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 ...

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 ...