The World’s Greatest Cars
Top Gear is waffling on about how Lancia is the world’s greatest make of cars.
What bollocks! After all the collective noun was a rust of Lancias.
They showed a K-reg Lancia Delta Integrale and described how good it was. Perhaps it was, as that Car magazine of about that time, said that the three greatest cars were, the Porsche 9-11 Carerra 4, the Integrale and the Lotus Elan. Admittedly, they were judging them on a cross-country route rather than on the M1.
Judge those cars now nearly twenty years later.
My Elan is currently filthy, but turn up anywhere smart and you get the proper treatment. (The landlord of my local pub likes it in the road outside!) Have an argument with an oick in his BMW and you can lose him down a country lane. Show it to a real lady and she knows it’s a real car! Ask it to corner fast and you chicken out before it does!
Lotuses are like that!
Mine has done over 111,000 miles and except for those things you’d expect to replace like filters, brake shoes and the occasional exhaust pipe (one in all those years), very little has broken. A window winder motor and a sun visor for a start. And possibly a finish!
They’re like that too!
I’ll never claim the top spot, but my Lotus is the second greatest car in the world.
Caravans
According to Richard Hammond of Top Gear, 37% of all caravanners enjoy wife-swapping.
That’s probably one of the best reasons for not getting one, as I haven’t got a wife. Sadly!
But seriously! Apparently we have more caravans in the UK than anybody else! Why do people feel that the greatest pleasure comes from being stuck with your family in a small box in the pouring rain?
Perhaps most of those who own caravans are masochists!
The Art of Brevity
It’s a week late, but I’ve just watched the last episode of Garrow’s Law on my Sky Box.
What fascinated me wasn’t the case, which was about the treason of Joseph Hamer, but Garrow’s method. At the start of the case the prosecution opened with a three hour speech to the jury, but Garrow just made a brief statement and sat down.
My late wife always felt that brevity was a weapon that was rarely used. But used well it could be the most powerful of weapons.
Two Dogs
I reorganised the living room and brought a small Indian rug in front of the television. It has been invaded.
The Staffy is my son’s. The basset despite being female or possibly because of it is in charge.
Note that the basset has one brown and one blue eye.
Ipswich Win in Cardiff
Phew! Two late goals, but they did it, by two to one.
Apparently, we had a bit of luck. About time to!
Meeting the Black Farmer
I like the sausages produced by the Black Farmer. So I was glad to see that he was at Presents Galore in Newmarket over the weekend. I was also a pleasure to meet him personally at the show and buy some sausages and bacon.
The sausages were pork, onion and chive. I had a pack on Saturday night witha friend. They were delicious.
It’s a pity his products are not too easy to get in Suffolk. Sainsburys used to stock them in Haverhill, but don’t now. I’ve signed his petition.
Delia Goes up in My Estimation
As an Ipswich supporter, I’m not a fan of Delia Smith, because of her Norwich connections.
But she did go up in my estimation on Thursday, when she was promoting her new book and talking about football in League One on Radio 5 Live. She made the statement that she’d rather go to Hartlepool than Chelsea to support Norwich. She also said she had nothing against the fans of Chelsea, but that she had to wait for an hour before she could leave because of the security surrounding Abramovich and his entourage.
If I was the Chairman of a football club and they had treated me like that, then I wouldn’t go.
Fathers at Their Children’s Births
I was present when all three of my children were born. And that was in the early 1970s. In fact most of the fathers I knew in those days had been present.
I think it helped everybody, even if it was just to hold hands at a stressful time. In fact, by the third my wife was getting to enjoy childbirth a lot more and it was a much better occasion.
I can’t father children any more, so it won’t happen, but would I do it again? Yes!
But then we have this article in The Times. It contains this.
Michel Odent, a leading French obstetrician and author, will argue that men should not be present in the delivery room when women give birth, as their anxiety can be catching and make labour longer, more painful or likely to result in a Caesarean section. Men now attend more than 90 per cent of births in the UK, a proportion that has grown significantly since the 1950s.
Dr Odent believes that the birth process had become too “masculinised” in recent years, and delivery of babies would be easier if women were left with only an experienced midwife to help them, as used to be the case.
“It is absolutely normal that men are not relaxed when their partners are giving birth, but their release of adrenaline can be contagious,” he said yesterday. “When a woman releases adrenaline she cannot release oxycytin, the main hormone involved in childbirth, which can make labour longer and more difficult.”
In my view he’s talking rubbish.
The Anonymous Widower 