A Memorial At Southwark Cathedral
I’ve been to Southwark Cathedral many times, but I’ve never seen this memorial.
It is to a Native American chief called Mahomet Weyonomon.
The whole story is a very sad and sorry tale.
A Place In Times Of Stress
Today, I was going to have lunch with an old business partner in Surrey and getting to Waterloo station took me past Southwark Cathedral.
Southwark Cathedral
So I dropped by to have a quiet contemplation. As I’ve said in another post this place is special to me and as the sister of one of my friends, has a child near to death, I wanted to add my point fourpennyworth. Also being the day of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral I wanted to show respect privately in the way I do. I remember years ago, when Princess Diana’s funeral took place, I was on holiday in Northumberland with C. She watched it with a friend on the television and I just sat on the coast of Holy Island. I never watch this type of State pageantry on the television.
Looking Under A Friend’s Mouse
From Cambridge yesterday, I was picked up by a mate to have a drink before I went on to the football. I found this mess under their mouse.
Looking Under A Friend’s Mouse
It is no wonder the computer wasn’t working too well.
But then as you can see it’s an Apple and they never work for me. I must be allergic to them!
Margaret Thatcher’s Legacy
You could argue for years about Margaret Thatcher.
But it wasn’t what she did or didn’t do, that she leaves behind. In the course of history, there are only a few politicians, philosophers and sad to say despots and dictators, who have changed the world.
Margaret Thatcher showed that no rule or thought in traditional thinking is sacrosanct, when it comes to shaping the world. Since then we’ve seen lots of radical ideas work, that would have never even been thought of, had not Margaret Thatcher and a few others shown that you could do something different.
Would Tony Blair have been able to reform a Labour Party, stuck in the 1920s, without Margaret Thatcher showing what radical thinking could do? Or Ken Livingstone, reinvent himself, to make a comeback as the London Mayor. I suspect, if Margaret Thatcher hadn’t been a radical Prime Minister, we’d have had a succession of useless worthies in the last few years.
I’ll only give one example of where Margaret Thatcher ditched conventional thinking.
In 1982, conventional thinking, said that to attempt to retake the Falkland Islands after the Argentine invasion was utter madness, and many on all sides of the political spectrum said that to give the islands away was the best solution. How many people today, think that the decision to retake the islands was wrong? Not many I suspect! I’ve even met an Argentinian, who felt that we did his country a favour, by effectively getting rid of the evil dictatorship of General Galtieri.
Without Margaret Thatcher my life today would be very different.
After I had sold my first successful software; Pert7 to ADP, I received an offer to go to the United States to write a PERT system for a large US computer corporation.
How they got my number or the fact I’d sold out, I don’t know?
Soon after, I was approached to write a PERT system, which later became Artemis, so I turned the Americans down.
I suspect that if that hadn’t happened, I’d have eventually moved across the Atlantic, as it was just impossible to provide for a growing family with the tax rates, then in force.
i didn’t move, as neither C or myself could have ever lived abroad permanently.
But Margaret Thatcher’s Tax and other reforms enabled me to stay in the country of my birth. If tax rates were still as the eighty percent plus they were in the nineteen seventies, I doubt many of the brightest in the UK, would not have gone to where pastures were greener.
One aside here is a story from my accountant of the 1980s. A confirmed Socialist, he was not a supporter of Margaret Thatcher, but felt the tax reforms of the time were very good for the country. Although tax rates were lowered, her Chancellors were good at closing the myriad loopholes that had been developed by clever members of his profession. There may be a lesson here for today’s politicians, who need to both maximise the tax take and keep voters happy.
A Charming Statue
I found this in the back streets of Ulm.
It’s such a simple idea for a fountain and sculpture, I’m surprised I’ve not seen something similar before.
Ulm Minster
Ulm Minster is the tallest church in the world and the spire dominates the city.
I effectively walked in a circle round the city and was never out of sight of the Minster.
Two Gordon Setters In Germany
C and I have had several setters and the only one, we never owned was a Gordon Setter.
They are now quite rare in the UK and I’ve not seen one for some time.
So I was surprised to see two very friendly ones in Germany.
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- A Gordon Setter On The Munich U-Bahn
The puppy was only ten weeks old.
The Curse Of The Trailed Bag
I always travel very light, as I indicated here.
But why is it that everybody else seems to travel with all their possessions? It’s bad in the UK and as this picture taken at Ulm shows, the Germans suffer from the same attitudes.
I haven’t fallen over a trailed bag for some time, but when my eyesight was worse than it is now, they were an absolute nuisance.
In Germany, where getting up onto and down from the trains is more difficult, I was surprised that they still travel very heavy.
Incidentally, I did see somewhere a sign asking people not to wear their backpacks.
Buying Tissues In Germany
With all my walking in the cold around Munich, my nose was running like a drain. So I needed to get some more tissues!
But could I find any? No! So I asked in a pharmacy and they gave me some free ones.
FreeTissues In Germany
In fact, there seemed to be a total lack of small shops in Germany, like the ones you get all over the UK. So there would appear to be nowhere to buy chocolate, pre-packaged salads and tissues.
I must be going blind, in not spotting them! there doesn’t seem to be too many food shops in town centres either!
Munich Olympic Park
I’ve been to several Olympic Parks and some like Montreal and Athens are not in the best of health. But Munich appears to be in use.
It is in my view one of the world’s most iconic sports stadia.
It is place full of tragedy and happiness.
I remember watching on television as the massacre at the Olympic village unfolded. Thankfully, no Olympics has seen anything like it since.
But there is a lesser tragedy entwined in the site and that is of one of Britain’s greatest ever athletes Lillian Board, who died in Munich of cancer, a couple of years before the 1972 Olympic Games. One of the paths on the site has been given her name. She was truly a multi-talented person, who represented her country at all distances up to a mile, and surely, she must be one of few people, who’ve received their MBE from the Queen, in a coat they’ve designed and made themselves.
Then there is the sadness and triumph in the medal tables on the honours board. Look at those of the women athletes and there is an awful lot of DDR and USSR. How many were clean?
But tucked in at the bottom is Mary Peters, who produced the performance of her life to win gold in the pentathlon. Of all the sporting events I’ve seen, both live and on television, her performance in Munich is in the top ten.
The Anonymous Widower 