Marketeers have usually swallowed a dictionary before issuing forth with what is a suggestion of a perfect world that doesn't exist. I was reminded of this whilst driving through Little Melton which, like virtually every village in the UK, is having large scale development.
I caught the marketeers hyperbole describing this development in Little Melton as "Alluringly Tranquil." My immediate thought was "not if you have a noisy neighbour." And what on earth is meant by the phrase?
I mean I have nothing against the village of Little Melton. In fact it's pretty nice but I would never describe it as "alluring."
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You will all know that I listen into other people's conversations but this hobby(?) was met with a twist when we were sitting on a seat on the platform at Weybourne heritage railway station a couple of days ago.
I had passed the time of day with a lady on the other end of the seat whilst my other threequarters got some tea and her husband was off taking photos of the steam train.
When he came back the conversation went something like this. For this situation we will be couple number one and the others will be couple number two.
Couple number two: "John where abouts is the station at Holt?
Couple number one (me): "It's about a mile from the town. Quite a way in fact."
Couple number one (me): "We should try the light railway between Wells and Walsingham."
Couple number two: "Yes that's well worth a visit."
You get the idea.
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I see that peeing in the sea is being outlawed in a part of Spain.
Yes it will now be against the law to have a wild wee in the waves. In Vigo you can be fined up to £645 for piddling in the briny.
The seems a total nonsense.
Urine is 95% water anyway. So the amount of chemicals in urine is infinitesimally small. So small that a thousand people peeing at the same time would hardly register on the peeing Richter scale or whatever scale is used to measure wee. Apparently if every person on earth got together in the sea off Vigo and peed together it would still scarcely register. Might make the beach a bit crowded though. In fact it would be just 60 parts per trillion of chemicals other than water Now let me say I have never peed in the sea, mainly because I hardly ever go in. And of course a load of sewerage gets chucked into the sea and that's thousands of times worse that a widdle. And the good old Fin Whale lets out 970 litres of pee per day!
In addition who on earth will police this? Will Vigo visitors be given a monitor to attach to their swimwear or will there be some kind of force field that turns red when somebody pees in the sea.
Scientists state that peeing in the sea has absolutely no effect on the Oceans whatsoever. Perhaps marketeers in Vigo came up with this ruse to get their resort mentioned and perhaps they heard that developers in Little Melton had already used the phrase "alluringly tranquil."
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Finally today I'm doing a little survey. One of the contentious issues of our time is to re-wild or not to re-wild. Our parish council has allowed re-wilding around our village sign. One of its number, who lives close to the village sign, took out his mower and mowed a strip around the edge for which he received a rap over the knuckles. This parish councillor is also chairman of the residents' association of those living next to the area. They have become concerned about motorists not being able to see because of ever increasing vegetation.
This is certainly the case on some roundabouts where re-wilding has taken place and it's becoming very difficult to see other vehicles approaching.
So I ask the question: Are you in favour or re-wilding as a way of improving bio-diversity and eco life or is it a way to make areas look scruffy? I look forward to receiving the responses.