A no-satnav zone please

June 23

At 2201 tonight it will all be over apart from the counting and end result … at last! I’m in favour of leaving the EU and that’s how I shall be voting later this morning. Whatever the result I shall have to live with it, even if I don’t agree with it. However, my biggest concern is that if there is a vote to leave, Daft Dave will not be making much of an effort to sort out the details of our withdrawal. We shall soon see …

Not so long ago voices were raised because of the cuts to library services across the country, mine as well. And yet I rarely use our local library. The last book I borrowed was a guide book on Mallorca, which ended up about eights overdue. That’s not the reason as to why I don’t use it though. Basically, it’s because I know that whatever I take out, will not get read, simply because I am a slow reader. To spend time sitting and reading a library book in time to get it returned, means that something else will be put off or delayed. That means nothing will get done while I have the book, so I don’t use the Library.    

We have Kile with us now until at least Sunday. He asked his mum yesterday if he could come to us early, he was due on Friday anyway. The hope is that come Saturday the weather will be good enough to take him to Twycross Zoo, about eight miles from here. We’ve taken him there before but he doesn’t remember it. Hopefully I shall get some new photos for sharing on line. Kile will love running around with his Sony Alpha 350 too. He’s not bad snapper either, and often gets shots I missed or didn’t see.

At least we won’t have to set the satnav to get there. I really do hate the things. To me they are a lazy way to drive, and like all lazy methods, they are prone to make mistakes, like truckers turning down a narrow country lane when it’s clear that the road is not a suitable route, because the satnav says, Turn left/right’ or whatever. There was a show on telly about the Ordinance Survey that I recorded a few weeks ago. And just love their maps and have several of them ready for use.

The biggest problem with satnav is that they can’t take into account any of the local information, temporary or permanent. Things like one-way streets or pedestrian only area. There are so many different road signs that drivers have to take into account, and yet the good old First Lady of the road, ignores them all. Another issue is that they don’t take into account the type of vehicle they are installed in and seem to take artics over bridges with a 7-ton weight limit.

The biggest problem with them as I see it, is that so many drivers switch on the satnav and switch off their common sense. This applies to all types of drivers, HGV or car drivers. Part of the driving test is to read and apply the information on the road signs. Having passed a driving test you have shown that you are able to drive without that First Lady. So why do so many people become dependent on the box of tricks? It’s all down to laziness, plain and simple.

Satnav errors are not the only problem that face HGV drivers, like this one (which will suit as Today’s photo,) and was this driver’s own fault …

Taken on the old M6/M1/A14 junction, just as it started raining.          

Today’s funny …

After a car crash one of the drivers is lying injured at the side of the road. 'Don't worry,' said a policeman, a Red Cross nurse is coming to attend to you.'
Oh no,' groaned the victim, 'couldn't I have a blonde, cheerful one?'

Silly games and youngsters

June 22

Fun and games in Jaronland yesterday afternoon. Our new Blue Ray/home cinema system arrived at the same time as I was on the phone to the Walsgrave Hospital. We tried setting it up in the afternoon, oh dear … I sit back and let Jan get on with it whenever we need to do this, and she did a good job. That is until will tried to see the difference in sound when we watch a DVD. And we couldn’t get anything from it at all.

So I phoned the Samsung help line. What a farce! When was the last time you spoke to a Pilipino living on an island on other side of the world? Talk about pulling teeth … However, she said something about using an ARC cable. In the end I gave up on her because she was having to repeat what she was saying two or three times before I could I finally understood what she was saying. Next task was to re-read the telly specs, and guess what? The telly is ARC compatible, but only on HDMI 1. This morning I swapped the cables over and right now we are watching telly and I’ve had to reduce the volume by a small amount. We’ll try a DVD later.

OK, so it was difficult to fully understand what that lass was saying yesterday however, I’m finding the same thing with some English youngsters; and no, it’s not the normal them n us thing either. With some of these kids there’s a tendency to speak really quickly, and that makes it hard to understand what they are saying. Or is it just me? Whatever, I do wonder about though, is what is the point is of such fast speech.

And while I’m writing about youngsters … As you will know, I am a Type 2 diabetic, and for that reason I follow a number diabetes groups on both Twitter and Facebook. Quite regularly they post stories of young kids, that is, three and four year olds who are Type 1 diabetics. These kids are highlighted because they are managing their condition themselves. What amazes me is that it means taking regular blood sugar tests and taking insulin as and when needed. More power to them I say. But I also wonder just how they do it without supervision. To be able to do the whole thing at their age really does make them heroes.

What is it about kids who are able to play through pain and discomfort, conditions which many adults can’t handle. Our son Tom had a tooth extracted and was out playing straight after it. A few weeks later I went to the same dentist and had just the one tooth taken out, and I could hardly move after it. I don’t ‘do’ dentists anyway and this is just one instance of how I feel after visiting them. It’s a big ‘no no’ for me.

Enough of my rabbiting on; the pet shop at Merry Hell we went in didn’t seem to have all that many animals in stock, err, you don’t think perhaps …

Today’s funny …

A commercial traveller was passing through a small town when he came upon a huge funeral procession.
"Who died?" he asked a nearby local.
"I'm not sure," replied the local, " but I think it's the one in the coffin."         

50,000 words in 30 days ...

June 21

I really don’t know why we bother making and plans at all. Today’s plan was to go a ride out and look at some garden centres and then do our shopping before heading out. That sounds easy enough but the other day we bought a new camping bed for Kile and Jan wanted to try setting it up. It comes in a bag and she un-tied the top and tried to get it out, let it slip and it bounced off her left instep. Now she has a really nice bruise there, but can hardly put any weight on it. We don’t think she’s safe to drive right now, so the ride out is now off for at least one day.

Al letter arrived late yesterday from the Walsgrave Hospital asking me to contact them about my upcoming operation. As I said, it was late arriving, just before 4pm, so when I called them the help line was closed. So I left a message and they called me back this morning. Top and bottom of it, is that they wanted to know if I still wanted the job done – ddddeeeeeerrrrrr; I was polite, honestly, I was. I mean, it’s only just been decided and agreed to, far too early to even consider not having it done. I’ve also said I would except a short notice call too in case they get a cancelation.

OK, confession time then … I’m not looking forward to spending time in hospital. The operation itself isn’t a worry cos I’ll be knocked out and won’t feel anything at all. No, it’s being in the geriatric ward that I don’t like. I don’t know why it is that so many men tend become senile when they are in there, but a lot of them do, and that is why I’m not looking forward to it.

At least the surgeon told me that once it’s done I should feel the benefit as soon as I come out of the anaesthetic and I should only need to be in hospital for three or four days, and once I was mobile I would be able to come home. Last time the guy said that I would be stuck lying on back for around six months; in reality I was up and about and climbing stairs the day after the op. Within two days of getting home I was walking around the block without any problems.

NANOWRIMO, is the National Novel Writing Month. It’s one yanky import I don’t mind. The idea is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. I’ve tried it three times, and finished it. The first attempt resulted in Finding Our Way, the second was Shipshape. The third was a follow up to Shipshape and had the title And Bristol Fashion. I just wasn’t ready for it at that time and I failed miserably. This year I fancy having a go again so before I do I want to get Shipshape sorted out and published so that I have a clear run at it when the time comes. I don’t have a plot line yet, or any ideas but they will come over the next few months. Role on November.

Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is enough to frighten some people half to death. It’s a big ask really but as I’ve proved twice, it can be done. Those taking part get lots of encouragement and suggestions, and one such suggestion has helped me quite a bit, and not just with NANO work. That idea is to forget about editing and so on until you have finally finished it. Once you’ve got your 50,000 words you can spend as much time as you wish sorting out ready to publish. My first attempt Finding, stood at 50,300 something. By the time it was ready it stood at just over 56,000 words. I tend to do this with all my writing now, after all, what you are producing in reality is a ‘first draft’. The finished work is still months away, and it’s that added extra work that I don’t enjoy and find hard, the writing itself is great.

And so to a photo …

Our noisy wee brat of a budgie.

Today’s funny …

Jill: You remind me of the sea.
Jack: Because I'm wild, unpredictable and romantic?
Jill: No, because you make me sick.         

On reading and books

June 20

Heresy was spoken in Jaronland last night, the horror of it shook me to the core. You see, we were talking about rearranging the living room and how hard it was simply because we so much stuff squash in here. Then came the heresy … Jan uttered the words books, too many and charity shop in just one sentence. Oh the horror of it, the shock that I’m still feeling here this morning. And yet …

In the past we have done just that; when space became tight we passed a load of books on. When I think about it, if we still had all the books we have had all the books I’ve collected over the last 36 years, we wouldn’t be able to move for them getting in the way. So what will we do this time? We have a walk-in cupboard off the hall and there is a set of six shelves in there. Right now they are filled with all sorts of stuff that won’t get used again, so later today I will be in there sorting it out. Then there will be room for a lot of my books in there.

Meanwhile, Jan is sitting with a smug smile on her face knowing that several thousands of books are safe on her kindle. I too have a quite a few on my kindle as well. Is that even more heresy I wonder? There are some who will say it is. There’s a skit song about this one doing the rounds on Facebook now. It features a group of librarians poncing about throwing books about and singing about how much better real books are compared with a kindle. Oh yes? Then why are they throwing the books around like that?

You see, there is use and a market for both types books. Like us here, I read both, Jan uses only her kindle. When we go out anywhere we always take our kindles with us, just in case we decide to go for a drink, which is pretty much every time we go out. So now Jan sets up the kindles while I’m at the bar getting our diet cokes, or J2O for me these days, cokes make me too gassy. Then we can sit and read for a time, and chat as and when we feel like it, which quite often really seeing as we are both chatter boxes. Indeed, the only time we sit in silence is when I’m sat writing.       

Reading is perhaps something we all need to do at some point on our lives. A student has to do a lot more reading than most other people. During my OU days I have no idea how many books I read on top of the course materials, which added up to huge amount anyway. At one point I began getting concerned my memory. You see, all that reading and yet how much was actually sticking in my memory. At the sane tine a retired teacher was asking how I was getting on with it. So I told her what I was feeling and she said something along the lines of, that I wouldn’t remember all of it, no matter what I do. The trick is to just remember the main points of what I was reading. To help with that, is efficient note taking. This was invaluable advice for me at that time.

These days I read very little non-fiction, and when I do it’s related to diabetes and healthy living/food. So in most cases it’s not so important to remember story plots and so on. That’s why I’ve read Michael Connelly’s The Poet twice. Other books I have read a number of times intentionally, Asimov’s Foundation series for example, The Ryanville books from Tom Clancy, and of course, the Parry Hotter series are now into their third reading. The best book I have read more than once, is an easy choice, The Bible, although I haven’t read it for some time now.

Add in all the papers and the mags I read, then reading is important to me. And it’s great for passing time when waiting for someone, like the guy in today’s photo …

Today’s funny …

Son: My teacher must be really old.
Father: Why is that son?
Son: Well, today in class, he told us that he used to teach Shakespeare.  

Loving food ...

June 19

Can you believe this? It’s June 19^th already. Where has it gone? Part of it was when we watched, or that should be when we re-watched crap films like Left Behind and Meteor Storm, just like we did last night. Mind you, we also watched the last two of the Wallander series of programmes, and they were good. I wish now we had watched them from the start, ah well …

An interesting piece on the MSN home page this morning. Someone has started a petition to get Thursday’s referendum vote to be postponed after the death of Jo Cox. Now, call me cynical if you wish, but as the piece goes on to say, the leave campaign is ahead in the polls right, that makes me think there might be a different agenda behind this move. Daft Dave and remain followers are on the back foot right now, so why not try a trick like this one. If it’s ignored it will cause a lot of friction if the leave vote wins, and it remain vote wins there will cries of anguish because of the attempt to sway voters by this petition. As I said call me cynical if you wish but … … …

I wonder how many of you have been caught up in the latest yanky craze, that of Father’s Day. I’d never heard of it until about ten years ago, but now it comes up every year, and what for? I can imagine how my dad would have laughed at the idea, and as for his dad, well, I never met him, he died in 1945 I’ve found out just lately. But come on guys n gals, it’s just another way to pull open the wallets/purses of the gullible so they can pinch even more money in exchange for shoddy bling crap. That’s what it is all about folks, honestly.

OK, I’m over weight, and yes, it was my fault that I am like I am. I ignored all the warnings about how would affect me later in life and now I’m paying the price in Type 2 Diabetes and very high pain levels most days. I take a lot more care with what I eat these days, and not just the what, but also the amount. One of my biggest gripes these days is the odd occasion that we buy fish and chips. The fish is so big they have to use more wrapping paper for it. At the same time the amount of chips you get is enough to feed two, let alone one. Perhaps that’s why you see so many screwed chip wrappers in the streets these days.

So much waste from the food industry; then the other day I saw an ad for Morrisons who are selling a ‘tomahawk’ steak. This massive 42 ounces on the bone steak is on sale at £15 a go. Of course, this weight is uncooked weight and will also include the bone, even so, I think this one will come out at around a 2lb lump of steak. I like a good steak, as I’m sure most carnivores do, but 2lbs in one sitting? Thanks, but no thanks.

Warnings are common these days about Britain’s spreading waist lines and rise in diabetes. In an effort towards reducing this, a ‘sugar tax’ has been introduced. Will this be enough? I don’t think so, although it might have an effect on reducing dental decay in kids. The food industry needs to take a much bigger lead here. These offers of 42oz steaks will only entice some people to go for them, never mind the health consequences.

A lot is made of the waste in ‘bogoffs’, but do we really need that much of an item. Loose bread rolls come to mind; Jan likes crusty rolls and you can buy them in Asda for 25p, or five for £1. By the time we come to use the others they are no longer crusty and are a bit stale. But do we really need five of them anyway? No, we don’t, so now we only buy what we need. Another item that annoys me is those large trays of doughnuts you see in different places these days. I love them (yes I know they’re sugary), and so does Kile, but Jan is so keen. So now we only buy them when we know Kile is coming, like next weekend. The problem is that there’s 15 of them in those large trays, far too many for just a couple. What do we do if we buy a tray? Do we pig-out on them and maybe cause an upset in out digestion, or do we have a few and throw the rest? What we could with is smaller trays with fewer items in them, simple eh? It seems too hard for the food industry though.

Food: we all need it and some of us love it, perhaps a little too much. So with this mind I offer today’s photo …

One of my salad dinners I’ve had just lately.

Today’s funny …

Waiter, waiter, I can't eat this.
Why not, sir?
Because you haven't given me a knife and fork.                 

Guns and mental illness

June 18

Some of my happier days while I was in the army were when we were on the ranges doing our annual classification in various weapon systems. My last such day was the day before I handed in my kit in ready to leave the army late October 1979. This one is memorable simply because of the total waste of ammunition, and therefore waste of time in case at least. Even so I did enjoy it.

That day was SMG (sub machine-gun) shooting. This weapon was light weight and I found it was the easiest one to use. It wasn’t all that effective really in that it was a close quarter weapon. It’s range was fairly short too and never fired it over a 30ft range. Even so I had to classify with it and in so doing we all fired off at least 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition. As I said, a total waste of resources.

There was an item on Facebook yesterday afternoon relating to the latest mass shooting over in Yankyland. It showed a car and the words, ‘Killed 30 people; withdrawn.’ Next was a pill, Tylenol with the words, ‘Killed 70; was withdrawn.’ Next was a picture of a handgun with the words, ‘Killed 32,000 a year for many years; not withdrawn.’ That seemed to speak fairly clearly about the whole issue, at least to me it did.

Not only that, a supreme court judge has said that the NRA stance on the Second Amendment is a flawed understanding of the Amendment. He claimed it was brought in for law and order measures, not so that every man woman and child could have and use a gun. No, it written at a time when many parts of the America really were the frontier. And don’t forget, they were, or just had claimed independence from England and an invasion was expected. Sadly, none of this takes into account, the 20/21^st Century earnings of the amount of almighty dollars. And of course we all know that nothing is allowed to get in the way of the advancement the dollar collectors.

And that sadly is whole of the pro-gun lobby story. They claim it’s not guns that kill but people. People are dying at the hands of knife wielding killers or drivers in their cars, and yet neither knives or cars have been banned from use. Well, that’s true enough I suppose; however, the killer who was behind the last mass shooting also had knives and a car, yet he chose to use a guns to do his killing.

It might be claimed that we do not have mass-shooting here in the UK; well, go tell that to the people of Dunblane and Hungerford, and more recently in the north west of England. Both of these shooters had well know mental illness issues. So how did they manage to get gun licences? That it really the biggest question that needs asking and looking at.

These events are few and far between of course, but what we do have is the shooting dead of individuals in all areas of the UK. Most of them we don’t hear about, it’s only when a high profile victim gets hit that the media really kicks up a stink. Jo Cox, a MP was gunned down and stabbed. I don’t need to retell the story. Now the killer is already claiming mental illness, with his brother coming out to say he too has mental health issues. Can you see where this going? I can, and I don’t believe on word of it! I just hope the jury sees through it too.

A Johnny Cash song has the words, ‘I shot a man in Memphis, just to watch him die …’ I wonder just how many killers, anywhere in the world, would say they kill for the same reason? Of course, that would require some sort of honesty from them, but could we really be sure that the killer is being honest or just stringing us along. I would suggest that in such cases there has to be some sort of mental illness. After all, no sane person would even think of such things … would they?

So where does leave crime writers who happily sit and write about someone out and about killing just for fun, or so it seems. In my first book The Mission, my killer runs about killing people, more to take the pee pee out of the cops and to try to show them up as fools. In a later one, Web of Hate I have a young woman killing students across the UK. The body count in that one actually huge. So what does that say about me? I’ll leave that to you to decide …

Today’s photo …

The cover for Web of Hate; the photo is one of mine.

Today’s funny …

A cowboy rides into town, goes into a bar, has a beer, walks outside and finds his horse has been stolen. He walks into the bar, and fires his gun through the ceiling. "WHICH ONE OF YOU MOTHERS STOLE MY HOSS?" he yells. No-one answers. "ALRIGHT, I'M GONNA HAVE ANOTHA BEER, AND IF MY HOSS AIN'T OUTSIDE BY THE TIME I FINNISH, I'M GONNA DO WHAT I DUN IN TEXAS". He gets another beer, walks outside, and his horse is back, so he get's on it and makes to ride out of town. The bartender wanders out of the bar and asks "Say partner, what happened in Texas?". The cowboy turns to him and says "I had to walk all the way home..."                               

A large black visitor

June 17

I have a visitor. She came in while out shopping at Asda yesterday afternoon when I saw some of the worst parking in and around the disabled parking bays there. Then the security staff refused to deal with it, claiming that it’s a private carpark and therefore not their problem. The twin subjects of laziness and selfishness brought the not so wee dog to visit.

Last night I got in a row with dead family members over what happened to mam just before Dave died. Of course it was dream but added to yesterday it hasn’t done anything to help chase the visitor off. Now I’m trying to write this; when I tried it yesterday I just couldn’t do anything with it. This is the one dog I really do hate!

There I was lying in bed reading last night when I had a fancy come on me. I talking of around 11.15 now, and there I was fancying a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich. Jan made joke of it when I told her and quipped, ‘Sure not pregnant?’ Hahaha …

No matter how I feel right now, the family of the MP shot and stabbed in Yorkshire must feel oh so many times worse. We will learn at some time what it was all about and why the killer did what was done. Right now all we have is a lot of questions, but I’m intrigued as to if there is a link between the dead MP and injured man shot a short time later. This is a real tragedy for all those involved, but even so, it’s not the first time such an attack has happened in similar circumstances. A few years ago a Lib/Dem MP was attacked and injured and one his staff killed by a man using a sword. Fortunately, these attacks are few and far between, and I don’t mean just the people involved, but for democracy as a whole.

Anyway … while we were at the check-out I noticed the DVD The Martian at £5. I quickly picked one up and we sat and watched it last night. It’s the best movie we’ve seen for a long time, so a very good buy. We normally like these Sci-fi films and we also bought Interstellar, and we were not impressed all much. We stopped it about half way through and I shall watch the rest later. It’s a slow plot line and that is what got Jan down with it and although I thought the same to some extent, I can manage the rest of it.

Yet again, what I have written here is subjective, and merely my view. I have to wonder though, where being subjective on something moves into shear stubbiness in not being willing to even look at something someone else has seen/read/heard. There’s tread going about on Facebook and Twitter along the lines of ‘Am I the only one who hasn’t seen or read Game of Thrones? The Parry Hotters are another one I’ve seen along a similar line. We have read and seen both and enjoyed them, and I keep thinking, You really don’t know what you’re missing.

Today’s photo …

Jan’s nodding doggy in the car.

Today’s funny …

Where do shellfish go when they want to borrow money?
To the prawnbrokers.