View From The Window

Another miserable day, I can't see the hills in the distance through the 'gap' although I notice there is more and more greenery encroaching on the roof of the garage, Washington House remains unsold and a few others nearby have 'For Sale' signs up. This is an annual thing, always at some point of the year a number of houses go up for sale as people want something larger than an old terraced cottage and they are fed up with buses taking off their wing mirrors or caving in the odd side panel. That particular problem will be solved soon as the subsidy for rural transport is being taken away and here in Warton in the 21st Century some people will be as mobile as their ancestors in the 14th. I still haven't met the new neighbours, I have seen them from the kitchen window but have yet to actually talk to them, I say them but I am not sure of that either.

Depressing news from the Doc this week I have to cut alcohol intake to a bare minimum, now to be honest that is not a big deal for me these days but I do like the odd bottle of fine wine, glass of port or a night cap of an evening along with a bottle of cider now and again. My son and I went to the pub yesterday, not the local as James now has some odd opening hours and you can never tell whether the long walk down (75 yards) will be worth the effort. Anyway I had a couple of non-alcoholic beers, something I will probably have to get used to as fruit juice has too much sugar for me as has fizzy drinks and I am not sitting in a pub drinking water. I have always liked pubs and bars especially when travelling the world while keeping back the Communist Menace, it was thirsty work, I really enjoyed English pubs, far better than the hard drinking establishments where I was brought up, sadly the traditional pub is now hard to find. We have two pubs in the village and they fit the needs of their clientele just fine, but they do rely on their regulars, a shrinking group as the majority of people in the village have probably never been through their doors, just like our shop.

I am listening to a high pitched, shaky rendering of "Oh, Mary Lou" as I type, my youngest granddaughter is staying with us for two weeks as her mother has had to go back to Tanzania to apply for a permit to work here, despite being married to my son for six years. She did not feel like taking my advice of going to Calais and returning clinging to the underside of a train in order to remain here and work. My oldest granddaughter is also arriving today for a week, I am therefore volunteering to work in the Post Office all week, maybe two weeks on the grounds that I am not as much fun for young girls as their granny is. Preferring toy soldiers to little ponies or Disney princesses does not cut it, although I am sure my grandson will appreciate my efforts in another ten years or so.

Did you notice amongst all the angst about the loss of our capacity to produce steel that even if the government wanted to do something they would have to run it past the EU and even then their hands would be tied as to what they could actually do. One of our European compatriots laughed, yes, actually smiled, that some countries ignored EU regulations as by the time they were taken to the EU court their problem or problems had normally resolved themselves and it was worth it to get a slap on the wrist. Not here though. Although I have read it is the City of London which keeps us afloat, how on earth are we the fifth biggest economy in the world, we don't make anything, and anything we do make is owned by other countries, this has to be a bubble waiting to burst.

I see a white male has been 'attacked' for wearing dreadlocks by an African-American student for appropriating her 'culture'. Now first of all why anyone would want to wear their hair in that dreadful (get it) fashion is beyond me, I'm a short back and sides man myself, I don't know if its true but seemingly you can't wash dreadlocks, yeuch. All that aside isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery? All is moot however as they first appeared in India centuries ago and then after that in ancient Egypt, all before Bob Marley.

Where do you stand on the big debate about women who play tennis being equal to the men, surely the Gordian knot can be cut by scrapping all men or all women tournaments and simply having a mixed tournament? Not going to happen is it?

That's it for me today, we have a houseful this afternoon and I have a dinner to help prepare, now what type of water is appropriate with steak pie?

Oh, one more thing, I am looking for Kitchen Retraining courses at Morecambe and Lancaster College, seemingly I have to learn where all the utensils are now kept, how to put things back in their place and how to leave the place so clean forensic officers would find nothing to incriminate me. I wonder if you can do it online.