For once Bertie wasn’t to blame. He’d seen a seal basking on the St Paul’s School boathouse slipway a few times and, as we say in Ireland, passed no remark.
Unfortunately the seal was attacked by a dog on Sunday afternoon and the former had to be put down. It attracted a lot of media coverage. I’m not going to pass any remark.
Also in the news has been the Court Martial of a retired Major General, found guilty of claiming some £50,000 in boarding school fees for his children, to which he was not entitled. He had a desk job in London and was given married quarters in Putney. I can attest that those army houses in Putney are pretty miserable. His wife preferred to spend most of her time at their house in Dorset where he joined her at weekends, thereby making him ineligible for a 90% contribution to his children’s school fees. To qualify she would have to live in Putney. Like Freddie the seal he was unlucky. His army neighbours grassed him up and the army decided to prosecute him, presumably to discourage others from bending the rules. It all seems a bit heavy-handed to me and, if he loses his army pension, disproportionate.
Azina and Tom, the peregrine falcons are sitting on their three eggs, or incubating as ornithologists call it. She does most of the sitting but Tom has managed a few short shifts. As you can see there hasn’t been much change on the site of the Magistrates’ Court.
