And Now The Weather Forecast

Its been a strange summer, first it was too cold then overnight its into a heatwave.

Just as I thought a change of government would bring some sense to the country regarding the CO2 nonsense there are mutterings about how the country is not doing enough to reduce its carbon, look out here comes a new tax!

On Sunday I looked at the weather forecast and it said Monday some heavy rain, Tuesday some rain and then cloud and sun for the rest of the week. Even though its not been a hot summer where I am its been way too dry for too long and we really need a heavy rain, so the forecast was welcome.

Hold on, Sunday night the same forecast people said dry Monday, wet Tuesday, cloud all week. Then by Monday morning it was changed again. What made it even more interesting was that at one point it said maximum temp for Monday was 18deg and present temp 23deg. Errrr ?

This morning as I watered the vegi patch at 7.15am in hot sunshine and cloudless sky the forecast said overcast. As I type the forecast is mostly overcast top temp of 20deg present temp 23.

Let me understand this, forecasts change every hour, so if at 8am it says sunny they can just as easily change it to rain at 12 noon.

The definition of forecast is given as "To estimate or calculate in advance, especially to predict (weather conditions) by analysis of meteorological data" , but if the forecast changes every hour that's not a forecast its a guess.

Funding from the government to the Met Office runs into hundreds of millions of pounds a year, so in the spirit of all things needed to reduce the national debt I suggest we disband the met office and replace it with me, for £100 a day Ill make a guess. I assure you it will be as accurate as the Met Office and if its not Ill guess again.

They knew how to do things in the 1700's

Its been very quiet on the blog recently because I have been on holiday.

We spent a week in the Derbyshire Peak District and although it rained a lot we were out everyday either walking or visiting places.

One of the places we spent a day at was Hardwick Hall, or should I say halls. There are two massive buildings on the one location because Bess of Hardwick while living in the old hall decided that she wanted something better so set about having a new one built. Its nothing short of amazing to think how rich these people were back then but what struck me most was that the whole place was built in 3 years.

Where I live they have been incapable of building a small medical centre in 10 years, yet years ago people in this country were able to build massive houses in 3 with the main aim of impressing the hell out of other people as to how rich they were.

There are a lot of things about these old places that made no sense at all. For example how totally huge some of the rooms are when the only heating was open fires. The fact that the guides tell you this room or the other was used by Bess to receive guests, or entertain or eat with guests when in fact you have to think that she probably didn't have many guests. She certainly didn't get a call on a Friday night saying so and so was popping up from London for a weekend.

It is terribly dark in the new hall, with thick nets at the windows to protect the wall hangings. One guide told me "Bess didn't realise the damage she was doing to the tapestries, well isn't that a bit like someone saying to you you should put covers over you carpets because you will damage them if you use them.

The other thing that made me laugh was an American tourist in the house asking the guide "did they have double glazing" , its worrying isn't it.

Gossip and news.

Ban Guns !?
Here we go again, I can not defend the actions by the guy who went mental with his guns but I can not believe the comments of some of the "do gooders" in the country who now want something else banned.

Please put it into perspective will you do gooders, there are 70 million people in the UK, 69,999,999 of them didn't go mental and shoot up the area yet you do gooders want to ban everyone from keeping a gun.
I suggest we need more people with shot guns not fewer and for them to go out and shoot the rapidly expanding pigeon epidemic.

Why is it always the way when a gun is involved in a death everyone wants them banned, if he had gone on the rampage in his car, after all he was a taxi driver, and maybe killed 20 people in a bus queue or outside a school would you hear anyone shouting about banning cars, which are the biggest cause of unnatural death and injury in the country. No you wouldn't, because the do gooders all want to drive their kids 100metres to school every morning.

People have gone soft!
I sat in a waiting room yesterday and the receptionist was having a good rant about a phone call she had just taken. The basis of the call was that someone was on holiday in the area and there was a slight problem with their child and they wanted to see a Dr. in a hurry. Unfortunately the receptionist could not give an appointment and she obviously considered there was actually no need to see a Dr. in any case.
The receptionist kept saying to her colleague that "people have gone soft, I really thing everyone has gone soft".
OK, you might think you understand that saying but think about it, it has no actual meaning does it. Pinch yourself, poke yourself in the tummy or slap your face, look, people are soft aren't we, people are squidgy in places, some way more squidgy than others but we are basically soft so how did that phrase ever come about.

It would have amused the waiting room far more if she was ranting that everyone had gone hard, wouldn't it.

Obama is Furious!
Apparently President Obama is furious with BP and said BP has not moved fast enough to respond to the massive oil spill among other things. We have seen a great lets bash Britain campaign from some in the USA and they all seem to have forgotten that the rig was being run by Transocean which, oh look is a company that was founded in 1919 in guess where, Louisiana, which unless it moved is not part of Britain.

BP have stepped in and taken the responsibility for something that is really not their fault, they didn't make the valve that failed they were not the ones responsible for safety on the rig when it exploded but they have done everything they can to help with the disaster.

What it is about some Americans that they just have to bash the UK at every opportunity and now even Obama is on the band waggon.

If our leader Cameron has any bottle he will be telling Obama where he can stick his invite to the White House until Obama gets his facts right.
I won't hold my breath on that one though.