horsemouth's nightmare

mission failure 

horsemouth thought while he was in the village (on a bread mission) he'd pick up some plumbing bits to fix the leaky tap behind the chicken shed. at some point he got less keen and thought that his dad might have the bits already or that he could cannibalise them from other taps and hoses.

when he got back it became clear to him that this was not the case. 

the tap (seemingly) cannot be isolated - this means working on it while the water gushes out (and reassembling it against the water pressure). 

horsemouth was giving this a go when his mum showed up and not wanting to deal with explanations while water gushed horsemouth gave up on his attempted repair and returned it (hurriedly) to its previous condition. 

this is (of course) horsemouth's nightmare that he will be made to explain what he was trying to do, be prevented from doing it and then blamed for having failed to do it. 

the thing horsemouth above all does not want to do is leave it in a worse condition than the one he found it in (one requiring the visit of a plumber). 

horsemouth now thinks the best thing to do would be either to go and get the bits and give it another go (or admit failure and get a plumber). 

ah good he's found an alternative task where he can be seen to be doing things. 

ok horsemouth is anxious. he needs to calm himself down and distract himself with a task. 

phew himself and his brother have just been doing train tickets (and he's just sent his brother the meter reading).

now he's got a beer. 

the government continue to be a shower of shit

first there is this punitive asylum policy (as if tail-gating reform is the way forward) and then there was the income tax reform botch (they won't - they will (oh there's brave and unpopular) - ok no they won't). 

for the income tax botch we will all now be mercilessly shafted by the bond markets. it doesn't matter that horsemouth is not in favour of taxing the poor more just talking about doing it and then not doing it ensures the poor will have to pay more (just some other way). they have made the situation worse - bravo.

ah well - there's always next time! (they can introduce the income tax rise again)

and in fact just by leaving the tax thresholds where they are they are in fact taxing more and more poor people. 

they seem to be cursed with can do nothing right-itis.  horsemouth hasn't seen any sign they can do anything right so why would the racists (ahem. those concerned about the immigration and asylum system) think they can deliver on reforming the asylum system. 

would that be enough for them even if labour could deliver on it? probably not.

wylder's hand  by j. sheridan le fanu continues to be good. the women are heroines, the main male character a heel. wylder himself is gone already (one suspects).