The Boy and The Coconut Tree

I can't believe it has been a month since the referendum on the EU, it has gone so fast and so many things have happened and are ongoing.  We have a new Prime Minister, that happened faster than most of us expected but thankfully it isn't Boris Johnson or Andrea Leadsom. I dislike Theresa May as I am not a Tory and she is a stereotypical Tory and I doubt our civil liberties, human rights or privacy are safe in her hands but time will tell.   The exit from the EU is being delayed, I am happy about that and what we may end up with is a sort of compromise membership but British tantrums over the rules will only be tolerated for so long. Britain has a history of tantrum throwing when it comes to the EU and our membership has often been questioned by some of the other members.  I often feel we have been a well-poisoner , in it but never really wanting it to work but happy to profit from it, our businesses certainly have.  Many British people have benefited from the EU...

Living with cats I'm enjoying a day off so after a few extra hours of sleep and a nice slow breakfast I headed out to be a tourist, a shopper, get my hair cut and meet some friends.  My day off is busier than a working day. During my hair cut, the hairdresser and me discussed how she has to have clothes for work and clothes and keeps them separate from everything else because of the hairs that get everywhere and are difficult to shift.  I told her about the two cats I am currently looking after and how their hairs are everywhere even though they are not allowed in my room but as they are all over my flatmates' clothes, they end up on mine etc. She asked me about the cats and their personalities, I did laugh at that. Everyone thinks cats are great, I am indifferent. One of the cats is cute and friendly, the other one, the older, hates me, she growls at me whenever I get close and has cornered me once or twice in the hallway.  I look after them by feeding them, ...

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” — Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird I started this post with a quote from one of my all-time favourite books, To Kill A Mockingbird.  It as applicable now as when it was first published, so this is what I see, what I hear and what I feel. I don’t expect all my audience to agree with it but anyone who knows me knows I have strong opinions on the EU, though it is a flawed and imperfect institution it had potential to be better and we could have been a catalyst for improvement but due to Europhobia in the Conservative Party and xenophobia stirred up by UKIP, we are in a mess! It has been one week since we voted and chose to leave the EU but we are still in a limbo, a level of hell that Dante couldn’t envision when he wrote his ‘Inferno’. Our PM has resigned but will stay on until September 10th or so.  We have an opposition in disarray, fighting over the leadership but ignorin...

Momentous and disastrous, foolish, a leap into the unknown driven by petty nationalism.  That sums up my feelings today regarding the Brexit, the decision by 52% of the voters to leave the EU, few of them knowing what it means, what is has meant or has done for them. In fact, I am  so bloody angry about Brexit. My life since 1988 has been positively shaped by the EU and Europeans since I left my small town. Looking at the results show me I was right to leave. I may be from there but I don't belong there and that is sad! What many of them back there do not realize is, much of the economic renaissance since the dreadful 80s was due to the EU, money from it or access to its markets.  Ignorance of many economic realities and the belief that the UK will be better somehow if we turn our backs on 70 years of neighbourly cooperation is what has fed people’s fury.  I am lucky to have experienced the EU and its positives, I have worked for a French company that sent me t...