A Robot, Dining Out, and a Gamble

Hi Everyone

When our son was a small boy, he looked forward to 5-00 pm on Saturday so that he could watch Dr Who on TV. That was the time when the Daleks, those alien robots, were threatening to take over the world. At the start of the he would sit crosslegged about 4 ft from the scene. The Daleks only spoke one word: “exterminate”. As the mayhem and conflict progressed, he would slowly shuffle backwards until, by the end of the episode, he would be sitting about 10 ft from the screen. It's amazing how history repeats itself, as the current alien robot Trump has the same effect on me as I watch his ever more ridiculous statements, and when it comes to his Dalek in Israel whose only word is definitely exterminate, it is difficult to stay in the same room, which is a problem for us as we live in an open plan house. The Israeli Dalek is this week urging the Iranian people to rise up and take control of their country to get rid of the despotic regime, and Trump says the war is nearly over. To me, both statements are ridiculous. All the air strikes look great on a map on your TV screen, but when you consider that Iran is 3 times larger than France and 7 times larger than the UK, it puts the problem into perspective. In addition, it is becoming more apparent that their strategy in case of conflict has been planned for many years. I think that this war, and more importantly, what happens afterwards, will impact world events for a long time after both Daleks return to their alien world.

Social media has many good and bad issues, but some of the British sense of humour posts are priceless. This week, a couple were seen having what they described as a very expensive meal. The setting was not in a restaurant as you would expect, but on a petrol forecourt. Now we have the usual situation whenever a crisis looms, fuel prices go up immediately, while they come down very slowly when the situation calms. Now the government is waving a big stick at the suppliers to warn them of profiteering. Too late, the money is already in their bank accounts. Somewhere along the way, the Senior Partner missed a trick when she chose to be a “businesswoman” in a Fruit, Vegetable ……. Shop instead of a petrol station.

This week, the annual four day horse racing festival took place at Cheltenham.It is not something that I am interested in, but it attracted over 120.000 spectators. Apparently, some of the festival's regular racegoers decided to go to Benidorm in Spain this year, tempted by cheap beer, sunshine and large TV screens to watch the racing, In addition, they had access to online betting. Assuming they did not lose too much gambling, it was apparently less expensive to spend four days in Spain rather than the cost of tickets for the festival, hotel bills and higher drinks prices.  We really do live in a crazy world. 

Just a Thought:

What’s the difference between a Dalek and Trump? A Dalek has a bigger vocabulary. 

With the rise in petrol prices, my friend is considering changing from his car to a pogo stick.

My friend says that gambling ruins lives, but it brought his family closer together. They all now live in a one room flat.

Brian