Stormy

Yet another frustrating day, wasting a lot of time trying to fix things and getting nowhere fast. All of it outdoors and being blown about thanks to the tail end of Hurricane Maria, renamed Storm Xavier in Germany.

Northern and middle Germany was badly hit, seven people were killed and many of the main railway lines were blocked by falling trees. Berlin was very badly hit.

When I watched Sky News International in the evening it brought home to me just how bad their "News" service is. Naturally it is predominantly full of British news and that is indeed what I watch it for but their coverage especially of European news is spectacularly selective and totally inept. Mirrors perfectly the stance of the right wing Conservative bunch that have been moaning about the EU for the last 40 years.

So while they did indeed report about the Catalan referendum today, it was wholly on the basis of how it was aiding the break up of the EU, despite the Catalans wanting to stay in the EU. We were also treated to the US dog with the world's longest tongue but not a word about the storm in Germany even though it must have affected the travel plans of many UK citizens.

One of the more annoying tasks today was my cars rear number plate holder which in the last few days has been notably shaking each time one closes the boot. Took the plate off and found a fist size rusted hole in the bodywork. Always wondered me that when we took delivery of the brand new car back in 2002, there was a sealed plastic bag with four screws in the glovebox with a label inside saying "Screws for rear number plate". With the number plate off, can clearly see four prepared positions with rubber sealing meant for the four screws but untouched. The garage had simply taken two normal metal cutting screws and driven them in to the unprepared bodywork with no attempt to seal them. Extremely  shoddy workmanship I wouldn't have awaited from a garage from which I wouldn't have expected to do such a thing. I haven't used them for years except for a couple of free of charge factory recall issues, so no point in complaining. Have to say that in general the Jeep has been a rust bucket from the start, built at a time when Mercedes had taken over Chrysler/Jeep and was introducing cheap and poor quality materials in their production lines. The only thing that still works well is the Mercedes motor.

In the evening got a call from grandson Elliot in Ireland. We had a wonderful long conversation, just the two of us discussing the education system, the weather, the world political situation of the 20th century and lots more. Very impressed at a 9 year old's listening, reasoning and talking skills as well as his humour. I had to break off the call as Angie was at her fitness class and had promised to bring home a takeaway unfitness pizza from the sports centres restaurant. I needed to be ready with drinks and salads but before that put the horses to bed, feeding them and waiting for Rosie to do her standard open the legs and urinate a few gallons on the freshly prepared straw bed - we try to catch this downpour in a bucket and I succeeded tonight. While waiting played a bit of frisbee and ball chasing with Luna,  Eddie the Irish cat took refuge in Sultan's stall. Very trusting given he very nearly died when just a few weeks old when he got trampled by Rosie's hooves.