Thursday 27th September 2018

Today is the 496th post of the year, matching the total for all of last year, which in turn was the most posts I have written in a year. I think it is fair to say there will be yet more posts to come over the final 3 months or so of the year.

I know the Brexit stuff is tiresome for many, but for me, writing about what happens and is said on a day to day basis helps me understand the mess my country is in, and that although there are some very easy solutions to the mess, politically or economically, all are difficult and will cause great strife in the Conservative Party and in Parliament too. As for the country, well, who knows, it seems the far right is on the march and would mobilise further, I don't know. But at some point, something will be done, otherwise the UK will leave the EU if not by accident, then by simple operation of international law and time expiring on the A50 process. That will not change, unless the Government of the days asks it to be different.

One day when all this is over, I might publish them on their own blog, to show the story of Brexit, just wish it was going to have a happy ending, but I don't think that to be likely.

As well as the story of Brexit this blog also details the story of our lives, more than ten year now, which is amazing, really.

And still the story goes on.

And so, to Thursday.

Meetings. Meetings about meetings and meetings about change. Change is coming at work, and so a meeting for my colleagues of our new boss. Change is always difficult, but I think this might be good.

Then down to work, with me working for hours in the afternoon, sat on the sofa churning out e mails. Mail after mail after mail. I really wanted to go out for a walk, as the wind had dropped, and it was a glorious day, but if I had have stopped working, I would never have started, so I work on, watch a documentary on the cold war as I work. The role of submarines in the cold war in fact, and amazingly brave men who manned the boats, would sail for months on end, playing cat and mouse whilst both sides had the biggest bangs.

And at the end, one captain described how his boat had collided with a Russian submarine and only later realised how close he came to death. A Russian described just getting out as his boat before it sunk, and finally, another captain in the US Navy describing how his wife raised their family almost alone. All three broke down in tears, decades after the event.

I finish work just before five, egg and breadcrumb the aubergine, feed the cats (not with the aubergine), then cook and was just about done when Jools arrived home at six.

It was a three glass of wine day.

We tidy up and listen to the radio, no football to listen to, just music on the Marc Riley Show, all avant garde stuff, mixed in with classic session tracks and chat.

And that's that, nearly the weekend, and no allergies at all that day, I felt so well I even had a shower, but went easy on the shampoo and shower gel.