Land of Confusion - post jab ramblings...

I had my jab today. I should have had it last week, but after waking up on the day of my initial appointment to news that there were problems with the Astra Zeneca vaccine I simply didn't bother. But then, as the week progressed and my general powerlessness led to me rebooking it, I started to feel a little aggrieved about life in general, or certainly life in general at this present time. The world, it seems, is full of contradictions. Why is it, for example, that the last thing on the agenda of the World Health Organisation is the world's health? They're in the pockets of the Chinese, arguably the worst nation in the world. Or perhaps we ought to make that not the people of China but the awful regime that is governing them. Look at what they're doing: persecuting the Uyghers, clamping down on the freedoms of the good people of Hong Kong, executing thousands of their own people every year, probably on dubious evidence and let's not forget COVID-19. And have you noticed how, if somebody phones into to a radio channel, like LBC, they're given short shrift if they have the audacity to ask whether or not anybody is going to take China to task over the virus? Why is it that anybody showing any anti-China feelings are immediately shut down? I worry. I worry that this whole fiasco, this whole 'bringing the world to its knees', could happen again unless somebody talks tough to the Chinese, and I get the feeling that nobody will do anything. I've even heard that idiot Boris Johnson say stuff like, "When this happens again" or words to that effect and it annoys me how people, the media, whoever, try to normalise things that shouldn't be normalised. They tried it with acid attacks a few years ago, offering advice on 'what to do if' somebody attacks you with some acid. No! The plan should be to stop acid attacks, not accept them as par for the course.

20-mile ride to Westerham yesterday

So, thanks to the Chinese - unless somebody knows any different - I trotted off to a shopping centre in Sutton to have my jab and it was all done well and I have no complaints, not with the NHS, they're brilliant, and it's a shame they're under so much pressure on the front line of the whole thing. The truth of the matter is that I haven't had a 'jab' since I was 14 and that was my BCG at school. I remember that, standing in line with Robert Silcox and feeling a little apprehensive about the needle. In truth, I was a baby, but not today, those days are long gone. It's amazing how people change. I'm not so much frightened of jabs these days, but more concerned about after effects and having to subject my body to something that I could have avoided if the Chinese had been a little more picky about what they're putting in they're mouths. 

The jab was fine and now I'm home, it's just gone 7pm and I'm listening to Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits. Amazing when you consider that I was listening to it many, many years ago, something like 1978, when it was first released... and it's still good.

So, anyway, the world being full of contradictions. What about when the personnel department switched to being 'human resources'. When it was 'personnel' you knew that the personnel manager was on your side, but when it switched to 'human resources' it quickly switched and it didn't take employees long to realise that human resources were not on their side, they were firmly behind 'the man', the company, the bastards that were trying to fire them. Never trust 'human resources', never think that they're on your side, they only have the company's best interests at heart, not yours!

Another contradiction is 'communications managers'. Don't for one minute think they're there to communicate to the masses through the media; they're there to communicate THEIR messages to the media, and that's it, they're the sentries on the gate for many a frustrated journalist trying to interest them in an article or a quote or a speaking slot at a conference.

The best way to think these days is in reverse. Whatever you're told, think the opposite and you'll be nearer the truth of the matter. Think of the worst possible thing that might happen and that'll be it: Brexit, Trump in the White House, Boris Johnson in Number 10, another virus from the Chinese. Who knows what's going on and how 'in cahoots' they all are; perhaps the conspiracy theorists are right, or half right, perhaps the whole virus thing is an exercise in reducing the global population, perhaps they're all in it together, sitting around a huge oak table agreeing that the Chinese would have to be the fall guys. "You okay with that, Xi?" Who knows? "Oh shucks, guys, me, the bad guy? Not again, surely."

And then, of course, there's the big distraction: Meghan Markle. Well, it turns out she has been 'economical with the truth' saying she got married privately before the big public shindig, when the reality was the complete opposite and they've been forced to admit they were telling an untruth. "Can we believe anything they say?" asks today's Daily Mail. No, I don't think so. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'bad actors', doesn't it? But enough of poor actors - alright, let's stick with bad, or even 'piss poor' - we can do without having to listen to what they have to say. I'm listening to The Passenger by Iggy Pop and you could say I'm 'multi-tasking' as I'm thinking about what to listen to next and I'm writing what you're reading. I'm finding myself driven towards what I would call euphoric songs, like U2's Where the Streets have No Name, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and so forth. Perhaps I'm trying to ward off any possible after effects of the jab with triumphalism, the amphetamine rush of crashingly good music. I remember being in Philadelphia recently when they were organising the city marathon and there was a live band performing Born to Run, loud and in the street, it was fantastic! One of those moments that bring a tear to the eye.

We're on the second lockdown now and there's rumour of a third wave and yet nobody is talking about China. Nobody. And if you mention them in a bad light, well, the likes of Nick Ferrari on LBC will be on your case, shutting you up, but I've already talked about this. Perhaps I'm coming to the end of this rant. Yesterday I did a 20-mile bike ride into Westerham as the sun was setting in the west. I figured I'd better get some miles under my belt in case I get laid up with the after effects of the jab. I've done something like 44 miles in total this week and if I can get out on Saturday then I might manage something like 64 miles, who knows? Whatever. Now there's a word people use a lot these days and I can understand why. Whatever! Who cares! Do as you please, I don't give a monkey's. We're all powerless in the greater scheme of things so just get on with your life, doing what makes you happy and don't listen to the arseholes, there are plenty of them around. They're everywhere! A lot of them are in power, one of them runs the UK, another one used to run the USA and let's not get started on those in charge of China. I'd like to live in Iceland or Finland and failing that I'd like to live in New Zealand where at least you know the PM has the interests of her people at heart. I don't know, these days I seem to be constantly annoyed about something or someone. Lockdown must be getting to me in some way or other even though I seem to be able to handle it. The first lockdown saw me riding 100 miles per week, the second one, well, the colder weather meant less mileage, but now that things are moving a little and the blossoms are on the trees I'm starting to up the mileage again. This week, the last three rides I did were all to Westerham, that's three 22-mile rides. I went on Saturday, Sunday and yesterday (Tuesday) and tonight I'm going to relax in the only way I know how at the moment: watching movies on Prime. Some are good, some are bad, but it's escapism and that's what I need more than anything else right now. I could do with the sea too. But we're not allowed to drive out of our local area, not that I've heeded that law! On the bike I'm regularly riding 20 miles into the sticks, alone, to drink cappuccino on a village green and munch on a Bakewell tart. At weekends I often visit National Trust properties where a walk is often followed by coffee & walnut cake. Land of Confusion is on now, Genesis. I love the middle eight on this track - "I remember long ago, when the sun was shining" - seems to sum it up nicely.

Dinner's nearly ready, pesto with pasta, just what the doctor ordered, and soon the music will have to stop, which will be a shame. Hold on, though, Chuck Berry's just started, No Particular Place to Go, perfect. Another apt lyric, "No particular place to go...".

I'm slowly going mad...

I feel I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Piers Morgan on the issue of Harry and Meghan and their interview with Oprah. I can't believe that anybody seriously believes that they are in any way hard done by! I also can't believe that anybody who has been handed such wealth on a plate could be in any way suicidal or, indeed, mentally ill. I've just finished reading a book by Chris Atkins entitled A Bit of a Stretch, which describes his time inside HMP Wandsworth. In the book, Atkins writes that a lot of the people behind bars in the UK are mentally ill and I can believe that, but I can't believe the hard luck story of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

A sign seen in Grove Park, Carshalton...

What I find particularly ungratifying about their story is that here we all are in lockdown, many people are holed up in tiny apartments, many more have died or are dying of this awful virus and yet they (Harry and Meghan) are moaning about their lot. How can they sit there in their luxury mansion in the California sunshine, not having to worry about money in any shape or form and moan about their lot?

Their criticism of the British press is not only wrong, but unfounded. Nobody seems to remember that the main reason behind media attacks on the couple are based not on racism, but on the hypocrisy of the Royal couple: flying to climate change meetings in a private jet, knowingly wearing gifts from a murderous dictator who not only ordered the killing of a prominent Washington Post journalist, it is alleged, but is also responsible for atrocities in the Yemen.

Starting every morning like this...

We must also look at reports on the way Meghan Markle has allegedly treated her own family. She has, it is claimed by royal observers, alienated herself from her father and siblings and now, of course, she's doing the same for Harry and his family. And yet, there are people who don't see it. They have blind faith in the couple and won't have anything said against them. For heaven's sake, wake up!!! The argument is divided along racial lines because Meghan is identifying as 'a woman of colour', which immediately brings in to play 'the racist card'. You can't really say "Is it because I'm white" to answer what you might regard as a racially-motivated injustice, but to say, as Ali G used to in jest, 'is it coz I's black?" provides bags of scope to turn an argument on its head and brand those against you as racist. 

I've never believed in political correctness or 'wokeness' and I can't stand it when I hear people say, "You can't say that." Invariably, you can express your opinions on anything you want because we live in a free country (here in the UK) and we shouldn't be frightened by the 'woke' brigade. 

The UK is not a racist country. Yes, there are racist incidents, of course they are, just look at the so-called 'beautiful game', but you get racist situations in every country. If the UK is so racist why is it that people from African nations, and elsewhere in the world, are jumping into flimsy dinghies, risking their lives and making their way across the often choppy seas of the English Channel 'for a better life'?

The daffodils are out!!!

I wouldn't say that I was a royalist. I'm not one of those people who waves flags and buys commemorative mugs, I didn't even watch the Oprah interview on Monday night (I went to bed and listened to Radio 3). But that said, I don't think the Royal Family is racist. I agree with Meghan's old man on the issue of Archie's skin colour, when he suggested on television last week that an alleged remark made by an unnamed member of the Royal Family was probably just a dumb question.

For me, the biggest disappointment is that people are taking the Duke and Duchess too seriously, they're believing them because the racist card and, dare I say it, the mental health card, have been played to great effect, and now we have countless people from various charities bolstering their damaging claims about the Royal Family around the world. I'm looking forward to the moment when we all forget about them and they drift off into the obscurity they deserve.

Everything is grating with me, pissing me off, making me angry. First there was Brexit, which went on and on; then there was Trump and then Boris Johnson, and the fact that he's now our Prime Minister makes everything much worse. And then there is the virus, thanks to the Chinese. I suppose it's considered racist to blame the Chinese, but that was where it came from, that wet market in Wuhan. It's also annoying to note that nobody's doing much to ensure that such a travesty, disaster, fiasco, tragedy, whatever you want to call it, doesn't happen again. Add up all this crap and that's what's annoying me, along with a few other things. I sleep badly, I'm angry all the time and I kind of exist on a knife edge waiting, perhaps, for somebody to piss me off, worried about how I'm likely to respond. Somewhere along the line I'm going to explode with an expletive-laden tirade of effing and blinding at some poor person who challenges me on some issue or other, but let's get it out there: I voted remain, I think Brexit is a disaster for the country, I can't stand Boris Johnson and his Master Race haircut and his bumbling buffoonish manner, I'm not going to shy away from the fact that the Chinese are to blame for the global lockdown and all the unnecessary deaths caused by the COVID-19 virus, I can't stand the way they have tried to cover their tracks, or what they're doing in Hong Kong or their treatment of the Uighers. I'm glad Trump is out of power and that Biden won and I long for normality. All of this has certainly had a negative effect on my mental health and I find myself escaping by listening to Radio 3 and watching movies nightly, anything to take my mind off of the shite that is being slung at everybody. I don't trust the Government, I certainly don't trust the Chinese, and I'm so glad I have a push bike to keep me fit. Today I rode to Westerham in Kent and in total this week I have covered something like 60 miles, more than last week, but less (by around 10 miles) than the week before last.

Great food always available

I've got my jab on Monday. Can't say I'm looking forward to it. I feel a little aggrieved that I have to have it, but I'm not an anti-vaxxer.

And of course, let's remember Sarah Everard whose body was found in woodland in Kent this week following her murder, for which a policeman, Wayne Couzens, has been charged. What the hell happened? My sympathy goes out to Sarah's family.

And what's happening in Myanmar? The military have taken over (again) and now they're shooting (and killing) protestors who simply want to live in a free and fair, democratic country. 

There's nothing worse than injustice.

Oh, and lastly, not sure if I mentioned it in my last post, but my bike is fixed. The gear cable snapped so I got it fixed at Cycle King AND had a new tyre and inner tube fitted.