I used to travel to Belgium and Holland a lot. After a couple of trips, I felt obliged to stop at a random cemetery of the many you see as you drive about.. Beautifully kept but row upon row upon row of headstones. And that was just a small one. I’ve also been to the Menin Gate and seen them stop them traffic for the Last Post, as they do every single day, one hundred years on. The WW1 museum in Ypres in the old cotton market is worth a visit too. lt was completely flattened in WW1, like the rest of the town, and had to be rebuilt. What a a job they did. We had a big site by the river near Arnhem. It regularly had to be evacuated when hand when WW2 explosive devices of various kinds were found. It makes you realise that although we think we had it hard in the UK, it’s nothing to what was endured on the other side of the Channel. The difference between WW1 and WW2 is that the former was really the last War of Kings whereas the latter was certainly Good versus Evil.
I see the headline in the Daily Mail today lauds the trade deal with America. US TRADE DEAL MADE BY BREXIT They left a word out. It should be: US TRADE DEAL MADE NECESSARY BY BREXIT
Those Chinese tech guys are really at the cutting edge aren't they? Mind you, sometimes I know how the robot feels.
I was shocked yesterday to see Trump descend from Air Force One live on TV in Saudi Arabia, not on the conventional red carpet, but a purple one. Whose idea was that? In ancient times, purple dye could be made only from extremely rare and therefore expensive raw materials and so it was reserved for emperors and the like. Henry VIII once sentenced a noble to death for wearing purple, perceiving it to signify an ambition to his throne. What are they trying to tell us? That in Trump’s America the end of democracy is nigh? Red carpet elected servants of the people replaced with purple carpet potentates?
He had a matching tie as well.....we do not know if he wore matching boxers....and we don't really need to know......
That is a very unpleasant thought. What's more I suppose is that cosying up to the Saudis and Qataris means the end of a traditional market for British defence equipment: both fly the Typhoon which is largely British, albeit wrapped in a European consortium.
Nice little prezzy from Qatar..... they gave him.....a luxury jumbo jet that will replace Air Force One whilst in the middle east. I bet the secret service will; be checking it out for hidden bugs with a fine toothed comb.
Could you ever have imagined a rightly proud country like the US accepting such a “gift” like this from another nation? Could you ever have imagined a US president whining about the quality of his official aircraft, which is of course designed in part to protect the President from attack and to ensure he can work while travelling and always be in communication with his government? It’s not supposed to be some gaudy knocking-shop.
"Emperor" Trump is just showing his true colours. He absolutely thinks he is entitled to do whatever he thinks fit and take whatever he thinks he should have. He is more of an embarrassment that Boris or Farage could ever be. Pity half of America can't see it but they will rue the day eventually.
How the mighty have fallen. Until I saw it trailed on TV yesterday, I was completely unaware it was the FA Cup final today. Even then, it’s. 4:30 kick off……
The Officials were as piss poor as normal. Still doesn't answer the question what is VAR for. Palace keeper who was their star of the show should not have been on the pitch after his handball outside the box. Blatant.
Who cares. Relegated to 4:30 and into 2nd place behind the Eurocrap “Song” Contest it may have been, but what a fantastic game it was. Dirty money beaten by a proper community football club. I’m over the moon. An emotional day in two ways. Yuki Tsunoda had a terrible crash at the Tamburello at the Imola Grand Prix, just yards from where Ayrton Senna was killed back in 1994. Huge increases in safety largely inspired by the late, great Professor Sid Watkins prevented another fatality today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Watkins
Some chap from Austria won the song contest....who sounded as if his "private parts" where clamped in a vice and he was hanging by a rope from the ceiling.
YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP. Poundland is going to be sold for.......wait for it.........A POUND. Bargain change store Poundland is due to be sold off for a pound this week.....reports state as a range of bidders circle the embattled retailer. The nominal fee is because of the significant turnaround project required by the buyer to reverse its declining performance. But thousands of jobs are at risk as stores are shut to save the brand as part of any rescue package. Frontrunners in the takeover race have reportedly identified around 200 loss-making Poundland shops. The company is owned by the Warsaw-listed Polish retailer Pepco Group and it employs 15,000 people across 825 stores. But the chain's financial fortunes have plummeted in recent months. Sunday Express..18/05/2025. If everything is sold for a pound...logically as things get dearer their range of goods will decline to stay within the price limit.....and one day they won't have anything to sell.....unless they change name of the shop say to TWO POUNDLAND.
The VAR rationale was that there was no clear goal scoring opportunity. There should though have been a free kick for handball but there wasn’t: presumably the ref didn’t see the handball at all and oddly that couldn’t be reversed by VAR. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of VAR. I am just delighted that Man City lost.
Buying a business that has enormous problems for £1 is commonplace. A contract has to have consideration, so it’s not possible to give things away! No doubt there will be bad news for some but it’s either that or the whole thing collapses.
Poundland charge more than £1 for at least half it's stuff. I'm not a fan of the rich and famous in football because it has made leagues a bit lopsided and boring in some cases. Ergo not a supporter of Man C. It's the football bit of what happened yesterday not the team involved for me. VAR is a joke. On a personal lebel I couldn't care less who won the game, it wasn't my lot so it doesn't matter.
Bit of an oddity this week. We have been finding GIANT bees around this past week at least twice the size of bumble bees.......we never come across any in flight.....we find them on working services or on the patio. We pick them up with a cloth etc.....they never seem to react.....they never try to fly off....just a little odd seeing them walking around.
That’s the latest Russian drones you’ve got there. Just give them the postcode for the Mildenhall or Lakenheath airbases and they’ll be gone. Nearly said they’d buzz off but that would have been childish.
