Inspirational Dancers

A lovely sunny start to the day, and as Clare was feeling able to cope with a short car journey, we went to Penarth mid-morning and walked on the coast path for an hour. We walked for a while, seeing and hearing bees and flies but no butterflies. I began to wonder to what extent the population along the coast path was diminishing as widely reported these days, then I spotted a small brown one, then another two. Each posed on a leaf for long enough to let me to take photos. Here's one of them:

We got back for lunch a bit later than usual,  as I made a chicken dish yesterday with enough to last two days. Cooking rice and Swiss chard with a piece of fish for Clare didn't take too long. A trip to Tesco's afterwards to get some extra veggies, as we have all three children coming to stay at different times in the coming week, with Rachel arriving from Phoenix if all goes to plan. It's her first home visit in three years, due to the pandemic.

This evening I watched the BBC's 'Young Dancer of the Year' competition final, featuring ten dancers in training from four different disciplines, classical, contemporary, street dance and tap. A series of earlier programmes showed them learning to work together with choreographers on dance performances that showcase their particular art. I've seen parts of a couple of the episodes in previous weeks, but this was the climax of a development workshop programme that has been going on for a year. There were solo, small group performances and a finale with a special piece involving all ten participants. It was exciting, inspiring and so engaging that it was hard to look away from the screen. I can't imagine and team sports event being so compelling. Each of the dancers spoke with commitment, enthusiasm and humility about what they'd learned and what the experience meant to them. The future is safe in the hands of youngsters like these.

Then by way of contrast, the first in series eight of popular Swedish crimmie 'Beck' - forty six episodes so far. That's ten more than 'Inspector Montalbano' It's been running for 24 years. Beck has gone from being young middle aged to being on the verge of retirement, with many team changes over the years, but with Peter Haber still playing the same role. One of the better 'police procedurals', portraying great teamwork and wise laid back leadership.  Always worth watching.

The Tories have lost over five hundred seats in this week's local elections, and their last County Council in Wales - Monmouth. In Northern Ireland Assembly elections, Sinn Fein has won a majority of seats for the first time in history, taking over from the Democratic Unionists. The Unionist vote is divided between three parties, and as they are opposed to the brexit protocol agreement, they may refuse to enter into a power sharing agreement with Sinn Fein. This will perpetuate a stalemate which has obstructed progress in running the government in Ulster lately, so that critical issues such as the health service and inflation aren't being tackled. 

It's no wonder that the middle ground Alliance party doubled the number of seats it now has, people are looking for an alternative to the political power games of the past, based on sectarian interests and not on seeking the common good, no matter what the parties proclaim. Priorities have changed in Ulster, as they have done everywhere else but some established politicians are unable to adapt or compromise.