19 December 2013 (Thursday) - Ronnie Biggs, Minions



After a relatively good night’s sleep I got up a little before everyone else this morning. Yesterday I mentioned that the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs had died. Last night I recorded a docu-drama about the Great Train Robbery, and I watched it this morning over brekkie. I’ve watched quite a bit about that robbery lately; it’s odd how the public’s perception of that event bears little relation with actuality. When the Great Train Robbery is mentioned, everyone immediately thinks of Ronnie Biggs. However he would seem to have been only a minor player in the whole scheme; and hardly anyone could name the masterminds behind the heist.

I took “Furry Face TM “ out for his morning constitutional; we went through South Ashford to Singleton Lake and back home through Viccie Park. We had a minor attempted fracas with a bus, and there was a dodgy few seconds when my dog was nearly eaten by a passing Husky, but bearing in mind previous experiences, for once our walk was relatively uneventful.

Once home I settled my dog down and went to the van hire shop. A chap at work is moving to Southampton. I’ve offered to drive the removal van; if nothing else it will be a day out. I then went round to Staples for various stationery requisites. Whilst in the area I had a look in Ashford’s Cheapo-Bargains store. They didn’t have Christmas cake either.

Home, and once I’d done washing up and Hoovering I used the various stationery requisites I’d bought this morning. It’s amazing it takes to print out a year’s worth of homework. Whilst I printed I listened to Total Ashford’s Pod-Cast. Being of local interest it wasn’t at all bad. There was all sorts of interesting stuff about the Marsh Millions, the local rugby club, the decorations on the cows roundabout, and even an interview with an ex-cub who is now the leading light in the local pantomime. Mind you my piss did boil just the teensiest bit when they interviewed the “blood-runners”. The “Blood-runners” mean well; they act as unpaid couriers driving all sorts of thiongs to all sorts of places. But I did see red when the chap being interviewed said that what they did was "just like a real job". I can’t help but wonder what happened to the people who used to do that real job to earn their livelihood until well-meaning people put them out of work. Or how these people would react if their employers sacked them from their paid employment and replaced them with unpaid volunteers…

My email alert beeped. A new geocache had gone live only a mile away. I flew out of the house and was on a First to Find mission. I got to the cache twenty four minutes after it had been activated, but I wasn’t fast enough. Someone else had got there first. Next time…

The Rear Admiral came round for a cuppa, and then we set off to Folkestone. A bit of Chinese, and then Despicable Me 2. A rather good film; a shame I fell asleep; I wanted to watch it…

1 comment:

  1. We helped start Blood Runners Sussex back in the early 1990s.
    Why, Because the NHS didn't have an in house emergency blood network set up.
    They paid cab drivers £80+ per run to pick it up from the top of the A23 and run it to Sussex hospitals.
    We stopped that ridiculous waste of money over night.
    We paid our own fuel, maintenance costs and time.
    My spare change still goes in the tub for these upiad heros.

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