Posting late!

A very late and probably very short post today. I set off mid- to late-morning to ride to our oldest granddaughter’s house. She has been having intermittent bouts of anxiety and I am one of her ports of call. So off I went. We talked it out, she calmed down. I continued to attack the jungle that is her back garden. Blackberry brambles have taken over. Clearly the previous occupants did little or nothing with the garden.

We have managed to clear a good deal of undergrowth; buttercups, nettles and the most enormous dock plants I have ever seen. Now we are at the point where there is almost nothing but the bramble jungle, brambles sending our a runner which then roots itself a couple of yards away, adding to the tangle and making simple pulling up an impossible task. I have a collection of scratches to show for my efforts!

I rode home in the mid to late afternoon, managing to avoid the rain until I was just a few hundred yards away from home. And even then it was that funny sort of storm rain - big drops but not too many of them. It has been very close all day. Maybe there will be a proper storm to clear the air.

As I rode along the bridle path, ringing my bell to warn people of my approach, two elderly ladies got very excited about the fact that I have a bell, and even more so that it is a good old fashioned bell with a proper ting-a-ling. Clearly they have been surprised too often by silent cyclists suddenly swooshing past them, as have I.

I keep finding examples of political correctness nonsense. Here is the latest, from David Mitchell in the Guardian yesterday:

“Miriam Margolyes has been cleared. Her 'crime'? Telling the truth.

When Miriam Margolyes was “cleared by Ofcom” last week over remarks she made on Channel 4’s The Last Leg in early May, I was broadly pleased. But there was a lot about the situation that vexed me. Here’s what actually happened. On a live late-night comedy show, speaking from her kitchen because of the lockdown, Margolyes described the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis as “a disgrace” and “a public scandal” and then went on: “I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die, I wanted him to die, and then I thought that reflects badly on me and I don’t want to be the sort of person who wants people to die. So, then I wanted him to get better, which he did do, he did get better, but he didn’t get better as a human being and I really would prefer that.” The remarks elicited 494 complaints (after being widely reported in the press) and led to “an initial investigation” by Ofcom, which concluded on Monday that Margolyes will not face “an official investigation”.

Oh boy! No comment!

One of the things we have not missed during lockdown is the collection of fast food rubbish dumped at the roadside, especially outside the cricket club not far from our house. It’s a place where people like to stop in their cars and snack and then throw the containers out of the window. MacDonald’s drive through places are open again. A couple of days ago the first lot of MacDonald’s detritus appeared on my regular running route!

Out and about I see more of our local cafes and pubs serving takeaway food and drink. People sit outside at wooden tables with their throw-away drinks containers. So presumably there will be some of those littering our streets as well.

In France cafe culture seems to be re-established. Here is a link to an article about places in Paris taking over the pavements and carparks. Look at the closeness of the customers in those Paris pavement restaurants!! No social distancing theree! Am I being pessimistically over-cautious?

Life goes on! Stay safe and well, everyone!