What July 24 Means to Me

The month started off with an early general election in Britain, The political term was set to expire in December but they called it early, 4th of July; the British political term lasts for 5 years. The labour party dislodged the conservatives and took full power in government; they call it a landslide victory. The labour party completely won most of the seats in the house of commons. My local conservative MP also lost his seat, he was the MP of my town for many years. 

Later in July 2024, Donald Trump got shot in the ear, the bullet was aimed at his brain but his head moved slightly while he was talking. It was a close shave. It happened when I went to the coast to celebrate my birthday; it is nice to spend a short break at a popular British coastal town. It is also nice to spend 9 months before shopping around for good deals on hotel tariffs and transport arrangements. 

A few days later I watched the final game of the European football tournament (Euros 24). England lost against Spain in the last few minutes of the game. It was very close. Every game England played was like that, they narrowly won the game, penalties, points after draw or scoring in the last minute. Every game was a close shave. The last game was too close. 

The rest of the month was routine and normal for July. 

Yellow Fever

This Christmas, my Christmas wish was to see less yellow on The political map. The United Kingdom of Great Britain had a snap Christmas election and in Scotland the SNP won more seats, they displaced Labour and lib-dem positions I think. The SNP are much bigger now.

Being English, my first reaction was to feel very angry because we bailed out RBS and we are the biggest customers of the Scottish manufacturing. Our Civil engineering millitary factories are placed in Scotland. My favourite snacks are Tannocks tea cakes (Scottish chocolates)  and we buy Scottish whiskey and Eat Scottish oats and drink Scottish water. I felt like they were writing us off for the EU.

When I thought about it I thought that it is the British government's fault  that the Scottish are thinking of leaving  the UK because they have a long history of neglecting the north side of the Island. For example, look at Cross rail. We are building a railway that goes half way across England yet we have loads of railways in South East England already. It is like the North side of the country doesn't exist in British parliament. No wonder they value the EU more than the UK.

Brother's guy Fawkes party

Today I am so happy and grateful for food and clean water and coffee. I love the  mc Donald's coffee the most because they grind their own beans.

My brothers guy fawkes party was last night. I had unusual fire works. 
I sticky taped sparklers and flame dyes to a firelog last week and brought it to the party, it flopped. It burnt a little and sizzled for one hour, lame is the best way to describe it. I am not good at making fireworks myself, I know that now.

However a laser dot projector that I brought seemed to work ok and lit up the smoke from the fireworks. I also brought a LED light wheel to stand in as a Catherine wheel that also worked well, plus I get to use it next year. I think fire works displays should be a mix of fire works and lasers and lights and smoke machines. (And music).