How did you produce such a well-behaved child?

The King is in Ottawa today to give the Throne Speech, which signals the opening of the Canadian parliament. While I am far from being a monarchist, it’s good to see some semblance of support for the country from overseas, as we come to terms with the new reality of an orange psychotic numbskull in the White House. Okay, you’ve done your job, time to go home. Thank you.
 
Still no idea what has happened in Liverpool. The police issued a statement very quickly to say the perpetrator was a white male, aged 53, and he has been charged with dangerous driving and attempted murder. It still strikes me as being very strange. As far as I know, there is no history of using cars as weapons in the UK, and the way he seemed to be driving looked more erratic than intentional. Rumours abound about him being coked up, which would be a relief in some respects and make it even worse in others. You always have to be vigilant, these days.
 
Awoke feeling a bit “off” again – it might well be the allergies kicking in after being out in the park last night. Or maybe it’s an autoimmune response to the presence of Charles and Camilla in Ottawa? Didn’t do as much in the morning as I would have liked – but did manage to finish and submit the book review. I wrote it in one go yesterday and had feared overnight that it would be crap. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought though, and after tightening up some of the paragraphs and tautological oversights, I felt confident enough to send it on.
 
Emailed a couple of people, did some work on the photo albums, and then made a decision to start the novel again, this time from a new perspective. Any speakers of Frisian in the house? Anyone from Föhr or Sylt?
 
In the afternoon, I made a couscous royal for T & E (T the chef having burned himself badly with oil) and then took it over. Their two boys are rather fussy eaters (oh, the irony!) so made some of the sauce less spicy than some of the other… hopefully it will go down OK.  
 
While working on some photos from 2015 (gulp), I cam across today’s blip. People ask me how I have such a well-behaved and well-adjusted child. Here’s your answer. Discipline. Iron rations. The occasional banana. **










 
**This is a joke… Just in case. My brother was a dog handler in Merseyside Police – the photo op was too good to pass up…