November 11 Remembrance

This poem was written by Sgt. Joshua Helterbran and

reminds us why this anniversary is so important

The Final Inspection

The soldier stood and faced God,

Which must always come to pass.

He hoped his shoes were shining,

Just as brightly as his brass.

'Step forward now, you soldier,

How shall I deal with you?

Have you always turned the other cheek?

To My Church have you been true?'

The soldier squared his shoulders

and said,'No, Lord, I guess I ain't.

Because those of us who carry guns,

Can't always be a saint.

I've had to work most Sundays,

And at times my talk was tough.

And sometimes I've been violent,

Because the world is awfully rough.

But, I never took a penny,

That wasn't mine to keep...

Though I worked a lot of overtime,

When the bills got just too steep.

And I never passed a cry for help,

Though at times I shook with fear.

And sometimes, God, forgive me,

I've wept unmanly tears.

I know I don't deserve a place,

Among the people here.

They never wanted me around,

Except to calm their fears.

If you've a place for me here,

Lord,It needn't be so grand.

I never expected or had too much,

But if you don't, I'll understand.

There was a silence all around the throne,

Where the saints had often trod.

As the soldier waited quietly,

For the judgment of his God.

'Step forward now, you soldier,

You've borne your burdens well..

Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,

You've done your time in Hell.'

A Day off Work

Monday morning - my first whole day of

freedom away from my desk and the constant

battle between the wonky airconditioning

and the searing white heat of background noise -

its great to have a day off ...

but what to do with it?

... therin lies the problem.
We approach days off with great anticipation,

great plans are made with the excitement of

toddlers who have no notion that pay day is

still in the far off distance

(although still tantalising close

to smell like a lingering autumn rose)
Ideas are spouted back and forth

like an epic tennis final, with no

end in sight, no firm plans are made

and then the great day arrives

to the confusion of all.
I knew I had the day off,

we both knew we each had a day off...

The world at large knew we had a day off

and was quaking in it's ecological boots

awaiting the monstrous fanfare

that was about to arrive.

And arrive it did and it is today,

just now this present precious moment

I am sharing with you is my day off

and yet... due to the serious quest

of forward planning, I feel exhausted.

I have therefore ripped up the

list of plans and have decided

to throw caution to the wind

and do something completely different

... I still have to decide what that is yet ...

September Sunday Weekend

Late Sunday evening and it's been

a lazy hazy crazy day for the September weekend,

when I say lazy I mean I never even crossed the door step today

... it was books, books, twitter, roam the net,

read the Sunday papers, made some homemade soup,

had some crisps, threw a few things at the tv

when Come Dine with Me was on from Manchester

... that guy should not have won at all

the money should have been donated to charity

or the other candidates should have at least

admended their scores,

then onto watching Waking the Dead

with the scarey Linda who is currently

baiting the ever brooding Boyd with

a shrivelled up wedding finger through the post

(the things that get past Royal Mail screening machines is just amazing)

then on to post my first ever blog ...

whoo hoo ... must be getting all technological in my auld age

... first it was twitter back in August now blogging ...

hell where is it all going to end ...

before you know it I'll be using one of those Blackberries

and have constant RSI on both my thumbs ...

er well to be honest ... I have been looking into either

a Blackberry or a N97 ...

But vodafone say no to the N97 request as I am a long loyal customer

... but if I was a new customer ...

well the world is my lobster ...

However with Orange ... well that's a different story

I have been advised that Orange will not carry the N97

as it has a poor quality comparity with Orange Technology

(in other words it is mince or just too expensive)

and further to this unlike Vodafone

who wishes to charge me £80 to get my unrepetant mitts

on a Blackberry (storm I think) Orange will

either if I go into their store charge me £20

for same item or if I go online

I can have it like for free

(and they treat their customers

the very same way as new customers ... ooo own goal to vodafone methinks

... and I also think I went off on a tagent ... Catch you all later