GREAT BRITAIN: Bristol, Kendal & the Lakes District
Once again as fate would have it, I blew into town on the eve of the Bristol Harbour Festival. Music and food kiosks filled the town as well as the scourge of the skies that I will be covering later. My daughter Dina also was a student at Bristol University ten years ago.
BRISTOL
BRIDGE NEXT TO MY HOSTEL
INTERESTING SQUARE
WATER EFFECTS
CHIROPRACTOR’S OFFICE – Just Kidding
TRASH VULTURES – These pariahs of the avian world have reached new levels of mischief that are approaching Hitchcockian proportions in many cities throughout the world. I had always sniffed at Tippi Hedren’s alleged trauma from working on “The Birds” until my own real encounter with these flying nightmares. Seagulls used to bring forth fond memories of the ocean, beaches, and tasty seafood on the waterfront. Immortalized in the cheesy sixties novel “Jonathon Livingston Seagull” which managed to put a more human face on the cursed gulls, these creatures have mutated into a virulent strain of SUPERGULL who are terrorizing the general public in an unprecedented fashion. These birds will swoop in and rip food right out of your hand while you’re walking down the street as indicated by the picture above. I was lucky the sandwich wasn’t in my mouth at the time.
This wasn’t even my first run-in with this species. Earlier in the day after getting my groceries. One of these sickening seabirds went into my sack, poked its beak through a protective film and had its way with my salad. I suppose they’ll finally do something about the problem when a young child gets its eye poked out by one of these rapacious flying vermin.
After was robbed of my sandwich 20 gulls surrounded me lest I try and fight for the remnants. These winged hooligans really know how to curtail a pleasant snack in short order. At least in the Baltics, they limited themselves to dumpster-diving and spreading trash in the streets. This lot has become a threat to humanity itself. Maybe it’s just another way the environment is fighting back against our unabated assault on its ecosystems. Perhaps the seagulls are coming home to roost.
FOOD FESTIVAL – Gratefully bereft of gulls.
This is a giant chocolate chip cookie using brownie instead of chips. The thing was as big as my head. I managed to finish it before the seagulls found it!
And for the person who has everything, a poo emoji pillow!
KENDAL
This is the view out of the window to my room. On the hill are the remains of Kendal Castle which we’ll visit later.
Behind my building were a nice little garden area, cafe, and cinema.
Memorial to the soldiers of the Great War in the town square.
MAIN STREET
GOD IS NUTS ABOUT YOU?
First off, it was a different church that had this on its billboard, but it really doesn’t matter since they’re all pretty much peddling the same thing. Buy an invisible unidentifiable product with absolutely no confirmation of its existence. Never mind that there is a good deal of concrete evidence that it doesn’t work. But go ahead, listen to the squirrel, buy it anyway with no explanation other than because we say so. What is really vile about this poster is this is clearly being used to target children so that they can be prepared for indoctrination.
Unbelievable. Now about this “God Is Nuts About You” thing. How do they know? Seriously to look at the basic human condition and the world at this moment in time, It would be quite reasonable to conclude that God is not only not nuts about us, but that it is downright hostile to humanity. Disease, famine, terrorism, aging and the Kardashians. This is not the work of a loving creator. It’s more like some fear-based scenario Donald Trump would come up with, and we do know how they both love to be worshipped. Just read the bible, and you’ll find all the evidence you’ll ever need to confirm God’s antipathy towards humanity. Never mind that these alleged revelations were received by people who were likely in the throes of some kind of mental disorder rather than any kind of authentic divine inspiration.
Unfortunately, some of God’s contemporary nuts have been in the news lately, and these sanctified loonies are unfortunately real and hell-bent on killing as many as possible in the name of their chosen unproven, invisible and mute deity. I don’t care if people want to worship bundles of sticks and mud, dress up in silly costumes and perform any number of wacky rituals, but just don’t kill me or foist your beliefs upon me.
On July 14th. Nice was attacked by a whack job terrorist driving a large truck who found easy justification for his actions in his holy book. Eighty-four people were killed and three hundred and three were injured. I get upset when they attack France since it is one of my favorite countries. Hopefully, Islam will go through a reformation of sorts soon before things get completely out of hand. They really need to let go of a lot of Bronze Age nonsense and join the rest of us in the 21st. century. I feel very sorry for the large quantity of peaceful Muslims who must run interference for these idiots who are wreaking havoc in the name of their religion. At any rate, I still believe that organized religion is an enormous threat to the survival of mankind and that all religions are founded in delusion. If there was ever a time we need our wits about us, it is now. The last thing we need is to be distracted by nonsense like this, and the fallout that we see worldwide. After all, George W. Bush claimed that God told him to go into Iraq. I think it was Cheney, Halliburton, the oil companies, and the war for profit industry. It wasn’t God that took us into Iraq, but simple greed.
Maybe one day, the nations and religions of the world will come to grasp Bernie Sanders simple message that we are all in this together. We are essentially the same species divided only by ideas. Most of our cultural framework is all made up after all, and unfortunately, much of it is assembled through the use of faulty and irrational thinking. I have long believed that the only way that the human race can reconcile its differences is by fighting a common enemy, and once that enemy is defeated retain the camaraderie that was necessary to vanquish that foe in the first place.
Rather than look at the current cataclysmic possibilities that climate change presents, I prefer to look at it as a watershed moment for the world at large. We can either swim together or drown divided on this one. This is the real WWIII, and it’s going to take all of our best minds and the cooperation of everyone on the planet. We really don’t know if we’ve pushed things too far already, but there is no time for getting caught up the fear of terrorism or other petty skirmishes on the world stage. We’ve been out of time for decades. We need to act now.
Here’s a piece of bad news that you might not have been aware of. Less than a day after becoming the U.K.’s unelected leader, Prime Minister Theresa May closed the government’s climate change office, moving the responsibility over to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. That’s basically like telling a sheep to work in a wolf’s den. What is furthermore, US Presidential contender Donald Trump is a rabid climate change denier. Now I’m not particularly fond of Hillary, but we cannot miss the opportunity to tackle this problem head-on as she has promised to do. It’s going to require that type of JFK moment when he said that NASA would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
We could solve so many problems in one go. Aside from the obvious environmental issues, we could remove ourselves from meddling in the Middle East due to our addiction to oil. This, in turn, would go a long way toward neutralizing the terrorism problem by not supplying fodder for their recruitment. Also, it would revitalize the US economy through the implementation of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the new sustainable energy sector. People would save money on their energy while helping to ensure a future for their loved ones. It would be the world’s greatest alliance since WWII. Now if only it could be sustained.
Physicist Stephen Hawking said in 2010 pollution, greed and stupidity are the greatest threats to life on Earth. Perhaps one day well will evolve beyond this fundamentally flawed human nature.
Hopefully, this will happen before the Earth shakes us off like a dog with a bad case of fleas.
HOPE
Now for some good news. This is a family friend Tamara shaking hands with Bernie Sanders. Tammy is a social worker who cares about people and the future, and not what Kim Kardashian is wearing. She’s smarter and prettier than her anyway and not a narcissistic twit. Her best friend Shayla has joined a think tank in Washington that will be dealing with solving the myriad problems presented by climate change. Earlier this summer Shayla was also at the protest that shut down a Trump rally in Chicago. These ladies are not asleep at the switch I can guarantee it. I feel better knowing they are out there fighting the good fight as should their contemporaries.
DESTINY CLAIRVOYANCE – More make-believe to help people deal with an uncertain world.
If this stuff were actually real, we could thwart all future terrorist attacks.
Okay, let’s get back to the real world, shall we?
KENDAL CASTLE
And a beautiful world it is. Just remember for every horrific news story, there millions of horror free beautiful moments occurring all over the world. Don’t get drawn into the downward spiral of bad news, but instead try and contribute to the solution by waking up to reality.
KENDAL CASTLE
People enjoying a beautiful day in the Lakes District.
KENDAL
A little cricket on a Sunday afternoon don’t you know old chap.
LAKES DISTRICT TOUR
HONISTER SLATE – Slate Sphere
A cloudy but pretty drive.
Boulders left behind by glaciers
PIT STOP FOR LUNCH
ONE OF THE MANY LAKES
This stone ring is 4,500 years old and is older than Stonehenge. It’s not as large, but you can actually walk around these stones which is no longer permitted at Stonehenge. Like Stonehenge, they have no idea what their purpose was.
Shot this over my shoulder in a moving bus. It came out nicely except for some slight reflection in the window.
I decided to take one more hike up to the castle ruins before leaving since it was such a nice day.
Below the castle were these modern looking benches. There were limestone quarries in the area so I think these are cast away fragments from when they were cutting columns.
FRESHLY MOWED PATH
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