Why aren't the English proud to be English?

Time for a rant!

I’ve been told this morning that I’m a miserable old git because I don’t like Haloween. This is true. However, I have my reasons.

I’m not trying to disparage any country or people, but here’s why I’m like I am.

Haloween is American! And that’s where it should stay. I am sick and tired of English people celebrating other people’s events. OK, we celebrate Bonfire Night. I’m still not sure what we’re celebrating. Is it because our government of the day was saved (can’t believe for one minute the average person celebrating that).

Or are we celebrating some loser? A gallant trier. More than likely it’s so that we can buy some fireworks! Nice marketing shops!

I’m proud that we as a nation support Armistice Day, It is only right that we should.

But my biggest gripe as a proud Englishman is that we don’t celebrate our day, St George’s Day the 23rd of April. It’s not even a National Holiday here. It’s like we’re not proud to be English. Welsh people celebrate St David’s Day, The Scots celebrate St Andrew’s Day, and boy, do the Irish celebrate St Patrick’s Day. But not the English!

Bastille Day. July 14th, the French celebrate. America celebrates Independence Day on the 4th July. And good for any country that does.

But in England, we celebrate anything but our day. Haloween is so that shops can make more money. That’s why they make a fuss of it. Just like Christmas, The World Cup and Wimbledon. It’s all about bringing money into shops!

I was watching ‘Homeland’ last night, and I love that Americans hang their national flag from the front of their house. In England, we only show a flag during a sporting tournament and as soon as it’s over, we hide them away in case we upset anyone.

I know I’ve gone away from the reason I’m ranting, but it’s the reason why I couldn’t care less about Haloween. Prom Nights – they’re American too!

If you’re American, don’t think I’m against you, because I’m not. I love Americans. I love their up and at ‘em philosophy. I love the attitude of Americans, but I want my country to be proud of itself and celebrate our National Day.

When it starts to be as proud of my country as I am, when shops start doing things to promote our day, then I’ll get in the spirit of things.

Till then, I’m happy to be a miserable old git!

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Why I keep being drawn back to Facebook

 I just read a sentence in a book that was so true and made me realise why I like Facebook.

"Many friends travel with us only to the crossroads and then, whether the farewell be conscious or unconscious, we turn in different directions."

And it brought to mind so many people that I'd lost touch with for 20-30 years as we each went our own ways in life, only to cross paths again on here.

One of my favourite things on there is being able to follow the lives of my old friends and their families. To see how their lives move on, to read of their accomplishments, and sadly, sometimes their sorrows.

To be able to laugh with them at times and to be able to commiserate at others.

I know from personal experience of tough times, how the support that was shared on here from old and new friends has helped me dig deep on my reserves of strength to get through those times. I've been grateful for that so often,

It is to me, the best thing about Facebook. And why I'm still there.

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It's not about your looks...

 

I was reading something earlier where this pretty late-teenage girl was asking whether people thought she was ugly. As she thought she was.

When will people learn that ugly isn't really about looks? Looks are superficial.

I've known some gorgeous looking girls whose whole demeanour made me want to stay as far away from them as possible.

And I've known some good looking men who look in the mirror and think they're wonderful and then treat people as though they're nothing compared to them.

Ugliness to me comes from the inside. It's the way you treat people. It's the way you think. It's what comes out of your mouth. It's the comments you make on social media.

But here's the thing, it works exactly the same in the other direction. You don't need to see what someone's looks are like to know if they are good people. You see it in their actions and their interactions.

I've said this before; when I see you, I don't see how good looking you are. I don't see what colour you are. Or your religion either.

What I see is whether you're a nice person or not. I notice whether you speak well of others, whether you're respectful of others. Whether you take advantage of people. I watch your actions.

I've noticed that my gut decides what kind of person you are very quickly. And it's usually right.

I see tons of hatred and wonder why you'd want to carry that around with you. I don't even hate the person who wronged me the most in my life. As far as I'm concerned, he's dead to me. I see him once in a while at some event, but I just spend time with people who I like and carry on as I would if he weren't there.

When I thought I was going to die almost 4 years ago, it brought to my mind that hatred isn't important. What's important aren't the things that you have, It's the people you care about.

And it's most certainly not about how good looking you are or not.

So to that girl who's worried about whether she's ugly or not, I say don't worry about it. Pay more attention to whether you have a good soul. To whether you are kind to people. To whether you're willing to help people who need it. And whether you care.

Because at the end of the day, who you are as a person will tell most of us whether you're ugly or not, not whether you have unblemished skin and the face of an angel.

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The Music of My Life #4

It's the backend of 1986 and our first baby is due at the beginning of December.

My Mother-In-Law gives us the money to buy a Silver Cross pram for the baby.

We're driving to the Pram shop at Ealing and in my car, It's pouring with rain, it's miserable as sin, but we're so excited.

I'm playing a cassette with Five Star's 'Silk & Steel' on one side and Tina Turner's 'Break Every Rule' on the other side.

I'm driving a Volkswagen Scirocco at the time, and when we pick the pram we want, it's too big to fit into the car in its packaging.

We had to take it out of the packaging and needed to work out how to get the pram into the car.

My car was a 2 door hatchback. We folded the seat forward and managed to squeeze the body of the pram into the back seat.

The chassis folded and fit into the boot with the wheels packed alongside it.

It was then I realised that in the long run, I would need to get rid of my lovely car which I'd only bought in the summer and replace it at some stage with a bigger family car!

We did get another year or so before it became too unpractical.

Whenever I hear either of the two songs in the links below, they take me back to that very day,

Click here if video doesn't play

Click here if the video doesn't play

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The trouble with oldies radio...

I come before you this day to warn you about the divisive and insidious nature of Oldies Radio and the effect it can have on you.

For I fear that the prolonged listening to songs of that ilk has turned me into a 40-year-old woman from the late 1960s!

How do I know this?

This morning, as I do most days, I was listening to an oldies station playing on my bedside radio. And I usually wait until they play a record that I don't particularly like to rouse me into getting up.

But this morning, I realised that I am becoming immune to the tunes that would get me moving.

The first sign of it this morning was when I told Debz I would be getting up soon. And as I waited for a song that would get me up, I found myself unexpectedly excited when a particular song that would normally have spurred me into decisive action, didn't. And I caught myself saying, "Ooh! It's Engelbert. I like this one!"

It was at that moment  I knew I was in trouble. For I, like so many others have berated the aforesaid singer over the years for his schmaltzy songs especially as I could remember my Mum's swooning over his syrupy lyrics back in the days when I was just a young boy.

And today, I realised that prolonged listening to oldies of all kinds can result in you liking songs you used to berate.

And so I stand before you to warn you of such evil. I have to be very careful because now my big worry is that I'm going to start enjoying the work of Michael Buble!

I think in order to combat this threat, I'm going to have to put myself through an intense, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson and Eddie Cochran day to remind me that I am not, in fact, my mother from 1969, but a man, a real man!

Let this be a warning to you. If you listen to oldies for too long, it's entirely possible that you may acquire the taste for an honest to goodness, from the heart lyric!

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They call it 'Popcorn'

 In the UK we have a sub-culture of music known as 'Northern Soul' that has taken the country by storm over the years, after taking hold in the North of England in the late 60s and early 70s.

However, in Belgium, they have their own subculture of music known as 'Popcorn'.

Like with 'Northern Soul, they play mostly, obscure American and British records, mainly 'Rhythm and Blues' songs with some 60s pop mixed in, but unlike a lot of Northern Soul, this genre is paced at a slower tempo.

Personally, I enjoy the genre more than I do 'Northern Soul' because of the pace of the songs they use.

I didn't know anything about 'Popcorn' until around 11 years ago when someone brought it to my attention. At first, I thought they were telling me about the old hit of the same name by Hot Butter, but they put me right on that front.

Over the years, I've come to know more of the songs that fit this genre and have added a lot to my collection.

However, it was only last year that I found this short film on the History of how this genre came to be and I think it's well worth watching.

And if that whets your appetite to check out more of the music, there's plenty of playlists on youtube - here's one to get you started.

Let me know what you think of it.

Enjoy!

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A nostalgic 'Look at Life' in the 1960s

 

Back in the 1960s, when you went to the pictures you'd usually get two films for your money. The main picture would be supported with a shorter accompanying film.

And there was a series of films, that although I never really took much notice of them then, have become well-loved by me.

They were the 'Look at Life' films which detailed life in the 60s. When you see them now, they're a great social history document, and luckily, many of them have been uploaded to youtube.

Here's a link to a playlist of the films.

And here's an example programme from the collection.

If you can't see the video, click here

We've watched all of these films and often said to ourselves, "Do you remember that?" 

We love these programmes. We hope you do too.

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