Hi Everyone
If you read my blog a year ago this week, you will have read that I said that we must do whatever is needed at whatever cost to support Ukraine to ensure its security and independence in the face of Russia's completely unjustified aggression. Twelve months on, I have not heard or seen anything to persuade me that my assessment then was not correct. Thankfully we live in a democracy where we are at least able to believe most of what we are told. This week Joe and Vladimir told us their version of the truth. Putin apparently spent nearly two hours telling his already brainwashed faithful (or is it fearful faithful) and the world that he is the good guy, protecting the Russian people from that nasty Joe and his gang. A few hours later Joe spent less than fifteen minutes assuring the world of their and Europe's continued support of Ukraine. I know that there is a lot that we do not know or told and perhaps for the sake of us all that is probably a good thing but at least we have a broad picture of the truth. Putin's version of the truth is so unbelievable that we laugh, roll our eyes or simply switch him off. Sadly most of the Russian people only believe Putin's version of the truth as, unlike us, they do not have a choice, so it is likely that in another twelve months, my blog will read very much like this one.
A friend said to me a few weeks ago that they enjoyed talking to me as I had an interesting life. Now as someone who has never lived more than two miles from where I was born, I found that hard to believe. Perhaps one thing in my favour is the 21 years I spent with the Senior Partner and the many stories I fill my blog with. Like retrieving waste food from the bin in the yard that the Junior Partner had put in from the shop, or the five pieces of coal that had to last all day in the fireplace with neither the Junior Partner nor myself allowed to touch it. Looking back it seems that her mission in life was to save money or at least to make it stretch as far as possible which is a sensible exercise unless you make those around you miserable in the process. There is perhaps a moral in this story as I hope that you will agree that it is much more fun spending money than saving it assuming of course that you have the money to spend in the first place. Perhaps that is the secret of an interesting life.
When we watch a TV quiz show we are always amazed that the contestant does not know the answer to what we think is a simple question. The problem is that we forget that we do not always know the answer to what they think is an easy question. Recently researchers, now you know that I always have difficulty with that word as I do not have any idea where they all come from, found that 6.8 million people in the UK thought that chestnut mushrooms grew on trees. Even 2 million thought tomatoes grew on trees with another 1.4 million thinking that carrots and potatoes grew on branches. You might find those statistics pretty amazing but I bet that nearly all of you, when you were young, thought that money grew on trees. I would like the researchers to find out how many still do.
Just a Thought:
Putin's popularity rating in Russia at the moment is 80%. The other 20% are missing.
Light travels faster than sound, which is the reason why some people appear bright before you hear them speak.
No one has ever become poor by giving.
Brian
Some very sage stuff here from Stoke's Own Sage (in a sense, you're a bit like the 'Bard of Barnsley', but with a greater leaning towards prose!). Hope you and Dot are both well. David and I have now joined the junior ranks for the New Middle-Aged (but have so far avoided joining the New Aged Travellers..). However, periodically we meet up to take to short trips away using our Old Farts' Bus Passes (OFBPs - to give them their correct acronym, and one that's also acceptable to The Mothers' Union). "Typical Yorkshiremen, something for nothing", I hear you cry (midst our tipping of flat hats towards the tight-fisted memory of the Senior Partner!). Whilst recently concluding the details of…