The passage of time in Wellington and elsewhere
(Lost as a draft so posted late).
In the city for the Ireland v Tonga pool match for the RWC2023.
The cemetery has graves of soldiers who died in WW1. They arrived from the front to the hospital. Germans and French and a few assorted others.
The author of the’Magic Roundabout’ is buried there too.
Plus a trip to the botanical gardens.
We are currently on the way to NZ.
This time via a new city. A layover for a couple of days which for the most part is being used to deal with the fatigue of flying, which should not be that bad, and the previous days poor sleep.
Yesterday we slipped in a trip to Chinatown and some street food. Noodles followed by coconut ice-cream. Today a trip to the Grand Palace and temples. Low key for us, not too long, but a good view of part of the culture. Despite our limited time it is clear that this is a busy and huge city.
A beautiful morning. A classic. Cold with open skies with the fog and ‘steaming’ pond.
The men are here to fit the replacement ‘french’ windows and kitchen door, plus have done some work to sort out insulation and wall by one of the bedrooms.
And early progress:
If seems that we can continue to be surprised.
The fifth worst PM in UK history- all of the last five PMs- is back.
The place is in such a bad position that we are boring holes in the bottom of the barrel.
It seems Sunak is finally getting rid of the total crap in his cabinet. Braverman has gone as weeks of agitation and stirring division and encouraging violent right wing action.
Former PM makes surprise comeback as part of reshuffle in which Suella Braverman replaced by James Cleverly as home secretary
Kiran Stacey Political correspondentMon 13 Nov 2023 10.01 GMTLast modified on Mon 13 Nov 2023 14.34 GMT
David Cameron has returned to government as UK foreign secretary, in a stunning comeback for the former prime minister that highlighted Rishi Sunak’s willingness to take risks as he looks to revive his political fortunes.
Downing Street announced on Monday that Cameron would join the government, accepting a peerage in order to do so, as part of a wider reshuffle in which Suella Braverman was sacked as home secretary and replaced by the foreign secretary, James Cleverly.
As Simon Jenkins says:
‘When the solution to your problem is David Cameron, you know you’re in deep trouble”
Some changes are starting.
Le pompe à chaleur est en train de s’installer.
After five visits and quotes, and often telling me how difficult the work is, SebMan has started. He was delays because of Storm Ciaren and then the power cuts.
He has made a start- the old poele à bois has been removed and then are new holes in walls and the chimney is partially filled with boarding.
Here’s hoping for a successful outcome
A weekend trip to See IQ and EQ before our trip to NZ.
A nice time had, including a trip see see the Glasgow Warriors v the Stormers for me and EQ and a trip to a comedy show for IQ and Shaz.
Plus there was the trip to the tasting restaurant, lunch and the chance to watch a 3 and half hour film. Killers of the Flower Moon has fine reviews and was a good film to watch with a very disturbing an true story. For me somewhat of a marathon.
The light show at the botanical gardens, across the road from our accomodation.
We returned to Brittany after a trip to Glasgow to the after effects of Storm Ciaran.
We had left by ferry just before it struck – taking an earlier ferry to Portsmouth than originally booked to avoid the cancellation.
On our return the house still lacked power , along with our neighbours, as our small sub-section of the network was less priority. The power came back today after eight days-though only two directly for us. A relief all the same.
A nice walk along the road yesterday evening to enjoy the hum of all the working generators in the neighbouring houses.
