“Slow North Yorkshire: Moors, Dales & Coast, including York (Bradt Travel Guides (Slow Guides))” (Mike Bagshaw)  

Pickering itself is a beautiful place, in the heart of the Yorkshire Moors. It also benefits from the North York Moors steam railway, which will take you on a journey by steam train into the centre of Whitby the historic port of Captain Cooke and where Bram Stokers Dracula first set foot in England. Or you can explore the moors, or take a drive to Scarborough on the coast.

The white swan itself is a great base to set out from, filled with their good yorkshire breakfasts…also try the resteraunt in the evening and you will not be disappointed. This was one of my best birthdays, I enjoyed the ambiance, from the moment we sat in their bar to eat lunch after a long drive, to the comfortable bed in a lovely room, to the way they accommodated our 4 year old daughter….a great time in Pickering and this lovely place to stay. Give it a try and you will never look at Yorkshire the same way again.

“North York Moors – Fantastic Guide to the Yorkshire Moors [DVD]” (North York Moors)

Technorati Tags: holiday, Yorkshire, Whitby, hotel, break, white swan, Pickering,North Yorkshire Moors

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The Cairn Terrier is one of the oldest of the terriers originating in the highlands of Scotland and recognized as one of Scotland’s earliest working dogs. It is used for hunting and burrowing prey among the cairns. Mainly as i understand it to drive out wildcats who attacked the sheep.

Although the breed had existed long before, the name Cairn Terrier was a compromise suggestion after the breed was originally brought to official shows in the United Kingdom in 1909 under the name Short-haired Skye terriers. This name was not acceptable to The Kennel Club due to opposition from Skye breeders, and the name Cairn Terrier was suggested as an alternative. The Cairn Terrier quickly became popular and has remained so ever since. They are usually left-pawed. Cairn Terriers are ratters. In Scotland they would search the cairns (large rock piles) for rats and other rodents. Thus if one is kept as a house hold pet it will do the job of a cat, specifically catching and killing mice, rabbits, and squirrels.

We also got the most excellent springer man in to give us some advice and Iwould thoroughly recommend him and his way with dogs.

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I found this interesting list of the top 10 reason s for marraige break up

Top 10 Reasons Why Marriages end in divorce or separation

10 – Not Doing the Little Things – films show marriages as grand loves. But, in the real world, marriages are made up of the little things – taking out the trash, picking up the kids from school, wiping down the shower or picking up your pants If there are frusterations over the little things, it can erode the whole marriage.

9 – Sweating the small stuff – As a counterpoint, if you stress out over unimportant things, you are dooming your marriage to the bin

8 – Spending too much time apart – If friends, work, or hobbies take too much time away from your marriage, the bonds can begin to erode.

7 – Criticising and nagging – These two things can eat away at the soul of a marriage, your comments to your partner need to build up not tear down.

6 – Not consulting the other person about purchases – The family budget must cover the family needs. If one person makes purchases that significantly impact the overall budget without consulting the other person, there is going to be hurt and anger.

5 – Letting yourself go – You spent a considerable amount of effort pursuing and attracting your spouse. That effort shouldn’t have ended on your wedding day or soon thereafter. If you are no longer working to make yourself attractive to your spouse, you must assume that he or she will look elsewhere.

4 – Playing the victim – Is it always his fault? Did she make you do it? If you feel like you are the victim in the relationship, it probably won’t last much longer.

3 – Not fighting fair – You are entitled to your legitimate feelings, but when disagreements occur, you must keep your arguments real and relevant. Avoid character assassination. Remain task oriented rather than accusatory. And, allow your partner to retreat with dignity.

2 – Spilling secrets – There are things in your marriage that should only be between the two of you. When you tell your friends or family members about things that shouldn’t be shared, you erode the bonds of the marriage. This is a matter of trust.

1 – No sex – When the sex has gone out of the marriage, the relationship is in trouble. Unless you can rekindle the flame, you are probably headed to divorce court.

Its simple really isn’t it, marriage takes alot of work, is a struggle, but has immense benefits, its not all plain sailing or getting your own way, its full of compromise but if it can be done with Love then you are on the way to success. So you have to ask…do you want to save your amrriage, are you willing to put in the real effort, that means change and compromise…not just for your partner but for you.

You could start by

Seeing Things From Positive point of view
When we are in the middle of an argument, it is easy for us to see everything in a negative way. A simple thing can arouse our anger and resentment, making your marriage situation even worse.

Try to cool your head and see things in a positive way, maybe laugh at whats going on, because really the way the toothpaste is squuezed is more funny than important.

Find The Reason To Keep Together

It is easy to say: “oh, I have enough with her, I want to divorce”. It takes strong reason to keep your marriage.

Find a reason why you want to keep your marriage. Maybe because they have things that compliment, support or even challenge your views or even deep down inside you still love your partner so much, or

Whatever the reason, you need to find a strong reason to keep your marriage from divorce first.

Watch Your Words

This does not mean keep deadly silent
Watch your words carefully. Because wrong words can make a disaster that you can never fix again.

When talking with your partner during this time, don’t try to make things worse with associating the wrong feeling. Always avoid confrontation whenever possible.

And always talk about the happy moments you two had at once. This will bring back association about the happy times you two had.

Find The Root Of The Problem

Whatever you do, there is a time when you have to face the root of the problem. Find the root of the problem and solve it once and for all. Don’t delay it or the same problem will arise again in the further.

When the same problem arise again, it will be harder to solve.

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The lack of integrity is incredible amongst UK MPs, they all cry the letter of the law and ignore the spirit of the law, as someone who is interested in politics, I am disheartened.

So the blame game continues, and new puritanism gains some firmer ground in the economic downturn. It had to get to this as our own purse strings get tighter and we struggle for the pennies we feel soneone ought to be to blame and it isn’t us.

Its always individuals or small groups who are to blame, no one ever takes the blame collectively, the fault is always at least at arms length and preferably right over there. First its the greedy bankers, now the greedy MPs and the new Puritans at the BBc and elsewhere want to persuade the gernal public its also the greedy ‘us’.

In the past my mother who is 82, says MPs expenses were always laughed at as everyone knew they were used in a corrupt way but there was a tacit agreement between MPs and the press and subsequently the public that nothing would be said. The Basic MPs wage is high but not really that high compared to what Doctors get, or many Barristers or high court judges. Yet we expect them to do the most difficult job in the country…run it.

“Quacks and Crusaders: The Fabulous Careers of John Brinkley, Norman Baker and Harry Hoxsey” (Eric S. Juhnke)

The downturn has shocked everyone, it has brought pain to many and will bring, if it hasn’t already, poverty to many more. So it has to be someones fault. I beleive there is a collective fault, its really the Capitalist system, which Marx said will deteriorate and fall like all empires and it truly is a global empire. Our problem is that as far as isms go we are stumped, stopped in our tracks, political philosophy is moribund. The socilaist experiment in Europe and the Russian empire has not done a good job, its revival in South America may possibly just be a last gasp, and what fills its place ….a sort of cut down the may poles, recycle everything, woe is me, we are all doomed to hell unless you do as we say kind of eco puritanism.

This new puritanism is leaking into every aspect of life and the spotlight ( an eco bulb of course) is turned on different individuals and groups from time to time. They tried to turn it on the bankers, but these guys have been around the block a bit and just retreat to their private gated estates and mansions, they have turned it on the tellystocracy and the new media celebs, footballers and WAGS and now its the turn of the politicians.

All of the above groups mentioned except perhaps politicians are high earners, who gain obscene amounts of money for something that does not amount to much, MPs expense claims at their worst, amount to about a weeks wages for some top footballers and many top celebs. For many bankers in the past the MPs claims are what they got for lunch allowance.

But the MPs are easy targets, and the bankers, footballers and celebrities that we pay for in our bank charges, our credit card charges, our bank deposits , mortgages, TV licence and sky sub, our football ticket, shirt purchase, they get away with brning Rome while the MPs are to coin a phrase fiddling while Rome Burns.

Oh yes and back to collective responsibility, I know many of you out there are as honest and people of integrity, but would ask, when did you last break the speed limit, take something from the staitonary cupboard, surf the net at work when you should have been working…you know the kind of list, things you can get away with but are wrong, the MPs actually stuck to the letter of the law even though they probably knew in their hearts it lacked integrity, when you take something from work it sboth wrong and lacks integrity….know ask yourself compared to this what the bankers are and have been up to, is it wrong, outside the law, does it lack integrity and the wages of footballers, or the wages of drunk, shagging celebs who are famous for being famous….you know i could go on. Oh yes and the journalists spilling the beans on all this….how much do you trust a journalist?

What we need right now is integrity, I beleive gordon brown for all his faults has that, I am not sure about ALL his cabinet. I remember Cameron in his Boden shorts on the english beach for a photo shoot who immediately after went for his real holiday on a millionaires yacht. I have my doubts about him, he’s too slick and in the mould of Tony Blair, a politics thats been and gone, a yesterdays politician.

We need a new political philosophy that moves away from a puritan ethic, we need politicians that are transparent and open to scrutiny but above all can be seen to be ethical and have integrity. Its time to move forward to collective responsibility and have modern social programmes that help eradicate poverty, whether thats poverty of finance, culture, aspirations, equitable access, housing or any other kind of poverty…there is quite obviously enough for all and plenty more besides for those that play football or manage banks, it doesn’t just need sharing out, it needs to come with civic understanding, education and a health warning

We need to pay MPs properly ( on a par with a top barrister or doctor) and they need to be means tested with regard to expenses, if they are already incredibly wealthy they should get nothing.

Its not enough just to want to know under The Freedom of Information act, we need to know what we want to do with the information once we have it, not just be shocked of Tunbridge Wells. We need to Agitate, Educate and Organise as they used to say.

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but at least I was willing to stand up for what I believe in. This is something I think is important. There are many who don’t vote who don’t get involved but are all too willing to complain.  It’s not enough just to point out the problems we need to be able to put our shoulder to the wheel and help with solutions.  I would rather know an active and vocal conservative than someone who really can’t be bothered.  In fact a good friend is a Telegraph reading Tory but at least he has opinions.

see here: http://www.leweslabour.org.uk/2009/05/jonathan-spencer/

I know Labour have a lot to answer for but there are many amongst us trying to keep the party for the people and like all the Parties sweep the stables clean.  Even the Greens that home for all the ex marxists you can muster need a careful look.

There will be an election soon, then whoever wins will be under close scrutiny. I just hope we don’t end up electing some grey, accountancy style, bean counters; perhaps because we are afraid of the corrupt and eccentric who more often than not are some of those that are able to get things done.  If we fire more of the bland gun at politics we will have to bring in compulsory voting and lets see who that gets us.

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a tenner

The idea of this article is to explain the credit crunch  run a few things by you as everyone wants to look round and blame someone, even if sometimes its a little looking in the mirror….and taking responsibility.  So lets look at the front runners:

1. Gordon Brown, or any other present government leader or finance minister

2. Greedy  Bankers

3. Mortgage Brokers and subprime mortages

4. Credit Card Lenders

5. Credit rating agencies

6. The chinese

7. You and me

8. All of the above and more

Ok lets start at the top, and run with a simple explanation of the credit crunch that brings in some of the above…

Really the credit crunch is just an unexpected shortage in availability of funds for lending…so there are not enough loans, whether private or bank driven.  That means I cant get a loan from the bank and lets say as a builder with a building supply company, the supply company will not let me buy products on account, or recues the amount I am allowed to buy on account.

Straight to number 3 then, a sharp rise in defaults on so called subprime or self certified mortgages appeared to trigger a drying up of credit availability. These mortgages were mainly used in the USA. The lenders sold  mortgages to customers with low income and poor credit. They gambled that the boom in the housing market and house prices would allow these inappropriate mortgages to remain affordable. In addition these mortages had been packaged together in groups and then the risk on them sold as a kind of stock market product.  Much as a bookie will “lay off” bets by passing all or part of a gamble to another bookie. This had to be done because the risk of the loan was not backed up by savings. (actually much of the money backing these deals came from China’s financing of the American economy with savings from their own burgeoning economy, some say when they refused to give the US any more finance, we are on number 5 here, that this is when the bubble burst)

Fiscal oversite was poor with brokers getting a fee or a percentage of mortgages sold, it was in their interest to sell anything even if they were too costly to really pay back.

Further Fiscal oversight that should have come from teh rating agencies was poor as somehow they managed to give subprime mortagegs lent on the basis of a gamble rather than savings, a low risk rate and the financial establishment could pretend when presenting their balance sheets that the money they were owed through the mortgages was low risk.

Coupled to this many of this US sub rime mortgages had intro periods of 2 years where interest rates were artificially low and just at the time many of them were coming out of the intro period in 2007, the Administration put up interest rates to combat inflation.

High interest high payments and high inflation (high fuel -remember 100 dollars a barrel- and food prices)meant low disposable income and many began to default on their mortgages, when I say many, I mean thousands. House prices plummeted and the US housing boom was over…people defaulting with 100% mortgages had negative equity and banks no longer had security on their loan because if the repossessed the houses and sold them they wouldn’t get back the money they had leant….oops!

Then the mortgage companies began to go under, as they couldn’t recoup and the mortgage companies had been leant to by the banks and they began to go under and so they refused any more loans and would give no more credit….CRUNCH, it became too difficult to borrow money and credit just dried up as this.

In many ways credit/borrowing drives the econmoy even if it is only as I explained above in having an account with a supplier which is paid at the end of the month, so when credit is hard to comeby its harder to get things done.  On a alarger scale certain types of high risj business cannot find investors (previously banks or bank related organisations) because banks will not take on the risk.

Now whilst his can be seen as being driven by US markets the same thing has happened in the UK but to a lesser extent, Northene Rock and Bradford and Bingley suffered because of the types of laons and mortages tehy offered and people defaulting or getting into negative equity.  Other UK banks are really the UK marques of a global finance brand and had already involved themselves heavily in US markets.  Other european countries have suffered because of the drying up of credit markets though rates of mortgage and home ownership are lower so they have not been effected in the same way.

Some say the leaders of our governemnts should have seen this coming, or at leaast given regulators more teeth, but we must remember before this time the people running these financial institutions had enormous leverage, its why parties of the left like Labour in the UK wooed them before coming to power.  For leftist parties like Labour they were glad of the boom as this increased tax revenues and allowed them to pursue social programmes without raising taxes (for which they were previously criticised), hospitals, schools, and other policy was funded by skimming off the boom.

So is Gordon Brown to blame, well my feeling is any government is only as good as its opposition, and here the main opposition Party (the Conservative Party) is seen as representative of big business and finance and did little to ask the government to increase oversight.  They are presently against any fiscal stimulation.  If we need to point the finger at politicians it must be all of them or no one.

There is another catholic guilt trip crossed with protestant work ethic  going on too.  That says we all enjoyed ourselves and took mortgages and credit cards we couldn’t afford, how dare we assume that money is our right (its only for the wealthy and failed bankers) we created the credit crunch because we weren’t responsible, abstemious and we didn’t live simply. How the Greens amongst us are crowing, it was you and you have polluted the Planet as well.  Its a new Puritanism, pojnting to the maypole of credit and demanding all the jollity must stop.

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I heard about some research that suggested taking up exercise in middle age was highly beneficial in terms of health and longevity. It was a swedish study.

Then I did a bit of searching around and found this on one of the news sites (CNN)

So being 47 and not really 50 as suggested by the swedish report, I started doing so light running 3 times a week as well as some weights.  NOw dont get me wrong, actually since my late tenties i have always tried to do some regular exercise, but at times have found myself demotivated and discouraged, or going to a gym health club and using the sauna more than the gym.  So I cancelled my gym membership and have started to look at what i can do to motivate myself and keep fit at home.

I go running now 3 times a week with my wife, its encouraged her too, we don’t over do it, start slow and small and build up, is the idea.  I can already feel the benefits in my mind, never mind my body.

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My daughter was given a number of beautiful and high quality, expensive soft toys by friends and relatives, yet it was an M & S soft bunny with long legs, long soft ears and a white tee shirt that she chose has her constant companion and sleep aid (transitional object)

please contact me if you have or find such a bunny on your travels

Update to this post here

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So they say the shops are taking a hammering because of the internet, well maybe like overpriced CDs that were hammered by iTunes its about time the high street woke up and realised people won;’t continue to pay over the odds for things.

So here are my 5 and 5

Negatives:
1.The internet has no ‘telling’, no mysticism, mythology or soul, it purports to be a an idea or ideal but really has none, its just electronic wires, signals and circuits.
2. Things you read, or people say on the internet are not necessarily true, conversations in which “I read it on the internet” are used as evidence are becoming as commonplace as “scientists say”.  Remember the internet is run by humans and they lie, hoax and play practical jokes.
3. An online community of people who don’t use their real names or perhaps even real images of themselves is not a community, it is a pretence.
4. When you don’t receive an email, but someone says they have sent it, of course it could have been mislaid, the servers might be down, but if in doubt refer to 2.
5. Any email you get saying there is a dreadful virus around or that a little boy in Arkansas needs you to send him bottle tops or compliment slips…refer to 2. again.

Positives
1. Yes you can shop safely on the internet
2. SOME things are really cheaper on ebay
3. People date and get together/married with people they “meet”on the net
4. If it can be reduced to electronic data then someone somewhere is offering it for FREE on the internet.
5. Its the FREE stuff that inspires the rest, think of how Napster originally inspired music downloads and hence iTunes.
—–

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Many years ago I read The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, which recently got so much publicity through the DaVinci Code legal battle, Later as an antidote….

“The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” (Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln)

I read Umberto Eco’s Foucaults Pendulum, a superb satire on this whole genre of Secret societies and our desire to know things about ourselves, others, and the rest of the world, when most of it is obviously staring us in the face.

“Foucault’s Pendulum” (Umberto Eco)

But recently I have read 5 books that have really turned my view of the world, Christian orthodoxy and The Knights Templar on its head.  I know Umberto Eco says that mad people eventually bring up the subject of the Templars…..

Technorati Tags: Bloodline, Kinghts Templar, Jesus, Templars

So what I am going to do is just list the books and let you look for yourself

“The Hiram Key: Pharoahs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Christ” (Robert Lomas)

“Uriel’s Machine: The Ancient Origins of Science” (Robert Lomas)

“Bloodline of the Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed” (Laurence Gardner)

“The Second Messiah: Templars, the Turin Shroud and the Great Secret of Freemasonry” (Robert Lomas)

Any and all of these books can make you think about our accepted view of the world, of Christain History and the real life of Jesus, however I ask you check them out and if you have a recommendation for against the work in these books please comment this entry and give your own book or film recommendations.

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