A Confusing Situation and the Saturday Matinee

Hi Everyone

Another slow trawl around our local supermarket this week with the trolley as my support. It was a slow trawl as the Main Contractor only ventures in about once each month, so is keen to see what is new, whereas I make a ten-minute dash (well, slow dash) for those things that we have run out of, lost or cannot remember where we put them. The slow dash revealed that despite many promises, packaging becomes more overpowering with many packaged items nesting in an even bigger package, all of which are aimed at attracting our attention. Having given this problem some thought for ten minutes, which seems about nine minutes longer than our government has considered the problem, I came to the conclusion that maybe there is an answer. Firstly, the packaging is recyclable after any staples and plastic wrapping have been removed. The production of the original packaging and the recycling process provide work and an income for many, so maybe all this packaging is not so bad after all. Ah, but hang on a minute. We have to build a factory to produce the stuff, cut down trees to provide the raw materials and burn a lot of energy, so what effect does that have on carbon emissions and global warming? Confusing, isn’t it? Perhaps the real answer is back in the day when the Senior Partner tipped her fruit and vegetables loose into a customer's hessian bag, only wrapping items in recycled newspaper occasionally, while having a meltdown if an item had to be put into a brown paper bag. Perhaps if we had followed the chip shop owner and the Senior Partners' initiative, we would not be suffering the fifth, or is it sixth, heatwave this summer with almost a complete absence of rain. 

When we were children, there were a number of highlights in a week, school, which most of us enjoyed despite the occasional frightening teacher, breakfast bacon and eggs swimming in fat, Sunday roast beef, except that it was every Sunday, fish and chips wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper, and the Saturday morning film matinee. At our local cinema, about six hundred kids were mesmerised by Flash Gordon, the Movietone news and the inevitable black and white cowboy film. Every week the plot would be the same with the Red Indians surrounding the settlers in the stockade before being chased off by the cowboys, with the bows and arrows flying one way and bullets from Winchester rifles and Colt 45 revolvers flying the other way. Now, for those of us approaching middle age, I feel that we are again being surrounded, but this time by walking sticks, mobility scooters, stair lifts, plastic knees and hips, and hearing aids. To date, Fortunately I have none of these, but no doubt one or more of them are just waiting around the corner.  

I think that it is about three weeks since I mentioned the T word. Every week he tells us that he has nearly won the war in Iran ot that he has nearly opened the Strait of Hormuz. It sounds very much like the same plot as those black and white we watched almost eighty years ago but with drones and ballistic missiles replacing bows and arrows and Winchester rifles. Let's hope that it does take eighty years for this plot to change.

Just a Thought:

My friend applied for a job in a salad packing factory. Apparently the hours were terrible, but the celery was good. 

Why do cowboys ride a horse? Have you ever tried carrying a horse?

The kids' Saturday morning matinee was a room full of people who haven't learned how to whisper.

Brian