What to say??

Day 13 – Tuesday 20^th October

So here I am, touring around the other side of the world, whilst so many other things appear to be going down the gurgler.

We’ve just departed from Romania, which borders on Ukraine, and which we talked about with our guide Victor at some length. A couple of days ago it was reported that Presidents Putin, Xi and Trump would meet to decide the fate of that country; this century’s three worst dictators potentially meeting to decide the fate of a country which one of them invaded.

And in France, which we have got to know just a little, riots, lootings, destruction abound. I know that President Macron isn’t popular in his country – perhaps he’s not the perfect domestic politician - but at least he seems to try to be a bit of a foil against the three dictators.

To top that off, yesterday we heard of the horrific attack on Helen Haines. I’ve never met her, but I know well who she is, and more importantly what she stands for, and I have long respected her manner and ideals. To wake this morning and read details of the cowardly attack, and to learn that she has lost a leg (and potentially worse), moved me almost to tears.

There’ll be no happy tourist post today. We’ll visit things. I’ll take photos. Just no blog post beyond this. Just an idealistic, forlorn hope (request?) that people everywhere – including and especially our elected community leaders - turn down the rhetoric a bit, try to be a bit more decent.

And then we’ll see what tomorrow brings.