#Retirement Planning in MP

[prodigeefinance]

पढ़ाई की हर मंज़िल अब होगी आसान, क्योंकि जब इरादे बुलंद हों, तो रास्ते खुद बखुद खुलते हैं। 🌟

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[lyssasdrafts]

— AFTERGLOW (azriel x reader)

017: “ tell me that it’s not my fault. ”

masterlist previous next

— NOTES

everyone talks about rhysand in a suit but imagine azriel dressing up nice 👀👀

unfortunate mentions of b*ron 🤢 this chapter, reader knew about him from growing up with lucien

eris always planned on taking over the family business from his dad after he retired, which may seem to be soon…

— TAGLIST

@ithan-holstroms-girl @strangelycami @fell-in-luvs @goldenmagnolias @glam-targaryen @acourtofdreamsandshadows @bloombb @mp-littlebit @gamarancianne @stqrgirlies-blog @peachcontour-blog @azriels-shadowsinger @awkward-d3rs3-dr3amer @chessebookgirl @fairywriter-oracle @thelov3lybookworm @corvusmorte @evergreenlark @marina468 @405rry @azrielsmate3 @that-one-little-soybean @emryb @lilah-asteria

[labuenosairesfrancaise]

Alderley House

Hi guys!!

I'm sharing Alderley House. This is the 17th building for my English Collection.

I decorated most of the house, for reference, but with some simple furniture as I found here: https://media.onthemarket.com/properties/629174/doc_0_96.pdf

History of the house: Alderley House is a mid-19th century 23,843 square feet (2,215.1 m2) Grade II listed country house designed by Lewis Vulliamy and built for Robert Blagden Hale in the Cotswold village of Alderley, near Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, England. It was built on the site of The Lower House, a 17-century manor house built by Sir Matthew Hale, a lawyer. The house is situated immediately to the southwest of St Kenelm's Church. In 2009 it was sold to an American oil executive who restored the house as a private home after 70 years serving as a preparatory school, Rose Hill School.

The Hales of Alderley were a prominent gentry family in the Wotton-under-Edge area of Gloucestershire from the early 17th century to the early 20th century. Alderley, located 2 miles south of Wotton-under-Edge, was home to the Hale family, starting with Robert Hale who built West End House in 1608. Robert's son, Sir Matthew Hale, purchased the manor of Alderley in 1656 and had The Lower House built between 1656 and 1662.

Sir Matthew Hale, a jurist, was raised by a relative and became religiously devout. He lived near St Kenelm's Church and had a right of way granted to his manor house. Sir Matthew Hale resigned as Lord Chief Justice in 1676 due to ill-health and retired to Alderley, passing away the same year. His estate was inherited by his grandchildren, and West End House was bequeathed to his daughter, Mary.

After Sir Matthew Hale's death, The Lower House remained the family seat for over a century until another Matthew Hale rebuilt The Upper House between 1776 and 1780, making it the new family home.

In 1805, Robert Hale Blagden Hale inherited the properties in Alderley, which included The Upper House as the main family residence. In the 1830s, his eldest son, Robert Blagden Hale, chose to set up his independent household at The Lower House due to prevailing Victorian attitudes about the separation of male and female servants. In 1844, he added a new service wing with a distinctive crow-stepped gable designed by Lewis Vulliamy to The Lower House.

After his father's death in 1855, Robert Blagden Hale, who was a Tory MP for West Gloucestershire, inherited the family properties, including Cottles House in West Wiltshire. He resigned as an MP in 1857 and sold Cottles House to focus on becoming a country gentleman. In 1859, he demolished both The Upper House and most of The Lower House to build a new manor house named Alderley House in a fashionable style, designed by Lewis Vulliamy. The new house utilized materials from the demolished structures, including one of the staircases.

Alderley House was constructed with ashlar and a Cotswold stone slate roof, featuring a heron's head motif (the Hale family crest) above Robert Blagden Hale's initials on the entrance porch. The house followed a double-pile plan with rooms facing outwards from a central wall, a design common in country houses from the Restoration period. The total cost of building Alderley House, including decoration, furnishings, and architect's commission, was £16,746 15s 8d, making it a modestly priced country house compared to others of the Victorian period.

For mor information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderley_House

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This house fits a 64x64  lot, but I think you can make it a 50x40 if you lose the church, the stables and the service building.

The church is just for pictures purpose and is empty inside.

Hope you like it.

You will need the usual CC I use:

all Felixandre cc

all The Jim

SYB

Anachrosims

Regal Sims

King Falcon railing

The Golden Sanctuary

Cliffou

Dndr recolors

Harrie cc

Tuds

Lili's palace cc

Please enjoy, comment if you like it and share pictures with me if you use my creations!

Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/sims4palaces/

@sims4palaces

Early Access: 07/01/2024

Download: https://www.patreon.com/posts/108520278

[samfisheyy]

AOT OCs - Jasper Hyde & Forrest Crawford

Jasper (Left), Forrest (Right) - S1-S3 Designs, they change slightly in S4 FORREST : Forrest Crawford (フォレスト・クロフォード Foresuto Kurofōdo), primarily known under the alias of “The Crow” (”カラス”) or “The Hero of the Walls” (”壁のヒーロ���”), is a soldier in the Scout Regiment, who undertook the role of a Hero due to the Public’s beliefs. He was taken in by the 10th Commander of the Scout Regiment, Benjamin Vanderbilt, who was assassinated a few years before the breach of Wall Maria. JASPER : Jasper Hyde (ジャスパー・ハイド Jasupā Haido), is member of the Military Police Regiment. He was a graduate of the 100th Cadet Corps, who was taken in by the 10th Commander of the Scout Regiment, Benjamin Vanderbilt. He was the second face keeping up the "Crow" legend.

Further Information

LORE

Both Jasper and Forrest were born and raised in Calaneth, in Wall Rose. Jasper, the son of a low life criminal and a prostitute, and Forrest, the son of young unknown Scouts who never returned from an expedition, were both taken in and raised by Benjamin Vanderbilt, a former, now retired Commander of the Scout Regiment. He was succeeded by another Commander, before Erwin Smith was granted the position. Forrest was 12 at the time Jasper turned 10, and they never witnessed Titans in person. During the next 2 years, the two boys would be told that Benjamin was murdered. He taught them the basics and theory of ODM Gear, Titans, Blades, etc. However, he also taught them forbidden knowledge about the Titans, and once mentioned, he was soon found dead by the Military Police. 

They joined the 100th Cadet Corps when Forrest was 14 and Jasper was 12. They suspected the MP’s to be the culprits, so they devoted themselves to figuring out the truth behind their mentor's unfortunate murder. Forrest was a talented soldier, and placed 1st in the Top 10. Jasper, with slightly more agility, placed 2nd behind Forrest. While in the Cadet Corps, nearing their Graduation, they were told to help the Scouts protect Shiganshina and help the citizens of the district to escape from a titan attack. Forrest and Jasper saved over 20 families, helping them seek refuge on the boats. The families couldn’t pinpoint who they were, so they settled on the Hero being 1 singular person, who they nicknamed “The Hero of the Walls”. What the two weren't aware of, was that the titan they were dealing with could emit insane amounts of Titan steam, a very very hot substance that could burn through skin immediately.

Forrest, unaware, tried to fight the Colossal, however, he was soon stuck in the steam, from which his face received 3rd degree burns. Jasper pushed him out of the steam, and his entire upper torso and arms were burnt, thankfully only to the 2nd degree. The two slowly recovered, and began wearing bandages around their burns. Forrest lost vision in his left eye, so he completely began covering the left side of his face. He couldn’t be seen as a hero to the kids with what made him look like a complete monster. (Atleast that's what he said to himself, everyone else said he looked fine LMAO)

Once the two men recovered, they decided to make a plan over their chosen Regiments. Jasper, would join the MPs to find out the truth about Sir Vanderbilt’s death, and help civilians during the night to keep up this Hero Persona behind closed doors, and Forrest would join the scouts to be the face of the Hero Persona.  

Forrest was quickly favourited by the higher ups, and usually called up to different squads. He wore a cloth over his face as well, just to be able to hide his identity even more. He wasn’t referred to as Forrest, not by anyone. He wasn’t even referred to using any name until The Crow nickname came to life. By the time the two men were in their 20s, Forrest already had at least 20 Titan kills to his name. Forrest hated Titans. An abnormal amount of hatred. Although he kept it to himself, once Eren Jaeger was found out to be a Titan Shifter, Forrest began distancing himself away from the Superior Officers. His mindset was that Once someone was a Titan, they’d never be human again. Even if they had a human form, he would never consider them human ever again. Jasper wasn't aware of this until the trial in Wall Sina, but he was genuinely supportive of the idea of having a massive titan fight for humanity.

In Season 4, when the Jaegerists took over the walls, and Eren Jaeger started the Rumbling, Jasper was executed after admitting to being The Crow. The Survey Corps watched Jasper get shot by Floch in horror, although the bullet wound is never revealed or shown on screen. (Still debating if he’ll come back or something…) Since that day, Forrest began debating over taking his mask off or not. However, it’d also be a lot easier if he kept the disguise to stay hidden from potential enemies who were aware of his looks. He kept the disguise on until they killed every Jaegerist at the port, from which they sailed to Marley. It was the first time the Survey Corps saw his face, since he kept hidden during the time they were arrested by the Jaegerists. During the final fight against Eren’s founder, in the Paths… for some reason, he’s able to see Jasper, however, he can’t talk to him, and it's not shown if he walks up to him or not. When the others see ghosts of their friends, Forrest doesn’t get to see anything himself.  FUN FACT ABOUT FORRESTS TITAN COUNT : He actually lied about half (or even more) of his kills, especially when he was younger. The majority of the kills he counted for himself belonged to his now dead companions.

[mariacallous]

Liz Truss is the most disastrous and unpopular leader in modern British history. Mortgage holders and small businesses still loathe her for sending interest rates through the roof. Her short, catastrophic premiership is routinely compared unfavourably to the shelf life of a lettuce. (A comparison first made by the bright leader writers at the Economist to give credit where it is due.)

When Labour wins the next election, its triumph will be in part the result of the public’s reaction against her vast and dogmatic economic folly.

If you were Liz Truss, you might retire from public life. At the very least you would apologize and hang your head in shame.

If readers expect contrition, however, they have yet to learn that being on the radical right means never having to say you are sorry.

Truss’s demotion from national leader to national joke has not embarrassed her in the slightest but pushed deep into paranoid conspiracism.

Her autobiography, bizarrely titled Ten Years to Save the West, as if the fate of liberal democracy depended on the advice of an epic failure,  shows that, despite all she did to this country, her eyes still shine with a bright, self-righteous fanaticism, as if the sockets are backlit by an idiot’s lantern,

Chutzpah used to be defined as murdering both your parents and asking the court for clemency because you are an orphan. In Truss’s case it is using the power of the prime minister to crash the economy and then claiming she was a powerless victim of the liberal elite.

Her writing is as lacking in self-awareness as it is powered by self-righteousness.

At one point she says in all innocence that, when Boris Johnson resigned in the summer of 2022, her agent encouraged her to join the race to be prime minister, as the campaign might be good for her profile.

But she reports that he then wisely added “it would be for the best if I came second”.

Later she informs us that during the leadership campaign she “frankly lost trust in many of my erstwhile ministerial colleagues who were supporting my opponent [Rishi Sunak].

“They had spent the last six weeks not just attacking me but seeking to undermine my plans, saying my agenda was unworkable."

Truss never stops to think that the few people who will finish this book will believe that her agent was right, and it would clearly have been for the best if she had never been prime minister.

Nor does she contemplate the possibility that her agenda was indeed “unworkable”, and was proved to be unworkable when her unfunded tax cuts and fuel subsidies sent the price of gilts shooting up, the value of the pound crashing down, and caused a crisis in the pension industry for good measure.

And yet, and yet…Mock her as much as you like. Please don’t hold back on my account. But you cannot dismiss her.

There are two reasons why Truss is still dangerous. The first lies in the strength of the right-wing clique that brought her to power.

It is true that Liz Truss did not become prime minister by winning over Conservative MPs. As with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party, Truss’s career illustrates the danger of expecting leaders who do not have the support of a plurality of their colleagues to function in a Parliamentary democracy.

But she still beat Rishi Sunak with the votes of 57 percent of Tory members.

And with the honourable exception of the Times, the Tory press was all for her. “In Liz We Trust”, said the Express “Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Woman”, cried the Mail. “Liz Puts Her Foot on the Gas”, cheered the Sun.

Kwasi Kwarteng set off a market panic as he put Truss’s ideas into practice in the mini budget of September 2022. The reaction of right-wing papers was not one of alarm, however, but of adoration.

“At last”, gushed the Daily Mail, “a True Tory Budget”. A Daily Telegraph commentator said it was “the best Budget I have ever heard a British Chancellor deliver”.

Meanwhile the Truss premiership allowed the voodoo economics of the US-influenced (and in all probability US-financed) think tanks to finally impose itself on this luckless country.  The Centre for Policy Studies welcomed the mini-budget saying it was “exactly what we would have hoped for”. The Taxpayers’ Alliance called it “the most taxpayer-friendly budget in recent memory”.

Robert Saunders of Queen Mary University made the unarguable point that Truss was not an aberration or some alien figure that had appeared from nowhere to take over the Conservative party.

Follow  the money that cascaded in from party donors, he said, and “the Truss premiership begins to look less like the personal failure of a flawed individual, and more like a systemic disaster for which the party bears collective responsibility”.

Those forces will dominate the Conservative party after its defeat and drive it to the radical right. Indeed, in opposition the members, the think tanks, the  press and the ideologue donors will become more important, for they will be all the party has.

In a sign of things to come, Truss is already allying with Nigel Farage, and even Rishi Sunak says he will not ban Farage from joining Conservative party.

Despite her failure, Truss remains a potent figure on the radical right because of her championing of revanchism, which is now its dominant emotion.

This isn't a book. It’s a 300-page wail of resentment at a world that will not do as it is told.

I have no problem with conservatives complaining about woke policies taking over institutions. Only a fool or liar maintains that progressive biases among supposedly impartial organisations are an invention of the right,

But the woke conspiracy Truss invokes is of a wholly different order. It is utterly fantastical.

To recap, Truss's unfunded subsidies and tax cuts panicked the bond markets.  They would not lend to a country whose leaders lacked plausible means of meeting its debts. Or if they did lend they would demand an additional yield on government bonds, which  became known in plain-speaking financial markets as the “moron premium”: the extra cost that comes with lending to a nation run by idiots.

In her apologia Truss, who still poses as a Thatcherite, no longer sees markets as an expression of the wisdom of crowds, but as a conspiracy to do her down.

 “I came to realise there is no such thing as ‘the market’ in this sense. Rather, there are groups of influential individuals in the financial establishment, all of whom know and speak to one another in a closed feedback loop. The Treasury, the Bank of England, and the OBR are deeply embedded in these social networks and share the same beliefs in the established economic orthodoxy."

The markets were at fault for not seeing her financial genius. Financial traders were the world’s unlikeliest lefties. Even though she and Kwarteng fired the permanent secretary at the Treasury and cut out the Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility from policy making, they were still, somehow, responsible for Tory failure.

“The powerful vested interests there pushed back, made my life very difficult and ultimately got me fired,” Truss concludes.

Older readers may remember a time when Conservatives insisted on personal responsibility. You were not allowed to blame crime on poverty or your failings on a bad childhood. You were accountable.

But the case of Liz Truss proves that these morality tales were only ever for the poor. In her mind, the economy collapsed not because of decisions she made but because of “a sustained whispering campaign by the economic establishment, encouraged and fueled by my political opponents in the Conservative Party who refused to accept my mandate to lead”.

Trumpism is the end point of such conspiracism and revanchism, and Truss goes all the way down the line to the terminus.

She mutters about the “deep state” a Trumpian phrase she uses without irony or self-knowledge.

And even though her support for Ukraine was her redeeming feature during her time as foreign secretary and prime minister, she is now supporting the pro-Putin Trump and his allies in Congress who are denying aid to Kyiv.

Truss is finished. But the resentment born of failure and the fury at modernity ensures Trump is still very much with us. 

If he delights Putin and wins in November, the UK and Europe will learn the hard way that the real threat to Western civilisation comes from  Liz Truss and her friends.

[saltminerising]

Actually, y'know what? I have a good idea for wehn/if FR comes to an end, let's start retiring dragons breeds, BOOM EXTINCTION EVENT BBY, first take away the eggs, bogs perish first being the flightless idiots they are, then slowly take away the breed changes, from lowest to highest rarity, bye starter breeds see you in hell pcs and spirals and whatnot hope you hit yourself in the ass on your way out SDs! Then go for the gem MP, take the coatl and WC scroll to the back to end their misery and finally, make all remaining imp scrolls defunct! Never got a chance to find the perfect g1 to use it? Well too bad now they aRE GONE

In the beginning everything seems fun 'oh bog eggs are gone guys, and everything else will follow btw", staff just leaves some cryptic announcement that day, ppl start exalting for the joy of it, with lots of spite exalting unsurprisingly, people making exalting challenges to rid of color/genes/breeds in particular then....

Weeks pass and as breed scrolls start to go out you watch as the breeding scene crumbles as now no one can breed change their dragons to whatever as each breed becomes rarer and rarer as time goes, see the userbase collapse as everyone tries to buy whatever color combos and breeds to keep the breeding part of the game active and more lineage projects pop up and now lore pretty much becomes the selling points for each and every succeeding atrocious color combinations that had never graced the site until that moment, one of a kind combos on common breeds become rulers for the brief second before the realization that this is really the end for everyone settles in. You reminisce of one day you found some fodder bog that you planned to exalt only to see it become so coveted that you ended up selling only to find it exalted not a month later

On the other side, you have fellas who just went out musicians of the titanic style, mourning the loss but satisfied with what they had and cherishing it as others see the chance to finally become FR rich selling their own fodder but eventually seeing as it's pointless they metaphorically jump ship and nuke everything down

Tis all taking around a couple or so years before everyone is either gone and abandoned their accounts or just keep doing daylies to see this thru the very end with no goal in mind, no more G1s, sparse breeding, barely any trade

After all is said and done, one day staff would just pop up and say "now here's a new modern :)"

❄️

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

One June 20, I'm live onstage in LOS ANGELES for a recording of the GO FACT YOURSELF podcast. On June 21, I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On June 22, I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel and a keynote at the LOCUS AWARDS.

#20yrsago Canadian copyfight hots up: Liberal MPs on the take from copyright industries? https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2004/06/copyright-reform-needs-a-balanced-approach/

#15yrsago Digital TV’s history in America: the DTV transition nearly cost the USA its technological freedom https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/06/dtv-era-no-broadcast

#15yrsago Hundreds of top British cops defrauded the public for millions in phony expense racket https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/14/expenses-fraud-detectives-scotland-yard

#15yrsago $134.5 BILLION worth of US bonds seized from smugglers at Swiss border https://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15456&size=A

#10yrsago Atheism remains least-trusted characteristic in American politics https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/05/19/for-2016-hopefuls-washington-experience-could-do-more-harm-than-good/

#10yrsago Canadian Supreme Court’s landmark privacy ruling https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2014/06/scc-spencer-decision/

#10yrsago Court finds full-book scanning is fair use https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/06/another-fair-use-victory-book-scanning-hathitrust

#10yrsago Not selling out: Teens live in commercial online spaces because that’s their only option https://medium.com/message/selling-out-is-meaningless-3450a5bc98d2

#5yrsago Porno copyright troll sentenced to 14 years: “a wrecking ball to trust in the administration of justice” https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-troll-lawyer-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-190614/

#5yrsago Ukrainian oligarchs accused of laundering $470b, buying up much of Cleveland https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/how-kolomoisky-does-business-in-the-united-states/

#5yrsago Empirical review of privacy policies reveals that they are “incomprehensible” drivel https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/12/opinion/facebook-google-privacy-policies.html

#5yrsago Beyond lockpicking: learn about the class-breaks for doors, locks, hinges and other physical security measures https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/14/beyond-lockpicking-learn-about-the-class-breaks-for-doors-locks-hinges-and-other-physical-security-measures/

#5yrsago Hong Kong’s #612strike uprising is alive to surveillance threats, but its countermeasures are woefully inadequate https://www.securityweek.com/surveillance-savvy-hong-kong-protesters-go-digitally-dark/

#5yrago Reverse mortgages: subprime’s “stealth aftershock” that is costing elderly African-Americans their family homes https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/06/11/seniors-face-foreclosure-retirement-after-failed-reverse-mortgage/1329043001/

#5yrsago Maine’s new ISP privacy law has both California and New York beat https://thehill.com/policy/technology/447824-maine-shakes-up-debate-with-tough-internet-privacy-law/

#1yrago How Amazon transformed the EU into a planned economy https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/14/flywheel-shyster-and-flywheel/#unfulfilled-by-amazon

[naoa-ao3]

Rights and Wrongs

A night time stroll takes a sharp turn and John finds himself witnessing a politician's last moments.

There's a light breeze blowing as John takes an evening stroll. It lifts the smoke from the end of his hand, away from his cigarette and carries up it into the air. Carries it away from him and into the unknown.

He watches the curling whisps disappear into nothing and feels content for a moment in just smoking and watching but of course life is never that easy and it never stays so simple. The smoke has to go somewhere.

He's approaching a bridge when he stops, seeing someone up ahead.

He squints and then his blood runs cold.

There's a woman on the ledge, poised to jump and somehow in the dark it's more jarring and otherworldly.

She's staring down at the water and for just a split second he thinks of turning and leaving but he doesn't. Instead he stops behind her and looks up at her.

"Nice night for it." He say's, lighting another cigarette before he's even thought about it.

His hand only shakes a little.

She turns and he sees with some surprise that she's well dressed and older than he'd imagined. She's still lovely though and her legs are shapely for her age. She looks down at him. "It is, isn't it?" She say's.

He doesn't really know what to make of that and so instead toes the ground. "You alright then?"

She smiles and then laughs and it's cultured and intelligent. "I'm on a ledge." She say's. "Don't I look it?"

He nods and suddenly doesn't know what to do with his hands. He puts the one holding the cigarette to his lips. "Suppose so. Think it will solve anything?"

She laughs again. "No but it's alright. It's too late now anyway."

"Too late?" He asks, looking at her heels. They look expensive and his eyes travel up her legs to her skirts. She's still very shapely for an old broad, probably was gorgeous when she was young.

"Oh yes, much too late. I'm out of office tomorrow you see and they'll be gunning for my retirement next. Miles has already started planning the party."

He hesitates, unsure of what she means. "You don't wanna retire, then?"

The breeze blows her skirts towards the water behind her. "No but like I said, I'm out of office tomorrow so it hardly matters what I want."

He shrugs. "You a politician then?"

She nods and looks up at the sky, eyes bright. "Yes, my entire life. I did everything right, you know. I absolutely did. I did it just the way I was supposed to but now. . . none of it matters."

He shrugs again. "I don't know if that's exactly true." He wonders why he's trying this at all. Why he's even bothering because in an instant there might be nothing left of her. He doesn't need this on his shoulders.

She laughs. "Oh I do." She say's. "It's true. Tomorrow there isn't going to be anything that matters." She smiles to herself. "I'll get up and it will all be over. . . You know, when I was a little girl I thought I was going to be the first woman MP from my home district when I grew up but then I did grow up and I found out I'd been beaten to it. . . so I thought fine then, I'll be the first woman PM but then of course Thatcher was the first PM. . . I was too late to that too. . . to everything."

An MP.

He can't place her but then he hasn't ever tried to memorize the faces of politicians. Why would he? They wouldn't have cared to know his face any more than he theirs.

"I made all the right deals. I put everything behind my country and work. My husband used to complain but it was all worth it in the end. I had a good run."

She sounds like she's talking to herself now.

He just looks at her and doesn't know what to think. Mostly he thinks she should come away from the ledge,

"So why stop now?" He asks, swallowing dryly.

She doesn't look at him. "It's over." She say's again, shaking her head. "It's all over. It was only until I was done in office. That was always the plan."

He blinks. "What was?"

She laughs. "We do arrogant things when we're young. We think we have all the time in the world. I did, only I thought I was clever. I thought I had it all measured out. All figured out but there are things you can't control, you know. There always are."

He feels a chill creep across his back and spread down his arms, he feels clammy now.

"I worked hard, I stayed on the right path, when all of my friends in college were growing their hair out and protesting, I kept working. I liked The Beatles too but I didn't let it ruin my sensibilities. They all turned liberal and started dreaming. I thought, well alright. Some one has to run the country."

He winces, not entirely sure he's sympathetic to her.

"I worked and got the jobs I needed to move up. I did everything right and now it's finally over. All's fair I suppose, in the end." She trails off.

He stares at her. "What did you do?" He asks.

She huffs a little, still laughing. "I made a deal to get me all the way to here. All the way to my last day. I did everything right to get where I am."

"Your soul?" He asks, a little turned off now.

She nods, looking at him with bright eyes. "I proved it to everyone and got where I am today. I'll retire with laurels. I'll probably even get a plaque somewhere with my name on it too after all this. Silly, don't you think?"

He just stares at her, this woman is. . . she's wrong if she thinks suicide will save her from her fate. If she's really made a deal. . . really bartered her soul. . .

"They'll still get you, you know?" He say's, looking at her with some pity. "You jump and they still get you."

She nods. "I know but it's on my terms and I prefer doing things on my terms." She sounds almost apologetic. "I always did."

"Right. Well. . . what's the point then?"

She looks at him and it's her who looks almost sorry for him. "What's the point?" She asks. "Why. . . all of this. This country, everything I did was for my country. For England. . . all those years. When I started my career we were wasting thousands on housing reforms and trying to clear away the prewar country. Now. . . At least I leave office with England belonging to England again."

He think's she's talking about Brexit and just stares at her. He thinks that he doesn't really like her.

He thinks she doesn't have his vote.

"I'm proud of my career. I handled diplomatic relations with Northern Ireland fabulously under Margaret. That was one of my first major jobs. I loved it, political relationships. . . so complicated. . . so many games to play. . ."

He's still a moment. "So why make the deal?" He asks. "Sounds like you would have made something of yourself even if you hadn't."

She laughs and slides out of her heels then, toes flexing in pale stockings, shapely legs relaxing. "Oh probably but I'm old! it was hard for women back then. It isn't like it is now. Feminists talk like it is but it isn't and between you and me I never had much use for that sort even back then. You never saw Margaret catering to those people."

He just frowns, she's on a ledge and arguing over dead prime ministers isn't going to solve anything in particular. Just the same, she was on first name terms with Thatcher. . . that doesn't impress him a whole hell of a lot.

"My father never expected it of me. Maybe that was why I was so determined." The woman say's- the politician say's. "It was never about proving anything to myself. Just him, just daddy. It's funny, after I'd done everything I was supposed to and thought I could finally please him. . . he told me I'd not learned kindness." She shakes her head. "Father's are funny like that. I was a junior minister at the time and he told me I still wasn't enough."

John doesn't want all of this information, it's strange and unpleasant to hear, it makes his skin crawl, a mix of the voracious political beast and a real-live human being.

He looks at her and sighs. "So you went and got a little extra help?"

She nods, looking out at the black water again. "Yes, it seemed the thing to do at the time and I was angry. Everyone was. . . changing around me. . . the world was changing if you can believe it. I didn't want to get swallowed up."

He thinks about all of the years she must have been in government, doing her small piece to keep Britain going and wonders how much farther they'd be ahead if she hadn't.

From slum clearances to Brexit. Over fifty years likely and here she was, a curious, shapely relic from the past- her last seconds ticking away around her. Damocles' fabled weapon over her head.

A long ago deal come to collect.

"I fought retiring. I couldn't imagine myself doing nothing. . . puttering around some country estate and reading the news each morning in the paper." She shakes her head. "No, that's never been for me but I'm being put out to pasture now."

"Aren't they going to throw you a party?" He asks, speaking meaningless words.

She shrugs a little. "Oh, I suppose so but what use is it to me? I was never big on the socializing aspect of politics. I liked getting in the dirt with the boy's, not playing in the sandbox."

There's the faint feel of electricity in the air and she checks her watch. "It's all over now. Midnight and I'm out of office. My career complete and now I'm nothing but an old woman."

She is an old woman now and he can see that in the orange lamp light around them. He's afraid suddenly of what she's going to do and checks his own watch.

Five until midnight.

He swallows. "Look, maybe you should come down. It's not going to make a difference in the end."

"Then that's every reason to stay up here, isn't it?" She asks, something like humor creeping back into her voice. "I've had a good run, it's up to the young Turks now. Let them pave the way for England or sink her if they must."

"You're really not coming down then?" He asks.

"No, not your way anyway."

She smiles.

His heart beats cold and fast.

She steps closer to the water and his hair is standing on end, he wants to grab her, awful and hollow as she is he doesn't want to witness this but she's too far out now for him to get to her.

One wrong move and they're both dead.

"When I took office I could only think of a poem by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice. I quoted it that day. 'I vow to thee my country, all earthly things above' and I have."

He looks down, he thinks he might have heard it before but he can't place it. Something taught in school, something to sing and wave flags to. To bury the dead under. Something from long ago.

"Ah, it's all over now." She say's, looking at her watch this time. "It's been lovely talking but I really should be going."

He looks at her and then at the water and then suddenly she walking out into nothing, stepping off the bridge and he can only run to the railing, stomach lurching, chest seizing just in time to see a fiery, orange chasm erupt out of the water, swirling flames of liquid fire that churn and swallow her up whole like a blinking eye.

It's gone in only a second and so is she and he's left feeling the unnatural heat still searing his face and the stink of it in the air.

There's a quiet pair of heels on the ledge where she'd been standing, tucked back, toes neatly pointed in the same direction. Expensive labels now clearly visible.

He stares at them and knows there was nothing he could have done.

He stares at them and feels somehow helpless. It's over. It's all over now too and she's gone. The relic is gone, whatever she had been. . . whatever she'd done. . . she was gone now and him. . . if he wasn't smart. . . if he wasn't fast and clever and. . . he's made some deals too in his life, hasn't he?

He shivers.

The world is left empty where she had stood but for a single pair of shoes. Funny how that went and he can only stare at them as he thinks of fifty years of politics and one woman's scheming.

He doesn't even know her name and in the end supposes it doesn't really matter. Politicians all have secrets and deals and for once one of them didn't get away scot free.

One of them finally had to pay her dues.

He shakes his head and goes home, leaving the river and the shoes there.

In the morning he checks the paper and see's nothing. A day later there's a report of a body found in the river and a day after that a memorial for a dead politician.

Forty years of service down the Thames.

He reads it over, a list of accolades and laudations. Survived by the husband who'd complained, a legacy of cutting social welfare and dismantling the NHS.

He just feels blank, remembering her legs and the sound of her voice.

The memorial line is the same as she'd quoted.

Songs of Praise.

"I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,"

He feels numb even after rereading it. He hadn't known her but thinks she sure had gotten her half of the deal, whatever that had been.

Now hell had theirs.

Each there own, he supposes.

Either way, there's a pair of shoes on a ledge on a bridge somewhere and he doesn't go back that way for a very long time.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Les révolutions ont du moins l'avantage de hâter l'accomplissement des idées admises, mais dont la mise en pratique est difficile ou audacieuse ; elles hâtent l'éclosion de l'avenir paresseux.

Louis-Auguste Martin, L'esprit moral du XIXe siècle (1855)

The Fifth Republic is the name of France’s current government. It began in 1958, after a coup at the hands of the French military in colonial Algeria convinced officials in Paris to dissolve Parliament. Fearing that the military could extend their control beyond Africa, the government called former general Charles de Gaulle out of retirement to hold the country together, as he did during the post-liberation years of World War II. To do so, he crafted a new constitution. Under this government, the president has substantial power, holds a term of five years (it was originally seven) and, following a change to the constitution in 1962, is directly elected by the French people. (de Gaulle held the position until 1968.)

This system of government differs dramatically from previous republics, which relied on parliamentary rule. In the Fifth Republic, the head-of-state appoints a prime minister to lead the Parliament (which is comprised of a Senate and a National Assembly), controls the armed forces and France’s nuclear arsenal, can dissolve Parliament, and can hold referendums on laws or constitutional changes.

One caveat to the president’s powers is the possibility of “cohabitation,” when the president is from a different political party than the majority of politicians in the parliament. In these cases, the president must choose a prime minister who will be accepted by the parliament, and the two share powers of governing more equitably.

But while the conditions are likely not there to bring about a sixth republic in France, the current crisis could lead to other institutional changes.

Indeed, Macron already tried to amend the constitution during his first term, with a plan to add proportional voting to the parliamentary elections and to reduce the number of MPs.

He tried again after the "Yellow Vests" protest, with a reform that would have made it easier for the parliament and citizens to launch a shared referendum, but the law didn't come to fruition.

Will the Fifth Republic last?

French political commentators and scholars have been trying to answer this question since the Fifth Republic was first founded, and it’s impossible to do more than make educated guesses. Since de Gaulle first wrote out its constitution, there have been 24 revisions of it, which have affected 2/3 of its articles. Subsequent changes to the republic have even increased the president’s clout. A 1962 referendum had the president elected by popular vote, and a 2000 referendum resulted in an alignment of the presidential and parliamentary election calendars – something that has almost always resulted in an absolute majority for the president.

So far the constitution’s flexibility and the force of the past presidents has kept the Fifth afloat. But far left agitator and presidential candidate Jen-Luc Mélenchon has been leading a march for the “sixth republic” and Marine Le Pen talking about radically reshaping France’s domestic policies, there’s no telling what might happen by the time Macron leaves office and a new President is ushered in.

Many believe that a certain regime of politics is coming to an end, of which Emmanuel Macron is the epilogue. It is both the end of a regime in the political-institutional sense – hyper-presidentialism and the weakening of counter-powers – but also the exhaustion of a certain regime of "belief" in politics, i.e., the credit we give to men and institutions. It is a symbolic crisis as much as a legal-political one.

I suspect the Fifth Republic will chug along just fine. There may be a few bits of tinkering but not much. I suspect - much like the debates for Proportional Representation in the UK, politicians of all stripes say one thing but do the opposite one in power - once someone like Marine Le Pen comes into power (she is favoured to win the next presidential elections after Macron steps aside) then I doubt she would voluntarily give up her presidential powers any more than any other politician wanting to exercise power to make policy.

At the heart of these debates of changing the Fifth Republic is the very idea of France itself as it faces changes in its society and the challenges therein. In the mind of General de Gaulle, the French presidential system was intended to reaffirm France's independence and sovereignty in the bipolar world of the Cold War. Never have both appeared so threatened.

The decline of state sovereignty is a global phenomenon at the crossroads of several simultaneous revolutions. The first is the history of capitalism, with the financialisation and globalisation of markets and the new supranational actors that are the multinationals. The second is the institutional history of Europe, with the construction of Europe, which is deconstructing the nation-states of which it is composed. The third is the history of information and communication technologies with the emergence of the GAFA [Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon] and the new authoritarian algorithmic governance that is being imposed on States and citizens. And finally there is the strategic history of Europe with the end of the Cold War and the integration of France into the Western bloc under the aegis of NATO.

Any of these would be challenging for the nation state, but all five at once is enough to make any stable democracy shudder at the foundations.

Photo: President Emmanuel Macron presides over the fête nationale ceremony on the Champs-Elysées, 14 July 2023.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Green Party deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault is planning to run for a seat in the House of Commons in an upcoming byelection in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace--Westmount riding.

The 32-year-old ran on a joint ticket to share the party leadership in November with longtime member of Parliament Elizabeth May.

The party's constitution has not yet been changed to make the pair co-leaders so Pedneault is the deputy leader.

The Notre-Dame-de-Grace--Westmount seat was created in 2015 and the area has long been considered a Liberal stronghold.

It was last held by Liberal MP Marc Garneau, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

A victory for Pedneault in the June 19 vote would see him join May and Mike Morrice as Green Party MPs in Ottawa.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[mollieblue]

Hey #labour, you should hire me to talk at you about how to actually fix Britain:

Terfs are the enemy, Trans folx are the people.

Small businesses need support on the ground level in order to foster amazing communities.

Invest in education to the point teachers are as paid well as their private peers or dare I say as well as an MP. I would say that if an MP describes their role as being vital, integral and essential to running the country, who receives a handsome tax paid salary with expenses paid with the public purse, why is it that other public sector roles are paid relatively below minimum wage? This applies to all public sector workers; civil servants, NHS staff, and teachers of all stripes. They are just as vital, integral, and essential to running the country, if not more so, than the openly profiteering geezers in Westminster.

Why is it that the rule makers are more important than those ensuring that the rules work? Those holding up society and holding it together are so sorely underpaid in this country that they are giving their lives to you at pittance so you can be okay. The NHS is a wonderful thing, and it breaks my heart that we don't fully fund it. The same goes for education, social services, community organisations, and libraries. These currently literally keep people existing at the bare minimum, but when fully funded and staffed, they transform lives for the better.

Equal pay for Equal work 》 Equal pay for Equal Importance. Ignore the 'we can't pay them the hundreds of thousands that MPs get' elephant in the room. I want you instead to imagine a world in which all public sector workers are paid the exact same amount regardless of hierarchy or public aspect they interact with. I'm no expert, but I reckon £86,584, the basic annual salary for a UK MP in 2023, would be an absolute god send to a junior doctor on roughly £38k. My partner practically works at minimum wage for 50 hours when you account for the marking, the planning, the organisation of your entire schedule to an impromptu meeting with angry parents and worrying about ofsted. It has worn them down, mostly because we can't have a social life, spending money on the theatre, in shops, on things that make us happy and human. We can't save, and we can't afford nice things. That fucking sucks. It wears a person out and throws them out of the system that's holding up the world.

Everyone I know is feeling like the above, regardless if they're private or public, freelance or salaried. One solution to help is basic universal income. Give everyone over 16 £500 & everyone over 18 £1000 each month for a year and see how awesome it would be in a year's time. I already know how much good that would do to me and everyone I know.

So pay everyone £12,000 a year and then pay all public sector workers the base salary of £86,000 rising in step with inflation. If the private sector can, in theory, pay whatever wages it wants, having a guarantee that your basics are paid will eliminate sooooo much stress. Rich folx can donate theirs, college kids can do interesting work at college because £500 buys a lot of art supplies and travel to museums, exhibitions, and events. Youth would have means to explore the nation before university or set up in an apprenticeship. Our elderly can use it to afford end of life care provisions or enrich their retirement or hell, just keep the lights on. Working folx would undoubtedly benefit the most and would probably like their jobs much more if they know things are covered.

To foot the bill, impose a commons tax on all privately owned land that fairly compensates the commons, ie, the UK public, back.

Make the North part of your game plan, rather than a foot note.

On a serious note; nationalise the railway system and expand the network. It is hell going east to west here, up to 3 hours to go 50 miles west and just 3 to get to London from Selby in North Yorkshire. How is this acceptable?

Invest in working class politicians to bring the reality of Britain back into government. Without our views or experiences on the table, why are we surprised when the Tories fuck us over again? If you want true, enthusiastic support from the British people, do not talk at us as if we're irresponsible children and actually engage with the very liberal and progressive discussions we have daily. Especially people under 40 - the older generation that pulled us out of the EU will be gone soon - you need to court and actually help out.

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

All ShadowClan Medicine Cats (in this blog and canon) And Their Quotes

[....] -> indicates unspecified gap

Unbolded = oc.

-----------------------------

FOREST TERRITORY, FIVE CLANS

Pebble Heart

"No cat likes change, but change comes all the same."

[....]

Dapplefire

.

Gorsedaisy

I know what you are, you vile fox! I've known for a long time. The only reason I haven't killed you for the greater good is to ensure my place in Starclan. I'm seriously starting to doubt that choice now. [....] They will see reason. They will know that what I do, I do for them. If they don't, Starclan will. [....] I tried to warn him, you know. So many times, I told him that you would be the death of him and our Clanmates. Part of that may be true now, but rest assured, I will not let you hurt another of my Clanmates again."

.

Hickoryskip

"You're wrong. He's just a kit, but all you can see is a monster. He's not haunting you, no one is haunting you. You're just...you've been through too much, Gorsedaisy. I'm sorry. It's not your fault, but, I'm telling Cuckoostar that you should retire. [....] I hope one day you can find peace of mind. I miss the cat you used to be. [....] I hope you can forgive me one day."

.

Myrtlewing

"Ah, but–if your accusations were true, dear Gorsedaisy–how would attacking me fix anything? You plan to kill me, but can you be sure to make it so far before you are stopped and driven out? And with you in exile, how can you save our precious Clanmates? [....] Will they? The way I see it, you've lost your mind in their eyes ever since you refused me treatment for all my scrapes and bruises as a kit. Heck, maybe even before then, huh? You've jumped to growls and hisses over the smallest of problems, making big deals out of things that weren't there. Yet you think that after all of that, they will believe your side if you try to hurt me? Oh Gorsedaisy, perhaps you really have lost your mind. [....] I think we've established that you can't stop me."

.

Fernpaw

TBA

.

Cedarsky/fern

TBA

.

Redscar

"My name is Redscar. I am the medicine cat who told Flowerstar that StarClan had chosen her as our new leader. But you need to know something: I faked that sign. I picked the snowdrop, severed the blossom, placed the stalk where I could find it in the middle of the camp and announced to everyone that our ancestors had spoken. We needed a leader, and I found them one. Listen to StarClan, but do not let that deafen your own senses. I give you a life for trusting your own instincts as well. StarClan will guide you, but only you, as leader, can steer the paws of your Clanmates."

.

Bluefoot

TBA

.

[....]

Mossheart

"Every battle is a loss."

[....]

Molepelt

"A long time ago, I was the ShadowClan medicine cat [...] My Clanmates and I did a great wrong to another Clan—a Clan that belonged in the forest as much as any of us, but was driven out through our selfishness and hard-heartedness. I knew what we did was wrong, and I have waited, my heart filled with dread, for the Clans to be punished."

Hollowbelly

"There's no reason to punish ShadowClan. What happened was too long ago. The medicine cat code will keep the Clans safe."

"Please say nothing about this. There is no need to spread alarm, not when the future is spread in mist even to StarClan. Promise me that you won't tell any of your Clanmates. Promise on the lives of your ancestors!"

FOREST TERRITORY, FOUR CLANS

(Mp)

(Hb)

[....]

Sloefur

"He's dead."

[....]

Redthistle

"Time to go home. It's so cold, I can't feel my paws."

Sagewhisker

"You could have easily defended yourself from this kind of injury, but you've been badly hurt because you couldn't bring yourself to fight. You know too much pain to inflict it on other cats. And that makes it impossible for you to be a warrior. It's time to face your destiny. You have to be a medicine cat."

"Sagewhisker had a prodigious memory for herbs and a gift for listening to StarClan, but her greatest strength lay in observing the cats around her."

Yellowfang

"Thank you for bringing me to ThunderClan. Tell Bluestar I have always been grateful for the home she gave me. This is a good place to die. I only regret that I will miss watching you become what StarClan has destined you to be."

Runningnose

"In the meantime, I have to stay here. I'm ShadowClan's only medicine cat now...and if there's one thing we need with all this bloodshed, it's a medicine cat. So I'm not going to fight my leader. I'm going to stay here and take care of sick and injured ShadowClan cats. That's what I need to do. That's what Yellowfang would want me to do."

Littlecloud

"We all make mistakes. Some have echoes that last forever."

Flametail

"With this life I give you love. You have known so much, but still have much to give. Leadership without love will never be enough to draw your Clan from the shadows. Let your heart lead when your head does not know the way."

"I'll protect my Clan, whatever it takes."

Puddleshine

"I can't leave. I have sworn to protect my Clanmates."

Shadowsight

"As a medicine cat, I'll never understand a parent's feelings for their kits, but I have many cats that I care for, and worry about, and I'd do anything for them. Rootspring saved my life once, and I feel such a strong sense of duty and loyalty to him because of that. But what I feel even more is a sense that all of this—everything that's happened—is vital for the Clans' survival. All five of them. I could not turn my back, even if I wanted to."

[eaglesnick]

Second-rate Britain 5

We are all aware of the mass street protests in France concerning the raising of the French retirement age from 62 to 64 years of age. Knowing he could not get this legislation passed in parliament, right-wing President Macron abandoned the democratic process and used his executive power to force this deeply unpopular piece of legislation onto the statute book.  The French people have responded with nationwide street protests and riots.

Here in Britain it was quietly announced that Rishi Sunak had (for now) abandoned the Tory government’s plan to raise the UK state pension age from 66 to 68.

“Plans to raise UK state pension age to 68 delayed…” (Express: 21/03/23)

There are three reasons behind this delay. One is fear of social unrest as seen in France. Second, there is an election in less than two years time and raising the pension age is a vote-loser. Third, and perhaps most worrying of all, is that life- expectancy in the UK is falling.

“Life expectancy in the UK has… slipped down the global rankings. The UK came in at 29th in 2021, according to the new analysis, which was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. It found that, over seven decades, the UK has done worse than all G7 countries except the US.”( www.thenationalnews,com)

Last year (2022) only nine other countries had retirement ages at the same level or higher than the UK. In other words, we are 8th from bottom of the world pension age league table.

Couple the fact that our government wants to raise the official state pension age with the fact that life expectancy is falling and at some stage we will reach the point where people die before ever reaching retirement age. Is this me exaggerating? No, it is the view of the MP’s we elect to look after us.

“Raising pension age will mean many people die before getting it, say MPs”  ( Guardian 28/0/17)

So, while the French take to the streets to defend their right to retire at 62 we in Britain are uncomplainingly working ourselves into an early grave.

[warningsine]

A Ugandan national army soldier has shot and killed a government minister he was guarding.

Wilson Sabiiti shot dead retired Colonel Charles Okello Engola, deputy minister for gender and labour, at his home in the capital Kampala on Tuesday.

The soldier then turned the gun on himself and took his own life.

It is not yet clear whether there had been an argument between the two men. Sabiiti was assigned to the minister's security detail a month ago.

Before he took his own life, some eyewitnesses said they saw Sabiiti walking around the neighbourhood and shooting in the air.

An aide to the minister, Ronald Otim, was wounded during the shoot-out at the house. He is receiving treatment at Mulago Hospital in Kampala.

Initial reports suggest a number of other people may be injured and videos on social media showed locals gathering at the scene in shock.

Col Engola was a senior member of the government, and had previously served as a deputy minister for defence.

The speaker of Uganda's parliament confirmed Col Engola's death in a short statement while presiding over its morning session.

"This morning I received sad news that Hon Engola has been shot by his bodyguard and after, shot himself. May his soul rest in peace. That was God's plan. We can't change anything," Anita Among told MPs on Tuesday.

[ewan-mo]

Not quite the day we thought it would be

12th March 2023

This was one of those days which fails to match the planned programme, and sort of slips from your grasp as it proceeds.

We were due to be picked up at 9.30 by the transport from Mukono hospital. Very heavy rain indicated there might be a bit of a delay. During the ensuing two hours while we were waiting, we met a couple of Welshmen. One was involved in a Welsh tree-planting project in Uganda, his friend was a Welsh MP from Cardiff. You never know who you are going to meet on safari.

Incidentally, the Welsh tree project sounds a really good one. They had planted over 2 million trees here by November 2022. Do have a look at the details on the internet – there are several sites of interest.

You would use water more carefully if you had to pump it by hand and carry it home

Anyhow, it was getting on for midday when eventually our transport arrived with our good friend Lamet, a great ambassador for mental health. And off we went in the rain, “quite far” as he said. We were way out in a group of villages; much intermarriage and lots of interesting syndromes, apparently. The clinic is held on Sundays so that patients can just come on for their appointment after attending morning service. How practical.

The clinic under a shade umbrella

Timothy is a local Councillor. At first he seemed very quiet and unforthcoming, but proved to have a remarkable understanding of his community and its health or otherwise. And, somehow unexpectedly, an excellent sense of humour.

Mo talking with Lamet clinical officer and Timothy

The rain had kept back a number of patients at the clinic – there were 12 instead of 18, but Lamet knows who the missing ones are, a very important statistic. 

We took the team out to lunch, to a café they tend to use. Bit of a wait for our food, probably over an hour. Towards the end they came and confessed that instead of my mixed vegetable soup they had made me a mixed salad. Oh dear, in all that cold and rain too! I had a smoothie instead. 

Back to Mukono Hospital where Dr Simon, Medical Director picked us up in very timely fashion. We were going to his house for dinner. It’s a long time since we’ve been in a Ugandan home for a meal, and it seemed an important step forward. 

But first we went to see Simon’s dad, a retired reverend who lives with his wife at the end of a muddy track, made significantly more slippery by the rain.

Dad loves visitors, and talked cheerily and at length for some time. He came to UK once, to Swindon and Chippenham, on a theological visit. He enjoyed UK very much.  

Finally, to Simon and Irene’s, and we are back on the original schedule!

Such an enjoyable evening, with good food, stimulating conversation and the company of three delightful lively children. I have now known Simon since he was a medical student in 2013. A very happy friendship.