Scargill

Archive for August, 2010

I’ve just realised I’ve not been maintaining my Google photos properly – by default you needed a link to see most of them – so for those of you who want to see more photos – or better quality etc… head on over to http://picasaweb.google.com/peterscargill and they should all be there sorted into albums.

I’m feeling a little guilty as I’ve not been updating this blog since we headed off to Spain. All’s well, we have folk looking after our house in the UK though we understand that the weather up North has been atrocious and I do miss my kitten who’s probably forgotten all about me now – meanwhile in Andalucía we had a couple of days of heavy rain… in a month – otherwise it’s been 35 degrees perhaps every afternoon – not a lot of fun unless you can escape and of course that’s exactly what we can do… our cave rarely gets over 25C. I’m really getting into this idea of working mornings and evenings – and doing SOD ALL in between – it really does have it’s merits.

Maureen and I have been trying our best to have a holiday but between her backlog of schoolwork and my constant emails which apparently only I can resolve (nice ego trip but not too good for holidaying).. it’s been a relaxing but not entirely isolated break!

It’s amazing how we as human beings just simply cannot grasp the big picture – it’s as if we’re programmed like machines to only think within our comfort zones. Here I am worrying about work – and the issues others are having as if it is my ultimate role in life to solve problems for others… Maureen is determined to get her work done – even though some of that work means missing out on sunshine – abundant over here but so scarce back in the UK. At 56 the chances are that we’ll only be here for 10-20 years – and that’s not a long time after which everything is utterly and completely irrelevant FOREVER…. such a short time to take in the wonders of the world we’ve yet to discover and yet here we are writing blogs, doing schoolwork, solving other people’s problems… we HAVE been taking the time to watch on the EDEN channel, later at night the EXCELLENT heritage of nature programs that Attenborough has left us…. they’ve been having an Attenborough week and some of the stuff on there is amazing. Personally I’d scrap ALL religious education worldwide and replace it with Attenborough lessons – we’d all be a LOT better off.

Still, I suppose it beats getting bored. In the next couple of days we’ve a trip WAY up in the mountains where despite the tremendous heat here in Spain, there is STILL snow at the top… I’ll have my camera and if you look in I’ll do my best to document!

Hot sun, cool water, chocolate Ice-Cream and stunning imagery shared with your partner – THAT’S what it’s all about…

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Whilst it is fair to say that WARK is not the best indication of the weather potential of the UK, being part of the Northeast and hence raining most of the time, there’s no getting away from it – once again it’s been a MISERABLE summer in downtown Northumberland. what on EARTH place does 10 degrees C have in AUGUST??

Incidentally, that sign of rain on Tuesday in Galera on the right.. I’ll bet by the weekend that changes to an Orange sun.

Weather in Andalucía has been wonderful since the end of July (head on over to the Bedrock site and take a look) and looks set to remain so. A little hot at lunchtimes but then that’s what swimming pools and naps are for. I’m getting my work done in the early hours as it’s comfortable t-shirt weather overnight outside, meanwhile our house in the UK is being looked after which is a comfort.

After a tea-totalling night last night in which we worked on the hot tub and I got annoyed with tech support at work, I got up WAY too early this morning to do a spot of coding on a website and to update my blog. It’s pitch black here at 6.30am but still cool enough to walk around in shorts, which is nice. Got my new dictionary on the iPhone… marvellous – £17 and I get both the iPhone and iPad versions thrown in. Third of a million words complete with audio recordings in both languages and the ability to completely cross-reference – and all offline. Beats the pants off the paper versions. I’m not convinced that “he’s got cheesy feet” is the best definition of cheese but there you are…

I’m going to stop watching TV – try as I might I just can’t escape the adverts… normally we record everything specifically to watch at a convenient time and so we can skip over the increasingly childish ads on British TV.  Ok, there is some merit in the “compare the Meercat” ads – but as for the tenor on “Go Compare” – I’d like to shoot him where he stands.  Talking of shooting, is it just me or do others find the increasing number of accident lawyer ads INCREDIBLY annoying?

“Had an accident recently? Made a complete ass of yourself and feel the need to SUE someone and ruin their life? Come to Urchins-r-us and we’ll take them to court for free”.  I just find the whole thing so annoying as they’re pitting man against man, woman against woman. Ok so insurance companies have to shell out, not people, right? Wrong – all that happens is everyone’s premiums go up – and so prices go up. People don’t NEED an excuse to be nasty to each other and yet these leeches are out there advertising during the day when kids are watching. So we’ve a generation growing up thinking there’s no such thing as an accident as WELL as thinking the state owes them a favour! A typical example is ad with the moron who’s gotten up the wrong ladder at work.  Ask yourself… this is what he does for a job and he doesn’t have the brain power to know when someone has given him the wrong ladder? How about personal responsibility? You can be damn sure if I used a dangerous tool at work I’d make it my business to know if it was the right tool for the job.

Don’t even START me on “we sell any car….dot com”….

I’ve always been a great believer in freedom of the individual – however that freedom stops when it adversely affects another – and in this case when it leads to brainwashing of our children.

For reasons far beyond the ken of any rational person, the government have awarded a “kitemark” to “Noahs Ark Zoo Farm” in Wraxall, near Bristol.

School-children who have been conditioned already to accept the word of adults as gospel (and who are predisposed to do that anyway) are “free to go to an area where posters and charts advance it’s religious beliefs”… all of which would be fine but we’re talking school outings here with susceptible children!

Can you imagine British children in the 21st century being exposed to crap like this….

• “The story of Noah’s Ark is supported by science”
• “Humans are not descended from apes – there are too many differences”
• “Consciousness is not a property of matter”

If consciousness is not a property of matter, then the scans that clearly show physical brain activity when thinking and the vast amounts of research that’s beginning to explain how this all works is all just a pipedream, then? Any sane adult would take this rubbish on the chin as they would TV sex and violence – but school-trips of children!!

While companies are free to peddle whatever they like as long as it is not illegal, we need a specific memo from the government, banning school outings and preventing children from being exposed to this rubbish until they are old enough and wise enough to put this nonsense into perspective – i.e. the blind ignorance of the uneducated.

America despite it’s supposed separation of church and state is in terrible difficulty thanks to the indoctrination of it’s children, with 50% believing in imaginary friends – as for the middle east – well, they’re simply totally lost in their own blind ignorance… we must NOT allow the great strides we’ve made in Britain in educating children to think for themselves to fall prey to this and similar nonsense.

That kitemark has to GO.