Manchester is back open for business.  They've hosted an athletics event in the city already and will be having the Great Manchester Run tomorrow.  There are festivals, the FA Cup and various other major-crowd-drawing events on across the UK over the Bank Holiday weekend - list of some here  There is heightened security, though the Prime Minister ( Read more... )

I was recently watching a programme presented by Dan Cruickshank on the archaeological treasures in the Middle East, Iraq and Syria in particular, and how ISIS/ISIL was destroying them or selling them off to fund themselves.  Various museums in Bagdhad and Mosul.  Nineveh, Babylon, Nimrud, Palmyra, to name a few ancient city sites.  The history of ( Read more... )

Last week was kinda grim, all the aftermath from the shooting in Sousse.  All those bodies being 'brought home' by the RAF.  Various people saying they'd never visit Tunisia, one of the most peaceful of the Arab countries, again.  Other people declaring that they were going to Tunisia, to Sousse even, because the Tunisians in the area were mostly ( Read more... )

Oh joy, the remnants of a hurricane are forecast to hit the British Isles this Sunday, at present it is merely warm and therefore bearable.  I remember when we caught the tail end of a hurricane some years back.  On a Saturday this one.  We got out our waterproofs, H, me and a small but ambulant S, and headed off to Brighton where they had a Lego ( Read more... )

Tonight there is a full moon.  Just think, even if you're in the most built up and light polluted of areas you can see this astronomical phenomenon.  Ok, maybe moonrise will be a tad later due to the 'ahses in between, but that's all.  Enjoy ( Read more... )

It's the last edition of this year's series of Springwatch tonight.  Pooh!  It's been interesting, informative and entertaining, sometimes gruesome, possibly in that order - the BBC at its best.  Apparently the website will be up and running for a long time yet, so we can engage in various citizen science projects etc.  That's been the past three ( Read more... )

Take Your Pick - but do act on the first one, please.

This is serious - the Geo 4 results are out.  Even the greenest among us appear to be using two worlds' worth of resources.  Err . . .  we don't have another planet or two, or three or four, to support our consumer lifestyles.  Switch Off something, Re-use, Re-furbish, Re-cycle, & just Use ( Read more... )

Twenty-one Today

Our daughter, that is.  Good grief, is it really 21 years since I spent Saturday night & all day Sunday in the Delivery suite of our local maternity ward?  How time flies!

That's both of them officially Adult & self-supporting.  & if you believe that . . .   So when does being Mum, or Dad, end?  Doesn't, does it.  ( Read more... )

Spoonsful

It's, among other things, World Mental Health Day.  So I'll give that a plug, even though more is being done to highlight the incidence of mental ill-health than to promote good health.   As for actually helping those with mental health difficulties . . .  Ok, ok, so we don't have Bedlam any more.  We just have Care in the Community ( ( Read more... )

Vanilla from Where?

The kettle came, it wasn't the one I'd asked for, but at least we can have properly hot drinks now.  Tea made with boiling water etc.  One thing though, it's noisy; sounds like one of our previous kettles used to when you'd switched it on & there wasn't enough water to cover the element properly.

Quite what effect the Blog ( Read more... )