mickleinapickle's blog

A drunken man is stumbling along a river bank, when he comes upon a fiery preacher baptising people in the water. The preacher points to the drunk and shouts, “Are you ready to find Jesus?” The man raises his arms high and exclaims, “Yes, I am!” So the preacher grabs hold of him, dunks him in the water, pulls him straight out and asks, “Brother, have you found Jesus?” The drunk splutters and replies, “No, I haven't found Jesus.” The preacher...

I had a great audition on ‘The Voice UK’ tonight when my reggae interpretation of, ‘The Wheels On The Bus’, caused all 4 judges to turn amidst rapturous applause from the audience. Will.i.am, in reflective mode, said, “It was like when aliens land in your back garden and they ask you to take them to your leader and you think, ‘now that’s dope’.” Jennifer Hudson, hand on hip, ordered with attitood, “You come to Momma now, boy!” Tom Jones...

St. Nicholas’ Church, Kings Norton, Birmingham. There’s been a church on this site since the Normans first built a small chapel in the 11th century. The existing church has been built, demolished, rebuilt, expanded, improved and restored many times over the last 1,000 years. Only one dignitary of note over that time: Rev. W. V. Audry… creator of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. He was the curate from 1940 to 1946. to 1946. The bells were...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZI6EdnvH-8 This song takes me back to 1973... a village called Oberjoch (over the hill) in the Bavarian Alps in December. Six feet of snow! I was learning to ski with 49 Field Regiment, Her Majesty's Royal Artillery. Just six of us squaddies plus instructor. We went to a local gasthaus one night and bumped into some young ladies from a German finishing school. They were strictly supervised by a formidable matron...

A middle-class lady bought two female parrots, Polly and Dolly, but was shocked to discover that they kept shouting out rude and inappropriate remarks. She sought advice from her parish priest about curing them of this embarrassing situation. The priest was mortified at the things the parrots were shouting. Polly squawked provocatively, “Do you fancy some hanky-panky?” Dolly screeched rudely, “Would you risk it for a biscuit?” The priest then...

Raglan castle in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, was one of the last medieval castles to be built in the British Isles. Construction first began about the middle of the 15th century and was commissioned by one William Thomas, who was described as the ‘lesser son of a minor family’. He was, however, active in local politics and very attentive to the noble young ladies of the day, eventually marrying two wealthy heiresses in quick succession,...

Ellie came calling. She’s 9 years old (going on 25) and is the middle child of our eldest daughter, Karen. Bright and chatty, she’s just recently began to take pride in her personal appearance after being very much a tomboy since babyhood. She alarmed me slightly when she suddenly announced that there was a hot boy she really fancies. Fortunately, it’s a teenage boy she sees on Youtube who plays some of the latest pop music. Her favourite song...

The photo was taken at 6.30am on New Year’s Day. James (almost 2 years) and Jack (5 years) are having a sleepover and had taken over our bed… they wake up early regardless of whatever day of the year it is. We have a spare room which we’ve set up for grandkids, but they all invade our bedroom early mornings during sleepovers. They are the children of our youngest daughter, Claire. Their dad, Mark, is in hospital for a couple of days having some...

I was feeling rather stodgy after Christmas excess and Mrs. Treaclechops had a mild dose of winter blues, so we decided to have a stroll along the river Rea in south Birmingham. It was a mild 10℃, with a sky of intermittent light cloud and bright sunshine. The start of our walk was a 15-minute drive away and we planned for a half hour wander… one hour in total for the excursion. As ever, I took my camera, but with the bleak winter landscape...