It’s raining again! Or should that be ‘still’? As I walked up the hill towards Dobcross this morning I wondered whether it was time we started to build an ark. It was raining but not all that heavily; it was the kind of fine drizzly stuff that seems to soak everything as effectively as a good downpour just because it is relentless. Too wet and soggy to consider cycling. I am very much a fair weather cyclist.
At the market in Uppermill Jenny Biscuit (yes, the lady who has the cheese and biscuit stall really is called Jenny but I doubt that her surname is biscuit!) was still absent. Maybe she is still on holiday in Slovakia - I think that’s where I was told she had gone - or maybe she just can’t face putting her stall up in the rain. The chap who sells shoes and slippers and second hand books had everything covered in huge plastic sheet. The fish man and the fruit ‘n’ veg man just carry on regardless.
Maybe the day will improve. We have had a number of days recently which have begun badly but finish with a fine evening. It hardly counts as a summer though!
Yesterday’s stage of the Tour de France went ahead without major incident. Apparently the riders had been warned of possible crosswinds as they road through the Loire Valley and so nobody made a breakaway. Instead they quickly established positions for everyone and sort of road along in a huge peloton, with a bit of a sprint finish. The leading five or more in the general classification remain the same.
Watching a couple of rapid wheel changes because of punctures, I thought back to something I forgot to mention about Monday’s rest day. They did a bit of Tour de France history with some splendid old black and white film footage of riders with a spare tire draped over their shoulder. Back in the days before support vehicles and constant radio contact, if a rider had puncture he was on his own, carrying out his own bike maintenance at the roadside. They were real heroes!
One week on since polling day, appointments to the new government have been going ahead. Business as usual! I read somewhere that Mrs Starmer plans to continue her work as an occupational health worker for the NHS and to be less visible than other Prime Minsters’ wives have been in recent years. Good for her! I really don’t see the need for us to follow the American system of having a “first lady”? However, I notice that she has accompanied Mr Starmer to Washington for the NATO summit. Perhaps political wives and girlfriends will be seen out shopping together!
Here in the UK, Diane Abbott has become Mother of the House – the title given to the longest continuously serving female MP. There’s a kind of irony there when you consider the lengths that were gone to to try to prevent her from standing in this latest election! It would have been ironically fitting if Jeremy Corbyn had also been named Father of the House. After all, he too has been there for a long time, but the Father of the House the Conservative Sir Edward Leigh, MP for Gainsborough. It must have been a close-run thing as both these gentlemen have been MPs since 1983!
I read this morning that from next week for £75 it will be possible to go on a tour of the previously private rooms of the east wing of Buckingham Palace. Maybe they need the money! It won’t be possible, however, to stand on the balcony and wave to adoring crowds.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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