British Expat Newsletter: July 2018
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In this issue
- This month: British Expat update
- Write for British Expat
- British Expat Amazon Shopping
- How to subscribe
This month
In the words of the immortal Sun headline: Phew! What a scorcher. The prolonged spell of warm weather I mentioned last month has gone on and on – with just the briefest of respites at the end of this month to bring the temperatures back down to what used to pass as normal. But the weather people are saying the summer’s far from over.
Inevitably people have been looking back to the summer of 1976 and drawing comparisons. Interestingly, although the temperatures are similar and the spell has continued for broadly as long, the major difference is that the UK’s weather in 1976 was a freak occurrence and quite isolated. This time round, most of the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing significantly hotter weather.
Should we be worried? Hmm. On one hand, most of the water companies seem to have been able to cope reasonably well with the lack of rain – the exception being United Utilities in North West England, where a hosepipe ban has had to be enforced. This contrasts with the widespread use of standpipes in the 1976 drought. On the other hand, there was a lot less rain in the run-up to the summer of 1976, whereas most of the UK has had plenty over the last year.
And yes, it seems pretty clear that there’s a link between the heatwave and climate change. A multi-national team of researchers have crunched the numbers for weather stations in seven north-western European locations, going back for 100 years, and reckon that human activity has made it more than twice as likely that similar heatwaves will occur in future. So we may have to do more to prepare for hot summers in future – if only to avoid the laughter from Australians, whose media have been mocking the (for them) relatively mild temperatures we’ve been getting so hot and bothered about…
We’ve headed to Eastern Europe for our latest additions to the main site. Ukraine’s the largest entirely European country and its people have a history going back well over a thousand years, yet it’s only been independent since 1991. Take time to join in the celebrations with the kids in our Pic of the Week, and to find out how much you know about the country (and maybe learn a bit more about it) in our Quick Quiz.
Are you ever flummoxed by fancy foodie words, mystified by menus, or confused by culinary terms? Then head on over to Scoffopedia.com and become enlightened by our quirky A-Z of food. And it’s got cartoons in it! Don’t forget to tell all your friends about it too.
Meanwhile, of course, the forum continues to provide information on a wide range of expat issues, as well as the opportunity to socialise with like-minded people all around the world. You can see the full range of discussion boards here.
Write for British Expat
Would you like to write for British Expat? Sorry, we don’t pay for articles but if you have a website we’ll link to it in the author’s blurb below any of your articles we publish. We use all sorts of content as long as it’s useful and/or interesting to our readership.
Besides articles, we also publish quick trivia quizzes—five questions about any subject. So, if you’d like to write for us but don’t feel like producing a literary masterpiece, then why not try writing a quickie quiz about your city, country, or even your hobby? Please use our contact form to get in touch.
British Expat Amazon Shopping
Amazon don’t just do books, you know. We’ve teamed up with them to bring you the ultimate in online shopping—from a micro SD card to a garden shed! A great way to do your shopping online, especially if the shops aren’t up to much in your part of the world.
BE Amazon Shop: UK & EU | BE Amazon Shop: non-EU
So there’s a round-up of all that’s been going on. Come on over and see for yourself! Don’t forget…
Visit the BE website and join in with our lively community!
Till next time…
Happy surfing!
Kay
Editor
British Expat—the definitive home for British expats
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