Sunday, March 09, 2008
Bull from Kabul
Now taken possession of a shiny new version of Google Earth, which appears to confirm that while the Khyber Pass might be the gateway from the Near East and/or Afghanistan into Pakistan, it is not really the gateway from Pakistan into central Asia. To the North of Kabul there are mountains coming in at around 4,000 metres while Kabul is at 1,000m and the pass runs from that height down to around 600m at the Pakistan end. The pass looks, from the pictures supplied, pretty grim, but is said to be the only way through, so presumably trying to get through the Pakistan tribal lands lying to the South West of the pass and which look fairly innocuous from the sky, would be even worse on the ground, that is to say very grim. Presumably very grim place to live, which might explain their grim customs. Maybe the fact that there are no pictures or other sign posts is a clue.
Two examples of possibly over-zealous policing have come in over the last couple of days. First, I hear the the police in Berwick have prosecuted somebody for stealing bandwidth. That is to say by sitting outside someone's house and sending an email over that someone's wifi connection to the Internet. Nothing said about trying to hack in and do anything unpleasant. In which case not obvious that a prosecution is a good use of police resources. I wonder what the charge was? Maybe the email was huge and detracted from the householder's Coronation Street viewing and calling the police was easier than stepping outside and moving the villains on.
Second, a shop keeper in Epsom was raided because some of the advertisements on postcards stuck to the inside of his window were thought to be defamatory or perhaps inflammatory of race hate. It seems that the window in question goes in for funnies and that the one that caused the trouble was offering stoning services or some such. This was thought to be a step too far. The postcards have now been impounded by the men in blue, presumably for further (and expensive) consideration by their friends in the CPS.
On a more elevated note I now learn that wine does not just come in 1er cru. According to the Rubbing House on the Downs, you can also have 4me and 5me crus. No mention of 2me and 3me. Having a little difficulty finding out what exactly this is about. But the story might be that at the top of the wine heap you have classified crus. Maybe these run from 1 to 5 with 5 at the bottom of the top of the heap. 4 & 5, from memory, came in at around £40 a pop, so maybe half that in a supermarket. The next layer down is something called cru bourgeoise and below that appellation controllee. Sadly, I don't know any wine tarts who would be able to quote chapter and verse on this important matter. Have to see what I can do in Tooting.
Seven rows of broad beans now in, with no recent excavations by animals large or small. And I have about 10 seeds left from the last packet so judged that pretty well, seven being the desired number of rows. Pleased to have got them all in before the rains scheduled for tonight - although it may turn out, as it often does, that Epsom is in some kind of rain shadow land, and the rains will pass us by. Watch this space. Wrist got a bit stronger in the course of all this - the dropping of the pneumatic drill bit (maybe 5kg?) in the ground followed by the double twist to consolidate the seed hole being excellent training - and quite hard work for the first few rows. Next stop the onion sets.
Willow hedge planted last year now in full flower. Very pretty. I think the plan must be to cut it down to six feet high and three feet wide each Autumn or it will very soon get completely out of hand.
Two examples of possibly over-zealous policing have come in over the last couple of days. First, I hear the the police in Berwick have prosecuted somebody for stealing bandwidth. That is to say by sitting outside someone's house and sending an email over that someone's wifi connection to the Internet. Nothing said about trying to hack in and do anything unpleasant. In which case not obvious that a prosecution is a good use of police resources. I wonder what the charge was? Maybe the email was huge and detracted from the householder's Coronation Street viewing and calling the police was easier than stepping outside and moving the villains on.
Second, a shop keeper in Epsom was raided because some of the advertisements on postcards stuck to the inside of his window were thought to be defamatory or perhaps inflammatory of race hate. It seems that the window in question goes in for funnies and that the one that caused the trouble was offering stoning services or some such. This was thought to be a step too far. The postcards have now been impounded by the men in blue, presumably for further (and expensive) consideration by their friends in the CPS.
On a more elevated note I now learn that wine does not just come in 1er cru. According to the Rubbing House on the Downs, you can also have 4me and 5me crus. No mention of 2me and 3me. Having a little difficulty finding out what exactly this is about. But the story might be that at the top of the wine heap you have classified crus. Maybe these run from 1 to 5 with 5 at the bottom of the top of the heap. 4 & 5, from memory, came in at around £40 a pop, so maybe half that in a supermarket. The next layer down is something called cru bourgeoise and below that appellation controllee. Sadly, I don't know any wine tarts who would be able to quote chapter and verse on this important matter. Have to see what I can do in Tooting.
Seven rows of broad beans now in, with no recent excavations by animals large or small. And I have about 10 seeds left from the last packet so judged that pretty well, seven being the desired number of rows. Pleased to have got them all in before the rains scheduled for tonight - although it may turn out, as it often does, that Epsom is in some kind of rain shadow land, and the rains will pass us by. Watch this space. Wrist got a bit stronger in the course of all this - the dropping of the pneumatic drill bit (maybe 5kg?) in the ground followed by the double twist to consolidate the seed hole being excellent training - and quite hard work for the first few rows. Next stop the onion sets.
Willow hedge planted last year now in full flower. Very pretty. I think the plan must be to cut it down to six feet high and three feet wide each Autumn or it will very soon get completely out of hand.
# posted by Jim @ 10:46 AM 
