Wednesday, May 06, 2020

Supermarket joins the plague propagandists


I visited a Lidl supermarket for some essentials this evening and endured - suffered - virus propaganda over the loudspeakers that was beyond insulting,
almost mocking.
And how ironic to hear it in a German shop, for Germany is one part of the world where the government didn't dither like our crowd.
Instead, they set about protecting their citizens immediately.

Propaganda

The message Lidl relayed was very similar to the propaganda we hear throughout the day and night, but with one little - Lidl - exception.
This warning told shoppers not even to look at other customers nor the cashiers.
Well, well, disease transference by eyesight. I'm almost certain that German citizens aren't warned of that very unusual risk.
Continues on 

Tuesday, May 05, 2020

The way to persuade a Prime Minister


Lockdown voters might be wondering about the fellow they put in office a little too enthusiastically perhaps, but a book from across the Pond shows that
even the revered can have strong views changed with a little help from, well, from their friends.
In WW2, which has its VE day on Friday, Britain had a tubby fellow in charge, too, who had also experienced top schools.
Our present fellow seems to be guided by a rather humourless shadow.
But it’s most likely that Churchill had a similar one breathing down his neck, too.

 Strong views

 A book, Soldier and Statesman, by Ed Cray, shows there are ways around a leader's ultra-strong views.
The book reveals that Churchill decided - perhaps was persuaded - to change his rep in the US, Sir John Dill. That certainly didn't please the vital allies across the Atlantic.
Continues on
http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/512-the-way-to-persuade-a-prime-minister

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Fate and me and an unsnapped photo


Image of part of  a Sailing to Purgatory webpage to illustrate the article.

Was Fate laughing at me on Monday when I journeyed through the ghost town of London and on three ghost trains to Tilbury docks, over on the Thames north shore, determined - Corona nightmare or not - to photograph the docks where 70 years ago to the day the family sailed off to the other side of the world.

 I clutched my Kodak box Brownie, very unwilling to agree to parental prompts for it to go into our luggage.
Perhaps it was the early journalist in me, but the determined lad was going to photograph our mighty vessel, the 20,000-ton Orontes, as we left Noble Albion if it was the last thing he did.
‘Darling, it will be dark,’ my mother prompted. I pretended not to hear.
As a little lad, I was very aware of the importance of the departure, as hopefully my school uniform freshly pressed and tie knotted neatly in the approved way showed. 
This week a mighty ship stood where the Orontes was docked, and seventy years ago we passed through the self-same buildings that Cruise and Maritime Columbus’s passengers will be using.
Continues on my blog site here ...
http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/511-fate-and-me-and-an-unsnapped-photo




Thursday, April 23, 2020

Lockdown hits more than just the living

WHO WOULD HAVE IMAGINED that our unimaginative Confined to Barracks government ruling is affecting more than our way of life, and very much of our lives in almost every way, but also those who are no longer living.
It's probably a good bet that cemeteries and their occupants are experiencing fewer visits by relations currently.
 However, the proof I see involves that astonishing memorial for a promising young sportsman beside the ultra-busy A3 near New Malden, just north of Kingston.
 For the first time since the memorial to 22-year-old Joey Evans was erected on pedestrian railings - on the London-bound side near the turn-off for New Malden - following his death in a crash there 15 years ago, the almost daily floral tributes have stopped. …
Continues of my blog site for Sailing to  Purgatory at
http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/510-lockdown-hits-more-than-just-the-living

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

The modern answer to the plague: sleep on it


I LOOK UP ON THIS GORGEOUS SUMMER’S DAY, enjoying the flying antics of a wide variety of birds seeking mates, food, perhaps inspiration, and yet not one
of the shiny big birds of our jet-age world is to be seen.
I live just a few miles from Heathrow and usually fleets of these magnificent machines fly over day and night.
Perhaps I ought to appreciate a possibly positive side of the current household imprisonment.

Cleaner air

I can breathe deeper and enjoy the cleaner air. Yet who could relax in the madness of closing down the world because they – our lords and masters, perhaps – can’t think of an alternative?
Surely it’s close to insanity to shut in, imprison, people in their homes in these politically inspired lockdowns, to change the lifestyle of perhaps almost every one of our species – all 7,800,0000,000 of us.
Doesn’t that one dictate ensure the obesity and unfitness of at least the majority? Continues on my blog site for Sailing to Purgatory, http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/509-the-modern-answer-to-the-plague-sleep-on-it