General – Page 10 – Boadicea's Chariot

Another New Year

I woke up this morning, which is always a good start. Brought to a state resembling full functionality by liberal caffeine intake, I turned on the TV and watched part of the Tournament of Roses Parade from Pasadena, California. Quite a spectacle it always is (they’ve been doing it for the past 131 years), with floats decorated exclusively with vegetable matter and many horses. This year there was a flotilla of miniature horses, which are increasingly used as service animals. The Budweiser (beer) Clydesdales were there, of course, a team of eight (8) posing even more of a challenge to manage than those drawing the Chariot.

Let’s see, now, what shall I do for the rest of the day? Eat and drink. Maybe even declare war on whichever group or country displeases me most at the moment.

But first, before I get too immersed in such things, I want to wish the Charioteers (and any others who haven’t offended me recently) a pleasant and prosperous 2020.

Christmas Dread

One of the great joys of living alone or, rather, without close relatively in close vicinity is that I do not have to care much about Christmas. Continue reading “Christmas Dread”

In Memory of Tocino

There goes your weekend

Not being much of a political animal I steer clear of the circus that is British politics. However, a comment by the current PM, Boris Johnson, comparing Jeremy Corbyn with Stalin made me pause for thought.

Labour propose to introduce a 4 day working week in the next ten years. All good and well but are they imitatating one of the Soviet Dictator’s doctrines.

In 1929 Stalin had a calendar moment and eradicated Saturdays and Sundays from a normal week. And then there were five, as it were. Workers worked four days a week on different rotas and got one day off. That’s one way to boost productivity.

Labour aren’t saying but does this mean, in the near future we must proclaim…
Saturdays no more.
Sundays no more.

Through England

My mother managed to survive Air Canada, although she isn’t in a big hurry to repeat the experience. It wasn’t so much the airline, it wasn’t terribly bad, but it wasn’t terribly good, either. Rather, it was the mess that is Toronto Pearson and the complexities of getting through Canadian and US customs. Continue reading “Through England”

Bucket List!

Tomorrow I set off to India for three weeks.

Continue reading “Bucket List!”

Old wives’ tales

Don’t ya just love those old superstitions. A favourite of mine was my gran used to tell me to eat the crust of bread. This would make my hair curly…

Come on, who amongst us would not want curly locks? Like a big girl I twirl my locks from time to time. Even though, sad to say, those locks aren’t as colourful as they used to be.

The poor dear

The poor dear, my poor mum, has the grave misfortune of having to visit her family next week. It’s a long flight on Air Canada from Austin to Luxembourg via Toronto and Munich. Alas, it’s her duty to see her mother as her condition is quickly declining.

After 5 days of that torture, she will fly to England for a week. We’ll spend a few days in Dorset before travelling to Bath and then London to make sure that she gets to airport on time. I will keep you posted.

At least there’s something amusing.

I can’t bear to watch the news. Any mention of Parliament, Europe or Brexit risks setting me off. Continue reading “At least there’s something amusing.”

Vale Jane

I see that the Janus account and all associated posts and comments have now been removed, after several weeks (months?) of inactivity. I can only assume that our colleague has sadly joined the growing number of Charioteers who have abandoned this mortal coil to blog forever in Elysium.

Although at times a contentious contributor, Janus was an essential part of the fundamental essence of the Chariot. He will be sorely missed – in particular his scholarly knowledge of Latin and Greek.

If my assumption is incorrect, my apologies to my friend and his family.