Climate Change & Tradition

 

I think that it's absolutely potty to have the Yeomen of the Guard, the Lords & Guardsmen, (never mind the horses), dressed in thick, heavy, & extremely hot traditional costumes on the hottest June day for more than 40 years. This poor man had to be helped out when he collapsed.

 

Similarly having men in morning dress & the Queen wearing dress, coat, hat, stockings & long white gloves at Ascot. (Is she really going to be contaminated by touching her loyal subjects)? I was only wearing a linen strappy dress & knickers & I melted. I stayed in the shade & had a fan too.

 

I do understand that many Brits treasure our traditions - not least the Royal Family. So I think Pince Harry is both brave & right to say what he did about being King / Queen. Who would really want to go through this torture?  

Look at other European Monarchies. Some of them seem to have managed the transition into the 21st Century.

Luxembourg - Grand Duchy - whatever that is.
Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco - Principalities.
Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden - Monarchies.

Also look at Japan - The Japanese seem to be able to combine hundreds of years of tradition with technology & ultra modern living.

Tradition is all very well, but we should start to think about what we do & why. It's a really great opportunity.

Climate change is here - Summers are hotter & drier, Rains are torrential downpours, we don't seem to get really cold winters any more. We need to adapt to survive.

While I'm at it - there are some really potty traditions in the Houses of Parliament too, although nothing to do with climate change. e.g. Voting - When MPs vote on debates or legislation it is called a division. When MPs vote they say 'aye' or 'no'. In the Lords, Members vote saying 'content' or 'not content'. For major votes the House divides into the voting lobbies, two corridors that run either side of the chamber, and members are counted as they enter into each.

Really!?

Have they heard of the Scottish Parliament who vote using a version of PR & have an electronic voting system. I'm sure the Scots would be happy to explain it all to them, but are we happy to be so anachronistic?

Smombies & Phombies

"Smombie" is a portmanteau word of smartphone & zombie. A new word coined in Germany describing people who are so distracted by their constant eyes on their smartphone that they don't notice anything in their environment because they only stare at the screen. I would have thought that the condition is universal.

It's similat to phombies - my word for people who do not experience their travels & really look because they are seeing everything through the lens of their camera. They are continually looking for that good photo opportunity. This condition has been made immesurably worse by the selfie stick. Now these poor people can contaminate every wonderful place in the world or event by sticking their face at the forefront of the image.

Its so sad. Bad enough to risk death by crossing the road without looking. Or walking into street furniture because you are unaware of hazards. Irritating to risk collisions & injury to others because you stop suddenly without warning. Moving from one place to another, whether on foot or in a vehicle, requires concentration. All these poor saps are concentrating on is a high tec gadget. Life is passing them by.

Where will it lead? I can imagine a future when we have implanted phones & cameras in our heads so that we can send signals directly from the brain to the gadget. We probably won't communicate directly with eachother by speaking face to face. We'll just send images & texts. I hope I'm wrong or I don't live to see the day.

"What every woman needs.... Perfect Bliss

"What every woman needs is a man who makes her laugh & lives 5 blocks away". A friend told me this quote today & attributed it to Martha Gellhorn, but I can't verify that or find who really did say it. Maybe it's apocryphal, but someone should have said it if it is.

It seems to me that this is the solution to the problem of the intelligent man who can't work household appliances, cook, iron, or clean the loo & needs a mother rather than a lover. With age you get to value good conversation, shared experiences, true partnership based on equality & real love. The last two are in short supply I think. Each person should want to give something, not just take. Neither should want to dominate. Both should value the strengths and weaknesses of the other.

Being in a relationship but living apart sounds wondeerful to me. I like my own space - The home I have created with my own things around me. I'm happy for a partner to visit, & vice versa. It would be good to be treated as an honoured guest rather than a skivvy. The concept of inviting someone to share your home, but being able to say that was wonderful, now let's have a breathing space sounds good to me.

Each would be an individual as well as a couple. Both could have their own life as well as a shared life. Both would know there was someone to call on, who would come running in extremis.  The sharing of experiences without being joined at the hip 24 /7. It seems like perfect bliss to me.

Perfect Bliss isn't that easy to achieve though!

Brung up Proper!

WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER !! (And we never had a whole Mars bar until 1993!!!)

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN THE 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids / locks on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. When we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitch hiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, Mc Donalds , KFC, Subway or Nando's.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gob stoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY. No video/DVD films. No mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms............

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time...

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

RUGBY and CRICKET had try outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT.

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.

They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL !

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore.

Someone sent this to me & I thought it was very funny & very true.