Celebrations of different kinds. PM. Responses to the energy crisis. Guns. And bees.

Well, it seems that the Festival of Brexit has been going on since about March of this year with events all over the country. Who knew? I didn’t. I  remember the idea being mooted but since then I an blissfully unaware of having heard anything about what always seemed to me a bad idea. Now I find it’s been going on anyway, renamed Unboxed, to the chagrin of those who wanted to celebrate Brexit. Somehow I had imagined a one-day event but it appears to have been a lot of different events, and mostly rather indifferent according to Marina Hyde in the Guardian. I’m glad I missed it. 

At our house we’ve just continued celebrating birthdays, yesterday’s event involving the arrival of the Southport branch of the family. My elder sister’s mobility being rather limited I had booked us a table at the pub next door. I’ve eaten there on quite a few occasions and usually been very satisfied, but this time I’m afraid the food was rather indifferent. 

 

But they were happy to let us bring our own birthday cake and even added a firework candle to the six normal birthday cake candles I had supplied. The staff even joined in singing happy birthday. 

As ever on such family occasions, it was lovely to see my Granddaughter Number One and my sister’s Granddaughter Number One, firm friends since early childhood but who don’t see a great deal of each other these days, re-establishing that friendship and bonding over shared desserts, probably the best part of the meal as far as they were concerned. They fantasised about doing a restaurant-crawl, like a pub-crawl, just sampling desserts. 

 

 

Younger cousins (we still call them cousins, never having got our heads round the nomenclature for the related grandchildren of sisters) spent some time running round in the garden. And nobody could bring themselves to break up the party until it started to go dark.

Apart from the fact that next Friday is the smallest grandchild’s 3rd birthday, which might entail a less frenzied set of celebration than his big sister’s has led to, life might return to a calmer normal now. He did get to join in all the rejoicing for his big sister’s day, even having a turn at blowing out candles on the cake and determinedly singing, “happy birthday to me!”. His big sister goes back to school tomorrow, his mother back to work and we will resume Thursday mornings at Grandma’s house. That seems to have come round very quickly.

Onto other matters. 

Tomorrow will see confirmation of Liz Truss as prime minister, unless all the media predictions prove to be completely wrong. How did that happen? So much for democracy! How long before we have another general election? And what will happen then? 

There are rumours going round that the civil service is going to stop using computers and go back to manual typewriters and carbon paper in an effort to save electricity. And there are suggestions that the heating in the House of Commons should be turned off to let MPs experience wearing an extra jumper to keep warm during the energy crisis. 

 Meanwhile, in the USA I read that Times Square in New York is to become a gun-free zone”

“A few blocks from New York City’s famed Times Square, a roadside sign flashed a warning to anyone visiting the so-called crossroads of the world.

“Times Square Gun Free Zone,” the LED-style sign announced in all-caps orange lettering.

“Licensed gun carriers and others may not enter unless otherwise specifically authorized by law,” the sign also blinked. “Violation of this prohibition is a felony.””

It will be interesting to see if they can make that work. 

And from Ohio comes the story of a man who suffered 20,000 bee-stings and is expected to make a full recovery. He cut through their nest while pruning a tree and ended up on a ventilator in hospital. 

Goodness! Some people die from an allergic reaction to just one bee-sting! But maybe these particular bees, quite an aggressive type by all accounts, could be trained to attack gun-toters and thus reduced the gun crime statistics. Just a thought!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!