31.01.2022 The calm after the storm.

 ~~

Monday 31st 36F, distant mist, overcast and raining. Showers forecast. It brightened up a little. With occasional glimpses of sunshine. I have just noticed a couple of dead branch hanging in the big willow. Only about the size of my arm. The base of the tree is heavily forked. Each branch at the base being about three feet in diameter. I always wonder, with each new storm, whether the whole lot will come down. It is truly massive and must be well over 60' high.

Another grey day. Another grey, steady plod to my familiar turning point. I waited for the rain to go off and luckily it stayed off. My breath hung in clouds as I started off down the road but not for long. The roads are still littered with wind blown debris from the trees and hedges. I counted three, dead, surgical masks on the verges. With McLardy's litter in far greater abundance.

Quite a large bird of prey was sitting out on a roadside field. It was very light and patchy in colour. Even at 200 yards it obviously didn't like the look of me. Who can blame it with my badger's brush of a beard and Covid mullet? It probably thought I was a giant-sized relation. The next field over duly gained a light coloured bird of prey. Its back was almost pure white as it flew off.

The middle turbine, of a row of three, was facing into the wind along with its brothers/sisters. It hasn't turned in a week or more. Too dangerous to mend in this season's continuous windy conditions?

A late morning, shopping trip in the car. A large beech tree was lying in a neat stack of limbs beside the road in a village I passed through. The only victim of the storm that I have seen so far. A roofer was working on the damaged and missing tiles on a vast, roadside barn. Cherry pickers are a revolution in accessibility and safety for such work. Scaffolding the job would have cost a fortune and wasted a lot of time. Both erecting it and dismantling it all afterwards. While the cherry picker could easily move along the length of the roof as required. As well as bringing the worker close enough to work without risk.

___________________________

Thought for the day: [Evil] dictators of a feather, flock together.

~~

30.01.2021 Storm Malik recedes.

 ~~

 Sunday 30th 40F, gales continuing. The garden trees are still rocking at 08.00. Though it looks like becoming a sunny day. The wind can be heard roaring outside at intervals. As I sit at my dormer window "office" waiting to go for my walk. I didn't notice the wind overnight and slept soundly for a change. 

 Flooding is expected around the northern Danish coasts. Reaching 1.5m / 5' above normal levels in places. The police are receiving reports of lots of fallen trees across the roads. Though I can see no damage from indoors. Yesterday it was so dark at this time I considered taking a torch. Today it is normal daylight. 

 The wind was still strong and remarkable steady. With the roads littered with small branches, twigs and berries. A few crash test dummies tried their luck at the national speed record. Throwing twigs up at me with utter disdain. No obvious sign of damage anywhere on my route. 

On one exposed stretch. i.e. Hedges cleared. With the wind over my shoulder. I was physically forced into a trot. By the sheer power of the wind. I wish I'd taken an anemometer. The wind turbines had been turned into the wind and the brakes applied. A few birds fought their way across the sky. Or gave up and changed direction. While the gulls seemed to enjoy it. As they swooped and soared. The sun looked sickly.

Spent the day outside working on a project. It was quite pleasant as the wind slowly died down. Becoming cooler now. As it sneaks towards an overnight frost.

~~

29.01.2022 The storm Malik.

 ~~

Saturday 29th 43F. Pitch black and misty at 07.30. With fine rain on the windows. I am hoping for an early walk if it gets light enough to find the gate. That was at 8.10. The wind was roaring in the roadside trees but the rain had stopped. Half an hour was enough. I ought to go shopping in the car as soon as possible.

The storm is still expected to start around lunch time. With similar numbers to yesterday's forecast. 29m/s is around 65mph gusts. Potentially damaging and lasting overnight until lunch time tomorrow. With the risk of flying debris and fallen trees and branches. 

I tidied up but have no control over the towering trees on the west and northern boundaries. Once a tree exceeds a certain size it is unreachable and/or completely unmanageable by amateur tree surgeons. Many trees are not even on our property. They certainly offer some shelter but are on marshy ground. With occasional falls of the spindly larches. A large, white willow fell in half only a few years ago. None of the trees should be able to reach the house. 

Denmark's TV2 <cough> "weather" website is still using storm headline, click bait to advertise its crap programmes. Kardashians over public safety? Is that legal? Or just sickeningly immoral?  

15.30 and the wind is highly variable with some rain. It is supposed to remain westerly until 17.00. Before turning North Westerly and increasing slightly. Highest gusts at 29m/s are forecast for the early hours. We hear only occasional deep roars from indoors. There is only a couple of m/s difference later, compared with now. Though the power increases as the cube of velocity. 

The Great Storm of  3rd December 1999 reached the mid 30s m/s locally and did billions worth of damage. Putting electricity out for five days in mid winter. Along with the loss of our water supply when the deep borehole, supply pumps were denied power. A corner of our NW roof blew off after banging loudly all night. No light to see what was happening and no window to provide an overview anyway. A neighbour's double garage, corrugated metal roof was rolled into a tube across the profiles. Then lifted hundreds of yards over the intervening houses and trees. Before landing like an unnexploded bomb in a field. 

A local farm had its buildings literally ripped apart. Including the house which bridged the two barns. Local conifer woods were snapped off half way up the trunks over large areas. Only a single petrol pump was working in the village. Leading to huge queues of selfish fools. One old man was filling his tank to the brim [very slowly] and then filling several plastic dunks on the ground. It was pitiful to watch from a queue hundreds of yards long! I drove away.

Every roof mounted, TV aerial was leaning haphazardly and countless roofs had lost tiles. Leading to a boom in black tiled roofs over the next year or two. Finding originals as replacements must have been extraordinarily difficult. Ironically, most of the damaged TV aerials were massively oversized for German TV reception. 

As was ours. High on a telegraph pole we inherited from the previous house owner. The pole was blown down across the drive. So it had to be moved before I could even get out in the car. The base of the pole had been standing right on top of the plastic, mains water, supply pipe! So I had to find a special coupling in a builder's merchant to mend it. Before the water came back on. I had no idea who was responsible for such things. Not back then. We had only been in Denmark for a couple of years with very limited language skills.

The local supermarkets were stripped bare on the very first morning. I watched as a couple in a Mercedes estate bought every single bottle of water and ferried it out to their car. Leaving none for anybody else.  Water had become asses' milk before my eyes. The supermarkets were dark and had no power for their tills and card readers. It was cash only. If you had it.

Outside our immediate area things were eerily normal. I risked a drive on an empty tank to a more distant village. Where I bought petrol, gas canisters and candles. Plus bottled water for making hot drinks and cooking. We used collected rainwater and well water for the toilet. Keeping warm at night was quite a problem. No power for the water pump to circulate the hot water from the wood stove. Which meant it could not be lit once the DHW tank was hot. Mains pressure system meant not a drop of water could be drawn once the water went off. No washing and no washing up!

If the power goes off this time, as has been warned, there would no TV, no streaming, no radio, no computers, no internet and probably, no phones. Who has a battery radio these days? Do phone masts have emergency power? Total isolation from vital information. The thin veneer of civilization wore right through in only one night in '99. I doubt it would be any different if it happens again.

~~

28.01.2022 Morrison claims his coal suppositories are good for Oz.

 ~~

Friday 28th 35F. The sky is clear with a bright crescent moon low in the south. Wind dying down before another blast tomorrow. The storm Malik is going to cross Denmark tomorrow and continue overnight into Sunday. Gusts could reach 60mph from the W-NW. 

Today' walk lasted well over an hour. Climbing up to the woods by the steep track in bright sunshine. As I reached the plateau in front of the forest I discovered countless hundreds of foraging Redwings. They milled about but seemed reluctant to leave. So I walked very slowly until I could enter the forest edge and leave them in peace. 

Where I promptly disturbed a hare. Which dashed off. I returned by the equally steep edges of the fields. While busily snapping away at the landscape from fresh perspectives. A pair of birds of prey were squabbling out on the field below me. Or whatever it is they do when they are having a scrap. Too distant for decent images. My boots were well caked in sticky mud by the end.

 ____________________________________________

  Australia's temporary prime minister intends to cover The Great Barrier Reef with coal. So, he claims, nobody can complain about it any more. Climate change denialist, "Sleazeball" Morrison, claims it is the only way to amply reward his mining suppository manufacturers. "If we hide the coal out of sight then we can't be accused of increasing global CO2." It seems, despite everything, he's still talking out of his arse.

Australian mining companies have paid little or no corporate income tax in PNG despite huge profits | Papua New Guinea | The Guardian

 The UK government is sinking ever deeper into corruption. Under the leadership of the Commons Circus Evil Clown Official Party Entertainer. They have no replacement if they do try to get rid of him. So are in absolutely desperate straits. Busy drowning their sorrows, at taxpayer's expense, in yet another Party-party. The electorate is of the opinion that the parties never seem to stop. It's always one clown after another. Only the colour of their greasy, old boy's, school ties changes periodically.

Denmark's brain dead, TV2  advertising priority management places its adverts well above a serious, national, storm warning. They quite obviously don't value their readers health or safety. A click bait storm warning headline link read: "See where the worst winds are:" 

Promptly interrupted by a leisurely advert for a leisurely outing at a stately home. Before the weather person in front of the map could even speak! Let us hope the TV2's advertising priority management don't read their own storm warnings. Then take a leisurely trip to the stately home. Preferably via a ferry.

Meanwhile, the DMI, the official weather forecasting service, has no wind gust speeds! They were showing earlier but have now vanished. Perhaps they don't want to frighten anybody? 

The gust numbers are now back and it looks bad. Peaking at 29m/s or well over 65mph now and affecting areas much further south than before. I have tidied away anything which might catch the wind.

~~

 

27.01.2022 Gales and lighter splodges.

 ~

Thursday 27th overcast at times but a ragged sky at others. Even brief glimpses of the sun. Gales. 

I had my hood up again. Just to ensure my cap stayed firmly in place. A jackdaw went over. Being battered repeatedly into a complete standstill by the wind. A passing lorry felt as if it hit me with a giant, rather firm cushion.

12.00. The gales aren't too bad so far. The sun keeps brightening the landscape, albeit very briefly. Even that is better than tedious grey.

~

26.01.2022 Geoff Booker of Trykit on YouTube.

 ~

Wednesday 26th overcast. Wind expected. Possibly stormy tomorrow. Another grey walk.

The afternoon ended [16.50] with red [overcast] clouds to the north and east. They were being lit by a scruffy sunset peering through dark clouds.

I have just discovered that Geoff Booker of Trykit has his own channel on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChYkRlEhUecfYp02yE909MA

How to make a hand built, touring or racing trike in every detail.

Apart from his engineering skills Geoff is remarkably quick on his racing trike!

 

~

 

25.02.2022 Denmark, New Zealand and Finland judged least corrupt.

 ~

 Tuesday 25th 41F, horribly dark and overcast. A damp, grey walk to the lanes. Light drizzle to start but it grew bored and moved on. A few small birds in the hedges. Massive tire spray off the juggernauts clearly visible. 20ft high x 20 feet wide. 

  It now seems the lying, Commons Circus Clown celebrated his 3rd birthday with yet another party during the virus lock down. When will the police charge him and his cohorts for illegal assembly? Never. He considers himself above the law. Like all tinpot party dictators. It is now reported that the police are officially investigating possible law breaking by the UK lawmakers.

 Talking of corruption: Denmark has been voted 1st equal for least perception of corruption by Transparency International. New Zealand and Finland share the honours with Denmark. The UK ranks 11th. DSA 27th. Pootinland 136th. This is not a direct measure of corruption but how the population of 180 nations judge their own country.

2021 Corruptions Perceptions Index - Explore the… - Transparency.org

 

~

24.01.2022 Another grey day.

 ~~

Monday 24th 41F, overcast. Another milder, grey day. Hardly any wind as I plodded to the village and back. Nothing of interest to report.  Did I mention it was grey? No photos.

~~

23.01.2022 A bit of a ride.

 ~~

Sunday 23rd 42F, very heavy overcast. 8.00 and the sky is already visible. Albeit dark grey. The days must be getting longer. There has been so little sunshine for what seems like months. No more frosts forecast until the end of next week. 

A grey, cool walk in the opposite direction to my normal habit of heading for the lanes. A colder breeze on the way back. A large, grey heron flew over and veered away. 

The picture is of an overgrown, roadside, drainage pond. There are sometimes, small birds in the hedge beyond in summer. Though I have never seen water birds here. Probably due to a lack of clear water. The mace reeds/bulrushes] soon dominate where there is no maintenance.

Late morning ride to the shops. I was trying to keep my cadence above 90rpm but mostly struggled to remain in the upper 80s. Only 7 miles. A slight headwind on the return leg. A couple of MTB riders out training.

~~

22.01.2022 Thick mist!

 ~~

Saturday 22nd 36F, thick mist, cold and heavily overcast but calm. Total invisibility was at 200 yards or less. Including normal, rear running lights. Only a single car, amongst the many who passed me, had a rear fog lamp lit. Familiar trees a hedges became more visible on the return leg. Perhaps 250 yards. Drizzle at the mid-way point.

~~

21.01.2022 Swan alert!

 ~~

 Friday 21st 23-39F, -5+4C, still dark at 8.40. More sunshine promised. Yesterday's sun was veiled by cloud. The same happened again today. Beautiful golden light for my walk. Then cloud. Whooper swans flew over in tight formation.

 I gave myself another workout by walking on the frozen verge or edges of the fields. There is a slight improvement in my aching knees.

 The dealer told me that the Scarpa factory in Italy has been hit by Covid. So I shall have to be patient if I want to see replacement boots under guarantee. 

 There is a new variant of Covid called B.A2. The experts are saying that having had Omicron may not give protection. There may be yet another wave. Denmark is seeing record numbers of positive Covid tests. Falling numbers of hospitalizations. Too soon to say how lethal B.A2 might prove.

Light rain at 15.00.

~~

20.01.2022 A bit chilly.

 ~~

 Thursday 20th 32F, the sky is clear but it is still very, very dark. And very windy. Sunshine promised. Possible wintry showers. My knees hurt. Too much ladder work on an outdoor project. I badly need a ride! 

As it was bright sunshine I decided to exercise my knees with a walk up to the woods. Rock hard ground, rough tracks and tufted grass should do the trick. 

One Merganser duck on the marsh pond. Two birds of prey having a scrap on the edge of the forest. Flocks of Redwings followed by gulls settling briefly. It's all happening in today's, icy cold wind.

________________________________

 

~~

19.01.2022 Windy and damp.

 ~~

Wednesday 19th 38F, very heavy overcast with a wet and windy forecast. I have a green lacewing wandering about on my screen.

The large, brown bird of prey was dancing away across the fields again. Unpleasantly windy. Light drizzle.

~~

18.01.2022 Scarpa's Gore-Tex garbage bags are crap!

 ~~

Tuesday 18th 41F, overcast. Sunny periods promised for this afternoon. My usual walk to the lanes. I am still wearing my Kamik snow boots. Which are not ideal for walking any distance. 

I am still waiting on Scarpa to confirm my Revolution boots are leaking like a sieve. Five weeks and counting since they were returned to the dealer. Who forwarded them to Scarpa in Italy. Just to see if the Gore-Tex, garbage bag liners have punctured. Guess what? They have! You don't need a fancy machine and months of working through a huge backlog of testing to feel they are wet in the toes!

Few Gore-Tex garbage bag lined, walking boots seem able to survive for more than a year. My previous Salomon and Ekko boots both punctured. Both claimed Gore-Tex garbage bag liners. It's not as if my gentle morning walks stresses them. I could feel the cold and wet just crossing the lawn! I wear walking boots to protect my ankles when I have to dive onto the rough verge when a crash test dummy doesn't alter course.

At the obscene retail price of these boots it is more like paying in advance to hire them for a year. Then having to start all over again. Dealer's responsibility for faulty goods? Garbage! National or EU Consumer protection? Garbage! 

 

~~

17.01.2022 Weaponized energy poverty.

 ~~

Monday 17th 38F, gales from the NW, bright but rather cloudy. 

The few birds, gulls and crows, were struggling against the wind. Using violent manoeuvrers to make any headway.

Shopping for stove fuel briquettes. Prices have risen after European gas and electric consumers were attacked by Tsar Putin the Awful. They all turned down their central heating and started buying up fuel for their stoves.

It's called: "Weaponized energy poverty."

~~

16.01.2022 The Teflon Clown v OAPs non-payment of BBC license fee.

 ~~

 Sunday 16th 38F, Showers with gales later is the forecast. I'll let you know when it is light enough to see anything.

 8.40. There is drizzle on the south facing windows. Still almost dark with a very heavy overcast. Already windy.

  15.00 43F It brightened up! Bits of blue sky in between the clouds. Soon became overcast again with drizzle.

 The Teflon Clown's crimes have to be weighed against poverty stricken OAPs unable to pay the BBC license fee. Loads of money BBC with their millionaire sports commentators.

 Partying during a pandemic lock down could easily have led to increased deaths. Or taken up vital beds and respirators in an ICU.  

 One rule for The Teflon Clown. Another for the rest [of us?]

~~

15.01.2022 Of Cats and Teflon Clowns.

 ~~

Saturday 15th 29F, a white frost and bright sunshine with variable thin cloud. 

The gulls were back in numbers today. Fluttering brightly and restlessly over the low crops. A [second] Saturday walker on the lanes. Meanwhile, a cat was holding down a farm trailer. While being stalked by its fellow freeloader. The sky was desecrated decorated by multiple vapour trails.

_______________________________

 Will the Teflon Clown jump? Or will he have to be pushed by the rest of the elephants in the room? Promotion to the bar at The Lords? For His Service to Queen, Crown [Hic] and  Country? Hic! What do you call a <cough> leader who just won't go? A deluded Chump.

~~

14.01.2022 Just another sunny day in paradise.

 ~~

Friday 14th 45F, mild, breezy and heavily overcast. Waiting for my 9.00 window. When it gets light enough to find the gate.

A strange combination of drizzle and fuzzy blue patches above me. The forecast is all day sunshine. No chance!  A chevron of geese went over. Traffic unusually heavy today.

It turned sunny and stayed that way all day. So much for my remote, seaweed guesswork.

~~

13.01.2021 Just another grey day at the office.

 ~~

Thursday 13th 43F, breezy, overcast but milder. Despite my hood, the wind made my eyes water on the exposed sections of my walk. Though it was not particularly cold. A flock of at least 200 Redwings were foraging, nervously, out on the fields. Otherwise there were far fewer birds to be seen today.

A dark, dry and overcast day with unchanging temperature. I was sheltered from any wind while working in the garden.

~~

12.01.2022 Thick mist.

 ~~

Wednesday 12th 37F, a light breeze with thick mist. 

Of all the vehicles which passed me, in 40 minutes of walking, only one car and one van had their rear fog lamps lit. Visibility was around 100 meters. With complete invisibility at 150m. Even trees diagonally across the road were monochrome grey and softened. It was so wet that the overhead trees were dripping on me.

~~

11.01.2022 Clown's Lifetime Achievement Award guarantees a nighthood. [Hic!]

 ~~

Tuesday 11th 36F, breezy with a heavy overcast. 08.30. Still waiting for it to get light. I can see the trees moving in the wind against a leaden sky.

The wind was quite cold but not too unpleasant with my hood up. A couple of birds of prey flew over. Traffic quite light.

____________________________________

 Today's positive lunacy: The Clown in Residence, of the UK Commoner's [Who Gives a Flying Fuck?] Circus has announced that putting crowns on beer glasses was his lifetime achievement. 

 The entire country is still waiting. [With beery breath] To hear if The Clown will be fined for holding huge, drunken parties against strict, lock-down rules. At his plush, Louis 14th inspired, Down Your Street, palace pad. Meanwhile, Carrie Antoinette, The Clown puppet's mouthpiece, maintained a rare and deafening silence on the subject. Probably wallowing in the solid gold bath denied to Chump.

 It is further reported that The Fake Hill, at Marble Arch in London, is to be replaced by a unique, Giza Pyramid. The Great Pyramid of Cheops was already slated for demolition. To make way for more, tourist, car parking and camel ride vendors. The pyramid was going cheap as a very secondhand pile of rubble. [Buyer takes it away!] Described as having a very poor, original patina. After countless tourists had bought souvenir cladding stonework [chopping boards and place mat sets.] And/or covered it in urine graffiti over the millennia. 

 Talking of public transport: The vast fleet of bulldozers. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of tipper trucks. All ploughing through the center of Copenhagen to build an artificial, island resort. Will run on recycled [i.e.Used] lager. 

 This is the first <cough> concrete idea to fight the heating climate by the Danish Government. [Elected twenty year ago on climate promises.] The island resort will maximize sunbathing spaces. Until the developers buy up every square inch with laundered, offshore funds. To build upmarket skyscrapers for Denmark's super rich.

 On a similarly, warm note: The last seven years were the warmest ever recorded. The Siberians were dead chuffed. That is, until the methane, in the permafrost, started exploding under Putin's private motorways to The Gulags. 

~~

10.01.2022 It's all a pretence!

 ~~

Monday 10th 35F, damp, slightly misty and overcast. 08.30 and it is only beginning to get light. I gave it another hour before I rumbled off in my big, winter boots. A large, brown bird of prey was dashing about on a large field. Later I saw two red kites in the air. The crows and jackdaws were being a bit of a nuisance. Times are hard in the bird world.

________________________________

I have read the various online news websites and can't find anything I really want to to moan about today. I ought to have a new year's resolution: To pretend to be more positive in the face of overwhelming odds:

Jinping Plague, Climate, The 1%, Obscene Inequality, Trump, Racism, Slavery, Royalty, Corruption, The Internet, Social Media, Energy Poverty, Pollution, AI, Terrorism, Injustice, Plastic Waste & Dictatorship...! The list goes on and on!

Or, there's the pandemic, climate, the 1 %, inequality, corruption, the internet and social media, chump, racism, energy poverty, pollution, AI, terrorism, slavery, royalty, waste, injustice and dictatorship. Almost none of them affect me directly.  Nothing in my quiet, rural existence suggests such realities even exist. Except for a few masks discarded onto the verges. Even that isn't a direct link to the world's hospitals full of dying people. Desperately clinging on via their respirators.

Nothing much has changed in my lifetime. Except the names in the headlines. Would I notice anything different if I stopped reading the news so avidly? Would anything really change if I rearranged the list? How could I possibly prioritize? Is my daily browsing of the bad news on several websites being deliberately directed towards such stories by invisible algorithms? Does my "bad news blogging" bias my search results?

Do I thrive on misery and anger? Does my consternation at the endless idiocy of mankind provide a much needed adrenaline boost? Or is it just habit to be constantly angry about the headlines? The decades of anxiety over impending, nuclear war never affected anything in "real life." Did I develop a dependence on such stories just to feel alive? 

Is it the same for everybody else? Would I be happier as a rabid, Conspiracy Theorist with a shrunken brain? Or a spectator sports fan, without any brains at all. Denied a "vital" win by evil, external forces? Is modern life so utterly boring and simultaneously stressful that we all need our bad news fixes? 

Does the media Matrix require we are constantly aroused? Will we fail to buy our daily dose of saturated tat and fat in the absence of another worry to be commercially assuaged? Are we buying to forget? 

Will the politicooze loose all rhyme and reason without their artificial news leaks and carefully timed, sordid reveals? Are they really necessary? What do they actually do anything for mankind? "They" say The 1% own and rule the world. The 1% don't pay taxes. So all income tax in the world is [by default] the direct redistribution of wealth upwards to the 1%. The annual statistics of their wealth accretion "prove it."

It is widely reported that much of the human race has stopped breeding. Or have even stopped having sex. So there aren't enough younger, wage slaves to pay the pensions for all the retired wage slaves. Robots don't pay income tax. "They" say the robots are taking over... Is the plague an AI plot by the 1% designed to thin out "the weeds?" You do the math! 😉

~~

9.01.2022 Lufthansa's bullshit, climate insanity.

 ~~

Sunday 9th 33F, overcast with snow lying. I delayed my walk until the rain eased off. Only to have it continue as I walked. It started as fine drizzle but became steadily less wet. More like fine snow towards the end. The roads did not seem to have been treated. There were long white tracks in the middle of each lane. Slush along the edges and across the roads and particularly the minor lanes. 

I retreated to the furthest reaches of the verge each time. To avoid passing cars from spraying me. Thankfully all of them stayed on line and I avoided the slush and snow from their tires. My winter jacket was beading nicely thanks to the Storm wash and proofing.

 __________________________________________

Today's raving, climate insanity: Those of a nervous disposition should look away, now!
Lufthansa has to make 18,000 flights with empty or half empty planes, over the winter.
Why? Just to maintain its take-off and landing slots at European airports. Bullshit!
EU climate policies?  Connerie!
Germany's climate policies?  Quatsch!
Air travel industry climate policies! Bullshit!  

Will Lufthansa be bailed out by the EU taxpayer to cover the vast cost of this raving insanity?

 Danish DR News Link in Danish:
Thousands of empty planes forced to take to the air to protect access to air routes.

https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/seneste/tusindvis-af-tomme-fly-tvinges-paa-vingerne-bevare-adgang-til-flyruter

~~

8.01.2022 Early rain. Late walkers.

 ~~

Saturday 8th 36F, breezy, overcast and very dark. With early rain promised. Then sunshine or grey skies. 09.00. Walked delayed by continuing rain.

It remained cloudy but dry for my later walk. A couple of Saturday dog walkers. I would not normally see anybody on foot. A distant bird of prey tried slope soaring but ran out of lift in the weak breeze. The usual gulls drifting about over "the prairie." Sunshine arrived, briefly at 11.00. Quite a lot of blue sky overhead but messy around the edges. With the sun so low in the sky it doesn't take much cloud to spoil the fun.

Heavy, grocery, shopping trip in the car. It is still performing well and starting instantly. I had to use the flaps to keep the sun out of my eyes.

 

~~

7.01.2022 Remaining in exile.

 ~~

Friday 7th 35F, cool and cloudy with early rain. The rain dragged on long enough to push my walk to late morning. I toddled off, wrapped up to the eyebrows, to cope with the unpleasant wind. Only to find it wasn't as bad as I feared once I had warmed up and could enjoy the shelter of the bare hedges. I'm sure that flock of Chaffinches was laughing at me. The first time I passed only my eyes were visible. Returning with the wind behind me, my jacket wide open and my two hats and a hood fully retracted. Perhaps they thought I was a Transformer?

My Danish permanent residence permit has been renewed following the Broxit nonsense. I wish somebody would make Nigel Fromage stateless!

~~

6.01.2022 Post jab thoughts.

 ~~

Thursday 6th 26F [-3C] Clear sky and wall to wall sunshine is promised. The sky has remained clear so far 10.00am A chilly walk but brighter than it has been for ages. Not much to report. Yet another dead cat on the road. Which has probably saved many birds.

My shoulder is aching slightly this morning after yesterday's, 3rd, Jinping Plague jab. I was very surprised by the "receptionist" not wearing his mask properly. For most of the time it hung uselessly onto his shoulder from the loop over one ear. 

This was while he was greeting and registering numerous arrivals on the computer. Including children standing close to his desk. With perhaps 30 people present altogether in the large room. 

The several children waiting to be jabbed wore no masks. The earlier Delta variant seemed not to affect children. While the far more contagious, Omicron mutation, is supposedly affecting a much wider age range. Albeit with milder symptoms according to the media.

There was a quarter of an hour delay for vaccination over the registered appointment times. This was apparently because they were using up vaccines close to their "sell-by" date. Or perhaps they were struggling to maintain the low temperatures required for storage? The person in whites carrying out the jabs was walking back and forth to collect more syringes between customers. 

All very odd compared to my earlier experiences. With many more staff at the same site and a similar mid-afternoon "jab clinic." I am certainly not complaining. Far from it. Merely noting at the changes which have occurred over the last few months. Perhaps the threat of infection is not seen as so urgent any more?

 

BTW:For those of a nervous disposition: The car is behaving well with its new battery, rotor and plugs. Instant starting so far. With none of the former hesitation when I tried to accelerate. It feels very strange not to have to disconnect the battery clamp after ten years of having to do so.

I am still not sure what else is isolated by that fuse removal. Apart from the clock, cigar lighter and radio. EDIT: Only items I don't have on my model: Powered RV mirrors and air conditioning.] I can live without the clock. Having had to reset it to the right time, before every journey, for the last, ten years! 

There are lots of colourful wires inside the bodywork near the fuse holder. Whoever decided to fit a fuse box in so inaccessible a position should have been sacked. It is extremely uncomfortable and awkward to access this area while grovelling on the wet and muddy ground. Fortunately the foot pedals provided a handy rest for my LED torch. I used long, bent-nosed pliers to remove and replace the fuses in turn. Because the plastic fuse tongs didn't work very well in such a confined space.

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5.01.2022 Good news on EU's "Green Gas" labelling:

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Wednesday 5th 36F, very, very dark. 

A strange, almost threatening sky once it became light. Dark grey smudges and bright orange. The edges of the clouds ripped to shreds by the wind. It did not feel as cold as it might. Though I kept my gloves on between taking snaps of the sky.  Just a few wandering gulls today. 

My third "booster" jab is due this afternoon.

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Good news on the EU officials calling natural [Russian] gas "green." The guilty will not be prosecuted for corruption. [Despite being suspected of receiving huge Russian backhanders.] 

Prosecutors at the [Ineffective] International Criminal Court [It's Not Cricket!] have accepted a plea deal. The guilty officials will now spend a lifetime in a 5-star, top security, mental hospital for the criminally insane. [Without chance of parole.] 

This is considered a "safe" result for the ICC. Which usually tries only non-commissioned officers and "the lower ranks" for crimes against humanity. Often dragging out trials and investigations for decades at obscene expense.

There was much talk about converting natural gas into the [supposedly] "clean fuel" for the Hydrogen Economy. Completely missing the point that MUCH LESS CO2 would be produced if they simply burnt the [natural] gas as usual. Not to mention massive efficiency losses in conversion and building all the necessary hardware.

Another, so-called "Green-washing" ploy much abused by the dirty carbon producers. All desperate to continue making their world-destroying, taxpayer-subsidized, tax-free profits at the expense of humanity. Their tax-deductible, "funding" of bought politicians and their parties ensures nothing is being done about climate change.

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4.01.2022 The trials and tribulations of a rural existence.

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Tuesday 4th 38F, heavy overcast with rain forecast. It drizzled lightly during my walk. Few birds visible this morning. Jackdaws paddled in field puddles or chased each other away from the verges. 

The old car battery held its charge overnight thanks to the radio fuse being removed. First time ever in 10 years of ownership. It started instantly. The new battery order was cancelled by the online vendor. Our agreement to have it sent by parcel post meant that the battery could not be kept upright. 

I have re-ordered. With delivery via the national freight carrier service. Which means a vast, 40 foot, 6-axle, articulated, container lorry. Waiting on a dangerous, blind corner on a busy, rural, main road. Until I can jog along the 200 meters to the distant kerb pushing a wheelbarrow or sack truck. At the far end of the heavily puddled drive. Having received an SMS or phone call from the driver. Whose only means of unloading any item is a flat, pallet truck and tail lift.

Exactly the same thing happened last time. When I had ordered some heavy, concrete blocks. The driver could only get the pallet half way off the road. Even with a run up in heavy traffic! I had to put out a warning triangle on the inside of the blind bend. While I manually lifted the blocks into my car trailer. Which was sitting out of sight in the entrance to the drive. Of course, several of my neighbours wanted to come into the shared drive in their cars. While I was still struggling to load the heavy blocks. 

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3.01.2022 Boring, old car stuff.

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Monday 3rd 44F, mild, overcast and wet. No walk because of the rain.

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Yesterday was the first time in my life I had to call out a car rescue service. My 1990s car would not start when I came out of the supermarket. So I walked the 5km/3 miles home in the rain with a heavy bag in each hand. Which was very silly. I should have been selective and left most of it in the car. It took me exactly an hour to reach home. Where I changed out of my wet clothes in time to cycle back to meet the rescue mechanic. There had been no staff to answer my earlier rescue call from the car.

I had already checked the spark plugs and ordered a new set online. Then had to wait over the weekend to replace them [hopefully] today. The mobile mechanic suggested the alternator was fine but I should buy a new battery. The car started instantly on his compact booster. Hopefully the new plugs and rotor will solve the problem of the engine failing to respond when I try to accelerate. Though I have my doubts.

I rarely drive these days but still need the car for heavy shopping and fetching fuel briquettes for the stove. Then there are the distant appointments for Covid vaccinations and Brexit. I am not fit enough to cycle the 2x25 miles to the city and back any more. Though twenty miles is still manageable.

Swapped the spark plugs and rotor in the rain after early postal delivery. The old rotor was looking very rough. Recharged the battery once the engine started.

I finally did a proper, parasitic drain test by individual fuse removal in series. Found the missing radio was still drawing current. Somebody had obviously screwed up the wiring or caused a short. I had removed the harness and radio just after purchase. In a failed attempt to cure the overnight, flat battery problem. The secondhand car dealer was unsympathetic but bought me a new battery to get rid of me. 

Fuse now permanently removed from driver's side, foot well block. Awkward and very hard to reach! Hopefully the end of flat batteries after 10 years of problems. A short drive test proved the engine pulled normally even in 5th gear. It had been hesitating or even stalling under [attempted] acceleration. 

A new battery has been ordered online just to be sure. The original measured the correct voltage but must have had reduced capacity for starting. I shall have to check at intervals to see if the battery is still being drained. The current drain dropped from 0.194A to 0.025A with removal of the radio fuse. The dashboard clock is probably the remaining drain when everything else is switched off. Or not, the clock has stopped working. It must have been on the same fuse circuit.

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2.01.2022 EU's raving loony, climate corruption.

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Sunday 2nd 47F, overcast, misty, windy and raining.

Warmest New Year's Eve and Day ever recorded in Denmark. 11.4C/52F.

It was mild but wet for my walk. Two hours late, leaving into modest traffic. The first car swung wide to clip the verge by my feet and then cut the blind, following corner. Just another drunken, crash test dummy. The radar had shown a gap in the rain. It mostly drizzled with a short, heavier burst. Nothing much to report today. A few small birds in the hedges. The mist hid everything else.

Today's raving lunacy, climate news: Corrupt, raving lunatics at the "EU" have stamped natural gas as "green." Dugh? Seriously? Are they still getting backhanders from Putin following their approval of his "weaponized" gas pipelines? The "EU" has also approved nuclear power stations as "green." Just as Germany is closing three of its six remaining power stations. Completely wacko! Labeling gas and nuclear as green destroys all credibility of EU climate policies and supposed ambitions. It also trashes all green labeling as a corrupt ploy just to move product.

Meanwhile, Denmark is to unveil new plans to reduce its CO2 burden on the world. Coalition partners have been pressing the government to be far more ambitious. It is reported that electric cars sales were about a half of dirty ICE vehicles in December. Hybrids slightly outnumbered BEVs.

The corrupt, German ICE manufacturers are playing their dirty tricks again. They are stalling Tesla's German gigafactory opening. The legacy ICE factories have no competing BEVs to sell. So they are making sure nobody can have a Tesla. 

The German VW group [the well known and heavily fined corrupters of vehicle emissions testing software and no doubt corruption of mileage per charge results] had 25% of the Danish BEV market in September. 

Increasing numbers of Teslas are seen in Denmark but they remain a luxury vehicles at their high, retail prices. I did a search but cannot find new vehicle Tesla prices for 2022. An ex-demo [50km] Model 3, RWD is selling for 430,00DKK. About £49,000GB or $66,000US.

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1st January 2022 No change here.

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Saturday 1st January 46F, very, very dark and mild with a leaden overcast. All day mist promised. 

The traffic was very quiet this morning. Two cars and one petrol tanker in 40 minutes of walking. Several lines of geese went over. In opposite directions. A flock of small birds too. Soon lost to the overhead gloom. Spent fireworks littered the verges. 

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How many billions of man hours are wasted annually by having to OPT OUT of online cookies?
Why? Because nobody sane would ever knowingly choose to opt in. To having the Tax-free classes spy on their online behaviour.

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