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bobmiles1
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Name: Bob
Birthday: 10/22/1929
Gender: Male
Interests: I fenced (sabre) which kept me fit, rallied cars (which kept me poor!), played tennis, cricket, and badminton
I enjoy reading, cooking (and eating what I cook!), watching TV), and crosswords in the Daily Telegfraph.
Expertise: Various -- Try me!
Occupation: Retired journalist
Industry: Press, TV, and Radio.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Bob Miles 2662
Member Since:
10/12/2005
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| A HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a GOOD TWENTY-TEN THE heading says it all, doesn't it? And I am sincere when I say it, or write it, to whoever I am writing or speaking. To those of you who are (more-or-less) in the same time-zone as me, I say: "Have a good day today, on this birthday of Jesus." To those of you who are almost in to Boxing Day, or almost in to the Feast of St Steven, or whatever you call it in your part of the world, I say: "I hope you had a good Christmas Day." And with those of you who have friends or relatives serving in the armed forces, let us say a prayer that they will be safe. Have a happy and prosperous New Year ... an after, as the New Year gets older. GOD BLESS | | |
| AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR, ON THE ELEVENTH DAY, OF THE ELEVENTH MONTH Depends on where you live, tomorrow (Wednesday, November 11) will be Armistice or Remembrance Day. Here in the UK, everything will come to a stop and, in most public places, just for two minutes, there will be silence, as we remember the dead, the injured, and the maimed, of two Great Wars, and many other wars (including the present conflict in Afghanistan. For nine years, I produced the staff magazine of a bus company which operated in a large tract of Southern England. If you look at a map, the area covered went from Southampton (from where the Titanic made its fateful maiden voyage) in the east, along the coast to Weymouth (where the sailing events will take place during 2012 Olympics), north to Bath, east to Swindon and Andover, down to Winchester, and back to Southampton. One Armistice Day, I was on a bus, and we had a small group of teenage schoolboys who were on their way to some sporting event at another school. Just before eleven o' clock, the driver pulled into a lay-by, and stopped the bus. He announced that, if passengers wished to mark the two-minutes silence, he would stay here; his tone of voice suggested that, whatever the passengers thought, HE was staying, anyway! Among the boys was a youngster who was wearing a George Cross on the right breast of his school uniform. It had been awarded, posthumously, to his grandfather for an act of bravery towards the end of World War II -- a grandfather who the boy had never met, and knew only as a figure in family photographs. We had a big parade of Veterans at the Cenotaph in London, on Sunday morning, in the presence of The Queen and members of our Government. As everyone was assembling for it, news came through of the death of the 200th serviceman to be killed in Afghanistan; before the end of the parade came the news of the 201th man to be killed. At 11am tomorrow, let us all remember the words of Lawrence Binyon: They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn; At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We will remember them. | | |
| LOOKING -- AND GOING -- BACK IN TIME ... AND MEMORY MY MEMORY was jogged a couple of weeks ago, when our friend Kyle (Euro Dreams) said he was going to a screening of Judy Garland's Classic film, The Wizard of Oz, which, as part of its 70th anniversary, has been technically brought into the 21st Century. I remember when it came round for the first time. I was nine or ten years old (depending if it came out before October 22nd, or after), in 1939. From what Kyle said, I had much more enjoyment from it than him -- we had no "technical faults" at our screenings!!! I have seen repeats of it on TV over the years, and I always get a prickly feeling at the back of my neck as soon as that immortal number, Somewhere, over the rainbow, comes up. From the same era, of course, came those other two other great Walt Disney films, Fantasia, and Bambi. The former confirmed just how good Classical musical is; as for the other ... well, it is only a bloody film, and it never put me off eating venison! Another jogging of the memory came last Thursday. A friend invited took out for a trip around the New Forest, which is about a fifteen minute drive from it's edge from where I live in the ancient Borough of Christchurch. The word, Forest, conjours-up various words in the mind ... great expanses of trees, no sunlight, rainy, hot. There are large expanses of trees in the New Forest; and there are large expanses of just heathland, too. But it has always been a managed area, ever since William the Conqueror ordered trees to be planted here where deer could be bred -- and hunted -- just two years after he and his army of Normans invaded us in 1066. A great hunter, was our King Billy! Now, there not only deer herds roaming the area, but horses, ponies, (New Forest ponies are ideal for kids to ride), cattle are there. And, at this time of the year, pigs are let-out just to gobble-up all the fallen acorns from the many oak trees. Acorns are poisionous to cattle, but pigs love them! From time to time, acres of trees are harvested (many great oaks from the New Forest provided timber from which many of the ships in the British fleet at the time of the Spanish Armada). The land lays fallow for many years, then saplings are put-in to grow, to supply more timber for use in a couple of hundred years or so. Anyway, I ramble on (well, I'm old, and that's what old guys do!!!) so back to last week: We had lunch in a village pub, the Sir John Barleycorn. It hasn't changed much over the years i have known it. But the last time I was there was during the summer of 1959, when I took my parents (and my labrador bitch!) for a drive through the Forest. To show what a part of the New Forest looks like, I took pictures with my mobile phone. I will TRY to put them on here. If I can't manage this, I will e-mail them to Kevin (Beachboy) and ask hinm to post them on his site. | | |
| NOUNS, ADJECTIVES,VERBS AND ADVERBS? Do these things knock you out when you are studying English grammar? Do you sometimes feel you don't know your arse from your elbow? Well, these things need not trouble you from now on, as here is an old Victorian rhyme which will help. Read it, digest it -- and tell your younger brothers and sisters about it so they will be able to understand things.
A noun is the name of anything:
A hoop or garden, school or swing.
An adjective describes the noun:
Small shoes, bright eyes, new gloves, green gown.
A verb tells us what people do:
They dance, she walks, he laughed, it flew.
An adverb tells us how things are done:
We quietly talk, they quickly run.
An interjection shows surprise!
As, Oh! how pretty, Ah! how wise.
And if you are wondering about that side-head at the top of this piece, wonder no longer. The word grandma is a play on the word grammar. It is known as a PUN. I like punning around, don't you?
And there are such things as full-points, and commas, and colons ... and where the hell do we put them? Here's a tip: when you read the piece after you have written it, find where you have to breath; and that's the place you need put a comma.
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| A HAPPY CHRISTMAS -- AND A VERY GOOD NEW YEAR Well, here we are again! The Festive Season is upon us, time has flown, much water has gone under many bridges (including the one next to the place where Simon and Garfunkel stayed when their hit song was written), illnesses have come and -- thankfully -- gone, holidays, too. In fact, the latter are now mere good memories. And we now look-forward to better weather (having passed the shortest day last weekend). Well,we can HOPE, can't we? !!! We are having a short spell of mild stuff at the moment, but another cold snap is supposed to be coming along in time for the weekend. I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday. If I find I missed something, then fuck it, I'll have to do without! I won't starve, I promise you! In fact, on Monday I had to have a cab home, I had that much stuff from the butcher's shop -- venison, duck (destined for tomorrow's lunch), rabbit, pheasant ... and a whole lot more! Is anyone thinking-up some original New Year Resolutions for next week? You know, those things you get all pious about and which work for about a week, then gradually stop happening? I know I will keep my Resolutions this year -- last year I vowed I would not make any. I haven't, so I won't break it!!! I know things have been tough, in various ways, for some of you, this last year. I sincerely hope matters will get better this coming year. As usual, if any of you want to talk privately, my e-mail is: miles2662@btinternet.com PEACE BE WITH YOU. AND MAY THE BLESSING OF GOD, THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT, BE WITH US, AND WITH THOSE WE LOVE NOW, AND ALWAYS. | | |
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