and kensington falls...

for horsemouth it was a bright sunny morning (and an early start). he discovered sten in the living room already discussing the political situation. it has been a strange election (horsemouth has been left feeling sympathetic towards both theresa may and diane abbot - go figure).

there is, this morning, much to smile about (the odious gavin barwell and jane ellison gone) and a number of near misses, a number of tories left on miniscule majorities in the seaside towns (notably zac (45) goldsmith, amber (346) rudd and theresa (350) villiers). and kensington falls.

of course (despite corbyn and macdonnald’s attempts to sledge their way into government) it will all roll on much as it was before.

horsemouth took advantage of brewdog’s kind social media advertising opportunity to have a free pint on them for having voted - it was punk ipa (5.3% - a little stronger than horsemouth likes ideally) but it went down a treat. in theory he could probably repeat the exercise today (at a different pub). with their free pint clasped in their mitts the well-heeled metropolitan youth of clerkenwell were discussing politics in a very sensible manner.

 horsemouth was out in clerkenwell (after a meeting at work) because the brewdog in homerton has shut - horsemouth is not sad to see it go, it replaced a thriving black bar (and late night drinking establishment) well used by the local community. horsemouth is not against craft beer per se - but he is against gentrification of everywhere into airport departure lounge levels of blandness.

the slugs have murdered the squashes like they were on offer at a delicatessen. the other brassica/ broad beans in the front garden seem to be doing ok.

against the apocalypse his stockpiles are; 1 litre of beer (ruddles and banks), 2.5kg of rice, 1kg pasta, 1kg coffee, 1.5kg museli, 1kg (dry weight - nearly) of red kidney beans, 1kg chick peas, 750g red lentils, 750g red kidney beans (uncooked), 1kg yoghurt, 350g cheddar.

of course, like chantal mouffe, horsemouth shares a suspicion of the better more direct democracy hiding indistinctly behind the one cross every five years (that’s yer lot) variety. he will of course tell you ate length about his terrible experiences face to face with naked human selfishness and self-interest with the monkey-on-a-stick housing co-operative. and yet horsemouth continues to believe that there has to be a better - that, to quote the old reggae tune - better must come.

in other news horsemouth strung his paesold classical guitar and has been ‘playing it in’ - waiting for the tuning to stabilise - sounds decent. horsemouth doesn’t really have the repertoire to judge it properly but soon he’ll have all 3 of his classical guitars up and running and he’ll do some comparative testing.