Walking on cobbles in flip-flops...

-
Today is probably the hottest day of the year so far and my skin is as pink as these flip-flops and I was only out in the sun for 45 minutes or so and I was wearing SPF30. So it is going to be a scorcher.  Yesterday was pretty close so I decided to cool my feet off by wearing flip-flops for my commute to work, not much walking really, less than 1km to my local station and then from London Bridge to my office but I didn't foresee the cobble stones of Hays Galleria, the streets between the buildings are partly cobbled.  All I can say is, flip-flops are not really designed for anything but sand, they are more instruments of torture than fashion accessory and if they are the Brazilian/Australian contribution to global fashion well Paris has not much to worry about right now.



I was meant to visit a theme-park today, LegoLand Windsor but when the weather was predicted to be over 30C today, high UV, high pollen count that combined with the high screaming child count, high angry parent count and long queue levels etc. I decided not to go. It would have given me more grey hairs than I want. Some of my friends have gone there today at peak time. I can't wait to hear the stories of queues, sunburn and vomit.  My memories of theme parks as a child is good, I once rode on the same ride (the pirate ship at Meli Park, Belgium) 20 times in one day and didn't vomit once but as an adult I know I'd find the whole thing intolerable even if I do love Lego! I am going to do what sensible adults do when it is 31c in London, relax, sunbathe and listen to my favourite music and have a siesta.

I am posting this Meat Loaf/Cher song because this week one of my older colleagues and her husband, she is 65 and he is 75 went to see the Meat Loaf Musical 'Bat out of Hell'. She told me they were taking ear plugs as her husband still wasn't sure who/what Meat Loaf is and was of the 1940s/1950s musical generation. Sadly, I told her, there isn't an Alma Cogan musical right now but someone surely will do it!?



I will only briefly mention the horrible events of Grenfell Tower briefly as my right wing friends are desperate to ensure no blame touches their precious Theresa May or the Conservative Council that has been in charge of Kensington & Chelsea since 1964. They keep saying it has a Labour MP, yes, since June 9th 2017 they have, before that it was Conservative since the constituency was created and local government is responsible for social housing (irresponsible in this case) and in this case it appears they've outsourced it and done everything on the cheap despite the council having a contingency fund of £300m plus! It is a sad day when the Queen is willing to face angry crowds and the leader of the opposition can be surrounded by an angry crowd yet our PM hides. A minority government, weak on all fronts, unable to face the people and willing to get into bed with Protestant, Loyalist extremists of the DUP to save their manifesto.  Ugly times may lay ahead of us!

Social housing up in flames in Kensington & Chelsea

 Thankfully the fire has prompted the landlords of my building to send out reminders to all of us to be careful, not have bbqs etc. on our balconies and familiarize ourselves with the fire safety rules and exits.  I am on the 9th floor so I am not jumping!

June, 17, 2017


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It has been a long long time - Boston and New York 2022

-
Image
I am sitting in a coffee shop in the South End of Boston (Tremont Street), about 2 minutes’ walk from my old apartment on Worcester Square. I lived here for almost 2 years from November 2000 and have some good memories. I have not been back for 16 years.  A lot has changed, a lot has not. The ride to the hotel was much the same although main roads in Boston are almost all underground so you don't see daylight for quite some time and there is nothing fun about sitting in a traffic jam for 30 minutes underground.   I am staying in the Beacon Hill area of the city and it is a cute mix of Victorian era town houses and cobbled streets bookended by the government district and the massive Massachusetts General Hospital. I was supposed to be here with a friend who lives in Quebec but due to him being forgetful etc. he forgot the document he needed to enter the USA so I am now doing this 5 day, 4 night trip on my own, not a total disaster but a very different holiday dynamic.  Last night
Read more

Goodbye Cooperative Bank, it was nice knowing you

-
My bank is in trouble, the great and noble Cooperative Bank has fallen foul of something or someone and turn itself from a mutual into yet another plc, floated on the stock exchange and only 30% controlled by the original owners. A sad day. I've read many stories and many stupid comments but how a US hedge fund managed to be the driving force behind this is beyond me.  A blame game has begun, was it the takeover of the struggling Britannia BS, or the attempts at buying over 600 branches of Lloyds Bank or , as many believe, something more sinister?  We will never know unless there is a major investigation by the financial authorities (which I doubt will happen). As a mutual , Cooperative Bank, had to put customers first, this didn't always work but it certainly won't now. How can company directors at a plc put their shareholders 2nd, or 3rd. This won't work.  What puzzles me more is they believe their own lies.  I received an email (as all customers did) from Euan
Read more

Funerals and birthdays - June 2024

-
Image
I will be glad when June 2024 is over, I am sitting here on June 29th 2024 and I am physically and mentally exhausted from the events of this month.  At the very end of May my Uncle Stan died, he was 83 and prior to his death he was a relatively healthy old man, but a fall and brain bleed and possibly poor care at the Sunderland Royal Hospital led to him fading away pretty quickly, admitted on Friday May 24th and died overnight on May 26th. He was an incredibly kind, funny man and we had a very odd relationship as he would always claim I know everything I know because of him, it was a running joke since my teens and I tried to send him a postcard from wherever I visited in the world as I knew as a former coal miner and shipyard worker, he had never left England and I know he appreciated my postcards.  His funeral was the first I've attended as an adult and it felt odd, being a grown-up can be hard, I comforted my aunt and my mum and had to navigate the usual family politics of a bi
Read more