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Freitag, 23. Mai 2014

My daily banana:
 
 
Photo of the Day:
 
A nice machine
 
I couldn't afford a new rear tire though!
 
Event of the Day:
1998 The Good Friday Agreement is accepted
 
The Agreement was the basis to end The Troubles
In Northern Ireland the referendum was agreed to by 71% of the voter, in Southern Ireland 94%.
 
Here are some important points laid down in the Agreement:
The majority of the Southern Irish people wanted to remain a sovereign state of the Republic of Ireland and the majority of the Northern Irish people wanted to remain a part of the United Kingdom, this statement was verified and is to be upheld until the people of Northern Ireland vote otherwise. If the unification became the wish of the Northern Irish, the British government agreed to ratify this wish, also the people of Northern Ireland would be allowed to hold their British citizenship as well as the Irish.
Another very important agreement was the return to civil normalisation and the decommissioning of all weapons held by the paramilitary groups. (Thank God, at long last!)
It was also agreed that the human civil rights were to be respected and that nobody should be followed or scorned because of their religious beliefs.
 If you wish to read the Agreement here's a PDF File with the full wording:
 
Birthday
1991 Lena Meyer-Landrut
 
It’s sweet little Lena’s birthday.


Ain’t she sweet?
She’s a girl that can’t be beat,
Ain’t she really irresistible?
Ain’t she sweet?
That’s a song from the Roaring Twenties; the Beatles covered it in 1961 with John singing the text. Pete Best was part of the group at the time, later in 1962 he was sacked (he wasn’t charismatic enough for Brian Epstein) and Ringo Starr was the new drummer.
The Beatles cover of the song, found in Youtube:
 
Back to Lena, she came out of nowhere, still going to school. She appeared for Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in Norway 2010. Wasn’t it a sight for sore old eyes? Young, just eighteen, had a funny accent when she sung her song Satellite but she moved the millions and won. The next year she appeared again but that was a downfall. Her mentor was Stefan Raab, he also appeared for Germany in the ESC in 2000.
Satelitte sung by Lena:
 
 
Died
1934 Bonnie and Clyde
 
Ambushed and morphed into colanders by the police.


Georgie Fame recorded a very good about them in 1968, another well-known song that he recorded is Sunny back in 1966.
The Ballard of Bonnie and Clyde (seen on myvidea.de):
Sunny (from Youtube)
 
Ride of the Day:
 
What a ride, nice and smooth. The circle is getting bigger, where I rode twenty-four to twenty-five K's two weeks ago I'm up to twenty-nine to thirty. That's progression for you, maybe in another couple of weeks it'll change again, up or down time I will see.
Today when I whizzed through Risum-Lindholm I got a few bad looks, I was traveling too fast for the bicycle cum pedestrian path, doing an average of thirty K's. Two guys that I wanted to pass at first didn't want to let me by, they were getting ready to turn off the path into a driveway, but when they noticed how fast I was approaching they quickly changed their mind and made way. That's when I started wondering if I was a little too fast, it didn't slow me down though.
Here's the Gamin link to my round, I've just ordered a Garmin Virb, a video camera that can be mounted on the handlebars, so soon you be able to see my tour in a short film. It'll take a couple of days or maybe weeks because I have to get used to the video camera and the software that goes with it, I have never handled film material before.
 
 
 

 Bye and have a nice day.

Donnerstag, 22. Mai 2014

My daily banana
 
 
Event of the Day:
1998 – Lewinsky scandal:
 a federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton.
Monica Lewinsky
Lovely lewd story, “I did not have sex with Miss Lewinsky”. A blowjob isn’t sex? Kiddies its not anything other than sucking a lolly, its just a different shape and doesn’t melt.
"I did not have sex with Miss Lewinsky"
 
Birthday



1950 – Bernie Taupin,
from Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England
 
Wrote lyrics and took them to Elton John who then put the music to the words. They did this for years right up to the Blue Moves L.P. Then Elton and Bernie parted for a while, how long I don’t know but at some time they wrote together again.
Bernie Taupin and Elton John
 
I can remember back in 1971 meeting Bernie Taupin with his wife and Elton John in the Cellar Bar in Lincoln. The Cellar Bar was in the Saltergate in the cellar of the Falcon Inn. They were sat in one of the cubicles and there was a big circle of nothing around them, nobody dared to go near or disturb them. An eerie feeling.
Later that day I met them again going up Steep Hill, I was walking behind them and the most striking thing I remember about this meeting was Bernie Taupin’s wife’s behind! She wore jeans and they had a rose embroidered on the backside, you could say I fell in love with her backside.
Bernie with his first wife Maxine Feibelman,
taken about 1971
The song Tiny Dancer was written by Bernie for Maxine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoskDZRLOCs
 
Another Birthday of the Day:
1859 – Arthur Conan Doyle (d. 1930)
 
Started as a surgeon in Edinburgh, that’s something I know from reading Ian Rankins books, again I mentioned that a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about the Gruinard Island, Scotland the test ground for anthrax.

Everyone will know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his crime novels where his hero lives in Backer Street, London. Of course it was Sherlock Holmes with his friend the Dr. Watson (like Doyle a medical man).
Some years ago I read the complete Crime Tales of Sherlock Holmes, the book had more than one thousand sides, it took quite a long time to read but it was worth it.
 
 
Died on this Day:
2013 – Lee Rigby (b. 1987)


 
Outside the Woolwich Artillery Barracks, in South-East London, the off duty soldier Drummer Lee Rigby was murdered. Run over, stabbed and unbelievably chopped with a meat cleaver, it was a massacre. The killers were two British citizens of Nigerian descend, christened but later Muslim converts. They killed Lee in the so called name of Allah, avenging the killing of Muslims by the British soldiers.
In the Old Bailey they appeared via videolink and were found guilty of murder. The twenty-eight year old Michael Olumide Adebolajo was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of an appeal and the twenty-two year old Michael Oluwatobi Adebowale was also found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with the right of appeal after forty-five years.
It wracked my memories of Woolwich. I did my initial training there in 1970 and spent much of my off duty time roaming the streets. In the Army then was a game, there was no conflict, the Northern Ireland troubles were just around the corner but still out of reach. When we had guard duty we stood at the camp gates with a club in the hand, looking idiots and letting everyone through with or without a camp permit. How times have changed.
 
Cycle of the Day:
Another lovely day, it was warm, hardly any wind, let summer come. I had a Shaun the sheep feeling today.
Black Shaun
Wooden Shauns
My cycle on the Gamin site:
 
 
After visiting my friend "The Dentist" this morning I arrived at work and was greeted thus!
Just what I need, maybe in a few hours ;-)
Another last note:

Smart has brought out a video, advertising the Smart Car, that's the car I drive. It's cute, the car and the video, watch it

http://www.smart.de/de/de/index/smart-campaigns/guess-the-car.html?csref=email_brandnewsletter
 Bye, more again tomorrow. Have a nice day!
 

Mittwoch, 21. Mai 2014

My daily banana
 


 
Photo of the Day:
 
The Giant Rhubarb
 (Gunnera manicata)
 
Mammutblatt or Giant Rhubarb (Gunnera manicata)
It grows up to eight feet high and very bushy.
We'll see next week how fast it grows.
A close up from the other side, the lighting is much better.

The blossom is changing, I wonder if the plant goes into seed?

 
Event of the Day:
 
21st May 1819
 
1st bicycles (swift walkers) in US introduced in NYC
 
Karl Draus invented the first bicycle in 1817 the draisine nicknamed the Dandy Horse. It was similar to the kiddies laufräder (walking bicycles) today, made of wood, it had no pedals, the rider straddled the contraption and walked or ran until he had enough speed to pick his feet up and glide. The first one was used in New York City in 1819. It was not liked by the city officials, they banned it from the public places and sidewalks
A Dandy Horse from 1820
A kiddies Laufrad from today.
 Not much difference to the original Swift-Walker,
one is made of wood the other metal, one is ridden by a dandy the other a child.
 
 
 
 
Birthday of the Day:
 
21st May 1948
 
Leo Sayer
 
Back in the seventies he was a refreshing sight between the glam-rock and hard-rock artists, he appeared as a clown, a sad clown. His first recording was, The Show Must Go On

Leo Sayer singing live in 1974 (found on YouTube)
 
Died on this Day:
 
21st May
 
Nobody!
 
Let life carry on:-)
 
Mr Nobody
 
 
Cycle of the Day:
 
Today it happened, I was back on my bicycle. It was about time and it felt good. I did a longer round, twenty-eight kilometres. The weather was brilliant, sun, twenty-three degrees celsius and a mild wind. At last, I hope it stays that way a little bit longer.
 
 
The rape is wilting and making way for the seed pods.
Out in the Koog, an example of another very well kept farmers house. It'll be owned by some Hamburger or Berliner, like most of the well kept old houses in North Friesland. They have the money. In one way a bit sad, the houses are only used as weekend and holiday homes and the locals can't afford to buy what used to be a cheap house. On the other hand, our heritage is being preserved. Very nice on this house, the painting on the barn door.
Sorry, a bad photo, it's slanting. I was still on my bicycle when I took it..
 Still you can see the painting, it's a protest against wind energy.
 
 

Dienstag, 20. Mai 2014

My daily Banana
 
 
 
 
Event of the Day:
20.05.2014
The Second Battle of Lincoln
 
The second battle of Lincoln was fought between the soldiers of King Henry III and Prince Louis of France (the proclaimed King of England) The battle around the Lincoln castle lasted six hours and the English soldiers led by the Earl of Pembroke William Marshal won over the French soldiers led by the Comte du Perche. After the fighting was over the soldiers ransacked Lincoln in revenge for their loyalty  to the French monarch, the ransacking is remembered as The Lincoln Fair. 
 


Another important Event of the Day
20.05.1873
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented the first blue jeans with copper rivets.
 
The jeans had seven rivets, one more than today. The extra rivet was between the legs where the seam of the two legs and the fly come together. It didn't stay there very long, the cowboys complained about getting their scrotum burnt when they crouched in front of the campfire. Copper is a very good conductor of heat!:-)




Birthday of the Day:
20.05.1944
Joe Cocker
Sheffield, England
He appeared at the Woodstock Festival, United States in 1969  and sang his interpretation of the Beatles song With a Little Help From My Friends. It was brilliant, George sent him a telegram with the famous words, It's a gas. 
 
The pitiful thing is, he still sings that song on stage. I like the guy, it's about time he said goodbye and went into pension, I'd rather remember how great he could dance and sing than see an old man without much voice trying to relive his youth.
 
Joe 1969 singing With a Little Help From My Friends:
The Beatles singing With a Little Help From My Friends:


Another Birthday of the Day:
20.05.1946
Cher
 
the better half of Sonny and Cher. They were married and partners back in the sixties. Their one mega hit was I Got YouBabe. They split up and Sonny Bono went into politics and at one time was the mayor of Palm Springs 1988 to 1992, after that he became a congressman for California, until his death in 1998.
 
Cher carried on as a recording artist and silicon addict, she retired from singing in 2011 and came back in 2013 with a new album.
Cher is also an excellent actress and won an Academy Award in1988 as Best Actress for her role in Moonstruck. 
Sonny and Cher from 1965 singing I've Got You Babe:
 
 
Died on this Day:
20.05.2013
Robin Gibb
 
Hail to Robin,
Hail to the BeeGees
 
Robin was sixty-two and died of cancer.
Robin singing Juliet:
 
The Non-Ride of the Day:
Call me lazy. Today I could have taken my bike out, but I didn't. It's always easy to find an excuse not to participate in sport, I don't have one. All I'm thinking is, tomorrow!
 
Bye for now, more again tomorrow. Have a nice one :-)

Montag, 19. Mai 2014

My Daily Banana
Photo of the Day:
 
Meldorf Market Square with the Dom in the background
 
 
 
Word of the Day:
Quadrophonic
Sounds split into four channels and amplified through four different loudspeakers
 
Name of the Day:
Jimmy
Nickname for the name James meaning supplant, replace
 
Event of the Day:
19th May 1962
John F Kennedy
 
New York Madison Square Gardens salutes the United States President John F Kennedy on his 45th birthday. The birthday was on the 29th May, but who cares. I don't expect that anyone will remember the salute, but everyone will remember Marilyn Monroe's performance of Happy Birthday Mr. President 
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday

Birthday of the Day:
19th May 1945
Pete Townshend
in Chiswick, London, England
Songwriter and wild guitarist, famed for his propeller and jump act while playing.

Pete Townshend with his propeller arm




He plays and writes the songs for the mega group The Who. They had their zenit in the sixties with songs such as I'm a Boy, My Generation or See Me, Feel Me (from the L.P. Tommy)

For me their best L.P. was Quadrophenia, it has a very realistic story behind it:
Jimmy, a lad growing up in London of the sixties. Being fed up with normal everyday life, getting up early, going to work, he grabs his scooter (he's a Mod) and runs down to Brighton. There he gets involved in the Mods and Rocker riots, meets and idolizes the over Mod "The Ace Face" (in the film Quadrophenia played by Sting). He thinks, "that guy will never cush to society" and one day Jimmy stumbles over him in a hotel working as a bellboy, "Yes Sir, no Sir, pleased to help you Madam". What a shock for Jimmy, his world, his ideals fall apart.
He jumps on his scooter, rides down to Beachy Head and drives over the cliff. That's the end of the L.P., the film and Jimmy.
My Generation


Died this Day:
19th May 1994
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
She outlived her first husband President John F Kennedy by thirty-one years and her second husband Aristotle Onasiss by nineteen years.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis


Non Cycle ride of the Day:
Made a trip with Heike to her birthplace cum hometown, Meldorf. It's called a Dorf (village) but it's a very nice town. First we went to the graveyard to pay homage to her parents. That was a drama, Heike couldn't remember where their grave was. Not funny, there are hundreds of gravestones and they all look alike. We took at least an hour of searching, Heike in one way and me in the other. I found it at last and we could say our greetings.
After that I needed a rest so we strolled into town to the town market square. Here we had a cup of cappuccino and a short leg rest before Heike showed me around. Like I said a nice town, with a Dom (a large church, something between an abbey and a cathedral). I took tones of pictures of which I will post a few.
Heike drove all the way

The old man needs a rest after the nerve wracking drive


It's so cold in Meldorf, the water pumps need to be insulated
That's the dome in the background


Can you see the black spots? They have a purpose, can you see which?

The Challenge:
I'm not losing weight, I'm gaining. Shit, this week I weigh 97.6 kg. That's 'cause I haven't done any sport this last two weeks. It's about time my small ailments buggered off.
How about you guys?

I'll be back tomorrow. Have a nice day!