Wednesday, August 27, 2008

[conkers] the crime of having fun


In the park just now and the leaves are starting to fall.

People were walking dogs on fancy leads, the grass had been half mown by a council worker but then he'd obviously knocked off, as the rubbish collectors also seemed to do today. Big mistake putting the bin out last night in the hope that when they said they'd come early, they would.

So how about this woman who was taken to court for dropping a sausage roll meant for her daughter? Or the one who waited five years for a house that catered for her disabled son which she never wanted until the council blocked a plan to reconstruct the front of their house?

The one I love is that doing cartwheels is now banned. Girls and boys must now desist because it is highly dangerous to do a cartwheel, as you know. Like playing conkers, there is a very real danger of having fun.

But people still do have fun - they stroll in the park, share a joke, sip a pint, visit the garden centre, go to the conservatory or bicycle to the station and chain the bike up there before taking the train to work.

Carthorses still haul the rag and bone men down Steptoe Lane and people are still polite and helpful, especially in community facilities like libraries.

And the colour is something else again- that rich, soft green and it doesn't really matter a damn what the killjoys are doing - this is still a green and pleasant land.

And we're all going to have fun at Bridlington or Notting Hill or wherever.

Cheers!

9 comments:

  1. Seems there's an attempt to legislate against all enjoyment.
    I hope it doesn't succeed.

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  2. and there I was thinking cartwheels had been banned because the resultant display of knickers worries the Daily Mail lot that think every man is a latent pedo.

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  3. There was a time that boiled sweets were banned in schools too.

    They're particularly dangerous apparently.

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  4. Welcome to Britain ;-)

    There are so many places not so far north from where you are that I could suggest for you to get away from it all :-)

    It is in my blood after all ;-)

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  5. I only gripe about England when I am here, but the minute I am in Canada I miss Ole' Blighty terribly.

    It's the damp earthen smells and the lush greenery that affect me everytime I come back.

    Did it have that affect you that way, James?

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  6. My first impression of Ireland when I went to visit was that it was even greener than the UK.

    Personally I am very partially to the rain, the mist and the bloody freezing weather. Not!

    Last days of winter 20 degrees, blue sky and sunny. I doubt if I will ever leave.

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  7. Having fun is a high priority now. Seems that so many things are acting to prevent it we just have to laugh and be damned.

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  8. And there's swansea being the fifth most miserable place in Britain. Pah! They didn't ask me and George.

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  9. Article in the Telegraph about conkers today.

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