Month: October 2013

Many miles

I haven’t added them up, but I have covered a fair few miles in the pursuit of a suitable University for 2nd son. Durham, York and this weekend Glasgow. Applications for University for the coming academic year have to be in as soon as possible: I know some have already submitted and had offers. Not my boy.

This latest weekend trip has required a pricey fuel top up twice – and I’m only up and about now because my back has seized up from all the driving.

??????????

Continue reading “Many miles”

Bush Fires

Probably been done in which case forgive me. Although I have not posted here for some time the news from Australia regarding the terrible fires has turned my mind to some of the folk who live there and post on here. All I can say is you are in my thoughts and stay safe.

Feed the monkey

Nasa decided they’d finally send a man up in a capsule after sending only monkeys in the earlier missions. They fire the man and the monkey into space. The intercom crackles, ‘Monkey, fire the retros.’ A little later, ‘Monkey, check the solid fuel supply.’

Later still, ‘Monkey, check the life support systems for the man’.

“The astronaut takes umbrage and radios Nasa, ‘When do I get to do something?’

“Nasa replies, ‘In 15 minutes – feed the monkey’.

This then was part of Roy Hodgson’s (the England football manager) half time team talk last Tuesday night,

It’s been labelled racist by some, inappropriate, innocent, harmless, generational (gap) by others. Continue reading “Feed the monkey”

Ah, la famille – as the French say

Arriving in France the day after the Front National candidate won the local council election at Brignoles in the Var – the departement next to us – I was prepared for the usual hand-wringing and “how could they do this” wailing.  Instead all was calm in the press, perhaps helped by the arrest of three suspected jihadis in the same neck of the woods that day.  The French are fed up with Hollande and fed up with the number of Roma in the country, setting up squalid , illegal camps and living off crime.  The FN expresses these concerns and is anti-EU, which the French believe is the reason all these illegals are infesting the place.  So the FN is gathering more support.

This week’s cause celebre is Leonardo, a fifteen year old Roma girl of uncertain origin who was scooped off a school bus and deported back to Kosovo with parents and five siblings.  Pupils at some schools have been protesting vigorously about this, and Hollande in his usual pathetic effort to please everyone has said that the girl can return but without her family.  Leonardo has said that she cannot leave her family, but by all accounts she had to say that or else her father would have beaten her again.  Father has been lying in his teeth for some years now.  He and mother, who may or may not be Italian, are not married; there are no papers such as birth certificates or passports available and father’s story is unravelling by the minute.  The local police in France are glad to see the back of a petty criminal;  mother never learned any French or attempted to integrate; the family is now settled in a flat in Mitrovica, but two- thirds of French people asked do not want the girl back in France.  Seems a pity, since without her family she might have a chance of a decent life.

The train’s the thing

A month or so ago, I mentioned that Mrs FEEG and I had survived each others’ peculiarities for forty years. In order to celebrate this (s)auspicious occasion, we tried to relive our honeymoon. We went to  Paris for this. Then we went by rickety old electric train from London Charing Cross to Folkestone (An anorak friend of mine says that in the earlier seventies  it would have been a 4-CEP multiple unit),  by hovercraft to Calais, then in a rickety old diesel hauled train to Paris Gare du Nord.
Continue reading “The train’s the thing”

Taiwan.

Time did not favour me when I landed in Taipei. Two large aeroplanes full of passengers, many from mainland China, arrived before my large – and full – flight. Passport control took the better part of an hour to clear, although the officer was very efficient with me. It seems as if Hong Kong citizens have a few extra things they have to do before they can be let through the Taiwanese border, mainland Chinese a few dozen things more – including having a fair amount of paperwork filled in and many forms ready for inspection. After 15 minutes waiting in queue the woman in front of me and I started to talk. She was from Australia and we had a few good laughs at the expense of the Kevin and Juliar Show as well as Mad Monk the Budgie Smuggler with his underwhelming show. Merkel, however, she took seriously and respected – albeit with more polish than the Macanese tour guide who referred to her as “the little fat woman in the suit”. We both concluded that the less said about the USA and its derangements and delusions the better. Continue reading “Taiwan.”

No Children

I got back from the UK last Tuesday. My apologies to those I did not contact. I could have done with a break – but alas, family affairs were too overwhelming!

The first part of my trip over was magical. I had sufficient air-miles to travel business class the seven hours from Brisbane to Singapore. I thought that would prepare me for part two of the journey – thirteen hours from Singapore to Heathrow.

Alas! One child threw a temper tantrum. My seven hours stood me in good stead – and it was three hours before I finally complained.

I could willingly have strangled the woman sitting next to me, who was only moderately less stressed than I was. She merely smiled when the hostie said “well you know children….”

I was moved – but to a far less comfortable seat.

I felt somewhat vindicated in the baggage retrieval at Heathrow when I heard the same monster still screaming and shouting… 🙂

My trip back proved my point. 13 hours of silence was just great. No children!