Cancer 45
Instead of talking about cancer all the time I am going to focus this blog on my current holiday; basically, what I did on my holidays. I am 8 years old again, writing for my primary school teacher. It is going to be very current. I am currently sitting at a table looking out over Loch Melfort. It is a sea loch, which is terribly dangerous because if you go on it you will be washed out to sea and drown. Fortunately there are islands in view so I don’t have to look at the open sea, the type of view that I like. The open sea is depressing. It is bright sunny weather. Other people are sitting out in the sun but I can no longer do so comfortably.
As I am in the (hopefully long) process of dying I might start putting down a few of my views while writing about my holidays. I couldn’t care less if any of them are controversial. It doesn’t matter any more. I even got into trouble recently on Facebook for suggesting that tattoos are ugly and that they ruin beautiful skin. I ended up with around 400 likes and around 800 comments, usually negative, often about my name, which is weird because I have heard every criticism of my name so many times it is just boring (take 5 minutes. How many insults can you derive from ‘Nigel’ and ‘Hunt’? It is an easy win).
Yesterday we drove up the A1M. It was cloudy and looked like rain. We stopped at Barnard Castle for tea an cake and a wander around the castle with no visual jokes. We crossed the Pennines on the A66 and immediately it was sunny and warm. I am saying nothing about the advantages of the west over the east. To the west we stopped at Penrith, where I ate pie, peas and gravy, something at its best west of the Pennines, in Lancashire and Cumbria. I also found a good book on Marx. In our increasingly individualistic society where everyone gets upset by the views of everyone else and anyone can be anything we need a good dose of neo-Marxism to reignite the socialist cause. I worry about the Me2s (is that an early Messerschmidt?), the woke, BLM, the outspoken representatives of various minority groups acting in an ever more fascistic manner, refusing to allow people to have diverging views, calling simple opinions hate speech and arguing that everyone (except straight white males) should be represented everywhere. My current favourite is the absurd idea that a man can become a woman. That is nonsensical. It is not possible to reverse biology that has been in place since conception. If a man wants to dress as a woman and act as a woman then good for him. We live in a free society, but please do not argue that he is actually a woman. It makes little difference if there has been surgery. Removing a penis and testicles and somehow creating a hole where the vagina is in a woman is not turning a man into a woman. And don’t get me on to the way some children are treated. It is quite normal for an adolescents to question their sexuality. It should be a crime to use drugs to alter puberty. No to men in women’s toilets and no to men competing in women’s sports. The term transwoman is OK, except I have to think twice re whether this is a man claiming to be a woman or a woman claiming to be a man. How about transvestite? Why can’t we just stop talking about it and let people live as they wish as long as they are not hurting others – and by that I mean really hurting, not saying things that some people are offended by. We have forgotten that sticks and stones may break my bones but calling doesn’t hurt me. Hitler was offensive; J.K. Rowling is not.
We need to treat people equally in the sense that there should be equlity of opportunity, not that we are all the same nor that we can all do anything if we put our mind to it. Some people are brighter, people have different talents, we look different, we have different states of health, etc. People should not be at a disadvantage because they are a particular sex, race or disability, etc, but there are limits. I understand that, as a disabled person, I will in law get privileges if I apply for certain jobs. This too is absurd. I am weak and dying. What use am I going to be over the long or even the medium term for any employer? A ramp up some steps will help people confined to a wheelchair and enable them to do their job more effectively. There is nothing anyone can do to make my disability disappear or to make me ‘equal’ to other employees. We need to get a better sense of reality regarding who can be helped and who can’t.
Last night, the first night of the holidays, we stayed in a Scottish hotel. Many Scottish hotels look like they are from the 1970s. This is also true of Northern Ireland and Wales. This is not a criticism. I like it. Everything is neat and tidy. Is it something to do with being Celtic (I have questions about the legitimacy of the concept of ‘Celt’ but I will leave that for now)? Or perhaps it is the Presbetarian mentality. But while the hotels can look dated the food can be amazing. Last night I had haggis spring roll with a peppercorn sauce dip as a starter. It was superb. The wife had chicken with haggis. Superb.
The village we stayed in was the birthplace of Thomas Carlyle, essayist, novelist, etc. I tried to read his work on the French Revolution but failed to complete it, but that was years ago. Perhaps I should try it again re my focus on long books. Carlyle suggested that the main rule of all life is that life is ruled by inequality. Find the best man and let him rule the country. This should not be an hereditary title, but someone chosen by a group of learned people. Forget democracy, most people are not fit to vote, as we found with Brexit. Carlyle talked a lot of heroes and introduced the term captains of industry, suggesting that positive developments in history occur because of the actions of great men. Carlyle is rather unpopular at the moment, but given the state of democratic society perhaps he has a point, but who decides who selects the leader of the country? It can’t be worse than the current method, where the ‘democratic’ focus appears to be on the incompetent, the insane, the crippled (yes I can use that term because I am crippled), and so on.
Carlyle is buried in the village churchyard, as is Napoleon’s last doctor on St Helena.
I am trying to improve my diet as my chemotherapy starts soon and I ought to give myself at least a chance. The problem is, the barn door is open and some might suggest it is a little late. Anyway, I have resolved to eat more fish and chicken, and less red meat and processed meat. So for breakfast this morning I included the tomatoes that I usually reject in my fry-up. Apparently tomatoes are good for you in a fried breakfast. I particularly enjoyed the haggis, bacon and sausage. For lunch we went to the Loch Fyne restaurant – the real one, on Loch Fyne, where I had haddock chowder. It had bits of bacon in it and I couldn’t find any haddock but I meant well. Tonight we are on the shores of Loch Melfort, I have looked at the menu and will do my damnedest to have fish for at least one course, but there is venison.
When we set out yesterday we had a little disagreement where it was suggested that I was a little strong in my views on the incompetence of people who regularly reverse out of driveways. I said that this was in the Highway Code but I couldn’t remember exactly where. Later I looked it up. Rule 201 states ‘Do not reverse into a main road from a side road. When using a driveway reverse in and pull out if you can.’ The last phrase is not there to give people an excuse. It is there because there are always exceptions to rules. My view may have been strong, but it was right. If you are guilty of this then please stop it right now. I might become the next Carlyle-style ruler. I think I am the right sort of person.
Dr Nigel Hunt 
Should we rather say ….“except healthy straight white males”? I ironically, they are also the richest group on average and continue to be the most powerful, often running political offices and institutions despite being the least represented. I imagine the whole idea of representation is to give people opportunities that are equitable. Do we really need to give people opportunities that are equal? Well, I think a 3-foot man will need the front seat in a football stadium, not a 6-foot man. At the end of the day they both get to see the game. Is that an example of equal opportunity? Perhaps not, they both didn’t get the front seat. But was that equitable opportunity? Definitely! Was that a better option than giving everyone equal chance to fight for the front seat? Will that lead to everyone getting to see the game?
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