Winter sunrise over Hundon

Sunrise over Hundon

Wednesday: Another cloudless daybreak, with winter frost and a low mist on the hills. It has been the mildest of winters, without snow or fog or heavy frosts. Not a breath of air moves the trees beneath the perched birds, gathering in great numbers now to nest and mate, though I cannot pretend to identify them.

A pretty Thames walk

Thursday: Having failed to secure a flight through Lastminute dot con,  today we must drive down to the UK offices of Astellas near London, to return their computer and the pass for the building. The team sent me an email when I said I had been let down and couldn't get to Leiden, saying they were sorry not to say goodbye in person, and they had a card and gift for me!

We stopped near Windsor for lunch, overlooking the Thames with a good walk available for the dogs. The journey back though was the usual nightmare of rush-hour traffic, but on the doorstep on our return was a UBS parcel marked "extreme urgency!". It was the gift from the group at Leiden - a fine calf leather folder, with a thank you card of generous comments. All as welcome as they were surprising.

Lastminute dot con.

I have recently had a contract with two companies, one of which had been extended for two months but was scheduled to end on 31 Jan. Unfortunately, on that same day, the other company also contacted me to say they wouldn't need me any longer, and the job would finish at the end of this month, so suddenly from two big contracts I will have none. C'est la vie in this game. But yesterday, all this was forgotten when we were treated to dinner with Edwin and Andre.

Enjoying the boy's hospitality

They a fantastic apartment in Cambridge. It sits on the second floor of a purpose-built modern block behind the Beehive centre, so they can walk or cycle into town or to the station, yet it has ample car-parking space and a large locked store for the bikes. On the inside, they have furnished it in a light, modern manner, comfortable, functional, and not over-cluttered, yet without being minimalistic. Last night they invited us for a full three-couse meal, beautifully made and presented. It was delicious. Afterwards, we played a game called "Overbooked" - clearly a favourite of Ed's who loves the operational side of airlines. This consists of four people, each with their own airline, and a model modern passenger plane onto which we had to arrange as many passengers as possible in various combinations, with overbooked passengers being "bumped off" - not a murder game, but a technical term for what airlines do when they overbook. Despite Ed's love of airlines, and skill with arranging timetables, it was Andre who won and Edwin came last!

Turning now to real airlines, I booked a day return to Schipol with Easyjet through Lastminute.com to return my company computer. Today, I tried to print out the boarding passes required to make the journey, but Easyjet have no record of the booking! Lastminute.com have taken my money, and run off with it - and there seems to be nothing I can do about it. I think they should be called Lastminute dot con.

Exit Brexit

Brexit comes at last

 Well, finally it's done. After all the debates and arguments, the procrastination, the negativity, the failure of imagination and lack of nerve, Britain has gathered her skirts and stepped boldly into her unknown future as an independent nation once again. The public spoke in 2016 with the referendum; and they spoke even more loudly with the European elections when so many Brexit MEPs were voted in. Then finally – because Europe, the establishment, parliament, the courts and much of the public services were not listening – we shouted so loudly in December that the world had to listen, if not hear. We wanted out - and huge numbers of us were prepared to vote for a right-wing, conservative party that promised to do just that.

Although I initially had some sympathy for the European project, and the ideal of a united nations of Europe, in practice it was trying to ignore centuries of differing opinions, traditions and customs by making individual nations into one homogenous bloc in some idealised image of a one nation state. This was never going to work well, and popularist cracks began to appear in the edifice of which Brexit is now the potent symbol. Everyone who voted for Brexit will have had their own reasons. My own attitudes swung towards it with Project Fear. Never had I heard such blatent propaganda to try to swing public opinion. This was no rational debate, and the more alarmist the statements, the more I rebelled against them. I simply could not see how they could all be true, with events predicted to be so dire that it was as though we would enter a nuclear apocalypse.

Finally, with a majority of our representatives constantly bickering and blocking any progress towards what so many in the country clearly wanted, I –like so many of my countrymen – yearned for a strong government again that could get things done. Like so many of us, my cross went to the Tories who, for all their faults, were talking sense. Indeed, when compared with the slogans of the Remainers with their "Bollocks to Brexit", even Jeremy Corbyn was talking sense, though of a somewhat uncommitted sort.

A large police presence, but a ruly crowd

So, last night, 31st January 2020, saw Ann and I join tens of thousands of others in Parliament Square to mark and celebrate an historic moment in Britain's history. The event was marked by a massive police presence - with innumerable police cars and vans, sirens, and a phalanx of mounted police. Yet the whole event was good-natured and peaceful with exuberance rather than drunkenness. Despite the BBC's efforts to portray Remainers as a potent presence, we saw no more than half a dozen, huddled together next to Downing Street, barricaded off from the vast crowds pouring past them down Whitehall who mostly ignored them, and certainly had no wish to fight them in this moment of victory.

Many young people
waving flags

Another lie propagated by the press was that the crowd was mostly older white people. Certainly, Ann and I were in that category, but the vast majority of that crowd was young, with a good smattering of non-whites amongst us. What was evident, however, was an overwhelming spirit of patriotism, a sense of a love of Britain and her heritage, like the Last Night of the Proms, with much flag waving, wearing of Union Flag costumes, and singing. Like it or hate it, that is a potent force that clearly underlay much of the Brexit movement. Politicians in the future will ignore it at their peril.

Brexit party London

It was like a New Year's party
filled with young hopeful people
many voices in foreign languages
many mixed nation's faces
the soft shaking hands
in a calm comradeship
and sweetening of spirit
burying the bitterness
the acrimonious argument
above all
was a feeling of relief
the civil war was done
but who had really won?

Annie Elliott 

A week of mixed fortunes

A little out of order, the previous Sunday was strange. We went to St Ives, intending to eat at the Dolphin Hotel overlooking the river, but after heavy rain the surrounding fields and carpark where deeply flooded, so we had to go round and park in the town to walk across the old bridge. We got there just after 3pm, but all the food had already been cleared and the place was deserted. Other hotels in the town were too full to find a table, so we went to an old haunt from our boating days, the Lazy Otter which generally serves all day and is never full, but it was closed for refurbishing, so we moved on to the Five Miles From Anywhere, but this was packed and rowdy even at 4pm, for they were holding a dirty shirt contest. We moved on to Finally we cut our losses and made for the Cadogan Inn near Bury St Edmunds.

In the middle of the meal, the phone went and it was our sister-in-law, Chris, to say her brother had died suddenly. She and Richard phoned him as they were leaving for a w/e in Wales, but getting no reply she insisted they turn round to check on him. He was only 65 and has lived alone since his partner died, so they used their key to get in and found him lying on the settee, still warm. He had been quite well, even going to a Wassail evening that week to celebrate some new apple trees, so the death had to be reported to the coroner and they are still waiting to hear when the body can be released. Our meal was terrible anyway, with no decent vegetarian options, and that call put a final damper on a fruitless day.

Step Children

I have done my best as a step-mum
to go gently on my way,
never stepped on the toes of real mum
or had over much to say.
As the months have turned into years,
the children have since grown,
they have shown me much love and kindness
sometimes even more than my own.
They say blood is thicker than water,
and that you can't get blood from a stone,
but love is tasted in sorrow
and love is what my step children have shown.

Annie Elliott 

On the domestic front, we had a take-away supper party on Friday with friends, with fish-'n-chips as the chosen menu. It makes for a simple supper which all enjoy, with minimum preparation (just put out plates and cutlery). Drinks flowed freely, and the talk followed, speculating about the Chinese flu and putting the world to rights as we all love to do.

Saturday was Burns' Night, and Ann arranged a wonderful Burns' Night supper to honour her Scottish heritage. Ann carried in the  vegetarian haggis on a silver platter while we had bagpipes music blaring out from Siri, and I read the poem Address to a Haggis. We then each had to read a poem of our choice, then a quiz followed. First prize was a bottle of Timorous Beastie whisky. To my annoyance, Edwin won! but it was well deserved - he'd been swotting up on the Bard all afternoon. Later, he did allow me to sample a dram.

Edwin shows his spirit

In Clare walking the dogs, the woodpecker was again hammering his song invisible in the trees above, but across the river a female woodpecker was attracted enough to fly across and perch upright on one of the fence posts to listen critically. She gave a thumbs down and flew off, leaving her forlorn lover to hammer alone.

On a more cheerful note, another wonderful poem from Ann, I have had another paper accepted for a journal called Galaxy, and today came a remarkably well-written letter from grandson Luke. He has just won a school physics project for the British Physics Olympiad, and will be advanced to take part in the National  6th-form finals, with a chance to present at the Royal Society. Good luck Luke!

An ambulance next door

Following Ann's haircut yesterday, we agreed to meet in the Swan. I was delayed by a slow customer in the post office, so she entered alone, and asked the barman, "Nick, have you seen my husband?"

One of the drinkers asked, "is there a reward for him? We'll all go looking for him if there is."
Ann disappointed him, saying there was no reward.

Then another said, "I lost my wife twenty years ago." Ann said she was sorry. "No, I was glad to see her go. I didn't offer a reward either."

A third added, "I lost my wife twenty years ago too. It cost me half a million."

Finally, another said from his bar stool, "I can see him coming now!" so when I entered, everyone was looking at me and laughing, and one said, "well that's the first time I've seen a man come into a pub looking for his wife!"

Getting up this morning, I saw an ambulance drawing away down the road. The curtains are still closed next door, so I suspect our neighbour David has had another stroke, or an episode of fainting again. Happily, it turned out to be another minor episode of cerebral anoxia, probably from turning his head too sharply, and he returned home this afternoon.

Edwin was back for a couple of nights while his partner Andre is away, so drove directly to UEA in Norwich to deliver his lectures. He is getting more and more work, to the point where his supervisor is wondering if he will finish his PhD, but Edwin is a very hard worker, and continues to chip away at it.

Ann is planning a Burns Night binge for tomorrow, with vegetarian haggis and neeps. She has bought a bottle of whisky called Wee Timorous Beastie, to offer as a prize for a Burns Night quiz she intends to organise. Lucy said she wants to enter it by Skype, to win the whisky. Ben said he hopes I win, so he can taste it when he next visits. It is clearly going to be a popular prize.

Johor Bahru

Wednesday 8 Jan 2020

Strait Swimming

Ann was feeling a little stronger, and anxious to see something other than her bed, and Edwin was keen to see another country. I was tired after much walking over the last two days, so they went together by road over the bridge to Johor Bahru, just over the border in Malaysia. It was an interesting town, with many old cafes and little shops. Ann usually reads avidly of places she intends to visit, by only later when they got back was Ann finally able to do her research. It made sobering reading. Malaysia has made it "up there" with countries such as Guatemala, Venezuela and South Africa as among the world's most dangerous countries, and in 2013 Johor Bahru was ranked the fourth most dangerous city in the world. Edwin had been waving his iPhone about to follow the maps, but now they learned this was especially dangerous and he was lucky not to be mugged. He is very tall and muscular compared to the average Malay, and perhaps this gave them second thoughts before marching boldly through the city. Although they didn't see any specific examples of crime, but they would definitely not have visited had they read the reports first. We all went for an Indian on their return, to unwind and celebrate their survival.

Practising the dance

Thursday 9 Jan 2020

A robot eyes Ann

Our last day, so Edwin and I walked the mile to the beach for him to swim in the Straits of Singapore. Edwin commented that Singapore Straights was a bit exclusive, but later he saw a Baptist church flying the rainbow flag, with a sign outside: "Don't just come out, come home" which looked a bit more inclusive. Opinions in Singapore are slowly changing. The beach is huge, with regularly spaced picnic tables and places set aside for barbecues. I watched a girl practising her Indian dancing while I waited, looking smooth and beautiful. She kept consulting a phone and then doing a new move, as though following a DIY procedure on YouTube. By the beach too was an array of gymnastic equipment for public use, which Edwin worked through systematically. He is determined to stay fit.

Edwin works out

Our flight was not until 23:00, but we left for Changi airport mid-afternoon to admire the newly opened Jewel, a multi-story shopping mecca with a roof garden, walkways and mazes for us to enjoy while waiting. On the way in, we were scrutinised by a security robot, patrolling the pavement outside the entrance. It spun its eye round to give Ann a special once over, but decided to let her leave.

We read of the news of the downing of the Ukrainian  Boeing 737-800 over Iran. Edwin remembered it was the identical plane we had flown on for our visit to Kiev to see the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017. We had been scheduled to overfly Iran, but following the crash, we were rerouted over Pakistan and Afghanistan, clearly considered much safer. Next day, waiting for our luggage on the baggage carousel, Edwin lunged for his case but missed his footing, and landed on his back on the carousel, where he proceeded to go round with the bags. He jumped off again quickly, but no one seemed to notice or offer to help. Our case finally came off; it had been squashed flat and badly damaged, so Edwin went to customer complaints. They said they will send someone to our home to assess the damage. Finally, we were through customs and glad to see our Charlie and our taxi to get home.

Ann at the Changi Jewel ready to fly home

Visiting Indonesia and the zoo

Monday 6 Jan 2020

Grandad John with eye belt

Ann was forced to spend a few days in bed, feeling too ill to dress or travel, but the chance of a trip to Indonesia was too great to ignore. Indonesia is an island nation of 17,500 islands strung out over 5,000 km, with 6,000 inhabited. Great Britain in contrast has 4400 islands of over 0.5 acres, of which only 210 are inhabited. From the harbour, ferries ply the seas regularly enough not to be concerned with booking, so we could turn up to buy return tickets to Batam, the most northerly island of the group.

Singapore uses thumb prints to enter and exit the country. Edwin put his thumb on the glass and sailed through, but mine was not recognised. They tried several times and on different machines, but I was marched off by armed border police to a private side room to be sat down at a much grander machine which eventually agreed I was me.

The boat trip was amazing, shearing through blue seas under a bright sun sky on a fast hydrofoil, spraying high sheets of water to either side. Formalities on Indonesia were slight, and we were soon in another country, where poverty, dirt and non-existent pavements contrasted starkly with Singapore.

We entered a huge modern shopping mall designed to entice rich Singaporeans to buy cheaply, and Edwin bought new Nike running shoes and a singlet to further his ambition to be more energetic in the New Year. Meanwhile, I saw an old fashioned looking barber's shop, advertising: "Premium Haircut. Haircut, Wash, Tonic, Hot & Cold Towel, Head & Face Massage, Masker Aloevera Vitamen, Eye Belt, Line up beard, Shoulder Massage." There was no queue, and they warned me it would take nearly an hour for the premium haircut, but I went for it. I may not have looked much better, but I certainly felt it. The whole experience cost just £6. Labour is also clearly cheap in this country.

The panda enjoys her bamboo

On Tuesday, we saw the zoo. I am not usually a fan of zoos, although I appreciate they do good conservation work, but the zoo here is outside all my experience. It is a vast site reclaimed from the original tropical rain forest, a considerable area of which has been retained. Dense, impenetrable and mysterious, it offers a glimpse of how once the whole island was forested, as once was much of Europe. The loss is symptomatic of the destruction wrought by an ever increasing and demanding world population, with what is happening in Brazil (deliberate) and Australia (indirectly man-made). No end is in sight, but surely nature will fight back; this unsustainable population growth will be decimated by our own destruction, and one day, the forests and oceans of the world will recover without us to see it. After mass destruction, new species will arise, perhaps in millennia, as they always have.

A leopard dreams of leaping for its prey

Giraffe stretches for food