Catching up with the news. Storms here and there. Escapism of one kind or another.

 I’ve been rather out of touch with news over the last few days because of our very ropey wifi connection while we were off on our road trip to Cumbria. Nothing of great significance seems to have changed in the meantime.

I read that US special envoy Steve Witcoff and the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee arrived in Israel for a visit yesterday as part of a renewed effort to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. They took a trip to Gaza to look at aid distribution sites. Here’s a post from Mr Huckabee on X:

“This morning I joined SEPeace Missions Steve Witkoff for a visit to Gaza to learn the truth about GHF aid sites. We received briefings from IDF and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!”

Well, I suppose that if you learn the “truth” about the aid sites from the IDF you might well be impressed. It must be a bit like being impressed by the grades earned by someone who marks his own homework.

On the other hand there is the information in this article about the famine in Gaza.

Steve Witcoff, by the way, is a former real estate lawyer with no foreign policy or humanitarian background. Does knowledge of real estate law qualify a person for the post of special envoy? Or is the whole of the Israel/Palestine problem really just a huge real estate question? 

According to Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale, AnneBonnyPirate, writing in Jewish Voice for Labour, the powers that be are letting the destruction of Gaza happen as a way of letting us know that they are in control on everything. Here’s a link to their article on that matter.

They also claim that no real effort is being made to stop climate change, for the same reasons. And still we see reports of flood in China, warnings of floods in New York City and in New Jersey. Climate change doesn’t just affect other countries. 

We are all at risk. 

And now Storm Floris is forecast to bring unseasonably strong winds to the UK on Monday, the Met Office has said. The strongest winds are expected during the afternoon and night across Scotland, with gusts of up to 85mph possible on exposed coasts and hills. Throughout Monday and into the early hours of Tuesday we can expect heavy rain, and probably some transport disruption. 

Storm Floris is the sixth named storm of the 2024-25 naming season, which runs from early September to late August, andStorm Éowyn in January was the most recent. Named storms are more frequent in late autumn and winter – but are “not uncommon” for summer, the Met Office said. Presumably we always had storms in my childhood - I just don’t remember them being named!

Anyway, I’m rather glad we went on our mini holiday this week rather than next.

Travelling around with the family, I have been subjected to a lot of KPop music. KPop is apparently the latest thing. Certainly our smallest grandchildren seem to know the words of all the songs. Come to that Granddaughters Number One and Number Two, who are old enough to have progressed to other music and other films also appear very familiar with it. Maybe watching such anime on Netflix is a way of escaping the misery of the world.

And here’s a photo of the women cycling through Bourg en Bresse in the Tour de France Femmes - just because photos os cyclists are always good. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Back home again. Last few days in Cumbria

Throughout our family mini-break in Cumbria the wifi at the holiday site was temperamental to say the least. Yesterday afternoon, however, by some miracle it decided to cooperate and allow me to post my blog, albeit with fewer photos than I would have liked. It just seemed to take an age to download photos. So it goes. 

Once we had recovered from the exertions of our morning hill walk, 

the small people, my daughter and I went to examine the state of the beach and how high the tide might be. Very high was the answer. Only the pebble section was accessible but the small people made friends with other small people by a rock pool. After some time Granddaughters Number One and Number Two joined us and spent some time hunting for interesting stone and bits of sea glass. Granddaughter Number One collected quite an impressive display.

We went to St Bees for dinner at a rather fine hostelry and on our return did a bit of packing before heading back to the beach. On the previous two evenings my daughter, the small people and I had gone down to,the beach and dabbled our feet in the Irish Sea. The small people were determined yesterday evening to get into the water properly in their swim suits. 

On the precious two evenings it had still been quite warm and we had had a rather splendid sunset display. 

As the tide went out the sunset was reflected in the “lagoons” it left behind.

Yesterday evening, however, was dull and rather cold. We watched to lifeboat men bringing the lifeboat in to shore. I think they had only been doing a training mission, not a real rescue. They had considerable difficulty loading the boat onto the trailer which was driven into the sea towed by some kind of amphibious tractor.  The sea kept tossing the boat past the trailer. 

They managed it eventually. Most impressive! 

The tide was still on its way out and there were some lagoons which provided the small people with a place to splash about. They are considerably braver than I am about getting into cold water.

Today we set off for home, taking a look at the priory in St Bees before getting properly underway.

Then we had a light lunch in Whitehaven and eventually got properly underway. On this return journey the satnav took us on a picturesque route through a host of lakeland places, giving us ideas for places to return to for further adventures.

 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Yesterday’s post, just a bit late!

This should have been posted yesterday but my rubbish internet connection here in St Bees wouldn’t cooperate. We began with a walk to the rather expensive bakery on the site of our holiday caravan and cabin park in St Bees. We progressed from there to the children’s playground. 

While Granddaughters One, Two and Four went back to the cabin, my daughter, Grandson Number Two and I went down to the beach to explore rock pools and channels of the incoming tide. My daughter and I even took our shoes and socks off and dabbled our feet in the end of the sea. We spent quite some time seeking interesting shells and bits of crab claws and fancy seaweed. As the tide came in we had to roll our trousers up as the shallow channel we had crossed earlier came up to our knees.

In the afternoon we went to explore Whitehaven, a rather pleasing town with a fair number of expensive boats in the marina.

Perhaps most impressive was the church of St Nicholas and its fine gardens, with the remains of a larger religious establishment that stood once on the site.

There were memorials to the men, women and children who died in the coal mines of the place.

Then we had fish and chips on the harbour, being careful not to feed the seagulls.

On the whole a good day.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well everyone. 

Road trips. And another old lady arrested.

 This morning I got up and ran, slightly earlier than is my wont. My daughter and four of her offspring and I were planning a road trip to a cabin in the Lake District, a sort of belated celebration of Granddaughter Number Two’s graduation. With the prospect of a long car journey, I decided to run early. Also I  wanted to wash my hair before we set off. When I returned from my run, there was a message from my daughter asking me to buy a few items from the local co-op. So after drying my hair I went back to the village. Eventually I had some breakfast. 

And before I knew it, it was time to load us all into the car and set off. 

Here are some photos of the family exploring the beach. Or perhaps not as the wifi here is rubbish. So there may be no blogs this week.

Out in the wider world, another elderly lady has been arrested for “supporting” Palestine Action:

“Audrey White, 76years, 5ft2, peaceable protestor arrested in Liverpool has bail conditions that do not allow her leave her house She was given a map with tiny area where she was allowed to go but that area did not include her home. The police, despite her pointing out the error on the map, and her husband complaining 5 times, insisted she lived in a different area and refused to change it. So she can go to GP surgery or pharmacy with proof of appointment but she can't be outside her house for any other reason. If she runs out of milk or bread, she can't go to Corner Shop without risking arrest so if on own, just has to do without. She is in shock with PTSD after her arrest where she was knocked down, with about 6 police then grabbing her and carrying her off; but is more horrified at how young people also arrested were treated.”

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Final stage of the Tour de France. Wildfires in Greece and Turkey.

Today is the last day of the Tour de France, finishing in traditional style in Paris. Last year they couldn’t do so because of the Olympics in that city. This year they’ve added an extra bit to this final stage: a sort of sprint up the cobbled streets that lead up to Montmartre. So, not quite a traditional final stage.

It seems that the decision to include Montmartre is because it featured in the cycling road race in the 2024 Olympics and was very popular.

But cyclists have been accepting the challenge of the cobbled streets for years. During the Covid lockdown restrictions Paris residents were limited to within 1 kilometre of their homes, and apparently a group of amateur cyclists regularly gathered at the foot of the Sacré Cœur Basilica, riding up and down the hill repeatedly. Presumably they rode a regulation distance apart.

Some cyclists have expressed doubts about the advisability of the 150 or so riders of the peloton jostling their way up the narrow, cobbled streets. And today there are doubts about whether it will happen at all as rain is forecast and cobbles are dangerous when wet - well, in my opinion dangerous when dry as well but there it is. A decision will be taken before the stage sets off. 

Incidentally, the basilica of the Sacré Coeur was one of the things that made my 17 year old self fall in love with Paris on my very first trip out of the UK.

In yesterday’s highlights of the day’s racing broadcast on ITV4 they did a feature on Didi the Devil, German cycling fan Dieter Senft who has been making an appearance at possible all the stages of Tour and of the Giro d’Italia since 1993. Growing up in East Germany he would secretly watch the Tour on forbidden West German TV and heard a broadcaster refer to the red triangular flag that marks the last kilometer as "the devil's red flag”. That’s where he found the inspiration dress up as a devil! Amazing!

And then the excitement is over for another year. I suppose I could begin following the Tour de France Femmes. It would be a feminist things to do but I’ve never really got into it. We shall see. 

Rain is forecast in Paris. We have the promise of “light rain and a gentle breeze”. In Greece they are fighting wildfires. They’ve had temperatures above 40°! I think Turkey is also having problems with fires. Fires have probably broken out in such places for centuries but it seems that nowadays we are seeing more of them. 

In the meantime my daughter and I are planning a mini-break with Granddaughters Numbers One, Two and Four and Grandson Number Two in the Lake District, part of the ongoing celebrations for Granddaughter Number Two’s successful graduation. We’ll probably get rained on but, you never know, maybe he sun will shine on us.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! 

Fashion nonsense. Mobile phones. Watching documentaries about brave medics.

 As our stop-start summer continues (here’s a stop-start example: yesterday was fine and warm, clear blue sky, my washing dried super-fast in the garden, we set off for an evening stroll after dinner and were rained on!) fashionistas declare that short shorts are the latest thing for men. Shorts for men seem to have been ‘the thing’ for the last year or so. Even on cold wet January days you would see men, of all ages, not just young ones, striding out in their shorts - long shorts that is. Now, if anything looks odder than knee-length shorts and bare legs paired with a puffer jacket, wooly hat and scarf and gloves, it’s very short shorts with quite a formal jacket. But, hey, that’s just my opinion.

When we were kids, back in the 1950s and well into the 1960s boys wore short trousers until they the end of third year secondary school, now called year nine. Long trousers were a sign of growing up. At the girls’s grammar school I attended similar rules applied: until the end of the third year girls wore green gymslips, not specifically for PE lessons but a sort of regulation pinafore dress. Only after that could you progress to wearing a green skirt with your shite blouse and green tie. That was all very well for the skinny youngsters but severely embarrassing for larger boys and girls! Now even small babies of both genders wear jeans and jogging trousers. Maybe it’s not having been forced to expose their knees to winter’s harshness in heir early childhood that makes men want to wear shorts nowadays. Or maybe it’s just a desire to look very macho!

Anyway, it seems that short shorts, barely more than boxer shorts, are the fashion thing of the day. And I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that some of these short shorts are very expensive. With that in mind, here’s a link to an article about ‘sliders’, some of which look like the kind of flipflops you might wear poolside. Amazingly, some people pay more than £600 for a pair of such things.

I read this morning that nearly two in every five phones stolen in Europe are taken in the UK, according to data collated an insurance firm. It crosses my mind that one reason might be the habit of carrying your phone in the back pocket of your jeans, surely a prime target, an open invitation to a nippy thief to take it. 

Last night we watched the documentary “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack”, to film the BBC refused to broadcast. Everyone should watch it, to remind themselves, or simply to inform themselves, of the systematic destruction of a working health service. The bravery of those health workers is astounding. And now it seems that doctors and nurses still managing to work in Gaza have the added problem of starvation; many of them go to work as hungry as the people they are treating.

And here’s a link to an article about another aspect of the Gaza problem: Gaza students with scholarships to study in the UK who are unable to begin their studies for lack of a visa. Why are they not being fast-tracked through the procedures? 

I

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

More on the Tour. More nonsense about arresting old ladies as potential terrorists!

 We didn’t watch yesterday’s stage of the Tour de France until very late last night. This was partly because it was not broadcast until 9.00 pm. I think this was because ITV4 was showing the semifinal of the women’s football cup. We recorded the highlights anyway. Our TV is very smart, much smarter than me as regards technology; if you set it to record a whole series it will manage to do so even if the transmission times vary. Clever stuff. And then Phil came home from chess club very late and so we had our Thursday evening beer right at the end of the evening.

Yesterday’s stage, properly in the Alps, finished at the top of a huge climb. It was very damp and foggy. Spectators were enveloped in waterproof ponchos, usually polka dot for the Kong of the Mountains. And Tadej Pogacar was all wrapped up against the cold as he received yet another yellow jersey. What does he do with all the soft toy lions? I wonder.

Today they should have been going up three mountains but this, the last proper mountain stage of this year’s Tour, was shortened at the last minute due to an outbreak of disease among cattle in the local area. A bulletin tells us: “The discovery of an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis affecting cattle in a herd located specifically in the Col des Saisies has necessitated the culling of the animals. In light of the distress experienced by the affected farmers and in order to preserve the smooth running of the race, it has been decided, in agreement with the relevant authorities, to modify the route of Stage 19 (Albertville–La Plagne) and to avoid the ascent to the Col des Saisies.” I think they have replaced the Col des Saisies with a different hill. 

I am finding more reports of odd goings-on related to the outlawing of Palestine Action. Two old ladies, one 80 and the other 75 were arrested for holding up a supportive placard at a demonstration in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago. Retired teachers, they were held in custody for some 27 hours. Their homes were searched. Items were confiscated: iPad, Palestinian scarves, books, drum sticks! Drum sticks? What did they think an 80 year old was going to do with her drumsticks?

When asked whether they knew that Palestine Action supported violence and whether they were individually prepared to use violence.both ladies refused to comment. Obviously highly suspicious characters. Both ladies have been bailed until October. Their bail conditions prohibit contact with each other and spending any nights away from their homes. Maybe it’s a twisted revenge by someone often put in detention by teachers, now getting their own back on these two!

One of them said: “I just feel if I’m put in prison for this, and even if I die in prison for this, I can’t think of a better thing to die for really than for the justice of the people who’ve been persecuted now for almost my lifetime.”

It’s all getting a little out of hand.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!