Saturday 16th November 2024

And the weekend.

Though with less football than usual, or maybe a different kind, with club games being replaced with international, which mostly were available here via YouTube, other tubes available.

But there was some lower league stuff to watch, and I would lose 90 minutes of my life to watch Bristol Rovers v Crawley end in the dullest of 0-0 draws, with very little skill being on show for the cameras.

Before then, of course, was getting up, coffee, shopping, breakfast. And then a trip into Canterbury for a mug.

A mug.

A colleague's daughter dropped her treasured "Keep Calm" mug and asked if we could find a replacement.

Not online with one that would arrive before I left for DK early Monday morning. But I did seem to remember one of the them tourist trap shops opposite Christchurch Gate.

And as we have not been to the city in a while, we go.

Visitor numbers have returned to their pre-COVID numbers, and with Christmas market stalls just about everywhere, it was very crowded indeed.

We parked in a multi-storey so we could get the car washed, walked down to the city centre and found not quite what we wanted, but one in red, that came in a box which should protect it from the worst of baggage handlers.

We should have gone into the Cathedral Precinct, as they had a fair, the first to be held in the close in 200 years, but with the gate back shrouded in scaffolding, we wander off in search of breakfast.

We find it in a traditional greasy spoon, and have the works with toast and tea, all for a tenner each, and great service too.

Back to the car as time was upon the cleaning, and so we found the car all sparkly and clean, so that it would a magnet for incontinent birds all the way back to Dover, by which time it had several splats.

Sigh.

Sean and Ange were coming for dinner, and we were having the two racks of lamb we got last week. I defrosted them, seasoned, and I left them to soak in the seasoning.

Football in the afternoon.

And then cooking, making Moroccan spiced rice, boiled fresh corn and creamed spinach.

They arrived just before six, we share a glass of wine and I finish cooking, dish up and take the plates through.

More wine during and after, to go with the cheeseboard, before they leave at half ten. Jools had cleared up as Sean and I talked, so just had to get up them wooden steps to bed.

Friday 15th November 2024

We made it to Friday at last.

Though to get to the weekend, I would have five straight hours of meetings and presentations.

It was going to be a long seven hours.

Made harder by the fact I fell back into a deep sleep after the alarm went off, so Jools woke me as she left for yoga.

I had 50 minutes to come to, get up, get dressed, make coffee, put bins out, etc, etc.

I didn't do it all before seven, so was quarter past once I logged on.

Eyes down.

Not much to tell of work, other than it was almost without break, and by midday, I needed a brew. One last meeting before I could finish at half one, pack up and be ready for when Jools came back and we could go to Jen's, as she felt well enough for cards.

We grabbed a couple of pizzas from Tesco on the way, so, they went in the oven when we arrived and we were eating ten minutes later.

Jen is doing well, and John hopes he will no longer be needed at some point next week. One of us would take over, but I am off to Denmark again on Monday, perhaps for the last time.

Eyes down for cards as usual, and try to get it all done before half five when we would have to leave, as I am doing rather well in the music quiz this month. Just before we leave, Jools wins the jackpot and we were free to go.

In the quiz I got a single point, but that was all I needed to take over the overall lead and Andrew failed to score. Only problem now is that I am away next Friday, and will be on a plane somewhere between Denmark and LCY at six. So, no points for me next week.

And then to more football: Denmark v Spain on the laptop, whilst listening to Scotland v Croatia.

And like that, the evening passes.

Serious policies call for serious appointments

I don't follow US politics now I have left Twitter, but I see some, and that Trump has been appointing unsuitable people to various important posts.

I don't doubt that those appointed intend to do very serious things, mostly cruel, heartless and unchristian things. But as we saw with 14 years of failed COnservative Governments here in the UK, turning campaign promises into actual action is hard.

Sacking hundreds of thousands of public sector workers in order to slash $2trillion from the budget without caring of the consequence, is not serious policy or appointment.

Appointing someone with no military experience to head the Pentagon is not serious.

Many of the policies will fail, even if lessons have been learned from Trump's first stint.

Maybe failure is the aim, so that wokeness and unpatriotic State Department workers can be blamed. The US version of The Blob.

Trump is an unserious politician. Cruel, heartless and a sociapath who has addmitted wants chaos.

Countries get the GOvernments they deserve, the US voted for this. Hope they enjoy the ride.

Thursday 14th November 2024

After three ten hours days, I decided, come what may, I would finish at two and get some chores done.

Yes, chores.

A fine day, though with much work to fill it with, meaning little time to go out and do stuff. Other than fill the bird feeders up at first light, with the little tweeting buggers squawking at me to hurry up as they wanted their breakfast.

Coffee made, the world checked online, and if I'm honest, since binning Twitter two weeks back, I am less informed about what is going on, but also seeing much less Trump, Musk and the fallout from the election.

Instead I post stuff on Bluesky, where I find another million new users had joined in the previous 24 hours.

I don't get the feedback I needed, so some of the work would have to be shuffled off to an already packed Friday, though making it easier to finish early.

I do wrap up at two, and the first job is the trimming of the dead goldenrods beside the drive. My back is moaning, the sciatica is little better, if at all, so I go to the shed, get the shears and broom, then move the bin in preparation for when the clippings had been cut.

I guess it took twenty minutes, maybe more, but with a break halfway through to rest my back, the collect the clippings and put in the brown bin.

I find the stencils to reapply the house name on the bins. Then to the porch to decant two bags of peanuts and a bag of sunflower hearts into tubs for the birds.

As always, Mulder and Scully are there to supervise and remind me dinner is only two hours away, but they're still hungry.

When I was outside, Mulder had jumped up a post so he could meow at my head level.

I take his picture.

Wine is unboxed and put in the racks, peanuts and sunflowers are decanted, and the boxes they all come in broken down ready for collection in the morning.

What a busy chap was.

Finally, prepare the courgette fritters, open a beer, then fry the patties once the batter was made.

I fry them up, so that they are done as Jools comes in. Drink is poured and we sit down to eat.

It is evening, already dark outside.

Cheers.

And England on the tellybox, playing Greece in Greece where they had not lost in a year. Needless to say, England defied the odds, cruised to a 3-0 win, and played very well indeed.

Scully was happy having company on the sofa again.

Wednesday 13th November 204

It has not rained here in a while. Or I can't remember when it did last. Most of the last two weeks have been spent under huge blankets of thick dark clouds, so that the passing of the days is on the half light of such winter days.

So much so that when the rain began to hammer down yesterday, and in sunshine, I thought it best to grab a short or two, least there b nothing for shot of the day.

So here are all the lads.

Anyway, Wednesday. Same as Tuesday, in that I worked 10 hours and so did not finish until half four.

I had two meetings to host, and more fine turning to my reports. Calls with people and the usual firefighting, so that by the end of the day when I finished, I was tired and it was already dusk outside.

No time to tidy up the border beside the drive, instead prepare dinner of Kyiv, rice and frozen peas and corn. Though defrosted and boiled. And the rice was Moroccan with honey, sultanas, dried apricots and dried dates.

Yummy.

And after that, no football either, so that I wrote, whilst Jools went upstairs to listen to an audio book. I then caught the final edition of Gone Fishing, and it was time for bed again.

Phew.

Tuesday 12th November 2024

I looked out of the bathroom window today, way out across the farm in The Dip, up the other side to where the houses on Kingsdown Road end, and behind the large tree, now partially de-leaved, was the outline of the Dover Patrol Monument.

This means it is now winter, as for most of Spring, Summer and autumn, the foliage on the tree hides the monument.

But not in winter.

Even though I am home this week, I have a pile of work to do, because next week I have been summoned to Arhus to help out in a 3rd party audit, so its nice that my employer appreciates me in ways mere money cannot describe.

So, even though working ten hour days from dawn to dusk, I am at home. Even if the cats sleep pretty much until Jools comes back home now, making it seem I have been neglecting them.

I have two audit reports to write, and documents to review. And there's not enough hours in the day, etc.

Jools was up before me, and she finished the baby blanket she's been making since August. Parts of it came to Tuscany and back with us, now it is done, and will be given to Ange on Saturday for her daughter.

I take a picture of the blanket before Jools leaves for work.

And the day rushes by.

Cats sleep. I work, bird sing and the sun flies across the sky, under cover of clouds, from south east to north west. Bringing darkness by five.

Dinner is defrosted ragu, pasta bought from Folkestone, and the remainder of the focaccia bought from the same shop.

Quick and easy, but delicious. Washed down by a bottle of Le President's best XV.

There was football, what used to be the Freight Rover Trophy, its not engaging, as they have a league there was well, so even if a team lost they might go through.

I give up before penalties start, and go to bed.

The lesson to be learned

By the Labour Party on the Democrats defeat in the US is that not being the other party just isn't enough.

In fairness, the wave of optomism that swept Biden and Harris to power was never going to survive reality.

On jobs and the economy, biden dd a great job, as I understand it.

Thing is, even though data and analysis shows this, the Trumps and Trumpettes spouting the oposite have more traction, and in challenging those lies takes far longer than the spout the lies.

A compicated truth is harder to sell than a simple lie.

And then there is the Middle East. The Democats tied their flag to Israel's, while Israel bombed Gaza and now Lebanon back to the stone age, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a daily basis, with the IDF soldiers literally filming their acts as they did so.

All Biden did was sell Israel more weapons to bomb more hospitals, kill more women and children.

There is a large Muslim community in the US as here in UK, and they might have just baulked at the idea of supporting a party that supported and enabled genocide against their kin in Gaza.

Condemming Russia for the same thing in Ukraine while supporting Israel is hyprocritical, and I believe the end of Western Values as we know them.

So, for Labour, must show that the policies they bring do make the country better and that people are made aware of how much better things really are. They have mis-stepped, allowing the Mail to highlight the failings, and at times, hypocrisy. The country has been promised jam tomorrow my the previous Tory Governments for 14 years, and things got worse, a lot worse.

Highlighting where all the money went might help, and getting as much of it back would also help.

But the press is not on Labour's side, so trying to please the editor of the Mail will not work, might as well really piss him off by doing policies that really make poor people better off, that will save the NHS not add profits to Prvate Health Providers.

Bear in Mind, we could still be two months from the end of Sunak's Government, had he not called for the election.