I blame the parents
As per my post below I spent today at a wildlife rescue center and a fascinating day it was as well. As I am sure you can imagine of such a place on an August bank holiday there were plenty of families with children there, and I can't blame them. There was loads to see, touch and learn about and I can't plug the place enough. I did however notice something, I had noticed it before but this time was more pronounced than ever.
There were various talks on, we saw talks about Lemurs, Otters and Wolves and were joined by many others, mostly families. Some groups listened attentively to what they were being told, while others did not, they made loads of noise and simply talked over what the staff were saying and on occasions made it very difficult to here. Now I know that it is an informal setting and perhaps I'm being a bit prudish, but I thought it was bloody rude. If you don't want to listen then naff off and look at something else. The talks are only ten minutes, you can come back when it's over and see the animals then. Alternatively hang around and listen, you never know, you may just learn something. I know I did, and I have a biology degree! (Did you know that in gangs of a dozen or more the short pawed otter in Asia can attack and force into retreat a full grown crocodile, such is the power of their bite? Amazing!)
Anyway, annoying ignorant fools get everywhere these days, but here's the rub, without fail where the parents behaved well and listened the kids did the same, where the parents were rude and made loads of noise, the kids did the same. Coincidence? Probably not.
And I feel nothing but pity for those poor kids.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wow!
Yours truly has spent his bank holiday at a wildlife rescue centre that takes in various animals from those injured by cars to those from closed down zoos and everything in between. In doing so I have had the honour and the privilege to be within inches of 2 Bengali Tigers and 2 European Grey Wolves.
It is impossible to put into words just how magnificent these creatures are, how enthralling they are to watch and how clearly intelligent and powerful they are. Years ago at university I studied biology and while I am no longer in that business I look at animals like that and I remember exactly why I studied at.
I feel truly humbled.
More concerning though is that it is believed that there are only 5000 tigers remaining in the wild and yet they are still being hunted. And that is a horrifying thought.
Yours truly has spent his bank holiday at a wildlife rescue centre that takes in various animals from those injured by cars to those from closed down zoos and everything in between. In doing so I have had the honour and the privilege to be within inches of 2 Bengali Tigers and 2 European Grey Wolves.
It is impossible to put into words just how magnificent these creatures are, how enthralling they are to watch and how clearly intelligent and powerful they are. Years ago at university I studied biology and while I am no longer in that business I look at animals like that and I remember exactly why I studied at.
I feel truly humbled.
More concerning though is that it is believed that there are only 5000 tigers remaining in the wild and yet they are still being hunted. And that is a horrifying thought.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Please. You have no idea how much I want this! Please!!!
So it's a Saturday, and that means football. And today my beloved Barnet will be playing Notts County. I can't make it and I am gutted, and for good reason. You see what has happened to County sums up everything that is wrong with football, someone with more money than sense has bought them as a plaything and pumped more money than you can shake a big pink spangly stick at into the club. And the fact is that they should run away with the 4th division this season. And it sucks.
All those clubs that try to do it the right way, to develop their own players, to build bridges with their local communities are going to be left behind, Barnet amongst them. So it would be nice to put one over on them this afternoon before they disappear over the horizon. We have a reasonable chance as well, Barnet have the best side that I have seen for many years and their is genuine competition for all positions, so it's not like we should be expecting a spanking in any case. However a win today would be so soooooooooooo sweet.
Come on lads, for me, do it for me and I promise to turn up to Johnstons Paint games as a thank you!
So it's a Saturday, and that means football. And today my beloved Barnet will be playing Notts County. I can't make it and I am gutted, and for good reason. You see what has happened to County sums up everything that is wrong with football, someone with more money than sense has bought them as a plaything and pumped more money than you can shake a big pink spangly stick at into the club. And the fact is that they should run away with the 4th division this season. And it sucks.
All those clubs that try to do it the right way, to develop their own players, to build bridges with their local communities are going to be left behind, Barnet amongst them. So it would be nice to put one over on them this afternoon before they disappear over the horizon. We have a reasonable chance as well, Barnet have the best side that I have seen for many years and their is genuine competition for all positions, so it's not like we should be expecting a spanking in any case. However a win today would be so soooooooooooo sweet.
Come on lads, for me, do it for me and I promise to turn up to Johnstons Paint games as a thank you!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Same shit different day
Everytime the girl I sit next to at work goes on leave (which seems to be all the fucking time, does she ever actually do any work?), I get a note scrawlled on a post it note and slapped on my screen. It says,
"Can you water my plants?"
She means the small fucking rain forrest that adorns her desk and regularly encraches on mine. One day I am going to get the balls up to slap a note back on her screen saying
"Water your own fucking plants".
And then wait for her to come back to her dead rain forrest. Until that day comes I'm just going to smile meakley and water them.
Everytime the girl I sit next to at work goes on leave (which seems to be all the fucking time, does she ever actually do any work?), I get a note scrawlled on a post it note and slapped on my screen. It says,
"Can you water my plants?"
She means the small fucking rain forrest that adorns her desk and regularly encraches on mine. One day I am going to get the balls up to slap a note back on her screen saying
"Water your own fucking plants".
And then wait for her to come back to her dead rain forrest. Until that day comes I'm just going to smile meakley and water them.
Same as it ever was
So West Ham v Millwall turned into a massive bunch up and for once I don’t have smart alec response to this. You see anyone who knows anything about football and fan culture will tell you that this was always going to be a high tension fixture. Both clubs have a well deserved reputation for having a nasty following and these elements have considered each other rivals for many decades. So for their to be clashes between fans was not exactly an unexpected event.
However…… as I have stated many times on this blog, football has come a long way since the 1980s. Football grounds are much safer places, the areas around football grounds on match days are much safer places. They are (for the most part) family friendly and the police presence is now 90% for ensuring the safety of tens of thousands of people arriving and leaving increasingly large stadiums. In the vast majority of cases I would be more than happy for any kid who was capable of using a bus or tube on their own to go to a match on their own or with their friends.
In the majority of cases that is, because football related violence has never completely gone away. Only a cursory glance at You tube will dispel you of any fantasy you had to the contrary. Indeed just a couple of years ago I went down the wrong street in Leeds in away colours and was followed up the road by a bunch of Leeds thugs and had beer cans bounced of my head. It was only the fact that I was with a female friend that stopped me getting a total kicking. So it is still there, bubbling under the surface, worse at certain grounds than others, essentially because some people enjoy fighting. It’s as simple as that. Even if you drummed it out of football altogether it would surface somewhere else, it might be another sport, it might just be your local high street or council estate. It could be anywhere, but it would be somewhere.
Nevertheless it is worrying that the violence we saw last night has reappeared on the scale that it did. This was serious stuff. Most worrying was that it occurred inside the stadium itself. Ask yourself, when was the last time we saw a game stopped while trouble inside the stadium was sorted out? A very long time ago. My memory seems to recall a Milwall (now there’s a surprise!) v Derby play off game in the late 90s some time, but that is as recent as I can remember. Yet here we have what was clearly two very large and organised firms able to have a pitched battle before, during and after a game. My understanding from the media is that the incidents before the game saw the police more or less routed as both elements fought their way through the line separating them.
So is this just a one off? Is this one occasion where a high tension fixture combined with inadequate policing and two very organised groups to result in a large scale punch up not seen since the 80s? I sincerely hope so. Whether my hopes are well founded though remains to be seen.
So West Ham v Millwall turned into a massive bunch up and for once I don’t have smart alec response to this. You see anyone who knows anything about football and fan culture will tell you that this was always going to be a high tension fixture. Both clubs have a well deserved reputation for having a nasty following and these elements have considered each other rivals for many decades. So for their to be clashes between fans was not exactly an unexpected event.
However…… as I have stated many times on this blog, football has come a long way since the 1980s. Football grounds are much safer places, the areas around football grounds on match days are much safer places. They are (for the most part) family friendly and the police presence is now 90% for ensuring the safety of tens of thousands of people arriving and leaving increasingly large stadiums. In the vast majority of cases I would be more than happy for any kid who was capable of using a bus or tube on their own to go to a match on their own or with their friends.
In the majority of cases that is, because football related violence has never completely gone away. Only a cursory glance at You tube will dispel you of any fantasy you had to the contrary. Indeed just a couple of years ago I went down the wrong street in Leeds in away colours and was followed up the road by a bunch of Leeds thugs and had beer cans bounced of my head. It was only the fact that I was with a female friend that stopped me getting a total kicking. So it is still there, bubbling under the surface, worse at certain grounds than others, essentially because some people enjoy fighting. It’s as simple as that. Even if you drummed it out of football altogether it would surface somewhere else, it might be another sport, it might just be your local high street or council estate. It could be anywhere, but it would be somewhere.
Nevertheless it is worrying that the violence we saw last night has reappeared on the scale that it did. This was serious stuff. Most worrying was that it occurred inside the stadium itself. Ask yourself, when was the last time we saw a game stopped while trouble inside the stadium was sorted out? A very long time ago. My memory seems to recall a Milwall (now there’s a surprise!) v Derby play off game in the late 90s some time, but that is as recent as I can remember. Yet here we have what was clearly two very large and organised firms able to have a pitched battle before, during and after a game. My understanding from the media is that the incidents before the game saw the police more or less routed as both elements fought their way through the line separating them.
So is this just a one off? Is this one occasion where a high tension fixture combined with inadequate policing and two very organised groups to result in a large scale punch up not seen since the 80s? I sincerely hope so. Whether my hopes are well founded though remains to be seen.
Shit Days
The last 24 hours in my life have been rather stressful.
For reasons I have had someone staying under my roof who has trotted out the following pearls of wisdom.
1. It is not possible to define racism, therefore no one really suffers from it. He read that on the BNP website.
2. Hitler was a Jew and the holocaust wasn’t his fault. He read that on the BNP website too.
3. Mein Kampf actually makes a lot of sense and it is only poor translation that makes it sound like the ramblings of a complete psycho.
4. The treaty of Versailes (which I will agree with him did lead directly to the election of the Nazis and thus world war 2) was all the fault of a Jewish controlled banking system. Guess we he read that folks?
5. There is no such thing as climate change.
What has made it particularly stressful is that for various personal reasons and as a favour to others, which I will not be going into, I was forced to hold my tongue. I have several ulcers around my lip now from each time I had to bite it till it bled. And to think I took a day off of work to entertain this prick.
Grrrrr……
The last 24 hours in my life have been rather stressful.
For reasons I have had someone staying under my roof who has trotted out the following pearls of wisdom.
1. It is not possible to define racism, therefore no one really suffers from it. He read that on the BNP website.
2. Hitler was a Jew and the holocaust wasn’t his fault. He read that on the BNP website too.
3. Mein Kampf actually makes a lot of sense and it is only poor translation that makes it sound like the ramblings of a complete psycho.
4. The treaty of Versailes (which I will agree with him did lead directly to the election of the Nazis and thus world war 2) was all the fault of a Jewish controlled banking system. Guess we he read that folks?
5. There is no such thing as climate change.
What has made it particularly stressful is that for various personal reasons and as a favour to others, which I will not be going into, I was forced to hold my tongue. I have several ulcers around my lip now from each time I had to bite it till it bled. And to think I took a day off of work to entertain this prick.
Grrrrr……
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
My Scouting Top Ten
I've had an exchange of emails with a fellow blogger recently in which I was very open about why I think scouting and similar organisations are great for kids. Everything from leadership to creativity to cultural tolerance to team work, it's all there. I know it did a great deal for me. So I thought I'd put a few of my experiences down, in particular the most influential ones.
These are not necessarily the most memorable, or the most fun or my biggest achievements, but they are the ones that were probably the biggest influence on me when growing up. And they are in no particular order either.
1. My first night away without family. I was a 9 year old cub, and a pretty timid one at that. I'd done camps before but only our group's annual "father and son" camp. When I was 9 I want a 3 night camp at Tolmers in Hertfordshire. First time without my family, I was pretty timid it's true but I loved every second of it!
2. Being 15, on a scout summer camp and having to dig trenches around the patrol tents to keep the water out. Marvelous!
3. My patrol picking a fight with some army cadets when I was 13 and running away when we realised there were more of them and they were mostly older. Valuable lesson learned there!
4. Learning how to light a cooking fire in the pissing rain the hard way.
5. A sad one this. A lad in my Venture Unit lost his mother while we were in the Lake District on a 2 week trip. Our leaders had to leave to take him home leaving the rest of us to look after ourselves. A lot of growing up was done very quickly on that camp.
6. Being voted scouts scout of the year when I was 14. Having been savagely bullied at school to get that kind of recognition from my peers was bloody brilliant!
7. As a venture scout building a rope bridge for a beaver funday, thinking we knew it all. We didn't. A leader, who came across as a right old git, put us right. Turned out he was a top bloke. Looks can be deceiving!
8. Waking up in a wet through sleeping bag, moaning and then finding that another tent had copped even worse than mine had and they were all laughing about it.
9. Being chased across the field by a knife wielding guide leader after I and the other 2 patrol leaders had made the mistake of trying to chat up her girls. Hilarious! (Same camp as the trench digging incident)
10. In the pissing rain on camp, with not a dry stitch of clothing left, building an impromptu mud slide down a steep bank. Brilliant fun :)
I might do another one of these soon, maybe the happiest, or funniest or something like that.
I've had an exchange of emails with a fellow blogger recently in which I was very open about why I think scouting and similar organisations are great for kids. Everything from leadership to creativity to cultural tolerance to team work, it's all there. I know it did a great deal for me. So I thought I'd put a few of my experiences down, in particular the most influential ones.
These are not necessarily the most memorable, or the most fun or my biggest achievements, but they are the ones that were probably the biggest influence on me when growing up. And they are in no particular order either.
1. My first night away without family. I was a 9 year old cub, and a pretty timid one at that. I'd done camps before but only our group's annual "father and son" camp. When I was 9 I want a 3 night camp at Tolmers in Hertfordshire. First time without my family, I was pretty timid it's true but I loved every second of it!
2. Being 15, on a scout summer camp and having to dig trenches around the patrol tents to keep the water out. Marvelous!
3. My patrol picking a fight with some army cadets when I was 13 and running away when we realised there were more of them and they were mostly older. Valuable lesson learned there!
4. Learning how to light a cooking fire in the pissing rain the hard way.
5. A sad one this. A lad in my Venture Unit lost his mother while we were in the Lake District on a 2 week trip. Our leaders had to leave to take him home leaving the rest of us to look after ourselves. A lot of growing up was done very quickly on that camp.
6. Being voted scouts scout of the year when I was 14. Having been savagely bullied at school to get that kind of recognition from my peers was bloody brilliant!
7. As a venture scout building a rope bridge for a beaver funday, thinking we knew it all. We didn't. A leader, who came across as a right old git, put us right. Turned out he was a top bloke. Looks can be deceiving!
8. Waking up in a wet through sleeping bag, moaning and then finding that another tent had copped even worse than mine had and they were all laughing about it.
9. Being chased across the field by a knife wielding guide leader after I and the other 2 patrol leaders had made the mistake of trying to chat up her girls. Hilarious! (Same camp as the trench digging incident)
10. In the pissing rain on camp, with not a dry stitch of clothing left, building an impromptu mud slide down a steep bank. Brilliant fun :)
I might do another one of these soon, maybe the happiest, or funniest or something like that.
When is a hurricane not a hurricane?
When it's in the Daily Express of course! Let's see, there was a hurricane once, some where else, and it's going to rain here so we are having er..... a hurricane. Kind of.
*Head butts keyboard*
When it's in the Daily Express of course! Let's see, there was a hurricane once, some where else, and it's going to rain here so we are having er..... a hurricane. Kind of.
*Head butts keyboard*
Monday, August 24, 2009
Guilty Pleasures
A little bit of fun for Monday! I thought I'd introduce you to ten things that I love that I really shouldn't. Things that I should be big enough and ugly enough to not enjoy or anymore, or that are just too crap or sad or tasteless that I should really like. But I do!
So here, without shame are (in no particular order) ten of my guilty pleasures.
1. Dairylea Triangles - particularly nasty as food goes, but lets face it, they bring out the kid in all of us!
2. Avril Lavigne - possibly the saddest thing on this list? Proof that I need to grow up?
3. Cold, tinned, new potatoes - most chefs would have a fit over this. And I like to it them straight out the tin. Pretty grim eh?
4. Peters Friends - a modern attempt at an Ealing comedy, totally cliched but still very funny and very touching in my eyes.
5. Baked beans with little (veggie) sausages in - on toast. Lovely!
6. Pretty much any Stephen King book - well why not have a bit of horror with your shredded wheat in the morning?
7. Processed Cheese slices - not quite as nasty as dairylea but getting there. Good late night munchy though.
8. Top Gun - totally awful film but lets face it we all saw it as a kid and wanted to be a fighter pilot. Go on, admit it!
9. The Levellers - perhaps I should be smoking weed in a field?
10. Vienetta - 80's kitch I know but lets face it, scrummy!
So what's yours?
A little bit of fun for Monday! I thought I'd introduce you to ten things that I love that I really shouldn't. Things that I should be big enough and ugly enough to not enjoy or anymore, or that are just too crap or sad or tasteless that I should really like. But I do!
So here, without shame are (in no particular order) ten of my guilty pleasures.
1. Dairylea Triangles - particularly nasty as food goes, but lets face it, they bring out the kid in all of us!
2. Avril Lavigne - possibly the saddest thing on this list? Proof that I need to grow up?
3. Cold, tinned, new potatoes - most chefs would have a fit over this. And I like to it them straight out the tin. Pretty grim eh?
4. Peters Friends - a modern attempt at an Ealing comedy, totally cliched but still very funny and very touching in my eyes.
5. Baked beans with little (veggie) sausages in - on toast. Lovely!
6. Pretty much any Stephen King book - well why not have a bit of horror with your shredded wheat in the morning?
7. Processed Cheese slices - not quite as nasty as dairylea but getting there. Good late night munchy though.
8. Top Gun - totally awful film but lets face it we all saw it as a kid and wanted to be a fighter pilot. Go on, admit it!
9. The Levellers - perhaps I should be smoking weed in a field?
10. Vienetta - 80's kitch I know but lets face it, scrummy!
So what's yours?
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Bare Naked Ladies.....
Don't worry, I'm not going to start writing badly written porn on here (although it may get me some more readers, who knows?), I just thought I'd mention my favourite live act (or the best that I've seen so far), if you get the chance to see them ever then do go along. Maybe they aren't the best rock band ever but I guarantee you'll come feeling entertained! Anyway I thought I'd mention them as "one week" was probably their biggest hit over here (theme tune to the original American Pie film) and it's been nearly one week since I last blogged! Tenuous I know but I thought I'd mention it to lighten the mood!
Anyway I thought I'd direct you to a few bits and pieces I've read over the last week.
First up the latest post from Snuffy over at To Miss With Love. This is truly a fascinating blog, being the musings of a black inner London teacher. I have a lot of time for Snuffy, her posts are rarely dull and always thought provoking. I don't always agree with what she has to say, I don't always disagree either. I reckon it's about 50-50 as things stand.
Next up we have the always brilliant 5cc. In the face of tabloid bull shit this blog stays calm in a way that I sometimes struggle to hence my much higher expletive rate than his! This time round 5cc sums up the tabloid press in a brilliantly succinct piece.
Finally a tip of the hat to my dear friends over at the Girl Guides. They gave the scout association so much support during our centenary that I would be doing them a grave disservice not pointing you towards their celebrations.
Don't worry, I'm not going to start writing badly written porn on here (although it may get me some more readers, who knows?), I just thought I'd mention my favourite live act (or the best that I've seen so far), if you get the chance to see them ever then do go along. Maybe they aren't the best rock band ever but I guarantee you'll come feeling entertained! Anyway I thought I'd mention them as "one week" was probably their biggest hit over here (theme tune to the original American Pie film) and it's been nearly one week since I last blogged! Tenuous I know but I thought I'd mention it to lighten the mood!
Anyway I thought I'd direct you to a few bits and pieces I've read over the last week.
First up the latest post from Snuffy over at To Miss With Love. This is truly a fascinating blog, being the musings of a black inner London teacher. I have a lot of time for Snuffy, her posts are rarely dull and always thought provoking. I don't always agree with what she has to say, I don't always disagree either. I reckon it's about 50-50 as things stand.
Next up we have the always brilliant 5cc. In the face of tabloid bull shit this blog stays calm in a way that I sometimes struggle to hence my much higher expletive rate than his! This time round 5cc sums up the tabloid press in a brilliantly succinct piece.
Finally a tip of the hat to my dear friends over at the Girl Guides. They gave the scout association so much support during our centenary that I would be doing them a grave disservice not pointing you towards their celebrations.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
There were rats, rats, rats the size of cats......
Oh what joy, a full weekend of tidying up the HQ and sorting out all the camping gear. 2 Full days of hard slog. I still can't believe exactly how much shite we seemed to have accumulated. We filled an 8 yard skip. Filled it, completely. And we can probably fill a second one with the amount of crap that's still there. It also meant the joy of discovering evidence of rats, mice and squirrels in the attic. If you have never encountered rat shit then frankly keep it that way, it looks and smells disgusting. We also identified, via the bright green colour of their droppings, that mice can't digest the dye used in patrol tents.
So what did we discover?
1. We can put together 12 complete patrol tents (ish!), enough to get all the cubs and scouts under canvas at once and still have plenty of light weight tents to spare! I consider us very lucky.
2. We have a hell of a lot more canvases for dining shelters than we have complete sets of poles for. I consider us not so lucky.
3. There was a leg from a shop dumby in the attic. Why?
4. One catering size jar of pickle. 8 years out of date. Nice.
5. Some old patrol pennants dating back to the 1950's.
6. Some old sailing gear at least 30 years old from when we used to be a sea scout group.
7. Some original 1950's Primus stoves. Worth a fortune!
A hard work but fascinating weekend!
Oh what joy, a full weekend of tidying up the HQ and sorting out all the camping gear. 2 Full days of hard slog. I still can't believe exactly how much shite we seemed to have accumulated. We filled an 8 yard skip. Filled it, completely. And we can probably fill a second one with the amount of crap that's still there. It also meant the joy of discovering evidence of rats, mice and squirrels in the attic. If you have never encountered rat shit then frankly keep it that way, it looks and smells disgusting. We also identified, via the bright green colour of their droppings, that mice can't digest the dye used in patrol tents.
So what did we discover?
1. We can put together 12 complete patrol tents (ish!), enough to get all the cubs and scouts under canvas at once and still have plenty of light weight tents to spare! I consider us very lucky.
2. We have a hell of a lot more canvases for dining shelters than we have complete sets of poles for. I consider us not so lucky.
3. There was a leg from a shop dumby in the attic. Why?
4. One catering size jar of pickle. 8 years out of date. Nice.
5. Some old patrol pennants dating back to the 1950's.
6. Some old sailing gear at least 30 years old from when we used to be a sea scout group.
7. Some original 1950's Primus stoves. Worth a fortune!
A hard work but fascinating weekend!
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