Under uncertain skies

Let me tell you two weird stories unrelated to Mr Trump. Yes, unrelated (* irony *)! They're about things that have happened relating to home.

The first concerns a neighbour of mine whose building works have constantly caused me problems. He has been undertaking the renovation of his flat for over five years ...

Now, I do know something about houses and flats, having owned or rented several myself and been a director of a company that owned and managed several hundred flats, shops and garages. One thing I know is that no ordinary person takes five years to renovate a flat. This man is no ordinary person, though. He is a 'pillar of the community': a lawyer and a local politician, in fact. 

So, he hires builders who start work on part of the project, they work for a few weeks, with all the inconvenience to everyone else that that entails, and then he dismisses them, claiming that they have done something wrong or that they have damaged his property. He then sues them. I know this as he has a very loud voice and I have heard the same shtick carrying through the building on many occasions. He then hires someone else to proceed with the works and the process repeats. It seems to me that he is gradually renovating his flat at the expense of the firms that supply materials and labour since they are being sued not paid.

An interesting tale I have heard from several sources is that he was the lawyer of the wealthy lady who owned the flat before him. It's a huge penthouse and is worth a seven-figure sum. When she died, it was he who inherited it, despite not being related to her.

Now his works have caused a leak that has damaged part of my home. He asked to view the damage and after that he invited me to see his flat. It was a total mess - five years of supposed renovation leaving little but holes, bare wiring and broken tiles. The leak, from a pipe in a bathroom, he blames on the condo. In fact, in five minutes he told me so many lies that I almost started laughing. I kept my counsel rather than argue with a person who is vindictive and I alerted my landlord and the building manager, who both have a long history with him. 

Just fancy: a malign property owner, a swindler and a politician who lies, all rolled into one! Incredible, isn't it?

My second tale is about road rage and dates back to the week after the Brexit referendum in the UK in 2016. I lived in a quiet London street so an altercation outside was something unusual and made me look out of the window. A shaven-headed white male was out of his car and was yelling at and throttling a man of South Asian ancestry who had unwisely got out of his. This caused several people in the street to call the police simultaneously. The police told them all to stop pestering them and just tell the two to get back in their vehicles and drive on; they weren't going to intervene. 

Given the many government reports on London's Metropolitan Police over the decades that have concluded and re-concluded that the force is institutionally racist, and given the meteoric rise in racist attacks after that xenophobic referendum, you can see what's going on here. Laws don't seem to apply so much to the dominant race or to the male of that race.

So if you are in the USA and have doubts today about the rectitude of your politicians or feel laws or law enforcement might not protect you, my anecdotes may have resonance.

I took this photo of a regatta on the sea yesterday from my front terrace. It seems suitably moody and apt, showing people trying to make way under an uncertain sky.

I shall miss living here as I miss my old home in London but when you feel things are too stacked against you it's best to make plans to move on.

I will be posting more on surviving extremism of which, I am sorry to say, I also have direct experience but that may be of help to any trans people who are fearful.

Stay safe, girls and boys. 

Sue x