What Is Truth?

Ta-dah! The re-jig of this lovely website continues. We finally had the photos done properly but the ongoing saga with that is such that the wretched pictures which are crystal-clear in other contexts are coimg out blurred on the products pages. Aaarrrghhh! Anyway, that can be fixed (surely?) but they are really nice pics. More about them when they are in properly.

So, what a fortnight. The limpet PM finally got dislodged although she’s still in residence , refusing to take the hint as usual. What a shower! I’m not a fan but I think I’ll go easy on the invective as this is after all a company blog, not that you’d notice from all the other rants I’ve gone on. Theresa May is an irrelevance, it’s just a shame she was allowed enough latitude to do such harm to the country. She didn’t do it alone though, equal shame goes to all the MPs and civil servants who sought to subvert a democratic vote and help turn the UK into a laughing stock. For the first time I actually heard people speculating about the government fixing votes and ballot boxes going missing, such is the mistrust of the populace. How did things get so bad without us noticing? Bread and circuses of course – we were all busy watching Love Island or BGT or following some pathetic Royal non-drama, we assumed our democracy was rock-solid and took our eyes off the ball. Read more

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Home Thoughts

Oh to be in Somerset now Spring is here, to paraphrase R. Browning

Tell me why I don’t like mondays…… Had a most excellent weekend and now back to reality, boo, hiss. I spent Saturday messing around in the countryside; I had to go to Crewkerne in Somerset and it was a perfect day for driving. God help me when we all have our cars confiscated to save the planet – I’m working on a scheme to run an engine on potato spirit, I’ll keep you posted. I realised how much I love driving when I was making a journey from Manchester to the Southern coast. The bossy lady on Google Maps said ‘Take the first exit at the roundabout and drive for 186 miles’, and I started smiling. That’s when I knew I had a problem. So, there I was ambling down winding country roads, birds were twittering, the sun was out, and the place names were brilliant: Staple Fitzpaine, Thornfalcon, Hatch Beauchamp, and my personal favourite, Wreath. Rural England is ridiculously beautiful in Spring; you ought to see the wildflowers in the hedgerows. I also saw fields full of wretched crows helping themselves to the winter wheat. Read more

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High Jinks

Meredith Frampton: Trial and Error

William Goscombe John: A Boy at Play

Arthur G Walker: Christ at the Whipping Post

Dora Gordine: Javanese Head

The best week of 2019 so far. I received news this week that was so good, it made me nauseous. Do you ever get that? I inherited it from my Mum, it’s a classic response to ‘stress’. I got the news on Thursday evening and immediately felt like throwing up. I couldn’t even contemplate dinner until 10.30pm. God help me if I’m ever nominated for an Oscar (yes, it could so easily happen! What do you mean I’m not an actress? Have you seen some of the winners…..Just kidding) It’s really odd actually; on a scientific level, I find it quite interesting. The body diverts the blood supply from non-essentials like the gut and sends it to the heart and brain instead and adrenaline floods my system. When it’s good news, I feel sick but when it’s bad news or a threat, I get total focus as I try to figure out how to battle my way out of it. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t get headaches when I’m stressed. I can probably count the total number of headaches I’ve had in my life and they’re usually linked to a physical cause- cerebral malaria anyone? I highly don’t recommend it. My mother was the same, in fact I don’t ever recall her getting a single headache. But the stomach-clutching stress response? Oh yeah. It’s as good as a genetic marker, I’ve seen any number of maternal relatives manifest the same symptoms. Don’t you just love Biology! So Mum, thanks a lot for the intense nausea and crystal-clear brain 🙂 (This experiment can be skewed by the addition of tequila by the way) More about the good news anon.

Nearly as good was the local elections. As usual I was up at 2am reading newspapers online. When I couldn’t find any exit polls I knew the jig was up and went to bed with a beatific smile. At 9am some poor sap was wheeled out by the Tories to inform us that even though they’d lost 400 seats with only a third of the council returns counted, they were still hoping for a total loss of 800 at the most and 500 would practically be a win, I mentally made some popcorn and settled in for an entertaining day. Read more

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