Oh yes, I remain somewhat ill as per my last post on the subject, but I wrestled long enough to be able to produce this one for you.
In my delirium of high temperatures and partial paralysis over the last few days I have had some trouble distinguishing between what is and what is not real. There were a few points, particularly during the nights of Wednesday and Thursday, where I could have done with one of them smart “Father Doogal’s list of things that are not real” pull down charts off of Father Ted. Just last night, for instance, I woke up every 40 or so minutes in a sweat drenched panic, convinced that it was my duty to report to the world that there was a massive art heist in Redcar.
With this in mind, then, I did have to ask Spiros if he was being quite serious when he was sending me on a sequence of pictures of a German navy vessel, flanked by two minesweepers, happily docked in a canal just off of the Thames.
Spiros assured me that these pictures were indeed true, and the description he gave of the accident he had within his trouser area when he saw this ship of battle, or if you like battleship, convince me that he is speaking the truth.
A lot of focus by the Government at the moment, some ten weeks before the EU membership referendum, is how we as the UK remain in complete control of our borders. Fat lot of good that control is, I say, if Port of London Authority are just going to waive in an armed and fully operational tank of the sea from a nation that, if we’re honest about it, has some form in the past in regards of being what you might term an “aggressor state”.
Yeah, I know, some 70 years or so of relative peace across Europe says I should be careful of getting involved in any tomfoolery or japes. A rudimentary understanding, however, of some two thousand years of attempted and actual invasions of London tells me, if no one else, to be “very, very careful” when allowing ships of this nature to just merrily cruise up and down our most famous river.
I actually sense the magic of Transport for London, or if you like TfL, behind all of this. TfL did, after all, recently manage to change a demand for longer Tube hours into something which saw tube “drivers” (in as far as sitting on a chair and pressing a button when it lights up entitles you to call yourself a driver) end up getting paid even more for working even less, with the argument being that tube hours which suited the public it ostensibly serves would cause an “unacceptable” negative impact on the social lives of tube “drivers”. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that Port of London Authority have had to let this German ship in at the behest of some complaint, or if you like whine, that TfL have had.
Despite the fact that it is something he would do anyway, Spiros very kindly headed off to the docks to solicit some sailors. In this case, though, he solicited some information, rather than what he would normally ask them for. Apparently German navy vessels, resplendent with sailors in a rather fetching yet familiar black uniform, are quite a regular feature of Thames life. One reason proffered for this was that the sailors may make use of a convenience and easy to access Deutsche Bank ATM
I suppose, if one wished to get all Australian about it, one could say “well why wouldn’t you let battleships of your allies parade up and down your most important river?”. That said, if you do one of them google searches on British battleships and the Rhine or the Ruhr, it’s all World War 2 stuff. I suppose we could ask if it would be all right for one of our ships to take a cruise, but I dare say most of our sailors use cards and so would have no interest in an ATM.
Hey ho, if nothing else this little escapade allowed Spiros the perfect opportunity, or if you like excuse, to go and “meet” with sailors from yet another country. Yes, thank you, I am aware of the fact that by the 3rd paragraph or 1st picture Italy probably had drawn up the standard formal surrender papers. Let me return to my recovery, then, or perhaps get back to my eventual demise. Should any further curiosities like this crop up, however, I will be sure to share them here. So long as I have not, of course, reached the demise stage.
als ausgezeichnet miteinander!!!!!!!!!!!!
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