Justice?

Posted on Dec 9, 2013 by cliverh

So Lee Rigby’s alleged murderer Michael Adebolajo said in court “he was “almost certain” he would be shot and killed by the firearms officers who arrived at the scene of the attack in Woolwich”.  So was he thinking about his own family of six and who would look after (and pay for) them if he was killed? Did not his wife and children figure in his plans to “strike a soldier and a soldier only.” Do people like this consider the state is a cash cow that will just support his family, or are they doing that already?

What I don’t understand about his commitment to Allah and al-Queda is that these groups are supposed to be peaceful and self supporting. What goes through the mind of a supposedly intelligent man (he went to university) to think that the killing of an unarmed man, who he didn’t  positively know was a soldier, will make the slightest difference to the already reducing presence in Afghanistan?

In the same vein, Sgt Blackman has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the ‘mercy’ killing of a Taliban insurgent. What Numbskull lawyer or legal entity decided that it would be a good idea for this guy to be charged with ‘murder’? They don’t live in the real world and probably imagine that its as simple as twiddling buttons in a video game. And as for the senior army general who said it was a ‘just decision’ is also probably not living in the real world, or his experience of fighting terrorists goes back to NI which bears no resemblance to what’s going on in in the ‘Stan. The Taliban are not a recognisable army, with a training and command structure, or uniform, they are terrorists whose aim is to terrorise, hence the name. In the same vein, do they think their actions will stop the killing of their colleagues? Of course not, like the PIRA in Northern Ireland, whose aim wasn’t a united Ireland, nor stopping government by London, but were merely gangsters who robbed banks to make a living. Will the Taliban be pardoned and given amnesty just like the PIRA ‘soldiers’ who were released as part of the Blair Good Friday agreement; watch this space, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were. Has anyone actually asked Taliban leaders what their eventual aim is? I don’t know, but again I doubt it.

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…an’ annuver fing.

Posted on Dec 4, 2013 by cliverh

Well a bit of response to my piece ‘Edukachun’ which always pleases me. I like to have a ‘damned good argument’ so long as its the full half hour not the five minutes (Pythonesque quote). Someone actually commented to me the other day that I hadn’t written a blog for a while and thought I’d lost inspiration or got lazy. Neither is true, just other things get in the way, like life.

But the main thrust of my argument was that the Simon Cowell’s of this world want children to basically underachieve so they can be pop singers or soap stars or TV presenters or whatever. NO!!! He has got it all wrong, but I’ve already argued my case for that. My gripe today is what could happen to this country and it’s youth if we carry on the way society is going at the moment. There ARE good hardworking young people who want to get on, make a contribution to the world and become technologists, entrepreneurs, business people and create jobs and wealth, but by the same token, there are loads of school leavers who want to do nothing else but be ‘famous’ or a ‘celebrity’. How sad and quite frightening for by the future, if no-one cares about anything but themselves and their image. We need people across the spectrum of jobs and vocations.

A sad statistic released today was the 10th victim of a stabbing in London this year. He was stabbed in the leg and died of his injuries. What is it about knives and stabbings? Why do people carry weapons, with the obvious intent to use them, and then what do they feel if they do stab someone? From Damilola Taylor to the latest stabbing, young people have been struck down before they’ve reached their full potential, yet the perpetrator is nearly always sorry they’ve done it and protest their innocence when they have been sent to prison. Its not even really a sad reflection on ‘society’, because those who are involved in the knife carrying fraternity is very small group and mostly inner city based. Whatever goes on in their head is anyone’s guess, but I would suspect he has a lot to do with ‘respect’. Let’s examine this word for a moment. Respect has many connotations, from hero-worship through looking up to someone, and finally earning the attribute. But, respect should never, ever be expected, or taken for granted, and is in no circumstances something that should automatically be bestowed on someone because they have a knife or are the loudest or most aggressive in a group. I’ll illustrate this: a group is walking along a pavement, they are 6 in number and everyone in their path moves out of their way. They look aggressive and give off an aura of mean and nasty. They come across someone who doesn’t automatically move out of the way, and stands his ground instead of deferring. The leader stops in front of him and says ‘Move out of my way!’. The man stands his ground, and says nothing. The leader says to the rest of the group: this man is showing no respect to me, turns to the man and says ‘You dissing me?’. Now this is the aggressive street talk of someone who doesn’t like being ‘dissed’, i.e. doesn’t want to be ‘disrespected’. In this context there is no reason why the man should respect or in fact not respect the leader, he means nothing to him, and ‘respect’ is a hackneyed phrase that is banded about to signify some sort of worship for that persons aura of command and leadership, in other words what respect should be about. In the same way that a private in the army respects his sergeant or officer, because of his rank and position. So the leader expects respect, without it being earned. It is only earned in normal circumstances by being reactive, cooperative and being a leader of men in the truest sense. It is not earned just by being the strongest, most aggressive or the handiest with a knife. This is the essence of respect, its earned not conferred. It is not automatic, not a given. This, I believe is the basis of many of these knifing incidents, someone disses someone else, a knife is produced and someone is stuck with it. All this action proves nothing, and the outcome is always tragic. Give up the knifes, and the illicit guns come to that.

The biggest ship in the world, built in South Korea, was launched today. This is the time that the UK shipbuilding industry is at the lowest its been for decades, and in fact is declining further with the cessation of military ship building in Portsmouth. When we think of the ships built in Belfast, Glasgow or Tyneside, Portsmouth, Sunderland and Hull. We led the world in shipbuilding, now South Korea has built a ship, admittedly not self-powered, which is bigger than any other floating vessel. In a country of less population and resources than us. Makes you think don’t it? Why can’t we still build commercial ships? Big ones, that transport goods around the world? The same reason we stopped coal mining, steel making and other heavy industries: we’re too expensive, in both manpower costs and materials and the politicians, always right again, stopped them. The world needs ships all the time, but unfortunately customers would rather buy from Germany, Japan, Thailand, Korea, in fact anywhere but here. It makes you despair for the future of this country.

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Edukachun

Posted on Dec 3, 2013 by cliverh

Mr Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education stood up in Parliament today and told us what had been reported elsewhere: that our education standards are basically slipping. The performance of pupils in the UK has fallen to 26th place in the world, well behind most far eastern economies and even some eastern European ones. Nowhere has there been a proper explanation as to why this should be so, but I will offer my own which is up for comment or disagreement.

Over the last twenty years or so the education system has been changed by successive governments, of whatever colour. I have personal experience with two daughters in their 30s who went through several changes during the Tories in the 90s and Labour in 00s. It seems that once again politicians know better than anyone else, be it technology, education, finance, foreign dealings, in fact just about anything. In the late 80s/early 90s they went from GCEs to GCSEs and now they want to change it again. So a new scheme was dreamt up almost monthly. Luckily my kids were able to work through this buggeration and achieve good results, ending with a half decent education, even though it may not have exactly suited their needs. Which brings me to the point of education: its not just the ability to read, write and add up. As is proved by those countries at the top of the league, even though I don’t know what they specialise in, they want to produce engineers, technologists and innovators. You cannot run a country on the arts only, but as an adjunct to creating wealth in the only reliable way: making and exporting things. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore are places where, besides being at the top if the education chart, are focussed on the production of goods. This is why China is now one of the biggest economies in the world, where it used to be one of the lowest. And yes I know Churchill (the wartime Prime Minister not the insurance nodding dog) said what are are we fighting for if not the arts (sic), man cannot live on arts alone. In this context education of the next generation is just about the most important thing that we should be concentrating on for the future. Not being able to secure a recording contract or get on the telly.

It isn’t helped when that same Education Minister just a week or so ago said in a newspaper article that most children these days only aspire to be celebrities or famous. In fact the figure is just over 50%. He blamed Simon Cowell for this trend, who also boasted that school never did him any good and look ‘what I’ve got now’. Sorry chum, but being thick doesn’t necessarily give you the wherewithall to be successful in life. Most of us have to work at something, and to do this you have to have the ability to retain and use knowledge. Being able to sing, tap dance or act will only do you any good if you are very good at it, and most aren’t. So what to do about our falling education standards? Well I wouldn’t advocate the South Korean model of working pupils up to 11 hours a day in two shifts including in the evening. For several reasons that wouldn’t work because of working time directives, the unions, child cruelty etc. I don’t blame hard working, hard pressed teachers, or the environments of schools. To be fair, if a child is intelligent it doesn’t matter what the education system is like, they will still succeed because of intellect. Its the lower levels we should look at and here I have said before what I think should happen:

Tony Blair’s Labour didn’t want competition or demeaning of children and wanted everyone to go to university, probably because he did. This is not absolutely necessary. Lately the apprenticeship has come back into fashion, where once they were coveted. They went out if fashion during the Labour era, but unfortunately they didn’t take unto account that some children weren’t suited to further education or academia. So, instead of an 11+ type exam (I know they don’t have them any more), why not stream children at 14, to determine whether they are going to be academic or practical or both, and plan their future education to suit. Why not start apprenticeships at 14? Get them doing practical work and do day release for academic subjects? In most cases practical work is the domain of apprentices, so what is the point of keeping them until 16 to do meaningless (for practical subjects) lessons like history or art? These are not meant to be dismissive of these subjects but are examples. That way those pupils who show an aptitude for practicality can get on with it earlier.

This will of course take years, but there is no reason why we can’t change the education system; look what’s happening in Vietnam of all places: 17th in the chart and improving all the time, yet a third world country in every way not many years ago. The USA is ten places below us and that is no surprise, but they have 5 times more people than the UK, and they are still the 2nd biggest economy in the world. This government and its successors should concentrate heavily on getting our education system back up to scratch, or we will be reduced to a third world country ourselves.

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Shipbuilding in the UK

Posted on Nov 7, 2013 by cliverh

It had to happen sometime, in fact the warnings had been in place for some time, so it should not have come as a surprise.  Yes, naval shipyards are being  run down.

I’m referring to the loss of 900 jobs in Portsmouth and 800 jobs in Glasgow. In the great scheme of things, not even a third of the workforce in either place but it’s still tragic that so many people should lose their jobs, even though they’ll probably get redundancy pay-offs and some will naturally retire. If it’s any consolation I went through the same thing three years ago when I was made redundant by BAE Systems because the government foolishly decided to take the Harrier out of service. Admittedly I was near to a natural retirement date so was glad of the redundancy package offered and took it, but my future at the time was still uncertain. Three years down the road, I’m glad I never felt the need to look for a job, giving a youngster the chance to get one instead. This is despite the fact that there is a shortage of qualified, experienced, engineers in the UK.

The tragedy about Portsmouth and Govan is that  the highly skilled workforce will dissipate and will be difficult to replace. I well remember though the American experience I witnessed at the Boeing plant in Philadelphia. There, the highly skilled workforce was laid off and re-hired as the orders for new aircraft came in or waned. In between times they flipped burgers, drove delivery trucks or did any other non-skilled job they could find. Boeing then put out a call for riveters or assembly men or whatever and they all quit their menial jobs and went back to assembling aeroplanes (Chinook helicopters in this case), but their pension rights and seniority were retained.  Couldn’t the same be applied here? OK, so there are skilled jobs being lost, and the local council and government are promising job creation schemes to fill the void, but excuse me, am I missing something? Has all shipbuilding stopped all over the world? Britain used to be one of the biggest shipbuilding countries in the world. Never mind what was produced during the war, that’s contingency of the times, where were our great liners, Queen Elizabeth (1) and Queen Mary and many other capital ships built? Here in the little old UK. After all we are an ISLAND, sometimes politicians and the like seem to forget that. Our Navies both Royal and merchant are decimated, and we no longer build civilian ships here, except small yachts etc.  Why is this? It’s mainly to do with the world market and the reduction in costs of building in Germany, Japan and unbelievably Norway. The USA build all their war ships and boats, how long will it be before we contract a foreign power (including Scotland) to build ours? We had a proud shipbuilding industry, building ships like the Titanic and it’s ilk, so why can’t we regain the initiative and compete in the world market. Many oil tanker and container ships are now built in the Far East, where the labour is far cheaper, but is the quality as good? Are our workers over paid, is the quality falling?  Sadly we will probably never find out. The fact that Portsmouth will be reduced to a ‘maintenance and upgrade’ station is galling. Where once we had a great Navy who literally did ‘rule the world’, now we have more Captains and Admirals than we have ships. It’s pathetic, and all of it political. If it’s one thing politicians of any party can smell, it’s that a reduction in the forces spend appeases some liberals and lefties. But I repeat we are an ISLAND, therefore we need a strong, well equipped, fully manned Navy and Air Force to protect our shores.  Let’s not forget the first and over-riding priority of any government in power in any country:

‘A state has a responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing’

United Nations Initiative 2005.

‘We are agreed that the first duty of government is to safeguard our national security’

Coalition Manifesto 2010

Comments welcome.

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The Game Must Go On?

Posted on Nov 4, 2013 by cliverh

Some of my regular readers will know I am not a fan of football, especially that played by so-called ‘professional’ players, in the Football League, mostly in the higher divisions.

The fact that these men are paid mind boggling salaries to play is bad enough but when the administrators in the form of managers and coaches order a player to carry on with a game after being knocked unconscious is unpardonable. That Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas told goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to play on is bad enough, but what gave him the right to determine that he ‘looked alright’ to play? Has Villas-Boas got x-ray vision, or a mobile scanner in his inside pocket, or is he indeed a doctor? No I don’t think so, so why did overrule better judgement and insist on Lloris carrying on? This just smacks of the attitude of pressonitis, endemic in many areas of life these days. I can’t believe that football is that important, or maybe as the often quoted ‘football is more important than life’ (sic) by Liverpool manager Bill Shankly; it is. What’s more why do people spend good money (I think £90 for 90 minutes of football is a bit much) to see illegal tackling, shirt pulling, dirty tackling, fighting, play acting when tackled all in the name of seeing their team win? Don’t ask me, I haven’t been tons football match since 1974, and I  totally lost interest after that. With Hillsborough in the news recently,  maybe the hooligan element at grounds has reduced, but I don’t know whether it still goes on. Anyway enough of that, the game will never change, as long as fools and their money are parted.

The weather wont settle down will it? Raging storms and torrential rain one minute, autumnal sunshine and calm days the next. So it’s been ideal leaf sweeping time. They seem interminable in our garden. Having just bought a new leaf vac from B&Q, I was keen to try it out, hoping that it was better than the last one I had a few years ago, Black and Decker, total rubbish, kept clogging up. The new one is a B&Q special and it works great, although it is quite heavy, but at only £39 it was what could be termed a William Bargain (that’s billy bargain Bloggs). Still it made collecting and mulching all those leaves a lot easier. Trouble is tomorrow the next lot will have fallen down, so it’ll be back to square one. Oh well, with a sweep sweep here, and rake rake there, here a sweep, there a rake; well you get the picture.

So the Christmas TV advertising has started in earnest. Mind, its been going on subtly for most of October, but as soon as November arrives its open season for advertisers. I wonder if all that coverage actually makes any difference, it certainly doesn’t in our house. Christmas shouldn’t be about the most expensive presents that can be given, its all got out if hand, again. The range and price of some of the things that are being advertised is mind boggling, it beggars belief that parents/grandparents are willing/coerced into spending £100s on unnecessary presents for their little darlings. And I do mean totally unnecessary, no kid needs some of the stuff being touted; send a donation to a deserving charity instead. No, I’m not being Scrooge like, or Mr Grumpy. The worse thing is advertising Christmas clubs for 2014! What on earth would anyone want to plan or save for 12 months in advance? Roll on January 2nd.

clivehandy.com

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League vs. Union

Posted on Nov 2, 2013 by cliverh

This is the first weekend I can remember when the two codes of rugby are playing international games at the same time. Not only that, both England teams have brothers playing for the first time; but for opposite codes.

Its quite difficult to explain a) why there are two codes of rugby and b) what’s the difference between the two. This has been discussed by better more qualified people than me, but I’d like to add my twopennoth to the debate. I’m in quite a unique situation for someone who first played in the 60s, because I have played both codes, a not unusual occurrence these days. At school in Yorkshire, I played rugby league (league) right to representing York boys. We played against Hull boys and were soundly thrashed. So I continued to play league, and then in 1968 I signed on to the Royal Air Force (RAF), and of course sport was very important to young men. On the first sports afternoon, I volunteered to play ‘rugby’, there was no ‘league’ suffix added, but of course in my innocence I didn’t know there was such a thing as rugby union (union). I also didn’t notice that there were two extras players on the field. At that first game, I asked to play second row, my favoured position. At the first ruck (ground tackle) I had the ball and was about to play the ball back, a la league, when I was jumped on by a bunch of the opposing side. Thinking what the hell are they doing, I tried again to play the ball back, with howls of protest coming from the other side. The PTI (referee) blew the whistle, and took me to one side.

‘What do you think you’re doing? he asked.
‘Playing the ball back’ I replied
‘Where did you play rugby, and how many were in the sides you played?
‘In York, and 13 a side – why?’ I replied.
‘Right I think you’d better sit this half out and I’ll explain something’.

So I sat out the rest if the half while it explained to me that:

League has 13 players, union 15
League doesn’t have line outs, union does.
League doesn’t have rucks and mauls, union does.
League scores 4 points for try, union 5
League scores 1 point for a drop goal, union 3
After a tackle league plays the ball back (up to six tackles), union just fights on the ground (ruck) or in the air (maul)

So other than that, rugby is a running handling game played with an oval ball. Then so is Aussie rules, but that is a totally different kettle of fish. So why two codes, and why is league predominant in the North of England, yet union is very much countrywide? Its not now that the union game is professional, there’s been ‘expenses’ in union for years before it turned fully professional. No, the codes will always remain separate, and although to a layman don’t seem that much different from one another, there are many subtle differences, and in my opinion viva la difference and long may it continue. We have room for two codes in this country, in Australia they have both codes and Aussie Rules which also uses an oval ball, and all three games are embraced wholeheartedly. There is of course another oval ball game, American football, but that’s not a real game: discuss.

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Houses for Sale

Posted on Nov 1, 2013 by cliverh

Its been going on for some time now, and is still not resolved. The processes to get the planning application approved has taken many turns, and is now with the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles, who will now examine whether a full planning enquiry is necessary; a process which could take many weeks.

The application is for 400 houses to be built on land behind Ash Manor Comprehensive school which Ash Residents Association ASHRA, had attempted to be designated a ‘Village Green’, unsuccessfully as it turns out by the  who have been fighting tool and nail, with local residents, to oppose the building of these houses. This is not just a ‘NIMBY’ protest, it goes deeper than that and surely demonstrates the folly of trying to get a quart into a pint pot. Let me explain: the area in question is a boggy area which has been an open area between the villages of Tongham and Ash since time began and is natural buffer between these communities. The closing of the gap would ensure that it becomes one conurbation instead of two distinct villages, joined by a ribbon development between the two of one road. My argument though is not the need for extra housing in this country, it’s the where.

That the UK population is growing, there is no doubt, although many are not born in this country and a further group are as a result of split families and single parent families.  This puts a strain on the current housing stock and demand exceeds supply, but why does it seem everyone wants to build in the already overcrowded south east? It seems a particular hobby horse of politicians to squeeze as much housing as possible into the already overcrowded, under-resourced and under-infrastructured (is there such a phrase?) as the Surrey/Hampshire/Sussex region. Lets break these elements down:

  • Overcrowded – the percentage of land use in the UK is something 10% (10.6 to be precise) of England is used for housing and ‘conurbations’. The perception is that most of this is in the South East, and that would be true, except I don’t have any figures for it. Yet, there are vast tracts of land over the rest of England, without including Scotland and Wales that could be used instead. There are 8.38 million people living in the south east, the highest region in population in England. this is predicted to increase by half a million by 2016. Why, is there some magical element in the South East, are there more children born? Do more immigrants settle here? Is there more work here? Are the streets paved with gold?
  • There is a vast amount of under-resourced development going on, by that I mean the funding of infra-structure, which to my mind falls very short of the requirement. It’s all very well building house upon house, where’s the drainage, sewerage, electricity, gas supply, Broadband etc going to magicked from? These resources can’t cope now, never mind the thousands of houses they want to put here.
  • The infra-structure as well as meaning the lack of resources (see above) I also mean that adjoining authorities don’t seem to talk to each other. Let me give you a example:  Near Aldershot, there is ex-MoD land being developed to build 5000 houses, yet just 1/2 a mile away, Surrey are building 100’s of houses seemingly without any consultation with each other. Why is this? Do they think that one development doesn’t impact on the other? Are there limitless resources to be called on? No! Why don’t they talk to each other. Spread the load, I don’t suppose most people would mind if they lived in either Surrey or Hampshire, in that sense there’s not much difference between the two.

The attraction is always that is this area is where people want to settle despite being the most populated, has most air pollution and least available and most expensive housing. Yet, yet the planners and politicians don’t try to play down these facts and don’t direct people to move elsewhere.  There are vast areas of housing in other parts of the country. Recently I saw houses in Liverpool or somewhere being sold for £1 each. Admittedly they required a lot of refurbishment, and there probably wasn’t work to be had nearby, but at least it’s somewhere to live and the other things can follow.  I just do not understand this obsession with wanting to live in the crowded south-east. Its certainly not the climate.

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November? Already?

Posted on Oct 30, 2013 by cliverh

The fourth meeting of the season for West Street Writers was on Friday. There was the usual banter and readings from the assembled members, all of whom are far cleverer than I with their words.  I particularly liked the extract from Eve’s novel-in-progress, and the list of characters she gave us to help us along the way; it intrigued enough to want to hear more.

Every week, one of the members is in the ‘chair’, and basically manages the two hours we spend at our venue; a tiny room just big enough for the 8/9 of us. After reading our efforts from the previous week’s ‘homework’, a very loose arrangement, the chair for the week, Linda, gave us the theme: ‘Loss’ as our homework for the next Friday.

This got me thinking quite a bit about losses, which I suppose can mean just about anything: relations, relationships, love, animals, money, looks, credit cards, phones, youth; a wide range of objects and people. In past years both personally and literately I have lost in no particular order: both parents, mother-in-law, my only sibling brother, father-in-law, our pet cat, many close friends and more distant relations. I doubt if any of us are any different, because in the end it happens to all of us, of that there is no getting away from.  It should make one all the more determined to a) make it last as long as possible and b) to be as well as possible. The latter wish is of course the one we often have no control over. The former includes things like not having fatal accidents or other actions within ones own control. Illness especially terminal, is not  something any of us want to contemplate, but if the inevitable descends on us, I hope that I may face it with the fortitude I have seen in others. I’ve already mentioned the loss of my mother and father, 28 and 26 years since they departed (see 25 Years) and on occasions, my brother who passed away in September 2007, he was three years older than I.  The loss of my parents seems so long ago as to have been in another life, like looking back at photographs of your youth and wondering who that
slim, fairly good looking chap is with all the hair. My family in 1983:

The Handys 1983

From the left: Moi, Brother Larry, dad, youngest Daughter TC, wife Fran, sister-in-law Karen. Sitting: Eldest daughter Charlotte, nephew Leeward, mum.

A happy bunch, This one is the other half of the family in the back garden in the same year:

My beautiful picture

Standing: dad, Charlotte, Liz(sister-in-law). Sitting: father-in-law Charlie, mother-in-law Edith (with TC on lap), mum, other sister-in-law Kathleen, Fran

Human nature being what it is, those we have lost are never forgotten, and wishing they were here to see what you’ve achieved with your life, and those around you will of course never happen. Life moves on, and you live for the day, never knowing what is around the corner. A close relation’s wife was taken ill recently and is still in hospital, one minute they were fine, the next they are in intensive care; it’s that quick, we could have lost them at that moment. But, the road to recovery is long and tedious and will take time, but at advanced age it takes even longer. Loss is a keenly felt thing, and as I have mentioned in previous articles, I cried more at losing our pet cat than I did at any of the loss of my parents or brother, but don’t ask me to explain why. I recall the happy days of youth, playing in the sand on the beach with mum looking on in cotton dress and sandals, and dad in trousers and shirt with ( I kid you not) a knotted hankie on his head.  Going fishing from Seaton, catching mackerel and herring, and taking them back to our caravan to cook. Memories, these are the things I remember.  Mum and dad were both taken early and my brother before he was 60, where does that leave me at 62? How long have I got left? No-one knows, the sudden event could be tomorrow, or I could last another 20 years. I’ve just been to a funeral of a 64 year old friend, who had several issues, I hope I last longer than that, but who knows if I will? Will my family miss me as much as I miss mine? There is no pre-ordained span of life, the old bible length of three score years and ten is still used as a yardstick, but I know mid-70’s people who are fitter and healthier than some 30 year olds. What does that bode for the future? All unanswerable questions. No, I’m not being maudling, these are all facts, of life. So what is loss, especially of those and dearest, all about? Fond memories of time spent, long lost photos, little touches and artifacts that were once precious to the owner, are now all that’s left of them.

But losses can be overcome, and the life of the missing person can be celebrated, as in ‘so-and-so always used to say/do that’, so they are still in your presence, and your thoughts. Its an iterative thing, the lost person can exist in your mind. This is why long-time marrieds who lose a partner often say they ‘talk’ to the other, probably in their mind. This is no bad thing especially if it keeps the person sane. All of us will lose someone and this situation will arise. Personally, it hasn’t happened to me except with parents etc, so the worse case I will encounter (if I last long enough), is yet to come and I hope when it does I can embrace the loss as easily as some I have come across.

I also hope I never have to experience another sort of loss: where someone goes before their time, either by accident, crime or illness. Especially where the victim is young or an offspring. That must be the most difficult loss to comprehend or come to terms with. Fortunately, although I don’t know the statistics, this doesn’t happen that often. I was talking to a friend who lost her son 18 years ago as a result of being knocked down by a car. He would have been forty this year and it still hurts that he didn’t achieve full potential. Many people have lost children at very tender ages through illness, and in these cases it would be the futility of being impotent to do anything about it, that would hurt the most.

But loss is part of life, and affects all of us at some time. Let it be, that the loss is one which can be cathartic and closes the loop of the persons life, to be embraced, to be celebrated.

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Back to Normal Life then….

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 by cliverh

Well as normal as it can be.  After the euphoria of the trip down under, we can now look forward to the steadily colder weather, more rain, colds and general miserableness.

The clocks going back this weekend won’t help either, with it getting dark at 4.30pm and decreasing. That is about the most depressing thing that happens at this time of the year. No doubt someone in the House of Commons will raise the GMT/Winter Time argument again, with those North of the border moaning again that if the clocks didn’t change at the end of October, Scottish farmers and school children would still be in the dark at 9.15am. Well Alec Salmond wants Scotland to be independent, here’s a chance to show statesmanship and insist the clocks go back at the winter equinox whereas the rest of the UK would go forward. That would be a start of breaking the link between Scotland and us, currently costing people in the rest of the United Kingdom millions of pounds, and that would be a lesser drain on the economy of the rest of the UK. Scots are more likely to claim disability allowance etc, according to the Financial Times, who also state that the Scotland is a net contributor to the UK exchequer. I have my doubts, I expect we’ll find out in a year or so’s time. Back to the summer time/winter time argument, during the last war in 1940 the government introduced British Double Summer Time (BDST) which extended the light evenings until 11.00pm and beyond. This was reverted back in 1945 and introduced as special measure and experiments in 1948 and the late 50s.  Between 1968-1970 GMT+1 was introduced by the Labour Government as an experiment, but it was reverted after that and we have had the time changes ever since.  The debate, like hanging, comes up regularly in Parliament, the last time was in November 2011 when it was filibustered (talked out of time) by a far north Scottish MP and an MP who wanted Somerset to have a 15 minute time difference from London, effectively making a mockery of the Bill.  The Scottish MP argued that some people in northern Scotland would be adversely affected. Big deal, that probably means about 26 people. When ranged against the rest of the population, it pales into insignificance. Personally I’d prefer lighter evenings, but there is a lobby that says darker mornings create more road accidents and therefore more casualties.  With the time shift in people’s working days, I doubt whether this still applies, so the juries still out.

It was very sad to see the bush fires in New South Wales, Australia, especially in places like Katoomba which has been heavily featured on the news over the last day or so. To think we were only recently in Katoomba, sightseeing the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains (see Sydney and The Blue Mountains) and enjoying all the hospitality and friendliness of the Australians. To see them now fighting fires and eating smoke is disheartening and my thoughts are with all those in the area who are affected. It’s a lovely part of the country and it is a real shame to see the devastation being caused by fire. Let’s hope they can halt the spread and reduce the amount of damage caused and the homes destroyed.

Energy prices going up again! Quelle Suprise! It had to happen of course, and we’re all affected. The government and the energy companies talk about ‘consumers’. Strange way of describing the whole country, because unless you are homeless and living on the street, everyone has to pay for heat and light: it’s a given. They call us consumers as if they mean someone else who might be paying for all this.  Someone has to, and someone has to supply the energy, and as is usual in these scenarios, the Green Brigade get up on their high horse about the provision of energy. They don’t want nuclear, coal or seemingly any fossil fuel driven energy production, instead they want us to envelope ‘alternative’ energy, i.e. wind, wave and tidal energy. Future projections about this form of ‘constant’ energy show that we’d need to cover a county the size of Hampshire with windmills to get even 10% of our energy needs, and as for wave power, forget it: there just isn’t enough coastline to provide the space for wave generators. So the argument comes back again as to what is the best, but most practical, and conversely most waste producing energy, and that is nuclear. Granted, the actual production is totally clean, with no output, noxious fumes or pollution coming out of chimneys, but the downside is the waste product from nuclear power has a half-life, whatever that means, of thousands of years, and remains dangerously radioactive in that time. So the Greens have it: you can’t have nuclear power because of all that nasty radioactive waste. The renewable energy lobby hasn’t got a hope, so where does that leave us? Up the proverbial without the proverbial, because without a major energy producer the others will be like spitting in the wind to  make up the shortfall. That doesn’t even take in to account the supply of gas, which could be strangled by the eastern European states particularly Russia who control a majority of the supply. The gas will run out sometime, but hang on a minute, haven’t we got 50-100 years worth of gas that can be fracked? Oh I forgot there is another lobby, mainly Nimbys who don’t want any fracking near them thank you.  Get Real! The gas WILL run out, there IS loads under the ground that can be extracted. What part of: ‘Gas will run out’ don’t they understand? I would always appreciate a healthy debate about these matters. Until next time….

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Melbourne Part 2 and home

Posted on Oct 16, 2013 by cliverh

We got back from the Great Ocean Road on the Friday which gave us 10 days left at the apartment. We certainly filled the remaining time well, quite a bit of it with the Melbourne Fringe, similar to Edinburgh, but in a different accent.

We spent the Friday night at an iconic Australian event: the AFC (footy) rules semifinal at the ‘G’, the diminutive expression for the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). More well known obviously for epic England-Australia Ashes matches, it had always been a dream to go to it. Of course I wasn’t expecting to see a footy match but beggars etc. The big surprise was the behaviour of the crowd, well behaved, polite and not an ounce of aggression, just like our English football crowds, not? The other surprise was Fran’s enthusiasm for the sport and it’s no surprise, again: there’s little dissent, hardly any ‘injury-acting’, not much stop time and the action is non-stop. Basically it’s played on an oval cricket sized pitch (it was apparently developed in the 19th century to keep cricketers active during the close season), with four poles at each end of the pitch. A goal is scored if the ball (oval rugby-like, but smaller) is kicked through the middle two posts, and a ‘behind’ us scored if the ball passes the between the middle posts and the outer. To get there the ball is punched and kicked between players to get into a position to score. Simples!

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The result was of little interest to me at least, but the local derby between Geelong and Hawthorn resulted in a win for ‘Ford Town’, Geelong, who eventually lost in the final the following weekend to a team from Fremantle called the Dockers. Tickets for that match were like hen’s teeth, so we settled for watching the first quarter in Fed Square in the middle of Melbourne on a cold, rainy day, and the rest at the flat, in the warm and dry. Best of both worlds really.

We spent the rest of that weekend ‘chilling and shoppin’ and on the Sunday did a Fringe comedy walk around North Melbourne, featuring a comedian and various foils placed around the route.

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Officially photographed by Teri.

On the Tuesday we borrowed the car again and went to somewhere I had been wanting to go for years: the RAAF Museum at Point Cook. The Australian Air Force started here in 1921 and it has been home to the museum since the 70’s. No quite on the scale of the equivalent at Henson, but impressive nonetheless. They even show off one of the exhibits every week by demonstrating it in a flight. This was the Wanjeel (Piston Provost copy) which flew the day we were there:

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The rest of the exhibits were well presented and for a aero-phile like me, were seventh heaven. Recent examples of RAAF combat aircraft were mixed with a comprehensive history in display cabinets and artifacts from various eras:

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A very good museum and well worth a visit.

The rest of the week left we went to a couple of shows in the Fringe, met up with friends Pete and Shirl whose son lives in Farnborough, and went out to the Yarra valley on a wine and beer tasting trail. The Yering Station (fine wine) and Punt Road (cider) were the pick of the bunch, but a few others, some parts of industrial estates, were all just as good.

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So we came to the sad ending of our six week sojourn down under. It had been a fantastic experience with no traumas, dramas or even a slight disturbance. It all went swimmingly well, and was enjoyed as much (we hope) by our hosts as much as we enjoyed it. Luckily our flight wasn’t until 10pm on the day of departure so we had all day to pack and more importantly weigh our bags, and with an allowance of 30kg we were well within that even with all the alcohol and other heavy souvenirs. The flight back was uneventful, if bumpy on the first 13 hour leg, but we arrived back on schedule at Thiefrow to be met with a lift. Thanks Keith!

All that remains now is thank everyone we met or came into contact, and everyone who helped us, especially Teresa and Kevin. We just have to save now for our next trip! G’day mate.

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