Yes, it will be launched tomorrow and will have a twist which will inspire you all to enter! There will however, be competition rules this time as some of you blatantly tried to ingratiate yourselves with the panel of judges with all manner of bribes! Stroppy comments will not work and the judges decision will be final.

The last Olaya party has taken place tonight; in fact it's still going on! By next Wednesday the last few couples have to be off the compound. You've seen those western films where the tumble weed gets blown down the street, well that's Olaya at the moment. Many memories, happy times and hard for anyone else in the world to understand.
Edward said to me not long ago, "it's your page, put on it what you like."
So thank you:
Derek and Gerry
Rose and Dan Dan
Jackie and Mike
Joan and Barny
Ivy and John
Liz and Ian
And all of the people that have left over these last few years who meant such a lot to us.

I LOVE my new page design and now it's perfect. Ed has made the size of the font bigger so that I can read what I've written and the Stats are back on.
I really like to see where people are from who visit the page and 'Wonderful Son Ed' and I get quite competitive. This was the conversation we had last night:
"Oh, Ed I just love my new page and you've put the stats back on. Have you seen I've got Sweden and Mexico now!"
"That's nothing I've had Peru and Sweden came via Steph's page."
"Oh, oh...well I gave you both the US Military and the US Government and you didn't get the US Navy!"
"Bah, I've had ALL of the US armed forces...!"
"Well I gave you both Saudi Arabia...so there."
"Mother...."
"And I did have New Zealand but it keeps dropping off!"

I believe this little competition will continue.....or when I get Alaska, maybe tomorrow if any of you have connections.

Well the move is definitely on its way and I'm exhausted already. This will be the fifth place that I've lived in since arriving in Saudi Arabia six years ago; just get me a camel and a tent and call me a Bedouin. So I thought I would serialise my desert wanderings over the next few Blogs (Laurence has nothing on me!) So here we have:-
The Al Dorra Suites/ compact bijoux des res. Location, opposite the Rashid Mall/ Dhahran.
This was a miniscule, one bedroom apartment in a five story block. All of the other residents were male, either American or British.
I have very vivid memories of one occasion whilst in the shower with body and hair covered in soapy bubbles, two choruses still to go of 'Singing in the Rain', (..Dooby.. do... do.., dooby... dooby do.. do.. do...) and the school bus to catch in forty five minutes, when the water stopped! Oh, bottom! I slip-slopped to the telephone in the buff and called the front desk only to be told..."no water in the apartments for 24 hours!"
I was a spluttering, slippery, soapy specimen, suddenly going to be very late for school. To solve the problem I had to use the outside shower by the swimming pool. So down I go in the lift wrapped in my towel, clutching my conditioner, loofah and 'rubber ducky', smiling sweetly to, what seemed like every man in the apartment building on their way to work, gliding gracefully (it's my account!) through the main reception area and on out to the pool.
Of course the journey back to the apartment had to be done in reverse but I was confident by this time, that all of the guys had gone off to work. Oh, how foolish. I was just sauntering back through the main reception area, still in the towel but now a very clean person, when through the glass doors those fellas who had been on the night shift, were returning. Those cheeky chappies were so kind, they offered to hold my towel and scrub my back; now that's what I call gentlemen!

I read a very interesting article in the Gulf News on Friday and it was a ' Lynne Scates Light bulb Moment'. ...Pause for effect whilst you play with the switch. I feel a quotation will shed even more light on the issue that I wish to write about:

"What's happened," says social worker Alice Cohen, "is that this child has missed out on the ability to tune into his own feelings or to recognise that other people have feelings."

Why is this so profound or more to the point, you may wonder, what is it about? The article dealt with the 'B' word....bullying! Now I hadn't given this much thought apart from dealing with the children's complaints of he/she hit me, called me names etc. However, I suddenly realised that it isn't just a child related problem. Does the bully ever mature and leave these behavioural traits behind? 'Once a bully, always a bully' is a sweeping generalisation. However, I believe that bullying tactics occur in all walks of life and indeed, at all stages of life. The main difference in adults is our ability to deal with the bully. Who can honestly say that they have not suffered from the sharp tongue of the work-place bully?
My biggest concern is the alarming trend at the moment, of the 'cyber bully' who has an audience of tens of thousands. Some websites, particularly aimed at adolescents, seem to encourage name-calling, mean-spirited gossip. I am not against freedom of speech but surely this is cruel and insidious?
I'm not an expert, forgive me for stating the obvious, but surely with recent world events and concerns about the future, we have abundant fodder for stress and unhappiness in our lives already. And do we have any rights if we are the subject of cyber bullying? Apparently not!

"While comments on the site may be cruel or unpleasant, a posting about a person being 'ugly' is not solid ground for legal action."
Mark Goodman, executive director for the Student Press Law Centre.

What do you think?

I arrived back on Olaya Compound at 2.00am this morning after an exhausting 2 day journey. I am still most impressed with Dubai and our very short one night stay was the hilight of the journey. Emirates put us up at Le Meridien again and even paid for our lunch. We went into one of it's restaurant and trawled our way through the best buffet I have EVER seen. I just had to take a photograph! The good news is that this is the last photograph from my vacation and as from tomorrow I will once again give my Blog some serious thought.



I have been inundated with requests to begin a new caption competition and this will be on my page next week; I promise no donkeys, chickens or camels!

Wonderful son Ed has redesigned my page and it's looking good. Look for the rather unique feature at the top right hand side.
The Shout out has disappeared but I'm sure it will all be working again soon.
Well that day has arrived which I come to dread a little bit more every time; going back to Saudi. It's very hard to pack everything up, put the car in bond and then make that journey back. The hardest part is packing up our home and having to leave it.



We received a call whilst here telling us that for security reasons we have to move as soon as we get back. So before my feet touch the ground I will be busy packing up and having a look at what will be, another temporary home. I will share the details as the move unfolds.
So rather down today and a bit weepy.
I will be Blogging again Sunday night so visit me then and I'll let you know what's going on.
Now if my Passport disappeared.............................

I have always loved gardening or to be more precise plants and gardens. Our garden here is finally starting to look very beautiful but we do still have a third of the land to see to. When in Saudi I read the books on Mediterranean gardening to help me visualise what is happening here in Cyprus.
Unfortunately there are many plants that we do not get to see at their best because we are not here at specific times in the gardening year. Five years ago two Strelitzia reginae plants were lovingly placed in the borders of our garden. I'm sure you have seen them in florest shops or greenhouses. They have curious spiky yellow and orange crests that look like birds of paradise. They are the official flower of Los Angeles and I first saw them on a family holiday to Madeira many years ago.
Now, five years later after planting, I have to say they are the only plants that seem to struggle here in the garden. Phil thinks that maybe the altitude is affecting their growth but I have another theory. You see every Spring, just a few days prior to us going back to Saudi, these sad looking little plants send up what looks like the promise of a flower. Every day I go out to see if they have opened and come into bloom and every day I am disappointed. I don't think that it is a spiteful plant but maybe just shy because when we come back in the summer the dead, brown remnants of the flower are here.
We have been here at Hadj (early March) and as now mid-April, and still the tight bud appears and then we have to leave. See what I mean?



This is how it looks when we are not here, I think.



Pelargoniums are very prolific here and seem to continue to flower throughout the year. They cascade over all of the natural stone walls and have never disappointed us.

When we come here to Cyprus it means we are coming to our home; it could be anywhere in the world. So basically we are not on holiday. When we arrive we have to catch up on all of the jobs that normally people do throughout the year. You all know about the bathroom and the latest is that the accessories arrived and were fitted today.
So many people are here on holiday and we take pleasure and pride when we see them enjoying the Cyprus hospitality and the island's beautiful scenery.
I know that people from the UK come here for the weather as well and unfortunately they will have been disappointed over the last week; Coptic gales and storms of biblical proportions!
However, today has been really lovely and so everyone has been to the beach and some have even braved the waves and swum in the sea; well actually they were Germans!
Most of the Brits have kicked balls about, got sunburnt and complained that "it's not as good as Spain" and "isn't that Michelle Collins over there?"
So after the para-gliding, the doughnut and banana ride I took this photograph. Wish you were here.

(Worth waiting for?)
On the way back from Latchi we headed over the mountains towards Pegia and guess what? Yes, the donkey sanctuary. I have photographs UP THE YIN YANG!

Meet Dolores the Donkey: (only the best have names!)

quote from George Herbert (Dredged up from the mists of time but appropriate I think. Intellect will always win.)
Today the little green car headed north to Latchi and one of our favourite places on the Akamas . Lunch at Yiangos and Peters was, as always exquisite. The fish mezza is excellent and always far too much for us to eat. In fact I brought the red snapper back to feed the feral cats that visit the garden late at night.
We were here last summer and Former President Clerides sat on his private yatch in the harbour. It is quaint and so far unspoilt. If you holiday in Paphos hire a car and head to Latchi, you will not be disappointed.
Proof of the pudding...?







This last photograph is of the fisherman cleaning the freshly caught squid which we subsequently ate! Now that's fresh.

I Must Be So Naive...!
I have reached the Autumn of my life and been encouraged by close family and friends to continue writing this Web journal when I have doubted whether this was the right thing to do. It has brought me immense pleasure and helped me through times which have been unpleasant to say the least. However, today I received an email which I can only say was scathing and so totally unfair in what was said.
I replied to this vindictive little missive and questioned what right this person had to attack my life in this way and ask why they should judge me. Edward suggested that I should just put the email on to my page and ask the world to judge! I was about to do just that when I received an email by way of reply. It would seem that the person who wrote the initial correspondence hadn't even got the guts to use their own name. The real Jamie is only 8 years old and doesn't have a clue what's going on and neither his parents nor I can comprehend why someone should use his address.
All that I want to say is:
Happy Easter Jamie who is 8 years old. This is the only Easter photograph I have; taken at lunch today ( the alcohol is for your parents)
Please read my page again or go on the link TPS Top Kids, this is written by the children I teach.



And to the other Jamie Maloney........................email me again!

Where is.....?
All of you out there who are powered by Blogger will have no doubt clicked on to 'Where is Raed?' This has intrigued me as it is someone living and Blogging in Baghdad. Unfortunately, he hasn't written anything for some time and one wonders whether he has come through all of that bombing? So as Lynne Scates isn't in the Middle East at the moment I am setting up a new site called 'Where is Lynne?'
Any clues from the Photograph?

We've Been To Chris and Tina's for Lunch!
Our good friends Chris and Tina live just off Zelamenos and we have known them for about 3 years now. Whenever we arrive in Cyprus it isn't long before either they, or us, get in touch and then when we meet up it's as though no time has elapsed at all. The conversation is fun and the laughter spontaneous. The weather today was wet and cold and poor Chris ended up trying to barbeque with black clouds rolling in from the sea; we shouted friendly encouragement from the balcony whilst quaffing more Keos and Gordons. When Edward was here a few years ago they invited us all for drinks and lunch, so the photographs should be of particular interest to him.







Thank you for a lovely lunch!

As Snug As A......
Andros arrived after 10.00 this morning and the loo is now in the bathroom and the gorgeous sink has finally been installed; photies when I've 'styled' the room!
The hall is now back to normal and I thought I would share another of the Scates' interests with you. As we live for most of the year in the Middle East, we have been able to purchase some lovely antique rugs that now adorn our villa here in Cyprus. Today we have been able to unpack the hall carpet now that it has been freed from bathroom paraphenalia. This rug is a Kazak and over 150 years old, hence its uneven edges. Qazax (Kazakh, Kazak, Kasak, Gazakh). The most used spelling today is Qazax but rug people use Kazak so I generally do as well.
When I speak of Kazak rugs I am referring to rugs from the old Kazak Khanate. Qazax is a city of about twenty thousand people in Northwest Azerbaijan at 41.10°N, 45.35°East. In the Caucasus people live in valleys, mountain peaks are the dividers. Kazak was an important city because it controlled a series of valleys that extend from modern Azerbaijan into Armenia and Georgia. The people of this region are Azeri Turks, Armenians, Albanians, and Northern Caucasian. There are also Greeks, Russians, and Georgians, in the area but they do not appear to have made a significant number of rugs.
Most people would put this rug on the wall because of it's value.(The Hali magazine will give indications of prices but be prepared to be amazed!) Phil and I believe if it's lasted this long then it will last another 150 years in our hall.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink!
We bought the villa some 5 years ago and paid extra to have a shower installed in the ensuite. Initially it looked good but after a very short time the door was swinging and hanging more precariously than a strippers tassel. After begging, shouting, sobbing at the builders they have still not seen to the problem and so at Christmas time we ordered a beautiful Italian jobby bathroom suite which was delivered the day we arrived here. It has lived for this time in the hall and we have had to negotiate the loo everytime we have come in or out of the front door.
However, I am delighted to say that Andros the plumber has arrived this afternoon and after a lot of tutting (in Cypriot it's different, the arms do the talking!) he has begun! Now all of you married girls out there will know that when you hear men say, "nothing to it, it's a days work!" you are in for trouble.I just peeked into the bathroom and was faced with a plumbers bottom and Phil inspecting, what I can only assume, is the hole where the loo goes. So all of you sympathetic readers out there, please light a candle to St Jude (the Saint for hopeless cases) and abandon your Blog to give positive vibes for our Bog! (I am stressed so no criticism, please.)

This is Gino and he plays at the Kamares Club House on Sunday lunchtime. He still plays Tie a Yellow Ribbon but we lurv him. In fact watch this space, could this be my next Karaoke venue?

Tsada
After a lovely girly morning indulging myself in a little retail therapy, we went up to Tsada Golf Club for lunch. The food is fairly basic but the views towards Mount Olympus are magnificent. On the way back I spotted what I have been looking for, for 3 days, yes the donkey and with old Cypriot lady, dressed in black, leading it along the road. What a photo opportunity and one not to be missed. Unfortunately little old Cypriot lady would have none of this and after what I am sure was a load of Cypriot abuse, ran up the road faster than I could follow. Anyone would think that I was the paparazzi the way she ran. So all that I got was a blurred picture of a donkeys bottom!
Two pretty photographs today:
A view of our swimming pool.



I have decided to give up on the donkeys and go back to my If All Else Fails Theory



Put a chicken on your page!

I didn't find any donkeys but was delighted to see these beautiful wild flowers. Taken just at the top of the road Jill.

Food For Thought
There is a little restaurant that we love to go to that is popular with the Cypriots too. The tables have plastic covers and the seats are orange but as with everything it's 'location, location'! It is situated right on the beach at Coral Bay and is called Arapis. Some years ago we discovered this place and by chance a dish called Special Prawn Soup. This is what we eat whenever we go there, never varying our choice. When Edward comes to stay he does not appear to be as enamoured with this dish as we are in fact intimating that it probably comes out of a can!
Another of our favourite places to eat is the Kamares Club House for Sunday buffet. Now the octopus is something else; don't turn your nose up until you have tried it! So in true Ready Steady Cook style; here is something to tickle your taste buds with:



So that's it for today, I'm off to find a few donkeys, as promised.

The Cypriot Art of Patience.
It was my turn to go down town today whilst Phil waited in for the Satellite TV people. Now in Saudi Arabia when you are surrounded by stressed out people you put your thumb and first two fingers together and say inshallah. It basically means in Gods good time or patience! Well this was brought to mind today as I attempted to quickly complete several transactions.
First stop was the bank which was empty. Good sign you might think, but not in Cyprus. Out pops the Manager when he spotted me through the office window. After handshakes, enquiries about our journey, "where is Pheeelip?" and the obligatory coffee, I was able eventually to go about my business almost 45 minutes later.
Next stop was Vasmicha, the bathroom people. "Come in my friend where is Pheeelip?" So seated at the counter I go through yet another cup of coffee and answer all of the usual questions.
Further up the Polis Road I stop at the supermarket and flower shop to get the flowers that Phil was supposed to get the day before. 'Bring me flowers for the house' was some how translated into 6 boxes of bedding plants; don't ask! "Hello, where is Pheeelip has he planted flowers yet?" After I had been brought up to speed about the twin daughters in Athens at university and the son away in the army and the terrible weather in March, I eventually made my way back to Kamares and home.
And what about Pheeelip you may be wondering? Well he is in "Clickers Paradise" surfing his way through 258 channels; I only wanted Prime!

Eat Your Heart out Barbara Cartland!
As I have written in ‘Blogs – Gone – By’, I love to read. So Dubai Duty Free was paradise to my eyes; row upon row of beautiful new books.
I have had to read all sorts of books in my studies over the years, from Shakespeare, Flaubert, Joyce, Stendal, Salinger but to name a few. So you will not be surprised to know that I have chosen to read a good Irish, turn paging romp for my first pool-side read this holiday.
You know the sort I mean, not exactly literature, but full of romance and ‘panting’! The women are divided into sluts, who ‘pant’ with ill-concealed lust over distracted male heroes who are just trying to get on and save the world, or virgins, who ‘pant’ with restrained longing as the same heroes skilfully seduce them. Only the men actually do anything. The women either get killed (the sluts) or hitched to the men (the virgins). Lots of ‘panting’ and very little of anything else!
My morning therefore, has been spent reading, a rare treat! Lunch was taken at the Kamares Club Restaurant, our table over-looking the Med., the garden and our villa on the hill. We ate loads of octopus and salmon en croute; delicious.
Now Phil and I are reclining on loungers by the pool and I am writing this on the lap-top. Well that’s it for today. I must get back to my Irish romp, to be sure, to be sure, swat a few irritating mosquitoes, sip my cold drink and wish you were all here enjoying the craic!
Tomorrow I intend to begin my Everything Cyprus page. I shall commence with a step-by-step guide to Cypriot dancing. Please have several old plates at hand, two white hankies and the telephone number of a good physiotherapist. Uppa!

I Have Arrived!
After an exhausting two days of travelling we arrived late yesterday afternoon. Now I realise that I promised lots of lovely photographs and all the way through the journey and indeed today I have captured some wonderful Kodak moments! Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the lead for the camera and so we have had to order one from Nicosia!
After the first leg of the journey, from Tabuk down to Riyadh, we travelled with Emirates to Dubai; excellent in every respect. They even put us up at Le Meridien for free!
The flight with Emirates the next day to Larnaca was equally as good and the champagne kept flowing for a full four hours. However, I have to report that there was a noticeable lack of cashew nuts and the tableware was Royal Doulton and not as I expected, Wedgwood.
Many of my friends and acquaintances have already been to Dubai but this was my first time. I can only say how very impressed I was with everything that I saw and have put it on my list of places to revisit at a more leisurely pace.
So I will sign off, go and have that G & T and tomorrow will attempt to connect the webcam so that you can see whats around here.

"Oh no, not the holiday photographs again!"
Tomorrow we are off to Riyadh and then on to Dubai for an over- night stop. We travel to Cyprus on Friday and so I hope to be back on-line by Saturday at the latest.
Well if my stats are any indication of the interest shown in my page I need a BIG injection of dynamic entries. So in response I will chronicle my stay in Kamares and places of interest that we visit. Please, there is no need to yawn. There will be plenty of pretty pictures, no camels and lots of donkeys.
So don't forget I'll be back by Saturday.
And 'Lizbeth I've not forgotten to keep a look-out!

Up, Up and Away........
Now only two days and then we begin our journey to Cyprus....AND of course the ONLY way to travel is ...First Class.
"Madam, may I get you something to drink? Juice or maybe designer water?" Well I'm sure you don't need me to tell you what my reply is...but for those who don't know me:
"I want champagne now and I want lots of it and I want those cute little cashew nuts in the Wedgwood bowl and I want the hot towel and I want the free slippers and the toothbrush and the Evien face spray and the mask for the eyes and those fluffy slipper socks and the neat bag to put it all in and then its time again for more champagne and those cute little cashew nuts and...................JUST PAMPER ME!"

Eye've had to go to Hospital!
Well I mentioned my sore eye some Blogs ago and even though I've been to the company Doc, it hasn't responded to any treatment. So tonight I have finally given in and been to see (with one eye) a specialist. I dreaded it. I had a particularly bad experience in Dhahran when I had to have my eyes checked. He came at me with, what looked like, a matchstick. His idea was to curl my top lid right back with this stick! Well I just couldn't handle it, freaked and refused, what I considered to be, an archaic way of examining my little peepers. So you can appreciate that I was just a 'tad' afraid prior to my appointment. Well I can report that the matchstick has long since gone in Tabuk; here we have something that the Marquis de Sade would have envied. My head was thrust, not too gently, by a nurse into a vice and the torture began. She kept pushing my head against the iron frame and he began the lights in the eyes to weaken my resistance. It was fine up to the point where, yet again, he attempted to curl back that lid!! Am I unusual? Please, in the interests of medical science, try it! Surely if God had intended the lid to be hinged back 180 degrees he would have designed it better, maybe with a Velcro fastening.
After much tutting and then subjecting me further to a page of hideous photographs of all manner of gory eye problems, I was pronounced to be suffering from an eye cyst.
Please, I know I am being flippant and he really was terrific. They all do a very good job.
Thought you might like to see my card just so that you know my report was official.

That Sort of Day!
When you've had a really, really bad day, there's only one thing that hits the spot:

This makes me smile every time I visit this page

We've been doing adds, takes and 'guz-in-to's'
I love to teach mathematics even though it isn't my main subject! Today has been fractions and percentages; we seem to be getting there. Isn't it strange though that some adults are still getting to grips with the most fundamental principles? My favourite is:
"I'm going to split this into two halves!"
These two were taken from actual letters to a housing association in the UK:

"Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces."

".....50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and the
rest are plain filthy."
And this one has nothing to do with maths but made me smile:

"Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny colour
and not fit to drink."

Camel Caption Competition:
I am most impressed with the entries for the best camel caption. Most of you however, have relied upon references to the obvious humps! Mizz Stephanie is ahead, at the moment and would be the outright winner if she had mentioned Toyota pick-ups. Final judging will take place next week. (I have a feeling Jill will win...she is the only one able to pick up the prize of.............one free camel ride along the harbour front at Paphos!) Multiple entries allowed.

One More Time!
So have you found out where Tabuk is on the map? Yes, south of Jordan and south west of Iraq. I am therefore, more than a little miffed that to get out of here next weekend we have to go south to Riyadh, east to Dubai and then north west to Larnica. It will take us 2 days to get to our country of domicile aka Cyprus which is north west of here. However, a stop-over in Dubai and all of that Duty Free can't be all that bad. You see a few airlines are refusing to fly into Kingdom and Jordan, our normal point of exit and re-entry, is now out of bounds.
Now you would think that this is bad enough, but believe me this is nothing, compared to all of the border crossings we have to go through. Once when coming back into Saudi they stripped the wagon down to its axle. They took out all of the lights, the carpets, the panels, xrayed the seats, bounced the spare wheel, stripped the engine...all this before getting to the luggage; we were there for 3 hours! Going through the Jordanian border is not any quicker but far more pleasant. "Welcome to Jordan, Liney Skattees!" (It always creases me!) However, Jordan is a poor country (rich in beautiful scenery and lovely people) but tries at every opportunity, to make money at the border.
On one such occasion Phil was making the crossing on his own, I have more vacation time and so had gone a week before him. We had visited Fantastic World prior to this and bought a beautiful pot for our villa in Cyprus. As Phil is a roughty, toughty bloke he gets to bring all of the heavy luggage and hence the big pot. He had decided to get Four Winds to come and pack the pot (the professionals in Tabuk....they have a box and newspaper).
At the border the box caused a lot of interest:
"What izz in box?"
"It's a pot."
"Take out pot." Phil took out the pot and placed it on the ground in all of its beautiful splendour.
"It iz gold!"
Phil tried to explain that if it had been gold he would hardly be able to lift it out of the wagon. However, they were adamant that they wanted 1,200 JD's (almost equivalent pound for pound sterling) As it had only cost us about 70 pounds he told them to hang on to it until we returned. The fight went out of them and so our pot arrived in our home. I'm sure you want to know what the fuss was about and here it is in situ:

I dread coming back through the Saudi border; my Marks and Spencers knickers always create a storm!
Remind me to tell you about the time my gorgeous silk knickers flew over the Bahrain Bridge, now that is a story!

I have just spent 30 minutes writing my journal entry and there was yet another problem! Lost yet another witty, scintillating entry.....

Announcing the start of ........."The Caption Competition"
Just what are these 2 camels saying?
(Taken 68 kms north of Duba on the Red Sea)

'Sorry, We Hit You By Mistake'
by
Khaled Al Husseini
I quote:
'We in the Kingdom (Saudi Arabia) hope the incident involving allied rockets which landed in our desert was a mistake - as was said by those who sent them....
...This second possibility - that it wasn't a mistake - means those who fired the missiles wanted to deliver a message which was, "We are here and you shouldn't forget it."'
No comment!

A Fowl Moment!
The whole experience of keeping a Web journal has provided me with a novel way of expressing, what I consider to be, my instinctive talents and abilities (said with tongue in cheek). You see I have a curiosity which can be considered global, a wide-eyed approach to everything and my greatest pleasure in life is to laugh and to make others smile too. I am able to actively pursue courses and platforms for exchanging ideas and knowledge by visiting other Weblogs and openly inviting others to visit mine. So it is with horror, shame, embarrassment (call it what you like) that I relate the following:
Some weeks ago I visited Professor Eric Muller's site, "Is That Legal". The page exudes intellect and wit and I thoroughly enjoy reading what he has to say. After reading a very amusing account of a Tudor Fayre that he had recently visited, I felt compelled to respond and show my appreciation with a comment. But horror of all horrors, when checking my stats an hour or so later I find he has reciprocated by visiting my site.
So Professor Eric, I throw myself at the mercy of the court and would like to invoke article 23 of "Sods Law" (Tudor in origin, I'm sure) that states.........
..."When all else fails......put a chicken on your page!"
I rest my case.

What has happened to Blogger?