Glad we’re here

Cleared all the garden borders today. Builders quotes are in and we’ve got the money on hand. So works are being scheduled and we’ll be out for ten to twelve weeks while the floors are torn up and a totally new heating system put in. We’re spending the bulk of our pennies on insulation, the hope being that by the time we’re done we’ll be able to stay warm and toasty with the equivalent of a heavy duty hair dryer.

So we have to pack up our lives once more while the builders do their stuff. Fortunately we have the storage on site and somewhere to stay is being organised.

Speaking of borders, if you’re Canadian, this might give you pause for thought. People associated with the recent Canadian truckers freedom convoy may lose the ability to have a passport. Watch the whole video below.

Seems to me the bar for ‘terrorist’ in Canada just got so low even a limbo dancer couldn’t get under it. I have Canadian citizenship but bloody hell. Talk about overreach. And my fellow Canadians are stuck with this situation until 2025 unless the people supporting the minority Liberal government stop. Not that they will, they’re all part of the same gang.

I knew Trudeau was going to be bad news when he won the election in 2015, but this latest goes well beyond my powers of extrapolation. Canadians are great travellers, mostly into the US and back, many with family members on both sides of the border. It used to be (as recently as 2012) that they only needed valid photo-ID like an enhanced drivers licence to get into the USA. Now you can be banned from travel because you gave to the truckers?

This is not going to end well. This is going to take a war and several years to sort out. Ah, Mr Putin, there you are.

The mainstream go on about Putin being some kind of supervillain, but I think they’ve got the wrong guy. The real anti-freedom villains of the piece are the globalists, of whom Trudeau is a favoured member. Under that lovely floppy hairdo and iconic socks dwells a heart as black and sociopathic as they come. Putin’s an amateur by comparison.

We’re just glad we got out of Canada when we did.

Blue touchpaper lit

The directions on an individual firework used to read thusly; ‘Light blue touchpaper and retire’. What has just happened in Ottawa against peaceful protesters is such an event. A violent putdown of the pro-freedom anti mandate protests. Which was disproportionate.

Apart from snowball fights between friends there has been not one incidence of violence from the protesters, no ‘hate’ or anything that could be construed as such. Well apart from the two guys with confederate and Nazi flags on the first day. And they were only holding them up saying “Do you want this?” In a rhetorical fashion. A little in bad taste, but neither were Nazis or pro slavery. Anyone telling you otherwise is either misinformed or lying. This is information direct from the source, not the bought and paid for mainstream media.

The reports from the ground are of multiple arrests and injuries. One old woman with a walker on a mobility scooter ridden down by a Police Horse (And from the same picture a man ridden over and trampled in the same incident). That much I can say for certain. From what I can ascertain there’s a lot of ‘catch and release’ going on. A few political arrests, including the guy who was the head of Trudeau’s security detail, until he recently resigned in protest. A lot of ‘kettling’. No baton charges against protestors as at the anti-lockdown protests in the UK and elsewhere. But no violent rioters.

Weak politicians could not be bothered to go and at least talk to the protesters. Instead they’ve used legislation which was never intended for this kind of protest, but now a precedent has been set, the bar lowered. The banks have been complicit and they have pissed off a slice of ordinary working Canadians who are already talking about a national strike and writing to the Governor general to ask for a new Prime Minister, which somewhere in the region of a million Canadians have already done if some sources are to be believed.

FYI for any visiting Canadians wanting Trudeau removed: the Governor Generals email address is info@gg.ca. The heading should read ‘No Confidence Vote’ and be subtexted ‘for the attention of the Governor General, the Honourable Mary Simon’. In the body text it should also read; ‘This is a No-Confidence Vote against Justin Trudeau’. Include your real name and Province.

All this for a pandemic most sensible people agree has been over for months. Trudy Blackface could have followed the lead of other nations, ditched the mandates and restrictions, saying “Okay guys, we’re through this.” and accepted the applause of a grateful populace but no, he had to double down when there was no need to. Idiot.

This will not end well. Trudy Blackface has lit the blue touchpaper, there will be fireworks.

Stormy weather…

Ah, storm ‘Eunice’ and other alarumed divers. Mrs S chiding me for not panicking over the wind and sleet currently knocking over our garden chairs and stirring up the leaves in the yard. The trees seem to be holding up okay and I’m just keeping my head down. The roof is still on the house, but we’ve got insurance, propane heaters and a tarp on standby just in case, so mostly we’re okay.

No doubt this wee bit of stormy weather will be blamed by people who rarely get out of their nice, air conditioned and heated homes and offices on the mythical ‘global warming’. To which I respond; “Look, if the world is supposed to be getting warmer, why is it so freakin’ cold and windy?” No one has ever given a satisfactory answer to this question. A lot of pseudo-scientific blather yes, but not a proper cogent and empirical answer.

There is inadvertent comedy out there, like a kids trampoline being dumped on the nose of a train. Well, it beats the ‘wrong kind of snow’ or ‘leaves on the line’ as an excuse for being late to work, doesn’t it?

As an aside; for anyone interested in where all this weather is coming from, may I recommend windy.com, which shows that we get a lot of our inclement weather from the good ol’ US of A. The storm systems, as is usual for this time of year, are following the Gulf Stream up across the North Atlantic Drift right onto Ireland first. At this time of year they’re like buses on the North Circular, nothing for long while, then three turn up all at once. Which is what is happening right now.

So, anything new on the Canadian truckers protests? Well. the cops have arrested some ‘leaders’, but truckers as a whole are rugged individualists who don’t blindly follow diktats from others, so these ‘leaders’ being removed from the scene won’t make a lot of difference. However, ‘violence’ has broken out in the form of a snowball fight. Which has now been taken down. See below.

No doubt the Trudeau pantywaisters will now try to bring in the army to quell these ‘vicious thugs’. Although a little bird tells me that the army have already given the Trudeau regime a polite but firm “No.”

I have also heard that many Police officers (Including at least one RCMP, others have posted their own Youtube videos) are already unhappy about the orders being given to them by the politicians. If little Trudy does call out the Army, he may well find that they will not open fire on the truckers. After all, they weren’t called out when violent people were blocking the railroads and throwing burning pallets at trains as recently as February 2020.

Must be a Thursday

Moved some of my assets on the recommendation of my broker into the financial sector yesterday. That was before those idiots in Ottawa decided they could invoke the Emergencies Act and use those powers to freeze bank accounts and call those donating to the Truckers Convoy ‘terrorists’.

Well, in response the banks share price is nosediving, so I imagine that the people who own the politicians will already be making angry phone calls to Trudeau’s party hotline. The financial powers that uphold the Liberals will be growling at him. The attack dogs of financial lobbyists will be let off the leash, which leads me to one inescapable conclusion; Trudeau is officially toast. Turn the feckin eejit over because he’s done. He can call them ‘ists’ and ‘isms’ all he wants because his fate is already sealed.

The people who keep the financial heart of Canada beating will be very unhappy with their lapdog PM, mostly at being caught with their underwear around their ankles, so I’m expecting little Trudy Blackface to be thrown under the bus very shortly. He’s already an international joke, and now he’s hurting the banks, which is something no sane Prime Minister of any country should ever do.

Sure, I have lost money already. I estimate about 3% of the trade in total, but the markets will bounce back and in the meantime we can use this loss as a tax write off. Not that we need to, but it’s always good to reduce tax bills when they come due. I’ll make it all back and then some when this whole mess is over.

Closer to home we’ve just had a bit of a breeze. I was out pruning trees in it yesterday. Despite all the ‘Orange warning’ drama the weather was absolutely average for a Mayo February day. Today it’s all calm and the rain has mostly held off. Tonight and Friday is going to get a bit noisy, but the house is shielded by trees, and there’s nothing big enough to fall and damage any of the buildings.

So I’m just going to take a day off tomorrow, curl up like a Dormouse and wait for the storms, real and financial, to pass. Like I say, must be a Thursday, never quite got the hang of Thursdays.

A Wednesday Post

Talking to my broker yesterday. He seems to have drunk deep on the propaganda pushed out by the bought and paid for press of Canada and their Alice through the looking glass version of what the Truckers convoy is all about.

So what is it these revolting Truckers want? Do they want ‘insurrection’? Do they want to topple Trudeau? Well, why don’t we find out instead of making wild guesses? See the truckers own statement read out in the video below. Kudos to Dr Peterson.

All they want is an end to the restrictions and mandates, then they will gladly go home and get on with the business of living and helping rebuild Canada’s economy.

Typical Canadian language. A little too wet for my taste. Needs to be less conciliatory, or at least a little snappier. Anyhoo. We’ll see how long this stays up before it breaches someone’s warped idea of ‘community guidelines’. Link to Bitchute alternative here.

Personally I think the Trudeau Feds will raise Cain and seek to punish the Truck convoy members, even long after this is all over. The feds have already said they will freeze bank accounts and invalidate licences and insurance, which is a stupid move. Because that’s literally shooting the whole Canadian economy in the foot. This peasants rebellion will not go unpunished if the Trudeau Liberal government remains in power.

On a happier note I’m thinking Trudeau and cohorts will suffer the equivalent political fate of Richard II. Eventually deposed and figuratively left to starve to death (Or forced to retire, permanently). If there is any justice in this world.

Update: Regarding the ‘200 guns’ and ‘violent agitators’ narrative at the Coutts blockade. What is the actual truth? Did the RCMP actually search vehicles and find the firearms shown to the press? The convoy organisers say no searches and no discoveries.

A protest that ends in hugs and handshakes? Is that the act of ‘violent insurrectionists’? Like I say, this whole business has a through the looking glass air.

A Sunday post

Re: the Ottawa truck convoy. The Liberal government of Canada has sent the dogs in (Armed RCMP) to arrest unarmed peaceful protesters at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, Canada and Detroit, USA.

Both Federal and Provincial authorities have threatened to fine, jail and take away licences. But who will deliver the goods and move mountains if the authorities reduce the amount of people moving the goods? The truckers, both self employed and otherwise, could easily starve the big cities by simply hanging up their keys, turning off their phones and taking a two week leave of absence. Or a fortnights sick leave by announcing they’d all caught the dreaded lurgi and had to self isolate.

Do the Turd-brains in their clown parliament and local legislatures think they can bring in enough unskilled labour to move Canada’s goods? The freight trains alone can’t do it, the support infrastructure just isn’t there any more and all the delivery points are in big retail stores far from the tracks. There’s also a shortage of new drivers. All the old boomers who formed the greatest demographic of drivers have been retiring. It’s the same all over the world. UK, Ireland, Europe, wherever.

And driving a big rig is a dangerous business. If you’d driven the trans Canada as I have, you’d understand. The broad roads of Canada have their own particular hazards, from wayward wildlife to rainstorms that can wash out even major highways in minutes, whiteout blizzards and windstorms that can blow even smaller vehicles halfway across the highway. That’s without factoring in the ignorance and eccentricity of the average Canadian car driver.

A truck isn’t like a car, it doesn’t manoeuvre like a car, it takes longer to stop for one. it handles differently. So some guy from just off the boat with no experience won’t be able to do the job.

Besides, to get your heavy goods ticket takes a great deal of time and money, not to mention that Canadian licence transfer legislation effectively downgrades your licence if you move countries. Been there, done that, passed my driving test in BC to boot. Lost my light goods certification in the process. Same for Ireland. I’m only just getting my old UK driver certifications back next week after months of writing letters to Service Canada and the DVLA.

So yes, by all means strip the livelihoods from people instead of having the guts to go and actually talk to them. Hobble the Canadian economy. Then whine about driver programmes not being ‘inclusive’ enough because there aren’t enough transgender or feminist drivers. Complain about CO2 emissions then wonder why there’s a lot less on the supermarket shelves and prices are skyrocketing.

The Pandemic is over. It’s been over for some considerable time and there’s no excuse for not lifting all the restrictions. Right now. People want their lives back. They want their civil rights and pre-COVID freedoms back and there is no good reason not to grant this simple request.

Not that there ever was.

Update: and now for a short word from someone who is definitely not our sponsor.

A Friday post

Just a random video from the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.

Key phrase; “this is the least racist place I’ve ever been in.”

And “Open up how you get your information”

Words we should all take notice of.

Another text

Another day and another message saying I should have a ‘booster’ jab. Another text message I will be ignoring, apart from writing about the experience here. Seriously people? Has no-one else got the memo that you get SARS/COV-2 regardless of whether you’ve been vaccinated or not? Or that the current iteration (The “OHMIGOD!” variant)is like a heavy cold? So what’s the point?

On the family side of things; ‘North’ was allowed to return to work on Monday after a second negative test, so she’s a lot happier. ‘South’ is happier now the fabled land of Oz is opening up once more and my Canadian Investment broker is getting twitchy over this ‘Freedom Convoy’.

To be honest I’d be more worried about what Trudeau is going to do. Rumours have been circulating of Police snipers deployed against unarmed demonstrators. Police have been arbitrarily confiscating fuel containers from supporters of the protests, and harassing people without obvious grounds, which is a bit dodgy, legally speaking. Nova Scotia declaring that supporting the truck convoys is a ‘crime’ punishable by jail time. The premier of Saskatchewan declaring that the restrictions will be over by this coming weekend. Alberta now making conciliatory noises after Jason Kenney’s outburst. The situation is fast moving, fluid, and events are on a hair trigger.

I think Trudeau has painted himself into a political corner and he will be forever damned if the Police take armed action against unarmed and peaceful (Albeit noisy) truck convoy protests. However, more trucks are coming. The point is coming where he needs to call a general election or double down. Personally I think he’ll do the latter because the Liberals will be trashed at the ballot box.

The worst case scenario for him will be if an armed policeman shoots one of the children of the demonstrators, or ironically hits a counter demonstrator. Then all hell will cut loose. Canadians may have the reputation of being overly polite, but there is a point past which even they will not go.

Not that I’m worried myself here in Auld Ireland. The earnings on our investments have slowed to a trickle over the last two years, but what we lost we made back with a little bit more into the bargain last year, so we’re keeping ahead of the game. However, through not panicking we still have a modest cash reserve even after the various market hiccups. Many others have not been so fortunate, I hear a lot have taken a cold bath over the last two years.

Anyway, it’s not a bad old day up here in Mayo, so I’m off out to shift some foliage while the rain holds off. The world will have to do what it does and I will adjust my actions accordingly.

Update: Alberta will lift all restrictions shortly and a number of other provinces are following suit.

The UK has dropped all restrictions. Ireland are going to drop theirs shortly. They think it’s all over.

I think it is now.

Tooling up

Yesterday my new power saw and electric belt sander turned up. Spare saw blades for cutting everything from OSB to mild steel and concrete. Spare sanding belts, coarse and fine for speed and finishing. Yes they cost me a few extra pennies, but for the scope they give me in building things like chicken coops and beehives, far more useful.

Mrs S is overjoyed that our new washing machine arrives today. I know there’s something a bit nostalgic about sitting in launderettes or washing your smalls in cheap hotel rooms road warrior style, but seriously, I will be happy to have my important little places cosseted by properly laundered cloth once more. The bath and washbasins can be returned to their proper function.

We’re also looking at a replacement oven, as the old one is so clagged up it isn’t funny. I haven’t dared to use it as the innards have a definitely unhygienic look to them and I’m not sure if all the heating elements work either. Makes cooking a bit more complicated than need be, but we’ll cope. We always do. No one is going to starve.

New bed has arrived and is far more comfy than the monster Ikea thing we bought with us from Canada. The one we can’t get fitted sheets for unless we shell out for new sets from a company in upstate New York. You see, it’s an old US ‘King’ size, which is seventy eight inches by seventy six, whereas the European ‘Super king’ size, the biggest sold outside North America, is only seventy two inches by seventy six. Which even Ikea have shrunk down to, hey they’re a Swedish company so of course it made sense to rationalise. So the new bed is a ‘super king’ for which we hope to obtain new sheets this week up at one of the ‘big box’ stores.

So, what’s happening back in the old country (Canada). Well the video clip from Indian news outlet WION (Via Tony Heller) asks the burning question; Where’s Trudeau?

Ignore the pro-vaccine sentiment in the middle, but they do have a right go at the substitute drama teachers disappearance the moment a proper domestic crisis arises. I’m sure the two faced little eejit won’t resign and force a General Election, the Liberals would get trashed.

Good to see elsewhere that these vaccine mandates are being dropped. They weren’t going to do anything anyway, given the efficacy of the mRNA ‘vaccines’ on offer. I think the problem is that even a relatively small mutation of the virus renders these treatments effectively useless, and besides, viruses mutate, it’s part of what they do. Which, in the rush to find a definitive answer, a lot of supposedly very clever people seem to have forgotten.

Unacceptable views eh?

Well, well bless my raddled old soul. We’re making progress at our new domicile, despite having ‘unacceptable views’. This is a thought that came to me whilst head down in the guts of our venerable Bosch dishwasher yesterday morning.

Unacceptable to whom exactly? So-called ‘progressives’, whose doctrine has all the hallmarks of Fascism? Everything within the state, nothing outside the state. This is especially true of my erstwhile domicile in Canada, with it’s bought and paid for media.

Not going to work. No matter how well intentioned, big state solutions like the ones the various Governments, Federal and Provincial are forcing on everyone, do far too much top-down one-size-fits-all than I’m comfortable with. People aren’t all the same and what’s right for me probably wouldn’t be right for one of my neighbours. Mainly because we run differing businesses. Best if ‘the state’ just butts out and lets us get on with living.

Apparently though, if you state the bleedin’ obvious you are “On the wrong side of history” or have “Unacceptable views.” Which is nothing more than empty childish rhetoric from mainstream politicians and their camp followers. Trudeau you cowardly little toe-rag, we’re talking about you. Watch out for them ten fifty (?) thousand truckers, sonny.

For example; vaccine mandates, the compulsion to take a ‘vaccine’ (Did you know the classical definition of what constitutes a vaccine had to be changed to accommodate these mRNA treatments?) under ‘Emergency Use Only’ license. That is a power that should only be used on diseases that pose a greater risk than the downsides and for vaccines that are proven as better than naturally obtained immunity. Like the Smallpox or Polio jabs.

Now I like vaccines. Proven, properly tested vaccines, from Jenner onwards. A proper vaccine (I include MMR and HPV vaccines in this category) has a better then 90% efficacy rate, and taking it should be a no-brainer. No compulsion should be necessary. Just simple factual data. Those who don’t pose no risk to those who have, unless the ‘vaccine’ isn’t worth the candle, as our very own ‘North’ has found out recently. By the way, she’s all fine now, just waiting on another negative ‘test’. Such are the rules people are forced to live under.

But no. According to some know-nothing politicians, everyone has to have an Emergency Use Only treatment (and continual top ups-which is a first for any vaccine, ever) with added side effects, and you’re a filthy ‘denier’ if you don’t. Yeah, right. Trudeau can stay in hiding for all I care. For all the rest of Canada cares. For all the rest of the world cares.

The dishwasher, I am happy to report, has responded to my ministrations well and is now functioning. At least something is working properly. Although maybe democracy might start to function properly again and all this ‘woke’ stuff can be consigned to the garbage can of history. Along with globalists like Trudeau.

Which is all beside the point. I have a number of fruit trees to radically prune this week. They’re in a bit of a sorry state, all straggly and lichen encrusted, so they need cutting right back. Then there’s Willows to plant and a stand of Birch, with a few beech and windbreaks to build before the Hives arrive in late March. Wonder if producing your own fruit and veg is ‘unacceptable’ too?

The benefit of foresight…

In light of the news that Vancouver, and more particularly, Vancouver Island, until 2020 where Mrs S and I made our home base, is now cut off from Canada and possibly the rest of the world, I’m awaiting a call from sister in law to ask for asylum over here in the Emerald Isle. She and eccentric brother in law are stuck in the mid island, with only one route out; the local airport, thence to Vancouver airport.

And the border to the USA is also closed. Or rather more accurately if you leave, you can’t come back into Canada without a ‘clean’ COVID test Which you pay for. Wonder if that applies to the migrants getting their bags carried for them by the Mounties in Ontario?

Flights from Vancouver seem to be little affected. According to the departure board, all the major airlines are getting off on schedule. However, now the local politicians are panicking, anything can happen in the next half hour.

The main Coquihalla (Pronounced coke-i-hal-la) highway down to Vancouver is washed out about forty miles east of the Vancouver suburbs near a place ironically named ‘Hope’, I kid you not. It’s like losing a chunk of the M40. I’ve stopped in that town on a few occasions dodging back and forth up the trans-Canada, and trust me, Hope is not as Hope hopes.

Mrs S and I are enjoying a quiet bit of smugness over our decision to leave BC when we did. We know it gets wet, and ferry shutdowns are a regular facet of life on the island, which is overall about the same landmass as mainland England with a 60th of the population.

Vancouver Island is not a bad place to live in terms of views and space, but too heavily infected with the PC virus for our tastes. Too suburban and self involved for our tastes. Too easily ‘offended’. That they are getting a thorough soaking by the weather however, does not mean that they will be any more or less wet.

They’ll still blame ‘man made global warming’ though. Even though the storms are more likely a symptom of cooling.

The continuing death of democracy

Glad we got out of Canada when we did. The idiots in Ottawa have passed a piece of law with the innocuous title of C-10. See the analysis from Viva Fei below.

Fortunately I am now outside of Canada and thus can tell the eejits to go Feck themselves. Not that I make any money of this or any other blog. However, C-10 I predict, will be used to shut down any blogger, vlogger, or in Viva’s case, Vlawger of Canadian origin or within Canadian jurisdiction by means of financial penalties for ‘wrongthink’.

‘Liberal’. Never was a political party so misnamed.

So here we go

Here we go for WTO BREXIT. Amazon sent me an email the other day saying that anything ordered from their UK site (There isn’t an Amazon.ie) may be subject to extra duties, so they’re ready. The main UK ports have been ready for several years, with ‘pop-up’ customs posts ready to clear lorry loads of merchandise as they come in and go out of the UK. A good thing (for me) is the pound losing five points almost overnight against the Canadian Dollar a couple of nights ago, which made it a good idea to buy sterling. No idea why the markets react in this way. The UK is ready, customs posts set up, exporters informed and the RN getting set to arrest and detain fishing boats without proper licenses in UK waters. The only people who seem ill-prepared, bent over a chair with their trousers around their knees are the EU states.

Out here in the wilder west of Ireland, all these COVID restrictions are starting to be ignored. Dropped by my local butchers to make my Christmas order today. No masks, seasons greetings, all very civilised. The local supermarket still enforces the anti-social distancing and masks bullshit, but other people are starting to not bother.

No idea what’s going on in the US. Obvious vote rigging and dismissal of legal challenges, probably dismissed on technicalities, evidence of, but not court admissible proof. As for Biden, it’s well known he’s pro-EU, anti-BREXIT, but that’s okay because with congress and the senate on the flip side of the coin, he’s going to be in a lame duck administration. One hopes.

There’s a reported problem with the voting machines ‘flipping’ votes and all sorts of other dodgy things going on. Nothing that constitutes definitive proof, but man, I would be asking for a thorough review and re-run of the elections right now, without the voting machines, with proper oversight, with voter ID and the absolute minimum of postal voting. But that’s just me. At least an obviously fair vote would shut up all the dissenting parties and give them less to kick off about.

Up in the not so great not so white as you think it is North, there’s Trudeau allowing Chinese troops to ‘train’ on Canadian soil. Does that corrupt little toe-rag not trust his own military? How long before those exercises allow Chinese troops to ‘assist’ the Canadian armed forces against their own people? Say those uppity Midwesterners in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan? No idea. We’re out of there and our investment money is following us.

For us the aforementioned is now rather academic. We’re hunkered down in the wilder west of Ireland. All our Christmas shopping is done. We have found out where to get some superb mini-rhubarb tarts and some of the finest Mince Pies known to man fresh on most weekdays. Right on our doorstep. Our accounts are well in the black and all credit cards fully paid off. The halls are decked etc and there’s food in the larder to see us clear through to February, and a suitably fiendish 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table to stretch our pattern recognition software. I might get another, just in case we get a bit too clever and finish it before Christmas. There’s Oak logs drying ready for the stoves. The kids may be with us some time in January. Fingers crossed. We’re going to be okay. Hope you will be too.

Like a lot of people I won’t be staying up for the latest end of the world show on the 21st December when an optical illusion makes it look like Saturn and Jupiter are going to collide. I’ll be hitting the ‘snooze’ button for that one. If these people are that keen to see the end of the world, I’m sure there’s a high cliff they can jump off and stop mithering the rest of us with their ridiculous utterances. All the hand-waving man made climate change panic mongers can follow them for all I care. They’re all busy telling the rest of us how to live while ignoring their own rules, buying waterfront property and jetting off to conferences all over the planet. If they didn’t clock in tomorrow on account of being too dead to work, would anybody really care?

Hope my last reader can stand the suspense.

Merry Christmas, Yuletide Greetings and all that Jazz.

Warmest regards

Bill

Toilet troubles

Aaand as the Policeman said, to paraphrase an old joke, we’ve less to go on. One of our toilets is missing. Fortunately we have two bathrooms, but what this does is put one bathroom completely out of order. Specifically Mrs S’s domain. A matter that has led to some mild domestic friction.

As we currently live in rented accommodation, maintenance is our landlords issue to deal with. While the outside world appears locked down or subject to rioting and cities burn, more practical matters colour our days. Specifically being the minor inconvenience of being restricted to one bathroom. These frame built houses are warm and well insulated enough, but if you get a leak anywhere, it can be a real detective story to find where all the trickles come from.

The issues are that this; we live in a 1980’s built apartment where the wiring and plumbing don’t match the plans. For example, the shower pipework in one bathroom was never secured properly and has a habit of flexing slightly every time it is used. Now we find that there are two long term leaks in the second bathroom and utility room. Nothing major, little more than sweating from the joints.

The original build was bodged a little, presumably to keep things within schedule and price, as these things so often are.

The bathroom leak is from the wax sealing ring between the toilet and what is tweely referred to as the ‘black water’ outlet set in the floor. Meaning every time we flushed a droplet or two escaped from between the sealing ring and pipe into the surrounding floor. Over time this has caused a wet patch to lurk unseen between pedestal and floor, resulting in a small amount of staining in the apartment below.

So, the toilet has been disconnected and the floor is currently drying out. Which gives the guest bathroom a slightly surreal, but fortunately not too noisome, air. All the bathroom bits are sitting in the shower and the throne, so to speak, is sitting in a plastic tub like a rather unusual beige footstool.

The second leak is from where our washing machine overflow is plumbed into the wall. When the last washing machine was fitted, the overflow was bodged in and at the top end of the pipe, the wall fitting became slightly disconnected from the down pipe, only by a crack, but enough when the washing machine is spin drying that when the overflow backs up, a thimbleful of water sloshes out to trickle down the exterior of the pipe. Again, this gets between the studding and eventually stains the wall downstairs.

Christ alone knows what the wiring actually looks like behind the plasterboard. No wonder only a couple of the kitchen outlets can handle a microwave.

However, that’s a minor inconvenience as we’re heading out of Canada. My non-working days are currently filled collating quotes from movers, arranging cleaners for when we move out in September and all the sundry tasks associated with such a shift. Paperwork is the biggest burden. However, we are getting all our financial and legal ducks in a row and, toilet troubles notwithstanding, will be leaving Trudeaupia for good this year and the clock is ticking.

It’s been an interesting decade or so. Now it’s time to move on as things this side of the 49th are heading downhill with no likely hope of return. It’s only a matter of time before Ottawa and the provinces work out how to implement ‘social credit’ scores on the population using Covid-19 as an excuse. So we’re getting out to somewhere within reach of civilisation whilst we still have relative freedom of movement.

Welcome to my nightmare

Well bless my raddled soul. Elder sibling has started his own blog, a chronicle, a mash up of personal experiences and events in the UK. In it he tells of the gripes and tribulations of living in his part of the UK, from supermarket beefs to the media stoked paranoia of certain people he encounters.

Here’s the type of thing he writes;

“I had to attend an outpatient clinic at our local hospital today. To my surprise, it was functioning as normal. No-one was wearing a mask and there were no signs of panic or hysteria.”

This seems to be a common thread. NHS Healthcare staff do not appear to be overstretched and can indulge in behaviours like doing dance routines on Tik tok, or conga lines to ‘celebrate’ an extubation. Look, if it were an all-hands-to-the-pumps situation, would primary healthcare staff have time to indulge themselves thus? Damn straight they wouldn’t.

Then he reports on the fake news items such as;

“Sarah Montague said that all pubs and leisure facilities in cities were closed “for good”.”

No doubt with a good deal of malicious relish on her part.

I have been requested to act as a consultant in this matter to let another frustrated voice into the wild and will be acting as his right hand man on how to handle all the wonders and witlessness of online life. Which could get interesting. At least we have ensured he has a confidential email and a few layers between him and the worst of the Internet. We shall see what we shall see.

No, I’m not going to link to his output, as elder sibling has not asked me to do so. If he does I’ll think about it. Better that he develops his own community.

Yes, he too detests what the BBC has become as I too loathe the fawning arse-licking the Canadian bought and paid for mass media goes in for when it comes to Canada’s glorious leader, that neo fascist Trudeau. Yes Trudeau is a neo-fascist, his government ticks all the boxes but the military one. He cloaks his disdain for all working class northern European descended males in talk of racism and sexism, but those two sins are something Trudeau indulges in all the time. Not sure why. Perhaps he feels threatened and like so many of the middle class, suffers from a deep self-loathing and sense of inadequacy.

Good news from the UK comes via political vlogger Mahyar Tousi. With added steak. Although I think Flat-Iron steaks are much nicer than Rib-Eye. Lovely buttery texture and more flavour.

So, all the accusations leveled against the Brexiteers have come to naught. For now.

Anyway. I’ve done the shopping, fed the hummingbirds and now it’s time to get back to the day job. Sometimes the fun never starts.