Over brekkie I watched an episode of “Superstore” which really did give an example of how the (relatively) younger generation operate these days. The leading character of the show has been living with her boyfriend for years in the house they are buying together and in which they are bringing up their child. However she is unsure whether or not she wants to marry him as that is too big a step.
I know so many people who are in this boat; having made so many practical commitments to each other, they won’t get married as that is far too big a step. How does that work?
As I watched telly yet another COVID test incubated. I’m getting short of those and despite what the Health Secretary said on the radio last week, there *is* a national shortage of the things as I can’t seem to be able to order any more.
I then sparked up my lap-top to see I had more spamming messages from “Name Tests” so I’ve squealed them up to the Facebook Feds, then sent out a birthday wish to my brother. He’s fifty today. Fifty !! I also saw that Jeff Lynne (the leading light of the Electric light Orchestra) is seventy-four today.
They both made me feel rather old.
With nothing else on Facebook but postings about Monty Python (there were *loads* of those this morning) and no emails worth having, I got ready for work.
As I drove to work on another very dark and wet morning the pundits on the radio were talking about how Ghislane Maxwell (daughter of the publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell) has been found guilty of... To be honest it wasn't her crimes that made me think this morning, so much as what the legal expert being interviewed had to say. Apparently Ms Maxwell hadn't been in court at all during her trial. She was described as "a very bad witness". The legal professionals don't like her sort in the courtrooms as she argues with them and seems to have no respect for the legal processes. Anything she had to say was presented in writing before the trial started.
And during the trial the jury decided that one of the other witnesses "was telling the truth". Did they? Was she? I'm not sure if any jury can decide if any witness is "telling the truth". All they can decide is that they believe the witness - which can be miles away from the witness actually being truthful.
This all reminded me of my little episode in a court nearly ten years ago when I was accused of professional misconduct. I've tried to draw a veil over a rather nasty episode in my life, but I do get flashbacks... like I did this morning. I can distinctly remember when I fell foul of the presiding officer as I was more interested in presenting my story rather than piddling about in the convoluted way they seemed to want to piddle about in. Then the prosecuting barrister just came straight out and called me a liar; my recollection of what had happened acted in my defence and went against her presentation. Amazingly only minutes after this, the same prosecuting barrister suddenly stopped being the cow-bitch-from-hell and argued very strongly in my favour when she felt I wasn't presenting my case in the best way. And then when acting for me she openly contradicted what she'd said minutes previously when acting for the prosecution.
But what struck me most about that sorry episode was during a lull in proceedings when one of those in judgement over me was chatting with one of the court officials about the best places to go in London for a good night out. For him my trial was something of an inconvenience; he was clearly there for a trip to the wicked city, and the sooner the business of the day was finished, the better.
All the time courts are treated as "just another day at work" or “a bit of a jolly” rather than "this is someone's life!" will we ever get real justice?
It's been ten years now - I really should stop sulking.
I got to work for the early shift. the night shift was glad to see me. Like me on Monday night she too had been dragooned in at short notice to cover for sick leave. This pandemic is a pain in the glass (to coin a phrase). I did my bit. As I did I found out that the game to have been playing over Christmas had been "Drunk Uno" which (apparently) is just like normal Uno but with a lot more vodka. One lives and learns.
Driving home today was something of a disappointment. Yesterday the sunset had been rather pretty. Today was wet, overcast and miserable. I got home just as it was getting dark, and as I got out of my car I said hello to who I thought was Dan-Dan (a sort of niece-in-law). However it wasn’t Dan-Dan; it was one of the normal people who didn’t actually say “F… off fatso or I will scream for the police” but her reaction wasn’t far off of that. Bearing in mind that I was outside Dan-Dan’s house I thought that was an honest mistake to make, but the normal person wasn’t having any of it.
I came home, and over a cuppa I peered into the internet where I saw I had a friend request on Facebook. “Calverto Esila” had suggested: “Join the Snapchat group I've set up. in the snapchat group there are many lonely women who need a date... so if you want to join the group, it's FREE without spending a penny. click here” and gave a link to a website featuring various people doing rather unhygienic activities. If anyone would like the link I’ll just make the observation that I know from experience that my passing it on would breach Facebook’s Community Standards, but her sending to me does not. As Facebook confirmed this evening.
Funny old world…
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