Skip to main content

What a week!

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 just the way it was, at the time.  I have had to endure many unjust things during my life but there is no point in holding grudges - the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there. 

I was talking to an acquaintance in the town yesterday when a woman, younger than us, walked by.  'I think older women should know better than to wear jeans, they look ridiculous, lack style and what are they trying to  prove, that they are still young?  I wouldn't be seen dead in jeans.'  I stood silently while she rattled on, not knowing whether to look outraged, nod in agreement or to smile.  I decided to smile, made my excuses and continued walking home in my beloved jeans.

Our café group is a mix of personalities and nationalities.  Yesterday one of the group tried to describe each of us as being a polyglot, a semi-polyglot or a trying to be polyglot.  Interesting.  We laugh a lot at our group and our views are probably irreverent, whether we are talking  about religion, politics or each other's countries.  A newcomer to the group can find this quite strange and it takes some time to get the hang of our sense of humour.  Our newest coffee drinker, who is Dutch, has melded into the group in a friendly way and is learning how not to take us too seriously and I would definitely say that he is a polyglot. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Oops!

 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....
1 comment
Read more

I'm Free

 After being incarcerated in my son's house waiting for the results of the day 2 test I was finally allowed out today.  I went to Chichester and was saddened by the number of familiar shops that have disappeared from the town centre.  Bognor is the same.  You wouldn't die of thirst in either town though as the number of cafes has increased.  Both town centres were busy making it difficult to keep a safe distance from others but many people were wearing masks in the street. I was pulled over by Customs in Caen.  As I opened the trunk of the car one of the officers asked me if I was carrying goods.  'Yes,' I replied, ' French Champagne and French wine'  They nodded approvingly and waved me away. During my 3 days in the house, I have cleaned, filed all their paperwork, mended the shower, cooked dinner and tried watching television, the latter being totally uninspiring.  The news consists of covid, travel restrictions, forbidden Christmas parties...
Post a Comment
Read more