The White Cliffs Of Dover Have Moved To France
According to this article in the Metro, if you use your mobile phone on top of the White Cliffs of Dover, you may get charged as if you’re in France.
Landlord of the Coastguard pub and restaurant on the beach Nigel Wydymus, 53, said: ‘We are a little telecommunications enclave of France here.
‘It did not cause a huge amount of trouble for a few years with mobile phones because you got a message saying welcome to France but since smartphones have come in it’s more of a problem.
No-one has checked, but I wonder if you’re on the French side under the cliffs there, you might find the British signal is your phones preferred choice.
i do remember, when I would fly back in my Cessna from France, I was quite surprised at how far beyond the French coast, I could pick up a UK signal. Not that I made a call, as I probably needed two hands to fly the plane, but some of my passengers did. And of course that was well before smart phones.
Educating The Germans
I’ve just read this piece on the BBC’s web site called “Affection for Britain brews in Germany”. Part is about the Germans new-found love of tea and the author, Stephen Evans, says this.
The office of one of the Green MPs in the Bundestag, you see, has made a collective decision to switch from coffee to tea.
So when I was there the other day, I was relentlessly quizzed about brewing times – they seemed to want the correct answer to the very second – and which tea to use.
I was not much help, except to say, “Make sure it’s a strong, black tea, probably Indian.”
They had made a bad start, offering me a cup of insipid weak Darjeeling, which would have shamed a gnat. They had not made sure the water was boiling.
It is definitely a piece worth reading.
What everybody forgets is that the Great British Breakfast is actually the Great German Breakfast, as in the Victorian age, everywhere had their German delicatessen which introduced bacon and sausage to many in the UK. The Germans had to leave, when there was a bit of trouble with the Kaiser in 1914.
How To Put Down A Dog
Most of our dogs have lived a long life, with one basset and a couple of setters getting to past thirteen, which is not a bad age for a dog.
But one incident of the end of a dog’s life stands out. Charlotte, our English Setter, who is pictured here, was probably about fifteen and for several days, she’d hardly touched her food or ventured outside her bed in the kitchen. Our amazing horse vet, Philip, who’d passed through in his usual hurry, a couple of days before, had told us that she didn’t have long and to call him, when we thought the time was near. So that evening I’d called him about six and he said he was busy and would turn up later.
I was writing software and eventually Philip turned up just after midnight. He ascertained that Charlotte hadn’t probably more than a few hours and then did what he had to do.
Normally, Philip didn’t have time to stop, but I asked him if he’d like a drink, suggesting tea or something stronger.
He had probably had a bad day, so asked for the latter.
Between us we finished off the greater part of a bottle of Irish whiskey!
I would like to think, that when my time is up, that I could go in the same dignified way that Charlotte did, with the pain for those present helped in an appropriate manner, by either alcohol, coffee or cake!
Mother’s Day
As someone, who is widowed and doesn’t have a mother anymore, this is one of the days I wish didn’t happen. I actually don’t know my two daughter-in-laws and my grandchildren, which is particularly sad. But then you can’t cater for circumstances.
If I want to eat out with my other son today, then we’ll have difficulty finding somewhere decent.
I do hate these single-issue days. Surely, everybody should respect their mother and father all the year! And not just on one day of the year!
These days, were only invented to sell cards and flowers.
C always hated Mother’s Day, as it was some foreign invention. To her it was Mothering Sunday, which was often on a different day. But I can’t ever remember us celebrating any of Mother’s Day, Mothering Sunday or Father’s Day, except by the odd card. We did usually celebrate Valentine’s Day, as I remarked here.
A Good Pluck
I spotted this sign as I walked down the hill from the hotel to Liverpool Central station.
A Good Pluck
It’s for things like this, I always carry a camera.
Liver Birds In The Mist
Just like from a large part of London, you can see the Shard, from a lot of the central area of Liverpool, you can see the Liver Birds.
Liver Birds In The Mist
Is Liverpool, the only British city, with its own bird?
Charles Everett Coop And Richard Doll
Charles Everett Coop, who was Surgeon General by Ronald Reagan has just died.
He seems to have really thought about his job and didn’t allow his religious beliefs get in the way of good health. But like our own Richard Doll,l who proved the link between smoking and cancer, he let the facts and the statistics do the talking.
Interestingly, both were recipients of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
Both though have a health lesson for us all, as Doll died at 92 and Koop did even better dying at 96.
So perhaps they not only looked at the facts and the statistics, but they acted upon them to prolong their own lives.
I always like this quote from Richard Doll.
Death in old age is inevitable, but death before old age is not.
I would put one up from Charles Everett Koop, but I can’t find something pithy and direct.
Another Useless Piece Of Information From Nationwide
A couple of days ago, I paid a plasterer, who had done some work on my bathroom. I paid by direct transfer and by chance, his bank account was also with Nationwide.
This morning, when I checked my bank account, it was labelled as an Internal Transfer. Surely, their system could do better than that!
On-line bank statements could be a lot better and would probably lead to all kinds of good secondary effects if they were.
For instant this morning, if I didn’t know the plasterer, I might have to contact him to make sure he got the payment.
I’d give Nationwide’s on-line statements three out of five at most.
I sometimes think about changing, but all the banks are probably as useless as each other and how many would let me have an account for a month say to try them out?
Eros Is Busy In The Sun
Today was sunny and the crowds were gathering on Eros.
Eros Is Busy In The Sun
Let’s hope the weather tries to stay this way.
The European Extremely Large Telescope
It may sound it like it was named by Blackadder, but the European Extremely Large Telescope has just been backed by the Government.
I’m all for this level of support for science, provided it’s done correctly.
Many might think that it is a pity the telescope is to be built in Chile, but then the weather and atmosphere there is so much better. The biggest telescope in the UK; the Isaac Newton Telescope was actually moved from Sussex to the Canary Islands for this reason.
I suppose the name isn’t as good as that for the proposed Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, which wasn’t built, as it was probably too difficult.
The Anonymous Widower 