FLYING THE FLAG

 

A man or woman going about their daily work. Working to earn money to put food on the table, have a purpose and generally contribute to society. A fine thing. Obeying the rule of law, looking to be left alone to carry out their tasks.

Men (generally men) spending time hoisting union flags made in China on lampposts owned by the local authority. Breaking the law. Prioritising their thoughts over and above all else. The men (yes, it’s usually men) of Raise The Colours. An organisation (sort of) dedicated, it seems to the importation of plastic flags and the harassment of the employed.

If you disapprove of this flag fluttering overhead outside your house you are labelled a traitor. If you try to take down this flag you are threatened both with quotes about the law that are not actually the law and with physical harm. All done with mobile phone recording for dubious posterity.

The local authority sends a couple of staff to remove the flag, costing the taxpayer money, and these ordinary people doing what they need to do to fulfil their job role are harassed and harangued. The police who arrive on the scene carrying out their duty receive the same treatment.

It is almost as if the men (it’s mostly men) of Raise The Colours have nothing better to do with their time. Shouldn’t they be at work?

The Union flag is our flag, and when I say “our” I am referring to everyone who lives in the United Kingdom. When the Lionesses won the world cup, people got their flags out. When Mo Farah won gold medals at the Olympics people got their flags out. The Who and the Jam celebrated the Union Flag, so did Stormzy and Ginger Spice. 

A flag is a symbol; we all understand that right? But the use of symbols is all about intent. A symbol can be celebratory, but it can also be frightening. A symbol can be unifying, but it can also be divisive. A symbol can be welcoming, but it can also be threatening.

Here in London, one doesn’t see many, if any, Union flags fluttering atop lampposts. Maybe because Londoners are too busy getting on with things, maybe because intimidation and bullying won’t wash or maybe because London has been through the Blitz, 7/7, riots, terrorist attacks and American Tourism so perhaps a couple of blokes attempting to climb a ladder with cheap flags is the least of our worries.

Or maybe it's that rage is not as misdirected in communities in a metropolis as it is on the outskirts where other reasons for self loathing are easier to fixate on?

WHOSE LAUGHING NOW?

 

"Whether you do stand-up comedy or write a story, you have a duty to deliver. As a comedian, you walk out on stage, and you have a minute to hook them, or they'll start booing." Mark Billingham 

BBC New Comedy Awards is a competition come showcase for new British comedians that features five stand ups performing for the delictation of a non paying audience and three fellow comedian judges, I say "fellow comedians" but they invariably prove to be as funny as a thing that isn't funny at all, like sciatica.

Being a regular and avid atendee at the wonderful Edinburgh festival I have seen an awful lot of stand up over the years (very little of it being awful) and I can honestly say, or rather I can honestly ask "Where do they get this lot from?"

I understand that of all the arts comedy is the most subjective. Some find humour in a cusratd pie in the face, others in a sketch about philosophers playing football; different strokes. But there is a universal truth that some people just don't have funny bones. For some people stand up comedy is not for them, despite what their mates from work say. These people need to take heed that when Tracy from HR and Gavin from marketing crack up at their humourous anecdotes and tell them "OMG, you are hilarious, you should try stand up mate" my advice is, don't listen to them, pause to reflect.

Trying your hand at an open mikes is the best way to see if youve got it, audiences at these events will soon let you know. writing and writing and writing, performing, performing and performing is the best way to hone an act. You know, hard work. even then its a long way to the O2 Arena.

Which brings me back to the BBC New Comedy awards. How did some of these brave/foolhardy contestants get a slot on national television? The only logical explanation is producers.

The modern day Television producer has a degree in media studies and like their burgers smashed they grew up on reruns of Red Dwarf and Father Ted and think that Michael Macintyre is "actually dissentient". These are the arbiters of comedic taste with a healthy slice of  box ticking thrown in for good measure.

Yes we no longer have Bernard Manning on the big screen, which is a good thing but some of his contemporaries were funny, for example a regular face on TV  Frank Carson had funny bones, regardless of changing tastes he was funny. Not everyne is or can be

Now, before you start to think I'm off on one again, there are some funny acts that I have seen from stand ups with genuine talent but, by and large there seems to be an identikit to being one of the other ones, the ones that are there to make up the numbers. The standard operating procedure appears to be-

1. This is something that I am

2. These jokes are all about that something

3. That's it

An abrupt end to this post, but I wanted t give you a flavour of what it's like  watching one of these acts when you are left with the feeling "is that it?

THE NAME'S FRANKENSTEIN, BARON FRANKENSTEIN

 

"Monster, you Plonker"

Gothic here gothic there gothic everywhere. There has been a rise in mainstream gothic horror. Recent and upcoming movies such as Nosferatu, Werwulf, Dracula, The Bride!, Wolf Man and the just released Frankstein all dig this rich seam. Some find gothic horror over the top or overly demonstrative (Emphasis on the demon) I find that it allows for interesting costume and set design, inovative character concepts and lashings of heaving bussoms, lust, tragedy and blood.

I have always found Victor Frankenstein and his monsterous creation fascinating and it is one of the stories strengths and longevity that the question it poses is "which one is the monster?"

Victor is clearly a narcissist with a god complex, while the monster is pretty much angry most of the time; let's be honest, wouldn't you be? They have a fraught father and son relationship and they both need each other. Victor knows that without the monster he is a one man band. A Laurel without a Hardy, a Ray Allen without a Lord Charles, a Del Boy without a Rodders.

The portayals of the monster have been similar, by and large he's presented as an abomination with a face only a mother could love, but surely Frankenstein would have wanted to create a perfect specimen and in that case wouldn't he have been on the lookout for heads with faces that have good bone structure or cheek bones to die for? Wanting to improve on God wouldn't he have made the monster akin to David Gandy? wouldn't he want his creation to be more like Superman than a shambling oaf?

These questions are answered in Guilermo Del Toro's adaptation of The Modern Prometheus as his monster is a cross between Wolverine and a very tall Brad Pitt.

Were he to exist today, Victor Frankenstein would have been on social media as he would probably have had a weekly podcast about makeovers. He would be the celebrity scientist on BBC, he would have written some books about self improvement and he would most likely have had a serial killer character based on him.

Victor and his monster are the ultimate odd couple and I await further takes on these two amazing literrary characters conjured up from the mind of  the 20 year old Mary Wollstonencraft Shelley 

SCANNERS

If our fingers were athletes they would win Olympic gold medals. The reason being that they have so much daily excercise scrolling that they would be a cross between Daley Thompson, Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt. The average person in the UK has a smart phone and the average person in the UK spends an extraordinary amount of time looking at it. An inordinate amount of time scrolling for soundbites and visual stimuli. An overwhelming amount of time sending out meaningless words into the ether.

That's not the worst of it though. Living in the moment is a defunct concept. If the phone isn't out held aloft recording the moment then the moment didn't happen. What if a tree fell in the forest and no one was there to film it on their Samsung Galaxy?

There was an eighties TV film called Max Headroom:20 Minutes Into the Future (which spawned the eponimous AI presenter) set in a corporate owned dystopia and one of the marketing tools that was used to sell to the masses was called a 'Blipvert' a new high-speed, concentrated, high-intensity television commercials lasting about three seconds. Their purpose was to prevent the channel-switching that may occur during standard-length commercials, but they had the side-effect of making some viewers explode like those unfortunates in Scanners

We now live in the world of the Blipvert on the much smaller screen via Tik Tok, Snapchat, Reels and other short form video platforms, except people don't run the risk of exploding but the risk imploding mentally.

It seems we are too busy absorbing information to actually diferentiate what is meaningful and process that information for our benefit.

To say that all mobile phone use is negative would be churlish. Good technology should be embraced and utilised in the service of mankind not to promote somene that can put 11 golf balls in their mouth, light their farts, jump over an icy puddle without falling in, or have Bolton's larget collagen lips.

Having just been on holiday in sunnier climes I reintroduced myself to the pleasures of putting my phone away. I read some books, closed my eyes, watched some cats playing, listened to the sound of the sea and people watched. If that sounds boring you aren't doing mobile phone detox right.

To scroll or not to scroll? that is the question. I would like to put things simply. Think to yourself "what do I need to see?" "what do I want to see" and "what don't I need to see?" I think you will find that the answer is staring you in the face.

CELEBRITY GUESS WHO?

 

"I think celebrity is the biggest red herring society has ever pulled on itself"

-Jude Law

What constitues a celebrity these days? I asked myself this existential question when casting my eyes upon the line up of one of the never ending celebrity reality TV shows that seem to forever be on rotation on terrestrial channels. I understand that its a question of supply and demand and that, due to that demand there is a need for 'filler', which means that TV producers inevitably cast their collective reel into the world of the content creator and influencer.

I always thought of a content creator to be a writer who fills a book with words and an influencer as a hypnotist, but that was then and this is now. 

Being good at something, that most other people couldn’t do was the minimum requirement for celebrity status. Being interesting, funny, erudite and desirable were just some of the intangibles that created an appetite, that along with salacious gossip.

We've seen takes on the world of celebrity from Fellini's La Dolce Vita and Andy Warhol's famous quote. We've seen Dennis Pennis and Ali G pricking the balloon of celebrity pomposity but still they endure as figures whose role, it seems, is to provide opium for the masses

Now it seems that simply being seen or heard by others is enough to have have an agent, a brand and a following that equates to income.

One must, of course, move with the times but I suspect we are about to reach saturation point of celebrity culture; if you can call it culture.

Will the public gorge themselves like Mr Creosote, to bursting point on celebrity or will an "enough is enough"  sensibility prevail. I doubt there will ever be a time when the fascination wanes, I don't think we are near a tipping point when peole start to realse that all that glitters is not, in fact gold; far from it, if anything its generally plastic.

A GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA?

"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them" -Andy Bernard

Quentin Tarantino certainly made his mark on cinema when he made his debut in the 1990s with Reservoir Dogs (a remake of City on Fire). Since then, he's made movies heavily influenced by the likes of Lady Snowblood, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! The Dirty Dozen and The Thing. He has recently gone on record as saying "The current era of filmmaking, along with the 1950s and 1980s, is one of the worst in Hollywood history"

I would say that I don't agree with QT. This year has been a pretty good year for films released in the UK, going by those that I have seen. We’ve seen new offerings from some great directors operating in the mainstream. In fact, this could be a golden age of directors, on par with the 1970s

Paul Thomas Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ryan Coogler, Danny Boyle, Spike Lee, Alex Garland, David Cronenberg, Steven Soderbergh (x2), Mike Leigh, Benny Safdie, Bong Joon-ho and Robert Eggers have all produced interesting, compelling and thoughtful movies 

With more to come from the mercurial Lynne Ramsay, the talented Park Chan-wook and the singular Guillermo del Toro the rest of 2025 looks like having rich pickings.

Foremost in the 2025 cinematic output are three films: One Battle After Another, A House of Dynamite and Bugonia. Each film different from the other, each film with compelling female performances and each film with the signature of their director firmly imprinting.

Many of this years movies have featured inventive stories and a resurgence of a non formulaic approach. That established directors are being given a bit more artistic freedom is also encouraging and maybe the streaming platforms (that, should be the enemy) that are broadcasting their films soon after release are inadvertanty allowing that freedom from the law of the box office.

What we are seeing, I think, is an increasing interest in experiencing movies in their natural habitat, a growth in quality directors showing individuality to counter the blockbuster superhero trend. There is also a rise in independent films getting exposure and the popularity of foreign language films (and TV). As cynical as I am about a great deal of popular culture I do believe that this year has, so far, been a positive year for cinema and,the year ahead looks promising. Who knows, one day we may look back on this time as "the good old days"

TILTING AT HOTELS

"The fault lies not with the mob, who demands nonsense, but with those who do not know how to produce anything eles"- Miguel, de Cervantes Saavedra

So, whats new? actually I dislike sentences that start with "so", hence why I just did that. Having said that, I also dislike the word "hence" at the start of a sentence. Yes, It's pedantic, but being a pedant is the least if it when one pauses to consider the avalanche of inaccurate, agenda driven, troublesome and down right idiotic content we are subjected to on a regualr basis (yes, you guessed it, I dont like the term "content, but I used that joke twice earlier).

It was Dan Ahshcroft of Sugar Ape infamy that coined the term "rise of the idiots" two decades ago when he was refering to the narcisitically  ironic Hipster Hoxton scene that has become mainstream since then. Now we have the new order, the idiots have beome the illiterati©

Don't worry though, it's not an exclusive club, they'll allow anybody to join, particualrly those that lack a grasp of fact, context and, let's be honest, common sense. If it's in writing or spoken on social media then it must be true; this could be the club motto, not sure what that is in latin though.

Everyone seems to be at it, we truly are living in the age of misinformation and as is well known, knowledge is power, except, is that actually the case anymore?

The richest man in the world comes out with some baffling observations that seem to be based on an opium induced long dream laden sleep. The so called leader of the free world's utterings are increasingly no more than gibberish, which his devoted followers lap up as the astute observations of a genius. But it's not only on the other side of the atlantic where ignorance equates with bliss. We've got our own band of boneheads. Flags, Small boats and shaven heads are their passions as is shouting at hotels. If Cervantes wore a stone island jumper, Reebok Classics and quaffed Stella Artois then Don Quixote would have tilted at hotels on the coast. instead of windmills.

There is a growing list of people that appear to be clones created from Nigel Farrage's DNA merged with a test tube of righteous indignation; Yaxley-Lennon, Middleton, Hopkins, Fox, Connolly et al. are increasingly being heard, and more alarmingly, taken seriously.

The growth in mysogny and racism, and many other 'isms' is fed by algorithms, self interest and a delusion that everyone else is to blame for one's own troubles.

Let not this missive, gentle reader, leave you thinking that all is lost, because it isn't.

When asked if I hold any beliefs I often say that I am a Humanist because, broadly speaking, I believe that while humans have the tendency for truly shocking things, we also have the capacity for great things, meaningful and wonderful things. All of us. So hold on to that thought when you scroll, read a paper, hear the news and open your eyes each morning.

(yes, I started that final sentence with "so". Nobody's perfect you know)

COUNTER CULTURE

An observation from being out and about today. It seems that living a counter-intuitive life is becoming the norm. Hearing people choosing conflict rather than resolution as they talk loudly into their mobile phones, held away from their faces instead of next to their ear as intended.

Choosing an “every man/woman for themselves” approach at bus-stops rather than queueing politely.

Choosing to ride bikes/scooters on the pavement instead of the road thus causing pedestrians to dice with disaster.

Discarding litter carelessly rather than depositing it into the litter bins that are dotted around.

Listening to music on handheld devices without the use of headphones, not really caring if others don’t want to listen to your latest favourite high pitched squawkings.

Nonchalantly asking “got any spare change?” rather than doing or saying anything that would warrant complete strangers giving you their money.

By choosing to be inward looking and not engage with ones fellow city dwellers or even care about the impact of ones actions does nothing to add any quality to our lives. Choosing to be a selfish oaf brings no joy to the world.

Yes it’s a choice. Being a civilised member of society is a choice, but does it require a moral compass or just a bit of good old-fashioned manners. If it’s the latter, who is prepared to instil them?

BIG MOUTH STRIKES AGAIN AND AGAIN

"To beef or not to beef?" that is not really the question, because it only has one answer: "To beef!". There was a time when people kept their troubles to themselves, retained a bit of dignity and quietly tried to find resolution. There used to be a modus operandi when dealing with the council, the local authority, the Builder, Baker and Candlestick Maker. There was an ethos of keeping one's relationship problems within your friendship group.

Not anymore. Now it's the world of the loudspeaker, the face time and the foghorn. One has only to walk down the high street, sit on a bus or train and the agitated oral bombardment assaults the senses.

Intimate and private conversations are now a form of public speaking shouting, the thoroughfare is the new Speaker's corner, the passenger seat the new amphitheatre. So much drama, too much drama. People seem to thrive on drama; hysteria and outrage are the new gods.

How has it come to this? Social media is generally a convenient bad guy, as is technology. It's now easier to communicate, any time any place and those new found paths of  communication could, and should have been a new way to spread positivity. But, that's not the way of things. A new way to spread negativity was the choice. A new way to tell the world how dramatic and interesting your life is. A new way to show everyone else that you live the life of a reality 'star'. A new way to spread the word that you are a headline maker in your area, a character, a "what you see is what you get" merchant. An opportunity to establish that others have to "take me as you find me" , a means with which to confirm to all and sundry that you "don't suffer fools gladly"

And all at such handsfree, bluetooth, Facetime VOLUME!

Loudness prevails. We live in the age of the big mouth

LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE

 

Saturday afternoon turned into Saturday night and a relatively quiet drink with friends watching the Arsenal put five goals past Burnley turned into an anthropologist's voyage of discovery. Unaccustomed as I am to going to bustling pubs and bars on a Saturday night I was most startled to walk into two hostelries that resembled one of those  painting by Hieronyous Bosch.

When was life so loud? I'm not talking about music but the sheer volume which emanated from each location, what I can only call shouting.That's right, not reasonable levelled discourse but shouting. I'm sure that the conversations being had were both interesting and illuminating but why those thoughts and opinions were being bellowed at a volume approaching the sound of a helicopter taking off is beyond me.

Let's talk about etiquette. For me, anyone who is taking up a  seat without having a drink in front of them should be summarily ejected from the establishment. So many seats occupied by those not drinking and so little care given about it from the staff team whose aptitude for bar work seemed questionable.

Spacial awareness also seems to have gone out the window. Bumping into people and knocking pint holding hands resulting in splashes and drips is not acknowledged or apologised for. How things have changed.

But, what did I learn on Saturday night? That I'm too old for this Saturday night lark? That I find the general public, by and large, very annoying? or that if I do find myself in a similar position in future i need to be better prepared? 

I'm not sure, but in the future, before heading out in London on a Saturday night I shall remember the immortal words of Sergeant Phil Esterhaus; "Let's be careful out there"

What A Carry On Abroad

What A Carry On Abroad

It's cold here, which got me thinking about this time last year when I was able to take a well earned break in the sunshine. However, I am also reminded of what an unappealing time was had by all at the hotel chosen to stay at. So I found the review/letter that I sent to the hotel by way of pointing our what went wrong. Suffice it to say, the response was six of nothing and half a dozen of zero!

As you are aware my wife and I were recently guests at XXXXXXXX, and I am writing to you in the hope that our feedback will be forwarded to Mr XXXXXX CEO. We were disappointed with some of the aspects of our stay, and I hope that our feedback will be given attention.

XXXXXXXXX is a hotel that myself and family have visited for many years; primarily for both the location and it’s friendly and gracious staff. Our holidays at XXXXXXX have been special and given the years of Covid, it was with great anticipation that my wife and I travelled to stay at XXXXXXX.

As previously mentioned, the staff were as kind and helpful as ever on our arrival and as we made our way to our room we immediately felt at home. However, our stay this time around was punctuated by issues that I feel I must bring to the attention of the management of the hotel.

The room allocated to us was not a room that made staying in it easy. The extraordinarily large Wardrobes in the rooms have folding doors that make navigating between the edge of the bed and the hangers within both inconvenient and impractical. Smaller wardrobes with sliding doors would solve this issue. The shower room was not only small but there were very little surfaces to place anything. The TV was placed on a trestle table which again, limited space to put anything down; a wall mounted TV would be better suited. The key to the room is heavy and outdated whereas a key card would be far more convenient for guests and more in keeping with a five-star hotel

Thanks to the accommodating staff we were able to change rooms to another close by that had a larger bathroom with plenty of surfaces, and a fit for purpose desktop. I would say that the addition of a Nespresso Coffee machine was a welcome addition to the rooms, but there was no Ironing facilities in the room or trouser press; both of which are standard in hotels with the status advertised.

Leaving our room later I couldn’t help but notice the large number of cracked floor tiles which are obviously a health and safety matter. For nine days of our ten days stay a yellow caution sign was placed over a particularly dangerous piece of broken staircase; I would not expect to see this at a five-star hotel. Why is took this long to be repaired is a concern, by making repairs in a timely fashion you would reduce the risk for guests.

I was not impressed by the rusty beds beside the pool and the rusty chains on the umbrellas; the covers of which were ragged and full of holes. New poolside furniture would go a long way towards making the area feel luxurious as well as lessening the risk of harming a guest. The fact that the Jacuzzi function in the shallow pool was not operational also detracted from the experience of what is supposed to be a five-star hotel.

In terms of events at the hotel we, along with many other guests were looking forward to Greek night. Having experienced Greek night many times over the years we were looking forward to the music, the dancing and of course the food. This Greek night was a huge disappointment. It started at 7:30 and finished abruptly at 9:00. Yes, there was music (the band packed away and left promptly at 9:00) but there was no Greek dancing. A Greek night that lasts one and a half hours, ends at 9:00 and has no Greek dancing scarcely qualifies as a Greek night. In this respect I feel the guests were misled, particularly as we had recommended Greek Night to a number of guests who stayed instead of going into town.

Which brings me to the Restaurant. My wife and I were surprised that the restaurant closes at 9:45. This is not at all in keeping with expectations of a five-star hotel and many guests went into XXXXX to eat as a result. I would think that a later opening time would not only suit the needs of the guests but have a positive knock-on effect for the bar.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the hotel is the A La Carte Menu which is a masterpiece of ludicrous ideas masquerading as cutting-edge cuisine. 

Cod cooked in vanilla sauce, Prawns in strawberry sauce and all manner of outlandish combinations were virtually inedible and, on a night, when there was no buffet, we were forced to eat in Lindos. Fortunately, after discussion with the Restaurant manager the chef was able to make us, some food uncluttered by the strange flavour combinations of the A La Carte menu. 

The scheduling of the evening meals and themes were changed without prior notice making it impossible to plan our evenings in advance. The breakfast offering has been greatly reduced. There was no open access to drinking water or orange juice as in the past and the variety of food was not what it has been. This is not befitting of five-star status

I have to say that the food served at XXXXXX taverna was consistently delicious and I feel that more of an emphasis on Greek food in the main restaurant would be welcomed.

The Leisure options in the hotel that consisted of a Table Tennis table, A Snooker table and an Air Hockey table are good offerings, however, there are no balls or cues for the snooker table and no puck for the air hockey rendering them both unusable. Ensuring that these options are usable would be a good idea for a five-star hotel. The air conditioning in the on-site Gym was not working, making it impossible to use this facility

It seemed apparent that there were less staff on duty than previously, however, the general cheerful demeanour of the staff compensates for their lack of colleagues. I regret to say that on two afternoons the Chef at the taverna got angry and was swearing and shouting at the poolside restaurant. This was most upsetting and all the guests at the pool could clearly hear what was going on. I would not expect this at a five-star hotel. There were also loud and aggressive conflicts on the beach with guests arguing over beds and available space with no staff available to resolve the issues in a timely manner; this was not conducive to a relaxing time

We were dismayed to discover that there were several services no longer available such as melon given to guests around the pool in the morning and frozen flannels in the afternoons. The option to switch a couple of dinners for lunches was also not available and the drink service around the pool was sporadic at best as was the promotion of Spa treatments, most of the time the spa was closed and, as the hotel is promoted as a five-star resort and spa, this is hardly ideal. These services being withdrawn do not reflect five-star resort and spa status in our view.

One addition to the menus is a QR readers for the restaurant and bar, unfortunately they guide you to an ineffectual and hard to navigate web page, which is time consuming. Talking of menus, those at the Taverna are ragged and worn and do not reflect well. 

XXXXXX advertises itself as children free, however, there were three weddings taking place during our stay and all three weddings had young children in attendance using the pool and bar areas. I would suggest that mention be made of the possibility of children being in the hotel when weddings take place as to suggest that the hotel is child free is misleading and hardly appropriate for a five-star hotel.

Finally, I feel I should point out that the hotel is non accessible for guests with mobility issues, nor have there been any adaptations made, I see this is a major let down for a hotel with five-star status.

As mentioned, my wife and I and our family have been coming to XXXXX for several years mostly due to the quality of the staff, and we have recommended the hotel to many people. Unfortunately, this holiday may very well be our last at XXXXX, and I have also discussed the issues raised with my family. 

We paid a sizeable amount of money to stay in a hotel described as five-star and in all honestly, we did not have a five-star experience. I am sharing this info with you in the hope that you will reflect and act upon the issues mentioned. I also feel that when one books a holiday at a five-star hotel there is an expectation that the facilities are commensurate with that status and all these issues detracted from our ability to relax on this first holiday we have had since before Covid.

I am considering on placing a review on Trip Advisor and other hotel review websites but, we would consider returning to XXXXXX to look at things with fresh eyes, chat with the manager and perhaps make amendments. Unfortunately, flights aside, this is not something we can afford currently, which is a shame as it would give us an opportunity to relax this time around.

I await your response