Mad Darby Diaries

I am losing my past.  The friends and family who shared that past and my memories are disappearing until I find myself only being in contact with people I have met in the last few years.  My past is like the writing on a chalk board being erased line by line until it is gone.  I lost my last contact with my childhood yesterday when I visited a friend I have had since we were five years old.  Somehow we have managed to keep in touch even though our lives took completely different paths but yesterday when I visited she had disappeared into the realms of dementia, lost in a world that her family and friends do not belong to. My disappearing past is my own fault.  I have moved so many times, made good, close friends and then lost touch with them when I have moved on.  Never one to look backwards, I now have no choice but to look forwards.  To what I wonder?  Well first of all hopefully to the demise of Trump, to a Brexit deal so that I can keep my ...

I drove to the ferry a couple of weeks ago and stopped in a service station, not one with petrol and shop, just toilets and picnic tables.  As I stood munching on my ryvita and cheese, followed by an apple, I watched the French unload their lunch.  Out came tablecloths, real cutlery, china plates and serviettes, bowls of fresh salad, cheese, ham and the proverbial bread and wine.  Yes they know how to travel in style.  I read a book once about the British and French armies in North Africa.  The British sat down any old place with a tin filled with corned beef while the French army set up tables, cutlery and all the trimmings and even candelabra.  Well at least they seem to have ditched the candelabra. My son, my sister and I went to Spain for a few days.  It was challenging.  My sister is terrified of everything that involves travel and technology, even putting a train ticket in the barrier to get in and out of a station defeated her.  She...

I give up trying to understand what is going on in the heads of the politicians in the UK - on all sides of the spectrum.  They all voted to trigger Article 50 so I assume they all agreed to respect the result of the referendum.  I could understand why no-one wanted the Irish backstop as negotiated by Theresa May but since then the whole situation has changed.  We have people who want no-deal, those who don't, and others who want a withdrawal agreement but refuse to sign it.  Corbyn has been pushing for a General Election for months and now says he won't agree to one.  And does anyone in Parliament actually care what the people think?  I know that to the rest of the world, the UK has slid into a democratic abyss from which I am not sure it can recover.  It is difficult to even support or agree with one side or the other when they keep changing their minds every five minutes.  I say sack the lot of them, put a toddler in charge and he or she can p...