The (alleged) old Chinese curse ‘may you live interesting times’ springs to mind right now. Having returned from Thursday’s national rail awards I’m finding life odd to say the least. Seeing so many familiar faces at the NRA was lovely – as was having time to chat – even though time flew by all too quickly and I didn’t get to talk to half the people I’d have liked to. Plus, the awards felt very much like the end of an era with Nigel Harris retiring, plus other changes that are going on I’m not going to reveal here. The railway ‘Oscars’ felt different this year because the rail industry is in a mess. Not one of it’s own making to be fair, the railways are just another victim of an utterly incompetent Government that hasn’t got a clue what it’s doing – about anything. Forget re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, with this lot you can add musical deckchairs as Ministers constantly change their minds depending on which loon – Sorry, ‘think tank’ or special advisor has got their ear. The sooner we have a general election and this miserable lot are put out of their misery the better. Sadly, the mess we’re in isn’t all down to the Tories. There’s a sickness throughout the UK body politic which means we’re ill-served by the political classes as they just can’t be honest with people – hence Labour’s insistence that you can actually polish a turd and they can make Brexit ‘work’. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the ‘green’ party – a collection of Nimbys who seem to spend most of their time opposing solutions to climate change (solar farms, nuclear power, HS2) as they know they can posture all they like as they’ll never hold power. I should mention that the Scottish greens are an exception to this. They’re a separate party who’re pragmatic, positive and not in thrall to Nimbyism the way their cousins South of the border are. In a lot of ways I’d be quite tempted to move North of the border as Scotland seems to be so more progressive than England. Shame about the weather tho’…

Looking around it’s hard to remain positive about the future of this septic Isle as honesty and realism in politics is about as rare as rocking-horse shit right now. Meanwhile, as many folk who tear themselves away from gawping at TV screens may have noticed, we’re having some really weird weather due to climate change. But what are we doing about it as a nation? Answers on a postcard please…

You may have got the impression that I’m feeling rather cynical at the moment. In which case all I can say is – damned right! I’m normally a glass half-full sort of guy but right now it’s difficult to maintain that perspective. Hopefully, my equilibrium will be restored soon. Whatever, it’s time to think about my own future in a changing world.

Whilst I ponder I’ll leave you with today’s picture. I’ve updated my Zenfolio website with a host of different pictures taken over the last couple of weeks. Follow this link to see which galleries they’re in. Now, what to choose? OK, how about this…

Although I was away for the first couple of months of this year the one thing I didn’t manage was any beach time. I need to put that right on my next trip. Here’s a beach on a very special island few people will have set foot on due to its isolated location. This is Baia do Sancho on the island of Fernando de Noronha off the coast of Brazil, seen on the 19th August 2002.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
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