i can't help it mum, i'm growin' up.......

hey everyone

well, if you will forgive the quasi-Springsteen quote, James took another leap forward this weekend; not that he could take a leap back i suppose. just a bit before his 3rd birthday it seems that he had outgrown his cot, and so it was time to try him out with a bed. obviously Mummy was rather worried that he would keep rolling out, as well as a little sad that the era of the toddler is well and truly here!

it's a delight to report that James loves his new bed!





and i do mean loves it - he slept in until 7:30 this morning!! blimey, if i knew he would do that, the bed would have been in place a year ago!

of course, he does like to do in bed that which Daddy loves to do in bed....





..although my reading in bed does not normally involve colouring in large amounts of dinosaurs!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

many thanks to my chum Spiros for sending me the link to this article. in regards of the list, if you catch anyone using the phrase in number 2, or a variant of it ("very", "quite", "kind of"), you would be well within your moral obligations towards the English language to punch them square in the face.....





A top ten of the most irritating expressions has been compiled by researchers at Oxford University.

Heading the list was the expression 'at the end of the day', which was followed in second place by the phrase 'fairly unique'.

The tautological statement "I personally" made third place - an expression that Radio 4 presenter John Humphreys has described as "the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice."

Also making the top ten is the grammatically incorrect "shouldn't of", instead of "shouldn't have".

The phrases appear in a book called Damp Squid, named after the mistake of confusing a squid with a squib, a type of firework.




The researchers who compiled the list monitor the use of phrases in a database called the Oxford University Corpus, which comprises books, papers, magazines, broadcast, the internet and other sources.

The database alerts them to new words and phrases and can tell them which expressions are disappearing. It also shows how words are being misused.

As well as the above expressions, the book's author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and "synergy".

Other phrases to irritate people are "literally" and "ironically", when they are used out of context.

Mr Butterfield said: "We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often - an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism - and the same seems to happen with some language."




The top ten most irritating phrases:

1 - At the end of the day

2 - Fairly unique

3 - I personally

4 - At this moment in time

5 - With all due respect

6 - Absolutely

7 - It's a nightmare

8 - Shouldn't of

9 - 24/7

10 - It's not rocket science

something in the air..................

there was a fascinating report from Barack Obama’s victory speech earlier this week. some journalist, clearly not as taken with the words of the president-elect as, oh, the majority of the rest of us, took the time to report that there was an “unmistakable smell of weed in the air.”.





well, the location in Chicago for the speech was by all accounts a pretty rough area. if there was the smell of nature in the air, it was probably two stoners that hit that part of town every night to do the same thing.

if that was the case, then how would they have reacted to what was going on around them? here’s a hypothetical conversation, then!

Stoner 1 : Dude, who’s that guy in the middle of all those other guys?

Stoner 2 : I don’t know dude, i think they said it was the President or something.

Stoner 1 : oh really? President of what?

Stoner 2 : I don’t know dude, President of America i think

Stoner 1 : Which America, dude?

Stoner 2 : The President of the United States of America, dude!

Stoner 1 : No dude, it’s some black dude. It must be President of the Union Of America or something.

Stoner 2 : sweet, dude.


and of course, when they woke up the next day :


Stoner 1 : dude, i just had a sweet dream

Stoner 2 : oh really, dude? what was it?

Stoner 1 : we were in the park, smoking it up as usual, dude. then this black guy came along, asking for some change and the time. then dude, this is the really cool bit, millions of people gathered all around him, all shouting “change! change! here’s your change, dude!”, dude, and it was like all the world was at one with itself because the dude got change, dude.

Stoner 2 : awesome, dude. i had the same dream, dude, it was great.

Stoner 1 : sweet, dude.


the saying, i believe, is only in America.........................


many thanks to Ronel and Michele for being the usual good sounding boards for my odd ideas!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and smoke 'em if you got 'em!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Newcastle Mayfair, November 5 1991

!!! I WAS THERE !!!



this isn't my ticket; mine is safely in a frame somewhere!

was a great gig!!!


be excellent to each other, and remember, you belong in rock and roll!!!!!!!!!!!!

blimey, it has a cover and everything.....

Guns N Roses return at last, it would appear! Chinese Democracy is released on November 23, at which point a fair few Americans will get a free can of Dr Pepper.

whereas this album is already widely available thanks to independent distribution across the interwebnet, i would encourage all fans of the music to purchase this one. if we don't support this, one of the biggest, most expensive mythical albums of all time, then the record labels are just going to turn their back on big acts like this.

happy rocking!!!!!!!!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael Crichton

good morning


well, just how does one write something suitable to mark the passing of one of the finest writers of our era?

i was shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Michael Crichton last night. his novels have been some of the most entertaining and enjoyable i have had the pleasure to read, and the film versions of some of his books have become classics of cinema.

if you haven't read any of his fine works, well, time for you to visit the library or bookstore! in the mean time, i think i will hand over to the BBC's obituary for this great man.







The late Michael Crichton's works of futuristic fiction made him one of the world's most successful novelists.

He was also one of the richest, having thrilled millions with such prescient works as Westworld, The Terminal Man and The Andromeda Strain.

In the 1990s he simultaneously had America's number one movie (Jurassic Park), its number one bestseller (Disclosure) and its top TV series (ER).

But his reputation suffered in 2005 when he was rebuked by the US Congress for his scepticism over climate change.

Born in Chicago in 1942, Crichton was the eldest of four children. The son of a journalist, he always saw writing as a normal occupation.

"I liked writing so much," he would later recall. "I was tall and gangly and awkward and I needed to escape, I guess."

Crichton's first bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published in 1969 while he was a medical student at Harvard.

The book, about a deadly alien virus that threatens to wipe out life on Earth, became the first of his works to be filmed.

A trip to Disneyland inspired him to write and direct the 1973 film Westworld, in which robots at an amusement park run wild.

His involvement with Hollywood continued with the 1978 thriller Coma, about a hospital that kills its patients in order to harvest their organs.

Crichton's novels often dramatised the conflict between science and nature, addressing such hot-button topics as DNA manipulation, biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

Jurassic Park, about genetically engineered dinosaurs turning on their creators, was published to huge acclaim in 1990 and spawned a blockbuster film three years later.


But he would also draw on real life, using his own experiences to inform the long-running medical drama ER and basing Disclosure on an actual case of male sexual harassment.

Divorced four times, he made headlines in 2002 when he was tied up and robbed at gunpoint at his home in Santa Monica, California.

He did so again in 2004 when his novel, State of Fear, suggested that global warming was a fallacy dreamt up by environmental activists.

When working on a project, Crichton maintained his concentration by always eating the same meal for lunch.

He also had a taste for the ghoulish, beginning his 1988 memoir Travels with the legend: "It's not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw."

Richard Harris - MacArthur Park

the days of having someone as versatile and talented to release something bizarre like the Richard Harris recording of MacArthur Park are, sadly, probably long since gone. well, which modern actor would unleash a seven minute, fraught and often bewildering opus on the world, and who would release it?

i caught it on the radio today quite by chance, and was rather glad that i did. it is a most excellent track in the previously mentioned bizarre sense, and one that you should have address your ears as soon as possible.

it's probably all some sort of existential, metaphysical if not metaphorical allegory, and i write here with particular reference to the symbolic cake.

enjoy the lyrics below, and get it belting on your stereo as soon as you can. lest we forget, The King sang bits of this during the 68 Comeback Special.


Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!


There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why


MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Oh, no
No, no
Oh no!!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

knowledge is power.....

i really should not listen to the radio station 702. sadly, they tend to have better traffic news than most, allowing for the frequent inaccurate updates they give. on my travels to pick up James it's vital to get details of what's on the road ahead, and sadly that means hearing snippets of the terrible, oddly named Jenny Crwys-Williams. she is usually poor, misguided, opinionated and prone to stumbling through the wrong words and names, but enough about her good points.

on Wednesday 29 October 2008, she unleashed her masterpiece of knowledge. during her regular sycophantic love-in that she calls and "Ad Feature", along with someone called Andy Rice (a gent who wisely uses a posh, plumb-filled mouth voice to hide many linguistic acts of folly and uses big words incorrectly to hide any gesture of intellectual capacity), Jenny went off on a tangent about how advertising and hiring advertising agencies was a good tax break. when Mr Rice, in a rare, succinct moment of being able to talk from a position of a reasonably comfortable certainty to his knowledge, knocked this back, Jenny (i kid you not) proclaimed that "advertising can be used as a tool to help increase sales of products and services".

wow, man. who knew? all those companies financing advertising just to annoy people watching TV, listening to the radio and what have you have been sat on a goldmine! they could actually be using those adverts to sell something. far out man, well done Jenny for researching and establishing this gem of knowledge. i now feel compelled to listen to her show all the time, just on the off chance that she discovers something else, like the beliefs of the incumbent Pope, or where bears tend to perform biologically necessary acts.....

i think the show is "podcast" on their website, if you are bored, download away. there tends to be a lot of poor, dead air gaps on the station's shows anyway, but the one Mr Rice leaves in the air after this revelation is quite special.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!! and for the sake of my sanity, recommend me a make and model of a decent, traffic monitoring Sat Nav thingie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

new newly newest newer pictures from New Zealand!

hi everyone


well, as alluded to earlier, i have plenty of pictures from the clan down in New Zealand at the moment. time for some more glimpses of what goes on in this faraway, curious land!

first off, for some inexplicable reason, Gillian and Grant decided to send me a picture of their dinner, something that they assure me is a leg of lamb...





well, we all know that Grant loves sheep and lovely, fluffy, attractive lambs in particular, but i until this time had no idea that he enjoyed eating them too. i would imagine Grant finding himself on an island populated by sheep would make Grant a very happy camper, so to speak, but i suppose he is indeed on an island filled with sheep, and he certainly does look happy......





nice to see Grant doing his bit in the kitchen. before going out on an evening stroll. alone. in the fields. where the sheep are.

moving away from Grant's nocturnal activities, here's Katie, and oh, doesn't she just love posing for the camera, just like her Mummy!





and here's Daniel, experimenting with a microwave oven. the mind boggles as to what he is trying to nuke, but he is wisely turning away from it just in case it does not, or perhaps does, have the desired effect.





nice one, can't wait for James to try and start blowing things up in the microwave!

Daniel would seem to have a taste for danger. it's very clever to be able to climb up to the top of a slide, and it can be very scary to sit at the top of it, deliberating if you should go down it or not. fortunately, though, if Grandma is around, she will be only too happy to assist with your deliberations and help you conclude that you need a jolly good push down to send you on your way!





Grandma is also personally assisting Katie in the fine art of eating ice cream and what looks like, if i may say so, some rather ambitious and very tasty looking scones. or scone like thingies. well, there's butter there, so they must be scones. or they might be NZ style muffins that they lace with butter. butter that the farmer makes. when the farmer is not tending to his flock of sheep. at certain times of the day. that Grant has made a note of.

i digress somewhat, here's the pic.....





the whole thing looks like quite a meal! i have it on good, anonymous authority from Gillian that Grandma's ice cream is a particularly interesting one, as it is made with a loving dose of something called Baileys, a liqueur with an alcohol content of some formidable nature. if that's what they do to the ice cream, well, then the mind boggles as to what goes into the scone / muffin thingies that Katie is experimenting with!

righty right, that should do it for now! i do look forward to some more pictures being sent soon, in particular if they show Grant in a compromising position. or an innocent, straightforward position really, i am sure i shall be able to wield some sort of interpretation of it here!!


baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Johannesburg Water Crisis

hey everyone


despite the overwhelming majority of people here in South Africa being the friendliest, welcoming bunch you could ever hope to meet, the government tends to go out of its way to make people feel as unwelcome and uncomfortable as possible.

if you are fortunate enough to visit and avoid criminal activities (it's far more important to spend money on pretty conferences and new party names than, for instance, an effective judicial system, for instance), the government and local authorities will always be only too happy to find a way to create some discomfort for you.

their favourite method would, as we all know, be to switch electricity supplies off at random, as happened to the frustration of our dear friends from Denver earlier in the year. for our current visitors from the UK, however, they have more or left the power on, instead deciding to neglect and not maintain or repair the water pipes.

our good friend Fred, however, was having none of not bathing for the 3 (yep, three) days that they decided not to restore the water supply, instead opting to go and have a wash in one of the many lakes forming around the broken pipes!





it looks like he's managed to get a good job done with it, too! just as well there is some use from the lakes, i will bet you that the residents of the street will all be billed for the wasted water that flowed for those 3 (oh yes, three) days that this was just ignored!





how successful was Fred's impromptu bath? well, Marmite seems to approve!!





how nice it would be to live somewhere that you could invite friends and family to visit without worrying about the simple, basic things in life!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!! except of course towards incompetent, inefficient state employees. do what you like to them, invariably they are too lazy to trouble themselves with any sort of action or reaction.

New Zealand Clothing Crisis

hey everyone


well, when i asked the fine people (that we know) in New Zealand if there was anything we could send for them with Grandma, i had some ideas as to what they might ask for. Gillian would be likely to ask for several bizarre incarnations of Aero chocolates, and there could be little doubt that Grant would probably want some Eau De Shepherd aftershave for those times when he went out and about. alone. near the sheep.

Surprisingly, however, the request was for clothes for everyone. now, i am not sure what kind of clothing they wear in New Zealand, if any, but we were happy to oblige!

first off, here's young Daniel in a fine check shirt that i found for him, along with Katie peeking in, showing off an ace Disney Princess shirt that we found!





it seems that this shirt for Daniel was quite well taken to by all. i am not sure Gillian would be all that impressed if she learned of me selecting it as it looks a bit like one that John Squire wore whilst in The Stone Roses, but never mind.

speaking of Gillian, i found some smart "Little Miss" t-shirts from the Mr Men series. delighted to hear and see that she likes them!





i sent some quality clothing for Grant too, but alas no pictures have been received of him wearing them. perhaps he is saving his new shirts for a special appointment. out in the fields. alone. with the sheep.

moving on from that, it would appear that word has reached New Zealand of the custom and ritual of Halloween! here's Daniel looking really, really smart in a little vampire outfit!





not too sure about that scratch on the cheek, Daniel - did you take being a vampire a bit too much to heart and try and feed on someone??

i am sure you noticed Katie in the background in her excellent outfit, here's a better look!





i am delighted, as mentioned, that all are happy with the clothes. ahem, Gillian, if it's the case that you wanted all the clothes because usually people walk the streets without them, please send pictures! just not of Grant, thanks!

well, i have quite a few pics of New Zealand at the moment, so expect some more stories to be posted here just now!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Count Jamesula

hey everyone

sorry, that was the best title i could come up with!!

it was of course the fabled date of Halloween yesterday, and James had a very smart Dracula outfit from England. we were a bit concerned as to if he would wear it or not, he does get picky when asked to wear something specific. however, once he clocked that the cape with it was quite a bit like the one Batman wears, he was rather keen to get it on as soon as possible!







sorry that these pics are not the best, they all came out a bit blurry for some reason. partially because of a lack of skill from me i suppose, but mostly because he took a shine to running around, flapping like a bat!





my chum Spiros, fresh from his jolly boys' adventures in central Africa, Linda and Robbie arranged a great Halloween party. sorry, most of the pics taken then were rather late at night, and the special night settings on a Sony Cybershot camera are not quite as special as Sony would have you believe.





still, you can take my word for it, James had a great time. he was particularly enamoured with this idea of knocking on doors, saying "trick or treat" and being given stacks of sweets! for personal reasons, ones that i am not going to go into and ones that you do not want to hear of anyway, Spiros tends to keep a bouncy castle on what he calls "his Estate". thankfully Spiros and his chums left it alone long enough for James and all the other children to play on it as intended!




i hope that whatever you did for Halloween was just as much fun!!!!


be spooky to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lyla!!

hi everyone


here's a much delayed Lyla update! sorry, just haven't gotten around to it!!

well, Lyla would seem very much ready for October 31!! a very smart pumpkin outfit!





nice one to Colin, Angela, Christoper and Andrew for sending it over! James also received an outfit for Halloween too! what is it? well, we will see if we can persuade him to wear it, and if so, will do my best to put some pictures up!

when not dressed as a pumpkin, Lyla it would appear has taken up a new hobby....





i bet you she is already a better driver than i am!!

i hope Lyla's been enjoying the ace Strawberry Shortcake magazines and toys we have been sending through for her! i suspect Richard has been playing with the pink tea set, but i would imagine he lets Lyla have the odd go with it!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!

new vibes

nice one!

i am delighted to report that my latest stash of vinyl (and a couple of digital thingies) has arrived!

the exchange rate went a bit wild so i ended up paying slightly more than i intended for them, but never mind, they are all ace!





the pick of the bunch would of course be the best song of the year, Another Way To Die. it's on an ace, shiny gold slab of vinyl, and well worth checking out (see previous posts!). best of all is the artists list on the back of the single - it seems that Ms Alicia Keys did not play the piano on the song, no matter what the video for it suggests. this means that one can listen to the b-side, an instrumental version of it, safe in the knowledge that she probably wasn't even in the studio when it was recorded.

also in the pack was the CD & 7" of The Shock Of The Lightning by Oasis. this is a bit of a disappointment. Oasis singles were known and loved for being 4 track affairs, with either 3 extra, killer tunes or 2 new ones and a live classic. sadly, this one in both formats is just coupled with a remix of another album track. oh dear, when bands start doing that, it's normally a sign of them about to split.

and, for good measure, there's some sort of Stereophonics DVD single. i think it's called Superman. not sure really, only paid 25p for it!


get yourself some bangin' vibes and be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andrew Sachs

it would be all but impossible for most of us to look at this picture and not smile



Andrew Sachs is one of the most fondly thought of actors in history, and it's all because of his six hours of work as the much maligned Manuel in Fawlty Towers. everyone who has seen the show has a soft spot for him. he would be an unusual choice, then, to play a bad, unfunny joke on.

this waste of space that goes by the name of Russel Brand (don't really care if that's the correct spelling, in fact i hope it isn't) apparently called up Mr Sachs and left all sorts of messages concerning what he claims to have done with his granddaughter. and for claims you can probably take it as a given that he made it all up.

a few years ago, this bland Brand decided to make up some stories about "having a go" with Rod Stewart's daughter. Rodders was having none of it, made the fool make a very public and rather humiliating confession to that extent, and we all hoped that Brand would have faded away after it. sadly not.

i have no problem with "offensive" humour, so long as the emphasis is on humour. the late, great George Carlin was a prime example of just this. what i don't understand, and what no one can explain, is exactly what the joke is supposed to be behind calling a 78 year old respected gentleman up and leaving obscene messages?

it seems that bland Brand relies on conjuring up stories of fabricated romantic interludes to draw attention to himself. oh dear me, if one has to kiss and tell, one really hasn't done much of the right kissing, have they?

bland Brand seems to have come to fame thanks to this insipid Big Brother show, a concept that has yet to produce any form of talent or worthwhile being. South African readers only need consider the bemusing "i'm an intellectual, innit?" ramblings of Leigh 'la-dee-daah' Benning (or whatever her name is) to get what i am talking about.

Brand's "autobiography" (he can't even fabricate interesting stories for it) is called My Booky Wook. i would suggest this waste of space needs some sort of professional attention, not a broadcasting platform. let's hope he's off the air forever.

more tiger time......

hey everyone


well, perhaps to give over the obvious opening, i was somewhat more concerned with James being safe than i was taking too many pictures as he mucked around with the baby tigers, but there's one or two more pictures from his adventure today!

first off, here he is with what i can only presume to remember as being one of the "nice" baby tigers. he or she certainly appreciated the unusually delicate attention from James!





now, you will have noted in the above pic that there's a tray of water available for the tigers. another great passion for James is making a mess in or with water. wouldn't it just be simply awesome, he probably thought, to encourage that nice baby tiger to jump into it and splash around a bit?





in the earlier post i alluded to the fact that James did try and pick one of the baby tigers up to carry around a bit. here's when he tried that, and well done to the lady zookeeper for trying the subtle yet successful approach to stopping him from doing it!






and finally, baby tiger wanted a bit of a snooze in the shade, so here's James make sure that she (or he) is OK!





be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sherlock Holmes is 66% promising.....

well, it seems that the proposed Sherlock Holmes film is something that Guy Richie feels we need to see sooner rather than later!

in theory, the ex-Mr Madonna should be hawking around the world (or the parts of the world with a big enough film market) flogging his new one, RockNRolla. instead it seems he is busy filming away with his version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's celebrated intellectual detective.

there is, as the title of this post suggests, reason to be optimistic about this film. firstly, Guy Richie is surely too talented a storyteller to make any more bad films? Swept Away was a monumental act of folly, and Revolver was a good idea gone bad. very bad. by all accounts RockNRolla is a smart film; let's hope his groove is back for this one.

oh, and the biggest motivation to remain optimistic about this would be the choice of actor for the title character.





sadly the intwerwebnet has been lazy of large, crying about the fact that Robert Downey jnr thus far looks very much like he's dressed in cast-offs from the set of Chaplin to play the part of Sherlock. well, exactly how else would he dress? these are rather Victorian clothes, he could hardly be expected to play the part in jeans and a shirt, could he?

that said, it might be wise to ensure that the takeaway coffee cup is not visible in the actual film.





it's unlikely that Robert will be playing Sherlock in the same way as he played the detective type in the brilliant Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but there's no reason to think that the performance won't be as good here as it was there. as Robert is our greatest living actor with nothing close to a peer in this world, how can anything go wrong?

well, whereas nothing will go wrong with Robert's performance, one cannot help but have a healthy sense of doubt and caution about this whole Sherlock Holmes film business when you clock who it is that they have deemed wise to cast as Dr Watson....





oh dear, it's Jude Law. just how does he keep getting decent film parts? i cannot think of anything he's done that's been even bearable to watch, let alone approaching decent. his voice makes Pierce Brosnan, or even my mate Spiros, sound butch, and the bland delivery of lines he condescends to give makes you forget whatever he's uttering as he says it. there is, quite frankly, no reason to hire Jude Law to be in any film. ever. rather hire a decent actor like Clive Owen, or just postpone the project until such time as someone like Clive Owen is available.

it shall be tricky seeing this film yet just not paying attention when Mr Law does his thing in it, but i will be giving it a try!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!! and being excellent to Jude Law would to discreetly mention to him that perhaps he's in the wrong art form.

send away the tigers? not likely.....

hey everyone

well, with James feeling better (tonsillitis had laid him out for the past week or so), Sunday morning seemed like the ideal time to go out for a special treat, especially as Johannesburg's afternoons would appear to have welcomed back thunderstorms. and what a treat we went off to see!

James loves going for walks (runs) around the magnificent Lory Park near us, and so we went there. what he didn't know, and i did, was that he would be able to get a little bit closer to some of his favourites than usual...............





Lory Park is now home to three gorgeous baby Siberian Tigers, or pups or kittens or whatever the correct term is. as long as you promised to be very careful with the tigers, well, as you can see, you were allowed to go in and see them up close! James did indeed promise to be nice with them, and more or less held up that promise; by James standards at least. i am somewhat at fault for any terms of the promise not being obliged, as in fairness i did not specify "do not try to pick them up like the catties at home".






the pictures here are of James with one of the two "nice ones". of the three, in the words of James, one was a naughty one, which had to go and sit in the corner as it would not behave nicely. if you want a definition or some means of clarification on what a "naughty" baby tiger does, well, i have class paw prints all over the back of my shirt. and James has little nibble marks on his t-shirt......





...no harm done, mind! as you can see, this nice baby tiger was very friendly with James, and James took quite a shine to him or her! he didn't specifically ask if we could take one of them home with us, perhaps he is now of a wisdom that lets him know what the answer would be and thus avoided the topic to prevent disappointment. besides, i think his failed attempts to pick up one of the tigers and carry it about may well have led to him appreciating the cats at home all the more who, when they are not as astute or aware as they could be in paying attention to their surroundings, kind of tolerate James hauling them around!





well, if you are in the area, i suggest you get to Lory Park as soon as possible. soon, and it could be weeks rather than months, they will be a bit too big (and have even more teeth) to let people in to see them, sit with them, stroke with them and get the odd light-hearted mauling off them. it is, as you can see, splendid fun!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Did you never consider the possibility that the whole thing might have been nothing more than a charade?"

up until about 4am on Wednesday, 15 October 2008, the best theory i had heard of the great Stanley J Kubrick was that he had in fact anonymously directed Star Wars Episode V : The Empire Strikes Back. that theory developed from the fact that Kubrick was making The Shining on the same sets, that Empire had "Kubrickian" elements (good guys lose, no moral redemption to be found), and the fact that Empire is easily the best of the whole Star Wars series, rather too good to be the work of the one off director named on the credits.

the best theory i have now heard of, however, is that Stanley Kubrick created and directed the fake moon landing footage and photographs as part of some side project whilst making 2001. i say "best" here in the same sense that Billy Connolly used the word "best" in his line "it was the best thing i'd seen since i saw a kid wearing platform boots and a kilt.".

some parts of this theory are plausible and others, well, if not preposterous, then dubious. up front, i am inclined not to believe that Kubrick participated in making films of fake moon landings, but it's such interesting reading i thought i would put the best (and worst) parts of the theory up here for you to have a gander at.......



The 'Plausible' Elements





* Kubrick was a genius with images, either motion or still. if they were faked, no one at the time, perhaps no one now, could have done a better job.

* NASA "assisted" the production of 2001, under the title of "technical advice".

* what little dialog there is in 2001 revolves around a "cover story" for events on the moon - Kubrick's sense of humour hiding something in plain sight?

* Kubrick knew how to keep a secret, and he did have unprecedented power for a talented film director who didn't get around to directing too many films.

* 2001 proved that the technology existed to deliver a fake moon landing film, in particular if it was distorted and presented in black and white.



The 'Dubious' Elements





* Kubrick agreed to do it in exchange for a particular kind of lens that only NASA had; a lens he wanted to make Barry Lyndon with. nonsense, at the time Kubrick didn't even know he was going to make A Clockwork Orange next, let alone the details of the film after. although he could have wanted the lens for his intended Napoleon film. besides, Stanley had abandoned films for a lot less reason than a lens being unavailable.

* the whole thing was exposed in the film Wag The Dog, in which a film director called Stanley is hired to make a secret film for the government.

* Eyes Wide Shut, with apparent tell-tale evidence such as lines like "Did you never consider the possibility that the whole thing might have been nothing more than a charade?", was released on the 30th Anniversary of the first "moon landing".

* Danny, the child in The Shining, wears an Apollo logo on his jumper.







well, make up your own minds, really. i do not understand all the science behind the theories that show that the moon landings were faked; equally i do not understand the science behind the theories that prove the moon landings really happened.

personally, and this may surprise some of you who have followed my unusual theories on The King, i would rather live in a world where we did put a man on the moon, thank you. do all great achievements, do all dreams really have to be taken apart by conspiracy theorists?

for further reading, well, i suggest for the most part you hit your favourite search engine on the interwebnetthingie, type in "Kubrick fake moon landing film footage" and off you go. i will, however, give you one special link - click here to go and read the review of someone who has got it into their head that not only did Kubrick do all of this, but that it was also his best ever work. see just one of the films that he without doubt made and i would assume you disagree with at least the latter part of that view.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!