Lillie comes into the kitchen excitedly we've got to get the bus up to Bacup she says. Transport has gone awry once more. The Rochdale road is closed after Riggs, the nursery centre, because of a water leak. You can drive through Riggs car park and go round the centre and out the other side. But hey this is the main road to Rochdale and there will be terrible confusion.
This comes from the fact that all transport out of Todmorden has only three road exits through the narrow valleys. The only other option is to go up over the 'tops' or the moors. My daughter who always travels by train, can't catch a train because they are on strike today, so rather than come home tonight she will sleep over at Tom and Ellie's house.
The infrastructure is definitely creaking, and who were the persons who could not be arsed to get HS2 up here, can we please have any of the money left over from that debacle to upgrade. Firstly, our roads, then the bus system and then the railway. Cars (going into deep waters here) are a nuisance, everyone for a start wants the ability to draw their car right up to where they want to go. Complain bitterly about the price of car parks. I join with Andy Burnham here modernise the transport system.
When I have my tablet out early in the morning I watch little videos of other countries. This morning it happened to be Russia. High up in the tree covered mountains, a little old lady of 96 years cooked the meals for herself and her son. She spun wool quietly I expect from the goats outside, cooked on a Russian stove and generally coped with the life given to her. The other family featured obviously had more wealth in animals. Two horses, cows, chickens and cats and dog. Obviously wealthier as a farmer he also had a tractor used for clearing the snow, piles of which grew taller than the houses.
The farmer's wife, cooked a large chicken till it browned beautifully, made strange little flat dough cakes which she solemnly ate with her old mother and a friend, after having said their prayers. Do you remember when we had to say Grace when young. It is a good habit, overstuffed supermarkets have taken away the act of being thankful for food, but it is wise to remember that supermarkets are but two days (or maybe more) away from empty shelves when we all panic.
But all I heard in the news that someone 'had crossed the floor' yes they are deserting the conservative party. Well not exactly only two have crossed over for the moment. One very right-wing, so it will be interesting to see how she fares. I expect when she has stopped bobbing up from behind Keir Starmer, she will gracefully exit towards the back bench.
The trouble is that it will take years to improve transport, like it has in the South. I was astonished by the trains in Kent - lines like yours with stations not all that far apart all electrified with long modern trains. We still get an occasional ancient one-carriage rickety "multiple" unit.
ReplyDeleteYes Tasker but it has to happen we live on a small island with too many people. Funnily enough my daughter's train last night was crowded, only two carriages instead of four.
DeleteI've always been amused by people who try and fight to get car parking space outside a gym, having driven a kilometre or so from their home to the gym. Yes, a posh area.
ReplyDeleteWe never had to say grace and I felt uncomfortable as a visitor to someone's home where they said grace. I follow a Japanese mostly train traveller on YouTube and he always, in subtitles after a receiving food on trains, writes 'Thank you for the food'. Rather like saying grace, isn't it.
Ha, your politicians are deserting the proverbial sinking water vessel. Starmer is wise to say nothing and let the government destroy itself.
"For what we are about to receive" comes to mind Andrew. As an atheist plus pagan in outlook, I think somehow that the blessing of food in days gone by was rather sweet.
DeleteYes the ship is definitely rocking from desertion, all change ahead!
I have watched some of those shows on YouTube where people live a very simple life and I wonder how I would manage. Of course, then I realize someone is there with a camera recording their life so it isn't so simple after all maybe. Do they get some income from these videos? Are they really like that off camera? I'm so skeptical these days, Thelma. ;)
ReplyDeleteWell look at it this way Ellen, when we had visitors as children weren't we made to put on our best clothes and the food would be special? So yes look at it a little askance but the circumstances in which they live dictates their way of life.
DeleteRe infrastructure - when I lived in Sussex many years ago we had third rail electric trains and four trains an hour service to London. In general trains ran on time or not at all, the services were so tightly integrated that a delay of more than a few minutes would cause chaos. I haven't been back in a while to know what it's like now..
ReplyDeleteHere in the North East, we have had an very long running battle to upgrade the A1 to dual carriageway throughout Northumberland, so far without success.
The nature of the problem with transport is complex Will. We piecemeal on it just like we repair the potholes in the road. Only for them to break up later on as another unit of the utilities come to dig the road up once more. Probably for every inch of improvement needed there is a Nimby waiting in the background.
DeleteI am seeing signs of change here as well. I just can't wait until our election is over. I am so tired of reading, day after day after day, everyone trying to figure out what will happen. People are getting quite dramatic about it. Media needs to stop predicting the news and simply stick to reporting it. And if we could stop hearing about Prince Harry for awhile, that would make me happy, really.
ReplyDeleteI notice how Harry and Meghan are making first class idiots of themselves in America, whilst thoroughly embarrassing the family back home. I suppose it all makes for light entertainment.
ReplyDeleteHow the media reacts to every bit of news tells me that there are too many people around with time to kill. News is here today and gone tomorrow, a steady stream of speculation.