Tea for two

My sister came to tea yesterday. She's up from deepest darkest Dudley, and she's staying, not with any member of our family, but with her boyfriend, who I only found out about last week. Apparently, she's been dropping subtle hints since starting the relationship, but she should've known better by now that anything less subtle than a bunkerbuster warhead, is going to go completely beneath my radar - as it did.
She finally revealed all to Mum on Thursday, two days after I went down for Christmas dinner, and didn't mention a dicky-bird. I think my goose is cooked. Thanks sis! And happy new year!

The Very Best Christmas of All

It's Christmas.
You must not miss this

Merry old Christmas.

So come one and all

We're having a ball

It's the very best Christmas of all.

Sleigh bells chime.

Our guests they are on time

To drink of this mulled wine.

So come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

The clock in

The hall is tick-tocking,

So hang up your stocking

And come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

Children banter

As bedwards they canter.

They mustn't miss Santa.

So come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

Best wishes

And mistletoe kisses

To master and missus

And come one and all
We're having a ball
It's the very best Christmas of all.

Dead. But in a good way.
Parents, learner drivers, and now patients in nine English NHS trusts: all that information lost. And with it, the Government's plans to introduce ID cards. They're history. Gordon Brown isn't going to introduce them in this parliament. And after the next general election, the Conservatives will be in power, and that'll be the final nail in the coffin.
It was always a dumb idea put forward by a dumb government. Any purported benefits were massivly outweighed by the drawbacks. People hate the idea. It smacks of totalitarianism and fascism, the very philosophies we were brought up to despise. Besides, Scotland, Wales and Ulster would have voted aginst it anyway.

Dr Crippen - the last post

Sad news from Julie. The NHS Blog Doctor - Dr Crippen, we've just found out, was killed in a car accident in October. His practice partners only found out his secret online identity when they were going through his computer records. They've posted an announcement in the comments to his final post.
Any blogger interested in the field of healthcare will have encountered his blog. It was very critical of the current state of the NHS and the roles played by politicians - a necessary function that I hope other bloggers will take on now. My sympathies go to his family and friends who may now be finding out what a stature he had in the blogging community.

Jammy Dodgers

What a bunch of spawny gets! It's Humanity I'm talking about, the jammy bastards. We're pumping all this carbon dioxide into the atmosphere like there's no tomorrow, and now it turns out there is. A tomorrow I mean. Yesterday, we were running out of time. Global warming was proceeding at a greater rate than was predicted. Emissions aren't being cut back. Any technical solution is going to take ages to make any impact. It seemed there was nothing that could be done to reverse the heating up of the atmosphere. Nothing ... except the one thing we have absolutely no control over.
The sun.
It's gone into hibernation.
The sun spots have stopped.
Or rather they're late. And if they don't start soon, the Earth's temperature is going to drop by 1.5 degrees, which should balance out the rise due to global warming. If this a Maunder minimum that were about to go into, we could have about a century of no sun spots, and a little ice age. But unlike the 18th century, we've got 200 years of CO2 insulation, and some breathing space to try and solve the problems before the tropics fry.
Talk about luck.