No, I’m not from the Express and Star!

This couple asked me to take their photo on Friday when I was photographing the switch on of the Christmas lights in Wednesbury. This post will probably be syndicated on the YamYam and so maybe they will see their photo. Earlier two rather rude women asked if I was from the Express and Star, the regional newspaper. They walked away uninterested when they realised I wasn’t.

Express and Star

I don’t think the Express and Star can afford to cover local events like this and so bloggers will do it from now on. I’ve photographed a few events now and reviewed art exhibitions. In the summer I covered the carnival and I went out in freezing weather to cover this. If you’re not nice to me, I point my camera elsewhere. I don’t have to suck up to anyone. I did see the mayor walk past with her entourage heading for the warmth of the stage. Apparently someone had called her the mayoress and she was correcting them. It can be confusing, we used to have chairman and chair-woman, now the politically correct insist on ‘chair’.

Its like dog and bitch, people get confused:

Aynuk was walking up town with his whippet on a lead and his missus on his arm.

They sin Ayli coming the other way…

Ayli said, “Is that a bitch?”

“Dow upset her Ayli, she woe cook the tay…”

Local readers will understand that joke… Hopefully.

Anyway, I was bloody freezing and they didn’t switch the lights on until about 6:25 by which time my fingers were numb. Hence there are no pictures of the Mayor, the local poet or the ‘singer’ who murdered ‘Simply the best’. I couldn’t get near the stage anyway.

Boris Johnson

Not many people know that Boris Johnson was once a hack for the Express and Star. So he probably knows the difference between a mayor and a mayoress. He probably knows the difference between a dog and a bitch too. 

From the Guardian:

Nick Clegg has attacked the “unpleasant, careless elitism” of Boris Johnson and his remarks about IQ, and accused him of talking about people as if they were dogs.

The deputy prime minister laid into Johnson after the Conservative London mayor mocked the 16% “of our species” with an IQ below 85 and called for more to be done to help the 2% of the population who have an IQ above 130.

Johnson made the remarks during a speech in honour of Margaret Thatcher, declaring that inequality was essential to foster “the spirit of envy” and hailing greed as a “valuable spur to economic activity”.

Margaret Thatcher has been gone for a while now; it’s time they stopped celebrating…  Yes, greedy people contribute a lot to the economy. People who actually fix their cars, build their houses, mind their kids and look after their granny contribute, nowt. Right?

Time for a picture:

Wednesbury Market looked nice. There was a singer doing a good job of it at the bottom of Union Street braving the cold long before the dignitaries turned up. Friday at 6pm wasn’t a good time, that is the middle of the rush hour. Cars were streaming past on their way to Junction 9 of the M6. Why is it worse on Fridays? Don’t they all go home on other days? Or are they all off to their second homes in Chipping Norton for the weekends?

This was as close as I got to the stage. Some people barged through the crowds, but I’m more well mannered. Boris Johnson would have got through, but he’s making £250,000 a year now writing crap for the Telegraph. They won’t send someone who earns a grand a day to Wednesbury. I didn’t get a free mug of Bovril, I don’t know about money…

Boris said something about grammar schools in his speech, it seems he’s in favour of bringing them back. He would approve of me going to my school reunion after I had photographed this where we lamented the decline in education. Personally, I would have liked to have studied Media and sociology when I was at school. I had to struggle with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English Language, English Literature, Art, German, Religious Education, Physical Education, Geography and History. I think that was enough. I don’t know how the kids of today manage with the extra subjects like home economics and the history of multi cultural Islamic gay pride. I forgot, I did woodwork too. I’ll get sarcastic comments about the stool I made now…

What do you think? Please share your thoughts and your best Aynuk and Ayli jokes in the comments box. Yow con folla me on Twitter anorll. Follow me on Twitter even… 

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