Help! Brexit Blocker App Required!

I need a Brexit-blocker application for my computer. I'm not getting any work done as I'm too busy getting distracted by every article, tweet and facebook rant. Being my own boss, I should probably fire myself. I would if I could find the time but reading about Brexit is a full-time job!

I did consider making my blog a Brexit free space, but clearly haven't been able to resist. Brexit brexit brexit. It's a new kind of tourettes. I'm slowly getting over the shock of the result. Now it's dawning on me that I've been living in a bubble where everyone lives and thinks like me. Perhaps most of us live in a bubble like that. Perhaps that's part of the problem.

Mike Walker wrote about not being surprised by the results in his article, I walked from Liverpool to London  . He paints a sorry picture of a country where communities feel forgotten, unrepresented by the rich boys in government and blame immigration for everything that's going wrong.

I guess if someone I trusted had assured me leaving the EU would radically improve my country, I'd have voted to leave too. Then again, as someone with mixed European nationality, I'm pretty attached to Europe. Plus, I've experienced what it's like to marry a foreigner who needs visas for everywhere and I value the freedom of movement too much to risk losing it.  

One thing I feel strongly is, it should be illegal for one man to control so much of the media. On why he wanted Britain to leave the EU, Rupert Murdoch reportedly said, 'Downing street do what I say, Brussels takes no notice'... Little surprise his newspapers made the EU out to be the enemy then! The world is run by a few powerful men. While we're all blaming each other they're laughing at us!   

Oh dear, now I'm insinuating all leave voters read The Sun. How insulting of me! I knew this blog post was a mistake! Especially as there are plenty of bloggers already articulating their opinion far more succintly, (and a lot more boldly), like this post, "So. You Want me to be Happy?" by Claire Broadley. 

I'm just mumbling to myself over here because I'm alarmed and not quite sure what's going on... oh wait, it's not just me, no one in the country knows what's going on either!

What? Keanu Reeves is going to be the new prime minister? 

Just one more peek at the news and I'll get back to work...

Meanwhile, can we all make an effort to be kind to each other please? We are fellow human beings and that's a far more important connection than any nationality!  

The Underrated Art of Accepting a Compliment

I met up with a group of friends last week.

"You look lovely!" one said, giving me a big hug.

Not an unusual greeting by any means, and yet I reacted as if I'd just been put on the spot and asked to give a speech on Tanzanian politics.

"Nooohsdhcnjtyxsoowciylshzo," I replied.

She looked surprised. "I have no idea what you just said."

It was then that my whole life flashed before me and I realised that I have always been terrible at accepting compliments.

On my wedding day, the priest said, "That's a beautiful dress."

Instead of saying thank you, I immediately informed him that it was from the Sale rail and hadn't cost half as much as it looked.

Does anyone else do this? Try to undermine a compliment by giving the person the price of your outfit?

l like your dress! - This old thing? It only cost a tenner.

I like you shoes! -  No, they're only Primark.

I want to just be able to say: THANK YOU.

I don't think it's because I'm modest either. 

I have a similar problem when I write birthday cards. I can't stand leaving a blank space so I scribble across the two sides until I've made an inarticulate mess. Invariably I'll make a spelling mistake or repeat a word (a TERRIBLE thing for a writer to do!) and so turn the error into a doodle of a fluffy sheep, a cunning trick passed down by my Mum. 

The trouble is it's much harder to produce a fluffy sheep off the page when I'm trying to cover up for an inarticulate response to how lovely I look.