Buzzing about ...

Busy Busy Busy ... busy bee busy bee ...

... now that was entertainment ... Arthur Askey ... (other black and white Music Hall acts are available) ... if you don't know ask your (gt) grandparents ..

So ... we are all in this together ... working through the pain ... we managed with austerity during the war ... still looks like bleeding the patient dry to cure a headache, but I am certain that they know what they are doing ...

... whether they are being honest in telling us what they are doing is another matter ... I still have the sneaking suspicion that in 3 yrs time GB-populace will be presented with a 'bill-of-sale' and advised that we are now jointly owned by burgeoning economic powerhouses of Asia ... `it was tough but we struggled through and got a jolly good price, don't you know!' ...

... then again, perhaps this is Fate settling scores of Empire ... there is a certain degree of irony in this ...

... still, in less than 2012 hours we have a feast of running, jumping and prancing about to look forward to ... and several decades of reaping the legacy ... and what fun, many (mostly) just words of condemnation for unelected regimes of the Levant using heavy weaponary within national borders in defence of its own populace against 'unwarranted agressors' ... then we have missile batteries on rooftops in the East End and we all pray that none of our loved ones are flying out of Docklands over the summer ...

... again irony sometimes does not know when to stop ...

... and through all this, those who work for the public purse just knuckle on ... no share bonus ... no incentivised pay-scheme ... no pay-rise ... just more demand ... fewer colleagues ... more measurement ... more targets ... more abuse ... less support ... its almost as though they want us to fail ...

... surely not ...

Plugged in...

... so it goes ...

Yet another poor soul in today for treatment as consequence of their smartphone ...

 ... busy checking up on his social network accounts (no names to avoid lawsuit) on his mobile tech and yet to evolve the evidently necessary third eye in the top centre of the cranium ... young master walks straight across the road junction and across the bonnet of the old gent minding his own business tootling back from the garden centre ...

... all of which raises several points ... interesting or otherwise ...

... whilst awaiting the paramedics to attend to his (it is later revealed) double compound fracture of both tib & fib and dislocation of one knee, did he take the opportunity to tweet his latest adventure ...

<<lying in road in severe agony OMG!>>

... if the poor old chap with the bootful of geraniums had been updating his MyBook page when he struck down the flower of modern youth, he'd be up before the beak in no short order to have book and then several hefty medical bills thrown at him ...
... so is the pedestrian similarly processed for 'perambulation with due care and account' ... having seen the contents of his MP3 player (got stuck on rapid scan as a result of the RTA) prosecution on grounds of contrtavention of basic taste and decency is a most definite possibility ...

... and, without wishing to channel my grandfather, when did it become necessary to be plugged into the network 24/7 ...

... surely humanity has not reached the depths of existentialist despair whereby one's very existence is confirmed by audio-visual stimulation ... if stimulation is what it pertains to ...

... it was said that mankind was but two meals from barbarism ...

... now it one minute unplugged maybe enought to render swathes of the populace bereft of meaning and validation ...

... then again ten seconds unplugged may have saved today's first case from what will be the best part of a year's recovery ...

As Mr Ant bext expressed it, though somewhat anachronistically, "Unplug the juke box! Do us all a favour"

(and, No, the irony of the means of this medium does not escape me)

Easter can be so much fun ...

"Happy Easter"

What an odd greeting when you come to think about it ...
....for a nation that ostensibly has a Christian faith as a state religion ...

('a Christian faith' ... well it seems from this lowly position there are so many to choose from ... and there does seem to be a basic lack of consistency on "detail" ... but that's a ramble for another time) ...

...to wish someone to have a good time when the festival is that time to recollect some poor working sod who was nailed up for basically saying ...
"Why can't we all just be a bit better with each other, I mean, would it be too much to ask for everyone just to take a moment, consider the other guy's position and show a little better grace, eh?"...

..."Happy Easter" ... ? ! ? ...

"Reflective ..." - maybe ...

"Considerate ..." - there's a thought ...

"Selfless ..." - that would be novelty ...

"Happy ..." - nope, just don't fit the picture I've got ...

Still ... it does have it's lighter moments ... consider the younger ratling taken with his elder sibling to village church by my dear better half's parents to enjoy / witness / endure the sermon from the guy in the frock ...

 ... don't get me wrong ... there is nothing more worthy than caring, loving and bearing witness for one's fellow rat, especially for those poor souls who struggle more than thee ... but there's a chasm between 'doing good stuff' and "Look at us - aren't we doing good stuff - over here, yes us, good stuff, yes?"...

... and after a quarter hour ratling jr becomes bored, gets down from the pew and runs headlong up the central passageway and into the pulpit exclaiming to the world ... "Going to play in the castle ..."

... sometimes I wish I did have not such a strong aversion to houses of religious proclamation ... (then again it's not my fault that the basin of water inside the door boils whenever I cross the threshold) ... still, shows he's a chip of the old rat ...

... elder ratling was mortified by this of course (bright lad but far too sensitive at this time and definitely needs some rough edges knocking into him ...) ... but even more so when jr graciously placed the pound coin he was given by gparents into the collection plate ... with beneficent smile amongst the aged of the parish ... and then proceeded to extract the larger notes from the mammon thereon ...

... now that's my lad ... ensure that you extract payment for your time and valuable resource ... after all being cute and winsome does not come free ... those rosy cheeks won't pinch themselves, you know ...

... still for all this the ratlings do get to see that people can get together and try to do some good stuff ... ignore the fluff and nonsense, strip away the flim-flam and get down the message ... do unto others as you would be done by, as sometime very very soon you might be an 'other' ...

So ... we will have a quiet, contemplative, giving Easter - we work (no public holiday for those who work for the public) and we give - we think of family - and we resolve to do better ...

(and not eat all the chocolate bunnies this weekend)

Have fun

You know your planet is screwed when ...

... sat at the breakfast table you realise the contents of the fruit bowl have collectively travelled further in the past month than you will ever do in your entire life ...