"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On Friday 27 December 2013 23:53 Dave Liquorice wrote in uk.d-i-y:

On Fri, 27 Dec 2013 22:37:01 +0000, Tim Streater wrote:

I know that anyone here might find it astonishing, but a good
proportion of the population don't follow news or have much idea about
anything.

Not astonished at all, most of the population *are* as thick as two
short planks. But then dinner table conversation here tends to be on
subjects such as particle physics, faster than light travel theory,
cell biology, current space exploration, etc etc

I'm reading Mr Tompkins to my 8 and 10 year olds - they seem to get it
which
is encouraging. My 10 year old spits in the general direction of One
Direction and agrees with me that Bieber is in fact the missing link...

We are apparently notorious for being unprepared for anything,
which is
odd considering we can have all four seasons in a day here.

That is the problem, the planks haven't put any thought at all in how
to cope with a simple power cut. So they just panic and blame
everyone else for *their* failure to prepare.

Have you noticed how few people even have a few candles stashed away.

I find that rechargeable torches are a hell of a lot more useful.

I've got a generator too for the more important stuff than
light and that works fine if the power failure lasts longer
than the 8 hours the rechargeable lights will last for.

When I was a kid we had a boxfull and that was before the 3 day week.

And then the world moved on just a tad and those
of use who aren't actually desperate povs can afford
a cheap generator and get to do a lot better than
with a box of candles.