Indiscriminate Grabbing

Grabbing used to be an indelicate procedure resorted to only in desparate haste, but these days people talk of grabbing almost anything, but especially chairs and cups of coffee. I'm surprised that more coffee isn't spilt in the rush.

Jabbed!!

I had my flu jab today. I checked with several chemists' shops to find out when they were doing it, and found a shop that was jabbing on demand without appointments, so I joined the queue of just one person, and was duly jabbed.

I now await the doctor's summons for my third covid-19 jab.

A Late Spell of Summer

Several weeks ago I put away my Summer suit expecting not to need it again until next year, but this week weather was hotter than at any time in August so I got it out again and went shopping in linen suit and white hat.

Government Sponsored Cruelty

I was quite upset by televised coverage of an Alpaka being taken away for execution. It was alleged to be infected with bovine TB but look to ne in very good health. Its owner had objected strongly. I gather the official policy of killing animals infected with TB has been questioned but I'm not sufficiently familiar with the arguments to debate that. What I do question was the way in which the operation was varried out. The animal, clearly frightened and distressed was dragged away by a rope fastened round its face. That must have been very painful. Tha animal seemed to me to be a pet. When pets have to be put down we are usually concerned that the procesdure should be quick and painless and the pet should not be distressed but comforted by its owner. In this case the animal was dragged into a van and driven away to be killed elsewhere. The owner was not able to witness the event. The registration number of the van was blacked out. That alone should have been sufficient grounds for the police present to have charged the driver with a traffic offence.

My interpretation of the proceedings was that DEFRA staff wanted to punish the owner for objecting to the killing and arranged that she see the animal suffer as punishment for inconveniencing them.

DEFRA has a bad record. At one time it almost created a dustbowl in East Anglia by paying farners to remove hedges. DEFRA needs a tough minister with a mandate to remove senior staff and sort things out.

A Compliment

When I shopped at Grape Tree today the lady serving me said I was always their best dressed customer. To return the compliment, I strongly recommend Graoe Tree's yoghurt coated raisins.

Selective Safety

When Parliament met yesterday hardly any Conservative MPs wore face masks. Many people consider that, with covid-19 deaths at only about 90 per day we can afford to relax safety measures. However 90 deaths per day is about 32 000 per year, much greater than the number deaths in road accidents, of which there are only about 2000 per year. Does the Goverment plan to relax road safety rules by permitting drunken driving and making the wearing of seat belts optional?

Home Grown Tomatoes

Today I gathered my first barch of this year's tomatoes. There are many more on their way so I hope they'll last for a couple of months at least.

Even CoolerShopping

A few days ago I noted how few opportunities I've had this year to wear my Summer clothes. Today I wore light overcoat when I went to the shops and returned my Summer hat to its Winter quarters.

Cool Summer

Usually there is a period of several weeks in the Summer when I wear my white Summer suit and white hat when I go shopping. This year I've only worn those garemnts for four or five days. I don't complain. My prefered temperature is in the low 20s Celcius, and my tomatoes have started to ripen around the usual time.

Enjoying Fossil Scones

From time to time I've noticed that a cake tin in the panty rattled if I moved it. Investigation revealed two ancient scones - I estimate they were are than a year old. They were quite dry, and when I handled them I found they were quite brittle. They crumbled when I squeezed. I ate a fragement and found it quite palatable, like a very thick crunchy biscuit. I look forward to enjoying a fossil scone for tea today.

Having Fun with HTML

I enjoy creating web pages with that versatile text editor notepad.exe. I've been preparing a talk for the Science Group of my U3A. Many people use power point for that, but I prefer to produce a set of interconnected html pages. I enjoy tweaking the style sheet until I get just the layout I want. Supplementary material can be made to pop up on mouseovers, and I manage pictures with lightbox.

Some people prefer to use special html generators, but that misses the fun, and usually produces grotesquly bloated code. Press control-U while reading a webpage to see what horrors lurk behind the bland pages.

Nostalgia

A few days ago I bought a copy of PC Pro. I hadn't bought any computer magazine for many years and fondly remember the days when I bought at least one every month and read it from cover to cover. This time I read the article about CIX attentively and skimmed quickly through the rest. Computers used to be so exciting!