Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 3477

The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3477 by Angharad Copyright© 2024/2025 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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Why oh why are writers fighting with transactivists? The latest, Graham Linehan, the creator of Father Ted is actually being taken to court by a transwoman and while they are calling her him, they are referring to her female name. The whole court process is a farce, and all because of a handful of senile old gits who make up the supreme court. They made a political decision rather than one based on the law or justice, all because of bunch of Scottish TERFs and a stupid but very rich writer. I shall have to make sure I don't end up in court as they could have the power to remove my aristocratic title. I suppose I'd use my professorial one but they may decide to raise the issue of my married name.

Oh, let's get away from these absurdities, it's going to take years before they are sorted unless that master judge who has gone to the European Commission on Human rights can see if they can overturn it.

I must admit my view of the institutions of this country is now well into the negative and I have decided not to do anything for any of them, unless it's for money. They are all venal and if Farage ever gets into Number 10, they will be as bad as the US one under Trump, another liar and criminal.

The destruction of Gaza continues, Israel needs to be brought to the International Criminal Court, and Netanyahu needs to be jailed for a few thousand life sentences to run concurrently. In the next cell could be Putin another war criminal, then the Brylcreem Boy from North Korea and the current head of the Chinese government, who should be running a laundry or take-away. His idea of a take away is Taiwan.

Who shall I grumble about next? Um, none of my family, who all except Trish are doing what we have all agreed to. Danni and Sarah got 2:1 degrees and have signed up for master's degrees with Portsmouth. Danni is investigating the evolution of the aquatic life in root holes - little possibly temporary ponds that form when trees are uprooted by high winds, and Sarah is looking at sewage in waterways. That has a potential to keep her studying for a long time, but before we can charge the water companies, we need chapter and verse, because the courts will want to look at the fine detail or their defence counsel will. We know they are to blame it's just a question of proof.

They have both vastly improved on their species identification, it's certainly as good as mine perhaps even better. I'm trying to keep up because I shall be teaching some of this to first years. I can't say I'm looking forward to getting started again and I'm seriously thinking of taking a sabbatical or retiring early. I may go when Daddy does, he's grumbling about the vice chancellorship but shut up when I suggested, I'd go too. Cate and I have been doing a little pottering in the local stream, a small winterbourne that flows through the fields behind the farmhouse, which are really run-off from the fields. Nowhere in Portsmouth proper is very high, but it's high enough for some run-off drainage, especially as we have had some torrential rain in recent weeks.

Lots of aquatic species bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of water channels and survive there until there is substantial rain, things like shrimp and mayfly larvae do so and some of the predatory beetles and Odonata seem to be able to survive in that way. As long as it is damp or wet, they can adapt and of course the Tardigrades are able to encyst themselves and survive for years. A species of plant which seems as hardy is moss, certain types of which can regenerate years after the water has disappeared. They even revived some in museum experiments that had been dehydrated for many years, so some natural things are very determined to survive. I'm rather glad humans don't have that capacity and are really just clever apes that the world won't miss when they become extinct.

Mosses are simple green plants which can survive with little soil as they have no root system, sucking up moisture and minerals direct off a substrate. However, when they colonise rocks they tend to hold dust which becomes soil and you often see other plants colonising on top of the mosses. Liverworts are other simple plants which I won't go into here, as it isn't one of my lectures, but they live in damp places, often on rocks as well, they hold a small water supply, so can survive aridity. We have the odd colony on some of the shady paving stones around the farmhouse paths, and those to the stables. We sometimes remove them because the paths can become very slippery even in dryish weather. Speaking of which, it seems summer is over, being one of the warmest and driest for a number of years and set all sorts of records. So without any rain how can the water companies discharge sewage which they are only allowed to do in excessive rainfall events. They are not taking the regulator seriously which may be because all sorts of liaisons between the two have occurred in the past such as staff flitting from one to t'other. It's all a mess but as soon as an environment secretary says they'll sort it they get moved to another job as has happened this week.

A number o f once lovely rivers have been destroyed by that or run-off from agriculture. The River Wye, a once beautiful river, a salmon river, is now so polluted by run-off from poultry farms, the only thing growing in it is sewage fungus, which is a bacteria that thrives in eutrophic waterways, especially where there is high phosphorus and nitrate levels. Virtually everything else dies, another legacy of greed from the rapacious intelligent apes, I described earlier. If they ever sort these things out, which I doubt unless forced to by public pressure, it will take years possibly generations. Certainly, if Reform gets into power, it won't do anything, it's too busy persecuting transgender people and immigrants. Like, the US Baptist churches it sells hate and fear, obviously part of Christianity I missed out on as a pupil at a church elementary school.

Although my parents later became evangelical Christians, I'm not sure the founder of the religion, if he came back would recognise what is said and done in his name, neither would Paul who hijacked early Christianity and made it much more cosmopolitan, because originally it was a tiny Jewish sect. I find it astonishing that many so-called Christians are surprised to learn that Jesus lived and died a Jew. His actions and beliefs might have set the standard for later Christian worship but he was not one, he was a Jew all his life. I still become irritable when I consider how religion has misled millions for millennia, and despite the odd good work it does, the evil is much greater, but some people seem to need it as some sort of crutch. Sadly, for them, the sky fairies won't come to the rescue only other humans can do that, even sadder is the fact that other humans may have caused the problem, think Ukraine and Gaza.

It's rather nice weather-wise though tomorrow could see some rain and we were doing quite well until Cate fell into the stream as we were sampling aquatic life in it. Quite how she did it, I don't know but suspect she tripped over a stone and although it's not deep she got soaked and was on the verge of tears until I made her laugh about it. We had some specimens to examine in the bucket so I gathered up all her stuff and we went the short distance to home with her complaining of the cold, which I suppose the wind gusting against her wet clothing caused. Lizzie was working with Stella in the house and burst out laughing at her sodden sibling but I pushed her into the bathroom where she stripped and showered. After an early lunch, which David made, we settled down to analyse our catch and work out the identity of species before Danni and Sarah spotted us and hijacked it with their newly acquired knowledge.

Lunch had been jacket potatoes, dinner was a much more calorie laden pork chops with roast potatoes, five different vegetables and followed by strawberry flan. It was lovely and I had to limit the amount of roasties I ate because they do tend to add to the size of my tummy and backside. It is a bit of a constant battle to not acquire weight as these days my life is mainly sedentary, more spreadsheets than exercise and I have to plan to take a brisk walk most lunchtimes if I have time. I love my family and all they do but they do tend to cause wrinkles and weight gain. I must try doing more exercise perhaps cycling once again.

I had almost forgotten what a bike looked like, I've ridden a few in my time and hope to ride one or two more. I wandered over to my workshop and surveyed the scene before me. I looked at the wheel truing jig, I hadn't finished the wheel that was on it. Must be months now. I will finish it, just don't know when, but then I can't see me riding for a while, too much to do. I can't resent my family wanting some time with me, they are the most important thing in my life. I am becoming tired of the university eating up so much of it though. I must spend 60 plus hours working. Okay, I take off the odd afternoon to pay a visit to Billie's reserve, that relieves the pressure a tiny bit but I'm still underpaid for the hours I work. My directorship of the bank, I could walk away from it tomorrow but Simon likes me to do it and so does Henry. I probably work too little for that, for the money they pay me, but Henry seems to think it's the going rate for that sort of job. I consider it on a par with my professorial chair but I know which one causes me more work.

Tom did my job for twenty odd years, I don't think I'll stick it that long. I've only done a couple of years, but my job is more responsible than Tom's was. I'm not saying he didn't work as hard as I have to because he always seemed to be working and still is. He's either eating, sleeping or working with very little in between. I suppose I'm similar with family chores or duties in between. Without Emily, I'd be lost, she was such a godsend and her mother really does like the cottage with David in next door. I told you they are just friends, they'll go to the cinema together but it's not a date, she'll go with him if he needs a female to accompany him and he'd do the same for her. It's absolutely stupid but David is legally a female again just as Danni, Trish and Sarah are legally male. The Stupid Court made an error they can't see and persecuting transgender people won't stop abuse of females by males because it doesn't understand the issues. When I retire I'm going to have a hobby of persecuting supreme court judges, see how they like it.

Tom and Danni were out in the garden picking the last of the fruit and veg and putting the garden to bed for the winter, even though I suspected the cabbage they'd grown would be available for picking for a few weeks yet. But what do I know, I'm only a professional ecologist?