Catblogger

Getting grumpy am I and maybe for a reason. Although I sometimes agree with the idea of Identity Cards I am disturbed by the latest reports of High street retailers (Boots perhaps) being given the means to take the data and send it on. That is people who can possibly be put in the tempting situation to sell the information, falsify information after the bio-data is collected and act as a channel for government department bumbling.

I am suspicious of the terminology used in the report in The Times that suggests the pilot scheme is voluntary, and by insinuation, a voluntary system nationally when the only logical way is to insist that an ID card is a compulsory measure from the very launching. The Times articles seems to favor the scheme but as an added sting points out that it is now costing some 5.3 billion pounds which seems an awful lot of money to trust to a bunch of chemists' assistants in a retail store.

The further sting is that the cost to you and I, the poor punter, as rumors will have it is set at £60.00.

Now, I have two passports being a dual citizen, both of which I have paid for and intend to renew. The reason is because I want tor travel overseas and need them.

I do not watch television so I do not buy a TV license because I do not need one.

Logically unless there is a reason for me to need an ID card why should I purchase one if they are currently voluntary? I have a passport and a driver's license with my mugshot on both so why do I need an ID card. I know who I am.

If the government want us to comply willingly then the only logical way is to issue the ID cards for free - after all I do not pay for the one I have to wear at the school where I work.

Sophie Puss was born in New Zealand so when I moved back here I brought her with me.  She is a lovable, lively cat now ten years old and enjoys a game with a cheap toy although she is addicted to a catmint mouse bought from the PDSA stand in Queenborough two years ago.  I can put my hand into those sharp claws and teeth and play-fight without getting totally scragged.   My last cat - Toots - was a maniac and all the time she had sharp teeth and sharp claws its was a case of shredded fingers and antiseptic washes followed by sticking plaster dressings and using a chewable object instead.   Sophie is just as active but less ferocious. 

The rumors have it that in the near future we will be able to claim a subsidy for purchasing an electrically powered motor vehicle. Wow! Great idea? First we have to have the infrastructure in place to service them; next we have to realise that if everybody changed over we will have to have extra power supplied to make up for the demand and most importantly the money to pay for the change. Granted we have to find a way of reducing our energy use and pollution to try and conserve finite resources but we also need to take a look at the way we live and ask the question: do we really need the motor car?

Is it possible to channel the proposed electric revolution into a comprehensice transport system that will enable us all to travel at costs we can afford? We are used to travelling at will in cars often as sole occupants on journeys that could be better served by frequent, cheap and efficient public transport.

The knee jerk reaction to the dire situation of the car market by the government is silly. Without thinking the situation through the idea is daft because what is needed is an integrated system that will employ the minds of engineers and systems designers to produce a solution that has not just had money thrown at it.

For a person in my situation an electric car, a new car or even a better car is not a viable proposition - in other words I cannot afford it so it will be on the bus or foot using a rail card or perhaps a bike.

The proposed few thousand pounds for an electric car could be better used making public transport work The car makers can do what other manufacturers have had to do in the past - change to another product.

On a more cheerful note I thought I must talk about the place I live.  Sheppey and Sittingbourne in Kent is considered by some as an area of outstanding mediocraty.  Recently I took a stroll around Sittingbourne which is not the most attractive of towns I have to admit and I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.  I was taking photo's to put on our local writer's group website to show a little of the area's more attractive parts - an exercise to cheer people up who live there. 

The result was a Spring showing that even in the middle of town was pleasant.  Nice pubs and a cheerful looking street and some wonderful displays of daffodils and magnolias; the latter in gardens and the former also in gardens but as additions to public spaces including roadside berms, cemetaries, church yards and our local sports fields.

Sittingbourne can be a treat in spring. 

Now that the Somalian pirates have defied the US forces sent to assist and had the gall to hi-jack an American ship we are likely to see some fireworks. The oops factor has kicked in and these high seas criminals have made a mistake. When I was a boy I used to like the idea of a Pirate movie or playing game with my friends in which we, as pirates, captured ships and took prisoners who were made to walk the plank or captured one of the girls and held her hosstage, although one of them always wanted to be pirate captain. This as you can imagine was a bit of nuisance for us boys as we expecetd the girls to be girls and not tom-boys. Unfortunately this one was a tougher than some of us and got her way - she was also quite pretty and those early stirring unrecognised for what they were encouraged giving way.

The game was fun and although I had some idea that piracy was not all peg legs and parrots that squawked 'pieces of eight' I was happy to play my part. The sword fighting and the silly accents we adopted were all part of it as well as the romantic movie images, and of course the book Treasure Island, the story of Peter Pan and Hook and the popular hero worship of Sir Francis Drake who was little more than a state sponsored pirate if historians have it right. The bloodthirsty appeal of a pirate on the Spanish Main was a great draw for a boy. It was later as an adult that I realised how awful a pirate's life must have been; short, brutal and precarious.

Today we have an expectation of being able to travel wherever we wish within reason by air and sea and to be wise about going to places we consider to be dangerous, as westerners that is, but we do expect to cruise the seas with safety other than for storms and such sea borne hazards. Piracy doesn't come into it.

Except that is for the Somali pirates who are getting bolder. It is time they were reminded that attacking the US, European and Russian ships is a mistake. In 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and learned that the Paper Tiger had claws and teeth and they got badly mauled. The US was taken by surprise and in 2001 Al Queada attacked the US which created a reaction - the US got annoyed and fought back. That is a difficult fight.

The pirates of Somalia by attacking a US ship have grabbed a Tiger by the tail and the nature of tigers is to turn on their attackers and bite them. Oops! Let us watch the claws and teeth in action - take a lesson from Entebbe and the recent French attack to release a yacht siezed by the pirates, or from the bravery of the passengers inn the aircraft on its way to damage the White House.

When you insult American patroism you take a tiger by the tail and should expect to get bitten on the bum.

I went to Sissinghurst gardens in Kent this weekend to see the early arrival of their spring bulbs and plants before the trees and shrubs began to take over. The idea was to enjoy a walk in the post winter - early spring garden and to contemplate on the season. It was more a trip to clear the air a bit and indulge in a little Zen meditation; the sort of thing is to relate to the bare trees and shrubs yet see the emrging foliage and enjoy the growth of the daffodils and other plants. I was also keen on taking some pictures for my writer's group web site and add some more to my google blog.

Naturally I met people with like minds and although I appreciated being a lone walker and watcher I was pleasantly surprised when people smiled and talked to me - maybe I look daft and they pity me - and this added to the pleasure of the visit.

Spring is yellow.

I also saw some lambs newly born wobbling on pipe cleaner legs and bouncing as joyfully as Tigger. I saw families enjoying the the day and bossy ten year old boys telling their dads how the world works; a couple hand in hand walking the muddy woodland tracks and volunteers smiling warm greetings.

And when I got home my cat came running.

Zen helped a lot.

I was encouraged by a contact from rainbowgirl to think again about the books I read or have read when I read her blog.  I was surprised to see that she had read some of the books I had read considering that she at age seventeen and me at age nearly sixty-seven I had some idea that she would like books so much different from my taste.   Wrong! I'm pleased to say.  Yes, I did thing that Pullman's story was a bit weak but the middle volume was excellent; and I too enjoyed and still do enjoy The Hitchhiker's Guide but do not recommend trying Arthur Dent's method of learning to fly - it hurts.  Lord of the Rings is one along with The Hobbit, CS Lewis Narnia stories and the Alice stories as well from Carroll. 

I can recommend The Half Men of O by Maurice Gee, The Life of Pi as a must read and try Catch 22 which is barmy; and also by Heller God Knows - but read a little about the Biblical David first.  As a man who has read all of Shakespeare's works, acted in a Henry V and is currently, among many other projects re-writing Hamlet from the point of view of an infinite number of monkeys, who also writes poems I also have read many books and continue to do so.  Current read is Varney the Vampyre having also for many years enjoyed Dracula and Frankenstein. 

I also dive into romances and such classics as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and its counterpoint The Far Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, taken a look at Albert Camus - La Peste - and read Les Miserable, The Naming of the Rose and such quaint stories as The Thirteen Clocks and  The Wonderful O.  

My reading covers all areas from thrillers, Crime, Comedy, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Autobiography, Biographies, academic reading for subjects ranging from History to Modern technology; in fact anything that interests me.  Most importantly although we have the interenet as a most useful resource I still take pleasure in sitting down somewhere and reading a book .  In this way I discovered that Mills and Boon also have much to offer because when you research the genre you learn how they work and understand the need and apepal of the market. 

The world of literature from wherever you approach it is rich with pleasure and knowledge and its is great to hear from young people who appreciate the media.  Okay so rainbowgirl is not entirely unique but she is refreshingly exciting and has a lively and witty blog which I put down to her eclectic tastes.   As a Teaching Assistant at a Secondary school working with post sixteen students I meet young people with wide reading tastes who are also willing to read beyond their interests.  Rainbowgirl has reminded me of that.  Thanks.

I know that I have introduced myself as a cat lover so there may be nothing new in me doing so if it were not for a few more observations.  I talk to my cat and of late I have noticed that she seems to understand one or two key phrases - now don't panic I am not as daft as seem - that I say when I am talking to her.  For example if I want her to come to me I ask her and often she will do so and even using the word 'no' seems to have an effect.  I tried other phrases on the silly assumption that se might be learning English and of course, you geussed it - zilch.  No effect whatsoever.  So I tried again and carefully made a note of what worked and what didn't and came to the conclusion that it was not the language or the words selected that made a difference but the time and place, my body language and habit that did it. 

Cats seem to like adopting patterns of behavoir according to their familiarity with events.  It is well known that many dogs will recognise a familiar footstep, the sound of the masters car etc and react by running toward the sound in greting long before the person has arrived.  This awareness is recognised and can be seen in a child knowing instinctively who is mother, or where she is.  It is later whan we grow into adults we forget the instinct and ignore its pull. 

Cats have an instinct that allows them to recognise patterns in your behavior and relate that to good things in their lives, comfort, treats, feeding times, times when doors will open, play times and sleeping times plus your voice when you announce them.  Voice accompanied by actions that make them happy will attract cats toward you and as it is Mothering Sunday I am sure that we can claim to be surrogate mothers to our cats and so any noises we make can be intr=erpreted by them as the precursor to treats or comfort. 

That does not mean fro one moment I will give up talking to my cat in my own language as long as I also attempt to learn hers.  Result: I remain as daft and as soppy with my cat as normal and my cat gets fed, watered and fussed as normal which a is a mutually beneficial arrangement because to get all these things all she has to do is smooch, grovel, purr and trill her way around me. 

The bonus is that I get an affectionate pet and the illusion that I am in control and have somebody more interesting than myself to talk to.

Okay, so we are going through some tough times here, right? Be aware that for the past two decades we have ridden high on good wages, unlimited credit, piles of available goods and the expectation we can have what we want at any time we want it. Added to that we have suffered from the embarrassment of celebrity culture that has created some awful people, some horrendous behavior and Big Brother. Eek! The reason I don't like the program is because it creates celebrities with little or no talent unless it is that they are celebrities because they have been on Big Brother. The problem is that in Orwell's story the room 101 was where Winston Smith and Julia faced their worst nightmare and sibsequently betrayed each other. In our version the inmates face only minor humiliation and it is not life threatening. Except of course outside of the program when one celebrity with little or no talent other than her place on Big Brother is discovered to be ill with a rather nasty form of cancer.

Now, this is where I changed my opinion of the poor woman and began to wish her all the best in her fight to gain as much from the situation for her family as she possibly could. Her tragic circumstances and the media hype that was whipped up to help her maximise her profits is a brave attempt to gain the advantage in a financial climate that is as hostile as the cancer that invades her.

I do not like the persona that Jade Goody showed to the public but that does not mean that I have no sympathy for her in these tough times. In fact I must make a tribute to her and her efforts and offer my sympathy to her. Tough times for her and tough times for us but let us learn from her. Be brave and face the future however short or precarious and howver cock-eyed it may seem do what you do best and let things happen. Like Jade you may go under but there is always hope that those you leave behind will benefit from your sacrifice and survive the tough times.

There is one thing that happens to all of us at some time or another and that is the need to disappear for a few weeks and as they say to chill out.  In this case the chilling out was chilling in.  I had no gas heater to keep this slightly overweight body warm or a place for my cat Sophie to stretch and purr in the luxury that cats expect.  I spent Christmas day with my sister and devoured much food in the warmth of their large, well heated mansion and afterwards, having spent the night there, staggered home to a cold building which cost me an arm and a leg (metaphorically speaking) to heat with electric heaters.  The chaparrived to do the gas heater after the 'chimley' as he described it was repaired. 

The landlord was as tight as could be and was reluctant to spend the dollars on scaffolding, bricklayers and such to repair what was a leaky chimney so I had to threaten him with withdrawal of rent and a visit to the council offices who provide me with the wherewithall to pay the sum.  result: a sudden enthusiasm for getting the job done.  We had snow and ice but eventually the thing was done and Sophie puss and owner had a place that was warm.  Great stuff!

But what about the dropping out?

I decided to change a few things and so with all that was going on I left this blog to last.  So, Cat and I apologise and will be in touch.  For the moment we are trying to find a company to work for - preferably a Scottish bank - to enhance our retirement fund.  The idea of gaining £650000 for messing up a financial icon is quite attractive.  We are op[en to offers.