Sleep

Sleep. Here’s something to grind your teeth on! Insomnia, waking up after a short sleep, not sleeping at all etc. It’s a heaven sent opportunity to, well if you’re someone who likes ‘moaning’ about things and there’s an awful to get your knickers in a twist at the moment! Brexit, the NHS, ageing and so much more. But let’s stick with the ‘sleeping’ business.

Despite being involved in an argument with a car engine a couple of years ago, I have never had any problems with sleep. Never anxious, never worried about things and so on (of course I have, but that’s beside the point, this is a newspaper so I’ll exaggerate to keep you all enlightened!). It’s been a fine night’s sleep and no kidding. But here’s the thing, after having my leg smashed up and brain surgery after the accident, sleeping has become a figment of my imagination. In fact day has turned into night and everything in between is just a blur – this could be described as a good thing because I don’t have to put up with my wife nagging me all the time. There’s something beneficial to altering one’s sleep patterns isn’t there?

I have tried the sleep clinics, doctors and so on. I have taken sleeping drugs and all the other unmentionables and guess what?

No joy.

The brain being disjointed and shoved over to the other side of my head is the cause and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. Hard luck Ruck and you just have to live with it. Fair enough is my personal view, I just missed  saying ‘Hello’ to whatever God is out there and I’m still here scribbling just to annoy – remarkable  how some things stay intact isn’t it?

The brain has to switch off now and again and all I can say to anyone who has problems with sleeping, try going to bed at the same time every night, don’t drink caffeine (alcohol is out) or smoke and don’t bother with anything that may cause upset. If you can manage any of these thing then the future is bright.

Otherwise, the doctors, the sleeping specialists and the consultants are all a waste of time and you would probably better off living life like me and scribbling a bit – well, you can watch the TV but this is ill-advised too. Too mind occupying!    

It’s alright on the night!

I’ve been considering that one of my books (A Judge And Nothing But) has taken the referendum to new heights, not to mention a female Prime Minister – it was all written before either event took place.

Well, novel writing does have its place! 

Paul Davies AM

Paul Davies AM and newly elected Leader of the Welsh Tories, is insistent on bringing the party together and having a consistent policy on the Welsh political process. All fairness to him and you must admit it is a far cry from the London political mess that is enveloping politics, both Left and Right. Welsh Conservatism has a more generous outlook and doesn’t see the Brexit negotiations and anything but ‘wait and see’. Paul Davies is constant in his lack of enthusiasm for a referendum, the people have spoken and that’s it.

Having interviewed the politician, I must say that I found him reasonable and objective. None of the back stabbing ways of London. His answer to a political bias was any one is entitled to their opinion (he might not agree with it!) but they are nevertheless entitled to express it. Job done.

Education is at the forefront of his mind. Pisa results are considered but not the ‘B’ and end of it all. He feels that more people should be involved in the process, the community, the teachers etc (I hate that word ‘community’, it sounds like a Communist rant!), the same with the Health service and so on. People in Wales are not too familiar with the fact that the Welsh Assembly runs Education and Health but there we are. Media coverage is not too successful when it comes to this!

He reminded me that UKIP has only 4 seats and Plaid Cymru has 10 – that’s when the alleged paedophile considerations are taken into account, so that’s means the Tories are in with a chance of gaining power at the next Assembly elections. There’s no doubt about it that the gentleman wants to be the First Minister of the Assembly – no doubt at all. He maintains that the position is within his sights, should everything go well for the Tories.

“I would like to be First Minister” he repeated twice in our interview. Nothing like confidence is there?

It is time the Media gave Welsh politics more of a run at things. If they did, then so many Welsh people would have a more informed opinion of things political, One wouldn’t hear things like my granddaddy voted Labour, my father voted Labour and so I’ll do the same thing.

Wales has been Labour for far too long. It is time for a change. New ideas, new thinking and more than anything else more energy. Labour has been running things for 20 years (although they haven’t been too enthusiastic on Jeremy Corbyn) and they have come up with nothing. The young Labour AM’s have a chance at this but will they get anywhere?

Paul Davies is a new Leader of the Welsh Tories. He’s appealing and prepared to listen to whatever someone says. But he had a point when he said in reference to the terror of the Internet, well you don’t like what I’m saying, so you get into the hot seat yourself!

As I’ve said before, if you don’t like what the politicians are doing, get a seat and say what you like – just remember the general public is watching.

A builders mess!

It’s all a yes or a no. Politics is a no-man’s game and have no doubt about it. Look at where we are now? The Tories are in a mess about whether we should stay in the European Market and Labour are rubbing their heels together over anti-Semitism et al. No party is making any kind of constructive suggestion on the EU so what do we do about it?

There’s only one answer: Let’s just get out of the European Union and deal with the problems as they arise. The people have spoken and that’s all there is to it. I’m no fan of another referendum, we’ll have one and then another and another……. As for Northern Ireland, 20 odd years of peace and I don’t think we’ll be going back to another spate of murder and retribution taking place but who knows?

Theresa May is a good Prime Minister – would anyone out there like her job? I think not. Who would want to deal with the swamplands of political discourse on a daily basis? Is there any one? Probably not. And Jeremy Corbyn is too busy responding to all those centre-left individuals who are giving him a hard time. There is no hope is there? The Tories and the Labour Party may well be considering breaking up and so, chaos again.

I can’t see our Jeremy making a good leader but there we are, again who knows? A new tailor and a decent shave might just give him a chance.

We shall wait and see. There are so many quotes on this but I’ll not bore with them! Where will be on the final decision is anyone’s guess but I do feel this: Whatever the protracted policy is we shall get through it. The UK is an island race and we have been through far worse, from the Second World War and many instances of turmoil before it. So I say, take heart and live through whatever the Fates dish out, grit your teeth and hope for the best.

That’s all we can do! Absolutely – I hate this word, everybody is using it, just thought I’d adopt it just to annoy!

Adverts

I was watching TV the other night for a change – yes, I have to admit it, fool that I am! Anyway, on comes all this advertising. Men shaving their legs (I have never heard of this one before), trimmers for beards and a hairy upper lip and gel for heavens knows what. It left me feeling rather emasculated, I can tell you. Then there are the women’s products. All in sundry here, creams for this and that, hair shampoo for making a twisted mess and shavers for making a smooth skinned example of female loveliness!

All these adverts made me ponder the fact that these companies must think that the general populace is as dull as a brick. Do they honestly believe that we are all convinced by the childish tittle tattle they throw out there?

I have an iPad which lets me know about giving the adverts a miss – at a price. The trouble is, you can’t do on any of this on the commercial channels apart from ITV. Well, I say ITV but that’s only on the ‘Catch Up’ variety. Anything current forget it. I’m all for a drama or documentary (and politics, as if you didn’t know that one!) but anything else forget it. And as for sport, watching this makes me feel rather ill.

I don’t really watch a great deal of television – for obvious reasons. Believe it or not, I read books (sad chap that I am!). Not fiction, just the usual history and politics. All very boring, I assure you. Everybody is reading less these days and it is a pity. Libraries are going out of fashion and the young are click clicking their way to an eternal state of ignorance. Even educational degrees are clicked into a pass rate of ignominious success.

Well, I’m an old ‘un now, so I can say what I like – providing the thought police don’t have me up before the Beak for something or other! And do you know something? I’m exceedingly glad that I was born in the 1950’s – at least I won’t have my life controlled by a screen or a mobile phone (and I don’t have one these mobile pieces of nonsense before anyway asks!).

 

Facebook and Twitter

Social media? The two main offenders are Facebook and Twitter (and all the other ones!).

I wouldn’t put my name on any of them. I’ve tried Twitter to promote my books and got off 6 weeks later. They are a devastation of personality and whimsical consideration. They should be stepped on from a bloody great height! Otherwise we will be turned into a nation of half-brained automatons. 

The human condition!

I’ve come to the conclusion that we are all living in a crazy world – nothing new here then! We spend our time worrying about our health, money and children that are the forefront of a new beginning. We are living in a press button world which is at a point of happy deliverance and no care for what is. Happy days!

I look at the front page of a TV magazine and see nothing but the latest instalment of a soap opera machine. It’s all so deliberate – that’s not to mention all the adverts that crash into our eyes with an intent that is profound.

I walk around the place and see nothing but tattooed bodies, much beloved eye brows and a sincere attempt to displace what is naturally ours. We have become automatons without the legs or arms to renew the possibilities of what is ours.

It is depressing.

The graduation percentage years ago was 8%, now it is 50%. The Universities are asked to dispose these ridiculous course subjects – all for money no less. Not to mention the student loan average, I received nothing before anyone starts! We are creating a nation of dimwits without even realising it. A high percentage of ‘A’s’ and ‘A’ stars at ‘A’ Level is the blunt course of it – an ‘A’ level these days is the equivalent of an old low grade ‘O’ level, whichever you way you slice it. Our young are being cheated but what the hell, it’s all upwardly mobile and the intelligentsia are getting stronger by the day!

Put all this together and you have the internet malfeasance with is contribution to this collection of advertised bliss. Fake news, social media etc and a constant attempt to harm our deepest sympathetic inclinations is what the world is all about. Oh hail the internet! We live our lives by it.

This is the beginning of a new world order, the internet is God and he will shine his light on all who obey his will. Look out people, brace yourselves for a new beginning! Dementia is upon us but don’t worry, the internet will sort it all out!

Marriage?

What is this thing called ‘marriage’? Is it an LGBT thing (that’s Lesbian, Gay etc in case any of you are not up to modern parlance – I had to look this up!), is it a multifarious thing or is it a union between two people? I haven’t the faintest idea what it is anymore. There is confusion on the websites and unerring complexity wherever one looks. Two women and two men getting married and the other day a Court allowed a man and a women to have a civil partnership!

Where’s it all going I ask myself?

I’m on the sequel now (that’s the second marriage) and don’t know whether I should be looking for a third, but there we are. Let the Matron see this and my life would be hell! Not really, but you get my drift. And what about equality for men, we hear enough about equality for women, don’t we? How about equal standing in a marriage? I know I’m nagged regularly about the bins being left out, about not eating enough vegetables and so on. The nagging never stops and here’s the worse, I’m standing there looking bored to tears while the Matron carries on deliberating with another woman about the state of so and so’s marriage. Heaven help us!

And I’m on the second run as it were, you would have thought I’d have learnt enough on the first debacle! I’m like a lot of men – we never learn. I threaten divorce on a daily basis but the Matron takes no notice, all is well that ends well I suppose.

These days I don’t know about marriage. Years ago it all used to be so simple. Not anymore. Like life generally, it’s all become so complicated. Chat up lines have gone for a burton. Just click- click and you have all you need to know at the outset. Whatever happened to dating, one might well ask?

Why bother getting married? Well, the reason is simple enough. Love and that’s all there is to it.

All in all my marriage ticks along in a fair enough state (probably because we’re just too old to do anything about it!), albeit that we both fight like hell on a daily basis but that’s marriage for you – in all its glory!

Jeremy Corbyn

The holiday season is here! No more shouting and yelling in the political ‘mess’ we all find ourselves in. What is this ‘mess’ the media keeps going on about is beyond me. Politics is always in a mess. There’s Theresa May trying to pull her party together and Corbyn going to Butlin’s to try to convince the owners that all visits should be allowed to enter free and to hell with profits! All in all the parties are just fighting things out – normal territory. John Woodcock MP has left the Labour Party citing its leaning toward anti-Semitism and going too far Left. He cites that he hopes Labour will find its sanity again.

The Labour Party is just in trouble again, like the Tories. I can’t help wondering why Corbyn divorced his second wife (he’s on three at the moment, he’s a bit of a boy isn’t he?), all be it she wouldn’t agree to their child being sent to a grammar school apparently. There are a multiple of reasons why people get divorced but this one? The subject lay in the fact that he wouldn’t have his ‘principles’ questioned, being he preferred the duff local Comprehensive. He doesn’t like confrontation so the story goes, he said yes to the Leadership contest but who knows. Could it be that he raises all the arguments and just stands back and watches? He’s a clever man, is our Corbyn.

So all in all, we have a rest from political shenanigans and childish misdemeanour of the political mind set.

Hallelujah!!

Let’s face it, we are all getting fed up with this political infighting. Why don’t we just do a deal or not? WTO rules or a negotiated settlement – fat chance of this but who knows. The EU might just come up with something that is at least palatable. The European Institution is beginning to really annoy me, but that’s by the way. No doubt there are a few of you who feel exactly the same way!

Anyway, its holiday time now! So forgive the political angst, it’s just the way I am. The next one will be something different. Can’t think right now what it will be, maybe something to make your seat fly off your backsides!!

 

Welsh language

Do you know, I’m getting really fed up with all this tirade of Welsh speaking nonsense. Speak it, sing it, enjoy it but please stop this ridiculous argument that you have.

It’s costing the tax payer millions for a language that is spoken by 18% odd of people in Wales. Do yourselves a favour – just give it up for God’s sake. You’re being tiresome.