Archive for January, 2010
Lighthouse tour follow-up
Trinity House, the General Lighthouse Authority for England & Wales, which owns most of the country’s lighthouses, is consulting on proposals to stop using the historic buildings to guide sailors.
Their experts believe the development of hi-tech aids has rendered them unnecessary.
Most vessels, even smaller ones, now use satellite navigation systems like GPS and no longer rely on the beam from lighthouses.
As well as Beachy Head, Orfordness in Suffolk, Blacknore Point in Somerset, Hartland Point in north Devon and Maryport in Cumbria, could also be switched off.
Skokholm island lighthouse, off the south-west coast of Pembrokeshire in Wales, is also on the list.
Trinity House’s consultation ended on Friday, but a decision is not expected to be made until the spring.
One trick pony..
…J D Salinger, author of The Catcher In The Rye, has died aged 91. I read this when I was 16 and I read all his other books which promised much but never surpassed his masterpiece. Catcher was the classic “rights of passage” book; I was disappointed when I tried to re-read it years later and it meant nothing to me – so much so that I did not finish it – but that first read – WOW!
Breakfast
When I was in Stellenbosch having breakfast I ordered bacon and eggs – I was flabbergasted when the waitress came back to me to tell me they had run out of bacon – at breakfast!!! It was in a bad hotel and it confirmed my views of the place as I thought only complete pillocks would run out of bacon at breakfast.
Well no – today I went to a new place for breakfast and ordered a muffin with scrambled egg and bacon – you guessed it they had run our of bacon!!! The delivery man was late. I had just been to the market and had some bacon in my bag and I nearly offered it to him but no I turned on my heel and walked out. As I came out I realised that two doors down there was a deli selling bacon. You would have thought in a new establishment they would have just said nothing, gone next door and got some rashers and cooked it off – but no they were interested in turning down a sale and losing a possible regular. Some people in business are so short sighted. Reminds me of a chef who refused to cook chips so when customers asked for them the waiter went to the chippy next door and served them on a salver as if they had come from the kitchen – that’s what I call initiative.
East End boxer to give up jellied eels
Dagenham lightweight Kevin Mitchell is using his fight against Ignacio Mendoza at Wembley Arena on 13 February to raise publicity for the plight of an East End favourite… jellied eels.
Reports suggest that the eel population in the River Thames has dropped by up to 98% in the last five years.
Why was this not referred to Plod!
This case shows the whole system to be a nonsense!
Harry Cohen, the MP for Leyton and Wanstead in east London has been forced to surrender £65,000 redundancy pay after watchdog found he had committed a "particularly serious breach" of expenses rules.
Although Cohen did not live in a property in Colchester, Essex, for long periods of time, he continued to register the house as his main home between 2004 and 2008, even though he and his wife spent most of their time in his constituency. It allowed him to claim more than £70,000 from the second home allowance during the period. The watchdog said that had Cohen been treated as an outer London MP with just one home, he would have been entitled to claim just £9,000.
He will now become the first MP to be forced to forfeit the £65,000 "resettlement grant" given to those leaving Parliament. Mr Cohen had already announced that he will step down at the next general election.
Willy down under
It really is heart warming to see the Brit Royals being so enthusiastically welcomed by our Aussie cousins and how they have taken their future king to their hearts – good onyer mates. They know a good thing when they see it and we should applaud them ahead of the upcoming walloping they are going to receive at the hands of the team that took the cricket world champions to a draw in SA.