Merry Christmas everyone

A quick post before bed.  We have been at home after spending Christmas with my mother and brothers.  The morning was spent opening presents, and afterwards, breakfast.  Sadly it appears that the children no longer accept Father Christmas as being real, but despite that, it was an amazing morning.

Come the afternoon we got to my mother, who to describe her as happy on seeing her grandchildren, would be understating the issue.  My brothers had yet to arrive, but they were not too far away and then we ate.  It has been a while since my mother cooked a Christmas meal for me, and this was the first time that the children got to eat there.  And they loved it.  Of course, presents came afterwards which the children loved as well.

Anyway it is late and I must sleep.  Good night.

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

I forgot to post some of the pictures taken by my daughter yesterday on the blog update.

Anyway, today was my last day off.  In the morning, after walking the children into school, my wife dropped me at work for me to go through some paperwork before she collected me for lunch at a local diner.  Sadly both of us seem to have contracted one of the many viruses going about and on getting back home, we were both knackered.

But later, we got to watch the kids in the annual school carol service.  My secondary school stopped singing hymns during my stay there, so it is nice to see the Christmas spirit being taught to children.  The kids both love Christmas, and even though they do not believe in Father Christmas, they seem to be taken in by the magic. I just need to get my daughter to sing louder...

Today did not go quite to plan

Today did not go quite to plan.  But, it was still awesome.  We had intended to travel into London in the morning to get some breakfast for the children, spend some time on the South Bank and then take them to see the Christmas lights and then see my mother before heading home.

But, sadly, we did not wake in time to do exactly what we wanted.  The children had been up the night before watching the Strictly Come Dancing Final, but had not gone to sleep straight afterwards.  Due to this, and a late night on the part of my wife and I, a rest in bed meant that we had missed out on the early morning window that was needed to park in Brick Lane.  In the past, we had taken the children there for bagels, and this was a plan that they were keen on.  But, due to the time taken to get there, we were not able to get any parking as close as we wanted.  But instead, we went to a past memory.  When studying in the East End, there was a bakery that we had gone to after we finished our degrees.  During our courses, my wife had got me into eating Challah (cholla) and when in the area, we would often get bread from there.  But when driving past it last, we noted that it was closed.  Today we saw it was open.  And as our usual place to park was taken, we turned around and found a place to stay near the bakery and ate there.  Unlike the place we had eaten before, this had seats and that meant that we had a more relaxing time.  But with the time that we arrived, this was more of a Brunch than breakfast.

After this, it was a trip to the South Bank.  The kids, as on the day before, were playing Pokémon Go, and as we drove through London, they had loads of fun doing so.  We have learned though that we have to stop them from doing this when we are not driving slowly, and this has been learned the hard way as they can get headaches or start to feel nauseated.  Once we parked, it was a walk along the South Bank to the Tate gallery were we sat for another coffee and after some art work from my son, a walk for them to some of the entertainment that was on offer.  We did not get to see as much as we would like, but later, had a late lunch and then made for the lights at dusk.  And they my wife and I felt that the lights that we were able to see on Regents Street.  We did not get to show then Buckingham Palace, but were able to show them other sights and explain bits about them.  However, we were not able to get time to see my mother as my son started to feel unwell.  Hopefully, he will be better tomorrow, but they are both now asleep, tired after a great day out for the family.

Time with the children

Again, I have had the opportunity to spend time with my children.

In the last week, I have technically been off work for most of the week.  I still had to go in to complete the work that I have allowed to pile up, but this was a lot more relaxed than this would otherwise be.  As I had been slightly under the weather I had not cycled in after walking the kids to school but took the easy option to drive instead. This was not an option on Wednesday when I work in my other job, but I was up to cycling then.  Which was just as well as I am not allowed a parking space at that job, and that in turn has made me have to become fitter. I am not up to the standards of others in my area of Colchester who cycle to work (or as part of their journey to do so) but I am much better than I once was.

On Thursday I was back at my usual job, and it was a hard day. But yesterday I got to spend time with my amazing wife. It was not long, but it was time together without children, who while we both love them very much, at times distract our attentions from each other.  I did return to work, but later had to take the kids to an appointment which meant that they were taken out of school early. But later, after school, we went to watch a film, or rather the film I have been waiting most of the year for.

And it was awesome. All four of us loved it.  I was wary as some films we not as appreciated as the original three were by me.  But I was a child and these films are really meant for children. But the magic of Star Wars was present in Rogue One. We now await the extended version which should be available for Christmas next year.

And today, we traveled to London as my wife had a reunion to attend. The children were entertained by Pokémon Go on the way down, and we had a late lunch in East Ham. The food there was, as before, amazing and this is a place the children look forwards to going to.  They do not like spicy foods, but this appears to be an exception.  They are peacefully asleep now, after watching Strictly Come Dancing, but this week spent with them, has been treasured once more.

Is the BBC biased?

The answer to this is simple. Yes. Against Arsenal.  The evidence I cite on this was in the recent game against Stoke.  In the post match analysis on Match of the Day, they quite rightly focused on the penalty given away by Xhaka but then ignored the stamp by Charlie Adams on Alexis Sanchez.  We scored in that attack, and if he had not been trying to cause our star striker an injury, he might have been able to stop that.

When it comes to politics, then for the most part, then no.

There has been controversy over the way that they cover politics, but all parties claim that it is biased.  People moan when UKIP are featured on panels, or complain when UKIP is not.  Both Conservatives and Labour are of the view that the BBC is biased against them, and the same occurs with other political parties.  In addition to this, there was the refusal of the BBC to air an appeal during a conflict with a large number of civilian casualties in Gaza.  I did not agree with that decision, but I do see how most of the time, it is trying to be impartial.

There are occasions when it is not, and one appears to be with Russia.  But then with the way that Russia has managed to manipulate things elsewhere, that does not seem to matter.

Romeo and Juliet is lovey-dovey apparently

It has been a really nice week.  Most of it was spent with the family which is why it has been amazing.  I got to take the kids to school most days and even helped in my sons class by talking to them about the skeleton.  It did mean that I got a lot more exercise as to the annoyance of my kids, we walked to and from school most of the time.

They had decided to give me the sponsorship forms that they needed for this week two days before they were to hand them in, and then carried out the exercises that were required. Sadly not that many people at work got to sponsor them, but they did raise money and hopefully one day, they will learn to hand me the forms sooner!

Today my son read a short version of Romeo and Juliet stating that it was too lovey-dovey for him. I was hoping to take him out cycling but only had time for my daughter, and she loved the route she went on.  The main picture is from this and was taken by her.

Anyway, that is the end of the update. Take care all!

Why did we invade Iraq?

To answer the question, it was to get the Weapons of Mass Destruction that we, in the west, allowed Saddam to develop.

In 2003 Iraq was invaded by the United States of America and allies that included the United Kingdom.  Saddam Hussein was overthrown and while the war was easily won (and I was surprised at how easily it was won), the peace that was meant to occur afterwards was lost. 

Now, after many years, the Chilcot has finally been published.  And the United Kingdom have appeared to take it as gospel.  But, I feel that the way it has been reported has been unfair.  When looking at the decision to invade Iraq, we can look at it in isolation, or we can look at it in the context of history around that time.  And I think that we should bear in mind events that occurred before the invasion.

First of all, during the Iran-Iraq war we helped Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (which had been armed by the USSR).  Then we turned a blind eye when he used chemical weapons against Iran.  And then when he used chemical weapons against Iraqi civilians (though being Kurds, he felt that they were the enemy) we continued to support him.

Saddam then invaded Kuwait, or as he saw it, the un-elected leaders of Kuwait were overthrown by a revolution, who then asked for Iraqi help.  And this threatened the oil that the west depended on then, and still continues to depend on.  The world had two options, to leave Iraq in control, or defend Kuwait and go to war.  Oil won, and the first gulf war occurred were we fought against one dictatorship to protect a monarchy.  To be fair, Kuwait now has elections, but it is still a monarchy.  The war was won, and won with relative ease by the west though the human cost in Iraq was different and was to get worse.

Sanctions were imposed on Iraq and efforts were made to ensure that Iraq no longer had the capability to use the chemical weapons that it had used in the past again.  But this affected the people of Iraq while Saddam did not seem to suffer.  We also encouraged the people of Iraq to revolt, and then did not support them when they did, allowing Saddam to massacre them.  But Saddam did not allow the weapon inspections that were part of the ceasefire agreement to take place.  He would agree, then change his mind.  And a report by a weapons inspector (who died later) stated that Saddam was hiding weapons, and while they could not be used, he would try to do so if given the chance.

So before the second war, we were faced with several options.
1 - continue the sanctions (and continue the harm to ordinary Iraqi's)
2 - lift the sanctions (and let Saddam get WMD's)
3 - invade (and we all know how that ended)

While in hindsight, we can say the invasion was a bad idea, it appeared to be the least worst of three terrible options at the time.

The west had seen what military intervention had done before.  In Kosovo by intervening, we had prevented a repeat of the horrors of Bosnia.  In Sierra Leone, intervention helped and avoided any chance of the horrors of Rwanda occurring there.  So I understand the desire to bring about the change that had happened elsewhere.

My concerns at the time, was the spin and propaganda being sold to us at the time.  I did not believe that Saddam posed a direct threat to us, but I did feel that he was someone who needed to be removed for the overall benefit of humanity.  At the time, I felt that we should show that we could bring democracy to Afghanistan (which we had not at the time) and also bring about a more equitable solution to the troubles in The Holy Land.  

So overall, due to the threat that Saddam posed, I felt that regime change was needed.  

If you disagree, please post why.  I do try to learn from others and if you feel I have missed out on points on this, please let me know.