I've just come back from a ride on my motorcycle, with a furry visor. It's one of those things that bikers learn to live with in the summer months, like they do 'wet ear syndrome' in the cold weather (work it out for yourself!)
So out comes the wet tissues, and the visor cleaning begins, ready to go through the whole experience again tomorrow.
There was a particularly large greenish splodge with red bits today. Totally unidentifiable as previously having been any kind of living creature.
Got me wondering.....................
what if..........................
that particular splodge was the last remaining member of some species hitherto unknown to man? What if it was something that, had we known about it earlier, could have been beneficial to mankind?
Ah well, guess we'll never know..............
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Dogs
I grew up with dogs. My late father was a shepherd, who bred award winning working Border Collies, and we always had 5 or 6 around the place.
Of all domesticated animals, they are the ones with the most character.
This article just goes to prove my point.
I read it a couple of hours ago, and I'm still laughing
http://littera-abactor.livejournal.com/7748.html
Of all domesticated animals, they are the ones with the most character.
This article just goes to prove my point.
I read it a couple of hours ago, and I'm still laughing
http://littera-abactor.livejournal.com/7748.html
Friday, 4 June 2010
You have the right to remain stupid
If someone told you the world was square with purple elephants on it, you'd be correct to label them stupid, insane or perhaps both and no one would disagree.
But you probably wouldn't call them stupid or insane to their face.
Everyone has a right to their own opinion, even if it's wrong, stupid, ignorant and without any basis in reality. I respect that 'right'. But I don't have to necessarily agree with it.
When I point out to people, friends or otherwise, the inaccuracies of their logic or prove them wrong, they rant and rave like demented souls.
Then they tell me they have the RIGHT to their opinion.
Well, if your opinion is that 2 + 2 = 5, well I'm sorry, you're stupid. That's not an opinion, that's a fact
And most people just can't accept being told that they're wrong.
But you probably wouldn't call them stupid or insane to their face.
Everyone has a right to their own opinion, even if it's wrong, stupid, ignorant and without any basis in reality. I respect that 'right'. But I don't have to necessarily agree with it.
When I point out to people, friends or otherwise, the inaccuracies of their logic or prove them wrong, they rant and rave like demented souls.
Then they tell me they have the RIGHT to their opinion.
Well, if your opinion is that 2 + 2 = 5, well I'm sorry, you're stupid. That's not an opinion, that's a fact
And most people just can't accept being told that they're wrong.
a bit from a poem by Mary Oliver
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
damn...got to do some work now..I'll expand on this later. Meanwhile, what IS it you plan to do?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
damn...got to do some work now..I'll expand on this later. Meanwhile, what IS it you plan to do?
Thursday, 3 June 2010
My other blog
It was while I was writing the bit about Slapton Sands on this blog, that I realised that I've got literally hundreds of photos of places I've been, and loved, so I decided to set up another blog, to try and do justice to the beautiful country we call 'home'.
You'll find the link in the 'Links' section on this page. It's called 'My British Isles'.
You know, they keep on about people staying at home because of ash clouds, air fares, air miles, etc., but personally speaking, I'd be more than happy if everyone holidayed abroad, so that I've got the roads and the beautiful scenery to myself.
Trouble is, the British Tourist industry would soon go bust! Ah well, can't have it all ways, I suppose.
Anyway, if you like the UK, please take a look - you may find it a bit surprising. It's not just the places you'd expect to visit..........
But then, I'm seriously odd!
You'll find the link in the 'Links' section on this page. It's called 'My British Isles'.
You know, they keep on about people staying at home because of ash clouds, air fares, air miles, etc., but personally speaking, I'd be more than happy if everyone holidayed abroad, so that I've got the roads and the beautiful scenery to myself.
Trouble is, the British Tourist industry would soon go bust! Ah well, can't have it all ways, I suppose.
Anyway, if you like the UK, please take a look - you may find it a bit surprising. It's not just the places you'd expect to visit..........
But then, I'm seriously odd!
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
The Irritations of Art Deco
I'm fanatical about everything Art Deco - especially the Streamline moderne end of the Deco spectrum.
Now, I've got a 1:12 scale replica Art Deco house, that I was given for my birthday a few years ago, and it's almost furnished and finished the way I want it.
(you can see it by clicking the 'Ocean Boulevard' link on the right side of this page)
BUT................
the one thing I want for it, I can't find.
I want a telephone. Not just any telephone, but this one - only in 1:12 scale of course.
You think I can find one? Nope, no chance. I shall end up either trying to make one myself, or, more likely with my dodgy hands, paying somebody else to make one for me :(
Such a tiny thing, but it's been bugging me for years now. LOL the thought of a telephone bugging someone instead of someone bugging a telephone.......
anyway, if anyone comes across one (small chance!) please tell me where it is.......
Now, I've got a 1:12 scale replica Art Deco house, that I was given for my birthday a few years ago, and it's almost furnished and finished the way I want it.
(you can see it by clicking the 'Ocean Boulevard' link on the right side of this page)
BUT................
the one thing I want for it, I can't find.
I want a telephone. Not just any telephone, but this one - only in 1:12 scale of course.
You think I can find one? Nope, no chance. I shall end up either trying to make one myself, or, more likely with my dodgy hands, paying somebody else to make one for me :(
Such a tiny thing, but it's been bugging me for years now. LOL the thought of a telephone bugging someone instead of someone bugging a telephone.......
anyway, if anyone comes across one (small chance!) please tell me where it is.......
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Non-Eco Friendly
Found this on the web, and although it's meant to be a joke, it does serve as a reminder of just how often mankind damages this wonderful planet of ours.
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Slapton Sands
Well, I've just come back from a week swanning about my favourite part of the country - that's Dorset, and surrounding counties.
One of the places that was high on my list of places to visit when I'd got time was Slapton Sands in Devon.
It's a bleak, desolate place on the whole, especially when it's cold, windy and inclined to drizzle a bit - which it was, on the day I went there.
The story of Slapton Sands and Exercise Tiger is both tragically sad, and downright disgraceful.
In late 1943, as part of the war effort, the British Government evacuated approximately 3,000 local residents in the area of Slapton, now South Hams District of Devon
Landing exercises had started in December 1943. Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises that would take place in April and May 1944. The make up of Slapton Beach was selected for its similarity to Utah Beach, namely a gravel beach, followed by a strip of land and then a lake.
The exercise was to last from 22 April until 30 April 1944, at the Slapton Sands beach. On board nine large tank landing ships (LSTs), the 30,000 troops prepared for their mock beach landing.
Protection for the exercise area came from the Royal Navy. Two destroyers, three motor torpedo boats and two motor gun boats patrolled the entrance to Lyme Bay and motor torpedo boats were watching the Cherbourg area where German E-boats were based.
Early in the morning of 28 April, German E-boats that had left Cherbourg on patrol spotted a convoy of 8 LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade in Lyme Bay and attacked.
638 servicemen were killed, compared to only about 200 in the actual Utah Beach landing, 441 U.S. Army and 197 U.S. Navy personnel. Many servicemen drowned in the cold sea while waiting to be rescued. Soldiers unused to being at sea panicked and put on their lifebelts incorrectly. In some cases this meant that when they jumped into the water, the weight of their combat packs flipped them onto their backs, pushing their heads underwater and drowning them.
Of the two ships assigned to protect the convoy, only one was present. HMS Azalea, a corvette was leading the nine LSTs in a straight line, a formation which later drew criticism since it presented an easy target to the E-boats. The second boat which was supposed to be present, HMS Scimitar, a World War I destroyer, had checked into Plymouth for minor repairs. The American forces had not been told this. When other British ships sighted the E-boats earlier in the night and told the corvette, its commander failed to tell the LST convoy, assuming incorrectly that they had already been told. This did not happen because the LSTs and British naval headquarters were operating on different frequencies. Also, British shore batteries defending Salcombe Harbour had seen silhouettes of the E-boats but had been instructed to hold fire so the Germans would not find that Salcombe was defended.
When the remaining LSTs landed on Slapton Beach, the blunders continued and a further 308 men died from friendly fire. The British heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins shelled the beach with live ammunition, following an order made by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who felt that the men must be hardened by exposure to real battle conditions. British marines on the boat recorded in its log book (the only log which has since been recovered from any of the boats) that men were being killed by friendly fire.
All survivors were sworn to secrecy by their superiors.
In his book The Forgotten Dead - Why 946 American Servicemen Died Off The Coast Of Devon In 1944 - And The Man Who Discovered Their True Story, published in 1988, Ken Small declares that the event "was never covered up; it was 'conveniently forgotten'".
The 'official' memorial stands at the Dartmouth end of Slapton Sands.
it records the gratitude of the forces to the people of the area who gave up their homes
it makes no mention of those who lost their lives.
With little or no support from the American or British armed forces for any venture to recover remains or dedicate a memorial to the incident, Devon resident and civilian Ken Small took on the task of seeking to commemorate the event, after discovering evidence of the aftermath washed up on the shore while beachcombing in the early 1970s.
In 1974, Small bought from the U.S. Government the rights to a submerged tank from the 70th Tank Battalion discovered by his search efforts. In 1984, with the aid of local residents and diving firms, he finally raised the tank, which now stands as a memorial to the incident. The local authority provided a plinth on the seafront to put the tank on, and erected a plaque in memory of the men killed. Small documents how the local villagers were of more assistance than either the US or UK military officials. Later the American military honored and supported him, when at the same time the UK military were snubbing his efforts. Small died of cancer in March 2004, a few weeks before the 60th anniversary of the Exercise Tiger incident.
This is the memorial that, thanks to Ken, stands at the Torcross end of Slapton Sands, and which gives a true and fitting tribute to those marines.
One of the places that was high on my list of places to visit when I'd got time was Slapton Sands in Devon.
It's a bleak, desolate place on the whole, especially when it's cold, windy and inclined to drizzle a bit - which it was, on the day I went there.
The story of Slapton Sands and Exercise Tiger is both tragically sad, and downright disgraceful.
In late 1943, as part of the war effort, the British Government evacuated approximately 3,000 local residents in the area of Slapton, now South Hams District of Devon
Landing exercises had started in December 1943. Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises that would take place in April and May 1944. The make up of Slapton Beach was selected for its similarity to Utah Beach, namely a gravel beach, followed by a strip of land and then a lake.
The exercise was to last from 22 April until 30 April 1944, at the Slapton Sands beach. On board nine large tank landing ships (LSTs), the 30,000 troops prepared for their mock beach landing.
Protection for the exercise area came from the Royal Navy. Two destroyers, three motor torpedo boats and two motor gun boats patrolled the entrance to Lyme Bay and motor torpedo boats were watching the Cherbourg area where German E-boats were based.
Early in the morning of 28 April, German E-boats that had left Cherbourg on patrol spotted a convoy of 8 LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade in Lyme Bay and attacked.
638 servicemen were killed, compared to only about 200 in the actual Utah Beach landing, 441 U.S. Army and 197 U.S. Navy personnel. Many servicemen drowned in the cold sea while waiting to be rescued. Soldiers unused to being at sea panicked and put on their lifebelts incorrectly. In some cases this meant that when they jumped into the water, the weight of their combat packs flipped them onto their backs, pushing their heads underwater and drowning them.
Of the two ships assigned to protect the convoy, only one was present. HMS Azalea, a corvette was leading the nine LSTs in a straight line, a formation which later drew criticism since it presented an easy target to the E-boats. The second boat which was supposed to be present, HMS Scimitar, a World War I destroyer, had checked into Plymouth for minor repairs. The American forces had not been told this. When other British ships sighted the E-boats earlier in the night and told the corvette, its commander failed to tell the LST convoy, assuming incorrectly that they had already been told. This did not happen because the LSTs and British naval headquarters were operating on different frequencies. Also, British shore batteries defending Salcombe Harbour had seen silhouettes of the E-boats but had been instructed to hold fire so the Germans would not find that Salcombe was defended.
When the remaining LSTs landed on Slapton Beach, the blunders continued and a further 308 men died from friendly fire. The British heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins shelled the beach with live ammunition, following an order made by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who felt that the men must be hardened by exposure to real battle conditions. British marines on the boat recorded in its log book (the only log which has since been recovered from any of the boats) that men were being killed by friendly fire.
All survivors were sworn to secrecy by their superiors.
In his book The Forgotten Dead - Why 946 American Servicemen Died Off The Coast Of Devon In 1944 - And The Man Who Discovered Their True Story, published in 1988, Ken Small declares that the event "was never covered up; it was 'conveniently forgotten'".
The 'official' memorial stands at the Dartmouth end of Slapton Sands.
it records the gratitude of the forces to the people of the area who gave up their homes
it makes no mention of those who lost their lives.
With little or no support from the American or British armed forces for any venture to recover remains or dedicate a memorial to the incident, Devon resident and civilian Ken Small took on the task of seeking to commemorate the event, after discovering evidence of the aftermath washed up on the shore while beachcombing in the early 1970s.
In 1974, Small bought from the U.S. Government the rights to a submerged tank from the 70th Tank Battalion discovered by his search efforts. In 1984, with the aid of local residents and diving firms, he finally raised the tank, which now stands as a memorial to the incident. The local authority provided a plinth on the seafront to put the tank on, and erected a plaque in memory of the men killed. Small documents how the local villagers were of more assistance than either the US or UK military officials. Later the American military honored and supported him, when at the same time the UK military were snubbing his efforts. Small died of cancer in March 2004, a few weeks before the 60th anniversary of the Exercise Tiger incident.
This is the memorial that, thanks to Ken, stands at the Torcross end of Slapton Sands, and which gives a true and fitting tribute to those marines.
Friday, 7 May 2010
UK Elections
says it all really..............
To those who didn't bother to vote, you've only got yourselves to blame, if you don't get the government you want.
Mind you, looks like we'll eventually end up with the Government we deserve........
Monday, 26 April 2010
Craftwork
My favourite past-time, when I can't ride the bikes, is any sort of craftwork. I make all my own greetings cards, some presents, and basically, do anything anyone asks me to do. I embroider, crochet, make lace, paint - you name it. The one thing I can't do, however, is knit. Mum tried to teach me, but found it too difficult, because I suffer from being extremely left-handed - almost to the exclusion of using my right hand - or 'sinister', as the ancient Romans would have it!
If I haven't got anything better to do, I 'paint' needle portraits of my friends on their bikes..........
This is New Zealander, Adam Donovan racing in the Isle of Man TT
This one was still in progress when the picture was taken - Dennis Hobbs, BSB Privateer at Mallory Park...............
.....and friend Matt, putting his 900 Hornet around Snetterton
Each one takes me about 4 months of hard labour to complete, averaging about 70,000 stitches per picture. I've done more than this, but for obvious reasons, not many!
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