Bus stop libraries. Royal (?) visitors. Remembering Palestine. Protests.

 Here’s a picture of a bus stop in Finland.

Along quiet streets in Finland, some bus stops double as tiny open-air libraries, offering shelves of books for anyone waiting. Instead of just standing idly, commuters can pick up a story, flip through a few pages, or even borrow a book to take along on their journey.

The idea is built on trust and simplicity. There are no strict checkouts or barriers — people are free to take a book and return it later, or replace it with another. This creates a shared collection that evolves with the community, maki reading more accessible in everyday spaces.

By turning waiting time into something meaningful, these small libraries add calm and curiosity to routine travel. It’s a gentle reminder that even brief moments outdoors can become opportunities for learning, connection, and quiet reflection.

Brilliant idea! Of course you need people willing to read! 

Now, what is Prince Harry’s surname these days? Is he a Windsor?  Is he a Sussex. I find it hard to keep,up with them. Anyway, he and Meghan (Mrs Whatever-his-name-is) are apparently in Australia. Meaner people than I have suggested it’s a money-making ploy. Others say it’s because they can’t quite give up the idea of being royal people and going round visiting places that don’t hVe  royal families of their own. Maybe they feel the need to have a purpose in life.

I just have a couple of questions.

1. Who pays for their security while they are in Australia? After all, there has been a lot of fuss about who pays for security if Harry comes home to the UK.
2. What have they done with the children?  of course I know there will be a nanny. The children won’t have been abandoned in the USA. But it just seems to he a bit odd if you’ve made a big fuss about living like an ordinary family and you surely have enough money to just get on with life, why rush off and leave your children behind. 

Norman Finkelstein has posted an appeal on social media:

“Can I ask you for one thing?

Please… don’t stop talking about Palestine.

Even if it’s just a word… even just a dot… don’t let them fade into silence.

Keep speaking, even if your voice feels small.

Because sometimes silence hurts more than the wounds themselves.”

.The pro-Palestine protests continue. Old protestors are still being arrested.

Yesterday Britain First had a big demonstration in Manchester. Inwonder hwo many of them were arrested.

There was also a counter demonstration.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well,everyone!

Problems for politicians. On growing older and more nostalgic. Escaping from ICE.

Well, our politicians continue to have their problems. Mr Trump may be losing his Catholic supporters because of his ongoing feud with the Pope. But maybe not, some of them will just pray for him. I read of one woman who declares she prays every day for his heart to be softened … but she still supports him. And poor Mr Starmer needs to sort out his team and make sure they ‘keep him in the loop’. It must be hard to keep track of everything when you are the party leader, especially if your senior people (reportedly) decide not to tell you things! 

Is there a collective noun for over-protective subordinates? 

I have learnt today that we can speak appropriately enough about a “prickle of hedgehogs” as well as “a prickle of porcupines”. Maybe “a problem of politicians” ?!

In an article about problems in families caused by older family members becoming rightwing (some of this rightward drift exacerbated by their spending more and more time online, downloading stuff off YouTube), I came across this statistic: “In 2025, the industry regulator Ofcom found that Britons aged over 65 now spend a record three hours and 20 minutes a day online.

Wow! I don’t think I quite reach that total. My iPad usually tells me at the start of the week “last week you spent X amount of time onscreen”. It always surprises me but, on reflection, I check my email, I read the news headlines and occasional article over breakfast, I spend some time writing this blog, I check the weather, I keep up with the family news on our group chat, I do some Italian homework for my conversation class, … and I could keep this list going. So, yes, the time mounts up. 

We tend to think we have not grown too conservative (with a lower case c) as time has gone by but we do have a tendency to look back at ‘how things used to be back in the day’. We see a statistic about mental health, about special educational needs, obesity … you name it, there is a statistic … and wonder how we used to manage ‘back in the day’. But mostly our nostalgia runs to music and films, seeking out recordings of artists or film clips on YouTube or Netflix.

So it goes.

Interestingly, most of the older family members referred to in the article I read seemed to be in their sixties, which nowadays hardly seems to count as elderly. Our view of age changes as life goes on. I remember being a young teacher who regarded colleagues aged 40+ as ancient. Now I look at our daughter and her friends, in their mid-forties, and think how young they are. When we moved into this house the ‘old lady” who lived next door was 60 and seemed ancient. Nowadays 60+ and indeed 70+ people are ready for adventures. All is relative. 

The other day I wrote about an 86 year old Frenchwoman arrested by ICE in the USA. This article tells us that she made her way safely back to France, travelling in her ICE detention outfit, but fortunately without the shackles.

It’s good to know she managed to break free!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Painting seashells. Matters of theology. Dubious brexit benefits.

On Thursdays I collect the two smallest grandchildren from school and bring them home to our house where their mother and quite often one of their older sisters join us for tea. Then our daughter gives Phil a lift to chess club, sometimes taking her various offspring with her but more often returning for an extra cup of coffee and a chat. 

The small people frequently get involved in craft activities at our house, much preferable to the days when the small boy marches in, switches on the TV, finds something acceptable to watch, usually on YouTube, and needs to be prized away from the set to go to the kitchen to have something to eat.

Now, last year on one of our trips to Portugal I came across a small workshop where they were painting and selling seashells. I purchased an example, with the idea that I might have the small people do some shell-painting. The idea was received with mild enthusiasm but never acted upon.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the nine year old spotted on the mantelpiece the painted shell I purchased last year and asked if she and her brother could paint seashells. So I found the collection of shells from our various trips to the seaside over the last few year, picked up the box of assorted coloured acrylic paint (I don’t know what professional shell painters us but acrylic seemed best), located some very fine paintbrushes and we were all set.

Here are the best of the results, rather pleasing I think.

Now, here is a photo I appreciate:

 I hear that J.D. Vance has been giving the pope advice on things theological:

“I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said. “If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful.”

Hmm! Thoughts about teaching grandmothers to suck eggs come to mind. 

And Hesgeth has mistaken a bit of Quentin Tarantino film script for a gospel quotation and used it in a prayer to bless the troops heading for a war that the pope said shouldn’t be prayed for. 

Oh, my! For a country that supposedly has church and state as separate institutions there seems to be lot of God-bothering going on.

I have written before about the somewhat dubious benefits of Brexit. Here’s a link to an article about a German woman, resident in the UK, with “settled status”, who couldn’t get on a flight back to England from Germany because of a Home Office administrative mix-up about her passport number! We might have to accept that Brexit has added complications to our lives, but you would think that all the rules and regulations could be efficiently dealt with! 

Hey ho!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Erasmus restored. Learning foreign languages. Leaning towers. Blue zones. Serious stuff. Protests.

 So here’s a piece of good news: The UK will rejoin the Erasmus+ student exchange program in 2027, allowing British students to study in Europe and vice versa without extra fees. The agreement covers the 2027-28 academic year, with future participation dependent on new deals.

Hurrah for that. Back when I was a modern foreign languages teacher a fair few of my students benefitted from the Erasmus scheme. Then along came Brexit!

It’s rather a pity that there has been a decline in the study of modern foreign languages at A-Level and at university. Now, what could have caused such a decline? I wonder!!

I find it quite ironic that now that it is no longer obligatory to study a modern foreign language up to age 16, there has been an increase in the number of people studying a language via Duolingo. Of course, I have no actual statistical evidence to support that statement but it does seem that an awful lot of people I know are ‘on a learning streak’ in some language or other.

I was amused by this description: “Duolingo, Inc. is an American educational technology company that produces learning apps and provides language certification. Duolingo offers courses on 42 languages, ranging from English, French, and Spanish to less commonly studied languages such as Welsh, Irish, and Navajo, and even constructed languages such as Esperanto and Klingon.”

And a part of me finds it strange to put Esperanto and Klingon on the same level. More years ago that I care to admit to, my Spanish teacher tried to persuade us all to learn Esperanto. She spoke it but I’m afraid none of us to my knowledge followed her example. We were too busy getting qualifications in school subjects that would earn us a place at university!

When Phil and I visited Pisa, quite a long time ago now, I somehow managed to take photo of the famous leaning tower looking remarkably straight. Here is a photo of a church, a very old church, in a place called Dry Doddington in Lincolnshire. St James’ church has a tower which leans at a greater angle than the famous Italian tower. It was built in 12th century and is a Grade II listed building. 

The church was originally built as a “Chapel of Ease” for older residents to attend rather than walking to neighbouring Westborough. What a splendid idea! It later became its own parish church and its tower, dating from the 14th century, is estimated to have first moved in the late 19th century or early 20th century.

They’ve already spent a good deal of money stopping the tower from falling over and now they want to raise £100,000 more for general restoration. It’s an expensive business maintaining old buildings.

It seems that places which have the highest concentration of centenarians are called “Blue Zones”. Who knew? Not I! Sardinia and some parts of italy are Blue Zones. Someone called Dan Buettner has studied all over the world to find such zones.

So here is a link to an article Italian grandmothers and the secret of how to live a long life. It refers to this as “nonnamaxxing” (another …maxxing word!) and tells us how to live like an Italian grandmother (nonna). It may, of course, just be a matter of living in a friendly climate, having enough income to get by, and  ot stressing about how to get more money.

On a more serious note, here is something by Norman Finkelstein:

“Israel lobby funded a quarter of British MPs

 Yvette Cooper condemns Iran for shutting off the strait.

 She does not condemn the USA for starving Cuba.

 She does not condemn the USA for kidnapping the President of a country who have a lot of oil

 She does not condemn the unprovoked attack on Iran, who have a lot of oil, or the murder of schoolgirls.

 She has never once condemned the genocide.

 She is “concerned” about the murderous destruction of Lebanon but does not condemn it, as over 2000 are killed by Israel.

 It will be a surprise to no-one to discover that Yvette Cooper is one of approx 40 Labour MPs who are members of LFI. Labour Friends of Israel, a Parliamentary group which supports Israel’s interests in Britain.

To see how politicians continue to travel to Israel and engage with the genocide lobby explains why our government continues to defy international law by facilitating Israel’s war crimes. It explains why government policy and justice is heavily influenced by the Israel lobby. I wonder if someone whispered in Yvette’s ear with the suggestion to proscribe Palestine Action. Surely not. I wonder if, when their action was decreed unlawful, someone from the powerful Israeli lobby suggested Labour should appeal the decision so the police could arrest a few more vicious pensioners.

 Much of the British political elite remains in bed with the Zionist movement even as Israel perpetrates an ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

There you go! And here’s a photo of a protestor being arrested at a pro-Palestine demonstration. No comment! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

The strange hostility of the modern world. And doctors in the USA.

I think I have made it plain that I object to do-it-yourself checkouts in shops and supermarkets. Keep people in jobs! Give customers a little chat at the checkout! 

Yesterday I took a trip to IKEA (involving quite a long bus journey to nearby Ashton because our bus service has a long and convoluted route going round as many out of the way places as possible) and discovered that they no longer seem to have any manned tills. Fine! After all, they are masters at providing build-it-yourself furniture so check-it-out-yourself is quite logical. My grouse was that way the self-service tills were not obvious and there seemed to be no staff around to advise. With a little help from observing other customers, I worked it out.

Many supermarkets and presumably places like IKEA now go one better than self-service tills: with a handy device you can clock up each item you buy as you go round the store and just cough up the money as you leave. Not actual money, of course, but you present your credit/debit card. Or of course, you can just order everything online and have it delivered. If you work from home there will soon be no need to leave your house at all. You can even do your socialising online!

Or you can be an influencer and live your whole life online. Well, no, you live selected bits of your life in the public eye, trying desperately to give the impression that your life is perfect. And so you become a tradwife! Here is a link to an article about being a tradwife! Tradwives need the support of a wealthy husband unless they earn enough as influencers on the side. Other women are mostly just harassed working mothers! 

Modern life is strange! 

Here’s a link to an article about an 86 year old French woman being held by ICE in the United States. It’s the story of a youthful romance rekindled later in life via social media. In good romantic fashion she went out to marry her sweetheart. All good until he died in January of this year, his sons made life difficult for her and lawyers were involved, but she hadn’t yet got her green card and lo and behold, along come ICE to whisk her away to a detention centre. 

The world is not just strange but often hostile.

The question of expiry dates on passports is another example of that hostility. Here’s a little something about one of my heroes, Michael Rosen, who fell foul of modern rulings on passports:

“Author, Arsenal fan and former Beard of the Year Michael Rosen, was not allowed on a flight to Bologna on Monday. He was due to receive an award at a literary festival. The technical details related to the amount of time left on his passport which was some months from expiry/

However subsequently Rosen admitted that there might also have been another issue in that he had trimmed his beard before attempting to travel. Beards and passports have long been a contentious issue and it seems his follicle folly may have given passport control an additional reason to refuse boarding

BLF* Organiser Keith Flett said. its a warning about beards and passports but behind this lies the post-Brexit travel issue. Its indisputable that the key campaigners for Brexit were all clean shaven and may have secretly plotted to cause travel problems for the hirsute.”

*BLF - Beard Liberation Front - who knew such thing existed? 

We renewed our passports last year, well before they ran out, because of the expiry date question. Maybe the beard matter needs consideration too as Phil, who has a beard, sometimes has difficulty with the electronic passport control machines and has to seek official help, while I wait on the other side of the control, probably in an area where they don’t like you loitering! 

Despite his protestation that he was supposed to be portrayed as a doctor not a Christ figure at all, Mr Trump has taken down the Truth media AI photo of himself performing miracle cures.

Newsthump came up with this item today:

“ICYMI: Donald Trump has been defended by the US medical industry, with thousands of doctors insisting they all dress like a deity who dispenses medicine as if it’s all a magic trick...”

There you go!

Life goes ln. Stay safe and well, everyone!