An act of kindness

Anyone who has owned a pet will tell you that there are times when the object of their love and affection is so ill that the only reasonable option is to put it out of its misery.  It leads to guilt and sorrow, but really it's for the best, and everyone knows and accepts that.  The Euro is the pet project of European politicians, and what is clear even to the most casual observer is that it is a creature that is so severely wounded that a lethal injection is the kindest thing to be done.  It's just a month to the next Greek elections with a racing certainty that they'll veer even more towards the politicians that won't impose austerity.  The almost inevitable consequence will be a bankrupt Greece ejected from the Euro with confidence in the currency collapsing across the globe.  Difficult as it may seem, the sensible choice is to give the Euro that injection now; the one that will put it and us out of our collective miseries.

Whilst I'm on a rant, let me just mention ratings agency Moody's again.  They downgraded a number of Spanish banks last night, including Santander in the UK.  But it takes only thirty seconds to discover that Santander in the UK is independent of the Spanish operation and actually a strong, well managed business (some customers may disagree with this).  So in my books this is yet more proof (if any was needed) that the ratings agencies are pig-ignorant and should be banned from rating anything more than a cup of coffee.

Amongst my list of pleasures, I rate sleep very highly indeed.  Unlike The Cat, who has turned it into an Olympic sport in which she wins gold every day, I find sleep quite a challenge.  I think I must have a switch on the side of my head. More often than not, the moment my head hits the pillow, my brain switches on and I can't stop it.  Grandma in Cyprus would tell you that even from a young age my mind was very active at night...giving me the most terrifying nightmares.  Even now The Cat's Mother will tell you know I will regularly have animated conversations in the middle of the night in between thrashing around, sitting up and waving limbs in one direction or another.  My dreams can be so vivid, that I'm affected by their mood for the entire following day.  But at least if I'm dreaming it means I'm asleep.  More often than not just getting to sleep can be an impossible task.  Sometimes I just lie there, and on others I get myself out of bed, and wander downstairs.  Once there  I can be found doing a variety of things.

Last night I checked how many tickets we have for the Temper Trap next week - four, not the two we thought, so we need to find a couple of people to come with us.  I then proceeded to sprinkle ant powder around the conservatory and kitchen to fend off the advancing ant army whose  advance party has been breaching our Maginot line for several weeks now.

I then headed to my laptop to catch up on some of the blogs I've missed over the last several days.  The thing is being a bit dopey, I managed to put my blog's web address into Google.  And what a surprise it was.

Poor old Langley Grammar School evidently uses it as source material for their AS Geography course!!! ????  So apologies to all those lads and lasses who will end up with an E as a result.

On the other hand, I discovered some kind soul (please step forwards and get your well deserved pat on the back and vigorous handshake) has nominated me for the MAD blog awards in the photography category.  I had no idea, I'm quite delighted, I didn't/won't win, but the nomination created a nice warm glow which enabled me to climb back up to bed, lay my head on the pillows and sleep soundly.

And it has inspired me a little.  So for the next year I am going to post a picture every morning.  Some will be old, some will be new, some will be technically good, some bad, but I'll do my best to make them interesting.

Here's the first

Surely only in Paris, on the bank of the Seine, could you find a saxophone being played in the middle of the day.  From our trip to France last year