Starting to settle ...

The drive from Tewkesbury to Dover, then Calais, via Brugge, Gent, Brussels, Aachen, Cologne and finally Bliedenstadt was accomplished thanks to my son's superb driving skills and great company, in a little ove twelve hours. We rested on the ferry and had a great meal (Seafrance employs proper chefs for their restuarant. The Beef Bourgonoin, was superb.

The welcome at my new home was warm, welcoming and a relief - especially after startling a herd of Wild Boar on the road about a kilometer from our destination. Madam Paddy has travelled well, though she is still a bit uncertain of her surroundings. She preferred to travel beneath the passenger seat of the car, but later curled up inside her travelling case when I covered it. Her reaction to the shadow cast by overhead bridges was fascinating - evidently the swift moving shadow suggested a hunting eagle or some other predator - and she flattened herself and yeowled each time we passed one until she could get beneath the seat.

Thanks to a pheromone based "plug-in" she has settled into the new house remarkably easily so far, though she is still "exploring" each noo and cranny as she gets a chance.

Now all I have to do is help Mausi get the place ready for the arrival of my stuff in two weeks - we have to redcorate a room and get some additional furniture sorted out - but for now I need some rest and some sleep. So does Mausi as she has been putting in the extra hours at this end preparing for my arrival.

My son, left this morning for Milan with the car and hit a long weekend rush on the Autobahn south... He finally got to Milan two and a half hours later than planned, and will at least be able to catch up with his girlfriend and a bit of rest before heading back to the UK on Monday...

And now, to bed!

Final Push ...

Now in the final stages of packing, thank the Lord. Still a few things to sort, but only a very few of these will go with me. Madam la Cat has decided "these humans are mad" and if she just curls up on the bed we'll stop being stupid, put everything back where it belongs and settle down again.

At least I've now managed, I think, to deal with all the things I have to stop, start, or change. It may be slow, but we're getting there!

And nearly finished...

The packing is now almost completed, there are just those final things that can't go with anything else, because they are fragile or so solid they will shatter anything they make contact with...

So there are lots of little bits and pieces to go into the remaining boxes and naturally they only fit the larger boxe, but don't fill it... But we're almost done. Its just time and energy consuming.

In the meantime, it's St George's Day. Let us hope the good saint will come out on the side of the English for a change and deliver us from the clutches of the collection of Scottish, Welsh and English hating professional policticans and their parasite civil servants now destroying England. Let the cry be "St George for England" and here's hoping the Labour dragon can be slain in the polls for eternity.

TV Interview

Yesterday I attended the London Book Fair. It was a very interesting and educational experience, not least for the insight it gave to just how closed a community the Publishing industry has become. Book Fairs are places authors go in the hope of meeting an agent or finding a publisher and the LBF is the biggest around. But, if you think you will be allowed to talk to a publisher or an agent - forget it. No appointment? No meeting.

I had been warned of this and had sent off a number of enquiries and synopses, CV's etc to agents who were slated to be there. Not one bothered to exercise the courtesy of a reply. OK, so there is a Consultancy where you can get advice at the Fair. Except they are in the "closed" section where all the agents entertain their clients ...

The publishers will only speak to an author who is represented by an agent, preferably accompanied by them and again, you can't even enter their stands unless you have an appointment, are on their list of buyers or an agent invited by one of their editors. Only the "Independent" Publishers welcome you - in the hope of persuading you to part with varying amounts of cash so they can print your work and leave you to do the selling and marketting.

Anyway, the main reason for going was that I was to be interviewed by The BOOK CHANNEL. It will be aired, I'm told, in the next few weeks both on their channel (Sky 166) and (Freesat 402) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19.30 each evening. I have to say they were superb, encouraging, helpful and really nice people. Made the day in fact. I've added the link in the sidebar and will, in due course, add the clip to YouTube.

And I have to admit that I did get a couple of useful contacts and hints from some of the people I spoke to.

Chaos reigns...

It seems that as usual, the UK is allowing the overpaid, underqualified filing clerks to make decisions about technical matters they have only the vaguest grasp of. The EU Weather predictors make use of satellite imaging and airsampling to determine where the volcanic ash is. In the UK, they are using computer modelling to "predict" the spread. There is, as a result, a very significant difference of opinion between most European Civil Aviation Authorities and the UK CAA as to the level of threat and the extet of it.

The UK predictions show a cloud spread right across Europe and the UK, the French, German and Scandanavian maps show several isolated "patches, most of them clear of the UK and fairly localised in other areas. As usual, the Whitehall W*nk*rs are playing the "'Elf 'n Safey" card.

Likewise, yesterday, they finally ordered the Royal Navy to "do something", which the RN then did, they sent three of our largest ships, HMS Albion, HMS Ocean and HMS Ark Royal to various ports along the Atlatic coast to help bring home stranded passengers. Typically, some commentators have questioned sending warships to help, one saying - "Won't a big warship like this turning up n some small port cause alarm?"

I'll hand it to the Rear-Admiral. He laughed and said, "That is what they are intended to do, but in this case, they are NATO allies and the diplomatic arrangements have been made." Pity it took the Labour Luvvies five days to get their act together.

Watching the news tonight it is still a farce, they have issued a statement saying that flights will resumed, under strictly controlled checks and in limited areas. Left to this lot, the industry might as well pack it in and move offshore. Otherwise open Heathrow and the other airports as museums in a year or two and in the meantime as monuments to the caution and inability to make decisions that accompanies placing unqualified and ignorant filing clerks in charge of technical matters.

Broken Britain. Now which Party will fix this I wonder?

The Postulant sent me this real story today...

One of my work friends’ building in West London was evacuated last night because some stupid kid set fire to a car outside – her flat was fine (if everything inside being coated with soot is fine), but her neighbour’s flat has been wiped out and they’ve lost everything, just because some kid was bored and thought it would be funny to set fire to a parked car. My friend woke up to an explosion (the fuel tank) and flames immediately outside her bedroom, then spent 2 hours waiting for the fire to be put out and everything checked for structural damage. (She’s a Zimbabwean who lived in the US for a while, so in her first moments of waking up, she and her fiancé were desperately trying to remember which emergency number to dial – 121, 911, or what’s the other one…? That’s a side issue to rant about another time…)

Apparently LFB were fantastic; they arrived in minutes, evacuated at least 40 people from the terraced houses (each house converted into 2-3 flats), arranged for a bus from the local bus depot to be borrowed and parked at a safe distance for people to shelter in while they tackled the blaze. My friend had somehow woken up enough to put on slippers, but several of her neighbours were barefoot, so they were very grateful for the slightly warmer bus.

I think the “broken Britain” tag is overused, but the recent spate of stabbings, combined with an event like this, really illustrates that we have a huge number of young people out there who have no concept of what their actions do to anyone else or any understanding of why other people matter. Five-year-olds can be forgiven for not understanding consequences, but when kids get to 15 and just stab someone, or set fire to something, for fun or for some childish concept like “respeck” for their stupid little gang (as opposed to respect for other people’s right to live and not have their houses burned down), you know something’s gone wrong.

End rant…

Anyway, LFB did good and the people in her terrace were all grateful for what the fire crew managed to save last night – and as far as my colleague was aware there were no casualties, which is amazing considering how quickly the fire seems to have taken hold, based on my amateurish calculations and her description. Her neighbours were bloody lucky to get out their front door with a car on fire immediately outside.

We hear a lot about "tough in crime" from the party that seems to be composed entirely of criminals, and the LibDems want to give convicts the vote ....

This will not be fixed without lots of tears and the curtailing of a lot of youff "rights".

Packing ....

Back from the Abbey, had lunch, back to packing and wishing I was with Mausi the human as she mourns Mausi die Katse.