My kingdom for a horse

If you are a lover of Shakespeare you will recognise this –

“This famous phrase originally occurred in Act-V, Scene-IV of William Shakespeare’s play, Richard III. Here, King Richard III yells out loudly this famous phrase, “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!” In the middle of a battle, his horse is killed, while the king wanders to find it in the battlefield for hours, killing everything coming his way with fatalistic rage.” (courtesy Literary Devices).

Kind of reminded me of the viral videos we have all seen of fist fights in supermarkets over toilet rolls. But then the website Literary Devices goes on further with the explanation and it begins to sound even more like toilet roll fights around the world.

“Meaning of My Kingdom for a Horse

The phrase is repeated ironically, when someone needs some insignificant item. Shakespeare shows that the value and importance of things may change suddenly; and simple and unimportant things, like a horse in the battle, could become more important than a whole kingdom. The sense in this line is ironic, as someone wants something insignificant to complete an important task. The king here means that if he does not find his horse, he may lose his kingdom, because in that case he would be either killed or face defeat.”

Well I guess if you want to finish a certain important task then toilet paper is pretty necessary. So does it take a world wide virus for us to start fighting about toilet paper – and – excuse the pun but have we gone soft? As in 4-ply? Anyone who grew up the industrial heart of England will surely remember the squares of newspaper pinned onto the door of the toilet. You could sit there and have a good read (kinda like people do today with their cell phones). The only problem was that you could usually only read the beginning or the end of the story – or sometimes just the middle. Very frustrating – but gave you something to think about.

So this has become our defining moment in the first world – a fight about toilet paper. How would we ever survive in Darfur or Auschwitz?

In every cloud there is a silver lining. People are still travelling in Italy, Spain, Portugal and many other top destinations around the world. Some of these places may not be quite as busy as they usually are – and that is the silver lining – still just a browse of the world’s webcams will reveal that life goes on ….

I first visited Egypt just after tourism had been driven to an all time low. The river cruise ships on the Nile were parked and covered with tarps and the cruise ship which would normally take 120 people had only 25. We had the BEST time ever. Imagine being in the Valley of the Kings with just your small group of 10 people. You could really feel the magic. And then…. we got the chance to visit Tutankhamen’s tomb. Just the two of us. We were alone in the tomb with King Tut! Imagine that! Had we gone at another time we would have faced this ….

There’s something to be said for travelling at a time like this – with or without toilet paper!