Another bad day yesterday, hence no blog. Not much different this morning
either but I have things to do today.
I wonder what has been happening over the last couple of days? I got fed
up with wall to wall coverage of Farter. If nothing else, he knows how to
create a fuss. Just a pity that his new job is a lot more than making a fuss. Apparently,
there are islands that are ruled by animals. I knew about one off the coast of
Brazil where humans are not allowed because of the number of snakes creeping
around. Well, now the US is being run by the sleaziest snake of all time. As
much as I would love to visit the place for a look around, I won’t be going
while he’s in charge!
We have Kile with us again. After Thursday evening, he hasn’t been home
since. It is his normal weekend to be with us anyway, but it’s a long way from
home to school and making the trip twice in 12 hours was not really much fun at
all. Tomorrow evening he has his young carers club in town; so, from school he
walks back here, about a mile, Jan takes him carers and collects him. He will
stay for Monday night, get up for school as normal and then head off back home
as normal. Once he does get a place at Hartshill School, I wonder if he will
miss coming here? It will happen at some time, sitting around with a pair of
old codgers won’t compare with running around Hartshill Hayes country park
chasing the girls, or not, depending on girls I suppose these days.
Whatever, I have a feeling he will want to come back to us if I do get my
driving licence back in the hope that we can go out for the day with us both
driving. We had stopped going off because Jan found it too hard to do all the
driving on a long trip. She did try to do it all but it was clear from the
start that was finding hard. That was why we didn’t do any birding last year. I
only had had one trip to London on the coach too, but that was before my
operation and by heck I suffered for it the next few days. Not only that, but I
didn’t get a lot of photography done either.
You know me and Facebook, right? Well, there’s a group on there called
Creative Writing Support that I follow. The other day another user mentioned
that she wished she was retired so she can spend more time writing. Opps … I am
retired and I don’t spend all that much time writing anyway, so I said so –
another opps methinks. However, considering we were not racing around the
country birding or just out on day trips for the fun of it (not that birding
isn’t fun of course), I had plenty of time to write. So why didn’t I get on and
do more. One word my friends PROCASTINATION! A certain killer to all writing
hopes and dreams. Quickly followed by another reason, too bloody lazy. I need
to conquer both this year.
And yet isn’t not really that I didn’t do a lot of writing last year; I
mean, I did get this bog done most days of the year, but even so, once that was
done I was ready for a break. The inevitable followed, I didn’t get back to
doing any more writing on my novels. Ideas came and were noted; mini-rants were
also noted (I’ve always found it useful to get things out of my system by
shouting about it on paper). And yet none, or very little has been turned into
useful things for the novels, yes, novels, plural. I do have several on
the go that I play about with at different times. See what I mean –
PROCASTINATION again, do anything but getting on and doing what needs to be
done.
Enough of that – today’s photo …
I’ve posted this one before, but I like
it, Arnie nit-picking.
Today’s funny …
Did you hear about the
kidnapping? He woke up.
20 January
We’re up early this morning to be with Kile for when he goes off school,
he’s already left and I should think he’s got there by now. Jan tried to get to
the bottom of his free meals school meals last night, and I’m still confused.
If he has free meals, then why does he take cash to school too? Not only that,
why does he have to have a sandwich before they will let him buy anything else?
Hopefully Jan will get to the bottom of it when she goes off to spend the day
with his mum in a wee while. Whatever, Jan has made him a chicken batch this
morning, at least we know he like that! Oh yes, I nearly forgot; we received a
text message to say that he was coming here after school today to get ready for
an after-school kick-boxing class. Now we have through to Tuesday.
With Jan out for most of the day, I shall be getting on doing some
writing. My pen is full, my paper pile is sat here waiting; all I need to do
now is to get done on here so I make a start. What I haven’t decided on yet is
when to start typing up Arathusia,
but I think I have learned something at least. Currently I’m using an A4 pad for
the hand writing; it’s a large fairly heavy to lug about. So many other writers
use A5 notebooks, a lot easier to carry around ready for use. Maybe I should
try that too seeing the large number of them I have here, most of which Dave
left. That is for the future though, right now I need to get on and get finished
here.
Wednesday I commented about Doug Paully and his win in the courts over a disability
issue and suggested it is a much wider issue than the UK bus industry. The
airline industry has come under fire too. EasyJet has been fined by a French
court for refusing to allow a disabled passenger to board one of their flights,
and not for the first time either. Their reason for the refusal was security
issues and the disabled man travelling alone. £51K this last time and they are
considering appealing against it. Jan and I are fortunate in that we don’t use
air travel all that often, but when we do, our disabilities mean we can’t have
access to the seats with the extra room. The reason is that the emergency exits
are there and must be kept clear. We accept that as being reasonable and don’t
make a fuss. As I said the other day, it’s that 10 letter word again …
Australia is now having to deal with a nutcase – err, no, I’d better
change that, a mentally ill driver with
a history of violence has deliberately driven at a crowd of pedestrians and
killed three of them. So, the UK is not the only place where such people are
allowed to roam freely in public. How many other places do likewise and when
will they learn that care in the community doesn’t work. Perhaps the body count
will never reach a high enough figure for that. To admit a mistake is hardest
thing any politian can do. To do so will allow questions to be asked over other
issues they are responsible for. And it is the politicos who make those policy
decisions, not the health-care professionals.
Farter’s big day today my friends, and I’m sick of it already. The news
will be full of it today and for the next week too. How on earth did he manage
to win an election? I don’t know if he had help from outside to get there, but
I doubt he could do it on his own. Ye gods … I shudder to think what he will do
to the US economy and the effects it will have on the world economy. The
real-world skulldugeries in Washington must be rubbing their hands with joy at
the prospect of an easy target and the huge amount of dollars that will come
their way.
Whatever … today’s photo …
We still have this little beauty.
Today’s funny …
A little girl asked her father if
all fairy tales begin with "Once upon a time?"
He replied, "No, some begin with 'If I am elected.”
19 January
Handwriting vs typing, which is best would you think? No matter what I
said yesterday, I can’t make up my mind on this one. I did spend a fair amount
of time hand writing day before yesterday, but as I said, I will need to type
it up later too. I suppose really, what I am wondering is when is it the best
time start typing. Is it wait until the work is completely finished, or type it
up as soon as you finish that’s day’s work. The fear of losing work is a worry
for many writers. There have been a few times that I have thought I’ve lost a
whole days’ work. Luckily, I have found it soon after.
What I have lost though is over 100,000 words from this blog. The word
count was reading 940,000+ words when I had finished for the day. I closed down
the doc and saved it as normal, but the next day when I came to open it, I had
to search for it. When I eventually found and opened it, the word count was down
to 830,00+ words, and over three months of work had gone. I still haven’t found
it either, not fun, but in reality it’s not all that a worry, the blogs
concerned are on-line anyway. Now I have copies saved to three different
sources as well as the cloud, hopefully that will work.
But I wonder about that too. Apparently
there some computers manufacturers who have stopped adding USB ports to their
machines. In such cases the users will have no choice but to save the to the
cloud, and pay for the privilege too. So, when we will our USB devices become redundant?
I’m thinking of our cameras and how they connect to the lappy, but there again,
as long as there is a SD card port, that should be a problem. Printers will
need to be wi-fi machines too; I know ours are but we’ve never bother trying to
set them up that way. Perhaps we should really?
And so the pace of technology races ahead. I wonder if that SecDef in
Washington thought about just how far his decision would go when he was faced
with three different systems to contacting the three US armed forces. Alan
Turing and his code breakers using their Colossus machine would have not
thought that the computing power in an average wrist watch these days would be
greater than the power of their big beastie. There’s a law in computer that
goes something like this, the power of computing chips will double every 18
months, while their size and cost will reduce at the same rate. I can’t
remember who said that now, but at least the first clause is right, and maybe
the second one is too when you compare what you can get today with what you got
two years ago for the same cost.
Software changes at a similar rate. I current use Photoshop 12 for my
photo editing; every so often I get an email arrive telling my P/shop 15 is
better and faster. Oh really? It’s only faster when the user able to use that
extra built in speed. No, I think I shall keep using 12 until I buy a new
camera, and that day is a long way off. The Office 2016 I use is working OK for
now, but the change to it has caused a few upsets along the way. I have a
feeling the change from 2010 to 2016 is what caused me to lose all those blogs
entries. Windows 10 has been out and in use for around 18 months now, I wonder
when the next one will come out. Yes, I know they said there won’t be one, but
do you really believe was MS says? But which comes first? Is the software trying to catch up or is the technology racing ahead to keep ahead of the software?
Computers are everywhere these days, I’m sure you don’t need to be told that.
Everything we do is being recorded somewhere or other. Pay for your petrol by at
Tesco, they’ve got it in the data; pay for your lottery tickets, two new
paperbacks and a daily paper at WH Smiths, and they have your details in their
data. That is something else that SecDef wouldn’t have thought about, but I bet
the current one has. We already know that all our intelligence services use
computers and hackers on a regular basis. Maybe the days of Tom Cruise and his
Mission Impossible isn’t that far away my friends. Just watch your back next
time you get your credit card to buy that curry n chips in the local chippy … …
…
Today’s photo …
A tufted duck – nowt ter do wiv ‘puters!
Today’s funny …
Judge: ''Do you wish to challenge
any member of the jury?'' Prisoner: ''Well, I think I can beat that little
fellow on this end...''
18 January
I really don’t believe that I got some writing done yesterday, other than
the blog that is; yes, around 2,000 words of Arathusia now safely on paper. I got to a point where there was a
natural break in the story line which made it the right place to stop. Hand
writing is a good way for making sure you have cut the chances of losing your
work to a minimum, but it all needs to be typed up at some point. However, the
hand written version really is a first draft, something that I wouldn’t be
happy for anyone to read through.
Yesterday I finished Parry Hotter 6, and began GOT 6. The Prologue took
some working through, very hard actually, but once I started the main story it
was a lot easier. The Imp is at the start but haven’t looked any further on
yet. I read something on Facebook about Mr Martin is due to release or begin, #8;
about time too. There was another article about him writing another series. My
thought was it looked like another series he could get bored with. It’s a pity
really, I do like his work, I just wish he’d get on with it. I would not be
surprised that someone isn’t holding a large mirror on me over that comment –
ah well … ... …
Disability access has come to the attention of the courts again. This is
due to a guy I know personally who had a problem on a bus when I passenger
refused to leave a dedicated seat for wheelchair passengers. That happened in
2012 and finally Doug has won his case, or has he I wonder? As with all
legislation issues with disability rights, nothing is totally clear. Ambiguous
words like ‘reasonable, could, depending on circumstances’ and so on can be
argued over for years. The passenger who refused to move was a young mother
with a sleeping baby. She claimed that her buggy couldn’t be folded down. I don’t
know about you but I do think she had a point at that time. As a mother, she
needed to be close to her baby, and that does seem reasonable to me. Yes, it
was difficult for Doug who had to wait for another bus, but under the
circumstances, I would agree with the mother.
I first became aware of Doug during my time with the OU. At one time
myself and a few others got together to form a Disabled Students Society in the
OUSA (Open University Students Association). The word Society was soon ditched
in favour of Group. Doug was one of our supports at the time. As we moved
forward as a group within OUSA, it became clear that the word ‘disability’ was
also ambiguous, no, wrong word really. It became clear that there were far more
medical conditions that caused disability, and various degrees of disability
too, that there really was a major difficulty in providing a level playing
fields for everyone.
For example; I was a member of the geology society. They arranged field trips
to various venues where clear signs of interesting geology could be studied, I
got to go on one of them and that was when I first saw a trace fossil and
understood what it was. Anyway … it occurred to me that if the GS organised a
trip to walk up Mount Snowdon, there was no way that they would be able help
someone who spent their lives in mobility scooters/chairs to attend that trip.
To my mind it was unreasonable for us expect them to do so.
Different disability’s effect people in different ways, for example mental
illness. How many conditions are there that come under that banner I wonder?
Diabetes is another one. In my case it’s well controlled by diet and the
metformin I take twice a day, they there are many diabetics who have to be very
careful in what they eat and what they do on an hour by hour basis. To be funny
useful for all diabetics would be impossible to my mind. Along this line, a
student from Telford I know was allergic to lettuce, yes, lettuce. At one
meeting I attended she had indicated that no lettuce in her lunch. It arrived
OK, nice presented in a covered plate with her name on the cover – but garnished
with, yes, lettuce. And on it goes …
This little rant began over a court case in London. It’s not just on bus services
that they are access problems. Nuneaton railway station has lifts install to
get from platform to platform, great idea from someone. However, if a mobility
scooter rider or wheelchair user needs to travel by train, they are advised to
book a few days early, ‘so the kit needed can be there for use.’ Oh really? And
what happens if the journey is an emergency? How do those passengers manage? I
heard of one lady who got on a train but because there were no wheelchair
spaces, she had ride in the baggage car. The rail industry is still not doing
very well on this one.
It’s an issue not confine just to the railways though is it. There is a tendency
these days for anyone who is disabled to classed as being a faker, and scrounger
or just generally looked down on for not trying enough. The people who abuse the blue badge systems don't help either. That is an attitude
that needs to change; however, there a number of disabled people who do not
help the rest of us. Rugby has more than just the odd one or two, and even here
in our town we have more than few too. Public concerns will never really change
until all disabled people show themselves to be just like everyone else, but
unable to do everything an able-bodied person can.
Today’s photo …
Perhaps J K got the idea of the house hour glasses from
here?
Today’s funny …
A man and his wife were watching
golf on tv and the sound on the commentary was rather low. The woman went to
turn it up. 'Ssh,' said the husband, 'ssh. Not while he's putting.'
17 January
Do you remember Esther Rantzen and her Jobsworth Caps? A case has come to
light 2015 when two enforcement officers gave a fixed penalty to a 65 year old
woman because she poured her coffee down the drain. She paid up but Ealing
Council have apologised and refunded the fine. Fine; but why was the fine
issued anyway? I mean, come on; cops tip booze down the drain whenever they
find some kid under 18 drinking in a public place. Would they be issued with a
fixed penalty ticket? I doubt it very much! No, this case was two council
employees behaving like school yard bullies by picking and what they thought was
an elderly lady who would pay up without question. I would hope that they are
no longer employed by any council, let alone Ealing.
There are quite a few such jobs within councils where these ‘officers’
can raise fines against the public. Dog control officers are another one, but
who would object to them issuing a ticket for leaving doggie doo on the
pavement? Litter tickers I’ve already mentioned but the largest group are the
traffic wardens of course. Where does the council get the authority for these
people to fine people without the case going to court? What has happened to our
right to fair trial by our peers?
Even so, can you imagine the state of our towns and cities without these
people giving out those tickets? I live in Germany for around 18 months, Cyprus
for 15 months, and even in Kenya for eight weeks, I don’t remember seeing any litter
lying around. My three holidays in Mallorca I didn’t see all that much litter,
and certainly no dog mess. So why is it that these places are so clean and yet
some areas of our own country is such a mess most of the time. It could be that
it’s the minority of yobs that cause it, but why are they so lax in their
personal discipline? Is it that they have never heard to the word ‘No’ in a
meaningful manner? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Challenge anyone over an illegal act and all you get is the mouthful of
abuse. The last time it happened to me was when I saw a woman driving through
town while using her phone. She turned really nasty over it. Why? It was only
days after that trucker was jailed for killing those people in a car when he
was messing with his iPod. Another time I challenged a guy when he drove
through a no entry in town, parked up in a blue badge space. He told me to mind
my own business. So I did, and called the cops. Some of these people just don’t
like being told ‘no’. Tough luck on them.
Here I sat happily thinking Jan would be out until sometime this
afternoon, and then the doorbell does its normal dingdong twice in quick succession.
I always lock the door when I’m here on my own, but I forgot to take the key
out, and Jan wasn’t happy about it … opps. She had gone up to spend some time
with Sam, one of her church friends, but she isn’t too well right now, so she
is due to go back to bed for a few hours before the kids come home from school.
So Jan is now going to the hairdressers this afternoon from here, not after she
had been to Bed’th for a few hours.
Today’s photo …
This is an old photo I got when we lived in Atherton. I
sue it for the cover of my novel Web of Hate.
Today’s funny …
Waiter, waiter, do they ever
change the tablecloths in thls restaurant?
I don't know, sir. I've only been here a year.
16 January
I don’t suppose we will ever really know if Russia did hack the US
election, however, France seems to be taking the idea seriously because it
taking extra measures to prevent it happening there. Either way, none of those
elections will have much of an effect on us here directly. The thought came to
me though that perhaps the ‘remainers’ might well claim the same has already
happened here with the BREXIT vote. That may well have an impact on us. Even
now the losing side is fighting a vicious rear-guard battle to stop what the
people of the UK have voted for. I shall leave you to make up your own mind on
this one, just remember where you heard this one.
We have another run over to Selly Oak to do later this month, this time
for Jan to have a CT scan done. That’s two of those and a MRI scan she’s had
done in the last 12 months. We are hoping the operation gets done more quickly
than 12 months though. We are also hoping my licence arrives back in time for
the scan to be done, then I can drive for that one. As for me and my back, I’m
still taking the same pain killers but not as often now, and then because of
hip pain, not back pain.
As if the NHS hasn’t got enough to deal with, BBC Inside Out show on at
7.30 this evening, is showing a patient selling his NHS prescriptions for cash.
The reporter paid £250 for a drug that costs £10,000 a year to issue. If the
guy is selling them, then he doesn’t really need them does he, and £1 to pinch
of brown mucky stuff, he’s not alone in this one. I’d like to bet that he is
cheating the DWP and local council as well, in which case, it’s time he was
caught and dealt with.
This is one item that has come to light, but I do wonder how many other
such cases there are. The NHS costs us billions every year, and with that kind
of money floating around there will always be those with an eye on where to
divert some of it into their own pockets. We occasionally hear about cases
where NHS employees have managed to find ways to cheat the system, sometimes
these people are in senior management positions. They know how stretched the
service and keep pushing for more savings, ‘to meet budget cuts’, but also to
make the lining of their pockets thicker. Such people should be given serious
jail-time when they are caught, not wrist-lapping jail-time.
I do like Who Do You Think You Are?
the BEEB show on family history. The last one saw was Ricky Tomlinson. He
knows Liverpool, of course he does, he was born there and still lives there.
His back ground is as a strong union man and did a two year stretch one time because
of it. As he traced his family line back he found out that due to accident he
lost two of his distant family. Their widows were then plunged into poverty and
that really angered him. Liverpool was a prosperous city in the mid to late 19th
Century, yet the rich lorded it over the people the people who were creating
that wealth, the men on docks.
My thoughts were pretty much the same as his, at least to begin with.
Then I realised that things are not so different these days, are they? Liverpool
is no different to the rest of the UK, with thousands of people being fed from
food banks, and with numbers due to rise too. Then I began to think a wee bit
more; Tomlinson is no longer living in poverty, is he? So I began to wonder
just what he was doing personally to help out those less fortunate than he and
his family is. It’s all well and good bleating about how unfair a system is,
but those bleats need to matched by deeds on the street, or they are just hot
air.
The same question can be asked of me too. What do I do to help? That’s a
hard question to reply to, isn’t it? Let’s face it, if I was listed what Jan
and I do, it look like boasting, but please rest assured that we do help as and
when we can. However, there is one we never do, and that is to give money to beggars
on the street. Some are in genuine need, a lot aren’t, but how can we tell? We
can’t. Perhaps if we want to help them, take them to a pub or chippy and buy
them a meal, don’t give them cash.
What happened to yesterday’s blog? Simple, I just didn’t feel up to it,
very tired when I got up and I remained tired for most of the day. In fact, I
was in bed just after 9 pm but didn’t settle until just on midnight, and I must
have dropped off pretty quickly too.
Today’s photo …
A dog rose.
Today’s funny …
What is green, has four legs and two trunks?
Two seasick tourists.
14 January
Yet again a minority group may delay the triggering of Article 50. First,
we had that silly woman going to court over it, now we have the prats in
Stormont causing waves over long held hatred of each other, and of Britain as a
whole. When will Scotland try it on again as their first minister is
threatening. Not sure about Wales though. I said at the time that it should
have been triggered as soon as the result was known. Another item on MSN
newsfeed is that Farter Trump wants Europe to pull apart; I’m almost temped to
change sides and become a remainer over that one just to spoil his fun – almost,
but not quite.
It seems that the weather fears over the weekend were unfounded. That’s
the problem with weather forecasting I suppose; damned if they do, damned if
they don’t get it right. And yes, I’m well aware of my dislike of their less
than accurate predictions. I was hoping we could get into town today but it was
raining when I got up, so that one is out now; pity really, I was looking
forward to an all-day breakfast in Whetherspoons too. Something to look forward
to for next Saturday. Even so, our weather is not as extremes as other parts of
the world, for which I am grateful.
Last night I finished Robert Southworth’s third Spartacus novel, The Pharaoh’s Blade. It’s an excellent
series of three novels that ultimately leads to the downfall of the arch baddie
– although I’m saying no more on that one other his greed finally catches up
with him. This series I’ve read on my kindle app on my tablet, and after ending
that one I began the last novel in a series of four sci-fi, The Synchronicity War. Again, it’s
another great series, space opera at its very best. One that one is finished I
have others in a similar vein to start, more space operas too. They always seem
to be in series, probably because of the size of the story line is just too
large to fit into just one volume.
Have you noticed that fantasy novels are in series too? Game of Thrones, in seven volumes, as
are the Parry Hotters, Lensmen books.
Michael Moorcock and Anne McCaffery seemed to produce stand alone and series of
books. Moorcock’s Count Brass and McCaffery’s
Dragonriders are both worth looking
out for. Moving away for sci-fi, crime writers also produce series don’t they.
Rebus, Roy Grace, Peter Diamond, Tony Hill, Alan Banks … … … and oh so many
more, all series but each novel a stand-alone story. I’ll sneak in another one
here, Ron G Clark’s Fred Cooper series,
House of Pain and Web of Hate. His
third in the series is stuck at the moment and needs an extensive re-write. OK,
the last two are my own novels, but just a mention them in passing.
On Facebook yesterday there was a post from one group I follow,
ForReadingAddicts, which I heartily recommend my friends by the way, in which
one of the admin team said her TBR (to be read), pile is at around 35 books.
That got me think and I went off to the bedroom to snap my TBR pile, or at
least part of it, and that is today’s photo …
When I said ‘part of it,’ I
really do mean just a tiny part of it, only 40 in that pile. We were out the day shopping and in the
Coop they have a charity book stall now, so I added two more which are not in
that pile. In addition I have well over a hundred on my kindle app too, plus
even more books on my book shelves. Sitting here I can see a Lynda la Plante waiting
to be read.
Today’s funny …
An elderly gentleman had serious
hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor
was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear
perfectly.
He went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing’s
perfect. Your family must be pleased you can hear again."
To which he said, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and
listen to the conversations. I've already changed my will 3 times!"
