2000th Blog Post

 Wednesday 25th March. 7.00 p.m. This is a key moment in the life of this blog! This will actually be the 2000th post! When I began this blog, I think it was 2011, I never imagined I would manage to keep it going for 2000 posts. Quite an achievement.

Saturday 28th March. 3.25 p.m. It's quite pleasant and sunny, but when I went out yesterday, it was sunny, but there was a definite chill in the air. It's the time of year when it seems warm and sunny, but the underlying chill reminds you that it's still late March. The clocks move forward tomorrow which makes things different.

I have upgraded my Alexa smart speaker. I've had the old one a few years and it still works, but I had enough Nectar points which could be spent in Argos, so I decided to buy it. It was easy to set up and get working, and because I already had the Alexa app on my iPhone, that made things easier. It runs with Alexa Plus, which is an upgrade, and that means it is much smarter. You don't always have to say 'Alexa' , the wake word, to get the thing working. You can have almost a real conversation with it, which is amazing. I have already had a conversation with it, and changed to a male voice, better than the rather annoying, higher-pitched female voice. It's easy to call it a 'he' when it is not real. It/he has a sense of humour, which I appreciate.

Speaking of AI, which is what Alexa is, although having a wide range of uses, such as playing music, answering questions and operating such things as lights, heating, etc etc, I am experimenting with AI to do some writing. I have an idea for a theatre play for quite a while, and I wanted to find out how the AI would deal with some prompts which I fed into to it, and the results were amazing, so I am working on this play and have the first act more or less written and act two partially written and now have to work on the final, third act, and come up with a conclusion.

Sunday 29th March.  9.25 p.m. It's Palm Sunday, the start of Easter Week. 

It was quite cold when I went out at around 9.35 this morning, with the intention to drive to church. I was deceptive, because it was sunny and bright, but as soon as I got out of the door, the chill hit me, and I had to go back into my flat to collect a sweater.

Tuesday 31st March. 7.50 a.m. Another relatively bright and sunny morning. I haven't been out to find out whether it's chilly, as it was on Sunday morning.

I cannot give a report of the temperature, because the digital thermometer is out of action, as the batteries have died. I will have to buy some more, when I go to Sainsbury's next time, probably tomorrow morning.

I have completed the play! My goodness, my very first attempt at writing a play! Next, I will have to edit it, as I think there is too much. The end scene works, but it's imperfect and I'm doing rewrites. It lacks the power I want. I'm not going to reveal the premise or any details. It's to precious to do that at this stage. I'm just glad to have the piece in some form that can now be tweaked.

Now, something straight out of Yes, Prime Minister or one of those crazy comedies. Here goes. My state pension is increasing. Great, because any increase is a good thing, particularly because of rising costs, and with a government that simply doesn't know how to deal with the economy, particularly rising fuel prices, mostly due to the war in Iran and Ukraine. But then, the blow. I get something from my lovely Carol's teacher's pension. Not much, but it has helped considerably. It would have been considerably more, if it hadn't been for a certain step son inerfering with our bank account. I won't go into details. Surfice it to say, because my income goes over the tax threshold (I can'ts say what exactly what's the exact amount) I will now have to pay tax. Crazy, I know. The government gives with one hand- the pension increase- and then takes with the other. Totally ridiculous. I have spoken to the Inland Revenue people, and the tax will be taken at source, directly from the teachers' pension pot, so I would not even see anything about this. What annoys me more is that you get your usual tax code for the year ahead, but because of the gobbledegook in this form, it doesn't tell you all that I have mentioned above.If I hadn't had the presence of mind to ring Inland Revenue, I would never have known. Further to that, it would have been really nice if they could write a letter to me, at least explaining all this, and the amount I will now lose. Oh well, as they say, shouldn't grumble. Strange old world, nevertheless.

Boris Bunter Loves Cake!

Friday. 2.00 p.m. I'm sure Boris Johnson loves cake, so if someone appears on his birthday and waves a bit of cake under his nose, he's bound to go all googly-eyed, and drooling like a dog when downwind of a plate of meaty scraps. So it's no wonder he didn't disown the chance to have a party in Downing Street. Were these parties like children's parties, with jelly and ice cream, musical chairs, blind man's buff, pass the parcel and so on? A goody bag for everyone when they leave? Was there a conjurer there? Or some other children's entertainer? The more I think about 'Partygate' the more ludicrous and pointless all this is. Now is the time for all good men to go to the aid of the party. Perhaps.

And now . . . The Police don't want anything to do with the investigation, which was carried out by the civil servant, Sue Gray. The plot thickens. I think it will turn out that there were far more parties going on that shouldn't have been, probably by other mandarins in Whitehall, rather making the whole thing a bit rich. I wonder what Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Private Secretary of Jim Hacker, the Prime Minister in the BBC sitcom 'Yes, Prime Minister'? No doubt he would have come out with one of his long-winded and complex explanations. This entire affair is turning into a Whitehall farce, quite literally.

This morning I had an email from my MP in response to Partygate. I wrote because I wanted him to know how angry I was that I had been following the pandemic regulations more or less to the letter whilst it seemed those in Downing Street have been having a wild time, or so it would appear. It's not just the hypocrisy that angered me, but the fact that I had to sacrifice going to see my grandchildren over Christmas 20 and now knowing what was going on inside 10 Downing Street.

Saturday. 8.15 a.m. Okay, okay. We're still waiting for the infamous 'Partygate' enquiry results. It seems to be taking over every news programme on television and headlines and front pages of all the newspapers. But, come on chaps, let's get over it and move on, can we, please? I reckon there's more to it than the fact that people broke lockdown regulations. Let's be perfectly honest, how many people actually adhered 100% to the really complicated, and some say, completely unnecessary, regulations. I have a sneaking suspicion that all this nonsense has a rather sinister agenda behind it, and that's to get rid of Boris Johnson. Love him or loathe him, our media is generally controlled by a left-wing element. Particularly the BBC. The Government is eager to clip the wings of our major Public Service broadcaster and in particular to find a new funding model to replace the archaic Television Licence. So, they are more than desperate to find a way to discredit the Conservative government at any cost. Apart from anything else, there are far more important stories to be covered by the papers and television programmes. For example, the fact that Russia is threatening to invade  Ukraine and has sent thousands of troops to the border, or the mounting fuel costs crisis, or how to return the country to some semblance of normality as the pandemic comes to an end. As it is, the media is spinning that story out somewhat and seem reluctant to give any positive news on that particular subject.