Spot the difference

Below is a collection of pics of beaches.  Some are UK beaches and others are Turkish beaches.  Can you guess which are which?  And - for a bonus GOLD token guess which month they were taken in?

number 1

number 2

number 3

number 4

number 5

number 6

number 7

 

number 8

number 9

number 10

1. UK, Brighton,  - October
2. UK, Brighton, - March
3. Turkey, Patara - August
4. Turkey Kapatas -July
5. UK, Brighton,  - May
6. UK, Exmouth - August
7. UK, Exmouth - August
8. UK, Brighton - January
9. UK, Walmer - December
10. Turkey, Patara - August

Did you get them all right?  yeah!!! Brilliant.  Sorry, I lied about the gold token.... 

(Most of the time Turkish beaches were bathed in sunshine with calm blue seas lapping at them, but that would be too easy in a quiz...)

 

10 ways not to survive a full moon

After I'd crawled home this afternoon I remembered that it was a full moon tonight.

That could go some way to explaining the ringing in my ears and the use of my classroom as a racetrack today...

There are a number of stories about the 'lunar effect'  including the following:,

• Senior police officers in Brighton announced in June 2007 that they were planning to deploy more officers over the summer to counter trouble they believe is linked to the lunar cycle.
• In America, police in Toledo, Ohio and Kentucky claimed that crime rises by five percent during nights with a^] full moon.   
• In January 2008, New Zealand's Justice Minister Annette King suggested that a spate of stabbings in the country could have been caused by the lunar cycle.
• David Tredinnick, a British mp reckoned that  surgeons will not operate because blood clotting is not effective and the police have to put more people on the street.

So maybe people are generally more bonkers than usual on a full moon.  Whatever!  Here are my top tips to how not to survive a full moon.

1.  Go to bed late, after a few drinks maybe and with a caffeine rich drink, so you'll stay awake for most of the night - and have a headache in the morning.
2. Make sure it's a Monday morning, raining hard and blowing a gale.
3. Ensure your cat - or even better your neighbour's cat, who has sneaked in for a quick fight with yours - is sick in the night: double points if you step in it in the morning.
4. Get to work on time but then realise you've forgotton your glasses, your lunch, your purse, your work and your front door key.
5. Ensure computers are not working properly - though with no obvious cause.
6. Make sure you have a flickering fluorescent light in your room.  The more random and intermittent the flickers, the better.
7. The only pencils you should have must be blunt or broken.  Likewise pens should be out of ink or oozing the stuff, all over you.  No pencil sharpeners or rubbers allowed of course.
8. Suggest a fun game of Gatwick Airport to start the day off.  Don't let people choose whether or not they join in.  
9. Take a phone call during your few precious minutes of break and spend it trying to get rid of a printer cartridge salesman.  Buy 12 boxes with your own money before putting down the phone.
10. Spill your fifth cup of coffee (after the others have all gone cold) over your students newly finished work.

Plans for UK South Coast Super-highway sponsored by Microsoft

M*27 to be extended from Dover to Devon

The M*27 is enroute to be the first true Super-Highway here in sunny England as Microsoft branches out from cyber-space to tackle the real life difficulties of life in the slow lane in the UK.

Microsoft have plans for huge investment in this project, transforming the desperately slow and overcrowded link roads between Dover - the gateway to the UK and Devon.  The 10 lane highway will incorporate a dial-up-a-ride lane which may take a little longer, but will be cost-effective and reliable.  Drivers using the Microsoft Super-highway will be able to programme in their destinations or ask for directions and useful,  specific messages will appear on Twitter boards displayed alongside the road. 
Brighton will be one of the key stopping points on this route and there is much excitement about the new development in this diverse, forward thinking city.  Plans for keeping Brighton 'green' have been exercising the minds of many locals and 'in the cloud' parking is being created to provide a Park and Ride with a difference.  (The cloud is thought to be either under the Southwick Tunnel, inside the old Waterhall reservoir or Worthing.)
Speed limits will vary according to the traffic, but there will always be a super-fast lane available - at a small additional cost.
 The M*27 will cut journey times dramatically with Dover to Exeter achievable in less than 3 hours instead of about 8. Oh bring it on!