Dare to Tell

Welcome to a cloudy South Manchester with a hint of blue sky and some sunshine later. 

Well it is now official. 

The UK is the laughing stock of the world. 

Having shot ourselves in the foot by leaving the EU, the most recent Prime Minister, Liz Truss, tried to impose her stupid economic plan on the UK even though people told her what would be the fallout.

The result? Mortgage rates have shot up, interest rates have shot up and the stock market plunged. The pound collapsed and fell to its lowest level ever against the dollar. The whole world watched in disbelief as we started to self-destruct. What did she do? She sacked her chancellor, a man who instigated her plans and totally agreed and she replaced him with another man who has openly criticised her and completely U-turned her policies.

Her party has fallen apart and unfortunately has two years left before the next election can turf them out. 

And now, this week, she resigned as Prime Minister, after a mere 45 days – making her the shortest ever serving Prime Minister in British history. 

So now we have to look for yet another new leader – well when I say “we” I mean approximately 150,000 members of her party. 

This will be three leaders in a year!

Understandably there is the beginning of a outcry demanding a General Election. They won’t call one because at the moment, the polls suggest that her party, the Conservatives, will be annihilated; most of the lunatics in her party just want to hold on to their jobs – albeit by a thread. 

And guess who is stepping up to put himself forward for the job? None other than the clown prince of dumb scarecrows, the cheating, lying sack of shit that is Boris Johnson. 

You can’t make it up. They reckon that three people will stand – Rishi Sunak, who lost to Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, a mad uber-Brexiter, and the idiot who caused the chaos in the first place, Boris Johnson.

I swear that if that clown is chosen, I will seriously consider retiring next week and leaving the country.

Watch this space. I will distract my raging mind with some silly questions, as usual from Sunday Stealing. 

1. What type of day are you having? 

So far it is not bad, despite the economic chaos that is set to ruin the UK. I had a slight lie in this morning and enjoyed an omelette for breakfast accompanied by a huge cup of tea. I am off out with a few friends for a meal as the last celebration of my 60th birthday, which incidentally continued last week with a visit to the lovely city of Copenhagen in Denmark (another new country). I think today will be a good day as long as I don’t watch the news. 

Was there anyone who "made your day"?

Mrs PM always makes my day as do my cats. I was woken up by a hungry Ziggy and I found him rubbing his head against mine just before a purring Star(dust) approached and flopped next to me. Always good to be woken up by cats (as long as it isn’t too early of course). 

Are you liking how you look today? 

I look the same as I usually look – a mad-haired old baboon wearing a polo shirt and jeans. I may make an effort when I go out later by putting on a shirt.

Have you ever eaten a bug? 

I have been offered bugs in China and I flatly refused in the politest way he could. However, I think I might have accidentally swallowed a small insect on a couple of occasions in my life. It had no adverse effects and I think my antennae actually suit me. I love the blue hue too. 

Are you vegetarian? 

Not at all. I love meat. I do have the odd meat free day though where I eat fish instead of meat (though some vegetarians argue that fish is meat too). 

When was your last paycheck? 

15th October. 

How many pets do you have? 

I have two black cats called Ziggy and Star (though I call her Stardust). They are about two years old and basically rule our house. At the moment, Stardust is sitting behind me on the arm of the sofa watching me and listening to my music and Ziggy is at the bottom of the garden watching birds in a nearby tree. 

Here they are:

What kind of toothpaste do you use? 

I use Colgate cavity protection. It tastes reasonable. 

Are you closer to being rich or poor? 

I am definitely not rich but I am not poor either. I guess that I sit in what we in the UK call “the middle class”. I was born into a working class family but thanks to university and a decent career I have climbed a couple of rungs of the class ladder.  

What was the last gift someone gave you? 

That would be for my birthday a couple of weeks ago where I received a few gifts from friends and family.

One of my mates simply bought me a Milky Bar because I look like this guy:

Do you appreciate that person? 

You mean those people? Absolutely. I love them all.

Did you talk to anyone you didn't like today? 

I haven’t been out yet so no. My guess is that I will talk to a few people later when I am out but I am pretty sure that I will like them all. 

Do you like picnics? 

Not really. I did have a good picnic about twenty years ago on the bank of the river Thames with a mate of mine in Richmond but that was a one off because it was a beautiful day and we had a fair amount of wine as we sat watching the boats heading too and from London. I often see people having picnics in the local park and I can’t say that I’m tempted to do it myself.

What book are you currently reading? 

I’m reading “The Other Emily” by Dean Koontz. It’s an odd story but typical of Dean Koontz, a man whose books I have enjoyed for the past forty or so years. 

What song did you last listen to? 

I listened to Devin Townsend’s recent superb new single called Moonpeople:

His new album is out in November. It sounds like it will be up to his usual standard.

How many tabs are open on your computer? 

Just the one – with the questions from Sunday Stealing.

Are you a very stressed out person?

Not these days. I used to be but when I was in my thirties I decided to try to eliminate stress from my life. It has largely worked, although it happens occasionally. 

A Tale of Two Elizabeths

 

Greetings from South Manchester on a cloudy day with hints of sun and blue sky. 

I am going to answer the usual Sunday Stealing questions (see later) but first I thought that I would talk about two ladies called Elizabeth who have made quite an impact to the UK this week. Apologies in advance for the rambling post – you can skip to the questions if you like.

First, the Queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth has died at the age of 96. She was known as Queen Elizabeth II and had a good innings both in terms of her age and also in terms of her reign, being the longest serving monarch in our history. She was on the throne for 70 years celebrating her platinum jubilee earlier this year. She was even working up to two days before her death on Thursday, accepting the resignation of Boris the Clown as Prime Minister and asking his successor to form a government the same day. More about that later.

She has been queen my entire life and it will be odd for us in the UK as now we have a new monarch, her son King Charles III who is king now but will be formally crowned in due course. Our new coins, notes etc. will bear his face and name alongside many other things and the transition will be gradual with many things like post boxes still bearing the ER insignia for a while, I imagine, rather than CR that will come soon.

So what do I think of all this? 

Regular readers know that I am not a royalist at all. With my hand on my heart, all I can say is that I am ambivalent to the Windsor family. I don’t hate them but I don’t love them either. When they appear on the news because one of them tripped up and fallen over in public, I tend to switch it off. To me they are just celebrities, born into the role and not people that I have the remotest interest in, a bit like reality TV stars. I have said that if I had met the queen, or if I ever meet the king, I would not follow etiquette. To me they are just people – not any better or worse than I am.

But now the UK has gone mad. The flagship TV channel BBC 1 has had wall to wall coverage of this news story, shelving all programmes since it happened (including today – Saturday) with 24 hour news about the queen and tribute after tribute from famous people all over the UK as well as politicians and tearful members of the public. There is not one bad word about her or her family. 

Most if not all celebrities and politicians have to praise her, or say how utterly fantastic she was, lest they are alienated and cancelled for saying anything bad or even hinting at any criticism. They are positively falling over each other to express their grief and praise. 

People who have never met her are pontificating all over the news and crying as if she were a member of their own family. 

She was arguably the most famous person in the world but I don’t understand it personally. Royalists reading this may frown at best upon reading these words – others will condemn me. I don’t really care. She was just another person to me – a famous one admittedly – who was a part of British culture. 

She has been part of my life at a distance for my entire 59 years on this island called Great Britain, so as I said above, it will be weird without her on the news all the time but I am not mourning her loss as royalists want me to. I just want the over-the-top coverage to stop now and for us to get on with life. We have enough problems in the UK without having to stop everything for one passing. 

I do hope she rests in peace and my thoughts are with her family but that is all.

Actually, one more thing will change. The National Anthem of the UK is called God Save the Queen. This, and the lyrics, will change to God Save the King. That will take a little getting used to.

This leads me onto the next Elizabeth I want to talk about. 

On Tuesday of this week, Queen Elizabeth II’s last major duty was to finally accept the resignation of the King of Clowns, Boris Johnson. Good riddance to the incompetent buffoon who was the worst Prime Minister that we have had in my lifetime (and possibly ever). His replacement is the second Elizabeth in this post – Elizabeth “Liz” Truss, the third female Prime Minister we have ever had. 

To say that Liz Truss is out of touch is a massive understatement. She may not be quite as bad as Boris Johnson (let’s face it – Ronald McDonald would have been a better Prime Minister) but her leadership campaign exposed her as being another bad leader. She already had a massive U-turn and refused to do an in-depth interview with a high profile BBC political journalist saying that “she didn’t have time”. 

The truth is that he probably would have torn her apart.

All she had to do was to convince 140,000 members of her party that she was up to the job – that’s 140,000 people deciding the future Prime Minister. I think that if a Prime Minister resigns, we should have a General Election because Liz Truss basically told this elite group of people what they wanted to hear.

You may think that I am getting ahead of myself in criticising her but her policies fill me with no confidence and she actually praised her predecessor. 

Anyway – here is a video of what we might have to suffer from her.

God help us!

Okay – now to the questions from Sunday Stealing: 

1. What flavour Popsicle is the best? 

In the UK, we call “popsicles” ice lollies and I used to love one that was around in the 1970’s called an Orange Maid – it is apparently still around today though I haven’t had one for about forty years. These days I tend to eat chocolate covered ice cream lollies called Magnum. Delicious.

2. Do you have a DVR feature with your cable? 

I have Sky TV which comes with a box capable of recording any program on any channel. What I tend to do is record entire series and watch them at my leisure and at the moment there is a lot of stuff to watch, including movies, documentaries, gigs and normal TV series. It’s so easy to use.

3. How many drawers does your dresser have? 

We have a couple of dressers scattered about the house. Two have four drawers and the biggest one in the second bedroom has six drawers (but is largely used to store non-clothing items.

4. Is your closet a mess? 

We don’t have a closet as such, just a cupboard under the stairs. Is it a mess? Partly. When you open the door you see some stuff on the floor like the vacuum cleaner and other similar household bits and pieces and some shelves that are neat and tidy containing all manner of files and books. To the left we hang coats but at the back it is a bit of a mess – mainly because it is difficult to get too. To be honest we should sort it out because we don’t actually know what is in there.

5. Have you ever solved a Rubik's Cube? 

I have never owned a Rubik’s cube even when everybody else seemed to have one. I have had a go at them but ultimately it would have wasted too much of my time, so I guess the answer is no.

6. Describe your favourite pair of pajama pants: 

We call them pyjamas in the UK – pronounced the same but spelt slightly differently, just like all of the American spellings I usually correct when answering these questions. We also call them jim-jams (well I do anyway because I am weird).

I just bought some new ones actually as winter is approaching. They are officially called “leisure wear” but I use them as pyjamas. One is black and the other a dark blue. Both are very nice and very comfy.

7. What colour is your wallet? 

My wallet is black. I like black wallets.

8. Do you find flea markets and thrift shops enjoyable? 

I don’t find shopping enjoyable so I am hardly likely to favour flea markets and thrift shops above any others.

9. Have you met amazing people online? 

I’ve met one fellow blogger once, a very sweet and funny Australian lady called Kath who has moved to Geneva, Switzerland. I caught up with her when I was working there. She actually wrote about the experience. You can read it here. 

I would be quite happy to meet other bloggers. 

10. Would you be happy if I coloured a picture for you? 

Sure – why not?

11. What show do you think 'made' the 90's? 

For me it was the science fiction epic Babylon 5. I absolutely loved it. I love Star Trek but this is much better (something that almost alienated me from a few die-hard trekkers I know). Here is a taste of what it is like:

Rumour has it that they are rebooting it. That will be amazing if it is true.

12. Are you happier now than you were last year? 

Personally I’m not sure. Certain events have unfolded over the course of the last twelve months both personal and otherwise that have challenged my usual content self. That said, the outlook now is on the up and I feel (hope) that next year will be better.

13. What are you currently drinking?

I am drinking a huge mug of decaffeinated tea. I prefer caffeinated (or full fat) tea but over the past few years I have all but eliminated caffeine from my diet. I feel better for it.

14. Do you trust people easily? 

I approach people positively and I hope that I can trust them but to be honest it depends on the person. I like to think I am a good judge of character and so far my trust has usually been well placed. I tend to avoid toxic and aggressive people although I will always be my usual friendly self, even to them.

15. What are you looking forward to in the next three months?

The first thing is my trip to Greece on Friday. Mrs PM and I are travelling to Zante for a week of relaxation and I can’t wait. 

We have also managed to slip in a weekend to country I have never been to before. Next month we are travelling to Copenhagen in Denmark for a long weekend. I am really looking forward to that because I have heard that the Danes are brilliant people. 

There also may be a university reunion in November, another trip abroad, this time to a city I have visited many time – Amsterdam. If that comes off, I will have been abroad five times this year. 

Of course three months includes Christmas, usually a busy time, and we have a couple of things planned with family and friends that should be good.