Good News Day

Isn't it strange when what starts out to be a very ordinary day takes a turn for the better and really works out well. Today was just that, normal boring old wednesday when suddenly my internet provider makes my day by giving me a free upgrade and speeding me up to 2gb. Whoopee no more waiting for files to download, ok it's not lightspeed but when you've been used to 512k this is fast. The second thing that's made today good is the news that our government have recognized what we all knew and endorsed Jamie Oliver's campaign to improve the food served in school Dining rooms, and pledged to spend 220 million pounds to help with the programme that Jamie has started. Big thanks go out from me to all who voted at his website.

I have been a little slow in updating over the last few days but we have spent a lot of time over the holiday weekend redecorating the house and I still have 4 new doors to hang. and new handles and locks to fit, and being the world's most ham fisted carpenter is not a help.
I have been following the case of Terri Schiavo and I am deeply saddened by this and while I have great sympathy for Her Parents I feel my support must go to her Husband surely by now it is time that this sad case is brought to an end and the lady be allowed a dignified and peaceful passing to the next world. May She find happiness and peace there.

Does anyone remember the Tranformers I loved the cartoon series and recently saw something that brought back some good memories Citroen cars have the most amazing commercial for their C4 model. You can see it at this site go to the page for the C4 and click on see the commercial

http://www.citroen.co.uk/c4/homepage.asp?pagetype=c4

P.S what has happened to Cranky Pants, Her blog seems to have disappeared anyone know

Bye for now, Ogri

IDon't Believe It

I like to read biographies,the lives and experiences of people can be both interesting and inspiring, but something I heard yesterday on a T.V. programme absolutely amazed me. A 19 year old member of a manufactured "Boy Band" has just had his autobiography published. Now am I being cynical or perhaps just a little sarcastic but I'm not sure if I really want to read about how he got potty trained and what type of sandwich his mum put in his lunch box. This is the kind of exploitation that makes me mad, Teenage girls will spend their money on this book, and will gain absolutely nothing from it.I regard this in the same light as Mc******s and B****r K**g putting toys into their fast food in order to tempt small children to pester their parents into taking them into their establishment. It is about time that the Government got off their butts and did something about this, we are constantly told that child obesity is becoming a problem and parents should teach their kids to eat well, but allow this sort of exploitation.

Victor Meldrew, eat your heart out. Ogri

Inked Up.

In my profile I have listed Tattoos as one of my interests, from this you might think that as an ex-biker I am covered from head to toe in artwork. Well sorry to burst your bubble but I only have two and they are both placed where they cannot be seen when I'm dressed for the street.The reason for this was that I used to work in an industry where appearance was a priority and my employer took a dim view of tattoos,so mine had to be hidden However I am very interested in the history of this artform, which it is believed goes back to ancient Egypt and fascinated by the different things which people will do to "customise " their bodies.Today we see tattooing , Piercing, and all manner of body modifcation on the street every day. and many of the younger folks seem to delight in it.certainly a particular young lady that I saw recently while shopping may have trouble with metal detectors at airports , she had about 50 piercings that were visible and recently onT.V. there was an asian lady who has over 600!

Well that's today's offering, I wish You All, A Happy Easter

You Can Blame Sir Francis Drake

Many wives complain of being "GolfWidows", H.B. has a different reason to complain for she is a "Bowls Widow". My Involvement with this sport is both a passion and a time consuming hobby,seen by many as an old mans pastime I have found it to be a sport which requires skill and mental application.

For those who are unfamiliar with the game I will try to explain a little about the sport.
Bowls is a game played on a grass or artificial surface which in the variant I play is flat and smooth ( there is another type of bowls played on a contoured green called Crown Green ). It can be an indivual game but may also have teams of 2,3,or 4 players on each side.
The object of the game is for each team or player to bowl their "Woods" closest to a small white or yellow ball which is called the Jack or Kitty. Which can be a distance of between19 and 23 metres points are scored for each of the team or player's bowls which are nearer to the kitty than their opponents. The game is played over between 18 & 21 "Ends" this being the number of times each player has bowled all of their woods, each end being played from the opposite end of the playing surface. The woods or bowls are not perfectly round but have a "Bias" which causes them to curve when bowled thus enabling a player to move around an opponent's bowl.
for more information on the rules of bowls go to this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A235063

If this has arouses your interest please go to your local club where I am sure you will find people who will be pleased to meet you and help all they can.

By the way the reference to Sir Francis Drake is from the legend that he played bowls on Plymouth Hoe before sailing to fight the Spanish Armada.

Bye for today and to any bowlers out there "Have a Good Season" Ogri

Sunday Sundae

Hi,All, It's been a strange weekend, with yesterdays temperatures up to 19'C and today like a dull old november day

A few congratulations are in order
#1 Well done to the England Rugby Union team on thieir victory in the Calcutta Cup
#2Congratulations to Wales for their Grand Slam Win ( See we English can be magnanimous in defeat.)
#3 A MASSIVE Big Up to Jamie Oliver as it was announced today that his campagn to improve the quality of food served to school children seems to be suceeding

PLEASE go to this website and join the army of people supporting Jamie in this venture

http://www.feedmebetter.com/

Ok thats me off of the soapbox, but I really do believe in this and urge everyone to give their support.

Bye For Now, Ogri.

Lets get down and dirty

You may have noticed that in my profile I list one of my interests as erotica, by this I mean all forms of erotic material, movies, pictures , and most of all the written word. As I have said before I love to read and erotic stories are great fun and a form of escapism that can entertain and educate. I was quite young I'm not sure maybe 12 years old when a friend produced a copy of Lady Chatterleys Lover, which he had purloined from his father,as youngsters we avidly absorbed this less than erotic, but beautifully written novel, and my interest in this form of writing has never waned. I seem to have read a large number of books on an S&M theme which is very odd as the idea of causing pain to another person (or receiving it myself) is something I could not do. .However if as an adult individual you wish to read on the subject of S&M try the authors Aran Ash and Josephine Scott, they both seem to write from experience rather than fantasy.

Change of subject. Today I am going to plug an internet site which I have found to be a goldmine of information for anyone who has an interest in adult movies.

The British Girls Adult Film Database http://www.bgafd.co.uk/

This is a huge database in a very easy to use format, you can search by actress's name or by Film title and gives plenty of info on both films and stars. It also has a couple of forums and a comprehensive link area. There are reviews of films and links to individual actress's websites and Yahoo groups, Check out the forums as there are often links to free samples of movies and pictures of your favorite stars BTW Mine is currently Rebekah Jordan, a delightfully dirty blonde, but this like everything else is subject to change.

I leave you today with this thought Why do gentlemen prefer blondes, answer Because they get dirty more easily.

Happy, Saturday, Ogri

A Question of Time

I have had a life long fascination with time, not only am I very intolerant of people who are bad time keepers but am personally fanatical about timekeeping. It is almost an obsession to always be at an appointment at least 5 minutes early,and if for some reason I am late it drives me crazy. Speaking to family members it seems that as a child I was always completely fascinated with watches,and clocks and learned to tell the time at a very young age. This has developed into a mania for wrist watches and I currently own about 30, ranging from very cheap plastic cased digitals to my prized possessions, a Rolex and an Omega.In fact when we toured the far east in 1999 I purchased no less than 7. I can never leave the house not wearing a watch, in fact the first thing I do when I wake is to put on my watch.

Writing of our trip to the far east has put me in mind of something which I had not thought of and that is a memory of buying a "fake" Rolex divers watch from a night street market on Koh Samui, the stall holder was a ladyboy and the purchase was the end result of 25 minutes of bartering of the most hilarious kind bringing the price down from the original £40 to £6!

This has also reminded me that I have been remiss in not finding out the extent of the damage done to the island by the tsunami, I will do this as soon as I can and I hope and pray that the wonderfull people of this beautiful place are not too badly affected.
Thailand has in some way been given a bad name due to the so called "sex tourists" and I know from experience that there are some who will not visit for this reason, They are missing out on a country of great beauty, culture, and a people who are one of the friendliest I have ever met. The Grand Palace in Bangkok is worth the journey alone. Another time I will tell more of our time in Thailand and also of Hong Kong.

More haste ,Less speed.

I have always been an impatient person, and I think that this is one of my worst attributes,as anyone can tell by the number of typing mistakes seen here. Last night , after watching the last part of the latest Most Haunted Live, a T.V.programme to which I am completely addicted, I decided to split and post a movie to one of my favorite forums,a new trick for me but you can't lurk forever, it's rude and ungrateful to the others that post.
I opened HJsplit and inputted the file and gave it the go ahead, and lo and behold produced 104 split files! Each of 1.2 k. That will teach me to read the instructions before jumping in with both feet. 20 mins of deleting files later and I'm ready for try 2. This time I screwed myself by forgetting that Rapidshare will only accept a maximum file size of 30000 kb. So delete the files and try again go success! So If you decide to post movies try not to copy my cockups and use these few tips.

#1 create a temporary folder to work from, this will make deleting the files much easier when you are done.Just delete the whole folder( after moving the original file back to it's permanent location)
#2 set the split file size to a maximum of 28 mb. The largest that Rapidshare will accept.
#3 Read the instructions before starting and this way you won't end up being a dork like me.

Finally don't be afraid to ask for help, at your forums there are like minded folks who will help, not everyone in cyberspace is looking to rip you off, there are some genuine people out there.

Changing the subject, I am an insomniac, I have always been a "night owl" but of late I find it increasingly hard to sleep, and the strangest thoughts seem to pop into my head in the wee small hours,which have no connection to the things I have done during the day.
I spend an inordinate amount of time after midnight sitting at my computer and browsing sites that would normally hold no interest, but sometimes you luck out and find a real gem.I suppose that is the real pleasure of the internet.

Happy surfing, Ogri

Slow day

Not a lot to say today, Monday is a slow day for me.after all the excitement of spending 3 hours at Homebase buying paint on Sunday what could be more thrilling.

I have looked back on the last few posts and a certain melancholy seems to have esablished itself, so from now on I am going to try to be a little more upbeat and look for a better attitude.

one thing that has given me some amusement is this website http://www.dumblaws.com/index.
some of the amazing things that legislators find to make laws for or against are just beyond me.

Anyhow see for yourself, it may amuse you.

They Lied To You

When we were kids our parents and relatives had many things that were said to us to teach us how life was to be, They lied. Here is the proof

#1 Money can't buy you happiness. I've never seen a miserable millionaire

#2 the meek shall inherit the earth. Yeah 6'x3'

#3 Smoking stunts your growth. I'm 5'11" tall and weigh 260lbs. Please tell me when it's going to work

#4 Masturbating makes you go blind. Untrue after extensive laser treatment and the best lenses Japan can supply I have now sold my seeing eye dog and got rid of my white stick.

#5 Eating carrots makes you see in the dark. Rubbish, I had carrots for dinner and still fell over coming home from the pub.

#6 Cleanliness is next to godliness. Whatever this piece of bollocks means I don't know. How physical hygiene can be linked to spirituality is inconceivable to me.

#7 Always wear clean underwear in case you are run over by a bus. If you are run over by a bus the first thing you are going to do is shit your self , so why bother.

Enough nonsense for today, I'll leave you with another short verse

Spring has sprung ,
The sprung has spring,
They say the bird is on the wing,
But that's absurd,
The wing is on the bird.

Do I Believe

Well I have just finished watching a 3 hour live t.v. show investigating a "haunted house",and sit here wondering if we are being conned or is there really something in this whole ghost thing .I personally have never seen a ghost or anything I could claim was a ghost, but I still am not sure,there have been so many reported paranormal experiences that I find it hard to be a complete skeptic.

One experience which did make me think happened to a family member so I doubt that the story is untrue.

About 1 year after the passing of my father, one of my nieces,who's math grades had consistently been below average suddenly seemed to drastically improve her performance, when questioned nothing had changed at school
but she said that whenever she did not know how to complete any of her math assignments her grandpa would come and help her. This was strange as both her grandfathers had passed away by this time. I cannot give any explanation for this and neither could her parents.

I am still not sure but I live in hope that maybe there is something after this,and that we will be reunited with our friends, loved ones,and even our pets in another plane of existence. I have been told by some that there are no animals in the afterlife as they have no soul, this I pray is wrong for the companionship of my pets has been a joy to me in my life and I would like to thinks that when they pass on it is to a better place.

Things to be thankful for

In a better mood today, thanks to a little help from my friends. It's great to know that when things are bad and life sucks there are friends both old and new , who can do a little something to cheer you up.After yeserdays misery blog I felt really down but a visit from an old friend with some good news and a bit of kindness from a new friend ( I'm not going to name either of you. you know who you are) put me right back in a good frame of mind.

Another thing to give thanks for today is the person who invented traction control, last night we were coming home from a quiz at our social club and the roads were lethal, I hit a patch of black ice and really thought for a moment that I was going to lose it but the traction control kicked in and the back end didn't step out at al. Good job coz 2 1/2 tons of s.u.v can do a lot of damage(came 3rd out of 22 in the quiz b.t.w.)

Gotta go now coz I've got a doc's appt and then some chores to do. LOL Ogri

Black Day

Well the day I dreaded has finally come. Play a dirge, fly the flag at half mast,beat your chest and moan, for Ogri mad biker supreme has hung up his helmet for the last time.

A few months ago my orthopaedic surgeon told me that my right knee is now so badly damaged by arthrytis that it will have to be replaced and that the idea of riding a motorcycle was not exactly sensible, but being me I used my usual strategy of ignoring it and hoping that it would go away. But finally after a long talk with H.B. she managed to perseude me that I was being stupid as I was only going to get 1 shot at the knee replacement and if I screwed it up I would be walking like I'd crapped in my pants for the rest of my life.

So this morning Big Red, my beloved Honda V.F.R 750 left with craig ,her new owner .At least he seems like a good guy who will treat her well, I really do hope he has as good a time with her as I have had.

I will miss the cameraderie of fellow motorcyclists and promise to stay in touch with the guys and girls who I have met.What I wont miss are the geriatric volvo drivers who seem to develop myopia (short sightedness) whenever a bike comes within 1000 miles of them.

Oh well thats my whinge for today over, tomorrow is Red Nose day when "normal" people do crazy thing to raise funds for charity .Always good for a laugh watching people make twits of themselves for a good cause.

I end for today with a short poem with credit to the late Spike Milligan to whom i appologise forstealing his words.

So I tell you my dear, the meaning is clear.
If you are offered bad food dont eat it.
Turn the offer down flat,
Don your travelling hat,
put an egg in your boot
And beat it.


Love Y'all Ogri.

Tuesday Blues

Feeling a little down today. Cold weather is never good for me, My bones ache and the joints swell, aint arthrytis fun.The surgeon tells me that a new knee will be coming soon and I hope this will make things better. March and april are always my least favorite months as the weather just cant seem to make up tis mind what it wants to do.
just to make matters worse some unspeakable dunderhead decided to spam me with an e mail containing a worm
which my a.v. software failed to block. 5 hours later and I can use my p.c. again., someone should hunt down these idiots and shoot them with a blunderbus loaded with dogshit.Thanks to Agfh by the way for putting me on to some very usefull software, which has helped to clear out some of the kack that is spammed to all of us.

To any one who is reading , I think it might be interesting to start a list of people or organisations who would benefit from the blunderbuss and dogshit treatment, so I'll start of with a few and anyone can add if and when they wish
1) As stated before, people who send worms,viruses, and other computer related nuisances.
2) Politicians, an unspeakable breed who's only motivation is filling their own pockets.
3) Tradesmen who say they have fixed the problem and have really made it worse.

I could probably spend 365 days compiling this list but why should I do all the work, come on my mainly anonymous readers lets see what you can come up with.

Monday

Folks are strange! It amazes me as to just how perverse people can be and by that i don't mean dressing up in a wet suit and welding mask or a chicken outfit I mean that sometimes I cant quite figure out why people do the things they do.
example. lots of ladies wear a dress or skirt with a deep split in the front and then walk holding it closed. Why wear it if this is the result.

2nd Ex. Many times I have had said to me "oh I cant stand this or that food" and when questioned the person has never tried it ?

But my biggest and most perplexing thing is this strange breed of human who has decided that they are the self appointed arbiter of my morals. I am considerably over 21 and have an active enough brain to make a considered judgment of what I deem right or wrong to see or read.I don't need anybody to tell me what is good or bad, I reserve the right to make up my own mind.I this country we have many groups of " right minded citizens" who contantly comlain to all and sundry about everything. what they seem to not have the ability to realise is that we are not morons and it should be our privelege to decide.

If something offends you Don't look or listen. adults should be treated as adults I don't say that kids should be allowed to see inapropriate things but old guys like me can make up our own minds. after all a mind is a great thing . USE IT OR LOSE IT.

Weekend

I like to read, by this I mean Books, not newspapers as I discovered years ago that newspapers do not report news but will publish anything that will sell newspapers, as an example of this virtually all the "popular" U.K. papers are filled with stories involving soap operas, so called celebrities, and trivial garbage obout people that I do not know and do not wish to know about.
Books however are a different matter, it is not important if the volume is fact or fiction as long as the reader can make that distinction, some people,in my experience fail to do this and voice opinions based on fiction which can make for strange discussions.
Over the years Many authors have given me pleasure, both with factual and fiction. At times reality can be a bore so fiction of a speculative nature can be very entertaining, at other times the real lives and experiences of people are more to my taste.

Some of my favorite fiction authors .

Andrew Vachss, an author of a series of novels based around a character called Burke a sort of anti-hero who lives and works on the seedier side of life.

R.A. Heinlein, anyone who is into S.F. will need no introduction to this amazing author

Christian Jacq, Author of a number of books set in ancient Egypt.

Tom Sharpe, possibly the best writer of comedic fiction.

Tom Barling, Author of the Smoke series of books, london villians at their best.

I will list a few of the non fiction books that have given me pleasure.

Hell i was there,Elmer keith, the life story of a cowboy and hunter who lived in america from the last days of the wild west and died in 1984

Norman Wisdom's autobiography, this man has lived an incredible life.

Reach for the Sky, Douglas Bader Was my first hero and willl always inspire me to believe that no obstacle cannot be overcome.

But at the end of it all it does not matter what a person reads it just seems to me that the people that I connect with all read.

friday

Todays ramblings are gonna be about some of the things that make life worthwhile.

Comedy, life is a serious matter so a good laugh is just what we need to make things more bearable, thanks be to whatever deity you subscribe to for Monty Python, Spike Milligan, Little Britain, The Fast Show, and (for the oldies) Round the Horne, the Navy lark and of course the Goon show. I nearly forgot Australia's greatest cultural export Kevin Bloody Wilson.

music. In no particular order, Eirc Clapton, Eva Cassidy, John Mayall,Queen,The Eagles, Elgar,and the divine Lesley garratt, and even though I'm crap my Tanglewood TMO7 guitar.

Wheels, My two automotive loves. first and always my Honda VFR750 ,a middle aged lunatic's link to a lost youth, and my Daewoo Musso TD, a much maligned S.U.V. with a great deisel engine.

Food, Indian, Chinese, Italian, and of course Fish & Chips and Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pud.

Finally and most important of all, My life partner, The Hand Brake ! I call her this because she can always be trusted to put the brakes on my wildest schemes and talk me round to the more sensible way, for all this and more I could not live without her.

mad cats

Some thoughts on my mad cats, D is 12 a year old tabby and possibly the laziest animal on the planet she sleeps for 18 hours a day and then naps for a further 6 but wherever she is take some ham from the refirigerator and she seems to instantly appear ready to fight the world for some. the same applies to cheese & onion flavour crisps.
T is a 10 yr old tortoiseshell and like most of her ilk has a total personality she "speaks" to me in a language that I cannot understand and gets frustrated whenI dont reply. even at this age she still spends a lot of time chasing her tail and then crying when it hurts when she bites it! they fight like lunatics most of the time, laying ambushes for each other but if they are separated they fret and pine. for all this they enrich my life and I could not see a time when a cat will not be a treasured companion, for the doubters who say that a cat does not return affection as a dog does I cannot aggree I have shared my life with these creatures for about 45 years now and have always found that you get back what you give, they seem to have the ability to sense your emotions and react to them.
I have owned a number of dogs and would consider a dog in the future but as the anicent egyptians said "where there is a cat , There is Home"
.

thursday

early hours of thursday morning 1st blog, looking forward to aussie g.p. will shuie do it again?

will I ever figure out what my two mad cats are thinking.

will I ever become tolerant of the idiots on tv who think they have talent when clearly they have not!

will I ever comlete the move from dull dreary cold wet england to sunny spain

will I ever find out why communications companies like B.T. cannot communicate

all these and more questions may or may not be answered in further blogs

am I mad , am I sane ? who can tell