In the UK, we love to criticize our own country. During this cold weather, we’ve seen endless stories about our councils running out of grit, UK drivers not being able to cope on the roads, trains and planes being cancelled, people dying because of the cold etc. “This doesn’t happen in other countries“, we hear people say. Actually, it does…

140 people have  frozen to death during the last weeks in Poland. 226 flights were cancelled at Frankfurt Airport.  Switzerland closed its alpine tunnels to lorries. Local power cuts and public transport disruption is forecast this weekend for Germany, where one area in the southwest has seen 300 car accidents – they also have a shortage of grit. Hundreds of trucks were stranded when French authorities closed the road near the German border due to snow.

See – it isn’t just us! Let’s stop spreading this misinformation. It happens all over.

The full article can be found on BBC News

Just thought I’d indulge myself  in providing you with an insight into the sort of guitar and Christmas-flavoured music I’ve been playing this afternoon/evening via Spotify, shared with various family members -well, if you run yer own blog, it comes with the territory! I always think it’s good to hear what other people are listening to (it provides a way to find artists and genres you may not have heard before, which is definitely a good thing) and to that effect, I humbly offer the completely disparate selection which follows….

Peter Finger – Wishbone Ash
Tom Petty – Free Fallin’
Rodrigo y Gabriella – Stairway To Heaven
Carol of the Bells (John Williams, from the film Home Alone)
Eric Whiteacre – Sleep
Hilliard Ensemble – O Lord, in Thee is all my trust
Vaughan Williams, Fantasy on a theme of Thomas Tallis

… well about 8 hours of it, so far. My home PC decided to foul up big time yesterday, so I had to reinstall Windows XP (it refused point blank to repair itself from the CD). Working until 1 o’clock last night. Now I’m slowly putting back all my software and settings – nightmare!

I’ll be happy to get to work today – just for a rest from computers. No… wait a minute. That won’t work, will it?