There's always that nagging doubt isn't there? The nagging doubt that they just won't get it. I went to
Post Office yesterday, small local one round corner, to draw a relatively large amount of money out of my account. Whilst in queue, I saw a packet of refill cartridges going cheap. Half-price. Which in consequence meant it was around 50p to keep an ink pen running for a good year or so.
Thinking they might come in handy, I procured some and when I was at head of queue, placed them on counter, saying casually to postmistress that I sincerely hoped that money I was drawing out would indeed cover cost of cartridges.
As I was drawing out in excess of £300, there was a strong chance really and my comment was merely meant to make her smile.
"Yes, it will," she said. Indeed, it appeared that she had done some quick mental arithmetic to make sure. The whole transaction was rather icy, in retrospect.
It could almost have been a precursor to BBC2 programme I watched later, where on Horizon, it has been predicted that Britain could well, before long, be plunged into another ice age. (Postmistresses roaming streets, doing unnecessary mental arithmetic, unsmilingly.)
That aside, Horizon proved compulsive viewing. At present, Britain enjoys its temperate climate due to warm air brought to us from Gulf Stream. But, due to global warming, were ice sheets to continue to melt, we would have some major problems. It wouldn't get hotter, as you'd think. It would, conversely, get a hell of a lot colder here in Britain.
You see, North Atlantic is an incredibly important area. From a meteorological point of view, you could say it is "strategic." It is point where Gulf Stream sinks to join what is known as Atlantic Conveyor, a massive rotating belt which takes cold water back along ocean floor to tropics, where again, it rises, to begin journey again.
