Wolfe, Water and Wine

This is a closer up photo of the statue of General Wolfe in Greenwich Park. He stands on the brink of the hill looking down towards the Queen's House and the National Maritime Museum, with the Royal Naval College buildings beyond them, and the Millennium Dome to the right, and across the river to the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf. That is the view all the sightseers around the plinth of the statue are looking towards.

On Tuesday this week I woke about six and went for an early morning swim again at the baths, as well as disposing of my accumulated glass waste, and some left by other tenants, at the bottle bank. Immediately after I returned at 8:30 the "parcelforce" man came with a box which contained six bottles of wine that I'd won for writing a letter that was featured in the New Humanist magazine. Since I'm not much of a drinker of alcohol I will have to find someone else to drink most of it, or else it will last me six years or so.

Spring: Time for New Developments

Now that, it seems, Spring is at last here, I've started waking up earlier, or at least not going back to sleep. So there is something to the idea that one tends to go into hibernation in the winter. I was up at six this morning and went for a swim at the baths between seven and eight. Whether I will be able to keep this up regularly remains to be seen.

One of the sounds that now greets me on waking is that of the blackbird, who seems to start singing before the noisy gulls get going. I've always liked the song of the blackbirds. They seem to be speaking to me personally, they often sound as if they are saying "What'ya doin' Georgie". Not that I like any one else being that familiar. My father was also named George, so I got the diminutive version.

It looks as though the British Chess Variants Society will close down this year, since John Beasley is retiring and no replacement has come forward to act as secretary and editor. Also Peter Fayers will not be able to carry on as treasurer and publishing manager. I will probably try to keep the magazine Variant Chess going in some form on the web, but not produce a printed version.

I've been looking into the costs of registering suitable internet addresses, to reorganise my web content, including the magazine. Because my "ntlworld" site was closed I've had to cram all my stuff onto the "mayhematics" site, which was not my original plan. There are also moves afoot to form some sort of International Variant Chess Society. This would be a welcome development, but needs a new generation of internet-savvy enthusdiasts to develop it.

Recycling, Swimming and Quizzing

On Wednesday. finding I had an accumulation of empty glass jars to dispose of at the recycling point, which is in the car park of the leisure centre, I decided to combine this duty with a swim in the pool.

Despite resolving to go swimming regularly, and it now being free for pensioners like me, I'd not been there for several months. Apart from the bad weather, and sheer laziness, this is because the times one can go swimming and get a clear lane are limited. The only trouble with swimming in the afternoon is that it disturbs the digestion. If I'm going to swim regularly at that time I need to organise my meals to suit.

On Thursday evening I ran a quiz for the Hastings Humanists. Most of the questions were based on a similar quiz I held a few years ago in Leicester. Although I thought many of the questions were quite easy the scoring achieved was only around 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 correct on both occasions. But then it's easy being the quizmaster since you have all the answers written down. Next year, as a member suggested, we could ask people to bring their own questions, and everyone could have a go in turn at being the quizmaster.

Proving One's Identity

I had a letter in the Hastings Observer last week about a new scheme of free swimming for people like me who are over sixty. The editor gave it a heading that suggested I was asking for free swimming for everyone. That might be nice, but in fact what I was arguing was that the scheme is unfair and likely to cause resentment and should not have been brought in, at least in that form.

I was also complaining about the need to produce a driving licence or passport, neither of which I now have, to prove my identity. It seems to me this is just softening us up for the introduction of Identity Cards. In the absence of those documents I was asked to show my birth certificate and utility bills. Why should I have to do this just to go swimming?