I have a waistcoat…not one that came from a suit! It’s more like one of the waistcoats you might see a fisherman/woman wear, or the kind of thing a farmer might wear. The kind of thing you would wear driving a Quad bike on a wintery day. A padded waistcoat (no the arms don’t wrap around and tie at the back, smart-arse! – there are no arms!) Anyway, I don’t get to wear it ‘cos Anne has nabbed it for when she’s cold and in the garden.

It got me thinking though…with all the bad behaviour of the UK Tory party in government – you know (or I assume you know) about how the day after the Scottish Referendum, we had David Cameron introducing English Votes for English Laws, which lessened, even further, the little influence Scottish MPs had on UK matters…or Boris’s ‘prorogation’ of parliament to get Brexit done…remember? Or, what about Ferry madness? Remember Chris Grayling (Transport Secretary) gave £15 million to the Ferry company who had no ferries? (It turned out to be around £40 million!!!) Oh how I laughed! But I’m sure we all laughed, didn’t we? And then there was the UK declining to join the Emergency EU Scheme to procure ventilators and PPE (because the UK said it “was no longer in the EU” and they were “making their own efforts in this area” – sniff!)…what a hoot! But then…they went giving out contracts to Tory donors to the tune of over £150 million for PPE equipment…which didn’t meet the requirements!! And their latest dodge is the UK Internal Market Bill, to strip the powers of the devolved administrations of this wonderful UK union…which requires the Scottish Parliament’s consent…which has NOT been given…but they’ll just go ahead anyway!! :-O Jeezy Peeps…I need a breather (no humour intended)! My laughter is developing manic overtones.

I’m sure I’ve said this before…but I’m generally fairly chill. And (this is important) I do know that Scotland will be independent one day…I do! But I can’t help thinking that Karma needs a wee push sometimes. And time is moving on! When you get older, at least to pensionable age, there are increasing bits of you that don’t work so well. I’m actually doing not bad because I’ve been stretching my spine and get less pain there. And, my gall-bladder has been removed, extracted, pulled, chucked…gone…and is no more (I was always told that I “had some gall!” and I didn’t believe it till I felt the pain in my back.) No, my main gripe is with my feet…they just don’t want to touch the floor anymore! They are only happy when I’m in bed. So I try not to get up before noon and I try to sit in a comfy seat for as long as possible, only getting up to make tea (or to pee-tea) and then I try to finish-off the day by hitting the hay at 9pm and watching something on Netflix. It’s tough but I’m managing!

Anyhoo…Waistcoats! I figure there are a good number of Scottish Pensioners might be in need of some focus…some project that could benefit their children or their grand-children. Something that would get them out of the house…a renewed sense of purpose. Or even some pay-back for robbing them of pension (paid for their whole working lives) and changing the State Pension Age (Remember the Beatles sang “When I’m 64”? Well, now it’s 66 and good luck reaching that in Scotland.) So, what I’m thinking is…we need a Scottish Kamikaze Pensioner Group to develop some kind of suicide fertiliser vests with waistcoats? I know the pockets aren’t that big but you might get a couple of handfuls in!!

We could maybe hire a bus, get tanked-up and go down in a group (that would cut the cost)…no-one would suspect a bus load of pensioners wearing masks with their waistcoats full of fertiliser. And if we arrived, and survived the smell of the journey, we could split-up and meander. Okay…there might be the occasional un-forseen consequence, like the odd explosion in a Greggs shop or people getting lost or maybe one or two device-failures due to incontinence. But…it would just take one to get through! Just one, to defeat dementia and have the satnav the right way up or to ask a policeman for directions! To be fair…I haven’t worked out all the details and I’m not even sure how fertiliser can explode anyway!!…because it’s quite wet when it comes out! It’s just an idea at this stage. Although, I do think we should get rid of the Tory party at the next election (and I’m speaking to everyone in the UK now) because this waistcoat project seems shit, the more I think about it!

Addendum: I am reliably told that the waistcoats could be best carried in a trailer, to avoid the smell, and people would only wear them when we reach London. Excellent suggestion. Back in the game!

Today…it rains, but I’m making a Date and Walnut Loaf – Don’t have any walnuts and cannot be arsed going out to get them! Going for it!

Date and Walnut Loaf

✔ 200 g (7 oz) stoned dried dates, chopped
✔ 30 g (1 oz) unsalted butter
✔ 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
✔ 240 ml (8 fl oz) boiling water
✔ 140 g (5 oz) light muscovado sugar
✔ 2 eggs
✔ 280 g (10 oz) plain flour
✔ 2 tsp baking powder
✔ 1½ tsp ground mixed spice
✔ pinch of salt

✖ 115 g (4 oz) walnuts, chopped

Sometimes, you just have to go with what you have! For example, Anne and I were talking about what kind of Currency we would like to see in the world… and what could replace Consumerism? Just blethering, you understand! My usual starting point (usually in an online comment 🙂 ) is “I would happily barter salt, scraped from the sweat of my proletariat brow!” (drops mike!) But that’s just Bartering, with what I have to barter with…isn’t it? Currency, therefore, is just an ‘accepted’ value system…and we need that…it makes trade easier but it could be anything! All independent countries need their own Central Bank to enable them control of their own economy. And…at the moment, my baking economy, is a bowl of dates with the butter and bicarbonate of soda. Then I poured over the boiling water and stirred until the butter was melted. So, because I have lots of dates, I would be prepared to trade while they are set aside to cool. That’s good – it’s a start.

✔ Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF, gas mark 4).
✔ Lightly grease an 18 cm (7 in) round deep cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment.

But, we’ve got everything else – except the walnuts – and that’s important…because I’ll still be able to make some kind of Date and what-not Loaf…even without the walnuts. We have enough resources to maintain a loaf that will sustain Anne and I through occasional coffees and occasional teas! Any independent country would ideally have enough of it’s own resources to sustain itself and its people without relying on trade alone…and in that respect Scotland does very well. We don’t grow Walnuts in Scotland, or Cinnamon, or AllSpice, or Dates, or Muscavado sugar…but we have enough to make a loaf…Woohoo! If the worst came to the worst…we won’t starve! We have plenty of water, make our own electricity, have a sizeable farming economy, fishing, food and drink…in addition to financial skill, tourism, IT, Engineering and a rich history of innovation. Lots of other countries would be happy to trade some of that for some of their walnuts and dates…guaranteed!

✔ Place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat well to combine.
✔ Add the cooled date mixture, then sift in the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and salt.
✔ Add the walnuts and stir together until thoroughly mixed.

It would be really good…really good…if the world turned it’s back on Consumerism! But there’s a lot of shit to pass before that could happen. Consumerism is self-fuel-filling – It fuels itself. We all aspire to be ‘better’ in the world – You might not recognise that statement as true and you might say “Nah ginger..you’re deluded! There are folk in the world who have no interest in making things better for anyone else except themselves!“, but it’s true, honest. Regardless of their motives…whether that’s making themselves better financially or whatever…they’re still focused on ‘bettering’, as Dr Zeus might say. In the broad Church of Consumerism, people aspire ‘to have and to hold’ as much stuff as they can. And…there are a growing number of individuals who have everything (#Pitchforks), or the potential to have everything…the Oligarchs, the Rees-Moggs, the Bransons, the Rothchilds, the Bezos, the elite. You know the ones…they are not next to you in the queue for Lidl or Sainsbury…and Consumerism suits them, not us. The hippy in me, would love to see a shift of focus in ‘society’, based on people’s needs rather than people’s wants. I would love to see a ‘cap’ on how much money an individual can accumulate for example. Feck me…Jeff Bezos cannot feckin’ hope to ever spend in his feckin’ life, even just 1% of the feckin’ money he has acquired! Extra money earned would go into a ‘pot’ to benefit Society. So, a ‘cap’ would let Mr Bezos know that he has completed the game (People need to have goals) “Well done, Mr Bezos, you have bettered yourself to the max…Here is a badge to say you are the best…now get in your Lamborghini, drive to your fancy speedboat, snort as much coke as you like and die a happy man, knowing you are the best and you have contributed greatly to other people and they will no longer starve!’ (Twat!)

✔ Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.
✔ Bake for 1–1 1/4 hours or until the cake is risen and nicely browned and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Scotland definitely has enough of everything it needs to sustain its existence as an independent nation. Let’s go for it and then start working on trade agreements with everyone else? Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool. The cake can be kept, wrapped in foil or stored in an airtight container, for up to 5 days. Time to instruct our Scottish Politicians in Westminster to come home! Let’s get our pinnys on!

Thanks to lockdown, I’m now accustomed to a life of Sunday mornings. As an ‘older’ person…I like Sunday mornings! A relaxing time to think big thoughts. However…one obvious big thought for a Sunday morning is spiritual faith – but I don’t do that particular big thought! Apologies if you do…but I don’t have an addiction to faith.

On a Sunday, we don’t do Church because we don’t do God and I don’t do God because…it doesn’t exist and even if it turns out that it does exist…well, I’m not a fan – it’s a dick! In fact, if it turns out that a God does exist, then heaven help it if I ever get near it. I hate the idea that something created all the pain and death in our existence and expects gratitude in return. The vengeful God of the Old Testament? Twat! The God of Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’? Twat! An omniscient, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful being that loves us so much that it has given us free will within an environment of lifetime-struggle? Twat! And…if we fall short of it’s expectations, it’s our fault? Seriously? God created the environment…The game is rigged!!

However, if a God does exist…then God is a Chemist! Everything is chemical! Life, the Universe and everything – it’s all about chemicals! Electricity? Relies on chemistry! Water? Yes…chemistry! Air? Chemistry! Fire? Chemistry! Matter? Chem-is-try! What about life? Feckin’ Chemistry! In fact…chemical bonds hold EVERYTHING together. And, ‘environment’ is important to all chemical reactions. There is a certainty about Chemistry – All chemicals are reactive in the ‘right’ environment. So…If you put given chemicals in a given environment then there will be a given outcome. Guaranteed replicable! And, us? Us animals? We are chemical and our existence is a chemical reaction. So, love is just a chemical dependency? Yep…welcome aboard!

Strangely though…Chemicals are not to blame for ‘Addiction’. According to some medical definitions of addiction, it’s a “…chronic, relapsing…complex brain disorder and a mental illness…” (National Institute on Drug Abuse [USA]) ^{(Much like faith then? )} 🙂 or it’s “…not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you.” (NHS [UK]) But the truth is (drum roll) that…addiction…is caused by…environment! Wait…what Lefty nonsense is this? Yep…Environment, environment, environment – It’s the catalyst! Everything happens within an environment. Even the vacuum of space is an environment.

There have been some very interesting experiments which demonstrate the catalyst effect of ‘environment’ in animals, such as Behavioural Sink in 1947 which showed the disrupted social behaviour of rats when environmentally stressed by over-crowding – causing a “…variety of abnormal, often destructive behaviours” – Isn’t that what we can see in human behaviour, under the stresses of Poverty? Similarly, the Rat Park experiment in the late 70’s used rats to demonstrate the effect of ‘environment’ on ‘drug dependency’ by allowing the rats to choose between morphine and water within two very different environments – the utopian Rat Park and a small solitary cage. (Read about the whole thing here) Addictive behaviours were “…attributable to their living conditions, and not to any addictive property of the drug itself.” And…there is a growing body of thought supporting this view of addiction – (Rethinking Addiction).

So… Everything’s chemical and God, if one exists, is a Chemist! Environment is a catalyst for ‘reaction’ and God, if one exists, created our environment! But we are destined to respond to our environment, so God, if one exists, didn’t give us free will at all! – It’s not our fault if we feck-up! We are all just reacting to our environment. The game is rigged.

We like to think of an ‘environment’ as a flat level playing-field…as something that is equal to everyone. So, anyone who doesn’t succeed within that environment, is obviously the ‘problem’? But, environments are never equal! There is always a potential advantage to someone. If you think of an actual playing-field…What way is the sun shining, what way blows the wind? Or, if you think of Society as the playing-field…What is your race, to whom where were you born, what resources were available to your up-bringing? Environments are never equal but they are always presented as equal.

So, next time you pass someone begging or homeless, consider what environmental factors led them there. There, but for the grace of………….aw feck it!!

You know how… every modern advance or invention in the world started in Scotland? Yeah you do!

There’s a good book about it, so I’m told (another book I haven’t read) called “How Scots Invented the Modern World” by Arthur L. Herman. And…if you ask Mr or Ms Google ‘what has Scotland invented?’, it’ll give you 18,600,000 rabbit-holes to look down. Wikipedia has a decent list of discoveries or inventions that have notably advanced civilisation, like James Watt’s steam engine or Graham Bell’s television or Alexander Fleming’s Penecillin or visit Scotland.Org to see what innovations are happening now! It feels a bit like one of the characters in the old BBC comedy show “Goodness Gracious Me“, who was called “Mr Everything comes from India” to say that Scots invented the modern world…but we certainly punch above our weight. Jings…we might even cure Covid-19!!

Strangely enough…I was reading an article called “Why India’s pandemic response is tipping toward pseudoscience“. It’s about how Indians are turning more to cultural approaches for treating illnesses like Covid-19. Apparently…influential public figures, (full of their own shit and with no actual Medical knowledge – like actors) have glorified old cultural remedies! A bit like the US President, who looks back at a rose-tinted view of American culture, hooking millions of scared Americans and then goes on to talk shit about drinking bleach! Jeezy peeps! What does Trump know about cleaning? I’ll bet he’s never washed a floor in his life! Feck me…Alcohol kills germs as well as bleach! Haud the bus…maybe we should all just drink alcohol! (I’m already conducting that experiment…get your own!) But, I get it! It’s the divergent responses to challenges which innovate – It’s how evolution works too! Within the divergent responses there will be some that work and some that don’t! So, resorting to an old, cultural remedy is just a divergent response to a modern challenge.

It seems to be a bit more though, or maybe I’m being like ‘Mr Everything comes from India’ because I think this all started in Scotland! I think Scotland has been brewing a cultural revolution for many years and the growing call for Scottish Independence stems from the ‘bleaching’ of Scottish culture and identity by an insidious UK narrative. I mean…what is the historical significance of the year 1066? Why did I grow up knowing that year and not 1707? Like many other people before me, I am now awake to the effects of gas-lighting, propaganda, fake news – call it what you like, but you won’t go far wrong if you follow the money! And it seems to me that Scotland might have started all of this by remembering that we have a culture that is divergent from others – certainly different from our southern neighbours. However, the Scottish rose-tinted spectacles see ‘equality’, ‘egalitarianism’, ‘civic identity’ rather than ‘greatness’ or ‘ empire’! Scottish identity seems to be an amalgam of notions fringed in tartan, drenched in rain and being chased by midges! The idea of Scotland as a Civic nation is appealing to a majority of people living here, regardless of where they were born – a divergence of people in search of a caring community. If you live in Scotland…you are Scottish (regardless of your genes!) In fact…it could be the amalgam of our divergences that fuels future innovations!

So…did Scotland start word-wide cultural resurgence? Maybe!

A tiny space can make all the difference. For example, “In dependence…” suggests a ‘dependence’, i.e., in dependence of, or a reliance on someone else…but if you take out the space, you get the opposite! Currently in Scottish Politics, the UK controlled parties of Labour, Liberals and the Tories are a waste of space – lets get rid of them.

It’s very satisfying to find just the right space for a thing…for a thing to be in an ideal place. It’s also a bit of a bugger having less space than you need though! I recently struggled to remove the fridge from our camper van (to check the connections at the back) and I had to dismantle shelving around it because it was fitted so tight – also, I’m less flexible than I used to be. I realise that I’m less flexible in lots of ways though. I used to think that I could ‘bend’ to fit in with others…that I could adapt, especially to help others, but it turned out I’m less forgiving than I thought.

There are many hot topics nowadays and they are all politics. Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism, Religion, Athiesm, EU, UK, #Anti-Sematism, #MeToo, HerAnaw, #WhitAbootMe, etc. It turns out that I have an opinion on all of those! I would never claim to know the ‘truth’ because, as we know 🙂 , that’s something we can never know. Opinions are all we have and here’s my current list:

• People matter more than money
• Conservatism is about conserving money rather than people
• Poverty is caused by greed
• There are more millionaire Conservative MPs than you could shake a stick pitchfork at
• Scotland is held back, in every way, by Westminster
• Westminster has many Conservative MPs

The Scottish Parliament has many MPs who aspire to be in Westminster, which begs the question – “Why are they in the Scottish Parliament?” My guess would be, to be as disruptive as possible. Well…they are members of a political party which is funded and managed by another country. Each UK political party, i.e. the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal, have a branch in Scotland. And, each of these branches follow the political ideology of their UK core. I can’t imagine anywhere else in the world where a nation would allow that to happen? Each of the Holyrood seats, currently supporting the fat arses of UK political wannabes’, are wasted space! These spaces would be better filled with people who work on behalf of Scotland and not against it. Surely, we can all see that the wheel has come off the UK bogey?

Strangely enough…we have been moving house over the last couple of weeks and so we know quite a lot about ‘space’ and specifically the lack of! Findoglen had 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 day rooms, 3 utility rooms, a kitchen and a greenhouse…but our current dwelling in Brookside (Cambuslang…but it reminds me of Brookside!) is tiny in comparison. We have been gutting, clearing, de-cluttering and donating during the move and we still have too many boxes of junk lying around! So…it’s important to get rid of useless things that are taking up valuable space!!! Hopefully we, Scotland, can find better replacements for the UK Labour, Liberals and Tories? We shouldn’t stand around!