Why Trident?
I was always someone who thought we needed a nuclear deterrent.
But not now, as who do we use it against?
So when I read this article in The Times by Cardinal Keith O’Brien, I was more or less in agreement. Read and make your own decision.
Iranian Despots
I use the term despots advisedly and in a measured fashion. But read the first leading article in The Times and you’ll see that they have used measured, but firm tones in denouncing the Iranians for illegally imprisoning employees of the British embassy in Tehran.
To me the real problem with Iran is that the religious leaders have just too much power. I’ve read extensively on Islam and where are sound principles that were inherent in that once great religion when it was founded many hundreds of years ago. In those days, it embraced science with a vengance and women were equal.
It seems to me now that few Muslim countries are economic successes and like Iran, they always blame others for their plight. How many too, are true democracies? You can put forward all sorts of reasons, but the lack of empowerment of women is in my view, one of the main reasons. After all, the one Muslim country, that is a success is Malaysia and what do they do? Educate women properly and let them have a lot of the good jobs.
I’m very worried for Iran. Wounded, desperate and cornered animals have a habit of lashing out and taking quite a few with them.
I hope that the worst doesn’t happen. But I fear it will.
Merry Widow
Kate Boydell was widowed in 1998 and founded Merry Widow as a survival guide for young widows. She has written books and the resource has grown considerably, with lots of advice, a diary and a forum.
Give it a look.
Surviving Middle-Aged Widowhood
My heart goes out to this lady.
It’s one thing to lose your partner and then yet another to see everything disintegrate over the next few years, due to circumstances and the credit crunch. She also has two children to support.
I was lucky, in that I’m reasonably rich and my youngest child was in their mid-thirties.
Boo’s Journey Through Widowhood
Boo is a widow and writes an eloquent blog about the loss of her husband.
I have got a lot of traffic from her blog and it shows that by linking and commenting on other blogs you can grow the number of visitors.
That is why a blog is a simple way of getting publicity for your cause, views or business. Are web sites dead? If so, long live the blog!
Widows, Jews and Judges
When you are left widowed, your friends change.
Partly, this is because some of your friends were mainly your spouses, but also I’m sure that some don’t like asking a single person to their parties. That’s hard but I can think of friends, who I’ve never seen since my wife died.
But three groups have virtually stuck to me through thick and thin in the last couple of years; widows, Jews and judges.
The dark sister and brotherhood of widows in understandable. Sometimes at one in the morning, you’ll get an e-mail from an insomniac widow, asking how you are. You might chat on MSN early in the morning, as it seems many can’t sleep. Strangely, that has never been one of my problems, and my sleep is usually only difficult, when I am trying to solve a programming or other problem. I have been very lucky with that.
I don’t have many Jews amongst my friends, and most of them don’t practice any more, but to a man and a woman they have stuck by me and have always been there with help and a chat. I think it’s because Jews don’t generally believe in an afterlife and helping others whilst you’re in this life is the most important thing. But what the reas0n is, I thank them all.
My wife was a barrister and amongst the lawyers the judges have kept in touch. I’ve had some great dinners over the last few months! Perhaps, it’s because they have a much better view of life than the rest of us.
That is not to say that my friends have been reduced to just these groups, but they stand out from the others, who on the whole just don’t seem to appreciate how lonely it can be to be without someone, you’ve lived with for forty years. Sadly, we failed to make the ruby wedding by just a few months.
So if you have a friend, who loses a partner, make sure that you don’t leave them out of your life. If there is one thing that is sure in life, it is that being a widow or widower is something that is likely to happen to you!
On-Line Pick-and-Mix
Woolies is back as an on-line store.
They’ve apparently got Pick-and-Mix. With sounds as you drop the sweets into the bag.
I don’t eat sweets as I can’t be sure they don’t have the dreaded wheat maltodextrin in them. Why can’t they use sugar? It’s natural and safe.
Richard Dunwoody
I was in Newmarket yesterday and saw him walking along the Bury Road in his thousand miles in a thousand hours challenge.
Good luck to him!
And donate as it’s all in a good cause.
A Memory of Denis Thatcher
I never met Denis or Margaret Thatcher, but I do have two stories about Denis. One is in the public domain and the other is not.
I used to work in Ipswich and the Borough Development Officer was a guy called Reg Mayes. I was having lunch with him and another local businessman in about 1981 or so, when the subject of Denis Thatcher came up. The other guy felt that Denis was a bit of a laughing stock. Reg, then told a tale about how some years before Denis had been his boss at I think, ICI Dyestuffs. He told how he was the best boss he ever had and really developed his career, by quiet suggestion and constructive criticism. He was very much of the opinion that Mrs. T’s skills had been criticised and honed by her supposedly idiot husband.
But who believes the media.
The other story was when Neil Kinnock was on Sport on 4, one Saturday morning and he was asked by Cliff Morgan, how with his political differences he got on with Denis Thatcher at political dos, when wives and husbands were present. Kinnock almost got on a high horse and said how could he not like someone who was passionate about rugby and was a first-class rugby referee. You got the impression that those two got on very well.
It just shows how some politicians are rather different than we are led to believe.
Why Anonymous?
That’s how you feel at times.
You get ignored, not asked out to dinner and other parties, spend a lot of time by yourself and generally have to make your own entertainment.
Just try it for a bit!
