Straw wrong about Biggs

The other day Jack Straw released a very ill man from custody - one Ronnie Biggs, the best known of the gang in the crime that became known as 'The Great Train Robbery'. So did Straw do the right thing? Having thought about it a bit I would say no. Even now he is out Biggs will have a poor quality of life such is the state of his health and releasing him for what would seem to be a fairly short period before he dies is sending the wrong message in my opinion. I say this because he has really been taking the mickey out of our legal system and furthermore has displayed absolutely no contrition for his part in the robbery. So, sorry, I don't think we should feel sympathy for him.

It's fascinating that there have been far bigger hauls in subsequent robberies but that we barely remember these. I guess it was the enormity of 'The Great Train Robbery' relative to what had happened before that made it so noteworthy and the subsequent escape by Biggs and his keeping just ahead of attempts to extradite him have helped keep the event in the public eye. Any attempt though to make him some sort of folk hero is just plain silly; he's an unrepentant crook plain and simple.

On the subject of crime I notice that the threesome involved in the death of "Baby Peter" have been named and their photographs are out in the media. Unbeknown to me this information has been on the internet for some time apparently. So on the basis of the statement in the last sentence there is an argument I suppose that there is nothing wrong in displaying names and photos in the way just done. A couple of points here: having this stuff in the mainstream media means that these people could be very recognisable if, as, when they are let out. That means I suspect that there will be vigilantes out to get them - so we are looking at the possibility that they will be given new identities at the very least. As important I think is the fact I read that the mother has other children (was it four?). A greater likelihood of them being connected with their natural mother now the mother's identity is known would be a disservice to them surely.

Going back to the vigilante thing for a minute I understand that one very good reason for not acting on pleas to release the 'Moors Murderers' was that their lives could be under very grave risk so unspeakably horrendous were their crimes.

Filming at Mount Edgcumbe

It doesn't take too much of an excuse to have a day out at the Mount Edgcumbe Country Park which seems almost within touching distance of Plymouth but in reality is separated from the city by the southern end of the Tamar just before it meets the sea. Having accumulated the waters of the River Lynher this last stretch of the mighty Tamar is known as the 'Hamoaze' by the way.

My friend needed to do some shopping in Plymouth on the way home and I wanted to pop into Debenhams so with a really good forecast for last Thursday we decided to sally forth. The itinerary then was up the hill to our station for the train ride into Plymouth, walk across to Stonehouse for the ferry ride to Cremyll and then perambulate through the Country Park to the twin villages of Kingsand and Cawsand. Such is the variety of walks at Mount Edgcumbe that one can vary the return route slightly if wanted. This we did.

Now we are in the school holidays and the sun is out at last it isn't surprising that the ferry is busy. We could both live with being fairly jammed in with our fellow human beings for the few minutes of the ferry crossing but with 865 acres of country park available once we alighted in Cornwall severe overcrowding is never a problem.

When we decided to go on this walk we were unaware that there would be a German film crew in the Park. The reason for this is that people in Germany are very very keen on the romantic novels of Cornish born Rosamunde Pilcher. In fact there have been a huge number of made for TV films of her works that the Germans had previously filmed and looking on the internet afterwards I could see that this wasn't the first time that they had used Mount Edgcumbe as a set. It was good fun to witness some of the filming as we sat on some higher ground eating our lunch. We saw several takes of a super slim actress getting out of an XK Jaguar sportscar which would date from the 1950's I guess and then getting into a more anonymous modern car. A long time back, probably in connection with Newquay airport, I had mentioned connections with an airport in Germany with a lot of the business on that route due to so many folk over there wanting to visit the locations they had seen in the filmed stories.

Once again we had an excellent walk in "The Park" but with the added interest of watching a film set.

Dr Wollaston gets the vote at Totnes

If you were to look back in this blog to just over a week ago, to Monday 27 July to be exact, you will see that I wrote about a very interesting political experiment that was being carried out in the Totnes constituency. Just to briefly recap: the sitting Tory MP Anthony Steen is stepping down at the next General Election, the local party had produced a short list of three as the next prospective candidate, and then they wrote to all the eligible voters with a freepost envelope to enable them, regardless of their political affiliation if any, to say which of these three would be their preferred choice to represent them should the Tory get in.

The results of this new exercise in democracy are now in. And the winner is ... Dr Sarah Wollaston, a Chagford GP. More about her career achievements can be found here from which it can be seen that she has done well in her profession.

One or two comments to make: firstly using the figure of an electorate of 69,000 for this constituency as being accurate means that there has been a response of about 24% which is truly remarkable. I think that the Tories reckoned anything over 15% would be very acceptable. So that leaves a nice little dilemma for David Cameron: does he repeat this quite expensive exercise in other constituencies - following the success at Totnes it seems difficult to deny others this American style democracy of 'open primaries'.

Dr Wollaston with 7914 votes got nearly as many as her two rivals combined (Sara Randall-Johnson 5495 and Nick Bye 3088). Both the two defeated contenders are currently in local politics - they are leader of East Devon District Council and Mayor of Torbay respectively. I think it is quite possible that the electorate prefer someone in a respected profession and in constant contact with a huge cross section of people rather than someone else who might seem to be somehow 'tainted' by the political process.

The fact that the previously political unknown Sarah Wollaston is now in the public eye should do her chances in the General Election no harm at all I would think.

CORRECTION: I'm not sure now where I got the information but it seems that the 69000 figure mentioned as the number of constituents for 'Totnes' should be 67000. This means the turnout was even higher than my calculator informed me - in fact nearer 25% than 24%.

Tancock is world champion with record swim

I had promised in previous posts to flag up any massive successes of sportsmen who come from Devon and Cornwall. So although I have absolutely zero interest in the world swimming championships in Rome I am at the same time pleased to note that Exeter's 24 year old Liam Hancock struck gold in the 50 metre backstroke the other evening. Not only did Liam win but it was in a new world record time! So congratulations to him.

Although I personally lack any sporting prowess it is still nice to be able to mention a sport of minority interest even if it doesn't actually move me. I think I've said before that whatever one's reservations about the London Olympic Games (I wish we weren't saddled with them) at least those sports that struggle to get mentioned in the media can, for a brief time at least, get some public attention.

I lead a walk around Calstock

I had volunteered (or been volunteered perhaps to be more accurate) to lead a special interest group around the village of Calstock as part of their outdoor evening event programme. Well yesterday evening was when it happened. In an earlier post today I described the less than sunny weather that we are experiencing right now but in fairness the worst of the rain had temporarily relented by seven o'clock, the start time of the walk, and although very grey throughout I was able to keep the brolly down for most of the time.

The intention had been to do the whole thing in an hour and a half. Who was I kidding? A good two hours I think it took and even then I skated over a lot of the detail. Really and truly one can't do justice to this particular walk in just one evening but at least it gave the participants a flavour of what Calstock is all about. I have to say that I was unnecessarily nervous at the start not helped by me getting a 'frog in the throat'! Once over the initial talking bit and on the road so to speak when I could point out various features things got better and my audience were very kind to me and posed one or two questions which demand further research on my part! Fortunately I don't take myself too seriously and am able to inject a little humour into the proceedings which always helps.

I think the thirty or so in the group went away fairly happy and thanks to their visit I am now able to give our Parish Archive a cheque. During the course of the walk I was able to talk to some members on a one to one basis - unsurprisingly this was more into my 'comfort zone'!

Gunnislake Festival seems to have gone well

For the last few years I have been Secretary of the annual Gunnislake Festival but at the AGM last November I decided to stand down as it was just getting too much when added to my other interests. Our Chairman and Treasurer both decided to resign from the committee at the same time - no animosity, just that we had all had a long stint at these jobs (all three of us are getting on a bit age wise!) and it was time for an injection of new blood. A couple of particularly stalwart members of the committee were prepared to continue and the presence of these two ladies I'm sure would have aided a fairly seamless transition in preparing for the 2009 Festival. And I honoured my promise of being available at the end of the phone should the new secretary want advice which understandably she did on one or two occasions.

This year's Festival, from Wednesday to Saturday last week, followed a well tried formula in the main. So we had the usual display from local artists in the Church Hall and Mandy's ever popular Local History Exhibition in the Public Hall. There are always lovely refreshments at the latter by the way and this year they bought in sponges from a cake maker in Tavistock. I treated myself to a slice and on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it 11! It was amazing! As is usual with the local history I found myself going back there because there was so much to see. On the Wednesday evening there is normally a talk worth going to and this year we had Bernard doing his slide show on the railway between Tavistock and Kelly Bray via Bere Alston and of course Gunnislake. I've heard it two or three times before admittedly but never tire of it.

The car park in the centre of the village was closed to vehicles on the Saturday because it is given over to public entertainment throughout the afternoon. On this occasion the forecasters were spot on - after a wet morning the clouds parted at lunchtime. We tend to be lucky with the weather for this outdoor part of the Festival, although it has been known to be a little damp on occasion I can't recollect a time when it has been a total washout. There were the usual mix of stalls and live music and although some of the latter wasn't to my taste the amplification didn't seem to be quite so excessive as sometimes. An innovation this year was a chap demonstrating falconry with a Harris hawk which the crowd found interesting. At the end of my involvement with the Festival we had stopped the scarecrow competition; in the first few years we had gained an enviable reputation with this aspect of our Festival but it seemed to me and some others that it had run its course but to my surprise the scarecrows were back this year albeit with a small entry. I think it was a mistake to do that and of course July's wet weather hardly encouraged the making of scarecrows.

All in all I think that the committee has reason to congratulate itself. I'm certainly pleased that the Festival has continued and hope to go to the next AGM to see how things have panned out, from the financial point of view especially. But I'm quite definitely not rejoining the committee!

And still it rains

The exceptionally soggy July has spilled over into August. Apparently down my way you would have had to go back well over a century to the 1880's to endure a wetter July! yesterday was thoroughly miserable weatherwise and there is no let up as I type this. However there is hope on the horizon: the Met Office reckon that the wet stuff will disappear east tonight and then we should have a few days of pleasant weather as high pressure tries to build from the south west.

Fortunately the flowers on my buddleia at the back of the patio haven't quite gone over so fingers crossed there may be a late surge in butterfly numbers.

Met Office downgrades summer forecast

A really embarrassing day for the Exeter Met Office. Before the start of summer they had confidently predicted that there would be a "barbecue summer" in 2009. They have chosen one of the wettest days of this soggy July to severely downgrade expectations for the rest of the season. Once again it is the fault of the jet stream: in June it looked as if it would ensure most of the nasty 'lows' would be tracking eastward with their centres way up toward the north of Scotland. That was June. Now the jet stream is much much further south resulting in our area getting plenty of miserable weather reminiscent of our two previous 'summers'.

The Met Office were extremely unwise to use the words "barbecue summer". They had included some caveats in their long range forecast which wasn't quite so optimistic as people are perhaps making out. But what the MO and anyone else liable to make public statements in this media driven age really have to understand is that people always remember short snappy phrases and soundbites no matter what other message surrounds them. In this case just those two words "barbecue summer".

Quite correctly the forecasters have pointed out the drier than usual June with a good Wimbledon fortnight and even Glastonbury didn't get much of the wet stuff. The thing is though that anyone with children doesn't think of June as being part of summer (although it obviously is and contains the longest day). No it's when school holidays start that a lot of people think about summer weather. But there we go. So will the Met Office stick their necks out prior to summer 2010?

Totnes leads the way - in the political process

Attach the word "first" to a news item about Totnes and many of us will be thinking about some environmental development or alternative lifestyle such is the reputation of this town in Devon's South Hams. However this is something very different - it's all about politics believe it or not!

Actually the 'Totnes' constituency is a bit of a misnomer. In reality it is a small country town and I can't understand why the name 'South Hams' or 'South Devon' isn't now employed, the other constituencies in Devon with the exception of Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay don't use a town name so in truth 'Totnes' in this context is a bit of an anomaly. But I digress ...

A quick bit of recent history. It will be recalled that sitting Tory MP Anthony Steen got into some hot water with his expenses and notably his reaction when this information got tossed into the public domain via the pages of 'The Daily Telegraph'. Like may another MP who has been subjected to embarrassing revelations he has stated he will stand down at the next general election. Therefore a new prospective Conservative candidate has to be found. This is where it gets interesting: the local constituency party has now got a short list of three - two women and one man as it so happens - and it has been decreed that ALL the electors in the constituency will get the option to make a choice as to which of the three should get the nomination regardless of their political allegiance. This is really groundbreaking stuff.

There was a public meeting over this past weekend at which all three prospects could be quizzed. By all accounts it wasn't just the diehard Tory activists who attended and the meeting was judged to have been quite successful. Those interested in this exercise have to return their voting forms by this Thursday I believe.

So some thoughts on all this. In principle creating a system that permits better public participation in the political process has to be welcomed I would have thought. The Western Morning News had thumbnail photos and very brief background information on all three candidates but what I would want if I lived in South Devon would be some really hard detail as to what they believed in, an example of this would be their attitude to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. I'm not clear from the media as to whether those who couldn't attend this one husting have been provided with decent information on the threesome so that they can make a really informed choice, this would have been of great interest. I have stated before that I don't have any natural allegiance to any one party but that I am more interested in the nature of the person who could be my MP. As there are about 69,000 voters in the 'Totnes' constituency it hasn't been a cheap process for the Tories but at least it's useful business for the Post Office!

The result should be known by the end of the week and it will be particularly fascinating to find out the percentage of those eligible who have returned their voting slips.

End of MSC Napoli saga

Yesterday evening I watched 'Spotlight', the local BBC news programme, as I often do. One item that particularly caught my eye was the story that the last piece of the stern of 'MSC Napoli' has now been lifted from the waters of Lyme Bay just off the beach at Branscombe. So ends this saga - well almost. The two barges on which have been loaded the vast array of scrap metal that once formed part of this container ship are still on station but are due to head east to, I think, Rotterdam next week.

So it won't be long before all visible signs of the vessel's presence will have gone. Having said that the anchor was given to the village in recognition of the tumultuous events the locals witnessed and is there near the shoreline for all to see. The Dutch salvage firm had declared that the contract would be completed by the end of July. So all credit to them for achieving this feat.

Tom Daley wins in Diving Championships

If you have read this blog regularly before (has anybody been that mad?) then you will know that I don't normally 'do' sport but that if some person or team from my two counties does well then I'm only too happy to flag up the fact. So step forward 15 year old Tom Daley from Plymouth who has won a gold medal in the 10 metre platform title in the Diving World Championships in Rome. This of course is a truly massive achievement for one so young. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quick to congratulate him. He, the PM, has had the unfortunate apellation "Jonah Brown" applied to him by at least one blogger because on numerous occasions he has either sent the sportsman or team a good luck message or attended the event himself only for failure to occur. Presumably then he hadn't sent Tom any such message prior to the young lad's triumph!

Second dragonfly disappears

I haven't felt particularly well for a couple of days - no I'm not asking for sympathy, and no I haven't had swine flu! Just mentioning it because there is so much I would like to blog about at the moment but just I haven't felt motivated to do it. To be honest there is a well nigh inexhaustible supply of material I would like to write about / comment on all the time but lucky is the person who can keep up a large output on their blogs; in fact I think it is fair to say that blogs come and go quite regularly and of course people's circumstances readily change and one cannot be surprised if some folk cease blogging.

Anyway I'm much better now thank you! A quick update on the last post about the dragonflies. The second one to hatch out was still there and looking worryingly motionless the following morning but by lunchtime had disappeared. Hopefully then it had flown off and not fallen back into the pond (no sign of that) or been taken by a bird. I suppose that like most of nature there are huge variations - some dragonflies taking off in an hour or two after hatching whereas some like mine take more than 24 hours to make their maiden flight.

Thank goodness we are having a break from the rain now. For much of yesterday we endured the wet stuff. It's still breezy today and apart from the one lonesome red admiral the buddleia is not being visited by butterflies. However the bumble bees are at least taking advantage of it.

Dragonflies hatching and buddleia in bloom

This past week has certainly been an unsettled one weatherwise and the outlook for the next few days isn't particularly encouraging either. It's always the case I think that we tend to forget isolated good days and even the drier than average June with its mini heatwave now seems to be a distant memory. When we walked by the river this afternoon it was noticeable just how much its level has risen and our respective garden ponds are now nicely topped up as well.

Garden ponds. What a privilege to have one. Mine is very small and had been created, I think, by the previous owner. I had planted irises in mine a year or three back. They are glorious during their very short flowering period but one less prominent reason for my getting them was because of their tall stems and leaves which just happen to be a practical route for the dragonflies in the pond to emerge from the muddy depths and break out of their rather unappealing cases. So I was delighted early this morning to observe a couple of these fascinating creatures clutching the foliage of the irises and with their paper thin wings outstretched. I think in the past, maybe on drier warmer days, they have gained strength and taken to the wing quite soon after "hatching out". Our two today though were still on the irises when we came back from our walk in the late afternoon. Since then I have been repeatedly checking on them and it was 7.30 this evening before I noticed one of them had taken to the wing.

It is now 8.20 pm BST. Slight pause in the proceedings as I go out to the pond yet again to check on dragonfly number two. It is still there. Not looking very comfortable clasping its leaf or so it seems to me. I will check again early tomorrow morning.

The rain seems to have contributed to simply colossal growth this year. I don't think I've ever seen my white Shasta daisies (now out) and my golden rod (soon to come out) look so tall. More accurately regarding the golden rod there is a small stand of a smaller variety of this flower which comes earlier and is displaying its rich yellow but the more vigorous larger one is not quite there yet. I'm looking forward to seeing the bees and hoverflies that adore the 'rod'. Meanwhile my marjoram - like the golden rod it turns up all over the place - is keeping the bee population busy. As it so happens bees, particularly bumble bees, share the same enthusiasm as I have for certain flowers. If they want a change from the marjoram then my large buddleia is now fully out. Fortunately this bush has a relatively long flowering period and I hope it won't be too long before the butterflies start visiting it. Spotted a nice bright red admiral which lodged itself on my friend's shoulder. Let's hope for some decent weather before long and many many more butterflies!

Double glazed windows fitted

Yesterday was something of a red letter day in the history of my Cornish cottage. I've moved into the twenty first century with the two main windows of my home being replaced by double glazed units! Being a mid terraced cottage there isn't a lot of fenestration, in fact I have a total of just five windows. Of these three are quite small and of the casement type and certainly for the moment can soldier on but there are also two more substantial sash windows and they were getting to the stage where something fairly drastic would have to be done. Enemy number one in Cornwall is the considerable damp that we experience (the countryside never fails to look green and lush and wellies are the most important footwear items to own) so combating this damp is always likely to be the most pressing problem a homeowner has to face here.

With the downturn in the housing market and less cash for home improvements the double glazing firms have been taking to the road in my neck of the woods. This may also be because folk such as myself have wised up to the telephone preference service which stops cold callers ringing when you are just about to take your tea out of the oven or watching the most exciting moment in a film or, in my case for example you just do not want cold callers, period! The outcome of someone knocking on my door and subsequently making an appointment was that I took a deep breath and gave an order to 'Everest' to supply and fit two new windows.

I have just been reading a review site as a prelude to writing this piece in which a number of people have had really bad experiences with Everest but these seem in the main to have been quite tricky serious construction projects sometimes with sub contractors involved. In the dim and distant past I seem to recall Everest getting a slating on the old Watchdog programme with some viewers disasters. However in my case it was just a relatively straightforward case of two old windows out and two new ones in and furthermore that firm had fitted replacement windows in at least two other properties in the row. Our houses aren't listed or in a conservation area and unsurprisingly are seeing an invasion of UPVC. Not my home though! Although timber windows are a horrendous price I have always been determined that nothing else would do (or wood do perhaps I should write - just thought of that!).

So what's the verdict? The new windows appear to have been made to a very high standard, apparently a firm in Scotland makes the timber windows used by Everest and I imagine that computerised machinery is used in the process. Certainly the surveyor spent a considerable amount of time here measuring to the millimetre and the installation was a nice snug fit. The sashes are made to a close tolerance seemingly - it takes quite a moderate effort to heave them up or push them down and I would think that someone who wasn't very strong might find them a bit of a struggle. As with the originals I asked that they be painted in white and that is how they arrived. The two relatively young lads who did the installation were polite and very hard working. I don't know that they stopped between arriving a little after nine in the morning and leaving mid afternoon. They did a very professional and clean job and caused virtually no damage whilst doing it. During the course of the morning a lady from their office phoned me to see how they were getting on, a nice touch.

For this job then the company was really good but if I was having a major job done - having some sort of extension built, moving services etc where there was likely to be sub-contractors muddying the water I would be tempted to go to a well established and reputable local builder. As to durability, if I'm still here in ten years time and still blogging, then I'll let you know how the windows have performed under Cornish climatic conditions!

UPDATE: Had a phone call today (17 July) from the DG salesman. He asked if he could pop round later which he has now done. He wanted to see his client to make sure all was OK - this was good to have a little after sales service. I mentioned that I had made an entry on my blog praising the service I had received from Everest but pointing out I had mentioned the fact that some people had been very unhappy with the firm as evidenced by a review site I had visited. He made the obvious and valid point which I knew he would that there are some people you cannot please but I did point out to him that the main criticisms appear to have been regarding major improvements where sub-contractors were involved. Chris reckoned that Everest no longer employ sub-contractors except on driveways where they use just one specialist company. So hopefully there is now proper quality control.

I mentioned to him that I was pleased with the attitude and professionalism of the fitters and he thanked me for that and said he would relay that information back to his boss. If workmanship is well below par then I believe people have a right to complain but I think also some praise isn't a bad thing when one is the recipient of a job very well done. I have to say that when it comes to tradesmen there are some exceptionally good men and women out there and it's too easy to take them for granted.

Statue of Liberty fully reopens

To any of our American cousins who might be reading this can I wish you a happy July the Fourth! I know that The Statue of Liberty is one of your most iconic structures but since the 9/11 atrocity it hasn't been possible for the general public to ascend to the very top although I believe landing on Liberty Island and going to the top of the pedestal has been permitted. Good news then that the Obama administration has chosen today for the restricted access to be lifted so that once again people can make that long climb up the spiral staircase right up to the crown. It might sound as if I know all about it but in reality I've been educating myself by looking at a piece here by BBC reporter Matthew Price including some video.

I don't know whether the video will be up on the BBC website indefinitely, I have a feeling that they just don't have the webspace to retain every video that gets a showing on their site. However by going to YouTube and inputting 'Statue of Liberty Tour' for instance it should be possible to see what it's all about even if we do lose the BBC video eventually.

Fascinating just how restrictive the space is on the spiral staircase. I assume there is radio communication to prevent ascent and descent of sightseers simultaneously - I don't really think there is passing space on the stairs!

My knowledge of the Statue was incredibly vague. Its been very rewarding I must say to access the Beeb's piece and look at one or two other references as well. If I was ever to go to New York I would be strongly tempted I must say to do that ferry trip to Liberty Island and toil up those stairs.

The ID cards U turn very welcome

The Brown Government is carrying out so many policy U turns it is difficult to know which way it is facing! What's good though is that pretty well all of them have been the right thing to do but they have displayed an almost unbelievable level of crass stupidity in the making of the original decisions. For me one of the most significant changes after what I believe has been some eight years of wasted time is the announcement by the new Home Secretary Alan Johnson that there will be no compulsion to get an Identity Card. Thank goodness for that! I had always been irritated by the prospect of having to shell out more money for something for a person in my situation that was totally, utterly unnecessary.

Two particular points to be made about the ID card nonsense: firstly Johnson has said that the Government should never have allowed “the perception to go around that they were a panacea for terrorism”. I think it was David Blunkett who set the ID ball rolling and it was always being sold on the idea that it was essential to have them in the fight against terrorism. Although I never was entirely sold on this reasoning I did think that if that was a real justification then yes I would have to go along with that. But that argument put up by Labour now seems to be entirely bogus. Point number two concerns the money that has been spent so far on this exercise which is over £200,000 million evidently. I'm sure that money could have been spent more wisely.

ID cards haven't been abandoned entirely - Alan Johnson maintains that he and other Ministers are still committed to them and that they will be rolled out on a voluntary basis. This sounds like a bit of face saving for the Government to me. Another indication too of the great value of the internet is the fact that the organisation 'NO2ID' has been able to make its arguments heard. This government just can't get its head around the power of the internet and how it can influence attitudes.

Thunderstorms. What thunderstorms?

It's about 11.30 am BST as I type this and by now we should have had some intense downpours of rain and thunder and lightning. We had a sprinkling of rain much earlier but now it is just cloudy and humid. So what about the talk of flash floods and the rest. Well if you are living in parts of Ireland, particularly Dublin, then the dire warnings from the Met office would have proved very relevant as they have been swamped by bad weather. But, so far, nothing of note here.

In fairness to the forecasters the present weather set up is just ripe for tropical deluges: we have had this very humid tropical air off the continent for a few days so conducive to a thundery breakdown but it is the potential clash between this heat and the much cooler maritime air advancing from the west as a front comes in off the Atlantic that should be producing intense thundery outbreaks of rain. I have sympathy for the Met Office because these thunderstorms can be very localised - they have to broadcast a worst case scenario even though many places may not be affected.

Although the scenery is very striking here I live well down in the valley and it feels like being near the bottom of a ravine sometimes so precipitous are the valley sides. One result of this is that it's difficult to know what the weather is doing outside this immediate locality. All things considered though I wouldn't swap this spot for another to live in.

It is now just starting to rain but gently. Maybe a tropical downpour is still to come.

LUNCHTIME UPDATE:
Still cloudy here but reports in of very heavy rain and localised flooding in Truro and Mid Cornwall areas. Evidently then the Atlantic front has been dragging its heels a bit.

"The Secret Caribbean " gets the thumbs up

I have become very selective about the TV programmes I watch, in fact I'm beginning to wonder whether it's worth having a TV at all. Having watched the first part of Trevor McDonald's "The Secret Caribbean" on ITV on Sunday evening I reckon it is, for the moment at least.

Sir Trevor of course hails from Trinidad and he proved an excellent choice as guide on this first episode of the series. Incidentally he has a Devon connection, having a home near Exeter - at least I assume he still has. One of the things I've always sensed about the Caribbean is that there is an incredibly large variation in the economic conditions of those who live there. That applies to many other parts of the world of course but Sunday's show really emphasised these differences.

First of all then we saw Sir Trevor talking to Richard Branson on the island that he, Branson, owns. As the money from Virgin records rolled in Sir Richard developed the island into the perfect paradise home. He can accommodate a small number of paying guests at his hideaway but that does cost. I really do mean cost because - brace yourself - you have to pay £30,000 a night to stay there! That's not a misprint by the way. I'm assuming that the price might include breakfast, I wouldn't go otherwise! Ever restless Sir Richard has now bought the neighbouring island.

Now for the deliberate contrast. Sir Trevor went north to Cuba. This was absolutely fascinating because that island is in a sense in a sort of time warp. It reminds me of when I was a child in the fifties. Why? Well there was the virtual absence of two of the really significant features of life in today's western society - consumerism and celebrity culture. And drawing my parallel even closer is the fact that food is pretty well rationed in Cuba, I can remember the ration books from the Second World War having their use extended into the nineteen fifties on some foods at least. As an example of the lack of celebrity culture Trevor talked to a lady newsreader who is paid virtually the same as anyone else on the island (it is a communist country after all) and later caught up with her working as an MC at a nightclub to extend her income. I can't quite see a British newscaster having to do that!

Then we saw life in a factory where they made those huge fat Cuban cigars. The first thing to say is that everything but everything is done by hand. Then there was the pause in work while everyone stood up for the country's national anthem. There is another break later where everyone listens to one of their number reading a book to them. At the time of the filming I think that it was a tome about ancient Egypt and read aloud at some 10 pages a day! Oh and the workers can smoke the product while working if they so wish.

On the subject of smoking it seems that purchase of cigarettes is subsidised. So are the authorities trying to get their people into an early grave? It would seem not because here came one of the most interesting of statistics: life expectancy is the same as the United States at 78 years. On the face of it extraordinary. One fact, not mentioned by Sir Trevor, is that economics has dictated that Cuba shouldn't be oil dependent in the way 'modern' countries are - I had gleaned this from a film shown locally some little while ago. From my observation of the programme there appeared to be a degree of contentment amongst the people, maybe they had never known a life very different and consequently there had never been a comparison to be made.

For the final section of the programme Sir Trevor went back to his roots to Trinidad where it was carnival time. I had always imagined that the biggest and best carnival would have been in Rio but Sir Trevor reckoned the one in his home country was the biggest of them all. No doubt about it - it was big in size and long in duration. We also saw a steel drum being made, an example of the traditional music of the state. I'm just so fascinated by the way that their players know just which part of the instrument plays which note. Plenty of steel bands to watch on YouTube of course.

Sir Trevor proved to be a genial and relaxing host in this super programme. Well done ITV!

Three cheers for my utility supplier

For many years I have been with one utility company for my gas, electricity, landline, mobile and internet needs. This is the Utility Warehouse Discount Club, part of the TelecomPlus group of companies. I have to say that I was particularly grateful for their exemplary service this morning. Let me explain ...

With this supplier the norm is to pay monthly by direct debit. Whereas many folk like to spread their energy payments evenly over the 12 months I prefer the option of paying for what I use as I go; this necessitates me taking the readings on the last day of the month and phoning through to the company's automatic reading service. So far as my electricity meter is concerned well it's one of the old fashioned ones where you have to read several dials - a bit of a pain then. Usually I'm very meticulous about my readings but slipped a bit this morning. The result was my trying to give their computerised system a figure suggesting my consumption was about ten times more than usual! Which of course it wasn't! So totally my fault.

Now this is the clever bit. The company's system wouldn't accept my grossly wrong readings! After the third go it gave me the chance to hold and put me through to a real human being. In about ten seconds this happened and I'm pleased to say that the helpful lady at the (British) call centre spotted the problem and sorted it out.

One of the real pluses with dealing with the UWDC is their reputation for very quick telephone response and that there is no language problem to deal with. And I'm pleased with their product too. One small complaint is that their customer services and internet helpline is not available 24/7. But that is not a major downside.

Going back to this morning then it was a case of 10/10 for my utility supplier.

Not a tribute to Michael Jackson

I've just been looking at the blogs link on Google and putting 'Michael Jackson' into the subject line. He died aged 50 less than 24 hours ago from it's thought cardiac arrest. Amazingly in the last day there have been more than two and a half million blog posts incorporating his name!

I suspect that the vast majority of these blog entries will have been paying homage to his talents but not this one I'm afraid. It's not that I have anything against him it's just that his music has passed me by, plus the fact that I'm just not into the adoration of celebrities. Having said that I've been watching his amazing dance technique of 'moonwalking' on YouTube and have to admit that that is something else. But as to pop culture, no I'm not interested.

It didn't take long for both Gordon Brown and David Cameron to speak warmly about Jackson but was this just done for good old political purposes I ask myself. There is a Devon connection with Michael Jackson because martial arts expert Matt Fiddes from Barnstaple was to become his bodyguard. Matt has talked to the BBC here about Michael and this gives some sort of insight into his complex character.

I feel sorry for anyone who passes away before their time and it's sad of course for his legions of fans who have booked for what was to be a comeback tour in London. But as I have already intimated Michael Jackson hasn't influenced my life at all.

Albaston Fete and an introduction to 'Smite'

Albaston is one of the many villages in our parish. Although very close to both Drakewalls and St Ann's Chapel (there are an unusually large number of settlements in Calstock Parish) it still retains its own identity. A major event in June is its annual fete and this years, held last Saturday, was the 25th one so a bit extra special. It now takes place on the Millennium Green, a nice spacious area with far reaching views south toward Plymouth. There have been mixed fortunes for the fete as regards the weather but this year the gods favoured the organisers. It was opened by a local resident, Margaret, a Cornish Bard and all round good person. Would she say something in Cornish I wondered, knowing her passion for the language. We were not to be disappointed: she spoke one or two sentences in Cornish - with a translation into English! As usual the Rubber Band provided some of the musical entertainment, not unexpected with some of the key members residing in the village!

After the Rubber Band had completed their stint we had a good look round the fete and came across a demonstration by its inventors (who live at St Neot on the south side of Bodmin Moor) of the garden game of 'Smite'. Unfortunately I'm typing this right at the end of the day and am too tired to do justice to this remarkable game. Suffice to say that we had a go at it, the rules are very simple and it was so easy to understand why people have got hooked on it. I'll just let their website here do the talking!

From Looe to Minions - a great day out

Weatherwise I reckon yesterday was about the best day of the past week in my area. Which was fortuitous timing because one of my brothers together with his wife is holidaying in Mid Cornwall at the moment and we agreed to meet up to initially visit Looe and then maybe go to one or two other places. We met at Liskeard and then shared a car for the onward drive to Looe. There are alternative routes for this leg of the journey and we took the slow tortuous 'B' road that wends its way through St Keyne and Duloe before dropping sharply off the ridge that separates the valleys of the West and East Looe rivers. From Sandplace one has the river and railway for company for the final mile or three to the town, or perhaps I should say twin towns.

Although the main economic activity in Looe was and still is centred around the river rather than right on the coast, nevertheless the latter is very close by whereas the likes of Fowey and Padstow are tucked well into their respective river estuaries. I particularly like going right through West Looe out to Hannafore where there is (free!) parking on this wide cul de sac road from which there is a great view of St George's (or Looe) Island lying just off shore at this point.
A gate at the end of this road leads to the continuation of the coast path and a not too arduous walk west to Polperro by way of Talland Bay.

The length of that walk wasn't on the day's itinerary but it's a perambulation I've done more than once before and I would recommend it to anyone new to coastal walking and unsure about their capabilities. On this occasion we stopped by the little kiosk at Hannafore to refresh ourselves before gently ambling back through West Looe, crossing the bridge and wandering the narrow streets of the older settlement of East Looe. The fairly large beach can be easily missed believe it or not and is separated from the river mouth by the Banjo Pier - if one sees the shape of this construction then the reason for its name becomes readily apparent.

Having had a lunchtime snack we decided to go inland to visit 'Paul Corin's Magnificent Music Machines' at St Keyne. The website is here. It's a few years now since I first went there but it's a museum like no other. Paul is, what can I say, very much an individual and I can highly recommend a visit to this peaceful spot hard by the river and railway. Like many another small tourist attraction Paul is finding his visitor numbers dropping off. As it so happens we were the only folk there at the time we arrived but sometimes you can find yourself joining Paul's grand tour of his wonderful instruments part way through. No matter from Paul's point of view - you can drop in or out as you please. A couple of things that particularly appeal about this attraction are that Paul takes the trouble to chat to his 'customers' in a personable way and he throws in a lot of personal anecdotes for good measure. We must have spent a good hour in his company; he not only demonstrated the 'magnificent machines' that play music automatically but played his wonderful Wurlitzer Organ as well. There are the brown tourist signs pointing the way off the 'B' road I had first mentioned and there are picnic tables just outside the building. Unfortunately it wasn't practical to go there by train because not all the Liskeard - Looe trains stop at the halt which is only a stone's throw away.

We rounded of the day by pushing north of Liskeard to first have a quick look at the holy well at St Cleer, then Trethevy Quoit from which it was a not too long a hop onto the high moor at Minions. It was delightfully quiet there compared with the bustle of Looe. However, as I pointed out to my companions, there was a vital connection between Minions and Looe - the Minions area was really important for the quarrying of granite and the mining of copper and these products were primarily exported through ... Looe!

It had been a very satisfying day with absolutely ideal weather - warm but not close with a pleasant breeze and Cornwall looking at its best. We couldn't have asked for more!