Saturday 31 January 2015

31st January 2015 - Burns

Thought for the day :"A cat will not condescend to be your friend. It considers a degree of distance should be maintained with its servants."

Saturday, and most of the day has been spent driving back from "oop North". In fairness the sleet and the snow that has been threateneing kept away until I hit Llandeilo, almost home. The trip was mainly sunny and without incident.

However, as a result - there has not been much time to consider the blog - so I shall content myself with finishing the month with a couple of photographs from Thursday's Burns Night, and the video - which sadly had me out of shot for the most part - but you can hear the address..






 And a good time was had by all...

Cheers...

30th January 2015 - Macclesfield and Beyond

Thought for the day : "When situationally aquatically immersed up to posterior-defined saturation, amongst Alligatoridae, holistic environmental wetland management concepts become Necessarily de-scheduled. "

If this is posted then I probably decided to make the trip up North despite the snow...
I do not expect to be back before Saturday Night

So - just a thought,,,

Thursday 29 January 2015

29th January 2015 - A bit tired...

Thought for the day : "OK, so what's the speed of dark?"

Today was a busy day.. A day of Lawyers and planning. Of setting up the Lodge for a Burns Night tonight where I will be addressing the Haggis in my Kilt - which reminds me I had better go and see if it still fits!! A day of learning the First Degree Charge to the initiates - somethign I have done before - but still a challenging piece to learn, and to be honest I am really tired !!!

I could just happily crawl into my bed for a nice nap - but the day has run away from me and I only have half an hour to kill before going out...

So, I shall let you go with a wave of my cup of tea. I shall feasibly not be in a state to write down how the evening went, this being my end of Dry Month ...

And tommorow I shall be travelling to Macclesfield and beyond - if the weather lets me ..

So he'res tas us - wha'ers like us? Gae few - and they're al deed!


Slangeva!!

 

Wednesday 28 January 2015

28th January 2015 - Still Dry, and Walken Upright..

Thought for the day:"Is Balderdash a rapidly receding hairline?"

As I near the end of my month of Dry, the last thing I expected to see was a Do It Yourself link for making your own still!!

I started to copy it all onto my blog and then realised that it was going to be about 45 steps, so at the risk that the site changes sometime in the future - I shall just post the link here How to make a Moonshine Still

Though Burn's night has passed for most of us, I am still preparing for the St Teilo Lodge version tomorrow night - when I shall be once more addressing the Haggis. Hopefully I may manage to get a  photo or two for posterity - though normally we fail on the night.



I shall, of course be cheating on my Month of January Dry! I shall be interpretating the "month"  as four weeks, and so the 28th of the month ( ie today) is the last of my Dry days..  allowing me to imbibe in a glass or two of the freebie scotch tomorrow night. I won't tell anyone iof you don't!

Today is also the last day for creating Walken Pictures for my birthday galleries for January. I have the last four pictures created ready for the birthday wishes on facebook.

Speed Walken

I'm Walken Behind you

A Walken among the Tombstones

Walken down the Road
That should do it - I have then annoyed enought people to start one year ...
So - with my last cup of tea  - Cheers!



 

Tuesday 27 January 2015

27th January 2015 - Of Sense of Humour and Suffrage


Thought for the day: " I was thinking of becoming a self-portrait artist - but just could not picture myself doing it "

Politics seems to be in the news today - and though I prefer to restrict myself to times gone by, occasionally some items seep through the dustbins of my mind.... The Greek election, and the possible disruption to the Euro - and how it may affect the price of wine... (I don't like French wine anyway!). The death of a Saudi King...   Which brought to mind this little anecdote, which really tickles me ...  Makes me feel poud to be British... like Al Murray the Pub Landlord - " A Proper Queen She is !!!  With a Proper National Anthem!!"


And so, whether you like the Royals or not - I somehow like to think that this one is true..



Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is known to have a wicked sense of humor, and some mean driving skills.

One day back in 1998, she deployed both spectacularly to punk Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. Back then, Abdullah was a Saudi crown prince visiting Balmoral, the vast royal estate in Scotland. The Queen had offered him a tour of the grounds—here's what happened next, according to former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles:
The royal Land Rovers were drawn up in front of the castle. As instructed, the Crown Prince climbed into the front seat of the Land Rover, with his interpreter in the seat behind. To his surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned the ignition and drove off.

Women are not—yet—allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen. His nervousness only increased as the queen, an Army driver in wartime, accelerated the Land Rover along the narrow Scottish estate roads, talking all the time. Through his interpreter, the Crown Prince implored the Queen to slow down and concentrate on the road ahead.
Royal custom discourages repeating what the Queen says in private, Cowper-Coles explained, but the anecdote was corroborated by Abdullah, and became, in the diplomat's words, "too funny not to repeat."

Abdullah went on to cultivate the image of a reformer as king. One thing he didn't change, despite the Queen's actions at Blamoral: women still can't drive in Saudi Arabia.

Good for her I say..   One for the British ...

Best have a cup of tea ... Cheers.

Monday 26 January 2015

26th January 2015 - On being Tea Total..Totally!


Thought for the day: "The rule of Bards, Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!"

So the computer is still dead ... I waited a good time to see if it was capable of resurrection, or even perhaps returning as some form of zombie or even a White Walker...  I didn't burn it on purpose.. but nothing. Interestingly the USB still seems to work so I managed to charge my camera up - even though the machine was not swtiched on. That seems a little reminiscent of HAL but that is another nightmare...

At the end of the day - if you are dry, then you have to take solace in Tea. And it seems that so many of us do.

We drink 165 million cups a day 95 per cent from tea bags, 70 per cent of us had at least one cup yesterday using up 25 per cent of the nation’s daily milk consumption.

Shen Nung, a toxicologist, discovered tea by accident in central China around 2737 BC. Apart from thinking it a nice drink, he used tea as an antidote to 70 or so poisonous herbs. His stomach exploded after his final experiment because the tea obviously wasn’t efficacious against that particular herb.
Catherine of Braganza, queen of Charles II, introduced it to England as part of her dowry; when she landed at Portsmouth in 1662 she asked for a calming cup of tea; none could be found so we gave her a flagon of beer instead. (seems legit!)


In China they used monkeys to pluck tea leaves from the trees: annoy the monkeys up in the trees and they will angrily shake the branches bringing the tea floating down to you. You can still get monkey-plucked oolong tea, ma nau mi ti kuan yin.

In the 17th century Dr Simon Paulli, a German, warned that tea-drinking ‘hastens death’, particularly in the over-forties. Paulli was the same doctor who, no doubt with the benefit of hands-on experience, famously taught that if you rubbed a woman’s breasts with hemlock juice they stay ‘properly small’.

Ireland has the highest per capita consumption of tea in the world: 75 per cent of the population are avid tea drinkers drinking on average six cups a day. In 1910 tea was considered to be a bigger public health problem than alcohol in Ireland. Russia ranks second in tea drinking – presumably to dilute the effects of vodka.

Britain became a nation of tea drinkers due to the monopoly held by the East India Company on China tea and our exclusion from the Mediterranean sea and the coffee exporting countries bordering it during our wars with France and Spain.

Tea, due to its price, was originally the preserve of the rich; some people believed that the poorer classes should not be allowed near it. Posh ladies carried the key to the tea caddy around their necks to stop light-fingered maids stealing it, and selling it. They did, however, sell discarded tea leaves to make a bit on the side.

High taxation meant that tea was often adulterated with brick dust and other toxic stuff (second hand tea). Some tea contained no tea at all. For most of its history more tea has been smuggled than sold legitimately.

Tea was good for illicit sex: amongst the privileged, tea drinking required a tea gown; this was loose-fitting and was not worn with the usual corset. That meant that no maid was required to dress m’lady who could enjoy an assignation, and a cup of tea, in her boudoir without a nosy maid being present. This was known as cinq-a-sept, the time when it all happened.

John Wesley, founder of Methodism and a tea-totaller, believed that tea brought us close to the ‘chambers of death’ and should be avoided, even though he imbibed himself.

Some men believed that the drinking of tea was making English women ugly. In 1822 William Cobbett wrote that tea killed pigs and leads women into prostitution, recommending a quart or two of ale instead. It makes boys effeminate and has them ‘lurking in bed’.

Tea was responsible for the rise of the women’s suffragette movement; tea rooms such as ABC and Lyons gave them somewhere respectable to go un-chaperoned.

In 1914 the 320,000 men and 12,000 officers of the Army Service Corps were catering for 5 million British troops – their ration included 5/8 oz of tea. In 1940 Chuchill said that ‘tea was more important than bullets’.

Drinking tea 'cuts risk of dying early by a quarter': Antioxidant ingredients in the drink are good for the heart.

A study shows that drinking tea reduces the risk of dying from causes unrelated to the heart by a quarter. The benefits of tea are largely due to the antioxidant ingredients.  The study involved 131,401 people aged 18 to 95

Experts also say it is better for you than coffee and tea drinkers are more physically active...





After the July 2005 subway bombings in London, Jslayeruk was quoted on the Metaquotes Live Journal assaying:

"When the news reporter said Shopkeepers are opening their doors bringing out blankets and cups of tea I just smiled. It's like - Yes. That's Britain for you! Tea solves everything. You're a bit cold? Tea. Your boyfriend has just left you? Tea. You've just been told you've got cancer? Tea. Coordinated terrorist attack on the transport network bringing the city to a grinding halt? Tea dammit! And if it's really serious, they may bring out the coffee. The Americans have their alert raised to red, we break out the coffee. That's for situations more serious than this of course. Like another England penalty shoot-out."

Another favourite quote is from the great Samuel Goldwyn..

"Coffee isn't my cup of tea."

  
But after all this thought about tea - no-one is answering the real  question...

"Do you put the milk in first or second??"

I leave you to argue it out...  I am not even touching the Scone Question ....   

Sunday 25 January 2015

25th January 2015 - Of Digital Demise...

Thought for the day: "A termite walks into a bar and asks, 'Where is the bar tender?' " 

After covering the subject of death and burial yesterday - it sems that the "box in the living room" has been a foreteller of doom after all. My old machine, lovingly cared for over the years, and thought to be on its last legs for months, indeed replaced for this very reason, though being used as a music box and screensaver while it lasted, has finally died. Sadly not the way I thought. It was prone to switching itself off for no reason. annoying habit that suggested all was not well. To sticking a lot - memory problems. We all get those as we get older.

 
But I was not expecting to look down and find that there was no video. That the machine is working quite well. Or at least the fan in the back is making as much racket as it has been doing for months. No!  It has just stopped showing any video.  It could be a video card, or the graphic thingie in the gubbins - you can tell I am a technical wizard at these things. But it sort of leads you to the question is it worthdoing anythign with it.

True it does all the printing at the moment. I haven't loaded printer software onto the new machine so I am not sure what is happening. And it is linked to the other computers - sort of as a server for them printing as well. That is a bit of a blow. I think some of my later songs are on it - but they are probably backed up - and I can get the words again or listen on Youtube.

Or I could rip out the hard drive and connect it in some way to the new machine??  You can do that sort of thing can't you !  I think you can anyway.
Of course it is all backed up onto a super duper external harddrive that chunters away. But I have never really looked at the instructions of what you do itf you want to restore something form their. It all looks very complicated..

And I had other plans for this Sunday. Can't remember what they were - but I am sure that I was not going to spend the day worrying about computers again ...

I shall look at it a bit... I switched it off and on again - that normally works. Sadly not today.

Ho Hum ...

Better have a cup of tea and think about it ..



Saturday 24 January 2015

24th January 2015 - Afterlife or Aftershock?

Thought for the day: "He's not dead, he's electroencephalographically challenged."

We were sitting over a fine dinner of lamb and various veg, discussing death and funerals... as you do! It is apparently legal to bury people almost anywhere. You can have up to two people buried in the back garden of a suburban house should you wish. Apparently the only stipulation is that you notify Environmental Health so that they can checke that you are not near a water course. Of and need at least six feet of soil below and three above for sinkage. No good if you are on a stone or rock foundation.

I did not know that!

The subject came up due to an old conversation / question about the legality of scattering the ashes of a loved one. One hears of scattering off the top of Snowdon, into the river, into the sea, of being buried at sea and inviting the mourners to dance on your grave. Apparently all legal, well maybe not the last though it is an old joke. It seems that you can scatter the ashes without restriction.



I did not know that!

A new firm has set up offering to squeeze the ashes, superman style, into a gem. A precious stone to wear upon a ring or as a necklace. I can see the jokes flowing forth "He was a burden round my neck all my life so...".  But apparently this is a bit of entrepreneurial innovation for the new century.

I did not know that!

The one that intrigued us most was the fact that you no longer (if you ever did) need to have a coffin for your cremation. You can go in a shroud if you wish. You do nto have to buy your coffin fromt he Funeral Director - you can get it direct - probably from Amazon and delivered click and collect to Argos on next day delivery, unless you use Yodel. You can get your funeral accoutrements from the web with ease and in the comfort of your own home. With the over 50's guaranteed insurance you can plan the whole shindig as soon as you like....


I did not know that!

And basket weaving ! That one was fascinating. There are courses for weaving your own coffin - a special, earth friendly, sustainable form of laying to rest. They provide weekends away where you are taught the basics and rudimentary art, and then you can come back a few times iof you want to perfect your final resting place....  We thought of a nice slogan for this .. "The family that's Weaves together.. Grieves together ! "  I thought it was catchy !


Not everyone gets to go the first time. I read that Einstein requested that he be cremated, but the doctor at his death decided that he should remove the brain first and put it into a jar for future research. He apparently sliced a few sections which have been preserved but most of it he put into a set of jars in his basement and they probably did not survive very well. You can read more here Einstein's Eyes and Brain...  But Dr. Thomas Harvey did not have permission to conduct an autopsy, nor did he have permission to keep the brain for himself. But that’s exactly what he did — for four decades.Always claiming that he would publish results of his studies - we are not sure that he ever studied the brain at all - and died heimself in 2007. the story does not include if he was cremated hinself...  But we know that he also popped out Einstein's eyes, again probably without permission, and gave them to Einstein's opthalmist who put themin a safe deposit box - and apparently they are still there...

I did not know that!

So - were I not dry this month I would drink to that ... so instead ..
 
 So we will leave the last word to Einstein...  a sign in his office read...
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

Cheers!



Friday 23 January 2015

23rd January 2015 - Love Chronicles of Mythodea: Finya

Thought for the day: "What happens if you get scared half to death...twice?"

Spent much of the day working upon recording and video.. Am happy with the final result of the latest in the series of songs generally grouped as "Love Chronicles of Mythodea"..

This one is for Finya...  Wife of the Lord General of the Grand Expedition ...  not a love lost, but a beautiful and formidable lady who deserved a song. Little did I know as I adapted the Heather Dale song that she and her husband had actually met upon the Shield Wall in battle - but it was fitting so I am not at all surprised....

This is  "Finya - One of Us"


Click on the picture to play ..

Cheers
   

Thursday 22 January 2015

22nd January 2015 - Just a thought

Thought for the day:" Is it possible to be totally partial?"

Busy day - so just a thought ...

But since I am dry - my dear wife posted this onto my facebook pages - some people have no sympathy...

cheers !!   well ...

Tuesday 20 January 2015

20th January 2015 - Hitting the bottle ... And building

Thought for the day: "My job as a trainee astronomer is starting to look up!"

Quite enjoyed drawing this one today...

But today has been a day of transcribing two years of emails and sorting them into readable piles. It is also interesting that though you can delete messages in Facebook, they are still accessible to the other party in the conversation. This proves interesting when you want to review everythign that has been said over a period of time, and find that you can copy the full transcription in to a Word Document for reading.

I thought I would be able to ferret away at the boxes in the basement - no - not the one in the living room! I am tentatively happy with my Tesco Computer Box now and the Box will get sent to the Warehouse (just in case) for the moment. No, I have manged to empty one room in the basement and get everything to the Warehouse, but the next room and cupboards are beckoning. It is blooming cold though!!   I have had excessive cups of tea and manage to run to the loo a lot - after all, natural hydrolics - if it goes in it has to come out sometime. But it is still cold sitting at the machines...

Have to be up early tomorrow to go to Aberaeron to try to sort out some bank details for a group I am treasurer for - only taken 6 months so far !! It is all about having the rigtht paperwork and identification and the blood of a virgin and the reflection of an exploding black hole as near as I can tell.  But, hoping that the snow keeps away for the journey. Sadly, we were hoping to look at a smallholding up in the same area. A good reason to travel all that distance. But it looks as though it has an offer already there..  Oh well. Best not to be disappointed again...

So while I am thinking about houses and plotments... ..

I find that I am drinking so much diet coke while I am on my dry month, that I could be building one of these houes made out of plastic bottles - cleverly filled with sand ..

They look quitre effective and seem to be fairly robust ...


There is a video about the development ..

So that is about it for me for one day...





Monday 19 January 2015

19th January 2015 - No 32!!!

Thought for the day : "Filofax - pastry so thin you can send it by telephone"



Occasionally, something passes across your desk that catches your eye. I have a number of homilies that I have enjoyed in the past - but this one originated with a 90 year old...
I thought I would share it today - a day in which I am feeling a little hard done by in a business matter, where it seems that friendship and trying to help people only gets interpreted as weakness and the opportunity to take advantage..   So here are the thoughts of Regina Brett... 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .    She calls it 7% (she thinks 93% of people will ignore her)


"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 42 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.
My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short – enjoy it..
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
11. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
12. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it...
14 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
15. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
16. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
17. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.
18. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
19. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
20. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
21. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
22. The most important sex organ is the brain.
23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
25. Always choose life.
26. Forgive but don’t forget.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
28. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does..
31. Believe in miracles.
32. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
33. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
34. Your children get only one childhood.
35. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
36. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
37. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
38. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.
39. The best is yet to come...
40. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
41. Yield.
42. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

I have problems with 15.... Just can't get rid of the Clutter..  But 18, 30, and 37 seem about right...

39...   Cheers !!!


Sunday 18 January 2015

18th January 2015 - The Box - update...

Thought for the day:  "Syntax... A tax on immorality"


It is Sunday evening and the saga of the box in the living room is nearing its end...  The first Computer that was delivered by Tesco worked well but was erratic in starting after being switched off - which seemed a bit of a problem to me - and something that should be fixed while it is only a few days old and not too much data had been transferred.


So Tesco Help Desk listened to my description for about ten seconds and decided that I needed a new machine - that they would get Yodel to pick my old one up next morning and deliver a new one to me by lunchtime - to the house - no questions asked.  I thought that was good service,.


So the new box has been sitting here as I slowly move the files form the old XP machine  and put them onto the new 8.1 Windows..  and fid that everything seems to work. The fellow at PC World who told me that none of my old office software would work was totally wrong - Office 2003 has loaded without problem. More important for me my old Quicken Financial Software 2002 loads as well without any problems, taking all the archived data and giving me a clean year end.


So the box, has now been moved to the hallway - I am not reckless enough to get rid of the box entirely - but I feel a bit more confident.  There are new factors, like a One Drive - which apparently will store all my data on a "cloud" whatever that is. So I have dropbox and One drive - should have most data somewhere out there. Also have a 2 Terrabyte drive that will hold the data that I want to keep... not that I don't trust clouds and things like that.


I still have to think about the set up - how to reset all the keyboards and screens so that I can use them properly, and see how long the old XP machine will last -  possibly just as a music machine.


So, a Sunday passes. An episode of Game of Thrones, and an early night to bed... 


Good night..



Saturday 17 January 2015

17th January 2015 - Just a thought

Thought for the day : "I'm thinking of becoming a hitman... I hear they make a killing."


Busy day today ...   Installation in the Masonic Order of Athelstan...  and a late dinner ..
Maybe an early night ..


So just a thought today ..


Friday 16 January 2015

16th January 2015 - Just a thought

Thought for the day: " A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking."




Seems I got tired  - so just a thought!!


night!!


Thursday 15 January 2015

15th January 2015 - Awaiting the Big Box.

Thought for the day : " Benign : Between Be-eight and Be-ten"

It is bitterly cold this morning. Snow over most of the country but not here.. There is a big box - not in the living rook any more - but rather by the front door. It contains my computer. The night was spent, not by me, by the box contents, wiping all record of me and restoring to factory defaults. I think that this is a rather good innovation, in fact - bite my tongue, but what I have seen of Windows 8.1 so far does not scare me at all. It seems to be fairly user friendly. I accept that I do not like the swipe style display - and can see where much of it is designed to look like a  telephone - but for the luddite in me it seems fairly reasonable.

So the big box is by the front door. My calls yesterday to the Zoostorm help-line (they are the ones that make the machine - it says that it is a British product) led me to an email address for support. I duly sent them one and did get a reply. It talks about switching the button ten times and running round in circles. It may have worked. I don't know. Instead, because I was lokoing for proof of purchase I contacted the Tesco Helpline and they put me straight through to technical, who then said - "We will change it for you tomorrow".
Can't really fault that. Delivered to the door this time and take the old one away...

So the dog wanted breakfast at a quarter to eight. Managed to persuade her that you can go back to sleep at that time whatever your stomach says - but that only lasted 5 minutes, so I got up and let the chicken out while I was about it. Put the computer into the box. Tested it first to see if it started - it did not - so I feel justified in sending it back. And now I sit here at the window waiting for the delivery man...

Phone just pinged...  Delivery between 13.16 and 14.16 today ...  A little precise on the minutes I thought, but there may be a marketing value in having  non standard time there.  So watching the 9am Llanelli Rush Hour ( it lats about 9 minutes normally as everyone rushes to get into work) ... never sure why it is after 9 - there must be a reason.  But I therefore have a few hours to wait before the new machine arrives...

Best do some paperwork I suppose..

Will see what the new day brings... Maybe another Big Box...

Cheers
 

Wednesday 14 January 2015

14th January 2015 - A matter of Perspective..

Thought for the day: " I bought an Internet Explorer advent calendar in the January Sale. It takes ages to open a window."

Somethings sometimes need to be viewed from the right perspective...  It was today that I came across some images that show this so clearly. The perspective can be so important...  And here are a series that prove the point...


how it could be seen..
 The wonderful Niagara Falls..


and the Brandenburg Gate..




hidden somewhere here..
We all know Stonehenge...
but we know that the road is to be moved sometime in the future...
There are Iconic images  - the Taj Mahal
but when seen from the right direction (or wrong one..)
The Hollywood sign is normally seen from here ..
A nice shot with flowers in the desert..   or ....
Even such things as a famous painting... ( I have a coffee table that loks like this..)
Try and find it in public though...
The Famous Mount Rushmore faces...  Though I like the cartoon showing the Canadian side with the backsides showing through - but they are a little more insignificant
and Central Park in New York -
 this actually looks more spectacular in my view...
An off to Greece ....
I found it quite hard to get that really effective photo...
Sometimes it is a matter of scale - the Mermaid..
No wonder it is a disappointment to most who find it ...
One I did not really know except by picture - la Sagrada Familia Barcelona
But in context...
And then we have the beautiful Santorini..
And where do we find it??




So these are the great sights around the world.. but this also happens within our news coverage..

In the wake of the atrocities in Paris over the murder of the Charlie Hebdo journalists, the news was full of the world leaders uniting with the millions marching in demonstration.. Here they were united with the people.
 
And here we can see the real picture....


"The photo depicting the fictitious participation of world leaders in the Paris Charlie Hebdo demonstration. While in the media, photos and video of the leaders were almost invariably angled to give the appearance of massive crowds in their wake, one shot taken from above shows them standing bunched tightly together in barely a dozen rows in an empty street, cordoned off from the marchers by a heavy ring of security.
Nothing could more accurately symbolize the reactionary character of this assemblage of state officials and the fraud of their attempt to posture as defenders of human liberties.
At the center of those participating in the photo was French President François Hollande, whose approval ratings in recent months have plumbed new depths—around 15 percent at the end of last year. The president no doubt hopes that the events surrounding the attack on Charlie Hebdo will buttress his government as it pursues unpopular policies at home and abroad."

Strange what you see if taken from the right perspective...

Why I think I do not like politics thee days ..

Good night..