On The Origin Of Darwin

Born in Shrewsbury on the 12th February 1809, Charles Darwin is Shropshire’s most famous son...recently voted as one of the greatest Britons. Darwin’s love and curiosity of the natural world was positively encouraged and flourished while he lived in Shrewsbury until he was 27.

Quite naturally, there are reminders of Darwin almost everywhere you look in Shrewbury....

Statue outside the town's library (formerly Shrewsbury School, attended by Darwin)

Darwin Gate Sculpture

Quantum Leap sculpture from the Darwin Bicentenary

Darwin Graffiti

PS: Photos were taken on a quick trip to Shrewsbury, on a break from Aikido Summer School

All A Blur

Well I'm back from Aikido Summer School, moreless in one piece and sporting a range of bruises in various shades of indigo to violet, with just a hint of blueberry. Thankfully, no broken bones!

I may have learnt a lot, but I can't really tell you what, as it has all merged and blurred into one. I certainly exhausted myself and pushed myself to the edge of my fitness level.

The highlight for me was the opportunity to watch the Dan grades in action...

Daddy's little helpers

I did get chance to do some exploring of the local area too, but more on that another day....

Summer Break



Thank [insert whatever deity you do (or don't if you're atheist) worship] it's Friday! And the start of a mini Summer break for me...although depressingly, this last week has turned distinctly autumnal, which kind of throws out my mini Autumn break planned for September. By then, it may be snowing...

Regardless of the shifting seasons, I'll be heading off to Aikido Summer School in the wilds of Shropshire this weekend, and hopefully doing a bit of exploring of the local area inbetween sessions on the mat. Our Sensei has hired a huge farmhouse to accomodate those attending, and it will be interesting to see how all the different personalities get along when forced to live together for a few days.... Tattoo Man, Get-A-Pedicure-Man! Man, and Hippy Chick (not me!) could make for an eclectic mix. People may start to get a little edgy.



Assuming I survive Summer School on both physical and mental fronts, I have a couple of day trips planned after that... but more on those later.

I'll leave you with a sunset show from Wednesday evening.....



You know the old saying..."Red Sky at Night, Sailors' Delight"? Well, what a load of old tosh.... it peed down something awful the whole of yesterday. Anyone would think Gerard Depardieu was in the vicinity... oui!, oui! (or rather wee wee?), the pee pee jokes have all been done by now, but Nat is usually slightly behind the times.


Take care everyone and catch up with you soon...

Flattery Will Get You Nowhere...

On Monday nights, you’ll most likely find me torturing myself at my boxercise class…basically, I pay four quid to be shouted at by Muscle Man (aka Boot Camp Drill Sergeant) for an hour, while I run around a chilly village hall and do squats, lunges and press-ups, drop dumbbells on my toes, question my sanity and dream of eating chocolates. And all this in the name of achieving a super svelte body (or at least trying to counteract my massive energy input with a teeny bit of output). Last night was no exception... except it was not Muscle Man taking the class (he’s busy sunning his muscles on the Portuguese Algarve) but rather his female counterpart.

Not the actual Muscle Man but some eye candy for the ladies on a slow Tuesday morning

The village hall backs onto a large, grassy park and recreational area, with basketball courts, a skateboarding ramp and children’s playground. Naturally, the place is popular with the local kids, making the most of the long summer evenings... although the area does have floodlights so they can use it in winter too. We do get the odd spectator, but generally the playground holds far more attractions than watching a bunch of “old people” running around in circles.

Yesterday evening, however, a couple of teenagers were extremely interested in the activities going on in the hall... especially when they noticed a pile of boxing gloves waiting for the punching session of the class...


Teenage Boy #1: “Look... they’ve got boxing gloves! We want to do that!” [Starts grabbing the gloves]

Muscle Woman: “You can join in, but you will have to pay for the class.”

Teenage Boy #2 “Why?”

Muscle Woman: “This is a private boxercise class, and we pay to hire the hall. Therefore if you join in, you pay the fee.”

Teenage Boy #2: “But what do you use the boxing gloves for?”

Muscle Woman: “We use them as part of the exercise routine.”

Teenage Boy #2: “But you lot ain’t fat! Why do you need to exercise?”

Muscle Woman: “That’s very nice of you, but we still need to exercise to stay fit. Are you going to pay now?”

The boys run off to the park.....

Variation On A Theme

I have a number of random photos that I'd like to share on here... so I'm thinking of arranging them into themes, starting with today's topic of...and this is especially for faye who is Sleepless In Gainsville and has a penchant for these things...

benches!

A seat with a view - Lake Moraine, Canada

City benches - Bruges, Belgium

Carved wooden seat - Osborn House, Isle Of Wight

Autumn in Basel, Switzerland

A chilly seat - Norway

Lawlessness Is Lawlessness

“Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.”

Thurgood Marshall

There is never an excuse to go on a rampage, looting and pillaging, terrorising your community and destroying their homes, their businesses, the things that they have worked hard to achieve.



Yes, a man was shot by the police during arrest. Yes, people want answers, and yes, his family are grieving... but ransacking shops, stealing plasma screen TVs and torching family businesses is not going to help the so-called "Cause".

It is pure criminality. Plain and simple.

There are more intelligent ways to have your say, and if you have something worth saying you will find a way to say it that does not ruin the lives of others.



I think this Londoner says it all....

WARNING!!! THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE!

Pictures source: The Telegraph

Putting Things Into Perspective

I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.

Ancient Persian Saying

Source

Depending on how often you swing by here to read this drivel inspiring prose, you may have noticed that I was having a bit of a bad day yesterday... never fear, faithful readers, I’m not back on here today to do more biatching about the sorry state of my life... but rather to tell you how the day ended, and how it certainly put things into perspective for me, at least.

Source

With the way things were going yesterday, I was in two minds about heading out to our regular Thursday evening Aikido class. Fully expecting to break an ankle, acquire a black eye or have someone crash land their fat ass on my head (again!)... and all that before I’d even gotten out of the parking lot and into the sports centre... I was pleasantly surprised to have a really good class.

I could actually grasp the techniques being taught fairly easily, Sensei did not haul me up in front of the class to show up my ineptness (under the guises of “demonstrating” what needs doing) and the aerobic exercise was doing me a world of good.

Towards the end of the class, it became apparent that one of the guys (Sweaty Man*) was not feeling too well. I’d actually spoken to him at the start of class, as he hadn’t been for a while and I wondered if he’d been away on holiday... he had in fact been ill with a rather nasty inner ear infection (labyrinthitis), that had kept him bedbound for weeks. Sweaty Man was taking strain and went to sit out at the side and drink some water, but he was clearly not right.....

Slurred speech, loss of the use of his right arm, his face seemed droopy on one side.... alarm bells started ringing! These are the classic symptoms of stroke!

B charged off to call an ambulance and paramedics were on the scene within minutes. They checked Sweaty Man over and said it was almost certainly a recurrence of his labyrinthitis (the symptoms are almost identical!), but they would take him into hospital for observation.

In the meantime, some of us were going through the emergency contact numbers we’ve all had to provide, thinking someone should let his wife know... but before anyone could pick up the phone, Sensei told us quietly that Sweaty Man had split up from his wife a few weeks’ back so perhaps she was not the best person to call.

Poor bloke! His marriage is breaking down and he has some serious health issues... he really is having a bad time. Kind of made my little problems of porridge exploding in the microwave and clients being their usual annoying selves seem...well, quite trivial and pathetic, really.

Sensei accompanied Sweaty Man to the hospital... and was thankfully able to report later that Sweaty Man had recovered, that it was indeed his ear problem giving him hassles. So, all’s well that ends well, and today is Friday!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Source

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* I have nicknames for many of my fellow Aikidoers... Tattoo Man, Burpy Man, Spider Man, Get-A-Pedicure-Man! and so on that I wrote about here and here.

Due To Lack Of Interest, Today Is Cancelled!



It's been one of those days when I wish I'd just stayed in bed...

I overslept. See, my body knew shite awaited and was trying to avoid.

I snagged my beloved white throw while making the bed, so it now has a horrible little run and hole on one side... another sign that I should never have gotten out of bed.

The porridge boiled over in the microwave. I've been using the same jug and the same quantities of milk and oats every day for the last five years, but TODAY, the gods of the Microwave Miracle decided they'd have some fun. Cleaning porridge off the microwave is not funny. Not having enough porridge left to eat also gives me a sense of humour failure... quite possibly, it's my Glycaemic Index taking flight...

I'd left the window open in my office yesterday evening - it had been a balmy night that turned to rain... meaning I was mopping up puddles on the windowsill and carpet this morning! Arrrrghh!!!

I opened my email box to a stream of commands (not requests!) from The Demanding Client, most of them I can't even begin to understand let alone address.

The power went off during my teleconference with The Shambolic Client - it took me at least 10 seconds to realise that we were not having another awkward moment of silence, just silence! Just a momentary blip, but enough to knock out my internet and phone for at least 10 minutes.

I had a tense conversation with The Sarcastic Client, who wants the world but only wants to pay the price of a pebble off Brighton beach, but even that's negotiable.

I've just sliced off a good part of my index finger, attempting to chop tomatoes at lunch.

And it's not even 2 pm yet.....



Hope your days are going better!

St Leonard's

Dating from the 12th Century, St Leonard's Church in the Bedfordshire village of Old Warden, is noteworthy for its black oak carved pews...