Pride Rock Castle

We visited another castle today; Mont Orgeuil Castle which is on the east coast of Jersey. The warden told us that it is only twelve miles from France and in fact my phone changed its clock to French time while we were there! It is a fantastic old castle perched on a rock with gorgeous views of the harbour below and the sea. It all looked particularly stunning because we continue to be very lucky with the weather, and the view was enhanced by blue skies and sunshine. As we made our way up the many steps (Grandma was as plucky as ever, she got right to the top) there were all sorts of passageways leading to rooms and spiral staircases, little gardens, modern sculptures; it's a warren and very interesting. Ally and Davie have always loved exploring castles and it was nice to see that they have not grown out of it, they disappeared off and could be seen appearing on ramparts and running past windows. We had sandwiches in the little cafe before heading into St Helier. As we left there was an unfortunate, allegedly accidental, testicle kicking incident by Ally which left Davie lying on the ground in seemingly extreme pain, I have always wondered whether men exaggerate the pain that this kind of injury can cause. When he recovered enough to limp off, the warden said enigmatically "He'll be all right", which gave me the impression that he has experienced it himself. 
Grandma has fond memories of Howard Davis Park in St Helier, which she and Jimmy visited with James and Forrest in the 1960s, so we had a walk there in the sunshine. It's named after a young soldier who was killed during the Battle of the Somme, and there is a small military graveyard at the edge of it with graves of some of the sailors from the HMS Charybdis, who were washed ashore on Jersey when it was torpedoed In 1943. Some are named and some are "known to God", like many of the war graves that we saw in France two years ago.
We had also had a walk around the centre of St Helier which was pleasant and pedestrianised, we noticed that some of the successful electoral candidates from two days ago had stapled "thank you" notices onto their posters - how polite!
Back to the cottage and saw gory news film of some of Gaddafi's last moments. Yes, I know that, as James always says, if you live by the sword you are very likely to die by the sword, and a gruesome death is an occupational hazard for dictators, and that Gaddafi did many awful things, but I still found it very unpleasant to watch the bloodied but still alive figure being beaten moments before his death. The media have reported the hunt for him as if it was a game, and now they are hypocritically demanding to know if he was killed "legally". I never thought it was a game and I can't take pleasure in death, no matter whose it is. I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels that way. And, as I have already said in my blog, I bet there will be more bloodshed in Libya to come.