Shoe lace problems. David Sidaris being obsessive. The apparent increase in bad language. Royal security problems.

 As I ran round up the road this morning, feeling rather pleased that it was cool enough for me to feel like running rather than just walking rather slowly, I became aware of a flapping sound. This happens quite frequently. It means that the lace on one of my trainers has come undone. On this occasion it was both shoes!  Before I set off to run I slip my feet into my trainers and step out of the door. Then I put one foot after the other on the garden wall to fasten the laces as firmly as possible. I tie the bow and give the loops an extra tug to ensure that they are good and tight. Sometimes it works. Quite often it doesn’t and at some point I recognise that slap-flap and have to stop and retie my lace or laces. It’s a wonder I’ve not tripped myself up. (Ironically, when I did fall over my feet, or over an uneven  it of pavement, last year my shoelaces had nothing to do with.) And this morning I read Coco Khan in the Guardian berating the sorry state of modern laces, echoing my own complaint:

“the failure of shoelaces has been my private obsession for some years now. You see, I have always been a fan of trainers, and in the 2010s new designs started to catch my eye – styles marketed as “cutting edge”, using “technical” materials, that seemed to be created for the “optimised”, “high performance”, heavily caffeinated girlboss going to the gym at 5am.

These high-performance laces often looked great. Many were thinner and rounder for neatness, with some synthetic or coated lines promising to maintain their clean appearance longer. But they also slip quicker. They do not do the one thing we ask of them. They do not stay tied.”

I’ve also been reading David Sidaris, who always makes me laugh. He wrote long ago about his obsession with achieving and over-achieving his step-count, extending his goal on a regular basis. Today he was writing about Duolingo, the language-learning app that so many people of my acquaintance are using. Here’s some of what he wrote:

“Duolingo was seemingly designed for people with an obsessive-compulsive disorder. The same could be said for my fitness-tracking Apple Watch. And so I had combined the two and was walking my minimum of 10 miles per day while pointlessly reading sentences out loud in Japanese, German, Spanish, and French. This turned me into the person whom, since the turn of this latest century, I have most hated: one who moves about while staring down at a device. On the busy sidewalk, at the airport, everywhere a person should be paying the utmost attention to those around them, I suddenly was not.

There was no excusing my behavior; this was simply who I was now. That’s it, I regularly told myself. Today is the last day I am doing this. But I was powerless to stop. Making it all the more pathetic, I was competing against people I didn’t know. People who may not even exist and have names like GeACzQDe and fuuuuu.”

I must say I share his dislike of people who walk along staring at the tiny screen. It’s amazing how often I have had to step aside to avoid collision. I especially dislike those who have to have a loud conversation wherever they are, seemingly unaware that there is no need to shout down your mobile phone. However, my disapproval extends to those who cannot go for a walk without their headphones, usually listening to some absolutely riveting podcast.

Mr Sidarisalso wrote about coming across a group of  “No Kings!” protesters “whooping and chanting” on a street corner.

‘Most were of retirement age and brandished signs at the oncoming traffic. It was hot and muggy, yet one member of their group, a bearded man playing the accordion, wore a fleece-lined winter hat with flaps over his ears. It pained me to admit it, but they looked like kooks, like Tea Party demonstrators during Obama’s first term. Who cast this thing? I caught myself wondering, as they seemed the worst possible advertisement for the Democratic Party: “Join us! We folk-dance!”

As I passed them, I thought back to the early Civil Rights protesters: the well-groomed men in suits and ties, the women in dresses. All of their signs were clearly lettered, likely by professionals, none with crudely drawn penises on them or the word fuck.”

Quite so! But it’s not just protest placards that have become ruder and cruder. Of course I have no statistical evidence to back this us, but my general impression is that swearing, including what we used to think of as very crude bad language, has become “normalised”, “standardised”. It’s as though the world has become an angrier place. I just need to listen to Granddaughter Number Two expressing her opinions about anything and everything. But what do regular cussers do when something really gets under heir skin? How do they express that greater emotion?

Yesterday I went on a little about royal finances. Today I hear that Prince Harry is probably cancelling his planned family visit to the UK because he can’t get police protection. You would think he could afford some private security. I can appreciate that he doesn’t want his children subjected to unwanted paparazzi attention but i wonder how much walking about in public places the children would be doing. Knowing how my own grandchildren enjoy family reunions, especially spending time with their cousins of a similar age, I feel it’s rather sad that these otherwise privileged children are being deprived of it. So it goes.

Life goes ln. Stay safe and well, everyone!

A bit of a rant about security checks. An interesting word. Stuff about politician I found online.

No thunderstorms this morning but there is a cool(ish) wind. Mind you, my phone app tells me we are running at 26° now in the middle of the day. Some places are a lot hotter! 

Yesterday we had an appointment at our bank (unlike many people, we are fortunate enough to have a bank with an actual office in the town centre) to review various things to do with our accounts. I made this appointment when I went in on Monday with a quick transaction that took longer than expected and led to further bank-related stuff. Yesterday morning, having realised that keeping the appointment would involve travelling by bus at just about the hottest time of the day (29° to 30°), we decided to postpone it, rearrange for a cooler day. The young lady I spoke to on Wednesday had given me ‘her’ phone number and so it should have been a simple matter of a quick phone call.

“I’ll give you my number”, she said. But when I rang it turned out to be a general national number for the bank. So first I had to listen to a lot of information about how I could do things online but if I still wanted to speak to someone I would be in a queue. “Here’s some music!” Well, yes, music interspersed with still more information about things you could do online! After five or ten minutes I was connected to a person. Once I had explained what I needed to do, he asked for some security proof. Could I give him certain specific digits from the magic number I use when I log on to their online banking? I did so. It didn’t work, probably because I don’t use an App on my phone. So could I give him details of a recent payment into my account? Well, yes, if he waited while I logged on to the system on my iPad. Hurrah! It worked! He then needed to know at which branch of the bank I wanted my rearranged appointment to take place. I could see such and such a person, he told me. But no, I wanted to see the original advisor I spoke to the other day. Finally I got it sorted. A simple phone call to the local branch would have been so much easier than a lot of automated nonsense which took a good half hour of my day! Fingers crossed I have no problems with the new appointment! 

Rant over! 

Now, I am fond of new words. Here’s one that has popped up as a friend’s “word of the day”: anyhowly. Apparently it’s East African English or Singaporean English. Originally it meant in any way, under any circumstances. Later it has been used to mean randomly, haphazardly, without direction or planning. I need to find ways to bring it into use within the family.

Here’s something that popped up on one of my social media feeds about Mr Trump and his misappropriation of music:

Leonard Cohen's family flatly refused to let the Criminal-in-Chief use Leonard's song, "Hallelujah" (as he'd promised he would) at the rally that he used to replace the concert that all of the musicians refused to perform for said Criminal.  In informing said Criminal about this, Cohen's estate & family wound up their correspondence with the phrase: 

“Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

And here’s an amusing comment about Brexit.

On the subject of prime ministers, here’s something else I found online:

“Oh how the mainstream media and the political establishment rewrite history.

​Look at how they are fawning over Andy Burnham at the moment. 

He’s being treated like a returning messiah, with politicians queuing up for selfies and journalists offering nothing but praise. 

No one seems to question the sheer entitlement or the fact that he lost two previous leadership elections. 

The red carpet has been rolled out, and any real opposition has been completely cleared away.

​Yet, contrast that with how Jeremy Corbyn is treated. 

When Jeremy is mentioned, the media acts like he’s something unpleasant they’ve stepped in, completely erasing what actually happened under his leadership. 

But the facts speak for themselves, under Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party had zero debt, became the largest political party in Europe, and secured millions more actual votes than the current government managed.

​Why is a man who has achieved so little treated like a god, while the leader who built the biggest grassroots political movement in modern British history is either ridiculed or completely erased?

​The double standards are incredible .

 It shows who the establishment is really trying to protect.

Stay safe ❤️”

There you go.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well and cool, everyone!

Thunder and rain. School closures … or not. Water restrictions. Carbon saving. Royal family stuff.

 This morning I was woken by thunderstorms at 6.00am. No lightning, just a lot of rumbling. Then it rained torrentially but not for long. I spoke to the milkman this morning. He has been making deliveries early, supposedly so that we can fridge the milk as soon as possible. He said it didn’t rain for long enough. It freshened things up briefly but by 8.30am we were already up to 25°.

Our daughter’s headteacher sent all the children home at 2.30pm yesterday and all the staff home at 3.30pm. He said it was inhumane to keep people in classrooms in yesterday’s heat. Our smallest grandchildren’s school decreed that the children could all attend school in their PE kit and could take small portable fans into the classroom. Here’s a cartoon about teachers and weather.

As usual on a Thursday, we had a large number of the family for tea yesterday. After tea it had cooled down sufficiently - well, just about and there was shade - for the small people to play in garden. And later, much later, we went for an abbreviated walk round the block, at the request of 6 year old Grandson Number Two, who probably just wanted to postpone the moment of going home to bed.

We have a water barrel for collecting rainwater in the back garden. It used to be very full until I let the aforementioned six year old water some plants. Before I knew it he had almost emptied it. Some of the water went over his sister! It took some time for it to return to its current half-full state. But at least I can water the plant pots that sit on the wall between the front and the side garden. The next door neighbours use a hosepipe which I can make use of for stuff in the back garden but which won’t reach the front garden. So far we have no water restrictions. 

Now, according to reports in the Telegraph, South East Water has introduced restrictions to stop families in Kent from filling up children’s paddling pools, washing cars and watering gardens, after the country experienced record-breaking temperatures.

The ban covers Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Snodland, Maidstone, Tenterden, Ashford, Faversham, Canterbury and Herne Bay. And it could well last all summer, one long ban rather than a series of stop-start restrictions.

And so we stagger along, dealing with the effects of climate change. Thinking of the environment, here’s  Ben Jennings on a new idea for ‘carbon capture’.

Private jets are only one carbon emitting asset of the world’s richest people, who cause nearl $1bn a year of damage to the environment, according to Greenpeace. 

There are reports that King Charles is going to get a pay rise. The Sovereign Grant, which funds Charles’s official duties and the work of his household, increased by £45.8m to £132.1m in 2025-26. Now that he has reportedly published his tax returns, perhaps we could calculate whether he really needs that Sovereign Grant. Just an idea!

I also hear that once the ongoing refurbishment of Buckingham Palace (£370m worth of refurbishment!) has been completed the king and queen have opted not to live there. They’ll continue to live in Clarence House. (How fortunate to have so many places to choose from!) It’s all to do with allowing people to visit the palace. Public access to the palace will be increased, which has played a part in the decision, as visitor numbers and areas open to them would be limited if the king was in residence.

“His Majesty retains huge affection for Buckingham Palace and a deep respect for its role in royal and public life,” said a palace spokesperson. “It will be a buzzing hive of royal activity in every other way”. I’m sure we are all relieved to discover that last fact!

There you go. Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Bnfires for San Juan. Homes for young people. Earthquakes. Technology in schools.

 Today is the feast Saint John. In Spain and Portugal last night they will have lit bonfires on beaches and in public places. In one place they burnt effigies of Donald and Melania Trump. San Juan becomes political. 

It’s Thursday. So Granddaughter Number Two has come round, as usual, this time with her laptop for Grandad to fix. Later, we”ll go and collect the smaller grandchildren from school. So far there is no suggestion that their school will close early. We shall see.

Granddaughter Number Two would really like to buy her own house, or even an apartment, ideally in Saddleworth, even more ideally in Delph. Unfortunately she has been amassing student debt so buying a home of her own is still a distant dream. Here’s a link to an article about young people in Cornwall who are living in vans because they can’t afford to rent accommodation, let alone buy a home. In most cases, these are not unemployed young people but people earning a living. In Cornish places the situation is exacerbated by the existence of holiday homes. There is a a fundamental wrongness there. But there are people who are helping create a community of van-dwellers, providing facilities for showering, washing and drying clothes and so on. Part of the trouble is that, unlike traditional ‘travellers’, these young people have not grown up with the skills necessary for a gipsy-like existence.

In Venezuela, on top,of all there other problems, they have had an earthquake, in fact two, with the current death toll standing at 164. I suppose it’s debatable whether the frequency of earthquakes is a result of global warming or os just part of a natural cycle. However, you might think that we could now build “protectively” in areas where severe earthquakes are likely to happen.

Amidst all the kerfuffle about banning social media for under-16s, the fact remains that computers are useful in the classroom. Even before computers were busy in every classroom I was using video clips in my modern foreign language lessons and I had a digital language laboratory. Here’s a link to an article about hybrid schools, using a mix of online lessons and actual face to face lessons as a way of helping school refusing readapt to education. Interesting stuff.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Going to he market. Dealing with the heat. Prime ministers. And still Gaza.

 It was quite pleasant walking out to catch the bus first thing this morning - well, at about twenty to nine! There is supposed to be a bus to Uppermill at 8.59, which can arrive at that time or at any time in the next 5 to 10 minutes. I don’t wait at the bus stop at the crossroads where there is a bus shelter which has largely become a huge litter bin, since they removed the actual litter bin some time ago, and which often smells as though someone thinks it is a public toilet! Instead I walk down the road to the next stop, assuming it isn’t pelting down rain, which is a pleasanter place to wait. 

Until a couple of weeks ago I would consult the Bee Network App on my phone to see when I should expect a bus. Depending on the prognostication I might then walk to the next stop a bit farther along the road. But a couple of weeks ago my app stopped working; I click on it, it pops up and instantly disappears. Granddaughter Number Two, who works for the Bee Network, tells me they have updated the app and it only works on more recent iPhones than mine. She promised me that the network was looking into it, but two weeks down the line it’s still not working. It’s amazing how quickly you can grow used to using a bit of technology in your everyday life. Now I have had to readjust once more: back to guesswork as regards buses whose printed timetable is really a work of fantasy, a rough approximation of when buses should run!

Anyway, it was quite pleasant strolling along to the next stop. By the time I got off the bus in Uppermill it was already warming up. I bought fish and fruit as usual. The fish-man told me that he did not expect to stay beyond 12.00 midday as it would be too hot for an open stall of fish, even with ice beneath the fish and fans working overtime above them. Fair enough!

Before 10.00 I was home, making coffee. 

I read that in Paris they are taking the heatwave very seriously. Yesterday 54 of France’s 96 mainland departments were in vigilance rouge – and the national meteorological service Météo France had confirmed France was experiencing the hottest day since records began in 1947. Parks in Paris will remain open 24 hours so that people can benefit from cool air in the parks in the evening. Presumably they are locked up usually to prevent rough sleepers moving in or young people up to various nefarious activities! The mayor has said that the swimming-permitted section of the River Seine (Paris by the Sea) will open earlier than usual, so that Parisians can cool off in the water. 

The Green presidential hopeful, Marine Tondelier, is calling for a five-day heatwave sabbatical to help people cope with extreme heat. All well and good but people still need to be fed, food needs to be bought, someone needs to work in the kitchen. And presumably bars and restaurants will remain open. A five-day sabbatical sounds very good but would need some organising.

Here in the UK people are advised not to travel and in some places schools have been closed. Years ago a German friend told us about something called Hitzefrei: 

“When the weather outside gets super hot, German schools and workplaces can declare hitzefrei, which literally translates to “heat free”, and send children and employees home to take the rest of the day off to escape the heat. Sounds dreamy, right? It’s a concept that dates all the way back to a ministerial decree issued in Prussia in 1892, according to FAZ. “

So that’s official!   

Neither Phil nor I can remember a single occasion when our schools closed because of hot weather … nor for “snow days” either for that matter. I remember certain teachers who could be badgered into moving the lesson outdoors onto the playing fields. But that, of course, was when schools still had playing fields. My Spanish tea her in particular was a soft touch and could be persuaded to be like Miss Jean Brodie with her girls around her discussing Lorca’s dramatic work! 

Reporting on our changing political scene continues in the newspapers. Here’s a link to an article in which Owen Jones pulls Mr Starmer apart.

And since we have had rather a lot of prime ministers over the last 10 years, here’s a link to an article about the best fictional TV prime ministers.

Out in the wider world war and killing still continue. Here’s a link to an article about a UN inquiry into the Gaza genocide. We mustn’t forget that children are still dying. What a way to demoralise a people!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.

The heatwave. Dealing with the bank. Hot travel. Brexit revisited. And carelessly losing Prime Ministers.

 When I ran round the village this morning at about 8.30, the temperature was already 22°C. Now, 4.00 pm, my phone tells me it’s 29°. 

In the late morning, I had to go into Oldham to sort something out at our bank. I thought it would be a simple and speedy matter but everything seemed to take ages. As the young lady who sorted things out for me handed me various documents outlining what my rights and their obligations are all about, I was reminded of our time of living in Vigo, Galicia, and having dealings with the bak there that were always accompanied by reams of printed material, far more than the young lady gave me today. So much for a paperless society and saving the planet. 

Bank business and occasional shopping over, I headed homeward. I thought the bus station was uncomfortably hot and then I got on the bus for home - a mobile oven! The situation was possibly made worse because my bus journey coincided with schools finishing for the day and masses of young people catching my bus. It’s amazing how large Year 10 and 11 boys are!

Everywhere in Europe is undergoing the heatwave. Here’s a map:

And here’s a little something from the Guardian anout the situation on France:

“Our European community affairs correspondent, Ashifa Kassam, has filed a report about the 40 people who are reported to have drowned while swimming in unsupervised areas across France in recent days. Here is an extract from her story:

“There is a tragic scourge of drownings,” the French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said on Tuesday. “The latest figures we’ve received are 40 deaths since 18 June. Most of the victims are young people.”

Lecornu was preparing to chair a crisis meeting with ministers to address the ferocious early summer heatwave that has left parts of western France bracing for temperatures of up to 43C (109F).

“We’re experiencing an episode of exceptional intensity,” Lecornu said. “Every day and every night, local and national temperature records are being broken.””

Phil and I are lucky to have a house with a very cool basement.

It’s ten years since Brexit. Lots of people have been going on about it. Here’s a link to an article about it. When we get a new Prime Minister, will he turn out to be pro-Europe? We shall see!

Meanwhile, here is a cartoon about the UK’s  record for getting rid of Prime Ministers over recent years.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Leadership stuff. Banning things. Frida Kahlo.

 Well, Kier Starmer has given in to pressure and resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party. 

“When I leave the biggest job in the country, I shall spend more time on the most important job, being the best husband I can to my fantastic wife, Vic, who has been a rock by my side through good times and bad, and being the best dad I can to my beautiful children, who are my pride and my joy,” he said.

I think there’s also the matter of a retiring prime minister’s pension, but we don’t talk about that.

It looks as though Andy Burnham might be about to take over.!  We’ll see how that goes. Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t seem to think there will be much difference. Wes Streeting has apparently decided not to stand against Andy Burnham - possibly in exchange for a cabinet post

It was already warm at about 8.30 this morning, forecast to get hotter today and even hotter as the week progresses. Some parts of the country are being pit on red alert for heat, an unusual even apparently. However, we’re not as hot as part of mainland Europe. Three elderly people have died in France, supposedly because of the heat. They expect temperatures heading towards 40° - rather too hot for me. 

Nowadays sunshine seems to mean men taking their shirts off. In this article Emma Beddington declares her admiration for men going topless, an indication that summer has arrived. She writes about places in France that have banned men going topless through the streets, or indeed anyone strolling around in swimsuits. Quite so! Many Spanish resorts have similar restrictions. We used to be much more restrained when I was young. Was it because of having been to sunnier climes that English men felt the need to shed their shirts on the streets? 

Here’s another proposed restriction: the nation of Palau has now tasked the WHO expert committee on drug dependence reviewing nicotine, which will lead to a UN vote – likely to be in 2028 – on banning it worldwide. It has long been said that if nicotine were discovered today it would be classed as a dangerous drug. Maybe the same should be said of vaping! Which is a recent invention and tempts a lot more teenagers than smoking behind the bike shed ever did. Strangely fruit flavoured and sweet vapes are probably more dangerous than a sneaky packet of cigarettes! 

Something I personally might ban is oddly flavoured coffee! Coffee should taste of coffee not caramel or vanilla or other adulterations!

I need to go to London in the second half of this year to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Tate Modern - tickets from £49!! Here are some pictures of inside her Casa Azul in Mexico.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!