Poopy Day or Poppy Month?

There's been debate in the media about when one should start to wear one's poppy. What has happened? When I was a kid you bought your poppy and on Remembrance Sunday you wore it.

And for me, the same will apply this year. At the time of writing I haven't yet bought a poppy, but I will do, and I will wear it in my lapel on Sunday 8 November - Remembrance Sunday.

This is not because I'm ashamed of wearing it or I don't support the cause. Of course I support it! But I don't see the point in wearing it other than on the day.

Again, when I was young there were a number of "Flag Days". One that comes to mind was the "Alexandra Rose Day" where you put some money in the collector's tin, received a paper pink rose with a pin and you wore it there and then, for that day. There was also one for the Lifeboats, I remember.

So I'm not going round for the next week with the message, "Look I'm good I've bought a poppy" on my lapel, but I WILL have supported the cause!

One hundred years

It was our church's 100th anniversary weekend last week. One of the ways we celebrated it was to have a flower festival. There was an arrangement for each decade and we had the 1920's - a time of celebration and optimism after the war to end all wars. The Charleston was the dance of the moment and jazz became popular.

Our arrangement tried to illustrate this (click on it to get a larger image). How did we do?


Thanks to our son-in-law for the loan of the art deco mirror. He's actually wanting to sell it - look out for it on E-Bay!

Indescribable

I've just found a video with the song Indescribable by Chris Tomlin. I've seen a number on YouTube but this one includes signing. Can't decide whether to watch the pictures or watch the signer! Both can help you worship!

Catch it on http://www.youtube.com/user/ozricus#p/u/ The song begins after 30 seconds. Watch it and worship!

Running repairs

On my cycle journey to work I cross over a railway bridge. One day I noticed a man beside the track with a chequered flag. I asked a friend who knows about these things (as he's something big in railway stations!) and he told me the man waves a chequered flag when a train is coming to notify another man to signal to those working on the line that a train is imminent. This extra man is only needed when there is a curve in the line and the lookout cannot see far enough down the track.

However I have my own suspicions. I think they were racing two trains, one down each track, and the man with the chequered flag was at the finish line. Probably one was driven by Lewis Hamilton and the other by Jensen Button.

Which reminds me, isn't it fantastic the current and previous F1 world champions have both been British? Actually, both are English, which is even better!

I have to admit that I sometimes feel guilty at watching F1 as the sums of money that are spent could probably feed the world and also the carbon footprint - or bootprint - must be incredibly huge! But it's a nice way to relax on a Sunday afternoon (or whenever we watch the recording) and a good opportunity for a nap half way through.

Weekend away

We have just returned from a weekend away in Lowestoft, as a kind of short break. In spite of high pressure, it managed to rain as well as some sun shine - and once both together as the photo shows.

It was cold, and I couldn't understand why there were surfers out. I didn't know Lowestoft was known for its rollers, but it clearly is (see photo below)!

On the first day we decided to go mad, as all three of us are proud possessors of bus passes, to go to Oulton Broad by bus! That's where we saw the rainbow, by the way. We also decided to risk a game of crazy golf. I wasn't too sure after reading the health and safety warning! That's the other photo, click on it to enlarge. And the sign didn't even mention the danger of flying golf balls!

The hotel we stayed in was very pleasant. The food was good, as was the service. However I feel I should draw your attention to this bit of information in the welcome folder:

If you would like to order a room service Breakfast simply complete the Breakfast Form that has been provided at the back of this folder, and then hang outside your bedroom door and inform Reception before retiring.

We decided it would be more comfortable to go to the dining room for breakfast.

Saving the planet

We all want to do our bit to cut down our carbon emissions, don't we? But, like me, you may be a little fed up with the obvious things like turning down the heating thermostat by one degree and putting in energy saving light bulbs and only putting in the water you need when you boil up a kettle. After all, we're doing these things already, aren't we?

But hang on a minute. Going back to turning the thermostat down one degree. In our current house and in our previous house, there wasn't a room thermostat to turn down! Both houses had a new boiler recently fitted and thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) on each radiator. This means each room can be controlled rather than one thermostat for the whole house.

BUT the room thermostat works by turning off the pump. Even if all the TRVs are off, the pump is still working. This has two consequences that occur to me. Firstly, because the pump is on all the time, it will need to be replaced sooner. Secondly, you are wasting electricity by having the pump working all the time the boiler is on.

During autumn and spring, our boiler may be on for the usual 3 hours in the morning and 6 hours in the evening, but for a maybe half that time, the house is warm enough and the room thermostat would shut off the pump. That's the equivalent of at least two NON-low energy light bulbs on for about four and a half hours a day!

So don't worry about all your items on standby if you're wasting that kind of power each day!

Actually it's easy enough to install a room thermostat if you are able to do that kind of thing, because boilers normally have the required electrical terminals there ready.

So there you are. Today's tip for really getting to grips with your carbon footprint!

Freeview let-down

Further to earlier blogs about the Freeview retune last week (use the keyword 'freeview' in the search window, top left), the news is not so good. Having rejoiced at the re-appearance of More4 and the ITV channels, they've gone and disappeared again!

As ITV goes back to my childhood, why is it that now I'm in my 60's (early 60's I stress!), all of a sudden it disappears from my screen? With all this wonderful new technology that's around, what's going wrong?

I was trying to think of an appropriate word to describe this latest freeview escapade. I can't decide between "disaster", "rubbish" or "abject failure" (sorry, that last one is two words!).

Where does Sunday fit in?

I want to complain about something in Microsoft Outlook, but I don't know who to complain to, so I've decided to blog about it instead!

I happened to notice that today (Tuesday) two emails which arrived on Sunday are in the "Last Week" column. But Sunday is NOT the final day of last week. It's the FIRST day of this week!

I know Sunday is rapidly becoming like any weekday, with many shops open, but for me it's the day I celebrate with my Christian friends the resurrection of Jesus Christ who rose on the first day of the week - Sunday!

We start the week with Sunday, a day for rest, recreation and worship, not Monday, which is the first day back at work after the weekend!