Monday, November 14, 2016
MONDAY MIRTH
I have seen actual films where polar bears have played with huskies. It was wonderful to watch and this reminded me.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT
I am always trying to find something a little different for Sundays and came across this little poem which I thought rather sweet.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
THINKING ALLOWED
Reason for the flowers...just wanted to begin this post with something beautiful to offset what is to come although it's not really all bad.
I in no way want to upset any of my American friends but Phil and I were both disappointed with the results of the presidential election this week. We realise that the workers of America were promised plenty of jobs but unfortunately there is no way we can see anyone being able to start up huge industries again in the near future and bringing back work that had gone overseas? It would be a miracle. Enough said on that topic.
It is understand the new President does look on Australia favourably but not other countries in our neighbourhood so it is somewhat worrying just how our friendship with the Asian nations may be compromised. Time alone will tell. After all, we are the ones who have to get on with OUR neighbours, or else.
Phil's blood test results arrived and all was well except for his cholesterol!! We had recently begun to eat butter (the softened type) and also use full cream milk and are wondering if that could be enough to cause the rises shown in the report. We had been thinking "here we are in our mid-80s so what the heck?. The reasoning behind was this......how many extra days or perhaps months could we expect to live if we ate an absolutely strict diet? It is rather a miserable life when you can't indulge in all the lovely things like chocolate, fruit cake, ice cream etc. etc. so we decided to kick over the traces a little. Some serious discussion needed here between the two of us. My cholesterol was fine last time I had it checked but maybe now....who knows? Not easy to keep up these things when you are aged. Notice I didn't say OLD!! Letter in the post yesterday....the doctor wants to see Phil about the results which is rather what we expected.
Daughter K told me recently that her father (my first hubby) is not doing too well. He and I have remained friends over the years and I am saddened that he is having health problems. He was a man who always prided himself on his vitality so it must be hurtful to him to know his health is failing him. He was to see a specialist a while back and I'm hoping to hear how that went. He is very fortunate to have a wife some 10 years younger than he is but she at 75 is not finding it easy as he can sometimes be a little difficult.
Phil went to his poetry group Friday morning and they had chosen lyrics by Bob Dylan as he had been given the Literature Nobel Prize. A few months back my printer decided to call it a day and we'd not bothered replacing it as I don't print or copy much these days. This week I began researching Bob Dylan's lyrics and found some great ones but suddenly I couldn't print them out. Panic stations on Thursday....rang Office Works and told them the type of printer I was replacing and could they recommend one. The young man said yes he could so I asked him to send it up to the front desk so Phil could pick it up in a short while. This printer is better than my precious Canon printer but so different it took us some time to work it all out. In other printers I have had the black ink always is on the left of the coloured ink so we couldn't understand why the alarm light kept flashing telling us the ink hadn't been installed correctly. Back to the instructions went I only to find that in the new printer the coloured ink goes on the LEFT of the black ink. I often wonder why this type of change is made when there seemed no reason to change it. Lots of lyrics copied out so another challenge accepted and won. Incidentally, both the ladies had computer or printer trouble so were unable to bring along anything so Phil was pleased we had managed to find half a dozen to share with them. They agreed the lyrics were somewhat sombre but then most of Bob Dylan's are.
When Phil arrived home I suggested we pop down to Phoenix (our nearest shopping centre) to have lunch, We both had grilled fish with *chips and a side salad. Their fish dishes on Friday only cost $15 so it's good to have an enjoyable meal and save a little money at the same time. My main reason for going there was to visit Big W as Lee Child's latest book "Night School" is out. We also bought a couple of DVDs as TV is atrocious these days (at least for us) and we've watched nearly all our DVDs several times. *Tut tut tut.
I hope everyone out there in blogging land has a great weekend and that next week will treat you well.
I in no way want to upset any of my American friends but Phil and I were both disappointed with the results of the presidential election this week. We realise that the workers of America were promised plenty of jobs but unfortunately there is no way we can see anyone being able to start up huge industries again in the near future and bringing back work that had gone overseas? It would be a miracle. Enough said on that topic.
It is understand the new President does look on Australia favourably but not other countries in our neighbourhood so it is somewhat worrying just how our friendship with the Asian nations may be compromised. Time alone will tell. After all, we are the ones who have to get on with OUR neighbours, or else.
Phil's blood test results arrived and all was well except for his cholesterol!! We had recently begun to eat butter (the softened type) and also use full cream milk and are wondering if that could be enough to cause the rises shown in the report. We had been thinking "here we are in our mid-80s so what the heck?. The reasoning behind was this......how many extra days or perhaps months could we expect to live if we ate an absolutely strict diet? It is rather a miserable life when you can't indulge in all the lovely things like chocolate, fruit cake, ice cream etc. etc. so we decided to kick over the traces a little. Some serious discussion needed here between the two of us. My cholesterol was fine last time I had it checked but maybe now....who knows? Not easy to keep up these things when you are aged. Notice I didn't say OLD!! Letter in the post yesterday....the doctor wants to see Phil about the results which is rather what we expected.
Daughter K told me recently that her father (my first hubby) is not doing too well. He and I have remained friends over the years and I am saddened that he is having health problems. He was a man who always prided himself on his vitality so it must be hurtful to him to know his health is failing him. He was to see a specialist a while back and I'm hoping to hear how that went. He is very fortunate to have a wife some 10 years younger than he is but she at 75 is not finding it easy as he can sometimes be a little difficult.
Phil went to his poetry group Friday morning and they had chosen lyrics by Bob Dylan as he had been given the Literature Nobel Prize. A few months back my printer decided to call it a day and we'd not bothered replacing it as I don't print or copy much these days. This week I began researching Bob Dylan's lyrics and found some great ones but suddenly I couldn't print them out. Panic stations on Thursday....rang Office Works and told them the type of printer I was replacing and could they recommend one. The young man said yes he could so I asked him to send it up to the front desk so Phil could pick it up in a short while. This printer is better than my precious Canon printer but so different it took us some time to work it all out. In other printers I have had the black ink always is on the left of the coloured ink so we couldn't understand why the alarm light kept flashing telling us the ink hadn't been installed correctly. Back to the instructions went I only to find that in the new printer the coloured ink goes on the LEFT of the black ink. I often wonder why this type of change is made when there seemed no reason to change it. Lots of lyrics copied out so another challenge accepted and won. Incidentally, both the ladies had computer or printer trouble so were unable to bring along anything so Phil was pleased we had managed to find half a dozen to share with them. They agreed the lyrics were somewhat sombre but then most of Bob Dylan's are.
When Phil arrived home I suggested we pop down to Phoenix (our nearest shopping centre) to have lunch, We both had grilled fish with *chips and a side salad. Their fish dishes on Friday only cost $15 so it's good to have an enjoyable meal and save a little money at the same time. My main reason for going there was to visit Big W as Lee Child's latest book "Night School" is out. We also bought a couple of DVDs as TV is atrocious these days (at least for us) and we've watched nearly all our DVDs several times. *Tut tut tut.
I hope everyone out there in blogging land has a great weekend and that next week will treat you well.
Friday, November 11, 2016
FRIDAY FAVOURITES
Tony Martin is a singer that many of you may not remember. I do remember him but haven't listened to any of his song for many a long year. Scrolled through YouTube once again and found this recording he made in 1941 (would you believe I was only 9 years old then?). It is a lovely song "Tonight We Love" based on the theme from Tchaikovsky's B-flat minor piano concerto No. 1.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
DID YOU KNOW?
Henry II's son is now on the throne. More from "Kings and Queens of England and Scotland". (I find it interesting that there are definite dates regarding births, deaths etc.)
RICHARD I Known as Coeur-de-Lion, Lionheart.
Born at Oxford on 8th September, 1157.
Succeeded as Duke of Aquitaine 1172, as King of England, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou on 6th July, 1189, aged 31.
Whatever were his tenuous claims to more of Britain, John was formal Lord of Ireland, and Richard was specifically not overlord of Scotland, having sold the right to homage for 6666 pounds.
Eldest surviving son of his predecessor Henry.
Married in Cyprus on 12th May, 1191 Berengaria of Navatre.
Children: None
Died at Chalus, in Limousin, on 6th April, 1199, from gangrene following a wound by a cross-bolt, aged 41, having reigned 10 years.
Buried at Fontrevault,, but his heart is buried at Rouen.
Profile: Tall with exceptionally long legs and arms, auburn hair and a short beard; a very handsome physique to match his bravery.
Richard was an absentee king whose influence on England arose from his neglect of it. He was a courtly musician and poet, but his great enthusiasm was for war. He was a man of high courage and an outstanding military engineer. His youth was turbulent and unpardonably disloyal, but from the age of 30 his life was dominated by the passion to regain the city of Jerusalem in what became the Third Crusade. Three months after his coronation a ceremony which was allowed to provoke a pogrom of the Jews in London, and was followed by similar outbursts in Lincoln, Norwich and York - he left England, having raised for Jerusalem all the money he could in a reckless liquidation of royal perquisites. His methods were tyranical, devious and rapacious. Areas excluded from Richard's rapacity were the six counties of England which he foolishly handed over to his young and totally unreliable brother John, for thorough despotic exploitation. No taxes for the Crown were levied there, and even the King's Justices were excluded from entry.
Over a year after his departure from England, Richard had got no nearer the Holy Land than Sicily, His 69-year-old mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, travelled there to introduce to him the young princess Berengaria of Navarre (Navarre is the Basque country straddling the Pyrenees) with the suggestion that Richard should marry her. Richard dutifully agreed - since Navarre bordered the Cascony area of Aquitaine, it was a useful territory to have a claim to - and he took Berengaria on his voyage to the east. They were married, and Berengaria was crowned Queen of England, when they put ashore in Cyprus. Richard was in fact homosexually inclined, and he saw very little of his wife, except that he recalled her to his bed four years later when he was accused of sodomy.
The Third Crusade was a time-consuming failure, partly because Richard was given the news that his brother John was challenging for the throne which would have come to him anyway, and Richard consequently broke off the siege of Jerusalem. Its local conclusion, three years after Richard's departure, was a national disaster and possibly ranks as England's most expensive pay-off in history for any single operation before the twentieth-century wars. Richard mortally offended the Duke of Austria at the siege of Acre, publicly disgracing him for insubordination and having his banner trampled in the dirt. On the voyage home Richard was wrecked in the Adriatic and, taking a chance, rode through the Duke's territories on the straight route to England. He was recognised, captured, imprisoned and put up for ransom. The price was 100,000 pounds - say 12 million pounds in modern money, but it then represented a third of the gross national product of the country. Richard seems hardly to have been worth that, except that the alternative was John, now in alliance with Philip Augusts of France, who had accompanied Richard to the crusade but retired hurt. The most special taxes had to be collected to redeem the king, and the process took over a year. Once ransomed, Richard exhibited himself wearing his crown in Winchester Cathedral, and went straight off to Normandy for Christmas, never again visiting England. He had proved to be a most expensive king.
The country was run, and well run, by Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury and Justiciar (King's Deputy).
Richard amused himself with was in France. When a ploughman unearthed in Chalus an intricate Roman relic in gold, and his feudal overlords confiscated it, Richard considered the incident sufficiently serious to besiege Calus and get the gold for himself. He was fatally wounded in the operation. It was a typically frivolous way to die, but Richard carried it through with a Provencal
panache not too often seen among he English. He had good-naturedly congratulated the enemy crossbowman on the skill of his shooting before, miscalculating the flight, he was hit. On his deathbed he sent for the bowman, not for execution but for pardon.
This takes me back to the film Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner, a film I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought Alan Rickman's role as John was wonderfully portrayed. We have it on DVD and watch it about once a year. More about John in our next episode of "K and Q of E and S".
RICHARD I Known as Coeur-de-Lion, Lionheart.
Born at Oxford on 8th September, 1157.
Succeeded as Duke of Aquitaine 1172, as King of England, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou on 6th July, 1189, aged 31.
Whatever were his tenuous claims to more of Britain, John was formal Lord of Ireland, and Richard was specifically not overlord of Scotland, having sold the right to homage for 6666 pounds.
Eldest surviving son of his predecessor Henry.
Married in Cyprus on 12th May, 1191 Berengaria of Navatre.
Children: None
Died at Chalus, in Limousin, on 6th April, 1199, from gangrene following a wound by a cross-bolt, aged 41, having reigned 10 years.
Buried at Fontrevault,, but his heart is buried at Rouen.
Profile: Tall with exceptionally long legs and arms, auburn hair and a short beard; a very handsome physique to match his bravery.
Richard was an absentee king whose influence on England arose from his neglect of it. He was a courtly musician and poet, but his great enthusiasm was for war. He was a man of high courage and an outstanding military engineer. His youth was turbulent and unpardonably disloyal, but from the age of 30 his life was dominated by the passion to regain the city of Jerusalem in what became the Third Crusade. Three months after his coronation a ceremony which was allowed to provoke a pogrom of the Jews in London, and was followed by similar outbursts in Lincoln, Norwich and York - he left England, having raised for Jerusalem all the money he could in a reckless liquidation of royal perquisites. His methods were tyranical, devious and rapacious. Areas excluded from Richard's rapacity were the six counties of England which he foolishly handed over to his young and totally unreliable brother John, for thorough despotic exploitation. No taxes for the Crown were levied there, and even the King's Justices were excluded from entry.
Over a year after his departure from England, Richard had got no nearer the Holy Land than Sicily, His 69-year-old mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, travelled there to introduce to him the young princess Berengaria of Navarre (Navarre is the Basque country straddling the Pyrenees) with the suggestion that Richard should marry her. Richard dutifully agreed - since Navarre bordered the Cascony area of Aquitaine, it was a useful territory to have a claim to - and he took Berengaria on his voyage to the east. They were married, and Berengaria was crowned Queen of England, when they put ashore in Cyprus. Richard was in fact homosexually inclined, and he saw very little of his wife, except that he recalled her to his bed four years later when he was accused of sodomy.
The Third Crusade was a time-consuming failure, partly because Richard was given the news that his brother John was challenging for the throne which would have come to him anyway, and Richard consequently broke off the siege of Jerusalem. Its local conclusion, three years after Richard's departure, was a national disaster and possibly ranks as England's most expensive pay-off in history for any single operation before the twentieth-century wars. Richard mortally offended the Duke of Austria at the siege of Acre, publicly disgracing him for insubordination and having his banner trampled in the dirt. On the voyage home Richard was wrecked in the Adriatic and, taking a chance, rode through the Duke's territories on the straight route to England. He was recognised, captured, imprisoned and put up for ransom. The price was 100,000 pounds - say 12 million pounds in modern money, but it then represented a third of the gross national product of the country. Richard seems hardly to have been worth that, except that the alternative was John, now in alliance with Philip Augusts of France, who had accompanied Richard to the crusade but retired hurt. The most special taxes had to be collected to redeem the king, and the process took over a year. Once ransomed, Richard exhibited himself wearing his crown in Winchester Cathedral, and went straight off to Normandy for Christmas, never again visiting England. He had proved to be a most expensive king.
The country was run, and well run, by Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury and Justiciar (King's Deputy).
Richard amused himself with was in France. When a ploughman unearthed in Chalus an intricate Roman relic in gold, and his feudal overlords confiscated it, Richard considered the incident sufficiently serious to besiege Calus and get the gold for himself. He was fatally wounded in the operation. It was a typically frivolous way to die, but Richard carried it through with a Provencal
panache not too often seen among he English. He had good-naturedly congratulated the enemy crossbowman on the skill of his shooting before, miscalculating the flight, he was hit. On his deathbed he sent for the bowman, not for execution but for pardon.
This takes me back to the film Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner, a film I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought Alan Rickman's role as John was wonderfully portrayed. We have it on DVD and watch it about once a year. More about John in our next episode of "K and Q of E and S".
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
TUESDAY CHAT
First off I remember the other day Charlie said his mum loved nasturtiums so I snapped a couple of pics where they are sprawling out of the agave bed onto the brick path. Years ago I sowed some out of date seeds in the front garden and they all came up. For several years we would have nasturtiums growing out the front. These days none grow there at all but our back garden has nasturtiums spring up all over each year with some, this year, even growing in the little bed under the pergola. Here now for Charlie's mum are some nasturtiums:
This weather is really bewildering....after sweltering on Saturday with 37C (98F), yesterday and today we are rugging up as it is really quite cool (Phil says it is cold) and seems it will be that way until next weekend. No point in thinking of packing away winter clothing or bedding as we may need it yet a while. Poor Phil has had his comforter on his bed and then off his bed and I add a light blanket one night and get rid of it the next. The wind chill is really icy.
I am feeling for the people of New South Wales where those awful bushfires are raging. 50 fires in all which surely must have been caused by lightning strikes. Some property has been lost but fortunately no human lives. My thoughts are always with the wild animals and birds that live in the bush that is being ravaged by fire. Some escape but so many are killed or injured which saddens me so much. We have to take out hats off to the tireless men and women of the various fire services that fight these fires in Australia every year. Last summer all over Australia there were dozens of homes lost and several lives as well. I feel we are in for quite a dangerous fire season and the various departments in Western Australia are doing their very best to burn off as much as they can while the cool weather holds. Unfortunately we had a very wet beginning to spring so the usual spring burns had to be put on hold for a while. The changeable weather makes it very difficult for them.
Have been chatting with family about Christmas and have suggested perhaps no gifts for the adults and just gifts for the 3 youngsters and a lovely family get-together where we all contribute food of one kind or another. I feel Christmas in this country where it is often so hot on Christmas Day needs to be simplified to make it comfortable for all concerned. I know Phil once missed the Christmases in England with hot roast dinners and the trimmings but having now lived in Oz for 56 years he is well and truly part of our way of life. Speaking of Phil, it will be his 87th birthday in a few weeks and we've decided the family will meet and enjoy dinner at our usual restaurant in Baldivis. It is close to C and M with their young girls and the food is enjoyable and the service good. An outing we are both looking forward to.
I am feeling for the people of New South Wales where those awful bushfires are raging. 50 fires in all which surely must have been caused by lightning strikes. Some property has been lost but fortunately no human lives. My thoughts are always with the wild animals and birds that live in the bush that is being ravaged by fire. Some escape but so many are killed or injured which saddens me so much. We have to take out hats off to the tireless men and women of the various fire services that fight these fires in Australia every year. Last summer all over Australia there were dozens of homes lost and several lives as well. I feel we are in for quite a dangerous fire season and the various departments in Western Australia are doing their very best to burn off as much as they can while the cool weather holds. Unfortunately we had a very wet beginning to spring so the usual spring burns had to be put on hold for a while. The changeable weather makes it very difficult for them.
Have been chatting with family about Christmas and have suggested perhaps no gifts for the adults and just gifts for the 3 youngsters and a lovely family get-together where we all contribute food of one kind or another. I feel Christmas in this country where it is often so hot on Christmas Day needs to be simplified to make it comfortable for all concerned. I know Phil once missed the Christmases in England with hot roast dinners and the trimmings but having now lived in Oz for 56 years he is well and truly part of our way of life. Speaking of Phil, it will be his 87th birthday in a few weeks and we've decided the family will meet and enjoy dinner at our usual restaurant in Baldivis. It is close to C and M with their young girls and the food is enjoyable and the service good. An outing we are both looking forward to.
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