Did you perhaps not know, dear Reader, that our country, Britain, is ultimately to blame for everything that's ever gone wrong in the world since its "inception" 4.6 billion years ago, as scientists say? Well, not quite that long ago - I suppose the country itself can only be said to have come into existence in maybe 1707, with the Union of England and Scotland, so that that particular "accusation" or "charge" is not as bad as maybe you were thinking (!). Phew!!!!!
I found this astonishing fact out thanks to an email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, who yesterday passed me details of how to buy this astonishing new book from best-selling-author Richard Poe.
And from Poe's revelations it turns out that the British not only invented communism but that our intelligence services also were also to blame for pretty much all the other really big upsets in world history - even the French Revolution. What madness!!!
The synopsis of the book reads:
And that's not all we Brits have done. We've also "spoilt Venice" - of which more late in this very blog post (!).
[I can't wait! - Ed]
Sorry to "bombard" you with questions today, dear Reader (!), but have you also ever found yourself waiting for a train that somehow doesn't appear at the time when you're expecting it to?
A lot of us have, haven't we. It's a phenomenon that seasoned train-travellers tend to refer by the word "delay", or the phrase "running late", which you tend to hear a lot, and if you travel by train regularly, you're probably aware of that, already.
If you're one of those "seasoned" people also, you're probably getting fed up to the back teeth with feeble excuses like the legendary "unexpected leaves on track". Am I right? Or am I right?!
That's why it's so nice to hear about a train service that finally really "comes clean" with its customers, as New York's MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) is reported to have done this week [Source: Onion News]:
A heart-warming story isn't it, and browsing the article this morning puts me and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois something to smile about later, as we do our morning walk through nearby Polly's orchard in the lee of the 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills.
our morning walk today through Polly's orchard
And we pause to note that the 10:50am train from Worcester to Hereford is late again - what madness !!! [That's enough madness! - Ed]
11:30 We come home and continue avoiding the Olympic Games for a bit longer. We're not sure how Team GB is doing, but according to the political magazine Private Eye, which "plopped" through our letter-box yesterday, Great Britain in with a chance for Triathlon Gold this year, if nothing else!
We also sense from the magazine that the general mood amongst athletes from all countries is not happy, to put it mildly!
What a crazy world we live in !!!
16:00 Later we get news of our daughter Alison, her husband Ed, and their 2 daughters and son, who are currently at London's Gatwick Airport preparing to jet off to Mauritius for 10 days.
our daughter Alison with husband Ed,
pictured last week in Bristol
They're due to take off about 4:30 pm but we late find out that departure was delayed (yes, that word "delay" again - what madness! [Just watch it! - Ed]) by one hour - so they'll arrive in Mauritius at presumably around 8:30 am local time tomorrow, unless the pilot can make up for lost time.
Lois and I are both keen history buffs, and I can't resist doing doing a bit of googling on Lois's Huawei when we're in bed this afternoon.
The European colonial powers never seemed to make their minds up about Mauritius. The Portuguese "discovered" it, as a group of uninhabited islands, in the early 16th century but they couldn't think of anything to do with it. Then the Dutch East India Company came, and the Dutch stayed for just over 100 years (1598-1710), before eventually abandoning it. Nothing of their occupation survives, except for the current name, deriving from an obscure Dutch prince, Prinz Mauritz.
Then the French came, and administered the islands from 1715 to 1810, and during the Napoleonic Wars they used it as a base from which to attack British commercial shipping. The British got fed up with this eventually and invaded the islands in 1810, taking them over, an event that was legitimised a few years later by the Treaty of Paris (1814).
flashback to 1810: the British invade the French
colony of Mauritius, and take it over
Under the terms of the treaty the British undertook to "respect the language, customs, laws and traditions of the inhabitants", a promise that we kept, until finally granting the islands independence in 1968. And today the language in use by the ordinary residents is still French, even though the official language is English.
What a muddle !!!!
21:00 "But what about your promise to reveal how Britain not only invented communism, but also 'spoiled' Venice?", I hear you cry! [Not me - I don't care! - Ed]
Well, we hear about this in tonight's final part of the fascinating 4-part series, "Francesco's Venice" on BBC4, presented by Francesco da Mosto, whose ancestors have lived in Venice for centuries.
Francesco's thesis is that tourism has ruined Venice and it all started with Lord Byron, the British poet, who made the city famous throughout Europe by his writing and also by the affairs he enjoyed in the city.
The city was already in a pretty poor state after the ravages of Napoleon, but Byron famously preferred Venice like that.
"In Venice", he wrote in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (1818), "silent rows the songless gondolier. Her palaces are crumbling to the shore. But beauty is still here. States fall, arts fade. But nature doth not die. She to me was as a fairy city of the heart, even dearer in her day of woe, than when she was a boast, a marvel, and a show." [my italics].
Byron's libido, and his affairs, became notorious throughout Venice and Europe, and became the "hot gossip" of English society, Francesco says.
After reading Byron's writing, tourists began flocking here, Francesco says, and this started the tourist boom that eventually came to ruin his city as it is today.
At least one of Byron's female conquests took little bit of early revenge on him, on behalf of the Venetians, when she succeeding in giving Byron "the clap" (gonnorrhea).
And who was this woman? Step forward, Elena da Mosto, one of presenter Francesco's ancestors, Elena da Mosto.
Byron later wrote about the encounter:
So Great Britain 1, Venice 1, was the "score-line" at the final whistle.
But what will we Brits be blamed for, next, Lois and I wonder - the eruption of Krakatowa perhaps??!
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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