This should have been posted yesterday. I just found it in draft. In my feeble state I failed to publish it. So here goes!
According to the people in the know we are due for a spell of very cold weather: The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued two amber warnings for north-east and north-west England, which will be in place between 8pm on Sunday until midday on Monday 5 January. It seems to me it’s quite cold enough already. As well as old biddies like us, the experts tell us, “vulnerable younger people and those sleeping rough may also be affected”. Every time I’ve been outside in the last day or so, I have reflected that it must be awful to be sleeping on the streets at present - awful at the best of times but especially so right now.
And then I think of the masses of people in refugee camps in Gaza, where they are being denied better accommodation, and where floods and strong winds are whipping through the tents.
None of this stops me feeling sorry for myself. Granddaughter Number Two, who tells me that she too has a chesty cough and a snotty nose, and I have decoded that Granddaughter Number Four, the youngest of the Southern branch of the family, infected us all as she was coughing and sneezing furiously during their pre-Christmas visit. Whatever the cause, I seem to be surviving on Lemsip and sleep! Hey ho!
In Japan they are having a problem with bears, not all over the country but in a significant number of places. Osaki, the north-eastern town of 128,000 people is best known for its Naruko Onsen hot springs, autumn foliage and kokeshi – cylindrical dolls carved from a single piece of wood. But this year it has made the headlines as a bear hotspot, as the country reels from a year of record ursine encounters and deaths, with warnings that winter will not bring immediate respite.
People are going hiking equipped with special bells and bear-repellent spray. Personally I think I might avoid places where the bears might appear. People have been attacked. You would think that by now the bears would be hibernating but it seems they are short of food and so have not fattened up enough to go and hibernate. No doubt this has all got something to do with climate change.
On the subject of climate change, here’s a link to an article about how extreme weather has pushed nature to its limits in 2025.
We’ve been watching Stranded, an Italian series about some people trapped in a hotel in an Italian skin resort when an earthquake causes an avalanche and blocks the only route in and out. Of course, there are problems with relationships, with a woman and her daughter in a witness-protection programme, with a man who has a link to the criminal who led to her being in said witness-protection programme. All a bit Agatha Christy but with lots of nice scenery.
Because this series is presented on 4 by Walter Presents, we have to tolerate the very annoying sponsorship spots by Indeed. Also there are lots of adverts for gambling. Now this is one of my bugbears, as I am sure some readers are aware. According to this article, Sadiq Khan has pledged to remove gambling advertising fromTransport for London but he has had some problems because of a prolonged impasse between the mayor’s office and the government! And the advertising has not only continued but increased. So it goes.
Here’s another thing. Eight and a half years after the Grenfell Tower fire it seems that some of the firms involved in providing the cladding that burned so fiercely are still receiving multimillion-pound public contracts. The mind boggles!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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