Rally

Putin sings "Eve of Destruction" at the Luzhniki Stadium

It was like halftime at the American Superbowl when the Russian state staged a rally in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on Friday. The rally was supposedly intended to celebrate the annexation of Crimea in 2014 but mostly it was connected with the military operation.... war in Ukraine.

What better way can there be to mark the killing of children, the destroying of apartment blocks, the bombing of hospitals and the creation of millions of refugees than to wave flags, sing patriotic songs, cheer and generally have a happy time?

The star of the show was Vladimir Putin who came on stage in a creamy white polo necked sweater and a blue parka jacket in order to sing his repertoire of cover songs:-

• "From Russia With Love" - originally sung by Matt Monro
• "King of the World" - by Jason Robert Brown
• "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley
• "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire
• and "Back in the USSR" by Lennon and McCartney:-

Well,

The Ukraine girls really knock me out (... Wooh, ooh, ooh)

They leave the West behind (Da, da, da)

And Moscow girls make me sing and shout (... Wooh, ooh, ooh)

That Georgia's always on

My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my mind

There were a reported 203,000 in the Luzhniki Stadium which has a seating capacity of 81,000. Go figure.

Maybe it's a cultural thing but I would like to think that in most societies what has happened in Ukraine would have provoked weeping and wailing with heads bowed, shame and the wearing of black clothing. The waving of giveaway national flags and all that whooping  and laughter seems not just inappropriate but extremely cruel.

A good number of Russians have visited this blog in the last seventeen years - though none have ever commented.  If there are any Russians reading this blogpost right now I say that what Putin is doing in Ukraine is barbaric and it's nigh time that  the Russian people rose up against him to create a new kind of government for a new age.

And you tell me

Over and over and over again, my friend

How you don't believe

We're on the eve of destruction

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/X0tYClM

Fish & Chips

 When I was a child fish & Chips were a treat.

Sometimes they were bought out of necessity as when for whatever reason my mother was not able to cook 

Rarely they were bought as a planned meal

But covered in vinegar and smothered in salt, they were always a welcomed change from my mother’s bland cooking.

On impulse I bought fish and chips for supper last night.

It was from the chips and kebab house in the next village, the one that got fined for dreadful hygiene.

I remember Boffin Cameron writing ebulliently in the comments of the paper that it wouldn’t stop him going 

Funny what you remember eh.

Anyhow I haven’t eaten fish and chips for over three and a half years, so I had to buy some vinegar to douse the meal properly

It was lovely, with the girls snapping up the fatty bits of batter from my fingers and Albert carefully taking the fish from the window ledge out of reach.

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/Vk3OgiY