My 150th Blog !

Welcome to my 150th blog. Now at this point I could write some rubbish about how I got here on my "journey", or just shout out the fact that this is my 150th blog, blah, blah, blah....

Leave a big gap, that seems to be popular at the moment.

And then just pad out the words to get up to the minimum word count.

But, as you all probably know by now, that's not the way I work.

In this blog, (Did I mention it's my 150th blog?), I shall be comparing various measurements. Measurements in time, distance, weight, and whatever else I can think of. The measurements won't be silly unmeasurable ones, does an unmeasurable measurement actually exist? Have I said measurement too many times?

Anyway, I'm sure you'll understand what I mean when you start reading the rest of this drivel blog.

We'll start small and work our way up.

Firstly, I should explain that the measurements are all relative to where I am sitting as I write this blog. I am at my desk in the lounge of my house in Cheshire. So, let us begin...

150 millimetres from me sits my JetPunk mug, it contains my pens that I use to take notes in my research for these blogs.

150 centimetres from me is part of my Lego collection, a hobby that helps me to relax. Well, relax as long as I don't look at the cost!

150 decimetres from me is my neighbour Ken's car, a white SUV, that he uses twice a week at the most. I won't put a picture of that on here, Ken would probably have metaphorical kittens if he found out. He's retired and has a lot of time on his hands, he spends most of it making sure the individual blades of grass on his front lawn are 150 micrometres high.

150 metres from me is the junction of the estate I live on with the main road into town. I won't put a picture of that, because it's too close to home, and well, security reasons. Who knows who reads this rubbish.

150 kilometres from me is Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon. Incidentally, many of my ancestors going back to the 15th century were to be found in the villages around Stratford.

150 inches from me is the sofa where my two dogs, Eddie and Poppy, are sitting. They are normally well behaved, but sometimes, especially when someone walks past, or when the local version of Quasimodo starts practicing his bell-ringing at the nearby church, they can be very noisy.

150 feet from me is the end of my drive, that's too boring for a picture, it's just a line that changes from block paving to tarmac, and marks the end of the property. The point to where I have to move the wheelie bin for the refuse collectors. I have to "put the bins out" on a Sunday evening ready for a collection at anytime from 0700 on a Monday morning.

150 yards from me is the turning for the Alms Houses, just before the main road junction mentioned above. Alms Houses are usually available for elderly people of the local area. They are similar to sheltered housing with a warden and emergency buttons, they are usually maintained by a trust or charity.

150 miles from me was the Second Severn Crossing, the bridge over the River Severn estuary that is closest to the open seas. It is now known as The Prince of Wales Bridge, it was built in 1996 and is 3.2 miles long. It connects South Wales with the Southwest of England.

150 Nautical Miles (equivalent to 172 road miles) from me is Hyde Park in London, the largest of the Royal Parks, sort of London's version of Central Park in New York. Although there are many more parks in London. I suppose that's why tourists love the place so much.

150 furlongs (equal to just under 19 miles) from me is the Anderton Boat Lift. This structure was built in 1875 to lift canal barges from the River Weaver to the Trent and Mersey Canal, and vice versa. It has a fifty foot lift and is one of only two canal lifts in the country. The other being at Falkirk in Scotland, 260 miles north.

150 light years from me are two white dwarf stars. They are GD61 in the Perseus Constellation and GD362 in the Hercules Constellation. Incidentally, they're names contain my initials.

150 Parsecs (around 490 light years) from me is a binary star system that goes by the romantic name of 89Aquaraii in the constellation of Aquarius.

That's it for "Distance". It just remains to say that all of the above measurements are approximate, I didn't go out into the street to see how far Ken's car was, or check the distance to GD362, I'll trust the scientists on that one. The mileages are as driven on the road, not as the crow flies.

I need to explain a little of how this section works. The time starts as I write the entry. Obviously, the first one wont have happened when you read this, time ticks on and waits for nobody. So, here we go with the section I have called "Time"

150 seconds ago I opened a can of Cherry Coke Zero, straight from the fridge, it was that cold I had mild brain freeze!

150 minutes ago I was still at work and delivering to a farm just a few miles away.

150 hours ago I was doing the weekly food shop, Sainsbury's if you must know, I collect the Nectar points and use them for the "Big Shop" at Christmas. Now I know, there are two references that will possibly baffle those of you that are not in the UK. Sainsbury's is a large supermarket chain, similar to Walmart, but not as big. Nectar points are a loyalty system, you collect 1 point for every pound you spend and for every 200 points you get a pound to spend.

150 days ago takes us back to May in 2025, at the time of writing it would have been the 6th of May, a Tuesday. The day after the Mayday Bank Holiday in the UK. A national holiday when the majority of the country don't go to work. I consulted my work diary and I was delivering to the docks in Liverpool.

150 weeks ago would have been the 18th of November, 2022. Just a couple of days after my birthday, my 60th birthday in fact. I received as a present a new computer, actually, the one I am typing this rubbish on now! I also received socks and T-shirts, I know this because, at my age, I get these every year!

150 fortnights ago was January 3rd, 2020. At this time we were all viewing events unfolding in Wuhan, China. I don't think many of us knew what we were about to experience. Just a couple of months later the world stood still, and we were all in lockdown. Well, except for yours truly (me), I was working right through the pandemic as an essential worker. The roads were certainly a lot quieter.

150 months ago it was 2013, April 3rd to be exact, a Wednesday. I can't remember what I was doing that day, my work diaries only go back about 10 years. I know I was working for the same company I am with today at least, I started there in 2001. I think at the time we were doing a lot of work around the Scottish Borders delivering animal feed to farms. According to Wikipedia, around 50 people tragically lost their lives due to flooding in Buenos Aires.

150 years ago I was....wait no, I may be old, but I'm not that old. Sunday, 3rd of October, 1875. This date was a bad day for the port of Newcastle upon Tyne. Two out of the three ships that sank on this day left Newcastle, the Betsey C. Milne of England destined for Dublin, sank off the Orkney Islands, all crew were rescued. The Cornelia Catherina of the Netherlands en route to St.Petersburg sank in the Kattegat between Norway and Denmark, again all crew were rescued.

150 decades ago was a Wednesday, it was the first day of October in 525. I don't know how accurate the website I'm using for these dates is when you go back this far. When were leap years introduced? Anyway, in this year, Pope Benedict I is born, and the Buddhist caves in Ajanta, India are completed.

150 centuries ago modern humans first arrived in the Americas, probably by a land bridge between modern day Russia and Alaska, or maybe they had a ferry, I don't know, it's a long time ago. Apparently, we, as a species, were coming out of the hunter-gatherer stage and becoming more settled. At this time the Sahara desert was a more fertile area and a lot wetter. It was also during this time, give or take a few thousand years either side, that the larger animals began to become extinct. Animals like the Woolly Mammoth and mastodons.

150 millennia ago there were homo sapiens living in the rain forest of Africa, they were using primitive tools. There is also evidence that has been discovered indicating that even at this early stage, trade routes had been formed between various cultures.

Well, I think that's far enough back, don't you?

What's next I hear you shout?

It's "Weight"

Keep reading to find out what weighs 150 of whatever measurement is used. Does that make sense? Does any of this blog make sense? I digress, here's the first one...

150 milligrams is the weight of some prescription medicines, and about half of an average raindrop.

150 grams is the weight of three large eggs, or a small rodent. I know which I would like in an omelette, what about you?

150 kilograms is the weight of Hōshōryū Tomokatsu, a Mongolian born sumo wrestler. Born in Ulaanbaatar with the name Sugarragchaagiin Byambasüren, why couldn't he change it to John Smith or something easy? 150 kg is also the average weight of an adult male panda.

150 tonnes is the weight of the Statue of Liberty, excluding the base, or a blue whale. Imagine if Liberty was replaced with a blue whale, come on AI, do your best...

And on that bombshell, I shall call it a day.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my 150th blog as much as I did making it. I could go on and on with ever obscure measurements, such as chains, horsepower, drams, but  it would just get boring. Then you would be bored, and my reputation would be shot, it would be just a slow spiral into oblivion. Wow, that escalated fast!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and I should be back making more blogs soon.

Thanks for reading.