Changing digs and coming out of my cave... for a wee while atleast :)

elantan

Today is a new kinda day for us, we should have been going to a jeely jar silent movie day.

There is a wee village a few miles from us called Bo-ness once a year it puts on a weeks festival of old movies, they have an orchestra playing for the films and they are all the black and white silent ones. today was the Buster keating day, it was made extra special by allowing people to pay to get in with a jeely jar, now I am not sure how it was the rest of the UK but here just after the war when everyone was skint and had no money the kids on a saturday morning got to go to the pictures with a Jam ( jeely) jar and a penny or two, this festival sets out to relive those days once a year, just on the saturday you get to pay in with the jeely jar and a wee bit of money every other day its £7 or whatever to get in, I really fancied trying it, I wouldve paid the £7 but fancied handing over ma jeely jar as well, then getting into the plush seats and waiting for the orchestra to start and the curtains to pull back and to watch Buster in all his black and white glory,

what I did not figure out was how popular the thing is, sold out in minutes .... so guess where we aint going today lol ..

Instead we are off to help out at a stall in my local town, to see if people are interested in learning the art of public speaking, I think it will be a good night

Also managed to get tickets to go see the book reading of my hero, he was reading in Glasgow but they sold out in minutes, so we have had to go all the way to Stirling to go and see him, they have made it a ticketed event as well as I am sure they know how many people would turn up if it wasnt, I remember through the Indy ref campaign going to see many people, there were so many that turned up one night you couldnt get a fag paper between anyone, wouldve been a total nightmare and the death toll wouldve been huge if a fire had broken out, anyway this place was heaving and people were still trying to pile in when the place finally thought nah we cant do this so shut it off... More people arrived outside another good few hundred all wanting to watch the speaker, the speaker then went out to see the people and was invited to stand on top of someones car, so there he was on the top of someones car giving his speech to hundreds outside while we were inside singing and chatting waiting for him to come in, I have to admit I have never experienced politics like that before, it was very encouraging ... Anyway, they know the situation would be the same with my hero as when he went to his conference they lined the streets for him for miles ....

But hey I got tickets so all is good lol

Right paper to write and street stall to get ready for, hope you are all ok and saving pennies, currently I am spending them so you dont need to

Karmacat

Wow, El!!!! It sounds wonderful to be a part of that experience. I was thinking about your using the word "hero" in the way you have been recently, and you know what, part of me doesn't believe that anyone in that line of work can be heroic any more, and part of me wishes so, so much that some of them were, even one of them. I'm really glad you feel he's worthy of the name. Its this feeling that I'm referring to: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-oxen/ and the last line says it all, "hoping it might be so".

Hope this is okay

edinburgher

I'm with you KC, I struggle to think of politicians are heroic. Still, having figures out El's hero, I do respect him as a leading light in his world.

In fact, El's had me thinking about heroes in general, I don't know if I've ever had one. Trust issues? :think:

elantan

Ofcourse it ok wonderful poem actually

I dont use the term hero lightly, and tbh I dont really have many heroes at all, but let me tell you a story.

I remember as a child my mother being really really angry, " how dare he ... how very dare he " I didnt understand this at all, i wondered what exactly was going on, I knew at that time my country and its people were really struggling, my friends dads had all lost their jobs, they were having to use news paper for toilet roll and share a pot noodle between three for dinner, they had no money, we had no money either but there were more of us so we were used to having no money.

My mother was a huge fan of the late Mgt Thatcher, i couldnt understand why this was, i saw what her economic policies were doing to my friends and their families, i saw my friends being taken away from their parents and put into childrens homes, I saw other friends parents going without food so their kids could eat, and I knew somewhere it was because their dads no longer worked, and that that was a decision taken by my government miles away which had a huge impact on my friends lives.

Their dads then started drinking and the downward spiral of life took over for them till all that was left was the empty house where my friends had lived, everything had been sold and eventually the kids taken away whilst the parents tried their best to " sort themselves out"

So that day when my mother was cursing this person I was intrigued, I didnt know who he was, or why she was so upset, I asked her and was told " that upstart how dare he interrupt the chancellors speech, does he think he will get away with it" still didnt have a clue at this point who this person was but I do remember thinking " ohhh that took balls to do that " sounds to me like someone wanted to choose a specific time to make a specific point.

Years later, I started hearing about this man that was going about stirring up people, my parents always voted Tory my friends parents always Labour, and I could hear both of them moaning about this " nose picker" I didnt have a clue who this was, party politics has never interested me ( still doesnt tbh) but politics interests me deeply, so I thought I had better find out what exactly was going on. At that time Tommy Sheridan was kicking about with the poll tax, I assumed everyone was meaning him, till I realised my friends parents actually like him.

It was at that point I finally put two and two together and figured out who this wee hornet in the side of authority was, well at that point I made it a point to listen to what the man said and watch what he did, now I have never been a follower of main stream media, and rarely get taken in by stories and lies told, I like to watch things for myself and come to my own conclusion.

What I can say about my hero is that to me he is the father of my country, I know alot of people like William Wallace and Robert the Bruce and that is good, I do not in anyway state they are wrong, but for me, an English girl who grew up not knowing Scottish history ( sorely lacking in our education system) and having parents who are not themselves Scottish ( so they could not teach me) I never got the opportunity to learn about the history of the country I live in. What I did get though was to watch this man literally have to grab his people by the scruff of the neck and say " Look, you aint daft, you are smart, you can be whatever you want to be, you have the ability and the privilege to make life what you want it to be, grow up and claim your birthright, it is yours for the taking, and if you choose not to take it, it will be taken by someone else" Just like any good father would.

Now I dont always agree with the man tbh, sometimes I think !!!!!! are you up to now, but I dont know everything, I dont know what is going on behind closed doors, what I do know is that the man LOVES his country ( I dont believe many other politicians love their countries tbh) and his people and would never ever intentionally do anything to hurt them, I also believe he LOVES the rest of the UK as well, I dont believe he wants to see anyone else suffer so his country can do better, I do believe he see's many ways that other countries can improve their lot but I imagine being as deeply involved with his own country as he is looking after 5 million is probably enough. I reckon he has his wee hornets sting back on and is heading down to WM to cause trouble for the establishment for the betterment of all the UK citizens.

Yes I do love the man, he is to me the father of my nation, the man who believes in us when we dont believe in ourselves, ( oh how i wish we did) and I wish i couldve taken his pain away on the 18th, although tbh my pain is still killing me so adding his wouldve finished me off.

I dont have many heroes, heroes today are thin on the ground, so having the chance to meet my hero was overwhelming and something I will cherish forever

elantan

edinburgher wrote: »

I'm with you KC, I struggle to think of politicians are heroic. Still, having figures out El's hero, I do respect him as a leading light in his world.

In fact, El's had me thinking about heroes in general, I don't know if I've ever had one. Trust issues? :think:

or maybe lack of people to actually be heroes ? they are very thin on the ground I reckon, I mean I loved Robin Williams, thought the man a genius, am still gutted about his death ( on my birthday as well) but is he my hero? no he isnt, a man that made the world a better place most deff, but hero, no

now you have me thinking do I have anymore heroes

elantan

Karmacat wrote: »

Wow, El!!!! It sounds wonderful to be a part of that experience.".

KC it was the most exhilarating time of my life so far, as i say i have been a wee political beastie since a was a kid ( not party politics) but very few people here were like me, so i didnt have many to talk to, suddenly I had a whole country of 5 million all with their own opinions, and all learning and growing as time went on, I reckon as a country we could sit an exam on economics and politics ... and it is not going away

elantan

I am now sitting in a Vietnamese restaurant in a local town having lunch with Mr El, there are four tables occupied, I genuinely am still amazed by the people of my country, out of the four tables, three are talking about independence and the GE and what they want Scotland to be, that gives me hope and encouragement for my countries future

Ps: we're the table that isn't, we decided last year during food we don't talk politics, we do enough of it every other minute of the day, eating is a political free chat zone for us

elantan

well our stall day turned out to be interesting, I think that is all I should really say about that tbh

Sitting here now with Mr El thinking of what else we can get up to today :rotfl:

skint_spice

I am going to do the ironing and finish an essay - tis indeed a rock n roll Saturday here so hope you have more fun! DS out so can't have any wine in case he calls for a lift (probably better for essay though;))

elantan

I always tended to find I I wrote better with a wee drink, obviously next day I had to re write it, but I could get my ideas out better, the mental block was gone so to speak.

I think tbh Mr El and I will have a lot to discuss tonight after the day we had

If your stuck for things to write I have an essay needing finished ?