Category: Uncategorized

I enjoyed watching the ITV1 programme about the 1987 hurricane last night and it brought back many memories.

I lived at home on the Surrey/Kent border at the time and we were in the thick of the melee. Falling trees missed the house, thank goodness, but fences, sheds and all manner of other debris went everywhere.

I also remember watching a JCB try to clear a tree out of the road to unblock it and snap the telephone wire in the process.

What struck me, though, last night was how would be cope in 2007? Michael Fish admitted it was probably a good thing that they didn’t forecast the hurricane properly, as it saved people from being injured.

If it happened now, we’d all know about it and mass panic would ensue.

The other thing I remember from 1987 is that we kept up with the news using battery-powered radios. Given that everything is electric in 2007, this could prove a little tough now. With no TV and no computers, no office would be able to function without electricity.

My abiding memory of 1987, though, is that it meant I got almost a week off school, even though I was convinced that it would be open on the morning after the hurricane.

Without wishing to make light of another’s peril, sometimes you read a news story and think, “blimey, my mum wasn’t spinning a yarn.”

A teenager called Rhys Thomas is in a coma after swallowing some chewing gum which then caused a heart attack.

Now, I’ve never been that fond of chewing gum and tended to ignore it as a kid, but my mum and many others like her were always telling me and my mates that it was bad for you.

Now, admittedly, their take on gum was that it would clog up your intestines, rather than block your windpipe, but it seems they were right.

What freaks me out is that lots of other old wives’ tales could be true as well.

Imagine your face really staying ‘like that’, if the wind changes.

Or what about the chances of torrential rain, if you step on an ant. Ahh, so that’s why it’s rained all summer. I stepped on a termites’ nest!

So the Bible is now available to download direct to your mobile phone, with the launch of some enterprising new service.

Aside from the fact that it must be morally wrong to make money out of God (which is why televangelists are sooo bad), I’m not sure I understand the point of this.

I see a lot of people travelling on public transport flicking through their own personal copy of the Good Book, silently offering up a prayer and gaining inspiration from the words of Ezekiel, or whoever.

And that’s my point. Most people have their own pocket-sized copy already. They can flick through it till they get to their favourite passage and know that it’s already there. Why pay money to download it to a phone that they’re likely to upgrade in 12 months time?

I may not believe in God, but even I know that a Bible is for life and not just for a Christmas present.