Archive
Time up
Closing in on 4000 career yellow cards, over 100 red cards: Mike Dean needs to be subbed.
0800 030 8013
The above is the number for the Covid vaccine help line. I called it today because my wife is on the priority list and so am I, as an unpaid carer.
There is one question that nobody seems able to answer, hence my call. We will be contacted, they say, through the NHS. However, all my interaction as a carer is through the local authority, and there is no bridge between the two. In other words, how will the NHS know who to contact?
I was connected, no problem, sat through the introductory chat, and selected the appropriate option. It rang for thirty seconds, maximum, until a voice announced, ‘I’m sorry , there is no one available to take your call. Goodbye.’ Buzzzzzz.
I have to say, that doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Triple standards
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55257817
I don’t like Ms Burley, but her tweeted announcement gave me a good laugh. I do like Beth Rigby, but I don’t understand why she’s only been benched for three months, given that she seems to have been equally guilty just by being there.
There’s a further comparison I can’t help making, with Dr Calderwood, the Scottish Government CMO. Her offence was less serious than the Sky birthday bash, yet it cost her her job.
Mortal
It’s not an absolute truth but a heavy probability: that in Colin Farrell movies his character will wind up dead.
Rocketman
Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break the sound barrier, dies aged 97
— Read on news.sky.com/story/chuck-yeager-first-pilot-to-break-the-sound-barrier-dies-aged-97-12154822
A legend, and that’s not a word I use too often. If you don’t know his story, watch The Right Stuff.
Why stop there?
National Lottery minimum age to rise from 16 to 18 next year
— Read on news.sky.com/story/national-lottery-minimum-age-to-rise-from-16-to-18-next-year-12155083
Merry Christmas
T’is the season to be jolly, unless you happen to be Boris.
If you are in search of a distraction from the carnival of despair that 2020 has been, and care to glance into the future, my seasonal short story, ‘Skinner’s Elves’, is back in the kindle store, priced as low as Amazon will let me.
Sunny
We have family in the USA who voted for Biden, and family who voted for Trump. I wouldn’t want to upset any of them, so all I will say is this:
My boy Sunny is not qualified to run for President on four grounds. He wasn’t born there, he doesn’t live there, he’s too young, and he’s a dog. Pity, for he has other qualities that would put him at the head of the field. He’s brave, he’s never dissembled, he’s never cheated, and he’s never told a lie.
Abandoned
We have a very nice, conscientious postperson. She has just dropped my mail through my letterbox. My video doorbell clocked her in at 18:27.
I am not having a go at her, not at all. Nor am I unappreciative of the national emergency. However the decline in the quality of the Royal Mail and Post Office services in rural areas has nothing do with that. It has been continuous for several years. We have been virtually abandoned without apparent concern.
What is the point of a national postal service when its only function appears to be the delivery of junk mail?
What in the world?
Trans man gives birth after using female sperm donor
— Read on news.sky.com/story/trans-man-gives-birth-after-using-female-sperm-donor-11897122
?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50707164
This is a sad story, but it reflects on a world I don’t know. I suspect that if I did I wouldn’t understand it.
Furryboots is that?
The reopening of Aberdeen Art Gallery is a good moment to focus on the city’s wider cultural scene, and its great food, drink and shopping
— Read on www.theguardian.com/travel/2019/nov/25/locals-guide-to-aberdeen-scotland-10-top-tips-aberdeen-art-gallery
FFS!
Greta Thunberg named author of the year by Waterstones
— Read on news.sky.com/story/greta-thunberg-named-author-of-the-year-for-compilation-book-of-speeches-11873143
Biggar all
My thanks to everyone who came to the launch of ‘The Bad Fire’, in Atkinson Pryce, my favourite book shop. Long live the independents. A special nod to Alex and Peter. Long time neither see.
Out today
Today’s the day for ‘The Bad Fire’ AKA Skinner 31, in which an old foe returns in a new guise. The event is marked by a interview with The Crime Hub. You can access it below.
As some are ….
How to be a deeply unlikeable Remainer
— Read on www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/how-to-be-a-deeply-unlikeable-remainer-20191113190721
And there are more
Five possible explanations for Farage being such a twat
— Read on www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/five-possible-explanations-for-farage-being-such-a-twat-20191112190695
True
Cat with five beds prefers laptop
— Read on www.thedailymash.co.uk/animals/cat-with-five-beds-prefers-laptop-20191111190671
