31st October 2018 - Halloween (Again)

Thought for the day:"I found a present for my mother-in law in the loft. I`ll take it up there later"

I enjoyed this one...

Traveling I think ..

30th October 2018 - Off to Crete

Thought for the day:"Will glass coffins prove popular? Remains to be seen!"

(yes an oldie - but appropriate for the time of year !)

For posterity - and for the Welsh..

Time to change the profiles and it seems to be the Halloween theme everywhere so may as well join the band wagon ...

on for the Moon

and one for me...

and of course the Profile needs to be a Green One ...

well that is about it ...
Best get on the road ...

29th October 2018 - Being Correct ...

Thought for the day:"I drink Alcohol I am Alcoholic.. If I drink Fanta am I fantastic?"

Snowed yesterday apparently - not here though...

It had been snowing all night. So at ....

8:00 I made a snowman.

8:10 A feminist passed by and asked me why I didn't make a snow woman.

8:15 So, I made a snow woman

8:17 My feminist neighbor complained about the snow woman's voluptuous chest saying it objectified snow women everywhere

8:20 The gay couple living nearby threw a hissy fit and moaned it could have been two snowmen instead

8:22 The transgender person asked why I didn't just make one snow person with detachable parts

8:25 The vegans at the end of the lane complained about the carrot nose, as veggies are food and not to decorate snow figures with.

8:28 I am being called a racist because the snow couple is white..

8:31 The Muslim gent across the road demands the snow woman wear a burqa

8:40 The Police arrive saying someone has been offended

8:42 The feminist neighbour complained again that the broomstick of the snow woman needs to be removed because it depicted women in a domestic role

8:43 The Government equalities officer arrived and threatened me with eviction

8:45 TV news crew from the BBC shows up. I am asked if I know the difference between snowmen and snow-women? I reply, "Snowballs" and am called a sexist.

9:00 I'm on the News as a suspected terrorist, racist, homophobic sensibility offender bent on stirring up trouble during difficult weather.

9:10 I am asked if I have any accomplices... My children are taken by social services

9:29 Far left protesters offended by everything are marching down the street demanding for me to be beheaded

Moral: There is no moral to this story. It's just the world in which we live today and it's going to get worse.

So, if we are to remain politically correct....

We need to consider this ..

And how we got here.. (Source Wikipedia) 

In March 2007, Greater Manchester Police seized two golliwogs from a shop after a complaint that the dolls were offensive.

In September 2008, Amanda Schofield from Stockport claimed she was arrested for keeping a "golly doll" in her window. Greater Manchester Police denied this and said she was arrested after a series of complaints of alleged racially aggravated behaviour were made against her.

In February 2009, Carol Thatcher, daughter of Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, in an off-air conversation at the BBC, referred to the black French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, competing in the Australian Open, as looking like a golliwog. The comment was considered by the BBC as "wholly unacceptable" and Thatcher was informed that unless she apologised she would no longer be a reporter on BBC's The One Show. Thatcher stated that it was a silly joke and declined to make an "unconditional apology". Thatcher claimed that her comment was a reference to the golliwog motifs that she saw in her childhood on jars of jam (made by Robertson's). 

In April 2009 she appeared on the BBC in an interview on The Andrew Marr Show for the first time since the scandal, defending her use of the word. The French publication Sportsweek claimed that Thatcher, in talking about a previous competition, referred to another player as "the one who was defeated by the golliwog in the previous tour." The French publication, which showed a picture of Tsonga above a picture of a toy golliwog, claimed that Thatcher was "mortified" and that her comment was about the similarity of Tsonga's appearance to the doll that she had as a child.

In March 2011, two prospective Conservative local councillors resigned from the party after their membership was suspended following complaints from fellow party members that they had used images of golliwogs as part of a protest against political correctness. Bill and Star Etheridge, a married couple from the West Midlands who were due to stand in council elections for the Dudley borough, criticised the Conservative Party for going back on a pre-election pledge to curb political correctness, and felt that the action taken against them was "stifling" the right to free speech. 

They then defected to the UK Independence Party. Bill Etheridge was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 as a UKIP candidate.

In December 2013, a councillor in Brighton, was forced to apologise for stating to a newspaper reporter that golliwogs were not racist. Cllr Dawn Barnett was defending a local shop which was selling golliwog drinks mats. In her opinion, "I said I can see no harm in them. They are nostalgic, I'm 72 years old. My generation grew up with them." Bert Williams, speaking on behalf of Brighton and Hove Black History Group, said the word "golliwog" was historically used to tease black people, of which he had personal experience.

In April 2018, a man was fined £250 plus £85 costs for displaying a golliwog in a window opposite two Indian restaurants. He pleaded guilty to "displaying it with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress and that the offence was racially aggravated."

In July 2018, a YouGov poll was set up that asked 1,660 Britons whether it was "racist to sell or display a golliwog doll", to which a 67% responded "No", 20% "Yes", and 17% "I'm Not Sure".

I remember the Roberstons's Golliwog ....   a shame....

But we live in the times that we do ....

And for your Daily Trump - apparently he does not know how to close an umbrella - are these small hands safe to hold the nuclear triggers ???   Just Saying???

Life is scary ... and so we come up to Halloween..

Cheers!

28th October 2018 - Sunny on Sunday

Thought for the day:"One in four people are in denial – Not me though!"

Another photograph from Saturday morning - With Master of Court of St Elli No 12 - Alan Davies...

Sunny day today - but the temperature is dropping fast with news of snow in various parts of the country.  Certainly weather is freaking these days ..   Still only a couple of days to wait before heading for Crete and it is still quite warm out there.

In other news - my pet hate is the misuse of the phones by everyone these days - but then a story like this takes my attention :

Cheers!

27th October 2018 - Grand Court - Leicester

Thought for the day:"Fella told he will hit me with the neck of his guitar – I said “is that a Fret?”

Grand Court of the Masonic Order of Athelstan and the consecrating of the Grand Court of India, and three new members of the Province of Magonsætan at Grand Court - in my case Past Senior Grand Deacon - photos to follow...

Together with David Hooper - Also recipient today

Cheers!

26th October 2018 - Sunsets and Grand Court

Thought for the day:"My friend with OCD wants to be buried in a Symmetry"

Off to Leicester - Grand Court of Athelstan -  so not much to post today ...

Some lovely photos of the night sky in Llanelli appearing the last few days. What it says for  global warming and the change of climate I do not know - but in the meantime we can enjoy..

and from the Millennium Park...

Cheers !

25th October 2018 - A Bright Spark

Thought for the day:"If you can’t tie a Knot then you cannot – if you can you can knot"

Was quite proud of myself yesterday. We have had an intermittent power problem int he basement - where the power suddenly starts shorting out and the trip switch goes - or rather the trip switch does not go, but the rest of the power in the house trips out. I knew it was in the basement as I could isolate that are with another trip switch and then everything was fine.
We thought at first it was the rain - but this time it was bright sunshine and no reason. 
Now the washing machine and the dryer were a nuisance but not essential - but the freezer int he basement holds all the house chickens for dining in the future. But as important - we discovered early that the chest freezer by the kitchen was on the same circuit! 

This was inconvenient but manageable while we were here - but the worry was the intermittent part!. If it tripped when we were in Crete then we could have  ten days without power and lose all the food int he house.

So - having had an electrician over once - waiting a week and then not getting the job done - I decided to do a jury rigging - take some power from another part of the house and run wires to the freezer by the kitchen and then do something similar for the basement.

I was glad I did it that way. I duly found a hole in the wall and stripped down a 4 gang socket and managed to get the wire through the wall with the help of sellotape and a skewer from the kitchen drawer - and put it all together - so that we had power on the freezer. But then - there was no power!. I thought - must be an old socket set - probably needs new fuses... Nope - all good - and then I discovered by taking plugs out one by one that the Chest Freezer was now tripping the power in the house!

It seems obvious - but it took me a few minutes to work it all out. Indeed - I took the fuse out of the freezer and checked to see if the neutral wires were affecting it - nope. Put the fuse back in - tripped!

There is not a lot of room to move a full freezer - but I managed and got behind it. The freezer is over 30 years old - actually probably more than that if I think about it. Certainly it is battered and might need replacing. At the back I could see that at some time I had done some form of repair - there was green insulating tape along one section - and I could not be sure but there might be some teeth marks or perished wire.... 

So - with my trusty pair of scissors - I removed a section of wire and twisted it back together with plenty of Blue insulating tape. The Colour is not important - just there for poetic value.. it wasn't a Green one anymore!

And - lo and behold - no more tripping - all the power works and we seem to be firing on all cylinders...

A bright spark I am ...

In other news - I saw this lovely video -  when paintings come alive...

So, trying to get my newsletter together for a new Court in Pembroke Dock for the Order of Athelstan...

Best remove my finger ..

Cheers !

24th October 2018 - A rare day at home

Thought for the day:"Alligators can grow up to 20 feet – most stop at 4"

Pictures available for the meeting in Surbiton - not for me - I am not that grandiose yet ...

But here are the Heads of the Order...

Deputy - Roy Leavers

Assistant - Derek Broderick

Grand Officers

I shall join the Past Ranks on Saturday ...

Cheers 

23rd October 2018 - Another day disappears...

Thought for the day:"To whoever stole my antidepressants, I hope you're happy now."

Well yesterday was a full day - traveling to Surbiton and back in the day for the meeting of Coronation Court No 50 to see the new Deputy Grand Master and Assistant Grand Master for the Order of Athelstan put into place...

A quarter to seven start and a 2 am finish - but a long but satisfying day..
Getting ready for Friday and Saturday when I receive my own Grand Honours as Past Senior Grand Deacon - just need to find a lift home now - my arranged travel plans were upset this morning  - I can get there but not return at present... Oh well a couple of days to go ....

Cheers

22nd October 2018 - Mr Blobby and the Fat Quiz

Thought for the day:"I’m not sure how many swords it takes to be happy – but so far I know it is not 12"

On the road a lot - so just time to record this one for posterity..
Will come back to it in the future and recount our adventures with Barry - "Mr Blobby" but for the moment will have to content myself with being able to catch the video again

and in other news...

So - with that
Cheers!

21st October 2018 - Food !!! and Travel !! And Jam First

Thought for the day:"Today I came out to find my bicycle was gone. Police arrested a guy for peddling stolen goods."

Been on the road. Chepstow, then Bangor, for Athelstan  then Gloucester for a friend's Birthday...
Done a lot of mileage and listened to a lot of Black Company Audible Books ...

Back now with a Sunday Dinner in my tummy, grand-kids in the house and ready for a nice glass of scotch and put feet up ...

Until tomorrow early - off to Surbiton - Athelstan again ..
So not much to say really

Other than - I do not normally take photos of my dinner - but this was the plate of meat at the festive board in Bangor... the half chicken was bigger than the plate - must admit - it beat me !

And in other news  - a trump ... Cornwall and "Jam First"

And thought this may be worth keeping

A gert big step for Crnwall

So - another day - another dollar (spent!)

Cheers !

20th October 2018 - Tech Teams and Car Parks

Thought for the Day:"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"

So last night Chepstow - Athelstan - today Bangor - Athelstan ... and tonight Gloucester - Social.

But I was musing as I saw this little missive that I thought I may share ..

I have had no washing machine for 2 weeks - and a subsequent chain of events ensued. Thankfully, good old Scottish Power are up among the eaves repairing our connections as I speak 😀
This is partly my real experience (with a bit of poetic licence re times and sincere apologies to Flanders and Swann):

It was on a Monday morning that the tech team came to call
The washer wasn't working, wasn't going round at all
They opened up the works and tested sockets all around
And found the electricity wasn't getting to the ground
Oh it all makes work for the working man to do!

Twas on a Tuesday morning that the electrician came.
Our expectation was that he would find the same again.
The earth went to a lead pipe which just ended in thin air, so I phoned up the supplier to arrange for the repair.
Oh it all makes work for the working man to do.

Twas on the Wednesday morning the supplier made a start.
He jangled and he jingled almost every blooming part.
He climbed right up a ladder which reached up into the heights
And after much palaver he put everything to rights.
Oh it all makes work for the working man to do..

So up comes Thursday morning and I'm on the phone again
The call line takes for ever, which is really quite a pain.
Although I like Bach's music , there was too much e'en for me
And besides I had to hang up just so I could go and pee!

So on Friday morn quite early I did try to phone again.
I managed to get through and so I did once more explain
That I still had no knickers that were fit to wear outside,
So they booked another session with the tech team nationwide.

On Saturday and Sunday the tech teams don't work at all

So twill be on Monday morning that the tech team comes to call

( In order to protect myself I should explain that tech teams may indeed work weekends but not in this song 😉)


In other news - I tend to post about parking a lot - here is an example of what not to do in a large car park..

and with that thought .. off to Gloucester for a singing gig...

19th October 2018 - Of Little things..

Thought for the day:"Bread is like the sun – it rises in the yeast and sets in the waist"

Was wandering through various bits of social Media and an image caught my eye - and that led me to having a look through the image section of google..  When I was growing up - we had a model village near London called Bekonscot Model Village at Beaconsfield about 25 miles away  - a long bus journey away as I recall but an excellent day out.

I used to enjoy going to see the models and walk like a giant among the little houses and fascinated by the trains running and the boat that sailed across the pond...

But this was another location - in Torquay - and the reason that it caught my eye - well have a look at the pictures...

The Model Village

 Giant Cat causes consternation !!

 The Dragon has come to our village today 

Be nice when it is finished

Nasty Fire...

But the one that caught my eye ...   Queen Street London - a fine piece of Art Deco!

I will have to visit one day ...

and for no other reason but that someone asked me for it the other day and I did not find it easily to hand ...

Welsh National Anthem - and Phonetic Anthem - for reference in the future

Cheers :