Review, Rethink, and React

I've had a rather unsettled time since my last post.  The world's political situation has been depressing me and my uretic stent has been causing problems which always scares me because of the possibility of sepsis. Over the years I have got to the stage where I can recognise the very early onset of sepsis. However sometime it occurs in the middle of the night and I can wake up in a very confused state. Fortunately the emergency services have so far managed to respond to my confused phone calls and I'm here to tell the tale.

Apart from that I'm okay but enough of health and negativity.

I'm getting to the stage when I find the international political situation beyond coping with. It's obvious that the USA is going to be a loose cannon until Trump relinquishes power which may not be any time soon. It seems entirely possible that he may alter the constitution to declare himself president for life.

I spent my professional career in local government and can say without fear of rational contradiction that the great majority of people working in local government had the best interests of the communities they served at heart. I'm talking about professionals. Politicians were a different kettle of fish. Some - probably the majority - did have the best interest of their constituents at heart. Some, on the other hand, were in politics for what they could get out of it. In the UK when I was working, local government politicians were UNPAID and just received expenses. Now they are professional politicians.

I am, by nature, a very positive person. So THIS WILL BE MY LAST NEGATIVE POST.

I've never been a daily poster like YP and many others of you but my absence from Blogland has been unsettling for me because it's been such a part of my life for so many years.

I'm very fortunate that in my 81st year I'm as busy as I ever was and sometimes busier. Despite so many of my pals having left this mortal coil others have filled the gaps. 

So I'm counting my blessings and hopefully I'll return forthwith to being an active member of the blogging community to which I have belonged for so many years. 

Too Much Thinking

I'm not, by nature, a worrier nor do I usually concern myself with national or international events which I have absolutely no ability to influence. Noone in their right mind would suggest that I, or any other 'ordinary' individual in the UK or probably the world, could influence the potential for an escalation towards another war in Europe arising from the unbelievable actions of one of the most powerful countries in the world. Indeed, many are wondering whether even national and international leaders in Europe have that power either.

What, even a few years ago, seemed unthinkable is now being talked about as a distinct possibility if not quite a probability.

The leader of the US of A keeps telling us that he wants to 'make America great again'. America was already great. I don't know anyone who disputed that.  

However what the current President has done is make the world a very much less safe place. Isolationism and bullying never brings true power. It brings the power of fear and tyranny. That is not TRUE power. It may be the power on which empires were built in the past. Today it simply gives the Putins of this world the go-ahead to do what they like. Today's Europe has been built on the assumption of peace. It would appear that that may have been a mistake. 

Effective world power today is wielded by economic not military might. Today many nations have the physical power and means to control and even to destroy other nations with ease. Any such action would however only produce pyrrhic victories.

In the past nations could become rich and benefit their countries by those means.

The world is too small for that now. The ramifications and the fallout from any nuclear threat or use would simply be too catastrophic to contemplate. Exercise of that power would benefit noone except, possibly and temporarily, some of the world's dictators. And they will be dead by the time the worst of the economic damage manifests itself. 

So will I. 

An Unusual Task

Fifteen or so years ago my phone rang.  "Would you do me a favour and pop over to the house. I've something I'd like you to do for me. Just ring me whenever you manage to get over."

"Okay. It'll be early afternoon. Is that okay?"

"Absolutely."

My friends were in the South of England visiting their old stomping ground. Hence they were unable to fulfill a request from their daughter somewhere miles away.

The daughter had been invited (if I recall correctly) to a formal ball somewhere. She had a dress but needed some special accessories.  When her daughter asked her to ask me, her Mother had whether it was appropriate, to which she got the reply "It's only Graham."

So once I was at the house I made contact and was duly asked to go up to the spare bedroom and in a particular drawer I would be asked to look for something. The 'something' turned out to be a very exclusive black set of slip, bra and knickers. Apart from having never seen such a massive array of underwear before (and, yes, I was once married!) I'd never seen anything quite so exotic, alluring and obviously expensive.

The underwear (and possibly a pair of high heels) was duly despatched the next day and that was that. Until something was said recently and I realised this was something I was never going to live down. So I decided at least to get a blog post out of it!

I should add that the "It's only Graham" has since turned up a number of times in my life. I'm still trying to work out whether it's a compliment

Absent

This is just a quick post of explanation because some have wondered why I wasn't responding to comments in my last post (which I have now done).

On Saturday evening as I was getting into bed my chest tightened up and I got pains and was having difficulty breathing.  At this point it becomes hard to decide whether one is having a heart attack or that the body has gone into panic mode unnecessarily.

I'm not, by nature, a pannicker so I concluded that the rational explanation was heart related. I had had a heart attack many years ago before Blogland existed (I blogged about it here) and I had an 'incident' some years ago which was pronounced a 'false alarm'.

I decided to call an emergency ambulance. It was then that I discovered that my house phone wasn't working. Heaven knows how long that had been the case because I only keep it for emergencies (ironically). Anyway I had my cellphone (which is, I discovered, registered with the emergency services because I've used it before in an emergency).

The outcome was a couple of nights in the High Dependency Unit of the local hospital. We are so fortunate in having a hospital with brilliant care (and no 10 hour queues in A & E).

I was then discharged fit and well again.

However I have to confess that for a while I was a more than a little apprehensive.