Day 258

Another fragmentary.

This year’s blog now has over 266k words. Quite remarkable. I really didn’t think it would accumulate words so quickly and massively. Just goes to show how many words and thoughts we have in our heads. Has anyone ever worked out how many words a human speaks on average in a year? I have just checked, and of course the veracity of online sources always needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but according to Languages Around The Globe, it’s 10,950,000 words a year. So what I’ve written here so far this year is actually only an insignificant fraction of that. Still. They are here for posterity now, and in their ring binder. Until Aggie comes down and the number is halved (ish).

I called my doctor’s surgery yesterday for the results of the CT scan and the x-ray I had last week. I was told imaging results are subject to delays because of staff shortages. We all know why that is. Since Brexit there has been an exodus of Europeans from the National Health Service. So not only has the Tory government been defunding the NHS since it came into power in 2010, but it’s been de-peopling it as well. That’s the essence of the matter. And it seeks to blame all the NHS’s troubles on covid-19. In truth, the troubles were already there (deliberately induced by the Tories so they can sell pieces of the service off to private companies), and covid-19 just served to bring the plight of the NHS to the attention of more people. A government with blood on its hands in so many ways.

Estimates for the costs of the Queen’s funeral, its accompanying pomp and circumstance, and the coronation of the new King, are around £6 billion (£6,000,000,000 – get your head around the enormity of that number). Not that the monarchy will be paying for it, of course. Tax payers will be, instead, as they try to scrimp and save through the winter, as they have to decide whether to heat their houses or eat. Perhaps the government and the monarchy will encourage families to eat their dead relatives in time of need instead of having to make such a difficult choice, while ministers and royalty tuck in to sumptuous breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and even more elaborate banquets. Royalty, by the way, which is exempt from having to pay inheritance tax on its private wealth, and which pays income tax voluntarily, and that only since 1993.

On the upside, the very painful growth on the inside of my left foot has come off after 10 days’ treatment with salicylic acid. If only it were that easy to fix this country.

AGGIE’S ART OF HAPPINESS – CHAPTER 211