SO SUPERIOR # 8

 

I feel superior to

The foreigners I meet

As we don’t perform

Cremations in the street

RULE BRITANNIA # 8

 It’s great being British

And what it represents

As I’m not expected to skate

To my day’s appointments

DOLLY WOULD

The bigger they are

The harder they fall

But in Dolly Parton’s views

I think the saying is

The bigger they are

The harder it is to see my shoes 

IF AT FIRST BRUCE

 

By “If at first you don't succeed”

What Robert the Bruce meant

Was “If at first you don't succeed

Then try something different”

CULINARY LAW OF THE SEA

 

Do a lot of work, eat a lot of food

Do a little work, eat a little food

Do no work, burial at sea to be crude

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE LADY VANISHES (1938)

“The Lady Vanishes” is a thriller based on the story "The Wheel Spins" by Ethel Lina White and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

While travelling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl, Iris Matilda Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), her friends Blanche and Julie (Googie Withers and Sally Stewart) are stranded in the mountainous European country of Mandrika, along with the rest of the passengers on a scheduled train delayed for 24 by a day due to an avalanche, and as a result they are forced to spend the night in an overcrowded Inn.

The next day Iris says goodbye to her girlfriends before heading back to England to get married but she receives a blow to the head from a falling flower pot and a middle aged English governess named Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) takes her under her wing, and they spend some time in the dining car before taking their seats in their compartment where Iris promptly falls asleep.

When she wakes up Miss Froy is nowhere to be seen and she knew she was on the train but none of the people who saw them together will corroborate her story and she is universally dismissed and a possible concussion is cited as the cause.

Only one person is prepared to humour her, an Englishman named Gilbert Redman (Michael Redgrave), a musicologist, but will his help be enough to find Miss Froy?

 

As you would expect with a Hitchcock Classic there is a depth of quality in the cast to drive the story, Cecil Parker and Linden Travers as the Todhunter’s, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as Charters and Caldicott, Catherine Lacy as the Nun and Mary Clare as Baroness Athona all contribute to a great film.

BUTTIES AND BAPS

 

I was in Basingstoke a few months ago for a job interview and I found myself with a little time to kill.

It is in my nature that when going to a place for the first time to allow plenty of time in the event of some unforeseen happening.

I don’t like being late especially for appointments and as a result I am invariably at least forty-five minutes early, Hence the necessity to kill some time.

On this particular occasion, after scouting out my final destination, I decided to go into a local café, “Butties and Baps”, only five minutes away from the company I had the interview with, and I ordered a coffee and a Danish and sat down to read my paper. It was a little after 10 o’clock in the morning so the café was very quiet in fact there was only one other customer and he was draining his cup. But almost as soon as my fellow customer put his cup down the door opened and in walked an elderly gentleman who made his way sprightly to the counter. He exchanges pleasantries with the well-endowed woman behind the counter who due to her physique I assumed must be “Baps” and I could only imagine what “Butties” looked like.

Anyway, the old Gent unaware of my thoughts proceeded to order a mug of tea with six sugars, “Six sugars?” Baps replied, “You’ll rot your teeth”.

The man stiffened immediately “Listen to me young lady” he said loudly and indignantly, this must have been quite flattering to her as in my opinion she would not see fifty again, “I’m 77 years old, I have never been to a dentist and furthermore I still have all my own teeth” and with this he turned smartly on his heels and marched back out the door.

Baps just stood stock still and speechless with her mouth open, teapot still in hand and pouring into an overflowing mug.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “What he didn’t tell you was that he keeps them in an old tobacco tin, he’s probably gone home to get them so he can have a bun with his mug of tea”.