As reported by The Express & Star today, apparently a chap with a samurai sword was hanging around by Councillor Clift’s house.
My Dad called me this morning with the news that my Great Uncle Bert (Darky as he liked to be called) died this morning. He’s been ill most of the summer and has spent it in hospital or latterly a nursing home.
I’m glad me and Cousin went to see him last year, and that modern technology allows us to record this for future generations. He’s been a lonely man for the past few years and hasn’t looked after himself particularly well although he never stopped in much. One thing that struck me was the way he said he never looked forward to the winter and the dark nights.
In some ways, he was one of our families awkward members. Since our interview with him, I’ve had many conversations with other members of the family putting over their point of view which is at variance with his version of events. It seems he fell out of favour with our Grandad (his brother) over money and this has been taken up by them. It does also show what a remarkable bloke our Grandad was though, war hero and all. Even Uncle Bert acknowledged that. However, he did his bit for the war effort. Without the considerable efforts of manufacturing, especially in the Black Country, we would have never have defeated the Nazis. And it took people like Uncle Bert to do the 12 hour shifts in a repetitive job to give us a chance on the battlefield, as it does now.
So Great Uncle Bert is the last of this generation in our family. He did well to survive to 93 and saw great changes in the country as survived two World Wars. By the conversations we had with him, I think he had a good life.
I watched this for the first time all the way through for the first time since I read it for my degree at Poly. I’ve always been deeply impressed by both the book and the film, despite having to take it apart in English Lit.
I forgot how illustrious the cast is – who can you remember? Danny DeVito? Christopher Lloyd of Bach to the Future fame and of course, Jack. However, one of the best performances is by Sydney Lassick, who played Cheswick, the infantile manic depressive.
I think this is one of the best acted American films and Nicholson was well suited to it as he’s perfect as the catalyst to the group. Just like the book really as R.P.McMurphy is the same. Indeed, the piece could have been written just for Jack. I wonder what it w s like to have beeen on the set?
I’ve worked in a few mental health hospitals and I can tell you the film isn’t far off reality. I remember one old lady on all fours walking round the ward like a dog, totally ignored by the staff. How sad. But one thing struck me about those places – most of the inmates looked normal. The chronic ones were obvious to spot but sometimes you couldn’t tell who was in and who was working there……..
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0489861/
As Philadelphia is proving.
August always seems like the arse end of the year to me. You’re try to stretch out the last of the warm summer days between showers and you’re stuck at home whilst most people seem permanently on holiday. Every day seems to drag out even though looking back you you seem busy. And you know that autumn with its longer and colder nights and back to the grindstone, is just around the corner.
This weekend has been one of these very weekends. A good night up The Min with Craig and Shaun (he of the Featherstone fame) on Friday followed a strange day on Saturday when we were preparing for Cousin Ross & Heather’s English wedding which went well by the way. I thought I needed waking up so I rode out to Wednesfield on the trusty road bike and promptly got caught in a thunderstorm on the way back. Did the trick though.
Today, we’ve been shopping and then to Cosford for a look around the Cold War museum. I’ve been before but as it’s free, it’s a good chance to concentrate on one hall without getting too knackered. Well worth going whilst it’s still free.
We were back by 4.30 so as it was a warm pleasant afternoon, I promptly crashed out on the lounger in the new seating area. Well good that. I’ll be remembering days like that when it’s 4 inches on snow…..
I’ve been doing this a lot lately. I think its called sales and marketing but whatever.
We’ve a job that’s come up with a big computer firm that requires me and me muckers to have all CRB, H & S and insurance checks. All a bit of a pfaff to be honest thanks to the politicians trying to keep up with people acting stupid but there you go.
So, mad as it made me, I took up the mighty keyboard again and typed up another missive to the dear old PM. I feel better now, but whether he takes any notice is problematic. However, in the spirit of Sir Winston,I shall not be deterred. Indeed I shall go on and I encourage you all to join me by writing to the top. Only then will we be able to directly influence the machinations of this great state.
The theme of the latest missive was four fold:
- It’s too expensive to do business in this country.
- A request of what his industrial strategy is, as the Germans seem to be doing so well of late.
- Why aren’t we using our stuff rather than importing it from others all the time, i.e. Japanese trains.
- Why don’t we tax the foreign owned companies and franchises through the business rate? And why not introduce a fat tax on fast food outlets?
Whether you agree with these points or not I’ll leave it to you to debate on these pages, but it seems to me, as I put it to the PM “To reap a harvest we have to sow the seeds.”
Not a bad light ale
This weekend was probably one of the most relaxing I’ve had for sometime as this has indeed been a busy year. Not entirely slacking either!
After the second annual cut of the hedge on Saturday morning (pt.1) we met up with the Stymaster and Mistress for something new – a walk around the Principalities pubs starting with The Why Not in Broad Lane. Now I like Banks’s so I enjoyed the beer, but not a great choice of real ale actually. Worth the trip for me just to have a pint of my favourite for a change.
Next we walked up to The Old Mitre near the M6 bridge. One of the very first pubs I ventured into as a teenager. Lately though it’s been plagued by constant and frequent changes in management and so it’s been a lottery to see what you might end up with, both beer and food wise.
After a good dinner and a nice pint of Abbot Ale, we finished our sojourn back at Essington HQ – The Minerva. Lately we’ve been spoilt by lost of Enville Ale but there were a few new ones on such as York Brewery’s Guzzler and Theakston’s XB.
Sunday saw us recovering somewhat but we did rise early and saw off a lot of jobs in the morning. But how nice it was to sit in the back garden for an hour and read a book. I’ve taken all summer to read Shogun but finally I managed to get to page 1000. Only 125 odd to go!
A final weekend trip down the Min to see Duffer and Jammer off to The Shetlands and that’s it! Another one of the 4,000 weekends gone. But a very enjoyable one all the same!
Last night we were due to meet me Sis and the tribe at IKEA for our family favourite of meatballs, gravy and chips. Alas our plans were thwarted by Karen not being able to make it as she got stuck on the 529 bus for over an hour between Wolverhampton and Willenhall. The reason? Roadworks. There are roadworks all over Wolverhampton at the moment. There are roadworks elsewhere in the Black Country at the moment as well – West Bromwich, Bloxwich and Dudley. Is it me or is there no co-ordination about any of this lot, considering the M6 has the Active Traffic management system being installed, forever it seems. You can’t even get between Wolves and Walsall on the train as some bright spark has taken the service off. Muppet.
What the hell is happening? Is the whole of our road network being controlled by an ex-member of the Armed Forces who is more familiar with blocking roads rather than the concept of free flowing traffic? It’s complete stupid. You can’t travel from North to South or visa versa without running into either roadworks or congestion caused by road works.
Somebody must be in charge – but who?
I was desperate to see the start of the Hungarian GP on Sunday as I thought that would be the most exciting thing that would happen in the race. However, what a good race it turned out to be! Not least for the move by Schumacher on Barrichello when it looked as if he tried to shove him in the pit lane wall! Also, the chaos that ensued when the safety car was deployed was terrific! Good job nobody was injured when Rosberg’s wheel came off and bounced down the pit lane like one of Barnes Wallis’s bombs though.
Also it wasn’t McLaren’s weekend. Lewis looked like he could have held on to fourth but the gearbox put paid to that and Jenson just wasn’t with it. Better luck at Spa methinks!
Schumacher has been crap all season and its a shame that he’s had to resort to such blatant tactics. About time you packed it in Michael – seven wins is enough so don’t be greedy! >:o