Worldle

Look again at that title word. It's Worldle and not Wordle. Worldle is an online quiz game that tests geographical knowledge. New games appear every day but the logging of results is not as  exacting as with Wordle.

If, like me, you get off on geography then you may well enjoy testing your geographical knowledge via Worldle.

This is how a typical game goes. You are given the silhouette of a country. You have to guess the name of that country. If you get it wrong, Worldle will tell you how far away from the correct country your guess was and it will also provide an arrow to tell you the direction of the answer.

You are allowed six guesses. Next you may be given silhouettes of neighbouring countries and you have to try to name them. After that, you may be asked to identify the country's flag, the size of its population, its capital and its currency.

After that first phase, you can move on with either "WHERETAKEN (USA)" or "WHERETAKEN (World)". This begins with a random image and you have to guess which state or country it is in. Again you get six chances and the game will tell you how far away you are.

Other questions linked to the solution state or  country will follow and if you get them right  you earn stars that will improve your star rating. I am sure that I do not have to tell you that the photo above was taken in Tajikistan.

I enjoy Worldle and if you would like to try it, you will find it here. Have fun!

"MEAT"

My son and his Bosh! mate Henry have got a new cookbook out. It is titled "MEAT" which seems an odd name for a book filled with vegan recipes. I guess the title is deliberately provocative. It's saying that there's nothing wrong with vegans replicating meaty textures and flavours in their diets.  Being a herbivore does not mean that you are only entitled to eat lentils and salads with brown rice and the occasional potato. Some traditional vegans may bridle at the idea of vegan dishes that unashamedly seek to imitate meat but for our Ian and Henry being vegan is not a religion and just as much as anybody else, vegans have the right to eat tasty, varied meals.

The "BOSH!" phenomenon continues. They keep riding the wave. Their first plant-based recipe book came out in  April 2018 and was a huge success - the best-selling vegan cookbook in British history. Since then they have been on many TV and radio shows and even had their own ten part TV show called "Living on The Veg". They have now got various products in supermarkets including cakes and ready meals.

Their latest book, "MEAT" is their seventh cookbook. I don't know how long this "journey" will go on because nothing lasts forever but so far Ian and Henry have kept riding that surf  like Olympians. Needless to say, Shirley and I are immensely proud of our son. He has worked incredibly hard to get this far and has done a great deal to push veganism into the mainstream.

By the way, we sometimes eat vegan meals even though we are omnivores. That is allowed. You can eat vegan without being vegan.

Billboard (British - hoardings poster) in East London with Ian and Henry

Mugshots

In Manchester, England this week the woman pictured above  was found guilty of terrible crimes. As a paediatric nurse, she had taken the opportunity to murder seven vulnerable babies on a neonatal hospital ward in the  city of Chester. She had also attempted to murder six others. There may have been other similar crimes that we do not know about.

Her name is Lucy Letby. The photo at the top of this blogpost was only released in the last four days. I think it shows her emptiness. A slightly twisted mouth and hollow eyes. She was caught and the game was up.

I think that this is the picture that we should see from now on - whenever  her case is reported. Previously, we had become used to a very different image of her. A pretty and devoted paediatric nurse sparkling in  her uniform but this is not who she was . It was just a disguise...

Letby will be sentenced on Monday and of course it is firmly expected that she will spend the rest of her life in prison. She broke the hearts of several families and broke the trust that had been placed in her. Above all she stole away the lives of seven tiny children who had uncharted paths to follow. Lives of hope and dreams and ups and downs and love and tears and laughter. She had no right to do that. No right at all.

Letby has already said that she will not attend her sentencing. I think that it is so wrong. You many not agree with me but I would have her dragged into court and be forced to face the music - including the statements from bereaved parents. She should not have any choice in the matter in my humble opinion.

Procrastination

I was speaking to my brother Robin a few days ago. Of course it was over the telephone as he lives way down in the south of France about an hour from Andorra and the Spanish border.

Whenever we talk, the conversation can go on for ages even though we are different in so many ways. However, I am sure that  there are more things that bind us than what divides us. 

We were talking about our dear old Dad who died in 1979. Robin said that he always remembered a piece of  advice that Dad once gave him and this had stuck with him through the decades. It was - "Never procrastinate. Make sure you do the things you have pledged to do." 

Even though Robin has been retired since he was fifty two years old, he is a man of action and always has practical tasks to work on around the country property he shares with Suzie. He's also always working on vehicles including motorbikes and agricultural machinery. He's certainly not one to procrastinate.

The reminiscence made me chuckle because I remember one Sunday morning on the campus of The University of Stirling. I was walking between the students halls of residence when a woman's voice yelled out from an open window - "Procrastination is the spice of life!"

I don't know why but I have always remembered that.

Procrastination can I think be pretty healthy in limited doses. It's to do with resting, manana and not feeling guilty because you are not currently working on a task. Sustained hyperactivity is arguably not good for humans. We need downtime, time to process and behave like  potatoes. There's nothing wrong with that.

The trouble is when one's procrastination begins to expand to a point where things are just not getting done and whole days are being frittered away. I confess that this is sometimes a danger for me - most likely on grey days when I feel no magnetic pull from the outside.

Have you got some thoughts on procrastination or maybe you just can't be bothered?

Repositioned

Yesterday I walked up to the medieval packhorse bridge shown in the picture above. I was with my old friend Tony. We were in the upper reaches of the Derwent Valley beyond the three reservoirs that were constructed there in the first half of the twentieth century ‒ Howden, Derwent and Ladybower.

Now the thing about this bridge that many passersby might not realise is that it is not in its original position. Six miles downstream, it used to link Derwent Hall with the little village of Derwent before the valley was flooded. It was disassembled stone by stone and then re-erected in its current location in 1959.

Below is a line drawing of the bridge in its original location but all of this lies under the waters of Ladybower Reservoir.  Very occasionally, in periods of drought, what is left of that old village is revealed again ‒  perhaps once in a decade.

Driving back down the valley, we stopped near Derwent Dam where famously RAF Dambusters bombers rehearsed bombing missions they would later carry out upon German dams during World War II. Near the visitor car park there is a charming woodland trail that includes oversized carved animals, including this hedgehog܃‒

And there's also this great big mole climbing up from his hole...

Of course Tony could not resist the opportunity to briefly ride upon a nice big beaver. He lives in the town of Beverley that includes beavers on its coat of arms.  I make no comment upon his questionable action. After all, who am I to judge?

Later, we walked to the village of Bamford where we enjoyed a late lunch in a  community‒owned pub cafe called "The Anglers".

Usually, I walk on my own but I have always enjoyed walking with Tony. We walk at the same pace and we know each other so well. We don't converse all the time for we do not feel obliged to fill the void with words. We have nothing to prove. It's great to have a friend like that. I have known him for 44 years.

Saigon

Christian Maynard as Chris and Desdemona Cathabel as Kim

Shirley and I went to see "Miss Saigon" at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield this evening. It's not a musical I had ever seen before and I only had half an idea about its plot.

It's mostly set at the time of the American retreat from Vietnam in the mid-1970's. For me, the show was like the proverbial curate's egg - good in parts. I wasn't knocked out by it and partly that was to do with the quality of sound. In my opinion,  it needed to be crisper and probably a little louder.

There was some clever stagecraft and a  long metal staircase dominated the acting space. It was multi-functional  but at it its dramatic best during the airlift from Saigon with Vietnamese citizens clinging to the structure desperate to get away as helicopter blades whirred noisily overhead. Very well done.

Written by by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr., the songs that progress the plot are not as catchy and memorable as one might expect in a top tier musical. Even so it has its moments and at The Crucible there were some very good individual renditions most notably by Joanna Ampil  as The Engineer and Desdemona Cathabel as Kim.

While watching "Miss Saigon", I couldn't help thinking of the pointlessness of The Vietnam War, the personal tragedies that were caused and what the hell America was doing there in the first place. What on earth did they hope to achieve?

It is of course very tragic that 58,300 members of the American military died  in Vietnam but it is more tragic that 0ver a million Vietcong fighters were killed,  230,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died and over two million Vietnamese citizens lost their lives. And all for what?

Continued

Stanton-in-the-Peak

And so then my South East Asian sojourn was over and I was back in England. It was still 2013 and there were plenty of days for long walks in good weather. It was the year that I reached the age of sixty. The six images I have selected to accompany this blogpost were all taken in the second half of 2013.

South Anston

In Alnwick, Northumberland - the original "Keep Calm" poster

"The Travellers Inn" near Penistone

Monsal Dale

Marsden