Thanks to the orange fool in the White House mine and everybody else’s weekend turned out to be rather different than planned. After weeks of military build-up, with fleets of aircraft crossing the pond from the US to Britain and the Middle-East, Trump finally decides to bomb Iran, along with his mate from Israel.

Needless to say, this has turned into a mess from day 1, not least because none of the protagonists seem to have a plan. Having killed Iran’s Supreme Leader (no loss) and many of the Iranian leadership there’s no sign that Trump knows what to do now, what the strategic aims are – or how long the war will last. Mind you, the Iranians don’t seem to have much of a clue either – other than to hurl missiles and drones around the Middle-East, hitting mostly civilian targets across the Gulf. Talk about how to make friends and influence people. Meanwhile, Russia – who’re meant to be Iran’s firm ally – send nothing but ‘thoughts and prayers’. Mind you, the hardware they sold previously wasn’t much cop. The missile systems bought at great cost to defend Tehran have proved to be as much use as a chocolate fireguard (just as they have been in defending Russian targets from Ukraine). The US and Israel are now reported to ‘control the skies’ above Tehran which is going to be causing some consternation amongst the surviving Mullahs and military. Even more embarrassing is the fact the Kuwaiti’s have proved to be better at shooting down American aircraft than the Iranians, apparently the score currently stands at 3-0.

Thankfully, our Prime Minister has stepped back from Trump’s coat-tails, learned the lessons from the 2003 Gulf War and taken the pragmatic decision to only allow UK airbases to be used by the US to knock out Iranian missile systems in order to defend British citizens and interests. Common-sense prevails.

Whilst this war is anything but something to laugh about, I couldn’t help but crack a wry smile at the antics of the UK tax-exiles in Dubai who (after slagging the UK odd as being ‘unsafe’) are suddenly expecting UK taxpayers to save their necks. That wonderful German word ‘Schadenfreude’ springs to mind. I can’t help thinking of the brave Ukrainians, who’ve endured their cities being attacked night after night, looking at these Dubai immigrants having hysteria and thinking ‘you think a couple of drones is bad’?

An unfortunate consequence of all this is that any plans I have to head out to SE Asia with any of the Middle-Eastern airlines are currently on hold until we see how all this pans out. In some ways, the timing couldn’t be better as I’ve just had a renewal notice for our annual travel insurance. Talk about making your eyes water! It’s gone up from £117 to £390. They’ve not got back to me yet when I emailed them to say ‘WTF’? but I’m assuming that it’s because I’ve now crossed over into old-fartdom by hitting 66.

So, bugger that, I’m going to be shopping around. But now I have the time to do so…

I’ll be working from home for the next few days as I’ve a lot of admin to sort out. Hopefully, I’ll have chance to get out now and then as the weather’s really looking to be improving as spring certainly feels to be in the air, which brings me to today’s picture which was taken in Halifax on Saturday. Have a crocus. In fact, have lots of them!

I’ve a small favour to ask…
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Cheers,

Paul