Where's the earthquake then?

What a disappointment! So, yesterday 31 January 2020 I was waiting for the inevitable ‘aardbeving’ or in English ‘earthquake’ or even in Welsh ‘daeargryn’. I am still waiting. No flashes in the sky, in fact at 23.00 hrs it was pretty quiet in town. Nothing stirred. What am I talking about? I am talking about the UK having left the EU (European Union). Oh yes, we are cast adrift, the island that comprises three distinct groupings, England, Wales and Scotland will now float away at the mercy of the wild waves of the Atlantic Ocean. We are the new Atlantis. But will we sink under the ‘woelige baren’? The wild waves? No Siree, we will not! In fact, I believe this is the very beginning of the collapse of the idea to make a superstate like the US of A! It will not be long before other countries begin to look at how the situation now developing will ’pan’ out. France is on tenterhooks, it has plenty on social unrest, high unemployment, high prices for household commodities. It is a wonderful country France is, except for the French as they say. I am an avid watcher of a TV prog called ‘Escape to the Chateau’. In that a past British lieutenant-colonel Richard ‘Dick’ Strawbridge and family bought a derelict chateau somewhere in the Loire district. Sometime about five years ago and now busily decorating and repairing the whole edifice including moat. It turns out that quite a number of British couples are buying up these derelict castles. So, yes sorry Frenchies, we are buying up France and there will be a great place for you to move to, Scotland! Just joking. But as you will note reader friends, a bit of dare, money and a plucky attitude you can renovate anything if you like it enough. Why leave a history such as French history and leave these edifices to rot away? Yes, they are costly to main, ask ‘Dick’. In fact this argument will resound in almost every country on this planet. We should be proud of our collective history, learn from past mistakes. Anyway, we left the EU now, so Monsieur Dick will have a problem. To become a French national or a difficult Brit not really wanted. But you know, money talks and his and his family’s business operating out of the castle is already quite a money spinner benefitting local businesses. Yes, that is the old British shopkeepers attitude!

In the meantime, we will have a year, probably more, to negotiate the proper deal. We have left but we still do not know the details. Let’s get on with it and do a deal which will fit all sides.

I’ll drink to that! Yep, French cognac, that’s my baby!