Harbinger and BryBoy?

I have recently had an altercation on my blog between two contributors. It was lengthy and at times venomous. Hell, the only other time that I have had 20 comments was when I upset the gay community so I was quite pleased to attract the attention. 

This blog normally attracts only friends and family and a few people who have found it independently but 'Captain Ranty' has also given me a platform which I have always appreciated.

I do however express opinions which are controversial. I read, I research and I know when something is wrong with our society. I have consistently claimed that there is a malign influence in British society which is being created without public approval. Our politicians have a disconnect with the British public which is unhealthy. Our police now have a disconnect with the British public which is unhealthy. 

Our army is engaged is an inexplicable war in Afghanistan which has never been explained. Our soldiers have been constantly repatriated in hearses and we don't know why? So I question? I cry when I see the families mourn their dead because I share their grief. Who has deployed our forces into a war that cannot be won?

How can our presence in Afghanistan be justified? So why are we there? We are there because people who control and order our politicians require our troops to fight on their behalf. The British are brave and the British are malleable so let them be the bankers' mercenaries.

The power of the blogosphere allows me to express my honestly held beliefs. So back to the point of the post...I attracted a guy who holds highly controversial opinions. He calls himself 'Harbinger' and comments on many blogs. He has a lot to say for himself but then he has also done a lot of research. 

I have another contributor 'Newsboycap' who I believe knows 'Harbinger' (I don't know either of them) but they have regularly encouraged this blog. I know that our society is under threat. We really have to fend off the threat of being a second East Germany. 

We have accommodated mass immigration, We have accommodated a European judicial system (Human Rights) and we have lost our fishing industry, our manufacturing industry and our British humour. We can no longer mock each other in jest.

Someone or something has attacked our society which at one time attracted anyone who valued fair play and democracy. We now have to watch what we say, our children cannot play outside unmolested and we whisper in corners if we want to be honest. Tell me honestly that the views of 'Harbinger' are not well placed.

He is actually voicing an alternative voice. Something entirely different from the mainstream media and he can be challenged. I believe that he should have a voice because some of what he has to say has a resonance. We have major problems of perception in our society and we need people to project an alternative opinion. 

So I can understand people being upset by what Harbinger has to say but let him have his platform because somewhere in the ranting is an enlightenment. He really is trying to tell us something... just read between the lines. (Neutrino please don't regard this as a criticism...I so agreed with so much that you challenged but some things have to be aired).

SAB tks!

Happy Christmas!

It is time for the grumpy one to wish everyone a really Happy Christmas! I have just returned home from a normal Friday evening at my local club. The bowls section of the club always congregate in the same corner...it is becoming a row because it seems to be expanding.


I am so thankful that I have so many social friends because life is meaningless without friends. It is at this time of year that people actually begin to appreciate what they have got. So Merry Christmas to my family, to my mates, Bert, Derrick (spelling), John, Paul, Rob and Margaret, Colin and Cinth, Michael and Jane, my relations Chris and Derek and their families and my mother in law, to Ali's church friends, to Ruth and Ben and family, to my dear Mum, to my NLITEC ex trainees, Jay (who supports me without question) and her family, lovely Jackie who works such long hours and Bec who I have found again after so many years. Then we go north to Scotland to Iain's friends Jess, Tris, Linda and Dan and Ann. 


I would also like to include my son's ex wife Janine because she is responsible for our third granddaughter Taylor. My old army mate Bill and his wife Valerie and then Dennis and Jen and Pete and Sue and Ann and Mick and Alex and Jane...this is getting ridiculous!


I have probably forgotten so many people but I have tried to illustrate how friendships are so important and mean so much at this time of year. I could go further afield to America and to Australia, to Hong Kong but I have just realised what a lucky guy I am! Maybe in the New Year I should stop being so grumpy but then I seriously care about the state of my country!  


Finally may I just thank all of the people who have drifted past this blog and contributed. Somehow I am attracting an audience of sorts because my viewing figures continue to escalate. Most of it is thanks to Captain Ranty for picking up this humble blog and granting me an Awkward Sod status! The fight against oppression will continue.    

Friendships

Life is full of surprises! Today I had a lovely surprise because I rediscovered a friend who I deserved to lose. For a brief period (well brief in the years that I have lived) we could not have been closer in a work environment.


Three times we travelled to Germany with a mixed group of young people on exchange visits and we had a ball. I could not have achieved anything at that time without her support. I relied on her completely and she never let me down.


Ten years ago I survived a series of operations which included a spell in intensive care and we subsequently lost touch...my fault. I was married and she was 30 years younger than me so the friendship was suspected by everyone. They had no reason. I wonder how many other people have had a dear friendship frowned on by society and have lost touch because it is the easy way out?


Today we found each other again (she is now married) and gabbled for an hour. I am so happy! I hope that now she is married that people will accept that we just loved being with each other because it was bloody fun!

Friendships

My wife and I spent a really pleasant afternoon today with friends who we had not seen for a good dozen years at least. We had been friends throughout much of our army careers sharing highs and lows.

From the moment that we met it was just as if we had never been apart and I think we all realised what a unique set of experiences we shared in the army. It brought people together and forged a bond which stands the test of time.

I know that it won't ever again be a dozen years!

Family and Friends

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the friends and family who attended my wife's birthday party on Saturday evening. It was a great evening which went without a hitch and she is still on a high that all her friends and work colleagues made the effort to turn out.

Our entertainer Mark Traversoni (01788 860433) began by entertaining the children with a magic show, before performing close up magic at each table. He then upset my grandchildren by putting grandma in a box and then attempting to force knives into her head! Despite their tears (!) I can thoroughly recommend him.

The food was excellent and everyone seemed to have a great night. Pride of place on my chart for special thanks goes to my daughter who once again played a blinder. She is such an accomplished organiser and I just knew that she would ensure that her mum had a great evening. Thanks also to my son who in the middle of his law degree finals drove 300 miles with his daughter so that everyone was there on the big night.

This is family in action. I know that it is my family but all over this country despite the trendy liberal/NoLab tendency to discourage marriage it is the cement which build this country together and there is no substitute to personal commitment. It is a lesson which needs to be learned and it is only learned through events like Saturday night. Grandma is very happy even though she hates the idea that she is finally not in her fifties any more!

Four Musketeers!

This afternoon I spent something like three hours enjoying myself purely because I was in the company of friends. When one talks about a lifetime of friendship these are relatively new friends. They are locals and have been all of their lives and I am not. They have known each other for all that time and they have so much in common.

I have survived in life's jungle because I had a good education which served me well but these guys have survived through their practical ability and integrity. They swop stories about their lack of academic ability and can laugh at the world because they successfully brought up decent families and made provision for their old age.

There was not one silver spoon at that table, no dark secrets about dirty business methods, none of them I am sure have ever made money by cheating their mates and here we are happy and relatively comfortable. This is the difference between those who are greedy and those who were honest and made families their priority.

I think that our gathering was testimony to a generation who have been lucky but who deserved their luck. We came from a background of toil and endeavour. We can now watch the world recover from hypocrisy, greed and dishonesty. Is it not time that any subsequent government harness the working class ethic that was the platform for the success of our country in the past?

Someday, somebody will ask our surviving pensioners...how did you do it?

Loughborough Greenfields

I have just returned from a night at my local club. I returned clutching a leg of lamb courtesy of a weekly meat raffle that we contribute to each week. Greenfields at one time was the Fisons club until it all went wrong with Fisons and a group of individuals decided to save the facility.

Loughborough Greenfields is our little piece of England. It is a location where friends can meet and enjoy the company of people who they know and trust. We have a bowls section, a tennis section and a cricket section but the core support of the club stems from the bowls. Tonight I looked around and realised that just a few individuals keep this club alive during the winter months.

It is probably the same all over the country because we have become a very selfish society. The youngsters take what they want from their club and then ignore the basic essentials which provide them with a club. In the summer the bar is often packed with tennis players and cricketers but where do they go in the winter when the club needs them?

Still the point of this post is to mention people like Bert, John, Derek and Colin who are real mates and turn up every week to keep their club alive. It is our little piece of England and we enjoy out natter. Heh and the credit crunch can take a running jump because we are too old to bother about it!

Friends!

As I get older I begin to realise that one of the most important aspects of life is friendship. I am a lucky old man because I have a local set of friends at my bowls club who mean such a lot to me. Every Friday evening we meet and although it is so understated we mean such a lot to each other.

We all have ailments because old age is not for cissies but we battle on and support each other. I am further blessed because I have another set of friends who have a much deeper value as they go back to my youth. You see my new friends generally have all known each other for their entire lives. They know who is married to whom and who was involved with who forty/fifty years ago. I do not have that knowledge but I have another set of friends who remember my youth.

On Monday my longest standing friend is arriving in Loughborough and I am so looking forward to his visit. We first met in 1973 and we have shared so many personal experiences that we are soul mates. He now lives in Granada, Spain but previously he had a house in Sarasota Florida and I was privileged to visit him there with both my wife and son. Prior to that my wife and I visited him in Cyprus when he was a Major in the army.

No doubt we will once again drink too much but we will raise a glass to absent friends and I know that Mick (in particular) Dennis and all our old comrades will be remembered with much affection.

Meantime my new friends are all on a county bowls tour destined for the Isle of Wight and I know they will love it. They will love it because they are all with people that they love and good luck to them! Friendship is so important.

Friends!

A couple of days ago My wife and I received an invitation to a joint 60th birthday party. We have known Jenny and Dennis for close on 38 years because Dennis and I served together for many years in the army. We met on an army Russian language course. He was the course star and I was an also ran but then he is quite the most accomplished linguist that I ever met and believe you me I have met a few.

It got me thinking about friendships and how we can judge them. Real friends are people who you can see very rarely but when you meet again then the years are rolled back. There is never anything but pleasure when you meet them. You know that if they ever need you then you would be there unconditionally and the good thing is that you know it would be reciprocated. Service life breeds that kind of friendship.

It is bred out of hardship and adversity because you learn who you can trust and who will go that extra mile for you and for the job. Service friends are friends for life and I feel so lucky to have been part of it at one time of my life. It should be a great occasion.