Mad Darby Diaries

 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 ...