I resisted the temptation to turn off my alarm and roll over and go back to sleep this morning. Having been strong in that respect, I took a look out of the window at the weather. After all, the weathermen had promised snow starting at about 7.00. But all we had was thin sleety snow and as I knew we needed more milk I decided to make a virtue out of necessity and got myself organised to run round the village and stop off at the co-op store on my way back. The hills to the north of the village were looking a bit white but down in the lowlands it was more wet than anything else.
Heading into the village on the last leg of my run I met the old gent who told me last week he was 90. Still out and about, this time with his dog, he had his clearly home-made walking stick (no fancy cane for him, but a bit of smoothed thin branch with a slightly forked top) but did not appear to need it. We swopped stories of the snows of winters past: in his case tales of tractors stuck in snow drifts in the farms just north of the village; in mine getting snowed in when we lived in the valley between Delph and Denshaw. We don’t seem to get snowdrifts like that any more. Où sont les neiges d’antan? and all that sort of thing.
By midday, however, the sleet was turning to snow, the garden was white and the road was looking a little snowy. The weathermen did say the cold weather would spread down from the north. Maybe they were right. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t plan on going anywhere else today. And at least we are safe and warm.
Here’s a bit of Michael Rosen:
'”Agenda for today's meeting,' said the King's tutor, '1 - what we're doing. 2. People being horrible to us.'
'Right,' said the King, 'what we're doing. What have you got to report on that?'
'No sir,' said the tutor, 'we need to talk about people being horrible to us.'
'Oh,' said the King, 'I thought you said that 'People being horrible to us' is number 2 on the agenda.'
'It is,' said the tutor, 'but it's the number one thing that we need to talk about.'
'Right,' said the King, 'People being horrible to us. What have you got to report on that?'
'People are being horrible to us, sir.' said the tutor.
'That's awful,' said the King.
'Yes, it is,' said the tutor, 'I've minuted that and will make sure that our scribes inform everyone of what you've just said. Thank you, sir.'
'Good,' said the King, 'now let's move on to 'what we're doing.'
'I'm afraid we've run out of time, sir,' said the tutor, 'that'll have to wait till the next meeting.'
'Oh, right,' said the King.
'I think you'll agree, sir,' said the tutor, 'it's been a very successful meeting.'
'Yes,' said the King.”
And another:
“'Have I got this right, tutor?' said the King, 'people who are not with us, are against us?'
'It's worse than that, sir,' said the King's tutor.
'Oh really? Go on,' said the King.
'People who are not with us are siding with the worst people in the world,' said the tutor.
'Oh dear,' said the King, 'that's awful.'
'In effect, simply by not being with us, they are supporting the worst people in the world. They might just as well be the worst people in the world,' said the tutor.
'Yes,' said the King, 'truly appalling. Does this mean that if people criticise what we're doing, they are in effect being the worst people in the world?'
'That's exactly it,' said the tutor.”
And here’s a bit of real stuff, first from Antony Blinken:
“Met with @IsraeliPM Netanyahu in Jerusalem to discuss the latest efforts to secure release of all hostages and ensure events of October 7 are never repeated. I stressed the importance of protecting civilians in Gaza and ensuring more humanitarian aid gets to people in need.”
But then this:
“Wrapping up a four country Middle East trip – his fifth to the region since the conflict erupted – Blinken was returning to Washington after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue until Israel is completely victorious and appeared to reject outright a response from Hamas to a proposed ceasefire plan.”
And finally this from the Palestine Red Crescent:
“The Palestine Red Crescent paramedic colleague, Mohammed Al-Omari, was killed, and two other paramedics were injured after the Israeli occupation forces directly fired at them in #Gaza City while they were transferring several wounded individuals from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in preparation for their transfer to hospitals in the south.”
And on the World at One on BBC Radio 4, they are currently reporting continued attacks on Rafah.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment