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Sonntag, 25. Mai 2014

My Daily Banana
 
Event of the day:
 
Today a picture post
We went to Westerland, the day was terrific with the sun shining, clouds like the fat strips in a slice of bacon and a wee breeze. The type of day that feels good on the skin but plays havoc with my nose and lungs (my hayfever went up to an eight in the ten point scale) It was at its highest here in Niebüll, in the train going over to the island it went down to one and in Westerland up to about five, that’s low enough to enjoy the day.
Look how calm the water is
On Sylt we first went to the Westerland graveyard to say “Hello” to Oma and Opa, to my amazement we found Carla’s grave, I always thought she had been buried in Morsum but no, her grave is just behind Oma’s. I still don’t know when or why she died, can anyone tell me?
Carla's grave
Oma and Opa's stone with
 
It was now time for a good strong cup of coffee, that’s when we go to Raffelhüschen in the Decker St. It’s a backer shop that also sells coffee. The drink was black and strong and the nice lady behind the counter gave us a butter biscuit as a supplementary. A nice jest, we were quietly slurping our coffee when from the background there came “Do you want a biscuit?”, we “Yes, please” and she came from behind the counter, biscuit tin in the hand and gave us the goodies. Isn’t it nice how little things can brighten up the day?
Westerland town hall, casino and concert hall

Strandstrasse, it's always quiet on this street. The tourists prefere the Friedrichstrasse

Doggie talk
We then strolled through Westerland to the beach. The atmosphere of the town was loud and full of activity, it was the Harley Days on Sylt and big bikes were parading everywhere, I could hear them and hundreds of middle aged advocate/dentist type men in leathers (with the obligatory Harley emblem) were hanging around town. I also got mildly infected by this and started photographing bikes; I couldn’t hold myself back when I spied an eight cylinder BossHoss and four beautiful Matchless bikes from Great Britain.


Harley Electra Glide and the Boss Hoss in the background
Eight cylinder motor, cool
Matchless 1000 Twin from 1937

A work of art, the oil distribution

Scrambler

Four beauties in a row
 
Westerland Kurzentrum (it's supposed to be a health resort but it's a prestige hostel a one room appartment costs at least €250,000. Not bad for between twenty and thirty square metres?)
 
When at last we got to the beach I cooled down, not in the water, that’s nothing for me and at this time of year the wet is still too cold (nine maybe ten degrees centigrade). It was nice just sitting around watching the tourists enjoying themselves, no agro in the air just the smell of Hamburgers and roast almonds. Isn’t it nice to be alive?

Loving a lamp post


Westerlad Promenade

Selfie with Heike

A Westerland vulture on the look out
After a quiet sit-down on the promenade it was time for another coffee so we strolled down the Friedrichstraße, past the bus station to a shopping centre Famila, where Raffelhüschen has another branch, it was high time I came out of the fresh air, my condition was going up the scale. There we had our final coffee for the day and shared a pastry before we caught the train back to Niebüll.
This is the Seeburg, remember where Mama and Papa met?

The Friedrichstrasse, more tourists, more money

My beautiful bird

A poppy amidst thorny roses

Another coffee at Raffelhüschen. Heike's not pleased with me, I left her standing at the counter without sayind what I wanted.
I myself was knackered, it’s not normal for me to get so much fresh air on one day, on the train I told Heike that I would be refraining from cycling today. My vision of getting home was plonking myself on the sofa, watching the goggle box and sleeping as you can imagine it all came differently.
In the background the chemist where Lynda works

The green family on the station's forecourt
 
It's mostly windy on Sylt

Leaving the island
One last vulture

Where's the water?
 
Cycle ride of the day:
 “I think I’ll fix my new toy (the videocam) onto one of my bicycles and ride a short round to test it”, well that’s what I said to Heike and that’s also what I had in mind when we got home from our outing. If I’m going to do a short round I need my cycling getup, I can’t be wearing my jeans they’ll get dirty on the chain and I can’t ride a bike without shoes with anchor plates; all of my bicycles have pedals in which I can anchor my feet. When I got out to the garage the thoughts of a short round have vanished and now I wanted to do a normal round and I did. Thank heavens for that, it’s seldom so mild and calm. The round was easy and I felt good afterwards.
 
As you have noticed today there’s no mention of birthdays and nobody died but the event was here and yesterday. For me a nice memory and you?
Bye, see you all tomorrow. Have a good day

Samstag, 24. Mai 2014


My Daily Banana

 
Event of the day:

24th May 1830

The nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb” was published in United States. It was based on a true life story, a girl named Mary Sawyer one day took her pet lamb with her to school and Sarah Josepha Hale wrote the rhyme about this happening. Not a history changing story but the event is thought of every time a child recites this rhyme. Imagine will anyone quote or even remember one of your doings in 186 years time?

 

Mary had a little lamb,
its fleece was white as snow,

And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go;

He followed her to school one day--
That was against the rule,

It made the children laugh and play,
to see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
but still it lingered near,

And waited patiently about,
till Mary did appear.

"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
the eager children cry.

"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
the teacher did reply
.

 

Does anyone remember Paul McCartney and the Wings singing the Nursery Rhyme?

Well here it is, I found it on YouTube:


 

 

Birthday of the day:

24th May 1941

Bob Dylan

One of the greatest American songwriters of the last century. The songs Blowin’ in the Wind and Mr. Tambourine Man were penned by him, he has written numerous songs that never will be forgotten. Every now and then there comes out a rumor, that he is to be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, one day that will happen. He is one of the few modern day poets that have reached all the people of the world with his work.
 
A fun video from and with Bob, The Subterranean Homesick Blues from 1965

 Mr. Tambourine Man, Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1964. I think the man introducing him is Pete Seeger one of the great in folk, I recognised his voice.
Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger

 

 

Died on this day:

24th May 1995

Our Harold Wilson


Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976.

The last of the great Labour Leaders, Tony Blaire was a New Labour Leader.

The one thing I will always remember him for is; in 1969 the government abolished the death penalty. From now on the judges wore their black caps only for ceremonial duty. I can remember very well reading about this in the Daily Express and talking with June the secretary in the office where I worked at Clark’s Crank and Forge, Lincoln. For me that was a happy day.


Non Cycle ride of the day:

It was raining and I don’t like riding in the rain (I might melt). The roads get slippery and I’m very unstable when this happens. I’ve got enough scars to show how dangerous cycling is on wet roads.

My new sportscam arrived. It’s a Virb Elite from Garmin .I thought, put the battery in and start filming, didn’t work, I had to go to my local computer shop and buy a micro SD chip. What a crap, I paid nearly €400 to buy the camera and there isn’t even a memory card in it. Well I bought one, rigged the camera up and now I’m raring to go off on the cycle. Today we are going over to Sylt, have a walk around see what’s happening. It’s the Harley Days this weekend; there will be a few hundred of them there. Its fun watching them arrive in Niebüll, where the train leaves for the island. Most of the Harleys are ridden by their owners but a good many are taken there in lorries or closed trailers. Those are the bikes that only come out for a couple of rides a year and never get dirty.
Garmin Virb Sportscam
Bye, see you all tomorrow. Have a good day

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!