Catching up with the last episode of The Walking Dead our intrepid heroes have all managed to make it to "Sanctuary". The usual convoluted strorylines have played out, with back stories of the main characters, indeed, this is becoming a soap opera, the difference being that the ever present threat of dangerous dead people are forever present. It's reached the stage that the enemies are not zombies, but real people. It's an interesting development, and necessary to fill out a simple survival tale. The survivors have resorted to basic animal instincts to survive, for in a world of Zombies, nobody... Continue reading

Back in January this year I wrote a post complaining about the unjust, underhand and surreptitious methods employed by the London Mayor and Transport for London to extract money in advance from all public transport users with a view to creating a cashless transport system through their Oyster Card. The spin then was that cash paying passengers cost TfL £28m per year, and this money could be better spent on the transport system. It was a con then, and a con now. I stated that there must be a great deal of unused fares in the coffers of TfL earning... Continue reading

The Walking Thrones. Or is that the Game of Dead? I'm confused. These two dramas have captured the imagination of press and public, and I'm not sure what I'm watching anymore. Having said that, I like the Walking Dead purely because of it's US 2nd Amendment agenda, which encourages and gives right to the American citizen to bear arms. In the event of a zombie apocalypse, those with guns will survive. It's a grand shoot 'em up, and the beauty of it is that they can happily fire away, comforted in the knowledge that their targets are already dead. A... Continue reading

Did you miss me? Of course you did! My eminent host Typepad became the victim of an attack which disabled the platform for over five days. Yes, the thousands of people fixated with my musings were unable to access this humble blog because some naughty people were behaving rather mischievously. Who are they and why did they do it? Typepad was struck by what is called in technical terms a DDoS (distributed denial of service). The twitterverse was alive with frustrated bloggers, businesses, artisans and services. Oh woe, they proclaimed, drowning in their self-pity - this is diabolical! Whilst many... Continue reading

Jacques Cousteau the famous explorer and conservationist once described Palawan as the last frontier. For good reason. Here was an archipelago of outstanding natural beauty, and he, more than most, understood that protection was the legacy for future generations. So how does big businesses, and big property developers, justify their mercenary exploitation of the unspoilt? To them, natural beauty is a golf course waiting to happen, a resort complex, and an emporium squatted by retail multi-nationals selling designer goods. They do it by dressing it up as sustainable eco-tourism. The catch all phrase. The tart with a heart. Conservationist capitalism.... Continue reading

Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 'Forward the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!' he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. One hundred years ago the world went to war, and the stage for it was set by another smaller but no more less significant conflict almost 60 years earlier. It's a timely reminder - because it was called the Crimean War. It was a war which altered the balance of power in Europe, and which subsequently led to the assassination in... Continue reading

A selection of watercolour paintings from Bar de Ness. If you wish to acquire a painting, they are sold as one off originals signed and dated - no prints - ready framed - for £65 inc secure p&p and insurance. These paintings are produced on 230gsm acid free paper, and... Continue reading

**Possible Spoiler Alert** Having caught up with the Walking Dead, after its mid-season (4) break, I am left defending my initial observations here, here and here, back when it all began. The problem with the drama is that it's walking in circles. Series one saw the motley group of survivors attempting to find somewhere safe to live. Series two found them on a farm which got overrun and they had to leave, getting dispersed in the process; series 3 found them in a prison; and series four sees them overrun, back outside, and dispersed yet again. Throughout, akin to Game... Continue reading

Claudia Severa wrote a letter to her friend Sulpicia Lepidina. She sounds like an Italian film star, in the mould of Sophia Loren but Claudia Severa lived long before her, and long before the cinema and the golden age of the silver screen. Claudia wrote to her friend to invite... Continue reading

In this centenary of the start of WWI, revisionist theorists and historians are keen to highlight the sheer stupidity of it, and argue that it was the crowned heads of Europe who played it out to their own designs. Others say it was necessary to enter the war to prevent an aggressive Prussian Empire from gaining more power. Both are right - but neither argument makes it right. My own simplistic view, having read extensively about Queen Victoria (a prior Bardiness post) is that had she not been such a bunny boiler (as far as her husband Albert was concerned),... Continue reading

"Mile after mile, trees have been felled, and mile after mile those still standing have been marked with the executioners axe - a strip of bark sliced from the trunk - the condemned waiting for death." There is a disease that is rampant in the Philippines. It's a virus, spreads like the plague, and infects all that come into contact with it. It is unforgiving, affects millions of people, destroys livelihoods, and causes blindness. It's a virus which is unforgiving, because there is no way back from it. The damage it causes can never be recovered. It is a killer.... Continue reading

'If our time is come let us die manfully for our brethren's sake, and not have a cause for reproach against our glory.' These are the words inscribed on the gravestone, in Churcham, Gloucestershire, of Henry Hook. He died aged 54 on 12 March, 1905. A great injustice was given to Henry Hook, perpetrated by Hollywood in it's desire to spin a good yarn. There is a double anniversary occurring this Wednesday 22 January. Firstly, on this date in 1879 one of the bravest battles ever recorded in British military history occurred. Such was it's significance, Queen Victoria awarded 11... Continue reading

When I review my childhood I consider myself rather blessed. It was spent throughout the 1960s. I began the decade aged four and ended it in 1969 as I turned a teen. Things like the dawn of the Beatles, the JFK assassination, England winning the World Cup and the first moon landing are all fresh in my mind and I was old enough to comprehend what was going on. But the reason I'm thinking about it now is because 2014 marks the centenary of the start of World War I. When I was growing up in those remarkable years I... Continue reading

I took the car to the garage to have it's exhaust replaced, left it there and returned home by bus. Upon entering I asked the driver (as I produced some strange metal objects from my pocket) how much to get to my stop? He looked at me as if I'd just landed from Mars. "Are you paying cash?" he said astonished. I affirmed it. "That's £2.40" he replied, in what was clearly a state of shock. So I gave him £2.50. "Haven't you got the right money?" he grumbled. "I only want 10p change" I said (I mean it wasn't... Continue reading

Emil Guillermo is a very sensitive American-Filipino journalist. So sensitive in fact, that he believes that the power of a juvenile below-average slapstick-comic movie can insult millions of people of a certain nationality, and rejuvenate a slur that has been buried for years. I refer to Anchorman 2. If you know what that is already - congratulations, and if you don't...well, now you do. The number "2" in the title infers that another preceded it - it did, seven years ago – titled "Anchorman". Don't ask me what it's about, I've seen neither, but my little information tells me it's... Continue reading

How was Christmas celebrated in Romano and post-Romano-Britain? The simple answer is that it wasn't. Christianity didn't arrive sufficiently to create an influence until the late 6th century AD long after the Romans had left and Paganism had revived. Christians existed in Britain long before then but in the early... Continue reading

It's the winter solstice and the Druids and Pagans have been out in force - or should that be faux force? There's something odd about these Druids. We don't know the real truth about Stonehenge, their sacred place of worship, other than it was built several thousand years ago and... Continue reading