Avast, ye scurvy knaves! It be international talk like a pirate day, and Cap'n Mat and his bawdy pirate wench will be heading to the good ship Exeter for raids and pillaging. As a geeky pirate, I have a checklist:

Poll #1262818 International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 29

During the course of today, I will be enjoying:

Am amused to see the number of people who are doing that photo meme who are also wearing white towelling dressing gowns, btw...

Apparently lots of people's attention is turning to celebrations of Britishness at this moment, what with us having the Olympic handover, and a shitload of medals and such. The thing is, we Brits aren't that good at unreserved nationalistic pride - witness Steve's suggestion of adopting Mna-Mna for the National Anthem, here. The Last Night of The Proms aside, we like to be faintly self-deprecating and ironic about our displays of patriotic fervour. We don't do all that flashy stuff like other nations. Yes, we know the world would be a better place if we were still running it, but we don't like to rub it in other nation's faces too much. We just cock our national eyebrows at their antics, think about how we had a proper parliament when they were still all hurling rocks at each other, and smile smugly to ourselves.

Obviously, there has to be an exception to every rule, and so it is with this one. There exists an enormous, bright red, supersonic, two-fingered salute to the idea that we Brits don't do flashy, and I saw it cavorting above Torquay today.

The Red Arrows' sole purpose of existence is to show the rest of the world that Our fighter pilots are Better Than Yours, and maybe you can fly excitingly up a canyon at breakneck speeds, but we can do it in formation, nine strong, and trailing red white and blue smoke as we go; and when we get to the end of the canyon we'll wave at the children on our way past. Yes, they are environmentally unsound, and yes, they cost a fortune... But bloody hell they're impressive.

Bollocks to a national anthem (new or otherwise), let's just get the Reds to do a flypast every time we win a medal in 2012!

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A pretty picture to illustrate something we all knew anyway: roughly 2/3 of the population earn less than "average" wage.



(hat-tip: andrewducker, here)

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And finally, because I know you love them, a poll, inspired by Mat's dad suggesting we take the scenic route home and then being all stunned when I thought that meant going through the countryside instead of along the coast.

Poll #1249284 Scenic Routes?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

Which is more scenic?

(this entry dedicated to the Honourable Lady Mark Valladares, in hopes that he'll stop typing long enough to read it ;))

Today we went to Totnes (which was lovely, and very Hebden Bridge) and saw the Guildhall and the church and the Museum of Old Stuff Which has About Ten Different Names in Different Leaflets. The kitchen and herb gardens were the best bits of the museum of old stuff, since most of the contents of the Babbage Room have been stolen by the Science Museum in London.

There was also a FANTASTIC little record shop, which reminded me a lot of how Dead Wax used to be in Huddersfield.

Then we went to Kingsbridge and wandered around the quay and the market, and then we went to South Pool to meet more of Mat's family (including Casper, who is like a doggy version of Alan at the pub - this will mean little to those of you who are not burlesque_bunny, sorry). I have now met Granny (with whom we are staying), Auntie Shirley, Auntie Mo, Gran and Auntie Linda, and am starting to feel a little bit like an exhibit. I have also seen the feild that Mat learned to drive in, and the house his dad was born in, and lots of family graves in two churchyards, and am beginning to get how Mat's roots here are like mine in Yorkshire.

Have completely fallen in love with Slapton, where we are staying. Two great pubs (really, seriously, great pubs), an enormous nature reserve, no light pollution, and Mat's granny keeps just feeding us and feeding us and feeding us. I swear down we need to get this woman and my dad in a kitchen together, and then about a hundred people could die like Mr Creosote, but my Gods they'd die happy.

Anyway, have to take the doggies for another walk. Right now, am a very happy Jennie. And happy is good, right?

See me, website building...

In other news:

FANDOM COLLISION! I may actually have to watch the next episode of Doctor Who. This is because it apparently features a cameo from a favourite Top Gearite...

Help a Struggling Artist! My friend Gina is an artist. Not of the Piss variety, a proper, bona fide, inky-fingered provider of pictorial excellence. She's selling some prints from her current project, a children's book called The Great Potoo. Go and buy them, and when she's rich and famous (as a girl with her talent surely will be) you'll have yourself a nice little nest egg in the form of a signed picture.

Devonian Catastrophe! Am assuming that all my Devonian chums are OK, since only the bomber was injured and the bomber is unlikely to be any of them, but if anyone has any news or gossip at all (which isn't covered by the Beeb, here) I'd be interested to hear it.