baldysblog.co.uk

Archive for the ‘Baldy Tales’ Category

As I have mentioned before, these past 8 months have, though truth to tell not at a constant pace, have been spent redecorating my house. It is a process that will likely not be completed before Christmas (2010, I hope !) but it is a pretty thorough job with the aim that from here on in, there will only be a need to ‘freshen up’ the paint work from time to time room by room and as needed.

Although the job is not finished, I have reached the stage where a more ‘normal life’ can be lived as in having a lounge where I can sit back and watch TV if, there was anything much to watch that is. We are not yet into the “Autumn/Winter Season” when they start reeling out all their new series, we are still on the tail end of the Summer Season when nothing but repeats are shown and as a result…

Read the rest of this entry »

I usually rely on the Media to provide me with ‘stories’ that I can look at, think about and then do a ‘personal take’ on but lately, the whole media has been distinctly boring and dull, even the party conference season has not perked them up and the Labour Leadership Election has hardly caused a ripple in a very stagnant pond.

The only thing I have noticed browsing the broadsheet comments boards is that the people who write in these days seem on the whole to be rather nasty and mean of spirit. I thought this was just the militant Dawkins followers or “Dorks” as they are known, fuming over a successful Papal visit but it is not just them. Even on quite trivial news stories, the moaning ninnies are out in force and able to inject some pointless invective on any subject, mass therapy clearly required. So I have decided to do a Baldy’s Ramble…

Read the rest of this entry »

For the background, see below and the earlier, “Focusing My Efforts – Before…” but this blog concerns the second part, after my Mother’s death. Similarly it shows my thinking and expectations at that time, both would be subject to considerable change and for that alone to me, worth remembering the ‘difference’.

So, Part Two…

Read the rest of this entry »

I started writing this blog in November 2007 but its content tends to be more political than personal so about a year ago, I set up another blog with the intention of that being both more personal and intimate. However, for a whole number of reasons, I was just far too busy to maintain two blogs and since have been even busier in ‘doing up’ the house, I therefore decided to close the second one down.

However, the handful of entries whilst not great prose or great ideas, do cover the period up to my Mother’s death and beyond so, in that sense, are most certainly ‘personal and intimate’. In many respects, whilst people commenting and ‘following’ my blog is not that important to me, every entry in some way, is a snapshot of where I am or was at a given moment in time and relative to some ‘issue’. It is not a conventional Diary but perhaps more of a Journal as in recording a journey so below and in sequence are those entries in two long blogs.

Read the rest of this entry »

It was sometime in early March, following my Mother’s death at the end of January, that I embarked on the “Great Redecorating Programme”. How high were my hopes to finish this all in 3 months, no problem ! But alas, the best laid plans of Mice and Men…In truth, there were all kinds of contributory reasons that conspired to cause delays.

Due to the incompetence of a Bank, settling my Mother’s rather simple estate became overly complicated and delayed but also, I rather underestimated the scale of the task I had taken on. I admitted this to a friend of mine the other week and he just laughed, he and his wife had decided that a couple of months back ! However and for all that, looked at another way, my original finish date was end May, the ‘overshoot’ is only about 6 weeks which is not the end of the World.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hard to tell following yesterday’s match with the USA, we shall see. Although I love both Football and my Country, I must admit that I am no fan of watching the England Team which is best done from behind the sofa. I suppose if one starts from the position of accepting that they will always in the end, disappoint and fail to win any Tournament, one can tolerate seeing at just what stage they get eliminated.

My dear Pops was a great sports fan during his life and I once asked him whether in his opinion, it was more painful to watch Tim Henman or the England Football Team. He decided on balance, Henman as with 11 players on the pitch, there was always an outside chance that one could produce a magic moment. Yesterday the England goalkeeper made a blunder in the first half that was to gift the USA a draw but the real point was that the other 10 players weren’t good enough to score again in the second half and deliver a victory and it is that which doesn’t bode too well…

Having written “My Stuff” earlier, I was surprised to receive two mails later on in the day from a couple of total idiots, one an idiot, the other a total coward, if I had got a third, I might have felt that I was in “The Wizard of Oz” and expecting Dorothy to click her heels !

I will start with the ‘Idiot’ who wanted to know when the various parties would distribute their “Manifestos” as if in print it suddenly became a “Money Back” cast iron guarantee. I must admit when I first read what the chap said, I did rather wonder a bit about what planet they came from !

Read the rest of this entry »

There is a lovely line in a John Lennon song, “Beautiful Boy” dedicated to his son Sean that says; “Life is what happens to you whilst you are busy making other plans.” What makes it such a great line is that it contains an essential truth that has also previously been expressed as; “Man proposes, but only God disposes.”

In simple terms, we imagine in our lives that it “will be this” and instead, it turns out to be “that” instead and for me throughout my life, this has often been a repeating pattern although at the age of 64, 65 at the year end, I had expected to be left to quietly grow old, disgracefully or otherwise in this little seaside town on the Bristol Channel but, I suspect not.

Read the rest of this entry »

The other day, a friend of mine who has a decent desktop PC which I support, told me that he wanted to buy a laptop to add to it and outlined his various ‘needs’ with regard to it. As he was in London, he took a wander down Tottenham Court Road to have a look at what was available.

I had pointed him to look out for Lenovo/IBM Thinkpads, well made and highly functional. A little later he came back and said that what he wanted was something discreet but stylish in looks not some lump of ‘nasty plastic’, he does have a design background but it made me think about the whole concept of ‘beauty’ and question what it is…

Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a totally daft tale but sadly, true and concerns BT the so called telecommunications company who have designed a system to ensure that as a customer, you will never ever be allowed to ‘disturb a manager’ with a question or a complaint

On my return from living and working in the States I rented a flat in Bedfont, near Heathrow Airport and at the time BT launched ‘broadband’ which was technically fine except that they wanted you to pay for it monthly by Credit Card for some bizarre reason.

Read the rest of this entry »