We got a Springer Spaniel a few weeks ago from the local dog rescue centre.

She quite often bounces around in the manner that I assume earned them the name “Springer” but last night she really earned the “Springer” title, by jumping our six foot garden fence.  She didn’t quite clear it but I was amazed that she managed to even get her front paws on the top of the fence because she was the runt of the litter and smaller than your average Springer.

Luckily it only took about 10 minutes to get her back last night – the last couple of times she’s escaped it’s been about half an hour.

Technorati Tags: Dogs

Prince Harry has been in Afghanistan on active service with the Household Cavalry in Helmand Province for the last 10 weeks.

The media was aware that he was there but had agreed to keep it a secret for his safety in return for access to him for interviews in Afghanistan.

An American website – the Drudge – broke the embargo and made the news public, following which the media have started to release their interviews.

The MOD are now considering how long they can safely keep him out there.  A message has appeared on a website, apparently from the Taliban, saying that they hope that their god will kill him.  He will certainly be the most prized target in Afghanistan.

Prince Harry is the most senior royal to see active service in the armed forces since Prince Andrew fought in the Falklands.

Technorati Tags: Prince Harry, Afghanistan

Apologies to those who would have like to continue commenting on the post about Dr Suresh Deman, the vexatious litigator who has been banned from taking legal action in England, Scotland and Wales after launching a string of spurious racial discrimination cases against academic institutions.

Although their comments were automatically blacklisted, the number of abusive, threatening and racist comments I was receiving from the Deman mob was getting beyond a joke.

So far I have been called a white supremecist, a racist ignorant, a zionist Labour mafia collaborator, dozy, sexist, a paid harasser or stalker, a firebrand racist, a racist idiotic jerk, a self-entangled racist idiotic jerk, an under achiever and chicken shit variously by Dr D’Silva, Mrs Mayo-Deman and Council for Ethnic Minority. Mostly by Council for Ethnic Minority actually.

Then this morning I received this email which is, to be quite frank, a complete joke considering the racist abuse I’ve been getting from this bunch of illiberal cretins:

Dear Mr Stuart Parr:

Now that you have blocked our comments and many other professionals’ comments exposing your disparaging campaign and white supremacist racist nonsense we have no choice but to contact you by e-mail. It appears you do not want to receive from others as there is not even a shred of evidence that either Mrs Mayo-Deman or Dr DSilva used their employers’ equipments to expose your extremely offencive views and nonsense.

Please be advised to let us know your mailing address so that we could pass it on to our solicitors to serve you a formal Pre Action Protocol Warning of defamation and racial harassment. Let us know how many proxi names you have been using to perpetuate myth of lies and deceits on your website.

We are looking forward to hearing from you ASAP.

Yours sincerely,

C. Kumar & Mrs S. Mahdevan

Coordinators

It was tempting to ignore it because I’ve already told them several times that this blog is published by a limited company and as such all their correspondence should be put in writing to the limited company care of the legal compliance department of the hosting company. After all, when you have a problem with a newspaper article you don’t complain to the journalist, you complain to the publisher. But I replied anyway, generously giving them the same information again in as simple terms as possible.

To be honest, I’m thinking of going to the police and making a complaint about racial harassment. What do you reckon? Should I treat them with the contempt they deserve and ignore them or take the bull by the horns and make a complaint about racial harassment?

Technorati Tags: Deman, Harassment

I had to go to the hospital today to get measured up for braces for my knees (not Forrest Gump style braces) which involved a trip of almost an hour to Gobowen near Oswestry which has the best orthopaedic hospital in England.

Anyway, I’m making good time and am about 3 or 4 miles from the hospital when I passed a lay-by and noticed a man lying over the kerb trying to flag down traffic.  Nobody stopped and I saw him too late to pull into the lay-by so I went further down the road, phoned 999 and turned around at the next island.

By the time I got back a truck driver had managed to stop and had got the man sitting up.  He was complaining of chest pains and said his eyes were funny.  His family started to turn up after a few minutes, he had presumably phoned them when he’d pulled over.  He was sitting up with help, a bit out of it and then he just keeled over and died minutes before the ambulance arrived.

The ambulance crew tried to revive him at the side of the road but they hadn’t managed by the time they’d loaded him onto the ambulance.  I did my best to comfort his relatives but it’s a bit of a blur, I think I may have just talked shit.

It was really disappointing that so many people passed by without stopping, I don’t know how long he was there on his own.  It also exposes the folly of closing A&E wards in hospitals – they did this a few years ago at Gobowen and as a result the ambulance had a 20 minute drive to Shrewsbury to the nearest hospital.  The bean counters probably thought it was a good idea to close the A&E ward, I wonder what this man’s family think.

As for what happened to the man who had the heart attack – I don’t know.  It didn’t look hopeful.

Fidel Castro has announced his resignation as president of Cuba and his brother Raul, who is currently standing in as president, is expected to be “elected” as his permanent replacement.

The BBC has been gushing about Comrade Castro all day.  He introduced free medical care for all and literacy rates are comparable with any western nation.  Which is nice.  He also introduced abitary arrest and imprisonment and destroyed the Cuban economy.  Which isn’t quite so nice if you live in Cuba.  Even his own daughter lives in exile in Miami saying that it’s preferable to living under her father’s dictatorial rule.

Castro has done some good stuff and some bad stuff.  Unfortunately, the bad stuff is really quite bad.  Communism just doesn’t work, the same patterns repeat themselves under every communist regime.  Cuba is much better off without Castro just as long as they get someone half decent in exchange.

Technorati Tags: Cuba, Castro