Beast from the East

Yet again a long journal entry lost because of hitting a wrong button rather than “Publish”. I keep forgetting to mention on a Blip survey or I guess a simple message to HQ if it would be possible to have the type of feature that Facebook has – a warning appears if you try to go to another item when you have an unfinished comment. “Do you really want to leave without finishing”.
 
Lucky for any unfortunates still reading – I will now be much shorter.
 
Half-naked, (so we are still reading then, are we?)  I sprinted to the hen house at 7:00 am with the temperature (yes, on the digital thermometer on the central heating system) at -13°C. Had to open their door and give them water. The girls ignored my appearance and dashed for the floor heating of the muck heap and a few tasty warm worms. Back indoors my mobile phone showed the wind chill was -18°C. I and all my parts survived.
 
Which is more than can be said for the joggers Angie encountered on the morning dog walk. People she knew, with dangerously red faces and who said they had been warned it was now -30°C with the strong wind. Angie had caked herself with cold cream.
 
As midday came, it was actually quite pleasant in sheltered spots and Angie did an hour or so of sunbathing before setting off for a mid-afternoon ride. Flash and I stayed at home and lit the fire.
 
But shortly before sunset, Angie went to Ottobeuren for a sauna and I did the dog walk in the forest. The wind had died down and car showing a reasonable -10°C.
 
I gather The Beast from the East is about to destroy the UK. The SkyNews presenter this afternoon said Ivan was bringing “Destructive” snow. I hope she misread “Disruptive” but who knows nowadays in the motherland. Probably given the cake & eat it mentally “Disruptive destructive snow” is more apt.
 
And well done TeamGB. If the weather patterns continue, your Olympic bosses will be expecting you to lead the 2022 Peking Winter Olympics medals table.
 
While I find the entire manipulation of the Games by the Olympic officials disgraceful, I do wish the TeamGB officials would also take a more relaxed view. Of course, it’s fun to have a bit of patriotic cheering on but it’s not about breeding champions- It is about motivating and supporting our youth to get involved in sports and indeed where appropriate aiming for being the best. That doesn’t diminish the “also-rans”. The nationalistic “at all costs” attitude repulses me. There are no winners without having losers take part. Eddie The Eagle will remain a cult hero in the Alpine & Nordic countries while the names of your current medal winners were forgotten the moment the banner titles disappeared off the TV screen during the flag raising.