Common Sense?

Common sense is not so common. (Voltaire)

In my opinion, a blog is to moan about why people are like that and why all the stupid things they do are so obvious to me, from not using their indicators to believing they are the centre of the universe, ignoring the fact that we are all trying to make our way in this insanely crowded world, but, yes there is always a but, some of us doing it a whole lot better than others.

We have the gift of sight, well most of us. As we grow we are taught to read, books give us knowledge and in some way shape who we are.

Most of the time I read books that interest me and are about topics I am interested in but sometimes we pick up a book and it is different. What you read when you don’t have to, will determine who you will be when you can’t help it. Reading is fundamentally a gift to be treasured and never taken lightly. What you choose to read and fill your mind with, has a big impact on who you will be as a person. I picked up a book from a book sale many years ago and it changed my life. The style of writing changed the way I wrote, freed me up and as in my youth, it brought back the joy of creating stories, my way.

Talking of books, I came across this: ‘I am in a very good place right now, not emotionally. I am in a book shop and it is raining and there is coffee.’

I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats so high over wyes and hills when all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils.

This Friday evening was another great example of family catching up over a meal and a few bottles of wine. Always some gossip, would not be the same without good gossip. Claudia has a problem, does she forgive and forget a rather nasty deed done by a crook or not, difficult. Susan had a small meltdown, her friend had fallen and broken her arm and no one had told GSP, not appreciated and the grumpy side came out for a while, very awkward. Lesson learnt, whether you are forgiven, only time will tell.

The world is a bit of a mess at the moment, almost as if the forces of nature have decided that COVID did not do enough damage and Brexit failed as expected, the Russians are trying to conquer Ukraine. There is a glimmer of hope, an expert on defence has come up with this reassurance.

Even if you put both countries next to each other with a land-only border i.e. removed the sea and the fact the UK Navy would sink the Russian Navy in days or maybe hours, you then removed nuclear weapons and any outside help what would happen?

There would be a numerically superior Russian army which would be annihilated by the better equipped, trained, more powerful air force, better moral, logistics, tactics, spirit, intelligence, leadership, etc of the UK forces. Add to this they would probably have to come through Scotland and the North of England whose people would be a huge challenge on top of the military.

No, the Russians could not defeat the UK in any conflict. Tim Green - Former Civilian Advisor at the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom.

I do find this moderately encouraging but there are parts of his statement that will be questioned in due course. Robert’s comments will be well thought out and closely read.

Talking of world affairs, we have been keenly watching the Dublin/Tanzania Tourism Conference. (DTTC23)

Quite a few heads of state flew into Dublin on Saturday and after much deliberation, signed a multilateral tourism agreement with the Giant Expectations group of companies. The CEO of the Giant Expectations group was quoted as saying. ‘This is a game-changing event and will benefit a few Tanzania people and will increase the value of our holdings beyond expectations.’ Love the play on words - expectations. That man is a wonder.

My esteemed brother was the spearhead of this awesome agreement and with his knowledge of world affairs, will take this to new heights, much more than Cop26. That is the for Conference of the Parties, and was attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a treaty that came into force in 1994. As all these unsung heroes, my brother would like to remain unnoticed. We were eager to have a word with him but alas his schedule was such that we could only follow the preceding from afar. The good news is that we might see him in November. Fingers crossed, I will keep you updated.

My first three cars