Sites for Sore Eyes

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http://jimmyunique.wordpress.com

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http://pythouse.wordpress.com

http://dintoncc.wordpress.com

http://dintonwiltshire.wordpress.com

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http://tisburywiltshire.wordpress.com

http://shaftesburydorset.wordpress.com

TODAY’S ECO GREEN NONSENSE THING

A few days ago, at my local supermarket checkout, the young cheerful, but clearly full of it, cashier, suggested that next time I shopped, I should perhaps bring my own bags because plastic ones weren’t good for the environment.

OK, she was quite right, although I did not need a lecture from a pimply youth, on the only day I had genuinely forgotten my own carriers.

Unruffled, I quietly replied, “We didn’t have this eco green nonsense thing back in my earlier days.”

The cashier rather foolishly and a little unpleasantly grumbled back to me, “That’s the problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save the environment for us future generations.”

I just could not let this go and since I was the last customer before she closed her till for a break, I dug in and retorted,

“My generation returned milk bottles, soft drink bottles and beer bottles to the shop which sent them back to the bottling plants to be washed and sterilized and refilled, time and time again. Bottles were recycled as bottles, not as broken, remoulded, energy consuming glass waste.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying new ones every time the ink ran out.

We replaced blades into a razor instead of buying a new disposable one just because the old one became blunt.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have escalators in every shop and office building.

We walked or cycled to nearby shops and didn’t climb into a vehicle every time we had to go a few hundred yards.

We washed & re-used towelling baby nappies instead of chucking them away after one use.

We used sun and wind to dry clothes instead power hungry electric driers.

We had hand me down clothes instead of ‘latest craze’ trendy brand new brands.

We had one TV, and radio, or maybe even a record player, in the house – That is, a TV  with a screen the size of a handkerchief, and not one in every room with screens the size of a jumbo jet.

We blended and stirred by hand in the kitchen because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.

We wadded up old newspapers to cushion fragile items to post instead of mass produced foam or plastic bubble wrap.

We exercised and kept fit by working or walking & didn’t need to go to a health club to run on electrically driven treadmills.

We drank, when thirsty, water from a tap instead of demanding it in a plastic bottle often flown in from a far off country.

We bought local seasonal unwrapped food which we would pick out and then put in our own carrier bag, instead of pre-packed produce which could have thousands of air miles under its belt before it reached our stomachs.

We would choose one or two nuts or bolts or screws from an ironmonger instead of having to buy hundreds at a time all encased in tough over-engineered plastic packs, often a nightmare to break into.

We actually washed, prepared and cut vegetables and salads ourselves, instead of others doing it and shoving the finished items into yet more plastic packaging.

We created and cooked meals which did not just come from packets, jars, sachets or tins.

We walked or caught a bus to school instead of being cosseted in massive fuel guzzling 4X4s to make often the shortest of trips two or four times a day.

We did not expect our parents to be a 24 hour taxi service and we would cycle to get places.

We would take a bus, tram or train to cover longer journeys because back then cars were a luxury.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets capable of powering dozens of appliances.

We did not need a computer or phone picking up signals beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space, just to order a take away, chat to a friend or receive and transmit total trivia.

We made do with a single local telephone in a friendly welcoming red box, which was a novel centre piece and attraction to the entire community. Pressing button A & B brings back memories.

We had non prairie-sized tractors and juggernaut lorries – Just ones which actually fitted all our roads. Look at the monsters today, so recklessly churning up hedgerows & banks, uncontrollably felling walls & gates, ripping off wing mirrors, roofs, cables and any other hanging mobile or static extremities, terrifyingly pulping kerbs & pavements and cold-bloodedly turning expensive tarmac into useless money absorbing, crater-filled, water-logged paths to hell.

“There you go”, I rounded off, mouth dried by verbosity, “How dare you and your generation whinge on about us older ones being so wasteful and messing things up for you all – Just because we did not have today’s pathetic Eco Green Nonsense Thing back then.”

She went for her lunch, without a word!

Kindly contributed by Emily Wilkins

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Glad To Be Mad

Glad To Be Mad At Glad Rags

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 I first met Pam Goodall and Jan Klakus when I was begging for Fancy Dress costumes and Wigs needed to help raise money at a charity event. They were so helpful, kind and generous and I became enchanted with their delightful shop and madly fun-filled way of dealing with customers – The place can literally rock with laughter! They were clearly very talented ladies and Jan’s mum even lends a hand on the sewing machine when needed.

Before they joined forces and opened Glad Rags, Pam had a 12 year stint at Shaftesbury Art Centre as wardrobe mistress, and, for years, Jan had been exhibiting her quilted cushions and needle-work at local agriculture and craft shows. They actually met one day, when Jan was adding her skills to the costumes at The Art Centre and have been friends ever since. One day they both saw an advertisement for a Fancy Dress Hire Shop for sale and after pooling resources it was theirs within a week. Glad Rags was born!

Since that day they have worked non-stop to increase the stock of costumes for hire as well as the range of accessories for sale – Wigs, make-up, beards, moustaches, the list is nearly endless! They really do have over 2,000 costumes available so whether you need period dress, uniforms or even animal outfits, if they do not have what you want, they will make it as soon as they can. Everything will fit so well because individual alterations are carried out on the premises.

Glad Rags will look after you like no other, so let them add some joy, wonder, and zip to your party – They will turn your Theatrical Event, School Play, Valentine’s Ball, Amateur Night, Murder Mystery Drama, Pantomime or even Themed Wedding into a very, very special occasion!

Treat yourself & pay them a visit – Glad Rags – Shunters Yard –Station Road– Semley – Just outside Shaftesbury on the A350 towards Warminster.

OPEN – 10am to 4pm – Tuesday to Saturday

TEL – 01747 850101

EMAIL – gladrags@email.com

GOOGLE SEARCH – TisBiz – Click – Fancy Dress/Costume Hire PAGE

VIDEO WATCH - YouTube Search – Acedrummond1 or Click Links Below

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNnMjn26

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVqjwn1CInc

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O.M.G. Shoutyman

OMG – Oh My God, why do so many people use Text Speak? What is wrong with them? Is the English language not good enough as it stands, or are they so badly educated that life only works in abbreviations? It’s not only those wandering the streets but even celebrities and television presenters are doing it. What is the point! It’s difficult enough to easily understand anybody who lives above Gloucester or past Bath or Swindon, let alone if they cannot use complete words inserted into full length sentences. Continually pressing buttons to instantly pass on your own trivia to others, who probably have as little going on in their lives as yourself, is such a waste of time and energy. Go and see them face to face and have a real-life chat. Communicate and enjoy their company instead of button pressing. If too far away, write a letter using your own handwriting. That is if you still know how to write!

Facebook & Twitter – Like texting (this is a ‘new’ word, meaning text messaging), their obsessive use is totally ridiculous. OK they do have their uses, if limited and within reason, but what on earth makes some of you pass on your life’s story or even your breath by breath account in real time, of what you are eating for breakfast or when your dog is scratching its belly or why you’ve just farted, to family, friends, hangers-on and in fact to any other computer or phone user in the world? It is so self-defacing. Nobody with an ounce of intelligence wants a Tweet from Stephen Fry to learn, in real time, what he is doing in a flippin’ lift and who really needs to know what colour pyjamas Jonathan Ross is wearing today or which underpants Alan Carr goes shopping for?

Putting everything you might think important on Facebook could have dreadful repercussions and consequences! Look at those recentLondonrioting lowlife who actually put photos of themselves with their stolen booty onto Facebook for all, including the police, to see. Clearly when grey matter was handed out they missed their place in the queue. Also if you tell all and sundry your day to day living experiences, whether mundane, sad, naughty, promiscuous, or even, though unlikely, complex, remember, you might be happy for everybody to know about them for a while, but what if later, when maybe that special person suddenly turns up in your life, he or she can find, at a push of a button, all your dirty washing hanging out.to dry.

Sometimes our well known and respected English reserve is well worth adopting on a much wider scale – The Internet!

 For 1 week try not texting or using your mobile phone. I wonder how long you will last being instantly incommunicado?

Shoutyman

European Union – Why on earth are we in it with such dubious main players?

Germany– Lederhosen clad, power crazy, beer swilling, sausage munching, dominatrix control freak not resting until it pulls the strings of every European country, no matter what the cost.

France– Xenophobic, wishy-washy, farmer indulging, food and wine snob who uncontrollably sleeps with more than one mistress.

Spain – E.U. money grabbing lazy dolt who sleeps half the day, lays in the sun the rest, eats dinner at ridiculous times and  puts everything off until mañana, which by the way does not mean tomorrow, but not today, and maybe never.

Italy – When not partying, drinking coffee or shopping for stylish clothes, is screwing, non-stop, the rest of its E.U. partners and giving them countless STDs.

Belgium – Pointless waste of space, kept quiet by being allowed to house the E.U. Head Quarters and patted on the head if it behaves.

Portugal – Insatiable money pit running its hand to mouth economy like an over indulged port drinker.

Greece – Corrupt & dishonest, street-wise but manipulative & money-grabbing, kebab selling olive pressing sneak, handing out ‘jobs for the boys’, or, at a whim, the army.

Ireland – Potato filled village idiot, drowning us in black beer, orange cider, silly dancing and comedians.

Please, please, please, before we join any other gang hanging around the street corners of Europe, let’s look very, very carefully at our history books!

Food allergies and intolerances – Cop out for lazy parents who, instead of bothering to cook, stuff their mollycoddled kids’ mouths with so much factory constructed processed or take away food and fizzy drinks, that their bodies get so confused at what is being pushed through them, that they object with what might seem painful consequences and physically intolerant bad behaviour. OK, some allergies may be genetic or genuine, but no where near as many as we are led to believe.

A.D.H.D. - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – How stupid is that? Never heard of when I was young – It was called “Not Doing What You Are Told”, “Not Paying Attention” or “Not Listening”, which in sensible times might have been cured with a slap, smack or other parental scare tactic.

Not today, our idiotic rules and laws banning any form of corporal punishment, no matter how light, insist costly medicine or therapy is the answer. When I was a schoolboy, nothing kept order and discipline better than a terrifyingly marksman-like blow from a teacher’s well-aimed heavy wooden board rubber or a cunningly placed metal ruler or in more serious cases, a cane. Fear, no matter how mildly or strongly created, is a great incentive to maintain good behaviour within society’s accepted boundaries. Boundaries which are crossed far too often in today’s Britain.

Talentless - Fly, or camera, on the wall ‘unreal’ reality, or ‘win by just being alive’, programmes, which give their mostly pathetic, ignorant, stupid, lazy speaking, inarticulate, unskilled, unintelligible, self-indulgent, spoilt, moronic, often very unpleasant, Neanderthal participants minor celebrity status and significant wealth for doing nothing more than just breathing.

Where in hell do the producers find such arseholes? Worryingly, they must be just wandering around our streets, which is quite frankly amazing because most of them seem incapable of either dressing themselves or leaving the house unaccompanied and as for using words to make complete sentences; you must be joking – ‘It’s somethink naat disco man, reem, shutuuup, yha no whaat ay meen like. ’  

Sadly this idea that being thick and stupid equates to fame and stardom now starts at an early age, as shown in a recently televised programme, ‘Educating Essex’; which by the way is a totally impossible and worthless task to attempt anyway.

It’s time for so called ‘cheap television’ meaningless productions to at least show and encourage some basic level of eloquence, socially acceptable attitudes, manners, decency and common sense, or what the heck does it teach today’s and tomorrow’s youngsters?

Bully Boy Bankers – Personae non gratae – Why have we allowed them to ruin ours and our children’s lives? This wonderful country used to have bountiful manufacturing, car and aircraft producing, mining, farming and tourist, industries with some services and banking thrown in for good measure. For goodness sake we even had our own gas in the North Sea until the politicians sold it. Now look at us, flat broke, borrowings up to the hilt and still stupidly relying on those greedy ●ankers. We struggle, while they shamelessly wallow in even fatter bonuses, after we, the general public, bailed them out. They keep threatening to leave the U.K. if we take away or tax their disgracefully disproportionately high earnings, so it’s time for Cameron, instead of brown-nosing them, to call their bluff and wish them ‘bon-voyage’ and we can then have a normal, perhaps wage-controlled, co-operatively run, banking system. With the personae non gratae living parasitically instead in far off lands, preferably America so it can have another taste of the unsavoury medicine it dished out to us after instigating this latest bout of uncontrollable worthless avarice, we can then seriously refurbish, replenish and restock our tangible industries before it’s too late.

Remember thanks to those ●ankers, the E.U. directly, and the U.K. indirectly, might soon be monstrously in debt financially to the Chinese. Is that a take-away any of us can really afford?

Do you want to shout about something? – ace@journalist.com

Pushing The Boundaries

As a youngster, I remember walking the Ox-Drove every Sunday with my Father, and after recently taking my dog Scruffy there, I noticed how the new fencing seemed to be nearer the road than the old one, and when I saw the old milestone clearly embedded now into the farmer’s field like an enclave, I wondered how all this had happened.

Surely milestones have always been easily visible from the roads (See Chilmark’s milestone below), because, simply put, that was the idea of them in the first place.

Can farmers or land-owners gain acreage, just by ‘eating’ into roadsides or hedges, to increase their own wealth at the expense of our countryside? – Photos below also show the old hedge boundary with new saplings planted just inside the fencing, where I believe the previous fence was situated!

Can these landowners then remove hedgerows and tress if they feel like it? What will this do to our birds and other wildlife? What are the rules and regulations governing all this?

Is the newly planted hedgerow and fence along Cows Drive leading up to the Ox-Drove, in line with the original field boundary?  Please kindly let me know your thoughts and feelings and if you know what they are, the rules and regulations surrounding the entire subject – email – ace@journalist.com

Who owns the land – The farmers in question or the Council on our behalf?

Does anybody know? Can somebody please update me? Click images to enlarge.

Farmer Giles – Gone To Seed!

This Rare Breed is ‘At Risk’, as is the future of Farmer Giles, unless Tony and Mary ‘clean up their act’ and give visitors what they are actually advertising as opposed the reality of the ‘Farmstead’.

Recently our family from the USA stayed at one of Tony and Mary’s chalets on the Farm. It was not the first occasion, but somehow this time everything seemed so run-down, shabby and grimy. The Chalet however was clean and up-together but the stay was marred by the following:

1. The initial booking-in and greeting was terrible from the guy behind the desk, who miserably managed to make our family feel uncomfortable and very unwelcome.

2. After booking the chalet months previously, we were told, a little before ‘the stay’, that it had been over-booked, and Mary was trying to find alternative accommodation for us, but after expressing my wrath, she was made aware that this was not an option, although on reflection, it might not have been such a bad idea. This ‘over-booking’ episode, put us all ‘on edge’ right away and created anxiety when it was not needed.

3. The bouncy castle could have done with a wash-over, the rides should have all been working, and the cafe could have been more inviting and the in-door play area needed a thoroughly good clean. The excuse of – “Well it is a farm”, cuts no ice when health is an issue. It is just the lazy uncaring attitude which is prevalent.

4. When our family were due to leave, after cleaning and leaving the chalet in excellent shape, they had the cutlery and contents of the chalet checked and counted in front of them, in case they had stolen something. The point is, we had not counted everything before initially using the accommodation so what was the point? Tony and Mary had credit card details, so if there were discrepancies, they could be paid for. Why make people feel like criminals, when there is no need.

Although the kids enjoyed the freedom of the Farm and the animals, there was no ‘magic’ to the place and it seemed dreary as well as lack-lustre. Tony and Mary need to ‘step up to the mark’ and be less complacent, because, as far as being ‘value for money’, Farmer Giles is starting to look a Joke!

Neither we, or any of our family or friends will be visiting or staying at Farmer Giles ever again.

Uncle Charlie Giles would be ‘turning in his grave’!

This account will be posted on ‘Reviews’ of Farmer Giles. Google – Trip advisor UK Farmer Giles for more comments.

A Wonderful Day

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Handbags and Glad Rags madness – Semley

The ditty – ‘You Don’t Have To Be Mad To Work Here But It Helps’ – certainly originated here at Glad Rags in Semley. I have never met such a friendly bunch of insane lovely people. They stock and can alter in house if need be, an amazing range of hire-out Fancy Dress, Theatrical Costumes, wigs and all types of accessories – No party should be without them! Call 01747 850101 and pop in for a chat!

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The Beckford – Nearly Ready – July 14th 2011