I had a lot of "meetings" over lunch, 6-8am and 5-7pm at my last job to stop the calendar predators who thought early mornings and late afternoons were fair game.

They've been "helpfully" sending me letters, txts & emails reminding me that they want me to pay them £2K before the end of January. I am aware of this. I was aware of this back in September. Despite all the nagging I see no need to hand that over until late January.

I got an absolute beasting for declining a "breakfast meeting" at 6am with him, when I replied that my normal working hours were 8am to 6pm and I would be happy to meeet with him any time within that window, but was unable to flex due to family commitments.

There was also a lot of telling people that the "honour" of working in the public sector meant that we had to swallow this as it was all necessary to create the "high performance teams" he had promissed the VC & deliver increased "value for money". A lot of good people jumped ship as a result.

One of the first signs of trouble with our original Director was his habit of sending emails between 10pm & 1am demanding briefings on topics between 6-8am the next (or same) day. They berating people for not seeing and/or producing said briefings in time, or of acceptable quality.

After all, it is possible to say things against what has been happening in Palestine without calling for the death of me and all my family.

It's the constant background noise of people spouting anti-semetism, usually wrapped in a Palestinian flag which they think makes it OK. Earlier I was seeing posts about how calling for a global intifada was perfectly reasonable. The Sidney shootings are what a global intifada looks like.

Personally I'd have preferred it overall if my polity had not been set on fire, but... meh... details....

Whereas I would not dream of putting a Menorah in my window. It would be inviting a brick through the window.

So I do not know where I could move that would be safe. And I have no desire to live in Israel, because I do not want to be part of that regime.

I still feel relatively safe, but part of that is because I do not look Jewish, and no-one who lives near me knows that I am Jewish. I am also tied here by family. Starting over would be hard, and since Brexit moving elsewhere in the EU is much harder.

I feel increasingly unsettled. The world is an increasingly dangerous place. There have been multiple attacks on Jews outside of Israel, for just being obviously Jewish and doing Jewish things. Many people I know are talking about leaving the UK because it is no longer safe.

... because their neighbours didn't want Jews in their villages.

The last thing my grandfather said to me before he died was "sew gold coins in your clothes. You never know when you need to run". This shocked me at the time.

... because I do not want to cause any offence, but this is not my religious festival and I see no need to celebrate it.

I do not put a Mezuzah on my doorpost because I am not religious and I also have no wish to overly signify that I am "different". My ancestors fled from Poland and Ukraine ...

Now is the time to remind everyone of that VC video of their poor, oppressed PA who worked in a corridor while being patronised during covid times.

This makes me sad. But there really is no choice because a friend who thinks like this is in no way a friend. I am just sad that I did not recognise their sociopathic behaviour before.

Doing the latter can lead to medical emergencies, which no-one wants.

In my case, recently I have had to cut a friend of >20 years out of my life completely. They assert that I was "being controlling". I think they were being a complete sh*t and putting my life in danger by needing to stop & eat.

At least, that is my expectation.

As a friend of a diabetic you do not normally need to keep asking them how they are. They will tell you if there is a problem. The important thing is that if they say there is a problem, you need to listen to them and not dismiss it because it is inconvenient.