This wonderful cartoon was posted a few weeks ago on facebook so I can claim zero credit for sourcing it but it has had me chuckling ever since. And also with a few folks that i know totally true…….
It is all rather silly really but we do try and grow a few things in the garden and are spectacularly pleased when this proves successful. We have a Strawberry plant which gives fruit each year and we do battle with the squirrels to get the fruit before they do, a Redcurrant tree/bush which for some bizarre reason has provided one string of reducrrants this year and some potato sacks. Today we picked our potatoes and there was a nice crop. Furthermore they tasted delicious. So although there is no chance of us going into competition with Tesco, it is a little bit of fun and we can eat the rewards! The real problem we have comes from the squirrels but also I suspect the urban foxes of which we have many culprits.
Potato Crop 2012
As we all know the weather has been awful and there are many examples of flooding all over the country, it is not a great example but it is an example of flooding that I cam eacross yesterday in Fareham. The car park of the Holiday Inn hotel was flooded, as were the fields opposite and numerous other places. The flooded Tennis courts were in New Malden.
Flooding in Fareham
The weather held out today and a great sports day took place. All the children had races and took part, some won and some lost, but fun was had. Parents came along, more mothers than fathers, and cheered their children on. Teachers smiled, and even raced against each other, tumbling over as the finish line came into sight. A nice day. A great tradition.
Do not be fooled by the glamarous sounding name, this is a very average place. The people who may thrive here are few but will be folks that like to smoke and drink constantly. Preferably dont eat, or drink coffee , because these vices are incredibly expensive. The fun part of Gibraltar falls into 3 components
The bad things?
I bring you the photographic evidence.
Standing on the runway in Gibraltar
Two cats, both females, both sisters, both useless. They bring mice in regularly, a duckling arrived once last year and a pigeon the year before. They play with them, let them go, and cannot catch them again. Mouse then lives in grandeur feasting off crumbs and probably cat food. I can sometimes catch the odd half-witted mouse, but not this week. The 11 year old had a good idea. Get a jar with crumbs of fudge and tempt it in. It worked. Mouse was caught and despatched outside, together with small supply of fudge. end of mouse story.
Mouse in a Jar
I can make no apologies for re-visiting how wonderful this venue is to listen to music, although I struggle to consider the Lucinda Belle Orchestra as jazz, but maybe that is my jazz knowledge limitation. A few photographs to go with the many I posted last week really just to demonstrate how close to the music one is. There is also something that I disagreed with all of my party over. For me the pianist is an almost exact copy of Matt Smith AKA Dr who. Enjoy.
Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho
I am not so sure that I would describe this week as interesting but a learning experience it has been. I am not an ill sort of person and indeed do not recall the last time the GP would have had me in his notes for an acute illness. In fact the only reason that I went today was because of this ludicrous strike that is being wrongly perpetrated by Doctors tomorrow. I began feeling unwell a week ago but suddently found myself so tired that I was essentially unable even to stand up for more than a short time. Viral chest symptoms ensued, followed by ear pain, throat pain and no appetite. A real glut of viral symptoms, which I suspect is some type of viral pneumonia. It has taken 4 full days to get even up to 10% of wellness but today now am starting to feel a bit better. I went to the GP to have a second opinion and also in case I needed at some stage to have some illness letter for whatever. This is what I learnt
I came away quite sad that professional service levels have sunk so far since I qualified in medicine in 1981. Little/no professional eqitquette, little/no skill and little/no attempt to hide this shambolic state of affairs. Finally, having not done what should have been done, my blood pressure was checked, am I being too cynical to even think that this was done to meet some NHS metric?
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 