Monday, March 18, 2019

Early Morning Blues

"Alexa! What's the weather today?"
"There will be lows in the early morning, giving way to bright sunshine that will last until bedtime."

I woke up too early this morning from a dream that John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, had died. It was the last straw. I turned to BBC iPlayer and Ed Reardon’s Week because the sardonic humour always cheers me up. 

Then I made a cuppa and brought it back to bed and looked on the iPad at the headlines in the Guardian and had my usual reaction: “Oh my God. Dystopia,” and closed the page.

No one had emailed me anything interesting so I looked at Twitter and came across Garrison Keillor’s latest tweet which took me to his website, where I read a couple of his columns. Meh. Too sweet for how I was feeling.

What else could I read? I was flummoxed, and decided I should write something that I would like to read. Hence this dreadful. I am dictating this and the iPad doesn’t recognise the word drivel. Ah, it got it that time.

It is 6:50 in the morning and the girls will be down at 7 to get into bed with me and have a chat before their breakfast. That will cheer me up.

Brexit rumbles on and Dave told me on the phone yesterday that he was going to go out and buy some more supplies for the looming apocalypse. People here in Boulder ask me what I think of Brexit and I wish they wouldn’t, because although I do check up every day on the news I really don’t like to think about it in the in-between times. I tell them that the very idea of Brexit was ridiculous and the way that it has been handled has been catastrophic and that everyone in Britain is despairing, whatever their view on whether or not Brexit was a good idea. They then tell me that people in America feel as desperate about Trump. How is it that we have such incompetent disastrous leadership? How is it that right wing extremism is on the rise? It feels like the end of the world. Did it feel like this at the beginning of the Second World War?

Added to this, I am feeling lost. It feels as if my writing career is coming to an end and I don’t know what I am going to do instead. I need a long-term project which is intellectually stimulating and feels worthwhile. Does anyone have any suggestions? The only thing I have thought of is to go back to volunteering at the Citizens Advice Bureau. I shall have to retrain, and I don’t know if my memory is up to the job. 

Hurrah! Footsteps! Here come the girls!






5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How right you are - Bercow is our backstop, our remaining hope: he’s just announced that he wont allow a third ‘meaningful vote’ on the same proposal! Glorious.

One in the eye for the Nasty party that recently said they would deprive him of the customary knighthood for failing to favour them.
Well done that man!

And as to the idea of retraining - surely one of the pleasures of ageing is that a ‘meaningful career’ becomes less meaningful?.
If you follow where curiosity leads, plenty of adventure lies ahead - whether in writing or not.

Thea x

Sue Hepworth said...

How very odd that I should have dreamed about him and then he does this. Good for him!

I shall think about your other comments, Thea. Thank you. X

Anonymous said...

Question: if there is another referendum, a ‘people’s vote’ and the outcome is just the same - the majority vote to leave - will Remainers accept it!

Sue Hepworth said...

Yes, they must. But I doubt that will happen.

Sue Hepworth said...

I mean...if there is a referendum, and people have to vote on May’s deal, I doubt the Leavers will win.