This is a pile of gravel similar in size to mine. I’ve just spread 10 cubic metres of the stuff around our yard and entrance area, with a little help from my wheelbarrow and a shovel. I reckon that’s enough to fill a fair sized minibus. So now I’m knackered/stoned/laid but proud/relieved/superior.
Do any of you lay claim to stupendous physical achievements of late?
Sing along to the tune of Walzing Matilda
Boadicea’s Chariot, Boadicea’s Chariot
Cyberspace’s answer to Baden Powell’s brigade!
We’ve got cubs and we’ve got brownies
And growed-up scouts – and girl-guides too.
We are the stuff of which glory is made!
Once upon a time we chatted oop at t’Big House
And some of us left, some were booted right out!
But we followed the Bear
(Does he do it? Yes, of course he does!) –
We’re cherished and we know it and we all proudly shout:
Boadicea’s Chariot, Boadicea’s Chariot
Cyberspace’s answer to Baden Powell’s brigade!
We’ve got cubs and we’ve got brownies
And growed-up scouts – and girl-guides too.
We are the stuff of which glory is made!
Criminal justice is a wriggling fish. You think you’ve grasped it and then it slides away into uncertainty (at least for me).
In India endemic rape and murder are being fought with the ultimate weapon, the death penalty; while in Norway mass murder is being treated with ‘civilised’ understanding, even some attempt to teach a lesson, whatever that may be.
I know the cherished hawks here will have a ready answer but I’m really not sure which ideas are the moral way.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/13/delhi-gang-rape-men-sentenced-death and
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/12/anders-breivik-university-oslo
Another cherished colleague may have noticed that a UK soap-opera-star has just been acquitted of offences against an anonymous female minor. So far, so good.
Except that the girl, the only ‘witness’ and supported by no forensic evidence, remained anonymous throughout the trial, seen only by the judge and counsel. Except that we, the people, have no way of knowing whether the accused even knew the girl, spent time with her during the many years he is accused of molesting her or what possible connection she claimed to have with him.
The jury, rightly, acquitted him – probably on lack of evidence. But he didn’t have the chance to be anonymous.
So I’m worried that something is rotten in the UK judicial system. I don’t condone the alleged abuse or have any reason to believe or disbelieve either party. I’m just worried.
A newly discovered painting by the peerless (and earless) Vincent Van Gogh has been dubbed ‘clogged and clumsy’, an ‘uncharismatic daub’ by a Grauniad hack. So judge for yourself.
Backside reckons he would like it on his half of the wall, even if he had to excuse his affrontery whenever a self-acclaimed art journalist dropped in. Luckily, being mere punters, we are brave enough to say we like it.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2013/sep/10/van-gogh-sunset-at-montmajour
“Earth hath not anything to show more fair”, if I might borrow some words from another admirer.
(Buttermere, Cumbria)
The residents of Slacky Bottom will be celebrating tonight, quaffing t’ local brew, gorging themselves on pickled onions ‘n t’ tripe, secure in the knowledge that Yarkshire is best.
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/sep/03/yorkshire
So, Marvin, do drop in on your travels. (The name of the pub: Dew Drop Inn. Gerrit?)
Some talk of Alexandria and of Herculaneum,
Of Hexham and Lyme Regis
And of such great names as them.
But of all the world’s great hang-outs
There’s none you’ll choose from yours
Like yon heather and t’ becks, like t’ sheep and like t’ pubs
Of the God-giv’n Yarkshire Moors.
The idea came to me when I saw that some Android software promoted by Google is to carry the name of that scion of York, KitKat. A bit like the Barclays Premier League, I s’pose. And I thought: what’s going to happen when the Heir Apparent, by now older and greyer in fact as well as ideas, eventually gets to wear the crown? What he needs is branding. (OK, I do mean with something hot but only metaphorically. Honest.)
So it will be the Enid Blyton Coronation, themed to the eyeballs with super-sized Noddy cars, smiling bobbies, Toytown buildings and naturally Big Ears starring as the new Mayor or whatever PC title he chooses to adopt.
Regrettably I don’t recall any female participants in the daily life of our two heroes – or even any horses – so the Duchess may have to take a back seat (but not literally, ‘cos there ain’t one) but what jolly fun it will be for the whole family, pretending they are cherished by so many people and living happily ever after.
dull drunken tourists sway and stare
along the brash bare-breasted boulevard
deep purple doored on Place Pigalle my own
brocaded boudoir’s broad divan du monde
we sip encore un verre de vin
is this the coda? you say oui
and who should care? who sees you leave
but for another faceless paying guest?
(by Angelica Cinnamon Bunn for Epic Tours, Paris)
https://charioteers.org/2013/09/02/epic-september-poetry-competition/
I can still hear Millicent Martin belting out the intro, almost fitting her take on the week’s news into the theme tune (just like JW!).
50 years later we say goodbye to one of its leading
(Foot)lights, David Frost. RIP.
Boadicea's Chariot 
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