Wow – that was a “wild and stormy night.” We’ve been battered by storms over the past few days – storm Eunice arrived seemingly about thirty seconds after storm Dudley departed. At this rate they are going to run out of names soon. Lashings and lashings of rain, gale force winds – the Met Office issued a rare Red Warning – danger of loss of life from flying debris, apparently.
It’s a wacky thing this climate change but it’s all still too challenging and, more importantly, too expensive to do anything about, it seems. The government’s Net Zero commitment is looking increasingly like most other things about this government – a lie.
I had a very amusing moment the other day – I had an email from iFit, the folks who provide all the exercises and cycle rides on our exercise bike. They send out emails from time to time to alert their customers to new activities or cycle rides they’ve added to the thousands from which one can choose. This particular email asked a simple question: “Do you dream of running the Boston Marathon?”
I haven’t laughed out loud like that in a long time. Uh, no. I dream about lots of wacky things but running the Boston Marathon is not amongst them.
I am sure you’ve all been following the Prince Andrew saga and the civil suit against him for sexual abuse all those years ago. Of course, he has consistently denied that this ever happened and, in spite of photographic evidence to the contrary, claims that he never met the woman in question. Now, as you will know, he has settled the claim prompting someone to post the following on Facebook:
Oh, the grand old Duke of York,
He had £12 million quid,
He gave it to “someone he never met,”
“For something he never did.”
(If you are not familiar with the nursery rhyme The Grand Old Duke of York have a quick search on YouTube).
This week’s You Could Not Make It Up moment comes from that Gold Mine of astonishing stupidity – the UK government and, in particular, the idiot currently occupying Number 10. As of this week all Covid restrictions are to be abolished. Mask wearing was eliminated a couple of weeks ago and, apparently, we’ve done so well at beating back the pandemic that there is no longer any need to isolate if you have Covid. Oh, and by the way, we’re also going to remove the provision of free lateral flow tests – too expensive. So, feel free to catch Covid and go out and cough and sneeze over whomever you like. And even better, we’ll have no way of knowing how many cases there are – win, win!
All this at a time when the infection rates are still way too high and the number dying each week continues apace. “We always follow the science” and “We’ll do whatever it takes to save lives.” Not. This is clearly nothing to do with keeping people safe. It’s all about the Prime Minister trying to shore up support amongst his back benchers so that they don’t call for a vote of no confidence. Who would ever have imagined that a lying misogynistic racist with a huge sense of entitlement who cheated on two of his wives (so far) would care about saving anything other than his own political skin?
Ironically/coincidentally, one of Susie Dent’s Words of the Day this week was:
Mumpsimus – 16th century. Someone who insists they are right despite clear evidence that they are not.
Susie Dent
And finally, we spent much of yesterday on tenterhooks waiting for the arrival of Jessica’s younger sister. Penny has been over at Adam and Ava’s for a couple of days entertaining Jessie while they’ve been back and forth to the hospital and midwife appointments. Julieta finally decided to make her debut at about 21.50 last night (Saturday 19 February) and weighed 3.85 kg (just under 8.5 lbs in old money).
I gather that everything and everyone is well – both her English grandparents are coping well.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg
Congratulations all around… Welcome young Julieta.