disruptions

london 12.01pm 14C sunny monday 2019

the news today is of the extinction rebellion group staging road blocks and bridge blocks around london, it seems they will do so for 2wks. it is a inconvenience, esp to us bus users. and it affects the buses coming into my area.

but i guess people can avoid it by just not go on the buses, and use the tube instead. i think they have set a precedent, so anyone now can disrupt traffic by blocking bridges and roads, when they demonstrate. some of them have been arrested, because causing obstruction is a crime. now it would be up to the judges whether they will uphold the law and impose punitive fines. if they do, then maybe people might think twice about using this method of demonstrating to disrupt traffic. if the judges are lenient, then we will be seeing a lot more of these disruptive demonstrations. ah well, so be it. i guess. 

this morning i read this article about british pensioners in europe being fearful of the loss of reciprocal health care in europe. they have moved there for retirement, but now we are leaving, that reciprocal arrangement with health care , whereby the nhs pays for the health care they get in europe will be gone. and they will have to pay it themselves. it is one of the biggest reason not to go abroad for retirement. these pensioners are not to know that we will vote to leave the EU, so they might expect their health care to be quite safe with europe. but people should always bear in mind that they will go old and they will get ill, and they will require some form of long term care in future. and to ask themselves how will they get it if they are abroad… in a country where they dont speak the language, and are they rich enough to afford private care bearing in mind that it might be affordable now, but will it be so years from now, when inflation and costs will double. 

where have the sunshine gone over france?

london 12.23pm 5.6C rain saturday 2018 virgin lounge

i have a chance to see the guardian since it took on tabloid form. they have a copy in the virgin lounge. and i read an article in there today  saying north west europe has got the darkest december since records began.

i recently had a comment from francesays asking in a comment on my blogpost where is winter hiding. and it seems this confirms her impression. but as to why, nobody knows…lille in france got 2hrs 42mins of sunshine in the first half of jan.usually 61.4hrs average for jan. so they lost 30hrs for the first half of jan. south france like bordeaux and marseille got 10.3hrs and 26.9hrs respectively for the first half of jan. compared to monthly averages of 96 and 92.5. average sunshine in london is 62hrs. 

but no mention of how much london got for the first half of jan. i think we may have got more than them. just these last 5 days i have woken to a bright sunshiny morning. today is raining though. but no one here think of london as sunny , so we hardly notice if there is no sunshine, but do notice if a morning is sunny. it comes as such a surprise. 

but but we should count ourselves lucky, moscow got only 6mins of sunshine in the whole of december. haha. i got a chance to compare the print size of the guardian with the times, which has been a tabloid for some time. they are about the same size really. both very small. but maybe it is just me. it is like a deaf person who complains that everyone is mumbling and speaking softly. haha. i am well aware i maybe turning into that person and everything is so small in print. hehe. ah well, we all go old really. the important thing is not to let it bother you. i dont mind if it is getting smaller. i can still read it with my glasses so that is ok. the hearing is the one that is more difficult to handle. people get a bit bored with you if u keep telling them to repeat themselves. so i dont, and i find i gradually dont talk very much either. now you know why old people dont talk very much. in their head they are most probably having a lively discussion with themselves but you will never hear of it. 

the strange death of europe, by douglas murray

london 2.23pm 10.7C sunny tuesday 2017

i read it in one sitting last night, its a real eye opener to the problems that beset europe now. he tells how europe has got itself into this situation now ,,, which is a huge invasion of islamic refugees whose religion makes them never able to integrate and take on european values, rule of law, equal rights to women and gays, and minorities, and that the future will just mean a lot more of them, when their children grow up, and they make up a larger proportion of the population. they will start to influence the politics and vote in people who will ride their agenda. it is an invasion by islam of europe that has been defeated in the middle ages, but now is well on the way to succeed.

many of his critics will still want to deny it will happen. and may well criticise him for saying it. they want to kill the messenger rather than hear the message. even me can see he is right.

if u have often wondered why europe has been so puzzling in its liberal helping of the terrorists who kill their citizens. only reacting when they start to kill, rather than stop them before hand, this book might come some way to explain why .

though now it has happened, i cannot see how europe can escape… i think he is right that it will be the death of europe… in the sense it is the death of european culture. it is inevitable that the population will be majority muslim in the future. 

 

tourists trouble in spain, but not here.

london 4.35pm 21.9C cloudy bright friday 2017

9.15pm 19.2C dry night. well, its been a pleasant day today here in london for me.

and all these stories i read about tourists getting it in the neck by the anti tourist gangs in spain. haha. the locals or so we are led to believe are revolting against the huge influx of tourists, but i think it is political…  it all started in the barcelona area and we all know that part of spain have always wanted to secede from spain, and now they are being very aggressive in their attack on tourists and the touristy trade that caters to them. it is a way of drawing attention to themselves.  the central govt have categorically told them no… and so  to hit back at the central govt who refused to allow them to leave and gain independance from spain they are starting this strategy.  many of them are now branching off to the southern areas of spain and even the islands and start their agitating disruptions there.

i suppose they have some sympathy from the locals living there esp those who dont benefit at all from the influx of tourists. those who dont work for the tourist trade, or own restaurants or hotels, or rent out their flats via airbnb. but left to themselves these people wont be so upset as to get aggressive about it.  they realise that the whole economy benefits from the tourist trade.

but maybe the brits should just go elsewhere. come on, when u get it so crowded that even the locals are asking you to go elsewhere, just heed them and go elsewhere.

you can tell even though the £ is weaker and so it costs lots more to go there, we still go there. some people got more money than they know what to do with. or else, the increased costs is not that much to deter them. they can still afford it.  that is why i dont have much sympathy with people who say it costs more , let it cost more, high time these tourists pay through the nose for their holiday abroad. they are giving money to those foreign countries at the expense of their own country. now i come to think of it, the spaniards must have raised their hotel charges and other charges and still the tourists come… just goes to show u can charge very high, it does not deter the tourists… they are immune to high prices.

and what is this about their liquor prices. even though they charge high, it still remains cheaper than what people pay here in uk. just goes to show how much the british govt tax the alcoholic drinks here in uk. and cheap booze means a lot of bad behaviour due to drunkeness. a combination of cheap booze and sunshine means those places will always remain popular. perhaps that explains why those boozy tourists dont want to go elsewhere in the world. where else in the world is so easy about nudity and sexual behaviour than in spain… right?  one sure way of killing this golden goose is for the govt to put a huge tax on the booze. make it as expensive as in uk, that would kill it at once. haha. so that is what they should do if they are really serious about limiting the numbers.

but no one really wants that do they? tourists are like the wildebeest, they are the walking prey for everyone around. haha.

anyway here i am in london miles from all the tourist shit in europe, so enjoying life here. it may sound mundane taking the bus, going to the library, going to the supermarket haha. but it is quite enjoyable. i dont know why there are people who hate supermarket shopping for food. but they seem to have convinced themselves that it is a chore.

oh, yes, there is also the news about the eggs contamination by some thing or other originating from the netherlands. (and they are blaming each other for it amongst the european companies) and it is eggs from europe. haha. another knife into europe and their reputation for being very good about sticking to regulations . they have been caught spreading this all over the place and many of it has come into uk. ha. so i noticed the sandwich shelves in the supermarket are reduced , and that explains why. it is not the eggs as such, that is ok, so fresh eggs (they are british)are left alone; it is all the sandwiches made with eggs , and plenty got mayonnaise in them, hence they have to clear the shelves . 

added. 12.8.17 saturday. looks like the egg scandal is going to spread to desserts, cakes as well. 

 

 

 

travelling to europe will have more delays at passport control now.

london 4.58pm 22.2c sunny tuesday 2017

its a very pleasant day today, even though if u just look at the temp, 22.2C it doesnot sound like alot. but on the ground, to experience it makes me realise it is really quite ideal. i used to think 25C would be ideal , but i have reconsidered now, and think anything from 20C to 25C will be fine.

today i read this article telling about long queues to go through passport control in those big cities in europe… paris, madrid, lisbon, milan, amsterdam,barcelona, palma in majorca, i thought at first it is only at big airports, but no, it is europe wide even in the smaller airports, due to a new directive brought out in march, about checking all non schengen passport holders against the records to be implemented by oct this year. so be prepared for more disruption and delay after oct.

but perhaps it will have done its job and drastically stop people going to europe unless absolutely necessary. as one comment said, dont go there.

i remember in the past we used to have to buy visas, to visit a country, and it involves long queues at their embassy. then visas were abolished and u can get a stamp on the passport at the port of entry and allowed to stay for a certain length of time. but now every passport has to be checked not only for authenticity, but also against a list of terrorists. perhaps the computer would make that very quick. but still it would take time. 

i think we shall all look back on the 90s when we could just pop over easily and cheaply to europe as the golden years of travel. i know i do.

when u consider you can get fined, or hosed down with  water to prevent you from eating your own food in the public squares in florence or rome, as they are doing or thinking of doing… it makes you wonder why you want to go there anyway. if they are so precious about it, they can keep it. and if they are so unwelcoming to tourists, they should jolly well not get any. 

life is nice

london 11.53am 11C sunny easter saturday 2017

it really is nice, even with me having this fractured foot. its very peaceful in my flat. john has come back and staying  over the weekend, before he goes off again next week. but he has been fetching and carrying for me, which is a real treat as i find it heck of a palaver to carry a simple thing like my coffee cup from the kitchen to the sofa in the lounge. using the trolley to carry it, cause it to spill and i have to resort to using a large cup so that i dont fill it with liquid so high that it spills. but it is a minor problem really. now john is busy in the kitchen cooking a curry stew. which will keep me in food for a bit without needing me to cook a lot.

and the sun is shining out there , even though the sky looks very cloudy. its a mystery that, with all that cloud, the sun is still able to shine so brightly through it. 

as usual reading the news, not a lot of happy news about. but that is the nature of news. good news is not really what the news is about. i would say bad news get all the press. so bear this in mind, or at least i have to constantly remind myself when i read the news so as not to get too depressed about  it.

i got a reminder via email that the place in the sun exhibition in olympia is coming on 5may. they have given me a free ticket to go but i am not sure i shall. not with this foot, but also the whole idea of buying property in europe has gone tits up now that we are leaving. i am sure i am not the only one who feels that way… i am afraid it has also affected the way i view those tv programs about buying property in europe. they all seem rather pointless now. 

i read a article saying lots of pensioners have given up on retiring in europe. perhaps they will revert to what they did in the old days before the EU, which is to take winter holidays over the 3 winter months in spain. that way they miss out on the very hot summer months in spain and which was the ideal way to go about it before this idea of retiring there make them go and live there all year round, and suffer the summer heat. 

i have been reading the lucia books by e f benson. but searching google, i find there is a free audio book u can listen to. so i am hearing it now, queen lucia, the first book in the series. 

added, 9.04pm what a happy coincidence. do u believe in coincidences? anyway i was idly coasting the tv channels and stumbled across the adaptation of mapp and lucia on the drama channel.  it was on at 8pm and i caught it just as it was being shown. they must have decided to do a re-run of the 3episodes over this long easter weekend and it is on everyday at 8pm till monday. it has only 3 episodes. and funny enough i was actually reading it earlier today in a book which i bought for 30p when the library was selling off their old books. it was a trilogy, starting off with this one. 

 

snow in europe but not here in uk

london 9.27pm 10C sunday 2017. its been raining a bit. its been around 10c all day.

its very mild in london yet in the papers i read that europe is having a freezing spell.  but no one in my wordpress reader who lives in europe are posting pictures of snow laden landscapes around where they live. so is it happening as they say in the papers, or is it just hype. or is snow such a normal occurrence, no one who lives there gets excited about it like we do in london. i must say the papers are very good at putting up pictures of the snow in the streets. i think they realise that a lot of us like to see snow bound streets and clogged mayhem caused by the snow. 

 here in london if it snows we are all out there taking pictures and putting them on our blogs, because it is so rare to get snow here. i had to search my blog to find out when we really had anything like snow on the ground and can only find an entry on 18jan 2013. and even then it was just a sprinkling, like suger icing.

i cannot remember when we really had a deep snow fall. maybe there was one in 2010? i googled it and it does look like that winter of 2009-2010 was the cold one. as long ago as that. this blog only started in 2012, so i dont really have any posts about it. ah well, just as well we are having  warm weather. snow may be pretty to look at but it is very bad to have to live through it. but of course we might still see snow this year… after all the really cold weather is in february.

 added 12.32pm 10.1C monday 2017. i read the news in the papers that the alps is suffering because of a lack of snow. hang on, are we living in the same universe and time line? or what? i thought i have fallen into a worm hole and got into a different universe.  here is the latest snow report. it says no snow in those ski resorts. i have to take another look at the date to make sure it is not some old report that has slipped in by mistake. it is dated 9.jan. 2017. so have the weather done a cruel trick on them? dumped snow in areas that dont want it, but kept clear of the hills ski resorts? mother nature is so naughty… 

 

its mild in london and uk. (correction, only central london)

london 8C sunny blue sky 11.30am thursday 2017.

they say we will be getting -2C this morning, but the lowest we got is 1.7C. granted it is in central london. i think poor old crystal palace is -2.8C haha. and in bournemouth too…(-6C) i have a friend who lives there, that was why i checked it. he said he dont notice it as he is nice and warm in his flat. 

 

 

i wanted to show the cold as it spread over europe but it is a gif, so it wont stay still. so no picture. haha.  and the link i give below is not going to stay still and will show the currant weather conditions. if u see this in summer, it will show very different conditions.

this is forecast to be the state of the weather in europe on saturday 7.1.17.  6am. it shows the cold extending all the way to mid spain region, and down to sicily and greece. as well as the usual cold in germany and the eastern europe.

what surprised me is the uk not experienceing cold weather.it is still green and  it is not awash with that cold blue smear.  even spain has its northern half getting minus C. and look at sicily and greece, i thought they are so south they should get warmer weather in winter than us in uk. the whole of europe is frigid with cold. brr.

added. 9.02am sunday 8.1.17. cloudy 10.5C. this report shows how cold it is in europe. we here in uk got it mild, by comparison. lowest temp this morning is 10.1C

i have always thought it is warmer in europe in winter, wasn’t that why so many brits used to holiday in the south of france in winter? and why so many have gone to france to live? if they are just as cold, if not colder than london in winter, why the heck are we going there to live? have we been had? fooled by their summer temperatures to think their winters must be warmer too?

and i see tv programs about brits there trying to eke out a living by doing b&b, or making wine, or offering paragliding … and i thought why? you got nice cushy jobs in uk, why go there to do menial work, with not much money? the only reason to go there to live is if u have got a rich pension from working all your life in the uk, and now you can live off your pension, then it makes sense to go to europe. well it makes sense before we voted to leave and the £ dropped. but if the pension is high enough it should still be nice to live there for the lifestyle. (by which i mean all that cheap wine!!!)

its such a nice sunny day out there, i shall go out, and bus to the aldi, where they are selling a pineapple and 6 gala apples for 60p. i suddenly crave something tropical and the pineapples sound good.

got a phone call just now and it was a recorded message saying this is an important announcement from the bank of scotland, press one for … another of those scam calls. and this one is brazen asking  you to call them and pay for the call… naturally i put the phone down on it. 

added 5.16pm 5.4C dark now. since i came back from the aldi at about 2.30pm, i got another of that bank of scotland scam call. it is strange they are so persistent. anyway i got the pineapple, 2 in fact, and the apples.(added. there was a woman buying a cart load of pineapples when i arrived at the 59p shelves. i can understand why she did it, sometimes u really want a bit of something that reminds you of  the tropics. )

and bought a chicken in a bag. i noticed they are selling these chickens where u can pop it in the oven, inside its bag and so u dont handle the chicken at all.

 so u dont contaminate your kitchen with salmonella by washing it. (not that people wash the chicken, they have been warned not to do it).

i wondered how they get the roasted skin,if it is inside the bag.  and now that i have cooked that chicken in its bag, i find they dont. you dont get a roasted chicken u get a steamed chicken. also normally i would season the chicken, before i pop it in the oven, but with it in its bag, i could not do so. i shall not bother with it next time, and just roast chicken in the normal way. 

the joy of roast chicken is that lovely crackling skin. if i want steamed chicken i much prefer boiling it in the chinese way. that uses so much less electricity too and you get lovely tender flesh and a pot of broth to make chicken rice with. so now i know enough to avoid these chickens in their bag. 

8.1.17 added. 9.08am sunday . it seems simon banks with bank of scotland , so that call was for him. i did not know till i saw a letter from the bank to him saying they have agreed an overdraft for him. so that was not a scam call after all. 

london air

london 5.46pm 10.6C rain thursday 2016

very surprised to read this in the evening standard just now 

Every air quality monitoring site in the capital hit “high” or “very high” during the smog episode from Thursday March 10 to Sunday March 13.

The minute particles, known as PM2.5, are particularly dangerous because they can penetrate deep into lung tissue and are too small to be filtered out by the body’s normal defences.

The “spike” in smog was caused by dirty air from industrial areas of Germany, Holland and Poland — as well as from fertilisers being sprayed on farmland — drifting towards south-east England on an easterly air flow.

Once it reached London it was trapped by still anti-cyclonic conditions, and made even filthier by the usual daily emissions from London’s vehicles, particularly from diesel engines.

The peak day was the Saturday when 11 out of the 18 measuring sites in London hit “very high” with the rest on “high”.

went back to my blog and looked up saturday 12march and found i noticed it was foggy. i thought it was mist, but it seems it was polluted air. who would have known. it did not smell like polluted air though. in fact there was no smell.  nor do we get to cough and hack away or feel uncomfortable breathing that air… i thought it was mist actually.

it seems it was polluted air from the continent, though how surprising that it can come all the way to us. also, how come there is no mention at all in europe of this really bad pollution that they are having… or the EU would be giving them a huge fine too. so how come we never hear of that, eh? or is it the wind blowing all their pollution down our way so they get to have clean air… sometimes one wonders what to believe. the news seem to have bits and pieces missing, so that we dont get the full picture of what really is going on. if all that pollution is blown in from the continent why dont we go complaining to them about it? 

katie hopkins response , i agree with her on this

london 9.45pm wednesday 2016

After the Dutch floods of 1953 which killed 2,551 people, the country stood up and declared never again.

Never Again.

And since that day a nation which lies mostly below sea level has never been allowed to flood again, thanks to this real determination to find solutions to the problem.

It strikes me, instead of normalising terror, instead of accepting that an attack on the UK is inevitable, and instead of the Belgian president announcing ‘What we knew would happen has happened’, we need leaders who when they stand up and say ‘Never again’ actually mean it and come up with solutions.

Instead of increasing police presence to reassure us, we need action on the root causes.

Typically, the only man talking tough after yesterday’s attacks was Donald Trump – who ‘mainstream’ politicians abhor and ignore.

We need to stop allowing jihadis to return to Europe, prevent extremist imams accessing young minds and spreading their religious brand of hate, and stop communities colonising parts of Europe where former generations of immigrants used to integrate.

i read this just now in the dailymail online and find i agree with her. she is pointing out something new in the direction that europe is going… like it is normal now to expect a new mass killing by isis. the authorities seem to have lost all control of the situation, and admit they cannot stop the terrorist attacks because they cannot stop them moving freely in and out of europe.

 but we in uk, should not admit defeat like that… we can control our borders and can keep them out, and those that are allready in , we can find. and we can make sure it is not easy to buy guns or bomb making stuff here.

it surely is not just due to luck that uk have no such incident since that fateful day when bombs went off in london. in fact our reaction to it was so different to europe, which shut everything down. it just make matters worst… and make more people really afraid… europe should take a leaf out of how the uk handled that … it seems to me they have much to learn from the uk. europe should swallow its pride and come cap in hand to uk and ask for help.

i think uk had so much more experience to cope with these terrorist attacks, after all, the IRA bombings of mainland uk makes these events not such a special ones… we have experiences to deal with them. that may explain why london very quickly recovered and life went on as usual. it surely helped that we are an island and can control who we let in.

europe lost that advantage long ago, and that is its weakest factor in this new dynamics. and their security is divided between a lot of different authorities , there is no overall force, to co ordinate intelligence.

katie is right, that we should un couple ourselves from europe. and for the first and most probably the only time, we have a chance to have a vote on it. come 23rd june. events in europe with this bombing, have really convinced me we should leave.

i think that vote will be a fateful one that will determine what our future will be. i sincerely hope we vote to leave. 

added i think the citizens of europe can have a strong case that their govts and the EU governing body have failed in their duty to protect their citizens. something that is first priority in any govt… the EU have failed in that most important regard… and i think do not deserve to continue. i think it may lead to the dissolution of the EU as such.  people and the member govts may well come to the conclusion that if the EU as a whole cannot guarantee their safety what is the point of them? i fear it is too late for them, they have lost a lot and will lose more , not only their freedom, but their culture and way of life too. and this loss is not only due to the huge influx of migrants, but the slow attrition and homogenising effect of all those EU regulations making all the countries seem more and more to be like each other.

for me, each country in europe have lost their distinctive different identities that was so attractive about europe in the past.