{"id":7590,"date":"2015-03-15T07:05:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-15T07:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/?p=7590"},"modified":"2015-03-14T10:59:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T10:59:14","slug":"15-march-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2015\/03\/15\/15-march-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"15 March 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve had a pretty good week \u2013 hope yours has been tolerably tolerable. Temperatures are definitely picking up \u2013 we\u2019ve been in double figures (Celsius) on most afternoons with the occasional very bright, sunny day. The wind has still been a bit chilly but, on the whole, I can confirm that things are certainly headed in the right direction. Molly and I spotted our first bunch of open daffodils on our morning stroll around the recreation ground on Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/daffodils.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"7607\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2015\/03\/15\/15-march-2015\/daffodils-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/daffodils.jpg?fit=1200%2C573\" data-orig-size=\"1200,573\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"daffodils\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/daffodils.jpg?fit=525%2C251\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7607\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/daffodils.jpg?resize=525%2C251\" alt=\"daffodils\" width=\"525\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/daffodils.jpg?w=1200 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/daffodils.jpg?resize=300%2C143 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/daffodils.jpg?resize=1024%2C489 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/><\/a><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I need to convey my sympathies to those of you in the States who entered the twilight world of Daylight Savings time last week. Regular readers will know that I am utterly opposed to DST as it is a pointless exercise which doesn\u2019t save any daylight. On top of the uselessness of the exercise, the change from \u201cnormal\u201d time to daylight savings time also has the effect of increasing the risk of heart attack by 25% on the Monday following the change, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/03\/29\/us-heart-daylightsaving-idUSBREA2S0D420140329\" target=\"_blank\">according to a study<\/a>. John Oliver had an interesting\/amusing take on it last week:<\/p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/br0NW9ufUUw?version=3&#038;rel=0&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<p>Penelope and I had a lovely night out on Friday when we ventured down to the Milton Keynes theatre for a production of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miltonkeynes.co.uk\/what-s-on\/theatre-review-to-kill-a-mockingbird-1-6626913\" target=\"_blank\">To Kill a Mockingbird<\/a> which was highly enjoyable. The occasion was the birthday of one of Penny\u2019s friends from university \u2013 all those years ago! We\u2019ve seen them a few times in the intervening years and, indeed, a couple of years ago we turned up as a surprise for a similar birthday outing. It was great to catch up (a bit) over dinner and then off to the theatre for the play which was very good.<\/p>\n<p>I had worried about how well it would translate to the stage and while it was done very well, it was a bit slow in places as the characters frequently were obliged to read passages from the novel to set the scene and context. Still, the youngsters playing the main parts of Scout, Jem and Dill were outstanding and the actor playing Atticus was, again, very, very good. It must be terribly difficult trying to play the part of Gregory Peck!<\/p>\n<p>Your starter for 10 &#8211; who played &#8220;Boo&#8221; Radley in the film? Answers on the back of a postcard or in the Comments below.<\/p>\n<p>Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK and we have kindly been invited round to Nick and Lucy\u2019s for lunch which is always an occasion worth looking forward to. I\u2019ve written in the past about the differences between Mothering Sunday and Mother\u2019s Day but one should never miss an opportunity to wish one\u2019s mother a splendid day whenever it is. So, Happy Mothering Sunday to my wonderful mother.<\/p>\n<p>I ran across an interesting story which raises a philosophical dilemma on the BBC site the other day. It seems a woman was attempting to pump some coins into a machine to pay for her parking when, all of a sudden, <a href=\"http:\/\/m.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-essex-31780074\" target=\"_blank\">the machine started spewing forth a cascade of coins<\/a> \u2013 something in the region of \u00a330 altogether. If that had happened to me I would have gratefully pocketed the cash and considered it reasonable compensation for all those times when I haven\u2019t had the exact change necessary and therefore had to pay over the odds for my parking. The woman, however, took the money around to the police station and handed it in! The District Council did, at least, provide her with some compensation as a \u201creward\u201d \u2013 they gave her a free days\u2019 parking!<\/p>\n<p>So, the moral dilemma? What would you have done with a similar windfall from a car parking machine?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>[poll id=\u201d6\u201d]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Most of you know I am a sucker for good time-lapse videos. Nick shared the following on Facebook so I will share it here:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/121649600\" width=\"650\" height=\"365\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve got two house viewings coming up early next week \u2013 wish us luck!<\/p>\n<p>Love to you all,<\/p>\n<p>Greg<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve had a pretty good week \u2013 hope yours has been tolerably tolerable. Temperatures are definitely picking up \u2013 we\u2019ve been in double figures (Celsius) on most afternoons with the occasional very bright, sunny day. The wind has still been a bit chilly but, on the whole, I can confirm that things are certainly headed &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2015\/03\/15\/15-march-2015\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;15 March 2015&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w76b-1Yq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7590"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7615,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7590\/revisions\/7615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}