Sunday

The Makerfield by-election is on 18th June.   This is going to be won by Andy Burnham and there is no doubt about this.  It has been manoeuvred to be the by-election for Andy Burnham to re-enter British parliament and to then take over the leadership of the Labour Party and become our prime minister for the next three years. 

We are sitting ducks for the taking in a country that is about to be destroyed. 

Forget about Reform, Restore, Green, Liberals, Conservatives. Labour are going to win this seat. 

The Burnham years are going to be the three years of everything that Blair left unfinished of the Thatcher years and he intends to finish the job off and finish off this country to boot. 

Burnham will leave a heavily in debt Manchester City Council, the biggest debt in the country, where he has constantly stuck two fingers up at debt which he was able to do because of the money coming from central government.  As prime minister he will be in the real live market of borrowing money and that of the gilt market.  Two fingers up at the gilt market will not work but that won't matter to Andy Burnham, oh no.  He will carry on with welfare Britain like no tomorrow.  The wealthy workers will have to pay for all this and this will be from the top to the bottom.  Tax the rich and drive them away, tax the poor and make them poorer, tax the farmers, tax the self-employed beyond the pale, drive out entrepreneurs, drive out businesses.

Burnham is unsuited to being PM and handling difficult situations.  He likes things that run smoothly like he inherited all the good work done by his predecessor in Manchester, Mr Leese who saved Manchester. 

 Britain will decline in all areas where once there was growth and prosperity to sustain the economy there will be a  black hole and the hole will gradually get bigger and bigger and bigger.  

Saturday

 After I got home I probably wrote something that someone didn't like so they stopped following me and clicked "unfollow" on their computer.   Maybe I said give Trump a chance which is something that is guaranteed to drive away American bloggers, if indeed there are any in the vicinity, although I have found a lovely secret collection of American male bloggers who write real things about American life who do not blindly love Democrats and smooth talkers just for being smooth talkers irrespective of what they say - there is nothing annoys me more than people when talking of politicians say "he talks so lovely" or "his voice is so lovely to listen to" like they say of Polanski here when the man is a dangerous individual and a charlatan to boot or the Mayor of New York, the communist Mamdani who will take the properties of New Yorkers, tax the moneymakers who support the city,  and refuse to walk with Israel -  and have and had a good life in the liberty and commercial arena together with the military, or closer to home I may have said  please back Starmer as better the devil you know.  

Anyway, what I am saying is the person who unfollowed me put my number of followers down to 29.  This number  as a number annoys me so would someone please click follow so that it gets away from 29.  I already follow myself so I can't do it.  (I follow myself so I can see when the reading list up-dates.  It is, incidentally, still all over the place).

Yesterday the fever had gone and I had some energy again and was able to go out in the car and fill up with petrol and get some cat food.  I then got the ride-on out and cut the grass which was beginning to look like a meadow.  Like the farmers around me, the hay has been cut. 

I am over the worst of the Covid.  It has been like an additional week's holiday being unable to go out, sleeping in the afternoons, and remaining in the cool of the house just doing nothing.  I have quite enjoyed it.  Once one starts to feel better the fear of never being well again immediately abates and enjoyment of the long days is enabled. 

Holiday Review

 One of the good things about being away from here for the two weeks of the holiday was that I didn't spend anything at home.   No petrol for the car, no train tickets and no grocery shopping, no newspapers, no popping out for this and that that I probably didn't need anyway.  No coffees, no cakes.    

I took 200 Euros with me and came back with 160 of them.  I changed two 20 Euro notes into local currency on arrival in Baku at a currency exchange machine to see how it went to cover a few incidentals and tips at the end.  I found it went a long way and I did not need to change any further Euros.  Lunches were included most days and they were  taken so late in the afternoon, sometimes not until 3pm, that there was no need to spend anything on an evening meal because we just weren't hungry.  I went to a supermarket twice and bought bars of chocolate and Fanta to keep me going in the evening if I needed anything.  Bottled water was provided by the guides each day so I never had to buy any water.

Since I have been back I have had Covid but that has now abated and I am feeling the worst is over.  The fever has gone and I am left with a snotty nose and a cough.  I have been having a sleep each afternoon but today is the first day when I feel I don't need to do that.  Two days ago I slept for 5 hours during the day and I think that was a turning point in getting better. 

So May will have been a very low spend month for me which is just as well because saving any money is hard to do these days.  My electricity bill was also less because I wasn't here using it.   The final payment for the holiday was back in February so that was all kind of written off then. Big payments always seem painful until you have got them out of the way and can start building again. 

I enjoyed the holiday very much and for once in my life I believe I actually needed a holiday.  I don't usually go along with this philosophy of "needing a holiday" but this time I feel that that was true.  I loved Azerbaijan and that I went.   I now feel much lighter and that a weight has been lifted, that weight being that I did not think I would ever go on holiday again.  Getting to Heathrow was not as horrendous as I thought and the airport was not busy during my departure or arrival home. I have sussed out what is best for me getting to and from Heathrow  if I have to do it again.  

The fitness training helped and although I was not as fit as Miss Perfect I was definitely fit enough to get myself through each day, get up each morning and be wide awake, and enjoy myself and not be a hindrance to anyone.  It is strange to describe this because it is probably taken for granted by most people but for me at 74 it is not taken for granted.  I will continue with the exercise routine once I am fully recovered from the Covid and hopefully that will be next week. Then maybe this holiday will not have been my last. 

Britain, the promised land

 989 migrants entered Britain illegally in 14 boats over the bank holiday weekend.

3 illegals from 3 different countries were prosecuted and sent to prison for 8 months.  After serving 4 months they will be released and collected by their friends already here and disappear into Britain.  Why were they not deported immediately instead of being sent to prison here?

3 others were arrested for endangering lives in the boat crossings. Similarly, they await sentence and will be ultimately imprisoned here. Why are we not turning them round to keep out of Britain?

As the weather remains good the numbers of illegals in boats will exceed 1000 this week. 

Gang leaders of the traffickers will collect many thousands of euros from these people in the boats.

Mothers across the world, Africa and the Middle East in particular,  will plead with their sons not to go. The sons do not listen. They want to come here for easy money and a life of doing whatever they like.

What will they bring with them? HIV, criminal intentions, religion of a male domination of women, superior rights that British residents don't have;  and we give them medical help, money, housing, and civil rights courts with a judiciary skewed in their favour led by an Attorney General out of the pocket of Keir Starmer and the  socialist dream of domination by the state.  It goes on and on and on. 

1.2M young people in Britain are unemployed. Why?

So little opinion on this today.  

I see that prostate cancer screening is not to be increased because of funding problems.  It is unique in this country that we have money to throw at illegal entry migrants in all forms of welfare, protection and benevolence unending but we do not have the money for prostate cancer screening for all of our men in the at risk age range.  Britain has the worst death rate from prostate cancer in Europe.    As HIV spikes because of African migrants money is being spent on HIV clinics and doctors and treatments like never seen before.  There is money for this. 

Azerbaijan 4

For those who haven't seen the location map I drew of where I was here it is and for those who have seen it, here it is again.   It shows my journeys from Baku and where I went by train and bus and then a flight across country to Nakhchivan, the enclave, or exclave, of Azerbaijan.  It is necessary to fly because there is a dispute about permission to drive across Armenia that is taking a long while to be settled.   (The internal flights sort of upset our plans a bit because the flights there and back were delayed by bad weather but, whatever, we were on holiday and you can't do anything about weather and whatever we did was new for me so I didn't complain unlike Miss Perfect who did complain).     Nakhchivan is an autonomous republic separated from Azerbaijan and is 280 miles west of Baku.   It has a population of 95,000

In all we slept in 5 different hotels, the longest time we had was 3 nights in Baku plus another added on when our flights were delayed mid week and that was in a different hotel. 

This was all fine and not a problem but it is wise to travel light if you can, which I can. Ian had a lot of camera equipment with him which made his luggage bigger than the rest of us.  

The day in Sheki was good because it was the historic city on the Silk Road and in the foothills of the Caucasus.  From Sheki we drove to Qabola which was the green area of the country that you saw in the photos yesterday and that was the farming area.   

 

In the train.  That's Jean nearest, Margaret by the window, and the guide,  Valli.  The train was comfortable and on time and there was an attendant in every carriage.  I asked where the toilet was and she accompanied me to the exact location, knocked on the door, and then waited for me.  She also did this with others on the train, not just me because I was a tourist.  The attendants also brought us water, for no payment.  We saw her taking the blood pressure of another passenger.  I am not sure if this was a service offered to all but I think it probably was as she was carrying the blood pressure equipment with her. 

Textiles in Sheki. 

Pots and all sorts in Sheki.  

Later when we were out of the train and driving north we saw markets for the locals with lovely fruit and vegetables. 

Always lots of these  of the president and or the former president or both , Ilham Aliyev and his father Heydar Aliyev,  who have been leaders in the country for many years.  It is a dictatorship with hopefully all the best things a dictatorship can be with efficiency of  organisation and prosperity. If the clean streets and law and order are anything to go by then it is good.

More shops for buying stuff on the Silk Road.  Crafts still made and hoping to have more tourists. 

The driving on from Sheki was hairy in the mountains of the Caucasus but it was always interrupted by a stop for tea.  

The roads were a bit dangerous.  I took photos from the bus

 

Azerbaijan more for you

This is the border with Iran.  I show it because it is a little bit topical at the moment I suppose.  We went there for a drive one day.  There was nothing happening and one look-out tower which looked like a wooden hut on stilts. 

American tourists were seen in some places in Azerbaijan, I add this because some think that Americans do not go on holiday because  of Iran war and Trump and this is what the mainstream media tell them.   This is not true and we saw American tourists.  

Driving around through the countryside which is how I expected it to look. 

Then some green areas with lush meadows and trees 

 

Most countryside looked like this.

Noah's ark came to rest in Azerbaijan at top of this hill.   I believe this claim is made in several countries.  

Man cleaning at the side of the road.  You would see this all over by all types of roads, men and women sweeping in isolation.  They are paid to do this. 

Lots of Ladas from Soviet times. 

Inside mosque

Inside the mosque lovely coloured glass

Memorial to the dead.  Apartments behind.  All low level apartment blocks are Soviet builds. 

The Imam was pleased to show me his mosque and pose for photo.  Soviets pulled down mosques so the mosques are new-builds.  I was told that old people pray at home because they got into the habit of hiding at home to pray.  Only young people use the mosques today. 

Tomorrow I will show you some more.

Some of Azerbaijan

 When we arrived in Baku on May 9th it was 6am and we had just had a night flight from Heathrow.  I was unable to sleep on the plane.  We were taken straight to the hotel and checked in at 7am and breakfast was being served.  I was too whacked to go to the breakfast room and went straight to bed.  We next met at 12.30 pm for lunch as a group and to meet the guide.  He had met us at the airport but this time we were to talk to him over lunch and get to know him and one another.  

I had met Mark on the plane coming over having identified him as a possible member of the group at Heathrow when I saw him wandering around alone and scratching his head.  I bravely approached him and I was right.  He was puzzled as to how I would know but I just instinctively did. 

Anyway, at lunch we all chatted a bit but I was still not recovered from the flight.  I really needed all day to recover.

Meanwhile it transpires that Margaret who I later named Miss Perfect had already done the first stage of our excursion for that day, a city walk, while the rest of us slept and was filling the guide in with what she knew which she had also done more extensively with him privately he gaily told us.  He did not seem to realise that we all hardly knew one another and that he probably knew Margaret at this stage better than we did.  The rest of us were a bit non-plussed and did not react to any of this. We were tired and ready for him to guide us as per our itinerary.   Below is a photograph of the two of them. 

As she walked very fast at the front I spoke to the guide after 15 minutes of chasing to keep up that could he please slow down and bear in mind that Margaret should not be used as the basemarker for pace of the group as we were all much slower, either because we wanted to stop and photograph and look around or because we simply did not walk fast or both.  He took this on board and from then on the pace was slower and more suited to an elderly bunch of tourists who wanted to stop now and again to photograph or buy the odd souvenir.

Other things we saw in Baku were lots of traffic as it is a busy, modern city, lots of shops, people and daily life.  Here are some photographs. 

traffic

flame towers in Baku, the city of fire

Mark standing, Annie sitting and Ian taking photos

old city 

old city 

textiles in shops

and more of the old city 

After that exhausing afternoon I went riding with the driver while the others walked some steps, below.  It was a bank holiday weekend in Baku and the driver explained that the roads were busy for a weekend as everybody was out with family just like anywhere else on a bank holiday.