Saturday 14th June
Gosh I can't believe it's Saturday already! And what's more, looking outside, it's a hot sunny day - according to our weather forecasts it's supposed to be overcast or raining or something. Mind you it's only 12 midday, frankly that's enough time left for the downpour to end all downpours! There are actually people out lying down in the park, reading, sunning themselves - you may be wondering why I don't join them. To be honest, if I did I'd be in for one of the more unpleasant nights of my recent experience. I've always characterised it as an allergy to sunshine, but it's more of a low threshold for sunstroke really. Ever since I was a kid, sunshine has made me feel very upset - my temperature seems to go through the roof, I get migrainous type headaches and terrible patches of prickly heat. And if I don't get out of it or cover up at that point, I start to feel very nauseous. So to be honest, whilst everyone else goes round saying isn't the weather wonderful, I just either nod or make a joke about how I wish it was the middle of winter. In all seriousness, one of the things that most appealed to me about going to Glasgow Uni was the idea (which I have no idea where I got, because it's utterly untrue) that it might be colder up there. It was - in winter, nice real snowfalls and all of that kind of thing, but come the summer it's every bit as hot in Glasgow as it is anywhere else in the country. And they do have the most beautiful early autumns up there, hot and sunny, with the leaves starting to turn - and the tang of bonfires in the air. Lovely city.
The top one is a turquoise coin bead, hung on red copper chain, with Swarovski crystal bicone beads in a deep oceanic blue, and copper flower charm, - both of these necklaces are on auction and starting off at £6.99 - a real bargain if you ask me! The one underneath is also on red copper chain (both of them have stick and toggle clasps) and has a huge citrine quartz facetted bead, with two smalller smooth round beads in smoky quartz, and a copper plated flower bead. If you want to go and look at the listing, there's a link to the shop - Sunspark Sparks Jewels, on the left hand side of the top of this page.
One other thing I was going to mention. This morning I was woken up by a convoy of lorries going past the front of the house - these barmy fuel protesters were having one of their slow drives through Bristol. These people are absolutely a joke. The racket they made was unbelievable, and they think by breaking the sound barrier they are attracting sympathy for their cause. They've just been on the midday news with a spokesman claiming they're doing this on behalf of all motorists. When will motorists realise the world doesn't revolve around them? When will they get a grip on the idea that they're actually really, really lucky to be living in an age when they can drive a car or a lorry at all? And above all when will they understand that the cost of all this is actually the planet, not the tax on the petrol?? I sympathise with them on one level, it's very expensive to fill up a tank. But the answer is quite simple - either you brush up on your chemistry and physics, and engineering skills and go out there and invent a better engine, preferably one that runs on water, or you leave the car in the garage every other day and get the bus like the rest of us. I have a brother who's one of these mad personal driving obsessed individuals, who won't even contemplate the idea of getting a bus. Whenever I've suggested to him that it might benefit him to catch a bus or a train, and that personal ownership of cars isn't a practical way to organise transport, he complains the bus won't take him to the doorstep of his office. This, mind you, from a man who's hobby is walking! What does he do? He takes his car to wherever he's going walking, parks it and sets off for his recreational walk - he'll go considerable distances mind, I'm not talking about a stroll in the park. Yet the idea that he might walk half a mile from a bus stop to an office - ridiculous!
