10 Days

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Guthlac

 

What to make of a museum full of stuffed animals?   Well if I was a Zoologist I guess I might use it as a resource for research it to comparative species size?   Perhaps.   If I was the parent of a child home from school at half term I might use it as a day out to keep them away from their phones – yes even preschool kids seem to have access to smartphones.

However, if you a crusty old so and so like myself you might find the whole experience very very depressing.   I know we are not supposed to transpose our views on the 19th and early part of the 20th century.  They were different times and they had different views about things.   I tried I really did but I just couldn’t.   Many of these animals died so that a rich man could look at them in his own museum.   I know he was also carrying out scientific research at the same time but I didn’t feel at ease walking through the displays with all those glass eyes looking at me knowing why the animals they once were died.

 

Then we came to the primates and my heart really sank.  I felt like George Taylor walking through the Ape’s museum.

I suspect I was in the minority as most of the visitors seemed to find the whole experience really rewarding.  Be that as it may I didn’t.   So if you want to visit the  Natural History Museum at Tring then please do so and you may well enjoy yourself.  If that is the case well I am happy for you.   I doubt I will ever go back again….although they are hosting the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in November so perhaps never say never.

In other news the same old Brexit shit is going on….perhaps we are all stuck in a glass case…repeating the same Diorama over and over again.

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12 Days

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Guthlac

 

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And the dreams that you dream of
Once in a lullaby

Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg. (1939)

So that was fun…I’m really not sure anyone has the first clue what the hell is going on now with Brexit…those who stopped the vote today in the House of Commons are at pains to emphasis they are going to vote for the deal…but not just yet.   The spinners are all out in force trying to prove that in truth it is great victory for [Enter name/cause as required].

So I guess we’ll all do this again on Monday.   Is this a dream or a nightmare? I have no more idea than anyone else at this moment – neither does anyone else and don’t believe anyone who says that they do…

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13 Days

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Guthlac

 

So there we have it…it all comes down to Saturday…forget Premier League Football (sorry Rugby World Cup but you know that compared to Premier League football very few care), forget Final Score or Sports Report.  This Saturday will be all about the Parliament channel.  Or so we are told.  With Brexit you can never say but if Boris Johnson does manage to get his withdrawal agreement through then it will be a massive political achievement and worthy of celebration.   Boris Johnson will have proven me (not that I count for much at all in this context) and many other commentators wrong.   He will have a massive triumph that he will be able to take to the country.  Dominic Cummings will be hailed a political genius and everyone will clam that they saw this happening all along.   Hail the conqueror they will cry.  Jove walks amongst us.

Of course it could all go tits up and Johnson might be forced to accept a confirmatory referendum where there is a slightly more than even chance that Brexit would be rejected. (An outright defeat on Saturday would suit Johnson’s electoral purposes as well but clearly not as well as a victory.)

So sit back, grab the popcorn and let the debate begin! Or not.

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In other news….

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Guthlac

 

It’s been raining again!  This is the second flooding event in the past this month.   It would seem that not everything is taken up by Brexit at the moment!

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15 Days

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Guthlac

And so the waiting begins…will we?  Won’t they?

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16 Days

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Guthlac

All I need is the Air that I breathe

I wonder if this is how it felt just before the Titanic hit the iceberg?   The calm before the storm?  I haven’t got the first clue but I suspect I am in good company as nobody has the first clue how the next fortnight will work out.   I think this is a running theme of the Boris Johnson premiership – nobody has a clue as to how things are going to work out.   The only saving grace is that at least our PM’s actions haven’t made a major conflict in the Middle East much more likely (not that the Syrian Civil war hasn’t been hell on earth for many people caught up in it).   No that prize goes to you know who.    His most bizarre defence was that Syria is 7000 miles from America.   That distance didn’t manage to stop 9/11.   We don’t live in a time when distance has any bearing on the consequences of our actions and what might sound great to the base may well inflame your enemies into action with appalling consequences.

One final thought which should chill everyone to the bone.   The New York Times is reporting that there are 250 (ish) American nuclear weapons just a couple hundred miles from the war on the border between Turkey and Syria.   Now I am sure they are very well guarded and can only be armed when required.  I’m sure…I think I am?  Am I?

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21 Days

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Guthlac

The Warren Hills can be described as the roof of Leicestershire.  This sounds very dramatic but compared to say the Alps it isn’t really.  However, it does have its moments:  For one thing on a clear day it has spectacular views across the heart of the Midlands – to the south Birmingham and the Malvern Hills and to the north the Trent valley, Derby, Nottingham and the Peak District hills in the distance.   However, the greatest story unfolds beneath your feet where rocks dating back to the Ediacaran period, more than half a billion years ago,  stand silent witness to all that passes.

On a more human timescale a changing story unfolds as well.  To the north the man made monster of Ratcliffe power station sits silently in the forlorn hope that it might be called upon to once generate electricity.  These calls are fewer and further apart as Britain slowly moves towards a low carbon generating ecosystem.  To the south the mines of the Leicestershire  coalfield, that once feed Ratcliffe and its long demolished sisters,  have all disappeared to be replaced by the National Forest and warehouses.   Both north and south of Warren Hills vast acres of warehouses stretch out proving that Napoleon was right when he described England as a nation of shopkeepers.  Of course he could never have anticipated the internet so now it would probably be better to say we are nation of online shoppers.  As if to reinforce this one of the largest sheds that can be seen from Warren Hills is a vast blue Amazon distribution centre – a second one is opening very soon near to Ratcliffe power station.   At one time Leicestershire had the greatest amount of mineral extraction in the country – now it is the home to the largest concentration of Amazon sheds.   You can decide whether this is a good thing or bad.

 

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22 Days

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Guthlac 

This town (town) is coming like a ghost town

Jerry Dammers

 

Yesterday walking around Leicester city centre the Specials song kept repeating itself in my head.

As with many small and not so small cities Leicester has a massive shopping centre/mall that has sucked much of the life out of the rest of the centre.  The difference is so stark and if you are like me shocking because I am one of those people who mostly shops at the shopping centre.   Walk beyond this and it sometimes feels like you are stepping into a different world of cheap shops or boarded up properties.   If it wasn’t for the growth of coffee shops and other eating places the situation would be far worse.  However, these outlets are never going to be able to replace the large tent poll stores that once populated the main shopping areas of Leicester.

Of course with any such social problem there are many contributing factors and I am sure we can all come up with our own pet theory.  Nonetheless, the city centre is slowly dying and there doesn’t appear to be anything effective to reverse this.  I don’t think that Brexit is responsible for this either as I suspect this is a longer term trend.  However, I cannot see how Brexit will bring about an improvement either but perhaps it might help if the government devoted as much time and money trying to ameliorate a No Deal Brexit to solving these real problems instead.   Just a thought.

Whatever challenges no deal will cause in the short term 
- and they are significant

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - 8th October 2019

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23 Days

Posted on October 8, 2019 by Guthlac

In just over 3 weeks time the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will leave the European Union.   3 Weeks.   Somehow for such a momentous occasion there doesn’t seem to be much activity in the form of preparedness other than the VMS on the motorways and even these are decidedly unclear other than suggesting that export documents might be required.   I have noticed no sense of impending doom or excitement (delete as applicable ) instead people have just got on with their lives and if they have a view on Brexit it is usually a curse on both their houses letting/not letting things come to this.

Nobody knows what is going to happen and most people just don’t seem to care anymore other than to wish the whole thing would end (whatever the outcome this unlikely to happen anytime soon).   No matter what the Brexiteers might wish Britain is located in the middle of the European Union and we are, you know, a European country.  What the European Union does will also have an effect on Britain and in every real sense we will be dealing with the fallout of Brexit forever.  Does this make me a ‘naysayer‘, surrender monkey or realist again depends on your point of view.

On a more interesting note I am continuing to learn how to make best use of the Adobe Lightroom app on the iPhone.   I have only  captured circa 300 images at the moment so things in the state of flux stage – it could go either way.   Remind you of anything?

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24 Days

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Guthlac

Are you excited yet?  Are you?  Really?   Well I don’t blame you.  The one thing I am sick of is being lied to and it is quite clear by now that the only thing the Boris Johnson premiership is any good at is lying.   I say good at that is not fair because they are crap at it because each of their lies falls apart within seconds of coming into contact with the real world.   But that doesn’t stop them from lying constantly lying.

Of course we are supposed to believe that this is all part of some master plan so cunning it will only reveal itself once all the pieces have fallen into place.  Perhaps that is what will happen but as things stand at the moment that doesn’t seem to be the situation to me.   Instead we have a non-government running around in ever decreasing circles lying as they disappear into the hole they have dug for themselves – perhaps this is the ditch that Boris Johnson wants to die in rather than not leave the European Union on the 31st October.  I just want to scream!

So why the pumpkins?   Well I’m trying out the Adobe Lightroom cloud service, the results of which have been posting over the past few days.  It is still a bit of a steep learning curve at the moment – I spent most of the weekend looking under the hood of the software to see how I can improve things – not sure these pumpkin images are a food advertisement for all that effort.

So which do you prefer the slightly dodgy pumpkin photos or Boris Johnson’s lies?   Is there a contest?  I hope not.

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