Inside magazines

Why is it that, no matter how many sheets of unwanted advertising I take out of a magazine before opening, there are always 3 more when I settle down to read?

Lighthouses

To the painter, safe on shore, there is something romantic about lighthouses and the stories they evoke of life at sea in storms and hazards. Also we may wonder about the solitary keepers in days gone by and how they lived - and kept sane.

International Day of Happiness

As declared by Google, this is today. I will do my best but I do wonder about others in some parts of the world.

Life elsewhere?

Yesterday I heard a lively and informative lecture by Professor Mike Edmunds about when and if we will find life elsewhere in the universe. I had often wondered in vain why it is so vital to discover evidence in just one more place bur he explained it clearly. If such evidence is found, say on Mars, it proves that our planet is not unique in this way and, since we know now there are many, many other planets, we may be sure that life must occur in other places. Scary?

Knit Henry VIII

I gather from this week's Radio Times that a Welsh grandmother called Denise Salway has knitted Cromwell and the King from Wolf Hall. There are photos of these realistic dolls! When I told my daughter about this and suggested she made them and others also, she replied: "That will be my next project, Mum. But do they have removable heads?"

Computers

What bugs me about my pc is its habit of updating itself and preventing me from using it whilst it does so. "Just wait - I need to clean my teeth," it tells me. I know it's old but does it have to be so boring and annoying? I'm moving on to a Chromebook - I'm told they attend to themselves modestly in the background. Fingers crossed.

Local Councils

These bodies are frequently criticised but I want to praise Monmouth and Newport. There are real people at the end of the phone who answer questions fully and politely. Customer satisfaction there!