Weather or not

Sorry to be so utterly mundane but I just have to remark on the bizarre weather here.  Ten days ago it was still summer, 70s in the day and 50s at night.  Brilliant sunshine everyday.

And then it stopped.  First it rained a bit then it went cloudy and then it rained and rained and rained, it hasn’t stopped.

Now it has turned cold to nearly freezing, there is snow already in the passes and we are expecting 8″ tonight in the mountains and they are considering opening the skiing early! Autumn lasted exactly 10 days!!  Needless to say much scurrying around trying to shepherd all necessary plants into the greenhouse in the greatest haste.

Reminds me once in Memphis, Spring lasted exactly one week. The daffodils came out and were fried dead in seven days, talk about blink and you missed it!  I really hate seasons that do not go in an orderly and timely progression and flowers that you wait all year to see that are gone in the blink of an eye. I feel cheated! Anyone else had bizarre weather?

Apart from that everyone here is sick to death of that bloody election. Both left and right have got to the point that they no longer care who wins as long as the electioneering stops.  From the amount of money wasted on political ads down to those for town ratcatcher they could have paid for the national debt ‘n’ times over and paid for Obamacare out of the small change. What a ridiculous waste of money.

A few days left

Just a short reminder, as is the custom, to any charitable Charioteer poets out there that haven’t yet entered this month’s poetry competition. Closing date is midnight on Tuesday (23rd October). So far, there are four entries. Two apiece from Soutie and Janus. I’d like to thank these guys and not just for the poems. Both of them have been keeping the place ticking over during this quiet time. Gentlemen, take a bow.

Details of the rules can be found here.

A bridge too far

I’m sure that the hoards of avid rugby followers that read these pages will agree with me that the gap between the two tiers of S.A. Currie cup rugby is larger than we first thought.

Although the E.P.Kings went through the season undefeated, (2 draws) and rightfully earned their place in the promotion / relegation playoffs, (home and away) last nights hammering at the hands of the Free State Cheetahs brought us all down to earth with a bang.

Ironically on the left try scorer Andries Strauss has already signed for The Kings for next season.

The score? An overwhelming 53 -14 (8 tries -2) Match report here

Here’s hoping that we don’t have more of the same next year during our first Super Rugby campaign, sure we’ll have a few new signings to strengthen the squad but against full strength outfits from the Crusaders, Reds, Bulls, Sharks et al it could be a very long season!

They’re still at it…

Big furry surprise:

‘Expenses scandal: 27 MPs let one home and claim for another.’

And we thought the ‘new intake’ was going to be less money-grabbing and more solicitous of the tax-payers’ hard-earned in their care… didn’t we?

Yeah, right. Is it any wonder that many of us* think that our lords and masters are more interested in lining their nests and lining themselves up for lucrative jobs in the private sector – either while still sitting in the Hhouse, or on ‘retirement,’ on top of their fat ‘redundancy’ packages and gold-plated pensions? (Or, equally lucrative sinecures in the EUSSR kleptocracy.)

*translation: ‘I’ 🙂

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Cherished chatterers were uncharacteristically silent yesterday. I wonder why.  It can’t have been the T20 cricket ‘cos rain stopped the Yarkshire match which they might otherwise have won. Just a regular Thursday. Was it hair-washing – again? Was it a dinner to celebrate the incomprehensible, nay skeletal Lord Home becoming PM in ’63? Or the ousting of Erik Honecker in the DDR on the same day in ’89? Or the release of the Guildford Four a day later? (Pause to remember the market researcher who asked a Dubliner what he thought of the Renault 5: “Not guilty, sirr!’) Probably not. I suspect the truth is much simpler. Life.

“Now there’s an actor!”

Thus spake Laurence Olivier on hearing In My Defence for the first time. “Now there’s an actor.” One of my favourite Queen quotes. The song was written by Dave Clark for the musical, Time, which featured a hologrammed Laurence Olivier!

Olivier, in most people’s eyes, the greatest British actor of all time heard the unique Mercury voice in full flow and could imagine our Fred making movies and treading the boards. Dismissively, Freddie ruled out acting as a career move. That’s a pity because his contemporary, David Bowie, made a lot of wooden appearances on celluloid and just as our Fred outshone the strange eyed one on Under Pressure he would have out-acted him on the silver screen as well.

Olivier, ’nuff said


For me, the best book ever written about Hollywood is William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983). Goldman was a highly successful screenplay writer in the 60’s and 70’s. His book is full of anecdotes that are not found in most other publications or via the world wide web. Witness Goldman’s exasperation when director Bryan Forbes says on the casting of the sex bomb of The Stepford Wives– “I think Nannette might be rather good for the part of Carol, don’t you?” Read the book to find out why Goldman can’t argue with this, though he disagrees entirely with Forbes’ choice.

In Marathon Man (1976 movie) Goldman got to work with one of the most talented actors of all-time, Laurence Olivier. Larry, as Olivier was called in the business, was at the end of his career but he still knew how to read a scene. He gave the director of the film, John Schlesinger, a lesson in stagecraft. Continue reading “Olivier, ’nuff said”