Well, you’ll be glad to know that scientists have finally explained why we’ve been enduring this rather long spell of disappointing weather. Apparently…we live in Britain.”
Hugh Dennis
Category: Uncategorized (page 5 of 6)
Over the past weeks I have found myself wanting to turn away from the news and then feeling that is a selfish act. If I am going to turn away then I feel should be doing something to help which I am not.
I still own my thoughts and here are a few. As I write this 58 people are missing. The relief effort is being led by vulunteers. There is no central co-ordination point.
There is a duty of care to the firemen. I hope it is honoured. They will live with what they have seen and done for the rest of their lives, and that in turn will affect those they are closest to away from their work.
Theresa May has behaved abysmally. Corbyn and the Royal Family got out there. To say she was “too distraught” spits in the faces of those whose lives have been destroyed, who have experienced something no human should have to experience.
This disaster is becoming a symbol of how our country is divided if not broken. There is shock this happened in twenty-first century London. North Kensington has the richest and the poorest. I heard someone say people were not listened to not because of what they were saying but because of who they were. The goodness of so many individuals and communities is overwhelming, but it may not stem the anger. At worst we could witness riots. This is not a time for political point scoring. Our society has to profoundly change. Something has got to give.
"Chatterton" - Henry Wallis 1856 Tate Gallery Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)
I had to have the hard-drive of my laptop replaced a few days ago which was all well and good. But Windows 10 was put back in (which I had upgraded to on the old drive with no problems) and I have every bug with it going – according to some people because Windows rushed it out. I have limited access to the internet but I hope by next weekend all should be well.
Having (pretty major) issues with your personal computer shouldn’t be debilitating in the grand scheme of things, but it really does….
Words cannot describe how much I loathe this time of year. They really can’t.
From Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls
Photo courtesy of David Sedaris Facebook
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Three times I’d done it today by 9.15am
Nursery’s Living Eggs arrived yesterday – ten fertilised hen’s eggs. Just as I got into class today the first one hatched an exhausted looking brown chick. Then as the children came through the door with their parents, the second one started hatching and the children, and their parents, saw a chick battling out of its shell. Perfect timing.
Then as I was sending photos of aforesaid slimey chicks off to interested parties, I got a message with photo of my fourth grand-nephew, born an hour previously.
Obviously I needed a cup of tea and a sit down, but was much recovered by lunchtime.
Mothering Sunday Waterstones gifts – click here
My personal recommendations are:
How It Works – The Mum
Mary Berry Everyday
Jean Rhys Collected Short Stories
The Yorkshire Shepherdess
Love From Boy
The Essex Serpent
Waterstones latest offers/recommendations:
(I love the tagline)
I have no opinions on any of the above books, but should any of you have good things to say about them, please let me know.
The Ashes of London – thriller
I have read other books by all three authors and have no hesitation in recommending these.
Child 44
Trilogy
Simon and Schuster
Thanks to my local pet shop owner I have discovered Tim Rob Smith. Having read The Farm in my summer holiday, I settled to the audiobook of Child 44 because it is read by Stephen Pacey, who brings Jussi Adler-Olsen's excellent Department Q books to vivid life. To say tim Rob Smith has done his research well is an unfair understatement. The world he has brought to life in this enthralling, gripping book is an extraordinary mixture of painstaking research and remarkable imagination. Set at the end of Stalin's rule, this reveals the bleakest, terrible lives of ordinary people who have absolutely no freedom. Add into that mixture a hero who is a blind servant of the paranoid State which does not acknowledge the existence of crime, and a series of child murders (based on real murderer of children at that time) , then anyone could be forgiven for not wanting to read this book. But I think it is brilliant - depressing and grim, but not despairing or exploitative - with an intricate plot which tightens like the coil of a snake, and psychologically fascinating characters. I need a breathing space before The Secret Speech, the next in the trilogy, but I know I won't be disappointed. Tim Rob Smith is one helluva writer.
