I'm Not...Dick Van Dyke

    My family home is one of a very old British period and is full of many overly thick stone walls, slate floors and high ceilings, hellish to keep warm in Winter, but very pleasant in those warm Summer months. Of course there are many interesting architectural features, some not so easily explainable whereas others can be just downright awkward!

      Now every room has a fireplace or two and most of the flues flow into the same stack and it's this stack which I must sweep, every year. It's frightening really, when you think about it, my ancestors swept it before my time, I've swept it with my Father and I now sweep it with my son. And it's not just a case of pushing the sticks up and giving it a quick sweep, there are angles and bends, even false passages to be negotiated. Also, every time you add another stick to the sweep you must give the whole run a good twist, to prevent any breaks in the chain.

      Over the years, I've sought to make the job easier, I did hire a professional sweep, to come and do the job, but he made a complete hash of it and got lost up another branch. There was also someone who turned up with a vacuum cleaner, filled a couple of bags and then gave up!
      The reality of all this is, I've got to roll my sleeves up and get on with it myself!

Build that Wall

    I wouldn't normally dwell upon such matters, but I suppose you might say all hardships are there to be endured and through sheer power of the will, to be overcome and no doubt, conquered. And with this in mind, I am quite prepared to put up with a constant flow of people, visitors to the area, telling me, reminding me, that I should be grateful, be glad, that I'm fortunate enough to live in the English Lake District! And how lucky I am to be somehow protected, from all the turmoil and indeed strife, of the outside world!

   The only problem being, just exactly what they don't seem to realize is, a barrier all be it a invisible barrier, is meant to keep people out, as well as in!

Judah Ben Hur.

    There's a book and there are also half-a-dozen screen versions, with two or three truly epic productions. I've grown up with the Charlton Heston, William Wyler spectacular and recall it as one of the all-time-great films. That wonderful scene where Jesus gives Judah some water!
    And with the release of the new 2016 version I was keen to see this latest attempt, of course the reviews are terrible, so I've tried to avoid reading them and I was worried about Jack Huston, perhaps he would make a good Jewish playboy, but how would he cope with being lashed to the galley or in a life and death chariot race at the local track? At least there's Morgan Freeman, so much experience, many defining rolls and you're convinced he's a sheik, and not just by his thobe,
    Remarkably I'm in the same Cinema in which I saw the magical 1959 screening, it was as a young boy in the mid-sixties, films would take a long time to get this far North, back in those days. I'm pleased to say the seats are more comfortable and spacious now, and I also thought it wise to forsake the 3d Ice Lolly and the three 1d Gobstoppers, as of my childhood.
    The film, well it rolls along well enough and there are a few variations here and there, but generally I felt let down, maybe it's all the digital CG which seems to be everywhere, and when you least want to see it. I would suppose the studio took a gamble with the project, thinking the 1959 movie needed, somehow updating, better cinematography perhaps. Wyler, worked on the 1925 production and no doubt had similar ideas, and when you compare these earlier two, you can see the advances in technique. Look at the 1959 & 2016 films and you are more likely to wonder, exactly why did they bother?      

Delia Smith.

    It shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but there always seems to be an abundance of celebrities turning up in the Lake District, the thing is, they are not usually attention seekers and you are generally unaware of their presence.
    Last week I met a few friends in a local hotel, on our way to a restaurant, one of them said to me; "that woman from Norwich, is in here, you know, the cook, the one who likes football, wot's her name? Oh yeah, Delia Smith!"
    So I had what I would consider to be a casual and at the same time searching, glance around the room. Can't say I saw Delia, to recognize her, but I did notice how oddly everyone else was behaving, which told me Delia, was probably in the house!  

Fiver for em...

    We've just got the new Plastic £5 in UK circulation and to be honest, they're pretty good, but I'm bound to say as much, I've been using the Irish fiver's for the past seventeen years, without any problems. But paper or plastic, I love them both/all.

Friar's Crag, Derwentwater North Lakes

      On my way back from Cockermouth, heading to the South Lakes, I decided to make a short stopover in Keswick, it's probably the North Lakeland principle town. I used to work here, some few years ago and I still have a number of friends in the area, like to visit the shops and those old familiar haunts. 
      I can still happily recall spending my lunch hours walking by the lake shore, on some of those cold and crisp winter's days. And because of this I decided to make a walk down to Friar's Crag and perhaps re-live some of those happy memories. The route is still very familiar, past the theatre and along the track by the shore, only the numbers of people have soared in recent times.

      But then at last I'm at the view point, it's a nice sunny day and the panorama of lake and fell is staggering, there are quite a few other people here as well and they too, are swept up by the sheer majesty of the place.  

  John Ruskin, is immortalised at Friar's Crag, simply by the erection of the well known monolith and a few well chosen words from his diary.

Ring, Ring, Ring.........

    Been having a few problems with my Telecom Landline and have been in need of a new telephone, or more preferably, a telephone system with various hand sets to run through the house. Due to one thing and another, I'd never got around to doing anything about this matter even with constant verbal encouragement from certain members of my family. To be quite honest I've been looking for some sort of telephone, which, to some degree might be able to manage itself and be able to deal with nuisance and cold callers and people using withheld numbers. There seems to be something of a gamut of these sort of callers, just at the present.

    So one day I'm in Asda (walmart) and I'm thinking; "just take care of this problem, buy a cheap phone, sort it all out!" So I do, I get it home, set it up and the problems begin, won't work, the ansaphone won't respond, won't dial properly, the battery compartment keeps falling apart, etc. And I put up with this nonsense, to the next day, by which time I've had enough and put it all back in the box, then return it to the shop. At least I can get my money back, without any quibble! So I do what I should have done in the first place and go straight to Curry's/PC World and buy a good Panasonic system, KX-TG816. I come home and set it up and it's so good it almost sets itself up. I'm using it now and it's everything I need. I'm living in the digital revolution!