Well, those who follow this blog may be wondering why they’ve not seen anything new from me for some time, now it can be revealed; but first I’d like to explain why I report personal events after they’ve happened. Some time ago, someone very close to me advertised the fact that they were going away on a long trip abroad, on a social networking site. Now I don’t know whether it’s cause or effect but their accommodation was broken into while they were away, and several valuable items were stolen, including some sentimental items, which are valueless but irreplaceable. Whether this break-in had anything to do the intruder being tipped off about the empty state of the property via the social website or not is debatable, but I’m not taking any chances.

About 4/5 months ago we were invited to go on holiday on a gulet in Turkey. I had never heard of this form of boat, so of course googled it and found it is a luxury cruiser plying the Mediterranean coast with small groups of people on board. Ours was called the Kurt-K and had seven cabins: four doubles, two family rooms and one other room not ready for use, having been varnished the week before. There were five couples and a single lady in our party and we joined the boat on the Sunday night after a Sqeazyjet flight to Dalaman airport in Southern Turkey. The next morning we set sail and the for next seven days and nights went from bay to bay between Gocek and Fatihiye swimming in the sea, sunbathing and eating – lots. The food was glorious, prepared by a 5 star chef, all Turkish cuisine, delicious (and fattening). There was a bar on board so unfortunately drinking (not excessively!) was involved as well.

The M/S Kurt-K

Just been listening to (part of ) the Queens speech, but of course of much more importance is Alex Ferguson leaving United. Could never understand what he was saying, glad I have absolutely no interest in football, so the fact that he is retiring is of course of minimal importance, but the media seem to put it on a par with the Queen. Such is the way of the world these days.

So yet another long term kidnapping has been discovered. What is with these nearly always men, who think they can control women like cavemen? Those poor women must have been controlled so closely and being ‘the weaker sex’ probably couldn’t find a way out of their prison. Recently there have been other well publicised abductions including Natascha Kampusch in Austria, whose captor had the good grace to kill himself, and Jaycee Lee Dugard in California by a married couple, the man of which fathered two children during her captivity. They both got long prison sentences. I suppose even Madelaine McCann’s parents could still keep their hopes alive for her return. I doubt whether any psychiatrist could ever fathom why people would do this, perhaps its all to do with power and superiority. Then again us mere mortals will never understand what goes through criminal minds, or why they think its OK to carry out their obnoxious crimes. But I suppose it could happen to any of us.

I got a letter from a gonk in the MoD the other day explaining the reasons why the Harrier was taken out of service instead of the Tornado, at the same time promoting the F35B as its replacement. You can see it here:

Http://bringbacktheharrier.wordpress.com

..which is my other blog, for those so interested. I mention it here because its an interesting letter that wholly backs the government policy on this matter, without once offering an opinion or disagreeing with the sentiments. Wants to keep his job I suppose.

As all the youngsters seem to sign off with now: laters.