My Last Visit to Waterloo
Waterloo Station is not a place that I’ve visited much. Admittedly in the first few years after I started as a freelance programmer, I did use it quite a bit for short journeys to places like Epsom, Cobham and Guildford, but once we moved to Suffolk, I rarely needed to use the station. C and I did go to Paris on Eurostar, but even then we parked in the car park undearneath and sneaked in.
My last visit was in 2001, when I took a thousand Al Stewart CD’s from Bury St. Edmunds to his manager, who’d taken the train up from somewhere like Basingstoke. I was to collect a Banker’s Draft in return after our meeting at around twelve.
I had visited a client in Borough High Street and afterwards I was to see another in London’s Chinatown, just north of Leicester Square. I had actually driven, as there was no Congestion Charge and parking was no problem in any of the areas I was to visit, if you stayed less than an hour on a meter.
I was a little early for my meeting at Waterloo, so I parked the car on an empty meter and decided to fill the time by making a few phone calls. For some reason, the radio in the car had been switched off and as the phone was not hands-free, I couldn’t put it on anyway and use the phone. I needed to phone C about something, but try as I might, I couldn’t remember her mobile number. Even now, after the stroke, I can still remember, every phone number, I’ve ever used regularly. I tried other numbers and even they were blank. I just thought I was having some sort of brain problem, but as all my other functions were correct, I felt it was just a function of getting old.
On time, I arrived at the station and swapped the CD’s dor the draft. Al’s manager had to get back, so quickly and surprisingly for me in a silent car, I set off across the river for my next meeting. I parked in the underground car park in Chinatown and walked to the office to have my meeting.
Only then, when I entered the office and saw everyone clustered in earnest fashion around the television sets did I realise that the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York had happened.
You can argue what you like about this, but once I knew of the ghastly attacks, all of the numbers returned to by mind. Rupert Sheldrake and others have argued that a knowledge field exists. Perhaps, it does!
Saturday, when I ook the train to Portsmouth and like that fateful day in 2001, it was September 11th. Nothing happened in the station, but I did read Robert Fisk’s excellent article in The Independent about our woeful, vile and vengeful reaction to the attack. When someone or something hurts you, you have to fight back in a constructive manner, so that it doesn’t happen again. Loose your rag and be vindictive and you loose your one weapon, your sense of thought, reason and intelligence. As an example,my biggest protection against another stroke, is to change things, so that I reduce the risks and also to question everything I do, to make sure it is right.
Blair and Bush failed to do that! This was profoundly stupid, as they had the sympathy of the whole world after the attacks. But what did they do, they attacked Saddam Husein, who a few years before had been their friend.
And what did a crazy American pastor want to do on Saturday? Burn the Koran! As I’ve said many times, you don’t burn books, you read them! And when you’ve read them as many times as you can, you pass them on to someone who might enjoy them or learn something! Failing that, you may recycle them to make more things to read!
The Elusive Boss of Transocean
The phrase isn’t mine, but it was said on the Radio 5, Wake up to Money program this morning. It has always puzzled me, why BP’s drilling company in the Gulf, didn’t take some of the flak over the Gulf Oil Spill. I can’t even remember seeing him on the News either.
It will be interesting to see who foots the bill in the end, after the lawyers get their teeth into the problem.
Another Gulf Oil Rig Blows Up
This time it does not appear to have been as large or tragic, than the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, but it did blow thirteen workers into the water.
There doesn’t appear to be any leaks as yet and the risk should be lower, as the well is in shallower water and supposely wasn’t producing any oil or gas.
But it does illustrate the problems of offshore drilling.
How To Make Money As A Zombie
Apparently, some people arrested because they were dressed as zombies have received substatial compensation in Minneapolis.
What a simple way to earn money by being silly!
My Favourite Conspiracy Theory
I think it might have been in the 1940s or 1950s, when a photographer claimed he took a famous picture of a flying saucer. It was saucer-shaped and you could see the so-called engines underneath.
The story ran and ran and the US government was accused of hiding the truth. The photographer kept the story going and only when he died did the truth come out. He said that the picture was of a lamp in I think a Chicago bar. The engines were in fact light bulbs.
Reporters went to the bar and found that the lamp was still there.
So this one wasn’t really a conspiracy theory, but a hoax of the highest order.
Always check your evidence and never believe the eyes and ears of a biased individual.
You may not believe what I have said, but I can understand that as I canh’t find any reference to the story on the INternet.
Dirt is not for racing on!
For various reasons, I don’t like American horse racing and especially on dirt.
Small circular tracks, with the exception of Chester, are boring and lack the atmosphere and character of the tracks you get in the UK and Ireland.
In America you can use drugs to improve performance. This might be alright for the Ben Johnsons of this world, but it distorts bloodlines.
But the real problem with dirt racing, is that there is an unacceptable level of equine breakdowns and fatalities.
According to Chris McGrath in The Independent, America is reversing their incorporation of more equine-friendly artificial racing surfaces, as we have at Lingfield, Wolverhampton and Southwell. This is very much a retrograde step, but it is typical of the United States, where despite the rest of the world being different, they are always right and the rest is always wrong.
I’ll leave the last word on racing surfaces to my stallion, Vague Shot. He retired after seven seasons of hard racing without having suffered any serious injury at all. Now at the age of 28, he is still fit and sound and if he feels so inclined he can still do a full roll both ways. He may be the oldest Royal Ascot winner still alive. but he would have been dead many years ago if he had raced on dirt in the United States.
Was Andy Murray Victimised Over Lockerbie?
I’ve just watched Andy Murray crash out of the tennis in Cincinnati. It was to be expected as it was his seventh successive start in the heat of the day. He did ask for a later start, but this was refused. Here’s what the BBC said.
The Scot was treated court-side for the heat in the second set, which Fish took with ease as Murray’s strength waned.
Murray showed immense reserve to force the final set to a tie-break but Fish proved just too strong for the Scot.
The players took to the court at 12pm local time (1700 BST) in temperatures reaching 33 degrees in the shade, after Murray’s request for a later start on Friday was rejected by tournament officials.
I wonder why they rejected his request?
Could it be that Murray was a Scot and the Americans wanted to vent their fury over the release of Al Megrahi on someone Scottish?
What’s the odds that he gets a terrible draw in the US Open?
Annoying Americans
About ten minutes ago, I was sitting on the toilet reading and the phone rang. I didn’t run for it, as because my trousers were round my ankles, the quick movement might have meant I’d have had an accident. That would have been all I needed!
So when I got back to my desk I checked the phone and BT 1571 told me that there were two messages waiting for me. They were both identical and said.
Key 9 to speak to a representative.
As the voice had a very annoying American accent, it was some automated system trying to sell me something that I don’t need now and probably never will. So I hit 3 twice to delete them both.
I get very annoyed with these messages, which in the UK are against the rules of the Telephone Preference Service.
But then Americans don’t have to follow rules of decency, good taste and law laid down by other governments.
Blair’s Extradition Legacy
If there was one awful legacy fromn the Blair years, it is the one-sided extradition agreement with the US. Another story has surfaced in the papers today.
Nobody should be allowed to be extradited anyway without a proper hearing in a UK Court.
Let’s hope the Coalition repeal this law as soon as possible.
Justice – Pakistani Style
According to The Register, a lawyer in Pakistan wants to indict Mark Zuckenberg and others concerned with Facebook. They would face the death penalty if found guilty.
No-one however nasty they are deserves the death penalty, as it is a cruel penalty, that should have been consigned to the dustbin of history many centuries ago.
As I get older and suffer more and more health problems, I can’t think of anything worse than death, so to use it as a punishment for anything is totally over the top.
I’ve met murderers, people who have been locked up for years on bent evidence and those that have had loved ones murdered and I’m sure that things would be the same for them all, whether or not we had the death penalty. We need fair justice for all and support for all victims of crime and also for everyone, who might commit crime, so they don’t do it in the first place.
But silly charges as those in Pakistan, we do not need. They just make things worse and give those who would belittle one of the world’s once-great religions, more ammunition. The United States would not allow the extrditions anyway.
Remember the old proverb – Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Wasn’t it Jesus, who is also a prophet in Islam, who advised us to turn the other cheek? – That comes from the Sermon on the Mount
I may have no religion, but the advice is valid.
The Anonymous Widower 