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The £1.50 Curry Theft

I decided today to go and see what goes on in a Crown court I guess because of all the reports you read in the paper that talks about them and I wanted to see the actual workings.
The first thing that I discovered that if you want to see a trial then Friday may not be the best day as all there was seemed to be bail hearings, pretrial hearings oh and one decision from a jury.

So what did go on? What was obvious was that a lot of cases were dealt with, I actually lost count, but they varied from the serious to the sublime. There was one case of kidnap and rape where the accused was remanded, one of armed robbery (I overheard one of the barristers say he expected to go down as he came in with a huge suitcase) where the accused was found guilty by a majority of 10-2, one where there were 4 accused of burglary that saw the public gallery fill up with one supposes were family who proceeded to swore under their breath at the pleas as they were entered. One pleaded guilty whilst the others not guilty. We had a couple of drug cases with one woman being found in possession of 2000 tablets of class c drugs not surprisingly that was a plea of guilty or you got me banged to rights guv! There was the chap of 64 (the only person to turn up in a suit) who looked like he wouldn't say boo to a goose but turned out to be accused of GBH on his wife. This was as an odd case as she had since died from causes not related to this charge.

However the best was the case of the £1.50 curry. It seems two lads had helped themselves to some curry made by someone in a shared flat that they had been invited to, the case seemed to be about the amount of meat taken in the plate of curry. Much suppressed giggles amongst the court staff was followed by some common sense from the judge who suggested the prosecution and the defence get to together and find a way of not having this come to trial and waste even more money. Also at this end of the day was the case of a guy who stole a TV and digibox from a hotel. It seems he was, as they say in drink, at the time and thought he could have this TV which was in the lobby of the hotel. So he got the receptionist to call him a taxi and then when it arrived proceeded to take of in what was now a get away taxi. The next day he then phoned the hotel to ask if he could have the remote control as he had forgotten it. Ah a criminal mastermind at work.

My impression was that the court worked very efficiently through it's list and that you also get some idea of the timescales involved for cases to come to court (I would say 6 months to 2 years). The latter seems long but also shows that efforts are made to ensure both the accused and victims get the chance for some level of justice, although not all decisions seem just that is also a function of how a system such as this has to develop.
Do I believe in judgement? Well from this limited view I would say you need rules and controls in society as there are some people who are not as nice as we would hope in a civilised society but there in lies an even bigger debate.

Nice to see old singers

Don't disappear they just let their hair grow very long and well very gray. I especially admire the very long bit which some of us are just not genetically capable of.....Check out for example Arlo Guthrie still knocking on about Alice's restaurant after 40 years http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_7C0QGkiVo if you have never heard it before it's an amusing way to spend 20 mins !!!

Of course some of them don't make it (on the hair front I mean) check out James Taylor boy is that head shiny!!! OK I know some of you may not actually remember the hair so there is first of all a 70's song then an up to date one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaeXCXfmu8    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9OSwc1przU one thing that doesn't chain really is the voice and the performance of course becomes much more polished.

Some grow into their voice this is a good example Marianne now sounds as if she can really look back on times past when it first was released in the 60's it was, well insipid at best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXfvOq7NGPM oh and just because I like it have a little of the Ballad of Lucy Jordon http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Jupz1wLOgCU&feature=related

Well that's the end of catching up with old idols oh OK just one more U2 make a poor replacement for the Stones but Mick is well still Mick voice, hair, attitude http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=FzgJ6Mkkd-w&feature=related

More Wine Waiter

It was great seeing Tony and Gill (Gill why are you not in any of my pictures?). Not only do they have a lovely home we had a gourmet chef in house who also served the wine. I seem to remember you were very proud of this one Tony how much was it 1.5 euros?

I really relaxed and actually finished almost two books in a week which is fast for me. The weather was very hot as Gill and I proved by going out at lunchtime one day as I wanted to see Alhaurin. We arrived just as the last shutters were coming down on the shops at about 1:30 and there was nothing open not even a bar she was right it really is a one horse pueblo.......but actually what that means is just a working Spanish town with a traditional siesta. We did however go on to Mijas which is of course much more geared up for the tourist trade so we did get some lunch. Spent some time discussing the finer points of Spanish grammar. Since arriving in Spain Gill has a real grasp of the language that I envied.

We all went out to Marbella for dinner one evening at Garum on the seafront however there was a sea mist so not much of a view but were entertained by the fake handbag sellers playing hide and seek with the local police. We also went down to Fuengirola for tapas one evening and it was great to just watch the Spanish at play eating and drinking and being very social. Tony and I also went to a little local bar with their friend Gerry for the semi final of the world cup and there was much jubilation at Spain's victory. Although the highlight for me was being given a long lecture by one of the people in the bar at the end in Spanish of course. Gerry translated and it turns out this guy thought I was German and was commiserating with me! I had to duck out of the final though as I was not well that night so like many others watched at home although I did get to see the fireworks after they won. The amazing thing is I was down in Fuengirola the next day and it was so clean and tidy you had no clue of the sorts of celebrations that went on the night before.

Dog walking

I found on holiday it is so much easier to make them swim than walk around the very hot roads of southern Spain. The one in the pool was an amazing diver and would happily do lengths for most of the day if you let him. His chum however just stood in the shallow end with his ball in his mouth. Hours of entertainment thanks Marlow & Charlie

What I did on my holiday

Well back from Spain.

Having not been to the Costa Del Sol for about 4 years the first thing you notice as you drive out of Malaga airport is a huge billboard proclaiming only 3,500 Euros the cheapest breast enhancement on the coast!!! I remember when I first came in the 70's the nice black bull silhouette was the most prominent thing on the coast I think it advertised Sherry, a drink even out of favour in Spain itself these days, Tony told me that these are now protected monuments. The very next day I was exploring in the Los Boliches end of Fuengirola (ok I was lost) and there up on the hillside in front of me was this chap (in the lower picture no idea when they took the first one have you ever seen flowers like that in Southern Spain?).

Mijas now Downtown Basildon

I was reading today that a man was shot in what looks like a contract killing in Mijas Southern Spain. For those that don't know it Mijas is one of the white villages and although popular with tourists, as it is just up from some of the major towns on the coast, seems an unlikely place for this sort of crime. Unfortunately it seems some English (Essex actually) drugs rings are fighting it out in a turf war on the Costa Del Sol (another example of an unwanted British export). It seems this lad was wanted by police here in connection with the attempted murder of an Essex "Businessman" three years ago and was hiding out in Spain.
Anyway I am off to visit my friends who live just down the hill from here in July and it seems sunburn may not be the only thing you have to dodge this time.

OK got over the block thing

I was just watching some you tube of Boris Johnson. Although not to my political tastes conservatives always seem to generate very watchable politicians from Enoch Powell to Alan Clarke to Boris they have either been fascinating speakers or in Boris's case someone who always seems to be on the verge of a train wreck but then just in time the points are changed and the carriages stay on the track but no one quite knows how. His Whiff Waff speech at the Beijing Olympics was classic Boris and even managed to raise a smile from Gordon Brown, not one of life's spontaneous gigglers I imagine.
So speak up Boris we all look forward to hearing from you whatever you have to say.........

nope writers block

Our Town

Crazy Cat

You remember that crazy cat I told you about some time ago? She has just discovered flys well fly I guess. Never been to hot on the hunting thing she has endless hours of amusement (mainly because she cannot catch them)chasing them around the room. The other day she found one on a chair leg and got sniffing (sure this as a primery form of attack is where she falls down)this sniffing became more and more frantic so I suspect someone had come in and left some scent for her.

As I was watching this I was reading a new book i bought by Shappi Khorsandi an Iranian comic about her early life in England with her crazy family. I think Buffy may just have become Shappi's father in feline form

7th May

I forgot to post anything about the outcome of the season for my sad addiction.
I guess this was caused by my belief that I am a jinx for my team but also an excuse to wait for the availability of the post season open top bus tour of the team. Is this common in other countries or one of those peculiarly British things I wonder?

Anyway joy knows no bounds because as well as thumping Wigan on the last day of the season 8-0 we went on to win the FA Cup final against Portsmouth. Many commentators were puzzled as to why we only managed to do this by a single goal but I can now reveal that I watched the match live until the point where Portsmouth were awarded a penalty. At this point I turned off the TV Petr Cech saved the kick and Didier Drogba went on to score that winning goal thus bringing us the Double for the first time in our clubs history.

Cricket

Well the cricket season is well underway and of course that means, not so much England beating Australia to become World 20/20 champions, as the the Men vs Women's match in Harberton.

For many years organised and directed by Alick & Peggy Whittle since their departure for Tetbury the baton has been passed to two of the long standing members of the team. However this year the tactics seem to have changed from one of strict practice makes if not perfect, at least in with a fighting chance, to one of a wing and a prayer. Perhaps of more significance is that the men seem to be taking it all more seriously and the ladies have lost some of their star younger players to college etc. So this years match is very much up for grabs. I'll let you know the outcome as we are going for the 2nd of June rather than the end of season match we used to have lets hope the weather is better than August or September, those autumn showers and wind played havoc with the hairdos as well as requiring the application of emergency makeup at the crease.

Panto time

It seems only a few weeks since the end of our last village panto but the time to start work on next years is approaching fast. For those of you who do not have panto in your country it is an ancient form of play where the dame is the man comic character played by a man, the principal boy is always a girl......confused yet?

Our small village has a reputation for producing pantos and in some style as well. We are blessed with a range of talents and always seem to have people coming through either adults who get hijacked into playing or kids who grow up with it and some who progress to take leading roles. Of course a village panto will inevitably have local references to characters familiar to the native audience but incomprehensible to anyone from outside the parish, thus making West End transfers unlikely.

Last year we gave our version of The Wizard of Oz which we thought would be hampered by not being able to use the songs from the film due to copyright. However we managed to find other works, that although not being Over the Rainbow, fitted the show well. We were also lucky that the script was written by a local man from Totnes that went along at pace (even though our director complained it did not have our traditional fight scene at the end, she's so blood thirsty)

The Last Day

Tommorow is the last day of the football season (well if you don't count the World Cup that starts in June)and unusually the championship has gone down to the last day with still all to play for between Chelsea (remember the sad addiction) and Manchester United. If Chelsea win their match they win if they draw and Man Utd win MU win if Man U lose or draw we would win. I don't think I will be able to watch, which of course I wouldn't as I am a well known curse on my team if I watch them, hence the sad affliction to something I love but can never dare to watch live!

My Sad Addiction 2

Following my blog the other day on the Chelsea disease we did of course run out 7-0 winners against Stoke which produced my favourite quote of the week from the Stoke manager Tony Pullis "we were lucky to get 0"

Life

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of
intelligent people and affection of children; to learn the
appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of
false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in
others; to leave the world a little bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social
condition; to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived. This is to have succeeded”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

My Sad Addiction

Chelsea football club have been a fixture in my life since I was old enough to understand there was football life beyond watching my cousin Ken kick a ball around a park with other amateurs at the weekend.
There were these God like men in royal blue who achieved feats only dreamt of lower down the ability league.Chelsea were not that successful having only won the 1st Division title in the year I was born 1955 and not much else since. But the team by the time I was old enough to follow them was inhabited by creatures with wonderful names like Ron "Chopper" Harris defender axer of opposing forwards and Captain. Peter Bonnetti "The Cat" a goalkeeper of amazing acrobatic prowess who I emulated diving onto my bed as the floor at home was hard. However one man towered above all the others that was Peter Osgood "Ossie" "The King of Stamford Bridge" (only later in life would I learn that Stamford Bridge was the battle fought by Harold 2 days before the battle of Hastings).I was sad when he died far too early the other year, Gods are mortal after all.
When I was 15 the lads actually won something the FA Cup when this was more important than even most European cups and all the sweeter it was against Leeds who in the 70's were the Man Utd of the day all conquering men in white.

So now as we come to the end of another season and we are expecting that we will once again regain the Premiership title I look back on those days of less money and boyhood heroes with pride and I hope John Terry and his team will be looked down on by Ossie during this run in I expect he would relish having a go himself

Tom

Tom was my father-in-law. On the face of it we should not really get on. He loves rugby, I love football. He loves golf, I don't see the point. He is a Tory slightly to the right of Genghis Khan whereas I am a lefty, pinko socialist.But we did!

Tom had been a navigator on Vulcan's in the RAF, which for those of you too young to remember was Britain's first nuclear deterrent fleet of bombers. Again this should have divided us, after all I had also been a member of CND,However I have the deepest respect for our armed services after all it is the politicians who make the policy it's the service people who are the guys sitting at the end of a mile of tarmac with a bomb so destructive we can hardly comprehend it strapped to their aircraft. Tom did this in the knowledge that if he ever started on the journey to Moscow or Minsk he was not certain of coming back and if he did the airfield would no longer be there nor would his family. I am just so glad I don't have to make that sort of choice I am not that brave, he was.

Tom died this week.

I would like to tell you about an abiding memory I have of him. When Lucy and I were going through the process of splitting up he called me up and invited me out for the day. We were to go on a corporate day with Lexus . So we drove to a country park where we, sometimes inelegantly, attempted to take 4x4's around an off road course. All this time Tom was trying to see if there was any way he or Pam his wife could help us. He showed real kindness and concern that I will always remember. The day ended with us deciding to go to the Nigel Mansell museum which was nearby. Here we marvelled at all things Nigel. The helmet he wore to win the F1 championship, the cups he won as well as his invitation to the Queen Mothers funeral, God it was boring. At the end of the tour we were all herded into a small cinema where we were expected to sit through a film of Nigel's life.

This was the point when before we lost the will to live we formed an escape committee, we could take it no longer.

However we were thwarted by the guards, sorry guides, who had locked the doors so all we could do was to make our way out through the emergency exit but this involved a walk around the theatre and creating shadows on the screen. As we made our run for it we could hear the hissing and tutting of the die hard Nigel fans.

So I would like to bade farewell to Tom. I will miss his directness, his ability to hunt out a bargain (his family know of his love of the yellow sticker) most of all his unfailing kindness when there was a need for it and his wise counsel.

I will miss him.

Reading

http://network.libdems.org.uk/manifesto2010/libdem_manifesto_2010.pdf

Well everyone I have read the three main party manifestos and before checking my self into the clinic I thought I'd share my thoughts. The Tory one is the longest at 131 pages, but what word comes to mind to describe what is inside the nice blue cover, well, waffle mainly. There are some figures but you cannot, without creating your own spreadsheet, see how these go together. I have to say the Labour one is not much better but thankfully shorter. If you want to find one to read try the Lib Dem one. The link is above. At the back it sets out where they would hope to get money in and how money would be spent. Of course one cannot tell if these plans would work (on the basis of most businesses halve the savings double the costs)?

But at least they have had a go at making it understandable. So full marks for that Mr Clegg D- for the rest

Post debate

Well here we are post the leaders debate and really did it do anything to change minds? I think not having read some comments on Twitter where those that support one side or another were not moved so let's hope the floaters found it more interesting. Hard to though with the audience forced to play statues very flat. Under 30's stayed away in droves as well which is not a good sign.

At least there was some light relief with the news that Eddie Izzard has backed the Labour party so that's the marathon running transvestite vote wrapped up then!!!

I'm really not motivated to write more tonight so will leave you with my favourite Cameron poster of the moment.

Crazy Cat

About two years ago I inherited this crazy cat. Not that I knew at the time that she was crazy. I don't go around looking for mad moggies to adopt but Buffy came to live here anyway. She is a big girl (twice the size of my male cat) and not on the face of it friendly.
Buffy however does not seem to acknowledge her bulk or how it might impact on her catty ways. So the first time I saw this rather large feline sitting on the edge of the fish tank (it's a large tank)sipping fish water I knew I had one of those cats that value pleasure over safety. The last one of these I had used to regularly fall out of upstairs windows!So I guess we are going to have to get Buffy swimming lessons or water wings any suggestions gratefully recieved.
Buffy also never used to go outside which sort of was the reason she has always had a litter tray. Not the most pleasant of duties the emptying of the tray (but better that following your dog for miles with a tesco's carrier bag (second thought what happens dog owners when free bags finally disappear?)). She does now make the odd trip through the cat flap which is an exercise in itself. Most animals understand if you push with your head the flap opens. Not our Buffer she prizes it open inwards with a paw then drags herself out, but odd opening method aside, she then always rushes back in to use her tray (yes I know I could wean her off it but life is short guys).
She also sometimes sets up ambushes for Mr Tibbs the male cat and leaps on him from a great height but Tibbs like the smaller of most species always seems to have the last laugh and these eposodes end with a freantic chase up the stairs and Buffy not being seen until next feeding time.

Post Election

So where we be in 4 weeks time and all the name calling and promises set up to be broken have been made? Well I hope people give some consideration to history and what happened the last time the Tory party was in power.
I know memories are short and a lot of voters now never lived through those times and that worries me. Yes there was a lot of opportunity created but also a lot of misery. I was a soft southerner and I remember going to the north for the first time and seeing the heart being ripped out of communities. This was perhaps the birth of Cameron's great ignored. Although as those of us who lived then know Thatcher told us there was no such thing as society, so if you have to save it look to your roots for the cause.
Mr Cameron is going to speak about freeing charities and other social enterprise groups to do what they do best. Of course this is real Victorian values at work because what goes unsaid is how these organisations will be funded. It will not be from government, there is no money left, so these organisations will rely on charity for this funding and it will never be enough.

I work on projects funded by government to train new business people. Small business is incredibly important to our economy and the more that survive the better but I fear funding cuts will leave only those people who can afford to hire me at commercial rates with any chance of getting this service. It's not as if I get rich doing this I earn less than average wage. However what I earn is not relevant I earn what I need and no more so i can enjoy a quality of life and that is my choice. That is the sort of choice I would be happy to see spread about a bit more.

End of election rant back to the doings of my crazy cat soon

Why Italian

Well all the other names were taken and I guessed wanting to be Italian whilst not possessing any of the innate style of an Italian could count as a mid life crisis of sorts. I guess traditionally we are meant to go for Italian sports cars but i thought what the hell lets go for the whole enchilada (damn there is Mexican creeping in now).

Well this is also inspired by my lack of inspiration today to get my work done but I guess the protestant work ethic is kicking in or is it the catholic guilt so this is it for now will update you later on progress towards sharp suits and luscious shoes.....