The Wondering Brit

Well my two days off draw to a close with a 5am start tomorrow. Looks like a straight forward day picking up a load of hire trailers from Bristol – 3 in all.

Other stuff:
Gabrielle aka @Gabsatrucker has been added to the TWBrit Who’s Who page and furthermore she’s been most helpful in helping me pick what promo stuff I should get. As such a decision has now been made, so all I’m looking for is someone to help sort out the artwork – or I invest in the right kit to do it.

UK, or should say the governments Peter Mandelson is proposing to introduce a ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ for internet file sharers – yeah, that’s really going to work – and could render the said gentleman in a world of trouble. Shame really, he often sounds so bright – yet hasn’t got a bloody clue! (bless)

Watched NASA finally launch the Ares rocket today – really, a falling leaf would stop those guys doing anything. Needless to say it was highly uneventful and they seem to be unable to build a rocket that’s weather resistant against rain and thunder – hurricanes, that I understand, but nothing else.

I leave you now with the knowledge that the only problem I have with working tomorrow is that WKD will be sitting back with her feet up doing nothing while others have to go to work. If she comments on this saying otherwise – don’t believe her

Well I say that, but really – can I bothered?! 
There are a few minor things I have to do, but they take money – the thing I no longer like spending..

I bought a brand new Linksys wireless thing on eBay that should have been £80, that cost me £20 which has pleased me no end in my sad little way. I had to go to the Post Office to pick it up - but as I was half way through the front door I received a text and went to read it – here it is:

Did you remember to get the Milk?

I just rolled about laughing after yesterdays text from the ever formidable WKD – I certainly never expected to be looking a picture of cows butts! but I was almost in public view and there is no way I could let the outside world see my face with a genuine smile on it – they would throw up!!

Any way, I went up to the Post Office and picked up my Linksys parcel and headed home when I decided to see how Dave was getting on across the road with crack in the wall of the very old property he’d  bought.
After few laughs  I pottered home and for lunch I had a Choc Ice and a mug of coffee (bliss!!)
The Linksys router is exactly as describe and was indeed in a brand new sealed box – I love shopping on eBay, especially for computer bits!

I’m kinda chatting on tweetdeck at the moment – but really, that is the day so far – it’s certainly a better one than @gabsatrucker is having  on her way through Tennessee at the moment according to twitter

I’m not a great historian by any stretch of the imagination, but Trafalgar, while a Royal N…thing (sorry, can’t seem to spell that word) is one of history’s greats. It was important too. Nelson’s defeat of the combined Spanish and Fr**ch fleets and is one of the many reasons (and there are many) why the English language is spoken (or a form of it) in the USA etc.
But today is an important day in British military history – yet, typically, not much is going on about it.

The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 was the most decisive British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). Twenty-seven British ships of the line led (click map to enlarge) by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre Villeneuve off the south-west coast of Spain, just west of a place named Cape Trafalgar (oddly enough). The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost.
Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming Britain’s greatest war hero of the time and then only succeeded by Wellington himself. The commander of the joint French and Spanish forces, Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve, was captured along with his ship Bucentaure.

Needless to say with Nelson at sea and the Duke of Wellington on land chasing down and whooping Napoleon, the day or at least the campaign was won – then we had to go and do it all again and England, will forever be our England! (well, until Hitler turned up and we had to do it yet again – Doh!)

This post is for the Richie family in Houston

UPDATE:

Loraine mentioned something in the comments about the lamp posts in Trafalgar Sq in London were cast from the cannons of the Franco Spanish ships that lost the battle.

Firstly, the Column itself is topped off with a ‘Capital’ (thats the bit that finishes the top of a column off)was cast from unused bronze ordnance. Furthermore, as I mention in the comments section, each street lamp running from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Place has a ship on it that was defeated by Nelson.

Old captured weapons adorn the streets of London, it was indeed common practice to spike and use them or melt them down, using them as trophies of sorts. None more so than old cannons. All over London and indeed the UK you will see a certain shape of bollard on the sides of roads etc – these are often old small canons that were captured from the ‘then’ enemies of the realm – and there was a hell of a lot of them.

These days they even manufacture this shape of bollard in order to keep the continuity of local architecture in tact because of the sheer number of originals.

Had a welcome quiet weekend this week. simply kicking back and chilling out.
Last night however, I went out drinking with my friend Dave from across the road. Within 40 minutes we were already on our third pint and in our second pub, getting ready for the next one.
In the ‘Three Tuns’ we met up with someone who works for Dave and after she took to the Karaoke mic, I was out with the phone to take some suitably shocking photos of her.
Sadly, she chased us down to see the pics and asked nicely that I didn’t post them on the web (Doh!!). I don’t know how aware of the law she is, but with her asking so – I simply can’t post them
In all we hit 5 pubs, drank the best part of a gallon of beer and after 3 hours headed to the Chinese for a take out and look at his and Annie’s (his wife) holiday vid and discussions over the development of his property.
In all, it was a good night out, listening to two live bands (the 2nd one being much better than the first).

Upon arrival/stagger home I immediately set about drinking a couple of pints of water to stave off or at least lessen the chance of a hangover migraine this morning. This always works – however, it really does not do anything to prevent the feeling of being dragged through a hedge backwards. And then it was off to the land of nod where I simply dreamed about past beer drinking times – especially memories of Oktoberfest in Munich.

Today I’m reading my 3rd David Baldacci book in the last week and when I feel 40% human again, I’ll set about tidying up, buying a little plaster and a trowel to do some patching up around here. Also actually offering sudo-sympathy to Ex-Yorks twitter budy ‘Howlatthemoon’ in Ausse who has eaten something that does not agree with her – bless LOL