….and so, to bed.

Never having lived in a bedsit, until recently I kind of assumed a bed has just three purposes.

Perhaps bedsit dwellers find lots of other things to do with a bed – sitting on it being the obvious one but perhaps as a generous ironing table for people of restricted growth?  A relaxed dining table where you can lie about munching with friends?  With a board on top, a flat surface for a really really big jigsaw?

I’ve never really had a hankering to just hang around in bed for no reason but recently, under doctor’s orders to rest dodgy knee in position where it was elevated, the bed seemed to be the most convenient place to do it.

“Are you going to make breakfast?” I enquired of DT man last Sunday morning. Continue reading “….and so, to bed.”

Windows 7

Been having a bit of tussle with my laptop the last couple of days.  I’m a Linux man but still use Windows (i) for word processing because it has good proofing tools for documents and (ii) the Tor version of the Mozilla web browser (torproject.org) is only available as a precompiled package – I need this to open all the sites that are blocked in China.
Continue reading “Windows 7”

It’s Friday, after all.

Wiremu, a New Zealander, was in Australia to watch the upcoming Rugby
World Cup and was not feeling well, so he decided to see a doctor.

‘Hey doc, I dun’t feel so good, ey’ said Wiremu.

The doctor gave him a thorough examination and informed Wiremu that
he had long existing and advanced prostate problems and that the only
cure was testicular removal.

‘No way doc’ replied Wiremu ‘I’m gitting a sicond opinion ey!’

The second Aussie doctor gave Wiremu the same diagnosis and also
advised him that testicular removal was the only cure.

Not surprisingly, Wiremu refused the treatment.

Wiremu was devastated, but with the Rugby World Cup just around the
corner he found an expat Kiwi doctor and decided to get one last
opinion from someone he could trust.

The Kiwi doctor examined him and said: ‘Wiremu Cuzzy Bro, you
huv  Prostate suckness ey’

‘What’s the cure thin doc ?’ asked Wiremu hoping for a different answer.

‘Wull, Wiremu’, said the Kiwi doctor ‘Wi’re gonna huv to cut off your
balls.’

‘Phew, thunk god for thut!’ said Wiremu, ‘those Aussie bastards
wanted to take my test tickets off me!

Special needs people

It appears that some have been offended by literature ridiculing our children (or anybody else’s) who for one reason or another are not ‘mainstream.’

Please allow me to set the record straight.

I want you to open and read stupid e-mails,  I want you to laugh at those less fortunate than yourselves, I want you to laugh at jokes in the pub,  I want in any way possible to remind all of you that ‘there but for the grace of God go I”

The denigration and classification as ‘non-PC’ burns my arse, please, read them, laugh at the jokes,  and then let your conscience lead you.

We were not offended !
The day that we can’t talk about it, is the day that we have lost the fight.

Riding for the Disabled

Inspired by Bravo’s recent comment on Ike’s post:

I’m sure most of you have heard of this splendid organisation. Before I became involved some years ago, I must confess that I regarded the combination of the unpredictable equine and the mentally and/or physically disabled to be a recipe for disaster. Continue reading “Riding for the Disabled”

Heathrow Airport – you might have heard of it

I’ve just booked myself a ticket back home because I have to take care of some legal stuff.  I’d been trying to do it through the British Embassy in Beijing but because of the increased levels of bureaucracy I worked out it was cheaper to fly back to the UK to take care of it than to take multiple trips to the capital.  The latest wheeze from the boys behind the bulletproof glass was I needed my birth certificate which had to be requested from the UK, and could take anywhere between 4 to 6 weeks and even then, given the amount of pilfering that goes on in our mail room, there was little chance of it finally reaching me.
Continue reading …

Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories. Well, conspiracies do happen, of that there is no doubt, but do we really believe that the moon landing was a gigantic hoax, or that there is proof of Obama’s illegibility to be President of the United States?

I’m not suggesting that we should not have  a healthy scepticism with regard to media information but KISS may also a good idea. If it looks like a duck……

Historians for example, legitimately use conspiracy theories. This is often due to incomplete evidence, or suggestive facts. They are generally presented as theories, however, and do not claim to be the truth. New evidence, for example is welcomed and theories are re-examined in the light of such discoveries.

Paranoid conspiracy theories, however, are a totally different animal. In the minds of  believers there is nothing that can be presented that can ever convince them that they are mistaken in their belief. Logic and reason are useless because any evidence to suggest they are wrong is dismissed. Retrospective analysis, or ain’t  hindsight a wonderful thing, is employed and events are interpreted to match the theory. Any evidence which points to any other conclusion is resolutely ignored.

Well I have to admit that I enjoy reading conspiracy theories and some sound very convincing but I cannot help but feel paranoid conspiracy theories are a prime example of irrational thinking.