Last Holy Communion

It's interesting watching other people's family tensions like a fly on the wall.  I remember well when my own family imploded, and I stropped off not talking to either of my parents for some years.  The whole episode was a disaster for everyone, and very damaging.  With nearly two decade's hind-sight I realise that everyone behaved badly, and didn't think through the consequences of their actions.  It's good that it's distant history.  And in a strange way, I do wonder if that explosive event ultimately proved beneficial for most of us in the long term.

I'm really interested to see the outcome of the Iranian elections...a 'moderate' has been elected President.  In most western countries he would be branded anything but, but by Iranian standards, and certainly those of his colourful predecessor, President Iminadinnerjacket, he's someone 'we can do business with'.  So I may well breath a sigh of relief because it at least delays, and hopefully ends the prospect of the Israelis blowing the hell out of the country and setting off an uncontrollable middle eastern conflict.  Thank heavens for democracy.  But I do wonder what the country would be like if we hadn't stuck our noses in during the 1950s...rather more settled and developed I would guess, and most of the radical Islamic fervour that has swept the region would have been buried before birth.  There may be a lesson there.

We watched Argo at the weekend.  What a terrific film.  I was so disappointed to have missed it at the cinema...as it was on my list of 'must sees' last year.  None the less, the video was an excellent substitute.  We were on the edge of our seats from the beginning, and the tension was there right until the very end.  Excellent.  Afterwards though I did feel the need to find out the real Argo story, knowing the film was only loosely based on the facts.  And there I found that like all good American films, this one had completely ignored many of the basic facts, and the involvement of the British, minimising the efforts of the Canadians as well.  Does this matter?  Well on one level absolutely not...it was a terrific piece of entertainment...but on another level yes it does matter because it distorts history...and Americans being Americans I rather suspect they tend to get their knowledge from films rather than text books (sorry, that's just my experience).  Still great film.

Meanwhile over in Syria, it's all a little tricky.  The Right Unhonourable Hague now says, that it's a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils, as the choices are quite unpalatable.  I suggest we JUST STAY OUT of it, and let a sovereign country settle its' own internal differences.  It may be difficult to watch people being slaughtered in a bloody civil war, but every time we've stuck our noses in, the long-term outcome has never been good.  And if we stick our noses into this one, will we feel it necessary to get stuck in to Turkey at some stage?

There was another First Holy Communion this weekend...The Cat's Mother's nephew..son of The Maestro. There's been a lot of family gatherings recently.  The church service was at 10.30, with the celebratory lunch three hours later at 1.30.  The Cat's Mother left early for the service, whilst I drove down later to arrive in time for the meal...well I've never been known to turn down a free lunch.  Everyone was on good form and we all had a splendid time.

Anyway, I'm off home now to half throttle The Cat's Mother...obviously it's just a playful tiff and I always find grabbing a woman round the neck and squeezing the best way of winning an argument, so don't worry too much about it....Charles Saatchi obviously doesn't