Merry Blooming Christmas

We were woken early in the morning not by Santa coming down the chimney but the flaming phone. First I looked at the clock and realized it was only 6:30am. It had to be my cousin Bob calling from BC as it was 2:30 his time and he was probably drunk and lonely as his family went off to bed .So what does he usually do; he calls us.

Then the voice said it is Alan. So I thought it was my brother-in-law calling from England. Right Country wrong Alan but it was an a good friend named Alan, who we met several years before in Cuba. He and his dear wife Marg called to wish us a very Merry Christmas. Yes the day had started off to be a very good day. We opened the champagne and mixed it with orange juice to toast them.

What a great way to start off the day. To be remembered by dear friends.

Merry Blooming Christmas to all and to all a Good Day.

Arabella Churchill

It has been over 35 years since since I last spent anytime with Arabella. I remember we met at Glastonbury at some party. Her and a Andrew Kerr talking about having a free festival in the Shepton Mallet area. Hence the Glastonbury festival was reborn it was in 1971. I worked on the first pyramid, it was made out of plastic sheeting and steel piping. It was suppose to be 1/10 the size of the one in Giza. I remember seeing sun dogs around it at the festival during one of the concerts, we turned to one another and said it was Angels.

I was saddened to hear about her passing away as she was a very beautiful person both inside and outside. She will be missed by one and all.

Trash or Treasure????

Well it has been an interesting few days here in Dartmouth, NS. You always hear that your home is your Castle. Well we woke up on Friday am. I went into our storage locker which is on the 3rd. floor same floor as what we live on. Saw that the stuff we have was strewn all across the floor and various storage boxes and medal cases from my self and my Fathers campaign medals were open and empty on the floor.

So I called the Supt. and said We have been broken into. I then called the police. Apparently a burglar had gotten into all the on floor storage lockers and did his or her Xmas shopping.

So the police came and on second look found nothing missing. They did managed to find our safe in the locker and didn't have time to break into it. They stole all the Xmas gifts that our friends had bought from their locker on the 5th. floor. I guess they did not have anymore space for our stuff. So the day went on.

I moved the safe back into our unit. then about 4 am on sat morning. I heard a noise in the hall way that wasn't normal. saw a figure breaking into our locker again. So I opened the door and went after him. Got enough of a description that he was spending the weekend in the local jail.

Again nothing was taken.!!!!

So I guess what we think is Treasure is someone else's Junk. Our stuff was not worth stealing even on the second attempt.
I think that is what upsets us the most. Even thieves have standards I guess.

A Glastonbury Tale

Well you have all heard of the Tales written by Chaucer. Well these are not so famous about my time in Glastonbury more infamous.

When I lived in Glasonbury I lived on the moors with the gypsies down Chancery Lane ( I believe). But before that we lived at the foot of the Glastonbury Tor in a Green Ford Thames van. Which for some reason we called it the orange bus. I cannot remember the reason d'être.

I was a vegetarian at the time it was the only way to get laid. As all the Hippy Girls were all non meat eaters, although they all wore leather etc. I worked in Appleby's Meat Processing Plant for 16.00 pounds a week they were located on the High Street.( that will be another story). Should I am Asked. When I used to get paid each week. We went to the local Farmer up the road and bought a barrel of Scrumpy Cider for a couple of quid. You knew it was good if the meat he threw into it the day before dissolved and only left the bone.

We had a Heinz 57 type of mongrel black dog or pup called Wearyall. He was born in the shadow of the Wearyall Hill were the Glastonbury Holy Thorn Tree was planted according to legend by Joseph of Arimathea. One Night close to the summer solitice there was 10 or 15 of us plus the dog. We were playing guitars and drinking Scrumpy and we had a large bon fire going. The stupid dog kept running through the fire ( jim always said the dog was brain dead) or playing with it. So as he was getting kind of singed I grabbed him and dunked him into the cider barrel to cool him off. He kept jumping into the fire and the more we dunked him in the cider , you guessed it he kept falling over from the cider

. As it was scrumpy we never tasted burnt hair of dog anyways. As it was so rut gut anyways but cheap and hit you like a mac truck.

Wearyall got so drunk he passed out on the ground and we continued to party until the sun came up and then marched up the Tor to see the sunrise. And to then run down the Tor at full tilt completely sozzeled, Hoping you did not fall over and break something.


The same day the local paper came out in Glastonbury. With the headlines " Hippies Sacrificing Animals to the Fire Gods last night at the foot of the Tor."

The dog was fine; a little hung over but no worse for wear. We tied him up in future; to stop sharing the cider with him.

Some People call me a HumpBack

Some people call me a Humpback,
I say, " That is a lie,"
"It is not that I have a Hump in my Back."

My Tie is caught in my Fly.
Oh, yah.

And I think I am going to die,
Oh, yah.

I am wearing a Bow Tie.
Oh, yah.

Flipping my Wig

They are coming to take me away today,
They are coming to take me away today,
To the Funny Farm,
Where the Birds and Bee's and the Flowers and the Tree's,
They are coming to take me away today,
Where everything is wonderful all day long,
To the funny Farm.

HA,HA,HA,HE,HE,HE


( This song is the Funny Farm song- You can find it with the original sound track at) http://www.funnybody.com/takemeaway.mp3

Male Selective Hearing "Myth or Real"

We have all heard of "Male Selective Hearing", which seems to be aliment which inflicts not only Men; but Women as well.

It is true when my spouse is chatting to me about something and the Telly is on, I am reading a book or the newspaper. What information she maybe trying to impart to me is going in one ear and out the other.

I just like to say that "men" are not the only ones who are bothered by this problem. "Women" are as guilty as we are.

The situations may be different but the same outcome. For example, how many of you gentlemen get into the family car after your wife or spouse has driven it for a time and notice that the radio is full blast. You turn on the car and straight away the radio's volume blows you out of the car. So what do you do you turn down or turn off the radio and take the car out for a drive or to get some more beer etc.

There is a strange noise that wasn't there before, a ping or clank, the engine sounds a little different that normal. So you listen to it for a while then it dawns on you what the trouble maybe. This I am sure our resident expert from the Jungle could explain better than I. About the Male's role in the wild listening out for sounds that could have negative effect on his safety and that of his family.

" Female Selective Hearing" has occurred. So you get home and ask if your wife has noticed anything different with the car lately, some noise, rattle? They always say " I heard that didn't know what it was so I turned up the radio so it would go away."

A case in point. I was out for a walk yesterday to meet my wife on her way home from work. I was cutting through the Dartmouth Sportsplex parking lot. When I heard this awful clank, clank, clank coming from behind me. I though it was Jason with his chain saw. Turned and saw this little old dear driving this grey car coming into the parking lot. As she got out of the car the music was deafening. I told her about the noise I was hearing as she was driving and said it sounds like the CV Joints or drive shaft about to give way.

She turned to me and glared " What noise, I do not hear anything." So I left it like that and continued to ponder in amazement on why I even bothered.

So you see, it affects us all. Sometimes in the same way; other times a little different but it still get's us both. "Male Selective Hearing" Bah Humbug!!!!!!!!!!

RRSP's not for everyone

Went to the TD Bank this morning to meet with the Mortgage Broker to discuss our potential renewal.
We would have a 16.00 penalty today if we early renewed now. Although we could save .567 % on the interest. Should we keep up the payments like we are , no mortgage in 4 years 21 weeks.

We could also go LOC and pay the principal anytime, but higher interest ; prime plus 2%.

Interesting factoid, was told that RRSP's are basically useless to someone if they end up with a good pension from their employer when they retire. Just because of the claw backs that the Tax man puts on it. They are very useful if one has no pension to fall back on and should the person start when they are younger. Or you stay within a smaller wage scale all your life.

So it is better for us to pay down the mortgage as quickly as possible as we are doing, than to invest in RRSP's. There is always the stock market but we went that route and lost big time on the Tech. stocks esp. Nortel. That we transferred over from Mutual's to RRSP"S.

Also got two ballots for the TV draw. What to do , What to do???????