My absence for several days has been because I heard this week that my oldest friend who I met my first day (his, too, as a rating) is dying of cancer, This was relayed to me in a Christmas card without self pity or histrionics,
For several years now, since he moved to a different part of the country, and his dislike of telephones the exchange of birthday cards and Xmas cards with notes has been our main form of communication. Just this May when he wrote to me there was no suggestion, beyond the inevitable arthritis, the curse of the senior Briton, that anything was amiss. he became ill in October, and was given the terrible news that he had just a matter of months. As he has a long standing heart problem chemotherapy would kill him.
It occurred to me when I cunt the likes of Starmer, those little trollops Stacey Solomon and Carole Vorderman, the EU and Grieve etc, that they are temporary aberrations. Starmer will get grey hair thanks to his left wing loonies. Vorderman will lose her looks and people will realise Solomon is a talentless tart. Grieve will lose his false teeth and the EU will collapse due to it’s inherent corruption. It will end up like Jimmy Cagney at the end of “White Heat”.
But cancer, a disease that has been with us for centuries remains the killer it is. We waste billions on space travel, for example, and what good has it ever done the ordinary mortal? – it is just a rich man’s status symbol and plaything, like an even more expensive (and equally useless) HS2.
Then there is the six of one and half a dozen of the other Russian/Ukraine war, which will drag on like Vietnam, with billions thrown down the drain to “help”. Would it not be better to spend all that excess money on beating this cruel disease, which affects young and old. The same applies to Alzheimer’s as well, which can make life a living death for years. Let’s spend money where it could help.
My old shipmate might be said to have had a good innings, but he has spent his years of widowerhood caring for cats, who happily live in his workshop where he has been ensconced for years since his retirement, doing repairs of all sorts for his neighbours (at no charge) – Can you imagine me doing that?. He was also a much better sailor than I was as well.
I always seem to hear bad or sad news at Xmas time, which is why I hate it so much. T.S. Eliot said that “April was the cruellest month”. I think he meant “December”.
Nominated by: W. C. Boggs
It’s that time of year when perfume/eau de toilette adverts are most prominent.
