In Brief

One of my dreams went lucid last night. As soon as I realised I was dreaming the images became brighter and sharper. "Now I'm in charge," I said to myself, "I'll explore this castle." So I did.

I'm not getting down to the beach as often as in summer- which is hardly surprising- but I made it down there yesterday afternoon. The light was golden, the shadows were long, the waves were friendly.

A toilet seat in the ladies toilet at the Meeting House has come away from its moorings. I said I'd see if it could be fixed. There wasn't time on Sunday but there will be today....

In China...

...There are protests against the regime's Zero Covid policy. Western politicians (Justin Trudeau for instance) who did all they could to suppress their own Covid dissenters are praising the courage of these Chinese ones.

Meanwhile in Taiwan an election that was sold as a referendum on the country's relationship with China was won- in a landslide- by the party which wants closer ties- possibly even reunification- with the mainland. This was not the result the Taiwanese government and its western backers wanted or expected.

What we're seeing- through a fog of propaganda, lies and wishful thinking- are instances of people not wanting what their governments want them to want. Ideology doesn't seem to come into it. What we can't know is how deep the feeling goes and how much heft it has...