This has made my day!
Forward! Concertgoers put yobs to flight as band plays Great Escape
Steven Morris, Friday July 7, 2006 The Guardian
A group of drunken youths thought they had picked an easy target when they decided to disrupt a brass band's open-air concert watched by a crowd of pensioners. But they thought again when the band struck up the theme from The Great Escape and - as one - a "Dad's Army" of around 20 war veterans rose from their deckchairs and advanced towards the mob, prompting them to turn on their heels and flee.
Les Brown, 78, a former RAF pilot who served in Egypt during the second world war, said: "We got so fed up with these little toerags, some of us decided to stop them. The Great Escape music came on and I looked round and caught glimpses of other people obviously thinking the same as me. We stood up and kissed our wives and marched towards them. It felt like I was back in the war, coming up against a fierce foe.
"But we were a determined lot. We might be old, but these youngsters didn't stand a chance in hell. I've never seen a group of young men look so scared as when we started advancing."
The showdown flared in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on Sunday, as the yobs - aged between 18 and 25 - spilled out of pubs after the World Cup.
They descended on Grove Park, carrying crates of beer and began playing football close to the bandstand where the Redland Wind Band was entertaining around 300 people. It continued to play - until a ball was launched at the conductor, who halted the performance.
The band provided a suitably stirring tune as the pensioners, some with sticks, others on Zimmer frames, advanced on the 30-odd youngsters shouting: "Forward!" and "Away with you!" To the surprise of some, they obeyed.
John Horler, 60, who runs the cafe in the park, said: "Suddenly, about 20 of us, mostly aged 60 or 70, got up from our chairs and advanced. It was amazing - totally spontaneous - and the kids could see we meant business. It was like a scene out of Dad's Army. Maybe it was the Dunkirk spirit that spurred us all on."
Marvellous stuff!
Friday, July 07, 2006
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Running
I am currently working on a piece about running & writing, how I feel the two counteract and complement one a another, how they're both hard as hell to get started at but better than almost anything else once you're in the flow.
In the meantime I recommend that you check out this excellent post, which replicates my thoughts on running almost exactly:
Hello, It's Me.: Running vs. Cycling
"I like running because it is simple and, on a good day, can free me like nothing else. Running is just about me and the machine that is my body. Although I have managed to spend a lot of money on running-related gear over the years, the only thing that is really necessary is a good pair of shoes. Well, and a good sports bra. But that's really it. [.....]
I guess I must have a bit of masochist in me too because I also really like the aspect of running that forces me to summon up from deep within the vast amounts of sheer will that are required to keep my body going even as my mind does everything in its power to convince me that I can't. It's like a battle within myself and some days it's hard to predict the outcome. But every finish feels like a victory - whether it's a race or a tough hill workout or a recovery run with Otis.
Hell, just lacing up my shoes feels like an accomplishment some days. And I'll take it. I also respect running because it's tough. And there's no cheating or in-between. You can't coast or glide to recover - you're either running or you're not. And the difference between the two is all up to me. I like that. Even though sometimes I hate it."
And this is another great post from the same blogger, again about running.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Honorary degrees for media names. This infuriates me, it really does. Even as a twenty-one year old graduee, sitting in the convocation hall in July, hungover and dangerously over-heating in that stupid cloak & mortar board, I remember feeling a sense of complete coutrage when they wheeled some journalist I'd never heard of onto the stage, waxed lyrical about him for twenty minutes then accorded him the exact same honours as those of us who had worked for our degrees. These days I am even more irate about it: I am currently working full-time (9-5- monday to friday) and STUDYING FOR MY SECONG DEGREE IN THE EVENINGS AND AT WEEKENDS. Add to that the other stuff which is either essential (supermarket shopping, cooking, cleaning, eating, showering, paying bills, etc etc) and the self-indulgent luxury stuff (running, writing, socialising once in a blue moon, sleeping) and I am generally to be found in such a state of exhaustion that I could cry. Silly me ~ instead I should be poncing around in a wanky car a la Clarkson & wait for a degree to fall into my lap.
"Celebrating the award with [Billy Connolly] in 2001 was his wife Pamela Stephenson, who five years earlier had completed six years' study for a PhD in clinical psychology at the California Graduate Institute. In the light of Connolly's honorary degree, one really wonders why she bothered." Indeed.
In the meantime I recommend that you check out this excellent post, which replicates my thoughts on running almost exactly:
Hello, It's Me.: Running vs. Cycling
"I like running because it is simple and, on a good day, can free me like nothing else. Running is just about me and the machine that is my body. Although I have managed to spend a lot of money on running-related gear over the years, the only thing that is really necessary is a good pair of shoes. Well, and a good sports bra. But that's really it. [.....]
I guess I must have a bit of masochist in me too because I also really like the aspect of running that forces me to summon up from deep within the vast amounts of sheer will that are required to keep my body going even as my mind does everything in its power to convince me that I can't. It's like a battle within myself and some days it's hard to predict the outcome. But every finish feels like a victory - whether it's a race or a tough hill workout or a recovery run with Otis.
Hell, just lacing up my shoes feels like an accomplishment some days. And I'll take it. I also respect running because it's tough. And there's no cheating or in-between. You can't coast or glide to recover - you're either running or you're not. And the difference between the two is all up to me. I like that. Even though sometimes I hate it."
And this is another great post from the same blogger, again about running.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Honorary degrees for media names. This infuriates me, it really does. Even as a twenty-one year old graduee, sitting in the convocation hall in July, hungover and dangerously over-heating in that stupid cloak & mortar board, I remember feeling a sense of complete coutrage when they wheeled some journalist I'd never heard of onto the stage, waxed lyrical about him for twenty minutes then accorded him the exact same honours as those of us who had worked for our degrees. These days I am even more irate about it: I am currently working full-time (9-5- monday to friday) and STUDYING FOR MY SECONG DEGREE IN THE EVENINGS AND AT WEEKENDS. Add to that the other stuff which is either essential (supermarket shopping, cooking, cleaning, eating, showering, paying bills, etc etc) and the self-indulgent luxury stuff (running, writing, socialising once in a blue moon, sleeping) and I am generally to be found in such a state of exhaustion that I could cry. Silly me ~ instead I should be poncing around in a wanky car a la Clarkson & wait for a degree to fall into my lap.
"Celebrating the award with [Billy Connolly] in 2001 was his wife Pamela Stephenson, who five years earlier had completed six years' study for a PhD in clinical psychology at the California Graduate Institute. In the light of Connolly's honorary degree, one really wonders why she bothered." Indeed.
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