Happy Friday! I think that we’re just going to have to have a Trump section and then other links this week. It seems like every day, I think that he can’t do anything else more ridiculous and every day he manages it….
Obama reckons with a Trump presidency. This is a long read but worth it.
Remember folks, Trump is going to drain the swamp. Probably so it’s easier to get at the money. The President-Elect Is Suing Washington, D.C., So His Luxury Hotel Can Pay Less in Taxes
Trump takes credit for preventing something that wasn’t going to happen. Or the President-Elect is a lying liar who lies part 1000
The Enduring Scandal of the Trump University.
And on Tuesday, this happened which I don’t even have words for..
Vox wrote about it and quoted Christopher Meyer “it would be lunancy walking on stilts”
No Trump, We Can’t Just Get Along. About right…
Other news and opinion
Also American and worrying but not Trump what’s happening in North Carolina, that’s pretty scary…
Abortion in America, being out of options. You’ll never stop women having abortions, you’ll just make it less safe..
The enormous pop-up clinic trying to bridge America’s health divide. This is the awful warning for the NHS. “The things we fought for in the past, may be lost again unless we are prepared to fight for them” – Clement Atlee
The reality of ‘just about managing’ in Birmingham. The problem with just about managing is that the well off can feel that way too. I feel that way, it’s that sense of never being able to get ahead of yourself, to save, to plan, to have nice things. And people are feeling like that in much better circumstances than I’m in and much worse. I’m going to keep saying it, housing and it’s cost is at the root of most of the issues here…
Tony Blair wonders what has gone wrong with centre-left politics. and can’t see it him.
Our boys need to be rescued too. True but this is as much about placing a middle class value on what is good, which is less to do with how we raise boys and more about the value we place on academic learning. My brother is brighter than I am, but I’m more academic and can argue better. Neither of us are stupid we learn differently and want to do different things with our learning. Why is only way (mine) considered better? Clue, it’s not because I’m a girl…
Why older men who date younger women are so infuriating. I don’t know that it’s infuriating, so much as really icky.
The macaron is a pastel menance.
Jeanette Winterson on her Christmas traditions. Sometimes I find Jeanette Winterson really difficult and I don’t agree with her about lots but the quote below is just perfect and if given the terrible time she had with her parents, she can find that in herself well that’s pretty amazing. Also trifle with tinned fruit is the only way to make it!
I think about that time and, without being sentimental, I am sure that if we can find reconciliation with our past – whether parents, partners or friends – we should try and do that.
It won’t be perfect, it will be a compromise, and it doesn’t mean happy families or restored bonds – there is often too much damage, too much sadness – but it might mean acceptance and, the big word, forgiveness.
I have learned, painfully, over the years that the things I regret in my life are not errors of judgment but failures of feeling.
So I am glad of that last Christmas with my dad – not because it rewrote the past, but because it rewrote our ending. The story, for all its pain and sometimes horror, did not end tragically; it ended with forgiveness.
Everyone knows this. There are people who can be effective, creative, happy and chaotic, but I am not one of those people, I am like a toddler, I need routine and certainty to function properly and thrive.
Which is why on Sunday night my fridge contained all my lunches and breakfast for this week and why they are all the same thing. Lunches are leftovers from Saturday night, dahl, rice and chana masala and flatbreads. Breakfast will be an egg roll. All of this can be heated up in a microwave at the office and I chopped a load of carrots and peppers to go with it. This week the only cooking I’ve had to do has been dinner. 
We bought and put together five more raised beds, watched the garlic and onions pop up and planted broad beans.
Followed by profiteroles.
Sunday morning we had crumpets for breakfast and then a saute of potatoes and veg with a fried egg.
Lunch was a baked potato and butternut, chickpea and spinach curry. I also ate 2 pears and some grapes. I don’t eat a lot of fruit but I was clearly in the mood today, as that was four of my five portions of fruit and veg, I ate more than one portion of veg as well, so maybe my body was trying to tell me something!
Dinner was roasted vegetables
Tuesday’s breakfast was the same as Monday’s. Lunch was muffins and vegetable
Dinner was curry and rice and flatbread
Thursday breakfast was Wednesday’s lunch, a muffin and vegetables. Lunch was last night’s dinner but in smaller portions. 
The trains were annoying, so no real change there 
One of the things that I’ve tracked on and off in that time, more off than on, are my attempts at housework.There was the 
I also have it all dried, ironed if required and put away by Tuesday because I don’t appreciate it cluttering up my bedroom. 
I don’t like washing, it seems never ending but not having to scramble about for clean clothes at dark o’clock on a Wednesday morning is the movitation here!
Making a cup of tea or brushing your teeth is a calmer experience if I’m not looking at the washing up that isn’t done or the grimy shower screen.
Lunch was salad and falefel
I was out in the evening, so dinner was half a bottle of wine before the film and some pick and mix during.
