Death By A Thousand Cuts...

I am in the process of replacing a cooker that is just about on it's last legs(like many things around here)As I was about to consider ordering one and having it delivered I discovered after a lot of rain this week and I am talking a lot, the door to the passage that runs along the side of the house refused to open because it had swollen. I started to think what a good job I had not actually ordered it as the delivery guys would've got it to our door and found they could get no further.

I have to get the cooker soon as the year is nearly out and who can cook a Christmas meal in a microwave? I have been struggling with a microwave for ages as the cooker's oven and grill no longer work. So unless you want to boil or fry something...that's it!

I have been so surprised and grateful of the microwave but equally it is so disappointing sometimes seeing something you fancy in the supermarket and then to find it cannot be cooked in the microwave.

I have treated myself to a slow cooker after hearing so many good things about them(but as yet I haven't decided what to cook in it or when it will be used)but as it was on offer I don't feel that I have lost out on buying it.

I digress...

Today, I had the door fixed(well, I hope that we have)and in passing I was talking to a young lad(teenager really)he's been looking for work but ended up at Technical college(I didn't ask which course he's been on)but he's been looking for work and said it has been the most difficult thing he has ever done so he has decided to go into the armed forces.

I'm not going to get into whether war is just, whether recent events can be justified, in hindsight many of the wars of the past might be seen as wrong but at the time perhaps that was the mindset, today with all the media scrutiny questions are asked whilst war is taking place.

Strange this should come up as we approach Remembrance Day here in the UK and the Commonwealth.

Now, the British Army is either caught up in so many wars, conflicts or helping in other ways across the World perhaps when a natural disaster takes place there is the danger of being over stretched.

And this was brought home today whilst talking with this person...he applied to two Regiments and they are taking no one on at all.

I forget which one he has now applied to but he has been accepted after waiting ages to hear whether he was successful. He was telling me that they are only accepting recruits four times per year and on this particular occasion they have accepted only twenty five from across the country. The reason being the cuts to the services.

Twenty Five!

I can remember the ads on the radio and TV and in all the newspapers(and the personal appearances at public events)and places on the high street where you could call in and sign up. Of course war and defence work is the main reason but the promotional slant was it was a way to learn a skill.

We both said the truth is the money isn't there to support the services so they are either going to have to reduce their overall numbers and the only way more will be recruited is as others leave or sadly replace those who come home disabled, in pieces or body bags. So they are replacing like for like.

I praise his courage and determination(but I suspect the economic situation and the plans being forced on the country have played their part)

I'm sure his parents are proud but must they be worried. I guess though you always care for your children you have to allow them to make their own way.

I might've surprised myself once but with all my health problems I doubt I could have really ever seen myself running around with a rifle and a backpack even in the days of National Service which this country once had.

Thankfully, I was born after that was stopped. I am sure that it does make a Man or Woman out of many but I think I would've been the kind that would've been bullied.

I'm not sure if Conscription was re-introduced the Country could afford to run such a scheme these days.