Where have all the Richard Burtons gone?

I have just 'discovered' Richard Burton the discoverer!

Up until a few months ago the face to the name was singular as in Richard Burton of the 'Richard Burton and Liz Taylor' fame, now I have found Richard and Isabel...and what a find, like buried treasure they have surfaced and have enriched my life. I should thank Channel 4OD and an evening of thumb twiddling as it was one of those times where, myself not posessing a television, I really wanted to sit in front of the TV and be entertained. So I searched through the 4OD archives on my computer and found the actor Rupert Everett presenting a programme about the Victorian explorer Richard Burton. It was, I seem to recall, one of a series of programmes about The Victorians and in fact looked like the only thing worth watching.

Now I knew of the Karma Sutra and Arabian Nights but that was my limit, just the book titles, not enough knowledge of their content to write even one short sentence on them..[what you haven't had a go at a few karma sutra positions I hear you mutter]...so who was this other Richard Burton? Rupert Everett is an admirer and fan of the controversial Burton and in the programme he loosely follows in his footsteps and tells his story, mainly about his time in India in the Army attached to the British East India Company from which he then joined the geographical survey team and later became a member of the Royal Geographic Society, exploring parts of Africa and led an expedition in search of the as then unknown source of the river Nile with John Hanning Speke as friend and second in command ( what a friend he turned out to be!!) With his lust for adventure and his amazing linguistic abilities Burton worked undercover for the British army to find out valuable information, amongst his many tasks he was to investigate claims of homosexuality amongst the British soldiers in Brothels in Mumbai or Bombay as it was then, going in disguise of course. His report appeared to be a little too descriptive and shocking causing a few disgruntlements and murmerings under the colonial beards of high office. He was so adept at learning not just the language of a country but their regional dialects, habits and behaviour and this led him on an intriguing and successful journey in 1853 to Mecca in the guise of a Sindh Muslim. the programme left me wanting to know more about this chap so off to the library I went the very next day.......the rest is history...(to read)

I am not going to continue with a 'briefing' of his life because it will end in a blog as long as the biography that I'm now reading which is the size of the bible or an encyclopedia. Written by Mary. S. Lovell called 'A Rage to Live' it covers both the lives of Richard and his wife Isabel. If you want to know more....read it. I am on page 642, their story is told brilliantly by the author who appears to have devoted a tremendous amount of time and patience to eek out every drop of info that she could find, I take my hat off to her for the pleasure that she has given her readers. It sits by my bed and I have disciplined myself to read it in the mornings only, with a cup of tea in bed. If I don't place this restriction upon myself I fear that I would be reading it from dawn to dusk and my partner would have left me by now on grounds of neglect, so it is for the best.
What I really want to talk about here (yes at last I may be coming to the point of my monologue) is: Where is Richard Burton today? He may be under a different name but do we have such an incredible being amongst us? Is he slipping by unnoticed....no I think not, it would be impossible for a man of such magnitude and overflowing charisma to be ignored by our world media, after all we are drowning under the yawning headlines concerning the petty lives of so-called 'Celebs'. What a bore it has become. I can't believe that such mediocrity can warrant even a line in an obituary column.

Burton was a man of substance, an adventurer and he was interested in everything surrounding him, man, land and beast. He was a man who would not or could not stand by and watch unjust acts taking place, he was painfully truthful to the point that he voiced his opinions rather too willingly and upset many 'men in high places' of Government and military with his unwelcome truthful criticisms of them and their dogmatic, narrow-minded and inadequate rules and procedures that dazzled in their ineptitude when exposed by somebody as clever and forward thinking as Burton. He foretold and warned of imminent unrests in India and also of similar events in Damascus when he was British Consul there. Was of course reprimanded for speaking out as he was acting 'above his station' in doing so. He detested the 'Boys club' clique, would not entertain joining them but alas could not beat them, just like today, our politicians (puppets is more an appropriate term) and their invisible string pullers (IE; the oil and chemical industries) can not be beaten and they will 'make' you if you lick their ass or 'break' you if you show the V sign. So if you are listening Richard...believe me nothing changes....You were always going to be on a loser. Common sense and truth do not prevail in our politically corrupt and money grabbing world of charlatens.
One vital thing though, he fought his corner valiantly with the unwavering help and support of Isabel to the very end of his days and can now, or should in my view, stand in history as a great man of honour.

So, yes, getting back to today...again.... is there a foot for the Burton slipper to fit? I would really like to think so in this world decreasing in its diversity of man. I look aroud me and see dull eyes and conforming lifeless creatures moulded to fit in to a society where you abide by 'The rules. We need some outlaws to reinvigorate our sedated spirits!!
Not equating myself with an Isabel exactly but I certainly feel that we have much in common and if she were about today, given the chance we would have been pretty good friends, apart from her Catholicism, but I'm sure that would not stand between us, it didn't stand between Richard (who appeared to be at least agnostic if not atheist) and herself as theirs was the most interesting and fulfilled relationship between man and wife that I have ever read about.
How I yearn to live even half the life of what they lived.(perhaps missing out on the bouts of cholera, malaria, dysentry and numerous ailments suffered in the tropics in those days).
Well I suppose I have had a few adventures myself but travelling is far much easier today than in the 1800's. Reading their accounts, my adventures just pale into insignificance.

As I write this I am becoming aware that perhaps I am, not quite a lone voice, but maybe a voice of a diminishing group of beings. If we were an 'endangered species' we would have a protection order on us at least, even if our numbers were unsuccessful in increasing, but I fear that we may be left to join the other 'extinct' creatures who fell to the wayside, but I'm not going down without a fight either and so I leave you in the knowledge that.....I will be back...with or without my Richard Burton.

An offer I just had to refuse

You know when you're flitting around the Internet looking for something perhaps meaningful, enlightening or even slightly interesting, all these pop-ups appear...congratulations! YOU have WON!, YOU are the lucky winner!..or YOU are our millionth visitor and have WON....etc and sometimes you get the junk email saying ...this is not junk mail...this is genuine...please read and find out how YOU can win....
It's hard to escape it all and sometimes you are lured into clicking on the box..just in case it is geniune..after all, someones got to win, just like the lottery, you've got to be 'innit to winnit', haaa you know full well that you are just kidding yourself and the little men sitting on each of your shoulders are having a discussion through your ears 'yes I've won' says lefty, 'don't be so stupid' says righty, 'well I wont know unless I have a look' say lefty, 'god you are so gullible' says righty and so on....before you know it you are filling out your details to win the holiday of a lifetime or the chance to win a dream home. Then you've opened the floodgates to the junk mail that's been hovering around in interstellar just waiting for the foolish to invite them in and your time spent online intent on writing to your neglected friends gets swallowed up in sorting your mail into the good, the bad and the ugly.
Well here is a word of advise.....don't go there...its just a total waste and you could find yourself on the end of the phone line to some hard sell scam.....like me yesterday evening. This is what happened..
Paul calls me from the other room, "Pizza ready in 5 minutes!"
My mobile rings, "hello"....."Hi is that Sallysparkle?" returns the broad American male accent 'yes'...I say, thinking...do I know any Americans?...."Hi Sally and CONGRATULATIONS! YOU have been chosen at random along with 25 other British contestants to enjoy our 10 day holiday cruise of a lifetime to Florida sponsored by Universal studios and the Radisson Hotels chain for only $249 dollars for 4 people to include a mini cruise to the Bahamas, you will visit Atlantis the top island resort of the rich and famous, you and your group will have a luxury outer cabin, all meals inclusive....back in Florida..have you been to Florida Sally?" "uh no", I reply a little bemused by it all "you haven't! oh my god you are in for a real treat, YOU will be chauffeur driven to Disney world with free passes and then off to visit Universal studios with VIP passes and then we fly you to Las Vegas to stay in the top luxury 5 star hotel with fabulous meals and full use of all the facilities, swimming polls, jacuzzi, the incredible casinos where we give you $200 for you to place your stakes....hey, if you win your millions Sally, remember me, just send me a postcard, haa haa..."
Pizza's on the table!" another call from the kitchen.. "I'm sorry but I don't remember entering for this at all'...thinking...I wonder if I did when I was idly flitting around on the Internet....."Well Sally, you are Sallysparkle right? from 10...drive, Edinburgg [his pronunciation not my spelling error] we have your details right here that you filled in and we picked out at random, we don't just look through the telephone directory and cold call, you must have entered or we wouldn't be calling you, so this is your lucky day, like I said we are not giving this away for free, this is a special one off promotion and by doing this, Radisson will gain $thousands of dollars just from you and others like you having a terrific time and spreading the word'.. all great promotion for them and far more successful than advertising...remember though that this does not include flights but we can offer you the cheapest deals and your tickets for four are open and so you can book your fabulous holiday for whenever you want". Once you have these tickets Sally, if you change your mind about going you can always sell them, on eBay they will fetch $1600 dollars each so you cant lose on this one, I will send you an email confirmation and the tickets Will be in the post to you today, all I need is your authorisation and acceptance"...
by now I'm stunned and convinced that I have actually won something!...my mind is working overtime assimilating the info...Paul comes into the room with a puzzled look on his face miming eating actions and I just grin back...."so Sally have you got your Visa card there? I need you to confirm with payment of the $249......hello....sally"...... "No I'm sorry," I say, "I don't do that, I don't give my card details over the phone, if you send me the confirmation details first then we can proceed," "Sally I don't understand, whats the problem, its just a simple transaction there is no way you are in any danger of losing your card details here, I'm in America, you are in Britain right, we have different legal systems right, you are not signing your card to me, I cant use it for anything but this payment" his voice pitch has raised a little..."well if you can send me details first then phone me back we can go ahead" I say ,now reverting back to normal cynical and suspicious mode, "well I can send you the details but I wont be phoning you back with this offer you will have to pay full price", "okay that's fine give it to someone else my pizza's getting cold". with that he hung up.

Life soon went back to normal and after diner we sat and watched Grand Designs on more 4 like you do on a Saturday night.

More Tea Vicar?

Hi,

It's me again, [well to be honest who else would it be, I'm not really expecting any visitors]

There was a time when the local Vicar would call on his parishioners, do they still do that or do all Vicars now use email to keep in touch with their flock? It would be a shame, think of all those redundant teapots and the fine bone china tea sets all now gathering dust on the sideboards of the [with]drawing rooms of England.
I'm only talking like this because it is May and with this month comes the nostalgic smells of the hedgerows that have magically burst into life and send me reelling back to my childhood and my great aunty Evelyn's garden full of bluebells and primroses, forget -me-nots, oh and not forgetting stinging nettles which my sisters and me would always manage to fall into; Her little kitchen where the grandmother clock was always ticktocking and the white china tea cups and saucers with flowers and some with gold rims [all odd and un-matching] would clink amidst the chattering of my gran, mum and great aunty all their chin wagging was really boring for us kids but aunty Evelyn's loo was absolutely fascinating and we would invariably end up wandering down the weedy path [ahh hence the nettle stings] to the bottom of the garden to open the latch on the cronky shed to behold the sight of a wooden bench with 2 round wooden lids and dare each other to lift them up and peep in....we always did peep in....On a nail and neatly strung together were the evenly cut pieces of newspaper which we would try and piece together again to read.[who said chip paper was yesterday's news?]. Oddly enough and primitive as it was even then - as this must have been around 1969 -70's, and at our house we had an indoor flushing toilet - that loo never had a bad smell.
Further down the garden was the veg patch, small but always well stocked and the tomatoes in the little glasshouse were to die for...I would have died had I known then what I know now that the toilet fed the tomatoes!
This episode in my life no doubt prepared me for the great loo experiences that I encountered on my visits to Nepal and India, did I say prepare? actually nothing prepares you for the Nepali trekking toilet but the desperation of 'having to go'. I have a classic photo somewhere of one in the Annapurna mountains which I will dig out and post it on as pictures sometimes speak louder than words.
Well this has all nicely strayed away from the vicar and his e flock and I think it is time I 'rounded up' my bleatings and signed off for the day.
May you enjoy the rest of May.

Miss sparkle.

Flagging at the blogging already

Okay so Blogging has been around a while but so have I but look where it's got me? This morning I thought that I would try out this blogging thing and so far I havent a clue how it is supposed to work, its progress though because I am here writing this blog, to whom? I may ask, as nobody else will ask as so far I can't see how anyone else would ever get wind of it. This has taken me about 6 hours of my precious life today and as I am rather a determined and stubborn kind of person I am not going to be beaten, I will find out how this all works... I will..I wiiiiill...but before I go any further I desperately need a cup of tea... ah the pleasures of just switching on the kettle and pouring yourself a cup of tea all in the space of a predictable 5 minutes, fully confident that you will not come across any complications that will hinder your day, after all, I was only going to create a blog to promote my website....can somebody enlighten me?...hello....anyone out there on the highway? I need to know how I can link this to.. well anyone really...meanwhile I'm going back to my cuppa and a jammy dodger.