It Is… Pt. 45

‘the great escape’
‘cf’

… feet softly prowl, hard to decipher how many, could be two or four, they’re faint lending a camel’s gait only shorter in step and missing the density. Why a camel would be walking the back alleys of Brinny he couldn’t think, but it was that time of year. The smell of a boiled onion hung misty in the crisp air and filtered through the shadows of his hideaway, his larder and go to bush. ‘Darn undersized camels’, he tweets to himself, ‘naff off’, and flutters an elbow. Entangled by pricks now he was pursued by one. Still, the dark within shielded his foe from sight, even if his scent coagulated in the ether, nevertheless, the onion’s waft did a good job to diffuse a scurrilous situation, he could see it now, loose camel hunts season’s greetings. He searched for a friendly mistle thrush to divert attention, to provide a little rustle in the hedgerow so to speak. But there was no hedgerow, not even a mistletoe and thereby no thrush, just him, the bush and a small prowling camel. He’d settle for an agitated anal fusspot blackbird bent on protecting its deemed jurisdiction, but none of them were around either, just him the small camel, the onion in the ether and the sense of his stillness. Oh, the shame, devoured by a camel in the alley of a small Lancashire village. Silently he steps back, cautious, without ruffling a feather, the camel prodded forward parting the the green curls of spiny leaves, some stick and dig in his fur, the camels stops, stuck, and a human whose recent onion deposit on the compost feeds the darkness once more with a another quick trip in slippers, cursing the cold, dark and vagueness of the recycled tubs of broken-down potato skins and broccoli stems, blindly he kicks the  brown striped camouflaged camel and sends it flying into the bush, our feathered friend with his back to the wall of No.43 surrounded by a barbed cluster decorated in red balls of sweetness sees tabby camel’s lump unfold in the stems inches from his beak and as it lunges with a grabbing paw it creates an opening above, he takes his queue and flies to freedom, far from the alley and its dark creatures and makes fast to the silent majestic wintry wood in the kingdom of Christmas to perch on a lone fence post and puffs cooly on soothing cheroot.

 … rolling the World News…

It’s been 19 years in the making but Spain’s High-Speed train from Madrid to the northern principality of Asturias is open. The final 50km’s run through the Cantabrian mountains with a 25km tunnel. King Felipe VI travelled from Madrid to Oviedo, usually a 3hr 10min journey cut by an hour 35min (doesn’t sound a lot does it, and what happened to King Carlos!?). The longest track in Europe and second only to China, who are now riddled with HS tracks with no less than 33,221 trains in operation, offers folk a chance to go somewhere they would never have thought of going, quicker.

Taiwan is in Design Week operandi. 70 speakers, 60 designers, 9 countries and 10 days of art and design focussing on, you guessed it, sustainability and innovation, but I do like the tag line they’ve conjured for this theme, ‘elastic bridging’.

The 26^th Commonwealth Games in 2026 in the Gold Coast is off as they’ve pulled out and there is no other runner. There are also no runners for 2030, which makes the future very doubtful. China or probably Saudi will have them, as if boundaries of trivialities such as names, territorial concepts and history should ever get in the way. If the Yanks can have the World Series, Saudi can host the Commonwealth Games.

The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage is a thing and open to every country and into its 20^th year. UNESCO holds this mantle for crafts, cuisine and carnivals and vying for status is Thailand’s Songkran festival. Usually a 3-day festival at most, of throwing water over each other to welcome the rainy season, Thailand are aiming for a month-long binge with international participation. Saudi will have it, they’ll just throw sand, gold, oil and golf balls.

Ok, lastly the Lapland Chamber Orchestra of Finland are busy this time of year spreading classical music to remote areas. Due to start in Rovaniemi they’ll truck 6000km by bus to the most remote locations of that funny ol’ Finland.

Keep it turning keep it wheel, keep it radioPrimco.com

Till next weak folks – spelling correct.

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