The Somme and remembering it

1 July

We are now on the downwards slope towards Crimble and the New Year … of dear …

So what on earth can I say about the remembrance service going on in France right now? So much has been written in the past that all that is left is how the Somme affected my family. The only two involved there that I know about are both my granddads. I never met granddad Clark, he died in 1945 I think. My dad didn’t say much about him other him being gassed at some point. I’ve since found out that he was in the Machine Gun Corps and he came home with three medals, but I can’t remember what they are.

Grandad Jayne I did know, but you know what? He didn’t a lot about that war at all. He was in the Royal Horse Artillery, and was another man who suffered because of the gas attacks. I do remember one story he told me though. He was leading a horse down a lane when a shell landed just behind him and exploded. He was thrown a good distance, but there was nothing left of the horse. Granddad was able to get up and walk pretty much straight away, only to find that he had a small length of the leather lead-line off the horse still in his hand, and he still had it and showed it to me. And that is really all I know about WW1, apart from what I’ve read over the years.

There aren’t that many ex-soldiers who will voluntary talk about what of their experiences during the fighting. However, there have been a large number of men who have told their stories, and we should be thankful to them for doing so. It is far too easy to lose the history of the common people over the years. For a long time, historians have only been interested in the lives of the people at the top of society, the shakers and movers. Common people only become subjects when they do something which impacts on the top end of society. Now we are much more interested in the lives of all the people, not just the top end of society, and if that draws cries of moving into social history, then tough luck, it’s what I like.        

Yesterday I sat trying to catch-up on recorded my recorded shows off telly, and the first one I went for was Jet! When Britain Ruled the Sky. One clip they showed was of the P1127 flying backwards with an escort of forward flying helicopters. I remembered watching that on the news or on one the BBC shows covering Farnborough Air Show when that clip was shot. And it was at that point that I decided that I wanted to fly one of those magic airplanes. It was all I dreamed and talked about for ages after seeing, no wonder friends got fed-up with it. Then I had to see a careers advisor at school and he told me I had no chance of joining the RAF because of my poor eye sight.

Talk about ‘crash and burn’; I was devastated, and felt really insulted when he told me all I was really suited for was being a farm hand. He soon got short shrift from both mam and me. Dreams dashed though, ah well, I could still dream off it anyway, even if they were now real dreams, and not hopes for the future … I did later fly with the RAF of course, but as a passenger, not as a pilot. But I still once have control of a helicopter, even if for only 20 seconds and the pilot still kept his hands on the main controls – good fun too.

I wonder, do you know any unsophisticated people? There is a reason for this question which I’ll come to later, but really, how do you determine someone is unsophisticated; what is it that makes you come to that decision? For me, I think we are all sophisticated to some degree anyway and the making of that statement is very judgemental. So, there I was last night reading King and Maxwell by David Baldacci when I read the words, ‘… unsophisticated and therefore uninteresting …’ As it is written within the story, it is very much a judgement statement about the bad guys they are investigating. It’s another good one from this author.

Today’s photo …

A male giraffe. There was a huge lamp post that I had shoot through to get this shoot, that's why there so little of him in the shot. 

Today funny …

A guy in a restaurant says to the waitress "I want a cup of coffee without cream." The waitress comes back a few minutes later and says "I'm sorry, but we're all out of cream. Would you mind taking your coffee without milk?"           

Confused all round

June 30

The old saying, ‘You are never too old to learn’, proved itself true again yesterday, for me at least. On Monday I had a letter from my GP asking me to make an appointment to have a Vitamin B12 injection. This is what has come out from the memory clinic assessment I had done some weeks ago. Yesterday there was a something from the Diabetes UK group on Facebook that I read about the effects of long term use of Metformin causing B12 deficiency. Thing is, I was put on 2000mgs daily of metformin in 2009.

So I thought I’d have a look at what B12 does for us, as well as what a lack of it causes. Sorting out all the sales crap was easy enough and then found this little list …

• extreme tiredness
• a lack of energy
• pins and needles (paraesthesia)
• a sore and red tongue
• mouth ulcers
• muscle weakness
• disturbed vision
• psychological problems, which may include depression and confusion 
• problems with memory, understanding and judgement

on the NHS website. Guess what; I have each of these at some time or other, thankfully, not all together. So this morning Jan called and made me an appointment for both diabetic clinic and the B12 shot at the same time, at 5pm next Thursday. Now all I need to do is to remember a urine sample to take with me.

Kile is due at his GP today at 4.30pm. We have it on our diary because Jan is going to take him for it. So Jan has just called his mum to find out if he has been reminded to come here out of school and not go home. She had forgotten about it. So now it’s a mad scramble to get the school to let him know to come here. It’s no wonder the lad is so confused most of the time. Mind you, he doesn’t help himself at all, and Jan saw the other side of him on Tuesday when she took him home – and it wasn’t a happy side at all.

And Jan has just remembered something g else too. The appointment is over Kile’s asthma and he is supposed to take his peak flow chart with him, not that it’s of any use really cos he hasn’t been doing it. Sam had forgotten about it so he won’t have that chart with him, and the appointment will be wasted without it. Ultimately it means more running around for Jan, and she really isn’t up to that these days. She has enough to do with her own health problems and trying to keep an eye on me too!

Our true blue tory government is in trouble from another direction now. A UN report has accused it of crimes against humanity in how they treat the population. They cite the raising reliance on food banks; the rising homeless problem we have, along with the issue of high rental costs and slum landlords; the savage benefit cuts that caused a rise in child poverty …

And the report goes on and on. Of course, being tories, they won’t even acknowledge the report, let alone do anything about it.

Most of these problems have been caused by IDS, one of the leaders of the ‘Leave’ campaign. But I haven’t seen anything of him for some time now, and that worries me folks. Where is he and what is he up to now. He’s a sly one is that one and I don’t trust him at all. So, why has he gone so quiet? There’s another issue here folks, it seems to me that it has been released quietly where it could be hidden in all the fuss over the Brexit vote. That makes me wonder if they had a look at before it’s general release. You can’t trust any politian, no matter what their colour, but for me the tories are the most untrustworthy of the whole lot.

Today’s photo …

An alpaca.

Today’s funny …

 A man in his 40's bought a new BMW and was out on the interstate for a nice evening drive. The top was down, the breeze was blowing through what was left of his hair and he decided to open her up.
As the needle jumped up to 80 mph, he suddenly saw flashing red and blue lights behind him.
"There's no way they can catch a BMW," he thought to himself and opened her up further. The needle hit 90, 100.... Then the reality of the situation hit him. "What on earth am I doing?" he thought and pulled over.
The cop came up to him, took his license without a word and examined it and the car.
"It's been a long day, this is the end of my shift and it's Friday the 13th. I don't feel like more paperwork, so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I haven't heard before, you can go."
The guy thinks for a second and says, "Last week my wife ran off with a cop. I was afraid you were trying to give her back."
"Have a nice weekend," said the officer.             

We're all lost at sea ...

June 29

Among all the fuss n bovver over Brexit, there are those who are saying we won’t leave the EU anyway, no matter how we vote. Here’s the story behind it …

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-wont-really-happen-second-referendum-markets-value-housing-pound-a7106996.html

So when we all thought the scare stories were over, now we find that they’re not over and will continue as long as there rags like the Independent willing to publish them. A pity really cos I used to like the rag occasionally.

The petition for a re-run of last week’s vote has reached 3.5 million signatures. Sounds a lot doesn’t it, but is it? The Coventry Telegraph ran a story yesterday about the number of signers by constituencies …

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/how-many-people-coventry-signed-11531024?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

In Dorktown and Bed’th only 2563 (as of yesterday), had signed it, just 2.8% of the electorate. It’s a long way from the 60% who voted in favour of Brexit last week!

This last week has been a bad day for democracy all round. Not only has the petition ignored the democratic proposes, but the Labour Party Muppets have done so too. By passing a vote of no confidence in Jittery Jerry, they have ignored the nationwide party members who voted for him. Now, instead of a united Muppet House that’s needed to clear the way for our exit in two years, the two major parties are pulling themselves apart over their leadership. I bet the leaders of North Korea, China and Pushy Putin are ribbing their hand in glee!

Do you know who is missing from all the talking heads this last week? IDS, or Ian Duncan Smith, that’s who. So where is he and what is he up to I wonder. Forget Boris, if IDA gets the top job, then we really will be in a rough ride until the next general election. At the start of the Brexit campaign he was right the front of the fight among the tory party. It un-nerves me as to where he is and what he’s up to now. Even the media are not mentioning him; why is that I wonder? Or have I missed something?

On labours side, have they got anyone who is leadership material if it comes to choosing a new one? A few names come to mind, Harriet Harman for one, but maybe, just maybe Tom Watson perhaps? Now there’s a man I could support as leader and could even be enough to bring back in line with as a full labour supporter. But there again, right now, none of them seem to be worrying all much about anything other than their own place within the party and within Muppet Central. How sad …

Today we are hoping for a quiet day so that we can get on and catch up with other things that have been sitting idle. For Jan that means a day painting. For me it’s a day of editing Shipshape and then getting some more writing done. I’m not actually being lazy with my writing though, and just like so many commercially successful writers say, ‘Write every day.’ With that in mind then, most days I sit and write this blog, and that means I am writing every day. On Monday I also wrote two book reviews for the Facebook group, For Reading Addicts, which made the word count for the day around 1500 words. That’s not far off the amount needed to do NANOWRIMO during November. Even so, I want to Shipshape published as soon as I can, and that is what I shall be looking to do.

Today’s photo is …

A female chimp.

Today’s funny …

A man was out for a walk one day and on his travels he wandered through a farm. Strangely, he saw a pig with a wooden leg! This intrigued him so much he found the farmer and quizzed him about it.
"This be no ordinary pig" said the farmer. "For example, only two days ago there was a fire in the chicken shed when I was away from the farm. The pig noticed this and immediately went and let all the chickens out into the yard. He then phoned for the fire brigade and came straight back to hold the fire until they arrived!"
"And a few weeks ago, I was driving my tractor down a steep hill, when I lost control and the vehicle overturned - knocking me unconscious! The pig saw this, phoned for the ambulance and then rushed to the tractor and pulled me clear of the cab just before it set on fire."
The farmer was just about to launch into another tale when the man said "Yes yes, but what about the wooden leg?"
"Well" said the farmer "when you've got an pig as good as that, you don't eat it all at once!"      

Building new houses and do we really need so many?

June 28

I got up this morning to find a leaflet stuffed through the letter box inviting us to a viewing of a proposed housing development off Higham Lane, which looks as though it’s an increase in the building that’s already going on there. On the reverse is and map of the area to be developed and it’s a huge site. I’ve just been looking at my A-Z of the town looking for brown field sites, and yes I’ve found some, but not as many as I thought there was. On the map you get the wrong impression of the sites in that they don’t look all that extensive. In reality they are really large areas.

The way things are going our town will run along the length of the A5, taking all the green belt land with it, well almost all of it. The block of land involved here is about 2/3rds of a block with boundaries along Higham Lane to the A5, north along the A5 as far as a disused railway line, then back along that line to Weddington Road. The current proposed site swallows up Top Farm and if things go how I expect them to, then Lower Farm will be next to go.

Another are that looks to be in their sights is the land bordering to left of The Long Shoot where building is already going on. Should that development be allowed to continue to grow, along the length of the A5, it won’t be long before the A5/The Long Shoot/Higham Lane will be one massive housing estate. But I wonder … how many local people will be able to afford these houses? For some time now Dorktown has been a dormitory town for Coventry, Birmingham and other larger cities.

Another concern is the local infrastructure and whether it can handle such large developments. As it is our medical and education provision is bursting at the seams. All this added housing will add to an already struggling system. As for the roads in the proposed areas, they are already very busy roads and the addition of so many new houses, with at least one car per house will just add to the overall congestion that the whole town struggles with.

All of these points can be applied to every planning application submitted within the UK as a whole of course, and indeed, have been raised many times, with the same rejected decision being made. But hang on a mow; last Thursday we vote to leave the EU. Once that decision is fully implemented, are we going to need so many new houses? Our population is rising, we know that, but that is mainly down to people living longer as well as the birth rate increasing, and without the influx from Europe. When that stops, I ask again, ‘Will we need so many new houses?’ Builders will always find reasons to build even more, after all, that’s their living isn’t it? However, it does seem that we are being held to ransom by them at times.

Oh dear, the kids are upset because they didn’t get their own way in the voting last weekend, so now they throwing a mardy-arse and want it run again. I’m wondering though if this is part of the way that youngsters (and from what I’ve seen its mainly youngsters who are kicking up the most), have been brought up. These days it seems that they not being told, ‘No!’ when they start demanding stuff from their parents. Perhaps that is why so many are not happy now, they have been given a firm ‘No’ from a lot people. The tantrum will die down at some point … I hope!

Today’s photo is …

A flower I snapped at Twycross. All the photos for the next few days will be from there anyway.

Today’s funny …

 Bob had been out diving off the Florida Keys for days looking for sunken treasure, but had had no luck. One day, while wading back onto the beach, he tripped over a chest filled with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds! Bob was heard to say as he carried the chest away, "Well it just goes to show you that booty is only shin deep!"                            

Not a bad day really ...

June 27

Yesterday went off fine, even if there was little if any sunshine; so how did my forehead and nose get a tad red I wonder. After the zoo we drove a few miles more and took Kile for his usual McDonalds, which he enjoyed, so usual too. Back home I began sorting my photos and I found 55 worth keeping out of the 300+ I shot. For most snappers that is a fairly high hit rate, but for me, if I like the result, then I keep it. I only reject items which are clearly out of focus or the exposure is too far off to be clearly rescued. The first from yesterday will be here later.

Of course yesterday was a Sunday, so therefore there were a lot of families about. Most of the adults were considerate and helped when the saw us on our scooters. However, the majority of the kids didn’t, and neither did their parents; in fact, some of them seemed to go out of the way to make things difficult for us. And it wasn’t just us either; I saw the same things with other scooter/wheelchair users too. Neither of us are keen to be in big crowds these days, so we have decided that we will go back later sometime, but in the week so we won’t be crowded out everywhere.

Sadly, this thing isn’t confined to tourist sites; no, I’ve seen it just about everywhere I go on my scooter. It seems to increasing too. Perhaps there’s growing resentment towards disabled folk these days? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was, simply because of the lack of patience I see whenever I go out. But, you know something? A lot of the blame for it is down to a number of scooter uses who use their disability as an excuse to do just about anything. I know one woman who used to ask if she could get past someone; if they didn’t give way, she would ride straight into them – no excuse for that at all.

There’s another group who think that claim they are allowed priority in everything, and therefore when someone helps or moves out of their, they do not say ‘Thank you’. In most places disabled are not given priority as a right, but it’s down to the company concerned, not the law. Rugby town centre had a problem with a small minority of scooter riders who ignore everyone and rode though crowds as if they were not there. A number of people were injured by them, and they didn’t even look back to see what had happened or if the person they hit was OK or not. There was a lot of resentment there are the time.

Such incidents don’t any of us any good at all. To make it even worse, the police can’t do anything about them either. Scooters don’t have registration plates on them, nor are they insured (ours included actually), and the law is a fairly grey area really. Scooter come in two speed ranges; ours are within the lower 4mph range, which is fine and we can use them on town pavements, but not on the roads.

The 8mph range are not supposed to be used on pavements, only on the road itself. However, what use is that when a rider needs to get into town to do some shopping? At some point they have to ride on the pavement. This speed difference is where the grey areas lie in wait for the unwary. When I bought my first scooter all of this was explained to me, including the advice about drinking booze and riding it. Our current scooters are from a local company and we’re happy with the company and the scooters. When we collected our new scooters we were not told any of the advice I was given first time round; however, with me being an experience rider at that time, they didn’t really need to tell us.

Here’s something else you may be unaware of; there is no requirement for rider training. That means you can enter a shop, buy a scooter and ride it off without any training at all. There’s a lot of hazard out there for scooter rider’s folks, and not all of them are the street furniture all towns have. Pedestrians are our biggest concern overall. They don’t seem to care or to be bothered as long as they can get where they are going, and sod all the others. Guessing what these people are going to do next is impossible, honestly. And as for those on their phones texting or playing a game are so involved with it, they just don’t seem aware of where they are or why.

Today’ photo then …

Covers both the zoo and a scooter rider; Jan in pixel-packing mode.

Today’s funny …

A petrol attendent is filling a man's car, when he notices that a small penguin was sitting in the back seat. The attendant turns to the man and asks what the deal is with the penguin.
"Well" the man says. "I found the little guy a few weeks ago wandering around looking sad. I've been going crazy thinking of things I can do for him."
"There's a zoo just down the road," replies the attendant. "Why don't you take him there".
The man thanks the attendant, pays, and drives off to the zoo.
A few days later the man pulls up to the petrol station and again is met by the attendant who notices that the penguin is still in the back of the car.
"I thought you were taking him to the zoo" asks the attendant.
"I did thanks" answers the man. "He loved it, so I'm taking him to the beach today".     

We're off out at last ...

June 26

Many years ago our town had loads of cinemas. I clearly remember The ABC Ritz, The Scala and the Palace, where I watched oh so many major films, and more than enough crap ones too. In addition to those three I have memories of one in Stratford Street, one in Market Place and another in Bond Gate. One of the great films (for its time that is), I saw was The Planet of the Apes, with Charlton Heston in the lead role of Taylor. This one left a big impression on me, even if the full impact didn’t really strike me until many years later.

Yesterday evening, we sat and watched the latest version of the series of eight movies, Battle For the Planet of the Apes, released in 2014. Again I was well impressed, for my money it’s the best one of the eight so far. We certainly enjoyed it, even if I was in various parts of it I was pausing it to do bits n bobs towards dinner. Kile helped me too, and for that I was grateful. So the question is, which DVD will be watching when we get back for Twycross later?

It’s Sunday morning and telly is usually full of politics and talking heads and I don’t have a lot of time for any of it. Today there will be the inevitable talk about last week’s vote to leave the EU, and I’ve had enough of it now. All I want now is for the withdrawal process to start, the sooner it starts the better for all of us. I’d like to see that hole under the channel filled in too, but I’m realist enough to know that won’t happen.

Late last night I decided to make sure Kile’s camera is ready for today; good job I did cos the battery was well down, so it got charged overnight. My Nikon however, hasn’t been looked at yet, but when I do in a short while, it won’t take long to sort out. Even if the battery is dead I still have three spares that I always take with me. There’s a 16gig SD card in there too, and I have yet to fill it on a day out. Yet there snapper about who use 32 and even 64gig cards and still take spares with them. OK, I like snapping but that does seem OTT to me.

Part of the fun of being out and about is looking around and enjoying the place you are. Spend the day filling a 32gig means that you are likely to miss a lot of the broader picture of the place. As it is, I shall be snapping the animals and will be on the lookout for candid shots too, and of the abstract and full colour shots that I like shooting as well. Should be a good day.

And so it’s time to get ready for the off, so I’ll end here and get it posted. Today’s photo …

Bright colours on display at the Merry Hell shopping centre.

Today’s funny …

 A Scotsman was on a fishing trip in the northwoods of Canada. "What's that over yonder'?" the Scotsman asked of his guide. "That's a moose, eh," said the guide. "Aye!" exclaimed the Scotsman, with raised eyebrow. "If that be a moose, I'd be sure an to hate to see your rats!"  

We're out, but Jan brings it down to earth

June 24

Well, we’ve done it! There’s an almost 4% majority, but I wish it was a larger gap, but now we have to live with that decision. The first result is that vote is that Daft Dave has resigned, which hasn’t surprised me really, but even with my doubts, I do think he should have stuck with it. Now the Tories will spend months pulling themselves apart even more apart while choosing their new leader. That is the last thing the UK needs after yesterday’s vote. However, we have decided and we now have to live with it. I just hope that we don’t pull ourselves apart as a nation because of it.

Last night wasn’t a good one for me, not only because of how hot it was in the bedroom (I woke up dripping with sweat and my bedding needs washing now,) but twice I was woken up by music been played somewhere close. But where was it coming from? This isn’t the first time it’s happened either, but it is the first time that it’s happened twice. The first time last night was just before 3am, the second time just before 5am. And the music was different each time.

Trying to describe the music is difficult really.  It’s not loud as such and it doesn’t sound like any music I’ve ever heard. It doesn’t wake Jan either, so it makes me wonder if it’s all in my mind. Or perhaps it might be like the echo sounds that you get when you put a large shell to your ear. I should say that I do have tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and just now my ears are tending to be either dry and itchy to being damp and waxy. At sometimes I shall have to make an appointment and see a doctor about it. But I see enough doctors as it is without adding to it.

Kile hasn’t gone to school this morning. When he arrived here from his carers club on Wednesday from school, his left eye was streaming badly, and he said it was stinging badly too. He got up this morning getting ready for school and his eye was really badly crusted. His mum said to take him to his own GP, they have a drop in clinic there on Friday, He has conjunctivitis and now has to have drops in his eye four times a day, and he hates it. Well, he’ll have to get used to it.

Today is really turning into a red letter day for us now. Jan has just left for a taxi up to the hussy A&E. Earlier this week we bought a new camping bed for Kile. Jan wanted to see how it needed to be sure how it worked, and she managed to drop it on to her left instep. Not good; it’s been getting worse as the time has gone on since and now she can’t even get her shoe or slipper on.

So she’s off to A&E. And now I sit and wonder what she has done. The result could well cause us a good bit hassle, mostly for Jan of course. Here’s part of the problem for her. She is always in pain in her shoulders and hips, pretty well everywhere really, due to her fibromyalgia. If her foot has a fracture, then she won’t be able to use crutches. There’s a pair in the bed that haven’t moved since we first put them there. We’ve dealt with all this before and we’ll do so again.       

And so Kile and me are sat here waiting patiently for when she calls us to let us know what’s going on. I have a feeling that she got a fracture. Ah well …

Today’s photo …

A busker.

Today’s funny …

How many politicians does it take to change a light bulb?
Four, one to change it and the other three to deny it.