Planes, Trains and Automobiles...

 

Well Wimbledon is definitely underway how do I know?  The sun disappeared at the beginning of the week and the rain returned!  It seems to be the norm when Wimbledon hosts the world’s premier lawn tennis event.  Sadly, I’ve not had a moment spare to see any of the matches, or enjoy a nice bowl of strawberries and cream as it has been flat out in the office this week.  I did however catch the news item of the pensioner protesting about Just Stop Oil, he used a jigsaw purchased at Wimbledon mixed with orange strips to litter the court causing disruption.  He probably had little impact in respect of stopping oil, but his antics certainly caused event organisers to withdraw the sale of jigsaws! 

Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes on Wednesday, really appreciated.  The day was spent at the Imperial War Museum doing a bit of filming at the same time as enjoying the amazing array of aircraft the museum has.  If you’ve not been, I can highly recommend a visit.

A victory for the little man this week as the High Court instructs the Cabinet Office to avail Baroness Hallett’s COVID Inquiry with unredacted copies of BoJo’s WhatsApp messages.  Whilst I am not one for witch hunts as they are often fuelled by the misguided, I do believe that the Inquiry has the right to fully understand the actions taken by Government during the Pandemic, it is especially important to those who lost a loved one.  Naturally, we appreciate that the Inquiry will not bring any of those who died back, it should however yield clear recommendations of how we should act next time. Always assuming of course that we break with the norm and learn from our mistakes.  Suffice to say this Inquiry will rumble on and cost us a tidy sum, the real value of this investment will be the actions taken once the Inquiry publishes its findings.

Unsurprisingly Aleksander Lukashenko, President of Belarus, has created a bit of confusion this week.  As the man purported to have masterminded the agreement for the rebellious Russian Wagner group to cease their attack on Moscow and take up residence in Belarus, he told Journalists yesterday that none of the men have yet arrived to take up his kind offer of hospitality.  I did say that there was something decidedly not right about this when the so-called attempted coup happened, what was refreshing however, was Lukashenko’s statement that there were no winners to come out of this incident.  I think this will be true of the entire conflict between Slavic Nations.  I still want to see negotiations for a peaceful and long-lasting settlement.  I live in hope…

Lovers of Movies and Formula 1 may be pleased to know that Brad Pitt has been captured at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix filming scenes for a new film called Apex all about F1.  Interestingly, Lewis Hamilton is clearly thinking long term future, as he is helping to produce the movie.  What’s unclear at the moment is whether or not Lewis will be debuting as an actor in the movie.  Fans will have to wait and see.

Yesterday I hopped on a train to London to do a spot of filming.  I rarely travel by train, and whilst I was pleasantly surprised by the new trains operating on the line between Norwich and London, my jubilation soon gave way to the inevitable disappointment of late running, poor communication, and overcrowded carriages.  If I remember rightly rail travel was a gift Britain gave to the world and yet we seem to have lost our way…  Whilst we appreciate that the train operators are working with old and in some cases outdated infrastructure, communication is not something that requires a huge amount of effort, nor is pleasantries with customers are they try to navigate their way around the delays and crowds of frustrated travellers.  Making our rail network what it once was, at the same time as making it truly affordable would surely be one enormous step in our efforts to reduce carbon emissions?  Politicians take heed and let’s start making public transport great again!  How many of you remember when parcels travelled by train to local stations to then connect with National Carriers for local delivery?  I do, surely this would be another way of reducing trunking by truck, trains running through the night to take the bulk of our parcels etc.  Wouldn’t work of course because lots of branch lines no longer exist.  Never say never!

Threads App. Because we love keeping our finger on the pulse here at Jezza HQ, the Team have signed me up for Threads, which is the new app from Mark Zukerberg’s Meta.  Sparks are already flying between him and Elon Musk (no surprises there!), but we don’t care!  We’re going to give Threads a whirl along with all the other social platforms we’re on so that no matter what your preference is, you can find us.

The finishing touches to July’s BOARDING NOW Podcast are underway, so the musical theme in the office this week has been your dedications and requests as we start to make our way through the lists and getting them into the show.  Don’t forget if you’d like to dedicate a song to a loved one or indulge for yourself be sure to drop us a line to let us know.  My favourite from this week’s requests was ‘Feeling Good’ by Nina Simone, which will be in August’s show, it certainly made me feel good as the rain was surpassed by the solar rays!

Have your say! I’d love to hear what you’d like to see in the blog each week? After all this is all about interaction, so knowing what you think, what you’d like to see me writing about and your views of the world in general would be great!  So, if you have something you want to get off your chest or have a fab idea or two drop us a line and we will try our best to include items that spark debate.

Ideas and feedback can be submitted by using the handy form on my website, be sure to select Blog & Podcast Feedback!  I look forward to hearing from you…