Billy Connolly’s second programme was a disappointment. Like Him Indoors he went to the top of the ‘Gateway Arch’ which Rider did not – one look at the tiny cubicle in which you had to ascend was enough to bring on an attack of claustrophobia. The arch symbolises St Louis being the gateway to the West and is quite a remarkable feat of engineering and of some interest .. but the museum underground at the foot of the arch is hugely interesting and missed out by Billy.  I know he is concentrating on the Route 66 car stuff but that Route was following in the footsteps of the way West taken by so many and five minutes spent on looking around it would have been worth five minutes musing from the top of the bl..dy arch!  Photographs in the museum showed wagons being hauled up mountainsides that you wouldn’t have climbed up with high tech gear. Pioneers were born and died on the journey – Plains Indians fought to stop the rape of their land – people with the promise of a better life battled across endless wilderness in search of their dreams. By God I could have made a better programme than Billy Connolly  – he even missed out the St Louis HQ of Anhauser Bausch who make Budweiser beer.  Massive brewery which you can tour – the highlight for Rider being the Palladian stables which you would have been proud to have lived in. The Budweiser Clydesdales are famed throughout the world and feature in all their adverts – have a look on YouTube – the adverts are fabulous and every one tells a great story. There are just a few horses kept at the HQ with most being ‘upState’ on their ranch and they appear all over the world at Shows – 8 in hand! Absolutely amazing and Billy never went to see the brewery……   Rider calculated that the programme was about 35/40 minutes long as the rest of the hour was taken up with adverts. Should have filmed me and Him Indoors….

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Poor second instalment of Billy Connolley’s Route 66 trip. Full of advert breaks. Incredibly he missed out the St Louis HQ of the Anheuser Busch brewery where Budweiser is brewed – the Budweiser Clydesdales being famed worldwide and appearing on their adverts, at shows, and all over the place. Massive brewery complex with a stables building like a palace. Not strictly Route 66 related in a sense but a damn sight more interesting than an abortive turkey shoot. Having just done a Route 66 journey this episode was very disappointing and marred by all the adverts which reduced an hour long programme to something approaching 40 minutes, but will watch the next programme in case it gets better. S:^(

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Some guy is on trial for murdering his wife and stuffing her body in a suitcase…’I couldn’t stuff your body in a suitcase’ said Him Indoors ‘I wouldn’t be able to get it zipped around your bum’. This provoked no comment from Rider but later Him Indoors was complaining about the fullness of the rubbish bag he was trying to extricate from the metal bin saying it had been left specifically for him to take out.  ‘Taking it out for the second time in 31 years’ I commented. We’ve been married 31 years tomorrow…I’ve no idea how we’ve managed it and not sure whether we’ll still be married next month. Don’t think it will end in murder though…  Would I marry again?  I might but I’d do a damn sight more living first. Oh… and only if Harrison Ford/Javier Bardem/Mickey Rourke and a few others asked me. How about you?

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Billy Connolly has done a series on Route 66 which started last night on ITV4. Rider and Him Indoors have just returned from the same journey - I hope to show a picture of the Corn Cob building in Chicago – missed by Billy – if Piggynap can show me what to do!  This was viewed by boat sailing up the river which runs through the city. I should suppose Chicago is a fine city but the brief stay and not being a townie meant we didn’t see it in great detail. Onwards, like Billy, to Pontiac. This little town, one of the ones the old 66 used to go through, was full of interest. Pontiacs were not made there, it’s named after a Native American Chief of the same name, as is the car which had an Indian head mascot equally as impressive as the Rolls Royce mascot. The Mayor greeted us – he didn’t greet Billy – and we saw the fine little museum of 66 memorabilia, another museum of several beautifully preserved cars including a modern fire-engine-red Pontiac Trans Am which Him Indoors was all for packing up and having shipped. (Daren’t tell the Blue Streak when I got back). Many buildings were covered in great murals painted by artist friends and admirers of the chap who lived and travelled 66 in his bus.  The converted bus itself was crammed with the detritus of a life well lived and parked up and open for visitors to see. What a great travelling life the guy had. The temperature went up to around 100 where it stayed for the rest of our trip. Like Billy we went on to Springfield, Illinois but to the Lincoln Museum – not his house. There were exquisite dresses of Mrs L. who was looked down on by some of the grande dammes of Washington Society as being something of a yokel. She had a ‘ladies maid/close trusted servant/seamstress/confidante’ who was black. The Lincolns had a small son who died whilst he was in office and Mrs L was never the same after that. Not all of Lincoln’s cabinet supported him on anti-slavery – one wanted all blacks to be shipped off somewhere if they were freed! Lincoln never wanted the Civil War and wrote some truly great stuff – although time separates us I have a fancy that he resembled Obama in his lawlerly considered manner. How shocked and gratified would Lincoln have been to see Obama in the White House. I hope Obama’s fate is better than Lincoln’s and he too has a war to contend with.  Billy will be travelling on to St Louis – so did Rider …. more follows.

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My friend Jacquie sang The Enchantress by Hatton a few nights ago at a Concert in our village church. If you go to You Tube – Dame Clara Butt – you will hear a taste of what a few folk in Aberford heard - only Jacque is better. The recording is of course old and gives only a taste of what Butt’s voice was ‘in the flesh’ I should imagine.   Clara Butt was a Contralto and famed in her day but, in this song, her lower registers are too deep for my taste.  Jacquie’s range has to be heard to be believed – from I think Mezzo Soprano to Alto.  The power and range of her voice is truly stunning and filled the Church on this song and others.  Should you ever be lucky enough to attend a recital by Jacquie – under her stage name of Sybella de la Fontaine – you are in for a rare treat. Jacquie is a wonderful person – her talents and interests are too numerous to list but one is being a consummate horsewoman. Rider always envied her for that talent!! A great night of entertainment – organised as well by Jacquie – was enjoyed by everyone there.

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It’s not easy being law-abiding is it. Parish Councils now have to register as employers as they employ Clerks. This means that the Clerk has to do the paperwork (in reality probably most go online) for their own job. Not enough any more to declare earnings through personal tax returns. It’s a wonder as much tax is collected as there obviously is and how much isn’t through the complexity of the forms to be filled in. Rider and Him Indoors have spent some hours and numerous occasions working through the various steps being law-abiding citizens. Expletives have filled the air. Logic and clarity of information is unknown to HM Revenue & Customs. Automated voices offer helpful buttons to press, none of which apply. Real persons try to be helpful and give a more suitable telephone number to ring. Further automated voices offer further helpful inapplicable buttons to press. Passwords come to allow further delving into the system. Further delving generates further passwords to complete further steps. In Rider’s case no tax will be due but – hey- what the hell – the system is up and running (almost) and a jolly good time was had by all. Can a Clerk charge the HMRC for time spent on making a nil return? Perhaps there is a fortune to be made to secretly listen in to frustrated callers and write a book about their comments. HMRC – you have made Rider mad, but in a glazed-eyed sort of way.

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A wise girl keeps on giving herself to the world knowing that knock backs will keep happening. There is no guarantee that Marilyn Monroe’s wise girl will achieve happiness for all her cynical advice. Marilyn was a very damaged wise girl and was so objectified back in the day it’s no wonder she became cynical.  Today she’d have probably strutted her stuff and made millions like Katy Price.  My mum used to say certain behaviour wasn’t ‘ladylike’ – but I never wanted to be a lady ’cause ladies seemed to me to have no fun. Ditto for being a wise girl with a cynical heart. Give yourself to the world and if something doesn’t make you happy then ditch it and move on….   S;-)

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A plague on those arrogant priests …. of various persuasions…who say the Japanese  earthquake and tsunami were God’s wrath. Is it logical that an omnipotent being would be so petty as to swipe out in rage from time to time on insignificant others. With the whole universe of billions of galaxies to play with, why would God concentrate on playing just with Earth. Ooh … let’s just torture a few humans here. Ooh … let’s just help that guy to make a million on the stock market.  Ooh…. let’s just kill that couple’s child.  Ooh… and so on. Rider is an undecided these days having learned so much about the universe over the years. You cannot refuse to engage in logical thought about the existence of God… unless you prefer to leave it to the final gasp.  At least Rider will be able to say it was impossible to come to a conclusion if brought before the God and who can spend their entire lives in enquiry, especially as life is so short in the overall universal time.  So…. shame on those priests (overwhelmingly male of course) who imagine such a vicious God and nobody but a total fool would agree with them.  Random stuff happens randomly …. like Rider and Him Indoors flying back from America on 9/11 this year…. 

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If anyone asks me who does my hair, it might be fun to say “a guy called Bruce – he comes over from Australia  three times a year - he’s rather expensive and he only takes on adventurous women”.  Actually Louise does it and since her hair is often startling colours from purple to pink (over blond) she is no slouch when it comes to cutting edge styles (pun intended). I’ve just had my passport photo updated (from criminal to lunatic) so I’m a bit worried about whether I’ll be let in to America later in the year. Piggynap told me that her boss was subjected to a 2 hour grilling a short while ago when he went on business there – he didn’t fill in the ‘Moral Turpitude’ question because, like all us Brits, he didn’t know what it meant and thereby started a chain of probing questions. I’m worried my hair might fall into the moral turpitude category.  My style is best described as ‘Hedge Backwards’ having base notes of bronze punctuated with accents of blond – the whole set off by an assymetrical cut – so there. It could be viewed as subversive ‘over there’ . Those Yanks are in for such a treat….  S;-)

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Our flowering cherry is gone. Writeous Dude and Piggynap spent many happy times playing in and around it..the stuff that memories are made of. It was very beautiful in full flower but a combination of pruning (overhead telephone wires), severe frosts over the last couple of years and strangulation by a horrible elderberry had killed it. A friend and his son took it down .. at least they will get loads of logs. Another tree (acer with attractive striped pink and green leaves) will be planted in the cherry’s place. It’s sitting in a pot, gasping for room to breathe but it will be long after Rider’s gone before another generation of children will appreciate it. Those old estate owners of long ago left a legacy of trees and so should we. Plant a tree if you’ve got room.. give a bit to the future.

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