Back to the bad old ways

 To be honest, Britain never did fully change over to a metric system of measurement. Distances on roads are still measured in miles and beer is still sold in pints. People refer to miles per hour. and miles per gallon even though they buy petrol in litres. 

Those of us who were at school before metrication was even thought of still have nightmares about some of  the units of measure we were taught.

We had to learn about furlongs, chains, rods, perches, roods and acres. Damn, it took all of our mental capacity to calculate in inches, feet, yards and miles let alone cope with these quaint extras. 

Then we had to master volume - gills,  pints, gallons, quarts, pecks and bushels. 

Weight brought us in contact with ounces, pounds, stones, hundredweights and tons. 

Currency was no better with pounds, shillings and pence added to which we had half crowns, florins, guineas etc. I remember one teacher who delighted in setting mental maths tests where you had to calculate how many three penny bits there were in a given number of guineas. 

Those who followed had an easier time of it and maths teachers gave a huge sigh of  relief. They still had to contend with 60 seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour etc but at least every other measurement was sensibly metric. 

Now, it seems that the Prime Minister wants to bring back imperial units to the UK. Not to replace the metric units but to be used alongside them if people so wish. 

Imagine if you go to the market and one stall sells apples by the kilogram and an other sells by the pound - no problem you can do the conversion in your head to see which is the better value. 

Of course, if you are a company  selling to the EU, you will still have to use metric units. So you could end up with two systems for your goods - one for Britain and one for the EU. You'll also need some imperial scales alongside your metric ones. 

Sorry Mr Johnson, I cannot see any way how this will improve people's lives in Britain any more than issuing blue passports did or putting crowns on beer glasses will. 

A litany of shame

 After months of waiting, the much anticipated report by Sue Gray has been published. 

The contents will have been read by the world who will now form their own opinions of what went on in the seat of UK Government during the Covid crisis.

None of it makes for good reading. It is a most shameful account of behaviour in the so called Mother or Parliaments. 

Even in normal times, when there were no rules about mixing and parties, the account of what went on would be an absolute disgrace. That these parties took place during lockdowns when the rules forbade such mixing just adds to the shame.  

The Prime Minister was at many of these parties even if it was only for a brief time. He had the opportunity to shut them down but didn't. Rather than that, it seems that he encouraged them. By his own admission, he thought it was his duty to congratulate staff and join with them to celebrate staff who were leaving. What did it matter that the rest of the country had to stick strictly to the rules, they could not have leaving parties or wine on Fridays. 

After he had done his "bit" the PM claims to have gone back to his office totally unaware of what ensued at the gatherings he had just attended. Clearly, he could not hear what was going on next to his own flat. Nor did he notice the piles of empty bottles littered around the place in the mornings, the wine cooler brought in and the state of the garden including his son's broken swing. 

There were no parties, no rules were broken, there was nothing to see as far as he was concerned. It's just a pity that most of the country and the rest of the world don't see it that way.  

And now he asks us all to move on. He's made an apology so let us forget the whole sorry business and get on with wrecking the country further.

Wise advice

 

Next!

 

Calling all graphic designers

You only have a few days left to complete your designs for a cover for this year's fiesta book.

 

The right to vote

 When we first arrived in Spain, we retained the right to vote in UK General Elections for up to 15 years. We were also entitled to vote in certain referendums although crucially not the Brexit one.

I did apply to vote at the first election and received documentation that said I could vote in the Wirral West constituency*. However, I was not sent a postal vote form so was unable to exercise my right.

That right expired and so I did not pursue the matter. 

However, the recently passed  Elections Act gives overseas voters like myself the right to vote for life. It only took eight years for the Government to act on their promise to make this change. 

* David Hunt was the Conservative MP from 1983-1997. In 1997, the seat changed to Labour with Steven Hesford as its representative. It changed back to Conservative in 2010 with Esther McVey. In 2015, Labour's Margaret Greenwood took the seat back and has retained it since. 

A weighty tome

Last night we had the pleasure of attending the presentation of the latest book by Pascual Segura (Official Chronister for Bigastro). 

This most ambitious work is  entitled a "History of Bigastro" and takes us from the Bronze Age to present times. The 400 plus  pages are richly illustrated by photographs from many sources including my own collection along with documents from the town archives. 

Those of you who have read Pascual's essays on Facebook about the town's history will know that he writes in an engaging way using anecdotes to make the stories more interesting to the reader.

Many thanks to Pascual for what must have taken endless hours of research and writing to produce this book and to the Town Hall for publishing it free of charge.    

Santa Cruz 2022

When John and Jean Hatch lived on Avenida Europa, the Fiesta at Santa Cruz was a very popular event for Brits from our estate.

 

One for the collection

Pascual Segura has published several books of great interest to the people of Bigastro. This one will be presented on Friday 27th at 7pm in the Auditorium.

 

Clean up time

 Today, Bigastro participated in the Macro cleaning of waste in the Vega Baja, Organized by the Vega Baja Sustainable Consortium, the cleaning has been carried out in the Azarbe Mayor "El Reguerón".

The event was sponsored by Recykers Shoes, who gave a gift of a t-shirt to all the volunteers in this activity along with  a raffle for some shoes.

The amount of rubbish collected in the macro cleaning was 1,061kg.

We want to thank all the people who have participated in this activity, and who have done their bit to have a cleaner and garbage-free Bigastro.

While we were away

The issue with my NIE card resolved by virtue of a permit to return to Spain, we flew to Birmingham and then travelled to Carden Park near Chester for the wedding of Andrew and Fara, 

Andrew is the youngest son of our neighbours in Greasby - we've known him from birth and didn't want to miss his special day. 

Me and my grandson Rory

The Williamson/Field family minus Dave who took the photo.

Pam and I with the groom Andrew.

 

Not promising

One of the highlights of the year is Easter week when parades take place in the towns of Spain. 

We've had years before when the parades had to be cancelled. Sadly, it looks like it will be the same this year.  

 

Music for the town

 

It was good

 It was good to get out on a Saturday night and listen to some music. 

First off the children from the School of Music played us two pieces. They were followed by the Junior Band who tackled some difficult pieces of music to play.  

As usual, you can find my photos in the album from the left hand sidebar of this blog. You can also listen to my audio recording of the concert by following this link: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2m9u1s2zvwfbhi4/Concert%20%202nd%20April%202022.m4a?dl=0

Brave people

You can watch them come over the top of the old hill and run up to our estate as their headlights mark their position en route. 

Walking over that terrain is tricky enough, running over it in the dark requires some bravery. 

Music to your ears

 

Show some respect

 I've taken this from an article in the Independent  about the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi's white paper. 

Given the lack of money, Mr Zahawi should show some public acknowledgement of the sheer number of hours teachers put in these days, and how they kept things going during the Covid crisis. He should stand up for a profession that is so often lazily attacked by those who wouldn’t last a term in a modern school.

For far too long, the goodwill and professionalism of teachers have been exploited, and their pay and conditions have fallen further behind comparable groups. This year, with inflation at a 40-year high, Mr Zahawi proposes another large real-terms pay cut, with a further reduction planned for next year.

Rightly, teachers – including those involved in vocational and technical training – will not accept such treatment, simply because they cannot afford to do so. Many will be forced to scale back their commitments or leave the profession; those who stay need incentives to help Mr Zahawi and the nation meet exacting targets. He can harbour as much ambition and produce as many white papers as he wishes, but without teachers, Mr Zahawi will find he can get nothing done.

Far too many of the public think that teaching children is not really that difficult, that teachers work few hours and have excessively  long holiday. They really should do a stint at an inner city school like Anfield where I taught. Whilst some classes were a delight to teach, many were a real challenge in terms of behaviour, aptitude and attitude. 

Add to that, the false notion that a teacher's work ends when the bell rings. Pupils work does not mark itself nor do those lessons prepare themselves and regular reports to parents take many long hours to compile. It is no wonder that,  many who enter the profession, leave after a short time. 

Praise deserved

 Gradually, I am getting there replacing the items stolen from my bag. 

The first step was of course to cancel the bank cards and request replacements. Then I needed a new phone with a replacement SIM card so I could check on any movements in by bank accounts. 

With those jobs done, I needed to replace the spare glasses that were in my bag. This is when Specsavers shone. Not only did they discount the replacement glasses by 50%, they also delivered them within four days. 

My residency card (TIE) was stolen and this is where Consulting Services Bureau, Torrevieja came to my rescue. They organised the appointments at Alicante for me and again gave me a large discount on their services. They have been brilliant. 

Our insurance company AXA did organise for a locksmith to come to our house the day after the robbery. Unfortunately, they would only pay for him to replace the locks on the front and back doors leaving the security grill on the back door with the original locks and the garden gates the same. I am not so worried about the garden gates but the security grill protects a vulnerable aluminum door that just has a simple one bolt lock. 

This is part where Rafa Lorente helped out. He replaced the lock on our post box so that we could recover the letters in it. He then sent someone out to replace the locks on the security gate. 

Of course, top of my list is my neighbour Pepe who accompanied me to the Guardia Civil to make my denuncia not once but twice. 

One for your diary

 

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