Riots, X and sun

 It was a terrible week last week. On Monday a man with a mental illness went into a holiday dance class and stabbed lots of children, killing 3. Misinformation on the internet said it was an Asylum seeker and the far right embraced the situation. 

They started targeting places they thought supported Asylum seekers. However, it ended up being far more than Asylum seekers and they targeted anybody that they didn't see as being British born and bred. Ironically and ridiculously, a lot of the people they targeted actually were.

Over the week there were multiple far right riots across the country. All utterly terrible. It's not completely calmed down yet, but by Wednesday people had come out in support of those being 'demonstrated' against and were outnumbering the far right protesters (rioters), who backed down.

I've rarely been more ashamed of my country - well until the anti-protesters got involved. It literally breaks my heart to see so much intolerance, but gratifies me to see that the numbers of people with hearts and souls turned out to be so much stronger.

Over to America and Elon Musk not only gave voice to the people who were inciting the violence, via X - but also said about the UK 'civil war is inevitable'. Well here's the thing Elon - no it isn't. Like many Americans you believe that people in the UK are the same as in the US and think you know us. However, we are an island nation and I'm not saying that makes us better than anybody else, but it does give us a different spin on how we think. 

Perhaps he should spend less time listening to some recent UK people of prominence who have no genuine morals, but will align themselves to whatever they think will bring them power and fame. They are not representative of the majority and in time their masks will slip and more and more people will see them for the shallow irrelevant husks that they are.

Here's something he may not be aware of.... I'm now at an age where I can look back to recent history with some 'lived' knowledge. As a country we only riot if it's sunny. As soon as it starts raining we calm down. Try that for some 'local' knowledge - I know it's true I've seen it many times.

I've never really 'got' Twitter/X or whatever you want to call it. I've signed up a few times feeling that I must be missing the point. I've stuck on it for a few days, but it's always felt facile and pointless. That's not me knocking those that use it - I guess I just don't have enough to say and I'm not really interested in what others have to say in a few words. I need more detail and the thinking behind things.

So I decided to make my own personal protest and deactivate my account(s) and then delete the app. The only problem is that I had no idea what my passwords were. In trying to see what they were I in error created a new account - on top of the other ones that I had. So now I had even more accounts to sort out. 

Much googling not only explained how to deactivate the accounts, but also how to find out what my passwords were. I have to say it meant I really wanted to make a point because I ended up spending about 2 hours sorting it all out.

So now I have deactivated my accounts and deleted the app. I may still have other accounts that I don't recall. But I have at least done my best to make my protest. I recognise that I'm a small fish and my little protest will go unnoticed, but at least I feel I have made a stand (mini-fireworks going off).

But that's enough time and emotion spent talking about that horribleness and people of irrelevance, let's move on to more interesting things.

The sun has well and truly come out now, the weather was lovely all week, with a few overnight bouts of rain to relieve any humidity. On Sunday we went over to Goring where my sister-in-law has a beach hut. Here we met my husband's side of the family and spent the afternoon together in the sunshine. There was a lovely sea breeze, which meant that we were not gasping for shade.

Husband had taken along the paddleboards, so he and son went out for a paddle whilst his brothers looked on willing him to fall off and then cheering with joy when he eventually did. Nephew in law then had a go and picked it up really quickly. He seems to have the same gene as husband that means that if anything is sporty he picks it up like a flash.  Hopefully he'll get his own board now, I mean if you live by the sea it makes no sense not making the most of it.

This week's photo is of some enormous kites that were being flown over the beach. You just don't get the scale of them from the photo. I'd say that each flag was about the size of a single decker bus - but they were up in the air so maybe I'm exaggerating. 

Yesterday was also the first time that dog had the joys of doggy ice-cream. Let's just say that I think it made her day. Son and  I had intended to give her some when we were on holiday, but we never quite got around to it.

So that's it for this week, but let's all keep our fingers crossed that there's no more unrest in the country. It's not a great look and there's enough to be ashamed of in life. If it does pick up again I guess we need to keep our fingers crossed that the rain comes back!!!