Random Thoughts

Marble Arch is a white marble monument at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, & Edgware Road, almost directly opposite Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park in London, England. It is directly across from the Marble Arch tube station.

The name "Marble Arch" also refers to the area in west London where the arch is situated. Historically, only members of the royal family and the King's Royal Horse Artillery were allowed to pass through the arch during ceremonies.

 

The arch was designed in 1828 by the British architect John Nash and was based on the triumphal arch of Constantine in Rome. It was originally built as a gateway to Buckingham Palace. Later in 1855, the arch was moved to its present location and it had been speculated that it might be moved in the future to Hyde Park or any other place instead of being located on a large traffic island.

 

The area around the arch forms a major road junction connecting Oxford Street to the east, Park Lane to the south, Bayswater Road to the west, and Edgware Road to the north-west.

This area was once home to the largest cinema screen in London at the Odeon Marble Arch cinema with a 23 meter-wide screen, unfortunately it was converted into a mini-plex in 1997.

The arch is near the largest Marks & Spencer store in the UK, which opened in 1930. 

Water is one of 4 necessities of life to all living things, according to 3^rd Grade Science book, the others are air, food, & don’t forget light. Unfortunately, people are wasting this commodity like there is no tomorrow and I’m talking about the general public & those working for the government as well. EVERYBODY.

Just take a spin around your block in the morning any day of the week & count how many people are washing their cars with fresh running water.

In your own house, watch how the dishes are being washed. Is the water running continuously or is the faucet off in between the dishes? The same thing goes for showers, how long do these last? Is the water off while washing the hair or body?

Coming back to the Government, everyday on the way to work you can see the water sprinklers are on, full blast, on both sides of the road and the excess water is seeping down & covering the road. I don’t know for how long the sprinklers are supposed to be on at a time but this has to be changed according to the weather, they can be on longer during hot summer days and shorter during winter. The funny thing is they’re also on on rainy days.

         

These water-wasting practices are not only here in Kuwait. It’s universal in varying degrees. I’ve taken this picture during my last trip to Dubai, of a guard of a nursery/school who was watering the front lawn.  

Recent studies showed that based on our consumption, we’ll have water shortage in 5 years & forget about desalination because seawater is already contaminated and it can hardly be used for drinking. Underground water is either drying out or also contaminated with toxic waste.

Saving water comes step by step and it’s a good habit to learn & practice daily and the children will learn by watching their parents practicing it. We have to remember that ‘if we waste it we’ll lose it & if we save it we’ll use it’.

While my sister was picking the kids from school the other day she noticed this broken lamp which is dangling over the passersby in the street. This is dangerous because:

1-    It may fall & hurt somebody walking in the street or damage cars driving through.

2-    It may fall & electrocute people or cars underneath

God only knows how long it had been hanging like that but it has been 2 weeks since we took notice of. I hope it will be attended to and fixed before the weather changes with chances of strong wind & rain which may break that fine thread it's been hanging by and causes serious injury to innocent bystanders.

Location: Hawally, at the exit of the school parking lot.