Have you noticed that ring tones for mobile phones are getting louder and less subtle as time goes on? It seems that just a simple beep beep is not good enough anymore. I suppose its because people want to definitely know if it their phone ringing or not, because every man and his dog has got one nowadays. There seems to be a competition to see who can get the most loudest and most 'catchy' ring tone, although by 'catchy' I mean that in the context of the plague.
Some people have their ring set so loud that everyone around them, and even the owners themselves can be seen to physically flinch when it goes off, and that's even when it's buried deep in their pocket.And There is then the inevetible desperate scramble in the pocket, hand bag or whatever to grab the phone and answer it as soon as humanly possible. I'm not sure wether this is to save further embarrassment, or wether the mobile phone has taken on such significance in our lives, that we think that the the devil will shower its baddest baddness upon us if we don't answer it immediately. I don't think I have ever seen someone have the strength of mind to totally ignore it, even if they are having a meaningful conversation with a friend or colleauge at the time.
And the 'discreet' mode; Ok it's better than some awful distorted music blaring out suddenly without warning, but it still sounds like some monster wasp buzzing away in someone's pocket.
And of course, I could not mention mobile phones without talking about driving - you know me!
If I spot someone in my rear view mirror driving behind me while they are on the phone, I go into 'mobile phone alert'. I realise that this is a hazardous situation; they are spending so little attention to what they are doing that they could drive into the back of me if I had to stop suddenly, or they could cause some other accident; so i slow right down to make the situation safe. The trouble is, they are usually so oblivious to the situation around them that they don't notice this, and are quite happy to potter along behind me at 20mph while they are gabbing on incessantly into that thing glued to the side of their head, while they eat a sandwich with the other hand and steer with their knees!

David

Thought you might all like this picture of an interesting tomato I found in a Spanish market. The imagination runs riot.....

We found this terrapin in the same park as the sunbathing terrapins. When I first saw it on the path I thought it was a toy one and picked it up. I thought it was a very convincing replica when all of a sudden its eyes moved, and i realised it was real! It must have crawled out of the water and got stranded on dry land. After taking a snap of it I put it back in the water and after it got nice and wet again it shot off somewhere under water.

With all the fantastic weather we have had recently, thought i would show you a picture of some sunbathers I snapped in spain....