Small town talk

Brighton is not a small town. In fact, Brighton is not a town at all. A good few years ago the ‘twin towns' of Brighton and Hove merged to become one borough called - tah rah, tah tar - Brighton & Hove!!! Then, to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee (I think), the town was promoted and granted city status, so it is now the City of Brighton & Hove. But that is all by the bye.

The population of Brighton (as it is generally known) is something over 250,000. But the conurbation extends along the coast from beyond Worthing in the west pretty well to Newhaven in the east - a distance of some 25 - 30 miles - and the population of that must be nearer to half a million.

But it pays to be very careful what one says to one person about another. It is surprising how often they are related, either directly or through another member of their family. I've had a good example recently. I needed to employ a plumber, mine having retired. The woman who works part time for the Lions' housing society gave me the number of her uncle (who came and did a good job at a reasonable price). I happened to mention this to another Lion, only to be told they are cousins!

I suppose if we were able to track back far enough, we would find that Gordon Brown and George Bush are distant cousins - something like 23rd cousins 7 times removed. Possibly even Vladimir Putin is related to both of them. Perhaps it's just as well we can't go that far back.

Hey, I've forgotten the positive thought for the day!

"Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will."

Zig Ziglar