Man and his Dogs - a love affair

What is it with man's relationship to dogs?
BBC article: Man in underwear crawls over frozen river to rescue dog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-17005566
We love our dogs so much that we keep them alive on drugs long beyond their natural lives.
We love our dogs so much that some of us apparently would not think twice before crawling out onto ice to save our dog - even at a risk to ourselves and to great grieving in our families.
My mother-in-law, Jane has two dogs.
One is called Boots. Thomas chose Boots from out of a litter of 10 about two years ago, when his grandmother went out in search of a new puppy. Well that got Tom hooked - very clever Jane! But I'm not hooked.
The other dog is Galaxy (Gally) aged 17.  I first met .. er. came across... Gally when Victoria and I came over in the UK for the funeral of Victoria's twin brother Jonathon*. Gally was sister Phillipa's young pup, and our remaining image is from a photo of the pup bounding through young fields of barley at Haxted Mead Farm in July 1997. Gally could be embalmed for being through so much family history. Now Pip is getting married, and we are thinking that Gally can't survive three weeks without Jane being in the UK.

I tell you, dogs become like children, because they live and breath, and experience - or rather exist during - most of a familie's moments.

Which may explain why that dumb man is out there on the ice scrambling to save his dog !

*Jonathon, at 27 finally succumbed to his very premature birth condition, which makes Victoria's life all the more remarkable for surviving so many scrapes

CRB nutters try to stop common sense review of scheme

Parents warned over plans to cut criminal record (CRB) checks
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16931352

Yeh yeah..shudup man, you are killing the natural easiness between adults and kids. You need to be shudup!  These days, thanks to guys like you, when I go to school I feel like I need to hide my hands in my pockets and look straight ahead when passing by little blighters.No matter if they have fallen over on the ice.  Of course I ignore that advice - but it is hard.

Here is my proposal:
1/ Kill the CRB check, or at least limit it to common sense proportions.
2/ Bring parental responsibility back to the fore, and for Pete's sake
3/ get a sense of historical proportion - crime is down but the fear of crime is up (i.e. don't be fooled by the massses who read red tops and watch too much TV).

We are reacting to a threat that is in decline, by treating it as if it were a virulent child killing flu. We are killing off the adults from the worlds of children.
I have gone on strike over CRBs.
I have hated them since they were introduced, because of the way they were introduced more than anything. I hate the idea that one needs one at school if one already have one at church. I hate the idea that one even needs a CRB to help out at church one's old church, kids of parents largely known to us.
Hate is a strong word, but I am referring to a process, not a person here.
Before 2001, or whenever it was, we did not need a CRB in order to help. Was that such a bad time? Now we have CRBs, I suspect that once received into church and club and charity admin offices, the CRBs get filed away, and we all fall back to thinking "Now do I trust my kids with that person? No worries, they've been CRB'd. Ergo, I don't need to think about it. Good, I'd much rather get back to feeding my brain some more on Eastenders than thinking about fine judgements like that. Thank heavens. I hate hard work."
Now what does the BBC news article above say exactly? Let me see:
Lord Henley said the current system was "disproportionate" with "unnecessary red tape and discourages volunteering"
But Lord Bichard warned "dangerous adults" would "take advantage" of the proposed changes.
Lord Bichard, whose report after the murder of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by a school caretaker led to the present system being set up, warned the safety of children "must come before our desire to minimise regulation and bureaucracy".
Lord Henley said that "whatever the setting, we believe that parents have the primary responsibility for educating their child in how to react to an approach from an adult if it goes beyond that adult's normal role".
Lord Henley said "what we are trying to do is create a system that will provide the necessary safeguards but does not make parents feel that their children are automatically safe - parents must still have the duty of looking after their children by warning them of potential dangers".

Hey - he all but agrees with me. Not surprised - it's called common sense.

Judge for yourself, but if you want volunteers to take CRBs for every single role they volunteer for with every single organisation*  then don't count on me to volunteer. Look after your kids yourself, and turn of your stupid tele!
*some parents help out at church, help at a schools, then at cubs. They go through more checks than shifty eyed hippies arriving in Florida with a suit case loaded with white flour after six months in Colombia

Olympus throws me a lifeline - the OM-D

In late 2010,  I was in despair at the dead end Olympus had turned 4/3 into, and then the fact that the Spring 2010 release of the E5 - which I eventually purchased when I got the right price - did not even treat video seriously, which was a final insult because it meant I could not even claim that as a mitigating factor for having to buy an eventual dead end.
Roll on early 2012, and Olympus announce today the OM-D range of cameras.
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/olympusEM5/
Well now I can glimpse a road may that I may just fall in love with again. Here's the plan:
I will keep my hefty 4/3 quality lenses and my six month old E5 will produce great shots for years.
Victoria (that's code for get me a second body) will re-enter photography by buying an OM-D body with a couple of nice prime lenses, the clip on flash, and AVCHD video capabilities.
The OM-D will aslo have a 4/3 adapter allowing for specialist use of my lenses - e.g. macro long range narrow DOP, and portrait narrow DOP.
When the "old video camera I have - a 2008 vintage but the first of the internal flash drive full HDs - gives up the ghost I will only have the E5 and the OM-D. When I have to travel light - the E5 will stay behind and the OM-D will travel. When I have to shoot a friend's wedding, both cameras will come along for the party. The OM-D for video and off the piste stills; the E5 for stills only.

Now that was for the record, drafted on the fly just now - after the OM-D was announced today. I became aware of OM-D rumours via the DP review website only a week or so ago - a 24th Jan leak regarding a new OM-D camera.

Get a taste of New Zealand .... in the UK... only cheaper

One could conclude, after reading a NZ Herald article that the only good thing about New Zealand is the air you get to breathe there.

The article I am referring to compares the price of New Zealand produce in places like the UK, where I am, with prices back at home, where the produce is produced!

This is an arse about face story.

Why is Steinlager much cheaper overseas?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10783093

The article starts off as follows:

A major New Zealand beer costs almost three times as much here than in the United States or Britain. A six-pack of Steinlager Pure typically sells for about $16 in New Zealand. But travel 10,000km from where it is brewed, to America, and it can be bought for about $6.

And at British supermarket Asda, a six-pack of Classic sells for the equivalent of just over $4.

Lion Breweries, which makes the beer, says the prices fall in line with its competitors overseas and reflect the different marketplaces.

But it isn't just beer; the article goes on, quoting Steinlager's external relations guru:

"In the wine market in the UK, for example, the supermarket environment is very competitive so that's influenced the price of New Zealand wine [being sold there]." Many New Zealand-made products were cheaper overseas, she said. "If you look at any category you will find the same thing. The price of New Zealand butter in Europe... could well be cheaper than here".

Add to this, the galling additional fact that the average net salary in common currency terms - even if these $NZD pumped up currency times - a Kiwi bloke in the UK is even better off than his poor country cousins back in God-zone*.

And now that I know that I can get cheap-as-anything NZ Steinlager at Asda in the UK, I might just go out and get some. I'll send some through to my poor cousins in New Zealand so I don't feel so bad about it.

*Well I don't have any stats to back that up, but it was well true 12 years ago when I arrived in the UK.

Soccer Fans Killing Each Other Off

Yesterday, the world watched soccer thugs killing soccer thugs, and also innocent soccer officials.

The article on the riots

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16848473

The Speaker Mohamed Saad al-Katatni said the riots were the "work of the devil".Well the devil is soccer football, fair and square.

Back in England the English captain is heading to court to defend a charge of racism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16825874

It seems everyday another football player is being had up for attacking black players, or raping a woman, or driving his range rover into a family. In the world of rugby Tindall got bollocked for kissing or hugging an ex-missus in a kiwi pub. That was about it.
Of course it could be an English thing - rather than a footy thing. But this blogrant started off as a result of thugs in Eygpt, and the offenders in the English Leagues are often as not South American players.
I am sure if there were more rugby players in the UK the same would be evident in that game right? Wrong.
Let's face it, football is a lovely game watched by mugs, played by a mixture of mugs and thugs, administered by top class thugs, and prone to in your face corruption - just look at Fifa.
Why should I be encouraging my boy to play with the round version of the ball? Well because all the young thugs do it, and he has to have some sort of relationship with Thug-world. He may even end of being a missionary within footy selling the message of sportsmanship. There is a Christian maxim: be in the world but not of the world.
I always say to my friends that I think footy is an evil occupation, even though most of them are football-oriented. I say it because there is no answer to it, and I like to see the look on their faces. I am losing my friends but winning a silly argument.
Because soccer is the Devil's game, rugby must be the Lord's game!
Well that shows how silly it is to bring the devil into all of this.  Let's hope for a clean opening weekend in the Six Nations rugby competition this weekend then, or I am undone.

The Asia-Europe Overlander 1999 Blog Goes Live



Roses and the romance of France in Vientiane - Laos (1999)

Folks, one of the great adventures of my life is finding it's way from my hard disk to cyber space.
While the photos can be found at Flickr (Flickr Collection of Photos) , the blog is now at http://theasiaeuropeoverlander1999.blogspot.com/
The blog will be updated nearly daily with a few more days of travel at a time.

Great Great Uncle Nevol Robarts-Arnold (100)

This post is to recall a dear family member, whom my children loved dearly, and who loved the children in return.

Summer 2011 on Seaton Beach with the family

Nevol Robarts-Arnold, passed away on January 12th, aged 100. The extended Robarts-Arnold family had only just celebrated his 100th in late October. In January an illness took hold; Nevol knew it was serious, the next day he had a stroke, and the following day Nevol was gone.
It is less than a year that we gathered to say goodbye to Nevol's sister in law, Victoria's Grandmother Evelyn Gwendoline Robarts-Arnold. Evelyn was 98.

Below, a link to some shots of Nevol, a great nephew's tribute by Nicholas Boggon (great nephew), and a bio by Nevol's nephew Peter Robarts-Arnold.

The Link
Photos on Flickr by me

Biography by Peter Robarts-Arnold

Nevol Robarts-Arnold
Born 1911 Hyde, Cheshire.
Attended Taunton School along with his brother.
His brother joined the Auxiliary Air Force and got his pilot’s license. Sibling rivalry dictated that Nevol did the same, but as his eyesight was not up to the necessary standard for pilot training in the RAAF, he went out and obtained one privately. The both were keen Rugby players in South Wales, playing for Penarth regularly, and Cardiff occasionally.
Joined Nat Prov bank, which subsequently became NatWest.
Joined the RAF on the outbreak of war on the Admin side, and saw service at home and abroad, notably in Aden and the Middle East.
Rejoined the bank after the war, where he remained until retirement, moving around the country as required, but ending up in London. He remained an active member of the Auxiliary Air Force for many years, and amongst other interests he rode and owned horses.
On retirement, taken quite early, he moved to Seaton to look after his aging parents, in an adjoining house to his brother’s in Old Beer Road.
He also obtained a degree in Geology from the Open University, and during this period did a lot of traveling worldwide on field trips in relation to his course, and also just for pleasure.
After his parents died,and prior to the site on which his house sat being redeveloped, he bought a flat in Exmouth and went to live there. He was invariably back in Seaton every week for Sunday lunch with his sister-in-law and other members of the family. After a few accidents he decided he’d give up driving when he was 94, and thereafter various family members would collect him and deliver him back for his weekly trips back to Seaton.
Having enjoyed pretty good health for most of his life he started to need more help than could be provided at long distance, so he returned to live in Seaton with his niece, at the house which would have been his brother’s, should he have survived. It was there that he celebrated his 100th birthday with a big family party at the house.
He was in comparatively good health until about a week before he died, his only serious problems being with his sight and hearing. 

His great sense of humour carried him through all eventualities, made him excellent company and he was never known to complain about anything.
He never married although he had managed to escape the attentions of many seemingly quite serious girlfriends over his lifespan. But despite having no offspring of his own he supported generously those of his brother financially and otherwise, and was highly regarded by them in this role as well as his fun loving attitude to life.

Tribute to Nevol (Neve) - by Nicholas Boggon

Neve was my great-uncle and a good friend.  I was lucky to spend a fair amount of time in his company, a small part of his long life.
Often we would sit and talk over a cup of tea surrounded by all his books, about old times, cars we had owned and dismantled, how teaching me to drive in his old jag was the worst thing he had ever done, the dangers of going sailing with Papa, all the rugby matches, who to support? Wales or England? a contentious subject in our family as you all know.
Sometimes I would ask about his childhood, and Neve would tell me about the time he saw zeppelins flying over London during the First World War, and how he was allowed to ride his motorbike to school. He would talk about driving before the invention of traffic lights (oh the good old days) he would chant. Traveling on tramp steamers, and some of his walking holidays to interesting places. Janie thought he was a spy because chaos usually followed his visits.
He also told me how he went on a bicycle trip round parts of France after WWII, sleeping in ditches at night, he said he was never cold which doesn’t surprise me.

But there was a lot Neve would not talk about, his time in the RAF during the Second World War, the time he spent looking after his parents when they grew very old, and of course all the help and concern he lavished on all of us.
I would like to thank Janie, Peter, Hillary and everyone else who with love and care have looked after Neve during the last few years, and to Neve wherever you are, I hope you shine as brightly as you deserve. 

 The email that told us all, from Victoria on her phone while at work

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Jansen [mailto:ajvx@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 11 January 2012 13:23
To: Spratt Phillipa
Cc: Andrew Jansen
Subject: Nev

Not sure if mummy has contacted you yet she has just left me a message saying Nev has had a stroke and is not expected to recover. I haven't yet spoken to her in person (am on the bus composing myself- ) it sounds like he's at woodlands & being kept comfortable.

Big hug

Vx

 That night, Jane rang up and asked to be able to tell Thomas. As she did, Thomas's jaw dropped open and tears welled up.  It is touching thing to see people grieving for one loved.  It is a precious thing to be part of a family and to be able to stand beside them.

Evelyn was beside Thomas, concerned for his own state, but not quite old enough to take it in that Nevol has passed away.

I knew Nevol from Christmas 1995, when I met Victoria's family for the first time in Devon, so I knew Nevol for 16 years. He will be missed.