Friday 31 August 2007
Battle of the Bulge
For a while now I've been waging a rear-guard Battle of the Bulge. Now in my early forties, I find it a tad difficult to keep up enough exercise to fight my ever increasing circumference. I suppose it's not too bad and I would by no means describe myself as a proper porker, or obese. But I am slightly vain and I remember how trim, strong and lean I used to be as an 18-year old. I was just in the army and the daily dose of physical exercise turned me into a lean, mean fitness machine in a matter of weeks. Ah..those were the days. Perhaps it's still not too late. You do see men of my age and older who have flat stomachs. Perhaps they don't like beer? Who knows? Meanwhile, in Japan they are working on other ways to battle the bulge
Ain't nothing going on but the rent..
Semi-regular visitors to my blog may have noticed the appearance of a few commercially minded posts recently. Have I sold out? Methinks not. I fully intend to keep posting original posts, pieces of opinion, the odd film review, cartoons and what-not. But making the occasional gesture to the world of business is something that I would not make excuses for, I must say. I have nothing against the world of commerce, after all, and bills do need to be paid. And if running an independent blog affords me the opportunity to gain some revenue, then who am I to stand in the way of my own financial advancement? So, do keep coming back to the Lionheart's Den. I will keep posting original content. That's a promise you can take to the bank!
Dreams of this and that..
I've been entertaining some mighty awkward dreams again recently. Do not fear: I shan't be boring you to tears by telling you the content of said mares. I think there are few things more tedious than having to listen to someone else's dream. It's like having to hear endless details about a film you haven't seen.
Just suffice to say that whenever there is some turmoil and/or emotional turbulence in the air my dreams take on this nervy quality and I lose my hard-fought equilibrium, albeit never for long.
Human beings..aren't they strange? I think so..
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A holiday in New York is truly something special and using DialaFlight can help make for a very special travel experience. Flights to JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports are easily arranged through DialaFlight.
Just think about it: You could be sauntering through the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn or Staten Island before you know it.
For cheap flights and holiday offers there is but one choice: DialaFlight. Full of useful travel information, the http://www.dailaflight.com/ website is your starting place to find the holiday of your dreams. From here you can search for flights, hotels, car hire and many travel ideas including weekend breaks, beach holidays, spa holidays and much more. We all could use an affordable quality holiday sometime. All work and no play..you know the rest.
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Thursday 30 August 2007
Wednesday 29 August 2007
Tuesday 28 August 2007
Into the Country
It was the August Bank Holiday and, for once, the weather was warm and wonderfully sunny. We went to see the in-laws who live across Salisbury Plain in a small market town in Hampshire. As always it was a fabulous drive along England's long and winding roads, with at every turn another bucolic vista opening up. I spotted the chalk white horse on a hill to the north of the Plain and we saw plenty of birds of prey hovering over the crops in the hot late-summer air. There were people out walking, cycling, hiking. Happy faces sitting in the beer gardens of picturesque country pubs made for a cheerful sight.
Scotland is rugged and remote, Wales impressive and green, but England...
England is a melancholy dream, a hazy half-remembrance of great things that lurk forever just out of sight in the recent past. A flavour savoured, a mirage, a dream cherished. I love it.
Scotland is rugged and remote, Wales impressive and green, but England...
England is a melancholy dream, a hazy half-remembrance of great things that lurk forever just out of sight in the recent past. A flavour savoured, a mirage, a dream cherished. I love it.
Tuesday 21 August 2007
What justice?
Yesterday a team of three judges of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal decided in their infinite wisdom that an
Italian man who knifed to dead a school teacher twelve years ago may not be deported as was the wish of the Home Office, because doing so would breach the killer's human rights.I think we can call this a gotspe. The wife of the murderer's victim said that she was devastated that this person, a foreign national, can remain in the same country after his release from prison. He has managed to play the system in order to get a result that makes his life easier.
What, indeed, about the rights of the victim's family not to have to run the risk of running into this allegedly reformed knife-wielding maniac. Every day we read about the most horrific violent crimes and more and more people are becoming scared by what is perceived as a worrying rise in severe crimes. What are decent people to think when three judges want to keep a disgusting killer in our midst rather than co-operate with the Government who want to deport him? It doesn't look good when the human rights of the perpetrator are valued over the rights of the victim's family. They say that a good deed never goes unpunished. Perhaps nowadays an evil deed is rewarded?
What, indeed, about the rights of the victim's family not to have to run the risk of running into this allegedly reformed knife-wielding maniac. Every day we read about the most horrific violent crimes and more and more people are becoming scared by what is perceived as a worrying rise in severe crimes. What are decent people to think when three judges want to keep a disgusting killer in our midst rather than co-operate with the Government who want to deport him? It doesn't look good when the human rights of the perpetrator are valued over the rights of the victim's family. They say that a good deed never goes unpunished. Perhaps nowadays an evil deed is rewarded?
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Smorty, a great way to make money blogging
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To have a go or not to have a go..
On this grey afternoon in August, I just finished reading an interesting article by Jeremy Vine where he argues that the next time he witnesses an anti-social act he will intervene. I'm not so sure I would. When you hear on a weekly basis news stories of decent citizens trying to prevent thugs from doing what thugs do best, and getting badly hurt or even killed in the process, I think we can be forgiven for not intervening when we see something nasty happening in a public place. That doesn't make us brave, in fact it makes us slightly cowardly. It also makes us survivors in an age when children go around stabbing each other, and teenagers carry guns and 'off' one another left, right and centre. If you do intervene and prevent some hoodie from carrying out their nefarious deeds, you probably end up being charged for abusing said hoodie's human rights under European law.
Monday 20 August 2007
Driving to Evesham
We went to see friends of ours yesterday who live near Evesham. This is about an hour and a half drive away through some really lovely countryside. I love the English country and there are few things that give me more pleasure than a leisurely drive along the long and winding roads of this green land.
Of course, the weather was abysmal and the windscreen wipers were earning their keep. You have to remember that there is a reason why England is so very green and that is, in a word, rain. And plenty of it. Even the recent floods notwithstanding it tends to rain often here.
In the part of the country where I live the weather is usually quite mild, due to the gulf stream that warms up the South-Western corner of Britain. In the seven years that I have been living in this part of England I have never been cold during the winter season. And you see people out in shorts and short sleeves all year round, including in the months of December and January; something that seemed crazy to me in the beginning.
While at Heathrow the ecomentalists are still protesting against the weather, I cast a weary eye out of the window only to see it’s a grey and sullen day.
If only it would rain again, that would be something.
Of course, the weather was abysmal and the windscreen wipers were earning their keep. You have to remember that there is a reason why England is so very green and that is, in a word, rain. And plenty of it. Even the recent floods notwithstanding it tends to rain often here.
In the part of the country where I live the weather is usually quite mild, due to the gulf stream that warms up the South-Western corner of Britain. In the seven years that I have been living in this part of England I have never been cold during the winter season. And you see people out in shorts and short sleeves all year round, including in the months of December and January; something that seemed crazy to me in the beginning.
While at Heathrow the ecomentalists are still protesting against the weather, I cast a weary eye out of the window only to see it’s a grey and sullen day.
If only it would rain again, that would be something.
Sunday 19 August 2007
AdBux
I don't usually post these type of things but I've been using AdBux for a while now to earn some extra money. All you do is login and click on links that show an advertisement. After a little while you get a confirmation that you've earned another few cents. Most ads on AdBux will pay $0.01. As there are a lot of links to click on every day your income increases quite rapidly. We all have to pay the bills so a little extra helps. Sign up under my name at
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if you're interested. It's a site that really works well.
Friday 17 August 2007
Mag
Just a quick note to direct any readers to my magazine AHM . The future of this august publication hangs in the balance, dear readers, as other pressing claims on my time become ever more apparent. I have edited this magazine for a number of years now and have enjoyed dealing with poets, keen to see their work published. Over the years, Ancient Heart Magazine has showcased poets from around the globe and it has attracted a loyal following. I'm not sure how to break the news that the next issue may well be the very last. You've heard it here first!
Thursday 16 August 2007
Tuesday 14 August 2007
Monday 13 August 2007
Friday 10 August 2007
Thursday 9 August 2007
The Glorious Bristol Buses
In a country where so many of the once-public amenities are now privatised and thus in the hands of some would say mercenary entrepreneurs, travelling on buses and trains can be a bit of a dubious challenge.
Here in Bristol, the buses are run by one giant transport firm. This firm, active in many parts of the western world, has a near-monopoly on public transport in the region; thereby nullifying the notion that privatisation necessarily means more choice for the consumer. Every now and then a new outfit tries to run one or two measly bus routes but before long the heavies are sent round by the giant bus firm and this brazen putative rival is put out of business.
So, we pay a large sum for a bus service that, frankly, leaves something to be desired. All in all, I’m not one for moaning and griping and I don’t think the service is very bad. It’s just that it’s not very good and very expensive at that.
Some of the drivers are good sorts; friendly, courteous, smartly-dressed in uniform, shirt and tie, helpful and customer-aware; and, doubtless long-suffering as some of the abuse that a frustrated public heaps on them is downright nasty. These are the lucky ones.
Some other drivers just grunt as you say ‘Good morning’ to them. For these sullen souls the term ‘jobs worth’ could have been coined with special distinction. The travelling public consists mainly of commuters, or, if you’re unlucky, of families of chavs returning to the suburbs from a shopping spree in the city centre.
I often get away with not having to have someone next to me. It’s usually not that busy. I tend to open any window that’s not open when I board the bus as certain members of the ‘Great Unwashed’ are indeed hygienically challenged, to put it mildly.
It is often said that you get a lot of freaks and weirdos on the bus. This section of the populace is usually represented with one or two delegates. And it always amazes me to find that most ‘strange’ or unusual people are very sociable, in fact extremely so. They always feel the need to direct their chatty ravings to an unsuspecting fellow passenger who probably had a hard day at the office and just wants to get home.
Sometimes I’ll listen to some music (not too loudly) on my MP3 player. Or I’ll cast a weary eye on the pages of the free newspaper. Traffic notwithstanding I usually arrive at my destination before I know it, more or less ready to tackle another day at work.
Can’t wait for the day when we can start commuting to work by means of a jetpack engine strapped to our backs. But no doubt there will be problems and frustrations with that mode of transportation as well…
Here in Bristol, the buses are run by one giant transport firm. This firm, active in many parts of the western world, has a near-monopoly on public transport in the region; thereby nullifying the notion that privatisation necessarily means more choice for the consumer. Every now and then a new outfit tries to run one or two measly bus routes but before long the heavies are sent round by the giant bus firm and this brazen putative rival is put out of business.
So, we pay a large sum for a bus service that, frankly, leaves something to be desired. All in all, I’m not one for moaning and griping and I don’t think the service is very bad. It’s just that it’s not very good and very expensive at that.
Some of the drivers are good sorts; friendly, courteous, smartly-dressed in uniform, shirt and tie, helpful and customer-aware; and, doubtless long-suffering as some of the abuse that a frustrated public heaps on them is downright nasty. These are the lucky ones.
Some other drivers just grunt as you say ‘Good morning’ to them. For these sullen souls the term ‘jobs worth’ could have been coined with special distinction. The travelling public consists mainly of commuters, or, if you’re unlucky, of families of chavs returning to the suburbs from a shopping spree in the city centre.
I often get away with not having to have someone next to me. It’s usually not that busy. I tend to open any window that’s not open when I board the bus as certain members of the ‘Great Unwashed’ are indeed hygienically challenged, to put it mildly.
It is often said that you get a lot of freaks and weirdos on the bus. This section of the populace is usually represented with one or two delegates. And it always amazes me to find that most ‘strange’ or unusual people are very sociable, in fact extremely so. They always feel the need to direct their chatty ravings to an unsuspecting fellow passenger who probably had a hard day at the office and just wants to get home.
Sometimes I’ll listen to some music (not too loudly) on my MP3 player. Or I’ll cast a weary eye on the pages of the free newspaper. Traffic notwithstanding I usually arrive at my destination before I know it, more or less ready to tackle another day at work.
Can’t wait for the day when we can start commuting to work by means of a jetpack engine strapped to our backs. But no doubt there will be problems and frustrations with that mode of transportation as well…
Wednesday 8 August 2007
Monkey business:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6936533.stm
I would be more than a little surprised if I saw one of my fellow passengers sporting a wee simian underneath his hat. At least it wasn't a rabbit being pulled from a hat. No one wants any airborne magicians, really. The picture of the little chap looks innocent enough. I wonder if he was allowed to sit on the captain's lap in the cockpit?
Friday 3 August 2007
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