The sight of four French policemen " requesting" that a Muslim sunbather remove her makeshift " Burkini" on a Nice beach, saddened me greatly today.
It reminded me of when my best friend Nu worked in Saudi Arabia.
Then the religious police stalked the streets looking for women who had not covered themselves with their abaya properly and were not adverse in swinging their sticks to maintain public modesty.
The "need to do something" after the dreadful terrorism in France is understandable
But...this?
I am aware that I haven't given you all an update on George since we got home.
Today seems to be "George Day" so I shall endeavour to rectify this somewhat.
The truth is that there seems to be no real news at the moment.
On the surface, the old boy is well. The foul smelling lump under his jaw is receding in size and odour and he is still three quarters the way through his antibiotics.
He is eating well, and looking bright but I am not blind to the fact that he probably has something sinister lurking around his jaw, and in various lumps and bumps over his body.
He is an old dog, and after his course of medication we shall consult the vet yet again for guidance.
In the meantime, he is having some nice George time.
Today he came with me to B& Q
He sat on his own towel ( and cushion) on the passenger seat and felt very spoilt as he could look through the windscreen without hindrance.
He was bought his very own pack of chicken meatballs ( his absolute fav treat) and was fed four ,( one hiding his morning antibiotic tablet,) in the car park as he happily watched people ambling around with their shopping trolleys.
And he was taken to the beach promenade for his very own, uninterrupted and unhurried mooch from one fascinating piss mark to another .
I need to prep and paint the front door today.
There is washing in need of hanging up and all of the other animals are stamping their little feet for attention.
But for one peace filled hour,
I sat with my grey eyed old scottie
just him and me on a beach facing bench.
Sharing cheap meatballs.
Tonight I re watched the opening ceremony of the London Olympics
I cried buckets, it was so good.
Wrung out I pleased myself afterwards by finding a new ( and indeed better use) for a fairly useless Garfield which I had been given nearly 40 years ago
I am thinking of making a regular feature called Handy Hints!
The Prof is away and I am just about to finish a serious bout of housework.
I don't mind as the job is quite satisfying especially if you have left a cat like Albert have free reign in the house for a week.
It's a bit like being a serial killer as you have to remove all traces of the dead bodies .
The living room was covered by the almost mumified parts of what looked like some sort of tit.
Under the bed was quarter of a small rabbit and I found a pair of back legs and a tail of something unfortunate underneath the bookcase.
My friend Bel Ami only does housework when he has a row with his wife which is a shame as I think he's missing out.....I find cleaning strangely therapeutic even when there are putrefying bodies involved.
Now, long term readers of Going gently will remember that I used to be a bit of a fiend when it came to household bleach. I used to have a tendency to splash it too liberally around the toilet bowl and bath and on more that one occasion have burnt my buttocks rather badly when I have forgotten I had not rinsed away the residue.
Today's mistake was to spray all of the throws and cushions in the living room with fly spray instead of the more fragrant spray starch
I've had to rewash everything.......
What's your worst household mistake?
It's nice to get back to some sort of normality here, so I would be interested to hear?
I've just sat down
At the end of a long day. Dogs have all returned. Albert is fine. The field animals are all present and correct.
All are asleep.
My sister has looked after George superbly. We will wait and see what happens after his antibiotics
I will leave you with this happy photo as I can't be arsed explaining anything else
we are homeward bound this morning and by teatime the children Sorry, animals will be collected and collated back home.
We can find out more about George's affliction, prise Winnie from her foster mother and pay a kings ransom to the kennels housing the Welsh terriers, who will, no doubt, sleep for the next 24 hours.
I've enjoyed my time in Kent. Thanks to Sorrel for her hospitality and for her never ending effort to go the last mile. Thanks to Jon and Charlotte for hosting some delicious meals and thanks to Duncan and Izzy for the use of the beach hut even though it took us an age to work out what went where!
Richard was a brick chauffeuring us around the Dover cliffs and Leo was very sweet quizzing me to distraction about soddin Star Wars.
Sometimes it a bonus being totally unaware of what is going on around you.
Some people just seem to have this skill.
Nothing seems to affects them ! I ENVY THOSE PEOPLE
I am reminded of an elderly enrolled nurse, I once worked with in psychiatry called Donald O'Hara
( enrolled nurses were affectionately known as greenies btw as they often wore green uniforms ) anyhow.... he was Irish, a bit dim, but rather sweet and had the unerring talent not to be involved or notice any conflict or violent incident when it occurred on the ward, a ward which catered for 30 odd long term mentally ill men.
One lunchtime, I was supervising " dinners" with two other student nurses when one particularly florid schizophrenic patient kicked off with a fellow patient. Within seconds the two patients had hit each other with full plates of cottage pie and as we students jumped in to separate the men another patient waded into the scuffle by throwing a full jug of juice into the array.
The fight progressed to the heated dinner trolley, where a metal container of baked beans was launched into the mix and as I ( bravely) hung onto the instigator ( who was then screaming that he was original King of Spain) I was spun into a bamboo planter full of spider plants and knocked the entire collection onto the floor.
To add to the confusion a particularly degraded patient who had the unfortunate nickname of " The animal" crawled into the mess happily eating all of the trampled pastry and mashed potato which had been flung onto the floor.
Of course we students didn't have the gravitas to stop the whole melee, but stop it did when the charge nurse thundered down from his office and bellowed a sharp and aggressive shout of
" DESIST THIS FOOLERY THIS INSTANT !" from the dining room doorway
He looked at us student nurses and baked bean covered patients with a sneering disgust and walked back to his office shaking his head.
Only then did Donald appear. He had been reading the Racing Post in one of the buxton chairs adjacent to the dining room and as he tucked it into his uniform pocket he gave me, the other food stained student nurses, and the cowed patients a brief sympathetic look.
" what's for pudding?" He asked without cracking a smile.
