All sorts..

First of all more bad news from Mali where ISIS claimed the massacre of 30 Malian soldiers last week in the Region of Gao close to the border of Niger. This is a picture of their burial at Gao.

And yesterday a helicopter crashed in the northern region, killing 13 French soldiers on their way to lend support to ground troops engaged in anti-terrorist fighting. It appears that this crash was an accident. The French Barkhane troops are separate from the large number of UN troops stationed in Mali, and actively engage in fighting the extremists. There are about 4500 of them deployed over the Sahel in Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso and the Niger. Many believe that the region would be in the hands of ISIS without their support.

 I am leaving for Mali again in December- and will travel to both Timbuktu and Djenne as usual. But there is no doubt that the situation seems to be deteriorating. How long will I be able to go to Djenne? Now I will be on the local bus on my return to Bamako, and that is really more uncomfortable than dangerous, but no doubt all my Bamako friends will once more try and dissuade me...

Meanwhile I have been  getting involved with various London activities I have never had any contact with before. One of these is Politics, in the last couple of weeks before this all-important election on the 12th December. I am out canvassing and leaflet delivering for the Liberal Democrats, which I think is  the only sensible party to join if you are a 'remain' person like me. I have even become a paid up member! Some of my friends - they are all 'remainers'- tell me I must vote tactically and that a vote for the Lib Dems is a wasted vote and will only help to keep the Tories in power. I understand the rationale of course, but I belong to what is called a marginal constituency, Kensington, and there is a very good chance that our Lib Dem candidate Sam Gyimah will actually get in. The constituency is full of traditional Tory voters, but on the other hand those Tories  are predominately  'remainers' and many will be turning their back on Johnson's Conservatives whose rabid Brexit policies are  unpalatable to most here.  And to make matters even more interesting, the current MP for Kensington is Emma Dent Coad, a Labour MP for the first time in this constituency. She was voted in with the tiniest majority in 2017 to the great amazement of all. But this time the race could well be between Lib Dems and Tories here at least, according to the polls...

And below here is 'Tarzan', the venerable Lord Heseltine, a Remain Tory for whom I have always  had a soft spot...

He got on the podium and told people to vote Lib Dem today!

                                                                              

And onto more frivolous matters... but still just as new a territory for me as my flirtation with politics. Below you see me left, wearing my Swedish costume from Leksand in central Sweden, together with three ladies at the Swedish Church in Marylebone, London. We are helping out at the Swedish Christmas market,  a very popular event for the large Swedish community here. I have never even been at the Swedish Church before and never taken part in anything my countrymen do here. But the lady to my right, Gisela, is a dear friend who cajoled me into coming along... And I guess my friendship with my dear ambassador Eva  has also somehow made me return to the fold- she has taken it upon herself to reawaken my slumbering swedishness and it seems to have worked. I bought a whole lot of Swedish delicacies at the food stalls and gave my lunch guests Janssons Frestelse last Sunday- a yummy potato, onion and ansjovis gratin, which is accompanied with schnapps and drinking songs...