Mad Darby Diaries

A Sting in the Tale In 2009 I decided to sell my  house in Les Rosiers sur Loire and move on to pastures new. ‘What’s that?’  The Estate Agent asked.  He was pointing at a wooden door, a foot square set in the wall of one of the five caves under my house. (and no, I didn't keep wine in all of them).  I opened it and out flew ‘things’.  I wasn’t sure if it was spores or insects but I brushed them away and closed it. Later that evening I was trying to read but my face was itching, just under my left eye.   I rubbed it, and kept rubbing it.   (Lesson number one – don’t!) The next morning I glanced in the mirror.   Quasimodo stared back. Big swollen bags were hanging down my face.   My nose had doubled in size and there were angry, red sores below and beside my left eye.     I looked in the magnified mirror and confirmed it – I was hideous.   I remembered the door and my itchy eye and was convinced that I had been st...

 Once you have children you lose your identity, suddenly becoming, 'this is my mum' then 'this is my grandma.'  He hum I cough politely and smiling I hold out my hand, 'Hi I am Sue.'  'Oh yeah,' my offspring mutter, as though surprised that I exist in some other form, or  ever dared to have another form before becoming their mother/grandma.  The other day a man approached with a lady by his side and said, 'Hi Sue, this is my wife,' leaving me to ask her what her name was, on the assumption that it wasn't 'wife'. Vaguely on the same subject, Trump, while giving evidence in one of his numerous investigations against him, confused the woman he sexually abused with his first wife, and last week he thought Nicky Haley, who is running against him in the Republican party, with Nancy  Pelosi, the former speaker of the House.   Nicky  is 52 and Nancy is in her 80s  but then I suppose all women over the age of 25 look the same to him.   ...

 I lived in Khartoum for 3 years, not an easy place to live and work but we survived.  Now it is being attacked by 2 military men, who want to be all powerful at the expense of the ordinary citizens who endure a harsh life at the best of times.  They are being killed in their hundreds by their own military leaders and even if one manages to defeat the other, the winner will be in military control of the country.  Russia, especially the Wagner group, have their hand in it.  They have provided weapons in return for gold and other precious commodities.  Russia has exchanged weapons for the right to build their own port at Port Sudan where they are probably sitting back and watching with glee the death and destruction being inflicted on the Sudanese people. In Tunisia, the President is in the process of turning the country back to a dictatorship.  In Ukraine the Russia continue their relentless assault of their neighbour, and China threatens the future of ...

 In the US dozens of children are killed every month by guns and hundreds of people in total, and yet lawmakers, mainly Republicans, doggedly stick to their mantra of their right to bear arms.  When the Constitution was written there were no rapid fire rifles, machine guns and the myriad of other weapons that are now to be found everywhere in the States.  In addition, the right to bear arms was intended for men to come to the help of law enforcers and even military, in time  of need.  It's intention was not for every person in the country to hold multiple weapons in their homes or for the children to be the targets.  A Senator this morning said that it is the fault of people with mental health problems, get them identified and the killing will stop.  When they can't accept their own mental incapacity to see that they are aiding and abetting the killers by refusing to take the necessary steps to curb gun ownership, then how are they any better than the ...

 Will he, won't he?  I am not that bothered if Trump is indicted in New York or not,  although it would grieve me if, having been indicted he was then found not guilty.  I am waiting for him to be charged on the major cases, trying to change the results of the election, sedition and mishandling of official documents.  I am tired of hearing that he is a special case because he is a former president.  No he is not.  He is a criminal and should be treated like anyone else, although so far, the law seems to have tip-toed round him.   If you look at the UK newspaper headlines you would think that the whole of France is suffering from burning cars, riots, piles of stinking rubbish and of course, strikes.  In Paris this would be sort of accurate, although not the whole of Paris is under siege.  Here in Saumur we have a weekly protest, noisy, banner waving, nothing else.  Is that why the centre is being dug up by the council do you thi...

I have just spent 10 days in the UK.  It rained every day for five days and then it snowed.  After the snow came the sleet and the day I left it was warm and sunny.  On one of the snowy days I brushed 3 inches off the car of my daughter in law and went to collect my grandson from school.  The narrow,  country roads where my son lives, has thousands of potholes and on that particular day the snow had covered them, drawing unsuspecting drivers into them.  Bang went the car in a concealed pothole.  Immediately I knew that the exhaust had been knocked off but I had to drive another 60 metres in order to pull off the narrow road.  Clanging along I thought of that Beatle's song, there are 12,000 holes in Lancashire, or something like that.  Try Buckinghamshire!   I spent some time travelling by underground and train and was intrigued by the number of young people 18 to 40, male and female, who spend there journey time looking at themselve...