Fatherhood

Zachary on the left and our son Ian on the right. The photograph was taken just yesterday afternoon. Zach was six months old this week. He's coming on nicely. If you look closely you can see that his first tooth has come through. He's a pretty physical little fellow, rolling and threatening to crawl. Naturally he is the apple of his parents' eyes. 

Ian will be forty years old this summer and Sarah, Zach's mother, is not far behind. I am sure that it crossed their minds, just a couple of years ago, that they might never be parents so having Zach has been a great blessing. He is much loved and well provided for.

I was thirty when Ian was born. Witnessing his birth in the delivery room at Nether Edge Hospital was perhaps the most joyous moment of my life. To see another human being coming into the world was so overwhelming that his gender meant nothing to me and I only realised he was male when the midwife in attendance announced, "You have got a beautiful baby boy!"

For almost forty years, I believe I have been a good father to Ian. There's no guidebook. You just have to go with your instincts. Of course it helped that I have a lovely wife who  has always been a devoted, caring and capable mother. Nursing is essentially a practical job in which panicking should be avoided and Shirley brought a lot of that practicality and common sense to her mothering role.

We won't get to see Zach again  until the middle of May when my whole family will descend upon a rather luxurious Portuguese villa just a stone's throw from the sea. Of course Zach will get to see his girl cousins again - including happy Margot who was born just nine days after him.

Sleepy

Poor Mr Trump. Spotted sleeping several times during his current trial in New York City. There he is above, faithfully captured by the court artist. Of course Mr Trump denies that he ever drifted off into dreamland and with typical infantile spite he has derided the work of the court artist who he claims has sought to ridicule him.

Ironically, Mr Trump has frequently referred to President Biden as "Sleepy Joe" but now the boot appears to be on the other foot. Dozy Donald will have to think of another name to call the president - for that is how it works with playground bullies.

I have a smidgen of sympathy for Mr Trump with regard to nodding off. There was a time when I never napped. The only time I slept was in bed - usually for an unbroken seven hours. However, now I frequently and reluctantly nod off  when I am sitting comfortably on one of our sofas in the evening. Before I know it, twenty minutes has just disappeared. I guess it's a sign of growing old.

When I sleep I dream of angels and acts of kindness, swimming towards sinking suns with a pod of dolphins or reliving childhood scenes. But what does Mr Trump dream about?  He's possibly a Roman emperor in a toga or a mega-rich business leader with a spotless record or Adolf Hitler stirring the masses from a balcony in Berlin: "Das ist ein vitch-hunt!"

Anyway, if you also refute the work of the court artist, here's another image of Mr Trump having forty winks during his trial.  This time it's a photograph and as we all know - the camera never lies. Does it? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Crookedness

"Crookedness". I also considered the terms "Scamming" and "Mugging" for this blogpost's title. I have written about insurance companies before and how they try to push up premiums to the max without, apparently, being brought to heel by the law. Because they seem to be able get away with it scot-free,  they continue to do it. Here are three previous posts where I bang on about the very same subject - BANG! BANG! BANG!

From memory, here is the transcript of a phone call I made just this morning to the big, nationwide insurance company that currently  provides my car insurance:-

CHIBUZO Hello you are through to Chibuzo . How can I help you today?
PUDDING I want to talk about my new car insurance premium.
CHIBUZO Why? What seems to be the problem?
PUDDING Well I am quite shocked that it has increased a full 20% on last year's premium so I was wondering if there was any way of reducing it?
CHIBUZO The best I can do is to reduce it to £378.07
PUDDING Well that sounds a much more reasonable figure. And the insurance details remain exactly the same?
CHIBUZO Yes. Just the same. Do you wish to accept the new offer?
PUDDING Okay, I'll take it.
CHIBUZO I will send you the revised insurance details by e-mail.
PUDDING Will the previous automatic renewal be cancelled?
CHIBUZO Yes. No problem. Is there anything else I can do for you today?
PUDDING No but thanks for dealing with my issue so swiftly.
CHIBUZO No problem. Enjoy the rest of your day.
PUDDING Goodbye!

One of the things that surprised me about this phone call was that Chibuzo must have been able to get all my details up on screen just through my phone number. I did not have to read out my policy number nor spell my name - nothing like that.

It was also surprising that there was no need for a small battle of wills. Chibuzo caved in and offered the reduced premium immediately. Making that four minute call saved me exactly £26. So that is £26 (American: $32.35) in my pocket and not in the vaults of the insurance company.

I have had this kind of experience many times now and it is all so very wrong. Undoubtedly, some "customers" will pay increased bills without querying them - perhaps naively believing that legitimate insurance companies would never rip them off.

And if you are wondering about the illustration at the top, it concerns an old English nursery rhyme:-

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

George

Stained glass window in St George's Hall, Liverpool

Today is St George's Day. He is the patron saint of England. I have written about him before.

As far as I am concerned, St George has nothing to do with England. He was chosen as our patron saint by King Edward III (1312-1377). Apparently,  St George seemed to represent the ideal of chivalry but even in Edward III's time he was a semi-mythical character.

He never visited England and may have been a Roman military leader, mostly based in the eastern region of modern Turkey. His life story is uncertain. There are many half-truths and theories but for the life of me I cannot understand why he gained his legendary status. He was venerated in various parts of the middle east and of course the nation of Georgia is named after him. He is also the patron saint of Catalonia in Spain.

England deserves a saint from these islands  - pure and simple. If we can have a referendum about leaving The European Union we can surely have a referendum on who should be our patron saint. My money would be on Saint Cuthbert (634 - 687). He was  a real man  who did a lot of good in his lifetime and became  The Bishop of Lindisfarne. He is buried in Durham Cathedral.

I have devised a voting slip to be printed off and posted back by English people only. We don't want any Americans, Australians, Canadians, Irish, Germans, New Zealanders, Swedes, Welsh or Scots deciding who the replacement Patron Saint of England should be:-

The United States of America do not have a proper patron saint so it is about time those folks chose one. I would like to nominate Saint Barack after the 44th president or Saint Bob after Bob Dylan. Both would surely be very acceptable but being a limey I guess it is not really my place to even make a suggestion.

Ripper

In relation to my "Missing" blogpost in which I focused partly on The Yorkshire Ripper's marital home in Bradford, I received the following comment from Debbie Williams:-

"In 1980 I'd just started studying at Sheffield University. I still remember the fear we felt as The Ripper had murdered a student at Leeds University. The student union organised transport to take us back to our halls of residence and my parents paid for taxis, rather than let me walk home. We were jubilant and so relieved when Peter Sutcliffe was caught, frightening close to the University campus. Looking back, I wonder if Sutcliffe would have been caught sooner if most of his victims hadn't been prostitutes?"

I remember that time very well. I had joined a Workers Educational Association course in creative writing in The University of Sheffield's Arts Tower. There were posters on every floor urging women to take their safety seriously. Don't go home alone/Take taxis at night etc.. And this was all because  of the terror that The Ripper was causing.

It affected my wife Shirley who was a young hospital nurse at the time.  Fortunately, she had a little car to bring her home but various levels of anxiety were experienced by all female hospital workers whose shift patterns meant they often left work  at nighttime.

Throughout his deadly campaign, there had never been a known attack  here in Sheffield. Nearly all of his unfortunate victims were bludgeoned to death up in  West Yorkshire - Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax. He killed thirteen women and severely injured several others.  One of his survivors recalled him shouting, "Filthy prostitute!" as he struck her.

The fear  in Sheffield was pretty strong even though nobody had been attacked here but up in Bradford and Leeds  the levels of fear must have been off the scale. Female university students had been targeted in addition to prostitutes whose lives are just as precious anyway.

The Yorkshire Ripper was finally captured by accident in a dark office car park off Melbourne Avenue just  a mile and a half from this  keyboard. It was January 2nd 1981 and he had driven  24 year old Olivia Reivers  there. He had his trademark ball-pein hammer in the boot (American: trunk) of his car.  Whatever might have been about to happen was stopped by a pair of policemen slowly cruising down the avenue  in a squad car.  They did a vehicle check  and discovered that Sutcliffe's car was displaying false number plates. He was promptly arrested. 

The next day one of those police officers returned to the arrest scene and found the hammer in  bushes where The Ripper had been allowed to urinate before being taken to the local police station. Then, thankfully, the clues were joined up and after forty eight hours Sutcliffe admitted who he was.

Sutcliffe and Sonia on their wedding day in 1974

Quiztime

Okay. It's time for another quiz with your genial host and quizmaster Mister Yorrrrrrrrkshire Pudding! (Sound of riotous applause and stomping of feet). Grinning like a Cheshire cat, he steps up to the microphone in his gold lamé suit and purple dickie bow.

"Good evening quizzers! Let's not hang about. It's time for "Quiz Time"! And for tonight's quiz, the theme is food! After all, we all eat food don't we? And looking at tonight's audience I would say that some of us eat too much of it!  (Gales of laughter) Food is something that all human beings have in common.":-

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1. With which staple food do you associate these names  - basmati, arborio & jasmine?

2. No British Sunday roast is complete without a pudding made from plain flour, milk and an egg or two but after which English county is that pudding named?

3. In 2002, Donald Trump appeared in a TV commercial for a particular fast food company, but which one was it?  (a) Taco Bell    (b) KFC   or (c) McDonalds

4. Which farm animal do both Jews and Muslims refuse to eat according to their holy laws?

5. Jambalaya is made from cooked rice, vegetables and meat but with which southern American state would you mostly associate this creole/cajun dish?

6. Shaped like little wagon wheels, rotelle is a form of which staple Italian food?

7. Zwiebelkuchen is a savory onion cake made of steamed onions, diced bacon, cream, and caraway seeds on either a yeast or leavened dough but with which European country do you associate  Zwiebelkuchen?

8. What is this berry fruit called? (see picture)

9. What is the main ingredient in hummus?

10. Coq au vin is a traditional French dish from the Burgundy region. Which colour wine is nearly always used in traditional recipes for this dish?

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As usual, answers are given in the Comments section. How did you do?

Missing

It's easy to miss things. 

Last Friday, when I visited Bradford, I was very close to the house shown at the top of this blogpost. It was the marital home of one of Britain's most infamous mass murderers - Peter William Sutcliffe whose tabloid nickname was The Yorkshire Ripper. He killed at least thirteen women and was at large between 1969 and 1981. He terrorised the north of England until he was caught here in Sheffield in January 1981.

He married Sonia Szuma in 1974 and a few years later they were able to buy the house on Garden Lane in the Heaton district of Bradford.  I understand that Sonia  Sutcliffe, at the age of 74,  still lives in that house.  It may seem ghoulish I know but I would have liked to walk down Garden Lane to snap a picture of my own. The image at the top was snipped from Google Streetview.

It is tempting to wonder what drove Peter Sutcliffe to commit his terrible acts. So much has been written about him but when it comes to motivation a lot of the verbiage is pure speculation - guesswork. Sonia was a respectable primary school teacher but nearly all of The Ripper's victims were prostitutes. The couple never had any children though Sonia suffered an unknown number of miscarriages.  At some stage she was judged by health services to be impaired by paranoid schizophrenia. 

After this past Wednesday's visit to Barnsley, I realised I had missed something else and was reminded of this by blog chum Dave in County Cork, Ireland. It wasn't a murderer's house I had missed but the statue of a boy from a novel holding a kestrel.

The novel concerned is "Kes" or "A Kestrel for a Knave"  by the late Barry Hines. The hero he created in that book was a teenage boy called Billy Casper - born into an obscure and challenging life on a Barnsley social housing estate. Billy had nothing going for him but he managed to train a young kestrel. I sometimes say that if you want to understand the real England you should read "Kes". The statue is located on Cheapside in Barnsley. I must have been within twenty five yards of it.

So frustrating. I can see that another day trip to Barnsley will be required.

Babies

Babies may be notorious for crying but they also love to laugh. They laugh at the silliest things and of course because they are babies that laughter is not pretentious. It's 100% genuine. 

There are plenty of compilation videos of baby laughter over at YouTube. If you are feeling down or blue and  need  a bit of cheering up, perhaps those videos would be just the ticket. Doctors could potentially stop prescribing anti-depressant tablets and just recommend laughing baby videos instead.

In this area of hilarity, babies probably have an advantage over adults in that they wear nappies (American:diapers) so that when the laughter causes temporary loss of bladder control, those babies will not be embarrassed but adults - well, that's another story.

 

Oddballing

Inspired by my blogging chum Bruce Oddball in Arizona, today I am simply sharing a bunch of memes - all picked because they are just plain silly and have no serious or political undertones. Bruce  (see above) is the author of "Oddball Observations"  and every Friday he posts his "Friday Funnies" - just for laughs.  I hope you get at least one chuckle from this bunch...

That's all Folks!

Barnsley

 

Barnsley is Sheffield's little brother. It is a town some fifteen miles north of Sheffield and home to 72,000 people. It was at the heart of the South Yorkshire coalfield and so it is very familiar with poverty. Barnsley people have no airs and graces. They are considered to be the salt of the earth and they call a spade a spade.

After leaving the railway station, I strolled to a large open space called Glassworks Square. I swear it wasn't there the last time I was in Barnsley town centre. My eyes were drawn to a statue on the other side of the square so I went over to investigate. 

It was unveiled at the end of 2021 in memory of those who died during the coronavirus epidemic and those who helped. The seven  figures include a little girl, an old man, a volunteer, a nurse, a carer, a police officer and a teacher. I thought it was brilliant but I wish I had hung around to take some better pictures of it than this one...

I was mostly in  Barnsley to "bag"  three specific squares for the Geograph project so I needed to move on. I had about two miles to walk. Below - market stalls in the street with the tower of Barnsley Town Hall beyond...

Barnsley has many old terraced houses in unremarkable  streets like this one - Fife Street...

Not far from Fife Street there are two large public house that would have once allowed hard-working miners and others  to slake their thirsts and spend big chunks of their wages. This is "The Shaw Inn" at the corner of Shaw Street and Racecommon Road...

Below, the date on the parapet tells us that this pub -  "The New Longcar" was opened in 1914 - possibly replacing the old "Longcar". On the side of the pub, the Barnsley Brewery Company is still advertised...

Finally, you might be wondering about the seven foot fish at the top of this blogpost. It's a salmon! It stands outside Sheffield Midland Station  and was commissioned a few years ago to mark the return of salmon to The River Don which was once terribly polluted by industry but finally, through human intervention, the fish came back.

Reflections

As a blogger, one develops a unique network of firm supporters, casual supporters and occasional visitors. In turn, one belongs to other bloggers' networks in different capacities. If someone were to represent all of this connectivity in diagrammatic form, the final picture would be hellishly complicated.

When I set off blogging nineteen years ago, I had no idea if anyone would even find "Yorkshire Pudding" in the blogging galaxy we occupy. But gradually it started to happen. Visitors came as I visited other blogs and before you knew it my blogposts were not lonesome sailing boats upon a deep, dark ocean but part of a flotilla that seemed to grow. I was not alone.

Back in 2005, I had no notion of what my visitors might be like. Would there be a typical profile?

Nineteen years later, it seems to me that this blog has attracted generally mature, literate people. Most visitors are over fifty years old and most are white. The majority own their own homes  and most live in western countries - The United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, The British Isles etc..

This was never planned but it is what happened. I think of the saying, "Birds of a feather flock together" and I wonder - was there anything I might have done to appeal to younger people or to bloggers from non-western nations? How could I have made the profile of my visitors more diverse?

Perhaps younger people do not blog and if so, why is that? Perhaps their urge to reach out and connect with others is satisfied through other channels like "X", Facebook and Instagram. Perhaps their lives are too full-on to find time for blogging or visiting other people's blogs.

Just occasionally, I stumble across interesting blogs I have never been to before and scanning down the commenters, I might find no names that I recognise. It is as if I have stepped into a parallel universe and I guess that there may be hundreds of such hidden places in the blogosphere. After all, it is estimated that there are 600 million blogs in the world - not all of them facilitated by Blogger I hasten to add.

Standing back from the fray, I wonder if you have any reflections of your own about blogging? 

Top picture: A lock keeper's cottage on The 

Chesterfield Canal near Retford 

(December 2020)

Triangulation

Roseberry Topping

Triangulation pillars, are columns made of cast concrete or cemented stone. They are typically four feet tall, with a large part of each pillar commonly buried below the earth's surface. They are also known as trig points.

There are more than 6500 of these pillars located throughout Great Britain - often in pretty inaccessible places. They were mostly erected in the 1930's and were vital to the process of accurate surveying. The iconic trig pillar was designed by Brigadier Martin Hotine in 1935.  Hotine designed them to assist with triangulation - separating our country into a network of triangles, allowing precise mapping of  the landscape.

Burbage Moor

In modern times, better surveying techniques have been developed - to such a point that the little pillars are now redundant. However, they still dot the country and appear in "Ordnance Survey" mapping. They are often a focus or indeed a diversion for walkers. People will frequently pause by them to lean and look around.

Bagging trig points is a passion for some country lovers and there are even websites devoted to this hobby. Every pillar has its own unique reference information usually shown on a metal flush bracket secured to the base of the trig point.

Birchen Edge

Over the years, I have visited dozens of triangulation pillars - not because I am a crazy trig point enthusiast but just because they happened to be on or close to my walking route. Some pillars sit in very prominent positions while others are hidden  away in hedgerows.

Accompanying this blogpost, I have picked five of my images of triangulation pillars to share with you.

Mam Tor

Stanage Edge

Quiztime

Naturally, quizzes at "The Hammer and Pincers" have a British bias. That's because we are in Britain and the pub quizzers are all British. However, here in the blogosphere, quizzers come from all over the world though I must admit I have never had any visitors from Nyasaland - called Malawi since 1963.

Seeking fairness, I wanted to find a quiz theme that would not be biased towards any particular country. Suddenly, in a flash of celestial inspiration, I thought - I know - the human body! After all we have all got human bodies haven't we?

So here goes...

1. How many chambers are there in the human heart?
2. What is the medical, latinate term for the kneecap?
3. Which sense organ allows us to smell?
4. What is the name of the pipe that takes food from the mouth to the stomach?
5. Where is your achilles tendon located?
6. Which organ of the body secretes insulin?
7. Where in the human body will you find a liquid called aqueous humour/humor?
8. With reference to adult humans, if stretched out in a line, what is the average combined length of the large and small intestines?   (a) 5 feet  (b)20 feet   or (c)37feet
9. Where in the human body will you find the  incus or anvil bone?
10. What is the pollex commonly known as?

As usual, answers are given in the "Comments" section.

Art

The untitled still life above was created by David Hockney in the attic of his mother's old house in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. I believe it was made with the aid of an i-pad and probably produced during the first decade of this century. For a few years, Hockney loved to work in and around Bridlington. He enjoyed the peace and the fact that it was difficult for people to bother him there.

The picture below was created by L.S.Lowry in his own inimitable style.  It is simply called "Industrial Landscape (Ashton-under-Lyne" and was produced in 1952 before being purchased by the city of Bradford in 1957. Lowry was always drawn to images of life and industry in northern cities - most commonly to the twin cities that he knew best - Manchester and Salford. If put up for sale today, this picture would certainly fetch around £5,000,000. I would be very happy to have it on my wall.

The next picture was painted by George Clausen in 1908. The old man is focused on the present and the work he must endure but the young man is looking far off into the future. It is called "The Boy and the Man" and was very much of its time - wrestling between old certainties and new opportunities. The paint must have been applied in a fairly dry state which adds to the interesting texture of the canvas.

In a semi-circular apse near the front entrance to Cartwright Hall there is a powerful white marble statue which was commissioned by the city of Bradford to mark the end of World War One. Fashioned by Francis Derwent Wood (1871-1926), it is called "Humanity Overcoming War" and depicts a scene suggested to the artist by a line in The Book of Revelations that speaks of an angel binding Satan in chains.

The last piece of Bradford art is not to be found in Cartwright Hall but in a corner of Centenary Square. It was given to Bradford by the city of Hamm in Germany in memory of those who lost their lives in the terrible Bradord City fire disaster which occurred in May 1985. Fifty six football fans died that day and  265 were injured.  It happened at Valley Parade - the home stadium of Bradford City F.C..

Bradford

Light fitting seen from below in Cartwright Hall, Bradford

Shirley dropped me off at our railway station and I journeyed north to Leeds. There I climbed aboard the connecting train at Platform 11d and twenty minutes later I reached Bradford Interchange Station. Though it didn't rain today, there was very little of the sunshine and blue sky that the weather folk had predicted.

After loitering in the city centre for a while, I headed north to Manningham Lane which is a major route out of  Bradford - heading to illustrious satellite towns like Bingley and Shipley which are both associated with the mass murderer Peter Sutcliffe - usually known as The Yorkshire Ripper.

Manningham Lane was once a prosperous thoroughfare of grand stone mansions and solid businesses but in any city neighbourhoods can experience dramatic demographic and commercial change as decades pass by. In the 1960's the Manningham area began to attract waves of South Asian immigrants so that now white Bradfordians are very much in the minority there.

Local council elections are coming up in May

Along Manningham Lane there are Muslim takeaways, grocery stores, clothing and book stores and with it being a Friday, I saw many men and boys in their mosque clothes - garments that would not look out of place in Islamabad or Karachi.

Lister Park was partly given to the city by an industrial magnate called Samuel Cunliffe Lister. The park opened in 1875 and to this day it is well-maintained. In the heart of the park is Cartwright Hall which houses the city's premier art gallery.

Bronze stag in Lister Park

There were perhaps less paintings than I imagined there would be but even so some were of excellent quality. I especially liked the gallery that was devoted to Bradford-born David Hockney - an artist I have admired for many years. He is now 86 years old and by all accounts still producing his art like a man possessed.

Leaving the park, my  left heel was smarting once again so I curtailed my walkabout and caught a bus back into the city centre. There I sat on a bench in Centenary Square, reading a book in the shadow of Bradford's magnificent city hall before heading back to Leeds and thence to Sheffield. Mission accomplished.

Humble saree business on Manningham Lane

Bronze business plates in the city centre.

The third one underlines Bradford's important historical connections with the wool trade.

Cities

There are eight cities in Yorkshire - more than in any other English county. They are, in alphabetical order, Bradford, Doncaster, Kingston-upon-Hull, Leeds, Ripon, Sheffield, Wakefield and York.

Naturally, I have been to all of these cities but the two I know best are Kingston-upon-Hull which is commonly called Hull and Sheffield where I am currently writing this blogpost. Hull was the city of my first eighteen years and I even went to school there for five years. It is the home of my beloved football team - Hull City. 

Sheffield is just my adopted city. Home to almost 600,000 people, I have lived here since 1978. I know it like the back of my hand.

Of all the Yorkshire cities, the one I know least is Bradford. I have been there just three times. Firstly, it was to play rugby against Bradford Grammar School. Another time it was to see Hull City playing Bradford City at Valley Parade and once it was to take a party of schoolchildren to visit what is now called the National Museum of Science and Media.

Bradford has a sizeable South Asian community - previously linked with labour in the woollen industry. Most of those people claim Islam as their religion. They make up 27% of the total population of greater Bradford which, like Sheffield, is nestled on the eastern edge of the Pennine hills.

Anyway, I am going to Bradford tomorrow morning. I will be heading up there by train and returning in the evening. My plan is to walk through the city centre and then two miles north to Lister Park where I hope to visit the city's main art gallery - Cartwright Hall.

It will be an adventure and one that I shall no doubt report upon when I get home. The weather looks set fair for tomorrow and I have printed off a map to guide me. I feel that I have been languishing within these four walls for far too long. Time to get out and see the world again... well Bradford anyway

Flags

Every country in the world has its own flag. A flag is something that you can rally round or sometimes burn. In Great Britain, our flag - The Union Jack - is not displayed as widely as The Stars and Stripes are displayed in The United States. Over there, you will find flags aplenty. Many homes even have their own flagpoles where residents like Bruce and Judy in Arizona and Bob and Carlos in South Carolina, assemble each morning to pledge allegiance to their flag.

A nice thing about The Stars and Stripes and The Union Jack is that they are both very distinctive flags. Everybody can recognise them. However, this is certainly not the case with all national flags. Playing "Worldle" most days, I often struggle with some of the flags of West Africa . Colours and designs can seem so similar that its hard to differentiate. 

Look below. Do you see what I mean? :-

The eagle-eyed among you might point out that Ethiopia is not located in West Africa but it seems that  the green, yellow and red symbolise Pan-Africanism and that idea was first nurtured in Ethiopia with the other former colonial states aspiring to be part of that Pan-African movement - separate yet joined together.

Those flags do not help quizzers at all. I prefer distinctive flags - another of these is the flag of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean. Formerly known as The Gilbert Islands, Kiribati became independent from Great Britain in 1979. Consisting of thirty three inhabited islands and with a total population of 126,000, Kiribati's flag shows a fierce sun rising above ocean waves in a red sky with a frigate bird flying by. Now that's my kind of flag:-

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FOREWARNING
Next week's quiz will be on the human body.

I suggest you do some revision or get to

know your own body a little better!

Waterfront

You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda 

been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.

Earlier today, I checked to see what was on at The Showroom cinema. It was a nice surprise to see that at 3.30 there would be a screening of "On The Waterfront" (1954). Over the years, I may have seen snatches of this iconic film but I am sure I had never previously watched it from beginning to end and certainly not from a cinema seat.

"On The Waterfront" first came out  seventy years ago to rave reviews. It won oscars aplenty - including "Best Film", "Best Director" and "Best Supporting Actress" for  Eva Marie Saint.  Marlon Brando's masterful performance earned him the "Best Actor" award.

Film techniques have come a long way in these past seven decades but sitting in the darkness of The Showroom, I was still enthralled by the story that unfolded on the screen. Set in New York and focusing on what we in Britain call dockers, the film explores shady practices amongst the longshoremen.  Union leaders control the labour scene and men are advised to be "d & d"  - deaf and dumb, even keeping schtum about questionable deaths.

Supported by Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint) and Father Pete Barry (Karl Malden), Terry Malloy (Brando) manages to find the courage to fight back against the thuggish, controlling union bosses  and to lead New York's longshoremen towards a happier, less fearful future.

The imaginative musical score was entirely by Leonard Bernstein and it added greatly to the overall atmosphere of "On The Waterfront".

If more great films from the past were screened at The Showroom, I would love to go and see them - including "Rebel Without A Cause", "Citizen Kane" and "Gone With The Wind". Watching them on television sets could never be the same.