The Windows of Porto

I have not been posting much recently. In my defense, your honour, I cite a bad back, old age, senility and the general paralysis of the insane. However, I have enjoyed reading a number of books from the comfort of my bed of pain. I have travelled to foreign climes, Portugal since you ask, and enjoyed a family wedding. God, I found myself wishing the couple the best of luck, which is pretty thin gruel when you consider what they will have to deal with, better the fair love of my heart.  It was good too, to catch up with members of Herself's large and welcomming tribe. We rounded off the holiday with a stay in Porto and luckily made it back to Stansted despite the Transportations of O'Ryan.
The books below are, I am assured by my records, those which I have read!

Little Boy Blue - M J Arlidge,
The Harbour Master - Daniel Pembrey
The Three-body Problem - Liu Cixin
Nowhere Girl - Ruth Dugdall
Himself - Jess Kidd
I’m Travelling Alone - Samuel Bjork
The Pledge - Friedrich Durrenmatt

Collinn Farrell is rumoured to be interested

The world, as you may well know, is in a terrible state of chassis. The weather, it being the height of the English Summer, somewhat cold and damp. Phwatt in the name of all that is good and holy is an old man with a bad back meant to do? Well, since you ask, curl up with a good book from Suffolk  Library. 'A man with one of those faces' by Caimh McDonnell. I won't bother you with details of the plot, the finely drawn characters that grace its pages, the wry commentary on youth, sex, drugs and country music or the dreadful state of a mangy Celtic Tiger portrayed therein. Suffice it to say that if you ever see a guard with a Hurley heading your way and your conscience has the least speck upon it run like feck or drop to your knees, extend both arms sideways, and intone 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani'.

A second volume has been prepared for your delight 'The day that never comes' which makes it sound like one of those Morse thingies, no offence there Colin, wouldn't want you turning in your grave. What with the other Collinn rumoured to be interested. ( Do we not have to be careful here with M'learned friends? He was buried, wasn't he, not cremated? Is there not an unhealthy proximity betwixt the words grave, rumoured and interested?...Ed)

I have in my hand the finest Hurley ever to smote leather or the large arse of a fecking eejit!
Eat your heart out Bunny McGarry.

Cygnet Ring

Late Post

Well a belated good new year to all our readers, yes you at the back!

What have we been up to?

There was, of course, a glut of birthdays.

I'm not sure where the cake came from but...

(Ed... tell me do they make dog biscuits as well?)

Very creepy, very creepy!

More Holidays?

Another wee flower for the collection.

And a strange naming of streets...

From Grope to Grove to Union!?

At least we know what the Gauleiter  has been up to this summer.

Chocolate Pickles

and he's grown a mustache.

Well Well

Couldn't resist the pun!

Flowers of Scotland.

First a portrait of the artist as a fat old man as we missed Bloom's Day.

We were taking the air ....

Slowly!

When we chanced upon a host of wee fleurs...

(A host usually implies a significant number and what's all this nonsense about chancing, chancing your arm no doubt... Ed)

I hope you had a good break from your labours too!.

What we did on our holidays, again.

Stoned?

History Lesson

Very Pharonic?

Twitching the Electric Snipe

And Calling the Silkies.

Jeux

Holidays can be such fun-

A bit of a fish out of water to begin with.

But we had a whale of a time

To play chess arrange your castles at each side of the beach!

But I am the king of the castle.

Time for painting

Such a busy bee.

And so to bed!

If you don't find something you like

I apologise for showing a snap of this painting without being able to give an attribution.
I will, of course, correct that if someone could....



The snap is mine and I couldn't resist the message...


Responses may be printed (only if I say so ...Ed.)

What we did on our holidays

Reading

Swimming

Eating

Sleeping

Lakka

Dawn boy brings his blessing to the bay.
The cock, finally, signals the right hour.
Smokers join in the dawn chorus.

Sailors stir, some to fish, some to ferry.
Those with time mess with their boats,
Fixing and setting, swimming and swabbing.

A boat returns with provisions and a lookout dog.
From the crow’s nest of our balcony
We watch a flight of crows below.

The beach in full sun; houses piled on a shady hillside.
The olive trees, a grey green fringe on a shimmering pate.
We start the day with beauty around us.

Stormy Weather

Normal Service will be Resumed After a Period of R and R.

(Absolutely outrageous; life is one long holiday for some people... Ed)

Where we went on our holidays

Anyone drawing conclusions about the state of the nation from this photo could be seriously wrong. It has been booked by a young couple for their honeymoon!

An island not much visited

According to Boswell, Dr Johnson reported this after his visit courtesy of the wind and waves. This is a good thing for the few who find lodging on it and are able to enjoy the views, beaches, flora and fauna in relative peace.

Much restored after a week here, battered by beauty and the wind (but not rain) we return with glorious colour worthy of a tropical sun, at least from the scarf up!

What we did on our Brithday (63 in a series)

The weather was kind for my sixty third to heaven.
We took ourselves off to the coast and there after a spot of lunch inspected the Navy, much reduced now we are in a period of austerity...
We had a brief artistic interlude where we inspected the front and rear of old Babs...




Then off to the seaside and a good time was had by all. Gracias a la vida.

Christmas

So; here is one to get your head round.
The tree has been decorated; herself takes delight in this and if you look hard you can see Linda the moose, and Gladys the penguin(who I insist is Linux!) All good stuff and if you combine it with 9 lessons and Carole's with a little bit of Fizz you could almost believe the world could be a better place.


Felices Fiestas!

Still Room?

We have been on holiday in the land of the Wal, Adrian's Wal.
We have also been plagued by notices which have caused us to stop and think deeply; not necessarily something you want to do while resting your brain on holiday.
This, for instance can not be true for all time and for all capacities.



Maybe the estate has a man who comes round at the appointed time and unscrews the notice putting up another bearing the legend...

That's enough now! No more shoving, you could not get another sardine in there sideways.

Other signs which caught our eye indicated Severe Dips.
What, pray, are these mordant mixtures ready to assail us on the roads?
Barbaric Barbecue,
Caustic Cream Cheese,
Grave Guacamole,
Harsh Hummus,
Tight-lipped Taramasalata,
Taxing Tzatziki.
We never found any of them. Perhaps they were the Hidden Dips which seemed to abound or not as the case may be!

Doors were often identified as Alarmed. I know I can be a sight but I would never, knowingly, frighten a lump of wood! Some doors were Alarmed at Night; poor things obviously scared of the dark!

The sign which gave us most concern advised Caution, Sheep!
I'm telling you we drove very carefully past those beasts, not wanting to provoke a savage attack on our tires or even having our windscreen wipers broken off!

We had a grand time. He built a lot of Wal old Adrian, and roads and ruins and had hypercosts.
Interesting to note even the Romans had dodgy builders and inflation.

Quality and Symmetry

So herself claims that her Aunty Jenny won second prize in a competition for embroidery when her work was presented the wrong way round.

Sad, undoubtedly true, and a testament to the quality of the work of people who had better things to do and did them!

I did enjoy the visit to the undercrypt of the PoW.
There are some very good people in the world.
Happy birthday!
I hope you enjoyed the trip to Paris.

Whimsey and money laundering

In case HMRC and the serious crime wallahs read my last blog can I just say that I take money laundering, tax evasion and like very very seriously! It is not only a crime it is the machinery which powers illegal drugs and arms distribution, loan sharking, people trafficking, and prostitution. The sorts of things that do not make for a healthy and convivial society.

In the last century, when we were involved in starting and developing credit unions, we were addressed by a person from the Registrar of Friendly Societies on the subject of money laundering. Oh how we laughed! Then I pulled out an envelope, I had given up smoking by then, and on the back of it did a few, quick, calculations. Even in those days it would have been pretty easy to launder a million a year through the rudimentary credit union network and with the restrictive limits in place at the time.

Being a woolly minded liberal I am all in favour of HMRC going round, kicking down each door in turn and confiscating any boodle whether under the bed or not. The alleged owners would have to provide the usual audited accounts and receipts and a note countersigned by Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama, and Desmond Tutu to certify that they were of good character, kind to children and small animals, active participators in civil society and gave freely to a variety of campaigning good causes (apply buddhistpizzagoodcauses.org/BancoBuddistPizza/Palermo) before assets could be returned.

However, a tale told against myself, I have been caught with my hands in the washing machine, as it were.

A holiday on Paxos started with our taking our first dander down to the Harbour Bar. Being near the harbour, herself was drawn to the edge to peer over. In an instant she was not there. This was not an assumptive intervention of a benign deity more a result of the edge of the harbour being wet and slippy. Panic, fear and other feelings passed through me as I moved to the edge where herself was just breaking surface. With the help of bystanders she was pulled bodily and safely from an early bath and I was much relieved. The only injury was to her pride. Everyone was kind and concerned and the Harbour Bar provided hot coffee and brandy for free. I was able to make the case that as a concerned spouse and weakling I needed to participate in this measure of revivification.

Thereafter, herself was a village icon. Those who spoke English enquired, daily, if she had been swimming and those who did not smiled sweetly and made swimming motions with their arms.
The link to money laudering came when wet clothes and the contents of pockets were processed after the adventure. I ended up washing Greek currency in the sink and hanging it out to dry on the washing line on the balcony of the apartment. Jesus, I thought, thank god the FSA can't see me now!