I’m not supposed to mention this to anyone, but I was at the Olympics yesterday in my role as a roving reporter, and I saw Tom Cruise!
Obviously it’s okay me saying this as he was on the roof and we didn’t get time to talk, so I can’t break any confidences, but just being in the same stadium as that charisma has changed me at a deeper level.
Being anywhere near someone who believes in themselves is always empowering, it makes you think “Why don’t I just believe in myself, he has no better reason to than he just does? Why don’t I just do?”
So I’ve decided I’m going to try to work my way to the centre of political reporting and maybe become an ITN Newsreader. Or an astronaut. But as two of them went up into space for 8 days and now won’t be back until next year, I’m a bit off that idea.
Wish me luck. With this sense of empowerment I’m really glad he didn’t hug me, I’d have been trying to take over the world! It’s nice to feel so empowered and can do.
Do you think the fact that I’m not the best actor that will probably never be allowed to win an Oscar is a drawback? Actually…it hasn’t stopped him.
The Closing Ceremony
Took a long time to close. It was very artistic, a lot of powerful imagery. One man carrying that tiny flame across an endless expanse of opportunities to trip up and set fire to himself was really moving. The black suit against the white concrete was very effective.
The circles thing was brilliant, but I had time to call a friend and get a snack by the time it got interesting. Bit like the horse rider thundering uninterestingly down the river. It’s a good job they didn’t feature Alexander the Great or some such, too many people may have thought they’d turned Jesus into a war-like territory nicking oppressor of the innocent. Bacchus would have been better than that.
Although when you were there it was very effective, beautifully designed and set out, chaotic in the extreme with all the athletes getting caught up somehow. The light show was extraordinary, and from the air the mid section thingy looked like a cat.
My Hermann was so pleased. When I got home he purred in just that way you know they’re happy. Or that may have been that he’d just nicked my salmon sandwich and eaten the fish. Anyway, he was happy which made the length of the ceremony bearable.
As they all seem to try to outdo each other I’d be inclined to put aside a week at each end of the competition in 2028.
I would like the answer as to whether the two boxers under question were women or not, but I’m not sure that yes would be a good answer when you consider the issues women face in this world. It would have been far fairer to them to come out with the truth and explain it. I’m not surprised one has made a complaint. It’s a very personal issue and needed closing down out of courtesy to all.
Politics
So Sir Keir is striking hard and fast over the riots. Like that. I was wondering if there was any extra work in building prison extensions at the moment? A bit on the side is always useful to cover me when politics is boring and uneventful. I’m a highly regarded pantomime dame and department store Santa.
But 12-year-olds? Seriously! Perhaps the fact that they’re in court and being punished might turn them around though. Might make them understand that doing what you want has consequences, as does listening to the adults who encourage you. If it was my dad I’d fire him.
Don’t tell him that though, he will probably be pleased, he wanted me to be a weightlifter or something equally manly. Instead he got an inept journalist who loses interest far too quickly, encourages his grandson to be too adventurous in all the wrong ways, and spends half his life up a tree watching nothing much happen. Then writing about it.
Postlethwaite isn’t my real name, my dad made me have a pen-name. He did want to put me up for adoption, preferably somewhere foreign. As a young man a sports reporter wrote about his local cricket match, complaining that my father was so useless he couldn’t find the boundary until he fell over it, and when fielding, the ball should have been considered a weapon of mass destruction in his hands.
Two pigeons and the other side’s top spin bowler, did live to tell the tale but they were somewhat disoriented for a time. The claxon on the ice cream van did not, and the seller only just ducked in time. For some reason my dad was offended by this truth, his dream was to play cricket for England. He did try though.
A son as a reporter didn’t go down well, although he softened when he realised I was going the political route, now he says I’m not rude enough and too truthful, so he’s disappointed all over again. Hey ho.
The Conservatives seem to be well and truly on Holiday. Ed Balls has been removed for interviewing his own wife. Did anyone think to ask if he was ordered to do that? Partly because he knew what questions to ask maybe? Nope, cancellation comes faster than a bullet these days. Have you noticed it’s never anyone’s fault but the poor sod on air?
The LibDems are making some good noises, I just hope for their sake that someone is listening.
Labour have had the shortest honeymoon in political history, pensioners straight out of the gate, now they should pay National Insurance, so that’s a nice 8% decrease in their pension if that happens. If only the NHS money wasn’t wasted elsewhere.
Today there is rumour that over 400 NHS staff accused of sexual assault were allowed to continue working in a massive cover-up. However, that may or may be fake news, destabilisation, or both. I hope so because otherwise that lot are going to need firing. Time to train up the cleaners.
Just checked I’m right as I still can’t believe it, and it’s even worse: 35,000 cases of sexual misconduct or violence in the NHS in the five years from 2017 to 2022. Including rape! Surely not? I can’t get a single joke out of this. The implications are…well what? Not all staff though, one in five is patient/patient violence. Sigh.
Please let this be foreign interference.
On that joyous note…
I’m planning my tree route ready for Parliament to return to further confuse us. Obviously I have a number of new MPs to observe from a safe distance. I have no idea what comes next with an entirely new tribe, and Sunak intends to remain very peaceful and quiet in his own constituency from what I’ve managed to glean. Sir Keir of course has 5 years of havoc heading in his direction. Boy he caught a lucky break straight out of the gate, did he not.
Riots as a response to the loss of three children, and injury of so many more, their teacher, the man who went to help. How they weren’t still hurting for the families with the rest of us I do not know. Something like this is supposed to make you want to become a force for good, a better person.
Goodness knows I’ve taught my grandson things that have made me wildly unpopular, but I could never think of teaching him to throw bricks and burning rubbish bins at the police. Or that violence is a solution to anything. The police are the people I want to find him if ever he goes missing, bring him home. Please God that never happens, but even so the idea that they’re there and will help is an enormous comfort.
Those poor parents, that poor family, their poor friends yesterday. But one thing, the British public taught the far right a thing or two. Attack the innocent, disrespect bereaved families, and you will have thousands of us to face.
People power at it’s most impressive, and in line with what those families deserved.
Clarence
P.S. I’m being very good with my grandson at the moment as my ex-wife, son, daughter-in-law, and the local vicar have threatened to disembowel me with a rusty spoon if I suggest any more pranks. Okay so he thought that wine shouldn’t be served at a church meeting and concocted something in the colour red, that included a very hot chilli powder, a laxative (to give it viscosity), and Strawberry Ribena. I’ll leave the carnage at the altar to your imagination, and trust me it won’t be imaginative enough. He’s banned.
But this was nothing to do with me, it was his science teacher who gave him ideas for concoctions. The poor man is currently trying to explain to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he did not intend him to experiment on communion wine. Yes they live in Canterbury, yes the Archbishop knows me, yes I’ve been banned too which is unfair as I had nothing to do with this, but the teacher is getting free religious guidance and counselling. Apparently my grandson is the first Chorister that’s been fired from the Cathedral in 1300 years. The last one was the poor unfortunate who, when asked where Thomas a Beckett was, he said “over there”. Apparently the large swords should have been a clue for him to say “Who?”
Deb Hawken - Amorah 