The World is Collapsing Around Me.

Okay that might be over-stating it slightly. However over the last couple of weeks I seem to have been suffering from the worst possible luck whereby everything I touch seems to immediately break.

The big problem has been the kitchen door which I use as the main door in and out of my house. If you're that interested in the technical details the door is attached to the frame by metal hinges that are lined with a rubber "O-ring." After more then 15 years of use those O-rings failed about three weeks ago causing the hinges to seize preventing the door from being opened.

We immediately ordered a replacement which was delivered on Thursday (3/9/15) Luckily we were immediately able to get someone to install the new door and frame over the following two days with the cosmetic finishing touches being added today. Although this has been a lot less disruptive then not being able to use the door it has meant the last four days of my life have been spent under a thin film of brick dust thinking; "As soon as this is finished I'm going to have to start cleaning all this up."

One thing that did come out of it though is you may remember that back in April 2014 - during the Third Working Group meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in preparation of its 5th annual report - a young black man tried robbing my house. This was an absolutely terrible attempt at a robbery with me chasing the guy away and nothing being stolen.

However with this being such a common tactic by the UK it prompted a strong international response that involved a number of British citizens being killed in a host of countries. Probably the most significant of these was the killing of a London Metropolitan Police officer who was seconded to the United Nations (UN) operation in Somalia.

Despite this strong international pushback and everyone knowing exactly who this robber was the UK flatly refused to arrest or punish him insisting that conducting acts of violence of this type was it's right. Anyway the guy's now in prison over a string of other, unrelated robbery offences. To my mind that rather highlights the futility of the UK's attempts to protect him.

Unfortunately the UK still hasn't worked that one out and has continued to use concerns about my personal safety and security to draw attention to itself - particularly in the wake of last weeks UNFCCC meeting in Bonn, Germany.

Yesterday my father was invited to one of the World famous "Proms" concerts at the Royal Albert Hall which obviously got him out of the house for around 9 hours over the afternoon and evening. During that time there was - what is considered locally - a big fire that destroyed a row of flats in Sudbury, Suffolk, UK. Pictures from the scene slightly resembled images from the August 2011 riots, specifically the riots that hit Croydon where I live. The building at the end of the terrace was very ornate in a Victorian/pre-Victorian style which slightly resembled the Royal Albert Hall.

Also at around the same time police in my very specific area of Croydon launched a large manhunt for a young black boy who'd gone missing. As with the almost identical case of Malakhi Chijiutomi-Ghosh who went missing in March 2015 this was the UK attempting to revisit the events of March 2014.

15:25 on 7/9/15 (UK date).

Edited at around 15:40 on 10/9/15 (UK date) to add;

The other really annoying thing to break in my life at the moment was my main TV. Unfortunately I'm much more hazy on the exact technical details but I brought it for the start of the 2010 F1 season and between my father and I it has been in pretty much in constant use ever since. On almost exactly the same day the door broke the top of the screen started to fade making the picture much darker. On Saturday (5/9/15) I went to turn it on and it failed amid the stench of solder. Therefore my guess is that heat and use damaged many of the components.

It of course couldn't have happened at a worst moment I had been hoping to hide away on the sofa from all the building work. Instead I spent the day problem solving trying to get the broken TV stored away somewhere and come up with some sort of temporary replacement. That was basically a computer monitor which has made watching the recent Euro 2016 qualifiers extremely difficult and trying to watch any sort of TV ended up giving me a headache from eye strain.

Now those qualifiers are over I've just got a permanent replacement sorted out so feel free to tell this story. I am slightly freaked out though the TV newsreaders now appear to be close to actual size.