Category: General

Holidays from Hell

Ruminating on LW’s soggy sojourn in the NE docks I was reminiscing on holidays from Hell one has known.

As you all know, my opinion of holidays is zero rated and I am now quite old enough to refuse to go anywhere.  In the past I have been more persuadable.  Once upon a time, a million years ago the boy, when little, 8/9ish, moaned and bitched about he had never been on a beach holiday abroad.  Well of course he hadn’t, my idea of hell would have been a package holiday on some foreign beach!!  Well, he moaned and bitched sufficiently for me to relent.  We booked a summer holiday at a resort on Fuertaventura in the Canaries. It was a beach resort sort of place, not too cheap and not too dear, looked quite attractive, a bit out of the way with no vulgar bars etc.  Little cottages rather than a hotel.  So off we went, some dreadful airline that expected you to get out and push, half the clients pissed before it took off.  One knew right then it was a BIG mistake!  Only to be confirmed when the peasants broke out in a rousing chorus of Ole Espan(y)a on landing right side up!

Continue reading “Holidays from Hell”

Tom’s River – Tuesday June 11

Still here as expected, looks like a series of gales going through from the West.

Windy but dry for now so I took the opportunity to put another patch on the dinghy just to be sure.

Saw a big sailboat in a slip nearby, the Nina looks like a large schooner rigged wooden boat.

Port of registry is Baltimore Maryland, so she’s just as far from home as we are.

Nina c s

Continue reading “Tom’s River – Tuesday June 11”

Poof!

Magic is in the air …
Poof!
Wow it’s a rabbit
white and twitching
pulled from a hat
well how bewitching
just like that
from a shiny black hat;
Abracadabra – blow me, a dove!
well Lord above
there’s five of ’em
and one large white glove,
five a flutter, winging high,
feathers floating from the sky,
birds in the waistcoat, birds up the sleeve,
It’s bloody magic
I believe.

Underrated: Andrea Temesvari

Who?

In la primavera a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, in the summer it turns to tennis. Back in the days of wooden racquets, all white clothes and Dan Maskell I was crazy about tennis. I used to play all the time becoming quite adept at the sport.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful Hungarian tennis player called Andrea Temesvari. She batted balls in the 1980’s and is a contemporary of me. When she was winning the Italian Open in 1982 I was celebrating being crowned school champion. It was a vintage year for tennis. Continue reading “Underrated: Andrea Temesvari”

It’s official, the age of chivalry is dead

There was no way that I was going to lay my denim jacket over the puddle in the camber for the fair damsel aloft on the kerb to step on and cross the road, no matter how pretty she was. I didn’t want history to repeat itself. My head is quite happy on top of my neck. I’m also quite fond of the jacket.

And as I observed a few couples idling walking along the pavement I knew that chivalrous behaviour was for the knights. It was something my old grandmother used to say to me.

The three partnerships I saw, of varying age groups, were holding hands as they strolled. Romantic as this was, it was their positions that was all wrong. The females were situated nearest the kerb and closet to the traffic. My granny always said that the gentleman should always be placed on the outside, otherwise the man was putting the woman up for sale.

In other news today…

You don’t get something for nothing
You can’t have freedom for free
Lyrics © Neil Peart

My son bought a Blackberry Tablet from Curry’s a few weeks ago. Included in the sale was a three month trial subscription for The Times. This was of no use to him so I grabbed the prize. I’m not sure if anyone here is a Times+ subscriber but I’m sure most of the UK Charioteers will have bought a copy of the newspaper at some time.

The package in the deal includes full access to The Times website and a daily downloaded copy of the whole newspaper to your android (I have a simple Acer). There are other bonuses exclusive to Times+ subscribers but I won’t go in to them here.

I’m getting to the main point now; the thrust of the blog, if you like. There seems to be a number of news and magazine sites that are introducing a pay wall or limited access to their home. The new generation don’t have the same liking for paper and some older readers are “genned” up in the digital age which means that producing a paper copy can be unprofitable. I believe the American current affairs magazine Newsweek is available online only. Will there come a day when all newsprint is vanquished?

I hope not, I prefer the paper version. Turning and folding the rustling, creasing pages with big inky fingers, spilling tea on it, drawing moustaches/glasses on random figures and finally, shaping and constructing elaborate paper planes to fire at hostile family members. Great fun these newspapers, one of these days I might get round to reading one.

Overrated: Brian May

I bet you weren’t expecting this one.

Dr Brian Harold May CBE was the lead guitarist with the acclaimed rock band, Queen. Brian’s achievements in the world of music and outside music are too numerous to mention here. Suffice to say the university educated astrophysicist has hoovered up lots of honours. Principally, I would imagine because he is dynamite with a guitar in his hands.

It is well-known and not just in Queenland that Brian with his dad’s help created his own guitar before he was famous, the axe is affectionately known as the Red Special. The unique sounding guitar was played on all the albums and made Queen’s music distinctive from the rest. So far, so good.

Queen can do no wrong for me as you probably know. I always believed there were two geniuses at play in the world of Queen. Latterly, I have been downgrading that rating. There was only one. Continue reading “Overrated: Brian May”

Overrated: Robert Redford

One of the most well-known actors of his age Robert Redford has received two Oscars. Tellingly, none of them were for his acting. Redford’s most distinguished award came from France. In 2010 he was made a chevalier in the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur. This is nothing to brag about, MOO’s probably got one. Although established by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte the decoration is now handed out willy-nilly to lesser mortals. It’s on a par with winning an England football cap.

Hollywood loved the young Redford. He was your average all-American good looking blond boy, made for the screen. Nevertheless the young star showed signs of vanity and only wanted to be shot (film terminology meaning shot from a camera not a gun, for the avoidance of doubt) from his best side. He was conscious of the presence of facial moles on his right side and they were kept to a minimum on film. This startles me as imperfection is more interesting. Motorhead’s Lemmy has warts the size of golf balls on his coupon yet it doesn’t bother him and he’s done alright for himself. Continue reading “Overrated: Robert Redford”

Storm chasers

I’ve often thought these guys nuts (storm chasers that is) but recent discussions on the appalling luck that Oklahoma and other parts of the mid west recently experienced has changed that. They apparently provide up to the minute, on the spot detail of a tornado’s size, damage, direction, exact location, etc. Vital information I assume for listeners / residents survival strategies.

Watch how these guys and their car (an SUV) get lifted and tossed around.

and ….

Continue reading “Storm chasers”