The one where you confuse Columbo for Banacek

One of the tv channels has been showing Columbo re-runs, or perhaps they're premiers on this particular channel, recently. This and "The Sweeney" have been my recent tv addiction, but I can give or take "Minder" -'ere leave it out 'Tel

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="75"] Lieutenant Columbo (Photo credit: ostromentsky)[/caption]

I've been watching Columbo weekly with anticipation and enjoyment, honestly I have. drives MrsPdubyah spare. the stories are simply told in three acts, the setting, the investigation and the reveal. Everything was much simpler then.

There's a murder laid out for you, then Coloumbo investigates, and it ends when he says "And so you did it", and the bad guy effectively shrugs his shoulders and says "fair cop" and that's the end.

I have however been waiting for two particular episodes that I have memories of.

Patiently waiting

Then it's at some point that I realise that Columbo is a homicide detective, and I've been waiting for two stories that do not have a murder as a thing. It's not going to happen.



I'd realised they were not  Kojak or Streets of San Francisco episodes, again murder and 'gritty' crime based, I remember that much (and they're showing on the same channel, I've been watching them too), which meant I had to start to figure out what it was that I was expecting to see.

Seems I was looking for Banacek all along.

Banacek with the "Polish proverbs" that used to make my (Polish) father frown and moan.

The episodes in question are/were

• The one where a gridiron player disappears from the field of play.


• The one where a computer completely disappears 

So I have a few hours of entertainment for when I'm giving it the big on the spin bike in the next couple of months whilst I recuperate and repair.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="75"] Ironside (TV series) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Who knows next it might be a bit of Jack Lord in Hawaii 5-0 just for old times, and we haven't even got to Longstreet, the blind detective, or Ironside, the one with the chap in the wheelchair or some of the other gems.

No one ever said I was complicated. ..... Who loves ya baby.

Related articles

• Review: Columbo 'Murder by the Book' (Season 1, Episode 1)


• Mrs Columbo - (Sort Of) Revealed!

On the Occasion of the 25th Wedding Anniversary

Eventually we were going to get there, MrsPdubyah and me.

5th November 1988, Paeroa Presbyterian Church. A date I chose, it's a long story and I'll scan some photo's and write a bit more about that.

Fast forward through the first house, then the #1 Child, the #2 Child. the 2nd house, and  3rd house, the half-dozen pet cats, the first days at school, the driving lessons, the leaving home. All those things.

Eventually you get  get to 25 years. Which is where the trouble starts.

I'm not sure who thought this up, but for getting to a 25 year marriage you have to exchange traditional gifts of Silver.

It's not clear if this should be solid silver, silver plate, or silver looking. I want to know who was on the committee that decided this, it's a gross oversight.

Then, oh yes then, look for a suitable gift. When was it that matching ceramic mugs were appropriate? or a Crystal Bell?

Who exactly gives their life partner, after 25 years of marriage (not counting the courting and preamble years) a Candelabra, Knives and Forks, Serving Spoons, Silver Platter or Photo Frame?

Which of you thinks that at 25 years you're a bit doolally in the head and have slipped into some kind of dementia where you need to surround yourselves with trinkets and old tat?

Of course yes in olden times you might have. But I don't feel like I've spent half a life with MrsPdubyah. Yes on the outside a bit more rugged, but mentally still in the game.

All that aside however I'm going to be in a world of pain if I don't get a suitable gift, if only I could remember if MrsPdubyah has pierced ears on not I could get her some ear-rings, and on reflection a little bell I could tinkle wouldn't go amiss when I needed a beer top-off.

It's not where you're at it's where you're from.

Part of being where you are is knowing where you came from. I'm from a family that has a chequered history, not unusual. and the family tree is a journey, like everyone else's.



So it was with a bit of excitement that I really stumbled over this last night, in one of those weird moments where you indullge your self-googling, except this time I chose my Father's name.

And this popped up.

A public notice confirming his naturalisation \ Citizenship in July 1965, a magnificent addition to the family history tree.

Feeling a bit good about this to be honest, but not for any real reason, except I found it.

Star Trek - Into the darkness - oh dear.

Star Trek - Into the darkness

I just saw the movie.

There are a few things that I have questions about.

Underwater ?
Can fly in an atmosphere?
'short' distance from Earth, well known planet and situation, (they have a debrief about it) and yet un-exploited (by characters like Mudd?)

Tribbles ?
Mudds Spacecraft still in dock and ready to go?

He cries?

The all new Dreadnought class can go faster than Warp?

And can transport people through shields? - "What are you doing there?" and apparently despite shields being up,  you can enquire if the "beam" can be blocked, and it's only a lack of power that prevents you?

Quick phone call to a reclusive and looking a bit worse for wear 'Old Spock' to ask how it ends?

No way of blocking communicator traffic, and they work from one end of space to the other - Can you hear me Scotty ?

Re-animation using a newly extracted "serum" from blood, takes 2 weeks in a human, hour or less in a troublesome tribble.

Carol Marcus - random character - like the mirror of the man in red in the landing party - gratuitous underwear shot, has managed to defeat many security checks and walks onto a spaceship - just like that, oh and how important?

Many and varied 'alien' species, already in contact and employed in Star Fleet.

And Earth has no missile defence system ?

and we finish with a  5 year mission to explore and discover new civilisations  ?

But it's a  jolly good roller coaster of a ride. Khan is great, the new play on the old plot is fantastic and I'd watch it again. For those who remember the Star Trek series the first time around, this play well to the nostalgic and doesn't stray too far away from comfortable. I do hope however that the next film doesn't have a bald woman, whales, and a satellite that's gone all Wal-E, but a Genesis project might go well, if only they could figure out how "old spock" didn't do that bit.

Related articles

• Star Trek Into Darkness.... with a side of Tribble and SPOILERS (filmbyfelix.com)

 

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Holiday with the 'folks'

We're lucky enough to enjoy a beach house. We're lucky enough to have 'Christmas' in the summer months, being as how it's New Zealand and it's all the other way around.

As "workers" we work hard all year and get a couple of weeks off to do nothing, to laze about, twiddle thumbs, shower occasionally, eat, drink, eat, sleep, nap. It could be so nice.

But we're also unlucky enough to have parents who drive us madly insane. Not my parents, but the in-laws for me, the parents for MrsPdubyah.

They were school teachers and so eery year they would spend a goodly amount of weeks at the beach house. For them it's just another house, it's managed to acquire all the town house things and none of the beach house things.

You could transplant this house to a town and you'd never know. Now holiday homes are different, they are full of art, sea-shells, mis-matched furniture, rustic tables. We don't have one of those. The neighbours have those. The neighbours....

We have a house at the beach, and it's a harrowing experience to live though a week here. We used to be able to do 10-14 days, now we get to about 4 days and start getting a twitch. We've not had any days at the beach house when they are not here, we call as say "are you going to beach this weekend" they invariably reply "if you are we will", it's maddening, frustrating and difficult to broach.

Age will turn you into a prisoner. A prisoner of routine. Every day you have to do the same things. Up at 7am, washing in washing machine at 7:30am, go get newspaper at 7:45am. Cereals at 8 a.m.  Washing the dishes is an immediate task, heaven help us if they are left for more than 10 minutes.

Then it's 9 a.m. so possibly mowing the lawn, picking fruit from the tree, spraying some weeds. 10 a.m. tea of course. 10:30 is mid morning siesta, because they've worn themselves out.

More washing at 11:00 am, they wash clean things to maintain schedule I'm sure of it. Random vacuuming and brushing time till lunch, when we have a selection of mulled over left overs and a cup of warm water.

Hourly switch on the radio at 30 seconds to the hour for the news bulletin, the log range weather for everywhere, then off. No music allowed, and don't change the channel, ever.

Afternoon siesta.

Discussion about what the neighbours are up to, who's at the beach, who's not, why, if we don't know why make a guess. Read the death notices to see which friends might have had the temerity to die when they're at the beach and not in town. It happens.

Gin o'clock, wine o'clock begins as the 6pm news is on the TV. Pre-dinner dishes, of course, washing dishes not cheese and cracker dishes.

Dinner must be before 7 pm. Fretting ensues if it's going to be later.

Entertain everyone by reading the teletext updates (A service soon to be discontinued).

Read book, coughing randomly until 9pm when it's bedtime.

Days when the gentleman's fishing club is in session, make an agreed time "how about around 7am" where "about" means up at 6:30 to prepare, leave at 7 am, no later, no sooner. Fishing line can only be in the water 1 hour. No longer, no shorter. 1 hour. Today I was suckered in with "whatever time" which meant of course 7:45am knocking on the door "are you ready yet" We didn't go fishing.

We didn't go fishing because on a 800 meter beach someone had launched a gentleman's fishing rig into the sea before us, and fretting and panic ensued about them being too close together. Serious fretting, muttering and followed by deep investigation of the mans credentials, home address, and a lecture about "how I do it..."

Fishing was also cancelled, no only to proximity, but because weed was spotted in the waves, and weed is bad. To make up for this disaster he burnt some paper and plastics instead of putting them out for rubbish collection, it's "what we had to do in the old days"

We've taken down the tent, it rained and wasn't used. Didn't let it dry now the weather has changed, took it down and stowed it wet. "It's what we had to do in the old days"

This evening we will again have a discussion about Teletext, the neighbours wi-fi and how it's intermittent (we have permission to use it, we're not totally freeloading", who's arrived, who's left, pontifications on the "Sales" the lack of Eggs in the house.

And tomorrow we will do it all again, in roughly the same order, amount of time, and with the same earnest face.

Not a holiday.

 

That annoying top ten list stuff - The Music

I've touched on music a bit in other places here and hereabouts

There are a few musics I'd like to call out. To place them in an order wouldn't do them a justice, they are things that are dear to me and that I'd like to journey with, but I'm going to give it a go....

1. David Bowie - Station to Station
   
   
   
   • This has never left me as music, the haunting tracks, the all of them, everyone of them, you want me write more on how?
   
   
   
   


2. Elbow - Seldom Seen kid
   
   
   
   • If you have to ask then don't ask.
   
   
   
   


3. Dire Straits - Dire Straits
   
   
   
   • This is some serious guitar thing, and lyrics, and it's about time and place.
   
   
   
   


4. Yazoo - Upstairs at Erics and/or you and me both.
   
   
   
   • A time in my life when my Honda CX500TCC turbocharged motorcycle, and becoming an adult, and this in my walkman stereo - what!
   
   
   
   


5. Status Quo - Live
   
   
   
   • If I could go back and have a bit "of the bit, right" then that'd be me!
   
   
   • Because Andy Heatherly  for this, Think Lizzy and Rush
   
   
   
   


6. Donald Fagan - The NighyFly -
   
   
   
   • because it reminds me  of a girl I once knew. Don't mention this to MrsPdubyah.
   
   
   
   


7. Paul Simon - Graceland
   
   
   
   • This is me being released from home and family and being my own self on my own as a being.
   
   
   
   


8. Dire Straits - Communiqué
   
   
   
   • because "News" is about the motorcycles that I miss so much
   
   
   
   


9. Coldplay - Parachutes
   
   
   
   • after 5 or 6 plays this is a piece of brilliance. Listen without prejudice.
   
   
   
   


10. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn, Side 2. Then Tubular Side One....

Supplemental.... Your own personal favourites in one "mix tape from 10.....

[caption id="attachment_4041" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Honda Turbo, I had two of these, one was stolen and the other I managed to crash.[/caption]

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Entertainment

I laughed out aloud when I discovered what televisual delights were available to entertain. This would have been after you'd opened your science kit and played with the magnet and iron filings, or the cooking thing that made stragne tasting jelly, or you'd used all the batteries that powered the rifle range game, and it was too cold or there was too much snow to play with your Action Man Red Devil Parachute" toy....

Christmas Eve Thursday 24th December 1970. Some of the highlights

• 11.10am Tom and Jerry Mice Follies


• 11.15am On Top of the World international ice champions entertain


• 12.00 Movin' Along with Andy Williams


• 3.30pm Film : Misty (1961) with David Ladd and Arthur O' Connell


• 4.55pm Blue Peter


• 5.20pm Scooby-Doo, Where Are You ?


• 5.44pm The Magic Roundabout Pancakes, When Dougal starts cooking there are plenty of offers of help from his friends


• 6.15pm Tomorrow's World


• 6.45pm Joy to the World


• 7.30pm The Cliff Richard Show

The Adults got a real treat :

• 8.20pm The Gang Show Gala, with Peter Sellers, Dick Emery, Graham Stark, Cardew Robinson, Reg Dixon and David Lodge


• 9.20pm Play of the Month: Five Finger Exercise with Margaret Lockwood, Paul Rogers


• 10.50pm Just Pet


• 11.40pm A Story for Christmas The Gift of the Magi


• 11.50pm First Communion of Christmas, from Worcester Cathedral


• 1.05am Closedown

Christmas Day Friday 25th December 1970, as if you couldn't get enough excitement

•  9.30pm Basil's Christmas Morning with Basil Brush and Derek Fowlds


• 10.00pm Christmas Crackers a cartoon parade with Michael Aspel


• 12.35pm The Story of the Silver Skates starring Eleanor Parker, Richard Baseheart


• 2.15pm Top of the Pops 70


• 3.00pm The Queen, speaks to the Commonwealth and introduces a special film


• 3.25pm Billy Smart's Circus Spectacular


• 4.30pm Disney Time with Harry Worth


• 5.10pm Robinson Crusoe starring Ken Dodd, with Lyn Kennington, Peter Glaze, Arthur Mullard


• 6.45pm Christmas Night with the Stars introduced by Cilla Black, featuring Bob Hope,Mary Hopkin,Graham Kerr, Jerry Lewis, Nana Mouskouri, Clodagh Rodgers,Frank Sinatra, Jack Warner,Dad's Army, Stanley Baxter, Dick Emery, Bachelor Father,Terry Scott and June Whitfield

And if the Snowball, Babycham or the Party Seven hadn't done the trick for the adults there was

• 8.15pm The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show


• 9.15pm Film : Charade (1963) starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn


• 11.00pm The Good Old Days with Danny La Rue


• 11.50pm But Seriously...on the Nativity with Joyce Grenfell, Cyril Fletcher, Ernie Wise

And at 12.00 midnight the TV station Closed down for the night, yes they did.

Check out 1975 and other years here

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Festive Treats

There were things that were only ever seen in our house for one month a year. Fleeting things enjoyed because of their rarity in some instances.

The Treats.

As well as the backup tin of Quality Street chocolate in a big tin, the one we didn't use to decorate the tree we had a number of celebration things in the house for christmas.

Satsuma Oranges individually wrapped in tissue paper. this is how they came from the grocers, it wasn't a family tradition or any such thing, they were just wrapped. Not all of them, some in the bowl were, and these were the prized ones of the the pickings. For no reason than they were wrapped in tissue. on reflection being winter of course a tropical fruit was a luxury, and presented as such.

Orange and Lemon Slices. Sugar coated jelly candies. The blob in the middle was for the Mother, the slices were allocated at one of each per child, perhaps. We seemed to have unlimited boxes of these things, there was always one being opened when anyone visited, perhaps it wa some strange ritual that has since passed into lore. All I can remember is there were always lemon and less orange slices left to sneak during the early evening.

Dates. Why we had dates I'll never know. They came in an an oblong box, and contained a wooden fork to jab them from the box. I still have a vague unease about boxed dates, and how they looked inedible, mouldy even, wrinkled in their box, all sticky and glistening.

Mixed bag of nuts. Walnuts, Almonds, Filberts (Hazlenuts) and possibly the least liked, Almonds. Hours, or what seemed like hours, cracking nuts and extracting, usually, pieces, of nut from crushed shell. definite win if you could extract an unbroken walnut from a shell.

The Christmas Stocking. Which contained a selection of chocolate bars that you were supposed to enjoy over a period of time, expected to be longer than an afternoon. Never happened. Don't recall any trades going on either, my Milky way for your Smarties... none of that.

There were also, and this is going to either ring a bell or ring an alarm bell, Chocolate Smokers Sets. These were a presentation of smoking related things in chocolate form, containing, from memory, An Ash Tray, a Lighter, A pipe, and a packet of chocolate cigarettes that were in a packet that looked like the real thing, each cigarette wrapped in tissue.

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Festive Drinks

One of the things that I remember from Christmas was the abundance of things. The seasonal drinks cupboard got topped up.

There were 4 standout things that were brought into the house only for the Christmas period.

Babycham

A sparkling Perry (fermented pear) drink. In packs of 4 little bottles, and aimed fair square at a female audience. Loved by my mother.

Warninks Advocaat

What is Christmas without a "Snowball", made with Advocaat,and lemonade, Lime and ice if you're a bit fancy. A fluffy yellow treat for the teens.

Port

"Port and Lemon". Another post-war favourite, relying on the memory and traditions carried forward. If you couldn't talk your way into a Port and Lemon you would fall back on the Snowball

Watneys Party Seven

Also available as a Party Four. Contained 7 or 4 pints of beer. Could only have been 3.9% ABV of  English Bitter. Came with a can opener. Usually resulted in half the contents spraying over the guests as it had not settled or had just arrived.  Needless to say the last "offering" was only available to the adults and only after bedtime for the children. The adults would congregate in the back room, and smoke and drink, play cards.

Related articles

• Raise a glass: Babycham is back! (Just in time for the Christmas party season...) (dailymail.co.uk)

The 12 ways of Christmas – The Tree

This year might be the year when we don't have a traditional tree decoration at home. By decoration I mean a tree with things on it.

As a child the tree was an important part of the Christmas thing.

• It was always a real tree.


• it was always as tall as the room, sometimes taller, the fairy looming over the room at an awkward angle.


• Every year we had to make a new base for the tree out of some wood in the form of an X.

Every year Come easter the tree might still to have been found behind the shed, brown, spindly and forlorn. It would be a few months till Bonfire night, unless we had one earlier.

Every year the same things happened in preparation. An important part of the tree was the lights. a Lot of lights. one of the chores was checking each and every light bulb. Because. This involved sitting with an interesting multimeter device the like I have not seen again, and checking each one by passing a current through it. Every one.

The bulbs were I remember coloured. And each bulb socket had a flowery looking surround. Each bulb was an Edison screw type bulb and not a bayonet fitting. We called them fairy lights. I'm not sure we still do.

Decorating the tree was a family affair and there were always lot of hands. The hanging ornaments were fragile glass globes. Some of which had been broken in the previous 12 months.

But an important part of the tree dressing was the decorations made from lollies and walnuts

.

Take a tin of Roses Chocolates, they come in foil and cellophane wrappers, brightly coloured and shiny.

You get a reel of cotton and you make each sweet an ornament by making a loop of cotton using one end of the wrapper as an anchor.

You then hang the lollies on the tree.

During the next 20 days, or whatever time frame you have, you get a reward treat of a lolly from the tree, opening the chocolate and leaving the foil and cellophane on the tree, empty but still pretty!

There was the Round toffee one, the long toffee one covered in chocolate, the one with the walnut inside, the sold chocolate one, the one that was strawberry,  the orange creme...

Mother would also make walnuts to hang from the tree, using a matchstick in one end of the walnut whole to make an anchor.

And there you have a tree with lights, glass globes, Cellophane lollies and walnuts. Add a rope or two of tinsel and a can or two of fake snow and there you have my traditional memory of a tree.

An enormous pine smelling plant, that dropped pine needles from the moment it was in the corner, and kept watched over the room. We didn't have the presents under the tree as a tradition, we were many children and there were many temptations, until christmas eve. It wasn't  a big deal.

Come taking down the tree time there were always willing hands to investigate and find the cunningly hidden lollies or those that were too high to reach for esger young hands.

With children we've carried on at least the lolly part of the decorations, the glass globes have moved onto shapes and stars made of various things, safer and less likely to cut and injure.

Related articles

• How to Decorate a Christmas Tree (personalcreations.com)

Two Funerals and a wondering

To be honest it's been a few funerals,  but specifically I'm thrown off by axis by one of which was this week, the other from 1988.

This week the funeral of a friend, Des Tierney, a good bastard by any measure. If I end up half a good a bastard then I'll be spectacular. No one exemplified the meaning of community than Des. There won't be a million words or books written about Des, and that's a pity in some regards, but he'll be an oral legend, around these and other parts.

The other funeral, my Father. The one I didn't go to because I just moved to New Zealand, in 1987.

The thing that links them? Well in the sadness of things they both died before they were 60.

And why then would I be thrown into the funk that I have. Well I'm not getting any younger, and I'm now contemplating, as I did with some incredulity at 16, as being as old as my dad. Except now that the words "when he died" are added on the end.

So why should I panic about the age my father died? He was a heavy smoker with a sedentary lifestyle, it's not the way I am. And how does the passing of a friend conflate a story to make it a doom.

In a normal thinking they don't. But as your own mortality, and your own perception of that mortality changes you begin to fret. I spoke to a couple of of me friends about this, and they get it, what I'm feeling, they didn't laugh, they just compared theirs to mine, and we all agreed that it was a nothing. It is what it is, there is no binary thing going on, that event A does not meant that it will equal a similar event  A for me, or them.

So now here I am wondering why it is that I never owned a Lotus Elite Turbo, and E-Type Jaguar. A 1967 Mustang fastback , or a V8 anything, and it's not like that would define me in anyway. It might bring me immediate pleasure, and the added angst of maintaining and paying for it.

I'm now wondering why I never went home to England and abandoned almost everything to a new country, like no one ever did that, but I've not been home, not am I likely to go home, and I left in 1987. And yes it's still home. Go figure.

Do I think people will tell grand stories about me when I die? You're having a laugh, the most heroic I've been was when never.  Should I worry about that?

So a life just as ordinary. A fear and doubt. A surprise? There are many things in my head, and a weight on my shoulder that has descended for no reason other than self.

But if I had a motto to live by it would be "this too shall pass", and it will. Might get that as a tattoo.

We all follow the Palace, Over land and sea, And Brighton...

For a long many years I've followed the fortunes of Crystal Palace F.C. For many years I went along every saturday afternoon when they were playing at Selhurst Park to watch them play, sometimes mid-week night games, sometimes even getting a coach to watch them play away.

The New Years day match in Brighton, the long weekend double headers, cup games.

Sometimes I even went to watch other teams, at other grounds.

But I've always followed "The Palace"

I watched them when they had Ian Wright, Mark Bright and Andy Gray playing, and scoring some of the most spectacular goals, lots of them.

They had John Salako, Alan Pardew, and Geoff Thomas. I saw Phil Barber, Micky Droy, and Jim Cannon.

I saw legends, and I saw donkeys.

I drank more warm bovril and luke warm pies than I care to remember.

And I saw them win, and I saw them lose.

Today they beat  an "Old Foe", and that reminded me that I've never stopped following them, over land and sea..... and never will, and the strange way that an event that you have no control over can make or break your day.

Related articles

• Struggling south London neighbours Charlton and Crystal Palace prepare for tonight's clash (standard.co.uk)

Happy Families, the one with the lost photographs #2

I found some more recent pictures, some of me as a fine young man, and they are presented here for your amusement.

[caption id="attachment_3215" align="alignleft" width="344"] Yes almost literally in a tree, can you believe it?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3214" align="alignleft" width="548"] Me holding onto my Dad and Uncle Jospeh in the foreground like he's been startled by the Paparazzi. He's dressed very well for a ramble in the countryside. Poland 1967ish[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3211" align="aligncenter" width="456"] With my Cousin Andreiz (he's the tall one) apparantly. Again in the trendy turn ups and a fashionable yellow top, probably with airplanes on it. On reflection shorts seemed a lot shorter and high-rider than now too[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3210" align="aligncenter" width="318"] Back Left - Lesley, Back right - shirly with her Crystal tips hair, and Front Right Andy (looking like a tubber) and me on the front right.[/caption]

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="rand"]

Happy Families - the one with the recap #2

Anyways we crack on ....  There are many more things to tell

If you remember we had an aunt Peggy  - it turns out that she was not a relation at all. This came to light when Peggy needed proof of identity for her pension rights. Seems our nan took her in. Mum only said she was very upset and angry.

but a footnote clears it up somewhat:  Peggy is a relation, that's your Mum's "sister" on her birth cert. The father is named as your granddad ( Eva's dad ), but the mother isn't Harriet (grandmother), but is in fact your Grandads sister.  We presume that whilst married - the mother who's name evades us at present - and with her husband is  at war (or dead) she's become pregnant. Our Grandparents have taken Peggy as their own, hence Grandads name on the birth certificate, so Peggy was your Mums cousin and her "parents" we're her Aunt & Uncle.

In other stories

The bishop of Fulham is a relative! He came to visit us once.

Granddad had a  brother who lived just yards away they never spoke.

Took mum to see Albert SCRIVEN  -  he being a cousin -  his brother was a boxer and actually spared with the late Sir Henry Cooper, we have a letter from him telling us that.

Granddads father fell of the back of a horse and cart and died. He was born in Crewkerne  - that's Somerset.

granddad  served in WW I -  according to mum he was a stretcher bearer.  Had a finger knuckle shot off Clive may remember that twisted finger.

Uncle George who lived at the same house got shrapnel wounds in the back we have a photo of him in uniform with a military motorbike. Sadly he jumped in front of a train at Hither Green. There was a short story in the newspaper at the time. I talked to the head of British Railways about this but they don't keep records.

Then there is Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim took everything,  but he died a pauper at Bury St Edmunds.  The council cremated him, and put his ashes on nans grave.

The only relation alive is by marriage, and  is Uncle George's wife.  Mums brother, George was in the SAS.

Our older cousins are passing away,  cousin Tarn died , Cousin Sam (Clive will remember him he has cancer) is living in  somewhere like Thailand  -  sold his house to provide for himself as money goes further.

We have a relation there who as done much ancestry work,  I met him on the family tree. There is a soldier with the surname "Hicks" -  a war memorial statue, more than one, who posed for the sculpture  - we have a photo,  It's also the memorial statue near us, anyway we're sure there are more.

Our family tree goes back to 1604 I think but only on mums side.

We have relations in South NZ - Waimate. Might as well put this a relative played for the all blacks. a long time ago.

and Finally....

Uncle Syd was a  boxer -  using the name "Pat Crowley" in Ireland.  Not a good idea to be an Englishman with "the troubles" then. A record of 99 fights undefeated. The information came from a boxing historian who was very excited when we told him who Pat Crowley was. Also spoke to the owner of boxing magazine about George SCRIVEN, grandads son, he was an Olympic hopeful but liked women and a beer he's the one who sparred with Henry Cooper.

Happy Families - the one with the recap

I mentioned yesterday how strangely a family that doesn't really communicate that well suddenly gets a burst of enthusiasm for each other. Today I have the recollections of  the #2 Child, my older brother (there are 3 sisters in between us though). Let us begin....

Lots of photo are missing the oldest ones were taken when dad was a misplaced person after the war.

The reason, for his being a misplaced person, is, I believe, dad,  along with many others were rounded up after the Warsaw uprising.

He probably knew Pope John Paul  - who evaded capture.  That could explain why we got Christmas cards and holy bread, and that we also a photo of the pope on the wall. (signed by the pope himself I remember)

This is important  - dad was a slave worker for the nazis , I think he must have been liberated by the Canadian forces so ending up in Canada, where his listed occupation was a barber.

After release dad joined the Royal Engineers.

Mum saw him visiting a friend in London (near her home address in Beacon Road and said "I will marry him" -  and she did  - at Lockerbie in Scotland.

Dad like many other war veterans did not talk about the past.

Dad first went back to Poland in 1964 in an Austin A40 car a red one.  He took to Poland things that were rare like coffee, plasters , chocolate, warm clothes  - including socks and underwear. When he came back home all he was wearing was a top and trousers and a pair of sandals he had given everything away.

The photo you are referring to is at a place called krakow  (possibly Zakopane),  you have been there along with Lesley ,Andy, Stewart also Shirley.  You all went in a Austin 1100.

That was 1966.

I remember going to Poland, indeed in a red Morris 1100 there were 4 asleep on the back seat, top to tail, and mum and dad in the front. It would have been an overnight drive. I don't recall Stewart being there, since he was born in 1967 it would be unlikely :-)  OS just myself, my older sisters Shirley and Lesley and my younger brother Andrew.  There are a few vivid memories - I was after all only 5) Sitting on mum's lap as we drove through the night - having a night watchman looking after the car - a bit of a rarity in Poland at the time - a private car - the Trams and the Ice Creams. 

As I get older I get different – #2

Space, the final frontier. What a wonderful concept, infinity. UFO's. How romantic are they when you're 14, 15, 16.... the idea that flashing lights in the sky are visitors, from another planet. Stoked by such films as "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and "Close Encounters", TV series such as Gerry Anderson's UFO, and Space 1999, and of course Star Trek and Star Wars.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] 2 Gerry Anderson UFO series aliens on a desert planet. I made the image with CGI. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

And how can you not believe? How can you possibly not look at the sky and wonder who it can be that there isn't life on other planets. A long way away planets, a long long way away. But plants, aliens, visitors.

Aliens, ancient aliens, greys, reptoids, blues, blond nordics, chupacabras... you name they've been everywhere.

Of course they've all been to Earth, why not, we're significant, we're rulers of a planet, with resources.  They've all been here, mostly at night, mostly to prod things up our backside, dismember sheep, implant tracking devices or breed. Of course.

And then one day perhaps not. After you read some books, and thought about it, the question was "How?, followed by "Why?". Two important questions, two of the very best.

And so the slightly older me smiles when people talk of Alien visitations, visitors, abductions, formations of spacecraft in the sky.

Now I know there are enough wonders in the back yard to keep me occupied, without having to have a feeling that there is something out there.

And I think this goes hand in hand with my Atheism.  Sort of.  Except that there must be other planets, and there must be life somewhere else. It's an infinite universe with infinite suns,sort of. Infinite in the sense that there must be an edge somewhere, a long long way away and I can't quite grasp the distance to Alpha Centauri for instance, and so the other side of the universe must be a long way away, infinitely far.

And whilst it's understandable that some people think that Aliens must walk amongst us, there are people that think there is an imaginary sky god. They're not so different. That they both are in out imagination is all they have in common.

So I've changed, we are alone, all alone, at least on this planet, and possibly alien me thinks the same thing.

My love of science fiction films is in no way diminished by my beliefs, it's in fact the opposite.

Related articles

• Space: 1999 Reboot Threatened (mikecanex.wordpress.com)


• Aliens & UFOs - Welcome to Planet Earth (disclose.tv)


• Saturn Is a Giant Ufo! (weeklyworldnews.com)


• U.f.o (urbanhype101.wordpress.com)


• Our Close Encounters: Meet the Alien Abductees - and the Pictures They Drew to Prove they weren't Imagining It all... (the2012scenario.com)


• That's one small tweet for a man, one giant tweet for mankind (suicidalsuburbanite.wordpress.com)


• Your Spouse May Be an Alien! (weeklyworldnews.com)

My Weird Belief System- the Moon Landings

I've always held doubts about the Moon Landings, in particular the ones we saw on TV, the Armstrong, Aldrin ones, beamed live into your lounge.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on Mare Tranquillitatis during Apollo 11 in 1969. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"][/caption]

Call it what you like but it seemed odd that the most complex thing that man had assembled worked first time like a dream, without a hitch. Ok so you could say that the path to success littered with failure guaranteed a success.

I've also doubted that with 1960's technology that it would be possible, and the fact that we've only managed low earth orbit with mixed success since stands out to me as something that should make you go mmmm.

Are there particular things that raise my radar. Well first up I think man did get to the moon, not the ones we think did, or when they say they did. I also think it's not about any secret alien agenda, moon bases, visitations, strategic missile bases or other warmongering, masonry, new world order, illuminati or other such.

I read somewhere that a conspiracy needs to have a monumental amount of "proof" to prove a conspiracy and that conspiracies were therefore very convoluted and confused, with many strands that if you followed them all you would naturally end up laughing.

A Conspiracy does not have to be complicated or involves hundreds or thousands of people.

Tdhe two links below contain a miss-mash of things that make me frown and things that make me laugh as they appear a bit off beam. And before anyone comments that "Mythbusters have proved it" lets just say that Mythbusters is about as reliable or credible as the War on Terror is.

I've read the books that make claims about radiation, and not being a scientist I find them compelling and yet I don't know. I'm sure I read somewhere that the moon suits were left on the moon, having been thrown out of the module somehow, I wish I could remember where I read that.

There is enough dubious content from NASA and other "official" sources that show difficult and contrary things, not in and of itself confirmation of a conspiracy, but carelessness and ill-though out rush to release.

The big question though is what would it take for me be believe?

So check out these links that I referred to.
http://apolloscam.bravehost.com/

http://mrbasheer.tripod.com/moonwalk.html

Related articles

• The Moon Landing Mystery (mysteryworlds.wordpress.com)


• Conspiracy theories 'give illusion of control' (scotsman.com)


• All the "Moon Landing" theories. What is your opinion an why (disclose.tv)


• Photos: The other Apollo moon landings (news.cnet.com)


• "Moon Landing" and related posts (scienceprojectideasforkids.com)


• Historical photos of the lunar lander (boingboing.net)


• Great Conspiracy Theory - The Americans on The Moon Landing (socyberty.com)

Why George Best's death is the worst thing that's ever happened to me.

"When I heard the terrible news that George Best had passed away I cried and cried and cried. I cried and cried more than I have ever cried in my whole life.

I cried and cried and cried because more than anyone else I have never met George Best represented something important. Important to me.

As a schoolboy huddled on the grainy, black and white football terraces of the past, his dazzling football skills opened my says to a Technicolor world that was limitless and free and beautiful.  A world that was limitless. A world that was free. And, yes, a world that was beautiful.

George Best was all those things and more. He was limitless. He was free. And, yes, he was beautiful. Before George the Saturday afternoon football match was a dismal, grey experience. Drab grey men would pass a lumpy grey leather ball to each other on a cold, churned up, muddy, grey bomb site whilst the crowd of  black and white, grey men in dull, flat, lumpy, grey caps smoked Woodbines, yawned and looked at their feet.

When George appeared on the scene it was like being struck by  lightning, sticking your fingers in a socket and being struck by some more lightning all rolled into one. It felt like seeing Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Elvis Presley all rolled into one. Every time he touched the ball he literally defied the laws of gravity. I can still recall the trill of seeing him on the news yesterday doing things with a football that no-on else on earth would ever have attempted, let alone tried.

With every effortless kick, he taught us more about wisdom than ten Confuciusses. With every graceful swerve around a defender he taught us more about freedom than a hundred Mandellas. With every sublime header, he taught us more about artistry than a thousand Michelangelos. With every picturesque indirect free kick, he taught us more about beauty than a million Marilyn Monroes.

By any measure you care to choose George Best was the most perfect and flawless human being who ever lived.

And yet, he wasn't perfect. Far from it. Like all of us he had his flaws"

... and so it goes on.  I found this in a comic book that I have. Viz, and it's written under a byline of Tony Parsehole.

I found it humorous and I wonder if it's a template for any near future obituaries that we're about too see, and if it had been used as and previous ones.

I'm not big on forced faux grief. On forced empathy and sympathy, of forced and faux mourning, If you're affected be affected, don't try to get me to join in with that, it's not going to happen.

Related articles

• United greats: George Best

Christmas - Decorating the Tree

When I was a child it was tradition in my house to have a heap of christmas decoration. Not only did we have the bunting decoration on the ceiling, from the ceiling rose to the corners, and around the outsides, but we always had a "real" christmas tree.

Usually too tall.

Of course there were lights.

And someone had to sit there with a multimeter and check every bulb to make sure they would work, one bulb would stop them all working.

It was a chore that no one complained about.

But the best bit about decorating the tree was in the decoration. We would string "Quality Street" chocolates with cotton, and we would hand these on the tree.

They were sparkly like decorations should be, and you could take a sweet from the wrapper, leaving the wrapper, and they'd still be a decoration.

Bonus was on taking the tree down that there were always hidden and un-found ones that made it worthwhile

 

This is something I've carried on doing, in NZ we use Cadbury Roses, same effect, and this year it pleased me that my son took it on himself to decorate the tree for the house and he carried on the tradition.

 Not this  tradition though, and although I don't recall out house ever looking this, er, flamboyant, it does give you an idea of what we did have.

 

 

 

Conspiracy Theory #1 in a series

I make no secret of the fact that I'm really not sure that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon as advertised.

JFK was shot by a lone gunman, there is no bigfoot, we are not ruled by Aliens, 9/11 wasn't an inside job. Rosewell wasn't aliens, Area 51 does not house spacecraft or aliens, vaccinations are good. Princess Diana had a car crash.

I don't believe it's man-mad climate change, and I'm against fluoridation of water. And as for the nonsense that was folic acid in bread!

For a conspiracy to be attractive you have to be at the point where you believe in a counter position, or to be sufficiently disbelieving of the stated facts, that your own belief  carries more weigh and your conviction.

Like going to the moon. I'm not convinced that the Saturn V rocket worked first time, and every time afterwards. I'm just not. There are a billion websites and a billion counter websites that go over the arguments for and against, from the dodgy photographs to the physics, I'm just not going to repeat them here. Of course it could be that you just believe that we did, and that the records are correct without question. in no time in history has there ever been falsehood in any account.

The thing is that you don't have to have that many people "in" on the conspiracy, it wouldn't be difficult to stage. It appeals because it's an elegant alternative to someone who has incredulity about the 'actual' event.

Sure many conspiracies unravel over time, but many endure. Is it the grand scale of the moon landings that means I'm wrong, I didn't say I had proofs either way. Besides which I don't know if asked "What would lead you to believe that it was true" that I could give any answer except fly me up there to show me the footprints.

Enduring conspiracies include, of course, religion, and the whole myth and dogma surrounding jesus. But that's not a conspiracy in the sense that a government is trying to fool all of the people all of the time.