On the road

Describe the best road trip you’ve ever taken

Hitch-hiking from Athens to Brussels with only five dollars, a loaf of bread and a carrot to my name. Slept mostly on building sites. Got surrounded by Yugoslav military with machine guns for picking firewood in a military zone.

Got drunk three times – toasting Greece and Britain co-operation during the war, an American soldier feeding me bottled beer on an empty stomach and rather sadly shared a bottle with a guy on his 21st birthday, stuck in a miserable field in Belgium.

An amazing number of people gave me food on the journey including an old lady who gave me fruit, another hitch-hiker gave me some tins of fruit, which I shared with a customs official, who then stopped all cars until someone gave me a lift; a German who had been a prisoner of war and insisted of buying me a meal.

I was able to buy more food using my dollars at an American military base.

Then ended up in a down and out hostel in the centre of Brussels waiting for some cash to be wired through from a bank from the folks. Crossed the Channel drinking champagne with an extremely rich businessman.

A great trip.

Bonus:  describe your last vacation. (extra-bonus, is to compare your dream vacation to your last one).

I’m training up for my dream holiday, which will take place in 2012.  It will be a long trip around Europe in my camper van Bongo Little.

I will cross the Channel from England  in April travel slowly through rural France to Gallacia, the Atlantic side of northern Spain, through coastal Portugal around the coast of Spain.

France

Then France again, Spain, Italy, Croatia up to Berlin then north to Copenhagen and back down the coast through Germany, Holland and Belgium coming home for bonfire night in November.

Last year I had a reasonable time with my van enjoying the rural area around the south coast of England and camped for a time close to a stone age fort, close to Stonehenge – (hint spend more time at the nearby Avebury Ring – it’s so much more mystical and you can touch the stones).

I then travelled up to Scotland and spent a month near Edinburgh to enjoy the amazing festival – 5,000+ perfomances and pubs open 24 hours.

Coming back I had an amazing drive in the border between Scotland and England going across the hills using an old smuggling road – never seeing another car for over an hour and a half – something that’s almost impossible in the UK.

Hadrian's wall

I then had a few days exploring Hadrian’s wall – built by the Roman’s to separate the Empire from the Scots and Picts.

Then disaster – my engine blew up and I was stuck until 3 in the morning in a remote spot by a lake until the tow truck arrived.

This year I’ll be travelling through the remoter parts of England, Wales and Scotland in preparation for my longer trip the next year.

I now have mobile broadband and a good notebook computer so I can keep my blogging going.

Anyone interested in photos of my travels can flick through my albums on Picasa.

Hitch hiker

I lost my belief in religion in Bethlehem. I was there three weeks after the Six Day War and Israel really challenges your views. You walk around a corner and you are suddenly in completely different way of life.

I got to meet Jews, Christians, Druze, Bahai, Muslims and many different interpretations of these faiths including a town of black, Christian Baptists who had come from America.

I had some doubts about religion. My family has two cases in the recent history of people being thrown out of the family for marrying someone of the wrong faith.

I had gone through the formal set of lessons of Confirmation – but these filled me with unease. Which I pondered as I travelled.

It was in Bethlehem seeing the different sects of the Christian aggressively competing. The sadness and stupidity of the war as most people on both sides were really nice.

Then one minute I was a Christian and the next I was an atheist. And when you make that step you can’t go back.

What’s something you never believed until you experienced it?

That I could hitch-hike from Athens to Calais until I had no choice but to do so. All I had was $5, three cans of food and a loaf of bread.

It took ten days and slept on building sites on the way home. Got pretty merry with alcohol three times: toasting the support the British gave to Greece during the war, driving down the German autoban with an American soldier and I shared a bottle of whisky with this poor guy in Belgium as we were stuck in a horrible field and it was his 21 st birthday.

Had five maching guns pointed at me as I had started picking twigs in a military zone in Yugoslavia. (Not as scary as the Israeli security who objected to my mate taking photographs of their mini-submarines on my way out). Travelled the only two miles of the trip in a horse drawn cart with no suspension. And ended up in down and out hostel in Brussels waiting for some cash from my parents.

All in all a good trip.

I hate the fact that David Cameron, our supposed  leader, made an attack on multiculturalism, which was clearly biased against Islam. There are some terrorists who are Moslem, but I have lived my life under the threat of Irish Republican terrorists.

When I was working as a telephonist in the old Post Office an IRA bomb killed a telephonist. I, or any one working for the government was considered a target.

A friend of mine worked in the Baltic Exchange – fortunately due to an extended meeting – she missed being killed as the floor, the ceiling of her office was completely taken out by a bomb. The friendly commissionaire, doing a retirement job, who happily chatted to me, and had a wealth of knowledge of the city of London was killed. Normal people were their target.

Just over 10 years ago I went to visit the Radio Caroline boat, when is moored up London. Two weeks later a bomb went off close to that location and killed the friendly guy, I suspect would have been a Muslim, who sold me a newspaper. Normal people were targeted in that blast.

My daughter is living in a small village in Scotland and she became aware that the village is disliked as it is considered Catholic. It is highly probable that any of the young men from the village will be beaten up if they go to nearby pubs or clubs in strongly Protestant communities.

In Glasgow people get beaten up every weekend because they are of the wrong Christian faith and to a certain extent this happens all over Scotland and parts of the north.  In my childhood I can remember stones being thrown at the Catholic White Walk procession and I gather there were fights in the evening.

And I won’t go on too much about the Christian Zionists funding the extremist settlements in the West Bank of Israel. Because all they want to do is create the conditions to cause Armageddon and the end of the world.

Fanatic are fanatics. Fundamentalists, who can justify murder, due to narrow interpretations of a book or a proclamation are dangerous to all mankind.

As are people who start wars over oil or to boost the revenues of the armament corporations, that fund the President’s the election campaign.

Topic: Who is your greatest hero

This started me thinking of the women in my family and so I’d like to nominate four  women as heroes:

Ninny – my great grandmother had a horrible life living in a two up and two down house, which backed onto the railway shunting area so there was always the taste of smoke from trains.

Her husband was nasty. When a bad mood he would throw his food against the wall. He would tap his spoon against the cup and expect her to drop everything and give him another cup of tea.

She also brought up my father. My grandfather, who was also an unpleasant character, ordered my grand mother to dump him or her her mother or he’d leave her.  It was Ninny who helped my father more than anybody else.

She was also always cheerful and worked very hard washing clothes in an old boiler and drying them with a mechanical mangle. She supported her neighbours and always have a good word to say to children.

Aunt Pat: Another hero is my wife’s aunt Pat, who between the wars was a teacher in the poorest part of the East End of London. She used to teach classes of over 60 and used to help families who will often living 10 or more to a two-bedroom house. She remembered the time of the cable Street riots where fascists beat up men, women and children. Her later life but devoted to running adult education courses.

Caroline: My last hero is my older daughter, Caroline, who has a handicapped child of 14, who has a mental age of just over one year. He cannot talk, has difficulty walking and has an attention span of less than one minute.

Despite this she has gained a university degree, helped start a magazine, now works as a freelance editor and is a life coach. I do not know where she gets the energy to keep going. She manages to keep on even when her son almost died over the Christmas period.

My mother: it’s hard for me to comprehend my mother’s war.  She was on an aircraft traffic controller on a bomber station. She had the job of controlling the flights going out and the more harrowing task of helping planes, often damaged and with injured and dying crew, get back safely.

She has seen enemy aircraft machine gun a park. She, herself, narrowly escaped death when a bomb landed very close to the cinema she was attending.

The aerodrome she was stationed at was often bombed and machine-gunned. She tells me of a time she went back to the barracks where she had to pass a number of unexploded bombs.

The worst job was waiting up through the night as the bombers returned. She would learn that people she knew had been killed or shot down. She had to wait until it was too late for a plane to return as its fuel would have run out. So she would go back to her barracks and have to break the news to other women that their boyfriend was dead or missing.

Fictional heroes

In fiction I like the historical heroes Sharpe and Hornblower, both fought in the war against Napoleon.

Villains

For villains I tend to despise politicians who seem to be in the business only all themselves. There seems to be more of them about these days.

Great job

Best job

Rotten Job

Worst job

Says it all

• You have the right to a minimum wage, but not necessarily a living or a decent wage

• You have the right to “agree” to work more than 48 hours a week, but not to be paid an overtime rate if you do so

• Women have the right to equal pay to men, but typically to be paid less than a man

• You have the right not to be unfairly dismissed, but not to get your job back if your complaint succeeds

• You have a right to a redundancy payment if made redundant, but only if you have been with your employer for at least two years

• You have a right to have your trade union recognised by your employer, but only if at least 40% of your colleagues agree

• You have a right to strike, but only if your employer does not apply for an injunction on some spurious procedural technicality

• You have a right to use an employment tribunal to enforce your rights, but not to receive legal aid or legal representation

• You have the right to seek employment as an agency worker, but to be denied all meaningful forms of legal protection if you do so

• You have the right to agree to a “master and servant” contract, thereby allowing your employer to change the terms at will

• If you do bring legal proceedings against your employer, not only will you not receive legal aid, but you will be required to subsidise the employer’s legal costs through the tax system. One reason why there is such a huge “inequality of arms” in employment disputes is that employers can write off their legal costs (and any compensation awarded against the business) against tax, leaving the rest of us to pick up the bill. Claimants gets no tax relief, and no legal aid.

As told in the Guardian. Article Link

This country is really going backwards compared to the rest of Europe.

Banker with the mask off

Hello, my name is Montague William 3rd
And what I will tell you may well sound absurd.
But the less who believe it, the better for me
for you see, I’m in banking, and big industry.

For many a year we have controlled your lives
while you struggle and suffer in strife.
We created the things that you don’t really need
your sports cars, fashions, and Plasma TV’s.

I remember it clearly, how all this begun.
Family secrets from Father to Son.
Inherited knowledge that gives me the edge,
while you peasants, sorry, people, sleep in your beds.

We control the money that runs your lives
whilst you worship false idols and wouldn’t think twice
of selling your souls for a place in the sun, these
things won’t matter, when your time is done.

As long as we are there to control the masses,
I can just sit back, and consider my assets
- safe in the knowledge that I have it all,
while you common people lose your soul.

You see, I just hold you in utter contempt.
But the smile on my face well, it makes me exempt.
For I have the weapon of global TV
giving me connection whilst inviting empathy.

You would really believe that we look out for you,
while we Bankers and Brokers are only a few.
But if you saw that, then you’d take back the power,
hence the daily terrors to ensure you cower.

The Panics the crashes, the wars and the illness
that keeps you from finding your Spiritual Wholeness.
We rig the game, and we buy out both sides,
to keep you enslaved in your pitiful lives.

So go out and work as your body clock fades
and when it’s all over a few years from the grave,
you’ll look back on all this, and just then, you’ll see,
that your life was nothing,.. a mere fantasy.

There are very few things that we don’t now control.
To have Lawyers and the Police Force was always a goal.
Doing our bidding, as you march on the street.
But they never realised, they’re merely sheep.

For real power resides in the hands of a few.
You voted for parties what more could you do.
But what you don’t know, is they’re one and the same.
Old Gordon has passed young David the reigns.

You’ll follow the leader put there by you.
But your blood runs red while ours, runs blue.
You simply don’t see, its all part of the game,
another distraction, such as money and fame.

Get ready for wars in the name of the free.
Vaccinations for illness that will never be.
The assault on your children’s impressionable minds
and a micro chipped world, you’ll put up no fight.

Information suppression will keep you in toe.
Depopulation of peasants was always our goal.
But eugenics, was not what we hoped it would be
Oh yes, it was us, who funded the Nazis in old Germany.

So long as we own the airwaves
what’s really happening does not concern you.
So just go on watching your plasma TV,
and the world will be run, by those you can’t see.

Taken from the comments on the Independent article of the record £7.7 million fine to Barclays for giving bad advice to investors.