Saturday Blues

I woke up this morning feeling really out of sorts. I couldn’t shake it. I even made a list of all the things that were on my mind – hoping that this would make me realise that none of them were that bad. None of them are. I just feel that all together I am a bit out of sorts. Anyway, apart from giving them to God (which I did – symbolically I wrote my depressing list of the envelope my Church Times had come in yesterday and popped in my bible). There isn’t much that can be done to magically resolve them. There are practical things that I can do to move some of the things on but most just need time. When there is so much on your mind it is difficult not just to get perspective but also to shake off the feeling of foreboding. Like you have to watch your back. It isn’t logical but then these things never are.

I was the first person downstairs (this doesn’t happen very often…I tend to stay in bed until the last possible moment) and turned on the telly. The image of Saddam Hussein being led to the gallows and having the noose tied round his neck was incredibly disturbing. His barbarism is not in doubt but how does this additional barbaric act solve the anything?

Amnesty’s statement on the execution is significant. Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said:

“Every accused has a right to a fair trial, whatever the magnitude of the charge against them. This plain fact was routinely ignored through the decades of Saddam Hussain’s tyranny. His overthrow opened the opportunity to restore this basic right and, at the same time, to ensure, fairly, accountability for the crimes of the past. It is an opportunity missed, and made worse by the imposition of the death penalty.”

Anyway, I have spent the day cleaning and clearing after the Christmas paper tearing and cardboard stacking celebrations. An unbelievable stash of boxes and plastic bottles have also been amassed. I went to the dump and then onto the living hell known locally as Cribbs Causeway . Neither mission did anything to lift my spirits.

The last episode of Robin Hood is on soon…