Torrid temperatures and Tesco's testing time

It's October already. Past days have hardly been blogging weather with the mercury recording temperatures in southern England last seen in Victorian times, so the media says. Mercury up but spending down. Tesco, which takes 1 in every 10 pounds spent in British shops, reported one of its biggest-ever falls in sales, a sign of the hard times affecting consumers, even for basic non-durable goods. The authorities are going through all kinds of contortions to avert slowdown, including a freeze on council tax for next year. But the sense of entitlement remains pretty well entrenched. We had a taste of this when we heard where my son's old mates in England went to celebrate the end of A levels. In South Africa the kids went on Plett Rage - Plettenberg Bay is a seaside resort about 6 hours drive up the coast from Cape Town. The London kids went to .... Crete. Adjustment lies ahead, for some years, methinks. Gone are the days when youngsters could put everything they owned into a Beetle. The QSL is from Crush 1278 a low-powered student AM station on the University of Hertfordshire. I heard this one afternoon and dropped them a line. Tesco's HQ is also in Hertfordshire, a few miles north of London.