For me Mum!!

Two Steps Behind (Live) - Def Leppard & Taylor Swift

You are so beautiful - Joe Cocker

The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin

Pretty Woman - Kal Ho Naa Ho (1080p HD Song)

The Corrs feat. Bono - Summer Wine - Live / Widescreen / HQ / LyRiCs (en...

Jump - D.L. Roth & J. Jorgenson Bluegrass Band - Strummin' With The Devil

Amplifier - Imran Khan - Chai-Town (a cappella) [Live]

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) (Vinyl Rip) LIVE IN ...

The Verve - Lucky Man

Quote of the day.

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature"

~ Gerard De Nerval

Coldplay - Fix You

Flying Pickets - Only You

Hazel O'Connor Will You

So is this good news?

Do you remember when the feminist movement pushed forward with their issues and was rightfully successful in their moves towards equality?
Some men at the time felt under threat and in certain areas fell behind in this race towards equality.
Of course it was never a race and eventually it settled down and everybody got down to working towards proper equality.
I say nothing other than - just watch Scotland with its No vote surge forward and get all its devolved powers, leaving Wales and Northern Ireland a long way behind.
As for England it will be a non starter.

Paul Weller plays 'You Do Something To Me'

Please remember 13 years ago today!

Click anywhere here to be taken to my post on 11th September 2010 on my older blog Wilko News with pics of the World Trade Centre taken by me in 1990.

Please just spend a couple of minutes today thinking of that tragic day - 11th September 2001. 

Love is a mystery - Ludovico Einaudi For Nicki.

Alison Krauss / Shawn Colvin / Jerry Douglas - The Boxer

HURRICANE KATRINA!!

I just ask you all to remember as you go through your daily stuff today that August 29th 2005 was Hurricane Katrina, a natural disaster that claimed the lives of thousands of people and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands more.
Respect nature.

Quote of the day!!

No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does.

Khaled & Nadiya - Aïcha (Live) خالد - عائشة

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." ~ Oscar Wilde

Tum Hi Ho / Mad World - Penn Masala

Bad Company - Can't Get Enough

Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral. Frank Lloyd Wright

Robert Palmer - Johnny and Mary

Weekly Waffle cancelled - again..........

Yes folks - sorry - but last week's cancelled Weekly Waffle has been postponed!! The 'Weekly Waffle' has never been normal but a service will hopefully be resumed early next week!! 

This new venture (click anywhere) is taking up all my time!! It is a closed group but if you are reading this here you may be a friend or a friend of a friend. Either way you will need approval by Admin.

How To Say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

wirral splendour

Just love this........

Wilko's Weekly Waffle - Wednesday's Winner, Wonderful

This isn’t about the World Cup this is about how to influence the results of matches quite significantly! This is not about horse racing  just about getting the results you want. This is not about what time the bin men come it’s about what time they have come before.

Two months ago I bet on the top 3 teams in the World Cup. Say no more, Mexico 3^rd – gone!! Brazil v Argentina in final – no longer possible, Brazil to win – gone home – oh sorry already home! Ok it was always a long shot so when Mexico went out I had the double Brazil and Argentina in final and Brazil to win 1- 0!! I’m guessing last night’s result doesn’t allow that to happen!! Betting shop bet for Brazil last night to win 2 – 0 and as I was leaving the betting shop I noticed a poster 7/1 on Mueller scoring first – I laughed all the way home, ha ha I thought some people will fall for anything, who bets on stuff like that? Who scored first? Need I say more!!

I’m sure you know all the stories about horse racing but the one I fall for every time is when as happens in the UK a race falls to 7 runners the pay out is only on 1^st and 2^nd, I bet on a horse each way in a race with 8 or more runners and my chosen horse comes 3^rd!! Ok you don’t win a fortune but if it’s good odds you may just about get your money back. Except in the meantime there has been one non runner and a withdrawn horse!! You get your ticket scanned and the happy smiling face that took your money hours before is now fit to bursting with laughter, “Sorry there’s nothing on that!” Funny how you know all your protestations only make you look stupider by the minute but you still do!! I have used a bit of poetic license in that by the way. They never laugh or smile in Ladbrokes!!

So single guy lives in a flat and historically has become the only one that bothers with the rubbish, wheelie bin emptying schedule etc. My council in its infinite wisdom has decided that every other week all 3 types of bin are collected on the same day, by three separate trucks!!  No bother I put them all out and bring them all back so efficiently that my neighbours don’t even realize that it isn’t the rubbish fairy does it! (I don’t actually believe in the rubbish fairy myself – obviously no fairies are rubbish!!!)   To make it more exciting for myself, on past performance I will predict to myself  what times the trucks will appear and empty the bins!! Sad yes but it’s only a bit of fun – or is it? The 1^st two sets of bins will be collected within the hours of 9 and 10 the other set will be between 11 and 11.30, that was my prediction for Monday!!

Here are the times – without a word of a lie – that the three separate trucks arrived, 8.50; 10.05 & 11.35.

Yes I know that makes me a rubbish tipster and a god awful comedian!! I just came up with that last line now – clever? Bet it’s not!!

The moral to this story is obviously to get me to place a bet for you on the exact opposite of what you want the outcome to be and you will probably win!

Some of you may know I do mystery shopping, which is usually mystery dining, yesterday though I got to an assignment, yes that is what they are called, and realized that I couldn’t complete it because of my T shirt!!

A staff member used to work as a bar person for this pub restaurant chain, a long time ago but I do tell a slight whiteish lie about whether anybody in my immediate family does or has worked for them! I do also make a specific point not ever to choose all the local ones, where they worked or where any of the staff that I know may be. So I was already out and about and I got a phone call, “Instead of that so and so, could you do that so and so.” No problem – more or less the same location but more money – win win you would think? Lovely day weather wise and I was only wearing a T shirt – oh by that I mean, no coat or jumper!! Got all the way to the site, walked in and quickly walked right out again!! During the staff member’s time with the company he would occasionally get T shirts to wear and those would occasionally end up in my wardrobe because I always wear T shirts I guess! So yesterday’s T shirt chosen completely at random was for the companies annual beer festival of a few years ago, that was incidentally only available to staff!!

Epic fail!!  

A hurried phone call and a lie about public transport, sorry Arriva I blamed one of your buses, and it was rearranged for tomorrow unfortunately I can only claim the transport cost back once but that will teach me to wear company specific T shirts won’t it?!!

“A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.”

Happy Independence Day

Also posted >>> HERE <<<<

WILKO'S WEEKLY WAFFLE!!

Well then Facebook tell me it’s my son’s birthday, so of course because everything on Facebook is true then it must be! Really all a bit silly isn’t it? After all again according to Facebook the relationship between us is father and son, so if they were that clever they would know that I know his birthday!!

What of course is neglected is that he is my younger son and if I were to write on his wall using their own reminder it would say just how old he is as well!! So does the fact my younger son is 29 make me feel older than in two weeks time when I am reminded, again by the book of Face, that my other son is 33? I think it’s today I feel older, just sayin’!

Do you like pure trivia? Does it ever cross your mind that it may have just been made up?

Guitarist and vocalist of Pink Floyd, David Gilmour borrowed his first guitar from his neighbour and has never returned it! Who is to say how true that statement is? I have to say though, that particular one - does amuse me slightly though whether it is true or not!!

Ordering a take away coffee from Costa the other day and the barista struggled for ages with the pathetic little plastic lid, so I said, thinking I was being helpful, “It’s alright I don’t need that!” Well you’d think I had insulted his mother….. “NO, you have to have it on!” Another maybe 30 seconds and he succeeded – thankfully as I was losing the will to live! Anyone who knows me knows I hate those tops and as soon as it is possible I take the lid off. So do you think I was very good leaving the top on until I was out of the shop? I do!!

There is strangely enough a very similar tale to be recounted from this week’s events. I bought, ironically, a Costa cup of coffee from a machine in a Spar shop and took it to the counter to pay for it. “Sorry I can’t sell that to you until it has a lid on!” Sh*t I’ve just met your son he works for Costa!!

Happy Canada Day!!

​

Ludovico Einaudi - "Divenire" - Live @ Royal Albert Hall London

Irrespective of the genre of music there is something magical about the writer of a piece performing their work with passion in front of a live audience!

I fear if you don't get goose bumps by the end of this you may already be dead!!

Happy Saturday!!

Weekly Waffle

Well I don’t usually use any social media to name and shame, so this is the closest you get from me!! It is addressed to a person by title and not name but he does know who he is and he does read this….

Father I do not appreciate religion /reconversion/ conversion or whatever through the back door! 

Did you really think I was going to attend mass and then talk to you about the photos? I obviously thought that the service was 10 o clock and that I was meeting with you after. Arranging to meet at 10.45 was a bit naughty, wasn’t it? After all you do know what time your Sunday service is don’t you? Whereas I don’t! 

I’ve taken your pics as discussed but I won’t be handing over the sd card at the confessional box or anything like that!! 

Maybe the pachyderm bean place instead!! (Do you like what I did there? Not wanting to blatantly advertise Elephant Coffee!)

The more I see of football the more I dislike it – true story!! 

Well England did well in the World Cup didn’t they? So did Spain and Italy – that’ll be a strange flight back home with those teams on board won’t it? Good luck to the eventual South American winners and the South American runners up. I doubt I will be making further comment on the World Cup unless Greece or the USA where to end up in the final!!

It’s no secret I am not a great lover of mint! Not a problem except when people are away and in true British tradition want to bring me home a stick of rock, the common default is mint. Well done though to the newest member of the Wilko News team who for the second time found the most amazing ‘holiday rock’ for me. Yes and only me, because most people may think they like it but I bet they don’t…. RED HOT CHILLI ROCK …… What a positively amazing creation!!

 “Dare you lick it!!!” 

That’s what it says on the stick sticker!! Accompanied with handmade farmhouse chocolate no less. Oh I don’t mind being easy to buy for or predictable!! Look at all the things I get bought for me!!

So Wimbledon, something else I don’t really do, until the finals that is. 

Started on Monday, yesterday, Tuesday the first rain in a fortnight – in this tiny piece of ‘God’s own’ at least. 

How does that happen? 

While we are on the subject, how does whoever is in charge of global strawberries bring them all to market at the same time every year – just in time for Wimbledon. 

Just two more words about Wimbledon…....................… Sue Barker!! 

JUNE 21

Wilko's Weekly Waffle.

Busy busy week. Family wedding, people travelling from Manchester, London and Croatia as well as all four corners of The Wirral, not without its problems and some logistical problems one way or another but an amazing day overall. In true Wilko News fashion this may be the first, last and only time that we use your name Sandra as we all in one voice welcome you to the Wilko News team!!

I will never forget the efforts you went to in remembering the Wilko matriarch, Grambo, Mum. The beautiful touches on the day with the picture and candle and the tribute that not one man in the room could read, dry eyed. The remembrance at the Red Rocks on the day after. 

She would have loved you and considering you never met makes all your efforts all the more remarkable. 

Well done the new Mrs Wilkinson. 

Thank you the new S Wilkinson.

So the Wilko cattery is open as Annabelle is in residence while honeymoon and family holiday is incorporated in to one major event in Abergele. Boy has that cat grown up!! Not physically – she still looks the same size, small, neat and compact but this is now the mature, bird chasing, outdoor cat and all in all a totally different beast altogether!! Nice new bed that can be separated which is fine she uses that during the day, she still sleeps on my face of a night!! Nothing new there then!! I would let her out but if she gets excited with all the birds outside and there is a lot, she is a lot higher than where is usual and I don’t know but do cats suffer from a fear of heights?

This World Cup is really taking off. Some brilliant games and exciting end to end football with lots of goals!! I have to say I do not see any European, African or Asian team even scraping the surface against the power of Central and South America. I don’t just mean the ‘homies’ of Brazil I’m looking at Chile, Columbia, Argentina and Mexico. I won’t mention Uruguay or Costa Rica at all for obvious reasons but next week’s waffle may include something that may mention one or both of those sides!! Not to mention the fact that really we haven’t seen the best of Brazil…… yet!!

JUNE 15th

John Legend - All of Me For Tim and Sandra

And officially welcome to the Wilko News staff Sandra Wilkinson. Another S Wilkinson and striding in to the future as the new Mrs Wilkinson.

Wilko's Weekly Waffle!

So where do you draw the line between minding your own business, helping people and interfering? Tough one isn’t it? So I says to this couple on bikes, riding towards a seriously muddy part of a marsh path, “You’ll be lucky if you make it down there any further, it’s really muddy.” I know it’s not my business but I was just being friendly. If looks could kill then I wouldn’t be here relating this! “Oh no we’ll be ok!” The look added, unspoken, how do you know you cretin with a camera you haven’t got a bike, what would you know? It was less than ten minutes when they passed me, this time going the same way as me, avoiding my glance, they didn’t see me laugh out loud as I saw the black wet mud on their bikes and posh little cycle shoes!! I thought about telling them the shortcut or the way to go to avoid the mud, I thought about it but not for long!! I even thought about wishing them a nice day but that would have been interfering wouldn’t it?

I occasionally get my bus ticket on my phone, yes it is an unsmart phone I have told you before, yes it is small, but I can get my ticket on it so it’s not that bad, hey? Getting on the bus the driver was squinting at the screen and after a fairly long squint he said, “You need to get a bigger phone.” Well however true it might be I can’t say I’m that confident about a driver who can’t see the screen of a phone in charge of driving ten ton of metal and 60 passengers down the country lanes!!

Did you know that the first guide dogs for the blind were all German Shepherds? So then who decided that Labradors could see better?

I make no secret about disliking intensely The Metro, the global free newspaper, but I do stick with my principles and refuse it if is ever offered and never voluntarily pick it up on a train or bus. Loudly criticizing every article on every page and calling the paper for everything is the most annoying thing, ever. Why should I have to put up with it? Oh yes I know why! Other people haven’t got any principles!!

"Don't quote me......"

"Nature's music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions."

~ Mary Webb

"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."

~ Rene Descartes

"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter"

~ Marlene Dietrich

"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance."

~ George Bernard Shaw 

The return of Wilko's Weekly Waffle on this World Wide Webby thing!

So welcome back to the weekly waffle and for me welcome back to life as I have got to know it!!
A family staff member said that it must have been like losing an arm. For me not to have a working lap top that is! 
I corrected him and said that it was more like losing both hands! 
Internet access can be quite easily sorted with friends, unsmart phones and yes the library, but the problems occur when I look to the internet alternatives. What do I do to take a break from the World Wide Webby thing? Most of you know I edit pics and look at them. In 5 days without a lap top I had taken 800 photos!! For some people that's as many as they might take in a year but a fairly average weekend for me. 
History group walk in Royden Park and a visiting cruise liner in Liverpool added to the usual lens exploring and photographing of the unusual and of course not forgetting the Facebook fun bench group!! 
Non of these pics don't pass the quality threshold until I have seen them on my lap top! I saw them on my camera but they still need turning and filing and all those mundane things that happen automatically and without any thought when viewing on my lap top!!
But we are slowly getting back to normal, big lie, as far as May was concerned we are just about sorted!! But 4th June already and nothing for June has been seen yet!! 
Thank you to those concerned in getting the charger sorted for me, which wasn't without its own problems due to the Canadian origins of my lap top!!

The temptation of course would be to go completely over the top and write absolutely loads to make up for lost time. Uh can you ever imagine me doing that..... ha ha!! But I really am not going to.... 

I do just want to mention for the first time - the football world cup! Or rather the time when we English pretend to be patriotic and seemingly adopt our other national sport of drinking and frankly get it all wrong!! In the ideal world we would see only George Crosses in support of England, with the greatest of respect to our neighbours and friends in the union which is the United Kingdom, you are not in the world cup - England are! 
I knew the world cup was upon us because all the drink adverts went from subtle to full on over night. 
Is it a football tournament or a drinking competition? 
But unfortunately like the flags, again we get it wrong!! Shouldn't we really drink English drinks? Or at least drinks from countries that are not in the world cup? 
I love watching the international games and in my own little way enjoy the world cup, but I really do cringe when I see loud mouthed English fans, draped in Union flags buying barrels upon barrels of American beer in German owned supermarkets. Example only ....... Probably!!

Bench Related Business, for the select few!!

or Bench Song

or definition >>>HERE<<<

Have a go at this....

90% of native English speakers can not pronounce this poem properly.
YOU TRY > Click along this line.

Weekly Waffle Time

Hey absolutely wonderful seeing, up close and personal as it were, MSC Magnifica making her Liverpool debut on Sunday for a number of reasons!! 

Most importantly to me just how photogenic she is! I would agree that she hasn’t the lines of the older more traditional cruise liners and is a little more than a large misshapen box/hotel that floats but in her own way she presents herself splendidly.

Secondly less than two years ago MSC, Mediterranean Shipping Company were quoted as saying that “We do not see any cruising in the Irish Sea in the future for this company.” The fact that one of their ships was in Liverpool at all is a measure of Liverpool’s growth as both a destination in its own right and a credible cruise destination, but it also shows that MSC are adaptable and are prepared to admit their mistakes. Politicians, take note!!

The hugeness of the ship herself is well documented and to be honest to most of us, myself included, facts like 93,000 gross tons and 13 passenger decks, crew of 1,027 all go over heads very easily. All I can possibly add to that is that MSC Magnifica was magnificent and really too big in Liverpool right alongside her!! From the Wirral later and watching her leave, did do her far more justice, made her more credible, or should I say incredible!!

(MSCMagnifica Wiki)

From my chosen spot close to Seacombe Ferry you could see that she was twice as long as Liverpool’s tallest building is tall!! True story!! (West Tower 459’ tall/MSC Magnifica 964’ long) You might well say, “WOW!”

With a bit of luck, not to mention good management by clicking somewhere round >>here<< there should be a mini album of a maxi size ship!!   

What do the following all have in common : The Amazing Race, America’s Next Top model, Masterchef and Ice Road Truckers?

There’s no reason at all to know that all these competitive TV shows all ended within the last week, but for me a fan of them all they leave a big void. 

I have spoken before of my weekly struggles of getting The Amazing Race each week but that doesn’t mean I am not sorry that its over. Dave and Connor received their $1,000,000 in Las Vegas after probably one of the best series ever. First father and son team and Dave the oldest person at 58 ever to win. 22 cities, 9 countries and over 23,000 miles, that’s probably why they call it The “AMAZING” Race!!

Masterchef’s finale was brilliant and Ping, lovely little Malaysian girl was a worthy winner. Single guy on my own watching it with almost bare cupboards though is not ideal…… Simon is preparing rare baked twice beans on still smouldering debris of toast, followed by special yellow stickered rhubarb yoghurt!!!

Ice Road Truckers is so underated but hey when it returns, give it a watch! But beware it is addictive!!

America’s next top model is so cheesy as to be watchable! The judges are all so high in their field that I have never heard of them but the contestants are so unbelievably bitchy that any red blooded male could not fail to be just a tad interested!!

That’s a lot of TV space to fill!! Oh what to do?!!  

The Facebook Skit - Penn Masala

A Birthday, of sorts!!

Eight years ago today, May 16^th 2006, I started blogging!!

It was the launch of Wilko News and I have been blogging regularly ever since. Blogs have come and gone and at one time I had four blogs and, would you believe, a secret one all at the same time.

Here is my very first post

                     >>> Click Here <<<

Feel free to browse around it, but please note that some pictures are no longer available because I no longer use Photobucket.

As I’m sure you know I now have three different blogs. Obviously this one and the other two are both photoblogs. Should you wish to look at any of them you can click the links page at the top of this page.

HAPPY BLOGGY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Weekly Waffle!

I don’t do lists – well I do really but they are just for me abbreviated beyond oblivion. Today’s would have looked pretty strange if I had done one. 

01 x22 spirit locol cen per bag gel ut 4 mohi rahrere bh spirit 472 aldi.

At least no one else can understand it – trouble is neither can I!!

I’m sure it’s no accident that my coffee machine takes the same length of time to brew the perfect brew as my lap top takes to load up. All of a sudden that doesn’t seem right at all!!

My new battery for my camera wasn’t totally needed but it does at least expand the time I can be out taking pictures! I can hear staff members’ saying OMG in unison!! Oh yes and fully charged maybe it is more obvious that I needed it, loads more minutes!! There is however a problem. My old ones used to run down in almost real time so it was always quite easy to see how long left you had. The new one goes for ages without counting down at all and then goes in huge chunks so you have no idea when to be ready to change! I’ve added to that problem by still using the old ones alongside the new one!! Oh of course – you’re there already aren’t you? 

I have no idea which ones are which once they are in – so is it the one that runs down in huge chunks or the one in real time? I am clueless!!

Memo to self – Obviously it is best not to forget your second SD card for your camera but if you are going to forget it make sure it’s the 2GB card because that means the 4GB is in the camera!! Found that out the hard way the other day!!

As it seems that this week’s waffle has been brought to you by the letter ‘C’ I leave you with a quote, “A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” I rest my case!

Amazing Race (what again?) in the UK >>>CLICK<<<

Be aware - be tolerant!

Yesterday was (click>>>>> Fibromyalgia <) Awareness Day and I was too tied up in my own life to remember, I posted last year and I knew about the day - but I forgot. I forgot because unlike other illnesses the brave sufferers of this horrible horrible ailment suffer all the time, yes all the time without protest. All I want my friends to do today both here and on Facebook is to just check that they know what this is all about...... that's it! 

The Amazing Race Season 24 Episode 11 "Hei Ho Heidi Ho"

Watch this quick before CBS remove it - no seriously!! 
This is the penultimate leg of Season 24 of The Amazing Race, which some of you may know I am a huge fan of.
US friends this was last nights episode (11th May) 
Four teams left starting out from Seville in Spain - destination LIVERPOOL!! By train, plane and car!!
Just give it a watch - it's brilliant!! If you are not from North America don't get addicted, it will seriously drive you bonkers trying to get it on you tube! You may only have a couple of days before this version is removed from you tube. 
You don't need to know about it being for a $1 million or anything about the teams - just enjoy!!

May 11 - Mom's Day as opposed to Mum's Day!!

>>>>CLICK<<<<

Wilko’s Weekly Waffle on this Wonderful World Wide Webby thing!

So the staff members that do the music as a duo are now in Croatia and whether I get to see them when they are there or not is really beside the point, I have already done all the planning that is required! 

Google maps and Google Earth is a start, that makes me feel close – so when I speak to them I can say, for example, “Is that a huge football pitch next to the hotel?” Oh it is by the way but not as big as it looks on Google Maps apparently. 

That just proves of course that I am not the only Wilko News staff member that does his research!! 

As they work for Thomson then the next part includes the hard copy brochure for the hotel they are working at and at other hotels used by them in the area, in that and online. 

A good accommodation site follows, prices for rooms and hotels in the surrounding area, transfers etc. Trip Advisor is good at this point so that I can get a feel for the profile of tourists in the area and finally flights and alternative travel options. 

Ferry from Venice – looks good – really!! 

Establish communication, Facebook chat to begin with, phone calls, all takes a good deal of time to sort out. The fact that due to Croatian red tape (and possibly mis-management?) they haven’t sung or played a musical note in anger yet and so they are technically on holiday and not working at all, shouldn’t enter in to it at this stage.

Oh yes my point… all that takes time as I said, what only takes a few seconds is every other ‘news’ feed on the side bar of my Google Mail, every pop up, every header on almost every web site to mention the words Pula, Croatia, Thomson and not forgetting….. Book Book Book!!! Oh I so love tracking cookies……NOT!!

No seriously the internet is wonderful isn’t it? 

How easy it is to get to rely upon every last ‘W’ of Wilko’s Weekly Waffle on this Wonderful World Wide Webby thing!

I mean where else would you get to know that of the 12 dogs on board the Titanic only 3 survived!

Finally in television news…. Jack is Back or rather 24 starts its new series, or Jack Bauer ‘Live(s) Another Day’. If this is series 8, I need that confirming, but, if it is then he is starting the week again. Tell I’m not a huge fan can’t you?

And apart from the first 3 letters, unusual in itself, do you know the connection between Holby City and Hollyoaks? I feel like Six Degrees of Seperation or Kevin Bacon in that EE commercial. Elliot Hope is the connection, the name of a character in Holby City and the name of one the writers for Hollyoaks!

Who knew?!! Well you do now and me!!

MyPicture of the Week on Pixel Rainbow can be found by clicking anywhere on thisparagraph.

It is easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is from the top.

Arnold Bennett

Wilko's Weekly Waffle .................

Well that’s a third of the year gone! But gone where? Is it just me or did the last four months really go wherever at the same rate as previous third of years? Definitely only seems like weeks ago we were seeing in the new year.

Certain Wilko News staff members are back, fleetingly, in the UK as they brush off the Madeiran sand and prepare excitedly for the Croatian coast. Obviously good luck to them in the next chapter of their 'rock n roll' adventures. 

There may be a few of you, newer readers that are just a little confused right now! 

Wilko News started as a hard copy monthly ‘family’ newsletter. A somewhat old fashioned way of keeping family members in touch with what was going on with each other!! With the growth of the internet and other forms of communication, the hard copy disappeared and Wilko News was born on Blogger. The style of reporting has always been ‘somewhat secretive’ never referring directly to people with their names, so I was always Wilkoman and became EBEZP on Wilko News. Family were always referred to by nicknames and as ‘staff members’.

Other blogs developed and some disappeared until now we are left with this, that started in 2011 -  Wilko News Two. Now the Weekly Waffle is fairly close to the old format of the original so I still refer to family as staff members!

So don’t forget you can always have a little explore round this blog by the side bar. Over >>>>>> there somewhere or at the bottom of this page by clicking ‘Home’ or ‘Older Posts’ you can go back…… way back!! Also on the side bar you can get to my two photo blogs or even back to Facebook! 

   

So the website that gets some mileage from me this week – there is a pun hidden in there too – is this one, travelmath.com, just click through and you can have fun too!! 

Like for example how many miles is it from ? to ? and how long would it take to fly and why is the mileage different if you go by train….. trust me it is good fun!!

The other one that also had some mileage put on it this week is the ever popular Flight Radar 24 and if you’ve never been on that, click and be amazed. 

Every yellow ‘plane’ you see on a global scale represents an aircraft that is flying! In real time! Stand by to be astounded at how many there are! Choose somewhere near one of the world’s largest airports and see how many you can count!! Yes there are thousands aren’t there?!! Oh and plus there’s the facility to go ‘up with the pilot’, no really!! So next time anyone you know is flying , almost anywhere in the world, this is definitely the site for you.

You may already know I am a huge fan of a programme called ‘The Amazing Race’ but over the last two episodes it has become a real pain in the neck!! Let me explain…. CBS go to great lengths to ensure that people outside of the North American continent can not see it. I won’t bore you with the lengths that people go to so they can get to see it, nor with the detail of how people from the far flung corners of the world upload it to you tube. I know that for the moment I am incredibly grateful to a Russian person, gender unknown, who is now the only one remaining in this series to upload it and not to be forced to change their user name and all the other things to avoid the so called copywrite infringements imposed by CBS. However two weeks now #8 and 9 have been uploaded on to youtube, sideways on! Now this may be fine with certain tablets and the like but on an old lap top with the power cable in almost permanently and nearly always at least one hard drive connected at the side this just leads to getting a pain in the neck!! It’s not that I’m not appreciative or anything though!! 

Hopefully this isn't sideways but it is my Picture of the week on my Pixel Rainbow blog!

Weekly Waffle

The Weekly Waffle from Wilko News will not be published until Thursday but in the mean time you can view for free my Sunday Supplement from one of my photoblogs >>> HERE <<<

See you tomorrow!!

Bad Company

You better like this after all the trouble to find, reasonable quality, live Bad Company with the best ever classic line up, not the track I wanted but please enjoy Shooting Star. I won't make myself feel any older by saying when it was!!!

The Wednesday Waffle!! This week complete with side notes!

Ok – Saint George’s Day, the patron saint of England, scandalous really that more than 60% of English people don’t know when his feast day is. Compared to over 85% who know when and go out and celebrate, St Patrick’s day.

The place in the world where St. Georges Day is celebrated most – Canada. 

For St. Patrick’s Day – yes America! 

Don’t even get me started on the Scots and St. Andrew or the Welsh and St. David!!

Oh don’t mind me it has become an annual rant and it’s more tied in with flags and customs than it is to do with any form of patriotism.

Wilko News staff members, former work colleagues and a former Chief Executive* of my former workplace know better than to start me on flags! Even friends who refer to me as ‘Flagman’ only do it out of politeness so I don’t go on about it!!

(*Little side note #1 - I have no idea why I put Chief Executive with capital letters, he didn't deserve them then and he sure doesn't now!!)

Oh so now you expect me to mention how a ‘Jack’ is only on board a ship, how ‘our’ union flag can be hung up side down and how half mast is not really half mast, well I’m sorry, I am not rising to the bait!!

Happy Saint George’s Day!!!*

Psssst it is today 23^rd April but you knew that didn’t you, after all look out of your window and see all the flags!!! 

(*Little side note #2 I had a sign done for my photo blog >>>HERE<<< hope it turned out ok.)

So did you avoid falling out with your loved one/betrothed/other half over the enforced four day holiday which is called Easter. Well done if you survived because statistically it is the very worst time of the entire year for domestic ‘fall outs’. This is apparently due to the fact that it is the longest time of the year that most families are forced to be together when they don’t choose to be, like for family holidays. Weather’s not that brilliant and a lot of attractions don’t fully open until half the weekend is over and then there’s arguing over the amount of eggs that each other is eating!! 

Checking around and about the Wilko News staff members I think we are all exempt from the fall out zone for various and different reasons, either through shift work or areas of work at Easter – oh and of course I can’t lose can I? Well I don’t have a significant other to fall out with!!!

How lucky am I? *

I can wait for the bus to pass my flat before I leave to go out and get it!! Now though it’s becoming dangerously competitive, albeit with myself! Now I am waiting for it to pass before I even put my shoes and coat on! And listen to this for sheer daring excitement…. Bus passes…. Turn computer off, pack my bag, put shoes and coat on and go to shop to buy some over priced item so I get the correct change for the bus on the way to the stop…… and still catch it with seconds to spare. Living on the edge stuff!! I haven’t missed it yet! Do you think I’d be telling you this if I’d missed it? Ha ha!! 

(*Little side note #3. Have you ever played that word game where the last line of a story or the last word of a sentence  becomes the first word of the next story or sentence? With that in mind re read the bit that starts... Well I don't have....... How lucky am I?) 

April 22nd is Earth Day

​

Happy Easter.

Wilko's Weekly Waffle, just type in WWW......!!!

Have had so much fun with this website this week, Measuring Worth. 

Here’s just a couple of things, postal related.

This week in 1860 the first US Mail was delivered by Pony Express. The riders had to ride between 75 and 100 miles at a time, carrying loads of up to 20 pounds, each day for seven days to get paid at the time $20. Incidentally the horses were changed every 10 to 15 miles but they didn’t get paid at all!!

Meanwhile around about the same time in England a postman was paid 12 shillings a week for walking up to 16 miles a day for seven days.

This website will calculate what those wages are equivalent to now, or any year you choose. Go on yourself it’s amazing, also a bit complicated without the user guide.

I chose 2012, I also chose the income value calculation.

The Pony Express $20 equates to $3560.00 and the Royal Mail 12s 0d equates to £562.20.

One other thing the exchange rate in 1865 was $4.88 to the pound as opposed to now $1.60…….

I’m sure all of my readers can imagine for themselves how much fun you can have, especially if you use that site alongside your favourite history site!

What has happened to the good old fashioned Mother’s Maiden Name security question? Memorable place; First pet’s name; Favourite famous person. These surely don’t seriously have a place in this digital age?

Ok ok yes I know I’m only posting this to cover up my embarrassment at not recalling my most memorable place!! I guess that what comes of having both your mobile phone and savings bank accounts with a high street grocer!!

Here’s a quote that I saw on a bookshop’s bag,

 “Words cannot do justice to the pleasures of a good bookshop.”

I think that is very clever in a subtle sort of way.

So do you have problems sorting out names for your folders of photographs? No, you’re lucky!! It may be because you haven’t got as many folders to name, don’t forget I can take a 1000 pictures of nothing in half an hour! As one or two Wilko News staff members can testify to!!

One of my latest ones… codoal4. So easy hey? No stupidly enough even for me! I have to open it up to see what I’ve put in there. The 4 is April I knew that. Codoal? Cows, Donkeys and Alpacas. 

What!! You didn’t know that!!

So this picture may have the name of HAHE14