Poor old Greece. They just found out what membership of the Euro really means. As predicted, a deal has been cobbled together, even though Greece will never be able to make it work. Most other members of the Euro believe the deal unworkable if they’re honest, but political necessity has replaced pragmatism. And the cost to the Greeks is fundamental, nothing less than a loss of sovereignty.  From here on in they lose fiscal control.  How can that be acceptable to any independent nation? We see a lovely country, lovely people, shafted in the first instance by their own ruling politicians, and now by nineteen leaders of the Eurozone group, all to save face as they strive for a federal Europe.

    We all like a bit of culture and Florence is a beautiful city in which to soak it up. The city is noted for its culture, renaissance art, architecture and monuments.  An Australian couple decided to introduce 21^st Century culture by having sex in Lungarno Torrigiani gardens, a stone throw from the famous Ponte Vecchio.  Less offence would have been caused if they had performed in the Piazza della Signoria, close to the statue of David.  If the Aussie bloke had found spectators comparing his working parts to those of David, we can’t help thinking his ardour would have cooled very quickly. He’d have had an even worse dent to his ego if his girlfriend had spotted the statue and started laughing. Time and place springs to mind. The couple wouldn’t even have been noticed if they’d performed during the women’s semi-final at Wimbledon. Their screams of ecstasy would have been accepted as another passing shot! (Sorry)

    The ‘Running of the Bulls’ festival is taking place in Pamplona, Spain and to date the bulls are winning comfortably.  After the first run the bulls were in front 11-0 based on hospital referrals. Five Americans, Five Spaniards and one Brit required treatment.  To date we’ve been unable to ascertain if the treatment was in Accident & Emergency or the Psychiatric Department.  The good news came from the television company making a film of the runs.  A spokesman stated, “no animal was injured during the making of this film.” Puts the human nutcases in perspective.

    Retail analysts Mintel have completed a survey that suggests 67% of people rely on smell, taste and sight to judge whether a product is safe to eat.  This in spite of dates on packaged food.  This came as a shock to our crowd since we thought only pensioners ignored sell and use by dates.  Most of us didn’t have a fridge until we reached our twenties and rationing meant we thought long and hard about throwing away any sort of food. For most of us, that habit dies hard. We understand the element of risk but wastage is a major problem for the planet. Try it before you chuck it might not be a bad idea.

    A randy police couple in Manchester found a novel use for the disabled toilets while on duty and got away with a warning rather than the order of the boot.  Neither had a disability, but normal toilets are so space constricted that they cramp your style. (so we’ve been told)  Maybe they can get a transfer to the Essex force.  They’d be very popular for ‘selfies’.  

    The Afghan government recently held their first talks with the Taliban.  Historical precedent suggests it to be the way of the world; bombing your way to the peace table.  Today’s terrorist generally becomes a future member of the administration that they have spent years attempting to murder.  It raises the spectre of black clad IS representatives across a table from negotiators from the Western world. Crazy? Do the names Menachem Begin, Nelson Mandela, Gerry Adams, Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat, Archbishop Makarios ring any bells? Maybe not so crazy!

    After attending a recent funeral we were talking about some of the amusing epitaphs that appear on headstones. The winner, hands down, came from the States.

            In joyous memory of George Jones who was president of Newport

            Rifle Club for twenty years. Always missed.

    We hope George had a great sense of humour.