Here are his interesting comments about the move back home……

Hi Arnold, How is England these days? Well it really is much the same as it ever was around here on the Suffolk Coast. The pace has increased with modern communications. This is the small town I live in http://www.exploresouthwold.co.uk/ . There is open space and footpaths all around so it’s possible to just walk out of the door and go miles in any direction. The sea is still warm enough to swim in and that is great way to start the day. My dog really likes that bit and I’ve lost 30 pounds in weight (much needed) since I have been back. In the US you have to drive to the designated walking area. As Holly Johnson said about the US “everything is organized from crime to leisure time”.

The ordinary people (as New Labour likes to call us) are fine and get on with our lives. We notice all the best houses in town are sold off to some broker or other. The local estate agent told me these people come down from London with a million pounds to spend from this years bonus practically in loose change. So the gulf between rich and poor is getting wider just like the US. Difference is that instead of some crusty old couple in tweeds having the money now its some spiv. The former definitely had better manners, appreciated their good fortune and treated all people with civility. Prices can be higher for some things than the US and then lower for others. On the whole it works out about the same.

I have watched the Northern Rock debacle with interest. Knowing that in the last three years I have paid off all my debts and sold my house in the US and can now live in my house here free and clear. It’s a nice feeling but after 30 years of living in debt it hasn’t really sunk in. The contra argument to that maybe why bother to be fiscally responsible, the government will bail us out anyway if we get into trouble. Dunno

A big plus about being back here for me is that the food is so fresh and flavourful, the supply chain from farm to table is short and so good fresh, tasty food is all around. You can choose your cut of meat at the butchers instead of “meat in a bag” at the supermarket. The local fisherman still bring their catch into the harbour and you can buy it off the boat – the dover sole melts in the mouth. Fish and Chip shops for excellent fresh white flakey cod and chips. There is a brewery and wine merchants in town www.adnams.co.uk so really who could ask for more. We are by the sea so lots to do for the seafaring kinds like yourself. My brother-in-law runs this business and I occasionally act as mate on the boat. http://www.coastalvoyager.co.uk/

So all in all I am very pleased to have made the move. I still have a small house in California which I am returning to for a couple of weeks holiday in October. Oh Yes, HOLIDAY, I forgot to mention the holiday. I am still working for the same company but here I get 35 days vacation instead of 18. That’s another thing that is taking a little getting used to. I am used to covetously saving up my days and then largely using them to come to England. Now, not only do I get twice as much BUT I am already in England so I don’t have to holiday here anymore. So in reality I have gone from zero days to 35 and that is taking some adjusting to. I had the week long transatlantic crossing on QM2 I’ve had a weekend in Paris via Eurostar which was fantastic over the Bastille w/e and a long weekend with friends in SW France. Off to Lisbon for a long weekend soon. Another great plus about being here is that travel to mainland Europe is so quick.

Well, the dog is looking at me asking for his morning constitutional and I better get on with the day. I think when it comes to being happy its more about the person than the place unless of course you are somewhere like Bagdad or Zimbabwe.

All the best!

Simon

It was used to police a rock festival this summer, and there has also been interest from MI5, the Metropolitan police.

It’s battery powered, so it’s quieter — apparently at 350 feet it is rarely noticed from the ground — but more limited in terms of performance (flight time is about twenty minutes compared to an hour). Although it might seem flimsy, the video shows how stable it is in flight. It is said to be quite rugged and can return to base even if it loses two of its four rotor blades. One unusual feature is a speaker so that police can give instructions to those on the ground.

Editors Note: Despite the hundreds of thousands of spy cameras now in UK, newspapers report that 80% of crime is never solved! Yes – 80%!

http://www.texasjim.com/NASApix/NASA%20pix.htm

There on the Washington Mall we see protesters telling us that all Liberals are traitors – and not a 100 yards away we see anti-war protesters telling us that all Republicans are descendants of the Neanderthals. Occasionally they come together yelling at each other and the police intervene.

But in the rest of the country, the smaller towns and country, the question is more one of economics. The local plant has moved to Mexico or China. The military base got closed down. Most of the small independent farmers have been taken over by large agri-corporations either using machinery or low cost illegal immigrants to harvest the crops. All that’s left is to work for Walmart or Southern Fried Chicken at slave labour rates.

The war in Iraq seems a long way away – except for the families who have had a son or daughter killed or injured. (The vast majority of the boots on the ground are of poor backgrounds – they joined up for what seemed to be the only way to get a better education, not get blown up.)

it’s the poor who fight our wars – and gain little for doing so. It’s the the middle class that pays for it all – and does without social services by consequence. And it’s the rich of course that get richer from it – and pay few taxes if any. And before you say it – it has NOT always been thus.

From the Arab viewpoint of course things are different. They are tired of the west constantly
ripping them off – it’s been going on since the Crusades. They are sick of their tin pot kings and dictators – which we mostly set up as puppets to ensure the steady supply of oil. And they have a justified right to regard us as enemies, to seriously mistrust Christianity and a western politician who talks of yet another invasion. Though America claims to be the world’s policeman, it is in reality the world’s con man, plantation owner, robber baron – raping and pillaging others without consience in the name of democracy, using a military the perpetrators don’t even pay for. It is we, the tax payers, who pay for it.

But if we think we can win a world war against 2 billion Muslims, we had better consider one important and crucial question. What would we do if the Middle East oilfields stopped producing oil? If Saudia Arabia, Iraq, Qatar and Iran shut off the oil spigot?

Walk to work – that is IF you’re employer is still open, which is doubtful? Cook on an open fire? Read by candlelight? Grow vegetables in the backyard? Buy a cow? Walk 5 miles to get a can of water? Wash clothes by the river? Just like 5 billion people on earth do now?

We live in troubled times………

Click on address below>>>>>>>

• The word “modem” is a contraction of the words “modulate, demodulate.”
• Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state.
• Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
• Hamsters love to eat crickets.
• The only “real” food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts.
• The word “queueing” is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.
• The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried in San Marcos, Texas.
• In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
• Roberta Flack wrote “Killing Me Softly” about singer Don McLean.
• The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint.
• Spencer Eldon was the name of the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s album
• All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole and Perot, are left-handed.
• The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.
• The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention the name of God.
• Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortened to Sheriff.
• An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
• Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third.
• The silhouette on the NBA logo is Jerry West.
• The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.
• The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the “General Purpose” vehicle, G.P.
• The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus.
• Soweto in South Africa was derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship.
• Murphy’s Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.
• The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history. It was a spin-off of the Danny Thomas Show.
• Goat’s eyes have rectangular pupils.
• Walt Disney’s autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo

Bankers know how bad it is. Here’s Jim Glassman of JP Morgan: ‘The credit-market storm is a far more dangerous thing that anything we’ve seen in memory.” More and more news reports are glum.

Alan Greenspan in remarks prepared for a German conference on the Euro, said it was inevitable that foreign investors will have a “diminished appetite for adding to their dollar balances.” The U.S. current account deficit reached $166.2 billion in the second quarter. (Translation – overseas investors will buy the Euro not the dollar). Meanwhile, for the first time since 1976, the Canadian dollar reached parity against the US dollar.

“This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar,” said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.

“Losses in the area of subprime mortgages have far exceeded even the most pessimistic estimates,” Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke told the House of Representatives’s Committee on Financial Services, adding that ” US mortgage woes may deepen.”

Here’s the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia reporting on “How Bad Debt Infected the World.”: “The foreclosure butterfly flapped its wings in smalltown USA and the hurricane builds and tears through world banking.”

Here’s the Independent on Sunday drawing a parallel with the Great Crash of 1929:

“In his classic work The Great Crash: 1929, J K Galbraith put the decline down to the bad distribution of income; the bad corporate structure; the bad banking structure; the dubious state of the foreign balance; and the poor state of economic intelligence. He might have been writing about George W Bush’s world rather than that of Herbert Hoover.”

Among those poised to profit from the crash is the Carlyle Group, the equity fund that includes the Bush family and other high-profile investors with insider government connections. A January 2007 memorandum to company managers from founding partner William E. Conway, Jr., recently appeared which stated that, when the current “liquidity environment”—i.e., cheap credit—ends, “the buying opportunity will be a once in a lifetime chance.”

The Washington Post is bluntly forecasting a financial crash. It lets everyone know loud and clear that it’s time to batten down the hatches, run for cover, lay in two years of canned food, shield your assets, whatever.

“Those left holding the bag, ” it reports, ” will be the ordinary people whose assets are loaded with debt, such as tens of millions of mortgagees, millions of young people with student loans that can never be written off due to the “reformed” 2005 bankruptcy law, or vast numbers of workers with 401(k)s or other pension plans that are locked into the stock market.

Remember: you can’t rely on what officials are saying to calm us. One financial website noted: “the time to panic is when officials say, “don’t panic.”

Remember Andrew Mellon, Hoover’s Treasury Secretary who said famously: “I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism.”

Two months later came the 1929 crash…….

What to do? Well I regret to say – probably too loo late now. Just do your best to ride out the storm. Buy gold and silver……

The 12-week-old macaque – who was abandoned by his mother – was close to death when it was rescued on Neilingding Island, in Goangdong Province.

After being taken to an animal hospital his health began to improve but he seemed spiritless – until he developed a friendship with a white pigeon.

The blossoming relationship helped to revive the macaque who has developed a new lease of life, say staff at the sanctuary.

Now the unlikely duo are never far from each other’s side, but they aren’t the only ones to strike up an unusual friendship.

Earlier this year a pig adopted a tiger cub and raised him along with her piglets because his mother couldn’t feed him. And in 2005 a baby deer named Mi-Lu befriended lurcher Geoffrey at the Knowsley Animal Park in Merseyside after she was rejected by her mother.

THIRTY YEARS AGO: Miss Lichtig receives an apple from an anonymous student and shows it to her fellow teachers.
TODAY: Ms. Lichtig receives a package from an anonymous student and shows it to the bomb squad.
–
THIRTY YEARS AGO: Ed Navis, the class clown, is caught reading Playboy.
TODAY: Mrs. McMahon, the art teacher, is found posing for Playboy.
–
THIRTY YEARS AGO: Nurse Dweezel treats the fifth grade’s first case of whooping cough.
TODAY: Nurse Dweezel treats the fifth grade’s first case of morning sickness.
–
THIRTY YEARS AGO: students find mercury, lead and cobalt on the periodic table.
TODAY: students find mercury, lead and cobalt in the drinking water.
–
THIRTY YEARS AGO: each class begins with “Show and Tell.”
TODAY: each class begins with “Search and Frisk.”
–
THIRTY YEARS AGO: ninth grader Clyde Kelly is caught cheating on a pop quiz.
TODAY: ninth grader Scott Kelly is caught cheating on his common-law wife.

Walter’s Problem Page

Dear Walter:

I hope you can help me here. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn’t gone more than a few hundred yards down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband’s help.

When I got home I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was parading in front of the wardrobe mirror dressed in my underwear and high-heel shoes, and he was wearing my make up.

I am 32, my husband is 34 and we have been married for twelve years. When I confronted him, he tried to make out that he had dressed in my lingerie because he couldn’t find his own underwear. But when I asked him about the make up, he broke down and admitted that he’d been wearing my clothes for six months. I told him to stop or I would leave him.

He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant.

I don’t feel I can get through to him anymore. Can you please help?

Sincerely, Mrs. Sheila Usk.

A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the jubilee clips holding the vacuum pipes onto the inlet manifold. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor float chamber.

I hope this helps.

Walter

Keep on truckin’ everyone.
Arnold Parkinson
The British Club Worldwide
www.britishclubworldwide.com

Kate McCann – mother of the cute missing four-year-old Madeleine – will be formally declared a suspect by the Portuguese police, the family has said.

Mrs McCann has arrived for her second police interview in 24 hours. It is thought she will be made an “arguida”.

This would allow the authorities to put certain questions and give her the legal right to remain silent.

Gerry McCann will be questioned later. Both parents deny any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance on 3 May.

The team from the satirical show The Chaser’s War on Everything were stopped within yards of the hotel where US President George W Bush was staying – holed up as usual by overdone massive “ring of steel” security arrangements. The President of the “Free World”! Yeah right.

The stunt was reportedly only revealed when one of the team, dressed as Osama Bin Laden with an obvious phony beard, got out of the car.

Police handling security for the Apec summit called it a “dangerous stunt”.

I call it amusing……

The train, carrying journalists and VIPs, arrived at St Pancras, instead of Waterloo, for the first time. It took two hours, three minutes, 39 seconds.

The 68-mile line is expected to help cut Paris to London journey times by 20 minutes to two hours, 15 minutes, when it opens to the public on 14 November. Construction of the line and revamping St Pancras cost £5.8bn in public funds.