01/12/2010 - 02/12/2010 Wikileaks, FIFA, World Cup, SNOW

Wednesday 1st December, we attempt to get the Metro to Newcastle, Christmas shopping, what joy. The snow has disrupted the Metro, signals are frozen or some such rubbish. We take the car. The upside is, hardly anyone has made it, so parking is easy, and the shops are empty. Not such jolly news for the retailers of course.

Thursday, still snowing. In between falls, I clear the drive yet again.

The snow continues, as if that is not bad enough, the news is consumed by:

• The weather, well the snow
• Wikileaks
• Englands World Cup Bid

We are getting daily reports from Longhorsley in Northumberland. Now it is a very nice place, with an equally nice pub, but it is hardly remote, it is located on an "A" road (A697), and is only about 7 miles north of Morpeth.



I can only assume that a staff member from BBC Newcastle lives there, hence the interest.

Wikileaks, was boring to begin with, is anyone surprised to hear that diplomats spend a lot of their time engaged in tittle-tattle?. Plus big surprise Prince Andrew thinks the Yanks know nothing of Geography, and the French are quite happy to bung a bribe to win a lucrative arms deal. That is what we all think, and I would have thought he (Prince Andrew) has just gone up in most peoples esteem for thinking likewise. So what if he launched a patriotic, expletive laden tirade in front of some American "diplomat", they export their expletive laden films and TV programs to us, so they can just take it for once.

Now we hear that Julian Assange, the founder of wikileaks is "in hiding" and in fear of assination attempts, has anyone (other than his mother perhaps) noticed his absence I wonder?

FIFA and the World Cup, oh the worry in case our free press (Panorama) have upset FIFA and they take their ball home.

Do we really want to stage the World Cup, given our performance this year?

We will probably be knocked out in the first round, and then have to be nice to all of those teams left in, it would be just our luck if Scotland won it or worse still Wales.

28/11/2010 - 30/11/2010 Google's infallibility, Snow

I am a great fan of Google, in the past two weeks alone, it has provided the answer to such diverse questions as:

• Where can I buy a replacement flushing syphon for the toilet cistern.
• How do I fit the replacement flushing syphon.
• What was that brightly coloured bird I saw in the garden.
• What is the significance of the place name Brockley Whins.
• All about squirrels.

But, here is someone who clearly disagrees with me (not unusual).

Now, I would have guessed that Claude Presbyterian Church was in a place called Claude, but Google tells me it is actually in Caledon, Ontario, Canada, plus lots of other interesting information about the place.

Sunday we wake up to more snow.

This is probably all very amusing, if you live in a place that gets "real" snowfall (like Canada), but here in the UK, we are never prepared for it, and even an inch of snow causes chaos, with roads closed, airports closed, etc etc.

So overnight we have had another 3.5", now in our back garden we have 10" of snow lying, with another 4" forecast for today and tonight.

This is like the winters I remember from my childhood. In weather like this we children would be off to the nearest hill with our sledges, or for the poorer ones among us, with pieces of cardboard, to slide down the hill.

This has not changed too much, there are a number of children out sledging, but in this relatively affluent area, they all have shop bought sledges, no pieces of cardboard in sight.

One thing which has changed, is the small number of people who clear the snow from their path, and from the footpath outside of their homes. In my childhood, only a few lazy individuals failed to do this. People would also clear the snow for elderly or infirm nieghbours. Not now it would seem. In our street of eleven houses, only myself and one other bother to clear their path.

Monday, the snow thaws ever so slightly, and only another 1" falls, the weather forecast is for strong winds, which if they arrive, will make things unpleasant.

Kathleen tries to get me into the Christmas spirit, without success, I hate this time of year with all of it's false cheer.



  

24/11/2010 to 27/11/2010 Snow, Snow and More Snow

Wednesday afternoon is spent painting the bedroom walls at Tanya's flat. It is a light colour to cover a dark colour, so it definately going to need two coats, what fun. Do you detect my enthusiasm is waning?

In the evening the snow starts, how I hate winter!

Thursday, it is daughter-in-law, Susana's birthday.

Birthday wishes are sent by text, although the more traditional flowers and card have already been dispatched.

We awake to a good three inches (OK, 7.5 cm for you metric types) of snow lying.

According to the news, the East coast of England  is effected most, no doubt this will bring the whole area to a shuddering stop.

More painting, at Tanya's flat, on for the second coat now, so at least I get the satisfaction of it begining to look good.

There is no heating on in the place, so I am painting with my coat and scarf on!

As if decorating is not enough, Tanya's iron has given up the ghost.

I suspect the flex is broken, but being a Morphy Richards it has "tamper proof" screws to encourage you to buy a new iron, not very environmentally friendly.

I borrow a suitable tool to overcome the "tamper proof" screws, but it is not the flex, The lights come on but it does not get hot, so it looks like the element has gone, it is destined for the great iron graveyard.

Friday, and still it is snowing.

A sign of getting old, I wimp out of my usual Friday night trip to the Grey Horse, on the basis that the weather is bad. If you bear in mind, I get a lift there, and a taxi back, that is pathetic old person stuff isn't it.

Initially I amuse myself on the Internet, reading about Squirrels (both Red and Grey). This obscure interest being fired off by a conversation with a neighbour, which included mention of the fact that, despite the prescence of quite a large number of trees nearby, we have never seen a squirrel in the garden. I never cease to be amazed at the sheer volume and variety of "information" you can find on the internet, about just about any subject under the sun.

Later we amuse ourselves watching TV. Since Friday night TV, in common with most nights, is crap and consists of non-stop soaps, this involves scrolling through the list of stuff we have recorded at some point in the past in the hope it may be watchable.

The first three films we begin watching we have already seen, and I cannot stand watching something I have already seen, but we eventually while away the evening with:

• the new version of Reggie Perrin (not as good as the old version in my opinion, but still quite funny).  
• a documentary about how the landscape of Scotland developed, interesting only for the fact that the presenter managed to tell us how climate change in the 1400's killed off thousands of trees (not many aircraft, power stations or cars around in 1400 according my understanding of history), whilst still admonishing us humans with the present "climate change" scare stories.

In the meantime, the snow is still falling, fortified with a few drinks we venture outside with our digital cameras to make very inexpert photographs of the night time snow fall.

For my first effort, I try the snow scene setting, in the back garden, where there is virtually no artificial light, well apart from the usual "light pollution" to be expected in an urban area.

Not very successful, in my opinion.

Athough the the falling snow flakes are well defined.

I reason that the setting for "Snow Scene" probably means day time snow scene so I switch the setting to "night scene", but the exposure time is clearly too long for a hand held shot by someone shivering in the snow, with the inevitable blurred result.

At least you can see the garden, and I suppose it could be regarded as being artistic, if you were being kind.

I round off with a couple of shots, using "night scene", in the front street, where there is good street lighting, but the results are not much, if any, better.

Clearly, if I am to take this photography lark seriously (which I am not), I need to learn at least how to use the camera I have.

There must be a setting which allows you to adjust the exposure time manually (I think), or perhaps the answer is to use the night scene setting but with the camera on a solid surface, instead of in my shaky hand!

Before giving up, I work my way through the bewildering list of menu settings available, firing off a few shots to try out the results, nothing startlingly good (or bad) I am afraid.

At one point I think I have found the setting for adjusting the exposure time, but no, it is the setting for "delayed action", shots, presumably to allow the photographer to get in the picture him/her self.

 Interest wanes, and I end up with a shot to show off our decorating efforts, in the Lounge.



Saturday, the snow continues to fall.


Kathleen decides to go Christmas shopping in Sunderland with Dana and Claire.

Are women totally insane when it comes to shopping?, I would have thought that six or more inches of snow was a perfect excuse to give it a miss!

So, I dig out the car, and clear enough snow so she can get into it without crampons, before dropping her off at the metro station.

January 9th 2010

The snow continues, I carry out my morning ritual of clearing the snow, which fell last night. I am running out of space to stack it now and there is at least 8" (20cm) lying on the ground. Even on the road, where the snow is hard packed, the layer must be at least 2" deep.

Called to visit Martin, since it is his birthday today. Not that you would know it, there he is busily washing pots and pans from breakfast (which no doubt he cooked), whilst the three women in his life busy themselves in deciding which hat and socks to wear when they go out sledging. 

On the News they are saying the country is about to run out of salt to treat the roads, the Government are stepping in to "organise" rationing. Heaven help us, since we know that anything they touch turns to sh*t. Lord Adonis (another of our unelected leaders) has it in hand I am sure. If he is as good at managing Salt distribution as he is at evading election contests we have no need to worry.

Super Gordon has survived the latest attempt to replace him, (no doubt ably assisted by the Prince of Darkness) and now we have Alistair Darling telling us we are in for the biggest public spending cuts in 20 years. Does this herald a new phase in the Election Campaign I wonder?, will each party now be falling over themsleves to tell us how they will cut more and more, untill eventually they are not spending any of OUR money.

31st December 2009

After a brief thaw, we have snow for New Years Eve. Here in Newcastle area we have about 3 inches (7.5cm for you youngsters), assuming you are desperate enough to be reading this of course. We can therefore expect the sort of disruption which 3 feet (30cm) would cause in any other country.

A bit of festive cheer for you, check this out:

www.timhawkins.net/video/government-can.html

you have to take away the americanisms, but other than that it fits pretty well.

Happy New Year to you all.

Friday 18th December 2009

Today we have snow. Nothing spectacular, here in near Newcastle we have about 1cm, elsewhere about 8cm has fallen. Needless to say the UK is brought to a standstill, schools are closed, etc etc how embarassing.

We have more advice for parents from chief medical officer Liam Donaldson. Now he is bleating on about "middle class" parents attempts to promote responsible drinking in their offspring. Is this man insane?, does he ever leave his ivory tower?. What he needs to do is to take himself a ride on the Tyneside Metro (or probably the equivalent in Liverpool, Manchester etc etc), late in the evening of the average Saturday if he has a death wish, but late afternoon will do if he wishes to live long enough to draw his (inflation proof) pension. He will see that the problem does not lie with parents who try to do the right thing (even if they are occasionally wrong), but with the vast number who consider, that avidly following X-Factor and exercising a complete lack of control over their offspring, is the way to produce good citizens.

But no, the class war must go on, it has to be the fault of the "middle class" who ever they may be.

We are further told by various "experts", that the low cost of alcohol is the problem. Even the Guardian today publishes data (www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/dec/17/alcohol-children-liam-donaldson-drugs-cannabis-tobacco-data#data) which shows that countries (such as France), where alcohol is available more freely and more cheaply that here do not have the appallingly high levels of alcohol abuse by young people as we "enjoy" in the UK.