My Hull to Rotterdam cabin was booked back in October between coming back from Spain and the South Africa trip, using the catalyst of the booking of some of my family to come to a Belgium Centerparcs in May. I decided to tag along for the outward journey at least and the trip also crystallised the decision to avoid looking for work in the Winter to Spring period.
So experiencing the long dark days without such commitment saw me spend much time unofficially studying some politics, philosophy, economics and history via Youtube, Substack and other writing. The main module spans the beginnings of the take-down of democracy by the burgeoning uber-rich technocrats/’sovereign individuals’ in the 80s/90s through to the ‘project 2025’ enabling of the Trump/oligarchy fascist autocracy. The ongoing other horrific wars somehow instigated by only very few men, have also provided plenty of material.
I am learning from the likes of historians and experts such as Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox-Richardson, and Fiona Hill of the UK, the latter having actually worked as a National Security Advisor in the States and sat in the room for one of the meetings between Trump and Putin in his first term. It’s unbelievable that these academics and most others who are not Maga (overt or implicit) would be described as radical left by the current leadership of the US. I also seek hope for truth and fact in podcasts such as Bulwark, the Meidas Touch, and british offerings including more in depth BBC/C4 investigative journalism, The Rest is Politics, The News Agents, LBC programming.
Incongruously – difficult for it to really be otherwise – at the micro level I carried on as usual, deciding to research solar panels and battery systems, and plan travel.
It’s been a real luxury to be able to prepare the van and house for this escape in a non-time-pressured way as all my time is free, while enjoying the warm sunny weather of the UK this May. The escape is about crossing the North Sea and enjoying new places. A flat sea crossing was provided again and the sun contined shining at my first stop – a camper park just outside Maastricht in the Netherlands for 2 days.
This was almost 2 weeks ago now, but the platform this blog uses, WordPress, continues to have glitches with regard to editing which I can’t fully suss out. The hosting company have failed to replicate the problem, despite me telling them, and I got past the bot in the chat, the sequence of activity that gives rise to it! I’ve actually got a backlog prepared and getting this far with content including the tortuous photo editing/curating/uploading – as well as the actual coming to pass of the trip planned 6 months ago is an achievement.
The Publish button has been pressed, – apologies in advance for the inclusion of obscure unexplained cultural references which for example the thousands🤣of my viral younger generation readers will struggle to understand – and thunderbirds are go.