Well, I said we needed it to rain in the night, and rain in the night it did! I was woken in the wee small hours by the sound of quite torrential rain on he skylight windows. And this morning my weather app assured me it was just cloudy but in fact I ran in steady drizzle. By late morning the day had improved considerably and sunshine is forecast for this afternoon but with temperatures within the seasonal average. Elsewhere in Europe they continue to have a heatwave, with forest fires reported now in Catalonia, Spain.
It’s Wimbledon time. On Monday they played in the heat. A spectator was taken ill, maybe succumbing to the heat. Carlos Alcaraz has been proving to be the angel of Wimbledon. When he saw the commotion among the spectators he rushed over with a bottle of water for the lady concerned. Paramedics then dealt with the emergency.
The daughter of the woman who fell ill took to social media to offer her thanks to Alcaraz for his support:
"Thank you Carlos Alcaraz for the concern shown to my mum today who was taken ill during your tennis match at Centre Court today," Eluned Lewis said on X.
"Unlikely you’ll see this message but I can try! Thank you."
But good boy Carlos did see the message and responded:
"You’re very welcome, it was nothing! I hope your mum is doing well. Send her a kiss from me and take good care of her!"
Heart warming stuff. I must point this out to a friend of mine, a longstanding tennis fan but also a longstanding great fan on Rafa Nadal. Maybe she will transfer her support to Carlos!
It’s also the time of year when articles like this one appear about “the perfect beach read”. Really! The beach is not the place to read. If your aim is to get a tan, then the shadow of the book you hold will get in the way. Beaches are for playing ball games, building sandcastles with children, or strolling up and down the tideline. Look at any Spanish beach with Spanish people and you will see this happening.
“Books haven’t been designed to be addictive”, maintains Daisy Buchanan, writer of the aforementioned article. But in fact good books, in my opinion, are in fact written to be addictive, to make us want to know what happens next. When Dickens wrote his novels in serial form for newspapers he wrote in cliffhangers so readers would want to buy he next day’s paper. Someone should tell my compulsive book-buying Granddaughter Number Two that books are not addictive!
As regards “beach reading”, I often find the recommendations a little too bland. We don’t need happy endings all the time. Often a sad ending is more satisfactory and fulfilling.
Thinking of the wider world and its problems, I saw a headline that read: “Defence Minister Katz will establish body to handle settler attacks against IDF”. Hmm! Will he also establish a body to handle settler attacks on Palestinian villages and homes?
And here’s something from Michael Rosen about Diane Abbott:
“Now it's getting complicated.
Diane Abbott tweeted something about the 'Jewish Defence Force' and is being reprimanded for being 'offensive' and 'anti-Jewish' - in other words hate directed at Jews.
The article in Jewish News on this story explains that the IDF includes soldiers from Muslim, Christian and Druze communities...so it was wrong for Diane to call it the 'Jewish' Defence Force.
The Chief Rabbi said that Bob Vylan saying 'Death to the IDF' was antisemitic and an example of 'vile Jew-hatred' - in other words hate directed at Jews...because the IDF is Jewish.
As I said, it's getting complicated.
I think this is how it works:
The IDF is Jewish when we say that it's Jewish, it's not Jewish when we say it's not Jewish, but either way, don't you say that it's Jewish.”
Life goes on stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment