I have been so confused re the stuff I have scribbled recently that I am not sure which way I am headed. In deed so unsure am I that I just spelt 'sure' as 'shure!' I am not used to work, let alone with deadlines. Taking the laptop into work today I managed to complete one paragraph of three sentences because of all the interruptions. Who allows people into a museum when I am busy? Why do they keep asking questions when they can see I am thinking? Yes thinking! Bah!
So after all his careful stabbing in the back Boris Johnson is not going to be Prime Minister! His devious Aberdonian mate Michael Gove looks now to be the front runner and the man to destroy our economy sleekit like instead of by handfuls of incompetence that Boris offered. Now he and several others, that means Theresa May, will fight it out for the job. Does he wish the responsibility of leaving the EU? She says she will but is in favour of it, some say anyway. He is not in favour of the EU yet was in favour of lying in his teeth to get the position. Doomed, we are all doomed! Which way now UK....?
Having spent most of the day typing the wrong words into the laptop I am not willing to type many more. Pictures, yes, moving images, yes, line after line of words, no! Once I shook of the early morning lethargy, around ten, I began scribbling away. Naturally I had no idea what I was talking about (The Somme and our local men's involvement) and all the links I looked for turned out to be useless! My ever helpful array of books did not have the information I wished, the Google search was fruitless much of the time but eventually I found the lost links and got what I required. I was writing about five dead men killed under a hail of bullet and shell, why do I grumble when little things go wrong and nothing makes sense? Anyway I wandered away to address other problems and returned to the by now switched off laptop. Coming back to life it went haywire and I found myself with my old 'Word' asking which saved copy I wished. Neither were the one I was working on, that had disappeared. I chose the best, returned to rewriting the whole thing and by long after the curfew I managed to scramble something together that will not do at all when she sees it in the morning. Muttering things of the top of my enormous head here is one thing, writing for others who can read and think at the same time with no understanding of my mental outlook is quite another. When I enter the premisis tomorrow I expect blank looks and rude words for my efforts.
An almost twenty year old picture there, but the weather has not changed much, except for getting worse of course. How can I excercise when the wind outside is so strong it blows my bike back the way I have come? Worse on a hill! So instead I exercised inside today as I hoped this woudl stimulate the brain. It failed but it did stimulate several muscles to screech blue murder as I did so. Now other areas are indicating they did not like such efforts either. It's not as if I did much is it? Yet I fear for the morning as it will be rougher when I wake.
The sad faces around town today after England's ignominious defeat by Iceland in the European Championships has really made my day. All the vehicles yesterday festooned wth little England flags are suddenly without them and nobody wishes to bring them back to memory. It's a giggle innit? Naturally I have said little, few at work care, but it is clear if I play my cards correctly I can wander round to the 'Iceland' supermarket and carry one of their bags for a few days in an irritating manner just for fun. Well fun for me anyhow. The TV & radio appear disinterested in the result. An attempt at hanging them all has been underway but there is no real heart in it. Before they went they knew deep inside they would fail so resentment is hard to collect. In fact so little trouble was caused in this small town that it took over an hour before a set of blue flashing lights made its way towards the pubs. In the past it would take around ten minutes for trouble to brew. Ah well, real football begins on Thursday anyway.
A hard slog today. Suddenly I was ordered to dig out material so that we could put something in the local paper. "When do you want it?" I foolishly asked. "By three!" Shae replied. Yikes! It's half one now! Coming home the workman was next door and he started to ask about his dead uncle who served in the war. Foolishly I began a search. Finding nothing Idiscovered I had ten minutes to send something I had not done by email. Doing said project I discovered it was a daft idea. So I did another relevant one and sent it on. "Good." Came the reply, "I can make use of this mess and rewrite in English." Happily I relaxed. "And I want a full blog on this NOW!" I have started it and have been given the impression it must be in by tomorrow or bits will be cut off. Women are such hard taskmasters. I have not had my siesta because of this and I feel the lack of it now. Bah!
Rabbits, those cuddly creature loved by kiddies and hated by farmers, go back a long way. Excavators at Boxgrove in West Sussex found evidence of then dating back to half a million years BC. The Ice Age soon chased them away and the Phoenicians recorded them in Spain 2000 years BC. Some claim the Romans brought them to Britannia but that is not yet proved. Certainly the Romans farmed them, except when the beasts dug deep and escaped, and somehow or other farmers can prove they exist in Britannia now. The Romans ate them as a useful food source but the Old Testament classed them as 'unclean' foodstuffs as they like pigs, camels and other banned creatures scavenge and live off anything around and are therefore unhealthy. You would not eat pigeons today for the same reason, whether wild rabbits are healthy only farmers can say as I believe many still eat those they shoot.
Six thirty in the morning is a good time for breakfast. Fattening food from chip shops or takeaways do not bother some people however. If it's free go for it is the attitude even if it is raining hard.
Last night, as there was no football to stimulate the mind, I wandered round to the museum to hear a talk on Krystyna Skarbek by a local author Clare Mulley. It seems this was a well to do Polish lass who was a bit of an adventure seeker. When the Germans invaded she was in South Africa for reasons I forget and made her way to London and offered herself for spy work. The British of course had no women in such roles and espionage and behind the lines work was considered somewhat dangerous for wee lassies early in the war. Later when things were organised several women died, often horribly, for work behind the lines in France. Eventually Krystyna got work via the Polish forces and spent some time gathering information and boyfriends along the way, I told you she was adventurous, predatory possibly one said. She worked in dangerous situations in Europe with a husband/boyfriend I forget which there were lots, and only by feigning TB did she manage to get the Germans to throw both of them out. Their escape across Europe led them to Cairo where the British considered her a German double agent! Lifes like that. Later from London she entered France and worked alongside several others annoying the Germans before and after D-Day. She was awarded many medals including a George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery, an OBE and the Croix de Guerre plus the usual things. Not bad for a wee lassie. She also ended up with two husbands, several men and lots of associations. As the Soviet KGB also knew about her she was of no use after the war to the British spy network so she was dumped. She was also refused British citizenship, something this continues today where such folks are concerned, but eventually settled under one of her many names in London. Here however an angry boyfriend stabbed her to death and ended her life in 1952. A somewhat sad end to a woman of adventure and er, romance. The talk was interesting even though the acoustics are not great and my hearing failures meant I missed much of it. I would have bought the book but through no fault of my own I ended up washing the cups!
Before the thunder & lightning returned this morning I headed East into the sun on my rusty old bike and made my way around town in an effort to get fit. I got stiff knees and aching back so this fitness idea is working. However the weight is creeping up rather than falling and later today as I visited the Turkish Market that appeared the other day for the second time and came home with a large bag of Mediterranean sweet cakes I wondered why? You know what I refer to? The Middle East sweet cakes stuffed with healthy things and wrapped in greasy unhealthy stuff? I love them and rarely see them so I bought too many the other day and foolishly ate them! I may need to ride the bike to Inverness to lose the weight I am putting on today! However I managed to buy the black cord jacket I have been looking for since three years ago for £12 in an expensive charity shop. This idea of smartening myself up appears to be working. Now I look like a poor man's Jeremy Clarkson but without the talent! Good news however football has returned for a while. Are you not all glad?
Well it worked! Farage told them what they wished to hear, Boris scared them with talk of millions of immigrants and the people who read the 'Sun,' 'Daily Express' & 'Daily Mail' fell for it. Now everyone with an Irish ancestor is applying for an Irish passport so they can travel in Europe, buisnessmen will have to fill reams of paper to visit EU nations, young folks are unable to work in EU as they are no longer part of it and even today some nations will not exchange the pounds in tourists pockets because they do not know hos stable the Pound actually is. Well done Boris! Interestingly the people who will discuss the leaving strategy have excluded Nigel Farage the rabblerouser who led from the front with his lies. Poor thing how I feel for him! We now have a 'lame duck' Prime Minister who will not do anything to help the Brexit folks who have cost him his job, he cannot bring in legislation as he has no control over his party, the main contenders for his job, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Theresa May are collecting friends and stabbing each other in the back as we speak, well they are stabbing Boris as no Conservative member really wishes him as leader. George Osborne however has disappeared altogether, where is he? His faulty handling of the economy, his high handed approach to the nation and his failing budgets mean few Tories will vote for him. The Labour Party is divided and the lack of leadership worrying, The Lib-dems mean nothing and only the Scots nationalists have a clue what to do. Another independence vote is on the cards soon. Just see how many companies cross the border and settle in Edinburgh then! In Ireland even those who wish to remain 'British' and looking for Irish passports, and the Belfast government has no choice but to discuss unity with Dublin. Europe on one hand laughs, on the other is afraid others will wish to join England. All is amiss and if Putin wishes to invade now is the time!
In three months time one of these two, George Osborne the incompetent Chancellor and Boris Johnson the man who as Mayor of London sold it to the Chinese and Russians, will be leader of the Conservative Party and therefore Prime Minister! This is the result of the referendum in which the little englanders with their fear of immigrants roused voted for Boris and to leave the EU. From what I could gather, and it is not easy to gather EU info, we were better off inside attempting to change things. Now we are out, the trade deals worse and they will change the EU without us. Scotland will soon attempt another referendum on independence. This will be a 99% success if Boris or George come to the throne. Neither know where Scotland is, neither care. The only good thing about all this fuss is the removal of David Cameron. From now on he tours the world getting paid extortionate fees.
I am thinking of joining the thousands who at this moment are heading north to Scotland and a fairer society. Nothing can stop this bar the lack of money and rain, I am sick of rain! At least it is over, however after October we will possibly have a general election and go through all this again.
Using the 'Learning for Life' centre, part of the museum, as a voting booth may well have struck some of those gathering to choose their nations future as appropriate. There can be no doubt that if the 'Little Englanders' and those who wish to bring back the Empire get their way and follow Boris (Let me be Prime Minister) Johnson then the nation is done the tubes without much hope of redemption. The great fear of immigrants 'Come over here taking our jobs, living off the dole,' in areas where there are no immigrants has been exaggerated by Messrs Farage & Johnson and others for their own ends. Far too many Englishmen, and it is Englishmen not Welsh, Irish or Scots who follow Johnson, are happy to believe the rabblerousing of these desperate men. Still it was useful as it enabled me to put my cross in the box marked 'Scottish Nationalist' and really confuse the folks counting the ballot papers late tonight. It appears 46 and a half million people can vote today, whether the majority will be able to is a question. Hopefully we have a 75% turnout as at least we will get a decent view of peoples opinions. Opinions that have been hard to discover as the lies, boredom and sheer incompetence of the protagonists has put many off. It was difficult to attempt to work out the truth but I thought I got some idea, whether it was right we will have to wait and see. Tomorrow about seven we might know the answer as to who has won.
Funny how our thoughts change with time. I was reading a blog in which a young man tells of the difference between spending time travelling and then returning to the real world. I think reading it we can all find something to identify with in his tale. He talks of hitchhiking around, the people he met and places he visited. He discusses the differences in attitudes between those friendly folks he met while walking and the daily grind where smiles do not exist. We have all been there. I can recall similar attitudes. The difference between the behaviour of the people on the Edinburgh to Kings Cross train and the attitudes found in the deep, dank London Underground come to mind. People travelling long distance often, but not always, show a more relaxed approach to those around them while the man in the 'tube' cares little and fears much from his companions. I understand that! People who pick you up when hitchhiking along the A1 I found were often friendly and helpful, not counting the old fella late at night south of Newcastle who offered me a fiver for a little job! The fact is when in your youth travelling around, especially slowly, lets you see the country in a way never seen by staying in a boring job or never leaving one place of residence. Changes in landscape, how others live, local foodstuffs, dialect and language differences all leave a mark and returning home life seems in many ways safe but boring. My adventure in 1974 in which I bought a bike, not having ridden one for years, piled stuff into the saddlebags and two or three weeks later cycled off to London gave me similar thoughts. It also gave me the thought that I ought to have bought the stolen bike six months before not three weeks! However I saw a world I would have missed, met people I would not have known and been considered mad by folks who did not know me as well as those around today who consider me mad from experience. Those rich kids who can travel to exotic places, Europe, the Americas, Australasia or Greenock benefit even more by finding sunshine, exotic foodstuffs, large spiders and Berri-Berri, all this makes the mince and tatties of their childhood pales into significance, especially the Berri-Berri, however in some cases it may become all to familiar! However in the end reality sets in. Home, wherever it is made, means work to earn the cash to pay for the lifestyle. No matter what you do, no matter how talented, no matter how freelance you may be there are always deadlines to meet and people to obey. Freedom from work does not exist until you retire and for many a cheap life is all they have then. Mind you when in the 90's a cheap life is what most need! I will soon know. The joy of heading down the road into the sunshine is great when young. I recall returning to Edinburgh and watching a drama in which a young man heads off by rail into the future. As he stood discussing this with his near tearful girl the rail line stretched out behind him and as a 20 year old I so wanted to follow that railway - anywhere! Today I know that at the other end life is just the same as here, such a disappointment! We are lucky that in some cases our life improves when we follow the railway. Jesus took me back to London and life with him is better than any other. Others make a good life even if the rainbow does not land outside the door, some of course fall through the net and vanish. In the end the desire to see the world and the newness of life fade somewhat. Life can be good but age and experience alas arrives. The good things alongside this can make up for this, family, friends, wealth, hobbies, lifestyle and the like but the youthful outlook will perish. Such a shame innit.
With the rain postponed until tomorrow when I wish to be out and about I walked to work in some degree of sunshine and warmth this morning. Englishmen, being what they are, wore T-shirts and shorts and pretended they were in Marbella rather than Essex, but there again that is the Essex mentality, rather blank. I was somewhat surprised to note the Textile exhibit had ended, I forgot to check dates again, and soon afterwards the people arrived to set up the new Sci-Fi exhibition. For the next few months we are being Star Wars, Aliens, Harry Potters, Superman, Batman and other such fantasy people, if indeed 'people' is the right word. Super hero's aplenty will be seen wandering the museum, or at least standing against a wall hoping they do not fall down when some wee brat pulls at them. There was a great deal of work to set up the exhibits and unfortunately I was busy in the shop clearing the mess left behind from Saturday and checking in large amounts of new items that arrived. I so wished to help the men in the gallery.
The curators husband arrived at one point with some tools that were required for the workers. he dumped them, chatted as you do and as he left we exchanged a few words regarding the exhibition. In my innocent manner I indicated this would draw all the weirdo's who think they are Jedi into the museum. "JEDI!" He exclaimed forcefully. Indicating the correct pronunciation. It struck me I had struck a cord here. This man was a 'Jedi.' "We are in our forties and fifties you know," he stammered, "We have jobs and everything!" He left offering me a glare. Hmmm thought I, I touched a nerve there. His wife indicated he was not yet in his forties, he was into 'Jedi' and was not far from giggling at his response. I suspect she will have taken this further when she got home. He might use his Jedi self defence skills on me next time.
The fellow organising the exhibits told me there have been seven Star Wars films and there are ten more in the making! The man who took the rights to Star Wars did himself a favour here. How many millions has he made through these films, or at least the spin offs from them? I myself have only seen one, the first one, and bits of the others. Movies are not my thing, I get bored. However I am now envious of the money he has made! Just think, if I had his money I could afford to buy some of the Star Wars films merchandise!
Midsummer's Day, the longest day of the year. The sun rose almost before it went down and we could not see this as the clouds swept across the land drenching everyone and everything is a manner unknown outside of the 'driest county in England!' The best day of the year in my mind, although the shortest is actually better come to think about it as the days get longer after that. Tomorrow the days shorten and the nights begin to draw in. The rain will continue however and we bless the good Lord for his gift, but ask that it might stop sometime during the day.
The people rejoicing in the gift of rain that brings forth crops, grass, flowers and trench foot!
A women's sense of dress does not take into consideration the weather so much as the place she is going. No trench coat here, no need for spending lots at the 'Burberry' or 'Barbour' shops when a brolly will protect you from lashing rain that sweeps across the park!
Whether it was to care for the young or whether it was because the rain brings worms and other beasties to the surface it was clear the big birds were not put off by the rain. Indeed they appeared tor relish it as a large group gathered to inspect each blade of grass and listen for the worms gurgling their way to the surface. Monsoons strike Essex as often as they strike the colonies you know...
This was all I saw on TV this afternoon. NO FOOTBALL! On a Sunday! By three o' clock I was seeing spiders let alone cats! By the time I returned from St P's I had developed an appetite having forgotten to eat properly before I went out and combined with hunger and tiredness came the empty TV screen. No football! What a cruel world.
While I await the football here is some wonderful music.
How the hacks must be happy tonight. Tim Peake the 'Brit' in space has returned safe. This means they can move on from the tale of the shot MP and talk about something different. The caring media love a new story as yesterdays news does not sell, especially when the story has been told and you are merely filling space in both print and sound and vision rather than acting like a journalist. A new story, and this man has been a news story since he went up six months ago, a new story is a delight to the media. For me it means nothing. Certainly he has had fun in space, certainly he has done decent experiments and taught children from up above live into their classroom or school hall, certainly it is a difficult thing to be weightless for six months. However as a woman 'Brit' has already been up in the shuttle some time ago I fail to see the adventure here. Add to this the fact that the 'Brit' had to take US citizenship before he could go means that he is now a 'US, Brit' and not a 'Brit!' Add also the fact that a Russian and an American were also up there with him and they were almost never mentioned at any time and I see the union flag waving as a wee bit of rampant English imperialist xenophobia. That at least is something they are good at. I suppose it would be tedious to point out that such flights into space have gone on for years and this man is not therefore that special, so I will not point this out in case it upsets someone. He knows a great deal, he has done his job, he has had fun but spare us the rest please.
At a few minutes before seven this morning I stopped to allow the defibrillator to be used on me at the top of the slope and cogitated at the sky above. It may interest you to know that according to some Monday the 20th of June will be the longest day this year, that is the Summer solstice! Today is the 18th day and the weather is not yet very Summery. I may have burnt myself on one of the two days hot weather we have so far noted but I wish summer to be more of a length than this. It's just no fair so it's no!
Sad for the relatives and especially the husband of Jo Cox the lass who was gunned down. The man accused when asked his name in the dock did not answer "Thomas Mair" as he ought but "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain." One suspects he will be locked up under a law which regards him as mentally insane and unfit for prison but given a kind of life sentence in a secure unit. This is hard for some and a friend of mine today notes a year since his wife passed on. How hard this has been for him even allowing for the many friends praying for him. In the end he goes home alone and still has that empty space beside him. Jo Cox's husband is young enough to remarry, and indeed with two young children ought to, but many others are alone and no-one can comfort them.
One more football game tonight. From tomorrow the games will be played at a more social time, five in the evening and eight for the last game. How glad am I to be able to get some sleep at last! All this action has been ruining my social life. Social life in this context is not to be confused with actually having a social life! My life has however been out of context, I have missed many radio programmes I would otherwise have heard, missed much sleep and trips to far off towns to buy cheap meat and other requirements. Little has been done in the abode either, not that this makes much difference as you know. Roll on tomorrow.
For some reason my eye keeps catching the telephone wires that hang rather untidily around this town. I suppose when in London I rarely saw such things yet out here they are not hidden. Often I note the lines and their relationship to the colour of the sky behind (oops, reading too many art mags at work) and know there is a photograph in there somewhere. Today the black clouds forming in the east (much darker in real life than shown) warned of heavy rain and possible thunder. This clashed with the bright sun behind me as I sauntered home from my airing this afternoon. I didn't mean to saunter, I just do! The rain came when I settled down to watch the first failing football match of the day. Another poor effort yet the one that followed was much better. This was being won by Croatia by two goals to nil until the Croatian fans, or one of the far right gangs of thugs that follow them, threw several flares onto the pitch five minutes from the end. Sadly for them their opponents the Czech Republic had scored one goal by then and this interruption disturbed both teams allowing mistakes to be made and a penalty given to the Czechs. A 2-2 draw resulted and EUFA will no doubt sanction Croatia and possibly throw them out! Croatian fans are notorious for bother. Racism, flares, fighting, destruction is common enough there during games. Various right wing gangs are involved, the Croatians supported the Nazis during the second world war and are still inclined to support such policies now, just remember the troubles in the Balkans just a few years ago. Of course if they survive they may meet England, that might be an interesting outcome.
These Euro games are unending. They are on three times a day every day until the sections have been decided and then some form of normality returns sometime next week. This means I miss my afternoon siesta when I have to enter the historical world and even on my days off I miss the sleep that my beauty desperately requires and it is beginning to show. Work today was slow, my mind was slower, little happened to keep me awake and with so many missing the place was quiet. Much time was spent watching threatening clouds pass over. These refused to drop rain on the town until after I left and went to Tesco's. On the way home I was drenched thank you so much! Fair drookit I was and I had hurried home to watch the Wales v England match in the afternoon.
This was a disappointing affair, not only did the referee not allow Wales to win he did allow two lucky goals for England (BOO!) which were not what I or the rest of the world ordered. Hopefully however the Welshmen can still progress when England (BOO!) lose their last match against Slovakia on Monday while Wales manage to beat shoddy Russia. Hope spring eternal mush.
Unbalanced gunmen however are not it appears the sole property of the USA. This afternoon a Labour Member of Parliament, Jo Cox, was attacked in her home town outside her constituency office by a member of the public. She was it appears both shot and knifed. A few hours later she sadly died in hospital. Some reports claim the attacker cried "Britain First," as he assaulted her. 'Britain First' is the name of one of the lunatic far right parties but it could just be that his cry was in some strange way support for Britain leaving the EU which he clearly thought she opposed. At this time his motives and mental health are unclear however a 52 year old man is in custody and the police are looking for no other regarding this attack. I grumbled rightly that the gay lobby were using the Orlando assault as an attack on them, their usual 'victim hood' status. That man chose that club as it was there, and he apparently knew it well, however had that club not existed he would sooner or later have turned his guns on someone somewhere as his problem was not Islamic or gay but mental unbalance. Today we see the British version of this. Many questions must be asked, the gun for instance is not something the man in the street here would carry nor find easy to obtain, so where did it come from and what does possessing one say about him? What does it say about us? We tend not to attack people in the normal course but just how much, or indeed little, pressure is required to lead us into a situation where we lash out in anger and destroy another life? As john Bunyan said when watching a man being taken to be hanged There but for the grace of God go I." Jo Cox leaves a husband and two children, she was 41 years of age.
Nothing happened today. This is good. I did walk all the way to the Post Office to post a small packet but nothing else. The packet contained a small gift for a baby who weighed between 11 and 12 pounds when born. I enclosed a small cuddly elephant. Mum and dad are slim and this is the result of allowing a 17 year old to go to Spain with her boyfriend. Hmmm is it just me that wonders how fat the postman is around there...? Anyway I slowly pottered my way home via the grassy bits and took in some sunshine. I am not too keen on this as the day I sat in the sun, shirt wide open to attract women, has left me with a blotched red facade which itches, hurts and reminds me of what a stupid man I can be. Hot sun is a good idea but not when you are imitating Moby Dick! Nothing happened on the way back. Traffic past hastening to important events. A woman trailed across the field behind a dog, a youth passed stuck to a pink iphone (pink!), and a couple of men in a parked car laughed nearby giving the impression they were coppers watching someones house very badly indeed. It is no fun being a copper in such situations. Years back my brother ran a newsagent shop until it nearly killed him and his wife forced him to forget it. The normal procedure for him was to leave the house at four in the morning where a police car ending his evening shift would almost always collect him and run him down to the shop. One chilly day this did not happen. He wandered on down and as he turned the key in the shop door several men flung themselves at him and barged him into the shop. They were frozen policemen who had been spending the night in the cars watching for an event that did not occur. Instead of opening the shop my brother was forced to make breakfast for several half dead bored officers. The sun shone on the way home, the large clouds gathered and threatened yet more short lived downpours, yesterday the museums lights dimmed and the alarm system went mad as thunder rolled and possibly a lightning flash hit the building. It took three hours to put that right, I watched. Nothing continued to happen here however. I ate an early lunch, around 10:30 and by eleven I was asleep, a point I have since indicated to all those hard at work at that time. Their replies I do not publish. Nothing has happened since because the Euro games continued. Slovenia swept aside Russia, although they almost through it away at the end and another game is about to begin soon, Romania and Switzerland, how wonderful! I feel sympathetic to those in Aussieland who have to get up in the middle of the night to watch these games I really do, however I suspect none of my friends are among them! How lucky for the Americans who in between local shootings can watch these games early in the morning while having breakfast!
All this Euro football is wearing me out. Not that the games are that exciting, indeed I have been disappointed with the show so far and this afternoon I spent more time ironing shirts for what I call work than watching Spain struggle against the Czech Republic. Three games a day at the moment and few really exciting incidents. However the fitness of such young men was in my mind as I struggled up the old railway this morning. The slope was steeper today than yesterday, do you think they were working on it to spite me? Monday brings a different crowd from the weekend as a few have to walk the dog before work and others are met cycling past in haste, especially downhill, to get in before seven o'clock. I joined the retired set and the 'so late it's not worth rushing set' as I dawdled downhill on my way home. How would fit footballers find this slope? Considering that forty years ago most footballers idea of healthy eating was fish and chips, which indeed are good for you, and two or three or more pints of beer, which are less kind, I suspect older footballers would struggle and today's athletes would find cycling up here very easy indeed. The transformation in footballers fitness is quite something, all based on proper exercise and eating habits. Must stop, the chips are burning...
Ignoring the news for the most part these days gives me a much better understanding of the world around us. It avoids the news being forced down the throat and allows us to stand back and consider the news we do see. Take the fuss over the latest mass killing in the US for instance, lots of reactions in the media and much condemnation for those who do not react, also in the media. This of course is because this time the gunman (I refuse to say 'shooter') chose a gay bar as his target therefore as we know this makes this killing worse in the medias eyes than if it was a run of the mill school shooting. The With little news other than a killing and the continuing but boring referendum lies the hack journalists must be delighted with a an outrage they can get their teeth into, much lamenting, a great many stories (some true) and an opportunity to ask the eternal 'Why?' question that they know will not be answered. Others have jumped on the bandwagon, Nicola Sturgeon the Scots First Minister has flown the gayboys flag outside the Scots Parliament in a show of support. She of course has a deluded view that she can introduce a 'third gender,' and this also gets her support from the younger chattering classes around her, even the English queen sent a message though to be honest she usually does this in any disaster but it is not often quoted. The arguments rage concerning the motives, hatred of gays, Islamic terrorism or just another unbalanced crank? Well of course the answer is all three. This guy was it appears, and I have not tried to delve deeply into the half truths and lies published concerning him, this guy appears to have been influenced by some 'radical' preachers offering an ISIS type approach to Islam, he also was possibly a bit slow in understanding but as he was born in Afghanistan I believe his culture has not developed into a normal US culture. A culture that carries guns and often shoots people. Guns, the carrying of anything outside a small pistol in a town or city where there are no dangerous animals walking the streets would be banned in any sensible nation, in the US however almost anyone can walk into a gunshop and leave with a Kalashnikov or even a Second World War anti aircraft gun if they so choose, this must be seen as absurd but for reasons of their own it isn't seen that way by the National Rifle Association! Carrying a nail file onto an aircraft is seen as dangerous, carrying a sub machine gun is however OK to them! These are the people who will vote for Trump! Was this gunman anti gay? Probably. Was he an ISIS terrorist? Probably not but certainly impressed by them. Was he under orders? I doubt it, he was just doing what he understood to be his duty before his god. Such a shame he did not discuss this with others, as is often the case such people act individually with no contact with any varying opinion. Forty people are dead, possibly more depending on which paper you read, much pain and sorrow is left behind. While many grieve the gay lobby is making the most of the opportunity to gather support and suppress opposition as they always do. I wonder if they condemned the killing of just as many in Turkey a short while ago, or the treatment of migrants in several European countries? It is a sad fact but this nation and the west in general lives under a fear of Islamic terrorism yet forgets and under reports the plain truth that more Muslims are killed by Muslims than anyone else! Shia kill Sunni, Pakistan has seen hundreds of thousands killed yet we offer no sympathy, wars in Iraq and Syria are encouraged and paid for by Islamic states (and we give the bombs to Saudi to drop of Yemen's children) and horrendous treatment is offered in many Islamic countries to their own people yet we tend to fear killings here I fifty people have died here it is a tragedy however thousands have been killed by everyday Americans this year alone and it is taken for granted! The US Police have killed more than any terrorist this year that's for sure! I'm irked because the gay lobby are taking advantage of this tragedy while elsewhere suppressing people who disagree with them, I'm irked because people use tragedy for political or personal advantage, I'm irked because until we give ourselves in repentance to Jesus this will continue, lie after lie and tragedy after tragedy.
On a lighter note I did not get knocked off my bike by a horse on the bridleway this morning. Finding horses that early is hard in these parts. Finding ducks at the pond was also difficult, I could hear them making gruff noises but could not see them for the undergrowth. How lovely that growth is at this time of year. The overnight rain brought out the deep atmospheric aroma vegetation offers, birds of many kinds singing in the trees enlightens the mood and knowing the trip is downhill now and I will not be impersonating the wee J5 engines that used to puff up and down the slope cheers me greatly. Getting fit is a good idea but it is killing me!
