The Gas Bill

Today the Gas bill arrived.  Naturally we arose to frozen landscapes, home and feet!  This in the week the Gas company ended the connection with their chairman, offering him a mere £13 million payoff.  The tax payer however will be happy, the taxpayer is not paying for a nationalised gas company.  Those who 'Told Sid' under the Thatcher tyranny and rushed to buy shares in these companies can possibly gather enough from their dividend to pay the colossal bills 'Sid' and his greedy friends are charging for the gas.  I wandered round to the library to keep warm reading books but found the place full of poor people reading books to keep warm there.  

The Electric company have generously warned us the bills will all rise because of this governments absurd energy policies so I am looking forward to that increase.  I have modified the payments to suit myself, and now will be running on the spot and stretching a lot to avoid hypothermia.  

Good job I am not one to complain.....

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Dreich!

Snow, sleet and ice cold air greeted us this morning.  I longed to remain in my pit but headed instead for the museum where I had been enrolled for a clear up operation.  My associate and I successfully completed the tasks assigned us, once he had worked out what they were, and must say I enjoyed my mornings work. It did mean several trips out into the day but it also allowed me time with a humour filled, cheery knowledgeable bunch, mostly women, who do a grand job there.  It was nice to do something useful and energetic for a change.  I will feel it in the morning I suspect!  


But it was actual snow falling today!  Cold north western air bringing sleety snow all morning.  Yet when I looked at the webcam for both Edinburgh and Aberdeen I noticed while Edinburgh was merely wet, Aberdeen had light clouds with sunshine in the distance!  How come? This is not natural.  


'Dreich' 
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Cold Freezes Thought!

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The cold has frozen my brain. Some would say they cannot tell the difference but I can. While the snow has disappeared for the most part around here the temperature is still low. As I sit here wrapped in my gray ex-army blankets, they were white when I obtained them, wearing out my toes on the remnants of heat coming from the heater, and listening to cheery wee girls informing us with happy smiles that it will not get much better soon I begin to dream of sun kissed South Sea Islands. The chances of my lard filled bulk ever lying on one of those white beaches next to turquoise seas is slight, but I will dream on just the same.

No pictures today although the sun did shine brightly at times. There was a wonderful cloud display as the suns rays shone through the gray layers as the sun dipped late this afternoon but I could not find a suitable spot to get the snap. Most annoying. Absolutely NOTHING else has happened! The list of things to do has several items crossed off, but I canny mind doing them, maybe it's yesterdays list? 

Anyway, for those who have not come across this, here is something that MUST have originated with a female mind......

Jesus was a woman. Because:

1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food.


2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it.


3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was still work to do.

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Snow

Snow has come to the UK once again and as always it causes chaos everywhere. Snow piles up in drifts at the sides of the roads, side streets are blocked and gritter lorries never go down there, railway line at times become blocked when the points freeze, and this year the Forth Road Bridge has been closed because of the snow for the first time since its opening in 1964. Cries of woe and shock are heard everywhere, except from the kids who avoid school for a week, business it hit as workers stay at home, shops are struggling, and some folks with little cash must be freezing like I am!

When weather like this hits us, and this is early snow and very much heavier than expected, we find ourselves asking why? Why can we not cope with the weather? Why are  we not ready for this? Why is something not done? The answer is simple, money! The folks that demand lots of grit be put on the roads are the same ones in mild winter asking why so much grit needs to be stored? The failure of the railways due to the cold occurs on two or three days of the year, maybe a week at the most, and to keep on standby all year round sufficient material to ensure the trains run would cost so much there would be questions asked in parliament. There are those that mutter about Germany and Sweden coping better than us in such a winter forgetting that in those lands winter is deeper, longer, and far harsher than our short week or two. They can then spend the cash and prepare properly for the conditions. If the UK was to do this questions would be asked by all the screaming tabloids about the financial waste, and suggestions made as to how such money could be better spent! The hypocrisy is overwhelming in such papers! 

This weather has been severe, especially in the north, but the southern softies have been hit quite badly also. Coming to us from an easterly direction, starting from the Arctic circle and arriving via Siberia, Germany, the North Sea it make land on the coats and travels right up the trouser leg with a ferocity known only to those who have stood on the terracing at Gayfield Stadium, Arbroath, in February! It does the individual no good I tell ye! It will last a few days more, and already the Scottish football weekend has been almost completely wiped out. The grounds may be fit but many roads are not,and while the main roads might be open folks cannot get out of the side roads to enter them! Soon however it will end, unlike in Sweden where it will continue until the end of March or April, and by this time next week all will be forgotten by most folks. The press will return to talking about 'that marriage' and the behaviour of cretinous famous folk, the world will continue to seek gratification via the Christmas shop, and energy company directors will sit with glasses of brandy and smug grins on their overfed faces. Normality will have returned.

A more serious question requires asking however. Could it be that weather patterns are indeed changing? Can it be that 'global warming' (look outside as you read that) is occurring? Can it be that the world is going through a change, and is it short term or longer? I first read about melting ice floes around about 1968! Scientists were claiming the Arctic was beginning to shrink, but nobody cared. Now, while huge areas of Greenland are being exposed some still claim there is no 'global warming,' I wonder why? Politicians, or lying scoundrels may be a better term, fight over such things irrespective of any damage that might ensue to the world around them. A long time ahead to a politician is next week or the next election and as long as his seat is safe that is all that matters. However whether the sun is cooling, or the earth shifting or the world about to come to an end and Jesus ready to leap through to us for a final time the fact remains that something is happening around us and most people walk about looking no further than the end of their nose. Our self, that most odious part of us, will sit and watch while the world burns, or it appears, freezes as in our case today.

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Dreich

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This is a good shot of the early morning, at least MY early morning! Cold, snow covered, and generally miserable. Just like me I suggest! The several inches of snow up north do not make me jealous.  I don't like the cold and I want to be somewhere warm, beside the sea, and with a pretty young girl attending to my needs.


Fat chance!

He is 80, a multi millionaire, and recently they were attacked and robbed of jewellery worth £200,000.
I just wonder what a 31 year old lass would see in a multi millionaire who travels the world constantly, has a weak heart and has recently suffered a terrible shock? What does he see in a girl slightly older than one of his daughters? Does she perhaps share a love of Formula 1?

Wiki Leaks have revealed that political folk talk about one another and do not always like what they see! Arabs have been demanding the US remove the Iranian nuclear threat, US ambassadors have been offering honest appraisals of world leaders, and one of our Princes (just what does he do?) has been pretending he is his father and putting his foot in it. I wonder why the politicians are claiming Wki leaks are dangerous? have they something to fear....? This tells us nothing we did not guess already, it just brings it into the open.   

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Freezing Cold

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As the mist cleared this morning we were left with a thin white layer everywhere! For one horrible moment I thought it had been snowing! Ugh, horrid stuff! We keep reading about 'Global Warming' and when we look out the window there is frost everywhere! Even my woollen gloves have to be replaced with the big ones, and that when I'm asleep in my bed! I will complain to my MP as I did not come to the driest county in England just to be frozen, it's a disgrace! This would not happen under Labour! 


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Cold!

FreeFoto

Global warming? Tell me about it! The temperature has dropped so far that icicles are forming inside my boots! Snow flakes have been gently falling all day, and the weather girls are smiling sweetly when indicating vast snowdrifts across my window! Outside said window people pass by dressed like 'Nanuk of the North,' and I sit here with a gas bill which tells me I have used less gas since the last bill but they wish me to pay more for the privilege! I attempted to call tonight, and was greeted by a message informing me that since the "..Gas price reductions..." have been announced the waiting time may be a "...bit longer than usual." Indeed? You mean several call centre staff have been fired, only six left now is there? I gave up and will attempt this again tomorrow, with a smile on my face and a hatchet in my hand! The 2% profits have gone up to 3% I notice, although the call centre staff will probably still be ion £5:68 an hour. It is time to nationalise the utilities! Never mind the 'investment' private companies have made, they overcharge and this bill is an example. If I had not read the small print at the bottom I would not have noticed the increase. How many ignore this and find far too much of their money is in the hands of these thieving get rich quick companies? The last bill I notice included the FOUR payments I had made, this one includes only three indicating I have paid less! This is a trick to increase the costs. I am considering a letter to the ombudsman under whatever name he goes by these days.

Cold Weather

I do complain about this cold weather, and rightly so! I feel that my rightful place is amongst the sunshine that is scattered so freely towards the centre of the planet but appears so fleetingly in my life. Tonight, the cheery weather folk tell us, snow will make its way from Scotland and the north of England and cover us in deep layers of the white stuff! The 'Daily Mail,' in the usual calm manner, has a headline 'Met Office Forecasts 18 Inches of Snow!' I doubt we will receive 18 inches, two or three would be bad enough, and I suspect the temperature will fall to below zero.
However this is nothing really. In a few days this will end, with flurries on and off until Spring actually arrives. However today Beijing, the Chinese capital, recorded a temperature of minus 60 at one point! In many places it was so cold the heating would not work! I also came across Christians in prison in North Korea, a place on a similar latitude to Beijing, who are imprisoned for their faith, in jails without heating I would imagine. Thousands locked away, many suffering like their fellow citizens from malnutrition, in temperatures lower than many of us could withstand! So while it may be depressing, and cold weather is, and while it may be dark and dismal, at least we are a lot better off than many.  

A Postcard a Day

I stole this picture!  It comes from one of those intriguing sites that at first look somewhat dull but actually contain some excellent items. This site gives us a postcard each day and some, like the one shown are very interesting indeed. This picture shows the original post box, an idea of Anthony Trollope the author and Post Office employee. Situated at Barnes Cross, Holwell, near Sherbourne in Dorset the box was first used in the 1850's and even old Mike cannot remember that far back, I think. The uniform shown dates from that time and is reminiscent of some of the gear worn during the 1970's, although not by me! I recommend this site as there are some excellent postcard shown there. The photography is often marvellous and the subjects, ancient and modern, often intrigue. Some time ago I passed through London Bridge Station on a Saturday and there were numerous stalls selling postcards.I was surprised at just how many, and indeed how much! There are numerous other postcards sites also, but I think this is one worth a look!   A Postcard a Day.  

First Monday of the New Year

Removing the ex-army greatcoat, the two ski suits and the thermal underwear I began on my exercises. Arms stretch out ahead and back, again, again, five times, ten, stop. Now swing arms to the side and stretch, again, once, twice, five, ten, twenty, stop. Knees bend together, one, two, three, four, five, oh that's enough of that! Breathe deeply in, out, in, out, ten deep breathes then relax. OK, now to get out of bed.

Dear oh dear, freezing cold once again and Jack Frost has been all over my window. The field outside is white with frost and the people rushing by are wrapped up in everything they possess. The heating is on and I canny feel it at all! In Siberia they do not let the kids of school until it is -37 degrees, and during the war Siberian troops brought over to defend Moscow fought in temperatures of minus 8. They thought this was warm! I however am not one for cold weather, nor do I intend to fight Nazis in this condition to be honest. I wish to be transported somewhere warm, Greece or Turkey or the Isle of Wight. Somewhere that Jack Frost and his icy fingers don't get to go near me.Several times to day I have had to put the heating on. Several times today, sitting here in my sleeping bag, wearing my woollen gloves with the fingers cut out, I have thought of those dwelling in Thailand and wondered how they cope with our cold weather? With a smug grin on their fat faces I bet! I can see them now, chomping yet more chicken and laughing their heads off! What's that? Me wish a monsoon on them? Never! In Nigeria they have a warm day with 38 degrees of heat, usually. In Portugal folk go swimming on Christmas Day. In this area the sun shines and the sky is blue but the seagulls soaring past my window are not looking for food scraps, they are nicking folks scarf's and wrapping them around their scrawny necks, and I don't blame them! Global warming, wherefore art thou pal?

Some of you have probably already noticed this, I as always am slow on the 'catch up' bit, but 'Blogger' has changed the 'Post Editor.'  There is a new one available and it is marginally better than the old one. Well I suppose that depends on you but if it's the new one I use it because the old one will disappear one day and leave me high and dry! Technology is always my slow point (one off) and after amassing lots of cassette tapes full of knowledge my tape machine has burst and they don't sell them any more. Everything is now on CD's except that digital is removing the need for CD's. I would mention large black circular things with  a hole in the middle and ask "Is this a record?" but you young things would not understand would you?

To find the new editor

First work your way to the 'Settings' tab.

At the bottom of the page you will see a field called 'Select Post Editor.,'

Select 'New Editor' save your settings.

Whether it is worth it or not only you can decide.

 

Yemen

Terrorism Bush claimed was based in Iraq, although we all knew different. Bin-Laden was known to be in the Pakistan hills hiding among the Taliban. So the military aim was to defeat both of them high up in the Afghanistan/Pakistan hills. Now we discover that the centre may have shifted to Somalia, where Islamic extremists abound, or Yemen where the British, US and now French embassies have closed because of perceived danger. The BBC reports that other nations, considered to be 'western' are also scaling down their operations. The danger from such extremists is indeed great. They appear to have no regard for human life, men women and children die by bomb, bullet and sometimes knife. This is less because of their religious belief and more because of culture and hardness of heart. We are right to be aware of the danger in this country as well as abroad.

Having said that such activities are not new. Violent people, for political reasons, religion, football or any other purpose have resorted to violence at home and abroad. It is part of the human condition, and we must agree, but not always willingly, such violence lies near at hand to ourselves also! Life is never peaceful, although the west, because of the 'Cold War' has experienced seventy years of peace and we have come to believe this is our right. However as a man once said, "Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans," of course he got shot!

The Yemen is a place we know little about. Mud houses, Arabs aplenty, terrorists. What else do we know of them? Very little I suspect. However one man 'Ozgur Can Leonard' has been travelling through the land and posted this excellent series of photographs from Yemen. There may not be a picture of a gunman however there are some remarkable houses  and I suspect remarkable people living in them!

Cold

This was the scene yesterday. Cold mist hanging around and in the afternoon freezing all and sundry, and my bony knees were part of that sundry. It was so cold last night that it woke me up just after midnight and forced me to dress like 'Nanook of the North' and switch on all the heating I could find (one candle and a packet of 'Victory V's.'). I went online and explored the webs showing how to build igloos and how to catch and skin penguins just in case. I had been watching the snow bound North American pictures the other day and wondered how people can live in such conditions year after year! A two inch layer of snow can bring us to a halt, imagine it being two feet! Yet some folks live in areas where such snowfall is considered an easy winter! I assure Canadians I will not emigrate there, your moose are safe. During the Second World War Stalin brought the Siberian troops across from the Chinese border where they had been watching the Japanese threat. These folk were used to temperatures of minus 40, and they would lie in the snow all day opposite the Germans, and attack at night in temperatures of minus 8. They considered this warm! Sorry, that is not a life for me, whether attacking Germans or not. I want a Greek island, lots of sun, an nice sea view, gentle waves lapping against the shore and nearby cliffs, a long cool drink and sunshine all the day long. Of course a woman to do the ironing and bring the long cool drink would also be welcome, if she can cook.



I am reading through this book about one of the three remaining Great War servicemen. Henry Allingham, 'Kitchener's Last Volunteer.' This is a very good read. Not a deep tale of enlistment and the happenings found in other books of this type but a series of reminiscences from a man born in 1896! The personality of the man comes across and I find it difficult not to like him. Enlisting in 1915 in the Royal Navy Air Service he serviced and sometimes flew as an observer over the North Sea, where he was a distant part of the Battle of Jutland, and over places like Ypres (Wipers to the troops) and saw Flanders great battles. He is the last remaining serviceman who served when the Royal Flying Corps merged with the RNAS to become the Royal Air Force. Active all his life he was playing golf until he was 93 and is shown cycling on his hundredth birthday! On Remembrance Sunday last year (November 11th) he attempted to leave his wheelchair to place a wreath at the Cenotaph. He was unable, but took many minutes making the attempt. Eventually he was persuaded to let others do this for him, but he held the parade up for a good while in the attempt. What a man! He must be 113 by my calculation this year and still going. He may go on a lot longer yet!

SNOW!

SNOW! It's disgusting! I knew it was a clod north wind blowing. I knew the freezing blast coming through the gaps in the windows contained some rain. But I remained surprised when I awoke this morning to see the field covered in this white stuff and more daintily falling!

It's horrible! The government should do something about this! Snow should remain up north and far from me! How could they let this happen - and in April at that! The traffic is stuttering along on the motorways, except when it is slithering off them. Runways are closed at Heathrow - more bags to be lost then? The entire world is covered in clouds bearing more of this horrid stuff. The suits at the gas board are jumping up and down at the prospect of everyone switching on their heating. Council employees are grumbling at having to start up the gritting lorries and earn their triple overtime - poor dears!

I want to move to the Mediterranean! I want a place in Cyprus, or Malta or Crete! I was born to be warm! Now I have to dig out my granddads 'long johns' and sit here wrapped around a hot water bottle just to make it through the day.

I want to hear the blue tits and green finches at the nut holders. I want blue sky and sunshine. I want to see daffodils and bluebells breaking through and folks tending the gardens once again. I don't want to see whitened fields and gray clouds. I don't want cold wind from the north pole travelling through Norway and Iceland and ending up my trouser leg. I don't want to see kiddies laughing and joking as they play in the snow - throwing snowballs (Full of stones!) at innocent passers by.

I WANT SUNSHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!