Deadliest Loonpot

Hullo there...

I'm still a 'ouse 'usband and enjoying all the duties that go with it - such as drinking tea, playing on my Wii and watching telly. It was whilst watching said telly that I came accross a programme called "Deadliest Catch" which is basically about a load of blokes pulling crabs in cages from feckin' freezing water...enthralling stuff...!

Anyway, on tonight's episode one of these young men took a bit of a tumble onto his ankle. Now, thinks me, how bad will it be? I am something of an expert in the field of damaged ankles - it's only a fortnight since F asked me to put the bin out* which I duly went off to do...she was then alerted to me lying in a pool of dog p**s in the back yard by my pathetic moans as I had thrown myself off the back step, twisting my ankle and bruising my leg in the process. I must make it clear that I had not touched a drop that day!!

Now, this time of year seems to bring out the best in me. Last year (this time avec my friend Stella) I went out to remonstrate with our neighbours from hell taking a tumble off the front step in the process. Luckily, Stella had worked her magic and I was a little anaesthatised to the worst of the pain. However, I knew I had done something pretty drastic and took my boot off as soon as I could to reveal this:-

It was sore!! It took a while to go right, and in all honesty still gives me a bit of grief to this day. These pictures were taken almost straight after I went over on it. Within a couple of days it was almost completely blue. Seeing the guy on "Deadliest Catch" tonight reminded me of that incident.

Judging by my past escapades I can look forward to doing a full limb next year!

*As a quick aside, on the radio the other they were talking about Lancashire sayings, one being how would you ask "Has the refuse collector arrived yet, mother?" in Lancashire..."Has bin man bin, mam?"!!!

An Influx Of Ideas

I've been reading again.

Wait!! Before you go off to get matchsticks for your eyelids this might even interest you...ok, it probably won't but it'll at least give you another bit of useless knowledge!!!

I'm currently reading a book about how London was rebulit after the great fire in 1666. The author is postulating that our nation's capital was rebuilt by Wren and others in line with ancient beliefs that London was to be the New Jerusalem. Now, that's a bit deep to get into at the minute suffice to say it involves much to do with the Zodiac (if you're at all interested in the Zodiac and it's connection to religion today please have a look at this movie) and (for political reasons at the time) the lineage of our middle age Kings being shown to come from the aincient tribes of Israel and therefore directly from God.

What has really interested me about this book is the way that England came to be a scientific leader in Europe. At around this time most of Europe was still Catholic and therefore the Pope and his church were very powerful. As learned men (then known as natural philosophers rather than scientists and known to dabble in alchemy) discovered more the likes of Copernicus and Gallileo amongst others were coming up with theories and proofs that challenged the crestionist doctrine which was the mainstay of the Catholic church. To the all powerful church these men were heretics, the punishment for which was death - so what was the option for those with apparantly heretical beliefs?

Escape to protestant England where their ideas were more readily accepted. This acceptance of ideas drew more and more of these natural philosophers to our shores and their interaction with our own alchemists and great thinkers such as William Gilbert and later Sir Isaac Newton allowed Great Britain to be at the forefront of science in those early days.

Of course, the above is very simplified and I'm not suggesting that Copernicus or Gallileo made it to these shores, rather than using them as famous examples scientist of that time. I just find this sort of fortuitous footnote to our past very interesting and thought you might too.

Oh, one other thing I learnt today - the reason surgeons are referred to as "Mister" as opposed to "Doctor" is because they were originally seen by their collegues simply as hackersof limbs and therefore not worthy of the title "Doctor"...see, told you you'd learn something!

Don't worry, I'll ask F to post again soon!

New Arrival

It's all change at the moment in our household. I'm currently playing the role of 'ouse 'usband while F goes off to do some agency work at some ridiculously high rate of pay. I've just set myself up for a day of hard work with bacon and egg on toast and a mug of tea - all after mopping the kitchen floor, filling the dishwasher, cleaning the yard and feeding the hounds...it's all go here!

Whilst mentioning the hounds there's a couple of pictures of our new arrival Rosie the Rotten below...ain't she cute??!

And here's one of her with Buddy, who isn't too keen at the minute!!

We reckon she might be a big girl seeing as she's only just over 9 weeks old!

I've been waiting for Blogger to allow us Blogger's to upload video. F and I tend to take a lot of media with our mobiles, having them with us most of the time they're just so handy to record those little moments or quirky little things that we see. Here's a video of Nate taking a ride with Noddy in the supermarket yesterday:-

I did have one in the same vein of Kaisters riding his pedal powered digger but for some reason it seems to have disappeard so I'll have to search for that one. Anyway, I suppose I should get on with some work (!) and some job searching...TTFN!

A sleeping sleepless night....

Last night I had a strange experience. For once it didn't involve drink...!

I don't know if you have ever heard of sleep paralysis but I think I had my first (and hopefully last) experience of it last night. I awoke in the early hours, quite lucidly, but was worried when my legs wouldn't respond to instructions from my brain. Nor would my arms. Nor my torso. I couldn't move a muscle yet I was perfectly aware of my surroundings. To say I was becoming concerned would be an understatement but I was snapped out of this apparent hell by F brushing against me.

What happened to me is symptomatic of sleep paralysis which almost every person on earth will experience at least once in their lives. Luckily for me, I had seen a programme on this condition a few years ago - only the programme was more concerned with the "night hag" phenomenon where the sufferers of this condition experience a hag or demon type appirition in the room with them and eventually sitting on their chest or becoming attached to their throat, constircting their breathing. However, it is postulated that this figure is part a figment of the mind that is still truly asleep. Needless to say, I was waiting with trepidation for this manifestation last night!!

On a lighter note our friend Linda at Ravenrock Kennels gifted us with a magnificent 9 week old Rotten puppy yesterday. Her dad Mac can be seen on the link above - as can our beloved Tequila's mum and sister Cassie and Reba (respectively). We have named her Rosie the Rottweiller and her official Kennel Club name is Ravenrock Dolly Rose, although Dolly Dimple may be more appropriate thinks I!!! Pictures will be posted of this tiny row of teeth and an a**ehole on coming posts...!

Another Rant...

Hullo!!

Firstly, thank you to those of you that left comments about the loss of our tiny girl Tequila. We scattered her ashes at Bolton Abbey and she's quite likely very happy now chasing ducks like she always wanted to! We still miss her like crazy but the other three are trying their best to fill the void that has been left in her wake. Gracie especially is doing her best to fill Tequila's (metaphorical) boots by protecting the house in what looks to be a new inimitable style!

For those that are interested, my new job didn't go too well so I've been putting my energies into finding another job (I have an interview on Friday) and also educating myself. I have been spending time with the chilblains and playing the guitar a lot more - I have even been getting blisters on my fingers for the first time in 17 years...and I sound like I can play now!

When I say "educating myself" I was speaking in terms of doing an awful lot of reading. I prefer non-fiction to novels as it has to be an extremely good story to grab me. The last one that did it was Stephen King's "Eyes of the Dragon", which was a fantastic fantasy story, although anything by Richard Bach would receive my full attention - I should blog my admiration for that man very soon. Strangly, Stephen King set himself an experiment where he published books under the name of Richard Bachman to see if he could replicate his success under a different name.

I have read all sorts of things lately but have turned my attention at the minute to the problems facing the western economy and the very real threat of a U.S./Allied strike on Iran (I've been boring F rigid, but nothing new there!). I have a lot of opinion on the latter and I definately believe that we in the West would be making a grave mistake in attacking Iran, not least because of the willingness of both Russia and China to seize an opportunity to support the Iranians and to make the most of the impending economic crisis that we face here in the West.

For the record, I believe that the Bush administration has totally abused its power and has done all it can to ensure that the supply of wealth to the top 1% of the population that they truly represent has been assured. Anyone with any doubts over the rhetoric displayed by this bunch of shites need only do a little bit of searching to just scratch at the surface of the lies that this cabal have built. The house of cards has to tumble.

Am I one of these "wacko's" that thinks that 9/11 was an inside job? Yes I am. I truly believe that Bush and his cronies were more than capable of killing their own citizens in order to bring about the support needed for an illegal war (we here in England we just as complicit...thank you, Mr. Blair). What was needed was another Pearl Harbour - the event that brought about America's entry into WWII and galvanised American public opinion in such a way that the then Government could quite happily wander into war. That's what happened. Ok, maybe it's not as clear cut as being an inside job, but maybe intelligence was skilfully ignored (I'm not decided myself yet) but either way, I believe the current American administration was complicit in the deaths of all those poor souls and the subsequent pain and grief caused to those left behind.

Oh, and just to make a little analogy, the Nazi party came to power in 1930's Germany after the Hitler's Nazi party burnt the Reichstag to the ground and blamed it on the communists. Upon gaining power they immediately set about taking power away from their citizens under the guise of protecting them from the evil in their midst. Sound anything like the erosion of the American constitution under the Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act/Bill? Or like the new powers of internment being introduced by the British government? But of course, it's for our protection...

Whilst mentioning the Nazi party I should also mention one Prescott Bush, father of former President George H. W. Bush and granfather of current President George W. Bush. A nazi collaboraor...?

But why do it? Oil is one best bet. A pipeline along the Caspian Sea area wouldn't really have been possible without a compliant government in Afghanistan. Not that the Bush family or their associates have anything to do with the oil industry (!). Then Iraq...well, Saddam was highly unlikely to be a best friend of Messrs Bush and Cheney so we'd better get rid of him. Who next...Venezuela looked good but I guess Mr. Chavez was just too vocifierous and did enough to avoid attack. So, that leaves Iran and Mr. Ahmadinejad...for those that believe the things they've heard about his comments please have a quick look at this. If this one falls through I can only think that North Korea's next.

If you have a couple of hours to spare please have a look at this movie. The producers don't want you to take their facts on face value but want you to research for yourself - see their reasoning here.

Enough for now, as I've quite bored you all enough, but if anything happens to me I've left a box of incriminating papers with my solicitor!!!!