bl'Air

So, President Blair toured the country today (Friday) in a Big Red Helicopter, stopping at six focus-group'd locations across the UK, to kiss teachers, shake babies' hands, and apparently deliver some innovative election pledge solutions. I mention this solely because one of the six venues was Myton School, Warwick, which regular readers may know that I attended during the fine years of 1995-2001.

I almost wish I'd been there to stage a protest for the TV cameras. By "stage a protest" I of course mean "lurk off-camera (and out of earshot) muttering to familiar people". Good job, then, that the pro-hunt lobby turned up to keep the PM's day interesting.

You might wish to peruse the school's own account of the day, or look at their thumbnail photos, which could really use links to full-size versons. Sadly, there are no pics of the hunt supporters attempting to storm the school field.

According to the school, our Labour MP James Plaskitt was also attending, although none of the articles on the wider web seem to mention the poor guy. Maybe that was the only time he'll ever get to meet the PM as well.

Sorry, James Plaskitt. Splaskitt. It's been a bad week, you see. Today I was a pall-bearer at my paternal grandmother's funeral in Wales. My maternal grandmother died on Wednesday, and her funeral is a week Tuesday.

Strangely, one of my lingering memories of today's funeral is that of the reluctantly bilingual undertaker. When explaining pall-bearing procedure to me and three of my cousins, he spoke only in Welsh, so one of the twins pointed out that I didn't speak it, and could he please give us instructions in English. The undertaker said something obscure along the lines of "We're all in this together, boys", and then carried on talking in Welsh, but with the occasional concessional (and quite unhelpful) English phrase. Luckily my cousins are capable translators.

I end this entry with brief thanks to Mr Blair for lightening my day by allowing me to see Mr Hecks smiling on ITN when I got home.

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