Well hello insomnia

I’ve had an exhausting weekend. Insomnia kicked in on Friday night, and the following day was Bristol balloon fiesta day. The balloon fioesta is good, but it has frankly outgrown its venue. There were too many people there and it’s terrifying trying to keep a hold of a six-year-old in the crowds. The dragon wanted to see the night glow display and the fireworks. It didn’t finish until 10.30 however, and we didn’t get out of the car park for another 2 hours. We eventually got home at around 1.30am, after getting lost in M5 roadworks. It was a good day, but like I say, exhausting.

Then yesterday we had friends visit, which was nice, but I think I probably only slept about four hours and I wasn’t in the mood to go running around. We did have a nice day though and it was good to see them.

The dragon is going away with the boy to visit friends this week, so I am hoping for a quiet few days. I am toying with the idea of taking Friday off, and just having a day on my own.

I’m glad the Olympics are over. I feel sort of bad that I wasn’t interested in the whole thing, and I’m glad they were a success. I’m glad it’s finished though.

The naked rambler, Steve Gough, has appeared in court again in Scotland. Gough was released from prison last month after serving six years for a combination of breach of the peace and contempt of court offences. Gough became notorious when he walked from Lands End to John O’Groats naked twice. Each time he managed to walk through England and Wales pretty much without incident, but consistently ran into problems with the Scottish police which resulted in prison. What’s more, each time he was released from prison he was immediately re-arrested because he refused to wear clothes. He would then appear in court naked to answer charges of breach of the peace and end up back in prison for breach of the peace and contempt of court.

When he was released last month from prison it looked as though the Scottish authorities had decided that it really wasn’t worth wasting any more public money keeping the man in prison, because they let him go on his way naked without arresting him. And he carried on walking for I think three days before they performed a spectacular u-turn and hauled him back in. Once again he has appeared in court naked and the judge has found him to be in contempt of court and he will no doubt find himself serving another sentence.

Gough is clearly not going to give up his fight. The authorities obviously don’t really know what to do with him. This could go on for decades. The odd thing is, there is no law that specifically bans being naked. Why do the authorities insist on arresting him for “breach of the peace”? He’s not breaching any peace as far as I can see. Don’t get me wrong, he is offensive in the eyes of some people and that makes him anti-social, but smoking and farting are anti-social. It seems to me that just letting the guy walk out of Scotland naked would probably be the best option for everyone. I’m guessing this last arrest was only down to some member of the public making a complaint. I’ll be interested to see what happens next time he is released. It could be the middle of winter apart from anything else.

And one thing that I am very very pleased to read today is that the government is finally thinking of allowing shops to open on Sundays. About Time! There is of course a bunch of MPs determined to scupper the idea, but we shall see.