Mad Darby Diaries

Today is the last day of dry January.  I was told that if one gives up alcohol for a month, the skin looks better, you look younger and you sleep better.  Well I was wandering around the house at 2.30am so forget the sleeping bit and when I looked in the mirror my skin, which as a child was covered in freckles, is now covered in age spots.  As for looking younger, hogwash. As I couldn't sleep at 2.30am I watched a CNN special about  QAnon.  This is a loose collection of conspiracy theorists, ranging from the flat earth society to 9/11 never happened.  None of their crazy ideas are true and to make matters worse they have made Trump their cult leader.  Why would you follow a spoilt five year old who suffers from delusion and temper tantrums?  These are scary people because, apart from the fact that you can't reason with them or even have a conversation, they are also violent.  Only the US could have some of their followers sitting in power in ...

While the world population anxiously waits for things  to get back to normal, the leaders are fighting over who gets the most vaccine.  While they are arguing over who paid what, who ordered what and who should get priority, none of us are actually receiving the vaccine.  The situation in France is dire with no appointments available, while in the UK they are pumping vaccines into millions of arms but delaying the second shot by 12 weeks, which is against scientific and medical advice.  In the US they can't find where the vaccines have gone or how much is available.   Why we call them leaders I shall never know. After the initial outrage by the Republicans over Trump's attempt to take over the country by force, they have once more become sycophants.  They seem blind to the fact that the keys have been given to the inmates  of the asylum and that following their cult figure will only lead to disaster for them, the country and their reputation in th...

I long for the day I can get back on the tennis or golf course.  I want to travel to see my family and just to get back to going anywhere.  I am fortunate,  however, that I live in the country and can walk or cycle from my front door.  A friend e mailed and said he walks round and round the garden like Rudolph Hess in Spandau prison and my sister lives in a tiny apartment with no garden in the middle of a concrete jungle.  A friend in Florida was moaning  that the beaches were closed so she had to swim in her pool every day,  while a friend in California is also confined to her house with just the pool and tennis court.  Life can be tough. The UK has vaccinated millions (although it is not clear how many have had their second dose), the French have vaccinated 400,000 and all appointment slots are full, and that is just for the over 75s.  A dismal effort, bordering on pathetic.  France has continued to carry out normal operations, you can...

 Although as we get older the inclination is not to look in the mirror, sometimes it  is prudent to do so.  Yesterday I went to the Ophthalmologist for my check up following my cataract operations.  The French love putting drops in your eyes so I was not surprised when each of the three people I saw came at me with small bottle in hand.  I was there for nearly two hours and then I had to sit in my car for an hour until my vision  cleared.  On the way home I stopped in the supermarket but being desperate for the ladies I went there first.  As I washed my hands I looked in the mirror and to my horror there was an image of a rusty panda.  Circled around my eyes were orange streaks and because I must have touched them they had spread out across my forehead.  Masks cover a multitude of sins, lines and sagging chins but the eyes and forehead are left exposed for the world to see.  I ran the tap and tried desperately to rub it off but it h...

I was doing so well, 9 days into January I had had no alcohol, not even on my birthday, then friends phoned and invited me to lunch.  As we have been isolating for months, only leaving the house for medical appointments, the supermarket or exercise, they felt confident in us getting together.  It is months since I had spoken to anyone in  person so I accepted, but what to do about dry January.  My eldest son also does dry January but on his birthday he breaks the pledge, so I decided that the 10th January would be my new birthday and I would have a glass of wine with my lunch.  All well and good until a week later, this weekend, the same thing has happened and guess what I am going to break the pledge again and add two days on to the end of January.  Of course I will have to be back home by 6pm when the curfew starts.  I received a parcel today which my son posted at the beginning of December. Yesterday I went for a ride on my bike and got soaked, the ...

In France the vaccine is being given to people in old people's homes, healthcare workers and over 75s - slowly.  My sister said, 'isn't it a shame you are not older then you could have it.'  As much as I would like the vaccine so I can travel again, I do not wish to be older.  I have already lost a year talking to myself.  On Sunday, in keeping with the rules, 5 of us met for lunch in a couple's house.  All five of us have been more or less totally isolated for months so we felt fairly confident that it was safe.   What a delight it was to sit around a table, talking and laughing with actual people.  That is what the world has missed most of all, socialising. What a whimpy country the US is when they can't get rid of a President who commits insurrection.  I don't want us to go back to the guillotine but the performance going on across the pond is pathetic.  No-one seems to be running the country while the right wing rioters take over....

 Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.  Any other democracy, whose leader incited insurrection, would be immediately removed from office but the USA laws and constitution make everything so long and complicated.  Trump could resign but he needs time to pardon Giuliano and his sons, let alone try to pardon himself, so it is not likely.    It was shameful to watch the Capitol being invaded with no intervention  from the security services.  Had they been told to stay away by the President or by those who didn't want to go against Trump's supporters?  While all the drama is going on, nearly 5000 people are dying every day in the USA from Covid 19.  While Trump was swiftly condemned by many leaders around the world, Putin and Erdogan gloated and Boris Johnson reluctantly called out Trump on his second try. Vaccinations are being given out everywhere, millions in the UK, hundreds of thousands in Germany and other countries and in...

  It is probable that more than any year before we have no plans, no idea what lies before us and the only new year resolution I could think of was to survive.  It is quite exciting in a way, stepping into the unknown, where like the novel 1984, the world is out of our control and all we can do is to try and maintain our sanity until that control returns to us. The new year arrived and so too did another birthday.  We will have grown 2 years older during this pandemic and when you are fairly ancient anyway that is quite a lot of time lost.  I have had a year to learn Spanish or write a book and yet I have done neither.  Maybe I will concentrate on learning and writing once Trump has left the White House because I know I have spent an inordinate amount of time watching his antics on CNN.  I tried watching Andrew Marr interview Johnson about the pandemic but after ten minutes I had no idea what he was talking about, nor could I figure out whether he was sayin...