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Routirort

This pic is taken on our travels to a wondrous part of the world.

The only clue you get as to where is that predictive text called it "Routirort"!

I entered the Flythomascook Photography Competition:

Anonymosity

I've recently been reading the internet, in case you've missed it there's been some good stuff on it.

One of my favourite parts is the comment sections where people with no knowledge of anything will comment on a subject with a degree of confidence that eludes some of the most intelligent people on the planet.

Another interesting point is that some of these commentators will post anonymously, as though putting a name to their inanities may make it less meaningful. What encourages people to take ten minutes from their busy schedule and then comment that what they have read was pointless and they don't want to read anything like it again is beyond my simple mind.

I realise I very rarely post anything serious or of note to encourage comments, save for my occasional reminiscences of bygone Pizza Express pizzas so I am saved this particular internet oddity.

I do know some people who are the most mild mannered individuals you could ever meet yet put them in front of a computer screen and they argue with anyone about anything in the most vociferous (if you can be vociferous without speaking) manner.

So that's the internet for you, it's largely words and pictures in various forms and people with opinions about stuff that they mostly know nothing about, politics, relationships, medicine, history, religion, education, humour and fish.

Going Bo-Bos - Rhyming slang

So an old British expression said to kids around bedtime is "going bobos" for going to sleep, now various sources around the internet seem to offer some strange origins of this expression. I have no firm knowledge or confirmation from any source but believe it to be from Cockney rhyming slang.

Bo Peep is rhyming slang for sleep, so "Bo Bos" derives from that, if you can't get to Bo Bos, try counting some sheep, it might help Little Bo Peep to know how many there are.

Here is Little Bo Peep, followed by her nursery rhyme

Little Bo peep has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they'll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.
Little Bo peep fell fast asleep
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were all still fleeting.
Then up she took her little crook
Determined for to find them.
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they left their tails behind them.
It happened one day, as Bo peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side
All hung on a tree to dry.
She heaved a sigh, and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks went rambling,
And tried what she could,
As a shepherdess should,
To tack again each to its lambkin.

Me Old China

Step right this way for another bit of Cockney rhyming slang.

If you've ever seen your actual bona fide East End market stall (not the ones in Eastenders that sell fruit, flowers, CDs and occasionally clothes when they remember to stock it and who's running it) you may have seen a stall with a bit of crockery and a nice chap at the back stamping "China" on the bottom of them, as he sells you a genuine authentic piece of replica Wedgewood and hands it to you in a carrier bag that probably won't make it all the way home and you'll have to go back and get another one, he may say

"There you go me old china"

He isn't actually referring to the China but he is using a piece of Cockney rhyming slang for the word "mate", yes, China = China plate = mate.

Here is a piece of China with a couple of very close Chinas on

This very important entry was brought to you with the letter C and the number 7.

Cockney rhyming slang - tea strainers

A recent point of interest on BBC Radio 2's Ken Bruce Show has been about Cockney rhyming slang for shoes being "tea drinkers", despite the more valiant attempt of listeners to get a meaning from this, my genetically Cockney mind said that the person who said this has their rhyming slang in a tangle.

Tea strainers is indeed Cockney rhyming slang, so here's a pair

If you do choose to buy a pair of tea strainers and you are being served by a Cockney you are likely to get a pair of trainers and not a pair of tea strainers. As interchangeable objects you may be on tricky ground, whilst it may be possible to make a cup of tea in a pair of Reeboks, I'd definitely struggle getting my size 10s in a tea strainer.

Peter Sellers' A Hard Day's Night

Beatles' producer George Martin had been producing comedy albums for EMI prior to working with The Beatles. He had worked with Peter Sellers and subsequently Sellers recorded a number of comedy versions of Beatles records, including his Shakespearean rendition of A Hard Day's Night, it was much better than my own attempt at soliloquising Eleanor Rigby 45 years later of which there are no recordings.

Cockney Rhyming Slang - On your tod

Being on one's tod is to be alone, this derives from Cockney rhyming slang.

James Forman Sloan was known by the name Tod, born in 1874 he was a world famous horse racing jockey with great successes on both sides of the Atlantic.

Born in the USA his successes there led to his demand in England where he rode horses for the then Prince of Wales and had victories in the 1000 and 2000 guineas, the Gold Cup and the St. Leger, the only major race to elude him was the Derby.

Such was his success in the UK that George M. Cohan wrote a musical about him, Sloan being immortalized as the character Little Johnny Jones who was the "Yankee Doodle Boy" of the famous song.


In 1915 Sloan wrote an autobiography "Tod Sloan By Himself", whether the title of the book came before or after the rhyming slang is not clear, although if it was after I'd have called the book "Tod Sloan, on his tod".

and Here's Mickey Rooney singing Yankee Doodle Boy

The Wombles

My knowledge of The Wombles is limited to the TV series of the 1970s and the songs of Mike Batt, I may have read the original novels written by Elizabeth Beresford, but the voice of Bernard Cribbins and the catchy tunes are more vivid in my memory than the books. I even went to see them live in concert in Wimbledon AND I had an Orinoco suit.

According to her page on Wikipedia Beresford grew up surrounded by some of the greatest writers of all time, who were friends of her parents (also writers), HG Wells, DH Lawrence, Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw are amongst those listed.

The TV series were narrated and all the characters voiced by Bernard Cribbins, there were 60 5 minute episodes made, the narration style, with Cribbins telling the stories and being the characters seems quite primitive in times of CGI, yet it gives some truth to The Wombles ability to create things from what they find, a slick cartoon effect would not feel right for The Wombles, the stop go animation is perfect. The later 1990s series had countless voice artists and writers and may not have had the feel of the original, but the characters proved popular and a further 52 episodes were made.

Mike Batt's music for the show has remained popular to this day with albums still being released and even an appearance at Glastonbury. The songs were big sellers on release in the 70s, with several top 40 hits. Sadly Mike Batt rarely works with the Wombles these days preferring to count the bicycles in Beijing.

Elizabeth Beresford and Great Uncle Bulgaria

 So here is a bit of Wombles, wishing you a Wombling Merry Christmas and an episode following.

Friendly policeman on duty in Poundworld

So Christmas is a busy time of the year for cardboard cut out policemen.

Hopefully I'm not giving any security issues away.

Given that he is a cardboard cutout, I wondered why he couldn't look a little more sinister, or even why he needed to be a policeman, they could have had a cyberman, Darth Vader, Phil Mitchell, Anne Widdecombe or Dr. Price, my old French teacher, he used to terrify me.