Ni Ni Ni Ni Ni!!!!!!!!!

I was worrying about something unimportant the other day and suddenly thought - how stupid am I being??? I decided then and there to never ever worry about anything again. Even the worst thing I could possibly imagine happening has a positive side. Even terminal illness, pain and death has a good side - at least I will know what is on the other side of death and find out about the afterlife. Even if I lost my job and home and had to start all over again - it would be exciting, something new!!

So...................from now on I am going to be totally chilled about everything.

I will let the Knights who say Ni of the esteemed Python of Montingness have the last word on this:

Arthur: Who are you?

Knight of Ni: We are the Knights who say..... "Ni"!

Arthur: (horrified) No! Not the Knights who say "Ni"!

Knight of Ni: The same.

Other Knight of Ni: Who are we?

Knight of Ni: We are the keepers of the sacred words: Ni, Ping, and Nee-womm!

Other Knight of Ni: Nee-womm!

Arthur: (to Bedevere) Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale!

Knight of Ni: The knights who say "Ni" demand..... a sacrifice!

Arthur: Knights of Ni, we are but simple travelers who seek the enchanter who lives beyond these woods.

Knights of Ni: Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni!

Bedevere: No! Noooo! Aaaugh! No!

Knight of Ni: We shall say "Ni" to you... if you do not appease us.

Who remembers Castle Sauberac?

It is eleventh century England. Deep in the heart of the countryside, bumbling magician Catweazle finds himself cornered by Norman Soldiers. Relying on the unsure powers of his magic, he leaps into a lake to escape his pursuers. However he flees further than he had hoped travelling nine hundred years through time into the twentieth century. In unfamiliar surroundings Catweazle is soon discovered by Carrot, a young boy who lives at a local farm, and through him, Catweazle discovers that things have changed beyond his imagination.

The first episode of Catweazle was shown on 15th February 1970, more than 6 years before I was born. The series was conceived and written by Richard Carpenter, and ran for two seasons starring Geoffrey Bayldon as the irrepressible Catweazle. As a child in the 1980s I was given the books and was entranced by the story of the wizard and his antics. Recently I watched the television series on DVD and was struck by how much better childrens programmes were then than they are now.

At around 12 years old I loved the BBC childrens comedy series Maid Marian and Her Merry Men written by Tony Robinson (aka Baldrick in Blackadder). I still have a tired old video tape on which I recorded all the episodes and I still watch it now .

Robin Hood is an ineffectual wimp, whereas the formidable idealist Marian is the true leader of the resistance against the evil monarch King John. Marian terrorises the forest-dwelling peasants into following her commands as she plots to rob from the rich to feed the poor. But, courageous and capable though she is, her plans rarely turn out as she envisages, being derailed either by her naive idealism or the sheer incompetence of the mentally challenged nincompoops who comprise her Merry Men, including Rabies, Barrington (a Rastafarian) and the appropriately diminutive Little Ron.

Another brilliant kids TV series, The Ghosts of Motley Hall, also written by Richard Carpenter, was shown in 1976 (the year I was born). I have never seen the series but absolutely loved reading the book - I am going to oreder the DVD as I am sure I will love it as much as an adult as I did as a child.

Motley Hall was for sale! And, as the local residents were saying, a good thing too, for it had been looking more derelict every year as it lay empty, gathering layers of dust and ivy and cobwebs, while the owner, the last of the big Uproar family, travelled abroad on his own. Now he was dead (knelt on by an elephant, people said!), and the house would be sold. It didn't matter much, for there was no one left to care - or no one that ordinary people knew about. What they didn't know was that there was a thriving community of GHOSTS at Motley Hall, all of whom were taking a very lively interest in its fate. Motley was much more than a home to them; it was more a rather comfortable prison, because they could never leave it even if they wanted to, so it would be bad luck if it fell into the wrong sort of hands, or worse still, if the house were to be demolished. Then they wouldn't stand the ghost of a chance.
The future looked frightful, but the ghosts of Motley Hall - Bodkin the clown, Sir Francis the gambler, irascible Sir George the Victorian general, Matt the stableboy, and the mysterious White Lady - were determined to defend Motley against all comers. And what they lacked in physical force could be made up by powers of a supernatural kind.

The fantastic Harry Potter series covers the book/film genre but there is definitly a gap in the market for a good childrens TV series.....maybe one day I will get some inspiration to write one....

Possibly the Cutest Animal Ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The slender loris is about the size of a chipmunk, with long, pencil thin arms and legs. It is between 15-25 cm long and is found in the rainforests of Southern India and Sri Lanka.

I just want to take it home and cuddle it!!!!!!

Romantic Love

Tristan & Isolt

Night, and vast caverns of rock and of iron: Voices like water, and voices like wind:
Horror, and tempests of hail that environ
Shapes and the shadows of two who have sinned.
Wan on the whirlwind, in loathing uplifting
Faces that loved once, forever they go,
Tristram and Isolt, the lovers, go drifting,
The simmer and laughter of Hell below.

by Madison Cawein

The Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde is one of the great romantic stories of the Middle Ages. The picture above by John William Waterhouse is a beautiful depiction of the lovers.

Love can be defined in many different ways, such as the love of a mother for her child, the love found in close friendship and the love which grows after years of marriage. The type of love most often written about in both literature and films is romantic love.

When individuals base their marriages and relationships on romantic love they are likely to fail because this type of feeling is based completely on illusion.

The dictionary defentition of the adjective romantic can be summarised as follows:
1.
pertaining to, or of the nature of romance; characteristic or suggestive of the world of romance: a romantic adventure.
2.
fanciful; impractical; unrealistic: romantic ideas.
3.
imbued with or dominated by idealism, a desire for adventure, chivalry, etc.
4.
characterized by a preoccupation with love or by the idealizing of love or one's beloved.
5.
displaying or expressing love or strong affection.
6.
ardent; passionate; fervent.

Tristan, orphaned nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, goes to Ireland to be cured of a battle wound by Isolde. Mark falls in love with Tristan’s reports of Isolde, and sends Tristan back to Ireland to ask her to marry him on his behalf. Isolde accepts the offer of marriage from King Mark. On the return journey from Ireland to Cornwall, Tristan and Isolde inadvertently drink a love potion intended for Mark and Isolde. There is a great conflict between the way Tristan and Islode feel about each other and the allegiance which both lovers owe to King Mark. Isolde marries Mark but continues her affair with Tristan. Tristan and Isolde are sent into exile as a punishment. Later King Mark forgives them and Tristan makes an unconsummated marriage to another Isolde, Isolde of the White Hands.

Ultimately, Tristan is again wounded by a poisonous weapon. Only the Irish Isolde can heal him. He sends for her, arranging as a sign that the sail of the ship sent for her should be white if she agrees to come to him, and black otherwise. Isolde comes and a white sail heralds her arrival, but Isolde of the White Hands, motivated by jealousy, tells Tristan that the sail is black. He dies of despair. Isolde arrives and kills herself.

Tristan, King Mark, and Isolde all hold love for each other. Tristan honours, respects, and loves King Mark as his mentor and adopted father; Isolde is grateful that Mark is kind to her, which he is certainly not obliged to be; and Mark loves Tristan as his son, and Isolde as a wife. It is the romantic love, the unreal dream which Tristan and Isolde have for each other which leads to their ultimate downfall.