Occasionally one hears about an elderly person suffering from ‘a fall’, and it being treated as a major incident. This had always seemed a little odd to me, since I’d often fallen over in sports, climbing accidents, cycling, etc, but what is the big deal, I used to ask myself? You fall over, you get up, and more or less move on. A bit like Chumbawamba, I suppose. Somebody hacks you down in a footie game and you simply get up and you kick the crap out of them at the first opportunity you get. It’s no big deal – everybody understands the … Continue reading A Fall.

I’ve got some new wheels at the moment! My much loved Skoda Roomster (brilliant car!) suffered a minor dent just before Xmas when a joung lad in a works pick-up truck reversed into it in Tuddenham village. It was a minor traffic snarl-up with a bus coming the other way and a queue of cars, including me trying to go the other way. He was only trying to help, poor lad, but mis-calculated a bit and put a minor dent in my bonnett. So on his company insurance my car was taken away for some minor work (two weeks, and counting at the … Continue reading Lane assist!

People try scam us all the time on the interweb, and usually it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. Let’s face it, complete strangers are VERY unlikely to give us large sums of money, even if they do claim to be Nigerian royalty. This one is a little different though, since it’s aimed specifically at website managers – like me, for example.  To be fair, it’s not a bad effort, but I’m afraid Ms. Onita (who is probably a ‘bot’ located somewhere in Russia) is going to have to get up very early in the morning if she wants to get a … Continue reading Scam attempt!

The poem below, by an unknown soldier in the Sherwood Forresters, was published in the March 1916 editiion of the trench newspaper, “The Wipers Times”. To My Chum No more we’ll share the same old barnThe same old dug-out, same old yarn,No more a tin of bully shareNor split our rum by a star-shell’s glareSo long old lad. What times we’ve had, both good and bad,We’ve shared what shelter could be had,The same crump-hole when the whizz-bangs shrieked,The same old billet that always leaked,And now – you’ve “stopped one”. We’d weathered the storms two winters longWe’d managed to grin when … Continue reading Rememberance Day 2023

I’m taking the the slightly risky strategy of using figures from Wikipedia in this post, so apologies in advance if I’ve been misled by the internet. The latest suggestion from HMG is that maybe if we switched to biofuel to heat our houses then the proposed 2026 ban on new oil boilers might not be necessary. Phew, what a relief….. but lets look at some figures. Apparently the yield of biofuel from oilseed rape (brobably the best bet for biofuels in the UK) is about 1000 litres per hectare. Now that corresponds nicely with our own heating oil usage during … Continue reading Ok, let’s use biofuels.

As I write this the BBC have suspended Gary Lineker from Match of the Day because he keeps airing his political views in defiance of his contract. Various pundits – Shearer, Ian Wright etc – have come out in sympathy and even some commentators are threatening to stop working. This is brilliant! Televised commentary has had it’s day. I’m sorry, but it has, although radio commentary is obviously still necessary. Do I want the inane, cliched witterings of a commentator throughout the game? Well occasionally it’s nice to know an unfamiliar players name, but other than that NO! Please give … Continue reading Televised football – my dream is coming true. I hope I like it though….

Earlier this week the children’s book publisher Puffin released its latest edition of Roald Dahls famous books…  and lots of people are saying they’ve ruined them!  Essentially the ‘woke’ agenda has been applied with some severity, resulting in changes to many passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race. E.g. the ‘black tractors’ in Fantastic Mr. Fox are now just ‘tractors’; the Oompa-Loompas are now “small people” instead of small men, and nobody is now described as ugly or fat.  Overall, there are hundreds of changes, and there’s been an almighty row. In this morning’s Daily Telegraph the columnist … Continue reading New candidates for woke censorship

Once again, we seem to be heading in the direction of Trade Union mob rule. Now I’m not sufficiently versed in all the arguments on either side in order to say who is right and who is wrong, but what I can say, is it seems to be the innocent who suffer. (For what it’s worth, I’d like everybody to be paid more, but somehow the sensible person in me says that pay increases have to be, err, paid for by somebody – and currently, who has got the money?) However, banning strikes seems to be a bad way to … Continue reading Ban strikes or protect the innocent?

Having quietly been a republican all my life, it seems somewhat odd that I find myself closing ranks with the current Royals. They may well be a thoroughly dysfunctional family, but as our constitutional Heads of State they are somehow OUR dysfunctional family. Not, I hasten to add, that I feel they actually represent me any meaningful sense – clearly, they don’t. How could they? I’d also note that becoming a republic would probably mean we have to have an elected president, and who would that be? President Blair, President Cameron… no – definitely not. But anyway, when Ginger and … Continue reading That book….

This year we have a rare opportunity to actually see Santa as he passes over the UK!!! Look directly above at 7:10, and you will see his sleigh as it passes over. It will be moving quite fast will look very different to the other stars/planets. It should be a great sight for all the family. A pair of binoculars will ensure a really good view! Well, OK, it’s not realy Santa, it’s the International Space Station, but don’t tell the kids that! Have a Happy Christmas! Update: it was cloudy. Continue reading See Santa flying by at 7:10 on Christmas Day morning.