Nothing much else

so I simply leave you with this Quote for the Day from Robert Frost:

"The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work."

The Five-Ring Circus

While I have not actually been glued to the television, I have been watching some of the Olympics during the last few days.  I have, somewhat to my surprise, found the cycling diverting, but the swimming just doesn't cut the mustard for me. What does astound me is the dexterity, skill and sheer brute strength of the gymnasts.  And I must confess to a certain pride when I see the Union Jack hoisted to the gold medal position.  But what a shame that the recording of our national anthem is such a poor one!  Somebody described the bit between the two parts as sounding as if it was played on kazoos - and they are not far out.

It is quite staggering to see Great Britain second in the medal table, ahead of both China and Russia - and with our medal tally almost exactly equal the combined figures for France and Germany.  Of course, it is only to be expected that the countries with the largest populations and those rich enough to pour considerable funds into athletics training should win the greater number of medals. It has been reported that our national lottery has "invested" nearly £400 million, although whether that is in total or just for Rio 2016 or an annual figure, well, I have no idea.  What I have become aware of is that many members of Team GB receive funding enabling them to do nothing but train in their chosen sports.  That is what the lottery (and probably the Government) calls investment.  Which, to my mind, begs two questions.

Firstly, are Olympic medals and world titles really a sufficient return on that investment?  I suppose the winners will think so, and the general population does get a certain feel-good pay off as well.

And secondly, is it right that people should be funded by the population as a whole to pursue what most of us would describe as hobbies?  And if can be done for sportsmen and women, why not artists or poets or actors?  or train spotters or stamp collectors?  But I suspect that most people who buy a lottery ticket are quite happy with the arrangement.  As I have not bought a lottery ticket for many a year I have no grounds for complaint anyway.

Just one last thought.  The USA has (at the last count) won 26 gold medals, which works out at 1 for every 12.2 million of the population.  If we were to use that as the measure of success, the Bahamas would be at the top of the table - they have just one gold medal - but their population is just 377,000 - followed by Fiji with one gold for a population of 881,000.

Playing catch up

I haven't been around for a while, partly because I was, quite literally, not here for a week. Yep, another trip to la belle france, which went very well until I had a tyre blow on the way home.  Let me assure you, 300 miles on motorways at 50 mph gets b o r i n g.  We were even overtaken by a horse and cart!  Well, not really, but being passed by a convoy of articulated heavy goods vehicles can be quite scary.

Back home, there was trouble with the shower leaking through the kitchen ceiling.

Plumber the first: I'm 95% certain it's the drain.  Either remove the whole shower or cut a hole in the kitchen ceiling to get to it.  I'll have my mate call you.

I chased after 24 hours and gave up after 48.

Plumber number two: My mate will be with you Saturday morning.  Next week.

9 days?

Yes.
much?
To a letting agency I know.  Do you have a good plumber?

Of course.  I'll ring Sue in the office.

Sue:  He'll be with you between 1 and 3 tomorrow.

Next day, 12.40, unloading the shopping when the plumber apologises for being early. Twenty minutes later, job done.  How much?

Oh, forget it.

I'll you them another time.

Travelling hopefully

"They" say that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.

Hmm.

Whoever "they" are, they haven't been living in this little corner of the globe during the past month or so.

First - and possibly affecting the most people - there are the problems on the railway.  There have been intermittent strikes by guards because the train company intends to bring in new trains on which the doors will be controlled by the drivers instead of the guards.  And on top of that, there have been unprecedentedly high levels of sickness.  The result, a new timetable with a considerably reduced number of trains, overcrowding on station platforms and general misery for commuters.  And the guards have now announced a 5-day strike in a couple of weeks' time.  And guess what? the 7.40-something train from Brighton to Bedford, calling at various London stations, is officially the most overcrowded train in the country.  Designed for 420 passengers, it regularly carries 960! That's 229% over capacity at 8.20am at London Blackfriars.  I'm so happy not to be commuting these days.

And then there's Easyjet.  Or, to be specific, the Easyjet flights between the UK and Munich.  My new daughter-in-law teaches in Munich so she and my son are regular flyers on the route to and from London Gatwick,  It was about two months ago, before the wedding anyway, Soon to be d-i-l travelled from Munich to Edinburgh to spend the weekend with her grandmother.  On arrival at Edinburgh airport for the return flight on the Sunday evening, she learned that the flight had been cancelled.  Passengers had been booked onto the next flight, leaving the following Friday!  She rang a colleague to explain that she would not be at work on the Monday and spent another night with her Gran.  The next day she flew to London Luton and from there to Munich.

A similar thing happened to my son just last weekend.  He had flown to Munich with the intention of travelling back Sunday evening.  Once again the flight was at first delayed, and then rescheduled for Monday morning.  On boarding the rescheduled plane, he learned that they would be landing at Luton, not Gatwick (where his car was).

It's not much better - if at all - on the ferries.  Last weekend there was a 15-mile queue of cars trying to get to Dover.  Some people even ended sleeping in their cars in the queue!  It all stemmed from a lack of French immigration officers (who are based in Dover) to check people boarding the ferries. At one time there was just one on duty!

We are due to travel through the tunnel tomorrow.  I foresee a lengthy journey.

Better to travel hopefully than to arrive?  I think not!

A world tour

A couple of days ago, Skip posted something about a driving route taking in all 48 contiguous states of the USA.  You check it out here if you like.  It reminded me that I have from time to time considered driving a world tour, but without leaving England!  I would visit:

• Dunkirk and Gibraltar - both in Kent;
• Holland - either in Surrey or Lincolnshire;
• Waterloo in London;
• Florence, Staffordshire.

I would then move further afield to:

• Palestine (Hampshire);
• Egypt - which is in Buckinghamshire.

Moving on still further, I would drop in on Bermuda (Warwickshire) before landing in North America and seeing:

• Washington, New York and Philadelphie (all in Tyne and Wear);
• Toronto, County Durham;
• California, Norfolk;
• Hollywood, Worcestershire.

I could scrape into Australia by going to Melbourne, Derbyshire.

If I was prepared to cross the border into Scotland, I might discover Moscow in Ayrshire.

Of course, the ultimate would be to end up in Paradise, Gloucestershire.

And by the way, Hell is not in England, it's in Norway.

Patcham

Right at the northern edge of Brighton is the one-time village of Patcham - where I live.  Very popular in the 90's,radio star Terry Garoghan famously made a musical about Brighton, lampooning all areas. Here is what he had to say about Patcham.

Make hay while the sun shines

I wonder just how much longer this glorious weather will continue?  Mind you, at least for the last few days I have been able to take the dog for a walk in the afternoon.  This time last week it was far too hot to do that.  Indeed, last Tuesday several boys at a school in Brighton wore their PE shorts to school - and were sent home for not wearing regulation school uniform.  The following day some of them turned up at school wearing regulation skirts!  They were obviously mindful of this tombstone in Stanmer churchyard.