Chilly Bees and Woolly jumpers.

There is more very chilly weather on the way with a chance of snow on Monday in most parts of the UK. The temperatures this winter have been between 1 and 1.5 degrees C below average, (according to the BBC). Now the first thing that entered my head when we had the cold weather around New Year is this going to help the Bees? The horrible parasite that’s killing the poor little buggers off has been blamed on warm winters so are we going to be ok? The whole bee thing scares the life out of me, was it Einstein who said that if the bee dies off then we would follow in a few years.

So anyway, enough of my ramblings. well actually enough time for one more related to the chilly temps. I also read on the BBC website that 2 Icelanders living up north somewhere were so appalled that our pensioners could die of cold that they launched a campaign over in Iceland. This has resulted in the lovely Icelanders sending over a container full of woolly jumpers and the like. Bless them, the currency has collapsed and so has their government. There has been rioting on the streets and they still find time to send some woollies over to a country that recently used a law brought in to protect people from terrorism against them in an effort to try to protect our own finances. Thank you.

Being serious for a moment

I’ve suddenly got loads of stuff I want to write about after not really having much of an opinion on anything recently. I’ll try and split it up into several threads over the coming weeks but it may end up as lots in one day.

Firstly I saw a story on the BBC website earlier about what should be done with Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau. There were two possibilities mentioned. 1) Leave it to crumble after the last survivor has died or 2) Carry on maintaining it as a sort of memorial to be a constant reminder of what has happened.

Now I’m not really sure what should be done. I don’t believe it is up to me to decide. All of the survivors and their families should be asked which they would prefer and I think there should also be a 3rd option. Destroy the camp and erect a purpose build memorial on the grounds. I also think the population of Poland should get a say. It is on their land after all and they might want to just forget.

But people need to remember what happened to stop anything like this ever happening again but whether maintaining the death/concentration camp is a way of achieving this I don’t know. A lot of the reasons why people have suggested that it is maintained seem to stem from the holocaust deniers. I don’t think we need to even think about these people. If somebody cannot accept that something like this has happened then that’s for his or her own twisted head to deal with. I’ve never met a holocaust denier but if I did I would suggest they look at the photographs the British and Canadian army took on arriving at Belsen or read Richard Dimbleys account below. It is awful and the British Army themselves didn’t believe the Russians after they had ‘liberated’ Auschwitz. The stories came through about this awful place and it took the discovery of Belsen to persuade the Allies otherwise. After all of the exposed corpses were buried, (The Brits and Canadians made the SS do this), the survivors were carted off down the road to a hospital where they were then bombed by the Luftwaffe in a last act of atrocity. Then Belsen was burnt to the ground to try and stop the spread of typhus that had engulfed the drastically overcrowded camp.

Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which … The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them … Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live … A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.

Of course Belsen wasn’t a death camp. There is no doubt the people died as a result of being in hugely cramped conditions, malnourished and without adequate sanitation but people weren’t gassed. We must never forget what has happened but I still think it’s not up to us to decide what happens to Auschwitz.

History in the making prt 2

I watched the end of the inauguration at the gym. It was the bit when they all walked down the steps, I noticed that Bush and Obama were making a real effort to make sure there footsteps were in time with each other so they were side by side as they walked out. Then Bush and his lady got in a helicopter and flew away. Then most of the ceremony was repeated on the news.

At my gym most of the CV equipment has a little TV screen in front so you can watch and listen to whatever you want. I glanced around to see if anybody else was watching it. The chap next to me was, most other people seemed to be watching The Simpson’s or that rubbish quiz show on BBC2. Out of about 20 people that’s quite bad. It sort of sums up Worcester quite well though. I’d prefer to carry on doing what I have always done than watch a piece of history in the making.

Anyway, once again well done Obama. I really do hope you can sort it out and stuff and I think you were the best person for the job. There is a lot of pressure on you to make changes but you already seem to have made one. All tribunals at Guantamano have been suspended for a bit so the tribunal process can be reviewed.

I’m sure I have mentioned before I don’t really like or trust politicians. It may be a British thing as ours seem to say anything in the world to get you to support them and then once they have any power they wriggle away from all they stood for. They lie and cheat and abuse their authority. I’m sure looking back in history there are some good ‘uns. Old Churchill for instance but he was a fabulous war time leader and never got the chance to prove himself properly in peace time. In more recent times Mo Mowlam proved herself a great politiician, the effort she put in whilst seriously ill and the fruits of her labour are still with us. I thought David Cameron might be ok when he first appeared on the scene but he annoys me now. Gordon Brown, or as I like to call him, our little dictator, I don’t really have an opnion on which is awful as he is the prime minister, you’d of though he would have made some impression.

Anyway my point is, I hope you can live up to all you have promised.

And get well soon Senator Kennedy

RIP Mr Hart

What with you and Oliver Postgate going I think part of my childhood has died.

Jobs

I’ve been quite chipper the past couple of days. I’m thinking about applying for a job, it’s quite a way from where we live now so I would have to move which I’m not keen on doing. I might just apply and see if I even get an interview. Anyway, so there I was typing away at my CV at lunchtime when a head hunter agency calls me to ask if I’ll apply for a job just down the road. It’s for another consultancy, I don’t think I would consider going to another consultants unless they were going to pay me quite a bit more than I’m on now. It’s not all about the money belive me but I would like to be comfortable. I do like this company but I am finding the stress levels a bit unmanageable at the moment. It is down to one client in particular but I’m not going there. Anyway it’s nice to feel loved.

Letter

I’m glad you called me. I think I prefer to know the truth about the danger you face but why a secret? Well obviously I know why the secret from the outside world but you should tell your mum and your wife. I know the former has been through a lot recently and this is the first time the latter has had to deal with one of your trips. And yes I do promise to look after them both if anything does happen. But it won’t, it can’t. I wouldn’t be able to go on without you baby.

I’ve never heard you speak like that before about your ‘job’ I know the huge amounts of alcohol had something to do with it but don’t bottle it up. You can talk to me about anything you want honey God know’s you have in the past.

I want this year to go so quickly. Knowing you won’t be here for most of it is a real daunting prospect, who am I going to talk to about things? Stay safe my dear. You better see me before you go even if I have to come over there and find you!!

Frivolity

So after Boxing Day we had another whirlwind of engagements. Bob and I nipped over to Cleobury Mortimer on the 27th to have a curry with a few of Bob’s mates. We also went out for a few bevies on the 29th with Dev and KP. Then on the 30th Spex turned up. Dev, KP and May-Z came around to our collective house. I cooked a chicken curry and then we all went to the Wheatsheaf for a drink. The usual nonsense ensued. On New Years eve Dev and KP came round and we played Trivial Pursuit, it was a close run thing but Dev won which I think helped him get over losing badly last time. We had a vague plan for New Years eve which involved going to a rural pub just out of Hallow about half a mile from where Dev lives. May-Z turned up and we had some pizza then set off to Dev’s and then on to the pub. It had been freezing all over Christmas but New Years eve was particularly cold with a light dusting of snow in Hallow. The townies amongst us complained bitterly about the walk and the prospect of going to a rural pub we had never been to before on New Years eve. Spex thought we would get murdered which wouldn’t help our aim of getting a bit squiffy. We found the pub which was very small but we found a nice table close to a log burner. Obviously we didn’t get murdered and after a couple of seconds of feeling uncomfortable the moment we walked through the door everything was fine. There seemed to be a bit of a folk band at the other end of the pub much to May-Z’s excitement. I’m not sure if it was actually a ‘band’ or if it was just a bunch of locals who had brought their instruments with them as I’m sure no folk band would ever need 3 accordion players.

I had a couple of vinos then KP and I proceeded to drink the place dry of JD. This meant that I didn’t drink as much as the others as I never go back to vino after being on JD for some obscure reason. Later in the evening we decided to set up a new club, hat club, which basically involved wearing each others hats. Oh the fun we have!! At midnight we got assaulted by a small child who decided he wanted to set off party poppers in our faces. I’m not a big fan of any loud noises as I’m sure I demonstrated by jumping up and running away. The small child then decided to throw things at us which was quite amusing to start with then after he hit both KP and myself in the head a few times I shouted at him and it his turn to run off. There were quite a few children in the pub, most seemed to be quite content playing on their Nintendo DS’s and later on sleeping. In fact most of the kids were still there when Bob and I left just before 3.

There was also quite a lot of wildlife in the pub including 2 pub cats, a selection of polystyrene Robins and 3 pub dogs. The dogs were black labs who took a bit of a shine to May-Z to start with, sitting with their little slobbery chops on his knee and gazing up at him lovingly. This was nothing compared to later on though when one of the dogs clambered up onto Spex and fell asleep on his lap. One of the other dogs got a bit jealous and came along and snuggled up behind him making a sort of Spex sandwich, ahhh bless!

Anyway, Bob wanted to go home just before 3 so off we toddled out into the freezing air and walked home. We got woken up about 40 minutes later by Spex ringing me as himself and May-Z were locked out. I went and let them in.

Next day May-Z nipped off early to go on some escapade involving driving to London and back in a day. Myself, Bob, Spex and Dev went out for some lunch. On the way to the pub we were greatly amused by the pictures of cocks that had been drawn in the snow on the windscreens of all of the cars at a car sales place. Tee hee, we’re so juvenile. Anyway, not much was done that day, we watched Worlds Strongest man and Jonathan Creek and that was about it.

On the second Bob decided he was going to be ill which was a shame as it was May-Z’s birthday. He had decided to show off his organisational skills by attempting to organise a piss-up in a brewery. Highgate Brewery to be precise in Walsall. We made a last minute substitution of Bob with Ebby who had managed to make it up to sunny Worcester for a 24 hours. After a bit of a shaky start with transport we arrived at the brewery and had a little tour. We got to see all the crazy old stuff that is still used in brewing then we had a free bar, woo hoo. Shame they didn’t have any vino coz I’m not a big fan of the old beer. I drank some dark mild which was ok. We found out via our tour guide that Wyatt Earp was from Walsall, to be honest he could have been making it up. Then we all piled back on the train and went back to Woo, dropping of the Brum dwellers at New Street to go off partying. I bought some vino and drank it on the train, I’m such a classy chick.

Next day I stayed home and looked after the patient whilst the others wandered around Malvern before all disappearing of their separate ways. I went back to work on the 5th for one day only before catching the lurgy off Bob. Grr. I nipped into work this morning to sort a few things out but I’m back home now trying to concentrate and work from home but all I want to do is sleep. I must properly go to work tomorrow

Boo

I’m feel like pooh. I lasted a whole day back at work after the festivities. I was off sick yesterday and today. I must go back tomorrow though as I think daytime TV may in fact drive me mad. I started to write a blog about New Year and the like but it is on my computer at work so you’ll have to wait.