Month: September 2020

It’s Sunday and not much happening. Although sadly in Birmingham a man went mad with a knife and killed one person and seven injured, the police are still looking for a suspect. Let’s just hope he doesn’t use the knife any more before he is stopped and captured.

In Japan residents are preparing to be hit by a typhoon which is raging in with 134 mph winds. Power has already been lost in thousands of homes and people are being advised to evacuate to public buildings such as schools and community centres. In the south of the country flooding is expected especially as high tides are being forecast.

Jacob Blake the black man shot in the back several times by a policeman has spoken from his hospital bed. He has been paralysed from the waist down and said that he is in constant pain and that it hurts to breath and he can’t sleep. He is telling people watching his video that they need to change their lives, to stick together and make some money  and make life easier for our people because so much time has been wasted. His lawyer released the video clip which he said was a powerful message from his client reminding everyone how precious life is and how easily it can be lost or changed. Can’t argue with that.

There was another one of those Support Trump Boat Parades on Lake Travis north of Austin today and, once again, emergency services were called out as several boats were in distress with some of them actually sinking. I seem to remember mentioning something similar in one of the early floating rallies. They certainly do love to get out and support their party in the US though, I can’t imagine it happening here. Although if there was enough beer on offer it just might happen.

In the Spanish newspaper El Pais an article says that retro IKEA furniture is becoming not only collectible but a good investment if you happen to have kept any old pieces in good condition. Scrolling through the items on show there are several different seats, a clock, a desk, shelving and and a chaise longue. I must say it all looks very beautiful and I’m not at all surprised that it is sought after by today’s designers. There’s two or three pieces there that I could certainly lust after.

Talking of lusting after luxury or collectible items, an Australian woman took a fancy to a handbag made of alligator skin. She managed to purchase it from a company in France for $26,000 and arranged to have it shipped to her in Perth. She had to fill in certain import forms and pay import duties as there are strict limitations on the import of endangered species. The woman paid the export duties to the French customs but didn’t realise there were import duties to pay to Australian customs. She owed $70 and because it hadn’t been paid customs destroyed her bag.  That was an expensive lesson and some poor old alligator was killed off twice.😴💤😴

If you popped out first thing this morning to get your Saturday newspaper to leisurely read while eating your corn flakes and drinking your choice of brew, you were probably disappointed. A group calling itself Extinction Rebellion stopped the distribution of newspapers from the presses by blocking access roads. Their reason? Newspapers are not reporting on climate change. That’s very odd when most of what I know about climate change – that it’s definitely happening – I’ve gleaned from the newspapers. Let’s face it, Greta Thunberg and her story has appeared in nearly every newspaper in the world.

The BBC is advertising for a senior communications specialist following the backlash after they reintroduced a license fee for the over 75s. We might find of course that they increase the cost of the license to pay the new salary. For a start we should all be getting a refund for the loss of programmes during the last five months. I’m wondering if I should hold off paying mine just in case they scrap it altogether. Some hopes, the so called communications specialist’s role will be mainly to convince us that we are getting good value for money. It’s been reported in the Daily Express that the BBC has earmarked £140 million pounds to collect fees and chase viewers who do not pay. (Who’s that ringing my doorbell?).

I spent a nice day down on the beach today with my dear friend Winnie who has rented a beach hut for a month. It was a lovely sunny day and we had a good old chin wag putting the world to rights, ate our sandwiches and drank plenty of tea. We even managed a walk on the prom. Perfect.

I can see a new Agatha Christie in the making. It will probably be titled The Body in the Round Pond in Will and Kate’s Garden. Yes, that’s right, a body was found and the Met police unfortunately misidentified it and informed the wrong set of parents. They were pleased if somewhat surprised when their daughter walked through the front door. So the body in the pond is still a mystery and Agatha is no longer. I wonder if I could manage a murder mystery?

Ladies, be careful what you wish for. In Leamington Spa a wife suggested to her husband that maybe he could tidy the garden and perhaps even get a gnome or something. She should have stopped after ‘gnome’ because her hubbie knowing she was keen on anything Jurassic bought an eleven foot T-Rex. It cost him £1,600 plus another £500 to have it winched into the back garden, he planned it as a surprise when she was away. She arrived home late and went straight to bed. Getting up in the middle of the night and opening the back door (probably a smoker) she nearly died of fright when she spotted the new addition to her garden. She woke up half the neighbourhood with her screams and that was before she knew how much it cost. Back to bed for me. Good night beach combers everywhere.😴💤😴

 

A nice little road trip in France with a week in Nice sounds idyllic to me. A couple from Berkshire did just that and on the way home they stopped, like many people do, in a shopping mall to load up with wine from the region. So far so good. The drove through the Channel Tunnel and then when they were on the M25 another motorist signalled that there was a problem with the roof box. They pulled over and tied it down with a tow rope and arrived home without any more problem. Parked up outside their house they heard a noise coming from the roof box and realised they had a stowaway who couldn’t get out. The police were called and a young Sudanese male emerged and was led away. The driver said he was surprised there was enough room because he had stuffed the box pretty full.

Drone’s are becoming very popular and being used by families having a bit of fun, by police having a different sort of fun and even by soldiers in combat. In Israel a drone was used to drop bags of cannabis over the city of Tel Aviv, this was definitely a lot of fun for some lucky finders keepers. It was sent by the Green Drone Group who seek to legalise the recreational use of the drug. On their web channel they had said ‘The time has come, is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the green drone sending you free cannabis from the skies’. Two men were arrested. Ah, spoilsports.

A Bournemouth company is becoming successful with it’s virtual tours software. They are creating digital 3D models of real world spaces which can be used to advertise hotels showing exactly what guests will find when they arrive. The company is called Yooport and a sample tour shown on their web site is of the Sunseeker Yacht Company in Poole and looks very impressive. My son did something similar to show off his properties in Begur on the Costa Brava, I can’t remember what he used but no doubt he will tell us quite soon.

Some people will go to any lengths not to wear a face mask when the rules clearly state they should. Some people get angry and shout at or fight with officials. One passenger on an American Airlines flight handed a member of staff a note stating exactly what she thought of her and her rules concerning masks. It wasn’t very polite. An English man though took a less aggressive tack. He purchased a tube of Pringles and made it last for the whole of a four and a half hour flight. As it’s permitted to take the mask off while eating he just ate very, very, very slowly. A large bag of sunflower seeds could be very useful.

I’ve got one more story but I’m keeping it for tomorrow. Time for bed sleepy head. Nighty night.😴💤😴

I have to say that I’m very disappointed today to find out that my favourite Italian ice cream parlour has shut up shop. Gigi is no more in the Burlington Arcade five minutes from my front door. I’m guessing that between lockdown when they were closed for several months and then on reopening there were some new places opening up on the main high street, it seems it was no longer viable. I’m going to say that it would appear that the people of Bournemouth prefer quantity in places like sprinkles to quality from Gigi. On a more positive note, it might help my diet.

I wondered how quarantine was going to be policed or even if it would be. The first person has been fined £1000 in Ireland for breaking their isolation after returning from Spain. I think it gets policed if someone complains or in other words, if they rat on the isolator to the authorities.  Is this the new neighbourhood watch?

There’s a lot of fuss today about the Harry and Meghan Show after they have been signed up by Netflix for £112 million.. Piers felt like me saying that their knowledge of producing could be written on the back of a postage stamp. Exactly. They are also irritating everyone with their patronising stance that they will be ‘shining a light on people and causes and creating content that informs but also gives hope’. Whatever that means. They are doing it for the money, honey. I wonder what Harry thinks about the soon to be released Netflix tacky musical about his mum princess Diana. And to top it all a former Lib Dem MP is demanding that they pay back all the money spent on renovating Frogmore Cottage and they should do it now and not in itsy bitsy instalments.

A mother in Manchester went back to a charity shop for a refund on some purchase she had made. The amount was £9 but when she next checked her bank account she found they had refunded £90,000. She didn’t stop to think about it for very long and immediately transferred cash to the accounts of family and friends. Needless to say she didn’t inform the shop either. When they realised their error they managed to put a stop on the woman’s account but by then over thirty thousand had disappeared. The woman who has six children and works as a cleaner had no way of refunding the money and was taken to court. The judge said that she knew what she was doing and that temptation got the better of her (always did, ever since Adam and Eve). She was given a 15 month jail sentence suspended for two years. I could handle that for thirty grand. But for now it’s time for bed. Nighty night.😴💤😴

Nadiya Hussain, winner of Great British Bake Off a few years ago says that she has a struggle to fit in while working on tv. She describes the tv industry as middle aged, caucasian and male which I imagine it is. Unfortunately there are many jobs where people feel they do not belong and have to fight to get noticed. Also, appearing to be foreign or different often makes life a struggle and I agree with her that it is difficult to complain. When I lived in Spain and I looked obviously foreign I was often told it wasn’t my country so don’t complain. Or simply ‘go home’. They were different times but I know how she feels. Recently Michelle Obama has talked about her experience with racism, She said that to some white Americans black people just do not exist. They talk over you, they ignore you and often act as if you are invisible. How do we change people though?

In Oregon a hunter was out in the woods trying to shoot animals with a bow and arrow.. He managed to hit a bull elk but only wounded the animal who ran off. The next morning he went looking for the injured elk to finish it off. He found it but it was the elk that charged at him, goring him with his horns and killing him. The elk was eventually killed and the meat was donated to the local county jail. And while we are talking about hunting, here, Prince William has been spending a few days with his family visiting his grandma at Balmoral. As is usual for certain privileged people he went out shooting and decided to take his eldest son George. Animal rights campaigners have said it’s the wrong message for the young prince who shouldn’t be taught that it’s ok to kill birds and animals for fun. I have to agree with that.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Uncle Harry and Auntie Meghan have signed a multi-year deal with Netflix. It seems they will be making documentaries, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programmes and may appear in some of them. Well I never, I hadn’t realised they were so talented. Makes you laugh though, they left England because of journalists and gossip about them and then they sell their souls to a commercial entertainments channel in California. As long as our subscription doesn’t go up to pay for them.

Did you know that UFO spottings have gone up by 51% during the pandemic. Well, it seems to be true and the spotters as always are convinced that aliens are flying around spying on us, or whatever they might be flying around doing. I’m wondering if I should put a mattress out on my balcony and do a bit of my own spotting. So, if I suddenly disappear you’ll know I’ve been abducted by E.T. Off I go, nighty night.  😴💤😴

Went with some of the U3A ladies on a long walk today (long for me that is). Met up on Southbourne clifftop and walked to Hengistbury Head and back. When I checked the data on my phone it was very nearly 10,000 steps which is probably a first for me. It also showed over seven kilometres. It was an absolutely perfect day, sunshine, light breeze and not too hot for walking. All sounds very healthy except we all had a New Forest ice cream when we reached HH. I do love a little bit of naughtiness.

Workmen were renovating a fountain in the town square of Verviers in Belgium when they came across a small zinc casket. An engraving said it contained the heart of the first ever mayor of that town and it was enclosed inside the casket in a glass jar of alcohol. It’s a good thing the local winos didn’t know about it. The poor old mayor might be wandering around in the afterlife looking for his missing organ before he can RIP.

The Trump is in the news again which of course he will be given his position in the US. The POTUS today visited the Wisconsin town which has been besieged by protestors with many buildings and property being destroyed. He was asked about the killings of black people and replied that chokings happen’. When asked about the 17 year old vigilante who shot two protestors he said ‘he was defending himself’. Meanwhile his daughter was trying to rally voters and accused Biden of lying. Not the most appropriate statement she might have made and the fact checker immediately came back to inform the world that her dad had made more than 10,000 untrue statements since being in office. That’s a lot of fibs.

Strange things seem to happen in Russia, maybe too much vodka and caviar. A woman there was complaining about a stomach ache and went to her doctor. She was rushed to hospital and operated on and doctors found a four foot snake in her stomach. Some people have said that they’re not sure if the story is true but locals say that it does happen. Older people there tell their children not to go to sleep outside as snakes can enter their body through their mouths. It’s like a new episode of Grey’s Academy.

All children should be back to school by the end of this week That of course means that so will all teaching and administrative support staff. I’ve now got two daughters working at schools in Dorset and Sam has been wondering if they will all be asked to wear masks. The head of one local school has already said that pupils will have to wear the masks in all areas of the school so that must mean at all times too. That’s over six hours which is a long time to be uncomfortable. Nothing was mentioned about staff. Good luck to everyone going back this week, it’s not going to be easy. Sleep well and good night.😴💤😴