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Good evening everyone. We are back from Tenby - safe and sound. Well, can I be honest? We came back a bit early. Nor because we didn't enjoy it - it was very nice, but we kind of felt that we had done it really and the weather forecast was atrocious. Nothing is more depressing than being stuck in a holiday apartment  - however salubriously furnished - in the rain. That can lead to too much strong drink being taken if you are not careful. 

We did have a nice few days when the sun shone and we had a wander around and I sat on the beach and read a cheery book about the Munich Air Disaster while HOH swam in the sea. (Actually, it's an excellent book - even though the author decided that he couldn't be bothered with speech marks. Challenging? Yes. Annoying? Definitely). Have you been to Tenby? It's very pretty. It has lovely beaches and many emporiums selling lovely sausage rolls. It has a museum at the top of a hill. I think it's a bit difficult to put a museum together when not much has happened really - which is nobody's fault. There were a lot of things that people had dug up. I always wonder how people can look at a bit of old flint and inform us that this was used to carve out a canoe. I'm sure they know what they are doing. There wasn't really that much else to see in there apart from a short black-and-white film of Victorian-looking people, wearing knitted swimsuits running in and out of the sea. Who came up with knitted swimsuits? I wouldn't have thought it would take that much to realise that you would be asking for trouble - what with the underhanging when the wool gets wet. Did this not come up at the planning stage?

So that is probably Summer sorted. That was, apparently, it. Still, Slow Horses is back and Only Murders in the Building and Bake Off is due. I do still watch that although I don't bother with Strictly anymore. I'm not sure how thrilled I am watching a programme where a "Trainer" has admitted to kicking and spitting on a woman he was training. It doesn't strike me as the healthiest atmosphere. Also - I genuinely don't know 50% of the people in it now. I am so past it. Past what you ask? Past everything. Pah!

I am, once again, writing this whilst watching a closing ceremony. This time it is the Paralympics. There seem to be a lot of Johnny Halliday tributes. Despite his huge popularity in France, for people of a certain age - i.e. me - he will always be associated with French A Levels and having to translate song lyrics from French to a standard that would satisfy our jaded French teachers. This was sold to us as a "fun" activity that we should be grateful for. (See also Truffaut's Jules et Jim and Albert Camus's L'Etranger). Anyway - it's raining in Paris - hard. A bit like Tenby. Jean-Michel Jarre is on now. I'm sure he is fine but I wouldn't exactly say that this is his heyday and a lot of 20-year-old athletes have no idea who he is I would have thought. I have just Googled him because HOH and I have just wondered if he used to be married to Charlotte Rampling (he did). He's also 76 so well done for turning up in this weather. I hope this rain doesn't go to his chest. 

I am, obviously, all for the Paralympics. There are certainly insanely glamorous and amazing performances. However, I would be a bit more impressed if Baroness Thompson wasn't having to crawl off her train because no one came to help her or if (in my own profession) every single penny that keeps a disabled bus or a mobility scooter accessible to all has to be fought for because such a small service is seen as fair game for an austerity cut. One of our ladies on the bus who is 90 is unlikely to whitewater canoe to Olympic glory anytime soon but should that affect her entitlement to a wheelchair-accessible trip to Par Market to get a nice bit of fish? I think not. Or maybe if people still didn't keep constructing buildings without asking people with disabilities if they were ok. Sometimes it's the little things. if the hooks behind the doors are at standing head height then it might as well be hammered into the side of the moon for all the use it is.

Speaking of buildings. This is the week that the Grenfell final report came through. It was no surprise to anyone that everyone involved had behaved like complete toerags and that resulted in 72 avoidable deaths. That's 72 people that were loved by friends and family. people who aren't coming back. HOH and I were reminded today of the fact that things like this can also have consequences that are unseen by the wider world but are just as devastating. As you probably know, many buildings still have dangerous cladding which has dragged on while the people responsible have taken shiftiness and finger-pointing at other people to new lows. In the meantime people in these flats have faced bills they shouldn't be paying and risks they shouldn't be taking. Today, someone we know, whose mental health has plummeted during this period had to be admitted to hospital after an incident with a knife which involved armed police being called out. He's a nice bloke. He's been pushed too far. It's not fair. 

You could get quite depressed if you didn't catch yourself. But you have to keep plugging away for the right things - starting with those closest to you. Eventually, it is supposed to come good. Which we need to believe I think - even when there is not much evidence sometimes. So I'm going to be doing my best this week (which often isn't good enough but still) and see if I can't make a positive difference. Maybe you could do the same? I expect you already are. You seem like good sorts. Have a good week.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time, we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith Galatians 6

Have a good week.