Affection, the forgotten emotion between love and lust...

Death of an Accent

It is so sad to see that local children are no longer inheriting local accents, in fact they all (including my daughter ) speak with quite a fine southern twang to their voices. If local children were all born here, then why are they not picking up a local accent ? How could they possibly not inherit this ?
   I think the answer lies in the fact that many couples have moved here from the south. Somehow their accents have become dominant. Of course this wouldn't lead to a complete loss of the northern accent, but I think the hammer blow has come from childrens TV channels. Children are obviously spending more time being exposed to these accents rather than their parents ones, of course if they have southern parents this will be by the bye. I still find it hard to believe either or both explanations have had such a drastic effect, and maybe there are other factors more complex ? Either way the result is the same. I will sound different to my own daughter. She will speak better and clearer than me. She will not for instance drop her " h "  s from her sentences. She will sound more educated from the out set. Will she notice my different accent as she grows up ? She already corrects my speech at 4 years old. Something really has change with children. Exactly why this is fascinates me...

Watchmen intro Bob Dylan "the times they are a changin' "

 

 

" Your looking kinda down, you know your your not the same. You need a little something just to get you back in the game... "

 

 

Its  time for a fresh car and this time I have actually bought a top model performance version in a mean black colour with big wheels and a silly power figure to match. I nearly bought something sensible and new and twice the price but I have let my heart rule my head. Time will tell how this pans out. It is not normal for me to throw caution to the wind. This is not just a fast car, it symbolises something else that I have not yet grasped.

Is This The New Acceptable ?

I have just opened yet another bill from British Telecom for a house I moved out of 4 months ago. I had cancelled the Direct Debit previously months ago to. Why are they just sending out bills to me as though im still living there ? Because they are fucking low life chancers like every other organization out there. Im sick of people just sending me bills with no logic to them and for a house I no longer live in. I have had a long period of being at the end of useless peoples efforts. My electric and water company were the same. There seems to be a complete lack of morals when it comes to charging for services. It is basically legalised fraud. Is this the new acceptable ?

Tipping Point

This morning was the first morning in weeks that it actually stopped raining. The sun even came out and the sky was a beautiful blue and pink. As the mornings are getting lighter sooner so are the birds starting their dawn chorus. That is always a sign that the season is slowly grinding on. It brings an energy that can only come through a change of mood. It is as though nature is giving me an advance warning that Winter is further along than my mindset seems to want to admit. Of course Spring is along way off and appears painfully slowly here. In fact their should be names to capture the varying stages of its manifestation. Simply the word Spring is far too generic. Of course each stage has its mood for me.
  Spring is a very busy time for me as the sheep start lambing over 6 weeks. As the weather warms up people start to relax and shake off Winter. It is quite irritating when your busy. Sometimes I wonder how it would feel to simply watch Spring unfold without any work to do. I guess even though I work closely with nature, I would see much more if I was to just sit back and have nothing to do but watch it. I cant imagine watching a season without it having work conitations . That's the curse of being a Farmer. The seasons totally rule me and how im thinking. Im so close to nature that maybe I don't always see its splendour. Show me a landscape and I will be thinking of it in monetary terms or how easy or hard it would be to farm. Its hard wired into me.
  Come June I always go on holiday as living and working in the same valley all the time can send you mad, and people do go mad here... There is something subtly oppressive about this place, a tension or maybe a glibness of the mind too. It is seen as quite acceptable in my valley to just work and die. People do work and they do die. Life cares not and nature doesn't even acknowledge anyones passing to the point that it seems offensive.
  Any sort of endeavour here attracts attention. Life under a microscope. If I express an opinion then it is rolled out to cover every part of my life. Reputation is the ultimate king, even though it is probably biased and unrepresentative of a varied human outlook.
  Very much on my mind at the moment is mending my ageing car after hitting a huge hole in the road. I may even throw in the towel and buy a newish one if the mood takes me. The trouble is new cars are so light and plastic and built no longer to have fun in. They have become just tools that must look nice and return reasonable economy. Like may modern things they have become soulless. Music is the same as is TV as time goes by. To find a car that moves me will take some doing but unless it does move me than I cant think about shelling out for one. Im a dinosaur looking trying to recapture the 90's.

Iron Maiden - The Duellists Lyrics

After being ambushed by two hard sell car salesmen this week, I feel like ive fought a duel. In fact I was physically sweating by the end of it. I found myself adeptly attacking, defending and sometimes just giving ground verbally when it made strategic sense. It was all a mind game and every single prop was used to try and gain the upper hand on me. To cultivate guilt at not wanting the car seemed to be their top goal. Guilt is a very strong emotion and a new marketing method that theyre using nowadays, and not a very nice one. Still if it gets results then I guess anything goes ?
  As I don't have a history of debating my views face to face with people everyday, I today looked back wondered just how I had handled the contest so well ? I conclude it is because of all the arguing ive done in the past on silly facebook debating pages. They teach you the art of attack, defence and the timing of retreats. I guess they are useful for something then !!

A Dirty Trick

Yesterday I put down a £ 200 refundable " retainer " on a car at my Ford dealer. The sales man said I could redeem it later if I changed my mind. Next day after a 2nd test drive I did change my mind, Suddenly he was calling this fee a " deposit " and not refundable. He then set about on a hard sell and various physcological guilt trips to try and push the sale through. Eventually I lost my cool and started to raise my voice in the reception ( funny how that always gets things moving ) The head manager came out and I got my refund.
   This is just the kind of low trick you would expect from a high pressure sales man.  " Ive done my part, Ive let you drive the car twice, now you need to do your part " What ever happened to test drives and browsing ? Just because you test drive a car more than once does not make you morally obliged to buy it. What a low and sleazy and nasty trick to pull on a potential customer. When I mentioned I would be looking at other cars or makes of cars he said he would " hold on to the £200 for me " I said you must joking In no uncertain terms . What an ass hole.Anyway I got my refund and ive learnt an important lesson - Never ever let anyone take money from you and use this a pressure tactic. Refundable or not ! Lesson learnt.

Have a go ? No, thanks...

Ive never understood the mentality of " have a go hero's " This weeks local paper has a piece written about a woman who " tackled " a man robbing a shop who was armed with an axe. Why would anyone put their own safety at risk to stop a man they don't know stealing a few pounds from a shop they don't have anything to do with ? Who cares if he's robbed the place ? Just let the Police do their job. Why put your life in danger ? Of course its often claimed that the reaction to tackle a threat is a reflex one, and the person doing it doesnt have time to consider the risk involved, and if that isn't an example of recklessness then I don't know what is. Saying that ive yet to hear of anyone getting killed or seriously hurt doing this. Maybe the both the robber and hero are both in a state of automatic reflexes and they cancel each other out in an equilibrium ? Whoops, wrong blog !