Not as funny as it used to be

We said goodbye to our cat today. The poor fella had developed a lymphoma and this had got progressively worse. When he had received the original diagnosis he had been given days to live by the vet but in the end he carried on for six weeks, surprising us all. He was called Lola not because we have an obsession with the Kinks but because kittens are apparently difficult to sex. He'd come to live with us as a little girl but, as he one day indulged in a clearly very lovely kitten dream, it became apparent that he was indeed a boy. By this stage he was Lola and Lola he remained. He stayed with us for 12 eventful years and became part of the family, building all his quirks into our lives just as any human family member does. From leaping out of the first floor window in the middle of the night to assaulting any feet left outside the duvet, our lives intermingled with his over time. As he got a bit older he chose to no longer take the window route to the outside world. Instead, h

Heading off to work this morning, I reflected on the fact that the world will end on Friday - not literally, obviously, or at least, not so as I know. What will happen is that the UK will leave the European Union, an organisation I have grown up with, studied in too much depth for sanity, learned to love as I came to understand its Genesis and gradual, tortured evolution and been so bored by that I have contemplated actions as extreme as actually doing some proper work while I was at university. The rights and wrongs of the momentous decision to leave the EU have been argued over for three years but, the visceral hatred of a certain neighbour of mine who blithely dragged us all into this rabbit hole of despair because he wanted to 'bring his party together' notwithstanding, it doesn't need to be argued over any more. The simple fact is that the UK is leaving the EU on Friday night.  My reflection was simply how I would mark this moment. "You stupid boy!" This