A quiet week, as she-who-must-be-obeyed was over in Blighty to see her sister. (and much thanks to A&S for their forbearance and carriage services as somehow they seem to have visited every major shopping centre in the North West).
I, of course, reverted to "lock-down" (not covid style) mode, wherein there was a minimum of shopping, eating, cleaning and laundering (or even drinking). Yes, I did manage to stick to my 4 teetotal days (without too much mental anguish), but today is slightly different as it is "frantic Friday" when I usually go silly in bars outside and inside the house - but G returns on a late-flight this evening, so have to stay alcohol-free for that.
The garden needed little attention, but got a regular watering and I did actually cut the grass (a light trim in barber terms). The real barber couldn´t fit me in when I managed to find a parking space while on a (fruitless) visit to the Correos, so will have to schedule a drop-off once she is here again, unless I decide to turn into a "Robinson Crusoe" figure.
Rufus the puss cat came four or more times each day, but still refuses to engage in any sort of interaction other than his trough. Probably for the best and a perfect cat for me you might think (and that reminds me of a story of when I was in my teens and some friends named a cat that visited their flat "Hunter" - when idly asked why, they said he turned up occasionally, ate anything he could find, then left. I was caught between pride and embarassment).
The weather has changed to autumn and the nights are definitely colder - but, as ever, it is always very pleasant outside during the day (provided there is no cloud cover).
The tv has been full of people sniping at the UK government, so the video channels have taken a bit of a bashing. When I eventually finish the (20 odd?) years of Crime Scene International I will be at a total loss, but then 400 hour-long episodes covers a lot of free time.
The UK is currently obsessed with the cost of living and the people there just do not get the fact that it is a global issue, largely brought on by the costs of the covid pandemic and the current war in Ukraine. When you remember the sacrifice people made in previous european conflicts, the modern population seems very insular, selfish and uneducated (or just uncaring).
Without going into full "in my day" mode, these modern tosswits seem to think that they have a right to have kids, homes, cheap mortgages, new cars, salaries that rise above inflation levels and multiple international holidays. God help them if the crap really hist the fan and they (we) end up with rolling blackouts and shortages of essentials.
In my (very biased) opinion, the rush to a green upland is one of the biggest problems facing the western world. It is a strange case of nimbyism and self-flagellation about something that is actually negligible at global levels, as India, China and South America build coal-powered power stations at a rate about 1000 time faster than the Brits are closing them.
In terms of dereliction of duty, how can the government have implemented a "green" policy without any plan of how to get there and (obviously) zero contingency planning. Oh, let´s insist that we all have electric cars - but lets not bother creating power generation, power distribution or resolve range and charging of vehicles. Tidak Rancangan as we said in Brunei. ... but then when the government does suddenly come up with a financial plan that is marginally long-term, the press and social media go into paroxysms of rage.
When "my" elderly (transport) patients used to lament the negative slant of all the news, I used to point out that the international media now meant that you heard about small problems on a global scale - and this has been (hugely) exacerbated by social media. The way that the press report on rubbish they find on social media - and vice versa - just leads to wall-to-wall garbage.
An overly self regarding ex-minor-pop-star-cum-scientific-personality-astronomer found his way into the press again this week by claiming that politicians should have the intellectual rigour to understand complicated issues that were put before them (doesn´t that sound very Shell?). I guess that means he is going into politics - and with his own ego, he should fit in well.
Shell always modelled their management style on the military, with the senior officers occupying the "high-ground" in order to make executive decisions that those at the coal-face could neither see nor understand (Charge of the Light Brigade anyone?).
My view is that the SAS is generally regarded as the best fighting force in the world - and they keep the officer class out of it and work at the "sergeant level" - and even military officers say that the best mess to eat in is the sergeants mess ( but then they are usually in charge of supplies and suppliers).
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