FOOD FOR FUEL - FOOD FOR THOUGHT-SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE...TO BE OR NOT TO BE

We do have Public Holidays in Scotland but the recent late August Bank Holiday is an English one. Scotland fixes a late Summer holiday weekend at the beginning of August.  Public holidays in Scotland tend to tie in with local culture, norms and traditions.

Earlier this week I found myself in a bar/restaurant in Inverness, the Capital City of The Highlands Of Scotland. It was one of a major chain networked throughout the United Kingdom.  

Although we arrived in time for the weekday meal offer,  customers were told that there was no special meal deal (two meals for £10) because it was a Bank Holiday.  A Bank Holiday - whose Bank Holiday!?

The Barman, through whom I placed my food order, thought that over time the  late August holiday had crept in, in some places as an addition and in others, as a replacement for the earlier one Scotland traditionally has. 

"What" says I, "do you think will happen to the Bank Holidays in the event of a 'yes' vote for Scottish Independence?"

Him- quick as a flash  " There probably won't be any!".........

The  barman then talked about his view of the impending referendum and told me how he would be voting.

The Independence Vote has engaged all age groups of the population in Scotland and born Scots, who, for whatever reason are out of the country and who are gnashing their teeth because they are not allowed to participate in the vote. (You have to have been living in Scotland for six months prior and be registered to take part). 

Even people waiting at bus stops in Edinburgh got chatting to each other,  bouncing off thoughts and ideas about the referendum.  All of them were keen to know and to get to hear for themselves, what populations in other parts of Scotland might vote for.  One woman was surprised to hear there were no regular political meetings where I live 'on the periphery of civilisation'.  One Member Of The Scottish Parliament (MSP) had put himself out to visit when I happened to be elsewhere, I explained.  He deserves a lot of Brownie points for making the effort that no-one else in the Scottish Parliament has considered emulating.

TOSSING AND TURNING

I've been tossing and turning vague ideas about, for posts, like a storm in a tea cup, which, as yet, has not settled.  My thoughts are taken up with the tragedies of war and the awfulness of the wrath of nature, which, like war, wreaks havoc on communities and countries.  

'Community' and 'country' are compound shorthand terms, which, seem to me to be  useful third party non-emotive descriptions for talking about people like you and me.  Communities are made up of  people; like the men women and children, who have provided the life blood of the places that have been destroyed.  Many of the people who have lived in those places have been destroyed too.

THE UNEXPECTED

Being shut out of my blog site recently threw up  some unexpected feelings.  See here: http://myword1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/getting-locked-out-of-my-blogsite-me.html   

Someone suggested that it must be interesting being a visitor to your own blog site, it giving another perspective on what [I] do and see. 

Well, no, being locked out of my site did not give me another perspective on what I produce and publish on my blog.  I believe it did not do that because I was, and I am, already very familiar  and closely linked with all of it.  It was not like visiting someone else's site, where I would be seeing different perspectives,  reading something new, meeting up with a different writing style, or, mulling over other and possibly new and refreshing ideas.  


Not being able to fully access my blog site was frustrating.  I  was on the outside looking in. The nearest analogy would be, being shut out of my own house.  Something or someone had a power to do that and I was almost powerless to do anything other than look in through the glass window.  It was  very uncomfortable.  My discomfort, doubtlessly prompted my inner drives to resolve it.

I was also prompted to think about the very many displaced and dispossessed people we hear about, as well as those we are not told much about. The majority have fled to find relative safety; recent history  is full of brutal examples of sequestrating people's homes, taking their livelihoods and their lives.  By comparison, my little cyber experience rates as nothing, and yet,  the event itself, raised my emotional awareness of a particular kind of loss.  It was not a comfortable place to be in.  It will be unimaginably uncomfortable for those who are living the full blast of it right now.

A MILKMAN'S HORSE

It is not everyday you get compared to a milkman's horse.  When I go out with him, hubby says I am like one.  Now, I cannot remember a milkman's horse, I am sure they were hard workers and very biddable animals.  The suggestion is, according to Hubby, at every stopping point,  the horse,  (not the milkman)  socialised with the householders, or the people who queued for their cans of milk.  I have no way of actually knowing, as that type of house-to-house, or, street- to- street milk marketing would have happened before I was aware of it.

So, what prompted this seemingly uncomplimentary suggestion.  Where I live, it is usual to acknowledge people you see, whether you know them or not; you might even exchange a word or two, perhaps, even, have a chat.  What has this to do with a milkman's horse, I hear you ask?

We passed a guy waiting for an inter-city bus yesterday. After initial polite salutations, it was clear that the man was Canadian. He and I got into conversation very quickly.  Hubby disappeared from sight.  The man probably learned as much about me and some of the life of the area he was leaving, as I learned about him. 

This afternoon when we went out for a walk, we passed a house in the street where we live, where, the patio windows were unusually, open.  A woman was mopping the floor, and a cute lapdog sat nearby.  Not for long, it came rushing to me, and in its evident haste misjudged its movements and hit itself on the wall.  It was naturally a bit dazed, even so, it allowed me to pet it.  The lady cleaning up was moving out, she had lived there - invisibly - more than a year.  Invisibility was what she preferred, being a bit of a troglodyte, she said.  For all that, she was keen to talk, to tell me about her American life, what she missed and did not miss after nineteen years in the U.K.  The move, like all moves, was an upheaval, but, she was only going five miles away to a cheaper property.  I learned that poor heart health with a concomitant reduction in income had necessitated the retrenchment. 

So, what is there to dislike about a milkman's horse? In my humble view, if I am like the milkman's horse of yore, the horse must have been a remarkably sociable companion.

BRITAIN'S RESPONSE TO RESCUING PEOPLE

When British and other Nationals were advised to leave Egypt, the advice to them was the same, (when you could obtain information) as people have been receiving in Libya. The means of getting to an airport (or other exit point) was up to the individual. This guidance is very limited at the 'best' of times, and hardly works for for people who are stuck in the centre of bombarded areas (like war zones in or near Tripoli)or marooned in a desert or anywhere else construed to be the middle of nowhere.

The word has got to the British media by various means, that the response of the British Government to helping our citizens and anyone else, is woefully inadequate, indeed it is pathetic. While other countries have been getting their citizens and other nationals out of the danger zones, where they can, under media pressure, the very best Britain could offer, and very late in the proceedings, was one plane which got stuck on the tarmac for 10 hours going nowhere. Meanwhile, in television interviews, the Foreign Secretary of State, William Hague, sat in a high-backed winged leather armchair, looking serious and important, making disingenuous statements about Government concerns and rescue activities.

While the revolutionary turmoil continues apace in the Middle East, cut backs have been announced in the maintaining of, and staffing of British foreign embassies and legations. We will be told, no doubt, that the services given, (I think we now need to know what they are)can be offered in a more progressive,(which means radical) and efficient manner. If a large number of countries take the same view, there will be no-one to merge with, no country on which we can piggyback minimal services, or ask to act on our behalf for British nationals abroad. What value is Britannia, when she is internationally sinking into an abyss.

SALE OF THE CENTURY?

The sales and auction site Ebay had a rather unusual item uploaded for auction on its British site; someone's grandmother.  Granny was described  amongst other things, as...... can be difficult to get on with, but not bad looking, 

It is no surprise however, to hear that the listing was removed by Ebay.  When asked for a comment, the Ebay  representative stated that they do not auction or sell human beings.