Sunday, September 13, 2015

What’s Happening At Home: a round-up of the oddities of UK news


I confess that I have not been spending much time at my keyboard over the last week or so. Not through any lack of desire of my part, but because I’ve been on too many drugs.

No, not the illegal type – the kind you have to be prescribed by the nice medical gentlemen at the local doctor’s surgery.

I’ve got a bad back.



Bad backs are traditionally the butt of many jokes. Apparently one in three people in the UK will suffer back pain this year, and it’s been one of the main excuses for those who wish to have time off work.

Trust me, I’d far rather be working.

But, I’ve been dutifully following the advice of my physio regarding posture, heat and exercise, and as my office typing chair is the most comfortable one to sit in, I hope to be spending more time in it. With suitable frequent breaks for moving around and loosening up again.

So, this week I thought I’d look at the oddities that have hit the news in the UK over the last few days.

The first of these was that on September 9th the Queen became this country’s longest serving monarch, just surpassing the record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years 216 days.

The shortest reigning UK monarch was Queen Jane, who proclaimed queen shortly after the death of Edward VI in 1553, and ousted by Mary I just nine days later, and subsequently executed.



No doubt the Royal Mint will bring out celebratory coinage to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s landmark occasion, but for the moment they won’t be as valuable as a fifty pence coin brought out to celebrate the London Olympics in 2012.



As you can see from the two coins pictured here, the design on the left was changed shortly after its introduction to make the swimmer’s face more clear. Sufficiently low numbers of the original were produced to make them change hands for up to £850.
In politics, Jeremy Corbyn has just been elected leader of the Labour party after clocking up 251,417 votes – 59.5% of the vote. His nearest rival received just 19%. After the last few years of plastic politicians in Westminster, it’s refreshing to find an apparently honourable man with genuine left-wing beliefs holding the most powerful position in the party that always used to represent the more left-wing view. I wish him the best of luck.



A couple from Indiana have relocated to the UK because they claim to have fallen in love with an English pub – The Plough Inn in Shustoke, near Coventry. Matthew and Delores Lawrence decided it was everything an English pub should be, so they upped and made it their local. Matthew has transferred to a UK branch of his loss adjuster firm, while their son, Achilles, has applied to Coventry University.



OK, time for me to lie down with more drugs. What’s the news from where you are?

This week’s Word of the Week is hamartia, meaning the character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall. It comes from the Greek hamartánein, meaning ‘to miss the mark’ or ‘to err’, and was first used by Aristotle. 

13 comments:

  1. Zoe, could the back be helped by hot baths? I feel your pain every now and again!

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    1. I'm a great believer in the restorative powers of a hot water bottle, Sujata!

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  2. At least the pain's not further down, which is what Jeff usually experiences every time I reply to one of his posts... But then, perhaps those posts are my hamartia? I'm sooooooo confused.

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    1. You mean Jeff gets a pain in the leg, EvKa ...?

      You think *you're* confused ...

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  3. Zoe, the acupuncturist made my pain go away without drugs. I follow his dictum to get up and walk around for fifteen minutes out of every hour. I have heard that 80% of US adults over the age of 40 have lower back pain. I understand that this is the price we pay for having learned to walk upright. Jeff, I understand, still walks on all fours, so he had not trouble with this problem.

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    1. LOL, Annamaria, my physio has advised the same thing, and I'm due to have acupuncture next week. Plus I've been using a TENS machine, which zaps you with a tiny electrical current and it seems to be doing the trick.

      My problems, I think, stem from the time when, shortly after learning to walk upright, I foolishly let very large horses jump up and down on me. They're not fussy about where they put their feet.

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    2. I was talking to a US friend today who giggled when I mentioned I was using a TENS machine. Turns out they're quite popular in BDSM circles ....

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  4. Here I am in Glasgow minding my own business while my supposed friends besmirch my name (no, EvKa a besmirch isn't a little blue puffy toy with a stinger coming out its place where you give me pain). I'd like you to know I've been haunted by back pain for nearly 40 years and the only think that works are keeping up with daily exercises, a master shiatsu fellow, being careful how you move, and not trying to do things just to prove that you still can....well not everything, there are some risks worth taking. Now to stand.

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    1. I feel your pain, Jeff. Glasgow, huh? (Only kidding.)

      Yup, when standing up is a four-stage operation that requires planning and logistical support, you know things aren't quite right.

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    2. We shall talk in Raleigh. I met Allan Guthrie at Bloody Scotland and we decided to pray for your speedy recovery out of selfish self-preservation instincts warning us to have you all happy when you're within striking distance of out vitals.

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    3. That's very sweet of you both, Jeff. And I shall be merciful :)

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    4. Yeah, thanks, but out of an abundance of caution I think I'll ask Allan to sit between us. :)

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  5. Congratulations about Jeremy Corbyn. A friend knows him and says he's a very good guy. But he's already facing criticism; it won't be an easy term.

    I sympathize about your back. I'm thrown mine out of whack a few times by bending down the wrong way -- and I learned my lesson about squatting, not bending over. One thing not to do: Do not let a friend "walk" on your back. I let that happen while I hurt my back on a vacation, and that just made it worse.

    And, hurrah, to English pubs. How I wish there was one on my block -- and I don't even drink. But the whole feeling of a pub seems like a good idea for every neighborhood.

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