A walk in the park

Boy do we have one excited granddaughter. 

She’s been on a student exchange in Toulouse for several mots and her time there is coming to an end. OK, she is excited about getting back to NZ to be with her Mum and Dad, big brother and younger sisters. But before she gets on the plane back home she’s making a detour to spend time with us here in London. The man and I will have our first trip on the Eurostar to get to Paris, which is where we are all meeting up. The three of us will do some of the touristy things there for a couple of days before coming back in Eurostar and then…well you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what we will be up to.

Did I tell you that we have bought a new camera, well we have. Person in the store asked SLR? My reply do I need one. Well she said if you’ve never used one and you do buy one you really should take lessons or at least have someone who has one show you how to use it.

Well I replied all I want to be able to do is pint and shoot.

In that case, this is on of the best for the job. It’s got all the bells and whistles, great for close us, does movies too and not only the special deal means that you get an extra battery thrown in for the same price.

So that’s the one we bought.

The Man had tried taking pictures of the moon with our other camera and was disappointed with the result. Not so with the new one, it will take a bit of practice with the settings, but already he is more than happy with the result.

We had a day in yesterday doing the domestic stuff and pottering on the computer not so today. Him and me went for a walk in Crystal palace Park this afternoon, yes it was cold, but it was too nice a day to just sit around the flat not doing much. It was a great day to take pictures too.

Read this in the freebee paper this week.  The headline reads ‘Father of 22 is spared jail to care for youngest child’ Well that’s not as nice as you might think. This chappie is described as ‘A drug dealing father of 22 children to 11 different women –He’s a 58 year old who has not worked for 10 years because of a bad back. He said ‘I just love kids’

The article goes on to quote him as claiming that he has ‘never had to chase after women…I’m easy going…they’re always chasing after me… I don’t know what it is about me but I’m never short of offers…It’s just my luck that every time I have a one night stand the girl ends up getting pregnant’  

That’s’ almost as stupid as the next snippet from the same paper.

 A girl returned from nursery with a self-appraisal form to fill in…despite being 11 months old. Her father filled it in on her behalf noting that her interests were ‘gripping dogs hair’ and exploring parents noses with fingers’

Where were you when the heard the news?

 John F. Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die.

Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.

The popular and charismatic president won many friends in the UK during his short term in office, and following his death an acre of land in Runnymede Meadow was dedicated to a memorial in his memory.

The inscription on the stone is from his inaugural speech

"Let every National know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty"

let it snow...

100 DAYS OF HEAVY SNOW: Britain now facing worst winter in SIXTY YEARS warn forecasters

LONG-RANGE weather forecasters have warned that Britain should prepare for heavy and persistent snow for up to THREE MONTHS with winter 2013 set to be the worst in more than 60 years.

The latest detailed forecasts for winter 2013 ALL point towards months of relentless extreme cold with heavy snow 'extremely likely' across the country.

Arctic air will roar in from the North Pole later this week, triggering the start of the worst winter in many people's lifetimes.

Experts in long-range weather forecasting said the WHOLE of Britain should be prepared for this winter to be the most severe since 1947, which saw the UK hit by relentless snow and some of the lowest temperatures on record.

February 1947 was the coldest in history with heavy snow the following month leading to seven-metre high drifts.

On yer bike ...

Who’d be a cycles in London?

Certainly not me.

Why so?

Well I’ll tell you.

So many of them have been killed lately in collisions with vehicles.

Here’s an extract from the evening paper

A cyclist today became the fifth to die on London’s streets in nine days, as Boris Johnson appealed for riders to obey the “laws of the road”.

At about 11.30pm last night a double-decker 205 bus collided with a male cyclist in Whitechapel High Street. The man suffered serious head injuries and died at The Royal London Hospital early this morning. Thirteen cyclists have now been killed this year.

A Transport for London spokeswoman, asked whether the Mayor was suggesting any of the cyclists who died had jumped red lights, said it was “too early to say”. On November 5, hospital porter Brian Holt was killed in a collision with a HGV in Mile End Road. Last Friday, architecture expert Francis Golding died after a crash involving a coach in Holborn. On Tuesday a man lost his life after a collision with a 410 bus in East Croydon. And yesterday a woman died at Bow roundabout.

And it isn’t compulsory for cyclists to wear helmets either. Go figure that one.

There was talk on the news this morning, or was it yeasted about cyclists undergoing a test similar to a drivers licence…

We’ve got an expression back in NZ for ideas like that…

Yeah Right….

Rememberance Day

Here in Britain and in lots of other countries too it has been Remembrance Day. Marking the end of  WWII.  At 11am 95 years ago today, the guns fell silent. After over 9 million deaths in one of the most terrible conflicts in history the Great War was finally over.  

They Shall not grow old" ("Ode of Remembrance." )
A poem called 'For the Fallen' is often read aloud during the ceremony; the most famous stanza of which reads: 

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them." 

Do you know why the Poppy became the Symbol of Remembrance?
Flanders is the name of the whole western part of Belgium. It saw some of the most concentrated and bloodiest fighting of the First World War. There was complete devastation. Buildings, roads, trees and natural life simply disappeared. Where once there were homes and farms there was now a sea of mud - a grave for the dead where men still lived and fought. 

Only one other living thing survived. The poppy flowering each year with the coming of the warm weather, brought life, hope, colour and reassurance to those still fighting.
Poppies only flower in rooted up soil. Their seeds can lay in the ground for years without germinating, and only grow after the ground has been disturbed.
 
John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Canadian Armed Forces, was so deeply moved by what he saw in northern France that, in 1915 in his pocket book, he scribbled down the poem "In Flanders Fields" .
McCrae's poem was eventually published in 'Punch' magazine under the title 'In Flanders Fields'. The poppy became a popular symbol for soldiers who died in battle.

A bit of a blow...

Forecasters were pretty spot on with their predictions about the weather.

Here’s what the local press are saying

Four people have died after a storm battered southern Britain, leading to 625,000 homes losing power, rush-hour disruption on trains and flight cancellations.

A teenager in Kent and a man in Watford were killed by falling trees.

A man and a woman died in west London after a falling tree caused a suspected gas explosion and house collapse.

Rail companies are now running reduced services but say they hope operations will be back to normal on Tuesday.

BBC forecasters say the storm, which began overnight and saw heavy rain fall across many areas and wind speeds of more than 70mph, moved out of the UK shortly after 12:00 GMT - leaving a "broadly windy day".

The strongest gust of 99mph (159km/h) was recorded at Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight, at 05:00 GMT.

 The Man and I had a bit of a struggle getting into work.

We went down to the station early expecting there to be a crowd, but the station was virtually empty…no trains running until 0900. So at 0650 we decided the best thing was to go home and then come back. Which we did, only to be told no trains until 1000.

So get on a bus going in the opposite direction, at the direction of the chappie in the station. The bus went past several stations that had pretty long queues of people waiting to get in. The one we got off at had a queue too but down on the platform, A couple f trains went past before The Man and I could get on, and then it was standing room only and crammed to the rafters.

I got off at London Bridge and made my way to work via the Jubilee line which surprisingly was virtually empty.  Arrived at work two and half hours late. Nobody complains because most of us were in the same boat.

And tomorrow, well who knows.