Loyal

An elderly Cameroonian man asked Fabi to call him "grandpa" and Fabi said, "you're not my grandpa"- which is gratifyingly loyal of him. But I think we need to explain to him that it's entirely natural for a person to have two grandpas. After all, one can't have too many benevolent elderly gentlemen in one's life.

Perhaps if he called the other chap "grand-dad" or "gramps"... 

Strandloper: Alan Garner

You need to read it once for the story (which is partly true) and then pick it over- like it was a sacred or magical text-  for the intricacy of the patterning, for the secrets. There's not a phrase that doesn't resonate and set up echoes- backwards, forwards, all-which-a-ways. It's a novel, but it's not just a novel- it's a thundal, a swaddledidaff.

"A black stone; flecked with red; part bubbled as a brain, part rough as frost; and all stuck about with clear crystals that winked in the light."

Political Parties

The existing political parties (in Britain anyway) are a hangover from an earlier stage of democracy. No-one likes or respects or wants to belong to them anymore. 

We don't like to give them our money, so they have to source funds in questionable ways.

What if all those questionable ways of raising funds were legislated out of existence? Elections would be quieter for a start; would that be so bad?

Some people think political parties should be funded out of taxes? Really? I can see that causing huge resentment. 

What if the existing parties went bust? Would we miss them? Would new ones take their place?

Is democracy conceivable without political parties?