I was just thinking again about that ship collision. If you look at the screen-grab I did for Plym of the Humber Estuary, you’ll see small round dots, not ship shapes. They’re wind turbines and oil platforms. Imagine the environmental damage if it had run into an oil platform at speed……. Let alone the risk to life.
Russian captain probably getting a nice reward from warmonger Putin......when he's set free.....Trump probably working on that for his Russian buddy as we speak.
Putin...oh sorry I meant Trump closing down "The Voice of America" gets a thumbs up from China.....that surely is worrying when China agrees with him. PS.....Maybe Putin and China will ask Trump to shut down the BBC World Service next.
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.... look what successive governments have done by not funding the BBC World Service properly.
Great results for the Great Deal Maker Donald Trump. Full scale air attacks last night in Gaza, Ukraine and Russia. Share prices falling. Alliances that have stood since the end of WW2 crumbling. What can The Man achieve next?
I am almost at the stage now of trying to avoid watching any news at all. It's just so depressing what is going on and even more depressing is the fact that people in the Western World voted for Trump in the first place. I had the same feelings when our lot voted for Boris and still fail to understand how people can be that stupid. Before that it was Brexit. The whole world has just gone mad. I'm at the wrong end of my life cycle but I despair for my grandchildren.
It is incredible that people can be so dumb (or something worse) as to vote for Trump or Johnson, let alone Farage. But then it's everywhere, Germany, Hungary... the rot is everywhere. We used to laugh at "banana republics" but now we all seem to determined to become one.
Probably the most worrying thing that Trump has revealed about America is that its fabled Constitution is actually a mess, particularly its politically appointed judges and the overbearing nature of the President’s reserve powers to issue unchallengeable edicts. All this worked while Presidents, elected representatives and appointees treated the spirit of the Constitution with respect. Now there’s a man in power who’s a respecter of nothing and nobody, it’s fragility is laid bare. We need to be careful we don’t go the same way with constant criticism of judges. And then of course there was Johnson’s disgraceful proroguing of Parliament to force his disastrous Brexit scheme through. The Queen was at the end of her reign then. Would Charles let such an abomination happen? I’d like to think not.
Trump has a simple attitude to opposition.....if they disagree with him....just get rid of them.......it worked for Hitler... until 1945 when he found out that the world got rid of him. Putin is in the same boat but it all happens behind closed doors.....accept it became more open with Ukraine.
The more worrying thing about Trump is that he’s completely fact-free.. a large part of what he says is demonstrably wrong. He keeps saying for example that we need a truce in Ukraine urgently because a large number of Ukrainian troops are encircled in the Kursk region. They aren’t: it’s bad there but I saw a defence analyst who has access to military grade satellite imagery saying unequivocally that they are not surrounded. Supplies are getting in and the wounded getting out. Of course we need a proper peace as soon as possible but not for that reason. Either they are rerunning interviews or he said it again yesterday. It’s not reassuring that a man who’s followed everywhere by a bag containing the paraphernalia that launches strategic nuclear weapons has an only loose grip on reality - or worse, bends the facts to suit his opinions and not the other way around.
Chatting with the "bank Teller" (is that the correct name for them) in the Nationwide yesterday on how busy it had been in there...and only popping in later when the queues' had disappeared....he was suggesting how they have gained many "older customers" since they announced that they had promised no bank closures until at least 2028. He was saying that many older customers are "not internet savvy". and prefer face to face transactions....blimey I could have told them that.without any research being done...it is so obvious. I said that the bank/ building society I had been using for over 60 years since the day I took out a mortgage was disappearing into the distance as they closed more local branches no matter how big they were and even if they where reasonably busy each day. He said they where rubbing their hands together with the announcement that Santander where going to close another 93 branches....Lloyds had announced awhile back that they where closing 136 branches.....in fact the "bank teller" could tell me exactly where my nearest branch would be for all the major banks around here. High streets are now dominated with Charity shops.....Asian/Eastern Europe/Indian/Pakistani/ food markets and Coffee shops....high amongst the closed shops are UK food outlets and of course Bank/Building Societies....the cry for saving are high streets is hitting deaf ears. Supermarkets and Departmental Store are now mainly out of town shopping retail sites.....where a car needs to be available to be able to shop satisfactory .....especially grocery shopping for the week....you find that older shoppers find these facilities more difficult to use....so end up paying top prices wherever they can find a "corner store" near them.......those that can afford it will pay out for a taxi to get their shopping home....another expense on a pensioners purse.
Or order online and get it delivered..... I hear what you say about people not being "tech savvy" but it's really not that hard. Incidentally, my other half does her Mum's weekly shop from here and gets it delivered up there... and whilst she has many strengths, IT isn't one of them. I haven't been in a bank for several years now. I did have a cheque sent to me for the cash-back on my current phone a couple of years back. I scanned that into my bank with... my mobile phone.
During the pandemic we shopped online...Sainsbury's and Waitrose...neither where that marvelous....missing items....other items sent instead of because of no stock....things that we would never of chosen.....some meat items far fattier than we would like....the lack of browsing and choosing the best....especially with sell by dates was not of course a priority with that type of system.....our daughter in the end did some of our shopping for us which of course was far better. Of course some people are not so "fussy on items" so it suits them obviously.
I will hold my hands up to the not being technology savvy and am the first to admit it. I do not care that for most it is not difficult, it is for me and I take an age to get used to using electronic gadgets and even then often struggle. My wife is registered blind and didn't become that until her late 60s. For her using technology is almost impossible because she never used it much before. She keeps getting told that she could get this or that type of gadget but to be fair it doesn't help. Then we come to online this or online that. Has the rest of the world forgotten that doing shopping as an example is a way of people mixing and seeing real faces outside of their home. Already there are hardly any callers at houses anymore. Milk men gone, Insurance man gone, Rent man gone, Postman reduced in visits. If these people didn't go to the shops personally then a lot wouldn't see anyone from one day to the next let alone have any conversation. As far as I'm concerned I am a customer and as such I expect to be able to see what I want to buy, speak to somebody if I can't find it and not have to check out the goods myself on a machine. I expect the same to apply when I go to a Bank. I refuse to use self service and I refuse to do online banking. I also refuse to buy something from a picture on a computer or phone so even the delivery folk who invade in their droves don't call on me either unless they want to offload the neighbours goods when they are out. Old fashioned yes and it makes my kids eyes roll when I repeat this to them having refused to do something. My daughter had a problem with her bank account a while back when somebody spent some of her money. My son also had a problem a few years ago with the same thing. My sweet old fashioned non online action has never seen me have a problem with fraud ever. I've not had to return anything to a shop for years either because I pick my own. Progress? What progress for the better is there.
Just having a plastic card for payments can cause you financial problems. Awhile back I had my current account emptied by payments made in Thailand.....it went from a healthy plus to the same amount minus I also found out that others in the larger family and neighbours around also had the same experience. All these transactions happened through a local garage whose card receipts had been rigged to read plastic card details and then being used in Thailand .....of course the payments were refunded but it does unnerved you and you become suspicious of banking in general.
When I buy something I use cash not a card. I use a card in my Bank mostly. Like I said a sweet ole fashioned thing. If anyone doesn't want my cash then I go somewhere else where they do.
If Mrs Plym has her hair done the Hairdressing Salon will only take card payments....it does away with the vulnerability of having cash on the premises which becomes a liability....and of course the difficulty of banking it these days.. When banks close it also shuts down a cash in the wall dispenser or multiple in bank ones....and I find that some of them now charge you for using them. This is becoming a problem....with banks becoming less and far between...cashing cash becomes a problem.....even Post Offices are becoming difficult to use....my nearest Post Office is in a Morrisons small grocery store....one person behind the tills....having to swap from being a Post Master one moment and move over to use the ordinary shop till the next.....two seperate queue's form and remembering who is next to be served becomes a pain.
Watched my second International England game in a few days tonight. Yawn yawn yawn............. The opposition was pants in both games but how feckin slow are England in getting anywhere on the pitch. Lets do 5 passes where one would have done the same job and of course not break into a run unless forced to. It is paint drying boring. Bellingham should be called Bellendingham. He is getting far too cocky for his own good and is becoming a liability rather than the outstanding star he thinks he is. Rashford did lots of good work only to bugger up the cross almost every time.
