Tag: society

A Saturday Morning Trip to the Honey-Shop!

The Galmpton “Honour System” – Walking to the Honey-Shop on a Saturday Morning! (30.8.2025)

Having stayed in Galampton a number of times now – my parent’s house is full of various medical paraphernalia – we noticed a sign (one of many) outside a beautiful brick-work #(chocolate-box) cottage – advertising local honey. Although this sign is a permanent fixture, we were never quite sure if the honey is available all year round – and we did not want to bother the owners. I could just imagine a startled villager as their sedate and isolated cottage is over-ran by a loud South London family – and their two-dogs!

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Shaolin Latest: Shi Yongxin’s Brother [Liu Yingbiao] of Shaolin Painting & Calligraphy Institute – “Missing”! (2.8.2025)

The reputation of the former Head Monk of the famous Shaolin Temple – Shi Yongxin – literally collapsed overnight! The trouble he has caused has not been limited only to himself! After Shi Yongxin got into trouble, his brother – Liu Yingbiao – quite literally disappeared from public view – with the media reporting that he has gone “missing”.

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Kai-Lin Collected the Apples!

Duddington: Scrumping Cooking-Apples, Liberating the Graveyard & Making Cakes in Sutton! (1.8.2025)

We taught Kai-Lin how to “forage” – a skill sadly lacking in today’s world – where “culture” is being crushed by the rich who live in gated communities (isolated from the destruction they are inflicting upon the all British people) and ordering their food imported from abroad and delivered by Ocardo – or something similar. My children have never heard of “cooking-apples” – or that such traditional fruit cannot be readily or easily eaten (due to its natural bitterness and hardness) without first being properly prepared and correctly cooked in suitably sweetened and heated water (simmered – but not boiled). My older relatives often used brown-sugar – before the apples could be placed into tasty apple-pies.

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Stairway to Heaven!

Northants: Kirby Hall – [1570] Elizabethan Home of Nobility! (1.8.2025)

This building reminded us in structure of Hampton Court (not far from where we live in London) – and Berry Pomeroy in Totnes, South Devon (not far from where my parents live). This is not surprising, as I believe from reading the available “English Heritage” literature that the same architects and engineers were used by the Court of Queen Elizabeth I and the nobility that served her. The front of the Hall faces North – with the back of house facing South (built on a North-South orientation). Local serfs (landless or homeless peasants) and peasants (land-occupying peasants) were employed by the nobility when large-scale building projects were initiated. Indeed, with the development of Guilds (primitive unions) – certain groups of peasants became highly skilled in specific construction and maintenance skills. Whether any such labour was employed from nearly Kirby Village, (situated to the South-West of what became the ornate rear garden of the complex), is open to debate.

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TS Hermes - Tiverton Sea Cadets

Tiverton: WWI Naval Gun [Lime Kiln Road] – Playing in the 1970s Was Very Different! (5.7.2025)

I was born in Oxford – but my parents moved to Tiverton (in East Devon) in 1970. I started school (Wilcombe) in 1972 (when 5-years old) – but changed to a school in Exeter in 1977. However, I have a memory of joining (after school) a group of classmates who “played” on a WWI Naval Gun situated on a public street (situated in Lime Kiln Road)! I have lived in Sutton (South-West Greater London) for over three-decades today – but recently – whilst picking-up my children from school in Cheam, I saw youths dressed in the uniforms of what is today termed the “Combined Cadet Force”, and the thought of myself once playing on a military gun (around 1977) bubbled-up in my mind (although publicly accessible – the gun in question was placed outside the Tiverton Sea Cadets Training Hall). In fact, after having experienced many interest things in my life (including four wonderful years based in Hereford during the 1980s), and having travelled around the world, I surprised myself with this memory and was not even sure it was real!

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14th Dalai Lama Grasps PRC By the Balls - Where All Life Begins!

China: Dishonest 14th Dalai Lama Starts Jockeying for Capitalist Reincarnation! (3.7.2025)

The reincarnation should follow the process that consists of searches within the Chinese territory, the drawing of lots from a golden urn, and approval by the central government, Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the ministry, told a daily news conference. The Chinese government implements a policy of freedom of religious belief, and issued Regulations on Religious Affairs and Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas to protect the tradition of reincarnation of living Buddhas in accordance with the law, Mao said.

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