My last trip to the U.K., unexpectedly extended, provided another opportunity to visit previous guests who’ve now become part of our extended family.
It was great to see Stephen, Ruth and Jony. Thanks for putting up with this old man.
Tom and Amy, aka the lovely couple, who Manjula and I adopted after the first of many visits to Mysore Bed and Breakfast.
Their apartment looks out onto the sea. What a fab location.
Brighton and Hove on the English south coast an hour from London.
Catching up with friends
My first trip back to the U.K. in over two years.
The journey through the airports and flight went smoothly as fast as pre-pandemic. I had test results and certificate proving I’d had my vaccinations. No one checked anything.
Being entertained by and entertaining my granddaughter Poppy. She’s eight and I’ve missed seeing her for two years! All of us share that pandemic experience.
Exploring Hebden Bridge with Liz, the mum of my boys, big ex or as Manjula would say: wife number one. We remain close and dear friends of over thirty years.
Today’s panic was that I’d misplaced shirts, shorts and especially trousers.
I fly to the U.K. next week, my first trip for over two years. Here I wear shorts and T shirts unless I’m formal when I wear kurta and pyjama.
As it will be variable weather and much cooler moving to really cold in the U.K. I need shirts and trousers but I couldn’t find them. We’ll know I have.
Next shoes.
It’s the month before the BIG (reduced due to the pandemic) Mysore event of the year.
So it’s time to gently fix the roads, with broken bricks, making sure the repairs will not last beyond the event itself.
Then we’ll blame the monsoon.
The old man went to yoga at 6.30 am on Wednesday only to discover start time had shifted to 6.00am
Doh
He went out today, saturday, up early at 5.00 so as not to mess up.
“I’m sitting in the yoga room all on my own, by 6.00 at 6.30 the receptionist comes in to say there no yoga as there’s a curfew. “
Double Doh
Back at home SB has already arrived due to the curfew and reminded me that we’d discussed it yesterday.
I give in, my idiocy evolves to decrepitude.
So why was the gym open?
Life is so confusing.
Manjula and I discovered this charity, that Kris set up, at WOMAD music festival, feeling one’s breast and checking for lumps wasn’t something she’d ever heard about.
To be truthful I was to discover that basic knowledge about healthy lifestyles and prevention was and is quite limited especially amongst the poorer communities.
I’ve just recalled a great example of this from one of Manjula’s tales l’ll include it in our story due out next year.
The sticker, all those years later is still at our front door for visitors to read.
check out Marina Hyde
Featuring a famous actress with a lot to share
I’m one of those that can bore for hours on neoliberalism
Ah, there it is: wellness. “Wellness” is part of a class of words unified by the fact that only the most dreadful bores on Earth know what they mean. See also “neoliberalism”. Celebrity Cruises itself adds that the fitness kits will enhance “self-care and collective wellbeing”, with Gwyneth’s role expected to focus on “wellness programming” and something called the “Women in Wellness initiative”.
That’s been with us for a thousand years.
I’m from the U.K./Britain/England/the North/Yorkshire… We often joke about the north/south divide, I mention how the British pronounce words oddly, sometimes (?) to hide their French origin, I’ll explain how my accent and the words I use enables others to place me geographically and allocate the class I was born into and then of course there’s Brexit.
The U.K. becomes more the disunited kingdom by the day, has a rich pedigree and mongrel history. There’s the rub, the divisions we recognise are far more ingrained than we realise and have been established over a thousand years.
The divisions we see, the power games and the ascendancy of certain groups, represented by ‘The Tories’ now seems to be breaking it apart.
I recommend this book . It reveals, in surprising ways, how the established patterns of behaviour are difficult to break, we continue to adapt our national house, following the foundations and seem unable to create any real and lasting change.
and everyone has a story.
