A song for jubilee/olympic year

The English, the English, the English are best I wouldn’t give tuppence for all of the rest.
The rottenest bits of these islands of ours We’ve left in the hands of three unfriendly powers Examine the Irishman, Welshman or Scot You’ll find he’s a stinker, as likely as not.
Och aye, awa’ wi’ yon Edinburgh Festival Continue reading “A song for jubilee/olympic year”

I did swear

When I was a little wolf cub (tumtetum), I learned all the regulations of which there were lots……and I must have sworn the oath of allegiance to HM King George VI but can’t quite remember it. So what, you retort. Well I’ve just checked and it appears I may have committed myself to all his heirs and successors too, which is fine in the case of ERII but which will cause me some distress thereafter. What should I do? Can I now withdraw my oath, the act of a young, impressionable boy? Answers in semaphore, please, preferably from ex-cubs and ex-brownies with a similar conundrum.

Chief Scout Bear Grylls stands with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Weather be nice

Today, being Monday was sunny. OK for me, as I don’t work Mondays as a rule. But I thought of all those folk, who’d had a completely washed out weekend and then went to work in blazing sunshine this morning – (well sunshine intermittently at least) – while I walked in the woods with a friend and two Labradors and we caught up with a few weeks’ news.

“Wait until you see the blue bells,” she said.

The rain has had a significant effect on the river levels around here. Lots of places where it had burst its banks, including someone’s back garden. And they say the water hasn’t finished rising yet and that there’s more to come. Continue reading “Weather be nice”

Know wha’ I mean, ‘Arry?

It’s a regular event much anticipated by so many (even if not here!): the mouth-watering appointment of a new England footie manager. After Capellogate and while the incident-prone Terry continues to amuse, the pundits were certain that our ‘Arry (er, Redknapp, if you don’t read the sports news) would get the nod from the sweet FA. Continue reading “Know wha’ I mean, ‘Arry?”

The War of 1812

The nation plans to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, it seems that it has become a cause and has acquired the flavour of significance.

Apart from a couple of good songs and a pretty good flag I don’t see it.

This is my contribution to Mr. Mackie’s Poem contest and I shall post a link there.

Continue reading “The War of 1812”

Daylight Robbery.

It has caught my eye that a PO Box has gone up to £222 per annum including taxes in the UK.

I thought you would like to know that our Garden Club has a PO Box for the princely sum of £27 per year! Exactly one tenth??!!

What the hell is going on in the UK?

It pisseth with rain and there is a drought?

UK landing fees are astronomical and there are no immigration officials?

Astronomical road taxes and lanes are hived off for olympic orifice officials?

Private gated communities are misappropriated as missile bases without a by your leave?

I seriously think you need your revolution sooner rather than later!

Hostage crises

It was pure coincidence that shortly after reading The Daily Mail article on the hostage drama in London’s Tottenham Court road that the front page of my Weekend read had a report of a hostage drama at Durban’s Westville Hospital.

I had been intrigued not so much by the London hostage taker or his reasons for his actions but by the response of the British police and their uniforms. (You can click the picture to get a larger view and read the collection of high tech gadgets that this officer is carrying.)

The article tells us –

“Thousands were evacuated, Tube stations were closed and streets locked down over a wide area of London’s West End.

Snipers, bomb disposal squads, nuclear biological and chemical warfare specialists and dozens of armed police were scrambled to the building on Tottenham  Court Road, one of the city’s busiest shopping streets.”

I then had a closer look at our chaps (picture on next page) Continue reading “Hostage crises”