Bad news time!

Yesterday's news became very confusing.

Some of my Spanish friends were suggesting that ballot boxes in Catalonia had been pre filled with ballot papers before poling stations opened; vote fixing they implied. Later news reports had Catalans saying that they had filled dummy boxes with blank ballot papers so that if the police seized the boxes they would have the dummy ones and not the actual voting papers. Video footage showed police violence. Some people claimed that the videos and photos were from other events from years ago. Who to believe in this era of media-manipulation?

I must be in a minority - people who have no idea how to photo-shop a picture or add details to my photos.

Now there are people saying that the whole of Spain should vote on whether or not Catalonia should leave Spain. Well, yes, it is a decision that affects everyone in the country. Should the same apply to Scotland and the rest of the UK? I would suggest that the same could apply to the UK and the EU but I sometimes get the impression that some Europeans would happily bid us farewell!

And then there is the Las Vegas shooting. Today's news says that the shooter had 43 guns. 43 guns!!!!! And they found explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition in his hotel room. Even if you believe in every citizen's right to bear arms (questionable in the 21st century to say the least), how does anyone justify such an arsenal? How is it even possible for an ordinary person to acquire a machine gun or an automatic weapon that could be converted into a machine gun? Who would conceive of a use for such a weapon in ordinary life? But then, who would conceive of gunning down the audience at a music festival?


Here is a link to some statistics about gun ownership in the USA. Crazy people!

In the middle of all this, late last night came reports that Tom Petty had died. And then conflicting reports appeared that he was not in fact dead but in hospital following a heart attack. This morning his manager confirmed that he had died. Another hero gone! To think that in July we were dancing barefoot in Hyde Park to his live music!

And so, to cheer things up here is a little something a friend of mine posted about his long commute to work. He recently fell down stairs and suffered a bad case of concussion, which meant that for the the time being, instead of driving for 45 minutes to work, he travels by public transport. His account has its morbid side, perhaps, but on the whole it made me smile:

"My 6-7 hour regular commute has actually not been too bad this past month, helped by family, friends and work colleagues and I must say, the efficiency of the Northern rail system.... Tonight however, one misguided soul/bellend (delete as appropriate) at Bolton decides to threaten to chuck himself from a bridge and the whole system is thrown into utter chaos. What I’ve witnessed has been a hilarious microcosm of British life:

1x well spoken southern male in a flat cap and summer casuals at Buckshaw, arguing with a guard about how the inefficiency of the service was making him late for his meeting in Manchester, demanding a taxi was laid on for him immediately.

1x nonplussed female guard at Buckshaw explaining to the gent above he would ‘ave to wait in bus queue wi’ all t’other folk.

 1x jovial bus driver, explaining to a crowd of increasingly irate passengers that he ‘were goin’ Bolton and no further’.

 1x angry female passenger, an hour later, exclaiming to the same jovial bus driver above that he had missed his turn off for Bolton, (he only had one thing to do) leading him to spend 7-8 minutes 3 point turning and reversing into the neatly trimmed hedgerows of a leafy culdesac in Adlington.

 1x harasseed ticket attendant at Bolton, letting the world and his wife through...’which train?...’what platform?’...’when?’ asked the world and his wife...his response: ‘They’re all running, all of them yes, 3 or 4 hours worth of trains getting in at platform two now...just get one, any yes...come through....they’re all going somewhere..yes...’

1x friendly foreign chap, who was markedly confused, lost and slightly upset, asking your very own correspondent if the train with Manchester Airport on the front went to ‘Pee ca deel sees’.

At which point I just started to laugh hysterically. I left work at 4pm It’s now 7.40. I’ve just boarded a train in Bolton (via a culdesac in Adlington) My foreign friend has just been told, by a very apologetic and sincere guard, that this train is actually going to ‘Pee ca Deel sees’ Not the airport though. Even though it says it on the front of the train.

God speed brother, god speed x"

There you go. Never forget that tomorrow is another day!