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?!!