Today, continuous rain, sodden ground and roads awash with deep puddles that slow the cars down and cause the steering to drift if you’re not careful. First of all, we went to have a look at the state of our favourite ford, in Wellow near Bath and found it in a fairly torrential state but nothing like what it is capable of with really bad weather.
*****
Afterwards, we went for a walk in and Ammerdown Forest or should I say wood. We noticed copious amounts of gum coming from the pine trees and wondered what purpose that served at this time of year. I’m sure it’s full of good things and has many uses but a quick Internet search didn’t find much.
sodden foliage
On the way back home, we popped into one of my favourite haunts, Radstock Working Mens Club. I’m so used to going there that I forgot the added restrictions. Now, we cannot go to the bar and order. We have to sit down, someone has to write down our contact details and we order a drink while being seated. This must add to staff costs enormously.
When we entered the bar one of the regulars reminded us through sign language that we had to put a mask on. I simply said that we were exempt. We sat down but a woman not too far away complained about our ‘inconsiderate behaviour’. She was not the brightest button in the basket so I just told her she didn’t know anything and it was the law that if we were exempt we didn’t have to wear a mask. Her reply was “bollocks”.
We looked around and saw no that no one seated was wearing a mask. They think that to move around the bar you need a mask on for example when you go to the toilet. Then go back to your seat and take it off again. This virus is indeed exists is quite intelligent, it can only detect moving objects. If you sit still drinking and talking to your friends it will not detect you but as soon as you move it will try and jump on you and cause havoc. For such a tiny object 1 µ in diameter it has amazing intelligence. Also, if we think about the 2 m rule it knows that if there is wind it has to brace itself and not move with the wind and contaminate the next person. It also knows it must not circulate in air-conditioning. This must be the most intelligent virus ever created.
It did maybe a bit sad though because the place I know and still love is very informal and you just roll in and chat. Let us hope this madness stops. I was very encouraged to receive a video statement from an international lawyer based in Germany showing that a mass legal suit is on the cards against the government for relying on misleading testing. I have circulated this to all the people I know and we can all cheer up a bit.
Later… The rain has stopped for the moment but it is now dark and for the first time I’m tempted to have a real fire in the living room.
Françoise and I were invited to Bristol to meet two of our relatives, Ken and Pat, who live slightly to the north of Bristol, and have done so for the past 40 years in the same house.
The bus journey from our locality was a little bit different to say the least. The bus was 10 minutes late – normally it’s on time to the minute – this was due to an oversize vehicle being shepherded along in front, thus limiting the speed. A combination of roadworks and traffic congestion meant we arrived 2 minutes after the connecting bus was leaving from Bristol bus station to take us to our final destination. Since I hate being late I decided to spend £10 on getting a taxi and we eventually arrived 3 minutes after midday, the appointed time. Such is my reputation for punctuality that I was greeted with “what time do you think this is then?” This was taken in good humour.
We chatted about local things, including the fact that mothers from a local school who scarcely know how to drive their 4×4’s use the cul-de-sac where they live as a free parking zone during drop-off and pickup of their children.
Our host’s house has been burgled three times – admittedly during a 40 year period – but three times too many so far as they were concerned. On one occasion, the very methodical burglar unscrewed the window and put the screws in a neat row before calmly walking through the empty frame and stealing things and that when the couple were upstairs. You could describe that as cheeky. It was the one time when they forgot to put the burglar alarm on.
It is a good bonus when a sense of humour is shared. Conversation is much easier and you can tease each other and make jokes at each other’s expense without any offense. It was in this manner that we spent a couple of happy hours chatting away.
We left after lunch to have a meeting with three people from the stop 5G group in Bristol. They are doing a recording for the local community radio station. They were trying to assemble enough information and features to interest and intrigue the listeners. When I arrived, they had more than enough to keep them going, but there is no harm in having a large pool of information from which one can draw. I said there’s a limit to the amount of planning you can do and you have to decide what are the most important features.
I think you can over-plan something. The interview is not supposed to be the Gettysburg address. It should be a starter to a conversation, the stimulus for people to think about important matters, a challenge to those who are complacent without, of course, telling them it is a challenge. I promised to write a summary and send it by 7 PM this evening which I have done and hopefully it will benefit the quality of the interview.
I love visiting the untidy crazy areas of Bristol and the last part of this journal is a picture gallery, which hopefully is self explanatory.
Oh, and this is a lovely art installation I saw on TV this evening which was featuring Venice.
Today is the first International Day of Protest against 5G. There was a planned demonstration in Bristol on College Green so after some procrastination, we decided to go. Bristol is hopeless for parking so we did our usual thing and caught the 376 bus from Farrington Gurney to Bristol bus station.
On the way, we popped into an art shop, almost evangelical in its approach. As you will see from the terms in the image they are totally dedicated to art and indeed were doing a roaring trade.
We arrived on College Green to find something else going on entirely.There was a demonstration or was it a rally by a small group of people who were drawing attention to the large number of deaths, over 4000 a year, from people who overdosed on drugs.
Who would dream that such a nice looking chap obviously talented and enthusiastic about life could die through a drug overdose
The accompanying website is anyoneschild.org Small flags reminiscent of poppies were laid out as a reminder of the number of people who had died. A number of people made speeches, including the deputy mayor and a representative of the Cathedral who led us all in prayer. I don’t know how many of us are comfortable with talking about drug overdoses. I guess it’s something that I want to pretend does not exist, so it was a wake-up call to me to be more alert to circumstances that might lead to self harm.
The 5G gang, about 20 people, were assembled on one corner of College Green by the road, thus hoping to catch more people. I did not feel entirely comfortable giving out leaflets but Françoise, who was with me did so with some enthusiasm. Most people were either not interested or said that they did not feel that 5G was in any way harmful. The problem is that Bristol is the technical city that serves the South West so a large number of people are involved in IT so I wouldn’t expect many enthusiasts.
Most people on Saturday morning were on a mission, in a hurry, and did not even want to stop and consider. I should have thought along my meter which would have shown people the effect on EMF radiation when a mobile phone is used but I think that had I bought it along there would not have been that much opportunity to demonstrate. If I go to another demo I will try it.
Anyway, we put in an appearance. Hopefully, a few passers by will be triggered to think and reconsider their position. This is a real David and Goliath situation with billions of pounds of investment throughout the world so the left brain says that a group of people standing around talking to others for a couple of hours will make no difference. A blade of grass cannot see the lawn of which it is a part so maybe the cumulative effect will prevail but I suspect the reaction will be way down the line after people start getting ill.
During the time that Françoise was giving out leaflets I had left the group to its own devices and took a stroll around the Cathedral. It is by many standards a modern Cathedral, nearly 500 years old, compared with some of the other cathedrals. Wells is older. It was a lovely atmosphere.
I then went along to Bristol library. It is a major institution with not only books but newspapers, local records, sheet music, DVDs, and ample places to sit and work. I’m almost tempted to spend the day there in the reference library where I’m sure I will find concentration on reading much more than at home with its many distractions
We walked up Whiteladies road to have a salad and a soup for lunch. Afterwards we decided to go home and took the number 9 bus, apparently going in the right direction, marked ‘city centre’. This was a delusion. We did a 25 minute journey round the north of Bristol going in a figure of eight movement. 20 min after we left the bus stop we returned to the same road about 200 m down. We wrote the event off as a joke, as an opportunity to view the northern part of Bristol which we have never done before. We eventually arrived at the city centre and after running 200 yards we breathlessly caught the 15.35 bus with 1 min to spare.
At the stop at Bristol Temple Meads, a father got on with his son. The son who must have been 5 or 6 years of age was a brat if ever there was one. He wanted to sit in the front seat on the top deck and his remedy was to scream and I mean screaming. The only thing in his mind was that he wanted the seat. His father in vain said he could not have it because there were people occupying it. After a few minutes, the two young ladies occupying the front seat vacated their seats in an attempt to stop the screaming fit. The child moved and quietened down.
We felt the father had no authority and guessed that the father was looking after his child for the weekend having separated from the mother. The father did not appear to have any authority and was even mimicking the child in an effort to bridge the gap and ingratiate himself. So the child now knows that screaming brings a result – if he did not know that before. What sort of bad programming is that?
*****
Off to Farrington Gurney Village Hall to attend the Annual Supper of the Mendips story telling group. Storytelling is a dying art. I was always told stories at bedtime by my parents and looked forward to it. We have lost this art out of laziness and the degradation of our culture. The stories told this evening were between 10 and 15 min in length, always had a hook at the end and in most cases represented a world of magic; things appeared and disappeared, maidens wished for a handsome suitor and got more than they bargained for, and generally escapology of a therapeutic kind.
We had a pause at 9 PM for a cheese supper consisting of very good local cheese which agreed with my stomach unlike most cheeses, yummy bread, miniature tomatoes, miniature pork pies and other pies for vegans, together with a tub of apples.
We had as table companions two delightful people who had lived for 40 years in Cheddar and we discussed the local facilities. It was interesting they had not been to most of their local facilities, including the car boot fair, the famous pub that serves cider, the garden centre and we knew it better than they did. I think they were recluses, nothing wrong with that. However, the one thing that they did warm to was talking about their fascination with caves. Although they are senior, they go out caving quite regularly and I invited myself along to the next event. The husband, Tony, was interested in dowsing so that was something in common between us and he. We shall see what comes of it but if nothing does, it was still an entertaining evening. They recommended the Hunters Lodge Inn, Priddy BA5 3AR which is the local ‘step back in time’ hangout for Speleologists, in addition to their recommendation of good and reasonably priced food.
And so to bed. I ordered yesterday and received today via Amazon a food supplement called Night Sense which contains all sorts of wonderful things designed to settle the body and give a good nights sleep. The doctor had recommended melatonin but he cannot prescribe it. Nor could I get it from the local shop, so Night Sense was the best I could do. My goodness it did pack quite a punch so I decided to take it an hour before going to bed rather than the 30 min recommended.
The development of 5G is such that people in many local areas are waking up to the reality that our DNA will be fried and that there is no escape. I get many indications and invitations to meetings near and far. As is usual, one e-mail in a large bunch jumped out at me and that was a meeting that was due to happen in Bristol in the Broadmead Baptist Church, which is very much more than a church, more a community centre. Google that one for further details.
We set off on what must have been one of the rainiest and windiest nights imaginable. The rain came down in buckets and even the main A37 road had large puddles which caused our bus to skid and swerve. The upside of this was that there wasn’t much traffic so we made the journey between Farrington Gurney and Bristol in about 50 minutes.
Broadmead Baptist Church consists of three floors and our meeting was on the top floor. Upon entry, there was no noticeboard where to go and no one to ask except predictably those who did not know the answer. Françoise and I had to stumble around trying to guess where the right group might be and we eventually found it.
I had my business hat on. When I arrived at the appointed hour there was a large round table obviously use for committee meetings and about 16 chairs. When you organise a public meeting. You never know how many are going to turn up but there should always be room for late comers. You always get late comers. The meeting was interrupted on four occasions when someone came into the room causing someone else to come out and find an extra chair and bring it through the door and find a space. If I were chairing the meeting I would find that disturbing but the chair lady made a good job of it.
When there are volunteers, you can’t demand that anyone does something if they fall ill, or are changing their accommodation, or are just too busy or whatever the excuse. You just have to grit your teeth and accept that they haven’t done what they promised to do. Such was the case with the man who tried to have dealings with the Council, in this case Bristol Council. He tried to introduce 5G to the Green party councillor, but attempts to get through after the initial Meeting failed. I could have told him that that would be the case because the greens are not interested in 5G, perhaps because they don’t understand it or they don’t want to understand it.
When relevant points are made I tend to get very animated but I really have to learn to leave the weight of the meeting to the chairperson otherwise I could be seen as disruptive. When I spoke people did listen because they realised that I did have plenty to offer by way of common sense and wisdom on the topic of organisation, meetings, publicity and so on. I try to control myself realising that most people have never met me before and that some people had to learn lessons I learned years ago.
I have agreed to stand in the street and talk to people on the day of the first international protest against 5G which takes place on Saturday the 25th January. We shall meet on College Green at 11 AM on the morning. I warned everybody that you never get things right the first time and the only way of learning is by doing. I asked people to take particular care to remember what people said, learn about the mind of your enemy or should I say your adversary which in this case is ignorance and misinformation.
Our meeting of about 20 souls lasted for two hours between 7 PM and 9 PM and the time flew by very quickly because there was plenty of to-ing and fro-ing, ideas popping up all over the place. Meetings can get tedious when someone goes off at a tangent and gives a virtual life history about something and everyone gets bored, but a firm chairmen should be able to detect this and nip it in the bud.
I meant to say to everyone – but this was the wrong occasion- to talk about the machinations of politics and politicians. When money and power come in the door, then truth goes out of the window. It is not the politicians who run this country, people who come and go, but the permanent civil servants in which there is a coterie of those who give information at the behest of the powerful shadowy figures who run the country and indeed the world.
Plans for 5G were made decades ago as indeed were the plans for the whole telecommunications industry. The last people to hear about it never mind to discuss the implications are the general public, the people who are going to be influenced by it, including the carcinogenic effect of microwaves and particularly on children. Incidentally, did you know that the government knew perfectly well that schoolchildren were going to be adversely affected by putting wireless radiation in classrooms but they allowed the idea to go forward anyway.
I learned a lesson and that is to assume that people would be interested in what I’m doing if it’s relevant to the subject matter and give out leaflets accordingly. I should have done that but I know that I created a good impression and will come along to the next occasion better prepared.
We left the meeting at 9:15 PM. I handed my business card to the few people that I thought would be interested in maintaining contact. I would love to have popped into the local pub for a drink, my normal relaxant after a meeting, but we didn’t have time so we caught the 9:35 PM bus to where we had parked the car. We always sit upstairs in the front, we like the view There were two other people sitting silently reflecting, hopefully with their dreams intact.
For how long this will remain only God knows – and he ain’t telling.
