Royal Flush

Dearest sweetest Hearts, please absolve me from all evil as you will be absolved from your own misdemeanours. Not that it’s a bargain, neither am I mercenary.

Why? Why? Oh why, don’t ask Merkel, did this have to become public? The Orange one’s grandfather of German descent? I have never disowned anyone. But am perfectly unhappy to make an exception .

This really takes the Ginger (bread man).

For once not easily consoled, yours,

U

Solid

I don’t like “flimsy”. Bound to leave you freezing. Like flimsy excuses. The see through type blowing in the wind and many a hole. Worse – flimsy reasoning. Where reasoning has fled discourse before it has had a chance to get a foothold.

Despite coming from a long line of the artistically gifted indeed earning a living off their talents, I couldn’t paint you a thing to save myself from being drowned in a tube of Titanium White. However, and I am the only one surprised, the other day I came across a pile of caricatures – all done by my own fair hands ca. when I was about eighteen. OH MY GOD. The girl who, just like during her PE lessons, eschewed the marathon (ie pain staking painting) for the sprint (a pencil swift glimpse of someone how I saw them). Well, insert self indulgent sigh, nothing much has changed. Except that that pencil doesn’t draw as much as scribbles. Which, as the years march on, brings me to a neat though not welcome by others conclusion: The word is indeed mightier than the sword. Where people tend to be mildly amused at being “caricatured” in pencil, they sure don’t like it when that same pencil strings together letters, words, sentences, paragraphs – no more acerbic. Few recognize benign.

U

Tripped up

Looney, his sceptiscm and the law of probability notwithstanding – November is unfolding as I hoped it wouldn’t. Normally I rate reliability highly. Not when it comes to November. I had such high hopes for a nice surprise. November being out of character – just for once.

Yes, so lost my grip. Not metaphorically – though it can only be a matter of time before even I hang up my coat of tattered nerves; but literally. I literally lost my grip.

At times like this one wishes one lived in the “United” States of America and their sue you for damages culture.

It’s ok. I am sure I’ll mend. What I find distasteful, and always will, how people so easily go on the DEFENSIVE. Where my fall occurred it was the premises’ owner’s utter negligence. When I first reported this to his shop it was mainly to prevent the same occurring to someone else. I don’t chime in with my father’s take on humankind, namely that x % are pretty stupid. However, I will concede that some people’s reasoning will leave a lot to be desired.

Never mind. Upshot being that, in my estimate, the hassle of getting recompense for pain and loss of earnings isn’t worth the battle. Rarely do I carry utter disdain in my heart – I offered the guy a jokey and amicable “settlement”. No doing. How very short sighted of him. And I am not the vengeful kind.

U

Don’t fence me in

Once upon a time I was a homeowner with all the responsibility that entails. Not least, in Britain, to respect the boundaries your neighbours will impose. Though not British, when in Britain, I will do (within reason) as the British do – or, at least, try not to ridicule what’s bred in their bone. And as much as the Brits’ homes are their castles (complete with a mortgage that even a drawbridge groans under) as much they do like borders.

Yes, borders. As in walls, fences. One of my more far fetched theories that the reason the British prefer dogs to cats that cats do not respect fences. If they want to climb up and jump over one they jolly well will.

So back to Trump and neighbourly etiquette. If my neighbour wants to put a fence or a hedge or whatever else round his patch of immaculate lawn thus blocking his view that’s fine. What’s not fine, indeed unacceptable, is to ask me to pay for it. That’s Trump’s plan on Mexico. The guy has no manners.

Before I take this post into a direction even I find beyond satire I’ll leave you to do your own fencing.

U

Awakening

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s November.

And on this fine 9th of the month my first words spoken out loud, the tune the Angel woke up to: “The future is orange”.

I can’t discuss Putin on these pages as the Angel has warned me that people, particularly Americans, get a bit tetchy when you give the guy the benefit of the doubt. The Angel’s interest in world politics is such that he will sit me down and make me watch (and listen to  – subtitles allowing) the most tucked away Putin interviews – available on the internet if you know what you are looking for. Yes, so my long held wish which had faded over the years, namely to learn Russian so I can read Dostoewski in the original, may yet come true. After hours and hours of Putin’s Russian ringing in my ears I’ve definitely got the incantation of the language. The rest will follow.

Yes, Putin. Oh, must he be laughing (in a smirking kind of way) at this morning’s result. Like the cat who will be playing with the mouse.

On a different, a sociological note, just now I went to our nearest shop. I mentioned to the cashier that I was a little befuddled in the “aftermath”, and she asked me what had happened. WHAT HAD HAPPENED? Such innocence, such bliss. At mid day (GMT) there are still people who don’t know about a new political landscape. I don’t hold it against her. Still … Makes me wonder what planet I do live on.

Will I ever look at one of my favourite coat dresses (burnt orange with streaks of black) the same again?

U

PS Do you know what the two men (Putin and Trump) have in common? They both don’t drink. I wish they did.

Machinations

For light relief I looked at a photo shoot of Trump’s “life in pictures”. If YOU are looking for comfort – don’t. In fact it’s pretty unsettling to see a young boy morph into the man we now know. Can’t help wondering what role his mother played in his upbringing. If any, and if she were still alive, she may care to retrace her steps and wonder where it all went wrong.

To top it all Trump is a Gemini. All the baddies populating my life (and I don’t even believe in astrology) were born, invariably, under that most duplicitous of star signs, namely the twin.

So, as the world is quaking in their boots with breath bated on the eve of the election (don’t I just hate the time divide)  reason is (unasked for) pressed on me. Hillary, so I am told, is bad news. On hearing this and my eyes clouding over in disbelief (considering the alternative) I am quickly reassured that – should Trump win – he’d only be the TRUE administration’s puppet anyway. Allow me to remain sceptical. Either you are the president or you aren’t. And if he/she isn’t more than a puppet then I am really worried.

Hugs and hisses, you Americans do have a lot to answer for. Not that you appear to know the question. And for that I do not blame you.

U

Reality

My life has been populated by many of divergent vocations. The “artistes” – musicians, painters, writers, an actor or two. Journalists, politicians. Indeed, as recently mentioned, a spy. Spies and journalists are exciting. Artistes – on the whole – are exhausting. It’s not their fault. They don’t mean to. They just are.

Enter one of the most scary people into the canvas of my life – and John of Going Gently may relate to this: THE SOCIAL WORKER. To understand: Once upon a time, and to this day, I was/am one of those people who feel compelled to look after others. My father who, at the best of times, has a truly astonishing disdain for mankind poo pooed my idea from the word go. You wouldn’t last a minute, he said. Why? Because apparently I take everything not only too seriously (whatever that means) but to my HEART. So, naturally, and at the time my father’s word gospel, I didn’t become a social worker. Fast forward, say, two decades. The mother of one of the Angel’s friends was a social worker. At the time I met her she was not so much at the forefront of dealing with day to day misery of the unfortunate, but in a managerial position. Sweethearts, this woman was one of the most hard nosed, cold and unforgiving people I have had the fortune to meet in my life. Breathtaking. Awful.

Where am I going with this? Mainly, you may have ideals. Only for them to be blown out of water into the cold ice and wind.

U

Know your onions

As posts go my last was a flop.

Before I threw myself on the line yesterday evening I had sliced an onion, nay two, very finely AND I did NOT cry. My tear ducts were as unmoved as Salome’s when John’s head was presented to her on a silver platter.

Which made me take note.

The absence of eye water throwing up my existential question, namely, how many years and onions it takes before you stop crying. I did a quick calculation, more of which in a moment.

Magpie proceeds to tell me – at length – how to cut an onion. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. I slept it over. In the morning Ramana – as only assorted Asians can – advised me to pay someone to do my dirty work for me. Leaving aside that I enjoy cutting onions and making my own bed, it shows you a cultural difference. On a finer note he adds that – having cut many an onion – I should be able to AFFORD someone to do it for me. My dear Ramana, I can barely afford myself. Never mind anyone else.

So, working on a rough average per day and taking the years into account, my mental arithmetic serving me well, I’d say so far over my lifetime I have diced, cubed, sliced, grated, quartered and generally battled and enjoyed doing so somewhere between 14,600 and 19,900 onions.

U

 

 

 

The Lady of Shallot

How many years and onions does it take of cutting them (sliced, cubed) before you stop crying in the process?

U