satguru 
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Today had the exact opposite weather as yesterday, and wouldn't even go out for milk and christmas cards as it was raining and so cold. My friend arrived and unless deliberately winding me up after goodness knows how many years may even be interested in me. Apart from the fact she lives in terra unpopular, ie an area my nerves won't allow me to visit (I've been like that over half my life, it hasn't stopped me altogether but makes it almost impossible nowadays) who knows if something can be salvaged out of it. I've always known to dismiss loose talk as only actions count and until then is 99% away from a victory.
Meanwhile Rome is figuratively burning, as the future of individual EU countries is about to be signed away tomorrow, with the potential fate of Italy to follow us all by having our governments replaced by unelected EU officials, many from the very banks that wrecked the world economy- three alone are from Goldman Sachs. That's pretty much like allowing the most successful thieves in a country to join the cabinet as in financial terms they are qualified to do the same for the country. That means Nick Leeson could soon become our prime minister if anything happens to Cameron like being offered something better on the continent. He's clearly working for the other side (ie Axis powers) as he's said he's putting the survival of the Euro over all other considerations. As he's in charge no one under him has a single chance to challenge it.
So by the weekend the EU will be run by the Axis, Germany, France (they were not really against the nazis, they were roughly split in practice, the resistance probably evened out by the collaborators from what I've learnt), with Italy swinging sides as usual. Everywhere else will simply do as they're told, with the rules coming from the top whatever government happens to be in charge, pretty much what the last two wars attempted to do unsuccessfully. Germany, to their credit, know how to run a country, and if we were all run the same way would probably have never had a recession. However, in a democracy they would travel the world teaching others how to do the same, much like the better parts of the British Empire, than simply taking us over. |
Reply #781. Dec 08 11, 6:27 PM
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| lesley153
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A German politician has already labelled us selfish for not speaking German, as everyone else in Europe does. (I think he was a bit late for his medication.)
Reply #782. Dec 09 11, 6:34 AM
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satguru
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He's still smarting over the war...
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It's been a busy week again despite no ideas in advance. Sun meant two photo trips as far as is reasonable in a couple of hours, including the sign. The visitor Thursday (she actually showed some interest in me, albeit only verbally) with more photos yesterday. Not a waste at all. As expected I'll be very lucky to get my article published but unlikely to run out of places to try. No response yet but the critics here approve so know it's got the quality required. I do name names but so does David Icke and no one's ever sued him for far worse accusations.
So I may as well let go and see what happens this coming week, it'll get dark even earlier so restrictions there, but no doubt will get some things done one way or another. Maybe I've forgotten something else but if so will turn up whether or not it does occur to me. But you can only do your best whatever. |
Reply #783. Dec 10 11, 12:10 PM
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satguru
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The last two weeks have been pretty impressive for me, as the logical rule not to try and plan ahead worked, and saw friends and went out taking photos regardless and never knew the day before what I'd be doing next. The next week, although dark even earlier, is the same, but you can only carry on doing the same thing.
Otherwise it's pretty much the same as usual. My friend now in America sent his monthly email yesterday, but since he cut his phone off (money problems) I only see him every few years when they all visit, and can't phone him as I used to and actually have a real conversation in between. His visa comes up for renewal in a year and if it goes through I may as well put the family into the history file. Great shame, I spent half my time with them for ages including working in his shop for over 5 years. As Woody Allen demonstrated in Annie Hall, if you have women who make you laugh and understand you, when they are replaced by one who doesn't then it's dead. Grace so far is becoming more familiar simply as she's local and likes spending time with me, but can she ever grow the sort of mind which can keep me interested? The body was never in question or the person, but the same applied (for other cats at least) for the cat but I couldn't have much of a conversation with her either. But as the years pass I prove I can only meet the people I do, and stick with the tiny fraction where we both get on. It would be very simple to marry Grace just because I can, and spend 30-40 years wondering what to talk about. Oh dear.
London is the biggest reason for the social situation, as there's little you'd call a community. You don't go shopping and see people you went to school with like my friend always does up north. I went there and every day wherever we went she saw people she grew up with. You are never alone in places like that. Even when I lived in the same place for 28 years I was only friends with someone near school who went away after he left it, neighbours who all left by the end of the 70s, and all my friends around Golders Green who dropped off one by one in the 80s when they got married, except the one now in America. He filled every gap with his parents, then wife and two children. I stayed in the shop when his wife had their second child, when he had his father's funeral, and missed his wedding service as I was working and went straight back to his house for the party where we spent most of the time playing pool while everyone else was mingling.
Spiritual teaching says everyone turns up at the right time and goes for a reason, and as Grace is 'just there' and appears to be the most reliable element of my life besides the ex who needs a good kick up the A1000 a bit like Merv as she is trying extremely hard to move in since she left her husband. She is the ex as I realised fairly quickly she was peculiar, and 27 years later she is still and always will be peculiar. Unlike her Grace is not a pain in the backside, and never really was, but neither is a cat or a child you babysit (something I did for about 15 years most weeks). I often had perfectly sensible conversations with the children of all ages, as most were from very rich and professional parents who had passed the education on to their children.
Still, it does no harm writing it all down and looking at it here, as half the time just laying it all out raises ideas. In a perfect world I'd get so used to Grace I'd find I did like being with her enough to get married and problem 1 would be gone from my life. But like a Woody Allen film, although she spent 10 years coming to my house to get her emails, the day she finally went online at home and called me over to see it it wasn't to actually go online and do anything but to set the whole shemozzle up for her (which I couldn't quite do as I've never done wireless before plus her printer was too old for the new computer). I must check actually to see if it's done now as although she could use it she still couldn't use the printer.
In the old days I'd have finished with a road trip to Radlett, but like everywhere else in life these things don't always last. |
Reply #784. Dec 10 11, 7:24 PM
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satguru
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Catching up on some business today as it was raining and snooker on TV to fill half the day. I was asked for a printed copy of the article I wrote for someone without internet, and had a little final edit after it was checked in the edited version. I've sent it out in full now after sending summaries as maybe without the finished article some people won't be tempted. I thought dumping 17 pages on busy people would just get them deleted but as the summaries provided no reaction besides one request to see it (no response since) I'm stepping things up now.
If (that's a big word) I get up in time I'll take some photos tomorrow, otherwise not a clue. I have my winter indoor plans as well if necessary, and as things turned up on their own last week maybe they will again. My list of people to phone is growing so must get on to that as well, something always keeps me busy so I forget at the moment. I've been going to the gym 9 years now without a break, and although the weights I lift are a few times heavier than originally, but although you can see some physical improvements I'm nowhere near most of the others, even if I can lift the same amount. You can't force muscles to grow, and they are definitely improving- my best free weight lift was a pair of 32.5 kg dumbells I managed to raise over my chest about 7 times in a row. I think that's about 3 stone per hand. It has been of no known practical use over the period but will no doubt make my fitness last longer in the future.
On the news front Britain has made its first gesture against the EU since joining. We have no idea of the consequences but each sculpture begins with a single blow before you see the end result and that has now been taken. We at least are one step in the right direction, ie away. Would any members of the Soviet Union have chosen to stay in if asked? Well why on earth would they here as well, the way they work is not that different except they completed their federal state in one go as they used tanks and guns instead of stealth tactics. |
Reply #785. Dec 11 11, 6:41 PM
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satguru
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A round trip around north Surrey today, filling in more uncovered areas I can get to in the winter limits. The additional time indoors (not much use being out when it's dark and now raining) has led to an unplanned mission of Facebook educating bigots that there are actually facts and you can't have an opinion when certain details are known and can't then be theorised about. Some people actually thank me (most either use major abuse and sarcasm and a few unfriend me, but better off without such baggage) but facts are facts and I'm not really into opinions as if we knew everything there would hardly be any left as nearly all based on a lack of knowledge.
I was trained to get my facts right before letting rip, and few other people seem to. And no one likes a smartarse, they'd far rather be wrong and happy than look stupid. So they label the messenger the bad guy and continue to carry their opinions, some so deadly they have the potential to start another world war, no exaggeration. The bare racism, jealousy, misconceptions and general opinionated and biased nonsense out there allows comments in the box, and rather than say nothing and let them think everyone agrees with them if they have got something wrong I have to tell them. If everyone did then I wouldn't look like a troublemaker, but how many others can be bothered? |
Reply #786. Dec 12 11, 5:47 PM
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satguru
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After presumably failing to choose the working doorbell on Saturday (not for the first time) the postman had to wake me up today with my annual pack of christmas biscuits. I did however make it to the shops on my bike, bought new lights as the others had given up, and there was no queue at the post office which is always a miracle when it happens.
Although it's getting dark earlier for another week if I am up in time I've got a trip planned if and when I do. Having seen Lord Monckton interview Greenpeace activists in the street I have proved once and for all you don't need to be a scientist to understand the climate. You don't need to be a mechanic to drive a car or a programmer to use a computer either. All you need is good data and machinery and everyone can follow other disciplines if simple enough to. Bottom line, the activists don't actually know any facts. If they did they'd have nothing to activist about, and would have to either get a real job or spend the day watching TV and arguing with people online. They are innocent pawns being moved around by those who know what they're doing, and everyone who realises this has to catch any of these guys when they hear them start off to put them right just as Monckton has. You only need a page of figures, temperature, sea level, ice level etc, the rest is just detail among the major view.
So each day seems to have offered something to do, not a clue beyond today but has kept going for weeks like that now so just see what happens. |
Reply #787. Dec 13 11, 12:11 PM
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satguru
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I was just telling someone unlike many of the people I know, I do my moaning online so people can leave when they want to and I never even know who does and who doesn't so totally anonymous. My excuse is I live alone, so if everyone covers their day with their families then so do I, but right here- I've been here longer than many marriages already including a fair number of the same people, so why not? I know if I could meet everyone at all, or more than once it would be the same sort of community we have where we live.
Somehow after my friend stayed till nearly 4am yesterday (it's like being stuck in a bloody lift nowadays) I got up in time to go out and take photos, the one easy trip remaining being maybe 20 minutes away and half a mile walk, which I wanted to do as well as usually do when it's dry, and the rain also stopped when I left and started when I got home. I bought a heap of food on the way back and am now sorted for a couple of weeks. And my cleaner is coming tomorrow so couldn't get out anywhere waiting to let her in.
I think that's all for now, I did apply for an extra professional qualification since I found I may be eligible, I've no idea what actual extra work it may get me but it is another four letters after my name which is always nice to have. Not all including the one I wanted, MSc, but that was a financial decision and one which led to me buying my flat and studying counselling instead, so did something instead. Had I continued it would have used up half my money and wouldn't have worked for a year or two as the part time cheap version made me so ill I couldn't have carried on my job as well. I'm not going to college now, I did a one afternoon a week course ten years ago for fun but that had no homework, a masters has more hours (besides the new internet ones) but the homework is absolutely massive. I did that till 2001 as well, and since if I remember correctly as my organisations have levels and to rise you have to take postal courses. I am pretty well knackered now and would need a very easy run if finally got round to one, and as the only example I am aware of is run from Wales, am not yet sure how they do the interviews and assessments for their internet students without everyone having to go there. No way Jose. If a way to get one turns up where all I do is the actual work and see a tutor locally it may still be possible, but used to living without one now having got so close in 1985.
I think I said before unlike the ex Grace does not (usually) get on my nerves. It is almost the same as having the cat around in terms of conversation, but the cat made more of a fuss of me. I don't want to end up on my own for my whole adult life though, and all the wiseacres who say we need to get out and about to meet someone are usually married and haven't a scooby-doo. There's only leftovers around here at least, what happens is anyone civilised gets taken by 30, and if divorced usually either meets someone else within a week or two or before they get divorced entirely so never on the market. Like jobs advertised as they have to but always placed from within the same firm.
Going out and about, I can tell you, meets 90% married people, the remainder nearly all being the wrong age and the rest being nearly all dodgy. So you end up with one or two single and suitable and they all tell me where I can go. So since 2002 the record was met girlfriend, spent two weeks with old friend while visiting home from America, stayed with girlfriend for two months, did nothing for 7 months after she had a breakdown, back with her for half a year with the next half back in hospital, came back even worse and went funny on me, and back to square one. Then Grace came back from the shadows and when her sister emigrated pursued me as her sister was no longer there to look after (ie boss around) her and suggested I took over for her.
Back then it was like looking at a life sentence, but as she still wanted to see me I'm slightly getting used to her, but like Dudley Moore's one legged Tarzan people can never change much more for the better than is possible. It may be harder to quantify but personality is almost as fixed as height or lacking a limb, just takes longer to discover. But in five or ten years and still only meet the remainder of the ones with partners as they are too strange to keep one how long will it take before I stick at 16 and hope to win the pot? It's like Deal or no Deal for the people who are so poor they deal at about £10,000 when it turns out they could have got £100,000 (I don't watch it but know people who do) as they are so bloody desperate. And mine grows over time and the amount I'll deal at falls every decade. How long can you wait for what you want? I know exactly who did the job and will never forget the difference, and if she somehow squeezes across the line I don't want to think about the alternatives or it'll be like being stuck in a lift again. But circumstances always change over time and we have to adapt. |
Reply #788. Dec 14 11, 4:50 PM
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satguru
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Another day another entry. I could live without more photos today, I can't get far enough anyway till about March so will now begin the local activities. I got all round the park today which surrounds my estate on both sides, once the cleaner arrived, who also brought my dinner again as she does occasionally (she's a school cook and shares any extra with friends and family) so have home made pizza and apple crumble for dinner. And a bag of oranges for the next couple of weeks. The other supplies are all in from yesterday, I spent a packet but have coffee for months (I get through a lot while tea is half the price) and still two boxes of pasta in the freezer my friend brought last week.
The news has freed up a little now towards the end of the year, with the 2nd climategate emails, while as expected the suspects are being rounded up who may have shared them while the actual writers are being protected as the authorities were the ones who ordered the work done in the first place so can hardly investigate an organisation doing exactly what they are told to do. But the mafia did not have the internet when set up, and 220,000 emails remain to be released with a single password and if a messenger is prosecuted they ought to do so and then drop the whole lot of them in it.
The second (of two) pieces of decent news is the UK veto of the new EU treaty, the first ever. We are now one leg free of the quicksand, and will see if the French or anyone else pull the other one out as we may be seen now as a liability. I'd like to be a liability to the mafia as well, it's called the fight of the good against evil, or for freedom. Meanwhile they're still busy carbon trading on the heartless, brainless and headless exchanges, who are happy to buy and sell anything or nothing as long as they get a commission. The law of trading is the market price is irrelevant as long as sales are busy as they don't make money on the prices rising or falling (that's down to the customers gambling like in a casino) but on sales made. So if the market's active they make a percentage of all the action. You don't get rich from creating money from nowhere as the gamblers try (the same money is just moved around between the daily winners and losers, nothing is ever added) but from other people's money for doing absolutely nothing. Wholesaling, whether of goods or servicing, simply takes a cut from something someone else worked to produced and another worked to pay for, while the middle men get rich from both for just being there. They are the winners from carbon trading and until the value goes to zero, their real value, then people will be stealing our money (who else paid for them in the first place?) but just at a slightly slower pace. Australia beat the system as coming in late realised the market price of a carbon credit is nil, while if they set a minimum price of $23 then they can rob the public forever without a chance of a fall in the flow.
Julia Gillard is a smart cookie, but really belongs in a Batman movie who ends up behind bars when it finishes after almost pulling off the biggest heist in the history of Gotham City. Julia Gillard however, although quite young now, will retire on a pension of who knows what, with directorships of companies throughout Australia and connections for speaking worldwide about her long career in politics and for training the next generation to do the same. She actually makes Tony Blair look like an entry level amateur, she is the craftiest character I've ever come across in politics who can say exactly what she wants and get her way every time with no reference to any promises made. She has taken a hard working and decent country and with a few years of work will leave it looking close to Zimbabwe. Now if that money's gone then who has it instead? |
Reply #789. Dec 15 11, 12:49 PM
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satguru
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Another week has passed and reasonably productive- one photo trip since monday and done all my food shopping (a record bill I think but saves more trips). I also found an Italian calendar watch again online which cost me about £40 as seconds, I may even have got a perfect one but they'd all sold out anyway. I never knew they existed as from Milan and not sold elsewhere, but a friend gave me a guide to Mauritius years ago (easily the best way to travel) and had an ad for one. I found a couple around online but took a while to realise I had to get one from Italy as weren't available anywhere else, except of course for Mauritius. I should have another friend coming over Tuesday and besides the lack of light should still get the odd photos taken before March as well as the other things.
Two more countries have now left the EU agreement, implying Britain was as I claimed a visionary nation rather than a pariah. After all, how many people win any match? There's only ever one leader or winner and this time it was our turn. I have a TV producer coming as well, and please god will lead to another programme being made as the plans have been drawn up and I was in the frame. I don't like mentioning these in advance but it's been a good few years and the call went well so as she is coming to see me does look more than speculative as many have been. I always wanted to make my mark in any way I could, and TV is one of the best outside academic works which would probably need the missing MSc I mentioned earlier. But then again how many people recognise academics in the street? Their work is only seen (and highly resented most of the time for the stress it causes having to learn it) by students and occasionally reported in the papers, but few academics make it into the public eye and few would want to. Well I think that's about all the current junk, a little good news as well for a change but according to my rule, only starts and not yet a single finish. Raising hopes is against Buddhist principles as nothing exists unless it does, and when it does can never be expected to last. It's true but how many of us remember? |
Reply #790. Dec 16 11, 5:50 PM
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| lesley153
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Doing what passes for praying that the TV producer will do what she's meant to do. Our turn in Europe (or, even better, out), and your turn for fame.
Reply #791. Dec 16 11, 6:20 PM
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satguru
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Thanks Lesley. The training tells me that whatever starts are in existence to carry on and ignore them as technically it's all the same as selling a house, until contracts are exchanged no matter how likely it seems you never know till it's happened. So I carry on as normal and if anything happens am happy if it does.
Nothing new today, it's the gym at weekends so the usual routine, and am doing an experiment tonight as unless I get up bloody early for me it'll be no photos tomorrow and I have one I want to do which ought to be easier at the weekend. Whether going to bed earlier means sleeping earlier remains to be seen, but will find out soon. I'm glad the French are having a go at Britain again now, as if people don't listen to me and many other sources, they will now all know they are not our friends and never have be. They see the British much like nouveau riche families see their common relatives. Even the Britain-hating Nick Clegg told them to please tone it down (he is British after all, others would have laid it on a bit more) not because he disagrees but doesn't want everyone else to see their true colours. Like they'd take any notice. They are so incredibly childish it's highly amusing, casting doubt on our economy when theirs was downgraded. If they want to tie themselves to the Fourth Reich, I mean Germany, and take a collective route to political suicide then good for them, as long as we can look on from a safe distance and pee ourselves laughing when it all went broke.
The next 6 (was 7) weeks is the birthday season, me and my parents, and would have been my grandma's. In february I will have been on this site for 12 years, something which didn't occur to me when I spent about 10 days mopping up questions I couldn't answer in the library or by phone before I got a computer. I didn't come back for over a year but didn't stay away much after that once I did as more areas had been added and could always come in and answer questions as well. I'd just turned 40 when I arrived, and I'll of course be 52 next one. I got the usual report from one of my friends in a Christmas card this week, and although most people (unlike me) appear not to appreciate annual updates I find them very interesting, and won't send them out myself as most people would know it already, but haven't done a whole year as far as I remember, more weeks online. I see a project in the making but would have a real job remembering that much apart from a few highlights. This year was the photo map project, which is the only indefinite collection I've really had. Train tickets stopped being made for nasty bits of paper, old road signs are obsolete and can't find more than exist, but can always take photos in new places one way or another. Had I still had a faster car I would use the motorways more, but crawling along just over 60 is pretty much like getting out and pushing.
Other than that and finding loads of old road signs the main activity has been house related. We did sell my late grandma's house after two years of clearing it out, so one job out of the way, finally had a sealed roof added on my garage and had the large rubbish removed, and had a new room built on the back of my house which has taken the edge off wanting to move at last as I can't afford to anyway. I still haven't got to meet a single person from school online since 2002 (a single one altogether), I still see a few at the annual school reunion, and when I went to the other school cricket match this summer the handful who came (no idea who) had gone when I turned up at teatime. If you imagine Woody Allen, the Marx Brothers, Mike and Bernie Winters, the Three Stooges, and basically every and any Jewish comedy group in history that was basically my public school. Half the pupils were Jewish brains and eccentrics, half got scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge and was pretty much like watching a three year long Woody Allen film if you condensed the interesting bits, plus a few years beforehand for the ones who followed me there from our primary school which was almost the same. Sam Jacobs once held me out of a third floor window, Malcolm Cohen did an impression of someone going to the toilet in class, Alan Laurier (not enough brains to blow his nose so didn't follow me 'upstairs') filled his pockets with mashed potato, Simon Donne either invented or popularised the phrase 'Do you want to hear a funny noise?', Daniel Levin (sounded like Levine) was called Daniel Latrine, again invented by Simon Donne, Neil Ralph Dourmashkin just thought it was funny to go round the playground telling people 'I'm called Neil Ralph Dourmashkin' (we won't forget that as a result, and for some reason there was a spotty guy in the parallel class called Davies, and all we did (as he was one of the most boring ones we could think of) when we saw him was shout out 'Daaaaaavies' like a flock of sheep.
Maybe if I'm really lucky someone will recognise one of these names, even read their own here. A couple are already known of by me, but have been trying to find Malcolm Cohen for years as he is one of the funniest people I've ever come across. He was Scottish and used to say 'My father's a barrister you know' as if anyone was impressed, and lived in a house now worth a few million. Both my parents are barristers and it never occurred to me to mention it, in fact half the school's parents were lawyers or accountants as no one else could afford to live in the area. Actually I really ought to write a play, I have more than enough material. Like the In Betweeners but in Golders Green. |
Reply #792. Dec 17 11, 6:35 PM
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| lesley153
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You don't need to know about party politics to know what they think of us - just have a week's holiday in Paris, and watch the hatred oozing out of every doorway.
I weed myself reading about your school. Can't wait for the play!
Reply #793. Dec 17 11, 7:33 PM
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satguru
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I do start off new works on my blogs sometimes, and when I add in the whole 16 years or so (I began at 2 so have a wide scope of material, the whole chapter on incontinence, pupils attacking teachers and Mrs Van Messel the French teacher) I think another project for the winter beckons. And may even create another reunion as if I'm not being insulting I don't have a problem using real names. You couldn't make up better ones, like Jonathon Rapaport, Leslie Portnoy, Paul Berger, Marvin Berglas and Jeremy Solomons. There was a tight football group who spent every break playing and the rest of the time going on about bloody Spurs. I liked football, support Man Utd (as that's where half my family are from) but did not want or need to hear from people who could barely talk about anything else. They formed a team at Alyth Gardens which extended the football songs and stories well into teenage which dragged it out even longer.
Then there were the liberal peers (in the second sense of the word) you just reminded me of, mainly one, Louise Fishman, who probably had her own dedicated mop in the broom cupboard. Anna Jacoby once performed in the hall during a singing lesson, and various other random and regular leaks throughout primary school. Later on there were the little groups of eccentricity, the bullies, the nutters and the bores. The bores brought out the worst in most of us, who although bullied by the bullies in general then verbally bullied the bores and wets (mainly the same people), and public school used surnames so it was basically walking past them and calling out their name in a group, Davies being the main victim, then Andersen, who was the only person who could bowl a cricket ball almost reliably at the fielders, and Bromberg, who always looked like someone close to him had just died, a bit like a depressed version of Stephen Hendry. Considering the school required an entrance exam it amazed me how some of the most socially inept crowd I've ever met clearly must have had some sort of hidden talent as it had one of the highest academic records in the country. The lunatics were not theoretical, some were thoroughly dangerous, losing all inhibitions when provoked. As well as almost dropping me out of a top floor window as described, Andrew Smulian swung on a desk and jumped on my legs, being a foot taller than me to begin with. How I avoided more than bad bruising was a miracle. Another in secondary school threw a brick at me from a foot or two and somehow just managed to miss. Oddly he died a few years later falling off a wall, which may indeed have been some sort of karma as I'm sure I wasn't the first or last to be given that sort of treatment.
I left public school just before it actually became public (as they are officially called prep schools till the 2nd year secondary) to a progressive school I actually wanted to be in. These were the artistic and creative elite, as well as the wild children of the rich who let them do pretty well what they liked, which ended up as stealing, taking drugs, and beating up the younger kids. Like every other school I suppose. But the people were the interesting ones rather than the miserable academic bores and bullies in the previous one, and although I reacted by misbehaving even more than they did as at 12 it seemed the norm. Of course it wasn't and within less than two years it got me the boot.
I however would be totally delighted if anyone remembered me enough to put me in their memoirs. The best I can do is although he was no different from anyone else back then besides being over 6 foot at 11 Will Self was the year below me and lived round the corner, and met his notorious mother who was exactly as described in his books. It means I can now read them and relate to many of the people and places as he draws a lot from his childhood and my mother still lives opposite their old house on the other corner. The next school had all the famous parents as it was a showbiz favourite- Ringo Starr, Noel Harrison, Stanley Kubrick, Alfie Bass, Ian Wallace, Tom Bell and since then Tom Conti, John Alderton and Pauline Collins and Paul McCartney. Although some of the children followed the parents into music and acting not one made it big, and although the Harrisons appear on TV occasionally didn't make it as big as grandpa Rex. I never mixed in those circles though, I was a public school reject and although became very active in music and drama in school wasn't friends with any of those families so never got to visit any except Stanley Kubrick's, who may or may not have been home but was well known for not socialising and never came out the few times I was there. My friend's younger brother was friendly with Ringo Starr's son who lived near them, but he was a lot younger than me and never knew him.
I may as well write the whole thing in parts here now I've started and then collect it all up for a single piece. And if anyone ever searches their name they may even find them here, although as yet there's no online trace of Neil Ralph Dourmashkin and hundreds of Malcolm Cohens so unlikely to get many hits. |
Reply #794. Dec 18 11, 12:19 PM
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| lesley153
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Ooh I never connected Noel Harrison with Rex! Marvin Berglas had to be something to do with David, and yes - Marvin's Magic!
Is Paul Berger a journalist now?
 http://pdberger.com/
And was Andrew Smulian smuggling guns? Mirror headline from 12.3.08:
"'Gun deal' Brit Andrew Smulian is held"
Best I can offer from school is Pete Soulsby, who is now Sir Peter, MP; Martin Rushent, record producer; Len Deighton's niece Janice; and Lynne Franks. My little bro sat with Danny Blanchflower's son. It's not much but it's all I've got. :(
Reply #795. Dec 18 11, 1:40 PM
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satguru
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I haven't been able to keep up with much more than the Self brothers from school plus the bit part actors from the other one later on. Andrew Smulian was the debt collector who sat in the lobbies of companies in the 80s with rotten fish in his pockets waiting for them to pay him to get him out. That is the only fame I knew but this story does sound quite possible but guessing it must be an American one. But it's not him in the photo although I wouldn't have put it past him.
Paul Berger doesn't look the same but never know. There was a Hamit Dardagan at primary school, a name you'd be unlikely to forget (Turkish I think) who turned up on TV recently as a human rights expert and do have an ex who's a foreign correspondent currently on Al Jazeera.
I managed a fairly local but all new photo trip in the pouring rain today, and seeing the TV producer on Wednesday so getting there. I spent a few fingers (I can't afford an arm and a leg) on Austrian cakes today as the shop's closed when I pass every Monday except in December, so now know what they've got to offer and at least a whole cake at the price of about a thumb ended up being able to be cut in two for a portion. I'm crossing my fingers if I can manage a trip a few days off the shortest day I will get a bit further if I get up an hour earlier, which remains to be seen.
I did think of something else from school in the gym yesterday but can't remember what it is now. It must be in there somewhere and only a few possibilities so hope it comes back to me sooner or later. There was the time when a huge crash was heard in the art lesson, and without looking up I said 'Ronald!'. In maybe 25 children if something fell down it was still most likely him, and his jar of water had fallen down and surprised most people except possibly me how I tuned in to the cause and effect. The best insult I've ever heard actually came from Julian, the pottery teacher (if I use first names it's the progressive school), who said to a boy from the year above sharing the class with us 'You spastic halfwit!'. This became a school legend and no doubt is still repeated by some who were present and others who heard it since to this day. That was the 70's though, when you were still allowed to say 'halfwit'.
Writing wise as per I've had no feedback from the articles I'm now sending out in full instead of summaries. I am writing more specific parts which go straight online and are very useful as stand alone answers to common misconceptions. I would be delighted for someone else to steal my article and take credit if published as it's meant to save the planet, literally, from destruction by the asset strippers and parasites. I don't know if it's a rumour (doubt it as it's also in the Stern Report) but smart meters are controlled at the other end so we all get a quota of kilowatt hours per day/month/year and when it's used up it stops. The alternative is to have it regulated so you only consume as much as you are allowed so can heat one room and one bulb and a TV for example. These are sorry times indeed. But whether or not the smart meters are used to ration energy, they certainly can as they are hooked up to our appliances by the internet and as we are already able to turn our heating up or down with a smartphone as well as open and close the curtains etc, of course the technology is there and free to exploit if they want to. That is why I wrote the piece and is not one designed for my personal career.
Anyway, at least the momentum of the career is continuing, I know pretty well what it needs before I cross the line into becoming a professional, this is what you'd call the extended period of building up as before reality TV most people had to do for years before people started to see their work in the public field and start recognising them. I would just like it to take off before it's retirement age so I get a bit of a period where I can be a success before it's too late. Otherwise it could be like closing the door before you've gone through.
So far the usual result of going to bed early does not convert to sleeping early as you just create jet lag without going anywhere. It takes a week or two just to add an hour or so and I need at least that to get to Essex. If there was anything else that interesting I could do instead I would wait a few weeks or more, but I did get that far around Christmas before so it is possible. I don't think there's any more politics on the cards now. The Euro can urinate up its leg and slide down as we're now almost immune (the IMF catches most of us as well though), but can't see the Germans especially allowing it to fail. I see it as a long term game of poker where all the top players have jackets with cards sewn into every sleeve and pocket. When they look like they're losing they have another ace despite having played five already. Then they start adding new suits when they need them, and even adding numbers beyond 10. Those Germans and their financial backers (eg Rothschilds, JP Morgan, George Soros, Goldman Sachs, ie the usual suspects) have resources way beyond what the media realise, and when they want something they will do everything in their power to get it. I reckon Poland ought to get some supplies ready at the moment actually... |
Reply #797. Dec 19 11, 5:31 PM
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satguru
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I am challenging the system of nature itself now, although the shortest day this week I still got to the woods for a while today and took photos as well as a muddy walk and then went shopping on the way back. There's nothing on TV (although I have cable there's not always much there either however many channels) and the ex coming as always so have a slightly boring day ahead (believe me, she is boring, so boring her entire family do all they can to avoid her). Now she's getting divorced she wants to get back with me and as I dumped her for a very good reason in 1984 that reason has not changed one bit.
The only other trips left from here are well over an hour away and may be weeks or more before any are possible, plus it means I have to basically go out almost straight out of bed after having something to eat which is not healthy or fun. We are also in the dead zone after the tiny bit of news we finally got in 2011 after Britain vetoed the new EU treaty. Besides two more countries following them nothing has happened, they are pressing on with saving the Euro regardless, and although we are now free from even worse restrictions for now they will sort their problems out sooner or later and end up looking frighteningly similar to the Soviet Union. We would end up in a situation where people would be digging their way out of West Berlin to flee to the east.
How we allow our leaders to treat us this way is not a mystery. They play to human weaknesses, learning their deepest fears, offering up scary situations that could threaten them, and appear to prevent them using heavy restrictions on our lives to do so. Until people discover they are there to exploit us they will keep voting for higher taxes and then will only wake up and complain when they get power cuts or can't afford a holiday. Why do we always have to wait till it's happened before we do something to try and stop it? |
Reply #798. Dec 20 11, 12:59 PM
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satguru
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I've been able to become far more educated since getting the internet, and basically like having access to all the libraries in the world, and being able to learn far more in the subjects of interest indefinitely. And believe me, I can show quite definitively that no one needs to be qualified in most areas to follow any of them, they just wouldn't be employed in them. But 100 plus years ago it was different. Few professionals studied at college but did articles or apprenticeships. They watched the existing professionals and gradually allowed to try more and more themselves until the time was up and they qualified. Not an element of examination as far as I know. But they carried on, in fact professions like accountancy, dentistry and medicine were practiced by many people possibly into living memory if learnt early enough.
So the point is there is more than one way to learn a subject, and if anyone with a little help now and then wants to teach themselves then the actual reliance comes from the source material plus the possibility of a mentor to explain problems directly. You may not be able to become a professional directly but can guarantee you will be able to understand a good deal of what they say. That is like an amateur version, not qualified or able to practice, but fully able to follow the work and carry out some of the basics, a bit like Patrick Moore, considered one of the greatest astronomers of the time, and totally unqualified. He even became the president of the British Astronomical Association, hardly a soft profession either.
Climate is pretty much on a par. Like driving a car we don't need to know the details under the bonnet besides self preservation for breakdowns, but know what all the buttons do. You don't need to know the bios level to operate a computer when it goes wrong to do many fixes, it's just the programming levels few people can do without proper training. Climate does not need an ability to do the equations required, just to understand the results. They are free to produce the data and work out where the atmosphere collects certain gases, how much heat they react to (they don't hold it in, they heat up and absorb it temporarily) and why our planet is 33C above the temperature of space solely due to the sun's heat. Now even a primary school pupil can follow if you introduce a gas into the atmosphere at a few hundred parts per million then unless it has almost explosive properties (compare to methane which is one of the most absorbent gases to rising heat from the surface) as the existing qualities are known then adding a little more is a massive median point of what a reasonable person would expect to happen, 11 year olds included.
11 year olds can still keep up, as it's easy to see through tricks at that age as you don't tend to trust others as much as haven't developed such a mystical view of professionals and much happier to trust their own judgement. So if professor sir doctor Albert Gore (dammit, he's not a scientist!) tells you unlike the first 260ppm the second will raise the water from the ocean and form a warm blanket to melt the atmosphere and kill all the bears many children and adults will cautiously say (or should) well it hasn't happened before, why don't we wait and see. That is not just the reasonable conclusion, but the only scientific one.
I would invite 7 and 8 year olds to the party now. IF you increase the CO2 by 50% and temperature then rises by under a degree, then what is the conclusion? I'll hand that over to the audience. |
Reply #799. Dec 21 11, 11:18 AM
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satguru
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No one is immune from a good con. I saw an advert for an Italian calendar watch in a book years ago and liked the look of it, but were almost impossible to get hold of and basically only from Italy. I looked every so often until I found a bunch last week, the new ones were all sold and there were a page of seconds for half price. But besides the auto translate on Ebay the rest was Italian, and most said they had minor faults except this one which appeared to be a return so I ordered it as I hadn't seen one available for years.
It arrived today (it didn't cost much, I wouldn't risk that), and clearly besides having no instructions was playing up from the start. What I ought to have done was copy and paste the lot into a translator first, and when I did after the event actually said (against British law but they aren't in Britain) words to the effect these watches are for show only. In a shop you simply send the dud items back to the company, but these cowboys are trying to sell them. No idea why, and inside Italy can see they are broken so wouldn't touch them, but clearly they think they can get a few extra Euros without too much extra effort. The dispute form has been completed and no doubt the best I can expect is to lose my postage.
I had to go to the gym today as it's closed over the holidays so need to add as much outside them as I can. The meeting with the TV producer went well, he was here for about an hour and basically at the moment it's between me and another person, so now have to wait and see, but the filming starts next month so won't be long to know. They have already advertised the programme on their website for next year even though it hasn't started yet, but although that's common it doesn't even always mean they happen. In the end all mine were, but one took years before they finally got their shiz together as the production company went broke and we thought the whole thing may have been lost despite all being ready to show.
Anyway, I'm forgetting about all that now but needed to update it here. The longest day has been and gone now and although it'll be a couple of months before the long photo runs are back I've adapted to the new time at least enough to get a couple of local trips per week. Other than that it's the family weekend as usual, Christmas or otherwise, minus three trips to the gym. So the usual ups, downs and nowhere at alls, plus of course the unknowns. The main rule is to remember to wipe your feet afterwards... |
Reply #800. Dec 22 11, 3:27 PM
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