Chronicles of Bannania

A great year for fungi in the forest near here,I have never seen so many.
Fly agaric,Boletus and magnificent displays of the rather cheeky Phallus Impudicus.
Funny things fungi,last year there were hardly any,this year they have gone mad.
I don't know much about the different types so don't pick any of them (we definitely have both Death and Panther caps in the woods,both deadly poisonous).

Well,second vistit of the year to a "famous English Safari park" over and done with (had to go back to finish tickets,too busy last time).
What a scruffy and unprepossesing lot we Brits are.The parade of cheap ,ill fitting clothes and fat kids was quite something to see (better than the safari park really).
Worst of all was the boat ride round the lake (with seals,hippos (2) and gorillas).Thing was the adults hogged the side of the boat so the kids (and any dwarves on board) could hardly see.
When I was little the grown ups would often make way for the children to see,not nowdays,the "grown ups" behaved worse than the kids.Seeing a fat Essex tart squealing "ooh look a seal" while her little girl could only view her enormous bum (about the same size as a hippos but not as interesting) was quite upsetting.What happened to the old British sense of fairplay ?
Stomped out of us by selfishness and exposure to "foreign" ways I suppose.
I shall continue to instill in my daughhter a sense of fair play and politeness but I think I'm fighting a losing battle.

Well,brother and his partner have taken mum (age 76) to Rome.
Jolly good luck to them,she has only ever been abroad once (day trip to France) and never flown !
Still they got there O.K. (e-mail) but mum managed to fall asleep mid-sentence due to tiredness and lack of food !
Can't say I envy them,I love Rome but it is a stressful place if you don't know the ropes.Crazy traffic,"gypsy "thieves,rude waiters,hills,uneven pavenments and,well,general Felliniesque madness.
She wants to see the sights,can't say I blame her,everyone should try to go and marvel.
It really knocks spots of Paris or Madrid for things to see (history wise) and IMHO the food and clothes are better than in France (and cheaper).
Maybe I should take mum next year,it would be my 6th time.

Intersting movement towards an English parliament (at last) in that a pressure group has managed to meet with M.P's.
It is blatantly unfair that the Welsh,Scots and Irish can have independant assemblies and yet the English (still the majority in this country) are denied.Palmed off with EU backed "Regional assemblies".
The EU seems to want England to disappear becoming instead a selection of "Regions".The government even refers to the "Nations and Regions of Britain" with Endland being "the regions".
Well it's NOT good enough and I think we are seeing the worms turn.
The English are becoming a repressed majority ! and a lot of us don't like it.
A lot of people of my age do not regard Britain as part of Europe,we have always been somewhat seperate (the water helps).It sticks in the craw to have laws made in Brussels that contradict the established laws of England.
Interesting time ahead I think.
Could get messy.

Parteeey,phew,this years kid's party over and done with.
11 10 year olds in one house is NOT a good plan.All went reasonably well (planning,dear boy,planning) except the pinata.Jeeeezz did they get over excited (Coke + sugary foods probably didn't help).One kid got a whack in the face with the pinata stick (head didn't split open,rats).
The sight of them all fighting over a few shitty cheap sweets was truely unedifying.
Still daughter was happy and that's what it was all about really.
Next year I'm going to Iceland for her birthday.

Well finally got the "special" metal tabs for my woodburner,cheap little metal things I could have got for 50p in any hardware store.£17 the charged me,daylight robbery.
Managed to put the "glass" (actually a ceramic) in and a tiny sliver pinged off for no apparent reason ! I am going to be well pissed if it cracks again at £55 a pop.
Shit like this doesn't do my blood pressure any good.Still it's done now.
Other calamaties this morning include a broken light fitting and top of the pile,my dear lady wife has left the freezer door ajar FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A WEEK ! AAAARCGH,luckily I caught it in time this time,had to throw all of the food out at the weekend though.Must have been £100 worth of stuff wasted.
And now she does it again,what can I do,short of tattooing "CLOSE THE RUDDY DOOR" across her forehead I don't seem to be able to get the message across.
And that,gentle reader,is why I stay home and do the housewifey stuff and she goes out to work.
Were it the other way round we would live like pigs in a house with no food.
Bah.

Seems the recent council elections in Belgium have thrown up some "interesting" things.
There is a party there "Vlaams Belang" that is staunchly anti-immigrant and in favour of Flemish devolution.
In order to keep them out the socialist have not only given thousand s of immigrants voting rights but have chosen candidates from "ethinic minorities" where they think this will help win votes.
One of the candidates for the Christian Democrats in Antwerp was a Turkish immigrant.Turns out he belongs to the "White wolves" in Turkey.These folks are the same ones that tried to of f the Pope a few years back and are most definitely NOT democratically minded.
So,in order to win votes,the "Christian democrats" have chosen a "Muslim Fascist" as a candidate.
Way to go chaps.Shows they will do ANYTHING to keep in power.
Expect to see more of this sort of thing in Europe as the Left court the immigrant vote.
I reckon it will bite them on the arse before too long.