Bits of strangeness!

In the middle of the night, somewhere around 3.30 to 4.00 am, we had a monster thunderstorm. First it was the noise of the rain that woke me, and then came the crash, bang, wallop. It rolled around the bay for a good while and I reflected that it was a pity I could not send it to the Northwest of England to put out the fires on the peat moorlands!

Maybe it was the noisy weather and all the sound of rain but I found myself having crazy dreams, the ones that you drift out of, half wake up and then go back into the same dream, as if it were a soap opera. I was at a friend’s house, with masses of people from various sections of my life - different times, different work places, different groups - all standing and sitting around elegantly and tastefully, like characters in a period drama set early in the 20th century. Very odd! In real life this friend’s house is at the top of a hill, looking down over a valley where we once lived and beyond that to the burning moorlands. In the dream, it was beside a river, only approached by boat and then via a muddy bank. (There’s the rain influence.) Everyone was hosed down before entering the very chic pale grey salon-type interior, where were all suddenly perfectly dressed and coiffed for such a setting. Very odd indeed!

And I can’t even blame it on having eaten strange snacks late at night.

This morning we had fog, rather muggy fog. It tried to clear several times over the day ... with indifferent success.

Out in the wider world, another crazy man with a gun has been busy in the USA, this time shooting the staff of a newspaper office in Annapolis, Maryland, killing five people. Apparently he has a long history of antagonism towards the newspaper in question and had sued several editors in the past. Clearly legal redress was not enough for him and he decided to take the law into his own hands. Crazy man!

Another, better known, crazy American is reported to have suggested to Emmanuel Macron of France that he should pull his country out of the European Union and in return he would be given a bilateral trade deal with the USA. This sounds a little like an attempt to disrupt Europe, as if it were not already in some disarray. After all, he is said to believe the EU was set up to cause problems for the USA. We seem to be living in interesting times, to say the least!

No doubt Mr Trump will seek out some justification for his offer in things that have gone on in the past. Indeed, his justification for making an extreme vetting plan to keep “radical Islamic terrorists” out of his country was that Christians in Syria were “horribly treated”, alleging that under previous administrations, “if you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible.” Basically, if people do bad things to you, then you are permitted to do bad things back to them. If he weren’t running a country, it would all seem remarkably childish!

On something else entirely, we keep hearing about “boomerang children”. These are young people who have seemingly left home to go to university but who then bounce back home to live with their parents instead of going off and living independently: a consequence of the times we live in! Now it seems that new research has shown that this can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations.

But, I found myself thinking, what about the couples who have got used to having the house to themselves again, their child rearing years over? We love to see our children and grandchildren but it doesn’t mean we want to live with them. And then the article I was reading finished with this:- “Researchers found that couples enjoying a new lease of life after their children had flown the nest, with improved marital relationships and fresh hobbies, may regard their offspring’s return as “a violation” of an exciting stage in their lives.”

There you go! It’s not just us then!