Sands of Time

Sadly the sands of time never stop running and are thinning out my shipmates and fellow submariners. I just learned that Ted Thorpe has crossed the bar. ( in the photo he is the one with the beard) We sailed together and lived in the same mess together in the submarine Alcide. Also learned of the passing of Jan Beers the Chief Stoker and Gerry McGuigan our RCN. PO Electrician. Add these shipmates to the others already gone and we are getting pretty thin on the ground. The difficult part about these deaths is my memory, you see I still remember them and picture them as the young vibrant men I sailed with. Its hard to reconcile we have all grown old, yet every time I look in a mirror I’m reminded of that fact. I suppose a part of this is the fact as we age we tend to recall/relive the past more often. This is the time in life when we actually realize a lifetime is not forever and is indeed very short. Rest in Peace Shipmates.

God Bless and keep reading

Relay for Life (FUNdamentals

In this world of crooked politicians, scamming and stealing tax payers monies its refreshing to see there are still some good people out there.
I’m proud of my two daughters who both care for others. Caroline works long hard hours to keep the Victorian Order of Nurses afloat in a time of economic crisis. Susannah, well I will just copy and paste her Facebook article.

So I am staying up ALL Friday sitting on a skinny ass bike seat gonna ride a couple of hundred kms in the dark…all for our friends and family fighting like hell against cancer…for those who have won, are winning, and accepted defeat. Help by dropping off a donation to FUNdamentals on High St. Thanks everyone!

I think this is an amazing and demanding feat of caring for others, Bravo Susannah and good luck. To everyone else, please think about riding a bicycle all night to raise money for people suffering from that dreadful disease cancer. Could you do it?? I sure couldn’t but I can donate and I hope you will too. Just go to Relay for Life and make a donation, if you wish you can do it in Susannah’s name, type in Sue Rodgers and then donate. Its a worthy cause and a huge effort.

God Bless and keep reading

Duffy- Our Very Own Watergate

It seems that each morning on the news, on Facebook, on Twitter Linkedin etc etc there are new revelations in the Duffy matter. I’m really beginning to wonder if he has some dreadful secret information on Harper. Why else would the Government go to such lengths to protect a person who has so blatantly abused the public purse and Canadian tax payers
Latest Report.
CTV is reporting: The Prime Minister’s Legal Council, Benjamin Perrin, worked out the secret agreement in February 2013 between Mike Duffy and PMO chief of Staff Nigel Wright.

The conditions were:
1> Duffy would publicly declare he would repay the $90,000
2>Nigel Wright PMO chief of staff would write a personal cheque to cover the expense claims
3>Senate investigation would go easy on Duffy

Harper is refusing to release the letter.

Can we impeach Harper???where do we go from here??something has to give soon this can’t go on much longer surely. Someone is bound to speak, to leak some vital info, the whole government could fall. But I have to come back to the question WHY. Is Duffy really worth all this trouble or does he have something on the Prime Minister.??? That seems to be the only reasonable question yet to be answered. It would make sense to turn Duffy over to the RCMP and remove him from the senate. At least we would feel some justice was being done. It might also take some steam out of this whole sorry mess. The time has come for the people involved to come clean.

God Bless and keep reading

Ode to a Senator??

Huffty Duffty sat on a wall.

Huffty Duffty had a great fall.

All Harper’s Horsies and Cheque Writing Men.

Couldn’t put Huffty together again.

Time for this bad egg to resign.
God Bless and keep reading.

Yard Sales of Old!!!

I wonder when and where yard sale/garage sales first began. Not in the sixties? I recall first setting foot in Canada in 1964, (Dartmouth NS) whilst aboard the submarine Alcide. Crew members rushed around looking for cheap furniture to set up an apartment before wives arrived. We searched high and low for bargains but all ended up buying new items. There were no yards sales, no second hand shops, and little or no used furniture advertized in the local paper etc. But of course the 1950-60′s were known as the golden years in Canada. Big cars, cheap gas, drive-in movies, hamburgers and everyone with a job.  When Linda and I first moved to Windsor Ontario in 1971 we had only the things we could fit into our 1960 Wolseley car. When we set up our apartment we were using a couple of folding patio chairs in the living room. The first yard sale I remember must have been around 1972, we bought a Singer sewing machine for $15. We still have it and now its for sale in my yard sale. I can only imagine how busy a yard sale would have been in 1964, the crew from Alcide would have cleaned it out in no time flat. Today yard sales seem to be a Saturday morning tradition and they are everywhere, but they are also fun and a way to raise a few dollars while getting rid of unwanted and mostly useless articles. In my case for example!! anyone want to buy a brand new never used port-a-potti, it even comes with an instruction manual. Now here is a real useful item and a bargain to boot. Might even throw in a toilet roll to a potential buyer!!! How many yard sales would have such a rare and useful item???
God Bless and keep reading.

Bravo Arsenal

Well we have reached the end of the 2012-13 season and once again Arsenal have achieved top forth position. A remarkable feat that can be credited to their Manager Wenger. Since becoming the team manager some fourteen years ago Arsenal have never finished lower than forth. Sadly we bid farewell to Wigan, Reading and Queens Park Rangers, all relegated. Looking forward to the new season starting in August, with new managers and new teams joining the premiership. Fergie is gone from Man U and David Moyse replaces him. Interesting times ahead. Enjoy the summer folks we will see you all in August.
God Bless and keep reading

No Decent Honest Politicians??

Oh Boy!!! I wrote about six days ago wondering where or if there were any decent honest politicians in this Country. I think I know the answer now.  No there are none. Well maybe one or two.  I’m unfortunately tarring all politicians with the same brush because of the more unscrupulous greedy ones that have been elected. Of course I’m referring to one in particular, (The photo in this post might have given a clue). Mike Duffy, I still refuse to call him senator. Duffy was appointed by the PM, Steven Harper as one of his conservative senators to boost the red chambers conservative majority. Since then we have been entertained (can we call this entertainment) by Duffy dodging and ducking reports for a variety of reasons. Lets start with where he lives, he’s apparently not sure, However, Islanders are very sure its not PEI. Nevertheless, the “Old Duffster” as he likes to call himself claimed some $90,000 living expenses for his Ottawa home while claiming he lived on PEI. He has actually lived in Ottawa for more than 30 years. But this was only the tip of the iceberg, The Old Duffster has been double dipping at tax payers expense. He campaigned for conservative candidates in the last election and charged them for his service. Then back in Ottawa he also claim the same expenses as Senate business. On CBC Compass this same Old Duffster looked the camera in the eye and stated that he would never knowingly do anything dishonest, he further stated that perhaps he had filled the residency forms out incorrectly. He stated he would pay back the monies until the matter was cleared up. But guess what??? he didn’t pay the money back, it was payed back with a cheque cut in the Prime Minsters office, allegedly???no one has actually seen this cheque yet?? Maybe this was the last straw for the conservative government support of this Old Fraudster, oops I mean Duffster, sorry about that slip, its hard to keep all the facts straight in this story. The Duffster is now out of the conservative party and sits in the senate as an independent, quite a come down. Really though, has this not gone far enough? is it not time for the Prime Minister to fire this fraudster once and for all. I referred early to this being the tip of the ice berg, well Duffy is the Titanic and if there is any integrity left in our government he is surely going to hit bottom very soon. If he were a decent honest person he would not be in this mess. He has little or no creditability left, possibly he might savage a modicum of his reputation by resigning immediately. I’m Disgusted
God Bless and keep reading

Through the Periscope

The internet is a little like looking through a periscope. I raise the word Alcide and it is surprising how many responses I gets. Sometimes nothing happens for weeks, no questions no responses, no hits then suddenly a flood.
Just this week I have connected with several old shipmates from my time aboard HM/SM Alcide. They have come from far and wide, British Columbia to Thailand, Australia to England, New Zealand and South Africa. The internet is amazing and opens up a whole new world of information. It re-unites old friends and shipmates and some new ones too. This really has to be the greatest advancement of our lifetime. What the automobile was to transportation at the beginning of the 20th century, the internet is to communication in the 21st century. Amazing.
The three photos in my post are HM/SM Alcide running on the surface with a Tall Ship in the background, we used this photo as our Christmas card in 1964. The view through the periscope was taken aboard the submarine Taciturn in 1961. Finally, the conning tower and gun belong to HM/SM Aurochs running on the surface on her way to Adelaide Australia in company with HMS Cockade. The good old days!!

God Bless and keep reading

Arsenal Win!!!!

Great win for Arsenal today, 4-1 over Wigan. Wigan is relegated and now drop down into the championship league. Too bad for Wigan but an important win for the Gunners who now move back into forth place in the league one point ahead of Spurs. Both teams with one game left. Arsenal face Newcastle on Saturday in their final league game of the season. Spurs play Sunderland. Go Gunners Go!!!
God Bless and keep reading

Technolgy

The photo in this blog is McWatters Bakery in Cromac Square, Belfast N.I. (circa 1912). My father worked there when he returned from Europe at the end of the First World War. He started work as a bakery labourer in 1919 and remained in that job until his death in 1960. What made me think of this particular time was a remark made at the hospital yesterday.
I was attending physio and the young student looking after me went to print of some exercises for me to do at home.
When she came back she said she had trouble printing the right sheet because things are so damn technical these days. This girl is probably about twenty years old and I had to laugh. Too damn technical eh!!!! Wonder if she can imagine how difficult today’s technology is for me? I grew up in the City of Belfast when we still had lamp lighters going around the streets lighting the gas street lamps. Horse drawn milk and bread carts delivered their wares door to door. We had one gas mantle in the kitchen, the only light in our home other than candles. Our radio was operated with a wet battery and it was my job to weekly take the flat battery to a shop and exchange it for a fully charged one. After we finally got electricity in 1952 my father bought a nine inch black and white TV. We had one single channel BBC. We later found we also needed a ladder to go to the roof to constantly adjust the aerial for a better picture. The VCR became obsolete before I had fully mastered programming it. We have blue tooth in the car, its fascinating and something I had no idea was available. That’s only scratching the surface of today’s technical advances. So if my young physio thinks technology is difficult to understand she might try walking a mile in my shoes!!!

God Bless and keep reading.