Month: February 2003

panto day today…. went to

panto day today…. went to see my sister as a pirate in Treasure Island – fantastic !!! Every year the village she lives in puts on a pantomine and this year they decided on Treasure Island – pirates, sailors, long john silver, jack hawkin, sally forth etc etc. Lots of innuendo and ‘behind you !!’ jokes, great fun.

True story ?

True story reported on the news in the US

An elderly Florida lady did her shopping, and upon returning to her car, found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her voice: ” I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car!” The four men didn’t wait for a second invitation. They got out and ran like mad.

The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back seat of the car and get into the driver’s seat. She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition. She tried and tried, and then it dawned on her why. A few minutes later she found her own car parked four or five spaces farther down. She loaded her bags into the car and then drove to the police station.

The sergeant to whom she told the story doubled over on the floor with laughter. He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale men were reporting a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than five feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun.

No charges were filed.

Lottery Winner

fantastic news – a Cambodian emigrant has just won $128 million on the New York Lottery. Phin Suy, who emigrated to the United States from Cambodia as a teenager in 1985, used to work as a gardener in Central Park…. ha ha – good on him !

huge fright today over terror

huge fright today over terror attacks at our major airports – some are even saying that the level of danger is comparable to September 11 in New York. Heathrow is ringed by tanks (yes tanks) and everything is on high alert….they must have some serious intelligence scare on this one…..

I’m currently reading The Day that Shook the World written by the BBC News Teams. It’s all about 9/11 and it’s aftermath – lots of grim descriptions of what happened in NYC and how the world has responded since. It’s quite worrying that there are poeple out to kill us, people motivated by fanatical hatred and religious extremism. They despise us for what we are and want us dead ! They will try any means possible to strike a blow at our way of life and in doing so are willing to sacrifice themselves. It’s amazing we are all so calm about it really. Government ministers have regularly said ‘not if, but when’, in describing the probablility of an attack on Britain. Until we are actually hit, we may be a bit too complacent about these things….anyway, I’m off to the pub !

War Talk

lots of war talk this week…. I agree with the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer who said of America’s case for going to war: “I am not convinced… I cannot go to the public and say these are the reasons because I don’t believe in them,” . I don’t believe America’s case is rock solid either. We’ve got a long way to go before most people say “yes, war is necessary….we need to go” War is not the only answer we have for containing Saddam…

It is remarkable how all the goodwill and sympathy for the Americans after 9/11 has evaporated. Whenever a senior member of the Bush administration now travels abroad they are met with anti-American protests and anti-war marches….