Riots

Hi folks, the news here in Blighty this week has been all about the terrible riots that have caused masses of damage around the country. Here in Birmingham we were hard hit - my office is right in the city centre (fortunately on the second floor), but there was loads of damage close by, starting literally opposite where the shop had all its windows smashed. All pretty scary, and there's probably no definitive answer as to why they occurred, but certainly a large part of it seems to be wanton criminality and vandalism - not a great advert for our society.

I was in London on Tuesday, and there was a huge police presence as I walked back to Euston station - hundreds of police officers around, slightly unnerving.

However, all seems to be back to normal now which is good, but we're all left counting the cost - some people have lost loved ones, their homes, their livelihoods.

Apart from being glued to the 24hour news channels, we've had a fairly normal week - happily where we live is far enough from the trouble. While I was waiting for the latest George RR Martin novel to become free at the library, I read Mark Urban's Rifles - the excellent history of the 95th Rifles - a crack unit in Wellington's army during the Napoleonic Wars era. I've read quite a bit of naval histories of that time (Nelson's era as well), but anyone who's read the Sharpe novels or seen their dramatisations will know about the 95th -Sharpe is famously one of the green jackets. A fascinating and quite quick read - especially compared to the giant tomes of the Song of Ice and Fires series I am reading - the current volume is over 900 pages long.

Busy week at work, then yesterday morning Kate and I took a car load of our stuff to the local car boot sale to sell - we'd had a big clear out on Friday night. The morning was a success and we made over £140 - going towards the decking we're going to get done in the back garden.