Palestinians are returning to northern Gaza. Quite what they are going back to goodness only knows. But progress has been made. We’ll see what happens next.
Mr Trump hasn’t won the Nobel Prize for Peace. María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader has won for her "tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela" and "her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”. Mr Trump hasn’t exploded yet!
We’ve spent a good part of today going through old family history. My brother in law, whom we haven’t seen since last Christmas even though we have been in constant contact by phone, email, messenger, finally came round to see us. Our daughter and various of her offspring joined us later and somehow we got onto family trees and nostalgic stories about this and that.
Here’s a link to an article about a Roman grave marker found in the overgrown garden of a house in New Orleans. When it was first found and it was established that it was an artefact stolen from a museum in Civitavecchia during the second world war, they really didn’t think they would find out how it got there. Then the granddaughter of the man who brought it back from Italy recognised it and steps are in place to send it home. But the thief is dead and no-one will ever know how he came to steal it! This is what happens as the older generations die, their mysteries die with them.
That’s why nostalgic conversations such as we had today are important. Family tales need preserving.
I read today about someone who has 4,379 Monopoly sets. What a strange thing to collect! He’s been in the Guinness Book of Records - FOUR time!! The Guinness people spent a whole day counting sets in a warehouse where he stores them. Imagine the task! imagine losing count!
Many of his sets remain in their original packaging, unopened. I am told that this is what you should do with “collectibles” because once you open them up they go down in value. I’ve heard the same said about model cars and Barbie dolls. It always strikes me as rather sad to have a load of things you never use, but just look at from time to time and perhaps gloat a little, rather like a dragon sitting on his pile of gold!
Thinking of numbers, here’s a statistic from journalist Aditya Chakrabortty:
“I asked the Guardian’s research department to count up the number of stories in national newspapers about asylum seekers or small boats or refugees. They found 542 in just the past month. And how many on the cost of living or essentials or living standards? Just 45.”
And that is why so many newspaper readers get so agitated about asylum seekers and small boats and refugees and blame them for the fact that the cost of living is so high.
On Facebook I see a lot of posts by fans of Bruce Springsteen - I’ve long been a fan by the way! Some of the posts are just annoying photos. You know the kind of thing: “this is me at the concert at ….”. Sometimes they are photos of Springsteen at various stages in his career: a sort of adoration ritual! Sometimes the most interesting are photos of ancient tickets to concerts in the dim and distant past when you didn’t need to take out a bank loan to go and see your idol in a huge venue. Some even show tickets costing less than £10! So here’s a link to an article by John Harris about the spiralling cost of tickets to live concerts!
One of the best concerts I saw was Leonard Cohen at Manchester Opera House. I think it cost us £35 each. Better still we saw him again in Castrelos Park in Vigo and that one cost us only €12! Not as long as the concerts by Bruce but extremely good value for money!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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