Friends?

Not a great image, but I think I captured this lads feelings for his friend, well that’s how I read it. Did a bit of editing in an attempt to improve it and disguise the fact it was a bit rough.

 

Brave

Sometimes I think we hand out the label of ” What a Brave person” to easily, but I don’t think anyone could question it’s use with regard to Malala Yousafzai, this young lady was recently the subject of a assassination attempt by the Taliban in Pakistan, her crime, demanding the right for females to be educated.She is 14!

Now I’m not going to argue the rights and wrongs of western involvement in that area of the world, but how can any right thinking person support the people who carried out this horrendous act against a child?

We in the west take access to education for granted, but obviously for some it’s a matter of life and death, what makes Malala’s story even more amazing is the fact that senior politicians in Pakistan are not prepared to take the stand she has.

I don’t have many hero’s, but I think it’s safe to say Malala Yousafzai has joined that list.

A link to one of the articles about Malala, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19899540

Ill Divided World

I was in Leicester  Square,  London trying to get all arty taking a picture of some railings , kneeling down, then I looked to my left and right next to me lying in the bushes, is a human being, how bad must things have got that this person chose this spot as their resting place for the night.

Poor shot of railings

Poor reflection on our society

Party Time

It was my daughters 18th birthday yesterday, so we had a party for her, I managed to get some shots before the carnage began,

Ready to go.

Such Ladies 🙂

How do they walk in those shoes!!

Anyway seems a good time was had by all and no casualties 🙂 Though I didn’t feel my best this morning!!

End of an era

Yesterday I dismantled the trampoline in the back garden/yard, now I know this does not sound like the most interesting thing that I could blog about, but it suddenly hit me! My girls have grown up, they are now no longer children.

I’d noticed the trampoline had not been used this year,I thought it may have been because the weather had not been kind, so I asked them if they wanted to keep what had been their favourite activity for a few years, an as is the way with teenagers I got a long in depth explanation regarding their feelings on this matter, well actually they just said ,NO.

I suppose the writing was on the wall when we got a new fridge and it wasn’t immediately covered in pieces of art work and magnetic letters. I now live in a house of grown ups, even the dog is going a bit grey.

So that’s it then the trampoline has gone, they are officially young women and I’m officially an old codger, though the ladies in the house claim I’ve been a grumpy old man for some years!

Oh and just to prove that point I’m already moaning about the fact I’ll have more grass to cut, now that the trampoline has made its way to the tip.

Tree

Reminded me of the Ents in Lord of the Rings, I need to stop drinking!!

I liked that the branches still appear to be growing.

 

Sports

Watched some of the tennis from Wimbledon yesterday, so firstly can I say, well done Andy Murray and good luck for tomorrow.

I’m not a big tennis fan, but I can appreciate that the men and women playing in these big events are excellent at what they do. But why is it that they, like loads of top sports persons, are valued so highly and paid vast sums of cash?

I appreciate that I’ll never be as good at any sport as those that play at the top level, but that’s it, they are playing. It’s always seemed odd to me that we happily see footballers being paid vast sums of cash, never mind that their industry can’t afford it, but we are comfortable paying people in say the childcare profession, minimum wage. We hand over the thing most precious to us, to someone who is paid in a year less than loads of sportsman earn in a week, and we expect the highest levels of care.

I remember a discussion with friends a while back, we were talking about the local football team, soccer team for those who think football is played by giants in crash helmets, now this is a small side watched by at best 4 or 5 thousand folk, less these days, and one of my friends was shocked that some of the players only got paid 2K a week! Err time for a reality check I said, that’s 100K a year, average wage in the UK under 30K, I’d love to be paid 3 or 4 times the national average for playing a sport I’m supposed to love. Ah but it’s a short career, they said, well we are told these days that nobody has a job for life, but not many of us end up getting 100K during our first job, if ever.

Now I know that sports people entertain us and bring a lot of joy to folk, but I for one have become increasingly disillusioned with professional sport. I find the sums of money talked about obscene, an don’t get me started on DJ’s and TV presenters!!

Sadly when cash becomes involved the quality may improve but the standards of sportsmanship drop, but that’s a whole other argument.

Anyway, as I said, Good luck Andy Murray

Our Little Tree

Our small tree, we’ve had him a wee while now, more luck than judgement that he’s survived I suspect!

 

 

Litter

Moan of the day, what is it with litter, why are people incapable of depositing their rubbish in a bin?

Yesterday I’m driving through a village, see a child waiting to cross the road, she unwraps a chocolate bar and throws the wrapper to the ground, I, being of the grumpy variety, put my window down and shout “pick your litter up” she looks at me with horror and walks away,  wrapper left behind. I suppose I shouldn’t shout at kids in the street, but come on does nobody else find that sort of thing annoying?

Later on, I walk my dog, I notice that I can’t take more than five paces before I see a piece of litter, I don’t live in a city, it’s probably seen as suburbia, the local council do try, there are a fair number of litter bins about the place, so why this apparent laziness?

I accept I’m becoming my father ie a grumpy old man, but so what, on this one I’m right, so there!

Those who dump litter are lazy sods an deserve nothing but condemnation, in fact bring back national service and the birch that’ll sort them!

That’s it I’ve officially lost it!

Alcohol

Don’t have long this morning, so just a quick  thought.

Out last night, I was stone cold sober, no drinking for this lad, it quickly became obvious that people are not to interested in the Governments safe drinking levels.

For most I don’t suppose its a big problem, but it must have some kind of effect on health and welfare, but on top of that are the added costs for society, the extra police on the streets around the drinking areas, the amount of rubbish casually deposited on the street by the revelers, common closes and door ways used as urinals, must be nice opening your front door to that aroma! Lastly of course the amount of resources used by the NHS to patch up the casualties.

Mind you next time I ‘m out I’ll be on the bevvie, an all thoughts of social responsibility will be washed away, I’m just in the huff today, nominated driver indeed.