Electric scooters, what really is the big fuss? To my mind they’re not a lot different to bicycles as a mode of transport, both are clean, quick and quiet.
I know that people moan that they are too quiet and you can’t hear them coming, you can’t hear a bike coming either! They complain about the way that they are ridden, but there are plenty of people who ride bikes irresponsibly.
How often do you see, or mostly, not see a cyclist at night, because they are wearing black and don’t have any lights on they’re bike? More often than you see a well lit one.
Although a number of towns and cities are undertaking trials to see how good or bad, or how well used they are, I’m sure it will be a while before any results or decisions are made about them, so currently it is illegal to ride electric scooters on the path or on the road.
There are a number of towns where the riders are being stopped by the Police and the scooters are being confiscated and cut up. In these same towns, are the police stopping cyclists who ride on the path, confiscating their bikes and cutting them up, I don’t think so! Surely if people ride them either on footway/cycleways, where you are allowed to ride your bike or in the cycle lanes provided for cyclists, what’s the difference?
Yes, they should have lights at night, so should bikes. Get them to fit a bell and encourage them to wear a hat like they do for cyclists, but come on, let’s embrace the technology!
Onward with the Bond theme! I’ve now read the first two books, Casino Royale and Live and Let die. I’ve just read Len Deighton’s Horse under water, just as a break from Bond, but in the mean time I have bought two more Bond books, Moonraker and Dr No, both early 1960’s Pan paperbacks, so I’m only a couple short of the set.
I thought that I had a copy of The Ipcress File by Len Deighton, which I was hoping to read before the new television adaptation starring Joe Cole (No, not the ex-footballer) starts, but as I couldn’t find it, I settled for Horse under water, another in the ‘Harry Palmer’ series. Very enjoyable! (Since finishing Horse Under Water, I have found my copy of The Ipcress Files and started reading it).
None of the four books that he wrote in the series actually mention the main characters name; it was apparently made up for the film adaptation of The Ipcress File, starring Michael Caine, and then carried on to the rest of the films that were made from the books. I haven’t read a Len Deighton for many years but I reckon that I’ve read more than half of the 26 novels that he wrote, including the 10 featuring Bernard Sampson. To my mind, he’s on a par with John LeCarre but lighter and easier to read and get into.
Strangely enough, among his non fiction work, he’s written a book entitled; James Bond: My Long and Eventful Search for His Father.
The new Half Man Half Biscuit Album is out! It’s called The Voltarol Years, and after the first 3 or 4 listens on my journey to Bournemouth, very good it is too!
There are a couple of lines in the song Rogation Sunday (Which this year is on May 22nd) that refer to putting up posters for a missing dog all around town, the dog’s been found and it’s fine, so isn’t it time that you took those posters down.
Is quite pertinent as all around the villages of Central Bedfordshire, Westoning, Harlington, Toddington and into Flitwick and all the surrounding area for miles, there were posters for a Missing Dog. Now there are posters for a Still Missing Dog. The poor dog has been missing since November with a number or reported sightings but as yet it has not been recovered.
Now I’m not complaining about the dog, the posters or the updated posters, I hope it works and the dog (Kaiser) is returned safely, but I have said to my wife ‘I wonder if they will go round and take all the posters down when it’s found’. If they do, then fair play but they will need a lot of help, as there are literally hundreds of them.
UFO’s – How come whenever anyone claims to have seen a UFO, or flying saucers or Alien spacecraft, whatever you want to call them; it’s always a bright shining light and it’s round. They are often in groups buzzing around and they seldom if ever land. Alien craft are always shown, even in documentary programmes where people reckon they have seem them, just like the old comics from the 1950’s. They hover down to earth, then legs or landing gear comes down.
Are we that far behind with our space travel technology that nothing we send into space looks anything like that? Perhaps they are unmanned and are just on reconnaissance missions to see what we are like! You'd think if they had life on board that at least once in a while one would land and make contact. Why are they usually out in the middle of nowhere? If you are looking at life forms on other planets there are enough cities and areas of habitation and maybe come down during the day occasionally.
I'm pretty sure that there are perfectly plausible explanations for all of these so-called sightings and none of them involve Alien life!
Aimlessly looking out of the window. Al murray was saying on the radio the other day that he probably would have spent the whole of lockdown just staring aimlessly out of the window if he had not had work stuff to get on with! I’m pretty sure there are quite a few people out there who have work to get on with that spend their days just staring aimlessly out of the window.