I was halfway there on Saturday. My good intentions had fallen by the wayside, and only dishes were cooked and lunch was washed. Or something like that.
So that left Sunday in which to mop the floor, write the board papers and dust the furniture.
Gone are the days when I could spring out of bed, jump in the shower, throw a couple of rashers of bacon in the pan with a tomato, eat, wash up, and be out of the door in 20 minutes.
A neighbour once said to Partner and I, that I woke up thinking. (Didn’t endear her to Partner after that). These days I don’t even wake up for at least an hour. Let alone think.
Waking up consists of reading and replying to overnight comments on my blogs when North America has been up and active, and reading any new posts on fave blogs, although probably leaving my comments on theirs until later.
So Sunday morning saw me with my nose stuck to the screen. Literally. Saturday night hadn’t been too busy on the blogosphere so I resorted to solving a geocaching puzzle. All those no longer interested in this part can skip to the next section of this post.
However. For the benefit of non-cachers, geocaches involve finding pots of tat treasure using a GPS and with a given set of co-ordinates. Sort of like olde-fashionde treasure hunting using OS co-ords. (OS = Ordnance Survey for non-Brits, our former extremely good mapping system. Unsurpassable).
A puzzle cache means that you don’t get the co-ords, you have to solve a puzzle to find out what they are.
So, there were two images that meant nothing at all to me. I started by counting similar looking bits on the puzzle but that didn’t work.
I emailed an expert friend, who mailed back and asked if I had seen the 3D images. Uh? What 3D images?
So I decided to take Partner’s advice and looked up the website on the bottom of the images. Stereogram. Sounds like a record player to me.
Apparently not. Sort of like black and white optical illusions, the old vase and face one, or the young beauty and the old crone one. But these are in 3D. Never seen one before in my life. Sheltered life me.
How to see the 3D part of it though? Apparently you can make yourself cross-eyed and that shows it up. Well, I have enough problems with being short-sighted so I’m not messing around with my eyes more than necessary so that was out.
Alternatively, you can stick your nose to the computer screen and slowly draw away whereupon the 3D image pops out. Well, it did for me, although not for Partner. Perhaps being short-sighted does have amazing advantages.
So I’m left with a 3D heart and a prehistoric reptile. On a second look, I decided the reptile could be a car. Either way, at this point I was feeling distinctly sick after looking at whacky images for far too long and decided to leave it alone and ponder how to convert a heart and a car into numbers.
As I’d been wasting time diligently researching cryptic puzzle-solving, I remembered one of the obvious ones was to substitute letters for numbers. So I did. There is a little gizmo on the site that lets you check your guesses so I gazed at the screen expectantly. I nearly fell off my chair. Congratulations you have solved the puzzle!
‘Oh,’ said Partner, leaping out of the chair. ‘Let’s go and find it.’
At which point I thought about more dishes to wash, another lunch to cook, furniture to dust and board papers to write. I had, in fact, mopped the floor.
What the hell. Off we went.
Here is the interesting part. There had been a pic of the location on the geocache site, and as Partner had been to the location before when he delivered a CV (not that he got a reply), he just knew exactly where to go. I probably didn’t need to solve the puzzle after all.
There were a lot of rocks. Once on the breakwater the GPS went haywire. We clambered up and down. I spent most of my time worrying that I was going to drop a) my iPhone b) my camera c) my ID card d) my keys e) anything else in my pockets, that had no zip or button, down some irretrievable hole. Oh and the GPS too.
I figured having solved the puzzle it would be one of life’s ironies that we wouldn’t find the cache. I didn’t. But he did.
Anyway, I did watch a British Airways ‘plane taxi-ing around for take-off, and vroooom up it went.
Described as one of the world’s most dangerous and scary runways. Um, it’s not exactly got a bad track record for accidents. Or rather lack of accidents. So it’s short, and goes into the sea. So what? Apparently we are fifth most dangerous in the world, beating Hong Kong into sixth place and the most dangerous one in Europe. But we have had no deaths apart from the suspicious Polish incident in 1943. I remember the Hong Kong airport from years back, and haven’t used the Gib one. But statistically, how can one incident, 70 years ago make it one of the most dangerous in the world? Anyway the BA ‘plane took off OK.
And there were lots of boats too.
So another day of good intentions that didn’t come to fruition. But does it matter if something else takes its place?
Moving on down other roads to hell, or to paradise, depending on your perspective.
Terrorism
I’ve read a little about the Boston bombing both on news sites and blogs. Maurice wrote a thoughtful piece and it reminded me of terrorism over the years.
Here’s a quote from Reuters about the two brothers behind the bombing:
The brothers spent their early years in a small community of Chechens in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million. The family moved in 2001 to Dagestan, a southern Russian province that lies at the heart of a violent Islamist insurgency and where their parents now live.
But as I commented on Maurice’s blog, who hasn’t lived with the fear of terrorism?
M62 coach bombing in 1974 – UK, Provisional IRA
This was a bomb placed in a coach carrying off-duty British armed forces and their families. Twelve people were killed, nine soldiers and three civilians. Thirty eight other people were injured.
Tucked up safely in my little bed, I awoke to hear a loud boom. My view at the time was that it was on the M62 which crosses the Pennine hills between Lancashire and Yorkshire. I thought it must have been one hell of a bomb for me to have heard it.
In fact, only now, looking at Michelin, have I realised how close it was. Ten miles, half an hour’s drive away at Hartshead Moor service station. No wonder it sounded loud.
My first awareness that terrorism could come quite near to home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain
This was an active revolutionary group in Germany when I was at university and often hit the headlines because of assassinations of prominent capitalist and judicial figures.
When I had a passport photo taken to visit Amsterdam with a friend from university he told me I looked like a member of the Baader Meinhof gang. Black pullover and steely cold expression.
Famous for the killing of Aldo Moro, but stuck in my mind because of the bombing of Bologna (Italy) railway station which killed 85 people and injured more than 200 people.
In fact, they denied the bombing and it was later attributed to a neo-fascist group. Who knows?
But at the time I embarked on my Euro-rail and world trip, it was still in my mind, and when I went to Bologna, I did not hang around the railway station.
No, not a terrorist group although some might consider an irresponsible company causing thousands of deaths and injuries to be worse.
Baader Meinhof and The Red Brigades between them managed around 120 deaths.
Look what Union Carbide achieved in India:
The Bhopal disaster, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world’s worst industrial disaster. It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way in and around the shantytowns located near the plant. Estimates vary on the death toll.
The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate 8,000 died within two weeks and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases.
A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.
I mention Bhopal because I was there not long after the incident. Our train stopped there. I tried to hold my breath, but the train stopped for too long.
Pesticides eh? They kill in more ways than one.
And back to the UK with the Manchester bombing in 1996 where 212 people were injured but no-one was killed.
I was no longer visiting Manchester, but I had done in my university years, and I’d walked those streets and visited that shopping centre. There is something very spooky reading about a bomb blast in a place you used to frequent and your heart goes out to the people injured in that explosion.
In London, in the 1980s, our government building was on a constant state of alert, and I often took the tube in trepidation thinking what a horrific way to die a bomb blast in the tube would be. And in 2005 it happened and a combined attack on the tube and buses resulted in 52 people killed and more than 700 people injured.
Bombs have been placed on the underground for more than 100 years.
The year before, Spain suffered a much worse attack with a prime-time commuter attack at the beautiful Atocha station in Madrid in 2004. Another place I had frequently visited, either to go to Madrid, or to pass through en-route to the UK. Nearly 200 people were killed and 1800 people were injured.
And in Spain (and France), we have ETA, fighting for an independent Basque country, and currently with a ceasefire status, although not sure how long that will last with the hard-line Rajoy government. ETA killed more than 800 people using similar tactics to PIRA and the left-wing revolutionary groups.
Terrorism doesn’t go away. Whether it’s political or religious, it’s here to stay.
Another blogger’s experience of terrorism – Wrong time, Wrong Place A good read, if that’s the right description.
According to Michael Collins (Irish) who used Lenin’s quote:
The purpose of terrorism is to terrorise.
I learned this from my voracious reading of Jack Higgins’ novels. Mr Higgins doesn’t waste time writing his books. Characters are given different names in different novels, but they all use the same language, the same guns, the same silver cigarette case because they all smoke, and they rarely have sex. Too busy killing people I suppose.
He must copy and paste for each novel and just change a few names and the location of the plots. Still, they are an easy read. And make the fight against terrorism seem so simple when a few latter-day James Bonds save the world. I wish.
To end on a bright note.
The road to hell.
Just thought I would also point out that Chris Rea comes from Yorkshire.
But if that one is too gloomy, try the road to nowhere.
roughseasinthemed 
I was living in Germany when the Baader Meinhof gang was active and remember vividly the killing of Hans Martin Schleyer. I was also working in the NatWest Tower when the stock exchange was bombed. I remember going to work after one incident (might have been the Baltic Exchange) and looking at where the windows used to be. We had shatter proof cling film put on them after that. Terrorism will never go away. Many of my colleagues were in the Clapham rail disaster and no matter what the cause, when your time is up or if you are in the wrong place, then tant pis. I have never worried about it. I used to fly into Kai Tak – no problem. I was told Kathmandu was scary…. bag of nuts. My worst landing experience was Gatwick on an El Al flight. The pilot aborted at the very last moment having spotted another plane on the runway where we were about to touch down. That was a “gulp” moment.
What would really scare me would be going on a treasure hunt with Mrs. Ha. I think marital harmony would last about 5 minutes. With or without GPS. In any case it all sounds far too complicated for a bear of very little brain like me. I’m off to eat some hunny, honey.
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Baader Meinhof didn’t kill that many people. Communist-inspired terrorism was quite the rage at the time, but didn’t cause that much damage compared with today’s levels. Just realised I forgot to add ETA to the list, so must go back and do that but they used a mix of left wing and PIRA tactics.
Baltic Exchange was mega wasn’t it? :( Good to know how good cling film is eh?
I’d forgotten about Clapham which considering I was working in London and for the HSE is a good one! Perhaps I’ll do a post about Health and Safety disasters I have known and loved. Anyway, I was north of London, so that must be why it didn’t stick in the psyche.
Never flew into Nepal, took the bus in and out from India. That wasn’t without its risks. Hit our heads on the roof of the bus every time it went over a bump. It went over a lot of bumps.
I thought Mrs Ha regularly went treasure hunting. Shoes, clutch bags and the like?
Would that be a sweet and funny funny comment – or a different reference?
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Yes, had more than my fair share of terrorist activity. I have a blog post on it if anyone is interested, entitled Wrong Time, Wrong Place.
The Clapham train crash was the train that left 25 mins before the one I took in the morning. Needless to say I didn’t get to work that day. OK, I could have walked to South Wimbledon tube but I couldn’t be ̷a̷r̷s̷e̷d̷ bothered.
Scariest airport for me, the old Hong Kong one by far. On the approach you are picking your way between tower blocks of flats and you can see right into them if you have a window seat. Well see on to the balconies, mostly they kept curtains tightly shut. Then, when you touch down its full anchors on or you are in the sea. Atleast with Gib you can approach pretty much as low as you like.
Scariest airline, Kenya Air before they were bought by I believe Lufthansa. The fact pilots preferred to use the Nairobi to Mombassa railway line to guide them speaks volumes.
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I remember your post now, so I’ve added a link on mine. Will add it to your comment too when I’ve replied to this.
Strange as I said to Andrew, I’d totally forgotten Clapham, which goes to show it’s all about where you frequent as to what sticks in your mind. Well apart from Chernobyl of course.
I agree with your view of Hong Kong, I was pretty surprised. I’ve got some piccies somewhere I took of flying in back in the mid eighties, must hunt them out and scan them in. I think I was too stunned to be scared. Def wow! factor though.
That’s a good comparison between the two though, and if you look at HK it has a fair few accidents and deaths compared with Gib. Which just goes to show these silly top ten ratings are crass.
Back when I was flying in the 80s the ones to avoid were Aeroflot, Biman BanglaDesh (which I flew) and Jakarta airlines (which I didn’t).
If I do a H&S disasters I have known and loved (see above reply to comment) perhaps I should do a similar one for airlines.
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Garuda (Indonesia) I flew several times. Most of their pilots were ones retired by BA at 50 but felt they had another 5 years in them.
Air Kenya (this was also early to mid 80s) cancelled all routine servicing on their planes one year from October to the year end to save money. Not the best approach for airline management to take.
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Garuda – that was the one. Had a terrible reputation.
Never flown in Africa. More interested in the drive down through but I doubt it will happen these days. Lost my spirit for adventure somewhere along the way I think.
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Starting with Chris Rea. I don’t like admitting to liking Christmas music but I gladly make an exception for his “Driving Home for Christmas;” one of the few such songs I’ll listen to if I come across it. Back to terrorism. The two suspects have been identified. One is dead and one in custody and now, a week later, nobody still knows why this happened. It appears to be a senseless case of mass murder. No so-called motive has even been put forward. I can shake my head, I suppose. There’s just … nothing. Some genes we could do without are obviously there in the mix. Finally the geocaches. They led you to some interesting places. I loved the pictures you shared.
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Chris Rea does a lot of driving songs :D The first song of his I heard was Auberge, where the beginning starts with him ‘just popping out’ and the ferrari zooms into life. Being culturally ignorant we didn’t know who he was, so had to ask a taxi driver in our younger partying days when it came on in his cab after a dinner in the city.
I dislike pop Christmas music intensely. I don’t particularly remember the Rea one although I have heard it since.
I read about the suspects, and the aftermath. I thought the surviving one was pretty crook and had been shot in the throat rather inconveniently so couldn’t talk. The reason I posted the Reuters quote and link was because of the Islamic reference. Speculation, speculation, and not of the financial type.
The cache was fun. I mean he had been there before on the unsuccessful job hunt, but I hadn’t and wouldn’t have wandered down there otherwise. Great views of the runway and the sea. Some nice government housing overlooking there too. Thanks :)
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The Bhopal incident, terror attacks reminds us of a life we take for granted and apathy of authorities for its citizens well being. I feel it is more political than we think. I often wake up to check the blog and respond to comments. Great post:)
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Thanks Vishal. I included Bhopal not just because I was there so shortly after it happened, but because I think industrial ‘accidents’ are accepted in a way that terrorism is not. But both kill. And Bhopal killed thousands of people in one night and more died later. Plus all the ones injured.
I liked India. Loved some parts of the life, hated others, but of all the places I have visited, it’s one to which I would like to return.
I may need to unfollow and refollow your blog as I’ve discovered I’ve not seen your recent posts on WordPress Reader (nothing new there). :(
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http://www.vishalbheeroo.wordpress.com
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I know! I just clicked on your name and realised I had missed some posts :(
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Your mention of your feelings regarding the Manchester bombings, reminds me of the Birmingham pubs bombs. I felt exactly the same, having worked in Birmingham, I had visited the pubs, I had friends who still used them, and even though I was living 15 miles away it felt very close to home.
Chris Rea, a great singer, I have a few of his albums. The Auberge album, has one of my favourite songs on, Looking for the summer.
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I didn’t mention the other Brit bombings eg Brum, Guildford, Aldershot because they weren’t my territory, but the others were. But isn’t it that strange feeling, walked those streets, been in those places and – boom.
I wondered what you would think to Chris Rea (good Tyke of course), and nearly mailed you to ask! I’ve got Auberge too on cassette, A bought it for me. Looking for the Summer is quite sad I think. I like his raunchier songs. Black dog is good. Oops wrong album. OK, red shoes is good, you’re not a number, set me free, oh and auberge as well :)
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It’s a line in Looking for the Summer, that at the time it was released as a single was very true to my feelings.
‘And still I stand this very day, with a burning wish to fly away’ :-(
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I remember that line, could sing it if A wasn’t around and would moan at me. But that’s why it’s a sad song. Unfulfilled expectations/hope … :(
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It was a weekend of good intentions – rain kept the G.O. from work on Saturday and justified us totally ignoring doing anything constructive but we paid the piper on Sunday and caught up on domestic duties and shopping which involved not searching for a cache but through various shops for items that had accumulated on our list.
Me too – to waking up and having a look at comments and new posts, for about as long as it takes to drink a coffee. After that sometimes it takes me a ridiculous amount of time to comment depending on the complexity of the post and my comment…
I’m aware of the few terrorism episodes in Australia and they were documented in the media, but I think they were when I was living in the country and young, so terrorist events didn’t have significant impact on me I think until 9/11 when the entire world changed.
The three images are a great advertisement for Gib :)
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Aaagh! Shopping, my pet hate. I agreed to go yesterday to the super but was reprieved at the last minute. Phew.
I’ll often read a post a couple of times and go back later to comment. At bit like, I might wait to reply on here (overnight I obv wait), but the same principle applies, if someone has taken the time and thought to write a blog post or comment on mine, I’d like to write something that reflects the time they have put into it.
For example I really enjoyed your last two posts for obvious reasons, but I needed to think about what was pertinent in my reply. Whether it was or not is another matter :D
I never think about terrorism in Australia. Can’t even remember hearing of any. But Europe, loads, and increasingly America. I’m not sure the world changed after 9/11 although I thought it would. I also thought it was extremely badly timed as I was planning my move abroad at the time and didn’t need international disruption. I think what it did do was give world leaders/military leaders (aka USA) the opportunity to invade the Middle East right left and centre.
Thanks. I think I meant to add another one, oh well it will do for later.
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I must be some KIND OF DUMMY. Still do not understand geo what’s its name. Don’t bother trying to explain. At some point or the other, I’ll get it. At least you are exercising your brain as you try to figure all of the clues.
That plane taking off there does scare the h— out of me.
Great info. You put so much effort into your posts. A work-a-holic?
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Not at all. You use a thing called a GPS based on satellites twirling around in space and these help you navigate to where you want to go. (I don’t understand the details of that). You enter some co-ordinates into your hand held machine thing, and off you go to find something that someone has hidden. Treasure hunting used to be done with bits of paper, these days it is done with a GPS.
It’s a way to get out and about, and fun to solve a puzzle (not that I am good at it, this is the first one I have managed!), and fun to find the cache. Frustrating not to find them though.
http://www.geocaching.com/
I do like watching the planes, and hearing them boost the engines for take-off. Fantastic sound. Very unenvironmentally friendly :(
Def not a workaholic. Just that reading about the Boston incident made me reflect on the fact that terrorism has been a part of British and European life for years, and that perhaps America is only just coming to learn that it happens and life goes on.
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What was annoying was the Bostonians (on the cycling forum where I visit) were talking about the stress of the lockdown during the manhunt. Their own stress….less media about the deaths and permanent disabling about some of the people.
My nephew is studying in Boston. I’m sure he’s fine even though I haven’t heard from him. (But then he’s been a bit uncommunicative since his mother’s death.)
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I’ve decided to leave forums alone.
There was a manhunt where my parents lived for an absolutely professional killer. But life went on. People were advised not to approach him (as if you would!) but people got on the bus, went to work, went shopping etc.
One of my points that I was trying to make above, without disrespecting those who have been killed or injured, is that this is out of proportion.
I read another American blog where he said that. I compared it with British and European incidents, he compared it with other middle Eastern ones. Bluntly, America has to learn to live with terrorism without going into meltdown. The rest of us have managed it.
But on a personal level, I hope he is OK, he’s probably building up his personal resilience.
Terrorism is difficult to live with, and that’s why I tried to put it into a wider perspective. It would be nice if it wasn’t all around us. It is.
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Terrorist attacks on completely innocent people by ‘freedom fighters’ gets the person glorified. If one is on the side that regards them as terrorists they are reviled.
They should be reviled by both lots. It is rather like our protestors who tend to vent their spleen extremely violently on people who have nothing whatever to do with the cause of their displeasure.
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‘Freedom fighters’ is a controversial name in itself isn’t it? :D But yes, an accurate comment. It’s all about our different perceptions and beliefs. I do find it interesting that so-called terrorists have gone on to become heads of state. Which just goes to show that terrorism isn’t always unsuccessful. It can change laws, attitudes, mindsets and government. Not that I agree with it, but people should look below the surface.
Civilians have always died in wars :( because terrorism is a state of war in someone’s head. Look at ‘collateral damage’. Equally killing innocent people. Or ‘friendly fire’. Killing your allies, really smart move that one.
Targeting civilians IS despicable. Closely followed by stereotyping (your last point). But the truth is, we have to live with terrorism and not be terrorised by it. Boston going into shutdown mode fell into the trap of being terrorised.
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Sadly, there is a tendency to allow a vast minority of lunatics to influence the behaviour of the majority. Or, another way, forcing the majority to be inconvenienced constantly in reaction. Take airport procedures. I recall when arrival 30 minutes before a flight was ample time to get through. Traffic calming devices provide another illustration of the wrong reaction. Good policing and ruthless imposition of penalties would be a better idea and would not cause the general law-abiding public to waste time and fuel negotiating these obstacles.
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I remember the days of easy flights too. I haven’t flown since the Twin Towers incidents after I read about all the incidents. But re my point regarding terrorism is always with us, it was certainly around when I embarked on my trip around the world, in those days it was hostage-taking.
I don’t have an issue with traffic calming. If we had enough officers to identify everyone who speeded our enforcement bill would double the national debt and the courts would become even more clogged up. Sadly, our culture tolerates driving crimes as acceptable. Ask yourself, do you know anyone who doesn’t speed?
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There is no moral difference between a Stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people for political reasons. Excellent post otherwise!
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Thank you. I didn’t mean to suggest there was a moral difference – not from my perspective anyway. But nor, do I consider killing civilians in so-called sanctioned wars/invasions to be justifiable either.
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St Thomas in the Virgin Islands has a short runway with water right there at the end, too.
The US has had a charmed life up until now with terrorism. Life’s been easy, people naive and spoiled, and the bad stuff was far far in the distant. Too many never stray far from where they grew up.
Well, welcome to what the rest of the world has had to live with for a long time.
(and as you say, few were actually killed although many injured…media here doesn’t see that. Nor will the media/government admit those in charge of security failed failed failed to pick up on all the warning signs.)
As you say, “Terrorism doesn’t go away. Whether it’s political or religious, it’s here to stay.” It’s been around in some form forever.
Really wish the US would stop trying to tell other countries how to run their lives – it won’t stop terrorism, but bossing people/countries around doesn’t help.
(Oh, will take a moment to thanks all those lovely people in London who assisted a friend’s young little sister who arrive there the day the subways blew up. We were all on email/phones trying to locate her and get her places to stay and then back on route to where she was headed. She has nothing but admiration for the average ordinary people on the street that were kind enough to help her.)
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I think the runways with water are quite interesting. Hong Kong was the one I thought was bad because we flew in among all the skyscrapers like a spooky sci-fi film. (Blade Runner?)
Yes. The US has had a charmed life with terrorism and with war generally. It sort of skews the point of view when they budge in and tell the rest of us how to live our lives.
I only quoted a few British examples. There are far more. And far more Spanish and other European ones too. Terrorism is a fact of life. Understanding the purpose and carrying on with life is important, which is why the Boston shut-down was a bad decision.
So pleased your friend’s sister was helped. Underground or tube by the way. We don’t have subways ;) We always try and help anyone if we can. Mostly it’s asking for information here in Gib – where is this, where is that, – cable car, botanical gardens, Trafalgar cemetery, where can we eat, where do we get money out of the cash machine …. A few people have said how helpful locals have been (when they spoke English that is). There’s a shortage of help and generosity, so good to try and add a little into the system.
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I realized it was the tube after I hit send. (Working too fast.)
A lot of bumbling with law enforcement in Boston – they have a lot to learn about smart effective actions and procedures – and the media (have to talk and guess instead of checking things out)
although the people themselves pulled together quickly (heavy Irish/Scotts ancestry there). They can be a tough lot.
Enjoyed the post – (need to stop as tire and gotten hard to control the letter switching dyslexia.)
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I like the differences between English and American English and dislike the blurring for example, English people calling biscuits cookies or using cup cakes for buns/fairy cakes – that one has caught on a lot in the UK :( We have a joint but different heritage, and I think we should both agree to maintain our differences. I digress.
I haven’t read too much about Boston, I will confess. Writing about Bangladesh on the May Day post, I did read one article that said how Boston received so much coverage for three deaths compared with hundreds in Bangladesh and even more people injured. I’ve gone back to add the link at the end of the post which I originally forgot to include. The point of that is to say that journalism is such a mixed kettle of fish. Some good, some bad. Mostly superficial, very little is thoughtful.
Didn’t know about the ancestry although on my list of places to visit in America, it has always been on there. Scots/Irish would def explain the resilience.
I rarely comment at night – unless I have sneaked a few hours nap time. That’s why most of my writing is a morning job.
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