I try not to think about it too much at the moment, but here I am in a Premier Inn in Gillingham and somehow I’m back thinking about that fucking idiot in America. You all know who I mean.
Hard to avoid I guess. I’m trying to avoid it.
I was planning to be asleep by now. It’s half eight. I’m sitting in reception of a Premier Inn waiting for a Pizza Express delivery. I’m so hungry.
There’s a pub with a kitchen next to the Premier Inn. It’s called The Honourable Pilot. It is named after William Adams, born on my birthday in 1564. William Adams was the first Englishman to navigate to Japan. He was on the Liefde with the Dutch, opening trade routes, fucking up and dying. Unlike many of the people of Gillingham, he was interested in the wider world, and integrating. He was made a samurai eventually. He wasn’t fucking around, considering he was 36 when he hit Japan. The Liefde got stranded in Japan but opened the door to trade. Adams ended up as hatamoto, giving advice to the shogun. He wasn’t allowed to leave Japan for ages. When he finally was allowed, he chose to stay. He died at 55 in Nagasaki. But… he made a life out there. Enough of a life, it seems, that he is memorialised in his home town by a fucking atrocious attempt at a pub with food. I’ll have to have breakfast there. But I took one look at it and knew that nobody in their right mind would eat anything that came from that kitchen. It’s a very good example of the British tradition of “we don’t give a fuck but we serve food because we have to.”
My God. I’ve been digging into Will Adams, my fellow naval libran. He’s much more interesting than the shitebox pub alluding to him where I’ll have my breakfast.
I’m doing two workshops tomorrow. Never run one of these before. It’ll be fine though. This is outreach. For science. And I’m done being nervous about it. Back in the day I’d be freaking out about the newness because I wanted to give the best version of it possible and how could I guarantee that if I hadn’t done it before etc etc. We get in the way of ourselves all the time. And really, we could just stop doing it.
Well. I’ve managed to distract myself while writing, from thinking about that hideous idiot I started with.
How is this the world? Men like that are normally in care or prison or both. If they have a platform it is just for their own health so they don’t collapse into knowing how irrelevant they are. This absurd horrible man. It will be looked back on as the final burnout of the boomers. He should never have been able to make the calls he’s making, but … that’s his generation, what they’ve always had available. Change the constitution, you say? Make it possible for a president to have a third term so long as it isn’t consecutive you say? That’s the latest from how his lackeys are trying to destroy America. If that’s what they’re gonna do, I’m going for Trump vs Barack Obama 2028. I’d suggest Michelle but we all know that America is a dumb young nation. Voting for a woman is beyond too many of them still.
I’ll get the popcorn.
AlBarclay 