London Sunday 9th April 2017

A Little Green. There are of course lots of green spaces in and around London. Here however is an example of minimalist gardening at its best, seen here in Paddington.

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Save UK steel, there are ways

John McDonnell describes his blueprint for saving UK steel production, Save UK steel production

Using technology and having respect for your fellow human being

I was in a supermarket the other day and was slightly annoyed by a hip and possibly cool young dude on his mobile whose conversation was being shared with many of the rest of us shoppers whether we liked it or not. What really really annoys me though is the lack of respect for the staff working in the supermarket. I saw this, let’s call him ignorant fellow for the sake of politeness, ordering cheese from the cheese counter whilst still carrying on his vacuous conversation. All people in our service industries should be able to say “I won’t be serving you unless you engage with me and get off your phone”. Mobile technology is wonderful, loss of being respectful is appalling. Every human deserves respect. And then I found this photo which I think says it in some way. It was taken in a small shop selling coffee and tea in Oxford, a great little place that had obviously been visited by the same sort of ignorant cool dude that I had had to suffer. RESPECT, it costs nothing. Copyright Paul Andrews and Caroline Schmutz, Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk

Street Artists – the best artists

Forget all those celebrity artists and take a walk round any city to look at some real works of creative art. In London it is around the East End, especially around Brick Lane and there are so many examples that change quite rapidly. It is an outside art gallery and you need to be looking up and down as well as around you. If we weren’t looking down we would have missed this piece. It is probably no more than 20cm tall but it is so clever with the shadows drawn onto the pavement as if the sun is rising from behind where the actual wall is. If you are in London for whatever length of time you should visit this part of the city. Copyright Paul Andrews and Caroline Schmutz, Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk

Somebody Painted the Sky

Rainbows are amazing. They even brighten up a drab Paddington skyline. And the physics behind them is wonderful as well.  And just think that the splitting of light into those various colours might at this very moment be helping you read this. See DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) You will either be interested or at least it might help your insomnia. But it is very important to all us Internauts. Copyright Paul Andrews and Caroline Schmutz, Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk

The Old Kings Head

I haven’t had the pleasure of going for a drink in this pub although I should have by now. It does look fairly traditional East End boozer. The outside is amazing. Check out these superb green tiles. It is located on the corner of Scrutton Street and Holywell Road in Shoreditch in London. Copyright http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk

How Long Can an Adult Human Live Without Espresso? Civilised Philosophy!

A sign outside one of the many independent coffee shops of London with a philosophical question about the pleasures and addictiveness of that warm brown liquid that many of us crave. I would like to say though that if some of the farmers growing coffee around the world lack access to clean drinking water (780 million people) and proper sanitation (over a billion humans) then the profits from drinking coffee especially from the multinationals, you know who I mean, are not fairly being distributed and reaching the growers. Until every coffee farmer has these basic amenities coffee drinking is still not entirely civilised. Copyright Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk.

Great Smile at the 22nd Mile of the 2014 London Marathon

The London Marathon is a great spectator event and the large crowds make it a superb event for the dedicated runners who flog themselves round the length of the course. I saw the 2014 Paris Marathon and the support was very low key and it is basically runners, yes I know that they are all runners, but there is very little in the way of dressing up for the event. It took place in early April and there just doesn’t seem to be that much interest in it. But then again they do have the finish of the world’s greatest cycle race. And maybe the event will grow anyway.  Well back to the London event of 2014 and there I was at mile 22 when this girl just beamed as I was taking a photo. She must have been extremely hot in this outfit and still had four miles to go but she was obviously still enjoying it. Copyright Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk.

And this is England 3 – A Superb Oak Tree

One of the species of trees that England is famous for, the oak, seen here on this hot summer’s day providing shade in this field.  I need to read about the subject again but if I remember correctly a lot of the country was stripped of these in the past to build the ships that put the Great in Britain depending on how you look at the country’s history. Copyright Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk.

And this is England – part 2

As many of you know England can be a very grey and dreary place but on a pleasant summer’s day it can be a great place to be as can be seen in this photograph.  The soft and gentle rolling landscape of farmland gives an idyllic image of life in England. This Shropshire landscape however can be very bleak at other times of the year and especially so for the much undervalued British farmer. I’m a city dweller but I have a lot of sympathy for the small farmer, especially those that don’t own their land and despite the protestations of the supermarkets they are making life very difficult for them. The UK’s farming industry often has the highest rate of suicide and highest rate of accidents and therefore we need to press the supermarkets to pay fairly for what they buy. At the moment this is simply not the case. Copyright Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk.