Today is not only cold but also wet. In fact, officially it’s less cold than it has been, 4° according to my phone’s weather app as opposed to -2° which seems to have been the norm recently. Somehow the rain makes it feel colder. We walked around the village in the mid to late afternoon yesterday, seeing a nice winter sunset en route.
Having had some ridiculous bus journeys recently, journeys where progress has been severely impeded by parked cars, I was quite pleased to read about plans to impose £100 fines on drivers who park on the pavement or maybe just partially on the pavement. This has been described as sending “shockwaves through the borough’s most sacred rituals: the school drop-off, the pie run, and the emergency flat white”.
One cafe owner apparently said, ““If people can’t stop directly outside for a takeaway flat white, they might actually have to walk ten metres. I don’t know if Saddleworth is ready for that.”
As well as takeaway coffee, it seems that people expect to stop right outside the local bakery while they go and buy a tasty sausage roll or meat and potato pie or Cornish Pasty. Residents have been advised to check local signage — and possibly invest in walking shoes — as the borough adjusts to a future where pavements are for people, not pies. It’s going to be a hard life! Judging by the queues outside the local bakery most lunchtimes, I don’t think a clampdown on parking is going to affect business too much.
But here’s an interesting point of view: “Motoring groups have urged common sense, arguing that Saddleworth’s pavements were “clearly designed with hatchbacks half-on, half-off in mind.” Enforcement officers, however, insist the days of the casual curb mount may be numbered.”
On reflection, I think those motoring groups might find that Saddleworth’s pavements have been around rather longer than hatchbacks.
Here’s a photo of people practising wild swimming - this was at Redbrook Reservoir, Marsden, just a few miles up the road from here, over the border in Yorkshire.
It is worth noting that they had to break ice to get into water. Medics seem undecided about the value of such activities. On the one hard a dip in cold water is good for boosting the immune system. On the other, the shock of entering icy water might provoke a heart attack. Just another form of madness!
And here are a couple of comments on the general madness of the world.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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