Another Miscellany of Monday Moans

Well, that's more like it!  You see, the Sri Lankans have the right idea as to how to deal with political leaders who have outstayed their welcome: occupy their residences, defy the authorities and drive them out of the country.  After bemoaning this country's failure to whip up a mob to kick Boris Johnson out of Downing Street, (and let's not forget that the fat fucker is still there), it gladdened my heart to see the apparently spontaneous popular uprising in Sri Lanka.  At some point, I'm going to get back to the schlocky pop culture stuff I usually do here, but there's just so much else going on right now.  Besides, as I've pointed out before, this has never been an exclusively pop culture blog - at the end of the day I'll write about whatever takes my fancy at the time.  Moreover, of late, I haven't really had as much quality schlock to consume as usual - the loss of several Roku streaming channels embroiled in rights and piracy issues hasn't helped, with the few new ones I've discovered tending regurgitate the same old public domain stuff over and over.  I can see that I'm going to have to resort to using a VPN and see if I can make my Roku box think I'm in the US so as to try and watch some of the lost streams at source.

On top of the apparently interminable fall of Boris Johnson, I've also had my attention distracted by all manner of niggling minor issue which, nonetheless, have been taking up time that would be otherwise dedicated to consuming yet more low brow pop culture.  Basically, may God save us all from well-meaning neighbours and well-meaning health officials.  I've mentioned the state of my back garden before - although I've severely cut back most of the jungle growing there, the out of control mutant rose bushes/brambles are going to be a persistent problem.  They grow back very quickly, putting out runners that take root wherever they can - even cracks in concrete - and starting to grow new bushes.  Being woody stemmed, they are impervious to most weedkillers.  Having, however, found a weedkiller that claims to be effective against woody stemmed weeds, I thought that I'd test it on some easily observable woody stemmed weeds growing at the front of the house.  The results were encouraging as I monitored these plants daily, with the leaves and stems wilting from the tops down, as the weedkiller penetrates them.  Then, suddenly, they were gone, cut down by the aforementioned well-meaning neighbours.  Of course, I have no idea now whether enough weedkiller had penetrated them in order to kill the root systems, so I have no idea how long the stuff will take to deal with the brambles.  I'm clearly going to have to treat the stumps of the weeds at the front to be sure of killing them at the root, otherwise they'll be back next year.

Aside from having to deal with disruption to my weed killing experiments, (I really wish that people would leave my stuff, even weeds, alone), I've also been forced to go through the hoops, again, to cancel an unwanted medical appointment.  The problem is that they keep making this diabetes related appointment on my behalf, without consultation, at the same venue that is simply impractical for me to reach.  I've told them time after time that I can't attend it there so, unless they can provide a closer alternative, it is pointless to keep booking appointments there.  Unless my house uproots itself and moves physically closer to the venue, the situation is not going to change.  Yet we keep going through this charade.  It wouldn't be so bad except that, in order to cancel it each time, the only option given is to phone them and be kept on hold for an indeterminate amount of time.  It is very tiresome.  I know they mean well, but I wish that they'd just listen.