My Left Foot

Spring in my garden

At this point I will say "thank you" Mr Netanyahu. I mean this most sincerely. Because of all the havoc and killing you have wrought on lovely, ordinary people in the Middle East and because you have caused the petrol prices to soar to unbelievable heights here in the UK, I made it to Kent via the M25 in almost record time on Saturday. 

I had to go to Kent for an appointment to find out when I am going to have an operation on My left heel. By the time this has been done, I will have two matching scars. I had an operation last year on my right heel and that went so well, I am almost looking forward to this one even though it will mean three weeks of standing on one leg only and then another five weeks in plaster followed by wearing a boot - just like Mr Magnolia. It will all be worth it to be able to run around again without pain. 

To have this op, I needed to go to Kent where the wonderful Benenden Hospital is. At worst it takes four hours in heavy traffic. On Saturday it took less than three. I filled my tank up in Bletchley, noted the cost per litre, gasped audibly and set off. All the way down I noted the price at other filling stations. Diesel in many places was just under £2 a litre while E10 was anything up to £1.70. When I got home from Singapore in 2020, I was paying about £1.08 a litre. There are fewer cars on the road! Mr. Netanyahu and Mr Trump are doing all they can to make us Britons turn to green energy. Who would have thought they inadvertently are saving the world. 

My mind wanders when I drive. My real joy comes from noting the strange place names perhaps because I was brought up in Leighton Buzzard -  a town whose name is often used in derisory comedy sketches. I imagine characters in a novel with the same names as places en route. There is a village in Kent called Smarden with a neighbouring one called Pluckley. What great names for hapless spies. Before long, a story had formed where this intrepid duo had ended up in a truly tricky situation at the mercy of a South American cartel in the depths of the Columbian rainforest. Maybe someone could help me find a way for them to escape...

I popped in to see my friend, Jane, who lives very close to the hospital in Kent. So much to catch up on and so little time. Writing this, means that friends keep up with my doings and goings on and it surprises me how often my blog pops into conversations. 

However, I will put the record straight that I DO NOT thank either Netanyahu or Trump for their bullying and wanton destruction of people's lives - it was my irony. The amount of military hardware and bombs deployed by Israel must have been stocked up in preparation for two years of destruction in Gaza, followed by their foray into Iran and now their repulsive, sickening intervention in Lebanon. For sure, there are millions  already storing hatred for all the Israel has done to them, their families and their country.