Monday, 17 December 2012

A year's end cornucopia of frivolity ....

Phobias...true or false?

Ornithophobia - fear of Birds
Verbophobia – Fear of words
Spectrophobia – Fear of mirrors and reflection
Pupaphobia - Fear of Puppets
Luposlipaphobia – The fear of being chased by wolves while 
wearing socks on a recently waxed floor.
Venustraphobia – The fear of beautiful women.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – The fear of long words.

Barophobia Fear of gravity
Pentheraphobia - Fear of Mother in Law





Riddle:
I have one, you have one.
If you remove the first letter, a bit remains.
If you remove the second, bit still remains.
After much trying, you might be able to remove the third one also, but it remains.
It dies hard!





Riddle:
This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.



Riddle: 
Three guests check into a hotel room. The clerk says the bill is $30, so each guest pays $10. Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be $25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn’t know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to just give each guest $1 and keep $2 for himself.
Now that each of the guests has been given $1 back, each has paid $9, bringing the total paid to $27. The bellhop has $2. If the guests originally handed over $30, what happened to the remaining $1?



Friday, 14 December 2012

A true Chanteuse ....

We have a celebrity in our midst...!

Those of you well versed in all things funbus will be fondly acquainted with our inspirational senior role model namely the esteemed A Jefford esq. Well he is blessed with having a celebrity wife who not only puts up with him and his quirky ways but also finds time to exercise her vocal prowess in the company of fellow songsters.

The Fleet Rock Choir ....of which the talented Mrs J is a leading Diva...is a mighty professional troupe of choralists who have excited and delighted at numerous 'gigs' around the northern hemisphere. Suffice to say that their fame has spread so far they were personally invited to perform for royalty at the Albert Hall for William and Kate

Something inside so strong... and Walking on Broken Glass were the performances of the evening as they brought the house down...

Check them out - they are seriously good.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rock-Choir/231809461993

Mrs J...the funbus applauds you and confirms your induction into the hallowed Funbus Hall of Fame and henceforth you can proudly proclaim you are indeed
.....a fellow funbuser!






Mrs J celebrates her
Albert Hall triumph
and being inducted
into the Hall of Fame
with fellow Funbusers

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

We are a Year old ...


The Bish and I have reached that point in life where if a year was a week then we have lived a year...'ll let you work that one out

Reflecting upon this at probably too much length I have a few thoughts to share ...they are my thoughts but someone else's words. No reason for sharing them except I think they are worth stating.

So here they are and as a challenge see if you can identify which kindred spirit articulated them.

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” 

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”

“May you live every day of your life.”

“Life is to be enjoyed, not endured”

“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music. 
And death a note unsaid.”

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”

“If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.”

In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away


Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.


Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's learning to dance in the rain.


There's no fun in a perfect life.
So make a risk
Take a chance
Go where the wind takes you
Have fun

..........and my personal favourite

There may be trouble ahead
But while there's music and moonlight 

and love and romance
Let's face the music and dance


So who said what??


Douglas Adams   
Stephen King
Jonathan Swift    
Gordon B Hinckley
Langston Hughes  
EE Cummings
Amy Tan
shing xiong
Dr. Seuss
 idk
?
Irving Berlin

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Mehr Leistung zum Ellbogen .....

Grüße meine Freunde ...
Not really sure why I am writing in German but it does liven things up a little - anyway I will leave it to you to make use of the google translating service.

As our tweeting Amigo let slip last week, tickets to see the famous foot tapping ensemble, curiously named Elbow were secured and with the beautiful one having to pull out with a last minute injury, the Bish stepped in and so reunited again we journeyed to that cultural oasis, colloquially referred to as Birmingham.

Elbow:
Not to be confused with ...

.....one of these


Hailing from Manchester they have been around for many a year - indeed their first EP was released June 15th 1998. 10 years later and they win the Mercury award with 'The Seldom Seen Kid' - triumphing over such illuminaries as Adele, Radiohead and Robert Plant who were on the shortlist.

Anyway - great set: ...note the new song at Number 5, its a goodie!

Intro
1.     High Ideals 
2.     The Bones of You 
3.     Grace Under Pressure 
4.     Mirrorball 
5.     Charge 
6.     Leaders of the Free World 
7.     Grounds for Divorce 
8.     The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver 
9.     The Night Will Always Win 
10.  Weather to Fly 
11.  Fugitive Motel 
12.  Puncture Repair 
13.  Lippy Kids 
14.  The Birds 
15.  Open Arms 
Encore:
16.  Starlings 
17.  One Day Like This 





Saturday, 17 November 2012

Sibling genius ...

Now and again there are moments when you are genuinely surprised and struck dumb in sheer admiration of an event, gesture, comment, item...it could be anything, but you know it when you see or feel it.

I have had quite a few moments like this - the male heir's film debut, the first born's fashion show and the beautiful one herself.

Smithington minimus my younger sibling has turned this ...




Into these beauties....



Truly genius!

Friday, 16 November 2012

Darting over the Severn ...

If there is one thing you cannot accuse the Bish of being is ..... is being idle.
The man has been cruising the virtual  bazaar, colloquially known as Bay of the E. His patience and perseverance has been richly rewarded. He has tracked down, haggled over and successfully purchased a selection of seats for the mighty bus for a very reasonable sum.

So it was over to yours truly to fire up the Smithington Jalopy and venture forth to collect these prized possessions. The first trip saw me cross the Thames at the Dartford crossing and venture into an area that quite frankly made me glad that the jolly old automobile had locks on its doors!

For the uninitiated the Dartford crossing consists of 2 tunnels each 1430m long taking you south to north and a bridge spanning 450 metres and rising to a height of 137m, for the return journey. The bridge opened in 1991 and the tunnels in 1963 and 1980 respectively. The reason for sharing this is .....beacuse I think its quite interesting.



Anyway, another trip was required to collect yet more furniture but this time heading due west. Traversing the original Severn Crossing, it occurred to me that  I seem to get all the fun jobs!

The crossing opened in 1966 and spans the rivers Wye and Severn. It is not one bridge but actually consists of 4 distinct units - the Aust viaduct, the Severn bridge, Beachley viaduct and the Wye bridge. Now I do find that a lovely bit of useless information.



Meandering up the Wye valley, the journey is one I have made several times before and I have to say we must get the funbus there as it is a delight with really good pubs en route particularly at Tintern. No problem securing the seats and happy to leave the doors unlocked ....West is best in my book.

This is what the fuss is all about and Bish is already getting excited at the thought of mastering the mechanical complexities of fitting them