I have relocated to Skyrim.

I like computer games. There I have made my first confession of the day and no-one is there to absolve me.
My current obsession is a game called Skyrim. I  read about it in a sunday paper and thought that it looked rather intriguing and spectacular. I bought it and was not disappointed. Unlike many first person shooter games, there is no shooting but a lot of barbaric sword play, or in my case bludgeoning opponents with a two handed war axe. It lacks subtlety but is more effective for one with diminished reaction times. Also unlike many games, it is not linear. There is no preset pathway to follow and the world of Skyrim is huge and worthy of exploration. There are quests, and these can be taken on in any order and ever intertwined.  The whole landscape is beautifully rendered and explorable, with seasons and day and night, and there is a vast plethora of beings with which to interact. It is a game with no clear ending and I can imagine that it would be possible to ramble aimlessly (metaphorically speaking) forever.
I'd had a long session the other day; well it was raining and besides I have so much time on my hands; I happened to have been scrapping with a couple of dragons, as you do, and looked out of the window. A Crow flew past and for a nanosecond, I thought it was another dragon.  You see - these games ar absorbing and somewhat dangerous when reality starts to blend with virtuality, but who am I to worry about such things.
Computer games are so very forgiving. I have been killed so many times in Skyrim, only to be given yet another chance and not even having to start again from scratch.
Sometimes I'd like to be a Catholic: do whatever you like and then confess and be absolved. It's rather like a computer game in some respects. You play, you sin, and then you own up and get a press of the restart button.  What is more they believe that when you die, you get an extra life.

Hope I die before I get old.

Don't smoke or drink! Eat a healthy diet! get regular exercise and you will live longer. But why?  I spent  yesterday visiting an old folks home; one of the better ones as it happens, a beautiful building in a lovely location with huge accessible gardens and a high staff to resident ratio. The carers seemed to actually care and the place was spotlessly clean, brightly lit and so very quiet.
However they are presented, these institutions are waiting rooms and the sad spectres that sit around in corners, or are wheeled from place to place without blinking, exist from day to day in their own worlds if they are lucky, or in some terrible nightmare if they are not.
Talk to most people and they would rather be put down than consigned to such a place, and yet the number of homes is increasing all of the time. They are big business and each person brings in around seven hundred pounds a week. For that they get a room, they get 24 hour care and they get fed and kept warm if not happy.
When our pets get old and unable to live independently, we do the kind thing and kill them. People say - put them to sleep, but of course that is just a euphemism. People die, they do not pass on or go to meet their maker, they die and the atoms that make them are recycled.  Death is sentimentalised, largely because we are incapable of imagining not existing. It is hard enough to imagine the world before we were born, let alone the world after we are no longer in it, and so primitive man envisaged some other place, a better place that we all go to after we die. This gives comfort to many and fair enough if that is what they need. For some, they believe that if they die a glorious death, usually involving some insane act of suicide, there will be many virgins waiting to satisfy their every need. I wonder what incentive there is for female suicide bombers.
Everyone dies, it is just a matter of when and how?  I do not fear death, though I am not so keen on the process of dying, especially if it means sitting around in a sterile room, gazing vacantly at ancient decrepit bodies, incapable of wiping my own bottom.
Life is rather like an escalator, and I am of an age when the top is coming into view and I see others toppling off. There is no emergency stop and no possibility of running back down. A healthy lifestyle is well and good but it just means that more time can be spent on the last few steps, and that those years gained may not be all that one hoped for.

Les vacances

I just got back from a short holiday in France. It is a lovely country, and although we didn't go far, there was plenty to enjoy. The Emerald coast has wonderful beaches with reassuring views of the white cliffs of Dover peering from the mist.
I am not a huge fan of holidays. Let me rephrase that; I am on permanent holiday of course, but often cannot see the point in spending a great deal of money to be somewhere else that is often less comfortable than being at home, whilst doing things not much different to what I would normally be doing at home.  Ok there is scenery, I'll grant that, but even scenery can become samey after a while and even that can be marred by the weather. Then there is the food. Yes the food can be wonderful but eating out at more than fifty pounds a time can quickly drain a bank account and disturb delicately balanced digestive systems. For the cost of one meal I could easily eat for a fortnight at home.
Yes it is nice to experience a different culture (up to a point), and would be so much more satisfying if I had paid any attention to French lessons at school, but in any foreign country, I feel myself surrounded by people that make even less sense than people at home.
Museums, galleries and religious buildings and monuments are legion of course and wonderful if you like that sort of thing. To me all churches look and smell the same. Grim reminders of the suppression of ignorant peasants who funded the buildings while probably starving and being fed fairy stories.
There is always a town or city just down the road, and when you get there, it turns out to be rather like the last city or town that you visited, but we always hope that there will be something exciting or different.
Shopping is the same wherever you go. Supermarkets are supermarkets all built to a fundamental model that encourages people to buy things that they don't want or need, and these days, thanks to the Eurozone, even prices are much the same.
Anyhow, I did enjoy the week, much of which was spent walking on endless beaches and very little spent zooming from town to town. The kids were back at school and the holiday season coming to an end and so nowhere was busy and that suits me well. The Gite was tiny and cosy but the owners were friendly and generous and I still love France even if, for me, a highlight of any holiday is coming home.