Nice tree, but it makes walking on the pavement almost impossible if you’re over five feet tall.

Xmas in Little India.

…streets were relatively clean, traffic lights and lamp-posts worked, and officers were present in the busiest areas. Simple things absent in other parts of Syria, and a source of pride here. Traffic lights and lamp-posts usually work in Southall. Seems like Idlib is cleaner and safer? All we need now is an authoritarian ethno-nationalist leader….

TOAST IN THE MACHINE

Some people seem to find the idea of machine intelligence frightening. And with good reason. Because from where I’m sitting at the breakfast table, the machines around me are mostly dumber than a rock (although that’s a bit unfair to rocks, who are actually very smart). My music player has forgotten my wifi name and password and refuses to reconnect. My wife’s work laptop is making all kinds of noises trying to attract her attention, oblivious to the fact that she’s not here, and hasn’t been for a good ten minutes.

Perfect cheese omelette this morning. Two eggs whisked lightly for two minutes into a hot pan with melted butter. Added some leftover Gouda sliced cheese and a sprinkling of grated mature cheddar and Double Gloucester, chives, cherry tomatoes quartered. Served off with parsley, salt and pepper, and a spoonful of sweet, hot jalapenos, and two rounds of burnt toast.

They are reduced to playing a game of politics which lacks any substance, with their only reward (apart from those that might come when they have left office) being the dopamine hits that they get as a consequence of the appearance of their being in power. Sounds like someone I know. Via Richard Murphy.

A shame we only get to choose one.

THE LAST SUPPER

Work xmas lunch today was delicious, especially the spiced pear cake for dessert (albeit with the tiniest slice of pear I’ve ever seen). Company was good, and highlighted how socially inept I am without a couple of pints inside me. Service was excellent apart from the ridiculous length of time it took to pay the bill. They seemed to need to input each individual course into the till, but couldn’t work out why the total didn’t equal 13 x £16.

This morning’s trees.

My lucky day (NSFW).

Transcript

“…Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a “new front” had opened up on Israel’s border with Syria after the fall of the Assad regime to an Islamist-led rebel alliance.” How (in)convenient. Israel plans to expand Golan settlements after fall of Assad bbc.comHome - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6lgln128xo

ROAD RAGE

My driving instructor told me that I would have to learn to drive twice. Once to pass my driving test (which I did first time, rather fortuitously), and once to learn to drive like everyone else does (i.e., with little regard to the laws of the land, the rules of the road, or the Highway Code). He also gave me some more sound advice to be a good driver: in addition to getting from A to B, my aim should be to avoid causing other road users to brake, stop or get out of my way.

Cricket match well underway in my local park at 9:30 this morning.

SOUTHALL ODOURS

I step out of my house and immediately notice the artificial “cotton fresh” scent of odour suppressants wafting south from the old Gasworks site. How can this be? They finished remediating the contaminated earth in 2019, and people have been living there in the new homes they built since 2021. Still, it’s better than the smell of petrol, which is what we had to put up with day and night for months on end in 2018.

WHAT'S GOING ON IN SYRIA?

If I understand this correctly: it’s illegal in the UK to say or do anything that could be construed as support for the democratically elected government of Gaza and likewise for a party of the democratically elected government of Lebanon because we designate them as proscribed terrorist organisations. The outgoing US president brokered a one-sided ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, which allows Israel to continue bombing Lebanon and illegally invading and occupying its sovereign territory.

Don’t most start-ups fail? Maybe a pop-up government would work better? Government wants state to be more ‘like a start-up’ bbc.comHome - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xjqvngekjo

The Queen had the IRA over for tea, so I can’t see what the problem is? UK will review Syrian group’s terror ban, cabinet minister says bbc.comHome - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7qenxy8r2o

No one could have foreseen this. Man Utd sporting director Ashworth leaves after five months bbc.comHome - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c1elzp6xeq7o

My friend Tim has been busy… Dull Men’s Club - the ‘mundane’ Facebook group that became an unlikely hit bbc.comHome - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20n76l76e1o

Apple crumble is one of my five a day, right?

NO ROOM AT THE INN

Immigration case I’ve been working on since almost exactly a year ago has finally gone kaput with devastating and life changing consequences for the person involved. They’ve lived here since they were eighteen. They volunteer to run a wellbeing cafe in a local church. They applied for grant funding to keep the cafe open over winter. We wanted to employ them as a community development worker. They now have to leave the UK by the day of our office xmas lunch or face deportation.

Luxury flats newly built by the canal. The absence of windows on the sides of the blocks is presumably so that the residents don’t have to see the people in the poor houses next door.

Best naans in Southall Green!

Like I was two years ago, when I last had a blood test, I’m “pre-diabetic”, so I’m going to see if I can cut out sugar from my diet and go for a half hour walk every day. Had half as much sugar in my morning coffee and didn’t even notice the difference, and had a cup of tea just now with half as much and it somehow tasted too sweet?

WHAT YOU WRITING FOR?

I was in Hounslow, west London last year. I went to a cafe in a leisure centre. I’m not proud of it, I was volunteering with my son’s school. And I’m alone, I’m not eating or drinking and I’m writing in my notebook, right? Teacher walks over to me: “Hey, what you writing for?” Isn’t that the weirdest fucking question you’ve ever heard? Not what am I writING, but what am I writing FOR?