What a Week!

I didn't have much time to get things done last week, my computer died and refused to be revived, then I had problems with the one I bought to replace it and I had to spend hours sorting it out. Then this week horror of horrors by beloved mobile phone took a dive into the toilet (clean water). I dried it straight away and it is now shut in a zippy bag full of rice to help absorb any moisture, but it is as dead as a dodo and I am devastated. I have a couple of very precious voice recordings on that phone and I can't face the thought that they are gone forever. If anyone knows how to recover those recordings and my contact list please let me know, it would mean so much to me.

The highlight of last week for me was seeing the worst prime minister in my lifetime walking out of Downing Street, if only I had confidence that the new government will do a better job. It seems odd to me that the Liberals can do so badly in the election but end up in the government. I was especially disappointed that the shifty looking ginger haired one was given a job in government, he looks dodgy. Oh well I guess time will tell.

X Marks the Spot

I have been sick and tired of the election hype for weeks. I tend to think that the desire to hold high public office generally means that the person is totally unsuitable. I have been lied to by experts (have you met Robbie?) I am not easily persuaded that any of them deserve to be trusted with the care of a goldfish, let alone trusted with the running of the country! However jaded I feel about those standing for election there is one thing I am absolutely sure about, I must vote. We often forget that the right to vote was hard won and in the case of women it was not until 2nd July 1928 that the right for all women to vote on the same terms as men became law. It is a right that was hard won at great cost to many.

An Image To Live Up To

They say that people get to look like their pets, but an incident a couple of days ago left me wondered if people become like the images that the media create for them? Spitting Image used to portray John Major as a grey man who tucked his vest into his pants and was totally boring. For a while it seemed as if the real man had morphed into his spitting image character, but he had the last laugh when it eventually came out that he'd had a long lasting affair with Edwina Curry. He wasn't such a grey man after that, to borrow a phrase from Fred Flintstone - that takes intestinal fortitude!



The road where we live is not a main road, but it is very busy and I usually I have to pull in near the house until the road clears, then I can swing the car out and reverse back onto the drive. A couple of days ago I was waiting at the side of the road when a mauve car drove slowly down the middle of the road. It caught my attention because the car was a horrible colour and I wondered what sort of idiot would drive down the middle of a busy road. He seemed to stay there dithering in the middle of the road for ages so I got a good look at the driver, I summed him up as a socks and sandals type. Finally he got out of my way and I was able to park on the drive, but as I got out of the car I heard tapping from further along the road. I looked in that direction and noticed that the mauve car had parked (miles from the kerb) and the driver (who surprise surprise was wearing socks and sandals) was attempting to erect a vote Liberal sign. If they can't drive and look as if they got dressed in the dark it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their ability to run the country!

Communication Skills

The wall to wall US election coverage was impossible to avoid yesterday. I couldn't believe that people had to stand in line for hours just to be able to vote, I thought that sort of thing only happened in third world countries. I am feeling tired this morning because I kept the radio on all night to listen to the Radio 4 coverage of the election results - Robbie was not amused, he buried himself in the duvet and snored loud enough to drown out the radio. I stayed awake long enough to hear about Obama's early victories, I woke several times to hear that the Democrats were heading for victory and when my alarm went off just before 5am (usual time) I was in time to hear Barack Obama's amazing victory speech, and then to John McCain's gracious acknowledgement of defeat. I think even his critics would admit that Obama is a great orator, of course he now has to turn the dreams and promises into action, but it really felt as if we were witnessing something significant. After Bush who is barely literate and seems incapable of stringing a sentence together coherently, it was a joy to listen to Obama. It made me feel a bit envious because we have no hope of inspirational leadership any time soon.

Talking of great communicators brings me on to Robbie. He can manage more words per minute than anyone else I know, but as far as communication is concerned sometimes less is more; I have to keep telling him to talk slowly because I haven't got a clue what he is talking about. He often accuses me of reading his mind (because he doesn't get away with very much!) but this morning he failed to communicate at all, apparently he thought telepathy was sufficient. My alarm went of at the usual time, I woke him at the usual time, he got up as reluctantly as ever and caused the usual clatter when he went downstairs. He brought my cup of tea earlier than usual, I didn't take much notice but I observed that he was well ahead of schedule when he went into the shower. I embarked on my normal routine at my usual time, but I felt that Robbie was rushing me along. Eventually I told him that he was way ahead of schedule, and it was only then that he told me he was aiming to catch an earlier train. Since I play an important part in getting him organised and out of the house on time clearer communication would have been very helpful!

It's Almost Over

The US election is almost over and hopefully we will finally have some respite from mindless news reports. I am so exhausted by the whole thing, it seems to have been going on for years. I have to admit it has made me grateful to be British because our election campaigns are mercifully short in comparison. We don't have any politicians to be proud of, in fact I can only think of two or three senior politicians in my lifetime that have inspired trust or respect, but I sincerely hope that we don't have anyone as unsuitable as Sarah Palin. I couldn't help laughing at the clips of her being taken in by a broadcaster who phoned her claiming to be the French president, it was such an obvious spoof, how could she possibly have taken it seriously? The thing is that it isn't really funny, that woman could potentially be the next vice president and McCain is an old man, so there is a possibility that if the unthinkable happened and he became president he could die or become unfit before the end of his term in office. Would anyone seriously want that woman to be president? She only has the vaguest idea where Russia is, and that seems to be the sum total of her knowledge of anything beyond Alaska, I think she would set the whole world fighting and that scares me. My greatest objection to her is that she does the cause of women no good at all. For at least a century women have struggled to prove themselves equal to men and to gain the same rights and responsibilities in society. Finally women we have reached a situation where they are recognised for their ability and achievement rather than for what they wear or who they are married to. Then this woman comes along, every time she opens her mouth she demonstrates her woeful ignorance, she spends far more than is decent on clothes (that don't make her look any better anyway) and she has some seriously disturbing beliefs. She is an example of pseudo equality, she is nothing more than a puppet, look hard and you will see that a man is pulling the strings. She is an embarrassment, but worse of all, she lacks compassion, if you look at what she believes in you are left wondering where is the humanity?

Imaginary Friends

Well I certainly tempted fate with my previous post, since then I have not been able to escape from the latest news of the US presidential candidates. You will be pleased to know that my radio is still intact despite my previous threats. I was trapped in the bath when the radio hijacked me with a whole program of highlights from McCain and Obama's latest spat. After my initial fury I must confess that I was fascinated because McCain brought along an imaginary friend. One of my children used to have an imaginary friend called Jimmy for a while. To be honest Jimmy was a bit of a pain, when the child did naughty things it always turned out to be Jimmy's fault, he had to have a place in the car and at the table and we had to be so careful not to tread on him! McCain's imaginary friend is imaginary in a different way - McCain imagines that Joe the Plumber is his friend and he imagines that he knows all about him. McCain decided to cling to his new friend throughout his encounter with Obama and Joe who objects to Obama's tax plans, became the star of the show. The problem with imaginary friends is that they always tend to get you into trouble and Joe the Plumber proved just as unreliable. It turns out that he is more imaginary than McCain expected, he's not called Joe, he's not a plumber and he doesn't earn what he claimed to earn. When imaginary friends get too troublesome children tend to leave them behind, the problem is McCain is not a child he is a presidential candidate. Perhaps it is about time he shuffled off quietly to a nice safe home for the bewildered. At least the end is in sight for us as far as the elections are concerned, we only have two or three weeks to go and then hopefully we will not need to think about him or his imaginary friend or that terrifying woman any more.