Thankful I live in a country that is not modern

I very thankfully live in Bucharest. The horrors of modernity are for me almost entirely confined to what I read on the internet.

The only exceptions that come immediately to mind are altar girls and I have I escaped them by attending the Greek Catholic instead of the Roman Catholic cathedral.

Nowhere in the world is nicer than Bulevardul Unirii in September, with fountains plashing. I can't imagine why I ever leave, but last month I spent a frenetic time in Great Britain.

My native land is very modern, but when I visit lovely country towns like Stamford and Newark I see that Mr Pickwick's and Enid Blyton's England still exists and even flourishes. 

Only in the museums did I come across the new religion of equality.

Today there's not much news in England. You know this when you read the headline "UK butterfly numbers at highest level since 2019". Happy the country where butterflies are news.

But a couple of days ago there was a lot of news including the story of an accountant who lost his career and was fined 15,000 for calling a colleague a stupid girl (so the Telegraph presented the story, though there was a series of unfriendly altercations with colleagues but nothing deserving of punishment). 

And academics at the University of Leicester 'have written a 44 page guide for museum and gallery bosses dealing with transgender inclusion, legal protections for gender-critical beliefs and “awkward” conversations about women’s rights......Cultural attractions should be “places not just where trans kids can go, but where they want to go."' 

There were other stories that day too but you get the idea.