It’s been too long since my last post. Things have been exceptionally busy both on the domestic and business front. The most important thing by far was the arrival of Grand-daughter Isobel. She was very poorly at birth but now everything is fine. I’ve travelled to all manner of exotic locations in the th last 12 months, Australia, New York and even Newcastle. At present my wife is back in Australia while I sun myself on the Aldershot Riviera. I was going to get a little blonde in while she was away but couldn’t find any takers.
Unusually for me I thought I’d start with a moan. The FIFA World Cup which goes on for a month has had a predictably bad effect on business. When I or one of my colleagues, visit a client to ‘mend a dog’ we are typically in their home for around four hours, maybe longer. There are not many homes in the UK that do not have at least one family member who is heavily into the competition. They do not want any distractions during this time, indeed a survey showed that 1 in 3 people would not answer the door or phone during a match. When you add Wimbledon fortnight which grabs the attention of many of the non football watchers then you’ll realise that this is a good time to catch up on the garden.
The England games were of course an embarrassment with over paid, foul mouthed, can’t be bothered Divas just turning up for their pay packets. I wonder how many Nurses wages or sets of decent body armour for our troops in Afghanistan could have been bought by the wages and endorsements received by Rooney and gang. Perhaps they’d like to contribute something towards a fund. Sorry, that was a silly thought. There are nightclubs to be visited and saucy photos to be texted to girls with long legs and lots of hair. We must get our priorities right.
Our fans on the other hand appear for the most part to have behaved very well. However, their flags! What is going on with the Standard of St George? The whole idea of a Standard or flag is that is easily identifiable so that in the heat of battle you know who is in your gang and where they are. Why then do so many people have the need to have ENGLAND written across their national flag. We KNOW it’s our flag. The clue is in the cross of St George. Even worse is when companies print their name on the flag as in JBB Sports. In many countries legal action would be taken against anyone defacing the flag. Can you imagine the USA allowing displays of the Stars and Stripes with ‘Buy Coca Cola festooned across it?
Now we come to foxes. Following the attack on the two little girls in London passions have been aroused on both sides. People say that a fox would never do such a thing, all foxes are lovely. Well just as a dog can only be a dog then a fox is a fox. They are predators and will look for easy meat, the weakest in the herd. They do not have the same moral hang-ups that we humans do and while humans, without any thought of the consequences of their actions, consider these animals cute and cuddly, feed them and encourage them into their gardens and by extension, into their homes, the problem will only get worse. I’m not only talking about attacks on humans, these are relatively rare at the moment but far from unknown. You must also consider the large number of foxes with severe mange and other diseases. By encouraging these animals large numbers of domestic pets are put at risk from this disease. Consider also fox body waste. If you’ve never smelt it you’ve got a treat coming. Remember Mr Fox is not house trained. If he feels the need to go he won’t care if it’s on your prize roses or on your Persian Carpet and I can tell you that ‘Shake ‘n’ Vac’ won’t be much help.
So let the urban fox revert back to living the way they were a few years ago. Let them be wary of us and live life as they are supposed to. It will be better for both species.
One thing that really irritated me with the fox debate was pronouncements by Brian May the guitarist from Queen on the subject. From his luxury home nowhere near where the incident took place he was able to inform the world that ‘No fox was involved’. ‘The parents hadn’t seen a fox’ and ’no fox would go near a house with a lot of human activity.’ this is despite the fact that a police officer attending the incident in company with the paramedics took a photograph of a fox looking through the patio windows of the address minutes after the attack. It appears that Brian May is not only an excellent guitarist with a joke haircut but he also has the power to see through walls many miles away.
It’s not fair to pick just on poor old Brian May he is at least a musician I’m always happy to listen to. What does really get me is how actors and musicians think that their opinion is more valuable than anyone else’s. Remember these people spend most of their time in a totally false environment, pretending to be someone else. They are surrounded by yes men to massage their egos. I remember Paul Mac Cartney in the Beatles early days returning to the UK after a tour during which he’d been arrested for drug possession. He was, once safely back home, outraged. How dare these foreigners enforce their laws against a Beatle? He stood there puffed up with self importance and said “I’m here to tell you that drugs never hurt anybody.” Well it didn’t improve the swimming skills of Stones guitarist Brian Jones. And what happened to Jimi Hendrix? Too much time down the gym I expect . The list is endless and includes many ordinary people who only got into that lifestyle because their idols said it was cool.
While on the subject of the Beatles what about John Lennon? He really cared, a true working class hero. I particularly liked his song ‘Imagine’ what really reached out to me was the line “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can.” This written by a man living in luxury in a huge New York apartment and playing a piano that even in those days was £50,000+. I was living on a coppers wages trying to bring up 3 children. So yes John, I can imagine no possessions. How about you?
Then we have those like Bob Geldof and Bono who are the only ones who care, well I suppose they have more time than the rest of us who have to work for a living. I just want my actors to act and my musicians to sing and play. Lets leave the state of the country and the fate of the world to the people who really know what they’re doing. The Taxi Drivers. During muy Police service I attended many tragic and horrific incidents. I’ve held peoples hands while they were dying or maybe just scared. I’ve heard people call out to God, for their mother, a doctor but
And now to the future. It’s just over ago that I left the organisation that I had been connected with and started PURE Dog Listeners with a colleague, Caroline Spencer. During the last year it has grown far more than we could have hoped. We are now a limited company which makes me a director. It sounded quite grand until I reminded myself that is how the Krays occupation was shown on their charge sheets for murder and associated crimes. We have much planned for the next year with our first courses starting in October for those wanting to become PURE Dog Listeners or just enhance their knowledge of all things canine. One thing I do know is that it will be fun. Already signed up for the first course are a dog walker, an agility instructor, a traditional dog trainer who wants a better understanding of the dogs perception of what’s going on plus of course dog owners.