Tik Toc and Darwin awards

Today, I learned about a trend called Vabbing.  Thanks that is to the video which I have attached to this post.  I know that people are under pressure to perform, but this surprised me.  It does make me think if the way to eliminate the world of gullible people is to flood Tik Toc with fatal fads...

I should be very, very angry

We are back at home. My son has college tomorrow and we spent some time watching Fresh Off The Boat together. My daughter, in Vietnam is looking after some of her travelling companions who have come down ill with gastroenteritis. Hopefully she will not get it.

Football, Arsenal lost against West Ham, which means I might be seeing a lot of West Ham fans this week.  We do not do well when we play before our rivals, this being no exception. Watching the highlights, I did not see the vigour that Arsenal normally play with. Which meant that while I was disappointed, I was not very very angry. 

Hambleton Bakery

Today is our last full day in Rutland. After breakfast I took our dog for a long walk. I had taken her on a bit of it yesterday. Today I took her on the rest of it. She loved it. Yesterday she came back a bit muddy but today there was a lot more mud. I guess that is what comes of the longer walk.  My wife was not too happy though.

Afterwards we went for a drive to get some lunch. My wife drove us to Oakham and while we did did somewhere to eat lunch, we could not eat there due to the parking restrictions. My wife and son found a record shop and may have bought a record. I took Leia to explore the town and started to explore Oakham castle, not that it is much of a castle, but the history that I did get to read was really interesting.

We returned to the Hambleton bakery which we had visited the day before. Then there was a lot more choice, but we arrived earlier yesterday. Today the first two dishes my wife wanted were sold out, but my son and I got what we wanted. After that it was a trip to a farm shop and then a drive to a supermarket to get items to clean our messy dog.

Our son is enjoying having a room to himself, and actually had loads of fun in the front of the car while my wife was driving. We have not heard from our daughter but we know she is alive as she responded to a message on the family WhatsApp group. She had been unwell earlier this week and we gave her some advice, but I presume that she is now better and is enjoying Vietnam, hence the silence from her.

Fingers crossed that dinner is a better experience at the hotel today! 

The art of the deal

First of all, the family. My wife, son and dog are taking a few days off in Rutland.  We arrived yesterday but today brought about some changes. We had arranged to have a room shared with my son, but he is taller than me now (just). He slept on a camp bed last night, but did not do well.  So we have paid for him to have a room of his own, but it is in a different part of the hotel.

Today we went exploring, getting some dog food for Leia (we had been told that the dog would be fed by the hotel when we booked it) as well as having lunch in a local bakery.  I went for a walk later with Leia, but came back with my shoes caked in mud.  Dinner has been nice, but my meals have not been as good as I had hoped. Yesterday my pasta was undercooked and today my son and I ordered steak to be served rare, for it to come as medium.  The steak was still good, but was not as good as we wanted it to be.

Now for Trump. He states that he believes Putin when Putin says he wants an end to the war. That is true, but Putin wants the capitulation of Ukraine, something he might get. With the relations between Trump and Zelenskyy worsening, the question arises as to if Ukraine will be invaded after all.  Trump stopping aid to Ukraine is one thing, ending the sanctions on Russia though will be even more damaging.  We saw what a great deal Trump agreed with the Taliban in 2020 about Afghanistan, a great deal that is for The Taliban. Back then he did not include the Afghan government in the talks, just as he has not included Ukraine in these talks.  Based on how well the last deal went, we can expect Ukraine to be speaking Russian in the next few years. 

Does The Manchurian Candidate think that the US started a war with Japan by attacking them at Pearl Harbour?

Donald Trump has done it again. He has grabbed headlines. This time, it is because he has agreed with Putin that Ukraine is at fault for Russia invading it.

There have been many on the left and the right who have argued that Putin is acting in response to the actions of the west, notably NATO expansion. I have discussed how this is wrong before, but am happy to do so again.  If any agreement was made about NATO expansion, the former nations of The Warsaw Pact would have become nervous once Russia liberated Transnistria from Moldova. Appeasement did not work then with Russia moving to liberate Abkhazia afterwards.  NATO expansion occurred after this, and there was a few years of peace before Russia liberated South Ossetia. The policy of appeasement lasted until Russia ‘helped’ Crimea liberate itself in early 2014, Russia starting the war in The Donbas afterwards.  During this conflict Russia shot down MH17 by accident but then denied doing so.  

Russia amassed troops on the border of Ukraine in 2022, and despite saying it would not do so, invaded. Though this time, they waited until after the Olympics (the Winter ones) before they invaded. Like Putin, I did not think that the war would last this long. I, like many across the globe, was surprised to see that Ukraine lasted. 

I want an end to the war, this being one where Ukraine regains its borders. I do not see anything close to that happening and the question now is if Trump will allow Ukraine to be invaded.

When Donald Trump complained about Mexico sending rapists to the US, I did not know that is because he wanted (alleged) rapists imported from Romania!

Apparently, Donald Trump wants the Tate brothers to be free to travel away from Romania.  I doubt he means that the extradition warrant that the UK has against them is to be enforced. 

We in the UK could send our people, not our best. We could send people that have lots of problems, and they could take those problems with them. There would be no need for them to be bringing drugs. And the Tate brothers would not be bringing crime as they have alleged been involved in criminal activity with US citizens already. They are considered rapists by some (though they are innocent until proven guilty). And some, I assume, think that they are good people.

I will admit to being surprised by this, but I suspect that I am going to be surprised a lot in the next four years. 

Leicester City vs Arsenal 2025

What a match.  I am hoping that we finish second.  Will I am hoping that we win the league, but I doubt that will happen. It is nice that we have more than three points between us and the chasing pack, but we have thrown away leads before and can give up this gap.