Tag Archives: UK

It’s Official: Tonight is Pointless!

Posted on by Larelle
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Lol!

I watch a quiz/game show on the BBC called Pointless in which the object of the game is to score as fewer points as possible by giving more obscure answers. One hundred people are given 100 seconds to name as many things about a particular subject as they can and those that score the fewest are the best answers. Some (in which no person polled has answered) are pointless (IE; score zero) and are worth money to the jackpot amount on offer, or actually are the answers needed to win the jackpot.

In the final round, that days winning contestants get the chance to win the jackpot by providing three potentially pointless answers on a question. Only one of the answers HAS to be pointless, but they get three chances. Following?

Anyway, this was yesterday’s final round question…

THANK YOU!

As two die-hard Bowie fans (Em and I), this question could NOT have been any more perfect! It was just WHICH Bowie albums we thought would be pointless. As Bowie fans we could name ALL his studio albums in 100 seconds, and then some!

The first one I thought of was Pin Ups (and to my surprise the contestants – two young female uni students – came up with the same answer), but then I started thinking about the more recent albums. Black Tie White Noise, Earthling, Heathen (Heathen was pointless FFS!)…all of which ended up pointless.

And then, I thought of this…

Proof (if ever it were needed).

 

And so did pointless host Alexander Armstrong. Em felt VERY vindicated to see this come up. Lol. I still have a bit of time for this album but Em was so “just as I have always said, utterly pointless!” about it. Lol

By the way, the ladies didn’t get the jackpot. Their answers were Labyrinth (showing you the depth of their knowledge, hence my shock of their Pin Ups answer), Space Oddity and Pin Ups. Labyrinth was (obviously) incorrect, Space Oddity scored 7, and Pin Ups – 1! They actually got so close but, alas, no cigar.

Our Local Chippy

Posted on by Larelle
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Our local chippy is in the Guardian newspaper’s list of the 50 best fish and chip shops. You can get fish bites (for the Aussies amongst you – fish cocktails) and chips before 4pm for £2.50 a serve!

Wigmore

View the rest of the list HERE

Have I Found My Gaga?

Posted on by Larelle
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Maybe it’s because I’m creeping into middle age (I’ll be 40 later this year) but I am suddenly finding myself more and more engrossed in what I’m finding to listen to on the radio. In particular Radio 4 (and no…not just Test Match Special!).

I’ve had the feeling in my head for several weeks now that I’d like to listen to more radio. Spurred on by some appearances David Tennant has made recently in a couple of radio plays, I’m finding myself listening to more and more radio plays.

I listened to one last week which was a “tongue in cheek” look at the behind the scenes making of the film Witchfinder General starring Vincent Price. It was great timing as I’d only just, a few weeks previous, watched Witchfinder General for the first time, so I was at least armed with the knowledge of the film to begin with.

And only yesterday I listened to another play with Bill Nighy in it. If ever there was a voice made for radio plays…

It’s not only the plays I’m interested in. Last night I listened to The Now Show (with Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis), a satirical look at the week in news. There are several other comedies on Radio 4 I’d like to get into as well.

But now, it is confession time. I was scared to ask Em to get this for me because she has an aversion to anything that appears even REMOTELY middle class. I thought I might be in for the chop even for asking (I was going to try and keep it secret, but I like getting the radio stuff to listen to on my iPod in bed in the evening). So it was with some trepidation I asked her if she could get me The Archers omnibus! I know! I even amazed myself!

So I listened to it last night. And I have to say, despite some of it being a little hammy, I liked it. OMG, help me, I’m middle class!!!! lol

I really hope I’m NOT middle class for liking The Archers. It might not even last (my liking it). But it did hook me in. It’s a bit of escapism. I see it almost like a look into how “the other half live” because it is a little posh.

I’m already asking myself really involving plot-based questions like: How will Helen go getting pregnant? How long will Jude and Pips relationship last? What’s going to happen to Tom and Brenda’s relationship, as she sounds like she’s ready to leave Ambridge?

ZOMG! lol

I think Em is going to divorce me when she sees this!

Hilda: The Lost Hog, Part 2

Posted on by Larelle

RIP Poor Hilda.

She lost her fight overnight. Jacqui called this morning. I was elsewhere so she left a message on the answering machine. She had appeared to be going well. I’d called Jacqui on Wednesday for an update on her. She had lost then regained weight. She still had weight gaining problems, losing then regaining weight since Wednesday. Then she just appeared to have had enough of the fight, the poor little sweetheart, and gave up.

I hope she’s enjoying her new life in the big hog box in the sky.

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Hilda: The Lost Hog.

Posted on by Larelle

At around 2pm on Saturday (Nov. 14th), I was sitting on the sofa reading, Em was in the kitchen doing some washing when suddenly Em said to me “there’s a hedgehog in the garden”. Okay, not that significant you might think, but if you know ANYTHING about hedgehogs (and as we have several visiting our garden we’ve read up and are familiar with hedgehog antics) you’ll know that seeing a hedgehog (a nocturnal creature) out in daylight is NOT good.

The weather was quite horrible. It was raining and the light was dimming (even at 2pm, yes!), but still, a hedgehog shouldn’t really be seen out before dusk.

Em gloved up, went outside and retrieved the poor little mite. We initially had the poor little fella/miss in a cardboard box.

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I searched the ‘net for a number of our nearest hedgehog rescue centre. There was one near us, but I couldn’t get through. The line was busy every time a tried. I tried a couple of others, but they went to a recorded message. Then I tried one at Leighton Buzzard, a little further away for us, but I got to speak to a real person.

Her name is Jacqui and she was VERY helpful with advice on how to care for the little one until we could get to her.

We weren’t able to borrow a car until Sunday, so we kept the little hoggie with us in doors overnight. We transfered the hog into Chris’ carrier and put a cushion and some wheat pillows in there. We gave the hog food and water. We gave it wet food at first, but then tried some dry food and it ate some of that.

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The water bowl was a bit too big, and the poor little tyke ended up sitting in there getting wet and cold. So we got a smaller dish to put water in, cleaned out the carrier as the poor little thing had pooped quite a bit and it was a bit runny so a change of towel was needed and change of wheat pillow. We also kept up supplying the dry food.

Chris was getting curious so we had to put the poor little thing in the bathroom overnight. I called Jacqui on Sunday morning to arrange a time to come over. We got there just after 11.30am. Jacqui inspected the hog straight away. It had two ticks on it (which she removed with special tick removing tweezers) and she also gave the little lady (as it turned out) a milky glucose drink to help rehydrate her. Then she put her in the little cage she’d be staying in during her recovery. There was a bowl of food in there topped with meal worms. Hilda (as we decided to name her – as Jacqui asks people to name the hog that comes into her care) went STRAIGHT for the food and she hoovered up ALL the meal worms.

Jacqui did say though that Hilda only has a 50/50 chance of surviving. We’d weighed her on the Saturday when we found her and she only weighed 265 grams. Half the weight a hog needs to be to be healthy enough to hibernate. She could recover quickly and look like she’s fit and well after 48/72 hours, then 24 hours later could crash and die. She’s had it happen to hogs before, so it will be touch and go for her.

Jacqui will keep us informed of Hilda’s progress and if she takes a turn for the worse she’ll let us know straight away. It will be about a week before Hilda fully recovers and puts on enough weight to come home.

And that’s the best part. If all goes well, Hilda survives, and puts on the weight required, we can collect her and bring her home :-)

We have our fingers and toes crossed for her.

She’d get a bit frustrated from time to time being enclosed in the carrier and let her thoughts be known. Here is a bit of footage of her protesting! Poor little love :-)

Griffin Bashing and #BBCQT

Posted on by Larelle

I did something that I rarely do and watched an episode of Question Time last night. It seemed a “must see” piece of television as earlier in the evening the BBC faced a brunt of protests outside Television Centre with the arrival of Nick Griffin of the British National Party to the studios.

There were about 1,000 people outside the TV centre protesting against the idea that the BBC would give a voice to Nick Griffin on a political platform.

I only took in bits and pieces in last nights programme as I found myself on Twitter watching the cascading flow of tweets on twitterfall whilst people around the country tuned in to watch old goblin face.

The BNP had come under criticism the previous day for using images of Spitfire air craft and Winston Churchill at their party conferences.

The first question posed to the panel, which included Labour MP and justice secretary Jack Straw, Conservative MP Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne and Curator of the British Museum Bonnie Greer, was whether it was fair the BNP had “hijacked” Winston Churchill’s image for use in their campaigns.

Jack Straw was first respond. He said that the BNP had no right to use Churchill’s image. He said the BNP has no moral compass and says that WWI and WWII was only won with the help of many black and Asian people. He also said a race-based party has no standing in the UK.

Nick Griffin’s response to defend his party’s use of Churchill’s image was that the party chose Churchill as an image because no other party would, due to some of his political philosophies. IE: that he thought there was a real threat of over-migration and that he was worried about the impact of fundamental Islam. Griffin went on to say “I’m not a Nazi and I never have been.”

Erm…really? Then what’s this?

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He also ended with a personal attack on JS saying “My father was in the RAF in the second World War whilst Mr. Straw’s father was in prison for refusing to fight Adolf Hitler.”

What relevance this had on proceedings was hard to decipher. When host Daivd Dimbleby asked why he made this statement he said “Jack Straw was attacking me and I have been being continually attack for the last week.”

Oh, grow up man! And as for Jack Straw attacking you personally, he did nothing of the sort! I dare ask who was the braver in that time, Griffin’s father for being in the RAF (he didn’t say what role he had – my uncle was in the RAAF, but he was a chef!), or Straw’s for being a conscientious objector?

Still on the issue, Bonnie Greer pointed out that Churchill’s own mother was American and her family had possible Mohican Indian descendants, therefore questioning the BNP’s choice for Churchill’s image being that of a “British white role model” that the BNP was looking for.

Chris Huhne chimed into the discussion with his personal views on what he thought the BNP as a party, represented. He said the BNP is “scape-goating” politics. Peddling hatred and fear. Churchill would be rolling in his grave (at having his image being used by the BNP, or being associated with them). He was never a fascist.

Huhne also quoted Nick Griffin as once saying he thought “Yes, Adolf went a bit too far.” He then asked Griffin what part of “too far” did he think Hitler had gone? Slaughtering millions of Jews? Invading Poland and France? Bombing innocent people in Britain?

Griffin amongst his replies says “I brought the BNP out of being a racist party.”

WHAT THE F**K??

David Dimbleby quotes him as saying (not ver batim) “Let’s start out (the BNP) as being moderate to win votes/support. Then we’ll reveal our true agenda.” When asked about this and his involvement with David Duke he said “David Duke was the head of a non-violent arm of the KKK”. This statement had people in the audience and the other panel members in groans of disbelief.

Nick Griffin would shy away from responses to most quotes read to him of things he’d said. Jack Straw confronted him on this. He said (not ver batim) “When we give a quote of something you said you make a defence of saying ‘Oh, I never said that. That’s not quite right.’ But you are there on YouTube, in videos, actually saying these things. Time and again he (refering to Griffin, addressing the audience) wants to wriggle out of it…This guy is the Dr. Strangelove of British politics!”

A question came from an audience member asking why he believes the holocaust was a myth, Griffin said, “I cannot explain why I used to say those things, I can’t tell you (groans and shouts from the audience) any more than I can tell you why I’ve changed my mind, I can’t tell you the extent that I’ve changed my mind because the European law prevents me.”

This was dismissed as bunkum. He was asked to explain why he’d changed his mind about his denial of the holocaust and he gave some lame excuse about hearing radio intercepts of German recordings or something. Jack Straw said “Why would you need that? Were the images from Auschwitz not enough for you”?

Sayeeda Warsi revealed to the audience that he’d shared a platform with Islamic extremist Abu Hamsa after some time of discussing his views on Islam and what he thought of aspects of the Muslim faith. He said he didn’t agree with much of it. It’s treatment of women, etc.

Bonnie Greer said that Griffin starts his history at around 1700 to bypass Roman rule because it doesn’t fit in with the BNP’s “white agenda”. In Roman times there was an influx of many ethnicities, not just Romans.

Baroness Warsi says we need a cap on immigration. She also said she thought that why many people vote or support the BNP is not because they are racist but it is because they are concerned about immigration.

Jack Straw counters this by saying a party like the BNP has been in the British political system on and off since the 1930′s. That the BNP’s recent success in the European elections was NOT due to people with racist leanings voting for them, but it was purely votes gained from protests over the MP’s expenses saga.

On immigration Griffin said successive British governments were committing calculated genocide on the “indigenous white population” of Britain.

WWWHHHHHAAAAAAATT??

Bonnie Greer quoted Griffin saying the BNP are for the “indigenous Ice Age”. She replied, “But there are no people from ‘the indigenous Ice Age’ in the UK.” The UK was populated around 17,000 years ago from people from the south. They certainly didn’t come from the north. How could they get here? “We all know now that we (the population of the world) are all descended from Africa. You should know this Nick, you have a 2:2 in history. The only people who were here on this continent (Europe) 17,000 years ago, and I use the term ‘people’ lightly, were Neanderthals”. Then, speaking to Griffin personally, “You can come to the British Museum and check. We’ve got a lot of information on it. I wish you’d come.”

Then a man from the audience was offered to ask a question to the panel, he said “Yes, I have a question for Dick, er, sorry I mean Nick Griffin”.

That made all us twitterers have a little giggle. Pretending he was making a mistake with his name. It was childish, but funny.

I’m not sure if the programme itself really got anywhere. It did seem to descend into an hour of Griffin-bashing, but perhaps it was worth it just for that. It was certainly entertaining watching twitterfall for the hour the programme was on.

I’ll leve it to the man himself to finish…