Hail Showers

High winds of up to 90mph and heavy rain and sleet pummelled the UK last night. We could hear the howling winds lashing through our street.

But, this morning we were greeted with bright sunny spells. It's the calm before the storm cos another windy, cold night is on the cards again. We decided to pay a quick visit to the playground.

A few kilometres from the nature reserve we spotted our regular resident kestrel.  He was busy doing what he does best. While Babe was focusing his lens up in the air, I checked out this lovely Shetland Pony. Isn't he a cutie? Him and several other horses were eyeing us behind the fences. 

In the reserve, a robin was hungry and brave enough to feed from my hand. We decided to switch back to meal worms. They weren't too keen on Bill Oddie food for robins. Sorry Oddie :-)

The marsh was eerily empty. We spotted this odd looking cormorant with a white patch on his head. According to one of the twitchers, its a continental cormorant. The lakes were flooded. The waders can't feed when the lakes are frozen or flooded. It's quite a balancing act.

Met Fat Jasper on the way out. He couldn't wait to tell us that he spotted a bittern yesterday. Lucky man...

Was it going to be the war's last day? At the end of the Jewish Sabbath, after the sun had set, Israel's security cabinet met.

Israel had agreed to a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, three weeks after launching a full-scale assault against Hamas.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had achieved its goals and Hamas - which has been firing rockets at Israel - had been defeated. But he said troops would remain in Gaza for now. Why?

A Hamas spokesman said it would not accept one Israeli soldier in Gaza, as suspected. Nearly 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the violence began on 27 December. Thirteen Israelis have died.

One more thing. How could you promise a ceasefire just for a week? How about for a decade, if not for a century?

And the saddest thing is that when this misery ends both sides will say that they won.

Yesterday we went to Solihull to check out another new toy, a in-car SD journey recorder from Maplin. Why? Driving around Coventry especially the ring-road is like taking your life in your own hands. The number of times we nearly had an accident was unbelievable. You need eyes everywhere.

We just wanted to record what we came across and if it gets too bad, we'd proof to show to the police. And who knows? We might upload it on You Tube or on here.

We checked out Touchwood and the sales were still on, I got a lovely black lace dress for the summer. What summer??? I know it's so last season but who cares huh...

As usual we spent loads in Lakeland. I love this shop. We never come out empty handed which is very dangerous :-)

We dashed home cos there was a football match at the Ricoh. We wanted to reach our casa before the game ended. Two goals in four second-half minutes saw the Sky Blue boys come from behind to defeat Blackpool 2:1. Well done guys.

Last Tuesday, the premiere of season nine of CSI (Vegas) was a gut-wrenching experience. Yes, I knew Warrick was going to die but I never dreamed that it would hit me this hard. I shed a tear or two silently at the beginning (with the music from Gladiator) and at the end (when Nick was fighting back tears).

I've been watching CSI from the very beginning and am truly sad to see Gary Dourdan leave the show. I know all good things must come to an end and this ending sucks!!! Every one acted their best part, even the lab rats kept the sad theme going. Both Dourdan and Warrick will be greatly missed. RIP Warrick.

Do we need a 3rd runaway at Heathrow? It will become the biggest single emitter of CO2 in the country. The irony is every UK household is forced to switch to low-carbon bulbs and fined if they put the wrong rubbish in the wrong bin. Once again "green guilt" is piled on our shoulders, while big business does what the hell they want.

The economy will always be a primary consideration over the environment until the latter seriously affects the former. By then its too late. That will be the future generations (our kids) problem- a gift from the short sightedness (greed) of our so-called leaders.

If proof were needed to demonstrate that this government does not give a monkey's about tackling global warming then this is it.

I guess that means we're all screwed. Borrowing from Babe, it's not the planet Earth that is in trouble due to global warming and other human inspired events it is us humans, and it is us that  will disappear, it will be US, the human species that will suffer the consequences. The planet will recover and will still be here long after we are extinct. Does that not make a better case for actually doing something?

After all that ranting (phew, breathe in/out very s-l-o-w-l-y) I'm going snooker loopy this whole week. The world's 16 best players were in the Wembley Arena for the Masters tournament. World champion Ronnie O'Sullivan thrashes Stephen Maguire to reach the final of the Masters, where he will play defending champion Mark Selby. I do hope Selby wins. I think O'Sullivan is too big for his boots.

I'd a basket of apples lying around cos they were too sour to eat. So I made my first apple crumble. The topping was too crunchy and the fillings too well-done (the apples burnt!!!). Guess, need to practice more...