Royalty

Someone said the other day, and I can't remember who it was, that the current Queen is the longest reigning monarch and yet in that time, she has done or said nothing that counts. I don't know enough about the royals to either agree or disagree, but it does seem to me that we have an institution that has long outlived its usefulness.  Yes there is a lot of support for the Royal family, but there is also a lot of antipathy towards the ruling classes in general. Prince Philip is the sort of person that you want to slap in the face; he doesn't give a damn about anyone outside of his privileged little circle and has the manners of a pig. Prince Charles, poor man, comes over as a well meaning but clueless buffoon while the rest of them try to keep low profiles and get on with their less than ordinary lives.

We are constantly told by the press that the economy actually benefits from having them; I am not sure how but there it is, I know so little. Is that a good enough reason to maintain the situation where a very expensive and exclusive group are given the illusion that they mean something?

Just imagine what it would be like if they actually had power.  The next monarch would probably abandon the NHS and replace it with alternative health services including homeopathy for all. Architects would all be fired and new builds would all be along neo-classical lines. He would I am sure want to be a hands on leader and would lead us into so much trouble that he would make the Tory government look competent.  Oh let us hope that it never happens.

Waiting

It is a little depressing, yet a sign of the times, to sit down in a doctor's waiting room, to find, along with the usual magazines, a collection of novels. I am sure there are places and situations where appointments are managed well, but it seems that these places are getting fewer and further between. As it happens this morning's appointment was only a few minutes late, but we were the early birds and would not normally expect the hefty delays associated with our overburdened NHS.

I was brought up to be punctual and polite. The latter tends to slip now and then but I always strive to be punctual to the extent that I am usually early for everything. When we lived on the Isle of Wight, it was a bit of a joke that whenever we went away, we were always back in plenty of time for an earlier ferry than the on we had booked.

We wait for everything it seems.  Buses and trains rarely arrive on schedule, we sit in traffic queues for hours, ferries are held up by weather conditions and immigrants desperately trying to get into the country. We wait for hours at airports, both in attempting to leave and in returning to the country, and we wait to be served in shops pubs and restaurants.

On the other hand, some facets of our lives have improved and waiting times have all but disappeared. Online purchases often arrive within a day, and TV programs can be accessed at any time with ease and no more do we wait for movies to be sent by post, they are watchable at the touch of a button.

What would we do with the time that is wasted waiting? Very little I suspect, we all seem to dash around from place to place or from job to job, slaves to the clock and desperate to save time. Whatever we do the time will pass and that, there is nothing we can do about. 

Testosterone

I do enjoy a curry. Friday nights are really made for a few drinks and a visit to a good restaurant, and so that is what we did last friday. The night started well despite getting the table nearest to the toilet, and the poppadoms were excellent.  I always think that the quality of the poppadoms and accompanying chutneys are a good indicator of the overall quality of the restaurant.

At the far end, nearest the window was a table of eight youngish people, a mix of men and women, clearly having a good time, and two of their company had extremely loud voices. AS they drank more, their volume increased almost exponentially and of course the rest of the customers had to raise their voices in order to hear and be heard.  Positive feedback meant that the loud ones got even louder and so on.

I have a hearing problem, in that only one ear works, the other being there just to stop my glasses falling off, and so all sound comes to me via the one ear. What this means is that stereo is wasted on me and that I am unable to filter out voices from a cacophony of sound. As a result I was unable to engage in the conversation at my table and was forced to enjoy the riotous shouting and laughter coming unattenuated from the far end of the room.

Noise, not only pains me but also makes me angry, and I felt the pleasure of the meal waning very quickly. I rose from my seat to confront the problem but was pulled back down - no-one likes to make a fuss do they?  The meal ended quite rapidly and we called for the bill much sooner that we otherwise might have done.  My wife headed for the loo and I seized the opportunity to head for the far end which was on my way out anyway.  I could not resist the temptation to say something and what came out of my mouth was "Thanks for the headache, enjoy the rest of your meal." I then turned and started to leave. One of their company, well out of reach muttered the word "Prick." I didn't hear it, but my son did and we went back to the table and a less than respectful slanging match began. This was rather silly and I suggested to my six foot five son, that we should leave. There were after all eight of them and I am really too old for this sort of thing. So we left and stood outside waiting for my wife and exchanging mouthed expletives thought the window.  There seemed to be some concern at the table; perhaps they imagined that we were waiting for them to come out, but there were just the two of us, one of whom was not likely to last long in a fracas.  After a few minutes of posturing, two of the guys came out, accompanied by two of the women. I thought for a moment that things were going to kick off and felt the adrenaline surge again.

As it happens, they had come out to apologise and did so with some grace I must say. We all shook hands and as soon as my wife emerged we left. They went back to their table and I hope that the other diners had a more peaceful evening as a result.

Refugees

What a fucked up world we live in. Look around and the two main culprits are politics and religion, and when the two are combined, the effects are catastrophic. Syria, like much of the middle east is a mess, the dragon is eating its own tail while millions of innocent people are suffering and being forced to leave their homes in the hope of finding a better life elsewhere. ISIS lunatics, driven by fundamentalist dogma is destabilising as much territory as it can, and other Islamic organisations are creating mayhem among the poor and dispossessed people of many African countries. Add a result we have myriads of homeless people fleeing for their lives; Muslims running from Muslims by and large, seeking sanctuary in the west, that so many Muslims despise.

In truth these are real human beings and of course they should be given a safe haven, few would argue against that, but of course the world of Islam does itself no favours.  To many in the west, the word terrorist is synonymous with Islam and over the last few decades people have begun to fear or at least distrust the Islamic world and its peoples.

The press love to stir people's emotions and recent events and images of drowned children have been tragic. We hear that these poor people are escaping from war zones and yet, it would seem that the latest wave of refugees have been living in Turkey for three years. There is no war in Turkey at the moment and I wonder why suddenly so many have decided to make a very unsafe break from the safe haven that they were living in. Why have some parents put their children at such risk simply to head for the west?

A huge wave of sympathy is engulfing people and public pressure is sure to win out and more and more of these people will be allowed into various European countries. That must happen and Islam will continue to spread throughout the western world. Populations in the west are shrinking and rather than adopting  the cultures of the host countries, many newcomers prefer to maintain their own cultures, languages and religion.  The intention of Islam to take over the world is becoming a reality and that reality is a scary one.