Here’s an image of the great Nelson Mandela on the day of his release from prison. Those images of him strolling down the road proudly will never fade. He could have been a bitter man but with massive grace and statesmanship he went on to repair a broken country and create a rainbow nation. Frankly only he could have done it and in doing so he became a hero to the world. His passing leaves an unfillable void.
I must confess I’m having an up and down sort of week. Our youngest daughter S and son-in-law E are expecting their first child as I’ve mentioned previously and yesterday we found out that it’s to be a boy. Wey hey. That’ll be our third grandson and provides a kind of symmetry in our lives having had three daughters. We are delighted at the news of course especially as that’s a whole future ManU midfield sorted out. In news terms the serving of Parmesan cheese as 10 CC might put it.
Well if you were the editor of a news channel, this must have been one hell of a week for you. First off the William and Kate wedding. Regular readers will know I’m not a big royalist. Many of the lesser figures in the Royal family deserve to be in places other than a fabulous Cathedral; like in a sentence with an assortment of words like ‘lamp-posts’, ‘from’ and ‘dangling’. Only joking. But I watched the wedding with my family and you know, I had to admit that it made for decent viewing. The Beckhams trying to be properly posh, the hats worn by Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the nose-off between Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Mike Tindall, Charles and Camilla having to slum it by sharing a coach with those pushy Middletons, all left an indelible image on my mind. But jesting apart I think I can proudly say that I can’t think of anywhere that does this spectacle better than Britain and whilst the Royals are rubbish at marriage they do put on a good wedding. I’ll give it 2 years…
I heard from a friend and colleague last night that they were struggling to get home after a recent holiday in Lanzarote as a result of the flight ban caused by the volcanic ash plume spewing its way from Iceland. The last I’d heard they were en route to the French border having left Barcelona some hours earlier. Heaven only knows how and when they’ll get back and at what cost. This morning I checked into the news channels to see what the latest situation was, especially as the flight ban had been lifted late last night. It wasn’t terribly reassuring. Continue reading
I’ve bashed the Beeb a bit in this blogsite. I don’t have a thing against the institution as such but I do notice things about them which irritate me. Out here we no longer have the Sky Italy service so we rely on CNN and the BBC World News service for keeping in touch with events etc. I actually think CNN’s better for reports about the UK funnily enough as much of the BBC WN content is focused on Asia, Africa and the Middle East. There’s always some bloody earnest conference on climate change or whatever being broadcast from Abu Dhabi, which gets repeated 10 times a day on the BBC. And it’s another of these pre-recorded ‘filler’ programmes (they have loads of them) which drives me nuts. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to HARDtalk – and it’s branded like that deliberately. Continue reading
Whilst I’m on the subject of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, did any of you catch this weekend’s News of the World? No? It’s front page no less brandished a picture of 3rd place jungle mate and singer Cerys Mathews in her undies showing more bum than was advisable. Why? I don’t know, well I do know but I cannot pretend to justify it. She had a fling in the jungle with some unknown bloke from one of the soaps and felt like she had to share her feelings with us in her panties. Why not love? It’s probably the natural way to want to express yourself. And of course we got her love-mate’s expression of his undying love for her too, proclaiming that he wants her to have his babies. Fortunately he managed to keep his togs on.
Is it just me or is it a sad thing when the most important news feature in the whole world justifying a front page splash is this piece of nonsense. It’ll last a month before he’s off with some footballer’s ex-missus and she’s off with some cameraman, with a S African accent. Give me strength.
Well I can’t get this politician/album idea out of my mind now. So here’s John Prescott’s track list:
– Track 1 Street fighting man
– Track 2 Born to be wild
– Track 3 Wild thing
– Track 4 Lucky man
– Track 5 Crazy
– Track 6 Just can’t get enough
– Track 7 Addicted to love
– Track 8 Radio ga ga
– Track 9 Why does it always rain on me?
– Track 10 Should I stay or should I go?
– Track 11 Don’t look back in anger
– Track 12 Desperado
Can’t someone suggest some tracks for George Bush or David Cameron?
pp
Pasta Paulie 