Heidelberg and its river

Bearsy’s photo  of the English lock with pub reminded me how well the English make use of their river and canal banks. After Dinant on the Meuse, we expected Heidelberg on the Neckar to have the same attractive restaurants and cafes along the water front. We were disappointed.

Heidelberg is the oldest German university town and was the setting for the play “Alt Heidelberg” which later became the operetta and film “The Student Prince”. Our journey into the town centre was slightly disrupted by the fact that the heat had softened the tarmac bedding in the tramrails with the result that the tarmac had started to wind itself round the tram wheels and everything had come to a standstill.  We never had this trouble with the tramrails in Aberdeen!  The Old Town is basically a long street, now full of cafes, restaurants and tourist shops. The Old Bridge is very attractive, but difficult to reach because of the traffic racing along between the old town and the river.

The old bridge over the Neckar

  Continue reading “Heidelberg and its river”

A view of Le Tour 2011

It was the helicopters I heard first,  approaching from the west, still quite high and then swooping lower, following the riders up the last winding ascent before the road flattened on the headland of Cap Frehel, Brittany.

Somewhere out of view, near the flamme rouge which marks 1 kilometre to the finish, began a Mexican wave of sound, a crescendo which rippled along the ten-deep bands of yellow-capped spectators lining either side of the road. Continue reading “A view of Le Tour 2011”

Take the blame

Let me put a different slant on all this hacking nonsense.

If you go out tomorrow and leave your back door open and the house gets burgled who is to blame? Is it you for being so stupid as to leave your back door open, or is it the police for not being there when the robbery happened? To my mind it is your fault for not securing your property.

Now using the same analogy you have a mobile phone with voice mail, the voice mail is accessed from any other phone by dialling your number then entering a default password (1234 or 0000) because you haven’t had the gumption to change it to a secure number. Thus you have left your back door wide open. Now to me if anyone wants to listen to my voice mail all they will get is “I’ll be late” or “ring me back” etc. but to celebrities they leave an entire story on the phone.

This does not condone what has occurred any more than I forgive the burglar, but people must take responsibility for their own actions or stupidity. But since the last government came to power we have lived in a society of blame.

My chequer tolled me sew

Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my Pea Sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss Steaks I can knot sea.

Eye strike the quays and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am write oar wrong
It tells me straight a weigh.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your shore real glad two no.
Its vary polished in its weigh.
My chequer tolled me sew. Continue reading “My chequer tolled me sew”

‘Depressed’ Ferret Still on Run After Fleeing Siberian Circus

A headline I couldn’t resist posting from the Moscow Times – blatant C&P!

The hunt continued Sunday for a “depressed” ferret who escaped Disney-style from a Chita circus along with a monkey and a red-breasted parakeet last week.  Hopes were raised Friday that the ferret had been found when Chita resident Ivan Burtsev found a ferret on a city street near the Zabaikalye hotel the night before and brought it to the local zoo. Continue reading “‘Depressed’ Ferret Still on Run After Fleeing Siberian Circus”