Mad Darby Diaries

The purpose of this blog is to look  at the absurd and the humorous, which can be difficult when so many sad things are happening around one but chin up and look lively.  I have dipped in and out of the impeachment trial of Trump and I have found that since his defence has been defending it is a great way of going to sleep.  What with the lack of any attempt to actually defend him, apart from saying he didn't do it, their voices have been so monotonous, droning on and on about nothing at all, and totally ignoring the mountains of evidence against him. The French have finally woken up to the fact that Brexit is happening and have started to ask me whether it will make a difference to my status.  Well the first thing is that we have been banned from voting in  the local elections, even though we are permanent residents.  This is particularly galling as I wanted to add my vote to whoever stands against the Mayor, who is useless.  The strikers are hit...

My son, who has learning disabilities had his bank card stolen this week.  Money was taken out of his account before he could do anything about it.  This is particularly cruel as he doesn't rely on benefits to live, he works for his salary and always has done.  Has the world become more cruel since Trump came to power?  I believe it has and yet, despite all the lies, deceit and outright crooked acts, he manages to escape, mainly because he is surrounded by sycophants.  A tennis player was telling me how she loves to iron as it smooths her problems away.   I take the opposite view.  Did ironing this morning take away thieves and Trump from my thoughts? No.  I am no good at it.  Everything looks worse than when I started.  I tried to iron a fitted sheet and finished up screwing it into a ball and shoving it in a cupboard.  I remember visiting one of my sisters soon after she married.  She was a teacher so was impressed th...

I am not the sort of person you would describe as being 'dippy' but sometimes I catch myself being just that.  Since the beginning of January, when my family left, I have struggled to see when I am driving at night.  'Good heavens', I thought, ' I know older people have trouble seeing so clearly at night but could my night blindness happen so quickly?' I did two evening drives in the dark before I had the sense to actually check the lights on the car.  They all worked.  I looked at the controls and fiddled around with them for a while and then the light bulb went off in my head.  My grandson loves sitting in the driving seat of my car and he touches all the controls and there it was, he had  changed the headlight setting to the dimmest it could be.   'I am an idiot', I thought. This isn't as bad as another dippy moment I had about 10 years ago.  I had been to a dinner in a restaurant along the Loire.  When we came out it was dark an...

Well I am an optimist and always happy regardless of what life throws at me so despite Trump and the pile of laundry facing me now the family have left, I am positive.  I collected all the dirty sheets, pillows, duvet covers (king size) and towels and divided them  into 5 loads.  So far so good.  So why what was I thinking when I grabbed the settee cover that I bought in India and threw it in with the pillow protectors, pillow cases and table cloths?  I now have blue pillow protectors, blue pillow cases and a wonderful swirling blue pattern on the table cloths. I had coffee with an Italian friend this morning who is looking forward to her first grandchild being born.  I have grandchildren almost in their thirties and little grandchildren past the baby stage.  Catherina is looking for baby stuff, a cot etc.,  (Surely my children have done producing children now), so I offered her all my baby things.  It will be s..'s law that those grandson...