Tag Archives: Twitcher

On by-elections and birds

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On Friday 27th February we woke to hear the results of a by-election in the constituency of Gorton and Denton in the Manchester area of the UK. By-elections are called when an MP has resigned, been forced to leave, or died. This seat had been held by the ruling Labour party, whose MP was dismissed for writing offensive messages on WhatsApp.

The poll was seen as a key test of the political winds in the nation. The turnout was 47.5%, I don’t think that is high enough, but it was very respectable for a by-election. I personally feel voting should be compulsory, something which is enforced in Australia, and there should be consequences if people don’t vote.

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Durban winter is the best time of the year

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I have just had 10 glorious weeks in Durban. I travelled over in mid-May and came back to the UK at the end of July. I barely left Durban during this period. The only trip from the city was to Hilton, just outside Pietermaritzburg for lunch with people who attended Waterford. Most were a year or two younger than me, and I had not seen some for more than 50 years. It affirmed the value of the Waterford education and values for all of us.

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Summer is Starting

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I normally make notes for my monthly post jotting down interesting or unusual events from life or world news. This month I pondered my opening paragraph and decided to begin by talking about ‘the yips’. It is a phrase I have not heard in an age. In one of his more bizarre statements Donald Trump referred to peoples’ responses to his curious policies as ‘getting the yips’. The Miriam-Webster dictionary defines it as ‘a state of nervous tension affecting an athlete (such as a golfer) in the performance of a crucial action.’

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Swallows and Sunbirds

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Last month I reported my Waterford challenge – walking 280 kilometres in a month – was successfully completed. This month I can confirm that I raised the target amount. When I signed up, in 2023, my goal was to raise R67,000, R1,000 for every year I had been alive. Unfortunately, I had some health issues,1 so only embarked on the challenge on 16th June 2024. Given the delay and the passing of another birthday, I felt morally obliged to raise at least R68,000.

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Enjoying Spring

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In May our Norwich bird life was amazing. I am going to spend the first few paragraphs writing about it. My favourite birds have always been swallows and swifts. Sadly there are no swallows in this part of Norwich but there are swifts, and even a Norwich Swift Facebook page.1 In the summer months we get swifts returning from Africa for, what seem like, fleeting visits, roughly from May to late August. A few years ago, we had swift nest boxes installed under the eaves to encourage them. So far, they have not taken up our offer.

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Spring ends, damply

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I come to the end of another, personally, inconclusive month. This occasional blog provides me with both motivation and punctuation. When I review events and plan the post, I realise there are things that have been interesting, amusing, and noteworthy. So here goes.

On the 2nd May England went to the polls to elect local government representatives in some areas. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not have elections. We live in the district of Broadland just outside Norwich. The only election in our area was for the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner. In nearby Norwich there were city council seats being contested, as well as the County Police and Crime Commissioner.

I am a card-carrying Liberal Democrat while Ailsa is a member of the Green Party. As there were no seats being contested in our ward Ailsa got very involved in the Green’s Norwich campaign, mainly delivering leaflets. I was happy to help as it was a productive way of getting a walk in. Some of her ‘rounds’ were long, but it was good exercise and, in the end, was worthwhile.

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The Score: Durban 27°, Norwich 5°

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It was something of a shock to travel from Durban to Norwich in early December 2023. Firstly, the difference in temperature was considerable; secondly, although there was a fair amount of rain in Durban, there was also sunshine. For the first week in Norwich, we had virtually no sun, just unremitting grey days; and thirdly and finally, I had been away for a long time, nearly six months. Regular readers of the blog know the reasons for my extended stay, and I won’t go into them again.

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Is a Drought Beginning in England?

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June was a dry month, and the garden, which is still verdant, lush, and green, will start showing heat stress unless we have rain in the next week. I find it unbelievable that there are those who still deny the reality of climate change. I wonder if the importance of ‘lived experience’, pardon the academic jargon here, is underestimated.

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Hearts, Plays and Passports

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The Yiddish proverb, “Der mentsh trakht un got lakht” translates as “Man plans, and God laughs”. A couple of months ago I became aware of an intermittent pain in my left shoulder. On a few occasions it was severe enough to wake me. I decided it was indigestion, and chewed a few Rennie’s tablets. This seemed to do the trick for a while but, towards the end of the month, it was happening more regularly, and the pain extended into my arm and up to my jaw. I probably would have ignored it but I was advised to have it checked out.

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