I’m glad the grand old Duke got a decent send off today. His death certainly sparked a change of treatment by the British press. He’s had nothing but abuse from the press for at least 30 years. I remember reading stories, written about him, in my 20’s and thinking ‘ Christ, this is out of order. This guy is married to the Queen of this country, and he’s being completely belittled again and again. I honestly thought that there might have been/ should have been a law against it ( an act of Treason to be so offensive to the Queen’s husband/ to be so offensive to the father of the next King ). But there obviously wasn’t, so the criticism was unrelenting. The fella was simply’ being himself’. He dared to have a personality, that’s all. He made jokes that pretty much any bloke in Wales would have made at that time, such as the danger of being eaten if you stayed in Papua New Guinea too long, or getting slitty eyes for staying in China too long. .. I mean c’mon, he wasn’t trying to offend, he was just making jokes, like almost anyone could have made at that time, and that’s all.
But true to form, once actually dead, he’s been praised to the skies – sad I think that he never lived to read anything positive about himself.
Two lots of socialising this week – ACTUAL MIXING WITH PEOPLE (!) – have meant drinking way too much on Thursday and almost being unable to say speak by 11pm – apologies to Chris Cats. Our Unfortunates night is loonnnnggggg overdue, and was a real laugh. Blind Paul actually managed to get to mine without Bolt the Dog, and Chris was last to arrive… so we had the paralysed fella and the blind man working as a team to kick the night off, which really isn’t the most productive combination when things actually need doing! 😂
Anyway it was a laugh.
And I’ve had lunch at a restaurant! With friends on Friday… despite my horrendous hangover… but Hair of the Dog saved me.
Tririding back through some of the most iconic parts of London in the spring sunshine, and it actually being fairly warm, was something I’ve missed a lot!
Sevenoaks tomorrow by train, and a few days down there in the woods to look forward to. I’m going to meet Lizzy’s parents ( that’ll be good ) and then my own parents are visiting Sevenoaks on Tuesday… Imagine that – it sounds like normal kinda life is returning ! My dad plays the piano, and Lizzy has a Steinway… ( which she can’t actually play, but her daughter does ) but my Dad is very excited about having a tinkle on the ole ivories.
Lizzy bought me a ( very )early birthday present – a drone … very cool bit of kit indeed, though it wasn’t long before I crashed it into a tree. Hmmmm. Thankfully no real damage done, but it did illustrate just how helpless I am in a wheelchair when it comes to rescuing a drone from a tree, so I shall take more care in future.
Oh and apparently you can catch COVID from your cat.
But don’t ask miaow…
💥😂