In the News this Week - 31/3/26

is taking a break!

I hadn't taken the time to prepare a post and honestly, the news is just to awful to write about at the moment.  And.... tomorrow the A-Z Challenge starts.

Thankfully I have a few posts done and set to post so that's given me a bit of breathing space. But I do need to get a few more posts prepared so that I'm ahead of myself especially with Easter coming and a visit from our Nottingham family on Sunday for a few days.

We're also away overnight on Thursday for a funeral so time is slipping away.  

Hopefully normal service will be resumed in May when the A-Z challenge is over and maybe there might be better news to relay.  

I'm also trying very hard to beat my Wordle unbroken sequence.  It's getting a bit tense lol.

In the News this Week - 24/3/26

Of course the International news continues to be about the war with Iran and the knock on effects in the Middle East.  These are worrying times especially with the effect it is having on oil and energy prices.

There has also been speculation that Trump's decision to delay attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure, may have been leaked given the amount of trading that went on just before that announcement was made.  See here for more details.

At home I managed to find this feel good story about a terrier dog being rescued after disappearing down a rabbit hole.

Entertainment and the articles about who will or will not be the new hosts of Strictly Come Dancing keep coming.  So. Much. Click. Bait. out there.  I wish they'd just make the decision and put us all out of our misery.

In Sports I've just realised that the Football World Cup will be taking place when we're thinking of visiting our son this summer.  That will probably push flight prices up plus the cost of aviation fuel.  I'm sure we'll still be going but it will make it a more expensive trip.  Thankfully we won't be worrying about watching a game.  The cost of tickets has already caused a complaint to be submitted to FIFA about its pricing system.  Read more here. 

And in Miscellaneous news - my shed is tidy!  I spent time earlier pulling everything out, throwing out some stuff and collecting together all the old bottles of things like weed killer, plant food etc that I've also discovered I can get a free waste collection for.  Good job I'm not worried about spiders or cobwebs.  It was a job that was long overdue.  

In the News this Week - 17/3/26

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my Irish friends.  There are a few Irish women at the keep fit class I go to on a Tuesday and one of them had brought in a playlist of Irish songs this morning.  That was interesting!  The class is normally quite laid back as many of the attendees are elderly but today we got even less done.  But it still got me out of the house and enjoying coffee with friends afterwards.

Took my mind off the news for a while.

At home one of the big stories has been the meningitis outbreak in Kent which has sadly taken the lives of 2 students at the university and there are more cases being treated not only from the university but some schools.  Thankfully my grandchildren are young enough to have been vaccinated against meningitis as part of their childhood immunisation programme but this was only started in 2015 so most of the students currently at university won't be protected.  Many students in Kent are being offered antibiotics and vaccines.

International news continues to be dominated by the war in Iran.  Enough said.

The big entertainment story was of course The Oscars.  I'd like to do a detailed account of that but I haven't seen any of the films.  Apparently one of the big stories was that Timothy Chalamet had fallen down the stairs - he's not having a good time, missing out on the Best Actor award plus the controversy over his comments about Ballet and Opera.  I could probably let the dig at Opera slide but not the Ballet!   But it turned out the stairs story was fake.  You really cannot believe all you see on social media.

In Sports, despite a draw this weekend against Liverpool, my football team could face relegation from the Premier League!  Tottenham Hotspur are 1 of only 6 teams that have never been relegated from the Premier League since it was set up in 1992.  I say my team but I don't really follow them or much football at all these days.  I grew up as a Spurs supporter because we had family working at the club and my husband actually worked for them as an accountant for a while despite the fact that he is a West Ham supporter.  I couldn't even name any of their players now but I would still hate to see them go down, although by the sounds of things it wouldn't be undeserved.

And finally in Miscellaneous it is Red Nose Day, organised by Comic Relief on Friday - a big fundraising event on TV but there are also many events leading up to this.  One of these is a BBC Radio 1 DJ, Greg James riding a tandem from Weymouth on the south coast of England to Edinburgh in Scotland a distance of 1000km which he's aiming to complete in 8 days.  Anyway today he was joined for part of his trek by the Prince of Wales.  I love it when our Royals step up for things like this.  You can watch a clip of that here.

In the News this Week - 10/3/26

Well the news is so depressing right now, and scary so I'm just going for feel good today and bring you this story:

'Truly extraordinary coincidence' as three cousins born on same day - BBC News

Who doesn't love a baby story?

With the size of our extended family (75 at the last count I did and that's just Hubby's side) there aren't many days to wait before another birthday pops up on WhatsApp.  I don't have any sounds on the family group because on a birthday day the messages come through thick and fast so my phone would be pinging on and off all day.

Today one of my SILs has a birthday and someone pointed out that it's shared with the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward.  I noted that thankfully I didn't think we had anyone with a birthday on 19th February which is Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's birthday until my DIL piped up that's her Dad's birthday.  Oops.  

We do have a few days where there are 2 or even 3 birthdays happening and 2 of our children are born a day before a cousin was born.  One cousin takes great delight in reminding our daughter that she's a year older than him when it's her birthday but of course she gets him back the next day.

And for another feel good story go here. This is about the Clumber breed of Spaniel following Bruin winning Best in Show at this year's Crufts competition.

Not the prettiest of the Spaniel breeds but he's obviously a perfect example of a Clumber.

And finally it's time to sign up for the A-Z challenge.  If you've never heard of it you can't have been following my blog for long because it's something I take part in each April. 

I started back in 2015 but the challenge has been running since 2010.  You can find out all you need to know here.

Well not quite all you need to know as I'm working on my theme reveal post.  Watch this space.

In the News this Week - 3/3/26

I don't even know where to start with the news this week.  I'm finding it hard to follow at the moment with so much going on.  I wasn't even aware that strikes had been launched on Iran and the subsequent fall out until one of our Foodbank volunteers messaged to say that she was ok but didn't know when she would be able to get out of Dubai!  Of course I was straight on to the internet and playing catch up on what was going on.

This is all so scary and I can't help wondering where it will all end.

I tried to find a cute animal story that might cheer us up but even that proved difficult - I found one about a Pug being named "UKs cutest dog" but the article was actually from 2020. (And, I'm sorry to all Pug owners, but in my opinion they are not cute.)

One article I found interesting in a ghoulish sort of way was this one about: Water cremation which explains how water cremation works.  This type of cremation has now been approved for use in Scotland and is said to be a greener form of cremation.  Who knew?

The news can be so confusing at times.  I spotted a headline about the YouTuber KS1 buying a minority stake in Barking & Dagenham.  To me Barking & Dagenham means a London borough near to where we used to live.  I was puzzled as to how that could happen only to find out that of course it meant the football club Barking & Dagenham.  Silly me!

But at least today was another sunny day.  That's definitely worth reporting.

In the News this Week - 24/2/26

Hmm it's been an interesting week for news.

Of course the big news here in the UK was the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in connection with his role of UK Trade Envoy and his links to Jeffrey Epstein.  I've used his name in full here as that seems to be what all the reporters are using when talking about him on TV but it's a bit of a mouthful and some reporters were better at saying it than others.  This was followed today by the arrest of the former Ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson.  

There are now calls for Andrew to be removed from the line of succession to the throne. I personally don't see the need for this.  He's 8th in line currently.  He's unlikely to get anywhere near the throne which hardly justifies the time and cost that would be involved in passing an Act of Parliament to remove him.  Unless there's some sort of fast track route that could be used which I very much doubt.  We don't have executive orders here in the same way the US does but there is something known as the Royal Prerogative but even that doesn't allow the King to do just as he likes.

In INTERNATIONAL News the war in Ukraine enters it's 5th year following Russia's invasion and shows no sign of ending, certainly not while Putin remains in power. 

In SPORTS the Winter Olympics have come to an end and although Team GB only won 5 medals 3 of which were gold, that makes it our most successful games yet and there were definitely some exciting moments.  I watched the final of the Men's Team Curling competition on Saturday evening and it was nail biting stuff.  And of course very disappointing for our team who finished with silver medals.  I loved watching all the Ice Skating events and marvelled at the tricks and jumps that were done by both snow boarders and skiers.  It has definitely been entertaining.

In ENTERTAINMENT it was the BAFTA (British Academy Film and Television Awards) event here on Sunday.  Unfortunately, despite all the great films and shows etc that won awards, the event has been overshadowed by the BBC failing to edit out offensive language from John Davidson who has the condition Tourette's Syndrome.  Robert Aramayo won the Best Actor award for his role in the film "I Swear",  which is based on John Davidson.

It seems the live audience were warned about the possibility of outbursts due to involuntary tics but the comments were not edited from the show which was broadcast 2 hours later or removed from the I-player version until the following morning.  I have a feeling heads will roll.

And for MISCELLANEOUS I'm happy to report that the 2 cygnets on our lake were rescued at the weekend and taken to a nearby flock as their parents had finally decided it was time for them to find a new home and had been chasing them off the lake.  Hopefully the young ones will thrive in their new environment and the parents will nest again and produce a new brood in due course.  Particularly as there seems to be an outbreak of Avian Flu in the Dockland area not too far from us where many birds have died in the last few days.  Very sad.

But just to cheer you up here's a photo of my daughter's family cat Milo who I had to go and feed and fuss on Sunday as they were away.

In the News this Week - 17/2/26

The LOCAL news story I spotted was one where a convicted criminal escaped from custody not once but twice while being removed from prison and taken to hospital for treatment.

I mean really?  It's bad enough to let a prisoner abscond once, but twice?

Thankfully he's serving a sentence for conspiracy to commit burglary and not murder.  

INTERNATIONAL news as usual is full of doom and gloom but I did spot that the Irish National Seamus Culleton, who is currently being held by ICE pending deportation has had his deportation paused for 10 business days.  It seems that although he has been in the US since 2009 and is married to an American citizen he arrived on a visa waiver and is only now about to finalise getting his green card and work permit.

I'm thankful that my son didn't travel to the US until he had got his VISA sorted and he has his Green card and work permit.  Hopefully he'll be granted citizenship in due course.

SPORT continues to be dominated by the Winter Olympics which has been quite exciting.  I mean what could be more scary that sliding down an ice track at speeds in excess of 70 mph on a thin tray?  Oh I know, get someone to lie on top of you while you do it! (Luge Doubles event.)

In ENTERTAINMENT news:(taken from the BBC website)

LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER will be representing the United Kingdom at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria in May 2026.

LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER is a multi-talented solo artist, experimental singer/songwriter, live electronics performer and composer, inventor of unique musical machines, and self-proclaimed Eurovision fan based in Kent.

LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER says: “I find it completely bonkers to be jumping on this wonderful and wild journey. I have always been a massive Eurovision fan, and I love the magical joy it brings to millions of people every year, so getting to join that legacy and fly the flag for the UK is an absolute honour that I am taking very seriously. I’ve been working a long-time creating, writing, and producing my own visions from scratch, and documenting my process. I will be bringing every ounce of my creativity to my performances, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear and see what we’ve created. I hope Eurovision is ready to get synthesized!”

I hope he's prepared for the fact that we seem to get NIL Points at Eurovision.

And finally, 

Happy Chinese New Year - we're now in the Year of the Fire Horse.

It was also pancake day today and I actually made some as Grandson Nathan was here at lunchtime.  They weren't that great but he seemed to like them.  I didn't take any pictures apart from this one:

 As you can see, a lot of chocolate spread was involved!

In the News this Week - 10/2/26

Locally it seems that Kier Starmer's days as Prime Minister may be numbered, particularly given that he appointed Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the USA, but Starmer's Chief of Staff seems to have taken the fall for that one.  However with Mandelson's homes being searched at the weekend that may not be enough to keep Starmer in office despite his Cabinet members rallying behind him.  

I know I've been guilty of moaning about the amount of rain we've had - it's miserable again today - but at least we don't face the prospect of the flooding that's happened in some areas.  Please say Spring is on the way.

It's difficult to find an International news story that isn't likely to upset someone.  I did manage to find this uplifting story of how a 13 year old Australian managed to swim to shore and raise the alarm after his family were swept out to sea.

In Sport of course the big story is the Winter Olympics.  I've enjoyed watching the Ice Skating and the Curling has been worth a watch as our mixed pair started off well but lost in the semi finals so now they are competing for Bronze.  One of the big upsets though was Lindsey Vonn crashing out of the Downhill Skiing events.  Personally I can't imagine why she even wanted to attempt the downhill run with ruptured ligaments but competing in the Olympics means so much to some athletes that they are prepared to take big risks.  The fall Lindsey sustained has led to a really bad injury to her leg which will require multiple surgeries and a long recovery period.  But she has no regrets as stated in this article.

In Entertainment news the release of the film adaptation of Wuthering Heights has received mixed reviews. I've struggled to read the book - I've started it twice but have yet to finish it.  I do prefer to read before I watch so I won't be rushing to watch this version.

And for Miscellaneous I have worked out why the Foodbank is getting such huge donations of potatoes from the charity Felix.  (Felix takes surplus food that would be destined for waste and either makes meals from it or passes it on to Foodbanks.)  Anyway according to an article I read in the paper at the weekend, farmers estimate that demand for potatoes is down by as much as 10% and they blame this on the rapid increase in people taking weight loss drugs who are eating less and avoiding snacks which include potatoes as well as frozen chips and starchy foods.  It's estimated that between 1.5 and 1.6 million people in the UK have used weight loss jabs in the past year.  Well their weight loss is our gain as we are being given crates of potatoes each week.  The trouble is we're finding it hard to pass them on - our demand seems to have dropped too.  Beneficiaries are still enjoying the jacket potatoes we provide each week though.

And finally, Glasgow's Tree of the Year will now be competing against trees from Europe to be named best in Europe.  Personally I wouldn't want it right outside my window!

In the News this Week - 3/2/26

Well I'm trying to keep my blogging up so I'm resurrecting this idea which I was doing 10 years ago!  The idea is to find stories under the headings of:

LOCAL

INTERNATIONAL

SPORT

ENTERTAINMENT and

MISCELLANEOUS

LOCALLY the big talk seems to be about the works that Thames Water are doing in our area.  This has led to various temporary traffic lights all over the place where the road is restricted to single file traffic.  There are also some roads that have been completely closed involving diversions.  These are often planned works - our Victorian infrastructure is gradually being updated but.....then add in works due to burst pipes here and we have chaos, particularly when some bus routes are on not one, but often 2 diversions.  It's produced some heated discussions on Facebook and there is no end to this in sight. Sigh!

One of the big INTERNATIONAL story that keeps rumbling on is all about the Jeffrey Epstein files and why no one is being prosecuted despite their clear associations with Epstein.  Prominent figures here in the UK are of course Andrew Mountbatten (the former Prince) and Peter Mandelson (former US Ambassador).   Although it seems clear that if any prosecution were to be brought against Andrew he would not be getting any support from the royal family.

In SPORT - well who knew that the production of cricket bats was such a complicated thing?  Not me for sure.  But the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) which seems to be the authority on all things cricket, will be amending Law 5.8, entitled "categories of bat" to allow bats that were previously illegal to be used.  As well as 72 other changes to the Laws.  And I thought it was just a game lol.  People do seem to take it very seriously though. 

One big ENTERTAINMENT event this week was of course The Grammys.  Obviously a star studded affair with all sorts of wonderful (?) outfits on display which you can read about here.  Many of the names were completely unknown to me including that of Olivia Dean (winner of the Best New Artist award) despite the fact that apparently she grew up in Highams Park where I live.

And for MISCELLANEOUS  I give you SKIPTON, apparently the happiest place to live in the UK.  Not in the news this week, the poll results were back in December but hey my blog, my rules.

As you can see I've stayed away from too much doom and gloom or anything contentious but I'm working my way back into this gradually.

And did you know that the BBC are about to air a four part dramatisation of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies"?  There's an article about it here but personally having read the book I'll be giving it a miss.

Friday Five News 5/8/16

For LOCAL news I bring you this report on protests held today under the banner of Black Lives Matter.

I totally understand that black people feel they are not always treated fairly, particularly with regard to the way the police treat them.  Recent high profile cases in America and here show that.  And I also get that the slogan might not have been intended to suggest that black lives matter more than any others, rather that they needed to be considered as important as others rather than less.

But that is not the message that comes across, particularly when you have an organiser of such events Joshua Virasami saying black people should come together "to achieve justice and equality in Britain".

By only involving black people we will never solve the problem.  We need to work together on this.  And I’m not sure that protests which cause problems for ordinary people, such as those trying to get to Heathrow today, or go about their lives in Nottingham, will garner support for the movement.  All lives matter.

The INTERNATIONAL story that caught my eye today is this one about Sasha Obama’s summer job.  I understand that her parents want her to have as normal a life as possible but I’m sure turning up for your job at a restaurant with 6 bodyguards in tow is not normal!

In SPORT  the Olympics are the hot topic of the day with the much anticipated opening ceremony taking place in Rio later today.  (Coverage starts after 11pm here so I might just be catching the highlights tomorrow morning.

Inevitably there will be comparisons between these games and the London 2012 games, particularly as the budget for Brazil’s opening ceremony is much smaller than they had for London.  Fortunately, the London ceremony was so different from anything I’d ever seen before that we won’t be comparing like to like.  It’s sure to have a carnival feel to it though, that’s a given.

Just for a laugh I was going to link to the video clip of Andy Murray posing with the team, Princess Anne and the flag, getting into all sorts of problems with it.  It seems that the BBC have removed the video to spare his embarrassment but if you search for it on Youtube it’s easy to find.  Hopefully he’ll do better at the opening ceremony and thankfully he’s better at tennis.

Harry Potter features in the ENTERTAINMENT news again this week but not for a good reason.  Apparently tickets for the Cursed Child, the stage production which opened here in London in June, sell out as soon as they are released for sale.  Prices range from £15 to £70.  However if you’re desperate you can buy them online for anything up to £1000.  You would need to be more than just desperate as if the theatre suspects your tickets have been obtained from a re-sale site they will be declared void.

Under MISCELLANEOUS  I decided to browse the BBC’s magazine article “10 Things we didn’t know last week” for inspiration.  There were of course unusual and interesting facts.  The one that I actually checked out was the claim that “You can turn urine into beer using solar power” Yep sounds disgusting but apparently scientists have come up with a purifying machine, powered by solar energy, that will take urine and separate it into water and fertiliser components.  They recently collected lots of water by this method at a music festival and are planning to use the water to make beer.  I’m so glad I drink wine!

All links are courtesy of the BBC website. Opinions are my own.

Have a great weekend.

Friday Five News 29/7/16

This is a non-political post.  Hurray I hear you say.

So for LOCAL news I bring you this video clip of how to build a Crossrail train in 30 seconds.  Of course it takes a lot longer than that but it’s topical today as they began testing the new trains in Derby.  Crossrail, or the Elizabeth Line as it will be known, will be part of the London Underground system but it will also extend as far as Shenfield to the east and Reading to the west.  It will also connect to Heathrow.  The new trains will be air-conditioned and have Wi-Fi access.  They’ll need to be air-conditioned as although they can carry up to 1500 people only a third of that number can be seated. It’s particularly relevant to us as our local station is on the new line and when the service starts partial operation in May next year we will be on that first section of the line.  It won’t be fully open until 2019.  I’m looking forward to trying the trains out in person.

For an INTERNATIONAL story check out this smiling volcano in Hawaii.  It seems to be in quite an uninhabited area and it wasn’t reported as being a problem but I wouldn’t have wanted to get as close as some people seemed to be.   If you watch the video you can see some boats that are nearby but then spot the people on top of the cliffs!

In SPORT I’ve picked this article on inspirational people who are taking part in the RideLondon event this weekend.  Again it’s topical to me as we live so close to the Queen Elizabeth (Olympic) Park where the race will start.  If like me you’re a bit of a couch potato this might make you want to get on your bike!  (I am concentrating on building up my walking at the moment but I haven’t given up on the bike yet.)

Last week I mention Idris Elba in connection with James Bond and Idris crops up again in ENTERTAINMENT news as his latest film, Bastille Day, has been pulled following the recent events in Nice.  It seems the film was a bit too close to real life events.  I can understand the decision but it must be hard on all those who’ve worked on it to see it come to nothing.

Oops that was verging on the political and so is the story about the latest Whitehall cat.  If you do want to know more about Gladstone click here otherwise for MISCELLANEOUS  I bring you this music article on 11 song lyrics you probably won’t understand if you’re under 30.  Unfortunately I do remember transistor radios, televisions that only had 2 channels (yes 2!) cameras that used film, cassette tapes, video tapes, payphones, pagers and Woolworths.  The article is quite long but it’s pointing out how some song lyrics haven’t stood the test of time, particularly due to the advances in technology.  There’s also an interesting take on some Morrissey lyrics but as I promised not to talk about politics today I can’t possibly comment! (See #3 on the list if you can’t resist.)

All links are courtesy of the BBC website. Opinions are my own.

Have a great weekend.