Spandau prison-Smuts barracks. Originally uploaded by iwmpop .

The Prisoner in Cell Number……… (for http://www.marquisdugalipot.blogspot.com/ ) I tapped, as usual, nervously, in my crease block, and awaited the next delivery. When it came, it was such a loose ball, that I was pleased to dispatch it high and long to the boundary, forcing the Umpire to lift both hands, and signal yet another six runs. The surrounding fielders threw looks which would have killed, but I didn’t look, I was too busy getting somebody in Uniform from the spectators block, the higher ranked the better, to go and ask – “Can we have our balls back?” This was Spandau, West Berlin, cricket balls were rare things, and I had just hit the last of our supply over the boundary wall. Six runs – yes, but into the closely guarded confines of Spandau Prison, at the moment guarded by our Russian “allies”, to join the other 10 or 12 balls I had already put there! Simply climb over the 3 different barbed wire perimeters, then the wall, all this whilst avoiding the Russian doggies, the Russ...

Wonder what Blog has got up his sleeve for me this time! As you will know, if you read your mail,after the re-installation of every damned thing (thank you Mr Gates) including over 2000 photos, it is now time to find out whether my Java script is ok (the PC tells me it's all hunky-dory, but...........) and if all the other things needed to run a Blogspot, like bikkies (sorry - cookies) are all in place, all working, like me, and if they have all taken their little pills and aspirin this morning (like me). If they have, then they should all be healthy and wiser (like me) and everything should be tickety-boo! I hesitate to beleive it - we'll see. Are my smilies intact? Well - these are the most up-to-date one's, proof that I ain't no old-fashioned guy! Chippie welcoming his grandson to France. Winifred doing sporty things. Tinkerbelle doing her thing! Rob and Henk being naughty boys. Finally, a repeat of my NEW winter visiting card! You see re-instal...

Your PC is great! I don't send messages or attachments with virus in them! The following adress can simplify things, if you want! (if you have a "pop-up" blocker installed, you may have to hold down the CTRL tab whilst clicking on the adress link) You can look at loads of photos of people you know from this site, if you click on the link "photos from iwmpop" it's easy and interesting! This page will also be used for any health updates as and when available. Have a look in - it's free (and that is something for a Scotsman)! http://www.webspawner.com/users/mrlemarquis/index.html Have fun!

l'arrivee 2 Originally uploaded by iwmpop . All the mayor's horses and all the mayor's men - getting to the war memorial this morning for a short service. They got back a lot quicker afterwards to the town hall - there were snacks and free aperos on the go! Only for them - not for me, the photographer.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Just to remind you that easy access to ALL the sites of Mr le Marquis can be had by putting the following address onto your favourites (and why not as a shortcut to your desktop?) From this page, you can click onto 5 or 6 different sites, (there are 2 "under construction" - my details - signature and Photopage) all belonging to mr le Marquis: http://www.webspawner.com/users/mrlemarquis/index.html Just click on the above, and put into your favourites!!! Drop me an e-mail to say what you think (if it's nice!).

Well, maybe I can get back to a little bit of normality now, and I notice from my list that I have various subjects outstanding on the Blogspot side, all of which have had a little research done on them, so the question is to figure out in what order they should be presented! Between the DDR (once upon a time E. Germany) and Berlin split in two, and the start of the Christmas story 2005/2006 lies a world of difference, but both are “pressing”. A “Scotsman’s lament” can maybe wait (we always have a lament) but would be ideal to cling out the year of 2005. Autobiographical things will take time – years indeed, so it will probably never be finished, but a continuation should be attempted. All these things, plus all the others that, day in and day out, are suggested by little bits in the news programmes or in mail received, and it rapidly becomes evident that I haven’t time for doctors, hospitals and such drivel! Let’s close the seals on all that, for the moment, with the spot “Destiny”...

Destiny!? I recall, a long time ago, taking what seemed to be a magic book (and a very large one too – but then at 5 years of age everything seems big)into my grubby little hands, and riffled through the pages, looking at photos and maps, and all sorts of things concerned with anywhere else in the world, except where I actually was! It was a world atlas of course, and since the first sputniks hadn’t yet been shot up into space, the world was still square! This made it easier for the publishers to get everything on the pages! I recall looking at vast (at least 20 pages long) areas in a place called Canada, which were apparently empty. I couldn’t imagine anything being empty, our house NEVER was, but in any case, Canada didn’t interest me too much. Later on, when I found out that I had an Uncle (as a naughty boy, conveniently forgotten by the family) who lived there, and who had gone into the record books as owning the LARGEST camp-site in the world! May have been of use to have known th...

Download picture Originally uploaded by iwmpop . With reference to the blogspot following (Blogger's picture service didn't want to work again!) DOWNLOAD AT YOUR OWN PERIL!!!!!!!!

Latest download………… latest update……… latest download…….. latest update… Vauvert, France. 8 November 2005. Boy and Girls, ladies and gentlemen, gay and straight, literate or illiterate, here is the latest update, as promised, only on the Marquis. As you can see from the warning window, certain files can be useful, certain can be destructive! Well, this one is a little on the destructive side for me, but not for you! “After long consultations with the local Doctor, who has finally been obliged to accept the extreme limitations on the French National Health System procedures, it has been agreed by all and sundry (myself being sundry) that no further action except “danger limitation medicaments” will be taken until the dossier containing ALL matters appertaining to Mr. le Marquis is finalized and accepted by all. This means that the demands made by the representatives of Mr. le Marquis that he be accorded the right of “ta...

Last night was Guy Fawkes night in UK. For those of you who come from civilised countries, this is an evening when everybody is allowed to set up an enormous fire, outside, stick a dummy figure on the top of it, set fire to the lot, and dance around eating baked potatoes, gingerbread stuff, occasionally firing off rockets and bangers (fireworks- otherwise knows as feu d'artifices) in the direction of nothing that belongs to yourself. If it doesn't rain, the evening is enhanced by the regular arrivals and departures of ambulances and fire brigades, the first to take away the younger members of the firework lighting group (you know, the ones who weren't allowed to buy fireworks 'cos they were too young!) and the second to put out the fires caused by "falling to earth burnt-out, but not quite dead yet rockets/fireworks." As a kid, we used to take great pleasure in pinching sleepers from the local railway line, put them on the bonfire, cover them with twigs and bo...

This is the REAL home of Mr. le Marquis, don't be taken in by the following nonsense! 3rd storey, 2nd ,3rd and 4th windows on the left are my apartments. The rest are causies for the English!

But life will go on - and so, unfortunately for you, will this Blog!!!! Even if I may have to return to the ancestral home, you know, that Scottish castle you all see over Halloween, where it creaks and squeaks, and where "things" pop out of the woodwork. We don't bury or burn our ancestors, we put them into those suits of armour you see on the stairways. Happily, we Highlanders only die rarely, after 7 lives, each one averaging 77 years = ???? 'Tis the basis of the rumour about Scottish parsimony. One suit of armour every 529 years is better than a coffin a week! So, folks, until the next crazy blogspot, have fun, but not too much!

3 of 3 - and bye-bye. Originally uploaded by iwmpop . The third and last of the series. Actually the beginning a great story.

2 of 3 Originally uploaded by iwmpop . They didn't have any double beds in the hospital! Number 2 of three to finish the story.

1 of 3 Originally uploaded by iwmpop . To complement and to end the episode of health dealt with in the publication before this, a photo of things which happen.

3 November 2005. Vauvert,France. Statement concerning the health of Mr le Marquis du Galipot (mr I.W. MITCHELL) Dear Friends and readers, This Blogspot can now take a different aspect, for a while, and can serve as a sort of "bulletin board". This bulletin will only be updated as the actual facts develope, and will only be briefly stated. My state of health at the moment is not too wonderful, if one can believe the medical people. The latest developements leave no doubts as to the urgency of treatment, surgical and medical, for my heart condition of some 15 years. Confirmation of a diabetes and cancer generalised do not improve the situation. All I can, and will say, is that it is not difficult to imagine leaving a cesspool. Apart from a personal letter to those who have asked, in the past, for the same, no personal conversations will be held upon the subject, and thereafter I ask the persons who recieve such personal letters to look at this Blogspot for future bulletins. The...

As a once-upon-a time famous British "comedian" used to say - "Well, Mr. Winthrup, I'll go now, don't want to go, but if you don't need me, then I'll go, although I don't really want to go , Mr Drysdale etc.............." My local Doctor is a guy like that, nice chap, but absolutely insupportable when he starts on his "Mr Mitchell, I can't leave you in this state" routine. Truth be told, I'm going to Nimes, France, tomorrow just to keep HIM happy! I've already (it's 2100hrs) taken my last drops of alcoholical beverage until tomorrow afternoon, I'm not even allowed a coffee tomorrow morning - BUGGAR ALL! I'll have to get up at 6am, get in a bus with around a thousand schoolkids and satchels etc., pay for the pleasure, make sure that my urine sample (taken last night and mixed with a little cognac) doesn't spill over, arrive about 2 hours before the actual place even opens (they probably were all on the po...

I'd spent the evening, or the early part of it, bolstering my local reputation, as a sort of mixture of werewolf, wizard, monster who ate young children, older children, adults, in fact who ate anything which came across his path. People murbled that I even had recipes for each stage of life, of EVERYTHING! Actually, the flickering light that everybody saw coming from my quarters, amounted to nothing more than my feeble attempts to beat the kids who, accompagnied by their parents, felt that this evening they had the right to ring everybodie's doorbell, and DEMAND sweets, a treat, or whatever. My earlier attempts to offer a cooking pot as a treat had been unsuccessful, the little beggars (and the bigger ones too) suspecting that the scenario was not quite sweeties/bonbons and coke-cola! Anyway, everything had gone off well, and my switching on and off the lights had probably deterred a few, less determined, and maybe some of the really determined had passed by during a period...