Haven't got much to say. But I will allow the random thoughts that daily plague my brain to fall out.
Tod news: There has been an uprising in the stealing of school, scout and every other type of buses used for transporting our young around. The scout master was so pleased to be stopped by the police when he was driving a borrowed van from Shade (yes there is a place called Shade). I reckon the police just have to read the Tod chat line and they could catch the villians in situ. As for those two thirteen year old lads who stole the box of vapor things. A message went up from the shopkeeper, sorry lads they are empty but could you return the box.
Daughter and granddaughter are staying the weekend over in London, it is a birthday treat so I am all alone for the weekend, which saves worrying on what to cook. Yesterday it was butter beans in a tomato sauce served with plenty of mash. The day before chickpea koftas with sweet potato wedges.
Beans are the great standby of the vegetarian cook, so much easier to add things to as well. A slurp of wine, a dash of smoked paprika or curry, sweeten slightly with mango chutney the koftas. Kidney beans can stand alone without the mince in a chilli sauce, and mushrooms in a stronganoff.
Also you can have fun with salads, slicing thinly, sweet hard pears with avocado pears. Beetroot with mixed beans.
Got caught walking alone along the canal the other day, by two who were working for the Canal Trust, once caught I could not talk my way out of becoming a 'friend' of the canal. Luckily I did not have my card with me so the whole matter stalled much to their disappointment - £5 a month, should I find them next week I wonder. My daughter reckons it is a racket, charity is big business don't you know, Oxfam are very good at it. I have never quite found the answer to how much money you pay to the so many charity organisations that plague us.
Well the Sue Grey report went down with a large thump of disappointment, he crawled out of it again but the writing is on the wall says she hopefully, as people start to speak out.
As for the terrible happening in America, and the news that the police left it for half an hour before moving in. The images are shocking in my mind. To hear Trump on the news this morning, of course defending the right to have guns just makes me sick.
I find it outrageous that charity-muggers expect you to set up a standing order these days. I have a friend who was properly mugged on a canal towpath once. They didn't ask for a standing order, they just took whatever he had on him.
ReplyDeleteOur canal paths always have people walking along, so mugging is not seen in Tod 'crime wave' figures. All I can remember of the canal outside Bath to Bradford-on-Avon was that it was a beautiful walk spoilt quite a lot by cyclists.
DeleteMy friend was mugged on the other stretch below the weir leading to Bristol (via the river). Cyclists - or the militant ones - are a pain in the arse who think they own every inch of pathway they happen to be on at the time. They should be licensed and insured like the rest of us. That may show them what rights they do and do not have.
DeleteHaving once a long time ago now been taken to court for cycling on the pavement, I am appalled at the way that cyclists are allowed to dominate any other pavement users. I haven't seen the new Highway Code yet to see if there has been any change, but cyclists were always supposed to use the road and not the pavement.
DeleteOutside my house here, they not only ride on the pavement but also the wrong way, shooting red lights at pedestrian crossings. If they knock someone down, it is next to impossible to prosecute them or obtain compensation for injury. They would have no trouble in getting compensation from a car which hit them when they were cycling toward oncoming traffic.
DeleteI'm sure things in the States will be sorted soon as the teachers will be armed - handy for shooting any kids who misbehave I suppose! What a crazy world they live in.
ReplyDeleteMore guns is hardly the answer as you so rightly point out Sue. It is crazy in America and they are the only people who can find the solution.
DeleteCrime in Tod and Texas make an interesting pair of bookends, with beans, barges and Boris sandwiched in between. An interesting reading ramble.
ReplyDeleteYou can see why it is called a Magpie's Miscellany John. Clever alliteration as well on your part!
ReplyDeleteI always refuse to sign up to any charity subscription if tackled on the street.I always offer a donation but they refuse that.Incredible.
ReplyDeleteCharity has become a business, one of the things asked by all charities now is if you pay tax, you can get some sort of rebate. Somehow I think charity has to be rationalised but how I don't know.
DeleteI actually heard Trump say that every school needed one teacher able to shoot and carrying arms I tried hard to imagine it - but couldn't.
ReplyDeleteA gun in a classroom Pat? What would be the rules that govern that decision? America has to grow up and just stop selling guns to ordinary people.
DeleteHome alone? I hope you made sure the doors were locked before going to bed. It seems incredible that Trump and the National Rifle Association were effectively promoting more gun ownership straight after a pointless and bloody massacre of innocents. What twisted logic!
ReplyDeleteYes I did, I have trusty Teddy to guard me, fast asleep in front of the Aga. As I have already mentioned old men like Trump, really need to drop out of telling the world what to do. They have no empathy, only greed and power moves them forward. Perhaps America needs a revolution, but then that is violence as well....
DeleteArming teachers is ludicrous, as those who think it may be a solution also know.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I opened an email of a newspaper. Three 'old, white men' greeted me in a photograph, until the old values are thrown out we will never win the argument Joanne.
DeleteF loves the way you think and write - a sort of blog version of Alistair Cooke. Letters from Tod.
ReplyDeleteThank you ;) Been there this morning, a photo of a flippin long horned cow grazing the verge on the road - out again. Everyone is complaining about the non event of the carnival yesterday, though there is a fair in the park with the giant tea-cups for the children to go round on, but only two dogs turned up for the agility in the dog trials, Life in the quiet lane or is it the slow lane?
ReplyDelete