Update

 
Today I went into VT, to take my old Nissan to the garage. The brake pedal was a little bit mushy and I wondered whether there might be some a bit more serious that needed to be fixed. Yes, the mechanic said that there were some really bad problems with the brakes and they could have led to catastrophic brake failure! We are going to be driving to Greece on Friday, so what could have happened is too awful to think about. 150 euros well spent, I reckon.

Any other news? My blog is still going. I wrote a view pieces about my Oxford days (I had some rather splendid black and white photos) and now I have started on Perrott Hill School down in Somerset, my first teaching job. It seems that there is now a Perrott Hill School in Prague! Amazing!

 
Starmer is gone. Hooray! And about time too. It looks as though this Andy Burnham character is going to be the next PM. I really do not like him. It is very strange that the Labour party swept into power less than two years ago, with a huge majority, and now they are deeply unpopular. It is also a bit weird that Trump announced Starmer’s resignation about 24 hours before it happened!

So now there is peace in the Middle East, except that there isn’t. There is no way that Hezbollah are going to stop firing rockets into Israel and there is no way that Israel are just going to sit back and do nothing. If Israel and Hezbollah are bashing each other, then Iran is going to want to join in. Then the whole thing is going to start all over again. The harsh reality is that the Israelis will do what they want to do, with or without the approval of the USA.

J.D. Vance is supposed to be in charge of the American delegation at the peace talks with Iran, so of course the whole thing will go nowhere fast. Has Iran stopped supplying money, weapons and training to Hezbollah? No, I do not think so. Are ships sailing freely through the Straits of Hormuz? Donald Trump seems to think that they are, but they aren’t. Have the Iranians handed over all of the enriched uranium and agreed to a schedule of inspections of their nuclear sites? No, they haven’t. Most experts and commentators seem to think that America has LOST this little war and Iran has humiliated the USA. Therefore, my guess is that the Americans will start bombing Iran sometime soon. Then petrol prices will go haywire once again.

Just outside Mamulichka's datcha in 2019
 
The situation in the Crimea seems to be really bad. The Ukrainians have been attacking all of the bridges leading into the Crimea, as well as destroying oil refineries and other oil-related infrastructure. This has caused serious fuel shortages in the Crimea and some reports say that there is NO petrol for ordinary citizens, only for the military and government vehicles. Well, how is food going to be delivered if there is no fuel for businesses? How can people get to work? Tourism was really important for the Crimea, but no one will go there if there is no petrol.


 


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