Lockdown 3 cabin fever

 Morning Mugs,

Anyone else feeling a little claustrophobic? Anyone else feeling they know the town or village or locale rather too well now and finding it..restrictive?

Since last February when we visited Paris on a city break I've gone to Newbury for a flying visit to collect a new work laptop just two days prior to lockdown 1, been to Costco in Southampton three times, been to Chessington once, Bealieu once and Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm once. Oh and an aborted break in Brecon after two days.....I feel, like many, my wings have been clipped. And it's starting to wear....

We booked a weekend in Paris at Easter thinking the worst would be over, but that now looks doomed. Our cancelled cruise from last year was rebooked for May this year......this is looking less and less likely as well. I may get a chance to go to the money pit later this year in late June/early July...but I'm not betting on reciprocal quarantines being lifted by then either. Will August be Ok for our main holiday? 50/50 at best in my view. My current best hope is a first visit to New York in December this year. By that time I fully expect to look something akin to Phil Spector in his last public picture. 

On that note, not one bit of me is sorry for Spector popping his clogs in jail. he was a bully, a mysogynist and a murderer. Good riddance. But....he did produce some of the most iconic and memorable music the world has ever heard. This isn't some congnitive dissonance issue i am suffering either, I just sincerely believe that you it's important not to conflate the art with the artist's life. Many 'artists' lead very dark lives, Michael Jackson being a prime example, but go back far enough and the painter Carravagio was also am murderer. And yet we happily listen to Jackson's stuff, pay to see a Caravaggio or happily listen to Spector's highly polished 'wall of sound' music on radio.Liking this stuff doesn't in anyway endorse the behaviour or actions of them, but art in all its forms comes from somehwere, and sometimes where it comes from is dark, tormented or just insane. 

Later Mugs, GJ

Trump and insanity

 Afternoon Mugs

 

Well, he finally did it. A man who many could see was a fascistic, narcissistic, mentally unstable and fundamentally crooked and interminably thick fuckwit lost his mind and his rag. 

He stood and goaded his supporters to 'walk with him' to Capitol Hill and show strength in order to get their country back. Of course the one thing he didn't do was walk with his supporters. Add cowardice as well...especially if you consider his  Daddy funded 'bone spurs' Vietnam draft get out. He has lost virtually every court case disputing results because they can't present any evidence. He seems to think his opinion that he won is enough to go for another term. He even seemed to think his VP, the lily-livered born again Christian ...sorry twat...Mike Pence could simply overturn the result and hand him a second term. Jesus..the fuckwittery on display is amazing.

The man is constantly wrong. He constantly lies. He is a despot by nature if not by position (the US constitution prevents this for the most part). Aside from his estranged niece Mary, there doesn't appear to be a single decent person in his family. They are all chips off the same far right, narcissistic, and lets be honest insane, unhinged block. 

But yesterday might be the beginning of an unsolveable US divide much like we have seen in the UK over Brexit...which itself set old vs young, North vs South, Scotland vs England, rich vs poor, white vs non-white, family vs family Red vs Blue and even moderate Tories vs Johnson and his cohort of crooks and liars. But by sheer size and influence on the world our UK divides will pale into insignificance if the US divisions deepen. Another civil war might result, or we could see states seceding from the Union...California alone would be a huge world economy on its own...bigger than the UK for certain. The obvious other effects whilst America tears itself apart, are its enemies will rub their hands with glee and try to exploit the turmoil wherever they can. Whilst this goes on, the UK and Brexiteers will watch the promised 'fantastic trade deal' fade into the distance as Trump reluctantly hands power over to a President hewn from the Obama reign..one who will put the EU first and us to the back of the queue.

You won, get over it.

Back to Trump, there is no doubt he incited yesterday's riots and insurrection. There is no doubt he has lied to Americans and on the world stage. And everyone could see it coming. From the UK's perspective there must be a few sycophantic Tory ministers with sweaty brows right now having been pictured with him and having blown smoke up his obese orange arse. The massive piece of fresh dog shit that is Nigel Farage and chief trump cock-sucker Piers Morgan (who is now backtracking faster than Usain Bolt running downhill) must be looking at their careers potentially fading like ice next to a fire. 

The powers that be must either invoke the 'unfit to be Commander-in-Chief' 25th Amendment or move to impeach in such a way that he can never run for office again. And then let the Feds and CIA crawl over him and his crooked bent family  and bang them all up until they flatline. Anything less is a complete dereliction of duty and respect for the people of America.

Later Mugs, GJ

 

Farewell to another ....

 Morning Mugs,

How was Christmas then? Different I expect for very many. 

My team (Chelsea) have been happily ruining it's supporters Christmases since 1905 and this year was no different. A perfunctory win over West Ham, a shambolic defeat versus Arsenal and an honourable draw against Aston Villa, where of course we had many chances to bury them but failed to do so.  Football and any elite level sport is rather paradoxically both trivial and vital during these times of lockdown, tiered areas and lack of actual physical social meeting with friends and relatives. 

For the football/sports fan, it provides a release, a place to semi-replicate going to a match, to virtually meet friends and to share the joy and pain of the sporting experience. This is probably even more acutely recognised by actual match going fans. My point is that it is trivial, it's elite sport and entertainment for the masses....and it doesn't appeal to everyone, but for many it is a straw to clutch during times of loneliness and worry. The pain and joy of watching football or your preferred sport, especially if you have a 'team' is a welcome distraction for many and any distraction is a good thing for mental health.

On Christmas Eve, the last of my Mum's generation finally passed. My Auntie Nancy was 92, born in Sneem in County Kerry. She was a very...forthright person....almost typically Irish in that sometimes honesty was the least diplomatic route, but it was also the truth. I won't dwell on it here, but there is some sadness tingeing her passing...she was the 3rd eldest of the sisters and brother (singular, one boy with 6 sisters!) and the last to go. However, in amongst that lack of diplomacy was a wicked sense of humour and a pragmatism that went way beyond her upbringing and education in rural Ireland.  For now, my favourite paraphrases quotes from her are below. 

 

RIP Auntie Nancy.

'Sure haven't I got the worst headache ever....it must have been  a bad bottle of tonic' - said the day after her and my Mum demolished 2 bottles of gin but decided the tonic was 'bad'....

After not having seen me for 6 years, her greeting was this....'Sure..aren't you right fecking shape for heart attack' .....no 'Hello', no 'How are You'......just that. Magic.

Later Mugs, GJ

 

Keep up Jack

 Morning Mugs,

Need a little lift? This weekend you will see the Winter Solstice which means from Monday...the nights start to draw out. Thank fuck for that. I have rfeached an age where I really don't like winter. I don't like dark early evenings. I don't like rain. I don't like wind. There is a slight downside to this in that it will still get light a little later each morning for a while. 

 

Also on December 20th and 21st we will see the 'great conjunction' of Jupiter and Saturn, where the two planets appear to us to be next to each other. It did happen in 2000 but the Sun sort of got in the way of any real vision of such a rare celestial event. Before that it seems it was in 1623, but again records indicate it was too close to the sun to be seen in any great tdetail. There is a some weight to the theory that this great conjunction might have been the Star of Bethlehem! 

Anyway, weather permitting I will be outside with my telescope(s) trying to catch a glimpse. The UK weather had better start to calm down then.And yes, I am a new astronomer if you hadn't guessed. I have rekindled an interest and love of the stars and the night sky and I have to say when you see the closeness of the moons surface through a telescope, and the rings of Saturn 'live' (try that in a Martin Tyler stylee) or Jupiter and its moons...or the M31 galaxy......it is jaw dropping. Obviously the list here is potentially endless!

And today..I promise to write a list of subjects and memories and events to comment on. I need to get this blog back up and running to its former standards! And believe me I have a lot to say. My sanity is depending on it.

Later Mugs, GJ

 

Locky-D2

 Morning Mugs

Yes, Locky-D2 is what I've seen the latest lockdown called. God help us if this sort of truncated language strangling shite carries on. 

Remember just 2 weeks ago how Boris castigated Starmer for suggesting a circuit break lockdown? About how Johnsons 'tiers' system would do the trick of stopping the much wished for second wave (yes I do think people wanted it to happen, and that shutting the country down was a typically stupid Labour idea that hadn't been thought through?

How did that work out for him then? I wonder if he had any sense of irony, or duplicity or sheer shame as he announced a 4 week lockdown for Engand last weekend?

I feel sorry for all the businesses and organisations who spent money making their environments COVID secure and as safe as possible only to find the government thinks it wasn't enough. And yet, school, colleges and the key COVID hotbed, universities, remain open. A teacher friend of mine has already said that apparently between 9am and 3pm she is immune to the virus, and the virus itself won't apparently infect during those hours. She can enjoy a coffee with her sister, also a teacher in the same school. Or any of her other teacher colleagues. But from 3pm onwards she can't even sit at opposite ends of the same garden with them. The sheer illogic of this is mind-boggling. 

I don't have the answer aside from fucking hurry up with a vaccine, but there will be a point where people say enough is enough and will take their chances with the virus in order to return to a mask free world with hugs and group gatherings.

I'm on that side as well.

Later Mugs, GJ

Farewell, my friend

 Evening Mugs,

Today we said goodbye to my father in law, my wifes dearly loved Dad. 76. Too young by todays standards. Struck down after being given a very good prognosis on Prostate Cancer, by a fucking incidious, underhanded cunt of a stroke. The Lord might giveth, and The Lord might taketh away, but in my view if The Lord exists then he's a absolutely vindictive bastard. Oi...Lord, just take the cunts yeah? 

 

He was kind, gentle, caring, loving, funny, odd, never angry, never vengeful. A man who had a great life, married a great woman , spent 60 years with her and sat at the head of the most loving family, all of us inspired by him.

 This sad passing has given me a jolt on how to live, how to love, how to spend time with those you love and how to spend what the fuck you want on what the fuck you want or who the fuck you want.

Life is just way too short, our existence way too ephemeral, our connection to life and existence and love and everything we cherish is gossamer thin and we take it for granted at our peril and then in the blink of an eye it's too late.

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no-one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

Take Care Mugs

Thought I'd something more to say......

 Morning Mugs

My last post was in July ffs. I promised there'd be more thoughts, notes, observations and stuff posted here, including an option to maybe lookat 'vlogging' for the older more mature person maybe.

But it didn't happen did it?  What a lazy git. How hard is it to spend 15 minutes a day dumping thoughts and ideas down on a public forum?

That no-one reads.

Loads of mundane stuff did, not exciting I grant, but maybe that's an advantage of lockdown....life quietened down for many of us. So, a list of things to discuss might be a good idea and then peridocially I will try and crack through it and add as necessary.

 

1. Holidays , or lack thereof and what I did with my leave
   
2. Days out I did do
3. New hobbies from days gone by - astronomy in this case and the reintroduction of walking football
   
4. Losing someone close unexpectedly
5. The joys of artificial grass and unnatural worry about the garden in general
6. Pensions, transferring out and all the worries
7. More gardening, ffs...something I never thought I'd enjoy but.... 
8. COVID bollocks - getting busy dying or getting busy living?
9. Stuff I've enjoyed watching, and of course stuff I've hated
10. Football under COVID
11. Dogs and cats.
12. Working from home, working in general. 
13. The perils and joys of online shopping
14. Why the hell do I seem to have more to do than ever before?

That'll do for now. Add grumbles about the weather , the government and all sort so other niggles  and maybe I can get some consistency going. 

Later Mugs, GJ