What is your most annoying thing ?

For me it is anything to do with the council. Look at what happened only yesterday. I went to the town just to post a package at the post office, parked my car in the only space available there, walked to the parking metre to insert a coin and it swallowed it without giving me a parking ticket. I was in such a hurry that I hadn't noticed that this particular car park machine wants to have your last three letters of your car registration. Like if I'm likely to know it by memory, so I had to camel a long way back to where I had managed to find a tiny space to park my car to read whatever those letters are.. whilst a lady behind me had to patiently wait until I came back with my car registration letters. Anyway, I push the correct buttons for each of the three letters, inserted the 50 pence coin and nothing ! No ticket. I was incensed the machine had swallowed a pound by now without producing the blessed car park ticket. So.. I thought I would encourage the machine by giving it a good karate kick, then another one but the machine wouldn't budge ! Theoretically I had already paid for two hours of parking without having my ticket, so this meant that if the car-park inspector came and see my car didn't display the proof of payment he could slap me with a fine ! Also I would be damned if more of my money would go into this hungry cash-cow machine. When I looked back, I already had a crowd of people around me. So rather than find another machine, I walked out hoping I wouldn't get a parking ticket in the meantime whilst I went to the post office to post my parcel. So this meant I had to do everything in a great hurry to avoid a parking fine. Another annoying thing that the council has done is that they have narrowed the white lines which separate each car, so you can park your car within the white lines but these are so narrow, that there is no room to open the doors ! So needless to say I had to squizze out of my bearly opened door without my handbag and with great difficulty I had to yanked it out of the car... all this I had to do, whilst minding not to scratch the next door car, parked beside mine. It is very lucky that I'm not a fat woman and I was able to squeeze out of a narrow 50 cm space gap. The council does this, in order to be able to squeeze in more cars like sardines in a can. A canned car park. Phew !

Our New House

Well, this space that you see here, is where the stables used to be and it will be our living room.
Yesterday we went to see the oak being placed. Then there will be wooden arches inside the structure. The door will lead to the kitchen and where you see the small window will be Peter's office. Its beginning to shape up after the stables were pulled down. The builder said that it was on schedule for October so maybe we will have a warming house party. Although we won't be moving over there until the spring.

Invation in Afghanistan

After nine years of this invasion and approaching 2,000 coallision soldiers dead, little has been achieved and the stalemate is taking its toll in blood. On this invasion one trillion dollars have now been spent and its taken a year to move 20 km. The experts say it will take another 4 years to march 70 Km to take Southern Helmand. It has lasted more than the Viet-Nam invasion and the second World War. Take a look at this film at: guardian.co.uk

Filming ' Heir Hunters '

This is the beautiful town of Hungerford we were lucky to stay at The Bear Hotel this is one of the oldest and most historic Inns of England it is said to date back to the 13th Century. Standing on what has been called " the Crossroads of England" it has witnessed many famous events in our history.

It is recorded that in 1537, Robert Braybon, landlord, gave evidence against three highwaymen who had stayed at the Inn and were accused of robbing a merchant between Bagshot and Windsor.
Three years later, Henry VIII gave the hostelry to Queen Anne of Cleves and in 1541/2 to Queen Katherine Parr who survived him. Queen Elizabeth I visited Hungerford and it is said that one of her coachmen died at The Bear.

During the Civil Wars, Hungerford was embroiled in the fighting and Charles I made The Bear his Headquarters.

The two famous diarists of the 17th Century, John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, both stayed at The Bear and were impressed by the quality of the fish.

From the 6th to 8th of December 1688, William, Prince of Orange, later King William III, stayed at The Bear and on the morning of 8th in his bedchamber he met the Commissioners of James III, stayed at The Bear and on the morning of the 8th in his bedchamber he met the Commissioners of James II last of the Stuart Kings, Lords Halifax, Nottingham and Godolphin bargained with the Prince all morning and in the afternoon he retired to Littlecote House. Within a short time, James Stuart had fled to France and William and Mary jointly ascended the throne.

I really feel fortunate to have been able to stay in such a wonderful place, so steeped in history.

Fame Or Infamy book by Stephen Powell

Okay. I have had to open another second thread because Victoria could not get in her post about her Jack the Ripper walk with Don Rumbellow and more comments on Stephen Powell's book. It is just now that it becomes crystal clear the motivations of Caroline Morris as to why she is trying her level best to convince people that Victoria doesn't exist. Tell me Victoria.. did you introduce yourself to Don Rumbellow ? I would like to know if you did.

Fame Or Infamy book by Stephen Powell

I have been reading this book and I'm savouring each page. It is not a book to devour in one go. I have to say that Steve's early experience as a musician has a real pull; it draws you in and it would strike a chord on anyone who wants to do something with their life, specially in the music field. It gives a very interesting glimpse of how it all works from his personal experiencies, that is, from the eyes of a musician. Steve writes very well and I have been impressed about his style of writing since it is not about whether a comma or an apostrophe is in the right place but more importantly how it makes the reader feel when you read it and that for me is the mark of a real writer. I know many people who can put their commas and apostrophies in the right place but who have absolutely nothing INTERESTING to say.

It is not important either, if its a Jack the ripper diary hoax or the Hitler diaries hoax that his misguided friend Park was trying to forge as that was in itself stupid, dishonest and not interesting. The best part of this book is when Steve Powell describes the juncture that every human being has to cross in their lives as he was striving to succeed in his devotion for music, that I found really interesting, and his music is very good, with a lot of people admiring it in real life. Maybe Steve should try to market his book to the music industry. It really is a very interesting Australian story.

Cruise 2010

Hola ! Notwithstanding the horror of the virus in the ship which didn't thankfully affect us, we did have a good time. We had a pretty room with enormous French windows at the back of the ship where we could see other boats on the high seas or when our ship docked at each destination. The climate was colder than here in Britain and on the excursion to the Etruscan mountains we got wet from tip to toe in a torrential rain that didn't give us a respite and my beautiful summer straw-hat was left as limp as a rag doll ! Maybe I will be able to fix it, if I spray it with starch. If you could see me at that time, I looked like a cat that had been dipped in a swimming pool but the excursion to Tarquinia was really interesting, especially the visit to the museum where they have funerary paintings and ancient stone sarcophagi which are intact and date back long before the Roman era. Afterwards, we were taken to an ice-cream establishment. The five ice-creams would have been very welcome on a hot summer's day but not when we were cold and shivering, dripping rain from head to toe but even so, they were absolutely delicious and I am happy that we didn't catch neither pneumonia nor the blessed virus that was circulating in the ship. On that same excursion a lady recognized Peter from the Heir Hunter show and she yelled out: Peter Birchwood from Celtic Research from her table to ours. She was fascinated talking with him afterwards. There were other people who recognized us from the show, Peter and I were surprised to see this whenever we shared a table with other people.

The excursion to Naples was cancelled, the captain told us the pilots were refusing to come out to direct the ship because of bad weather although an Italian lady whose family was expecting her at the port, telephoned her to tell her they had enquired about it to the port authorities and they were told that the ship was not allowed to dock in Naples as there were too many passengers in quarantine. They couldn't risk unloading people from our ship for reasons of health and hygiene so could not allow them to roam freely in the Napolitan streets. We didn't have any problems with the other countries. Although we didn't get to see Monte-Carlo as the excursion was cancelled due to the Grand-Prix going on, the reason being that the roads would be too congested to get back in time before the ship sailed again. Maybe we will make it another time.

Next, was Cannes. Really pretty with its yachts moored in the harbour. We got there in time for the Film Festival: Palm D'or. We saw the white marquees as we strolled along the beach where the film stars were being interviewed by the T.V. channels. It was very exciting! After that, we were taken by bus to see the red rugged cliffs washed by those intense blue ink waters of the Mediterranean; something really beautiful and impressive to see.

Afterwards the ship headed to Corsica where Napoleon Bonaparte was born: his statue was prominently displayed in the main square and his birthday is celebrated every August. In Corsica they make good use of the plants they grow there, turning them into essential oils. Plants like Myrrh , sea weeds, lemon, rose petals etc are turned into perfumes or potions for different remedies. I bought lemon oil, for sea sickness, then we were taken to a nougat factory where they produce a special Napoleon nougat which includes chocolate and other secret ingredients in the recipe that of course, was not even whispered to us. I had more than my share during the tasting time ! It’s not polite to do this but I couldn't help it. We bought about 5 different nougats. Then we went to sample their wine at another location. The weather was balmy and very pleasant. The roses were already in full bloom. It was a really enjoyable day.

In the ship, there were s