Whilst walking back from a congress on a grey Berlin October day I heard a protest group protesting against Monsanto. It seems October 16th worldwide was the day when protests were organised against the perceived injustices of Monsanto. I have never in my life been part of a protest and it was curious to watch this particular one. A few photographs from the events this afternoon. The speeches were in German so I cannot comment on their content.
Seems I have now posted over 1000 blogs on this blog which started off as a blog to keep in contact with my wandering daughter. I have been trying to streamline a little what goes on here and have decided that I would like to showcase some of my best photography on a separate photo blog where there are no words just pictures .
Please feel free to take a look, comment and share. The last few months I have been fortunate enough to be able to photograph amongst other things wolves in the wild, food and some fascinating places.
Here on this blog I will continue to show some photos but the main purpose will be the words not the photos.
Thanks for listening.
Should I be a chef and that would be unfortunate to the whole population, I might not work in Paris. I am aware of food items eaten with regularity here that do not venture onto my shopping list . I am also aware of a few chefs who perhaps do deserve some sort of criticism. However are the French taking this too far? I leave that to your judgement
Before anyone gets the wrong idea I enjoy alcohol and drink probably my 14 units most weeks. But I was shocked to arrive at Edinburgh airport at 9.30 am on a normal friday to find all the bars full and people of all ages consuming huge volumes of alcohol. The bars were packed. The best sight was a man eating a fairly large Scottish Cooked breakfast and sipping an equally large brandy. Is this normal and is this healthy? Should anyone care?
The Scottish government certainly do. On their own website they make the stark observation that “It is becoming increasingly evident that as a nation our relationship with alcohol has become unbalanced”. Further observations are that a fifth more alcohol per adult is drunk in Scotland compared with England and Wales, that 40% of prisoners were drunk at the time of their offence, and that although alcohol consumption may have declined since 2009, it had previously increased hugely over the previous 30 years. Alcohol related deaths had increased by a factor of 1.5 times since 1980. Sales in 2015 were 20% higher in Scotland than they were in England and Wales, with each adult consuming the equivalent of 477 pints of beer. Currently although there had been some reduction in drinking, sales of alcohol have now increased for the second year in succession. In 2015 total sales were the equivalent to 41 bottles of vodka or 116 bottles of wine for each adult. There was some evidence this morning that most of that quantity might be consumed in Edinburgh airport.
Should this be a matter of concern to anyone? People are free to do what they like mostly, however the societal cost is massive in terms of poor health and alcohol related criminal damage. There are probably a hundred views and opinions on that observation. The point of this article is simply to point out the huge amount of early morning drinking going on before flights. The statistics about cost to society and the person also make salient reading. There were 35,059 alcohol-related hospital stays in 2014/15, 91% resulted from an emergency admission and 71% of alcohol-related stays were men. Alcohol harm costs Scotland £3.6 billion a year in health, social care, crime, productive capacity and wider costs.
The government of course will take a view, do an enquiry and probably little else but in July 2016 the way alcohol is sold in airports is to be examined after a number of recent incidents involving drunk passengers, the new aviation minister has said.
Lord Ahmad said he did not want to “kill merriment”, but that he would “look at” the times alcohol was on sale, and passenger screening. This seems a measured response but an unsurprising one. Aside from the health issues and general societal ones there are other reasons to be concerned over airport drinking. The number of passenger disturbances on UK flights has tripled over the past three years.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says the “majority” of cases were down to alcohol.
There were 114 incidents in 2014 compared to 39 in 2011. Little surprise here when one looks at the disinhibitive properties of alcohol and the potential amount consumed in a relatively short period of time.
What should airports do? Frankly they should do something instead of encouraging for their own purposes passengers to spend huge amounts of money in the duty-free areas ( that are now obligatory to walk through after security) and the bars that widely decorate airports. I would not especially single out Edinburgh airport of course but this is where I am writing this missive, but bars are often appearing at an exponential rate. I see no equivalent rise in quiet spaces to sit not in fact anywhere to sit. An All-Bar-One has opened here since I last visited. But they should do something, or at least discuss the situation and their relevance to the problem.
The chief executive of the British Air Transport Association, Nathan Stower, said “airlines set tough rules around the consumption of alcohol. Pubs, bars and restaurants in airports in the UK and overseas must play their part”.
In November a flight to Cuba from Manchester had to divert to Bermuda after Mohammed Khelya drank a bottle of vodka and threatened to kill everyone onboard. An isolated event of course but an increasingly seen one.
In June 2014 Trams returned to Edinburgh’s streets for the first time in almost 50 years, however, in the decade since the first money was allocated to the project, the price doubled, the network halved and it took twice as long to build as was first thought.
Edinburgh’s tram “network” is now just part of one of the original lines, stretching from the airport to the city centre. It had been intended to reach the waterfront at Leith and Newhaven, and there were to be other lines too, but they disappeared as the troubled project rumbled on. This was the originally planned route.
After many years of delays and procrastination the tram was finally completed and is now fully operational. Having a spare hour in Edinburgh I decided to explore the tram and see literally where it might lead me too along its 8.7 mile route that has cost at least 976 million pounds to contruct.
Fifty-two ticket inspectors were recruited to prevent fare dodging. Edinburgh Council is aiming for a 3% fare evasion rate, lower than any other tramway in Britain. Thirty-two drivers were employed, after passing psychological tests designed to eliminate risk-takers
Tram lines are making a re-appearance in UK and for good reasons. They tend to be more reliable in timing than buses and can often be built right into the city centre. For a long time there has been a lack of direct transportation from Edinburgh airport into the city which when combined with the relatively narrow roads often meant delays in getting to the main city centre. The tram line starts at the airport and ends at York place past the end of Princes Street. There are many possibilities of ticket types that range from simple single and return fares through to day tickets. The day tickets, equivalent of the London travel card , are more expensive when travelling to or from the airport, than the city and its environs. There is also a conundrum in that outside of the airport zone there is a family ticket that carries 2 adults and 3 children, but for airport travel tickets need to be bought individually. This might explain why the trams seem relatively unused at the airport, my tram was almost empty, as by the time that more than one ticket is bought you are into the realms of little less cost than a taxi. 
The line itself runs through a variety of shopping centres, a train depot ( only for staff), and joins with a number of other stations en-route. It also stops at the Ingliston park and ride. So the line is practical and within reason quite cheap. They employ cohorts of scary looking ticket inspectors who check each and every customer, and who really do remember who they have previously checked, like they have photographic memories.
During only its second year of operation 5.38 million passengers used the system. And for anyone arriving at Edinburgh airport on their travels this is a good option for the city centre.
If a photo could sum up a pile of rubbish then this is such a photo. Cricket stumps and bails made from food. This is almost as credible as some of the sorry stories and sagas emanating from the world of cricket this week. 
In a few weeks we have had a finale to the county championship that was ruined by the stupidity of ECB in not allowing Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow to play. A game that also contained total nonsense contrived bowling to get a result. Players going off for bad light in the middle of the day when neither side had any desire to go off. Important umpiring errors. And a county that won the annual title that contained not a single player that could represent England.
This nonsense was then followed by the 18 counties voting to set up a new T20 tournament as a city franchise. Purely money making of course. Only three counties had the sense and arguably decency to vote against this.
Then to complete this trilogy of nonsense ECB gave Durham a draconian and excessive punishment for financial failures that was part of the ECB making. The encouragement of test cricket in a less than ideal geographical location in Durham where it was always doomed to struggle. Admittedly it is likely that the county did manage their funds badly in addition but in order to survive they required around 5 million pounds from the ECB in total. Their punishment was a fourfold flogging. Relegation . A deduction of 48 points next season combined with deductions in all other competitions too. Return of prize money. And no more test cricket. Most ardent cricket fans agree as do the media that relegation by itself was the appropriate and ample penalty. Durham who have provided a steady stream of England players and still competed well including winning the championship in 2013 are now cast into the black depths of division 2. The only good news on the horizon is the possible return of Ian Botham as chairman at the club where he played his final two seasons.
Maybe I write too critically about cricket but there is something seriously wrong with a sport that is only played a few days a year yet often to almost empty grounds. A true tale this year is that watching Derby versus Sussex on arrival at the ground no one knew how to sell me a day ticket. My argument ends there. The ECB have upset almost all cricket supporters by these ludicrous decisions made also mostly behind closed doors no doubt in oak panelled rooms and with pleasant lunches . They need to get into the 21st century. Although the quality of county cricket is poor many other aspects can be improved on immediately.
Lastly with the relegation of Durham why were Kent not permitted to state their case to replace them via an extra and in fact normally granted promotion place? What exactly were the arguments considered in their dark rooms by ECB? I can see it both ways and on balance Kent would get my support for promotion and Hampshire would be relegated. The financial travails of Durham did not just have influence in 2016 but most likely have had impact through overspending for many years. Cricket does risk a death sentence at county level for many counties and conceivably for most of the second division counties .
This is an area next to El Torcal where Wolves live effectively in the wild though a few of them have been socialised. The park is in the middle of nowehere and finding it is not always so easy situated around an hour north of Malaga but not well known. Even when one arrives in Antequera it is hard to find with the Spanish not putting signposting high on their agenda.
The options are to go on a small group tour , maybe 6-10 people each tour, sometimes less, or book a photographers tour which they do 10 am when the light is at its best and still quite warm, and that is done with a private guide who also allows you to throw food to the Wolves. Some of the panels in the fences can be removed and at times the Wolves were within feet of myself and my camera.
The photographs speak for themselves really. From around 300 photos I have tried to select here the top 15 which is not easy. There are a mixture of young and old wolves. Alpha males and bottom of the food chain. Enjoy.
I have also put the photos on my photo website Chrisbushephotography.com where it is easier to view them full size
A week in the life of a Brentford fan. Always unpredictable! Three games in a week and each very different. A superb and exciting 4-0 win over a good Reading side followed by a fairly average 0-0 against a poor Wigan side . All preceded by a 3-1 defeat at Molineux. With little doubt the best team Bees played over the week was Reading. Football is a strange game and that’s why bookmakers always win. 
Bees struggled to break down a Wigan side that was set out well but lacked a lot of basic skill. The game had few chances and Wigan almost won it with the last kick of the game. The game highlight was the double rainbow that ended in the Ealing road terrace.
Set pieces were frankly awful today. Short corners regularly came to nothing. Free kicks were wasteful. Why McCormack was taking them I am unsure. Bjelland against Reading looks a useful set piece performer. These are minor negative comments but Bees have to learn to break down teams like Wigan.
So what did we learn this week? Probably that although consistency of team selection is important and something I advocate strongly there is also reason to change the team for different games. Bees lacked against Wigan much threat through the middle and Kalkai may have offered more width and speed. Clarke in contrast had a quiet game. After an early booking McCormack had for him a quiet game and Ryan Woods at half time might have added a new angle. The Macs when they came on as substitutes offered little . In summary did either goalkeeper make a save today? No.
But this is Championship football and years ago Bees would have lost games like this and we continue to learn and improve.
We also learned at Wolves that giving the ball away in midfield cheaply can be expensive.
Bees are a good side and certainly in the top ten teams. Onwards and upwards.
The only worry for Bees fans is the rumour about Dean Smith and Aston Villa. Any truth? Who knows but Villa losing 2-0 at Preston was not something I wanted to see.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 