Public Transport

"London's transport system was given a £1.6 billion government bailout yesterday after Sadiq Khan, the mayor, threatened to cut bus and Tube services."

Yet in the government's official briefing, people who can't work from home are being encouraged to return to work but, if at all possible, do not use public transport.

Not really joined up thinking is it?

Man is the Virus

There is a new theory going around than Man is the Virus rather than Covid 19.
On a global scale that is worth thinking about.
Many viruses are beneficial to man in that they infect and destroy harmful bacteria. These are called bacteriophages and are actively used in some therapies. The bacteria are harming man so viruses are used to kill off the bacteria. On a global scale man is harming creation - so could it be that creation is trying to save itself by introducing a new virus to kill off a few thousand people and reduce the damage being caused? Comparative photos of normally polluted cities before and during lockdown show clearly that the virus has been very effective in some places in reducing pollution levels. Covid19 virus has also been isolated from large particles of air pollution which keep it airborne for longer than it would be otherwise. Conclusion: reduce pollution and the virus will not be able to spread so rapidly.

Inger Andersen (Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Programme) - 

     "Nature is sending us a message".

Duchess of York:  "Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms....... like the spoilt children we are. She gave us time, and she gave us warnings. She was so patient with us. She gave us fire and floods, she tried to warn us but in the end she took back control."

Lockdown Birthday Party

I attended my first online birthday party yesterday. An interesting concept but a necessary one under the current lockdown restrictions. It was my grandson's 2nd birthday. He was too young last year to understand the concept of "birthday", but he's definitely got the hang of it this year. Despite only being 2 he has all the necessary vocabulary - "happy birthday", "presents", "balloons", "cake" etc. And, unlike most boys, he is extremely tidy, tearing off small pieces of wrapping paper from a very large present and handing them individually to his mum for safekeeping.

The idea was we would organise a family Zoom conference with all his relatives to watch him blow his candles out, sing him Happy Birthday and then eat our own cake that we had pre-prepared. Unfortunately our cake wasn't quite finished in time and his aunt could not make a cake because her grocery delivery was not due until the following day. Still - as lockdown birthdays go it wasn't bad!

Locust Plagues

If you thought coronavirus was bad enough, think yourself very lucky you don't live in East Africa at the moment. At the beginning of April a local pastor there reported the arrival of a huge swarm of young desert locusts estimated to cover 100,000 acres (by comparison, the whole of Tendring District is only 83,392 acres). This would therefore be a cloud covering everywhere from Colchester to Harwich and beyond! There has already been a huge plague of locusts in early 2020 which devastated the crops of East Africa. This second swarm is allegedly 20 times as bad. The insects are all young adults which eat more than their older counterparts and will live longer. They have arrived just as the new plantings are beginning to shoot and are stripping everything in sight.