The Dignity Of A Sari
On Saturday, I was on a 30 bus at Highbury Corner and an Indian lady of about sixty or so got off the bus and walked up the road.
She was obviously going somewhere special, as she was immaculately dressed in what looked to my untrained eye an expensive sari. She was also carrying a big bunch of flowers, so perhaps she was going to visit a friend or family for lunch.
She had this aura of dignity, that I have observed so many times in India, with women dressed in a similar way.
You don’t see Indian women dressed this way so often where I live.
The first time, I came across a lady in a sari, was when my mother had an operation for varicose veins in the 1950s. The doctor then was a very beautiful Indian lady, who used to do her ward rounds in a sari. Both my parents incidentally, thought it perfectly normal.
I also remember, when I used to work at ICI in Welwyn Garden City, that one of the team I worked with; Manju, occasionally came to work in a sari on important days, or perhaps when someone was leaving.
You don’t seem to see Indian women in the workplace these days dressed in a sari.
I’ve Only Seen Three Of The Highest Grossing Films
I found this list of the fifty highest grossing films on Wikipedia.
They are Titanic, Skyfall and Star Wars.
But then most in the list don’t appeal to me.
Hollande Scraps New History Museum
I also wondered why you see so many French kids and their teachers in the Imperial War Museum. The answers are here in this article in the Daily Mail about the scrapping of France’s new historical museum by President Hollande.
Basically, they don’t have one, and as our museums are free to entry, they just get on the Eurostar and go visit.
As someone of part-Huguenot descent, I would like to learn more about why my ancestors came to London in the mid-eighteenth century. Typical of most in the UK and even those with Huguenot descent, I know little of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
But that seems to be just one of the arguments that have scuppered the project.
But as the Mail says, other countries with chequered history including ourselves have museums that tell of that past. We have a Museum of Slavery in Liverpool. Do the French have one? I don’t think so, but they are trying to set one up in Nantes.
They Don’t Like It Up ‘Em
I know Corporal Jones famous catch-phrase comes from less-political correct times, but this story from Burma shows how dictators get very annoyed at well-directed humour.
After all, humour is probably the sharpest weapon in the arsenal and it doesn’t generally kill people, but it might change their ideas. Or discourage others from following their evil ways.
Although, there is no record of what Hitler thought of Spike Jones‘s song, Der Fuehrer’s Face. My father had a few 78’s of his music.
So long may The Moustache Brothers in Burma be free to poke fun at one of the most evil regimes in the world. My only hope, is that they can retire quietly, after the regime has gone.
The Old Royal Naval College At Greenwich
The Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College is being restored. So I went and took some pictures.
In a few weeks time, they will be allowing you to get close to the work. I shall go again.
A Phone For A Tenner From O2
One of my Nokia 6310i’s has packed up again. So I thought I’d buy a cheap Pay-as-you-Go phone that will take my contract sim.
Three Nokia Phones
It’s the phone on the left, with the one that failed on the right. It cost me just £10 rom the O2 shop at the Angel.
Incidentally, the one in the middle had been in the drawer for something like six months. I pulled it out, fitted the sim and it worked immediately. There was even a little bit of charge left in the battery.
As the lady in the shop said, those old phones have wonderful batteries.
Drunken US Sailors
There has been some entertaining correspondence in the letters pages of The Times lately about alcohol on ships in the US Navy.
Some years ago, I worked briefly with an American engineer, who’d been an officer on a US Navy nuclear submarine. He told the hilarious tale of how they visited Portsmouth in the 1960s. They needed to be resupplied and asked for cases of fresh orange juice. This was not in the Royal Navy stores at the time, so they sent them bottles of beer instead. The only problem was where to hide the beer and according to the tale, much was kept in the torpedo tubes.
A good time was had by all concerned.
Another tale I heard from a former US Navy officer, was when they were working with the Royal Navy, or any other one with a sensible alcohol policy, face-to-face meetings generally didn’t take place on the US ships.
The Anonymous Widower 