2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 - Movie Soundtrack(Music By: Aram Khachaturia...

View of Clarkson affair

From The Spectator

''The Top Gear brouhaha has now been resolved, but do not for a minute doubt that this is cultural warfare. The left wanted Jeremy Clarkson out because of his centrist opinions. The left believes in social regulation, and any speech the left does not like becomes hate speech. Remember what Lenin said: ‘We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion, scorn and the like toward those who disagree with us.’ We all know the BBC is a malodorous cesspit run by and full of lefties. Clarkson seems to be a good guy with a good sense of humour and he says funny things that are true. Romanians do steal and Mexicans do sneak into the United States and Germans have been known to invade Poland, so what’s the big deal. The PC vipers were after Clarkson because they have a totalitarian mentality and hope to make all speech they deplore hate speech. Truth, after all, is hate to those who hate truth. When a rapper by the name of Kanye West uses the word ‘nigger’ 37 times during the Brit Awards, he’s given a pass because he’s black. When Clarkson mimes the word, he’s suspended and forced to apologise. Something is unhinged about a society that accepts the Kanye Wests of this world and punishes the Clarksons''.

Very true

Shower doors that swing and open inwards-beware!

Hint for designers of showers and shower cubicles. When fitting the door, fit either a sliding door, or alternatively a door that swings outwards and thus allows unimpeded ingress to the wet fun and washy area.
Do not , repeat, are you listening, REPEAT, do not fir it swinging inwards with so little room between you, the wall and the slippery bath surface, so little in fact that you have to perform a vertical limbo style dance to get in the stupid shower.

And once in, eye the door with great worry as to whether you can exit!!!

Shoe insoles

Into the shoe shop, for shoes, no for insults. Shoes were not required as they are far too expensive, but the insoles that sit so comfortably within a shoe were needed. A simple question was asked along the lines of that I wanted to buy insoles. And as is the way nowadays I was bombarded with choice.

Did I want refreshment insoles? Insoles for standard insole usage? Anti-ICBM attack insoles? Perchance insoles that soak up the sweat and nauseaous gases that feet, intimating my feet, that is blue and is pumped with eye stinging smelliness through my lace holes everytime I walk! The nerve!!

La Traviata

                               Great music and fantastic singing, and even a translation into Polish!

The Sherlock Holmes pub in Bialystok.

Highly recommended. The Sherlock Holmes pub located at Rynek Kościuszki in Bialystok. Traditional looking English pub with an oak bar, with a Supermarine Spitfire above the bar, and beers such as Hobgoblin, Fullers and London Pride along with Polish Beer Guiness sitting beautifull all in  a row. Great! 

Imperial

Little devil!

Fawn over me!

Imperial and imposing colonnades

Weight on his shoulders

Former palace of Branicki and later the Czar of Russia

                                  Former palace of Branicki and later the Czar of Russia

Rain on a Tent Sounds : 8 Hour Long Relaxing Sounds for Sleep

Gentle Rain 10 Hours High Quality

Dead Parrot Supercut: The Best Of Black Books

Rain and English

It's raining, so here are just a few ways to talk about the rain in English. Which of course, with the right apparel, is wonderful to walk in, which is strange as it rains rarley in England;-)
1. drizzle
2. shower
3. pour
4. sprinkle
5. sleet
6. precipitate
7. precipitation
8. rainfall
9. downpour
10. hail
11. raining
12. rain down
13. rained
14. rainwater
15. snow
16. drops
17. halo
18. lightning
19. pelting
20. polynesian
21. raindrop
22. shining
23. mizzle
24. nimbus
25. patter

Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (HQ)

Pink Floyd -The Wall

About now back in 1980, The Wall by none other than that super legendary band Pink Floyd set the the record for longest charting pop album.

Ian Dury

Today in 2000, singer, songwriter, poet and actor, Ian Dury died after a long battle with cancer aged, he was aged 57. Dury had been disabled by polio as a child, formed Kilburn and the High Roads during the 70's. His first album 'New Boot's And Panties' became a punk classic spending 90 weeks on the UK chart, featured the 1979 UK No.1 single 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick.'

Ian Dury - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick [Official Video]

Metallica - Orion (Music Video "Original Creation" - 1986) [Full HD/3D]

Metallica in history

Today in 1984, Metallica made their UK live debut at the now sadly defunct Marquee in old London town.

Teacher feeds her pet

So I asked a student about his mock English speaking examination. He then informed me that he was awarded 29 points out of a maximum of 30. Jokingly I chided him for dropping one point and he told me why the point had been deducted. Apparently the teacher who was conducting the mock exam did not have time to ask and assess the final question in the exam paper. And why? Because she had to go home and feed her dogs. I hope she has more time when it is the real exam;-)

How To Talk Geordie

Ilkley Moor bar t'at

Ilkley Moor bah't 'at

Wheer has tha' bin sin I saw thee? (I saw thee?)
On Ilkley Moor bah't 'at
Wheer has tha' bin sin I saw thee?
Wheer has tha' bin sin I saw thee?
Ah've been a-courtin' Mary Jane (Mary Jane)
On Ilkley Moor bah't 'at
Ah've been a-courtin' Mary Jane
Ah've been a-courtin' Mary Jane

On Ilkley Moor bah't 'at
On Ilkley Moor bah't 'at
On Ilkley Moor bah't 'at
Tha'll go an catch thee death o'cowld (death o' cowld)
On Ilkley Moor bah't 'at
Tha'll go an catch thee death o'cowld
Tha'll go an catch thee death o'cowld
On Ilkley Moor bah't 'at (etc.....)

Then we shall 'ave to bury thee (bury thee.....)

Then worms'll come and eat thee up ....
Then ducks'll come and eat up t'worms .....
Then we shall come and eat up t'ducks.....
Then we shall all have etten thee .......

Manky

Manky

Manky means unvery pleasant, distinctly not-nice, and yucky, and that this word also has identifiable origins from that beautiful part of England, namely Yorkshire.

Gormless

 

                                                                            Gormless

                                        The British equivalent to the American word “clueless,”

Why English is hard to learn

Thank you for noticing

ELUSIVE - Shadow Dance

Do not follow instructions blindly

Password ''incorrect''

So very true for some people, now where is the off button?

                                       So very true for some people, now where is the off button?

La Traviata,

Off for a little bit of culture in the form of La Traviata, which is only about two and half hours long!

La Traviata - Giuseppe Verdi [La Scala, Milan]

Every Tom Hanks Movie in 7 Minutes (with Tom Hanks and James Corden)

commercial airliners

Very possibly it is time for commercial airliners to have built-remote control as an option, the technology exists, so that tragedies such as the air crash on Tuesday could be averted.

Elusive - Lost In The Rain

Elusive - Fading Rose

I never liked the zoo

I never liked the zoo, never took a liking to the smells, the sounds, but more profoundly the sight of majectic beasts reduced to pacing uo aand down a world reduced to hard concrete and cold steel bars. Pacing, pacing up and down their limited domains. Not in a zoo, but find myself pacing endlessly up and down, all day, within my brick built cage, pacing to and fro, back and forwards.

If the human eye were a digital camera

Did you know that if the human eye were a digital camera, it would have 576 megapixels!

Watchful Bird

Beebee

A certain young fellow named Beebee
Wished to marry a lady named Phoebe
"But," he said. "I must see
What the minister's fee be
Before Phoebe be Phoebe Beebee"

Betty Botter

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter. "But," she said, "this butter's bitter!
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter!"
So she bought a bit of butter better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter, and her batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.

Tongue twister

Sister Suzie's sewing socks for soldiers
Sock for soldiers sister Suzie sews,
If sister Suzie's sewing socks for soldiers,
Where're the socks for soldiers sister Suzie sews?

Ili pika are small animals that live in China

Ili pika are small animals that live in the north west of China and are rather wonderful. Estimates put their number at around 1000 or less and thus are facing extinction. The world wiould be a sadder place without them. Global warming is destroying their habitat, that means arguabky we are the cause of this beautiful species imminent demise. Hopefully some way will be found to protect them and help them to survive.

Catching raccoons

There once was a loony old goat

George R.R. Martin

                                                     Ploughing into the second volume

George R.R. Martin

Read and finished

World Meteorological Day today

World Meteorological Day today, appparently! You know, those people that seem to specialize in forecasting the weather, and usually specialize in getting it wrong ;-)

The brook over which the destroyed German/Prussian bridge spanned.

                The brook over which the destroyed German/Prussian bridge spanned.

The ruins that were once the launch pad for countless jumps and dives in summer months.

The ruins that were once the launch pad for countless jumps and dives in summer months.

Destroyed German Bridge in former Prussia

A bridge, that crosses a small brook whi,ch was completed in 1914, here looking East, the direction in which it carried many soldiers and war material. The bridge was destroyed by local people following the cessation of hostilities. Now the embankment along which it ran, makes for a beautiful place to walk.

A Chinese restaurant that looks good from the outside

A Chinese restaurant in Olsztyn that looks good from the outside, to those impressed by low quality, but whom enthuse about highly abundant Chinese trimmings and furnishings. No, it looks plastic and shallow. But in we go. The menu is handed over and a question asked, to which the waitress has no answer. Looking good so far. The food is served with a bitter foul tasting coffee. No almond tea, no almond tea in a Chinese restaurant!
The duck is served which is barely adequate, but the place has plenty of cheap, cheap pseudo-style Chinese furnishings and a very silly TV blaring out inane Chinese pop music!

On the other side of town another Chinese restaurant is located, which does not look great from the outside. It has cheap plastic mats that stick to your hands, the accoutrements are aged and none to fresh. But they have almond tea, and the food is fantastic and cooked by Chinese chefs and very well priced.
No comparison!

Two hundred star jumps.......and commence

Two hundred star jumps.......and commence

A picture must be tweaked

We want everything changed, manipulated and enhanced. A photo must be tweaked with photoshop. An armpit coated in cloying sweetness and a face coated in creams to hide wrinkles and perceived blemishes. The land is denuded of trees and hedges cut into neat lines and rigidity imposed once  where nature ruled. An animal must be tamed lest we name it wild.

A first-grade teacher, Ms. Brooks, was having trouble with one of her students. The teacher asked, "Harry, what's your problem?"

A first-grade teacher, Ms. Brooks, was having trouble with one of her students. The teacher asked, "Harry, what's your problem?"

Harry answered, "I'm too smart for the 1st grade. My sister is in the 3rd grade and I'm smarter than she is! I think I should be in the 3rd grade too!"

Ms. Brooks had had enough. She took Harry to the principal's office.

While Harry waited in the outer office, the teacher explained to the principal what the situation was. The principal told Ms. Brooks he would give the boy a test. If he failed to answer any of his questions he was to go back to the 1st grade and behave. She agreed.

Harry was brought in and the conditions were explained to him and he agreed to take the test.

Principal: "What is 3 x 3?"

Harry: "9."


Principal: "What is 6 x 6?"

Harry: "36."

And so it went with every question the principal thought a 3rd grader should know.

The principal looks at Ms. Brooks and tells her, "I think Harry can go to the 3rd grade"

Ms. Brooks says to the principal, "Let me ask him some questions."

The principal and Harry both agreed.

Ms. Brooks asks, "What does a cow have four of that I have only two of?"

Harry, after a moment: "Legs."

Ms. Brooks: "What is in your pants that you have but I do not have?"

The principal wondered why would she ask such a question!

Harry replied: "Pockets."

Ms. Brooks: "What does a dog do that a man steps into?"

Harry: "Pants."

Ms. Brooks: What starts with a C, ends with a T, is hairy, oval, delicious and contains thin, whitish liquid?"

Harry: "Coconut."

The principal sat forward with his mouth hanging open.

Ms. Brooks: "What goes in hard and pink then comes out soft and sticky?"

The principal's eyes opened really wide and before he could stop the answer, Harry replied, "Bubble gum."

Ms. Brooks: "What does a man do standing up, a woman does sitting down and a dog does on three legs?"

Harry: "Shake hands."

The principal was trembling.

Ms. Brooks: "What word starts with an 'F' and ends in 'K' that means a lot of heat and excitement?"

Harry: "Firetruck."

The principal breathed a sigh of relief and told the teacher, "Put Harry in the fifth-grade, I got the last seven questions wrong

Maori wisdom

Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua

''As man disappears from sight, the land remains''.

 Maori for respect of Papatuanuku, the mother of the earth, and very true and wise.

Buck Roger

On this day in history in 1979 this gem, this masterpiece, this...this....this film was released. How we suffered!

England 55-35 France FT

England 55-35 France. There you go Sarkozy, de Gaulle, Descartes, Napoleon, d'Estaing and Napoleon!

Winter lake shedding its icy cloak as spring takes hold

                                     Winter lake shedding its icy cloak as spring takes hold

The task was for the student to think of eight guests she would ask for dinner, and to whom she would have them sit and why! This is the result:-)

The task was for the student to think of eight guests she would ask for dinner, and to whom she would have them sit next to and why! This is the result:-)

How one student sees the coming Easter

                                                      How one student sees the coming Easter

Frog on the menu

                                     Frog on the menu, but I gave it the go by this time:-)

Solar Eclipse 2015: Watch In Full

Swan lake

                                                              Swan lake

Ordered human vision of the world surrounded by God's matchless touch,

Ordered human vision of the world surrounded by God's matchless touch,

Steel and mighty horsepower thundering through the town.

                                Steel and mighty horsepower thundering through the town.

Under One Small Star

Under One Small Star

My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity if I'm mistaken, after all.
Please, don't be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.
May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.
My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.
My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.
Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.
Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.
I apologize for my record of minuets to those who cry from the depths.
I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep today at five a.m.
Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.
Pardon me, deserts, that I don't rush to you bearing a spoonful of water.
And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,
your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,
forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.
My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs.
My apologies to great questions for small answers.
Truth, please don't pay me much attention.
Dignity, please be magnanimous.
Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread from your train.
Soul, don't take offense that I've only got you now and then.
My apologies to everything that I can't be everywhere at once.
My apologies to everyone that I can't be each woman and each man.
I know I won't be justified as long as I live,
since I myself stand in my own way.
Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light.

 Wisława Szymborska

What would you do?

Scenario One

Tom, one of your employees, has worked in the office for ten years. He is well liked and knowledgeable about the history of the office and University systems. There is no past history of performance issues that you can see from looking at past performance reviews. What you have observed is that Tom regularly shows up late, (office opens at 8:30am, Tom usually comes by 9/9:15am), takes longer than an hour for lunch, and often is heading out the door by 4:30pm (office closes at 5pm). You notice that this type of behavior seems to happen once in a while for other employees in the office, but seems like a daily practice for Tom. He never records any of this time on his time card as official time off.
Take a few moments to think about the situation and make some notes. What would you do? What would be your first step?

Potential Responses

1. Do nothing; every one seems to be relatively happy and no one has complained to you about this issue. 
2. Address the issue with the office as a whole at a meeting, reminding everyone of operating hours and the importance of being on time.
3. Address the issue directly with Tom, explaining your concerns, exploring his understanding of working hours, and being clear about your future expectations.
4. Give Tom a verbal warning for his lack of timeliness, and tell him if it happens again, he will receive a written warning that will go into his permanent discipline record.

Slade and Noddy

On this day in 1973, Slade were at No.1 in the UK singles chart with 'Com On Feel The Noize', the group's fourth UK No.1.Noddy, Noddy, Noddy.

The spring is coming, the sun sharing more warmth

The spring is coming, the sun sharing more warmth, clothes are being shed and smiles reinhabiting winter faces. Greenery is waiting to explode and fresh shoots of flowers waiting to push throught he earth and explode in colours bright.

Spring

Spring has (almost) sprung

Into the realm of the civil servant

Into the realm of the civil servant in the morning. Offices opened by enthusiastic staff, already clutching kettles as they fumble with keys. A day akin to many others stretching ahead behind the wall of comforting officaldom and shuffling of papers. On such legs the mighty system totters along.

Skype sadness

Skype

''Send me SMS messages - I love it when my phone beeps.''

It actually says this on s Skype page. I love it when my  phone beeps...how inane which can drive one insane can it get! This is so sad.

I'm Alan Partridge - Best Bits

Alan P.

If you see a lovely field with a family having a picnic, and there's a nice pond in it, you fill in the pond with concrete, you plough the family into the field, you blow up the tree, and use the leaves to make a dress for your wife who's also your brother.

Alan

Kids like to go to the zoo but the beasts I like to look at are made of zinc galvanised steel - they're cars.

Alan Partridge

That was Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, a song in which Joni complains they 'Paved paradise to put up a parking lot', a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world. Nevertheless, nice song.

Alan Partridge

Let me tell you something about the Titanic, people forget, people forget that on the Titanic's maiden voyage there were over 1000 miles of uneventful, very pleasurable cruising before it hit the iceberg!

Blues Guitar: Mustang Cruising - Full Album (1 Hour of Guitar Blues Musi...

Aim for the light beyond the door

The Chaos Of English Pronunciation by Gerard Nolst Trenité

Maps That Prove You Don't Really Know Earth

Strange hobbies

Knitting breasts 

Yesterday an adult group had a lesson on hobbies including strange hobbies. They do not come much stranger than the dear old lady from Sussex, which is in England, who knits woollen breasts. Audrey Horncastle gives her woolly boobs to daughter Rhona Emery, a community nurse, to help teach new mums to breast feed.

Love idioms

British weather

Adults Review Toys From The ‘90s

"Frozen Fever" - Dueling Piano Siblings "Frozen" Mashup + Backwards Piano

Gołąbki

                                                       Delicious and on the menu today!                                                                                                                                    

Neglected garden

Overlooking a babbling and cascading waterway

                                                        Overlooking a babbling and cascading  waterway.

Beard limerick

Maths idiom

Limerick

Saved by the bell

Don't bite the hand

French government

French government blocks certain websites, which are probably horrible, and deserve to be shut down. But it was only a few weeks ago that people in France took to the streets to honour freedom of speech, namely for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacare. Is there a certain double standard running through these stories?

Health benefits of exercies.

Health benefits of exercies. Feeling very hungry and thirsty after the exercise. A feeling of pain in parts that are not normally moved too much and the desire to sit or preferably lay down and rest for a while!

Paper toilet

During a lesson a someone got things round the wrong way. Instead of toilet paper, they said paper toilet. Now that does spur the imagination!

I'm a monster

Charles Lews 935 Lies

                   Fascinating, insightful and wonderfully honest, but ultimately saddening.

What a great film!...Up

                                                           What a great film!

In 1968, The Bee Gees

In 1968 in March, The Bee Gees made their US television debut when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.And cue big teeth and ultra beaming smiliness! By 1979 on 17 March they had gone to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Spirits Having Flown.'

International Day of Happiness

International Day of Happiness is on Friday the 20th of March, according to the United Nations. They're having a laugh, aren't they? No, really!

Methinks there is an election sometime soon, nudge-nudge, wink-wink!

''Budget 2015: George Osborne to announce £6billion boost to UK's coffers

The Chancellor will announce a £6billion boost to the economy which he is expected to use to fund a series of Tory manifesto pledges that will see tax cuts for millions of middle-class families.'' 

Methinks there is an election sometime soon, nudge-nudge, wink-wink!

''Most Britons do not know how to make a cup of tea, say scientists

Scientists at University College London say Brits do not let tea infuse for long enough to bring out the complex flavours. ''

 

How ridiculous...for Britons it is genetically encoded in our DNA. Scientistific piffle as they scratch about for  a story that may raise funding for something potentially of use to humankind instead of such drivel.

 

Madrid food tours- Must everything be put on a plate!

I have just read about a service that will take you around interesting places to eat when you visit Madrid. What is it with people,? Must everything be put on a plate (pardon the pun). Were is the sense of discovery and excitement and the magic of simply doing something for yourself.

“What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written.”

“What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written.”


Jacques Derrida

Moose by the road

Driving out of town yesterday through a forested area I was flashed by an oncoming car, by way of a warning. Maybe my lights were switched off, maybe there had been an accident up ahead?

As I drove around a curve in the road I was met by the sight of three, not one, but three large moose grazing by the side of the road. Two with heads down  grazing and the third chewing nonchantly on the bark of a tree. Large and wonderful to see, as long as they didn' step out onto the road!

Amazing.

                                                 Moose doing what they do.

Rugby Union

Rugby Union 

England 20 - 13 Scotland

Well done England!

David Gilmour - Castellorizon

Rolling Stones - Playing The Blues

EU prunes

If you have ever eaten prunes, or watch old people eat them fervently in search of movement, then you know they work.

But the EU thinks differently.

Having investigated the effects of the food on three subject, the EU concluded:

"The evidence provided is insufficient to establish a cause and effect relationship between the consumption of dried plums of 'prune' cultivars (Prunus domestica L.) and maintenance of normal bowel function."

Which evidence did they focus on?

Stupid EU banana law

Stupid EU law. Bananas with an extreme or unsightly curvature were to be discarded by growers. So too were cucumbers that were seemingly not straight enough to be sold.

This law was repealed (re-peeled!) in 2008.

Beautiful paving

                                                Beautiful paving, but slippery when wet!