Cockney Me?, Britannia waives the rules, Football shows how wrong our values are, First Tomato

Am I Cockney?

St Mary-le-Bow is in Cheapside, not far from St Paul's, and it is said that anyone born within earshot of the Bow bells is a genuine cockney.  The facts are as follows:

A survey undertaken in 2000 established that the Bow bells can be heard 6 miles to the east, 4 miles to the west, 5 miles north and 3 miles south. 

According to legend, Dick Whittington heard the bells in Highgate, some 5 miles to the north.

St Mary-le-Bow in Cheaoside is not to be confused with any churches in Bow, East London which was a village outside the Capital at the time.

I was born in Middlesex Hospital which was just off Mortimer Street in modern day Fitzrovia. According to Google maps this is about 2.5 miles from St Mary-le-Bow.

Here is the Wikipedia definition of Cockney:

The term Cockney is applied to people from loosely defined areas of London; to East Enders or to those born within the sound of Bow Bells. The Cockney dialect is the form of speech used in those areas, and elsewhere, particularly among working class Londoners. In practice, these definitions are often blurred.

You can see St Mary-Le-Bow on the right and St Paul's on the left.

St Mary-Le-Bow

"Britannia waives the rules"

Well it seems that our incompetent leadership has decided to renege on the Brexit agreement that they signed at the end of January. This would be against international law and has prompted condemnation from around the world as well as from a whole bunch of Torys and former prime-ministers.

What's it all about? According to the BBC, "The new law would give UK ministers powers to modify or "disapply" rules relating to the movement of goods that will come into force from 1 January, if the UK and EU are unable to strike a trade deal." How shocking is this? I thought only Russia, China and the like ignored international law.

This brilliant headline "Britannia waives the rules" was from the i newspaper. 

Footballer earns 1,000x more than most people???

Alexis Sanchez, Christiano Ronaldo, Neymar. These are some of the top footballers in the world who I have discovered earn around £600,000 per week. That's around 1,000 times the average salary. and vastly more than our Prime Ministers, and various other doctors and essential workers. Clearly something very very wrong with our society and our values. I don't blame the footballers, it is the world we have created where their skills are valued more highly than virtually everything else. Bonkers. 

My first tomato

I grew my first tomato plant this year as an experiment. And the tomatoes taste good, so I may do it properly next year!