Adventure

St Paul's Church, Armitage Bridge

And so it seems that the e-ticket problem I mentioned last night was down to the technical issues that Microsoft has had across the world in the last thirty six hours. Anyway, it didn't stop me from catching the morning train to Berry Brow south of Huddersfield. I simply bought another ticket at the railway station and I expect to secure a refund for the e-ticket I never received.

Like Sheffield, Huddersfield sits on the edge of The Pennine Hills. There are deep valleys and winding lanes that take you up to the tops. Historically this area's main industries concerned textiles and there were mills for both wool and cotton.

The path to Magdale

The hilly nature of the landscape meant that today I trudged up several hills and the physicality of my long walk was more challenging that it appeared on my map. After all, maps are flat!

But I enjoyed it all - walking in the November sunshine, seeing new sights, new places. Effective photography was made harder because of unusually strong contrast between shadow and illuminated subjects of interest. It reminded me of football matches on the television when half the pitch is bathed in glorious sunshine and the other half is shaded - usually by a stand. It's not easy even for professional cameramen and camerawomen.

Thirstin Road, Honley

I am tired now and I will soon be on my way up to bed but for your interest and my future recollection, I am going to end this blogpost with a few more images from today's trip to Berry Brow. Not too far from here but in some ways a different world.

Cattle at South Crosland

Birch polypore in Honley Wood

View to Victoria Tower

Sandbeds, Magdale

Splendour

The Sheffield suburb of Totley - seen from Totley Moor

Tomorrow, Friday, I plan to go for another walking expedition in virgin territory just south of Huddersfield. I will take a local train up there. It stops at fifteen mostly small stations on the way - including Berry Brow. Using my senior railcard, the fare is only £8 return (US$10.60). However, as I write this, my e-ticket has still not arrived in my e-mail inbox. I have only got the booking confirmation. Normally the two e-mails arrive in quick succession. Ah well, it's not the end of the world... or is it?

Today I went out into the autumn sunshine, leaving Butch in the little car park at the end of Penny Lane just south of Dore. I know that area like the back of my hand and have seen it different seasons, different months, different years. It is amazing that you can find such tranquility in nature on the very edge of this city. I only saw three other walkers and a mountain biker. The walk took little more than an hour.

In places, it was as if the trees were on fire in their autumn splendour. The four pictures that accompany this blogpost were taken this very day.

Once back home, I continued preparing the big cottage pie I made for our family tea (Posh people: dinner). The beef mince with onions and diced carrots was cooked slowly to soften it all. For the mash on top, I followed my customary habit of using a 50/50  mixture of potato and swede (American: rutabaga) and then on top of that grated cheddar cheese. Then into a hot oven for half an hour.

It was well-received but Phoebe objected to having cabbage as a side dish and wanted it off her plate ASAP. After all, she could have contracted mad cabbage disease!

The e-tickets have still not arrived and the company - Northern Rail - shut down their customer helpline at night which is very helpful! But I'm still going to Berry Brow in the morning.

Eleventh

How dank and still the air has been these past few days. A few autumn leaves hang on without a whiff of wind to disturb them. It was like that on the morning of November 11th 1918 when George Ellison was shot dead by a German sniper at Mons. He was the last British soldier to be killed on the battlefield in The Great War. What was so "great" about it I wonder? All accounts suggest that it was truly awful - not great.

As I usually do, I walked up to the simple war memorial next to All Saints Church and stood there in quiet remembrance as the bells chimed eleven times. There were two people from the cafe and about twenty small children from the church playgroup with their leaders. Those children stayed remarkably quiet.

I put a beach stone on the plinth. I had written "Thank You" on it with a permanent black marker and a single poppy too.

Normally, when I am standing there, my thoughts wander to my Uncle Jack and all the other young men who never came home. What a terrible waste it all was. But this year my thoughts also drifted to Ukraine and the Russian threat and how the peace we have taken for granted for so many years is now in jeopardy.

I took a diversion home through the churchyard and spotted the grave of Lieutenant Joseph Austin Sorby. He died on April 4th 1918 here in Sheffield but not I believe from war wounds. It was a duodenal ulcer that got him - with associated complications. He belonged to the Australian Field Artillery.

All those young men - mostly men anyway - they did not make the wars they died in. They were made by other men far from the front line, far from the battlefield. Of The First World War it was said that it was "the war to end all wars" but of course the century that has followed proved that not to be the case - again and again. 

When will they ever learn?

As I walked home via the graveyard this song by Pete Seeger came to mind. He first wrote it in 1955 after reading "And Quiet Flows The Don" by Mikhail Sholohkov. Over to you Joan...

Nails

 

What is it with nails? All over Great Britain, nail bars have sprung up in our towns and cities in the past decade. Along the main road that runs through our neighbourhood then on to the city centre there are now ten nail bars. The newest one has just opened five minutes walk away and it is called "Phoebe Nail".

Naturally, I had to take our Phoebe down there at the weekend - not to have her nails done but to get her picture taken outside the new business. The owner - probably from South East Asia  - came out to talk to us. 

Naturally, Phoebe kept shtum as small children will frequently do with strangers. The owner seemed very nice, telling me that this was the second shop she had opened. I wished her well with her new venture even though I will not myself be paying for "French tips" (£45) or even an "Eyebrow wax and tint" (£15). What the hell are "French tips" anyway? Are they like "French letters"?

Just before Halloween, I processed a picture a picture of our granddaughters with the aid of Microsoft Image Creator (AI). This is what came out:-

The image was grown from this one:-

The wee varmints were standing on our front doorstep back in September.

Speaking about those varmints. On Sunday afternoon, they came over to our house with their daddy ahead of Sunday dinner. How joyfully they arrived. Phoebe said "Can we watch something?" - referring to the television. I went back to my kitchen work and a minute later it was as if World War III had broken out in the front room.

There was yelling and crying and foot stomping. I wondered what the hell was going on. And when I went into the room both girls were in tears and distraught. Stewart and Shirley were trying to placate them

And what was this all about you might ask? It was simply to do with seating and status. 

Ever since she could sit in that room, Phoebe has sat on a little green wooden chair with a woven rush seat. Normally Margot sits on her canvas "Fireman Sam" chair. But on Sunday, Margot got into the room first and claimed the green seat.

"It's my seat! I always sit there!" cried Phoebe but Margot was having none of it.

Usually the girls get on very well and sororal love flows like a gentle stream but just sometimes they can kick off. They both have strong personalities and can be very stubborn - like horses that refuse high fences in a steeplechase.

It took five minutes to calm them down and I now refer to this incident as Chairgate!  However, by the time their roast pork dinners arrived at our dining table they were as right as ninepence again.

Branded

Are you there Washington D.C.? Come in please! This is England calling!

Today, at Southwark Crown Court in London, the rapist and sexual predator Russell Brand was put away for ten and a half years having been found guilty of his crimes. It didn't matter that he was a rich media star, famous "comedian" and "writer". It didn't matter that he had settled down in recent years with a  loving wife and their three young children. It didn't matter that he had turned to God or that he wore a crucifix.

Past crimes came back to haunt him and the women he had abused earlier this century at long last achieved some kind of justice. There are at least two other cases against Brand still pending. He may yet have more years added to his sentence.

I began this blogpost in the way I did because I had Jeffrey Epstein and his associates in mind. Numerous other men - mostly wealthy and powerful - were involved in his predation and not one of them has been suitably punished. They used young women like playthings.

Blatant efforts have been made to hide the guilty men's identities through redaction and selective editing of  "The Epstein Files". Months and years pass by and yet still they have not been brought to justice. One of Epstein's closest chums  still occupies a very, very important role in Washington D.C.. He should certainly not be above the law.

Here in England, we have reduced a prince to a commoner and today a wealthy, wacky celebrity has deservedly been sent to prison. It's high time that the wheels of American justice turned  to bring Epstein's associates to courts of law. No more hiding in plain view. No more redaction. No more dodging responsibility with the aid of overpaid lawyers. The oft-forgotten  victims deserve retribution and the perpetrators deserve to be branded criminals - just like Russell Brand today.

Boundaries

Visitors who only read blogs will not have seen the following background alert that has recently been appearing on the dashboards of blog creators:-

Updates to the Blogger Content Policy
We are making some changes to our policies, effective December 16, 2026. To see how these changes may affect you, please find more information in the Blogger Content Policy.

I thought that it was about time that I investigated what this is all about. What changes are coming and how will they impact on everyday blogging?

As far as I can make it out, it's all about tightening the system up and ensuring that Blogger is not used maliciously or for unsavoury purposes. It appears that Blogger has seventeen key guidelines that bloggers are meant to follow. Now it seems that these principles will be given more weight and there will be better enforcement. I copied and pasted the guidelines for your interest:-

1. Absolute zero-tolerance policy; results in immediate removal, account termination, and reporting to law enforcement.
2. Violence & Gore: Explicitly prohibits graphic depictions of violence, gore, or encouragement of self-harm.
3. Violent Organizations: Content promoting, supporting, or representing terrorist groups, hate organizations, or violent extremist groups is banned.
4. Harassment, Bullying, & Threats: Direct personal attacks, systematic harassment, and threats of violence against individuals are strictly forbidden.
5. Hate Speech: Content that promotes violence or incites hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity is prohibited.
6. Impersonation: Deceiving users by pretending to be another person, official entity, or organization is a violation.
7. Personal & Confidential Information: Disseminating private details (e.g., medical records, social security numbers, home addresses) without explicit consent—commonly known as doxxing—is restricted.
8. Non-Consensual Explicit Imagery: Sharing intimate, explicit, or sexually suggestive photos or videos of someone without their clear, written consent is illegal and banned.
9. Adult Content Restrictions: While explicit or adult content is permitted on Blogger, it must be properly marked as "Adult" in the settings to trigger an interstitial warning page. Missing labels will be force-applied or result in blog removal.
10. Deceptive Practices, Fraud, & Scams: Fake reviews, romance scams, investment fraud, or "get-rich-quick" schemes designed to defraud users are prohibited.
11. Phishing: Operating blogs that mimic authentic login screens or banking pages to steal credentials or personal data is banned.
12. Malware & Viruses: Distributing harmful code, malicious scripts, ransomware, or linking directly to malware-hosting hubs is entirely prohibited.
13. Spam: Automated content generation, link-stuffing, scraped text, or utilizing blogs purely to funnel traffic to affiliate networks or external search loops is penalized.
14. Regulated Goods: Operating a storefront or facilitating transactions for illegal or strictly regulated items (e.g., firearms, prescription drugs without a license, alcohol, tobacco) is banned.
15. Misleading Civic or Health Content: Intentionally spreading demonstrably false and harmful medical claims (e.g., dangerous alternative cures) or civic manipulation data (e.g., false voting timelines) is restricted.
16. Unauthorized Images of Minors: To protect children online, sharing imagery of individuals under 18 without parental consent is actively restricted.
17. Copyright Infringement: Stealing intellectual property, providing unauthorized links to copyrighted media streams, or plagiarizing material violates DMCA parameters and will cause post or blog takedowns.

⦿

On the face of it, it might seem that what will be happening from December 16th onwards is all for the good, making Blogworld safer and happier. However, I worry about the policing. I assume that this will be undertaken by AI bots and at the margins will any humans be available to settle differences and misunderstandings? Several of the seventeen guidelines seem very much open to interpretation. It's not all as clear-cut as Blogger implies.

I always think about Andrew in Melbourne.  It is a few years ago now but there he was merrily blogging away as he had done for the previous eighteen years and then suddenly Blogger destroyed his blog and made the content irretrievable. All those hours, all of those ups and downs, all of those photographs - the record of his life gone up in a puff of smoke and why? What for? What had he done wrong?

To add insult to injury, there was no one at Google Blogger he could ask, no helpdesk, no e-mail address or phone number.  Perhaps is was all just a hiccup, a robotic glitch but the upshot of it was that Andrew lost his blog and struggled to get started again. I really felt for him.

And it worries me now that if Blogger plans to become more stringent about content - probably with the assistance of AI checking - will other blogs be wrongly deleted without recourse to justice or appeals that will be properly  taken on board?

I sincerely hope that I am wrong but I vaguely  detect  the smell of rats.

Film

On Friday, I walked into the city centre to be at the lunchtime screening of "Wild Horse Nine" in The Showroom - my favourite  local cinema. Starring John Malcovich and Sam Rockwell and directed by Martin McDonagh,  it is a dark comedy with a political edge set in Chile in 1973.  Many people do not realise that the most westerly part of Chile is Easter Island - 2330 miles across the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Malcovich plays the part of Chris and Rockwell plays the part of Lee. They are CIA agents involved in the pending overthrow of Salvador Allende's democratically elected left wing government. They have been planted in Chile for many months. For some reason - it is never explained why - their boss sends them to Easter Island.

It was this factor that drew me to the film because I spent a happy week on Easter Island seventeen years ago - an experience that meant the world to me. Surely the film's use of Easter Island as a backdrop would bring back some special memories.

And that did happen. There were some great shots but in a sense being on Easter Island was quite incidental with regard to the plot. Chris even refuses to use the word "moai" to describe the iconic stone figures, opting to call them "big heads" instead. We don't really tap into the mystery or the history of Easter Island - well that's not the purpose of "Wild Horse Nine" anyway.

Wild horses do appear in the film and have a fairly significant role to play in the drama. It put me in mind of the day I was inside the crater of Rano Raraku  - an extinct, low-lying volcano with an open side. There's a small lake there now. As I was photographing two unfinished moai statues, I heard the thundering of hooves behind me and a herd of twenty or so brown horses arrived at the lake to drink. It was a thrilling moment.

Getting back to the film, although there were some pleasing features and moments, I ultimately found it quite irritating. It moves along at a laconic pace and it contains some rather gratuitous killing. 

I like most films to be believable so wondered how Chris (Malcovich) was able to have three changes of clothes when he boarded the LAN plane at Santiago with just a small suitcase. And magically, he had another case containing a rifle. How did he get that on the plane? And how come phone lines home were so clear and reliable? After all, it was meant to be 1973!

A lot of suspension of disbelief was required but that was not the fault of the two lead actors. They played their given parts well. There was even a cameo role for the legendary singer-songwriter Tom Waits, Chris's grumpy brother Jim, who resides in a very lonesome cabin in Arizona. Chris phones him from the island to tell him about his terminal cancer diagnosis.

I know that some film critics have raved about "Wild Horse Nine" but not for me I'm afraid. Too light, slow and silly in spite of the awesome setting... Easter Island or as descendants of the original inhabitants still prefer to call it - Rapa Nui.