Hi Robert, Victoria and Dougie !
I had a fun filled birthday party and I laughed like I hadn't done so in years !
I am pictured here with my art teacher, a professor from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and his wife Macarena. The blond one, is my cousin Patricia and her fiancee Dr. Rafael Garcia, an oncologist and without a shadow of a doubt, the most handsome doctor at the Ruber Hospital in Madrid. On another photo, Peter is caught eating a strawberry jelly. The atmosphere was great and the venue at The Palace Hotel was really excellent; the food, the attention, the music, everything. We were 13 of us and everyone had a jolly good time, a day to remember as long as I live. They all had such a good time, that I even had a request to celebrate my birthday more than once a year.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Thursday, 21 May 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBERT
Have a really lovely day on your 29th birthday and I hope you get many nice things. Did you get my nicotine patches yet ? heh,heh,heh
Saturday, 16 May 2009
The MPs Expenses Scandal
This is too important to ignore. As the shameful disclosures by my new favourite newspaper: The Daily Telegraph keep coming out, with revelation after revelation of how the dishonourable Members of Parliament mis-use taxpayers money to line up their pockets, I really do not think things are going to be the same for politicians in the U.K. anymore. Most people didn't know what really went on with the expenses; there were some constituencies where the people didn't even know who their MP was, let alone the rip-offs they were up to. Now, we have to thank the courageous decision of the Daily Telegraph which dared to publish the names and misdeeds of those who abused the system quite spectacularly. Now, the guilty ones say it's the system that was wrong. It's not the system that is wrong, it's the MPs who are wrong and they know it. Imagine the idiot David Chaytor who said that he had "made an unforgivable error " when he claimed nearly £13,000 in interest payments for an interest mortgage that he had already paid off. I mean... how can he explain away that ? this is fraud, he faces a criminal inquiry into his expenses.
The police, have been reluctant to get involved after several previous failed political investigations, but they have been left with little choice following serious allegations of fraud, and growing public anger. The Metropolitan police have received a number of complaints from members of the public about MP's including the Cabinet members: Alistair Darling, Geoff Hoon, Baroness Uddin and the former Minister Elliot Morley, who recently resigned after his misuse of public money was published by the Daily Telegraph. Lawyers have said that Mr. Morley's expenses claims could constitute a criminal offense under the 2006 Fraud Act and the 1968 Theft Act. Morley, who was a minister for nine years under Tony Blair, blamed his " error " on "sloppy accounting" he was claiming £800 a month for 18 months after his mortgage had already been paid off and when he was caught, he said it was " sloppy accounting " How can anyone forget that they have already paid their mortgage off ? Does he really expect us to believe it ? The only good thing that has come out of this is, that all the three major political parties have got together and agreed to form the Coallition of the Fraudsters because somehow it's not their fault! Oh no. " It's the system's fault " and they now say they need an independent body to tell them what is proper to do and what isn't. If they cannot tell the difference between what is proper and what isn't, then they have no business in Parliament. The whole lot should go. Having an £8,000 Danish television on expenses is a luxury not a necessity, a crystal chandellier is a luxury, having your moat or your swimming pool cleaned up ,are luxuries ! Anyone with half a brain can see that. Heads are beginning to roll and a few resignations have taken place but that its not enough. Criminal charges have to be brought up and made to stick, if they want people to believe in politicians again.
The police, have been reluctant to get involved after several previous failed political investigations, but they have been left with little choice following serious allegations of fraud, and growing public anger. The Metropolitan police have received a number of complaints from members of the public about MP's including the Cabinet members: Alistair Darling, Geoff Hoon, Baroness Uddin and the former Minister Elliot Morley, who recently resigned after his misuse of public money was published by the Daily Telegraph. Lawyers have said that Mr. Morley's expenses claims could constitute a criminal offense under the 2006 Fraud Act and the 1968 Theft Act. Morley, who was a minister for nine years under Tony Blair, blamed his " error " on "sloppy accounting" he was claiming £800 a month for 18 months after his mortgage had already been paid off and when he was caught, he said it was " sloppy accounting " How can anyone forget that they have already paid their mortgage off ? Does he really expect us to believe it ? The only good thing that has come out of this is, that all the three major political parties have got together and agreed to form the Coallition of the Fraudsters because somehow it's not their fault! Oh no. " It's the system's fault " and they now say they need an independent body to tell them what is proper to do and what isn't. If they cannot tell the difference between what is proper and what isn't, then they have no business in Parliament. The whole lot should go. Having an £8,000 Danish television on expenses is a luxury not a necessity, a crystal chandellier is a luxury, having your moat or your swimming pool cleaned up ,are luxuries ! Anyone with half a brain can see that. Heads are beginning to roll and a few resignations have taken place but that its not enough. Criminal charges have to be brought up and made to stick, if they want people to believe in politicians again.
Friday, 8 May 2009
MAY IN SCOTLAND
We are heading to Edinburg, Scotland on business tomorrow. So on Sunday, I will have a chance to see their National Gallery. I am looking forward to being there, as it has been several years now since we last visited Edinburg . It will be a flash visit but I will be back on Tuesday. I have to devise a way to write on this blog whilst I am away. I couldn't get access from my lap-top. Take lots of care and have a great weekend everyone.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
New Jack the ripper book
So what happened to the maxim: ' Never Judge A Book By Its Cover ' ? It seems to me that the established ripper authors are trying to ban a book not for its content but are just judging it for its cover. Pathetic ! and nothing, absolutely nothing that happens at Nut-casebook surprises me anymore. If you are not in their tiny little club, then they will make sure their lobby of a few little number of people will try to make sure your new book does not have good reviews in the hope that the new author will go away and they will be the only people in the market.
Once, the author Stewart P. Evans one of the ripper authors asked me when will it all end ? When will people stop writing more books about Jack the ripper ? and I replied to him, so long as it remains a mystery, there will be more people writing books theorising who did it and you will just have to put up with it. They wish their theories alone are the ones that stand and they do not want any competing books who tell another story other than the one they have already written. It is not good for their sales which is the only thing they are interested in.
Attacking a book for its cover shows how narrow minded these people are. Specially on a photo which has been circulated on the internet over and over again. That is very petty.
Once, the author Stewart P. Evans one of the ripper authors asked me when will it all end ? When will people stop writing more books about Jack the ripper ? and I replied to him, so long as it remains a mystery, there will be more people writing books theorising who did it and you will just have to put up with it. They wish their theories alone are the ones that stand and they do not want any competing books who tell another story other than the one they have already written. It is not good for their sales which is the only thing they are interested in.
Attacking a book for its cover shows how narrow minded these people are. Specially on a photo which has been circulated on the internet over and over again. That is very petty.
Ireland in May
Hello Robert, Victoria and Dougie.
We have just returned from the Emerald Island from having spent nine days there, between Dublin, Navan and Longford. In Dublin, we stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel which is the oldest in town, founded in 1824 and is situated just around the corner from the National Gallery of Ireland so as you can imagine, I spent most of my time there, viewing the paintings and exhibitions in situ brought from the Netherlands from the most iconic images of the Dutch Golden Age. These paintings were borrowed from different art galleries and all date from the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch Republic enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and the Delft art scene flourished. The masterpieces I saw, were specifically from Delft, paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Carel Fabritius & Pieter De Hooch. Downstairs, there was an exhibition by Thomas Roberts an extremely gifted Irish landscape painter who lived between 1748 - 1777 and who unfortunatelly died before he was 28 years old of consumption. I enjoyed his paintings, his detailed and controlled topographical works, and his keen understanding of the fundamentals of classical landscape painting in terms of recession, tone and balance. It just goes to show that Classical paintings are timeless and the day will come, when all this tat, that now passes as " art " will be cast aside as the rubbish it really is. Would you believe, that down the road from there, where Nelson's monument was before the IRA blew it up, it has been replaced by a steel mast ! at a cost to the tax payer of 30 million Euros. Its hard to figure out this is supposed to be " Art " I would say, con-artists did this.
In Longford, we stayed at a charming country estate called View Mount which had a really nice period house ( Georgian ) with impressive and beautiful gardens. One of them was a Japanese garden with a pagoda included. Their restaurant had superb gourmet food, served in four different courses and all the rooms have wonderful views to the gardens. In their library, whilst I was browsing one of their books, in one of the pages of an Irish history book I came across a painting by my Great-great-grand aunt, Maria Spilsbury; this is a painting I had never seen before. I will show it to you here.
We have just returned from the Emerald Island from having spent nine days there, between Dublin, Navan and Longford. In Dublin, we stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel which is the oldest in town, founded in 1824 and is situated just around the corner from the National Gallery of Ireland so as you can imagine, I spent most of my time there, viewing the paintings and exhibitions in situ brought from the Netherlands from the most iconic images of the Dutch Golden Age. These paintings were borrowed from different art galleries and all date from the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch Republic enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and the Delft art scene flourished. The masterpieces I saw, were specifically from Delft, paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Carel Fabritius & Pieter De Hooch. Downstairs, there was an exhibition by Thomas Roberts an extremely gifted Irish landscape painter who lived between 1748 - 1777 and who unfortunatelly died before he was 28 years old of consumption. I enjoyed his paintings, his detailed and controlled topographical works, and his keen understanding of the fundamentals of classical landscape painting in terms of recession, tone and balance. It just goes to show that Classical paintings are timeless and the day will come, when all this tat, that now passes as " art " will be cast aside as the rubbish it really is. Would you believe, that down the road from there, where Nelson's monument was before the IRA blew it up, it has been replaced by a steel mast ! at a cost to the tax payer of 30 million Euros. Its hard to figure out this is supposed to be " Art " I would say, con-artists did this.
In Longford, we stayed at a charming country estate called View Mount which had a really nice period house ( Georgian ) with impressive and beautiful gardens. One of them was a Japanese garden with a pagoda included. Their restaurant had superb gourmet food, served in four different courses and all the rooms have wonderful views to the gardens. In their library, whilst I was browsing one of their books, in one of the pages of an Irish history book I came across a painting by my Great-great-grand aunt, Maria Spilsbury; this is a painting I had never seen before. I will show it to you here.
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