Music Track - Tony Bennett & KD Lang

What sort of romantic music are today's young listening to, I wonder?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9maZTN-Gbg
I particularly like the trumpet solo in the middle.  KD Lang's voice always surprises me.  And for 85, Tony Bennett is doing rather well, isn't he?

Black Cats

The other day I was returning from a ride and a beautiful black cat ran across my front tire.  He, or of course it could have been a she, narrowly missed being hit.  It was a lovely creature, but was it unlucky?

You see, back in England black cats have always been considered lucky.  I well remember that in my youth, married couples used to arrange to have one let free in front of them as they left the church.  However out here, the reverse is true.
Now as an ex-Englishman living here, do I bring the English custom with me or do I accept the American version of luck and why do they vary.  Does anyone know?

Movie # 9

Movie Number 9 is The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorrie.  I'm sorry that I didn't quite appreciate Bogart when he was alive, but over the years and many re-runs, I have come to enjoy his performances, and watch his films many times.  They are easy to watch repeatedly, I think.

In this film, he is buoyed up by the Fat Man and the weaselly Lorre, who try and outsmart him.  If you've never seen it, you really should as it will not disappoint.

Neat Freaks

I rather envy really neat people.  From time to time I try and pull myself together and stop being messy, and over the years after the strenous work by wives, I have gradually stopped being a slob, which I cheerfully was in my youth.  I've even reached the stage where dropped clothing on the floor bothers me.

Last year I made a supreme effort and tidied up my dest - I even wrote a blog on it at the time.  I stopped using little pieces of paper and now use a small notebook.  I think I've achieved about a 90% goal on that one.

Just up the road from us is a fellow who is a confirmed neat freak.  His garden is immaculate and last year he had some trees cut down and the big logs were stacked up pretty well.  But that was not enough as he wanted smaller pieces to burn in his fireplace.

With his daughter, who is even more neat than him he states, he hired a log spliltter and cut up the large pieces.  The above photo shows the result of his work.  Amazing.  Look at how neatly he has stacked up the logs.  I can't imagine how hard it was to do this so neatly.

Ostend

My father-in-law was fond of saying that once you crossed the channel, those few miles of water made a huge difference when you took a vacation.  He was right and the very first Continental holiday I spent was in Ostend, which is just across the sea from England on the coast of Belgium.

The usual first sight of the resort is from the deck of one of the regular ferries.  They turn around out in the sea and then charge full speed backwards down a narrow channel, until the captain puts it into reverse at the last moment and comes to a stop within inches.  The ramp drops down and the many cars on board depart.

One of the great delights of Ostend is the quantity of seafood available.  There are many small family restaurants along the waterfront and the food is always delicious.  Belgium sometimes gets a bad rap, as it's a country Brits mostly drive through, but it is a great place to visit, and they do make the best "Pommes Frites" in the world (French Fries.)  That is if you like to eat them with mayonnaise!

Sunday's Column - Mormons



The Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town, San Diego

I have to say I was totally unaware of the Mormon Battalion.  But on a recent trip to San Diego I visited the museum dedicated to it.  Back in 1846 a troop of 500 men with 38 women marched from Ft. Leavenworth to San Diego, a distance of 2000 miles to help with the war against Mexico.  They carried 60 pound muskets which they were told they wouldn't have to use  - as it was against their religion - but they could keep them after they were finished.  They stayed for a long time and when they were told to return to the new settlement in Utah a petition was signed by all the town's residents to ask them to stay.  You can read the entire column at www.sbsun.com/trevorstravels

Music Track - Bach

Doing a music track every week makes it impossible to go without a little of Old father Bach (1685 - 1750) I always remember his dates for some reason.
Does anyone recall this group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHcNHL8AyfU&feature=fvsr

Autumn

And so we say goodbye to Summer.  Therefore it's time for a layout change.  Nothing too radical as I'm sure, like me, you don't like big changes in things.  A new picture of me and a new "autumnal" theme which we'll keep for the season.  We've had an entire summer at home and I have to say I've enjoyed it very much - not too hot during our hot spell. 

We don't have a lot of deciduous trees up here which makes the few we have rather nice.
This is just round the corner from us on our walk with the boys most days.

Next week we begin our traveling again.  A week's cruise, then a trip to England with Evan over Thanskgiving, and just before Christmas a run down to Florida to see my friend Paul and his wife, Vivien.  A lot of stuff going on.  I'll report in due course.

Mystery Plant

We inherited this plant about 15 years ago when it was about a foot high.  Now look at it!

The only problem is that it's growing so high we think we're going to have to cut its top or it's going to go out through the roof.

The other day we had to re-pot it as it was starting to fall over, so off to the nursery we went - well it's not really a nursery, more of a DIY place.

We bought a monster pot and a bag of mulch to feed the roots, which when we pulled it out, were all balled up.

We can't remember the name of the plant as the lady at the shop had to look in her book, and we've forgotten the name, although we think it began with an "m."

If you know the name please let me know.

Movie - Number 10

Number ten on the list of my favorite movies is RONIN.  It's a 1998 movie starring Robert De Niro, Natascha McElhone and Jean Reno.
Ronin in real life are unattached samurai who have lost their liege lord and have not committed suicide in the accepted fashion, and roam around the countryside - a danger to many people.
In the film a disparate group of spies, hired killers and other odd sorts gather in Paris to carry out a mission.  The mission itself is not very important, but the interaction among the group is fascinating as are the car chases around Paris.
The music is by Elia Cmiral, and adds significantly to the film - it's #10!

Oktoberfest

We have reached a most unfortunate time of the year - Oktoberfest!  Now there are three things that I find unpleasant about this festival: a) that nasty "K" in the spelling and not the customary softer Anglican "C." b) then there is the fact that it starts in September and runs for nearly six weeks up here, and finally c) the worst, which is the abundance of normally fine, good hearted Americans dressing up in lederhosen and dirndl dresses and dancing the polka.  Now any one of these I can live with but the overall effect is most distressing.

I had to do an assignment a few years ago where I went along to this nonsense held at the convention center every year; I believe they're in their 44th this year, or close to it.
It was the most revolting spectacle I could ever have imagined.  I thought we'd stamped out that sort of thing back in 1945, but no, and it's going on here in Big Bear and other normally decent places, I believe.  Oom-pah-pahs all over the place and large quantities of hot dogs consumed with gallons of saurkraut.  Quite distressing for anyone with a sensitive nature like me.  I'm surprised it hasn't been stopped or at least taxed to death.  I have an understanding that I shall never be asked to cover the event by The Sun, as I cannot guarantee not losing my normal restraint in any resulting article.

Gander

I heard a different type of 9/11 story the other day.  As soon as it became apparent that we were under attack that day, there was no way of knowing how extensive it was, and if there were more planes up there intent on killing people.  The authorities ordered all the planes flying to land immediately.  This sounds simple, but like a juggler who keeps a number of balls in the air, finding somewhere to put them when he stops is not all that easy.

The airport at Gander, Newfoundland was built in the late 40's to handle stopovers for planes that couldn't get across the Atlantic in one go.  Since the 60's its traffic has been cut drastically but the two miles long runway is still intact.  Therefore 38 planes were ordered to land there and await instructions.

The population of Gander is 10,000 and on that day an additional 6,000 people came to visit.  The sheriff and other public servants roused the town to help, and they offloaded all the passengers and catered to them in a local gymnasium and also within peoples houses.  Strong freindships were formed and last to this day.  One lady was so impressed with the way the Canadians handled this business that she created a trust to assist young people looking to go to university.  Today the trust is worth $1.5 million and has helped 350 students.

Sunday's Column - Safari Park part II

I already posted some details of the second part of the day we spent at the Safari Park in San Diego, in particular the fantastic cheetah and his friend the Anatolian Sheepdog, Yeti.

But one of the other delights was feeding the giraffes.  Here, S.W.M.B.O. is giving them some leaves which they seem to really like.  Their tongues are black on the part that sticks out as it protects from the sun's rays - they spend a lot of time with their tongues out!

This strange bird is called the shoe bill for obvious reasons, and he spent his lunchtime looking at us while we sat looking at him.  They do have some wonderful sights at the Safari Park, and we both enjoyed our visit there very much.  Can't wait to go back!  You can read the column at www.sbsun.com/trevorstravels

Hydraulics

My friend John in England sent me this amazing video.  It's quite long (9:14) but after the video is set up you can fast forward to about 5 minutes to escape the German commentary, and you can easily see what the heck these guys are doing.  It gets pretty boring in Germany in the winter, and you have to invent things to do, but nonetheless, this is unbelievable.  And the local guy is standing underneath.  Quite a tribute to German engineering. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=RobaJKGMMiE