Yes Sir Humphrey

People do have funny ideas about the civil service. We’re just here to help formulate and implement your policies.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 7, 2021

Yes Sir Humphrey

Yes, it was our policy not to have a policy.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 10, 2021

Yes Sir Humphrey

The first rule of politics: never believe anything until it's been officially denied.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 9, 2021

Yes Sir Humphrey

Politicians like to panic. They need activity. It's their substitute for achievement.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 8, 2021

Yes Sir Humphrey

In my experience Ministers don't think. They never stopped to think, even if they possessed the basic intelligence necessary for thought – which several of them did not.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 7, 2021

Yes Sir Humphrey

If there had been investigations, which there haven't, or not necessarily, or I'm not at liberty to say whether there have, there would have been a project team which, had it existed, on which I cannot comment, would now have been disbanded, if it had existed.

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 3, 2021

Yes Sir Humphrey

The public doesn’t know anything about wasting government money. We're the experts!

— Sir Humphrey Appleby (@YesSirHumphrey) January 2, 2021

Dog thoughts

we are approaching the time of year. when humans look back. and think about. what they could have done better. not me though. i was perfect

— Thoughts of Dog® (@dog_feelings) December 17, 2020

Great Little Blue Penguin race

Andrew Cotter of Olive and Mabel fame, commentates Phillip Island’s little blue pneguin’s homecoming race:

Olive and Mabel sporting archives

Olive and Mabel company meeting

Olive and Mabel walk of shame

Game of Bones

Eleven days before Christmas

Twelve days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “If the wind keeps up the lucerne should be fit by mid-afternoon and we’ll start making hay so there could be a few extra men for tea.”

Eleven days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “I have to go through to a sale in Central today. I haven’t forgotten the school concert and I should be back in time, but if I’m late you’ll have to go without me.”

12 days before Christmas

Twelve days before Christmas my farmer said to me, “If the wind keeps up the lucerne should be fit by mid-afternoon and we’ll start making hay so there could be a few extra men for tea.”

(Yes you might have read this before, either in the ODT where it first appeared many Christmases ago, or here at least once in the past. Why post it again? A friend who came to the Rotary Christmas dinner on Wednesday said someone had read this out at a lunch a few days earlier and most people hadn’t heard it before. It’s probable a lot of readers are in that position too so I decided to post it again).

The most courageous thing

Dame Edna Everage on Parkinson

Beekeeping

No Corona

World Laughter Day

Today is World Laughter Day:

The first “World Laughter Day” gathering took place in Mumbai, India, on 11th of January 1998. 12,000 members from local and international Laughter Clubs joined together in a mega laughter session (the number is valid because that’s how many meals were served.)

“HAPPY-DEMIC” was the first World Laughter Day gathering outside India. It took place on 9th January 2000, in Copenhagen, Denmark and more than 10,000 people gathered in the Town Hall Square . The event went into the Guinness Book of World records.

World Laughter Day is now celebrated on the first Sunday of May every year in most large cities around the world. Hundreds of people (oftentimes thousands) gather worldwide on that day to laugh together.

The usual format of a WLD celebration is the congregation of laughter club members, their families and friends at some important landmark in their city like big squares, public parks or auditoriums laugh collectively. In India, Laughter Club members often do a peace march. They carry banners and placards such as “World Peace Through Laughter, The Whole World Is An Extended Family, Join a Community Laughter Club – it’s free!” etc. During the march all chant “Ho Ho, Ha-Ha-Ha” and “very good, very good, yay!” clapping and dancing. After walking some distance, they stop to do a few Laughter Yoga exercises and then move on. At the end of the march, they laugh together for 10 minutes or so and then read Dr. Kataria’s message for World Peace. This is followed by a variety entertainment program of music, dance and laughter contests e.g., best laughing man/woman/child/senior, etc. Winners are those with the most infectious, natural and effortless laughter. See how a laughter contest is organized here.

Learn more about World Laughter Day and watch videos here. There are lots of pictures here.