Yesterday a friend of mine in Sicily posted that they had a temperature of 48.8°C in Siracusa. Apparently this is the highest recorded temperature in the history of Europe. Later on the news they said this was the equivalent on 120°F. That’s hot! Very hot! How do you cope with that?
My weather app offers me a maximum temperature of 18°C, possibly 19°C. Actually that will do me fine so long as it doesn’t rain on me. Tomorrow looks much the same, with a 4% to 5% chance of rain. We are planning a chippy hike so we hope the 5% chance of rain doesn’t happen. We’ve not done the chippy hike for a few weeks for a variety of reasons: the chippy was closed for a couple of weeks, the weather was just not suitable and some of our chippy hikers were not available. Tomorrow all those problems should have disappeared … fingers crossed!
We probably need to have our chippy hikes now for the experts say there could well be a shortage of potatoes in the very near future. Brexit and extreme weather are to blame. It’s harder than it used to be to import potatoes from elsewhere and heavy rain has UK flooded potato-growing areas. Potatoes have rotted in the ground! Goodness! Just think back to the potato famine in Ireland in the 19th century! Loads of people escaped to a new life in other countries. I think we have put the kibosh on that since we can no longer rush off and work in Europe! Okay! I exaggerate the importance of a potato shortage in the Uk in the 21st century. Some chip shop owners have been expressing concern about having to put prices up though!
So a staple food item which we are normally able to grow here is going to be in short supply and yet I was able to buy figs again at the Italian greengrocery in Uppermill. I don’t think this was just because it’s an Italian greengrocery. In fact they sell a very British range of fruit and veg on the whole with a bit of Italian stuff available as well - Sanpellegrino soft drinks among other things.
Anyway, I bought figs, never seen here in my youth, and I also bought plums. As a rule, when I buy figs I use a favourite recipe for roast figs but it didn’t quite go with my planned menu for the evening meal. So I googled recipes that could involve both fruits and ended up with a very nice plum and fig torte. So it goes!
As regards shortages as a whole, I have to say that I’m not noticing vast swathes of empty shelves in the shops around here. The local coop has a notice apologising for the fact that some items are not available because of delivery problems but on the whole, apart from a long-standing lack of All Bran, they seem to manage reasonable well. The small Tesco in Greenfield is much the same. But as I am have not been to the bigger supermarkets in the town centre I am really not an expert on this matter.
Today is GCSE results day. Our 16 year old grandson has achieved a nice clutch of 9 passes, nothing exceptional grade-wise but quite respectable. This is more or less what we expected. Had he had to sit exams he might have achieved higher grades because he’s the sort of student who doesn’t push himself in class work but rises to the challenge of an exam. Teacher assessment does not favour the laid-back student who does enough to get by but not much more (unless a subject really grabs him) when there are computer games to put your effort into.
On the radio news programme they have been discussing this very thing. For the first time girls have outstripped boys in their performance at maths at this level. The apparent explanation is that girls work harder at impressing their teachers while boys put off the effort until exam time - all this is in broad, sweeping terms of course. Maybe we need to change the expectations that we educate into boys and girls at a young age!
The achievement gap between private schools and state schools continues to exist, indeed to increase but not as greatly formGCSE as for A-Level.
Amidst all the discussion of this year’s A-Level results and the surprisingly high number of top grades awards, the annoying Jeremy Clarkson has added his contribution, with a message to students:
“If the teachers didn’t give you the A level results you were hoping for, don’t worry. I got a C and 2Us and I’ve ended up happy, with loads of friends and a Bentley.”
One thing he did fail to mention is that he went to a top private school, where boarding pupils currently pay £12,721 per term, with day pupils charged £9,437.
As private school students have achieved so many top grades, it would seem that the schools have refined their technique since Mr Clarkson’s day. I suspect that students from state schools coming out with similar results to Mr Clarkson’s might lack certain other social advantages which probably helped him on the way to happy ownership of a Bentley!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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