Kiss Kiss!

Spotted a greetings card which made my day. “Sorry darling”, an older lady tells a younger one, “You have no chance of meeting Prince Charming as he has moved in with Mr Right”

And get this! they are in a closed polyamourous quad with George Michael and his husband LMAO!

Now let us be happy for the happy couples.

Favourite Positions?

An STV (sexually transmitted voting, (or alternatively single transferable vote)) anoraks dream!



So what is your favourite position? vote here and the result will be counted by stv. And if there are some variants I have missed out, do let me know and I might add them.

Likesay, STV is dead easy to understand, position you would like to be most of the time gets your first preference, and then on to your second preference and so on.

Nice to see that currently woman on top positions are out on top!

Vote for Bluebell! Bluebell Eikonoklastes for Prime Minister!

Hello. Welcome to my blog. May I count on your first preference, in return of course for a bit of patronage when I am elected Prime Minister LMAO!

Please cast your first preference for Bluebell followed by a second preference for Joe Rukin (he is a splendid chap indeed). The electoral law for this poll is Elizabethan, the first Elizabeth that is apart from the fact that well you can have as many postal votes as you wish LMAO!

The electoral system is otherwise fair that of STV, sexually transmitted voting (infections). LMAO!

Vote for Bluebell X Here

England Arise! Smash the evil Nazi menace!

Popped into my local for a Saint George’s Day pint or two. Currently feeling outraged that the so called British Nazi Party is contesting Leeds Central in the general election. Am determined therefore to vote for a non fascist party. Might have to vomit to do so…. Alas there is no green candidate…

Likesay, in the old bar is an interesting Juke box, spent a small fortune playing eagle by Abba of course, and Emmerson Lake and Plamer’s version of Blake’s Jerusalem, the Glastonbury Hymn.

But get this, also that Amerikan patriot Paul Robeson singing England’s national anthem.

Likesay, was it David Mellor (wierdo!) who asked on state controlled radio “would you want a revolutionary to write your national anthem?” Except in England we went one better and had two!

Likesay, pitty that we didn’t have England Arise by Edward Carpenter, English Socialist and gay liberationist… on said juke box, perhaps it can be arranged….

England arise! And smash the fash! Just like my granddad did!

Another False Preacher, Beware!

By the wonders of technology, I learned of the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the Papal throne over the internet. Must confess, needed a stiff drink and some superficial company. Only got the former, a can of tenants super.

OK, I am an ultra liberal pagan Anabaptist, so what does it matter? From what I read, Ratzinger is the antithesis of a forward thinking Pope.

Likesay, what does it matter! But any so called church that condemns family planning is apostate!

And Likesay. I have had liberal catholic friends over the years. Tonight I am rather glad that I am neither a Roman Catholic or especially a Liberal Roman Catholic. Still, at 78 Ratzinger might just be a stop gap Pope.

Blessed Be!

Delightfully Wicked Congratulations! You scored 53!

You are wicked, but you're not quite evil. You enjoy the finer aspects of being wicked, such as letting jerks get what they deserve; but you stop short of genuine mayhem. You are generally well meaning, but not a witch to cross- You probably identify with the much maligned Elphaba of Gregory Maquire's book or the musical.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 1% on Wickedness

Link: The What kind of Witch are you? Test written by Giluinmor on Ok Cupid

Bloody Students!

The Typical Student You are 74% a British student

Well you've stored pretty highly so you are probably living the student lifestyle as you take this test. You may be a student-like person but you're not a complete slob, you occasionally enjoy the finer things in life! Go and make yourself some baked beans with tomato sauce on toast to congratulate yourself!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on studentness

Link: The British Student Test written by dcx84 on Ok Cupid

Northern Soul!

Northern Munkeh Congratulations! You are 69% Northern!

You're certainly a bit of a character! You are of an advanced evolutionary state and you have every right to be smug! It's clear you have a top sense of humour, the only thing you probably don't have is the swagger but your Northern and you can get away with anything mate.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on northernscores

Link: The How NORTHERN Are You Test written by tricksterisweak on Ok Cupid

Est enim nulla pars mei quæ est nulla pars Deorum!

Oh it is nice to be hung over again! Yesterday was invited to what was possibly the first celebration of the Gnostic Mass in Latin. How’s that for a historical first! Likesay I speak Latin like a native. A native Brit, that is, who has had about 2 Latin lessons in this lifetime to be precise. I would be fascinated if Frater TS could provide a few further Latin phrases such as “Oooo my head”, “more special brew please” and so on.

Ok, after yesterday’s said celebration running on OTO time (Pagan Mean Time (PMT!) plus Y where Y is a variable amount of extra time, PMT being local standard time, in our case GMT, plus X where X is a variable) we adjourned to feast and cocktail party. The coctails had names like “Baphomet” and “Blue-lidded daughter of sunset”

DON’T PANIC!

Trillian DON'T PANIC

You are cautious as often as you are bold. An enviable balance. Your world might explode every now and again, but you were pretty much done with it anyway.

This test tracked 1 variable How the score compared to the other people's: Higher than 66% on dentity

Link: donquixotic on The Hitchhiker's Guide Personality Test written by Ok Cupid

Hitch-Hiking Karma

I was listening to “Excess Baggage” on State Controlled Radio this morning. Only caught the end of a discussion about hitch-hiking. And some things sort of resonated.

One chap said that up to 2 out of 5 of his lifts had been ex soldiers, his theory of why being that ex soldiers often feel despised by mainstream society and hence feel affinity with hitch hikers. Perhaps I prefer the alternative theory that soldiers develop camaraderie and hence why not give a lift to a random stranger. Which sort of ties into my theory that hitch hiking today would probably be impossible without there being lots of ex hitch hikers about who therefore pick up hitch hikers on principal. I have had lifts from at least 2 members of Lilibet Windsor’s Armed Forces and lots from ex members. Cheers guys! More than happy to reciprocate when I get wheels. Goes without saying.

Back to ex hitch hikers. One of the chaps said that he acquired a car and a navigation system intending to pick up hitch hikers and take them to their exact destination. Alas, would you believe it, he didn’t find any, not even at the top notch hitch hiking spots where in the old days there would have usually have been a queue for a lift. I was hitch hiking back to Leeds from Groningen in the Netherlands late one night and got a lift up the M1 from a Post doctoral research wallah heading to Sheffield. He told me that he had been mad enough to hitch hike in Amerika and that now he always picked up hitch hikers but I was the first he had seen for 4 years. Other lifts have said the same.

Another source of lifts to the guests was born again Christians and Mormops. I once got a lift from a Mormop bishop. It was interesting to chat about our respective Churches and so on. Likesay, happy to chat to the Mormops about their theology in the alehouse or out on the road, but please not on Woodhouse Lane of an evening…..

As one lift said “Hitch-hiking Karma, nothing like it, it either confirms your faith in humanity or wrecks it completely”. So far, touch wood (or at least the melamine and chipboard of this computer room) it has done more of the former than latter. Not knowing who you are going to meet and when you are going to arrive and by what route is part of the Magick. Getting half way across Europe without a coach ticket is another (admittedly to Groningen and back I “cheated” and paid the ferry fare).

And that seminal classic, “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy”. It is so much more when you have hitch hiked.

I believe a friend of Merrick is reported as saying that the three topics of conversation that can keep people chatting all night are hitch-hiking, dodgy landlords and acid trips. That thesis is yet to be disproved…….. I for one could continue this blog all evening but it is time I logged off.

Happy Hitching!

The last unpleasantness (not counting the second and fourth Gulf Wars)

General Well done! You scored 76%

Sir, Yes Sir. You know your stuff and should get a medal. Its not often that people take the time to learn about what thier fathers and grandfathers went through. You did. I would'nt mind having a conversation with you about the war.

This test tracked 1 variable How the score compared to the other people's: Higher than 58% on warpoints

Link: The WW 2 Test written by Tentoes on Ok Cupid

Looks like I won’t make Praetor

Aedile Your civic knowledge: 71%

You've got most of the high points down, but you're lacking the qualifications for praetor. Do you want to be approving construction plans your whole life? Of course you don't. Do some reading and you'll be passing judgements in no time.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on civic knowledge

Link: The Ancient Roman Civics Test written by frozen0phoenix on Ok Cupid

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

I was listening to The Westminster Hour and there heard I think a Lib-Dem lord complain about the media being very Tweedledum and Tweedledee in its political reporting. Fair point. His solution though? More reporting of the Lib-Dems, aka Tweedledoo. To be honest, I don’t see how this makes a blind bit of difference. The Lib-Dems are another bunch of men in grey suits who share the basic assumptions of the other capitalist parties and hence their policies. And as a party they are notoriously unprincipled to cite Newbury as just one example. Rumour has it that someone once said that “The Tories are bastards! but at least they are honest bastards!”.

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate that there is a tribal dimension to politics. I have personal friends of all sorts of political persuasions (apart from the evil Nazi menace). And I am more than a little disillusioned with The People’s Party. That said, it is still needed and will do as a political home for now.

Don’t forget to VOTE GREEN on Thursday 5th of May

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze!

P... Phosphorous You scored 44 Mass, 43 Electronegativity, 51 Metal, and 10 Radioactivity!

You're high energy... really high. Unfortunately, you don't always put your energy to calm constructive use and sometimes let it all out in intense bursts. If your energy can be harnessed however, you will produce truly great things. I suggest you take up a job that runs you ragged... like opening and closing a Sodium-Potassium pump. Socially you ought to hang with a crowd that is even more social than you. If you don't, well... all those people who spontaneously combusted throughout history... you guessed it, phosphorous people who didn't have enough to occupy themselves. When picking friends make sure most of them rated high on the electronegativity scale... Chlorines, Oxygens and whatnot.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 48% on Mass You scored higher than 79% on Electroneg You scored higher than 55% on Metal You scored higher than 34% on Radioactivity

Link: The Which Chemical Element Am I Test written by effataigus on Ok Cupid

Your library or mine? ;)

Hell yeah. You scored 55 bookishness and 68 kinkiness!

You love books, you're down with the kink...you'd almost definitely have sex in the library. Find a partner, find a good spot...and go for it.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on bookishness You scored higher than 99% on kinkiness

Link: The Sex In The Library Test written by missthang8 on Ok Cupid

Tossers!

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor is all over the media, today as ’Identifying abortion as a "very key issue" for Catholics, the cardinal said the "policy supported by Mr Howard is one that we would ... commend, on the way to a full abandonment of abortion".’

Now then. There can be no beating about the bush on this issue. I am pro choice. I am a man, and, without making medical history, I cannot get pregnant. Sure, if I was a woman, and therefore able to get pregnant, then perhaps I would be I a position to take a different stance, but I probably wouldn’t. As it is, I am not, and therefore am not.

I have never quite got the understood how a racket like the Church of Rome can expected to be taken seriously when they actually oppose family planning. How anyone can oppose family planning is beyond me. Yes, it is one of my enthusiasms one young lady even called me “Condom Man”, and why not, think of me as the rubber caped crusader for planned parenthood (and please count me out, want a vasectomy man!) and against nasty infections.

We can laugh I suppose, but in the poor world (including Ireland) such teachings of the Church of Rome cause real human misery on a massive scale (perhaps not as much as the poverty which probably deprives more people of family planning than the Catholic Hierarchy).

But back to reproductive rights. Frankly, there is something obscene about an all male hierarchy pontificating about difficult decisions during pregnancy. SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU TOSSERS!

At least with the Mormops, although they have an all male hierarchy as well, at least it is one involved in the “family life” they preach, (but steer clear of reproductive rights lads). It was interesting hear a talk by a Catholic Priest about, amongst other things, the joys of an unmarried and at least nominally celibate man running classes in marriage preparation.

It is a wise man (or woman) who knows his (or her) father

Now, with a name like Eikonoklastes, you might be able to work out dialectically that I am a dyed in the wool Republican. Too right! Think I can say that without the beefeaters knocking on the door and whisking me off to the Tower of London, and a portrait of Oliver Cromwell can adorn my Republican Household there being no pic of Lilibet Windsor.

Parenthesis, Republican is a word that has diametrically opposed meanings on each side of the Atlantic Ocean. Or everywhere in the world apart from Amerika it means opposition to hereditary succession as a system of Government.

It would appear that Throne Out and Republic have called for all members of the Royal family to undergo DNA testing. Cheeky buggers! Well, if membership of the Royal Family is according to parentage, then if there are any doubts, about said parentage, then no doubt they will jump to the chance to prove that they are “entitled” to said places in the order of succession. I presume, that if it where ever to be proved that a member of said royal family was not actually descended from said royals then they would be removed from order of succession. Though I suspect if, say, someone succeeded to the throne, then it would be more or less a fiat accompli, but would make the continuation of the line a bit dubious, hmmmmm more ammo to the Republicans.

Now, I hear that that may just have happened with one branch of the greater german/european royal family (they are all ridiculously interrelated) that did indeed happen.

Credit where it is due, I suspect that there is no doubt about the heirs (Charles and Wills), though the spares could be a bit in doubt.

Alternatively though, perhaps we could just switch to matrilineal succession (starting with the present incumbent with or without favour of females), and then there would be no cheating. No need for any dna tests. Would mean that Lilibet Windsor would be ultimately succeeded by a commonor, like the rest of us, viz Peter or Zara Philips.

Might get the feminist vote, but then as King Arthur put it in Python and the Grail, you don’t vote for Kings. Or indeed Queens. Strange women lying in ponds dishing out swords is indeed no basis for a system of government, but it is what we have I suppose.

I tell you these monos are part of a cult!

I once joked with girlfriday that her catchphrase was “I tell you it’s a cult”.

I wouldn’t want to lose my mono friends but I think they know where I stand by now, viz monogamy is sort of ok between consenting couples in private if well not really. “Do what you like in bed but don’t do it in the street where it might frighten the horses!”

I was in the Old Bar at a gathering of folks from the LUU website message boards and when chatting to one chap there, he said that he believed in monogamy but was not prepared to discuss it. Absolutely fine, discussion of sex and relationships is not compulsory. But hey, isn’t it characteristic of cults that you don’t really question the cult?

Funny, but when a cult has some non orthodox sexual practice, they are condemned for it (the only examples that spring to mind being The Family and the Rajneeshis) , whereas I suspect that most cults are into monogamy (examples being Harry Krishna, The Moonies, The Mormops, The Hubbardists, Jesus Army, Opus Dei, the Jobos and we could go on an on here……..).

I tell you these monos are part of a cult! :)

Royal Tradition?

The editor of Leeds Student received a wikid text. To the effect of perhaps there is still time for Prince Charles to revive one royal tradition viz: divorced, beheaded, died………

Tripping in Saddleworth

Yesterday had a field trip to Saddleworth. It was cold even with 3 t-shirts, 2 sweatshirts and a fleece jacket.

First off, the museum, well in the keeper who opened on Saturday morning especially for us! There, I was thrilled and overjoyed to find they had a lant pot! A lant pot is a pot for taking the piss.

OK, herein a brief parenthesis about the history of taking the piss. To get lanolin out of wool soak it in an alkaline solution. Cheapest cheerfulest alkaline solution is err, well wee-wee left for a couple of days contains amongst other things ammonium hydroxide. Hence recycling of pish until relatively recently. In fact there is even a recorded case of a man selling fake pish and being fined by the beak. Somewhere in the dying trade alum was used, it was imported to England from deposits near Rome, a supply which was cut off during the reformation. So somewhere in Yorkshire it was synthesised and they needed an alkaline solution to do so. Hence, barrels of pish where shipped from the bog-houses of London up the east coast. So no doubt, captains and other matelots of said ships would meet colleagues in the alehouse and be asked what they where up to, “Oh, just taking the piss”.

Next exhibit a hand loom, from the golden age of hand loom weaving, a carding machine and the spinning mules which put hand loom weavers out of business, not before some of them had pioneered mathematics, railway timetables and the Great and Glorious Co-operative Movement.

Then off out into the freezing cold Pennines, following the Prof up Uppermill high street to the old Mechanics Institute. The retail co-op in Saddleworth dates from the heroic age of the co-op movement, and would you believe it, they built some social housing.

Next, freezing my balls off, up a lane to look at some weavers cottages, now inhabited by chavs (anyone who wears Burberry is either a chav or disguised as one) and putting all our archaeological and analytic skills to work out how these said cottages developed. Then back through Uppermill to look at some prehistoric council housing. Would you believe it, it would appear that someone once built some council housing without the minimum 10 years of building delays…..

The World’s Favourite Jazz Mag!

How better to cultivate friendship with an old friend than a trip to YUCKEA to browse, window shop maybe and buy an alarm clock for 0.6 UKP? Cheers Nikki!

And I now have a copy of the YUCKEA catalogue to hide under the mattress, or inside “Reader’s Wives” or “Razzle” or whatever lmao!

The scene in “Fight Club” where Jack is on the phone, on the throne, and with the YUCKEA catalogue in his lap, was filmed by Edward Norton with his knickers off.

“So, Ikea boy……..”

I Demand a re-count! PML!

Got home last night, and there was no message on answering service to the effect that I had won yet another holiday to Orlando Florida! Surely there’s been a mistake! I demand a re-count!

Control Freaks!

“Boiling over in my mind, anger and aggression!”

I saw the headlines in the Daily Murdoch this morning

“THE BBC licence fee should be replaced by a tax on the ownership of a personal computer instead of a television, ministers said yesterday.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1508650,00.html

No, I didn’t buy a copy, the capitalist press makes me puke! But thanks for placing said article on the internet boys.

Now. Taxation is the price we pay for civilisation and irradiating Iraq with “depleted” uranium. But a tax on owning a word processor? Anyway, such a taxation is totally unnecessary. If the BBC did not exist it wouldn’t need funding.

Now, proposals to tax books have rightly been viewed as utter philistinism. A tax on computers would have to be seen as the same. Or would corporations and HM government be exempt? Does this government fear the free flow of information? or just that people might write the odd letter to the editor, their MP’s or those fun loving dudes in television licensing (haven’t bothered yet). I am not looking forward to living in a New Labour New Stalinist-Capitalist state where I have to dodge paying a petty poll tax on a word-processor to fund the instruments of oppression in the form of the broadcasting corporations. Hopefully this barking mad idea will be ditched. Can’t be counted on though, barking mad ideas go a long way in politics these days. And if implemented hopefully such a poll tax would go the same way as the previous poll taxes.

Speaking of which. I have not bought a television licence in years. I have no intention of doing so. I get a letter from those jolly chaps in telly licensing about once a month. It is perfectly legal not to pay this petty poll tax just so long as you don’t have a television. And since I have spent most of my adult life trying to avoid television. I am sick and tierd of it’s hypnotic glare. I am sick and tierd of the pro capitalist consumerist propaganda. I yearn for social contact and true community (which is of course a subversive thing in itself, too subversive for some self proclaimed “global revolutionaries" in my experience, but that’s another story).

Wake up to your dreamtime!

Throw your television out of the window (open window first and make sure that it does not land on a fellow creature (woman, man, sprog, puddycat, magpie or whatever) and hurt them).

The BBC is the voice of Babylon. Television is social control. Don’t buy a television licence, they will only spend it on drugs!

It’s raining free holidays to Orlando Florida!

They keep coming you know. Got home last night and would you believe it I had won a free holiday to Orlando Florida. And the night before, you guessed it, I had won a free holiday to Orlando Florida. And when I get home tonight…..

Mormon Missionaries

Mormon missionaries are a scream! A few times I have bumped into Mormon missionaries on Woodhouse Lane here in Leeds. Thing is right. I am not sure that standing out in the cold of Woodhouse Lane is the best way to proselytise, however admirable. Fine during the summer months, maybe, but not really appropriate on winter evenings in Old England. Pity really. If only I where to have a chat about theology and brave the cold for a bit. Then perhaps my soul would be saved. If they want to find me I will be in the alehouse. Now what would Jesus do………..

The joy of blogging!

Phew! Those last two posts where really a labour of love! There are still a few typos but let them stand. The blogger’s editor kept crashing. Haven’t the slightest clue how it works in other browsers other than the borg’s explorer and other networks. Time I went to bed after an unproductive day. Thanks for your comment Lou Lou, that made it all worthwhile! And once again cheers Merrick and Reverend Smith!

For It Is Written (in Lego) (part two)

continued..........

from the brick testament



No men in dresses……




'Neither shall a man wear women's clothing.' (Deuteronomy 22:5)

No tattoos (not even “Jesus is Lord”, "Burn in hell unbelievers" “It’s fun to be a fundy” and so on…)



'And do not put tattoo marks on yourselves.' (Leviticus 19:28)

No haircuts (now come on boys, if your going to take the bible literally, please explain whey most fundies are not long haired hippies like Jesus)



'Do not cut off the hair on the sides of your head.' (Leviticus 19:27)



And give it to the wife! Or burn in hell presumably…………



The husband must give to his wife what she has a right to expect. (1 Corinthians 7:3)




This is an uncompleted project. I do look forward and hope that the Reverend gets all the way to Revelation, complete with the Great Whore of Babylon yay! But it is indeed in right ordering that he leave the New Jerusalem to last. In the mean time, Elijah’s ascension and Ezekiel’s are eagerly awaited here. More tea vicar?

For it is written (in Lego) (part one)

Cheers Merrick for the link to The Brick Testament. Innit amazing what you can do with a bible, some lego, a digital camera and the internet.



FOR IT IS WRITTEN……….

No Sheep Shagging (Countryside Alliance, please take note!)



'Do not have sex with any kind of animal. You would become unclean by doing so.' (Leviticus 18:23)

No Fags! (smoking is bad for your health, don’t do it kids!)



'Do not have sex with a man as you would with a woman. It is an abomination.' (Leviticus 18:22)



to be continued...........

The Golden Age of Telephone Marketing!

I have forgotten how many free holidays to Orlando Florida I have won. I probably don’t go a week, certainly not a fortnight, without a message left on my answering service that to the effect that I have won a free holiday to Orlando Florida, so pack my bags, and to claim phone the following number. Thing is for my health I need a good healthy climate. And nothing beats good old British Climate, hey we even exported it to other parts of the world, southern Chile, New Zealand, even Normandy. Probably one of our few good exports, but that is another matter.

Anyway, there is a certain magick to it. Of all the names they could have picked out of the BT phone book, they keep settling on mine…… Well, I hear that due to an EU directive coming in such marketing will eventually be a thing of the past. So let us enjoy this golden age while it lasts.

I wonder if Orlando Florida is full of Brits enjoying their free holidays. Perhaps the airport is awash with Brits flying in for their free holiday passing a horde of Brits flying back to Blighty to win another one, and so the cycle continues.

Send me a postcard guys! Or better still, no need to leave the beach if someone has a laptop connected to the internet, perhaps you could send me an email.

Likesay I prefer Old England. Florida seems too sunny and not rainy enough.

May the Government be dammed!

I wonder who was listening to Brian Sedgemore’s speech against detention without trial in time of peace (no, I do not believe that that twit in the Whitehouse’s war against unauthorised terrorism constitutes time of war). And hey, to their credit, it is not just the human rights and civil liberties lobbies, but the capitalist opposition parties too!

From Hansard

“As we move towards a system of justice that found favour with the South African Government at the time of apartheid and which parallels Burmese justice today, if hon. Members will pardon the oxymoron, I am reminded that our fathers fought and died for liberty—my own father literally—believing that these things should not happen here, and we would never allow them to happen here. But now we know better. The unthinkable, the unimaginable, is happening here.”

“It is a foul calumny that we do today. Not since the Act of Settlement 1701 has Parliament usurped the powers of the judiciary and allowed the Executive to lock up people without trial in times of peace. May the Government be damned for it.”

Have a read of the speech in full. May this bunch of control freaks be dammed! Wake up England! Habeas Corpus! Trial by Jury! Magna Carta!

Enjoy your retirement in this green and pleasant police state Brian, well done, you tried at least!

Re: Re: Re: Love and Chips! xx

hi

good to see you still on faceparty ;)

Thanks for your message and all the sharings therein.

> When i say he stole years from me... i mean that, if i knew about the other women i would have left him as soon as it happened, therefore, i stayed , and he kept me, in a relationship that was built on lies.

don't get me wrong. I am not trying to suggest in any way that this is not breach of promise, that your hurt is not real.

If he hadn't been caught, would you have been unhappy?

> if he told me about the kid, i would have left him.. and he knew i was a good wife, a giving and faithful wife, he wanted the best of all worlds.

I believe that's known as being human.

> I could have left him years ago, when i was still young enough to start again. Instead i have nothing, living in a crummy council flat.

you and me both. Suspect my council bridge of sighs bed-sit is crummier than yours....

> Ive been to college in the past year,

A favourite quote in "Doctor in the house" is "an education can last a lifetime - if you want it too...". Pity about the University of Leeds school of continuing education being discontinued...

> now looking for work in office admin.

good luck. ever seen the film "Secretary"? Assume the position LOL!

> We should all be given the choice, of how we lead our lives,

Yup!

> i feel that i wasnt given that choice, it was taken away by HIM and his secrets.

Perhaps you have a point.

I do recall however. One episode of "Absolutely Fabulous" where Saffy gets Edina some "Lecoix" ear-rings and Edina wants to know are they really "Lecoix", and indeed gets manic about it.

"Do you like them?" asks Saffy

"Well I like them if they are Lecoix"

> I dont want to sound bitter..

you have permission to be bitter

> im really happy being single and celibate..

Job's a good 'un then.....

> i get lots of offers of course.. for sex..

Job's a good 'un....

> but i dont want anything to do with that.

you self confessed prude LOL!

> I want a man that adores me exclusively

Get real! PML!

Seriously, how you feel is how you feel. There would be something wrong with being too realistic. I am a card carrying idealist, but why hold someting as horrible as monogamy up as an ideal?

> and thinks of me first,if i cant have that, i'd rather be alone.

Wonderful to find someone who at least has the courage to live alone.

But why the notion that you have to live in a mono relationship or live alone? It is a pity that shared housing is seen as counter cultural outside of studentdom....

> P.S .. i do miss sex though .lol

Me too. After 3 months I am gnawing at the furniture in frustration

Love and liberation

Bluebell xxx

Re: Re: Love and Chips! xx

hellooo again

many thanks for your message

> > well, confessing to an away win would have disturbed an existing relationship

likesay, surely it is wrong to disturb an existing relationship. Ergo, confessing to an away win would have been a sin.

> Instead of confessing... he kept quiet and stole years from me which didnt belong to him.

to be honest, I do find this an odd way of looking at it. How can you say that someone else’s time did not belong to him? But likesay, there is a certain logic to it, viz, a possessive relationship is possessive, so if you think that you own another persons body and soul then it follows that you own his or her time. So yes, the reasoning is clear enough, just the first principals are bizarre. I won’t say that I believe possessive relationships to be ok, but what other people do with their body and soul is likesay, not my concern.

Who owns my body? Who determines how much of it I can share?

Again. Don't get me wrong. Perhaps some mono relationships are loving relationships. Though I suspect that this is despite their being exclusive and possessive rather than because.

So likesay, I don't believe that monogamy is about love, it is about ownership possession and control.

> When i say, "at least you are honest," then the woman knows what they are getting into .

Likesay, I am still not happy with the by the "at least" bit.

Who owns my body? I love sleeping with women and love the women I sleep with. If you believe that there is something wrong with this then why not say so?

> They can choose to go for it, or not.

as if loving open non-possessive polyamourous relationships are not fabulous, and as if

> My Ex led a double life,

Most people do. We don't live in a monogamous society (thank JAH!) just one riddled and crippled by monogamous assumptions.

> complete with women.. and even a kid..I will never forgive him.

Perhaps we all have forgiveness problems...... I am not asking you to forgive, none of my business. Nor would I deny that you are hurt, I believe you are.

> I have no idea why he did it , nor does he, (so he says,) I was "giving" in every way possible.

Ahem. A woman who tried to guilt trip me into a mono relationship, when we had met in a bar and the first thing I had said to her was that I was ravingly heterosexual, ravingly polyamourous and had a paramour in London. Well, she reckoned that by trying to get me to dump my London paramour and make it illegal for me to love any other woman that that was generous on her part.....

> I can't detatch feelings from sex,

I' not sure I could. My bottom line is at least a pretension of affection. Though likesay prefer loving long term committed open polyamourous relationships. I can dream can't I? And where there is no vision the people perish (Proverbs 29:18)

> that's why i can never do casual or one night stands.

Another non-sequiter surely?

> Im a prude... so shoot me
xxxx

No worries. Again, nothing wrong with being anti sex if your open about it. Or at least there is something refreshing! :)

> He was weak, in my eyes,

he did what most people would have done.

got to go and heckle the Vice Chancellor so Hasta!

Love and liberation

Bluebell xxxx

Re: Love and Chips!

hi

> Thanks for the nice comments.

your welcome ;)

> I've read your profile..

you know, I wonder if most people do..... people are strange...

> and what can i say ? apart from "each to their own@.

fair enough

> My heart would break, ( and indeed it did ) if the man i was with slept with another woman.

now then. Wouldn't want to go down the route of misguided attempts to heal, teach, and convert. Life is too short. Monogamy is sort of ok between consenting couples in private LOL!

> I was with my EX for 20 years, i had no idea that he had been seeing many women over many years.

well, confessing to an away win would have disturbed an existing relationship.

Am personally really not sure why society seems far more threatened by openly living non monogamously than by "cheating" but such is life. Most people are not monogamous all the time and I doubt they ever will be. Viz, in a poll in New Woman 58% of married women said that they had had sex willingly with a man other than their husband. As my brother said and the other 42% lied. Rhetorical, yes there are mono women as well as mono men....

> I left him 18 months ago when i discovered this, i just took my kids and my clothes, and walked.

I won't ask why, likesay lets not go down the route of misguided attempts to heal, convert and teach.

> I suppose its different for you, because you and your partner both agree on the same thing.

not quite a partner per se, she is married after all. And yes, of course, it is an open marriage (though they are not out to the next door neighbours) her hubby has his one night stands and she has her crushes, who all bar me dump her in the end.

> I could never share anything so precious and intimate with other women.

bizarre, but how you feel is how you feel.

> Im single now, and not started the dating thing yet.. oh my word... its a minefield... so many false people.

yup! being honest doesn't get me many dates. None really.

> At least you are honest.

ahem, rather judgemental of you. Are you trying to imply that there is something wrong with being generous with body and soul?

and if you honestly believe that love is jealous, why not say so? (see 1 Corinthians 13:4)
> Good luck

likewise!

Love and liberation

Bluebell xxx

My Valentine

Feeling tierd

I shouldn’t complain.

Looks like my Valentine date is Union Council, looks like I am a sad hack LOL! I’ve never received a valentine, nobody loves me :(

Royal Example?

Well. I read it on the internet, so it must be true, that the Brit crown prince and Camilla (the lady who has, allegedly, for years been a heartbeat away from being a kings mistress) are to get hitched.

“So Bluebell, why would you give a toss you raving Republican loon?” well if we must groan under the ridiculous institutions of monarchy and hierarchy. No I am not suggesting that the saxe-coburg-gotha’s set an example, but it can be a silver lining on a cloudy day.

So yes, would have been nice if Charles and Camilla had waited until after the coronation. Then anyone “living in sin” would be able to happily note that they where only doing what the King was doing, and it would be the height of respectability, which would be a good thing.

Why do I muse? I am not the marrying kind anyway. And gone are the days, no doubt, when the upper classes just didn’t bother with monogamy, unless they wanted to. Again, this is probably the one instance where I wish the workers and peasant’s would take inspiration from our so called betters. Roll on the revolution!

Amerikans

Was listening to State Controlled Radio this morning. It seems that Republican Ascot is not being held at Ascot somewhere in the deep south this year, but in the Ancient Metropolis of the North, York. Well York racecourse to be precise. Not alas permanently but because they have the builders in at Ascot (hmmm builders delay might just mean another year, ten if it where a council job…).

Well, in an interview with a woman in the business of providing hospitality for Republican Ascot at York, she said that one Amerikan had said that he had friends in Edinburgh and was that within walking distance of the racecourse?

“Well sir, you will need good walking shoes” she quipped.

Picture the scene. Said Amerikan on first day or Republican Ascot asks his Edinburgh friends “Say buddy which way is the racecourse?”

“Oh just 200 miles down the Great South Road (aka the A1) and turn left”

Lets hope he remembers some good walking boots. Hi buddy if you are reading this, we will make you very welcome in Old England. Just don't mention the war......

Type of Moggie

You are a Sphinx! You are mocked for your unusual
appearance, but you are very loving and
devoted. People just need to give you a
chance!


What breed of cat are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

400 Years! 400 Years!

Have been selectively reading bits of “Roots” by Alex Hayley.



A few years ago, I remember seeing an exhibition in Birmingham art gallery, some very simple large paintings. The first showed an anvil and some stakes above the ground but pointing downwards. Took me a while to wonder what this symbolised. Then it clicked, chains being made on an anvil, and the stakes forming the stockade of captivity. The second frame was equally moving. It showed Africa and America and the ocean between them And a ship in the shape of a coffin sailing from Africa to America with in the distance in Europe and old classical temple. The Atlantic slave trade was controlled and devised in Europe. And of the temple, yes, slavery was known in classical times. How did a continent that I love descend into barbarism from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries?



Perhaps, conditions of those enslaved for the Indian ocean slave trade where as bad as those for the middle passage of the Atlantic. Even so, and no I am not expecting the sins of the fathers to be visited upon the sons and indeed daughters, I see all too little repentance. Perhaps because some at least in Europe became wealthy on the slave trade and still are. And as for the continued existence of slavery…..



Cue 400 Years by his Bobness, Bob Marley.

Desirable Residence?

When you tidy up you discover a lot of mess. When you have not tidied up for a while…. you might discover one hell of a mess! Spend all night trying to clear my cottage for a 0800 hhrs appointment with the council contractors. Well, by 0800 the windows where cleared and there was space for them to work. The cottage now has double glazed windows. But living in a bridge of sighs bed-sit is driving me nuts! Onwards and upwards to re-housing I hope.

Anyway, what should I discover in old paperwork but an accommodation advert I had spotted up in the University last summer and noted down. Here it is, with original punctuation:-

*******************************************************************

WANTED

********* ALIVE

Two Laid-Back Tokin Housemates Needed To Move In With Well-Adjusted and Studious Third Years next year

Beautiful house equipped with a private cinema, Olympic-size swimming pool, Gymnasium, herb garden, Turkish Bath, Sauna and live-in Swedish masseur with loose morals, surrounded by fourteen acres of barley fields, a helicopter pad, marble en suite bathrooms and a carrot patch, all for just £53 a week! Interested?

Call (two mobile phone numbers given)

*****************************************************************************

Well, being in social housing, I was not tempted. The thought of compulsory “Tokin” did not appeal, smoking is bad for your health! Don’t do it Kids! And problem with the live-in Swedish masseur of loose morals is that his husband is a tall stocky jealous bastard. :)

Bashing the Bishop (non-violently)

Not sure where I acquired a copy of “Christians and Sex – A Quaker Comment” by Harold Loukes (Friends Home Service Committee 1962).

Anyway, on page 16 under masturbation he says

“The day is now mercifully gone when adults could threaten the young with the terrible consequences of masturbation: future impotence, venereal disease, madness. We know now that masturbation has no consequences except tiredness and a sense of guilt.”

Yay Friend Harold! He continues

“At the same time, it seems an unsatisfactory affair,….”

Well, not being able to get laid is always an unsatisfactory affair

“…. even to it’s victims.”

Friend Harold no doubt speaking from experience which I am unable to do having never “Bashed the bishop” (non-violently) myself.

So Harold continues after a couple of paragraphs which can be skipped:-

“We should today regard masturbation as a symptom of a disturbed and disorganised personality”.

You know, I am not so sure we should. Not even in 1962.

Well, three further things are interesting in this pamphlet.

The first is the date. The following year was published the pamphlet which some older Friends reckon should never have been published, viz “Towards a Quaker View of Sex” a bit of a mixed bag as I personally think it was reactionary in places, but did move Britain Yearly Meeting forward.

Secondly, the title, “Christians and Sex”. I suppose I do have a complex against “Christianity” or more specifically “orthodox (small o and so called) Christianity”. Isn’t Christians and Sex a contradiction in terms? “No Sex please, we are Christians”

Thirdly. No mention, to the best of my knowledge (no I am not going to slog my way through said pamphlet, if anyone would like this work you can have it! get in touch before it ends up on a bonfire) of what was becoming a burning issue viz homosexuality. “Towards a Quaker view of Sex” was written to address the issue of homosexuality, but, to the annoyance of some Friends did dig deeper and look at other issues.

And funnily enough Quakers are now seen, rightly I believe, as at least better at discussing sex than other churches.

Hey, maybe the occasional “hand shandy” could be seen as not only healthy and natural but also religious piety…..

=====================================================

Footnote

Any serious student of the English language should have a copy of “Roger’s Profanisaurus”, the premier dictionary of the vulgar tongue, commissioned by the editors of Viz. But since it could be a bit tricky to get hold of for any lovely readers who’s mother tongue is not English I include the following definitions to make everything clear.

Bash the Bishop v. To pull the Pope’s cap off, to box the Jesuit. To bank with Barclays.

Hand shandy n. A frothy one, pulled off the wrist

For whom the bell tolls

Ok. I know it is a cliché. But it will have to do.

I collected a letter today from the Kabal pigeon hole but addressed to me personally (in my capacity as a member of the University Senate).. It was from the University Secretary. Sally Macgill, Professor of Integrated Environmental Management is missing presumed dead in Thailand.

So far as I know all my immediate family are safe and sound. Am in the process of checking up. Not sure if any of my family have ever even been to the Indian ocean shores.

Anyway, never met Professor Macgill. But the University of Leeds is sort of home. And although I would not wish to diminish the lives lost and ruined of those I never knew and never had any connection with apart from “mere” common humanity. And although the University of Leeds is a large firm. I feel the loss all the more personally. A University should be a multi cultural multi national community, and PROUD to be so.

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”

John Donne

sharing (was RE:waiting for the workmen)

hi Kay

> the main thing i'm fed up about is being on my own

interesting. what part of being on your own are you fed up with?

For me. I am living alone for the first time in my life, have been for 2 and a half years. Still not got used to it. But feel that I must. Would love to have housemates, but my previous housemates drove me nuts. Slightly unfair of me to say, what I mean is. House sharing requires structure. And most of my former housemates did so for what where for me, the wrong reasons, viz, sharing the bills. For me the whole point of house sharing is to share something of each others lives and to have fun (without living in each others pocket and accepting that life together is not all beer and skittles).

And yes, I do need more people to share my life with. And more sex ;)

An old acquaintance who lost contact with me said that Schopenhauer had said that the human condition is like being like freezing porcupines, as we huddle together for warmth we are impaled on our quills. Schopenhauer was a miserable bastard. Whether or not he said that, I know not. Where people any less cold in the past I wonder....

I could rant a bit about in and through true community lies the salvation of the world. But best not.

How about I put this on my blog?

love and liberation

Bluebell xx

Building the New Jerusalem

Composed this entry yesterday. Had a few technical difficulties posting it.

My empathy, compassion and solidarity, for what it’s worth, for all the casualties of the Indian Ocean Seismic Wave. Including Dickie Attenborough.

Enjoy!

=================================

My home improvements are off to a slow start. It has taken me over 2 years to borrow a drill. Still, finally drill hit wall today. Then headed into town for more screws and some DIY advice. Was going to buy some curtain rails but I seriously underestimated the price. Don’t worry, I am not Scrooge, and I will cough up the wonga when I have slept on it.

Anyway, was listening to State Controlled Radio when what should be on at 1330 hundred hours but a programme called “And Did Those Feet” it being 200 years since the immortal William Blake wrote Jerusalem – the Glastonbury Hymn, England’s national anthem.

OK, a bit of a long blog this one but it will be worth it.

So yes, I forget which commentator/interviewee said it but Blake was part of English Dissent as shown by the fact that if you visit Bunhill Fields Burial Ground in London you will find his grave there along with those of Daniel Defoe and John Bunyan (as well as Cromwells, and Wesleys, and the chap who invented life assurance). Alas, I have not yet scanned my pictures of John and Daniel’s graves, but here I am at the Blake’s memorial.

Many thanks to Nikki for making said visit possible, and for the picture.

Anyway, I am beginning to ramble. There seems to be a conservative theory of history that dissent is very un English. I funnily enough dissent from such a theory. What could be more English than Dissent? And of course Blake was a Republican as all right thinking Englishmen and Englishwomen are (oops yes this is a touch rhetorical, I do have royalist friends, or at least I hope I still do LOL! But hey! this is my blog and please allow some venting of my roaring passions). Indeed he was vehement in his attacks on warmongering Prime Ministers (ahem are you listening Tony?) and the established “church”.

Again, one conservative contributor seemed to be saying that “Jerusalem” would be fine for a national anthem but “would you want a revolutionary to write your national anthem? Well, this is England, and a revolutionary did. Again, ironically for a country not unknown for squalid imperialism and xenophobia, Jerusalem is entirely devoid of imperialism, jingoism, xenophobia or narrow nationalism of any kind.

Maybe this is not quite the entry I had planned. And yes, my ringtone on my mobile phone is….. Jerusalem.

Of course, the words by Blake are only part of the story. Charles H H Parry was justly proud of the music he composed for it. Parry was described as socialist leaning in the programme, perhaps left of centre would be a bit safer. Not again quite a card carrying conservative, even if an old Etonian. George Orwell went to Eton as well. And to his credit again, Parry was unequivocal in his support for votes for women.

OK. I will come clean. I am a fan of Blake. I am for my sins, which are multiplied, oh lord they are multiplied (Prayer of Manassas verse 9 if you must) English. I am an English Republican, Internationalist, moderate anarchist and moderate pacifist. Something stirs inside me every time I hear Blake’s Jerusalem.

Something else. I profess not to be a nationalist. Was M K Ghandi a nationalist? I remember Dickie Attenborough being interviewed in a programme about Humphrey Jennings, the maker of propaganda films in the last unpleasantness (not counting the Gulf wars and all the other unpleasantnesses since the last unpleasantness, when will we ever learn…..). Dickie said that Jennings was a great patriot, “……but of course being left wing you are not supposed to say that”.

Here’s to the eternal memory of William Blake!

Taken in an alehouse near Bunhill Fields. Cheers Nikki!

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand!

Till we have built! Jerusalem!

Right, to bed.

Happy Solstice!

It is that time of year again. Winter solstice was at about 12:40 universal time today, so tonight is the night.

Will do a solitary ritual including the sacrifice of a can of special brew to Odin.

Our summer! will come again!

Happy hippy Yule one and all. Blessed Be!

Desiderata

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what makes you ache for and if you dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me to know how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow. If you have been opened by love’s betrayals, or if you have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own. If you can dance with the wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without conditioning us to be realistic, be careful or to remember the limitations of being human. It doesn’t interest me to know if the story you are telling is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, if you can bear the accusations of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if you can see the beauty even when it’s not pretty every day and if you can source your life to its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, mine or your own and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon YES! It doesn’t interest me to know how much money you earn or might have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done for the children. It does not interest me to know who you are or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back. It does not interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if your truly like the company you keep, in the empty moments.

Silly Quiz an occasional series no doubt

You know, I never liked the word slut. It sounds negative. Slag at least sounds a bit more positive. If you are a man who likes sleeping with women, should this be viewed in any way negatively? Why is this not a cause for celebration? And likewise if you are a woman who likes sleeping with men? (and yes, goes without saying if you are a man who likes sleeping with other men and so on…. Yes I am a card carrying liberal as stated in this blog passim). And not that sex should ever be seen as something compulsory. Though after 3 months of abstinence I am gnawing at the furniture!

Why do I live in such a sexually repressive society?

Anyway, with a bit of help I could probably get a bit higher than 59% any nubile ladies care to be of assistance? ;)

Management without fear?

Well. It was nice to receive an invite for the Edward Boyle Memorial Lecture 2004, in the centenary year of the University of Leeds.

It seems that Edward Boyle was a Conservative Secretary of State for Education, who resigned from Politics and became Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds. Then he died prematurely, so a memorial lecture has been set up in his honour. The said lecture is delivered in alternate years at the University of Leeds and The Royal Society of Arts (or to be an anorak, cheers Greg, The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce.

Anyway, the lecturer this year was given by Greg Dyke, currently unemployed of Peckham. His last job was as director general of the BBC. Prior to that, he had worked in television.

So, likesay, Greg resigned as DG in the wake of the Hutton Report. Amazingly, there was then a walkout at the BBC. So, was there something right about Greg’s style of management? Well tonight he went as far to say, amongst other things that a leader should care about those he or she leads. Sounds rather reminiscent of Robert Greenleaf’s “Servant Leadership”. YAY! In terms of management theory, I don’t think I heard anything new this evening, which is not to knock Greg Dyke, oh contraire! I was impressed by his passion and belief and that he might just have made it happen (anyone working for Auntie care to confirm or deny this?). He described a “climate of fear” in the BBC when he took over, which sounds just a bit like my previous employer Babylon Foods, but let’s not go there.

After the said lecture, delivered in the Great Hall, we adjourned to the Parkinson Court for drinks, YAY! First and no doubt last time I get a drink on the University. And then meeting some members or Union Council and a member of the University Court who used to be on Senate as a student representative and is now back at Uni as a member or the Court of Governors (as representative of the regional TUC), to the Old Bar for a pint. We did indeed neglect to invite Greg Dyke to Fruity, the Friday night at Leeds University Union’s award winning in house night club, but that was not my job it was Mitchell’s’ since he is going to be FCS officer next year. And I am not up for Fruity, I am an ancient relic who finds clubbing a crushing bore and all that.

Baa!

Cheers Class War!

Certified!

Here it is folks I been certified yay!



Well, the bidding notice for the presentation of certificates said kick off at 1730 100hrs was milling about with Nikki and her partner Farran from 1705 only to learn that the actual kick off would be at 1800 100hrs. Would you believe it on the list of certificates or certificatees (persons to be presented with a certificate) I at first thought my name was spelled right, something I had worried about as every letter I get from the School of Continuing Education is Mr Bluebell New Jerusal Eikonoklastes or similar. Then I noticed that yes New Jerusalem and Eikonoklastes where spelled right but they had missed the first l in bluebell. Or rather Nikki did. And the nibbles where good, I feel quite full indeed. And there was orange juice, coffee and wine! YAY!

I was number 21, 32 certificates where dished out. A round of applause was given for the friends, family, partners, etceteras of all the students and teachers in the school. Many thanks to Nikki and Farran, and indeed my erstwhile housemates at Cornerstone. Who (cornerstone not Nikki and Farran) when I explained that I was doing an essay on the Spanish Civil War and Spanish Revolution (or more correctly the Great Revolution in the Spanish State of 1936 ce) had never heard of it. Now that’s what I call Anarchy!

Now to put the finishing touches to my workbook. Ah in “Doctor in the House” (the film not the series) there is a lovely quote, viz, “an education can last a lifetime, if you want it to”. But that was then.

Will post the photo when it is developed and all that.

Scarecrow is presented with a certificate by the Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Right. Just got a few administrative tasks before certificate presentations. The School of Continuing Education of the University of Leeds is presenting me with a certificate in historical studies. YAY!

Charity Spectacular!!!

It is that time of the year again. The Cornerstone November party at number 16, except it is December.

Traditionally the number 16 party is fancy dress, arguably it has declined in recent years. Anyway, the theme is “Charity Spectacular”. At last minute, viz this afternoon I was tearing round the charity shops of Headingley. The only thing I could find in anything near “fat bastard” size was a size18 grey skirt covered in silver thingies… I can just about get into it but it shows that the bumps are now firmly in the wrong places, viz that my attack of road protestors sickness (too much special brew) has got out of hand. What the hell, tomorrow I go on a diet. Yes I have had a shot of whiskey before blogging this. No generally charity shops are not a good place to shop if you are outsized….

Anyway, the Cornerstone fancy dress party is my once a year opportunity to wear a skirt so I am up for it. Carpe Diem!

Pleasant weekend one and all! Party on!

And for a brief moment life seemed more beautiful

Perhaps history is rarely tidy. Perhaps it should be untidy at times. The truth, after all is usually, probably always in fact, paradoxical.

In 1610 in Utrecht there was a disturbance, the militia asked the city council to resign, which they did, funny how the council where unwilling to argue with men with guns. Prior to Emperor Charles V’s “reforms”, the city council had been chosen by the guilds (allowing some popular choice in local government), Charles decided to appoint them instead. So, it was an appointed council which was overthrown, the militia choosing instead a council more in line (at least in the view of the militia) to be acceptable to the citizens of Utrecht. So, the militia are overruled and the old appointed city council is restored.

But I digress. It turns out at the time that there was controversy in the Dutch Reformed Church between highly disciplined orthodox Calvinists and a more tolerant “libertine” group. For a moment, life seemed more beautiful, to know that once there had been “Libertine Calvinists” a most fascinating concept. But no, perhaps I misread my source documents. But oh to have some grim Calvinists drinking, smoking and fornicating. For a moment life seemed more beautiful.

Once walking between Headingley and Chapeltown in Leeds I passed a “Strict and Particular Baptist” church. Went to their Sunday service once. All the sisters where in gothic black, and all the men where dressed as penguins. I am still looking for some Lax and Unfussy Baptists. Let me know if you find any.