Posts by Peter Ashby
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A few weeks ago I was proceeding up the hill towards my castle when I was accosted by two overly clean cut young guys who attempted to foist some 'literature' upon me. Whereupon I began my uber materialist ultra Darwinian hard core atheist proselytising speel on them. They were satisfyingly stunned and responded by trying to give me the 'literature' again. I walked away turned around and wished that they 'walk in the light of reason and knowledge'.
Billy Graham Jr was in these parts a couple of years ago and expressed bemusement when informed that this is a post-christian country. Though in our case it is more a reaction to having been excessively priest ridden in the past. There are a lot of reused churches here. At the bottom of the aforementioned hill for eg the building with tallest local spire has an Indian restaurant in the ground floor and a snooker hall above. Also it is notable that the suburbs built post about 1955 have no churches. There is no church up the hill here for eg, the remaining in religious use ones are all in the old part of the place as are the reused ones. There are no churches in the new estates that have been sprouting all over the good agricultural land.
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If they have a whole line of poorly made fake imports, it seems to me, is purely out of calculation: the name allows to sell more cheese and at a higher price, and cutting corners on the process (on the grounds that not enough people have had a chance to taste the real thing)
I'm with you Giovanni, now I have lived and travelled in Europe and can go into the supermarket here and get French Camembert and Roquefort and Spanish Manchego and Parmigiano (had some grated on top the pasta bake last night, mmmm) and Mozzarella from Italy. In fact if the supermarkets want to sell pasta for any money it has to be made in Italy. Even my gluten free stuff is.
However before I gained the experience what did I know? only that the NZ 'Camemberts' didn't ripen while the French ones did (when we could afford them). I agree that local knockoffs in NZ are very pale imitations of the real thing and we should be forging our own types instead.
Here's a suggestion, in Prague we had with our beer some 'beer cheese' not made with beer but made to go with beer and boy did it. I reckon a similar sort of product made to go with NZ brews could go down a storm. Just don't claim it is from Bohemia.
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BTW I suggest that the best way of getting to be a republic sharpish would be if NZ or Aus were to follow Scotland's example and demand the actual monarch to be in attendance. We have an advantage in that no Governor is in office in Scotland. I don't think the denuded office of Secretary of State for Scotland is enough to fulfill that role and no sensible Westminster parliament would attempt to foist a GG on Scotland. Such a person would be lynched.
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How is this for a constitutional conundrum?
Now Scotland has its own parliament again, it is theoretically possible for Scotland to once again dispute with those Southern Nancies who is to be OUR monarch (should we even decide to have one). It is known that Liz had her nose put out of joint by being expected to fulfil her constitutional role and actually open our parliament every year and spend some time in residence at Holyrood Palace (which she apparently hates). This has not endeered her to the populace and Charles is an object of fun and derision. But Anne is a different matter, not only did she decide to marry up here, something Charles declined for a registry office do in East Slough. Anne attends every Scotland home game at Murrayfield and can be seen lustily singing Oh Flower of Scotland.
So, if my theoretical event comes to pass, maybe Wee Eck will win his referendum and we will become independent, who will be HoS in places like NZ? Assuming we choose a descendant of the Electress of Hanover as our monarch.
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We had one particular experience on a train from England to Scotland where the carriage gradually emptied of the English (who'd be staring daggers at Bob, and saying in loud voices "I can't believe people would bring a baby on a long train journey")
I think it is partly because so many people have out of control kids so people assume your child will be ignored and in response will escalate his attempts to gain your attention. We see it a lot, though less up here in Scotland than when we were down south.
When we were in London an the kids were younger I gave up trying to book restaurants for '2 adults and 2 children', I would just book a table for 4 and present the kids as a fait accompli. I particularly remember one xmas period, we had taken them to the South Bank Centre for a matinee of the English National Ballet's The Nutcracker and walked across the river to Covent Garden where wee had a reservation at a rather nice Italian, Bertorelli's. The place was packed with pre show diners and when we entered the chatter gradually quieted as they clocked our offspring. The staff advanced on us and were alarmed to discover we had reservations. But as we went through our meal chatting quietly to our children who did not run around screaming but sat and ate their food and talked with their parents. By the end the staff could not do enough for us, the snooty theatre goers had all left, but we did get some nice smiles as they passed us. But the message from that is what they expected to happen, sadly that is all too common.
The English are at base anti child but the strength of the reaction is in response to modern non parenting and feral offspring. You see people in family pubs sitting talking and drinking with other adults while their kids run around and vainly try to get some attention.
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Actually the ships in Leith would not set their clocks by the one O'clock gun, its too far. On Calton hill, opposite the Castle with the faux temple remnant on it, sits and old observatory and next to it is a tower. Atop the tower is a tall spike with a golden ball on it. The ball would be hoisted to the top of the spike and then dropped to indicate the time. A ship's captain with a telescope could easily see the bright ball fall, in real time. They are currently renovated the structure so the ball will fall again.
David when we took our children to newly de renamed St Petersburg in '94 and travelled on the Metro Babushkas in headscarves would give up their seats to our children (6 & 5) and then delve into their handbags and produce boiled sweets. Our kids knew that spasibo is Russian for thanks and would elicit even more smiles when saying it in response to the sweets.
Sting needn't have worried, the Russians love their children. I agree that the English are anti child, its not quite as bad up here, bairns are more tolerated. When forum discussions turn to the effect of the smoking ban on pubs one of the eternal complaints is that since those serving food are the ones surviving that 'there are no pubs without bloody kids in them'. The attitude is strangely schizoid though since there is also this 'wrap them in cotton wool and have moral panics about paedos, MMR, non organic food or whatever.
Let Bob grow up in NZ, we regret bringing our kids here overall. They were much less free. It wasn't that we would not let them out but that with no other unaccompanied kids out they felt exposed. In London when they were 11&10 ish we sent them along the road on their bikes with some recycling. The youngest fell off and this busybody woman would not let her just come home but sent the eldest off to fetch us (a potentially nasty situation) and the look we got! This is a modern phenomenon though in 1970/1 when I was 5/6 in Ayrshire I would go doon the toon with my friend Andy to the flicks of a Saturday morning all by ourselves.
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Re the cycleway. When I was a student I had a steady holiday job in a large cycle shop in Auckland. We would get young American or European persons in sometimes literally straight from the airport. They would buy a bike, carrier, panniers, handlebar bag, gel seat covers, lights, protective gear etc, etc. then head South. This was a constant earner. We even got people come in with knocked down bikes in boxes asking us to put them together, which I did, for a fee.
While they cycle they buy food from places big and small, and souvenirs, postcards, stamps, blister creams etc, etc. I wager that tourists like that, who spend weeks cycling around, spend more than those on organised, prepaid, bus tours.
There are websites catering to people like that these days and a countrywide cycle route will be noticed and it will be a drawcard. Those for eg who want to come but are not confident of cycling along the side of our single lane each way inter city highways. To a European they are primitive. Here in the UK there is an increasingly dense, well signposted national cycleway. My cousin in Cambridge can and does cycle up to see his parents in Inverness on those cycle routes. All the way up the A9 between Perth and Inverness if you look you will see the cycleway. At times it veers off and towards the top it takes of along defunct rail lines into the Spey valley rather than going over Drumochter pass, but it is there.
I take advantage of the ones around here to roam far when I run. I can do runs I could not otherwise do because the roads are unsafe. They upgraded the road to Arbroath to a dual carriageway and there is a cycle path all along it now and many of the roads that lead up to it have them too. Don't knock them.
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Ahh le Fromage! If you are ever in France in a decent restaurant order the cheeseboard to finish. The artistry is not simply that the cheeses are superbe! but each will served at the optimum temperature to maximise just how superbe! each is.
Did you know for eg that there is a stage in a child's development when the doctor will declare that it is time for Roquefort it being believed that if you do not introduce your infant to the taste at the right time they will not acquire it.
Though personally I was raised on Stilton, though sadly even here in the UK the real thing can be hard to find. The stuff in the supermarkets may conform to regulations to carry the label of Stilton but they are mild and bland. Genuine Stilton that is pungent and salty has to be sought in fancy and expensive places. It's the same with pickles which come with warnings to refrigerate after opening because they are full of sugar and deficient in vinegar. This is because the real thing is unpalatable to some people and they are a lost sales opportunity so the product must be mild, sweet, creamy not savoury. Then there is Guinness Extra Cold . . .
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Also bear in mind that the A-Level exams are run by a variety of boards, now all private companies. There may be one curriculum but there are many A-Level exams. So if someone is pushing A-Level exams in NZ it is because they will be making money from it.
One of the consequences of this privatisation is the markers are paid less than they used to be so they get monkeys who can only tick boxes. The youngest once complained that she kept getting the short questions on a Biology worksheet wrong but she couldn't see why. She showed it to me (Biology PhD) and her answers were 100% correct. On consulting the teacher with this she was told that that was all beside the point. Which was that the markers could only mark the 'approved form of words' which had to be rote learned.
It is no mystery why modern students can't think for themselves, they have had it squeezed out of them by a system that measures only outcomes and is not bothered about process or what isn't measured.
Part of it is the drive for so many to go to university, but that is not the whole story. Just beware of assuming anything from overseas must be better.
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The Advanced Level exam is the elite qualification in Britain's secondary education system. Merely obtaining four A-Levels (the most that can be taken at most schools) would be the mark of a superior student. An A in every subject is ... ambitious.
Well firstly you can now get A* grades, introduced because the universities complained they could not discriminate with the hordes of applicants with 4 A's at A Level. Many of the Public Schools are now doing things like the Baccalaureate and something else I forget.
Grade inflation or better candidates? Bits of both and lots of teaching to the test which produces students who can't think for themselves. Hell many can't use the language properly, I know, I marked their essays. Also in our seminars we said things, these days they sit there and refuse to respond. If you pick one of them to answer you get 'why are you picking on me?' thrown back at you in a panicky voice. All this in courses you couldn't get into without good grades.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is true when it comes to educational systems as any other thing in life.