Reflections on the week

In 1910, 99 years ago, some daring individual had printed, probably at his own expense, a small volume of aphorisms. These small gems of wisdom were considered valuable enough to be bound in red kid leather, decorated with a garland of roses and embossed with gold. This slender, fey folio bore the legend, "Osacariana". Oscar Wilde was still in disgrace, dead ten years before, in exile, in Paris. It rests on my desk now.

Thinking about this week, and my earlier post about the plight of Scott Rennie, the Minister of Queen's Cross Parish Church in Aberdeen I was minded to share with you these few lines from "Oscariana".

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live: and unselfishness is letting other people's lives alone, not interfering with them."

We live in an era where, not only are others constantly asking us to do what they do, they go further and try to proscribe what we do, what we say and how we think.

On the subject of MPs' expenses, I see there is a contradiction between Parliament's frantic attempts to suppress the details of what our elected representatives claim, and their protestations of innocence. After all, if you have nothing to hide, why would you object to us delving into your publicly funded finances?

It is too early to say if Swine Flu will become a serious pandemic, but so far, up and down the country, the NHS is working overtime, on your behalf. Mainly this is to ensure that, if you are feeling a bit shit, after eating a Fajita, it is probably not Mexican Flu and you can go back to bed. (Unlike the on call medics and clinicians who have spent the last week being woken up at four in the morning to assure frontline staff that they have ticked the "cover your ass" boxes)

On a more personal note, C.J. Sebright is missing. CJ disappeared two days ago and we are naturally very worried. It was only a few months ago that we collected her from a rescue centre, where she had been handed in, after being found wandering about, having been seperated from her original owners. I hope she is alright.

Last Saturday we had a fine lunch at Petit Paris in Edinburgh with Charles Crawford, who writes a very closely written and excellent blog from the perspective of a former career diplomat and ambassador. Charles is among the most genial and satisfying people I have ever met to enjoy food with. It figures really, if you think about his career.

The grass is growing and it is too wet to cut. Tonight I shall listen to the final mix of my friend's album before we commit it to the various music media. I shall be writing more about this in a month or two when it is launched. My daughter has forgotten to Skype me from the Ardeche, where she is running outdoor adventure courses. I guess she is having a good time, but with kids, well, they never tell you anyway.

Have a nice weekend.

UPDATE:
CJ Sebright has returned. She declined to say where she has been for the past two days. As a precaution, we have sentenced her to three days in the sin bin, currently shared with Brigid and Eithne, in order to make sure she remembers where she lives.

nb The Sin bin is an enclosed run, with all mod cons, designated for broody chickens and originally constructed during the SARS scare. (remember that?)