One Hundred
The joy of travelling and seeing new places is in most people’s blood and on arrival fitting in with the new environment including nature’s crawly things. Certainly, expats find their new home an exciting change and when we first arrived, I was not certain about the Geckos climbing up walls shooting their tongue out to catch their lunch or perhaps dinner, but they are harmless and keep the parasites down.
Twice a year there is the small job of swapping the bed cover for the change of the season and so it was this Spring. The summer version had been stored in a sealed bag when it had returned from the laundry – we duly opened it and laid it on the bed.
There is one creature which are not even nice to look at and moves with its hundred legs moving in unison at the speed of Lewis Hamilton driving around Silverstone – I wonder if they ever get rheumatism in one of the legs, just a thought – with their crusty coat they are difficult to deal with especially as they have a nasty bite giving pain and large swelling of the skin.
It was a warm night, so we only needed the duvet over us, and it was not long before we were both sound asleep and dreaming in our own worlds.
It was some time later I felt something crawling over me, we jumped out of bed and there it was in the middle on the white sheet about four inches long, suddenly it put its legs into gear, and it was off.
I don’t know anything about Centipedes or how they live but having thought it was just a one off we went back to bed and once again slept, although now we were dreaming of legged creatures and it was shortly after there was another one, a small one creeping up my back. Jean took it off and threw it.
It was a troublesome night and losing count of the invaders. Our only conclusion was they must have made themselves comfortable in a nest during the winter months in the stored duvet, even the following day there was one on the floor feeling very poorly after the extensive spraying during the night. I would think it is now looking for a new home in the adjoining campo.
Be careful before you go to bed tonight and make sure there is nothing else in it.
Inflation
Here we go again on the merry go round of governments trying once again to stop pollution. Sound familiar? The EU I guess following the British lead are – not to mislead the reader, as currently it is a proposal – to ban the selling of new petrol and diesel cars by the year 2035.
I am not certain how this thought process came about or how they came to that conclusion, but the inclination is electric vehicles are better than the two they want to ban. Didn’t they say diesel cars were the best thing since sliced bread and natural gas boilers were the answer and now, they are both for the scrap heap.
It seems to me unless there are vast improvements in technology by the given date, many of the problems of owning an electric vehicle will be the downfall. Also, how will they deal with the ramifications of the resulting chaos as it is going to be a difficult time for many people.
Across the land there are many small, also large engineering firms, whose income and living are based on the combustion engine, I would suspect, even now as more and more electric vehicles are being sold their skills are on the decline and eventually will not be needed.
The Chancellor is going to have a problem balancing his figures as less VAT and fuel duty is collected, surely that money, which is a large portion of income for the country, will have to be replaced. It will have to come from somewhere – will he be tempted to impose tolls on roads as in the centre of London, where it can cost £12.50 a day just to take your child to school or maybe a severe road tax just to buy a car and keep it annually. Certainly, it will be totally different to the financial grants available now.
How will the petrol stations replace their income and profit margins? Assuming current vehicles will still be able to be used at the given date, will it be possible to purchase fuel for those cars still using fossil liquids on their day to day travelling?
It was in 1865 that the German mechanical engineer Karl Benz designed and built the first vehicle with a combustion engine, since that period the development aimed at improvement has been relentless so much so that countries and companies rely on the revenue created by this stunning development. Vast petroleum processing plants and storage facilities are in place also oil tankers at sea, all will become totally useless creating vast unemployment. Perhaps they will be painted white as in ‘white elephant’.
There are too many ‘ifs and buts’ in my view and the result of the exercise will be inflationary and a rate of decline in money value that has not been seen for a very long time. The reason I say that is because the ‘green industry’ is forcing prices up now coupled with the conglomerates who control the supply of most things.
Homeward.
I wrote last week of a couple whose flight was cancelled and had to wait a day and added expense to arrive here in Spain. Going home was worse, their ‘Easy’ Friday midnight flight was cancelled at the boarding gate. They were offered an alternative for four days later. To get home they hired a car and drove the three hundred and so kilometres to Malaga to get a Ryanair flight home to arrive Sunday evening. Take care
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