Neither “unseasonably warm” nor “unseasonably cold” this week. Just about seasonably seasonal, I guess. It has been a bit on the “fresh” side with lashings and lashings of rain. A few frosty mornings as well, which is great – Daisy only requires a quick rinse off. But, on those days when it is above freezing, we come home with a chocolate golden retriever and the poor girl has to stand under the freezing cold hose. Miserable.
I’m been doing more eating this week, I’m afraid. Still in training for the Olympics. I had lunch with some dear friends on Friday – sadly, Penny had double-booked herself so she was unable to join us. They took me to a Rural Enterprise project called Green Acres in Staverton near Daventry, part of which is a café.
This place was set up in 2011 as an alternative educational provision aimed at young people who do not fit into the mainstream school environment for a variety of reasons.
They provide a range of experiences from the world of work and, in particular they run this weekly café serving lunches on a Friday. The young people are engaged in the whole process of sourcing local produce, preparation, cooking and serving with the aim of engaging students, helping them develop life skills and promoting a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle.
And, the food was good, basic but wholesome. I had boeuf bourguignon with dauphinoise potatoes, red cabbage, broccoli & carrots finished off with crème brûlée and coffee. Very nice, exceptionally reasonably priced and in support of such a good cause. What could be better?
Saturday we jogged across to Adam & Ava’s to catch Jessie’s Christmas Production of her StylesStars group which she attends every Saturday. It’s all singing and dancing and Jessie was excellent. She has a real presence and has all the moves down. This year’s production wasn’t quite as bum-numbing as some in the past have been – everyone needs to have their spell in the limelight – but it was a lot of fun and the kids, ranging in age from about three or four to thirteen or fourteen, I would guess, clearly have a great time.
[Apologies for the lousy photos – the lighting was very low. If you haven’t guessed, Jessie is a snowperson. One of her lines was, “Help! I can’t feel my feet!” to which her fellow snowpeople reply, “You don’t have any feet!” Jessie then remarks, “Oh, yes – I’m a snowman.”]
We’ve just finished watching Lessons in Chemistry on Apple+ and, if you have access to that, it’s a series I would thoroughly recommend. The book was, I thought, outstanding so, if you’ve not read it, start there. Brie Larson plays the very talented female chemist in a world filled with prejudice and misogyny who refuses to play second-fiddle to less talented men. Very satisfying in some ways yet also terribly frustrating. How was it ever a thing that girls and women were deemed inferior to boys and men? And how come it’s still a thing in some contexts or circumstances?
Two YCNMIU this week. Firstly, the shambles that is the government’s latest attempt to send refugees and asylum seekers to Rwanda, a policy which even a Tory cabinet minister described as “batshit crazy.” [He was the Foreign Secretary at the time but now, with the arrival of Lord Cameron, he has been shifted to Home Secretary, i.e., the minister responsible for getting the emergency legislation through Parliament]. You may remember, on appeal the policy was rejected by the Supreme Court because Rwanda was deemed to be not a safe country. The solution – pass some emergency legislation which declares that Rwanda is a safe country and disallow any appeals on human rights grounds, i.e., asylum seekers no longer have any human rights in the UK. The emergency legislation was likened by a former Conservative Attorney General as declaring a dog to be a cat or black to be henceforth known as white. Even this “batshit crazy” policy does not go far enough for some of the government’s loonier loonies – they want the UK to withdraw completely from the European Court of Human Rights, an institution which the UK was instrumental in helping to establish. The loonies want to join Russia and Belarus as the only European countries which are not signatories. Good company for the UK to aspire to joining.
Not only is the policy simply wrong on humanitarian grounds, it is also bizarrely short-sighted and counterproductive. Would it stop desperate people from attempting to cross the channel in small boats? Probably not. Will it help solve the chronic workplace shortages in areas such as health and social care? Certainly not but rather will make shortages in those areas worse.
The second YCNMIU this week – the lying former Prime Minister’s appearance before the Covid enquiry. The Guardian editorial after his two days of testimony said it all – no apology, no leadership and no responsibility.
Confronted with some of the most incriminating conversations – warnings that should have been heeded – Mr Johnson’s memory failed him.
Tactical forgetfulness is not the only reason Mr Johnson is an unreliable witness. He is the only prime minister in history to have been censured for contempt of parliament. He wilfully misled MPs multiple times regarding breaches of lockdown regulations in Downing Street. He is guilty of serious breaches of the code of conduct underpinning British democracy. Losing jobs through dishonesty has been a pattern in his career, first as a journalist, then as a politician. He is a liar. There is no reason to suppose that he would be bound by the oath he swore to tell the truth to the Covid inquiry more than by any of the other rules he has flouted in his life.
The Guardian
Finally, there’s been quite a fuss here recently about the sourfaux scandal. It seems a number of large supermarkets are sourcing “sourdough” bread which has been made using baker’s yeast! Sacrilege! I would be more than happy to show supermarkets what a good loaf of sourdough bread should look and taste like – after all, I am a multi-award-winning sourdough baker and, I can assure you, no yeast goes anywhere near my sourdough.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg
Where was the photo of the “muddy lake” taken?
At the bottom of Brook Street, what is normally a shallow trickle.
Oh my!