It's been much colder than normal for this time of year and, in part, it's to do with global warming.

Over the summer hundreds of square miles of sea ice melted around the north pole and the cold water has been drifting southwards all summer.

It has flowed east of Iceland, past the Faroes, towards the Shetlands and Orkneys and around northern Scotland.

The result is that the sea temperature in those areas is now two degrees lower than it was this time last year.

That's a significant drop in temperature and means that over the next few weeks, as winter sets in, it will have a head start.

Currently, the sea temperature around the Orkney Islands is 11 degrees. In mid-October last year it was 13 degrees.

When winds come down from the north across those much colder seas, they will be a lot more biting than we've been used to.

So my advice is to get the winter warmers out and be prepared for a cold one!

Postal economy

So, the Post Office is on an economy drive and has decided that it's uneconomic to collect mail from postboxes on Sundays.

I doubt if anyone will notice any difference.

I certainly won't shed any tears.

Sundays have become like just another day, with most shops open.

Could this be the start of a trend to make at least one day a bit less commercial?

Parking fines

Last week's Herald headlines that the new traffic wardens have collected £24,000 in parking fines in Worthing in just one week is quite an eye-opener.

There have been enough warnings in the press that there's a new regime coming in which will properly enforce the parking restrictions.

It demonstrates just how much motorists have been ignoring the parking laws and pleasing themselves where they park.

I, for one, shed no tears for them. People who park in stupid places clog up the streets and make it more difficult to get from one place to another.

Hitting them in their pockets may make the roads safer and that must be a good thing.

On the subject of parking, people's determination to park outside their own homes is a constant problem, and it's getting worse with more two, three or more cars per household.

Police recently sent letters to people living in the street where I live reminding them that there is no legal ownership between premises and highway, with no reserved parking space.

I think it is a shame that when people have a driveway to their premises and/or a garage they don't use them and instead park in the road.

It makes driving along the road much more dangerous because you never know if a child or animal is about to dart out between parked cars.

What a pity there isn't an annual charge put on people who to park their cars in the road at night.

We would see a dramatic reduction in the number of cars cluttering the roads at night and at weekends if there was.

Have-a-go heroes

Jack Straw has opened an interesting debate about have-a-go heroes who stand the risk of a police investigation if they intervene in a dispute.

Jack Straw wants the law clarified so that there is less risk of police investigating in these circumstances, with the threat of a prosecution.

But it's all very much a grey area.

For example, I'm no longer in my youth and if I saw something going on and was tempted to intervene to stop it, I would want to land a decisive blow against an assailant so that I reduced the risk that the person could come back and knock seven bells out of me.

In the process I could risk being prosecuted for using undue force.

You just can't win.

In theory, I would want to use as much force as it takes to stop a burglar in my home.

But just how much force am I allowed to use?

Have I got to wait until the burglar attacks and injures me before I retaliate?

I think it's a case of heads I lose tails you win.

Answers please Jack.

Nation obsessed

We've become a nation obsessed over paedophilia, and see a sexual problem everywhere.

The photo, Klara and Edda belly-dancing, by Nan Goldin, has been shown in exhibitions in Houston, London, Madrid, New York, Portugal, Warsaw and Zurich.

No-one batted an eyelid – until it got to the Baltic Art Gallery in Gateshead, where staff rushed off to the police because at least one of the two girls in the photograph is naked.

The photograph is owned by Elton John and is part of an exhibition.

It was even offered for sale at Sotheby's in 2002 and 2004.

What is wrong with this crazy country?

We've got art in galleries all over the world of naked cherubs, children, et al.

Are the prudish Brits now going to rush around seizing them and prosecuting the owners of galleries for displaying pornography?

People working in the public domain are now living in fear of putting a step wrong all because of the politically correct brigade.

It's putting a blight on life and needs to be reined in.