26 September 2011

Pondering

Now, what shall I blog about today? Perhaps I could post a recipe for perfect Yorkshire puddings or a bare-your-heart kind of poem . Maybe I could clear out the dormant blog links in my side margin and bid farewell to those former cyber chums. What happened to them anyway? Was there a massive blog pile up in cyberspace or did they all simultaneously join aerobic classes?

With the Labour party conference starting in Liverpool, perhaps I could write about the Miliband brothers and how David Miliband would have made a much better leader than his bumbling eggheaded brother who got to the top courtesy of a cruel act of fratricide and a bunch of vague and breakable promises he made to the trade unions. Anyway, Ed will probably find the wheels missing from his limousine when he returns to the multistorey near Albert Dock.

What about former neighbours Doris and Ken? How long have they been in their grave now?

Perhaps I should blog about our lovely daughter Frances who is twenty three years old today! How the years pass. She was born during the Seoul Olympics. Intelligent, determined and reliable, I often think of her as a chip off the old block. But like me she can also be exceedingly silly!

She has a day off work and soon I am going to drive her back to Leeds - the car over-laden again. We are going to stop for lunch at "The British Oak" near the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I think the Labour conference should adopt a new policy that would certainly be a massive vote winner. In addition to statutory holidays every worker should be allowed to have a day off on his/her birthday. Three day weekends would also be a massive vote winner.

Of course I could simply blog about our delightfully unpredictable English weather and how this week is already providing us with the beginnings of an "Indian summer". By Thursday we should all be basking in temperatures of 24/25 degrees celsius or is that only in London and the Home Counties upon which the majority of our meterorological experts seem to focus? One Nation? You must be kidding!

I could hark back to the musical legends of my youth - Leonard Cohen, Donovan, Free, Joni Mitchell, The Nice and of course the lord of them all Mr Robert Zimmerman from Hibbing, Minnesota - Bob Dylan. Once, they meant so much to me but now music is resigned to the cobwebbed attic of my existence.

Oh dear, what shall I blog about as I wait for our little princess to finally leave the bathroom and get her stuff together for the trip back to Leeds? I guess it's just one of those days. I don't know if I am coming or going. I think I'd better just leave it for today.

9 comments:

  1. Ok, then, we'll catch up with you another time...

    Happy Birthday, Frances - if you're out celebrating, don't leave the pasta on the hob!

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  2. Great. I take the time and trouble to come all the way over here and you can't be bothered to write......Thanks man!

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  3. The birthday day off is a very sound idea. The place where my son'd best pal works operates this policy and it's remarkable what it does for staff morale.

    Mention of your daughter's birthday also brings back memories. Our daughter was also 23 this year, but in July, and I fitted a tv in her bedroom so Mrs P could watch the Olympics when she fed her in the night.

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  4. And there you are - before you knew it, it was done! And happy birthday to Frances.

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  5. When the English refer to "Indian Summer," are they talking about American Indians or India?

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  6. ELIZABETH I was back in her £450 a month flat today and no smoke alarms in sight!
    DAVID I am honoured to be visited by such a talented artist but sorry that I couldn't be bothered to write anything. Maybe next time...man!
    SOOTHING PARAS Why didn't you feed her you MCP!
    JENNY Oh! Yes I see what you mean. I've accidentally posted on purpose anyway!
    JAN (PORK CHOP) The reference is most certainly to India which was once the "jewel" of the British Empire and frequently enjoyed late summery weather well into our autumn months.

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  7. OK, so here in the states we inherited the phrase and - in our usual state of ignorance - misapplied it. We all think it refers to American Indians, though that makes no freaking sense, since we're all living in the same place.

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  8. JAN My assumption about the term "Indian summer" was in fact wrong and I am sorry to have misled you. The term certainly does relate to the North American experience. In "Phrase Finder", it says this:-

    Indian summer is first recorded in Letters From an American Farmer, a 1778 work by the French-American soldier turned farmer J. H. St. John de Crèvecoeur (a.k.a. Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crèvecoeur):

    "Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer."

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  9. Sadly, properties built prior to 1992 don't need to fit them, but any built afterwards have to, legally, have them fitted and maintained on all floors. If, however, an older property has been converted, extended or altered in any way after 1992, it is legally obliged to fit them.

    It's shocking that anyone should even think of providing accomodation on a rental basis knowing that it is not equipped. The same thing happens with ill-maintained gas fires. Sadly, not everyone has our scruples, YP, and I've seen the, not pretty, consequences on a number of occasions. As you say, it makes one shudder. It is so easy for anyone, not just Frances, but an older person, an exhausted mum - anyone - to either fall asleep or get engrossed in something else and simply forget. Thank God she was safe.

    We had a very different problem! B. couldn't understand why he couldn't turn the gas cooker or fire on in his flat in Sheffield. When I investigated, the pipes weren't connected - they just disappeared into holes in the floor. Both cooker and fire were just for show!!

    There's some odd folk around! x

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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