I ask as for the past couple of days much of the country has basked in temperatures that have made it the hottest of the year so far but also seem to have an inverse proportion to the levels of stupidity on display. Yes, I know the Government has pretty much killed-off lockdown, but that’s not meant to happen until the 4th July, not the first sunny day since the announcement. This blog may end up as a cathartic rant but I don’t apologise for that. Sometimes you’ve just got to get these things off your chest. And it’s my blog – so I will!

The day started so well, It’s Thursday, so Dawn and I ventured out to Huddersfield on our ‘Red Cross’ mission to go shopping for Dee’s parents. We also picked up stuff for ourselves. Today we had to visit a wholesale fishmongers. As the sun was cracking the flags we didn’t want to leave our purchases in the car to slowly cook so Dawns dad met us with a cool bag to take our purchases straight back to their place whilst we did the rest of the shopping. The staff at Sail were excellent and the whole process was hassle free – until ‘Flash Harry’ turned up in his expensively restored vintage car and ignored every bit of social-distancing etiquette – which started to set the tone for the day. Looking at his age, gammon complexion and physique my first thought was “Well, it’s your funeral”…

Once our fish exchange was done Dee and I headed into town and popped into the CRN offices for the weekly check-up. The weather was too good to keep me inside but the time was too short to do much so I only grabbed one rail picture. Well, at least it’s a contrast to the vintage stuff I’ve been scanning recently!

Whilst Dawn did what she needed to do at the office I wandered through the town to see how things had changed since last week. In fact, very little – apart from the weather, which had dragged a few more people out. Not that it had done much for people’s ability to follow simple instructions for the common good…

I won’t bore you with the minutiae of shopping at Sainsbury’s but what was lovely was being able to spend a bit of time with John and Norah in their garden at a respectful distance. The sun was an absolute bonus!

We couldn’t stay long as we both had to get home to catch up on work. I was lucky as a lot of what I needed to do could be done outside so I ended up basking like a lizard whilst researching. Poor Dawn was trapped inside! Whilst I was doing so I made the mistake of catching up on the news and saw the scenes of absolute fcukwittery from the beaches of Bournemouth and beauty spots elsewhere that makes me despair about this country. We’re not even out of lockdown, we’re nowhere near free of Covid-19 but as soon as the sun comes out some people simply don’t care about the consequences to themselves, or others.

Britain is incredibly fortunate. We have probably the richest language on the planet. It’s the language of Shakespeare, Chaucer – and so many others. There are 220,000 words in the Oxford Dictionary, we have the ability to express ourselves in innumerable ways yet so many people can’t even grasp the fundamentals of the language – or if they do, don’t understand they apply to them. Stuff like ‘one way’…’don’t litter’ – the list (seemingly) is endless – and don’t even get me started on those who thought they knew what they were voting for when they voted for Brexit! Try asking some of them four years down the line what it is they think they’ve ‘won’ and watch the brows furrow. It’s the same now with Covid, the relaxation of lockdown – and sunshine.  What bit of all this don’t you understand?  Me and mine will stay safe and we’ll try and ride out the economic consequences that these muppets don’t even think about, much less comprehend. Many (many) years ago, when I was travelling, I hooked up with a Swedish girl. As we spent more time together I noticed that she kept a diary in English. Being curious, I asked her why? Her reply was that she could be so much more descriptive in English due to the breadth of the language compared to her native Swedish. I’ve never forgotten that. Then I see so many people for whom English is their native tongue, yet they struggle to master and make themselves understood in the basics. As for their inability to grasp simple concepts -like ‘one way only’ – I despair.

Ok, rant over, now it’s time for…

Picture of the day

In 2010-11 I took some time off from the UK to travel across Asia. Because of India deciding to kick-off about visas due to recent terrorist incidents it got ‘interesting’ to say the least. When I managed to get back into the country after a sojourn in Thailand and Malaysia I headed over to the Gujarat to explore. On the way back to Baroda from a day trip I ended up in a crowded commuter service. It wasn’t a problem as I wasn’t a stranger to these conditions and I stuck up conversations with those around me. So much so I ended up taking lots of pictures and lent my camera to the chap opposite to take mine. Here it is…

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