Three Ds plus one

What is it they say? Death, divorce and dimissal cause most stress and turmoil? Well, just add Disruption by Removal!

When we arrived on 6th May, all but our beds and a few essentials went into the barn – fifty boxes included! And since then we have slowly reclaimed the house room-by-room from the crew who have been re-laying floors, refitting the bathroom and installing new bits of pumbing and wiring for the kitchen appliances. It was all supposed to be done before we arrived but the best laid plans of mice and men…. The main thing is we’re more than happy with the result – a spacious, comfortable farmhouse away from the madding crowd.

And tomorrow we’re promised the arrival of this little puppy:


Continue reading “Three Ds plus one”

For Christina

Last week I started reading Tove Jansson’s “Travelling Light” while on the Northstar Line between Big Lake and Minneapolis. One paragraph reminded me so much of our Ms Osborne that I couldn’t help but laugh maniacally.

“Dear child, make sure you bring your young man so I can have a look at him, but don’t go buying some expensive and unnecessary gift. At my age, I’ve got pretty much everything I want, plus better taste than most of my progeny. And I don’t want to leave a load of rubbish for others to clean after I’m gone. Just pick out something simple and affectionate. And don’t go bring art into it — you’ll only mess it up”.

The Helicopter and the Cornered

“Never give a sucker an even break”

Unlike those boring people that go out all the time I’ve stuck to my couch and began to take an interest in the reality television programmes concerning real-life policemen. You know the type of shows I’m talking about: Road Wars, Night Cops, UK Street Crime etc. etc.

Even these dramas played out factually are beginning to become formulaic. The car chase sequence went downhill after Steve McQueen yet it’s still in use, overuse. The voice over guy tries to ratchet up the tension as the siren-blaring cops race after the bad guys. Red lights are driven past, the wrong side of the road is used and there’s a swerve or two. All Beano and Dandy and seen before. Just when you think the baddies have got away they are captured. Most of the time because of the big bird in the sky.

The police helicopter tracks the progress of the villains giving the pursuers in their squad cars vital intelligence (it also doubles up as the programmes TV screen plotting the adventure). To give the felons a chance the helicopter should not be used. It’s not as if the carjackers have ground to air missiles in their armoury. Put those cheating copters away. As Shere Khan would say, It would make the chase more interesting.

Beware of goats.

We are well used to canine kniptions and explosions of manic barking, people, eagles, coyotes all set them off.  To be fair, they are not discouraged, it is their job to alert us to approaching ‘threats’.

Image

The goats normally live behind us, five acres away and are ritually visited for a bark up a couple of times a day.  No great threat just a canine ritual.

Continue reading “Beware of goats.”

Kings v Highlanders

My programme

What a difference a week makes!

After last week’s humiliation at the hands of those Aussie Warratahs my Kings hosted the Highlanders this weekend, a team packed with All Blacks and boosted with the confidence of a victory just last week against the Sharks,  but more about that later.

Remember my “Super season tickets” post back in February? The one where I explained that a local bar had 2 ‘royalty package’ season tickets to hand out as prizes for all home game? Guess who won them this week? Ha ha I can hear you all laughing, of course it was me!

Now as you know,  I go to the games anyway, we always have great seats but these? These are special, plus the facilities which were still being constructed during my first visit (bar, restaurant, lounge, flat screen tv’s, big screen etc.) are now all in place. It really is a magnificent (royal (?)) way to watch rugby, or any sport for that matter.

So how did my Kings do this week?

Most here aren’t going to believe me but I assure you that I’m telling the truth we WON!

Not just any old win but a win with a bonus point for four tries. Continue reading “Kings v Highlanders”

Idolatrine

Evangelical Protestantism is on the rise in South and Central American countries.
This part of the globe has historically been a catholic stronghold in matters of faith but the flock are turning. Brazil and Mexico, the two largest catholic nations in the world have had many converts to the Evangelical side and other Protestant church communities: Pentecostals, Baptists and Methodists. A personal relationship with Jesus is most important to evangelicals, whereas in Catholicism, priests and the church hierarchy are tasked with interpreting the Bible and being “God’s representatives”. Has the continent of Pele et al seen the light shining?

With chapel attendance dwindling in these areas it begs the further question, was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Jesuit cardinal from Buenos Aires the newly appointed successor to Saint Peter, chosen purely to revitalise the ailing roman church in Latin America? In modern times we don’t expect political intrigue straight out of the Borgias yet the appointment smacks of a desperate attempt to woo back floating voters by installing one of their own. And was the retired/deposed Benedict part of the scheme? We’ll need to wait until the papal archives are released. Continue reading “Idolatrine”