The Hodge Blog

This is scary… It seems that tons of national news happens down here near Southampton where I live now.  In 1997 a cat called Lynx went missing from it’s home in Hook (30 miles) and turned up this week in Carterton, Oxfordshire. (6 miles from old home), 10 years after going missing. It was nothing to do with me…honest guv!

A cat has been reunited with its owner 10 years after going missing.

Lynx disappeared from her home in Hook, Hampshire, in 1997, and her owner, Patricia Charnet, thought she would never see her pet again.

Earlier this week a stray was found in Carterton, Oxfordshire, and handed in to the Blue Cross centre in Burford.

A scan showed that the 12-year-old tabby was microchipped and the centre tracked down her owner, who lived 60 miles away.

Ms Charnet said that when the animal sanctuary phoned her, she thought they had made a mistake.

“You still have it in the back of your mind,” she said.

“And it happened this time, for real. That was unbelievable, it is a wonderful feeling.

“If only she could talk she would have a story to tell.”

Mandy Jones, from the Blue Cross said staff at the centre were amazed to discover that Lynx had been missing for 10 years.

“I still can’t believe we were able to reunite her with her owner after such a long time – it goes to show how important microchipping is,” said Ms Jones.blockquote>

It’s about time someone realised there is more important things in the World going on than Paris (*******) Hilton! Well done Mika!

Today is the 28^th World Worm-Charming Championships, which, with the weather how it is, will probably be the highlight of the weekend.

Holiday starts next Sunday, so I am hoping to get some stuff today, although, unless it’s for gadgets, I am the World’s most reluctant shopper!

On this day…

• ‘The Night of the Long Knives’ sees off Hitler’s opponents (1934)
• Gone with the Wind published (1936)
• The first ‘Pretty Little Red Corvette) rolls off the production line (1953)
• Virginia Wade becomes the last British Wimbledon Champion (1977)
• The first Harry Potter book is published (Philosopher’s Stone) (1997)
• Hong Kong is handed over from the UK to China (1997)
• Brazil wins it’s 5^th World Cup title (2002)

Hatches, matches, despatches…

• Mike Tyson born (1966)
• Ralph Schumacher born (1975)
• Viktor Patsayev, Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov die (1971)

Weather =

Mood meter = (only because it’s the weekend otherwise it would be because of the weather))

Tonight was our youngest daughter, Emma’s, prom. Now I can’t count, or really don’t want to know how much all this cost, dress, bag, shoes, hair, nails, limo, etc, etc, etc. Honestly, it doesn’t matter, she looked great!

The event started with drinks and snacks at a friend’s house where sixteen lads and lasses, ‘dressed to the nines’ mingled, giggled and smiled in about the only evening sun we’ve had in ages. The limos arrived and with passengers loaded it’s off to the Winchester City Guildhall for the main event. I am posting this before it’s finished, but it should do at 11:30pm, then its back in the limo for an hours parading around the streets of Winchester and Southampton. Hope they have a great night.

Not just ‘my’ ‘princess for a night’, one of my princesses for life!

Proud Dad!

The floods continue in the north and it looks like they are to get ‘dumped’ on again this weekend. There is little they can do while the water still rises, or even if it is still standing as there is nowhere to pump it to.

The weekend is here too, but that looks like it may just be another washout, I will need a machete to get in the garden shortly.

On this day…

• Richard Branson beats the transatlantic crossing record (1986)
• The Globe Theatre, London, burns to the ground (1613)
• The Seychelles becomes independent of the UK (1976)
• The Space Shuttle docks with the Soviet’s MIR space station for the first time (1995)
• Apple’s iPhone released. What a marketing coup that is…don’t forget your chinos and ponytail!

Hatches, matches, despatches…

• Nelson Eddy born (1901)
• Evelyn King born (1960)
• Lana Turner dies (1995)

Weather = (Must be the weekend)

Mood meter = Looking forward to the weekend , but not, if you see what I mean

I said this morning that I had fortunately missed our farcical hand over of power yesterday. Today however, Gordon Brown selected his new Cabinet Ministers.

Now, this is not a ‘dig’ at Scots per se, as I have a few good friends who I have regular banter with, but the data below surely shows how Gordon has this out of balance, with 18(ish)% of the Ministers from 8(ish)% of the population and overall MPs. By the way, out of the blue, Sean Woodward, remember him? (Conservative defector and ex-MP for Witney), becomes Northern Ireland Secretary, so there’s his pay-back!

Do the Scots not have their own Parliament as well? Where is the Northern Ireland representative? After all, they only have an assembly! Oh yes, forgot, you don’t have an MP there do you?

Actually, Tony Blair had 5 Scottish Ministers in a Cabinet of 23 (21.74%), but this time we have Scots running… The country (PM), Chancellor of the Exchequer, Defence and Development. Hardly ‘junior posts’. The balance would be halve the Scottish Ministers, (I vote Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling), increase the English by one and add someone, as near to labour thinking as possible from Northern Ireland. (Ian Paisley )

Also, we have a ‘Minister for Women’, we may always have done, but in my recent post on equality, where’s the Minister for Men? After all, he could organise, stag do’s, beer, footy, golf, trips to Amsterdam, etc. We must have equality after all!

It all happened yesterday in the political world and… I missed the lot! Hooray!

Got some really decent stuff done yesterday, discussing next year’s catalogue and product category strategies it was some really positive discussions.

We lost Martin Cranie, our 20 year-old centre back to our bitter south coast rivals, Portsmouth, so time to go from love to hate!

On this day…

• Queen Victoria’s coronation (1838)
• Ned Kelly captured (1880)
• World War I is triggered by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife (1914)
• The Treaty of Versailles is signed ending World War I (1919)
• The Irish Civil War begins (1922)

Hatches, matches, despatches…

• Henry VIII born (1491)
• John Wesley born (1703)
• Mel Brooks born (1923)
• Stanley Baker dies (1976)

Weather =

Mood meter = nearing the weekend and Holidays! (Well another week yet)

Now most are aware that England becomes the last part of the UK to go ’smoke-free’ from Sunday. ‘Smoke-Free’ is any public building or substantially enclosed building used by the public or public vehicles, including Company vehicles that are likely to be used by more than one person.

Definition: ‘Substantially Enclosed’ is a building with roof, where 50% or more of it’s sides are ‘walled’. This is why even things like cycle sheds may be no good as ’smoking shelters’.

Now, the landlord of a pub in Southampton (told you it all goes on down here), the Wellington Arms, has had a regular, who is the ‘cardinal’ of a small uninhabited island in the caribbean called Redonda, a dependency of Antigua, and they have declared the pub as their UK Embassy! This means as it is technically ‘foreign soil’ the ban does not apply.  Not only that, nor does VAT so the drinks will be 17.5% cheaper too!

Redonda’s ruler (disputed), King Robert the Bald, (Bob Williamson), a Canadian, who lives on Antigua, knighted the landlord and papers are being sent to the Queen to officially notify her of the new ‘Embassy’.

The Department of Health will only comment that “the law will not apply to premises with diplomatic status”.

We’ll see! (Cranky if you ask me) (Thanks to Steve Parker, Northern Tool BDM for this news)

Nothing on their web site yet!

This could be interesting with some readers from other parts of the World.

My opinion:

Generally I think he did a half decent job, mainly at home. The economy is pretty stable, the NHS is ‘probably’ no worse than it was when he got it (Sam), the minimum wage was a good thing and unemployment is definitely low. There have been too many stealth taxes and he became far to close to George W for comfort, but unfortunately for him, his lasting legacy will certainly be the quagmire that is Iraq!

How do you think he did? Poll…Comments?

[Poll=10]

The weather here remains ‘changeable’ but further north things are pretty bad with lots of evacuations and houses up to their first floor in water.

Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister (Don’t get me going and the next time you see him, how annoying is that funny little suck in of breath between sentences…watch him!)

All the computers are now deployed with little fuss at work and we can get on with some real work in finishing the annual budgeting.

On this day…

• The New York Stock Exchange crash (1893)
• Joshua Slocum completes the first solo circumnavigation of the globe (1898)
• The first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk (1954)
• The first ‘accepted’ ATM in the World is installed in Enfield, London (1967)
• Stonewall Riots begin in New York (1969)
• Muhammad Ali retires from boxing (1979)
• Route 66 ceases to be an ‘official’ highway (1985)

Hatches, matches, despatches…

• King Louis XII of France born (1462)
• King Charles IX of France born (1550)
• Tommy Cannon born (1938)
• Kevin Pietersen born (1980)
• Albert R Broccoli dies (1996)
• Jack Lemmon dies (2001)

Weather =

Mood meter = looking forward to some ‘proper’ work!