I've just realised I haven't posted anything on here for a whole week, so I thought I would keep the Google search engine web crawlers happy by submitting an up to date grumps and ramblings post. The truth is I've been so busy at night reading other people's blogs, and dropping in the odd comment here and there, that I've neglected my own!
Plus, I've been trying to keep up with my email contact exchanges which seem to have increased due to it now being Christmas. I know, in years gone by at this time of the year we sat down and wrote letters (remember them?) to keep in touch with old friends and distant relatives, but these days it's all done by email (hence our Postal Service now delivers more fast food leaflets than it does letters. Talking of which I notice that TNT are interested in bidding for a share of a possible partial privatisation of the UK's Postal Service, but to me the only advantage(?) I can personally see is even more junk through my letterbox - including more of those silly glossy magazines from Salford City Council that always paints a rosy red picture of their actually insignificant achievements and ignores the real issues).
On top of that I had a domestic upheaval last week which has taken up time - I'll just say that nothing was taken, but that was only because I was at home at the time, and that I'm o.k. (though still shaken up). This has also highlighted the fact that in spite of the propaganda put out to the contrary, Greater Manchester Police have lost all control over crime in their region and their officers are running around like headless chickens after the fact. It also enforces my previous observations that if you live in a decent area then you Will be targeted by the rapidly increasing number of lawless violent scum we now have breeding within British society.
My "Countdown to Christmas" counter is showing that it's only one week away! Panic! I'm nowhere near ready! I called in to see a friend of mine earlier this evening and he had a very welcoming Christmas decoration display. I had to admit that I haven't got mine up yet, to which he replied "well we were a bit later this year but they've been up for over a week now"! However he did say that they were leaving picking up a Christmas Tree until at least the weekend.
Now, I can remember an old workmate of mine who used to do that 'cos the nearer you get to Christmas day the cheaper the live conifer xmas trees are. This one year he'd left it until just the day before, and well of course we had the usual few xmas eve lunchtime drinks. Late afternoon he left us with a slurred "I relly musht gerra twee!". We heard afterwards that all he could get was the bottom few feet of a tree which must have been originally at least twenty feet tall! Imagine his wife's reaction as he stumbled over the front door threshold attempting to pull behind him the remains of the lower branches of a conifer at least twice the width of the door frame!
We laughed! - She didn't!!
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6 comments:
I always chuck the junk mail straight into the recycling bag. I was emptied last Wed, so I just counted up all the Pizza places, Chinky and Indian takeaway leaflets since then. 24!
A friend who lives in the centre of Hull says that ALL the fish & chip shops are now takeaways and he has to drive 17 miles to the nearest chip shop now!
A few years ago I was in contact with children of about 14 -15 year olds because I was an invigilator at the local high school when the kids took exams etc. Suddenly the papers were full of pedophile activity and child abuse news,that was the "in" subject then, and I was duly told that "due to circumstances beyond our control" that my services were no longer required! I wouldn't dream of hurting a child or abusing them, but it was no use. All elderly men were now suspect and I lost a good little earner. Recently I found out that there is now one ONE male teacher at the school and ALL the team of part-time invigilators are female. What a sick society we live in.
continued. . . .
About Christmas. Bah! I'm am not and never have been a christian. Even as a child I never did believe the bible and the stories about the saviour, it just seemed to my little brain more unbelievable and ridiculas than Grimms Fairy Tales. Consequently I was vilified and punished by the teachers of RI and the local vicar (Canon Turner, a heavy drinker) used to shout abuse at me, a 7 year old. Unfortunately I went to the C of E school at St Marys in Hinckley and couldn't escape his wrath.
So you see Kevin I, and my family as was, never celebrate Christmas. We do have a get together and a big "do" on the day of the winter solstice, 21st Dec which is called "Yule" in the pagan calendar. We decorate the houses with holly and mistletoe, but no tree.
You get more take-away leaflets than even I do. And I thought we had a lot due to this modern estate being a mixture of small blocks of 1 and 2 bed flats amongst 2 and 3 bed detached and semi-detached houses. I forget the ACORN rating, but it's mainly professional singles and young couples - the group most likely to either eat out or have take-aways.
Our intruders last week were probably older than that age-group (judging by the force needed to get through the main community entrance door, let alone cause three flat's entrance doors to virtually explode from the force of the impact they were given. It would seem that I disturbed them hence the other three in this block weren't hit, but rumour has it they then hit another block just round the corner).
Yes I often wonder just how innocent and vulnerable that teenage group really are these days, and just how many 'cry wolf' when the occasion suits them. There's always been a minority of adults with unnatural preferences (and certainly I would agree with removing them from society altogether rather than just restricting their activities), but to target all single men of middle-age and above is pure victimisation, not to mention uninformed hysteria. I seem to remember reading something about Operation Orr (or whatever it's called, it was to do with that child porn website that was busted) which stated that something like over a quarter of those who went through initial investigation were women! The men were of all ages and backgrounds, and a high proportion were married with young children of their own!
Christmas tends to be more about traditions with me. I'm not religious (more an observer of the Ten Commandments), although some of my relatives definitely are and I respect them for it. Thinking about it it's probable that my Christmas is biased more towards the Pagan than it is the Christian. Unfortunately all my relatives are now well spread out around the country and I have to admit I'm losing touch with some of them.
I think it was Cannon Turner who used to promptly and often abruptly end his Sunday evening worship in St. Mary's and run over to the Bounty where a pint and a whiskey chaser would be waiting for him. I often used to wonder where the dependence on alcohol lay within the list of Christian morals. Certainly the Muslim people that I know wouldn't have tolerated his behaviour!
Wow! That's long! Why did you give me so much to talk about?
:)
Didn't think you would remember ol Turner! Was the "Bounty" called the "George Hotel" then? You're more ancient than you make out!
No, I never knew Canon Turner myself, but certainly heard plenty about his reputation. (A lot probably came from my Grandmother, who's GP back in the late 1940's to mid 1950's or so was also an alcoholic!). I think it was Canon Platt (?) (or some similar name) who was at St. Mary's there back in my day, though I hardly knew of him - most of my family attended the Hinckley Baptist church.
I frequented the Bounty pub in Hinckley in the early to mid 1970's (my late teens to early 20's). A crowd of us used to meet up there most nights, and we all treated it as our second home! (Now there's a prompt to anyone reading this from that area who may remember me from those days to get in touch - especially 'The Three Lynne's!). My Dad always knew it as the George Hotel as he had occasionally visited many years beforehand in his own younger days.
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