What shall I cook for Sunday lunch?

Today’s picture is of Forge Mill Lake in Sandwell Valley. I hoped to go out and take a few photographs this weekend, but the weather today doesn’t look too promising. My neighbours firework displays weren’t worth photographing last night either. I think I might go shopping…

I have a question today. It’s a hypothetical question to test your brain power. Let’s say that two gardeners go to a long street to mow the lawns and make the gardens looks nice. The one gardener does the odd numbers on the one side and the other gardener does the even numbers. The one doing the odd numbers has a petrol mower and the one doing the even numbers has a hand mower. Who will make the most money?

It seems obvious that the one with the petrol mower will work faster and make the most money. He can mow lawns four or five times as quickly as the other gardener. Who will work the hardest? The guy with the hand mower of course. Hard work doesn’t make lots of money. We need the technology to work smarter and that means investing in the right tools to do the job. As a nation that might mean new buildings or new roads. You also have to maintain what you have. You have to invest in the right equipment. It’s no good the gardener investing in a new food processor, when he needs a lawn mower. You also have to have priorities, a new computer is very nice; but not if you haven’t got the much-needed lawn mower yet.

Businesses don’t always invest in the latest technology and when they do they still pay their workers minimum wages. Government is cutting back investment now, it should be investing in new schools and hospitals to do the job. Should our gardener who has a hand mower, borrow money to buy a petrol mower? Yes of course, it will pay for itself and make him money. We need to invest in education, training and technology.

The Victorians left us railways, canals, libraries and museums. My guess is that most modern buildings won’t be around in a hundred years time.

There was an old building in Westminster for sale for a hundred million this week. Nice house, but who can afford that? It was leasehold too. The street was nice and clean, not a pile of dog crap to be seen. No traffic lights, no chicane, the kerbs didn’t stick out into the road like on West Bromwich High Street; no mini islands, no keep left signs, no yellow lines, no signs, no parking meters, no speed cameras and no litter. Who wants to live in a weird place like that?

My car goes for a service and MOT (safety test) this week. That will be more money. I can at least be reasonably confident it will last through the winter though. I think we will have more snow this winter, it’ll make for nice photographs, but it’ll be bloody cold. I must get me some new gloves and an ice scraper. It could be worse, fog is worse and that hasn’t happened yet. I thought we might get smog last night with all the bonfires and fireworks. That’s the thing about being a pessimist, when the sh** doesn’t hit the fan, we can be grateful.

I had to explain to a student last week what bull sh** is. Well you can’t get a job in government in the UK without a thorough knowledge of the subject. I think they sit around all day thinking up acronyms and daft names for things. In West Bromwich they have the Public (art thingy) and we also have Ideal for All, I think that is a centre for the disabled. There is also a thing where they get people with learning difficulties to become MP’s in some sort of pseudo parliament. Lots of things that used to be done by government are now done by private firms like Atos healthcare and recycling is done by Serco. Many services are farmed out to charities now too. Advice on the complex benefits system was done by welfare rights teams on local councils, now that job is going to charities like the Citizen’s Advice bureau. Mental health care too being a poor relation of ‘real’ health care is being farmed out to charities like MIND and Rethink. Why care at all? Aren’t they taught to keep a stiff upper lip in times of adversity at Eton? No doubt a robust response is called for. That would be a kick up the a***.

I have a tendency to whistle when I’m trying to concentrate. It can be any tune that I’ve heard and then I whistle it over and over. I heard a Christmas tune last December and was still whistling it in August. I’ve finally got it replaced with something else and Christmas is fast approaching again. I suppose it’s better to whistle that than Chopin’s funeral march. Bach’s Toccata and fugue was hell for a while too…

Anyway, what shall I cook for Sunday lunch? I think I’ve just about decided on pork with potatoes and broccoli. I’m still not sure whether to make gravy. It will be more washing up…

There is another interesting Sunday ramble on a zillion ideas, I know the photo is black and white on that one. It was a technical error…  Please comment using the comment box…

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