The newspapers, the internet, all available social media and I daresay a good bit of English language television and radio as well is plastered with the Oprah interview with Prince Harry and Meghan. I gave in and watched the clip where Meghan reveals that a member of the royal family had muttered something about the colour of her baby’s skin, camera cuts to Oprah double-taking, it all looks like a scene from daytime television and everyone in the formerly colonised world says ‘the British royal family, whose wokest member is best remembered for Nazi cosplay, racist? Surely you jest.’ They all seem such terrible people, no one involved does not seem terrible.
On a more interesting note – the GF and I are, for the first time in our lives, the possessors of our very own toilet, sink and shower. We met the contractor and architect this morning, went around a bunch of shops and finally ended in a sort of Turkish Walmart – which turned out to have at least one item in most plumbing category that we quite liked and seemingly of good quality. Very pleasing to come away with a bunch of stuff, though we are still not entirely sure what we have bought. In any event, we have spent roughly half of what we had budgeted for this, which makes me immediately want to dash off and spend the savings on handmade cement tiles.
Our flat comes with a room in the basement – or, correctly, a coal hole. Did I mention this before? I don’t recall. In any case, it is a very dungeon-like space, with massive brick walls, rusted metal clamps on the wall, etc. Our cell is quite the best of the lot: it’s directly opposite the stairs going down, so there is no need to traverse a corridor like something from the Goonies and is quite spacious. It also has four little windows closed in with wrought iron grills. These are actually the gaps under the entrance stairs, so you can see people coming in and out, or at least their ankles, and perhaps slip out a note if one is held prisoner.
In any event, we intend to have it plastered, put up some shelves, and turn it into a usable room and perhaps a grump room for when I am grumpy.