We are watching actual genocide in you know where.  I don’t want to become a political whinger and complainer but this chart shows the damage being done in terms of statistics.  Is it a ‘hate crime’ to object to this indeed to be repulsed by it? As a human being with feelings, I do not like to see other human beings suffering. <fanfare of trumpets> I can ’empathize!!!!  Empathy??? What is that??? some sort of aberration?

I mentioned before my policy of sharing with you the good, the bad and the ugly. I will share a video that was shocking even though I have been battle hardened over the past few years.   This is Opera Winfrey saying in a show that ‘Child Molesters made children feel good’. Well, try telling that to the parents of an abused child.   Life damaging stuff. This shows what company she keeps. Nuff said.

Before I go off of my philosophical adventures today, being Friday, is normally tidying up day. The morning was spent with my web developer trying to stave off a registration attack by robots who registered someone with a ridiculous non-name every few minutes throughout the night and then suddenly stopped. It does not damage the software just fills it up with useless junk. We decided to install askimet and Captcha which detects robotic males and sends them back from whence they came

The spammers rely on naivety of the web creators and developers. I do not know what sort of benefit, if any, they get from doing this spamming because they cannot advertise themselves as they are anonymous, can they interfere with anybody else. Once I had examples of people who logged in to make comments and then use that entrance to describe pornography or substances that could be abused. I deleted them as they came in and they soon stopped.

Around the block or around the houses?

You all know my love of words so in that connection I had an amusing conversation with someone today. I wanted to say that I had researched a particular topic and had gone round the houses, in other words I took a route that was much longer than necessary. I was about to say that I had gone round the block but students of English will know that that is not a good idea.

The latter is an urban phrase which refers specifically and most commonly to sexual activity, although it may have been intended to be used simply to mean you’ve had a former experience of other particular subjects. In the right context you could say to someone I know you’ve been around the block a few times so you know what this task involves but in the United Kingdom with its particular history of etymology, it is probably wise to avoid that statement altogether.

We can also say, in a roundabout way when we wanted to avoid the issues being discussed.  We can correctly use the term what goes around comes around, the term ’roundabout’ – a road junction is a strange use of the term, but it is used in a neutral sense when I say I’ll see you around 3 o’clock. I looked all around and I could not find something. We drove aimlessly around town with my friends. We can go ’round in circles’ when we achieve nothing in an argument.

A reminder of childhood via a bakery

I decided to go for an exercise walk as much as anything to the High Street to buy some provisions. Opposite Lidl there is a small and busy bakery and I decided to have a latte and a chocolate muffin. Whilst consuming it I saw a drawing on the wall which took me right back to my childhood and reminded me of my innocent years when everything was wonderful, the best, amazing, and I strongly identified with that no holds barred sentiment

The Wells Carnival

I mentioned to the lady who served me in the bakery that I was intending to go to the Wells Carnival. There are a whole series of Carnival events that go around from town to town starting I believe in Bridgewater. We did have one in Midsomer last Monday but it was raining and I didn’t fancy going. The lady and one other said that the standard in Wells was good so we decided to go and see what it was like, and I am glad we did.

We left early, about 5:15 an event that started at 7pm. The reason was to find parking for the car and in spite of an early arrival we ended up parking about a mile away from Wells Centre. Most of the roads had been closed off and  the market square, used for markets on Wednesday and Saturday, been taken over by a fun fair.

We passed through the Green in front of the Cathedral and saw a group of people sitting round a light, waiting.

One of the many sellers of bar lights and flashing illuminations

A monstrous machine for thrilling those wishing to be thrown around in the name of pleasure. They screamed a lot.

Another torture machine, for pleasure of course.

Here is the map of the route, above, which I reckon was about a mile from beginning to end. We were shortly after where it says start. The event was very well attended and it was nice to see so many well-behaved youngsters.

The carnival, very well marshaled, started as advertised at seven pm. The weather teased us by spitting rain, but nothing serious, certainly not enough to spoil the fun.

First off the mark was a visiting fire engine that went in the front so if it was required it could leave rather than being stuck in the middle of a procession. This was followed by a brass band and then the floats started. Unlike some other carnivals there were not too many advertising trucks with no aesthetic value. They probably paid for the publicity. Throughout I found all the people very well behaved, good natured, and I saw the light in the eyes of the children as they viewed these amazing vehicles passing by. My goodness was the sound level high.

The brass band waiting for the event to start.

part of the crowd. Excellent attendance.

For the nerds among you this is by Bluetooth scanner on my mobile phone telling me that there are 163 devices, all radiating happily, and no doubt doing damage in their own way. This is why I cannot take crowds for more than a certain amount of time.

Very well rehearsed young ladies from a dancing School (Sue Hill?)

The snake ate its own tail – the duration of the procession was about one and a half hours and so long was it that the first floats arrived at the end before the last float left the start. I have never seen this before and they harmoniously allowed each other to cross the road as appropriate and we have the chance to see the same floats twice.

The Wetherspoon’s pub on the route was very well patronized, you could say almost riotously, but everyone behaved; Francoise popped into use the facilities. I resisted the idea of having a drink but later on decided to have a strawberry ice cream from an Italian restaurant, always a delight in my experience. They know how to make ice creams.

I consider this to be one of the best carnivals I have ever seen, so far as I was concerned it was a little bit long and noisy but then the youngsters loved it as did the families which was a free evening out so ‘job done’ in my opinion