It was raining when I got up this morning so I decided not to cycle to Uppermill today. Instead I put my waterproof on and walked along the Donkey Line. Of course, 5 minutes down the road the rain stopped. I probably could have cycled after all but I was already en route by then. In the end I walked on to Tesco in Greenfield, picked up a couple of things that are unavailable in Delph or Uppermill and, with perfect timing, hopped on a bus back to Uppermill. There I purchased fresh fish from the fish man, strawberries from the fruit and veg man, and biscuits from the cheese and biscuit lady, and then hopped on the next bus home. A flurry of activity before the morning was halfway over!
After that my activity slowed down. A leisurely cup of coffee or two and a browse of the headlines online. At some point as I was taking recycling out to the bin, Phil called to me to pop up to the front door as he could hear the postman knocking. When I got there the postman was putting a large parcel in the box by the front door. I relieved him of the parcel and we had a chat about the odd weather: dull and grey but very calm and clammy, as if we are about to have a thunderstorm - too warm to walking about delivery post, he told me. Maybe we need a good downpour to clear the air!
The parcel was a huge book of chess-related anecdotes (just what we need, a book so solid that if you read it in bed and fell asleep and dropped it on your head, you would risk serious brain damage!) which we had had delivery notice of at the end of last week. The delivery notice had said, “Your order has reached its destination”, which rather puzzled us as it clearly had not. Examining the notice more closely, taking in the small print, we discovered that it meant it had arrived in the UK, from Holland or somewhere. Misleading notices! Now it has indeed reached its destination.
In the midst of all the discussion of gender identity, there has been a story in the news about a girl identifying as a cat and being teased by her classmates. This led to all sorts of comments about children identifying as cats, dogs, other furry animals. The girl concerned was 13, which struck me as a bit old to be saying she was a cat, but it turns out to be a bit of fake news, a silly conversation recorded on a phone and posted on Tiktok which went viral and led to her teacher being criticised for not being totally sympathetic to her choice of identity. Talk about a storm in a teacup! Both our smallest grandchildren pretend to be cats from time to time. We have to communicate with them in miaows but there is never a question of them self-identifying as furry animals! They know full well what they are, even though the smallest still gets his pronouns and possessive adjectives confused at times.
Here’s an article about graffiti in Glasgow. The still unidentified Banksy, of course, managed to make graffiti respectable and even profitable. However it seems that when a couple of local Glasgow artists decided to point out the double standards regarding graffiti by making a fake Banksy not far from an exhibition of his work, their efforts were frowned upon. Not only that but the work was obliterated by the local authorities with black paint. Personally I quite like clever graffiti. Don’t get me wrong. The kind of tagging that goes on, just a scrawled mess that isn’t even a real signature, I am happy to see obliterated. However, when some thought and effort have gone into creating something interesting and even beautiful, I don’t see why it can’t be left alone.
Onto more serious matters, it seems that there have been problems in Paris, specifically in Nanterre, after a young man was shot by police when he refused to stop his car as requested. When he died from his wounds and footage of the incident appeared on social media, local youth turned to violence of their own.
There were 13 deaths from police shooting during traffic stops in France last year. This was the second fatal incident in such circumstances in 2023. Reuters records show that the majority of such victims in 2021 and 2022 were people of black or Arabic origin. It seems to remain true that you are more likely to be stopped and searched if you are not white. And yet our Suella Braverman wants to increase the use of stop and search. We should be thankful that our police do not routinely carry guns!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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