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Leaky Bucket

The UK is a leaky bucket and we’re looking in the wrong place to keep it full.

It’s clear the UK has some serious problems ranging from rampant obesity, poor mental health, demoralised staff, anti social behaviour and decaying roads. Are we looking for the solutions in the wrong place? That’s what this article is about.

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My COP26 climate message.

  • Stop buying any plastic tat from China even if it lines the aisles of your local supermarket and your kids or partner really want it. If you don’t buy it, supermarkets won’t stock it, and it won’t be produced.  
  • Eat less. We’re all too fat already. If you want to eat more – eat more plants that aren’t deep fried.
  • Stop wanting more/bigger/more expensive stuff. Learn to enjoy more of what you have now.
  • Don’t think the answer is somewhere else and don’t blame anyone else. It starts with you.
  • Don’t think a new Tesla will solve the planet’s problems, or a flat on Mars. A new Tesla is 2500Kg of weight you need energy to move so that you can get a pint of milk.
  • One for young people in particular: if you can’t even pick up your own crap then don’t expect any world leader to do so on your own behalf.

Egg

Another day of the morning routine. Wake up. Make coffee. Let chickens out. The half-awake routine was wonderfully interrupted by something other than the chorus of eager chickens wanting to break out of their house and have breakfast. There was a big egg in the run. Bluey greeny sort of thing that had to have come from something much bigger than a chicken, after all, it seemed to weigh about as much as one of the chickens so the hole it came out of was much larger than the ones chickens had. Read more

Odd Day in Norfolk

On Friday 26th January, I was woken up ahead of my normal 530am time by what appeared to be a chicken celebrating an early morning egg. When doing the rounds  of letting dogs out, feeding the chickens etc, I noticed one of the chickens was a bit bedraggled. Mavis appeared she had gone for a swim in the river, which is a bit odd. The penny dropped, foxes had made a visit and despite getting away with nothing, had spooked one of the girls into the river. That at least, was how it seemed. Read more

Of Marbles and Men

Remember marble runs when you were little? There was something so wonderful about putting them together and seeing a marble end up  where it should. That fascination never ends – even at 48 I was equally fascinated by how the Moors in the 9th century channelled water from one place to the other. In this case, the old waterways feeding the pool in the Andalucian shack I was staying in. Read more

Homelessness

When you are distant from homelessness, i.e. your only experience of  ‘homeless’  people are the people you walk past from time to time with a Staffordshire Terrier and a begging bowl, it’s easy to feel pity and think it is no fault or choice of their own to be there.The reality of why people are on the streets, whether they live there or not, is more complex than most people imagine. Read more

Darwin’s Theory is Dying

Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory is Dying..

And it’s because of what science is discovering that finally, Darwin’s greatest doubt is being realised.

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” – Charles Darwin, 1859. Read more

Are we going mad?

This was a question I rather naively posed to a leading consultant psychiatrist a while back when visiting my home (on a social thing in case you wonder!). I thought perhaps I should have presented it in more politically correct terms, but alas, I didn’t know how to.

The response was interesting “That is a very good question, and the simple answer is Yes’. So according to an ‘expert’, we are going madder after all! Read more

Meet my ancestors

According to the widely accepted evolutionary theory, I came from inorganic matter combining to form the most basic form of life, and then over loads of time that simple life got more complicated until I arrived. Must add, my real Mum and Dad had a big part to play. However, according to a recent article my eldest ‘living’ ancestor looked like this…

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