There's a Moose Loose Aboot This Hoose!

How many people are now craving a wine gum?

A shot from a little after 1am today - I was watching the cricket at the computer and heard Mel telling Isla to settle down. Turns out the reason she was running about the bedroom was this little fella who she had finally managed to corner. It felt cruel catching it and putting it into a box to move into the garage, but it was a lot less cruel than leaving a cat to have its evil way and play with it for an hour. The tiny thing was terrified.

First mouse we've seen in 3 and a half years of living here, so either the old cats were useless at flushing them out, or the cold weather has seen them move indoors (we've seen them in the garden a few times). Ah well, a cat that's clearly destined to become a mouser and a birder should be a fair deterrent. Just as long as she lets me deal with them like this lucky chap.

Busy day running about doing a few things, so really no time at all for photos (just as well I got this one, I took a few of Isla today, but they never look as good on the big screen), and I'm trying not to overload on the cat shots.

On a tangent, was pondering today the dichotomy of the English, and by extension the British, psyche (this coming from an Englishman living in Scotland). It all came about while thinking about the fall-out from England not winning the right to host the 2018 World Cup, coverage of which has reached frankly daft proportions. Grapes have never been sourer, but it was interesting to think about claims that FIFA is corrupt and no-one really wants to watch football in Russia or Qatar (I'll admit, the Qatar 2022 decision smacks of money money money) - there's an underlying, and sometimes overwhelming, arrogance about the reaction. As if England had a divine right to host, and any other nation is inferior.

And yet the cold weather provides an interesting counterpoint. Read any newspaper comments section on a snow-story (something else that has received ridiculous media coverage); or speak to anyone long enough about it, and there will be one thought that is given a voice time and again. 'Other countries can cope with this, why can't we?' Suddenly we're inferior. Okay, so it's tinged with that same arrogance that because we're Britain we should be able to cope, but the argument only comes about because there's a perception that other countries are better than us (which in many cases actually isn't true and is based on nothing more than supposition or a twisting of differing situations - Canada for instance could cope with this, but that's primarily because they get weather worse than this every single year for a lot longer and therefore have to be set up to cope - same as Scandinavia with laws on winter tyres for cars having to be donned between October and April (can you imagine the outcry in this country if they tried to bring in a law like that, crikey the war on the motorist (*copyright the Daily Wail) would be proven oce and for all!)).

Anyway, so we have this strange split personality. In many respects we masquerade under an illusion of superiority, and in others create a false sense of inferiority. My conclusion? By eck we don't half like a good moan.

And for the record, that's distinct from liking a good rant. Completely different. My journal is not a microcosm of the British condition. Maybe.

Bollocks. I hate starting to write something with no idea where it's going and then finding out I've managed to throw a stone in a glasshouse...