bigjohn

“Old age ain't no place for sissies.” .. Bette Davis

  • Warning ! Very Old Person Blogging

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  • My Life and Times

    I was born in 1939 BC.
    That’s ‘Before Computers’.

    Luckily I survived the following events in my life, such as

    World War II, The London Blitz, Rationing, and worst of all… Archbishop Temple’s School.

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    During the mid 1950s I was enjoying Rock ‘n’ Roll and being a first generation teenager, when suddenly, just like Elvis, I found myself in uniform during ‘The Cold War’…and then

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    I became ‘a family’. Which meant that I sort of missed the ‘swinging sixties’, but still managed to look a complete prat in the 70s, just like everyone else.

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    During the ‘Thatcher Years’ I lost my hair and a lot of people lost a good deal more. My career fluctuated to say the least as I was demoted, promoted, fired and hired a number of times, but still I managed to stagger on into a welcome retirement and to celebrate 60 years of happy marriage.

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Archive for April, 2021

R.I.P. ‘Phil the Greek’.

Posted by Big John on April 12, 2021

I was never a fan of The Duke of Edinburgh, but then again, I was never a fan of any of the Windsor (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) crew. However, it is ‘right and proper’ to show respect at times like these, but, the excessive hours the BBC (and other TV channels) have devoted to reporting the death and reviewing the life of the Queen’s husband has been quite ridiculous to say the least.

Something which I found far more annoying than the ‘wall to wall’ reporting, was the media coverage, which rightly showed the solemnity of members of the public, but also highlighted the appearance of members of the “grief-lite” brigade and, in particular, the deplorable behaviour of those parents who hand bunches of flowers to very young children, who cannot possibly understand what is going on, and then push them towards some makeshift memorial or other in the hope of them being ‘caught on camera’.

I know that for much of my long life I lived in a world where funerals and remembrance services were fairly dignified private affairs when “showing respect” meant something. Perhaps the old boy’s low-key affair will remind people of this.

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“People think there’s a rigid class system here,

but dukes have even been known to marry chorus girls.

Some have even married Americans.” … Prince Philip (2000).

Posted in History, humour, nostalgia, rant | 1 Comment »

Fact or Folklore ?

Posted by Big John on April 1, 2021

I have always had an interest in the Victorian era, and in particular events during the British rule over India, both during the time of The Honourable East India Company, and later, The British Raj.

Bearing this in mind, I was looking forward to seeing an Indian made movie set at the time of “The First War of Independence” in 1857, better known to the British as “The Indian Mutiny”.

The film in question was the colourful historical epic “The Warrior Queen of Jhansi” which I quite enjoyed, and found interesting as my knowledge of the events depicted was ‘limited’ to say the least.

The lavish costumes of the major Indian characters looked authentic. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the uniforms of the British officers who would, almost certainly, not have been dressed in their expensive tailored dress uniforms, complete with gold bullion epaulettes (see Sir Hugh Rose). When on active service in the heat and dust of India, around that time, they would have looked more like this officer.

One scene rather lets the film down when Queen Victoria is seen in a meeting with her prime minister Lord Palmerston and they seem to have almost immediate news of what is happening in India, although this is a few years before the first telegraph connection between Britain and the subcontinent. During this meeting the queen is attended by her Indian servant who makes comments and offers advice. Yes, the queen’s Muslim servant did attend Victoria at meetings and events, but he didn’t arrive on the scene until ….

…. 30 years later !

Posted in entertainment, History, humour | 1 Comment »

 
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