Party time!

My daughter had her 18th birthday last night.  The garden is now tidier than it was at the end of last night.  Friends of ours came over and kept us company allowing us to relax as much as we could, distracting us from what was going on in the garden.  

While normal parents allow parties to take place inside a house, after hearing what had happened at other parties, my wife and I decided that there was to be no party indoors.  We had offered to hold the party in a bar elsewhere, but many of the friends of my daughter are under the age of 18, and I have reasons to believe that alcohol was consumed last night.  

I did insist that the firepit that we have was put into use, and considering the cold, and the fact that boys were present, it was quite popular.  I was concerned that they were to run out of firewood, but this did not happen. 

Anyway, time to iron my scrubs for the coming week...

The Eras Tour

Have been to watch most of The Eras Tour, by Taylor Swift, with my son.  I say most, we missed the beginning as I was ordering pizza for dinner, and we missed the end, as he needed to get to a sleep over. 

If I had my time again, I might have watched it in a cinema with better sound and one which switched the lights off. But if I did that, the quality of the food would not have been as good, and they would not have brought my pizza to the outside of the screen where we were watching it.

I think he loved it, and while I wanted to watch it, it was more for him. I had invited my daughter, but she is to watch it on another day with a friend of hers. I will let her know my views on where to watch it as the quality of the food is not as much an issue for her as it is for me.  Mind you, my wife, who is away on a course, may want to watch it. We all were disappointed that we did not get tickets for her tour, but then so we’re most the people who wanted them. This is a film that is a consolation, but I do think she would be even better live. 

A late post about Arsenal

It appears that I have missed a post on Arsenal. Needless to say, the weekend was busy on a personal and international level. Put simply, I was convinced that Arsenal were to lose the match. I was very surprised to find out otherwise. Admittedly there were few actual highlights, other than when Arsenal almost lost the game. The great thing is that we are almost top of the league. The downside it that it is the scum that is actually top. 

Kfar Aza and the cycle of violence

I want to be able to attend a rally which wants a just peace for both sides in the Holy Land. I mean one which does not involve Israel stealing land for settlers & one where Palestinians have the same Human Rights from their governments that Israelis have from theirs.

I do not know if that is possible.  Protestors in Australia apparently have been anti-semitic.  I know that many who want a just peace, do not want anything to do with people who make such chants. 

What I do know is that the way that Hamas has killed Israeli civilians is at a level worse than that which has happened to Palestinian civilians.  Not just murdering someone and posting the murder on their own Facebook account, but the cold blooded murder of children and babies.  Many are describing this as terrorism, but it is wrong to do so.  The government of the Gaza Strip have declared war on Israel by these actions, and they have taken part in war crimes worse than what Israel has done before.  Civilians are to be killed in the Gaza Strip as Israel will retaliate, that is sadly the nature of war.  The refusal of Israel to allow the population of Gaza to flee means that a massacre may result, one that would have less casualties if people are allowed to escape.  

Yesterday morning, I heard an Israeli civilian talking in a manner that means that they have fallen for the half truths told about how Palestinians are treated.  Truth is said by many to be the first casualty of war, and that casualty was wounded decades ago.      

It will be interesting to see how outlets such as Novara media respond to the atrocities inflicted upon Israeli civilians.  I hope that even if they do not modify their message (I am sure that they will), they will not end up banned by Cruella. 

The COVID inquiry

 

Listening to this brought back memories.  The anxiety that I have about seeing patients who are ill is better, still present in that I am one of two people at work who use face masks in the building.  But I have noted that I do not enjoy my job as much as before.  I do not think that I have PTSD, but the pandemic and the stress it caused me has affected me.  It is good to know that I am not alone.

Israel and Hamas are both in the wrong

There is no justification for the attacks by Hamas into Israel, but the same applies to the murder of Labib Dumaidi, a Palestinian killed in Israeli settler attack on the West Bank town of Huwara.

I hate it how this discussion has become a binary one for many.

I disagree with how Israel has been taking more and more Palestinian land in the West Bank.  I do not like how it seems that settlers there can kill Palestinians and get away with it.

I also disagree with the way that Palestinians treat their own people.  If you are Muslim or Christian and are Israeli, you have more rights than the Palestinian authorities give Palestinians!  Women's rights in Gaza have been restricted since Hamas took control.  Being straight is essentially the only option if you are Palestinian.  

Murdering civilians because of the deaths of civilians on your own is just collective punishment and neither side should be carrying this out.

I pray that this can be resolved in a just manner, but considering the hatred on both sides, I doubt it.

An exhausting weekend

We are back from seeing Sally, Tony and their son this weekend.  It is to be his 50th this month hence a meet up.  We were to meet David as well, but he felt that he had to pull out of the meet.  We did miss him, but we still had a great time.  We arrived on Friday, I was more exhausted than normal having had my COVID and influenza vaccinations the day before.  However, I was well enough to partake in the general merriment and was back to normal for Saturday when we had a cook come round to prepare what I felt was an amazing meal.  And of course, today we left. 

We do not meet up with them often enough.  Hopefully we will be able to do so next year.