It's nice to have something good to celebrate. We have a lot of enforced celebration here at the moment, such as the Jubilee. Every time I put the radio on over the course of four days "Land of Hope and Glory" was playing. If I was a generous monarch I would give any child in the country who wanted one a free ticket to go to the Olympics. Mind you I wouldn't stop there, this would just be the start of one huge giveaway. Anyway The Government wants each school in Britain to receive six free tickets, though London Mayor Boris Johnson is trying to find sponsorship for a further 75,000 to be given to London pupils so one in eight can attend the Games. Tickets for the opening ceremony are priced from about £20 to £2,012 and from what I've seen of it so far, this ceremony could well be a great source of national embarrassment. One of the things that bothers me about buying tickets for the Olympics is that I believe that the taxpayer has already payed for the cost of it all, so having to buy a ticket to attend is a bit like paying for something twice.
The official estimate for the Olympics is £9.3 billion but other estimates put the figure as high as £24 billion. From a newspaper article comes this alarming statement; of the '£1.13bn being allocated to the police for extra counter terrorism during the games or the £4.4bn budgets of the security and intelligence services.' All this for an event that is over in just eighteen days.
Performers at the ceremony have been sworn to secrecy, so let's hope that no one has been asked to wear anything like a large rucksack, such as the day after we won the Olympics bid. I'm sure it'll all be fine, after all the security has cost a bit so what could go wrong? There are supposed to be five hundred extra police taking over a holiday camp in Weymouth for the yachty part of the Olympics, which sounds like a great idea for a "Carry On" style movie though I wouldn't like to be working the bar in that place. I have an image of them all standing in the rain on the beach, watching distant ships through binoculars for any signs of "trouble". Weymouth, lovely though it is, is a small and faded holiday resort known for its rehab units.
On a happier note a wedding took place here recently, which was a source of genuine celebration that didn't cost anyone billions of pounds. Hundreds of people turned up and had a wonderful time. It was the wedding of the year in these parts, despite there being any mention of it in the town newspaper. That two people should find so much happiness in each other is a triumph of love and hope.
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25 comments:
HI John,
What great images :)
Congratulations to the loving couple on their joyous and happy occasion.
It's always wonderful to see a celebration of love and union, and yes it is a triumph over the seemingly limitless obstacles that are in place that prevent true and honest love and companionship from flourishing (external and internal)
All the best to them and to you.
Love the 100mph tape on the shoes!!! and gumboots are very comfy with a dress and that's more than a fashion statement or what!!
All the best and cheers
A13
Would this be John and his maiden?
Curious people want to know?
Hi A13. Yes it was a happy occasion, they have done very well and we all had such a good day. The gumboots are the brides fathers who is no longer alive, they also turned out to appropriate for the weather that we have all summer so far!
Hope all good where you are.
Hi Penny and ah no, this is not me and The Maid unfortunately. One day maybe, one day...
Oh and I deleted a couple of comments that were posted twice.
There's a 'be' missing from your reply A13. Sorry about that
BUz z BUzz what be?
Oh well, it be good enough ;)
Cheers A13
Sorry about that John :(
I don't know why that happened?
I must say the couple looked most happy!
Don't worry Penny, I doubt if anyone minds.
They were well happy and there was a bit of teariness too. Talking of The Maid, I had to escort her home from the reception after she peaked a bit early due to some rather strong cider. It was about 6 to 8%, not always ideal for the first few pints. Word of warning; if the ciders a thick luminous orange colour, drink it with some care, it might be a bit pokey. She soon rallied and made it back out to a works do to have another go.
Hee Hee, tune in next week when the maid uses her new dodgy-cider-induced mind powers to convince the bank manager that she too is a banker and that's why they should just give her ten million pounds. "Well, clearly you're one of us so please accept this large sum of money". "Thanks chummy, I'm off to put candelabras on my jet-ski doncha know". And what with John winning a hat in a pub raffle, hysterical results ensue.
Oh, and congrats to the happy couple. It looks like just the right sort of wedding. One hopes there was music in there somewhere no?
Greetings Anon and howdy. This is the land where everyday events slide easily into sitcom farce.
Oh yes there was music. The Groom is a drummer and his band played, amongst others, all very good. The bride also entertained the crowd with a version of "Your Feets Too Big" by Fats Waller.
One of the downsides of cider is that it tends to make people 'fascinating' which is a sort of imagined super power. The maids actual staying power, on the other hand, can be quite formidable. I like super powers that aren't really very much use, like the man who can see through cheese.
I would like the power of being able to turn money into custard.
Imagine the adventures - chasing bad guys, turning their money into custard, that sort of thing. It'd be very exciting - drama, suspense, chop socky, and every week the climax where the bad guys end up with suitcase/car boot/bank vault full of custard.
This could be bigger than Indiana Jones. I'm off to write a screenplay. Back later.
Is it done yet? I like the sound of this custard caper, it's got real class.
It doesn't matter what the film is, I always think we should go for Tom first, he's the best.
To think that that ungrateful wife of his should leave him when he's right in the middle of Oblivion. Heartless, that's what it is, really cruel. How's he going to feel right now, walking back from Oblivion, wifeless, and with his own wife running in the opposite direction? Surely this must be impossible for him?
If anyone can make this work, it's Tom. He can give this custard legs.
Tom is an old hand. Did you read on Aangirfan recently how way back when some Saudi nob fancied an upcoming young star and paid him ten million dollars? I wonder who it was?
Anyway, ten million dollars? Custard? Exactly!
the couple looks mighty happy! it's nice to see shots of people from you - such britishness.
we drank some thick luminous orange colored cider the past weekend, yet no deliriums ensued. probably because it was french...
Ten million dollars eh? I think if that is the case then maybe the Saudis have too much money. The whole oil price rise of 1974 was quite an interesting business really and all good dollars flowing back to America one way or another, though cracks in the petrodollar are appearing. So many plots and schemes. Yes, turn it all into custard.
Cheers P2P. Yes I like taking photos of people though generally they don't want to be on the internet which is fair enough I think. I try to drink local cider when I can. Is cider made in Finland at all? there could be a gap in the market.
we have "ciders" which are sold as such but in reality they're mildly alcoholized water with artificial flavors, sweeteners and other unnatural substances. also the beers produced by the same breweries that make the "ciders" tend to use starch as an ingredient in their beers. I have never ever anywhere tasted poorer beer than the top three in f-land's sales.
in 1999 danish carlsberg bought sinebrychoff, a brewery founded in 1819. their main competitor is hartwall. when thinking about f-land it's good to keep in mind that certain sects of our society are well monopolized. I'd call it corporate socialism which shows especially in the shared history of our two main grocery chains, still being in part legally "co-operatives."
in 2009 the finnish parliament quietly passed a law which enables the government to sell groundwater geographically located under land that's not government owned. in practice it means that if a corporate entity buys water underneath my land, they have the right to build a soda-factory on my yard, hell, the whole neighborhood. it's as fucked as a law gets, and the media here was silent like the wind - even though a man called marko sihvonen was in a hunger strike in a caravan in the front of the parliament building for three months in the winter. coincidentally the city of helsinki turned the front road and yard of the parliament private, making it no longer possible to exercise one's freedom to roam on them.
I would love to have good ciders available in stores, but because of the monopolies weighing on them from multiple directions it's rather hard. unless you get a company to import and resell alcohol in f-land, you have to try to negotiate a deal with alko, our governmental body in control of the sales of alcohol. stores other than alko's are not allowed to sell beverages with alcohol content over 4,7% (3,5% in sweden, their equivalent to alko is systembolaget. I know.), which well excludes the best beers and ciders I know from ever appearing in regular stores...
why do I know all this? among other things I am licensed to tend a bar in f-land. the decree I've seen most breached in f-land - in addition to my own rather constant breach of the limitations of what one can do with cannabis plants. it's legal here to grow them for "decorational" purposes - is one that states that a drink served in a bar cannot contain more than 4cl of hard liquor.
It seems that the laws make it fairly difficult to get some sorts of good alcohol in Finland. We have many rubbish beers and ciders here, but the good ones too, so it is more a matter of what you yourself choose to drink, though a lot of the beers sold in pubs are horrible piss. Pubs are not frequented so much these days since the smoking ban came into place. I never went to a pub to get healthy. I think the big push for the ban came from the supermarkets. I would think that the most decorative part of the plant would probably be the massive bud.
found this interesting http://starworlds.blogspot.fi/2012/07/part-iii-saturn-and-games-of-gold.html
Thanks P2P I followed the link the other day and forgot to get back here again. It was interesting wasn't it?
yes it was, and so is this: http://truthseeker444.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/blood-sacrifice-at-aurora-london.html
I have never placed anything in the category of high weirdness before, but that fits. anne hathaway...
Thanks P2P. I'll have a look at that. I thought I'd better get some pictures up as it's been such a long time. Thanks for the link. High weirdness eh? I better have a look.
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