England for the English

For those of you like minded and very wise souls out there, today's Telegraph makes for some interesting reading . I am sure my fellow members of the Witanagemot club will lap it up.

Will it happen?

I doubt in my lifetime.

Get your dragon meat here

I read an interesting post on here today. According to the Trading Standards wallies, the labeling of 'Red Dragon' sausages may indicate to the less streetwise of us that there could be actual dragon meat inside, when of course we all know that dragon meat comes in burger form only.


So that being the case, surely hot dogs should come under the same jurisdiction?

And what does that say for any 'Birds Eye' products?

Spotted Dick???

Hound from Hell

We had a bit of a scare yesterday when we took Barney to have his booster at the vets, aka licensed bandits.
This bloke was sitting with his Staffordshire Terrier when we entered, which immediately went berserk at Barney's expense. Now Barney is a happy go lucky dog, who loves everyone. He will get on with most dogs he meets, no problem. For some reason, this evil dog really wanted to rip his throat out and nearly did. The man could obviously hardly restrain the beast and then it busted it's collar and went straight for poor old Barney. Mr's K was holding him at the time that all hell broke loose whilst I was trying to book him in at reception. The dog from hell actually got a grip on Barney's leg before it was pulled off and hastily dragged into the examination room. Fortunately the top vet actually witnessed it all and examined the now shaken Barney for any obvious injuries. Thankfully, no damage was done although he was obviously a little out of sorts, as was Mr's K and a couple of ladies in the waiting room. One even burst into tears over it.
Once peace and tranquility was restored and Barney was called for his jab, the nurse told us that the owner of the Hades fiend had been read the riot act over his dogs behaviour. It transpires that it was a rescue dog and he had only had it a couple of weeks . The problem with rescue dogs (except Barney, of course) is that you rarely have any idea of their previous owners. For all this bloke knew, his dog could have been trained to fight by some Neanderthal who thinks it makes him look 'ard with a 'staffy' on the end of a rope.
Anyway, Barney got his jab and a huge fuss was made of him and I was relieved of £46. Hence the "aka licensed bandits" quote.
And do you know what? That bloke never even apologised about his dogs behaviour

Told you so............

It was blowing a bugger last night.

Leaves everywhere.

Leaf blowers

WHY?

Whilst taking Barney for his morning walk, I came across our local council road sweeper. You know, the lorry with the rotating brush that crawls along at 0.3 mph clearing up life's detritus from the gutter. Following just behind the vehicle was a chap brandishing a leaf blower. There he was wearing the ubiquitous 'high-viz' tabard blowing all this Autumn's leaves onto the grass verge. As he sauntered on his merry way, the aforesaid leaves, with the help of a little breeze, drifted back onto the pathway. You could hear the little blighter's giggling at this poor unfortunates expense. The annoying thing about this little expose, is that the council, funded partly by moi, is probably paying this guy double time for turning out on a Sunday, for absolutely no purpose whatsoever.
The guy who invented this utterly useless contraption should be awarded something for having the foresight to con people out of their hard earned dosh to buy one of these machines in the forlorn hope that it may in fact, improve their lives.
I apologise forthwith to any of you who own a leaf blower. You meant well. Bless.

Mad Hatter strikes again

So, on one hand Tony Bliar Blair sends troops out to Afghanistan to eradicate the drug problems of the world with the Taliban controlled poppy production and on the other he wants to compensate convicted criminals who have to experience the ordeal of ‘cold turkey’ whilst serving their sentence behind bars, caused by the dependence of aforementioned drugs.

“Tell you what Tone, why don’t we leave the Taliban to their evil trade and give the proceeds to these poor tormented souls undergoing cold turkey and then everyone would be happy, wouldn’t they?”

Well, every crack head and Taliban tribesman would.

Sod the law abiding public.

“Next time you are passing Mr Blair, I will bend over so you may shaft me personally just like you are shafting the rest of us decent citizens.”

PRICK

We will remember them

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is a music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncountered:
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end they remain.

Laurence Binyon

Small minority?

A television reporter used the expression "a small minority".

Has anyone ever heard of a large minority?

And he is probably university educated.

Red or White?

Now that Remembrance Sunday is fast approaching, we have the liberal do-gooders out in force attempting to promote the wearing of a white poppy in preference to the traditional red one.
Their argument is that wearing the red poppy glorifies war, whereas the white poppy encourages people to think of peace.
What a load of bollocks. The red poppy initially symbolised the blood spilt on the fields of Flanders, Paschendale, Somme and the like. Millions of these RED poppies grew on many battlefields after the First World War. We should never forget the ultimate sacrifice these men (and women) made for our country.
As an ex serviceman myself, I feel very strongly that our war dead, past and present are forgotten too quickly once peace is restored and if wearing a RED poppy is all it takes to jog peoples memory, then that is a small price to pay.
I make a point of buying my RED poppy from a war veteran just so that I can shake their hand and thank them personally for the contribution and sacrifice they made towards this country remaining free.
Once again, the nanny state rears it's ugly head in trying to suppress us from expressing our true feelings about which to them, is a touchy subject. You cannot hide from the fact that there will always be wars fought for whatever reason and wearing a RED poppy does not in any way glorify it. It always reminds me of the horrors of needless conflict that thankfully I have never had to experience.

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row by row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard among the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If yea break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Double whopper whammy

The cracks are starting to appear. I wondered how long it would take before Joe Public started to rebel against the healthy food fad that is currently ever present in the media.
Jamie Oliver certainly fuelled the fire started by the "Health Police". It has been reported that already the numbers of children attending the revolutionised school dinners, has dropped. And now this story is turning these well meaning people livid with rage.

When will they ever learn?

To quote an old phrase.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"

November flowers

 
  

Biggles, eat your heart out.

I had some great fun yesterday. A good friend of mine has recently earned his 'wings' and kindly invited me to have a little flight around Kent. I grabbed the opportunity right away. Flying has always fascinated me since I first took to the skies, but rushing around the airspace in a small light aircraft is so much better. Conveniently, we took off from Rochester Airport which is where 'work' is situated, so I didn't have far to travel to get airborne. The weather could not have been better. Light winds (good chance of the stomach staying where it is meant to be, then) and perfect visibility creating a beautiful, crisp autumnal day. The flight plan took us down to Seaford on the East Sussex coast whereupon we turned left and followed the shoreline around to Lydd Airport. After a quick cup of tea and some crisps, we returned to the air to continue onwards over Hastings, Folkestone and Dover before doing another left turn homeward bound. We landed just as the sun was setting. What an exhilarating flight. I want more.......

Of course I took the camera. Unfortunately, they are not in the order I took them, but you get a general idea of the trip.

Pictures here