A sad week or so...

so, a bit of a sad last week or so.. first, we were saddened at school and scouts to hear of the sudden death of a good teacher, and wife of one of our best Scouters....our hearts go out to the family... then of course Paul Newman, not one of my favourite actors necessarily, but in one of my favourite films (clue.. its on one end of a bee...) has died... a taxi driver friend of my dad's, known as Shep went the way of all flesh... (interestingly, his Dad, also a taximan, was known as Shep's Dad.... which caused confusion when I was smaller, when I announced Shep as "Shep's dad's son...") and on top of this, a person who i always saw as a friend, despite everything, died a week ago.. I speak of Joe the Gorilla, long time resident of Twycross Zoo.... me and Joe had a very limited friendship, separated by glass.... but having been a visitor to the zoo for many years, and being fortunate enough to have a son who gets free admission to the zoo, I saw Joe often..... he would alweays stick his lower lip out at me, and I would reciprocate.... and on occasion, if there weren't many people around, he and i would "touch hands" through the glass... which astounded many other visitors... we would often just sit there, neither of us quite looking at each other.... its a gorilla thing... i think we understood each other... and i was going to launch into some observation about how sometimes such a friendship can bbe more rewarding than the usual standard sort of thing, but I'm not... instead, I hope everyone who has been bereaved recently or not so recently has the courage to cope with the loss, and the comfort of their close ones in their sorrow and grief.... time may not heal, but it does lessen the pain... and may all those who have passed from here to wherever find themselves where they hope or deserve to be... and until the rapture, the ragnarok, nirvana or whatever reunites us all, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!

Yes.. we know it's an anagram....

but it didn't bother Tolkien, and it won't bother me.... but a certain young lady and the Beard spent a very enjoyable day at Sarehole Mill, it sunny (and it was) Hall Green today.. an Oasis of calm and country in the middle of my favourite conurbation.... then it was off for a very nice steak and ale pie at The Peacock, where the beard managed to find his favourite Fentiman's tipple, the botanically brewed Sevile Orange and mandarin Jigger... lovely!! And, after a poetry sharing experience, all I can say of the rest of the afternoon is my customary wow.... although it deserves capitalisation. so WOW!!!!!! as Bogey said, "Here's looking at you, kid..." though what relevance that has is lost on me... but, as I am pretty certain that the young lady concerned will read this, may I just say another WOW!!!!! before saying that until we all walk through crowds like Peter Lorre, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cornish, Dawnish......

Well, for the last two mornings, The Beard has woken to dawn breaking through the widows of a transit van.... or even the windows of one..... contrary to the perceived meaning of that pseudo-sentence, we are not plagued by early rising female burglars, and neither has the Beard yet received his just desserts and been rendered homeless.... no, instaed the pitching abilities of Beard junior and his accomplice left the tent I was due to inhabit wetter inside than out, and, discretion being the better part of the virtue of your choice, I decided to inhabit the rear cargo compartment of my box on wheels.... which was comfier than I thought it would be, with my cargo blankets laid beneath me, and a 4 season Blacks sleeping bag.... in fact, it was a lot comfier than the alst van I slept in, which was an Astramax, if anyone remembers those..... and I'm sorry if you do... although, to be honest, they remain my favourite car based van.. but i digress... the camp in question was laid on at a beautiful campsite owned by our Scout District, and involved our Cubs, and their leaders... one of whom had planned the whole thing.. so at least we knew who to blame.... for a first camp, it was quite successful.... more so than many other first camps I've been on.. so kudos to Baloo for the event... and to good old Jim for bringing his spinny-thging target, which made the shooting far more worthwhile.... but before this degenerates into some Scouting blog (and what sort of person would involve himself with such a thng... cough, cough...) I shall attempt to vainly make some point to replace the one I was going to make and have now forgotten.... waking in a strange environment can be a tricky thing... admittedly, I 've woken in some very strange ones in my time, from cardboard boxes (of which more later) to vans, to other peoples gardens.... most of my awakenings have been under canvas of one type or another, and it is only when opening the flaps that the strange surroundings take hold with that feeling of "where am I???" which seems to not occur on a regular holiday.... I rarely get that feeling nowadays, accustomed as I am to spending most of my summer weekends in fields, but it still occurs.. not to the extent to which it consumed an erstwhile friend of muine, luckily.. once, waking in someone elses house after a party, he went to where his bathroom would have been, and proceeded to perform the most necessary of his ablutions in a totally innappropriate room.... to the horor of his hosts... now, a certain young lady of my acquaintance is currently ensconsed in one of the many equivalents of Alan partridge's Travel Tavern (hopefully not a sordid little grief hole.... ) down in the Summer Country of Kernow.... there are many such places masquerading as hotels the world over, the most notorious of course being the Holiday Inn and the Granada Travelodge.. myself and Beard Junior stayed in the York one once, simply because the YHA was booked solid.... and it was not a bad experience, but that was possibly due to the fact that we spent only the hours from 10 till 8 within its walls, and for most of that we were asleep.. and tired in a far off land, a bed is a bed.... but yet again I digresss... or maybe not... now, the view from our window was a surprisingly picturesque drainpipe and yard-with-bins aspect, but luckily the window was so small and high thatin order to view it we had to move the trouser press so that we could get the sofa bed close enough to stand on.... and then wondered why we had bothered.. even more fantastically, we found that we had allegedly the best view of the hotel... looking up we could vaguely make out the sky through the orange glow of Wetherspoons... on the floor below, the same angle took in the greasy kitchen vent of the same establishment.. or so I was led to believe... but it reminded me of something Jasper Carrott (or possibly Billy Connelly.. who may or may not be the same person...) said on stage.. that before going to bed, he would write a message on toilet paper and stick it to the ceilking, so that on waking he would be greeted by the words... "YOU ARE IN SHEFFIELD!" or wherever he was... simply because the sameness of these places had led him to ask one night how everyone in Manchester was, to be greeted by silence from the Swindon crowd he was addressing... even more embarassingly, he allegedly walked around a German town for three hours believing himself to be in France.... but yet again my point evades me.... except to say that this sameness is, in small ways, a seemingly good thing... at lerast we all know that wherever we are we can have flat trousers... but in other ways, it is eroding the individuality of towns and villages, and, even more frighteningly, the very individuality of individuals... as the places around us conform to each other, we attempt to rebel, and show our individuality by our choices of clothes and behaviours, without even realising that we are being conned into conforming...everyone jumping everybody elses train, as the cure would have it.... for if everyone's style was completely different, then copying someone would be non conformist.... but it isn't... biut it grows late, and the Beard possibly needs to sleep... but not in a van this time.... so, until we are all lying there in the Start Suite (sorry to Mac Davies), Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lost.. and Found.....

Now, strange as it may seem, the Beard loves a walk in the woods as much as the next man.. who is almost certainly Ray Mears.... and so, when a certain young lady mentioned the possinbility of a walk through Cannock Chase, the Beard of course jumped at the chance.... although, to be honest, if this young lady had suggested a four mile stroll through the middle of a run down housing estate, i would still have leapt several feet.. such is the appeal of the right company.. which remiinds me of a very poor joke.. a Captain in the Royal Artillery walks up to a lady of the night, and asks, "How much for the pleasure of my company..." "£40, " responds the magdalen... "Very reasonable, " the officers says, then turns a way, and shouts, "Company! By the left...." but i digress... after an M6 themed meeting, following a strange journey behind a man who insisted at driving past all speed cameras at 20mph, despite being in a 60 mph zone, we arrived at that ancient forest and hunting ground, where, despite not being startled by a deer, the Beard lost his famous sense of direction, mistook one path for another, and ended up somewhere totally different... whichh is possibly a metaphor for life... or possibly life itself is the metaphor for walking in woods.. who can tell... but regardless, the walk itself was fine, as was the subsequent sit in a rather deceptoive public house.... from the outside it looked like your familiar, slightly run down but still presentable corner local.. inside it was quite modern, with wide screen tvs and Deal or NoDeal being projected upon a wall.. and Noel Edmonds is a frightening enough concept on a 20 inch screen.... although he did help me increase my stocks of Lego at a time when such things were important.... the atmosphere inside, however, belied the laminate floor, being very much local... it was as if the regulars had simply ignored the changes and carried on as if their pub had not gone a bit tarty... which is possibly a good thing....but anyway, while walking along hese paths through the chase, and being totally deer-less, I had little time for introspection, as I was too busy talking and listening... which is not necessarily a bad thing... as one of my friends (yes, i do have them, contrary to appearances..) once stated, "if your mouth ever stands stil, your brain will start working... so please keep talking..." but looking back, I'm thinking that an awful lot of us are just like that walk... on a nice, familiar path, knowing just where we are heading, only to find that we are on a different path, and that our plans for the destination are now immaterial...... and that it is far too late to turn back and get on the path we want.. which is where Andy (the tent guy) has my respect, for realizing that the tarmac he trod was actually the wrong bit, and retracing his steps... he's one of the few that has done it in time.... it may be, however, that we look along the wrong path, and realize that it seems better than the path we were going to take... in which case, good luk to you.. or that the path is at the least no worse for leading in the wrong direction... and teh Wiseness of the Beard lies in part in recognising the joy in all possible paths.... and as I was never sure which path i wanted to take anyway, did it really matter which one drew my feet along its slightly muddy, occasionally ankle turning track??? One thing we can never know is what would have happened if... which is a subject for campfires and science fiction, not remorse and regret.... i imagine that i think what I'm trying to say is, try to enjoy what you've got, and where you've been.... and if its too late to get on the right path, remember that short cuts make long delays, and there are deeer out there somewhere... and as for the rest of my sunday, all I can say is another wow!! and possibly yet another for good measure.. wow!! so, until we get surprised by deer on the path, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!