Category: Humour

Ghoulish

I know I’m slow… maybe it’s because I don’t watch much TV, but at the weekend I discovered that Cadbury are making and selling creme eggs now and colouring them differently, using green… and marketing them as ‘Screme Eggs’ for the Halloween market.
(I really don’t like Halloween anyway: I am appalled by the amount of tat produced and don’t want anything to do with ‘trick or treating’ having seen what it can do to elderly frail nerves.) Continue reading “Ghoulish”

All at Sea

I had planned a blog about a local event that is usually well worth a visit and in preparation I moved the boat about 60 miles on Friday, about 30 miles on the Bay and 28 miles up the Chester river to Chestertown, Maryland, an interesting little town of some character. The event is the annual Downrigging Weekend which marks the end of the working season for many sailboats, the event attracts a large number of original and replica sailing craft, ranging in history from The Kalmar Nyckel a replica of the ship that established the first Swedish settlement in what was to become Delaware in 1636 through the Schooner Elf built in the 1880’s and still afloat. My personal favorite and a winter resident of Chestertown is the schooner Sultana a replica of a colonial revenue cutter built ten years ago from original lines taken off the ship when she was bought by the Royal Navy in about 1770.

We got in late on Friday and anchored opposite the Chestertown waterfront in time to see the firework display.  After that things got dark and interesting (well it is close to Halloween). A gale of wind and heavy rain descended, forcing the few of us who were anchored out to seek out the more sheltered local creeks to ride out the storm.  Saturday came slowly, bringing with it gale force winds and driving SNOW.  So far all the Saturday events have been cancelled together with my plan to take lots of good pictures of the various ships under sail.  The forecast looks none too rosy for tomorrow either but we will hang here in this creek and see what happens. More later.

Haircuts

Coiffures

Did you know that if you google ‘haircut’ the first page is taken up almost completely with financial gobbledygook with hardly a coiffered head in sight?

I want to tell you about my neighbour’s plan, he’s a modest working chap, married with 3 children (although I think that 3 is one too many) lives in a modest home and employs 3 staff (a gardener / handyman, a maid and a nanny)

His wife works part time at our local medical centre and he’s employed by one of the motor manufacturers in the city.

Well, sad to say, he’s fallen on hard times lately, his employers are working short time (and have been for the last 18 months or so) which has resulted in him getting behind on his mortgage payments and forced him to increase his overdraft facility and credit card usage. He tells me that life has become untenable. Continue reading “Haircuts”

The Monarchy and Rangers – a Surf through two Nations

I am a regular reader of the ABC’s Drum – a fact that probably leaves most of you cold unless you happen to recall the occasional article that I have linked here for your amusement.

Most of the time the articles are too specifically Australian to be worthy of exposure on The Chariot, but today there is a beaut inspired by the imminent arrival of Betty and Phil in Canberra this evening for a short visit which will, at last, include Brisbane, and will culminate in the opening of CHOGM in Perth in ten days time.

Strangely, the piece – entitled “Long to reign over us – God save the Republicans” – was not written by an Aussie, but by an antipodean-savvy Brit; it’s a lament for the failure of republicanism in both countries, and a damning, but amusing, indictment of the movement’s shortcomings.

Having chuckled, I decided that I needed to learn more about this bilingual Brendan O’Neill, so I did a little armchair  surfing.   It turns out that the gentleman is the editor of Spiked, a UK web-site vaguely similar to the Australian Punch, a source that has also been linked here to the dismay of our more restrained members.

Now, this is where the story really takes off.

Now peruse the unexpected dénoument . . .