Sun and snow and thunder. New words. What if there were only 100 people in the world.

 Well, the weathermen were going on last night about warm fronts and cold fronts and what that does to the weather. All I know is that I woke up to blue sky and sunshine. I had an appointment at the doctor’s and the possible buses would get me there either too early or too late. So I was glad to see the fine weather as I planned to walk over the hill to Uppermill. 

By the time I set off sleety rain was falling. As I approached the top of the hill, almost in Dobcross, the sleet had become snow and there was thunder rumbling around. When I came out of the doctor’s not too much later surgery the blue sky and sunshine had returned. So I called Phil and he set out to meet me half way. By midday I had met my daily step goal easily!

And by 1.00pm it was snowing again. The weather is crazy!

Now for some words. A friend has sent me a word he thinks should be revived. It comes from the 14th century apparently. To “sparple” means to deflect attention from one thing by making a big deal of something else entirely. In the 14th century, therefore, they were already aware of “dead cats”.

And then there is “greedflation”. This is a word to describe the way large corporations have fuelled inflation with price increases that go beyond rising costs of raw materials and wages, pushing shopping bills to record highs. It seems that supermarkets, food manufacturers and shipping companies are among hundreds of major firms who have improved their profits and protected shareholder dividends, giving an extra lift to prices, while the cost of living crisis has meant workers face the biggest fall in living standards in a century. There you go - “greedflation”.

Now, here’s a link to an article about looking at the world as if we had a population of 100 instead of 8 billion. 

Interesting reading. For example:

“How many of us have brown, blond or red hair? And what are the most common eye colours? If, like me, you grew up in Ireland, you may think the world is full of people with red hair and green eyes; but it turns out we’re as rare as unicorns, globally speaking. People in Britain may think blue eyes are as common as brown, when in fact our brown-eyed global villagers outnumber them nine to one. Facts like these, universal and immediate, can help children realise that the world is much bigger than the place where they find themselves. And not just children.”

Thus writes Jackie McCann, author of the book “If the World Were 100 People”. She also says, “My book makes daunting statistics easy to understand, opening young people up to different ways of thinking about the world” but maybe grown-ups should read it too. Her hypothetical village of 100 people is made up like this: “10 of our villagers are European, five are North American, while 60 are Asian.” It might make us all more tolerant to remember that. 

As someone who has been a person with red hair and green eyes - the eyes are still green but the hair has some help from my hairdressser - I also find this article interesting.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!