Pictures for the gang...

 This is mine -

Here is one for Son-in-law-who-cooks -

 And Daughter-who-loves-food -

And one for Partner-who-loves-tea -

This one is for Brother-who-blogs -

I think Daughter-who-takes -photos will appreciate this one -

And Friend-and-son-in-law-who-loves-otters has learned this one -

 This is the one for Son-who-watches-films -

And here is another one for Partner-who-loves-tea -

 

And, finally, one for all my readers -

Brothel Creepers and Cross-Dressing

Rambles – a history

I have just been updating my blogging profile and in the process I looked at the overview page for this blog.  I have done just over 2,650 blog postings on this blog alone.  I have had over 11,900 comments.  I have 187 followers and I get about 375 page views each day. In total I have had over 604,000 page views.  My audience is spread across the world with the exception of Africa and South America. 

My most viewed page remains ‘Brothel Creepers’ the story of the shoes of that name.  It shows what most people are using the Internet for!!  Ignoring that and the next one which presumably has similarly-minded searchers the most popular posts have been on eggheads(6048 views), starlings, Buddy Holly and a new penny each with over 3,000 views.

Two of the updates on my profile were pinched from Tabor – “Breathing in and breathing out” in the interests section and “I am over 60--living is my occupation” for the occupation section!  Thanks Tabor.

Golden Birthday

It never ceases to amaze me what I learn from the Internet.  I suppose it shouldn’t since I learn something from nearly every book I read.  I recently learned what a Golden Birthday is.  It means that someone has turned the age of their birthdate. So if you were born in 2010 your Golden Birthday is your tenth.  If you were born in 1944 your Golden Birthday is your 44^th.  Pity I didn’t know that when I was 49 I could have asked for special presents.

 Lychees

Son-who-watches-films had never tried lychees so when he saw them in the shops he asked Partner-who-loves-tea if anyone else liked them as there was no point in buying a whole punnet if it turned out he disliked them.  “Oh, yes,” she replied, “Your Dad loves them.”  Substitute ‘hate’ for ‘love’ and you’ve got something approaching my view on lychees.  So when Son-w-w-f rejected them and learned I hated them he told his mother.  Her response was “Oh well, I knew he felt very strongly about them…”  Anyone want any second-hand lychees?

Thunder and Lightning

On Monday evening we had a marvellous thunderstorm that lasted just over half an hour.  There was sheet lightning on average every 20 seconds with the occasional fork lightning and constant thunder which varied from a background rumble to a big bang.  The rain drummed down and poured off the roof, spilling over the gutters.  I love thunderstorms.  I remember when I was about ten watching a thunderstorm in the early evening from the side passage of my parents’ house.  It was the most spectacular storm I have ever seen and just seemed to go on for ever. 

By contrast my mother really disliked thunderstorms because they reminded her of the bombing raids on Liverpool in the Second World War.  She was also unfortunate enough to have a fireball float around the room she was in at work one day before the ball lightning grounded itself in the corner and disappeared.  Spooky.

Some Quotes

"I like to fiddle with words and put them together like a safe deposit combination to see what they can open."  ColleenRedman

"About to have fingers and toes done in readiness for a night out.

This is the beauty equivalent of turning up at an earthquake with a dustpan and brush."   Muma Leary – Wirral (Facebook)

“Old age is fifteen years older than I am.”  ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes (and GB).

“I was wrong to grow older.  Pity.  I was so happy as a child.”  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Beeb

Don’t you just love the BBC and its efforts to remain neutral and uncontroversial in its presentation of the news around the world?  Take for example the reporting on the mine disaster in Turkey.  The BBC showed the following photo with this caption…

 “Photos emerge of the prime minister's aide, Yusuf Yerkel, appearing to kick a protester in Soma”

“Appearing to kick”????????????  Don’t you mean “Kicking Hell out of…”

My Spillchucker

There are so many advantages of having a spellchecker on one’s cvompiuter.   For example, it underlines in red the word cvompiuter so you realise you have mistyped or misspelled ‘computer’.  A click of the right mouse button gives alternatives that one might prefer – sometimes just the one word and sometimes a list of words.  I recently mistyped Postcrossing and it ended up as ‘Ppstcrossing’. Although I had added Postcrossing to the dictionary, the Spillchucker helpfully just offered me the one word – ‘cross-dressing’.  Duh!

Friday My Town Shoot--out - Bridges

It's a long time since I took part in the Friday My Town Shoot--out and I may not be a regular contributor but I thought I'd put some UK bridges on this week's blog.

When I visit Daughter-who-takes-photos I often cross the Severn Bridge over the estuary of the River Severn between Wales and England. (It's free going from Wales to Englnad
with an expensive toll going from England to Wales... go figure!)

In Exeter, Devon, where Daughter-w-t-p lives there are lots of bridges over the River Exe and its tributaries. 

If we travel further South-west into Cornwall there are some ancient clapper bridges still to be found.

And although this was taken by my father, not me, I thought I'd show you the small railway bridge near my parents' house in Liverpool being widened in the 1940s.

If you want to see other bridges around the world why not visit the

I'm sure there will be some super photos on the various blogs linked to that page...

A Ramble Around my Brain

 A piece of pedantry

I nearly entitled this post ‘A Ramble Round my Brain’ but then I realised that GB, my pedantic brother, (possibly et al) might pick me up on whether it should be ‘round’ or ‘around’.  I settled for ‘Around’.  Views on a postcard to The Pedants’ Society, please.

Recently I stumbled across a reference on the internet to forming a Pedants' Society.  It ran thus.

    "I've realised there are enough people on here who appreciate proper English and who pay attention to detail. Send a private message to me or post here to join. If we get enough people we'll become a proper society and then we'll change the world."

    The only responses were -

"Shouldn't that be whom?"

and

    "Also, ‘we will’ would be technically more acceptable..."

In fact, there is already such a Society.  (Should that be a Capital S or as lower case s?)    In the book ‘This is Craig Brown’ by Craig Brown the title of the existing Society (ditto as above in brackets) is made clear.

It’s been a long short day

"(Lizzie said) ’You know, it's been a long short day!  Or maybe a short long day.  You know what I mean, right?  One of those days where it's a long day, but you don't get anything much done that you had wanted to get done.’  That is precisely what the day was -- a long day, with a lot done, but not the stuff you wanted. 
…  From now on, on the days when everything happens and nothing planned gets done, I'm going to remember that line.  It's a long short day.”  Messymimi

Well, yesterday was just one of those long short days.  I set out to do some gardening – it poured down.  I put a wash on; I put the washed clothes into the dryer; I dried the clothes.   Somehow that process managed to go on all day.  I made some lunch for Partner-who loves-tea. I read a bit of my Val McDermid book.   I wrote one postcard.  I read the various postcards and letters I received.  Hello, it’s bedtime. Where on earth did that day go?

So many letters and cards

I love snail mail.  There is something so exciting about hearing the postman (I’ve never seen a postwoman on our round in ten years) chuck things through the letterbox. Almost invariably nowadays there will be at least one postcard or personal letter amongst the dross of bills, adverts and the like. On a day when there is no such personal mail I feel quite let down for a while until I realise it gives me a chance to catch up on sending mail.

Yesterday was quite spectacular so far as the receipt of mail was concerned.

First of all there was a typed letter from Marcheline.  When did someone last take the time and effort to restore an antique typewriter and then type you a letter?  I loved every single word of it.  Thanks ever so much.

Then there were two cards from postcrossers – one in troubled Ukraine and one in the USA.

DawnTreader sent me another envelope full of goodies.  There was a postcard, a book of stamps with the story of Stanley Gibbons and a prodder.  OK, I know that’s not the proper name for it but I’m not sure what its correct title is. A rubber-ended-thing-that-helps-you-press-the-correct-letters-on-a-phone-or-tablet-screen.    GB gave me one last year and now I have another – that means my phone and tablet don’t have to share any more.

 A French postcrosser with whom I swap cards sent me some of Tuscany (and an ancient map of great Britain)

My Chinese student friend (or I should say one of my two Chinese student friends), Tatia, not only sent me an envelope full of cards but enclosed a  bookmark as well.  Have I ever mentioned I collect bookmarks?  I must show you some of them some time.

Well, the sun is shining and I can hear the garden calling – there’s work to do…  Bye.

Some Quotes I've recently found...

“To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.”  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes  (specially for a Hebridean friend this week)

“We are young only once, after that we need some other excuse.”  ~ Anon

“Life comment: I rely on default mode a lot.”  My friend McGregrr

“England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool .....”  Anon

 “There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I am old, there is no respect for age - I missed it coming and going.”  ~J.B. Priestly 

“Broken pencils are pointless…”  Anon