But first, a thought for the day. On my favourite radio religious programme TWR an Irish pastor was speaking about his work and told us of one of the most effective prayers he had ever heard ‘Lord, make me a link in the chain of thy purpose’. In other words we should not see ourselves as needing to be in the public eye or loved or be a key part of anything but as part of a chain where we are influenced by and influence others. When I think of the huge challenge of the damage and potential harm wrought by Smart Meters never mind the forthcoming 5G there is no way I can do it by myself but I can spread the word, encourage others, be there for people, be a reliable reference point and other 24/7 things which will never make the local media never mind the National press or TV.
Another phrase which struck me this morning was the advice to ‘run away from evil’. The speaker was saying that this is not about cowardliness but about the fact that you should not consult with or argue with the devil and if someone is showing signs of malevolence or even the best thing may be to withdraw. It is unlikely that such a person will listen to you and it is very unwise to get drawn into a whirlpool of anger and hatred and ignorance.
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Sometimes I can have too much imagination for my own good. It started with a slight dribble of water down the side of the wash basin in the bathroom and then increased to a fine spray.We placed a large dishcloth over the spray to create a miniature waterfall which we diverted into a bucket. We called our ever-reliable plumber Robert but he was not available until the next day.
I would like to record what went on in my mind. It I followed the chain of activities to make sure as far as possible that whatever happened would not result in an expensive and inconvenient flood i.e. have plan B and then plan C. The stopcock to the bungalow is in a bedroom surrounded by clothes and papers. I tried to turn it off with no success. It was well and truly stuck. So I decided to visit the stopcock in the road and figure out how to turn off the supply. In so doing I found as ever YouTube to be of incredible value. There was a video entitled “how to turn off your stopcock in the street”. Unfortunately the stopcock is about the length of my arm down from the street so I opened up the small manhole cover and had to reach down through muddy water to try and find it.
I’m glad I don’t have nosy neighbors because they would’ve seen me lying on my front of the street at 10:30 at night. Anyway I realized that as the whole area was full of water I would have to bail it out; finally I found the little tab which you’re supposed to turn 45% to the right. Again I did not have the right tools so that drew a blank as well. I was therefore vulnerable to an escalation of the situation.
I then decided that the only alternative was to stop an escalation of the leak and I cut a piece of garden hose to fit it over the spray. This appeared to succeed, the noise stopped, and I was able to go to bed in a reasonable state of quietude.
We went next morning to find the noise a bit louder; Robert was due to come only at 3 PM. so we had to stay ‘on duty’ so to speak watching for every sound. I decided if the leak became worse I would turn on other taps to minimize the pressure.
Robert turned up in the afternoon and diagnosed the problem which was a wearing out of a part (illustrated above). He said that cheap materials of which this was an example were often used and said that he would have paid three times as much as this Chinese product knowing that it would last indefinitely or at least many times longer.
He managed to open stopcock in the house, and had the tool to close the stopcock in the street altogether. I have decided to order a ‘turner-offer’ which by the way is due to arrive as I write from B and Q so that if this happens in the future, I will know what to do. He advised us to turn the internal stopcock on and off once a month to prevent seizing up.
Robert told me about a situation of someone to whom a leak happened when they were on holiday and on returning they found that the bath had overflowed, the water had taken down the ceiling of the kitchen downstairs and caused about 10,000 pounds worth of damage.
I’m quite pleased with myself that I was able to avoid panic, to plan ahead and make the most of the learning situation so that if it happens again I will know what to do. I don’t know what I would’ve done if water had been gushing out but then that is what house insurance is for.
Gosh this is such an awkward picture. Anyone can read the body language here. Poor old Paul. I think women can have a good embrace and cuddle easier than men.When I see men trying to embrace, it reminds me of two robots crashing into each other. I wonder why. I think it is because in our youth we had little or no example of men expressing affection for each other so perhaps it is a skill that has to be learned. Sometimes, people go too far the other way and crush the life of the hand that shakes them. I remember at a funeral in France I was embraced by – it must have been 20 men – but they all did it naturally and without a shade of embarrassment. I guess us Brits have a thing or two to learn.
A very handsome raised bed for Lettuces. 
No mobile phones around. This family is – wait for it – talking 
I was most impressed with this well travelled 2CV.
The fact is that an awful lot of people are just too lazy to be bothered with anything outside their comfort zone. The more you take them out of their comfort zone or try to, the more toxic your behavior will be and the more they will resist you. I cannot see any way around this apart from telling jokes.
To my annoyance, I noticed that the clock on the right-hand side of this picture had a misalignment hour hand. I commented on the chat board to say how sad it was that I was irritated and one of the other people, who presumably lived in the area, said he would look after it. One hour later, I returned to look at the screen and saw that the mis-alignment had been corrected. This viewer had gone along and put a ladder up the side of the clock and moved the hands. The picture is of the corrected clock.
The image shown has nothing to do with anything apart from the fact that it amuses me. This could be a warning to those absent-minded people who are thinking of leaving their bike parked. I’m assured that this is not a doctored picture.
#2 – understanding something for the first time, when the brain ‘clicks’ and when the dots are connected.
*****
No matter how many times I go to the outdoor cafe and gardens, it is never the same and this time we were treated to rampant growth in what is the highest point of the year as the following pictures will show.
This is an area in front of a wall overlooking a field where you can have tea brought to you if you so wish. 
The main serving area, partly covered, much loved by the locals. You need to be well off to live in Mells so don’t ask about the prices. If I tell you that the average house price is £1,643,985 you will see what I mean. However I suspect that this is inflated by a few very special houses in the historical part. I can recommend Mells to anybody on a fine day as the ultimate relaxant. There is only one street so you can’t get lost. Park by the Post Office and walk up the hill.
An eating area that can be used in case of rain. This was previously a second-hand shop but I don’t think it was making any money so everything was cleared out.
I have no idea which variety these flowers these are but they were most attractive. What next?
The weather was indifferent but we decided to go anyway. The local Radstock museum had a very clear banner, simply laid out, which I found very attractive. I liked the text and layout and even the font because it was not too busy and did not try to say too much. People only have a few seconds to take things in..
There was a very original stall about snake rescue. the couple who ran it knew everything about snakes and said that the only poisonous snake in the UK is an adder, all the rest just want to escape from people if they can lead a quiet life. They were encouraging people to touch and hold the snakes.
I was very interested to learn how many grades of stone there were. The crusher is set accordingly. It can start at 20 mm in diameter and go down to little larger than dust size.
The limestone on which we were standing to look round was formed well before dinosaurs came on the earth which makes it quite a few hundred million years old. There are layers of clay which are unsuitable; the company find the occasional fossil but the rest is hard usable rock.
Here are some of the machines used to do the loading onto lorries. I did not photograph the crusher machine which is many times as large.
All in all, a thoroughly good day. Getting away from the office, mental stimulation, doing something new, meeting complete strangers, and encountering a work of art that wanted me to be the owner. Looking at the leaflet below I have a feeling what tomorrow is going to bring.
This is not a brilliant picture but it shows how each radiator point and you will note that there are very close together, needs to have line of sight every other point in order to penetrate densely enough to track people, transactions, the turning off of electrical apparatus in the home and so on. In a couple of years time, most of the beautiful plane trees in Bath will have to be cut down because they will obstruct the line of sight, particularly important if they going to go ahead with driverless cars. You cannot have an area that is partly 5G, it is either 5G or not. When the local council signs the document with the companies, they have no idea what they’re letting himself in for either from the point of view of the environment or the point of view of the biological effect of microwaves on the body, not to mention birds and bees.
*****
This is a very cleverly designed place for growing seeds and plants which is in the form of a book. At the moment it is between shows that I shall go along later this year and photograph it in full bloom.
A freshly planted circular bed of various flowers. I hope someone waters them from time to time.
I found it a lovely welcoming intimate space were good quality contact could be made. Off home on the bus. In the middle afternoon you get the children coming away from school and a time from five o’clock you get lots of homeward work traffic. The traffic here is nothing compared with Bristol so, Bathonians, do not complain.
This is a sky box. I went over to Sky TV because the combination of BT Internet and phone, and Sky on its own was proving too much of a financial burden bearing in mind we don’t watch TV that often. I have saved about £40 a month but there is a downside. Service from sky TV is absolute crap. They spend all their money on people charming you into buying the service and then basically leave you on your own and I’m sure they would disagree. There is a telephone number where you speak to someone in India but there is such a poor bandwidth you can scarcely understand what they have to say. Also, they do not allow intermediary numbers so I cannot use my beloved www.18866.com service to speak cheaply anywhere in the world. I have to use a number provided on my mobile phone instead.
These poor children who have their phones to their ears all the time blasting their brains. The latency period of cancer can be up to 20 years but do not be surprised if you see in say 10 years time a marked increase in the brain not to mention cancer of the breast that people sometimes keep their phone. 5G, which is a hyped up version of 4G, will do even more damage since the power is between 10 and 100 times more. You will understand why I have devoted myself to this because it is literally do or die. I will probably say that again because I do not read my previous diary entries but I cannot overestimate how important it is.
First of all, a lovely picture of poppies which which remind me of the First World War. They sit in our front garden.
I am glad to say that the eye condition has improved so I did not need an injection this month. I shall return in five weeks.
The river is doing something rather strange. I don’t whether it’s soap bubbles or some strange anomaly in the current.
When I have my eye examination, I need to have a relaxant and this means the eye cannot adapt itself to the light levels – so everything is glaring. It takes about six hours to wear off.
Yesterday Monday was a big day. My brute force strimmer has failed and because it is a cheap and cheerful thing, the cost of repair is not much less than the cost of buying a new one so I decided to buy a second example anyway and use the other one for spares. The reason I need one should be clear from the photograph below.
I decided to buy a new strimmer. The old one was not functioning very well and I knew it would cost the best part of £60 to repair. As the total cost was only £20 more than this I decided to invest in a new one and keep the first strimmer for spares.
So here was I early on Sunday morning, not much wind, to witness yet more chem trails. If you haven’t yet woken up to what these are, these are artificial constructions that contain barium, aluminium and strontium designed to work on the human psyche in various ways.
In the evening, a delightful image of weather balloons floating slowly but surely to who knows where.
I do not have much energy to write at the moment. This is not because there’s nothing going on, quite a lot, but I want to digest it a little before sharing it with greater world.
this is a most unusual piece, I can’t remember what the theme was but it reminds me of the laws of physics in some way.
The show has its full allocation of beefy farm machinery of varying sizes. This one can be used for virtually anything and has an attitude about it that ‘doesn’t take prisoners’. I was told that a set of tyres would cost £12,000
If you want to go back in history though there are two delightful service vehicles at least 60 years old. 
I went into the Christian tent as I normally do. Free tea and coffee is on offer but more importantly a few clergyman are there both Church of England and Methodist who have the chance of making probably the only contact many people have during the course of a year. I was very struck with one of the posters.
I commented to the vicar that this banner struck exactly the right note. He said there had been a name change from something like ‘farmers in crisis’ because it originally started during the foot and mouth disease when there was a crisis but now they exist mainly to be there and support farmers with whatever problems they might have. There were other very well worded recommendations and exhortations, a couple of which I have shown below.
