I am calling it 'Swineavian Oral Bronchopneumonia' or SOB for short. Why I should be the only one in the world to have been struck down by this mystery illness I do not know however I can tell you from my death bed that it is not pleasant at all. I should add whilst I am still able [and with fading strength] to use the keyboard unaided that SOB is not Man Flu as the Lady of the House refers to my illness, and how would she know what Man Flu is, even if I had Man Flu. No this is far more serious and will be the end of me yet.......................Man Flu indeed, she just does not understand how ill I really am, how despite being racked with pain how I maintain a stiff upper lip, never complaining and maintain a cheery smile for her sake is beyond me. I am dying I tell you.
The winter weather is upon us, in fact it has been upon some of us more than others. Here in the Northern outreaches of the Empire we have battled on stoically as we usually do. The local authority has in the main repaid our trust in them by doing their best to ensure where possible the Queens Highway remains passable. Certainly with due care and attention I have been able, as have my work colleagues, to drive to work and back again without any mishaps. No abandoning cars for us at the sight of three snowflakes and an Easterly wind exceeding 2 miles per hour as we see reported in the media that has, it seems, become the vogue in some of the more Southern sunnier climes, no we are Northerners.
The three schools local to where I live have not closed; they have all remained open to offer the benefit of a fine British education to those who attend. I have however noticed a slight decrease in vehicles driving these students to their place of study. It seems strange that owners of some large and expensive four wheel drive vehicles do not wish to drive them in the present bad weather conditions in case they have an accident; for me this perhaps avoids the justification of owning such a vehicle in the first place.
Because of this many students have taken to walking and that is how it should be. I remember walking to school in the snow [or any other weather condition] when I was a child, it did me no harm and it will do the students of today no harm either. In fact I think they enjoy it, rather than being caged within a motor car from door to door they have walked in pairs or in groups, there has been chatter and laughter and the odd snowball fight, they have fresh air in their lungs and a glow to their cheeks. It is that I have not yet spotted anyone wearing a grey knitted balaclava similar to the one I was made to wear during the winters of the fifties, to keeps my ears warm, either this may be a change in fashion or today's students are a hardier bunch then we might give them credit for.
The regular readers of the Blog will recall that as one of my many hobbies and interests I am a virtual flight simulator pilot, for those who may have overlooked this or perhaps a new reader from Chad I refer you to the Blog entry of 10th September 2008. One of the flight groups I belong to; Sweets Shells Flying Service, a Happy Band of Hippy Sky Truckers [or The Biggest Boobs in Aviation] has started a variation to the Gnome on holiday routine.
You will all know I am sure of the trick where some wag [often students] will borrow [steal] a Gnome from someones garden then take it on holiday with them or on a tour to various parts of the world and sending back postcards or photos to the rightful owners showing the Gnome at various exotic locations only for the Gnome to eventually be returned home some weeks or months or even years later.
Well we at SSFS have just started this, I hasten to add that as honest and upstanding members of the community we have purchased our own Gnome to travel around the world and not 'Borrowed' one, well I have been told we have bought one anyway. Volunteers from the flight simulator community have offered to host the Gnome on its travels with each member receiving the Gnome by post they will then keep him [or it might be a her] for a few days and take the Gnome around their local area and take some photos of the Gnome near local landmarks to post on the web site, they will then send the Gnome by post onto the next recipient.
The Gnome has already started the journey from Sweden and it should travel down into mainland Europe across to England [that is me] up to Scotland across to mainland America up through Canada onto Alaska across to Australia then onto South Africa then back into mainland Europe before getting home again to Sweden. Perhaps I should add the Gnome is only a small plastic one and not a heavy weight concrete garden version, just in case anyone thought us completely mad.
A Google Earth map is being kept of its progress around the globe as well as photos on the web site and perhaps in the next Blog entry I might be able to provide a link for readers to look at.
Here though is a link, hopefully, to the [unofficial] Travelling Gnome Map, each pin represents a stop on the route.
