she was camped out in front of a store!

She decided giving up time with her family, enjoying the turkey, the togetherness, the quaff
Was worth it if she could buy Christmas presents at 50 to 70 percent off!

The doors spring open and the crowd rushes in, hordes of people determined not to fail
The biggest drawback to their success...there are only 5 Big Screen TV’s up for sale.

So they elbow one another aside, they push and they shove and deceive
In order to share some Christmas spirit...with their family on Christmas Eve.

We stand in awe as these Christmas shoppers attack, they kick, they hit and they bite
We’re not witnessing a Christmas miracle, we’re ringside at a Christmas fight.

I imagine those who won the fight for the TV’s (after all isn’t that what Christmas is all about?)
Can go home, plug them in and watch reruns on the news of one another duking it out.

Why, there are even reports of people shooting each other in the stores and out on the street
Who would have thought besides your purse or your wallet you need to be packing heat!

I harbor a false hope every year that this fighting will come to a stop
When they realize their children are watching and they’re teaching them how to shop.

I hope these people are church goers because as this Christmas season begins
If they can’t rationalize their behavior...they can at least be forgiven for their sins.

And if you think this Christmas embarrassment is the worst one you’ve ever seen
Just wait till Black Friday welcomes in next Christmas season...the day after Halloween.

Jim Yerman




Poem Hunter

Tuesday Tattle

 

The morning was spent watching people browse the shop with little idea of what they were looking for.  The worst were men, they have to buy for her and have absolutely no idea what they want, or what she wants that is.  I suspect the clever woman, and most are, have already made it clear to him what she really wants but he has not noticed, the football might have been on or something important like that, so he is now desperately trying to remember all those few (cough) words she has used concerning the Christmas present she requires.  It is harder as she started mentioning this back in January!  At least some folks found something useful, and a few pounds fell into the till.  

There is of course a way round the problem if the gift bought does not come up to expectations, a bottle or two of her favourite tipple.  It may also keep her quiet for much of the Boxing Day football he will be watching.  The thoughtful man thinks of all things.

Seen from such a distance it does make you wonder as to why we are the only inhabited planet.  On the other hand the many stars we see, and especially the for more distant one 'Hubble' and other fancy telescopes have seen are so far away in light years it is a strong possibility that they may not exist any longer anyway.  'The stars will fall from the sky' it says somewhere and maybe this is a reference to that.  Space is so big and so vast it is fascinating to just stare at some photographs and wonder about what is out there.   

However I suspect most peoples image of space is based on 'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek' rather than actual science or astronomy.  My early days were influenced by 'Dan Dare' from the 'Eagle' comic and his exciting adventures amongst the planets. The stuff I read was full of space travel in craft that looked very different from the things that are used today, these disappoint as they do not use fancy speeds to travel great distances, are shaped completely differently from the bulbous take off and land craft drawn by so many experts and more than this they claimed that by 2000 we would travel often to the moon you and I.  Experts eh?

Advent 1955
by
John Betjeman

The Advent wind begins to stir
With sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,
It's dark at breakfast, dark at tea,
And in between we only see
Clouds hurrying across the sky
And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry
And branches bending to the gale
Against great skies all silver pale
The world seems travelling into space,
And travelling at a faster pace
Than in the leisured summer weather
When we and it sit out together,
For now we feel the world spin round
On some momentous journey bound -
Journey to what? to whom? to where?
The Advent bells call out 'Prepare,
Your world is journeying to the birth
Of God made Man for us on earth.'

And how, in fact, do we prepare
The great day that waits us there -
For the twenty-fifth day of December,
The birth of Christ? For some it means
An interchange of hunting scenes
On coloured cards, And I remember
Last year I sent out twenty yards,
Laid end to end, of Christmas cards
To people that I scarcely know -
They'd sent a card to me, and so
I had to send one back. Oh dear!
Is this a form of Christmas cheer?
Or is it, which is less surprising,
My pride gone in for advertising?
The only cards that really count
Are that extremely small amount
From real friends who keep in touch
And are not rich but love us much
Some ways indeed are very odd
By which we hail the birth of God.

We raise the price of things in shops,
We give plain boxes fancy tops
And lines which traders cannot sell
Thus parcell'd go extremely well
We dole out bribes we call a present
To those to whom we must be pleasant
For business reasons. Our defence is
These bribes are charged against expenses
And bring relief in Income Tax
Enough of these unworthy cracks!
'The time draws near the birth of Christ'.
A present that cannot be priced
Given two thousand years ago
Yet if God had not given so
He still would be a distant stranger
And not the Baby in the manger.

At Last

At last the shortest day of the year has arrived.  From today the nights get shorter and the days longer.  No more staring into the dark longing for sunshine, from today we stare into clouds full of rain awaiting sunshine.  This morning I caught the sun low down struggling to rise, at least he will not get any lower now. This was long after 8:30 and the chill in the air revealed December was still winter even if it has been mild by comparison.  
Spring is a coming.
 
Nothing else happened.
Again I ventured through the supermarkets for things forgotten, again I forgot things.
That sums up the day.
I looked for exciting happenings but none were seen.
Christmas shoppers with worried looks passed by, I smugly smiled and mentioned mine was all done and got a smack in the face or two from those who were not there yet.
The afternoon gale blew in, the rain swept down, I closed down and ironed some shirts.

I am not sure I can continue with this exciting life.
My nerves cannot stand much more of the thrill.
Roll on work....

The 'World's End is an Edinburgh pub!

Sunday Before Christmas

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

in the bleak midwinter, long ago. 

Now just hold there a minute.  It is indeed winter here in the northern hemisphere but a historical minded type might wish to indicate that Jesus more likely arrived in the Springtime.  I say this because one reason I wear a 'Bah Humbug!' hat is my antipathy towards historical falsehoods and the facile jollity of the Christmas season.  Jesus came to earth indeed but what we see around us does not reveal him or his reason for coming. 
Somewhere in the past a someone thought he was being clever in deciding to 'Christianise' the midwinter festival, a time of jollity, hedonism and many booze ups, this was supposed to clean things up.  What has happened?  Christmas has become a time of jollity, hedonism and many booze ups!  Scotland at least kept the two separate leaving Christmas as a quieter time and the booze and hedonism for the New Year celebration, both just a time to rejoice that Spring was coming once again.  Some like to call this the Roman 'Saturnalia' but for those in norther climes this event goes way back into prehistory when the shortest day of the year is celebrated, and who can blame them?  Tomorrow is the 21st and the shortest day and I am glad!  However Christmas has been placed here instead of Springtime so we may as well get on with it now.
   

The need to attend a census in Bethlehem Josephs family home meant a long walk to the south for the Nazareth based pair.  Christmas cards may show romantic drawings of a woman on a donkey led by a caring husband but in truth if they had a donkey, which I doubt as they could only afford the cheapest sacrifice after the birth, if they had a donkey the man would have sat on it, she after all is only a woman.  

Once at the destination the pair would have arrived at the family home seeking the patriarch and somewhere to have the child, no 'Inn' as they did not exist however the region does contain rock that is porous which leaves many caves often used even today as barns or stables.  It is most likely Jesus entered the world there.  Out of the way from the family members, probably overcrowded indoors so this would have been better for Mary rather than a mob in a building.  Mary herself may well have been merely 14 years of age as that was a common age to marry, Joseph probably around the 20 years mark, just as well no politically correct social workers were around to ensure she was 'kept safe' at the time.

It is however interesting that once the child was born and wrapped as was the fashion in strips of cloth and placed in the feeding trough used by any animals around, the 'manger' it is then shepherds appear.  These rough men, carrying with them the odour of country living as well as sheep, arrive to bow down to this child.  For the parents, one visited by an angel, the other informed by dream that God was at work, this must have been quite an event.  Just what was going through their heads as these men worshipped and departed singing praise to God? 

As if this was not enough Magi make an entrance.  Forget three men on camels pointing at a star having travelled several hundred miles supplied by a pack of sandwiches and a vacuum flask of coffee, these men must have had a sizeable entourage with them, donkeys, camels, servants all hanging about outside.  This happened during the night, a time when people stayed firmly indoors, so it is no wonder no others noticed.  First shepherds bowing to the child, then gifts of Frankincense, myrrh and gold from people from the top end of society, the parents wonder must have grown.  

Then their sleep disturbed by Joseph being informed to take the child and flee to Egypt.  

What a night.  Two young people, a baby arriving is hard enough let alone when forced round the corner out of the way.  This is then followed by appearances of worshipping shepherds and Magi and the warning to run.  Egypt is a long walk from Bethlehem and these two must have been somewhat tired by it all.  

Note that at no time did yellow arcs range over their heads in the stable.  No mention is made of other animals like donkeys or cattle, however they would at least make the place warm.  No sign of 'Hollywood' lighting all around or fancy camera angles as in the picture at the top, the nearest I could find to the real thing, no crooning carols, no 'white Christmas' and definitely no 'Santa Claus!' 

This was the real world.

Today we see refugees in similar straits yet we often find the media implying they are scroungers, even if they have lost houses, possessions and family members through travel problems, war and death.  How many attend Carol services tonight yet would refuse an immigrant in need a bed?  how many love the 'magic of Christmas' yet ignore the reality of the God who entered with angel voices reflecting God's joy that salvation had arrived and would some years later be accomplished by a horrifying death on a cross for all who would believe?

The tinsel Christmas is not one for me, the real Christmas is deeper and harder and the choice it forces us to make one many run from to what they consider an easier life, one that fails ultimately.

Saturday Joy

 

The syncopated Christmas rhythms continued apace today as the brass played and the choirs sang.  Crowds passed by, some stood and watched occasionally joining in while others sped around elbowing towards a complete Christmas shop.  

I put my fingers in my ears and wished I had my 'Bah Humbug!' hat with me.   

I searched upstairs in Tesco for the item I needed urgently.  Last night while drifting off to sleep I made a note to remember this when in there this morning.  I forgot.  So there was I in Tesco scouring around upstairs searching the toys, the stationery, the handyman items all in a vain effort to remember what it was I forgot to note as I could not remember it now.  Only while searching the 'reduced price' box did it come to mind -ink for the printer! 
I had seen some the other day while in but was not sure of the number.  Did I require 300 or 301?  So I stood once again in Tesco wondering which I required.  I plumped for 300 hoping it was the right double pack of Colour and Black ink.  It was!  How glad I was while at home realising my brainw as much better than I had deduced.
As I opened the drawer where such stuff is kept I found both an unused double pack and the colour ink from the previous set!  I forgot to look in the drawer....

Friends Tire

It was the 'Friends of the museum's' Christmas Raffle Draw today so I passed by just as it occurred.  I had after all spent 50p on a ticket, that's ten shillings in real money, and I was hoping for the bottle of whisky they always have on offer at such draws.
I got nothing!
There was no whisky.
I still got nothing!
I did however do the washing up, cart the tables back from where they came and generally got bossed about.  All this on two glasses of wine and two mince pies.
As I woke at five this morning and could not lose the tendency to sleep I was struggling to keep awake at one point.  Now however I am not struggling, I am asleep.
Saturday tomorrow, the last before Christmas and hordes planning to come into town tomorrow.
Bah!

A Walk

  
Having got myself on the bike this morning, I had to get myself on the bike as no-one would help, and cycling around for thirty minutes, it may have been five but it felt like thirty, and finished by coming up the slope in the park and near killing myself I found climbing the stairs back home enough for the day, or so I thought.
Exercise is a good thing when you are young and fit, it is less entertaining when a short bike ride leaves the rider looking for a defibrillator!  However I made it and more will occur if I remember tomorrow and at the weekend.  I am now searching the weather forecast hoping for rain!
During the afternoon I decided my knees, now aching with stiffness required a walk.  Off we hobbled across the park as the clouds that have covered us for a week thinned out and pretended they were going to let the sun shine through, they didn't!  
There is an old picture from around 200 years ago showing this park as a field, a cow or two grazing idly and a yokel wandering about.  In the distance the new Congregational church building stands alongside one or two grand houses, the church the only remaining memory of that time.  All else has changed.  Probably owned by a wealthy type and farmed by tenant farmers the field was turned into the grounds of the large house built by one of the Courtauld family of weaving fame.  His grand large home lasted for around forty years before it passed into the hands of a school in whose possesion it remained for many years.  Near one gate there was a grass verge and one day I saw a lady of undetermined age walk across this grass quite deliberately.
"I was never allowed to do this while at the school so I am doing it now," she laughed and went on her way.  In recent times the house became flash flats with a few houses alongside owned by folks who can afford half a million, I did not apply.  
Passing the school gym which now serves as the registry office usually with a flash car dressed for a bride outside, I walked slowly past the few large houses that stand alongside the church.  The names and uses have changed with the years, one superb house is now used by the Salvation Army to rehouse people with specific difficulties, another rebuilt by a painter and decorator and the only one I can identify used by a Council 'Community' office whatever that is.  The gray brick community building was built by one John Brown, his initials in the Latin version 'IJ' and seen above the door, Latin was the trendy Victorian manner, and it is clear he did well for himself in his day.  As far as I can gather he began as a brickie and later made bricks near the railway and made his money that way.  It is clear he had talent and was seen by the later years of the nineteenth century as one of the towns more important people.  He would be shocked by the house today.  In fact several other houses have similar styles if not the same bricks and possibly he built them, or got his men to do so, and established his reputation.  He is not there now of course.
I strolled against the wind along the Roman Road called Stane Street (which also lies outside my window) heading east.  I passed the 'Horse & Groom' a pub where one Saturday lunchtime two workmates ran outside and pulled me through the door and made me join them!  Even in 1937 this pub was where people gathered if they wished goods to be taken to the villages round about.  Most pubs continued the tradition of carriers, by vehicle in the thirties no longer plodding horse and carts, delivering goods near and far, well into the big towns at least.  The 'Horse & Groom' appeared to be best placed for the villages within a ten mile radius.  UPS and a variety of others can find their beginnings in men plodding along at two miles an hour beside a pair of carthorses with loaded cart.

The rest of this side of the street contains many houses from the past including further along a row of weavers houses, the narrow homes contain windows designed to aid weavers.  It is said that once upon a time the attic roof had no divisions as long rolls of cloth would be stretched out up there.  On the other side of the street all was demolished and a new roadway capable of dealing with increased traffic established, also the new shopping centre sweeping away generations of buildings.  However the museum benefited from this as an archaeological dig must take place before building work and many items were found.  There is a Iron Age, Roman and Anglo Saxon finds from there.  A hamlet of some sort containing roundhouses was later joined by Roman dwellings.  When Rome withered and the Saxons arrived the may well have farmed much of this area although it is possible there were houses at this spot also.  Now there is a variety of modern day shops in the usual style, sometimes I wish the one time inhabitants were still around.  

I wandered about the town for a while and made my way home.   I came back via the park, the sun still striving to break through as it dipped in the west but the clouds were not relenting.  A couple of new houses are being constructed nearby right next to the road and not far from the skatepark.  How the new tenants will love those brats come summer!  Along Stane Street, but a different part my aged home stands, just.  The houses nearby go back some distance also, at least two hundred years but possibly more.  It is possible to discover something of those who lived there in the last hundred years but going further back this is harder.  When I have time I will seek more re the doctors who used this building as a surgery and the woman who made corsets in the 1920's, I wonder how she made enough for this place!  Maybe their story will always be hidden.

Yesterday's Post (I fell asleep)

Tim Peake has reached the International Space Station!
So the media are trumpeting loudly these days.  Who he you ask?  No idea I answer.  However he is 'A Brit' who has gone into space so this, according to the press, is news.  Less clearly stated is the US policy of only using Americans to visit the space station and Tim Peake has had to take US citizenship to get his free ride into space.
So what I ask?
The space station has had limited press coverage ever since it opened years ago, only the science sections have bothered with it, so why all the fuss now?  maybe I am suspicious but what news is being hidden behind this exaggerated story?  It is always wise to look at the hidden stories behind the big headlines.
Anyway who cares he has gone into space outside of his family and those interested?  This is a small thing and years ago a British woman went into space why is this considered main news?  Good luck to him travelling around the world at high speed, good luck to his experiments that are oh so important.  Good luck to him getting back in one piece.  But spare us the large headlines on a story of limited interest. 
And remember he is now a US citizen, so charge him with treason!

Quite surprised yesterday by the US state that closed all the schools because of a terrorist threat received by email.  I was doubly surprised when New York did not close anything after receiving the same threat.  I suppose having endured thrity years of IRA terrorism and attacks on the nation for other reasons many times before that the UK is not so neurotic about threats.  However it was clear even from afar that this was just an idle threat and careful checking elsewhere would have shown this surely?  Something else behind this show I feel, possibly a real scare or a lack of judgement shown by the leadership.  
Some at a distance wonder about the neurotic fear generated by the likes of Trump and the media re Islamic terrorism in the US especially when 30,000 are shot and killed by good clean all American types each year in the US.   Maybe spending less time in 'fearthought' re Islamist and more time in 'forethought' in removing the vast number of needless guns on the streets would be a better way to save US lives? 

   

Maudling Monday

The whole point of Twitter is that people can communicate short messages, often live from the action, and occasionally with pictures.  This rather absurd idea has been a boon in many situations and a bane for MP's and other criminals caught out by it.

Now however Twitter, in a money making desire, have altered the timeline chronology.  No more do the words of wisdom appear in chronological order instead they arrive as Twitter chooses the 'Top Story' for you.  

Pray tell how they know what my top story happens to be at any one moment?

This is a repeat of Facebook's desperate money making as they too insist on offering absurd 'Top stories' if you don't click the right button.  All this does is make a mockery of the whole idea and now the new boss at the top of Twitter is doing the same.  

I have Twitted to him my opinion (@jack I believe is his address) and informed him of my thoughts.  It makes no difference but something needs to be done.  Twitter has an important role in indicating whether football players will be fit for Saturday or not and therefore must be forced to work properly.  They cannot be allowed to continue like this. 

My kind of people!

I was going to go off into a wonderful description of my day but I have been interrupted twice by phone calls on my not very good new ansafone.  At least it works even if only hesitatingly.  Once I begin to understand what all the squiggles mean I will be able to fix the volume, remove the squeaks and work out how to hear the messages.  

This could take some time.  

Instead I am off to watch football bed to prepare for my day at the museum tomorrow.  I need my sleep and wish to be at my best for my public ready to help.  We will be busy as a school will be in, Xmas shoppers not knowing what they want will follow and no doubt some woman will decide to want a day off and dump it on me.
Bah!

Blessed with Mirk

The mirk besieged us today, clouds and rain, mist and dreichness considered us worthy of a visit.  Walking to St Paul's this morning left me soaked with drizzle after a few minutes, however not being one to complain I hobbled on without demur and found shelter there eventually. 
Not much else has happened today.

My ansafone died!  I believe this was caused by the girls at work shrill voices leaving messages for me, they killed it and it refused to accept any messages.  This meant a new one was required, not that these things last more than a few years these days.  So off I trooped to Argos and obtained one selling at half price.  
This was good!  Almost exactly half price and no obvious reason to consider a con was taking place.  So I paid my money, willingly offering my (well) used grubby notes and headed home triumphant.  Here I unpacked, checked the contents and then discovered the brute insisted that only the rechargeable batteries are used.  "OK," said I before I realised they did not include the charger!  All others possess one but this model does not, that was why it was cheap.  Grrr!  Now I have to trace a suitable (non exploding) charger on EBAY.  Not that I have got round to actually setting up this thing.  One look at the instructions made it clear they could have been written in Cantonese as far as I was concerned as they made no sense to me.  They still don't.  Bah!
Tomorrow while I enjoy the continuation of the dark clouds overhead I may spend an hour or two attempting to set this thing up.  I may on the other hand just lie on the floor staring at the ceiling as that will be just as efficient.

Dreich Saturday

This morning the plan was to rise at six thirty, cycle around for a while, visit the fruit & veg man, shop at Tesco and post the last two Christmas cards.  A simple straight forward day.  As I rose just after seven the wireless announced rain, I peered through the condensation soaked windows at the gray clouds and the drizzling rain to confirm their suspicions.  The bike faded from my mind, the veg could wait and I suddenly considered a slow breakfast important.
I eventually managed the shopping, lots of almost but not quite gone off fruit amongst it, one day I might take some of his 'eat quickly' fruit and stick it in a large vessel and let it ferment.  It might turn into a nice fruit liqueur!  Nothing then happened.
It didn't happen later on either.
The last cards entered Royal Mail's keeping, I wandered through Amazon looking for the last two gifts and had to stop myself spending large sums on myself!  Why do they offer books I want but not books I require for others?  I find other shops often have a similar problem.  I am still looking for the other books...

 
I then spent lunchtime watching the Heart of Midlothian up at Aberdeen.  I could have wished the game to have been rained off!  It was not very good.  We eventually lost to a lucky goal.  I spent several minutes in tears then went wandering through the charity shops to cheer myself up.  I succeeded in this the simple way by not spending any money.  That at least was a good thing today.
The rain continues, the clouds promise to remain all week, I promise to keep wearing my 'Bah Humbug! hat at work where it serves a purpose.  I wish I had bought more I could have made a packet selling them!  Bah!
I'm going back to bed...

Free to Be Offended

Donald Trump, you may have heard of him, made some claims the other day on his way to winning the US Presidential election candidature or whatever it is they do in the Wild West.  The world jumped up and down and grumbled.  This has always been the way.  Since Cain slew Abel people have been quick to complain and object to things they disliked.  Here we find politicians rejecting his words (which like me most have not heard) and people demanding he stand down, go away, be banned for the UK and told to keep quiet as they don't like what he said.
Germain Greer, an objectionable Australian woman, made a comment re transgender types (one of today's fashionable set) and found people demanding universities do not allow her to speak, that she apologises, and keeps her trap shut.  Christians are no longer allowed to speak in some universities as they indicate being is not part of Gods plan, they object to abortion also, the secular types and feminist groups tell them to keep quiet and go away.
Freedom of thought is being lost in the UK and the west in general.  People have always objected to others saying things they do not like but today social media spreads such thoughts both for and against, across a wide net.  Thus objecting becomes easier and much, much louder.  
One philosopher and secularist recently spoke on the radio (I forget his name) condemning the ultra secularists who wish to ban all religions.  How, he asks, can anyone have free speech and ban others?  The Nazi's banned free speech by brute force and as the Communist nations did later put a stop to people listening to other wireless broadcasts.  Free speech was free as long as it is ours.
It is strange that we have a petition to ban Trump but as far as I know none to ban the Chinese President nor the Saudi's latest King.  Both nations are bastions of tyranny, torture and great opponents of free speech, much more so than Trump will ever be!  
Donald Trump is a  bumbling rich boy, an uneducated Boris Johnson if you like, he has cunning, money, friends but in the end will fade away.  If the US is as sinful as I think it is it may be God will allow Trump to win, as a punishment!
We must accept anothers viewpoint even if clearly wrong.  I work and live amongst and have lived amongst people of all faiths and none, gay boys and girls, crooks and rogues, foreigners from all over the place and for the most part we got on well enough.  There are always those you do not wish to tolerate, one Scots drunk in the late seventies comes to mind here and people who have opinions and beliefs that are clearly erroneous (we do not get electricity from the ground that keeps us alive) and often plain daft.  We must just try to make the best of it or avoid them as much as possible. 
However should we be banning people from public speaking because their views are offensive?  If they incite hate or violence, here I consider some radical Muslim preachers, they must be stopped but drawing the line is a difficult thing to judge.  Darwin is much praised by secular types but they forget he considered women second class because of their smaller brain (hmmm) and he thought that blacks were also inferior.  Not much of that in the secular world today, no mention of Adolf Hitler a man who lived out his Darwinian beliefs.  
Free speech is not an excuse to hate others, it is not an opportunity to bring others down but it is an opportunity to oppose their ideas just as they oppose yours.  An argument is not a fistfight it is a discussions, with both ears open, to the other viewpoint.  The results will vary but it ought not to lead to abuse.  
Others views may be offensive to us but we, and universities in articular, must not stop people spouting ideas and opinions we dislike.  After all we are not perfect and in the end it is Jesus himself who will judge them, not us.