Remember, remember the 5th….

Posted on Oct 22, 2012 by cliverh

I was reminded today that I hadn’t written a blog for some time, in fact it’s been eight days so it spurred me on to more scribblings.

The reminder came from the writing group I have attended every Friday for the last year, where for 2 hours budding and more established writers read their work out loud to about 6-8 fellow authors and they offer a critique of said work. The group  stimulates thoughts and ideas for stories and poems. I suppose the ultimate aim is to get something published, and some of our number enter poetry or short story competitions and have varying degrees of success. Of course in the ‘old days’ one had to have a literary agent or a publisher to get work out to the public domain, but in the modern era, e-publishing is now the easiest route to well, maybe not fame and fortune, but some recognition. I’ve always had a bent for writing, and even today I read out my narration of a hike I did when I was 12 and in the scouts. Fifty years later it doesn’t sound too bad which could mean one of two things: I haven’t improved much, or I reached the limit of highest achievement when I was 12. You decide, anyway every week we have a ‘chair’ who basically runs the meeting and sets either a bit of non-compulsory homework and/or something to work on during the meeting. It is a disparate group, mainly women, with the three token males being very much in the minority. We have: a retired photographer, a retired teacher, a retired aerospace engineer, a budding journalist, a building restorer, and others whose occupation or former calling is unknown to me or I haven’t taken any notice when they said what it was. But it works and that is the main attraction. We’re all a jolly bunch and bounce ideas and inspiration off each other and clinically dissect each others efforts.  The trouble us despite all this stimulus and inspiration it doesn’t translate into going any further, like getting something published on Amazon or publishing an e-novel. Now I have no idea why this is, it may be lack of confidence or more likely sheer bloody laziness. Generally writing isn’t my first love, but music is and this has inspired me to put a tune and backing to words written by Dianne, one of the writing group. This could be actually where the future may lie, not you understand as some ancient Gary Barlow or Adele, but putting music to words. Having done some research I found that the classic pop song normally has the sequence: verse, chorus; verse, chorus; middle eight; verse, chorus; verse, chorus. At the end or in the middle you can also have an instrumental break, but without this, the classic average length of a pop song  of 3 minutes 25 seconds can be achieved. Watch this space, mine and Dianne’s effort may appear as an MP3 file for you to enjoy (or not!).

Well not much happening on the news front, fury over energy prices, a cabinet member resignation and a proposed devolution referendum for Scotland. As I said in my last blog, let Scotland at least decide what time zone they want to adopt and leave us to what we want to do, that is hopefully to tie in with Europe. One advantage of casting Scotland off to independence would be the billions of pounds we send north of the border to keep it solvent would be stopped, improving our balance of payments. Frankly I don’t know how Scotland could exist without that income, but obviously Alex Salmond had that all figured out. One of the stumbling blocks is what to do with the RAF, Royal Navy and Army stations in Scotland, will they all be closed down? If that is the case, who will provide protection from the North should we be invaded? At the moment the RAF’s Typhoon jets scramble from Leauchers to intercept Russian bombers flying in our air space testing our defence systems. Will Scotland’s politicians replace that protection with their own? Do they even know that goes on now? I doubt it for both, if that us the case, if anyone wanted to invade us from the North, there would be no opposition, which could be disastrous. Don’t say it couldn’t happen, it could.

And so to Bonfire night. It horrified me how many people get injured or even killed by fireworks every year.  OK, there was the incident a year ago when the M5 was covered in smoke causing multiple pile-ups and tragedy but those are extremely rare.  Please try to go to a public display, not have your own back garden one. I know you  are the safest person ever, but accidents can and do happen.  Good luck and  see you soon.

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The falling leaves

Posted on Oct 11, 2012 by cliverh

Well now autumn is well and truly  upon us.  There are two sides to autumn which particularly merit attention; the lovely golden, amber and yellow colours of the leaves on the trees as the chloroform retracts; and the pain of clearing up said leaves when they fall.  It also hastens the end of the year and the Christmas/New Year period, more of which later.  The air changes as well, with that certain dampness detectable in the morning and early evening. The worst part of this time of year is the nights ‘drawing in’. It always amazes me the capacity of the human race to cope with the reduction of light as winter approaches. Where a few months ago we were quite happy sit outside basking in the 8.30pm sun, now it’s dark by 6.30pm, earlier if its raining.  The upside though, for some, is the later morning light, I found the 5.00am sun up times makes you more awake than you want to be.  Still we’ve all lived this way since time immemorial (far northern areas excepted) so we should be used to it by now. It always amazes the differing levels of dress/undress people adopt during the winter months. I remember in the early part of 2012 a chap out shopping in T shirt, flip-flops, and shorts when everyone else was dressed to the nines for a cold day, which it was.  Tough type perhaps, didn’t feel the cold, or maybe he couldn’t afford any other clothes. One shouldn’t judge I suppose, except if you put yourself up for it. Like this blog for example, everyone who reads it must agree with everything I have said, because I rarely get any comments giving me their views.

The ‘Conference’ season, what a laugh: is there any point in the party faithful’s turning up at whatever major city venue and patting themselves on the back for their achievements or in most cases the lack of the same?  Sometimes a major politician comes out with a ‘policy’ statement. What’s that?  Something that will be implemented or they hope will be? It makes me laugh when the Labour party said at their conference: Our policy is so and so….it’s not, until they are in power, and even then there’s no assurance it will be. Who’d be a politician?  I don’t understand all this fawning of Boris Johnson either, he’s not even an MP yet, probably a small obstacle that will be easily overcome.   Sorry to bore the pants of our overseas readers, this UK politics won’t be of interest to them.

Aah Christmas, every year it comes around, every year they say it has become too commercialised, every year we all say it starts too early.  I saw Christmas cards and wrapping in the middle of September, but I bet people have seen Christmas stuff before then.  So what’s it all about?  In our family, Christmas presents since the children were small,  are low-priced little gifts, with the major purchases for birthdays. I don’t understand this predilection for spending 000’s on  Christmas, including expensive computers, cameras and phones. Why? The giving and receiving of gifts at Christmas was started by the three wise men,  does this mean that everybody who does this in modern times believes in the meaning of Christmas and that it actually happened?  No it’s just an excuse to spend loads of money on meaningless gifts that give neither pleasure or in the majority of cases, usefulness.  Due to the ‘downturn’, it may mean a huge cutback in Christmas this year, but I doubt that will affect the people who make the TV adverts. Do they actually make a measurable difference? Does anyone actually pay any attention to them?  This year more than ever the internet will pay a big part in the Christmas present market, I suggest that the yield from the internet will be far in excess of what is bought in the shops. It will even, perhaps, stop the Christmas Eve garage present syndrome for harassed husbands and partners; you know the one, where the husband has been too busy working/watching football/boozing to think about a partner’s present until  the eve of Christmas and hurries into a garage for a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates on the way home that night.  Now, if he can find time to tear himself away from the football on TV, he can order something on-line in time for the festivities.  Will it happen; doubt it?  Back to the Christmas spend though, it is nice to get the family together for a celebration at least once a year, in our house this happens several times a year, but even this year fewer people are coming to our house for Christmas.

So, now we have the period between the start of Autumn and the end of the year which always seems to go much quicker than other parts of the year.  What have we got to look forward to?  Halloween, another over-celebrated American import and pagan festival (we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving next) which is blown out of all proportion to what us reserved Brits used to do to celebrate it, and Bonfire night or Guy Fawkes night, which is lost in the mist’s of time by most people as to why it is celebrated ( a failed conspiracy in 1605 by a group of provincial English Catholics to assassinate the Protestant King James I and replace him with a Catholic head of state).  Such jolly fun.  Halloween is I suppose quite harmless but it does frighten small children, and seems to my mind utterly pointless, although the Church seems divided on whether it is a good or bad thing, being initially a Protestant celebration of All Hallows Day.  Most churches don’t seem to embrace Halloween.  However, Bonfire night is a different thing all together. This year as every, young people will put fireworks through letter boxes (though not bangers since they were banned), and think they are the only ones every to have thought of doing that. Then there the terrible injuries caused by fireworks each year, someone always does, some are killed and the lesson is never learnt, why don’t the authorities ban firework sales in normal shops and only allow organised, licensed ones to be put on? We will always celebrate Bonfire night, so why not make it safe for evermore?  Preach over, just gets me that the same things happen every year.  One more rant and that is the so-called ‘British Summer Time’, an anachronism if ever I heard one.  We put the clocks back in Autumn and forward in the Spring, but we are never at the same time (save for a couple of weeks) as Western Europe.  When people had to contact me at work from Germany, they had to wait until their 9.00am to catch me in at 8.00am.  Why is that? Can’t we all be on the same time as Europe,; does the argument by Scottish farmers that they would still be in the dark at 9.30am hold water?  If they  go independent, they can have Timbuctoo time if they want, it won’t affect the rest of the country.

Right I’ve had enough of this, this time.  As before I would appreciate constructive comments via the ‘leave a comment’ selection below.

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Winter drawers on.

Posted on Sep 30, 2012 by cliverh

I’m not one (normally) to blow a brass wind instrument as favoured by Kenny Ball, but the personal after effect of my Olympics experience is manifest in one particular aspect. All that walking up and down the 600 metre length of the Excel, climbing stairs and not sitting down a lot has resulted in a weight loss of one (1) stone, which is 14lb for our American friends or 7kg ish for our European ones.  Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not the only exercise I’ve had in the last year; I’m a member of a local health club where I go at least 2-3 times a week and on other days go out for 1½ hour bike ride so for my age I’m reasonably fit. But, and it’s a biggie, I haven’t lost so much as an ounce (gram) in over 5 previous years of trying. Quid pro quo as the best scholars would say: tit for tat. So by process of elimination you could say that walking (perlease NOT running) is the best way to exercise and lose weight? I’m no scientist but it seems logical to me, so now I walk to the local shop, about ¾ mile for light groceries, and find it therapeutic and calming. On the other hand, I can’t understand why people run marathons, man was not designed to run long distances, that is a phenomena from the introduction of the modern Olympics. No, I firmly believe that the human frame hasn’t changed over millennia, and we are built to run short distances to catch prey (or a woman). So I agree with the 100, 200, 400 metre sprint for example but cannot understand the need to run 5000, 10000 metres or even 26 miles 385 yards. Not to detract from Mo Farrah’s achievements but it’s just not for me.  I know so many distance runners who have had trouble with the hips, knees or feet and have had the concomitant surgery to correct the problem/enable them to walk again without pain that I’m doubly convinced that walking is the best way of moving your body around under its own steam.  Hey ho another rant over, but I welcome feedback on the subject.

The football season is deep in progress again, excuse me while I yawn.  The once beautiful game has been turned in to a hooligans paradise, what was the quote, oh yes, ‘football is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligans game played by gentlemen’.  I know they are trying to get their act together but when a famous footballer is cleared of an offence by the courts and is subsequently tried and found guilty by their ‘trade’ association, something is very wrong, and I venture to suggest that the FA are out of touch, old-fashioned and living in a fantasy world, and those are their good points.  The footballer in question was fined the equivalent of 1½ weeks wages which for a normal working man would be in the region of £350, but his fine was allegedly £200, 000+.  There something wrong where a working class ‘professional’ can earn the sort of money where a fine of this magnitude warrants the loss of just 1½ weeks wages.  The old saw about footballers having a short life of maybe 10 years and that they have to earn as much as they can while playing to keep the wolf from the door after their playing days are over doesn’t wash I’m afraid.  When a footballer can earn £3.5 million a year for kicking a ball around doesn’t someone in the game say, ‘hang on that’s an a awful lot of dosh for one person’? No? Well maybe there’s something rotten in the game then, because that must be unsustainable for all but the richest clubs, but then I don’t understand the finances of the football league. And it doesn’t translate into the national team, who are just rubbish and will never win anything.  Personally I think the lady footballers can teach the men players quite a bit. Watching the Olympic ladies football, I was struck by the fair play, non swearing and general niceness with which the ladies played their matches.  Watching the foul-mouthed, bullying, cheating male equivalent, you can see why wars are started by men and not women.

Just a nice picture of Warwick Castle (see my last blog)

So the autumn is upon us and winter draws (or drawers) on.  Wasn’t much of a summer, and now the latest rainfall has caused chaos both here and in Spain.  All the portents of a hard winter are there: berries fruiting earlier – check, leaves staying on the trees longer – check, the main unions trying to disrupt the country – check, yes it could be a long one.  The one thing  that doesn’t care about criticism and takes no notice of  ranting and raving about it though is the weather, so we have to live with it in whatever way we can.  I feel genuinely sorry for those in whatever  country who have their homes flooded out time and again, but surely there is a solution?  Whatever is spent on other services and despite the cutbacks by central and local government, priority should be given to old-fashioned ideas like clearing drains, dredging rivers and making sure run-offs are clear and able to cope with excess water.  Drive along most newish dual-carriageways and the drains are generally covered in rubbish  with trees and bushes growing out of them.  Rubbish thrown out by inconsiderate drives finds its way to the drains and the whole thing backs causing overspill onto the roads and into houses. Yes, we have a lot of rivers and drains in this country but they have also been neglected for years, probably because of light rainfall and mild winters over the years, but it’s no good being complacent, this sort of maintenance should have been kept up.  The picture on TV of the block of flats with the foundation piles exposed, in a very precarious situation shows how dangerous water can be, it should not be taken lightly.  We had water shortages and hosepipe bans earlier in the year, aren’t the water companies quiet at the moment? Don’t they want all this excess water?  Well I doubt it because most if not all of them are foreign-owned so why should they care what is happening in some far off land, as long as their profits stay high?  Well I’ve had enough of a rant for now, I shall keep my eye on what tickles my interest and report on it. As usual if you have any comments I would be delighted to hear them via the comment option below.

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Working title…..

Posted on Sep 23, 2012 by cliverh

Oops, think I let the mantle slip a bit, it’s been oh let’s see about 4 weeks since I wrote anything, but amazingly people from all the world are still reading this blog. Only yesterday there were two visits from Thailand, although I have a feeling that was someone I know!

Well a lot has happened since the ‘Drum and Bass weekend’.  For a start we’ve been away on holiday, and had a lovely weekend in Kent with relatives, it’s all go you know!  On the news front, it’s a been a bit quiet, but then that’s what happens when it’s the summer, the news seems to  centre around insignificant scandals and horror stories that ordinarily wouldn’t get a look in, except of  course the Duchess of Cambridge story, which I’m not going to comment on, except to say that the French just love to try to destroy the Royal Family in some way don’t they?  First Diana in that tunnel and now Kate in the mountains.  It’s as if they are jealous; if that’s the case maybe they shouldn’t have got rid of Marie Antoinette and the rest of the French Royal family.  Those republicans can say what they want about privilege and silver spoons but in my opinion you can’t beat a monarchy (if they are the right sort) to create stability in a country. I suppose the exception to this would be places like Albania who gave monarchy a bad name, treating the population like dirt and living high on the hog.  Eventually it all comes crashing down, and exile is the only way out.  But I digress, would you like to vote for President Blair, Prescott or God forbid President Clegg? No I didn’t think so, the Americans have got it sewn up in the democracy stakes and Presidents but even they dote on our Royal family and deep down probably would like to return to being ruled by us. Only joking chaps, we wouldn’t want to really.

No the Royal family is the best thing about this country despite the cost, which years ago no-one complained about, but then these days everything is money driven, in fact it’s taken over as the new religion, I mean who cares about God these days?  OK, deeply committed Christians yes, but the majority of us have some sort of ‘religion’ which we have to put down on some application forms, mine for example is ‘C of E’ which is meaningless, it just says I was baptised and read the bible a bit as a kid, it means nothing now, although I have to say I believe in Higher Being, but the picture of a bloke in a white gown with a white beard is not in my mind for that.  I recognise that people have got to have a belief system and go to pray every week to an imaginary higher being, who no-one has ever seen nor shown anything his word has actually achieved. It’s all in the mind really.  Did Jesus exist? Discuss.  Someone like him may have done all those things 000’s of years ago, but the stories got distorted as they were written down, change and enhanced, so his ‘miracles’ started out as ‘send reinforcement we’re going to advance’, and ended up as ‘send 3 and 4 pence were going to a dance’.  No religion jokes please.

The good feeling started by the  Olympics and the Paralympics didn’t last long did it, the unions soon spoilt the party with their proposed winter of strikes and demands.  But that doesn’t matter because the feel good factor lasted all of 10 minutes after the final athlete’s parade on Sept 10th, which I went to in my Games Maker uniform.  We stood around in Trafalgar Square for 4 hours and watched all the goings on of the parade of the stars going down the Strand and the Mall, then the Red Arrows flew over and it was all over, feeling a bit deflated actually because it was the last time I shall wear the uniform.  But the Games Maker spirit still lived on, people asked me directions, when the parade was coming through, is this right entrance for Charing Cross?  Nothing changes. It hasn’t necessarily made me want to do more volunteering, I did enough of that when I was a Parish Councillor, but I’m still considering my options for Rio 2016.  Before the parade we went to the Cotswolds, ostensibly to take the balloon flight our girls had bought us for our wedding anniversary, but that didn’t happen on two occasions due to the weather both times, oh well that will have to be next year now.  But we did see some lovely places and all in the best week of the late summer.  We went to Stratford-on-Avon, a place we’ve been to on many occasions but this time we just enjoyed the atmosphere of the place and went on a boat trip up the river. On the Wednesday we went to Warwick castle, a fabulous to visit, a couple of NT houses on the other days and Blenheim palace on the Friday. All in all a great week and all recommended.  The we had a weekend in Kent, I went to the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham and Fran went to Howlett’s Zoo near Canterbury.  We also saw a look-alike, sound-alike Pink Floyd band in Sandwich in of all places a disused church, which is still consecrated but has been a community venue since 1956!  Plus bought some fresh fish back from Whitstable dockside.  Great weekend, thanks Steve and Bev.

I was going to put some pictures in this blog, but in any case I’ve got some more blogs in progress, so will add some pictures to those.  I’m going to my writers group again this Friday so hopefully some of them will have read my blogs and comment on them, good or bad, we’ll see.

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Bank Holiday drum and bass

Posted on Aug 29, 2012 by cliverh

What a ride and experience that was!  My eldest was seeing her friend perform with the Carnival Collective, see:

http://youtu.be/t-sgAo45v-4

at Concorde2 in Brighton. They are a 30 – 50 piece band with about 30 percussionists, a la Brazilian carnival processions complete with a horn section (sax, trumpet, trombone and incredibly a euphonium!) and guitars and drums etc, along with up to four vocalists.  The sound was absolutely amazing and drove along at a hell of a pace, although I didn’t recognise any of the songs.  It was a mixture of drum ‘n bass, salsa, samba, latin rhythms and rock.  The music made you jig along with it (carefully in my case), and couldn’t but fail to move you.  The whole day was a free event at the Concorde, where I’ve paid to see the likes of Steve Winwood, and will be seeing The Beat (Tears of a Clown, Mirror in the Bathroom etc )there later this year (remember them?).

Brighton is a very lively place and seems to be a collective place for many different types of character, I suppose it’s a sort of mini-London with a beach and fresh air. Still it was interesting to people-watch. Just outside the Concorde there were stalls selling all different kinds of food, including goat curry which I’ve always fancied trying.  It was unfortunately a typical Bank Holiday weather day, bits of sunshine and later lots of rain.  The trouble is that is the last public holiday until Christmas, when all the others are crammed into a small time-frame between April and August.  The debate about public holidays has raged on for years and they never change, except of course the ‘May Day’ holiday the last new one. This is however a socialist sap to those who champion labour values and is to me a complete waste of time which nobody cares for at that time of the year, with the later old ‘Whitsun’ public holiday in the same month.  My view is scrap all public and bank holidays, they are a anachronism and belong to the past. In these days of flexible, part time working and 24 hour banking the ‘Bank Holiday’ seems superfluous.  Do the banks actually need a day off every so often to sort themselves out? I doubt it, and for everyone else who benefits from Bank Holidays, wouldn’t they prefer to take these days off when it suits them rather than the state. I would of course exclude Easter and Christmas Day from this because they are religious holidays, the rest are for the benefit of the banks, or not.  Perhaps employers should add the 4 or 5 bank holidays we get a year on to employees annual leave entitlement, so that businesses can stay open every working day, and employees have more freedom to chose their time off?  Off my soap box – for now.

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London Calling….

Posted on Aug 25, 2012 by cliverh

It was always going to be hectic, but two days worth of visiting the ‘smoke’ has left us a bit tired, but not too emotional. This was courtesy of the Games Maker e-mail that said I could get cheap tickets to certain musical shows in London, priced at £20.12. Too good to miss, I thought, so opted to see The Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward. On previous occasions it was always a bit of rush to get back to catch the last train home, so we decided to spend the night at my ‘club’, the Union Jack Club, adjacent to Waterloo station. This is a hotel and club for ex-service people and costs the princely sum of £18 a year to be a member, but they offer extremely comfortable rooms at a very good price, in central London. As an aside they also have a bar, restaurant and common rooms to relax in. I’ve been going there for a number of years and have always had a great experience, and because it’s near Waterloo station, it’s easy for us to get to. The water feature in the outside courtyard:

Anyway, we got there early on Thursday, and checked in the bags; they have a baggage storage facility so you can go off before your room is ready, and collect them later. Another lucky thing that happened to me was one of my Team Leaders at the Excel works at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden and said she could get me complimentary tickets to visit it. It has had a £20 million facelift, so would be very worthwhile. After dumping the bags we jumped on the tube to Covent Garden (CG). Whoever said London was empty wasn’t in CG that day, it was heaving and as usual most of the people there it seemed were foreign visitors. If you have never been to CG in the summer it is well worth a visit, there’s wonderful food, great (and free) entertainment, and plenty of shops and markets. We had a spot of lunch and went in to the LT Museum where Tara came out and met us and handed over the tickets, which saved us a few bob. The museum was really interesting, and shows the growth and progress of London as much as anything else, the fact that mass transit systems were started in the 19th century is testament to the forward thinking fathers of the city at the time. Strangely though, although a vast majority of the tubes lines were finished by 1906, no more additions were made until the 60’s when the Victoria line opened. It was also a history of other transport in London, including the omnibus, now just called the bus, the taxi and the tram. In the pre and immediate post war period, trolleybuses were very popular. These were popular conventional looking buses but driven by electricity picked up by overhead cables around the main streets of the centre. They were given up in the 1950s because all the old electrical systems needed replacing and it was thought that diesel powered buses would be better. How times change, trams have now been reintroduced, although not in central London yet, only as far as Croydon. Anyway history lesson over, the museum was a worthwhile visit and we are going back again.

Later that evening we found our way to the Prince Edward theatre to see The Jersey Boys, the musical about Frankie Valli and the Four seasons, and it was a fantastic show, with the highs and lows of his life, which in common with, I suspect, many young people from any ‘project’ estate who could turn to a life of crime, the armed forces or become a star. Frankie chose to sing, and the actor/singer who played his part was fantastic at displaying the raw talent that was there at the beginning and as the show went on his voice got better and better. The Prince Edward is decorated in art deco style and in common with many other West End Theatres has very steep seating which gives it a cosy, convivial feel which added to the experience. After we left, we made our way down past Trafalgar Square where the Paralympic clock display was counting down:

and down Northumberland Avenue to Hungerford Bridge and back to the UJ club. A comfortable and quiet night later and we had already decided to go to Greenwich to visit the newly refurbished and displayed Cutty Sark. We got there via the Jubilee and the DLR to exit a hundred yards from the ship, which rises in all it’s glory above the surrounding pavement famously used by the London Marathon and as a turning point. The Cutty Sark was well worth the £28 million spent on it. It’s story is of the greatest and last in the line of the ‘tea clippers’, the word clipper coming from the American expression to ‘go at a clip’, i.e. fast. The Cutty Sark was instrumental after she was launched in 1869 in bringing back tea from China in the fastest time possible because of the sudden drop in the taxes applied to it. The Victorians considered the freshest tea to be the best, and therefore deserving of a premium price, despite it having a three month shelf life. Cutty Sark though was practically out of date before she was 10 years old, because the newly introduced steam ships could cut it’s average journey time of 77 days in half. The Cutty Sark went on to tout for any cargo it could ply between any port and eventually couldn’t achieve even that. In the early part of the 20th century she became a training ship and eventually was put in a dry dock in 1956 in Greenwich where she stayed until starting to be refurbished in 2006. In 2007 she caught fire because of a overheating air conditioner, and was restored back to her former glory. Well worth a visit:

We went from Greenwich via the Emirates Air Line cable car to the Excel, where I spent nine shifts as a Games Maker during the Olympics. The ride across this way was better than my previous trip in the other direction because the views coming towards the Excel and City Airport were better:

From there it was a tube ride back to Greenwich and onto a river boat from there to Westminster, about 45 minutes, not bad value for £4! A brisk walk across Westminster bridge; whoever said London was empty couldn’t have been there on this day, the bridge was rammed full of people, including people gathering around some poor old women who had collapsed on the bridge and was being seen to by the Ambulance Service who were struggling to get through the crowd. Then later near the Eye, the big wheel on the Embankment, another poor old chap who collapsed, and it wasn’t even a hot day, I don’t know what was going wrong. Anyway back to the UJ, where because the rain had started to set in, we had dinner in their superb restaurant and caught the train home. A great two days, fun-filled and we packed in so much in 36 hours, a good way to do it. It’s taken me the Bank Holiday weekend to recover, but it was worth it.

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And on TV tonight…

Posted on Aug 22, 2012 by cliverh

My two favourite programmes on TV are ‘How’s It Made’ and ‘How Do They Do That?’, both on Discovery Science (other channels are available: why do announcers give that information?). This is of course at complete variance with most of the pap on TV. Take that harbinger of good taste and exquisite talent ‘The X Factor’. I was heartened to see that this mass adulation rubbish was umpty-dump million down on it’s previous viewing figures. Quelle Surprise! No wonder people are switching it off, I do, because it’s the usual lowest-common-denominator garbage that TV land think the majority of us want to watch. Yes, if you’re a teenager or have the attention span of a goldfish and stare at the screen breathing through the mouth. The X Factor shows what is wrong with the world of getting on in life, compared to say the Olympic champions who recently showed the country the good side of young people. X Factor contestants almost without exception go to an audition because ‘that is all they wanted to do’. Yeah right, what they mean is I’ll try to get a singing career the easy way and earns pots of dosh without lifting a finger. The most delusional part of the whole circus is the contestant’s parents/supporters who often believe unswervingly in their offsprings talent, or in most cases, lack of the same. If I went in for the X Factor I know I wouldn’t get far because I’m way too old, but I would say when asked; I’m in it for a laugh and couldn’t give a toss if I get no further. In the few bits of the programme I’ve seen, I’ve never seen anyone say that. Why not? Not everyone is ambitious or feels that singing is their ‘dream’.

Which brings me back to the two programmes mentioned at the beginning. I’ve no idea what the viewing figures are for Discovery Science but it would probably take a years worth to catch up with rubbish like oh, I don’t know, the X Factor maybe? These are specialist factual programmes which in the main show how every day objects are manufactured. I probably realise now (maybe 45 years too late) that I find production engineering fascinating, and would love to have been in that industry. No offers please, I enjoy watching production methods on TV but it’s a trifle late to change career this late in my work/life pattern. Oh well, guess I’ll just gave carry on watching TV programmes on production engineering instead. I suppose that the fundamental reason is that manufacturing is the bedrock of an industrial nation, and ours should be no exception. This is unfortunately not the case, and the reduction in manufacturing output can be blamed on successive governments who succeeded in getting rid of the oily-rag image of the Great Britain PLC. Take the car industry. Name a wholly owned UK mass market car manufacturer? There aren’t any. Now name some wholly German owned car companies: BMW, Mercedes, Porshe, VW, Audi. Name French ones: Renault, Peugeot, Citroën, Italian?: Fiat, Lancia, Lamborghini, Ferrari etc etc. Need I go on? How come all these countries have similar populations, yet ours has a car industry mostly owned by foreigners. This could all be traced back to Red Robbo bringing down British Leyland or the four men selling MG-Rover for a quid and making millions for themselves in the process. Now MGs, once a proud marque are being produced in China and sent over here for assembly, exactly the reverse of what used to happen. These actions weren’t helped by people like Margaret Thatcher, who hated engineering, and Tony Bliar who preferred the City to making stuff.  The only exceptions to this rule are companies in the aerospace industry like Rolls Royce, and my old firm BAE Systems, both of whom are successful, solvent and export widely. So do we accept that we are now a service industry, only good for making money out of money, sod the manufacturing industry? Not quite. My belief is that the country that makes and exports manufactured products that people need will always be the most prosperous. That’s what we need to do, don’t ask me how though I’m no expert. Ce la vie.

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Aftermath (1966)

Posted on Aug 20, 2012 by cliverh

The weather made the day, and of course the people who came.  It was an unbelievable 33 deg C on Saturday, with loads of sun and no cloud – perfect day.  The prep was hectic over a two day period with shopping galore (and money spent) which is undoubtedly the worse part of the whole process.  Shopping is a bit of a nightmare really, I don’t know who runs the big stores like T*sc* or S**nsbu*ry’s , but I bet they don’t go shopping in their own stores.  Why for example is the soft fruit and veg nearly always at the entrance to the shop?  You get all the bananas, plums and and tomatoes and then either have to make a space in the bottom of the basket for the heavy, hard stuff or just plonk it on top of the fragile stuff.  If you go off  first and do the heavy stuff, it’s then a fight against the invisible one-way system around the aisles to get back to fruit and veg.  ‘They’ (the store publicity gonks) say that people want to see the bright colours and display of the veg near the front because it puts customers in a ‘happy mood’ for the rest of the shop.  Who do they think we are, do-lally dribblers who like to see flashing, blinking lights and pretty things? No, we want to get the hell in, do the shop and get the hell out, well I do anyway, and I’m not influenced by any of their ‘shopping experience’ tricks, like advertising. I mean, really, who is influenced by adverts on TV, the main source of them?   If I’m watching a programme with adverts on one of the commercial channels, and the adverts come on I immediately switch to a BBC channel, because if you notice, if you watch anything on a Sky channel, the advert slots are co-ordinated so that it doesn’t matter how many channels you flick through, the adverts are on.  Again, is this a stupid face, do the controllers of these things realise that we see through this subterfuge?  Well, anyway back to the shopping, it’s a necessary evil to be able to eat (unless you get it delivered, no thanks) and the big supermarkets know this, they virtually have a monopoly on food shopping except of course if you don’t live near one of them, then the probably overpriced local shop is there instead.  I say overpriced because the ones I use as infrequently as possible, always charge a good premium more than your local supermarket.  Just like motorway service stations. Can someone please tell me why a packet of Trebor Extra Strong mints costs say 42 pence in any local shop, but up to 75 pence at a motorway stop?  The whole motorway network is connected so surely it doesn’t cost that much extra to transport said single confection to the motorway shop?

Back to the party we had about 40 turn up, and they caught the lay-out of the back garden:

Yes, it’s running lanes, and there will be races, but nothing too Usain Bolt-like, only silly ones like egg-and-spoon and backwards running.  We also had a weightlifting competition based on style not how much could be lifted:

I think you may have spotted that those ‘weights’ don’t weigh 50kg.  Anyway there were some great styles for the weightlifting and everyone got into the spirit of the game:

 

The winners were presented with the obligatory bronze, silver and gold, with the gold medal being made of chocolate.  I’ve got some left over if anyone wants to do a similar theme.  The medalists were led onto the presentation area by a real-life Olympic medal presentation team member, Teresa, and were given the medals to the tune of ‘Chariots of Fire’ downloaded from the TV:

This part of the whole proceeding was met with enthusiasm by everyone there, and I must say it was a genius suggestion to have it (complete with podium) , but modesty forbids me from saying who it was.  Anyway several races and events later it was the time for the barbeque, with Weber (kettle BBQ) roasted leg of lamb, chicken drums and legs, sausages and assorted accompaniments.  A chorus of Happy Birthday, the blowing out of cake candles, the usual embarrassment for the birthday girl, then plentiful grub later, and went it started to get dark, two dancers (Kevin and Teresa) came on to show us what they did in the Olympic Opening Ceremony:

Excuse the standard of these dark photos, new camera!  Then the guests started to leave, and make their home, which left the hardy few who don’t like to leave a party early.  Three of us then got the guitars out and strummed a few tunes, which I think was an excellent way to wind down the evening, and get everyone in a mellow mood.

This is of course the abridged version, I’m protecting the innocent who may not want all their exploits published for public posterity.  Needless to say, there were some terrific costumes, from the sublime (thanks Nick for the fencer  but no prizes this time!) to just a ‘Team GB’ tea shirt which was fine, everyone made the effort, but of course mine was easy, I just wore my Games Maker uniform (for the last time ever):

No brainer, as they say. The next day was a complete wind down with the family who stayed with us and it ended up as almost one day-long eating session, it really was too hot to do anything else:

So, a fantastic weekend, everything went well, no complaints and a celebration in every way. It’s a pity these things have to end, but you can’t live life as if it’s one long party, but of course some people do, no names, no pack drill.  Actually life can and does get more enjoyable as you get older, and slower.  The years between 23 – 30 went very slowly for me, some of the time we were abroad and having a great time, and then the family comes along and things change.  I actually enjoy my life at the moment, I’m lucky being retired, my outgoings aren’t huge and enough to live on.  It would be nice to win the lottery and have a million or so to spread around but I really don’t desperately need anything at the moment. Interspersed with excitements like the party and  going away on holiday life in between is never dull, not if you work at it.

Returning to the Olympic theme which is hopefully still in the mind,  there has been a lot of talk on TV recently about the image of football and the overpaid, over preened ‘stars’ who are paid extraordinary amounts of money to kick a ball into an opponents’ net, compared to the wholesome image of the Olympic medal winners who are presented as true sportsman and dedicated to presenting a clean-cut image.  I hate football with a passion, mainly because  of its deceit and low class image, but I have to agree with the football pundits who say that the two images are not compatible.  The Olympics happen every four years, and the football season happens every year for a nine month long season. There is no comparison of the wages each group earn, so although the footballers are paid disproportionately high, the athletes are often starved of funds to be able to support their Olympic dream.  The two sports areas are completely different and the image of footballers should not be, and indeed they are not even fit to be compared to Olympic athletes.

Rant over, see you soon.

Posted in My World and As I See It, Olympics | 2 Comments

Thursday’s child is full of….

Posted on Aug 17, 2012 by cliverh

Sorry blogosphere enthusiasts, short on time time because….two one day to go until the party! Don’t know who’s turning up yet, so it will be a surprise for all of us.  Last week I took delivery of a new marquee, one of the 9×3 meter jobs, dead cheap.  Put it together this afternoon, very simple and easy to assemble but it took a long time, mainly  because of the creaking bones and tired limbs. Oops! Going back into that age thing again.  No don’t feel too bad really, just got loads more to do.  Olympic theme with games of course including, egg-and -spoon, three-legged, sack races, Jenga, golf putting, hula-hoop, badminton, skittles and loads of other typically English back garden sports. I’ve got toy medals, chocolate medals, made a podium with an O*ym*ic symbol on it.  Loads of food and booze – should be a blast!

Catch my after party blog and I’ll let you know what went on. I beginning to regret my promise of ‘a blog a day’, it can’t be done I now realise.  Still here are some picture from Fran’s new camera to compensate:

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Life gets tedious…don’t it?

Posted on Aug 15, 2012 by cliverh

Age is a peculiar thing, there is always an issue with  your age, whatever it is, in your 20s you’re too young to get married (we were 20 and 19), in your 30s men start losing their hair, in your 40s, you start to tire a little more easily and so on. These are only but a few examples I’m sure you could add your own. I was 60 last year and besides the chronic illnesses (those which I’ve had a long time, are not life threatening and controllable) I feel quite fit. I ride my bike every day if I can, go swimming and eat healthily, not because it’s trendy but because I just do.  These things in themselves don’t guarantee a longer, fitter life but they make me feel better for the now. In today’s world 60 is now considered pretty young compared to years ago, when you literally had one foot in the grave at that age.  Is there a consequence of getting older on the rest of the community though?  Well, yes there is the workforce is reducing, so the taxable income is falling, the hospitals aren’t coping, there are more elderly people than ever: over 9000 of us are over 100 and this figure is rising. It must a headache for this and future governments, the gene pool is getting older, and youngsters aren’t plugging the economic gap.

The Olympics is now but a dream from long ago, actually a few days and I’m not involved in the Paralmpics so have about 48 hours to organise the good lady wife’s birthday party on Saturday. She’s 60 and we’ve invited loads of friends and rellies (relatives to you Smithers) to help with an Olympic themed party. I hope many people turn up suitably attired, I shall of course be wearing my Games Makers uniform to greet everyone just as I was doing at the Excel. Then when the novelty wears off, I shall revert to ‘normal’ clothes.  It’s a family tradition to have a barbeque every summer either to celebrate one of the daughter’s birthdays or just because.  They were traditionally on the Bank Holiday weekend but obviously this year is different.  I’ll let you know how it went.  We celebrated Fran’s birthday today and she opened her  presents: a camera, a beauty saloon voucher, a ‘Keep Calm You’re Only 60’ mug and others. Loads of flowers and cards from relatives and friends.  She doesn’t look forward or particularly like birthdays with a zero on the end, but I embrace them, it’s a another rung on the ladder of life.

My daughter has encouraged me to keep on with this blog, and I quite like the idea of writing my thoughts down and sharing them with the world. Of course as soon people find it boring or dull, I shall stop, so let me know via the ‘Comment’ selection below.  Having been retired just two years now, I still find I can keep busy, albeit at a slower pace. Whereas when I was working, everything had to be more or less finished over a weekend, now it doesn’t matter I can take my time and spread it over a week.  After all, I now have six Saturdays and a Sunday to do everything!  The nice thing is being to pick and choose jobs to do for other people. I am the ‘handyman’ at the local community centre and do minor electrical, plumbing and woodwork jobs for them. It’s a hard life, about 4 hours a month on average.  But since my time is my own I can choose when to do it or not at all.  As I said I like going out on my bike a lot, it’s a great way to get exercise and get CVE (cardio-vascular exercise), but the only down side is the lack of cycle paths. There is one right outside my house shared with a footpath, but then it stops at the top of the road, and I join other road users on the carriageway. I find a big disparity in the way people overtake cyclists.  Some, with plenty of room to spare, wait until the road is completely clear and then drive past on the other side of the road, a good 2 car widths away.  I don’t know whether they think the average cyclist is going to wobble across one complete side of the carriageway. I know the Highway Code (have you read it lately?) says ‘leave plenty of room for cyclists’, but some people take that to the extreme, obstructing road users coming in the opposite direction, a bit over the top methinks.  Other overtakers wizz past at or near to (or over?) the speed limit and give you a couple of feet to spare.  This is all any cyclist needs really, the worst type are those who just hang back matching your 12 mph and don’t even bother to overtake until a junction or other road change comes up when you can move over a bit.  They are usually elderly and drive slowly anyway.  Well that ‘s one hobby-horse of mine, what’s yours?

I aim to write about a 1000 words a day, a tall order but it gets me in the habit, and although it might seem I lead a full and interesting life, it still has its boring bits, and I find I can lose myself in my music at those times.  I have played guitar for 50+ years and know three chords (it never did Status Quo any harm), so getting the ax (musicians expression) out is always a good time waster; likewise I play a bit of keyboard and smashing the old ivories (or plastic actually) is always good therapy. Right that’s enough for today, let me know what you think, seriously; I want to improve and entertain.  See you soon.

Posted in My World and As I See It, Olympics | 3 Comments