This evening was the meeting of Wrexhamian Chapter (Holy Royal Arch).

It was a special evening because my father was installed into the First Principals Chair. Due to joining Masonry after my Father I never got to see him be installed into the Chair of Kind Solomon, I joined Rose Croix after he had been Enthroned into the chair there. So although I saw him Installed as Joshua, and Haggai this was the first time I got to sit in a meeting and see him become the master. He then Installed me into the Second Principals chair.

It was a very enjoyable evening and everyone seemed to have a great time. Now for a fun year with my father in charge.

So #TeamOwens are now 2/3 of the chairs.

An Evening at Westminster Lodge: Honoring Tradition and Friendship

This evening, I had the pleasure of visiting Westminster Lodge in the Province of Cheshire.

For nearly two decades, I have been frequenting Westminster Lodge sporadically; my first visit dates back to their December white table event, 20 years ago this December. A close friend of mine, whom I worked with at the time, joined Westminster Lodge a year before I became a member of Llannerch Lodge. Both of us joined and climbed the ranks together. We took turns visiting each other’s Lodges, and eventually, we assumed the positions of our respective Lodges’ chairs a year apart. Ten years later, we once again took on the chairs of our new Lodges, having both moved to new Lodges.

When Pete informed me that he was visiting his mother Lodge on the 20th anniversary of his initiation, and that they were performing an initiation demonstration with him acting as the candidate, I knew I had to attend. Since he joined before me, he witnessed my initiation, but I had missed his. This anniversary provided a perfect opportunity to finally experience it, albeit two decades later.

A couple of weeks before the meeting, I received the sad news that Pete’s father had passed to the Grand Lodge above. Given that Westminster was John’s Lodge, they planned a small memorial for him during their next meeting, coinciding with Pete’s anniversary. This occasion provided two significant reasons to attend.

So, I gathered my father, who had met John several times, and another member of Wrexhamian Lodge to visit. Despite my efforts to rally more attendees, Hugh succumbed to food poisoning, and Henk’s demanding work in the medical field prevented him from leaving early enough. Nonetheless, the three of us attended to pay our respects to John.

The evening was profoundly moving and somber, yet undeniably memorable and enjoyable.

My father got my mother a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas since she loves to read at night. I was there when she opened it, I watched as she excitedly opened the box, took out her new kindle and powered it on for the first time, touched the screen, looked confused and handed the device to me (within four minutes of opening the box) asking “Why is it all weird?” My mother had managed to set the kindles language to Chinese. And expected me to quickly fix her new toy so she could continue to play with it.

Now I do not know if you are aware, but when powering on a kindle paperwhite for the first time it goes through a sequence of steps. Such as Set up Language, Set up WiFi, Set up and log into your amazon account, etc. And you must complete all these steps before you get to such useful things as Menus & Options. So I had to do all that for her before I could re-set the language, and I had to do it all in Chinese Kanji. before I could try and read through the menus (In Chinese) to change the language.

As you can imagine, My mother took some stick for doing this.

FAST FORWARD TWO WEEKS.

My mothers old eBook reader she gave to my sister since she no longer needed it. So I blanked and reset it for her, added a load of free public domain books to start her off and it was sent to my sisters house.

FIVE minutes after it was dropped off at my sisters house I got a phone call from her, asking how to reset the device as she was looking at it and hit the wrong button changing the language to Chinese or some such thing. Yes, she managed to do the exact same thing she made fun of my mother for doing.  And once again it was left to me to fix, this time over the phone, without being able to see the device.

As they say, the Apple does not fall far from the tree…

and as I say “My family can be annoying!!!“

Hey Guys, Gals, and Constant Readers Lend me your ears.

Oh, I should point out I do not want to use your ears in any weird way. I will not be putting anything into them, before YOU (Yes YOU, you know who YOU are!) ask, Neither do I wish you to rip/cut/remove your ears in any way and throw them at me. In fact I wish I had not started with that famous opening now, and just gone with a more easily defined “Please listen to me for a minute” But, hey ho, you live and learn.

Anyway, I have a Question, and I am aiming it to the parents out there. The question is :-

Does having kids lower your IQ?

Before you parents go nuts and order me to go sit on the naughty step, let me explain by sharing two incidents I have witnessed this week (And its only Wednesday).

Incident 1:

I pulled into a Petrol Station, and got in line to wait for a free Pump. The car in front of my was being filled up by a young lady who looked almost finished. She puts the hose back on the Pump, puts the cap back on her car, all perfectly normal so far. She opened the back door of her car and collected her handbag (Obviously so she could pay inside). At this point her baby must have made a noise at seeing her, since she leans back into the car waves a stuffed rabbit toy about a bit and stands back up, puts her handbag back in the car, gets in and drives off without paying. Now I am positive since she collected her bag she had every intention of paying, but the interaction with her child made her forget she had not paid.

Incident 2:

Driving up a hill on my daily commute (Monday) there is a woman with a pram and a toddler struggling to cross the very busy road. She had made it half way across and was stuck on a small island looking scared. I did the decent thing and stopped to let her across, where upon crossing she turns and starts walking up the hill where 10 yards further up is the School crossing guard to the school she is taking the toddler too.  Now in case you are unfamiliar with School Crossing guards, they have the power to stop all traffic to let people cross the road, So why she did not cross 10 yards further up the hill I do not know. As an aside to this Incident, She was there the following day as well (Tuesday), only she had not got to the point of crossing the road yet, I saw her walk past the Crossing guard down to where the road had a little island and wait to try to cross there.

So I ask you. Does having Children lower your ability to do everyday tasks? enquiring minds want to know!

I thought I would share this incident that happened yesterday, since it has a happy ending, and I think on a Wednesday we need happy endings.

Yesterday morning before I left to head to the Insane Asylum I popped over to my Parents house to feed their dog since they were away. I open up the house, feed the dog, and get set to let him out for the day when I spotted a note on their whiteboard.

“I made pasta and there’s some in the fridge if you want it for dinner.”

Seems my Nephew had made a load of tuna-pasta-mayonnaise to take to work with him, and had a load leftover so put it in the fridge for me to have if I wanted. So I figured “why not!” it would make a change, so I grabbed it and left.

Unfortunately when I came to eat it during my Lunch break I found it very dry, lacking flavour, and not that good at all. But it was still a very nice thing my Nephew did for me.

Now as I went back to Parents after work to feed the Dog again (they were not due back till late that night) I was hoping I could get In&Out without meeting the Nephew so I would not have to say what I thought of the food.

NO SUCH LUCK!

He was standing outside the door to their place as I arrived. *arse.. feck.. drink!* I thought as I approached “here boy.. lets get you fed” I called to the dog and tried to speed walk past the Nephew as if I was busy with dog.

Nephew: “HI.. Did you find that pasta I left for you?”

WO: “err Yes, thanks!” *don’t ask, don’t ask don’t ask*

Nephew: “what did you think of it?…….”

WO: *ARSE ARSE ARSE ARSE*

Nephew: “because I thought it was very dry and not very nice, I’m not sure what went wrong”

WO: *Thank you Gods* “Yes, it was a bit dry”

So luckily he also thought there was something not right about it, so I did not hurt his feelings by agreeing with him.

This weekend I went a wandering. Well not really far wanderings, but wanderings nether the less. And wanderings covering two countries (Three if you count Bala as its own country) So I thought I was share my wanderings to you dear Readers (And it helps me remember where I was, and what I was doing).

Saturday.

Late Saturday afternoon I went to visit PlanetPete, Well it was later than originally planned due to a slight incident requiring me to cut my super-glued fingers apart (Yes! I know apparently nail-varnish remover, or similar will wash off the glue easy, but I’m male, I use a knife, and the bigger the knife the better). Now before you start wondering about my personal space-craft which I may or may not have reverse engineered from the UFO crash in the hills near Corwen, I shall point out PlanetPete is currently located in the English land known as Chester.

I eventually made it with a fully working set of fingers with no cuts at all, rang the doorbell with a cheerful greeting of “Avon Calling” only to get door slammed shut in my face. *dejected Arr* I tried again without the Avon catalogue that I’d found on the floor, and my second attempt got me into the building, Where I was set upon by Cerberus and the hounds of hell themselves! Or Jeff, Indie, & Hunni Who seemed pleased to see me, like they had not seen me in years. Well they hadn’t really, and Indie had never met me before. Luckily they are all great dogs, and the change in Jeff from the days when he used to work in the Insane Asylum is remarkable.

After the important greetings were out the way, I was able to greet the Human occupants, grab a coffee and make it to a chair sit down and relax while the dogs brought their toys to show me, and competed for attention (But in a behaved way). The humans then got a chance to catch up, see how everyone was getting along, what was new in the world. Commiserations were given to H for having to work on a Saturday, The light was pointed out as still waiting on us getting around to correcting the design oversight we built it with err too many years ago. (Sheeeesh! Wheres the time gone?) Food was set up to start cooking, instructions were given that we were to listen out for the Ding, and a film was chosen to be watched.

The film was Skyline and was showing on Sky BoxOffice. The only problem was BoxOffice was not working, and just getting worse and worse to the point Skys Technical Support Line were called. And after ten minutes of dealing with the issue a correction procedure was dictated to PlanetPete to follow. And its kind of comforting to know, no matter what the problem you have is, no matter what kind of  technical support people are called, when it comes down to it the same solution is given “Have you tried turning it off and on again!”

This procedure as always corrected the problem(ish) and we were able to watch Skyline, a film all about a group of people trying to stay out of the light, which was interesting as we later watched Tron: Legacy which is a film all about a group of people trying to get to the light.

A rather nice (And I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I get this wrong) Chicken, Bacon Pasta Bake? was eaten, Coke was drunk, and an enjoyable evening was had by all. Until it was time to leave, rob a bank to get the fund to fill up with diesel and make the return trip to Wales.

Thanks H & PlanetPete for a enjoyable evening.

Sunday

Since Sunday was a lovely sunny day, and my father mentioned he was going to go for a ride on his bike to check it out after its winters storage, I decided to go along with him in a support vehicle. So it was almost a family day out, as my Sister & Niece were also along for the day.

We went to Bala lake, for ice cream and to enjoy the sun. Teggy was not spotted, but I was amused watching some man put his boat on its side to fit its mast more easily, and then start panicking as the boat filled with water.

We also visited the Ponderosa up at the Horseshoe Pass in time to get there as the local biker egg run was arriving. And I discovered some women can look hot while riding a big bike in a fluffy rabbit outfit (Maybe I need professional help?)

So all in all it was a good way to spend one of the first warm & sunny weekends we’ve had this year.

Does anyone remember the old TV series (Or the book it was based on) called “Logan’s Run?” You know the one set in the future where every person has a small jewel in the palm of their hands that starts flashing when they reach a set age. I think we need something similar today, not to “put to sleep” those who reach thirty, but have a cut off age when people are no longer allowed to get new technology.

Let me tell you know why I have decided that this is the course we should follow. This morning before going to work, I popped over to see my parents as I’m looking after their dog for the weekend. Now my Mother has just got herself a new mobile phone, and decided to go for a “smart phone“. So just as I was leaving she asks me “I’ve got a weird shape thing on my phone, what’s it mean?“, I enquire to what it looks like “its a sort of thing, with a bit, and another thing” *turns phone at different angle* “It kind of looks like old video tapes”

I took the phone off her to check and informed her she had a voicemail, and if she clicked on it she could hear the message. So she clicked on it and started listening to the first time use recording, you know the one that tells you how to set a pin, and use the voicemail system. Only my mother removed the phone from her ear as the recording explained what to do “There’s a woman talking about pin’s and hash and stuff, I don’t know what she’s on about”

I sighed and explained you had to listen to the whole message to understand what she was saying, but not to worry as I’ll set it all up later for her. It was then that the voicemail started playing. I know this from my Mothers half of the conversation. “Oh HI, I was just going to call you.” “hello?”, “oh, you’ll be arriving then, do you need a lift” I interjected here “Its a voicemail” I was shusshed with “The woman said I had a message“. “right see you there then“. For my sanity I tried again “Its a voicemail, a recording!”

I then left the house laughing my head off as my mother was saying goodbye to the recording. Old people should not be allowed technology!

Nephew: “Why do they say every cloud has a silver lining?“

Me: “It’s because the outer edges of clouds, where the condensed moisture particles hit the ionised atmosphere, interacting with pollutants in the air causes a peculiar affect where the particles oxidise forming silver particles.“

Nephew: “WOW!” *looks back at sky* “So you could fly aeroplanes through clouds and collect silver?“

Me: “No, don’t be silly!“

Nephew: *dejected look*

Me: “Aeroplanes travel too fast, the air pressure they form in front of them pushes the clouds away preventing them collecting the silver. What they use is air ships, which the float slowly through the clouds with special collectors attached to the basket. they just float about in twelve hour shifts harvesting the cloud silver. It also means they make more money from it, since it uses much less petrol than planes.“

And that was the moment my Sister banned me from answering any questions my nephews may ask. Well There was an incident when one of my nephews got excited in school when the teacher asked a question that he knew the answer too, because his uncle had told him.

Saturday evening I was informed that my niece had a Karate competition day on Sunday, and that she wanted me to go and support her.  So there went my plans of a productive Sunday catching up on my ever-growing todo list. OK! by productive day I mean a day playing “Call of Duty: Black Op’s” which I purchased Saturday.

I don’t normally mind going to support her, since it makes her happy that someone cares, and she likes to talk about the different matches with me, and its normally an interesting day out.

My niece does Shotokan Karate, and the club she goes to is associated with several others in the area, and they take it in turns hosting the competitions. This time there was even some clubs from Luton & Yorkshire along for the day. And the even was held in Hawrden High School’s sports hall.

Now I should point out this is a sports hall with brick walls half way up, then metal sheeting the rest of the way, a metal sheeting roof, and plain concrete floors. There is also building work going on so part of the walls are simple boards while work is being carried out. Oh, and did I mention there was ice on the ground outdoors, and no heating on indoors? The poor kids in bare feet, and Gi’s that are no more than pyjamas really must have been freezing, cos the adults watching were and they had big coats on.

First off was the Kata rounds, so Niece and another girl get up, do their kata and sit down. The next person to get called was called alone, and the ref informed them they were through to the next round. In fact three of the four people in the final to work out places never had to compete against anyone, they just got given their placements. (Can anyone say fix?)

This shall we say for legal reasons “Apparently biased marking” turned into the theme for the day, when you had matches and all four (or six depending on match) ref’s holding out the same colour flag to show who was winner, and main ref (always after quick look to people in background holing forms) would award fight to the other colour.  At one point one of the local Sensei’s told his students that one of the clubs who had travelled four hours to turn up were being marked up as a thanks for coming all this way and to not take it personally. Well by the end of the day, the local students had lost all heart and were barley going through the motions in their rounds.

The other let down of the day was the fact that the club that was being allowed to win everything may have been the “Cobra Kai” in disguise. Well they were as dirty fighters as the Cobra’s, with sneaky leg swipes, feet stomps, and face/eye shots. The list of injuries to the local kids was, several broken toes, and sprained back, and several kids with smashed and bleeding eyes.

The Adults associated to the club were even pointing out nice spots on the face to go for to slow down, or take out their opponent, and congratulating them while the other kid would be crying on the floor with medics dealing with them.

I know full contact Karate competitions can be violent, and lead to injuries, but this was a Children’s competition, and the local clubs do not do much full contact fights, and it was supposed to be friendly.

I must admit it was the most badly run & organised rip off I have ever seen. The matches were all fixed and they did not even attempt to hide the fact. There was no food laid on for the kids (they normally lay on food for them out of the attendance fee’s), No heating, The hall rental was a school gym that they normally use, so would not have cost much. The medals were of poor quality, and for the first time in the years my niece has been going there was no “competitors medal or certificate” to give to those who competed (apparently there was no money for them). And yes on the Saturday traiing day there was 100 student (approx) and there must have been 60 or so on the Sunday (all at £20/day).

Weird post title right? What I am referring to is birthdays, The Queen of England has two birthdays a year, Myself I have Three. So if you will sit down comfortably dear Reader, I’ll explain, mostly because its become a FAQ.

A few years ago a friend offered to do one of those astronomical charts for me. One of the larger complicated ones that show your personality, and long term fortune, etc.  So I gave my friend the details I had, Date of Birth, and Location of Birth. Both of which are required for accuracy. I was then informed that if I wished a more accurate chart then they would need my time of birth, because when it comes to stars that take a millennium for the light to reach us, knowing what minute you were born makes all the difference. So I asked my parents for the time of my birth.

I think I’ll jump ahead here to the conversation with my friend later, for pure comedy affect.

F=Friend, M=Me

F: “So, you got the time of your birth?“

M: “Yes, Nov 1st“

F: “No the TIME? if you don’t know the exact time you can narrow it down to morning, afternoon, evening, night. it will still help with accuracy“

M: “Nov 1st“

F: “No, can they narrow it down a bit?“

M: “They did, they narrowed it down to Nov 1st. Apparently no one made a note of when I was born, and they latter could not work out if it was Oct 31st, Nov 1st, Nov 2nd. so the narrowed it down to the middle one, Nov 1st“

F: “You just can’t do anything normal can you? you even managed to mess up and complicate getting born!“

It turns out that it was a very long and painful labor, and I was a home birth (a uncommon occurrence at the time). Also the Midwife was not that good, and forgot to fill in the forms at the time. She also banged my head repeatedly against the bed, but that’s a different story. So basically everyone was tired, exhausted, and under belief that the midwife did her job. It was only later when it came time to register my birth they realised they were unsure of the date. My father, Mother & Nian (Grandmother) all believed different days.

They settled on the middle day of the range, since it was central and my mothers vote (well she did have the pain so its only fair). Since then a few people have stated I’m more suited to a Halloween birth than a All Saints Day birth.  The upshot is that since I was born on one of three possible days, I think to play safe I should celebrate my birthday over the full three day period. Its the only way I can be sure I have got the right day.