20140720 – Road trips; This Is The Place; Jupiter bowl; Heber Creeper

 

Sunday – hot and sunny. But thunder and rain at teatime despite forecast to the contrary. Can’t trust them dam weather diviners here either.

 

Marching band early morning practise session.

Marching band early morning practise session.

A lazy day to recover from the frenetic week we’ve had living the dream. Have a bike ride into town to pick up some bread from the supermarket and that’s about the highlight of the day. Manage to shelter from the short burst of torrential rain. It seems that the weathermen over here are as bad as in the UK. Can’t even predict 15 minutes in advance.

We are not alone. It looks like we’re not the only country to treat their coffin dodgers like vermin or a bunch of inconvenient, incontinent droolers who need to be maltreated and shut up in a 6′ by 3′ hell hole to speed up the arrival of the grim reaper to save them from a living hell.

The US Navy intercepted a boatload of people off the Texas coast today.

This placed the Navy in an awkward position, as the boat was not heading to the USA, but towards Mexico and Central America.

In the good  old days when teachers were respected and had the ultimate sanction - a good hiding.

In the good old days when teachers were respected and had the ultimate sanction – a good hiding.

Another surprise finding was the people were white American retirement age seniors. Their claim was that they were trying to get to Central America or Southern Mexico as they wanted to return to the US as illegal immigrants. Then they would be entitled to far more benefits than they were receiving as legitimate American retirees.

It is believed the Navy gave them food, water and fuel and assisted them on their journey.

We are booking on the next boat out. Let me know if you want to join.

 

Monday – hot and sunny.

 

Rope making.

Rope making.

Up and out for a stroll around to Hertz to pick up a car. Yes, we’re playing at being American this week, driving a gas guzzler, in the vain hope that the NRA will call off the hit man from last weeks 2nd Amendment rant!

09:00 and the sun is out; there’s a lovely breeze; people are biking, walking, running, smiling and saying hello; even the steam roller driver has a smile and a greeting; there’s the start of a rounders (baseball) game; a marching band is practising in the car park; the American flag is proudly flying and no one is kicking off about it. Chione is up there in FSM heaven making snow ready for winter. All is well with the World.

Where have we gone so wrong as a country?

 

Pick Carol and Angela up and we’re off down to “This Is The Place” park. Allegedly it’s the place where in 1847 the Mormons arrived after there long trek and escape from persecution in the East – not from muslims I might add. This geezer with a beard, Brigham Young, well I assume he had a beard they always seem to, stuck his stick / staff / rod in the ground and said “This is the place”. The rest is just history, they settled, it became known as Salt Lake city and a state called Utah.

Their religion may be a tad weird, aren’t they all, but they certainly landed on their feet. Now we have Park City, a proper little Sodom and Gommorah in the midst of a religious enclave.

Anyway back to “This Is The Place” it’s a theme village based around the Mormons in the 1850’s. Characters in costume; old buildings; chance to re-

Native American (Red Indians for the rest of us) dancing.

Native American (Red Indians for the rest of us) dancing.

enact life back then, including washing and ironing; school house and lesson; craft shops; rope makers; carpenters; blacksmiths; train rides; pony rides; and of course the obligatory merchandising opportunity in a gift shop. Although to be fair, unlike Disney, you can exit the place without passing through, but you do have to buy tickets there. On the plus side once inside the park it’s all free. On the downside you can’t get a coffee or anything else not approved by the Book of Mormon or the angel Macaroni.

Interesting how yet another religion is obsessed with head covering for women, in bonnets in this case, and separation of boys from girls in school.

A good day out. Angela get’s appointed Sheriff and is on the trail of the baddies at every opportunity.

On the way home stop off for afternoon tea and coffee – no Mormon stricture here – in a pleasant canyon restaurant.

Monday evening free cultural overdose with a Beethoven string quartet.

Monday evening free cultural overdose with a Beethoven string quartet.

Monday evening a Beethoven festival in city park – free. Deli string quartet playing. I go for a real cultural overdose while Wendy enjoys herself at the supermarket. Someone has to absorb all this free culture, even if I am a luddite.

A pleasant end to another lovely day.

Jokes don’t kill people.

Muslims who are offended by jokes kill people.

 

Tuesday – hot and sunny.

 

Up and out to drive over Guardsmen Pass. Never get a chance in winter as it’s always closed, so quite looking forward to it.

Stop off and go for a walk up to Jupiter Peak. Probably the only time we’ll get up here as it’s serious expert terrain. All double black diamonds.

Top of Jupiter bowl

Top of Jupiter bowl

Just to look down them from the top can stain underwear. How anyone can ski these amazes me. It’s only a short walk, about 3 miles, but takes nearly 2 hours as we’re scrambling up and down loose scree. I’d rather go uphill on that stuff anytime, downhill is an absolute nightmare, makes you feel like a doddering 90 year old. Definitely a two walking pole hike.

Then drive over the pass and down into Big Cottonwood Canyon to have a look at Brighton and Solitude in summer. Well Solitude is aptly named in winter, but in summer it’s worse than a Christian monastery before the ISIS arrive.

Call in the Outlets centre to try and get some hi-tech boxer shorts. No chance they’re obsessed with tight, figure hugging, ball crushing, posing pouches. What ever happened to loose fitting boxer shorts that can let your dangly bits get some fresh air.

Top of Jupiter lift.

Top of Jupiter lift.

What is it with the Japanese visitors. If they’re not wandering around with surgical masks on, they’re in long coats when it’s 95F in the shade. Bizarre.

With a lot of research, the UK immigration officers have come up with the most foolproof plan ever to ensure that the immigrants to the country are culturally, economically and educationally compatible. It ensures greater harmony, seamless integration and lasting peace in the country.

It’s called “the bacon sandwich test”.

 

The taxman has been censured for “unacceptably poor” management after an IT project with an initial cost of £4.1 billion (nothings ever priced in millions these days) spiralled out of control to cost the taxpayer more than £10 billion. What’s more the contractors were due to take £0.5 billion profit and have so far taken £1.2 billion. Are these politicians stupid? Well we all know the answer to that. To top it all it’s not due to go live until 2017 so there’s plenty of scope for more cost overruns. How can they be allowed to take a profit when they over spent. Whatever happened to
Wending our way to the top of Jupiter bowl. In winter they do this with ski boots and skis on their back.

Wending our way to the top of Jupiter bowl. In winter they do this with ski boots and skis on their back.

fixed price contracts, a sure way to focus the minds and control costs.

These mandarins and buffoons can’t even manage to get a simple web page right, mind you no one else can, so there’s no chance on such a mammoth project. Every day I really do despair of the software industry as I suffer their incompetence – leading the pack of incompetents is BBC iPlayer, a shinning example of all that’s bad about this industry. I defy anyone to show me a web page that I can’t find at least one bug on.

Meanwhile I await the 2017 headlines “Tax System in total disarray as new software goes live. Yet another government software balls up with a fourfold overrun in costs.” Oh yea of little faith.

Panorama from top of Jupiter.

Panorama from top of Jupiter.


 

Wednesday – hot and sunny.

 

Pick Angela up and take her with us on a trip aboard the Heber Valley railway down to Provo.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154432136950249&set=a.10152397913775249.954731.621375248&type=1

Now we know why it’s called the Heber Creeper. It goes slower than an arthritic snail. But it’s a change.

Day out on the Heber Creeper to Provo.

Day out on the Heber Creeper to Provo.

Wendy’s sick, literally, by the time we get to the park at Provo. It seems the antibiotics she’s taking have this bloody awful side affect. Sad really because the main reason for going on the train was because she enjoys train rides.

In the evening I drive up to Deer Valley to catch the free concert. One of the advantages of having a car. Great butties to eat at the concert, but alas no wine. One of the disadvantages of having a car. Wendy has a rest after her exertions shouting for Huey and Ruth.

 

Thursday – hot and sunny.

 
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154431740900249&set=a.10152397913775249.954731.621375248&type=1

Despite still being a tad off colour Wendy goes to the hospital to do her Florence stint.

https://www.facebook.com/tony.w.edwards/posts/10154433489130249

I certainly think I need to stop doing the “mad dogs and Englishmen” act by going for mountain bike rides in the midday sun. The heat just drains you.

Wot no concerts tonight! Unbelievable, so it’s a night in with Dexter and that excellent bottle of Merlot. Only down side is that wine makes me nod off through Dexter. Now on season 7, only 1 season left.

This is a speech that allegedly Vladimir Putin made to the Duma:

“In Russia, live like Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, it should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Sharia Law, and live the life of Muslim’s then we advise them to go to those places where that’s the state law.

“Russia does not need Muslim minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit

Stunning views from the Heber Creeper train ride.

Stunning views from the Heber Creeper train ride.

their desires, no matter how loud they yell ‘discrimination’. We will not tolerate disrespect of our Russian culture. We better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland and France, if we are to survive as a nation. The Muslims are taking over those countries and they will not take over Russia. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of Sharia Law and Muslims.

“When this honorable legislative body thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind the Russian national interest first, observing that the Muslims Minorities Are Not Russians.”

Sadly it’s a hoax. He never said such things. But, isn’t it about time that our Prime Minister was saying these things. Just look at the evil perpetrated by ISIS in the name of this pernicious, so called religion. Look at their treatment of Christians and other religious minorities, not forgetting atheists and followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Wake up and smell the coffee before it’s too late and is happening here – well Blackburn.

This is what it takes to cancel a Comcast service. Something we have to do in the next few days.

They have a reputation for the worst customer service in America. I can assure you that it’s a well deserved reputation. Think BT are bad? This Company makes BT look like the Ritz of customer service. I could write a book on just my experience of getting Internet connected. My bloods starting to simmer at the mere thought of having to disconnect.

They’re absolutely fine as long as you don’t have to interact with their employees in the call centre or stores!

Fly fishing.

Fly fishing.

The British Islamic Association has said there is no longer room for extremists within their mosques.

Although a waiting list has been set up.

 

Friday – hot and sunny, yet again.

 

We’re both due on volunteer duty as mountain hosts, but Wendy’s still too ill to go so she stays at home and rests.

It’s another hot gruelling day. Don’t know what it is today but no one seems to be listening today. Everything has to be repeated several times and then they still do the wrong thing. Perhaps it’s the heat distorting the sound waves or the sweat dripping into their ears. The great American public at large.

Day goes pretty quickly and it’s not too busy, despite yesterday being pioneer day.

In the evening it’s the Electric Light Orchestra concert over at Deer Valley but Wendy’s still off colour (what weird expression that is) so we give it a miss.

Is this just not clear evidence of why anyone should not be allowed to drive around with a black bin liner on their head with a small slit in.

POLICE are appealing for information after a five-year-old boy was hit by a car in Blackburn.

The boy suffered a broken leg and was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital after the collision at around 8pm on Wednesday in Whitewell Place.

Angela swinging away. A good way to get a blister!

Angela swinging away. A good way to get a blister!

The car involved, which was described as silver and driven by an Asian woman wearing a burkha, failed to stop and police are appealing for witnesses and information.

How can you be expected to see in such a garb. Just tunnel vision to match their attitude to tolerance and integration. Perhaps this is why the Saudis ban women from driving after all.

Ban it. You know it makes sense.

Solitude resort. Aptly named not a sole in sight.

Solitude resort. Aptly named not a sole in sight.

Back to American boxer shorts. I finally decided to truly “gird my loins”, American fashion with some hi-tech, wicking, sports, boxer shorts. I feel like Rudolf Nureyev in blue spandex – actually there is spandex in them. If this is what your average young American stud is wearing, then no wonder so many are in therapy.

Boxers are supposed to be loose fitting, not like compression wear to stop me getting a DVT in me bits. Must have been designed by a women, no escape for or place to drain the snake, probably spoil the lines, nothing worse than seeing a “boxer line” under my fashion shorts. Perhaps the wicking’s meant to wick away urine, so no need for an escape hatch for the one eyed bed python – I don’t think I’ll be trying that theory.

Thank the FSM that I’m not in Blackburn. I imagine it must be impossible to sleep with the caterwauling, cacophony, screaming and wailing coming from the minarets around the town as the so called “moderate Muslims” protest at these atrocities done in the name of their so called religion.

Islamist militants have ordered all women and girls in the Iraqi city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation as they impose their brutal interpretation of Sharia, the United Nations said yesterday.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the al-Qaeda splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis), was said to have issued a fatwa as “a gift to the people” ordering all females aged 11 to 46 to submit to forced circumcision.

ISIS, a bunch of 7th century Islamic fundamentalist rag heads, have announced an Islamic state, or caliphate, across territory it controls in Iraq and Syria, with al-Baghdadi declared the leader of all Muslims. Iraq and Syria today, tomorrow the world.

Two weeks ago a young man was crucified after being caught eating during Ramadan. Christians were ordered to convert to Islam, pay a special tax or leave the city. Isis warned that there would be “nothing for them but the sword”, if they refused.

Wake up, have a swig of your favourite tipple before it’s too late and we’re all dhimmis, with our women gliding around like orgasm free, zombie daleks, in black bin liners with no peripheral vision and half there genitals missing, and the men licking the floor 5 times a day, wearing lice infested beards, at least those who haven’t been crucified.

I was delivering a lecture on Philosophy at the University.

“By the year 2100, religion will disappear from the civilised world,” I said to the students.

A Muslim bloke stood up.

“But professor, currently Islam is spreading and will increase even more by then,” he said.

“Abdul,” I said, “I was talking about the civilised world.”

 

Saturday – hot and sunny.

 

Colourful bird pinching our food. Alas it has no name tag so we're struggling to identify it. Could it be yet another new species.

Colourful bird pinching our food. Alas it has no name tag so we’re struggling to identify it. Could it be yet another new species.

Yet another gruelling hot day on the mountain volunteering. Wendy’s still feeling crook so she stays at home. In the afternoon she goes to see the local sawbones as it’s getting worse. It seems the antibiotics may well have cured the original UTI but the side effects are worse.

Interesting that the modern thinking seems to be to have shorter course of antibiotics. 3 days rather than 7. Cut them short before side affects kick in. Even argue that going the whole 7 days increases resistance. A complete turnaround to what we’ve always been told.

I can’t believe how important sunglasses are up here. 6,500 feet up, clear mountain air, the sun is so bright. But that’s totally eclipsed by the brightness of American teeth and the American smile. What is it with this obsession with dulux brilliant white teeth emitting 8,000 lumens of radiant energy and searing the eyeballs of anyone without sunglasses on. To top it all they seem to have their lips surgically held back to ensure the maximum exposure of teeth, even when not smiling. It’s almost like some right of passage like genital mutilation in the muslim world.

Then you get the youngsters, complete with braces, on their teeth that is, to achieve this perfection. In preparation for this dental perfection it seems that instead of braces being discrete, lets make them bright and colourful. Lets start dazzling people at an early age.

Of course us Brits are considered to have manky teeth, a by product of antediluvian dental industry and our just deserts for tolerating such a communist plot as our National Health Service.

Wow. Just seen 3 golfers walking. Have I been teleported to a different country. How un-American. Good job Mcarthy’s no longer around.

Solitude resort.

Solitude resort.


More lunacy from the crackpots in the EU:

Cancer researchers have warned that EU plans for a sweeping new privacy law could make future breakthroughs against the disease impossible.

Doctors, cancer charities, patients and MPs united yesterday in pressing Brussels to rethink its proposals, which threaten to strangle new drugs and discoveries with red tape, according to oncologists across Europe.

Esmo, the body that represents European cancer doctors, said the plans to force researchers to seek permission every time they wanted to use patient data would frustrate doctors and cancer sufferers alike.

This not only makes my blood boil but the marrow in my bones melt. It’s bad enough we suffer the daily crap from the EU. About time we had our own 1776 moment, with a modern day Jefferson & Adams rising to the occasion. Defeating this taxation without representation from the self serving bureaucrats of the EU, a life form even lower than your average politician.

Just consider if the Western governments decided to put their shoulder to the wheel and invest they could cure this awful disease. We need a modern day Kennedy to commit to this task, just as back in the 60’s they had the foresight and lofty aspirations to get to the moon.

Ah but we can’t afford it goes the cry? Well there’s a foreign aid budget that’s wasted on 3rd World countries that despise our democracies and seek our overthrow; that have space and weapons programmes; that support terrorism and piracy; that are corrupt and line the pockets of their rulers.

Let’s put ALL of that money to good use and beat this terrible disease.

Asda has made all of its Muslim employees redundant as their religion prevents them from selling alcohol or pork products.

“We would have loved to have transferred them to roles that would be acceptable to their religious beliefs” said a spokesman, “but unfortunately we don’t have a guns and explosives section.”

I’m not sure who invented the halal meat-slicer but I bet Abu Hamza had a hand in it!

I’m all for sport on TV, such as the Commonwealth Games, even though I don’t watch it. But can someone at the BBC, whose wages I pay, please explain to me why it is necessary to have it on BBC1 and BBC3 at prime viewing time. It seems like the stupidity of their IT department is spreading like a deadly ebola contagion throughout the BBC.

You know I think if they left BBC1 programming alone, just put the sport on BBC3, even the sports fans would be able to figure out where it was.

If Muslims stopped killing other Muslims because they belong to a different sect; stopped forcing their chosen practices on other Muslims; tolerated less pious Muslims; did not feel enraged if other Muslims did not abstain from alcohol or pork, or did not attend the mosque; did not kill men, women and children because they adhered to other faiths; did not blame rape on the length of a woman’s skirt; did not murder their own wives because they spoke to strangers, or their daughters because they flirted with boys or because they were raped by rascals; did not wish to start the World War III because some maverick cartoonist drew blasphemous caricatures; did not issue death fatwas because an author wrote a blasphemous book; or did not aim to spread their religion to the entire world, by the sword if necessary, then they could be tolerated in a civilised society.
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