Ok, this blog thing, this is how it works. How its always worked. My burning need to ‘share’. My internal imperative to inform you of the ways of the world because otherwise, quite frankly, you’d have no idea. Not a clue. Or you’d get it wrong. Like usual. So as an act of altruism, of education, and of pity, I try to keep you informed of very important things. And it works like this.

I wake up, drink tea and read the paper. The Times and only the Times. And during the course of that enlightenment, some things will interest me, some will appal me, a few might even astound me. But one thing will make me smile. Not because its inherently amusing, but because its inherently stupid. Contradictory. Nonsensical. This often appears in the ‘self help’ type pages. Anything to do with ‘new, improved gender options for your children’ is always going to start the day well. As will food ‘revelations’, particularly about green food. How much broccoli do we ‘really’ need in our lives? Equality matters are very important to me and, like ‘diversity’, produce a riches of amusement. Football, politics, anything. I just need something that ‘flicks a switch’, makes me smile, smirk or angry. Ok, most things make me angry. And that when you need to know about it. And it is pretty unfailing.

Until covid. Which produced very odd symptoms in me. No snotty nose, no cough, no temperature, loss of appetite (NEVER) or taste and smell. No wheezing and the only heavy breathing I did was on the phone to those who paid me £1.30 a minute. I was ‘symptom free’. Except I wasn’t. There were two rather profound symptoms.

The first was exhaustion. Just total, absolute and devastating. Most of the day I was tired. If I sat down, I slept. Like the dead.

The second was even more profound. Nothing I read, saw or did amused me. Nor stimulated me. To ‘share’. My mind had ‘gone into neutral’ and wasn’t coming out. It was like being you. A horrible thought. Nothing amused, stimulated or excited. And that was truly horrible. Fortunately, just before Kiev/Kyiv gets invaded, I appear, so far (I appreciate its still quite early) to have recovered some sense of the ridiculous.

And realised as someone sent me yesterday, that having spent 2 years studying for my PhD in infectious diseases, I now have to abandon that to become the world’s expert on military strategy geo-political warfare. And after 2 weeks I’ve reached my decision. We need to stop Putin. Now. Don’t care what it costs. Idle threats and sanctions (which will really ‘bite’ by Christmas!!) are doing nothing. It’s getting worse in a very predictable, Russian offensive way. And the bullly-boy is winning because everyone believes his threats. If ‘we’ do nothing, it’ll be Poland next. Or Finland. Estonia. And we’ll still be standing aside working out where to buy our gas and wondering when the absence of Big Macs will cause a revolution in Russia. It’s time for big talking tossers like Biden and Boris to actually ‘man up’ and offer real help to Ukraine and end the ever-increasing atrocities happening there. How many fucking hospitals have to get blown up before they realise that nothing else will stop that horrible man.

Otherwise, have a very happy Saturday

A xxxx