Friday June 14th 2024 "That poor Rishi - doncha just feel for him now !!!!"

Only 3 weeks to go till the General Election, and my ever-sceptical wife Lois and I are beginning to wonder, "After Election Day (July 4th) will West Worcestershire be the only Conservative seat left in the country?"

The local papers (Malvern Gazette) are certainly suggesting another win here for Conservative stalwart Harriet Baldwin against her main competition: Dan Boatwright Green (Lib Dem) and Natalie McVey (Green Party).

the Malvern News story, picturing sitting Tory MP Harriet Baldwin

(centre), with her main competitors Dan Boatwright-Greene

(Liberal-Democrat), and Natalie McVey (Green Party) 

And, as if to ram home that message, Lib-Dem hopeful Dan Boatwright-Greene has been distributing leaflets to us and to all households in the constituency, trumpeting the fact that he's the only candidate who can realistically be expected to win the seat from the Tories, adding that votes for the Green Party and other opposition parties are just "wasted votes".

the leaflet that Lib-Dem candidate Dan Boatwright-Greene 

(crazy name, crazy guy!) had pushed through our letterbox

at the start of this 2024 General Election campaign

The Conservatives have made so many gaffes in the 2024 General Election campaign, haven't they - you must have noticed! One of the latest has been the news that Tory MP Craig Williams, Rishi Sunak's close aide, placed a bet on the election date just days before the official announcement. 

What utter utter utter madness !!!!!

I almost feel sorry for the Conservatives now - they're clearly a government that's totally run out of steam and out of ideas, has nowhere to go, and badly needs a break from power, both for their own sake and for the country's, and - what's more - has made a total mess of their campaign. And yet the strongest emotion I feel at the moment is pity - my goodness !!!! 

And I discuss the point with Lois as we stop for a quick coffee'n'cake at the local Poolbrook Kitchen and Coffee Shop - Lois has just been shopping at the next-door OneStop convenience store, and I've ust been taking a quick walk over Poolbrook Common.

And my talking-point this morning for Lois to comment on, over our coffee and cake, is, "Is it acceptable to vote Tory out of sheer unadulterated pity?"

"I can't help feeling sorry for the Tories!" is the one 

thought going round and round in my head as I walk 

alone over Poolbrook Common this morning in the lee of

the 700 million-year-old Malvern Hills

Lois blows a kiss for the cameras as we discuss

today's topic - "Pity as a motive for voting", over Lois's

americano and flapjack, and my flat latte

with a slice of chocolate-and-orange cake - yum yum!

Pity is a pretty strong human emotion, isn't it, and it can make people do the craziest things sometimes. Look at ITV's recent decision to cast washed-up local stand-up Warren Morris, erstwhile stalwart of North Piddle's seedy village dive, the "Laff-ganistan Nightclub", as the lead character in the planned new ITV sitcom "Now What?", as reported in Onion News this week:

And how long before, sadly, we see Warren back in action locally for the sparse audiences at North Piddle's "Laff-ghanistan" or  Nob End's "Cockamamie" so-called "comedy clubs" - surely two of the county's seediest venues. Am I right or am I right?!!!

Poor Warren !!!!!

11:30 With the jury still out on the question of "Pity as a motive for voting", Lois and I pay our bill at the coffee-shop and hurry home. And I can tell from her somewhat distracted air that she's already thinking about big tarts.

Yes, Lois has a busy but enthralling couple of days ahead now, catering some desserts for her church's contingent of Iranian Christian refugees (and other church-members) to have on Sunday between the "Bible Hour" and the "Exhortation". It sounds like a lot of work, but Lois enjoys the researching and the planning of what to make, almost as much as the making itself, which is nice. 

some of the church's contingent of Iranian Christian

refugees, seen her in Chief Elder Andy's house

Iranian Christian refugees joining in the church's Christmas

meal at the 16th century Gupshill Manor, Tewkesbury

Chief Elder Andy (ringed) looks on s an Iranian Christian refugee 

is baptised in the hot tub in Andy's back-garden 

And Lois's latest thinking is that this coming Sunday's dessert is going to be (mainly) apple, fig and walnut flapjacks and a big apricot tart. Yum yum! That's top secret info till Sunday by the way, so keep it to yourself, won't you haha!

Lois at work in the kitchen, both planning and

making, desserts for her church's contingent

of Iranian Christian refugees to have on Sunday

Because of all this catering work we've decided we won't have time to host our delightful 10-year-old twin grandchildren, Lily and Jessica, this weekend, which is what we do most weekends. But later today our daughter Sarah arrives, just on her own, and just staying over tonight (Friday night), so that's nice.

it's just us for tea tonight, plus our daughter Sarah

Sarah will be giving me my Father's Day card, I'm confidently expecting, before going home to Alcester tomorrow, when she's planned a nice Father's Day, on Sunday, for husband Francis and the twins.

Poor Sarah has also brought some of the family washing to put through our machine, including the girls' bright-red school-uniforms. Francis still hasn't succeeded in fixing his and Sarah's machine - knowing him he's probably got it stripped down and all over their kitchen floor, but I don't know that for certain, so the jury's still out on that one. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, shall we!

 

21:00 Sarah disappears to load up the washine machine, while Lois and I go to bed on this week's programme in the "Hotel Inspector series on Channel 5.

Presenter Alex Polizzi is always good value entertainment, no more so than when she's bawling out unfocussed hotel owners and managers, and this opening programme is no exception. My god!

presenter Alex Polizzi arrives at the Thai Derm hotel and restaurant

in suburban Loughborough, Leicestershire

She finds the place plastered with off-putting signs everywhere and generally untidy and not nearly clean enough, and emitting what she calls a seedy "knocking-shop" vibe. Oh dear!

Signs everywhere:

signs everywhere! Owner Bharat at the reception desk

And some of the signs are really off-putting:

And the hotel is generally well-decorated, but a lot of the fixtures and fittings, like the room lights and the extractors for example, are reallly filthy, that's for sure.

a smell of "old socks and stale sperm" - oh dear, that's not good !!!!

But there are also a lot of lovely Thai-themed erotic statuettes, pictures and decor, which Lois and I like.

We can guess what presenter Alex is going to do to the hotel, and we're right. She gets the owners, Bharat and Hasmeeta, to clean the place up thoroughly, which is good, but at the same time she also makes the hotel into something rather bland and corporate, we think.

And it now has a really boring name, "Loughborough Grange" - yuck!

the remodelled hotel with its new bland name,

"Loughborough Grange" and its rather bland-looking new signage

If it were up to Lois and me, we would just have said, "Yes, clean the place up, by all means, but keep the genuinely Thai "knocking-shop" vibe, which is what makes it unique".

Call us sentimental if you like haha!!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!

Flash forward, however, to tomorrow morning....

flash forward to Saturday morning - I get up early to make Lois and me 

a cup of tea to have in bed, and I find all Sarah's family laundry 

filling most of the space between the cooker, the fridge and the sink

What madness !!!!!

Poor Sarah !!!!!!!

[Oh just go back to bed! - Ed]

08:00 I go back to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!