Omar's Diary for Saturday 20th Jan 2018

My own Servants were finally able to spend more time around home this Saturday than they have been able to do so since May 2017. Up until last weekend they were fully committed for every weekend and bank holiday to looking after their equines. Equines must be so inferior to felines as they have been so demanding of my Servant's time. Alas now, they are being looked after full-time by other members of the Servant's species.

One great personal relief to me is that I will no longer be embarrassed by Man Servant insisting on including any commentary on horse racing in my, yes my, diary pages. His selections are usually abject failures but still he tries to pick winners in the pursuit of that glorious uncertainty that is the sport of kings. He is developing his own following through a weekly racing column and at the latest count he has five followers.

So, today without the commitment to the equines my Servants were home before dark. Man Servant had a copy of The Times and Lady Servant had a copy of Horse and Hound otherwise referred to as 'H&H' to those that move in equine circles.

It is a year to the day since President Trump was inaugurated. It is 56 years to the day since John F Kennedy was inaugurated. That is my last word on American president's for this diary.

On page five of The Times there is a write up about how the allocation of 'Royal Warrants' is changing. For those of you unfamiliar with this uniquely British convention, Royal Warrants are a form of patronage by the Royal Family for purveyors of goods and service to the Household. If a purveyor is granted such a warrant they may use the Royal crest on their packaging, stationery and advertising. I can only guess that the changes in who has Royal Warrants is a reflection of changing fashions and technologies.

The United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary, the British equivalent of the American 'Secretary of State' is one of the lead campaigners to remove Britain from the European Union. Despite his enthusiasm to leave the EU he now has floated the idea, pardon the pun, of building a 21 or 22 mile bridge across The English Channel. One bright wit suggested he would be better building a zip wire facility instead as he was caught in a mishap on one during the referendum campaign and got stuck in mid air. The coverage of this took up most of page eleven.

I think at this point of reading both Man Servant and myself fell asleep for a good couple of hours. It is so nice to have them both home more at the weekends.

This week in the news there has been a lot of coverage of the effect waste plastic is having on the environment. This has all started since David Attenborough's Blue Planet was aired showing marine creatures trying to eat waste plastic, trying to feed it to their young or getting entangled in it and drowning. Suddenly, it seems all of the servant species is joining in a campaign to clean up this problem. I have thought about this an awful lot. It is not plastics themselves that are the problem. They are a symptom of a problem and that core problem is that for too long now members of the servant species have been inconsiderate in the way that they have disposed of plastic by allowing it to be dumped at sea, in forests, in hedgerows and even in their streets yet no servants in the coverage of this subject has apportioned blame to other members of their species for being careless in the way they dispose of plastics.

Oh dear, I am being very serious today what with presidents, Royal Warrants, Foreign Secretaries and the environment.

Lady Servant has not been very well and is just recovering from one of the annual flu viruses. It is one that really knocks servants out for a few days but at last she is on the road to recovery. Very fortunately, felines do not seem to suffer from these annual bugs that blight the servant population.

Man Servant did publish a guide to racing in the UK today and from his five selections I am very pleased to announce that he successfully picked one winner and two horses that came in second. I think he is very pleased with that outcome.