Thought for the day?

Even on the day on which we actually die we shall probably be assuming that we shall not die and be making plans for the next day!

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Introduction to Buddhism

London has explosions

Reports are that there are deaths and many serious injuries in some six explosions in London this morning.
Nice timings guys! Either AQ or PIRA lost no time in following upon the 2012 Olympics award to demonstrate that the transport infrastructure we boasted about in our presentation was vulnerable. I can imagine the fuss at NSY. Doubtless, a few of the Anti-Terror guys will have deployed to G8. Six crime scenes is a lot to handle forensically so helicopter activity at the G8 site will have increased as they try to get bomb squad blokes back to the Met. If this gets publicised, it will add another dimension to the concern that the bombers sought. Hopefully, the one on the bus - which seems out of the pattern - was an own goal but the benefit of this must be limited if is Muslim extremists who happily suicide bomb anyway. Any structural engineers out there who can comment on explosion in a tube train tunnel - how long is that likely to put them out of service?

Off in another direction

Wander away and look at this - only in beta at the moment so not too much bitching please.

Oh Blimey!

Just heard announcement that London will organise the 2012 Olympics. Jolly good news and all that but.... We will no sooner be free of media hysteria about G8 and MPH and the Olympic bandwagon will start up. The Olympic minister Greasy Towel will be getting her heart out to show us at every opportunity. Ken Livingstone will want as much mileage out of it as possible because it is in his backyard. Lord Coe will be asked to stand-in for the Queen at the State Opening of Parliament. And so on and so on and so on. Thankfully, we should soon be getting the report on Diana - was she or wasn't she murdered - and that might give us a break. I have much more to say but, what the hell, I've got seven years to bitch should I be spared.

48 years!! My God!

Well, I am reliably informed, today is the 48th anniversary of my (one and only) wedding. Never mind it is an old joke but I really would have been out of prison by now if I'd committed a serious crime instead.

I don't think I've any regrets - none that have surfaced anyway. Just to show how stupid I am, I would do it all over again in pretty much the same format. So, thanks Norma for coming on the roller-coaster with me.

 

Edinburgh - inside info

This is from a guy in a position to know

G8 GOING COMPLETELY ACCORDING TO PLAN
Just to prove I’m not privy to any special
intelligence sources, my predictions that G8 would entail sitting on carriers dressed in code 1 and playing cards have been shown to be err… slightly wide of the mark. I’m reluctant to tell you all the latest canteen gossip from the boys who are in Scotland, for fear of being accused of undermining the war effort.All I should really say is that the senior Scottish officers who are reassuring you on Sky News are probably sweating off-camera. Things are not quite going as planned and there is much sniggering from police lines. I’m concerned that when the officers get back on shift, we’ll never hear the end of all the war stories.

Light of my life has dimmed

This was not really so long ago. The good old dear used to struggle up the steepest hills - even on hands and knees sometimes. Now, she is knackered after one flight of stairs. Never mind - she still tries and we cannot ask more than that.

3/10 for performance

One of the demonstraters at the Edinburgh shindig. Don't think too much of what he is demonstrating! Don't think it will get any better if you click on it either.

Hard Times

Nearly caused demise of old fellow dog walker this morning. We were just nattering when he brought up the mess in the park that had obviously been caused last night whilst the Reiver thing was on. He blamed the 'kids of today' for having no sense of responsibility. I replied that they had it too easy - "not like us. Six of us brought up in a rolled-up newspaper" He laughed, turned laugh into choking and turned choking into cynosis. I thought he was a goner. Of course, my comment was a follow-on from this so not very original at all really.

Oops!

Before the hitsquads call at my door, I'd better make it clear that THIS person will NOT be excluded from anything that happens on 14th July.

Due warning!

Just because I have gone soft over 4th July should not be taken to mean that the cheese-eating surrender-monkies will get even treatment when 14th July arrives. Given that they will most likely win the Olympic vote on Wednesday, they will be dancing around in their smelly clothes without needing any endorsement from me.

4th July

Just a small thing to share with any Americans who may be viewing or passing through. Relationships seem to have become a little strained of late - mainly, I suspect, because their President is thought to have influenced our B Liar to go into Iraq. However, even if true, that is just one man - or a relatively small clique - who is wrong. I have met a considerable number of Americans; I worked for an American company for five years. I cannot recall meeting a single one who I would describe as evil or mad. They have a strong sense of right and wrong and religion is more widespread there than in England. I can see they have problems but put this down to a lack of knowledge of things outside USA. A large percentage has never been outside their country; many never travel outside of their state. They - generally - live in good conditions and at ease with their government and cannot realise that there are many parts of the world where this is not so.
Congratulations and respect.

Knights of old

We saw groups like this a number of times over the week-end. The fluttering pennants made them look like ancient knights riding into battle with their ladies pennants on their lances.

Good dog!!

Might be a funny looking perisher but he's got the right idea when it comes to cats. Rock on!

Nightmares

I quite often have nightmares. Sometimes, they are so realistic and vivid that they become night terrors and the images stay with me even when I am sitting bolt upright with my eyes wide open. I can deal with these - sort of - but please, please, please good God, never let me have a terror that this lady is in my room with a bottle full of Viagra.

I'll say no more

About the value of the Live8 and Make Poverty History. Simon Jenkins in The Sunday Times says exactly what I have been trying to get across as my take on the whole thing. Just a few out-takes from his item -

Geldof is to fast politics what McDonald’s is to fast food. He is simply good at it. How can you do nothing, he screams, “watching people live on TV, dying on our screens!”.

The G8 is not a decision-making body but a “conversation” between rich nations. It has no constitution and no executive. The United Nations, not the G8, is the proper forum for collective action onworld poverty.

Geldof is quoted in the International Herald Tribune as claiming that something must be done “even if it doesn’t work”. For him, doing something useless even if harmful is a moral advance on doing nothing

Am I REALLY a dog lover?

Going through the results of my Stat counter, I came across an entry supposedly from Taiwan. I say 'supposedly' as I very much doubt the origin report after Taffy in Russia etc. Anyways, as I was saying, this blog popped up. I have to say loud and clear, that this 1st July entry shows a dog that I positively, absolutely, no way Jose, could ever tolerate. Whoever has doubts about doggy euthanisia should look at this.

Right carry on

My 'cures all pain God knows how' bracelet had lost most of it's magnetism. Whilst it still worked, it was leaving a bright green stain around my wrist so one objective at the Scots Fair was to find a replacement. There seemed to be two places selling them. I didn't like any of the ones at the first place so had to settle for the only alternative. The guy at the stall was a bit flamboyant in the style of his shirt and hair but I thought nothing of it until he was showing me exactly how the dinkie little real brass pin thingy went into the very well designed hole in the strap. He was making a bit too much out of helping me choose a 'tasteful' design for the bracelet. I decided to buy one of those on show. This led to much flustered looking for pen and sales book. Then there was the production of the instructions with salient points being drawn to my attention. I was warned to start off wearing it for no more than three hours, to be aware it might cause tingling in my fingers or a mild headache and that I would feel thirsty the first time I wore it. This was when the devil stirred within me. I put my hand on his wrist and asked in a concerned voice, "It won't make my willy go funny will it?". 'Ooh no - nothing like that. No. No' Perfect match of Frankie Howard and our dear old Ken. Sorry now that Sandy or Julian was not there to share the moment.
I think that Sandy and Julian from Around the Horne show did much to open up the gay world. Their very much over the top performances showed people another side of that inclination that confused many men. Certainly, it was a way of dealing with homesexuality that avoided the risk of a right smack in the mourf and brought them into the general community. I have no concerns about outright gay - and lesbian - people. It is the ones who remain closeted that I distrust. Though maybe Peter Tatchell goes a bit too far with his style of outing, I can see where he comes from. I once had to question a guy who had gay issues. This was in Egypt where we wore shorts - see picture at left. Whilst I was writing his statement, he was stroking my knee. Shame really, I think it was my including this in my evidence that led to him getting a relatively heavy sentence.
Oh yes - back to the new wristband. It works perfectly. Science or subtle suggestion? Don't know and don't care. I had a 'dead' tip on my little finger which is now back to normal. No - it did not (so far) make my willie go funny either.

We don't need no thought control

I can see absolutely no point in B Liar's new attempt to run his little world. All the while that carrying them is optional, no one will bother to produce them if asked. All the fancy bio-metrics will be to no avail if PC Heartbreak wants to check your card in the middle of truly rural England. Don't get involved in protesting very often but this deserves to die a death.

A loving father - many many times over

This is a story that did not seem to make our papers. Given their ability to generate 'news' from any sort of trivia, I would have thought they would have been covering this like flies on a cow-pat. Strange but it was only in Tennesse and, maybe, Georgia that I got the feeling that there were families living somewhere like this. We had friends in Kentucky who used to suggest we not go to somewhere because it was 'tacky' but what they meant it was weird.

Male bonding

You just have to go look at this.
I'm sure it would have helped me remember a good day with my father - maybe this explains why I cannot?

Beginning of the beginning of the end

Well, one day nearer the demise of this Make Poverty History hysteria that is flooding our media. We seem to have survived one Edinburgh march without sheep being seperated from goats and The End Of The World As We Know It. Doubtless there will be much news attention to the great unwashed as they set up their wickies and prance about. It seems their intention is to draw people's attention to the poverty. OK - thank you; you can all bugger off now. I've got the picture. I'm sure even the eight of the G will have gathered something of the problem and the message. They have only been debating it for some five years. Incidentally, why just those eight? Other than Japan, not a single Asian, Latin American or African is a member of the team. Where is China? Where is India? Also, if it is the hangover from colonial days that is to blame - how did Ethiopia get into the caccky? I was there some 45 years ago and Addis Ababa was full of do-goody NGOs and UN bodies. It was the TV report from there that set-off the last fund raiser.
I caught only a bit of the G8 concert from London. It did not strike me as being as good as the last concert. Oh yes - one other question. If increases in aid were any solution, what came of the monies generated in that first concert. Were we transferring funds from rich people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries? The racial-opportunistic crowd got into act by wanting to know why - if the cause was African, why were there not more African musicians? I understand they were given a bone in some venue outside London. On their reasoning, if we had something to raise awareness of HIV, only Jimmy Somerville and Holly Johnson would be automatic choices.

Perth

Off today to the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Castle inPerth. The bossy navigator lady got us there with no problems. It's the third year we have been there so I know the way really but she showed us another route.
I like Perth. It is beautifully situated with a river and rolling hills around. We had good weather - a bit cloudy but that kept the worst of the heat away and we got the full benefit of a good breeze. The stands were up to their usual standards and seemed to be doing good business. One of the plusses for me is that almost everyone there seems to have a dog - or even dogs - with them and one gets to see some rather rare breeds. Plenty of chat whenever one stopped. It is not so 'truly rural' as the CLA Game Fair or the Scottish Show. The only immediate difference is that the tractor park and implements yards are much larger at the Jock Show with very many more animals. On the whole, I prefer the Scots Game Fair. The catering is dire with much attention to burgers - even though they are venison, wild boar or Aberdeen Angus they are still burgers. The small dog got quite freaked out as she is no longer used to seeing so many people and other dogs. I sat down on a bench to wait for Norma and the silly dog jumped up on my lap - much to the amusement of the owners of real dogs. Even finding one Picasso in the vast car park was easy as we had a little yellow duck on the aerial which meant we could see our vehicle from a long way away.