No man’s an island and his castle isn’t home

by davebarclay1954

Music today is from Jethro Tull (not the inventor of the seed planter) and I hope you enjoy it (apologies if it doesn’t play where you are). I don’t own the rights to this track, that would go to Chrysalis and Universal Music but thanks to YouTube for allowing me to embed it here.

Today, I want to let those of you know who shared my repulsion at the behaviour of the boss in my last post that I think it was fake. The person concerned, who I have been following for the last few months on Twitter just asked me to contribute to her legal costs and when I told her I have no income at all from anywhere at the moment her response was deafening in its swift reply. I have heard nothing from her since I told her I had asked for help for her on here.

I know that doesn’t mean it wasn’t based on truth but it makes you wonder how low people are prepared to go to get money out of someone worse off than them. Anyhoo, please forgive my impassioned plea for someone in Utah who could help pro bono. I may return to this tale again if I hear anything back from the lady(?) in question.

Nothing is as it seems today, I have just learned that the main exponents of Brexit in 2016, ahead of the referendum which they won, had broken the law and overspent on their campaign (funded by Russia no less). Seems that the rumours were true and Russia is trying to destabilise the West by any means available to it, none of them legal. This can only mean that they are planning a cyber attack again should anything go against them, such as tRump being impeached or Brexit failing to go ahead. Just what are they hoping to achieve by their actions in 2016?

Answers on the back of an unstamped elephant to the usual address please, along with name and address and you could win a life time membership to the Joe Bloggs Fan Club.

Another change of topic, if man is not an island and interacts with everyone he meets then what makes us think that our home is a castle? If you don’t know what I mean you can’t be British. The English have a saying that no man is an island (which I get) but they also have a saying that an Englishman’s home is his castle (that I don’t get). The only ones with castles in today’s England are those who can afford to buy them from the aristocracy. The aristocrats can’t afford the upkeep on their ancestral homes so have been selling them off for decades, those who can’t sell theirs have tried opening them up to the public but most people don’t want to visit an uninhabited castle, they would rather see palaces which are sometimes occupied.

I have visited a lot of places in my life, from Falkland Palace (in Falkland, Scotland not the Falkland Islands) to Buck House in London (some I’ve been inside, others not). Buck House is one I have only seen from the outside, I used to walk past there every morning on my way into the Old Admiralty Building at the end of the Mall. Falkland Palace I have been in while at school, I have also seen Hogwarts, full size it is only a model, and some of the rooms created by Warners. I have been in Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyrood House. Both were fantastic but for different reasons.

I also visited some famous places elsewhere in the world and still hope to visit more before my health fails completely. I have seen the wonders of Disneyland (California), Knotts Berry Farm (California), at Medieval Times I watched as knights jousted on horseback. I have wandered along the Strip in Las Vegas, walked miles from Columba Circle, through Central Park and down to Times Square. I have walked the French Quarter in New Orleans (but didn’t see any vampires there). I walked the city streets of Paris, went to the top of Notre Dame Cathedral and looked down onto the famous gargoyles and the Paris streets. Went to the Eiffel Tower but didn’t wait to go in as the queues were long. Visited the Louvre and, again, didn’t queue to go in. Ate in some of the local Parisiennes favourite restaurants (I know because they were devoid of tourists and the locals were all enjoying themselves.

On a more sombre note. my external hard drive where I was storing all my music and the drafts for my continuing story gave up the ghost last week and I have tried to salvage as many files as I could but, unfortunately, hardly anything was able to be salvaged. I am therefore going to have to restart Chapter 6 of my tale of growing up in Fife in the 1960’s. That is the extent of my news for this particular post, I welcome comments and you know how to tell me what you think, dear reader.