Mad Darby Diaries

I watched Trump, Johnson and Macron talk to their nations and by far the worse of course was Trump.  I am not a fan of Johnson but at least he had the experts explain the situation and give guidance.  Macron announced that all educational establishments would be closed from Monday for an indefinite period.  He also said that all people over 70 must stay in their homes.  In my logic I see at least three problems with this.  One is that all people over 70 will not catch coronavirus but will die of starvation, lack of exercise and neglect.  Two, most parents who work rely on grandparents to look after their children so  suddenly all those old people are exposed.  Three,  hundreds of thousands of children are now running around loose in their communities, happily spreading the virus even further. How long will the Chief Medical Officer last in the States before Trump fires him.  Trump has blamed Europe, Obama, the Democrats, the Media and...

I am in self isolation, not because of the virus but because damaged ribs pretty much stop you from doing anything physical and anyone who knows me also knows that forced rest is not my cup of tea at all.  I decided to go out and walk a bit further each day and I think it does me good and even if it doesn't it makes me feel virtuous. So the virus is only killing off people like me, now officially termed elderly if you are over 60.  What happened to 60 being the new middle aged?  I remember watching a film years ago when I was in my 20's.  It was science fiction but fairly scary to watch as at the age of 30, you get annihilated.  Well they let us go on a bit longer now but clearly nature has decided that going on too long is a bad idea so it has carefully selected the upper ages, shall we say, to get rid of.  I can't actually complain about this, although I would rather not be one of them, because no-one wants to see children getting sick.  The way t...

I managed to fall over at my son's house, bruising my ribs so badly that I have suffered day and night since.  Two days after the fall I went in desperation to accident and emergency in Bognor Regis  where I had an x ray and was told I hadn't punctured my lung but that it was a very bad case of bruising of the ribs.  There is nothing you can do with damaged ribs apart from take painkillers but breathing is painful and don't get me on coughing or sneezing. I went to Sainsburys looking for paracetamol but they had sold out.  What?  I went to Tesco's.  Same story.  Three pharmacies later I still had no paracetamol but had managed to buy some Ibuprofen, one box left on the shelf.  Selfish people in the UK are panic buying,  hoarding, while others, like me, who are desperate for painkillers are left without.  Heavens knows how they would have managed in the war.  Snowflakes. Yesterday I took my damaged body and returned home to Fran...

..when you are having fun, the saying goes.  Well there is not much fun at the moment and now we are about to be struck down by the coronavirus.  'It is only killing the older people,' my son said cheerfully.   Has he not noticed that I am one of those older people?  After all a lady in the supermarket yesterday asked me if my grandson was my great grandson.  She obviously recognises an old lady when she sees one. I came to the UK for a jolly family reunion, which was good, and was due to return after 2 weeks.   I have resolved a major problem for my son with learning disabilities, looked after my grandson and narrowly avoided two funerals.  After 3 weeks I am still here with another week to go.  Advice on how to avoid the virus seems to be pointless as apparently you can walk around with it for weeks oblivious to the fact that you have it.  'Don't touch anything and if you do, wash your hands straight away,' we are told.  S...

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...