Maybe not so amazing!

First, I entitled this blog 'Just so amazing!' but I have been thinking about it and now realise it is not so amazing at all, just part of the greater scheme of things, or whatever.

I was chatting online with two friends (e-friends?) one in Tasmania and one in England, and it turned out that we all share the same birthday and we all turned 12 yesterday. (Ευτυχή γενέθλια σε μας / Happy Birthday to us). But it was even weirder than that. You'll be able to read all about it soon, but not until it is over, and I don't know when that will be.

Name Day, Birthday - all in one

Sorry for the lack of blogging but the fires on the mainland made it seem vainglorious to rabbit on about nothing, or mostly nothing. Thank goodness, and all the foreign firefighters who have helped, as well as our own brave firefighters, it all now seems to be under control. So I think it is alright to blog about tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my name day and tomorrow is my birthday. Stefan is coming, but not Yiayia, she says she can't afford it this year, but is saving up for next. I am so looking forward to tomorrow - I feel all jiggly, so I think I will go for a swim.

It is over two weeks now since I mentioned no New Zealand visitors registering on the map, or anyone from Africa - I had hoped that that would stir some activity, but alas no.

For my birthday I would like some people from New Zealand and some from at least one country in Africa to visit my blog. Please.

New Zealand, New Zealand wherefore art thou?

Just had an email from Sandy. (I've put her subject line in the title.) She says this all started when her Dad's cousin emailed her from New Zealand about the blog.

(That's not quite true - it all started with the stones, really, but it was that email that was responsible for our making contact at that point. Interesting to know how it might have happened, because it would have had to have happened, if I hadn't put the picture on the blog)

Anyway, Sandy emailed me and says she was checking the cluster map and it doesn't show anyone from New Zealand. So he didn't even bother to look at the blog! Just passed it to Sandy as she was 'about the same age'. Yet he played a big part! I've suggested she email him and tell him! Well, some of it anyway, she'll have to be careful.

Meanwhile, it would be nice if someone from New Zealand logged on, please!

And I'm a bit short on visitors from Africa, South Africa, Numibia, Tanzania, Malawi, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Morroco, Tunisia, to mention just a view.

From Sandy (who wasn't flooded)

Floods, landslides hit Tasmania
WILD weather and huge downpours have seen three major valleys flooded in Tasmania, triggering evacuations, car crashes, fires and a dangerous landslide.

Crisis: Tasmanians count losses as floods subside
Damage assessments: Floods ease in Tasmania's northeast
Rivers break: Forty homes evacuated in Tasmania floods
Wild weather: Evacuations as Tasmania flood waters rise

From Lexie (ditto!)

Rail services disrupted
Malvern Gazette, UK - 25 Jul 2007THE torrential rain and floods has had a serious effect on rail services on the line through Malvern, Colwall and Ledbury. Services between Malvern and ...

News Item
Many towns and villages in Malvern Hills district were severely affected by the worst flooding in living memory over the weekend. ...

Tales From The Flood Front Line Sky News, United Kingdom - 22 Jul 2007
Brian Waite, from Malvern, said: "The volume of water that has come down is quite unbelievable. I have been driving for 45 years and I have never, ...

Residents cling on as the flood turns their town into an island Times Online, UK - 22 Jul 2007
The medieval town, which nestles between the Cotswolds and Malvern Hills and holds an annual Water Festival and Mop Fair, is renowned for its timber-framed, ...

Farmers Face Ruin In Flood Disaster (from Malvern Gazette)
Malvern, Worcestershire, news, sport, what's on, leisure, property, jobs, cars and local information, - All from The Malvern Gazette.

Tasmania's Turn!

You may remember, back in July I blogged this:
Calamity!
England drowns and Greece burns! So far, Tasmania appears to be alright.So is it just coincidence.

And now my friend Sandy has sent me this! (from her local paper, The Mercury)

Warnings of more wild weather
THE Bureau of Meteorology has issued a series of weather alerts for the state, which remain valid until midnight on Saturday. Visit our weather site Pics: Huonville under flood

Flooding brings a tide of woe
FLOODING and high winds cut power and flooded homes and businesses across Tasmania yesterday.

Page turning on history book (Kathimerini)

This item amused me.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_31/07/2007_86310
"Changes to a controversial primary school textbook, whose content had been deemed to give pupils an inaccurate insight into Greek history, are to be made public in the next few days."

Two things, totally unrelated!

I was doing a search for something, and my blog was in the results!

Alex's Beachcomber Blog: April 2007
ekathimerini.com Lack of trust wipes smile from Greeks .... he had more than a million fireworks. Police think he was going to sell the fireworks ready for ...beachcomber-alex.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html - 108k - Supplemental Result
- Cached - Similar pages - Note this

I was just scrolling down, checking, and there it was. this is the first time that has happened, so I was quite pleased. (I was g-talking with Barney, my friend in Canada, and he says I am pathetic! He also keeps suggesting unethical tactics for me to increase traffic to my site - like mentioning Harry Potter! - Happy, Barney? But I am not putting it in the keywords.)

The other thing (and I just realised, they are related, in a way, as they were part of the same research) I came across this quotation:
“combines history with technology, earth with fire and water”.

That is what is going on in our lives at the moment, it seems quite spooky!

Calamity!

England drowns and Greece burns!

So far, Tasmania appears to be alright.

So is it just coincidence.

Was talking about it with Laki (he doesn't know the background, at least, I don't think he does, thought sometimes I wonder) and he says there is no such thing as coincidence.

I find that very frightening; what do you think?

Very Interesting!

• You may (or may not!) remember that I was confused, bemused, but interested, to note that even though I knew I had at least one visitor from Tasmania, it didn't show on the map on my site. [ See here ]
  
• I checked it as late as yesterday, and there was a dot in Western Australia, but not on Tasmania. Today, Tasmania is obliterated by a red dot! And the one in Western Australia has disappeared. None-the-less, I am most pleased.

Of course, you can have a look in the left hand column, and click on it to go to an enlargement, but I am preserving the evidence. (Pity I didn't think to do it before!)

Could be quite interesting?

Turns out my lat post has made me unpopular with my classmates. (virtual!) The head of college saw it and thought it a good idea - so we have a project to create a newswiki (under the collar banner, (Φυσικά!) with similar items for each of our home countries. Of course, there are more than one person from some countries (including from Greece) so we must make it more local, but ensure that national items are included as well.

Please Barney, no more complaining emails, texts, GoogleTalk or FaceBook postings! I've got the message, but it is a fait accompli, so live with it. Same goes for the rest of you Int studs.

My poor country is not in a very good state at the moment!

Greek forest fire close to Athens 29 Jun 07

Heatwave fuels Greek forest fires 28 Jun 07

Tourists flee Greek island fires 12 Jul 07
Hundreds of holidaymakers have been evacuated from hotels on the Greek island of Skiathos to escape raging forest fires.

Rescue operation : Fifteen people were safely rescued early yesterday when the sailing boat they were traveling on ran aground off the island of Aegean island of Patmos, authorities said.

Passengers unharmed after vessel en route to Aegina catches fire : A hydrofoil full of passengers caught fire yesterday...

Fire threatens homes on Skiathos : A fire that broke out on the island of Skiathos yesterday morning ravaged forestland and forced the evacuation...

Strike shuts down the Acropolis for six days : A strike by archaeological site guards will shut down the Acropolis, the country's most visited monument...

See also Link at the bottom of the page!

Two upmanship?

Lexie, another of my Blog friends, has sent me this photo, she says she may not live by the sea, but she does live in the landscape that inspired Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Elgar, Mari J Sak, William Langland (Piers Plowman) and many others.

"C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien used to walk on the Malvern Hills. The story goes that, after drinking in a Malvern pub one winter evening, they were walking home when it started to snow. They saw a lamp post shining out through the snow and Lewis turned to his friends and said "that would make a very nice opening line to a book". And so it did. (Wikipedia)

Lexie (without knowing the above) took the photo below last winter.

One upmanship!

There has been so much going on lately which I can't really write about, so I apologise for not doing anything on the blog. Just thought I would take a moment to mention that through my blog I have made a number of new friends; I was talking to two of them about going out looking for some sea urchins, because I wanted my mitera to prepare them for supper - and I couldn't find any. So one of them, Sandy in Tasmania, has emailed me a photo of a sea urchin shell she found while on a walk on the East Coast of Tasmania. It is interesting, but our shells are a lovely deep purplish blue - and of course, I can't eat the contents of this one. (Sandy, don't bother telling me there were no contents, I do realise!)

Uncanny? Coincidence?

This is the kind of thing that keeps happening, and I find it quite scary.

I had been working on the Internet for school, and as I went to close the browser I found behind it this window open which was offering demos of free screensavers, and the one highlighted was a tornado at sea!

Is it a warning, or a clue, or simply a coincidence? It seems too uncanny to be a coincidence. I need to check with the others.

Weather woes may be due to natural change

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100019_22/05/2007_83672
A report in Ekatathimerini says volatile weather conditions across Greece in the last few weeks, including some of the highest May temperatures recorded in the last 47 years, could be due to abrupt seasonal changes rather than the greenhouse effect, according to a leading weather expert.

Since 47 years ago higher temperatures were recorded, either he is right, or global warming started long before the governments jumped on the band-wagon. (My brother Stefan says "global - globalisation, may be some sort of Freudian clue here"; probably he knows what he means!)

But then there is the other question, which I have already referred to several times. Those who know, will know what I am referring to.

• Freaky Weather
• Earthquake excitement
• Weather

Freaky Weather

I am sitting here thinking about what to say. Things seem to be getting serious. I have had another email from my friend who sent me a link. To both of us, it seems too much of a coincidence, not global warming or climate change, but 'them'. I don't even dare name them, in case it draws their attention. I did think about putting it in code, or maybe in Greek, but whileI was thinking about it, my stone, which was (and is) in my shorts pocket, turned so cold my leg is still aching. So now I will just call them - 'them'. Luckily my friend wasn't hurt or anything (this time!) but she is finding it quite freaky, though it could turn out to be useful.

Hippocampus Zebra

Someone from Tasmania has sent me an aerogramma

with a picture of a rare seahorse, so I don't think I am likely to find one around here, but I thought I would share it with you.

Seahorses are chameleons (not the lizards, like the lizards!) and can change colour to avoid detection.

Earthquake excitement

Very tired today, as we didn't get much sleep last night. I was hunting about down among the rocks near the beach yesterday afternoon when there was this odd wave, or anyway, movement of water, right out in the bay, then last night we had these tremors. Nobody was hurt, according to our newspaper, but Baba had to go to work to check out the IT system (and help calm the grockles - alright, I know I said I was going to call them barbarians but that doesn't seem very nice, and Baba was reading my blog and he liked grockles, so, to spiti mas, they are grockles.)

I was looking on the web and remembered this site I'd seen before; it took me a while to find it, but I checked and yesterday there were 8 recorded earthquakes in Greece. Couldn't tell which one was ours looking quickly, will check them all out later. (You have to click on the Richter scale to get to the information.)

You might have to be quick if you want to look at this site, well, unless you want to register:
"We kindly inform you that the AlertMap, RSS, CAP, Google Earth, email and WAP services provided by RSOE EDIS are only accessible with registration after 15th May 2007. Without the registration only the graphical map with icons will be available without detailed information. Please register at the REGISTRATION page, due to the fact that access rights are being authorized manually. "

May already!

May 5th already, and I haven't written anything since April 30th. There are reasons for this, walks, parades and picnics for May Day, school work, and a slowdown in people contacting me re the blog.

I think anyway, I have almost completed the assignment, I just need to write the final report, so if anyone would like to add comments or email me, especially with something I could use in the final report, I would be very grateful.

I will add bits and pieces if and when I can find time, it just seems to be flying past so fast at the moment, it is difficult to keep up.

Speaking of time flying, I was checking that newspaper for the earth's rotation article and found a generic address, with other articles on weather; I imagine the earth's rotation one will be added in due course. (Probably Monday!)

Weather

I meant to go beachcombing after the thunderstorm and gather some items so I could add them to the blog but there has been so much happening I didn't manage it, and when I did go quickly there didn't seem to be anything of interest.

But someone I know (well, not really know, am in touch with) sent me some interesting links to do with weather after she saw my post. (It is a photo, and I used software to change it into a painting; I was working on it for Art & Design but I think it has lost something along the way.)

Anywhichway (my Yia-yia says that) this someone is one of the people who has a stone like mine.

Here are the links:
Whirlwinds, Tornadoes, Water Spouts and Dust Devils
By Paul Damari

Hurricanes
By Paul Damari

I have just seen that next week they are looking at the Earth's Rotation - this is getting scary!