Birthdays. Socialising. Cycling. Yachts? Football.

 Today is a day of multiple birthdays: our son (48), Granddaughter Number One (29), my Italian friend Guido (age not revealed), and the daughter of a friend of our daughter (23 or 24 I think).  Tomorrow is Granddaughter Number One’s best friend’s birthday (28). Consequently yesterday we did a big family dinner with presents for the two of them and a shared cake. Fun and games all round! Grandson Number Two (6) got very excited and decided he had to show off, the way small boys do when they realise they are not the centre of attention.

For the first time in weeks we had a visit from Grandson Number One (21), in honour presumably of his older sister’s birthday meal. From being a very quiet person who never seemed to go anywhere apart from to the office when he was obliged to do so, suddenly he has developed a lively social life, out drinking with friends and even staying overnight at his girlfriend’s place! So much for all the theories about the younger generation being sad and lonely! 

In the middle of all the fun and games I remembered to set the TV to record the highlights of the Tour de France on Channel 5. There have been some interesting views of Barcelona, some of them repeated as yesterday’s stage finished with the riders doing a number of circuits around Montjuïc. The commentators kept going on about the competition between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard but in the end it was Pogacar’s teammate, the young Mexican isaac del Toro, who won the stage. Pretty good for his first Tour. Did Pogacar let him win the stage as part of team morale-boosting? There”s so much plotting and scheming behind the cycling!   

I’m reserving judgement on the commentators involved in this year’s coverage of the Tour. We had grown used to hearing Phil Liggett and Gary Imlach discussing the riders that it seems strange to hear different voices. So far there has been no after-stage discussion between the present commentators. Maybe that will come when they move into France. There have been occasional contributions from the Irish former cyclist Sean Kelly. It took us a while to put a name to the Irish accent. 

In the background to some of the views of Barcelona were several cruise ships. These huge floating hotels continue to go around. Not my cup of tea! Here’s a link to something about a protest in Venice against  a visit by the billionaire US ambassador to Italy in his 117-metre superyacht, which they fear he plans to dock in the lagoon city. I’m not sure such a boat can really be called a yacht but there it is.

And England’s football team defeated Mexico’s team in the early hours of this morning. i wonder how many people were late for work or school as a result. Now they face Norway in the next stage. That will be interesting: Harry Kane against Erling Haaland.

So much sport this summer!

Life hoes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

And the Tour de France has begun. A bit of Tour mostalgia. Street food. Cycling. And Muslims and Jews.

 The Tour de France began yesterday with a TTT (team time trial) from Barcelona. We watched highlights on Channel 5 in the early evening. It looked like a very fine day in Catalonia, certainly too hot for cycling at speed up the final hill of Montjuic. Cycling technology means that they all have the most aerodynamic bikes possible, not to mention Darth Vader-style helmets. Now, I remember long ago when the Tour riders staged a protest because they were expected to wear helmets of any kind. 

Quite how the team members manage to cycle in close formation without clashing wheels always amazes me. It seems to me that Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, in the 1990s, could not have managed it with his sprinting style that involved his elbows and knees protruding in all directions, for all the world as if he had more knees and elbows than average. He was nicknamed "The Tashkent Terror" as he was so ferocious in the sprints. His unorthodox and often erratic sprinting caused a number of crashes. Those were the days!

(Incidentally, my father also rode his bike with knees sticking out but we always put that down to the fact that he improvised a child-seat on bis crossbar on which all four of us siblings rode in turn. This was before there were safety-conscious child-seats to attach to bikes!)

A lot of fuss was made about which of the favourites, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, would get the yellow jersey. It was Jonas Vingegaard in the end, feeling very confident and recovered from the nasty crash he has in the Basque Country a few years ago. 

In today’s Guardian, however, I saw this report:

“While yesterday’s TTT was predominantly a team effort, it was interesting to see who went up the last climb to Montjuïc fastest once shorn of helpers.

Hardly something to make headlines or draw too much from, but confirms that Pogacar is the man to beat today. Five seconds quicker than Vingegaard too, blimey…”

We shall see what today’s riding brings!

it seems that France is putting a lot of hope in a young man called Paul Seixas, 19 years old and the youngest Tour debutant since 1937. Reminded of the scale of the challenge facing him, in hoping to usurp the dominant four-time champion, Tadej Pogacar, he said calmly: “There are different ways to win a cycling race.” Someone to watch out for!

Still on cycling, here is a picture of a Japanese man photographed riding a bicycle while carrying soba noodles on his shoulder in Tokyo, Japan in 1935. It makes fast-food delivery nowadays seem very simple.

Here’s a link to an article about archaeologists discovering an ancient Byzantine city in Egypt. Amazing stuff! It is to be hoped that nobody bombs it!

And here is something posted by someone called Mohamad Safa on Facebook:

“In 1290 all Jews were driven out of England. In 1306 they were expelled from France. In 1430 exiled from Germany, followed by Spain and Portugal. Boycotted in Italy, and time after time tossed out of every major European city.

After the centuries of expulsions, in 1492, Muslims (The Ottoman Empire) opened their doors for the Jewish. in the late 17th and 18th centuries, as the Ottoman Empire became less stable, Jews were finally allowed back into England after 366 years of total banishment. 

After 1848, hundreds of thousands of Jews left Central Europe to escape rising nationalism and "pogroms" (anti-Jewish riots).

After WWI, Britain took control of Palestine from the Ottomans. From 1917 to 1939, Muslims (Palestine) opened their doors for the Jewish as usual.

In 2026, some Western politicians lecturing us (Muslims) on how to live peacefully with Jews!

Read some history.”

Life goes ln. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Fourth of July! Some Trump quotes. Swimsuits. Evictions.

 It’s the 4th of July. Independence day for the United States of America. 

Here’s a link to some interesting photos from the 250 years of independence.

Burning flags, busty blondes and bison skulls: 48 photographs that capture America at 250 | Photography | The Guardian

And here are some Trump quotes from his speech at the semiquincentennial (250 years) celebration:

“A generation after we fought and won the cold war against the menace of communism, there is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success.”

 “The communist party is made up of illegal immigrants, criminals and everybody that doesn’t want to work.”

“It’s the enemy of the constitution,” he declared. “Above all, it’s the enemy of July 4th, 1776 … Communism is the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil.”

“You can be loyal to Karl Marx or you can be loyal to America. You can be a communist or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”

“The communist party is made up of illegal immigrants, criminals and everybody that doesn’t want to work.”

No comment. But here’s a cartoon.

I was talking about holidays with Granddaughter Number Two, specifically about how nice it was to have a swimming pool at our hotel in Portugal recently when it was so hot. She declared that she needed to start swimming again, now that her latest piercing (she has multiple ear piercings, not to mention a whole lot of tattoos - she’s that sort of girl) has healed and she can go back to the swimming baths. But she needs a new swimsuit. So here’s a relevant cartoon strip for her: 

I’m taking the plunge and buying a new swimsuit: the Becky Barnicoat cartoon

I wrote recently about van dwellers in Cornwall, people priced out of accommodation by the tourist boom. Here’s a link to an article about moves by local councils to evict such van dwellers from their ‘homes’. We love in a harsh world.

And here’s something about another kind of eviction, a story that has been popping up and getting a lot of concerned comment on my social media pages:

“Much-loved attraction near seaside town closing doors after 87 years

Funding for the attraction in Churchtown has been pulled.

An aviary that has been going for nearly 90 years is set to close. 

Sefton Council said the attraction in the Botanic Gardens in Churchtown in Southport will shut in March 2027.

Connor Atherton, the small animal and avian keeper at the council-run site, said news of the closure had come "out of the blue". 

The council said every effort would be made to re-home the 170 birds and small animals at the aviary and putting them down had been "completely ruled out". 

Atherton said the council had told him it cost about £60,000 a year to fund the aviary and it had taken the "difficult decision" after reviewing animal welfare guidance, ageing infrastructure and budget pressures.

He said that sum was "a drop in the ocean" for a free attraction which served as a rescue centre and a place for children and older people.”

This is a place my family visited when I was small, a place I took my own children to, a place that became a regular destination when we had family reunion lunches in Southport - me, my daughter and her children, the Spanish branch of the family, those family members who never moved away from Southport. Everyone enjoyed provoking the parrot into greeting us. 

Another bit of nostalgia swept away! So it goes!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Some stuff about the weather. Quite a lot of stuff about summer sports.

 Today has gone from cloudy to sunny to cloudy but no rain. However, the puddles which took what seemed like weeks to dry up have reestablished themselves in the rain that we had during the last few nights. There’s no rain forecast for today but thundery showers for tomorrow. They keep promising me thunderstorms but so far we’ve not really had any. On the positive side, the next door neighbour has mown the grass in our shared garden. Hurrah!

People have been dying of the heat - in France anyway. “The number of deaths recorded in France surged by nearly 30% during the hottest week of the record-breaking heatwave that scorched much of Europe last month, the public health authority has said, adding that it expects the toll to rise further.

Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week”. It said the figure was probably an underestimate and “mortality will rise further”.”

Meanwhile the football madness continues. On Monday England plays Mexico, kicking off at 1.00am UK time. Pubs will be allowed to stay open until 5.00am. That should be fun; football fans will start drinking at some point on Sunday afternoon / evening and continue doing so into the wee small hours, either celebrating or drowning their sorrows. The police have apparently criticised this decision.

And head coach, Thomas Thuchel, has said parents should let their children bunk off school so they can stay up to watch the match against Mexico. Play could last until at least 3am.

Speaking after England’s win against DR Congo, Tuchel said: “Write an excuse for school and let them watch football. They have so much school to go to, but the World Cup is every four years. Let them watch, there will be a big, big match in four days and we need the support of everyone and especially of the children.”

Does the team really need the support of the children? Who knew?

Twenty-odd years ago World Cup fever coincided with the spoken exam period for AS and A Level modern foreign languages. We had to chase up two students at my college because they were late to arrive for their German spoken exam. When we located them we rather wished we hadn’t. Both were clearly rather the worse for drink. They had been watching England play and, so they assured us, you cannot watch football without lots of cans of ale! (It’s the same law that says you can’t watch a movie, even at home, without copious amounts of popcorn.) I can’t actually remember what we did with those students. I know the college principal was involved.. i hope we managed to rearrange the exam time for the students but it would have served them right if we had simply excluded them. 

As well as football, there is tennis. It would seem that fashion has invaded Wimbledon. Naomi Osaka walked on to court wearing frills, a bustle, outsized bows and extended sleeves. Based on Japan’s ceremonial dress, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, the pieces designed by Hana Yagi conformed to the all-white Wimbledon dress code. Presumably she had to take layers off to reveal more conventional tennis gear. 

It’s not just the girls who make sartorial statements. Frances Tiafoe did a surprise reveal – dramatically ripping off his trousers to show the shorts underneath.

Goodness me! What are things coming to?

And tomorrow the Tour de France starts. I need to find out which channel does a daily summary so that I can watch it.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

A routine Thursday. No excitment.

 Well, it’s been a funny sort of day! Running in the drizzle first thing. After breakfast Granddaughter Number Two turned up, as she usually does on a Thursday. She wanted help ironing some embroidery work she’s been doing for Granddaughter Number One’s birthday. For all the world it’s a kind of “sampler”, the sort of thing victorian (I think) ladies used to stitch with uplifting words,often from the bible, and hang on the wall. Hers has some uplifting words which are much too rude to publish here. It needed ironing as it had ring-creases where she had used an embroidery hoop to keep the fabric taught. Now those creases needed to go but at  her house they have no iron or ironing board. My iron only emerges from the cupboard on very rare occasions. Time was I used to iron shirts and sometimes trousers and dresses but nowadays I hang stuff out to dry creatively. There are a couple of linen items which insist that they need ironing; nice as they are, they are worn rarely. And Granddaughter Number Two had the cheek to laugh at my venerable steam iron and even asked how old it is!  

So it goes.

We collected the small people from school. After tea the small boy and I played catch in the windy garden. We had to rescue the ball from its hiding place in a huge fern at one point. And there were several occasions when it almost disappeared over the wall into the crevasse between our garden and the industrial estate next door. Such exciting times!

And that’s pretty much the highlights of the day. I seem not to have found time to scan the newspapers. But, hey! Tomorrow is another day!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

The loneliness of modern life. Mysterious wrecks. Small protesting chess player. And Trumps.

 It seems there is something called the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion, co-chaired by the former Conservative minister Sajid Javid and the former Labour MP and policy chief Jon Cruddas, a sort of cross party thing. And it has has been looking at what it means to belong and the kind of country they want to live in.

James Graham, who wrote the play Dear England about Gareth Southgate’s time managing the England men’s team, said this: 

“We all know it. We all feel it in our hearts that the social bonds and the things that connect us, or traditionally have connected us, are fraying and breaking. That’s been going on for a very long time. It’s political, but it’s also social, cultural and emotional.”

“There’s no high street, the collapse of town centres and actual places to gather and be together as a community. But it goes beyond place as well,” he said.

“The rhythm of our lives has changed. We are lonelier, more isolated and more alienated. That’s true of older people, but, upsettingly, true for young people too. They’re the loneliest generation we’ve ever had. How can that be when we have all these ways to connect us?”

All of which is probably true to some extent. It has taken  quite some time for town centres to become anything like “normal’, normal meaning pre-Covid. Granddaughter Number Two and Grandson Number One both had their later school days disrupted by the Covid lockdown, she at sixth form stage, he at GCSE stage. Their social life became largely family and some online friend contact. Both of them now work mostly from home, with occasional obligatory “office days”. Some of the normal structures for making friends and establishing relationships through the workplace have disappeared. 

Granddaughter Number Two did go away to university to study and made some friends there but Grandson Number One went straight from sixth-form studies to work. For some time we worried about his social life - largely nonexistent - but he seems to be bouncing back. There is even a girlfriend on the scene now, although nobody in the family knows how he met her. We suspect online dating!

We love in strange times.

I was born and grew up in Southport. Consequently every so often Facebook makes a connection and shows me something related to that seaside town. A couple of days ago someone called Hannah Baldwin-Nugent posted this on the Southport Facebook page:

“Walked out to the wreck of the SS Chrysopolis today! Must have been an exceptionally low tide as neither me nor my dad have ever seen it before!”

Now, I had never heard of the SS Chryspolis. Surely my father would have told us about it but apparently not. So I looked on the internet and found this:

“The SS Chrysopolis ran aground on the Spencers Bank in fog on 14 February 1918. She was on a voyage from Genoa to Liverpool with a cargo of copper ore. During attempts to refloat her using two tugs, her back was broken and she became a total loss. A gale sprang up, resulting in her 38 crew and a further four salvors being rescued by the Southport lifeboat.”

And there the wreck seemingly remains. How odd!

Here’s a story of resistance or protest: 

“Lebanese 8-year-old chess player Loren Abdel Samad refused to play against Israeli opponents during the World Youth Chess Championship in Batumi, a decision that led to automatic losses and affected her final ranking.

According to her family, the move was intentional despite the consequences, with her father saying she was fully aware of the outcome but maintained a firm personal stance shaped by her awareness of Israel’s “destruction of homes and the targeting of children.””

Eight years old with a sense of right and wrong, 

And here’s something about Mr Trump.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!