Maidenhead again - 18th May 2022

Normally I would top up with fuel in the evening prior to making this journey but Tuesday afternoon and evening were both far from normal.

Benney! What are you like?

My original plan was to get to the yard in the afternoon and exercise Benney either under saddle or on the lunge. He seemed to come in alright. It was when I was grooming him that I noticed an open wound on his off fore knee about the size of a silver dollar or here in the UK, a fifty pence piece. For those of you not versed in equine terms, the "off fore" is the front left leg.

After cleaning it up with diluted Hibiscrub, an antimicrobial skin cleaner and absolute essential for any horse owners medicine box, the wound looked bad and Benny was showing signs of discomfort when he put his weight on it.

Nearly four hours later and one vet visit Benney, who normally lives out, is confined to a stable. The diagnosis, cuts from barbed wire. He incurred one below the knee, above the knee and several small abrasions from the knee up to his chestnut which came off in his conflict with the wire.

I also had to get Skye in to take her away from the rich spring grass as a preventative against the dreaded laminitis.

By 8pm all I wanted to do was get home. The fuel could wait until the morning.

The Drive from Ringwood to Maidenhead

We were away as planned at the same time as the 7am news bulletin on the radio started.

We stopped at the local Shell service station. I have a Shell loyalty app on my phone so before we bought any fuel I couldn't find it. We needed it anyway so I could pick up any messages from my wife and get news from the stables about how Benney is doing. We conducted a fruitless search and concluded we had to return home to find. As we started the drive back my wife could not resist the temptation for some verbal revenge as it is normally her who has forgotten her glasses or phone:

"Hhhhmmmm, makes a change for you to forget something...are you sure you have your glasses?"

As we made a right turn to start turning for home my elbow brushed against something hard in my pocket; my phone. A quick donut manouvre without leaving any skid marks and we were back at the service station fueling up for the trip. Only ten minutes behind schedule.

The 87 mile drive was easy, Just the usual traffic jams at the main intersections but none of them big enough to make us have to stop.

What both of us noticed how much more traffic there was, We started having to make this journey regularly in March 2021 during the final stages of the COVID lock down. Life is getting back to normal and the Government wants all those who can to return to working from the office as opposed to home where, according to our PM they are "distracted by the fridge and cheese".

Well thank you PM, we now know two more of your weaknesses unless you are lying.

The Right Honourable Sir Desmond Swayne (TRHSDS)

This gentleman is our local Member of Parliament (MP) and a member of the ruling Conservative Party.

His political leanings are right; that is they are right wing and libertarian. He was a staunch supporter of BREXIT and didn't believe all if not any of the COVID restrictions imposed by his Government were necessary. He is now trying to educate his supporters via his blog (such an ugly word) what the cause our current inflationary cycle is. It us, the, people, causing the spell of inflation; demand pull inflation. Not by rising prices (cost push inflation) per se but by us the people trying to buy too many goods and services with our hard earned cash; demand pull inflation His solution for the present cost of living crisis is that we, the people, should stop buying or trying to buy so much with whatever "discretionary" income we have then all this inflation rubbish will go away. That is if we do have any "discretionary" income after paying for food, heating and fuel for travel.

Suffice to say, in my opinion; he is pompous, bombastic and overbearing.

Normally when I encounter this sort of person I try to picture them sitting on the loo frantically searching for toilet paper. However, The Times "Political Sketch" column by Quentin Letts has eradicated that image. Instead when describing TRHSDS's intervention in a debate Quentin Letts described him as

"The loin clothed Sir Desmond Swayne...emerged from his mud hut to shake a spear at the sky"

And not a roll of toilet paper in sight.

Bardo's Lounge, The Colonnade, Maidenhead

This venue has become my "go to" destination for breakfast when I am in town

This venue opened in March 2022. The traditional "Full English" and "Vegetarian" breakfasts are less than £10 and represent excellent value for money. The plates come to the table hot to the touch and fully loaded with calories and carbs to set you up for the day Mind you, my vegetarian breakfast this morning was the first time I had ever had shredded cabbage interlaced with strands of red pepper before mid-day. Interesting and long lasting? Yes it was as it was not until lunchtime that I managed to release the last shred of cabbage from a food trap