Queen Elizabeth is dead. For us baby boomers this was a sad albeit inevitable occurrence. Like waking each morning to find that gravity has dragged your buttocks a little closer to the floor.
Of course, we feel sorry for Charles. His upbringing was lonely and forlorn.
Ever since Bill Clinton’s campaign strategist famously said ‘it’s the economy stupid’ (it’s a shame he didn’t also say, ‘Bill don’t smoke cigars near the interns’) it’s all politicians ever talk about. Not that I blame them. If the masses have money to buy posh pies and TVs they are less likely to set fire to shop fronts and everyone remains as happy as a python picnic in a piggery.
Lockdown is over and Covid is slowly revealing an uncertain future. However, one thing I know for sure about the nature of future work is that Zoom will not be in it.
Not Zoom, not Skype, not Teams, not two honey pots connected with string. Covid forced us inside to a world of soft furnishings and baked goods but despite the temptation of TV and a fridge full of cold sausages, we endeavour to work – work harder than ever.
Because we are social beings (unlike librarians), we like to socialise and communicate face to face. In a lockdown this was problematic. Some of us resorted to ‘coronavirus prostitution’….
London has more billionaires than any other place on earth, seventy-seven at last count. This is not because if you live in London you will become filthy rich (although I hear there’s money in coffee), it’s because London is so desirable that the well heeled choose it as home.
Whether it’s football oligarchs or Internet moguls, London is a playground for the wealthy. Disneyland without the mouse. The city has everything. Leather bound shops, parks, pleasant tree lined streets, art galleries and museums, more clubs and restaurants than fish in the sea, all perfectly packaged within an ambience of refined civilised excitement.
However, this was not always the case. London is not accidentally nice. Back in the 1830’s when Charles Dickens was writing about London life….
I must admit that I miss the funky spirit of the 70’s. Lionel Ritchie & The Commodores, platform shoes, stubbies, Chopper bicycles, The Bee Gees (ok they weren’t funky), but you know what I mean. The 70’s were a time of optimism. The war was long forgotten and the sixties had liberalised western society so that we had a decade basked in Kodachrome.
The council elections are about to close. But do you care? If you are like most of the country, council elections are about as exciting as an accountant’s sex life. It’s just that in the grand scheme of things we simply care far more about an All Black’s ailing groan or whether Mandy is..
Most likely your life, like mine, is pretty tolerable. Apart from a spot of rust in the Subaru and the dog crapping on the carpet, we earn more or less enough money, are healthier and more educated than our parents, and
How nations feel about themselves. Well, the Olympics are over and nations are now pondering their performances. The Americans remain top dogs with God clearly still on their side, but the British win the most improved player award. India came last but that’s hardly surprising given they have more important issues to tackle than tackling, […]
Signs are everywhere, and like tattoos we just don’t know when to stop. Signs. They are everywhere. Well, in New Zealand they are everywhere. Signs clutter our footpaths, signs are splattered over our shops, signs are whale carcasses that lie stranded on our railway sidings. Many countries are worse. Visit India or China. In Africa, […]
Forgot a new flag, its time to get new name. The flag debate is a complete red herring (presumably the flag of Norway). Flags are old school. They represent a time when you needed cloth to identify things. Kings and Popes wore purple robes and funny hats so that you knew they were important. Nowadays […]
