Humans in Outer Space

In a recent interview Professor Hawking has said that human kind must colonise space if we are to survive. But he warns that we must be careful about making contact with aliens as they may not be friendly. From the earliest times, when faced with strangers, we've always attacked first and it is only through an equally strong desire to trade that we have, to some extent, overcome our violent natures. So perhaps we aught to send out a warning first - potentially violent but might prove friendly if you've got something we want.

Recent Events

The mortal remains of Derrick Bird and those whose lives he ended have now been laid to rest. The media circus has left town. There are other events for them to focus on now - the budget and a history making tennis match between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut. The people of West Cumbria are free now to get on with the work of helping those impacted by Derricks' actions. And so much work is being done in communities and congregations to help one another come to terms with what happened. People are sharing their feelings and fears in a very special West Cumbrian way and they are working together to return their lives to some sense of normality.

Re-connected

Yesterday was a red letter day for Workington with the opening of the new (temporary) bridge at Northside. I got to drive over it twice in the evening. The bridge itself is not exactly impressive but then you wouldn't expect "impressive" from a temporary structure; it's functional. What is impressive is that it was completed five weeks ahead of schedule. Now how often do you hear that?

The Calva bridge is still closed. It's a Grade II listed structure so it will have to be repaired. Work should start on this fairly soon along with the demolition of what is left of the old Northside bridge though there are still various planning steps still to be completed.

Gloucestershire Ditties

These are some ditties I come out with now and again usually to demonstrate the West Country accent that lurks under the surface:

I be Gloster born and bred
Strong in arm and thick in 'ed.

-:-

Oi can't read an oi can't wroit
But it don't really matter
Cos oi do cum from Glostershoir
An oi can drive a tractor.

I don't know that the next one has any connection with Gloucestershire but my mum used to sing it usually when she'd done something daft:

Oh dear mother what a flower I be
Two young men came courting me
One was blind and the other couldn't see
Oh dear mother what a flower I be.

Thought I'd share them just for the fun of it but if anyone knows where they originated I'd love to hear from you.

Newspapers

My daughter, Emma, expressed to me her views about the media coverage of Jon Venables return to prison after a breech of his licence. She's not impressed. The coverage appears to be led by the Daily Mirror, a paper that likes to rabble rouse. What concerns me is that other organs of the press, instead of doing their own investigative journalism, are content to quote the Daily Mirror:

"According to the Daily Mirror the 27 year old has ...."

How lazy is that?

I actually bought a local newspaper last week - a bottle of Lucozade was on offer at 50% of the normal retail price when a newspaper was purchased with it - and read some of the articles. The standard of the journalism was particularly poor, the use of English was none too good, and the proof reading was bad. One article didn't even make sense.

This long winter

Here in Aspatria we don't get a lot of snow. Certainly nothing like the amounts we used to get in Gloucestershire. But Aspatria like the rest of the country seems to have been in the grips of winter for a long time. This week, however, I spotted crocus flowers in the lawn (I'd planted them the year before we went down to Buckinghamshire and had thought that they'd been killed off while we were away - I didn't notice them last year) and, in spite of the snow that fell on Tuesday we've seen a lot of the sun this week. Spring is nearly here but winter has not gone, yet.

Does Santa Need a Makeover?

There is a Press Association news item on the Internet today that reports on research done by Dr Nathan Grills and illustrator Brendan Halyday of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. They reckon the image of Father Christmas - an obese mince pie eating boozer - is setting the wrong example to young people and enlarging the waistlines of all those fathers who have to eat the leftover mince pies left out by hopeful children. They want to slim him down and sober him up and prevent him from lending his image to those who advertise products that could be bad for us. But what about getting rid of the Coca-Cola red outfit and giving him back his real name? It seems that they are not prepared to go that far nor are they willing to suggest giving up the winter spending spree in favour of a joyful celebration of the Saviour's birth.