British Summer Time

On Sunday morning we all put the clocks forward so it’s now officially British Summer time. Maybe someone forgot to tell the weather man because half of Scotland is closed down with snow again. Since they put the clocks forward we have had a real cold spell with overcast skies and rain at best. Of course, this weekend is bank holiday for Easter time and we always have rubbish weather for our bank holidays.

Another thing that seems to have dominated our news today is the unveiling of Boris Johnson’s (the current Mayer of London) “Thing” as he calls it but it's our monument for the 2012 Olympic Games. It seems to have caused a sensation in the wrong way; almost everyone seems to hate it. I personally find it inoffensive and can see why it is the way it is. You can almost see the Olympic torch in the middle but it looks a bit like the Oscar trophy which isn’t a bad thing. Also you can almost see the 5 interlocking circles of the games but the most impressive thing about it, is its size. Size is everything. I couldn’t resist putting this photo of Claire in when we were out at Robbie’s with Mad and Steve; Chucky comes to mind.

The other bit of controversial news this week was the lady that works in a pet shop being summonsed to court on 3 counts for selling a goldfish to a boy (or girl) of fourteen. Apparently a law was passed in 2006 that stopped under 16 year olds from buying any animals. So far this law has been ignored until now and it seems like a bit of a test case. Someone official sent their son (or daughter into this shop to buy a goldfish to see if they were allowed to purchase it. The lady in the shop admitted selling the fish to the boy but said that he easily passed for 16. The law is saying that it was a 14 year old girl that was sent in and the shop keeper said that boy or girl, they looked like being 16. Anyway what on earth is our country coming to? Don’t we have better things to waste our time and efforts on? Well obviously, I don’t, but you would expect that the media and courts do. It reminds me of the rat that Gino killed, cooked and ate in this years “I’m a celebrity get me out of here” in the jungles (or Bush) of Australia. The Australian authorities had him summonsed back there and he narrowly escaped a Gail sentence but heavy fines were issued. We seem to be going back to the days when you would be sent to prison for stealing a loaf of bread but this time murderers get off free on a technicality. Does that also mean that under 16 year olds can’t go fishing anymore? If they are not sensible enough to buy a goldfish in a plastic bag of water, how can they be mature enough to catch one on a hook, release the hook and kill it humanely? Obviously, even our celebrity chef Gino is not trustworthy enough to do that.

I don’t know where the week has gone this week; I have not even managed to get into Rexam where I used to work. Claire is forcing me to visit the health club in Bletchley daily which is taking up enough time, but probably for good reason. We have still been catching up from being away and everything seems to be breaking. Our tv broke and we took it in to be fixed and I just had a call this morning to say that one of the circuit boards has blown but it may have been the screen that caused it to blow. If it’s just the circuit board it will be around £300 to fix and if the screen has also gone at least another £500. What? You can get a new one these days for less than that with a new guarantee. We have only had it just over 2 years and it cost £2000 then, it’s just not good enough. I think I will buy the next one from John Lewis because they give you a 5 year guarantee as standard. You might pay a little more but you do get excellent service from them. Anyway, I also managed to get to the library for a few books and have just finished James Lovelock’s latest one that he wrote about 1 or 2 years ago. If you remember, he wrote The Guide to Gaia in the 70’s where he saw the Earth acting like a living organism that self regulated itself so as to always be suitable for life and was a sensation at the time. I read it at the time and loved it; it seemed to make me see the world in a different light which has never left me. He made an error or two in it and almost every scientist of the time jumped on it and slated it off but over the years almost all seem to have come over to accepting its general ideas. However the word Gaia in the scientific world is still a bad one that seems to be avidly avoided. His new book is called, “The vanishing Face of Gaia, a final warning” and I also loved that. James is now in his 90’s and still actively writing controversial material that I find interesting. He has always wanted to see the world from space as a single entity and now it seems that he might fulfil, at least this part, of his “bucket list”. Our old friend, Richard Branson has come to his rescue and has offered him a place on his new “Virgin Galactica” (or whatever it is called) so he just has to hope that he can live long enough to get up there. Anyway, in this book, his view of the consequences of global warming is far more extreme than even the most way out Greenpeace campaigner. He believes that we are already too late to make any difference by reducing our carbon footprint so there is no real point in even trying; better to prepare for our new hot Earth stage and try to survive by making ourselves more self sufficient with food and power and also make space for extra people migrating from Europe. He thinks that England, Tazmania and New Zealand may have a chance of being temperate enough to still grow crops in any quantities. Trouble is that the sea level is rising fast so don’t build too close to the coast. A great read and he always manages to convince me so maybe here in MK we might be a little closer to the coast in the future – “every cloud”.

The other great book that came out this week is a travel blog about a couple that travelled around the world called, “Phil and Claire Down Under”. Haven’t those guys, just got back from that trip? Now we know where the week has gone. But isn’t that picture on the front cover, the Grand Canyon? Happy Easter Everyone!