Bad rears are ears!

Keep your back straight and bend your knees is good advice for lifting anything heavy. But now I find it hard to bend at all. Yesterday I went to the Doctor to have a word of advice concerning this and that and ended up with a list of things to take and people to see that quiet took my breath away.

However, thank goodness to counter the pain in  my back I was given some pain killers that really are like having ones brains beaten in with a velvet covered brick.. I took one and had to sit down.. As a method of pain negation they are really spot on. Simply take one and good night!

Old Bob the dog has an ear infection and had to go to the Vets at the same time as I yesterday. Luckily two dear friends took him and once again proved that a few good friends are worth an army. Bob, although well behaved, may have disagreed now that he is subjected to twice daily ear drops. He will not speak to his girl friend Faith since she administered the drops last night.

This morning it was my turn to play Judas and to add just the right amount of farce to the proceedings i have a broken toe and another without toe nail. This and the bad back mean pursuit of Bob at "drop time" was and will be at best a slow affair and with Bob having a definite edge when it comes to speed of avoidance. However, old age and treachery will out wit youth and inexperience every time and this time was no exception. I got him when he was asleep. Well, when I say got him.. I got one ear while he was dozing. The second one was administered when he was hiding under the table. Should prove interesting given he has to have them twice a day for 3 weeks.

As if that wasnt enough to make keep one occupied he also needs a hair cut. As he has been blacklisted by one dog groomer, I have to do the necessary and I am no dog groomer. Hence his arse and nether regions look like a fur covered pelmet and his legs like hairy plus fours. This residue from the first hair cut has to be addressed and one wonders whether to avoid the chore and not add to the boys burden. Do I really want to spend a fur covered hour wrestling with a cocker spaniel on the kitchen floor????? But he looks such a cocker!

God and Faith

Well, interesting day. I went to a meeting at which my local Padre had a discussion about faith and God. Who we thought he/she was and so on.

It was interesting to listen to one "learned" individual wax lyrical and show great knowledge as to the scriptures and contradict a rather promising avenue that encompassed Steven Hawking and his God Particle explanation.. Why not... if God is everywhere then there must be particles of him/her everywhere right?

Anyway. it all proved a stretch to far.

Then tonight I was talking with an old friend and this is her take:

I think god is a dog!  Well he/she can be because all good qualities are in dogs, they watch us, they comfort us, they make us get up , they keep us calm and they give pure love – just like god/dog.  He/she can be everywhere and nowhere, as dogs creep about and at night they snuggle you so that you are kept safe.  Dogs see the good in everyone and are loyal to all and only leave when they lose faith in you.   Dogs look out for you even when they are not there anymore as they are forever in your heart and they offer no judgement or cast no evil upon you and they don’t like fire which means they don’t like the devil.  Oh and another thing they only ever cry when they want your attention or to drink out of the tap and they love to play when you are at your lowest ebb just to make you happy!!!

Think about it…. Dogs know everything and say nothing – they offer a knowing stare and whiff of distain when they are disgruntled or you lock them out of your room because they stink and also they look after the sick and needy, the less fortunate and also everyone who turns to them.

I tell you – god is a dog!

QED!

Eat more fruit

Tis a strange world, but nothing is more truer than the statement "rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men".

We are living in an age of rules to the point that self determination is becoming a thing of the past. I think kids are so hamfisted now with rules and directives that their every waking moment has to be regulated in order to satisfy the Nannies states dread of being held up as failing to protect its citizens. No wonder they lack initiative. Its been almost surgically removed by the internet and over protective parents, schools etc.

The same for all age groups really, our freedom has been eroded to the point where one is scared to mention some word on the internet in case it triggers big brother into having a look at our virtual world. So monitored are we with CCTV that it is possible to be "clocked" 40 times a day simply going to work. Naturally, all because we have forgotten that the state loves to hold its citizens under control. Because, that is the real power of the state. Subjugate your citizens and all things become possible. So, good has the state become at telling us this benevolent surveillance is a good thing that one hears even sensible people say "I have nothing to hide and so nothing to fear" thus totally missing the point that free thought and expression are totally the corner stones of freedom.

Yes I know about the unrest within and the threat without. Ive been listening to that lame duck argument since I was knee high to a grass hopper. But think of this. Chuchill got rid of ID cards immediately after the war simply because he thought it an affront to our liberties to have to prove who we are. Further he brought in the court of human rights in order to bolster up those rights given to us under Magna Carter. Those same rights we now wish to dismantle for no good reason I can fathom. He hated the thought of an all powerful state.

If history proves anything it is that the more you oppress the more dissent grows. Perhaps thats why we are so angry as a civilisation. No doubt it is more complex than that. But as a seed I have watched these last sixty years grow I cannot but think that oppression if not the cause has without doubt been fertilised and allowed to grow into the anger we now see around the globe. If you link it with tribalism and xenophobia its a powerful brew and a hard thing to dismantle.

Next time you see a camera stick two fingers up at it. Makes you feel better! And eat more fruit.

Check your Bank Account. daily

I woke up the other morn, made a brew, told Bob to shut up barking at the Postie and sat down to read the mail.

First Letter was from the AA who kindly told me that I had just paid £240 for a years house cover and need not bother or worry, the money would be taken on the 3rd of the month from my account. Erm I thought I have a roof that looks fine to me and why cover it.........erm.......and why the AA dont they take you there when you break down.... Home Recovery isnt it! Have they branched out and now take your house to the broken down car....Mind bogggles.

Then a letter from Scottish Power welcoming me to there kindly monthly payments on a projected annual cost of around £1030. Once again the payments would be automatically taken... kindly just fill out he attached.  Erm... strange I cannot recall asking to join them I thought?

Then a letter from AA again telling me my car recovery had been increased this year to £180 to cover last years first year reduction and would you believe I need not worry.... Soooo, does that mean they will take my car to my home or my home to my car or cover both???????

Then just to make my life complete I opened another letter and was told I had been paid £980 too much by the DWP, please pay it back and they were also fining me £50 for not telling them they had over paid me... What the F...k! I thought.. And off to the citizens advice I did go. Only to be told the DWP were right even though I have the copies of the letters I sent them telling them that which they now deny I should pay up!!!!!!!!

However, before, I left they told me as a Veteran I may be able to get SSAFA to help me. So I rang and was told no they could not or would not and further more could I furnish them with a letter telling me who said they would because they were going to get stroppy with the CAB for telling me that they could.. At this point, I had to pinch myself thinking I was in a very poor French farce.

But I am nothing if not determined and I rang up the RAFA and asked them for help with the damp my house suffers with. Because. I am property rich but extremely cash poor. I have no doubt they will pass me on to the council at which point I may hang myself.

Because, it was the council who started all this when they reminded me to tell the DWP I was getting a small pension and council tax relief... Oh and the connection with the damp I hear you ask.. Well, my house front door alights directly onto the street. For street purpose the street does not start until a distance approximated to be beyond the councils damp course responsibilities and so therefore the Parish Council has determined that I can pay for the damp course and pavement work to be completed by me.. Soooooo kind and if you follow all of that then boy your doing better than me. The obvious question is how far is the distance from my house to the highway.. They would'nt say?

What a week... You really have to keep an eye on things or you could:
End up owing money they paid you and you didnt tell them when you did.
Fined for the above and still have no idea why.
End up living in a house has a legally flexible perimeter and the pavement your responsibility to both construct and maintain.
Have your house covered or removed to the site of the projected break down site of your car. While your car is being recovered to the site of you former and now mobile home.
Paying a Scottish Company you had no idea had you custom for electricity you didnt know you were going to use.

But, dont worry you do not need to do a thing...

Erm
xx.

Thought for the day-cars!

Im sat here waiting for a young lad to come and have a look at a mate of mines car. I sat here all day yesterday waiting for the same man. He is a nice man, but frequently a bit vacant. His wife complains of this rather dubious quality also. Indeed, she is yet another of those folk who are kind of emotionally blackmailed into staying with what otherwise would appear to be a bit of a pain in the arse for a husband. Love blinds us sometimes to the less than attractive side of our chosen mates.

I know that I will shortly give up on the chap in question and continue with my day.. I think 36 hours for a "no show" is enough. Its a shame mind you as I was trying to do a favor for a friend, but by now I should know that cars can frequently cause trouble. Im already in the poo for making a mess of the lady in questions drive when we changed the oil the other day, by allowing most of it to pour onto her brindle brick.

Im reminded of a time long ago now when a friend of mine Tim brought a monstrosity of a Triumph Herald

that had seen much better days. I think it would be safe to say it was a loose collection of panels held together with rust. However, beggars could not be choosers on £10 a week and one weekend Time and I, who both lived in Nottingham, decided to go home from RAF Cosford where we were being trained.

Amazingly we negotiated the bull ring and managed to get eventually onto the right road and get home. Here our Triumph Heralds expired outside my door.

Saturday morning found me under the bonnet with Tim looking none the wiser like me at a Haynes manual. We eventually deduced it was a timing chain to replace and tensioner. So off to the shops we did walk and pick one up. Then with spanner in hand we spent most of the day doing a simple job the hard way due to lack of expertise and knowledge. But, we did it and whats more on the sunday we got back to camp and with some swagger to I might add, at our obvious automotive engineering ability.

The next weekend however proved to be our undoing as basically the old heap decided it was time for the scrap yard. Naturally it let us know this on the sunday evening before return to camp. God bless my dad who took us back to camp on the monday morning and had a word with the Sergeant on the gate who allowed us into camp without fear of being charged AWOL.

Now every time I see a "Classic" triumph herald I wince.Funnily enough I brought another one for fifty quid when I was a policeman because its all my new wife and I could afford. It was a total heap, but the engine just kept going and for six months kept me and my wife likewise.....going! They really good thing about them was you could take the entire front off and then had loads of room to work on them. Something you did a lot if you owned a herald or its sporty cousin the Spitfire. Which we also owned.  KGB 325D was a green Spitfire Mk3  I brought for no good reason other than it was a sports car..

It was fun car to court in and we had some fun in it.. It had what is known as a live axle on the back and could be very tail happy, as was proved when we saw an oak tree three times on a leafy road once.. On another occasion I went to pick my wife up from the station. She had flue and was not the happiest chap on the planet. The roof on the spitfire was not really much good and frequently leaked. My wife got in the car, slammed the door and 2 pints of water dumped over her as the roof collapsed. We sold it shortly there after!

Shortly there after Triumph made a bloody awful Stag and then the TR7 and went bust.. Not surprisingly.. I had one more Triumph a Blue Dolomite. Which was for £80 did the job, but for reasons I never really understood used to wind up my girl friend at the time. She totally hated the thing. No idea why... Ive noted this with women. They can take an instant hate to a car for no valid reason. I had a lovely Mercedes 190E that used to wind up another girl friend I had. On reflection I should have kept the car and got rid of her.

List of Huntingdonshire Cab men June 2015

Awarded first gear
Albert Anthill
Bertram P.Womble

Awarded Second Gear
Terrapin Gracefumble
Glock Cock
Margery Mongoose-Kneedlework
Hunter Gathering

Third Gear
Master Blaster
I.P.Weekly
Lady Groundwork-Mounsteady KCB

Fourth Gear
Blodwyn Leander Class-Frigate
Percival Grungefuttock

Overdrive
Mortisher Lock
Hermitage Weeeeeeeeeeeeee

Sadly departed
Count Von Grubenstuben Ritter Krozz  Mit kotofel salat  unt Musli Klusters. Munich Chapter
Arthur Brain -  Epping Forest branch

Quote of the week (overheard in a small cafe in the Lincolnshire Wolds)

"No, yeah, no really, no see, If I get blocked up I could die in ten days"

In other new:
Amazing to think that a friend of a friend is a Children's Protection Officer. You would think a job with some security given recent sad events! But no, she has to be re-interviewed every year for her own job as the annual cuts to local government drag on.

They then prune one officer off the active list to save 20K or so and at a time when children's services and particularly children's welfare has been so much in the news.

Imagine the hit on ones moral to have to do be put under that pressure every year and of course the effect it has annually on staff moral. To know one will be up against ones colleague for a job that, lets face it, requires total motivation and commitment and a particular skill set that is hard to find. Amazes me why anyone would wish to do the job in the first place given that  its the absolute definition of cursed if you do and cursed if you do not.

Stupid bloody government again trying to make cuts in an area where retention of motivated and skilled staff is essential. When will they leave alone things they do not understand.. Government must be the last place on earth where a totally unskilled twat can be put into a position of such power and influence and be out of their depth totally. There to wreak havoc on the public purse and frequently with the power of life and death.

I think of Blair and Iraq here! Indeed, what better example could one sight. Churchill said "no one should become Prime Minister and have the right to put men to war who have not smelt gunpowder and been in battle". He was of course right and we really do suffer because of it. Chamberlain and his generation did all they could to avert world war two because they remembered the carnage of the western front  in which they had served as soldiers.

Peace in our time!

Appeasement today raised its ugly head in two different guises. The first was a young lady who told me her husband was a brick off a full hod and she had left him some years ago. Fair enough! Then she went back to him because he kept banging on about topping himself if she did not. Now she is trapped, with a man who will not confront his demons, is giving her secondary trauma and she just lives for the days he is not being savaged by his depression. Sad and no way to live is it. But many of us do it and emotional black mail comes in many forms.

The second was once again a lady and friend who is being blackmailed into doing the dutiful thing by her less than beguiling sibling. However, she has friends, which mean its not a lonely experience and sooner or later she is going to loose her chuff with the person concerned. Something to look forward to in one respect, in that she has not lost her temper since 1982... so should be something to watch. In this case it is the sibling thinking he is owed something that in actuality has been repaid many times in many ways and is now wearing thin. I half wish I could watch the lady concerned going "nuclear" I bet some stuff, long repressed, comes out that day.. Phew!

Its a funny thing about people, many of them love to have an edge over others for reasons of ego, self worth (or lack of it) or just good old fashioned psychotic behavior. One sees the most marginal talents being used to Lord it over others and the only reason the looser gets away with it is because the recipient has no wish to face the bully (for that is what they are) down or cannot fight back because the abhor confrontation, or lack self worth.

Do not think it is all women being down cast for it is not and many a man is bullied on a constant basis. It is not well understood and usually goes unreported simply because the man feels ashamed. I should no for a while I was bullied by a women and its not a nice experience and not easy to rectify. And yet I expect I've bullied in my time to. I can be a right arrogant arsehole sometimes. Although, not for the want of ego. In my case its that I get wrapped up in the argument or the moment and sometimes I dont know when to shut up.  Hence no doubt the need to Blog.... erm there is a complicated thought.

I was working on a car today and came across something I had not seen in a while. A totally rounded of bolt on a VW. Now VWs are very well built and the steel used is very tough. To round a bolt off like that must have been some task or performed by a gorilla in a very bad temper. I just hope I can find another way to save the lock im trying to replace or its going to be very interesting.

I have a friend in Canada who lives on the Canadian side of the Rockie mountains. Its a wild and remote area and she frequently finds big bear in her back porch..She just sent me a lovely photo of a wild mustang at the bottom of her garden which sums up the beauty of the area she live in.

I met Sue at Talbot House in Belgium and very interesting women she is. She helps veterans with PTSD and has written a book concerning the first world war.

Sue also has an uncanny ability to tap into the paranormal. I once took her to an aircraft museum she had never been to or knew anything about and she told me a certain plane had a presence. She was of course correct. I knew it but she could not have done. Very impressive. Sue also uses some old native american ways to heal veterans called the way of the warrior. Makes for interesting reading and Sue is well thought of in Canada by the military there and stayed with me for a while a couple of years ago.