Tag: Non Fiction

Is there anything else going on other than COVID 19?

It’s an impossible bot to find the lead running on any news medium being about COVID 19.

Certainly, there’s enough stuff out there, from the outrageously rediculous, to the downright horrifying.

There’s 5G causing coronavirus, though I’m not sure how.  There are the unorthodox cures like injecting disinfectant, and there are lies, like there’s a cure just around the corner, to solemn truths, the number of people dying from a head in the sand attitude in Brazil.

How can people who are elected on the basis that they are supposed to look after their people, make such horrifically wrong decisions?

But enough…

It’s time to look at what’s really going on, and what all this hoo-har about COVID is covering up.

Fortunately, the Washington Post thinks the same as I do.  Oops, that was on the 16th March, obviously, in Washington, nothing else has happened since then other than the coronavirus, which is actually quite sad.

But…

Megan Markle and Prince Harry are always in the news, and I didn’t have to look far to see what the latest is on them, and, sadly, it’s never good.  Oh, and it’s their second wedding anniversary, a surprise, to some, they lasted that long.

We got a recipe that Queen uses for her garden parties, so I don’t have to try and get to one now, I can just make the scones myself.

The sun, yes, that bright yellow thing in the sky that makes us hot or cold depending on the season, is in a lease active phase at the moment, and the last time it happened, we had an ice age.  It’s called a solar minimum.  The last time this happened was between 1650 and 1715, a little ice age.  Our current problems with climate change will prevent that from happening, so perhaps climate change is a force for good???

We’ve found footage from 1935 of the last known Tasmanian Tiger, or Thylacine, which is now thought to be extinct.  Every now and there there’s an alleged sighting, but not none have been scientifically verified.

And, yes, one for the thriller writers, man killed by hitmen in mistaken identity shooting.

There’s a story, right there!

 

 

 

In a word: Top

Spinning like a …  yes, had a few of those dizzy spells, especially after too much to drink.  IT’s where you say, ‘stop the world, I want to get off’.

And, ages ago, I think it was a musical production.

But…

Top, well there’s sides, a bottom, and a top.  Have you been to the top of the world, I think I’ve been to the bottom, and it’s not the poles I’m talking about.

But then the top of something is the highest point, such as a mountain.  For some odd reason, I’ve never had the inclination to climb to the top of a mountain, but I’m guessing the view from the top of Mt Everest would be interesting.

Are you at the top of your game?

We say this when a player, or athlete, is winning or playing at their best.  I just keep hoping this year will be when the Maple Leafs will be playing at the top of their game.

Especially when I personally attend at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

If you read thrillers then you’ll know the assassin is always about to top someone, that is to say, kill them.

Will you top up my drink?  It’s where someone asks you how many glasses of wine you’ve had, and the correct answer is one, it just never got empty!

Can you put the top back on the bottle?

I’m headed straight to the top of the company.  The roof maybe, certainly not as CEO.

Top gear, aside from being a motoring show on TV, it could also be third, fourth, of fifth gear, depending on the type of gearbox.

And, of course, there are about another hundred ways it could be used.

Confusing?  to say the least.

Have you another?  Let me know…

Searching for locations: Murano, Italy

The first time we visited Venice, there was not enough time left to visit the glass-blowing factories on Murano.  We saved this for the next visit, and now more comfortable with taking the Vaporetto, boarded at San Marco for the short journey.

The view looking towards the cemetery:

The view looking down what I think was the equivalent to the main street, or where several of the glass-blowing factories and display shops were located:

Looking towards a workshop, this one costs us each a Euro to go in and observe a demonstration of glass blowing, and it still surprises me that some people would not pay

The oven where the glass is heated

And the finished product, the retail version of the horse that the glassblower created during the demonstration:

Then we bought some other glassware from the retail storefront, a candle holder

and a turtle.

In a word: Dear

Yes, it’s that simple word that we use to call someone affectionately.

Or sometimes, with a little accent on the word; yes, dear and no, dear.

In other words, it’s a person regarded with deep affection.

It can also mean expensive, by saying, that’s a bit dear, isn’t it, when we’re really saying it’s way overpriced.

I can’t remember how many times I’ve said something is ‘too dear’ to the children.

Grannies tend to use the expression, ‘be a dear and…’, to get you do do something for them.

Friends, sometimes tongue in cheek, will say, ‘oh dear, I’ve upset you’, when that was exactly what they meant to do.  Friends you say?  Yes, friends indeed.

And then we always start a letter (always?  Who writes letters any more?) with

Dear John (oops, not one of THOSE letters)

Dear Sir/Madam

Of course, instead of swearing, you could simply say ‘Oh dear, you’ve let us down again!’.

And when you lose your job, which is happening a lot at the moment, it is said it would cost you dear, though sometimes it would be more appropriate to use the adverb, dearly.

It is not to be confused with the word deer which is an animal, the males of which have antlers.

There are a number of different types of deer, such as reindeer and elk.  In Canada, they are called caribou.

In Robin Hood’s day, killing deer brought you very harsh punishment.

And one of my favourite meats is venison, meat from a deer, which are farmed in New Zealand along with sheep.

So far this has been an interesting month

Aside from the fact we seem to be emerging on the other side of the COVID 19 pandemic, we are constantly reminded that this could very well be the calm before the second storm.

Or as one person described it, we’re in the eye of a cyclone, having gone through one destructive phase, and now are awaiting the next.

It seems to have a degree of inevitability about it.  No cure, a virus loves cold weather, and people who forget very easily the things they should be doing, like distancing, and not spreading germs.

And will we learn from our mistakes?

It seems to me not.

I went to a hardware store the other day to get a latch for the gate, and, yes, they have the markings on the floor, directions for foot traffic, signs in the aisles saying there should be a maximum of four, and to stay one and a half meters apart.

Tell that to the couple who continually pushed in at the shelves, completely oblivious of the fact they should be social distancing.  I guess the fact they were wearing masks meant that they didn’t have to abide by the other rules.

Fools like this are why we’re going to finish up being locked back up again, and, worst of all, they’ll be the ones yelling the loudest how unfair it is.

Honestly, unless people can physically see something, it doesn’t exist in their eyes.  You can bet if a mad man with an automatic weapon walked in and started shooting randomly their distancing would be the first thing on their minds.

Sorry, I’m just angry at the many thoughtless morons I see every day.  The trouble is, they were probably thoughtless morons before all this, and this had just brought it to everyone’s attention.

Now that I’ve got off my soapbox, I find it a little more difficult these days, not having my constant companion, sometimes smirking, sometimes talkative, sometimes a right royal pain in the backside, but, nevertheless, always there.

It’s not the same talking to myself.

Now it really does feel like the first sign of madness.

Especially so since we still, as older and more vulnerable people, self isolate as much as possible.

Words, sometimes more destructive than bullets, and one ‘sorry’ could save a lot of heartache and pain

They can destroy relationships

They can tear apart friendships

They can start wars

We are sometimes at a loss for words

Sometimes we can’t find the words

And then there those horrible things called crosswords.

There are antonyms and synonyms

Sometimes we use words we don’t know the meaning of because of their similarity with others we do

Then there one or more words that make other words as in anagrams

There are substitute words, words we use around children like fudge instead of, well you get what I mean

There’s no doubt we would be lost without words

Words are to be chosen carefully and thoughtfully

They need to be delivered in an appropriate manner, not in haste, and not in anger

We need to believe in what we’re saying before others will believe it

We need to learn how to express our feelings

We should take advantage of learning English (or any other native language) when at school

We need to start reading as soon as we can and keep up reading as we get older.  One should never underestimate the power reading and writing gives us no matter who we are.

Always have a dictionary by your side.  It is the most valuable book you can own.

And always remember the power of speech can at times move mountains

Searching for locations: Venice, ships come and go

Through this window, which wasn’t one of those floor to ceiling, walk out onto a balcony type windows, we saw big ships, little ships, small boats, and then huge ocean liners.

And when that wasn’t enough, sunrise and sunset, or just the sight of Venice in the sunshine

The many vaporettos that came and went

It was simply a matter of watching ships go by, or watching the Venetians go about the daily business

Ferries that would arrive in the morning, and leave at night, small

and large

Small ocean liners

Very, very large ocean liners

And everything in between

And, whilst COVID 19 would make it a very difficult decision to take to the sea in one of these large ships, before that time, it was a matter of picking a destination and a day, for ships came and went every day, to Athens, to the Mediterranean, to Turkey, anywhere really.

All you needed was the money and the time.

And, as for plots and writing, it is a writer’s paradise, where you are limited only by your imagination.

Sayings: Flogging a dead horse

This wouldn’t be so apt if it didn’t bring back a raft of bad memories, those days I used to go to the races, and back all of the wrong horses.

I had a knack, you see, of picking horses that fell over, or came dead last.

Perhaps that’s another of those sayings, dead last, with a very obvious meaning.  Dead!  Last!

But…

In the modern vernacular, flogging a dead horse is like spending further time on something in which the outcome is already classed as a complete waste of time.

However…

Back in the old days, the dead horse referred to the first month’s wages when working aboard a ship, usually paid for before you stepped on board the ship.  At the end of the first month, the theoretical dead horse was tossed overboard symbolically, and thereafter you were paid.

It still didn’t make sense to me that someone would tell me I was flogging a dead horse, until I realized, one day, the lesson to be learned was never to get paid in advance.

 

Searching for locations: Lake Louise, Canada

I was not sure what I was expecting to see when we first arrived at the Fairmont Hotel at Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.

I’d seen endless photographs both in Winter and in Summer, and the problem with photos is that they never quite prepare you for reality.

That’s not to say that our first impression was of incredible scenery, it was of the front door if it could be called that, where we pulled up in the car, and then, if the sub-zero temperatures, a mad rush to get the baggage out, and get into the warmth of the foyer, which was almost the size of several football fields, and then some.

Check-in was quick and easy, and then to our room on the first floor.  I had hoped to be higher up but, being a corner room, when we got there, the views could not be more majestic.

I could not believe there were people who were willing to take a sleigh ride in the minus degree temperatures.  Don’t let the sunny aspect fool you, it’s freezing cold, literally, outside.

The lake had frozen over, and a closer look showed there was a skating rink an ice castle, and a hockey rink as well.  People were skating, and walking over the frozen surface of the lake.

No skating, or walking, on thin ice here.

Venturing outside into the cold, you have to be rugged up, and definitely, have both a hat and gloves.  It was minus six degrees.

There’s this amazing hotel, just like you would see in the movies

A frozen lake where you’re half expecting to open up and a huge spaceship, or something else, come out

Mountainsides to climb, but only if you are stark staring mad.  And, of course, if you don’t freeze to death before you get there.

Our room, believe it or not, is on the extreme right-hand side, just above the first roofline.

Tomorrow we will venture further out onto the lake.

Tonight, it’s dinner in the main restaurant.

Sayings: Beyond the pale

I’ve often said, when espying an injustice that was so outrageously displayed that no one could miss it, as being beyond the pale.

The pale within a fence became an area of land within a boundary such as a county, and then to areas within Ireland that were held by the British. As these became smaller, those areas were deemed to be uncivilized.

This, in modern parlance, beyond the pale refers to someone’s behavior being outside the accepted norm.

 

There’s also…

In a word: Pale

Which is the color of the face of a person who is usually desperately unwell?

As distinct from a pale face, a white man is described by the American Indians. This, sadly, was learned from American westerns, motion pictures that told a rather interesting version of events between the Indians and the new settlers.

Paleface was in one movie, in particular, Bob Hope.

A pale can also be a single upright piece of wood in a fence.

Something could pale into significance, or be a pale imitation of a better quality article.

Not to be confused with a pail, which is a bucket, wooden or otherwise, that holds liquids.

The most famous of which is that which Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water, and, well, you know how that ended.