Heavy Metal

Nice to be able to enjoy a couple of days of complete freedom.

Hubby went down to the Italian part of Switzerland,and I was going to stay at home,feed the cat ,and do exactly what I liked.

Bliss I thought.

A call of help from a friend changed everything yesterday.

Being a person who finds it difficult to say no, I jumped into the car and drove the few miles over to her place.

I suppose what we had talked about was still in my mind as I got back and I drove automatically and without really looking, into the garage.

Usually my car is able to drive itself home. We have a wonderful relationship, and the flitzy Italian has saved me from quite a few unforeseen situations.

But not yesterday.

Do you know what the worst sound in the world is to a car driver ?

The sound of metal fighting metal.

And that was the sound I heard yesterday as the Italian cut the corner and caught itself up on the framework of the garage door, and stayed there.

Driving forward brought the spine chilling noise to my ears,and reversing wasn’t any better.

No Hubby, neighbours on holiday,what was a woman supposed to do at a moment like this ? I suppose I could have called the fire brigade,they have often been called for less.

But I didn’t. I put my foot slowly on the accelerator and to the sound of music eased the car forward.

Two black doors,now have large white etchings on them,and a bit of the wheel guard seems to be missing.

Hubby doesn’t know yet.

Is Barack Obama Already President?

Barack Obama has now finished his grand tour of Europe and the Near East.

Thank God for that, because seeing and reading of it has really made me want to spew.

Was it really necessary for him to continue his vote catching in Europe, or suck up to the Israeli’s to get the Jewish vote back home.

He acts and talks as though he his already President of the United States, but he has a long way to go before he is a Statesman.

President or not,the European ones certainly rolled out the red carpet for him. But then we all know practical politics consists of ignoring facts, and the only one in my humble opinion who didn’t suck up to him was Angela Merkel who wouldn’t give him permission to speak at the Brandenburg Gate.

Who does he think he is, JFK already.

Whatever and whoever Barack Obama is, he is certainly prestigious,but whether this can be based on achievement,or character we have yet to see.

He should perhaps remember a proverb from the Bible;

“Pride goes before destruction,and a haughty spirit before a fall”

Are VIPS So Important?

We all know the famous line from George Orwells book Animal Farm;

” All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”

and I wonder why we go along with this.

Don’t misunderstand me,I was never a Marxist,Trotskyist,communist or any other gender of an “ist”, but I would support an ideology where the people of the world could be more equal, whether it be with respect,freedom,or wealth.

But I know that is just a dream,and we have to live with the fact that George Orwell was right.

Nowadays these more equal people are known as V.I.P.’s or “very important persons” But what is so very important about them and what right do they have to so much priority?

Sometimes this status doesn’t always work,like last week when the security officials at a Russias’ St Petersburg Airport didn’t care a hoot for the diplomatic status of Doris Leuthard, Switzerland’s Economic Minister. She was still made to remove her shoes and submit to being frisked. Which of course held the flight up for an hour while the diplomatic phones ran themselves hot,and the likes of you and I could wait on board.

Or the arrest of Hannibal Gaddaffi, the son of Libyas head of state, and his pregnant wife in Geneva on Tuesday. They were accused of mishandling two of their servants in the hotel where they were staying. Two days later they were released after paying a caution.(Can’t keep such a large sum in my head). Libya has retaliated of course by arresting two Swiss who were working there,and threatening to turn off their oil supply to Switzerland. Half of our crude oil is imported from Libya, so the outcome will be interesting.

May be one consolation for not being a V.I.P: can be found in the words of the playwright Terence Rattigan 1911-77

“You can be in the Horseguards and still be common dear”

Seperate Tables (1954)

A Scandal at Last

How nice that it doesn’t always just happen to the others.

In this little country where nothing ever happens worth bothering about, we now have a really juicy scandal.

Not that it can match some other countries that I won’t name here, but for us it is a bit of an earthquake. Luckily most people are on holiday,so it might have all calmed down before they return,and if they didn’t find a Swiss newspaper they might not even know about it.

Fact is, the media found a story to liven up the Summer for the people who have stayed at home.

The recently appointed, Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces apparently isn’t so Persil White, as our Defense Minister made it appear as he proposed him to the rest of the Cabinet for the position.

In fact he had a law suite on his hands for so called “Domestic Violence” after his partner wanted to end the affair. He was also accused of stalking,and advertising her with photo, for sex services in several newspapers and Internet sites.

It was settled out of court for a certain sum.

Our Defense Minister hasn’t resigned, but has suspended the Brigadier General until the 20th of August in which time he can try and prove his innocence.

In doubt for the Accused.

Certainly a feast for the “away with the military ” brigade.

Happy 90th Birthday Nelson Mandela

My Happy Birthday wishes to a great man.

Summertime

School is out.The longed for school summer holidays can begin and families with children can pack their bags and head for the southern borders,or the next airport if they are lucky.

You won’t find Swiss in Switzerland at this time of year unless they are over fifty. The rest have accepted the never ending check in queues,or twenty kilometer long traffic pile up, north of the Gotthard Tunnel to get to the sun, and the sea.

They are almost like baby turtles, that know when it’s time to hatch out from their eggs in the sand and head in unison for the water.

The Rest,foreigners workers or otherwise, who can’t afford the drive home to the countries of South Eastern Europe remain,as do the refugees,the old and the insane. Plus of course Tourists who don’t know any better.

Why,the mass Exodus from this beautiful country.? Because when the sun shines here in Summer it is hot, and I mean over 30°C.The polluted air from Northern Italy, Germany or France is blown over to us, where it gets caught in this bucket surrounded by mountains. Breathing especially for people with respiratory problems isn’t fun.

On shop doors,office entrances,restaurants and anything else that employs people, notices are hung,”Closed for the annual holiday”. So you don’t have to have a lot of plans.

But one thing of course should be wonderful.With so many people out of the country,the roads must be less congested and driving easy . Don’t you believe it ,one section of the people here don’t take holiday.The road repairers. (mostly foreign workers)

It doesn’t matter where you stick your pin in the map of Switzerland, you can be sure that all roads in that area will be under repair, between now and the middle of September.Getting from A to B is an Odyssey,and Satellite Navigation Systems have decided to join the others.

Enjoy your holidays, and welcome if you are coming over.

Kris

I lost my heart again last night.

He stood,just a few feet in front of me,dressed in black,plucked his guitar and said, rather than sang in a voice that left no woman doubting that this was a real man;

“Take the ribbon from your hair”

Kris Kristofferson,the All American Rebel,sang at the Zürich Summer Festival,”Live at Sunset” last night and I was lucky enough to be able to sit in the middle of the front row.

It was as though he was singing just for me.

He was 72 last month,and he is still looking for freedom.

After “Me and Bobby Mc Gee” the world knew who he was,and he is still there.

Many have coveted his songs,but the chords, and the stanza are so well knitted that the songs are more difficult to interpret than they seem.

Maybe his voice hasn’t got the fullness that it used to have,and his guitar playing didn’t stick to the rules,but then one of the fingers of his right hand was bleeding enough for us to see just after the interval.

He passed off the weaknesses ,with his old charm and humour.Even stated ,when he repeatedly had to pick up a handkerchief, that he thought we were paying a lot of money “To watch an old fart blow his nose”

 

But he can still write songs,maybe I should say he can still write poems for the simple man, poetry that gets his message across. He should be able to,he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University and studied Literature at Merton College. During his time with the US Airforce they wanted him to teach the subject at West Point Military Academy.But Kris is the pacifist son of a General and it was 1965.

And yesterday evening, so many years after Janis Joplin sang “Me and Bobby McGee” his followers in Zürich still love him.

He says he wants to compose and sing until they shovel dirt on his coffin.

He also knows what words he wants chiseled on his grave stone,- from colleague Leonard Cohen,

” Like a bird on a wire,

 like a drunk in a midnight choir,

 I have tried in my way to be free”

Is China Attacking Us?

German author,Political Scientist, and China expert,Wolfgang Hirn isn’t sure that China deserves the miserable reputation that it has in the west.

His two books “The Chinese Challenge” (Herausforderung China) and “Asian Attack” (Angriff aus Asien),published by Fischer, make interesting reading.

China is gigantic,China is suspiciously, “foreign”,and then there are all these 1.3 Billion people.

China will become,next to the USA the second superpower in the world and that makes us all somewhat frightened.

But didn’t we encourage it all for our gain?

Environmental pollution in China is immense,and the Chinese are eating more and more meat.But can we condemn them for that? Shouldn’t we be pleased that for the people there things are beginning to look better?

China has at least managed to free 400 million people from deepest poverty. What they are doing is legitimate. The West challenged China to at last participate in world trade. Now they are certainly doing this ,following the rules of globalisation and we must live with the consequences.

We had hoped that human rights and democracy might follow, after the theory that an affluent society brings the wish of complete freedom for all. In South Korea and Taiwan it worked.

It hasn’t worked in China yet, because the middle class is not big enough, and interestingly this section of the people, which one might have thought were all for political freedom is not in the least interested in it,because then, they would be completely in the minority and 700 to 800 million peasants would have their say.

Up until now their  authoritative system has worked for developing China,and many a western manager enthuses over it.

In China Peking decides, and at least at this stage it is probably the only way to get anything done. Other countries with a democratic system take years deciding on anything because every ones interests must be taken into consideration.

By 2012, ninety seven new airports will be built in China-and they will be built.Whether the environmentalists agree or not.

That is why China has managed better to get more people out of poverty as the democratic India has.

Maybe come time, come change, and we should admire them for what they have achieved.

The Most Dangerous Dog

Solomon,was his name and he had big brown eyes but I still didn’t like him.Maybe it was because I was going on seven years old and I felt his bare anatomy not very nice, especially as he peed over the carpet when he got excited. A brown and black shorthaired Dachshund or sausage dog as a lot of people called them then.

He belonged to my Aunt Molly.She wasn’t really my Aunt,just a good friend of my Mothers.

I thought her very special as she would go barefoot in her shoes or even sandals in the middle of winter. My Mother said it was because she served in the Royal Air Force in India during the war, and was forced to wear heavy shoes and stockings in the heat.

Sometimes when my Mother was working I was sent to Auntie Molly’s. She always made fried egg and delicious chips for lunch,which I can’t remember ever having at home.

In the afternoons we would go for long walks in the Surrey countryside,and she would tell me stories from the books she had read.

She loved books, and reading, and passed this passion on to me.

At Christmas and on my Birthday I always received some classic of literature all very much to old for me,but I read them just the same.

I will always be thankful for what she taught me,and when I eat chips I often think of her. But I never really liked her dog.Not that I was afraid of him,he was just so yappy and as I said liable to wet over your feet.

Today I saw a picture of Solomon in the paper. It wasn’t him of course just one like him.

According to a study by the University of Pensylvania on which is the most agressive dog, it isn’t the Pitbull Terrier,it isn’t the German Shepherd,but it is Aunty Molly’s four legged friend Solomon.

Dachshunds are the most likely to bite,and they won by a wide margin.

Feelings are never wrong.

Unmentionables

A friend asked my opinion on something last week and it made me smile.

It seemed that her Father in Law was on his longish annual visit and had washed out his underpants. They were then hung for all and sundry to see in the warm sunlight.

They didn’t have holes in them,neither were they “long Johns”. No ,they were very sexy thong type trifles favoured by some men and their partners, and certain to cause raised eyebrows or winks from the neighbours if put on view.

Now my friend had a bit of a problem with this, I must note that she is at least twenty years younger than I am which made me think a bit.

Her Father in Law is a scientists, over seventy,and with a figure that would make a lot of young men envious.

He is rather withdrawn and lives on his own, so his choice of underwear was rather unexpected for her,and what did I think?

I told her.

I wonder what you would have said.