Giving away prizes. Spending silly money. Listening to music.

 Another fine and sunny January day here. The millponds remain slightly frozen, despite weather apps telling us the temperature is up to 5°. Maybe there’s a microclimate around the millponds. The heron seems to be back in residence; at  least he was there at the water’s edge yesterday and today.

Well, it seems that President Trump has got his Nobel Peace Prize medal after all. I read that the Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado had suggested that they should share the prize but the Nobel people said that was impossible. So now she has presented the medal to President Trump who seems pleased and wrote on Truth Social that she “presented me with her Nobel peace prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” 

Not enough respect on his side to make her president of Venezuela but that’s how it goes.

The Nobel Peace Center said on social media that “a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot”. Political leaders in Norway have described Machado”s decision as “absurd”, accusing the US president of being a “classic showoff” who takes credit for other people’s work.

Political leaders in Norway have condemned the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s “absurd” decision to present her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump, accusing the US president of being a “classic showoff” who takes credit for other people’s work.

It has always seemed to me that if you have to cheat and manoeuvre to get the prize then most of the glory has been taken away.

Here’s a link to a silly story about an absurd amount of money being spent to extradite a TikTok influencer with a silly name, HSTikkyTokky, from Spain to England where he has been convicted of dangerous driving. One wonders why he wasn’t just put on a standard flight, possible handcuffed to police officers instead of organising a private jet! Dangerous driving is a crime, being an influencer is not, in my opinion, a real profession, but there are worse things going on in the world that such huge amounts of money could be used for.

Last night I did something I have intended to do for a while: I hunted among our rather extensive collection of CDs for a collection of songs by the Spanish singer Ana Belén. This album also contained a DVD of her performances. I was looking specifically for her version of “Pequeño Vals Vienés”, a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca, translated and set to music by Leonard Cohen, with he title “Take this waltz”. Listening to Ana Belen’s version reveals how closely Leonard Cohen kept to the rhythm of the original poem. Leonard Cohen was a great admirer of the Spanish poet and named his daughter Lorca. 

Here is a link to Ana Belén singing and one to Leonard Cohen singing.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!