The election campaign continues to underwhelm. The outgoing Prime Minister has come up with the idea of mandatory National Service for 18 year olds. This tends to be a popular idea with those over 65 who think anyone under 25 is a delinquent but is, understandably, less popular with teenagers. The former head of the armed forces hasn't helped matters by calling the idea ' bonkers ' and saying the military needs more money to deal with threats not 700,000 untrained youngsters.
Here in Scotland the election is more interesting. The pro-independence party holds 40 or so out of 59 Scots seats in the Westminster parliament. It has been losing support due to some impenetrably complex scandal involving ( allegedly ) a £100,000 'luxury' motorhome bought with party funds. On a global scale this hardly qualifies as epic sleaze but some forecasts predict that as a result they will lose 30 seats, others say they'll only lose a handful. Our local constituency remains unfashionably and intractably Liberal on the basis that being middle of the road is good for the soul.
It's a nationwide Bank holiday today. This means the weather is frightful. The town is packed with English visitors who hoped to enjoy sunshine and fresh air but instead are waking to find rain and sea fog.
Puppy is out early chasing crows. She is too busy to even notice us. Or, to be more precise, she sees us and then ignores us. We are less interesting that a flock of crows. That puts us in our place.
This week we are expecting the decorators to paint the outside of the house in town, the roofers to replace some of the pantiles that were damaged in the February storm and the carpet fitters to measure up for replacement stair carpet. The exterior decorating may be put on hold until the rain stops. Come to think of it the roof repairs might also be delayed.
This 'research' will fire up the conversation around the family dinner table :https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/only-children
7 comments:
My goodness, Poppy preferred to chase crows instead of visiting you for a treat?
Interesting article about only children. I'm an only child, as was my husband and we had no children. My parents were each one of four, but none of their siblings had more than one child either. Four of my cousins each had three children and four of us had none. Those who had children seem to also have created three child dynasties from each of their children. Does that confuse the statistics!
This morning the supermarket was unusually busy and full of English voices - I'd forgotten that May Bank holiday is today and many Brits usually take the week off.
Hari OM
Stair carpet at the townhouse again? Did the stripes wear out? It seems the rain is isles-wide; here at New Lanark we are being very thoroughly hosed. YAM xx
Growing up as an only child was great! I had lots of friends, neighbors my age, lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. Being an only child as an adult who emigrated to the USA just with her parents is not that great. It depends on the village, family dynamics. I find that other people have it easier finding time for family than friends on weekends.
The frogs have a beseeching look; I would find it difficult to bite one. I'm an only child but what makes up each family is so individual that it makes generalizations rather pointless.
The frogs look very much like Kermit who was the "star" Muppet created by Jim Henson in the 1950's for children's television in the US. Many of us grew up with Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fonzi, Gonzo, and Elmo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_the_Frog
I’m an only child as well, seemed to have turned out okay. It is rather fun saying I’m my parents favorite only child.
Scandal and politics seem to be universal.
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