So, thanks to Bojo, and The Caretaker and whoever else in the milk-swilling bunch of children who currently pass themselves off as our Cabinet and decision makers in this ruined country of ours, I did the 200 mile round trip to the Cotswolds yesterday and didn’t sleep over. That’s because I am a law abiding citizen. I keep a social distance. I wear gloves and a facemask when there is any chance of coming into contact with others and despite my reservations that the NHS directive for me to stay in until the end of June ( or until they changed their minds as it transpired, although my mate there didn’t have the courtesy to tell me ) I did stay in until last week. I don’t pull down statutes, or stand outside cafes and bars with mates swigging alcohol in public ( illegal by the way ) tossing my used burger wrapping on to the road ( seems Macdonald’s generate more litter than any other compan,) But, I’ll get to that later. Bet you can’t wait. Regular readers will spot the signs that I am ramping the blog up today into a rant. Again.
There are two ways to drive to the Cotswolds from where we live. We can either swing around the North Circular to the A40 and then pick up the M40 or take the more scenic route and drive up the A41 to Aylesbury. This sort of smacks of the opening of a dinner party when as the guests arrive their first comments are about the route they took, the complaints about the traffic and every other guest telling them there was a much better way of coming ( which, of course they took ) in great detail. It’s often like a taxi drivers’ convention. That’s probably one of the main reasons why I haven’t missed dinner parties at all.
Anyway, we took the scenic route having carefully emptied our bladders before we set out and refrained from having a drink as we drove. With Ken Bruce and Pop Master on Radio 2 for company we made our merry way and everything seemed so normal, apart from the fact that there was far less traffic than usual. We passed Waddesdon Manor and even the Rothschilds didn’t seem to be at home. We passed Bicester Village Shopping Centre and the car park was empty ( I was tempted to go in to take a photo of the phenomena, but restrained myself as time was of the essence with no toilet stops ) we drove across country, through The Bartons and Enstone ( where I’ve been caught on a camera for speeding before and had to attend the school for naughty drivers ( dealt with in Blog about 20 as I recall ) and then on to Chipping Norton where there was the first sign of life with a street market in full swing. Then finally into Moreton-in-Marsh with a well ordered Middle-England queue to get into Marks and Spencer on the way in and Sainsburys in the town centre ( keep that in mind please for what is to follow ) and then up the hill and down the hill and right into the road that leads into the village of Blockley.
There’s a lovely moment where you first see the church spire before you dip down into the valley and then into the close in which we live and which overlooks the old mill stream. Blockley was a thriving place in the 19th Century as it was the centre of the silk production industry until, wait for it, some virus affected the silk-worms and that was the end of Blockley as a cosmopolitan place to live. Now there is a Book Club, a mobile cinema that visits once a month, a travelling weekly library and one shop. You get the picture. Pretty Big V free generally speaking which is lucky because there also isn’t a regular doctor’s surgery there. I think it opens every third Thursday every other month or something like that.
So, all quiet and peaceful. A two hour trawl through our little terraced cottage. Food with expiry dates as long ago as 2016 thrown away, other stuff such as printing paper, Dettol, toiletries a freezer full of stuff that may or may not be useable emptied, three decent bottles of kosher red wine and a draw full of small change purloined and brought back to London.
A nice catch up with our neighbours, Jo and Steve from up North who were doing the same as us ( only for them it was a 300 mile drive ) and Jane and Diane our immediate neighbours who greeted us as if we were the cavalry because I brought them a dozen new books to read. Tried to watch tv for five minutes and then realized I had turned Sky off down there which also seemed to have resulted in wiping all the programmes I had stored on Sky plus (another complaint coming there ) Garden wildly overgrown and a mental note to call the gardener who as well as being an ex-policeman himself is married to a DI so maybe good we didn’t break the law by staying over-night.
And then the long drive back to London. I couldn’t help but think that it was like a tour of a Hollywood film studio and that behind the facades of all the buildings which looked as they always did, there was… precisely nothing. Surreal. And then back to reality when in one road of our North London suburb ( definitely not Middle England ) there are about half a dozen coffee shops and bars. And as I said, the pavement swarming with people drinking and eating all on top of each other. I contacted a local Councillor who told me the Council had almost given up and that they were leaving the matter to the police. But as they are too busy attending demonstrations where nobody socially distances and applauding as statutes get pulled down I am not expecting any great activity from that quarter.
So, if the Big V gets bigger, I think we all know where we need to look for the cause.
End of rant. On to lighter subjects. I was going to talk about statues and racism and the slave trade and Imperalism and Dr Who and the two episodes called “ Blink “ and “ The Weeping Angels “ ( both of which involved dangerous statues ) and the book “ Mendelssohn on the Roof “ ( more statues ) but I will focus on those fascinating subjects tomorrow ( I really know how to reel my readers in, don’t I ? )
For the moment though let’s talk about football which always seems to annoy some of my readers. But, maybe not this little snippet. We’ve all heard about teams striving to be top of the league, to reach heady heights, but that’s what has caused the problem for Tibet’s only football team which is based in one of the world’s highest cities. Lhasa Chengtou FC ( to whom I was thinking of shifting my allegiance from Borussia Dortmund in Germany and Dynamo Minsk in Belarus ) play in the third division of Chinese Football. Now, as if that wasn’t a big enough burden to bear they are being forced to disband ( that was a very short allegiance ) because as their stadium is two miles above sea level they can’t get any opponents to play them. Footballers were having to stop and take oxygen breaks every fifteen minutes . Even trickier if you are playing in face-masks I guess.
It’s a sad loss to the game as it was the only stadium with a view of Mount Everest. The coaches wanted the players to be quicker in the tackle and kept calling out, “ Come on , look Sherpa , “ or so I heard.
That’s all you’re getting today. I’ve already had a zoom meeting at 9 am today, took the giant step of visiting the chiropodist ( sigh of relief as no more about my toe nails for a while) got the guy cleaning our cars at the moment on our drive for the first time in three months ( bit of a challenge ) and have another conference call at 2.00pm and a National League Board Meeting at 3.00pm. So, you’re lucky to get any blog at all today, if I am being honest with you. Hope you think it was worth it.
Stay safe and if I can find a way through the myriad of all my meetings I will see you all tomorrow.