Author: June

As if the coronavirus isn’t enough, the warm weather has enticed people out of lockdown and, in Derbyshire, into the Blue Lagoon. Very nice too you might think. Well, you’d be wrong. There are plenty of notices up warning visitors not to swim in the turquoise water as it is toxic with a pH level of 11.3. Bleach and ammonia have a pH level of around 12. The water is also full of animal carcasses, faeces and old cars. And there they were, taking a break from ‘stay at home’ and splashing around with all that old s**t.

Anyone looking for a bit of lockdown reading? JK Rowling has released a political fairytale for children called The Ickabog which is available, free of charge, in instalments on the internet at theickabog.com . Adults can read it to their children at bedtime if they don’t want to admit, even to themselves, that they are reading a fairytale.

A Yorkshire woman has become the first hijab wearing judge in the UK and the western world. Raffia Arshad, a mum of three and the first in her working class family to go to university was appointed Deputy District Judge on the Midlands Circuit last week. Congratulations to Raffia and good news for women and diversity.

More shenanigans and blatant hypocrisy in our lockdown parliament. The new leader of the opposition has shown his muscle and called for the resignation of Cummings following his dubious travels during lockdown. However it backfired on Keir Starmer when conservative Steven Woolfe asked why he hadn’t asked for the resignation of at least three labour MPs who had also broken the lockdown rules. No answer to that one of course, but it all gave everyone a good excuse to forget about staying at home and popping out to enjoy the sun.

On the internet suggestions abound on what to do to make the lockdown less tedious. The latest I’ve read about is to write a sitcom. The first piece of advice is to stick to something you know, in other words, your family. Look for funny situations in your own home and put it down on paper. After two months of being stuck in with your dearly beloveds I’m thinking that a drama might be more likely than a sitcom. And what about the singletons sitting it out on their own? I’m not sure we would want the rest of the world to know what we are getting up to. It’s the same as when people keep asking me to write my memoirs down, what did we really get up to in the swinging sixties? At the moment I think I’ll stick to blogging. Stay safe, sleep well and dream about the story you will tell. Nighty, night.

 

Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson’s fledgling satellite company failed at its first attempt to launch a rocket over the pacific ocean. The booster (launcherone) was released from under the wing of an old Virgin jumbo and its engine successfully ignited but due to an anomaly the launch had to be terminated. It should have started to climb to orbit but it didn’t happen on this occasion and Branson will have to wait for launchertwo. I wonder how they managed all this at the same time as managing lockdown.

For the first time since lockdown the public car park behind my block of flats was really rather busy today. My daughters who cycled to the beach tell me that there were plenty of people there enjoying Bank Holiday sunshine but they were able to keep their distance. They also mentioned that there were plenty of quite big groups which probably were not families living under the same roof. I went for my daily constitutional after 5 o/c, through the town and gardens, and there were still plenty of people out and about. It looked as if they are about to replant the flower beds there, all spring flowers have been removed and next time I go it should look like summer.

Cummings is all over the news today and still convinced that he didn’t break the rules and trying to convince the voters and non voters of the same. He apparently thinks he’s cleverer than most of  us and if that is true he should have gone and laid low and not been seen. As I said before, what he did doesn’t show a lot of smarts. I’m fed up with him as a subject, he is extremely unappealing.

So, all shops can reopen in three weeks time. Just in time for the summer sales if my calculation is correct. We’ll be able to shop till we drop but still won’t be able to go very far to show off our new togs, although we will be able to go to outdoor markets from next week. I’m sure you will all be pleased to hear that we will also be able to browse around in car showrooms, maybe treat ourselves to a new motor. Lucky us. Airlines have also made plans to start flying in July and EasyJet, Ryanair and Jet2 have announced their destinations. EasyJet’s only international city will be Nice in the south of France. Made me feel quite nostalgic as I used to go there every year with Sandy.

A lack of tourists might be having a negative impact on the economy at local attractions but it is having a positive result as far as wildlife is concerned. For the first time since the 1980s peregrine falcons can be seen nesting in the ruins of Corfe Castle. Less welcome visitors might be the travellers who have parked their caravans on Kings Park, Boscombe. The local council say that they are monitoring the situations and supplying rubbish bags and then collecting them. I have never understood why travellers are allowed to park up anywhere when people who are paying taxes would be immediately moved on, after being fined of course. Enough from me and time for bed.

 

BoJo might have to listen to not only public opinion but also to his fellow parliamentarians on the matter of Cummings breaking lockdown. Also, a doctor working in the Covid ICU for the last two months has stated that if Cummings doesn’t resign then he will. Doctor Dominic Pimenta said he has not seen his own parents since January and he added that Cummings was spitting in the face of what they were doing and the whole of the NHS. The PM is backing his senior aide and said he had needed to go to stay with his parents to get help with the child care while he and his wife were ill with the virus. When asked if he had returned in April Cummings replied that he had not. Whoever saw him there needs to come back with some evidence, in this country we are still innocent until proven guilty. I personally still think he’s lying though.

Lockdown doesn’t deter the Trump. He will be hosting an independence day 4th July bash in the National Mall in Washington. Rooms at the Trump International Hotel are going at $562 to $2257 plus taxes etc.  In 2018 the hotel made him a profit of more than forty million. Did you know that I once got a speeding ticket in Wisconsin on 4th July? Not the best day for a Brit to be breaking the law in the US.

I’m not breaking lockdown but my daughter Elena did pop over with Elizabeth today just to have a little catch up chat over the garden fence. She very kindly also brought me a bottle of milk and a bunch of yellow tulips, very happy looking flowers. Just before she left we were talking about the possibility of Elizabeth getting some work experience to help with her psychiatry degree. Elena mentioned her neighbour and suddenly I realised that I actually knew her. Not only that, I had been out to dinner several times with her as we have a mutual friend a Croatian lady whose husband I used to work with. It’s a small world. Then another strange thing, I was just saying goodbye when I looked down and said ‘is that a silver earring down there?’.  And it was and Elizabeth had lost it a couple of weeks ago when she last came over. My lockdown world is so weird.

In the news today is makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury who is hoping to sell her company supposedly for one billion pounds of which she will get to keep 500 million. Not bad for a girl who learnt to use mascara and never looked back. Her parents Lance and Patsy were ‘original posh hippies’ and I wonder if Absolutely Fabulous Patsy got her inspiration from that source. Charlotte who was brought up mainly in Ibiza applied paint and powder to an endless list of models and stars before launching her own company. She claims that on her mother’s advice no man has ever seen her without cosmetics. I once hitchhiked to Spain with a blonde hippy named Dolly, her mother gave her similar advice ‘don’t ever go to bed with a man completely naked’. She used to wear a pair of socks.  I won’t tell you about my bedtime habits. Night night, don’t let that bug bite.

The Trump has visited a golf course in Virginia although it’s not clear if he played golf or not. He has been clocked visiting golf clubs nearly 260 times during the nearly four years  he has been president. A political writer said that the POTUS won’t do anything else to stop a virus that’s killed 96,000 Americans and won’t do anything else to fix an economy that sees 40 million out of work, but he will play golf. The POTUS is also threatening to override state governors and allow churches to reopen. Ah bless.

Piers Morgan has issued an ultimatum to BoJo. If lockdown breaker and government adviser Cummings isn’t sacked then Mr. M. will drive two miles and visit his parents. He said there can’t be one rule for us and another for them. Or he could say that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Isn’t this situation reminiscent of Animal Farm? I do love a public scrap.

Sweden didn’t impose mandatory lockdown and people went about their business going to work and school etc as long as they didn’t have gatherings of more than fifty people. The results haven’t been good. Only 7.3% of residents in Stockholm developed antibodies to the virus and the number of deaths was much higher than in neighbouring Nordic countries which did impose a lockdown. It definitely seems a case of ‘you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t’.

I hadn’t realised that Melanie Griffiths (Working Girl) was the daughter of Tippi Hedrun (The Birds). Not that I thought much about either of them anyway and if I had, I would have thought that Tippi had passed to another life in the sky without being attacked by birds. It seems that I would have been wrong as Tippi is very much alive (or at least still in this world at 90 years old) and living in California on a sanctuary where she keeps exotic, endangered cats including, lions, tigers and other animals. She used to keep them in her house and garden when she first started rescuing them as she believed they shouldn’t be bred for pets, I absolutely agree with this and hate to see animals and birds caged up. I have to wonder why she thought that it was alright for her to have them roaming around as semi domestic animals but not ok for anyone else. We are back to the beginning with one rule for them and another for us.

Before I finish, I noticed that yesterday’s post about nurse Nadia brought a flurry of googling for photos. I further noticed that the tale about the fisherman made hardly a ripple. Says quite a lot about my readers.  Sixty one days into lockdown and the same number of blogs and a Russian Covid nurse gets all the attention for takings her togs off. Sleep well, good night. 😴💤😴

An Australian  fisherman was returning home from a fishing trip when he spotted a lot of commotion in the water. He was off the coast of Queensland’s Moreton Island and soon realised that the upheaval was a large shoal of fish being attacked by sharks. He steered his  boat into the area and saw that there were at least forty sharks enjoying a feeding frenzy. He said he’d never seen anything like it before and didn’t think he ever would again. Jaws 2 maybe?

It’s often been said ‘be careful what you wish for’. Venetians are finding this to be true as they come out of lockdown and survey their city without tourists and cruise ships. Locals are enjoying each others company but are worried about how they will survive without the tourism income. During the last century the population has shrunk from 170,000 to just 53,000 and many of those are elderly and alone sometimes living in old palazzos by themselves. Many of the businesses have been purchased from the locals by Chinese entrepreneurs. The city has been hit by plagues in the past and locals say they survived then and they will survive now. I’ve never been to Venice, wouldn’t it be nice to go now.

A study by JP Morgan claims that coronavirus lockdown has made little difference to the spread of the pandemic which quite likely followed its own dynamics. It’s all theory anyway isn’t it? The opposition says the government has got it wrong, and people that want to go about their business say it’s all tosh. We can all say whatever we like because we can’t prove a thing.

A nurse in Russia has been photographed wearing only her underwear (looked like bikini to me) underneath her see through PPE gown. Her boss said that the nurse had come before him to be disciplined but that wouldn’t happen as she was a professional who was good at her job and didn’t deserve to be punished. He added that the patient was wrong to photograph her and publish it on social media. The nurse whose name is Nadia  told her bosses she was too hot. Bet the men on the ward were too.

We had the government advisory scientist breaking lockdown to be with his girlfriend and now we have Dominic Cummings travelling from London to Durham when he should have been isolating. BoJo’s chief adviser had tested positive for coronavirus and travelled to the area where his parents live. Unfortunately for him he was recognised by a member of the public who reported him to the police who visited a property where he allegedly was staying. A few days later he was spotted again in the company of a young child. We really need brighter people advising our government, here we have two who spend half their life in the public eye and then think they won’t be recognised. Doesn’t show an awful lot of smarts, does it? Lock ’em up, I say. He’ll be having a restless night wondering if his next pay check will be there. But you all sleep well good night. 😴💤😴

 

The trump visited the Ford factory in Michigan today and although he had been asked to wear a face mask in line with current state law he was not seen wearing one in public. He said that he had worn one while in a back area but didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing him wearing one. He also has been saying for three years that Michigan named him ‘Man of the Year. This has been checked out and shown to be a complete lie.   Lock ‘im up! I say.  A retired butler, Wilson Jerman who served eleven presidents in the White House having started work there as a cleaner has died aged 91 after contracting coronavirus.

David Beckham’s been a naughty boy again. He lost his driving license for six months last year for using his phone while at the wheel.  Just recently, in the Cotswolds where he has been in lockdown with his family, he has been spotted not wearing a seat belt and twice parking on double yellow lines. It seems our sporty hero doesn’t like to walk the few yards from an approved parking spot when popping into his local shop. Or maybe he just thinks he’s special because he earned a lot of dosh kicking a ball around. Lock ‘im up! I say.

I’ve been on the beach today in Southbourne, went with my friend Margaret and we took a sandwich and had a little picnic. Not overly busy and heading east towards Hengistbury Head it became even emptier. Such a lovely, normal feeling day, a lady asked us to watch her bag while she paddled in the sea, kids were playing with buckets and spades and we sat at one of the tables on the beach munching our picnic and having a coffee.  This evening I popped off to Lidl and that was also norma inasmuch as I bought more than I needed, didn’t find a couple of things I wanted and I got into trouble with the self serve checkout again. Nothing new there.

An Irish military helicopter had been on a life saving mission taking a patient to a Dublin hospital. On their return journey a rear door fell of the plane and landed in the grounds of a secondary school. No one was hurt and the door was collected by the local Gardai and returned to the Air Corps. Somebody is going to be in trouble.

Now all you grandmothers out there who are spending lockdown posting photos of your grandchildren beware. Following EU Data Protection ruling a grandmother has been ordered by a court in the Netherland to remove photos of her grandkids. If she fails to do so she will be fined fifty euros per day up to one thousand euros. It didn’t say if that was per photo. It seems this poor old grannie has fallen out with the mother of the kids and just wanted to show off a little in front of her facebook friends. Some mean old mother out there. I’ll have to be careful, my granddaughter Elizabeth and I spent one outing taking selfies around Bournemouth and our favourites were the ‘toilet selfies’ snapped in a restaurant in the square. Time for bed sleepy head, nighty night.

 

 

 

Language changes in  strange ways, Sometimes it’s because of new inventions and therefore new words are needed, for example the whole of the computer and internet industry . Other times it’s to be politically correct and sometimes, it seems to me, for no good reason at all. I find myself slightly irritated by the statement that two people are ‘sharing a baby or child or children’. Instead of saying Jack & Jill have two children or are mum and dad to two children I read Jack and Jill share a baby or are parenting a child together. Then they will refer to the owner of a dog as the dog’s mum. Where did all this tosh come from?

Talking of tosh, the POTUS claims that having one and a half million cases of Covid-19 in the US and 92,000 deaths is something to be proud of as it shows they have good testing. He told reporters that he doesn’t look on the figure as a bad thing but as a good thing because they have more testing than anyone else (back to mine is bigger than yours). He also defended his decision to take the anti malarial drug in spite of health professionals stating that there was nothing to prove it would prevent or cure the virus. The trump said it was an enemy statement  There are many who hope he keeps taking it and in bigger doses.

The government’s plan to entice furloughed workers to help harvest fruit, veg and other crops got off to a bumpy start when the web site crashed soon after launch.  The web site ‘Pick For Britain” was set up in the hope of replacing European workers who normally arrive in the summer. It wasn’t clear if the crash was due to the amount of traffic or technical problems but sadly it appeared to be the latter. The reason we used so much labour from abroad was because local labour preferred to go on the dole.

The UK’s hottest day of the year and changes in lockdown guidelines brought people out in droves if we can believe the photos dotted around the internet. Trouble is the pics showing crowded beaches, traffic queues and full car parks could have been taken last summer or at any time. I didn’t make it to the beach today but the previous few days was not terribly busy and the large car park I can see from my flat was virtually empty as it has been for the last few weeks. A woman who was visiting Dorset with her family said that she was shocked that so many people were on the beach at Durdle Door. For some reason she thought she would be the only person in Britain with that good idea. Bournemouth council have opened two public toilets, one just east of the pier and one just after Boscombe pier but they close at 4pm. I’m meeting my friend Margaret tomorrow and we’re taking a sandwich so hopefully we’ll manage without needing a loo as the one at Southbourne is still closed. Meanwhile it seems that Ryanair has taken to the skies in spite of their lack of bookings. Some spiteful reporter suggested that maybe it’s cheaper than refunding cancelled bookings which they would have to do if there were no flights available. As if Michael O’Leary would think up a trick like that. It won’t keep us awake though, sleep well, Night night.

 

A man who is being forced to leave his London flat has posted a video on social media showing all the faults the property has and it has gone viral. It shows that the bins are under the living room window and smelly and unpleasant especially in the summer. There is a problem with ants and he says the kitchen appliances are rubbish. Shelves are hung at an angle and he says, jokingly I believe, that there are ghosts. He then photographs himself in his girlfriend’s underwear. What some people will do for a moment of  fame.

All families can have their problems no matter how rich or poor we only have to watch the Royals to know that. Now it seems the Barclay brothers offspring have had a falling out. It appears that three of Sir David Barclay’s sons are being sued by their uncle Sir Frederick Barclay for invasion of privacy. He claims that they planted a bugging device in the Ritz hotel to listen to private and business conversations. Somehow, and don’t ask as it’s a long and convoluted story, because of information obtained the Ritz was sold for half its value. The nephew was filmed inserting the bug in a socket in the hotel’s conservatory. Sounds like someone was spying on the spy. It’s very difficult being a billionaire.

Police in Cornwall were using a drone to try to catch an escaped offender when they were surprised to spot an unexpected and unusual image ploughed into a field. Someone had used a grass cutting machine and left an image of a large penis. Various comments were made following the report such as ‘it must have been a hardened criminal’. Oh dear, I read all the best daily newspapers don’t I?

Cambridge University has announced that no face to face lectures are planned for the next academic year. Instead all lectures will take place online. Other universities might follow suit and they will be allowed to charge full fees even if courses are taught online. Nothing mentioned about accommodation or the full campus experience which for many students helps them make their choices. Our young people are facing a pretty bleak time with rising unemployment, erratic education (strikes as well as virus) and lack of social interaction with their peer group.

And finally, the news I’m sure you all know, Captain Tom Moore has been awarded a knighthood. BoJo said the centenarian had provided the country with a beacon of light through the fog of the coronavirus. Well done Captain Tom and well deserved. We followed every moment of your walking and fundraising and couldn’t be more pleased with this latest tribute.  Sleep well Sir Tom and everyone else, of course. Night night. 😴💤😴

An international student has been charged with breaking and entering after a video showed he had broken into Australia’s oldest museum. He used nearby scaffolding to gain access at night when it was closed. He could be seen wandering around, taking selfies next to a dinosaur exhibit and he also stole a work of art and a cowboy hat belonging to a member of staff. I’m not sure he shouldn’t be applauded for showing such resourcefulness and museum security rapped on the knuckles for carelessness. Meanwhile West Midlands police carried out a drugs raid in a property in Birmingham (yes, Birmingham strikes again), officers entered at the front of the building but others who were watching suddenly saw a man emerge from a skylight in the loft and throw out a safe. It slid down the roof and landed on a flat roof below. It was found to contain £27,000, the man was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. Also in Birmingham a group of youths who didn’t show signs of social distancing were approached by a police officer, one of the group shouted ‘high knees, everyone, now jumping jacks, and again everyone’ and turning to the officer said ‘just exercising, sir’.  The lockdown is bringing out the best in many, even in Brummie land.

I see that Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia have filed an intent to go into administration. I liked both of those chain restaurants and I was also reminded that another one I was fond of, Carluccios UK has also gone into administration. How many more jobs are going to be lost?

Today I’ve been along the seafront again with my friend Winnie. I saw several people I knew which was nice and felt almost normal and everyone as I’ve said before was keeping their distance. Winnie hadn’t been out of Ringwood since lockdown started and she really enjoyed the sea air and ‘having the cobwebs blown away’.  I’ve spoken to my cousin Angela over the weekend which is always a pleasure as I grew up with her in my life when we all lived in Essex. She called back today and said she had been reading my blog for which she has been awarded a virtual gold star, it seems she read from day 1 to the present in a single sitting. A friend of hers happened to ask if the toilets were open at Bournemouth beach as they wanted to come and spend the day here. She was able to know the answer and told them to read page so and so on nannyjune.com website. How’s that for fame? I can confirm they’re still all closed, I managed nearly three hours today before rushing home.

In case anyone is having withdrawal symptoms from news on the POTUS here’s an update. He started taking the anti malarial drug hydroxychloroquine one and a half weeks ago. He stated that it was preventing him from contracting covid-19 although scientists say there is no evidence that it helps prevent or cure the virus. When asked what evidence he had to say it worked, he replied ‘I get a lot of positive calls about it’.  I wonder who calls him? He might just as well drink tonic water which also has quinine.  Good night everyone, Sleep well 😴💤😴

 

Sotheby’s have sold a pair of sneakers for $560,000. They had been worn by NBA champion Michael Jordan in 1985 for his first season with the Chicago Bulls. Nothing was mentioned about who was selling them nor who was buying. I have to wonder how a second hand pair of shoes can be worth that sort of money.

We are being told that temperatures will be rising this week. I thought the forecasters had said that it would be hot this weekend, well it didn’t happen, wasn’t bad but not hot. My plants are coming along nicely and I wish I could say the same for me. Like most people I’m getting exceedingly bored and am fed up with sitting around reading, watching tv, etc. etc. I did some watercolour painting yesterday and today, just practice stuff and it helped the time go by. I’ve no idea how people become couch potatoes, I need to get out there, see what’s happening and mix with people. I once worked at an estate agents, maybe I could go back and show people around houses.

The Sunday Times has released its list of the richest people in the UK. The net worth of of our wealthiest has dropped by more than fifty four billion. I find it hard to think in billions, don’t know about you. Making it to number one for the first time is British inventor Sir James Dyson, for some reason I find this pleasing. Several of the names on the list are using the emergency furlough scheme meaning the government is paying 80% of their employees salaries. This I find troubling but I didn’t see any names, I might have struck pins in an effigy if I knew who they were. There are actors and singers and the richest woman is the Swedish heiress of the Tetra Pak company. Why am I so irritated by Posh coming in at number 62? I keep reading that she has incurred massive debts, her husband has had to bail her out, she applied for the furlough scheme and yet she is still a millionaire and so unpleasant.

For the animal lovers out there. A man in Japan found an abandoned puppy on the side of a road, felt sorry for it and took it home to care for it. He named it Luna and thought he’d better try to find out if it belonged to someone so posted a photo of the animal on Twitter. He asked if anyone knew who it might belong to with several people replying that they thought it was a baby fox and not a puppy dog. He told the twitterers that he would visit a vet the following day and give them an update. In the morning he posted another message saying that he had slept well after eating rice and that this morning he had a good appetite with defecation and urination (perhaps this is normal information in Japan but don’t worry I’m not following suit). He later found that indeed it was a fox, he kept Luna for a while longer but it is illegal there to keep foxes as pets so he took it to Kita Kitsune Farm where if you wish you can visit if you can find a plane to take you there of course. In the meantime, get some sleep and look forward to more lockdown sunshine. Good night.