No choice: Lord Young returns: Million miles Honda: ‘Ampshire Zombosium: Life on Earth: and fat cats.

Not a clue about the meteorological conditions at the Castle this morn-too dark to see, but it is warmish and calmish.

The study is chock a thingy with ailing do-dahs, his Maj is stalking things in the lack of light and I have to go to Pets’ City/smart/at home for some pussy litter.

Democracy?

It is with a heavy heart that I see that the EU referendum was shot down by the new Lib/Con/Lab Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club Coalition.

It seems that 483 anally retentive “MPs” have decided that 62ish million people in dear old Blighty will not be given a voice over whether or not to stay in the money pit known as the “European Union” which of course started out at the “European Economic Community” a free trade pact designed to allow countries to carry out business without political interference.

I think it was on “Question Time” last week that a point was put to the “panel”-“now that the dictator in Libya has gone: when will ours go?”

Order! Order.

And:

11 months ago “Lord” Young shuffled out of no10 after telling us that we  had "never had it so good" declaring that low interest rates meant home-owners were actually better off thanks to the "so-called recession".

Allegedly the 79-year-old Conservative is returning to his former Downing Street role just 11 months after he stepped down, according to The Telegraph.

Officials have reportedly converted a No 10 meeting room into an office for the peer to use in his unpaid role that will focus on finding ways of removing barriers to growth for small and medium size companies.

Downing Street said it was unable to confirm the appointment. It is understood, however, that an announcement is expected shortly.

Hopefully that the whole bloody useless lot of them are being evicted.

Left a lot to the land of straight roads

LoCicero, 53 was honoured with a surprise parade and given a 2012 Accord on Sunday afternoon after racking up more than 1 million miles on his trusted older model, nicknamed “True Blue” for its light-blue exterior.

He is the first person documented by the car manufacturer to have driven a Honda to the million-mile mark, according to a company spokeswoman.

LoCicero said he’s not sure what he’ll do with the 1990 Accord now that he has a new model, also made in Ohio. He’s tried to sell the older model to a few car dealers recently for $1 million, hoping they’d want to display it to advertise the longevity of Honda vehicles. 

I do like an optimist......

Dahn in ‘Ampshire

The University of Winchester is to hold a Zombosium on Friday, 17 speakers will give talks on how the living dead have infected popular culture.

‘The conference has a serious purpose,’ said organiser Dr Marcus Leaning, lecturer in the school of media and film. ‘You should study popular culture if you want to understand society. Zombies reflect the anxieties and concerns people have. One idea is that it’s due to austerity, another that it stems from the ‘‘climate of fear’’ after al-Qaeda. No-one really believes in zombies but it’s a way of thinking about big scary things such as a terrorist attack. It’s cathartic.’

No it isn’t; its bollocks.....

A nice picture of Human life on Earth.

And fat cats.

That’s it: I’m orf to grow some meat

And today’s thought: "Law will be simplified over the next century. Lawyers will have diminished, & their fees will have been vastly curtailed." - Journalist Julius Henri Browne, 1893

Angus

THE big day: PPP Dave C is upping the game: “Companion Animals”: Noosa bums: Fishzillas: and …bless.

It is finally here, the day that the world has been waiting for, the weather is perfect-slightly cloudy. Not too hot or cold and calm.

All the preparations are made, the crowds have been gathering for days in anticipation, the barriers are up, the police cordon is in place and the worlds press are ensconced in temporary towers with cameras trained on the “arena”.

The excitement is building and you can feel the electricity in the air, and with military precision at exactly 10.59am on this Friday morn………………..I will step into the courtyard and begin washing the Honda.

Well……….there’s not much else going on…..is there?

Piss Poor Policies Dave C (or U-turn Cam as he will henceforth be known) is at it again.

In an interview broadcast on US TV network CBS last night, U-turn Cam was asked whether he could envisage arming the rebel forces "in a more significant way".

He replied: "I wouldn't rule that out, but what we have done so far is we've helped the rebels, in line with the UN resolution 1973, to protect civilian life by giving them better communications equipment."

Downing Street stressed that there were no current plans to arm Libyan rebels.

Yeah right.

According to “Academics”

Animal lovers should stop calling their furry or feathered friends “pets” because the term is insulting.

Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers”, they insist.

Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned – who should instead be known as “free-living”, the academics including an Oxford professor suggest.

The call comes from the editors of the Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted to the issue.

I no longer have an “animal companion” but when I did she didn’t care what I called her as long as her food bowl was full, and there was a nice warm lap available.

Dahn Unda

The Nude Olympics is on this weekend on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, with about 500 people expected to compete.

The annual event at Alexandria Bay Beach in the Noosa National Park was due to be held in March but had to be postponed due to floodwaters damaging the walking tracks to the beach.

Organiser Dean says the emphasis on Sunday's event is having fun rather than winning gold medals.

"We do a lot of beach sprints, egg-throwing contests, conga lines, marathons, tug of wars," he said.

"There's a whole bucket load of stuff we do, but like I say, the emphasis is more on fun and camaraderie than out-and-out blood and guts glory.

"As in most events the umpire's decision is final, but when we get down to events like the men and women's 'best bum' or the 'magnificent mums' we usually have to fight the judges off with a stick because everybody wants to get involved with presenting those medals."

What a crack!

Across to Brooklyn

A man has been accused of illegally importing nearly 4,000 snakehead fish, otherwise known as 'Fishzillas'.

The Brooklyn seafood importer has been accused of illegally importing the predatory freshwater creature that has been outlawed in New York State since 2004.

Yong Hao Wu, a co-owner of Howei Trading, Inc., of Brooklyn, faces up to four years in prison if convicted on charges of felony commercialisation of wildlife and importing fish dangerous to indigenous fish populations.

Snakeheads are air-breathers and can travel short distances over land, writhing their body and fins until they reach a suitable aquatic habitat, according to prosecutors.

That’s handy-a fish that eats its own chips.

And finally:

Get your hankies out

After discovering a teeny tiny baby rabbit abandoned by its mum in their garden, an American family realised it was paraplegic and set about crafting it an appropriately small cart-type contraption to help it get around.

Meals on wheels.

That’s it: I’m orf to count Blue Hares.

And today’s thought: "We have a firm commitment to NATO; we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe." - Dan Quayle

Angus

OLD CARS

Posting this today because I won't be around on Sunday.

We are now well beyond “first cars” but we were faithful to Triumph.

Our next car once the Vitesse had gone was the Triumph 1300 FWD, a four-door saloon that was very well equipped and comfortable.

The 1300 was front wheel drive, Triumphs first, and the engine was “fore and aft” with the gearbox under the engine, not transverse, as in the Leyland cars.

This layout provided advantages because the engine was very easy to work on, but strangely it was the only FWD that Triumph ever produced, they did come up with an updated version but it was never produced.

Because it was such an ugly bugger.

We had her for a while still doing the “Sunday Run” until one day we were in North Camp, I was turning left off the main road and was braking, unfortunately the lorry driver behind us was watching a young lady on the other side of the road and managed to smash into the rear of our Triumph.

Because it had no headrests the next week or so was spent in a neck collar, with whiplash.

I never brought another car without headrests.

A friend of ours had just bought a MK2 Jag, he went for the 3.8 manual, shame really because the 3.4 was almost as fast but the handling was much better.

I like the MK2 it is very pretty and comfortable, but I found it a bit cramped; there wasn’t much elbowroom. Another problem was the lack of space around the engine, and yet another problem was the brakes, they worked OK, but when he was showing me the engine he managed to crimp a small tube. We went out on a test drive and there were no brakes! The tube he crimped was the vacuum feed to the “brake booster”.

So we decided against a jag, and instead bought a Honda Accord 1.8, 3 doors, which we named the space shuttle.

Because the interior was full of switches, buttons and dials, a real “boy toy”, it was ultra comfortable and reliable. But had the "Honda Rot" as they all did in those days, the most dangerous "rot" was the feed tube from the petrol cap to the tank. You would pull into the garage to fill up and end up standing in a gallon of petrol.

And that really is the end of “old cars” we stuck with Hondas until today, mind you my Honda civic is 18 years old, I just don’t get on with new cars.

We had many happy years touring around and visiting our favourite, and new places, still making friends and enjoying our old cars.

Driving was a pleasure then, no road rage and not many jams, much more civilised, not like now, but as they say that is the price of progress.

One more thing, pop over to http://ritaismypal.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment for our Rita.

Angus