Happy Mum's Day!

Happy Saturday!! O.S.O.

So there's no guarantee here but this could at least put a smile on your face..... May even make your day!! Known as O.S.O. - Bollywood at its best - Enjoy!!

Wilko's Weekly Waffle!!

Here we go again - I’ve decided that it doesn’t really matter which day it is after all, although for figure watchers well Wednesday is better!! 

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

Pet aversion time!! I hate second hand radio. Why is it never a channel I would listen to and why the more I dislike it, the more I can hear it? I hate overhearing personal stereo’s or other people’s headphones. Does that make me sound incredibly old fashioned? Saying ‘personal stereo’s? Many years ago a coach captain, yes not a bus driver, well it was Greyhound in America said, “Personal stereo’s are personal, if I can hear them then they are not personal and if I can hear them you will find yourself waiting at the side of the highway for the next bus.” There was by the way just something in his tone that made you believe him! I hate Muzak, pathetic, middle of the road cover versions used a lot in lifts and department stores etc. But straight in at number one comes somebody else’s choice of “talk” radio. Wow it’s even worse than the music, the beat or the quality. Sorry back to buses….. National Express do it and some smaller bus companies, knowing that they can not win by playing music, mainly because of people like me, now choose to have local radio or Radio 4 subtley playing in the background. Local campaigners and champions alike, arguing the toss over every last little detail, non of which you know anything about! I love ‘my’ music and even love ‘my’ radio, talk or not but it’s all too much of other people’s sh1t!! So I have to listen to my own radio via my phone, but now I have to have it so loud to drown everybody else’s choices that mine is the loudest!! Hell mine is the best so that’s all right!

“I’ve just walked from the Rugby Club, it’s a short cut, really straight forward.”

“Hey that sounds really good, how long did it take you?”

“Oh about two hours.”

“That’s not a short cut then, it only takes 25 minutes from the Three Stags.”

“Yeah that’s about right, it’s about 15 minutes without my camera!!”

Staff members be aware of the way a question is asked!! Obviously the question should have been, “How long would it take you if you weren’t taking thousands of pictures of nothing on the way?”

Don't you just love this quotation, 

“Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them!”

~ A.A. Milne or Winnie The Pooh, you choose!!

So if you haven't been keeping up with our very own, hard working duo it is about time you revisited their website, some updates and new 2014 videos. mattandsarahduo.com allow yourself enough time though, I missed my bus by watching them!!

My picture of the week on my Pixel Rainbow blog can be viewed by clicking >>> HERE <<< and my Yellow Sunday Supplement from Si's Magical Picture Show can be seen again >>> HERE <<<

   

Food labeling or more?

Can't help thinking we have taken food labeling a bit far. 
Is anybody that bothered that the onion is from Essex? Or the carrots from Fife? I'm more concerned that the word England doesn't appear on this label and Scotland does. 
That however makes me cry more than any onion wherever it may be from and is of course a totally different story!!   

Happy Saturday!!

WELCOME TO MARCH 20th.................

Wilko's World on Wednesday.

So statistically more people read my Wednesday piece last week than usually read the Tuesday doodle…. Fascinating crap!! No I have no idea either whether it was because Wednesday’s bit was concise, true, well written and so much more interesting or whether more people discovered it or more people read things on a Wednesday than on a Tuesday!

Anyway thank you, for reading as well but thank you for the statistics at least it filled up the first paragraph on this Wednesday’s Wilko Weirdness!

Liverpool welcomes back the cruise ships for what looks to be the busiest season ever, it’s great to have you visit and spend your money and I for one am as sure as one can ever be that you will enjoy what you find in our wonderful city and make the most amazing  memories here……. Oh and come back soon!! So welcome among others Thomson and MSC as newbies to the ‘Liverpool cruise club.’

Next time you come we will have that magnificent building on the waterfront, one of the ‘Three Graces’, part of the World Heritage Waterfront, the former head office of the one and only Cunard line as the most lavish of cruise terminals. This is fantastic news, the building is spectacular inside and is set to become a huge tourist attraction in its own right. Travel experts agree that the building could do for cruises what Grand Central station in New York city did for train travel.

2015 sees the 175^th Anniversary of the shipping line and it is scheduled to see the three Royal beauties in the port together. Also 2015 will be the first time that cruises to Canada are being offered from Liverpool since the 1970’s.

How wonderfully ironic is it that the founder of Cunard, Samuel Cunard was in fact from Nova Scotia, Canada and the official address of the old headquarters and new cruise terminal will be Canada Boulevard!!

Before I finish two more touches of irony in the fascinating field of travel.

The place to get the cheapest Eurostar train fares to Paris is a website called Cheapflights! But that’s not all the cheapest flights at the moment on the same website, incidentally, London Heathrow to Los Angeles is with, wait for it…… test your geography time….. Air New Zealand! 

A lottery win this week of course would see me on a cruise from Liverpool next year, a Eurostar ticket or two to Paris and beyond and of course a round trip ticket with Air New Zealand to LAX. By the way it may come as no surprise to regular readers that there are two airports on my bucket list! That surely is not normal is it? Hands up anybody else that has airports on their list…… See told you, not normal!!!!

Failing that all important lottery win I’ll be back next week, who knows maybe even Thursday….. Ha ha!! 

Incidentally as you might imagine my Pictures of the Week over >>>Here<<< are not weekly either but don't let it stop you seeing them!!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!

Read all about it!! Tuesday doodle becomes Wilko's World Wednesday!!!

I come from a naval family, not navel that would make me related to a Satsuma. My Mum was in both the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy, my Dad was mainly in the Merchant but also in the Royal and both my Grandads’ had been land based to do with ships and shipping. My Auntie and Uncle, again a seafaring couple. It was easier for me to get away with an odd ‘bloody’ in my very early vocabulary than ever to call anything other than a rowing boat or similar a boat. There were life’boats’, ferry boats, rowing boats, everything else was without question or contradiction a ship! The other thing and Wilko News staff will know what’s coming now….. even a little kayak or a huge ocean liner BEFORE it was a boat or a ship was a ‘she’. There were simply no exceptions to that rule! However hard you might try!! I bring this up for a very specific reason. I came across this and thought I would share it with you all and try to imagine what Mum may have said about it,

  

~ A ship is called a ‘she’ because there is always a great deal of bustle around her. There is usually a gang of men about, she has a waist and stays, it takes a lot of paint to keep her good looking and it’s not the initial expense that breaks you but the upkeep. She can be all decked out and it takes an experienced man to handle her correctly and without a man at the helm she is absolutely uncontrollable. She shows her topsides, hides her bottom and when coming in to port heads for the buoys. She also can become a wreck with a full cargo of gin. ~

Sticking with the sea and ships…….. Last weekend in Liverpool was HMS Dragon one of our navies newest and most sophisticated battle ships ever. Not to mention most technologically advanced and of course expensive! A class 45 destroyer and by all accounts a beast of a ship. She is pictured below. Again Wilko News ‘crew’ may be a bit ahead here, in knowing how Mum would have described the ‘Dragon Lady’!  “Not a warship, never.” “She is so unpretty.” “She is all straight lines.” “Doesn’t have the bit between her teeth.” “No fighting lines.” And finally, though not conclusively, “What’s all that rubbish amid ships?”

You know what – it must be my upbringing or I am getting old – but I couldn’t agree more!!! After 50 pictures taken she probably is a bit ugly! Mum would not have called her ugly though!! She would have just turned her back on her and walked away, head held high!!

Ok so what kind of idiot puts his right glove in his left hand pocket? Yes you are right the six year old at primary school! Oh and of course the 57 year old out with his camera.

Have you noticed if you meet people on a bus whether you know them or not the first five minutes of the conversation is always about the bus!! Trains as well but not so much! “Always late this one.” “Thought it wasn’t coming today.” “Late because of those road works.” “Remember when it used to go to Lower Village?” “Does this one still go to Tesco’s car park?” Obviously if you hadn’t noticed it before you will now!!

There can’t be many places in the world where a bus is diverted in to another country because of road works!! Especially when the start and finish of the journey are in the same English county! Of course though I was too involved with the conversations to notice the ‘Welcome to Wales – Croeso I Cymru” sign!

March 8th International Women's Day

Well it's still Tuesday, so here's part of a doodle!

It’s in the name isn’t it? Mardi Gras is Fat Tuesday in French so my Tuesday doodle was always going to be on Mardi Gras wasn’t it? 

Mardi Gras the World’s biggest parties celebrated in many different parts of the world. Two years ago I was in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and as a tour guide said in ‘that’ amazing Southern drawl about Mardi Gras, 

“We don’t do no second to REEEEEEEO d JANEEEERO!” Ok I haven’t been to RDJ and know only of its reputation for partying but after my wonderful experiences of Mardi Gras I shouldn’t imagine ‘Nawlins’ actually does second to anywhere!! With that been said it is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day again this year, so let me think where do my preferences lie? Mardi Gras in NOLA or Pancake Tuesday in UK? Hard one though!! 

For me Pancake Day is a bit like Valentines or Mother’s Day….. no wait – let me explain. A special day set aside to do or say something that you should do all the time. I love pancakes but only have them, normally, once a year – Pancake Day! Funny how certain foody things fall in to a category like that! I can think of Hot Cross Buns and Christmas pudding and for the most part Turkey!!

I guess the ideal place therefore is to live in America, close enough to really celebrate Mardi Gras and with the help of IHOP, enjoy pancakes every day if you so wish!! That is after all why IHOP exists isn't it? Ha ha!!

Yes you’ve guessed it I would maybe have preferred to be close to New Orleans today for all the obvious reasons!! 

However I did have a lovely lunch with Wilko News staff members including my lovely Granddiddly Doe and was provided with all the necessary to enjoy my pancakes at home – thank you it was wonderful!! Despite doing preprepared pancakes in my microwave for the very first time and despite how good they were I still doubt that I will have pancakes again before next Shrove Tuesday unless it is on a visit, probably, out of the UK.

I hope everyone had a wonderful ‘Fat Tuesday’ though and I’m not complaining because I did!

Nearly over as it is the remainder of this doodle will be later in the week….. 

In the meantime, as posted earlier on the book of Face, I had a day yesterday that felt in some respects that my life was slowly but surely been taken over by animals and the picture story of that is here >>>Animals <<<.  

March 4th 2014 Mardi Gras.