Yes, I see what you mean!

:blush:

my god, look at all that land going to waste. Such a shame to see all those trees, grass, and crops, on what could be perfectly good parking lots. :haha:

Don't think that it hasn't already been suggested.:sniff:

Carruthers

Car, like Dani I really do appreciate how awful it must be to be in situ when something like this happens. My example of the flats in Aylesbury was not to suggest "worse things happen at sea!" merely to illustrate my own poverty.

I'm still amazed at how many trains they plan to run to Brum an hour though. Not that the BFP is an unimpeachable source. Or even sauce. Still , at least they'll go by in a flash (weak joke).

Upsetting me today is Aylesbury in the press for all the wrong reasons. As it will be on May 1st (Dads' 70th in case you want to send a card). The EDL are intending to march in the town. That's English Defence League. I've not linked directly to their site as I don't want to promote them, even amongst curious minded adults. Formed to counter the rise of Islamic fundies in this country. Sadly, attracting hooligans and British National Party and ex-National Front members.

If they were for what they said they were for I'd accept their presence in the town, even if I'd still be wary. They claim to be against fundamentalism and terrorism. And for traditional English values. Something the British muslims I know would be happy with. If their social calendar promoted country dancing, Morris dancing, cheese rolling, bog snorkelling and jam making, I'd be all for it. I don't buy the right-wing red-top conceit that we are being overwhelmed or forced out of our own country at all. Chicken Tikka Masala anyone? Pro-traditional arts and crafts does not equal anti foreign influences.

Anyway, the English have always been magpies. If the school I worked at suddenly had classes in applying henna (not likely with three of fewer non-Caucasian children per class) I'd sign up for it!

So, I'm drifting. If the march happens we'll be the focal point for a clash of cultures and races. And although the Aylesbury population is nowhere near as laissez faire as Leicester (Ranjula Takodra is our second Asian mayor - Raj Khan being the first, a frequent visitor at our house) we've had a history of street violence going back to the '70s. Aylesbury was once mentioned in a House of Commons speech as a place you dare not venture after a certain time due to "yobs".

I worry for my quiet little county town.

If I'm not mistaken, it was the then Home Secretary Douglas Hurd who made that speech which included the first recorded use of the term 'lager lout'.

I suppose he has to be remembered for something:eyebrow:

Carruthers

That Brum link was sorely needed when I left nearly 10 years ago. The motorway (?M42 -so happy to have forgotten the number) was a car park, and the trains ran so infrequently that they often couldn't take all the passengers waiting.

I'm sure I'd be a total NIMBY, but if London can't expand further, then the transport system needs to, and a lot of the commmuters were people with dual bases -London and Birmingham. If it were the US, they'd just fly.

The M40 runs from London to Brum and the M42 connects it with the M6 to the east and the M5 to the west.

The trouble is that traffic, like work, expands according to the capacity available to meet it. There has to be a time when it is no longer reasonable, or even feasible, to build yet another massive road or rail project.
If the nation was the size of France it might be a more practical proposition. Of course in many parts of the USA the country could quite happily swallow up a vast civil engineering project without inconvenience or detrimental effect on a massive scale.
I'm not suggesting that HS2 should be dumped on somebody else, just questioning the need for it at all.

All the best,

Carruthers

You know what?
I disagree with this Carruthers chap's opinions, but he seems like a pretty good egg.

Good on you for not frothing at the mouth about something which obviously affects you very personally. Want to meet up for a pint?

Yep. He is a very palatable character. Good for the Cellar.

He does seem to be a good guy.

How the hell would you know?

:bolt:

I like carruthers. I like his style.

If I had my druthers
I'd pick Carruthers!

hip hip hooray!

(let me know if you ever need a campaign manager)

Yeah, I agree...Car seems pretty cool. :)

Those axe murderers will fool you every time. :lol:

Pshaw! what if we happen to like axe murderers eh? You ever think of that? Smartypants.

Well chop you, Ma'am. :p:

You can run, but you can't hide! :borg:

gotcha covered

A hobo's what?

Hey, if Bruce wants to come to the UK I'll meet up with him!
His only flaw is not living within four miles travel.

I'd shake-shake-shake his beard off if he ever landed Brit-side :)

huh? <innocent>

*smack upside your head*

;)

Thanks for the kind words everybody. One blushes to the roots of one's prematurely grey hair.:blush::blush::blush:

Now, Bruce. Have you felt the weight of a decent size axe these days? Far too much effort involved in waving one of those around.
Then there's the risk assessment to be completed under the Health & Safety Act (1974) (as amended). Not to mention the compulsory Public Liability Insurance, and the Certificate of Competency to be obtained under the Lethal Weapons (Manual application of same) Act. Of course a special permit will have to be obtained if it is intended that the axe be used during the hours of darkness.
It's bureaucracy gone mad, I tell you.

Sundae, I might be able to meet some time soon, but I'm worried about leaving my aged father on his own. He had a knee replacement op about eighteen months ago and it is giving him some trouble. If he has a fall while I'm out my name will be Mudd.
Hope I'll be able to take you up on the invite in a couple of weeks.

Carruthers;)

:lol2:

My sis went to one of the E-care places last friday, they thought she has strep throat so they tested her, it came up negative. They were still convinced it was strep and sent her home with antibiotics. It was obviously NOT strep, it was virus, probably the flu, she finally went back to the doc today. Whatever the virus was she is almost over, but she has a secondary infection: bronchitis and borderline pneumonia. Fuckin E-care asswipes! She just got married on Mar 13 and has been sick for the majority of the time. :(

My stepson, as it turns out, has turned into quite the little sexist. The majority of the time he lives in a house with 4 not-particularly-bright, hyper-emotional women... and he's apparently extrapolated what he's learned therein. Fucking great.

Maybe if you said something to him like, "Lissen, us broads aint' all knuckle heads, ya know."

Who knows? It's worth a try.

Freakin Sean Hannity and giant entourage or some shit decided to go to Old Navy today too. Took me frigggin forever just to buy bathing suits.

At least my (ultra conservative) gym is a ghost town, lol....

Ah, see, but he's got this noblesse oblige thing going on. He doesn't want me to not be a knucklehead, because that means I might possibly know more than he does. He doesn't respect intelligence in others, he just likes people to defer to him.

drown him.




FFS child protection services people, I'm not SRS. RLY.

Nothing worse than being condescended to by a person who needs you to drive him places and cook his meals.

How old is this child, 'fob?

Just turned 8. It's an irritating age all around, so I haven't given up all hope for him just yet.

Oh grief, same as Thor, yes don't give up. It's all about gender roles/differences at that age. First time they've noticed, but they don't all get it completely and there's a lot of peer pressure going on, so they conform as best they can.

My cop friend got slashed open with a knife last night. He's home and recovering, he claims it wasn't a big deal. I'm still pretty freaked out.

My sister is still really really sick. I'm taking her back to the doc tomorrow (for the 3rd visit) for a chest x-ray. Guess we'll find out if she has bronchitis, pneumonia, or something else.

My oldest-time friend was suppose to come to town for 11days at the end of the month, she had to cancel. Her cat has cancer, its pretty awful.

Hang in there, MTP. Sending supporting vibes your way!

My boxer got kennel cough... and she wasn't even around any dogs. The downstairs neighbours had a few dog visitors in the past week, but no one new to the yard. BAH $98 to say yes, she is sick, and here is a week's pills.

Oh and better book an ultra sound and X-ray, cause her heart murrmur is "very loud" YIKES!!!!! So instead of going on a 4 day holiday at the end of the month, its going on my baby's vet bill.

Obviously a very strong evil power doesn't want you to take a vacation. Better cancel before more bad shit happens. :eek:

Yup, cancelled. We were supposed to go to a cabin with 3 families for my son's 20 birthday (his first with us in 5 years) Since we planned it, one family cancelled, a guy quit work, so my son and I have to work part of the 4 days off, and Freya got sick....

So, now its a party on Sat the 17 for my son, low key (which is more his style) and a vet visit on the 21st to find out how bad the murmur is.
Real life always comes first, we were just hoping for a few days as a family... where there was not a TV, Computer, Work, Playstation 3, Playstation 2 or a Wii to distract us.

Snatch out All the power cords , and Phone cords , put one of these on yer door , and ignore the Knocking

I LOVE IT!

Zippyt is so subtle. :haha:

Oh! i want that sign lol.

MTP - all fingers crossed for your sister. At least she's getting medical attention. Here's hoping it's something which will pass quickly.

My Great Uncle John died last night. Grandad's second sibling in the last two years, and the baby of the family. The five of them seemed to have charmed lives until Auntie Alice died - they were all in their eighties and all compos mentis.

Of course no-one lives forever, but the Doyles were giving the impression of immunity for a while.

We didn't really know John - not like Auntie Alice, who was very much close family - but I feel it for Grandad.

I have to break the news to Mum when she comes home. Again, I know it will hit her mostly because she'll have to tell her dad. And she leaves for Spain for five days on Saturday. I'll have to make sure to visit him every day, instead of the usual every other day.

Trolls and troll minions and the tolerance of same upsets me today.

That, and I'm getting a ct scan on my head. Doc ruled out the usual suspects. Mo money.

My phone is about ready to be turned off...the one bill I just can't swing since my recent financial fucking. The others I've been playing roulette with.

Life is good. Work hard, get ahead, get knocked back down again. I'm sure somehow it's all my fault.

I didn't know about this. I thought you had a nice relatively new job with better pay? What's this about financial fucking?

I had some emergency dental work done. Out of pocket was very expensive, but it wasn't elective. I can hardly go to work without front teeth (all due to an accident I had in 2nd grade...the work my parents worked so hard to provide wouldn't last forever.)

Then there was a tax fiasco.

You know, the little expenses, and big, that add up and take you right where you were before.

I know I'll get through it, and catch up eventually (BECAUSE of my new job without which I could not have had my teeth fixed!) but then the ct scan really started to scare me and I got that "everything is looming" feeling.

I'm sorry, I'm just whining. I know things could be so much worse.

Things could always be worse for everyone, and that doesn't keep this thread from reaching over five thousand posts. That's why it's here. Gripe away. I'm sorry about the tough financial times, but at least your teeth look great.

:D

A smile with my new caps.

Hey Shaw. Kick em in the cunt.

yeah, Shaw; just give 'em the old Cunt Punt, it'll make ye feel better.

definite punt time

I'm sharpening my foot for the cunt kicking. I'm not so worried about anything being wrong...because I'm stubborn and will fight the fuck out of anything that comes my way...it's just the matter of going through it all.

Thanks guys. You can't know what your kind words, and suggestions of cunt-kicking, mean to me. :)

My father's state of health is a worry to say the least. He had a knee replacement operation about eighteen months ago and is now experiencing a lot of pain in the area. Of course whatever is causing it, might have nothing to do with the new joint. The doctor said that the symptoms led him to consider the possibility of a slight fracture so off he went to the local hospital for an X-Ray. There's no fracture but deeper appraisal of the image and other investigations are now on the cards.

I look at dad sometimes when he's asleep and realise how much he has aged recently. He's eighty-four and in many respects isn't doing too badly but I find it all rather depressing. My mother died last August after a long period of ill health and since then I've had some respite from various worries. I just hope that dad isn't now declining.

DanaC has written a beautiful poem to her Dad and reads it in a video in the Creative Expression Forum.

I don't have her skill with words but I can appreciate her writing.

Carruthers

Carruthers, Wishing you support in this difficult time. The aging and death of parents is a difficult phase that we all go through.

Sorry to hear about your Great Uncle, Sundae.

Like yourself, I always thought that as my older relatives had always been there, then they always would be. It is probably a defence mechanism.

Carruthers

Thanks for your kind words, Merc. I'm grateful to you for that.

Carruthers

Yet more bad news. One of my best buddies has diabetes. He's had two operations to replace various organs and had to give up a toe. The latest bad news? They found out yesterday that his daughter (my goddaughter) has childhood onset diabetes.

Fuck diabetes. (to paraphrase)

I'm sorry Pete.

That was my concern, diabetes. It runs in my mom's side of the family. Doc didn't seem to think that was the concern, after doing some neurological tests that resembled a DUI test, that I must've failed...hence the CT scan (and the fact that after my car accident they did x-rays of my head but not a scan and he says the scan will show the blood vessels and other things that could be a problem.)

Hang in there everyone. Warm thoughts...

Oh Pete, that's really hard. How old is she?

Carruthers, please enjoy him while you have him.

Shaw -- good luck with the test! Don't study too hard. :p