Baking Bread and "Trussssst in Mee" Brexit bill future

Baking bread, justifying handcuffing  a 5 year old American returning home, The Brexit Bill debate.

Finally caught up with cleaning out email in tray for the past five days and  progressed onto the artists website. a tedious job of html tables for CV information - work still in progress. J had formatted  another piece of museum work and we sat down for an hour to finalise the order of headings, subheadings and subsubheadings consistently throughout the text.

The Lievito Madre culture (named Camilla) is now routinely on the go in the fridge. It is supposed to be fed every 5 days but mine is particularly vigorous. It was therefore fortunate that we were running out of bread at day 4.

I set up a new loaf and placed some fed culture back into the fridge. The bread dough was still supplemented with dried bakers yeast , so first rise after an hour and then about 75 minutes in the tin, before baking for 10 minutes at 260 degC, followed by 35 minutes at 180 degC.

Nice bounce in the half and half wholemeal/white loaf with pumpkin-, sunflower- and sesame-seed.

Well, I'd managed to avoid the news till the afternoon.

The Trump immigration saga continued to bubble along nicely. Fortunately, a suspicious proto-terrorist, also known as a five year old American boy, had been identified as a potential immigration risk and handcuffed. Trump's press secretary was unrepentant, saying “To assume that just because of someone’s age and gender that they don’t pose a threat would be misguided and wrong.”

According to Der Spiegel, IS is delighted with the propaganda tool given to them and even our Home Secretary Amber Rudd called the president's move "divisive" and "wrong". The EU's Donald Tusk has in turn identified the US as a potential danger to Europe.

Moving away from a president making executive decisions and interpreting the law through his firing and hiring, today Britain was responding to the Supreme Court's verdict that Parliament was supreme A case of no man or government being above the law. The remarkably short bill under discussion was 'The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017'.

Pro-Europeans Conservative Ken Clarke and Liberal Nick Clegg gave passionate speeches against the bill. Pro-Brexit John Redwood and Michael Gove were equally convinced of their arguments. And this debate is to be completed in the next couple of days, despite the lack of the promised white paper on how the Government planned to proceed. However, with the Labour leader Jeremy Corbin laying down a three line whip to pass the bill, it currently looks as if approval of the bill is inevitable.

Then we enter the Jungle Book period of Brexit negotiations by our Government with the rest of the EU .We just have to believe it when they say "Trussssst in meee".

Gray Start to Week With Trumpeting Protests

Gray day in St Ives, Cambs in 2016

Gray start to week and bitty work. Anger at Trump's immigration act spreads. May has to square a Brexit circle with demands from England and devolved nations.

A bitty day, a gray start to the week. Managed to get another post onto the Caldecote Local History Group site, about the school sports day, 1964. I was also able to add an extension to the WordPress twenty eleven theme site, to get the sidebar widget showing the archive of posts on an individual post page. Thanks heavens for Google and YouTube tutorials.

We just had a stream of phone calls that interrupted concentration. However, when Ulli called as part of our weekly update of dentistry, baking, photography and websites, I was able to share my frustration with a particular website problem. For an hour we shared screens on Skype, trying to find a combination of HTML5 and CSS that would allow me to have a responsive page with, a scroll-able larger image, centred in a smaller frame - without success! But a problem shared is frustration halved.

To top it all, had a migraine begin late afternoon. took tablets early but ratty for a couple of hours.

President Trump's executive order on extreme screening continues to raise increasing demonstrations and ripples politically as the ramifications spread across the globe. Today, more than one and a half million Britons voted on an online petition against POTUS making a state visit to the UK. Half a million voted for him to come in a separate petition. He must be laughing at the hornets nest he's initiated.

PM May met with the devolved government leaders in Cardiff for talks on Brexit; Wales and Scotland want to retain full access to the European market. The PM went on to Ireland to promise that there would be a seamless border between the North and South. It looks like an impossible task of squaring the circle.

Trump has fired the acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to support his executive order and appointed Dana Boente in her place just now (about 2am). Off to bed as more news and comment ready by morning.

Dark Field Shells and Public Anger

Microscopic shell from Frinton beach, Dark field

Photographing microscopic sea shells and reaction to executive order on US extreme vetting. 

The foraminifera slide from yesterday had been drying for nearly a full day, the microscopic shells taken from Frinton sand barely visible to the naked eye. Using dark field illumination, they glowed under the microscope and the camera came out. It took a number of hours of photography and focus stacking to record 11 of the 12 shells on the slide. Each one unique, from the billions of millions on a beach, and each shell created by a single celled organism without a brain, fingers or tools.

Quite cheered up that there had been a significant reaction against President Trump's executive order on extreme screening of immigrants and banning of travelers from 9 Muslim majority countries. Demonstrations at several airports, legal challenges and messages from disgruntled nations pointing out that the system was a) discriminatory and b) affected a significant number of their citizens who might have dual nationality for one of the excluded countries. PM Theresa May held out criticising Trump directly initially, till the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson announced that US immigration order divisive and wrong.

My favorite quote on the worries about the executive order comes from Sir Mo Farah who originally came from Somalia:

“I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years – working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home. Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home – to explain why the president has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.

“I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country, win medals for the British people and receive the greatest honour of a knighthood. My story is an example of what can happen when you follow polices of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.”

Nigel Farage and UKIP, however, would like extreme vetting and similar restrictions imposed in the UK.

Clarification has now been obtained for the UK from US.  The 250,000 persons in UK with dual nationality will be permitted to travel to US, as long as not traveling directly from banned countries.

Foraminifera and Tears on the Cheeks of the Statue of Liberty

The Octagon at Ely Cathedral

Outing to Ely, sorting foraminifera, The consequences of US and UK limits on immigration.

It's been a while since we've been to Ely, so we set off for a shopping trip for some wool so J could knot a new jumper. Unfortunately, the shop had been replaced by a butchers! However, I, the scruff, came back with a new jumper and a great shirt. At least the Cathedral's cafe was still open for lunch.

I'd collected some sand from the beach at Frinton last weekend, concentrating on the the lighter deposit that often contains shells and debris. Today I tried picking out foraminifera, microscopic shells, and mounting them on a microscope slide. Left it to dry overnight.

"Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon," said Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader.

President Trump's travel ban had an immediate effect with airlines and US border guards turning back travelers from the banned countries (Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen). This even affected those returning who had green cards ( someone who has been granted authorization to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis)! Civil rights organisations are in uproar. Google was concerned enough to call back over 100 of its staff from the affected countries.

But in Brexit Britain, we have already been acting against EU citizens and threatening them with expulsion after unsuccessful applications for permanent residency, prompted by the referendum result. This is despite the fact that they are entitled to live here.

Professor Brian Cox  expresses the frustration amongst academics, “We have spent decades – centuries arguably – building a welcoming and open atmosphere in our Universities and, crucially, presenting that image to an increasingly competitive world. We’ve been spectacularly successful; many of the worlds finest researchers and teachers have made the UK their home, in good faith. A few careless words have already damaged our carefully cultivated international reputation, however. I know of few, if any, international academics, from within or outside the EU, who are more comfortable in our country now than they were pre-referendum. This is a recipe for disaster.” (from https://colinrtalbot.wordpress.com/2017/01/25/brexit-and-eu-academics-in-the-uk-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do/).

Having left  an effusive President Trumps in the US, PM May traveled to Turkey to woo President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Yes, having turned our backs on the liberal and socially minded EU, trade is everything, even selling weapons to another NATO member with an aversion to a free press and any resistance to his rule.

This time though, May did speak up in public, with a pointed reminder and without reliance on the British press  to do it for her:
“I'm proud that the UK stood with you on the 15 July last year in defence of democracy and now it is important that Turkey sustains that democracy by maintaining the rule of law and upholding its international human rights obligations as the government has undertaken to do.”

Opposites PM May and President Trump love fest on Holocaust Day

HBN meets at The Cube, Alconbury

Networking and volunteering day; Surreal PM May President Trump love-fest and press session, on Holocaust day.

Networking day. It was Natasha's birthday and she brought in a sponge baked by her daughter and gluten free chocolate cake made with beetroot to the A14 network - both delicious. Volunteering for one and half hours at the Norris offices, where the soundtrack in the background was an old video recording of an interview with Clive Sinclair. Had to sprint down The Broadway, The  Waits and through the All Saints grounds in St Ives to catch my lift with Luana to Alconbury for Part 2 of Victor's Twitter workshop at the HBN Lunch and Learn.

This was a paid for event which upset one visitor who wanted to talk about his regional organisation. He left when it was clear that even his hallowed organisation was not exempt from payment - after distributing his business cards. It generated some consternation, as many of us are microbusinesses that were willing to pay the small workshop fee of GBP 10 for non-members.

Today was a slightly surreal day politically. It was Holocaust Day, a reminder of what one nation can inflict on another; PM May and POTUS Trump - two totally different characters - held convivial talks in private and gave a positively love-fest meeting with the press; PM May asked BBC Reporter Laura Kuensberg for her question, which probed items such as Mexico and torture, earning the joking(?) response from the President to PM, "That's your choice of a question? There goes that relationship!" to general laughter in the room. Fortunately for UK, Queen had invited POTUS to visit; Queen still trumps Kuensberg effect. Trump also authorises extreme vetting of immigrants from certain Muslim and African states.

Interesting that Mexico has a trade deficit with the US of USD 60bn and is vilified, whilst US has a trade deficit with the UK of about USD 120bn, and we are at the moment a preferred partner.

Is a canny May putting on all the charm and letting the Press ask the difficult questions? We may be the Brexit favouristes today, could we easily become the next Mexico of tomorrow?

Minor Photography and Major Demonisation, Dehumanisation and Desensitisation

Metal coated fabric fibres

Macrophotography of fabrics; PM May's Bill and visit to USA; POTUS Trump, Mexico and how to make the unpalatable acceptable.

Following on from yesterday's microscopy, in preparation for the Cambridge Open Studios in July, took some more pictures of the three different silk fabrics. This time I used extension tubes and took macro images directly with the camera. J also taking photos of her pictures as she will exhibit with L and me.

Battled for a while trying to remove borders from a table on a website. Yes, I know that you use the 'border' attribute' but the borders rebelliously failed to disappear, no matter whether code included in html or in the CSS. Will revisit again with a fresh look on Monday.

PM May has arrived in the US and has already had a great reception, by Republicans and of course POTUS Trump. It will be interesting to see if she manages to get through the experience of meeting the new administration and its capricious leader unscathed, or at least parts on amicable terms if there are points of difference.

May at least seems to be held accountable, by her right wing, the law and Parliament. Ahead of the game, she had initiated the Bill for 'The European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 

2017'. The act is so short, that the title takes up 20% of the actual important content. In actual fact, the single key phrase is:

1. The Prime Minister may notify, under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union, the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the EU.

The other advantage she has is that currently, the economy is buoyant and performing better that the original dire predictions.

In the US, we are seeing a continuation of some increasingly unpleasant trends. The Mexican President has cancelled his visit, the probably calculated two tweets making it impossible for him - an insult to Mexico and Mexicans:

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  9 hours ago

The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers... 

...of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.

The indignity of of being told that you are a country of criminals and rapists, ignoring the fact that many immigrants have made a major contribution to the economy, in labour and taxes. Then the brazen twist that it is also your responsibility to pay for a wall or else. Trump is doing this to his 3rd largest trading partner. We are 7th on the list, behind Japan, Germany and South Korea.

I find it quite frightening that the most powerful nation on the planet is led by someone who is xenophobic, unable to accept facts on even trivial items, who thinks that torture is OK and should be reinstated.

Placed in a position of ultimate rule, it becomes easier for others with equally reprehensible views to enter the corridors of power. The overblown and aggressive rhetoric begins with demonisation of any opponent or group, followed by their dehumanisation. In this way it, achieves the desensitization that lets you take previously unpalatable actions and damn the consequences.

Windows screen, Poop screen and US immigrant screen

Shiny blue patterned silk fabric at 40x magnification

With the inevitability that only Microsoft can engineer, my laptop decided at 11:30pm that it would be a good time to begin a major update of Windows 10. Loth to leave the poor machine running all by itself, inadvertently overheating, catching flame and burning the house down, I began reading 'Unseen Academicals' by Terry Pratchett and kept it company. Fortunately, the update, with its innumerable reboots, final check and installation of an undefined new feature was completed 125 pages later  allowing me to go to bed at about at 2:30 am - a full 90 minutes earlier than the day before!

As a special treat in your sixtieth year, you are sent a bowel screening kit. Simply catch some poo, they say, take two swabs and smear on the special card, repeat a further two times and send back within 14 days of first poop. Today, on my second attempt in a week, I turned getting the first samples into a reality. Ah! the thrills of being a sextuagenarian!

This evening, took about 60 to 90 images each of three different silk fabrics at about 40x magnification and combined them into focus stacks.

PM May trumped detractors by pulling promise of a white paper out of a hat just as Jeremy Corbyn and others were going to demand one. The question is, will it actually be made available before the promised Brexit Bill is approved by parliament?

POTUS Trump trumped himself with another series of signed directives - building that Wall to keep the Mexicans out, limiting influx of immigrants and an outright ban on people from certain Muslim countries. This includes Iraq! There is also talk of a possible draft executive order to reintroduce so-called 'black sites' outside of the US where suspects could be taken to in other countries, and a consultation on the use of more rigorous interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding.

Hard to believe.

But then, contrary to all evidence of US voter fraud, there will be an investigation into it - presumably to explain away the 3 million more votes for  Hillary Clinton.

Afternoon tea as Brexit judgements made and pipeline planned by environmentalist Trump

Cake at Community Cafe last year

Late start today as not getting to sleep till 4 in the morning. Camilla the sourdough used to start a loaf before lunch and left to rise.

It was afternoon tea and cakes at the monthly Milton Community Cafe, which I organise with J and Sue. After picking up my contingent of the less mobile, we had a reasonable attendance. Janet led paper quilling on the craft table and I ended up playing Dominoes with Tony.

Back after 5pm, the dough had almost doubled so knocked it back and put it in loaf tin and incubator at 25 degC. It took another 2.5 hours to rise before going into the oven. Not much bounce today.

The Supreme Court ruling rapped PM May over the knuckles, stating that Parliament, not Government, would decide on go-ahead for Brexit. A canny PM had already been preparing Bill to go before both Houses of Parliament by Thursday. However, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was put out! The judges also ruled that the devolved parliaments of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland did not have a voice in treaty decision making.

POTUS Trump declared himself an environmentalist and therefore approved the go-ahead for two contested oil pipelines from Canada to the south of the USA.

Go For It Interview with HCR as May supports STEM

Jonathan Hales-Tooke interviewing Ann Petre about her family and book 'The Family That Flew'

Uploading Ann's book launch pictures and audio recording; Luana and I are interviewed at HCR; May supports high tech business and STEM.

Uploaded the private photo album of Ann's Saturday book launch after editing. I also the edited and trimmed my public recording of her interview on Audacity, then made it live on the Internet Archive - you can hear it here: https://archive.org/details/AnnPetreTheFamilyThatFlew.

Luana called today to chat about our forthcoming interview at Huntingdon Community Radio this evening. We were going to talk about HBN and our book, Go For It. Using Skype and its screensharing, we hammered out a working document as a guide. J declined the opportunity of several hours travel and waiting, so I drove up alone to arrive in Huntingdon just before 7 pm, in time for the interview with the Monday 'Over to You' show's host, Scott Phebe. Scott himself ran several businesses, in addition to his accountancy. My memory of the half hour interview by him with Luana was more of a lively conversation, interspersed by Annie Lennox's 'No More I Love Yous' (my choice) and ending with a track by some band or other called AC:DC (Luana;s choice).

PM May announced  plans to boost STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills, digital skills and numeracy (Close to my STEM Ambassador heart!) and invest £170m in creating new institutes of technology. President Trump continues turning the clock back by signing executive order to pull out of the TTP (Trans-Pacific Partnership).

Mermaid's purses and Thoughtcrimes

Beach at Frinton

Mermaid's purses

A beach walk in Frinton with Mermaid's purses and Orwellian like issues with telling or revealing truths on both sides of The Pond.

It was off to Walton on the Naze for a lunch with W and family, followed by a walk along the beach at Frinton. The shoreline was littered with numerous whelk shells, glowing gently in the hazy sunset. Scattered amongst them were the occasional clumps of whelk egg-cases, which looked like a loose form of bobbly stryrofoam - in fact, I had to find out what they were upon our return. I also found several mermaid's purses! These are probably the empty egg-cases from hatched young skate.

Whelks have been in decline and apparently the seabed is littered with collections of the shells of dead whelks. The large common skate is now thought to be two critically endangered subspecies. Their egg-cases are nearly a foot long. The ones I found were much smaller, about half that size, so not sure of the species that had laid them.

Two worrying developments today. First, despite clear evidence from multiple sources, the new presidential team is continuing to actively counter press reports of the inaugural crowd size. Whilst portrayed as a battle against the anti-trump media, it conjures a different image. If the first press conference stating the party line and then not accepting questions by the press caused unease, then two separate presidential sources still trying to promote their 'alternative facts', with ludicrous numbers today could only increase this. Are these the signs of a presidency where propaganda is more important than reality, where inconvenient facts and questioning are Orwellian Thoughtcrimes?

Anticipating the worst, academics, computing experts and even hackers have been archiving US government sites and, more importantly, climate change and Environmental Protection Agency data, in safe sites outside the control of the new administration. This is covered by various media sources but the Deutsche Welle article also includes links to the key locations; the Internet Archive, the Data Refuge, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative and the Climate Mirror.
(http://www.dw.com/en/ahead-of-trump-final-sprint-to-save-climate-data/a-37163568.)

The second worrying item was the revelation that the UK had tested a Trident Missile launch in June 2015. The missile went off course and had to be prematurely aborted. This was weeks before the debate on the renewal of Trident. Parliament was not made aware of the incident.

Ann's successful book launch and inaugural fallout

Ann Hales-Tooke (writing as Ann Petre) answering
questions at  her book launch

Attended Ann Hales-Tooke's book launch. Fallout from POTUS first day in office.

In 2004, Ann Hales-Tooke changed my life with the question "Do you know anything about publishing? I've been witing my Autobiography since I was 50 and I now want to publish it before my 80th birthday". Today J and I attended Ann's book launch for her third book 'The Family That Flew'. At 90, Ann organised a well attended book launch with invited family and friends. In fact, the place was buzzing with Ann signing books for a good half hour before getting a break. She was ably interviewed by one of her sons and a young grandson read out some extracts - with props! I took pictures and also recorded the interview.

The event was a great success and J and I returned  pleased and exhausted after the two and a half hour event. Thank heavens Ann had family to help her clear up and settle down afterwards.

Newly inaugurated President Trump lost no time in beginning to initiate his changes. By midnight GMT, tweets were emerging of pages taken down from the President's site, on global warming, LGBT rights for example. He also signed his first executive order to target 'Obamacare' as well as his first bill, to allow Gen. James Mattis to serve as Defense Secretary.

International news concerned about the protectionist, isolationist tone of inaugural speech and first actions.

Trump's inauguration also initiated major demonstrations in support of women's rights, with many wearing the self-knitted pink 'Pussyhats'. There was also the first spat with the 'lying media' who claimed that there were fewer attendees at his inauguration than at Obamas. Awaiting info on Reality Check sites.

Pictures of the women's march in Washington suggested that even that surpassed his inauguration crowd.

The far right have taken heart from first Brexit and then Trump's win and held a conference in Koblenz and called for the break-up of the EU back into bordered member states.

PM May to be first foreign leader to visit President Trump next week!

President Donald Trump Speaks Bigly at Inauguration

President Donald Trump - photo Whitehouse.gov

A networking day out, followed by President Trump's Inauguration

Sunrise on a crisp Friday morning. Frosted grass and cars, breath plumes making all at the bus stop all look like smokers. Waiting for the guided bus; a small child plays hide and seek with her mother around the shelter wall.

A day of conversations, starting at the A14 Network. Jonathan brought some Birthday slices which needed dunking to avoid breaking teeth or fillings. Discovered that John Battison started out as a vet, went to on to do a PhD, then joined a Pharma company. On retiring, he familiarised himself with computers and the net. Now he is provides social media marketing assistance with his company MobiNet Marketing.

On to volunteer at the Norris where Richard regaled me with the grim fate of St Ledegar, after whom the chapel on the St Ives bridge is named. Showed the team how to create and use QR Codes. Then on to Huntingdon for the HBN meeting and conversazione over a prawn and chilli sauce small platter.

I got back home shortly after 4 pm, in time for the beginning of President Trump's inauguration. The striking thing about the whole ceremony was the embedded religious elements and God, unusual for the initially secular separation of state and religion by the founding fathers.

President Trumps inaugural speech was an attempt at a more statesmanlike presentation of some of the main themes during his campaign. Three main elements struck me:

1. America First. Yes, any government should concentrate on it's own nation first but this extended more into an inward looking, protectionist and very nationalist view of the world.
2. The presentation of the past as a tragedy, despite the US recovery, lowest unemployment for years, major spending on the military and international respect despite some failings. He spoke again to his key audience of those who felt disenfranchised. 
3. His hinted aim of 'cleaning out the swamp' of Politicians and giving control back to The People. Well, his people, because many of the others stayed away or were at demonstrations against him.

There was a call to unity and to rally round to make America great again, provinding a positive note in what was a subtly dark speech overall.

The world holds it's breath for what might be coming next.

President Donald Trump Speech transcript here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-transcript-text-full-read-a7538131.html

May Lectures and Martin McGuinness calls it quits

Sometimes it is worth waiting for things to happen 

Remembered to take Ann the promised small cardboard boxes, to make transporting her books to the Launch on Saturday (she will have help!).

Continued on to restart work on a project with a client initiated in Oct 2015. It was great for both of us to catch up and get things moving. Sometimes you just have to be patient till the time is right again for both of you.

PM May lecturing again in Davos. Love Brian Cox's tweet, "I cannot see how UK can become THE global country whilst allowing fewer people from the globe to come here."

Sad to see Martin Mcguinness suffering bad health. Who would have thought that we would respect the man so reviled due to his IRA role thirty years ago. Let's hope Brexit will not re-establish the borders that it took so long to break down.

Photography insights fail to counteract post May-Brexit-talk

Prickly times ahead?

CSS, amazing photography talk and the day after May's Brexit talk.

Finally getting to grips with the CSS changes required for the website I'm building for a friend/client. It's just taken most of the day to finally alter element dimensions, text size shifts etc that work in a responsive manner.

The highlight of the day was the evening talk by Andy Hanson from the Bottisham and Burwell Photographic Club, at the Milton Photographic Club, ably assisted by partner Daphne, a photographer in her own right. Over 2 hours, with a deserved tea break, Andy took us on a humorous talk, illustrated with his prints. He definitely has a style which impressed me with his simplicity of composition. I'm taking the use of triangles with me, and also the way he described how he took portraits of people on the street around the world. You'll have to go and physically visit the Bottisham and Burwell club meetings to see his pictures as he does not have an online presence.

The right wing British was positively radiating a self-satisfied patriotism. 'We could have written May's speech ourselves', they crowed. Yes, Johnny foreigner has been put in his place by PM May, Wot! Boris also entered the fray be telling France not to respond with Nazi era punishment revenge beatings. Yes, that should create the right climate for future negotiations.

Continental Press unimpressed. There was one glorious comment on Newsnight tonight, that we seemed to be dealing with a Boris Trump. One could only have have sympathy with all the hard working negotiators and civil servants who had to put up with his embarrassing idiosyncrasies. The shortest cynical comment seen today in Spiegel, 'All I heard was, "We want, We want!" from the UK.

Had a note from a former colleague who lived and worked for 47 years in the UK, paid his NHS contributions, and is now refused assistance with his new life in Spain - because he is a EU national. HSB and USB announce that they intend to move up to 1000 staff each across the Channel in 2 years with Brexit

Aaargh, what is this country coming to!

Book delivery and May's Brexit speech

Ann gets her books and Theresa May makes an impact.

Visited Ann Hales-Tooke today as she was expecting her book The Family That Flew to be delivered from the printer. Living on the second floor and in her nineties, I was there to provide support as the last deliveryman had little or no English.

Just to make life interesting for Ann, the same non English speaking driver came early with one box of books,  before I had arrived. But the revisit was painless as he remembered the routine fom the previous time.

Once I was there, we amicably watched the online app showing the second batch of books getting ever closer. In the end, we had a very helpful and cheerful arrival, who delivered without any problems. Poor sod, we were delivery 73 at 2:45; he had to make 120 deliveries by the end of the day.

I therefore returned home late, after PM Theresa May's announcement re the way forward with Brexit.

I read the summaries in the British press, digested the reviews, and read the perspectives across the Channel and the Pond.

It all boiled down to "It's going to be a hard Brexit". Complete exit from the European market.

That left two million British expats, already suffering a 20% cut in the value of the pound since the Referendum wondering who was looking after their interests. Three million EU residents in UK are still left in limbo with regards to their residency status. UK business is to benefit from deregulated markets and industries,  but will we?

Full PM May's speech transcript http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/full-text-theresa-may-brexit-speech-global-britain-eu-european-union-latest-a7531361.html

Imperial Adventure Book and Trump’s Divide and Conquer?

Review of  1910 book “Round the World in 7 Days”, the reality, news commentary on President Elects interview with Times and Bild Magazine.

On the way to the Botanic Gardens over a week ago, we passed a charity shop and a title caught my eye “Round the World in Seven Days” by Herbert Strang. On the way back, I couldn’t resist, dived into the shop and emerged with the book. I finished it today.

The core story is that Lieutenant Charles Thiesiger Smith, an aviator pioneer, on leave in England, reads in the papers, that his father and brother have been shipwrecked on the Solomon Islands and are in danger of being attacked by Cannibals. With his trusty French mechanic, Rodier, the two of them set off in his plane to save his father and brother, continue around the world and get back before Charles’s shore leave finishes in 7 days. Of course, they succeed with many adventures on the way.

The first impression was, that it was an Imperial Adventure book of its day (1910). The second, that the only real people of note were proper upper class people like Charles T. Smith. Everyone else was beneath them and in fact, today the book would offend British farmers, workers, the French, the Germans, the Americans, Indians, Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Chinese and any other racial group encountered, because of how they were portrayed. The third impression was that of an Englishman’s natural right to expect priority treatment wherever they were in the world.

For example, in several paces where they landed to refuel, Smith would always set out, often meet the local Brit or dignitary, have a wash, good meal, manfully bear the curiosity of the ladies, before rushing back to the plane, where his trusty French mechanic Rodier had cleaned the engine and was hopefully eating some of the food sent to him as an afterthought. Mind you, Rodier did get a medal from the French Government before Smith got his knighthood, so some redress there!

It is a book of its time, where even today's bigots and closet racists would feel uncomfortable about some of the caricatures (full hardcore racists wouldn’t be able to see the problem).

One thing was true, His father and brother could have been at risk from head-hunters at the time in the Solomon Islands (https://australianmuseum.net.au/headhunters-from-roviana-solomon-islands-part-1).

Having recently edited and published Ann Petre’s book “The Family That Flew” http://miltoncontact.co.uk/Family-that-flew, the adventure did capture the heady days of aviation pioneers. But behind the fictional adventure story there was a real-life trail of fatal accidents. Flying was still a very hazardous affair with more than 30 pilot fatalities in 1910 alone. Ann’s uncles, Edward Petre and John Joseph (Jack) Petre died in accidents in 1913 and 1917 respectively (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatalities_from_aviation_accidents?).

Round the world in 7 days was a flight of fantasy.

The first real circumnavigation of the globe did not actually take place till April 6, 1924, when eight U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics in four airplanes left Seattle, Washington. They took 175 days, making 74 stops and covering about 27,550 miles http://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/first-flight-around-world. The first flight in just over 7 days was by Wiley Post in 1933, setting a record of  7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post.

Todays news is full of the reaction to the UK Times and German BILD Magazine interviews of President Elect Donald Trump. Britain concentrated on favourable views of possible trade deal after Brexit. The Spiegel was more cynical in interpreting Trump's pronouncements as aiming to divide and conquer:

• To separate UK further from EU.
• Tu turn other EU countries away from Germany.
• To set Nato members against each other.
• To diminish Chancellor Merkel in the eyes of the Germans.
• And to encourage the far right in Germany against the rest of the German population. 

There are no allies, there is only the competition (and Great Deals).

Spiegel article here http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/donald-trump-und-europa-spalte-und-herrsche-a-1130200.html.

Seawater and Fact-Checking in Post-Truth world

Seawater culture from Aberystwyth on slide, 400x magnification. Brightfield.

Photos of Aberystwyth seawater culture and where to check facts for Brexit and Trump claims.

Leisurely Sunday. I spent a couple of hours trying to photograph the growth of my Aberystwyth seawater culture on a slide, this time trying phase contrast. The subject was still challenging, even at 1000x magnification, because most of the growth was of very small single celled algae and bacteria. J designed a lovely 'Thank You' design to use on cards after Christmas, coming down on the side of simplicity with a personal touch.

Aberystwyth seawater culture on slide, 100x mag. Phase A contrast

Chancellor Philip Hammond interviewed by Die Welt, second level headline in their site, major news item on BBC. Then it was Trumped by Michael Gove interview on behalf of The Times with The Donald, where Brexit decision was praised and new trade deal with UK promised speedily (presumably once we are out of the EU). With PM Theresa due to give her more detailed plans an airing on Tuesday, the Pound has plummeted to 1.13 v the Euro and 1.2 v the US Dollar. Products coming into the UK are getting more expensive to buy.

The question came to mind, "Where can you find fact-checkers for political, economic and other claims?

There is an excellent reference resource giving fact checking sites and organisations around the world, the Duke Reporters Lab - see http://reporterslab.org/fact-checking/#. I regularly use the BBC Reality Check, and now have added Full Fact (https://fullfact.org/). Will also check the other UK sites out and perhaps one or two of the USA. If I have time, I also go to the publicly available statistics sites, but you do need to dig sometimes.

Lievito madre and When You don't (have the right to) live here anymore

Lievito madre starter Day 0

Lievito Madre, Anglesey Abbey, Microscopy. Brexit and
the requirement by certain EU citizens for Comprehensive Sickness Insurance to apply for a permanent residence card in the UK.

Woke with the sun trying to peek through the curtains, it was great to have a lie in!

Started the day with preparing a Lievito madre, the Italian way to make sourdough starter. I deviated slightly from the recipe by using wholemeal flour. Flour and water were mixed in a 2:1 ratio, with honey and oil, and placed in a covered container in my home-made bread incubator at around 25 degrees C for 2 days.

Purple berries at Anglesey Abbey

Visited Anglesey Abbey with J to make use of the sun before it set. We made a few stops or the few emerging snowdrops and berries, before briskly doing the round in the bitter wind. Today, the Café’s offering looked sparse and unappealing, so bought a date and walnut cake in the NT shop and took it home for late afternoon tea.

In the evening, looked at the microscope slide that had been standing in seawater from Aberystwyth for 7 weeks. The barely visible fuzz on the slide surface showed small single celled algae, diatoms, filamentous algae and/or cyanobacteria and the first indications of green seaweed colonies. I tried photographing different views but was not happy with the results. Will have to play again another day.

I had hoped to escape any Brexit news for a day or so, till the following raised it’s ugly head again.

Cahir O’Kane, Cambridge scientist, has been keeping a finger on the pulse of how Brexit is going to affect EU nationals and passing on relevant news items. The Guardian newspaper has been following this issue for a while, and it is becoming ever clearer why my EU friends are concerned about the feasibility of staying in the UK. For two, it could be that they could be asked to leave, despite having lived here and contributing to the economy for more than five years.

From the most recent Guardian article, there is a particularly bureaucratic route to gaining UK citizenship as an EU national, as I understand it. You first have to demonstrate right to permanent residence. Currently, whilst we are in the EU, EU citizens have this. Upon exiting the EU, this right falls away and EU citizens are therefore recommended to apply for the permanent right to residence now. This is fine for those who  have been in permanent employment for the minimum 5 years in the UK. However, parent looking after children at home students and the self employed  need to have a Comprehensive Sickness Insurance - even though you are eligible for NHS treatment - to apply for permanent residency.

Of course, this is to prevent people scrounging off the state. But the unintended (or is it intended?) consequence is, that your longstanding EU national neighbour, having married a Brit, lived in the UK for donkey’s years and brought up a family together, could be asked to leave.

This is one of the key issues behind the phrase in the news – wanting reassurance that the UK Government “gives EU nationals currently residing in the UK, the right to continued residence after Brexit”.

Currently, no reassurance has been given and immigration and Brexit ministers have made a significant proportion of the 3 million EU nationals in the UK a bargaining chip.

At least it's All Quiet on the Trump Front.

Tweets and hot chocolate

I DON'T TWEET!

7:20 am is an uncivilised hour to get up for a night owl. Clear skies turned to minor blizzard on the guided bus to St Ives, where I definitely needed a hot chocolate, in the Tap Room, at the A14 Networking. Good to see friends after the Christmas break. Then off to the Norris Museum, still currently decamped in the Town Hall, to continue with the volunteering.

The day's highlight was actually the Twitter training session with Victor Sacks, twitter handle @SmartSacks, at HBN today.

The truth is, that many micro-business and SME leaders are in an age bracket where we have come to social media relatively late in our lives, whilst our children or the generation just below us have lived with this technology from an early age. We find it difficult to take on these new tools, to grasp the fact that our social circles now have to extend beyond the face-to-face and into the digital space of social media.

So, for many, any first introduction to social media has to be at the level of the Ladybird books, and I mean the versions from our past for children, not the current knowing adult parodies.

After loosening up any preconceptions of a PowerPoint driven "Me Talk! You Listen!" session, we really went back to basics. About a quarter of the attendees had to download the Twitter app first and set up an account first. Another half had already downloaded the app at some distant point in the past and soon lost interest without guidance on how to make it work.

It was here, with those at the very beginning, that Victor showed a different face to his ebullient and larger than life, jovial persona. Where he saw someone struggling, he would come over, offer quiet words of encouragement and advice, patiently talk them through the first steps of finding the Playstore app, searching for Twitter, downloading and installing it. He deftly moved to and fro, ensuring that everyone was eventually connected before going onto the next stage. He spoke gently, encouragingly and made each person who needed his help feel they were actually getting somewhere without being patronised.

Watching him was a masterclass in how to train, take away people's fears and leave them positive about progressing. Everyone then made their first tweet of the day.

Yes, of course there was also that "know-it-all already" quarter of the audience, which included me, but we learnt useful things too as Victor returned to his familar enthusiastic persona. For me, it was that by updating my Twitter, I could now add animated GIFs to my messages. There was also the reassurance that somethings that I was already doing, like using paper.li to generate my own news from my Twitter feeds, was valuable.

I came back home with the satisfied tiredness of a good end to the week.


Victor's story from school drop-out to a respected Independent Financial Advisor and Twitter master is one of the highlights from the Go  For It! book we published -you can read it here: http://www.miltoncontact-blog.com/2017/01/victors-story-extract-from-go-for-it.html

Flying WWI aces and No Snow Show.

Visited Ann Petre today, who is preparing for her book launch to family and friends, on  “The Family That Flew”. In her nineties, she still remembers and has family records of her uncles who were aviation pioneers before and during the first world war. Indeed two of them died in tragic accidents: Edward whilst on a flight up to Scotland and John, whilst training new flying recruits on the new art of dogfights over France. Her Uncle Henry went on to found what became the Australian Air Force and also fought in the more forgotten war over Mesopotamia. She expects about 50 guests and I look forward to the event. This is the third book we have worked on together.

Humdrum, bitty afternoon afterwards. Did however get a chance to look more closely at my most recent article published in the Balsam Post, “Back to basics – Resolution in microscopy and photography”. Chuffed with the way things always look 100 times better when finally in print, and also apprehensive as there will be a gamut of experts going through it with a fine tooth-comb. The BP also contained a reprinted article on fluorescence microscopy from 1989 by the late lamented Keith Brocklehurst. I am tempted to give it a go as I think there are some interesting possibilities with current technologies. Fluorescence was fun when I used it in the lab.

Unsubstantiated muckraking still going on here and across the pond. Substantiated heated differences between government line and reality in NHS on Question Time tonight. Silver lining – retailers had a bumper Christmas (but we are all further in debt because of it).

No snow outside. Damn! I was looking forward to seeing some tonight.

Different Truths

I could say that I stayed up till four in the morning to watch Obama give his final speech to the nation in Chicago. I was actually finishing my book “The Truth” by Terry Pratchett. However, President Obama’s speech was a sufficient distraction to tear me from the novel.  He appeared relaxed in front of his Chicago audience. He was eloquent and no doubt left some of his audience behind occasionally.

He appreciated the warmth of the “Four more years!” chant, gently chiding “I can’t do that”. Obama was warm and moved as he paid respects to Michelle and his children.  Above all, he appeared like that rare example to others in these times – someone who genuinely commands respect for his beliefs, integrity and dedication to public office despite the massive obstacles put in his way.

Up again at nine and off to Suffolk to visit a friend and author to discuss and plan the second expanded edition of “Understanding and Using the Stereomicroscope”, to be published later this year.

In the evening, out to German speaking friends, a “Stammtisch” that evolved out of a kids club we had when all our children were still growing up. The group has a wider European perspective and conversation flowed around which of the parents had or were taking on British nationality and who’s children were eyeing the possibility of taking up a European passport. Each looking to secure their futures, as the ill wind of Brexit swept through our lives.

There were grim tidings from the University on increasing difficulties in getting funding and staff for research. Personal experiences of work within the health service underlined the statistics of an overburdened and cash strapped NHS as in the evenings news that factually countered the misleading ministerial utterances of the day.

More serious issues were also discussed at length between the nibbles and warming no-alcoholic fruit-punch, such as the best way to drop someone off or pick them up from Stansted airport: The medium stay car park was a good tip, with the free shuttle to the terminal. But beware of returning to the passenger drop-off and collect point immediately outside the terminal if your pick-up was not there first time – one stop was a reasonable £3 for the privilege but two stops amounted to the £50 rate!

Then there was the critical admiration for the beautifully oiled and smoothly working bearings of a heavy duty rolling pin, an accessory that should definitely be on my next Christmas list.

The late night news and browsing of various news sources in the UK, Germany and the US ended the day with President Elect Donald J Trump’s news conference.

Muck flew in both directions, following the release of the unsubstantiated intelligence report. I scanned through the 35 pages of the poisonous document that had apparently been circulating around the press and intelligence agencies for months, and been shown to both Trump and Obama. I’ll reserve judgement till claims are supported by facts - old fashioned of me I know in this post–truth world.

Prisoner in my own head: Migraine

Painkiller Ibuprofen crystals (useless against Migraine!)

I can't move. It's not that I cannot physically move, it's just that the command does not arise to be passed on.

The pain curles delicately around the left eyeball into an empty space behind. With eyes closed, Clouds of colour gently waft down, one followed by another. An orange spark grows and disappears. The show continues like a murky psychedelic lava lamp at very low power.

The heartbeat in my ear ticks slowly but each minute stretches into aeons. The gentle crash of glass in the waste collection lorry, the rhythmic slow beat of ambulances passing in the distance on the A10/A14, a door quietly closing, They register but don't really mean anything. Turn over and begin the next eternity.

The dull pain moves around in the empty space to find another comfortable space. At last, I can move a finger, a hand, a body and make the way downstairs for the triptan. Only a couple of hours to go till painless, disconnected limbo.

Hallucinations after sleep deprivation

Thirty-eight hours without sleep, the day's work done before 8am, and I feel fine during the day, if a little light headed.

I start mishearing things on the TV:

• Four million London commuters give up the underground to walk or cycle to work for health.
• The Prime Minister wants to tackle mental health issues in youngsters, no significant funding required - its all about attitudes, not money. 
• The NHS is improving acccording to Jeremy Hunt, so the 4h maximum waiting target in A&E is to be restricted to emergency cases only. 
• Actress Meryl Streep is awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe ceremony, for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment". She talks of the importance of tolerance and the strong not intimidating the weak. The President Elect belittles her as "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood". 
• A friend visits with her husband and my tablet whispers "£1,236". It's the cost of the naturalisation she is eligible to pay at the end of the year if she wants to stay with him in the UK. 

Suddenly, I'm deathly tired. I'm going to bed. Surely, everything will be back to normal again tomorrow.

I've survived the rhino attack

Peaceful Rhinos,
weigh up to 2 tons, over 1.5 m high

Only 2 people a year are actually killed by Rhinos. No, I've survived the greater hazard that comes from the common cold, caused by another Rhino, a rhinovirus. It is estimated that in the US alone, 4500 deaths are caused by the common cold, and the overall cost to the economy is in billions on pounds/dollars globally.

Rhinovirus, 0.000,000,03 m diameter
source http://www.virology.wisc.edu/virusworld

I tried to get my head around the size of these small viruses. They are only 30 nm in diameter - I'm 64 million times bigger! If a virus was my size, then I'd reach one third of the way to the moon. Due to the lack of oxygen in space, the feeling would not be dissimilar from the asphyxiating effect of the bunged up cold I've just got over.

Still, I took the day gently, doing photo-editing of a cabbage white caterpillar's left hind false leg, from a slide sent to me, 266 photos combined in 10 stacks and then 1 panorama. It looks like some sort of surreal volcano landscape - see picture below. Also continued with the museum web project, again, mainly image editing.

Detail of claws on the proleg of a Pieris caterpillar (Cabbage white family)

Our Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Boris Johnson has made a pilgrimage to the Trump Tower to talk to Acolytes of the President elect but apparently not meeting him directly. News media agog with soundbites of Prime Minister Theresa May's interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky.

I checked out the full 20 minute interview. Full of positive sounding comments on a range of issues, from caring conservatism to impending Brexit. Confirms we will be exiting the EU but not really saying anything more about what this means! Apparently the BBC was snubbed for Sky - well, look on the bright side - 20 minutes available for other real news? Oh no, its analysis of the Sky interview!

Waking to a humanitarian crisis and lots of questions

Spines on a plant stem

A night in my own bed again! Fantastic! Though I had to get up before 8 am (on a weekend?!?). Having a shower a bliss, though the rash prickled for a while afterwards.

Turn on the news for breakfast, and it turns out that the Red Cross says we effectively have a humanitarian crisis in the UK with hospitals overstretched and beds blocked by patients that cannot return home because there are no social services to assist.

Roundly contradicted by Keith Willett, director of acute care for NHS England who said that the service was stretched but not that bad.

This adds to the range of contradictory messages being given, with Worcester Infirmary having 15 or more patients on trolleys awaiting beds, one patient's waiting time being up to 38 hours. According to the BBC, 42 A&E departments ordered ambulances to divert to other hospitals last week.

Eyes and nose good enough to let me a) edit the pictures from the walk in the Botanic Gardens on Wednesday and b) catch up on this diary!

Then watched The Big Fat Quiz, Mastermind, Countdown and Pointless. Lots of questions. Answered 3 or 4. Did not get any anagrams or sums right. Brain still blank.

Donald J Trump has tweeted again to show that he has taken the security chief's and his own party's message on board - apparently the Democrat National Committee negligent in allowing themselves to be hacked. (This reminds me of the old chestnut of the woman being at fault if attacked due to  wearing provocative clothing - or just being a woman.) Good news though, he is going to build better relations with Russia, which should prevent future hacking of his government.

The independent online cheerily weighed in with a poll that suggested most people in the west expect WWIII this century!

Watched the David Bowie documentary and the following quote, just after 0:40:45 in to the recording, stuck in my mind as he talked about his fears and apprehensions about the future his daughter was going to grow up in:

"What a disappointing 21st Century this has been so far!"

Continuing cold and a lack of fiery sparks

Flower as red as my nose in Cambridge Botanic Garden

Friday 6th. Second night sleeping sitting up on chair downstairs just to be able to breathe. Mind you, spent half the night again watching films. Can recommend the french animation film about a Russian princess who seeks to rescue her polar explorer grandfather, ‘Long Way North’.

Surfaced out of bed in evening to see that the media-expected sparks between Donald J Trump and US security experts failed to fly visibly. Read the report on Russian hacking and other propaganda activity released to the public. Also trawled German, UK and US commentary. Interesting that British intelligence had alerted US to the activity initially.

Trumps response that of a politician - requesting action on preventing hackers access to sensitive sites within 90 days of assuming office, followed by comments that hacking had not affected the outcome of the election. With grinding teeth, have to acknowledge that he is probably right. I think politicians within Europe (that includes the UK, for the geographically challenged) and the US have underestimated and blatantly ignored the groundswell of dissatisfaction.

A good friend of mine used to talk about 'the thin veneer of civilisation' that hides a rawer, more visceral and narcissistic human streak. It is the ugly thing that waits to break loose when the opportunity arises or a feeling of being ignored grows beyond breaking point - see the rise in xenophobia or even the opportunistic rampages of mobs plundering shops during riots.

Good news though, I've come out in a rash! It's a general indicator whenever I'm ill that my immune system is gradually winning!

Cry me a river of tissues

River of tissues

Thursday 5th. generating a river of tissues and drowning in a sea of tears. In bed most of day. intermittently picked up media chatter about impending battle of Donald J Trump v. the Behemoth of the intelligence agencies, with an anticipated Showdown on Friday. Did I hear right that Nigel Farage will again see Trump at his inauguration, well before Prime Minister Theresa May's proposed visit 'sometime in February'?

Bleak trees and mendacity

Winter tree trunks in monochrome, Cambridge Botanic Gardens

Wednesday 4th January I was tempted to join J and meet some of her past work colleagues in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. The sun shone through on what appeared to be walks through a bare scenery with major excavation going on as the lake was drained. Homing in onto detail, there was beauty to be found - as well as warmth in the restaurant for lunch and the greenhouses.

Barely back home and it was time for Huntingdonshire Speakers. With a jaundiced eye on past elections and referendums, my chosen word of the day was 'mendacious' and its sister 'mendacity'. It was woven into speeches by others at least six times that evening.

My sore throat was the harbinger of a major cold front and I left early to get back just in time for the storm of sniffles and teary eyes to break.

One good news snippet of the day - The Finns begin trialing a basic income of €560 every month to 2000 selected individuals from the beginning of this year. Cities in Canada and the Netherlands are also toying with the idea. Preparation for a world were robots and automation drive people out of an increasing number of sectors.

Confusing Johnny Foreigner

I got as far as dealing with emails up to the 27th Dec 2016 today. Quite an enjoyable experience after the dross had been culled as there were some lovely and unexpected Christmas messages to reply to. Travelling to Stansted and back to drop off son in time for flight also went remarkably smoothly, considering I was driving during the peak evening rush hour. By the time I was home, the BrexiTrump news was in full swing.

<IRONY ALERT/IRONIE WARNUNG/AVERTISSEMENT D'IRONIE>

Already, we can see two different strategies across The Pond.

With three tweets, Donald J Trump defended democracy, pushed US jobs for car manufacturing and endorsed Guantanamo Bay Detention. Those familiar with 'One man and his Dog' will be struck by the similarity to the prize winning Shepherd's whistles in controlling his recalcitrant flock of sheep.

Meanwhile, we Brits have so far clearly taken a three step approach, (aka 'A Cunning Plan' by Baldrick):

1. Draw lines between Them and Us. We have clearly drawn a line between Us and Foreigners across the Channel. In our excitement, we have also redrawn old lines between our Nations (Scots, English, Irish, Welsh). If in doubt, we can retreat behind those too.
2. Our government has caused Sir Ivan Rogers, the most experienced permanent representative of the UK to the EU, to resign. In one stroke, we have not only lessened Our insight and contacts to those EU representatives, we have cunningly deprived Them of a logical and familiar conduit to Our intentions!
3. We can now invoke Article 50 and send a new negotiating team to a confused Johnny Foreigner (or 27), uncluttered by false sentiment, to firmly press our case that "We are jolly well leaving and fully deserve to get the best terms and conditions because you cannot do without us!"

If my opinion counts for anything, our success would be further guaranteed if the negotiating team turned up with suits, bowler hats and umbrellas and leaked information on their favourite member of the Royal Family/of the Beatles. This would play into the misconception of us as likeable buffoons by the many anglophiles on The Continent.

Guns, trains and sell by dates

Last day of the Christmas break began with glorious sunshine, even after a lie-in. Finally breaking the back of designing a simple responsive website using HTML5 for a history project. Call from Germany on battles with Microsoft Publisher,  apparently it's not possible to automatically generate Contents tables.

A time to eat leftovers and take short brisk walks in golden but chilly winner sunset.

News still dominated by tragedy of the shootings in a Turkish nightclub.  A similarly lethal bus bomb in Baghdad 2 days ago receives little or no mention. Outcry however about New Years gift of rail fare rises. Len McCluskey gives a friendly sell by date for Jeremy Corbyn - 1919 - Oops! Subconscious slip there, should be 2019. Brexit currently off radar.

Tragically, the second young girl injured in a hit and run in Oldham has died. 2015 stats, 1,732 deaths and 186,209 injuries in road accidents; here's hoping 2017 is less lethal.

A Family New Year's Day

A late morning start in the kitchen, preparing a belated family traditional Christmas Eve meal, as New Year was the first time we were all together.

From the picture, you will note that it includes sausages in a reddish brown sauce. This simple statement hides a cauldron of problems for the UK based cook. Ideally, the meat balloons should be very special white and red sausages from Silesia, following my mother's German family tradition. They are still made by certain butchers in Germany, specifically at Christmas, however, they are currently impossible to obtain in the UK.

Over the years, I have substituted simple pork sausages for the white ones and a variety of different dark sausages for the red ones with varying success. I am still waiting to strike gold - or the wurst equivalent.

The meat however is merely a flavour note in a mysterious thick base, called "Polnische Sosse" (Polish Sauce) in my recipe book. This requires two key ingredients not readily available to me.

The first is "Honigkuchen", translated as honey cake. It's like a mild gingerbread. My solution is to bake my own. The second ingredient is "Malzbier", translating as malt beer. Now, a) I do not like beer of any sort (unless it is cooked) and b) malt seems to be a distinguishing feature of a great many beers. Occasionally a friend has brought some Malzbier over. Other times I have experimented with dark ales. This year I found Supermalt and gave that a go.

As always, I managed to cook a meal that had some resemblance to that childhood taste that has been indelibly imprinted on my brain, but never reached the pinnacle of hitting the mark. Mother's Christmas Eve dinners still always taste the best. Still, after 2.5h slaving away in the kitchen, the food disappeared in record time.

With a sufficiently large group of us, we then passed the time with an amalgamation of two board games - the modern Game of London and the (pre-Beaching?) Great Game Of Britain. Our rules need honing, but good fun nevertheless.

Later, the news would percolate into our cosy space, with tales of the Nightclub shootings in Turkey and 'The Queen's Cold'. Brexit received a scant mention - PM Theresa May entreating us to heal the divisions brought on/revealed by last years referendum.