Monday, January 31, 2011
LOVE = CLEANING HOUSE
I leave for London Wednesday morning. Bernadette flies in to Heathrow from NYC Wednesday morning. She has been away a month. Her absence has left our cottage sad and empty and I have been miserable - particularly with Hamish off to fresh pastures. Happiness is being in love with your wife. I will be seventy eight this February and I am besotted by Bernadette...What am I doing? Cleaning house! And looking forward to taking Bernadette to dinner in London Wednesday evening. Where? Indian - or, possibly Chinese...Or Thai? All of which serve what has become typically English food. In my youth, typically English was fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. God is good!
NO PURPOSE IN TRYING TO REMEMBER WHAT I HAVE FORGOTTEN
MCN London Motorcycle Exhibition - 3rd-6th February. I am on Stand N94. I have prepared: books,posters,pens, LARGE cash pouch, clean clothes, polished shoes, medication. What I have forgotten? Memory will kick in midway to London...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
SNEAKING IN A RANT OR TWO!
Bernadette has been in New York three weeks. The reins are off. Hence the rants! Enough - better vacuum the house, new sheets on the beds, polish shoes and silver, tidy clean laundry into drawers.
NON EUROPEAN VICTIMS OF TERRORISM DON'T COUNT
MORE PAROCHIALISM? OR MERELY IGNORANCE? SURELY NOT RACISM?
Our Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition opened Prime Minister's Question Time today by expressing great sympathy for the victims of the Moscow airport terrorist attack. Neither man has ever opened Question Time by expressing sympathy for those killed and injured in the frequent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Iraq. We freed Iraq from a vile dictatorship. Pakistan is central to our fighting in Afghanistan. Curious...
Our Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition opened Prime Minister's Question Time today by expressing great sympathy for the victims of the Moscow airport terrorist attack. Neither man has ever opened Question Time by expressing sympathy for those killed and injured in the frequent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Iraq. We freed Iraq from a vile dictatorship. Pakistan is central to our fighting in Afghanistan. Curious...
BBC WORLD SERVICE
PAROCHIALISM:
In my youth, most members of Parliament (and particularly members of the Government)gained wide experience before entering active politics. Many had served Britain abroad. They had gained an understanding of foreign opinions and beliefs. Today's politicians are essentially parochial. Politics is their career. Their advance is seamless: student politics, think tank, special adviser, MP, Minister. The vital service offered by the BBC World Service is foreign to them. They have never watched eager-faced tribesmen crouch round a radio or known those for whom imprisonment was the reward for listening to the BBC. They have no understanding of the respect the World Service earned for Britain even while our politicians earned contempt. And, of course, those foreigners for whom the World Service has been an information lifeline have no vote within these shores. They are unimportant.
Thus cutting 650 jobs from the World Service is a sensible retrenchment...
In my youth, most members of Parliament (and particularly members of the Government)gained wide experience before entering active politics. Many had served Britain abroad. They had gained an understanding of foreign opinions and beliefs. Today's politicians are essentially parochial. Politics is their career. Their advance is seamless: student politics, think tank, special adviser, MP, Minister. The vital service offered by the BBC World Service is foreign to them. They have never watched eager-faced tribesmen crouch round a radio or known those for whom imprisonment was the reward for listening to the BBC. They have no understanding of the respect the World Service earned for Britain even while our politicians earned contempt. And, of course, those foreigners for whom the World Service has been an information lifeline have no vote within these shores. They are unimportant.
Thus cutting 650 jobs from the World Service is a sensible retrenchment...
Monday, January 17, 2011
BRITS ONLY
My anger grows. Liberal politicians are pathetic. Incapable of defending themselves. More importantly, incapable of defending the decision of voters to vote for them. The electorate voted for a hung Parliament. The Market demanded a strong Government. Liberals had one week to help form a stable Government or Stirling would have crashed. The Conservatives were the only party with sufficient seats with which the Liberals could form a Government sufficiently stable to satisfy the Market. End of story. Or would critics prefer to have the pound crash?
Ed Milliband, a dreadful little man who, as with so many of our politicians, went directly from student politics to special adviser, then MP, and has no experience whatsoever outside the political bubble, denounces the Liberals for betraying the electorate by entering in coalition with the Conservatives.
What does the youthful nincompoop suggest that Liberals should have done?
Attempt to form a weak Coalition with labour plus the small parties. Traders would have dumped Stirling. The Labour/Liberal Coalition would have fallen.
Added to which the electorate had declared their antagonism to Labour. Attempting to form a Coalition with Labour would have been a betrayal of the electorate.
Ed Milliband, a dreadful little man who, as with so many of our politicians, went directly from student politics to special adviser, then MP, and has no experience whatsoever outside the political bubble, denounces the Liberals for betraying the electorate by entering in coalition with the Conservatives.
What does the youthful nincompoop suggest that Liberals should have done?
Attempt to form a weak Coalition with labour plus the small parties. Traders would have dumped Stirling. The Labour/Liberal Coalition would have fallen.
Added to which the electorate had declared their antagonism to Labour. Attempting to form a Coalition with Labour would have been a betrayal of the electorate.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
INTIMATE DISCLOSURES
The two big front bedrooms in our cottage are our two sons' territory - big so that they can entertain (although both have left home). B and I have a small bedroom at the rear with a sloping ceiling. We sleep on two extra-wide single mattresses on the floor. Old men have to get up in the night. I crawl to the wall and heave myself upright whilst pray that my legs don't cramp. If they cramp, my yell or whimper wakes B - not popular. Bernadette is in New York for a month. Thursday my elder brother, Antony, folded the seats down in his big 4X4 and we collected a king-size bed. I assembled the bed in our bedroom yesterday. The twin mattresses were too wide. I dragged them to the left-hand front room, dragged a double mattress back and heaved it onto the bed. M oving mattresses single-handed is a struggle.This mattress is a standard double so a foot short and a foot too narrow. I shall await B's return before seeking out a king size. Meanwhile I slept in the bed last night - true, with some fear that I would suffer from vertigo. All I suffered was a bump on the head this morning when I sat up without thought for the sloping ceiling. The bed legs need shortening. Again, I shall wait B's return to decide (for her to decide) how much shorter. The bed is varnished pine. B will probably want it painted. Waiting is wise...meanwhile I have a cockerel to pluck.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
TRAGIC SHOOTING
Gabrielle Giffords, a fine member of the United States Congress, has been shot in the head. She was marked as in the sights of the Tea Party. Others were shot dead, amongst them a nine year old girl. Sadly the USA's reputation is formed by such tragic incidents - shootings in schools, what ever, rather than by the good works of US NGOs or US AID Projects. Americans sometimes find it difficult (even unimportant) to see themselves through foreign eyes and are angered by criticism. Yet think of the Afghan or Iraqi reading of the shooting in today's Press or watching reports on TV. This is their image of the United States, the nation with troops on their soil to spread Democracy. Imagine their thoughts...
SAD EMPTY HOUSE
Sad empty house. Have been double glazing windows. As for food, Roger Gill came for lunch Wednesday and brought a rabbit and two pheasant. Skinned and plucked Thursday. Roasted the pheasant breasts on a bed of vine tomatoes. Made a game soup with pheasant legs and rabbit and a great stock from the carcases. Meanwhile reading with joy The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa - tender and brilliant.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
HAMISH HORNYOLD
Hamish at his new home with his favourite toy. He is reported to be delighted at having made a sound career change. I remain weepy...
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
HAMISH WISHES TO BECOME A SOPHISTICATE - AND CHASE CATS!
Our cottage feels very empty. Bernadette left today for New York. She will be away a month. I am happy for her. She deserves a break and loves the City. I am jealous of her because she will be seeing my daughter, Anya - and my wondrous grandson, Shane. And I am sad, of course, at her being away for a month and was even a little weepy at the station. B reminded me that I go away for six months or more at a time. True....
However there is a greater sadness because it is final. Josh left first and lives now in Leeds city center. Jed is off cheffing/snow-boarding at a hotel in the French Alps. Now Hamish has left home. He decided time had come for his own career change - that he had enjoyed enough of the country and wished to become more sophisticated. So he has moved to a home in the suburbs closer to London. English suburbanites keep cats. Hamish will have fun!
HAMISH WITH JED
However there is a greater sadness because it is final. Josh left first and lives now in Leeds city center. Jed is off cheffing/snow-boarding at a hotel in the French Alps. Now Hamish has left home. He decided time had come for his own career change - that he had enjoyed enough of the country and wished to become more sophisticated. So he has moved to a home in the suburbs closer to London. English suburbanites keep cats. Hamish will have fun!
HAMISH WITH JED
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
MESSAGES FROM WEB SPACE
Great to get messages from readers, angry, disappointed, complimentary or kind.
Paulcf is disappointed that I wrote little concerning Argentina and Chile. OLD MAN ON A BIKE is the first of a travel trilogy and covers my journey south. Chile was not part of this journey. Chile does feature in the second MS which takes me north from Ushuaia to the USA. The second MS also includes three chapters on Argentina. As to Ming, he has joined a Buddhist monastery where I hope to visit him in the coming winter.
Rants?
I sense that the vastness of the United States distances many citizens from their Government and its actions. Mine is a small country with no space for distance. The nations of Central America are equally small. United States immigration and foreign policy is intrinsic, not only to their history, but in their daily lives. It is a common subject of conversation. The same is true of Mexico.
Bush and Blair may be "old history" to us yet their decisions continue to effect opinions of both the United States and Britain. I encountered this as much on my recent journey round India as in the Americas.
Added to which, I am an obsessive. Riding long hours alone, the same chain of thought becomes my daily companion and is a natural part of my writing. For pure travel I suggest a travel guide. My own preference is FOOTPRINT.
For an overview of the trip, please be patient. You will find it in the second volume.
Paulcf is disappointed that I wrote little concerning Argentina and Chile. OLD MAN ON A BIKE is the first of a travel trilogy and covers my journey south. Chile was not part of this journey. Chile does feature in the second MS which takes me north from Ushuaia to the USA. The second MS also includes three chapters on Argentina. As to Ming, he has joined a Buddhist monastery where I hope to visit him in the coming winter.
Rants?
I sense that the vastness of the United States distances many citizens from their Government and its actions. Mine is a small country with no space for distance. The nations of Central America are equally small. United States immigration and foreign policy is intrinsic, not only to their history, but in their daily lives. It is a common subject of conversation. The same is true of Mexico.
Bush and Blair may be "old history" to us yet their decisions continue to effect opinions of both the United States and Britain. I encountered this as much on my recent journey round India as in the Americas.
Added to which, I am an obsessive. Riding long hours alone, the same chain of thought becomes my daily companion and is a natural part of my writing. For pure travel I suggest a travel guide. My own preference is FOOTPRINT.
For an overview of the trip, please be patient. You will find it in the second volume.
NATIONALITY UNKNOWN
MESSAGE FROM paulcf@telus.net
Review of your book
Very interesting...I have 20 years to prepare for my SA trip! I too am afraid of all the negativity the press says about SA. I suspect having your white beard and your age benefited you on your trip. I was dismayed with the latter part of your book...little to tell about Chile (and why you didn't travel in Chile except for the very end?) and nothing about what you did afterwards...did you just fly home and sell the bike in Ushuai or what? What about your rider buddy Ming? So much of your book was loaded with Mexico and Central America and so little about Argentina and Chile. Also, the ranting about Bush and Blair served no purpose...it's all ancient history now, out of date and I didn't get your book to hear your rants about them, I wished you had spent more of that time/pages about the TRIP. I wanted to see/read an overview of your trip, etc but nothing at all, very strange indeed.
Review of your book
Very interesting...I have 20 years to prepare for my SA trip! I too am afraid of all the negativity the press says about SA. I suspect having your white beard and your age benefited you on your trip. I was dismayed with the latter part of your book...little to tell about Chile (and why you didn't travel in Chile except for the very end?) and nothing about what you did afterwards...did you just fly home and sell the bike in Ushuai or what? What about your rider buddy Ming? So much of your book was loaded with Mexico and Central America and so little about Argentina and Chile. Also, the ranting about Bush and Blair served no purpose...it's all ancient history now, out of date and I didn't get your book to hear your rants about them, I wished you had spent more of that time/pages about the TRIP. I wanted to see/read an overview of your trip, etc but nothing at all, very strange indeed.
Monday, January 03, 2011
WHAT BRA SIZE?
TED SIEROCINSKI HAS SMOKED ME OUT. Though not a rabid "Red", I must confess to being something of a Pinko.....
Pics are SUNDAY TIMES COLOUR SUPLEMENT from the Spencer Tunik Instalation at THE BIG CHILL FESTIVAL, 2010
Pics are SUNDAY TIMES COLOUR SUPLEMENT from the Spencer Tunik Instalation at THE BIG CHILL FESTIVAL, 2010
KIND TEXAN
Subject:
blog 1/2/2011 Ted SierocinskiNM 87505 letter
Message:
Hello, Simon
I was born and currently live in TEXAS, USA. My fellow countryman's myopic letter is too often the norm. Of course it's everyone's right to his/her own opinion, but the letter is so typical of folks here in the USA. Yes, we each try to do good (or perhaps the best we can) but we don't do as much "good" here in the USA as we need to. Unfortunately, for the USA, "Peak Oil" will focus our policy even further away from our own borders, since we do not now have sufficient oil to power our consumer oriented post industrial revolution society. Lets hope (pray) that the struggle over oil does not cause further problems for the world and the USA.
All of your books are on my book shelf and I am looking forward to buying your next book.
The point of this letter is "Please" don't judge everyone in the USA by the tone of Ted's letter. Thanks.
Best Wishes
Bill Rose
blog 1/2/2011 Ted SierocinskiNM 87505 letter
Message:
Hello, Simon
I was born and currently live in TEXAS, USA. My fellow countryman's myopic letter is too often the norm. Of course it's everyone's right to his/her own opinion, but the letter is so typical of folks here in the USA. Yes, we each try to do good (or perhaps the best we can) but we don't do as much "good" here in the USA as we need to. Unfortunately, for the USA, "Peak Oil" will focus our policy even further away from our own borders, since we do not now have sufficient oil to power our consumer oriented post industrial revolution society. Lets hope (pray) that the struggle over oil does not cause further problems for the world and the USA.
All of your books are on my book shelf and I am looking forward to buying your next book.
The point of this letter is "Please" don't judge everyone in the USA by the tone of Ted's letter. Thanks.
Best Wishes
Bill Rose
LONG HAIRED BRIT
Ged Asbery writes:
Good ol' Ted must be more clever than me. I obviously missed the hidden message that "Old Man on a bike" portrayed US citizens as"selfish and disgusting people".
Good ol' Ted must be more clever than me. I obviously missed the hidden message that "Old Man on a bike" portrayed US citizens as"selfish and disgusting people".
UNOBSERVANT CALIFONIAN
Joe Berk writes:
Odd, I read the book, and I did not take any of Simon's comments as US bashing. Mostly he was reporting what other people said or felt.
Odd, I read the book, and I did not take any of Simon's comments as US bashing. Mostly he was reporting what other people said or felt.
IGNORANT GUATEMALAN
Re criticism of OLD MAN ON A BIKE
EUGENIO writes:
As much as I would rather be under the boot of the USA instead of say Hitler's Germany, Russia or Torrquemada's Spain, I like your comments (USA bashing) because I hate the hypocrisy. Spain never pretended to be exporting "democracy" well until now that is, neither did Hitler nor Stalin. It is precisely because USA citizens are supposed to be smarter than that that they should see beyond the USAID signs and go look at the mess they have left here...
EUGENIO writes:
As much as I would rather be under the boot of the USA instead of say Hitler's Germany, Russia or Torrquemada's Spain, I like your comments (USA bashing) because I hate the hypocrisy. Spain never pretended to be exporting "democracy" well until now that is, neither did Hitler nor Stalin. It is precisely because USA citizens are supposed to be smarter than that that they should see beyond the USAID signs and go look at the mess they have left here...
Sunday, January 02, 2011
IRATE US CITIZEN
Letters from readers mostly fall into two catagories: thanks for enjoyment or anger.
The angry usually come from readers in the US.The following is an example:
Subject:
How I enjoyed your book
Message:
Ted Sierocinski
NM 87505
Simon,
I was looking forward to reading your book as I was traveling from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Guatemala on my Kawasaki KLR 650. I have been in Spanish language school here for almost 4 months. It provided many useful references and your insight into the Latin American indigenous people was informative. I am a US citizen and am about to celebrate my 60th birthday at the end of the year.
Having commuted to work over the years I have accumulated over 300,000 miles on various bikes. I share your enthusiasm for adventure and the experience of the two wheel challenge. The adventure really begins when things go wrong.
What went wrong for me with your book was about by page 266 I finally became nauseated by the bashing of the United States and its role in Latin America. Traveling thru Mexico and Guatemala I encountered many USAID projects with many USA citizens involved volunteering. Many bomberos, doctors and nurses are here! helping the Guatemalan people progress. I know that as a country we are taking our licks as a less than perfect country but never once heard a reference to Spain as they took a
lions share of the wealth form Latin America to Spain and how that Latin American within a feudal system under Spain's domination missed the Industrial Revolution. That was probably the United States fault also. Transferring the wealth out of the country in Korea is subject to the death penalty.
Having said that I am throwing your book in the trash. I can take solace in the fact that although we are a selfish and disgusting people that your wrote this book in English not in German.
Ted Sierocinski
The angry usually come from readers in the US.The following is an example:
Subject:
How I enjoyed your book
Message:
Ted Sierocinski
NM 87505
Simon,
I was looking forward to reading your book as I was traveling from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Guatemala on my Kawasaki KLR 650. I have been in Spanish language school here for almost 4 months. It provided many useful references and your insight into the Latin American indigenous people was informative. I am a US citizen and am about to celebrate my 60th birthday at the end of the year.
Having commuted to work over the years I have accumulated over 300,000 miles on various bikes. I share your enthusiasm for adventure and the experience of the two wheel challenge. The adventure really begins when things go wrong.
What went wrong for me with your book was about by page 266 I finally became nauseated by the bashing of the United States and its role in Latin America. Traveling thru Mexico and Guatemala I encountered many USAID projects with many USA citizens involved volunteering. Many bomberos, doctors and nurses are here! helping the Guatemalan people progress. I know that as a country we are taking our licks as a less than perfect country but never once heard a reference to Spain as they took a
lions share of the wealth form Latin America to Spain and how that Latin American within a feudal system under Spain's domination missed the Industrial Revolution. That was probably the United States fault also. Transferring the wealth out of the country in Korea is subject to the death penalty.
Having said that I am throwing your book in the trash. I can take solace in the fact that although we are a selfish and disgusting people that your wrote this book in English not in German.
Ted Sierocinski
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)