25 August
The Hunger Games. We’ve seen adds for it on Netfix, I’ve seen the books about in various
places, but yer no wot? I’ve never really fancied them, and neither has Jan.
For me, reading the shout on the back of them told the story, and of course,
the goodie always wins. Then I found the full set in a pack in The Works for a
fiver, a saving of £12, so I went for it. What a fool I’ve been! I really
enjoyed all three of them.
So when we were searching through Virgin movies and found what I though
was all the films too. We watched #3 last night, with me watching the clock
with the story line in my mind. It ended early, so there’s a fourth film to
watch. Jan found the four film pack on Amazon and its due here tomorrow. Of course,
you can never get the full story into one two-hour film, but the parts left out
are not so vital.
As I was leaving The Works yesterday I saw another book set, The Maze Runner, another 4 for a fiver
offer, I was sorely tempted with them, but even at that price, cash was a tad short
at the time, so I’m hoping I can get them next time I’m in town.
That earthquake in Italy is a bit of a shockers folks. Even so, there is
a history of quakes in Italy, so why the shock I wonder? Perhaps it’s just the
latest one and it reminds us of just how close to home it is. At least we don’t
have any fault lines here in the UK, even if we do get the odd quake here. What
we don’t have are active volcanos, Italy has two of them, and don’t forget, it’s
not all that large a country really land wise. The death toll increased by 50
while I watched the news last evening. It’s fairly low at 120 deaths (now
stands at 247 as of two minutes ago on MSN), when it comes to quakes in urban
areas.
A few years ago where there was series of quakes that seemed to be moving
along a fault line between the African, Arabian and Eurasian Plates. The
movement that began a theory was runs along the lines of the quakes becoming
stronger as they moved causing a major threat to Istanbul, before continuing on
towards Italy. I’ve not seen much of it for a few years now, but who knows eh,
it might well start to move again. Perhaps the last on in Italy is part of it …
And so the largest aircraft in the world has crashed on only its second test
flight. This aircraft is another balloon design but using helium and not
hydrogen to inflate it. This idea keeps on being tried but so far no-one has
been able to bring one to market after the Hindenburg disaster years ago. Germany
used them as bombers in WW1 and in WW2 they were used as barrage balloons, and
attempt at trying to prevent the bombers from Germany. However, I can’t see
them ever being a commercial success. But what do I know; I once said that
compact cassettes wouldn’t ever catch on … well, let’s move on shall we.
There does seem to be thing with new technology that a number of
different systems come along at the same time all doing the same thing, like
with PCs and Apple. Think back to the video players, VHS, Beta max and the
Phillips 2000 system. Slowly it was VHS that won out. Right now we but DVDs
simply because of the extra cost of Blue Ray discs and players. Again, Blue Ray
won out over the other systems on the market at the time. Now there’s HD and of
course 3D. I won’t be going for 3D, can’t be bothered with it.
Today’s photo is another flower at the zoo …
Today’s funny …
A young man, hired by a
supermarket, reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a
warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, ''your first job will be
to sweep out the store.''
''But I'm a college graduate,'' the young man replied indignantly.
''Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that,'' said the manager. ''Here, give me the
broom, I'll show you how.''
24 August
Sorry about yesterday’s lack of a blog folks; I’d come to stop when I
felt I was waffling just to fill in space. You’ll probably see what I mean when
get down to it. Today’s is late because I fancied a run into town on me scooter,
and with all that lovely sunshine out there, I just couldn’t resist. I got back
in around half-hour ago, got changed, made a coffee and with of garibaldis I
can get on with things.
The Wednesday market is on today, I say ‘market’ a wee bit cagily, simply
because of the low number of stalls there. However, one stall is a bookstall
and today I found two books I’ve been looking for, for some time now, Peter
James’ Billionaire and Ian Rankins’ The Complaints. Not my only book
purchase today though; in The Works their 3 for £5 is now 4 for £5; come on now,
what reading addict can refuse that? Not me, so there are two Val McDermid, a
Peter May and a Kathy Reichs.
I wanted next week’s telly pages so I popped into Smudges for them, and
right in front of me was the new Parry Hotter book. Of course, I had a look at
it, even if I didn’t fancy it. Having seen it, I won’t be buying it. I’ve read
a number of complaints about it because it isn’t a novel, it’s script. There’s
been enough fuss over it and all the buyers had to do was look inside it and
they would have known; so, no sympathy from me then. Besides, it might have Rowling’s
name on the front, but she didn’t write it. I did leave Smudges with the telly
pages, along with the Times and Computeractive.
Did you see that bit on the news last night where Corbyn was photographed
sat on the floor of a train complaining about there being no seats? I did, and
I’m not surprised that Virgin was upset by it and showed him finding and
sitting down in a seat. The Times has
lead today’s edition on the story, again, I’m not surprised. If it was a stunt
it has backfired badly and what concerns me is that it may well cost him the
leadership election. Why am I concerned? Simply because of the way the parliamentary
Labour party have behaved towards the democratically elected leader. They have
ignored the grass roots and this Smith guy is there making a fuss as another way
of undermining the democratic process. That is not the Labour Party I supported
for as long as I can remember, and they have lost my vote for good. Such antics
will not get them back into power.
Now to what I started yesterday morning …
23 August
Another dream this morning that may help me later take Arathusia forward
in some way, so I have made a note of it can expand it later before trying to
work it in somewhere, I think I know where it will fit in nicely.
The other day as I was about to settle, a thought came to mind and I
quickly made a note of it. Why do these things come just as I’m settling for
the night, but this one makes no sense at all considering what it was? Anyway,
the was, ‘How do air-lines calculate the weight of their passengers?’ They must
use some sort of average I should imagine. But why did it come to mind at that
time? We haven’t been thinking or talking about flying off somewhere so it can’t
have been that. And that my friends is why I have so many notebooks spread
around home, so that I can make the notes as when they come. Who knows when one
of them will prove useful somewhere along the line.
Our shopping trip went off OK and I pushed the trolley around for the
whole time. By the time we had finished I was starting to pull a wee bit, but overall,
it was fine. Carrying in home was a bit more awkward though, but we managed
between us. OK, I went to the zoo last week but yesterday was the first of our
normal daily runs out, something I am going to have to get on and deal with.
Thankfully, I didn’t hurt anything. Mind you, the scab isn’t doing all that much
to fall off; at least the wound is fine.
Today’s photo is …
one of the many flowers I snapped at the Zoo.
Today’s funny …
Where would you be most likely to find a prehistoric
cow?
In a moo-seum.
22 August
After yesterday’s rant about zoos, I find a new series on the BEEB but
another series based in a zoo, Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire. That’s one we
haven’t visited before, bit too far right now. I missed the first 15 minutes of
it so I set off the recorder and set the link for the series, so I’m hoping it
will get the full show we can watch later today. Zoos do have one thing of benefit
to the general public, and that is it allows us to get closer to the animals
than many of would be able to do normally. All we need to do is to follow the
rules and use common sense when it comes to getting too close the larger
animals. I’m still not sure about the number of zoos there are though; that’s
something that will need to be discussed at some time.
Art works continue to fascinate me. Right now we are watching another of
the Fake or Fortune that the BEEB is
showing a new series of. As the title indicates, this series is not about
showing a series of art works for us all to ‘woo’ and ‘ahh’ too. No, not at all.
This series is looking closer at the featured works and trying to find out if
the attributed artist actually produced it, and that my friends is art history,
and the history of art. That’s two separate subject areas, even if they do
overlap a lot. Oh how I wish I had followed up on that when I was with the OU.
Too late now of course, I’ve moved on somewhat now and I just don’t have the
time.
Another interest of mine is family history, but yet again, time is against
me. There is not enough of it to do what I would like to do; therefore, choices
have to be made. Right now family history is right outside the doable area. I
do have a distant cousin living in Colorado (yeah, I know, me and everyone
else), who is looking at the Jayne side of the family, and every so often she
sends me updates she has come across, thank you Janice.
The writing side of things is the one that is really suffering right now,
simply because of time and of course the wound on my back makes sitting in
front of the lappy a bit awkward really. It’s not hurting at all, it’s just the
scab that had dried out and working its way off. I’ll hoping that I can back to
it soon. But you know what? I’m really missing having a writing area within
home. The real problem is that writing here in the living is difficult while
Jan is here, she likes to have the telly on after an hour or two of quiet.
Dependant on weather I could ride down to the library in town and write
there. If not, the I can move into the bedroom I suppose. I’m hoping that come
November I’m seriously considering doing NANOWRIMO again this year. That will
mean writing around 1600 words a day for the 30 days of the month. We’ll see …
And here’s part of the problem for me; it’s foot butcher day today, and
they are really ready to done. Jenny is due here in around ten minutes. So now
I need to end this right now to be ready for here.
Today’s photo …
another from Whipsnade
Today’s funny …
A man goes into a travel agents
and says that he wants to book a vacation in China.
"Peking?" asked the travel agent.
"No, I want to have a good look around."
21 August
Sorry I’m late with today’s blog but we just watched a recorded show on
telly I wanted to express my views on, here’s goes …
Quite recently I recorded a Horizon
programme off telly, this one asking the question whether zoos were facing
extinction or not. Many zoos have been getting a hammering from so many animal
welfare groups over the years, including one from the RSPCA. As with so many
areas where critics stand up and shout that the critics are wrong, this RSPCA reports
was also attacked. However, it wasn’t the report that was attacked, no, it was
the work of the RSPCA that was attacked.
That is the same thing I’ve noticed happening in other areas where
reports are critical of the work/role of an organisation. Many times authors of
reports are attacked for what they do or did rather than the report they are
reacting against. Perhaps it’s thought that by trying to discredit the author’s
work, it will diminish the negative report and leave them to go along with
their what they are doing and collection their pay cheques just as normal.
As far as I see it, that really is the issue here folks. A zoo gets a
poor report/review visitor numbers might drop and that I might impact of
salaries, and that can’t be allowed to happen can it? Don’t forget, in some parts
of the world, backing for zoos come from big business, and they want their
money to come back to them with interest. That also will be related to salaries
too. Top and bottom, the animals come far down the pecking order where this
happens.
Do you happen to remember a film called Free Willy? It’s the story of teenage runaway who becomes attached
to an orca in a sea aquarium. How old is that film now; well, that was 23 years
ago. That orca that ‘played’ Willy had his dorsal fin flopping over. Questions
were asked about why it was like that. The answer was basically it happens with
all orcas in captivity. ‘Willy’, by the way, died in 2003 … http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1449436/Whale-star-of-Free-Willy-dies-after-return-to-wild.html
His death was after he had been released back into the wild but he remained
dependant on humans for his food and become too ill to eat and died of
pneumonia. Sad eh …
In 2010 another orca managed to kill a trainer at one of the Sea World
parks in the States. The park claims it was an accident, oh really? Witnesses
say the orca jumped out of the pool, grabbed the trainer around the waist and
pulled her back into the pool with him, where she was crushed and partly eaten …http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8535618.stm
An accident? Perhaps knowing the same orca had taken part in the killing
another trainer before that in 1991. Whatever the truth there, that same orca
(filmed for Horizon in the last year
or so), http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07891ch also has a floppy dorsal fin. At least Sea World
has seen the light and has now said it will be phasing out the orca shows over
time. At least they are no longer making excuses and blaming others for the
problems the Park causes.
Other zoos have had problems with their animals too; remember the
four-year-old who managed to get into a gorilla exhibit, the gorilla was shot
dead. There have been numerous other attacks over the years, but you know what?
Most of them were because of stupid actions of the injured people causing them.
Like the man who stuck his arm into a tiger cage to get a better photo; or the
woman decided it was fun to go for a swim with polar bears, http://www.ranker.com/list/13-of-the-best-idiots-climbing-the-wall-at-the-zoo/danielle-dauenhauer
But are these attacks justification for closing all zoos? I don’t think
so. Certainly those zoos who continue to exhibit animals in plain concrete
box-cages should be closed. As long as the animals live in areas large enough
for them, what is the problem? No-one can blame an animal for attacking
something that enters their home range, there’s enough signs about warning of
the dangers so why do they do they act so crazy. Most of us would do the same
if someone broke into our home while we were there.
There’s another role that zoos play though, that of conservation in which
some animals have been saved from extinction and others haven’t. The Horizon link above gives an example of
each. Monkey World in Dorset rescues apes and monkeys from various places and
lets some of them breed, depending on species and their risk of becoming extinct,
woolly monkeys for example. Locally we have Twycross Zoo just a few miles from
here, another primate centre which takes part in various breeding programmes worldwide.
So far you may think I am in favour of keeping most zoos, but that show
raised another issue that needs to be taken into account, the culling of zoo
animals. It seems that most European zoos do cull animals, simply because they
have far too many of them, and these are healthy animals remember. In Denmark
one zoo allowed the zoo visitors see the slaughter and butchering of some
animals with the meat going to feed the carnivore. As far as I know, I don’t
know of any British doing this and keeping quiet about it.
If there are so many animals in a zoo and they can’t be transferred to
another zoo, then that points to there being too many animals in our zoos. What
is the answer then? Most of these animals will not be suitable for release.
Perhaps it’s time to stop the majority of breeding within our zoos. If not,
then perhaps there really are too many zoos and some need to close. Here in the
midlands for example. Within a 50 miles drive of us here in CV10 we have
Dudley, Twycross, Drayton Manor, West Midland Safari Park, + the Birmingham
Wildlife Centre and the Sea Life Centre. Only the latter two don’t exhibit as comprehensive
range of animals though. I think that’s too many really.
That is going to controversial for a lot of folks, just the idea of
closing a zoo is enough to increase pulse rates, add in the local issues and
lost jobs and we will have a huge problem. I think it will become a problem
soon enough anyway. We will just have to think it through when it does happen,
with an open mind that is …
Today’s photo then …
What else, a zoo animal, an elephant.
Today’s funny …
Patient: Doctor, doctor, I've
just been bitten by a dog.
Doctor: Name?
Patient: Fido.
21 August
A friend of ours has organised another barbi, and guess what, the
forecast is for rain and high winds. This seems to happen whenever Roger and
Pam decide to host one, so much so that it became a standing joke at once in
our church. And now he they have done it again. Jan will be heading off to it
later taking Kile with her. From there they are heading for the local wild life
centre to see an injured badger they have there. Kile hasn’t seen a badger yet,
and I haven’t either but I’ll wait to try to see one out in the wild.
I’m rather pleased that I hadn’t made any plans for going out today
anyway, even if I’d like to just to look and shoot the market again, err … with
my camera, not a gun I should say. After Thursday I’m still feeling a bit tired
so hopefully I should make it on Wednesday. But even if I had made plans, they
would be ignored because of the weather forecast, what with rain and possible
gale force winds. Thanks, but no thanks; I’ll stay here in home.
While I’m writing this I’m also watching Animal Cops – Huston. I find it really hard to understand the
mentality of some of the people it features in its cruelty cases. This show,
and others like it, get to film in some of the roughest areas of the US. In feature
films we usually see only the more affluent areas and that gives a false impression
of the country. Of course, there’s also shows on UK telly with the same
problem. There’s one similarity in the animal rescue shows, and that is the
issue of pride, and possibly even some shame.
People get their pets and then found out they don’t have a lot of knowledge
about caring for them. Eventually, the animal suffers. The pride comes in at
that point because of the shame of having to admit they have made a mistake. It
seems to be the same thing with animal hoarders too. Sadly, there may be a
mental illness problem in that case as well. And so we have proud pet owners
who are not willing to accept that there’s a problem. Toes dig in on their side
of the line and the more they are pushed, the more the toes dig in. The only
loser in this is of course, the poor animal. So sad …
There’s another issue that is doing the rounds here in the UK right now.
Large numbers of dogs are being stolen, mainly pedigree dogs. The attraction is
obvious of course, but you can’t really tell if a dog has been fixed unless you
get your hands on it. With a bitch, even then you can’t tell unless you make a careful
examination to see any scars where she has been spayed. So if these dogs are
being stolen as breeding animals, what happens to those who don’t make the grade?
Do they just get thrown out and if lucky, get picked up as strays,
hopefully being returned to their owners? Or do they end up on someone’s plate?
And I’m not just being negative or funny here either, oh no, there are people
here in the UK who come from parts of the world where eating dogs is a normal
practice. Most Brits would find that idea appalling, I know I do.
Where does that leave me when I say that if it was available I would be willing
to eat horse meat. How many folks would be appalled at that one I wonder? And
yet I have eaten it before when I was in Germany, and I have to say that it was
rather nice, if a little chewy. I also find myself in agreement with the
Princess Royal on this one. We know of her love of horses and yet she has said
that with the huge number of surplus horses here in the UK, eating them would
be more beneficial than keeping them alive for sake of it. I was surprised that
wasn’t all that much of a fuss over it though.
We carnivores eat all sorts of meat don’t we. Butcher shops throughout
the country sell all the normal farmed animals and occasionally we find whole
rabbits and hares hanging inside. I actually like both, but the one I haven’t
tried yet is venison, mainly because it’s so expensive. I have tried grouse but
wasn’t impressed with it, mainly because it was flambéed with scotch, I don’t
like scotch (but do like a single malt). Pheasant sounds good but pigeon would
be a big no-no for me. But let’s get back to pet neglect …
Pride and shame leads the front one side of the animal neglect story; on
the other is the number of rescue organisations worldwide. We have the RSPCA,
Dog Trust and locally the Warwickshire Wildlife Rescue group. At times they
must feel dejected when they see so many neglected and abandoned animals. Yet
they continue their work on a daily basis no matter they come across. It’s a
job I couldn’t do, I get angry and upset when I see what happens on these telly
shows, seeing it real life, I’m not sure I could handle it at all. So all power
to the rescue groups, wherever they are working.
Today’s photo then …
A one horned rhino.
Today’s funny …
A father took his young son to
the opera for the first time. The conductor started waving the baton, and the
soprano began her aria. The boy watched everything intently and finally asked:
''Why is he hitting her with his stick?''
''He's not hitting her,'' answered the father with a chuckle.
''Well, then,'' asked the boy, ''why is she screaming?''
19 August
What a great day yesterday was. We were up at 7am and off to Whipsnade
Zoo, and we all had a great day out. I’ve even caught the sun on my face a wee
bit, and so did Kile and he wore a hat too. It’s a huge site and at times you
have to travel some distance between the enclosures. Jan and I used our
scooters but poor Kile had to walk around. We were all shattered by the time we
arrived home, with Kile being the worst. Even so, we didn’t see all of it.
However, we did learn from our trip; you can drive around a large part of it.
Next time we go we will drive around and use our walkers when we need to get
out and view the animals.
On the way we drove past a place called Dunstable Down, a place we hadn’t
heard of before. At the time though we were on our way there and even so, it
was very misty out there, so we didn’t stop; on the way home we were all
shattered and even though the mist was gone, we were so tired that we didn’t
stop. That leaves us with a visit in the future. Another one that I knew about,
but hadn’t thought of, was Woburn Safari Park. We wouldn’t be able to do there
and The Downs in one day, but certainly it’s certainly worth looking at later.
Travelling was easy down the M1, even if it was slow with all the
roadworks and speed limits down to 40mph in places. Even so, we saw some
horrendous driving out there again, mainly from car drivers and bikers; for
once the truckers were behaving themselves. We came home up the A5, a not so
direct route but more pleasant than the M1. Even so, we had bikers racing along
and blowing horns when they didn’t have enough space between two lines of cars.
The biggest bug bears were the number slow moving cars on the way, pottering
along at 40mph when there was need for it, where the national speed limit of
60mph (on single carriageways,). That of course lead to frustration in other
drivers who eventually blasted their way past. From what I saw yesterday, I am
really pleased I gave up my licence last year.
Back to the zoo then … my Nikon got a lot of use yesterday, 298 images in
all. Once in home I got them all transferred to my lappy and made a start on
the editing them. Right now I have Elements 12 opening the next batch. So,
today’s photo can’t be anything but from yesterday …
A head shot of a giraffe.
Today’s funny …
A naval
officer met a pirate at an inn and couldn't help but noticing that the pirate
had a wooden leg, a hook and an eye patch.
"How did you get the wooden leg?" asked the officer.
"Well," said the pirate, "we were in a storm at sea and I was
swept overboard into shark-infested waters. And one of the sharks bit off my
leg."
"That's terrible," said the officer. "What about the hook? How
did you come by that?"
"Well" said the pirate, "we were boarding an enemy ship and in
the heat of battle, my right hand was sliced off by an enemy swordsman."
"How terrible," said the officer. "And the eye patch?"
"A seagull dropping fell into my eye."
"You lost your eye because of a seagull dropping?"
"Well, it was my first day with the hook."
17 August
And I’m still stuffed after a day of eating very little indeed. I’m off
into town on me scooter so hopefully I will feel less stuffed. The idea of
today is to just get out and about for a few hours, but with the market on
today, I can get few more pairs of the ‘gentle grip’ socks I need, then I can
got rid of the older, tighter ones. Of course, my camera will be in attendance
too, I mean, who knows what will pop up screaming to be snapped at. While I’m
off having fun, Jan is going to collect Kile for a few days. And the sun has
come to play too.
Team GB is continuing to do really well out in Rio. I can’t help but
admire them all on what they have achieved, even the horsey ones. The work and
dedication needed to even make the team, let alone coming away with a medal.
Well done all!
Have you been keeping up the fun and games over in Yankyland, even with
the Olympics going on and taking most of the headlines? We don’t have any say
in who gets voted in as President, but we really should be interested because
whoever it is, there will be effects over here in the UK. My concern that
Farter Trump gets the vote; that will devastate the US and then we would feel
that devastation at some point. The other problem is that the man will not
listen to anyone else and steams ahead no matter what his actions will mean.
That makes him a very dangerous man.
Today’s plans have all been changed again, mainly due to Kile being here.
We haven’t taken him out for a long time now so I’m staying in today and
tomorrow we will go off to Whipsnade Zoo. The tickets are booked and paid for
so we’ll head off around 8am in the morning; one more zoo off the list.
Today’s photo …
A happy worker.
Today’s funny …
Walter went on a date with his
new girlfriend and they reached the door of her flat just before midnight. When
she kissed him goodnight she said, "be careful on your way home or someone
might rob you of all the money you've saved this evening.
