Boadicea's Chariot

My fellow Charioteers will already know that I am hardly the world’s largest fan of the USA. That I am hardly enamoured with the idea of going on holiday in the USA will, thus, surprise no one. That’s not to say that the USA is without its merits and charms. It has both, at times in abundance. In my experience Planet ‘Murca’s native aggro simply outweighs the good. Continue reading “Flying the Friendly Skies”

Metternich once quipped “Italy is a geographical expression”. Replace “Italy” with “Germany” and that quote would be equally applicable. Germany is a geographical expression. In 1805 there were over 300 political entities in German-speaking Europe. After Napoleon, these myriad polities were reorganised into 38 Germanic states in a loose, Austrian-led confederation. Eventually, Prussia grew increasingly powerful as Austria was forced to focus on the ever-growing number of problems in its formal empire. Bit-by-bit, Prussia expanded its territories. In 1871, a Prussian-led federal German empire was formed comprising 26 states. Continue reading “Germany and Europe”

I read today of a protest by disabled users of Southern Rail against the inadequacy of staff to allow them to board the train without prior booking.

It reminded me of last time I travelled by rail a couple of years ago in the UK. There were no staff!  There were no porters in Swansea or Reading, both large stations.  No assistance of any kind for love nor money.  Passengers helped me to manhandle my suitcase on and off the train, but in Reading there was a footbridge to negotiate, quite impossible!  I waited, expecting to see some type of employee hove to on the horizon, nothing.  I waited until the train was gone, nothing, absolute desolation!  So I stood and shouted Help! loudly. Finally someone came, I explained my predicament, Oh, says he, I’m not a porter, well says I, I am going to stand here and shout and scream until someone helps to get me off this platform. He capitulated, and, mirabile dictu a staff only lift was found.  I gave him 10 pounds at the taxi rank, he was aghast, I can’t take that!  Why not? He did!  I did ask him why there were no porters, he looked at me like I was fresh out of the ARK and said there had been none for years, I did admit to not having been on a train for thirty years!

Continue reading “Service, or lack of it!”

I note an article in the papers today about drones.

I personally abhor their use over other people’s personal property.  One had the temerity to crash land here in the garden!  What would have happened had it hit a dog or wrecked a plant?  I confiscated it immediately, put it in the dustbin to trap it and later took it out, hung it on the garage wall and eventually gave it to my gardener for his nephew, anywhere but here.  Had it merely hovered I would have shot it without a thought.  Nobody ever turned up to claim it.

What would you all do with the wretched things?

As a foot note to this , at our last place we had a gas pipeline jut behind the property, that is at the top of a five acre field.  A helicopter used to fly down the line every day checking for leaks.  Our neighbour, an elderly man, was convinced that it was the tax man spying on him so he routinely took his gun and shot at the helicopter.  This happened more than a few times.  I suppose he got a hit or too many near misses but some nice policemen turned up and explained that it really wasn’t the taxman and it was doing a useful service stopping the pipeline from blowing up his house and that he had better cease and desist before they had to do something about it.  He did.  No effort to remove his gun or licence of course or prosecute him in any way, shape or form!

I note people have been prosecuted for shooting them, I cannot understand why when they are an unwarranted intrusion of privacy.  More like give the bugger a medal for good shooting!!