Mad Darby Diaries

 I have moved on from one son to another.  Yesterday my 6 year old grandson managed to knock over a bucket of water.  My son rushed into the room exclaiming that he had never seen so much water.  How I wish children could remember the dastardly things they did when they were young.  It was 1973 in New York.  I woke up early as usual and made my way to the bathroom.  The sink was blocked with flannels, the taps were full on and water was cascading on to the floor.  I turned the taps off and rushed downstairs like Cruella de Ville, seeking out my errant children, then aged 3 and 4.  At the bottom of the stairs I could turn right into the kitchen or left into the living room.  I turned right.  Big mistake,  As my bare feet landed in several inches of water I got an electric shock.  There was water running down the walls and the cupboards, through the electric sockets.  I leapt back and ran round the other way, through th...

 The weather is so unpredictable in the UK that the weather forecasters generally add 'a chance of rain' just to cover themselves.   It isn't just rain either, I can leave the house in the morning bathed in warm sunshine only to find myself shivering 3 hours later.  This makes the Queen's funeral even more remarkable in that the weather behaved during all the various comings and goings.  I missed the funeral as I was driving to the ferry but by all accounts it was the pageantry that was impressive.   'Put up or shut up,' Trump has been told by his own choice of special master.  The world has been  saying this for years, every time he came out with one of his absurd lies and hopefully we will soon see him marched off in handcuffs, but I shouldn't hold your breath.  Even by Trump's standards he surpassed himself yesterday when he declared that he declassified all the secret documents just by thinking about it.  Beats divine interventi...

It started with the almost never-ending election of the British Prime Minister, who was voted in by a select few.  When two days later the Queen died, I almost felt sorry for Liz Truss.  Her promise to 'hit the ground running', ran into the buffers before she could get off the starting blocks, leaving her with a list of postponed problems but probably with more sympathy and understanding than otherwise she may have received.   While she struggles with her situation it seems the world responded to the loss of 'the Queen', even Putin had some kind  words to say.  This view wasn't unanimous  though as the news of her death brought up past imperialism, inequality and possible racism.  While these points are all valid it probably isn't the best time to complain about them.  I don't know who said, 'don't blame me for the sins of my father' but it is true.  I am  sure the Queen did not purposely allow these practices to continue, it was ju...

 People watching is a fascinating pastime and in  France most of us enjoy just sitting in a café watching the world go by and observing the antics of passers-by but you don't have to be in a café.  For years I have watched numerous shoppers fill their trolleys to the brim then at the checkout they put it all on the counter.  Ok you are thinking, don't we all do that?  Correct, but I for one then put all my shopping in the bags that I have brought with me, pay for my goods and lift the bags into my car.  However there are people who, as their things pass through checkout, put them,  not  into bags, but loose back in the trolley.  Fascinated I have followed them to their cars (stalking) where they then empty the trolley either into bags in their car or more bizarrely, straight into the trunk without bagging them at all.  I am not really a stalker so I haven't actually followed them home to see how long it takes to empty  a trunk full ...

 I hate talking about my personal life, especially to comparative strangers.  A group of us were having lunch yesterday when one of us suddenly demanded that the 2 women present tell him everything about ourselves.  Why are you on your own?  Were you married?  Why aren't you married now?  It continued in this vain while we ignored him.  This appeared to annoy him as he turned to me and demanded to know what I knew about him.  'I know you are Dutch and that you have a granddaughter,' I replied.  He had just shown us a photo of her.    'What don't you know about my personal life?' he asked.  I sighed, 'I don't need to know anything about you and frankly I am not interested in knowing more about your personal life, unless you have lived somewhere interesting or had an interesting job.  Your opinion  on world affairs would make conversation, or a good  book you have read or almost anything apart from your marital sta...

The long, hot summer continues with major rivers looking more like dust bowls and wild fires devastating forests, homes and wildlife.  On top of that the Antarctic is melting, and yet little is being done to tackle climate change when you look at the major powers.  Ok Biden passing his latest efforts will help but when looked at through the lens of the wider picture, it is very little and far too late. Someone who is definitely feeling the heat is Trump but in his usual fashion he lies, exaggerates and raises a fortune in contributions from all the suckers who listen to his tosh. Nothing much in the political  world can shock me these days but I was close to it when I read an article on the BBC website that said anyone in the world can become a member of the conservative party, even if they are not British, are not eligible to vote in UK elections and have never lived in Britain.  Yet here we are having the next British Prime Minister being chosen by people totally u...

 When you have family staying the time passes in a flash but it is so enjoyable while it  lasts.  This year the heat has meant that most things have had  to be done early doors in order to avoid the afternoon heat.  I don't mind how hot it is but I struggle with scorching sun shining down on me; I am definitely a shade person.  Now my family have left I had time to meet up with friends in a café this morning.  The temperature was better, helped by a gentle breeze, and I could have stayed there all day chatting away in French to my friend on the right and in English to Ann  on my left.  The group is a moveable feast, different nationalities turn up and stay as long as they like and it makes  for a relaxing way of passing the time.  Ann said she was concerned that she wasn't using her brain enough so I asked my French friend what she did all day.  Apparently she spends the morning preparing and cooking a three course lunch for he...

 The air conditioning has broken in my car so it was some relief when the temperature dropped  back to the 30 degree mark.  This gave my neighbours fresh enthusiasm to clear up overgrown vegetation.  At my request my American neighbour climbed down to a flat bit of ground where a tree had grown about 6 feet in as many weeks, to lop it.  My job was to clear all the debris when it fell and drag it to a parking space in the courtyard.  The system was working well with another neighbour and her granddaughter joining in to help me clear the debris.  Meanwhile. up above us the American was in full swing, not stopping at 'lopping' the tree but cutting it right back to its roots.  Soon great big branches were hurtling down and that is when it happened.  One branch, instead of coming straight down to the ground decided to take a detour onto his garage roof, creating a big hole right above where his precious car, a Tesla, was being kept safe and sound....

 Last Monday my son and daughter in law were due to catch the 8.15am ferry from Portsmouth to Caen.  It was 6.45am when I stepped out of the shower and heard my phone  going.  I snatched it up.  It was a video  call.  'Mum, we have big problems here,'  and before I could speak he thrust the phone into the hands of a Brittany ferries' staff member and said, 'Talk  to my mum.'  Barely conscious of my wet, tangled hair and trying to cover myself up with a  towel which thought gravity was fun, I asked what the problem was.  Apparently they had the wrong vaccination certificates and were being refused passage.  I asked what I could do and she said they could go and get a test and take a later ferry.  'Where is the nearest test centre in Portsmouth?'  I asked.  'There isn't one,' she replied, 'there  is one in Southampton, or Havant.'  What!  No test centre in Portsmouth?  They both have learni...

 I don't do hairdressers' because they  are expensive, they never do what I  want and I hate having my hair washed by someone else.  I have never  coloured it, thank goodness, so I can get away with not having inane conversations with someone I don't know but who questions me on my personal life and expects me to share all my secrets with him  or her.  I usually visit a hairdresser,who is willing to give me a dry cut, once a year, twice at the most, and in between I hack at it myself.  This causes the hairdresser much distress as she tries to remedy my pathetic attempts.  A few years ago my daughter in law, seeing me chopping with a pair of nail scissors, insisted on giving me a 'proper' pair.  As several months have passed since my last visit, this morning I decided that the time had come to pick up the scissors and have a go.  I just wanted to cut about 2 inches or so off the bottom.  I can't seem to tackle wet hair so I drie...

I had to go next door to inspect the wall that our building shares.  While there the owner, Jean Michel, asked if I like rhubarb and did I know when to pick it.  It was green, rather than the usual reddish colour, but large and when I lightly tugged it, it came away from its stalk. 'Ah,' he said, 'it must be ready' and before I could protest I found myself with an enormous pile of rhubarb in my arms, enough to feed the whole of Saumur.  'My wife doesn't know how to cook it,' he said, so I felt obliged to offer to make them a rhubarb crumble, although I had enough rhubarb to bake fifty. The next day I went to a picnic and one of my friends was telling a group of people that I was famous for killing  plants and warning them against giving me any.  Clearly they were all keen gardeners and gave me the same look that animal lovers cast upon me when I confess to having no pets. So back to the rhubarb.  I made the crumble and carried it to my neighbours' house....

 On Friday I decided to slum it, I didn't wash my hair, put on a shabby tee shirt and jeans and set to work doing those chores around the house that get put off week after week.  I was on my knees scrubbing the dirt that accumulates on skirting boards when you live in an apartment that is 300 years old, when two men appeared in the doorway.  One was the plumber and the other his 16 year old son.  'Just came to say hello,' Michel said, walking in and taking a seat at the table.  I got to my feet.  'Great,' I said, 'lovely to see you.'  I would have said come in and take a seat but they had pre-empted me.  'Would you like a coffee?' I asked, as my American neighbour appeared and joined them at the table.  'Sue,' Michel said, 'we have coffee at breakfast and after lunch,' and looking at his watch, 'now it's apero time.'  Of course it was, how silly of me not to notice.  I glanced at the clock, 12.20pm, and then at the shelf w...

 It is summer and tennis has moved outdoors onto an impossible hard  court but one the players prefer over the clay courts, or terre battue as the French call them.  The other week I fell over on the hard court, which should be renamed corps battue, because one ends up with a battered body.  I digress, however.  On Monday I went to play doubles.  Each of the players turned up in miniscule skirts and barely covering the obvious, tee shirts.  They laughed at my usual long tennis pants and a shirt that covered my elbows.  'It is so hot', they said.  Yes it was hot but my tennis gear is protection for when I fall over again on a court which is made of a substance that sticks your feet to it, inviting the rest of the body to join it on the ground.  Yesterday I fell over again.  So I am not so stupid after all. The world  is in a mess, not least in the States where the Supreme Court is putting the country back 200 years as far as gun...

 I am sure we all have our pet stupid rules and the one I came across this week is not only stupid but also expensive.  This is one that has been in existence for many years but didn't affect the Brits until Brexit.  Every time someone comes  to stay with me, even family,  I have to go to the Mairie with 13 pieces of  paper, including proof that I own my apartment, proof that I actually live there, copies of my visitors' passports, their dates of birth and addresses, dates of their visit and 30€ for each set of visitors.  I had to tell them the square metres of my apartment so that they could ascertain whether it was large enough to accommodate visitors or not.  They seemed to have forgotten to ask for my blood type.  Then on arrival at the Mairie I have to  complete a two page form, which is then submitted  to  the Maire who signs and stamps it.  I am still  waiting for it.  Then I have to post it to my sons for...

 Brexit has resulted in many strange things happening but do we really want to go back to imperial measures?  I doubt there is a child in the UK who knows what pounds and ounces are. I can barely remember them and when I come across an old recipe I hear myself muttering '16 ounces one pound, 14 pounds one ?' and there I am lost.  Was it 14 pounds one stone and what is a stone exactly?  Next they will bring back pounds, shillings and pence.  Please give us a break. Where can we send all these leaders who lie, cheat, commit crimes and yet manage to keep their power?  Johnson wants to draw a line under his misdemeanours and move on.  Why should he?  The public  don't want to move on, they want him to move on and out.  Not that I want anyone from the present cabinet to take over, or those sitting across the aisle.  I think I have finally worked out why Starmer sounds so ineffective when he speaks.  He puts the wrong emphasis on the...

 Yesterday we played doubles tennis outside on the hard court.  We had been  playing for about 90 minutes when, running backwards, I managed to tangle up my feet and went crashing down, on my right side just as I did 3 years ago.  I cut and bruised exactly the same bits, hand, elbow and the hip, as well  as spraining my wrist.  Sitting on  the ground waiting for the pain to subside, Yvette asked me if I wanted to stop.  The other two said, 'no she's alright, she hasn't broken anything.'  So I got up and carried on playing.  During the night I couldn't turn over but it is true I haven't broken anything so I must be ok. On Tuesday I went to have lunch in the cutest restaurant you can imagine.  It only seats 12 people and the owner is the waiter, the chef and everything else.  The food was delicious, the wine good and the decorations in the restaurant unique.  He went about welcoming customers,  producing food and ensuri...

When I lived in my last house my neighbour, Marie Jo, used to sing while sweeping her steps, which she did most days.  She had a beautiful voice, soft and melodic and she was an early riser so often I would be woken up at dawn by her singing.  Don't ask me why she felt the need to sweep her steps at dawn but if it made her happy that is all that counts.  Now I live in an apartment where all my neighbours' windows are open all day and night.  I don't hear much noise from within  the apartments, only conversations that go on across the courtyard between the neighbours, all friendly.   Outside my apartment I hear the constant singing of birds.  They gather in the bushes and walls where the cats can't get to them.  I never get tired of hearing birds singing.   Next week I will play golf, the second time this year and clearly not often enough to avoid humiliation. Our international group that meets on a Saturday can cause confusion, lang...

 I know from living in a small village in France that all sorts of shady deals take place without the authorities ever knowing or likely to know.  The black market thrives, the economy suffers but people do their deals and celebrate having 'got one over' on the powers that be.  Since I moved to Saumur, a town, I sailed seamlessly through my MOT thanks to a friend knowing the owner.  Not that anything illegal was done but I didn't have to wait for an appointment and the process was carried out quickly and efficiently.  A few days ago I was telling my neighbour that it was impossible to find a dentist.  The next day she slid a card into my hand and said take this to the dentist, ask for Francoise and say Philippe sent you.  That afternoon I walked round to the address on the card, spotted the lady sporting the name badge with Francoise on it and slid the card across the counter.  I said who I was, that I would like an appointment for a check up and ...

 The other day my neighbour banged on my door and asked to borrow something.  I didn't understand what she meant, so she said blanc en neige.  White on snow.  I shook my head, so she hurried back to her apartment and re-appeared with a bowl containing egg whites.  Ah she wanted a hand mixer to beat the eggs whites but blanc en neige?  Then it clicked, whites to snow.  This conjures up  something so much nicer than ' beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.' I was trying to phone a dentist but the recorded message said they  would be closed until the 9 May so today I tried again.  Same message except 'en plus' had been added.  Does that mean it could be closed after the 9 May? I wondered.  'Mm', my neighbour said, 'it could mean anything.'  Well if the  French  don't understand it how am I supposed to figure it out? The 9th May is Putin's excuse to show the world that he is important.  Why did every ne...

I know how difficult and expensive, if not impossible, it is to get travel insurance once you reach a certain age, particularly if you have a health issue or even a previous health issue.  However I object to being written off, which has led to my intense dislike of insurance companies.  Although we are living longer and staying healthy in our dotage the insurance companies and banks have decreed that being in your fifties is bordering on personal extinction.  A friend in his fifties is finding it almost impossible to get a 20 year mortgage, and life insurance, a requirement to get the mortgage, is equally challenging to obtain. I was lucky to survive my twenties and thirties, what with being shot at, having operations in barely equipped hospitals , childbirth, frequent international travel and living in countries where your chance of survival was limited.  I am much more likely to survive now except the insurance companies don't see that way.  What makes me eve...

 I have spent the last two weeks with my grandson who is a confident 6 year old, not shy in voicing an  opinion or being critical.  'You're rather hopeless at drawing aren't you Grandma?  I can teach you how to draw a tank.'   'Mm,'  he said, staring at my pathetic efforts, 'you're just not very good at it, are you?'  We visited my adult grandson in Kettering and we were playing hide and seek.  Looking up  at his 6' 4'' uncle he said, 'Would you like a rest because you're not very good at hiding?' He announced yesterday that he had lots of ideas of how to get rid of Trump, Johnson and Putin, and he did, but my favourite was putting them into a car with ejector seats and sending them to syrup land. France has been saved once again from the far right taking control but it there are a scary number of people who support Le Pen.  I am not a fan of Macron but I can tolerate him, although he needs to come down from his high opinion o...

 This is the week all my  sons are gathered in the same place.  There is something special about that, especially after the enforced separation caused by the pandemic.  Since my visit to the UK at Christmas, one son has acquired 2 cats, not yet fully grown, and they have led us on a merry dance with their antics.  I am not a cat lover, more of a cat tolerater so it was somewhat disturbing to be woken up during my first night here by cats walking across my head.  I tried turfing them out but as I sleep in the attic and there is no door, I gave up  and waited for them to stop leaping about, an event that was never going to happen.  The second night my  son blocked the stairs to the attic with a screen,  to no avail.  I caught them up on the roof having escaped through the Velux window.  Now I  know  where the term 'cat burglar' comes from.   Yesterday I took  my grandson for a walk and stopped in a pub fo...

 People complain about bureaucracy in France and it is true that it can be a bit convoluted, but it does function and work if you produce the correct paperwork.  I am in the UK at the moment and nothing seems to function.  After 8 months, HMRC finally  answered the phone but they couldn't explain why there was a problem, although they did acknowledge that a problem clearly exists.  No, they couldn't do anything to rectify their obvious errors because they were dealing with queries from 2020. My son had a scan five months ago and has yet to receive the results.  My sister has been told that she could expect to have her cataract operation, which she badly needs, in about five years time.  As she put it bluntly, 'I probably won't care whether I can see or not by then.' We went for a walk yesterday along the canal and had lunch in a pub.  What a joy it was to see a whole table of adults with learning disabilities enjoying their Sunday roast.  Why...

 Have you ever felt, or looked like a goldfish?  We all know  someone  who talks incessantly, totally unaware that perhaps the other person might like to say something, and never listens anyway.  I know  someone just like this.  This morning I had coffee with her.  Even when I managed to start a sentence, she limited to me to 3 words before she talked right over me.  I lasted an hour, not having managed to complete one sentence.  I said I had to go as I had lots to do when she stopped me in my tracks.  'I can't stand that woman, you know the fat one.  She talks and talks and never lets me get a word in edgeways.'  If she had been 'large' herself I would have shown her a mirror.  Two  weeks ago I turned the heating off, opened all the windows and  went for walks in the glorious, warm sunshine.  Today I kept the windows closed, put 4 layers on and huddled up in my winter coat as the temperatures plummeted...

 I played golf this week, the second time in a year so you can imagine the results.  I used to play a lot before I switched to tennis, and I wasn't too bad at it although I was never going to win anything.  The advantages of tennis is that it takes 3 hours at the most, it is invigorating because of all the running and we can play in all weathers - indoor courts.  Golf, I find, is exhausting, even though it is just walking around with a trolley, stopping occasionally to hit a ball.  It takes hours to get round the course and if you are like me you only  play in good weather.  Golfers tell me that you can play golf into your nineties.  Well, I read about a Ukranian who is 93 and still plays tennis.  He said the war was not going to stop him. All my neighbours have cats and one has dogs.   'Don't you have a cat?' they ask.  Well no I don't.  It is not because I dislike them, I have had dogs before, but they are a tie and I do...

Saumur was so relaxed today with the population finally able to walk around, go into shops, mingle freely, with no masks.   I don't care what some people say it is not natural in the western world to cover our faces.  I want to see the expressions and most of all I want to be able to understand what they are saying.  Finally we oldies can go back to lip reading. I asked for an estimate to re-cover 2 upright chairs and having waited 3 weeks to receive it I went to the shop and asked for it.  The next day they emailed it to me - 2000€!  As I could buy 2 new chairs for that, I binned it.  I was telling this to a French friend who said, 'Ah yes they do that, estimate ridiculous amounts, when they don't want to do the work.' We all ridicule the 'red book', an enormous tome, which details the legal working practices in France but ridicule no more.  P & O only sacked British workers as sacking a worker in France is fraught with difficulties and can b...

 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks' the saying goes but that is not strictly true.  Look at how the senior population have embraced the internet.  Of course I can't include my sisters who absolutely refuse to even use WhatsApp or for that matter get a mobile phone, let alone a computer.  There are some things that I would willingly embrace but I recognised that, even in my youth, I would never learn how to have a decent serve.  This morning, while playing doubles, I was being persuaded to stand at the net.  I know, having years of experience, that I do not perform well at the net, in fact I am  totally intimidated by a ball whizzing straight at me from 3 feet away, so instead of smashing it right back, I duck.  Thankfully my usual doubles partner knows this and we are a winning team with me running backwards and forwards, side to side at the back of the court while she intimidates the opposition on the other side of the net. This morning I wa...

 When Putin invaded the Crimea he received a slap on the wrist, which did nothing to deter his power crazy path.  For all the talk, the response of the  world is verbal but their actions are weak and ineffective.  The Putins of the world are bullies and with his allies, Trump for one, he will continue to be a bully because no-one stands up to them.  That is why Trump, despite his outrageous cheating, lying and bullying, remains above the fray, untouched by any punishment. Boris Johnson can lie  and cheat but with no consequences for his actions he remains in power.   It is not easy to stand up to a bully as an individual.  I should know.  A few years ago I was in that position and what did I do?  I moved to another town to avoid conflict and so that I could live in ignorance of the nightmare I had left behind.  It should, however,  be easier for a nation, a group of nations, to stand up and act.  The problem is that a...

 Have you noticed that some people only have mouths and no ears?  Or so it seems.  Interviewers do it.  They ask a question then talk right over the  person trying to answer it.  Politicians do it but that is more a method of not  answering a question.  Some people just talk for the sake of talking, rarely listen to anyone else, never achieve anything and destroy all  chance  of conversation.  I had two  such encounters this week.  One, a French lady who as soon as another person opens their mouth to speak, jumps in and gabbles away nineteen to the dozen until everyone glazes over and all chance of any conversation or discussion is dead.  One brave soul said 'I am speaking, please wait until I have finished.'  She did but you could see the agony on her face at having to wait thirty seconds.  During that time her ears didn't function at all because she jumped in again with something totally irrelevant. The se...

 For some reason I seem to have less time now I live in a town.  There are French friends here of course and it is easy to pass an afternoon just talking.  The other day 3 of us had been chatting in my kitchen for a couple of hours when another friend popped in to tell us it was his birthday so a spontaneous chorus of happy birthday broke out, not me of course, I can't sing a note, and demands to break open the bubbly.  It is essential to keep a bottle in the fridge for just such occasions so I duly produced one.  Life in France is so hard. The government website for changing my address on my identity card is finally working.  Yippee. Here are a couple of things to think about - Careful grooming may take 20 years off a person's age but you can't fool a flight of stairs.  Every man is a potential genius until he does something. I was stopped by a police car the other day at 10.30 in the morning.  They said I should have had my lights on, then they ...

Dawn doesn't actually break until 8am so my early morning walk is not so early.  I like to walk through the town before people are around, maskless, which is against the regulations here.  There is a steep climb up to the chateau, part steps and part path.  By the time I am halfway up my breathing is laboured so sometimes I stop just to give my lungs a rest.  Yesterday morning it was particularly difficult to breathe so by the time I was halfway up I was struggling.  I don't like to admit even to myself that I can't run from the bottom to the top anymore so I pretend I am looking out over the river and the old bridge.  So I staggered up to the halfway point, turned and looked.  I couldn't see a damn thing the mist was so dense, but as I couldn't continue for a minute or two I remained staring out, at nothing.  Suddenly a runner appeared from nowhere and said sarcastically, 'nice view'.  Oh well with a bit of luck I won't come across him again...

When I was having radiotherapy nearly all the radiographers were men, young men, including the technicians,  and all the doctors were women.  This week I went for a mammogram and sure enough the person manipulating my boobs on the machine was a very young man, in fact 28 he told me.  At my age I don't care  who I am exposed to but it is interesting how the sexes have changed roles.  After the mammogram I saw the doctor and sure enough it was a woman.  When  I had cancer in 2002 all the people doing the radiotherapy sessions were women and all the doctors were men.  Progress at last in one section of our society, although I know a lot of women who would refuse to have a man, younger than their grandsons, pushing and pulling their breasts like sausage meat. I have had mixed results in my tennis matches this week.  On Saturday I was roundly beaten by Sophie, managing only 3 games in my favour.  On Monday I was also losing when after the fir...

I do believe that testing has now got out of hand and is inefficient.  For the test that I needed before |I returned to France entailed me taking the test at home, looking at a little plastic tray and seeing whether there was one bar or two.  One bar meant I was negative.  I then had to take a photo of the plastic tray next to my passport and upload and send it to the lab.  It sounds fine in theory but what if I knew I was positive so got someone else to take the test and put their result next to my passport?  There would have been nothing to stop me  doing that so the whole exercise was futile. Yesterday I went to our local pharmacy.  Regulations now mean that all students have to be tested at least twice a week.  The pharmacy was tightly packed with students, filling out their forms and getting it stamped in order to get a test.  In the middle of this crowd were some old people trying to get their prescriptions.  Anyone was more l...

I am now free to leave my apartment after being cooped up for two days.  Five minutes ago I received the result of yet another test but at least it was free.  In the UK I paid £85 for two tests, half the amount many folks are paying for just one test.  I have to thank my son for that with his shopping around.  The ferry on Tuesday was like the Marie Celeste, no trucks and very few cars but it still took over an hour to get through passport control.  People just don't have the right paperwork or if they do they can't find it, not on their phones nor buried under all the stuff in their cars. It is a year since Trump launched a coup in the States and yet, not only is  he still free, he is the frontrunner to be selected by the Republicans as the next president.  Have they no shame or sense of pride? I turned another year older on Sunday but for a change I was with my family and actually got presents.  Very nice day.  For Christmas one of my sons ...