6 weeks of hell for some?

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Yesterday was the last day of school for most British children until September.  For many, like one of my nephews, it was his last day in primary school and that is a significant day in a child's life.  I don't quite remember by last day in primary (junior school) but I know that my first day in secondary school was very very scary, everyone seemed so big compared to us and quite mean compared to the relative niceness of primary school. I hope my nephew's experience is a good once. So today is the first day of the school holidays aka the 6 weeks holiday. My memories of the school holidays are good ones, as most of them were spent at my grandparents house, playing out, exploring, playing with my LEGO and being spoilt rotten.  A perfect summer. Today it is raining, it rained all last night and it doesn't feel very summery to me. I want 6 weeks off to relax, get my head together and escape from the world of grown ups, deadlines, reports, meetings and irritating work situations but without a significant lottery win, I am stuck with only weekends to be a child again.  One of the great things about the internet is I can now watch a show that was my favourite as a child, Space 1999. The show coincided with my years in primary school, my two weeks of chickenpox etc. I remember having chickenpox in 1977 and being bought the model of one of these, an Eagle from the show:

I lost mine in 1980 or so when my grandparents moved house and I know one of my friends still has his and it takes pride of place in his son's room alongside more modern toys. This little toy model was my favourite toy other than my LEGO and I build things including space stations to accommodate it. Happy times.  I am now watching the show again on you-tube and it has aged well. Any of my friends who still like sci-fi should check  it out.



It is my intention this summer to watch as many of the episodes as I can as well as reading a few novels and that includes finally reading The Handmaid''s Tale which has been made into an excellent tv-series. The book and show seem more relevant now than ever with its tales of terrorist attacks on democracy, depriving women of rights and extreme religions and the hypocrisy of some religious zealots.

And as many of you know despite my complete failure at romance I am still a very romantic guy and some movies and songs really get to me. Well there is an excellent (but sometimes odd) Spanish movie called Habla Con Ella and in it there is this song:


This song makes me sob.  It is a very very sad song but today it set me off, and the movie is well worth watching!  I blame the weather! 

 And my political rant of the day relates to the shooting of a white Australian woman in Minneapolis, USA. Rightly there is outrage that an innocent has been shot. Why does it take the shooting of an innocent white woman by a police man for people across the USA to realize how bad policing is there and how bad it has been for innocent blacks for as long as the USA has existed!

Happy summer everyone!

July 22nd 2017

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