2020 May – Tie Dye, Suarez, Hay Fever, 10 Second Rule, Tropical, Parakeets, Govt Advice

Tie Dye

Offspring #3 is avoiding lockdown fever by tie dying everything in sight.

This is just a small sample of the things she has unleashed her inner tie dye on.  There are also socks, pillow cases, hoodies and  t-shirts.

I am putting in a request for a tie dye blanket for my bed, please and thank you.

 

Suarez

This is a picture of me and my teeth and a football.

It’s easy to see how accidents can happen, isn’t it?

 

 

Hay Fever

This is a picture of me having a cooling cloth put on my eyes.

I quite like it actually.  I also have some hayfever eye drop stuff.

It is bad this year.  I am suffering.  Mum is relatively sympathetic actually even though she doesn’t get hayfever.

Offspring #4 gets it really badly so we are sympathising and itchy eye-ing along together nicely.

This is me having a rest after.

I actually feel a bit better, thank you for asking.

 

10 Second Rule

This is me being given a little bit of attention.

When I first met Mum there was absolutely no way I would tolerate this sort of space invasion.

Nope.

Not a chance.

Although, even nowadays, 4 years on, it does sometimes get a bit too much.

Mum has a 10 second rule.  She’ll interact with me for 10 seconds-ish and then stop.    If I come back looking for more attention, then that’s fine.  And if not that’s fine too.

It seems to work out for both of us.

No misunderstandings.

Respect.

 

 

Tropical

This is a picture of me out in the tropical heat.

We didn’t stay out long today because it was just too hot.  Despite the heat, I have to make the effort to take Mum out otherwise she’ll probably just go stir crazy.

Ordinary, everyday crazy is difficult enough to deal with.

I don’t have to tell you though – you know what she’s like.

 

Parakeets

Offspring #3 is contending with noisy birds near her London flat.

They are green ring necked parakeet things.   I reckon I might possibly be interested in them – don’t you?

Fun Facts: Their appearance is shrouded in urban myth.  It might have been that Jimi Hendrix released them in the late 60’s.  Or they were accidentally released after Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart finished filming  ‘The African Queen’ at Shepperton.  Or they escaped from George Michael’s secret aviary, possibly after a drunken fight he had with Boy George in a flat they shared in Brockley.  Or they escaped from Henry VIII’s menagerie at Hampton Court and remained hidden for 400 years.  Cunning.  Or they escaped from a livestock transportation area at Heathrow.

Take your pick really!

 

Latest Govt Advice

Go to work if you can.  Don’t if you can’t.   But you can’t travel to work.    But make sure you go.

Parks are open but don’t go to them.

The current status is ORANGE.

Got it?

 

 

 

Saffron’s recommendations this month:

Music: Let’s go for a bit of Phil.  Collins of course – is there another Phil?  Phil seems to have gone through a ‘hot’ to ‘naff’ to ‘cool’ transition.   Mum has lived through it.  In fact she fell asleep in a Phil Collins concert back in the day (due to extreme sleep deprivation as a result of having too many offspring in a short space of time).  That’s actually quite an achievement (falling asleep that is) as it was apparently very, very, very loud and she was lying on the chairs in front of the bass speakers half way down the venue.  And she likes Phil as it happens.   Such a lot of good stuff. Here are some great tracks:

Two Hearts

Turn it on Again (Genesis really, but such a great track)

Follow You Follow Me (yeah…Genesis…but still…)

Groovy Kind of Love

In the Air Tonight (get those drummin’ arms ready)

Against All Odds (take a look at me now)

One More Night

You’ll be in My Heart  (aaaah from Tarzan)

Do You Remember

 

Reading: The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton, published by Knopf.  All about an 1855 gold bullion robbery. Gold worth £12,000.  A different time of course.   This was later made into a film starring Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley Anne Down, called the First Great Train Robbery.  This is a decent film and a decent book.  Which would you prefer?

 

Film: Buster – a rom/com centered around The Great Train Robbery of 1963.  Gold worth £3 million.  Starring Phil Collins, Julie Walters, Larry Lamb and Sheila Hancock.  Actually and perhaps somewhat surprisingly OK.  Phil does a good job.  Give it a go.

 

In the news:

Dominic Cummings –  seemingly no offence committed in travelling from London to Durham during lockdown.  A minor breach of lockdown rules might have occurred at Barnard Castle but because there was no apparent breach of the social distancing rules, no further action taken

PM Boris Johnson announces a relaxing of restrictions in England for the 2.2 million clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have been “shielding” in their homes, allowing them to spend time outdoors for the first time in ten weeks

Dominic Raab (Foreign Sec) defends the government’s decision to ease lockdown restrictions after concerns from scientists that there could be a new spike in infections, insisting that England ‘can’t just stay in lockdown forever’

Thousands of people gather in London, Manchester and Cardiff to protest following the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man murdered by a white police officer in the U.S

The Bank of England warns that the economy is on course to shrink by 14% in 2020

Easyjet announces plans to cut up to 4,500 jobs as it struggles with a collapse in air travel caused by the pandemic

May 2020 is reported as the sunniest on recent record in the UK, with 266 hours of sunshine