Halo Stickman

The thing is though Bletch, that bully you duffed up might have been a guilty pleasure for some of us, and may only have been saying the sort of things that many of us were thinking but were too polite, too shy, too scared or too idle or to say ourselves. Not talking about myself of course – like you, I’m a nice chap who doesn’t like bullies. Vote Toke.

I first set foot in Scotland many years ago when walking the Pennine Way with my mate. We crossed the border somewhere over the Cheviots, and I was quite surprised that it was denoted by just a simple wire fence – back then I was unaware that borders are often represented by no more than a line on a map, and that sometimes this line is subject to change. We took the obligatory crossing-the-border photos, observed that Scottish mud clung to our boots just the same as English mud, and carried on our way. It was the first time I’d set foot on ‘foreign’ soil, so it was probably the first time that I’d thought about my own sense of national identity. I remember pondering on the following: When did ‘ordinary’ people – not kings, queens, tsars, kaisers, emperors etc, but just ‘ordinary’ people – first gain a sense of their own national identity. Which one of my peasant ancestors first looked down and said: “I’m so glad I’m breaking my back digging My Nation’s earth”, or looked up and said: “I’m so glad I’m being p1ssed upon by rain falling from My Nation’s heaven, or woke up saying: “I’m so glad to shed blood or lay down my life for My Nation’s landscape / people / culture / customs / whatever? In fact, when was the first time one of my peasant ancestors even realised there was such a thing as My Nation beyond his local market place? I still don’t know the answer to these questions; however, I’ve read recently that, during the last couple of centuries, American settlers from different parts of the world, although able to name their former village, town or region, often struggled to name their former nation – so perhaps this sense of national identity is a relatively recent thing. Anyway, what interests me nowadays is how this sense of national identity – seemingly so important to so many of us – is going to pan out in future. Is it going to get stronger or weaker? Are nations going to break up into ever smaller entities, perhaps even returning to something like medieval times when real power tended to be vested more in confederations of cities than in nations? Are national divides going to be determined more by religion, ethnicity, cultural values etc than by geography? Or are individual nations going to be consumed by the creation of homologous supernations? Punch-ups in Scotland, conflict in Ukraine, indiscriminate bombing in Gaza and Israel, merciless slaughter in Syria and Iraq – one thing seems fairly certain: erstwhile dreamers’ utopian vision of One World One Nation still seems some way off.

Oh Bletch, you little temptress – you know how win over the voters; well, this particular voter anyway.

Ah cheers, that makes sense – I didn’t know about Alsop’s recent good form.

I like Tahir – I especially like his crazy celebrations, although in light of recent events perhaps he should drop the badge-thumping. I’m not privy to the reasons behind his selection ahead of Briggs, but from a distance I agree it does seem a little unfair on Danny. By the way, I was expecting Terry to be drafted in as Carbs’s replacement – is Terry injured?

Subterfuge and doublespeak, eh Agent Bletch? I see you’re still practising the dark arts acquired during your WWII Bletchley Park days, when, unlike your more esteemed colleagues who did more than most to win the war by good honest code-breaking and number crunching, you single-handedly set about boring the enemy – not to mention your own side – into submission with a baffling bombardment of word bubbles, word clouds, word associations, word non-associations, words hilarious, words non-hilarious, word limericks, word zeitgeists, word anagrams, word puzzles, word searches … zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Now, let’s examine the WWII record of the other candidate: Tokyo-Saint. Erm … This contest is too close to call.

I’ve been too busy protesting to actually watch any games – have we been relegated yet?

Back in 1980 I was drinking with a couple of mates in a pub in Fort William when a young woman suggested that we should leave before the local lads turned up, assuring us that we would be attacked simply for being English. We thought she was joking, but half an hour later when a dozen drunken Scotsmen turned up we found to our cost that she wasn’t. Unless they’ve mellowed over the last 30 odd years, I suspect those particular fellas will be voting ‘yes’ this week.

Exciting and tense – hopefully not too tense – week ahead!

Don’t worry Bletch, I think I may have solved this mystery. http://arbroath.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/japanese-dress-hire-firm-find-demand.html

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D' you know what Bletch, Gosport Gladys charged me ten quid extra when I asked her to clean my spectacles. I do wish she’d get her ears done – my testicles were so sore afterwards, I couldn’t sit down for a week. Still, I suppose it was my fault, I should have gone to Specssavers.

Bletch 'cleans his sunglasses' whilst Rainbow Jane fetches her hairdryer.

He pops up on mumsnet occasionally

Actually Jeff, I’d always dismissed Menorca because I’d mistakenly thought it would be full of tacky and overly commercialised holiday developments. However, a couple of years ago I started a thread asking for beach-holiday recommendations and Buctootim posted a photo of a beautiful deserted sandy Menorcan beach backed by pine forests. This prompted me to look at Menorca with fresh eyes, and eventually led to Mrs Stickman and myself booking into a fabulous adults-only hotel on the south-eastern coast of the island. Sure enough, a short stroll from our hotel and there were beaches exactly as portrayed in Tim’s photo – except, even better, these ones had quite a few semi-naked and completely naked women on them (oh, and some naked blokes for Mrs Stickman to ogle at as well). The snorkelling was pretty good too. Sorry to digress from the subject matter of this thread – i.e. cities – so as a slight nod in that direction, the two largest towns – Mahon and Ciutadella – are both worth a visit imo. Hope you have a good holiday.

Cheers,Tim. As someone who has already benefited from one of your previous holiday recommendations (Menorca), I might well investigate that further.

I previously mentioned Stockholm, but I would also agree with others that on a lazy sunny afternoon Florence with its beautiful architecture set against the Tuscan hills is a stunning place to stroll or sit with a few beers watching the world go by. Also, for iconic buildings, places, venues etc, all within a relatively short distance of each other, London is hard to beat.

Being only 5’ 5’’ myself, I have to make the most of limited opportunities to take the p1ss!

Look out, pap, I think KRG might be a traffic warden.

Agree. Beautiful city, stunning archipelago. Only downside I found – drinks etc can be expensive.

… no matter what offers supermarkets do, or do not, put on their beer, they’re still cheaper than most rapidly-disappearing UK pubs.

Yes, he did. And after that he did the same to some poor dutch chap as well. The swine.

Cock a doodle doo, but the cock at Tesco’s don’t.