We're all still endlessly on about Brexit, as though it's a binary thing. We did vote in/out, but now, more than a year later, we're negotiating a relationship with the EU. Just that. It's a process that's been going on since Margaret Thatcher - in fact, since the original Treaty of Rome. Perhaps more accurately since Charles de Gaulle, who said "Non!" long before Mrs T got to the word. Or we could go back to William the Conqueror; maybe even to those people who built stone circles in Brittany and Avebury. Wasn't there a Field of the Cloth of Gold in there somewhere, and didn't somebody have 'Calais' engraved (tattooed?) on her heart?
Meanwhile, the sun's out, and a cruise ship came in, and the sea is just at that point off flat calm where it glitters in the early light. There's a big yacht anchored out in the Carrick Roads that's been there for days. Onshore, no wind in the trees, and maybe I'm imagining that the birdsong is just slightly muted. Today's cruise ship is the Aegean Odyssey, flag state Malta (thanks Wikipedia). And all of a sudden I'm thinking about a remembered illustration in a (probably old even then) children's book from the post-colonial days when even I was young: the tall ship anchors in the bay and the locals paddle out in dugout canoes to offer their valuables. Today, we'll wait for the passengers to come into town before selling them small ornaments with 'Falmouth' printed on the side, plus Breton caps and sunscreen, plus tee-shirts declaring that life is a beach.
In the USA, the talk is of cities, states and companies defying President Trump to stick to their greenhouse-gas emissions targets under the Paris climate-change accords. In the UK, the week's political news was that a parliamentarian had compared Leave to Appeasement - a distasteful analogy that doesn't work even if you turn it the other way round. Oh, and the ever-reliable Michel Barnier was quoted again, talking down the UK's chances in the Brexit negotiations. We do like to quote ourselves in the foot, don't we? But back here in the real world, we've got a cruise ship with "an average 350 passengers" on board (thanks, Google). Standard practice here, when there's a European cruise ship in for a day or more, is for the signs on the round-town, circular-route, to-the-shops, to-and-from-the-cruise-ship, did-I-mention-to-the-shops buses all to be in German for the duration. Never mind "dreckly"; Arwenack Street speaks your language.
The Aegean Odyssey is run by a "one-ship cruise company" called Voyages to Antiquity (thanks again, Google). Mostly, it sticks to the Mediterranean, although you can take it as far as the Caribbean. Today, it's on a trip round England, Ireland and Scotland, and we've got it until 10pm tonight. As the shops open and the buses start running, I doubt that anybody here is worrying about Brexit.
Meanwhile, the sun's out, and a cruise ship came in, and the sea is just at that point off flat calm where it glitters in the early light. There's a big yacht anchored out in the Carrick Roads that's been there for days. Onshore, no wind in the trees, and maybe I'm imagining that the birdsong is just slightly muted. Today's cruise ship is the Aegean Odyssey, flag state Malta (thanks Wikipedia). And all of a sudden I'm thinking about a remembered illustration in a (probably old even then) children's book from the post-colonial days when even I was young: the tall ship anchors in the bay and the locals paddle out in dugout canoes to offer their valuables. Today, we'll wait for the passengers to come into town before selling them small ornaments with 'Falmouth' printed on the side, plus Breton caps and sunscreen, plus tee-shirts declaring that life is a beach.
In the USA, the talk is of cities, states and companies defying President Trump to stick to their greenhouse-gas emissions targets under the Paris climate-change accords. In the UK, the week's political news was that a parliamentarian had compared Leave to Appeasement - a distasteful analogy that doesn't work even if you turn it the other way round. Oh, and the ever-reliable Michel Barnier was quoted again, talking down the UK's chances in the Brexit negotiations. We do like to quote ourselves in the foot, don't we? But back here in the real world, we've got a cruise ship with "an average 350 passengers" on board (thanks, Google). Standard practice here, when there's a European cruise ship in for a day or more, is for the signs on the round-town, circular-route, to-the-shops, to-and-from-the-cruise-ship, did-I-mention-to-the-shops buses all to be in German for the duration. Never mind "dreckly"; Arwenack Street speaks your language.
The Aegean Odyssey is run by a "one-ship cruise company" called Voyages to Antiquity (thanks again, Google). Mostly, it sticks to the Mediterranean, although you can take it as far as the Caribbean. Today, it's on a trip round England, Ireland and Scotland, and we've got it until 10pm tonight. As the shops open and the buses start running, I doubt that anybody here is worrying about Brexit.
Actually, this was yesterday, foggy start. But you get the idea.