Contemplating the Eternity of Nothing….

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Guthlac

Over the past few days the monotony of the lockdown (I’m really not sure whether this is still a thing anymore?) has been getting to me.   Thank goodness for Procreate!

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Constant Nonsense….

Posted on June 21, 2020 by Guthlac

Sometimes it is tempting to think that we’re entering a whole new world when in fact it is just the same world turning around and around.

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An Appointment with MTV…

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Guthlac

 

There was a time when MTV ruled the musical roost.  Oh those heady 1980’s when there was such a muzz about the place when Thriller was released.  How things have changed and yet possibly the same – we may well be heading for 1980’s unemployment numbers if we are not very careful.   I’m really not sure why this thought entered my mind when I started to write this blog? (Probably listening to Freedom 90 by George Michael as I made these images might explain a lot.)

As we all start to dry out after the much needed rain several of those rare creatures, commercial aircraft, flew over my head.  Now I have the FlightRader24 app on my phone I can waste my time seeing that this plane is going to which far away place I’ll probably never visit – it is all very exciting!

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15 weeks….

Posted on June 14, 2020 by Guthlac

It is 15 weeks since I last visited Abbey Park in Leicester (A lot can happen in 15 weeks – over 41 thousand of me fellow citizens can die from the coronavirus for instance – but life must go on).   Last time was early spring and now it is early summer but the atmosphere was so much different.  I could go on but I don’t see the point.   Given the way things are at the moment we really have to enjoy the little things.

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The New Normal?….

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Guthlac

 

There was a time when someone asked you “Are  you ok?” and you replied that “You’ve got a bit of a cold” the other person didn’t take a step back and look at you with great suspicion.   Well I’ve got a cold, no not the Coronavirus but a cold and you see I’m even at it treat my own symptoms with suspicion.   Yes I have visited the coronavirus website and No I have none of the symptoms yet the suspicion lingers.

Welcome to the new Normal. It doesn’t matter what the government might say none of us are going to be the same again.   How long this change will last is like most of the things about this pandemic – nobody knows.   We can all have a stab at making a suggestion now but with such a fluid situation any sound and rational pronouncement will very quickly prove to be wide of the mark.   Perhaps that is what the New Normal is – profound and rapid change that will leave the so called talking heads talking to themselves as the world rattles by.

The one thing I know for certain is that I have a cold.

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The first day of the rest of your life….

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Guthlac

So today is the first day of the new UK quarantine which on the face of it sounds like a good idea.  We’re just about getting to the end of the first wave of the pandemic in Britain and the last thing we need is for travellers from abroad coming here and reintroducing the virus.  What is wrong with that?  In principle nothing in practice it is totally daft.  Firstly, we haven’t got rid of the virus here; Secondly we need the tourist trade as the economy is going to be very weak over the next few months and all those dollars, euros yuan etc will be very welcome indeed and finally the whole system makes a laughing stock of the notion that this is a quarantine at all.

So there is now going to be a frantic effort over the next few weeks to patch together ‘air bridges’ to such places as Spain and Italy and France (not sure what is going to happen with all the ferry traffic to France – Sea Bridge?) in a vain attempt for the Government to try and save face – the whole idea is bonkers.

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World Class Nonsense….

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Guthlac

A number of years ago The Thick of It pilloried New Labour and coalition governments.  The show gave the world many great things but the word ‘Omnishambles‘ was probably the most memorable (In a world of Dominic Cummings Malcolm Tucker looks almost  genteel).  The Thick of It ended because amongst other things Armando Iannucci claimed the real world was just too bonkers to satirise (of course getting a big pay cheque from HBO for Veep might also have something to do with it).

Yesterday proved Iannucci correct.   Not only did we have a sort of U turn of the Mogg Conga – even though the conga will continue  all MPs can now vote by proxy if needs be due to the pandemic considerations, but not child care or other problems travelling to Westminster to vote.   If you are unaware the Government i.e Jacob Rees-Mogg hates the idea of digital voting for reasons that don’t stand any scrutiny.  However,  the most bizarre thing about all this, and that is saying something,  is that remote voting is to continue in the House of Lords, you know the undemocratic, unelected upper house who Owere more concerned about democratic accountability to ensure that none of its bloated membership were disenfranchised than the lower house.

Then came the true trainwreck of the day – the new be nasty to people from abroad quarantine procedures that is going to be introduced.  Apparently this plays very well in focus groups so Dominic is instisting this be introduced which yesterday it was to widespread derision from anyone who takes the time to pay the slightest attention to the details.   Apparently it is going to be enforced by the ‘world class‘ Border Force and I wish them the best of luck because just one look at the list of exemptions means that the only people who are really going to be inconvenienced by this nonsense will be British citizens coming back from their summer break in southern Europe. You know the policy is nonsense when it is attacked by the arch Tory rebel Theresa May.  Expect another U turn i.e scrapping, by the end of the month.

So this was all in one day – now that is really ‘World Class’.

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Revisiting the past….

Posted on June 3, 2020 by Guthlac

According to the adverts installing new technology into your system is seamless – just click click click and everything is ready to go.   It is a whole lot better than the days of installing a new printer onto a Windows 95 computer (I’m much older than that but my vague memories of MS DOS was that what printers there were lead much simpler lives and so the installation wasn’t that bad – I suspect that is my memory playing tricks!) butb there are still bumpos along the way which need to be smoothed out

As a result of one of these bumps  I have had to revisit my Procreate library and I soon discovered that the Procreate file format doesn’t like to be copied from one copy of the app to another.  Forntuantely, the Lingua Franca of illustation files PSD worked a treat.  This meant that I revisited some old files I had forgotten about including this one which I couldn’t resist reworking a little for the new decade(?)

 

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So goodbye spring…it’ll be hard to forget you!

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Guthlac

Well that will be a spring that will last long in the memories.   Over the last three months I think I have written enough.   Lets us just hope that the summer is a lot more uneventful than the previous 3 months.  I suspect that is a forlorn hope!

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Is this the end or the Beginning?

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Guthlac

It is very easy to see things are going to ratshit.  As the heat rises so is the likelihood that the United States of America is going go up in flames.   Well that seems to be the view of many of the opinion writers in the New York Times.  Whether this is true or not it is hard to say from this side of the Atlantic for two reasons:  I am not American and have no idea what the American mind is on the latest riots (This assumes that there is one such mind view but what little I do know about America is that there is no such thing).  Instead I hope that whatever happens in America slowly calms down and perhaps saner voices may prevail.  However, this is an election year and I doubt this is going to happen.

Back on this die of the pond we all seem to be entering a new delusional state whereby the pandemic is coming to an end when there is not one jot of evidence that this is the case.  Yesterday 324 people died from the virus and another 2095 case were reported.  This virus hasn’t gone away and there is every chance that we could be heading for another spike.  I hope that doesn’t happen but at this stage it just can’t be ruled out and if this were to be the case then what little residual of good will this government has may well evaporate.  After all for the last three months we have been told what a world class effort we have put in and yet we still have ended up with some of the worst death rates  in the world (I know it is very very difficult country with country but even given that we’re not going to come out that good.)

And then there is a problem that is the huge hole in the economy here and around the world.   The next year is going to be very hard indeed and it will take a government of exceptional talent to steer us through this.   If you know of one please let us know where they are because there doesn’t appear to be any here either at the United Kingdom or national level.

So are things going to ratshit.  Strangely I don’t think they are because you see I’m an historian who knows that this country/countries have faced much worse challenges in the past and come through them battered and bruised  but still standing.   In short we have endured many things and the country is same:  we moan about things; get angry about others but then settle down and muddle through to the next day.

That doesn’t mean that Dominic Cummings should still be in a job nor that Boris Johnson is really any good as a Prime Minister.  No it means I trust in the people to get through whatever nonsense is thrown at us over the next 12 months.  I do hope I am right.

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