Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 87
April 18, 2015
Saturday Night Confessions
It takes a lot of courage to ‘fess up to those nicknames that we never liked, and it is a lot of fun to admit to those that we rather like. I hope that these two blog posts, mine and Mello’s, will result in lots of responses for the mutual enjoyment of all.
And PLEASE do not call me Dithers!
Originally posted on Thoughts by Mello-Elo:
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Will you think before you vote?
A lot of people don’t think before they vote. They just vote for the party that they have always for or, even worse, the party that their parents voted for. Some people even vote for the party that might come second because they don’t like the other party.
In NW Hampshire, around 30,000 voters would put their X in the box for a donkey if somebody pinned a blue rosette on it!
In the 2015 election, only one of the five candidates is genuinely local. Dan Hill has lived in Andover since he was 2 years old. He also works in the area.
The Conservative candidate, Kit Malthouse, is a hedge fund manager, is the Deputy Mayor of London, and has been dropped into the “safe Tory seat” even though he appears to find difficulty finding his way from the capital city to the rolling countryside of rural Hampshire.
Here are three letters from this week’s Andover Advertiser.
Disturbed that Kit didn’t take part in Q&A
WELL done on the rather clever set of questions you posed to the four game parliamentary candidates who chose to respond: Andy Adams for Labour, Sue Perkins for UKIP, Dan Hill for the Greens and Alex Payton for the Lib Dems.
What I found disturbing was that Kit Malthouse declined to take part.
Particularly so because he is the Conservative candidate and historically Andover has been represented by Conservative MPs.
Mr Malthouse has been Boris Johnson’s deputy mayor for policing, deputy leader at Westminster City Council, director and majority shareholder in various companies, member of the Thames Estuary Airport Steering group, and his business interests have been in hedge fund financing. So an undoubtedly excellent Conservative candidate for Westminster. But Andover..?
Wiki describes the North West Hants constituency as follows: “In the county of Hampshire focussed around the town of Andover which has small pockets of regionally high levels of social housing and unemployment”.
So being able to answer the Advertiser’s questions on the cost of a pint of milk and the minimum wage might have been rather helpful in deciding who was “in touch” and might make our best next MP.
With the forthcoming election likely to be one of the most interesting in recent history, perhaps it is time to start looking a bit more closely at the suitability of the candidates and asking how well they will represent us rather than just putting an X in a box next to a party label.
Maureen Treadwell, Meadow View, Chilbolton
Taking us for granted?
I MUST say Kit Malthouse came out of your quiz last week rather badly.
By refusing to take part he gives the impression he’s above taking part in things. Is he taking our votes for granted? I’m traditionally a Conservative supporter, but don’t think I’ll vote for him.
Martin Robbins, Andover, via e-mail
A candidate to vote for
IN response to Alan Kitchener’s letter last week about politicians, I agree with you thinking that politics is a grubby game and in past elections I would have been in two minds, as you are, in who to vote for.
This year the choice is an easy one for me though, for the first time in many years we can vote for a Green candidate.
One who has no past political experience but has an intense passion for politics. He has no interest in game playing, running down the opposition or gaining personally in any way.
His interest purely lies with wanting to make North West Hampshire and Great Britain a better place to live for everyone.
Julia Hill, via e-mail
In conclusion, I would ask my local friends and acquaintances, “Will you vote for a city banker who is so arrogant in expecting to be elected because he wears a blue rosette that he will not even turn up to public debates, or will you vote for a local man who is passionate about local issues?”
Very sadly, I believe that there are still far too many people who will blindly vote for anything wearing a blue rosette.
More happily, whilst canvassing, I have met many people who appear to be very positive about having a genuine, local candidate: The Green Party candidate, Dan Hill.
Nationally, I would urge people to consider very carefully before voting for those who genuinely represent their own values and beliefs.
April 17, 2015
Confess your nicknames
Throughout our lives, our friends and acquaintances stick labels on us: nicknames.
Some we like, and some we don’t.
My own experience tells me that the cruellest, least wanted, nicknames are foisted upon us during our school days.
When I was an officer cadet at HMS Conway, a naval school in North Wales, I was called Dithers. I absolutely hated that! It was because I was in the habit of injecting nervous “Ums” and “Ers” into my speech. My shipmates were merciless in their teasing, even making out that I had a “King’s Speech” stutter. It was awful!
People who have known me more recently would be surprised. I am often told that I am a natural public speaker. I’ve had great feedback on the way that I spoke at the recent UK Southern African Culture Workshop in London. Click on the link to listen from minute 10:21, and let me know what you think.
I have had many nicknames during my working life. I’ll just tell you about three of them, as briefly as possible.
During my Army career, I was called Mad Mitch. My full name is Lance Greenfield Mitchell. Greenfield is my Natural father’s name. Mitchell is my Step-father’s name.
Just before I was recruited, a Colonel Mitchell, who commanded British troops in Aden, and was known to all as Mad Mitch because he was a little bit crazy, retired. Incidentally, he became a Member of the British Parliament. My colleagues stuck his label on to me, even though I am not crazy.
When I worked at Ingres in the early to mid nineties, I was Tigger. It was my own fault! But I loved this, and I am very pleased that a few people still hang this on me.
The way it happened that, while I was training some customers on day, I was simultaneously chatting online with my boss. She was warning me about a very grumpy, objectionable customer who would attend my course the following week. “He objects to everything that is said, and will complain about the course and the trainer,” she told me.
My response, without even thinking, was “Don’t worry, Sandra, I will be Tigger the Bouncing Tiger!”
Before I came out of the classroom, an email had gone out from my boss to the whole company, worldwide, saying that, “Lance will no longer be known as Lance. He is now Tigger the Bouncing Tiger.” What fun!
The other nickname that I had in the same job was The Ready Brek Kid. I didn’t know about this until many years later when I met up with an ex-colleague. To my surprise, she told me that trainers who felt exhausted by lunchtime would come and sit next to me. Apparently, they used to confide in each other that they could feel energy radiating off me as if I were on fire. The went back to their classrooms for the afternoon sessions with a new zest and enthusiasm. They never told me.
Now it is over to you. Tell us all about your nicknames. How did you acquire them? Did you love them or hate them. Maybe you have hidden them away for many years like I did with Dithers. I confessed that one to you today. It is time for you to confess.
April 16, 2015
Review: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by A.N. Roquelaure
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Amusing or arousing?
This is what I call light reading. It is easy, predictable and comedic. It’s the sort of book I could read from end to end during a short flight. For me, it was not too arousing, unless you are a girl who likes being spanked! I am not!
There is really not too much depth to the story, but that doesn’t spoil it at all, just as long as you read it in the right spirit. I don’t think that the author ever intended it to be serious. The whole book is dedicated to sado-masochism.
There is a slight reversal of society, as the Princes and Princesses from surrounding kingdoms become sex slaves to the Queen, her Crown Prince and the Lords and Ladies of the land. The slaves are kept naked, and are continually beaten, and punished in many other ways, for the amusement of the Lords and Ladies. There are strict rules to stop the beatings short of the drawing of blood or the burning of skin. There is plenty of bondage, and much agony is imposed on the slaves by bringing them close to sexual satisfaction, but refusing to allow them that final climax.
It is a lot of fun, and I am left full of anticipation to discover how the commoners of this land conduct themselves and how they interact with the slaves, who are, when all is said and done, foreign royalty.
Personally, I did not find the story very arousing, but it is clear that some readers did. I found it amusing, and it is a good, light read. For you, it could be amusing or arousing, or both. It takes no effort to read this book, so I recommend that you make the effort, and decide for yourself.
April 15, 2015
You’re not wrong!
When it comes to decision-making, do you trust your intuition, or do you stick with the logical options only? Or are you somewhere in between? How daring are you? Does your experience in taking the risk show that it pays off? Or not?
Take a look at this interesting blog post from Natalie Hahn O’Flaherty.
On that topic, I very much like, and believe in the truth of, this quote from Paul Coelho:
“The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it’s all written there.”
April 14, 2015
Review: 1066: What Fates Impose
1066: What Fates Impose by G.K. Holloway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book starts with the end. What I mean is that it starts with the end of William the Conqueror. In the opening scene, he lies on his death bed, apparently delirious. Why is he in such a condition? Well, you’ll have to read the book, because I am not about to tell you.
The second chapter takes us back over 40 years, and the whole book, from that point onward, describes the characters and events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and its aftermath.
I will warn you that there is a whole heap of explicit brutality in this story, but then those were very brutal times.
The author must have done a lot of research to be able to form the historical skeleton upon which he builds the flesh of the plot and many sub-plots. There is so much deception by the main characters, who all seem to have two goals in mind: power and possession.
The downside for me, and I suppose that it was necessary, is that there are two many characters and some very complex relationships. It hurt my head to try to keep up with all of these, especially as many of them had very similar names, and seemed to be related along more than one branch of their family trees. But one only has to do a little bit of online research to discover that these families were indeed very complex.
The main protagonist is Harold Godwinson, who becomes Earl of Wessex and subsequently King Harold.
Everybody who ever went to school in Britain knows what happened to Harold in the end, so it comes as no surprise. I think though, that the author describes the events as they possibly happened in such great detail, and so vividly, that one is left believing that this is PROBABLY what happened. This, to me, is the sign of good historical fiction. I have long been a fan of the genre, and often got into serious trouble with my school teachers for arguing that the fiction that I had read was probably nearer the truth than what they were telling me. After all, I reasoned, they only knew what they knew from the reports of the “journalists” of the time. In current affairs classes they would tell me not to believe the reports of today’s journalists until I had checked and double-checked their stories. Such double standards!
Anyway, having read “1066: What Fates Impose”, I would stubbornly hold it up in front of those teachers as solid evidence of the facts as G.K. Holloway describes them.
Recommended to all.
See also S.C. Skillman’s review of the same book.
Book Tuesday: Guest Author short story
Thanks to Mello-Elo for inviting me along to write a short story for her Tuesday guest spot. If you are reading this on my blog, rather than hers, I would encourage you to skip across to Thoughts by Mello-Elo and start exploring. She always has so much going on there, with a lot of variety.
She is also an accomplished author in her own right: mainly children’s books, but she has also published a suspense novel, Deception, which I am currently reading.
Originally posted on Thoughts by Mello-Elo:
Hello and welcome to Book Tuesday. Today I have a special guest blogger/author who has kindly written a story for your pleasure.
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April 13, 2015
Ten Top Tips to Instantly Improve Your Writing
Tried to reblog this and resorted to a simple link…
Ten Top Tips to Instantly Improve Your Writing by Julie Lawford
Review: The Eagle of the Ninth
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Classic historical fiction
At the age of eight, I read Eagle of the Ninth, my first encounter with historical fiction. I became hooked. Since then, I have been read Nigel Tranter, John Prebble, Conn Igguden, Simon Scarrow, Ruth Downie, and many others.
Forty-four years later, re-reading this classic is no less exciting for me. My view is that it should be compulsory reading in primary school as it really does bring Roman Britain to life. It is an exciting adventure that could possibly have been reality. It is certainly tinged with historic fact.
This book had an amazing positive effect on my life in that it gave me an enormous appetite for books, not just historical fiction. However, it did have a slightly negative effect on my life. I was always in trouble with my history teachers for doubting what they told me. After all, when they were teaching me current affairs, I was guided not to believe everything that the papers say. My challenge was always that the contemporary commentators, or historians, that they expected me to believe were no less than the journalists of their time. Why couldn’t the historical fiction of which I was so fond be nearer to the truth than their history text books?
Eagle of the Ninth is a fantastic read. Whatever your age, if you haven’t read this book already, read it now!
April 10, 2015
Theo Jansen’s amazing robotic animals
This is just so amazing. Fascinating!
First of all, watch this ten minute TED lecture, in which Theo Jansen tells us about his “new forms of life.”
(Actually, it finishes and switches to an advert at 8:22)
Then, relax and watch the Stradbeest ambling along the beach.
How cool is that?
