Va Pensiero Sull'Ali Dorate - Nabucco

There are times, and this is one, when we are all Jewish.

Boatlift

My thanks to Angit for making me aware of this extraordinary episode in the story of 9/11. Can you imagine, a boat evacuation from Manhattan Island that was bigger than Dunkirk? 350,000 British and French soldiers were rescued from Dunkirk over nine days, 500,000 people were rescued from Manhattan within a day.

Essence of Kingfisher

Check this out, and while you are about it, enjoy Katie Fuller's wonderful blog, Bogbumper

Many years ago, when I was ringing in reedbeds in Christchurch Harbour during the summer, when the reeds are full of Sedge and Reed Warblers feeding on aphids to put on fuel for their journey south, we caught a succession of SEVEN young Kingfishers in one day, and everyone of them did something similar to what you can see in Katie's video clip.

Photo courtesy of RSPB

Bugger Barclays

I have now met the ultimate idiocy. I got the following message a few minutes after I had logged on to my online account with Barclays:
Sorry - we have had to log you out of Online Banking because you did not use the service for more than 10 minutes. Please enter your membership number below, and select the 'next' button to log in again.
Trying again to log on, I got the same message BEFORE I had logged on. I sent an email complaint to Customer Services and received one of those insulting pro forma replies which tells you [a] that they didn't read your email properly [b] they get cockups all the time and basically don't care.
There's no doubt in my mind now, I really am on the wrong planet.

Mrs T is disgusted

 Always one to grasp the nettle, Mrs Trellis takes a stand on morality:


Dear Signor Berlusconi, she writes, I am not surprised someone tried to stick a cathedral in your head, the way you act the old goat when it comes to young women. At your age, you should be growing geraniums and playing bowls, not chasing every skirt that comes along. My husband, the late Mr Trellis, had an eye for the fair sex too, but I kept him on a very tight leash.
Doesn't your wife mind about your philatelic tendencies? If I were her, I'd put a dog collar round your neck and literally keep you on a leash. But knowing you, you'd probably enjoy that, you prevert.
Yours disgusted
Blodwen Trellis, Mrs, widow retd, strict Wesleyan.

Friendship

Twenty-five years and more ago, there were two Italian restaurants in Church Street, Cardiff, opposite each other, looking equally attractive. I had no reason to choose one rather than the other, but I am no Buradan's Ass, so I just picked one, the one on the right. It was ok, and the raven-haired young waitress who served me was most attentive and chatty. As I was paying the bill, she whispered "The restaurant opposite is better than this one."
Over the next two-three years, I having regular business in South Wales, I visited "the restaurant opposite" many times, and as often as not, my young informant joined me for a meal. It was a loving, but non-sexual relationship, something like uncle and niece. She was one of the nicest, funniest, brightest, dottiest, and prettiest, dinner companions I could have asked for.
Twenty-five years later - last Wednesday to be exact - I got up at ten to three in the morning and drove to Stansted Airport so that I could have a cup of coffee and a chat with my long-lost Cardiff dinner companion before she caught her seven a m flight back to Turin.
Sonia is fifty now, but to me hasn't changed a bit, except for perhaps being more worldy-wise.
We met, we hugged, we sat, we chatted, and it was as if the intervening twenty-five years had just melted away. Isn't it wonderful when that happens?  Sonia is long divorced, lives with her two grown-up daughters, works as an ambulance nurse, writes poetry, is in love with a doctor (though she calls it "just flirting") and yet, bless her, still has time for me. I am a very lucky man.

Mandarin ducklings leap from tree