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Have a nice day..

Sequin | 09:29 UK time, Monday, 15 October 2007

Sequin sitting in for Ed for a short while so hello again.
I'm just back from a brief trip to Washington and Niagara. As I left Britain, Gordon Brown was still being coy about the general election. How things have changed in a week Lots to catch up on.

Weather in Niagara was unseasonably warm - 86 degrees on one day. And I failed to talk my way into the White House. Just to let you know, if you want to get a tour you have to book at least 3 months in advance through your embassy.

Looking forward to hearing your views throughout the week.....

sequin

Comments

  1. At 10:13 AM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Well Carolyn - let's hope that the blog performs a little better for you this week, than it did last week for Eddie.

  2. At 10:41 AM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Hold on... You have to book 3 months in advance through the embassy?!? I assume that a US citizen doesn't have to wait that long. So, do they explain why everyone else has to go through this rigmarole?

  3. At 12:43 PM on 15 Oct 2007, Carolyn Quinn wrote:

    Fearless Fred, of course you're right - US citizens can apply through their congressman or woman. The Embassy approach is for us Brits. Reason is that they need to do "thorough checks" on anyone who wants to enter the building who hasn't already been authorised.

    sequin

  4. At 01:20 PM on 15 Oct 2007, The White House wrote:

    Howdy Limeys!

    American citizens can book up to 6 months in advance and its a minimum of 1 month.

  5. At 02:13 PM on 15 Oct 2007, Frances O wrote:

    Hello, Sequin!

    As jonnie said, fingers crossed that you'll bring a 502-free week.

    I suspect that there are several pubs called 'The White Horse' that you could get a tour around, which might be an acceptable substitute.

  6. At 03:01 PM on 15 Oct 2007, The Reverend Green wrote:

    Hello Sequin. It'll be great to hear you back on PM.

  7. At 03:24 PM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Aquick google (other search engines are avaialable) shows a "white horse" on Parsons Green SW6. I'm no londoner but do you cycle any where near that sequin?

    Then there is the white horse attached to my name above.

  8. At 03:46 PM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Welcome back, Sequin!

    REMINDER
    If they outlaw nuclear weapons, only outlaws will have them.

    Turkey Recalls Ambassador to U.S. Over Armenian Genocide Resolution
    But plans book, If We Did It.

    Other news:

    Turkeys approve Thanksgiving Genocide resolution...

    Mon Oct 15 15:48:38 BST 2007

    Death is a spirit leaving a body, sort of like a shell leaving the nut behind.
    -- Erma Bombeck

  9. At 03:57 PM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Another nice day in the

    Gold and oil unsinkable.....

    See namelink for insight (last few paragraphs)

    Have a nice day.....

    Defeat is worse than death because you have to live with defeat.
    -- Bill Musselman
    Mon Oct 15 16:00:25 BST 2007

  10. At 04:00 PM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Welcome back Carolyn. I hope you have a trouble- free week. Of course, if there are any little problems on the blog, you'll find that we're all too polite to mention it, so you might want to keep a close eye on things, just in case. Also make sure our NBP isn't slacking in his duties while Eddie is absent. While the cat's away...

    I note you "failed to talk my way into the White House". For goodness' sake girl, George W Bush managed it - surely somebody would have voted for you? I think your campaign must have been just a little bit too last minute. Better luck next time!

  11. At 04:43 PM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Stewart,

    There's also a rather overlooked (and thus often reasonably priced) blended whisky, with one of my favourite malts at its heart.

    Slainte
    ed

  12. At 05:01 PM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    Annasee (8),

    What GWB achieved had less to do with talking than with bribery, corruption, rigged courts and such than with his demonstrated inability to form proper sentences.

    As to talking one'sself into trouble, it now emerges we may have to make room at Gitmo for some of our own "unlawful combatants", the hired gun from Balckwater....
    own unlawful combatants? (LA Times)

    Gentlemen,
    Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been diligently complying with your requests which have been sent by H.M. ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to our headquarters.
    We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles, and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty's Government holds
    me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit, and spleen of every officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted
    for, with two regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence.
    Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion's petty cash and there has been
    a hideous confusion as the the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in western Spain. This
    reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstance, since we are war with France, a fact which may come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall.
    This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty's Government so that I may better understand why I am dragging an army over these barren plains. I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative duties, as given below. I shall pursue either one with the best of my ability, but I cannot do both:
    1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain for the benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London or perchance:
    2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven out of Spain.
    -- Duke of Wellington, to the British Foreign Office,
    London, 1812

    Mon Oct 15 17:01:45 BST 2007

  13. At 05:30 PM on 15 Oct 2007, Chris Ghoti wrote:

    Annasee @ 8 is joking, I think. We jolly well do complain, and if our post complaining gets through you may see it. We know it's not your fault, but this is the only place we have where we can say what's going on! So don't take it personally.

    The Blog is dodgy at the moment, and we have come to expect to get told we can't post for one reason and another. As a result, many of us can't be bothered: if it takes an hour and involves turning our computers on and off, we may well decide not to.

    At 5pm I note that in the past 24 hours, unless someone has put a lot of posts into a rather old thread, there have been 68 posts to the Blog on the most recent 8 threads (one of them is the Beach!) and the Furrowed Brow -- which has been up since 1st October, and has 31 posts on it in total.

    That's not what we generally get. If the usual rate were fewer than 100 posts in a 24 hour period, we'd have had less than 36,500 posts last year, not the amount of traffic we did have.

    So don't feel bad if you put things up and get little or no answer. A lot of us are probably waiting for the Blog to work properly again.

    Annasee, I love the strap-line: but it's a bit ironic just now. "Don't write complaining, it won't get there!" seems more like it. A shame, because it's a jolly good line at any other time. Waaaah...

  14. At 06:04 PM on 15 Oct 2007, Chris Ghoti wrote:

    For the record, my post at 13 was sent at 5.30, declared malicious, sent again at 5.33, declared malicious, and sent again at 5.42, so unless it is better moderated than has been usual recentlym you haven't seen the last of me! (1803)

  15. At 06:13 PM on 15 Oct 2007, David Feld wrote:

    Carolyn, you may be better looking than Eddie, but you still need to learn the difference between inverted commas and quotation marks!
    Keep trying, though,
    David FELD

  16. At 06:20 PM on 15 Oct 2007, wrote:

    A nice day it the market?

    Is There Reason to the Market's Rhyme?
    Jeffrey Cooper Oct 15, 2007 8:16 am


    Was last Thursday's large range reversal a sign of a turning point at the anniversary of historic highs and lows?


    The mind is its own place, and unto itself
    Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
    --Paradise Lost (John Milton)


    Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
    --Paradise Lost (John Milton)


    At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky,
    the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise... that denseness and that strangeness of the world is absurd.
    --Albert Camus


    Take me down to the paradise city
    Where the grass is green
    And the girls are pretty.
    --Paradise City (Guns N' Roses)


    People love a reason. Unfortunately cause and effect are almost always rooted in people’s emotions. But that never arrested the appetite or impeded the quest for men to anchor their actions in a sea of belief – no matter how imponderably imponderable those beliefs may be.....

    lalalalalalala....

    xx
    ed

    One Page Principle:
    A specification that will not fit on one page of 8.5x11 inch paper cannot be understood.
    -- Mark Ardis

  17. At 06:25 PM on 15 Oct 2007, Another Painful Pedant wrote:

    David Feld (15)

    Thankfully Carolyn seems to know the difference between a comma and a full stop and also between lower case and CAPITALS.

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