It’s been, surprisingly, a moderately busy week which again, for the most part, has been “unseasonably warm” to quote the weather people. Our lovely friend Mary came for lunch on Sunday – we haven’t seen her since April, it turns out, so it was great to catch up. The weather co-operated and it was so warm and sunny that we were able to eat out on the patio – in October! Seems to me like the global thermostat is faulty.
Monday morning, I had a very important appointment – I was obliged to spend two and a half hours attending an online Speed Awareness Course courtesy of the speeding violation I picked up whilst collecting my sister Sallie and her husband Rod from Birmingham Airport a few weeks ago. It seems I was clocked doing 60 in a 50-mph zone and, although I might have claimed to be driving with the flow of the traffic, I guess it was a fair cop! I presume everyone else who was driving along the motorway at the same time were attending their own online courses.
Apart from the two and a half hours I’ll never get back, I have to confess the course was not an utter waste of time. It was well-delivered by the chap responsible and I learned a couple of things of which I was unaware previously. There were about a dozen of us on the online course, a wide range of folks from all over the country, including one young woman from Cardiff who caused a bit of a chuckle when, in response to one question about speed limits, she replied (in a thick Welsh accent), “I don’t know, to be honest. I’ve only just passed my driving test!” Off to a good start then.
Lady Penelope and I went off to the cinema in Banbury on Thursday evening to see The Old Oak, the latest (and probably last) film directed by Ken Loach. The non-Brit reader amongst our audience may not be too familiar with his work. I guess the most “famous” or well-known of his films might be Kes or Cathy Come Home or, more recently perhaps, I, Daniel Blake or Sorry We Missed You. He is very left wing and wears his politics on his sleeve. His films often tackle social injustice and the way in which the state grinds down and then abandons those who are less able to help themselves. And, he’s been making these films since the 1960s – depressingly, little or nothing has changed in all that time. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
The Old Oak is the same, set in a run-down depressing and demoralised former mining village in the northeast of England which has been more or less destroyed at the hands of successive Conservative governments. Firstly, Thatcher annihilated the mining industry for purely political reasons – she wanted to obliterate the power of the trades unions. Cameron and Osborne finished the job with their programme of austerity which impacted working-class communities (largely in the north) hardest. The place is run-down with empty and derelict homes and businesses – where better to temporarily accommodate busloads of Syrian refugees?
Not surprisingly, there is considerable antagonism from a relatively small but vocal minority who feel their way of life is being threatened by the arrival of the refugees. Still, a handful of “good” people on both sides try to bring the two communities together. While most people in the village ultimately turn out to be kind and decent, there is still a small number of knuckle-scraping racists who blame the immigrants for all their problems.
A very good film well worth a look if you get a chance.
Afterwards we wandered up through town to Pizza Calzone, an Italian restaurant toward the top of Parson Street which was very good. We’ve eaten here once or twice in the past but many, many years ago. Although the music was too loud for our tastes (there seem to have been two birthday parties going on and the music system was blaring “Happy Birthday” and “Congratulations” over and over again as we sat down) the food was very tasty. There was the one small issue of them bringing Penny some penne and chicken when she had ordered salmon but they quickly put that right. My carbonara was very good – almost as good as the outstanding meal I had at the Teatro Divino in Saumur in France.
Stop Press: I’ve just noticed (yesterday) that Pizza Calzone has been judged to be the best Italian restaurant in the South of England! I thought the food was pretty decent.
I think I wrote before that Penny has joined a programme of voluntary reading with primary students in school a couple of times a week. She’s attended her training, got her certificate to show that she’s an honest and trustworthy individual and on Friday visited the school in which she will be working. I’m not sure exactly when she’s going to be starting for real but no doubt she’ll do a great job. Of course, Penny doesn’t have nearly enough to do keeping me and Daisy in order.
This week’s birthday greeting is a shout-out to Annabelle whose birthday is this coming Wednesday. What a marvellous young woman she is!
The winners of this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year have recently been announced and, as usual, there are some stunning photographs amongst the collection. We’ve often been to see the winning photographs at the Natural History Museum in London – doubt if we will get there this year.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg