Sunday 31 May 2015

The ghost is close



31 May 

I have a question for you; do you believe in ghosts? There’s no real yes or no answer to this one because there are few of us, if any who will agree what a ghost is. That has to be decided before the question can be answered. A couple of nights ago I began reading Doctor Sleep, Stephen King’s follow up to The Shinning. In there he provides another definition of a ghost. King has Danny claiming that our memories are the real ghosts we all have to deal with. Well, I can accept that one alright! I have a number of memories that make me cringe when they come to mind, memories that I wish I did not have. So in that sense, yes I do believe in ghosts.

Facebook has yet another trivia quiz doing the rounds. This one based on the 1960s and as it was shared by one of my personal friends (that reminds me, I owe him an email), I decided to give it a go. I wasn’t sure how well I would do on it so I was surprised that I got 11/12 right. But does that mean that I didn’t have all that good a time in the 60s. There is the feeling that if you can remember them, you didn’t, if you did, you can’t remember them. Well, I can remember them, but I still enjoyed them. Actually I was at school until 1964 so there was only six years of so-called freedom to experiment with mind altering drugs. The only one I tried and enjoyed was booze. Smoking never appealed to me after I saw what it did to my parents and their friends. As for drugs, well, what a horrible thought; thanks, but no thanks.

The thing is with memories we tend to be selective don’t we. We tend to think about the good times, not the bad times. That is where the ghost attack us. They try to drag us down and to steal our good times. And then we come to mental illness, like dementia which steals all our memories good or bad leaving as an empty shell of former ourselves. It’s that aspect of the illness that I hate most of all. At least when a person gets to that stage their ghosts have been laid to rest.

Let’s see what photo we have for today … 

I saw this flower at Rainham and was puzzled by it cos I’ve never seen it before. Any ideas???

And today’s funny …

A duck goes into a grocery shop and asks: "Have you got any matches?" The grocer says: "No." The duck goes back three times, and every time the grocer says the same. The fourth time the duck asks, the owner says: "Look. If you come in here one more time and say that, I'm going to nail your beak to the counter." The next day the duck goes in the shop again and asks: "Have you got any nails?" "No," the grocer replies. "OK," says the duck. "Got any matches?"   

Saturday 30 May 2015

No discpline



30 May  

Over the years we have gathered a lot of photos. Since we moved in here 3 years ago we have been threatening to get them sorted out. There are a lot of repeats in them and it’s time we did something about it. So we have got them out and will go through them this afternoon. There is also a photo album that belonged to my dad but it has got me more than a little puzzled though. The front of the album has HMS Berwick on it, yet dad didn’t serve in her at all. Anyway, once I have sorted it out I’m passing it on to the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth. I’ve been in contact with them and they are willing to accept it. Now, do I post it, or do I take it down … good reason for ride out eh … … …

The idea we had was to shred the photos we don’t want to keep as we sort them. That came to a stop when Jan turned it on and wouldn’t work. Oh dear … I’ve not finished sorting them yet, about 2/3 through, even after 3 ½ hours. I’ll get back to it tomorrow.

It’s happened again; yesterday I sat and typed the two above paragraphs, and that’s as far as I got with it. Even today I don’t really feel up to writing more, but if I don’t, I can see me not doing any more writing at all, and it is something I would hate to happen. It’s all down the discipline really. Even after 12 years in the army I’m still not disciplined enough. Whatever, it’s time to move on again now.

The Prime Muppet is again trying to write his name in history. Doesn’t he realise that by being PM he has already done it? Of course, what he really wants to do is make sure he is remembered as being a PM who actually did something useful for the UK. He has already broken one promise by not getting rid of the much maligned Human Rights Act. But you what, I have feeling though that he will be remembered more for allowing IDS to introduce changes to the welfare state that has led to so many people who have killed themselves because of the changes. Then there are changes to the NHS, leading up its privatisation. Will allowing and in/out referendum on the EU be all that he hopes for? Personally I would sooner be out than in; however, the referendum will be a once only choice and once the choice is made we will all be stuck with it.

Money is tight, or supposed to be at least, so why do we need four new Trident submarines? Why do we need nuclear arms at all? And what of the two new 60,000 ton aircraft carriers? It looks as though HS2 will be going ahead even though the cost has just about doubled by now. And all to save 20 minutes on a train journey. India has said it doesn’t need aid from Britain, so why do we still give the £650 million? While all this is dosh is being spent of given away, people are starving, more and more people and being made homeless And suicide rates are growing because of the unfairness brought in over the last five years. Nope, I think the PM will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, a 20th Century Nero playing his harp while the country crashes and burns behind him.

So today’s photo then … 

A dog rose.

And today’s funny …

This 7ft bloke goes to his local swimming pool for a job as a lifeguard. First thing they ask him is: "Can you swim?" He eventually says: "I can't. But I can wade out pretty far.            

Wednesday 27 May 2015

All sorts



27 May  

I have no idea what is going around here right now. The roof is finished over the way but the walls haven’t been touched. And yet the roofers are looking at starting the roof on our side now, or at least, it looks like it. The scaffolders are working out the front but it’s not the crew who were here last week. It all seems a bit confused to me. Whatever, it’s a lot noisier out there today with two lots working, one at the front, one at the back. Ah well … … …

Have you been watching Jonathon Strange and Mr Norell? We have and although we are enjoying it, we’re also a bit confused by it too. I should think that the book it is from is a good read, I shall be looking for it later, but as to read it, well, I don’t know. I have so many books to read as it is without adding to the pile. Some of the comments on Facebook though are related to TBR book piles and it seems that I am not the only reader with one. I can 21 on the bookcase beside my desk and there’s another ten in the bedroom, and I’m sure there’s another smaller pile in our walk-in cupboard. And isn’t counting those on my kindle either.

I finally got to sort out my photos from Saturday last week and I’ve got 7 decent shots from them. Digital Camera mag has an idea about using just a 50mm prime lens for a day to see what you do with it. It means you have to look a lot harder to get you shots and most snappers perhaps should be doing that anyway. I do fancy giving it a go but the 50mm lens for my Nikon is fairly limited. I didn’t understand the names and lettering of the lens when I bought. That lens has to set at f22 for it to work on my D5200; not good really. But I do have a Sony 50mm f1.4 here too which I have occasionally used before. It’s a very good lens, even if it is manual focus. My choice now is whether to use the A350 or the A330 we have here. We’ll see soon enough.

Last Saturday I made a real cock-up with our scooters. I managed to mix up the drive motors on them. Now the one on mine is stuck solid and we have to try to get it off. It’s happened before on the old ones but I wasn’t expecting to happen with the new ones. The last time I bought some small crow-bars and they worked fine (although I was always worried in case a copper saw them and thought I was looking to break in to some place). So yet another on the ‘to be done’ list.

So today’s photo then is … 

A grey heron.

And today’s funny …

There's a raging fire at a chemical plant that's burning out of control. The city fire department are called and start to attack the fire, but it's too much for them and they have to pull back. They call for aid from a neighbouring city, which sends its fire fighters to help, but when they arrive the fire proves too much for them too. Other cities send aid, but none are successful, and the mayor of the town offers a $1m reward to the fire fighters who can quench the blaze. Only one small, rural fire department in the area remains, and they are called. When they arrive in an old, beaten up truck they scream past all the waiting people, and the media circus, and hurtle straight into the fire, where they jump out and attack it, finally putting it out. The mayor rushes over gushing with praise, and says: "Well done, you guys are heroes! What are you going to spend the £1m reward on?" And the rural fire chief replies: "Well, the first thing we'll do is to fix the brakes on that fire truck."