laugh

some bits and pieces really - things that have caught my eye and sort of made me smile.

trafalgar - the 200th anniversary of the battle of trafalgar is soon upon us. and we are going to be celebrating it, but not in a way that is "french bashing" or for that matter in a way that is historically accurate.
the organisers have said there will be no "sides" in the celebration/ recreation instead there will be a blue team and a red team, rather than an english fleet versus french and spanish fleet.
additionally the sunday times reports that the official literature of the celebration is referring to “an early 19th-century sea battle”, as opposed to the battle of trafalgar.
the mock battle that will involve tall ships, fireworks and music is "... not a historical re-enactment. it is a piece of theatre, and not supposed to be historically accurate." (ministry of defence).
perhaps if we actually took pride in these sorts of historical events and treated them with respect rather than hid them shyly behind a pc veneer and a fear of upsetting others there would be less chance of the far right being able to steal the union jack for their own use. perhaps if we were proud to be english we would not be so sheepish about entering europe.

hoodies
bluewater shopping centre has banned hoodies, and people attending the place to shop have shot up by over 20% in the week the ban started. ok i am not someone who shops at bluewater, and i have nothing to say in defence of kids/youths who wear hoodies, but i am surprised at the results of the ban. firstly because who would have thought that there that many more people who wanted to go to bluewater (or were "scared" to go because of some sort of tribal fashion), also i am shocked at the speed that the ban worked - i only heard about it after it had come into affect but obviously there are some keen bluewater wannabe shoppers out there who were just waiting for the ban to come in so that they could rush out to bluewater to spend their cash.
(admittedly hoodies were only part of the ban which was all about anti-social behaviour as it also bans smoking, leafleting, and canvassing)
meanwhile a school has made the hoodie part of its uniform. although the hoodie can only be put up when it is raining (which to me makes it a pointless part of the uniform - but then if i had my way i would also ban people wearing sunglasses on the top of their heads (why?) and people who go around showing their arses off because they think it is trendy to wear jeans very low slung). the headmaster makes two interesting points 1] behaviour is the problem not the clothes (though perhaps this misses the point of the tribal wear - kids want to be part of a group/gang and will dress the part and peer pressure leads to potential bad behaviour - hey what do i know am i an expert?) secondly he says by making them part of the school uniform it reduces the coolness of them.
the independent, of course, rushed to the defence of youths wearing hoodies. the indie, bless it, is fast becoming the newspaper equivalent of the swp in that wherever it sees something that might be a cause it is quick to rush in to get involved.
i am expecting the first hoodie human rights trial any day soon.

goats
the locals are up in arms about the wild goats of lynton. the 80 or so wild goats have taken to wandering off of the wilds and coming into town to dine on residents flowers and such like. the residents are taking this invasion badly and are looking to have a cull of the goats. some goats have already "disappeared", perhaps to be turned into curry. the idea of a cull seems to have caused a division in the area with some residents receiving death threats.
one of the most outspoken opponents of the goats is derek bishop who is not only upset about the fact that his wife garden has become the goats version of a macdonald’s drive-in restaurant, but he has also seen his local cricket club attacked by the goats as they rut on the outfield and have defecate in front of the pavilion (have those goats no shame - it's just not cricket old boy!) bishop points out that the cricket ground twice nearly won the wisden award for the prettiest in england. (well derek take heart the editors of wisden may not have liked it the goats surely do!)
i expect the goats to take their case to the european court of goat rights any day soon.

chainsaws
picture the scene, if you will, you are up a tree using a chainsaw to cut some branches. the ladder you are using is being held by someone. meanwhile in the garden there is a dog playing about. you can almost sense the monty pythonesque danger about the scene. guess what you wouldn't be wrong.
one poor husband is now without his wife due to the fact that the ladder she was holding got banged, he fell, and the chainsaw fell only for it to catch the wife on the way down. it appears that the dog jumped up at the wife in playful abandon and started the tragic chain of events. of his wife he said "she was very special, she worked very hard and was very good at her job."
i just have to wonder what on earth was someone doing up a ladder that needed to be held steady with a chainsaw in the first place? and to let the dog play around at the same time.

additionally the sunday times reports that the official literature of the celebration is referring to an “an early 19th-century sea battle”.
the mock battle that will involve tall ships, fireworks and music is "... not a historical re-enactment. it is a piece of theatre, and not supposed to be historically accurate." (ministry of defence).
perhaps if we actually took pride in these sorts of historical events and treated them with respect rather than hid them shyly behind a pc veneer and a fear of upsetting others there would be less chance of the far right being able to steal the union jack for their own use. perhaps if we were proud to be english we would not be so sheepish about entering europe.

hoodies
bluewater shopping centre has banned hoodies, and people attending the place to shop have shot up by over 20% in the week the ban started. ok i am not someone who shops at bluewater, and i have nothing to say in defence of kids/youths who wear hoodies, but i am surprised at the results of the ban. firstly because who would have thought that there that many more people who wanted to go to bluewater (or were "scared" to go because of some sort of tribal fashion), also i am shocked at the speed that the ban worked - i only heard about it after it had come into affect but obviously there are some keen bluewater wannabe shoppers out there who were just waiting for the ban to come in so that they could rush out to bluewater to spend their cash.
(admittedly hoodies were only part of the ban which was all about anti-social behaviour as it also bans smoking, leafleting, and canvassing)
meanwhile a school has made the hoodie part of its uniform. although the hoodie can only be put up when it is raining (which to me makes it a pointless part of the uniform - but then if i had my way i would also ban people wearing sunglasses on the top of their heads (why?) and people who go around showing their arses off because they think it is trendy to wear jeans very low slung). the headmaster makes two interesting points 1] behaviour is the problem not the clothes (though perhaps this misses the point of the tribal wear - kids want to be part of a group/gang and will dress the part and peer pressure leads to potential bad behaviour - hey what do i know am i an expert?) secondly he says by making them part of the school uniform it reduces the coolness of them.
the independent, of course, rushed to the defence of youths wearing hoodies. the indie bless it is fast becoming the newspaper equivalent of the swp in that wherever it sees something that might be a cause it is quick to rush in to get involved.
i am expecting the first hoodie human rights trial any day soon.

goats
the locals are up in arms about the wild goats of lynton. the 80 or so wild goats have taken to wandering off of the wilds and coming into town to dine on residents flowers and such like. the residents are taking this invasion badly and are looking to have a cull of the goats. some goats have already "disappeared", perhaps to be turned into curry. the idea of a cull seems to have caused a division in the area with some residents receiving death threats.
one of the most outspoken opponents of the goats is derek bishop who is not only upset about the fact that his wife garden has become the goats version of a macdonald’s drive-in restaurant, but he has also seen his local cricket club attacked by the goats as they rut on the outfield and have defecate in front of the pavilion (have those goats no shame - it's just not cricket old boy!) bishop points out that the cricket ground twice nearly won the widen award for the prettiest in england. (well derek take heart the editors of widen may not have liked it the goats surely do!)
i expect the goats to take their case to the european court of goat rights any day soon.

chainsaws
picture the scene, if you will, you are up a tree using a chainsaw to cut some branches. the ladder you are using is being held by someone. meanwhile in the garden there is a dog playing about. you can almost sense the monty pythonesque danger about the scene. guess what you wouldn't be wrong.
one poor husband is now without his wife due to the fact that the ladder she was holding got banged, he fell, and the chainsaw fell only for it to catch the wife on the way down. it appears that the dog jumped up at the wife in playful abandon and started the tragic chain of events. of his wife he said "she was very special, she worked very hard and was very good at her job."
i just have to wonder what on earth was someone doing up a ladder that needed to be held steady with a chainsaw in the first place? and to let the dog play around at the same time what is (to quote the hurricane) up with that?

so these things have made me smile in wry ironic ways.