Lost house, Dave and Little Johnny

31 August 2012

Here we go again!  Yet another nice warm sunny day and we have to stay in for a parcel delivery.  Today we are expecting the replacement lens from WEX Photographic.  Thing is, I haven't had an email to say it's been despatched so I hope it is on its way.

On the very day that my brother Dave was due to start work he was admitted into Bramcote Hospital a long term patient.  Sometime previous he had been sat on the backyard wall and fell off it onto my old tricycle, and huge great blue thing as I remember it.  The result of the fall was what was described to me as being a diseased hip bone.  I have my doubts about that though seeing as mam and dad were cousins.  Be that as it may, the front page story in today's News is that Bramcote Hospital is now up for sale.  The story calls it a 20 bed unit; yet when Dave was in there, there were a lot of wards there and a lot more patients than 20. 

Whatever was really wrong with Dave at that time, he was back home just before Christmas that same year.  He spent the next three years visiting outpatients at the Manor Hospital where his plaster cast was often replaced.  Of course it would need to be replaced regularly seeing as he was growing anyway.  He was eventually allowed to go to school properly three years late although he had a teacher come to visit every day while he was at home.

Another story in today's News concerns a mansion I knew nothing about until this morning when I read about.  Local historian Peter Lee has spent many years trying to find out about Haunchwood House.  Next weekend descendants of three families who once lived in the house will be meeting up and one of them will give a talk about his family and it's links to the Founding Fathers of the USA.  Haunchwood House was demolished in 1920, around the time that estate where it stood was built.  There used to be a lot of mansions within the town, Attleborough Hall being another.  We have a photo of that one but little if any idea of where it used to be.  There are no known photos of Haunchwood House though and Peter Lee would love to have one for his records.

Yesterday afternoon I had a creative streak on me that allowed me to get over the hump that had built up around Photo Finish.  That was a relief, I was starting to think that I was 'written out' of ideas.  I managed to get just short of 3000 words done.  I'm hoping to go on and do a lot more today, try to catch up a bit.  Jan is pushing me to get 18 Months Later finished and a proof copy ordered.  I might well get on and do that first ... we'll soon see.

BBC Midlands Toady ran a story about the restoration of Astley Castle a few days ago.  I was not impressed with what they had done with the place with huge great chunks of concrete all over the place.  here's what it looked like before they got started ...   

As you can see, what little was there really wasn't enough to restore; indeed, someone said that there are no photos of what it was like in its heyday so they were more or less working on a blank canvas.  Not sure it has worked though.

Funny time ...

A teacher notices that Little Johnny, at the back of the class, is squirming around, scratching his crotch and not paying attention. She goes back to find out what's up. He's quite embarrassed and whispers that he has just recently been circumcised and he's quite itchy.
The teacher has him go down to the principal's office to phone his mom, and ask her what he should do about it.
He does this, returns to the class, sits down in his seat and suddenly, there's a general commotion at the back of the room. Back down the teacher goes, only to find him sitting at his desk with his penis hanging out.
"I thought I told you to call your mom." she says.
"I did," he says, "and she told me that if I could stick it out till noon she'd come and pick me up from school"                      

New lens, tax haven and criminals

30 August 2012

I set the Virgin box to record the opening or the Paralympics last night.  It was time to last 3hs 30 minutes but it was over running by quite a bit.  The recording stopped at the 3h 30m point just after the start of the last part of the show started.  So we missed a good deal of it.  Sad really, the first part was pretty good.  We could of course could have sat and watched it but by 8.30 I was so tired that I sat trying to read a book on macro photography and kept nodding off.  That's why I tried to record it.  Never mind eh.

There was no silly bs involved with sending that lens back.  As soon as I had explained what the problem was Paul (guy on t'ther end of the line), arranged for FedEx to come and collect it.  Now we will have to wait tomorrow for the new one to arrive here.  I've been playing with the macro lens and it's pretty good so far.  All I need to do now is get the papers filled out and sent off for my £30 cash back from Sony for the lens ... very nice.

There are two stories in today's News that might be of interest.  The first one is about a rise in shoplifting offenses committed by under 16's in the town centre.  Over the school summer holidays the number of arrests has increased.  The cops are saying that any offenders caught will be treated in the same way adults are.  That means that they will be given a slap on the wrist and a cuppa and biscuits to get over it.  No wonder there is so much thieving going on.

The second story is about a man in North Warwickshire who was arrested for one offence but had his computer taken by police at the time of his arrest.  We are not told what the original offence was however.  Examination of the computer resulted in the finding of 20 images of young naked boys.  The images were from 2006 and the man claimed he hadn't looked at them since his computer had died in 2006.  If it had died he couldn't look at them  could he.  A number of things concern me about this one.  The man has been given a 3 year community order, has to pay £85 in prosecution costs and ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register.  Is that fair sentence I wonder?  Those images must show serious sex abuse of boys; I would have expected a custodial sentence over this no matter how old the images are. 

But I am also concerned that cops can search a house and remove items that have nothing to do with the reason for the arrest in the first place.  How many of us can honestly say that we are completely innocent in everything we do.  OK, we might not be paedophiles but we all have secrets that we would prefer to kept quite - even if it just pinching a few sheets of A4 paper for our own use.  The American justice system doesn't allow charges to made following discovery of evidence found in following up on other charges.  The Constitution is regularly shredded by shrewd defence lawyers and this is one of the results from such and case.  It seems to me that we all have to be very careful these days.

These two pretend coppers ... 

were snapped in Llangollen a few months ago.  I can't remember why we went up there that day.  It was the day we went to Llandudno and saw the Olympic Torch thingy.  The A5 goes straight through Llangollen so we stopped for look around and to try to get shots of the river and hopefully a dipper or two. 

Funny time ...

A young man married a beautiful woman who had previously divorced ten husbands.
On their wedding night, she said "Please be gentle, I'm still a virgin."
"What?" said the puzzled groom. "How can that be if you've been married ten times?
"Well, husband #1 was a Sales Representative; he kept telling me how great it's going to be.
Husband! #2 was in Software Services; he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he'd look into it and get back to me.
Husband #3 was from Field Services; he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up.
Husband #4 was in Telemarketing; even though he knew he had the order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver.
Husband #5 was an Engineer; he understood the basic process but wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state-of-the-art method.
Husband #6 was from Finance and Administration; he thought he knew how, But he wasn't sure whether it was his job or not.
Husband #7 was in Marketing; although he had a product, he was never sure how to position it.
Husband #8 was a psychiatrist; all he ever did was talk about it.
Husband #9 was a gynecologist; all he did was look at it. !
Husband #10 was a stamp collector; all he ever was lick? God I miss him!
But now that I've married you, I'm so excited! "Good," said the husband, "but, why?"
"You're a Tax Man...... This time I JUST KNOW I'm gonna get screwed !

A suana, a steak and 16 watsed pages

29August 2012

I knew this would happen.  I was lying in bed last night and a thought came to me about to start today's blog.  Now I can't remember what it is was.  I should have made a note of it - DAMN!!!

Today's News isn't so good.  It's carrying a 16 page advertisement feature on a garage in Polesworth.  That's a lot of wasted paper to my mind.  They do occasionally run such features but normally they are just one or two pages, but 16 pages is bit OTT really.  An email will soon be winging its way to the editor over it.

So Harry Wales has shown his human side.  Now five soldiers have joined him by being photographed in a similar state in the desert somewhere.  The photo has appeared on Facebook.  What's the betting they will be hauled over the hot coals for it!  OK, it looks like a bit of harmless fun, but by the look of it they might be off duty but no soldier is fully off duty in places like Afghanistan.  All too easy for the Taliban to attack and they need to be ready for such any attack.  These five obviously were not ready and it would have taken them a couple of minutes to get ready.  Not good, not good at all boys.

Just after 4pm yesterday we did a charity shop run.  As we've been unpacking and sorting stuff out we've had a growing pile of items to be pass-on.  As the town centre is closed off to all traffic between 10am and 4pm we had to wait until then to get in there to the PDSA shop.  From there we went around to the Coventry building society.  Next it was a trip to the Willie White for a nice juicy steak - and that is what I had.  And it was absolutely brilliant!  The William White, to give it its real name is part of the Whetherspoons chain.  It is the better of two we have here in Dorktown and it's the usual pub we end up in when we go out.  A good meal and nice pint of Ruddles bitter made for an excellent meal out.

The other Whetherspoons in town is the Felix Holt.  This one isn't all that bad really - once you've got through the smokers blocking the damned front door! 

Sadly this happens quite a bit at all pubs since the smoking ban came into force.  However, that is not the only reason I don't really like this place.  There's a guy who gets in there who seems to spend all his time watching me when I go in there.  He's not coy about it either, he makes it very plain that he's watching me.  Top and bottom of it is that I feel uncomfortable in there when he's there.  If he's there, I don't go in, simply as that.     

Today we are stuck in.  Not only are we waiting for Parcel Farce to turn up but it's raining quite heavily right now.  As Jan has just said, "Typical; our new lenses are on their way and we can't get out to try them when they do arrive."   We will have to be patient and wait until Sunday when we go down to Regents Park in London on Sunday.  That should give us chance to use them and see if they are as good as the ones I lost.  They should be of course, but you can never really be sure with today's mass production methods. 

Trust me to open my mouth!  The parcel arrived while i was typing this.  Jan has been looking at the two lenses and one of them has a white mark inside the front element of the lens making it unusable.  Now we have to play silly bs getting it sent back.

For today's photo, how about this ... 

part of the Ferris wheel in Belfast city centre.         

        

Funny time - (sorry for the upper case) ...

THREE WOMEN - ONE GERMAN, ONE JAPANESE AND A HILLBILLY - WERE SITTING NAKED IN A SAUNA.
SUDDENLY THERE WAS A BEEPING SOUND. THE GERMAN PRESSED HER FOREARM AND THE BEEP STOPPED. THE OTHERS LOOKED AT HER QUESTIONINGLY. "THAT WAS MY PAGER," SHE SAID. " I HAVE A MICROCHIP UNDER THE SKIN OF MY ARM."
A FEW MINUTES LATER, A PHONE RANG. THE JAPANESE WOMEN LIFTED HER PALM TO HER EAR. WHEN SHE FINISHED, SHE EXPLAINED, "THAT WAS MY MOBILE PHONE. I HAVE A MICROCHIP IN MY HAND."
THE HILLBILLY WOMAN FELT DECIDEDLY LOW TECH. NOT TO BE OUTDONE, SHE DECIDED SHE HAD TO DO SOMETHING JUST AS IMPRESSIVE. SHE STEPPED OUT OF THE SAUNA AND WENT TO THE BATHROOM. SHE RETURNED WITH A PIECE OF TOILET PAPER HANGING FROM HER BEHIND.
THE OTHERS RAISED THEIR EYEBROWS AND STARED AT HER.  THE HILLBILLY WOMAN FINALLY SAID, "WELL, WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT. I'M GETTIN' A FAX."

Writing space, a moral and new kit on the way

28 August 2012

I was a bit shaken up this morning when I got up have a bad dream as Jan called me.  In the dream I got off a bus somewhere or other and was placed onto a sit-up bed thingy with a towel being held across my stomach.  There were two large bloodless cuts on there with my insides hanging out.  I looked at my legs and the right also had bloodless cuts at the knee and the ankle and I could see the bone for its full length.  Nurse were moving about around me and ignoring me.  Jan was trying to get them to help me but she was taken off somewhere calling my name - and that's when I woke up.  I know it sounds daft but it really did drain and shake me up first thing.

Well, that's all out the way now thankfully.  My order with WEX - was warehouseexpress.com - has been made and it will be delivered some time tomorrow by everyone's favourite Parcel Farce.  I could have done without having to wait in for them!  I just don't trust them.  We will both be pleased when it does arrive though and we're now planning a day out either Thursday or Friday depending on weather.  This time I shall make sure I don't lose it all.

One of the blogs I follow is this one ...  http://simonwhaleytutor.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/where-do-you-write.html  It's full of useful and interesting points and ideas for us writers.  Yesterday Simon posted a photo of his writing space and I promised I would post of mine.  As you can see ... 

it's not as neat and tidy as Simon's but I plead still sorting out from our move a couple of months ago.  In reality though, it's just plane laziness cos I can't be bothered to tidy it up ;-)))  But that is a fresh mug of tea there!

My foot butcher is due here at 1pm.  That means I will have to wash me feet ... that's a couple of months really for pete's sake ;-)))

Later Jan and I going out to do some shopping and while we're out we are going to have a steak and chips.  Jan will probably have a pudding as well, she normally does.  This will be our first meal out since we moved.  Looking forward to it as well.

OK, you can have a second photo today ... 

I think this is a bee orchid.  Whatever it is it's a cracker of a flower.

And the moral is ...    

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish." "Me first! Me first!" says the admin. clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas driving a speedboat, without a care in the a world." Poof! She's gone.
"Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life." Poof! He's gone.
OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."
Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.