How to spend Thursday. Stuff in the news.

Today began with blue sky and sunshine - perfect for a morning that began early with the arrival of two small grandchildren, one who comes on a Thursday morning as a matter of course and the other because she is in the second week of a two week half term holiday and thought she might as well keep her small brother company. 

Pretty soon we had a mix of barbie dolls and their various accoutrements on the one hand and monster trucks of various colours on the other all over the rug. It’s quite a balancing act being the voice of a barbie doll and the voice of a yellow monster truck at the same time. I am becoming quite talented.

We moved down into the kitchen after a while and had a painting session, persuading the smallest child that his older sister did not need his assistance in painting the rainbow cat she had in mind. A two-sided easel is a wonderful thing. So is a plentiful supply of paper! The small boy is learning to keep to his own side of the easel. The rainbow cat was very successful. 

After toast and honey we ventured out into the sunshine of the back garden. We recently bought I-Spy books: I Spy Trees, I Spy Wild Flowers and I Spy Birds. While the small boy rampaged around the garden with a stick, his sister and I looked at the wild flowers book and then, having decided there were too many flowers to remember, she wandered around for a while with the birds book, identifying her favourites - in the book, not in the garden. By then the small boy had decided he needed to chase his sister with his stick. Fortunately she is very tolerant of her small brother’s antics. 

Not long after everyone had had a second instalment of breakfast, to accompany Grandad on his first round, the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of big sister. The 19 year old had been working, answering phone enquiries for Transport for Greater Manchester, until mid-morning when she hopped on a bus to come and join us on a leisurely walk to the local park, armed with buckets and spades to play in the sandpit there. 

Of course, at that point it started to rain - not heavily and not constantly but enough to be a nuisance, especially as big sister had come equipped for blue sky and sunshine and had not brought her raincoat, which usually accompanies her everywhere. So we bought some chips and ate them on a bench under a tree, after which the rain had eased sufficiently to continue with our original plan. 

Perhaps an hour later Mummy came and joined her offspring and we all retired to my house for coffee and biscuits. It seems as though all we did was play and snack. On the whole a good day, and no need for peace-keeping, even though everyone was rather tired by the end of the afternoon.

Finally I got around to listening to the news and checking on social media. Our PM seems determined to carry on as if nothing of significance was voted on this week. Plans for helping people buy a home instead of continuing to rent, hailed as a new and revolutionary by those announcing it, has been described by critics as a rehash of old pre-existing policy and not really helping more than a minority. Fuel prices have continued to rise; filling the tank of the average car now costs about £100. I think I’ll stick to walking and catching the bus. Two British men fighting in the Ukrainian army have been tried and condemned to death in what has been described as a show trial. 

So while I have been having a busy but peaceful and largely uneventful day, things have been going on all over the place.

A friend of mine posted this on social media:

"When an onlooker sees an old lady being attacked by a thug on the street, he does not encourage her to fight back, but tries to separate the two. We are in the situation of this onlooker; but our response is to give weapons so that Ukraine fights. For a Ukrainian it is legitimate to want to fight. But for a Swiss or another European, our role is to try to limit the damage. But no one is even attempting to do that in the West."

(Jacques Baud, The Postil Magazine)

That sounds sensible. Will anyone in authority notice it?

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!