It all started with1066. How could I ever forget the date of the Battle of Hastings?
Poor King Harold, forever remembered as the guy who lost his country to William the Conqueror.
History is so cruel. In fact, Harold had rushed to Hastings having defeated an assault in the northeast by Harald Hardrada at Stamfordbridge.
Wounded, Harold fled the Hastings battlefield (now unsurprisingly called Battle). There is no certainty about where he’s buried. The rumour I choose to believe is that he is interred in the graveyard of Waltham Abbey, near where I grew up in England.
After1066, I moved on to 1215: Magna Carta- what’s not to like? Except I think people tend to overblow King John. he didn’t willingly trot along to Runnymede and sign the landmark document. he was dragged there by irate magnates, lords who were tired of his bad, cruel government.
and forget that legend about “good” King Richard. Richard I, was a crazy guy who kept going off on crusades. he kept getting imprisoned and John had to pay to ransom him.
Then I moved on to 1350. That, too, was easy to remember. The birth year of Katherine Swynford, long-time lover and eventual wife of John of Gaunt. She’s one of the fascinating women of the Middle Ages.
Onwards to 1832 – the Great Reform Act, that essentially did away with pocket boroughs and rotten boroughs and in fact did more to bring about universal manhood suffrage than Magna Carta.
So that’s it. Now my iPhone wants ANOTHER four digit password. I give in. I am running out of significant dates in history.
Great Fire of London, 1666, I guess. Except it was just a fire. Okay, it probably put an end to the plague – but is it really memorable enough to be an iPhone password?
Ducunt volentem Fata, nolent em nolentem trahunt
Fates leads the willing person, but they drag the unwilling
In the run up to last Saturday’s PC leadership convention, I was going to write a post about the process.
It was long, complex and lacked meaningful content. There were few debates. Most of the campaign was dominated by sniping between the two camps.
The Tories’ one-member-one-vote method of picking a leader doesn’t have the eye-catching drama you get with a Liberal delegated convention. There’s not much of a publicity bump from such a convention. Before Saturday, I was going to suggest they gack to a delegated convention.
On the day of the convention, as the results rolled out, I changed my mind. It’s a dull as ditchwater process with 20 minutes of excitement as the results roll in from every riding across the province.
i had to admit to myself that this is a much more democratic way of picking a leader. It is up to the grassroots to get out and vote. There are no backroom deals, no convention-floor betrayals.
One of my favourite authors, British crime writer Ruth Rendell has died.
While Rendell is best known for her Inspector Wexford series, I actually preferred her other books.
Writing under the nom de plume Barbara Vine she produced books such as the highly atmospheric A Dark Adapted Eye. It’s a great read that takes you to another world.
Rendell had won many writing awards and was a life life Labour peer. Can’t believe there will be no new Ruth Rendell titles showing up at the book store,
Can someone please tell me how Kate Middleton can appear in public hours after giving birth looking as fresh as the flowers on her yellow-patterned dress?
i understand that living in a palace and being driven around in a fancy car helps, as does having a palace full of servants to help you.
But from my aching memory, the days on which In gave birth were not ones on which I would have relished the idea of appearing before the world’s full court press for a photo-op.
Yet there she was, pretty as a picture with Prince William, Primce George and the yet-to-be names HRH the PRincess of Cambridge.
There’s a wonderful exhibit at the new Aga Khan Museum. The lost dhow was an ancient sailing ship that sank in the Java Sea off Indonesia’s Belitung Island. There are thousands of artefacts from a time when there was a strong trade link between China and the Islamic world.
The artefacts are mostly in pristine condition and are spectacular. The exhibit closes soon, so hurry if you plan to visit.
it’s that time of year when we start to countdown to the Oscars.
okay, the moviegoers among us do.
The Theory of Everything, starring Benjamin Cimberbatch as Stephen Hawking has to be one of the main contenders.
it is a great movie. much better than I expected and with an unexpected twist at the end that has you thinking of the whole nature of human relationships.
Here we go again with all the fake nationalism and green beer.
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a bit like Burns Night, gives all those Irish wannabes an opportunity to get drunk.
A whole bunch of people, a great many of whom have never been to Ireland, not could they find it on a map, get dressed up in green.
They quaff green beer, they sing mawkish rebel songs, they bemoan ancient wrongs that the rest of the world has forgotten.
And, of course, they blame it all on the English.
the Scots are just as bad.
They don kilts and do the whole fake Braveheart thing. It makes me laugh.
They, too, blame the English for everything.
They are voting on a Scottish separatist referendum soon.
Actor Sean Connery weighed in on the whole Scotland for the Scottish
Idea recently – on the side of the separatists – from his home in the Bahamas.
Look, if you want to create a new country, the least you can do is go live in it.
And any other revenue tool you may have.
Premier Kathleen Wynne may be saying “No new taxes,” when she says she won’t hike the HST or impose an income tax hike on middle income earners.
What she is really saying is that she’s running scared. Liberals saw the writing on the wall – or on the Falls when their vote went over them in a barrell in the recent byelection.
They only polled 19% of the popular vote, so they’re stalling for time. That’s what they’re polling right across the province outside the GTA.
They think it will get getter if they hang in linger. I am not so surr.
I’d forgotten just how beautiful Niagara Falls is until I headed down there today.
It is even more exquisite on a cold day in February than it is in July.
sure, the floral clock isn’t there. instead the dark, bare limbs of deciduous trees stand out starkly on the horizon and the dark hues of the evergeens add their own mystery to the place.
is there any road more beautiful than the Niagara Parkway as you drive in from Niagara on the Lake? Grand houses, kitchy B & Bs on one side. On the other, the Gorge. And gradually you get closer and closer to the Falls.
You hear the roar, see the great plume of spray. And suddenly, the Falls are there in all their awe-inspiring beauty.
I had forgotten how beautiful they are off season. Too bad NF can’t market them as a winter destination. It was so much fun to visit without wondering where to park and without fighting choking traffic.
NOTL is so much easier to shop in February than in the middle of summer.
Couldn’t resist dropping by my favourite gift shops. And had to get marmalade from Greaves jams and some tea from the Scottish Loft.
Yum.
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Christina Blizzard 