Odds and sods

Well first of all, the family arrived safely to this rather pretty little chalet in the middle of a field, I have just read on F/B that my son-in-law has  cycled 7 miles down to get croissants for breakfast this morning, and is not only having to face cycling up but has lost his way!  He has been cycling a lot lately down the Calder Valley, 30/40 miles cycling does not seem to strain him so his health has returned from the move to Todmorden.

What has has caught my imagination, well not the migraine of yesterday, I do tend to panic and worry about problems, probably the headache is due to worrying that the family would arrive safely in Switzerland, and also the wretched television going wrong at the cottage.  We had a phone call on Sunday from the present  rather nice Yorkshire occupants saying they could not get it work. It had gone wrong a couple of months ago, something to do with the S** box (Rupert Murdoch's name is banned in this household), so another bill is not welcome.  Anyway, come Monday and Peter at the holiday agency had called the relevant man and it was fixed.  Now if that had been us in Whitby, we would probably have to wait weeks before someone turned up!

What else, the news is sombre, not helped by me turning to Al Jazeeri news channel yesterday, as I watched scene after scene of war and fighting - Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria,  it seemed like the world was going up in a flame of fire and that we in our  cosy world have no comprehension of the suffering and sadness, yet here we were remembering our own terrible tragedy in the first world war. War falls beyond our comprehension sometimes, it is useless to ask why, only that it is ingrained in the souls of men from time immemorial.  Nostra Culpa

To happier things, a funny but rather bad poem by the great grandfather of my grandchildren will not go amiss on this sunny morning...

The Tourist's Lament by C.J.Opper

A rainy evening in Vevey,

Fills me with intense dismay,

The faded splendours of Montreux

Leave me feeling rather blue;

And if we must stick to verity,

I don't go overboard on Territet.

And, I must say,

Whoever got hooked on La Tour de Peilz?

For Corsier, Blonay, Chebres and Corseaux,

I'm unequally unmoved or even more so;

If there's a place I'd rather not be on

Its the top of the tower of the Chateau de Chillon.

In Southend they would'nt have the cheek to serve,

That cupper tea we got at Villeneuve

We got fish and chips just beside the church

But you have to ask for fillet de perche.

So..... you just ask your mother why we're here,

When we might have been on Wigan Pier.