theroyalist

Animals (September poetry competition)

One of the problems of winning the poetry competition is racking the brain cells to come up with an interesting theme for the next one. I’m surprised no one has done a George C Scott and declined the award. But by Stanley, I suppose we all like wearing a little Laurel round our necks.

Down to business. I’m not sure if this is a duplicate (BEEP) from a past tournament but the subject is Animals. You can ode about ones you love, dislike, fear, respect, whatever. The choice is yours. I might even make a contribution myself. The only other rule is that you must include a foreign phrase in your poem. Something like dolce vita or achtung. This is just a little extra to make it harder and more interesting.

Closing date last minute of September (I forget how many days in it). Go for it- Quack, Woof, Baa, ROAR, oo-oo-at-at-at-at, Wrille.

Underrated: Eamonn Holmes

Carol Vorderman effortlessly crunches the numbers, Noel Edmonds flawlessly points out the probabilities and Lucy Verasamy is the fount (font?) of knowledge about clouds. These three individuals are masters of their art. Which brings us to the consummate professional- Eamonn Holmes. Never in the field of TV presenting has a man been so natural on the screen. A veteran of many shows he currently presents Sky News Sunrise.

Eamonn has had his share of criticism but I come here to praise him, not to bury him. For starters he has an uncanny ability to memorise his lines. The headlines are all written on paper at his desk yet he looks at the screen and word for word reads the written page without once glancing down at the A4. Continue reading “Underrated: Eamonn Holmes”

Pets have their uses

My older sister had a dog when I was young. Me myself I’ve never had a pet apart from a few goldfish that kept dying, To avoid personal grief for the children I replaced the fish until they were old enough to understand that their old man was pulling the wool over their eyes. I mean, it’s a given, isn’t it? Fish are like flowers- they all look the same.

Anyway, there’s been a few close family additions on the pet front. My sister has a cat and my son’s girlfriend has a rabbit. The cat is a nightmare. Scratches, bites and runs about like mad. Cute little kitty, my left paw. The rabbit on the other hand. A gift from the gods.

He’s very sociable and I’ve rabbitsat him a few times. He likes football and I can practise some of my soccer skills with him. His slowness on the turn makes my flip-flap manoeuvre on a level with Roberto Rivelino though it is difficult to nutmeg him.

Political Diva

I don’t know who you are,
But you must be some kind of superstar,
Cause you got all eyes on you no matter where you are,

(Superstar- song by Jamelia)

Hillary Clinton is on top of the world. $300,000 a speech and a multitude of extras. Jet plane. Cheque. Five star presidential suite. Cheque. Five other rooms reserved for lackeys. Cheque. And Clinton will only stay at the venue for 90 minutes tops. No video or audio recording is allowed. It would be good if someone bootlegged one of these “concerts” and put them online as no doubt she sings the same songs every night. That would kill the golden goose.

Who would want to hear her anyway? And what could see possibly say that would be interesting?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/17/hillary-clinton-requires-presidential-suite-for-speaking-engagements-report/

The Cubes of Picasso

Catching up on some out standing TV programmes on my hard drive I watched a Perspectives show on ITV presented by Michael Portillo and focusing on the life of Pablo Picasso. It’s a lively hour of entertainment about bullfighting, Guernica and Spanish art. Portillo skirts over the many love affairs of the artist and concentrates on Picasso’s artwork and the influences on the man from Malaga.

Nearing the end of the programme Portillo draws on the comparisons between Velasquez’s Las Meninas painting and the many recreations Picasso manufactured. The Picasso variations are rendered in the cubism style.

Continue reading “The Cubes of Picasso”

AC/DC Live Wire

Prince’s 1999 song was rarely played on December 31^st 1998 yet a year later was used extensively on various radio stations/disco 2000s to welcome in the millennium. We partied 364 days and whatever minute it was too late. One of these anomalies we have in life. I didn’t party. I was Doctor Whoming behind the sofa, with my whimpering K9, awaiting Armageddon. Something wicked this way comes.

The millennium bug was the end of days. Looking back now I don’t know why I was so worried. I did not possess a computer at the time (Y2K). The worst that could have happened to me would be that the toaster wouldn’t work. And this would have nothing to do with broadband issues or other related online jargon. The trouble would be dodgy wiring in the plug; when you’ve chubby fingers it’s hard to put that little wire in the right place; Major Tom to earth etc. Still, like the glorious Gaynor, I survived.

We didn’t start the blogging

Tocino, Bravo, the wolf cousin O Zangado
Gaz, Jazz, razzmatazz, Mrs O’s flowers in a vase
Pseu’s a snapper, Donald’s laughter, gardening matters
The poetry prize we’re all after
G’day Bearsy, Howzit S-Man, G’day Bilby
Sheona, how’s it gaun? Continue reading “We didn’t start the blogging”

And you thought Battleships was bad

Possibly only Christopher and Bravo will have heard of wei qi. It was while reading Henry Kissinger’s excellent book On China (hands up all those that thought TR/JW only read Spider-Man and stuff like that) that the diplomat described the game that originated in China 2,500 years ago. Continue reading “And you thought Battleships was bad”

The Kiss

You can take your pick from the usual suspects over which screen kiss/kissing is the most passionate it is harder to choose the best song with the word kiss in the title. As the clientele around here is of a certain age and in all likelihood have a hot chocolate before bed I take it that it’ll be It Started with a Kiss for you. Or something from further back in the mists of time. Ahh, Hovis, Dvorak and a boy with a bike.

Me, I’d give second place to The Judas Kiss by Metallica and number one to this slice of B-movie magnificence.

Dear Sir/Madam

It was bound to happen. Father Time. Time waits for nobody. Every day you get older, that’s a fact and so on and so forth. Well, that day has come to pass.

Old(ish) respectable me has been asked to give someone a character reference for a job. He’s definitely scraping the bottom of the bucket coming to me but I will still do my utmost to help this acquaintance. And then I remembered I’ve forgotten how to write a letter. The bottom bit anyway.

Is it yours sincerely or yours faithfully? From what I recall being taught it’s sincerely for addressing a friend and faithfully for a formal business letter. But this was back in the dark ages. Language mutates. Going against all my principles I googled. And as I expected google clouded the matter further. Too many minds out there offering advice. Information overload. Every man and his dog has an opinion.

One school told me that If my name was mentioned in correspondence (it was) and the sender gives his name (he did) I should reply with a sincerely. I much prefer the old fashioned faithfully, however, another board said faithfully has been dropped like third year French and replaced by “yours truly” for a business letter.

I think I’ll go for a “yours &c”