Why Caroline Lucas is special...

 Click on the box to enlarge:

From now on when I eat a Tunnocks Tea Cake...

... I will see it a little differently, thanks to a lady in Scotland named Jacki Gordon and BBC News, who published a story today about how the photo below, and other photographs came to be created (here is the link). 

There are more amusing pics in the news story. This one caught my attention because I like Tunnocks Tea Cakes and treat myself at Christmas and this afternoon I got the box from the fridge...

...then I opened it...

...and placed the tea cake on a plate large enough to catch any escaping chocolate or crumbs...

...then I unwrapped it...

...and took my first bite, careful only to eat some of the chocolate, revealing what is inside. This really is heaven on a plate...

...I'm sorry that I can't show you what happens next because it will be too painful to watch if you don't have a Tunnocks Tea Cake of your own to eat. All I can tell you is that I do what I do as slowly as possible and have a deep sense of pleasure when it's all over, that only a few other things in life can equal. For the record, Susan eats a Tunnocks Milk Chocolate Caramel Bar at the same time and a lot faster, even though it weighs more.

The BBC News story about Jacki Gordon is a coincidence, since I had it mind to share my love of Tunnocks Tea Cakes with you over the holiday. I will be eating one a day until the box is empty.

A atmospheric Sun looms large over Stoke-on-Trent

Posted by my friend Rosie to her Corners of my mind blog a couple of days ago. It's as if the trees see the Sun for what it is – a life giver. Very atmospheric.

Nottingham City Transport's NHS fundraiser you can wear, read and use to wrap gifts

Here I am a couple of days after taking delivery of two masks, a book and seasonal wrapping paper I bought from Nottingham City Transport, which they are selling to raise money for local NHS staff and patients.

The wrapping paper has already been put to good use, wrapping Christmas presents. The labels were made at home by Susan and printed on 220gsm white card.

Here is a link to the NCT website news story about the masks, book and wrapping paper: https://www.nctx.co.uk/read-all-about-it-nct-branded-face-coverings-and-book-written-nct-customers-sale-raise-money-local

A great idea. I wish them well. I also love the fact that Buster is back again. I still think he makes a great logo, despite being close to 40 years old. Here's Buster earning his keep on the front of my favourite NCT Route Map and Pocket Guide, dated October 1983 (click on the images to enlarge):

Perhaps next year NCT will create a fundraising 'Santa Bus', which will spend time on all the routes, collecting the wishes of passengers young and old and, perhaps, helping to deliver donated gifts to those who do not have a chimney for Santa to use. A few of his reindeer on the front and along the sides, plus his sleigh of course. I can't wait...!

In the meantime, enjoy the next few days as best you can in these difficult times. I am of an age when I tend to remember those no longer with us, who shared their happiness with me, and try to do the same.

Take care and thanks again to Nottingham City Transport for their generosity.

Why informing the public about Covid-19 is a mess

 Lifted from the BBC News website a few minutes ago. If the BBC newsroom's editor was managing the service better, then the two stories below would not have headlines likely to confuse many readers. Are things going to get worse or do fewer Covid-19 related deaths mean things are getting better, so let's all enjoy the seasonal break?

Click on the images to enlarge.

It is a mess. In this case I think we should take heed and read what the medical press has to say.

General Election % Turnouts 1945–2019 and how Labour does better the lower the turnout

 I will let my tables/graphs speak for themselves. High turnouts are worth little if your majorities are small. Click on graphs to enlarge:

A Beeston winter Robin

 

I saw this little fella out and about during the summer in his swimming trunks but he was too quick for me. 

Can we turn all the lights off please? Imagine Beeston in total darkness for one hour only on a cloudless, New Moon winter's night?

In the last few days, news that the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors have been designated 'Dark Sky Reserves' (see BBC link here).

It is years since I last saw the Milky Way in all its glory and I suspect there are millions of young people who never have — hence my blog post title. It doesn't seem much to ask and the magic of it could well change a good few lives.

This is a (cropped) picture from The Guardian news item about the new dark sky reserves (click here to see news item):

This is the Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle–Carisle railway line. It's a long way to go and see the Milky Way, so...

...why not bring the experience a little closer to home and use the Bennerley Viaduct, once it has been restored by the Friends of Bennerley Viaduct, as Broxtowe's own 'Dark Sky viewing platform'?

The chances are they are ahead of me and this idea is already on their list of things to do. In the meantime, can we turn all the lights off in Beeston before the winter's out for an hour (when the sky is cloudless and it's dark of course) and have our very own peek at the Milky Way?

I have odd thoughts like this most days and, yes, they make me happy, so it's nice to share the odd one or two.

The higher the turnout in General Elections the more likely Labour will lose MPs

 The table/graph below has taken me a couple of days to compile and has been prompted by an exchange of emails with our grandson Curtis, who is now at Nottingham-Trent doing an MA and a Labour Party member. It seems odd to me (and I have said this in previous Beeston Week blog posts) that we pay so little attention to trying to predict turnouts, when it tells us more about whether Labour will win or lose than asking voters if they intend to vote Labour? The evidence on this is clear (click on image to enlarge):

Is it a coincidence that the three Nottinghamshire constituencies Labour has held onto also happen to be the three constituencies that are at the bottom of the turnout list in 2001 and 2020 and on most occasions in-between? 

Use the blank table below to plot any group of constituencies you choose and see if the same happens?

My sister went into Battle and captured this...

 

...on her mobile phone. She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea, but sees life more from a Hastings perspective.

She's close enough to Battle to go there when she wants a change of view, and yesterday she arrived to find the town dressed up for Christmas with very public seasonal displays of knitting and crochet, including this pillar box.

Truly wonderful. Really brightens a dull Beeston day.

A blog of the moment – nothing more.

 Well, here I am as who I have become – 'a half-day person'. This is how I now describe myself. Still happy, though resigned, for the most part, that it has come to this. My Susan tells friends and family that I find the energy when I want to and this is true, but it comes at a price. Days out are planned with a day of rest before, then followed by a day recovering after. God, this does sound gloomy, but it isn't for a person diagnosed in 2015 with pulmonary fibrosis. From where it came is guesswork - hence the prefix 'idiopathic'. My mother told Susan that, as a child, I 'always had a weak chest' and she died a few days short of her 86th birthday in 2006. In my mid-30s I caught whooping cough and I suspect that damaged my lungs. To date, I consider myself one lucky bunny. Susan keeps a daily journal and I write too. I miss blogging, so here I am back again, but in a less defined way. Half-day person will simply follow my thoughts at a moment during the day. I have no greater ambition than that.

Right now I'm pondering next year's County Council election on Thursday 6th May and how I can help the Labour Party win back control of the county, especially the ward/division I live in: Bramcote and Beeston North. Of one thing I'm sure, the Labour Party's prospective candidate can win. Five months from now; four months into Brexit and Covid-19 still with us, the political landscape in Beeston will be far from settled.

I love how it all comes down to one day — election day!