The right to an opinion........

UPDATED:
I am still very much a firm believer in the right to have an opinion and the freedom of speech in society providing it is not deliberately used to incite violence or any form of racism or religious discrimination. This includes all the other freedoms we have won over many centuries however, I do not like the trend towards the rights of minorities taking precedent over these hard won freedoms of ours and I maintain the right to challenge issues that I feel are wrong.

Here's an example, for many years now I have been the member of an on-line forum where many controversial issues are openly discussed and often very robustly. In fact so robustly at times that the Moderators of the site need to be quick to intervene and either delete the postings or bring cool sanity to an otherwise overheated debate.

However Of late though a growing admittedly minority group of, shall we say, an "older" generation of contributors who are clearly not as erudite, educated, literate or dare I say intelligent enough to be able to counter an argument with cogent well thought through responses resort to abusing the writer personally. Their mode of "attack" is to resort to small, personal slights, not outright ranting attacks, but small irritating snide attacks that are in many ways very painful, even to a crusty old debater such as I. Let me give you an example, suggesting that in my case, my contributions were "pontificating" or "arrogant" or some other unfair negative description. My views were opposite and critical of theirs, nothing less. Of course this is only their view of me, but I have to say that I always like to be forthright and yes, I have strong views which I may express strongly but in clear and cogent terms without personalising or naming anyone in particular.

One type of response I have grown to dislike intensely is the follow up one of my posts with a retort simply says something like "what"? or "meaning"? Rather than typing a full sentence. In these cases I can't bring myself to respond nor to some of the more detailed responses that are riddled with the most terrible spelling errors or complete lack of understanding of basic grammar or punctuation. I am no scholar or academic but I have pride in my use of language and am careful how I present it.

I hate to see poor spelling where little or no effort is made to check BEFORE posting the response. I used to surreptitiously correct spelling and punctuation until it became all too tedious and I became even more despairing of the sheer laziness of the writers.

So, why bother I thought. Why put up with the sniping and innuendo, why correct the spelling, why punctuate the posts and the answer? A was a resounding blank!

I don't want to suffer the stress of it all from these ageing dinosaurs from a past age, these old crusty class warriors who make me cringe at my own working class background, these silly sexist dolts with little or no understanding of the way to deal with disagreement in an intelligent manner. My detractors seek to spread the blame by implying that I am attacking every member of the forum, I am not. But I am attacking those who seem unable to contribute properly.

So I walk away and leave them to it and sadly I am not the first to do so and I am sure I wont be the last. What is more worrying about this and what prompted me to write my thoughts was that this trend seems to be more and more prevalent in society in general. Any scan of Facebook, Youtube or some other social networking sites and you will see these rantings and poorly written posts.

It's back to my brighter side from now on as the burden of the "old world" is behind me now and I don't intend to go back.

A Matinee Performance....

It was probably a mistake on my part when I, admittedly somewhat reluctantly, agreed to go to a matinee performance at a certain well known south of England theatre of an also well known "Cowboy" musical. We were going to walk to the theatre but a rather heavy downpour persuaded me to take the car and run the risk of getting caught up in a traffic jam of epic proportions at the end of the show or some sort of pensioner road rage incident. In any event having negotiated the many slow moving pedestrians on the way into the car park and safely parked we made our way to the theatre entrance at which point I started to think that perhaps an afternoon at home writing the Blog would have been a better plan. These thoughts were quickly confirmed when on entering the auditorium the overwhelming perfume of Ralgex, TCP and Parma Violets hit me square on. Now I know that you know, I am no spring chicken but I have to say that I felt young among the sea of grey hair and yes my remaining hair is grey also but I still think I am only 35(in my head somewhere)!! - Well it was an ordeal is all I can say about this particular show. Now I don't mind the odd musical with some good solid sing along songs and a nice bit of energetic dancing but this was not it. The set comprised of a couple of sheets of linen and a sloping floor down which were cascaded apples on two occasions and the cast in many, well they ran or danced up and down it but unfortunately didn't cascade down it which would have kept me awake for a good part of the performance had they done so. Rather touchingly there was a group of disabled young people with a wide variety of disabilities. One young lad was clearly enjoying himself in as much as soon as the opening chorus started he gave a loud bellow of pleasure and on several occasions later during some of the well known set piece songs. Many grey heads spun around like tops on various expressions of shock, horror, disapproval or plain curiosity which all went unnoticed of ignored. I could have given a bellow of pleasure myself at this youngsters pure exuberance and pleasure that he was clearly getting from the show. Sadly, I wasn't able to gain the same pleasure but I would have shaken his wonderful uninhibited hand for so unwittingly thumbing his nose at his critics or perhaps he was actually doing what I wanted to do all along, which was shout out "get off, you're rubbish"!!!

"The One Show" BBC TV

If it were possible to tranquillise Christine Bleakley on live TV then I would be first in line to administer the heavy does of Ketamine that she clearly needs at the moment. This vision of flashing toothed, tanned beauty I so admired early on in "The One Show" has started to become almost hysterical at times when interviewing some of the more flamboyant or, dare I suggest, more attractive guests which pop up in this eclectic early evening programme on BBC TV. Her laughter starts to sound more like that of an inmate of Bedlam rather than the cheeky (toothsome, tanned , leggy... stop! I have to keep focused) young thing she is. Her tan, which I understand is sprayed on by a specially selected blind, Northern Irish eunuch using a radar controlled spray gun is perfectly Café Latte. Sorry, I am drifting off again. Her tan during one of her more hysterical moments ranged from a creamy coffee, through dark tan shoe polish to a lively reddish glowing brown, she was hot!. By this stage I can take no more and find myself torn between great arousal or great indignation each combined with a full rant at the TV screen (much to the annoyance of one lady who shall remain anonymous at this time - 'cos she is sitting here with me!). I also have to mention Christine's wardrobe, which I find rather mysterious, which can never be predicted except to say that the skirts do get shorter by the week, hence the "leggy" comment earlier... he ankles don't do it for me though which I say only to be cruel! I seem to be neglecting dear old (No, I am not having an affair with CB) Chiles. Who's range of "businessman trying to look casual and failing miserably" shirts simply ranges from blue to bluish. He did wear shorts once but lets not dwell on that. I so preferred him doing "Business Lunch" I knew exactly what he was about then but sadly not this incarnation. Is he a comic (no) is he a wit ( he tries) or is he simply a redundant business reporter? I leave you to make your own conclusions on that question.

Finally I have to mention the madness of BBC and "The One show" in their operation of petty, daft, useless, stupid, unnecessary and pandering to "Political Correctness". We have seen the departure of the shows finest eccentric, Carol Thatcher over comments made that none of us heard after an allegation by someone we can't identify and recently the suspension for some unspecified incident that someone complained about yet the details of which are unknown. They did do a slot on the more daft examples of PC but all the time you can see the "trend" they have towards being a tad over sensitive... watch and see.... Personally I think the "production team" are the culprits .. probably so PC they pick up the Guardian with tweezers!

Here is an item from The One Show.. just to show I am impartial ( Not!)

Mission Accomplished!

Well, it took six months of searching, disagreeing, agreeing, changing minds, negotiating and finally buying! But, we did it in the end and moved back to Chichester after an absence of about 15 years (apart from my working time there) and a welcome return it has been too.

We have a new house which does meet almost all V's specification in that we can walk into town, there is a bus route near by and there are two bathrooms! There are some issues over roominess but otherwise its good. Our initial fears about the rather large and messy Scots Pine have now been overcome as it does act as a nice sound proofing barrier from the houses just across from us and it is also a home to several varieties of wild birds that I have managed to attract with a supply of feed suspended from its branches. As a bonus we have a nice green in front of the house and thus no parking of cars which here is a real nightmare!

Each house has at least a parking space and most have a space PLUS a garage yet despite this most people seem to be leaving their cars in front of their houses ...

I watched the garden people destroy our garden and then reconstruct it, although I confess we remained unconvinced that it would ever meet our expectations. But I have to say that looking at it now it has certainly come on a great deal. The grass is a lawn once more and I am compelled each week (or more ) to stagger about behind the flymo keeping it lush. All the flower beds are planted, there are pots of fragrant geraniums and a border of lavender plants that will flood the garden with perfume. All in all it's looking good.


So the garden went from "rough" to even rougher! and then to this!! A place to sit in, relax and even hide in a shed! ... Green tranquillity... so many scented plants and herbs make this our own Sensory garden.


OK, it's back to the weeding for me now and some contemplation about "The One Show" on BBC TV.... watch this space as I so often say!

Christopher Biggins

I just had to get this off my chest.... the overblown, over-hyped, over exposed and over here so called "personality" Christopher Biggins apparently appears on a TV Show called "The Wright Stuff" and suggested that he could not understand why there was so much fuss made about the killed in Afghanistan by the media and families when after all it was their jobs (the Soldiers jobs that is). This man (person) certainly needs re-education and some redirection in terms of understanding, compassion and pure common sense. Just why we have to put up with third rate buffoons such as him I don't know. Lets drag his lumpen form down to Wootten Bassett on a day of repatriation of these brave soldiers and see how he is made to feel.... if indeed he could outrun the lynch mob!

Go West Young Man!

A month has passed since my unfortunate shabby chic experience and we have been visiting Cornwall. We stayed at a wonderful Farm B&B called Poltarrow Farm near St Austell which was not too far away from the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, both of which were our reason for suffering a five hour drive from Sussex to the B&B. However, the farm was so tranquil and set in such lovely countryside that all thoughts of driving soon evaporated. The bedroom overlooked the garden and the bed was so wide and comfortable I hardly knew I was sharing it with V plus an assortment of farm and wild animals from the surrounding land – well not exactly!

I am going to skip all the stuff about the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens other than to say they were OK and next time I am looking for somewhere obscure I may use a map and NOT my SatNav!!

So it's a Ayo Ghurkali from me now and why, you may ask, would I say that famous war cry?

It's all because of a curry that's why! We had spent a fruitless couple of days hunting for a decent restaurant and failing to get a booking in any of the Rick Stein restaurants in Padstow or anywhere else come to that when we stumbled across the Kathmandu Palace Restaurant in Truro. We hadn't booked but as it was early in the evening and out of season we thought it would be easy to get a table. Sadly this proved not to be the case as we had to beg the regiment of Ghurka soldiers who guarded the place and ensured we did not jump the queue. We soon got a table and were ushered to it by a bevy of fragrant Nepalese ladies with fans and frosted glasses of cold larger ….. sorry, I was getting carried away then. There was indeed the son of a retired Ghurka soldier and there were two exceedingly attractive Nepalese waitresses who made sure we were comfortable and our order taken. I heartily recommend the place if you are ever in the Truro area so here's the URL for the Kathmandu Palace Truro .

Apart from the curry the highlight of the evening was the antics of a 80 year old "Saga Lout" who had ensconced himself at a table for two at the very back of the restaurant where he could see from one end of the dining room to the other. By the time we had taken our seats at our table he had just finished his desert and was draining the last drips from his bottle of "champagne" and it was at this stage that I realised that he was having a somewhat intense yet quiet confrontation with the proprietor of the restaurant. I also noticed that certain glint in his eye which says "danger drunk at work" so I quickly said to V "don't look at him"! - I instinctively knew he was trouble with a capital T and it took only a few minutes to see this suspicion come to fruit. The Saga Lout first of all demanded to know why the "champagne" was so expensive, then why he had to pay the bill and then what compensation he was going to receive. All the time the "glint in his eye" was becoming more menacing and I couldn't fathom why he wasn't being thrown out. Things then started to get worse when an unsuspecting young woman at a table adjacent to his decided to 1. smile at him, 2. ask him how he was and 3. suggest he may not be having a good time. Sadly this led to him hurling a mouth full of quietly hissed vindictive that left her red faced and insulted. It also led to her male partner who had been away from the table threatening the hapless pensioner who by the way had hissed to the poor woman that he was "of some repute in this town" .... drunk as well as mentally ill was my thought at this stage and would happily have thrown him out myself as he was spoiling our meal! Needless to say a woman who had NOT been insulted and abused by him decided to side with him against the male fiend of the woman who had been insulted and abused citing that the saga lout was "only a drunken lonely old man" - well of course this was NOT what he wanted to hear from his ally! Eventually he was prised out of the restaurant in hot pursuit of a bottle of chilled white wine that he was insisting was not sufficient compensation for his poor treatment.

We returned to our meal and a fine meal it was too, complete with Pensioner Rage from a Saga Lout ... I finished off the night by pointedly taking the side of poor abused woman and her partner while gesturing to the "do gooder" behind me about butting out!

I feel a trip back to Truro coming on if only for the curry and the high quality of pensioner entertainment!

Chuggers!

Today I spent half an hour watching the antics of your so called charity collectors in Portsmouth (Commercial Road) and have to be the first to admit that I am not one who supports this form of charity collection as I prefer to give directly if at all. On top of that I have read reports (in the Times for example) that claim that as little of 10% of what these people collect actually reaches the charity for which they are collecting.

My complaints are pretty much this;

• I have no desire to be accosted in any shape or form by someone brandishing a clip board and T shirt in an over familiar way.

• I DO NOT under any circumstances wish to shake hands with a stranger who has already shaken hands with at leat a 1000 other strangers he or she has encountered in the street. Now I know this may seem rude but given the current issues of health regarding Swine flu, MSRA or C-Dif that can be passed so easily from person to person, this handshaking practice is foolhardy to say the least.

• These collectors are commissioned based as far as I am aware and this I feel is wrong!

Sorry about that... rant over!