That brings back memories of the hot humid nights on the back patio, and a friendly Mallard that waddled across the lawn to perchance a tossed crust torn, from a cucumber sandwich.
The heat was astounding, and the animal was to wary to benefit from the shade afforded by the gazebo so, I took the pitcher of cool water from the rattan table, slowly approached the creature and gently doused it, it was totally unperturbed by the action of a caring human being, I think it was Water of a Ducks back.
I’ve been a fan of filums starring our man from East Clintwood since I was a teenager.
I was fifteen when I saw the first of the spaghetti westerns, A Fistful of Dollars. Then along came the other two plus the fantastic Where Eagles Dare with Richard Burton. Now he could do a good English accent.
Kelly’s Heroes; that was another cracking flim. Donald Sutherland as a hippy tank commander.
Talk about inventing a catch phrase. “Hey, less of those negative waves.”
Back in 2004 I worked with an amateur thespian in the USA. (I think it had been legalised in Ohio by then). He was to perform an Englishman in a play and wanted tips on how to speak proper English, y’all.
Well it was no good us teaching him a-cause most of us came from the West Country, ooh-arr. In some cases I had to act as company translator.
Hillbilly to American to English to Wurzel and back again. Anyway, I told this chappy to listen to the great Welshman, Mr Burton and try to copy him.
“Broadsword calling Danny Boi, Broadsword calling Danny Boi.”
My claim to fame as far as Dianna Dors is concerned is that I was born in the same town as her. Ay, she were a West Country lass, a Moonraker like me.
Yes Burton was a terrific speaker, I could listen to him all day.
So a Moonraker is from Wiltshire Fruity, never knew that, but then we were never taught any British geography in school, as far as geography goes we were lucky if we left school knowing where the local shops were.
Have Moonrakers got a sort of Robert Newton accent, as he used in “Treasure Island’?
Nothing much in the way of protesting here in Dublin Bret, I believe there was a few hundred who marched through town yesterday, that was it. I’m not interested in the old Arab and Jew business, it’ll never end.
All the hospital data here has been highjacked by a ransom demanding gang of Eastern European villains we are told, the whole system is disrupted and they don’t expect it to be fixed for days, the government say they will not pay ransom and fair play to them, in the meantime it’s back to the old paperwork again, I hope nobody suffers because of it.
I know I’m thick when it comes to medical matters, but what’s so secret about one’s medical records any way?, we all get sick at some stages of life, I can’t see what all the fuss is about, what ordinary person would pay to have their medical records returned? 
Trump guarded his medical records fiercely, (as well as his tax records) as do most politicians and celebrities, I don’t understand that, if you’re sick you need all the help you can get and who cares who knows, your only aim is to get better is it not?
Who gives a monkey’s if you had a hernia operation back in 1990, broke a leg falling out of an apple tree as a child, or the bishop who had a certain social disease that he swore on the bible he contacted from a lavatory seat, we all heard ‘the one about the bishop and the …’
Nobody is truly interested and most people only listen to other peoples complaints out of politeness, let them keep my records if they like, it doesn’t bother me who knows what I had in the past.
The vicar was fond of net dolls
Send them pictures of himself in his smalls
When his data was stolen, he was out bowling
Playing with his old wooden balls. ;-)
Yipee! Rev, keep ‘em rolling old boy, love your new frock.
https://i.postimg.cc/3JFGqtpL/67d71b0cda62ba00705368cfdac77733.jpg
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Mental stuff may effect my employability if I was unfortunate to need employment.
All the hospital data here has been highjacked by a ransom demanding gang of Eastern European villains we are told, the whole system is disrupted and they don’t expect it to be fixed for days, the government say they will not pay ransom and fair play to them, in the meantime it’s back to the old paperwork again, I hope nobody suffers because of it.
in a way you are right what does it matter who knows about our illnesses - but illnesses including mental sorts are still considered very private by most of us. These villians come from poorer climes and so they are playing on our sensibilities to make a quick buck if they can - i also agree with who ever said - don’t give in to a blackmailer - the material they have stolen then becomes absolutely useless and I doubt very much that they will start trollin through all those records if they can read them at all and attempting to contact individual old ladies to try to score a buck?
My bank once announced to me that there was some suspicious activity on my account - well there always is it is suspiciously low most of the time! - but they asked me had I been paying gas bills and electricity and water bills in Bradford - well I could have been I do still have some assets over in the old country - but the answer was no I hadn’t. they had stolen my credit card details all the way from europe to little old australia and started using it probably attached to a fake card. result my card got cancelled by the bank and I had to wait 2 wks for a new one - damned inconvenient and the bank re-imbursed the amounts to me. The advise was be careful which companies you are dealing with on the net to purchase goods - well that’s good advice heh - we are all doing it to some extent - take spitty buying and building a rocket launcher no doubt to reach the ME!! - enter spitty on stage far left??
and as confucius says " man who hangs washed cards on line may wash away his gains"?
Just bought a 1950s Vitra Eames lounge chair for £500.00, I think I will have to Sit on it for a few years before realising a profit.
Yer know scribblers, I love my canine friend but I never invited it here, I was outvoted by the family members, and, as it is par for the course, I am solely responsible for exercising the animal. Sometimes I just want to be alone in the great outdoors, but, if I am spotted by a family member, sneaking out for a solitary walk, I hear a voice saying “May your Dog go with You”.
The old rocker wore his hair too long
Wore his trouser cuffs too tight
Unfashionable to the end
Drank his ale too light
Death’s head belt buckle, yesterday’s dreams
The transport caf’, prophet of doom
Ringing no change in his double-sewn seams
In his post-war-babe gloom
Now he’s too old to rock and roll
But he’s too young to die
Yes he’s too old to rock and roll
But he’s too young to die
He once owned a Harley Davidson
And a Triumph Bonneville
Counted his friends in burned-out spark plugs
Prays that he always will
But he’s the last of the blue blood’s greaser boys
And all his mates are doing time
Married with three kids up by the ring road
Sold their souls straight down the line
And some of them own little sports cars
And meet at the tennis club do’s
For drinks on a Sunday, work on Monday
They’ve thrown away their blue suede shoes
Now they’re too old to rock and roll
And they’re too young to die
Yes they’re too old to rock and roll
And they’re too young to die
So the old rocker gets out his bike
To make a ton before he takes his leave
Up on the A1 by Scotch Corner
Just like it used to be
And as he flies, tears in his eyes
His wind-whipped words echo the final take
And he hits the trunk road doing around a hundred and twenty
With no room left to brake
And he was too old to rock and roll
And he was too young to die
No he was too old to rock and roll
And he was too young to die
No, you’re never too old to rock and roll
If you’re too young to die
And no you’re never too old to rock and roll
But he was too young to die
©
now spitty if this is your own work then you need to add copyright or I will simple use it to my own advantage and make some money - lots of money - there’s a business over here for this sort of stuff!!
No, its not mine, a Scottish Geezer wrote it for me, for which I am eternally grateful, saved me the trouble.
So much has been written, to save one the bother.
Tip of the day, just have one “Old Hand”, keep the other for typing the Sophistry.
you can still acknowledge copyright - I can teach you the keys to strike for the sign if you like?
well would ya be knowin now Jem just been watching some of a filum called Song of Granite -ring any bells? sean-nos singing Joe Heaney- b/w and there them were all talkin in gaelic =- god job i had me translating button on!
Long chat with the laddie today - who sometimes has a short time with me on the phone and other times long ways - this time it was long ways - then he gets me to analysis the entire family tree - good job me memory is sound! there’s no roos loose in my top paddock that’s for sure! we got some queer lad here on this very site - running around on homemade bikes - thinks he’s evil kenevil or summat. - wots the world comin too I’m askin ya?
You are only 319 in, in King Jems version, you have yet to experience floods and plagues, scribbled hastily OFF the cuff, some are preparing for the final Burnout!!!
Sound man Spitty, you’re in full flight there, could you not recruit that Scottish fella into scribbles?;-)
Yes I suppose some medical stuff might be very sensitive, especially mental health records, no wonder the Trump fella didn’t want his known, that head case set the World back four years.
Some bloke over here was jailed yesterday for swindling two old ladies out of €170,000!
Why are some older women so susceptible to these conmen?. He fed them a load of hard luck stories, surely the penny should drop as soon as they ask for money?
That’s great that you can tell your lad the family history Bret, nothing like hearing from the horses mouth, as long as he doesn’t start calling you Trigger.
My grandkids are forever asking me about my early years in Dublin, my first job, when I met their granny, that kind of thing. Herself spends a lot of time telling them her side of things too.
God never opens one door but he closes another.
Novartis International AG is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
“Mask wearing during the pandemic kept the flu largely at bay this year, dampening Novartis’s generic cough medicines business and helping drag the Swiss drugmaker’s first-quarter profit below analyst expectations”.
Isn’t that the pits? literally millions have died from this plague and this mega-company is complaining because folks are not buying their cough medicines!.
Me heart bleeds for the greedy gits, how mean can you become? :twisted:
I knew an Anna Liszt, she was fond of the black stuff.
A bored German chemist called Anna Liszt
Thought that she’d never be missed
She sneaked out of the lab, to the pub in a cab
For the Guinness she couldn’t resist.
Fair play to to ya Anna, yer a woman after me own heart.
Take me back to the black hills, loved the tune when I was a lad.
Panache, has it been revived?
Seen a bit of Pan Ash lately.
Good morning all and one. I had a day off yesterday to install a new security system.
It comes to summat when you have to protect your chattels. When I were a lad the best security system was having nothing worth nicking like nearly everyone else in the village.
Yes Jem, someone from Wiltshire is known as a Moonraker because of a bunch of locals who allegedly outwitted Excisemen when caught in the act of trying to recover a large cheese from a pond where it had been hid.
The story goes that they pretended they thought the moon had landed in the pond because they could see it’s reflection, and were trying to rake it out.
The Excisemen thought they were stupid yokels and left them too it.
Arrrr Jem Lad. That be ow us all do tork by here!
Well no, not really. Not unless it is, Talk like a Pirate day.
Why the fella decided on an exaggerated West Country accent is anybody’s business. Perhaps it was because Bristol was a seafaring city and many a journey around the world started there, including the Europeans landing in North America in the 1490s.
Perhaps it was because Bristol was the home of Edward Teach. His house still stands and I’ve walked past it a few times. You might know him better by his professional name, Mr Blackbeard the pirate.
I was only four and a bit when my family left Wiltshire to live in the frozen Northern wastelands of Lincolnshire, then Yorkshire, before moving back to Bristol and then finally adopting the land of the Summer Settlers as my home.
That’s how Somerset got its name. Farmers would move cattle onto the flatlands to graze as it started to dry out. They would settle there for the Summer before moving back to higher ground as it began to flood again in the rainy season.
There were inland seas and islands until a massive programme drained much of it with technology invented in the Netherlands and used in other low lying parts of the UK.
It still floods occasionally and did so with disastrous results a few years ago.
Thanks to the farmers of oop norf, livestock was transported North and cattle feed was shipped South. A few years later, terrible floods hit the north of England and the West Country farmers repaid the kindness and generosity shown to them previously.
My accent is probably RP (Received Pronunciation), a combined collection of accents. A sort of average if you like.
I’ve lived here nearly forty years and still classed as an incomer. Luckily my Lovely Cousin is a local lass, so at least I am tolerated.
Like you Jem we weren’t taught much about the geography and history of other nations, other than what splendid chaps the British were for invading uncivilised parts of the world, taking their land, and imposing our culture upon them.
Learning the names and dates of English royalty didn’t seem much point to me. We got as far as the French Revolution and the traitorous rebellion in the American colonies in year 3, but I wanted to learn about the Victorian age of steam, the industrial revolution, and the two world wars, so I dropped history in favour of metalwork and the sciences.
Thank you Fruity for that entertaining explanation.
I think Mags is from Bristol, I’m trying to imagine her talking like Long John Silver and handing out the ‘black spot’ to me… Arrr matey, you be barred! ;-)
Pan ash?, haven’t seen any around Spitty, well not since the last time I smoked a pancake.
As a life long smoker I have totally accepted the smoking ban in pubs and public buildings etc., I’ve complained and I have lost, so be it, but the anti smokers are not satisfied with the bans in place now, they are going for a total ban over here, and even if they get it I imagine they will continue to seek some type of revenge for people being allowed to smoke for generations without being hassled.
I can just see news reports like this one appearing in the not too distant future.
The Irish Echo 12/5/2030.
“In the Dublin Central Criminal Court today, Thomas Flanagan (63) was found guilty of being in possession of a round glass ashtray measuring six inches in diameter, one ‘Silk Cut’ filter tipped cigarette, and a box of matches with intent to smoke at the back of his house.
A concerned neighbour, who was minding her own interference by looking out her back window through field glasses observed Flanagan sneaking outside after having a row with his wife, she began to describe the row in detail but the judge interrupted her saying it was not relevant.
Being a dutiful citizen she immediately phoned the ‘Clouds’ (the new nickname for the special anti smoking police).
He was held in continued custody for sentencing on the 11th of August”.
There are only a few of us smokers left, all we want now is to go out in peace in a quiet puff of smoke, but beware, we are all being conditioned, when they can prevent a hard working man having a smoke with his Saturday night pint they can get away with anything.
The drinkers are next for the chop, then perhaps tea and coffee? then on too an obedient easily controlled world of zombies.