Blickling Hall

The other day we went to Blickling Hall in Norfolk. I can't be arsed to write too much about it so I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Gordon isn't a moron

Seeing Gordon Brown on the Andrew Marr show this morning made me realise what an asset we have in our prime minister. I didn't much care necessarily for many of the policies of Tony Blair and I certainly didn't care for the spin or the celebrity persona, but I do thank him for delivering us from conservative immorality and government. I feel much happier that we have someone who's strong and unflappable like Gordon running the country now. He came across very well this morning as someone is determined to do the right thing and to continue with socially just policies. He’s not flash, he’s not smarmy, and he cares about this country and all the people that live here. I think this last week has proven that the current economic problems are not of his making, but with him at the helm I firmly believe that we are better placed to come out of this with less pain than if the Tories were in charge. I lived under too many Tory administrations where they just piss away the economy, give loads of dosh to their cronies, and make the working people that suffer. We don’t need the return of spin; we have a good prime minister, let’s not desert him now!

Badly mismanaged

Over the last week I’ve heard the phrase ‘badly mismanaged’ used twice on the BBC. Once on Radio 4 of all places, and once on the East Anglian news programme Look East. Standards continue to fall at Auntie!

If something is well managed then it could be said to have been ‘badly mismanaged’. I don’t think that this is what each reporter meant to say on either occasion. What they should have said was either ‘mismanaged’ or ‘badly managed’.

It is little wonder that western civilisation is going down the proverbial plug hole when standards at the Beeb are slipping like this!

Grounded

If The Lady hadn’t broken her ankle we would have been looking forward to flying off to Cyprus tonight. Well actually we wouldn’t. Guess who we’d booked to fly with?

Yes, you guessed it. XL.COM.

I feel for the poor sods that have had their holiday dreams shattered or are stranded in some foreign land. I also feel for the poor sods that will no doubt lose their jobs. You do kind of think that this will not be the last airline to go down due to the current economic climate.

Shit most certainly does happen.

Religious Truths

TAOISM
Shit happens.

BUDDHISM
If shit happens, it isn’t really shit.

HINDUISM
This shit has happened before.

ISLAM
If shit happens, it is the will of Allah.

CATHOLISISM
Shit happens because you deserve it.

PROTESTANTISM
Let shit happen to someone else.

JUDAISM
Why does shit always happen to us?

Shit Happens

For our holiday this year we planned to go to Cyprus. Some friends of ours have a house out there, so all we needed to do was buy the plane tickets, which we did in plenty of time. Unfortunately last Thursday The Lady broke her ankle. She now has to wear this large Goth-like black boot for six weeks and hobble around on crutches. Because she is a diabetic the doctor has said she can’t fly. Cyprus is cancelled!

Needless to say I’m crying into my beer.

Oh well,shit happens.

Last Friday

I’d never travelled first class by train until last Friday. I liked the experience. Mustard City is at the end of the line. So a visit to London is great you get on at the start and get off at the end. Fantastic!

We were heading down to London to experience a Christmas present. It was a Thames lunch cruise. When we arrived at the pier where the boat was moored it seems that our worst fears were recognised a conservatory on top of a barge containing regimented tables. As it turned out it wasn’t too bad. We chugged down and then back up the Thames, eat a passable meal considering that it was mass catering and saw some interesting sites on the way. The only real naff thing was the classical music with a disco backbeat background music which was a bit too loud and rather nauseating.

After our lunchtime excursion we made our way to Borough, and the market there in particular. What an interesting and exciting place. A mass of wonderful food stalls all vying for you custom. It’s a shame that it was a hot day and we still had lots more to do as this prevented us making any purchases, but it was good to wander around drooling over the wonderful food. Edible erotica, you can’t beat it! As I’m no longer a vegetarian my world has been reopened to the delights of meat in all its forms. For me pork products, sausages hams etc are a joy to behold. That coupled with cheese and I’m in heaven. We plan to return to Borough market at a later date. If you’ve not been it is most definitely worth a visit. Being in Borough was a good excuse to visit a pub that I’d wanted to go to for a while. So we made for Tabard Street, home of a Harvey’s pub, the Royal Oak. I’ve blogged about it here.

Refreshed by ale we then headed to Tate Modern. I was keen to see the ‘Street Art’ adorning its walls before it is removed at the end of August. Great pictures, all quite different styles. My favourite, as I suspected it would be is this black and white one.

Even though it’s starting to peel it still looks good. At first you think that it is a man looking down the barrel of a gun until you see that it is really a video camera.

Here are some more pictures of the ‘graffiti’:

 

Unfortunate gonads!

Inside we went to one of the exhibitions. ‘Cy Twombly is regarded as one of the foremost painters in the world today,’ the introduction in the exhibition booklet tells us. Bollocks! I felt like the little boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes. The pictures are awful. Apart from some vaguely pleasing green efforts in Room 10 the rest is self-obsessed nonsense. Cy Twombly could well become a synonym for a mess. ‘It’s all gone Cy Twombly’, I can hear people crying in frustration as a culinary or diy creation goes tits up. My suggestion to you dear readers is avoid Cy Twombly like the plague!

We left the Tate feeling glad that we didn’t have to pay to enter the exhibition. As members we get in for ‘free’.

We had just enough time to pop into a Tiffinbites for a quick and jolly tasty bite to eat before catching the train home.

An exhausting but interesting day.