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January 28th, 2005
01:10 pm - A new blog
I have decided to move my blog.
I have not yet figured out how to move over my entries, but if I cannot do so then the will stay on here for eternity (Or until it crashes and they are lost in the ether).
You can now find my blog over at Blog-City
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January 16th, 2005
11:54 am - It never rains but it pours!
I was telling Trouty and Henry the thirst on the phone on Saturday that I had a bit of a calamity on Thursday night. Well to be precise it was Friday morning at 5am. Trouty thought it amusing and blogworthy so here it is.
It was a beautiful day on Thursday with a bright sun and sharp breeze and so I opened my front hatch for the day to air out my cabin. No problem there and also no problem when I remembered to close it before the evening dew set in.
The problem was that on closing the hatch I did not notice the bit of halyard line that had fallen across the edge of the hatch opening. The line was, when the hatch was closed, trapped in the now closed down hatch. This might not have been a problem but for the highly scientific law called SOD! During the night it rained hard and the rain decided to track down the bit of line trapped in the cover and drip relentlessly onto my duvet and mattress whilst I slept.
At 5am I awoke to a sensation which was not dissimilar to that which I remember on the rare occasions as a child when I was unlucky enough to wet the bed. The one major difference this time was that the water was exceedingly cold!
To cut to the end, I resumed my slumber at around 6am after drying my bedding and mattress with a 2 kw fan heater, only to be awoken at 6.30 by a wrong number on my mobile phone.
In other news, I am on the road to stopping smoking. I have been up for a couple of hours now and have only smoked one very skinny rollup. I am craving another now and will have another very skinny one. I read somewhere that to satisfy the nicotine craving we would only need to have a couple of drags of a ciggy, and the rest is just smoked for the sake of it. I reckon that the amount of baccy that I have started putting in my rollups is equal to about the top quarter of a normal fag, or put another way, a couple of puffs of a cig. See how clever we smokers are at justifying our addiction! To paraphrase the NRA's gun quote..."Cigs don't kill people, lighting them and inhaling the smoke kills people"
To copy Henry's line...Cig stats: one today so far.
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January 12th, 2005
06:14 pm - aujourd'hui j'étais triste
For those of you that don't know, I quit my job.
I decided to go back to driving trucks and so I handed in my notice at work a month ago and on Monday morning I was officially unemployed.
My timing was not quite perfect as I have to wait a week to get my licence back from the DVLA. Given my age (49)I had to have a medical before renewing my HGV entitlement, and did not realise that doctors only do medicals on certain days for vocational driving. I made an appointment and went to the docs on Friday last week. This was a pain as I was in the middle of a week of nights and my appointment was at 1pm which is equivalent to a day worker having a medical at 1am in the morning after finishing an 11 hour shift! Still it all went well and I was given a clean bill of health even though I forgot my specs and could barely see the chart. It seems that my tired old eyes are still good enough without my specs for driving a 40 ton truck, which fills me with no end of confidence given the fact that I know how bad my eyes are and I am classed as fit to drive without specs:(
Anyhoo, I should get my licence back by Friday so I can start work on Monday, grinding gears on the roads of this fair isle.
As for the title, I felt a sense of sadness pervading my body today. I don't know if it was because of the fact that I have left a job I have done for so long or just the fact that I could not sleep last night due to the wind hammering my boat all night. I finally managed 15 cat minutes, which is about 1.5 hours in real money I think.
I caught up with my friend Ed the Head today in his shop "Bushman". Ed is a proper sound bloke and has a knack of making me feel good. I buy all my crystals and incence from Ed and he is a walking encyclopedia of gem stones and suchlike. I marvel at the way he can remember all the names of the stones and crystals in his shop even though he appears to be perpetually stoned. He has a blue crystal that he reckons will stop me smoking if I carry it round with me, so I may just give that a try. New year, new job, new life, so maybe smoke stopping would be the thing to do right now to round things off.
Kelly, I don't know if you will ever read this blog, but if you do, I was praying for Terry.
Sleep tight all you lovely kind folk out there.
PS You will never know just how much I was gladdened by all the well wishing, kind words and hugs I got two weeks ago at the party. You really are a lovely bunch of coconuts.
Mermers x
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December 27th, 2004
05:22 am - In response
Omally was on the phone to me last night and he told me I had to write a blog to explain to you all why I have been out of circulation.
Kelly and I are no longer together. For those of you who knew Kelly then you will understand why I am hurting so. When I think of it the list of those who have met Kelly is long;
Scotty
Omally
El10t
Carol
Kouros
SimonG
Steprous
You all met her and knew how infectious she was.
I have taken stock of my life over the Christmas period (Which incidentally I cancelled this year and did not celebrate at all) and following my deep depression of the last few weeks, I decided on a life change. I therefore quit my job and am going back to truck driving. I hope to go back onto Continental driving and go back to doing Iberia and Italy etc. I shall continue to live on my boat in the marina.
I will be attending the party up in Banbury so most of you will see me there on Wednesday.
Goodnight to you all and happy new year to those I will not be seeing.
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December 26th, 2004
06:43 am - Trying and failing
I keep starting to write a journal and then giving up and deleting it.
I admire Scotty immensely for the way he can put his hurt down on paper. I cannot do that so I will just live with my hurt and let all my friends know that I will be able to blog again some time just not right now.
Love and seasons greetings to all that I care about.
Chris
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November 24th, 2004
04:30 am - Parallels
I was listening to the radio today about the election in the Ukraine.
There were independent observers from all over the free world watching the results and the American Senator and the British MP who were there heading up the panel of observers both said that the election result was rigged.
The Ukrainian government had people in the polling stations trying to intimidate the less well educated electors. They challenged voters and even though it seemed by the exit polls that the opposition had walked the election, surprise surprise the ruling government got back in!
The people of the Ukraine didn't take this on the chin, they got out in their thousands, in fact tens of thousands to protest in the main square and outside the parliament building. The images on the tv of young people with hope in their hearts standing all night in sub zero temperatures to send a message that they were not going to stand for this injustice. Supporters of Viktor Yushchenko the pro western opposition candidate have by their peaceful action caused the free world to demand that the election result is verified and that the fraud allegations are investigated fully before certifying the result.
The results of this election seem to draw certain parallels with the election that we have just witnessed in the United States. Bully boy tactics in the polling stations, results that appear to go totally against the exit polls, people being excluded from voting on technicalities. The major difference is that the Ukranians were being monitored by the rest of the world to ensure that the elections were fair and honest. Perhaps it is about time that we in the west allowed independent international observers to witness our elections to see if there are any irregularities that may be hindering fair elections.
We have a general election looming in the UK. It seems to me given the tone of the Prime Ministers comments during his reply on the Queens Speech yesterday, that he was less replying and more campaigning. I think June elections are on the cards. Whether we get rid of Tony Blair (Which I highly doubt) or not, at least let it be seen that we choose our Government for the next term fairly and honestly.
I doubt for one second that the Conservatives will regain power given the fact that they are led by that anonymous person Michael Howard. He has sacked the only front bencher of any merit in his party, the highly amusing and well meaning Boris Johnson. Apparently Boris could not keep it in his pants and it would never do to have a politician who philanders....Or should that read "Who gets caught"?
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November 15th, 2004
07:16 am - In the Doldrums...almost
No I am not talking about me, I am referring to Alex Thomson who is sailing in the Vendee Globe single handed race.
Alex had a few problems which he seems to have mostly sorted out now and is in 4th place just 68 miles behind the leader.
He has cleared the Cape Verde islands and is now heading down into the Doldrums. The trade winds have kicked in and the frontrunners should hit the Doldrums by about Tuesday. To get the best of the weather pattern they are heading down to about 7 north and 25 west which means that sometime this week the first boats should cross the equator.
The race is barely started in the scheme of things as they have completed about 2500 miles so far and still have 22500 miles still to race!
To put this in context, my old boat sails along at around 5 knots which means if I were doing the same route as these bad boys (and girls) it would take me about 2 years to get round the course. These super fast open 60's will take around 90 days to complete.
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November 13th, 2004
09:46 pm - Alfred or Arthur?
The strange things you tend to think about when working nights! I have been wondering whether I am descended from the Britons or the Anglo Saxons.
First for those who don't know the early history of this sceptered isle, a quick and probably inaccurate history lesson.
After the Romans left these isles we were two basic groups. The Anglo Saxons who occupied most of England as we now know it, although in those days there were seven separate kingdoms, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Mercia (All of central England), East Anglia, Northumbria (The area north of the Humber) and Kent. The sex in for example Wessex meant simply Saxon as in West Saxon. Each kingdom was ruled by a local king. In those times we were not a united country, far from it in fact. Wales and Cornwall were occupied by the Britons. If the Anglo Saxons were brutal and warlike, then the Britons were positively nasty. They would fight for fun, and totally without any form of compassion.
The term Anglo Saxon was actually a bastardisation of two words meaning the same thing, Anglii and Saxone, both referring to the people who originally conquered these isles from what is now Germany. The term was actually penned by the Normans much later to give a legal definition to the people they had subjugated.
The ancient Britons were pushed by the invading Saxons into Wales, Cornwall and even Brittany in France. It is believed by many that Brittany was the place that Britons originated but I think it was the other way around and in fact the Britons who settled there gave there name to the place. Interestingly the word Welsh is an Anglo Saxon word meaning Stranger.
Whizzing through the centuries, we get to the Danes. The Danes who attacked England in the 9th century saw a country ripe for the picking. Good grazing, livestock and crops and a church which was extremely wealthy. The Danes were pagan as were a lot of the Anglo Saxons, and had no compunction about slaughtering monks and nuns to pillage the churches of gold and silver. We nowadays use the term Vikings when talking about the Danish raiders, but the term Viking is actually a verb which describes the act of raping, looting and pillaging. Now although the Danes conquered and inhabited most of England, they did not intermingle a lot with the Saxons. True there were mixed marriages and Danes who settled and stayed in England, but as a general rule they kept themselves separate and saw the English as slaves to their wishes.
It was King Alfred the king of the Saxons, who later became known as Alfred the Great that started the unification of England into one country as his kingdom of Saxon was the one area not to fall into the hands of the invading Danes.
Jump forward again to the modern day and me. I know a little of my history but am unable to piece together all the pieces of my genealogical timeline. I know for example that my mother's family originated from Cornwall and only moved to Yorkshire originally to work in the coal mines. They had been tin miners in Cornwall and moved on an offer of better housing healthier working conditions and great wealth....How wrong they were!
My fathers side of the family are Yorkshire through and through, and the family name Jagger (Meaning tinker) goes back centuries. It is described as and Ancient English word.
My conclusion as to whether I am an Arthur or an Alfred is 50/50. I would like to believe that through my mothers side of the family I am a Briton. I imagine that through my fathers side of the family I am Anglo Saxon. I do know that through my great Great Grandmother I am part Romany, her being a gypsy from Hungry.
We often mock the people of the USA for the fact that they originate from so many different races and cultures and have no one single thread uniting them other than the fact that they are now American. I would point out though that we British are descended from possibly one or many of the following: Spanish, Roman, German, French, Danish and some historians reckon the earliest settlers were possibly Greek.
If anyone out there is a student of English history and wishes to correct me then please feel free, as I have done the above from memory. If anyone out there simply wants to google a history to correct me then also feel free.
For the Record, I know that there is no proof that Arthur was king of the Britons, but I like the title!
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November 11th, 2004
11:57 pm - Ho hum
I wrote a blog two days ago which was most amusing to me, based on the merman scale of humour it was probably 1.5 out of ten, but I chuckled. Well the blog gods obviously thought that it was pants cos' the second I pressed publish the blog disappeared into the ether never to be seen again.
Last night I couldn't blog due to the fact that I lost my internet connection just a few seconds after chatting to Simong in the chatroom.
Tonight I can blog but all I have to offer is the sad news that Yasser Arafat is dead. I have never hidden the fact that I hold a lot of sympathy with the Palestinian Arab. The Israelis are breaking all manner of International laws in the west bank and the Americans and British just sit back and let it happen because of the fact that most of the major financial players in the world are Jewish and hold an enormous amount of sway politically in both the US and the UK. Yasser Arafat was a catalyst that bonded the people of the Middle East and I just hope that his death brings people to the table to talk of peace rather than causing the arabs to become even more rebellious. I don't condone suicide bombs and never would do but I DO understand that when you are faced with a well armed and organised army of occupation, you use any means available to try and fight back.
Rant
Two broadcasters were discussing on the radio the other day a comment made by Col. Mike Dewer to a newscaster that the newsman was wrong to term the fighters in Fallujah as Rebels or freedom fighters. Col. Dewer insisted that they were terrorists and nothing else. I disagree with you Colonel. I think that rebels are exactly what they are. The fact that they don't want an army of occupation in their country and are prepared to fight tooth and nail to get them out does not make them terrorists. The definition of terrorism is "The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments". The definition of a rebel is "To refuse allegiance to and oppose by force an established government or ruling authority" Therefore I suggest that the people of Iraq are actually rebels and the American and British are in fact the terrorists.
Hugo Boss
Alex Thomson is currently in 5th position having been caught in a wind shadow off the island of Madeira. I have to take a bit of responsibility for that due to the fact that it was me that gave him the waypoint to aim for. How? I hear you ask. Well the thing is that his software charts were playing up and he needed a waypoint and phoned one of his support team. He was in the office chatting to me and asked if I could help, so having the lappytoppy at work I quickly opened Memory Map and gave him a point to aim for. Anyhoo the fleet are heading for some light airs so that should concertina the fleet up a bit as they drift along and I assume do some much needed maintenance work on the boats.
Radio Broadcaster 101
Mike Allen on BBC radio 5 interviewing a nutritionist;
Guest: Causing obesiosity among children.
MA: Rubbish....
Guest: no it does
MA: No....You just made that up...obesiosity is not a real word
Guest: It is a real word
MA: nonsense
Obviously it is not a real word but don't you all think that sometimes using made up words is much more fun? I know that Henry the Thirst certainly does.
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November 9th, 2004
01:05 am - The 2004 Vendee Globe
The Vendee Globe is a non stop single handed yacht race that left from Les Sables d'Olonne in France on Sunday 7th November.
The racers who are sailing custom open 60's which are single handed 60 footers race for about three months down the Atlantic, across past Australia and New Zealand around the Antarctic and past Cape Horn and back up to France for the finish at the end of January all being well.
The reason that I mention this is that my friend Alex Thomson is sailing his open 60 Hugo Boss and is currently laying 2nd. I have mentioned Alex before as he tried to get sponsorship to compete in the race which costs conservatively around 2 million dollars to take part in.
The cost being made up of preparing the boat, the logistical costs and also all the comms. There is also the wages of the support staff to pay for the year that it takes to mount the attempt.
Alex had no sponsor and no money and with only three months to go to the start of the race he breathed a huge sigh of relief as Hugo Boss the German fashion brand came onboard and took up the purse. In the following three months the team had to completely rebuild the boat which is now looking beautiful in Hugo Boss black and white with brand new everything!
Please bookmark www.alexthomsonracing.com or www.vendeeglobe.org and follow the ups and downs of the toughest race in the world.
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October 31st, 2004
04:21 am - Tick tock
Someone once told me that if you have a clock where joe public can see it then it has to be correct or you get into trouble with the local council or some-such load of pap. Apparently (this someone said) if you are late for work due to a clock being wrong on for example the Town Hall, then you can sue for loads of quids.
I don't know if any of that is even close to being true, but I do know that given my sense of duty, I have just been, armed with ladder torch and screwdriver up in the clocktower above the marina office trying to alter our clock and pop it back an hour for Scottish Farmer's time (Or GMT as we like to call it, which indicates that we actually have a say in time zones instead of Hamish McDuff up on his croft in the north of Scotland)
Now as some of you who know me will attest, I am scared witless of high places. I once had to cross a motorway footbridge with Henry the Thirst, Trouty and Omally, and Henry and I walked the centre line looking at the floor of the bridge whilst Trouty and Omally gaily leaned over the edge looking at the momo cars whizzing past at lots of mph. I was breathless and on the edge of hyperventilating by the time my feet hit terra firma on the other side.
Back to the clock...I got out a step ladder and placed it on our counter top and bravely climbed up into the roof space. As I did the pull up that would see me safely in the attic, my foot caught the ladder and knocked it off the counter onto the floor. STOP LAUGHING OMALLY!
I eventually got up the bravery to swing down, hang and drop the two feet down onto the counter and thence onto the floor which I resisted kissing ala Pope John, but the urge was strong I can tell you.
Oh and the clock? Well it seems that it changes itself automatically for BST/GMT, so there was no need to go up in the first place, I just needed to walk outside and look up!
THE OFFENDING CLOCK
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October 29th, 2004
10:02 pm - On henna and Henners
Henry the Thirst is my very good friend and he has been in hospital.
Most of you reading this know Henners, but for the ones who don't have that pleasure I will just say that he is as good a friend as anyone could have and now he is feeling tons better.
I hate it when close friends go into hospital because they are usually my peers and it reminds me of my own mortality. I am not being morbid when I say that, it is just the fact that age is like fame. I was listening to an interview with Rene Zellwegger last week and she was asked how it feels to be famous and she said that famous does not feel like anything. She admitted to an odd sensation on seeing herself in the papers over breakfast but in the rest of her day she just felt like the same Rene Zellwegger that was not famous before she started acting.
Age is the same thing to me. Apart from aches arriving quicker and lasting longer I don't believe I feel any different now than I did when I was a lad. I sometimes feel a sense of surprise when I go to do something and my muscles don't react how I expect them to do. I raced my friend's son a few yards last night as we both sought to reach something first and although I beat him to the prize, I was blowing like steam train afterwards. But I felt the same inside as I would have 30 years ago.
I dread the day that my mind starts to fade and I forget simple things. I have met many elderly people who are in the early stages of dementure and the short term memory is starting to disappear. I do notice however that these same people have amazing recollection of their youth.
I think the answer is to pack as much in to life now while I can so that when I really am old and senile I will have a shed full of memories to fall back on.
The henna in the title?
It appears that it is making a comeback. I remember a quote by Quentin Crisp in his book the Naked Civil Servant, "The day war broke out I bought a pound of henna". I remember when I was a kid that people had red hair, ginger hair and henna hair. Henna hair always puzzled me as it seemed so odd a colour to want your locks to be dyed. Well with the advent of all the modern hair products henna lost in popularity. Now it seems that the youth have rediscovered it and I am seeing henna heads all over the place.
Do we reach for the hair dye and plastic surgeons knife because we want to look young or just because we want the outside to match the inside?
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October 26th, 2004
11:38 pm - John Peel OBE (1939 - 2004)
I have come out of retirement to mourn the loss of possibly the best radio presenter Britain has spawned.
John Peel died whilst on holiday in Peru of a heart attack.
Sorry to our American cousins who have never heard of John Peel, but there will not be a British reader who has not grown up with this monster of broadcasting.
From his days with Radio London to his show on BBC Radio One he has kept us amused and informed for over 40 years. I was addicted to his show "Home Truths" on Radio Four.
It never failed to amaze me that he refused to compromise his musical tastes for his pop bosses and yet still did his show for what? 35 years? playing music from The Fall or Iggy Pop. Bands such as Coldplay, The Smiths, Ash, Pulp, The Undertones and Supergrass owe their start to Peely.
John Peel was the soundtrack that played behind me as I grew up. He spoke a language that people of my generation understood, the language of music.
When bubblegum music was the order of the day, John was playing Ska, Hip hop, Punk and world music. He would often put the wrong song on or play the same track twice and that was ok because he was Peely and could get away with it.
You will be sadly missed John.
Listen to the tribute
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September 14th, 2004
04:35 am - TROPICAL DEPRESSION ELEVEN Discussion Number 2
This is the next storm on it's way. It will be Hurricane Jeanne by tomorrow night. TROPICAL DEPRESSION ELEVEN Discussion Number 2 Issued 11 PM EDT MON SEP 13 2004
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September 13th, 2004
11:18 pm - Kerry on attack over weapons ban
This story really pissed me off. Thanks George W:( Kerry on attack over weapons ban John Kerry criticises President Bush for failing to push for an extended ban on assault weapons.
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10:43 pm - Dive recovers Cromwell's sailor
Dive recovers Cromwell's sailor A sailor from a sunken ship belonging to Oliver Cromwell's navy had the upper body of a trapeze artist but bowed legs, his recovered skeleton shows.
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10:40 pm - Chicago and Cabaret lyricist dies
Chicago and Cabaret lyricist dies Fred Ebb, the lyricist who wrote Chicago and the classic song New York, New York, dies of a heart attack.
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05:23 pm - Cancun mi encante
It looks like Ivan the Terrible is going to hit the Yucatan Peninsular.
I spent a lovely few days there back when it was not full of huge concrete condos and teeming with touristos.
Cancun now is just another tourist trap full of shiny bars and restaurants, but like Flora-Bama means a lot to ScottJ, so Cancun means a lot to me. I had been working almost 7 days a week for over two months because one of our two boats was out of commission down in Belize. I had an extra long weekend off and so a bunch of us drove up to Mexico to Cancun and just pitched up in town and went to a letting agency to find somewhere to stay. We found a great apartment on the Gulf beach and proceeded to have the best time for 4 days before heading back to Belize.
That was back in 85 and I think the town has changed beyond recognition.
I really needed that few days off to stop me going raving mad and Cancun was the ideal place for it.
As for Ivan?
There is really no real news apart from the fact that it is not going to hit Cuba as hard as originally thought. After that it will have a couple of days at sea in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to regain it's strength before hammering the coast of Florida/Alabama.
At this rate it will still be a huge storm when it arrives in northern Georgia. (Sorry Scott but it is definitely coming your way)
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September 12th, 2004
08:57 am - Hurricane update
Ivan is heading for Western Cuba and will hit as a full cat5 storm. It will hit an area that is not densely populated and the Cuban government have put a compulsory evacuation in effect.
As I predicted a couple of days ago, the storm will have a westerly movement and from the latest information from the National Hurricane center, it is going to be heading up the gulf of Mexico well away from the Florida coast and appears to be making landfall in Alabama before turning right towards Georgia. This would indicate that Atlanta could find itself getting hit by quite strong winds, although Ivan will be only a tropical depression by that time, it will still have strong gale force winds accosiated with it when it reaches there.
I think it is time for ScottJ to start monitoring the storm as it will probably effect him this time round.
Here is the latest 5 day track from the NHC/NOAA.
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September 11th, 2004
06:09 am - Not Lou Reed
As the more perceptive amongst you will remember, I was having a lovely weekend in Rome watching a Lou Reed gig and throwing three coins into the Trevi Fountain.
I am currently writing this from work.....please don't ask....
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/yellow/sad_sy.gif) crushed
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