The Friday Joke and a few rather random Friday thoughts

 In true Barnet blogger traditions, we start the weekend with a Friday Joke. Once again, I'm endebted to the rather wonderful Robert Wilkinson for this. This one had me sniggering

I said to my hairdresser;
"Give me a haircut like Tom Cruise. "
He handed me a cushion to sit on.

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) September 27, 2023

It's been a funny old week for me. My sister has been over from Florida with her husband, which has rather derailed my diet. He keeps insisting on buying us slap up meals, as they are staying with us. All very tasty, but not so good for the weight. My brother in law Tim is a 78 year old working doctor. He's probably directly saved more lives than anyone on the planet, having had such a career and he has no plans to retire, although he has scaled his work back. As I'm sure you can imagine, he's a very bright and well informed individual indeed. He used to be responsible for running the ER facility that the the US Congress use. Like me, he has undergone radical prostatectomy surgery. It's been good having him around and chatting about it. Another thing we were discussing was the rising wave of vaccine scepticism. If anyone was aware of whether covid vaccines were dangerous, it would be ER doctors, who are on the front line of medical services. He tells me he's given up arguing with people who hold such views, but the evidence simply isn't there to support their arguments. Tim is vaccinated. If it was in any way dangerous, he'd be the first to tell family and friends. Tim worked through the pandemic and saw overloaded ER units. Of course, like any medicine, some people have adverse reactions, but this is true of just about every medicin (I'm allergic to penecillin). When I expressed my frustration with some of the arguements I see, Tim made a very good point. I know someone, who I trust implicitly, who can answer any worries I may have. Most people don't. The basic problem with vaccines is trust. Every time a footballer keels over or a member of the crowd has a heart attack at a game, the anti vaxxers use this to demonstrate the danger of vaccines, claiming it is a new phenomina. Sadly this is completely untrue. As a Man City fan, I recall Marc-Vivienne Foe dying on the pitch, long before COVID. I also remember one of my daughters friends, Shannon Powell passing away on a cross country run aged 14 in 2011.  She had an undiagnosed heart defect, I do wonder what would be said now?

On another note, I was disturbed this morning by the whole house shaking. I found this was due to a 2,000 ton train, laden with stone, hurtling past the back garden at 60mph. Our Railway SPAD, Mr Robin Morel, of Network Rail, kindly signposted me to this video, celebrating 10 million tons of aggregates passing my back door on the way to the HS2 project. This is a mind boggling tonnage. 

🎥 Huge tonnage shifted , my P R / Libel SpAd special advisor urges you to view here 😇https://t.co/YX9Nprcd4B

— Robin Morel 🦺 (@13milepost) September 29, 2023

Having moved 10 million tons of stone (most of which passed by my back garden without me noticing until today), it is ridiculous that Rishi Sunak is planning to downgrade the scheme to a  railway to nowhere. The line needs to be built in full. Although the numbers are huge, it is a project that will last decades, if not centuries. The line at the bottom of my garden, to St Pancras, was built in 1868 and will celebrate 150 years in 5 years time. It is busier than ever. When Scott and Barlow constructed St Pancras, neither dreamed that one day it would house trains travelling to Paris in just over a couple of hours. The cost payback has to be calculated over decades and the benefits worked out in the same way. I know HS2 will cause a lot of disruption as it's built. The same was true of Crossrail, but once these things are built, we forget the moans and are delighted to have better transport. I use Crossrail all the time and travelled back from France on HS1 in August. If I was PM I'd be looking to build the line faster and be looking at what the next phase of the upgrading our railways should be. The idea that ten million tons of stone has been transported from Derbyshire to London, simply to be abandoned is insanity. I wasn't a fan of Boris as PM, but I admit that at least he had vision when it came to our nations infrastructure.

And finally, the band had its first rehearsal session since our rather wonderful gig at the Dublin Castle on 15th September. We spent the session trying to get a new number together. I think it sounds rather good and will fit in well. Gray Rambo and Fil Ross have put an absolutely killer drum and bass line down. At one point, I just sat there listening and grooving. It's not ready for the public yet, so here is a little sample of our last gig, why not join us for one of our upcoming shows - The Silencerz + The False Dots live at The Bull Arts Centre, Barnet. & MADCHATTER'S TEA PARTY: THE SHOALS + THE FALSE DOTS + DJ BELFAST ERIC IRVINE charity fundraiser on Sat 4th Nov at the Dublin Castle. Here's a preview. If you like Ska music, you'll have a banging night!

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