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Archive for October 2008
What a deafening silence!
29/10/2008 by Ted.
Greetings everyone.
Not a lot happening on the blog at present. I suspect that Andrew’s reminder that the bearded gentleman with the red hat and coat is looming onto the horizon has catapulted everyone into a frenzied Christmas (sorry Andrew, Winter holiday!) shopping spree. No time to say “Hello” - goodbye! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” as the song goes.
We had our first Cumbrian frost yesterday morning, but it produced a lovely day which was very much appreciated. I was busy tidying up the garden and setting out my spring bulbs and missed getting out for a walk and enjoying it. So I went out today instead (without my wet gear!) and got a thorough soaking. That rain was REALLY COLD. But it was good to breathe the nippy autumnal air again.
As some of you will know (aren’t I always complaining about it?) I live in a very exposed and therefore windy location. When I moved in I had a double glazed door put on (I’ll not say by whom!) which has always managed to allow a draught through round the hinges when it was particularly windy. The draught then passed through the vestibule and proceeded to suck all the warm air from the living room before shoving it out round the hinges of the back door. Consequently in windy weather my living room was always the coldest room in the house.
Because I am a rugged type - or maybe just a bit thick - I have put up with this for the past ten years or so. But a month ago I decided that I had had enough and ordered a new front door - which was fitted last Thursday. I looked forward to a windy day to test out the new door, and on Friday morning it WAS windy - and raining heavily too (who would live here?) and the wind was battering the rain against and THROUGH the locked and closed front door. The vestibule was awash.
After a bit of troubleshooting I discovered that the rain was pouring in around the letter-box (not through it!). When I telephoned the firm to tell them they noncholently (Andrew, is that a proper word?) informed me that it must be because the letter-box opening had not been sealed and they would send someone out IN SEVEN DAYS to fix it - which is tomorrow. And the intervening seven days have been seven of the wettest and windiest for ages. Wow! Good, eh? I shouldn’t really complain though because no wind comes in around the hinges of the new door and the living room now gets warm.
Apart from that not a lot has been happening here. It has been too windy to go model boat sailing, the radio controlled duck has been temporarily overtaken by snooker and the financial crisis and we altered the clocks. And it is nearly Winter! As another old song says, “Life gets tasteless, dont it?” Never mind, Spring is on the way. Little mum and I always started counting the days to the shortest day about this time - and it isn’t too far away - just 52 days - and then everything starts to grow lighter again. Wow!!
To help pass on the dark evenings I have rooted out my “old favourite” CD’s with songs which go back to my youth at St. Alban’s in Manchester (Where????) where I learned to dance just under nearly a hundred years ago. Most of you will be too young to remember them, but how about these? Begin the beguine, It’s a sin to tell a lie, The last time I saw Paris, Skyliner, The man from Laramie, Two sleepy people, Penny serenade, I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter - and hundreds and hundreds more - REAL SONGS with words that warm your heart and melodies that set you singing. Well, they do me anyway and I am really enjoying them. One of my special favourites is Paul Robeson singing songs like Ol man river, Fat little fella with his mummy’s eyes, Shortenin’ bread and My curly headed baby - our dad used to sing us little ones to sleep with that one - remember? “Lula-lula-lula-lula bye-byes, Do you want the moon to play with? Or the stars to run away with? They’ll come if you dont cry”. So I’m going to wrap myself up in these lovely favourites and sing along with them and it will soon be Spring again. Soppy, eh? But I love it! Being an oldie certainly has it’s blessings!
I trust everyone is well and enjoying life to the full. Still awaiting a blog photo of Nathan, our kid. Nice to talk to you the other day.
My love to you all (especially the pretty ones!),
Keep blogging!
Ted.
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From the Daily Mail
19/10/2008 by Fly-on-the-wall.
A lobbyist on his way home from Parliament is stuck in traffic. Noticing a police officer, he winds down his window and asks: ‘What’s the hold-up?’ The policeman replies: ‘The Prime Minister is so depressed he’s stopped his motorcade and is threatening to douse himself with petrol and set himself on fire. ‘He says no one believes he can get us through the credit crunch. So we’re taking up a collection for him.’ The lobbyist asks: ‘How much have you got so far?’ The officer replies: ‘About 40 gallons, but a lot of people are still siphoning.’
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Life in the olden days
19/10/2008 by Ted.
Wow, was life really like that for those born in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s? No wonder the world is in the ghastly state it is in today.
Makes me glad I was born in the 30’s.
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Happy belated 58th birthday greetings to Andrew - the (once) baby of the family..
19/10/2008 by Fly-on-the-wall.
“mosquito???????????”
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I can’t think of one
18/10/2008 by Andrew.
Hello everyone - I hope you all feel a degree of excitement as we race towards the big “C”. I don’t call it Christmas anymore but ‘winter holiday’. No i hav’nt become a muslim or anything like that but I do have my reasons which you might guess if you think about it. To be honest it was never the same when people stopped buying me toys!
“I hope you had a Happy Birthday” greeting to all you oldies. (I know! At your age you are trying your hardest to ignore it and someone keeps splattering it all over the bog - sorry blog).
Someone sent me this in an email and i though it was pretty good.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s 70’s
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin and ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always exciting and great fun.
We drank water from the garden hose or tap and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank cordial with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because……
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, No video games at all, No 99 channels,No Pay TV, No cable, No DVD movies or surround sound.
It’s crazy! We even had
No mobile phones, No text messaging, No personal computers, No Internet or Internet chat rooms……….
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we didn’t poke out anyone’s eye.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with your eyes shut holding a pair of scissors, doesn’t it?!
Not bad is it?
Andee XXX
PS What about “Indian summer” mhh? Apart from the mosquito you are all a bit slow with suggestions - tut tut!
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Happy birthday Alan, and Hi to Lynda from everyone
15/10/2008 by The Family.
Today, 15th October is Alan’s birthday.
Many happy returns, Alan, from everyone.
Hope you have a really good one.
Much love from us all.
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Hi Everyone, and Happy Birthday to Alan
14/10/2008 by Lynda.
Hello everyone, hope you are all well, the weather here is cold and wet, a belated Happy Birthday to Peter, and a Happy Birthday to Alan for tomorrow, the 15th of October, Take care and God Bless
Love From Lynda T from Brid
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PETER
14/10/2008 by The Family.
Today, 14th October is Peter’s birthday.
Many happy returns, Peter, from all the family.
Hope you have a really good one.
Much love from us all.
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Photos from Millom
07/10/2008 by Ted.
Another wet day today but a really enjoyable walk to Millom then through the nature reserve and back along the sea wall via Haverigg. The above are a few souvenirs of the walk.Hope you enjoy them as much as I did the originals.
And, of course, today would have been our lovely Gwen’s 68th birthday. You’re still very much loved and missed, Gwen.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RICHARD
04/10/2008 by Ted.
Hi Richard,
Many happy returns of yesterday 3rd October.
Hope you had a wonderful birthday.
Much love and best wishes from all the family.
PS. My apologies for the delayed greeting. You would have had this greeting yesterday but that my watch, which I trust to tell me the date, still says the 3rd.
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Hi Sue
04/10/2008 by Fly-on-the-wall.
It was a pleasure to be of help.
It was you dad’s idea. He asked me to just run my eye down Andrew’s thorough and commendable instructions and summarise the basics - which I did. Took me all of a couple of minutes and I think it was well worth it if it helped someone as charming as you sound.
Ted (your dad) tells me Bryan is your husband. Please give him my regards.
Your dad also sends his fondest love to you both.
Let me know if I can be of help again - but I am allergic to housework!.
Regards,
Fly-on-the-Wall.
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Hi Andee
04/10/2008 by Fly-on-the-wall.
Ted is playing with his duck just now so I have a brief opportunity to respond to your “Indian Summer H..mmmmmmmm!”
Ted Googled it too but said that as no-one seemed to know where the expression came from, and as the ”Indian Summer” you were referring to only lasted one day anyway, it wasn’t really of concern. I explained to him that you would, in any case, be looking it up on Google and would find the inconclusive situation which you did, and I also spent some time explaining to him the true origins of the expression which I will pass on to you here. I, of course, with my own origins have a knowledge of most, and sometimes all, things.
The expression is the result of poor literacy in early post- first - Elizabethan times. (Not nearly as bad as in these second-Elizabethan times, though!) However. The expression Indian Summer did orginate in America and in a broad way concerns the American Indians. The Quakers’ first winter in their new country was not a happy one and they endured many privations - starvation, sickness and the like. During these times the local native Indians helped them and were appreciated by the settlers. Eventually things got better for the settlers and by the time another ship arrived from the mother country the following year local native Indians and settlers had become good neighbours.
The captain of the visiting ship was required to write a log of what he found on his trip and Captain Amos Wainwright in his report described the integrated population he found with the words “They are mostly Quakers and summer indians”. He should more accurately have written “some are Indians”. The sentence following started with the words “Weather in the new settlement is unseasonably warm and dry …”
When the Admiralty of the time received the report, the two consecutive sentences made no sense to the Admiralty clerks faced with the incorrect spelling combined with Amos Wainwright’s pen and ink writing. They therefore ”corrected” it, and associated the words “summer Indians” with the second weather sentence after adjusting the two words to read “Indians summer” which they thought more reasonable. The new sentence then read “Indian summer weather in the new settlement is unseasonably warm and dry” which passed into the English language as the definition of “Indian Summer”.
I hope this is of help.
Regards,
Fly-on-the-wall.
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What a colOrful blog!
03/10/2008 by Andrew.
Well done everyone, hopefully I can put me magnifying glass away now.
Re: the etymology of “indian summer” i thought i had better ‘google it’ as you lot seem as clueless as i am. It presents four possibilities and i thought it would be good to find out which YOU think is the most plausible.
(1) In The Americans, The Colonial Experience, Daniel J. Boorstin speculates that the term originated from raids on European colonies by Indian war parties; these raids usually ended in autumn, hence the extension to summer-like weather in the fall as an Indian summer. Two of the three other known uses of the term in the 18th century are from accounts kept by two army officers leading retaliation expeditions against Indians for raids on settlers in Ohio and Indiana in 1790, and Pennsylvania in 1794.
(2) It may be so named because this was the traditional period during which early North Americans First Nations/Native American harvested their crops.
(3) It could be so named because the phenomenon was more common in what were then North American Indian territories, as opposed to the Eastern Seaboard.
(4) It may be of Asian Indian origin rather than North American Indian. H. E. Ware, an English writer, noted that ships traversing the Indian Ocean loaded their cargo most often during the Indian summer, or fair weather season. Several ships actually had an “I.S.” on their hull at the load level thought safe during Indian summer. However this usage refers to the actual high summer in India, not to a late warm spell.
mmmmmmh! Watcha think then?
Andee XXX
PS. for Sue
Aha! Your ’secret ploy’ was unsucessful. Little did you know, that i knew, that you would devise a ’secret ploy’ that would attempt to draw attention to your post by making it small and colorless. This is why i previously decided to devise a ‘cunning plan’ to make you think that i was trying to shame you into making your post big and colourful, when really i had anticipated that ‘fly on the wall’ would itself post a post which would cunningly draw you into a situation where you would produce a big colourful post and so unwittingly you fulfilled my original intention!
Bye the way, do you remember this word - ‘paucity’ ?
PPS. If you want to use the equivalent of invisible ink to send a secret message try using color=”white”.
X(((Sue)))X. (three hugs and two kisses)
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It’s another Eureka moment
02/10/2008 by sue.
Well the footie just goes on and on and on tonight!! and as I have a few minutes before the second part of Silent Witness comes on I thought I had better have a go at this colour lark as even fly-on-the-wall seems to think it’s easy!! So what is it I have to do??? ermmmmmmm
Yahoo I got it but it has taken me ten minutes to get this right. Now I don’t have time for my shower and i will have to go to bed all smelly. Poor Bryan.
Hopefully I will find it quicker as I practice more.
Oh, by the way fly-on-the-wall -Thanks for the easy shortened version of the original instructions by Uncle Andrew. Yours made sense to little-old-techno-challenged-me.
Night Night folks. xxxxxxx
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well well well
01/10/2008 by Bob.
well well well, well well well well well well Well well well.
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