Happy Birthday

When people say "Happy Birthday", are they just following form or do they envisage what type of birthday would make you really happy?






Her is an example of a birthday surprise I received in the eighties! That's me drooling on the right, never believing that at last I have had something(s?) jumping out of a cake.





At that dinner was another colleague and friend, Graham Keay, who has always remembered my birthday ever since. This year he was a week or two late because the Queen's 90th birthday clashed with mine.








He sent me this patriotic tea towel, but only because, as he wrote in the card he enclosed, he could not get the one he really wanted'.

In case you can't read the writing, it says:










"Went into the shop in Birmingham and said to the girl:
Have you got one of these with 90th Birthday Philip Goodwin?"
and she said
"No! Sorry, they sold out on the first day!

Keep smiling and enjoy lots of Happy Days!

Christine & Graham


How can you not be happy when you receive a message like that.
We tended to be happy when we worked together.
Here we are in Venice working hard at a conference!  
That's Graham in the back row under the arrow. You'll have to search for me.

For Anne, you will recognise Barry.

If you go down to the woods today

Not far from Wimborne, these are the "bluebell woods" at Pamphill in Dorset.






Not quite as dramatic as those at Badby in Northamptonshire shown below, but a source of pleasure nonethelesss,

especially when you can find a rare bunch of white bluebells - or should that be whitebells?

















But the joy and sometimes apprehension at walking in woods depends on what else you may come across - such as this arrangement of twigs and blubell flowers we discovered laid out on the remains of an old tree trunk.

Is it some secret rural symbol from Dorset rural life of years ago?
Or, is it a rough make-up of the old Anglo Saxon symbol AWEN, meaning truth, wisdom and inspiration used by druids and bards?  Wimborne was once a Saxon town.




Beautiful though Dorset is, sometimes you may find lost countryside in the middle of towns.
Here is an example of today adjacent to the old Walford Mill in Wimborne.


This is the Mill on the River Allen painted by Arthur Henry Davis in 1881.

Here is a description of Dorset contained in a book:
". . . a county full of sinister hauntings, decaying body parts,spellbinding witchcraft, malevolent fairies, gruesome murders, spectral black dogs, phantom armies, headless ghosts, flickering will o' wisps, strange phenomena, sea monsters, peculiar customs and superstitions, big cats, bewitching nymphets, the magical enchantment of conjurers and witches, uncanny events, death, destruction and the Devil himself, not to mention a horrific history few other counties can boast".
Just in case you think I am making this up

In a riverside meadow in the Dorset town of Weymouth, a witch is using a broom to sweep a sacred circle in the grass.

The rest of the coven stand, some in hooded gowns, in a circle around an iron cauldron where a fire is burning.

Good luck if you go down to to the woods today!

Years ago- many many years ago - pubs were for drinking, playing darts, shoveha'penny and skittles.

Then, drinkers and darts players were so long in the pub they became hungry. Publicans discovered food - and what food! Smith's Crisps and Pickled Eggs.

Later followed Berni Brothers with their steak houses starting at Bristol until now we have gastropubs and eateries of all kinds from Macdonalds to Cafe Rouge and Toby carveries. But new isn't necessarily an improvement. 

Occasionally you can find a gem that you could pass by quite easily if you just looked at the outside. Here's an example:the oldest pub on Poole Quay dating from the 1600s. And it is still just a pub as you may see when you step down inside.

But take a glance around the walls!

 I can recommend the scallops with black pudding, frizzled bacon and a touch of salad followed by the hake with a red pesto and black olive crust.In truth, I could recommend anything they sell.

What is more you can sit outside on the quay and watch the world go by, or inside in a corner by the window and still watch the world go by.

It is not a bad life by the seaside in Poole, even if it is only April.

It's all in the mind

When you get to being old there is a fair chance you will spend more time than was once the case at a hospital. Not necessarily in there for a stay, but just a check-up or a couple of tests or scans or so.

Before you get inside, most hospitals tend to present you with a sort of puzzle that could well make an interesting computer game entitled:

CAR PARK.
The objectives include:
1. find somewhere to park: bonus points if you find a place within a mile of your appointment;
2. remember where you parked: more bonus points if you ever fine your car again;
3. get to your appointment on time: special prize here of a refund of the parking fee of £1.000.

There are also bonuses for deciphering - correctly - the real meaning of new language puzzles,e.g.

"You will find it straight down there, turn right and it's just round the corner."
Conditions apply, like not having to ask anyone a second time what this means when you have turned the corner.

Other misleading clues to decipher will be:

"We shall be with you soon":
"We should not be very long now":
"We hope to be with you in a few minutes":
"We are expecting the results back shortly".
(Here you must also discover the identities of "we").
"I will go and chase that up now":
"We need to confirm your details:     name?     how old were you when you arrived here?"

 This is where we seem to spend more time these days - Poole Hospital. We went there today

We were there quite a long time but, strangely, we didn't mind because there were all sorts of interesting people to talk with about their problems, their families, details of their operations, their consultants, how long they had lived here, where they lived before, how much to everyone's surprise they liked Milton Keynes when they lived there.

And then, best of all, how kind, helpful and courteous the staff were; even including the man who was fitting a new mortice lock to a door that the whole world seemed to want to get through.

How anybody can find fault with the National Health Service is beyond me, especially at Poole.

Curiosity

When I wrote about Swanage I didn't finish my story about Curiosity.

It's not really about a lady ringing the AA to come and repair her scooter, although you could be forgiven for thinking so from the picture of the exterior of the shop which from the signs below the windows indicates its importance even in the winter months of a seaside resort in that it opens 363 days a year. 

Everyone to whom I have mentioned this shop replies: "Oh yes! we always go to Curiosity at Swanage  when we need this or that".

Here's why!

and here are the charmers who will serve you and help you find what you never knew you needed.

My friend John Beaty Pownall tells me that in Llucmajor in Majorca there is a similar establishment - Wongs Emporium. I can only add that Curiosity in Swanage is alwight with me and however good the emporium may be, two wongs will never make a wight.

I forgot to add, yesterday, that Swanage is such an interesting place they even have a painting of a derelict building so that you will feel at home if you live in one.

April in Augusta USA - and Swanage

In April, as happens every year, my friend Norm Heberer who lives down the road from Augusta in the U.S.A., sends me a copy of the Masters Journal in readiness for the first and arguably the best major golf tournament in the world. I say "best" because Norm took me there in 1987 and to be a golfer invited to Augusta for The Masters is one of life's great experiences.

Here's a copy of the cover of this year's programme.

But what do you do in April if you are too old to travel that far and your golf playing is very infrequent? 

If you live in Dorset and it's a nice day, like today, you go to the seaside.

We went to Swanage, which is a lovely old-fashioned seaside resort that has sea views and things to do on the sea - and shops like you never see anywhere else which make summer last forever.

If you are very young it's a place for children to search for perfect pebbles or bits of dead crabs. If you are old and live there you just stand and look as you have looked every day of your life.

Or you can sit by the seaside and take refreshment or nip in the Ship Inn for liquid refreshment or just stand about talking -
 or calling for help.
Remember the old verse: "Three old ladies locked in a lavatory".
"Mum" cried a small boy "there's someone locked in the lavatory". "Sit down" she told him.
But he was right - but in our case only one; guess who?

Explorers do get lost of course or trapped in unusual places, which takes us back to the shops - or one shop in particular; "Curiosity".

I will write a separate post about "Curiosity": I have never been in a shop like it.