Thursday, May 13, 2010

Gie us Peace..



I couldn't stand it anymore - I had to get away from all the politics and everyone asking me questions about what I thought. Why don't they just do their own thinking?
Anyway, here I am back in Romania again, ready for another wedding ( although it will be dry as far as I am concerned)and to do lots of work ( hopefully). The flight from Luton to Sibiu on Blue Air went without a hitch, and the moment we got back to Sighisoara Alin whisked me off to talk to several groups of people about all sorts of things.
The last few days have largely been taken up with changing over my email address. Our techy Ms. Lear ( Now Mrs. Rock God) had set me up about 10 years ago on Handbag.com, which was ( is??) run by Boots for females. But it was dead easy and I could work it.Unfortunately, it moved to Tiscali some years ago and has never been that reliable. Now, they are closing the whole system as of June 3rd.
Of course, changing over the address book was easy ( especially as Mrs. Rock God actually did it for me ( Virtual Assistants are marvellous), but ploughing through the hundreds of saved and sent emails to see what I needed to keep has been much more onerous. I cannot for the life of me think why I have an email telling me all about prosthetic legs which I have carefully saved....
Sighisoara is looking lovely, as they have now finally finished redoing all the cobbles in the citadel, and they ahve added lots of uplighters to make it look very smart. As I returned from lunch about 9:30 this evening, there where a goodly number taking photos of how smart it was.
Alin has the bit between his teeth about taking a test drive in the new Dacia Duster - but he is very disappointed to hear that the 4 x 4 with aircon and leather seats is not the mere Eur 10,500 he thought it was. That's the basic model - no aircon, no 4 x 4 and naturally no leather seats. With everything it's about the same again...
The more interesting thing is the Dacia Logan we bought nearly 3 years ago for Eur 5,600 is still worth about Eur 3,500, so we have had all that motoring for about Eur 2000. I call that really good value.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The election that didn't elect.

This from a LibDem:
"It gives me absolutely no pleasure whatever to write this - I am a party member of the LibDems (or was until today - the chance of my renewing my membership has receded significantly if the party is unable to display any maturity and judgement)."
If you recall I long ago said the LibDems would do badly at this election ( actually worse than the outcome) and now I believe they will split again. We will return to effective 2 party system democracy at the next election, when the LibDems will be wiped out.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Back to the '70s


Niall Ferguson will be having an article in tomorrow's Spectator which has the following paragraph:
"The mess we are in is the result of 13 squandered years in which an unprincipled government frittered away the achievements of the Thatcher era. We are back not just in 1979, but in 1976, the last time the IMF had to bail Britain out as a consequence of Labour¹s economic mismanagement."
If anyone is in any doubt as to what this means, have a look at Greece today.
I may be eating my Romanian goats sooner than I thought...

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Elections


Ok I admit it, I have a bet on that the Tories will have a majority and even more than 2 seats in Scotland.
I only ever bet £5 - it's proving the point, not the money. My best "coup" was not when John Major won the 1992 election ( though I had £5 on that) but when he won the leadership from Mrs. T.
But it wasn't my bet.
I was sitting in a car with a chap whose nickname was ( is) Dealaday. His wife in the back seat was complaining bitterly about all the horrible men who had forced her out, and Dealaday said he was going to put £1000 on Heseltine.
I told him he was crazy and the ( at that time just the MPs) party would never condone matricide.
" So who would you bet on?"
" I have £5 on John Major". He looked at me as if I had two heads. It happens to me frequently.
" You're mad."
" Wait and see."
He thought for a moment.
Then he reached for the carphone and spoke to his bookie.
" What are the odds on John Major?" I think they were 5/1 from memory and he promptly put £1000 on.
The rest is history - and apart from the £25 I won myself, I got a cheque for £500 from Dealaday.
I didn't start to tell you all that - I was thinking about election night.
It's the only night of the quinquennial when politicians cannot hide, spin or lie.
They are exposed naked and trembling before the power of those they have ignored for years.
I sincerely hope the worst offenders will get the chop ( I'm thinking particularly of Ed Balls) but there are others too.
We shall see.
PS
And by the way, I happen to think JM wasn't such a bad PM - I'm sure history will prove him to have been right in lots of things ( and Blair and Brown wrong in lots and lots)

Monday, May 03, 2010

Wear it with pride..


Yesterday was the annual Gurkha Welfare Trust Curry Lunch, which this year was held at 2 Div. Headquarters at Craigiehall outside Edinburgh.
We had an excellent day, including a band concert, which was a bit chilly standing outside to listen to.
The thing about the GWT is that the people involved, and it's supporters, are all terribly nice people - generally of a slightly older tinge and therefore polite and caring, but also with a sense of humour.
At the risk of offending my reader, two senior officers ( long retired) were passing through a door to collect their food. One stopped dead.
" Have you just farted?"
"Of course I have, " said the other. " You don't think I smell like this all the time do you?"
The main preoccupation of most of the elderly army people is with their medals. Some, of course, are for extreme bravery, but quite a lot are "campaign" medals or what are called "theatre" medals.
A dear friend has been trying to get his theatre medal for Malaya since 1966. He has reams of correspondence on this, and supporting letters from all and sundry saying he was there. Including the son of the then Prime Minister.
The problem is two-fold. He can't remember when he actually arrived, and the MOD has lost his records.
His arrival date is critical, because you have to do 6 weeks in a theatre of war to get the medal.He might have arrived 42 days before the end of the campaign. Or he might not. Or,if he arrived 43 days before the end, is that six weeks before or is that six weeks bar one day.
It's a bit like how many angels can dance on the point of a pin.
Of course, the fact that the MOD has no records is less of a drawback. They can simply rule that he was there.
So it was with some glee that he appeared yesterday, looking incredibly smug, wearing his new medal. I'm sure he bought it on ebay.
I questioned him about it.
" Well," he said, "I've been keeping it inside my jacket. I wasn't actually sure I was allowed to wear it. However, I went onto Google and they say I may."

So that's all right then.

He's now turnd his attention to a TA medal he feels entitled to....

Saturday, May 01, 2010

His Majesty's clothes


Whilst waiting for someone at Glasgow Central Station last evening, there were a group of nubile young ladies handing out cards -to men only. They passed me by, and I asked for a card.
"Nah," said the stunna. " It's for a lap-dancing club. You're too old"
" Besides, " said the other, " We don't let anyone in wearing cords."
As a friend hurtingly remarked,"It's as well they didn't see your underpants."
Definite lese-majeste