The Jam Jam

Time for some trivial knowledge about walls. Why walls, why not?

Twelve-angled stone – found in a wall in Cuzco, Peru, how this stone was cut so perfectly is not fully understood.

When Donald Trump’s hero, Hadrian built his wall the Romans had no aubergines, peppers, courgettes, green beans, or tomatoes, staples of modern Italian cooking.

Dry stone walls have different designs in different parts of the country, often due to the types of stone used – Cornish Walls are often herring-bone.

THE WALL THAT SURROUNDS THE ancient fort of Kumbhalgarh is one of the best-kept secrets in India and perhaps the world. Protecting a massive fort that contains over 300 ancient temples, the wall was constructed half a millennium ago in tandem with Kumbhalgarh Fort itself.

The Berlin Wall was in existence from 1961 to 1989 and divided / isolated part of the city from Soviet influenced East Berlin.

Western (or wailing) Wall – Built by Herod the Great in 19BC, this ancient limestone barricade once formed part of an important Jewish temple.

Great Zimbabwe Walls – Great Zimbabwe was the onetime capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, but today this former city lies in ruins. Those ruins are, however, surrounded by towering walls, which stand as a formidable reminder of the might of this once great empire.

The medieval city of London had 7 gates (and some water gates). The gates were Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate and Ludgate.

When is a wall not a wall? When it is a Ha-ha.

And finally the best song title with wall in it! Another brick in the wall – Pink Floyd

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr.Seuss was written as a bet to contain less that 50 different words.

The Doomsday Book was kept in Bodmin Jail during WWII.

Hot water freezes faster than cold water!

I am is the shortest sentence in the world.

The recipe for Irn Bru is known by only 3 people.

All smartie flavours are the same except for the orange ones.

Smarties were originally called rabbit droppings (in French).

Bacon frazzles are suitable for vegetarians.

Jelly Babies were first launched in the UK by Bassett’s as “Peace Babies” in 1918

Kia-Ora takes its name from “kia ora”, a Māori language greeting that means “be well/healthy”.

A rather Cornish quiz! Well at the end!

So North Somerset and Bristol remain in Tier 3. A surprise I will admit. Numbers have risen around here. Cornwall into tier 3 not a surprise (although I wonder if they have worse figures than I have seen). Surprise there is not a tier 5! But the right wing tories would not like that! They state their concern for personal freedom and infringement of civil liberties – are these the same freedoms they use to infect other people with the virus?

Todays paper has a map of the change in the number of cases for the week to the 24th Dec 2020. Quite why North Somerset and Bristol were kept in 3 is even more of a mystery. Both areas have increasing numbers, albeit at a lower level than national average. It is still an increase. On a simplistic level if there is an increase it must mean the present restrictions are not working. Increases for a selected few are Cornwall +37%; North Somerset + 17%; Bristol +7%; Braintree +25%. I know these figures need to be in the context of total numbers, for instance nearly the whole of Wales has seen a drop, but infections are still high.

Just as it seems people went from this area to Axbridge and Cheddar when they were in a lower tier, I am sure the same will be true in reverse. And how many parties have been arranged tonight? I am certain that the teen – 30 age group will be out in force. Does it matter? Only if it gets passed on to older generations, unfortunately this seems inevitable.

I know people will harp on about civil liberties, but a 12 hour curfew across the country from 6pm to 6am would seem to be eminently sensible. And altho hot air from Westminster about tears mean nothing if not enforced. Can we have pictures on TV of people being fined, cars impounded, etc. The police do not have the numbers to impose full compliance, but visual evidence would be a deterance for many.

So Gavin Williamson has been woken up from his hibernation to deal with something he thought he had sorted a while ago. Schools will need to read the small print on their Happy New Year card to see exactly what they have to do in January. Although the ‘start of term ‘ is a while away, so we can expect at least half a dozen changes before then. However he has probably gone back to his spiders and continues to hope that wise owls will share their knowledge with him. I guess he will not share his Christmas with the Daily Mail, however boring!