Category: News

Posted on

No travel

There has been a lot on the news about the difficulties of travelling to Europe.

New rules and procedures have been introduced, just like in the USA and UK.

At some point on your journey, you need to visit a booth. You scan your passport, do your fingerprints and a photo, answer a few questions and off you go. To the customs officer for an interview.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn897e8280do

The queues in some places have been horrendous. Experts suggest the system is not working properly in some places. For example, we heard that the booths in St Pancras cannot connect to the French system, making it useless.

A person I know had been involved with this. She hadn’t missed her flight, but had had a long wait in a queue and was grumbling about it.

It’s a consequence of Brexit. If we’d remained, there would not be a problem.

I knew she had voted for leaving. In fact, she had told me at some length just why I should vote to leave.

“I didn’t vote for this,” she said. Yes, I said, you did. You voted to leave and this is one consequence of exactly that. This is what you voted for us. You can’t vote for something and then cherry pick the consequences.

“But nobody told us…”

We don’t know what to say to people who finally realised they have been lied to.

Posted on

Fly me to the Moon

Being born in the middle 1950s, we don’t really remember Sputnik, or the dog Laika, but we do remember well Telstar, Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard.

We followed the space programme, espcially the American one as the USSR kept its secrets, and we knew all about the astronauts and their missions.

We remember Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, and all the way up to 17, but it was clear that, as soon as it happened, people were losing enthusiasm for space, and for the apparently high costs.

NASA has generally been very limited until quite recently.

Artemis II has hopefully rekindled interest in space research. There was coverage on some of the UK channels and presumably elsewhere, and there was a YouTube and Netflix selection.

The flight to the Moon had its issues but they were overcome and mostly it was a flawless flight. The coverage was clear and engaging.

They flew farther from Earth than any others ever have, and they took some wonderful pictures.

The splashdown on Friday was pretty stunning and hopefully the next mission will be very soon.

Posted on

City Of Culture 2029

There is an article on the BBC site about the next City Of Culture:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20z50xxv93o

They have particularly picked out three cities in the headline. They are Blackpool, Ipswich and Milton Keynes.

To be clear, neither Ipswich nor Blackpool is a city. The Ipswich football club gives it away: Ipswich Town.

Blackpool is a seaside town in the north east of England. It is known for its beaches, the tower and, after the summer season has finished, the seafront light show called the Blackpool Illiminations.

We went once. It rained the whole day. The illuminations were interminable.

Ipswich does a little better. There is the Corn Exchange which has many events, and at least a couple of theatres, including the New Wolsey.

We’ve been to Ipswich many times. It was a grim place, and still is but is better. The waterfront is very nice.

Milton Keynes has theatres and cinemas. It is definitely a city.

We’ve been many times and it is fine for a visit, if soulless.