So, it is hot! We are hearing all sorts of stories of how records are being broken. Someone has even said it is 116 years since ‘something’ happened.
We have just passed into our twenty third year of living in Spain, staying in the one house in the same village. It was August two thousand when we moved to this stunning part of the World.
We were privileged when we first arrived in this charming country to see the end of what we were told at the time was a four-year drought.
The valley was brown in colour due to the lack of rain with the trees looking sad, their branches sagging towards the ground as if trying to seek out additional water.
The heavens broke open just a few months later in that October when a frightening ‘Gota Fria’ came tumbling down from the North, severe in its intensity, with continuous lightning strikes, strong winds and rain. It went on for two days.
It was a welcome sight and people stood in wonder looking at the water rushing down gullies, whilst those on the coast, who had mistakenly made camp or parked their vehicles in the dry water ravines, were washed out to sea by the volume of water gushing down from the mountains.
Is it really any different now from previous years when temperature readings were logged down? I don’t think so!
This warm weather we are constantly told, is because of global warming – but looking at it logically, it was in the sixteenth century when scientists first played with the idea of using a thermometer type instrument to measure temperature, however it was not until 1848 when a recognised standard scale was introduced, which means, before that time, any history of a renowned measuring of heat cannot be possible or comparable. Therefore, we know very little about weather patterns before then, going back thousands of years.
Even after the introduction of a standard scale, records are questionable, recorded at separate locations by individuals on instruments we know very little of, as to their correctness. It was not until the overview of the satellite system of the last twenty years, that we found any accuracy. My view, it is not possible to compare the history of weather patterns!
The Tattoo Man
The Town Council in Hanham in East Bristol were disturbed. Exactly opposite a junior school a Tattoo Shop had opened, we are talking the mid-eighties. The shop also sold bondage and sexual items, some of which were displayed in its windows, along with a large sign advertising the inking business.
In a debate the members were concerned about the bad influence on the children, as they would pass this shop on their way to and from school. Although as Chairman I declined to be involved, as I would have a conflict of interest, as the owner had instructed me to design a man type cave/gym at his house.
The Council, after some time, managed to have all the frontal signs removed from the shop and replaced with blank black glass.
I had a different problem, his house was detached, old and a listed building with a huge garage to one side which would originally have accommodated a large carriage with room for the horses. To the rear, overlooking a valley, a beautiful, tailored lawn, where he wanted the project to go. The planning officer when approached about the scheme smiled and shook his head, so there was no way were we going to build.
And yet we did build with approval, we took the grass up turf by turf and built his gym underground with a tunnel leading to it from the house. I did not think it was necessary, but the building inspector insisted on a fire exit, so I added it so it could not be seen, to please the planning officer, I brought it up, so it exited through the garage. We then replaced the grass turf by turf.
Dancing Girls:
During the period of the War the ‘Tiller Girls’ (1889 -2011) danced at various venues throughout the land to help in the cheering up of the population, which was under terrible strain. Later they appeared regularly on television – who remembers ‘Saturday Night at the London Palladium’? They continued dancing, some into their fifties and sixties and older, for charitable events, until 2011.
Times and attitudes move on, and I read that such events are seen as demeaning to women with their high kicking routine.
Unlike tattoos which are seen everywhere – such shows are a rarity because they are seen by some, as belittling of the female form, and yet we see from day to day, semi naked adult females going about their daily business showing more than the Tiller Girls ever did, as if that does not lower standards. At the same time the NHS has decided in its ‘woke’ management that ladies do not exist as they are ‘people who bleed with chest milk’.
So, there we have it, the younger generation think dancing girls lower their esteem but dressing revealingly and poorly in the street doesn’t, anyway, as we are supposed to be all equal there is no such thing as a female.
Motoring:
On the very day following a severe crash, when a test BMW car in Germany with self-driving abilities, moved into the traffic on the opposite side of the carriageway, causing a head on crash and carnage with many vehicles in a massive collision, and killing eight people, the United Kingdom have agreed that type of vehicle can be used on the country’s roads as from 2023, and cars with full self-driving abilities will be allowed on the roads two years later.
Then it will be possible to hurtle down the motorway at seventy miles an hour reading the newspaper or watching TV.
Take care
www.facebook.com/percy chattey – author and writer
