Jews

Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan

In the twenty years that I have been responsible for this humble Yorkshire blog, I have never written about Jews, Jewishness or Judaism. I guess it's an area that "gentiles" like me try to stay clear of - partly for fear of being labelled anti-Semitic. At times, it can seem as if only Jews are allowed to reflect upon themselves.

Growing up in my East Yorkshire village, I was entirely unaware of Judaism and no Jews lived in that village. However, at eleven that changed somewhat when I passed the eleven plus exam and gained a scholarship to the poshest school in Hull.

Every morning, the posh school had an assembly in which there were Christian prayers and hymns. That section would be followed by general school notices. 

Every morning,  I had to ride thirteen miles into Hull on a country bus and because of this I was never in the school hall at the start of the assembly so I had to wait outside with around twenty others boys who missed the first part of the assembly because they were Jewish. When the religious part finished, we would troop into the back of the hall to listen to the notices. I think this is the reason that several of my classmates tried to tease me - calling me a "yid" - a term of abuse I had never heard before. Fortunately, the teasing did not last long and it did not cause me any remembered trauma at all.

Even at the age of eleven, I had become a non-believer so though I was christened within The Church of England, in truth I had already ditched all that hocus pocus. Effectively, I was already an "atheist" though that was another word that I had previously never heard.

Please excuse my ignorance but in this modern age I wonder why more Jews don't also turn their backs on religion and become non-believers? How can it be that someone who is a native born citizen of Great Britain or The Netherlands or Canada may self-define more eagerly through their religious heritage than through their nationality? I just don't get it.

Yesterday, there was a terrible event in the Lancashire city of Manchester.  A dangerous young man of Syrian origin visited a synagogue with the intention of causing death and terror. Tragically, two Jewish men were killed and he caused injury to others before he himself was shot dead by the police.

In the news coverage that followed, I heard one Jewish woman declaring that she would now have to emigrate from this country where she was born and raised and I thought - why? This is your country as much as it is mine - why would you consider leaving it because of one murderous nutcase? So yeah - I don't really "get" several aspects of Jewishness at all. Much of it remains a mystery to me.

Am I allowed to say that in the field of arts and music, two Jewish songwriters have meant the world to me - Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Cohen's Jewishness was apparent in many of his songs but with Bob Dylan it was always less easily detected. However, here he is in one of his less well-known numbers, singing quite bitterly in defence of the state of Israel in "Neighbourhood Bully". I should warn you that it is four minutes and eleven seconds long...

And this raises another question about Jewishness. If you were born into a Jewish family in another land - what is your relationship with the state of Israel and why do you have a relationship anyway? Why should it be more intense than a Christian's relationship with The Holy Land?

Before incriminating myself any further, I had better scuttle off back into the shadows of my ignorance. I apologise if I have unwittingly caused any offence to Jewish readers and happily invite some polite enlightenment through your comments.

Thursday

Clumber Park Caravan Site - in a sea of trees (Google Map Imagery)

Shirley and I drove to Clumber Park this morning. It is a heavily wooded area just south of the Nottinghamshire market town of Worksop. It used to be the country seat of The Dukes of Newcastle. Though the big house was pulled down in the 1930s, much of the estate remains intact - such as the ornamental lake,  the stable block and The Church of St Mary.

A quick search through my blog confirms that I have written about Clumber Park before. Go here for example.

This time we were there to meet up with my friend Tony and his wife, Pauline. They have a caravan (American: trailer) and they had driven it down from East Yorkshire for a few away days at the Clumber Park caravan and camping site.

It was a still and pleasant day in our early autumn. Two other old friends - Glyn and Jackie had become a little lost finding the site but they turned up at midday following their little driving adventure in the woods.

We sat outside under the trees and ate sandwiches, catching up with family news and reminiscing about old times.

Both Pauline and Tony have suffered health trials this year. Tony suffered a minor stroke in March and though he has made a steady recovery, he is still not quite the man he was before. After forty years as a nurse, Pauline had a knee replacement in June and has been told that she needs to have both of her hips replaced. Her back also requires surgery - fusing at least two vertebrae together in the base of her back. Her stoicism is impressive.

I guess that these are the kind of things that happen as men and women grow older. Very few people seem to reach old age without health issues and as some readers may recall, I have had my own issues with blood pressure this past year.

In fact, I  have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. Though my daily cocktail of pills has been amended several times, my blood pressure is still too high so I expect there will be another change to the cocktail. I also had a blood test on Monday - specifically testing for Type 2 diabetes. I believe it is called the HbA1c test. It was previously discovered that I am a borderline case and that is why I stopped taking sugar in hot drinks and why I plan to begin taking weight loss reduction medication in the near future having been mysteriously refused by one well-known provider.

We were back in Sheffield long before three this afternoon - ready to pick our darling girl Phoebe up from her school. We were allowed inside her classroom and Phoebe led us round her new learning environment. She seems to have settled in very nicely. After a week she said to me, "I'm a schoolgirl now" and so she is.

At our house, the mild chili con carne I had prepared on Wednesday night was  sitting in our fridge ready for the family meal. I boiled some rice, grated some cheese and warmed up pitta breads. Then for dessert we had shop-bought sticky toffee pudding with ice cream.

Before I knew it, Thursday was almost over and I had plonked myself down in our study to tap out this scintillating account of an ordinary day in The Life of Yorkshire Pudding - aged 71 years and 359 days.

Quiztime

 

Okay... I have received the hint from quizzical visitors like Arkansas Kelly and Harpenden Frances. The day has arrived for another "Quiztime"! I can already hear the whoops of  excitement from clamouring contestants but what will be the theme this time? Actually, there is no theme today. It is a random, pot luck general knowledge quiz. As usual, the answers will be given in the comments section. Good luck!

⦿

1. What does the Japanese word さようなら (sayonara) mean?

(a) I love you (b) nice to meet you 

(c) goodbye (for a while) (d) thank you very much

2. Of which modern car company is this the logo?

3. Which pop band that rose to prominence in the late 1970s had hits with "Heart of Glass" and "The Tide is High"?

4. As this is a general knowledge quiz, we need a question about a famous general. This fellow was an American general in World War II but who was he? He died at sixty after a car accident in Germany and had a dog called Willie.

(a) General Eisenhower (b) General Patton
(c) General Ulyssess S. Grant (d) General MacArthur

5.  This burrowing rodent is native to The Horn of Africa but what is it?

(a) naked mole rat (b) hairless weasel

(c) desert land mouse (d) African sand digger

6. Can you name the family to which this flower belongs? In other words, what is it?

7. What is the name of the currency used in Vietnam?

(a) dung (b) ding (c) dang (d) dong

8. In which country will you find this enormous statue of Genghis Khan?

9. Normally, how many pages are there in  The Holy Quaran - the core text of Islam?

(a) 365 (b) 604 (c) 1111 (d) 3752

10. In which European capital city was this picture taken?

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That's all folks! How did you do?

Comments

It's nice to receive comments from regular visitors to this blog and I thank you for your continuing interest and support.

People like Meike from Ludwigsburg, Germany; Keith from Red Deer, Canada; Jennifer from South Carolina and Steve from West London almost seem like family to me. My association with them goes way back in time and of course they produce their own blogs which I keep visiting through the months and years.

You just need to look at my sidebar to get an idea of my blog orbit. In recent years, new favourites have emerged such as Bob Slatten's "I Should Be Laughing", Bruce Springsteen's Taylor's "Oddball Observations", JayCee Manx's "Nobody's Diary" and David Godfrey's "Travel Penguin". In blogging, nothing ever seems to be permanently fixed. As in life, you have to move on. No sense in always wallowing in the past.

I like the fact that some of my regular visitors do not actually produce blogs of their own. That doesn't really matter. Here I am thinking about people like Carol in Spain (Coppa's Girl), Ellen in Illinois and Traveller from I know not where. Thank you for coming here. I hesitate but I would like to use the term: friends. Yes, friends.

Occasionally, commenters will breeze in leave one or two comments and then disappear for good. Perhaps that will be the case with someone called "P.Wright". He appeared for the first time in relation to a post I published on September 14th.  It was about the Reform Party rally in London and the appearance of Elon Musk on big screens. I titled this post "Terrorist". "P.Wright" has only attracted ten page views and does not have his own blog. This is what he wrote:-

"A typical left wing post. You can't stand anyone that doesn't agree with your narrative. You crap on about 26 injured police but fail to mention that there were only 25 arrests. How many arrests were there at the Nottingham carnival?? Way more. You are just so full of hate for anyone that doesn't follow the lefties narrative it's sickening. We are all entitled to our opinions and l respect yours but there is no need for all the hate that comes from the left."

Little details in this comment caused me to deduce that it was posted in America and possibly by a Trump-MAGA supporter.  For example, he uses the expression, "Way more!" which is known in Great Britain but is not in common use. Also the pejorative term "lefties" is hackneyed in my country and rarely used these days but has traction with the American right. He also refers to the "Nottingham Carnival" when I am sure he meant the "Notting Hill Carnival". British people would not make that error.

Perhaps it was Elon Musk in disguise. The sentiments contained in the comment are certainly Muskian or Muskish and I must say quite disturbing. Clearly, "P.Wright" doesn't know me at all.  Unlike Julius Caesar who came, conquered and went, "P.Wright" came, defecated and disappeared. Anyway, if you are reading this "P.Wright" you are not welcome here and I am sorry to say that any future comments you make on this blog will not be published.

Nadir

 

Perhaps this is the nadir, maybe not but can the current U.S. president really sink any lower?

Along the wall of a colonnade in The White House, portraits of past presidents have been put up going right back in time. Only, one of the portraits is missing. Instead of Joe Biden, America's 46th president, there is instead a picture of an autopen.

The current president and his minions have made a big deal of the fact that Joe Biden sometimes had his presidential signature written with the aid of a computerised autopen - instead of by hand. The ironic truth is that the 47th president has also used an autopen on many occasions to sign documents so why has he made a big song and dance about this matter? After all, he has done just the same.

President Biden was fairly and legitimately elected to office by the American people. He served his country well and made many beneficial decisions and choices. What is more, in spite of the fact that age began to catch up with him, he conducted himself with dignity and a healthy measure of humility. He is and was a decent man, a listener and a true patriot. At least - that is how it appears to me.

Not putting his picture up and instead unveiling the framed image of an autopen is unfair and unfunny. It disrespects all those who voted  for Mr Biden in November 2020 and it disrespects American history. You might not have agreed with him and you yourself might even wear a red Republican cap but Joe Biden was the president. He wore that mantle with pride.

Rather than the autopen, the equivalent for the current incumbent might be a jar of orange foundation cream or a golf club and ball to represent all the many times he has been A.W.O.L. on private golfing breaks during his presidency. But pursuing that notion would surely be juvenile and petty - sinking right down  to the current president's level.

So yes - this could easily be the absolute pits - the nadir but I have a sneaking suspicion that Mad Donald might go even lower - such is his terrible vindictiveness and his apparent inability to simply let things go and move on.

Skote

 

Skote? Well I have no clear idea what that word means but I suspect that it is an informal term of endearment from Newfoundland, Canada. I came across it this past week when I found myself being drawn into a YouTube channel called "Skote Outdoors".

Who are the two skotes pictured at the top of this blogpost? Why they are Matty and Kelly Clarke, the creators and stars of the YouTube channel. Let me tell you a little about them and their vlog.

Matty was originally from Newfoundland and Kelly was from Virginia, USA. They met over the internet and immediately Kelly determined that Matty was the man she was going to marry - even before they had met in person.

For a nominal fee, Matty bought an abandoned wooden house on the island of St Joseph's in Placentia Bay to the south of Newfoundland. It was in a sorry state without running water or electricity and there was plenty of rotten wood too.

They set about restoring the house and making it into a proper home. The project has been greatly assisted by Matty's  practical skills and "can do" attitude. Kelly has often acted as his labourer. She is always upbeat, supportive and uncomplaining.

I watched as they installed solar panels on the hill above the old house and also how they found a way of piping water from that same hill - from a pond that their neighbour helped them to excavate.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live "off grid" in Nature, pretty much free to do your own thing? If you have, "Skote Outdoors" might well be the answer to your curiosity. Why not check it out? You don't need to investigate every video they have uploaded but you might wish to step a few months back in time. 

I have found it all pretty uplifting and a healthy reminder that people can be self-reliant  and happy without allowing the news of the world to press our faces into the proverbial mud. Earlier this very day, Matty and Kelly had great news to share. She's pregnant! So hopefully in about eight months time,  there'll be a new tiny character in the videos.

If you have some idle time, please check "Skote Outdoors"  out.

Watch

Home again

Are you sitting comfortably? Let me tell you the story of my Mondaine wristwatch.

It was given to me fifteen years ago by my immediate family. It suited me from the first second it ticked. A simple, easily-read face with no distractions like a date dial or the time in Tokyo. An elegant, unfussy watch that tells the time accurately.

Every two years its battery runs out and I need to have a new one put in by someone who knows what they are doing. For the past ten years, I have gone to a jeweller's shop down the road from us at Hunter's Bar and in all that time nobody else has interfered with the watch. Normally it's a half hour job. I drop the watch off, toddle off for a drink or some lunch and then pick it up a bit later - job done.

At the start of July, this summer gone, the watch had stopped ticking again so I went to the jewellers and as usual I was asked to come back in half an hour. However, when I returned, the friendly middle-aged woman who was doing the job said there was a problem. She couldn't get all the tiny screws out and two of them just kept turning round.

"Where did you last have a new battery fitted?" she said.

"Here," I replied. "And it was you who did it!"

"Well. Something's gone wrong and we're going to have to send it off to our watch specialist."

"How long is that going to take?"

"Three to four weeks."

"What? That seems like a long time just to get a new battery but okay I will go with it."

"First, he will have to tell us if he can actually do the job."

Anyway, four weeks later, at the very end of July, the shop phoned me back to tell me that their specialist could indeed do the job and did I wish to proceed? What? Of course I wanted to proceed. I asked how long it would take and the woman at the other end of the line said "three to four weeks... if the specialist can source the required screws".

At the end of August I phoned them back to say, "Where's my watch?" 

They said, "Oh it takes six to eight weeks. We weren't expecting it back yet!"

Meantime up at the pub quiz, my friend Mick was advising me to play hell with them and demand my watch back but I explained that I just didn't want the aggro. If I lost my rag with them, I knew that I would regret it and the resulting scene would play out over and over again in my mind. Experience can be a great teacher. Better to stay calm and patient, eventually get my watch back and then never visit the jeweller's shop ever again.

This morning, the long awaited phone call happened. The sloth-like specialist had finally returned my watch and I could pick it up - almost three months after  I had taken it in. Oh joy of joys! Ring the church bells! Beat the drums! Christ is risen! 

I strolled down the hill to Hunter's Bar and as I told the smiley woman behind the counter, it felt like reuniting with an old friend. Hello Mondaine - how have you been? I have missed you mate!

There might have been an argument that the jeweller's shop should have paid for the service since the issue with the tiny screws was probably caused by them but I just did not want the hassle. I paid up and left with no intention of ever going in there again. It has been quite a saga, I can tell you.