The View from the Hill on Saturday 27th March
The day of the surprise party - and I think we are just about ready.
Sandwiches - check
Sausage rolls - check
Crisps - check
Cakes - check
Table Cloth - check (actually it's blue not checked)
Balloons, flowers, posters etc etc etc - check etc.
Quite a bit of stress and all for two and half hours watching a room full of pensioners choking on Hula Hoops and falling over each other.
I suppose getting to 80 is worthy of a little celebration, but allowing pensioners to gather in large groups is always dodgy - the feed back from all those hearing aids could bring a jumbo jet down.
Plus I have to make a little speech, and Mrs B said I can't mention how I usually talk about pensioners at their funerals and would they all mind laying on the floor with their hands across their chests so I feel more at home.
It will be fine, I'm sure!
I see they have cancelled The Bill - crime rates in ITV are going to go through the ceiling - Inspector Frost is retiring too, Morse is dead, Lewis only pops in once or twice a year so the field is clear for the criminals to run riot.
Congratulations to Countdown on it five millionth episode - here is a clip of my favourite episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onsrSGxGVUw&feature=PlayList&p=3E8934C4DCE14DF5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=50
I made the word SLAP.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Abraham Lincoln:
And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
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Saturday, 27 March 2010
Friday, 26 March 2010
The View from the Hill on Friday 26th March
At 11am this morning, I will be conducting the funeral of 8yr old Charlotte Avenall. She is the little girl with learning difficulties who was found hanged in her bedroom about 6 months ago.
The parents have pleaded guilty to neglect and will be sentenced next week.
This is the funeral that has been causing me some sleepless nights but it is written and I am ready to go.
The abuse of children is a subject that should never be taken lightly and that is why it really gives me no great pleasure to see the Old Nazi mired in this latest child abuse scandal - because although I love to see the Catholic church squirm, it is only doing so because many young boys were victimised by a man they should have been able to trust.
The Old Nazi is accused of covering up what was going on and it does seem at the very least he ignored letters from colleagues in the diocese where the abuse was taking place - and it does seem remarkable that the guilty priest was never defrocked. In fact he was moved to another parish and still given access to children in a juvenile detention centre.
It also amazes me how quickly the church rushes to the defence of the boss - where is the support for the victims?
The Catholic church wields a lot of power and influence and perhaps they will make this go away as they have so many other problems in the past, by digging into their very deep pockets and paying people off - but why not really give these victims what they need and deserve - the truth?
I hope I can serve the truth and the memory of one little girl this morning.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Her laughter was better than the birds in the morning, her smile
Turned the edge of the wind, her memory
Disarms death and charms the surly grave.
Early she went to bed, too early we
Saw her light put out;
Yet we could not grieve
More than a little while,
For she lives in the earth around us, laughs from the sky.
C.Day Lewis
At 11am this morning, I will be conducting the funeral of 8yr old Charlotte Avenall. She is the little girl with learning difficulties who was found hanged in her bedroom about 6 months ago.
The parents have pleaded guilty to neglect and will be sentenced next week.
This is the funeral that has been causing me some sleepless nights but it is written and I am ready to go.
The abuse of children is a subject that should never be taken lightly and that is why it really gives me no great pleasure to see the Old Nazi mired in this latest child abuse scandal - because although I love to see the Catholic church squirm, it is only doing so because many young boys were victimised by a man they should have been able to trust.
The Old Nazi is accused of covering up what was going on and it does seem at the very least he ignored letters from colleagues in the diocese where the abuse was taking place - and it does seem remarkable that the guilty priest was never defrocked. In fact he was moved to another parish and still given access to children in a juvenile detention centre.
It also amazes me how quickly the church rushes to the defence of the boss - where is the support for the victims?
The Catholic church wields a lot of power and influence and perhaps they will make this go away as they have so many other problems in the past, by digging into their very deep pockets and paying people off - but why not really give these victims what they need and deserve - the truth?
I hope I can serve the truth and the memory of one little girl this morning.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Her laughter was better than the birds in the morning, her smile
Turned the edge of the wind, her memory
Disarms death and charms the surly grave.
Early she went to bed, too early we
Saw her light put out;
Yet we could not grieve
More than a little while,
For she lives in the earth around us, laughs from the sky.
C.Day Lewis
Thursday, 25 March 2010
The View from the Hill on Thursday 25th March
The Junior Partner will be saying - 'here he goes again'!
The death of actor Robert Culp aged 79, gives me a chance to talk about one of the best things ever put on telly - Columbo.
Culp played a murderer three times during the series each time being caught by the wily Lt Columbo played by Peter Falk. He also guest starred as a family member of a killer making him one of the most seen faces in the series.
The reason Columbo works is because rather than having to work out who the murderer is, you have to watch Columbo work it out. (Too many works?)
Anyway, I miss Columbo - I don't think we will get any more with Peter Falk, he's suffering from dementia and that doesn't make detecting very easy.
Of course, they could re-cast and update the character, Peter Falk wasn't the first actor to play him and although he made the role his own, it is not beyond reason to re-cast.
I see they are remaking True Grit and Jeff Bridges is taking on the role of Rooster Cogburn, sounds pretty good casting to me and I am a lover of the John Wayne original.
Sometimes remakes are very good, sometimes not so good - I didn't like Planet of the Apes and I hated The Day The Earth Stood Still.
I have always been a lover of Star Trek and very loyal to the original crew, but the Star Trek movie produced last year was amazing and reinvigorated the franchise allowing a whole new generation to get on board the Enterprise.
So come on Hollywood, start planning the new Columbo - now where's my raincoat?
+++++++++++++++++++++
Lt. Columbo: There were no prints on the gun because you wiped the gun clean, sir. But there is a reason the lab report took so long. You remembered to clean the gun, but you didn't remember to do the same thing with the bullets.
Ward Fowler: Damn! I had to forget something. That's always how the third act ends.
(Fade in to Murder)
The Junior Partner will be saying - 'here he goes again'!
The death of actor Robert Culp aged 79, gives me a chance to talk about one of the best things ever put on telly - Columbo.
Culp played a murderer three times during the series each time being caught by the wily Lt Columbo played by Peter Falk. He also guest starred as a family member of a killer making him one of the most seen faces in the series.
The reason Columbo works is because rather than having to work out who the murderer is, you have to watch Columbo work it out. (Too many works?)
Anyway, I miss Columbo - I don't think we will get any more with Peter Falk, he's suffering from dementia and that doesn't make detecting very easy.
Of course, they could re-cast and update the character, Peter Falk wasn't the first actor to play him and although he made the role his own, it is not beyond reason to re-cast.
I see they are remaking True Grit and Jeff Bridges is taking on the role of Rooster Cogburn, sounds pretty good casting to me and I am a lover of the John Wayne original.
Sometimes remakes are very good, sometimes not so good - I didn't like Planet of the Apes and I hated The Day The Earth Stood Still.
I have always been a lover of Star Trek and very loyal to the original crew, but the Star Trek movie produced last year was amazing and reinvigorated the franchise allowing a whole new generation to get on board the Enterprise.
So come on Hollywood, start planning the new Columbo - now where's my raincoat?
+++++++++++++++++++++
Lt. Columbo: There were no prints on the gun because you wiped the gun clean, sir. But there is a reason the lab report took so long. You remembered to clean the gun, but you didn't remember to do the same thing with the bullets.
Ward Fowler: Damn! I had to forget something. That's always how the third act ends.
(Fade in to Murder)
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
The View from the Hill on Wednesday 24th March
It is a wet and miserable morning here on the Hill and I would have liked a nicer day as I have a woodland burial today, and standing in the rain planting trees and people is not nice.
I like the concept of natural burial, having a tree planted on you so as to really put something back into nature. It might be the first really giving thing some people do with their lives. Let me add that the gentleman I am burying today was a very nice man, he had the most content life - he never married.
So is everyone excited? Are you all going to be glued to your radios and televisions this afternoon? No?
But it's Alastair Darling!
It's bring your pets to work day and Alastair is going to do a show and tell about his pet Budgie.
His predecessor, Polyphemus Brown, he had a Budgie too, it was called Prudence; I don't know what Alastair calls his budgie but I have heard that it is a sad little chap and that it probably will not sing much.
The best part of bring your pets to work day is hearing the noises they make - I guarantee you will hear lots of cat calls and hissing snakes and the odd howler monkey making themselves known.
Polyphemus will be sat there stroking his pet, or Ed Balls as he is known. David Cameron will be trying to inspire his troops, they have some very poor looking pets, especially their ducks, which no longer have a house to live in.
Nick Clegg has a pet goldfish.
The BBC has bought in a special team to help identify the pets and how they will affect the day to day life of us normal folk, it is thought that there could be some post budgie-rage, especially for people with that most unnecessary of luxuries, a car.
By the end of the day, the little MP's will all go home, taking their pets with them, some will even take them on all expenses paid trips to Malta or Corfu - but that's another story children.
Let's all wish Alastair a lovely day and let's hope his Budgie doesn't escape or get eaten by Ann Widdecombe's pussy.
Nick Clegg has a pet goldfish.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anon:
"A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well as afterward."
(I don't know who this Anon chap is, but he wrote an awful lot of quotes!)
It is a wet and miserable morning here on the Hill and I would have liked a nicer day as I have a woodland burial today, and standing in the rain planting trees and people is not nice.
I like the concept of natural burial, having a tree planted on you so as to really put something back into nature. It might be the first really giving thing some people do with their lives. Let me add that the gentleman I am burying today was a very nice man, he had the most content life - he never married.
So is everyone excited? Are you all going to be glued to your radios and televisions this afternoon? No?
But it's Alastair Darling!
It's bring your pets to work day and Alastair is going to do a show and tell about his pet Budgie.
His predecessor, Polyphemus Brown, he had a Budgie too, it was called Prudence; I don't know what Alastair calls his budgie but I have heard that it is a sad little chap and that it probably will not sing much.
The best part of bring your pets to work day is hearing the noises they make - I guarantee you will hear lots of cat calls and hissing snakes and the odd howler monkey making themselves known.
Polyphemus will be sat there stroking his pet, or Ed Balls as he is known. David Cameron will be trying to inspire his troops, they have some very poor looking pets, especially their ducks, which no longer have a house to live in.
Nick Clegg has a pet goldfish.
The BBC has bought in a special team to help identify the pets and how they will affect the day to day life of us normal folk, it is thought that there could be some post budgie-rage, especially for people with that most unnecessary of luxuries, a car.
By the end of the day, the little MP's will all go home, taking their pets with them, some will even take them on all expenses paid trips to Malta or Corfu - but that's another story children.
Let's all wish Alastair a lovely day and let's hope his Budgie doesn't escape or get eaten by Ann Widdecombe's pussy.
Nick Clegg has a pet goldfish.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anon:
"A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well as afterward."
(I don't know who this Anon chap is, but he wrote an awful lot of quotes!)
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
The View from the Hill on Tuesday 23rd March
Dilemma!
Wanting to talk about the death of Harry Carpenter but that will give the Junior Partner too much ammo.
Wanting to talk about Byers, Hewitt and Hoon but feel the vomit rising.
It would have been so much nicer to have talked about the death of Byers, Hewitt and Hoon in some sort of suicide pact, the three leaping from the top of Big Ben dressed in the Lord's robes they will never get to wear now.
And that will be a test won't it - what happens to all these scum bag politicians after they get kicked out of office (or retire as the euphemistically refer to it). I wonder if Brown has the balls and the brass neck to stick any of them in the House of Cronies?
I had some hope about the House of Lords when they started talking about People's Peers - do you know any?
I think the only one I can name is Tanni Grey-Thompson who takes up her seat as a Cross Bencher next week.
How can they be People's Peers if we have no idea who they are?
It should be people like me, I could be a Lord and stand up for the rights of us normal folk. I wouldn't claim expenses or take loads of foreign trips, I would just do my best to make the lives of normal people a little brighter by visiting them in my robes and letting them make me tea and Eccles cakes.
Bugger it - I can't resist - Harry Carpenter was one of the voices of sport when I was growing up - with David Coleman, Ron Pickering,Dan Maskell and Peter O'Sullivan - these were voices who spoke with passion but with restraint (well most of the time).
There is only Peter Allis left now, the last of the greats and the Junior Partner has never even heard of him!
Just listen to the great man talk about Tiger Woods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXTQ3s-jg_I
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harry Carpenter:
Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the Cambridge president is kissing the cox of the Oxford crew
(Live on the 1977 Boat race)
Dilemma!
Wanting to talk about the death of Harry Carpenter but that will give the Junior Partner too much ammo.
Wanting to talk about Byers, Hewitt and Hoon but feel the vomit rising.
It would have been so much nicer to have talked about the death of Byers, Hewitt and Hoon in some sort of suicide pact, the three leaping from the top of Big Ben dressed in the Lord's robes they will never get to wear now.
And that will be a test won't it - what happens to all these scum bag politicians after they get kicked out of office (or retire as the euphemistically refer to it). I wonder if Brown has the balls and the brass neck to stick any of them in the House of Cronies?
I had some hope about the House of Lords when they started talking about People's Peers - do you know any?
I think the only one I can name is Tanni Grey-Thompson who takes up her seat as a Cross Bencher next week.
How can they be People's Peers if we have no idea who they are?
It should be people like me, I could be a Lord and stand up for the rights of us normal folk. I wouldn't claim expenses or take loads of foreign trips, I would just do my best to make the lives of normal people a little brighter by visiting them in my robes and letting them make me tea and Eccles cakes.
Bugger it - I can't resist - Harry Carpenter was one of the voices of sport when I was growing up - with David Coleman, Ron Pickering,Dan Maskell and Peter O'Sullivan - these were voices who spoke with passion but with restraint (well most of the time).
There is only Peter Allis left now, the last of the greats and the Junior Partner has never even heard of him!
Just listen to the great man talk about Tiger Woods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXTQ3s-jg_I
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harry Carpenter:
Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the Cambridge president is kissing the cox of the Oxford crew
(Live on the 1977 Boat race)
Monday, 22 March 2010
The View from the Hill on Monday 22nd March
The best laid plans....didn't get to the cinema, Danny decided to have a rehearsal for his final scenes instead. He did very well, it was a real tear jerker with sad eyes and a little whimper and a very good limp and falling over routine.
He survived and is resting today and will be back at the vet tomorrow.
The Junior Partner vented his spleen in his blog last evening, he was moved to words after watching people discuss the existence of the Devil on a TV chat show. I was going to talk about good and evil today....and still will because obviously I will do it better than him.
I don't believe in God so a belief in the Devil would be daft, and although I act daft on occasion, I am in fact far from daft. A belief in supernatural beings aside, the question that should be posed is do you believe in good and evil?
I have commented before that I find it hard to accept that true altruism exists in the human race, we always get something out of doing a kind act, even if it only feeds our ego, therefore the totally unselfish act cannot exist - therefore, I believe that the opposite must be true - there can be no true and total evil.
I don't think we are inherently good and bad people, I think we are people who do good and bad things.
There is no perfection in the world, there is only those things which have less or more flaws than other things.
I need to keep this in mind today, I need to say to myself that none of us are perfect and I need to believe totally otherwise I will fail in the one very important task I have today - that is to sit in a room with two people who many want to see punished for an 'evil act'. I have to sit in a room and see past the act they committed and try and find the person.
The need to demonise people who commit horrendous acts of cruelty is understandable, if we make them seem less than human then it excuses us all from looking in at ourselves and understanding that we might be less than perfect ourselves.
Once upon a time there was this bloke called Jesus, he was pretty good at pithy remarks and comments that made people stop and think - he came up with a real goody as far as I'm concerned - let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
I know that perhaps many of us have not murdered or raped or abused and I'm not talking about a moral equivalence test, I'm talking in general terms - we have to understand that to be human is to be flawed. If we can accept it in ourselves, then we should accept it in others.
I am in full reflective mode today, I have a hard day - a hard week - but I hope to be the best human being I can this week.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Blaise Pascal:
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
.
The best laid plans....didn't get to the cinema, Danny decided to have a rehearsal for his final scenes instead. He did very well, it was a real tear jerker with sad eyes and a little whimper and a very good limp and falling over routine.
He survived and is resting today and will be back at the vet tomorrow.
The Junior Partner vented his spleen in his blog last evening, he was moved to words after watching people discuss the existence of the Devil on a TV chat show. I was going to talk about good and evil today....and still will because obviously I will do it better than him.
I don't believe in God so a belief in the Devil would be daft, and although I act daft on occasion, I am in fact far from daft. A belief in supernatural beings aside, the question that should be posed is do you believe in good and evil?
I have commented before that I find it hard to accept that true altruism exists in the human race, we always get something out of doing a kind act, even if it only feeds our ego, therefore the totally unselfish act cannot exist - therefore, I believe that the opposite must be true - there can be no true and total evil.
I don't think we are inherently good and bad people, I think we are people who do good and bad things.
There is no perfection in the world, there is only those things which have less or more flaws than other things.
I need to keep this in mind today, I need to say to myself that none of us are perfect and I need to believe totally otherwise I will fail in the one very important task I have today - that is to sit in a room with two people who many want to see punished for an 'evil act'. I have to sit in a room and see past the act they committed and try and find the person.
The need to demonise people who commit horrendous acts of cruelty is understandable, if we make them seem less than human then it excuses us all from looking in at ourselves and understanding that we might be less than perfect ourselves.
Once upon a time there was this bloke called Jesus, he was pretty good at pithy remarks and comments that made people stop and think - he came up with a real goody as far as I'm concerned - let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
I know that perhaps many of us have not murdered or raped or abused and I'm not talking about a moral equivalence test, I'm talking in general terms - we have to understand that to be human is to be flawed. If we can accept it in ourselves, then we should accept it in others.
I am in full reflective mode today, I have a hard day - a hard week - but I hope to be the best human being I can this week.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Blaise Pascal:
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
The View from the Hill on Sunday 21st March
Thank goodness all that rugby is finished with - now just the football to dispose of.
Gloria Del Piero was born in Bradford, she went to college in Bradford, she went to University in Birmingham, she has worked mostly in broadcast journalism in London and having gone through her bio several times, I have yet to see any links with Ashfield. And yet, the woman who was once voted 85th sexiest in the world (2008 FHM) is now asking for the good people of Ashfield to embrace her as the replacement for Geoff Hoon.
From Jacksdale and Underwood, Brinsley and Selston and of course Kirkby and Sutton, the people of these areas now have a choice to make between Ms Del Piero, a parachuted in glamour puss who has got Ed Balls excited or local lad and Lib Dem Jason Zadrozny.
This will be an interesting fight to watch, someone who knows local people and someone who will have to prove that she can understand them. Will it be a vote for local issues or a load of people just ticking the box because it says Labour?
There have been many programmes on the TV this week about re-connecting with the electorate, I'm not sure bringing in a pseudo-celebrity will help re-connect with the electorate in Ashfield but we will see in just a few weeks time.
Mr Nick Griffin of the BNP has also been in the area looking for support, and as yet I have not seen if they will be putting a candidate up in Ashfield - they do have some support in the area, Sadie Graham and her troop come to mind in Brinsley, that is before she and her hubby got in trouble for publishing the list of BNP members.
Now I suppose I should get on with some work, I have a hole in the floor to fill and I hope to get to the cinema today, 3pm Green Zone, the new Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass film which is in no way anything like a Bourne film (bet it is).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anon:
Politicians are like nappies. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.
.
Thank goodness all that rugby is finished with - now just the football to dispose of.
Gloria Del Piero was born in Bradford, she went to college in Bradford, she went to University in Birmingham, she has worked mostly in broadcast journalism in London and having gone through her bio several times, I have yet to see any links with Ashfield. And yet, the woman who was once voted 85th sexiest in the world (2008 FHM) is now asking for the good people of Ashfield to embrace her as the replacement for Geoff Hoon.
From Jacksdale and Underwood, Brinsley and Selston and of course Kirkby and Sutton, the people of these areas now have a choice to make between Ms Del Piero, a parachuted in glamour puss who has got Ed Balls excited or local lad and Lib Dem Jason Zadrozny.
This will be an interesting fight to watch, someone who knows local people and someone who will have to prove that she can understand them. Will it be a vote for local issues or a load of people just ticking the box because it says Labour?
There have been many programmes on the TV this week about re-connecting with the electorate, I'm not sure bringing in a pseudo-celebrity will help re-connect with the electorate in Ashfield but we will see in just a few weeks time.
Mr Nick Griffin of the BNP has also been in the area looking for support, and as yet I have not seen if they will be putting a candidate up in Ashfield - they do have some support in the area, Sadie Graham and her troop come to mind in Brinsley, that is before she and her hubby got in trouble for publishing the list of BNP members.
Now I suppose I should get on with some work, I have a hole in the floor to fill and I hope to get to the cinema today, 3pm Green Zone, the new Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass film which is in no way anything like a Bourne film (bet it is).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anon:
Politicians are like nappies. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.
.
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