The frosts have been replaced by rain so there’s precious little to do outdoors today. I’m waiting for people (As usual) to get their fingers out and sell me what I need.
During the run of inclement weather when I’ve finished pulling stumps and wrenched my back a little, I’ve binge watched ‘Boardwalk Empire’ (Again), drunk far more tea than is good for me and cooked a couple of gallons of soup for the freezer. Mrs S likes my roasted veg and chicken and vegetable soups, so I will keep a few batches of each in. Also I made some hot water pastry for a five inch diameter chicken and ham game style pie as a test run for Christmas dinner, see pictured below. Not very fancy with the pastry, but on the real thing I’ll add a few (a dozen or two – no more) cranberries or redcurrants scattered between the layers and make some pastry decorations to add a little je ne sais quoi. Which should be appreciated and be a lot less fuss than a turkey.
Hot water pastry produces the kind of crust you get with a traditional English pork pie. Which I particularly enjoy and is something I’ve prepared before, and will cheerfully do again. Very tasty and not as cloying and chewy as the store bought sometimes is. Fresh made is best.
One of my neighbours is having problems with his wife being ill, so I may bake him a game pie, as he’s no cook and I want to do the right thing without being intrusive. He has family to go to this year and I want to show appreciation for favours past and future without it all getting intense and a little creepy. We’re country people, and like our personal space. You have to respect that.
What else? Apart from a cage fighter declaring he wants to run for President and promptly being denounced as ‘far right’ over the disagreements and riots in the crapital. Funny how everything the current crop of real fascists (Look up the history and definition of fascism for confirmation) call everyone else ‘far-right’ when all those tarred with the ‘far-right’ brush want is to stop being discriminated against isn’t it?
Back on the personal front, Christmas cards have been despatched to close relatives, so if they don’t get one, it’s likely I’ve not sent one to them as they’ve stopped reciprocating. Most of this is due to me doing the male thing of being out of the familial loop. It’s not because I don’t like my relatives, it’s just that I’ve nothing to talk to them about. Whenever we do talk I find there’s very little common ground to discuss. We’re interested in different things and have simply lost touch.
There is of course the fact that I’ve changed address so many times in my life, as have they, that we’ve simply lost track. On the very rare occasions when our paths cross I try to be cordial, but to be frank there’s little connection, so either party doesn’t see the value of contact. We all have our own lives now. So we don’t talk much (if at all) and don’t exchange cards or gifts.
Mind you, there are quite a few previous acquaintances I can quite happily go without hearing from or seeing (Ever again). My friendship index does seem to have a high failure rate. And then there are the people who think they were ‘friends’ but never really were, but those are the people who couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer or were simply unwelcome attention seekers. To be honest, with a most of them I wouldn’t cross the road to piss down their throats if their lungs caught fire. So we all move on. They may well feel the same way about me, so, de gustibus non disputandem est. Some of it’s me, some not. What it does do is save me a fortune in postage.
Which should be the rule for life in the outside world; to each their own, live and let live, so long as you don’t physically harm others and speak no ill of them that they don’t deserve. Unfortunately there are far too many who just can’t do that. They just have to meddle, messing in other people’s lives. Sticking their long snotty noses in where they do not belong.
Speaking of which, did you know some of these ‘fact checkers’ etcetera belong to a group with the title C.L.I.T.? See Matt Taibbi’s livestream replay below. Clit? Well doesn’t that just rub you up the wrong way?
Sometimes I have been given to thinking that we are living in an epidemic of outrageous headfuckery driven by dull as ditchwater academic minds. From the ‘climate crisis’ to transgenderism, through masks and lockdowns and attempts to curb freedom of expression, apart from being dead wrong, these prodnoses can’t help but try to impose their flaccid will on the rest of us. They’re the kind of people I normally try to give the high shoulder to. Why? Because they’re, at the core, awful people. Two faced, intolerant and mean spirited as a Polecat on cocaine. And their ideas (See above) stink.
Speaking for myself I’d rather not have any friends at all than any like that. If I had that kind of ‘friend’ I’d need an armour plated back to keep all the knives out. I do so hope I don’t have anyone like that left in my close circle. Although I usually find out, then cut them out, and make it very plain why. Friends should be trustworthy. If they aren’t, goes my logic, then they are most certainly not your friends.
So why have they so much power when they have neither the wit nor wisdom to apply it fairly? If those are the ‘experts’ governing what may or may not be said in a public forum then there must be a pretty low bar for entry. This, apparently, is what passes for the ‘intelligentsia’ nowadays.
Because that is where the majority of problems originate. If recognising and acting upon this makes me an unpleasant nonconformist son of a bitch to be around, then so be it, but at least I’ll keep my integrity. And false friendship detracts from that.
Or maybe that’s a good thing…….
The Bill Sticker Alternative 