Lockdown somehow doesn’t feel quite so locked down in Bournemouth now. Shops and restaurants are open and having a busy time and now that the rain has stopped people are definitely out and about. I was out today with my friend Winnie. We went off to Compton Acres to see how the gardens were progressing now that summer is nearly here. Things were as they should be with plenty of rhododendrons in full bloom and varied colours, very spectacular. The tulips are nearly over and most of the other plants I couldn’t give a name to if my life depended on it. We had a lovely day though and finished it off with lunch in their café.
In Sussex a ton (or is it tonne?) of cocaine has been washed up on its shores. The waterproof packages were attached to life jackets and their value is estimated to be £80 million. That’s a lot of nose candy and methinks that someone’s nose is going to be put out of joint. The haul has been put under armed guard in a secret location and the beaches were closed to the public. It’s thought that the packages might have originated in South America but how they landed near Hastings is a mystery. Hope it doesn’t lead to another battle there.
Like many other people I’d be hard put to locate Belarus on a map. I’d know that it’s ‘over there’ in the direction of Russia but never really given it much thought. Now though it’s scarily in the news. How does a small country manage to send fighter jets to intercept a civilian plane and force it to change direction and land. And, although they deny it, it was to arrest a passenger who was on board that Ryanair flight. What would have happened if the pilot had ignored the instructions and carried on to its original destination? We’ll never know now but the journalist and his girlfriend were arrested and detained and apparently forced to broadcast statements on tv and social media.
Social injustices were in the news today around the world. It’s one year since the death of George Floyd with demonstrations demanding racial equality. Sadly I feel that the world has a long way to go before that is any where near being achieved. The other injustice hitting the headlines is that of single British mothers who were forced to give up their babies in the twenty years following WW2. The young mothers were not given a choice, just told by medical staff, social workers, parents, churches or other so called professionals that their baby would be adopted because they were unfit to raise a child. These mothers are from my age group and I’ve met a few women that this happened to. The mothers are demanding an apology from the government. I can’t see how this will help but then it didn’t happen to me. I think more needs to be done. Maybe DNA testing of the mothers and invite all adopted children to also be tested and try matching the results. Hey people, let’s be careful out there.