But what a right Royal ---- up this Government is making of things.
I have been reading lots of modern history recently including books on Atlee, Churchill and Harold Wilson and I cannot remember a more inept shower of politicians than we have at present.
I know people will cry that the Government isn't wholly responsible for rises in the cost of living, inflation in double figures and more mortgage rises but this Government seems to be suffering from inertia and sitting back and doing nothing while it heaps misery on people already struggling.
As you know I keep my ears open to what is being said and night after night on the news we have groups of people bemoaning a lack of action in their particular area, whether that be health care, education or many other areas. I hear dreadful stories of people becoming frustrated because they feel they are going round and round in circles, being pushed from pillar to post without receiving any support or answers. This leaves them exposed, angry and feeling hopeless. I had the same feeling when my father was ill - a feeling of total helplessness because you just get passed around like a parcel in that Christmas game.
I share many of the frustrations being suffered by people, particularly where it refers to the futures of children. We seem at times to be playing Russian Roulette with their futures.
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Have just finished watching the TV drama Litvinenko. I thought it was excellent and somehow summed up my word of the day - frustration.
The UK knew who killed Litvinenko, they knew how and where he was killed and they knew who was behind it, but they were powerless to do anything about it because it involved Russia - one of the most, if not the most, corrupt regimes the world has known.
I am currently reading the Paul Gallico series of books featuring the London Char Lady Ada Harris. I have mentioned this before. They are very amusing and hugely entertaining. I have finished Mrs Harris Goes to Paris and Mrs Harris Goes To. New York and am currently on Mrs Harris Goes Moscow.
In it Gallico brings out some real truths about Russia. Ada wins a trip to Russia in a raffle and wants to take her best friend Ivy. Ivy isn't keen on going as she is scared of being arrested or "having her head chopped off" as she has been reading about the corruption. Ada on the other hand has been looking at travel brochures of Russia with smiling children and wonderful scenery.
And there lies the paradox. I have been to Russia three times, each time has featured a visit to St Petersburg, one of the great cities in the world. On my first visit it was still called Leningrad.
On all those trips we were shown the sites that they wanted us to see. In Moscow that was the Kremlin and the Park of Olympic Achievement that dripped gold.
My first visit would have been around 1974 and incidentally that's where I met my other threequarters who before we met was obviously my other zero. I used to tell people that when we met she was an 18 stone Russian shott putter but I don't think many believed me. The truth is we were just on the same trip and she was on the lookout for a suave, sophisticated, intelligent, tall handsome man but as there weren't any of them around she got lumbered with me.
On that visit I was very aware that we were only shown the places they wanted us to see. We were taken to visit a family who had quite a lavish spread for us including some delicious chocolate cake. I leave it up to you to work out where that came from.
The family seemed to take a shine to me as they said I looked like their son who was in the army. Somehow I was glad to get onto the plane for home. The food on that trip was awful. Lots of cabbage soup and cold congealed eggs which was a great comparison to the chocolate cake. Muscovites were suffering from shortages and long queues were forming for basics. Again contrast this to the chocolate cake tea.
We had an overnight train journey from Moscow to Leningrad which was very uncomfortable and only beaten in the uncomfortable stakes a few years ago by an overnighter in Vietnam.
As I've said our visit was carefully orchestrated and we were followed much of the time. Anne had her passport and visa stolen on a bus along with money and had to spend a long time getting temporary replacements at the British Embassy and signing forms to say she had lost the documents. This was presumably because there was/is no crime in Russia so it was her fault.
During that trip it was evident that the Soviet Union was beginning to fall apart. We visited Tallin in Estonia and it was much more westernised. We met some journalists and dissidents who hated Russia. I still have the books they gave me.
They refused to speak to our interpreter in Russian and instead spoke to us in broken English.
On our first day in Moscow we were almost scared to leave the hotel as there were so many men in uniform walking around. Later on the train we found out they were young army conscripts and we talked to them primarily about football.
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For our first day in Eastbourne we went for rather a long walk. We were looking after Beau the Dog for the day and so walked to the sea front which was a ramble of about two miles and went via a cafe in one of the parks for morning coffee. By the time we had walked along the sea front and back to our son's house we had done over seven miles on quite a hot day.
We came across some interesting people. Isn't it strange how when you have a dog people chat to you? You often have to work out who is happy to be greeted by a canine and who isn't. It's usually pretty obvious.
Walking along the prom prom tiddely on pom pom there was almost a fight. Often when people are aggressive to each other I think they are being funny because I just can't believe that people get angry over nothing. Of course that's just not the case.
This one involved a woman with a toddler.
"Don't walk in front of the ladies" the woman said to her daughter or son.
Then it kicked off.
"Shut up," said the other woman for some unknown reason.
"Don't tell me to shut up."
And so it went on. I stayed long enough to ensure there wasn't going to be any violence and thankfully there wasn't but they were still shouting at each other as they walked away.
Then in the town centre we almost had busker wars. I had to wait with Beau the Dog whilst the other threequarters went to into Marks and Sparks to get some sandwiches for lunch. This busker by the name of Davide Black was singing and I use the word loosely. I'm not sure why he had an e on the end of his first name. As we got there he was struggling with Stand By Me and then ran through what he described as "a number of songs I haven't done before." These included "Every Breath You TakeI' by the Police and a version of Queen's "I Want To Break Free" which was exactly what I wanted to do after listening to it but I had to wait for the other threequarters to come out. She magically appeared with a pair of trousers which the last time I checked weren't edible.
A couple of blokes in yellow tabards came over to have a chat with Davide with an e. They weren't enforcers, just a couple of town centre blokes wearing tabards. Davide with an e complained about the proximity of another busker who wasn't the required distance away. This was a strange complaint because David with an e was singing to an amplified musical backing which would have drowned out the other busker who was playing classical guitar and not the other way round. I think David with an e probably had a bigger appreciation of his talent than us passers by did.
"I could do better than that," I said to the other threequarters as she emerged.
"But you can't sing," she replied.
"Exactly," I said.
I felt we had had this conversation before.
Back in Norwich we have some blisteringly good buskers who are certainly a few classes ahead of the likes of David with an e. I often stand and listen to them because they are so good. With Davide I'm afraid I stayed to listen because he was so bad.
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Have been watching some of the music from Glastonbury and have been perturbed over the past few years that the posturing of artists seems to have taken over from singing.
Lead singers seem too often to be striking aggressive poses which seem more important than the songs. I believe it's known as having attitude.
I sat through the set by the Arctic Monkeys and after about 10 minutes I realised I was bored. Every song sounded the same, there was no light and shade. Alex Turner's voice is strictly limited and it's difficult to see how this band is so popular. But what do I know?