h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I saw the headline and thought, like, wow, deja vu.

We are just back from a long walk that started at the back of 11. We swung on by Old Aberdeen, and saw the OTC &c parade with pipes and drums, bashing out what sounded like Campbeltown Loch (I wish you were whisky). We saw the celebs hanging round, post-service, outside the Elphinstone, with amid them Caius in his red-trimmed gown, looking like nothing less than a lord lieutenant would do for him in the general company stakes. He nipped into the Elphinstone as Susan and I advanced on him, so we had breakfast at Casa di instead.

We walked in to town and did some charity shops. I bought Pillow Talk on DVD - Susan has been complaining about the body count in my usual film choices, so she has now got lined up Doris & Rock, a Tammy film, and a Geo Formby classic.

Tammy and the Doctor was my favourite, but I couldn't get that one for her, so instead I have lined up one with Lesley Nielsen.

Cauld, weet, gusty, raw.

Miah caught a mouse last night.

Miah is out.

We are having tea. Susan will go for some shopping. Natchos for tea.

Remembrance is difficult. In theory it incoroprates all of our glorious dead, but in reality we little worry about the dead of Spion Kop or Crimea. It was all kicked off following WW1, but the soldiers of the First World War were 'lions led by donkeys' - swept up in a frenzy of patriotism to fight a nineteenth century war in an era of machine guns and mustard gas, sacrificed for a political and social elite, fighting a war because the rules of the game being played demanded that a war should be fought. The Second World War may have been different - a just war, truly good v bad - but without the First would it ever have happened? What followed WW2 seems to have been the tragedy and farce reprises a la Marx (and remember thar WW1 helped trigger the Soviet Revolution, and WW2 made the USSR a superpower -a all rich rich irony). Anyhow, I saw a poster outside a church enjoining Aiberdonians to remember their glorious dead - Gilcomston, by the way, therefore the unspoken word in the porter would have been 'heterosexual' - and I thought, you dirty filthy opportunistic stewards of bars, what kind of sermons were being preached in your nest in 1914-1918 ? Remember the Rev Gibbon in Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song? No, the churches helped feed the man-mincer in WW1 and now they appropriate the dead to their cause, which is typical.

I wore a poppy on Friday but not today. If I were to come under pressure to wear one, I would refuse, but I would pay my penny. It is a matter of personal choice. Last week's England cairry-on was absurd.


Drug

Oh, Gilcomston South, Gilcomston South.

I was ambivalent about wearing a remembrance poppy in my youth. However, when Thatcher made such a fuss about them in the 80's it made my mind up and I have not worn one since. It has never been commented on (at least to my face), even when I took Offspring to play his horn at the local ceremony. As you say, I always make a point to contribute some money to the British Legion.

Nice day here. Did lots of woodchopping and filled in some potholes in the drive.

Best wishes to all up north.


PJ's OH

A perfectly reasonable principled position IMHO.

Would you be around Glesca at the end of the month - 24th/25th?


Drug

No trips planned to Scotland in the foreseeable future - not even for Hogmanay as the family is invited to my sister's place in the North of England.

PJ's OH