Back to normal..........or what passes for normal here.

I have now safely returned from my holiday in Cornwall, well I say safely but that might be no thanks to the half wit who at Junction 18a on the M5 Motorway Northbound [Northwest of Bristol] was in the left hand lane to leave the M5 to join the M49 heading for the M4 as I drew level with him, both of us doing around 80mph [sorry officer I mean 70mph]. He decided he was in the wrong lane or perhaps that the M49 held no interest for him and without any warning or indication he swerved off the M49 slip road and rejoined the M5 right in front of me. Mrs F screamed and I sounded the car horn and flashed my lights as I at 80mph [sorry 70mph] took avoiding action to the right into the middle lane, which thankfully at that very moment was devoid of any other traffic. As I increased speed a little to overtake, but of course not at any time exceeding the prescribed speed limit, Mrs F lowered her window and shouted some friendly words of advice at the other driver that I am afraid modesty forbids me from repeating here.

I was saddened to read about the death of Mary Travers, though she had been suffering from Leukemia for some years, news of her death on the 16th of September still made me briefly stop and take stock. Perhaps for the benefit of some of the younger readers of this Blog I should explain that Mary Travers was one third of the folk group Peter Paul and Mary. Now there are those of you who may know that my musical tastes may be varied with a slight bias toward American Bluegrass and Blues and I play, just for fun and in my own fashion, the five string banjo, so folk singing I agree is not my main musical passion.

However it is not directly for the folk singing that I remember Mary Travers or Peter Yarrow and Noel 'Paul' Stookey but for what happened on August 28th August 1963 and the small but significant part Pater Paul and Mary played during the March on Washington at which Martin Luther King Jr delivered his [now] famous 'I Have a Dream' speech. The song 'If I had a Hammer' which they sung during this rally became the anthem for racial equality just as much as Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind' also sung during the rally did.

Mary Travers was an outstandingly beautiful woman as anyone can see if they take the time to surf the web for pictures of her during those times with her blond almost white hair bobbing about her face as she moved and sang; even now up until her death she still retained an air of beauty and dignity. Sadly another link with my youth has now disappeared forever.

Regular readers will remember in last month's entry of the Blog I mentioned briefly about the impending start of the NFL season and that the Denver Broncos had then played and lost two of their pre season friendly games and I thought perhaps that the oncoming season did not bode well. An update is that they also lost their third game but won the fourth, despair began to creep in I feared for the season ahead and wondered even after all these years perhaps I might select another team to support. Imagine then my delight and no doubt the delight of Bronco fans worldwide to discover that they have won both their opening games of the new season. Perhaps this may be a return to the glory days of the Broncos when they won the Super Bowl two years running, 1997 against the Green Bay Packers 31-24 and 1998 against Atlanta Falcons 34-19; but then again it might be the kiss of death for them with me now having declared in a celebratory manner their early success, we will have to wait and see.

Many readers I am sure will also remember in last month's Blog my brief mention of the Bus Pass rightfully earned at the young age of 60. Much enjoyment was had in using the pass whilst on holiday and I might add that I became somewhat complacent about its use. I would casually board the bus approach the driver and innocently wave my pass in his general direction whilst mumbling to him my intended destination prior to taking my seat. Once as an act of rebellious defiance, and just because I could, on one journey I stayed on the bus a further stop prior to alighting and walking back to my intended destination.

Mrs F being a child bride does yet qualify for a bus pass, and so we had to pay for her transportation. At one point whilst enjoying a liquid lunch at the Union Inn I suggested to her that she may wish to consider walking back to our apartment [a distance of some three miles] I had calculated the money saved from her bus fare would afford my another pint of beer and I would return later by bus, for free of course.

There followed a short sharp abusive tirade the like from Mrs F that I have only ever heard once since and that to a half wit motorist on the motorway when returning home a week later.

An Annual Review or Is That a Year Gone Already

Well it all appears to be going nicely, I am unsure if there was anything to be concerned about.

For those of my regular readers I can only say thank you for staying with it and I only hope that perhaps you have enjoyed something over the past year, one blog entry that made you smile, nod in agreement or furious with anger at least. Yes friends and I hope I don't sound too much like the late Hughie Green and I mean that most sincerely, it has been one year now since I first typed a faltering few sentences to introduce my blog onto an unsuspecting world. Not only is the blog a year older but I am also a year older and now the legal and lawful owner of a Bus Pass, it is mine and I obtained it fair and square though I have not yet used it in anger I will do so within the next week during my annual holiday in Cornwall, yes it has also been a year since my last visit there as well.

So now a year older my expectations start to diminish, now being a bona fide bus pass holder it seems according to my small biography [on the left hand side] that I am still an official Grumpy Old Man but now I am only happily heading steadily toward my retirement and eventual demise, so you see dear reader it is true that the older you become the less you have to look forward to.

I had hoped that the Cleveland Indians baseball team might during the present season instil a little heart-warming confidence in my continued support of their efforts by working their way to a higher position in the league than they did last year. Alas no, I have to report they have as of today played 126 games this season, so far they have only managed to win 56 of those games and they stand or perhaps slump might be a better description, second from the bottom of the Central American League.

The start of the NFL season is almost upon us and despite any failing that the Indians have had this year I was sure the Denver Broncos would at least come out fighting and show that my support of them was not misplaced. The season warm up is for each team to play four friendly games, these are non scoring games and are only considered to be pre-season shake down games. the Broncos have so far played two of their four and have lost both games, oh well perhaps a repeat of last year's performance with them is on the cards as well.

One item I have overlooked to mention in any blog report is that of my new computer. After manfully battling on with my old model that was the wrong side of seven years old it was suggested that I bite the bullet and purchase a new and more up to date affair. It is not that I am a computer virgin so to speak but the inner workings are somewhat of more than a mystery to me. I spent much time scouring the Internet, much time reading various and many computer magazines and even more time interrogating unsuspecting members of my employer IT Department.

I decided in the end and after much good advice from the aforementioned IT Department to order via the Internet so that I could [and did] specify my own build requirements, thus only getting the system I required for my needs and wants rather than buying a system off the shelf so to speak and having some components that I might never use and not having some components I would have liked and that I may have had to pay extra for to be installed.

Needless to say [but then I am bound to] the system is great, it fulfills all my needs and requirements for what I use or intend to use a computer for. It was certainly not cheap but then as my Grandfather was often heard to say, you only get what you pay for.

So here we are readers of this blog, the end of the first year and the start of another. I hope you continue to visit and read my blog and that perhaps you take a few minutes to leave a comment.

So here is to the coming year and I wonder what that will bring.

Postscript:

It seems I may have been somewhat a little hasty in my comments about that wonderful baseball team the Cleveland Indians. During the time it took me to type this entry the Cleveland Indians beat Kansas City 4 - 2.

Holidays

I have not been lazy rather I have been away on holiday.

I think I have become the sort of person, when it comes to a holiday that is, that some years ago I might have accused others as being unimaginative. Throughout the year I do attempt to vary the locations to which I travel for the several holidays that I am now lucky enough to enjoy, and I have for the last five years visited Cornwall for at least one of those holidays. Not just to Cornwall as a county but to the same apartment in the same small seaside town and how very enjoyable it all is.

I must confess that I came to Cornwall late in life and I only discovered both the town and the apartments I stay at by accident; it was whilst talking to a work colleague that first made me start to think about Cornwall as a holiday destination. He had spent many of his holidays in Cornwall during the previous years and I had begun to think that if Cornwall had been a good enough destination for my colleague over that period of time then it may also be good enough for me. I reasoned that whilst I still enjoyed the prospect of travelling abroad I was beginning to question why I was often paying more to the aircraft companies for the fare just to travel to my chosen overseas destination than I was paying for the holiday itself when I got there.

Additionally I was also becoming weary of queuing at airports in either the early hours of the morning or what seemed to be the middle of the night just to fill aircraft seats that suited the airline company but often not me.

Cornwall is an enjoyable place to holiday, it is the simplicity of it all that somehow appeals to me, and it reminds me a little of the many seaside holidays to which I was taken on whilst a child by my parents. Several of them may be listed as the classic British seaside holiday resorts such as Blackpool, Skegness, Rhyl, Ayr and Brighton to name but a few, and mostly spent at a Butlins Holiday Camp.

These holidays were always fun, the sun always shone, though in truth it may not have done. The beaches were always covered in clean golden sand, though in the case of Skegness and Brighton certainly that could not have been the case as the beaches in these two resorts have pebbles on the them. The sea always seemed to be a clear azure blue, but in most cases that would not have been the case either, the North Sea for example is a muddy brown colour, but these are at least my memories whilst a boy on his childhood seaside holidays growing up in the mid fifties.

However, I do really enjoy Cornwall, the light is brighter and because of this, many famous artists such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson made it their home. Many of the resorts on what is referred to as the North Coast, though to say this is strictly incorrect as the coastlines on the Cornish peninsular are geographically West or East, are internationally famous for surfing. The sea really is an azure blue and the sand on the beaches really is golden in colour. The attitude and general lifestyle of those lucky enough to live there and to those like me lucky enough to holiday there is so relaxed and so calming.