The debonair Basil Marigold's

Beware the Ides of March, which is now. The 15th of March. The day that Gaius 'Julius Caesar' was assassinated by a group of Roman Senators. Typcially Roman motives of Greed and political Power dressed up in the desire for Liberty. Caesar dominated Rome up to his assassination following his victory in the Civil War. He had been appointed Dictator of Rome a few times, but had either resigned or had a set time period (Dictator in Rome was usually a position allowed for a set time, or until the emergency had passed). A month before his death, a subservient Senate filled with newly promoted Senators helped to refill the Senate after its gutting in the civil war, and friends or allies of Caesar, voted their master the office of Dictator for life. Caesar had become king in all but name. Indeed, he had refused the offer of King of Rome three times. For all their flaws, the Romans had a massive grudge, for good reasons, against Monarchy (Mainly the Etruscans, expelled in the 500b.c'

As always the BBC have found a unique, non-mainstream but inherently interesting little story or discussion, here  It centres on what people do, or do not do with their relatives ashes. The interest is that you, certianly I, presume that they all get collected afterwards by the relatives. This though does not appear to always be the case. The idea that you walk out of a crematorium, thinking to yourself; 'Well, I have my umbrella, the wallet is in my pcket, the children are behind me...so, what have I forgotten?' Seems a little strange! It also hadn't crossed my mind that those that do wish to be cremated, can at times not specify what they want doing with their ashes. I have discussed my options earlier in the blog's history. I believe a nice pencil set was my choice. One of the people interviewed say that they tend to get scattered in the garden of remembrance. This was the case with my grandad I seem to remember, but it is an interesting point. I don't think

After what seems like 6 months of darkness and dingy-ness, today, this very afternoon. The sun blazed high in the sky and what burst forth from this burning orange sphere was....Heat. A glorious, body warming heat that made you sweat when you walked and coated the landscape in a beautiful haze. A lovely day!

I can think of nothing, arguably more vile, than the new product unveiled by Kraft. I am hoping that the sole purpose of taking over Cadbury's was to be able to put cheese in the same tub as chocolate. I am hoping, but I think I may be sadly wrong on this count.  Only in America can a group of executives sit down and have the following conversation; 'I love Cheese' 'me too. But I also love Chocolate' 'Yes, me to' 'If only I could save time and have cheese with my chocolate and not have to open two separate packages!' 'Hang on! We have a massive research division. Let's do this....' And here you go. And somewhere in the North of England, in model making land. Wallace and Gromet, died.

But every time I  climb any form of steps, my actual body cracks in the groin area.

I have embarked on a new course, which I hope will help towards where I work now. It encompasses an area I am at times familiar with and know a little about. Other areas might as well be in a foreign language for me. But there in lies the challenge. It isn't anything to do with either the Romans or the Greeks, for the first time in my life. That may be the next course, perhaps! There are days when it can flow well and there are days when it is like pulling teeth. I especially enjoy sitting in front of a document and realising that I, in now way understand what I am being told, why I am being told it and what I will actually do with it once I have conquered the first two issues. I feel like an idiot. This is not easy for me, academically, at least. Not a situation I am often faced with, as has been previously mentioned I have been fairly well focused on Classics for the last 17years or so in one way or another.  Yet, for all this swimming in unfamiliar water the results of the f

One of the many reasons, I do not use Hotmail as my main account is that it is particularly prone to being hacked. My mate's was today so I received a couple of spam emails selling drugs and, working from home earning millions. Yet, one of his friends replied informing him he had been hacked and to change his password (Hence, passwords should be varied a bit, every now and again). I was copied in and I saw that he must have an old email address as I was tonytheaker@tiscali.co.uk. This was one of my very first email addresses! I felt a little tear of nostalgia form for that Tiscali account, which I had when I was using dial up internet and got kicked off every 2 hours.It must be over a decade old. 

There comes a time when you accept you've made a mistake and realise that you should have made that different decision a few years ago. Yes, it's time to talk mobile phones. Two years ago I chose the Blackberry Curve. It was a stalwart of the smartphone market, one of the big beasts. It is a good phone. I will always think that, but sadly over the last year it has failed on almost all the other fronts that make smartphones mini-computers.  At the time I was a councillor and the Blackberry email facility put it head and shoulders above the iphone for me. In fact, I will still argue that as a 'phone' the blackberry is probably still superior to the iphone. At least up to the '4'.  As a business tool it was great, phone was reliable, the email was instant, and the messenger was also a great communication tool when other colleagues had the blackberry too. Especially, it seems when you wish to organise a riot, etc.. But, times do change and it did seem to all st