Beating my wife

I love scrabble. Well at least I did until recently. There is a scrabble app on Facebook that has enable me to play with a lot of people, many of whom I have never met. It is a pretty good app in many ways but there are some differences between it and the board game. To begin with it is impossible to cheat, or to accidentally knock the board when you are losing, scattering all the tiles on the floor.  It is also easier in some ways as you have the facility to try out words before you play them and so incorrect words cannot be challenged. As a result, some pretty odd words frequently find themselves onto the board, many of which have little or no everyday use. Of course the permitted word list grows as the language changes, and many new words are added each year - it is quite hard to keep up.

One of the secrets of success is knowing all the two letter combinations that enable the playing of overlapping words and increase your chances of fitting that seven letter word into place. Words like AA, OE, BO, QI, ZO and so on are all valid and the latter two are frequently used.

We used to play with the local vicar and his wife many years ago and adjusted the rules so that bonuses were added for any dirty word. Another variation was that you could play any word you wanted as long as you could come up with a definition that made any sense; you cannot play these fun variations online.

Anyway, it seems that the online version is having issues and I can no longer play on my computer. This is frustrating as I have many games on the go and I seem to be on a good run at the moment. I can get into the game on my iPad but somehow it just isn't the same. We seem to have lost the proper game with the plastic tiles and the ancient board and so we are limited to onscreen versions. This is just as well as online I seem to be able to beat my wife.

Lost and found

I was on the bus the other day, taking my granddaughter into town for lunch. Bus drivers rarely wait for people to sit down, and so I held onto her tightly, not wanter her traumatised by the experience. We found a seat and she loved the journey, probably on the basis that she was not strapped into her seat but able to bounce on granddad.  All went well and we headed int a pub garden ready to order lunch when I discovered that I was without wallet.  Clearly it had fallen out of my pocket whilst attending to Matilda on the bus.

The ramifications of a lost wallet are far reaching and apart for the cash that it contained, there were all of my bank cards, my diving license and other personal items that are hard or expensive to replace.  The first step was of course to get home and cancel all of the bank cards which is not as easy as it sounds, but a necessary step as any dishonest person could easily use credit cards to make online purchases. So that done, I was left with a sick feeling that lasted the rest of the day. I called the bus company and was told to phone back after six, which I did and was told that nothing had been handed in and that I should call back in the morning.

I called back in the morning and was told that a cleaner had handed it in, which was an unexpected and pleasant start to the day. They did say that there was no money in it, which was not surprising but at least my driving license etc would be back. So off we went to the bus depot and claimed my wallet. Having a bus pass in there meant that my photo was an easy identification and I was delighted to get it back. Looking inside everything was there, including the cash which I keep in a not very obvious pocket.

The sound of music

Musical taste is a very personal thing and what sounds wonderful to one person can be quite terrible to another.  I listened to Bradley Wiggins on Desert Island Discs this morning, and although he was mildly interesting, it was clear that his taste in music had almost no overlap with mine. For those who are not familiar with this radio 4 programme, guests are interviewed and asked to select eight discs that they would want to take to a desert Island.  Though I will never be a guest on the programme, I have tried this exercise many times and probably come up with a different list each time.

Some people would like to see classical music forced upon children from a very early age, an interesting notion in theory, but as the vast majority of adults seem to have no interest in classical music, I don't see that it would work in practice.  Music is something that comes to us via our day to day lives and so our tastes grow from our own experiences. For many children today, their musical experiences are more likely to come from video games and Youtube. They do have access to a wealth of material but probably much of what is available will go unexplored.

As I write I am listening to Mahler; something that I never used to enjoy. I had a friend at college who listened to very little else and at the time I could not appreciate what he was obviously enjoying. Over the years I have persevered and now his music is by and large a delight. So yes, tastes can change, even at my advanced age I can still adapt and adjust to new things, though I must say that Rap and Hip Hop leave me cold and uninspired.

There are moves to include the Beatles into the curriculum, GCSE music is to undergo changes in some sort of effort to broaden the experience of our children, but I suspect that they will still manage to find their own likes and dislikes, fashion and peer pressure count for a lot, and then of course there is Simon Cowell and his ilk who and the main drivers of popular music today.

I like to think that my own tastes ate eclectic, but of course they will be very different from those of anyone who chances to read this. On the off chance that one day a grandchild may possibly stumble upon this, then I will include my current eight choices.

1. The Vespers of 1610 by Monteverdi.
2. The Division Bell by Pink Floyd.
3. The Dream of Gerontius by Sir Edward Elgar.
4. Tuesday Afternoon by The Moody Blues
5. Missa Page Lingua by Josquin Des Pres
6. Budapest by Jethro Tull.
7. Missa Papae Marcelli by Palestrina.
8. Dantes Prayer by Loreena McKennit

Where do we go from here?

The immediate outrage and anger seems to have passed if the social media are anything to go by,  and the cabinet reshuffle has been done. More of the same seems to be the order of the day and so we brace ourselves for what is to come. One thing is clear and that is that we have not been told the worst of what they have to inflict upon us. In the last five years most damage was done to those who could least afford it whilst the wealthy gained hugely and offshore bank accounts filled with their ill gotten gains. While this redistribution of funds was going on, the national debt increased as the government continued to borrow; ensuring that their supporters could feather their nests.

Protests over the weekend led to a number of arrests, the violence being blamed on left wing activists, but possibly instigated by disgruntled UKIP supporters. The events were scarcely reported, after all the press tell us what the tory masters want us to hear.

There is a public appeal for a change in the electoral system but this will fall on deaf ears, why would they want to change a system that favours them after all?

So we will grin and bear it, we will tolerate their repressive education policies, their unfair approach to the welfare system and their unshrinking support for the wealth takers, and tax evaders that are really bleeding the country dry.  We will tolerate their continued attempts to fool us into thinking that we are all in this together and lives will go on.

The smug and deplorable tories that threatened to leave the country in the event of a Labour victory will be unconscious of the fact that for most people such a thing would be unthinkable if not impossible, and no doubt a new swathe of MPs will be looking to buy second homes in the capital, uncaring of the fact that millions of people are unable to find the wherewithal to find decent accommodation that they can afford.

Nothing is going to change for the better for most people, but we will be told that everything is ok so that is fine.

A sad day

The British electorate has had its say and the nasty party looks like being in charge for the next five years. Of course they gained around 35% of the vote which suggests that 65% of those that voted do not want them to be there and then there are the others who didn't or couldn't vote. We will have a government that represents the views of a small minority of the population and the interests of even fewer.

Society is sick and getting sicker. It was Thatcher that sowed the seeds of its destruction and her influence has been profound and long lasting. People no longer care about others; self interest is all that matters and the accumulation of wealth seems to be the sole motivation of so many.

Millions of young people cannot afford decent homes while landlords are allowed to charge exorbitant rents for squalid and unacceptable accommodation. This problem is particularly acute in London, and Boris Johnson opposes any move to regulate private rents, suggesting that any move to do so would destroy the city.

Young people have no representation at all, the Tory party being driven by the blue rinse brigade and the media that are in their pockets. Is it any wonder that many people feel utterly disillusioned by this outdated and unfair electoral system.

The Liberal Part has vanished in a puff of apathy, largely due to Clegg aligning them with the tories and renaming on his pre election promises of 2010, so now we have an opposition that has neither Balls nor cohesion. Fortunately UKIP has not taken more seats but their support has grown; clearly the tories are not nasty enough for a large number of voters.

So what now? The ballot box is not giving the population what they need. Something like 70% of the population feel unrepresented and with further attacks on the have nots, the tories are fermenting an underclass of dissidents that they will need to control. I fear for the future.