Mostly Today's Whinges

1. More hassle from the corporate world again today. I’m growing sick and tired of their self-serving demands and their attempts to scare me into bowing to their will. I’m capable of seeing through the fraud, but it doesn’t help with the stress levels.

2. And today brought more evidence of physical degradation. I do so fear losing my mobility and independence. I honestly think I would prefer a terminal diagnosis to that, but maybe it’s all just stress-induced fatigue.

3. I’ve developed the habit of spending money on things which turn out to be unsuitable when I get them home. Today it was only £1.50, but sometimes it’s a lot more and the cost is rising.

4. I still wonder why I bother to write blog posts which amount to nothing more than additions to the catalogue of whinges. If only I could re-discover my sense of humour I might develop the worthy capacity to become a second Karl Pilkington, but it’s gone into hibernation again.

5. But to jump off the whinge wagon for a moment, I read something today which indicated how the world has changed during my lifetime. A survey of young people from the UK, France, and Germany indicates that there’s a growing suspicion of the US and China. When I was a young person our only enemy was Russia, but that’s all changed since the great Slavic Bear gave up the USSR which provided both a cash cow and a defensive perimeter. It doesn’t have quite the capacity to instil fear these days as it used to have during the Cold War. Interestingly, one of the things the young people said was that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made them more aware of the Taiwan situation. It’s good that they can make such connections. And perhaps even more interestingly, they also said that much of their suspicion about America stemmed from Trump being President during their formative years. I always said that Trump would be the ruination of America’s reputation, didn’t I? I did.