Day five on Rhodes

Today we went to Rhodes itself. It is a distance from the hotel but it was lovely to walk about the historic streets. We had lunch there and when the family went back to the hotel, I continued to explore. I was hoping to find out about the knights of the island, but I may have to come back at a later time to find out more about this. 

Day four in Rhodes

 

Last night we went to the evening entertainment. My son went back to the room which in hindsight was the wise choice as most of it was in French. It makes sense as there are a large number of French people here, and they did explain what was happening in English as well. Sadly we returned to our room before the entertainment was fully underway due to a drink mishap and soaking clothes. My daughter and I returned later to dance in the disco. And I have just been complemented on my dancing last night by a barman. 

Come the morning, after breakfast my son and I walked to a nearby supermarket where we bought some replacement footwear for my daughter and some painkillers at a nearby chemist. 

We relaxed for the rest of the day, my son and I playing a few games that got a bit vicious in the pool. I may get to dance again tonight and tomorrow we are thinking about getting a taxi into the town of Rhodes itself. 

Why are we abandoning refugees from Afghanistan?

I am proud of the way our nation took in Ukrainian refugees, many of whom were in safe nations such as Moldova. I do not know why we do not do the same with refugees from Afghanistan or other nations riven by war, such as Yemen. 

We know that many of those who died in The Channel this month were from Afghanistan and that two years on from the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, we are still failing those Afghans who helped our forces when we were trying to bring human rights to the nation.

We have been offered a way to stop the boats back in 2021 when France said we could process asylum seekers there. Doing so in a speedy manner would reduce channel crossings, slash the bills housing them in hotels and end any need for any barges. Also, having a fair and speedy system in France would mean that there are few moral issues to deporting those crossing the channel to Rwanda.

We are not a soft touch for refugees. When there was the migrant caravan in 2015, most refugees went to Germany and Sweden. France has more refugees than the UK. So when Lee Anderson says that asylum seekers can “fuck off back to France” does he include Ukrainian ones? 

Day three in Rhodes

I woke up late this morning. Both children had woken up before me, but they had gone to bed late. I had got an early night while they had gone to The Voice at the resort. They sang Blank Space without me and had a great time. 

I swam in the sea with my daughter, played in the pool with both kids and listened to my wife talk about the night before.

We have made friends with a family of cats. The kittens come up to us at dinner and they have charmed my cat-allergic wife as well!

Not sure what we will do tomorrow, but another day of relaxation is fine with me! 

Day two in Rhodes

Today has been a relaxing day. I had intended to go for a walk before breakfast but ended up having breakfast with the kids instead. I did go for a walk afterwards and we played in the pool.

At lunch, my son who has not liked cats before started to feed a kitten, something my daughter and I would not have believed if we had not seen this ourselves! 

I did go for a swim in the sea with my daughter, something we did not do here last year. Anyway, the kids are at the local disco with their mother. Me I am going to go to sleep.

Day one in Rhodes

It has been a long day. We woke up for our taxi trip to the hotel at 0400, well, most of us did. Despite being told to get to sleep, my son tried to stay up and fell asleep, but, when we got up at 0330, fell back to sleep again. This has meant that he had left a few things back at home. I slept on the drive to the airport and on the plane, my son managing to stay awake during a lot of the flight, but it was sweet when he fell asleep on me. 

In fact, the photo was taken by him on the flight. It is great to be back at the hotel, and while the kids had bickered before getting here about sharing a room, they appear to be fine about it now.

We have had dinner, which was our first proper meal of the day as we missed lunch when we came here, and the airport breakfast was not as good as I had wanted.

I did get to watch the highlights of the Arsenal game. I do have to agree with the pundits, no disrespect to Nottingham Forest, but we would have been punished if we had played a top six side. Saying that, we did score two amazing goals and I am hoping that we can match or beat our previous league standing. But it will be much harder to do that this season. And remember, we could be Spurs! 

Anyway, the bed is calling me…

How fires are attributed to climate change

Wild fires have devastated Maui in Hawaii, notably Lahaina. Some people have had issues with understanding how fires are attributed to climate change. 

The answer to this is quite simple. Wet forests do not burn very easily. If they are dry, they burn easier, and if there is less rainfall due to climate change, then the fires will be worse than otherwise and will be harder to combat.  The more rainfall, the less fires.  And, to look at two recent examples that have hit the headlines. Rhodes and Hawaii have had less rainfall than they had ten years ago.

Many continue to tell us Don't Look Up and some of them may not be paid by the companies that profit from ruining our planet, doing this work for free instead. 

Our planet use to be a lot hotter when there was more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.  Let us not return to that climate.