Now kill me ...Part two.

 The four marines seemed happy to carry out the order and took up attacking positions, knees bent ..knives held in front of them they began to circle the very calm instuctor.

In less time than it takes to read this part two all four marines were disarmed and were flat on the floor clutching wha appeared to be very painful parts of their anatomy.   The Instuctor walked to centre stage and addressed the now stunned and silent audience  'I need four more volunteers'   The hall was very quiet.

This brings me to the point where I give a little advice..If you are ever involved in a pub fight ..do not, under any circumstances, go for the short fella stting on his own at the far end of the bar...better to find the exit door and go home.

Now kill me....

 Some years ago I was filming a documentary in a massive Marine training camp in the States...I may have told this tale before but its worth another visit..

Basically USA Marines are not really like the rest of mankind..they are completely unique..they get insulted if you actually call them humans...They are bigger than normal..wider than normal..taller than normal..meaner than most folk..love to fight and maim  others..this is natural to them...and here I was, an average size Brit (Natural enemy) in a training camp with about 500 of them..The camp is a place where they are trained to kill..most of them do not need training.

One day I  was sent to a massive drill hall..about 150 trainees were there, al colours, all races, all Americans ,  they looked like very angry shaven headed muscular Humvees...and there was me...and today was going to be a lecture in hand to hand combat. This group did not look like they needed any training.

After a few minutes and a call for silence from patrolling Marine Drill Sergeants a  small man walked into centre stage..I am 5-8 inches tall...this fella was 3 inches shorter. He stood with his armrs crossed and the room went completely silent.The small man introduced himself..He was the instructor..A  few laughs and hoots went u up..the small  man just stood there..silence again..He the said ' I Want four volunteers on stage, no short arses, I want the biggest and meanest and I want them now'

There was a scramble to get on the stage, almost everyone volunteerd and the Drill Sergeants finally selected four of the meanest..Up they went onto the stage.They were huge..

The small drill instructor went behind the curtain at the back and returned carrying five long bladed knives..He gave one to each of the volunteers who  looked as if they new how to use them..he kept the fifth one.He told the marines to form a line across the stage facing him and stood about 6 feet away..then he said the words I will never forget 'I am now going to give you an order and you will obey it...Kill me..that is the order..Kill me'

..

Too busy to Barf,,

 Too busy to barf (Vomit) is a generic title..Quite often in the frantic world of news garthering in which I was involved on numerous occasions I have had to suppress the urgent need to get rid of my last meal...not because of food poisoning but because I had just witnessed something that simply made me sick.

The first one to spring to mind was in Sidon..I believe it was in the Lebanon..I was hurrying to catch up with the IDF which was making its way to Beirut to conduct some business..and we had driven along the coast from Tel Aviv in Israel.  It was a slow journey and we had been on the road for some hours..Eventually we stopped and pulled over in front of a huge pile of building debris..sat in the shade of the vehicle and attacked our hotel wrapped beef sandwiches..

We didnt get far into the sandwiches, they smelled OFF.....we put it down to being in a hot truck for several hours in hot sunshine..we were very hungry and attempted to eat as much as possible...we had a long drive ahead of us..None of the crew made it through more than half a sandwch...As is the case in some countries a film crew attracts attention from the kids..lotsa them..They are naturally curious and ask a lot of questions..one of them asked why we werent eating the packed lunches which we had thrown into the rubble heap.. We said they smelled bad and must have gone off...they smelled rotten.

This made the kids fall about laughing...and we found out why. 

The rubble heap we were sitting near was until a few days ago a residential block of flats..In the skirmishes the went on between the two armies the block had collapesd. The occupants had all made it down to the supposed safety of the underground garage...all 120 of them...the apartment block had been hit and it had collapsed...the sheltering occupants were still in the garage...No attempt at rescue had taken place..The smell of rotting corpes is difficult to get out of ones brain..We quckly moved on.

Too busy to barf...I have a number of these stories..I wiil post them occasionally.

Safety...

 This past week we have had some builders in to rememove an old boiler and remove it...in with the new, more efficient, modern one. They did a great job...but created a mountain of dust..The workmen were ok ..they had face masks, gogles ..dust extractors, sprays..metal clad gloves..everythinh to to protect them...all supplied by the company that employed them..Great stuff

When I started work as a deep seam coal miner in 1955 I had nothing supplied, bought my own boiler suit, absoloutely no protective equipment, no masks, goggles or gloves..Nothing..and we were working in seams that were 3 feet deep where the air was thick with coal dust, the meal break was 20 minutes taken on the seam where it was impossible to stand up//No toilests or wash rooms..When we were in a wet seam we simply got wet up to our waists...I finished up with Pneumonia...all for less than 5 pounds a week...and we considered we were well paid.

It occurred to me that perhaps my career choice was the wrong one...so I changed it...not everyone was as lucky.

It is different now and rightly so but some of my workmates spent their entire working life in those conditions...not many reached retirement age. We are so lucky right now. 

Winter quarters.

 A wonderful sight here in our Italian Mountain village It was the annual move of the cows from the high pastures to their winter quarters. Superb animals, all with massive bells arouund thier necks and huge bouquets of floweres on their heads..all surrounded by their families in traditional costume..lotsa kids...Beautiful weather for it.. Love it.

Visitors

Thank you everyone..The visitor numbers to the site have now exceeded over 71,000.....keep it up.

Streamers

 We are having great fun watching the Streamers from various companies..A massive choice of evening viewing..I recall the days when we only had one choice  BBC1..then BB2..The ITV lincences blew the industry apart....fortunately it eneabled me to get a start in the industry.  I loved every minute of it.

One thing that is impressive with the Streamers..  The Production values..  The quality in almost every department is superb..Lotsa talented folk out there ....and vast amoutns of money..Long may it coinue..One day perhaps we can all enjoy 'HATRACK' when it reaches the right production company... working on it.... Keep a lookout.