What the hell am I missing?

The train was late again today and overcrowded. I had to stand because there were no seats. It wasn't really a problem, except I was next to two women who talked about nothing for the entire journey. How do women do that? I'm all for chatting and conversation, but these two actually talked constantly for 20 minutes, without actually saying a single interesting thing. They covered topics such as the colour of their shoes, the fact that the parents of one of them just sold their house, and several other fashion items. I amused myself by trying to memorise the order of 26 playing cards using the Derren Brown memory technique, equally boring to most people I admit, but nobody else was subjected to it. In case you are interested, I can memorise 26 cards almost perfectly with just one look through them. I feel I will be able to do an entire pack shortly.

I need to explain something about rubbish collections. I don't know how the rest of the world does it, but in my street, up until recently a lorry came round every Monday morning and picked up the bags of rubbish left outside by residents. For some reason, the corner of the street next to my house became a collection point. Perhaps 15 or 20 bags of rubbish would be left there on Sunday night, and get picked up Monday morning. It was a good system. In fact it's slightly more complicated than that because recyclable waste also gets collected weekly, and green waste like leaves and grass cuttings, gets collected every two weeks. But that's not important now.

The system has changed. It's not necessarily a bad change, but it's a change. Bags will no longer be collected weekly. Instead, from 12 Nov a lorry will come every other Monday to empty our wheelie bins. It's quite simple. It's only the Monday bag collection that will change. Instead of bags being collected weekly from the side of the road, a lorry will come once a fortnight, and empty a wheelie bin. The problem is that the council did not explicitly state when the last bag collection would be. I assumed there would be no collection the week before the first wheelie bin collection, and it turns out I was right. I know this because there is a huge pile of rotting garbage outside my house.

Call me touchy, but I'm not keen on other people's crap outside my home attracting rats and typhoid fever. I find it mildly surprising that all these people lack the brainpower to work out that bins may not be collected this week. I find it astonishing that these people havn't had the decency to reclaim their bags when they weren't collected. I've called the council. They've given me a number.

The Queen opened parliament today with the usual speech. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel she looks odd wearing glasses with the crown? I think I've mentioned this before. It's fine for religious leaders to wear the silly hats, but they all look like nutters when combined with glasses. I feel the same way about the Dalai Lama. Guys wear the hats or the glasses, but both together makes you look like a nutter.

* Above written yesterday, but never posted because I left it at work - doh!

I keep reading about a 22 year old woman who died shortly after giving birth to twins. A major factor appears to have been that she refused a blood transfusion because she was a Jehovah's Witness. It seems that the woman signed something before the problems began, and the hospital were legally prevented from giving her blood. Apparently her family could have overruled her initial wishes, but they did not. I'm unsure whether she would have survived if she had been given blood. It occurs to me that she made the decision to refuse blood products at a time when the chances of her needing them would be relatively small. I'm guessing that she was not able to reverse the decision herself by the time the issue had become critical. That would be why the family were consulted and refused to overrule the earlier decision.

I can't put myself in the position of the woman, because I have no faith. I can't even put myself in the position of her husband for the same reason. The closest I can imagine getting to this situation is having to make a decision about a surgical procedure of which I don't approve, but which would save either my life, or the life of someone for whom I was responsible. For instance, I'm passionately against circumcision of boys, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that a doctor could have told me that my son required the procedure to save his life. If that was that case I'd shake the hand of the doctor and tell him to go ahead. I can't understand why the woman's husband didn't do the same thing, shake his hand and tell him to get on with it. I can't believe that he is now sitting at home, raising twins by himself, congratulating himself for doing the right thing.

And it's moments like this that make me think that maybe I chose atheism, not because it's logically sound, or it permits the most psychological freedom, but because I actually lack a fundamental something that permits this kind of thinking. What's more, half of me thinks that being born without this part is the greatest thing that could have happened to me, and half of me wonders what the hell I'm missing.

The London Assembly has passed a vote of no confidence in Met police chief Sir Ian Blair. He can't possibly survive now. He should have read this blog and resigned when I told him to. He has exhausted all possibilities. He took the case to court, and lost. He has ruled out an appeal, and he has lost a vote of confidence. He still has support from Red Ken Livingston, and Jaqui Smith, but that won't cut any ice in the long run. His race is over.