Not many new pictures this week so I’ve selected the best from our two months here in paradise.Wendy has a cold and is just a constant sniffle and nose drizzle.
I drove down to the gym for a workout. Then dropped Wendy at the supermarket.
Yeah….. Sunday and no vegetables. Instead the ultimate in junk food as at last I get Kaisserscharm for my tea. Nothing else just Kaisserscharm – it’s an Austrian pancake like dessert. I really love desserts but try to avoid them as they are so fattening – see being healthy – however I’ve decided that one night a week I’m going to have just a dessert for my tea. Bring on the Macaroni pudding next week.
More Netflix and a luscious bottle of Cline Zinfandel. Stagger to bed as I had to drink it all by myself.
This magic is amazing. Magician Justin Flom Cuts Open James Corden – The World’s Best Championships
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPZU2rJh5Eo
Just about sums it all up. Secret diary of an MP: I want to help but it’s humiliating — a dead cat would be as useful:
“I’m one of the 650. We’ll all get the blame when the ship sinks, but in truth you might as well have put a dead cat in there instead of me; it would have had as much of a role as I’ve had in the Brexit discussions. Want to know what that feels like? It’s embarrassing, humiliating and hugely, overwhelmingly frustrating.”
Excitement as Apple announcement today. Big decision do I replace my old iPad Pro with the new iPad Air Pro, iPad 11″ Pro 
or keep my 3.5 year old 13″ monster? Good trade in values at the moment ($270) so very tempting.
Well the announcement was a black screen of disappointment. Too much snowflake crap, just California on steroids, full of holier than thou PC, goody two shoes intentions and constant mention of culture. Apple TV+ is still a twinkle in someones eye. I had such great hopes of them finally offering a one service for all rather than having to have so many different services. Why don’t they stop messing about, buy Netflix and consolidate it all in.
Wendy has yet another cold so she stayed in all day. Meanwhile I had a marathon 2.5 hour Pickleball session. I borrowed someones paddle as mine wasn’t making that consoling sweet spot sound. Really liked it and sound was more rewarding. Don’t think it improved my game though. I was cream crackered.
Home to a Jacuzzi and beer, followed by Netflix and some Midwinter Nights Dram. Nearly finished it.
You just have to laugh at this fiasco.
Let’s hold all muslims to account, by asking, on every conceivable occasion and on every conceivable platform: Do you agree that those who leave Islam should be killed? Or punished in any way? Yes or no? How many ways can they possibly squirm out of answering that?
Then let’s ask do you want Sharia law in this country?
Parliamentarians were given the opportunity today to take control of the negotiations, after holding indicative votes on their preferred Brexit strategy. Now, the results are in, and we have found out that they don’t support any option at all.
Below are the number of votes for each option. Of the eight proposals, none managed to achieve a majority in the House of Commons, giving them little chance of passing in the weeks ahead:
Brexit option Ayes Noes
(b) The UK should leave without a deal 160 400
(d) Common Market 2.0 (Norway Plus) 188 283
(h) EFTA and EEA (Norway) 65 377
(j) The WA must include a customs union 264 272
(k) Labour’s Brexit plan 237 307
(l) Revoke Article 50 the day before Brexit 184 293
(m) Any deal needs a second referendum 268 295
(o) Malthouse B / mitigating no deal 139 422
Pop down to the PCMarc, just around the corner from us, as they now have Pickleball most mornings, but alas there was no one there. Very disappointed.
Wendy’s off out shopping with Marilyn. She drops me off at the gym so they can have the car. Of course they could always have walked! I’m afraid Wendy’s caught the American disease – why walk when you can go in the car.
Have a good workout. Managed to survive that elliptical torture for 20 minutes. It really do seem a great exercise, especially on my dodgy hip. Follow through with a coffee at Starbucks then catch the electric bus, well not so electric these days as someones smashed the charging station so it’s back to harmful diesel – am I bothered. Then another walk from Fresh Market – alas no free Sushi, again.
Wendy and I go round to look at number 130, our potential AirBNB for next summer. It’s fine and will be great for next summer, especially as it’s just round the corner on the Racquet club. All we need to do now is sort out the deposit.
B&M and Helen and George come round and we troop off to Sammies in search of grub. Just love their Chivito sandwich. Then it’s back to our place for drinks. The ladies sink down some Basil Haydn Dark and then I finish off the last of the Midwinter Nights Dram. A great nightcap. I suppose I’ll have to wait until next winter for a refill.
Lazy start.Try and sort the deposit on 130. Drop Wendy off at the CC and then return to watch the treacherous loons arguing over BREXIT and screwing us.
Off down to Pickleball. Really enjoy this and will miss it when back in the UK. So much I need to do to improve, especially get up to net. Never mind perhaps my new book will help. AT least my serves seem to be improving. Really need to get in more serve practices and play against the wall. So far the wall always seems to win in the end.
More Netflix in the evening and no alcohol.
The left ruins everything:
Finally get to my target weight of 182lbs. That’s 11lbs lost since we arrived, despite eating well and plenty of wine, whiskey and bourbon.
Lazy start, then we’re off down to The Apple store in Salt Lake to pick up my ne iPad Pro and trade in my old (nearly 4 years old) one got $270 trade in against my new iPad. Service in store was great. Ended up buying a case at Best Buy in Kimble junction. New ones really fast, a smaller more handle able size and the case is thin and light and protects both sides.
I went to the gym in the afternoon whilst Wendy had her nails done. Just love that elliptical machine. It’s a great workout, up to 30 minutes now.
Pop in the liquor store to get some brandy to take home, they’ve got two new ones I’ve not tried. Miracle is they also had some High West Manhattan that B&M have been trying to get hold of. Bought a bottle to help Bob recover from his shoulder op. Probably better than any of those crazy pain killers they give you.
Then it’s one of my favourite for tea, a carnitas burrito from Chubasco’s.
Another alcohol free TV night.
These had the right idea to show their contempt for parliament by giving a moonie from the gallery in parliament. I could have shown the moonie view but really felt the boob view was more interesting. I’m sure you get the gist of it.
Ten pin bowling in the morning.
We’re child minding so we pick Angela up from school and then Wendy takes her to the CC with her for the afternoon. Whilst Im go down to Pickleball for the afternoon.
Home for a quick shower and then we’re off down to Hearth & Hill for the TGIF. Just have a swift drink and then we finally get to go Giordottis with Helen, George, Mark and Judy. I enjoyed the meal – OSSO Buko – but Wendy wasn’t so impressed. Their Chianti was luscious and couldn’t resist a glass of Fonesco Bin 27 port to finish the meal off along with am espresso. Great evening, good food, wine, company and great intelligent conversation.
How great it is to have a good snow storm in our last few days. Something magical about walking and driving in a snow storm.
I DON’T BELIEVE – the latest from the Snowflakes.
Ban the word ‘cyclist’ as it dehumanises ride bikes riders and promotes aggression towards them, expert say.
Cyclists should instead be called “people who ride bikes” because the former term is dehumanising, experts have claimed.
An academic study in Australia found that there is a link between the dehumanisation of cyclists and acts of aggression they face from other road users.
Lazy morning packing and getting ready to leave. Wendy’s cleaning like a banshee.
Hal and carol pop round to say goodbye then we’re off to B&M’s for dinner. Bob’s rotator cup surgery seems to have gone ok, but his arms in a sling for six weeks. We’ve got Bob some proper medication, a bottle of High West Manhattan. Much better than Oxycodin. Psychedelic, hallucinating drugs.
Great meal, company and of course a Midwinter Nights Dram to finish off the meal. We’ll really miss them but we’re back on 1st June. Can’t wait.
Lazy start to the day. Don’t need to set off until 10:00 so it’s quite relaxing, until the usual TSA CRAP. But at least I survived the TSA. Always an ordeal. Really need to consider some of Wendy’s propanaol tablets to help me through. Good news is they’re improving, they now only miss 70% of weapons.
On a more positive note, great news Green Book is on the Virgin flight.
Great to just get in the lounge and starting sinning by downing some wine before 17:00.
Flight is very comfortable as Wendy’s booked premium economy seats, and after the Green Book; two glasses of champagne; two glasses of Malbec, seconded from Upper Class as I cant’ stand Syrah; two large Otard brandies; and just one sleeping tablet, I settle down to 5 hour deep slumber. Wake up just in time to watch The Girl In The Spiders Web. Great flight, pretty comfortable.
Chaos at Manchester airport as you now have to go yomping on a root march to the pickup point. Welcome home to chaos.
Well we’re home. Never mind just 4 weeks before we escape to France and only 2 months before we’re back in paradise.
AT least we get to see the grandkids and we’re around if our very pregnant daughter-in-law goes into labour. Anybody would think Wendy was going to be delivering it.
Well we say goodbye to 2 months in paradise, but I don’t despair too much as we’ll be back in two months. Great news is I survived winter without skiing. Just so much to do. I think I’ve actually done more exercise than when I skied. Lost 11 pounds and still managed to eat pretty well and consume copious alcohol. Loved it, great friends, pickleball, snowshoeing, walking, ten pin bowling, shooting, archery and of course drinking.
and the chaos goes on:
An interesting article on that religion of pieces and permanent offence.:
Leaving but we still have snow.
Why is that it in Western countries, merely pointing out the similarities between the writings of the Quran and the Hadiths and the violent and intolerant preachings of groups such as the Islamic State is cause for censure?
Up, up and away.
Ah, I can hear the rebuttal already: “Of course there are horrible passages in the Quran. It was written at a different time, and there are similarly horrible ones in the Bible!”
Without a doubt, the Bible is a bloody, violent book filled with unspeakable atrocities. But then, why is it that no Christian feels personally targeted when Deuteronomy 21:18-21, which encourages the public stoning of disobedient children, is criticized?
It is because Christianity has gone through, over the past few hundred years, a modernization process where it has been ejected out of civil law, and where its most vile and intolerant preachings are no longer ordained as official doctrine by the church’s institutions.
With some exceptions (such as enduring Medieval attitudes toward homosexuality and fundamentalists’ rejection of science in favour of creationism) the most vile, intolerant, and backward parts of Christian practice have been abandoned.
Perhaps this might help explain why the treacherous political elite can’t manage to implement a simple democratic mandate such as BREXIT – No Deal Please.
I, however, reject the often-brought-up and dangerous notion of this conflict being a “war of civilizations,” pitching the united secular West against the similarly united dogmatic Islamic world.
This is wrong simply because it is an inaccurate depiction of both sides. This particular struggle is far more complicated and it is certainly not contained by international borders or racial origin. This is a war of ideas, not of skin color.
Which is why the first victims of Islamic extremism are almost always Muslims: women, apostates, homosexuals, modern Muslims seeking the evolution of their faith, and yes, even just Muslims who belong to the wrong traditional Islamic sect.
Similarly, the people often most opposed to helping the victims of Islamo-fascism, those who refuse to hold Islamic ideas accountable for their role in these crimes, are not Muslims at all, but westerners brandishing multiculturalist arguments.
Meaningful change can only come from within the Islamic world, from the reformist voices that want to modernize Islam to fit today’s standards of human decency and compassion. These are the people whom we must try to empower today by giving them coverage, a platform to speak out of, and most importantly, by acknowledging their suffering and struggle.
It is for this reason that we must not delude ourselves with the idea that all cultures are equally good in every way. We should not shy away from sensitive conversations about the role of religious dogma, even at the risk of being called racist or Islamophobic. Such insults are minor and insignificant compared to the atrocities that the victims of this violent and intolerant doctrine suffer every day.

A long piece but I wanted to preserve it for when I’m sat in the geriatrics waiting for god space, drooling down my bib, to try and remember the difference between the left and liberals.
What is the difference between a leftist and a liberal?
Answering this question is vital to understanding the crisis facing America and the West today. Yet few seem able to do it. I offer the following as a guide.
Here’s the first thing to know: The two have almost nothing in common.
On the contrary, liberalism has far more in common with conservatism than it does with leftism. The left has appropriated the word “liberal” so effectively that almost everyone — liberals, leftists and conservatives — thinks they are synonymous.
But they aren’t. Let’s look at some important examples.
Race: This is perhaps the most obvious of the many moral differences between liberalism and leftism. The essence of the liberal position on race was that the color of one’s skin is insignificant. To liberals of a generation ago, only racists believed that race is intrinsically significant. However, to the left, the notion that race is insignificant is itself racist. Thus, the University of California officially regards the statement “There is only one race, the human race” as racist. For that reason, liberals were passionately committed to racial integration. Liberals should be sickened by the existence of black dormitories and separate black graduations on university campuses.
Capitalism: Liberals have always been pro capitalism, recognizing it for what it is: the only economic means of lifting great numbers out of poverty. Liberals did often view government as able to play a bigger role in lifting people out of poverty than conservatives, but they were never opposed to capitalism, and they were never for socialism. Opposition to capitalism and advocacy of socialism are leftist values.
Nationalism: Liberals deeply believed in the nation-state, whether their nation was the United States, Great Britain or France. The left has always opposed nationalism because leftism is rooted in class solidarity, not national solidarity. The left has contempt for nationalism, seeing in it intellectual and moral primitivism at best, and the road to fascism at worst. Liberals always wanted to protect American sovereignty and borders. The notion of open borders would have struck a liberal as just as objectionable as it does a conservative. It is emblematic of our time that the left-wing writers of Superman comics had Superman announce a few years ago, “I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my American citizenship.” When the writers of Superman were liberal, Superman was not only an American but one who fought for “Truth, justice, and the American way.” But in his announcement, he explained that motto is “not enough anymore.”
View of America: Liberals venerated America. Watch American films from the 1930s through the 1950s and you will be watching overtly patriotic, America-celebrating films — virtually all produced, directed and acted in by liberals. Liberals well understand that America is imperfect, but they agree with a liberal icon named Abraham Lincoln that America is “the last best hope of earth.”
To the left, America is essentially a racist, sexist, violent, homophobic, xenophobic and Islamophobic country. The left around the world loathe America, and it is hard to imagine why the American left would differ in this one way from fellow leftists around the world. Leftists often take offense at having their love of America doubted. But those left-wing descriptions of America are not the only reason to assume that the left has more contempt than love for America. The left’s view of America was encapsulated in then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s statement in 2008. “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” he said.
Now, if you were to meet a man who said that he wanted to fundamentally transform his wife, or a woman who said that about her husband, would you assume that either loved their spouse? Of course not.
Free speech: The difference between the left and liberals regarding free speech is as dramatic as the difference regarding race. No one was more committed than American liberals to the famous statement “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Liberals still are. But the left is leading the first nationwide suppression of free speech in American history — from the universities to Google to almost every other institution and place of work. It claims to only oppose hate speech. But protecting the right of person A to say what person B deems objectionable is the entire point of free speech.
Western civilization: Liberals have a deep love of Western civilization. They taught it at virtually every university and celebrated its unique moral, ethical, philosophical, artistic, musical and literary achievements. No liberal would have joined the leftist Rev. Jesse Jackson in chanting at Stanford University: “Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Western civ has got to go.” The most revered liberal in American history is probably former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who frequently cited the need to protect not just Western civilization but Christian civilization. Yet leftists unanimously denounced President Donald Trump for his speech in Warsaw, Poland, in which he spoke of protecting Western civilization. They argued not only that Western civilization is not superior to any other civilization but also that it is no more than a euphemism for white supremacy.
Judaism and Christianity: Liberals knew and appreciated the Judeo-Christian roots of American civilization. They themselves went to church or synagogue, or at the very least appreciated that most of their fellow Americans did. The contempt that the left has — and has always had — for religion (except for Islam today) is not something with which a liberal would ever have identified.
If the left is not defeated, American and Western civilization will not survive. But the left will not be defeated until good liberals understand this and join the fight. Dear liberals: Conservatives are not your enemy. The left is.
