Hard cheese!

It seems we are veering away from Cheddar towards Brie, Camembert, Feta and the like.  At the same time apparently the continentals are getting a taste for Cheddar - life's funny isn't it?  Mind you I don't think Cheddar is what it used to be - it may be my aged taste buds are not what they were, but it doesn't seem to have the "bite" it used to have.  Maybe it's just the desire to try something more exotic that draws us towards foreign cheeses - I have to say I have a soft spot for Dolcelatte.

Yes it is - no it isn't.

Adele, who - the grandkids tell me - is a pop singer of some repute, apparently made herself up to look different and then entered an "Adele impersonator" contest.  At least she won - unlike Charlie Chaplin, who (it is said) once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest - and came third!

Black Friday

Yesterday of course, but what's it all about?  Well it's an American "invention" - Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, and - rather like our Boxing Day sales, the day after is seen as a day for going shopping, and most people take it as a holiday.  But why "black"?  After all, a black day usually means a very bad day. Well apparently that's how it started out - it was the police who originally named it Black Friday because of all the problems they had with heavy traffic and crowds of shoppers and people fighting over bargains and such, but the shops adopted the name on the basis that in their books, black figures indicate profit.  I think as far as this country is concerned it's a transitory thing - last year was a bit manic, but this year shops seem to have stretched the whole thing out over a week or so and yesterday generally didn't seem to be that different from any other Friday.

Ha ha - sort of.

I read an article the other day about tips on losing weight and it suggested that, rather than changing your eating habits, you should simply use smaller plates.  So I tried that - but everything just kept falling off the edge.

Gizz a kiss!

Piece on the news the other day about the annual mistletoe auction in Tenbury, Worcestershire, and they interviewed one woman who said she had come all the way from Aberystwyth, because "we don't have mistletoe in Wales", and I wondered why not?  Well, it seems that it's not so much that they don't have mistletoe in Wales, but rather that it's rare.  Indeed it's rare in most of Great Britain apart from an area in the south-west Midlands - notably Herefordshire,Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.  Just why it is so prolific in that area is a matter of debate - the usual explanation is that this is where all the apple orchards are, and mistletoe grows well on apple trees. But there are apple orchards in other parts of the country, so there must be more to it than that.  It seems it may be a combination of apple trees and beneficial climate. Anyway, it seems this is a good year for the plant with lots of berries.

Plus ça change...

It seems you can't trust anybody - and never could. A four-year University study has concluded that the stories surrounding Glastonbury Abbey - of King Arthur and the Round Table and even of Jesus being brought there by his great-uncle, Joseph of Arimathea - are not only myths, but a matter of deliberate deceit by 12th century monks who needed money to restore the abbey after a devastating fire and who simply made them up to attract pilgrims there.  It may well be that we shall have to re-write "Jerusalem"!

Our Father...

Have you seen this short film of people reciting the Lord's Prayer which has caused a fuss because the Digital Cinema Media Agency, which controls cinema advertising has refused permission to show it - the Church of England wanted it to accompany showings of the new Star Wars film - to get maximum publicity for their website justpray.uk.  DCM said its policy is not to accept political or religious advertising, which seems clear enough.  Why the CofE should think they ought to be a special case is beyond me, and in any case the film is readily available on the internet, and DCM's refusal to allow it has probably garnered them as much, if not more publicity than they would have got from showing it.  I can see where DCM are coming from - if they were to allow this, then they would be obliged to allow other religious adverts, or risk being sued for discrimination - and there are some potentially unpalatable faiths, cults and sects out there.

R.I.P

Peter Dimmock - ever associated in my mind with the birth of Grandstand.  Also the man mainly responsible for the (unprecedented at the time) television coverage of the Queen's coronation.  The label "pioneer" is somewhat overused, but in his case is well deserved. 

Where's that then?

Much is being made of the fact that, just hours before the terrorist attacks in Paris, 44 people were killed by suicide bombers in Beirut, but whereas the Paris attacks have resulted in hours of TV coverage, and pages of newspaper reporting and public buildings being decorated in blue, white and red, the Beirut atrocity got no more than a cursory mention.  As some people saw it, this was evidence that Lebanese lives are "worth" less than French ones.  So, does it?  I would say it's not so much a matter of worth, but more a matter of newsworthiness.  Rightly or wrongly, we pay more attention to, and relate more to events close to us, than those further away. Paris is just over the channel - Lebanon is way over there somewhere in the mysterious Middle East.  And then, I've never been to Beirut, but I have been to Paris.  The fact is that if something happens here in my immediate vicinity, it will mean more to me than if the same thing happens in Penzance, say. Just human nature.

Part 4

I told you there would be a Part 4 (see post on 5th of this month)!  So - latest thoughts.  It seems clear that ISIS are specifically targeting those countries that are targeting them.  So if we bomb Syria, we are making it more likely that they will attack us.  Not that it isn't likely that they will anyway, but this would make it a near certainty.  So, it's a balance of pro's and con's - will our contribution to the bombing of Syria make any significant difference to the outcome?  I don't know the answer, but it seems to me that Russia, and now France, are doing the job pretty well and I get the impression that Cameron's main motivation in wanting to join in is just that - a desire to be part of the gang, to be seen as "doing our bit", even if our bit will make precious little difference. But if that will increase the likelihood of us suffering some major terrorist atrocity in this country, then I think it has to be asked whether the game is worth the candle.

Hoist with his own petard.

One of those phrases which most people are familiar with, but are unsure as to what exactly it means. It comes from Shakespeare (who else?) and means to be blown up by your own bomb, or metaphorically, to be caught out by a situation you had created yourself - the sort of thing which always makes you smile and think "serves them right".  Here's a great one - the deputy leader of South Lanarkshire Council was instrumental in closing all the public toilets in the council's area earlier this year as a cost-saving measure.  You can see where this is going, can't you?  He found himself "caught short" while waiting for a taxi, and went up an alley to relieve himself, was seen by the police and given an on-the-spot fine.  Nice one!

If at first...

Back in 2012, both Birmingham and Coventry held referendums (or referenda if you insist) on the question of whether they should have a Mayor.  Both said no.  Since then both cities have been bundled up with the surrounding town and city councils to form the West Midlands Combined Authority, and guess what?  We are to have elections in 2017 for a Mayor of the Authority!  No referendum this time - we're to have a Mayor whether we like the idea or not.  The government wanted Mayors for Birmingham and Coventry back in 2012 and the feeling is that as they didn't get the answer they wanted back then, they're going to ignore the democratic process and simply not ask the question this time.

Open borders shut?

Are we seeing the end of Schengen?  We (perhaps wisely in retrospect) were never in it, but the idea was that EU citizens could move freely between EU countries without border checks or the need to show passports.  But it was never intended to give free right of passage to those non-EU citizens who had somehow managed to get into the EU, and yet that's what's happened.  Of course, if you don't have to produce a passport or some other form of ID how do you know who's an EU citizen and who isn't?  And therein lies the inherent weakness in the system which is now being highlighted by the current immigrant crisis. Walls and barbed-wire fences going up all over the place - but will they ever come back down?

How much??

It seems that some GPs have a very lucrative side-line in the charges they demand for things like countersigning a passport photograph or providing medical evidence for something like a power of attorney form.  I had some experience of this when I needed a doctor's letter to support an insurance claim when my wife was ill (terminally as it turned out) and we had to cancel our holiday.  This was a good few years back of course, but I remember I had to pay £5.  There is no rhyme or reason here - some doctors will do this sort of thing for free, but otherwise they can charge what they like, and a recent case has hit the headlines where a mother had to pay £350 for a letter from her doctor to say that her special needs child was well enough to take part in the school's Christmas play.  There are calls for these charges to be regulated, but as this is non-NHS work, the question is, who is in a position to regulate?  The doctor has the whip hand - if you don't agree to pay, you don't get what it is you need - possibly desperately.  I seem to remember that I wasn't so bothered about having to pay as I was about the fact that it took the doctor something like three weeks to get round to doing it!

The wonder of words.

You know me - I'm a sucker for words and their meanings.  "Ruthless" is a word that (sadly) has been much in the news lately, and I wondered if it was one of those "unpaired words" we discussed on 11th March last year.  But no - there is such a word as "ruth" - archaic now, but it means compassion or pity.  But the etymological journey doesn't stop there, because ruth is the noun which comes from the verb "to rue", meaning to regret or feel remorse.  And that word is still current, although now used almost exclusively in the expression "to rue the day..." 

We are all Parisians now...

What is there to say?  Solidarity with the French and particularly with those affected by the horrible events of Friday night.  Not that that will make any difference or is of any help to anyone - it's just something I felt the need to say.

Just stating the obvious?

MP has got into hot water for suggesting that those complaining about how much they are going to lose under the Chancellor's proposed tax credit cuts should look to see if they can't make savings elsewhere in their household budgets - pay-TV has been mentioned.  Just common sense though really, isn't it?  When we were first married we didn't have a television - not that we wouldn't have liked one, but we agreed that for the time being it was a luxury we couldn't afford.  I think I've mentioned previously that at much the same time I gave up smoking for the same reason.  It's tough when you have to give up something you're used to having but, to use an old-fashioned expression, you have to cut your coat according to your cloth.

Which side do you favour?

As a sort of addendum to yesterday's post, for most of history left-handed people have been considered untrustworthy, or even downright evil.  Indeed our word "sinister" comes straight from the Latin, meaning "left" (anybody remember "Carry On Cleo", where the marching Romans went sinister - dexter - sinister - dexter?).  In much of the Middle East the left hand is considered unclean - we won't go into why, but it is.  And then, if you are favoured in Heaven, you will sit at the right-hand of God. If (like me) you can't dance, you are said to have two left feet.  Surprising, in this day and age that there isn't a law prohibiting discrimination against left-handers - although it's probably just a matter of time.

Do you know different?

Funny how sometimes, it turns out that things you thought that "everybody knew" everybody doesn't know. The other day, at a family meal, one of the grandkids asked why men wear their poppy on the left, whereas some women wear it on the right. And I was surprised that this produced silence at the table and it was left to me to come up with the (probable) answer - one that I thought "everybody knew". So, traditionally garments with buttons were made with the button on the right and the button-hole on the left - this being most convenient for right-handed people, which the majority of us are.  But then in the earlier part of the 19th century, posh "ladies" started to employ a maid to dress them, and these maids found it difficult to deal face to face with garments buttoning up right to left, so upper-class dress shops started to design women's blouses and coats which buttoned up the other way.  And of course in the way of these things, this quickly became the fashion, and everybody copied it.  The button-hole in the lapel also changed sides, and as this is where you wear your poppy or other memento, it was on the left for men, and on the right for women. That's how it was explained to me, anyway. These days it seems that many women choose which side to wear their poppy - some preferring the left.

We will remember them

You sought for glory?
- There is none in war.

Dennis B Wilson

Computer says no...

There are times when I despair, I really do.  Here's the story - a 91-year-old widow was brought to this country from South Africa to be with her family who are here. She was granted a six-month visa. Since coming here her health has deteriorated and her family, on her behalf, have applied for permission to stay here.  BUT - the rules say that such an application - to extend a visa -  cannot be made from here, but must be made from the country you are seeking to enter this country from.  In this case, South Africa.  So this frail elderly sick lady faces having to travel back to South Africa in order to be able to apply to come back here and spend her final years with her family.  Like I say - I despair. 

Ha ha

A man never really appreciates what happiness is until he's married
 - and by then it's too late!

There's an idea!

Is what's happening in Sharm-el-Sheikh at the moment perhaps the future of international air travel? Will there come a time when passengers fly in one plane with minimal, stringently-checked hand-luggage, and their baggage goes in a separate cargo-only plane?  Thinking about it, not only would this minimise the threat from terrorist bombs (there's little kudos as a terrorist in downing a plane unless you cause significant loss of life) but if the timing is right, it could also provide an answer to one of the most frustrating aspects of air travel - the seemingly interminable wait by the carousel for your bags to appear.  Send the cargo plane ahead and your bags could be there waiting for you.  How about it, folks?

Whoosh!!

Several alarm stories in the press recently about asteroids passing dangerously close to Earth - only to be followed closely by official pronouncements saying that there's no danger, and plenty of room for the asteroid to pass us safely.  Lots of big numbers being bandied about which makes it difficult to get a handle on just how big these space distances are.  So how about this - we think of the moon as being pretty close to us, and yet there is actually room to fit all the planets (even including Pluto) between the earth and the moon with about 2,000 km to spare!  So it's pretty big out there.

Put it on the shopping list.

Aldi are selling gin & tonic flavoured crisps - yeah!

Part 3...

Should we bomb Syria - first I said no (1/9/13) then I said yes (9/9/15) and now today...?  It seems unlikely that the matter will be put before the House of Commons in the immediate future, because the government don't want to consider doing that until they are convinced they can win the vote, and currently they are not convinced they can.  But since my last post, there is another aspect to be considered - is there any point any more?  Now that Russia have gone in with their studs showing, can we make any meaningful contribution, or should we just stand back and see what happens?  If Russia can defeat ISIS (big if, I think) should we simply let them get on with it?  I'm beginning to think that is the most advantageous strategy for us at this point in time.  Of course, things could (probably will) change, so there may well be a part 4.

Did you know...

...that heroin started out life as a cough medicine?

So...?

I had an aunt - well she wasn't really an aunt, just a close elderly female friend, but we called her "Auntie", and I remember her being devastated when she learned that Rock Hudson was gay, and I couldn't understand it.  "He's still Rock Hudson" I remember saying, "same bloke he was yesterday". But clearly to her the news changed things fundamentally.  Why should a person's sexual orientation make such a difference in the way some people see them?  There have been several stories recently about how difficult it was for some men (strangely it doesn't seem to be such a problem for women) to "come out" as gay.  I don't get it - maybe because I don't see it as any of my business.  Indeed I don't see why people feel the need to "come out of the closet".  Why bother? It's nobody's business but theirs.  Am I missing something?

Only in this country...

Did you know there was a World Crazy Golf Championship?  It's in its 13th year now and was held in Hastings last month.  There were competitors from four countries, but the winner was a Brit - hooray!

Think about it...

It's poppy time again, and once again we have the irony of this basically peaceful symbol of remembrance creating much argument, and indeed vitriol, on social media between those who object to it being worn on the one hand, and those who consider that everybody should wear one on the other.  What seems to get lost in all the shouting is that those who the poppy represents gave their lives so that we should have the freedom to choose whether to wear one or not.  I choose to, but I will not foist my views on you - the choice is yours.