The weekend that was

I missed my son playing cricket this weekend.  On Friday, after work I had been asked to collect my son from a cricket meetup in Halstead and I was hoping to get to watch him play, however, while I got there in time to collect him, the games had just finished. 

The weekend involved my daughter going to a birthday party where she got to do some climbing and after she got back, she had to catch up on homework.  My son was amazing around the house and I did throw a few balls for him to bat away.  The deal is that if he is able to get it over the back garden fence, I will give him a pound (for his Pokémon GO account), but one ball was lost near the shed and the other one went over a fence, but to the side.  I have to say that I am impressed with how hard that he is able to hit it, especially as when this happened last, he got annoyed as I hit him twice (he did not block properly).

And of course, there was the England game, which I watched with Tony.  I knew that we had to win this to take off any pressure when it comes to playing Belgium, but I did not expect such a scoreline!

A happy son

Since the last post, the family have fallen in love with the new car.  Last weekend we drove down to London to see my mother and the parents of my wife. I had to attend a course, and my son was away on a camping weekend.  My daughter therefore got alone time with her grandparents, who while glad to see her, were a bit sad to only see one grandchild.

My son has a weekend of activity planned.  He gets to play cricket tomorrow and on Saturday gets to go out onto the River Blackwater.  This meant that I did not get to collect him from school this weekend as my wife had to get him some cricket whites and apparently he was sad as this meant that I have not collected him from school for a while.  But later in the day, he proudly showed us his work when it came to his Celebration Evening at his school. My daughter found that school was smaller than it was when she left it and got to meet some of her old teachers as well.

Back to my son, the downside for him and his day at the Blackwater is regarding his love of PokémonGO as it means that he has less time to catch Pokémon. But he went to bed very happy today as he managed to get a rare Pokémon. One which I do not have, and I am not jealous at all! And on that topic, I still have a Pokémon in Sri Lanka!  

Most importantly though, I have my fingers crossed for the first competitive match of cricket that my son has to play.  Considering that he hated it when he was first taken to play it by my wife, this is a big step for him and I do hope that he does not lose the love for the game that he has developed.

A new car

Well, this weekend was a hot one, and one that was not expected, though not always hot otherwise my son would have been able to play cricket on Saturday morning.  But in addition to that pleasant surprise the kids got to enjoy our new car.

It was sad to leave our old one, or rather the old one of my wife.  It has been in the family for years, and while it has been a faithful helper to the family, it has not been as reliable as it was before.  And over that time, the technology in cars has changed.  So while my car has changed a few times, we have been exposed to how things have changed with it.  The kids now that they are older want to listen to music that they like.  And they find it easier to do so on their phones.  So now we have two cars where they can do so.

Thoughts and Prayers May 2018

Yet more shootings have occurred in US schools.  Again.


The above video was recorded last year in response to the way that US politicians keep blaming mental health for these shootings which do not occur anywhere as frequently in developed nations with decent gun controls.

I am grateful that I live in a nation where I do not have to worry as much as parents in the USA that my children will be murdered at school. Danger is everywhere in all nations and the mass murder of children can happen in any western nation. It last happened in the UK in 1996, following which a ban on handguns was imposed. Before this, following a mass shooting in 1987, semi-automatic weapons had been banned.

Since then, we have had incidents where the murder of more than one person has occurred, but these have been rare, one example being, how Derrick Bird killed many innocent people, followed by the murderous rampage of Raoul Moat. But this was in 2010 and while mass murder has occurred since then on several occasions, firearms have not been used in this manner to kill so many. The thing is that guns are still legal in the UK, though there are restrictions on what guns can be owned.

Gun crime exists here, but the rates are far lower than in nations like the USA, just like how the overall murder rate in the USA is higher than in other developed nations. The call in the USA by many is for assault weapons to be banned. Those who are against it cite the second amendment to the US constitution which allows the right to bear arms. But this was made in a time when a well trained person would take almost a minute to shoot three times. I have discussed this with my wife, and she is of the view that nothing will change in the USA. And to be fair, she may be right. After the murders of very young children in Sandy Hook, assault weapons are still legal, and this is probably due to the campaign contributions made by organisations like the NRA to protect the right of Americans to have assault rifles, though this has meant the continued murder of children in schools. Something that does not happen anywhere near as often outside the USA.  And when it is okay to kill kids aged between six and seven, teenagers have no chance of being protected by gun laws.  Which means, that other than the ban on bump stocks, Trump is not going to act to stop the continued mass murder of American children in schools.

All weekends are equal, but some are more equal than others

Today, we decided not to do the sensible thing, which was to stay at home and work on the garden.  Instead we went out for a trip to Southwold.  We have been here many a time and the children do not seem to mind the drive there, as now they have control over the music that we listen to.

Once there, we were lucky to find a parking space, but it was a bit colder than we had expected.  After some time on the pier where he had some lunch, enjoyed the sun, and gazed at the sea, it was a walk into town.  My son was amazing as he was willing to walk quite fast, though this was related to Pokémon Go.  This has been amazing for him when it comes to exercise and I have to say I was impressed with his endurance.

After that it was a drive home where my wife fed us some amazing pasta and we snuggled up on the sofa to watch a film.

Trump and his christian values on abortion

Ireland have agreed to a change in the abortion laws that have saved the lives of many babies who had mothers who were unable to afford a trip to the United Kingdom.

Do not get me wrong, like many, I think that abortion should be safe, legal and rare.  Working in healthcare, I am in a situation where I have helped people to obtain this, and when I do so, it is with a heavy heart, knowing that this is the least worst of several bad options available.

What is interesting are the christian values that a man on his third wife claims to follow.  We know for a fact that he started to see the woman who was to become his second wife while he was still married to the first.  While there have been allegations that he had assaulted other women, he can always say that this is not true.  People are innocent until proven guilty, and Trump has not been found guilty of such charges.  And while he has engaged in 'locker room talk' where he stated that he had taken part in unfaithful behaviour, again, he has not been found guilty of this and denied doing such things, and later tried to cast doubt about these things that he had said.

However, there are two allegations, strong ones, that Donald Trump, not only has been unfaithful, but has attempted to keep both quiet.  One with Karen McDougal and the other a single encounter with Stormy Daniels.  Again, these allegations are not proven.

So, while allegations have been made, which are unproven, the man is an admitted adulterer (who is now on wife number three).  How the Christian religious right can back him so much is beyond me.  Maybe one day, someone will let me know.

But back to the point of this post, if a man, one that many Christians on the right (but not all) respect, cannot be trusted to be faithful, how can those on the religious right expect other men to stay faithful?  And if they are not to be trusted, should a woman be forced to bear a child she does not want and risk being a single mother before her time?

I got one!

Since my last post about the family, my daughter has left.  She is away on a school trip for the next few days, and for now, my son does not seem to miss her, though my wife and I do.  Today was interesting as I got back from dropping my daughter at school to return home, finding that my son annoyed his mother, so I cooked him breakfast, and then, when he refused to eat it, made him eat it.  For the evening, we went to see Isabel and Tony were we ate dinner and then home.  A new hob was fitted and then it came to putting a draw back which had to be removed to fit it.  That was fun, though my wife and I made up after the slight discussion on now to perform this task!

Anyway, when it comes to Pokémon GO, on Tuesday, I had to go to the doctors.  On the way, I was able to attend an EX raid, where someone kindly caught my son another Mewtwo, and also, after it was defeated in battle, helped me catch it.  Which meant that it was third time lucky for me.  But he is ecstatic that he has two of these rare Pokémon while only have one.  But, I can boast that, for now, one of my Pokémon is still in a gym in Sri Lanka!