Friday 29th April 2022

Friday is meeting day. Apparently.

After logging on at seven non-stop meetings until eleven, a half hour break then another, one more half hour break and then meetings until half two.

I wouldnn't mind, but nothing really get agreed.

Which means I had to be fed and watered before seven, a fresh coffee and a bowl of fruit to eat while the first meeting plays out.

It was cloudy outside, and breezy, but felt warmer than it has for a couple of days. It was also bin day, so they had to be put out before seven too.

By lunchtime, clouds cleard and so I went out to snap some wildflowers in the lawnmeadow, also, hoping to see a butterfly or two, but none seen. Though a hugebumble bee was snapped in one of the flower beds.

But work was also calling.

Final meeting of the day was with my new boss, who despite being German, has a great sense of humour and was really interested in my plans for the weekend.

As soon as that was over, I log off as I hit my contracted hours, and it was the weekend. Not only that, a three day weekend as Monday is a bank holiday, and I have planned to fill all three days with orchids.

You will not be surprised to hear.

Jools returned from work, having called in at Tesco, so had a car full of stuff for the weekend. We pack that away and make a brew.

Phew, we were pooped. As usual.

As it was the last Friday or the month, and I had not won a point in the music quiz this month, I said I would skip it so we could go to Jen's earlier.

We watched a bit of snooker until John arrived, then we feasted on chicken dippers and garlic potatoes. And wine.

We washed up and played cards, Jools and I ended up a little up, but John (again) scooped the jackpot at the end of the evening.

Back home for half nine, and there was still ligth in the sky away to the west.

Thursday 28th April 2022

Its odd waking up in the morning, enthused by work again. Quite the novelty, and I am further cheered up by being called for a meeting with my new boss on Friday afternoon to discuss progress with my task. Or tasks.

As ever there are meetings ahead.

Always with the meetings.

And if I'm honest, not much more than work and the stuff of the daily grind happened, with breaks for coffees and meals through the day.

I have the cats to amuse me, of course, and as long as I feed them, or give them treats through the day, they seem happy. Mulder, it seemed, caught the mouse from the other night and meowed that I should go and share with him the feast of mouse, but I was working, so I heard the crunching of tiny bones from down here.

I had food, a large and tasty loaf, nutella, and jam to spread on it and to make drinks less wet.

Life, in a word, is good.

And they pay me for this. Pay quite well. And I don't have to go into an office, so no commute either. I work seven to three or so, and then the afternoon and evening is mine to use as I see fit, which is usually messing around on the computer, listening to the radio and watching football.

I pack up at half three, listen to a podcast, have another coffee, then prepare dinner, so to bring it all together at six when Jools came home, served with a bottle of wine that was delivered during the afternoon.

And what better in the evening to have the radio on and watch some football on the tellybox? Man Utd v Chelsea, not the thrashing for the home side as expected, a 1-1 draw in the end, but entertaining.

And that was that, time for bed.

“(Brexit required checks) would have been an act of self-harm”

So said Brexit Oportunities Minister, JRM, as the Channel Tunnel facility in Folkestone yesterday.

Whether this means this would always be the case, or just during 2022 is unclear, but implementation of the checks, due to have started in July, have now been delayed until the end of 2023.

At least.

This comes after UK ports spent tens of millions of pounds oon new facilities to opperate the checks from, and now it is clearly possible that they might never ben used at all.

UK Vets have criticised the plan which means that no incoming checks on any foodstuffs coming in will be carried out either, increasing the chance of fod related disease and incidents.

All this was forecasted, and then dismissed as "project fear", what should we say now to Brexiteers like JRM, "welcome to reality"?

As the latest post by Chris Grey puts it:

"At the more macro-level, consumer confidence is at a 50-year low, not least because of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, whilst the Office for Budget Responsibility expects this year to see the biggest fall in living standards since records began in the 1950s. Brexit is certainly in the mix of this, too, because from the moment it happened the vote to leave, largely because of the drop in the value of sterling it caused, had an impact on inflation. So, by June 2018, the vote to leave had already raised consumer prices by 2.9%, costing the average household £870, with a related sharp decline in real incomes (figure 2 of link). Once Brexit actually happened, it introduced further inflationary pressures in terms of labour shortages and higher costs of trading with the EU. The eminent economist Adam Posen this week estimated that 80% of UK inflation is attributable to Brexit."

Or

"Overall, the latest IMF World Economic Outlook published this month has the UK set to be the slowest-growing G7 economy in 2023 at 1.2% (compared with 2.4% average for advanced economies and 2.3% average for Euro area) and to have higher inflation, at an average of 6.3% over the next two years, than Germany (4.2%), France (2.9%) and Italy (3.9%) as well as the non-EU G7, and higher than the advanced economies average (4.1%) and the Euro area average (3.8%).* In other words, it’s not just Covid, Ukraine, and global energy and supply chain factors, which have affected all countries. Something particular has happened to the UK and it has a name: Brexit. Indeed the IMF’s 2022 country report for the UK identifies Brexit, along with the pandemic, as having “magnified structural challenges” facing the economy. This is why, as other major economies ‘bounce back’ from Covid, the UK does so more slowly."

See: https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2022/04/six-years-of-failure.html

So, we get ever poorer, which the Government thinks they can improve by scrapping rules and regulations in many areas of work and life in general. Another we told you so dismissed as project fear. Such driving down on standards and rights is the only way to drive down costs. And yet UK companies will still find themselves less competitive than those in the EU due to Brexit-related red tape and non-tariff barriers.

Rather than accept the Brexit they won and implemented it, as they tell us to who voted to remain to get over losing, the Government is now trying to rewrite or ignore parts of the WA and NIP, or change UK legislation so they think they can ignore it. Shame they signed an international treaty in such bad faith, and if key areas of the NIP are to be ignored, at least domestically, expect some serious consequneces not just from the EU but from the US too.

All this we know, and yet the choice for the Government is:

1. Stop implementing the very checks and requirements their very hard Brexit mandated, or
2. Do Brexit all over again, but harder.

Wednesday 27th April 2022

Pay day.

And a day in which clarity actually happened.

Rather than being a lone gun, it turns out there was a plan after all, just no one informed me or my part of it.

I had a meeting, which I had dreaded, and yet it ended with me being happier more enthused.

I am happy, but disappointed that it has taken what is nearly 16 months for it to come. But still.

So, a good day in the end. But it started with me sleeping through the alarm, mainly as Mulder brought in a mouse during the night and we chased Mulder who was chasing the mouse around the bedroom. Sleep took a long time to come.

So, Jools got up at five, got ready for work and went swimming first, which is why the house was empty when I came down.

Coffee was ready to go. So I put the pot on, wiped the sleep from my eyes and checked the interwebs.

Not need to ask, we're all screwed.

I drink my coffee and then get the office ready, making a batch of dough for lunch and the rest of the week, leafing it to rise on the oven tray rather than in a tin.

I had created another monster, so big it too cutting two slices from it to make it fit into the tin once cooled. I ate those slices with melted butter and the finest apricot jam.

Lovely.

Then there was the meeting. I mean, that I didn't see coming, but afterwards I had a clear plan ahead, so got started.

By the end of the working day, I went out to try to put the new mower together. As the reviews said, instructions were Ikea level vague. I got the handles attached, just need to do the electrics, which we will sort out over the weekend.

Dinner was a bit of fusion: shoarma chicken, stir fry and crispy noodles.

And wine.

The chicken I marinated with the shoarma spices all day, and once cooked the smell of the exotic spices hung round the house until the morning.

THere was football on the telly box, but truth was, I was pooped. We went to bed at half eight, and hopefully would have a mouse-free night.

Small and further away

It emerged this week, that the trade deals done by the UK since economic Brexit two years ago are 178 times SMALLER than the loss of trade from the EU.

So, although any increase in trade is welcome, it should always be viewed with the whole economic piture in mind.

That the UK is prioritising trade deals with Australia and New Zealand, literally both on the other side of the world, rather than repair trade with our closed and high volume trading partners in Europe is frankly mad.

But the mantra that the EU is bad and all is else is good, unless they invate Ukraine (other countries are also available for invasion), and that a deal with India is a prize even if it means immigration from there will dwarf what it replaces from the EU.

It is indeed mad.

And today, JRM announced that the increased import checks are to be delayed a 4th time, as either the UK is not ready to implement them, or the further reduction in imports will lead to yet more shortages and/or price increases.

But that means that the with that and the plan to remove all trariffs from all fod imports means that the UK would be starting any future negotiations from a weakest position, as nothing is better than zero tariffs.

The week democracy died

This week Parliament passed laws on making protest ilegal, limiting Judicial Review and introducing voter ID. And now have removed the independance of the Electoral Commission.

It is one thing to say that the current Government are so shit they don't know what to do with the power they have, but they have created the environment for administrations that follow to rule without boundaries.

The party that did this was the "party of law and order", the Conservative and Union Party, but at the same time, the Labour Party failed to whip its members in the Lords, so the bills passed.

Not quite sure which party is worse.

But the fact that these bills have received almost no attention in the media, and have bassed in the Westminster bubble, is worrying for democracy, when it is the 4th Estate that should hold the Executive to account, not hide the evidence for them.

So, the local elections next week will be the last where you can just turn up and vote, your details being checked on the register. From then on you need photo ID, a passport of driving licence, nearly 3 million will be disenfranchised at a stroke.

Democracy died in plain sight.

Tuesday 26th April 2022

Whatever I say about work in the post, I can tell you there was improvement on Wednesday, so weeks of grumbling and complaining was wiped out.

Which was nice.

Jools was pretty much caught up at work, so she could go for a walk here before driving to Hythe, I should have gone with her, but after nearly missing a meeting last week, I wanted to make sure I was all logged in my seven, just in case.

And I know you are going to say that I should check Outlook before logging off the evening before, and you would be right, what about meeting invites that came in overnight, which in a global company is possible.

Big news is that a new lawnmower was being delivered. As I have probably killed our current one. The motor housing came loose, and yanking on the staring chord I think bent the housing for the carburetor​, and after watching a video on how to fix it, which seemed staightforward, I took the old one off only to find it was nothing like the one on the video and the long bolts securing it to the housing would not find their locating scew threads.

Sigh.

So, instead of having a lawnmower that did not run, I now had a partially dis-assembled lawnmower that did not run. So, after 13 years of the old one, we ordered a new one.

So that was coming.

Maybe.

I had coffee.

Another coffee.

Breakfast.

Another coffee.

Would another coffee help? Maybe not.

We have a meeting: audit status meeting. I have no status to report as I have done no audits thus far in 2022.

Please fill in your holiday in the planner my soon to be ex boss said.

Si I seek out the planner, a spreadsheet (of course), and I find that I have audits planned every weeks for months.

I panic, and call Henrik.

Are you looking at this year's plan he asks?

I was looking at last year's.

Phew.

Panic over.

After lunch I go for a walk.

Maybe a little early, but what the heck, I could always work to four or later if something came up.

I walked up Station Road, past the monument, then up to Windy Ridge, past the farm, back along the lower trach and over Collingwood back home.

Lots of St Mark's Flies about, mostly on Alexanders. The 25th was St Mark's Day, so my snaps of the flies were a day late, but still good to see, and a sure sign Spring is pushing on.

Dinner was easy: defrosted shepherd's pie, frozen corn and the remainder of the beef gravy.

And lovely it was too, lots of meaty flavours, washed down with a huge brew.

And for the evening there was football for the eyes and for the ears, as I watched Fulham v Nottingham Forest whilst listening to the Citeh v Real game. The former ended 0-1, and was a cracker, the latter ended up 4-1 and was off the scale.

Another season of disappointment

If results go our way, or not, depanding on your point of view, Norwich will be relegated back to the Championship.

After another pre-season that promised something different to come, all we got was more of the same. Which was losing and conceding lots of goals and making mistakes.

Norwich spent over £50million, and we hoped that would be enough to fire us up the table. But as Alan Shearer pointed out, Newcastle spent £40million on Jolinton a couple of years ago, and apart from his brace against us last weekend, he hasn't set the Premier League alight. Norwich spent their fifty million on six different players, The Toon spent fourty on a single player.

Norwich gambled on potential.

And lost.

And fans are angry.

I mean, fans are always agry these days, and I'm not happy about coming bottom of the table again, but what is the choice here, spent a hundred million, two hundred million, gambling that players that would bring would power us up the table?

And if not, what then?

Into administration, points deduction and a downward spiral.

That Norwich didn't do that, choosing not to gamble with the club's future, instead living within our means, and fans are angry that they didn't gamble. What had the club had gambled, and lost? How angry would fans be then?

Very I suspect.

I have no answers. But screaming at each other on social media and on Canary Call isn't going to change the basic issue, that there is no permanent membership of the Premier League for clubs like Norwich. If you're lucky, you have one maybe two good seasons, but a relegation battle is only a fve game losing streak away, and calls for the manager to be replaced and spend another wad of cash we can't afford on players who might still fail.

It will forever feel that we are like the team of stooges the Harlem Globetrotters used to run rings round on TV in the 70s. We are there as meat for the lions, and if we don't play by their demands, institutions like TalkSport will says we don't even want to stay in the Prem and we should be prevented from being promoted in the future.

That's what was said back in August after a trip of Citeh, Liverpool and Leicester put over a dozen goals past us in the first three games.

Maybe we shouldn't get promoted again, I haven't enjoyed the season, and neither have the players of management.

Breaking the Law. Again.

Today, the High Court from the ten Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, broke the law in allowing patients to be removed from hospitals into case homes without testing for COVID.

THis should come as no surprise.

And this is a long way from, say Hancock being held criminally liable for the 20,000 deaths or any death in particular, but the plan was illeagal.

The poor woman who brought the case watched her husband die whilst not being allowed to be by his bedside. He died alone, as did many tens of thousands at the time. And remember, at the same time, Johnson had "turned Downing Street into a frat house", with at least a dozen parties under investigation, and seems highly probably that weekly drinks parties were held every Friday afternoon for over a year.

I suspect the electorate will not move on from this very much at all. No matter how Johnson wants us to.

Monday 25th April 2022

Back to work.

Sigh.

Jools had a doctor's appointment at half ten, so went swimming at six, almost like a normal working day, except she came back two hours later to make coffee, laden with fruit for breakfast.

I was already in my third meeting of the day, and talking to Frank when she came back.

Jools walks to the surgery, and back via the shop, but the chocolate she got would do after dinner. I cooked the remainder of the breaded aubergine for lunch, taking ten minutes or so, and tasted almost as good it freshly prepared.

Outside, the sun of the weekend was gone. It was cloudy, and a very keen "moderate" breeze blew. I checked with my legs and back about the possibility of a walk and they both reported back in the negative.

Jools went to work, leaving me and the cats.

I also had the oportunity to try the new webcam I bought over the weekend. After a Windows update the built-in one in my work laptop just stopped. This is the third time it happened, and the first two times it sorted itself out, but not this time. So I dazzle my colleaguues with video conference calls with them for the first time in two weeks! Sadly, Henrik noticed that there were fewer bottles of sloe gin in the CD shelves behind me, making me look like some kind of old soak.

Other than that, there is no news, really.

The lawnmeadow has exploded with life, and Ribwort Plantain are springing up all over it, so please have this as the shot of the day.

But too cold to see any butterflies either, and no swallows or martins here as yet.

I finish work, watch another train video, then prepare dinner, our old favourite chorizo hash, which I decide will taste better this time with wine.

I am working through the shots I took on Rhodes, comeing to the end of the 4th day, the most orchid-packed ones, should be easer for the last three days, and maybe have them done by the end of April, and there was me thinking it would take months.

Entertainment for the evening was Palace v Leeds, which I don't get in to, so go to bed at half time, not before noticing it was still light at gone eight in th evening.

COVID

Yesterday the BBC covered a new outbreak of COVID in China, while ignoring the spiralling figures in the UK.

Even with no reporting over the weekend, the week on week increase from last Monday is stark!

Testing is down a further 200,000 to 2,260,000 and yet:

Infections are up over 124,000 or an increase of nearly 117%. One hundred and seventeen percent!

And as for deaths, up 1,008 or an increase of over 78%.

We should be very alarmed by this, and yet life goes on and Ministers talk as if COVID is over.

Sunday 24th April 2022

Part 2 of the weekend.

Depsite being still being April, spring is galloping ahead, and so thoughts turn to bluebells and our favourite bluebell wood at Stockbury.

We were awake shortly after six, we had all day, but why not get out and snapping?

Why not indeed.

After coffee, I loaded the car with cameras, and we left to go up the A2, stopping off at the petrol station at the Duke of Yorks, where little over half a tank cost £56! This is going to get serious.

I also bought some chocolate, so we could have some energy for the morning.

Not much traffic about, so we cruised up to and past Canterbury to the start of the motorway at Faversham, then up to the A249 junction, where would is underway to create another, bigger junction.

We go down the hill towards Detling before turning off, parking at the blocked off lane, and I get my gear out the back.

There should have been sunny intervals giving way to to endless sunshine by nine. But what we had was a lot of cloud. Almost total cloud cover, which meant not good shots of the bluebells.

Oh noes.

The bluebells were out, and in peak bluebell condition, but even with the light balance changed on the camera, shots were not just up to it. I put on the ring flash, and we go to snap some orchids, hoping the light would improve in the half hour it would take to walk round the reserve.

We find the trio of pure white EPOs just down from the path, and a few white bluebells too. Now, are they White Bluebells or just White Bells? I think we should be told.

Down the steep and slippery steps to look for the Lesser Butterfly, where I find a few good spikes, and one spike looking like it was coming into flower!

Eeek.

Back to the top and a half hour wait for me for the break in clouds that would light the bluebells to give the right colour to the bluebells. Yes, I felt a twit, but was worth it. I got three usable shots, which is what it was all about.

I walk back to the car where Jools was waiting, shall we go home?

Yes, yes we shall.

So back onto the main road, up to the motorway and to home, calling in at Lydden for a quick look at the man Orchids, none out but one will be in a day or three.

In April.

Amazing.

Back home for a brew.

Dinner was steak and ale pie, roast potatoes, steamed veggies and lashings of gravy.

Perfect.

We both have wine, and after clearing up, the main job was, as usual, to stay awake for the football. The highlight of which was the Merseyside Derby, with Liverpool running out 2-0 winners.

The afternoon drew to an end.

We had croissants for supper, then watched as a female fox ate peanuts and took two fat balls back to her den, darkness fell, and we went to bed.

Monday in the morning.

On immigration

The UK is not full.

Neither is there mass unemployement. In fact there are hundreds of thousands of job vacancies unfilled, and in some fields have been unfilled for over a year.

With the ending of "freedom of movement", or more accurately, freedome of movement of labour meant that hundreds of thousands of EU citizens returned to the EU zone to live and work, thanks to how hard it was to remain here, and quite frankly how unwelcome most were made to feel.

That there are no one to fill the jobs, the jobs remain unfilled and so the taxes also go unpaid, and services and goods those people would have wanted to buy go unbought.

Johnson mused whilst in India last week if the UK could source labour from the sub-continent, which would help, but isn't going to play well with the hard core gammon-faced Brexiteers who see any kind of immigration to be bad.

And the reality is, that although EU migration has dropped off a cliff, non-EU migration has remained pretty constant. So, the immigration the UK could have done something about whilst in the EU, even with the opt-outs it had, the UK has done nothing about, while those from the EU left and never came back.

And that was before COVID, more EU citizens went back, and most have not come back.

Before Christmas we heard about high profile schemes to encourage slaughtermen or HGV drivers to come back to the UK and work for a few months, but nothing on a follow up to how many actually came, which in the case of slaughterment was about 1% of the number of visas offered.

So, jobs unfilled, taxes unpaid, the shortfall is either made up with higher taxes or more cuts to services. And the downward spiral continues.

Saturday 23rd April 2022

William Shakespeare's birthday.

St George's Day.

The weekend.

Sometimes, you lay in bed and you look ar the light coming in, and you wonder how late it really is. Its never as late as you think it is.

Normally.

And then Saturday, when I lay in bed and wondered. Turned out it was twenty past seven.

And we had to go shopping. Then orchid chasing.

So, I got up, fed the cats and got dressed. Upstairs, Jools went for a shower, so I thought it best if I just went to Tesco before a sip of coffee had been drunk.

So I did.

Tesco is still well stocked, until you look at fresh fruit, where a year or two ago there would be racks of fresh strawberries, this week there was hardly any, and what there was had short life. So sort that two of the berries I put in our fruity breakfast were already off. On top of that, a fairly small week's shop with no vegetables, or booze still came to over £80.

Not good.

But we had enough for a week, so that's all that mattered. Back home to unpack, have breakfast of fruit and yogurt and a coffee, before we rounded up my cameras and we headed out into orchid country.

Our target was Yocklett's again, because I knew so many orchids would be out, Fly especially. And with the Easter rush over with, no restrictions on roads now being closed, only the two mile line line of trucks heading into Dover. The madness continues.

We turn off and head up Stone Street, then down the narrow lane, then the narrower one to the small parking bay, reverse in and the peace of the countryside overwhelms us. Birds are singing, the sunlight falls through the canopy above, and all around there are flowers either in bloom or close to it.

We walk up the lower path leading tot he meadow. In the glade, bluebells and Early Purples are backlit, to create a magical scene.

Not many butterflies about, but then it was cool. On the otherside we found several Fly in flower, though ones furthest away from the path, of course, I will snap those if I can't find better lit ones elsewhere, but I do have my ring flash just in case.

Over the road and up the slope, Greater Butterfly, more and more Lady Orchids and Herb Parismark our way to the upper meadow.

I sit down for a few minutes, and see something beside me, a small Fly Orchid spike with two partially fased flowers. Still worth a few snaps of anyone's camera.

Further on, a flash of blues flutters by, I thought it a Common Blue, so vivid was the wing colour, but once it lands I saw it was a fresh Holly Blue, so I take a few shots.

Down to the bottom of the reserve where more and more Lady Orchids were close to opening, and a couple even in flower, or partially. I take more shots.

And that is that, so we walk back over the Gogway, along the bottom path, pausing for more Fly pictures, and finally back to the car.

I take us home, across country, through Stelling, past Park Gate where there was already people looking for flowers. Too early for me as yet, so we make it to the Elham Valley road, turn north towards Barham and the A2 to home.

Back at midday, all tasks completed, so I could "enjoy" an afternoon's football. First on radio then watching the Bentford v Spurs game. Norwich, 5 points from safety, just had to win. Had to.

They lost 3-0.

To Newcastle.

Sigh.

I almost gove up on football for the day, but then there is Brentford v Spurs, which was a good game, but ended 0-0, with Brentford doing all the things well that Norwich do so badly: not making mistakes, pressing, passing.

We listen to Craig and then go to bed once darkness had fallen

Age of the moron

A few years ago I wrote this post: Let moron speak onto moron:

In the days of Lord Reith, the BBC would broadcast the news, unfettered by personal opinion, and was all the better for it. The BBC still is the best place for the news, mostly unbiased and unspun. However, a few years ago, new trend begun, which has now spread to all BBC departments.

It seems that the BBC cares what the Great British public thinks, quite why is beyond me. Not that they shouldn't care, but it's their job to tell us the facts and the rest we decide. But it began in sports shows, the phone-in was born.

At first it was it was all rather novel; but then boring as Manchester United fans, or Chelsea fans would complain about the lack of firepower up front and demand another multi-million striker be bought. Danny Baker, who brought the talk show to these shores hated this and gave such people short shrift.

But the idea of the phone in was here, and then it spread to more and more shows. Now, three hours of Radio 5 Live's output in the morning is dedicated to what the average loony taxi-driver or manic closet racist thinks. They even begin the breakfast show thus; bringing you news, sports and your views on the stories that matter to you.

I don't really care what Mrs Smith from Bristol, of Mr Jones from Edinburgh thinks of the 'big issues, and no matter what they think I won't change my mind. I will listen to the business editor and his take on how the markets are heading, or the main football correspondant and his thoughts on last night's results. Maybe the Middle East's editor and what does that last news item mean for the region.

So, at nine in the morning, when the airwaves are given over to the rabid and the unemployed, I switch off and do something less boring instead. Of course the internet allows the angry, or the ignorant another soapbox to climb onto. I left my old blog site, Matchdoctor today. I am fed up with the creationists and the right wing crazies spewing their bilge; of course they could be fed up with mine too.

Leaders should lead by doing what they think is right, not what middle England or the Daily Express editorial is saying. Great leaders act. And public service broadcasters should concentrate on what they do best, bringing us the news and information and allowing us to make our own minds, in the comfort of our heads and homes.

And then followed it up a decade later with this:

Many years ago, I wrote a post called something like, let moron speak unto moron, a play on the BBC motto, given that most week day mornings were given over to phone ins where the presenter asked people what they thought of the day's big events.

Now as much as I vaue what Joan from Bridgend or mike from Newcastle thinks, these are just their opinions. I have them too. But I would much rather hear from people who know what they are talking about and can explain the issues and risks of a particular course of action rather then merited, but unfocused anger.

Giving the angry such a voice amplifies the misconception on where to lay the blame. ooking back I can now see how this lead to Brexit.

Whole areas of the country have been treated like shit for decades, from the Beeching cuts to Thater's "economic" policies of closing down (unionised) heavy and strategic industries, to the general automation of much manufacturing. Many feel left behind, so want someone to blame.

So, snake oil salesmen and shysters said to blame the EU. And chief among them was one Alexander Boris de Piffel Johnson, journalist for the Torygraph, who got bored reporting on the day to day business of the EU, so made shit up. And people liked the made up shit more than the real news, as dull and boring as it was, so bendy bananas and low powered vacuums became the norm.

Johnson was sacked for making up quotes from that job, but has gone through life telling porkies and just getting away with it.

He switched sides in the Brexit debate before the referendum, and was seen as the reason Leave won.

30 years later, he is now PM trying to force the UK out of the EU against the wishes of Parliament, and locked in a series of battles as to which is sovereign.

So far, Parliament has won.

But Brexit relies on the beliefs and promises of Brexiteers, who to a man, or woman, do not understand what they're making promises about. I mean, one of the first acts of Brexit was Sir Ivan Rogers being fired, he was chief UK diplomat to the EU, and his knowledge could have steered the UK out of Europe in much less damaging terms.



But he did not believe, so was purged.

The purging has gone on, and last month 21 senior moderate Tories were expelled for not believing, not even with a three line whip.

But there are eperts that could be called on, in all sorts of fields, but they would reveal the brutal reality of the stupidity of Brexit in all its forms. Of course, reality will win out, and it will be painful and damaging, but as always, the EU will be blamed.

The Irish Border issues can be easily explained, but Johnson and co would rather you believed their bullshit rather than understand it, and make an informed decision. Of course, people voted for Brexit for many reasons, but no one voted for no deal and not one of the Brexiteers explained the consequences because they themselves did not understand no care what they were. The much derided experts in the Civil Service would have to do that.

Bloody experts.

Indeed.

But why I am repeating this now? Well, a couple of reasons. Not listening to actual experts, who in many cases went to college and/or university before engaging in that area of expertise might mean they know more about a subject rather than Dave on the A13 in his white van who read something on Facebook last week.

Wat started off with something trivial, then morphed into doubting vaccines and social distancing, and people taking horse dewormer rather than the vaccine because of 5G or something.

I mean, sometime I am aware of some of the stuff I say seems far fetched, but I am pretty good at looking at sources for stuff I write about on here.

Brexit is the next obvious issue where group think triumphed over actual experts. Beacuse Govey said we had had enough of experts. But then putting up barriers bin tade between us and our closest trading partners was never going to end well. And when trade and constituational experts pointed out that the NIP expicitly broke the UK single market, despite Johnson and the NI Minister denying it, it is what happened, and Johnson, JRM and the rest are dealing with the effect of the deal they wanted two years later. Finally, in football, as my team Norwich sink back into the Championship, Twitter and message boards make the angry be heard first.

I mean, I had higher hopes than finishing bottom of the league again this year, especially after spending 0ver £50million on players, but as Newcastle rattled three past us yesterday in the spring sunshine, Alan Shearer tweeted that Jolinton who scored the first two goals, had only cost £40million.

Only.

And that was before their bloodsoaked takeover.

Yes, we're angry, but what is the alternative: accept a similar buyout to The Toon? Or how about the Burnely one where the new owner just transferred the debt he created when buying the club, onto the club? I still have no idea how that is even possible, but its what happens.

I would rather listen to experts than endless angry people who are agry at consequences who denied those same consequences whould happen. I have had to mute many Norwich fans on Twitter as Norwich losing every week is bad enough without fans tweeting abuse at each other, or the players, the manager of the owners.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Into ignorance and stupidity,

As sure as night follows day.....

With Johnson on the ropes, with more FPNs having been handed out, although details of who got them has not been released, Johnson and his Government of shit and of shits do their greatest hits to shore up support.

When there is trouble, threaten the EU or the NIP.

Article 16 again.

There is the usual "there's a war one" and all that, but JOhnson has nothing good or new to give.

Quite why he wants to continue doing a job is clearly doesn't enjoy, is not willing to put in the hours of hard work needed or have the skills required is a mystery.

The Mail and Torygraph still support him, the Mail in an almost scary way, I mean how shit dies he have to get before they realise their mistake or hope the public won't notice?

I don't know.

Brexit is going as badly as predicted, with the 4th attempt at imposing import restrictions is to be postponed.

The 4th time.

The UK has had 6 years to prepare for this, and is not ready, or is not prepared to impose more shortages and increased costs on the country.

But apparently its a Brexit bonus to not have import checks on goods, all that substandard food and other goods about to sweep in.

Oh good.

And JRM promises a bonfire of the quangos.

They have nothing of any policy of substance. But it will all hurth the country yet further.

Friday 22nd April 2022

Dontcha just love a four day week?

I know I do.

So, it's Friday.

And, in theory, just a six hour day as I have a contracted 37.5 hour week. That's the theory.

Jools also has just a six hour day, finishing at one, at which point we might go out, or shopping, or both or neither.

I am all logged on for work at seven, no meetings, but plenty of calls as the usual Friday morning updates come pouring in and a little bit of me cares a little less.

But it is Friday, and I do have a couple of calls, one with a colleague in India with whom I have a good relationship. Its hard having that with colleagues who are halfway round the world, four and a half hours ahead, but there is respect and friendship. And it is calls like that which makes work wothwhile.

A later calls reveals that previously, someone lied to be in a brazen way, and has disregarded a direct order. Frankly I would shoot him at dawn.

Otherwise it is a fine, if windy day, and there is the monster loaf to munch through, smothering toasted slices with butter and nutella and drowing buckets of tea.

The final meeting was at half one, we chat about stuff and agree on a way forward. Wish each other a good weekend, and I log off before anyone else can come along and ruin my good mood.

Jools arrives home and we agree not nice enough to go for a walk, so we have a brew and some toast, listen to some music and she watched Picard, series 2.

I don't.

I still don't have the inclination to watch drama or much else if I'm honest. I edit the final shots from the third day of my trip to Rhodes before the music quiz.

In the quiz, the clues were even more off the wall than usual, I failed to guess was U2, so nil points for Jelltex.

We drive to Jen's, where she had prepared chicken and oven fries for dinner. We eat and chat, drink wine.

A good start for the weekend.

Not so good was cards, although we don't lose much, and we finish at a sensible time, so rush home and then to bed, finding out from the four angry cats that we had gone out without feeding them.

Oops.

Thursday 21st April 2022

Queen Betty's birthday.

And another work day for me.

And we laid in late due to the late return from the dning club, meaning we did not get up until nearly half seven, and I was having my first coffee at seven when my phone gave a funny noise and i realised that I should have been in a meeting.

So quickly set up the office and join, blaming my late arrival on "IT issues", which is totally believable.

Its the official meet the new boss meeting, others introduce themselves and history, and so I get to see how highly educated my colleagues in India are. The meeting goes on the 90 minutes, Jools goes to work and I'm hungry and need more coffee.

So, I have breakfast and make dough for a loaf, and with it being a sunny if cool day, put the bread in the tin on the kitchen windowsill to rise. I get into another meeting and time gets away, so when I look at the loaf again it is out of the tin and about to overlow the sill.

I put it back ontop of the rmainder of the loaf, put in the oven to bake, but it overflows again and so I get the Elephant Loaf, double the amount I was expecting.

Tastes good though.

I give in and put the heating on, and so am soon warming up. I have lunch of plentiful fresh crusty bread and delux apricot jam from La Belle France.

And tea. Lots of tea.

THe day peters out with me suffering a migraine, so lay on the sofa for 90 minutes until after three.

That'll do pig. That'll do.

Dinner is Caprese, and fresh bread. We have lots.

And with it I finish the wine brought back from the club.

Cheers.

As darkness fell, the fox was in the garden, feasting on peanuts, it was just about bright enough to get shots.

So I do.

646

That's how many people died in the UK in the 24 hours up to 16:00 on 21st April 2022.

And yet the Govenement would have you believe its all over and we're the only country that has "learned to live with it", while other places in the world, haven't.

Testing continues to crash in numbers, and so people will go about their lives, infected and so infecting.

Perfect.

And while it is true that those vaccinated will probably only have mild symptoms, there is a 5% chance that each infection can lead to "long COVID".

Long COVID is under researched, back can mean brain, lunch or liver damage, and years of impared life and possible need to support from the State, if there is any money to go round.

And it is all avoidable, but just too hard, apparently.

So, with some people suffering 3rd or even 4th infections, the possibility that they will suffer chronic conditions increases each time.

The cost to the nation in the long term is unknow, but was avoidable, if only we had a Government that took such risks seriously.

If only.

NIPped in the bud

This from Simon Usherwood on Twitter, as to why, even after nearly six years, the Brexiteers in and out of Government don't understand what they signed up to, nor apparently want to:

"Per @pmdfoster's piece, plan looks like either withholding results of a NI Assembly vote, or avoiding one happening. This hangs on the need for at least a majority of MLAs to support continuing application of Arts.5-10 of the NIP .

However, if you read the rest of Art.18, you will see that UK is committed to allowing a vote to take place, and that this vote doesn't need an Executive to exist, so sitting MLAs.

Crucially Art.18(4) says it's only when UK tells EU that a vote has happened and no majority was reached that disapplication occurs

I.e. it has to be an active decision by MLAs, not a passive we-didn't-get-round-to-voting-in-time non-decision

As such, if wording of planned legislation is that London can either stop or ignore MLA vote, then that's a breach of NIP and of international law

It's at least as bad as the Internal Market Bill, and worse in that it sounds like it also impinges on the right of MLAs to exercise their powers, so it also raises the question of GFA consent provisions too

Even if the planned bill only aims to give London the option to ignore a consent vote, rather than requiring them to, that would still be just as much of a problem, given the commitment of Art.18(1) to allow NI a decisive voice [which UK itself pushed to include]

Tl;dr it's almost as if someone wrote Art.18 to stop this kind of thing"

Thi follows on from JRM saying that the NIP was only supposed to be temporary, and the UK wanted to change it. But like all agreements, it took all sides to agree, and any change would need that too, not the UK act on its own. But these are mere details from him and the ERG of course.

Breaking the NIP, which is an international treaty, will have long term negative effects on the trustworthyness of the UK and negotiations with any other country.

Its not a good look.

But on top of that, it would bethe UK Government ignoring the will of the NI electorate and those it would have elected.

Not big, not clever.

Double check and mate, sukka

The u turn by the Conservative Whips meant that the vote for referral did not happen. No one objected so was passed without division.

Quite how the Government went from a three-line whip to accepting Labour's motion without ammendment is an object lesson in piss-poor politics.

MPs supporting Johnson ran out at least two hours before the vote, so MP after MP stood up demanding Johnson resign.

Even worse, even Steve Baker, aka the "hard man of Brexit" ERG member and Conservative MP also called him to resign too. The gig being up. Johnson now finds himself in India with his Premiership collapsing around him, with support in Parliament evaporating, so needing to come back and try to save himself.

Even worse for Johnson, he and his Party has gone from an unassailable lead at the beginning of December to this in a matter of four months, the support for Patterson, whipping MPs then doing a u turn at the start of next day's business meaning that they couldn't be called on to do that again, what with the anger of their constituents and the people of the United Kingdom.

The only plus point for Johnson is that the inquiry will only begin once the Met's investigations have begun, and the Met have said they will not issue any more fines until after the local elections on May 5th, but once the Met is done, the inquiry can demand evidence and will require the Prime Minister to provide evidence of checks he said he carried out, and those who said all laws and guidance was followed.

Their single aim will be to find out if Johnson mislead Parliament. Or not.

There is a sanction in which Johnson could be suspended from Parliament, if that were to happen, would he try to cling onto power even then? It is possible as there is no requirement in the constitution of the PM being an MP, but it would be very difficult.

Johnso was made Leader and PM because he won elections. Was electable.

If Johnson can't win elections any more, he is no further use for the Party and they will dump him, just as they did Thatcher.

The end when it came was very slow, and then very quick.

Wednesday 20th April 2022

Although it only felt like Tuesday, it was in fact Wednesday. Therefore the four day week is really the gift that keeps on giving.

It was to be a filled day, what with me meeting my new boss and later us going to the dining club for supper.

It is now almost daylight just about at five, and the sun seems to rise soon after, though that is now out of sight of course. Birds sing before then, singing for joy of spring and the work that the season will bring them, raising a new generation.

Scully comes in to check on us, and Cleo flies from laying against my legs to let her know that Cleo is Queen upstairs.

All ready for the new day.

So, at then I have the meeting: new boss and old boss, quizing me on my main project.

What I can tell you is that new boss is not stupid, in well-versed in Q and issues. Old boss interjected on occasion to make excuses why things are the way they are.

In the end, new boss deduced there was a conflict of interest and he would clarify that next week and arrange a follow up meeting.

Impressed.

I have lunch.

It looks warm outside, but there is a keen wind blowing. I resit the temptation to put on the heating, but have my fleexe on and done up as I sit and work, though I don't get sleepy.

I didn't feel like going for a walk, but knew I should.

So I did.

I did a reverse of a usual walk, along the street from the house, up to Collingwood, then down the little dip past the ponies and horses to the end of Windy Ridge wood, then along the ridge to Station Road and back home.

It was cool, nearly cold in the "moderate" breeze, and with that, no butterflies seen once again.

Alexanders in the hedgerows are having a great year, with plants now a metre and a half tall.

I walk down Station Road to home, needing a brew to warm up as I thought that I would go out sans coat, as I thought walking would keep me warm. Maybe not the right decision.

There was no dinner to prepare, as we were going out, but there was two saffron buns to finish, so once Jools arrived back, I toast those once cut in two, smother in butter, and they go down well with a brew.

We had an hour before the meal was due to start, so managed to get into Deal with enough time to call into the Just Reproach for a swifter and for Jools to buy a carry-out to go with our dinner.

I had a bottle of good vin rouge, so after downing our drinks, we wander along Middle Street to the Club, are shown to a nine seater table, as we would be sharing it with six other people, so we could talk to other people.

And we did.

I talked mostly to Heather sitting next to me about all sorts of stuff, he husband, Charlie was indeed a Charlie, but all good humour.

We had anti-pasto, followed by veal and ended with home made Panettone. With ice cream.

And was very nice.

All in all, a good evening.

Jools drove us home, getting back at ten, an hour past bed time, and we were tired.

Good night.

All tomorrow's party votes

Johnson was quizzed while in India about the vote in the Commons later today.

He answered he did not fear the vote or scrutiny.

"I'm very keen for every possible form of scrutiny and the House of Commons can do, I think, whatever it wants to do, but all I would say is I don't think that that should happen until the investigation is completed."

With that and the numbers of backbenchers who would defy the three line whip or obstain, the Tory ammendment has been dropped, and a few minutes ago, all Conservative MPs sent home, so there will not even be a vote, it will pass as agreed.

An humiliating u-turn again in Parliament, and very well played by Starmer and the opposition parties.

THe committee is expected to be shown some of the hundreds of photographs and images of the various gatherings, many taken by Johnson's official photographer, and some it is believed shows Johnson either drinking our pouring wine.

The Prime Minister and the parties

Or as DAG says"

"What started with what was to be a brief cabinet secretary investigation to 'clear' the party allegations, became Sue Gray's investigation, a Met investigation (with FPNs) and now a possible privileges committee report.

This is now the stuff of parables and fables - a political morality story for the ages."

Johnson has run off to India for reasons unknown other than not to be in the UK media spotlight when his Government Whips try to delay or cancel the vote on referral to the Privileges Committee, as apparently, there isn't a fridge big enough for him to hide in here in the UK.

This is not a good look, and backbenchers already burned by the previous attempt to cover up scandal, the Patterson affair, are less inclined to follow the party line with the May 5th local elections. Which is why the Government has now added an ammendment that delays any such referral until after May 5th, but that means he will be referred once the investigations are completed by the Met and Sue Gray.

It is a mess. And shows that lies to cover up lies to cover up lies becomes impossible for Johnson to rememebr what lie he is now lying to cover for.

Added to the fact he acted with contrition in the House on Tuesday then slandered the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1922 Committee Room straight afterwards.

Even hardened backbenchers walked out.

Tuesday 19th April 2022

12th (twelfth) anniversary me of joining the renewables industry.

Wow, those 12 years went fast. And only three years less than I was in the RAF for, and that seemed like forever.

I would celebrate by going back to work after the four day weekend, would my old boss or new boss speak to me or share the plan for the months and years ahead? I wasn't holding my breath.

All I had to do was remember my work password.

Now, what was it?

And once I remember that, the laptop logs on, downloads 500 Windows updates and I have to restart the computer.

Welcome to the future where computers make our lives so much simpler.

Or not.

Mostly not.

But my Danish colleagues are back from their week off, so we call and chat and swap news, mostly about the stuff we did over the weekend.

I had two whole e mails to deal with that had come in over the weekend, one being minutes of a meeting I almost slept through last Thursday, so that was helpful.

There is a fridge full of leftovers, so I have a plan. Make chop suey ragu, just put everything in it: pigs in blankets, roast potaties, steamed vegetables, stuffing, as well as ground beef, tinned tomatoes and herbs.

It took all day to reduce it all down to a sludge and be ready for dinner, but I hoped it would be good. It would be unique.

That's for sure.

I should have gone out for a walk, but I had a lawnmower to fix. It starts and ten stops, so I do a Google search and it seems simple to fix.

I take off the air filter and carburetor, and its nothing like the video I watched.

I wipe the inside of the carburetor and try to reassemble it to the mower.

Won't fit.

Great, I have a non-working mower now in two pieces.

I used to be a technician, you know.

My back now hurts and I ponder a beer, but go for tea instead.

I pack away the work computer, make the house look tidy, mainly by me not sitting around looking like two pounds of roughstuff tied up ugly, or so my dea old Dad would say. Often.

I boil pasta, warm the ragu one last time and serve.

It was. Interesting.

And not bad.

Just as well as there was like half a gallon left over for freezing and hiding in the bottom of the freezer for when proper food runs out.

There is football to watch. Good football, Liverpool v Man Utd, and Liverpool givem Utd a footballing lesson, winning 4-0, and Utd was lucky to get nil.

Still, gotta laugh.

COVID update

The UK Government still acts as though COVID is over, despite 1340 deaths in the last seven days, that is a 30% drop on the previous, but still it is a staggaring level of deaths that the Government thinks is acceptable.

More concerning relaly is the number of tests, down over 700,000 week on week, meaning more and more cases are going undetected.

At the factory, Jools says many of the management team are off either because they or someone in their family have tested positve, Jools carried a test before returning just to make sure yesterday.

Gigs and tours are being cancelled as more people are infected, and our favourite DJ on the wireless, Marc Riley, has also tested positive.

One hopes this really is the end of the pandemic, but it feels like we can't be bothered any more.

What with the virus do next?

Kids went back to school today too.

The liar lied

Well, there's a fucking surprise.

So said My Cousin Vinny.

Johnson is to face a vote on Thursday whether he should be referred to the standards commission.

The Conservative Party is whipping MPs to block it.

The question is, if he didn't lie, he would want to clear his name, no?

The real problem would be it would be on record, and people could be called as witnesses to contradict his lies or to support allegations.

At the heart of the matter is that MPs, Ministers and Prime Ministers should tell the truth in the House, or if it is found they have not, then invited to correct the record.

Because at the moment the punishment for accusing another Momber of lying is far worse than a Member who actually lies. And until that is fixed, there will be a problem. That and the fact that it is the Prime Minister who decides f the Ministerial Code was broken or not, even if the Minister who broke it is himself.

If Johnson gets away with it, as he will, it means that future Prime Ministers and Government Ministers know they can lie too, and debate and demcracy will be dead.

Ministers and the usual papers are either supporting Johnson, downplaying what he has done, or plain ignoring the story. Yes, I'm talking to you Daily Mail.

Democracy dies in plain sight.

Monday 18th April 2022

Bank Holiday Monday (UK and DK).

There is still a fuel shortage, so we don't go far. In fact we go nowhere in the car.

It is to be a sunny and calm day, and one which after lunch would be full of football.

After coffee and fruit, we put on our boots and go for a walk.

Not much to report or pictures to post from Monday's walk.

We set off at half seven, walked over the field, then down by the farm and up the down to rest at the secret bench.

Then back along Green Lane and down to Collingwood and home.

No butterflies seen, but a few Bee Flies, and the usual early spring flowers.

It was getting warm though.

Back home I make bacon butties, and there is so much bacon to cook, there is some left over. As well as a half pan of stock. A plan forms to make a ragu on Tursday, and throw all leftovers in it: pigs in blankets, potatoes, vegetables, shredded chicken and the last pack of mince. I will add spices and we shall dine like (Italian) kings and queens.

We have samosas and bhajis for lunch, which go down very well, and then it was wall to wall football.

And with regular coffee breaks.

Some of the 4 (four) matches were good, Sunderland at Plymouth was very poor indeed.

By nine and the Forest v WBA game was approaching half time, I had had enough and switch the tellybox off. Four days gone just like that, but we were relaxed.

The Crime Minister

Today, Alexander Boris de Piffel Johnson, the Prime Minister, will tell the House of Commons that he, as PM and leader of HM Government, did not think the rules that he told applied to everyone in the country, did not apply to him.

And that accepting the FPN from the Met does not mean he accepts he broke the law.

It does.

If Johnson still challenges that, then he should go to court to say so, where he will swear an oath to thell the truth, the whole truth, so help him God. For the first time in his life.

He will go on to say that when he stated at the Disptch Box that there were no parties and all rules and laws were complied with, he believed that to be true, so did not lie. Even when, on December 8th, he said he had satisfied himself that no rules or laws had been broken.

This is, frankly, bollocks.

Parliament must decide what, if any, sanctions the PM should face for being the first PM to break a law whilst in office. And no, this is not like a speeding ticket. And we are, and should hold Johnson and his Government to a higher standard as he/they literally broke the law in the Cabinet Office where the laws were drafted.

There is no excuse.

If, as seems likely, there will be no consequences for Johnson and the Chancellor, then the trust we, the people, have in our elected officals is gone, forever. And any future law-breaking by this or any future Government will look back at today as precedent.

Thse in his Government and Party who even now defend him and his lies further debase our democracy and our country.

Johnson lied to Parliament.

Johnson lied to the country.

Johnson legislated for his Government to break national and international law.

Johnson gave the Monarch unlawful advice.

Facts.

Sunday 17th April 2022

Third day of a four day weekend, and we are going nowere, really, due to the uncertainty on availability of fuel from one day to the next. We have a pretty full talk for now, Jools can get to work for the next week, so we will survive.

How much of this is Brexit, Ukraine or something else? I believe, that there were protests at a refinery, but that was stopped with an injunction last week, though finding out anything certain seeems difficult. What I do know is that shortages are everywhere up and down the country, some worse than others. This weekend there was fuel in Deal, but none in Sandwich or in Dover town centre.

So, who knows?

I only had one target, the area at the base of the cliffs at Samphire Hoe, and if I went earlier enough I wouldn't meet many other people; dog walkers, families, park runners and so on. Jools decided to sit this one out, so after coffee I went out, and found Jubilee Way open for the first time in nearly two weeks.

No queues at the bottom, along Townwall Street or at Aycliffe on the A20, so jams caused by Brexit checks and sheer volume of traffic.

I reached the turn off, waited 90 seconds for the lights, during which time I looked for any spikes near the path, but saw none, it is still quite early for those.

I parked up once through the tunnel, and instead of walking to the railway and the path beside that, I turned to the sea wall and headed north. No one else about.

Round the corner and to the cliff face, and I find about ten spikes, in various stages of opening. I snap a few. In the air there were Wall Browns and Dingy Skippers, the first of both I have seen this year, and I even get a crappy distant shot of the Wall, but what else was flying round, can't be Small Blues yet, can it?

One settled, and I saw clearly it was a Small Blue, I mean no other butterfly is that small. As I get shots on the underside of the wings, it opens, and I get to see the sooty black topsides.

It was happy enough basking, so I switch to a smaller appeture to get the whole insoct in focus.

Job done.

I walk back to the car park, but call in the warden's office to let them know about my sightings, they would log it in the diary they said.

And with that I got back in the car and drove home. Back in time for a snack and a coffee, but no breakfast as Jen was coming for lunch, and we would eat plenty then.

So, I make the batter for puddings, peel and boil potatoes, trim vegetabls and finally season and put in the chicken to roast, while I make a dozen pigs in blankets and make some cranberry stuffing too.

As usual, it comes together perfectly, all ready to eat at one, we drink the last of the pink fizz and eat up.

Man, that was some good eatin'.

There followed two hours during which time I may not have stayed awake.

There was the second Cup semi-fanal to watch, but not a path on the Saturdays, mainly because as good as Palace were, Chelsea has better players, on the pitch and able to bring yet more on towards the end. Its no longer a sporting contest.

Jens goes home, and Jools and I have a coffee as the evening started, and have a saffron bun each for supper.

Day three of the weekend draws to an end.