Went to Cambridge this weekend with Helen and Rob, stayed at my Dad's place while he was back home for the weekend. That was quite fun, Helen's blog gives you a lot more detail of some of the stuff we've done together this week, I don't seem to have been particularly verbose of late, sorry.

Also, one of the things we did during my week off (did I ever actually mention that I had a week off? Or did I just seem to be disappearing around the country? Oh well, maybe you figured out I had a holiday, maybe you didn't, it probably didn't impact your life much, or even matter much for reading this blog) was drive around Leicestershire and Rutland, visiting many small villages, which was nice. Anyway, there was a village called Whitwell, nice small village, lovely, but on entering the village we kind of did a double-take when we saw the sign, you know those now entering signs. This one said Whitwell twinned with Paris. Paris! As in Capital of France? How on earth can a small village in Rutland be twinned with Paris, that makes no sense at all!

I felt that rather than simply put this as an observation I would do some research, so I went to great lengths to perform an exhaustive research stint and provide an answer to this taxing question and so one google search later (a search during which I neglected to use any kind of proper search techniques such as inverted commas) I unearthed the reason and it made me laugh, so I'm posting it here, with absolutely no permission to do so...

From House of Commons Hansard for 11 Dec 1992

Mr. Alan Duncan (Rutland and Melton) : The House will look kindly on the warm and generous words that the hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Campbell-Savours) had for my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Mr. Lester), which reflected not only on the merits of my hon. Friend's Bill but on him personally.

Okay, that bit wasn't funny, but let's you know the riveting material I waded through on your behalf (well, okay, maybe I just used the find tool and didn't read the rest of the page, so I guess it's possible it's actually a spoof page and nothing is true, but I looked at a bit and it looked boring and still, some effort) I hope you appreciate the lengths I've gone to for you, my devoted readers.

In an excellent speech, my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, South (Mr. Ottaway) referred to some unpronounceable town in Hungary that is twinned with Chorley. That struck a particular note with me. If one drives, as I often do, past Rutland Water and through the small village of Whitwell, one cannot help but notice a large sign proclaiming, "Whitwell--twinned with Paris".


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One might ask how such a tiny mouse of a town could be twinned with such an elephant of a European capital. That came about because the parish council, which is very internationalist in its outlook, wrote to the mayor of Paris explaining that Whitwell lay at the heart of England and wished to twin with an important capital on the European mainland. The council received no reply. It wrote again, and still no reply came. On the third occasion, the council's letter included a paragraph stating, "If we receive no reply within five weeks, Mr. Mayor, we shall assume that you have agreed to our proposal." The sign was erected in the fifth week and has remained there ever since.

I don't know what I can say to add to that, nothing really, just one of those fantastic true stories. Maybe there's a lesson to be learnt, but I can't be bothered and who'd be listening anyway?

Random observation of the day

The singer that Helen and I were ridiculing on top of the Pops the other night without knowing who he was, turned out to be none other than Matt Goss! Wow, that pleases me, I was sitting there saying he's out of tune and criticising his song and it's a person who I thought was a bad singer during my childhood. I remember the Bros jokes comparing bros fans to planks of wood. Confirming that I did have taste as a kid and was right to think he couldn't sing. I had no idea he was back on the scene, wonder what his brother's up to, maybe realising that they didn't have talent.