Hysteria in Brighton

The Olympic torch arrived in Brighton last night. Well, it was Hove, actually (and there's a story behind that phrase) and as it was at 6.00pm it was either late afternoon or early evening but not really night.  The main junketing was at the County Cricket Ground (not Hove Park nor Hove Lawns as was originally mooted) and the whole schebang left from the Royal Pavilion at about 7.00 this morning.  Those who read my rant the other day will not be surprised to learn that I did not bother to see either the arrival or the departure.  I did make a desultory effort to see about watching the arrival as the Old Bat had hinted that she might like to see it.  It had to be the arrival; no way were we getting up early enough to see it off this morning.  I checked out the route and found there were two designated disabled spectator viewing areas.  But road closures and additional parking restrictions made those almost inaccessible for the old dear so the whole idea was quietly dropped.  As it happened, it was wet and blowing a hooly so we were quite happy that all we saw was on the local television news.

Our friends Chris and Mrs Chris are due to arrive fairly soon and we shall all be heading off for a pub lunch with 30-40 other past leaders in the Scouts.  At the last lunch, one of the chaps was organising a collection for something to be done to the local camp site.  As I passed my donation he muttered something about Brighton Lions never giving to the Scouts.  I pretended not to hear as I didn't think it the appropriate moment for a discussion.

After some thought I realised that Brighton Lions have not given money to the Scouts for many years - but the Scouts haven't asked for our help anyway.  Each member of Brighton Lions is allowed to nominate one charitable cause a year to receive a donation of £100 and I had almost decided that my £100 donation would be to the Scouts.  I thought I would just dig a little deeper first and it was then I found that the Scouts had more money than the Lions!  David was astonished when I rang him with the news that there was more than £60,000 sitting in the bank and they didn't need £300 from the Lions.  He determined to ask a few questions.  I wonder if he will mention it this lunch time.

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There is a picture in this morning's paper of a waterfall in Yosemite.  I can't match that, but here is Yosemite's Siesta Lake.