Meg and I had intended to visit an elderly relative in North Wales next Wednesday but have called off our trip as the situation deteriorates. We will now start our ‘self isolation’ from Wednesday onwards but the Government announcements today may mean that we start on Tuesday, 17th March.
Today was an interesting day. I got to the pharmacy to pick up some medication at about 8.0am and then on to our local ALDI which had been pretty devasted the previous day – but the shortages were not as bad as I might have predicted. I did a ‘normal’ weeks shopping, my previous trip having been very light as we thought that we were going to be away. So we are stocked up with about 1.5 weeks shopping and have just learned how to utilise Ocado to have a delivery of supplies next Sunday (and for the foreseeable future)
Our local GP practice now has an online system – I learned how to navigate this to get a query answered about me medication for high blood pressure (I am 10mg Ramipril and I have learned this is an ACE type drug which latches onto the same receptors as the Coronavirus itself making any complication much more severe) I indicated that I had stopped my medication and the community pharmacist phoned me to say he had heard of the same report in The Lancet (medical journal) last week. If anyone wants the link, I will send it on to you! To cut a long story short, the pharmacist consulted with the doctors and they have issued me with an alternative Calcium Channel Blocker (Amlopodine) – I go into all of these details in case anyone else has the same medication issues.
Then onto my local ASDA to pick up one or two last-minute things before my self-imposed isolation – what a sorry sight (devasted, empty shelves, etc) I took some money out of my account using the cash machine to tide me over the next week or so. Now for a pleasant surprise – Holiday Inn in Chester refunded all of the money we had already paid for a three-night stay. However, it is going to be a long battle to get my money back from a holiday in Portugal planned for nest May – the credit card company say to contact your travel agent, the travel agent says contact the airline, the airline (Iberia) have written to say ‘Nothing we can do!’As all of these companies might go bust as people try to get their money back, they are all passing the buck onto everyone else. I am sure lots of you have similar stories.
This has been a long post – tomorrow I will regale you with two funny (and true !) stories about my experiences with the Spanish language
How do I feel at the start of this period of 4 months(?) of self-imposed isolation? Well, I suppose it is not unlike the emotions that people felt in the 1950’s when they were diagnosed with TB and had to spend 12 months in a sanitorium or eve as prisoners might feel at the start of a custodial sentence! I rather think it might have been like this is the world had been involved in a nuclear war and, after an explosion on the other side of the globe, you knew that something unseen but invidious was coming your way…
I started the day by texting my Pilates teacher, Helen, informing her and my fellow classmates that I would not be around for a bit and wishing them all well. Then I sent a message to one of my wonderfully friendly staff in Waitrose down the road to inform other staff members and some of the regulars of my contact details (mobile, email, blog) in case any of them wanted to keep in touch with us. I received a telephone chat call from my good friend Professor Dan Remenyi and we exchanged views on the state of the world we were in. Meg and I then set off for a pre-planned walk in a local park which is about 1km and a half away and we sat on a park bench drinking from our flask of coffee and ensuring that we were at least 10m away from any other park visitors (mainly dog walkers) Then we watched the Politics Today program starting at 12.15 on BBC2 before having lunch of our previously made Fish Pie.
The highlight of our afternoon was a good FaceTime video chat with our good friends Dave and Denise before we had our own tea. We have adopted a policy of keeping to strict meal times so that we minimise social contact with our son and daughter-in-law in case any of us are the unwitting bearer of virus. I had ensured that throughout the day each bathroom as ell supplied with a bar of soap (supposedly much more efficient at removing viruses than liquid soap.
I had promised? threatened? a couple of Spanish stories – apologies to my friends in Bromsgrove who have heard them both before and repeated ‘ad nauseam’ The first relates to our last holiday in La Coruña. Northern Spain when I realised that we were short of a comb. So I walked into a pharmacy and announced ‘Buenos dias, señora – quisiera comprar un nuevo pene por favor’ The assistant looked quite astonished until I realised that I had said ‘Good morning, madam – I would like to purchase a new willy, please’ To make matters worse, I went on to explain that I needed something that was just of the right size that was not too large but would just fit conveniently into my right hand. Too late, I discovered that I had mixed up the word for a combe which ‘peine’ with the slang word for a willy which is ‘pene’ – well, it is easily done.
The second story relates to one of the local hospitals who phoned up about two days beforehand saying, ‘Good morning, Mr.Hart – what are you doing first thing on Sunday morning? Would you like to come in and have a gastroscopy (tube down the throat into the duodenum to check for nasties) I knew it was about two years since the last check-up so I thought I had better get it over and done with. I was ‘prepared’ for the procedure by a little nurse who announced me ‘Good morning Mr. Hart – I am Amparo and I am looking after you today’ Having established that she was, in fact, Spanish we continued chatting in Spanish but I was not at my best at 8.0am on a Sunday morning. The conversation took the following turn: ‘I know what I would be rather be doing at 8.30 on a Sunday morning’ ‘Yes – me too’ ‘What would you rather be doing by doing on a Sunday morning?’ ‘I would like to be snuggled up in bed next to my husband!’ [Then it started to go horribly wrong] – I replied ‘Yes. so I would I – I mean not YOUR husband but I meant somebody else’s husband. No – I didn’t mean that – I meant to say ‘Somebody else’s wife’ No – I didn’t mean that either – I meant ‘Next to next t0 my own wife’ ‘Are you sure?’ she said. ‘Well’, I said hesitantly thinking about what I had just said (in Spanish) – ‘I think so’ “You don’t sound very sure to me!’ she said. ‘Yes, I said (weakly) ‘I am sure’ ‘We wouldn’t want you getting mixed up between my husband, someone else’s husband, someone else’s wife and your own wife, now would we?’ ‘No’ – I said. ‘So that’ got that little confusion out of the way then! We giggled together…
I spent some time this morning going through contacts on my iphone reminding them of my email address and this blog reference so that we have an easy way of keeping touch with each. Also, one of my ‘Winchester’ friends had been a purser on a cruise liner in a past life and gave us lots of practical advice how to protect yourself against rampant virus – rather than reproduce her email here, I will forward it to anyone reading this blog if you drop an email note.
My good friend, Professor Dan Remenyi, has written a letter/article which he has submitted to his local newspaper and it is very stimulating to read. With his permission, I reproduce it here, together with a few thoughts that I had on the matter as well.
We are indeed in a right mess. The government’s response to Covid 19 will destroy tens of thousands of small businesses and will cause millions of people to be laid off. The rescue package announced by the government which consists of, inter alia, a bundle of financial relief including a third of £1 trillion of loans will push the UK further into a financial chasm. Many small businesses struggle on a month-to-month basis and if they have to take out loans from the government in order to continue in the immediate term, their prospects of longer term survival may not be good at all. Providing loans may not be the answer to the problem.
All of this government action seems to be based on a computer model which has told our leaders that by requiring everyone to self-isolate and thus stay away from pub, restaurants and theatres, the potential death toll will drop from 250,000 to 20,000. Even without examining the detail of this model there seems to be a number of loopholes in the apparent logic behind the assumptions. I sincerely hope that the severe economic and social hardship so many of us are about to endure will really save so many lives and reduce the physical misery that is being caused to the nation’s health by this disease.
But this faith in computer models is to say the least surprising. It was a computer model that initiated the reckless financial behaviour which cause the crash of 2008. It was at least computer model thinking if not a particular model itself which led to the Boeing Company designing the 737 Max with its dodgy aerodynamics. In general modelling society to project what will happen in the future is a very or highly dodgy business. I am extremely sceptical of computer models and especially those which have such enormous impact on our society.
There is another issue behind our current situation which deserve some thought. In former times there must’ve been many strange diseases which struck society such as the Black Death or smallpox, the occasional outbreaks of cholera or the Great Spanish Flu of the earlier part of the 20th century. When these catastrophes really got out of hand they caused mayhem on a large-scale. But they were slow to develop and our understanding of disease was very limited. The situation we are facing is quite different and we have a much greater understanding of what we are really facing and how we find ourselves in this situation. There is little doubt that one of the drivers of the current crisis is globalisation. Our ease of access whereby we can travel to almost anywhere on the planet within 24 hours must surely be something which we should now re-evaluate. The great potential we have to spread disease all over the world, surely, should now be considered as a real downside to worldwide travel.
I have no idea as to how we can even begin to think about controlling our appetite for global travel. I think that the genie may be out of the bottle. Freedom to roam the world, if you have the resources to so do, is now so deeply embedded in our culture. But as one commentator recently said on television, “This may not be the last time we will see a pandemic like this sweeps the world”. And if we were to convince the world that travelling far and wide was not ideal what would we do about the tens of thousands of aircraft (which would have cost hundreds of billions of pounds) and the jobs of the millions of people employed by the travel industry?
We are indeed in a right mess!
[End of Dan’s article] – my response
Excellent analysis, Dan – do let me know if the local newspaper publishes your contribution. Looking at the Prime Questions Questions today, I have the feeling that we may not be very far off a Universal Basic Social Income as an ‘experiment’ which like Income Tax (Napoleonic wars expedient?) may become permanent. I feel that society may at a crossroads between (a) a more decentralized, more localized political economy with new lines of cleavage (not social class but a metropolitan elite vs. a more uneducated, localised and more unskilled populace (b) Calls for a ‘strong man’ who with the aid/behest of the military presides over an authoritarian regime prepared to shoot rioters (food stores, hospitals) when it occurs. Whatever – I have a strong suspicion that whatever measures we introduce in society as a strictly ‘temporary’ response will quickly become permanent. I am always keen to know your thoughts. Incidentally, whilst I share some of your doubts about modeling (or any other algorithm in which you do not know the underlying assumptions), are there any alternatives worth considering (lessons from history?) Keep in touch!
For a reason that will become evident shortly, the date of March 19th is always burned upon my memory. As it happens, on this date exactly 47 years ago, I was involved in a bizarre accident at my place of work, Leicester Polytechnic. I was with a couple of my students and I had just given a lecture on ‘Science and Magic as alternative forms of explanation’ (to Combined Science students). I explained that in some western cultures, a belief in magic was an alternative form of explanation (if malaria was caused by being bitten by mosquitos, then why should that one particular mosquito bite me? Answer – because someone was directing magical forces against me, whereas in the West we would tend to rely upon statistical probabilities). I ought to have known something was amiss because the handout that I typically gave to the students was peppered with strange black marks! To make matters worse I had just said ‘Look – if I walk out into the street and get knocked down by a car then in the West we would explain this not as magic but just as a statistical probability‘) A quarter of an hour later, a Hillman Imp approached a T-junction at speed (as the driver had apparently ‘fainted’) although he had been to all all night party the night before. I was sent flying as the car hit me first, severely severing all of the muscles in my right leg and damaging the joint in my left knee. As it was a hospital ancillaries dispute at the time, there was no bed for me in hospital but I was sent home and told to take a couple of aspirins for the pain -ditto the following day until I was finally admitted for surgery some 2-3 days later. And when I woke up from the surgery, my penis was covered in rapidly hardening plaster-of-paris which had to be removed (by a male nurse – sex is the last thing on your mind when in severe pain) Talking of which, I endured three hours of intense pain after the operation and eventually when a nurse asked me how I was, I admitted that I was in pain. The nurse consulted my medicines chart as then said ‘O dear, we’ve forgotten to give you any pain relief!’ [I was angry at that point] So that was our NHS in 1973 – things have improved since.
So what about today? I walked down to the park with my rucsack and a flask of coffee which was a bit difficult to manipulate with the rucksack in one hand whilst I poured the coffee and rummaged around for biscuits with the other. There was only one other dog walker in the park and it was raining and gloomy.
In the afternoon, I spent several hours attempting to claim a refund for a holiday to Portugal in May for which I had paid in January. After several fruitless quaters-of-an-hour hanging onto the end of a phone with recorded messages saying ‘all of our staff are attending to other clients in this exceptionally busy period’) I eventually found a website where you had to fill in all of the details of a claim on a form on the web, which you then had to ‘submit’ – although the form refused to submit. But I did find a telephone number and explained my dilemma to a friendly human at the other end who sighed and said ‘Yes, sir, all of our Expedia clients are experiencing the same problem’ Anyway, I got sent a 6 page form on a PDF for me to fill in, scan and send back so I am sort of making progress.
I have composed a little website with just three items on it that people may find interesting. One is a definitive document on everything you needed to know about COVID-19 (a 33 page document) well written and up-to-date from Harvard medical school. The second item is an article how to keep your immune system well-functioning. The third item is from an email which an ex-Winchester University colleague has sent to me which, as she had been a purser on a cruise liner which was afflicted by Norovirus,is full of practical hints and strategies. Here is the URL:
http://covid.kesland.info
Hasta la vista!
Each day has its own particular ‘timbre’ and today is no exception. Our morning was considerably lightened up by two events. Firstly, one of the very friendly staff in Waitrose has offered me whatever assistance I might need in the weeks ahead. Accordingly, I/we are going to devise a system whereby I can leave a bag complete with my newspaper tokens and she can deliver ‘The Times‘ and ‘The Guardian‘ into the bag without my needing to enter the store – this will be brilliant if we can get it to work. It shows how some people are full of the spirit of altruism of which more later. The second thing that brightened up our morning was meeting one of our ‘Waitrose’ friends in the park – we were able to sit on adjacent park benches at least a metre apart and exchange gossip over how we were coping with the crisis. I think we were both incredibly pleased to see each other as it broke up the social isolation for us mutually On the way home, we called by one of our immediate neighbours and had a brief conversation through a partially opened window. She was telling us a horrendous story of local groups of people who were going into Asda and engaging in all sorts of panic buying before disgorging the contents of their trolleys into their cars, putting on a new set of other clothes and headgear so they would not be recognised and then entering the store again for a second sortie.
In the afternoon, I managed to successfully make a PDF file of my claim to the insurance company complete with accompanying documentation. I managed to successfully edit the PDF file of a page copied twice in error and then used an online pdf compression program to reduce its size from 11Mb to 1.6 Mb before I submitted it. Whether or not, I will get any of our money back from the planned trip to Portugal in May I do not know but at least I have tried one line of attack before I take issue with the credit card company, which will be the last resort.
On a more reflective note, the crisis seems to be revealing a polarisation in our society between a group of largely uneducated, individualistic and essentially selfish individuals on the one hand and a more responsible, altruistic and community-minded set of people on the other. Perhaps ‘thus was it ever so’ but certainly the crisis is bringing it into sharp relief.
The Sky News video of conditions in the Bergamo hospital in Northern Italy which is already completely overwhelmed gave pause for thought, to put it mildly. They are saying that this might only be a foretaste of that is to come in the UK as we seem to be some three weeks behind Italy and the rate of increase in the UK seems worse than other comparable societies such as China, Italy etc. Without being melodramatic, I think I would die peacefully at home rather than eventually in the insulated, chaotic and impersonal settings that we see in the Italian critical care hospitals (which, by all accounts, are better equipped than ours)
Today was a brighter day than yesterday and our spirits were raised by meeting a couple of friends on our walk down to the park - to whom we chatted from a safe distance of 2-3 metres but as the news seems to get more dire by the hour, it is an interesting question for how much longer this can be maintained. In northern Italy, for example, (the UK is reckoned to be about 3 weeks behind) it used to be possible for one person at a time to have a walk with a dog but it seems that even this is now being adjudged as unsafe.
Our son and daughter-in-law managed to secure us our daily newspapers (which we have had to forego since last weekend) and this was a welcome treat. After some messaging with a friendly colleague from Waitrose we are setting up a system whereby we leave a bag containing pre-paid tokens for the newspapers hanging up outside Waitrose and, we are hopeful, that within a few minutes the tokens will have been taken as payment and the bag filled with newspapers ready for us to collect. Our son daughter-in-law tried to go the pharmacy to pick up some routine prescriptions for Meg and myself but the pharmacy as a whole was shut (whilst they are processing enormous backlogs?) and a neigbouring pharmacy across the road had a queue outside and people were only being admitted three at a time. From what we can tell the local supermarkets have been emptied of certain items that we would normally buy week by week (eggs, cheese, milk) so we shall have wait and see if any of these can be supplied by Ocado.
I want to pass on a seemingly bizarre tip but it seems to work very well. After Meg and I had consumed our coffee in the local park, we treated ourselves to a banana each. I was just about to dispose of the skin in a nearby rubbish bin when I stared down at my scuffed walking boots and suddenly remembered an old tip. I rubbed the (inside) of the banana skin over my boots and they did a marvellous job in cleaning and renovating them. I seem to remember somewhere that the same tip works exceptionally well for rubber (not plastic) car mats - I think that the natural oils in a banana skin are very akin to the natural oils to be found in both rubber and leather and hence they do a good job in cleaning and renovating them. I am constantly reminded of what things were like in 1950 when I first started primary school when absolutely everything was in short supply. At schools, our crayons were cut into two so that we could have half a crayon each. If you needed to go the outside toilet to do a 'N0. 2' job, the teacher would assess your size and need and then from a roll of Izal toilet paper which she kept in her desk grant you either one or two pieces of paper. Those days may well return in the current crisis!
Digesting the news from yesterday when the whole of the private sector was subsidised by having 80% of wages to be paid for by the government, it almost seems as though we are living in an Alice-in-Wonderland type world for measures like this were not even dreamed of by Jeremy Corbin and, of course. nothing like this was attempted in the Second World War. One does get the feeling that once a business has been closed down, how many will ever re-open? Even having 80% of staff wages paid for by the government is pretty meaningless if there are no customers or footfall of any kind.
In the late afternoon we had an hour's FaceTime chat with two of our Waitrose friends which was absolutely wonderful. We may meet in the local park at a very safe distance if the weather is fine next week.
To say that the highlight of one’s day has been the delivery of a week’s groceries would, in normal times, seem the height of triviality. However, I was delighted, not to say relieved, to take delivery of my very first Ocado order between 8.00 and 9.00 this morning. I seem to have a superfluity of green vegetables and potatoes (but, apparently, the veg sections of the supermarkets have remained somewhat unscathed whereas the milk, chese, eggs, pasta sections seem to have been stripped). I am going to try my second Ocado order at about 1.30 in the morning as the rest of the time the web access times are incredibly long.
The four us us are settling into a new routine but some things are proving a little difficult. Martin will be working from home from now on but is going on a toilet roll hunt tomorrow (we are down to our last 4). In addition, we are regularly wiping down surfaces, light switches, door handles (including the front door) and the like and our hands get a wash in good old-fashioned soap whenever we are within range of a soapdish.
My son and daughter-in-law used my pre-paid vouchers to acquire our copy of the Sunday Times and Observer and it has been fascinating to have a deep and informed read. In particular, the Observer reproduced Imperial College’s report COVID-19 which completely dismayed the government and forced the abrupt changes in policy. The report indicated that the death toll would rise to 250,000 unless draconian measures were adopted. This evidence and the fact that we are only 2-3 weeks behind Italy where the death toll is already about 5,000, coupled with the harrowing Sky News reports from inside the Bergamo (Northern Italy) critical care units which are being overwhelmed made a goverment re-think inevitable.
Meg and I had our normal walk in the park keeping at least three metres from anybody. But we did meet an interesting lady whose husband had recently died of pancreatic cancer (and we all thought that this might have been a blessing given the present state of the hospitals) and another father-son couple making the best of Mother’s Day (which seems a complete irrelevance). We will still have to see what the week ahead brings where we have some routine GP and hospital appointments which will now be conducted by phone.
A final thought for the day – if there had been any church services in Anglican or Catholic churches where normally part of the Epistle would be a reading from the Old Testament, would we have two readings ‘The Apocalypse‘ followed by ‘Apocalypse Now‘? (Not really the Old Testament I know but you get my drift)
Well, we knew in our hearts that this day was eventually going to arrive and so it has. Of course, if you have already been self-isolating and keeping at least two metres from individuals you pass on a walk then nothing much will actually change. But, inevitably, the most dramatic impact is upon food distribution. Did all of the people who ‘panicked’ and collectively put £1 billion worth of food in their store cupboards act sensibly and rationally: if you tried not to panic and hoard then were you denying yourself essential supplies in the future? About 10 days I signed up for Ocado and actually got a delivery last Sunday. I now have a ‘normal’ week shopping of some £40.00 worth of goods in the Ocado system but no delivery slots are available so what to do? The official government advice is to use online delivery services ‘when you can’ (which are incredibly weasel words from a government which must or should have known/modelled these consequences) As of 8.30 this evening, the entire food distribution system is suspect. I’m not sure I particularly want to be starved into standing in a queue to be let in three at a time into a supermarket with basically no stock, but when the point of starvation arrives I suppose I will.
Today didn’t start off particularly well as our friendly assistant in our local Waitrose with whom I had set up an arrangement to collect my pre-paid newspapers had reported in sick and was self-isolating. However, she had fully briefed one of her colleagues and we handed in our bag and vouchers and got our newspapers for the first (and probably the last) time. We had some nice chats at a distance with friends and acquaintances in the course of the morning. The afternoon was spent composing a little note to send round the rest of the residents who share the BioDisk (mini sewage treatment system for our six houses) reminding them to only flush conventional toilet tissue down the loos in case desperation forces them to use cut-up newspaper or other improvised solutions which could well clog the system. We FaceTimed some more friends at the end of the afternoon and swopped notes about access to food, recipes and the like. Then a nice long chat with our new next-door neighbours that I hadn’t managed to see in quite a long while.
Martin sent me a very interesting article from Roy Lilley, a very well informed commentator on the Health Service. The article ‘Some thinking to do..‘ was essentially trying to predict what new models of economic and social organisation we would develop ‘when this is all over’ as the government’s response to the crisis in paying 80% of the wages of people working in the private sector is ‘pure socialism’ It is surely the case that nothing will ever be quite the same again. In particular, there is. a strong argument that our NHS must always start off from a position where it can respond well to new situations of pandemics which will surely arise again (three in the last century?)
This has been the first full day of ‘lock-down’ but it hasn’t seemed so very different from the days preceding it. The roads were certainly quieter but from our bedroom we can still see (a long way off) lorries making their way up and down the M42/M5. It was a beautiful spring day and one in which felt good to be alive with the birds singing and the trees starting to burst into bloom. On our way down to our normal pitch in the park, we passed a couple of neighbours who we have got to know better over the years – they attend the same church and were keenly gardening whilst they could. We chatted for perhaps half an hour exchanging horror stories and thoughts about the current crisis. The behaviour of fellow walkers was quite interesting. When we started to get within range of any other walkers, we engaged in a mutual swerve in plenty of time making sure that there were at least three metres between us rather than the recommended two. It seemed a reversal of normal patterns of behaviour – one exhibited on’s concern for other people by taking steps to avoid them rather than greet them. We observed just one example of antisocial behaviour in which a couple of parents and their two children and a dog were romping down the path without seemingly a care in the world – we turned abruptly on our heels and took off in the opposite direction so that we would come nowhere near them.
Our son, Martin, spent an hour and three quarters queuing to get into the local pharmacy picking up a couple of prescriptions for us (in a queue of about two dozen) for which we were very grateful. Lunch consisted of one of our own home-made fish pies and I reminded myself that I had all of the ingredients to male another one which lasts for 4-5 meals altogether. When every one has come home. we engage on a deep clean of kitchen surfaces and the like – I am taking over the duties of the light switches monitor, disinfecting each of the light switches in the house (of which there seemed to be a lot – I must do a count of them tomorrow)
Quite a lot of the day I have had my Ocado app running on the computer running down from about 40,000 in the queue only to find there are no delivery slots yet allocated. We are stocked up with enough food for about the next two weeks but I am trying to put in a sensible order for delivery in about a fortnight’s time although this may be a vain hope. Our daughter-in-law is going to try and buy a few essentials from M&S when she comes home from school tomorrow so we shall have to live in hope.
As I was watching the news bulletin at end of the day we learned that the NHS are concerting the Excel exhibition centre in London into a 4,000 bedded temporary hospital whilst Donald Trump is arguing that he intends to ‘open up’ the rest of America to the world by Easter which is now three weeks away, whilst the mayor of New York is pleading desperately for medical supplied as the virus is whipping through the city like wildfire!
Today started with a maximum degree of frustration. To order some groceries online, I am using Ocado which seems very good but is almost completely overwhelmed by the demand for online shopping – it is not unheard to join a queue of 50,000 whilst shopping. In order to maximise my chances of getting onto the system, I logged in about 1.00 am in the morning and was pleasantly surprised to get after only a 5-minute wait (eight hours is threatened if you try during the day). Having already saved a trolley load of groceries, I took on the remaining three delivery slots. However, the way the system works one has to order £40.00 worth of goods. As so many items were unavailable my ‘shopping basket’ dropped to about £20.00 so I was forced by the system to abandon my delivery slot in order to top my groceries to a volume which after allowances would not drop below £40.00. So I topped up with various items but by the time I came to checkout, all of the delivery slots had gone so I was left, as at the beginning of the night with a basket of groceries (a bigger basket in this case) but no delivery slot. On the assumption that slots are released each day in the wee small hours of the morning, I shall try again tonight and see how I get on. To be honest, as we have about two weeks of food, we have sufficient to cover our needs but I am trying to be organised for what is to come a fortnight down the track, as it were. As it happens our daughter-in-law managed to pop into M&S and had topped up with a few things for both herself and for Meg and me.
Today on our daily walk, we found people both friendly but also responsible as tended to swerve ‘outwards’ as it were to give each other a wide berth as it were. I am sure we are quite fortunate, having a large park to walk around only about 1.5km away but I can only imagine how people are feeling if they have been cooped up in a small flat for days on end.
This afternoon, I waited for a telephone call from my doctor to give me the results of my recent gastroscopy (some small polyps were removed but they were benign) and to update blood pressure medication so I spent some of the afternoon trying to get into a really relaxed state listening to ClassicFM before I took some blood pressure readings. As it happens, I am listening to ClassicFM as I type and they are trying to encourage the British public to do what the Italians, Spanish and French are already doing. At 8.00 every evening, people get onto their balconies (in flat-centred societies) where everyone gives a huge round of applause as a mark of appreciation to the NHS personnel who are struggling to preserve our lives in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We had previously arranged to FaceTime our closest friends in Spain and to get news from them. The ‘lock-down’ had been imposed much more rigorously there rather than here – for example, one was allowed to venture out about 200 metres with one’s pet to allow it to relieve itself and then back home. We joked that if they ran out of toilet paper (there had been a panic on this in Spain as well) it would be not only the pets that were relieving themselves on the side of the road. The military (‘Guardia Civile’) seemed to have played a much bigger role in maintaining the new social norms but after some terrible scenes in supermarkets, the access to food seems to have settled down. But Spain has many more smaller shops as well as supermarket chains so I suppose that helps. The view from Spain as the deaths in Spain exceed those in China was that the Chinese could be lying about their figures – but in any case, in a non-democratic regime people could be dragged from their houses and made to conform if it was evident that they were not doing so.
The Ocado website is down until 11.0opm so I wonder if I get any more success tonight – I will report tomorrow. Watch this space!
The day did not start off particularly well because, as I might have predicted, I got to the front of a queue of about 60,000 in Ocado only to find there were no slots available. However, this is not quite as dire as it sounds because our daughter-in-law managed to secure a few provisions for us from Marks and Spencers/Waitrose (the ALDIs and ASDAs of this world are a disaster zone) I may see if Ocado have any priority system for self-isolaters although I doubt it, despite government urging. I have also signed up to my local Iceland who is offering free delivery but there are no slots available (whilst my welcoming letter once I had signed up was promising the earth)
Actually, there is quite a jolly atmosphere in our house at the moment. We are all well and aiming to keep that way by being particularly careful about who we interact with. The house is reasonably stocked with food and we do not feel under any great stress, although I must say the local park is a god-send. This afternoon marked the first outing of the petrol mower and I was delighted that it started on the second ‘pull’ – I have to have the mower on a higher cut for the first cut of the season as the grass is so tufty. Incidentally, did you know that petrol contains 5%-10% ethanol at the moment (the petrol companies are very coy about telling you about this) and you need to buy a special ‘fuel stabiliser’ to add to the fuel in the container you use for the mower. It doesn’t matter too much in cars where the motion of the car joggles it all around but it does matter in the case of containers for your mower as they tend to hang around in the garage. The ethanol absorbs a layer of water from the atmosphere and the water and the petrol then separate and you have horrendous problems with the mower. For that reason, I always religiously drain off the oil and the excess fuel at the end of the mowing season and at the start of a new season I only ever use the highest quality of fuel I can and put in a Briggs and Stratton fuel stabiliser additive which lasts forever. I only found out about this because my mower handbook recommended that I use a fuel stabiliser and I did some Googling to find out why. If any reader also runs a petrol mower, it’s worth a search around.
Tonight we had the first? last? episode of the Clap for Carers event – everyone comes to their windows or doors at 8.00 in the evening and applauded the workers in the NHS who are keeping us all safe. We all found it quite inspiring – the most unlikeliest of our neighbours participated.
Today was the day when the Chancellor of the Exchequer unveiled a scheme giving a grant to all the self-employed of 80% of the profits they declared to HMRC. Has it occurred to anyone that many of the self-employed declared everything they could think of as expenses (cars, clothes, equipment, parts of rooms as office space etc. etc.) to minimise their tax liability and consequently paid very little in actual tax (whilst claiming that it was their taxes that paid for the NHS – not the hefty contributions from the rest of us on PAYE) This means that their actual ‘profit’ which is income minus expenditure would have been declared as very little and now they only receive a grant of 80% of this. None of the commentators have explained that but are declaiming how generous the government has been but I suspect not! Those who don’t qualify have to join the rest of humanity on Universal Credit where they wait 5 weeks for the first payment and an horrendous online assessment process. Hey Ho – the German word ‘schadrenfreude’ occurs to me!
After I have blogged in the past about the inanities of accessing Ocado, the online supermarket, I think I only need to report that I had to wait three minutes in a queue to join a queue which was more than 262,000 long (more than a quarter of a million) – and which now was ‘being paused! ‘ I think, enough said!
Meg and I were heartened to meet with one of our Waitrose friends in the park today and we held an interesting chat as a distance of some three or four metres. I have noticed that when people know each other and evidently have a regard for them then the distance between them actually increases so that perhaps on a subconscious level one is trying not to do harm to friends and kindred spirits. The park was extremely quiet today and it looks as though the social isolation message is really starting to ‘cut through’ – perhaps the prospect of £30 fines is deterring some people. When we got home and turned on the TV it was to the news that Boris Johnson (the prime minister), Matt Hancock (Health minister) and the Government’s chief medical adviser had all been stricken by the virus (but none, it appears, too severely at this stage)
In these very straightened circumstances, I have been reflecting upon the fact that my mother’s generation who had lived through World War II knew about social isolation (air-raid shelters) and privations and certainly know how to make a little go a long way. My mother tended to bake bread every day and had a range of other habits that seemed to date from her war-time experiences. For example, she always conserved what she called ‘good’ water i.e. water that had been used for one cleaning purpose but was not thrown away as it could then be used for something else. As we eke out our meagre and dwindling food supplies in the weeks yet to come, we may need to relearn some of those old-fashioned virtues of thrift and resilience. In the late afternoon, we FaceTimed some of our oldest and dearest Waitrose friends and nattered for practically an hour (which always seems to fly by) We may meet in the park for a distance at a distance if the nice fine days of spring return in a few days. This evening I spent a pleasant few minutes reading and replying to one of our Hampshire friends who had been reading these blogs and whose supermarket experiences seemed to parallel our own.
As I type, I am listening to Beethoven’s 9th (choral symphony) on ClassicFM and reflect that some things have got better. The various radios we have scattered throughout the house are tuned either to Radio 4 (talk programmes) or to ClassicFM with an occasional foray into Radio 3 when ClassicFM goes a bit downmarket by playing a Strauss waltz (does anybody actually choose that?) I suppose my appreciation of classical music started when I was at a boarding unit in a school in Bolton, Lancashire to which I was despatched whilst my mother trained to be a teacher in the mid-1950s. [As an aside, she was so desperate to get into what was then called a Teacher Training College that she altered the 1911 on her birth certificate to 1914 to make herself look three years younger, the penalty for this sin being that she had to wait for an extra three years before she could draw her state retirement pension!] The school did not have a particularly good reputation but I was in the school choir and the orchestra (and two members of the school were actually in the National Youth Orchestra) But much more prestigious was the school brass band (of which I was not a member being a violinist) and it played reguarly at the Catholic Whit Walks held in the Lancashire towns when all the various civic and ethnic groups (e.g. Ukranians who had come to work in the mines) used to parade in their best uniforms/national dress. On my study wall, I still have a Lowry (print!) showing the Whit Walks in the distance which is a reminder of our Manchester and university days.
Well, I sort of struck lucky in the wee small hours of the morning. I had set up an account with Waitrose ‘Click and Collect‘ mainly for cleaning materials, wipes and the non-food items that we were likely to run out in a couple of weeks time (or at least, not find in the store) To my delight, a ‘slot’ came up on Monday next which I eagerly accepted although it entails a jouney (by son and/or daughter-in-law to nearby Droitwich, where the Waitrose store is so much bigger) It will be interesting to see how much of the original order is actually fulfilled – we shall see!
Today, I was also delighted to be the recipient of ‘The Times‘ and ‘The Guardian‘ which had kindly been collected for us by the family on their morning walk. Although we are prepared to forego newspapers during the week, those on a Saturday are particularly valuable as they contain the guides TV programmes in the week to come.
As I was watching TV tonight, I was particularly struck by how pointless many of the advertisements are on commercial TV. Of course, they would have been commissioned months ago and made weeks ago – but an advert advocating a particular brand of cosmetic seems singularly pointless when it is impossible to go to a shop that could sell it for me. I forget who it was who opined that at least half of all the money spent on advertising is absolutely wasted but the difficulty remains that no one can discern which half!
I thought I would attempt to be virtuous today – if the weather had been better, I would have spent some time in the garden doing a bit of a spring tidy up. Instead, I engaged in a stepper routine to which I have a link via YouTube – the presenter is quite a likeable young American lady who with her partner runs a series of programmes called on a website called FitnessBlender.com. It takes me about 15 minutes and gets me out of breath as well as exercising my lower body – in the meantime, to get me going for the day, in the morning and before breakfast I do a series of Pilates style stretches and incorporate a 4kg weight to make sure my arm muscles do not waste away. The way that I know whether these various exercises are doing their job is (a) how easy it is to put a loaded suitcase in an overhead luggage compartment when one is going on holiday (a distant hope?) and (b) whether my muscles ache or not after the first mowing of the season (which tends to be the heaviest one) Whilst on the fitness theme, I am in two minds whether to do the online yoga course which my local yoga studio is putting on to try and gain a bit of income for themselves whilst it is not possible to attend in person. I think I probably will if only I would like their small business to keep going after the ‘crisis’ and a combination of yoga and Pilates exercises ought to keep me in shape.
The news continues to be shocking, of course, and I keep wondering where the ‘inflection’ point of the curve will come i.e. the point at which the rate of new cases starts to moderate, indicating one is nearing the tope of the curve. The following is copied from the MedScape website:
Number of Patients With COVID-19 in ICU Doubles Every 2 to 3 Days
Manca has calculated from the Italian data that the number of patients in intensive care with COVID-19 initially doubles every 2 to 3 days.
This rate slows fractionally every day until, after 3 to 4 weeks, the doubling time is around 4 to 5 days. Around day 18, the rate of increase is maintained for 3 to 4 days without increasing further, known as the “inflection point”, after which the rate of increase in ICU cases begins to drop.
He found that the inflection point was reached in Lombardy 19 days after the outbreak started in the region.
For the rest of Italy, that point will not be reached until the start of next month, he therefore predicts. The consequence is that “every day counts,” he stressed.
On these calculations, we still have 2 more weeks of really bad news. Interesting that exhibition centres (ExCel in London, NEC in Birmingham, GMex in Manchester) are now being commissioned as instant hospitals-cum-morgues.
I always think that the day after the clocks go forward is the first actual day of spring, whatever the date of the Spring equinox - it is nice to get an hour of extra light at the end of the day. Although it seems a big job to get all of the clocks in the house done, my son and I share the tasks between us so it is soon done. I just have to remember the alter the time in the car the next time I take it for a drive. This afternoon, we decided to devote the time to a good clean of the house, now that our weekly help is not available to us. I did a certain amount of tidying up before hoovering and now fully appreciate what a difficult job it must be week by week when I leave little piles of things on the floor. Nonetheless, as a result of tidying up, I have now discovered a calculator which had been temporarily mislaid, two books that were in places that I did not expect them be (although I intend to give both of them away) and some coloured electricians tape littering my study floor (I used it for bookbinding purposes when I run several pages of e.g. a manual and make it into a little book, properly stapled and with tape covering the spine if you really wanted to know!) I sent a message to our home-help with abject apologies for being a miscreant in the past and have informed her that 'There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.." I have now promised my son that I will clear at least one 'pile' per day (a pile normally consisting of things I have run from the computer, books, newspaper articles, letters to be filed, etc. etc.) Once it is filed I know I will forget about it completely although if it there is on a pile it is a reminder to me to do something with it..
This morning in the park we managed a nice chat with one of (formerly) Waitrose acquaintances who was busy pushing her two twin girls in their buggy. We held the customary conversation at two metres distance and I have supplied her with details of this blog to get bored with. It really is quite amazing that most days we manage to see someone we know with whom we can have a conversation.
My son managed to get me a Sunday Times and an Observer which were very gratefully received. From the Sunday Times, I discovered the following:UK COVID-19 tests per week:35,000 Deaths : 1000+
Germany COVID-19 tests per week: 500,000 (available to all who ask for them- 14x UK) Deaths: 400 - 40% of UK figure
Our populations are similar so that is quite telling statistic! When challenged over the evident delay exhibited by the government before their volte-face, the response by various government ministers is always either complete prevarication or the mantra 'we have always been guided by the science' One wonders when this is all over and we have an official enquiry, what it will actually reveal (although I feel that we could probably write the enquiry report now)
So the start of another week – and the end of our first fortnight of self-isolation. We were really looking forward this morning to taking delivery of our first Waitrose ‘Click and Collect‘ groceries which my son was picking up for us from a larger Waitrose store in Droitwich. However, we only received £13 worth of the £40 worth of goods ordered, many being unavailable alhough the website did not list them as being out of stock. These were mainly cleaning materials and anti-bacterial wipes which we could really have done with but evidently, just as if one were shopping in person, there were none to be had. At least the Amazon website is brutally honest when it says “We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock”
My niece had sent me a link to her local church in Harrogate where they are offering a vew of the special mid-day prayers. As this was a YouTube reference, I put the reference on a website with a specially short and snappy name to help to access it – and then the problems started. On my Panasonic TV I found on the menu where, in theory, you could access the web – I ascertained that I did indeed have an internet connection. I was incredibly pleased to get my webpage up and loaded although it was very tedious typing to type in the name by picking out ony letter at a time on the keyboard so I accessed the link and waited. Then I got a message saying ‘YouTube cannot work with this browser‘ as it was out of date. So I attempted to download an update to FireFox which then informed me ‘Error – FireFox cannot display this page‘ At that stage, I gave up completely and went to view it on the computer in my study where it took only seconds to load. The ‘service’ was a little basic (the pastor sitting in a chair and reading out a few bits of scripture and a prayer/contemplation or so) but out of interest I wondered what the rest of YouTube was up to and discovered that if one wanted one could have complete Catholic Masses complete with video images of the church and congregation, full music and the like (mainly North American or Canadian) and evidently produced at a professional level. So if I need some spiritual consolation (I am not at thet stage yet) we shall have to wait and see!
In the afternoon, I decided to tackle one of my well-known piles and made a fair degree of progress. I managed to throw away about half of the pile and the remainder was mainly newspaper articles and/or printouts from the internet which focussed on the following issues:
(i) bowel and prostate cancer
(ii) how to eat healthily
(iii) how to exercise healthily.
I then discovered to my delight that I had two empty box files (and an empty Apple iPad box which I can press into service) so the task for tomorrow is to do a proper sorting out into the relevant boxes and then finding a location in which to store the boxes (as my study is already rather full) I think it’s going to be a ‘top-of-the-bookcase’ jobby but at least it helps to fulfil the pledge both to my son and our home help that ‘There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth‘ – but I will have to keep on repenting until the study (and the rest of the house) are in a completely ship-safe and orderly state. Another bout of tidying up/sorting out/throwing away/filing awaits tomorrow no doubt. Incidentally, our local park was incredibly quiet this morning – we were approached by several enthusiastic licking dogs (whose owners kept at a respectable distance)
A beautiful bright day today and consequently the park seemed somewhat fuller of dog-walkers than normal – I mean we could see about six people in total rather than two. I was thinking aloud whether if we were spotted sitting on a park bench, we would be moved on by an officious community police person or a park attendant. Mind you, this is an entirely artificial concept, as in twelve and a half years of living in Bromsgrove, I have never seen a uniformed police offer patrolling the streets of Bromsgrove. Occasionally ( once or twice a week), you might see a Police Community Support Officer and I suspect that park attendants were least seen in the pages of ‘The Beano‘ because I do not recall ever having seen once since. When they did disappear? Parking wardens first appeared in 1960 so perhaps one was transformed into the other. On the way home, we spent a pleasant 20 minutes or so chatting with one of our friends from church. We made her appear by the simple expedient of standing in front of her house and waving at a window until we were spotted – these chats help us all to stop having cabin fever.
In the afternoon, I carried on with the organisation of press-cuttings and articles which I had allowed to accumulate over the years. I now have them organised into folders comprising a variety of health conditions (which I won’t detail now), exercise, dietary issues, the ageing process and finally a category I call ‘newsworthy’. These are now housed in a couple of box-files and I am resolved both to keep them accessible and also to constantly file away new material as I find it. In this respect, The Times Health section often contains interesting material and is generally very reliable. In the late afternoon, we FaceTimed some of our Waitrose friends and exchanged news about current supermarket access and the state of the world in general. It’s great to be able to talk over a video-link like this and I wish I had started it sooner with many of my friends and acquaintances. I am resolved to also get to grips with Skype which is a bit of a closed book to me at the moment.
If I were a member of the NHS front-line staff, I think I would feel incredibly frustrated at the government’s response to the absence of sufficient testing for the COVID-19 virus. When faced with direct and sometimes penetrating questions, they resort to evasion, aspiration (‘We hope very much that soon we will…etc’)and occasionally, a direct misrepresentation, for example saying that the shortage of a suitable reagent in the testing process is the source of the problem. It is evident that there has been a massive lack of preparedness over the years and is now manifest by a deficit in the testing facilities, the staff to do the tests and the analysis, not to mention the kits themselves. I am finding that the daily briefing at 5.00 pm is particularly irksome as the journalists can pose quite pointed questions over their video- links but after an evasive reply not answering the question at all directly, the journalist is not given the opportunity to have any come-back and hence this plays straight into the politician’s hands. There will be a lot more of this in the next two weeks, I am sure.
Although as a child I used to say ‘White Rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits’ and then hold my fingers crossed behond my back until I saw a policman riding a white horse on the first day of the month, I began to think I was too old for such childish nonsense and decided not to go down this road again – finding any policman is rare enough, let alone on a white horse!
It was an interesting venture into the park today although the weather was a bit grey with a lot of overhanging cloud. A police car pulled up into the park (notwithstanding what I was saying just now) – Meg and I wondered if they were going to cast an eye over diverse dog walkers or even, as reputededly happened in Ipswich according to a recent letter in The Times, to admonish a couple for not exercising and who were therefore breaking the spirit of the newly created social universe which we now inhabit. Fortunately, our customary park bench was out of sight of the police car but it appeared that the couple of officers (male plus female) had just pulled in to have a snack of a chocolate bar and was not chasing miscreants such as myself. As we were drinking our coffee, an elderly lady who I know by sight came into view, walking her little Jack Russell terrior dog. As I was born only two days when World War II ended and I am nearly 75, I had worked out that the only people who had any first hand knowledge would have to be about ten years of age or older and thus be 85+ years of age. After explaining why I needed to know, I tentatively asked my acquaintance her age – it turned out that she was actually 85 (but looked younger). I had been thinking that people of that generation would have had to have shown some resourcefulness and resilience to have lived throughout the wartime years and that would probably stand them in good stead for the times that we living through at the moment. It turned out that neither of us had known our fathers – my friend’s father had been drowned (they thought) crossing from Sicily to Italy. Her house in rural Worcestershire had been subject to some bombing but the three bombs dropped nearby had actually missed her house. It turned out that the German bomber had been pursued by a British fighter plane and the bomber had released his bombs indiscrimately in order to lighten his load and make good his escape. I thought this was quite fascinating social hisory – I explained how my own mother was bombed out of her house in Hull before going to Liverpool (for what reason I have not managed to ascertain but my sister was born there) before being bombed out of her house in Liverpool. On our way home, a sight that gladdened the eye was to see a duck with a brood of 10 ducklings swimming towards us in the park pond. They only looked a day or so old and I had not noticed them before so I wonder when they were actually born. The other remarkable fact was the ducks had nested on an island which is sits astride a stone wall at least a metre high so I speculated that the mother duck must have encouraged one or two day old chicks to have plunged that distance to reach the pond (a bit like us leaping at least from the top of a house)
Our daughter-in-law had very kindly offered to do the weekly shopping for us at a branch of Waitose in Droitwich. This was a surreal experience as the queue stretched right around the car park as individuals had to keep at least 2 metres apart and only about 10 were allowed in the store at any one time. However, we managed to get some basic supplies (at Waitrose prices!) to keep us going for the next week or so. I wonder what the COVID-19 death toll tomorrow will be as it was 560 today and can only get worse…
The highlight of our day always seems to be our daily walk to the park where, with luck, we can bump into old friends and acquaintances. Today was no exception as we met one of our Waitrose friends who had been out exercising and was just completing what may have been an hour-long tour of the park and its environs. By a careful piece of foresight, I had brought my daily newspaper tokens with me – although the son and heir is always telling me that I ought to just read it electronically, I am still sufficiently old-fashioned ? stuck in my ways? to enjoy reading the authentic article. Anyway, our friend secured my newspapers for me ( a five minute walk away to our local Waitrose) and I had a book full of ‘schoolboy howlers’ (most of which I had already read before ) which I readily gave her in exchange for her efforts. I remember one of these schoolboy howlers as it was particularly apposite to our current times, assuming that we are experiencing at the moment has its parallels in the Black Death 1347-1353 (Thank you Google!) The question asked was ‘What did a big red cross signify when painted on the front door of a house?’ And the answer – ‘There is a fully trained member of the Red Cross inside ready to administer first aid’ We also struck up a conversation with an assistant from the local veterinary practice who was giving some walking therapy to an injured dog (a poodle and pointer cross since you ask) which had been badly injured in a road accident and had spent some six weeks as an ‘in-patient’ in their clinic. We exchanged some stories about the capacities of dogs to read human body language (researchers from an Italian university have recently investigated this and argue that dogs have the ability to read body language both in humans and other dogs- apparently we as mere humans lost this ability a very long time ago in our evolution)
This afternoon was meant to be a ‘tidying up’ afternoon but somehow, I never got round to it as I got diverted updating/refining some websites which I maintain more as a hobbyist/filing system rather than for any real computing intent. I have discovered a British website that offers ‘free’ unlimited webspace and the ability to create some subdomains which act rather as though they were completely independent websites. Normally, I am a little chary of such things but I am just putting trivial things on them (such as a minimalist HTML template, or a simple HTML lister) so that no real damage if the whole lot gets junked. They make money from advertising not on your website (which is a traditional model) but on the Control Panel which is used for maintenance purposes – which I then block in any case with an ad-blocker (although I do get messages requesting me to unblock my ad-blocker which is, I suppose, to be expected.)
My ex-colleague Eric has passed onto me a URL which gives an up-to-date picture of the latest published COVID-19 statistics so I will pass on it one for those readers who are compulsive followers of such things!
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f94c3c90da5b4e9f9a0b19484dd4bb14
Just as an afterthought – today being Thursday, we all hung out of our windows and applauded all of the public sector workers (ourselves) is what is becoming a weekly tradition. However, the response was somewhat down on last week which was the first of these events – and as the hour had gone forward, it was still not quite dark so the dramatic effect was a little muted. Still, we did our bit! During the day, I took the opportunity to order 1000 single-use plastic-type gloves – I reckon this is going to go for months and they will always be useful. Delivery time is about 2-3 weeks but we can hang on with some that we already have in stock until then.
It might sound a little strange to say that the highlight of our day is our walk down to the park and the people we meet there, with whom we can chat. Today was no exception for we met one of our Waitrose friends who was pushing her two baby girls out in their buggy. We chatted a lot about the NHS as we all have extensive links with it and our friend and her partner both work in the NHS. We had an interesting conversation concerning the way in which the modern NHS was taking people in some of the ancillary professions and training them up in more than one skill so that workers were, to some extent, multi-functional. Was this the way that the NHS was going to go in the future, we speculated. After having given our friend this blog reference, I regaled her with one of the anecdotes in my ‘Virtually Challenged Anecdotes‘ ( all true stories) concerning our next-door neighbour when we lived in Wigston, Leicestershire. Our neighbour was a very doughty Belgian lady (Flemish to be exact) and when we had known for only a few days she recounted the story of how she had circumcised her husband with a carving knife on the kitchen table. This was all done under the friendly gaze of the local family doctor – whether they used any anaesthetic was not mentioned but I doubt it. As our neighbour proudly announced ‘Well, he was no use to me like that’ and subsequently her husband went on to sire both a son and a daughter. We then went on our merry way and passed a distant neighbour who was out jogging – we both recognised each other vaguely by sight and we found out that she lived in a cottage about three hundred metres down the hill We both speculated that one of the unintended consequences of the present economic worries is that the developments which are threatening to engulf us will probably not now happen – or be delayed by a goodly number of years so that we will be past caring. Finally, we came across our new next door neighbour who was walking the family dog and we exchanged views (which we both happen to share) about the lack of talent in the present government who are trying to make the best of the pandemic for us.
As so many of our creative individuals have been subject to lockdown, their talents still continue to be manifest. On YouTube, there are a variety of COVID-19 parodies of popular song and film. Just entering ‘COVID parodies’ into Google will reveal many of them – for example, there is a rather nice COVID version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. But my particular favourite (and I think the funniest) is the Do-Re-Me song from The Sound of Music in which a new COVID soundtrack replaces the original – extremely funny!
I finally got round to clearing the tray I keep on top of my filing cabinet which houses the kinds of things you would normally keep in a desk-drawer such as paper clips, elastic bands, highlighters, tape, glue etc. etc. This has been threatened for several years but COVID has actually made it happen at last!
Although the weather forecasters said it was going to turn out to be a sunny day (and so, indeed it was, in the afternoon) this morning was pretty cold and miserable. Probably on account of this, the park was practically deserted – Meg and I were keen to drink up our coffee and not tarry, particularly as we did not coincide with any of our friends and acquaintanceships. However, our day was lightened by the fact that our daughter-in-law had managed an ‘intermediate’ range shop up at Waitrose so we now feel comfortable for a week or so. Although I am used to paying cash for everything at the supermarket and not paying by card, I am in a very small minority and cash is very much frowned upon these days (potentially virus-laden) So I am having to get used to a new system of purchases all paid for electronically and I transfer monies over to settle my bills with the rest of the family.
We were greeted with the news that Keir Starmer had won a convincing victory in the election for the Labour party leadership. Now although conventional politics has all but been suspended whilst the COVID-19 pandemic is upon us, it seems as we have a ‘proper’ opposition at last. I was musing to myself what two acts I would do within minutes of being elected and think I would settle on the following. The first thing I would is to offer new posts to Seamus Milne and Karie Murphy (these are the two extreme Left-wing, Stalinist aides who have hijacked the Labour Party since Corbyn was elected) Seamus Milne I would offer the post of a fraternal permanent delegate to the Peoples Republic of North Korea and suggest he could best fulfill his new role by living there. Karie Murphy has already been suggested for the House of Lords and I am struggling to find a suitable position for her. Perhaps a fraternal delegate to Kazakhstan might do the trick) The second thing I would do is to move the Labour Party HQ to Manchester – after all, it was the birthplace of the Trades Union Congress and has a blue plaque to prove it – of course, the proximity to the BBC and the whole media centre in Salford Quays would be important. I would leave a small branch office staffed by a couple of part-timers in London to make the point. Somehow, I don’t think that this is going to happen but we are living in very strange times politically.
This afternoon, as the weather was reasonably fine I managed to get our communal lawns cut (I maintain the communal grassland that serves our six houses and is some 500m²) and it is always a relief when the mower starts unproblematically. I am pleased to report that my efforts were supervised by Miggles, the good looking cat who has adopted us and she acts as a clerk-of-works whenever I am doing jobs in the garden, checking that everything is being done correctly. When I was having my mid-mowing break, she actually came and sat in my lap for a stroke but desiring something more, no doubt (foodwise!) As she prefers female laps to male laps, then this is quite something.
So we are in Day 20 of our self-isolation and it is interesting to see where the ‘peak’ of this will be. According to some optimistic predictions, the pandemic may peak in about 10 days time and it does appear that both Italy and Spain may be able to view the ‘summit’ of their infection in a few days’ time. However, we are about 2-3 weeks behind Italy so that the prediction of a peak in 10 days’ time looks optimistic. In view of the fact that the number of cases is still accelerating, I think a better guess might be the end of April rather than the middle of April i.e. at least three weeks from now. We shall see – I suppose when it happens, I will look back upon this blog and see how right or wrong I was. Today was a beautiful bright day (as forecast) and we enjoyed our trip to the park where we coincided with an old Waitrose friend (and her friend) with whom we exchanged some pleasant chat. And when we got home, I was delighted that my family had managed to obtain a copy of both the ‘Sunday Times‘ and the 'Observer' (with some difficulty, as the supermarkets were assuming you were only going to shop once per week and that for food, not newspapers). I was musing to myself that when the Martians come to visit us again they will report back to their mission controllers that the people on earth all seem to have personal modes of transport in front of their houses (i.e. cars) that they never seem to use, that all of their gardens look incredibly neat and tidy as people have been working on them constantly but all of the men seem to be growing long straggly hair for some unexplained reason!
This afternoon, as the weather was fair the family engaged in a collective pruning of a large Eleagnos shrub which as at the corner of our communal plot and was proving to be a nuisance when we were rounding the corner. Whilst the daughter-in-law was doing the pruning, my son and I were chopping it all into smaller pieces for disposal. This may actually prove quite difficult as the local authority has suspended collections of the ‘Brown Bins’ in which we put our garden waste so we may have to activate the shredder that we keep in a corner of the garden (but do not actually use a great deal)
We are looking forward to a period of fine weather in the week ahead of us. It looks as though that if the public does not obey the ‘keep your distance’ rules assiduously, the government may be forced into banning all walks from the house even for exercise. In the case of Spain, one is only allowed 200 metres to exercise the dog. We must say that we are counting our blesssings as with a fairly large garden and some space along the private road that services our little block of houses then we could always ‘exercise’ by walking around the gardens front and rear and along the roadways without leaving our own property. I think the chances of this are about 40% at the moment but we shall see in the days to come!
It was a beautiful, bright and sunny morning this morning – but on our daily trip to the park, we did not happen to see any of our friends or acquaintances so we had to enjoy our mid-morning snack and coffee in total solitude. In fairness, there were very few people in the park so perhaps the message about self-isolation is really getting home. It is sad to report that after the delight of seeing a brood of ten young ducklings a couple of days ago, the pond is now totally bereft of ducklings. One can only assume that they have constituted a tasty meal for someone – possibly a fox that roams by night or seagulls that predate during the day. In any case, the sum total of ducklings now appears to be zero. When we arrived home, we were greeted with a minor domestic crisis. We have a communal mini-sewerage treatment servicing our six hours and although this has been serviced only 2-3 weeks ago it was starting to smell somewhat. A tanker driver had mistakenly turned up at our property and upon inspection, it turned out that our unit was over-full and in urgent need of emptying. Once the level of the effluent reaches a certain level, a pump should be activated which disperses the ‘grey’ water, theoretically biologically pure, through a herringbone series of pipes that lay underneath our communal grassed area (which we have jokingly called Meg’s Meadow) So phone calls had to be made, one to the company that services the electrical and mechanical elements and to another which is engaged in the six-monthly emptying. The ’emptying’ company at first said that our contract had been terminated despite a direct debit being in place – we suspect that an accountancy upgrade and move to ‘paperless’ billing meant that we had been thrown off their maintenance schedules. So we have to arrange for an emergency emptying followed by an inspection by the maintenance company that no vital component had failed or is malfunctioning. We think we have now got the two firms involved to resume their normal schedules and let us hope that equilibrium is soon to be restored.
In the afternoon, we resumed some house-cleaning duties. I am reminded of the American comedienne Joan Rivers who once remarked ‘The thing about housework is that there is so much hoovering, dusting, cleaning, polishing – and then nine months later you have to do it all over again!‘ In the late afternoon, we had a FaceTime chat with two of our closest Waitrose friends – we exchanged recipes and other tales of how we were coping the crisis (quite well actually) Without this modern bit of technology, we would feel the absence of social contacts with friends acutely, I am sure. I reflect upon the fact that when our son spent an academic year in Mexico just before email became prevalent (1986-87) a letter would take three weeks to get to him in Mexico and the reply another three weeks to get back. If his scholarship to Mexico had been a year or so later then an email would have made keeping in contact almost instantaneous.
During the course of the evening, we get the news flash about Boris Johnson being admitted into intensive care. As it happens, the news media have some footage which indicates just what being in intensive care in the COVID-19 era looks like (i.e. frightening). One is bound to wonder whether the Prime Minister will survive all of this and in any case, he will not be in a fit state to resume office for a period of time probably measured in weeks – if at all. One only hopes that the rest of the political system is sufficiently robust to take the correct decisions and judgment calls that will have to be made in the weeks ahead.
What a beautiful day it was today – sunny with clear blue skies and the modicum of wind. I can report that having been bereft of ducklings, we were delighted to see another brood of four ducklings emerge. Whether it was 40% of the previous group of ten or whether they were absolutely newly hatched chicks born to a different mother (which I can suspect), who can say? We were also delighted to see some of our favourite friends who live just down the road and who we used to see at Mass on a Saturday evening – the latter habit we have got into to enhance our range of social contacts, but we did manage to give some solace to the Monsignor when he was stricken with colon cancer and Meg and I went on a journey to see him at a rather splendid diocesan retreat for sick and retired priests (in a house designed by Pugin) located in Staffordshire. Our friends seemed, like us, to be bearing up quite well – they were going to walk across the public park in Bromsgrove (Sanders Park – donated by a 19th C. industrialist) and round the grounds of Grafton Manor which is an Elizabethan manor house in the vicinity and used, in more normal times, as a wedding venue and up-market restaurant. Bromsgrove has a festival of arts and similar events once a year and Grafton Manor has hosted some concerts there. We attended a concert in which a young violinist played Mendelssohn’s violin concerto brilliantly (if I remember correctly).
We had a quiet afternoon in which I rediscovered the joys of dusting, polishing, etc (our bathroom on this occasion). I suppose years ago, and perhaps even today, there used to be the ritual of the ‘Spring Clean’ and so this was a brilliant opportunity to reinvent the tradition. Actually, whilst turning out our bedroom, I did discover a hardback notebook that I had forgotten about. It was actually a 2019 Page-a-Day diary but I had labelled it up nicely with some of those little stick-on letters that you can buy in some stationers. The idea behind it is this. Often by our telephone and on our working desks, we have little notebooks in which we write down the ephemera of the day. In the course of time, a lot of this can be junked – but the more important bits of information (telephone number, people’s names and addresses) can be written up in the Scrapbook where they will not get lost (at least that it the theory, anyway – it only works, though, if you make a conscious effort to transfer useful stuff from your daily jottings into it on a regular basis) The idea for this came to me several years ago when I got frustrated learning how to do something on the computer (e.g. finding software that puts captions across the bottom of photos that you wish to keep) So I called this book ‘What have I learnt/re-learnt TODAY’ and I notice that I actually started it in March 2102 (evidently 8 years ago) My little system is. like this – whenever I discover a new technique or something I wish to retain, then I will enter it on a new page with the date first and the subject matter second. Opening it at random, for example, the entry for Wednesday, 20th August 2014 was ‘MCH’s own URL shortener’ i.e. a way of taking a long and complex web address and shortening it into something more memorable without going to the trouble and expense of buying a new domain name (although I do do this on occasions) Then, at the back of the book I have an index of all of my entries (they number 92 at the moment) which gives the subject matter and then a date e,g, see entry for such-and-such a date. I must say, that I found this system does work very well for me – how many of us can remember what you did in March, 2012 if you do not use the technique regularly? Anyway, as I thought it was of a thin day, I would pass that tip on to all and sundry…
Yet another fine day – I suppose we had better enjoy it whilst the good weather lasts! As you might expect, there was a sprinkling of people in the park (rather than none) and we spent a happy few minutes chatting with some of our acquaintances. When we got back, Meg had a medical ‘appointment’ but everything is done by phone these days and quite a lot of things do not actually require face-to-face contact. We read one of the many articles that appear in the quality press these days and, of course, the consensus view is that no area of social life will ever be the same again. It looks as though the default medical consultation (GP’s, outpatients) will now be performed remotely as the technology becomes more widespread. As we use Apple technology in our house, we tend to use FaceTime which I must say has already worked excellently. One letter (or was it an article in the Time newspaper?) was arguing that more has been achieved by using the new technology to facilitate doctor-patient interaction in the last three weeks than in the last twenty years. Personally, I feel quite optimistic that the ‘new normality’ which will emerge after the worst excess of COVID-19 (not when it is over, if ever) may mean new forms of economic and social organisation in which as many one third of the population work from home (probable), new patterns of sociability and patterns of cooperation will emerge (more than likely) and that essential local shops and businesses may enjoy a resurgence (a possibility). What the modern-day High Street will look like in the typical town will look like, goodness alone knows, as many of the presently closed businesses will surely never re-open again (if only because there is not the footfall or the consumer spending power) to make them viable. In some ways, this might present more opportunities – e.g. bars/cafes more like their continental counterparts that sell coffee, cakes, alcohol, light meals and so on. We shall see!
In the afternoon, we had the organisation come and empty our BioDisk (miniature sewerage treatment plant) and were relieved that although it was quite full, everything was functioning normally – it will be checked mechanically tomorrow all being well. In the autumn rains, we had a large Hawthorne tree that had been overcome by ivy and was a little precariously growing on a slope. Anyway, it became uprooted and had to be removed which it was very efficiently. But left behind was a large amount of garden detritus not to mention some garden tools that used to be hung up in its branches (to save a journey into the house – don’t ask!) and this had been left all winter. So I set myself the task of a tidy-up which was meant to last 20 minutes but became an hour. I am glad to say that Miggles, our neighbourhood cat that has adopted us (not the other way around) supervised all of my activities, pretending to catch spiders and insects (she missed the two frogs that I unearthed), and checking that everything I did was being performed to specifications. I must say I have never seen a cat like her. When last autumn, I was laying a path and that involving taking slate delivered in a ton bag which had been delivered to our house down in bucket loads to where the path was being laid, my every move was carefully observed and scrutinised. When I filled up my buckets with shovelfuls of slate, Miggles observed and counted out the correct number of shovel loads per bucket and then followed me down the garden path and supervised that it was distributed correctly before the procedure was repeated) I wonder if any readers of this blog have had similar experiences like this with any of their household pets (I exclude goldfish and hamsters from this observation)
Another quite interesting day. Before we enjoyed our daily walk in the park, the BioDisk maintenance company turned up and found that everything was in good working order (and it had been emptied only the day before). However, it was mentioned to us (and we had received the same message the day before) that they had noticed that in the last week or so such communal facilities had come increasing pressure as people were working from home, thus creating demands on the system. I think a note to fellow residents might well be called for, and we may have to increase the number of ’empties’ in a typical year.
As we have come to expect, we enjoyed another fine day in the park and were pleased to meet one of our Waitrose friends there, so we had a good chat. Also, we observed some 5-6 ducklings that looked very young and we surmised that they might be part of a newly hatched brood. One of the regular dog walkers in the park who had evidently kept a keen eye on things wondered whether the local heron, easily identified as it has one club foot(!) might have been responsible for the predation of duckings in the past. He told us that when the park pond was emptied for maintenance a few years ago, it was discovered to be teaming with perch fish. As we were on our way out of the park, we were approached by a volunteer in a hi-viz vest who thought that we might have been tarrying over our coffee somewhat too long on the park bench and potentially providing a bad example. to others. We explained that we understood that Michael Gove had explicitly stated that individuals (related to each other) could legitimately sit on a park bench during exercise – the exchanges were good-natured and I am sure the volunteer was acting according to his best lights. Just out of interest, I undertook some Google searches and found the following advice from the Director of Public Health for Gloucestershire published two days ago on 7th April. I reproduce the relevant bits below…
“Park benches are a really important part of our community because if you are a bit older or frail they are quite helpful to give you a rest when you are on your daily exercise route, and we’ve had a question about whether people can sit on benches together…..
We have had messages with some places closing their benches, putting tape across them. There is nothing wrong with having a park bench, if you are a members of the same family you can sit on the bench together, but if you’re not you have to keep two metre distance.
“This means if the bench is on its own, one person sits on the bench, one person has to stand two metres away.
We spent some time in the afternoon doing a communal shredding – this was quite satisfying but our garden shredder is a little ‘picky’ about the width of twigs that it will accept but after a bit of sorting, we overcame that problem and added the shreddings to our compost bin. Fortunately, I discovered in some of my ‘outside’ garden things that I keep under the eaves of the house some concentrated organic composting accelerator (although, as we all know, all men are very good at producing their own on a daily basis, preferably after some good long drinks of tea or beer). Then we started the long hunt within the house for ‘the bell’. This is quite a long story – when we had a really long (100 yd +) vegetable garden in Leicestershire, my wife needed something to summon me to the house when I was working at the bottom of the garden. And so when we were on holiday on the Norfolk Broads one year we discovered a ship’s bell in a boat-keepers chandlery and hence we acquired the bell which we screwed onto some French doors that opened out into the garden. We haven’t had a use for it in the last 34 years but we really needed it tonight. Why? you might ask. Well, it was to add to the clapping, car hooting, saucepan banging and other celebrations that we engage upon to show our appreciation for NHS workers and several others which is now a tradition at 8.00 pm each Thursday evening. We played our part – but our son who was operating the bell was soon ‘clapped out’ i.e. the clapper fell out of the bell within a few seconds and had to be re-attached.
It is evident that the government is getting increasingly worried that the coincidence of fine weather with what was traditionally the Easter vacation period will bring people out into the parks and recreational spaces. The frequency and stridency of the messaging seem evident because the ‘peak’ of the COVID-19 deaths is not yet actually in sight – all could jeopardised if a significant portion of the population decided to kick over the traces and try to see some friends ‘en-masse’ Although by and large, the police have gone about their law-enforcement with a degree of sensitivity, to some police chiefs the crisis gives the opportunity for the assumption of wide-ranging powers. One police chief suggested that an individual’s supermarket trolly be examined for goods that were not deemed to be essential. Fortunately, this last proposal had to be rapidly withdrawn when it became evident is was both draconian and unenforceable.
We had four interesting conversations with diverse groups of people. The first was with our friend, Julie, who we know from our Waitrose days and who lives on the edge of the park, in any case. Then we bumped. into a youngish couple who were out dog walking and it turned out that the husband worked for the part of the Health Service that evaluates the efficacy and affordability of various drug regimens. As he was working at home (like our own son) we were speculating how this situation might become the norm rather than the exception in the post COVID-19 UK. Finally, we saw two lots of our friends who live along the Kidderminster Road and we adopted our by now usual policy of standing outside a house and jumping up and down until we are noticed and people come out for a chat.
As it is Good Friday today, I also scan the broadcasting schedules to see if any performances are to be broadcast of Bach’s Mathew Passion or St. John Passion. As it turned out, I was not disappointed as St. John Passion was broadcast on Radio 3 and to be honest, some of the cantatas seem quite similar between the two works. I listened to the first hour of this before attending to the cutting of the communal lawn whilst the weather is so good. The mower stuttered once or twice and actually stopped although it started again quickly but I couldn’t find any evident cause (a slight malfunction of the carburettor, I wonder) As I type at the moment, I am listening to Dame Judi Dench who is conversation with John Humphries – and as it is Good Friday she has chosen the closing section of Matthew Passion (the cantata 'In tears of grief') which I always find incredibly moving. Bach wrote this cantata in such a way that one can almost ‘hear’ the sobs embedded in the rhythms of the music. I first heard this when I was 13 going on 14 yeas old in the school music room and it has been a particular favorite of mine ever since.
The news that the daily tally of deaths in a single day (980) now exceeds the biggest ‘one day’ totals recorded in either Italy or Spain seems grim. A more local analysis reported in the Worcester News seemed to show the rate of increase was moderating in Worcestershire i.e. we were getting near the ‘top’ of the curve but the national picture does not look at all encouraging yet.Another really beautiful day here in the West Midlands, only marred by the news that the West Midlands is emerging as a COVID-19 hotspot. I quote from the Health Services Journal:
While London has continually topped lists of coronavirus cases in the UK, Birmingham has the highest number outside of the Capital, with the West Midlands emerging as a hotspot for transmissions last month….The government has said it is investigating reasons why that might be the case, amid suggestions that people’s religious convictions are contributing to the spread.
Now for some more cheerful news. Although I didn’t count any ducklings in the park today, I did see a snow-white duck (which stood our amidst the mallards) and a bird which I surmise from its very long and upright neck was actually a goose. Well, it takes all sorts! As a sight for sore eyes, I was amazed to see a woman runner who, as she approached, appeared to be absolutely naked from the waist down. But as she approached, it became apparent that she was actually wearing exceptionally tight-fitting, flesh-coloured exercise leggings. I am reliably informed that this is quite fashionable amongst the younger women these days but I must confess I had never seen anything thing quite like it – perhaps I don’t get around much!
Later in the morning, I made a large fish pie – I normally do this every 2-3 weeks and it supplies a meal on the day and a further three meals for the freezer. It is not at all difficult to make but would be too fiddly for one meal and hence I make a large casserole of it. Typically it would four different kinds of fish (salmon, haddock, cod or plaice, prawns) with a bottom supplied by sliced (parboiled) potatoes and a topping of mashed potatoes and shredded cheese. I do cheat a little and add some Schwartz Fish Pie or White Wine sauce if I have in stock – the subsequent meals are really quick because it only takes about 3 minutes in the microwave and is normally accompanied by tender-stem broccoli. I realise this is not to everyone’s taste but I am trying to cut down on my consumption of meat (for a host of reasons) and increase that of fish.
In terms of political news, I observed that the Twittersphere was getting incensed by the news that Boris Johnson has been amusing himself during his recovery by playing Sudoku. The particular object of anger was with the rest of the Main Stream Media (MSM) for giving prominence to such trivia at a time when the best part of 1000 people a day are dying – surely there are more penetrating questions that journalists should be asking. Also quoted today was the estimate by a domestic abuse charity that in a single day last week the number of cases which it had to deal had risen by 120%. But most anger (in the press and which I share) was the briefing given by Priti Patel who was asked to apologise the fact that many of the deaths of NHS personnel from the COVID-19 virus ould be attributed to their lack of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). After being asked twice if she would apologise to NHS staff and their families over the shortages of PPE, Ms Patel said: “I’m sorry if people feel that there have been failings. I will be very, very clear about that.’ This must rank as one of the most half-hearted, weaselly-worded apologies of all time – a point quickly picked up by the press.
We FaceTimed our dearest and closest friends in Spain in the evening. I think it is true to say that whilst the death rate in Spain is now at a three week low, the population is starting to feel the pressure of a very strictly enforced lock-down policy – for example , only one person is allowed out of the house at a time and that to walk the dog but only a distance of 200 metres (but it can be done twice a day) It may come to that yet in the UK and some are thinking that if the WestMidlnds continues to be such a hot-spot, that day might not be too far off!
This must be one of the strangest Easter Sundays that any of us have ever experienced but I suppose we will all get used to living in strange times. This morning we were delighted to make our daily trip to the park which, actually, was extremely quiet compared with yesterday. I am pleased to report that the ducklings now number 5 from that we suspect is brood No. 2. Whilst we were having our daily coffee (necessary for the ‘oldies’ to regain their strength after an energetic 1km walk to the park, you understand) we had a couple of conversations, one with the elderly lady with whom we exchanged wartime reminiscences early on in the week, and the other with Julie, our ‘Waitrose’ friend. In the midst of our conversations, a heron swooped and nearly made off with one of the ducklings, only to be beaten off by an assiduous mother duck. And so to home, where we enjoyed a nice dinner of roast beef, cooked in our slow cooker (and I saved half of the joint for another Sunday lunch). In the afternoon, I undertook one of my regular duties which is to round the house, wiping each light switch with an anti-bacteriological wipe which may, or may not, fend off the COVID-19 virus. This task doesn’t take that long but I am amazed how many light switches there are in the house overall (I lose count after the first 20!) I feel that I will have the same degree of success as that enjoyed by the elderly gentleman who used to throw little pieces of pink paper out of the top of a Chapham omnibus in order to deter the elephants. He was always successful, by the way, as no doubt I will be.
In the early evening, I was playing about with the FaceTime contacts list that FaceTime displays when an older Winchester colleague accidentally made me a video-call. He intended to call his son but hit the wrong button! I was delighted and we exchanged notes. They were amazed at the sojourns that Meg and I enjoy on our local park bench as down in Southampton, the local officials have taped up all of the park benches to deter would-be loiterers and aged rest-takers from utilising them – I must say, that I feel that it is a bit over the top. Incidentally, after my encounter with the flesh-coloured tights lady yesterday, we were passed in the park today (at a suitable distance) by a lady runner who was displaying a full face-load of makeup complete with false eyelashes and sporting a fetching leopard-skin leotard (or whatever you call the gear that people run in these days).
In the early evening, we watched the rerun of last Thursday’s Question Time on the Parliament channel (232). We then had a FaceTime chat with my sister (who I didn’t realise had an iPad) so that was a pleasant bonus and we are now arrangements in place to FaceTime the rest of the family as well, once we have suitable times organised. We are also in email contact with one of Meg’s cousin’s daughters who had been re-located before the crisis to Seattle. We received a long email telling us that things were like in the USA from the inside and are making similar arrangements to FaceTime each other as soon as time zones and diaries allow. So all in all, we have had a fully communication-rich Sunday – we wonder what the forthcoming week is going to bring. If the crisis had any benefits whatsoever, it was to appreciate how lucky we are to have family and friends with whom we can rapidly communicate – perhaps this will set up a good model for the future when we don’t neglect the friends that we have as we were forced to do during our working years.
Last night, a brief but very intense squall hit the Midlands – when we woke up this morning, we discovered that two owls had been smashed to pieces and the body parts lay scattered around the patio we have outside the house in the back garden. Before readers recoil in absolute horror, I ought to mention that the owls in question were china owls (well, pot actually) and had been residing on our outside patio table. So what were they doing there in the first place? Well, the story is this. Last summer, I renovated some aluminium garden furniture (table and four chairs) by repainting them with a dark green ‘Hammerite’ paint. However, a local robin had taken to perching on the back of one of the newly painted chairs and was threatening to ‘poop’ all over my handiwork. In order to preserve their renovated status, I scoured the local Charity shops (of which we have at least half a dozen) and managed to secure two pottery owls, often used as money boxes, They were put at slightly different angles and they were used to deter robins and the like from messing up our garden furniture. Unfortunately, the storm arose before I had the chance to lay them flat and they paid the ultimate sacrifice…
This morning the normal pattern repeated itself in that we exchanged several pleasantries with dog walkers in the park but we did not tarry long as there was quite a brisk wind. On the way back home we did have a chat with some near neighbours who live just around the corner but with whom we have not had the chance of an extended conversation before today. They were digging over and renovating a little triangular plot in front of their house and they had been waiting for a spot of rain so the earth would have softened a bit before they started digging and planting. We mentioned to each other that one of the side effects of the present crisis was that once people had got bored with decorating, gardening and spring cleaning they would revert to more traditional modes of indoor entertainment and the experts were predicting a ‘baby boom’ in about nine months from now. We reminisced that the last time a national crisis brought together groups of neighbours was in 1973 when the country as a whole had to endure a three-day week as well as intermittent power disconnections of both gas and electricity. The official (Conservative) government advice, which we followed enthusiastically was that we should ‘shower with a friend‘ to save the country’s diminished energy supplies. ‘Oh, that’s interesting’ the wife of the couple remarked ‘as I was born in 1974!’ We giggled and wondered?
In the late afternoon, we were delighted to have an hour-long FaceTime video link with my wife’s cousin’s daughter (is that called a ‘cousin once removed’?) We found out how at first hand how COVID-19 crisis was affecting the USA – predictably, the Democratic states were blaming the lack of preparedness on President Trump whilst the more red-neck states (inland, Republican) were inclined to believe that it was all a conspiracy to attempt to discredit Trump! Whereas here in the UK, we quickly added shops selling alcohol (off-licenses) to the essential stores such as supermarkets, pharmacies and garages the Americans had decided that it was a top priority to keep open – the gun stores! One really has to wonder. Now that we have discovered the joys of FaceTime-ing, we wonder why we have not done it long before. Of course, it does assume that you have Apple technology at both ends but given that the Apple Contacts pages give you one link to activate, then what could be easier?
A busier than usual day in our local park today. We espied our friend Julie from 200 metres away as she was nearing the end of an hour-long walk and so another long and interesting chat. Julie told us about a flowering cherry in full bloom that had been felled in the recent storm but I think it’s not an unusual occurrence. We have an occasional gardener who tells us that quite a lot of trees in the area have keeled over because the water table is so high after the recent rains so they lose their footing. Incidentally, did you know that scientists think that trees have developed some communication systems with each other via their extensive root systems? It’s not quite as daft as it sounds. We then had another chat with another of ex-Waitrose friends who is the mother of two twin girls. She was in good heart but somewhat tired as she was only getting a couple of hours sleep before it was interrupted by one or other of the girls. On our way out this morning, I decided to make a present of a magnificent hoe made by Wolf tools that I think is technically called a ‘push-pull’ weeder. It has a flattish blade but with a wavy front edge and is magnificent for quickly cultivating some ground if it has been recently been dug over. It works by cutting off any the heads of any tiny little weeds which then shrivel up and die on the surface of the soil. I think this particular hoe was given to me over thirty years ago as a birthday present but as I have another more up-to-date model of this type, I was willing for its older brother to go to a good home. When we got home, we found some Easter cup-cakes had been delivered to us a ‘thank you’ and they were delicious.
We spent a very pleasant afternoon taking coffee with our new next-door neighbours. They have been incredibly busy juggling work commitments and getting the bungalow exactly to their likes which has involved building a conservatory, trying to reconfigure the whole of the garden and so on. They (and we) have been so busy of late that it was great to spend the days in each company – as it happens we think alike on many issues (such as the mutual loathing of Donald Trump, for example). As it happens, I had one or two garden implements that helped my neigbour with some difficult tasks (removing old concrete posts, for example).
We see that the Government has today reverted to its traditional mode of lying to us. We had a graph which showed the UK death rate below other European societies, particularly France – but the UK figures included only the deaths recorded in hospital and were not comparable with the more inclusive figures than the French data which included all COVID-19 deaths, whether in hospital or elsewhere. When one of the journalists pointed this out in the press conference, there was the usual obfuscation, answering a question that was not actually posed, trotting out that it was the government’s intention to… and so on. There happened to be a letter in today’s Times which argued that journalists should only ask one question and pursue it relentlessly until the question that has been asked is actally answered instead of being evaded, met with a half-truth, statement of the obvious and so on. In general, at the daily press conferences, the journalists nearly always do ask pointed and well-directed questions but the resplies are nearly evasive. The favourite seems to be answer a question that was not actually asked or else to think of a answer with a really big number in it that is meant to impress but is really meaningless. My particular gripe is over the claim that the NHS frontline has recently been supplied with ‘x’ million pieces of equiopment which does not answer the question that the front line is evidently short of PPE and needs a lot more!
It seems incredible to me that we are mid-way through April already – the months go faster and faster. Today, I met an acquaintance in the park who knew two of my sets of acquaintances but who I didn’t know knew each other. This got me thinking a bit about how networks of social relationships develop. I am going to be a little more theoretical but bear with me and you will see where I am going. When I was at university in the mid-1960s, one of our tutors was Professor Ronald Frankenberg who compiled a book called ‘Communities in Britain‘. Sociologists and social anthropologists had written a series of studies starting with simple fishing, mining and agricultural communities and progressing through larger and more complex communities including small market towns. The idea was to build a type of continuum of the way that communities had developed through time from simple to more complex. In a theoretical chapter at the end, Frankenberg attempts to arrive at a theoretical and mathematical understanding of the way in which we can describe communities using social network and communication theory. He borrowed from a 1949 work ‘On Human Communication‘ to show how messages arrive from A to B. Put simply, if A is connected to B and the link is broken, then communication cannot occur. If however, there are some other points in the system (let us call then C and D) then if the link between A and B is broken, it is still possible to get a message through the system by going through C or D. This is technically called redundancy by telecommunication engineers – put really simply, the more extra nodes there are in the system (i.e. the more redundancy) the greater a chance that a message will be delivered. If we take an example from the last war – if the British had bombed a railway line between two German cities and they were only connected by one direct line, then the effect would be no trains!. But now imagine the Germans attempting to bomb a railway line shall we say between Birmingham and Manchester. The railway chiefs could always route a train through ‘Didley Squat junction‘ and the train would get through eventually, albeit with a little delay. This must actually be happening all the time on the World Wide Web – if one link is down then a router will despatch messages in different directions to ensure that the email gets delivered. Frankenberg’s great insight was, I believe, that we can define a ‘community-ness’ by the amount of redundancy as well as by the connectedness of the system. Can you see where I started off and where I am going from with this idea?
In the late afternoon, we FaceTimed some of our closest friends who described to us how they ought to have been in receipt of the government letter, sent to all people with complex medical needs (which the husband of our friends certainly has) Put briefly, life had been very stressful trying to get supermarket slots. medication and the like. However, through some kind of systems failure, the letter had failed to be sent or to arrive – but when part of the medical networks caring for our friend realised this they got the wheels in motion and suddenly everything changed dramatically and life got a lot easier as they could now get the priority access through supermarket queues to which they are thoroughly entitled (but which hitherto had failed to materialise) So gradually things are starting to get better.
Some sad COVID-19 related news for us today. One of my daughter-in-law’s relatives had died of the virus (although he was of an advanced age and suffering from dementia) We were also saddened to hear that one of our closest friends in Leicestershire had also suffered a bereavement – first the mother died last autumn and then one of her own sons died of oesophageal cancer in the last day or, with very few family members or friends being allowed to attend the funeral. This must be happening to families up and down the country…
One of the joys of stopping for chats with people is that you discover new points of contact that you never knew that you had in common. And so it proved today when we were chatting with acquaintances along the Kidderminster Road (up and down which we walk daily) only to discover that we had stayed in some of the same places in Spain (Calella. north of Barcelona) Then in turn we chatted to their neighbour who, as it turned out, was a French national by origin and was a teacher of both French and Spanish. So suddenly our number of ‘Spanish’ connections seemed to increase rapidly.
In common with many other people I use the app on my mobile phone called WhatsApp but as this is designed specifically for a mobile, it is not designed to work on a desktop. However, it is so much easier typing on a ‘proper’ keyboard rather than using the fiddly keys on a mobile – I find that even though I bought a slightly bigger than normal iPhone than normal two years ago (an iPhone 8 Plus), my fingers still cover three of the keys at once and despite Apple technology ‘learning’ your particular typing style, I still make multiple errors when texting (and that is before predictive texting takes over). So I was delighted when I found a way to get a version of WhatsApp to run through a browser on one’s desktop, so I spent a certain amount of time last night playing with some of the people in my ‘Contacts’ section (brought over from my iPhone) and sending them a message saying I was experimenting an inviting a reply to see if the messages had actually got through (which they had). Incidentally, one of the interesting features about the command ‘Send‘ is that you actually have started a transmission process (analogous to popping a letter in the post) and do not know whether (a) the message has actually been delivered, let alone read and (b) whether the message was understood. I remember an incident in the comedy series 'Only Fools and Horses' in which Rodney and DelBoy were tested at a local hospital for some condition or other and when they got a message back saying the results were ‘Negative‘, they interpreted this communication from the hospital as though they had contracted a fatal disease from which they would die (a ‘negative’ outcome)
It being a fine afternoon. I gave our communal lawns (500m²) their weekly cut and my trusty ‘Stiga’ (Swedish) petrol mower behaved flawlessly .The only thing I did after it faltered once or twice last week was to soak the sponge air filter in engine oil. After a quick Google search, I have now come to appreciate that this is essential and not just an optional extra – apparently, unfiltered air can rip through and damage your engine but the addition of engine oil makes the filter much more ‘sticky’ as minute particles of pollen and dust which can damage the engine are trapped much more efficiently if the foam air filter is correctly oiled with engine oil. Now I know! When this was done I emailed my very old (in both senses of the word) friend and former colleague with whom I worked in the Central Office of Information (COI) in 1966. I was keen that we both keep in touch during the current crisis so I have given her the choice of communicating via email (which I suspect she prefers), SMS (text), FaceTime, WhatsApp or Skype. I’ll have to wait to get her reply before deciding which to use on a regular basis.
Tonight being Thursday, we had our usual ‘Clap for our Carers‘ session at 8.00 pm. Methinks the response was a little bit down this week but I am still delighted that there are people in our local community who still care. My son rings a bell whilst I bang an open aluminium cooking pot with a spoon which makes a really raucous din. Immediately after this, Question Time was transmitted at 8.00 on BBC1 and one of the panellists, a doctor, argued that wearing a mask may not protect you from the virus but reduces any virus load that you may eject by a cough or a sneeze to 1/36th of the virus load. If true, this makes the case for wearing masks to prevent onward transmission (rather than to protect oneself) almost unanswerable. I think I would like to see it happen but I suspect the government with its present problems would rather not know!
Well, today has been one of those indeterminate days where nothing has really gone right – we all have days like that. The spell of good weather is coming to an end and although a spattering of rain arrived in the afternoon, the weather was sufficiently fine for us to enjoy our customary walk to the park. However, the colder weather was keeping the joggers away and all but the most determined dog walkers so we quickly drank up our coffee and made for home – but we did have the bonus of chatting to two of our closest friends on Kidderminster Rd on the way home. As it happens, they were on the way out to enjoy their constitutional so it was a happy coincidence that we did not miss each other.
In the afternoon, I had set myself the task of trying to chase the insurance claim for the holiday that we had booked for Porto in Portugal in mid-May. As you might expect, this was problematic from the word go. The insurance company, even I contacted them by phone (in desperation) will refuse any claim if Expedia has not issued a cancellation invoice. In the meantime, the Expedia website is completely overwhelmed and speaking to a ‘human’ is impossible. They have an automated system to respond to queries that refused to recognise the itinerary number or my email address although I have the original confirmation in January ready to quote to them. Eventually, I gleaned from the insurance company that even I had been able to speak to an agent at Expedia, they would refuse to deal with me until the planned holiday was only 10 days away. So I put a note on the calendar and resolved to contact them (if I could) a bit nearer our planned departure date. To cap it all, as I started out to write this blog I received a communication from Expedia asking me whether I would like to cancel (which I did) and then intimating that for the outward leg of the journey, the airline Iberia would offer me a voucher for the unused flight and British Airways would do the same for the return leg of the journey. So the whole thing is turning into a logistical nightmare, given that nobody will be flying anywhere for months ahead, so far as we can tell! But enough of these woes and now for more serious issues.
The lack of the UK’s government’s preparation for the COVID-19 crisis is really starting to unwind this weekend. As I write, there appear to be indications that trusts all over the country will run out of gowns which are necessary to don before one can treat patients without putting your own health/life at risk. The official line appears to be ‘see if you can wash it and use it again’ which implies instant turn around laundry and sterilisation issues not to mention wear and tear. I have also some intimations, both personally and through the columns of Health Services Journal that the situation in Accident and Emergency departments is fast deteriorating. It appears that ‘normal’ A&E admissions are not taking place so many suspected heart attacks, strokes, and potential cancers are now not being treated, as potential patients are too scared or unwilling to attend A&E departments. Last nights ‘I’ newspaper, which I haven’t had the chance to read or verify, is arguing that we may be saving some COVID-19 patients’ lives but the collateral damage in untreated cancers, strokes and heart attacks might mean that there are an additional 60,000 deaths (i.e. 4 times of the present COVID-19 death rate) The A&E departments themselves are, anecdotally, being populated by victims of domestic violence, botched suicide attempts, and alcohol abuse problems. I wish I could end on a more cheerful note but it is not possible. I wonder what the inevitable ‘official’ inquiry will reveal if one is held when the immediate crisis is over.
Today was a wet, cold-ish and miserable day throughout most of the Midlands. Meg and I undertook our daily trip to the park and rather than shivering on a park bench, we stood in the deserted bandstand area where we drank our customary cup of coffee and got home as fast as we could. There were no joggers in evidence and even the ardent dog-walkers had been reduced to about two or three as far as the eye could see. At least, we could regale ourselves with a (homemade) vegetable curry when we got home – left-overs from previous curries when I have been in the habit of making them too big! I read in the newspapers today that under these strange conditions, many people are spinning out their food resources somewhat and no doubt re-discovering some of the techniques of ‘making do’. Thinking back to my childhood, my mother used to serve us mince at least two or three times a week. In those days, you had an old-fashioned mincer which was an awesome contraption that screwed onto the side of the kitchen table and would ingest any scraps of neat one had left lying around together with stale bread and anything else to extend the protein. My mother used to bake bread nearly every day as well- I suppose these habits were engrained by living through wartime conditions and they never really left her. I was often told the story that when I was about 4-5 we cook not afford a chicken for our Christmas meal (expensive in 1949) but we made do with rabbit meat which, paradoxically, was more readily available and cheaper as well. Nowadays whenever Meg and I travel to Spain and we see ‘conejo‘ (rabbit) on the menu, we always eat it and it is often served in the form of a cocido (a thickish stew really).
This afternoon was devoted to the delights of house-cleaning – something we had forgotten since we have had someone to clean the house for at least the last forty years (at a conservative estimate) I have discovered that we actually possessed a type of feathery duster which I use for vertical surfaces (book in bookcases), light fittings and delicate things like clocks, whilst conventional dusters are used for flattish surfaces. Then, of course, comes the hoovering. As our old Dyson went belly-up a few weeks ago, we have now acquired a new model (a ‘Shark Lift-Away‘) which splits into two to hoover the stairs and sports a light in the front (like the really old-fashioned Hoovers used to have, which I used to use whilst hoovering the ballrooms of the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate where I worked as a porter (as well as a dish-washer, barman and numerous other jobs) when I was a teenager. What exciting lives we led!
On a more technical note, I thought it might be quite a good idea to string these blogs together into one long HTML This I have now done and if you want to read the blogs in one continuous stream or quickly pass from one to the next, this is now possible. All you have to do is to access http://mch-net.info/all-blogAfter yesterday’s dull and rainy weather, it was predictable that lots of people would be out and about on a bright and sunny morning, and so it proved. We were equally delighted to simultaneously meet two of our sets of friends down the Kidderminster Road so we formed a large circle of six people chatting and wondering whether the police would come and break up a social gathering! Our son and daughter in law had kindly gone to get us some Sunday newspapers and they passed us on the road. In the Sunday Times there was a fascinating article ‘Revealed: 38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster‘ which documented in great detail how the British political elite had dithered in the face of the forthcoming COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the revelations were shocking e.g. Boris Johnson had not attended 5 of the vital COBRA meetings and it was evident that in late January the Prime Minister was so concerned with Brexit/divorce/holidays that vital days were lost which has resulted in a possible excess of thousands of lives. This is shocking almost beyond belief.
Incidentally, I thought I would let readers of this blog know that I have been appointed as a spokesman for the Government to assist in the daily COVID-19 briefings and press conference. The training for this was actually very easy and consisted of the following 6 steps that had to be followed, whatever was the question. In this, I was greatly assisted by watching the performance of the Education Minister, Gavin Williamson, today. The formula is really very simple and goes as follows. Firstly, given that each journalist has about a five-minute slot, waste a good few seconds by congratulating the chosen journalist for asking a really pointed and penetrating question that required a full and detailed response (this can waste at least a quarter of a minute) Secondly, preface any remarks by the formula ‘I would really like to pay tribute to the dedicated and hard-working staff who have worked tirelessly on our behalf et… etc‘(another half a minute) Thirdly, particularly in the case of shortages of critical equipment such as PPE indicate that the government had been working tremendously hard on the problem of supplies, ‘had all of the supply lines in sight’ and was working round the clock to solve the problem.. Fourthly, and perhaps as a type of response to the actual question asked, give completely irrelevant response such as the following asking whether the social care staff in Nottingham would receive their supplies of PPE in time reply that you would like to thank the two universities in the region who had been doing a magnificent job as part of the local Resilience team…(I am reminded of the schoolboy who, in a Religious Studies exam, was asked to list the Ten Commandments replied that he had forgotten them but he could recite a list of the first 20 kings of Israel!) Fifthly pass the question sideways to Jenny Whats-her-name who is meant to provide a more ‘scientific’ response, as she has a Phd in Obfuscatory Studies particularly when asked a question such as ‘How would you feel personally about having to be in the front-line of patient support without adequate PPE putting your own life and that of your family at risk’ Finally, and sixthly, invite the journalist to say if they had any supplementary questions knowing that you had not answered the first but you were keen to give the impression that you are being frank and open and willing to answer any supplementary questions, knowing that you hadn’t answered the original question so there was no reason to attempt a coherent answer to any supplementary. The great beauty of this checklist is that it works whatever the question is asked from whichever journalist. Watch out for me on the media briefings shortly!
This afternoon, I thought a would do a little gardening whilst the weather was fine. No sooner had I started then the local cat who has adopted us, Miggles, came to supervise my work. No sooner had I cleared a gully of weeds by the side of our communal grassed area, then she came and sat in it, luxuriating in the sunshine. She pretended to try to catch a robin that was singing nearby and then pretended to catch a Holly Blue butterfly to make it look as though she was actually busily engaged before she got tired of her supervisory duties and wandered off. By the way, I suspect there is some hanky-panky going on with another little black-and-white cat who I have nicknamed ‘Peter’ as they seem very friendly together, particularly first thing in a morning. I have my suspicions…
We are promised a few days of fine weather, after which no doubt autumn will commence. Today was another fine and bright day, albeit a trifle windy. We were delighted to see our mother duck was leading out her band of seven ducklings onto dry land for an excursion so several of us captured the event on our mobile phones. In the midst of all of this, we were especially pleased to see our friend Julie who had bought Meg one of her favourite pastries from Waitrose (of which she has been deprived for the last seven weeks) so she enjoyed a delicious coffee break. Having said that, our sojourn on the park bench is always a perilous affair as I have to ensure that nothing touches the hard surface of the park bench (lest it is virus-laden) So we have to balance my rucksack on one knee whilst simultaneously unscrewing the cap of our coffee flask and pouring out its contents single-handed – and then we have our oatmeal biscuits to be extracted from their plastic container. Still, you get used to any manouvre in time. Julie was greeted by a near neighbour and we were saying to each other that never had we realised that there were so many footpaths to be explored, not to mention the park itself whose charms were very much under-appreciated when we used to walk straight on past each day.
This afternoon was very much a gardening afternoon and a typical spring-time clearing task at that. There really is no substitute for getting down on your hands and knees and tackling the weeding head-on. My particular task is to clean out a gully by the side of our communal grassed area and this is always completely overgrown with a combination of couch grass, dandelions, ivy, nettles and a variety of other weeds that I cannot begin to describe. The only way to tackle the job is to cut a section of the overhanging grass about a yard at a time and then clear the gully in about two-feet sections with specially ‘grippy’ gardening gloves that pull out the unwanted growth before cutting the grass again. Although this sounds long-winded and tedious (which it is) at least if you get on top of it in April then the task for the maintenance for the rest of the gardening year becomes somewhat easier. To make matters worse, my task was not supervised by our adopted cat, Miggles, about whom there is speculation in the house that she may be pregnant. I’m not too sure but if you are an avid reader of my ‘Virtually Challenged Anecdotes’ you will realise that I have yet to perfect my skills in performing gynaecological type operations on the cats of neighbours (see VCA No. 29 at the start of the blog website for full details of my earlier career as a would-be surgeon)
This afternoon was very much a gardening afternoon and a typical spring-time clearing task at that. There really is no substitute for getting down on your hands and knees and tackling the weeding head-on. My particular task is to clean out a gully by the side of our communal grassed area and this is always completely overgrown with a combination of couch grass, dandelions, ivy, nettles and a variety of other weeds that I cannot begin to describe. The only way to tackle the job is to cut a section of the overhanging grass about a yard at a time and then clear the gully in about two-feet sections with specially ‘grippy’ gardening gloves that pull out the unwanted growth before cutting the grass again. Although this sounds long-winded and tedious (which it is) at least if you get on top of it in April then the task for the maintenance for the rest of the gardening year becomes somewhat easier. To make matters worse, my task was not supervised by our adopted cat, Miggles, about whom there is speculation in the house that she may be pregnant. I’m not too sure but if you are an avid reader of my ‘Virtually Challenged Anecdotes’ you will realise that I have yet to perfect my skills in performing gynaecological type operations on the cats of neighbours (see VCA No. 29 at the start of the blog website for full details of my earlier career as a would-be surgeon)
Although I haven’t followed tonight’s COVID-19 news in any real detail, it appears that some of the more Republican elements of the USA are out on the streets (with the tacit support of their President, whose lockdown orders they are actually ignoring) demanding the freedom to go out and restart their economy. I suppose that in a rather grisly way, it will be a fascinating social experiment to see what the consequences of a too-early loosening of the lockout policy will prove to be. It always amazes me that ‘freedom‘ is one of the totemic rallying calls of the American population but the freedom to do what (carry guns? exploit your fellow citizens?) I can never actually discern.
On a technical computing note, I was quite pleased to be able to purchase yet a domain name at a specially cut-price (£0.99 + VAT) and then apply it to the text version of this blog which is now available as a continuous ‘stream’ at http://mch-blog.uk
Another fine day, I am pleased to report. Meg and I had an extended walk around the park today, discovering new bits of it that we must explore later such as a small patch of woodland we did not know anything about. We encountered one of our acquaintances who walks a little Jack Russell terrier dog and enquired after a mutual friend who we have not seen for about 4 weeks. The news was not particularly good as our mutual friend had not been very well recently. We suspect that he may not be getting some of his regular courses of chemotherapy he has been receiving recently, so we trust that he is having a temporary setback.
I am a little intrigued by the various sets of figures that are being bandied about by the government, concerning the supply of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) which seems to be in critically short supply at the front line. The government strategy seems to be to quote a very large figure and hope that we will all be so impressed that we give the government the benefit of the doubt that any shortages of equipment are not their fault. These figures seem to be plucked out of the air. For example, according to some of my Google searches, some 240 million pieces of PPE had been despatched by 30th March. On 3rd April, this figure had magically increased to 397 million – had an extra 157 million extra pieces of PPE suddenly materialised, representing an increase of 65% in just 4 days? And to extend this wonderful way of pulling big figures out of the air, the government claimed that two weeks later (by the 18th-19th April to be exact) the figure of 240 million had become 1 billion (1000 million) In other words, the supply had magically increased four-fold in a fortnight which is a remarkable feat by any standards!
I am reminded of the fact that during America’s conflict with Vietnam, it was very important that the American public who were becoming increasingly disillusioned with the war effort, be fed a constant trickle of any enemy combatants that had been killed in order to convince them that the conflict was worth fighting and the USA was actually winning the war. But how many people had actually been killed when you were estimating it from a B-52 bomber? The military hit upon the following strategy. We are going to bomb this village which, according to the 1954 (French conducted) census contained 450 inhabitants. Let us now assume that with little access to contraception, the population would increase at 5% a year. Compounded up, this would make a figure of 848. Now after the bombing raid, we caught sight of 8 people fleeing the village – by definition, we must have killed 840. So that will be our kill ratio for that particular day. Two assiduous journalists trawled through all of the figures supplied day-by-day by the American military over the years and published in the press daily and concluded that the entire population of Vietnam had been killed four times over! I perceive something of the same process going on with PPE. However, if you are a doctor or a nurse on the front line who doesn’t have a sufficient supply of PPE before treating a patient and you are putting your life and members of your family at risk, you know that the government cannot possibly be blamed if they supplied 1 billion? (1 trillion?) worth of gear.
In the afternoon, I finished off a particularly difficult section of weeding in the front garden that had to be wrested back inch by inch and foot by foot (I think creeping buttercup was the principal culprit) Then we enjoyed another good FaceTime chat with our good friends – the audio was clear but as the connection was poor, we only had fleeting looks at each other’s faces. We discussed cooking, supermarket access and the proximity of COVOD-19 in the neighbourhood to cheer ourselves up.
This was quite a liberating day for us today for reasons that I will explain. We had our customary walk in the park on a beautiful spring day and held chats with some of our friends, both in the park itself and on the way back from the park along Kidderminster Rd. As it has been over seven weeks since we had occasion to go out in the car, we realised that we had better go out and give the car a spin, not least to ensure that the battery doesn’t go flat. Bromsgrove is connected to the neighbouring town of Redditch via a fairly fast and uncluttered dual carriageway so we progressed as far as we could until we met the roundabout outside Redditch town and came back at quite a speed – solely for the health of the battery, you understand. On the outskirts of Bromsgrove, we decided to come back a slightly different way and on the spur of the moment decided to call in on of our closest friends, whom we generally see once per week. Although we interrupted her exercise routine, we were delighted to see each other and had a good old natter, exchanging information about relatives and friends. This was so enjoyable that we think we will repeat this once a week, for now on. Incidentally, the Chief Medical Officer intimated today in the press conference from No. 10 something that he could say that no politician dare say- that the lockdown is likely to last until the end of this calendar year (a further eight months) and could even last for a whole calendar year which would be twelve months. The reasoning appeared to be that we would have wait until a vaccine had proved its effectiveness and could be manufactured at scale. Some interesting news emanating from the World Health Organisation is that the proportion of people displaying antibodies post-COVID is actually pretty low. I quote:
There is no evidence that people who have recovered from coronavirus have immunity to the disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said…The UK government has bought 3.5 million serology tests – which measure levels of antibodies in blood plasma….But senior WHO epidemiologists have warned that there is no proof that such antibody tests can show if someone who has been infected with COVID-19 cannot be infected again
So bang goes the theory of herd immunity which at least was the initial stance of the government, which they quickly had to abandon.
After lunch, I got to work clearing a triangular plant bed that had been colonised by comfrey. (Needless to say, my work was closely supervised by Miggles, the cat that seems to have adopted us. She sprawled over the ground and evidently enjoyed the sunshine - for some reason, she always locates herelf a couple of feet away from where I am working). Some people quite enjoy the plant of comfrey whilst others regard it as a weed. It is said that once you have it in a plot, you never get rid of it, largely because the roots go so deep and it took a spade to remove them. Actually, some people make this plant into a tea or a tisane whilst some old-fashioned gardeners insist it is excellent manure, not least because the deep roots bring so many minerals into play from the deepest regions of soil. The medieval herbalists used to call this plant ‘knitbone’ and used it in a sort of poultice to treat fractures and similar broken limbs. After consultation with the daughter-in-law, we have decided to try out a selection of dahlias that we had in stock. We also have a seed tray full of theoretically out of date annuals seeds so we thought we would get some going tomorrow and see what comes up. I remember that the author of a gardening book I used to have (Frances Stevenson) always used to say that you could sow any seed in May and it would be guaranteed to jump out of the ground. In the meanwhile, our fruit trees (plum, apple) seem to have the requisite amount of blossom for a good harvest later on in the year but we will have to wait and see.
The spell of fine weather continues and the absence of wind made the morning feel even warmer. We met our friend, Julie in the park (as we do most days) and also struck up another conversation with a gentleman of about the same age as ourselves who was concerned that the police might try to move us on from our sojourn on the park bench. We assured him that we had a piece of paper in our rucksack which indicates what the current rules seem to be – and then reminisced about what could be remembered of the Second World war and its sequelae (I find this is always a good conversation opener as everybody has members of family who were affected in one way or another by WWII).
After lunch, the gardening continued apace whilst the weather was fine. Our daughter-in-law grows superb dahlias – the only trouble is that last season’s display had died back and there was now a tangle of last year’s dahlias, this year’s daffodils and the inevitable encroachment of bracken, dandelions, a weed known as ‘Lords and Ladies’ and so on. We decided that I would meticulously clear the entire patch and then we would do a careful dig over to extract the dahlia tubers. I am then going to give the whole a good composting (hopefully, with my own 2-year old compost) and we thought we would abandon the daffodils which rather get in the way of everything and confine the daffodils next year to a few strategically placed pots. Miggles, our adopted cat, came along late in the day to give my work a supervisory nod of approval and then to sprawl in the newly cleared patch, which she is wont to do. There was a source of much merriment later in the afternoon as I was doing a bit of strategic watering and the cat followed me around the garden to make sure I did it correctly, Then she decided to make her way through one of the plastic tunnel cloches that we had taken off the dahlias so I thought it might be a good idea to train her (like a dog!) to navigate tunnel cloches as though she was in a display. This effort failed miserably – after all, can you herd cats? As it is a Thursday, we started to make our customary ‘clap for the NHS’ applause at 8.0 in the evening, my own contribution being a metal spoon on an aluminium cooking pot which makes a suitably ringing sound. This so startled all of the local cats in the area that they all fled for the safety of their own houses as soon as the cacophony started.
My daughter in law had obtained a copy of ‘The Times’ for today and the top people’s newspapers were actually instructing you how to make your own face masks (out of linen cloth, old tee shirts and kitchen paper respectively) It is evident that there is going to be a change in policy but Amazon is already selling face masks at massively inflated prices so we intend to make our own. I managed to locate some old cotton tee shirts that I will never wear again and also a couple of neckerchiefs that we used to protect our necks in the hot summers of the 1970s. One crucial resource is going to be elastic to hold the whole contraption around the ears. Accordingly, I went on the web and managed to buy twenty metres (the postage cost more than the elastic). In former times (I am thinking if the 1950s) this was always known as ‘knicker’ elastic as its principal use seemed to be to provide a means of support for critical undergarments worn by the fair sex in the days before elasticated fabrics hit tour clothing stores. Every self-respecting and provident woman would always carry a yard of rolled up knicker elastic in her handbag as when the inevitable ‘snap’ occurred, she could step daintily out of her undergarments and then effect some emergency repairs with the said elastic. My last encounter with ‘ribbon’ elastic (the correct term) was in 1969 when Meg needed a small amount to effect some kind of emergency repair. We found a little stall staffed by a friendly Asian lady who had knicker elastic on sale for 1½d a yard. We explained that we only needed a foot but the stallholder was very obliging and said she would sell us a foot if that is all we wanted. I watched her carefully measure out a foot which she rolled up and put in a little brown bag for us. I handed over a 1 (old) penny piece and received a ½d in change. I remember feeling embarrassed at the time – after all, a ½d is worth only about a fifth of the modern 1p coin. Little incidents like that stick in your memory, for some reason!
As we walked down into Bromsgrove this morning, we met with two of the grand-daughters of one of our best friends and received the news that we had been half expecting but was nonetheless distressing for us to hear. Our friend who is 88 had survived bouts of colon cancer and liver cancer and had been receiving regular chemotherapy for leukemia which was at least keeping the illness at bay. However, he is now on an end-of-life pathway and is only expected to live for about two more weeks. We hope to be able to go to his house (his nurses will not allow us inside) and perhaps we say a few words of goodbye to him through a downstairs window. We used to pass our friend nearly every other as he as taking the family Jack Russell dogs for their daily walk and we would always exchange jokes and the like with him. Our friend had been brought up in a Salvation Army household and although he had rejected this in his youth, he and his brother were encouraged to play a musical instrument and indeed played the trumpet for more than 75 years. One particular and very fond memory that we have was when he attended our local 50th wedding anniversary celebrations, he played the Bach chorale ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s desiring‘ using a variety of different mutes. Fortunately, we have this on video to remind ourselves of better times. As it happened, an opera singer friend of ours had sung this chorale at our wedding in 1967, so it was rather fitting that another close friend should help us celebrate fifty years later. We shall miss him tremendously – the only thing we can say is that it does not appear to be the COVID-19 virus which is hastening his end and so he at home surrounded by good medical care and surrounded by his family and friends who all love him. Here is the URL for any readers of this blog who remember Clive and would like to hear his rendition, performed when he himself was 85 years old: Trumpet piece Of course, what is distressing for all of us, his family and friends, is that Clive will not be able to have a proper ‘send-off’ as the funeral arrangements generally restrict the numbers to six close relatives only. We may be able to have a memorial service and ‘celebration of his life’ a bit later.
In the park, we had an interesting chat with a gentleman who, as it happens, was a past Chairman of Bromsgrove District Council (although he himself originally came from Kent) We exchanged views of what life was like in Bromsgrove and were thankful for the legacy of the 19th-century industrialist, Joseph Sanders, whose sisters had bequeathed the whole of the park to the town. After lunch, I cut the communal lawns, and then we spent a very pleasant couple of hours with our new-ish next-door neighbours in our back garden, being careful to observe a strict two-metre distance as we sat around a garden table but with the chairs well pulled back. It must have looked a funny sight but as both households had been busy of late, we had never managed to have a good ‘getting to know you’ conversation with them since they moved in. We were both taken aback by the news that President Trump had actually suggested that people should inject themselves with disinfectant as a way of overcoming the COVID-19 virus.
I experimented with an old tee-shirt to provide myself with a home-made face mask I looked at an online video to complement the diagram found in yesterday’s Times. This sort of worked but as the tags to tie it around your head need extending with spare strips of linen, the result looks a bit weird when viewed from the rear if not the front. I am reminded of a Kenny Everitt sketch of the world’s most incompetent do-it-yourselfer where there was a proliferation of bandages and the end result did look a little like this. I would rely on this home-made mask to escape a blazing conflagration but I not sure it makes an ideal fashion statement! But perhaps practice makes perfect, although a better solution might be just to wear my recently re-discovered neckerchieves.
This morning on the way to the park, we called in at the house of our dear friend who is on an ‘end-of-life’ pathway as we were informed by his grand-daughters yesterday. We were fortunate enough to see his son who is staying with him at all times and we managed to give our friend a (farewell?) wave through the window. We will call around every few days whilst he can still recognise us. We felt a mixture of emotions, evidently feeling sad at the thought that we would soon be without him but also comforted by that fact that he was receiving excellent medical care, was dying with his friends around him and was spared what is happening to perhaps hundreds of people who are dying daily of the COVID-19 virus with no family members present and the prospect of no funeral to speak of. The tragic thing here is the last that some relatives see of the patient admitted to hospital under the COVID-19 regime is that all they can do is to wave at the rear doors of a departing ambulance.
Now for some cheerful news. We met our good friend, Julie, in the park and exchanged notes about mutual friends. Then an elderly lady who we know by sight stopped by and she told us it was going to be her birthday on Tuesday so we have to see if we can get a little cake organised. As we were leaving our customary park bench, she said to us that she was so glad we occupied that particular bench as she had donated it to the local authority after her husband had died – it happened to be located in such a place that she could actually see the bench from her house near the park and she was always delighted that other people could sit down and admire the park that her husband helped to look after for the last fifteen years of his life. On our way out of the park, we encountered the same gentleman that we had met yesterday and he informed us that he had personally organised one of the flower beds in the park to be a permanent reminder of the holocaust – accordingly, he had supervised this whilst he was the leader of District Council. Finally, we met an old Italian friend who was working at home on her incredibly well-tended garden and remembering the fact that her husband had died at this time of year about three years ago. As you might imagine, it was full of emotions of one sort or another – we never know what we are to encounter when we start our journey to the park.
In the afternoon, I devoted about an hour to the (part) clearance of a gully where the land slopes away from the grassed communal area to the boundary fence. This is itself on two levels – a top level which is easy to get at and to keep cultivated and a wilder lower area, the boundary between the two being a fallen tree that forms a sort of natural division between the two areas. I have a sneaking suspicion I forget to ‘do’ the lower area last year – this involves throwing away a lot of brambles and associated debris but replanting the occasional tree sapling I come across (these may be beech or hazelnut (Avellana) – I need a ‘proper’ gardener to give me a definitive answer) This ‘heavy’ bit of gardening only needs doing once a season and, after that, a quick rake should keep it in good condition before I move onto the next job.
The weather is somewhat ‘on the turn’ today and I know that there is a certain amount of gardening to be done before some showers occur tomorrow and the probability of more prolonged rain on Tuesday. Meg had a slight stomach upset this morning so did not accompany me as is normal on the trip to the park so I enjoyed a solitary sojourn on our normal park bench. The park was fairly busy as parents were dragging their children around the park. I heard more than one 3-4 year old complaining that walking around the park was ‘boring’ and they would prefer to be at home. I won’t tell you how I feel about this as I might be blamed for being an old reactionary! On the way home, some of our oldest friends greeted me and we exchanged news and commiserations about my other friend who is approaching the end of his life.
This morning, I was sort of passively listening to the “Sunday’ programme which is broadcast between 7am-8am on BBC Radio 4. Towards the end of this, I heard one of the most powerful and moving pieces of audio I have heard for decades. A consultant at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, Dr. Mark Tan, was explaining in his ‘Telephone Lament for Coronavirus‘ how he often had to communicate with relatives by phone to discuss the progress made by their loved one in hospital. As his conversations often started with ‘I just called today..’ this reminded one of the famous Stevie Wonder song ‘I just called to say I love you‘ which was played gently in the background to accompany his commentary. Dr. Tan indicated the fragments of conversations that he would have with relatives, explaining the procedures of the hospital and the progress that the patient had been making. The whole piece was incredibly moving and I must confess I was moved to tears by it. If you would like to hear it for yourself, then this is the relevant link:
Telephone lament for Coronavirus
and if you can you need to position the progress meter at about 37.18 on the progress meter. I actually listened to it again immediately after it had been broadcast on BBC iPlayer but it should now be more available and accessible through Google and other search engines. I would urge all the readers of this blog to try to listen to this if you can.
After lunch, it was time to re-commence and try to finish off the big gardening ‘push’ before the weather breaks and I was very pleased to be able to achieve this with about 2 hours hard work (although I feel a little ‘gardening stiff’ after it). It was a very much a ‘hands and knees on a kneeling mat’ job and I was pleased that I managed to reduce the tangle of foliage to something more presentable, having one or two little beech saplings which I re-planted and cursing some of the overgrown holly, ivy and brambles. When I am gardening like this, I am always impressed by the dexterity of the human hand (there is really no substitute) and I always try to ensure that I wear a pair of gardening gloves that have a kind of tacky facing so that I can grip words to extract them more easily. Needless to say, when I had finished one particular section and came up for air to throw some of the weeded material on the compost heap, I observed that my faithful adopted cat, Miggles, was waiting for me patiently along the top. She then accompanied me to the compost heap to make sure everything was correctly thrown away and then had the breakfast that she should have had this morning. Afterwards, my work was duly inspected and Miggles pretended to watch a little hole at the base of a small pile of stones hoping that a mouse would emerge (it didn’t!) Tomorrow, I need to retrieve some two-year compost from my compost bin, rake it in and then leave my daughter-in-law to plant her dahlias for the season (all before the rains come)
The political agenda is now changing before our eyes. I hear that the phrase ‘the new normal’ is being used more and more and I must say that in my numerous little chats with people, everyone seems to know that things will never be the same again and we shall all have to get used to a certain of social distancing perhaps for a year or so to come.
Today, I have reaped the reward of successful compost making by going to my trusted compost bin and using compost that was at least two years if not three years old. My daughter-in-law and I had collaborated in preparing our dahlia bed this year. I had weeded and cleared the ground a few days earlier, As soon as all the perennial weeds had been removed, the bed was dug over- I then added three large garden-tub loads of manure and raked it in. [Incidentally, the contrast between the fairly pale-looking soil and the dark, rich-looking compost could have been taken out of a text-book) My daughter-in-law then carefully planted her dahlia tubers, making sure that each one was protected by a plastic ‘slug’ collar which prevents the slugs from munching up the tasty green shoots and negating all one’s efforts. The rewards will come later on in the year, we trust!
Incidentally, there is a bit of an art as well as good science that lies behind good compost making. In order to provide the best environment in which the microbes can convert decaying vegetation into rich compost, you require a ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C:N) of about 30:1 In practical terms, this means that there should be one part of ‘brown’ materials (dry leaves, cardboard, soil itself) to two parts of greens (recently pulled weeds, grass clippings), Too much green material and the compost heap will be slimy and may start to smell (solution: add more brown) and too little greens (solution: compost accelerator, human urine!) will make the compost heap slow to warm up. Finally, one needs a certain amount of water (judicious watering can every now and again) and aeration (turning it over with a fork occasionally). I attach some advice I found on a compost-making website, of which there are hundreds!
Principle #2: 2 Parts Green to 1 Part Brown
(The best strategy to mix your compostable materials)
Generally speaking, you can get C:N ratios of 30:1 to 50:1 by adding two parts of a GREEN material to one part of a BROWN material to your bin. A “part” can be defined as a certain quantity of the material, such as two 5-gallon buckets of GREEN and 1 packed bucket of BROWN.
All of this is not rocket science – but I include it as I think the principle of ‘browns to greens’ is not widely known and many people just throw garden weeds and clippings into their compost bin without much thought.
Being, Monday our local park was quite sparsely populated, but we did manage to meet one of our good friends, Julie, who is there almost every day (if we happen to coincide) We observed our local heron (he/she with a strangely deformed left foot that looks as though it is pointing the wrong way) being mobbed by a couple of black-headed gulls and even having to duck when one bold one made a kamikaze style bombing approach.
After lunch, whilst the dahlias were being planted, I made myself busy edging the border to our communal green area (technically it called a drainage field for the BiuoDisk but we have nicknamed it ‘Meg’s Meadow’) All of this frantic gardening is being done because of the fact that the rains are coming – certainly a smattering tomorrow and a really sustained downpour on Wednesday, according to the weather forecast. I have decided to name the lower part of the gully bordering our fence ‘Mog’s underpass’ (Mog is the name to which I answer in the Hart household – named after the Judith Kerr children’s author character as in ‘Meg and Mog’ but more likely because the initials spell out ‘Miserable Old Git’ ) That really is enough gardening chatter for several days (if not weeks) from now on!
The long-anticipated rains arrived overnight at last- this is always a pleasant sight, particularly when one is well ‘gardened-up’ and it has been one of the driest Aprils on record. Meg was still suffering a little from what we think is a stomach upset so I made the journey to the park on my own. I did pass by the house of our friend who has not many days left to live on this earth. I spoke with his son who informed me that his father, having not slept not particularly well last night, was now asleep. I bid my adieus and said I would call back in about another three days’ time. When I got to the park, it was practically deserted. I cut a solitary figure, standing alone in the bandstand and drinking the coffee from my flask (even harder to manipulate standing up in my desire to avoid touching any hard surfaces.)
This afternoon, I thought I would try my hand at making a facemask out of a discarded pair of socks. The first method involves making slits and cutting pieces out so that two ‘lugs’ are formed to stretch around your ears. I could not quite see how this would work with the open end, so I adopted Method 2 which seems a lot more successful. Basically, I put an elastic band over each end of the sock and then secured it in position by folding and securing with a safety pin. This initiated a house-wide search for safety pins which hardly anyone uses these days. Eventually, I improvised (as always) by securing each folded over portion with a large paper clip, unfolded and then used as a giant staple before being secured into position – I finished it off with a brief bit of masking tape to avoid scratching myself. The next task is to see how to sanitise /disinfect such a mask. As with hands, it is difficult to better hot water and a fair dolloping of soap although normal washing in the washing machine should also do the trick. I thought we try these out tomorrow (I have made three pairs already) and resolve to wash them every day as part of my new routine.
In the late afternoon, we FaceTimed our old friends who have been feeling the pressure a bit recently. We were speculating whether we could risk an accidental ‘meeting’ in the park in about 13 days’ time. The point is that Mondays are always very quiet and therefore we were very unlikely to encounter many other souls – Monday, May 11th is my 75th birthday so we may be able to celebrate at a distance!
I read a letter in yesterday’s Times which indicated that three countries (France, Denmark and Poland) had intimated that state aid would not be made available to companies in their respective countries who had funnelled their profits off into tax-havens. This seems like an excellent suggestion – if you had deprived the state of so much revenue over the years, why hold out your hand for state hand-outs now? It the type of suggestion that would (a) never occur to the British political elite and (b) certainly never be implemented. A second letter was from a Professor of Dentistry who pointed out that whilst hand-washing was a central part of the strategy to guard against the transmission of the Covid-19, perhaps the same consideration should be given to teeth-brushing. He argued that as droplets of saliva could well act as a vector of the Covid-19 virus, then sanitising the mouth with toothpaste (and mouth-wash, I ask myself?) would seem to be equally as sensible as hand-washing. Food for thought?
Today was the predicted wet day and so it proved. We had a chat with one of our friends on the way down to the park but the rest of our trip was a pretty soggy and miserable affair. As we had no real desire to sit on a wet park bench, we took refuge in the bandstand to consumer our coffee and provisions. I am given to understand that in WWII, all members of the armed forces, the Home Guard and perhaps the civilian population as well were trained in ‘aircraft recognition’ The present-day analogue of this is when we scan the horizon to see if there is anyone we know that we can recognise by their general shape and gait (there wasn’t!) – this enables one to spot friends and acquaintances long before you can see their actual faces. Thus it was today as we scanned the horizon in vain.
Once a week, we consume our by now traditional fish pie which has been made a fortnight or so ago and saved as several portions. The one downside of this fish meal, although it is easy to heat up in the microwave, is that it does tend to smell the kitchen out so that we have to counteract this by flinging a window wide open and keeping the hob extractor fan on at full blast. The afternoon was filled with nothing more exciting than a routine dusting and hoovering but so it is for most of the population. We did receive a text from our chiropodist with whom we have not had contact for several weeks offering us an appointment slot. This we accepted until after consultation with our son and daughter-in-law we realised that this might be a somewhat risky venture as we did not know how many other older clients might have been seen recently harbouring perhaps asymptomatic virus, so we decided to cancel this and try and arrange something in the future when the panic had died down a bit. Our daughter-in-law had done our weekly shopping for us and this is always very welcome but we do feel a bit guilty about accepting it. We have decided to be loyal Waitrose customers in the future using their ‘Click and Collect‘ service and we thought we would activate this again in a week or so when it becomes more apparent whether our daughter-in-law will be attending her school on a regular daily rather than a sporadic basis. Accordingly, I made a dummy order at Waitrose and saw that we were on their priority list and there were a few slots available to us in a few days’ time – so we think we will get this system going in earnest in an about a fortnight’s time.
The media have been full of the news that Boris Johnson has fathered another child, but the interesting aspect of this affair is that Boris will not admit to how many children he already has. I think the answer is four legitimate and one illegitimate but in his election campaign, Boris refused to answer questions as to how many children he actually has. So it was some surprise that in the House of Commons, Wliiam Rees-Meg congratulated Boris ‘as one father of six children to another‘. I am a little reminded of the story of the Irish bishop (was he called Eamonn Casey?) who was forced to resign and flee to America when the story of his illegitimate children emerged in Ireland. It was the time of one of the football World Cups and when the bishop entered the stadium and was looking for his seat, he was spotted and recognised by two Irish wags who shouted 'Dad! Dad! Over here!‘
The month of April seems to have absolutely flown by – to think it is May Day tomorrow (although hardly celebrated in the UK as it is in the rest of Europe) Today was a little chilly in the park as we have come to expect but we did bump into (not literally) the friend of a friend with whom we exchanged some pleasant thoughts. It turned out that the wife of the couple was brought up in Sheffield which was the university in which our son did his degree all those years ago (33 to be exact). To the regulars who come to see if any of the little ducklings have survived we tell them the same story i.e. that they were delicious!
Our son had bought us a copy of the Times today and in it, there was a very full and well-researched article on COVID-19. One thing that I had not fully appreciated was that a third (actually between 35%-40%) of the NHS patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 had died, a rate that was comparable to Ebola wards in Africa. The data sample was huge (17,000 patients admitted to 166 UK hospitals between 6th-18th April 2020). As the Professor of Outbreak Medicine at the University of Liverpool (Calum Semple) indicated ‘people need to get it into their heads the reason the government is keen to keep people at home is that this is an incredibly dangerous disease‘ At 8.00 pm this evening, as has now become the new tradition, we joined with all of the neighbours in a 2-3 minute round of applause/saucepan banging/instrument playing display of thanks to the NHS and allied workers. We wonder when the immediate crisis is over, whether people will be willing to grant them a hefty pay rise and also pay the necessary taxes to pay for it?
This afternoon, I played around with a little bit of Javascript (which all browsers utilise) because I wished to put a ‘Date Website Updated‘ caption at the end of my composite blog. There is a ‘quick and dirty’ way of doing this but the trouble is that the default is in the (American style) format of mm:dd:yyyy which to a British readership is very confusing (is 05/10/2020 October 5th or the 10th of May?) So, I learnt how to do this according to GMT and UK conventions and have got this working OK. As I have explained before (so I won’t repeat myself) when I find out how something works, I write the details down in a ‘What have I learnt/re-learnt TODAY’ hardback book so I can easily find out how to do it the next time I need to utilise the technique without re-inventing the wheel the whole time.
Having just dozed through this week’s edition of Question Time on BBC1, I reflect that a new style of (non-confrontational) politics seems to be emerging. The national crisis we are living through has led, I believe, to a quasi-coalition government (or at least a willingness to cooperate more closely with constructive opposition viewpoints). There is a return to more evidence-based politics, although I am not completely convinced that ‘the science’ as the politicians like to call it is quite as clear-cut or unequivocal on a range of issues as might be imagined. After all, why was ‘Test, Test and Test again‘ never taken very seriously as an over-riding policy option? At the end of all of this, it may well be that we have a reformed set of political institutions (e.g. some form of proportional representation may well be on the cards) and a realisation that certain core parts of our national infrastructure (the NHS, social care) cannot be left to the market and must certainly not be allowed to return to a stripped down version under the mantra ‘it is all the nation can afford’. I think there will be a realisation that the political dogma of the decades since Thatcherism which divides the world into those who provide the wealth of the country (entrepreneurs) and those who consume it (NHS again, education) is just too simplistic. There is a very strong argument that good education, welfare and health services provide long-term capital formation without which a modern economy cannot operate and some of the fripperies of the merchandise that floods our stores on occasions can easily be dispensed with and do not really add to the nation’s wealth (e.g. outfits for children around Hallow’een is my particular bugbear.)
Another showery day which made our daily journey rather a damp one. As the local bandstand was colonised by a family with young children, we decided to sit on a soggy park bench although we were fortunate in that we did not actively get rained upon. On our way home, we ran across a person who we know by sight as he visits his father on a Friday at just about the time. coincidentally, that we are walking home. We always ask after each other but stopped for a longer chat today. It turns out that he was a software engineer so we exchanged some details of programming languages with which we were familiar and had utilised in the past. The day turned out to one of those infuriating days when there are bouts of brilliant sunshine that lull you into a false sense of security punctuated by showers. As it was over a week since the lawns had had their cut, I took a chance on it and managed to get the communal areas and our lawns cut just before the heavens opened which would have given me a good drenching.
The 5.00 briefing from 10 Downing Street was dominated by the news that the government had well exceeded their target total of 100,000 tests to be conducted on one day – a target that they had set themselves before the end of the month (which was yesterday) and which few thought that they would actually meet. As it happened, and as you might suspect, there was a massive fiddle of the figures going on – the announced figure actually included test kits that had been despatched to peoples’ homes but not yet returned (a practice that Downing Street had earlier in the week said would not be included in the returns) It took Channel 4 News and a couple of the journalists to ask pointed questions but the rest of the ‘brat-pack’ were pretty tame. Channel 4 claimed that the true figure should be about 83,000 not 120,000+. It does appear that as the Health Secretary was desperate to meet his target, about a third of the total (39,000) related to kits mailed out but not, as hitherto, actually dispatched for analysis to the laboratory. The government scientific advisors did their usual trick of ‘throwing sand in the eyes of the enemy’ i.e. quoting a lot of other statistics which whilst not being untrue were not related to the pointed questions that were asked and which only served to confuse the issue ( I always thought that ‘throwing sand in the faces of the enemy’ was derived from gladiators in mortal combat who had been disarmed and resorted to the only thing they could possibly do whilst prostrate in the arena and that was to grasp a handful of sand and throw it in the face of their attackers) But I am wrong – the expression dates from the 17th century according to Google.
The other major story was the fact that the death rate for the COVID-19 virus had hit the poorer areas of the country twice as hard as the more affluent areas. The death-rate for the poorest areas was 55 per 100,000, twice the rate for the more affluent areas. Of course, there are a variety of explanations that all contribute to these figures such as the fact that the poorest individuals are in jobs where they are forced to go out to work and do not have the ability to work ‘from home’ And, of course, a decade of austerity means that housing and welfare payments have been slashed for the poorest communities before the COVID-19 virus compounded their difficulties. It is evident that a major task of reconstruction needs to take place but whether this will happen under a government of this complexion will have to wait to be seen.
Meg and I were on the way to see our good friend, Clive, who is on an ‘end-of-life’ pathway and hoped to be able to wave to him through the window of his house. But we were intercepted as we approached the house by a desolate daughter-in-law who informed us that Clive had died at 8.30 the previous evening. This news always comes as a shock when it happens, even though it was expected in the days ahead. On the one hand, we are filled with utter sadness at the loss of a dear friend – on the other hand, we were extremely relieved that he died in the comfort of his own home surrounded by his relatives and people who love him and largely free from pain. At least we have been spared the sight of a departing ambulance which is the last that many people up and down the land are experiencing with the COVID-19 virus. Clive had been a good friend to Meg and myself – we entertained him two or three times for a meal or a Christmas ‘do’ and one occasion had a wonderful trip on the Severn Valley Railway which we all enjoyed. And, of course, he played his trumpet at our 50th wedding celebrations in 2017 and we are so pleased that we have a clip of video of him playing at that event [in this blog, Friday 24th April, 2020- Day 39] and here it is again: Clive Of course, the funeral arrangements are going to be a bit difficult but it looks as though up to 10 family members can attend the actual funeral. All of his other friends and acquaintances will probably gather outside his house at about the time that the hearse is due to depart so that we can all give him a heartfelt clap for a life well-lived, which seems to be a tradition which is rapidly becoming established these days. As we walked around the park, we were really fortunate in view of our really sad news we had just received to encounter three sets of friends. We had chats with all of them and it helped us enormously to get us back onto a more even emotional keel. In the afternoon, as the weather was set fair, I became tempted to do some of the edging and gulley maintenance I used to do before we had some help in the garden. I must say, there is no real substitute for getting down on your knees and tacking things with a gloved hand. These days, I tend to do these things in fairly small bursts (i.e.no more than an hour) so that my back doesn’t suffer, followed by another hour of routine housework.
Now that spring is here, I am starting to think again about my composting routines. Although there is a lot of confusing advice out on the web, the consensus view is 3 parts ‘browns’ (carbon-rich) to one part ‘greens’ (nitrogen-rich) If you are doing a lot of weeding and therefore have a lot of ‘green’ materials, you need to add a fair quantity of browns and for this, I shred whatever cardboard comes my way – particularly in the early part of the year. Later on in the year when you have more dead twigs or leaves, then this ratio is easier to maintain. (I have been known to scour supermarket shelves for ’empty’ cardboard containers at the start of the season) The tip is, of course, to have a shredder but it is not unknown for these to break down as they become clogged with paper dust. The secret is to keep it well oiled (every 2nd or 3 use). Now, for the ‘not many people know this‘ advice. The shredder oil that manufacturers try to sell is 99.9% canola oil so the tip is that you can use any vegetable cooking oil rather than shredder oil and if you want to be particularly careful, you can always buy and use rapeseed oil (which the North Americans call ‘canola’ – originally developed to be more ecologically friendly in the Canadian logging industries) This will prolong the life of your shredder no end and will also aid the composting processes by ensuring that the ‘brown’ (i.e. carbon-rich) components of the compost are already in a broken-down form. But you knew all of this anyway!
As you might imagine, the park has a different clientele on Sundays, being dominated by young parents with associated children (some on bicycles) and dogs. Thus it was today and consequently, we did not meet any of our regulars. It rather reminded me of when I was a barman in my student days at Tiffany’s in Manchester. My fellow members of staff used to joke with each other that if you had forgotten which day of the week it was, all you had to do was look at the clientele and there were always social variations e.g. Friday night was the ‘lads night out’, Sunday was often the engaged couples and so on. At Tiffany’s fire precautions were taken quite seriously – the band was instructed to play Teddy Bear’s Picnic which was code for us that the fire was real, not imagined. As a barman, you were instructed to stand by your till (and burn if necessary) to avoid the till being looted if there was a panic exit. Incidentally, the two girl singers in the band (Eve and Lynn) went on to become the core of the ‘New Seekers‘ if anyone goes back that far.
There was an interesting letter in today’s Observer which gave food for thought. One prominent theory in recent years has been ‘nudge’ theory i.e. you move to achieve a policy objective by a series of small shifts and incremental moves. Sometimes this works well – for example, the use of electronic displays to warn you to keep your speed down. Sometimes, however, the theory results in abject failures such as attempting to warn people of the dangers of tobacco smoking by the use of large letter warnings and graphic images on cigarette packets. What worked in this latter case was actually quite a leap in policy i.e. making it illegal to smoke in public places. Now we can apply that theory to the present pandemic crisis. The first stages were classic ‘nudge’ theory (a series of small steps such as ‘advice’ given to the public, messages that were transmitted but not really adhered to such as Boris Johnson going around. and shaking hands with lots of people). But a more significant policy shift, i.e. lockdown, if effected two weeks earlier, would have saved literally thousands of lives. The moral of this: there are times when a sagacious politician (are there any?) should have taken decisive action. By the way, has anybody else noticed that simplistic slogans (‘Stay home‘, ‘Protect the NHS‘, ‘Save Lives‘) are produced by the same advisers who launched ‘Get Brexit Done‘ on the great British public?
Many of the commentators are saying that the coming week will be a ‘pivotal’ week in political life as the government and other decision-makers grapple with how to unlock the economy. In retrospect, the decision to lock down was incredibly simple compared with the complexities of travelling towards the ‘new’ normality. There are still some certainties, such as the necessity to keep 2 metres apart in social distancing and if I had to make a guess, I would say that certain ‘outdoor’ businesses would cautiously re-open. High on the list would be garden centres, zoos, gardens open to the public, and the like. We would certainly be moving from a type of digital mode of operation (on/off open/shut, allowed/not allowed) to a much more analogue mode in which we need to have gradations of approach. Some institutions will have changed their modus operandi for good – I would imagine that all universities would offer the majority of their output in an online mode from now on and the idea of mass lectures and smaller group tutorials/seminars will be regarded as a relic of the past. The travel industry will also be radically reshaped and I wonder how many would willingly travel on public transport unless there were compulsory face-masks and a radical restriction on numbers travelling to preserve social distance?
This morning was a fine, bright morning and it was not surprising that it brought a fair sprinkling of visitors to the park, where we enjoyed our customary elevenses and a few passing conversations with fellow walkers, including our friend Julie who espied us from a distance on her walk and managed to catch up with us. Most of the regulars are on the look-out for the ducklings and we usually tell them ‘Yes! they were delicious!‘ We despatched a sympathy card to Clive’s relatives on our way down the hill and also a belated birthday card to one of my ‘old fogies’ friends from my Winchester days. The ‘old fogies’ are a group of colleagues from the University of Winchester who still meet regularly two or three times a year to have a meal and to reminisce how much better things were when we ran them over thirteen years ago. Actually, we tend to talk more about politics (which we mostly share) rather than work. We started this tradition before we retired because about five of us all had birthdays in May so we decided to have a communal birthday dinner and we have carried on ever since. After the meal, a few of us often repair to a local pub where we carry on until our wives and mistresses call us home. Later in the morning, we felt that we had to take the car for a spin to keep the battery recharged (is this an essential journey or not we ask ourselves?). On our way home, we stop off at one of our oldest friends in Bromsgrove and chat over the garden wall, exchanging news about family and mutual friends. This always makes us feel good (not that we really feel miserable) and so home to lunch. In the afternoon, I resumed doing some gardening (clearance of the gullies and beds surrounding our back lawn) Needless to say, I had my work inspected, checked for quality, and ‘rolled in’ by Miggles, our adopted cat. Miggles, by the way. is engaging in some hank-panky with another cat I have christened Peter (lots of quasi fighting and almost playing ‘cat and mouse’ with each other – I have my suspicions). I was pleased to be able to utilise some of my cardboard shreddings to go with the other cleared weeds and leaves- almost anything arriving from Amazon now gets the shredding treatment. I still have to add some of my traditional compost heap accelerant – below is what Google in its first entry has to say on the subject:
The COVID-19 news this evening revealed that more than 50% of the British workforce is now being paid for by the government. And it is also reported that 80% of the population are fearful of too rapid an ‘unlock down’ for fear of contracting the virus. But, whisper it gently, could it not be the case that actually at least some people rather like being paid 80% of their wages for doing nothing apart from staying at home and avoiding the sometimes harsh exigencies of work. I have not heard anybody suggest this but it is a thought that occurs to me. I think it makes the case for citizens’s wage (paying everybody in a society the same basic allowance whether they are employed or not) come somewhat closer and seem less of an outlandish idea than a few months ago. In the US, there is now a report that in early June, the daily totals for the number of deaths may exceed 3.000 a day.
Whilst we were in the park today, we had a very pleasant surprise. Two of our friends who live down the hill are keen gardeners and when we were last in conversation with them, I mentioned that I was thinking about acquiring a lilac tree to fill a gap left by a previous tree that we had to have removed. Our friends very generously have donated a lilac tree to us and it is sitting waiting in a pot ready for us to collect. As it is already quite large, my daughter-in-law feels we might adopt the ‘Christmas tree‘ strategy i.e. we use whichever of our cars is the larger, fold down the seats and have the front end of the tree sitting between the driver and the front passenger. This has worked well over the years so we will have to see if we can adapt this strategy to transport our recently acquired tree.
The afternoon has again been filled with intensive gardening i.e. I am pressing on whilst the weather is quite fine. Progress was quite fast until I encountered a section of garden with a small paved motif. The only trouble is that dandelions have overgrown this area so everyone has to be painstakingly removed (and often the roots can be up to 8 inches long) so that has slowed me down quite a lot. Still, I tell myself, once I get the garden in good shape before the middle of May, maintenance should be fairly easy but the reverse is the case if I don’t get on top of it now.
Some readers of this blog have expressed their appreciation and read it every day so I wondered if I could lay my hands on a similar blog which I had written in the days before the term blog was even invented (in May, 1999!) The story is this. Whilst working at the (then) Leicester Polytechnic, we established an exchange relationship with the Public Administration department of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (often regarded as the Cambridge of Spain) We exchanged students for several years under the EU ERASMUS (later (SOCRATES) scheme- the acronym ERASMUS stands for European Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students. Under this scheme, staff were also encouraged to undertake a period of teaching in their partner university and, to cut a long story short, I was invited to spend a term at the Complutense teaching Information Technology to Public Administration students (in Spanish) This I did in the spring term of 1990 but whilst there, I thought it would be useful to record my day-to-day experiences and to post them back to colleagues at Leicester Polytechnic (in the days before email really became established and also before web pages). I rather had in mind the Alistair Cooke programme on Radio 4 which was called ‘Letter from America‘ and so I called mine ‘Carta de Madrid‘ (or ‘Letter from Madrid’). I should also point out that as part of the philosophy of sandwich education developed particularly in the polytechnics, students were encouraged to keep a ‘diary’ (although Meg and I changed the terminology to ‘field notes’ following our social anthropological roots). At the end of their year, students had to submit a formal report which was marked (and graded) so their field notes were a vital raw material providing a record of their activities and also a vehicle for them to reflect upon their experiences during the year. So that is why the ‘Letter from Madrid‘ came into being – some if it is factual, whilst other parts of it are certainly reflective (no doubt of the joys and frustrations that are a part of one’s novel experiences).
On a more technical note, the text was written using a text editor which produced pure ASCII text on the grounds that it could then be fed into whatever word processor one wished in order to ‘prettify’ it. Microsoft Word was only one program amongst many (and nothing like as universal as it is today) – I actually taught Word Perfect which was a competitor (and many at the time considered it superior) The upshot of this is that every line ends in a ‘hard’ CR (carriage return) character and to replace all of these in over 3,000 lines of text would take for ever and a day. Consequent, the simple .txt file has been converted into a .pdf file and this should be viewable in all browsers. Here is the URL if you are interested in dipping in or out of all of this.
http://kesland.info/blog/carta.pdfToday was one of those days when we seemed to be chatting all morning. Firstly, we encountered some of our oldest friends from church, who were out busy gardening. As a plant was being removed only to be thrown away, I begged it in order to fill up some vacant pots which would normally have bedding plants within them but we haven’t been able to procure any during the lockdown. Then we popped a card into another set of neigbours who had promised us a lilac tree so we made final arrangements for collecting the tree this evening. In the park we had a few casual chats with passers-by – we normally ask them about the breed of their dog or mention how well-behaved it is which generally functions as a conversation opener. On our way home, we encountered sets of friends No. 2 who were busy still in their garden and managed to get some delivery of both bedding plants and supplies such as compost. Finally, we saw our Italian friend and ensured that all was well with her. One way or another, we seemed to spend the whole of the morning chatting which cannot be a bad thing. In the afternoon, I pressed on with doing my ‘gully maintenance’ and planted the shrubs that I acquired in the morning. It was a beautiful afternoon and I made reasonable progress with just about 1.5 hours of work left to do tomorrow before the weather breaks again. In the late afternoon, my daughter-in-law and I went to collect the lilac tree which I would estimate was 8-9 ft in height. Getting it home meant dropping the back seats of the car and having the top of the tree jammed up against the windscreen which meant that driving home was like navigating a forest – but it was only 1km home so we managed that all right. Tomorrow I am going to prepare my planting hole for the tree but I will wait for Friday to do the actual planting as I have ordered some of the specialist preparation that enables trees to grow away quickly ( I quote from the manufacturer’s blurb – and certainly the Amazon reviews were almost universally favourable)
There is quite a lot of speculation in tomorrow’s newspapers concerning the announcement that Boris Johnson will make on Sunday next on the ways in which the lockdown might be eased. It looks as though the most likely candidates involve ‘fresh air’ i.e. people may be allowed to exercise more than once a day, some open-air activities such as a meeting of a few friends in a park may be allowed and there is the possibility of garden centres being allowed to open. The trouble is that too much speculation at this point can only lead to disappointment if the measures proposed turn out to fall short of peoples’ expectations – we always knew that lessening the tightness of the screw was always going to be a lot more difficult that proposing the lockdown in the first place. One can only speculate what the typical high street is going to look like in a few week’s time. Most high streets were moribund anyway – Bromsgrove, for example, has about 7-8 charity shops in a 3 hundred yard stretch. What is not fully appreciated at this point is that the income of the typical working family will have received a massive hit so how much actual money will be free to be spent is an interesting question. Even more interesting is the ‘fear’ factor with many people, according to the survey evidence, fearful of entering places where their fellow citizens might congregate.
Every day seems to get chattier than the last! We were fortunate, though, to see a friend of the recently deceased Clive who gave us some intimation of when the funeral is likely to be. Evidently, because of the restriction upon numbers, we will not be allowed to attend but we do wish to position outside his house and give the funeral hearse a good send-off (by clapping) when the fateful day arrives. Then we had another long chat with two sets of friends who are themselves neighbours (making a potential little meeting of six of us – will this be actually sanctioned next Sunday?) Again, we met several acquaintances in the park (normally a dog runs up to us expecting to be fed some tit-bits and this provides an entree for a conversation with the owners) Finally, we chatted with yet another acquaintance on the way back who was extolling the virtues of James O’Brien on the LBC Radio Show. Apparently, he hails from Kidderminster which is just down the road from us. After lunch, I made an early start clearing the gullies in the garden which I really want to get finished before the weather breaks. I found a child’s rake from Aldi to particularly useful in this regard as it has only eight prongs and is about a metre in length i.e. easily manipulated in one hand. Aldi does a whole range of children’s garden tools which are not cheap, plastic bendy rubbish (as you might expect) but real and miniaturized tools (including a rake, a lawn rake, a long-handled shovel, and so on) Although they are designed to be used by children they are just as useful for adults as well as they can easily be used one-handed and they only cost £2-£3 piece as far as I can remember. Then to finish off my gardening activities, I located the exact spot in the wilderness bit of garden we have inherited (and which we call ‘Mog’s Den‘) and dug the hole ready for the tree planting tomorrow. I lined it well with a tub load of my own 2-year old compost and then, as a bonus, thanks to Amazon my mycorrhizal fungi (for the tree roots) arrived so I am all systems ‘go’ tomorrow.
As it was a Thursday evening, our household and all of the neighbours participated in our ‘clap for the NHS’ ritual. This is really quite heart-warming and I hope that the tradition persists for a long time into the future. After this had ended, we paid a visit to our near neighbour to ensure that all was well as we understood that she had not been feeling too well in the last few days. Afterwards, we had a pleasant wander down by the side of the communal grassed area ‘Meg’s Meadow’ and I checked that the little beech saplings I had transplanted about 10 days ago were thriving and I am pleased that they were – even more so, after a good downpour, I would imagine. Actually admiring your handiwork in the garden in the early summer evening is one of the most relaxing things I know.
It looks as though two big scandals are emerging for any post-Coronavirus enquiry to handle are emerging. The first of these is the rampant non-preparedness for the pandemic as it has now emerged that the stockpile that had been built up had been allowed to diminish and at least 50% of the items in it were all past their ‘use by’ date and had to be re-tested or were otherwise deemed unusable. In some cases, new ‘Use by’ labels had just been stuck over the old ones! And the second scandal-to-be is the issue of care homes where it was known that any pandemic would be an immense problem and to which patients were transferred from hospital, perhaps infected with virus, but with no testing at all before reception into the care home. Needless to say, the staff had found it difficult to be tested and were suffering a severe shortage of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) as they were evidently the ‘poor relations’.
Today is the 75th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) day – as we walked down into Bromsgrove this morning, many houses were decorated with flags and bunting. Of course, the British love to revel in these occasions but my spies in Scotland indicate a much more ambivalent atmosphere. It looks as though lots of preparations are being made for impromptu yet socially distanced parties with friends and neighbours and it is quite easy to understand why. However, a part of me always thinks of the expression ‘Bread and circuses’ – there were regular revolts of the slaves and the underprivileged in ancient Rome but the solution was always to give a free supply of bread (pasta, probably!) and to provide a free circus as the entertainment offered therein helped one to forget potential problems and the revolt was quelled. However, it is fair to say that there was a fairly jovial and relaxed atmosphere as the populace enjoyed the Bank Holiday. [Incidentally, it seems a bit un-British to have Bank Holidays on a Friday, rather than a Monday where it gets tagged onto the weekend. In Spanish and Hispanic cultures, national holidays are generally taken on a Thursday on the principle that the following day, a Friday, is a puente [or bridge} which means that people forget about going to work on the Friday and hence have a break which extends from late on Wednesday afternoon until Monday morning]. On our walk down, we bumped into some of Clive’s relatives who informed us that the date of Clive’s funeral is going to be Tuesday, 19th May and although his many friends cannot attend the funeral, we can at least assemble and give him a good clap as a send-off, which we will do. Needless to say, we had several friendly chats up and down the street which is becoming the new norm for us!
This afternoon was tree planting day but the first the communal lawns and our lawns had to be cut. This worked as well as always – I am so relieved that two years I took the decision to buy a special ‘mulching’ mower made by a Swedish firm (Stiga – normally big in the commercial rather than the domestic market) This machine has a slightly higher dome than normal and no grass collecting gear – the idea is that the grass gets cuts once and is thrown ‘upwards’ towards the mower hood and then is then cut again on the way down, leaving only minimal trails of grass cuttings most of which are mulched. It really does work very well. The tree planting worked well as the hole was prepared and fortunately, I had all the right materials to hand – compost (put in yesterday, tree root fungus preparation, bonemeal (for slow release fertiliser), blood fish and bone (for organic fertilizer), a thumper to compact the soil, a long stake to act as support and finally a sledgehammer to get it well hammered into the ground. However, I am slightly fearful that it might struggle as not much rootball remained and the taproot had been broken but with a lot of TLC and water, we shall have to hope and pray. When this had been completed, I nearly forgot that we were due to FaceTime some of Waitrose friends which we duly did – and we have made provisional arrangements to ‘encounter’ each other in the local park on Monday morning if it is not absolutely raining cats-and-dogs.
One of my Pilates friends had discovered the joy of walking the local fields and has ascertained that there is a public footpath across the field containing sheep at the rear of our house. As Monday is my birthday, she is going to attempt to drop by and I have got an improvised arrangement (a little cardboard box attached to the end of a snow shovel) which means that we may be able to offer a glass of champagne (over the barbed wire fence) to celebrate.
I am feeling a little tired this morning for quite understandable reasons. As I had a wakeful patch in the middle of the night, I came downstairs to interrogate my computer and idly wondered if Waitrose was offering any ‘Click and Collect’ sessions. As it happened they were so I immediately started to compile a shopping list for a few day’s time and I now have a slot booked for next Thursday in the morning. I suppose the next time I shop, the system will have remembered my last shop, and therefore I only have to amend it, but the first run-through is always quite time-consuming so that was about an hour’s less beauty sleep.
The day after VE day and there was still an interesting atmosphere in the streets. It must be a combination of the pandemic on the one hand and a mood of national solidarity on the other but everybody seemed to wish to stop and talk with us today. We met several groups of both friends and acquaintances, both on the way down to the park and also on the journey back up again, with interesting conversations to be had all round. In the park, we had noticed a particularly striking tree and on both sides, there were figures carved into it – a type of wooden sculpture, I suppose you would call it. We enquired with one of the locals whom we know by sight and we were informed that the ‘sculptures’ were of the two daughters, Lucy Sanders and Mary Sanders who inherited the whole of what is now Sanders Park and donated it to the town. They both lived to a great old age (81 and 95 respectively). The original Benjamin Sanders, the great grandfather of Lucy and Mary Sanders had established a button factory and when we first moved to Bromsgrove, I believe that we caught sight of the modernised version of this although it has now been incorporated into a private dwelling house. The grandfather of these two eminent ladies had inherited the Cotton Pool estate and drained the enormous pool which is now the ‘pond’ besides which we sit every day to drink our coffee and eat our biscuits (necessary sustenance after having walked for 1.5 km from our house!) This is only a sketchy history but I thought I would go on the web and Google for a few more details as the contribution of the 19th-century philanthropists who had great wealth and no doubt increased it with their entrepreneurial activities did tend to invest the proceeds back into their local communities. One is reminded of the great Quaker families (Rowntrees in York, Cadbury’s in Bournville (Birmingham) and the Clarks of Street in Somerset).
Late on this afternoon, I set myself the task of clearing a bit of scrubland on a slope near to the point at which my fallen tree had had to be removed. There were quite a lot of brambles (one I swear was about 15 ft long) and ubiquitous ivy but I felt I had made some progress. Tomorrow is going to be really wet but when the weather improves I will need to ‘terrace’ the slope by putting in some retaining boards and then I shall finish it iff with weed control fabric and some forest bark. Fortunately, I already have some of these materials in stock but no doubt I will run out at the most inconvenient point!
Tonight I watched the Churchill film ‘Darkest Hour‘ detailing the events and dilemmas facing Winston Churchill in 1940. I wonder whether Boris has watched the film, probably for the second time, and whether there are parallels to be drawn between the dilemmas of then and now.
As I had finished last night’s blog (in the wee small hours of the morning I must confess) I had a quick look at my emails and saw that I had received an email from Iceland. I was not expecting this but I must have registered my email address with them sometime before. I quickly registered with them and wondered if they had any free slots as they promising ‘free’ delivery the next day if you spend £35.00 on a basket of groceries. A slot was being offered from 6.00-8.00 next Tuesday morning and. not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I set about constructing an order not so much of essentials but of ‘usefuls’ including toilet and kitchen paper, some long-life milk and some other commodities it is good to have in one’s pantry even if not needed in the next day or so. So next week, I shall two grocery consignments (a ‘click and collect’ from Waitrose on Thursday morning and now the delivery from Iceland on Tuesday morning). I think once I get my act together, I might have one delivery from Waitrose per fortnight and another from Iceland in the intervening weeks.
We were very disturbed immediately after breakfast to observe an ambulance outside our next-door neighbour’s door. If there had been a blue flashing light, we might have assumed a heart attack but as the ambulance remained for quite a long time, we really did fear the worst. However, as we were leaving for our walk our neighbour emerged and walked into the ambulance unaided. We discovered subsequently in chats with his wife throughout the day that he had been suffering some angina pains and was admitted to our local hospital in Redditch. He is to be seen by a specialist cardiologist on Monday morning (surely a good thing!) and will probably spend a day or so in hospital for monitoring and routine tests. Apparently, he is in good spirits and we are all mightily relieved, as you might imagine.
The weather forecast indicated bands of rain sweeping across the country and a lot of cold air. We certainly got the cold and blustery winds but not the rain. As we were huddled up on our park bench, one of our best friends who lives opposite the park had espied us and on her morning walk dropped by a carrier bag containing some birthday goodies, which I shall not open until tomorrow. If the weather is not atrocious tomorrow, we may bump into some friends in the park tomorrow, see another long-standing friend later, and then see one of my Pilates friends who will emerge from the middle of a flock of sheep in the early afternoon (see earlier blogs for an explanation). We shall have to wait and see. According to King Boris, it will be quite legal fur us to sit and have a snack on the park bench on Wednesday next and not just as a break in the middle of a strenuous(!) walk which is what we are doing at the moment.
The next week or so will be quite interesting, politically. For once the unions may have a very significant voice (which they haven’t had for about 40 years ago now) because if they advise workers to stay at home until their employer guarantees them a safe working environment, then we could have workplaces that are ‘open’ but with no workers within them. It is quite interesting that the population as a whole do not seem over keen to get back to work – perhaps the graphic images (of which there have been plenty) of what happens when one gets put into an acute care unit and then a ventilator is quite enough to persuade people that home is the best place to be.
So the day has arrived – today I am 75 years of age and rather pleased to have another half-decade under my belt. We always thought that today was going to be quite a busy day and so it turned out to be. We left on our journey for the park and, indeed, got there at just 11.00 am whereby, by complete coincidence, two of our long-lasting Waitrose friends just happened to be waiting for us. Within a few minutes, we were joined by Julie (also of Waitrose ancestry) and within only a few minutes more, another couple of friends joined us. We had a happy reunion and drank our coffee with glee, although if the truth be told the weather was sharp and cold and the wind quite keen and blustery. Earlier in the day, my favourite niece had phoned at just the point I was due to get into the shower and I had to reassure myself that we were not on FaceTime and that I was appearing naked. My sister had also sent me a message earlier on the day so a lot of family-related news was relayed. Having heard so much about the lake, I had been asked to take and supply some photos on my iPhone, which I duly did but the evidence proves that we were all at least two metres apart. And so for home, but not before collecting another birthday card and a wonderful present of some gardening gloves from our gardening friend down the road (as it happened, I had been admiring the gloves she has been wearing a day or so before, not anticipating a prezzie later on) And so we got home only to pick up the car and go to ‘accidentally’ visit yet another friend who had been busy baking a most magnificent cake for me (pumpkin and rhubarb made according to a brand-new recipe) This turned out to be some of the nicest cake I had ever tasted and we sampled some of it after having our lunchtime soup. After this, although it was bitterly cold, a Pilates friend with whom I have a particular friendship, hove into view from a field at the back of the house, emerging from a flock of distant sheep and a bunch of nettles (we happened to be under the surgeon’s knife at about the same time just about two years ago and were commiserating with each and giving each other messages of moral support). I had already constructed an elaborate arrangement of a cardboard box affixed with double-sided tape to a long-handled snow shovel which proved to the perfect way to hand over a glass of champagne and even more cake which Meg, myself and my Pilates friend all had together in what must have been one the more esoteric birthday gatherings of all time! Another photo ensued was taken to record the event for posterity. The afternoon was spent watching Boris Johnson in full burble mode before the House of Commons before we decided that we would treat ourselves to an Indian ‘take-away’ meal. We decided to break the house rule and all eat together on this occasion and we probably ate far too much than was good fur us, as well as polishing off the special birthday cake. We shared the birthday cards we have received and even Miggles, our adopted cat, got included in one of them (it showed an illustration of a cat sitting in its cat-bed with a thought bubble coming out of its head with the musing ‘Here we go .. another day of being wonderful me – cute, fluffy and adorable … with just a hint of evil, psycho, ninja assassin‘. This was courtesy of my Pilates friend who had read the blogs about my family nick-name (‘Mog’) and the exploits of Miggles. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson and his government are busy making announcements about back to work on Monday, only to be corrected as Wednesday and with several ministers displaying ignorance of their own policy in early morning interviews not to mention the fact that the right-wing of the Tory party, exhibiting a strident English nationalsim, are ignoring the wishes of most of the English population, not to mention the Irish, the Welsh, the Scots… we have been here before with the Brexit nonsense and see where that had landed us. The end, however, of one of the most enjoyable birthdays it was ever possible to have, so life can’t be all bad…
Here is a link to some birthday snaps (some a little dark!): Mike's 75th
Well, I thought today might be a little anti-climatic after the jollities of yesterday. As is now usual, we met two sets of friends on the way down into the park where the weather was so much kinder to us than yesterday, with a fairly clear blue sky and a wind that had moderated since yesterday. On the way home, we encountered one of our friends for the second time and commiserated with each about the fate of elderly relatives whose families were not treating them as well as they should have been. In the afternoon, I had set myself to do half an hour’s gardening but this soon turned into an hour and a half. I had pulled some dead branches complete with a complement of ivy from our fallen tree and I now had the task of disposing of it. I decided that it was a better job to sit down and chop it all into 3″-4″ pieces which I duly did, and this will make disposal of one blue sack of clippings so much easier. When clearing a little bit of banked woodland, I was wondering whether ivy was universally to be cleared and should be eliminated, or whether it was worth letting the younger, greener shoots still climb over the tree stumps. I decided on the latter course of action because, otherwise, the tree stumps would have been like blackened rotting teeth and I have a ‘cunning plan’ to let the little triangle of earth which is difficult to cultivate be colonised by a little white plant that I have elsewhere in the garden that may provide some ground cover.
This evening, we had a little domestic drama on our hands. Not knowing what we had done with some socks, washable face masks, and one or two other odds and ends, we hunted through the whole house for them before we found them in a special ‘receptacle’ which is positioned in front of the filtration unit in our dryer. This filtration unit is meant to be cleaned every six months but with this new model of machine, we had somehow forgotten to do it since it was new. However all’s well that ends well as after a collective effort from the household, we managed to retrieve the lost items (and it still a mystery to us how they ended up there!) and put everything else to rights.
Today, I received my delivery of goods from Iceland – instead of being delivered in the slot from 6.00-8.00 in the morning, it arrived at 5.55 (to be fair to Iceland, they had sent me a text telling me that I was first on the list) However an order of £40.00 had been reduced to £31.00 after certain items could not be supplied (kitchen rolls – fancy that), catfood and eggs – all of which we can live without. Now I am getting myself geared up for a ‘Click and Collect’ on Thursday morning.
We didn’t bother to observe the Downing Street briefing which has been a habit of ours in the last few days. I suspect that there if there is a groundswell of opinion, it is that ‘following the science<‘ is not as clear and simple as the politicians would have us believe. After all, the ‘science’ told is to ‘test, test and test again‘ as in South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand and elsewhere that have got on top of the virus much more expeditiously than we have. The truth when it emerges will probably reveal that we didn’t go in for a regime of rigorous testing because we had neither the kit, the laboratories or the personnel to do it. News has emerged that we send 50,000 samples to the USA to be tested because our own facilities could not cope for one reason or another. Some people are already looking forward to what the inevitable enquiry might reveal – one government minister is quoted as having expressed the thought that ‘we might avoid the blame for getting us into the mess in the first place but we shall surely get the blame if we mess up the exit!''
Today is the day when, in theory, there should be some liberalisation of the great lockdown but it has brought with it a series of nonsenses and anomalies. If I understand it correctly, you can sit on a park bench with two strangers provided you are at least two metres apart. If one of them is your parent, then it is permissible to converse with one them – but if both people are your parents this would constitute a meeting of three people and would be illegal (if you were to talk to both of them at once – but not, in turn!). If you were selling your house, then it would be legitimate for your agent to accompany two people who are viewing your property but you are not allowed to join them. Transgressions are to be met with an increased fine (£100 for a first offence) And, of course, this is only in England but not in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland where the previous lockdown rules still apply. And if you go to work and your employer asks you to engage in a practice which breaks the new rules, can you walk out or not? (A government minister on Radio 4 refused to say whether it would be illegal to fail to comply with an employer’s not-legal instruction …and so on and so forth). It will be interesting to see how many fines and/or prosections are actually handed out to deal with all of this.
Our journey to the park today followed its usual course except that we didn’t stop to chat on the way there or on the way back. The amusing thing is that when we are seated on our park bench eating our elevenses (now absolutely legal and of course we can sunbathe as well if we wish to) many of the dogs let off the lease to have a run around make straight for us on the assumption that food is in the offing – their owners are inevitably full of chagrin but we are rather amused by it all. The park was busier than normal and it appeared that most benches were occupied – evidently, people had realised that they could now get to the park and chat with friends and neighbours quasi-legally (but see the above!)
After lunch, I thought I would move a youngish tree from one location to another, such that it helps to distract attention away from the next-door neighbour’s garden which is replete with every kind of outside toy it is possible to have so that the whole approximates to a children’s playground. (There is a hidden irony in all of this as part of our three initially successful attempts to object to the orchard adjacent to our hose being replaced by a miniature housing estate, one proposal was there should be a public children’s playground provided within a metre or so of our simple-wire (stock) fence!) Digging the hole ought to have simple but it didn’t quite turn out that way. I need to explain that the plot of land upon which our house was built was originally a nursery complete with outbuildings and the like. When it came to developing the site, there seemed to be a policy of bulldozing the buildings over, removing the subsequent rubble and then covering the remains with earth. Consequently, any attempts to dig on the outer fringes of the garden are nearly always met with a plethora of half-bricks, stones, bits of concrete and the like – and today was no exception. Having got the planting hole well prepared with compost, root fungus and bonemeal now it came to the transplanting itself. My tree purchased a couple of years ago is, if I remember, a Tilia Cordata Greenspire but I now estimate it to be about 16ft tall. In negotiating it out of its former position, I succeeded pretty well except for inadvertently breaking off (or damaging) the top foot of it. Nonetheless, now it is well in position (exactly where I wanted it to be) and well-watered and it seems to be surviving the shock of transplant already. Time will tell!
In the early evening, we FaceTimed some of our former Waitrose friends whom we had met in the park on Monday last and they seem to have a tremendous problem with their priority order at Asda (systems failure, wiping out their basket of shopping, their priority slot and all future priority slots) but eventually succeeded with Waitrose – I must say I am not surprised that Asda’s systems seemed to be unable to cope as even after a year, the system could not cope with reading my newspaper vouchers when I occasionally tried to use them in store.
Today was the fateful day in which I was to collect my first Waitrose ‘Click and Collect’ order. As it worked out, all was plain sailing – although there was a long and orderly queue, I was directed to enter the store directly and then waited whilst all my order was delivered in a series of carrier bags on a Waitrose staff trolley. I was then supplied with a customer trolley into which I unloaded all the bags and then straight home. I think next time, I will wait until a fortnight has elapsed and then go for a straight delivery service which is available once you spend a certain quantum of money. Once we eventually got to the park having encountered our usual two sets of friends and their grandchildren en-route, we enjoyed the pleasant sunshine. We also passed by Clive’s house where his family was chatting with other neighbours and we made sure that we all have he arrangements in place for the funeral next Tuesday. The grandchildren had prepared an information leaflet giving all the neighbours up and down the Kidderminster Road details of the video-feed from the crematorium so I am sure that after the initial ‘clap-off’ we shall repair to our respective houses and follow the proceedings on our laptops.
This afternoon turned out to be a heavier afternoon than I would have liked. I set myself the task of encouraging a Wegela to grow nice and tall – this entailed attached a length of bamboo cane to an existing cane and then affixing the various branches to it. The trouble was that everything was a bit precarious because I was balancing on a pile of bricks in one hand whilst trying to manipulate string, plant-ties, scissors, etc, with the other. I am not sure that the result looked much better than the original but at least I have had a go. Then I decided to construct a sort of miniature fence halfway up the slope near the area cleared by the fallen tree. Fortunately, I had in my possession a post-boring implement (actually it looks like a giant corkscrew but it enables you to construct the type of hole you want for a fencing post without too much digging or the use of concrete). All that is required then is a lot of hammering with a heavy-duty sledgehammer which was really quite hard work. Then I utilised some timber that my neighbour had kindly let me have as surplus to his own requirements when he was having some building work done and the timbers neatly stacked behind it and were held in position by two more staves (previously pre-creosoted) at the rear. The idea is to store things like bags of compost, topsoil and other garden requisites behind the fence so that everything will look nice and neat once more tidying up has taken place.
As it is Thursday evening, our little ‘close’ participated in the weekly ‘Clap for Carers‘ but perhaps the response was little more muted this week? We took the opportunity to have an extended chat with our new-ish neighbours. The husband had returned home yesterday from a spell in hospital where he was being treated for some heart problems so we exchanged some hospital stories with each other. We have both every reason to be grateful for some high-quality care in our local hospitals but hospital organisation is a little complicated in this area as the local trust covers Redditch, Kidderminster and Worcester and patients often shuttle from one hospital to another in the course of their treatment. This can make life a little complicated at times as Bromsgrove is in the middle of this little ‘triangle’ being approximately twelve miles distant from each but one gets used to it in time.
Another bright day with the weather set fair for a few days more. Actually, I wouldn’t mind if we had one or two really intense rain showers as the gardens are looking pretty dry at the moment. Having just ordered a Hornbeam tree for myself, I know that smaller varieties of this tree are often used as a hedging plant, the reason being that although it is fairly similar to beech, it keeps its leaves right throughout the winter, even though they have turned brown. Therefore the hedge functions as a hedge i.e. as a barrier either in the summer or the winter, even though it is not an evergreen. Having read about this characteristic, I am pretty sure I have seen one or two examples of it in neighbours’ gardens as I walk down the hill so I am making a mental note of the houses and their numbers so that I can confirm my hunches when I next see the occupants. Today, I have succeeded in doing something which has eluded me for the last 60 days of lockdown and daily walk – i.e. I have spilled an entire cup of coffee into my rucksack, as I sat juggling diverse flasks, cups, biscuit containers on my knees. Fortunately, I had plenty of kitchen paper to help to mop up the contents – maybe, I should try a different way of drinking my coffee tomorrow and in the future. There seemed to be a lot of children in the park today, mainly on their scooters, bikes (but no hobby horses). When we returned home, we had a ‘free’ lunch, courtesy of Waitrose – I had ordered some cod fillets in my ‘Click and Collect‘ but as these were within one day of their sell-by date, Waitrose supplied them to us gratis which was very ethical of them. I supplemented the parsley sauce that I had with some fresh parley which we just happen to have growing in an odd corner of the garden.
Just before I went out to do my weekly ‘mowing’. I received a phone call from the son of my deceased friend, Clive. He was phoning to ensure that I had all of the details for the funeral on Tuesday next. Having got a relevant email address, I can now forward the link to the video clip of Clive playing his trumpet at our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations so the family will have another clip to add to their collection. As we suspected, Clive had gone downhill extremely rapidly in the last few days so I am delighted that we managed to make a farewell wave to him whilst he could still recognise us before the very end. My mowing was extended a little as I ran the petrol mower over my neighbour’s front lawn as she has not been feeling too well recently and I thought this might give her a bit of a helping help before our gardeners return. I couldn’t bear to watch the Downing Street briefing this evening as the evasion displayed by the politicians is starting to get to me a bit – interesting how the graph showing international comparisons has suddenly disappeared now that it is evident that we have fared the worst of all the European nations in coping with the crisis.
Two or three little snippets of COVID-19 news that came into prominence today. Firstly, it appears that the rate of infection amongst children is just about the same as the rest of the population. Secondly, obesity and associated diabetes is now an extremely influential factor, being displayed in a quarter of all deaths. And thirdly, the ‘R’ factor (rate of infection) seems to be getting closer to 1.0 as one approaches the deprived areas of the North East of England – which gives one food for thought.
Today has been rather an unusual day, probably relating to the fact that it is the weekend. For a start, we saw none of our usual friends to have a chat with on the way up and down the hill – this is probably a function of the fact that everyone has a somewhat different routine at the weekend and there were certainly a lot more children evident in the park and faces that we didn’t recognise. In the afternoon, I had two little ‘projects’ to carry out. The first of these involved planting a whole variety of seeds with my daughter-in-law We have a large seed-planting tray that helps to confine the mess on our outside table. As we didn’t have any specialised seed compost, we used ordinary compost leavened with a dose of vermiculite which we happened to have in stock. The seeds are some years old now and we have had them in stock for some time so we have not lost anything if they fail to germinate. But if they do, we ought to have a supply of foxglove, sweet peas, hollyhocks and others whose name I have forgotten. We happened to have in stock some lightweight seed trays with attendant plastic covers (a little like a mini-cloche) and we now have 3-4 stored away safely in our airing room (to assist germination) before we will bring them downstairs and outsides to encourage them to ‘harden off’ (if any germinate, that is).
In the late afternoon,I turned my attention to tidying up the neglected corner of ‘Mog’s Den‘ in the garden. But a word of explanation is in order to understand what is going on. Right at the edge of our formal garden there is a sharply sloping bank of hitherto neglected land (I think it was neglected because in formal terms it lay between our formal boundary and a stock fence erected by the owner of the field which used to adjoin our garden) When we moved into the house 12 years ago, this area was full of 5-6 ft high nettles, brambles, holly, ivy and goodness knows what else. I have gradually reclaimed this space (now legally ours) and converted some of it into a woodland garden, complete with a slate path, forest bark to cover the slopes and shade-loving ever-green plants like Skimmia and a couple of fruit trees. But I did have an area upon which I had constructed a knee-high work area with some paving slabs- in the past, I had used to organise some cuttings but it was full of a great deal of clutter which included bags of compost, topsoil, my own sieved soil, spare sand, slate, buckets and containers of every description not to mention a mini-greenhouse with creosote, gardening implements, gloves, knives, string, scissors, plant ties. With a certain amount of neglect and the combined effects of wind and rain playing havoc, then the whole area had become a right mess and needed a good tidying up (to put it mildly) However after an hour and a half of sorting out, throwing away and relocation I had restored a degree of order to the whole so it is now looking a bit more shape-shape. I have set myself a mini-project of constructing a little curving path up a slope to my storage area beyond the fence. Some time ago in Poundland, I had invested in some little lattice arrangements of wood being sold off for £1 (I think to put plant pots and the like) but I think I can utilise them for a somewhat different purpose and use them to construct the steps for my path. I suspect I will going to do some sawing to construct a series of little pegs in order to construct a curve. Mind you, I often think that instead of opting for a mathematical precision, it is better to judge things by eye as it is the overall impression that counts in the end (and one doesn’t have to be too perfectionist about it after all!)
As it is Sunday, Meg and I get our day organised so that we can watch The Andrew Marr politics show at 9.00 on BBC1. However, as the weeks roll by I really wonder why we bother because the politicians never get subjected to detailed scrutiny or (successfully) evade every question. Today, it was Michael Gove who succeeded in his glib way of saying absolutely nothing so that at the end of the interview you think ‘What did he actually say?’ The walk down to the park was uneventful but we did have quite an interesting chat with a lady who indicated that she had been an Ofsted inspector but her comments about teachers seemed to bely this. However, once we got off the vexed subject of whether teachers were right in being pressurised by the government to resume a limited return to school on 1st June and onto the subject of the best local garden centres in which to buy trees, the conversation took on a more fruitful turn. My own (not very educated) guess is that only 50% of parents may allow their children to go to school – in a conflict like this, the Government will claim success whilst teachers will be able to point to the low attendance rates across the country as a vindication of their stance. In the North East, around Gateshead, where the R factor is said locally to be above the trigger figure of 1.0 it seems that the local authorities may follow the Scots rather than London in keeping people away from school and themselves ‘safe’ in their own houses. The next week or so will be interesting to see how this plays out.
The afternoon was relatively uneventful as it was largely occupied by housework. The phrase keeps running through my head, uttered by the American comedienne Joan Rivers ‘The trouble is with housework is that you have all that dusting, polishing and hoovering – and then 9 months later you have to do it all over again!‘ However, there is a slight bonus in that the choice of music on ClassicFM is normally pretty good on a Sunday afternoon and that helps to alleviate the tedium. When this had been completed, I managed to get half-an-hour tidying up the contents of my mini plastic greenhouse, which were in a state of some disarray as the plastic cover had perished and needed to be ripped away. I have an initial search on the web to try and find a replacement cover without success so far so I must make more a more concerted effort in the morning.
I think the country is in an interesting state, politically. Initially, the government had a fairly strong approval rating for its actions on lock-down and this trend can be observed amongst all governments dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, whatever their political hue and degree of competence – the American political scientists have called this the ‘rally round the flag‘ syndrome, However, there seem to have been an abrupt change in political mood in the last week since the lockdown is starting to be released. The government’s approval rating has gone negative i.e. more people think it is doing a bad job than think it is doing a good job, according to a poll published in the Observer today. In particular, the vagueness and lack of precision behind the phrase ‘Stay alert‘ is a huge problem and the population is now confused by the ambiguity of the message compared with the simplicity of the ‘Stay at home‘ message it was replacing. Also, a certain psychological angst is being created by some evident anomalies e.g. (i) you can now accept a cleaner into your house (because of the ‘cash nexus’) but not see your own parents (ii) everybody should stay 2 metres apart from each other but it is quite OK for this rule to be transgressed when getting on a Tube train or catching a bus (iii) as a teacher and a grandparent you will not be allowed to see your own grandchildren but you are being ‘encouraged’ by the government to see other parents’ children 'en masse' if and when the schools resume. No wonder patience with the government is wearing exceedingly thin (and this is putting it mildly!)
Fortunately, we seem to be in the middle of a warm spell and the weather seems set fair for a few days. As it looked as though it might be a good ‘drying day’ we whipped the sheets off the bed and had them into the washing machine the minute we got up. When the washing machine had done its job, we got them out onto the clothes line and in no time they were billowing out as though they were a TV commercial. Speaking of which, there used to be a clothes washing product called ‘Omo’ (which stands for ‘Old Mother Owl’ i.e. wise enough to use this brand of washing powder) A search on the web revealed that it was still being made and available in 4.9kg cartons (although it was ‘unavailable’ when I checked on the web just now). According to the Unilever Website, it was introduced to the market in 1954 and is still available in Brazil, Turkey and Germany, Australia and Romania and has just been re-launched in Kenya where it was first available in 1953 (but it was discontinued in the UK in 1960’s – I wonder why?)
When we got the park, we were greeted by our friend Julie who looked hale and hearty but told us her tale of woe. Apparently, she had been taken ill on Friday night and had to have an emergency admission to hospital by ambulance with symptoms that sounded as though they could have been a heart attack. It turned out that it was a gall-bladder that had been playing up and after diagnosis (and presumably some treatment) she was back home the following day. It sounds as though it must have been a really frightening experience when living on your own but fortunately a good and long-standing neighbour (who we now know) stepped in and gave a helping hand. After lunch, we resumed our house cleaning duties and completed them for another week until they start again. I was itching to get outside and do one or two little gardening jobs which I eventually did. One of these involved hammering a stake into the ground and then pulling an errant branch of an apple tree in a more vertical orientation and this seemed to work out OK. Fortunately, I had in stock an appropriate length of polypropylene rope (thank you Poundland!) which served the purpose well although I generally persuade the ladies of the household to donate to me their discarded tights as this makes for a light, strong rope-like fixing agent which is not harsh on the bark of a tree but has just the right amount of ‘give’ in it when under tension. My second job was to re-purpose a plastic gardening bag so that it would provide a cover for my now denuded mini greenhouse (again, thank God for Poundland) This worked pretty well and I seem to have been just in time because I noticed that later on in the evening the ground was wet. so we must have had a passing shower.
Mid-way through the evening we had the ‘Order of Service‘ for Clive’s funeral service delivered by hand to our front door. This is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 11.45 and we have been supplied with a web reference so that we can follow the proceedings ‘on-line’. Earlier in the day, we had a long discussion with our daughter-in-law regarding the exact preparations that need to take place before some children are allowed back into school on 1st June (or not, as the case might be) It is also interesting that the government has finally added ‘loss of taste’ as a symptom to be added to help diagnose COVD-19 (but won’t even attempt to answer how many more people there are ‘out there’ who may have had the virus and not known it and unknowingly infected many more in the. meantime).
Well, the day has arrived that we were sort of looking forward to and not looking forward to, as it was the day of Clive’s funeral. Instead of walking down to the park, Meg and I made a detour so that we could arrive outside Clive’s house to see his funeral cortege depart. A crowd of some forty people had assembled in total – rather than a clap which I had rather anticipated, the crowd watched in a respectful silence as the funeral cars departed. The poignant moment in all of this was when one of Clive’s relatives held up the two Jack Russell dogs that he had exercised every day for years now so that they could have a final look at Clive before the cars moved off. Not that this would be at all meaningful to the two dogs, of course, but it was still a rather poignant moment nonetheless. Afterwards, we all repaired to our own houses where there was a webcast direct from the local crematorium and a wonderful service that reflected some of Clive’s preferences such as a Shakespeare sonnet, a poem written by one of his grand-daughters and a piece of jazz trumpet by Stan Kenton that Clive no doubt knew very well. [In fact, I recall an amusing story that Clive had told me when he and his brother had been engaged to play at a 50th birthday party. As it happened, the household had a little dog called ‘Delilah’ so when Clive and his brother played ‘No, no. no, Delilah” and got the rest of the birthday celebrants to join in the chorus, the little dog went spare with excitement!]
I had set myself a little project in the afternoon to lay a little path from wooden squares along one of my recently cleared slopes in Mog’s Den but I reasoned I had better try to get the slope moderated by inserting a little timber detente (I suppose you might call it) but I spent some time painting everything I was going to use with a creosote substitute (creosote is now banned on Health and Safety grounds!). I then made a narrow little trench which I lined with builder’s sand and then inserted my timber and held it in place with specially prepared long ‘pegs’ that I had previously prepared (creosoted, put a point on) and which I then hammered in with my 12lb sledgehammer – fortunately, I have done this sort of thing before so I knew what to do and the results were as expected. However, as I somehow thought might happen, although the timber is mathematically in the right place (to the nearest half-inch) the result doesn’t look quite right – it’s one of those cases to which I have alluded before when the human eye can be a better judge than exact mathematical precision might indicate. I think I can ‘soften’ the line by transplanting a few evergreens in front of it so that people won’t notice, so I am looking at my little batch of cuttings to see what I can utilise.
It seems that the government is now coming sustained attack over the COVID-19 deaths in care homes – Matt Hancock the Health Secretary was forced back into the House of Commons today to provide some sort of explanation. It seems fairly clear that in a desperate bid to clear the hospital wards of elderly patients in order to make room for the anticipated influx of COVID-19 patients, many were practically forced into care homes, untested, and the virus spread like wildfire. There was also a semi-admission from one of the scientific advisers that the advice to cease testing came about largely because it was known that testing facilities on the scale required were clearly inadequate. Let us all wait for the official enquiry (which might take years to complete) Another bit of ‘juicy’ political news is that the Brexiteer element of the Tory party are practically salivating at the prospect of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit (where we depart from the EU on minimal World Trade Organisation terms) because the undoubted costs to the British economy will be impossible to disentangle from the economic effects of the Coronavirus and will thus effectively be hidden or lost for all time!
Well, it’s been one of those days today when I seem to have been chasing my own tail all day long. I had got onto the Iceland website yesterday and it indicated that no slots were available but new slots would be available at 11.00 am each morning, from Monday to Friday. So I got onto the website and made up an order of things that I knew I needed as well as doubling up on other items and managed to secure a slot from 8.00-10.00 on Friday i.e. just over a day’s time. This was handy because I am running out of certain things which are in short supply (according to one of our friends, eggs are hard to find because everyone is at home baking away and using up eggs as a consequence) Nice to get this done but it delayed all of our normal routines by about an hour. The park was absolutely teeming and when we first entered, every single bench was occupied although some were vacated just as we approached. There seemed to be a lot of sunbathing, yappy dogs, scootering children (but a bit too warm for serious jogging) On our way home, we saw two sets of friends and had pleasant chats with each of them, helping to set the world to rights.
After our lunch of chicken fricassee, I embarked on my path construction. Before I could really get going, though, I had to supply myself with a set of retaining pegs that involved a certain amount of sawing, putting points on the pegs and finally creosoting. The actual path construction turned out to be just about what I had anticipated with no real problems. I cut a shape around each wooden ‘step’ with an edging tool and extracted about an inch of baked topsoil (which I can use subsequently) before putting down a couple of shovel fulls of builder’s sand and then setting each step in place, preventing subsequent movement by driving in a wooden peg about 7″-8″ long fore and aft to prevent any slippage or drift. The end result was just about what I had expected/intended – any fine-tuning can be dome tomorrow! After I had finished, we FaceTimed our good Waitrose-era friends as we do every 3-4 days and had a good old natter, mainly centering around our differing experiences with online shopping with the local food supermarkets. I am starting to warm a little to Iceland as their delivery slots – only a day or so to wait – seem quite useful if you know you are running short of things although their range is necessarily limited. As you may have guessed, I am missing the regular supply of ‘Unicorn hoof oil essence’ available only in Waitrose stores which is absolutely de rigeur in the modern kitchen.
In the early evening, I received an email from Clive’s son who very much appreciated the rendition of Clive playing ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s desiring‘ ( a J.S. Bach Chorale) on the occasion of our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. I had an iPhone video clip of this as part of the wedding website so it was quite easy to extract this and send it on. I mentioned in my email that the whole ‘funeral service’ was very ‘Clive-like’ and he would have approved heartily – as it turned out, this was no surprise as Clive had largely organised this before his demise. It is wonderful in these days of modern and easily accessible technology to have little movie clips of old friends like this. Meg and I miss him a lot as we used to see him nearly every day or every other day-for once, I was absolutely struck by the finality of cremation where, of course, nothing remains.
Believe it or not, today has been an immensely ‘gardening’ type day – probably just as well before the weather breaks. On our way down the hill this morning, we had a long chat with two of our friends and were invited around the garden of one of them. We exchanged notes about what was what in the garden and indicated what plans we had – this is always the same with gardens and gardeners as one is always looking forward to what is to come and delighted by the unexpected successes as well as prepared for the inevitable failures. Once we actually made it into the park, it was not quite as busy as normal but there were lots of picnics in evidence – blankets spread out on the ground and comestibles being consumed. We had to hunt to find a seat, all our favourite ones being occupied. Once we eventually returned home, we had a salad type lunch based around a quiche – I am always amazed by what you can rustle up without the aid of lettuce or other salad-like greens.
On our way home, we passed the house of an acquaintance who I happened to know had a series of external wall tiles (there was a particular short-lived fashion from about 1965-1969 to build houses with a kind of external tile cladding on the upper storeys – we lived in a house like that in Thurnby in Leicestershire and it was built in 1968, as I remember) To cut a long story short, I asked our friend if he still had his wall-tiles as I had previously discussed him that I thought that they make an excellent edging to a lawn or a flower-bed – and whether he still had any to spare. Very generously, he offered me as many as I wanted and when I tentatively asked for half-a-dozen and tentatively upped it to a dozen, I went down in the car after lunch and picked up a consignment which turned out to be 20! And so to my latest construction. In the slope below the detente, I made a cut with an edging tool and then excavated an area about 18″ in width and I then lined the back of this area with my recently acquired, wall tiles. The idea was to put two large (40cm diameter) black plastic pots into position and fill them with some spare trees that I had growing adjacent to our communal grassed area. The first of these beech trees proved to be extremely problematic to extract as I suspect it had taken root by itself on the top of a buried pile of stones – consequently, every time I put in a spade to get it under the root-ball, I encountered stone after stone. Eventually, though, my efforts were crowned with success and I extracted the tree only to discover it was actually about six feet tall, However, in the plant tub it went with some previously excavated soil, some of my own compost, bone-meal fertiliser as a long-lasting fertiliser around the roots and blood, fish and bone as a top dressing. The second tree was almost the same height but a lot easier to extract. Since transplanting (at not the best time of year) they have both drooped a little but I am fairly confident that with some good compost, watering night and day and a little TLC, they will thrive – if not, I haven’t lost anything. I then finished off by transplanting a little oak tree in the middle (this was only about 8″ tall) and finally dressed the whole area with some large slate chippings that I happened to have spare. All in all, I am pleased with the overall result but the rest of my family have yet to see it an cast an opinion on it. To finish it all off, I have a packet of 150 California poppy seeds on order which I shall nurture and germinate and put in the few remaining triangles of the ‘slope’ remaining. I promise you not to bore you with any more gardening from now on!
We held our usual ‘Clap for Carers‘ tonight – don’t the weeks roll by! We are waiting with great anticipation to see what the Iceland delivery van brings us in the morning…
It comes to something when you look forward to the Iceland delivery of shopping as the highlight of one’s day! But this is not quite as ridiculous as it might sound as I got delivery of a pack of 10 eggs which my spies tell me are hard to find as everybody is going crazy baking goodness-knows-what in which eggs are a vital ingredient. Anyway, the order came as expected and I suspect that the quality is going to turn out OK (although I did change one item when the reviewers said it was the most disgusting rubbish they had ever eaten). Today proved to be a different kind of day as our regular cleaner/domestic help was now allowed to come along (she can come into our house because that’s for money but not into her mother’s house because… the difficulty in applying the lock-down rules) However, we managed fine by agreeing never to be in the same room together at the same time. On our walk down into the hill, we encountered one of our regular husband-and-wife friends who we were glad to see again because their grandson is about to enter higher education and having given advice to countless youngsters over the years at a similar stage in their lives, we were quite happy to make the offer again when these strange times are over (or have at least, moved on).
Friday is grass-mowing day and again this went without a hitch – I say this, because there is always the slightest scintilla of doubt in my mind whether my petrol driven mower will actually start – it is a Swedish ‘Stiga’ model and it always does. I only mention it because I once had a Mounfield which was an absolute ‘beast’ ( polite word!) to start and eventually, I got so fed up with it that I gave it away. I suspect it had never been set up properly form its manufacture but it leaves a horrid memory. Right at the end of the afternoon, I did finish off my gardening ‘opus’ with a swift strategic use of forest bark and the construction of a bed with the slope removed (or at least ameliorated) in which I can plant my California poppy seeds tomorrow. There happen to be one or two poppy plants that have ‘escaped ‘ onto the public highway (footpath) so I will attempt to ‘liberate’ one tomorrow, all being well.
The breaking political news this evening is the ‘revelation’ that Dominic Cummings, the Svengali-like special adviser to the Prime Minister has been caught apparently breaking the ‘lock-down’ laws following a period of self-isolation (definition of Svengali: a person who manipulates or exerts excessive control over another) Other senior figures who have engaged in such hypocritical behaviour have been forced to resign (e.g. Professor Neil Ferguson, the scientist whose modelling led to the lockdown, the Scottish health minister) and it remains to be seen whether the same will prove true of Dominic Cummings or not. It is a sad reflection of the operation of political influence that the nearer one is to the centres of political power, the greater the feeling that ‘rules are only meant for the little people, not for people like us‘ It all depends on whether the press, which is generally Tory-supporting, decides collectively that they are going to ‘go’ for a political figure or not. I think it was Alastair Campbell, the last press secretary in the Labour administration who argued as a rule of thumb that if a negative story ran for more than about three days, then the individual in question was probably ‘toast’ – so we shall watch ‘What the Papers Say’ with particular interest over the next few days…
For whatever reason, I had a wakeful period in the middle of the night last night so I decided to deploy my time productively my updating the Waitrose order I have scheduled for eight days’ time. This all went smoothly and it is always reassuring to be emailed an up-to-date copy of your order which helps to ensure that the extras you have ordered are actually included. The park today was not quite so busy as it has been in recent days – perhaps a function of the fact that the temperature has dropped down several degrees, it was very windy and the sunbathing tendency has abated. Whilst in the park, we met with our friend Julie who now seems fully restored to health after her recent little health episode. She told us though of one of the Waitrose staff who we know well who seemed to have similar symptoms to Julie’s (gall-bladder?) – however, our Waitrose friend had not had a happy time in A&E at our local hospital and was left for several hours with no prospect of a scan or similar investigations. She felt that she had been badly treated and we were speculating whether she got worse treatment by having her husband drive her directly to the hospital rather than calling an ambulance. It might just be the luck of the draw whether you get good treatment or not – Meg and I were hoping that no implicit racism was involved. Whilst in the park, we also ran into our good friends who had bought us an excellent bottle of wine on the occasion of Mike’s recent birthday. This wine turned out to be absolutely excellent so we soaked the label off the bottle to give to our friends in case we saw them – which of course we did. It sometimes happens when you give a bottle of wine as a present, then apart from the price and the label and the vintage, you might have few clues whether it was a good or an indifferent wine so we were glad to pass the label onto our friends so that they could enjoy a bottle for themselves.
I promised not to keep mentioning, ad infinitum, my gardening activities so I will keep this particular entry short and sweet. I finished off the major construction work that I have needed to do once our fallen tree had been removed and now include a little video clip so you can get a mental picture of what is going on. I must mention that the iPhone first records the journey down the steep little slope (a height of 6ft) into what we call ‘Mog’s Den’ and you can then get an idea of the shoring up that has been necessary in what is quite a steep slope. Whether or not my beech trees survive is another matter but they can always be replaced. After a little ‘pan around’ the journey is reversed and you traverse up the path towards ground i.e. normal lawn level. Here is the URL : Mogs Den
The Dominic Cummings story continues to dominate the news agenda, as you might imagine. On tonight’s ‘Review of the Papers‘ (Sky News Channel, 11.30-12.00), I have never seen a journalist so incandescent with rage as was Christina Patterson in her comments. She even used a phrase that I myself had used last night (‘contempt for the little people‘) but, of course, will the rest of the press join in the hue-and-cry? What makes the story particularly juicy was the revelation that, if true, Cummings had transgressed on at least two if not three occasions! There are now calls for Boris Johnson to sack Cummings forthwith – if he does not, then Boris Johnson himself seems to be condoning the moral, if not downright illegal, transgressions that have taken place. Watch this space!
I once asked one of my Spanish students what was the worst time he had ever spent in England and he replied ‘4 pm on a Sunday afternoon!‘ I suspect that is because when he was studying at the Complutense University in Madrid, many of the students used to go to a really atmospheric bar in central Madrid where they could drink coffee and meet up with friends – and hence the contrast with England. Today we watched the Andrew Marr show and noticed how adeptly Grant Shaps managed to evade or wriggle out of tighter corners than Houdini. For example, when confronted with the statement from the Durham police about the contact with Dominic Cummings’ father, we were offered the following (i) ‘You haven’t gone on to give the whole quote and particularly the portion that follows‘ (tending to imply that this would somehow negate the damning quote that had just been read out to him) And how about this for circumlocution ‘The police did not speak to Mr. Cummings père but he spoke with them‘. This was a downright falsification anyway but it only serves to potentially confuse the listener.
Just after we first moved into this house, nearly thirteen years ago, I planted some golden privet hedging (Ligustrum ovalifolium ‘Aureum’) to shield the BioDisc(= mini sewage treatment plant) we have outside the house. At the time, I got 30 plants in the boot of my car. Now it has grown to the extent that it is at least 1.5 metres tall and equally as wide and so, consequently, it was in need of pruning twice a year. My daughter in law had invested in battery-operated hedge clippers but even standing on some home=made platforms it was still too wide to get a completely even cut. Nonetheless, the job was done and cutting is the easy part – the more tedious part being clearing up all of the clippings into plastic sacks (two huge ones) Anyway, we managed to get the contents of these plus a sackful of cardboard shreddings into our compost bin (the right combination of both ‘green’ and ‘brown’ i.e. nitrogen/carbon as the aficionados of this blog will recognise) and all I need know is copious quantities of home-made compost accelerant (aka human urine) to let the microbes get to work. The people next door are having a party (I counted some 8-9 adults+children besporting themselves around a recently constructed garden bar – I am reliably informed these are increasingly popular but I had no idea they existed, until very recently…) I think it is several conjoined families so that is all right then – the distinction between a household’ and a ‘family’ is rather a subtle one anyway!
It is quite possible that this forthcoming week is ‘the calm before the storm’. Our daughter-in-law will be returning to school a week on Monday (June 1st) and it remains an interesting question of how many children actually turn up. But it is quite possible that she will be exposed to many more children than hitherto and, of course, there are several adults running a school as well as the teachers and parents who will be both leaving and collecting children from school – whether they will properly police themselves to be at 2-metre intervals is an interesting question (I suspect not) We feel that we might have to take extra precautions in our household cleaning and domestic routines from June 1st as there may be a very small, but nonetheless increased risk that the Coronavirus may still pose a potent threat.
Politically, it looks as though the Daily Mail is turning against Dominic Cummings. The Daily Mail always thought of itself (particularly under the editorship of Paul Dacre) as having its finger on the pulse of Middle England and if they pursue an anti-Cummings agenda for any period of time, then the future does not look bright for the most senior adviser to the Prime Minister.
Well, today doesn’t exactly feel like a Bank Holiday when most days feel alike. However, we must say that the park was a lot busier than normal and we had to hunt for a park bench upon which to munch our comestibles. Being what used to be called ‘Whitsun’ or ‘Whitsuntide’ put me in mind of the Whit walks that used to take place in Manchester and other Lancashire mill towns in times gone by. I thought the tradition had died out some time ago but apparently, they are still lingering on, according to Google, with a march of 1800 people as recently as 2018. The Catholics used to walk on one weekend around Whitsuntide (perhaps on Whit Friday) and the Anglicans and Non-conformists a week later. What was always so colourful was that as well as the scouts, guides, nurses, trade unions, brass bands etc. it was a good excuse for various ethnic groups (particularly, as I remember, the Poles and the Ukrainians who were strongly Catholic) to process in their national dress. As I write this blog and look upwards, I have a print of L. S. Lowry’s ‘A Procession in Pendlebury’ (showing a Whit Walk procession) on my study wall. I am told that L.S. Lowry who was a curmudgeonly old soul, used to take a taxi to the moors above Oldham and then set up his easel and paint.. pictures of Manchester mill towns!
As I write this, I am listening to ClassicFM and as a special guest they have Prince Charles on his own personal selection of classical music (Only Wagner and Strauss so far, but I have only been listening for 15 minutes) I think that as well as being a guest today, he may actually be presenting a show of his own in the next day or so. Interesting, really (well, it is for me)
Today, after lunch, I spent some time in Mog’s Den putting some finishing touches to the various supports I have put in place but in truth, I was just killing time because we had heard that Dominic Cummings was to have his own press conference later on in the day. I guessed it would be about 4.00 but it actually got going at about 4.30, eventually. Whatever, your view of Dominic Cummings (hero or villain depending on whether you are a Brexit or a Remainer supporter), it was an unprecedented type of event and an extraordinary piece of political theatre. Some of the revelations were incredible – e.g. going a 30-minute round-trip to ‘test one’s eye-sight’ before returning to London by car) In view of this self-confessed break of the regulations (which none of the journalists actually pinned him to the ground on) is surely grounds for a prosection or a £1000 fine (like the rest of us) I bet the Durham police pull their punches though. More of this later – I am fascinated to see Sky TV’s ‘Review of the Press’ make of it all. I will report later when I’ve had a chance to view it!
It seems now that it is quite legitimate to ‘use your best instincts as a father’ to exempt yourself from the lockdown rules you had helped to create. Some aspects of the Cummings account stretch our credulity to the limit e.g. you go on a 60 mile round trip to test your eyesight (incidentally putting the health and safety of your wife and child at risk) – an alternative explanation is that it is your wife’s birthday and you go a pleasure trip before you return to work in London the following day! What is fascinating is that politicians, the clergy, the police, scientists, lawyers, medics and the rest of the media have all universally expressed their disbelief and astonishment at the Cummings account. To read this for yourself, the article is entitled ‘Dominic Cummings draws condemnation from across UK society’ condemnation
As we suspected the Daily Mail is not at all convinced (and neither are the rest of us!)
As you might expect, this was a much quieter day after the Bank Holiday yesterday – quite unusually, we saw none of our usual friends to chat with on the way to the park but we were graced by the sight of our resident (club-footed) heron. The ducks seemed unusually prolific this morning but we suspect that they had been fed some chunks of bread, which is not good for them as it fills them up without giving them many of the nutrients that they might need. A few nights ago, our garden was graced by a hedgehog (observed in the middle of the night when one of our PIR lights was activated) and we know that there are masses of corners full of dead leaves and the like, which they will enjoy. The more the merrier, I say, if they constantly feed on the slugs that play havoc with several of our plants.
Our local authority, for reasons best known to itself, has started a policy of only mowing the central grassy strip that runs along the length of Kidderminster Road to a width of one metre (something to do with the fact that only one man can mow at a time but it sounds a fishy story to me) There is a bonus in that the un-mown areas are starting to sprout some wild meadow flowers. There seems to be an invasion of what at first sight might look a dandelion but is actually a dandelion-type wildflower known as ‘Cat’s ears‘ Tomorrow, I will gather a specimen and see if I can more definitively identify it but comparing it with images on the web. There is also a proliferation of poppies at the moment and I am keeping my eye on a whole series of poppy heads in a vacant house so that I can liberate them for future supplies of poppy seed.
More gardening this afternoon whilst the weather was fine. As opposed to construction work, this was just ‘routine’ gardening which involved clearing away about a year’s worth of fallen holly leaves from Mog’s Den. I decide to enlist the help of a huge plastic shovel which I purchased some time ago to shift snow (but actually looks like one of those huge things that you see stable workers muck out horses with – it might even be called a stable shovel). But in truth, I was just waiting to see what the latest briefing from Downing St. had to make of the Cumming’s affair.
Throughout the day, more and more Tory MP’s were withdrawing support from Cummings and one Scottish junior minister has resigned. Matt Hancock took the press briefing which was almost farcical as it was cut from 60 minutes to 30 and half of this time were the ritual presentations of graphs and statistics. Practically every question was on the Comming’s affair and Hancock allowed no supplementary questions. He half promised the first questionner (a vicar from Brighton) that he and his Treasury colleagues would examine the case for rescinding the fines of all of those who could plead a ‘special case’ à la Cummings – but having made up policy on the hoof, as it were, Downing Street went on to deny that there was going to be a change in policy. This really is like watching a car crash in slow motion but the interesting question remains that half of the cabinet have lined up to support Cummings whilst the other half wants to see him sacked! Michael Gove even suggested that he himself had driven to test his own eye-sight! If the situation persists, whereby every briefing from Downing Street is asked no questions about the pandemic but concentrates on Cummings with more and more influential Tories withdrawing their support, then Cummings looks doomed (and perhaps Boris Johnson doesn’t come out of it at all well either)
Today was the day that we decided to ‘liberate’ some of the wildflowers we have seen growing on a central verge. But first, we had our customary walk to the park which really did seem a lot busier than usual. For the first time in weeks, I did feel a little unsafe on occasions. Those of a certain age (65+) make every effort to avoid you, providing an almost ritualised arc-shape as you walk past each other. But we did notice that as we were sitting on our park bench, young couples with a 3-4-year-old on tow (or a little bike) made no effort at all to avoid you as we were sitting on the park bench, walking, in my estimation, within about a metre of you. not to mention two metres . The same was equally true of some of the residents of residential homes whom I presume were being pushed in a wheelchair by their carers who trundled along the path making no effort to avoid anyone. Given that residential homes may be the lurking-place for virus (more deaths were recorded in residential homes yesterday than in the whole of the hospital sector) then perhaps the trepidation that I felt had a degree of substance to it.
On our way home, I took out a sharp knife I had brought with me and liberated some small clumps of ox-eye daisies, cat’s-ear (similar to but not to be confused with dandelions) and a common poppy. These are, in effect, weeds but I wondered if I get them going in a few small plant pots and use them to brighten up a dark corner. I may not have much success in this particular venture as the specimens I obtained all seemed to have exceptionally shallow root systems but at least it was only about 10 minutes after lifting them before I got them into pots and watered.
After lunch, I busied myself with tidying up the steps that lead down into Mog’s Den but in truth, I didn’t spend a lot of time doing this as, apart from being assisted by the cat, I knew that Boris Johnson was due to appear before the Select Committee chairmen at 4.00 and I particularly wanted to evaluate his performance. A few little things stood out (i) despite referring to evident ‘falsehoods’ in the press treatment of Dominic Cummings, he couldn’t name any (ii) although he indicated that he did check on the evidence supplied by Dominic Cummings he was not going to refer any of it to the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service as he was ‘already far too busy to be troubled with things like that’ (iii) he hadn’t read any of the scientific papers but only relied on summaries of them provided for him (iv) he seemed not to know at all that there were thousands of migrants to the UK who because of their ambiguous citizenship status had no recourse to any public funds (and could be destitute for all he knew or cared) (v) he must have mentioned 5-6 times that it was time to ‘move on’ because that was the great British public wanted(!)
After reflecting upon the day’s events and some of the comments on late night TV, I suspect that three factors will stand out. The first of these is that the rebellion of 40+ Tory MP’s is showing some signs of fizzling out which means that Cummings may survive and hang on. However, Cummings may well be a ‘busted flush’ and will have lost whatever authority/respect he used to muster. But the second thing to emerge is that in the lockdown, the great British public invested a lot of trust in the government and helped to prevent the direst of tragedies (whilst still having the highest number of deaths/related deaths in the world) but this has largely evaporated and government messages may not be heeded (as there is ‘one law for the powerful and another law for the rest of us‘) Thirdly, and this point follows from the second, the ‘Test and Trace‘ system (due to be announced on Monday, 1st June but brought forward two working days in an attempt to ‘move the agenda on’) may well be fatally flawed as it is by no means certain that when contacted by a ‘tracer’ and told to isolate for 14 days the request will be followed as no sanctions are to be deployed in the short term. It is also evident that the fabled tracing app is not ready, that turn-around of test results is far too slow, and that we have failed to learn how to do things properly (as in South Korea, Germany for example)
This morning was fairly uneventful for Meg and I although we did have the opportunity for a brief chat with our Italian friend who lives down the road and then for a longer chat with two of our friends from church. One of their relatives had had an operation yesterday morning and we were all relieved that it seemed to have gone well so far. Another hot day which called out for a salad but we managed to rustle up quite a tasty collection of salad-type things even though we didn’t have what you might call any salad greens.
In the late morning, we got the news about Durham police’s view of the Dominic Cummings escapade. The whole wording seemed a little bizarre to us and designed to help the government get off the hook. For a start, the Durham police said that it was a minor breach (well a breach is either a breach or it isn’t a breach- the argument that it is minor because no social distancing was involved seems curious as surely if there had been a social distance issue this would have been two offences of leaving the house and breaking social distance rules). A lawyer has commented on the case as follows:
The fact that the initial journey from London to Durham was adjudged not to have broken regulations presumably drives a coach and horses through the advice? legal requirement? to ‘stay at home‘ and one wonders what will happen if some of those who have already been fined decide to appeal against their convictions. Finally, one has to say that a wording which says a ‘minor breach’ which ‘may’ have occurred seems to be bending over backwards not to offend Downing Street.
I had a frustrating session this afternoon. Part of ‘Mog’s Den‘ is an area in which I throw stones, bits of brick and other stuff retrieved whenever I go and dig in the garden. To tidy this up a little bit I thought I would put a bit of fencing (Poundland Special) and as I was doing this, I thought I would remove a protruding bit of stone from the route of the fence. Half an hour later and I was still struggling because as I excavated more and more of the ‘stone’ it became apparent that it must have been some kind of lintel, burried by the builders, as it was over 30″ long and about 6″ wide and 6″ deep. Having struggled to free this monster all without success, I reasoned to myself that even if I did free it would be too heavy to move anywhere and I would probably injure my back in making the effort. So I covered it all up again and made the best of a bad job.
Emily Maitless, the lead presenter on BBC Newsnight programme decided she would not appear the following evening after she had intimated that it was evident that Cummings had broken the law but the Government would not admit it. The BBC did not ‘discipline’ Maitless but felt they had to reissue guidance on political partiality but said they were not going to take any further action of a disciplinary nature. It should be very interesting to see what Newsnight says tonight, given that Cummings may have committed a breach of the regulations (subject to a court deciding the case – which of course it never will) The extremely partisan Attorney General has tweeted on Saturday in full support of Dominic Cummings and in which she quoted the full text of the No 10 statement on Boris Johnson’s chief aide in which the prime minister said he had behaved “responsibly and legally”. So the Attorney General’s role is compromised even before the Durham police statement earlier on today…
The end of another hot week – and more hot weather to come. We were particularly pleased to see our domestic help arrive to assist us in the burden of housework and we always seem to have a lot of news to catch up on. We do try to be careful to not be in the same room at the same time so there is a certain amount of calling to each other from doorways! We had a chat with one of our regular friends on the way down the hill and wondered if the park was going to be teeming today. However, despite the proliferation of picnic blankets, the park was only moderately busy and we enjoyed watching various antics with dogs and balls. By the way, by consulting Google, I have just discovered that the official name for the device that throws a ball further than one could unaided is called a ball-launcher – you live and learn.
After lunch, I cut the communal lawns and our own lawn with the trust petrol mower, but in truth, it had hardly grown at all but I succeeded in removing the wispy bits of dandelions. The two ‘weeds’ that I liberated from the roadside verges (an ox-eye daisy and the dandelion-like cat’s ear) seem to have taken in their planted plots and the trees I recently transplanted are just about surviving the heat (I think) Halfway through the afternoon, we took delivery of the lilac bush/tree that was a birthday present from the rest of the family. I also took delivery of a dozen half-round fencing posts with which I intend to construct a hand-rail to assist in reaching ‘Mog’s Den’ in the lower recesses of the garden. Although I have all the materials in place (posts, screws. cement, hole-boring implement) I think this job might be a bit more than a one-man job so I have sent off a text message to a useful contact of ours to see if we could do the job together sometime in the next few weeks (time is not of the essence)
Life next week will start to see some of the ‘turning of the analogue dial’ as the country as a whole is entering the first stages of release from the lockdown. As a family, we will face some changes – our daughter-in-law is in charge of the complicated logistics of getting the primary school in which she teaches ready to receive Year 1 and Year 6 pupils. I am going to enter a regime in which I go and collect my own newspapers which entails going to a small newspaper shop in town. I will go masked-up and will not enter the shop unless it is clear of other customers for a start. I have acquired a collection of face masks which will now come into their own. In addition, we are having the outside of the house receive a routine painting which is another small return to normality. As the government attempts to gradually end the various furlough schemes, the grim reality of how many businesses will be able to survive will become all too apparent. My own feeling is that this stage of the unlock down is going to be incredibly difficult. I suspect that as people have got used to new patterns of doing things (e.g. using online grocery shopping), then the old ways of doing things may never return.
Our local newspaper is reporting that Bromsgrove is in the top 20 of COVID-19 hotspots in the country. Of 329 local authorities, Bromsgrove has the 15th highest coronavirus death rate with a standardised rate of 106.4 per 100,000 (Birmingham was 89.7 per 100,000 and Worcestershire 50 per 100,000) A local consultant neurologist has pointed to the high death rate in residential homes (38 of the 105 deaths reported in Bromsgrove) and has argued that it is the neglect of care homes by the government that has led them to become pockets of infection where it is easy for the disease to spread and to re-spread. A sobering thought!
We thought that today the park was going to be exceptionally busy as people were anticipating the end of the lockdown. But, in truth, although it was a little busier than normal, the park was busy but not teeming. We decided to vary our route on the way back through the park and encountered one of our ‘old lady’ friends that we had not seen for several days and hoped she was OK. The husband of this particular acquaintance had worked for the Parks Department and, upon his demise, the family had donated a bench to the borough council and upon this bench, we often sit. The old lady in question can see this bench from the vantage point of her own home as she lives adjacent to the park – and she is always delighted to see that the bench is in use. We had not seen her as she had varied her routine and got into the habit of going around the park very early in the morning to avoid the heat and the crowds. She was having a few problems with her health but at least she had some hospital appointments lined up in the forthcoming week, although the logistics were getting to be a bit of a nightmare as under the Coronavirus rules one couldn’t be accompanied into the hospital. Still, we were pleased to see her. On our way up the hill, we exchanged news with one of our oldest friends and then bumped into an acquaintance who was visiting his parents and who we often see at the weekend. As it happened, he was engaged in the most humdrum of tasks (sieving through a bucket full of slate chippings to remove the bits of leaves and twigs) What was so coincidental about this is that I had detailed myself to do exactly the same task myself in the afternoon. Last year, I had taken the pains to lay down a whole new path along half of the length of ‘Mog’s Den‘ and, to keep a naturalistic look, I had laid down some weed control fabric and then had a ton of slate chippings delivered in the customary large plastic/hessian builder’s bag in our driveway. I had then made the journey down with loaded buckets of slate chippings to lay the path. This is generally quite maintenance-free but although the weed control fabric prevents the problems of annual weeds growing from below, one still has the problem of dried leaves accumulating on the top. This maintenance job didn’t turn out to be particularly arduous and I finished off the whole job with a Bosch blower that I use just to disperse dried leaves and the like. This now completes the makeover of ‘Mog’s Den‘ and whilst there will also be ‘pottering about’ little jobs to be done, at least it is now looking fairly shipshape and should be easy to maintain for the rest of the season. All it needs now is a good downpour of rain, but we will have to wait a little longer for that.
The political news this weekend looks interesting. It seems that the ‘love-in’ between the scientists/health chiefs on the one hand and the politicians on the other has finally broken down, particularly with the added irritant of the Dominic Cummings affair. In particular, they feel that trust has been badly damaged by Cumming’s failure to stand down and the prime minister’s refusal to dismiss him. In addition, they feel that the failure to set up an effective test, trace and isolate regime means that the safety and well-being of the general public are now certainly at risk. Today was a day when I missed the Downing Street briefing but for the first time, one of the senior scientists has made his feelings known. The government’s deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, with Dominic Cummings in mind, laid his criticisms on the line thus : “In my opinion the rules are clear and have always been clear. In my opinion, they are for the benefit of all and they apply to all.” And so say all of us (or over 80% in an opinion poll published over the weekend).
We speculate how busy our local park is going to be in view of the weather and the release of the lockdown sentiment in the country – as it turned out, it was the most pleasant of days with a gentle breeze keeping the temperature a little cooler than in recent days and the numbers of people in the park being quite tolerable, A few days we watched whilst some of the local authority workers dredged the pond which only has about 8″ of water in it but acquires a certain amount of dead branches and other debris falling into the water. The park caretakers had carefully arranged for the detritus to dry out when no doubt it would easier to dispose of. Our enjoyment of the pond was marred somewhat by the sight of a couple of teenagers, evidently quite bored, who hunted some of the biggest sticks that could find and threw them back into the pond. In circumstances like this, does one intervene with a reprimand? Whilst contemplating what to do, the youths got bored and ran away. In the early afternoon, we got a text from our domestic help with the red-hot news that Asda was selling off 70-litre bags of Forest Bark at 3 for £10.00. Actually, this was very good news to us as we had engaged one of our neighbours in conversation who was giving his garden a makeover and he had unsuccessfully toured some of the local supermarkets (who typically have supplies of forest bark with their gardening requisites outside the store) Accordingly my daughter-in-law and I went down to Asda where they had a well-developed system – whilst I loaded up my trolley with the forest bark, my daughter-in-law went inside and paid for it with crisp £10.00 notes (which the staff preferred not to handle even though virus does not survive for about 11 weeks on crisp new notes) Nonetheless, this was a very welcome little venture as we had contemplated doing it a day or so ago but it all depends upon the local supply situation.
The afternoon was quite a busy one. The principal task was to plant the lilac tree that had been bought for me as a birthday present and I had a green 75-litre pot which certainly ought to be a sufficient size for a young tree. Fortunately, during my make-over of Mog’s Den I discovered that I already had a bag of topsoil as well as one of compost and already had some ‘normal’ soil put by ready for a large planting. As I am always running out of both bonemeal and Blood, Fish and Bone, I had recently bought from Amazon some 10kg bags of both so it was quite easy to make a nutritious mixture (bonemeal at the base, blood fish and bone as a general fertiliser) and planting was thus incredibly easy, I have decided to locate it against a wall of the house in the back garden so that all members of the family can see it from the kitchen window. To make space for it, I relocated the (pot-grown) Corylus avellana which is a hazel bush/tree. My final job of the afternoon was to relocate all of the dustbins, gardening impedimenta away from the sides of the hose so that our painter and decorator has a free run of the outside of the house when he starts off at 8.30 in the morning.
I might point out that in my various activities, throughout the day I have been assisted and supervised at times by Miggles the cat, who has variously supervised my hanging out of the washing, planting of the lilac tree, relocating the hazel tree and preparing for the decorator. At one stage when I had just planted the lilac the cat investigated the pot by standing on her hind legs and then jumped in to roll in the soil (a trait she has exhibited many times before!)
We made a fairly early start to the day this morning because our decorator had come to undertake the external painting of the house – we like to have it done every 5-6 years. Naturally, we had to have a walk around to ascertain that access for ladders was maintained in all of the relevant places and, of course, we have to ensure that relevant supplies of tea and/or coffee are made available from the word go. Well, the day has arrived on what might be billed as the start of the unlock-down and one wonders what social changes might be evident. On the ground, there was not much apparent here in Bromsgrove although the TV channels report that the Birmingham IKEA has experienced a huge queue as the lockdown appears to be easing. It is reported that some people starting queuing at 5.45 in time for the store opening at 10.00. I must admit, I didn’t think that IKEA was judged to be an essential store like a supermarket or a pharmacy but apparently the government has ‘tweaked’ the definition of essential retail shops so that furniture and hardware shops are now to be allowed to open. I had thought that shops could only open in a fortnight’s time of June 15th but apparently, hardware and homeware stores are now regarded as essential – subject, of course, to rigid social distancing rules. Actually, today for the first time in about 11 weeks, Meg and I decided to buy our newspapers directly instead of relying upon our son and/or daughter-in-law to do it for us. As it turned out, the process was ridiculously easy as we choose a little newspaper shop in a not particularly busy street in the town. Having ascertained there was no one else in the store it took all of half a minute to enter, choose the newspapers, hand over my vouchers and then leave. This will be our routine form now on – although I had taken the precaution of having a face mask and disposable gloves with me, this no longer proved to be necessary. The park was delightful today, as it was certainly not too busy and there was a slight breeze to make the day feel really pleasant. On the way home, one of our ‘friends-who-garden’ had consulted their RHS book to ascertain what plant (portion of a plant) some other friends had donated to us. It turns out that it is ‘Lychnis coronaria Abrosanguinea Gp‘ which a quick Google search reveals has the popular name of a rose campion and our little plant is now flowering beautifully.
This afternoon turned out to be a pretty hot afternoon and the early morning breeze had abated, I had started what I call ‘routine’ edging/gully clearing from the edge of our communal grassed area and managed to get about two-thirds done of what I had hoped. These days, I find that having low expectations of what you set yourself to do is the way to happiness – otherwise, you are only dissatisfied with what have you have got done rather than satisfied with what you have achieved. I particularly wanted to get my tasks finished by 5.00 pm so that I could watch the Downing Street briefing but why I bother, I really do not know as it only sends my blood pressure sky high. Today, the Health Secretary was asked the perfectly reasonable question of ‘how much use has been made of the Coronavirus test-and-trace’ regime since its inception. Every kind of evasion was being deployed although Hancock claimed that the system was ‘up and running’ and was ‘successful’. However, there are several reports from the front line that many of the 25,000 testers recruited to do the job (all employed by private-sector agencies’) were sitting around all day twiddling their thumbs and perhaps only 25% of the 8,000 or so new cases each day are getting caught up in the system. When pressed for some statistics, the Health Secretary eventually admitted that the figures would be ‘forthcoming’ in a few days’ time – the truth probably being that the whole thing has been botched from beginning to end with ill-trained contact tracers manning call centres, a promised app that has not seen the light of day and the experienced local authority workers who do have experience of dealing with communicable diseases sidelined. You couldn’t really make it up!
Today, we were going to alter our routine just a little to see how it goes. But first, of course, we have to make sure that the decorators are settled and well supplied with coffee before their work starts. I think that all of us (and particularly the decorators) will welcome the slighter cooler air that is promised for us and the possibility of a refreshing shower tomorrow at some time. We occupied our normal park bench and then I left Meg to contemplate the pond (and chat with other young mothers and their children) whilst I made haste to get our daily ration of newspapers and back to the park bench which round trip took me all of 10 minutes. As we have a plethora of plastic bags left behind from several grocery deliveries, I think I will transport the newspapers home in one of them and immediately discard it once I get it home. Then I had a slightly frustrating experience traying to amend my Iceland order, due for delivery tomorrow between 6.00-8.00pm. I realised that we had just run out of potatoes but the Iceland website would amend my order and then come up with a problem when I tried to pay for the extra. A customer services number was of no use because the recorded message said they were so overwhelmed with queries that they could not cope. Eventually, I texted my domestic help pleading that she brings some spuds with her when next we see her.
This afternoon was the first date upon which I could actually get some vegetable seed sown. Last year, when I laid down the slate path on ‘Mog’s Den‘ I had purchased several of what are technically window planters and they form a line alongside the path so that I can sow and harvest the veg more easily. Luckily, I had some beet seed in stock which was not out-of-date so I used an old gardener’s trick which was to scarify (i.e. scrub the seed with sandpaper) to remove some of the hard husks and then soaked it in water overnight. I sieved some compost and laid down about a two-inch layer in the planters which I then made flat and even using a half-brick (a longitudinal half brick which I had discovered in the garden) which is excellent for tamping. Then using a piece of bamboo cane, I made a couple of pencil-like indentations before planting the seed at 1-inch intervals. Finally. I finished off with sieving (yes, an actual old metal kitchen sieve I had in my vegetable garden tools section) of compost to provide the lightest of layers over the seed before it had a final tamping and watering. If all of my efforts are successful, I would hope to see some germination within 3-4 days and then I must remember to sow at fortnightly intervals. If all goes to plan, I can use the young beet leaves as a salad, pull young small beetroots and bottle them in vinegar and let the more mature plants grow on to their full size. We shall see!
It seems as though the government is eventually being caught out. I read somewhere that less than 50% of the population actually believe the guff which passes for information at the daily Downing Street briefings and the general public prefer to believe the scientists (when they are allowed to speak) and not the politicians. I quote from an ITV news report below:
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been rebuked by the UK’s statistics watchdog over coronavirus testing figures which are “still far from complete and comprehensible”. UK Statistics Authority chairman Sir David Norgrove said “it is not surprising that given their inadequacy data on testing are so widely criticised and often mistrusted”.
He criticised the way the figures are presented at the daily Downing Street briefings, with the headline total including both tests carried out and those which have been posted to recipients but not yet conducted.
Well, I always knew that today might be quite a full day and so it proved. Knowing that I had an Iceland delivery slot for groceries sometime between 6.00-8.00 am, I actually got up and going at 5.00 to be in plenty of time for the delivery – the order actually arrived at about 6.40 and everything was as it should be so that was quickly unpacked and then put away. I then walked down into Bromsgrove and actuated my new ‘newspaper buying’ slot which I started on Monday. I make sure that nobody is inside the shop and today I got in, selected my newspapers and got out again all within 30 seconds. I then thought I would hunt for potatoes which I had tried, unsuccessfully to add to my Iceland order yesterday but the little veg store I thought might be open was closed and the local Iceland store did not open until 9.00 am. So I decided to try my old haunt of Waitrose – I might state, at this point, that I have a particular relationship with the staff in Waitrose as I was actually the second customer through the doors when it opened on my birthday more than two years ago. The staff greeted me like the prodigal son which I suppose I was, in a way, and we had to give each virtual hugs from a distance of two metres away. Anyway, I got my bag of potatoes and shot off, but not before ascertaining that as they opened at 8.00 each morning, then after a little early morning rush their quietest time was about 9.00 am so if I run out of anything, I can make a quick dash into the store in future, not least to get my supplies replenished of unicorn hoof oil essence which I know (!) they stock.
Today, was the day when our incredibly ‘handy man’ who I shall call Len (not his real name, I might add) were going to erect a handrail down the precipitate slope down into Mog’s Den. I had got this job planned out in my mind as I had acquired some half-round fencing poles (round poles, split in half longitudinally and hence one curved surface and one flat surface) I had also acquired a couple of years earlier a fence boring auger which is like a huge gimlet or corkscrew and I know this would be excellent for boring some quite deep holes of just the right diameter. Then, if all works well, all you need to do is to insert the fencing pole (with a spike put on the end with a saw) and then hammer into the ground with a hefty sledge-hammer. When processing the first of our holes, all seemed to be going well until we encountered some sort of obstacle and the auger would not progress any further – on further investigation, Len felt into the hole and we discovered that at the exact spot upon which we were sinking the first hole, we would have to encounter a lump of metal which turned out to be a scaffolding shackle. The rest of the job proceeded satisfactorily and we were both pleased with the overall result which has a sort of naturalistic feel to it as befits the descent into a woodland garden. However, as it was raining (smattering) most of the morning, I was starting to feel the effects of standing around on a cold rainy day. There are some timbers left over so I may use them to provide a type of capping rail as a whole – hence, I was hunting around in the garage of drills, drill bits, chucks, chargers and the like.
There are warnings tonight that we need to prepare for a second and possibly a third more subsequent waves of the coronavirus to which most of the population has not actually been exposed and to which we are certainly not immune. Also, at 50,000 deaths the UK has the highest death rate in Europe. We await the result of the official enquiry in what has undoubtedly gone wrong in the UK, although the main lines of explanation are already clear (e.g. critical failure to respond with alacrity in the first few weeks of the pandemic as even starting the lockdown a week earlier might have saved about 8,000 lives)
Today we enjoyed a slight variation on the theme of our daily routine. Meg and I went to our little newspaper shop to collect The Times and The Guardian aa per usual. Then, as we had an earlier start in the day, we decided to brave a little venture into the weird and wonderful world of Waitrose. At the door, we were informed that only one of us would be allowed to enter the store but when we were recognised by the staff inside, the previous instruction was overwritten and we were both allowed in. Then we treated ourselves to some dark chocolate Digestive biscuits and some of our favourite oatmeal crackers before escaping the store as fast as we could. Then we sat by the lake in the park and drank our coffee. On our way up the hill, we encountered both of our sets of friends and exchanged some gossip as a six-some – quite legal as we were in the open air and keeping our distance from each other. After lunch, I had determined to do a mini tidy-up of some tools and similar ‘useful things’ whilst at the same time looking for some things that might be useful for some woodworking activities. The bad news is that when I opened a large wooden chest that was filled with spanners and other bits of ironmongery ‘that might come in useful at some time’ I was dismayed to find that we had been visited by our little furry friends who had evidently been on the search for nesting materials – hence what used to be jiffy bags I used for storage had been reduced to a mass of chewed up paper clippings not to mention mouse droppings. I wondered how on earth they could have got into a closed box (which had been housing for a radiogram popular in the 1960s) until I realised that various holes were cut in the back panel to allow for the ingress of cables and leads so the little blighters had just walked in. So there had to be a lot of washing down with a strong bleach solution, throwing away of some items rendered useless and a general sorting out which took most of the afternoon. However, there was a slight bonus to all of this because I discovered three things that I think that I will need in the next day or so when I affix a capping rail to my newly installed handrail, namely a wood chisel, a type of rasping tool which acts as a plain and a chuck for muy little Bosch hand-held drill so I had a certain amount of fortune to offset the misfortune.
Tonight was the end of the Thursday night ‘Clap for our Carers‘ routine. I went outside ready to join in with whatever clapping might take place but there was just silence in the gloomy and rain-filled evening air. The official website had stated that last week’s was to be the final one but as the lockdown was being eased perhaps the movement had run its course. It was good whilst it lasted but had perhaps outlived its purpose. Out of interest, I clicked on a map showing the hotspots of Coronavirus throughout the country (i.e. at least 100 deaths per 100,000 of the population) and there seemed to be a smattering across the South, the Midlands and the North with no evident pattern staring you in the face and Bromsgrove remained one of the hotspots. I did wonder whether the hotspots could have been made ‘hot‘ by having more than the average share of the population in residential homes in each area and this constitutes a reservoir of infection back into the local community as we know that the sector as a whole is under-tested and not well supplied with PPE. This might have to await further analysis but perhaps is too difficult to tease out statistically. Just to keep things in perspective, about 0.5% of the population in the UK have experienced the virus whereas smallpox afflicted 1 in 6 of the population in early Georgian England (the latter rate being about 30 times more than the former)
Every day has a slightly different flavour despite the lockdown and so it proved today. I had left Meg in the park to contemplate her surroundings whilst I went to pick up my daily ration of newspapers. After leaving Meg, I encountered an elderly lady I recognised as having attended our local church way back in the past. She seemed to be coping reasonably well with the lockdown but was feeling a little isolated e.g. some days she had no conversation with anybody at all. So I pointed out Meg to her on a distant park bench so they could meet up and have a good natter, which they undoubtedly did whilst I went on my way and joined them later. It might well be that another member of the congregation who often sits and chats with us may well come along tomorrow so we form a little gaggle (or is it a ‘conspiracy’?) of Catholics together. We had to endure a shower and at one stage took shelter underneath a nearby willow tree and later on the park’s bandstand (which is open on all sides but at least keeps the rain off you) As we were walking back, the sun burst forth and we chatted with one of our friends on the journey back up the hill. Today was a day in which I decided I would make a curry which I accordingly did (a tradition from our student days) and our domestic help was more than happy to help us demolish it (as were we to devour her rhubarb and ginger cake which was absolutely superb)
After lunch, I decided to see how easy it would be to install the capping timber on my newly installed handrail. This involved chopping off a triangular section from the top of each of the supporting posts so that they all pointed down the diagonal slope. What I thought was going to be tremendously difficult turned out to be relatively easy although I was obliged to make a whole series of little adjustments to make everything line up properly. Now for the screwing down process which I suspected might be tricky as my screws had to be quite long ones (2.75″ or 7 cm in length) and therefore quite deep guide holes were required. But all went quite well, overcoming the’normal’ crop of misfortunes that might befall one who is not a regular driller or user of woodworking tools e.g. a broken drill on one occasion or the drill leaving the chuck and getting stuck in the hole on another. However, I used the trick that I often used on similar occasions which is to use a somewhat shorter and thinner screw to make the guide hole and then finish off with the longer and wider screw for the final job. However, everything was nice and stable when I had finished and it looked good as well. I took the advice of our painters and decorators just before they completed their own work and got their recommendation as to which make and shade of wood preservative to apply and then I duly ordered the same from the web (Sandolin Classic Light Oak which I was assured would let the natural grain of the wood shine through) I finally finished things off with a wooden ornamental owl that I just happened to have bought as a folly some months ago but as it happens a perfect emblem to affix to the start of the handrail. Tomorrow, I resolve to go through the collection of garden tools I have got into the habit of storing in buckets under the eaves and rationalising the contents of them so that the outside of the house looks a little less cluttered. Some of them can always be located down into ‘Mog’s Den‘ and some of them relocated into less evident locations.
The shocking COVID-19 statistics for today are (i) total cases now to exceed 40,000 but this figure does not take into the ‘more than expected’ deaths figures so the actual amount of deaths caused both, directly and indirectly, may well exceed 60,000. Also (ii) the death totals yesterday in the UK at 359 exceeded the death toll of 330 from all 27 European nation-states.
Today was quite a lot colder with a high wind and not very pleasant ‘sitting in the park’ conditions. We were pleased to drink up our coffee quickly and to get on our way back home almost as soon as we could. The newspaper routine seems to be working quite well, I am pleased to say, and tomorrow will be a quite big day as we have to lift up all of the supplements to go with the Sunday newspapers. No doubt, we will watch the Andrew Marr show in the morning without a great deal of enlightenment, as per usual. After I had lunch today, I set myself the task of rationalising the various bits of gardening gear that we had in a series of buckets down a ‘private’ side of the house. Why this has developed over the years is because the soffits on this particular house are quite wide and this means that little hand tools and other gardening implements are generally kept quite dry whilst also being accessible. But, I have to admit, this has created a certain amount of clutter over the years so as I had moved it all away from the side of the house to assist the decorators (whose work has now finished), this was an ideal opportunity for an element of rationalisation and tidying up. This took most of the afternoon as I have a variety of aids to help me reach hard-to-reach spots when gardening, hedge trimming or car cleaning. One of these aids is one of the once popular plastic milk crates. These were very rigid and strong and typically were much used by GPO telephone engineers who tended to upload one from their van the minute they had to do some work on the telephone control panels you occasionally see along the main roads. I had acquired one from goodness knows where years ago and enhanced it somewhat with some rubber matting on the bottom (which now become the top) and a reinforcement of my own patent design inside. If you were to check on the web, you would see that these sell for £30.00 which is a tribute to their versatility and utility. Then, of course, there are the buckets and garden tubs of various sizes used in weeding and clearing, a variety of things in plastic containers such as ant control, compost heap accelerant before we actually come onto the handtools of which I have several favourites, primarily for weeding, as well as a variety of ties, clips, string, wire – the list seems endless (as did the clutter) Anyway, eventually order was restored, bucket and tubs were brushed clean, tools were neatly oiled with WD40 if necessary and then stored sensibly at last.
There seem to be two big breaking COVID-19 stories this evening. The first is the ‘about-face’ (forgive the pun) on the wearing of face coverings for all staff and visitors to NHS hospitals i.e. 800,000 staff at one week’s notice. It seems very improbable that adequate supplies will be on place and seems to be another example of the politicians assuming that by announcing that something will happen that this will actually take place. One is reminded that the ‘test and trace’ regime was meant to be ‘world-beating, but it now transpires that the fully-effective service that was promised will not come to pass until about mid-September! Secondly, there seems to be a realisation that bluster and political point-scoring à la Boris Johnson does not really help get effective policies implemented. Johnson is being urged this evening to cut the rhetoric and to prepare for the second wave of the pandemic that many experts believe is now inevitable and may well be on its way. The rather scary thing is that according to a model shown in ‘The Times‘, a second wave might be more vicious and more deadly than the first as only about 5% of the population may have acquired any level of immunity (leaving 95% with none, of course)
The weather did not bode particularly well this morning as there was a smattering of rain. After the Andrew Marr show, I made my way on my own to pick up the Sunday newspapers as Meg was not feeling very well and decided to spend some extra time in bed this morning. Lunchtime included a good portion of spinach – some Dutch clinicians have discovered that a deficiency of vitamin K is often exhibited in those who succumb to the coronavirus so it is well to keep our consumption of broccoli, spinach and particularly kale on the menu from now on. After lunch, I set myself the task of cleaning up some plastic storage boxes that I use previously to grow veg in – this is all part of the rationalisation of my garden tools outfit. This sounds a deceptively simple task but the boxes I have seem to have hidden curves and ridges in them which means that no longer do you think you have one surface cleaned when other springs into view. The overall plan is to keep all gardening utensils neatly stored away so that the boxes themselves are not an eyesore and contribute to a feeling of clutter. Miggles the cat was my constant companion and whenever I had completed one box and lined it with cardboard (to keep it pristine) the cat would insist on occupying it and giving it her seal of approval.
Last night, we watched the Life of Pi on the TV (story of a young boy. shipwrecked alongside some zoo animals of which the most prominent is the tiger) We had both seen it before and enjoyed it the second time around – but if you go on the web, there is an amazing amount of philosophical explanation as to which of the two accounts to believe (as depicted on the film or a sanitised version, without the zoo animals, given to the Japanese investigators of the shipwreck) Unusual and enjoyable, all the same.
The Sunday newspapers are full of speculation that the government is desperately keen to end the lockdown as soon as possible because there is a prediction that 3 million jobs could soon be lost unless the lockdown is eased quickly. But the public mood is quite interesting because three times as many people feel that that the end to the lockdown may be preceding too rapidly as want a quick end to the lockdown. I suppose there is a feeling that having come this far, then why risk the rapid emergence of a second (and more brutal?) 0r and/or third wave for the sake of a week or so? However, it is true to say that other European countries seem to be on a faster trajectory to end lockdowns than is the case in the UK – there does seem to be a long ‘tail’ to the statistical distribution and fears that the ‘R’ rate is already exactly 1.0 in the SouthWest but greater than 1.0 in the North West (which would mean that start of exponential growth in those regions) The consensus view is that the only sensible course to follow is to allow liberalisation only if there is an excellent ‘test and track’ regime in place to immediately pounce on any hotspots. However, we now know that the ‘test-and-trace’ service is woefully incomplete and will only be fully functional in September. This implies that too rapid an end to the lockdown is an incredibly risky venture – but then it was the same bunch of politicians who have progressed with Brexit which again is an enormously risky undertaking.
The other big political story this weekend is the continuing ‘Black Lives Matter‘ protests taking place in cities in the UK and, indeed, globally. I find it fascinating that it not just members of the BAME communities that are out on the streets but the protesters seem to be drawn from every section of society – it seems from the broadcast images that there are as many white as there are brown or black faces. Of course, the original spark that lit the flame was repulsive (a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black person squeezing the life out of him for seven minutes whilst being filmed doing so).
There are certain dates that stick in one’s memory and today’s date is one of them. It was the date, exactly two years ago, in which I had a bowel cancer operation (technically a ‘low anterior resection‘) to remove a polyp that had turned cancerous. At the same time, I was given an ileostomy, subsequently reversed about four weeks later. Well, here I am to tell the tale – the survival rate over 5 years is about 80%. The one incident that sticks in my mind is as follows. My surgeon asked me, just before the operation ‘Now Mr. Hart – are there any questions you would like to ask me just before the operation?‘ I replied ‘Yes – I just have one question: when you are holding the diseased portion of my bowel in one hand and the rest of my body in the other, can you make sure you throw away the right bit!‘ To which, the surgeon replied,’I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know what question you are asking me?‘ I replied saying that it was all meant to be a joke but it had backfired. But that is enough of that.
Today, the weather had brightened and Meg was particularly looking forward to her walk to the park as she had missed yesterday. I left Meg on the park bench whilst I went to collect the newspapers and noted, upon my return, that about a dozen young mothers with attendant 2-4 year olds had assembled in the open air or in the park’s bandstand and were organising the children into ball throwing games. (This seemed to involve throwing a ball into a large sheet which was then pulled taut so that the ball was propelled into the air and children then had to chase after it) The whole affair had evidently been organised but whether it was spontaneous or part of a pre-school group, I couldn’t really tell.
This afternoon, after lunch and a rest, I decided that the lawns needed their weekly cut, although to be honest, they had hardly displayed any growth after the dry spell we would have had for the last few days. But things do look a little neater now. I had intended to start painting my newly erected fence/handrail into Mog’s Den but I was suddenly beset with doubts that the paint I had been recommended by our decorators could turn out to look awful. So as to not ruin it, I had decided that it might be better to paint a spare timber that I have to see how it looks and whether the natural grain of the wood is enhanced (which I want) or disguised (which I don’t want). But I never got round to this because we had a long chat with our next-door neighbour who is recovering from some angina pains and with whom we have not had a chance to catch up on his latest news for several days now.
One of the really big political stories is the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol by ‘Black Lives Matter‘ protestors over the weekend. Although this was undoubtedly an illegal act, it is fascinating to see how our political leaders have responded to it. Instead of an ‘illegal but understandable’ tone, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel’s first instincts have been to condemn what they have termed ‘thuggery‘. But would the citizens of Bristol really want to see re-erected a statue of a man who was responsible for the transportation of 84,000 slaves of whom 19,000 died in transit? I turned to the web to see if there was any legal opinion as to whether or not you find a jury that would actually convict anybody in the climate of today. One wonders whether the government actually has thought of the embarrassment that would be caused by pursuing a conviction in the post ‘Black Lives Matter‘ days. I did find the following legal opinion (which with I concur, actually) but it will be interesting to see what transpires. The leader of the Bristol City Council hit an interesting tone when he suggested that the statue might be fished out of the Bristol dock but the council had many other priorities at the moment! Here is the legal opinion:
According to the weather forecasts, today was meant to be a bright and sunny day but it certainly didn’t start that way being somewhat cloudy and what I might call ‘brooding’ – however, the sun burnt through the cloud later on and we had quite a warm and pleasant day. On our way to the park, we were delighted to see some friends we had not seen for a day or so, so it was lovely to gossip and exchange news with each other. The park seemed to have more than its normal share of groups of mothers entertaining their pre-school offspring, so it does look as though this is part of a trend. On our way up the hill, we stopped to admire several of the front gardens which are at their best at the moment – yesterday, we had liberated some poppy seed heads from a venue where they were growing wild and unrestrained. I need to go onto the web, which I will shortly, to get some up-to-date advice as the best way to store poppy heads and their seeds. In the afternoon, it had been my intention to empty a dustbin which we have in an outside corner to rearrange its contents (largely things like gardening gloves, twine, supports of various kinds) but I didn’t quite get round to it. Instead, I hunted around for a small bag of pea gravel which I still had in an odd corner. I then divided this into four and carefully introduced it around the base of each of the supporting posts of my new fence/handrail. That having been done, I then located my tin of used motor oil which had been emptied from the mower and was waiting for the next trip to the local authority tip to dispose of it safely. In this case, I allowed the oil to penetrate the pea gravel and then gave it a light tamping with a flat stone I had to hand. The theory behind all of this is that fence posts always rot at ground level due to the combined effect of soil-based microbes, oxygen and moisture. Anywaything that can be done to eliminate these conditions will assist the treated timber posts to survive even longer. Having got this task completed, I then opened the tin of light-oak external wood paint as recommended by our painters & decorators and painted a sample timber with it. The results were quite good i.e. the natural grain of the timber still comes through without the timber taking on an orange-y suntanned hue (sometimes seen on American presidents we know well). As this experiment has worked well, the full painting job can be done tomorrow – and the gloss paint when it arrives might just make a good job look even better but we will have to wait and see.
It looks as though the government has bowed to the inevitable and realises that it not possible to get all children back into school before the end of term. There is also talk of trying to get secondary pupils back into school in September, if possible. David Blunkett (ex-Labour education secretary) was suggesting that with a lot of national will (as displayed by building the Nightingale hospitals in exhibition centres) we could get schools working again. His solution was to use a combination of reducing social distancing from 2m to 1m only for school children, using every inch of space e.g. school halls and gyms, using a shift system (e.g. 7-1, 1-6) or similar. You would have to give teachers a great deal of local autonomy for this to work and giving autonomy to teachers to try innovative solutions is the last thing in the government’s mind!
According to Sky News ‘New figures show around half of primary schools in England reopened to more children last week, as the government scrapped plans for all pupils to return before the summer holidays. According to the Department of Education, around 659,000 children attended an education setting last Thursday, 6.9% of all pupils who normally attend.’
Today was an intermediate day, weather-wise – we wondered if we were going to get a smattering of rain and indeed we did get a few drops later in the day. Today was a little unusual in that having collected our newspapers and had our usual supplies in the park, we didn’t encounter any of the ‘usual suspects’ for a chat on the way home. But before I forget, I must mention one of the best ‘mot-justes‘ that I have heard for a long time, and this coming from the lips of Meg. When we were discussing the fate of the statue of Edward Colston, the notorious slave owner which was dragged from its plinth and dumped unceremoniously into the harbour in Bristol recently, Meg made the remark ‘May he rust in peace‘ to which I added (‘or in pieces’) but, in truth, Meg’s comment was far more funny.
Just before lunch, I thought I would give my new fence/handrail its first coat of point – by sod’s law, it started smattering with rain within 10 seconds of my starting but soon stopped. The first coat took about 3/4 hour to complete and I think the results are going to be OK. Certainly, the timber doesn’t ook as untreated and has a more mellow appearance. Meg likes the overall appearance of it but I am not absolutely sure. I think I will reserve judgement until the second coat is applied and then it has had a chance to ‘age’ for a bit. I still have the option of adding a bit of external varnish to it if I think that will improve it overall. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with tidying up various things within the garage, left rather strewn about when I was assembling various woodworking tools to secure the top handrail. I was eager to get finished by 5.00 pm so that I could see what Boris Jonson had to say for himself in the light of the latest revelations. Tomorrow is going to be quite a busy day as I am expecting several deliveries from Amazon and also the delivery of a 2-metre hornbeam tree that has been on order for nearly a month now but ought to be with me by tomorrow. It will come complete with fixing stake and helpful root fungus so I will try and plant it immediately if it is not absolutely pouring down. Late on this evening, I took delivery of the latest Waitrose order which soon got put away. But the joys of internet shopping – I discovered that the two items of ‘Fishy Fish pie’ I had ordered turned out to be two tins of dog food! I shall try one out on Miggles the cat tomorrow and give the other away.
The astounding political news is the revelation that in the opinion of Prof. Neil Ferguson, one of the most influential of the modellers of the pandemic crisis that if the Johnson government had locked down a week or so earlier than one half i.e. 25,000 lives could have been saved. If I were the surviving relative of one these ‘unnecessary’ deaths, I really do not know how I would feel. It is too early to say whether this revelation has fed back properly into public opinion but it seems astounding that the Conservatives are still ahead – just – in the opinion polls. How is that possible, I ask myself, after having been responsible for so many deaths of the population? It now seems likely that as well as the politicians, several critical errors were made by the scientific community. According to the BBC Radio 4 statistics programme ‘More or Less‘ it seems that the modellers did not take fully into account the fact that the infected numbers seemed to be doubling every 2-3 days (not 4-5 as they thought) or take into account that much of the UK infection came from the rest of Europe and not directly from China. Also, it has emerged today that government advisers did not anticipate how high deaths would be in care homes as they were acting on the assumption that the residents would be shielded. Nor did they build into their model that many carehome workers were employed by agencies and would move from care home to care home thereby contributing to the spread of the virus.
Today was a very cloudy and overcast day with the rain constantly threatening – so it was not a surprise that in our daily walk to the park we did not encounter any of our friends. We did pick up the newspapers, though, in what is becoming an established pattern. We were anticipating several deliveries today from quarters and none of them disappointed, The first of use was a very special spade made by Spear and Jackson that goes by the wonderful name of a ‘Tub Draining Tool’ – the ‘Tub’ is short for Tubular and the whole is manufactured of an extremely strong high strength carbon/manganese steel epoxy coated to reduce rust. What is special about these types of spade is that they are specially designed to make short work of digging fencing posts, moving deep-rooted shrubs or breaking up hard and stony soil. Whereas a normal spade is about 8* wide and 11″ long this is narrower (at 6″) but with a blade that is 50% longer (at 16″) Because of the weight and the design, these types of spade quickly cut through tree roots, submerged concrete, rubble and bricks (which we have a-plenty in our garden) The Amazon reviews included several from landscape gardeners who reckoned it was the most useful spade they had ever bought so at £25.00 (delivered) I thought this was quite a bargain and snapped it up. The next delivery along was the hornbeam tree (‘Carpinus Betulus‘) which I bought complete with a planting stake, tree tie and special root fungus. It arrived in superb condition at 2 metres in height in a special cardboard box and I resolved to try and get it planted this afternoon, which I did. However, the weather was exceptionally windy and not the best in which to try to plant a tall tree but planting was the least of my difficulties. I had already half prepared a planting hole but in making this deeper to receive the tree, I encountered a huge stone which must have been about 18″ x. 10″ at exactly the spot in which I had planned to plant the tree (Now you might appreciate why a specialised digging spade comes in useful) Having got this stone extracted successfully, I then proceeded to drive on the support stake only to be met with more resistance (this time, a Victorian brick in exactly the wrong spot) This seems like Sod’s Law x 2 – but all ended well with the tree well and truly planted, watered and in just the right position. It should grow at the rate of 1-2 ft per year which will help to screen us from the neighbour’s garden. Earlier in the afternoon, I had had a pre-arranged telephone consultation with my cancer surgeon, this being two years after my successful operation. He is going to get a blood test organised for me (but I have to go to a local hospital to get the blood sample taken) and a CT scan – all as part of routine monitoring to check all is well. Thank God for the NHS!
There seem to be three big political stories in town tonight. I didn’t see the Downing St. briefing this evening but apparently, Matt Hancock briefed with the news that 70%-80% of people who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus were not displaying any symptoms. If validated, one can only feel uneasy about this. The major story was the first stats from the test-and-trace regime in which one-third of the people referred to the system would not give (for whatever reason) details of their contacts. If you take the view (which I do) that those refusing details of contacts may have something to hide, then this hardly bodes well for a system that is meant to be our salvation out of lockdown. And finally, there is the real cat-fight between Priti Patel (the Home Secretary) and a group of BAME Labour MP’s who have written to her to say that the views she had expressed on racial abuse she had experienced in the past do not qualify her to make pronouncements on the types of abuse suffered by many of the BAME communities over the decades. Of course, Priti Patel is still responsible for clearing up the Windrush scandal but one wonders if she ever will- sometimes there is no love lost between the Asian and other BAME communities who have shared such different life experiences.
Today was a much better day than yesterday although some rain was promised for later on in the day. In the park, we met our good friend, Julie, who we have not seen for several days now so it was particularly good to have a long chat for about half an hour and get up-to-date on each other’s comings and goings. Julie has been busy with her golf, we had been busy with our fence and tree activities. At lunchtime, we treated ourselves to some special smoked haddock fishcakes from Waitrose which were expensive but delicious. I am sure you can make them for yourselves but it’s a bit fiddly unless you make them in quantity (which I might be tempted to do in future). This afternoon, I had set myself the task of applying the second and final coat of light oak paint to the fence-cum-handrail but this time I was a bit better prepared. In my garage tidying up activities, I discovered that we had two decorators masks we had bought some time previously and one of these proved to be excellent. As it happened, the weather conditions proved to be absolutely ideal for the task in hand as it was reasonably warm and sunny but there was quite a strong swirling wind that kept all of the VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) at bay. Then in the late afternoon, we had a heavy but not very prolonged shower, so I was relieved to get my painting done on time. Readers of yesterday’s blog will recall I was waxing lyrical about a particularly specialised spade which I had recently purchased and utilised and it might well be that it makes a good father’s day present for other acquaintances of ours – we shall see.
We are getting into the pattern of ordering our ‘main’ shopping from Waitrose but this has the slight snag that although we have a sort of priority at Waitrose, we are not part of the government-sponsored priority scheme for those who are registered as shielders. Hence our orders are always for about eight days ahead and it is not very easy to work out what you will have run out in 8 + 7 days time. So, I have got into the habit of using Iceland which has a more limited range but with much shorter ‘slot’ times, generally a day or so ahead and a much lower limit to qualify for free home deliveries. So I was pleased to be able to book an Iceland slot for tomorrow night which will help to fill in the gap before my more major order is delivered from Waitrose in just over a week’s time.
It looks as though my Ceanothus (Californian Lilac) I used to obscure the view from my study of a blank brick wall has actually died. At first. I imagined that my neglect of water was to blame – but a few internet searches reveal that they have an average life expectancy of 10-15 years and this one had lived for 12.5 years! Tomorrow, I shall have to engage in the sad task of chopping down a 2-3 metre high tree and disposing of its carcase. It also seems that ceanothus has sold out of every nursery in the country so I may well have to wait for a few months until they are re-stocked again.
The authorities are worried that this weekend we may see demonstrations and counter-demonstrations from the BAME communities and the extreme right. The Home Secretary (Priti Patel) and the Justice Minister are revising plans to have emergency courts and immediate gaol sentences if we get into the situation in which violent clashes occur. There is a lot of pent up aggression on the streets of London and other large cities – and this may just be the start of a violent summer. I hope I am wrong but I have a foreboding that having let the demonstrators have their head last weekend, there will be quite a crackdown this weekend and the situation may rapidly escalate out of control. Let us hope I am completely wrong!
There is a definite feeling of ‘letting go’ evident when we made our walk down to Bromsgrove this morning – in theory, some of the liberalisations of shops are to start on Monday next but, no doubt, some employees may be in shops installing the ‘social distance’ measures (if they have not already done so) in time for Monday morning. Also, today is the day when two single households can form a ‘bubble’ so it should be possible for a grandchild to see one grandparent – but not two grandparents, if I a have interpreted the rules correctly). Again, we did not encounter any of our typical friends this weekend but often people have a very different pattern of interaction on Saturdays so this is not a source of surprise. The numbers of children using scooters seem to be rising exponentially (I suppose it is so much easier in a park rather than on a pavement where I believe it is legal but the person riding the scooter has no rights of way. But try explaining that to a 6-year old!)
After lunch, I had set myself the task of checking my beet seeds for germination and ‘cleaning up’ the vegetable tubs in which they were sown. I should explain that in the area of Mog’s Den adjacent to the path, I imagined this to be an excellent place for some easily accessible vegetable sowings. In practice, though, the tubs had attracted a number of round holly seeds (whether dropped in or blown by the wind I cannot say). So I set myself the task of removing each of these holly seeds by hand and decided that I use a pair of what are called Long-Nosed Pliers ( sometimes, Snipe-Nosed Pliers) and these proved to be excellent at the task – but better than attempting to do it by hand with clumsy fingers and thumbs. I used the same pliers to thin out the germinated seeds to one every quarter of an inch or so but subsequent thinnings become so much easier. [Incidentally, I am never happy with the philosophical underpinnings of thinning out seedlings because you are, in effect, saying ‘You are a little weakling so you will have to be sacrificed to increase the chances of survival of your already much stronger sibling’) I call this the Fascist tendency in gardening and it does run counter to my general world view that it is not morally right to dispose of the weak to assist in the survival of the already strong! But I am pleased to report that my method of scarifying the seeds with sandpaper and then soaking overnight seems to have worked exceedingly well, so I must remember to utilise this technique in my regular fortnightly sowings.
After the Iceland delivery had been made and all the items put away, Meg and I watched an amazing and disturbing documentary broadcast in primetime on BBC2. It was presented by the historian David Olusoga and was entitled ‘The UnWanted: the Secret Windrush files‘ It showed good documentary evidence that successive British Governments had all contributed to the increasingly ‘hostile environment‘ experienced by members of the Windrush generation (the ‘Empire Windrush’ was the steamer that brought the first influx of Jamaican migrants to our shores in 1948). What follows is a review by Amelia Gentleman which is hard to summarise so I reproduce it in full below:
Anyone who thought that the introduction of the hostile environment was one of Theresa May’s few clear, tangible accomplishments will need to reconsider. It turns out that even this unpleasant creation is not something she can claim as her core legacy since it had already been 70 years in the making.
Although the postwar government estimated Britain needed 1.3 million extra workers to help rebuild a country shattered by five years of war, officials turned out to be more welcoming to ex-SS soldiers from Germany than British subjects from the Caribbean. In his powerful film, The Unwanted: the Secret Windrush Files (BBC Two), the historian David Olusoga manages to explain complex immigration law and decode dense documents from the government archives in an arresting way. He pulls out devastating passages from forgotten files to showcase the hostility of successive governments to non-white settlers.
Everything begins with the British Nationality Act of 1948, which confirmed the right of all British subjects to move freely and live anywhere they liked within the newly created Commonwealth. But the act, Olusoga argues, was intended to ensure frictionless travel for the large white populations of Canada and Australia. “No one imagined that black and brown people from Asia, Africa and the West Indies would use their rights under this act to come and settle in Britain.”
Incriminating archival material reveals the scale of official panic about immigration and the underhand measures taken to discourage residents of Britain’s colonies from settling. Crucially, politicians wanted to restrict access without actually appearing to be racist. The film exposes their shameful contortions as they scrabbled around to justify their prejudices.
We learn how ministers in the 1950s commissioned researchers to come up with reasons for concluding that non-white immigration was problematic, with senior civil servants instructing dole officers to conduct secret race surveys to see if there was any truth in the assumption that migrants were coming to live off the welfare state, and asking police chiefs around the country leading questions such as: “Is it true that they are generally idle?”, “Do they have low standards of living?”, and “Are they addicted to drug trafficking and other types of crime?” Winston Churchill was obsessed by the “considerable” number of “coloured workers” employed by the Post Office, and, by 1955, was suggesting to ministers that they should fight the next election on the slogan “Keep England White”.This gradual tightening of immigration legislation exploded in the hands of Theresa May’s government last April, with the Windrush scandal – when thousands of Caribbean-born citizens, legally settled here since childhood, found that they had been silently transformed into illegal immigrants, and threatened with deportation, detained, sacked from their jobs or made homeless.
Olusoga shows how the roots of the scandal lie in a single line from the 1971 Immigration Act, which put the onus on individuals to prove that they are here legally – something so many people were unable to do, with devastating consequences. “Who keeps receipts from the 1970s?” Anthony Bryan asks, explaining how he was detained for five weeks and booked on a flight back to Jamaica. A letter from the Home Office to his lawyer demands more proof: “Your client has stated that he has been resident in the UK since 1965. As such, the evidence submitted must be continuous, and cover the entirety of the 51 years that your client has claimed to reside in the UK.”
The most moving parts of this film are the interviews with three Windrush victims (all of whom helped expose the scandal in the Guardian). “It was a country I was proud of, but now I don’t think I feel proud of it,” Sarah O’Connor says, after being wrongly classified as an illegal immigrant, despite her 51 years in the UK. “At times I got so low I wanted my life to end.” Sarah died before the film was finished. No one could feel proud of Britain after watching it.
A slightly different routine for today. Last week, I noticed that in our usual newsagents the Sunday Times had all sold out by the time we got there, after our trip in the park. So having ascertained that they opened at 7.30 even on a Sunday morning, I decided to make a quick trip to town on my own (which I did) suspecting that many people pop in quite early to get their papers whilst getting back in time to watch the Andrew Marr show at 9.00 (although I am not sure why I bothered) So I spent quite a nice leisurely morning reading the Sunday newspapers. The newspapers were quite full of the riots on Saturday night but I notice that Boris Johnson and Priti Patel said that the demonstrators last week were ‘thugs’ whilst those who were rioting this Saturday were also …’thugs’ as though there was some kind of moral equivalence between the two. The difficulty here is that using the word ‘thug’ in both contexts is almost like saying that there is no real difference between the BAME communities demonstrating last weekend and the extreme right-wing who were certainly rioting this weekend. But there is a massive difference between the two – the BAME demonstrations were large and generally very peaceful with the odd outbreak of violence from some who had hijacked the event. The riots this week were organised by a variety of those on the extreme right who had come ‘tooled up’ i.e. armed and ready for the fight, fuelled by alcohol as well. So we get the bizarre spectacle of a group of proto-fascists, some of whom were displaying a fascist-style salute applauding Winston Churchill who had led the war effort to defeat fascism. Some of the commentaries in the newspapers were saying that the government are ‘losing the plot’ not with respect of keeping order on the streets but also in managing (mismanaging) the coronavirus crisis, not to mention how to manage the lockdown. The number of COVID-19 deaths in the UK – over 41,700 as compared with 22 in New Zealand and zero in Vietnam both of whom displayed swift and decisive action with evidently beneficial results.
This afternoon was the afternoon for the ‘chopping down’ of the dead ceanothus tree. It took about 20 minutes or less to chop down but about an hour and a half to reduce all of the smaller branches into disposable twigs whilst the larger elements of the branches and trunk I have saved and may well be able to utilise these in Mog’s Den as a sort of mini-embankment to help to stop the downward drift of forest bark. I had also ordered for myself from Argos an outdoor garden toolbox but not ticked the right box which meant that I should have made a journey of some 30 miles round trip to another Argos store to collect it. I cancelled the order (successfully and with a refund available quite promptly) and immediately re-ordered it but this time with a small delivery charge (which I worked out I would have paid in petrol anyway) This arrived halfway through the afternoon and I have still to populate it with the requisite tools – a task for tomorrow. I am also busy taking the rust off an old horseshoe which got delivered in a bag of farmyard manure a year or so back. I have tried this renovation trick and it works up to a point – tomorrow, I will finish it off with the ‘half a potato’ treatment which certainly does work (the oxalic acid in the potato loosens the rust, and dipping it in salt gives mild abrasive action as well) I will report on my success or failure tomorrow.
Quite a lot of ‘un-lockdown’ activities start tomorrow morning – I suspect that many people will react as though the ‘un-lockdown’ is complete whilst a few will still be quite nervous in entering into ‘normal’ retail shops again after the best of three months internet shopping.
We had quite a busy morning this morning what with one thing or another. Our local GP practice had called Meg in for a routine blood test but this entailed getting there 10 minutes early, taking along a cardboard box for one’s clothes (which in the event was not needed) and then queuing as only one patient could be allowed into the building at a time. However, whilst all of this was going on, I took the opportunity to pop along to the garage to get one gallon of high-grade petrol which is to be used in the mower for the rest of the season (I always try to get high-quality fuel to try to ensure it is as ethanol free as possible, as ethanol attracts water and can cause great problems in petrol mowers). This having been done, Meg and I then went by car to our local park for our elevenses and bumped into one of our old friends who was busy making a tour of the park with another friend so we didn’t stop for a chat on this occasion. Then, almost on the spur of the moment, we decided as we were in the car to make a flying visit to Asda to see if they still had supplies of forest bark available, As it happened they had and one of the supervisers we know well was organising operations on the outside so I loaded up my trolley with six bags for £20.00 and then got it paid for quite easily using an assistant at one of the automatic check-out desks to handle the transaction for me. Then we loaded up the back seat of the car (forest bark is quite easy to handle) and got it home so we now have copious supplies. We had a salad lunch after which I spent some time getting the supplies of forest bark in various locations throughout the garden (assisted, as usual, by Miggles the cat). I then need to shift a small aucuba shrub some distance from its present location where it was getting in the way of the footpath down into Mog’s Den. Needless to say, in preparing the planting hole for the aucuba I encountered the by now traditional large victorian brick just where I was digging the planting hole. it is no wonder that the London sewers have lasted for about a centry and a half when you consider how dense and well made these victorian bricks were – I suspect they must weight at least 50% more than a modern brick.
I then turned my attention to my horseshoe to see how effective the white vinegar had been in removing the layers of rust. I have to say ‘very effective’ and then I finished off the restoration process with a good old fashioned brillo pad. The result was a gleaming, evidently low carbon mild steel which positively gleamed and took on quite a silvery appearance. I applied a liberal dose of WD40 once it was thoroughly cleaned up to try and keep it pristine. The next problem, so I have discovered, is whether to affix it, as some way, in such a way that the ends point up, so that the horseshoe catches the luck, and that the ends pointing down allow the good luck to be lost; others say they should point down so that the luck is poured upon those entering the home. I think I have decided to play safe and affix it with the ends pointing up to keep our luck!
One of the news stories this evening is the fact that some two million children have done little or no schoolwork at home during the lockdown, according to a report that lays bare the impact of school closures on education. The study by University College London (UCL) found that a fifth of the country’s ten million schoolchildren had done no work at home or less than an hour a day. A separate academic study found that about four million pupils had not been in regular contact with their teachers and that up to six million children had not returned the last assignment they had been set. This means that eventually in the same classroom will be children who have massively behind their contemporaries who do have access to computing facilities (i.e. without having to share with other siblings) and the pedagogic implications of this are truly disturbing.
Here we are in the second half of June and not too far off the longest day – it seems as though this year is really flying by (at least for us, if not for many others). Today was a rather muggy, humid kind of day in which as we walked to the park armed with an umbrella (in case of a sudden torrential downpour) but we had to divest ourselves of our outer clothing as it was so hot and sticky. On the way, we met with a couple of our friends so we felt cheered by this, as always. We were a little late back and subsequently had a rather delayed lunch but no matter. After lunch, I had set myself the task of using some leftover bits of timber from my fence/handrail construction to create some small barriers to help to mitigate the effects of the slope in the wilder parts of Mog’s Den. To do this, I have to utilise my well-established procedure of creating some long ‘pegs’ some 40cm (16″) in length – this generally entails some sawing in half of longer pieces of timber and then putting a pointed end on each. Then the barriers are put into position on the slope and held in place by four pegs (two on each side) hammered into the ground with the aid of my trusty sledgehammer – as you might gather, I have done this lots of time before. I then utilised some of the thicker and straighter portions of a branch and or trunk from the recently cut-down ceanothus tree to reinforce the barrier before putting the icing on the cake (pouring the contents of the sacks of forest bark into the desired location) This last bit is actually the easier bit of the lot and takes no time at all. I am pleased with the overall look as the sections of half-round poles look quite natural in this setting and I am pleased with the overall result (except that the presence of recently added forest bark shows I need to put a few more bags down into the upper reaches) This was all accomplished before we FaceTimed some of our oldest Waitrose friends that we have got into the routine of FaceTiming every Tuesday and Friday. We were aware that a storm and the long-awaited rains were coming and after an intensely black cloud passed overhead, we did actually get some 20 minutes or so of quite intense rain. The next day or so, we should anticipate even more and there is no more ‘smug’ feeling that you can have is to await the rains when you are truly ‘gardened up’.
More on the horseshoe shoe saga – I asked our Irish friend is she could lend me another three horseshoes and a horse to stand in them (she said she would see what she could do) I reproduce below a bit of my Google research which you can either believe or not as the spirit takes you.
The lucky horseshoe is a big part of Irish folklore and history (despite being typically associated with western cowboy culture). The story of Dunstan and the horseshoe varies greatly depending on where you look. But the gist of the story is that in the 10th century, St. Dunstan (a blacksmith at the time) was visited by the devil himself. The hoofed devil asked for a horseshoe for himself. So then, Dunstan nailed a red hot horseshoe tightly on one of his hooves, and the devil howled in pain. The devil begged for Dunstan to remove it. Dunstan agreed under one condition — the devil must respect the horseshoe and never enter any place where one was hung above the door.
Because of this, people believed that the horseshoe could keep evil spirits out of their homes, and thus bring in (or keep in) good fortune.
By the way, I am delighted that a well-paid footballer has not forgotten his roots. Marcus Rashford has almost single-handedly forced the government to change its mind and let children who are entitled to have free school meals to carry on receiving them during August (rather than starving!) So much for a majority of more than 80 MP’s!
Today started off somewhat differently – my son’s car was booked in for a service but this was now handled like a military operation. He had to drop off his car at a very precise time and the attendant paperwork was all handled to observe the social distancing regulations. As it happens, this particular garage was located just around the corner from a huge Morrison’s supermarket so we made an arrangement that I would arrange to pick him up and bring him home whilst the car was being serviced. As it turned out, all of these operations worked like clockwork so Meg and I could then continue with our daily routine of a walk to the local park. On our way ‘down the hill’, we met one of our constant friends who was herself approached by another friend bearing a birthday gift of a card and a bottle of wine. Realising that we had ourselves forgotten about our friend’s birthday, we made an abrupt change of plan and so, having acquired our newspapers from the usual little newsagent, we decided to make a lightning tour inside Waitrose in order to buy two birthday cards (one for yet another friend), a bottle of Cava and a Rhône so that she and her husband can celebrate in style. Whilst chatting about how the weather is likely to pan out over the next few days, we mutually wondered whether we might meet in each other’s gardens when the weather improves and observing whichever rules that happen to be in force (given that they appear to be changing so rapidly!)
Although the morning was relatively fine, we knew from the weather forecast that more rain was on the way. After lunch, I drove my son to collect his just-serviced car and on the way back decided to drop into my local family-run hardware store in Bromsgrove. This store always has a selection of 80cm (31.5″) staves with their points already machined so these are excellent for gardening purposes. They can either be used just as they are to stake up a large plant or bush or sawn in two they provide nice deep pegs as described in yesterday’s blog. However, they first have to be treated to make them less liable to rotting and for this purpose, I have a supply of a creosote substitute (called Creocote – here is the manufacturer’s blurb)- ‘Similar physical/water repellency/application characteristics of traditional creosote but contains no biocide/preserver. A bitumen/wax based treatment that helps to protect exterior rougher cut timber by repelling water and preventing ingress.’ So there you have it. I generally paint all of my timber staves with this product so that I have one readily to hand whenever I need it, as otherwise, an untreated stave would rot off at ground level within a year or so, or perhaps even after one winter.
To replace my ceanothus tree (and so that my study does not look out onto my neighbour’s brick wall, nice though it is) I am thinking of constructing a little platform but it needs to be about a metre in height. I shall probably need to purchase 4 legs (timber which has not been sharpened to a point this time) and I already have a square block of timber some 25″ by 17″ which I had made into a saw table before I had to ‘deconstruct’ it when the new building was undertaken next door and we had to regularise some of the land I had inadvertently utilised (but that is another and longer story which I won’t go into now except we are now absolutely legal with possession ratified by the Land Registry).
Some political news this evening – there is a particular hard-line Republican ‘hawk’ and former national security adviser, John Bolton, who was employed as an adviser to President Trump and who claims in a book tonight that Donald Trump sought Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s help to win the 2020 presidential election. If these claims are verified and not buried, then this could be a game-changer as regards the forcoming Presidential elections in November. Watch this space, as they say!
After the intense rain that we had last night, the day was still blustery and showery. I spent some time amending my Waitrose order which is due to be delivered on Sunday and, in the meantime, we have had a letter from Waitrose informing us that we are on their priority list (which is good to hear) but it might take 10 days for the account details to be updated. Hopefully, I will get into a pattern so when I have one order delivered, then I need to be about two orders ahead to keep everything flowing at approximately weekly intervals. I went for the newspapers on my own today but took the opportunity to have a quick ‘whiz’ round Waitrose where I renewed acquaintances with some of the old regulars in the staff. I needed to buy some chocolates as a birthday ‘prezzie’ for a friend and 1 or 2 other essentials that had been forgotten about in the rush. Then when I got home I had to hunt around for some present wrapping paper (avoiding anything that had Christmas bells all over it, of which I seemed to have an excess!) Then a traditional curry at lunchtime, appropriate when the day is a bit on the cool side.
As the weather had evidently changed, this was a good opportunity to go through a pile of newspapers, seeking out an article I thought I had read days ago. Needless to say, I didn’t find so I resolve that whenever I see anything that is to be kept, I do it that night before the newspaper is jettisoned. Reading my emails this evening was quite interesting in that some businesses are evidently reaching out to try and establish a more normal trading relationship. My yoga class which I was attending more and more sporadically before the lockdown is now turning itself into a little shop and supplies centre and hoping to resume classes of about 4 or so in a week’s time, so I must have a long hard think whether to attend or not (I think I probably need to). Also the National Trust are opening up their gardens (although not the interior of their houses) but are running a series of timed slots for which you have to book in advance so that they know when to expect you and the overall numbers can be socially destined and kept manageable.
I do not normally comment on TV programmes that I have watched but today is an exception. I have just watched the first episode (0f 4) of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and it remains fresh in my memory because I re-read the book quite recently whilst on holiday in Salobreña, Southern Spain (the hotel had a little library of books for the guests and the Hardy was well worth reading) I have to say that the acting and the cinematography are both superb and I was thoroughly absorbed for the hour it was on. A regular treat each Thursday night for the next three weeks.
It is interesting that quite a lot of attention is being paid to the question of how life will be changed once the immediate crisis of the pandemic is passed. One of the most interesting comments I have read suggests “What we have now is an opportunity, and we have two options of what we can do with it: one is to pick up the pieces and try to put them together as they were before. But the other option is to assemble the pieces in a different and smarter way.” This does mirror my own feelings as it almost feels as though we are pressing the ‘reset’ button and starting all over again. I have to say that having got into the habit of online shopping, this is one particular change in my lifestyle which I think will continue. And although we dare not think about it too deeply, it may well be that in a week or so we might be in a position to think about a holiday in Spain to see our dearest Spanish friends (and see how other societies are coping with the crisis as well)
This morning we had rather a delayed daily routine. Reading my emails, the National Trust (of which we are members) have circulated us to inform us that their properties were now ‘semi-open’ i.e. although the historical houses still remain closed, the gardens are open as it so easy to ‘socially distance’ whilst walking around them. To facilitate this, you have to have a timed slot which must be booked in advance on the web. So I took a chance to see whether Coughton Court (which we have visited before) in Warwickshire was open. As it happened, we managed to get a timed slot in the afternoon of next Wednesday. Although some of the facilities are closed including the coffee shop/tea-rooms, a refreshment bar will be open as well as the rest of the grounds. So Meg and I are booked in which, naturally, will be our first ‘proper’ venture out of the house for nearly three months. Needless to say, we are looking forward to this and it will be interesting to see whether with timed entry and social distancing the whole experience might be even more enjoyable than in more normal times. Also, by next Wednesday, the weather should have improved considerably and we can stay until closing time, although I am sure a couple of hours will be enough. As National Trust members entrance is free in any case. I am hoping that they may have some interesting plants and shrubs for sale as National Trust properties (with a dedicated staff of gardeners) often run this as a sideline (but as the shop is closed, perhaps this facility will be unavailable as well) After I had made this booking, I decided to see what Waitrose had on offer and managed to get a slot for a week on Friday which I then populated from my ‘favourites’ selection – if I think of anything that we need before then, I can always amend the order which is quite an easy thing to do.
The coronavirus news today was interesting and quite encouraging. Firstly. the threat level has been dropped from 4 to 3 (or orange to yellow on a scale that from red to green) Of more use is the fact that the government is now able to publish the rate at which the infection is falling day by day and this seems to be in the range of 2%-4%. The latest indications are also that pubs and restaurants – as well as hairdressers and beauty parlours – are hoping to be given the green light to reopen on 4 July. Finally, there are broad hints given by Boris Johnson that he hopes that ‘all’ children will be back at school by September. I read an article in ‘The Times‘ which mirrors my own thoughts i.e. with a combination of social distancing reduced for children only from 2m to 1m, a morning and an afternoon shift and perhaps utilising some non-classroom space, that it might be quite possible to establish new routines that will help to provide a classroom experience for most pupils. A lot will depend on the extent to which schools have a degree of autonomy to work out the policies that will best fit that particular school.
We FaceTimed our friends this Friday, as we always due nowadays on Tuesdays and Fridays. We are assuming that their own more severe form of lockdown might be terminated by the end of July (if not before) so we have been excitedly thinking about the prospects of visiting a National Trust property (probably Coughton Court again) and also making a trip to Bletchley Park which they really enjoyed but we haven’t had the opportunity to visit yet. And, of course, in about a fortnight, it might be more clear whether ‘air bridges’ will have been established with several European countries including Spain so that we can start to think again about making a booking for late September (to see our friends in La Coruña)
Well, there was certainly a pronounced ‘end-of-lockdown’ feeling in the air this morning as we made our normal trip to the park. It seemed to be teeming with children on their scooters (and why not?) but much busier than even a normal Saturday of late. We chatted with two lots of friends on the way down this morning and we were speculating how long it would be before the churches were open again. Apparently, our local parish priest is making the best of a bad job and is getting the church decorated whilst there is no congregation (but apparently, this has its difficulties in a listed building) This puts me in mind of a postcard which an artist friend of mine once showed me (or even described to me – I cannot now remember which) It showed Michaelangelo putting the finishing touches to his masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel whilst the then Pope was remarking to him ‘You really shouldn’t have bothered – all I wanted was a blue sky and a few stars!’ However, this story is quite interesting because when I did a quick Google search I discovered that ‘when Michelangelo began to work on the frescoes for Pope Julius II in 1508, he was replacing a blue ceiling dotted with stars.’ I suppose that the cartoonist who had drawn the joke postcard realised that – but who knows! The morning actually turned out to be quite showery and we did get caught in a light shower on the way home – fortunately, it was of the ‘April’ variety which was quite light and transient rather than the ‘June downburst’ variety. After lunch, I made to my way to my favourite hardware store to buy some pieces of timber so that I can start to construct my little framework to raise up my flower pots to a level where I can appreciate their effect when I look out of my study window. I can see that quite a lot of creosoting needs to take place but I will wait a few days until the weather warms up again which I believe it will in the next day or so.
It is now almost a foregone conclusion that the government will shortly reduce the 2-metres social distancing rule down to 1 metre. I must feel, I have a degree of ambivalence about this. One the one hand, having come this far, why put everything at risk for the sake of, let us say, another month? Of course, there is the argument that backbench MP’s have been pressing pon the government that for many businesses particularly in the hospitality area, the difference between 2 metres and 1 metre is absolutely critical as businesses will never be profitable if a 2-metre rule is maintained but they might just about be viable if the distance is reduced to one metre. This argument I understand but it appears to be made for absolutely economic reasons with no real concern about the health of the population or the possibility of a second wave of the virus (actually the ‘R’ rate in Germany has just risen to 1.7 which is truly frightening and shows what too early a lockdown may lead to) On the other hand, the Office of National Statistics has published some projections that argues that if we have a recession followed by no recovery for a year or so (the so-called ‘L’ shaped recession) there may well be en excess of 12,000 deaths a year which are recession-induced. This figure is about 20% of the present 60,000 odd deaths attributable to the virus and five years of this would mean that as many die in the recession-induced by the lockdown as are killed by the actual virus itself. So what to do for the best – I suppose, no one really knows!
It is amazing to think that today (or perhaps yesterday!) was the year’s longest day and that we now start the long slow countdown to winter as the days shorten little by little. This year seems to have absolutely flown by for us but I am sure that for others the enforced lockdown must have seemed indeterminable. I decided that I would repeat the pattern that I set myself last week not to have a lie-in as one might be tempted to do on a Sunday but to get up and go and collect my copy of the Sunday newspapers before breakfast and the Andrew Marr show. It was the most delightful morning to do this as the sky was blue, the temperature was pleasantly cool at that hour of the morning and the world seemed to be populated only by joggers. Also, as I was on my own, I re-established the pattern that I used to employ when I made these walks as a solo trip each morning. I have an exceedingly old iPhone (iPhone 4, introduced in 2010) which I now use only as a music player. The quality of the reproduction is superb still (for my ears) and somehow in the past, I managed to download over 200 tracks onto it (mainly of Bach and Mozart). I have it on ‘airplane’ mode to conserve the battery life and I find it an incredibly useful bit of kit which is compact and more useful to me like this than the few pounds I could get for it if I ever tried to sell it (a quick Google search shows it might be worth £30.00 but I did find one website that would offer me 50p for it!) Meg and I were intrigued when we got into a conversation in the park today with a young couple with a dog and we wondered what was their breed of dog (sort of pointer looking but very smooth haired). Apparently, it was a German breed called a Weimaraner and another quick Google search shows that they cost around £1500! I must say we had never seen a dog quite like it but we do see quite an assortment of dogs of every shape and size (but the Jack Russell seems to be one of the most popular dogs here in Bromsgrove)
After lunch, I needed to help my daughter-in-law to plant out some sunflowers. Actually. my part in all of this was only to bore some drain holes in the bottom of two rectangular plant pots we had bought in readiness and haul some bags of compost and topsoil over. Then I proceeded to do my ‘weekly’ grass cutting although this had been a bit delayed because of the recent rains. A few days earlier, I had lovingly restored an old horseshoe to a beautiful old silver colour which, on the spur of the moment, I gave away to a good friend on the occasion of her 50th birthday and which is now occupying pride of place in the log cabin she uses as a sort of studio/escape den. I thought I would go onto eBay again and I have just purchased five more used horseshoes (all the way from Yorkshire!) for little more than the cost of the postage. I am going to restore these using my well-established techniques (immersion in white vinegar for a day, scrubbing with a wire brush and then a final finishing off with a Brillo pad and some Duraglit. I have two horseshoes in soak at the moment and I gave them a preliminary look to see if the vinegar had worked its magic (it had!) If the weather is fine tomorrow, I will complete the restoration task and then proceed with the following three (which I am minded to restore and then give away to friends)
The coronavirus news from Germany tonight is very disturbing. They calculate their ‘R’ rate as 2.88 (i.e. each infected person infects nearly three more). In an abattoir, they tested 1000 workers and two-thirds of them tested positive. This must be a warning as to what might happen if you relax a lockdown too soon!
We always suspected that today was going to be quite a busy day and so it proved. We knew that there were several things we needed to do on the High Street today so after collecting our newspapers, we started out on our various ventures. We succeeded in our first foray into a Health and Beauty type shop where we bought some lipstick for Meg. Then our next trip was to the opticians to get Meg’s glasses adjusted but they turned out to be closed (until tomorrow) My venture to buy printer paper was similarly abortive as Staples seem to be shut indefinitely so I have had to resort to ordering some online – at a rather premium price. We also made a trip to the bank to pay in a cheque and this was rather like entering a spaceship but at least the personnel were welcoming and the transaction proved quick and easy. Finally, I couldn’t resist a quick dash into my local Poundland and bought a few garden requisites for a fiver so all I had to do was to feed my money into a machine. So it was a mixed day. On the way home, we met some of our regular friends who we have not met for several days – we started off by chatting about some red campion which I think I have identified growing just inside a side gate into the park. We chatted for about half an hour as we seem to have a lot of mutual news to catch up on (and were passed by our near neighbour as well) so we were well and truly delayed, not getting our lunch until way past 2.0pm instead of our usual 1.30 Nonetheless, we were delighted to catch up with old friends and we hope we can visit each other’s gardens as soon as we both have the time and the weather is set fair. In the afternoon, I had set myself a creosoting job of several staves which involved getting my gardening trousers, a painting shirt and a mask so it was a little fiddly but I got everything I wanted to do. I finished off the afternoon by giving two of my horseshoes a final scrub in white vinegar but it is only when I get the brillo pads and the Duraglit on them tomorrow that I will know whether I can achieve the glowing results that I did last week.
Tomorrow is the big day when it has been widely trailed that the lockdown will start to end. It looks fairly likely that the 2-metre rule will be reduced to 1-metre by 4th July which is still twelve days away. I have rather a foreboding that after tomorrow, people will not wait and will act as though the lockdown has already completely ended. Also, whilst people make an effort (excellent in some cases, minimal in others0 to avoid each other when the distance is two metres), I fear that a one-metre rule will make people behave as though everything is normal and will make no efforts to avoid each other. When Meg and I entered the various shops today, we ensured that we were wearing our masks and will continue to do so every time we enter a shop or a confined space from now on. But on a more positive note, our chiropodist has now texted us to say that she has received government advice that she can visit us as she will be equipped with full PPE. We will accept but ask to be treated outside if the weather is fine which I think it will be for the day or so. What is perhaps not fully appreciated is the issue of time – if you pass someone in the street even at a distance of 1 metre then the chances of exposure to the virus are pretty small but increase rapidly if you were to stand still and have a conversation for 10 minutes or so…
I think that today marks the three-month point since the nation went into lockdown. In any case, the expected major liberalisation was announced today and will probably get analysed to death – of course, these new arrangements are meant to start on 4th July ( a Saturday) but my hunch would be that many people will start to use the 1-metre rule from tomorrow onwards instead of 12 days time. One wonders about all of the signage in shops – will there will be a lot of felt-tip pens and Tippex in evidence as 2-metres of reduced to 1=metre plus (whatever the plus is meant to be). And, I suppose, you can keep the 2-metre markers and just add intermediate markers as from 4th July. We have now arranged a visit from our chiropodist who will be arriving o m Friday in full PPE (but if the weather is fine we will probably go outside). We have also made contact with our hairdresser who is considering how she is going to cope with a tsunami of her regular clients – still, it’s nice to be back into the system.
The major event for me today has been the construction of my 4ft high plant shelf to grace the outside of my study window. This involved various stages – first, the upper legs had to be braced and then affixed using some angle bracket. Then the lower legs had to be attached using steel plates of each side. To make the whole structure more stable, various cross-bracings had to be deployed so a certain amount of sawing was involved. The screwing process was quite involved – I have. a little Bosch handhand electric screwdriver which is excellent for its size. Nonetheless, for every screw hole that I made I first used a small bradawl, then a larger one, finally a hand-drill unto my drill bit broke at the last moment, then a fine guide screw and then the final screw adjudged appropriate for that particular fixing point. I always tighten up by hand, as well, using a rubberised glove that is nice and grippy – I reckon to have done this for above 80+ screws in total. This took me all afternoon but I had a break to FaceTime our friends which is part of our Tuesday pattern, then a quick spot of tea and then a final screwing together and tidying up that took me until about 8.30 in the evening. My hands are pretty sore but I am quite pleased with the overall result. I just need to put a bit of Creocote on some of the sawn timbers and do a bit of refinement and tidying before I move it into position probably on Thursday (as we are going out tomorrow). I am not a natural ‘do-it-yourselfer’ and therefore I am pleased when the whole job doesn’t look incredibly bodged up (whether the rest of my critical family agree is another matter) and I know I haven’t had to make too many compromises en route (there are always some problems that one has to work around). Looking in the garage, I find I have some Poundland adhesive vinyl squares in a subtle woodland effect (Poundland doesn’t often have the word ‘subtle‘ applied to it) so this will help to put the finishing touches to it. I just have to wait for my (Amazon-ordered) Lavatera to arrive and hope it is not too small and weedy – the problem with buying plants over the internet.
Finally, I read in tonight’s news that Americans are likely to be banned as and when the Europeans open their borders as the rates of coronavirus are disturbingly high in the USA. I wonder how ( or whether) this will actually get reported in the USA. Will Donald Trump tweet about it (I doubt it!)
We always thought that today was going to be quite a busy day and so it proved. After we had bought our newspapers, we popped into Waitrose knowing that we were going out on a trip this afternoon and so we bought ourselves some Waitrose sandwiches not knowing what the restricted catering facilities would be like at the other end. Whilst there, we were greeted like long lost souls (which I suppose we were) and got some of the tales from some of the familiar staff. One who we know particularly well had caught the virus and so had her husband who was particularly ill but he just managed to pull round before a spell in hospital was called for. Waitrose always had a good display of plants outside and we were tempted to but an Alstroemeria which is a South American tuberiferous plant also known as the Peruvian lily that produces a proliferation of flowers that cut well and display right throughout the summer until the early frosts, so we had to have one. We were also tempted into buying a rhododendron plant which is just on the point of bursting into a proliferation of blooms so the two of them should sit particularly well on the tall plant stand I have just constructed. But to show you cannot win them all, my lavatera arrived by post this morning and although I was not expecting much, I did anticipate getting a plant that was only about 5″ in height. We had an early light lunch consisting of a good soup and set off with our provisions for Coughton Court. We had not realised it was quite so close as it is only about 18 miles down the road and we had allowed ourselves some ‘getting lost’ time so we set off an hour early. On the gate, they did not seem to mind that we had arrived half an hour before our allocated ‘slot’ time but as they due to shut at 5.00 we enjoyed the extra half-an-hour. The gardens proved to be as delightful as we remembered them from the time of our last visit which must have been over a decade ago. We treated ourselves to a super ice-cream and then, like other families, enjoyed an impromptu picnic beside a large mowed area set aside of picnics although most of us were seeking the shade of the trees. We then had a stroll alongside the lakeside area and were impressed by the ways in which those responsible for the upkeep of the grounds had various information points which were painted onto the flat ring of a tree (when a large fallen tree had evidently been cut into rings, like slicing an enormous carrot) Also, they used naturally curved branches to form bedding boundaries – it is always useful to see how good gardeners make use of whatever natural materials they had to hand, Then we made our way home on what has the been the hottest day of the year so far (although tomorrow may be even hotter and then we may have thunderstorms on Friday).
Politically, it looks as though the Environment and Community minister, Robert Jenrick, is heading for a fall. It is a typical Tory corruption scandal in which the advice of the planning inspector was overridden and the planning application was rushed through in such a way that the developer (who had made hefty donations to the Conservative party) made millions of pounds. The whole thing looks like a classic ‘cash for favours’ row. It also looks as though the medical profession is united in suspecting that there is a very real risk that with the amount of virus still around in the community there may be a second wave (worst than the first) which will hit the country in the middle of next winter coinciding with the normal ‘flu’ epidemics. We have been warned!
Today has been the hottest day of the year so far and may well turn out to be the hottest day of the year. It really is pretty humid and I, for one, cannot wait for a tremendous downpour which I hope will turn up tomorrow. At least, I am hoping that is the case because I have been working on my latest project with the aim of having it completely finished by tonight before the rains come tomorrow. It looks as though the UK as a whole has been hotter than Ibeza in Spain today with the temperature at Heathrow recorded as 33.3ºC which is 92º degrees F. As we walked down to the park this morning, there was quite a strong breeze blowing and this persisted even as far as the journey back. Then we made a salad lunch and prepared for the afternoon’s activities. I was putting the finishing touches to my home-made plantholder which is now completely finished as I needed to put some vinyl squares onto the top surface, even up one of the legs which had somehow finished up being shorter than the rest, applying some wide black vinyl tape to the edges, affixing some guards to the top so that plant pots don’t slip off and finally finishing off with a creosoting of all of the areas of uncut timber that evidently needed waterproofing before it is brought into use. For those whose life would be incomplete without seeing the results of all of this, then you pick a photo or even a video from the last two items in the directory listing which is available at: plantholder
Tomorrow is going to be quite a busy day for us. We are expecting a Waitrose delivery in the morning and our domestic help will be arriving to help to turn the house around. Then in the early afternoon, our chiropodist is going to call to have out feet checked over and then we have a FaceTime with our friends at 5.0 in the afternoon which is part of our Friday routine. Earlier in the day, one of our friends in Oxfordshire has invited us over for lunch together with some other friends the week after next, so there is a feeling of life returning ever so slightly to normal. And as it is Thursday, we have also had our weekly fix of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles (full of dramatic tension in this episode!)
There seem to be two big political stories that have broken today. The first is the situation arising in South Brixton (massive illegal street parties with 20 police officers injured) and Bournemouth (people flocking to the beach on the hottest day of the year in clear defiance of the current 2-metre social distancing rules) One does get the feeling that many in the population, and particularly the young, have almost decided that the lockdown has ‘ended’ and do not really care much about the consequences (they won’t die, only the ‘oldies’ and we don’t care about them anyway) One does not have to subscribe to a kneejerk reaction to this news and feel that the moral fibre of the nation is somehow lessening but there must be a legitimate worry that as a nation we are storing up trouble for ourselves. I am sure that in private, the scientists advising the government must have the feeling that current developments are increasing the elements of risk of a second coronavirus spike occurring. The other major development is Keir Starmer’s sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey after her endorsement of what may well have been an anti-semitic tweet. When he woke up this morning he could hardly have dreamt that such a gift-wrapped opportunity would come his way – at one stroke, he could lessen the influence of the Corbynite left, he could help to appease the Jewish community and he could demonstrate that as a political leader he could act really decisively (compared with Boris who has failed to act with any degree of decisiveness over the Dominic Cummings affair as well as the latest Jenrick scandal)
Today was the day when I thought that the long-awaited and anticipated thunderstorms would roll across the country – however, it was not to be and we just had a few spatters of rain at about 10.00 followed by another hot, humid and sticky sort of day. We received our Waitrose order early in the morning and I must say that I rather like some aspects of their policy – for example, if vegetables are a bit near the end of their shelf life they supply them at no charge. Also, if they run out of something that is a small size they give you the large size for the same price (in our case, ice cream which is always welcome these days). On our way home from the home, we had a good gardening natter with two of our acquaintances who live down the hill. One is a Welshman who can talk for Wales and who very kindly gave me a supply of the tiles that used to face the front of his house (a very popular design in the mid to late 1960s but has subsequently gone out of fashion) This meant we had to have rather a lightning lunch before our chiropodist came and was able to resume normal services. Although she came with full PPE, we had our feet done outside which is nice and safe for all of us and exchanged news and gossip about our two families. I told her that one of the very few regrets that I had in life was if I had stayed on at the school I attended in Lancashire from 1956-1959, I would have received coaching from a young West Indian cricketer who was coming over to play (as many did) in one of the Lancashire leagues. His name was ..Gary Sobers! However, our chiropodist rather ‘shot my fox’ by saying ‘Oh yes, I know Gary Sobers well – he used to be my father’s next-door neighbour!‘ So who would have thought that?
Last night was very hot and sticky and I woke up just 5 am and sunrise was only ten minutes before. I then espied our adopted cat, Miggles, on her way up from Mog’s Den shortly followed by her enamorado (Spanish: literally ‘loved one‘) who I have christened Black Peter. When I gave the cat her breakfast (well, she was hanging around waiting for it) she seemed ravenously hungry so I supposed that is what a night on the tryst does for you. I questioned her closely on her nocturnal activities but only got a one-word reply (typical teenager) i.e. ‘Meow‘
This afternoon, I needed to repot some of the plants with which I was going to populate my new plant holder. (Incidentally, when I woke at 5.0am I realised that my new creation needed a drain hole as otherwise, it would flood so I rapidly make a hole in the centre lined with a rawlplug so it should function as a drain in the case of a downpour). I found that I had four plants that needed bigger pots, two of them being homegrown from own cuttings. One was a forsythia which is now about 1ft tall so I am encouraging it to grow tall by encasing it in four little bamboo canes plus encircling string. The other is a viburnum although it often flowers only in the early spring. The other two plants I have bought from outside our local Waitrose – an alstroemeria (although not in flower yet) and an absolutely superb hydrangea – but unfortunately I’m not actually sure what variety it is. So now, I have my little display complete so I had better talk to them nicely, water them regularly and feed them occasionally.
The coronavirus news is not at all encouraging. In the UK, the daily death total rose to 186 (up by a fifth from the day before) whilst in the USA, 37,000 new cases have been reported in the last day. In the USA, several states are attempting to end a lockdown whilst the infection rate is increasing – baffling, or a triumph of ideology over common sense.
Today was meant to be the day when showers swept up the country – we did have three or four transient showers but not the good old-fashioned downpour I had been expecting (and hoping for). Meg and I managed to get our walk to the park without getting rained on either the journey or the way back and we managed a chat without an Italian friend as well. I forgot to mention in last night’s blog that the government has asked me to participate in an antibody trial targeted at a national UK sample. The website was easy to navigate and just took a few confirmatory questions and I expect that I will be sent a full testing kit in a few day’s time. It probably entails a small finger-jab blood sample and then we will have to wait and see what happens. I am (mildly) interested in the results.
This afternoon, I set myself the task of getting a few plants repotted but never quite round to it. The first thing I did was to use a metal tent peg as a type of ‘fastener’ and then applied that to my new plant holder so that tempestuous winds do not send it flying. I then applied a couple of small wood ‘chips’ to the front feet to give it a slight backward tilt and thereby make the whole caboodle somewhat more stable. (Incidentally, since time immemorial I have applied this tip to any freestanding bookcases that I have to enhance their stability – it is not at all funny to realise how unstable an open-ended bookcase can be without some type of offset – I generally deploy small pieces of tile) Finally, to get ready for repotting some of my smaller plants I had to wash and scrub out some old ones that I had lying around but need to be cleaned so that things like slug eggs, ant eggs, plant viruses and the like do not infect the new plants. I really do not like this task at all but my task was made considerably easier by a spare bottle of bleach in a spray carton that I happened to have and which meaks the whole job more tolerable.
And now – here is a question for the really. really nerdy i.e. do long screwdrivers give you more torque (turning power) than shorter handled ones. My reason for asking the question is that, quite impressionistically, I often have the feeling that a longer screwdriver gives that extra bit of ‘oomph’ when tightening a screw to the ultimate and therefore I treated myself to a 14-incher which seemed to be of good quality and reasonably priced. If you look on the web, you find an amazing variety of answers. On the one hand, you get some experienced joiners who will say ‘Yes‘, as for whatever reason they always get extra turning power out of long-handled screwdrivers. On the other hand, there is a mass of mathematical data that shows that the length of a screwdriver can have no relationship to the torque that it applies. The answer may lie in between the classical mechanics and mathematics of turning forces on the one hand and the actual alignment of wrists, arms and shoulders when using a long-handled driver. I shall go out and experiment tomorrow. I did say that this section is for the really, really nerdy – but what is interesting is that people’s real-world experiences seem to be at odds with what the mathematics says.
The Jenrick affair rumbles on, as the Sunday Times leads with the story that civil servants pleaded with the minister not to allow the development but it was pushed through a day or so before the developer would have been liable (under Tory legislation) to £45 million to one of the poorest local authorities in the country. The ministerial code states clearly that there should not be the appearance of a conflict of interests and the appearance is only too self-evident in this case. But the only person who can police the ministerial code is Johnson himself and the ‘word on the street’ seems to be that if Cummings survives, Jenrick should so as well. However, there is a real stench of corruption in this case – but most people are preoccupied with the pandemic crisis in any case.
As is often the case, we start off a conversation with a dog owner in the park when the dog comes bounding towards us attempting to be friendly and so it proved today. The conversation progressed beyond dogs to what was happening in the world of work and it is always fascinating to find out what others people’s preoccupations and concerns turn out to be. Such was the case today where we spent a very enjoyable 20 minutes with a lady who was exercising her dog, discussing a wide range of issues. On our way back up the hill, we encountered two of our sets of friends (who are both near neighbours to each other so not surprising, really) We were shocked to discover that one of our friends had had an accident in her car and had had a collision with an 86 old gentleman. We were even more amazed to discover that our friend’s car was practically a write-off whilst the old gentleman was completely unscathed. I expressed my amazement that this could happen – but only then did it emerge that the elderly gentleman was himself in a car and he immediately accepted liability (and so did his insurance company) for all that had happened.
The afternoon was quite blustery with several showers which was quite frustrating for us as there were several things that we wanted to do. I did succeed in eventually repotting my lavatera and weigela (bought) plants recently, although the latter is such a weedy little specimen I am resolved not to buy plants over the internet again as you cannot see what you are getting! I did, though, on my way down to collect my Sunday newspapers take several little cuttings as May-June is the best time to propagate these and June is nearly up. I’m not sure what I have got but I think I have managed to purloin a weigela, perhaps a skimmia, certainly a laurel and have collected the seeds of both a sycamore and a laburnum which I am going to try and raise from seed (without too many hopes of success). In the late afternoon, I finally got round to rescuing two horseshoes which I had got de-rusting using white vinegar (for the acetic acid) It could well be that Coke (phosphoric acid) will give you the same effect but I haven’t got round to trying that yet- if it de-rusts metal, imagine what it might do to one’s guts! I also managed to get my daughter-in-law’s old exercise trampoline into the back of the car which gives me a good excuse to go to the garden centre just around the corner from the municipal tip so I can cast an eye on what shrubs (or even small trees) they may have on offer, as well as buying perhaps a bag of grit (to help to top out some of my plant pots).
There are two political developments tonight which seem disturbing. The first is the situation in Leicester which is incredibly near the point of a total lockdown due to a resurgence of the COVID-19 virus. There now seems to be 80 new cases a day and it is fair to say that the city is on a ‘knife-edge’ – however, if the city does go into lockdown it may be the first of similar cities. The virus seems to be concentrated in the poorest parts of the city where population densities are highest and perhaps the general health of the population is already poor. The Metro (free newspaper) is also reporting tonight that the UK may be on the cusp of a second wave – as many of the unlock down measures will take place in a week’s time, then the next week or so may prove critical in the UK’s experience of COVID-19.
The other political story is the fact that Dominic Cummings appears to have had his way and the head of the civil service has been forced out (to be replaced by a Brexiter?) When the Cabinet is populated only by those people who agree with Boris Johnson, it appears that any source of opposition to the present government is immediately quelled. One only has to look at the scientists who appeared in the daily briefing who were all dropped, one by one, the minute they did not give 100% endorsement to the government position. So it seems that we are living in profoundly authoritarian times which, in the long run, makes neither for a properly functioning democracy or, indeed, for effective government. It is interesting also to see that the committee which can release the report into Russia’s meddling in the UK’s electoral process has not been constituted (delayed by No. 10 Downing Street) as the report if it ever sees the light of day is bound to be damning!
Today was one of those indeterminate types of day when the weather cannot make up its mind whether to rain, be cloudy or what have you. It was very windy, though, which means that hats have to be constantly held onto for fear of losing them to oncoming traffic. As you might expect, our local park was bereft of children propelling themselves along on a variety of scooters which we have come to expect in the fine weather and so we were able to claim our usual park bench without too much difficulty. Some of my more distant friends have wondered why I natter on so much about our local park and to be honest, whilst I used to walk past it every day when I used to make a regular trip to our local Waitrose to buy my daily newspapers and claim my free cup of coffee (in the days before lockdown), I didn’t fully appreciate its qualities, My only wish is that the local authority would engage upon a venture to label each tree (or provide a list of what the trees are given that they are all numbered) so that we can all be educated about what we can see in front of us. Here is a URL for a video which was taken in the park some years back but it provides a good overall impression: Sanders Park, Bromsgrove
We had decided that we would make a trip out this afternoon to our local municipal tip (which is about 5-6 miles away in the depths of the Worcestershire countryside) to dispose of my daughter-in-law’s old trampoline exerciser. However, we were completely thwarted – I suppose in retrospect, Monday afternoon was not a good time. As we approached the tip, there was a queue of about 20 cars and they all appeared to be stationary so I suppose they were limiting the numbers and there was a great surplus of people wanting to dispose of their junk so we turned the car around and said that we would have to think about it another day (a nuisance when you have the car full of junk) We did, though, go round a local garden centre and bought a Weigela of a decent size (and with blood-red flowers eventually) but it was a wet, cold and windy experience and not the kind of day for browsing so we were glad to complete our purchase as soon as possible and not linger but get home to a good cup of tea!
It has now been announced that Leicester is the first city to be ‘locked down’ i.e. the existing restrictions will stay in place for another two weeks. I am sure this will come as a major psychological shock to the residents of Leicester who may well be asking ‘Why us?’ and it appears that even some of the limited openings of local shops may now have to be put into reverse. The question remains, of course, how many cities and communities there are like Leicester which may also be ‘on the brink’ and I would imagine that, in private, the government are very worried about the situation. Of course, if we had a ‘proper’ test-and-trace service in operation, then this might give us some good, accurate local data to pinpoint local sources of infection. Tonight’s Panorama programme on ‘test-and-trace’ (which some call the Serco ‘test-and-trace’ rather than the NHS ‘test-and-trace’ has uncovered some really shocking evidence how terrible the privatised, cobbled together Serco ‘test-and-trace’ really is. The government subcontracted the service out and 25,000 call handlers were recruited who had only contacted 15,812 people (an average of about one contact for every two call handlers. In the meanwhile, the much more professional 870 public health officials had handled over 98,000 cases (more than 100 each) This made each public health official about 200 times more effective than their private-sector counterpart. But the ideology of the present government is convinced if that it is provided by the private sector it must be good but if provided by the public sector it must be poor. But the discrepancy is absolutely horrific and just shows that the what happens when you hand essential public sector work over to an army of untrained, call-centre workers many of whom were paid taxpayer’s money to not contact a single case! Shocking, almost beyond words!
I made my own way down for the newspapers this morning realising at the commencement of my journey I had forgotten to put my incredibly ancient iPhone 4 (10 years old?) which I use solely as a music player to recharge so I had to make do with my own company. The weather was still changeable this morning but it was not the kind of day when you could really look forward to doing any outside jobs so I resolved to do some tidying up within my study. Some of this time was devoted to unjamming a jammed up printer (which does happen occasionally) but as I am now on a paper economy drive I take once used paper and put it the ‘wrong’ way through the printer so that its gets printed upon the blank side.
On the spur of the moment, I decided to buy myself a Bahco ratchet screwdriver as it seemed to get rave reviews – although originally manufactured in Sweden it is is probably now made in Taiwan. Eager to try it out, I did a little bit of research on the web to discover some practical woodworking advice (of which there is plenty) I now know that for a Reisser 5.0 screw (of which I have a box) I need a pilot hole of 3.5 mm (i.e. the width of the shank of the screw, excluding the actual screw ‘ridges’ and a PoziDriv bit number PZ2) Going to my new plant holder stand, I drilled a pilot hole by hand using my newly Bahco and with exactly the correct width of drill for the pilot hole. Then exchanging the chuck containing the drill with the correct screwdriver head (a PoziDriv PZ2) I then screwed in the Reisser screw so I had taken care to ensure that I had carefully matched the pilot hole drill size, the screw size itself and the screwdriver bit size and I have to say that inserting the screw like this (i.e. the correct way!) was like inserting a hot knife through butter i.e. incredibly easy. So although I had done everything by hand, using the correct materials and dimensions made life easier than if I had used a cordless screwdriver! And I haven’t even mentioned further refinements such as drilling a clearance hole slightly wider than the shaft of the screw only for the ‘top’ piece of wood – or using a lubricant such as bar soap, candle wax, petroleum jelly or a dry spray lubricant. If I had been taught woodwork at school, then this might have been instilled into me – but now I know better, I am resolved to do things the correct way from now on. And to think that I always imagined that screwing two pieces of wo0d together was child’s play and took no intelligence or prior knowledge to sort out.
I see that ‘The Guardian’ newspaper is tonight saying that following the instance of Leicester, more local lockdowns may be on the way. As to why Leicester should be the source of a spike in cases, I quote from an analysis in The Guardian:
I do get the terrible foreboding that the end of the lockdown may have come two weeks too early and that the health of the nation is being sacrificed on the altar of commercial interests. The Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish seem to be handling the whole thing so much more sensibly. In the USA at the moment, new infections are running at the rate of 40,000 per day and there is an informed prediction that this could well rise to 1000,000 per day. The only silver lining to this particular dark cloud is that the response of the USA to the pandemic crisis may well be putting paid to Donald Trump’s chances of re-election in November! We shall have to wait and see.
Today we were fortunate again to meet with one of our closest friends on the way up from the park. We talked over the latest political situation (as we often do) and reinforced each other in the view that the lockdown may be coming two weeks too early and that apart from Leicester, there may well be other communities in the North and the Midlands with a socioeconomic profile not too dissimilar to that of Leicester where subsequent spikes of infection may still occur. After lunch, I was just getting psychologically prepared to give the lawns their 7-10 day mowing when the heavens opened – not for long, but just long enough to write off any thought of grass-cutting whilst the ground was damp. So I turned my mind to other things such as revising my Waitrose order that is due to arrive first thing on Friday morning. Halfway through the afternoon, I received a delivery from Amazon but it was not what I was expecting. Several days ago, I had espied on ebay a traditional hat-and-coat stand of the traditional bentwood variety that I had been looking out for some time and so I ordered it at what I thought was a reasonable price. I wasn’t sure what kind of packaging it would arrive in but what did arrive was a flat box with a self-assembly kit inside. This is not what I was expecting so I went back to the original advert and there was no mention of ant flat-pack or self-assembly. But I set to work with a vengeance following the pictorial instructions (no words of any description) It was one of these jobbies where the advice was to only screw things up halfway because there was a certain amount of jiggling about to get circular supports in place but all went well before I gave things a final tightening of the screws and then polishing of the whole before deploying it where I needed it in our bathroom. I have a variety of PosiDriv screwdrivers which I deploy on occasions like this as I invariably find that if one tool doesn’t work quite as well as intended then another one will. A final ‘tip’ was that I keep in a bathroom cabinet some especially ‘grippy’ gardening gloves – these I keep in pristine condition and use for things that require a good grip but are normally a bit problematic such as the rounded covers that are used when you fit on new shower hoses and the like. Anyway, this proved ideal for those vertical sections that needed a good twist to lock into position and I must say I am pleased with the results of my efforts.
Still on the subject of screwing together any pieces of timber for any construction works in the garden, I am keen to follow the advice given in my searches on the web to provide a ‘clearance’ hole in the top piece of timber that is being used and will eventually accommodate the smooth i.e. shank part of the screw. I had never thought much about why wood screws contain shanks but here is the explanation:
Having an unthreaded shank at the top allows the tip of a wood screw to pull the screw into the wood just as a regular screw would. The difference is that the shoulder portion of the screw will actually slide through the first layer of wood and pull it against the head. This causes compression from the head to the threads. When installing two pieces of wood together then the first will be pulled tightly against the second one. The threads can continue to pull forward as long as enough torque is applied. Coincidentally, this can also make the removal process much easier than trying to remove a fully threaded screw.
Second, when a fully threaded screw is being screwed into wood the screw threads cause friction. This friction results in the screw heating up. This causes two flaws in the material. As the metal heats up it will begin to expand. Once it expands inside of a hole that was drilled for a specific sized screw, the screw will seize in the hole. At the same time, the materials overall strength has now also been compromised due to the heat. Overheating leads to a screw breaking and snapping.
These two factors will highlight any flaws the screw may have and exploit them. This typically results in bending or snapping of the screw. So, how can a shank help? The shank allows for heat dispersion in a screw. As the threads begin creating heat, it moves up into the shank which will take longer to heat up and will not generate nearly the same amount of friction when it goes through the wood.
So another of life’s mysteries solved – something I am sure you always wanted to know!
The latest coronavirus news is that several other lockdowns are being considered. Further local lockdowns are “just days away”, Sky News understands. Sources in Public Health England (PHE) and the Department for Health told Sky News they are “working collaboratively”, focusing on the areas in England where coronavirus cases are rising.
Today was a cloudy day with occasional bursts of sunshine, interrupted by the occasional dark cloud scudding across the sky. In the park whilst we were having our elevenses as per usual, one of our closest friends happened by together with another friend from church. As they are both ‘golf widows’ for the morning, I took delight in telling them the only golfing story I know. It was our next door but one neighbour in Leicestershire whose husband happened to be the treasurer of the local golf club. Our neighbour was deeply resentful of the time her husband spent away from her (with good reason, as you will soon see!) and took it upon herself to fling wide open the doors of the committee room where her husband was meeting with fellow members with the exclamation ‘Peter! You shouldn’t be here -you should really be at home cooking my tea! The two sequels to this story are that (i) the golf club immediately threw out the husband and installed a new Treasurer (ii) When we subsequently bumped into Peter (as I shall call him) and we enquired after his wife, he replied ‘Oh, she’s died‘ and grinned from ear to ear. Meg and I often said to each other that if the local newspaper had run a headline which read ‘Man runs berserk- chops off wife’s head with an axe‘ we would have thought to ourselves, ‘Well, I suppose that must be Peter!‘
After lunch, it was evidently grass-mowing time and I hastily set to work trying to get everything done before the rain threatened at 4.00 pm in the afternoon (I find the timings of the Weather app on my iPhone to be incredibly reliable) After this had been done, I indulged myself to trying out my new 17″ spiral ratchet screwdriver to which I had treated myself – I am sure that in the days just before cordless screwdrivers hit the market, joiners used to use these all the time and it only seemed to take a quick ‘whoosh’ or two to drive a screw in. Looking on the side of its cardboard case, I noticed that in Spanish this type of screwdriver is known as a ‘destornillador de carraca‘ If you keep saying ‘carraca‘ to yourself quickly several times, I convinced myself that this was a classic onomatopoeia and that the screwdriver was named after the sound of the word. However, I turned out to be wrong because carraca is the Spanish word for a ratchet even if not a spiral ratchet. But is one of those words with several layers of meaning, one of which is an ‘old crock’ if applied to a car. You can sometimes be too clever trying to guess at the origins of words, by the way.
I read in the news tonight that the coronavirus infection rate has risen in 36 local authority areas- and that is before the liberalisation if this weekend. So am I being neurotic or merely prescient, by being perturbed by this rise in cases? It does look as though we are ending the lockdown too early – if you look at other European societies who are ending their lockdowns, they are doing it when the infection rate is running at a much lower level and with superior ‘test-and-trace’ regimes in place. The other members of my family have been laughing with a kind of gallows humour at how one manages to have a full class of children in September with teachers maintaining a two-metre distance from the children and with breaks organised in such a way that no years of children overlap. As one teacher explained on Radio 4, how do you organise breaks in a 7-year entry – do you organise it in such a way that the breaks extend over a three hour time period? The problem is that the current lot in government have never run anything properly (often coming up through the ‘political adviser’ route) and have literally no idea how to organise the logistics of anything. When told of practical difficulties, the teachers are told they are being obstructive or even worse!
On these cloudy days, one never knows how the day will eventually work out. Meg and I were pleased to avoid any rain on our trip to the park where we engaged, as is by now customary, with several conversations with dog owners. The sequence is as follows – the dogs have been let off the lease but thinking that food might be in the offing, they come excitedly towards us on our park bench. This actually happened this morning and one enthusiastic spaniel caused Meg to drop her lemon-curded oatmeal biscuit – the owners then apologise profusely for having caused a nuisance as they see it and the conversation flows from there. (Incidentally, I believe that it is not unknown for second relationships and even marriages that may be initiated by dogs playing together and thereby drawing their respective owners into a conversation. Well, I know of two cases. one on each side of the family, where this or something similar to it has actually happened) When we were in the park, we got a disturbing telephone conversation from our son who had emerged from his study only to find two plumbers wandering about the house looking for a stopcock! What had happened was this – the loo in our en-suite bathroom was starting to fill exceedingly slowly so we sent a quick message to our local plumbers who only live about 400 metres away. We were informed that one or two of the sons would call round after 1.0pm but as the plumbers were in between jobs they decided to call around at about 11.30. Our domestic help had let them in but we had not told our son about it at that stage because we were going to wait until we got back from our walk so as not to disturb him. To cut a long story short, we now have a fully functioning loo (and I suspect it had been going dodgy for quite some time). After lunch, I was all geared up to do a bit of planting and one or two odd jobs in the garden, only to be thwarted by a thin drizzle of rain that persisted for a lot of the afternoon. So I busied myself with doing other things (getting my accounts up to date) before we FaceTimed our regular friends as we normally do on a Friday. They are desperately looking forward to a bit of ‘unlock’ time so we may meet them in the park early next week but, if not, certainly on Thursday to celebrate a birthday. On Wednesday, we are off to see old friends in Oxfordshire and I think the weather is going to be fine by then.
An interesting snippet of news from this morning’s Today programme (but not much-reported since) Apparently the Germans have offered to help us to adapt their own coronavirus test-and-trace app which has been used than 14m times – and works! In the meantime, we have spent millions on an abortive attempt in the Isle of Wight experiment (which proved fruitless) and current progress is not much better. So I am delighted to say that we have swallowed our national pride and accepted help from a society that seems to know what it is doing.
More coronavirus stories that have emerged. It now looks as though the government are resigned to dealing with several ‘mini-spikes’ and intends to deal with each of them as and when they occur (a bit like dampening down a forest fire) The Chief Medical Officer for Health in England, Professor Chris Whitty has warned that: ‘If individuals, families and firms do not take them seriously the possibility of a second wave goes up sharply….The virus is a long way from gone, it’s not going to be gone for a long time….Nobody watching this believes there are no risks in the next step.’
There is a dire story that Israel was the model of how to lock down effectively but then entered an end to their lockdown and, as people have relaxed, they now have a second peak of cases worst than the first. And in Texas, a doctor has reportedly said that ‘we are heading for pure hell‘ as the number of hospital admissions has quadrupled in the last month.
As we have by now come to expect, this was another overcast and somewhat cloudy day, but no actual rain was forecast. As it was a little bit cooler and less humid, our walk to the park was more pleasant than usual. Outside the park, we were delighted to bump into of our ex-Waitrose friends who we had not seen for about a fortnight, so we had a fair amount of gossip to catch up on. She is probably going to make a trip to France later on this month and for our own part, now that the travel arrangements seem to be clarified somewhat, we are going to text our friends in Spain and may make some plans to get there in late September if we possibly can. Julie informed us that Bromsgrove High Street was like a madhouse so we are determined to stay away for a bit until the dust settles. The press is calling today ‘Super Saturday‘ and it remains to be seen how the majority of the citizenry respond to an alleviation of the lockdown measures today. The rest of the day was a little nondescript so we contented ourselves to having a lazy afternoon reading the weekend newspapers. Although I do not normally comment on TV programmes that we have seen today is a bit of an exception as I shall explain. In the late afternoon, there was another showing of the Disney version of ‘The Jungle Book‘ and although we have seen most if before, Meg and I thought we would have a second look. Some of the CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) effects were stunning and we put up with some of the banalities of animals bursting into musical type song on occasions for the sake of the rest of the film. Towards the end of the film, the wolf pack were being taught to say ‘Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky;And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.’ On hearing these words, I had an intense mental image of the following scene. It was a dark basement of the church’s social club in St. Roberts, in Harrogate, Yorkshire in about 1953. The room was dimly lit by two or three candles, meant to simulate the flickering of a woodland campfire. The ‘Cub’ Leader (‘Akela‘ in Rudyard Kipling’s parlance) was reading aloud sections of the Jungle Book (including the lines mentioned above) to a group of eager, upturned faces who listened in rapt attention, their faces illuminated only by the candlelight. What made this scene so incredibly vivid in my memory was that ‘Akela’ was actually my mother (who led the Cub Pack before she went off to train to be a teacher in 1956) and I was one of the pack of ‘wolf cubs’. I don’t wish to sound mawkishly sentimental but the imagery in my mind was so strong and although my mother died over twelve years ago, this was a wonderful memory to have of her, doing what she loved doing best. Just as an aside, my mother was so desperate to become a teacher that although she was born in 1911 she doctored her birth certificate to make it look as though she was born in 1914 and would, therefore, appear to be three years younger than she actually was. One has to remember how rare it was for mature students to enter teacher training college in the mid-1950’s – the price that she had to pay was that she had to work for three years longer than she normally would in order to retire and claim her teacher’s pension. For anybody who wants to follow up on some of the details of my mother’s life, I include an URL which are the words that I spoke on the occasion of her funeral (Marie_Hart)
More ‘Do as I say, not do as I do time‘ Boris Johnson’s father has flown to Greece in spite of Foreign Office advice not to do so. Nigel Farage has returned from the USA and instead of being quarantined for 14 days has been seen out drinking in a pub – for which he could be fined £1,000. Do you think this at all likely? (Actually, a conviction of a high-ranking member of the elite evidently breaking the rules might set an excellent example of the rest of the population!)
We have a slightly different routine on a Sunday as I walk on my own to the newspaper shop aiming to get there by 8.30 so I can pick up my ration of Sunday newspapers and then be back in time for the Andrew Marr show at 9.00 am. Today was a day which was both cooler and yet brighter so walking even at speed was quite pleasant. We have come to expect Sunday morning in the park to be teeming with children and dogs and today was no exception – nonetheless, we managed to exchange a few words of greeting with some of the regulars. Sunday lunch was cooking in the slow cooker so there was no frantic last-minute preparation to be done. I had aimed to get several outdoor jobs done this afternoon but was somewhat thwarted by the weather. I managed to get the Weigela planted I had purchased recently but how exactly it will develop I am not sure. I wanted to buy a variety with deep red flowers but on the web, it stated that the flowers were clusters of creamy white – I went to check the label where it was stated that the flowers were indeed creamy white but ‘deep red in bud’ whatever that means. Both the nurseryman who sold it to me and I myself must have looked at the label hurriedly and saw the word ‘red’ and hence concluded the purchase. Too late now – I must look a bit more carefully next time. I also took the opportunity to get rid of a mass of creeping bindweed that was growing over a nearby plant and was so similar to it that you couldn’t tell which was which. I also dumped the two beech trees that I had tried to transplant from other parts of the garden and failed spectacularly – I ought to know by now that you really have to wait for trees to enter their dormant phase in the late autumn or really early spring before you attempt to transplant with any degree of success. I am also a bit worried about my Tilia Cordata (lime tree) that I relocated a month or so back – the leaves had suddenly started to turn yellow. However, the gardener who comes to do some routine maintenance once a month and is incredibly knowledgeable about plants thought the yellowing was not a virus (again!) but a reaction to the absence of water as it is planted on a slope and water runs off it very quickly. So another job I have to do is to creosote some more staves, cut them to length and create a kind of barrier which I can pile up with earth and/or compost to help to mitigate the effects of a slope. Anyway, it got a bit cold, blustery and miserable so I decided to cut my losses and come in for a cup of tea and a read of The Observer. There are always things to be done in a large garden and the gardening advice often starts off with a homily such as ‘Choose a nice day to ...’ – chance would be a fine thing. There’s probably better weather tomorrow.
An interesting political development is detailed in The Guardian scheduled for publication tomorrow. A group of health workers and relatives of coronavirus victims are requesting that Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s special adviser, be investigated by the Met and if they take no further action, then it is possible that a private prosecution may be mounted, As one of the lawyers of the specialist legal firm which is backing the case has argued: ‘The broad consensus of public opinion is that he broke the law on public health, and the entire weight of the state has been deployed to prevent proper investigation and proper due process.’ The crux of the argument is that the Durham police only investigated Dominic Cummings behaviour whilst in Durham but the fact that a journey was inititaed in London means that the Met could well inestigate this case if it had a mind to. Probably nothing will come of this case – but it does add to public cynicism when those close to the centres of political power appear to be able to flout with impunity the laws with which the rest of us have complied.
This morning after we had breakfasted, I thought I would pay another visit to our municipal tip to dispose of some ironwork – last week, we had an abortive attempt when the queue was some 20 cars long so we abandoned it. Today, I sailed through as there was only one car in front of me and although there was a degree of ‘social distancing’ within the tip site, it was easy to dispose of my unwanted items. Then upon my return, I spent some time getting all my wood-working bits, drills, screws etc. in some semblance of order. It sounds as though I lead a sad life! However I now know that when joining two bits of wood, you need a narrow drill for the pilot hole, a wider drill for the clearance hole and the PosiDriv bit that exactly fits the screw that you are driving, so one has to be organised. I have also experimented which of the various hand drills I have acquired seems to work best if you are not relying upon a cordless driver. About a year or so back, I acquired a block of beeswax for a £2 or so, so I use this now to lubricate my screws before entry (Some say you can just use soap, whereas to others this is anathema!) Although it sounds incredibly nerdish, I found the following video clip of how to drive in screws to join two blocks of wood incredibly informative (and I actually learnt quite a lot) Here is the URL for the practically minded: Wood Screws
This afternoon, the weather was quite bright and sunny so I busied myself applying my remaining dregs of creosote to some staves which I already shortened to peg size so that I can shore up my ailing Tilia Cordata – hopefully tomorrow if it is not teeming down. Having completed this little task, I then set about refurbishing and polishing a couple of items which I may well make into surprise presents – more will be revealed in the fullness of time. I have had to have recourse to a very old-fashioned remedy (sugar+olive oil or I suppose sugar+washing up liquid) as a means of removing ground-in dirt on some of the fingers and thumbs. It is not an unknown problem for me but I suppose I should always get used to wearing gloves, even light ones when doing any manual type jobs.
I see that Boris Johnson has tried to deflect criticism that the residential care homes have been huge repositories of the COVID-19 virus by claiming that they ‘didn’t follow procedures’. It seems a classic ‘throw sand in the eyes of the enemy’ tactic to disguise the fact that there have been multiple failings in the ways in which this government has handled that end of the pandemic. For a start, care homes were practically forced to accept inmates untested as the NHS went about emptying wards as fast as possible to prepare for the assumed wave that was going to hit them. Secondly, they were at the back of the queue when it came to PPE. And thirdly, nobody properly realised that agency staff moving from home to home would act as efficient vectors for the transmission of the virus. Let us see what the official enquiry says (whenever that is)
Next week, Meg is going to have a routine ophthalmology appointment at the Worcester Royal Infirmary (at which I was treated for bowel cancer two years ago now. Strange to say, I am not really looking forward to the experience of negotiating a hospital out-patient department – I am sure it will be full of masks, hand-gel and social distancing but I think I will regard any hospital appointment with some degree of trepidation from now on. I am sure that the risks are absolutely minimal but as we have got used to avoiding meeting people in any kind of building for several weeks now and although not of a nervous disposition, one does wonder where the virus is still lurking in our community (and hospitals must still be high on the list of suspects)
Today bands of rain were forecast to sweep across the north of the UK with scattered showers on the edges affecting the Midlands so we suspected that today was going to be one in which we had to dodge the rain showers. As it turned out, we were kept in the dry until we sat down for our elevenses which we then proceeded to munch through to alleviate the effects of the constant drizzle. However, as we turned to go home, we got into a conversation with a couple of friendly gentlemen (one of whom recognised us from our church attending days) It turned that these two were long standing friends who had both suffered from heart problems in the past. Apparently with a large group of fellow ‘sufferers’ they had been organised into a walking club which traversed many of the footpaths surrounding Bromsgrove. There had been at least 20 odd members of this fraternity and perhaps even more but they used to meet in the Scout Hut which is located within the park’s perimeter. Over the years, these numbers had dwindled somewhat and the lockdown, whilst the pandemic was raging, had put paid to any of these regular activities. But our two acquaintances had formed a duo and they still used to walk regularly as far as their strength would allow. One, in particular, had some interesting connections e.g. a son who had lived in France and who had been a professional ski instructor. I was reminded of the story of a particularly athletic fellow boarder and member of my year group in Bolton in Lancashire. This lad was a prodigious, natural athlete and in 1958 lowered the record for the 100 yards (for 13-year olds) from 13.9 to 11.3 seconds. He was also extraordinarily good looking which meant that he had quickly acquired a reputation for impregnating at least two of of the local girls and was subsequently expelled (for reasons that to this day remain unclear to me). Looking him up on Friends Reunited in later years I discovered that he had emigrated to Australia and become the equivalent of the General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen. His daughter, however, had become the national surfboarding champion of Australia so athletic genes must have had their play after all.
After lunch, the rain came down pretty hard but I knew that as we were due to make our lunch-date in Oxfordshire tomorrow, I had better get the car checked over. Filling with petrol under the canopy was one thing but bending over in the pouring rain whilst I checked the type pressures was quite another. However, I was glad I did so as I really cannot remember when was the last time we had checked the air pressure and I am sure that it needed to be done before a longish journey. A week or so ago, I was caught up in a national sample in a survey organised by Imperial College, London, to test the level and antibodies for Coronavirus in the population at large. I had previously intimated that I was willing to participate in the survey and had been sent some testing materials which arrived a few days ago. The test was relatively straightforward and involved taking a pinprick of blood from a finger and putting it in a special container, adding some moderating agent and then waiting for 10 minutes, and then observing the result. I tested negative for antibodies (what a surprise) and then had to fill in an online questionnaire and transmit the photo that I had taken of the rest result to the survey organisers. I also intimated that I would be willing to participate in further surveys if required – in the meantime, it will be quite interesting to see what the general results reveal (which I anticipate will be in about a month)
I thought it was interesting that three pubs who had recently opened had been forced to close again as one of the patrons of one of the pubs had tested positive for coronavirus. The publicans had conscientiously telephoned 90+ of their patrons to indicate to them that a fellow drinker had tested positive and they should seek further advice and/or testing. Then Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, had the gall to claim in the Commons that this pointed to the success of test-and-trace whereas the pubic spirited publicans had actually done all of the hard work!
Today was a very different kind of day, as we followed none of our normal routines. Just after midnight, I exchanged a series of messages with my sister as we were evidently both poised over a keyboard in the wee small hours of the morning so we exchanged several messages until we both decided it was time to go to bed. Today was the day that was scheduled for us to visit some of our oldest friends in Oxfordshire who we evidently haven’t seen for months because of the lockdown. I went by a slightly different route which turned out to be an excellent one and we even arrived half-an-hour early as we had allowed for a certain amount of getting lost/fishing around/diversion time. We sat down for the most magnificent Spanish meal that had been prepared for us. These included some of our favourite dishes including ‘pimientos de padron’ (small green tasty peppers fried in oil and served with sea salt)- as it happens it was a favourite of our friends also. They acquired some plants from somewhere and grown their own so they were picked and cooked especially for us. We had that with serrano ham, a freshly prepared tortilla and salad many of the ingredients for which were grown in the nearby kitchen garden. We had contributed a bottle of Cava and a bottle of Rioja so we had the kind of meal which would not have been out of place if prepared by Spanish chefs in a Spanish kitchen. Naturally, each of the ingredients was delicious. We were then taken on a tour of the garden where all kinds of projects had been undertaken with the establishment of specialised new ‘gravel’ flower beds, a tour of the beehives and a look over the magnificent vegetable garden which could easily have graced a TV cookery programme. So we had a really enjoyable day and set off for home which should have been a straightforward journey. Instead, on the M40, we had to cope with a breakdown, three lanes of traffic being channelled into one whilst a central barrier was being renovated and a torrential downpour. All of this meant that we had one of those ‘creeping along, stop/start at 5mph experiences’ for half-an-hour which I am afraid is not particularly uncommon on the M40. Nonetheless, we arrived home enervated by the wonderful experiences of the day We had made our friends a special gift the identity of which I shall not reveal until tomorrow for reasons that I will explain tomorrow night.
If I read all of the various announcements correctly, then the government has spent or is committed to spending £190 billion to cope with the effects of the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown and rescue efforts for the economy. These sums are eye-wateringly large and completely unprecedented – they amount to the largest state support perhaps for centuries and are the equivalent of 10% of the UK’s GNP. However strange though it might appear, these sums may still not be large enough to perform the necessary rescue. For example, when the furlough scheme ends and employers will have to pay the wages of their former employees for three months from the end of October, will the promise of £1,000 per worker be enough incentive to keep an employee on the books for three months if there is no demand for the services they are providing? One does have the feeling that when the furlough schemes actually do end (and the government is not paying the wages of the workers to stay at home and do nothing), will employers not simply declare many of them redundant and the levels of unemployment will soar?
Boris Johnson’s latest attempt to excuse the attack he made on the care homes recently when he accused them of ‘not following procedures’ seems to be backfiring again. The Prime Minister was arguing in the House of Commons today that nobody knew that many people might not exhibit symptoms of the virus but still be infected and help to transmit the virus. However, as many in the media have pointed out the warnings were clearly there but not heeded so it seems. Finally, in the view of many Tory backbenchers it appears that doling out huge sums of money is making the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Richi Sunak, line himself up to be the next Prime Minister and they are quite prepared to ditch Boris to get him instead. Interesting times indeed!
Today was the day in which we had scheduled to meet some of our oldest Waitrose friends in order to celebrate a birthday. We had made a long-standing arrangement to meet in the park at 11.00 am, an event to which we were all looking forward, not least our friends who have been ‘shielding’ for weeks but were now (legally) taking the opportunity for some social contact. However, the best-laid plans of mice and men! Our friends were expecting a delivery from Waitrose and today, of all days, it was delayed by about an hour after the designated time. So the opportunity for our meeting was lost – and we would have massively rained upon in any case. But to make the best of a bad job, we are resolved to meet at the same time tomorrow so hopefully, it just a case of pleasure delayed rather than pleasure denied. As Meg and I were sheltering under a tree to escape a particularly sharp little shower, I was reminded of an expression that members of the acting fraternity used to use. In the days of touring companies, there was often a system whereby members of the cast would stay in what was termed ‘theatrical digs’ which were really just bed and breakfast boarding houses. There was typically a visitors’ book in which guests could write comments, appreciative or otherwise, and the actors who were staying there would add to the visitors’ book a line adapted either from a well-known play or even the Bible. As we were sheltering cold and hungry under the tree and wondering if we might see any of our friends who might give us shelter, I was reminded of the entry ‘We were cold and hungry – and you took us in!‘ Another one of these which sticks in my memory must have happened on a Friday evening when the guests were evidently served up with some fish that was probably well past its sell-by date. So the entry in the book became ‘This was the piece of Cod (rather the peace of God) that passeth all understanding‘ If the company felt they had been treated particularly badly in any set of digs and they knew they were not likely to return, then they would acquire a fillet of fish and nail it to the underside of the (typically wooden) breakfast table – there to rot for weeks afterwards.
This afternoon passed uneventfully, the rain putting a bit of a dampener upon things but we were looking forward to the concluding episode of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I only mention this because I have a sort of direct link with the very last scene of the book (and the film). Tess had just been executed for the murder of the man who had raped her as a young girl and severely abused her since her husband, Angel, had gone to seek his fortunes in Brazil. Tess knows that she would be caught and executed and made Angel promise to marry her younger sister. In the final scene of the play, Angel and the younger sister are walking up ‘West Hill‘ which overlooks the prison in Winchester as Tess is executed. This became ‘West Hill Cemetery‘ through which I used to walk every day on my way from the railway station to King Alfred’s College (later to become the University of Winchester) So, as you can imagine, I feel as though I have a very direct connection with the closing scenes of the novel (which, I must add, is poignant in the extreme for those unfamiliar with it)
Sky News is reporting the results of an investigation they have made into the ‘chaotic’ testing regime which the government have bungled through. I quote just the main themes of their report below:
It looks as though Keir Starmer has got his teeth into this emerging scandal and will subject the government to a necessary degree of scrutiny. In the 5.00 pm press briefing, the Sky News reporter referred to this ‘hand-cranking’ of the figures but the criticism was just brushed aside with the assurance that the capacity for testing was being ‘ramped up’ (whatever that means, but in an odd kind of way quite true!)
Well, today promised to be and actually turned out to be. a much more pleasant day than yesterday. This was just as well because we had an arrangement to meet some of our long-standing Waitrose friends in the park. We did have the excuse of a birthday to celebrate as well and we had made some plans accordingly. I had been busy renovating (if that is the right word) a special birthday gift which was unusual in the extreme – it was a lucky horseshoe (a real one, that is) that I had bought as a job lot through eBay in a rusty condition and I had then renovated it (the process involves soaking in white vinegar to lessen/remove the rust, following by brushing with a wire brush, a scrub with brillo pads and a final ‘seasoning’ with WD40 and some silver polish). As it happens, I did exactly the same for our Oxfordshire friends and when I wrapped the present up, I include the story, taken from the web, of why horseshoes are considered to be lucky. Of course, they have to be fixed the right way up so that your good luck does not fall out of them – I am amazed how many people actually know this (because I didn’t until a week ago) In the park, we had some delicious birthday cake. Then as a birthday treat, I read out the Gerard Hoffnung classic recording of a supposed bricklayer explaining to his employers how, owing to series of accidents involving bricks and a barrel, he wanted to report sick for work. For those who have never heard it, here is the URL of a soundtrack of Hoffnung’s speech to the Oxford Union (in the 1950s?). It is incredibly funny if you have never heard it before: Hoffnung
This afternoon, it was evidently time to get grass mowing done as after our recent rains the grass seems to have shot up and badly needed a cut – it looks so much better now. As soon as this was done and I had my customary cup of tea, I received a call from my near neighbour who needed some assistance to get her hose pipe properly connected so she could utilise it in the garden. I managed to get connected OK at one end but we may need to acquire an extra piece of hose and connect the two halves together before we can use it fully in the garden.
We received tonight a long and detailed email from our closest friends in Northern Spain indicating to us why they thought it was not a good idea for us to visit as we had planned to in late September. This has given us pause for thought and Meg and I are having to reconsider what our holiday plans might have to be. In the short term, we know that we need to make some tentative plans to see Mike’s relatives in Yorkshire and Meg’s relatives in North Wales but after that, the future is a lot less certain. Certainly, the idea of transiting through an airport does not appeal so we may have to think of the days out we can have and the social contacts which we can sustain whilst the pandemic unlock down is occurring. It is quite difficult to think of what a sensible course of action might be that does not expose one and one family and friends to any unnecessary degree of risk.
There is talk tonight that Boris Johnson wants to reform the NHS again! Whilst the last reorganisation was judged to be a bit of a mess (to put it mildly) one shudders to think what happens if politicians do not want to keep the NHS at arm’s length but want to get involved in decisions that border on the clinical – for example, massive political pressure to cut down waiting lists may mean that the more easily seen and treatable are dealt with first (the ‘low-hanging fruit’) and more difficult cases receive less priority. Again, we shall have to wait and see what transpires but the omens are not good.
My day started off very well in the wee small hours of the morning. During a restless period in the middle of the night, I decided to do my accounts and looked at when my credit card statement was due (although, as it happens, I only use this particular account for ‘holiday’ expenses and therefore had nothing owing on it). I was pleasantly surprised that Expedia, with whom we had booked our trip to Portugal which we could not undertake in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown. had credited me with the monies I had paid earlier for the hotel expenses. To be fair, Expedia had indicated they would do this within 30 days but I wasn’t informed that they had paid me back some money and therefore it was only by accident that I discovered that I had the credit sitting there since early May. I then turned my attention to the flights element of the cancelled holiday, one flight provided by Iberia and the other by British Airways. The Iberia website implied that under the terms of the original booking no flight charges would be refunded so I have to make up my mind whether to spend hours pursuing this element of the holiday. The British Airways flight also offered me vouchers (as they have done to thousands of other people in the last few months) but to convert this back into cash I have to speak to a British Airways customer services representative in person (if I can hang onto the end of a phone line for hours). I will have an attempt to do this on Monday morning but am not hopeful of success. According to information on the web, though, I should be able to claim a cash refund as of right. Knowing that I had a certain amount of credit under my belt, I spent some time looking at accommodation in both North Wales and in Yorkshire should we decide to give either side of our family a quick visit. However, I sent a message to my sister so that we can have a proper FaceTime discussion later this afternoon.
As you might expect, today was reasonably busy in our local park to the extent that we were displaced from our traditional park bench – however, whilst refreshing ourselves we encountered two of our closest friends and spent a few happy minutes in joke-telling and idle chit-chat. Then home to a somewhat delayed lunch and a preparation for the job in the afternoon. I needed to construct a little wooden framework around my Tilia Cordata at the point where the ground sloped away and the roots were in danger of being exposed. This having been done, I then used up my last remnants of some good topsoil and topped off the whole with a bag of forest bark chippings. I am hopeful that the mound of forest bark will help to keep the roots of the tree somewhat more damp and this might help to alleviate the yellowing of the leaves I have experienced to late. Having said that, it seems to be responding to my remedial work (including daily watering) so far.
I then had a couple of conversations with my sister on FaceTime and it appears that her lockdown period lasts until July 31st – even after that, she is still understandably nervous about exposing herself to any risk of the virus because with a compromised immune system and some congestive heart failure, the view of the rest of the family is that she would probably not survive. Although we had intended to spend a few days in Yorkshire at the very end of July, this might be somewhat too premature so we have resolved to leave things until August at the very earliest and then see how the situation unfolds. It really is hard to tell whether such fears on the part of the shielded part of the population are absolutely justified as, on the other hand, the government are anxious for people to get out and ‘spend, spend, spend’ as soon as possible even though this may well trigger a second wave of the virus. So we will put all tentative plans for some mini-vacations to see relatives on hold for a few weeks more.
Another fine day in prospect which is always uplifting. I was a little disconcerted, though, to make sure I arrived at my newsagent quite early for a Sunday morning (8.30 am) only to be sold that they had sold out of The Observer. I was particularly keen to get The Observer as it featured some interesting articles, such as the 20 councils at greatest risk where the coronavirus threat was said to be greatest. The borough of Oadby and Wigston, where I lived for about thirteen years was actually fifth on the list but this is a statistical artefact as these two small towns are only about 4-5 miles from the centre of Leicester. which was way out in front of the rest with a fairly large ‘spike’ in cases. The Sunday Times reported last week that the spike was probably concentrated in the streets where there are a plethora of small textile factories, many paying only one half of the minimum wage – about which nothing has been done for years if all accounts are to be believed. So when we made our daily trip to the park we extended our journey, donned a mask and dived into our local Waitrose where supplies of The Observer were more plentiful. On our way down the hill, some of our close friends were busy gardening (as they typically are) and we were invited in to look at the progress of their various plants which were all thriving.
This afternoon, we treated ourselves to a long leisurely read of the Sunday newspapers and after lunch, I embarked upon some gardening chores. I thought I had an old hose on a reel which I managed to locate in my ‘stores’ section near the compost heap where the combined effect of being stored under some fir trees not to mention the wind and rain over the months had made it all rather grubby. So I gave it a reasonably good wash down and check over before I offer it to my near neighbour whose need of it is, I think, greater in the short term than is mine. Finally, I had a quick ‘go’ at my latest horseshoe to which I am giving the vinegar and wire brush rust removal treatment.
If I am reading a complex situation correctly, it does appear that various societies (such as Sweden, Portugal) which have tried to bounce back quickly from a lockdown (strict in Portugal’s case, more relaxed in Sweden’s case) do experience various flare-ups and spikes just when they think they have the virus under control. Perhaps the same pattern is happening over here as well because the case of Leicester certainly gives us pause for thought. Some of the Swedish analysts are of the view that the advice given to the population only to self isolate if they had symptoms meant that many members of households where the virus was present but they were pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic did not quarantine themselves and might have helped to spread the virus much more in the non-infected community. And we have a case of an outbreak in a Herefordshire where 73 (one third) of key workers picking and packing vegetables have tested positive and I would imagine that might come as quite a psychological shock as a lot of the farm work is, by definition, in the open air (but what about the packing plants, the proximity of the workers to each other, the quality of the temporary accommodation given to migrant workers? Well – it is a very different scenario to a concentration of the virus in BAME communities in packed terrace houses and textile factories in Leicester)
There seems to be total confusion at the heart of government over mask-wearing. Boris Johnson was giving several very strong hints that mask-wearing might be made compulsory in confined spaces such as shops and was pictured in his constituency wearing a mask. And then Michael Gove said that the wearing of masks should be left to the individual and what they deemed to be ‘common sense’. But there is a massive problem here, not to mention sources of outright confusion – although I might think it is absolutely ‘common sense’ to wear a mask in a supermarket, to all of the other shoppers it might be also ‘common sense’ not to wear a mask! Personally, I think the sooner we all wear masks in supermarkets and other large stores the better. And I would encourage all of the large stores to give away masks to all of their customers so that no one could have any excuse.
Today turned out to be a dismal day, weather-wise. It started off cloudy and Meg and I largely avoided the rain whilst we were in the park but started to get rained upon with slight smatters on the way home. However, the rain intensified for the rest of the day meaning that we could concentrate on ‘inside’ jobs (which turned out to be just as well). After we had returned home, I decided to contact British Airways (as their website had suggested) in order to speak to a customer services representative to attempt to get my vouchers turned back into the cash that they extracted from me months ago. Needless to say, my worst fears turned out to be justified. The recorded message on the suggested BA number indicated that owing to ‘unprecedented demand’ and in order to ‘protect their staff’ presumably from abuse, they would not even put you in a queueing system but asked you to call back later. As it happens, their call times are 8.00 am to 8.00 pm so I am currently ‘on hold’ at the moment as I type. I am not very hopeful but I did manage to get an email through to them which has acknowledged ‘automatically’ that has probably disappeared into a BA black hole as well. I can now report that I did manage to get through and speak to a BA staff member who told me that the contract was with Expedia and not with them and therefore I should try to claim from Expedia. Meanwhile, the Expedia website is telling me that flight+holiday trips are not refundable. Tomorrow, I shall have a go at contacting my credit card company who ought to be liable under the terms of Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. We shall see!
As it was a rainy afternoon, this was a good opportunity for me to look over an academic paper which I am reviewing for an academic colleague/friend. The paper was an interesting one and well-written so the task was not arduous as can be the case if the author happens to be a non-English writer first speaker. The author of this paper had written me an email saying he thought he knew me because he had bumped into me at a conference in South Africa. However, I was able to tell him that I actually attended a conference in which there were two instances of a Professor Mike Hart giving papers on widely different subjects – and I was the other one. You can imagine the confusion that caused.
The government, after much vacillation, are now going to announce a change in policy re. face masks – i.e. it is going to be obligatory to wear one as from Friday, 24th July. When the government was asked by the BBC’s NewsNight programme to supply a spokesperson from any government department to explain the decision (or rather the vacillation over the decision), quite mysteriously no spokesperson could happen to be found. So it looks as though the UK is going to follow 100 other countries in recommending the use of face masks. What is so significant about this is that the far eastern countries (South Korea, Vietnam) that have had experiences of other pandemics such as SARS and have made the use of face masks compulsory at an early stage have overcome the ravages of the virus more easily (and almost exactly the reverse is happening in the USA)
The other interesting statistic that is being aired this evening is that in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon’s approval rating is +60% whilst that of Boris Johnson is -39% – in other words, a 99% difference between the two. One the one hand, Nicola Sturgeon appears calm, competent and empathetic whilst Boris is bombastic and disorganised. Is it any wonder that support for Scottish Independence has now gone up to 53% – no doubt, voters thinking that if the Scots could handle as important a crisis as COVID-19 so much more competently then in England, then an independent Scotland is surely very viable!
Today started with a pleasant surprise – some of our closest friends who have been in ‘shielded’ lockdown for weeks but who we met in the park last week texted to ask if we would like to meet again in the park today. This we did with alacrity and it was particularly heartwarming to know that this type of meeting is not only pretty safe (we wear face masks as well just as a precaution) but also such a source of pleasure for all of us. So we all met for half an hour, a little earlier than usual, which was fine as we have commitments for the rest of the day. The weather. although cloudy, was kind to us as well and we were in no danger of being caught in a shower. We will probably repeat this about twice a week from now on and after July 31st/August 1st (the end of shielding for the ‘clinically extremely vulnerable‘) we can probably plan a joint day out to a National Trust or similar property. This is what the Government are saying about this should you be worried about the risks of infection:'The latest evidence shows that the chance of encountering Coronavirus in the community has continued to decline. Four weeks ago, around one person in 500 had the virus. Last week it was even lower with less than one in 1,700 people having the virus.'
This afternoon, Meg needed to go to Worcester Royal Infirmary for a routine eye-check after she a corneal transplant some 9 years ago (they told us). To be honest, Meg and I were a little apprehensive that car parking would be a nightmare (last time I went there for a checkup in took 1½ hours to get out of the car park) and there was always the Coronavirus regime within the hospital. As it happens, absolutely everything was plain sailing. For a start, car parking fees had been suspended and we managed to find a bay quite near to the Ophthalmology Unit. Also, they were only letting people in about 2 at a time so there was no sitting around in crowded waiting rooms. Meg was seen by a couple of nurses who took some questions as a history and then we saw the consultant himself who conducted further examinations using specialised equipment. As we had arrived early, we had a half an hour to wait but I shot off to the haematology department to have a blood test done (as my bowel cancer consultant had requested) and normally one is confronted with a room with about 20 people in it. Today, there was none so I sailed in and got the whole blood sample taken in about 2 minutes before I returned to the unit so that I could accompany Meg through the eye clinic procedures. Having been used to a teeming hospital (in which both Meg and I have been treated) it was somewhat surreal to be in the same surroundings but with hardly any other people around. All of the clinical staff were extremely friendly – perhaps they appreciated not being rushed off their feet which is the norm.
A Tory MP representing a New Forest (Hampshire)constituency is tonight venting his outrage at having to wear a face mask in 9-10 days time. But my impression is from the various clips of vox pop shown on the news channels is that most people are not unhappy about the change in policy and it may yet encourage more people to venture out into the community. It will be quite interesting to see (in a day or so?) what the general public feel about the new regulation, given that we are gradually falling into line behind 120 other countries who wear a face mask with no qualms!
Medical scientists are modelling the chances of a second wave of the coronavirus and believe that up to 120,000 people could lose their lives (the current total in this first phase is 45,000). Of eight respiratory virus pandemics since the 19th century, five have had two or more waves which usually happen in colder months regardless of when the first outbreak occurs. So it looks as though we must all hope for the best (but prepare for the worst). It seems to be a good idea to get a flu jab as soon as they become available in September so as not to be hit by two viruses at once.
This was another dismal day- and just when we thought the weather was going to get a bit better as well. Meg and I endured a slight drizzle as we sat in the park drinking our coffee but the drizzle was not sufficiently serious to strike for home. We got into a conversation with an ex-teacher and her husband whose labrador-like dog was on its first trip out after a serious leg operation. I mused that when we had watched TV programmes featuring surgery on animals, then when the (typically) dogs had recovered from the amputation of a leg and the anaesthetic and were reunited with their owners they incredibly quickly adapted to their new status and were not thinking to themselves ‘I am a disabled dog’ Instead, they just got on with it and adapted to their new circumstances. I wondered if there were any lessons from this we could learn – but of course, we have a much longer memory span than dogs (I suppose).
Having allowed myself to read a feature in The Times on face masks, a particular firm was mentioned which sold high-quality cotton or cotton/silk face masks. To cut a long story short, I decided to buy two good quality face masks for Meg and myself that were both washable, comfortable and also had the facility to incorporate a filter. Although I have a good supply of temporary face-masks, I thought I would reserve these for the occasions when I shoot into my local newspaper shop, gather up the newspapers, hand over the tokens and get back outside again – a process I can generally achieve in about 30 seconds. Of course, it will be compulsory to wear a mask in about 9 days time in any case. But now we have settled down into our new regime of ordering online from Waitrose but the higher quality masks will be reserved for those occasions when we may be having extended conversations with people or else are having a longer shopping experience than 30 seconds. We are now well into the system of having about two or three orders at weekly intervals stretching out into the distance (to secure one’s slot) but we have also to remember that about the day before the order is delivered, it needs to be amended with what one actually needs for the week ahead (rather than having filled up the shopping trolley from an ex-order some weeks back).
There were then three outdoor tasks I had set myself. The first of these was to follow the advice that I had read on the web and ensure that whatever mulch one puts around a newly planted tree, the recommendation is not to form a ‘volcano’ (which I had) but to spread the mulch around over a radius of about two metres because this would be more beneficial to the roots in the long run, particularly by ensuring they were starved not of oxygen. The next task was to pull some sticks of rhubarb which was very easy (and our plant is doing reasonably well this year and not tunning to seed which it often does) The third task was to ‘take out the dustbins’ which entails dragging the relevant bins along our access rods to a point at which they can be more easily accessed by the refuse collection vehicles (one of the downsides of living on a private road is that the local authority has a policy that local householders have to be responsible to dragging their own bins to an access point) Needless to say, each of my outdoor activities was closely monitored and supervised by Miggles, the cat who has adopted us.
There have been two really interesting political developments this evening. The first of these is that the Boris Johnson nominee to head the influential House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee has been rejected. Johnson has nominated Chris Grayling to the committee expecting he could be elected Chairman, However, not for nothing is Grayling known to fellow MP's as 'failing Grayling' that they rejected him and elected another Conservative, Julian Lewis in his stead (who had nominated himself and got the agreement of the Opposition MP's to back him) Grayling's record of incompetence is legendary and I quote from The Guardian to be published tomorrow:'He presided over the collapse of Northern and Thameslink rail services and the granting of a no-deal Brexit ferry contract to a company with no ships. As justice secretary, he part-privatised the probation service and banned prisoners from receiving books from relatives, a measure that was overturned in the courts.' (The privatised probation service was such a disaster that even a Tory government had to bring it back into public ownership as the firm contracted it to run made such an abysmal mess of it) Downing Street has reacted by withdrawing the Conservative whip from Julian Lewis i.e. throwing him out of the party. The second development is that the important report which indicates that the Government should take immediate steps to make sure that we do not have 120,000 deaths in the second wave of the Coronavirus had not even been read by Boris Johnson - he revealed in Prime Minister's Questions only that he was 'aware' of it. One can not really believe this level of incompetence in a Prime Minister - but the electorate voted for him and gave him an 80 seat majority!
Today was an interesting day for us in the park. We struck up a conversation with a couple of locals who lived on the far side of the park but were very knowledgable about the various plans that were being put forward in the locality and we suspected that absolutely none of them could hope to come to fruition if the developers only wanted to build houses but the existing road infrastructure would not bear the weight of the extra traffic. We calculated that of the suggested 500 new houses with 2.5 cars per household (Mum, Dad and teenage children so eventually 2.5 cars) they would stretch for 2.5 miles which is approximately all the way down into Bromsgrove and back again if the cars were actually bumper-to-bumper. If the proposed developments were to take place under the government’s policy of ‘presumed consent’ then it would be the first new development in a town where nobody would go anywhere because the roads would be so clogged up! The developers and the County Council are of the view that many people would walk anyway (presumably on the grounds that gridlock would mean that was the only way to get into the town centre). What is desperately needed is, in effect, a Western bypass but the county council will not even fund a feasibility study for that because it knows what the answer would be (absolutely necessary and therefore undesirable because it would draw funds away from the rest of Worcestershire) The joys of local planning -we speak as one who has won three planning appeals against the destruction of a local orchard adjacent to the house to be replaced by 16 houses but lost on the final planning application (as the developer can keep on submitting for evermore until they are successful and can appeal against a decision but local residents cannot)
This afternoon I had decided if the weather was fair (which it was), that I would pick over my gooseberry bushes which I planted about three years ago. I had noticed that although the leaves had dropped off the bushes (in response to the absence of rain?), the fruit was still hanging intact. I picked 800 grams of berries which is about 1.75lb of fruit. This was sufficient for us to have a delicious meal of them stewed and then served with ice cream but the rest will be despatched to my sister in Yorkshire who, I hope, can turn them into jam for us which we can collect the next time we see her. This having been done, I then turned my attention to my neighbour’s hosepipe where I was attempting to turn two lengths into one. She had an assortment of fittings but even though they were Hozelock they all seemed to leak like mad. Eventually, I was forced into the situation where I had to get a half-inch ‘female’ hosepipe onto the conventional ‘male’ part of the fittings (yes- they do call them that) which took for a lot of manipulation of the female end to make it pliable and a lot of brute force and ignorance to get the male connector to fit. This is what we used to do in the days before Hozelock fittings became standard and I recall the struggles that I have had in the past.
It looks as though there are two big political stories in town tonight. The first of these is that it looks as though there is a split between the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Adviser over whether it is sensible or not to resume working in one’s normal workplace or at home. One has seen the tensions apparent for a week or so now but the divergences in approach are now much more transparent. One report is that the experts recommended a full lockdown at least one full week before it actually occurred (a week is a long time when the infection rate is doubling every three days). It looks as though the politicians and the scientists know that in a forthcoming public enquiry, it is evident that mistakes were made and they are trying to blame the other party first. The second issue is the fact that the Russians may well have interfered in our last general election (as they probably did in the US Presidential election also) and this issue is being conflated (to muddy the waters deliberately?) with a suggestion that the Russians may be trying to ‘acquire’ i.e. steal our corona vaccine research. The government knows that the ‘Russian dossier’ will be published next week and parts of this will make uncomfortable reading for them so releasing reports about Russian interference with the ‘body politic’ in the UK is probably a diversionary tactic on their part. Then, of course, there is the effect of the Russian state in promoting Brexit and undermining the strength of the EU by helping to break it up but this has not really hit the public consciousness yet!
When I used to trek up and down our High Street in Bromsgrove, I occasionally used to see sets of pottery (such as half a dozen plates or saucers) being sold off at ridiculously cheap prices and I tended to purchase them, if they were of a pleasant design, for use as saucers to put under indoor plants. I had, in the past, purchased a set of six small bowls and in fact use one of them every day to give breakfast to Miggles, the cat who has adopted us. Today, just out of interest, I turned to see who was the manufacturer and it was Grindley’s, a well-known potteries firm whose vintage pottery is still in demand. So as my curiosity was now aroused, I hunted around on the eBay websites and discovered that the design I had in my possession was called ‘Tudor Rose‘ and although not what you would call valuable, individual items seem to sell for about £3-£5 so there must be some kind of market for people who either collect them or want to replace some missing items. The next dinner party to which we are invited I shall try and weave into the conversation ‘Evidently we only use our Grindley’s ‘Tudor Rose’ ware to feed our cat‘ which sounds like a line out of Jane Austen.
Today in the park we had an assignation to meet some of our oldest Waitrose friends but first had to buy our newspapers and then make a trip to the Post Office (in W H Smiths currently) in order to post a parcel off to my sister. That having been done, we met our friends on the way to the park and proceeded to our normal park bench only for a local authority worker to come along with a portable, petrol-driven strimmer with which he proceeded to cut off the lower branches of the willow immediately beside us. As we now could scarcely hear ourselves think let alone talk, we had to grab and bits or pieces and make for the safety of an alternative bench where we were now out of earshot of the offending machine.
Lunch was an interesting affair – I had previously bought from Iceland a packet of frozen unspecified ‘white fish’ that turned out to be pollock. If you look on the web, you will find that pollock has the reputation of being a good looking but incredibly tasteless fish. I got around this by making a little concoction of my own which a spoonful of seafood sauce (a la Waitrose) a spoonful of garlic mayonnaise, a splodge of tomato ketchup and a dollop of 1000 Island dressing. This was then all mixed up and given a quick whizz in the microwave and it made an incredibly tasty dish as it turned out. As the potatoes had in my store jar were starting to sprout, I picked out some which I then cubed into very small pieces prior to boiling them and then added to them a raw egg, some butter, some whole milk and some grated cheese which I then mashed together to gave a kind of enhanced mashed potato. I only mention all of this to show that if you start off with some fairly pedestrian ingredients, you can actually turn them into quite a good meal using a little imagination and enterprise.
After lunch, it was time to give the lawns their 7-10 day mowing and they really seemed to need it this time – the combination of a lot of humid weather must have really made the grass grow quite rapidly. Whilst on a gardening theme, I was circulated the other day by a firm from whom I had evidently bought stuff in the past who were selling off a lot of their summer stock at massively reduced prices (they claimed £65 worth of stuff for a fiver) Anyway I succumbed and should be soon be getting 12 dahlia tubers, 100 gladioli corms and 25 oriental lilies which might collectively make for quite an interesting display even if we just put them into pots and distribute them around as ways of brightening up a few borders.
Yesterday was a beautiful and fine day and one in which it was a real pleasure to meet with our long-standing friends in the park. By all accounts, tomorrow is meant to be the same kind of weather, with fine weather projected over most of the country. But today was very much the day in between – it has been a cloudy, humid and glowering kind of day which has really been quite oppressive and quite unpleasant all day long. So it was not really the kind of day in which one could do anything much, so I indulged myself in a really good read of The Times the weekend supplement of which was actually quite interesting for a change (for example, the foodstuffs to eat to keep you healthy in the long run – it was no surprise that broccoli makes it into the list once again, justifying its position as a superfood. Try putting ‘Broccoli: Super Food’ into a search engine such as Google to see what I mean). Just to compound the type of rotten day that today has proved to be, the bad weather in Manchester meant that there was no play in the England v. West Indies Test Match in which a potentially match-winning position that England is in (which would level the series) is put at risk since a whole day’s play has been lost.
Today is the day when our Waitrose order is delivered, quite late in the day but at least it arrived in the allocated time slot (unlike last week where it was much delayed) I always amaze myself that one can spend such an amount on shopping only to see it all disappear into store cupboards and you seem to have nothing to show for it (although we did avail ourselves of spending some money on cosmetics which would normally have been bought in a different type of store) Earlier in the day, my sister had texted me with the excellent news that not only had my package of gooseberries been successfully delivered to Yorkshire (it was only posted yesterday) but she had already turned it into three jars of jam. Rather than posting a jar down to us, we resolved that it could wait until the next time we visit Yorkshire so that will be quite a treat then. We had been in some doubt as to what is the best occasion to see relatives both in North Wales and also in Yorkshire in view of the uncertainties generated by the coronavirus. We have a tentative plan which is to wait until the 1st August deadline has well and truly passed and then go off to North Wales for a few days in the second week of August (assuming hotel booking’s can be made as normal) and then visit Yorkshire about two weeks after that, which would be the final week of August and will coincide with my sister’s birthday at the end of the month.
It looks as though the blame game for the coronavirus debacle has well and truly started. Well and truly in the firing line is the body called Public Health England where there is already a certain amount of dispute whether under the reforms instituted by Andrew Lansley (generally regarded as pretty disastrous) give the Secretary of State (for Health) to power to take direct control or whether the degree of autonomy they were granted meant that ministers lost the power to intervene and control that part of the NHS. In any case, it looks as though Public Health England (or PHE) which undoubtedly made some mistakes will now be the fall guy thus deflecting the blame away from the politicians who dithered and delayed by at least a week thus doubling the total number of deaths due to the virus. We are talking about an excess death toll due to the delay in the lockdown being of the order of 20,000 which is a truly staggering figure (equivalent to about 60 jumbo jets crashing with a total loss of life) The Sunday newspapers tomorrow will no doubt expose the divisions between the scientists and the politicians in forensic detail which I am sure will pass most of the population by (but which news junkies such as myself will surely lap up)
When I walked down to collect our Sunday newspapers this morning, it was a most delightful morning and the air was like champagne. It clouded over a bit later on but it was still a very pleasant day compared with Saturday. Meg and I had several extended conversations on our way down this morning. One of our oldest (and continental) friends had experienced the bereavement of her brother within the last fortnight so naturally, we talked things over and extended whatever sympathy we could – your natural inclination is to give people a big hug under these circumstances but obviously the coronavirus has paid to all of that. We had recently learned of the illness of the wife of my ex-colleagues with whom Meg and I have a particular fellow feeling as she was only a few years ahead of us in the Economics Faculty of the University of Manchester. This was housed in a magnificent set of houses known collectively as Dover Street and it was most famous as the home of Engels who wrote the extremely influential 'Condition of the Working Class in England' which later proved to be a profound influence upon the work of Karl Marx. Other famous alumni of Dover Street had been Elizabeth Gaskell (the novelist after whom a teacher training college was named in Manchester and which provided my first professional employment) and Sir Frank Worrell (the West Indian cricket captain and Meg knew his daughters and had met Sir Frank and his wife as a result) So, a strangely inter-connected world. Then on the way home, we had another extended chat with some of our gardening friends that we meet regularly. The net result of all of these wonderful conversations was that we were too late for a conventional Sunday lunch but what we had in mind could keep so we rustled up a quiche-type lunch that we could prepare quite quickly. We had an enjoyable afternoon lazing around in the garden (joined, naturally, by Miggles the cat) and I put the finishing touches to a horseshoe which I was reconditioning and then made a present of to my daughter-in-law to celebrate a promotion at work and to bring her good fortune in her new role. After the rust had been well and truly removed (my white vinegar trick) it got a polish up using some stainless steel cleaner I had added onto my Waitrose order and a final polishing and conditioning with WD40 to prevent further rust (although I could have used a very thin smear of coconut oil which is also a good rust preventative)
This week is going to be quite a busy week for us in comparison with the comparative lull of the last few weeks. We need to get up-to-date on appointments that have been let lapse such as optician and dental hygienist appointments, for which no doubt there will be huge waiting lists. On Wednesday, our hairdresser will be arriving complete with a set of sheep-shearing shears which she will undoubtedly need at this stage in the proceedings. Later on in the same day, we are are also going to have a visit from our chiropodist. On Thursday, we have made a booking to visit a nearby National Trust property (Hanbury Hall) and again, although we cannot visit the house itself, there are extensive gardens and walks for us to enjoy, We have already made our booking (free for National Trust members) so we are just hoping that the good weather holds out for us.
It looks as though one of the interesting political developments to look out for is for the coronavirus is hurting the ‘red wall’ seats that Boris Johnson’s Tory party took away from Labour in the 2019 election. The North East is projected to be one of the worst-hit regions and they already contain a high proportion of vulnerable local authorities (nearly half compared with 23% across the UK as. whole) It seems that the ‘red wall’ seats could see a 12% permanent output loss against. 5% contraction for the South East. Plus ça change!
Some of our not very immediate neighbours were having renovations to their communal driveway done which meant that some cars spilled out and were parked on our private roadway. As we need to keep access clear at all times for emergency vehicles, one of our immediate neighbours asked the relevant questions and we discovered who was parking in our roadway and why. This occasionally happens and there is generally an innocent explanation but it is not fully appreciated that we need to keep our roadway clear for emergency vehicles (such as ambulances) who have to have unimpeded access at all times (a fact not fully appreciated when other people think ‘Oh, I’ll just pop the car here for an hour or so’). Our near neighbour got the problem resolved but it would have been much better if we had been informed/consulted beforehand.
As you expect on a Monday morning, there seemed to quite a lot of ad-hoc groupings at various places in the park. Evidently, there is some degree of organisation to this as people tend to turn up at a particular time complete with portable chairs and then get round in a circle and get on with whatever they were meeting for in the first place. After lunch, I started to write an email to the wife of my ex-colleague but our peace and tranquillity were disturbed by a variety of vehicles (unconnected completely with the first set around the corner) who had come to undertake a garden makeover of one of our local residents and were using our access roads (without our permission) so that their vehicles could take away soil, deliver slabs and proceed to dump all kinds of materials directly onto the roadway and without the benefit of protective plastic or a tarmac. We were assured that they would completely clear up after themselves and jet the roadway clear to restore them to the state they were in before they started their work – needless to say they only did a rough sweep up and so my son and I were left to do a more complete sweep-up and had to ensure that the excess and other extraneous materials were cleared away. Needless to say, we hadn’t been informed that any of this was about to happen so we had to make our feelings absolutely clear that permissions needed to be sought and the site restored to the kind of condition it was in before they started their work. More is expected in the next day or so and therefore we are anticipating that the contractors/sub-contractors not employed by us have to be watched like a hawk and make good on their promises which were glibly given. Interesting that the French existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Satre used the expression ‘Hell is other people‘ although I think that the expression is often quoted in ways that Satre himself did not intend.
There is a lot of news in the bulletins tonight about the likely success of the vaccines that are being developed – and perhaps a lot of false optimism. It was only at the end of a news item that the correspondent let us know that many, if not the great majority, of potential vaccines, fail after having shown initial promise. It may well be that the press is desperate for a breaking ‘good news’story about a potentially successful vaccine for the coronavirus and all normal (and scientific) caution is abandoned. I think the best comment upon all of this came from the commentator Matthew Parris (ex-Tory MP, on the liberal wing of the party) who has indicated tonight that it is a bit like predicting the Grand National winner after a few successful fences have been jumped (and ignoring the majority of fences that lie ahead). We also learn that in the now infamous Downing Street press briefings, the UK’s chief nurse who was due to appear on the podium was immediately dropped from the panel when she replied that she would not give immediate support to the fact that Dominic Cummings (the PM’s ‘adviser’) appeared to have breached the lockdown rules with his well-publicised trip to his parents in Durham. This only reinforces the suspicion that many of us held at the time that the scientists that appeared on the podium during the press briefings were only used a prop to the politicians to give them a kind of legitimacy- but were immediately dropped when basic scientific integrity conflicted with the political message or ‘line’ that was being peddled at the time.
This turned out to be one of those vaguely frustrating days. Meg and I had determined that we would venture out onto the High Street to make an optician’s appointment for both of us at Boot’s opticians. When we got there the store was closed – some kind of annual holiday so we would have to wait until tomorrow. I thought we would walk up and down the High Street (Tuesday is a market day when stallholders sell their wares) to see if a little hardware man who sells bits and pieces was there today as I needed to buy a wire brush. Frustratingly, he wasn’t there so having got all masked up we de-masked ourselves at the end of the High Street and made off for the park (where all of our usual benches were occupied – it was that kind of day) So we drank our coffee, admired the local heron who has a club foot and the locals call ‘Henry’ and made for home, encountering none of our normal friends en route. As we were walking home, the weather clouded over and what started off as quite a pleasant day became cloudy and oppressive.
The principal news of the day was the publication of the Intelligence and Security Committee’s report into the amount of illegitimate Russian influence in some of the recent UK electoral processes. Astonishingly, it appears that the security questions did not ask itself any questions about the amount of Russian influence as it felt that this would drag it into the arena of party politics which it wanted to avoid. However, it now looks as though it is belatedly recognised that Russian influence had been at work in the Scottish referendum. Noting that the Russians had attempted to interfere (and may well have done ) in the last USA presidential election when Trump was elected, it was now recognised that the Russian state liked to dabble in any politics that would destabilise any countries in the West. There is absolutely no official information whether there was any Russian influence in the Brexit campaign. However, the report recognises that London is now the money-laundering capital of the world as the UK welcomes Russian money following the opening of a new visa route in 1994 for foreigners who invested in the county and that few questions, were asked, if any, about the provenance of this considerable (Russian) wealth as Russian oligarchs embedded themselves into many aspects of British society (football clubs etc.) Although no questions were asked of MI6 about the involvement of Russia in the Brexit campaign, it seems inconceivable that Putin would not have seized the opportunity to destabilise the UK (by it being involved in a massive internal debate for years), weaken the EU (by detaching one of its members), aid the break up of the UK (if Scotland then Northern Ireland eventually leave the UK) and, add a stroke, greatly reduce any influence that the UK might have in the world (losing its place on the UK security council, for example). It is all a bit reminiscent of Horatio Nelson putting the telescope to his blind eye and saying ‘I see no flag’ so that he could countermand orders.
Under these circumstances, one has to turn to sources other than the British media which is now so supine. If you were to turn to the Huffington Post (independent of the Murdoch empire) you would read the following:
But there is also a lot we didn’t learn. Including footnotes, there are a grand total of 175 redactions in the report, indicated simply by three asterisks. Of course, there is one inference we can make about all of them – they’re redacted because they’re super juicy and top-secret.
The phrase that is being most commonly deployed is that our security services ‘took their eye off the ball‘. To the parliamentary committee that is meant to oversee their activities, the security services provided only six lines of written comment. By way of contrast, the American authorities treated allegations of Russian interference much more seriously. And a very detailed analysis of the 2016 presidential campaign by Kathleen Hall Jamieson has concluded ‘How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump’ Her meticulous analysis of online activity during the 2016 campaign makes a powerful case that targeted cyberattacks by hackers and trolls were decisive. In the case of our own Brexit campaign, it seems equally likely that Russian money and Russian cyberspace attacks helped to change the national mood (and you would only have to influence two people in a hundred – one person in 50) to reverse the result…
We thought today was going to be quite a busy day and so it proved. We knew that we were going to meet our long-established Waitrose friends in the park at 10.30 am so we started off our walk 5 minutes earlier to ensure we had time to pick up our newspapers and to rendezvous at the correct time. Then after we met we chatted and chatted – it was incredible that we spent nearly an hour in each other’s company before we both realised that the day was slipping away and we both had other commitments to which we needed to attend. Our friends have been in the ‘strong’ form of shielding and so are particularly looking forward to 1st August, a week on Saturday when they can be legally ‘released’ and spend some time on trips out in the car. The week after that we may well form a four-some to visit a National Trust property together. We knew that we had to get home and have a prompt lunch because we had two commitments this afternoon, the first being a visit from our chiropodist at 2.00 pm and the second a long-awaited visit from our hairdresser at 4.00 pm. In the event, our chiropodist failed to arrive and after a quick text, we discovered that our due date was Friday, not Wednesday, so your’s truly must have made a mistake when it was entered up onto the planning board which is a family feature. My son and daughter-in-law left at 7.00 am to get to the South Coast where they were going to enjoy a few day’s respite in a hotel they had chosen. We got a text from them to indicate they had arrived safely which is always reassuring. The haircut was quite a long experience. Meg was having a perm done which always takes about two hours and I get fitted in during some of the breaks that occur when the setting solution is doing its work. Our hairdresser arrived all visored up and, naturally, she had been incredibly busy since the lockdown restrictions were being eased. She told me that if you go onto the Government website, then most of the popular trades have specialist pages indicating exactly what precautions had to be taken and how interactions with clients were to be handled in this transitional phase. We also received some useful tips about the best/cheapest kind of visors to buy which was useful information. Our hairdresser was wearing a type of model which attaches to a type of pseudo-glasses frame which I would never have thought of for looking for – it is always useful to get advice from those who have tried out and tested these kinds of things, particularly as they are not bought every day. They may be less trouble to put on when entering shops than manipulating a face mask over the ears (particularly if you have ear-rings and glasses to circumnavigate at the same time). In the late afternoon, we saw our adopted cat, Miggles, sauntering across our garden grass with something in her mouth (a mouse? bird?) I was mildly disappointed that the cat did not bring it for me to peruse for me delectation (the family cat we had as a child used to love bringing a half-dead mouse into the house for us to witness – and she would then proceed to ‘play’ with it until it was absolutely dead after which time she lost interest in it).
I tend to turn to Huffington Post for interesting angles on the political news that is not covered in the UK Main Street Media. This sequel to yesterday’s news on the potential impact of Russian cyber activity is particularly interesting…They report that ‘the aggressive use of Twitter bots, coupled with the fragmentation of social media and the role of sentiment, could contribute to the vote outcomes’ Tho Pham, one of the paper’s authors, told the Times that 'the main conclusion is that bots were used on purpose and had influence'. The Times had revealed that Russian Twitter accounts – many of which are believed to be bots – had posted more than 45,000 messages in 48 hours during the EU referendum.
This whole area has remained unexplored since the result of the 2016 referendum was announced. There is an argument, not much heard nowadays, that the overspend by the Leave campaign plus the influence of the social media as reported above were grounds enough for the whole referendum result to be declared ‘unsound’ Other countries. more used to referenda as a way of answering constitutional questions appreciated that a narrow majority was not good grounds for making profound constitutional changes (which Brexit undoubtedly was) and required a majority of 60% for a result to be valid. Our own House of Lords even passed an amendment requiring that a result of a referendum is only valid when a 40% of those entitled to vote threshold is reached. In the 2016 referendum 52% of 72% who voted is 37.4%. The House of Lords amendment was overturned, though, in the Commons and the rest is history!
Today at long last we managed to venture forth into Bromsgrove High Street in order to make an appointment for both of us to have regular eye-tests at Boots Opticians. There we were greeted by the manager who has grown to know us over the years with the news that it was very difficult, if not impossible, to make an appointment at this time. Any issue that required urgent, quasi-medical attention, could be dealt with in-branch but in the meanwhile, the branch had to wait for the operation of national guidelines, presumably issued by Boots HQ because the number of tests would now be severely time-constrained (only one third to a half of their normal daily throughput) and of course there were disinfection and deep-clean procedures to be organised after each client. So to cut a long story short, we may be on a list but it is a case of ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you‘ The situation with visits to one’s dentist are probably even worse and one wonders whether it will take a year (or even longer) for backlogs to work their way through the system.
Having got home, we organised a fairly prompt lunch for ourselves because this afternoon we had a booked visit to Hanbury Hall, which is a William and Mary house (although actually built in the reign of Queen Anne) near Droitwich and not many miles distant. As with other National Trust properties, the house itself was still out-of-bounds for visitors but one could walk around and admire both the formal gardens and the surrounding parkland. We made for the Stable Block where we joined a socially distanced queue to buy some refreshments to go with the flask of coffee we had brought with us. Unfortunately, there was a very slight drizzle and low cloud hanging over everywhere so we ate our food/drank our coffee in not very pleasant conditions and then made the best of a bad job and after a brief tour of the gardens decided to call it a day and started for home (Naturally by this time the rain had ceased) The proportions of the house looked magnificent and it will be interesting for us to tour the actual house when it is open again to visitors.
Tonight was the second episode of Jane Austen’s Emma (a book I studied for ‘O’-level) I only mention this because I remember once seeing a hilarious book called ‘The Unexpurgated Jane Austen‘ in a Winchester bookshop (Jane Austen has a memorial to her in Winchester Cathedral) The whole book is evidently a spoof, perhaps written by a postgraduate but very much in the Jane Austen style. Browsing through it, I can only remember one particular fragment of it which was Jane Austen in conversation with her publisher. The dialogue went something like this ‘Your writing is very promising, Miss Austen, but we must get rid all of this gratuitous swearing and foul language you throughout your work. One cannot say, for example, that f*****g Mr. Wickham‘ (I have substituted asterisks for the sake of decency but the book contained the unexpurgated adjectives)
One of the political stories this evening is the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee condemning the lack of preparedness by the government for the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, they condemn the fact that there appeared to be no planning for job losses or school closures. The report is also scathing about the failure to obtain PPE equipment to protect front line staff. And it says despite warnings from medical chiefs in January, the Treasury waited until mid-March, days before the lockdown on 23 March, before deciding on economic support schemes. As from midnight, any member of the public entering a shop should be wearing a mask or face covering, by law. As a social experiment, it will be fascinating to see what the level of compliance will be – although surveys indicate that 2 out of 3 people back the new policy, what will be revealed about which shops and which sections of the population exhibit both the highest and the lowest degrees of compliance? There is also a report that the government want 50% of the population to receive a flu vaccination which shows the degree of official concern about what will happen when the ‘normal’ flu epidemic coincides with a second potential wave of COVID-19 in the forthcoming winter.
So a cloudy day to start off with but it brightened up as we started our walk down into town, where we were due to coincide with our Waitrose friends in the park. On our way, I encountered one of my Pilates class-mates and we exchanged notes as we are both due to start back on 1st September. She had been following some Pilates classes on Zoom (in common with many others these days) but she reckoned it wasn’t quite the same and she couldn’t wait to get back. I explained that our Pilates teacher when I had texted her when the lockdown was being slowly released had indicated that we would probably all have to bring along our own Pilates mats (which makes a lot of sense) On the strength of this, I had gone onto the internet and bought myself one so I will be ready for the off as soon as we get the word. After another pleasant hour with our friends, Meg and I got home and I immediately went off to collect a camping chair from Halfords ready for the days when we are going out on little expeditions like the other day. We already have a National Trust collapsible stool which is ultra-light and hangs over your arm or can be used a walking stick – we must have bought it at least 15-20 years ago but it hasn’t had a great deal of use. The idea is that when we next go on a trip and assuming that we will be roaming around parks and gardens rather than going around the stately home, at least we have some gear that we can transport around with us (including a small tarpaulin purchased for 99p a year or so ago which we can use to picnic upon) After lunch, our chiropodist called and Meg and I had our feet serviced (in the garden as the weather is fine) and then I started the weekly lawn mowing. I was just finishing the communal lawns at the front of the house when the Waitrose van arrived with our weekly order so this had to be seen to (putting frozen stuff away) before I completed the lawnmowing of our own lawns to the rear of the house. In the late afternoon, I went to water my Tilia Cordata which seems to have survived its yellowing leaves trauma as I now water it every day. I disturbed Miggles the cat who was stretched out on the forest bark beneath the tree – she then accompanied me around the garden as I filled up the watering can to water some of the plants that we have in pots which would not survive on the rainfall alone. I was accompanied (supervised?) as always after which the cat deigned to sit on my lap and fall asleep. She had previously tried to make me a present of a small bird but when she opened her mouth to say ‘Miaow’ the bird popped out of her mouth and fluttered away. Miggles didn’t bother to chase after it but merely came over to us to say ‘Hello‘ and then stretched out on the flagstones to fall asleep.
This evening what should have been a quietish night in front of the TV turned into one of those nightmare type repair jobs. We have a downstairs toilet which has a simple locking mechanism to prevent another person from entering the loo when it is already in use. But the locking mechanism had fallen to pieces and it seemed that a tiny little ‘grub’ screw had somehow got detached and was nowhere to be seen (I have a horrible suspicion it had probably been hoovered up and then thrown away) So I searched amongst a collection of screws I had inherited to find a replacement screw but all the woodscrews would not fit the bill. I eventually raided some old electrical spares for an engineering screw that then had to be cut to size as a substitute that just about worked – this took the best part of an evening to fix but at least it is now done.
It is the end of Boris Johnson’s first year as PM and for the first time, we have a sort of acknowledgement that ‘things could have been handled differently‘ There is still no acknowledgement of the fact that the lockdown came a week or so too late, thus costing about 20,000 lives. Instead, it is being claimed that the single thing that we didn’t see at the beginning was the extent to which coronavirus could be transmitted asymptomatically between people, meaning it had spread further than believed in the UK before the lockdown was imposed. But the blame game has started, history is being re-written and there is no acknowledgement that the whole crisis has not been handled well (compared with Scotland, for example).
According to the weather forecast, a heavy band of rain was due to sweep across the Midlands mid-morning and so it proved. We waited until this pulse of rain had passed overhead and done its worst before we set off on our daily walk and although the morning as a whole was still extremely cloudy, at least we didn’t get rained upon. As you might expect, there were very few people in the park today apart from a few intrepid dog-walkers but we did run into some of our oldest friends from down the road, with whom we exchanged a few stories and jokes. They were off on their daily walk as well but I imagine they are well used to the rain by now. Once in the park, I deployed our National Trust portable stool as a kind of mini-table. Why I hadn’t thought of doing this a long time ago, I will never know but it made life a lot simpler (as I have to juggle hat, rucksack, coffee flask, biscuit container etc.) Once we got home, avoiding any showers, we consumed our Saturday lunch-time treat (some really high-quality sausages from Waitrose) and then I set forth to our local garden centre in order to buy some bags of topsoil. I acquired 4 bags at the price of £3.99 each and, out of interest, I looked for the price of the same on the web where you would pay three times this price. (I remember being caught this way before when I ordered a bulk of forest bark from a local supplier only to discover I could have bought the same considerably cheaper and in easier to manipulate 80-litre sacks from my local Asda store) When the weather improves the £65.00 worth of bulbs I acquired for a fiver will be planted out in some rectangular plant pots of which I have a stock and then arrange them strategically around the patio area for a splash of late summer colour.
This afternoon my order for simple face visors arrived for both Meg and myself. These are very simple arrangements and come with several replacement face visors and cost only a few pounds each – they are as simple to don as would be a pair of glasses and will actually fit on over your own glasses. It is unclear whether these constitute ‘face coverings’ within the letter of the relevant law and their effectiveness is as yet, untested – however, one Swiss study found that the wearers of face visors in a Swiss hotel become infected whereas the wearers of face masks did not, Like many things in the current crisis, one has to use a certain amount of one’s own discretion in all of this.
The big political story tonight is the fact that the coronavirus seems to be rearing its head again in various parts of Spain and particularly around Barcelona. The British government has now changed its travel advice for visitors to Spain which means that returning holidaymakers returning from Spain will now have to self-isolate for 15 days. In an ironic twist, this might even apply to Grant Shaps, the transport minister, who is reportedly on holiday in Spain. This will be a massive blow to the Spanish tourist industry as I suspect, many people who had intended a quick holiday break in Spain (including ourselves) will now decide not to bother.
Today, various facilities such as swimming pools and gyms, are now free to offer their services to the public, all with suitable precautions. However, many local authorities are thinking twice about opening up their facilities at all. If the facilities had not been well maintained in the years of austerity, then it might not be economic to re-open them again if this entails considerable investment. So it looks as though a fair proportion of these facilities (a bit like restaurants on the high street) will never open again which has all kinds of implications e.g. for teaching young people how to swim which is a critical life skill upon which their life might depend at some time in the future. As with so many areas of social life, we will shortly discover how many local businesses and services have actually managed to survive.
Today was set fair with no particular rain forecast so we had a pleasant walk to the park. On our way home, we were recognised by one of our erstwhile friends from church who often used to sit in the pew behind us and chat when we attended the service every Saturday evening. Whilst we were deep in conversation catching up on all of our ‘lockdown’ news and experiences, we were joined by two of more regular friends so we had a very animated conversation between the five of us. We were given the news that services in the open air have re-commenced each Sunday morning at Harvington Hall, which is just a few miles down the road. Harvington Hall is not a National Trust or English Heritage House but is owned by the Catholic archdiocese of Birmingham, being one of the centres of medieval Catholicism in the Midlands and it boasts the finest collection of ‘priest hides’ (where Catholic priests used to minister to the local population but were successfully hidden in the house during the Reformation when they hunted by the authorities) So we are resolved to all go next Sunday as social distancing is quite easy in the open air and we hope to see many more of our acquaintances then, assuming of course that the heavens have not opened on us to dampen our ardour. Just after we got home, our son and daughter-in-law arrived back home from their stay in Dorset where they seemed to have a restful and interesting time away for the last few days. It is our daughter-in-law’s summer holidays but she still has a lot of school organisation and planning to do whilst our son is still carrying on working from home as he has done since the start of the lockdown.
The rest of the day was spent quite peacefully enjoying a Sunday lunch, reading the Sunday newspapers and looking forward to the summary of the latest cricket Test Match between England the West Indies broadcast at 7.00 pm each evening. I normally only glance at the business news in the Sunday newspapers but I did read an interesting analysis how the chain of Pret-a-Manger had really lost its way since it had passed from initial business to various hotel and restaurant chains who had then sold it onto private equity owners. The impact of the article was to argue that private equity owners are only interested in ‘sweating the assets’ and milking the last drop of business and this is one explanation why Pret-A-Manger and similar businesses eventually meet their demise. I also read with a great deal of interest the account by Tim Shipman, the principal political correspondent of the Sunday Timeswho always seems to be able to write some incredibly well-informed stories. This week he thought that privately No. 10 (Downing Street) is secretly fearing another Trump victory that might bind us into an incredibly unpopular ‘chlorinated chicken’ deal with the United States as well as being bounced into a much more hostile stance vis-a-vis China that might not be in the UK’s long term interests. (Just in passing, it seems incredible that in these days of Brexit negotiations we are falling out with the EU, the USA, Russia and ambiguous relationships with the US. Who are we going to trade with successfully, I ask myself?) Turning to HuffPost for some inside reporting of the current Brexit negotiations state of play, I read that a government analysis in November 2018 predicted that leaving without a trade deal would cause a 7.6% contraction in the economy, while leaving with an “average” free trade agreement would cause a 4.9% reduction in GDP, compared to the UK continuing as an EU member. There are already reports that the red tape businesses will need to navigate as a consequence of leaving the customs union could leave the UK with a £7bn bill. Of course, there is still room for a deal if there happens to be quite a lot of compromise on both sides but this might be one of those situations where the negotiations really do go to the wire i.e. not decided until hours of the final cut-off date/time. How much negotiation will go in August when most of continental holiday goes on holiday is hard to say so it makes September and October really critical months.
Today was a cloudy, wet and windy day and enough to make one thoroughly miserable – however, the longer-range weather forecast indicates that a high pressure in on its way so the weather should improve dramatically later on in the week. Before our daily walk to the park, we received a wonderful text from the relatives of our old friend, Clive, who sadly passed away a month or so back. They gave us details of where his ashes were to be buried in a local cemetery and as soon as the weather improves (in a day or so) we will make a little pilgrimage there and pay our last respects to him. In the meanwhile, Meg and I undertook our daily journey to collect our newspapers and have a wander in the park but today we were confined to the bandstand of which we were the only occupants. We espied one other dog walker and a lady in the far distance sporting an umbrella but that was the sole occupancy of the park this morning. For once, we were fairly pleased to get home this morning.
Most of the afternoon, I spent on technical work for this blog. The first and important task was to install a new plug-in which would act as a spam filter and so far it seems to have done its job most effectively. Then I installed another editor which allowed me to change the font of these posts to make it a bit larger and more readable to smaller devices than a computer. Although the various bits of advice available on the web gave me the option of tweaking the underlying CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) this did not achieve the desired effect so I ended up manually changing all of the 130 pages to the font and size that I wanted. As with all repetitive tasks, you get it down to seconds at a time once you get into the swing of things.
The government’s reaction to recent spikes of the coronavirus in Spain is receiving a lot of media attention. A very common view, if not a consensus, is that the government has panicked and adopted a blanket policy of asking everybody who has holidayed in Spain to self-quarantine for 14 days upon their return. Luckless individuals are having to hope that their employers are ‘sympathetic’ to the necessity to quarantine but whether this run to paying two weeks of wages is another matter. I have a completely untested theory that the government is secretly worried about hundreds? thousands? of Brits getting abroad and as they are on holiday they will do anything except socially distance, with the consequence that many Brits might actually infect each other irrespective of whatever country they happen to be in and then come home to infect the rest of the population. But notwithstanding all of this, I cannot personally see why the government’s newly imposed quarantine arrangements should not apply if you have been to the islands of Spain rather than the mainland – after all, I would suspect that, at a guess, the islands are responsible for half of the UK tourists and that would help to minimise any degrees of risk.
Lastly tonight, a COVID-19 item which comes under the heading ‘you couldn’t make it up if you tried‘ The government has awarded Serco a £45m contract for test-and-trace – it has subsequently emerged that Serco has outsourced this to 29 other companies and that 85% of those recruited to run this service are not employed directly by Serco. We have been here before and it appears that the government does not appear to have learned any lessons from Carillion’s collapse and other privatisation failures, where outsourcing companies subcontracted the majority of work. This means that accountability for the new contract has practically sunk without trace and is another pure example of the ways in which contracts are being handed out to private sector companies whose experience in this field is extremely limited rather than resources being given to the local authority health teams who know the techniques for dealing with infectious disease and whose track record is markedly better.
Today was a much finer day than yesterday and although a trifle windy, so much more of a pleasant day for our daily walk to the park. There we met some of our old Waitrose friends by prior arrangement and spent a pleasant half-hour or so, mainly talking about cooking (about which I needed some advice from a much better cook). After they had left us, we got into a conversation with another couple of regular bench-occupiers talking about the ways in dogs (and cats) can occasionally dominate the house and make it their own (This is only theoretically true of Miggles, our adopted cat, as we never allow her into the house and, in truth, she is much more of an outdoor rather than than a lying-by-the-kitchen-hearth type of animal).
I have been trying to get my head around the exact causes of dispute between the UK and Spain over the application of quarantine regulations for travellers arriving (or arriving back) into the UK from Spain. Often, though, the figures are not comparable but here are some data I have gleaned from various sources:
While the outbreak remains under control in many parts of Spain, certain areas – in particular Catalonia in the north-east, which includes the city Barcelona, and the neighbouring region of Aragón – have seen a huge spike in infections.
According to data from the Spanish government, as of Monday, the infection rates in the Balearic and Canary Islands were 9.22 and 7.06 per 100,000 respectively.
The same data showed infection rates in Catalonia, which includes Barcelona, was 132.4 per 100,000, and 28.21 in Madrid.
Latest seven-day rates: July 21-27 (per 100,000)
Austria 10.3. Belgium 19.0. Denmark 4.6. France 8.7. Germany 4.6. Italy 2.8. Netherlands 7.1. Portugal 14.9. Spain 29.7. UK. 15.0
[Latest coronavirus news as of 5 pm on 28 July]
Europe is starting to see signs of a second wave, says UK prime minister
UK prime minister Boris Johnson today said Europe is starting to see signs of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. He said it is vital that people quarantine themselves when returning to the UK from places abroad where there are outbreaks. Johnson mentioned the government’s recent reintroduction of a 14-day quarantine requirement for travellers returning from Spain, and added: “We will continue, throughout the summer, to take such action where it is necessary.” Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez described the UK’s new rules and recommendations as “unjust” arguing that in most parts of Spain the prevalence of Covid-19 is lower than in the UK. Some parts of Spain, including the regions of Catalonia and Aragón, have seen a large uptick in infections recently. The rate of infection in Spain as a whole is 47.2 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 15 in the UK, according to the latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Today was a somewhat cloudy and blustery sort of day but with enough sunshine to make our walk pleasant and with the promise of more sunshine to come (although it did not quite materialise) We are hopeful of better weather tomorrow because we are hoping that some friends may be able to call around so that we can have a pleasant afternoon tea in the garden. We have been waiting for some better weather for some time now before we could have friends around but we need to make sure that we have a few sunny days in a row to ensure that we do not get rained off. In the late morning, we discovered that we appear to have an infestation of a wasp’s nest in the eaves of one of our dormer windows. As it happens, our next-door neighbour has just had to deal with a similar infestation and had negotiated a good price with a local company. So we got onto them and arranged for a visit sometime tomorrow. As this has happened a few years ago we know what to expect. An industrial strength pesticide will be inserted by a long lance into the wasp nest site and then they receive a blast which should put paid to them. Most of these firms work in the same way because the infestation might not be completely killed off (the oldest die but the younger and fitter ones survive – sounds familiar from somewhere) Generally the firm will come back within the quoted price to finish off the job if all is not clear after a fortnight. So we shall await our phone call tomorrow and see what happens.
There are a few interesting political stories that are springing to the fore this evening. One of these, as reported by Sky News, is that No. 10 (Downing Street) is looking for a new spokesperson to smash the system of the lobby (a cabal-type group of accredited journalists who get privileged information on the condition that they do not disclose the exact source) The Sky News ‘take’ on this is that for a salary in excess of £100k the appointed figure will soon become a controversial and much-lampooned figure. If we look over the pond to see the variety of Press spokesman deployed by President Trump, they invariably leave because they find the demands of defending the indefensible, or the quasi-lying that they have to undertake quickly proves too much for them – unless they are already an outstanding political journalist, which is very unlikely. It goes without saying that they would have to be an ardent Brexiteer!
The second story is that a local council (Sandwell in the West Midlands) has got such little faith in the central government’s test-and-trace regime that they are actually setting up their own, independent of the centre. One has to say that at the very least, they will ‘know their own patch’; and will also have access to the prominent languages (other than English) which are present in the area. I would imagine that they can only be more successful than the Serco, sub-contracted, call-centre staffed outfits can possibly hope to be.
The third story is one that I heard on Radio 4 this morning – it was an interview with the European director of the World Health Organisation who was arguing, along with many others, that we are not so much dealing with a second wave of the pandemic as the dying members of the first wave, only to be predicted when the lockdown is eased. The analogy that I have in my mind is that once a major forest fire is brought under control, there are always a lot of little ‘brush fires’ along the perimeters of the original conflagration that have to be dealt with. Such is what I think we are actually seeing.
BBC2’s NewsNight this evening conducted an interesting investigation looking at how scientific advice had been used to justify policy in dealing with the pandemic. But nowhere could they find any evidence that the public would not tolerate a long lockdown and therefore it was prudent to delay the start of lockdown for as long as possible. It looks as though politicians and scientists had a ‘groupthink’ about how long a lockdown would be politically possible and ascribed this view to behavioural science – they then claimed to be ‘following the science’ for what was essentially a political judgement. We have been here before – one is reminded how elderly men in mediaeval times would minutely the bodies of typically young virginal women who had been accused of witchcraft for any warts or skin imperfections and then use these as ‘evidence’ that that was how the devil had entered the bodies of the young women thus providing the source of their witchcraft. You can always find what you are looking for if you have the right mindset!
A good fine day, today, as befits late July and there are promises that tomorrow may well be the hottest day of the summer. We had hoped that some of our friends might join us for tea in the garden late on in the afternoon but as it turned out they were both busy with other domestic commitments. As we were due to have a pest control firm to deal with our wasp’s nest we were felt that all had probably turned out for the best. In the morning before our walk, I busied myself getting the Waitrose order updated ready for delivery first thing in the morning. In order to do this, I have to mentally walk around the supermarket I used to frequent before the lockdown and then update my list accordingly. The Waitrose pattern involves selecting a slot done 12-14 days ahead, populating a shopping basket with a previous order and then updating it the day before it is due to be delivered. This might sound a little quirky but it seems to be the way that the regular customers get the best out of the system. After this, Meg and I enjoyed our normal walk to the park, only a little disconcerted that we met none of our usual friends and acquaintances for a chat. Once we got home. we acted on a text I had received from my Pilates teacher for classes to resume on 1st September. I was fortunate, I feel, to be one of the four enrolled in the face-to-face class (there were previously eight in our class) and the rest of the class will participate with us doing the exercises but via Zoom. How this is going to work, we shall have to wait and see – I had already taken the precaution of buying my own Pilates mat to take along with me.
It is that time, which comes round every three years when we are due to change our car. To be honest, we are not great car-enthusiasts, only wanting something that is ultra-reliable, gives us enough space for shopping and suitcases when we go on holiday (what is that?) and is easy to park. We are going to go for a Honda again as we have been more than satisfied with the Honda we have had for the last three years but we are going to go for a slightly different model because I particularly want a manual gearbox. I need to explain that I have never driven an automatic in my life and I do not intend to start now. Anyway, we have made an appointment for a test drive and have made an appointment to see one next Wednesday, so we will have to wait and see. We do not anticipate that we need to change until November (our changeover date) so we are getting things organised now in case we have to wait for our preferred colour which is sometimes the case. Enough of cars – except the YouTube reviews make them all sound wonderful but I am sure that there must be some quirks that are not to one’s liking.
In the late afternoon, our pest control man came round and did his stuff as we expected. This basically means that some extra strength powder is squirted from the end of a long lance into the wasp’s nest and the worker wasps get asphyxiated and then basically die as they do not want to enter the nest and so there is no work for them to do (so it was explained to us) If all is not well at the end of a week, then the firm will come to give a final fatal ‘puff’.
Boris Johnson had previously intimated that there 30 areas in the country where the virus was ‘bubbling up’. Tonight we learn that the whole of Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and some parts of West Yorkshire are in a semi-lockdown – people are being forbidden to meet in groups in each other’s houses. Whether this applies to parks and other open spaces, is uncertain. These measures are designed to combat a sudden rise to 846 new cases (the highest total for a month) and a sure sign that the virus is still out there in the community but I am sure the vast majority of the population will be confused by the absence of any particularly clear message or guidance this evening.
And so for the hottest day of the year – it was certainly very warm as we strolled down to the park this morning but gradually got more glowering, overcast and humid as the day progressed (a thunderstorm would have been excellent but one was forecast only in the East). We always like to engage people in conversation in the park. not least the local authority workers who have to maintain it. Today, one of these workers had the unenviable job of emptying all of the ‘parcels’ of dog excrement that are put in special bins throughout the park. Notwithstanding all of this, we mutually sympathised with each about the trio of noisy teenagers who occupied a park bench and played execrable music at maximum volume before becoming bored and wandering off. We eventually got into a conversation about ‘Henry’ our resident heron with a club foot who still manages to sustain himself with presumably some kind of small fish who populate the pond and then we roamed over the kinds of animals we had all kept in our youth (this ranged from hamsters to rabbits to pigeons to ferrets) Without romanticising these categories of workers, I have often wondered how many people pass them by without a word of appreciation of how hard they work to keep the park pristine for us to enjoy.
As it was a Friday, it was ‘lawn mowing’ day and although I have a break in between the public communal areas (twice as large as our own formal garden) and our own formal garden, the humidity made the task not particularly pleasant. However, I did ensure that critical trees, plants and tubs received a good ration of water both first thing in the morning and also later on in the evening. I also had a chance to inspect some of the cuttings I had been trying to root and about 50% of them seem to have put down roots but I cannot necessarily identify what these cuttings are from (as I collected them from a walk down to Bromsgrove one Sunday morning some weeks ago) I was also pleasantly surprised to see that although my plum trees seem to have failed to produce any plums this year (unlike last year), the very aged damson trees at the end of the garden seem to be laden and producing fruit about a month earlier than they should. I am resisting the temptation to pick all of the fruit now but need to keep a careful eye on it so that it doesn’t get shed in any violent thunderstorms that might occur later in the year. The damsons get immediately processed and made into damson gin and then distributed to friends, families and anyone else I can think of!
The latest news on the ‘pause’ of the easing of the lockdown is disturbing, to put it mildly. As England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, speaking at the prime minister’s briefing on Friday, warned the data showed ‘we have probably reached near the limit or the limits of what we can do in terms of opening up society‘.He said it could mean ‘if we wish to do more things in the future, we may have to do less of some other things…The idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong‘. Well, it could hardly be clearer than that. It is also interesting to note that other councils are considering following the lead of Sandwell and are considering introducing their own ‘trace-and-test’ regime because the service provided by Serco (the national scheme) clearly does not fit their needs and they have the best local knowledge (and the languages) to know what is going on in their own local areas.
Finally, a document released by Sage tonight is interesting (or frightening, depending upon your point of view). A document reveals that serious public disorder could “overwhelm all attempts” to control the coronavirus and “catastrophically” undermine the government’s recovery plans, scientists advising ministers have warned.
A paper written by a Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) sub-committee, and considered by SAGE itself on 2 July, said the current “volatile and highly complex situation” means Britain will face “grave challenges” in keeping public order during the COVID-19 pandemic. Any disorder could be “comparable or bigger in scale” than the 2011 London riots, the scientists warned, with military support likely to be required. And extreme right-wing groups are mobilising as never before. You read it here first!
It was a cooler and much more pleasant day today after the intense and humid heat of yesterday. I started off by getting my Waitrose order in place for about three weeks time and then Meg and I engaged in our traditional promenade. On our journey, we met up with an old Waitrose friend who we knew was going off to France with a lifelong friend and had just got back a few days ago. She seems to have a wonderful time there, so much so that she may be returning in a couple of weeks time or so. All the flights and airport arrangements seem to have gone exactly according to plan and she certainly looked fit and rested after her first vacation for some time. It makes us wonder when the rest of us might enjoy the same because with the recent upturn in the incidence of infection travelling almost anywhere looks somewhat problematic. Upon reading my emails in the morning, I learned that one of my former colleagues from the Univerity of Winchester had decided to take an early retirement one year early to provide employment for a younger colleague and had communicated her decision to the rest of the group of us who meet regularly (we call ourselves ‘The Old Fogies‘ but this name may change!) My previous colleagues and I all sent emails of congratulation and support along the lines of ‘better go now instead of being declared redundant‘ but evidently Winchester, in common with universities up and down the land, are feeling the immense financial pressure imposed by the pandemic and are having to cut their coat according to their cloth accordingly (this is the politest way of putting it but least said, soonest mended as my old mother used to say).
After lunch and a good pore over the Saturday newspapers, we went for a little toddle around the garden where I did some gentle pruning of the plants I have located on my ‘high’ plant holder outside my study window. The Alstroemeria purchased recently from Waitrose is in full bloom about which I am delighted – I am hopeful that keeping it and its neighbours well-tended, watered and fed will keep it that way for the rest of the summer.
There seems to be one story dominating the media at the moment but presented in various guises. This stage of handling the end to the lockdown has got to be handled with a sure and deft political touch, not to mention intelligence and a high degree of political skill. The issue highlighted by the scientists appears to be we are just about at the limit for what, as a society, we can afford to be ‘unlocked’ with the amount of virus certainly circulating in the community. There seem to be two factors at work here but this is somewhat speculative. The first is that the younger elements of the population out ‘socialising; either in or near pubs do not appear to be exhibiting anything like the required degree of social distancing (some of the scenes of youngsters in Soho, London and in Manchester have to be seen to be believed) A second factor is the fact that many people are now meeting up within each other’s houses and the fact that this weekend is the Muslim ‘Eid‘ (equivalent to Christmas Day) has come at an unfortunate time. The massive political dilemma for the government is this – if the advice of the scientists is to be followed and we are already at the limit of what is sensible given the amount of virus in the community, then does a straight political decision have to be taken along the lines of ‘Either get the children back in their schools or the pubs/restaurants opening for business – but not both‘ This dilemma is particularly acute for the Tory party who desperately want the schools to be open so that young mothers can back to work but have traditionally also represented the interests of the brewers in the UK. So it comes to a straight political choice of ‘children’s education’ versus ‘keep the pubs open‘ You wouldn’t normally associate deft political skills with Boris Johnson (compared, say, to Nicholas Sturgeon) but if he doesn’t get the next week or so of trade-offs absolutely right, then this could put paid to his premiership.
Today was going to be a different pattern to our normal Sundays. I walked down to collect our normal supply of Sunday newspapers and got back home by 9.00 am. Then I made up our normal supply of ‘elevenses’ and we departed by car for a church service at Harvington Hall (a beautiful moated manor house originally built in the 1300s and then extensively rebuilt in the 1500s) which is only some seven miles to the south of us. As well as our comestibles we took with us a folding stool and a folding chair so that we could attend an open-air service which started at 10.30, although we had arrived by 10. A great deal of thought had evidently gone into the preparations for the service which is held in the gardens each Sunday and where we all suitably socially distanced! We think we recognised a few emigres from our normal church but as all of our faces were hidden behind masks it was possible to make some mistakes in greeting people. The service as very well conducted and although we had some cloudy moments, the weather was generally kind to us as well. We were greeted warmly (as was everyone) and we were invited to join a smaller band of the congregation for a service inside the actual chapel next Saturday at 10.00 am in the morning. We thought we would give this a go as well. By a strange sort of coincidence, there was a sort of linkage between the gospel reading and our own situation in the garden as the reading was the ‘feeding of the 5,000’ where the crowd was urged to sit down in ranks on the grass in order to be fed.
This blog is written using WordPress, the most popular blogging software in the world but it was only when I bought a couple of books to explore its potentialities that I realised that it was an excellent web-design as a blogging tool. I have a variety of web spaces for different purposes and on one of them, WordPress is provided as a ready-to-load add-in. I thought I would like to experiment and wondered whether to set up a second installation – but then realised that this could really mess up my existing ‘blog’ with a new one. So to cut a long story short, I decided to purchase a bit of extra space at a very reasonable price from a provider with whom I have been working for some 12 years and with who gives a completely individualised service in that they will help you set things up and then help you out if things go wrong. I knew how to set up a website with your own domain name attached to it so I knew the drill. This involves (a) writing a page-holder page for the new site (b) purchasing the name you want to have for the new website – I utilise an American firm which is cheaper than the UK firms (c) actually purchasing the webspace itself (d) going back to your domain name supplier to specify the nameservers for your site (e) configuring an FTP entry so that (using Filezilla) you can easily transfer the relevant files back and forth. Fortunately, I managed to do all of this without a hitch and got things up and running in about 30 minutes, about which I was pleased. In a day or so, I will then activate the new WordPress installation and get playing to my heart’s content!
It looks as though we are deep into analysis time regarding what has actually gone wrong in the COVD-19 crisis in the UK contributing to the worst excess deaths in Europe. As the smoke of battle is gradually clearing, it is becoming more evident that there is no one really simple (and simplistic) explanation of the problem we have in the UK. But we are now pretty certain that we entered the lockdown about two weeks too late (probably doubling the number of deaths) and started to come out of the lockdown about two weeks too early. The upshot is that levels of the virus are quite extensive across the whole of the community and therefore it doesn’t take much to trigger new infections (and Manchester as a whole is now declared as a ‘major incident’ with multiple hotspots in the rise of the infection rates) Two continuing problems are the fact that the younger generation seems to be acting as though the crisis is largely over and the predominance of the virus in areas of high social deprivation (often correlating with poor housing, poor air quality, a population with low skill levels who cannot ‘work from home’).
It is interesting who we meet in the park and today was no exception. A lady wheelchair user who visited the park every day had also noticed us frequently in the park so we struck up a conversation. She was Bromsgrove born and bred so she knew a lot about the local area, particularly as she had in the past visited our local library in order to research its history. She was very knowledgeable as you would expect about the park and its history and reckoned that it was her who gave our resident heron its colloquial name of ‘Henry’ – she also seemed to be able to identify each of the many trees which probably escapes most people. After taking our leave of her and on the way home, we got caught in a tremendously short shower. However, as providence would have it, a large overhanging tree provided some shelter and some of our ‘regular’ friends caught up with us and, as we had not seen them for several days, we exchanged news and gossip about things. As a result of all of this, we got home fairly late and it was rather too late to start cooking a full-scale dinner at that time so we had an easily prepared snack of cheese and biscuits which is always a good standby in an emergency. In the afternoon, I decided to give some of my papers a bit of a tidying up. Principally, I was as involved in downloading and reading some motoring correspondents’ reviews of the car we are going to have a look at on Wednesday. I was trying to find some statistics on the actual dimensions of the boots in our current and intended vehicle but the reviews would only glorify how many litres of space they both had. Evidently, other people had tried to ask the same question because eventually, I read an exasperated post from someone who evidently been on the same quest as myself with the advice ‘go along to a local dealer armed with a tape measure’ (which I probably will).
I have also been doing some preparatory reading about the themes and editors that I need to utilise when setting up a WordPress installation for the first time. Why this is quite important is that in the early stages of a project, one can make decisions that profoundly influences the rest of what is to follow so I wanted to make sure that I was not going to make any crass mistakes before I started. So this occupied the best part of the afternoon but at least I am a little more clear in my own mind for when I get started. Having been used to hand-coding all of my webpages using HTML, it will be quite a learning curve for me to utilise a tool where a lot of the decisions are automated for me but the results might look a little more professional and less ‘clunky’.
According to tomorrow’s Guardian: ‘In a letter to England’s chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser, nearly 70 clinical virologists say they have been sidelined by the government and excluded from discussions on how to respond to the pandemic.’ Experts say decisions apparently being made on ideological grounds and the whole expertise of virologists currently working in the public sector has been either ignored or by-passed in favour of private sector ‘solutions’ that often have found to be inadequate and, in any case, does not link any data back to the health records of individuals or any other NHS data systems. This means that the whole expertise of virologists working in the public health sector has been systematically ignored in favour of private-sector providers. This is a really serious case of what happens when pure ideology (‘private sector good, public sector bad‘) gets in the way of rational decision making and is a disturbing comment upon the ‘modus operandi‘ of the current government in dealing with the pandemic crisis.
Today was one of those slightly indeterminate days when nothing seemed to go quite right! The weather was trying its best to be unhelpful as there seemed to be a layer of cloud as far as the eye could see, so there was a slightly ‘muggy’ feel to the day although we were spared any rain. Our morning trip to the park was uneventful with its normal quota of joggers (not very many). mothers with young children on little bikes (lots) and a few oldies making up the numbers. Social life in the park does show some signs of organisation, however, as every so often there is a grouping of individuals obviously meeting by prior arrangement and equipped with light outdoor chairs that are easily transported in the boot of a car and thence over the grass. We now equip ourself on our morning venture with a little folding stool which is primarily aluminium and hence extraordinarily light and we use this a miniature table which helps us when we are pouring the coffee from our flask.
At lunchtime, I engaged in a culinary experiment making lemon chicken. These results were fine but with a lemon type sauce, some raw slices of lemon skewered to the chicken thighs and a liberal helping of concentrated lemon juice from a bottle, we might have overdone the lemony bit (but I will know next time). This afternoon, I thought I would install WordPress in my newly acquired webspace and all seemed to be going well at first. But then it became apparent that a crucial component, the PlugIns which is an important part of WordPress functionality would not allow one to install any new Plug-ins. After fiddling about with very settings to no avail, I went on the web and found a YouTube video detailing the four things to be done in order to get things put right (none of these worked!) Having deleted everything I could see, then a complete reinstall seemed to be the answer except that the package would not allow me to do that in the vacated webspace (probably down to some hidden and inaccessible file components). It seemed that a complete reinstall into different folders might work and this seemed to get things half working but after several hours of fiddling (not helped by comments read on the web which said ‘I have tried for two weeks to make this work and it will not‘ I was left with a half-installed package in which some things work but others do not (for reasons that are beyond me) It all ought to be so simple, but in practice there seem to be hidden problems which I do not know how to resolve. I will try again tomorrow when I am a little less stressed and rested!
Tonight the big political battleground seems to be whether or not it should be ‘pubs or schools’ in about three weeks time as the reopening of the schools will add significantly to the levels of social activity. On the one hand, we have the likes of Isabel Oakeshott, a very right-wing commentator on Sky’s review of the daily press saying that all schools should resume as fully open as possible for the sake of the most disadvantaged children who have been deprived of education for the last six months. On the other hand, there is a considerable groundswell of opinion from parents, teachers and healthcare specialists who indicate that opening up schools is not just about the infectivity of school children (which is indeed low) but the increased social interactions (mothers dropping children off to school and then going on to work) not to mention the non-teaching adults necessary to make a school run efficiently which all provide new avenues in which the virus can thrive. This particular argument will run and run – the government say that ‘without a doubt’ that schools will re-open but I think a battle royal lies ahead (particularly if a school reopens and then some cases of COVID-19 rears its ugly head and what happens then?)
Another cloudy and somewhat indeterminate day and we had been a little delayed for our morning walk because I was up late last night tweaking my WordPress installation to get it the way I wanted. It’s almost there but there are still one or two little problems to be ironed out. We needed to get home early and have a fairly early lunch because this afternoon we were due to go and look at the new car that we had promised ourselves. As you might imagine, the showroom was quite a revelation. Evidently, although we felt inclined to shake hands with the salesman, that was evidently out of bounds so we donned our masks, sanitised our hands and sat down to wait for our turn (having arrived about 20 minutes earlier by giving us some getting lost time) As it happens, exactly the colour and model that we would wish to have was parked in front of the showrooms, so we could have a quick preview of it before we started our discussions. Then came the test drive which was extraordinary in its own way. Because of the COVID-19 regulations that the garage had imposed upon itself, no one could accompany us so we jumped into the vehicle and drove off into the sunset (or we could have done) As we didn’t know the immediate environs of this new garage, we did not want to venture very far less we got lost but we were directed by the salesman to a road with some ‘speed bumps’ on it which is quite a useful way to test a car out, actually. We were delighted with our test run because the model we have chosen seems almost but not quite as roomy as our present vehicle and the boot, whilst smaller, was still pretty spacious. One particular feature of this model of car is what they call ‘Magic Seats’ which means that you can take the two back seats and then tip them up, cinema-seat style, and lock them into position which then releases a whole block of space which goes from the car floor to its ceiling (incredibly useful is we had to transport any largish objects, particularly tall ones, in the back which is more than likely.) We then completed the formalities, got sold a package which includes paint protection, interior leather protection, car mats, a boot liner and a full tank of petrol – all in all, we came home feeling pretty pleased with the excellent level of service we feel we will receive from this garage in the future. At the end of the day, we feel that the level of service provided by the garage is much more important than details like how fast you can go from 0-60mph (which always struck me as a vacuous sort of statistic).
Tonight, it was reported that both France and Spain had recorded about 1700 new COVID-19 infections apiece (about 800 in the UK) So it does look as though both France and Spain who came out of their own lockdowns a week or so ago are now starting to appreciate the start of a second wave on infection by the virus. Does this mean that we might follow their trajectory in a couple of weeks time? According to the MPs on the home affairs committee, having no special border measures for people arriving from Spain and France during February and March, and only having voluntary self-isolation measures for travellers from Italy until March 13, was a “serious error and had a material impact on the number of cases arriving in the UK, and on the pace and scale of the epidemic”. And in the meantime, the epidemiologist behind the government’s national lockdown warned that reopening secondary schools could see the coronavirus reproduction rate increase “by as much as a half”. Of course, in a few weeks time, children will be returning to school and the interesting political question will be to ascertain what other measures will need to be put into place to counteract the negative effect that the schools’ reopening could well generate.
On our way down to the park, we met our Italian friend who we have not seen for several days now so it was wonderful to have a general chat. We often chat about family matters and today was no exception. As we have shared interests in classical music, we often exchange stories. There are many stories told about Sir Thomas Beecham, who was somewhat misogynistic but also very witty. Two of his most famous asides were these. Once he described the sound of the harpsichord as ‘two skeletons copulating on a tin roof‘ whilst on another occasion he declared that ‘the British may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes‘. The opera story that sticks in my memory is a performance of Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in which the stage directions dictated that a swan should glide serenely across the stage and the leading tenor should step onto it and make his exit gracefully into the wings. On this particular occasion, there was evidently something amiss with the mechanism propelling the swan and after a few horrible grinding noises and a long delay, the swan shot across the stage far too fast to be caught and disappeared at the other end. What to do? With great presence of mind, the tenor leant forward to the orchestra and said in a loud stage whisper so that all of the audience could here ‘Pssst! What time is the next swan?‘ This defused the tension of the moment – the audience laughed and then applauded as it was the final scene in the opera. Would that we would all have the presence of mind to something appropriate when disaster strikes!
We have some assistance in the garden once a month and the husband and wife team are very knowledgeable – hence if I have any problems I don’t hesitate to consult with them. Today, I asked them to have a look at my fairly newly planted hornbeam tree of which the leaves have started to turn brown which could be a sign of drought or could be a virus. They were able to give me some reassurance that as the tree was planted on a slope then it was probable that the roots were not getting enough water so I need to do what I did (with great success) to my Tilia Cordata in which I built up a little rampart and then packed it well with good topsoil (and fortunately, I recently bought for myself a supply of the same for another planting job) so I know what is to be done in the next day or so. This afternoon as it was a bit gloomy and cloudy, I ran off several reviews of the new car that we anticipate taking delivery of in November, and in particular, I wanted to know how the internal dimensions compared with our present car. Although the new car will be 11″ shorter most of the internal space remains the same or, at the most, there is only 1″ of difference. For example, there is only 0.1″ difference in the front legroom between our present and the new car which is why in our test run yesterday it felt almost exactly the same.
Tonight, the fear is being expressed that if a second wave of the virus were to develop, the NHS should learn the lessons of this spring and not become just a COVID-19 service. 1 million operations were cancelled (heart surgery, cancer operations) and one cancer specialist hs argued that if left untreated, then there could be anything between 7,000-35,000 deaths in the next year. The ONS (Office of National Statistics) has already calculated that there have been 12,000 ‘excess’ deaths in recent months as treatment regimes have been cancelled or postponed to deal with the COVID-19 cases and as people have been reluctant to present themselves for treatments they would have done in more normal times.
Today was a day in which I had to get going quite early as we knew that the Waitrose delivery van was due to deliver our weekly groceries sometime between 8-9 am and I had no real desire to be seen in my pyjamas (although I am sure the delivery drivers have seen far worse than this). Anyway, all of my ablutions were performed upon time and the groceries were duly received and put away before I made an order to secure a slot in three weeks time (it’s a way of gaming the Waitrose system to get the slots you require) Earlier in the day, I had emailed the chapel attached to Harvington Hall ay which we attended an open-air service last Sunday as it was intimated to us that there might be space in the chapel, although it was small, if I made an application by email for the 10 am service on Saturday. I duly sent off my email and was pleasantly surprised to get a reply later on the morning inviting us to an ‘allocated’ slot this Saturday. When you send emails off to a general mailbox rather than a specific person, you are never quite sure it will be actually looked at but indeed it was so that will be a new experience for us tomorrow. This morning, we walked down to the park on what was quite a pleasant day only to have our elevenses interrupted by a short, sharp shower of rain which we think was completely unforecast. We took shelter under the branches of a large weeping willow which was fortunately only a few feet distant and the shower was over in 2-3 minutes after which we made our way home in brilliant sunshine.
Last night, as I was still having problems with the experimental implementation of WordPress I decided to be bold and take the bull by the horns and implement an entirely new version of WordPress. This I did quite successfully and easily but I made sure it was in a completely different folder to my other version and I also implemented the ‘Single’ edition rather than the ‘Multiple’ edition which allows you to have several sites going simultaneously so that you can flick between them. This had seemed quite a good idea at the time but I found it very confusing whether I was operating in a ‘Super Administrator’ role or a ‘User’ role because some things worked (or didn’t work) according to which mode you were in. So I decided to keep life simple this time and I managed to successfully reproduce the three pages that I had already composed in my experimental version. I now just had one more important problem to fix which I managed to do this afternoon. I particularly wanted to have the facility (as I do in this blog) to be able to choose the font face and font size direct from the editor menu (in the style of Microsoft Word) I eventually found the solution which was I needed to install a plugin called ‘TinyMCE Advanced‘ which enables me to do just that – so now I have things more or less configured just the way I want them so that I can carry on with more experimental pages as I have the essentials in place, including a menu to navigate between them. In a day or so, I will delete the original experimental version and stick with this one which I am calling my ‘Domestic’ version as I will use it primarily to communicate more domestic things such as gardening, woodwork etc. I believe that what I am doing the IBM personnel used to call around playing around in a ‘sandbox’ i.e. you can do whatever you like with experimental data sets or packages to gain knowledge and experience of them before you move onto a more formal implementation. Anyway, it is rather nice to know that if I make a complete ‘pig’s ear‘ of everything I now have the knowledge and skills to start off with a brand new installation.
After the lawns had received their weekly mow, I set to work constructing a little framework around the base of my hornbeam tree which is showing some signs of heat distress (i.e. leaves turning brown) So having constructed a little wooden framework around it about 6″ high, I then filled it with a bag of topsoil enriched with ‘Blood, Fish and Bone‘ fertiliser, gave it 10 litres of water and then protected the whole lot with a thick layer of forest bark. After several days of watering, I will be able to judge whether or not my efforts have been crowned with success.
Today turned out to be a different sort of Saturday for all sorts of reasons. Temperatures were again on the very warm side as we are in the middle of a ‘mini-heatwave’ and it is predicted to last for a couple of days more before breaking down into thunderstorms and rain (we hope!) This morning, Meg and I attended a service at St. Mary’s, Harvington which is completely adjacent to Harvington Hall. There is also a Georgian chapel built within the grounds and even an attic ‘church’ where mass was held in mediaeval times cleverly disguised so that it looked as though it was an extension to a children’s nursery – and priestly vestments could be quickly hidden away in the event of a raid searching out Catholic ‘heretics’. The service itself was delightful – there were a dozen of us and we were well socially distanced from each other, sanitised, masked and/or visored up. There was a very intimate feel to the whole experience and I suppose it must have been like this in the early days of the Christian church where congregations would assemble in each other’s houses and the priest would come to them rather than the reverse. We suspect we will repeat the experience next weekend as we rather enjoyed the aesthetics of it all. Harvington Hall is only 7 miles distant from Bromsgrove so we drove down to the park and hunted for an elusive car-parking space which we eventually found. We were delighted, though, to meet up again with an old acquaintance of ours who has two twin baby girls (growing up fast) and as we had not met up for a week or so, we had to catch up with each other’s news. She had started work again when the children went to a nursery but as a speech therapist, she found to be enormously kitted out with a lot of PPE since she was last at work and this coupled with a new boss made the whole experience of work seem very different to the pre-COVID-19 days. Then we met another mother complete with a dog (sort of a mixture between a poodle and something else) and her children who were helping to walk and train the dog which still a puppy. We exchanged some stories, as we typically do, and then made for home on what was becoming quite a humid morning.
The big political dilemma facing the government whether to press ahead with a forced reopening of the schools in three weeks time still rumbles on. Tonight, the position seems to be as polarised as ever. One the one hand, Boris Johnson and the rest of the government machine are arguing that it is only ‘morally right’ that children should receive the education that they deserve. At one level, it is hard to disagree with these sentiments and is evidently the case that the absence of any formalised education for so many months is causing real damage to the life chances (and the mental health) of a whole generation of children of school age. But the difficulty is this – we know that the incidence of the virus amongst school children is remarkably low. But what we do not know is whether the school population could act as a vector for the transmission of the virus to older people whilst they themselves seem unaffected. As well as school children, we also have to be aware of the Further Education colleges and other institutions catering for adolescents there is much more uncertainty. The crux of the argument is that the reopening of schools is actually the reconnection of several diverse networks and, once reconnected, the virus may well become much more rampant. A former chief scientific adviser to the government is of the opinion that the epidemic will almost certainly worsen once schools are made to reopen, despite the measures that they are undertaking unless compensatory mechanisms can be sought to offset these. The argument most often heard is ‘pubs’ or ‘schools’ – will any government dare to shut down all of the pubs and restaurants if it is the case that the reopening of the schools is generating more opportunities for the virus to replicate?
Today’s date is the date of my mother’s birthday and although she died some 13 years ago, the date of your mother’s birthday is always something that is lodged in your memory (after years of buying cards and presents). As I walked down to Bromsgrove for the Sunday newspapers this morning, I was wondering to myself whether there was any saying or piece of advice that I remember my mother giving to me. There was just one piece of advice, given if we had a family argument or tiff over something, which was: ‘Do not let the sun go down on your anger‘. Actually, over the years I think this is quite a sound piece of advice and so I did a quick Google search as it sounded vaguely biblical (as indeed it was as it was apparently said by St. Paul). My mother was always quite concerned with the political process – in fact when she died, I found an examination paper for some Local Government examinations she must have taken called ‘Civics’ and many of the questions were just as pertinent today e.g. ‘How does Central Government control the spending of local authorities‘ and questions of a similar ilk. Whenever there was a general election as there was in 1955, she felt it was her duty to go down to the village hall (for the village in which we were then living) to ask questions of the prospective candidates. As a local government officer, she always relished the opportunity to act as a ‘poll clerk’ as it was the only way in which a local government officer could earn a smidgeon of extra cash on top of one’s normal pay. Although she started off life as a Conservative, she increasingly voted Liberal (Liberal Democrat) in her later years and finished off stuffing envelopes for the Liberal party candidate. Eventually, as an inmate of a residential home in her later years, she caused quite a kerfuffle when she insisted that she be included on the electoral register and be given a postal ballot. I think that she felt incredibly strongly that whilst women had fought so hard for the vote, then it certainly had to be exercised on every available occasion. Although she could by no means be described as a feminist of any description, I think that she took her part in the political process very seriously.
In the park, we met with an elderly lady who was a regular visitor (in her wheelchair) to the park on an almost daily basis and she showed us a leaflet that she acquired from the local authority (and now available on the web) which details how the great and the good of Bromsgrove’s past were buried in Bromsgrove cemetery and how to find their graves. This is something we might do if at a really loose end! On our way home, we bumped into our Italian friend and continued our conversation of a few days back relating especially to family matters. And then a friend turned up for a Sunday lunch so we continued on our way in what was turning out to be quite a humid day. The weather has continued like this most of the afternoon and we are hopeful that there may be some dramatic thunderstorms (and rain) in the next few days to save me the trouble of watering various pot plants. I even watered my sickly Hornbeam first thing this morning to coax it back into better health.
The new cases of COVID-19 have topped 1,000 for the first time since June so this must be a source of concern. According to a headline on Sky News, ‘Boris Johnson {has been) told teachers and students must get weekly COVID-19 tests for the safe return of schools‘, which advice he almost certainly ignore. For a start, we have to have a much more reliable ‘Test and Trace’ regime rather than the present (private sector) disaster run by Serco and this looks like being a long way off. Apparently, even staff in care homes have only been tested once since the start of the epidemic and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. There has been a hint dropped by the Government, though, that in the very last analysis pubs would have to be closed in preference to schools if there were to be a resurgence of the virus, which looks more and more likely.
Well, you can never tell how a day is going to turn out and so it proved today. We were somewhat delayed this morning because we have an arrangement whereby our oven gets professionally cleaned – we have this done every six months and evidently, the person whose business it is does not mind doing a job professionally that most of us hate doing periodically, so we are more than happy to have done for us. Needless to say, it is always interesting to see how other individuals and families have coped with the COVID-19 lockdown so we had a good chat about this. Then Meg and I left for our daily newspaper/trip to the park walk in what turned out to be quite a fine, albeit muggy day (the rains and thunderstorms are on their way, perhaps tomorrow, but it is a bit difficult to estimate precisely when) On our way home from the park, we came across one set of friends who were busy gardening and we managed to convey several useful bits of information about the church service we attended on Saturday last. Then three doors down we bumped into another set of friends who we had not seen for a few days so we exchanged news and gossip with each other. Then, on the spur of the moment, they invited us into their back garden for what I think the Anglo-Indian community used to called ‘tiffin’ but which was actually sandwiches which were rustled up on the spot, cake, tea and even beer. We have been saying to each other for a week or so now that we would like to invite each other into our respective gardens when the weather was set fair so this an actual case of ‘carpe diem‘ (seize the moment) a phrase popularised in the film ‘Dead Poet’s Society‘ which I know is a bit dated now. Altogether we spent some two and a half hours chatting and the time flew by but it was well to get the opportunity whilst we could because the weather is undoubtedly going to break and they were going away for a mini-break in a few days’ time. I think we managed to get the world set to rights anyway – on our way home we received an anxious message from other family members who assumed we had been captured by the white slave trade as we had left the house several hours ago and not returned. This afternoon, I was full of good intentions to clear up some of the clutter on the desk in my study but what with a good reading of the newspapers, coupled with a trawl through some of the car reviews I have collected over the days, it didn’t actually get done. Incidentally, reading car reviews is always a slightly frustrating experience, particularly if one is trying to compare performance characteristics (it’s a man thing!) when each review seems to be referring to a somewhat different specification or trim level to the one you have intended to purchase.
It looks as though the long-awaited thunderstorms are in the vicinity but it just possible that we may be on their outer fringes. The members of my family have a special app on their iPads that enables them to track the distribution of thunderstorms as they progress across the country – if they develop in intensity, we love to sit in our porch and enjoy the intensity of the storm. Evidently, we have to chase around and make fast all of our windows before the rain strikes.
It now looks as if the government’s ‘world-beating’ test-and-trace regime is having to undergo significant revision. Some 6,000 staff are being stood down (and many of them had nothing to do anyway) whilst a significant number amongst the remaining 12,000 will be deployed to assist the local authority public teams where the real expertise has been located all along – at least for a century! The Serco scheme is starting to look more and more like ‘contracts for one’s friends’ instead of a serious and professional attempt to hunt the virus down as is happening in other societies such as Germany (not to mention the far eastern economies of South Korea from who we could have learnt many a lesson)
Another day in the current heatwave but fortunately for us, it is not too oppressive in the morning when we walk down. Today we met some of our old Waitrose friends in the park by prior arrangement or rather Meg did as I needed to go off and buy a few ‘essentials’ (such as getting a new watch battery fitted) on the High Street. We thought our friends might have told us of lots of exciting places that they had been to since the semi-release from lockdown on 1st August – instead, they have been getting some medical appointments in that had to be postponed over the last few weeks. So we had a rather hurried meeting today but at least we got a meeting before the weather turns really nasty which it might in the next few days if we have multiple rain and thunderstorms. This afternoon, I needed to consult with my neighbour before I started some much-needed edging and gully clearing in our communal area. As it happened, my neighbour and I are going to start our Pilates class together and we had to have some practical things to sort out. We also had several other bits of news to impart to each other, principally on the subject of actual neighbours and soon-to-be neighbours (as a large bungalow just around the corner from us has just been sold) so by the time we had finished our long chat it was ‘Tiffin‘ time i.e. mid-afternoon cup of tea time so the edging had to be given a miss for another day. Quel surprise!
Whilst not wishing to be a ‘car bore’, the various reviews of the new Honda we intend to purchase do all mention not particularly good acceleration for the model in question. However, I did by a series of ‘accidents’ arrive at a website that detailed most makes and models of cars with a plethora of information giving, in particular, what I found to be of most interest i.e. a table of ‘overtaking times’ such as the time taken in seconds to go from 80-120 km/h (which is 50-75 mph) which is just the sort of information you need if you entering a motorway via a slip road and have to slot into a lane of faster-moving traffic on the right-hand side. Armed with this information, I could then draw comparisons between my ‘intended’, a much faster beast from the same stable and cars that I had owned in the past. I discovered that whatever the motoring journalists might have written, there was no difference between my intended and a Mazda 3 which I had owned in the past and only 1.0-second difference between my intended and the faster beast. This leads me to conclude that motoring journalists get fixated on one or two aspects of a car which, whilst real, are not that important in the wider order of things. I also discovered an owner’s website in which owners reminisced about the much older, heavier, more powerful but less ‘zippy’ cars they had owned in the past and which made them more than contented with their present model, whatever the motoring reviews had to say. They also stressed that such things as cargo space are much more important to the average owner than to the ‘boy racer’ in us who is trying to get every smidgeon of acceleration out of his vehicle. And now, I promise I will leave that topic for good.
There are two disturbing COVID-19 stories tonight, no doubt related to each other. The first is that 1148 new cases have been reported in the past day which is the highest total since June – it does look like the start of a second wave of the pandemic. The second issue was a Sky News investigation in which it was shown that in a Manchester suburb (where infection rates are rising) 9 out of 10 establishments are not following the guidelines i.e. that a record of names and addresses of all of these who enter the pub is not being taken and if the video evidence is to be believed, then social distancing is being largely ignored. The requirements are only ‘advisory’ at the moment but the Scots are shortly to give these the force of law (and perhaps we will be dragged, reluctantly, doing the same but two weeks too late!)
Our mini-heatwave continues although there are indications that we may have a storm tonight and almost certainly tomorrow. Last night, as we were going to bed, there was evidently a storm not too far off with sheet lightning every few seconds or so but the winds and especially the rain passed us by. Again tonight, we have had a small intimation of an impending storm but the house is very hot and humid and we are all praying for a tremendous downpour to cool us all down. On the way to the park, we were delighted to bump into the friends who had invited us round for sandwiches in their garden at lunchtime. By way of (a small) recompense I have donated one of my specially prepared horseshoes, all the way from Yorkshire but duly de-rusted, cleaned up and polished up and with a little explanatory ‘runoff’ from Google which explains the story of the Irish saint, St. Dunstan and why horseshoes can be considered lucky. Now all our friends have to do is to find a fortunate spot in their garden or house to hang it, which no doubt they will. We spent some time completing our Waitrose order this morning which is due for delivery tomorrow afternoon. Also, our email has indicated that we are ‘booked in’ to the church service in St. Mary’s, adjacent to Harvingtom Hall as we were last Saturday so we are off to repeat the experience (and it is just possible that some other friends might join us as well).
In the afternoon, I texted my sister in Yorkshire suggesting that it might be that the time is right for us to make a quick visit to Yorkshire when I could see her and the rest of the Yorkshire extended family, particularly as it is going to be my sister’s birthday at the end of the month. My sister telephoned and we discussed a range of possibilities but it seems there still a range of practical difficulties. Other members of the family are either away/working/having house extensions done so the time is not apposite for a visit. My sister and brother-in-law have no desire to dine out in a village pub as we often do on the occasions of our visits so it appears that we had better wait until the times are a little more propitious before we visit. Similarly, we are conscious that we need to pay a visit to Meg’s aged uncle in North Wales who we were going to see at the very start of the lockdown (and had actually booked our hotel room) but which we decided, fortunately as it turned out, to cancel. We are going to text another member of his extended family to see how the land lies and whether it would be sensible/not sensible for us to make a flying visit for a few days to North Wales but again we feel as though we need to ‘play this one by ear’ on this occasion as well.
Tomorrow is the announcement of ‘A’-levels and the current arrangement is that in the absence of exams, an algorithm will be applied that takes account of teachers’ assessments. the results of mocks if taken and the past track record of the schools. But there was a debacle in Scotland where the Scottish government was forced to abandon all of the ‘awarded’ grades and then rely solely upon teacher assessment in order to avoid a situation in which approx. 40% of students finish up with less than their predicted grades. The UK government are suggesting at the very last moment a hybrid scheme where the student can choose between the provisionally awarded grade, substitute the results of ‘mocks’ if they are higher (which they rarely are) or volunteer to take an examine the autumn. Whatever happens, looks both messy and is going to cause a huge political row. My own view is that even though the teacher assessed grades might be inflated and lack a degree of credibility, then this could be viewed as a one-off compensation in view of the absence of proper tuition in the extraordinary arrangement that students have had to undertake under the shadow of the COVID-19 crisis. But we shall have to wait until tomorrow and see what happens…
We did not have a tremendous storm last night but we did have a certain amount of rumbling thunder, some sheet lightning and quite a steady patter of rain which persisted until the small hours. So we were not surprised when we awoke to a day with a much fresher feel to it and the threat of a further shower always there. The morning’s post brought us some unwelcome news. It was from Meg’s cousin who is now living in Bolton and whose husband had had a stroke the bet part of a year ago. The letter informed us that her husband in a weakened condition had contracted a mild version of the COVID-19 virus but had died (and been cremated) some two months ago. We were shocked, but not absolutely surprised, and later on today we wrote a letter of condolence which we will post tomorrow. I consulted with my neighbour over a range of issues because after the lockdown we have to be very careful about what equipment we need to bring to our resumed Pilates classes. So far, we are thinking about Pilates mat, a bath sheet to spread on it, small handtowel to act as a neck roll, some stretch Pilates exercise bands, a Pilates ball – I think that’s about it. Anyway, we have enough time to assemble things before the class resumes on 1st September. Before we entered the park, we called by the opticians ao that we could arrange for an eye test for Meg as she feels that her eyesight is deteriorating somewhat and this was a bit more difficult than you imagine involving a call to the manageress (who knows us quite well). However, we got there in end and got an appointment with the optician who knows Meg’s eyes well having treated her over the years. We also took the opportunity to call by our favourite High Street cobbler to get new ferrules put on our National Trust portable stool (what exciting lives we do lead!)
This afternoon, we texted one of the relatives of Meg’s uncle who lives in North Wales to check out whether a quick visit is feasible. As it happens, the coast seems to be clear so upon the strength of that, we went ahead and made a booking in a Holiday Inn that we know well and is very convenient for us (but we got the 3rd last room according to their website) Having got this all booked, we then made a further booking at a country club down the road at which we eat on the day we arrive and then made yet another telephone call to Meg’s uncle to check out it would be OK for us to call upon him and so he could note things in his diary. This leaves us one free day which we would normally spend on our own in Chester but on this occasion, we intend to make a trip from outside Chester to Bolton to see if we can see Meg’s recently bereaved cousin – as it is a trip almost entirely by motorway it seems to us to be an excellent idea to fit in this visit as we are in the vicinity. So now we have ‘all of our ducks in a row’ having made all of the arrangements that we want without any real difficulty.
As it happens, the predicted row over ‘A’-levels is underway. The government is evidently desperately worried not to let ‘inflated’ teacher’s grades become the finished product but as a result of applying some degree of standardisation the public schools and high performers seem to have come out of it best whilst the pupils whose marks have been moderated (downwards) the most just happen to come from the poorest areas, thus apparently ‘baking in’ the inequalities that already exist within the system. (Thus was it ever so!) It is hard to say at this point whether the political pressure will eventually force a rethink but in purely political terms, a situation in which 39% of marks were reduced by one or more grades does not seem to a particularly healthy one for any government, even one with a large majority. We shall see!
We thought today was going to be an intermediate kind of day but although it started off fairly cloudy, eventually it turned out to be a pleasant summer’s day with a light breeze and the sun eventually breaking through the clouds. We got the letter posted off to Meg’s cousin which was quite an important one as we hope she will be in a position when we make our trip to Chester in about 12 days time. As we have not seen Meg’s cousin for a couple of decades, we suspect there is a lot to catch up on, but after a gap of that period, one never knows how such encounters are going to turn out. Meg had seen a lot of her cousin when she was singing in small opera houses in Austria but we have lived at quite a distance from each other ever since and therefore the opportunities to see each other have been limited. Then we had a further chat in the park with a lady who uses a wheelchair and was looking out for my hat and, not seeing it, assumed we were not there. She found us eventually and we chatted for a while about family history matters. Eventually, we made our way home but we seemed to be running a bit late on everything this morning. We exchanged a few words with our Italian friend down the road but she was busy preparing for visitors. I have to say we had a fairly lazy afternoon – I am sure there were various things in the garden and within the house to which I should have attended but the humidity does make one feel a little disinclined to exert oneself. I had yesterday emailed a friend who was an old colleague to get news of his wife who we knew was going to have an operation. It seems as though as all has turned out well so far as we can tell at this stage, so I was relieved to get this piece of positive news.
Occasionally, after I have answered my emails I look at Sky News to see if there are breaking stories (I must add that although I loathe the Rubert Murdoch stranglehold on the media, I am forced to admit that Sky News always seems to get to critical stories way before the BBC which I suspect has been utterly tamed, not to say cowed, by the past few governments) Apparently. Donald Trump was asked a question whether he regretted the fact that he had consistently lied to the American people during his presidency. One would have expected a complete denunciation of the reporter who had had the temerity to ask the question but instead, Donald Trump swerved the question, turned his gaze to another journalist and gave them to chance to ask another question instead, without offering up either an answer or a defence. Extraordinary – shall we see a video clip of this in the next few days? (Not on the BBC I venture to suggest, in view of what I have just been saying above).
I read a fascinating letter in ‘The Times‘ a day or so back, commenting upon the difficulties that the government is facing over ‘A’-levels in which teacher’s assessments are moderated by an algorithm which looks at the past record of the schools, thus ‘baking in’ inequalities. For example, a pupil with high predicted grades but in a school which performed ‘poorly’ the previous year could expect to be downgraded by applying the algorithm. The letter writer in ‘The Times‘ reminded readers that Michael Gove scrapped the system in which A-levels were essentially modular (each year being divided into two semesters) and with AS levels at the end of Year 1 of the sixth form. So, an A-level mark would be the amalgamation of the marks of four semesters of work – but if this system had not been jettisoned, then by the time of the lockdown students would have marks attained for three out of their four semesters. Under these circumstances, it might have been considered quite fair to base the final A-level mark on these three semesters of work rather than four. However, Michael Gove thought that the pattern that we had in the 1950s ought to be the model for the future (i.e. one exam at the end of two years of study) and reflects the way in which some Government ministers think that we should ‘look backwards into the future’. So a lot of the current mess could have been avoided if the existing system had not been tinkered with for essentially political reasons.
Today was the day when we were booked into St. Mary’s, Harvington Hall at 10.00. Last week there were only a dozen of us but this week there somewhat more of us (about 17) but just enough to make the atmosphere quite an intimate one. We were greeted warmly by the parish secretary with whom we need a booking week by week so it was nice to put a face to a name. After the service, we drove back home, dropped off a few things and went to collect our Saturday complement of newspapers before having our elevenses in the park.
Regular readers of this blog will be aware of Miggles, our adopted cat who we do not own but who adopted us, much preferring our garden to her own. The exploits of Miggles will be well known to regular readers for she insisted on accompanying me to supervise whatever job I happened to be doing in the garden. Today, though, I am sad to say that Miggles is no more. We first were aware that something may be wrong when her rightful owners (we know who they are) could be heard regularly calling for her all day long a few days ago – so they evidently were aware that the cat was missing. She has not turned up for breakfast for five days now and although last time we saw her she was happy, well-fed, playful and basking in the sunshine, now she is only a memory. I have to say that Meg and I feel her loss quite keenly! She was an incredibly good-looking as well as intelligent cat so I shall leave her a tribute of the lines from Edward Lear’s ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat‘ which I regularly used to repeat to her:
‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are!
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!’
As she walked into our life we think about two years ago, now she has walked out of it so we shall have to get used to not seeing her bound across the grass to greet us as she typically did. I have a collection of nice photos on my iPhone on the occasions when I would wish to be reminded of her.
Idly seeing what was on the TV we saw that a rugby match was being played for the first time in months (Exeter Chiefs v. Leicester Tigers) but as the Tigers were being soundly outplayed and beaten, it was not the source of pleasure one might expect. We also got cheated out of our 1-hour ration of ‘Today at the Test’ as the (cricket) The Test match had to be abandoned for the day with a combination of rain and bad light. And finally, whilst on a sporting theme, whilst I was getting ready this morning I heard a sports report that indicated that Barcelona (one of Spain’s and Europe’s premier teams) had been defeated 8-2 which was their biggest defeat since 1940 (which is a very long time ago!)
It will be interesting to see which particular scrape the Government has got itself into will hit the Sunday newspapers tomorrow. It will be a tossup between bright A-level students who, because of the algorithm which reduced their teacher-assessed final grades, will miss out on their choice of university course. However, one brave Oxford college (Worcester College) has guaranteed a place to all students holding an offer irrespective of what the diminution of the grades might happen to be. They argued that they had enough information in the round without having to have recourse to a hypothetical final examination grade which was then moderated down!) And the second big story is the holidaymakers desperately getting home from France to discover that they need to undertake a strict 14-day quarantine (they cannot even take the dog for a walk)
Today was always going to be one of those days in which it could not decide whether to rain or not to rain. As it happened, Meg and I walked down to the park in practically cloudy conditions and the park rewarded us by being practically deserted. The rain in the night had well and truly wet all of the park benches which was designed to discourage any casually sitting down. But being well prepared like a Boy Scout (the motto of the scouting movement was ‘Be Prepared!‘), I had with me one of these absorbent sponge clothes which did a great job of removing the excess water before we could take advantage of the park bench. On our way home, we met some of our friends who we had not met for a few days and exchanged some news about their grandson who had been expecting the results of his ‘A’-levels. It turned out that he had been caught up in this ‘A’-level debacle in which in the absence of exams the teacher assessments which are always assumed to be overly optimistic were moderated downwards by an algorithm which meant that 40% students received a lower grade than their teacher assessments and this had severe implication for the universities that they wished to attend. In the case of our friend’s grandson, he was intending to appeal and his first choice university did not reject him but said he would have to wait for the results of his appeal (which might be too late) So he got onto his second choice university who spent a lot of time with him on the phone and armed with all the information that they had about him and effectively a 2-hour telephone interview, he was accepted by them. He was delighted with this offer as his second choice university is of the same general standing in the rankings so things seem to have turned out for the best.
I heard all of this well explained by, I think, a sixth form principal who was interviewed in the media to help to explain what had gone wrong. The explanation seemed plausible and simple. Basically, so she explained, the small colleges (typically found in the public schools) and those new colleges without a track record were excluded from the algorithm – and hence the teacher assessments were accepted. If this were to be universally the case (as in Scotland) then the distribution of ‘A’-level grades would be deemed ‘too high’ and therefore the credibility might be put at risk. So the other colleges in the system (particularly larger sixth form colleges, some FE colleges offering ‘A’-levels and those with a poorer track record for whatever reason) had to bear the brunt of the statistical re-calculation, losing out badly in the process. {Apparently, the Royal Statistical Society had offered the assistance of some prestige members to give expert advice, but this was rejected as the experts in question refused to sign ‘non-disclosure’ agreements that would have meant that they had to keep silent for some five years!) What I suspect the government has failed to appreciate on a purely political level is that not only are the young people themselves affected but also their friends, parents, grandparents, other relatives – all of which is a sizeable part of the electorate. Will a screeching ‘U’-turn be forthcoming? I think not.
Our plans to visit Meg’s cousin who is now resident since her bereavement in Bolton have been put in a certain amount of doubt. We got an email this morning from her daughter who explained that as Bolton is part of the Greater Manchester lockdown area then no such visit will be possible (apart from people already within the bubble). To see what the current ‘lockdown’ rules are in Manchester I did a quick Google search and was horrified to see some video clip of Wilmslow Road, Rusholme in Manchester (which is where we lived in our final year at University) only to see enormous crowds of people (celebrating, I think, Pakistan’s National Day’) but the police had been putting out urgent messages to the younger sections of the population, flagrantly breaching the social distancing regulations and putting the health of themselves, their families and the wider community at risk. No wonder that the infection rate seems to be increasing in certain clusters.
Today was one of those days when you wonder what the day is going to bring if anything, as a certain amount of political pressure has been building upon the Education Secretary throughout the course of the weekend and there are mutterings on the Conservative backbenches. We collected our newspapers and ate our elevenses in an almost deserted park this morning and apart from being inspected by the occasional dog (quite common on a park bench as they are often anticipating a nibble of food!). The rain came down quite softly and had it intensified we could have made for the shelter of a nearby weeping willow, but instead, we braved it out and the shower soon past. We can often judge the intensity of the rain by the pattern the droplets make on the water in the pond but after living in Lancashire for some of our life, the rain down here always seems mild in the extreme.
Meg and I read an intriguing story in today’s Times which has really set us thinking and wondering. More and more families are deciding in these lockdown conditions that now might be an ideal time to acquire and train a puppy as they now have time on their hands and the opportunity to train a puppy which was difficult for them whilst at work. Consequently, sales of, and prices of, puppy dogs have soared and many dogs are in fact being stolen, with reports of dog theft up 65% since the start of the lockdown. According to the charity Doglost, some buyers are paying as much as four times the normal price and the price is often in the £1.000’s. According to research by the insurance company, Direct Line, as many as 360.000 adults believe that a cat was stolen from their care in the past 12 months and some other research indicates that up to a quarter of the cats that go missing are actually stolen – but this is notoriously difficult to prove in the absence of chipping (which is voluntary) and/or a collar. Now we come to the case of Miggles, the cat who had adopted us and has now gone missing. As a previous blog indicated, her true owners were aware that she had gone missing unexpectedly and were repeatedly calling for her. As she was such an exceptionally good looking cat, the thought has crossed our mind whether she has actually been stolen rather than met an accidental death. After all, some new ‘owners’ could acquire a cat at no cost to themselves and the crime would be untraceable (and the police really do not want to know) So the thought in our minds that it is difficult to dispel is that Miggles has actually been abducted rather than meeting an untimely end. Of course, we shall never know!
This afternoon, we were holding ourselves in readiness for the 4.0 pm news bulletin because it was becoming increasingly evident that the government would have to execute the most tremendous ‘U-turn’ over the A-level marking debacle. As first the Welsh and then the Northern Irish devolved administration followed the Scots in allowing teachers’ assessments to constitute the final mark (even at the price of some grade inflation) then surely the English would have to follow suit – which, of course, they did. I correctly predicted that Gavin Williamson would be very slow in making a public apology and, sure enough, the first apology had to come from the Head of OfQual whilst the second came from a junior education minister that nobody has ever heard of (It did remind me of the public schoolboy trick where everybody blames ‘Jones Minor’ who is the little squirt in the system least able to defend themselves in the case of malfeasance – the Tories seem well versed in this particular piece of skulduggery. Compare Nicola Sturgeon, for example, who fronted up and apologised whilst Boris is off playing ‘Monarch of the Glen’ somewhere in Scotland). In terms of public administration, then the creation of executive and regulatory agencies (of which the education regulator OfQual is one) blurs the lines of accountability such that if there are problems, the head of the agency can be blamed (and not the politicians) whereas if there are successes, the politicians can claim the credit. And, interestingly enough, as I wrote I read in tomorrow’s Guardian that the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, according to the lead headline is seeking to blame Ofqual for exams debacle…Well, it is quite evident that he will be got rid off at the earliest opportunity and BBC NewsNight had on it a policy analyst who had advised Michael Gove whilst he was Education Secretary and was amazed that Williamson was still in a job (as are we all)
Today, as we walked down into town, Meg and I were reminiscing about how life used to be like some 25 years ago when we were part of the admissions rota, manning the phones in order to recruit the requisite number of students to make our course (and out livelihoods) viable. I think in those days we aimed for a cohort of about 45-50 students but my memory may be playing tricks upon me. However, life in contemporary universities must be an absolute hell at the moment. After the ‘A’-level results were announced last week, you imagine that your course might be up to quota but suddenly, as a result of the government ‘volte-face,’ you are besieged by would-be students who thought that they had not achieved the required grades and had then been advised to go off and appeal. Now the applicants are enquiring whether they still have a place which would mean expanding the course capacity considerably – but do you have the staff to teach them? Have you the requisite accommodation (because of social distancing, all universities will be having to sort out how students distribute themselves in the available space, even though much tuition will be done on-line) Will you try and persuade some students to take a year off and come back to you in one year’s time, or do you persuade them to accept their second offer or do you try and hang onto them having morally (and legally?) offered them a place? No doubt, all of these critical decisions are having to be taken without having all of the normal planning parameters to hand and with students increasingly anxious (not to mention parents who occasionally slip through the net, although admissions staff should not really be delaying with them as they are technically a ‘third party’) I suppose, one must say ‘It’s a nightmare!’
We had a lunch today which was quite typical of a Tuesday (fishcakes) I have learnt how to make a wicked sauce with this, which will enliven any fish dish, including fishcakes, It really is ridiculously simple and involves mixing (in a small receptacle) a desert full of mayonnaise, a desertful spoon of 1,000 island dressing, a good glug of tomato sauce, a shake of Worcester sauce – and then whisk all together with a fork and do one minute in the microwave. What name you would call this, I do now know so I will call a ‘Mog special’. After we had dined royally, we hit the road in the car to get some things into be drycleaned and to replenish our supplies of actual cash (which we use less and less these days as more and more retailers prefer to have things paid for by debit card rather than old fashioned cash). When we returned home, we sent a few emails, tidied up some odds-and-ends and then FaceTimed some of our old Waitrose friends who we have not actually seen for a week or so (unusually). Tomorrow we must ready ourselves for a visit by our chiropodist who ensures that we have thousands of miles left in our feet.)
The news tonight is dominated by the fact that Public Health England (PHE) is being folded into a new organisation and effectively merged in the newly developing test-and-trace regime (which has not had conspicuous success so far) It is to be headed up by Tory peer Baroness Dido Harding, currently in charge of Whitehall’s contact-tracing operation who, as TalkTalk chief executive, refused to apologise for financial losses caused to her customers following a cyber attack which saw 157,000 customer’s details stolen by online criminals.It really does look as though the politicians (Matt Hancock in this case) know that a public inquiry is coming and they are boiund to be heavily criticised by it. So they are trying the shift the blame sideways onto an agency (have we heard this before? As Sarah Wollaston, MP and ex-GP has written
‘a reminder that PHE is the only bit of the health service directly under govt control as an executive agency. Seeking to scapegoat them is extraordinary after cutting public health funding for years & excluding local directors of public health from decision making on COVID.’
Today has arrived at last when we are going to go on our little trip to Chester to see Meg’s Uncle Ken in Penrhyn Bay ( next door to Llandudno). We had set ourselves a schedule of getting off by 9.30 but as it was, we actually left promptly at 10.00. We called in to get our newspapers and then made our way with just a brief stop half way along for a drink of coffee in a lay-by but not requiring a loo visit. We got to the hotel and everyone turned out just as we expected – we had been given a family room with two double beds in it which was welcome. We had brought a selection of wipes and cleansing materials with us and although, no doubt, the room had been ‘deep cleaned’ we still gave it another go on all of the evident flat surfaces before venturing forth for our lunch at the Country Club which is only a couple of miles distant down the main A55. We have never had a poor meal here and we have had meals at least three times before. We felt we both have had a magnificent meal (starter of black pudding and chicken salad, followed by a main course of sea-bass and finished off with a sticky toffee pudding. I suppose it might be a function of not having a meal out for practically six months but we both enjoyed our food tremendously – and of course, thanks to the government we had it with £10 off per person. Afterwards, it was a case of repairing to our room and whilst Meg slept off the meal, I buried myself with unpacking and getting my little hotel systems sorted out. I must say the WiFi works effortlessly nowadays and it really does make a tremendous difference not to have to struggle with the technology the minute one arrives.
Being in a ‘hotel room’ disposition, we idly flicked through the available TV channels and found one which had filmed some of the ‘lost’ Dad’s Army scripts. The BBC had wiped, or failed to save, the original recordings so these episodes were created using actors who approximated to the original cast ( the vast majority of whom must be dead by now) It was marginally amusing but didn’t quite match the original.
Three political stories seem to be Hitting the headlines this evening. The first of these was an asylum seeker in Glasgow who had lost her job and with no food, starved to death with her starving baby beside her. The Home Office said it was ‘sorry’ but crocodile tears, methinks. The second story is one in Sky News ( the BBC wouldn’t run a story like this for fear of offending the government) which documents the 11 ‘U’ turns the government has made, giving the impression of a government completely out of control. And the third issue is the way in which Boris Johnson has had sacked first the chief regulator at Ofqual and then the chief civil servant in the Department of Education. Interesting, isn’t it, how civil servants have been sacked or sanctioned (making it look as though they are to blame) whereas no politician has yet had to ‘walk the plank’ and resign ( or lose office). Of course, the constitutional dictum used to be that ‘civil servants advise, ministers decide’ But in the new style of politics, it looks as though a not particularly bright bunch of politicians ( but all ideologically pure as all of the competent remainers have been got rid off or sidelined) refuse to accept any degree of accountability and blaming the civil service is cowardly. It also lessens the degree of trust between civil servants and ministers that must flourish if a healthy democracy is to flourish.
Today was the day we have been looking forward to for some time when we are going to see Meg’s Uncle Ken. We planned to see him immediately before the lockdown started 160+ days ago but we were rather overtaken by events. We had spent a restful night in our hotel, aided by the gentle playing of ClassicFM on an app called RadioPlayer installed on the iPad. The trick is to have the music playing sufficiently softly to lull you to sleep if that is your desire or just loud enough to concentrate on the item being played if you so wish. It had its desired effect because we didn’t awake fully until 7.30 and had to get showered and organised before our breakfast slot at 8.30 When we got down to breakfast we noticed we were the only non-BAME family in the breakfast room and wondered if everybody was taking the first opportunity to visit members of extended families. Breakfast was traditional or Continental and already ‘plated up’ which felt a bit like a regression to the 1950s.
After breakfast, we made for Conway and then for Penrhyn Bay, the distance being a little further than we had imagined. Ken seemed to in fine shape for a nearly 93 year old – whilst we were enjoying a cup of tea and a slice of fruit cake first the District Nurse turned up to dress Ken’s leg and then one of the army of carers who pops in on Ken to help him with his more social needs. We left Ken in good heart and headed off to enjoy our (pre-ordered) lunch in Conway town itself. When we got to our favourite tea rooms we were delighted to have successfully made a prior reservation as other would-be customers were being turned away but our reserved table was awaiting us. I had a fantastic home made fish pie and Meg had cod and chips – we have never had a poor meal there yet. During the lockdown period the owner had undertaken some renovations, knocking the wall through to liberate the space taken by a small shop area they used to have but now replaced by a serving counter. We also begged some empty Prosecco miniature bottles as a neighbouring table was being cleared, ready for the damson gin I hope to make the minute I have picked all the damsons off the decades old series of damson trees that runs along the bottom of our garden.
Then after lunch we made our way to see some other relatives on Ken’s side of the family who live in Old Colwyn ( not too far away) and we managed to get a bit of sea air into our lungs before the visit. We both had lots of Covid-19 stories to share with each other. In particular, the police in North Wales seem to have interpreted their role very zealously moving anybody from sitting on the benches overlooking the sea even though the guidance at the time said you could tale a rest whilst taking your daily exercise. Some members of the family are currently in New Zealand so it was to interesting to share stories of how they were coping with the virus over there. I made the offer to give some advice on dissertation writing as an MA needed completing within the next few months and whilst I was working I was responsible for providing the material for dissertation writing on all of the undergraduate programs.
When we eventually got home, we turned to see what was on the TV tonight, only to find it all seemed to be absolute rubbish. However on BBC4 they were re-broadcasting the film of ‘Brideshead Revisited’ and although initially, I was not sure that I liked the production ( a voiceover giving expression to some of the actions and emotions as though read out from the book itself) eventually from the half-way point onward I got absolutely absorbed, not least because one could never be quite sure what the ‘denouement ’ was going to be.
As a postscript, I might add that this blog has been written twice over because whilst at the point of saving the final draft, the iPad seemed to ‘freeze’ (every computer user’s nightmare!) and I lost everything I had written and just had to sit down and write it all again!
Today was a day on which Meg and I were left to our own devices, so we had already decided that we spend some of our free time in Chester. To access the city centre, it is best to utilise the city’s ‘Park and Ride’ scheme which we did, finding to our relief that the bus was very under-populated with only about four other couples on the bus. Naturally, we were all masked up and sitting with at least one empty row of seats between us and with maximum ventilation so we did not feel any imminent COVID-19 threat. We needed to negotiate some blustery rain but discovered that in our favourite little cafe hard by the city walls, we needed to have booked at least an hour beforehand. But we did find another little more down-market cafe which was open and served us our morning coffee and toasted tea cakes, all of which were delicious. We then bought our daily ration of newspapers and went in search of a restaurant where we thought it prudent to book a mid-day meal. We did not find what we were looking for so decided to go to the cathedral -but right in its shadow, we found an Italian restaurant which accepted our booking for an hour and a half later which just gave us time to take a tour of the cathedral.
In the cathedral, we wondered if we could repeat the experience of several months ago and attend the mid-day service. But as luck would have it, the services are not yet being offered on Friday’s so we had to choose some alternatives. We spent some time browsing in the cathedral shop and treated ourselves to a CD of ‘Essential Organ Classics’ (played by leading concert organists on seven famous organs, accosting to the splurge on the CD cover note.) How many of them we will recognise remains to be seen – we will treat ourselves tomorrow morning on the way home in the car. We like Chester Cathedral – it has the minimum of what I call military clutter which adorns (?) walls of so many Anglican cathedrals. They had an exhibition of the work of Graham Sutherland ( the designer of the huge backdrop in Coventry Cathedral) but we have to say it didn’t exactly get the pulses racing.
The journey home seemed quite extraordinary. No sooner had we strolled down to the bus station but an empty bus awaited us and we drove to the Park and Ride depot as though we were in an individualised taxi (to be fair, we did pick up the odd passenger on the journey through Chester). And so to bed for a siesta and then packed up nearly all of the things in our suitcases ready for our departure in the morning. I mapped a slightly different route on the way back to maximise the motorway component and minimise the ‘driving around roundabouts’ component.
The political news of this evening is that ‘failing Grayling’ (the incompetent ex-minister who failed to be elected as the Chair of the Security and Intelligence Committee) has resigned from the committee. God knows what kind of a mess the country would be in if Boris Johnson had had his way and Grayling had been elected as chair of the committee. One of the most perceptive of comments on the British political scene came from a Tory grandee, Nicholas Soames, who commented on the fact that civil servants are being sacked left, right and centre but no politician has yet resigned: ‘Either this government has had the worst luck in the world – coming to power just as the civil service produced a freak crop of uniquely hopeless leaders – or the worst cabinet in my 36 years in Parliament may have found an alarming way of covering up its inadequacies’
First. I must issue an apology to regular readers of this blog about the appalling number of typos and other errors that crept into last night’s blog. I was composing in on my iPad and these machines are not very good for the production of text (not having a mouse for a start) and all that I can say is that the normal spell-checking/grammatical check did not seem to function on the iPad as it does on my Mac back at home. Anyway, all of these infelicities were soon put right when sitting in front of a conventional desktop. Today was the day of our return but we had done a lot of the packing up last night. As it was, we set the alarm to get up about an hour earlier to give us time to get everything finished off and then we went down to breakfast somewhat earlier. So we had got all breakfasted and the car packed up and ready to leave at a few minutes to 10.00 am. We had mapped out a slightly different route to hit the M6 but we followed the road signs to the M6 and hit the M6 a junction further down than we had intended. We pulled in at Stafford services to have a drink of our own coffee (flask filled in the hotel at breakfast) and made a toilet visit but doing everything we could to minimise exposure to the virus (even to the extent of taking our own pack of wipes with us – or at least Meg did). We had an entertaining moment when we emerged from the exit because we didn’t quite recognise where we were and wondered if we would have to spend ages hunting for the car. We then retraced our steps and realised our mistake. There was an exit right next to the toilet area which we had taken, forgetting that we had entered at another entrance which was actually at an angle of 90º to the exit we had mistakenly taken. So we found the car with no difficulty!
We got home about 1.00 and had a light lunch of soup before starting one of the principal weekly jobs i.e. cutting of the lawns. Actually, with a reliable petrol mower, this is no problem at all and I have got it off to a fine art (40 minutes in the front), then a tea-break and then 20 minutes at the back. The job used to take somewhat longer when I used to cut my neighbour’s lawn for him but with excellent new neighbours, that is one chore less. As I cut the lawns, I surveyed the damson trees which seem absolutely laden with fruit. Actually, I am so relieved that the fruit has survived the tremendous gales of last week and tomorrow is the day when the great harvesting will commence. When you only do jobs once a year, you have to remember where your particular ‘gear’ is kept – Christmas is generally no problem because most families keep all of their Christmas clobber in one place. But with other jobs that you do one a year, one sometimes has to pick up the pieces. I know that prior to picking the fruit tomorrow I will need to (a) sterilise all my bottles and Kilner jars – for this, I use some Boots sterilising fluid used for babies bottles and the like (Time to find this: 2 minutes in the garage) Then, I need to consult my little hardback book in which I keep records of fruit gathered and recipes (Tine to find the book: 15 minutes!) On consulting my little hardback notebook, my record year seems to have been 2015 when I picked 1300 damsons whereas last year was absolutely terrible for unknown reasons and I only managed to pick 170. Why I count the damsons as I pick them is not just pure ritualism but to helps me to assess the kind of progress that I am making and also, more critically, to work out how much sugar and gin I need to buy. My little book tells me that 100-120 damsons are about 600 grams of fruit and this needs 1 litre of gin so I can work out how many litres of gin I need to buy. I generally go to Asda for this and will buy the biggest (i.e. 1.5 litre bottle) and the cheapest gin I can find. I must say, I always feel a little self-conscious about buying so much gin but the supermarket assistants never to seem to turn a hair. A progress report will follow tomorrow.
After the journey of yesterday, it seemed to take Meg and I a long time to get going this morning, so much so that we failed to get into newspaper shop before they closed at 11.30 but fortunately managed to get our supplies from Waitrose which is just around the corner. I generally read Meg my blog’s from the night before but today she had three to contend with as she has rather missed out as we were travelling away. Then on the way home we bumped into some of our old church friends who were busy in their front garden (which is often the case) As we had not seen them for several days, it was good to have a chat about life in general – and I was donated a so as a yellow clump of something that will grow ‘anywhere’ so as I always have some odd corners to populate in Mog’s Den, this was gratefully received. By the time we got home, the morning was practically gone so we did not even our normal perusal of the Sunday newspapers but cracked straight on with lunch.
This afternoon was scheduled to be the great ‘damson’ harvest and as I have mentioned before our old trees seemed to be truly laden this year. According to my records, the previous total that I had gathered was 1,300 fruits so I wondered whether that total would be exceeded this year. Believe it or not, sometimes I can lose track of what count I have got up to, so I relied upon an old cricketing umpire’s trick by keeping a supply of old pennies in one pocket and transferring them (not after every ball but after every hundred fruits) to ensure that I could keep an accurate count. I started picking at 3.00 pm and by 5.00 pm the job was done. Evidently, the first bucket (of 1000 fruits) was relatively easy – as they say, ‘picking the low hanging fruit’ From then on, though, it became progressively harder as I have to resort to a rake which pulls down the taller branches with one hand whilst I pick with the other. However, I was delighted to exceed my previous best which was 1,300 fruits 5 years ago. Today, I picked 1,750 fruits which were 35% more than the previous best. My estimate is that I have picked 9.5 kilos which is nearly 21 lbs of fruit. Again, according to my little book, I am going to need approx 16 litres of gin tomorrow, so I anticipate a very busy day as each damson has to be pricked 4-5 times and then the kilner jars have to be loaded up with the right amount of both sugar and gin.
Tonight there seem to be several pressures building upon the government. The first of these is the re-opening of the school allied to thousands of university students arriving in ‘strange’ cities to take up their places in the now bursting universities. Although in the school and the universities sterling efforts have no doubt been made to preserve bubbles, social distancing and the like, I get a terrible feeling that all might go absolutely ‘pear-shaped’ and these two pressures alone will cause quite an increase in the infection rate. Then, of course, the furlough schemes will progressively start to end, with the result that the unemployment rate will soar. Backbench Tory MP’s will be returning to Westminster this week knowing that according to one opinion poll, the Tory lead over Labour has shrunk to zero, a high proportion of the population feel that the government has not acted with any degree of competence in handling the COVID19 crisis and the Chancellor of the Exchequer is planning big tax rises on the rich to help to pay for it all. The next few weeks are going to be both critical and traumatic aa, after all, handling a lockdown is relatively easy but releasing a lockdown calls for degrees of political sensitivity and skill not yet manifest in the Boris Johnson scheme of things. There is some talk of Johnson stepping down in about six months – and the Tory party did get of Thatcher when it suited them (and for those with long memories Churchill was turfed out by the electorate in 1945)
Today, for whatever reason, Meg and I got off to rather a slow start and consequently only started our morning walk to the park at about 11.00. I had wasted quite a lot of time, though, trying to make a doctor’s appointment through one of the new fancy front-ends that no doubt are springing up all over the country. All seemed to be well until I clicked on ‘Make an appointment’ only to get the message to the effect that no online appointments were available for this GP’s practice. Whether this was a system glitch, or a Bank Holiday type hitch, who can say. There was a mass of information about COVID19 and what to do if you suspect you are a victim of the virus. But what you might have called ‘routine’ or ‘conventional’ illnesses seem to have completely disappeared. The GP waiting rooms in our practice used to be full to bursting but I now wonder if (on non-Bank Holiday times) the GP’s are sitting twiddling their fingers because patients cannot be seen ‘in the flesh’ and getting access through online systems seems problematic if my own experience is typical (which, of course, it may not be) When we eventually got to the park today, though, we met one of our ‘park regulars’ who had been looking out for us because she had a booklet which identified all of the trees in the park and she was going to let us have sight of it (As each tree has an ID number attached to its trunk, then the local authority must have a database and I wonder whether anyone has sought to access this in the past.)
I knew that today was going to be a heavy ‘damson processing’ day so the first task was to scour the local supermarkets for the cheapest and largest bottles of gin I could find (preferably 1.5-litre bottles). Fortunately, the three cheap supermarkets of Asda, Lidl and Aldi are all within spitting distance of each other. I started off in Asda where I purchased some 1.5-litre bottles of really cheap vodka, so I am going to experiment this year with a few bottles of damson vodka as well. Whilst there, I bought a catering pack of sugar which is going to be useful, plus a few bottles of Asda’s rock-bottom price gin. Then I made for Lidl but these seemed to be a dead loss for my purposes as they a lot of fancy gins but nothing to suit the likes of me who just want to but cheaply and in bulk. Finally, I went into Aldi where I used to shop regularly where I purchased 10-litre bottles of their cheapest gin. Incidentally, once I got these home my daughter-in-law expressed horror that you cannot go into a pharmacy or supermarket and buy more than two over-the-counter analgesics (for fear they might be used in an overdose situation) but you can buy 10 litres of gin (which would surely kill you) without any let or hindrance. Then I set to work with my preparations. The first task is to sterilise all of the kilner jars with a sterilising fluid (Boots ‘Baby sterilising fluid’) in my case. Then comes the most tedious and time-consuming part of the process. Each damson fruit has to stabbed about five times so that the fruit can release its essences into the gin. This is a very time-consuming process and I was hard at work most of the evening and only finished at about 10.45. The way I perform this task is to count out the fruit in 100’s so that I have a very accurate count of how much fruit I have. Then instead of constant weighing, I will put the correct number of fruits inside each jar and the requisite amount of sugar – these quantities I know from records I have kept in the past. Then it is just a case of topping up the fruit and sugar mixture with gin, giving it a good shake and then leaving it in a darkish place until about December when it will all got bottled into those little wine bottles or cordial bottles you see (which are suddenly worth their weight in gold). Then they just to have been given a shake once or twice a week to encourage the fruit to release its essences into the gin. Having got this task completed, my hands look a complete mess as they are heavily stained from handling so much fruit but no doubt they will improve over time!
I am ashamed to say that today of all days (the first of the month) I forget to say ‘White Rabbits! White Rabbits! White Rabbits!’ and to keep my fingers crossed behind my back until we saw a policeman riding on a white horse. That’s what we used to do in Yorkshire when I was pretty young but I gather that younger generations used to say ‘Pinch! Punch! First of the month‘ and then pinch? punch? their siblings accordingly. I must say that if I were to wait until I saw a police person riding any sort of horse, let alone a white one, I would wait for ever. Meg and I had made a much earlier start this morning as I knew that we had a quicker turn around before I went off to my resumed Pilates class at the end of the morning. We had some words with our Italian friend on the way down to the park and then went to collect some newspapers from our little (Asian-owned) newspaper shop. I knew that the elderly Asian proprietor was enjoying watching Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy‘ and there was an expression used of one of the principal characters that she was a ‘lipstick girl’ Although I think I can guess at the meaning (a girl who has adopted western styles of dress. modes and behaviour including the wearing of lipstick?)I thought I would enquire of the Asian shopkeeper if he knew what the expression might mean. This is the point at which one must say – never make assumptions. In reply to my question I got the response ‘I’ve never been to India in my life. I come from California!‘ Later on in the park, we met one of our park friends who had kindly brought along a book of trees for us to borrow so that we could identify all of the trees in the park (when we have time) And finally, on the way home, we bumped into another friend but he was busy doing his constitutional walk in a slightly different direction so we had a rapid conversation and then parted. Quite a busy social morning, actually
Today my Pilates class was resuming but, of course, it had ro be organised in a completely different way. We had all brought along with us our own gear (principally our Pilates mat) and some of us remembered that we should also have brought our balls along with us. But the class was confined to 4 of us, each in a separate zone of the studio whist our instructor took up her position in the open door but protected by a screen. One of our regulars was also following us on Zoom as some of the other class members had been doing but I had not bothered. We remembered our exercise routines, largely, and although it been the best part of six months since we had held a class together, altogether we performed pretty well as a group. From now one, it will be only upwards and onwards.
This afternoon was the start of the great damson preparation. In theory it is all very simple – add to a sterilised jar the requisite amount of damsons, then the calculated sugar and then top up with gin (followed by a vigorous shake to dissolve the sugar) The only complication is that as one moves from larger to smaller size of kilner jar, one has to recalibrate by altering the amounts of the ingredients. Gin gets measured out as either 3/4 litre or 1/2 litre by the simple expedient of marking out the relevant portion with a felt tip pen on the side of the bottle. So far, I think I have processed somewhat less than one half of the damsons and will have to press some plastic into service (I only like to use glass kilner jars if I possibly can).
Earlier on today, I had emailed Meg’s cousin’s daughter to see if we could make a lightning visit to pay a visit to Bolton in about a month’s time. Looking at the distance and proximity to the motorways, if looks as though we could there and back in one day quite easily. However, tonight as I write it looks as Bolton is enduring a spike in COVID cases and the council may be asking for an extension of the restrictions that were due to expire tonight. So everything is rather up in the air now and we shall to wait and see how the situation develops to see if our intended trip is still viable or not.
We knew that today was going to be quite busy and so it proved. We made a reasonably early start to our morning walk but didn’t connect with anybody on the way down to the park or indeed on the way back until we bumped into the daughter of some near neighbours who was busy working on her garden. As we had not spoken for months, we had quite a lot of news to exchange about how we were coping with the COVID situation. Our neighbour explained to us that she was due to return to work in a solicitor’s office in the next day or so and was regarding it with a certain degree of apprehension. I am sure that those feelings are shared right across the country. In fact, I saw a headline from the Financial Times which read : ‘Goodbye to the ‘Pret economy’ and good luck to whatever replaces it’ and that is quite an interesting thought. The article continues:
Britain’s first packaged sandwich was sold by Marks and Spencer in 1980 for 43p, and the first ‘Pret A Manger’ opened six years later. It was a decade of economic transformation: city offices were replacing factories as engines of growth, and sandwiches were the fuel they ran on—
What we are seeing, or rather living through, is a transformation of our economy and it is going to look very different as traditional city centres, bustling with people, become less populated and it is possible that well-paid workers might now be spread more equally throughout the towns of the country. As the FT article indicates, the kind of economy in which a young Romanian worker who got up at 3.0am to commute for an hour and a half into Waterloo for a wage of £16,000 was not really sustainable before the lockdown and is even less so now. Many workers will have discovered that working at home, despite the lack of social contact enjoyed in the workplace, had its advantages when you take away the daily commute, having to buy clothes for work, not to mention the daily sandwiches. If I had to make a prediction, it would be that we would see the rise of a ‘sandwich box’ culture which always had a rather industrial tinge to it but may well enjoy a resurgence if enterprising entrepreneurs can tap into a new social trend.
After lunch, Meg had an appointment with the optician who has seen us for years – according to Meg, her eyes have hardly changed and she and the optician spent some time going up and down memory lane together. In the meanwhile, I had run out of kilner jars to process my damsons into damson gin but I was incredibly fortunate to pop into the nearby Poundland and alleviate them of their stock of 1 litre Kilner jars (which, to be truthful, I did not expect to find there). Then after I had collected Meg from her optician’s appointment, we made our way to a Home Bargains store nearby where I managed to locate some 1.5 litre kilner jars which I added to my stock. As soon as I got these all home, I gave them a sterilisng rinse ready for more filling activities this evening.
Tonight I decided to install a specialist text editor for the MAC called ‘Atom‘ onto a laplop I keep in the lounge – the purpose of this is that I can blog, keep an eye on the television and keep Meg company at the same time. Having got this installed and configured just about, I had no idea what key strokes were necessary to activate the viewing of the HTML code as it would appear in a browser – I knew from another version of this software installed on my main MAC how this should work. After a frustrating hour I solved the problem – you actually had to install a specialist plug-in to view your code in a browser. Why this shoud be regarded as an add-on and not an integral part of the text editor, I cannot discern but it is always a relief to eventually get a problem solved and working the way you want.
It was quite a fine and pleasant day today, so our walk down into the park was even more pleasurable than usual – a pleasure compounded by the fact that we managed to pick up the very last Times and Guardian in the store. We had no particular commitments in the morning and we were pleased to have a chat with our Italian friend on the walk down as well as some of our oldest friends on the way home. Lunch was an all-vegetarian affair today being a cheese and onion quiche with some Cavolo Nero kale (black cabbage) and a mixture I often do at the end of a week to use up bits and pieces (onions, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms with a shake of fruity brown sauce and a touch of garlic salt). This afternoon, I busied myself with getting the rest of the damson gin prepared and I managed to make rapid progress as I now the proportions of damson, sugar and gin off to a fine art for the 1-litre kilner jars I bought yesterday. I finished off in the late afternoon with the preparation of nearly 3 litres of damson vodka which is a bit of an experiment this year. All in all, I have prepared some 17 litres of damson gin/vodka which, if I can accumulate enough 20 cl bottles, should give me some 80+ little bottles to give away to relatives, friends, and acquaintances particularly over the festive season, if I manage the bottling process for early December. All I have to do is to make sure that the bottles get agitated at least once a week to ensure that the sugar is completely dissolved and that the damsons have released all of their precious essences.
I had a bizarre experience in the early evening when I had a physiotherapy appointment timed to start at 7.30. When I got there, the building appeared closed and no-one responded to my ringing of the bell. I assumed that I must have made a mistake and the appointment must have been for 7.30 am! No sooner had I got home but the physiotherapist was on the phone enquiring as to my whereabouts. I raced back down to the centre (only a mile distant) and it seemed that some sort of administrative mix-up had occurred – the front door should not have been locked and the physiotherapist, working late, could not in her treatment room hear the sound of the front doorbell. Anyway, all’s well that end’s well as I was eventually seen and teated by my local physiotherapist who has an excellent local reputation. Our Pilates classes are held in her premises and I have been attending these classes for many years now, so much so that there is great anticipation towards the end of the year of a ritual appearance of Fr. Christmas and his distribution of bottles of damson gin to all and sundry.
One particular opinion piece in tomorrow’s newspapers caught my eye. It came under the headling in The Guardian that ‘Labour’s poll comeback doesn’t yet threaten the Tory brand‘ and it seemed such a persuasive piece that I thought it worth quoting verbatim.
The Conservative brand, relative to Labour, remains remarkably resilient. In a recent poll by JL Partners, taken in the aftermath of the exam results crisis, voters still saw the Tory party as more “competent and capable” than Labour. They also named Labour as the most divided party, by a margin of 15 points. This is important: it does not much matter if voters think the Conservatives are a bit rubbish if they think Labour is even more rubbish. Brands are formed in relative terms rather than absolute terms, and for now, this is an advantage for the Tories.
It is rather parallel to what is happening in the US where the prominent commentator Michael Moore (who correctly and almost single-handedly predicted the Trump victory in the last presidential election) was warning that the bedrock support for Trump is still so fervent that a second Trump victory cannot be ruled out.
I conclude without any further comment except to say that if a Labour government had shown such a lack of direction and incompetence, it would almost certainly have fallen by now…
The weather has turned colder this morning so we had to wrap up a little warmer as well as ensuring that we were not caught in a shower. In the park, we often have interesting conversations with dog-owners and today was no exception – today, it happened to be the lady owner of a magnificent looking golden retriever. I suspect that by now Meg and I have seen more varieties of dog than we have had hot dinners – this is largely because, I suspect, the dogs suspect that some little titbits might be on offer and come bounding up to greet us as we drink our coffee on the park benches. Earlier on today, I wondered how I could process the remaining 90 grams of damsons that I had left over from the damson gin/vodka bottling activities. I did a quick bout of research on the web and decided not to bother making jam but just make a compote of fruit. All I had to do was to add three-quarters a cup of graduated white sugar and then let it simmer for a few minutes. Then I emptied the mixture into two spare kilner jars once it had cooled and put a little greaseproof circle of paper in each one (I have seen other people do this in jam but I am not absolutely sure why). I gave one of these jars away to our domestic help who had a little taste of it and declared it to be absolutely delicious. For our evening meal, we decided to have some rice pudding and try out a little of the compote which we had to flavour it and I agree – it really was delicious! I suppose, though, that it will have to be eaten up fairly quickly as there is no preserving agent in it but that is no hardship. As I had explained to our near neighbour how laden the damson trees were this year, we spotted that she had gone ‘the long way round’ and entered the field at the back of our house and using the footpath (and fighting off the sheep) had taken her pick of what must have masses of fruit growing on the other side of the hedge. Food for free – a thought for our times.
As we seem to have been quite busy with damson-related activities, Meg and I were a little tired so allowed ourselves a restful afternoon. I occupies myself with the really exciting activity of removing the labels from some small 20cl bottles which I will eventually fill once the gin has matured. However, I do need to collect about 70-80 of these within the next few months so I am on the scrounge already.
I don’t normally comment on what is going on on the TV but tonight is rather an exception. As I am writing this blog, I am listening to Ravi Shankar’s daughter giving a stunning performance on the sitar as part of tonight’s promenade concert (but to an empty Albert Hall no doubt) When I was at university and going out with Meg, she and her flatmate had got some tickets to see Ravi Shankar himself and so she actually saw a performance of his ‘in the flesh’ as it were and, in the fullness of time. I wish now that I could have gone along as well. At the time, we were all enamoured with Joan Baez, a Mexican-American folk-singer (and one time ‘amante’ of Bob Dylan, who wrote ‘Diamonds and Rust’ as their relationship was ending) When Joan Baez came to Birmingham about two years ago we went to see her perform in one of her (many) farewell concerts. Whilst there, her road manager was selling off some very early recordings of Joan Baez and I purchased one of these in which, as a 17 year old, she is singing accompanied only by herself on her guitar a version of ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ Many people will know the raucous Animals version of this but the Joan Baez rendition is something out of this world. She had the most incredibly clear diction – how many people realise that the whole song is about the song-writer’s sister caught up in prostitution in ‘The House of the Rising Sun‘. Enough reminiscences for one day!
This morning, we attended a church service at St. Mary’s next to Harvington (some 7 miles distant but very easily reached) where we formed part of a small congregation of about 14 people. We missed last week because of our Chester trip but this is now going to become part of our Saturday morning routine. Today, as we walked down into town, it was quite a ‘chatty’ day as it turned out because we met a numberof our friends and acquaintances. First we met our Italian friend with whom we chatted for a few minu tes and then, in two halves, first the husband and then the wife of two of our oldest ‘church’ friends. We felt quite fortunate, actually, to get our full complement of Saturday newspapers this morning because Extinction Rebellion and other groups had demonstrated against elements of the Murdoch process (which include ‘The Times’) thereby stopping quite a lot of today’s production. The Saturday newspapers, particularly The Guardian, typically contain supplements and guides to the TV programmes for the week ahead, so it is quite reassuring to get all of the relevant ‘bits’ (as sometimes parts can detached from each other).
Ever since our student days, we tend to make a curry once a week and as it was a little chillier today than normal, it seemed to be a good excuse to make one. Actually, it is a little uncomplicated (starting off with a little mince in the absence of any other left-overs) and then a melange of onion, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and petit pois to which is added a little gravy made of vegetable stock. But what makes this curry a little more special is that I add some sultanas (and sometimes sliced apple/pear in the summer) together with a little Demerara sugar. I tend to add the curry powder mixed to a paste late on the proceedings so that I can gradate the intensity of the curry according to the tastes of the eventual consumers. Finally when dished up (rice for Meg, low-carb cauliflower rice for me), it gets served with a goodly sloop of plain yogurt which proves a ‘counter-note’ to the hotness of the curry.
There is going to be a story published in tomorrow’s Observer that the COVID-19 virus might be epidemic in areas of the country that combine severe deprivation, poor housing and large BAME communities, according to a highly confidential analysis by Public Health England. The five worst-hit areas are all currently in the north-west. Bolton had 98.1 cases per 100,000 people last week, with 63.2 in Bradford, 56.8 in Blackburn and Darwen, 53.6 in Oldham and 46.7 in Salford. Milton Keynes, by comparison, had 5.9 per 100,000, and it was 5.2 in Kent and 3.2 in Southampton. The article suggests that these parts of the country have never really recovered from the height of the infection. The data on housing is extraordinarily important. Overcrowded households are part of public health history. Housing conditions are so important and always have been, whether it was for cholera or tuberculosis or Covid-19. As one commentator has suggested: “Doing something about housing conditions for someone who has an active infection is extremely important and it is not something that can be handled by a call centre run by a commercial company hundreds of miles away.”
This story is quite an important one as it has all types of implications for the way in which we handle such infections. The current model suggests that we should so develop a local ‘trace-and-test’ regime that any new sources of infection are quickly addressed. But if the virus is indeed, endemic and deeply embedded in our poorest communities, then the policy implications are clear but unpalatable to right wing governments. It implies that only a radical redistribution of income and urgent attention given to the housing conditions of the most deprived parts of the community (massive extension of social housing?) can be the only long term solution, unless of course some protection is afforded by a vaccine which may never appear.
This morning was one of those beautiful, bright crisp days (although it was not to last) and I had decided to take the opportunity to walk down early to my regular newspaper shop in order to secure a supply of my normal Sunday newspapers and then get back in time for the Andrew Marr show starting at 9.0 When I got to the newsagents, I asked the elderly Asian proprietor if he had watched the recent transmission in the BBC Proms series of the concert by Anoushka Shankar (Ravi Shankar’s daughter) – as it happened, he had and we exchanged thoughts as to how enthralled we both were by the performance. I happened to mention that my wife had seen Ravi Shankar play in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in about 1966, whereupon the shopkeeper told me that he and his family had served Ravi Shankar a meal when he was playing in a refurbished concert hall in Coventry in 1966. They say that there are ‘six degrees of separation’ which is the idea that all people in the world are six, or fewer, social connections away from each other – by this theory, assuming that Ravi Shankar had met Indira Ghandi on several occasions then we are only about 4 jumps away from Indira Ghandi if you follow my drift. After we had watched the Andrew Marr show, Meg and I walked down to the park and, upon leaving the house, had a chat with our next-door neighbour who like us is shortly to celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries and the like (we made a mental note of when these are!). On our way down the hill, we saw the grandchild of one of our sets of friends (we knew it she had been born last December) that we had heard a lot about but not actually seen until today. Then, on the way home, we had a long, long chat with some other friends. In particular, we wanted to know how their grandson had fared after the ‘A’-levels debacle. It so happened that he was more than happy to accept and keep with his second choice of university (even though his first had come back to him, offering to honour their promise of a place) and was already making active preparations to start his new university term. In the course of our extended conversation, we covered various childhood traumas that had afflicted on of our friends and then ranged several other things, including how our friend Alistair had returned to Ceylon (as it was then called) for a family vacation, missed our wedding but their family showed us with gifts when we got married on September 9th, 1967.
Although this blog is written and published using WordPress, I also keep a parallel text version of it and I thought that as we were up to day 174, it would be useful to keep up some back-ups. I keep two different backups on two different servers so that if one of them went ‘belly up’ then the other would always be available. Whilst doing this, I worked out how to configure my version of CyberDuck (an FTP client) ensuring that I always start off with the correct local and remote folders ready. This means that a backup will be an easy task to do regularly, particularly if it does not become too complicated or burdensome.
We had hoped to go and visit Meg’s recently bereaved cousin who is in sheltered accommodation in Bolton, Greater Manchester. I suppose it is the operation of ‘Sod’s law‘ that of all the towns and cities where Meg’s cousin might have gone to live to be near her daughter, Bolton is the one town which by a large margin is heading the infection ‘league’ with 99 cases per 100,000 – by way of contrast, Blackburn with Darwen which is just next door has a rate of 48 per 100,000. We shall have to wait and see whether this subsides in time for a planned visit on the occasion of Meg’s birthday in about a month’s time. Today, there is even more grim news that the new infection rate has increased from 1,800 yesterday to 3,000 today (which is a dramatic, not to say concerning, rate of increase) So far as we can tell, the new infection rate seems to predominate in the 18-49 age group and there is a rumour in one of today’s newspapers that the Bolton ‘spike’ originated in one traveller returning from holiday, infected (perhaps by fellow Brits not observing social distancing rules whilst on holiday) and then going on a pub crawl leaving a trail of destruction behind him…
Meg and I both slept in a bit this morning, for reasons which we cannot quite discern. In any case, it was not a particularly bright and cheerful day so I went and collected the newspapers on my own whilst Meg stayed within the house. Today, we missed out on our normal walk through the park but yesterday, an incident occurred which, in retrospect, I find amazing. The mother (or it might have been another female relative for all I know) of two little boys who I estimated to be about three years old encouraged them to go and ‘spend a penny’ by pulling down their trousers and relieving themselves against the trunk of one of the nearby trees. Then she thought it would be a good idea to record a clip of their bare bottoms on her mobile phone, to her great amusement. I thought I had seen lots of things in the course of my life, but nothing quite like this.
After lunch, I had prepared myself for a cutting of the communal lawns but a sudden shower put paid to the ‘best laid plans of mice and men’ Accordingly, I thought I would delay things for an hour or so because often the clouds roll away in the late afternoon, giving a window of opportunity if the grass is not too wet to be cut at this stage. I am reminded that sometimes the gardening books would say ‘If you intend to do such-and-such, then choose a nice day…‘ but chance would be a fine thing. As it was a bit of a messed up afternoon, I amused myself with a detailed reading of the newspapers and a comparison of the various engine characteristics of our present car, previous car and next intended car – actually, they are all much of a muchness, so that I doubt that in practice I will witness very much change at all. I did manage to get the lawns cut in the late afternoon, after all (and just before another shower intervened).
Apart from the constantly worrying COVID-19 infection rate (practically unchanged since yesterday at just a shade under 3.000 new infections), there is only one big political story in town tonight. That is the suggestion that the UK may unilaterally rip up the Withdrawal Agreement (which has the status of a treaty in both national and international law) The government is claiming to be just doing little ‘tidying up’ but the EU and the Irish are deeply concerned. Not to put too fine a point on it, if the UK rips up an international agreement and refuses to abide by it, then the UK become a ‘rogue’ or a ‘parish’ state whose word will be trusted by no-one. Whether this is meant to be the ultimate in a negotiation tactic remains unclear as I write – but the consequences of it, as many commentators are saying, are dynamite.
The Northern Ireland SDLP leader is quoted as saying “How could any country come to an agreement with Britain if they’re prepared to rip up an international treaty? Could Britain really be prepared to sacrifice its credibility on the international negotiating stage in exchange for a more politically acceptable outcome to NI-GB trade?"
By way of a change from British politics, I decided to have a quick look at the current American political scene. On the one hand, the polls look very stable and with a consistent lead for Joe Biden over Donald Trump (50% to 42%) and ahead in 11 of the 14 ‘battle ground’ states. So on the face of it, it might look like an easy rise for the Democratic contender. On the other hand, there is an acknowledgement that the polls will tighten before November 3rd (polling day) and some informed commentators are arguing that there might be a massive ‘submerged’ but silent body of voters who will actually vote for Trump but not admit it to the pollsters ( bit like the ‘silent conservatives’ in the UK). In addition, Trump has been saying that he will probably challenge the result if he loses by claiming that the postal votes in the US are fraudulent (although this has never proved to be the case before) And who knows what dirty tricks will be unleashed on social media as polling day approaches? There has already been a ‘doctored’ photo of Biden making him look much older than he already is – this was taken down fairly rapidly on social media but not before it had been viewed by millions of voters (and the damage potentially done)!
We were a little late in walking down to the park this morning and thus missed some of our ex-Waitrose friends who had made a journey to the park in order that we have a surprise meeting – but it was not to be. When we set off the weather was quite cloudy and overcast so we wrapped up fairly warm but then the clouds rolled away and it got really quite warm and almost summer-like. Whilst in the park we noticed several other groupings where up to fifteen people had brought along their own chairs and were having a social (and legal) gathering but we were a little intrigued how the groupings had formed and been organised for their trip to the park in the first place. We had to hurry back up the hill because today was Mike’s Pilates day – classes resumed last Tuesday and we are re-establishing the pattern of several years duration except our numbers are now confined to four (one of us in each corner of the studio, plus one regular member of our group participating the class via ‘Zoom‘) Today we were put through our paces a little – last week we all had a gentle reintroduction but this week we are almost getting back to normal again. No doubt, I might feel a little stiff tomorrow but this must be for the best.
After the exertions of the morning, we had a fairly gentle afternoon but there was some interesting political news developing during the day. It appeared that Boris Johnson’s reported bid to override parts of his Brexit deal “does break international law”, a minister has admitted – as the head of the government’s legal department quit over his concerns about the move. The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, announced in the House of Commons conceded that the legislation to be published tomorrow it would go against the treaty in a “specific and limited way” and needless to say, this is causing many more traditional Tories to have severe worries about the damage about to be done to the UK’s international reputation (In the meanwhile, of course, the Brexiteers are absolutely delighted because they felt that the Withdrawal Agreement had ‘given away’ far too much already)
In the meanwhile, the COVID-19 infection rate is rising at an alarming speed, particularly amongst the young. The latest data reveals that the fast rate of increase is amongst the 17-21 age group whilst the 20-29-year olds have the highest rate of infection. The number of deaths has risen from 3 to 30. Public health officials are particularly worried that these younger people will soon infect their more frail relatives and we will see a spike in cases amongst the more elderly age groups in about 4 weeks time. What seems particularly distressing is that there appears to be little attempt amongst the young to social distance – lots of hugging and kissing particularly after a certain amount of alcohol has been consumed. Without sounding unduly authoritarian, I am amazed that the police do not move into certain pubs and in the absence of social distancing and the maintenance of adequate records (required by the law) to immediately close them down – for a month at least. One suggestion is that the more vulnerable age groups socially shield themselves – so the youngsters can go out and enjoy themselves! Surely the wrong way round.
Late on tonight has come the dramatic news that ALL social gatherings, whether indoors or outdoors, will be reduced from 30 to 6 as from next Monday. Nor is this guidance but will actually be the law – there are going to be a list of exemptions (churches for example?) but these will be published over the next few days. You can either say that the government is panicking or that it is acting with complete responsibility. [I must add a personal opinion that I am absolutely delighted because there were very clear signs that the COVID crisis was getting completely out of hand and the country as a whole needed (a) clear and unequivocal guidance (b) an indication of the seriousness of the situation]. In effect, we are almost going for a semi-lockdown – although places of work are to be exempt, pubs and restaurants will not be and I wonder whether this will prove to be the death knell for many of them?
Today, or rather today’s date, is rather a special day because it is Meg and my wedding anniversary. Today is anniversary No. 53 which is evidently three years on from the triple celebrations that we spent three years ago (one in Yorkshire for members of Mike’s family, one here in the Midlands for family and friends and the final one in Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain). Today, though, we had muted but equally enjoyable celebrations. We did undertake our normal walk to the park this morning which was uneventful. Then we had a lunch date organised at 1.00pm in our favourite hotel/restaurant some eight miles distant, where we incidentally we had held our Midlands celebrations three years ago. Meg and I chose some fairly simple things off the menu (roasted mackerel followed by sea bream for Meg, a delicious pork chop for Mike) but this was supplemented by a fantastic bottle of Rioja of which we seem to have been deprived for months. We had indicated to the hotel when we made the booking that it was going to be an ‘anniversary meal’ and so we had a pleasant surprise when to go with our coffee the chef had prepared a little side dish with some select chocolates and adorned with ‘Happy Anniversary‘ traced out in chocolate in the dish. We had a pleasant conversation with the restaurant manager (from Lithuania!) and made enquiries of our favourite member of the waiting staff who is ‘on furlough’ at the moment. Always when we have had lunch here, we take the opportunity to have a walk in the extensive hotel grounds which are maintained as a beautiful natural park. It is hard not to remind ourselves that we are actually in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside and I collected some ripe acorns which I hope to grow on. It was a most beautiful afternoon and one our way back in we exchanged some thoughts with our next door neighbour (whose own birthday celebrations were being impacted somewhat by the new ‘maximum of 6’ regulations to be in force from next Monday). We then enjoyed a nice treat of ice-cream and the obligatory cup of tea before settling in to relax for the evening. All of this might not sound very exciting but Meg and I have had a really enjoyable day.
The news the afternoon is still dominated by the two major stories of the new COVID restriction to 6 persons on the one hand and the Government plans to legislate in such a way that some of the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement (now a treaty in both national and in international law) is to breached. Actually, the BBC News website was full of a quite useful ‘question-and-answer’ section because the rules that sound simple in theory may be quite difficult to put into practice when people have made arrangements in groups such as birthday parties or walking groups. Although there is some over-optimist talk (not least from Boris Johnson) that the new restrictions might be lifted ‘by Christmas’ if all goes well, the ‘vox pop‘ interviews with random members of the public reveal that many people are resigned for the new measures to last at least until the spring. We shall have to wait and see.
In the meanwhile, the shock waves continue from the Johnson government intention to deliberately break some provisions of the internationally binding Withdrawal Agreement. The Irish, in particular, seem to be in a state of shocked disbelief, as they contemplate the possibility that that a hard border might be virtually re-installed in the island of Ireland. It seems that key components may contradict the Withdrawal Agreement passed by parliament last year, by letting ministers hand themselves the power to determine rules on state aid and goods travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Other European countries are dismayed that the UK is attempting to renege on its obligations in such a cavalier way and it raises the interesting question of why any group of trading nations would possibly want to conclude any kind of a deal with the UK if the respect for international law is so low that the UK will walk away later from any provisions that it does not like. Even as a negotiating tactic, this seems like a serious mistake by the government (although the ardent Brexiteers will, of course, be delighted).
Today was very much the ‘day after the day before’ i.e. everything seemed a bit of an anti-climax after the excitement of yesterday. Nonetheless, we ventured forth and collected our newspapers as well as calling in at a cut-price cosmetics store before settling down for our coffee and biscuits. In the park we met with one of our park friends who had previously lent us her book on trees – in return, I had shown her how to access my blog on her phone. She had not been particularly successful in this so I took over her phone for a few minutes and loaded the blog onto her in-phone browser (and everything seemed to work OK) Then we walked home in quite pleasant sunshine where the clouds had cleared somewhat to give us quite a pale sunshine. After lunch, I entertained myself by getting some file listing programs and empty web formats into one folder, instead of scattered in various places. I also refined the footer that I like to copy over into the bottom of each new web page indicating the day/date in UK format/time that the website was updated, made a little bit prettier with some in-line styling to get it the way I wanted (basically a smaller but italicised font in a pleasing but non-intrusive text colouration) This sounds quite straightforward but actually, the different ways of displaying a date in Javascript have to be seen to be believed so it took some web-searching to get exactly the format I wanted without an enormous volume of coding.
Tonight, we witnessed an extraordinary Promenade concert played, without an audience, in the Royal Albert Hall. Tonight was quite an extraordinary night because the principal work was Beethoven’s Seventh symphony. This was first dissected theme by theme and section by section of the orchestra – almost like taking a piece of machinery apart to see how it is constructed before it is all put back tother again. The second extraordinary part of tonight’s performance is that the members of the orchestra performed standing up and, obviously, socially distanced from each other. To my mind, the fact that the orchestra performed standing rather than sitting allowed the members of the orchestra to use their bodies more expressively (and much more so than if they sitting in a conventional way). The other musician who performs this way is Gustavo Dudamel who has forged an outstanding, internationally-renowned youth orchestra in Argentina – their performances are always enthusiastically received not least because the performances demonstrate so much vivacity and excitement. So it was tonight and, to my mind, the members of the orchestra were not also concentrating hard but really enjoying themselves in what is really a most exciting piece with a myriad of paces, colours and timbres. (In case, you think I am waxing lyrical it is because I was the leader of the second violins in my school orchestra at the age of 14 – then I changed schools to a school with no musical traditions at all and all of that investment and pleasure in my musical education came to an abrupt end)
As might be expected, there is a massive stand-off between the EU and the UK tonight. The EU is in effect saying ‘Withdraw this Bill in the next 20 days and/or we will sue you and the trade talks will be at an end‘ On the other hand, the UK is saying an absolute ‘No‘ What is making the EU apoplectic is the fact that the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill lists all the legislation that can now, once this is approved by parliament, be ignored by ministers. This includes, not only, as expected, the Northern Ireland Protocol, and “other provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement” but also – incredibly – “any other EU law or international law“. There is no further detail why this is necessary in the accompanying explanatory notes. Or why it doubles down a few lines later that this law can override “any other legislation, convention or rule of international or domestic law whatsoever, including any order, judgement or decision of the Europe Court or of any other court or tribunal” There is so much discontent amongst traditional Tories that a wrecking amendment may well be forthcoming when the Bill is presented to the House of Commons next week. The House of Lords may well be minded to reject the Bill – after all, their constitutional duty is to act as a brake on a maverick House of Commons. In addition, Nancy Pelosi. the speaker and ‘de facto’ leader of the Democrats in the USA Congress is, in effect saying to the UK that if you press ahead with anything that threatens to wreck the Northern Ireland peace deal, then forget about any trade deal with the USA (the Brexiteer’s long-cherished wish’)
It was a fairly warm day today which made our walk to the park as pleasant as always. On the way down, we met our Italian friend with whom we had a good chat. After picking up our newspapers, we called into the nearby Waitrose in order to buy a big bag of red potatoes, which I forgotten to put in my weekly order. We do not eat many potatoes these days (about one a day, baked in the microwave) Hence purchase of a large bag of the same only takes place about once a month or so. Attendance in the park seemed quite attenuated today – whereas in the past few days we have seen groups of up to about 15 complete with camping chairs, food etc. one wonders whether this will now be a thing of the past once the ‘Meet only 6’ regime kicks in.
This morning’s Daily Mirror has revealed the results of a study by the think-tank Demos in which Britain appears to be more divided over measures to curb coronavirus than it was over Brexit. Their study suggests the “social fractures” triggered by moves to halt the spread of Covid-19 have proved more controversial than the rows unleashed by the UK’s exit from the EU. Their online survey of 10,061 voters, carried out between July 31 and August 7, found 58% of mask wearers have “severely negative attitudes towards non-mask wearers”. Some 68% of people who stuck to strict lockdown rules have “strong negative views” about lockdown rule breakers. In comparison, only 33% of people who did not vote Leave in the 2016 EU referendum “resent, hate, or think people who voted for Brexit are bad people”, while 26% either “admire, respect or think they are good people”, the survey found. The upshot of all of this is just when we thought we had a real ‘culture wars’ between Brexiteers and Remainers, this divide has been replaced by an even stronger social divide in the case of mask wearers v. non-wearers. One can understand where some of this resentment comes from when those who have largely kept to the shielding, social distancing and mask-wearing rules have seen many elements of the younger generation openly flouting these conventions (and thereby putting at some severe risk any members of their family who are much older and/or more vulnerable).
This afternoon was largely devoted to reading (and some computing) with an eye as to what is happening politically. I had found in a web-search a simple directory listing written in PHP but I needed to find a way in which I could format the admittedly simple output into the font styles I wanted (hence combining HTML and PHP) I think more by good luck than anything else, I found a way to do this so, having succeeded, I think I will stop this particular line of experimentation.
The COVID-19 news today is pretty scary, whichever way you look at it. Birmingham has had to restrict the visiting of households (working out that this is how the transmission seems to be occurring) whilst the critical ‘R’ factor (= rate of reproduction) factor has risen to about 1.1 which is the highest value than has been the case since early March. When you consider that thousands of university students are about to travel all across the country to their new universities, one wonders what the effect of this is going to be when added to the return of the schools and the easing of the lock-down on commercial premises. The universities are really trying to do their best before the students return but the implications of all of this must be a bit scary to university chiefs and policy makers alike.
For those interested in the political process, the next week or so will prove to be absolutely fascinating. Boris Johnson will face opposition from Bexiteers who think the bill goes too far and from those who think it does not go far enough. Teresa May has indicated that she will head any opposition to the new proposals but fortunately for her she will be out of the country when some vital votes are taken. Otherwise, we would see the prospect of Teresa May voting against the Johnson government, having the Conservative ‘whip’ withdrawn and thereby being thrown out of the Conservative party. It is now well recognised that the ideological fervour of the Brexiteers is now so great that they honesrtly do not care if the entire economy is wrecked if there is no deal (which is now quite probable)
Today was one of those somewhat indeterminate types of day where nothing quite happens the way it should. For a start, Meg had a rather disturbed night last night so I went to church on my own which is a novel experience – I must say that it is some decades since I have done such a thing on my own, but there we are. Whilst Meg stayed in bed this morning, I wandered off down into town to collect my newspapers (thankfully intact for a Saturday) and then made a rather rare venture along our local high street before availing myself of the delights of ‘The Works‘ to buy some stationery materials for Meg. Whilst in town, I bumped into my ex-Waitrose friends with whom I used to have coffee once a week. We enquired about mutual friends and bemoaned the fact that that our regular sojourn in the Waitrose cafe is now no more. After my little bits of shopping, I had a solitary trudge home but it was made somewhat better because I had with me my ‘i-player’ I should point out that this is an extremely old i-Phone which is about eight years old and has no value in the market place. However, I had managed in the past to download about 200 tracks of classical music onto it and the play-back facilities of this gives it a new lease of life (Top tip – I tend to have it on ‘Aircraft Mode’ nearly all the time which massively conserves the battery life, given that I do now need it for WiFi/Web/phone purposes)
This afternoon was largely given over to domestic activities that are the type usually left to a Saturday afternoon. Tomorrow, though, we anticipate going to Oxford to lunch with some old friends. I haven’t taken the car into the centre of Oxford before but I am assured that car parking on a Sunday is usually unproblematic – now that I have my route planned out, I know how long it should take with a bit of extra ‘getting lost’ time added on in case of delays. This evening, I was trying to sort out a wicked little HTML/CSS problem that I think I have resolved. By the way, nothing is more infuriating when I am trying to get something to work on the computer which I know I had working OK in the past but now stubbornly refuses to be put right. It can be something as trivial as a misplaced semi-colon as I have just reminded myself. In the background, we had ‘Last Night at the Proms‘ going on where there has been some controversy (culture wars?) as the BBC were both unhappy and unsure about to broadcast the amazingly jingoist renditions which are normally quite good fun to watch but increasingly out-of-kilter in these times when we are beset by the COVID-19 crisis, Brexit negotiations and an impending constitutional crisis in which it looks as though Britain does not so much ‘rule the waves‘ but rather ‘waives the rules‘
Tomorrow’s Sunday newspapers are full of the news and the analysis of the news about the Internal Market Bill which Boris Johnson is due to bring before the Commons next week. Tow ex-Prime Ministers (Tony Blair and John Major), who happen to have ‘issues’ with each other, write jointly in the ‘Sunday Times’ that “We both opposed Brexit. We both accept it is now happening. But this way of negotiating, with reason cast aside in pursuit of ideology and cavalier bombast posing as serious diplomacy, is irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice.” In the meanwhile, it is evident from the expressions of urgent concern, that Britain is poised on the very edge of another major outbreak of COVID-19. The number of new cases diagnosed today was still of the order of 3,000 and there are fears that the younger generation, realising that they will be confined to a ‘group of six’ for the foreseeable future intend to have a party to end all parties whilst they can. Last night, a 19-year old in Nottingham held an illegal party for 50 in his house and was promptly fined £10.000 for it. Whether this is a sufficient deterrent is hard to say because the number of fines actually issued had been pretty small across the whole society.
Today was the day when we were due to visit Oxford to have lunch with our friends so we made sure that we had breakfasted in plenty of time and checked that we had got the postcode OK for the SatNav. As it happened, we left a little before we had intended but were lucky to get a parking place outside our regular newsagents and secured the last copy of the Sunday Times and the last copy of the Observer as well – required reading for later on. We had left ourselves a certain amount of getting lost/parking time but we arrived half-an-hour before our lunch date, got the car securely parked in a blocked-off road where they had lifted all of the parking restrictions and enjoyed quaffing lasses of Leffe (Belgian) beer before our friends arrived. We always enjoy their company and always seem to have a lot to chat about. Because the restaurant (well. more of a bistro actually) was on several floors and it meant Meg would have a lot of running around to do from the top floor to the basement where the toilets were located, the young but accommodating staff thoughtfully provided us with a place on the ground floor to minimise Meg having to traverse several lots of stairs. I had some sea-bass which I thought was well cooked and delicious but unfortunately, my good friend’s duck was well over-cooked and by the time it had been eaten it was a bit too late to complain about it (although we did – it should have been sent back) We decided to have our after-dinner coffees in another little cafe down the road – the street was stuffed full of eating places so it was not hard to find. There seemed to be many more young women in fashionably stylish and shortish skirts which, to my mind, is a lot more attractive than the ubiquitous jeans but I do acknowledge that it is a very male perspective (although Meg did agree with my perceptions)
We are feeling the need to be extra careful in our domestic arrangements now that our daughter-in-law has returned to her primary school. Our rather pessimistic feeling is that given the catchment area it is only a question of time before a virus is brought into the school but in the meantime, we are being extra careful with surfaces such as kitchen preparation areas, taps and door handles of all types and so on. Of course, this is the day before the ‘Rule of Six’ comes into operation. This seems to an easy rule to remember and put into effect but it is somewhat more complex to determine exactly how support bubbles are to be defined.
After. day or so of reflection, we now seem to be in a strange situation politically when Boris Johnson has two major rows on his hands at the same time (Brexit and COVID-19). Each of these has the ability to blow up in a rather spectacular fashion and, of course, you could say that they were linked. The Government has now made it illegal (subject to a fine) to have a meeting of more than 6 people (the so-called ‘Rule of 6’) but at the same time says that it fully intends to break international law over the status of Northern Ireland in the forthcoming Brexit discussions. The justice secretary indicated on TV his morning that he ‘would‘ resign if he asked to sanction any evident illegalities whereas the Attorney General (Sue Braverman) has been berated by fellow lawyers for bringing the whole of the legal profession into disrepute by not upholding the ‘rule of law’ following an oath that she took upon taking office. Of course, being an ardent Brexiteer, when she sought legal advice it was not from government lawyers (one of whom resigned last week anyway) but from known Brexiteers outside the government, arguing that it was quite acceptable to take legal advice from whichever quarter one wanted. Of course, if she had any integrity she would resign immediately but has indicated that she can ‘live with’ breaking international law even though past Prime Ministers and even past leaders of the Conservative Party and known Brexiteers like Michael Howard have indicated that Britain’s international reputation would be utterly trashed if we made agreements and then broke them immediately they ran foul of Brexit ideology (or should it be theology – a pure statement of faith!)
Past readers of this blog might know that as well as the WordPress version, I also maintain a parallel text version which, whilst not being indexed ‘per se’, allows interested readers to pick any day/date from the past six months to view the entry for that day (available at: http://mch-net.uk) Now that we have had six months of ‘lockdown’ my screen table of entries (7 columns of 26 rows) was now ‘full’ so I busied myself this morning with creating an extra table to follow on from the existing full one (I had tried to extend my previous table by inserting an extra column but this caused some overflow problems so I had to ‘undo’ it all – not particularly easy when there was a mass of HTML code to sort through). However, now is all ready to go so I am shortly to start to populate the second six-months worth of blog. Later in the day, I managed, after trawling the web, to dscover a couple of sites where I could test out the Viewports of a screen (either on a desktop, tablet or mobile) so that I could check out that my amended tables will now display correctly on my various devices without possibility of truncation or scrolling.
On our way down to the park this morning, we met some of our best friends who live ‘down the hill’ and we exchanged news about families, politics and the like. Then having collected our newspapers and done a little shopping in Waitrose, we fell into conversation with a guy who had spent many years in South Africa (and had a slight South African accent) and the subject got around to walking boots. I think this is because having walked down to the park every day for six months (and probably worn my boots for six months longer than that) the soles are starting to wear through (although I must say, they are still supremely comfortable inside). However a point is fast approaching when they will have to be thrown away but I would still like to get as much wear out of them as I can before they absolutely fall to bits. It was quite a warm day so when we eventually got home and to save a bit of time. we made ourselves a salad based around a small Waitrose quiche and that was very filling although rapidly thrown together.
After lunch, I spent some time checking the HTML code which I had needed to tidy up for an extension of the text version of this blog and then Meg and I got absorbed into the debate over the Internal Market Bill which Boris Johnson was going to head up himself. I thought that David Miliband and the SNP leader Ian Blackford made excellent attacking speeches and devastating critiques of the Prime Minister’s position. Altogether quite disheartening, then, that the opposition seemed to win all of the intellectual arguments but the Tories passed the bill this evening with a majority of 77 (which seems incredible). This is after three former Prime Ministers, two former Attorney Generals and a former Tory Leader have all indicated a profound disagreement with the stance of the Conservative party. What may be interesting to observe is what will now happen in the House of Lords (which is largely ‘unwhipped’ i.e. not instructed by party managers how to vote) which is meant to act as a brake on a maverick House of Commons. As all of the ‘Remain’ voting MP’s have now been thrown out of the Tory party or fail to be reselected by their constituency associations) the present Tory party is almost completely a Brexit or UKIP party (in effect, having taken over all of the UKIP party’s policies).
The ‘test-and-trace’ system seems to be in chaos tonight, as I write. As Allyson Pollock, a well-known NHS expert has written “That’s because a key part of it operates not as part of the NHS, but in parallel to it – as a network of commercial, privatised testing labs, drive-through centres and call centres. The chaos this has brought has resulted in huge gaps in the information available to local services, causing delays in accessing results and hampering efforts to control the outbreak. Instead of putting local public health experts and NHS services in charge of contact tracing, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, handed over responsibility to private companies such as the outsourcing giant Serco, which has previously been fined for deaths of workers and members of the public that could have been prevented. The list of problems in the test and trace system is already immense – three data breaches, poor training and faulty online administration systems among them”
Yet despite all this, the Government still hasn’t published the details of its contracts with the likes of Serco. According to the Treasury, £10bn of public money has been allocated to England’s test and trace programme but only £300m of additional funding has been offered to local authorities to support the system (ie.the private sector funded over thirty times as much as the public sector despite the evident failings of the former and the manifest productivity of the latter)
This morning, I noticed on my mobile that Meg and I had received a message indicating that we needed to contact the GP’s surgery to arrange for us to receive a ‘flu jab’. It seems particularly important that we get our jabs now and not delay, as we did two years ago, with the effect that supplies of the vaccine had run out. As it seems important that we receive our flu jab in a timely fashion, I stuck on the end of a phone for some 20 minutes before speaking to a human and actually getting an appointment booked in 13 days time on a Sunday. Last time, it was organised in huge batches like a military operation and I am sure the same will be true this year.
We tried a slightly different routine this morning, largely because we wanted to save some time so that Mike was not to have a tremendous rush-around as today is the ‘Pilates’ day when he has to leave the house for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. So today, we tried a ‘mixed economy’ when we drove to the park and parked in the car park and then went on foot to collect our newspapers. We then walked back to the park but had the benefit of the car for the journey home after we had our elevenses and this saved a critical half hour or so. The new arrangements worked out particularly well and it was a particularly warm and pleasant day for our little venture. We bumped into one of our ‘park friends’ with whom we chatted for a few minutes. Already we are noting that the maximum size of the group we have observed is a grouping of five sitting on the grass i.e. within the ‘Rule of 6’ regulations and it was vaguely reassuring that nobody seemed to be breaking the rules, in force since last Monday. I walked down to Pilates on my own without my neighbour on this occasion so my class had the tremendous number in it of 2 (one of our regulars was taking her son to University) but joined by a third on Zoom. The class went well and we were soon back in our old routines – at least as we have been with the same teacher for years, we have a fair idea with only a minimum of prompting what is required in each move. With a combination of walking, an hour’s exercise then followed by our main meal of the day, I find it almost impossible not to have a little doze after lunch and today was no exception. I am already planning some of the jobs to be done in the garden whilst the good weather holds (not least the lawn mowing) but these are tasks for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, government ministers are struggling to answer basic questions on a range of issues. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, claimed that that the test-and-trace scheme was operating well in Bolton (the worst-hit town in the UK for the incidence of COVID-19) by constantly saying that ‘it was wrong to say that tests are not available’. However, there was clear evidence from reporters and many members of the public, filmed as they queued outside a test centre in Bolton, that the centre was not processing any cases because ‘the system’ indicated that no testing slots were available! In the same interview, she admitted that two groups of neighbours chatting in a group totalling more than six were breaking the law whereas it was permissible to hold a birthday party on a grouse moor as this was a legitimate sporting event! Matt Hancock, the Education Secretary was forced in the House of Commons to admit that the test-and-trace system could take ‘weeks’ to fix – as some schools may have to close as they are ‘running out’ of teachers forced to self isolate but not able to get themselves tested (a story oft-repeated for some GP’s and other health service professionals aired on the media). Meanwhile, in the House of Lords it was claimed that the government minister who admitted that international law would be broken by the provisions of the new bill suggested that the minister ‘had been answering the wrong question‘ and had, therefore ‘misspoke’ Finally, some members of the SAGE group (Special Advisory Group of Experts) are warning that if the ‘Rule of 6’ is not working after a fortnight, then another full-scale lockdown is inevitable. You couldn’t make up this catalogue of errors even if you writing it up as a farcical play…
How the weeks roll by! Since the COVID-19 crisis, we have shopped online with Waitrose and the order is scheduled to arrive each Thursday. But to secure our ‘slot’ we have to put in a make-believe order (based on an previous order) which we then have to refine before delivery. For delivery on a Thursday, we have to update our order the day before and before 12.00pm. As we cannot guarantee to be back from our walk by 12.00 we have to refine our order before we go out. Hence it is a job each Wednesday to update our order for delivery the following day.
Again it was a beautiful day today – sunny but not too humid and so we enjoyed our walk as normal. We met one of our park friends again and made the acquaintance of a couple of labradors who could not resist plunging into the pond and having a wet walk/swim (it is so shallow I’m never get sure whether the dogs who take the plunge walk or swim). They always emerge from the water dripping wet and with a kind of silly grin on their faces when they realise that they ‘may’ have transgressed against the wishes of their owner(s). Again, it was time for a salad- type lunch when we eventually got home.
This afternoon was scheduled to be our ‘lawn mowing’ day and everything worked smoothly although I realise that next time around I will need to buy a gallon petrol (the last of the season?) Miggles, our adopted cat, came along to supervise our activities both before and after the mowing and decided it would be a good idea to lie out on the grass in front of Meg to sunbathe whilst I got on with some necessary weeding (the cat did promise to help but eventually just adopted a supervisory position, checking that everything I did was up the requisite standard) Incidentally, there was a fascinating program on cats on last night’s telly – the average male cat has a range of about 100 metres whereas we reckon that Miggles‘ range might be as much as 400 metres as it is 200 metres from her own home to the end of our garden and I suppose that he/she ranges an equal distance in the opposite direction. The program put trackers and even miniaturised cameras on each of the 50 cats in an English village and discovered some amazing things e.g. although cat’s territories might overlap and therefore be a source of conflict, they learn to avoid/minimise such conflict by essentially ‘time-sharing’ the terrify – one cat might use it only in the mornings and the other in the evenings. Genuinely fascinating.
The COVID second wave is getting seriously scary at the moment – new infections have risen from about 3,000 to 4,000 in a single day. Boris Johnson was forced to admit in a liaison committee of MP’s that Britain does not have sufficient testing capacity and the interviews with distraught people from all over the country is distressing. People seem to be spending hours glued to their phones/laptops to try and get the system to give them a slot only to be dumped off the system, informed that the nearest test centre is in Inverness or similar, or that that there are no slots available and try again later(even though local radio and TV is telling them that the local testing centre is largely empty, but you cannot access it unless the system has allocated you a slot)
Meanwhile,Boris Johnson is engaging in a partial climb-down by suggesting to groups of dissident Tory MP’s that he will allow them a second vote before the provisions of the Internal Market Bill are actually activated. The interesting question is how many of his own MP’s actually believe him? The interesting question is that in the last Parliament before the Tory party purged itself of any Remainers, there was actually a ‘Anybody but Boris‘ movement because several of the older and wiser Tory heads reckoned, quite rightly, that Boris Johnson might be a good campaigner or utterer of simple slogans (‘Get Brexit Done‘) but that he might prove to be a disastrous Prime Minster were he ever to occupy that position – and how right they were!
You never quite know how each day is going to turn out and today was no exception. Remembering that it was our friends’ wedding anniversary yesterday, we decided to take along a couple of presents in the off-chance that we might bump into them. As it turned out they were in the garden, saying goodbye to one of their grandsons who is due to depart tomorrow to take up his university course. He was justifiably quite excited about the whole prospect and I am sure as he is a natural sportsman, he will make a success of whatever he turns his hand to. Our friends invited us into their garden to share coffee and biscuits with them and we were delighted to hand over our couple of presents. The first was a bottle of Cava (Spanish champagne) but the second was a horseshoe the I just happen to have restored to an almost pristine condition. Horseshoes nowadays are made of a mild steel and can be restored with a little bit of know-how and a lot of hard work to a dull silver looking finish – nonetheless, when restored and untarnished, they still look very attractive. Our friends were delighted with this little present and I am taking one they keep in their greenhouse, which has a lot of sentimental value, to restore as I have all of the gear (starting off with white vinegar). We were with our friends for about an hour and a half and as they have friends and relatives strung across the globe (Australia, Canada, Pakistan to mention a few) and absolutely adore travelling in normal circumstances, then we found plenty of chat about. I forgot to mention that on our way down into town we chatted with our Italian friend for a few minutes and then, after seeing one lot of friends, we encountered several more (they happen to be near neighbours) We have just worked out that all three of us couples have a wedding anniversary within eight days of each other so we are starting to wonder whether we dare plan to have a joint celebration next September for the three of us together. It is just a thought – but what started out as a little walk ended some three and a half hours later. We thought we had better telephone our son in case he was wondering whether any misfortune had befallen us. Then home to a curry which I threw together in no time (we have tended to have curry once a week ever since our student days in Manchester – in fat, Rusholme which is the district of Manchester where we rented a flat is now known as the curry capital of Europe, although it was a predominantly Irish community when we lived there in the 1960’s)
Large parts of the NorthEast (basically, the whole of the Newcastle conurbation) will be subject to a semi-lockdown. Basically, this means that there is a curfew on pubs, bars and restaurants which need to close at 10.0pm and there is a complete ban of social mixing in each other’s houses. There is quite a debate whether on a technical level, this will do much to inhibit a virus which can be just as active after 10.0 as it was before. However, there is an argument that if under the influence of some (not a great deal of) alcohol, social inhibitions are lessened and social distancing becomes less and less evident. So a curfew may make a lot of sense from this perspective. However, it seems that the major effect may be the psychological one i.e. if this semi-lockdown does not work then the only alternative is a full-scale lockdown. I think that a judgement is being made that it is better, on balance, to keep the pubs open for limited opening hours rather than shutting them altogether in a full scale curfew (as many businesses will not survive in that event)
When Baroness Harding, the chief of ‘Test-and-trace’ was questioned today in a committee of MP’s, she opined that she doesn’t believe 'anybody was expecting to see the really sizeable increase in demand' for coronavirus tests. Well it was interesting that with the end of lockdown and with schools and universities reopening, there was evidently going to be an increase in the COVID-19 ingestion rate. Every epidemiologist in the country worth his salt had indicated that the we would have a second wave of the virus about to hit us so to say that ‘nobody expected to see an increase in the infection rate of this size‘ seems naive beyond belief, given the brief she had been entrusted with by the government.
I am writing these words in sheer relief because I thought that the whole of my WordPress site (which acts as the host for this blog) had ‘gone down’ because when I tried to log in, I got a message saying ‘There has been a critical error on your website‘ after which, I couldn’t even perform a log-in to attempt to fix it. As I was in despair (and consulting the web itself only confused matters even more) the only thing I could think of was to write to my webspace provider to see if they could perform some kind of ‘rollback’ for me. When I got into my emails, I noticed (in my ‘Spam’ folder!) an email from WordPress itself noting that I had experienced a critical error and automatically sending me a specialised ‘recovery’ mode of access to my blog site. Once I did get logged in, it was quite easy to identify the plugin (= auxiliary application often provided by a third party which WordPress uses extensively) which was causing the problem – it was highlighted in red! From then on, it was only a case of deactivating it (in effect, kicking it off the system) and thereafter, everything seems to be fine. As Safari (my web browser on a MAC) has recently updated itself to a new version, I wonder if there has been a conflict between Safari and the plug-in. Anyway, I cannot start to explain the relief I have felt – but I remind myself I must try and get a specialised WordPress backup system in case anything like this ever happens again. The highs and lows of computing!
Today being the most beautiful day (sunny but with a pleasant cooling breeze) Mag and I had a delightful walk down to our local park – a pleasure enhanced by chatting for a little for the friends we saw yesterday and with whom we shared coffee and biscuits in the morning (but for how much longer I ask myself?) The force of decades of tradition means that we were going to have a fish meal today but we made it into a big extensive salad (as I prepare some specialised little sauces and dressings this makes the whole meal a bit more complicated than you might expect). Before lunch, we had another pleasant chat with our next-door neighbour who is getting to the end of extensive renovations in the next-door bungalow – we confirmed that it actually was his birthday (as I suspected) so I whizzed inside to make a quick ‘prezzie’ of a general-purpose card in lieu of a birthday card and a bottle of Prosecco which we just happened to have in the fridge, waiting for a suitable occasion. After lunch and a snooze I set myself to do a little gardening as the weather conditions were so delightful – warm but with a cooling breeze and, as you might expect by now, my activities were regularly supervised and inspected by Miggles, our adopted cat.
I have been ‘sort of’ following the news as it unfolds during the day and I am pretty sure as I write that we are being prepared for a second COVID-19 lock-down or a ‘mini-lockdown’. Boris Johnson himself is talking of imposing measures that are ‘circuit-breaking’ and is issuing warnings that a second wave is coming, the R-rate (numbers of people infected by each new COVID-19 infected person) is now estimated as between 1.1 and 1.4 and this across the whole country, not just the industrial Midlands and the North, London it is being said is ‘increasingly likely’ to face tougher lockdown condition – if these are not warnings enough, then I do not know what is! (Personally, I would welcome all of this – every day’s delay will only make the situation worse and although the hospitality trade will scream they can still remain open and do some business until about 9 or 10 at night) It does seem a very strange set of national priorities that grandchildren cannot see their grandparents (as they are in a different bubble) but friends who are only slight acquaintances can go off to the pub together (it’s all about money, no doubt!)
After the traumas of my blogging experience yesterday, hopefully today is going to be a much more tranquil day. As is by now customary on a Saturday, Meg and I got up reasonably earlier and after we had breakfasted went to collect our newspapers before we set out for our church service at 10.00am this morning. There were only about a dozen of us in the church so it remains quite an intimate experience. In addition, the drive to and from Harvington village, just outside Kidderminster, passes through some beautiful Worcestershire countryside and it is a pleasure to motor along. When the church service was over, we returned home and picked up or normal ‘daily walk’ gear which is a rucsac, National Trust collapsing stool which doubles as a little table, good walking shoes, outerwear which is appropriate to the weather conditions. Just before we set out for our walk and seeing that our next door neighbour was toddling about (and who had just celebrated his birthday yesterday) I made him a gift of a especially restored horseshoe – and this is such an unusual thing to be given, I suspect that he was genuinely very pleased to receive it. I joked with him that he needed to have three more birthdays to acquire another three horseshoes and then a final year to acquire a big strong animal to put on the top of them (he said he would try and oblige). As we started our walk, I am reminded of the expression attributed to one of the Scandinavian nations – ‘there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing’. That having been said, we did have a rather peculiar combination of climatic conditions this morning as the sum was shining in a wonderful blue sky but coupled with quite a good and gusting wind. To my mind, the park was a little less full this morning but we still occasionally speculate how we would have coped with the COVID-19 lockdown and its sequelae without this regular part of our routine.
In the afternoon, we decided that we needed to buy a few things from one of our cut-price cosmetics shop as well as a tour around Poundland to buy a few more materials necessary to restore a few more of my supply of rusty old horseshoes whenever I can find the time. I decided to walk down into town in order to get a bit more exercise and bumped into some of our good friends (with whom I discussed the contents of last night’s blog as they are avid readers of this as well as following all of the latest political developments) I am not sure how we got onto the subject as I am not really a very ardent or knowledgable football fan but I did discuss with our friends the formidable ‘back four’ of the 1960’s Leeds defence – ‘big’ Jack Charlton in the centre (not a pretty footballer but difficult to get round), Billy Bremmer (who was terror like in his pursuit of attackers), Johnny Giles (sublime tackling skills) and Peter Lorimer (who had a fearsome shot and linked the backs with the forward line) The fullbacks were Paul Madeley, Paul Reaney and Ian Bell – although the goalkeepers played for their respective countries ( Gary Sprake for Wales and David Harvey for Scotland), I suspect that that the famous Don Revie philosophy was not to have goalkeepers in the team that were outstandingly good (as this would motivate the ‘back four-seven’ to let nothing get past them!). What started off the conversation was that Leeds had just gained promotion to the Premier League and had narrowly lost to Liverpool in their first match in this division. Today they are playing Fulham and I thought I would have a quick look at the result (Leeds won 4:3) and YouTube showed all of the goals and terrific goals they all were. It seemed a tremendously good game of football and of much higher quality that I remember in the 1960’s. Enough of boring football!
Tomorrow, nearly all of the newspapers are headlining the proposal? suggestion? that those who refuse to self isolate or break quarantine should be subject to an £10,000 fine. In case this sounds excessive, the govermemt has data to show that compliamce with self-isolation is some of the worst in Europe so, we might say ‘Something has to be done‘!
Today we entered into our ‘Sunday morning’ routine – this entails getting up reasonably early and Mike walking down to the newsagents to pick up our supply of the Sundays before walking back in time for the ‘Andrew Marr’ show. This worked out fine but the Andrew Marr show did not add very much, if anything, to the analyses that had emerged overnight. Then we picked up our coffee flasks and made for the local park but not before quite a long and friendly with our Italian friend who lives down the road. She told us that in the early days of the lockdown she had actually seen quite an unkempt male spitting on each of the keys of an ATM machine in Bromsgove High Street. Just after we had had our coffee I got a surprise phone call from a very old (in every sense of the term) friend, now 95 years of age, with whom I had worked in the Central Office of Information in 1964 – so our friendship goes back 56 years! For the sake of anonymity, I shall call my friend ‘Jan’ and she has had the most remarkable career. In the course of her early scientific career, she had worked in the same room as (and alongside) Alan Turing (the ENIGMA code breaker and the person many would regard as the father of modern computing) Jan and I and our respective families try to meet at least once a year but COVID-19 has prevented that this year. As soon as it is safe (and Jan would have to travel from her home on the South Coast probably up to London) we shall try to meet again with our son and daughter-in-law and Jan’s son and his wife – but that is breaking the ‘Rule of 6‘ already. It was wonderful to hear from Jan and I am going to send her a photo which I took of the view of the park where we usually tend to sit, overlooking the little lake around which some of the local dogs like to race. Then on the way home, we enjoyed another chat with one of our regular church friends (with whom we had coffee and biscuits a few days ago) so it became quite a busy social morning for us. We treated ourselves to a ‘Roast Beef and Yorkshire pudding’ type dinner (doing in the slow cooker during the morning) which we enjoyed greatly.
After dinner, I was browsing the TV schedules to see what we might view this evening when I spotted that ‘Doctor Zhivago’ (probably our favourite film) had started 20 minutes previously. This film has quite an emotional ‘pull’ for us because we first saw it in 1968 and as it happened, Meg was expecting our son Martin and, at that time, looked very similar to Geraldine Chapman who played ‘Tanya’ – of course Zhivago himself was torn between the brunette Tanya (Geraldine Chapman) and the blond Lara (June Christie) and it is Lara’s theme (played on the balaika which is so well known even now) The cinematography is, of course, superb but the greatest impact of the film is the emotional pull between the characters and families caught up in the throes of the Russian evolution of 1917. It is impossible to summarise the complex plot in a few words but, for many including us) the film is a real ‘weepie’. It is amazing to reflect that film made half a century ago can still be so powerful.
The Sky political commentator is reported tonight as writing: ‘As autumns go, this was always going to be a tough one for the government…A deadly virus preparing its second assault, a Brexit trade deal stuck in the mud and the usual predicted winter pressures of flu and flooding.’ This seems as good a summary as you are going to get and it quite evident, as Matt Hancock the Health Secretary has been saying all day ‘Britain is at a tipping point‘ A rather under-analysed factor is the fact that in the last day or so, thousands of university students are travelling from their parental homes to the universities of their choice and it could well be that the students, whilst being unsymptomatic themselves, could be carrying the virus into communities all over the country. I suspect that the government know this and are secretly dreading what may be the consequences but after the ‘A’-level debacle feel they do not want another educational crisis to hit them! The next two weeks re going to be quite critical (and of course, we have Brexit rumbling along at the same time)
This morning, I decided that I would re-visit an email client which I have used in the past and use now for mailing-list type entries that I do not wish to clutter up my normal email account. The email client is very secure (ProtonMail) and is hosted on servers on Switzerland which, in theory, keeps any communications out of the hands of the NSA. Wikipedia informs us that, the NSA (= American National Security Agency), according to leaked documents, intercepts and stores the communications of over a billion people worldwide, including United States citizens. The documents also revealed the NSA tracks hundreds of millions of people’s movements using cellphones’ metadata. ProtonMail is a paid service and, as such, does not take money from advertisers or collect user data for nefarious purposes. My subscription had actually lapsed and when I tried to renew it, the card was not accepted so I chose another method of payment and resumed normal service. But all of this proved to have consequences. Whilst we were having our coffee in the park,I received a message from my bank informing me that there may have been fraudulent activity on my account and therefore to contact them. I surmised that what had happened was that th email client had tried to take a payment on an out-of-date card which was then declined and this then triggered a security alert. I needed to speak with my bank in order to let them know that (a) there was no fraudulent attempt but that (b) I did not want the payment to be processed as it had already been paid another way, This ought to have been straightforward but it took the best part of half an hour going through my bank’s security protocols and then waiting endlessly to be connected with the fraud department who then took me through even more protocols before what should have been a fairly simple procedure was effected. I suppose one cannot be too careful but I suspect that what happened to me this morning must happen all the time as credit card expiry dates get exceeded. It then took me longer than I care to mention this afternoon to get my email client de-cluttered and put to rights and I have now determined not to subscribe to the mailing list of WebMD which seems designed to convince the average member of the public that they are suffering from multiple diseases (and are probably in the clutches of ‘big pharma’ in any case.
This morning the governments chief scientific adviser and chief medical adviser transmitted a briefing from Downing Street at 11.00 am (repeated throughout the day) that the country was heading for 49,000 new cases per day by mid-October if no further actions were taken and deaths would exceed 200 a day by November. Meanwhile, the alert level was raised to 4 (5 being the highest) meaning that the coronavirus was an exponential growth path. Tomorrow morning, Boris Johnson will announce what new restrictions or policies are to come into effect. In effect, the Prime Minister is torn between actions which will defeat the virus (meaning a near-return to lockdown) but can only be done at the risk of trashing the economy. If he adopts a ‘middle course’ tomorrow, it is, of course possible that we arrive at a situation in which the virus is not being pushed back whilst, at the same time, the economy teeters on the brink. (Then of course we have Brexit on top of all this!)
Finally, in Bolton (the town mot affected by the virus with about 200 cases per 10,000 inhabitants, a survey by the Manchester Evening News revealed that some 94% of Boltonians did not believe their fellow citizens would follow the semi-lockdown rules.To make matters even worse, Yasmin Qureshi, Labour MP for Bolton South East, said many people in the area believed the virus was a fake, government-constructed concept and as a result were refusing to adhere to social distancing guidelines. ‘There is a lot of confusion about the virus in the area and there are a lot of people now who do not believe it is true’ she said. Qureshi added: ‘They genuinely believe it’s some kind of conspiracy. A lot of them don’t understand the rules either and so there are many who just aren’t following them – they think it is a way of controlling them somehow. It is very dangerous.‘
It seems hard to believe that such a high level of public ignorance could become common place. It does appear that social media (bolstered by #thinkingforyourself) had encouraged many young people to break all the rules and assume that COVID-19 was just a conspiracy! I am speechless!
This morning we had planned to meet our good ex-Waitrose friends in the park and so we got ourselves organised so that we could meet at 10.45 However, on the way to the park we received a text indicating that one of our friends had had a terrible night without much sleep (for whatever reason) so we had to abandon out little assignation. However, to make up for this we arranged to FaceTime each other this evening so the we could catch up on all of our news on both sides. The FaceTime worked a treat, despite the occasional dropout on the video, and we spent a happy hour (that actually flew by) whilst we exchanged news of what we both had been doing in the past two weeks. Meg and I had been enjoying ourselves (with our trip to Chester, our wedding anniversary celebrations a couple of weeks ago, not to mention those of our friends down the road). However, our friends had been having rather a hard time with a round of hospital appointments (and even more to come tomorrow) so we sympathised with them in their plight. However, as we are shortly to celebrate two birthdays (one of friends on October 2nd and Meg’s birthday on October 3rd), then I think a cake may well be in the offing for all of us so we are hoping that the weather holds out for a future assignation in the park. Talking of which, we were just on the point of packing up our gear and walking back home when we were recognised by one of ex-Waitrose acquaintanceship (who I now know is called ‘Sue’) and we spent some fascinating conversation on lock-down news. In the main, Sue was telling us some of the very interesting walks in the vicinity of the park, some of which we vaguely knew about but which we have not actually traversed. As a type of reciprocity for all of this exchange of information, I gave Sue the URL for this blog so that might increase the number of bored readers from 3 to 4 (actually, there is a part of WordPress which details various statistics about number of accesses of the site so I must check it out some time and see how many readers there actually are).
[Just as an aside, and whilst on the subject of visits to websites, I thought I would consult the statistics on a web site that I wrote and used to maintain years ago to help students write their undergraduate ‘final year projects’ It is possible to insert a little piece of code into your website so that, eventually, you can consult who has been visiting your website, from where and with what technology (amidst a welter of other statistics) I will just pick out a few to give you a flavour – the year in which the website was most visited was 2011 , two years after I retired, with a total of 46,809 visits. 32% of the visitors were from India but I did have one from Burkino Faso, one from Togo and one reader whose language was recorded as Uzbek. 55% use Windows XP technology (evidently still much used in the 3rd world), a third had a screen resolution of 1024 x 768, 41% came from Asia and 34% from the USA – and so on and so forth. Fascinating if you haven’t consulted it for a year or so – I think I last looked at it about three years ago!]
However, we knew that we had to make a certain amount of progresss as Tuesday’s are my Pilates class day so I have to organise a quick turn around and then walk back into town again. My Pilates class was fine but there were only three of us and we had our usual share of repartee and badinage as the class progressed (this is normal, over the years).
Tonight, Boris Johnson addressed the nation for 15 minutes indicating why we needed to return to semi-lockdown conditions. The interesting thing about all of this for me (apart from Boris trying to sound ‘Churchillian‘) is the Scots and the Welsh have gone much further than has Boris by effectively ditching the ‘Rule of 6’ being the number of unrelated people who can meet in a house/garden whilst maintaining social distancing. For once, Boris has made a policy shift one can only be described as ‘timid’ – not an adjective you would normally associate with Boris. Of course, he is terrified (as was Teresa May, David Cameron) of the Conservative party right wing who will ditch him as soon as Brexit is over for making a complete ‘pig’s ear’ of the COVID-19 crisis. It would have been far better (in my opinion only, for what is worth) to go the whole hog, follow the Scots and the Welsh and try and give COVID-19 a decisive blow instead of a slow attrition which is what I fear will actually happen.
Today was one of those days that started somewhat gloomy but then got worse. True – the weather forecast had predicted that a band of rain was to sweep up the country but you are never quite sure what that means at any point in time. When Meg and I started our daily walk, there was the faintest of drizzles but this intensified into a more conventional rain shower as we progressed, Having picked up the newspapers, we realised that today was going to be a ‘bandstand’ job – the park has a Victorian style bandstand, octagonal in shape but open on every side which keeps the worst of the rain off you. Nonetheless, we managed to juggle rucksacks, flasks and biscuit containers so that we could have a quick burst of coffee before we made for home. We both had a hairdressing appointment with our longstanding hairdresser who calls at our house to do our hair so we really had to press on to make it back home with 30 seconds to spare. As it happened, our hairdresser was quite late (not unusually) but it shows the Sod’s law does not always work (it would have worked if on the very day that we were late our hairdresser was on time!) Having been shorn, we then proceeded with lunch but had determined that we were going to have a venture out to our local Asda in the afternoon (when, incidentally, the weather had turned benign) The idea at calling into Asda was to see if we could replace our very battered stainless steel vacuum flask that we use for coffee everyday. This part of the plan worked very well but the trouble was that we thought we would take the opportunity to buy some other bits and pieces which are only obtainable at Asda and not in our normal Waitrose shopping. One thing led to another and we finished up with two really heavy bags that we had to carry for a mile uphill to our house. To the riposte ‘Why didn’t you take the car?’ the answer is that we thought that an additional bit of exercise would only be good for us – but we hadn’t reckoned that we were going to buy so many things and that they would weigh so much. You live and learn!
Meg and I are debating whether, now that ‘King Boris’ has spoken to us all last night, whether we could seize an opportunity to make a trip down to the Southampton area in a week or so’s time to see as many of our Winchester/Southampton former colleagues whilst we can. We are aware that the virus situation might only get worse, that the fine autumnal days are limited and that our friends may have lots of other priorities at the moment. I will have a hard think about this overnight and see how I feel in the morning before I send off some emails and perhaps make a hotel booking.
The COVID-19 situation has developed during the day -there have been 6,178 cases in the UK in the last 24 hours, up 1,252 cases since Tuesday. This is a really startling rate of increase and we are now within a whisper of the two worst days we have ever had before – the rate of acceleration is dramatic. I read the the police have started to hand out £1,000 fines to two people in Bolton who have acted recklessly in helping to spread the virus and they are hoping that this may act as a deterrent (I wouldn’t hold my breath). In the meanwhile, we are waiting to see what the Chanceller of the Exchequer is going to announce tomorrow to replace the furlough scheme as it appears that with the latest semi-lockdown unemployment is set to soar. To cap it all, Michael Gove has been ‘explaining’ how we are building a lorry park in Kent to accommodate the 7,000 lorries that may well not comply with the increasing documentation required now that Brexit is upon us and we have ‘taken back control‘ It appears that lorries will need a ‘Kent Access permit’ to show they comply with all of the new requirements and the Government is estimating that perhaps as many 40% of the lorries arriving will not comply (the assumption being that it is ‘all their fault’ as they have failed to comply on time) In a few weeks time, we will have the worst of the COVID-19 crisis hitting us compounded by the Brexit scenario – one really shudders to think how bad things might become. We all voted for it in 2016, of course, as we are constantly being reminded!
Today seemed a bit kinder day and although there was some rain in the air, we did not appear to be threatened by continuous rain as happened yesterday morning. My normal newspaper shop had run out of The Times by the time we got there so I popped round the corner to redeem my voucher in Waitrose. Whilst (briefly) inside the store I enquired of some of our favourite staff whether we could still use the table and benches that they had outside the store and they affirmed that we could. So the possibility arises that when we next meet some of our friends, we will meet not in the park but just outside our old haunts (is there a symbiotic link I ask myself?) Apart from that, we settled into our regular routine and I was reminded of a long-standing joke in Endeavour (TV series based upon the younger Morse). Every time, the elder detective Fred Thursday) was wondering what the sandwiches prepared by his wife would contain that day, Endeavour would reply along the lines ‘It’s Tuesday – so it will be cheese and pickle‘ (He was invariably correct) Thinking about detectives and lunchtime meals, I am also reminded of scenes from Maigret which I think I remember correctly from when I used to read reach novels for ‘A’-levels. Maigret’s wife was a cordon-bleu chef and the meals that she prepared for her husband were always described in loving detail – Maigret by contrast came in and bolted his food with hardly a word of appreciation (My memory may be suspect at this point but I do wonder if Simenon was being semi-autobiographical at this point) As the rain came down, we thought we might have to undergo another coffee-partaking session in the bandstand but, fortunately, I looked skywards and saw that the rain cloud was just passing so took out an old tea-towel, freshly laundered as it turned out, to wipe down the park bench so that we could eat and drink in peace – which we did.
This afternoon, I set myself the task of linking a keyword and mouse on my iPad. When I was last in a stationer’s shop, I saw a Bluetooth keyboard for sale at an incredibly low price so I went onto Amazon and ordered a keyboard-plus-mouse (from the same manufacturer, sold as a set) which arrived yesterday. I am always a little suspicious of Bluetooth technology because although in theory devices ought to recognise and pair with each other effortlessly, in practice I have had my struggles in the past. But having inserted my batteries (not supplied) the keyboard, mouse and iPad did all recognise acth other and work very well. I was a little disconcerted not to get a usual mouse pointer but a little grey circle (whose colour you could change in the ‘Settings’) which seems to be the Bluetooth way of doing things. I am pleased to say that the technology is now working just as I wanted – and I even had a spare Bluetooth Logitech mouse if the supplied mouse were to fail. The keyboard itself is only 4mm in depth (plus a raised area that gives the keyboard some rake ) and some 13.5″ in length – anyway, easily transportable within a suitcase for when we go away, so this will be a permanent feature of my suitcase from now on.
This afternoon, Rishi Sunak, was announcing the Job Support Scheme which is intended to replace the furlough scheme for those already in work. The new scheme will be less expensive (estimated 3.6 billion per year with employers raising their contribution towards the wages of employees from 25% to 55%) – this compared with the eye-watering £40 billion that the furlough scheme has cost so far. Perhaps one of the most significant things that the Chancellor had to impart was that the new arrangements were to be in place for at least six months if not a year. Moreover, we would have to assume that the shape of the economy would be fundamentally altered – this is the first indication that we have had from a member of the government that it is not just a case of getting through this crisis and then back to normal. Meanwhile, we have the highest rate of new infections ever (6,634), Glasgow University are having to cope with 124 COVID-19 infected students and 500 self-isolating. One has to wonder what is going to happen at other universities up and down the country, two weeks behind Scotland. Just as a reminder of old times, Morrisons supermarket is experiencing a run on toilet rolls, disinfectant, bleach …
Today was a fine, bright and quite sunny day but with a tremendously high gusty wind which meant that Meg and I had to incline our heads and hang onto our hats in case they blew away (have you ever see a hat blown away by the wind, by the way? My Australian-style leather hat can get bundled on its side and rolls down hill like a wheel if the wind catches it right!) As the weather was getting colder, Meg and I decided that today was the day when we were going to retrieve our electric blanket and get it on the bed. But of course, it is a bit more complicated than this as thought we had better strip our bed right down, turn the (double) mattress in two directions (bottom to top and left to right) and this does call for some heaving around and balancing skills but we got it done OK. We chose the day today because our domestic help could give us a hand, if necessary with all of the necessary laundry as well as bed-making activities and that is another job well done. Being a fine day, today was the kind of day to get some lawn-mowing done but first I had to make trip out for petrol – the mower only consumes 2-3 gallons a year but I now know that you should only buy the best (hopefully ethanol-free petrol) for one’s lawnmower rather than the cheapest. I had to scour the web in the last week or so to get a new foam air filter for my mower. As it was cheap enough, I bought two of them and a spare cover which was working loose so the fitting of these parts delayed the mowing even further. I didn’t start until 5.15 and finish at about 6.30 which is quite late in the day for me. At this time of year, I may be able to get away with a mow every 10-14 days instead of every week and and I always aim to finish the season on the Friday closest to November 5th (a date which it is not possible to forget)
This evening, I spent some time searching for my second, experimental blog site. I installed this a few months ago and it was meant to be a sort of ‘sand-pit’ i.e. you play about with things without any serious consequences. One way or another, I had forgotten the website provider and the folder where the new blog was located so I hunted through my system in vain for about an hour before I remembered that I had actually acquired some new webspace (at a minimal cost, from my Canadian friend) and a memorable name to link onto it. I had got all of my credentials set up in Filezilla (FTP client) but had totally forgotten about it. Now that I have remembered all of the critical details, they go into my book entitled ‘ Tonight, as I write, it looks as though COVID-19 is really taking off in the universities. According to Sky News tonight ‘At least 32 universities in the UK now have confirmed coronavirus cases, and another one has suspected cases. More than 510 cases have been identified among students and staff since universities reopened, according to data collected by Sky News up to 25 September.’ Of course this was quite predictable, and predicted, but the government were in a mad panic to get the educational system open for business and the university students got swept in the tide. Instead of students going to congregate in the halls of residence where the virus can spread freely and they might not be allowed home for Christmas, perhaps better not to have gone in the first place and done all the tuition on-line at home (at least until January). It was a beautiful fine day with a clear blue sky but with quite a biting easterly wind that swirled around us, making us feel distinctly cool. Part of our Saturday routine is to attend the service at St. Mary’s, Harvington (Hall) and we were a select band of 15 this morning. The church service sheet contained even more warnings from the government concerning social distancing and related measures, so the government has probably written to all of the churches asking them to reinforce the message. After this, a wonderful drive back where we always enjoy the Worcestershire countryside and then we picked up all of our newspapers (and supplements) that tend to sell out early on a Saturday. Then we came home and gave ourselves a Saturday treat (Waitrose sausages) which we bake in the oven supplemented by an onion gravy. After lunch and after pressure from other family members, I set to work clearing the garage of empty bottles which had been generated by the damson gin-making process. Eventually, I need about 70 220 cl bottles in which to put the decanted gin so our domestic help and I are saving these frantically. In addition, whenever I get an empty glass jar, I tend to wash it up, remove the label (not always easily) and these I will donate to my sister the next time I see her. In addition, I keep glass jars in theory to accommodate screws and handyman bits-and-pieces within the garage. I got halfway through the task today but tomorrow will be a ‘gin-shaking’ day (to encourage the damsons to release their flavours into the gin). We are still eating the compote I made from the left-over damsons several weeks ago and it is delicious as it takes only a small spoonful in yoghurt, semolina, rice pudding or what have you. Since I have put a keyboard and mice on my iPad I have been experimenting with software that will enable me to write or refine a document or .html file and then transmit it into the ‘cloud’ or, preferably, to one of my own websites. I had to consult an old diary to see how I had managed to do in a very ‘kludgy’ way in the past but reminding myself of the software I had used in the past, I downloaded the updated version of a special coding and text-editor which goes by the name of Textastic. This is now up to version 12, I think it is which speaks highly for it. Some of the documentation I gleaned from the web indicated that it should be possible to FTP files over to a remote server (e.g. to one of your own web page) and to cut a long story short, I found that I managed to write a .html file (actually adapting another file I managed to download) and then get it successfully uploaded to my webspace. To be able to do this in one package on an iPad is incredibly useful to me as I like to be able to do things when I am on holiday and away from my normal computing resources. The whole philosophy of the iPad was that it was meant to be. vehicle for ‘consuming’ (e.g. viewing) things and is not very well oriented to producing things (documents and webpages) but, over time, developers have found a way to write packages that enables one to do this. In the early days of the iPad, the designers did not let you get anywhere near the file structure which we are accustomed to on desktop PC’s but eventually, I think the users have found a way of bending an iPad to their wishes, as it were. Meanwhile, 1700 students at Manchester Metropolitan University are being asked to spend 14 days in self-isolation after 127 have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. This pattern may well be repeated at universities up and down the country – at the last count, there were at least 32 universities reporting COVID-19 infections. Unfortunately, halls of residence are exactly the places where it is difficult to socially distance and the virus can rampage unchecked throughout all of the communal areas. Should the student body have been discouraged from attending, I ask myself, as the term probably only starts on Monday! Today was another bright but cold day. Actually, I got up fairly early to get my newspaper supply and get home well before the Andrew Marr programme started and the weather was delightful (aided and abetted by the fact that as I was on my own, I treated myself to some baroque music on my aged but trusted ancient iPhone cum MP3 player). On the way home, as the skies were clear but the sun was low in the sky, I experienced the most extraordinary effect where my shadow was about 20 feet long. My son and I had experienced something similar years ago when we went to an aerodrome in the East of England and watched Britain’s last remaining Vulcan bomber make a journey along the runway. It wasn’t allowed to take off but the event took place in the early evening to intensify the effect of sound and sight of the engines blazing and, on that event at least a decade or so ago our shadows on the aerodrome runways appeared to be about one hundred yards long! After we had had a delayed breakfast and shower, it was time for Meg and I to attend our Health Centre for our flu jabs. This was organised like a huge military operation. We arrived at our allotted time, as did a group of other people and then we were taken along to a ‘holding area’ fully staffed by a full complement of both nurses and all of the doctors who called us forward individually to get our jabs. Mine was actually administered by one of our family doctors and the whole procedure must have taken about 2 minutes. Evidently, the practice are trying to get as many of the ‘oldies’ vaccinated as possible perhaps before a second spike of COVID-19 really hits us. I estimate that they probably vaccinated something in the order of 500 people this morning and perhaps even more. It all seemed incredibly sensible – but after this, we took the car along to the park where we walked and had our normal elevenses (although by now it was half-past-twelves). There was a pretty keen i.e. cold, wind in the park today (I know now it was arctic-type air in place over the British Isles as the jet stream has been pushed south) so we cut our stay down to the minimum and were pleased to get home and have a warming cup of tea. After lunch, we indulged in a good read of the Sunday’s and, in particular, some of the inside stories about how ‘Boris’ is subject to conflicting pressures (health of the nation through locking-down or rescuing the economy). I also read but I am sure that this is only speculation that despite the bravura, Michael Gove is absolutely terrified of a no-deal Brexit landing right on top of a tremendously damaged economy in which unemployment is due to soar. If true, then this might nudge the powers that be into a last minute deal trade deal with the EU. After my success yesterday on getting a webpage written and updated from the iPad, I thought I would see if I could update some FTP apps which I have used before. One I had to pay the princely sum of £1.99 for, whilst the other was updated from the £2.99 fee that I must have paid more than three years ago. I am still playing about with these and have not had a chance to explore how easily I can access the files on the ‘local’ side (ie. actually on the iPad) but it seems as though I can inspect and access the files on the remote side (and even display the .html files in a Preview mode). Late on this evening, I was idly trying to find something or other when I right-clicked on my mouse whilst I was examining some text (yesterday’s blog actually) and discovered an item called ‘Speech’ When I selected some text this was then actually spoken back to me using quite a good computer-voice. No doubt, experienced users of an iPhone knew they could do this all along but it was a revelation for me. I then discovered a way in which I could actually do the same on my iPhone – and gave Meg the surprise of her life when last night’s blog that I had read out to her in the park was now actually spoken for her by the iPhone. Amazing now that I have discovered it! The start of another week and I have a few things to deal with, as usual. Firstly, I sent off an email to the secretary of our newfound church to book our place for Saturday morning and this I did before I forgot about it. Then I got onto one of our good local hotels whose restaurant we use for special ‘birthday’ and ‘anniversary’ meals and got a booking for next Saturday as it is Meg’s 74th birthday actually on that day so we thought we would have a bit of French cuisine. All around me, there seems to be building work going one – our immediate next-door neighbour is having bathrooms and the like installed and the last of a garden make-over, our neighbour across the communal green area is having a wall built down the side of her house, the house just round the garden is having a radical make-over which has involved mini-diggers and the erection of new fences and so on. I suppose a lot of work that would have been done ‘normally’ was delayed during the lockdown and now people are making up for lost time. We enjoyed our normal walk to the park today but attendance was quite down – the normal supply of toddlers and dogs seems to have diminished somewhat. However, there are still groups of ‘oldies’ who seem to congregate in circles of six complete with light aluminium camping chairs. After we got home, our son was giving himself a coffee-break so I played him the ‘speech’ version of the blog which I discovered how to activate yesterday. However, either false memory syndrome or senility seems to have overcome me because in my account of long shadows on an aerodrome tarmac, the aircraft we had gone to see was not a Vulcan bomber but the last of the English Electric Lightenings and the aerodrome was actually Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire. The other details were correct though! Here is the URL of a photo which my son took at the time and has in his collection: I am reliably informed that these could actually outpace the American U2 spyplanes which the Americans thought invincible but the Brits wanted to go one better – however, given the height at which it could travel and the thinness of the air it became somewhat difficult to manouvre. I thought I could not be shocked by political news any more but the Channel 4 evening News at 7.0 pm this evening was jaw-dropping. At least half the programme was devoted to showing how in the 2016 Americal Presidental campaign, black voters were disproprtionately targeted to persuade them not to vote (‘voter suppression’) and hence give a victory to Trump. Here is the link to the whole story Basically, Channel 4 news had obtained 5,000 files (some 5 terabytes) that had data on 200 million Americans and 3.5 million Black Americans. The latter group had social media messages, primarily from FaceBook targeted at them – many of these messages were ‘dark’ i.e. could not be traced after the sponsors (right wing money) had stopped funding the adverts. FaceBook refuses to release the historic data that they held saying ‘it could not happen now’ which was a tacit admission that it happened then. The black vote turnout seemed to have dropped by some 20% points which was enough to give Donald Trump victory in several key ‘swing’ states. Perhaps I ought not to mention that the same gang (Cambridge Analytica) used similar techniques in the Brexit referendum campaign but it has proved incredibly difficult to inestigate their full involvement as of now – and too late anyway. Meg and I did have in mind whether or not it was sensible or foolhardy to go to Southampton to look up some old friends in the narrow ‘window of opportunity’ that we have before the winter sets in, the COVID-19 epidemic worsens, future lockdowns re activated etc. I got into contact with an old and trusted friend to work things how things are down in that neck of the woods and after we had had an exchange of emails, it seemed sensible not to engage in this little venture. But in the meantime, we have a lunch-time dinner date which has just been arranged to see the Pitt-Rivers (anthropological) Museum in Oxford where the collection of shrunken heads has just been removed from public display (are they stored away somewhere, I ask myself?) Well, you never know what a day is going to bring and today was no exception. As we have now decided that we are not going to risk visiting Hampshire to see ex-colleagues and friends, we wondered whether we might try to ‘Skype’ some of our friends instead. As it happened, I had ‘Skype’ on my computer but had never utilised it, not least because you need to have the person you wish to contact at the other end to see if the system works. When I fired up Skype it seemed to have one of my friends in the ‘Contacts’ list so I fired off a quick email to him last night, saying that I would try to ‘Skype’ him at 9.0am this morning. Promptly at 9.0 I fired up Skype, clicked on my friend’s name and there he was! It ws easier, they say, than taking sweets from a baby (not that I have ever tried to do anything as mean as this!) So we had a wonderful chat fo the best part of an hour which was particularly pleasurable as I have not seen my friend for about a year now or even longer. All of this delayed our daily walk to the park but we were so pleased to establish contact with old friends that we really did not mind. Today was my ‘Pilates’ day so we had to get home to have a fairly brisk turn around and then I attended the Pilates class, accompanied by my near neighbour who introduced me to Pilates more years ago than I care to remember (about 6-7 I think)
Saturday, 26th September, 2020
[Day 194]
Sunday, 27th September, 2020
[Day 195]
Monday, 28th September, 2020
[Day 196]
Tuesday, 29th September, 2020
[Day 197]
The COVID-19 news is worrying today as over 7,000 new cases have been diagnosed today, which, if I am reading the graphs correctly, is the highest daily total recorded. Of course more tests are being conducted now than in the Spring. The proportion of tests indicating ‘positive’ is also increasing which must be a worrying tendency. Just out of interest, I checked on the number of infections in my local postcode area and they had doubled from 18 to 36 in a week. So I think it is a case that, without being neurotic about this, we cannot afford to be cavalier about our normal COVID-19 precautions.
After last night’s revelations on Channel 4 News about the way in which Trump had tried to suppress the black vote in the last presidential election, tonight’s programme followed this up with more revelations. This time, it was revealed how the same algorithms and databases that were used to suppress the black vote was directed to particular sections of the white vote who might be susceptible to the Trump message. In particular, the ‘law and order’ theme played out large and if the same trend is repeated in this year’s election then the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign could serve to energise both a degree of BAME solidarity but also white fears and resentments. It appears to me that the ‘middle’ may well be evaporating in the American electorate and opinion solidifying between those who feel that Trump has stood up as no other candidate before him for their interests (generally, white and without a college education) and those who feel that Trump is an unmitigated disaster and must be stopped at all costs. Tomorrow morning is the first of the presidential debates and I wonder what attack lines the street-fighter in Trump will utilise to further enthuse his support.
Today started off gloomy and we had alternating, drizzle, gloom and then active rain almost all day long. However, we had a bright start to the day because in my new found enthusiasm for Skype, I managed to get into direct contact with a close friend in Oxfordshire – we try and meet every 4-6 weeks to have a meal and chew the fat over a range of world issues. We are going to meet in a few weeks time in any case to see the Pitt-Rivers anthropological museum in Oxford which will be a first for us.
Despite the gloom, Meg and I still managed to undertake our walk to the local park. The park was practically deserted but we had with us a spare towel with which we could dry the park bench and enjoy a peaceful few minutes (bereft of dogs and toddlers on little push bikes which is the norm). Then we came to the ritual of reading of last night’s blog (accessed through my iPhone) after which we were more than happy to head homewards, sustained by the fact that I was going to make us a curry for lunch. Tomorrow we will our friends in the park hopefully to share some (birthday) cake unless we get rained off and then have the joys of the Waitrose delivery to unpack once it arrives. (I am reminded of the famous line uttered by Margot Leadbetter in the classic series ‘The Good Life‘ in which she said ‘Christmas is coming to us this year in a Harrod’s hamper’, the analogue of which is our weekly shopping is by courtesy of Waitrose in a number of plastic bags).
This afternoon, I thought I had better attack the growing pile of half-read newspapers which I have kept on one side in case there was anything that I really wanted to keep. Actually, as my iPhone contract is coming to the end of its contract I did find a useful article detailing the latest (and somewhat cut down) model of the iPhone which I think will serve my purposes admirably when I come to exchange it in a week or so.
Late last night, I received via a friend of a friend, a video clip in which Stephen King (eminent American novelist) had predicted that a character like Trump might arrive on the American political scene. King wrote a book in 1979 called ‘The Dead Zone’ in which an aggressive real estate salesman with a bad mouth and no morals or ethics, became President of the United States. The book was even made into a film and some of the scenes and activities depicted in the novel have actually come to pass. It really does look as though the coming of Trump had been anticipated by 37 years – uncanny (and not a little spooky, even) I watched a few minutes on-line of the Trump-Biden fiasco (aka known as a Presidential debate) and what a glorious advert for American democracy. One of the principal ‘stand out’ moments was Trump refusing to condemn a white, extremist group who are inciting violence in American cities under the wonderful name of the ‘Proud Boys’ Pressed by the debate moderator to condemn the far-right, extemist group, Trump urged them them to ‘stand back and stand by‘. Proud Boys members called his debate comments ‘historic’ and an endorsement and are already displaying tee-shirts emboldened with the message that they are ‘standing by’. One really has to wonder what will happen on election night, only about 5 weeks away, if Trump appears to be losing and the far right merge on the street, toting their automatic weapons…
There was an appearance at 5.00 pm this evening of Boris Johnson flanked by his two scientific advisers and I wondered if a significant announcement of a further lock-down was forthcoming. Instead, we had the usual banalities and journalists’ questions that are not directly answered and I wondered to myself what was the point of it all. The virus rate is still running at over 7,000 (about the same as last night) but university students have been told that they ‘will’ be able to come for Christmas – so that is all right then. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Commons has given the government the equivalent of a dressing down for introducing regulations with the force of law at only a few hours notice completely avoiding any Parliamentary scrutiny (although it now looks as though Parliament i.e. back-bench Tory MP’s, are forcing the government to lay further regulations before Parliament for some degree of scrutiny before their implementation)
Today was a fine, bright day and as we were preparing for our walk, we had a ring on the doorbell from the window cleaner we have used for years now. As it was the first day of the month, I was reminiscing with him that when I was a great deal younger, we used to day ‘White rabbits! White rabbits! White rabbits!‘ and then the more conscientious amongst us kept our fingers crossed on both hands until we saw a policeman riding by on a white horse. Obviously, he was not of the generation to have ever heard anything as outlandish as this but he has heard of ‘Pinch! Punch! First of the month’ which I think use to be popular with the smaller members of a family, complete with suitable accompanying actions. We reflected that the change of expressions told us something about the way in which society had changed over the years.
In the park, we had intended to meet with some of our ex-Waitrose friends, with whom we were going to share a birthday cake (our friend’s tomorrow and Meg’s on Saturday) But our plans were a little thwarted when we got a text telling us our friend had woken up with a cold and felt pretty terrible, so was going to give the park a miss today. We had acquired a suitable birthday card from our newsagent and was going to get it posted to arrive in time for tomorrow when in a subsequent text ,our friend told us not to post it but wait for a day or so when we could actually meet (weather permitting, of course) We held an interesting conversation with a young man who had a beautiful specimen of a German Shepherd dog. I hadn’t realised that this was the former name by which Alsatians were known but fell into disuse at a time of one of our periodic contretemps with the Germans. The dog was called ‘Bear‘ on the basis that as a puppy he resembled a bear as much as a dog. We had just finished our elevenses overlooking the pond? boating lake? when a man strode up with a home built boat that must have been a metre in length. It took him some time to get various parts assembled, including a battery power pack and some electronic controls before he released it onto the water. I put say I was expecting a gentle ‘whoosh’ through the water but instead it carved through the water at the equivalent of speedboat speeds. Rather cheekily, I wondered whether he called his boat ‘Titanic‘ or even 'Marie Celeste‘ but actually, he did not have any name for it at all. Apprantly, he was quite used to giving it an outing in local reservoirs and the like and it was a completely home-built affair so he evidently had modelling skills of the highest order. Then on the way home, we bumped into our Italian friend with whom we had a conversation concentrating upon domestic issues. In the middle of this, my iPhone rang to inform me that I had a FaceTime call from one of my former colleagues from Winchester. He had given me some contact details to put into FaceTime which I did late last night and so he was returning my call later on this morning. Fortunately, we were very near a park bench upon which we plonked ourself whilst we chatted about family and friends. We now have made an arrangement to FaceTime each other at the same time each week as it is likely to be months before we can meet again in the flesh. We were just concluding our conversation when our Italian friend turned up again to say that she had a call on her phone saying that her account may have been compromised so she was going to have to deal with that – it could have been genuine or a scam of course. Finally, we were just approaching the top of the hill on the way home when we stopped to have a chat with a lady who recognised as as ‘regular walkers’ up and down the road every day. She lived in a little development of the Kidderminster Road so that was yet one more contact to add to our list (In parenthesis, I might say that people recognise me more by the distinctive Australian style leather bush hat so it is not unusual for people to stop by and say to me ‘I don’t know you but I recognise the hat‘ We get the occasional toddler who tugs on his mother’s hand when we pass in the street with the comment ‘Oh look, Mummy! A cowboy!’ Of course, I smile indulgently whenever this happens.)
This afternoon we devoted to a good read of the newspapers and awaited our Waitrose delivery only for this to be delayed by an hour and then short of milk and yogurt (important elements of our diet!) so I had to make a lighting visit to our local Waitrose to ensure we were well supplied for the week ahead!
As we waking up this morning, we were greeted with the news that had broken overnight that President Trump and his wife had both tested positive for the COVID-10 virus and as the day drew on (and America 6-8 hours behind us woke up) so this news came to dominate all of the news agendas during the day. More of this later on, as shall see. Meanwhile, storm ‘Alex’ swept across the UK making this a wet and blustery day. It was ‘touch and go’ whether Meg decided to accompany me for my morning walk but eventually she did do so, as the weather was spitting rather than raining hard. Even so, having collected our newspapers, the park was deserted and the benches uniformly wet so we had to make do with standing in the bandstand to partake of our coffee. What followed was a typical juggling act as I balanced my rucksack on our little aluminium tripod stool (courtesy of the National Trust) that we take with us every day whilst I manipulated our trusty coffee flask and our daily comestibles. Needless to say, we saw none of our normal contingency of ‘park acquaintances’ and were therefore glad to strike out for home after the briefest of pauses for refreshment. We then pressed on with a fairly early lunch of a bought fish pie (which could well have run foul of the Trade Descriptions Act because the amount of fish compared with potato and cheese was absolutely minute. I only make comment o this because I occasionally make a huge fish pie (which lasts for several meals, once frozen) which generally contains a layer of white fish (such as cod) a layer of yellow fish (smoked haddock), a layer of salmon and a layer pf prawns with a base of potato and topped with mashed potato and some grated cheese. This generally takes quite some making but the result is worth it because it is absolutely streets ahead of any commercially bought alternative.
We needed to have an early lunch because we were due to participate in a long arranged hospital appointment for Meg which was being organised as a Webex video consultation. After a small initial hitch and a couple of telephone calls, we got this link working well and the whole consultation went very well. Even though I say it myself, this consultation was probably longer and more thorough than its alternative face-to-face might have been, so we were pleased that the whole had gone so well at a time when the NHS is under so much pressure, this was well and truly appreciated.
After the consultation had ended, we were glued to the television to see the story about Donald Trump and the positive COVID-19 test was unfolding. Needless to say, as the day had drawn on, so had the analysis of the potential implications. At one point in the afternoon, we knew that Joe Biden had had a test for COVID-19 so the possibility arose that both of the contenders in the presidential race could be infected by COVID-19 and what would happen then? It soon turned out that Joe Biden had tested negative but the analyses continued to flow thick and fast. In fact, Sky News put on a special hour-long programme at 8.00 pm devoted exclusively to an analysis of the developing situation. The President apparently has ‘mild’ symptoms (so had Boris Johnson and most people initially) but after a few days, this can intensify into much worse symptoms or gradually abate – only time will tell. However, the president’s age (74) and his obesity (BMI of more than 30) greatly intensify the risk factors. I must say I succumbed to the temptation to Google in order to discover the risk of dying from COVID-19 for an obese, 74-year-old white American male and was amazed that the risk of death is actually quite small (about 4% only)
The reactions to the news are actually quite interesting but the more restrained reaction seems to be that ‘you shall reap what you sow’. Naturally, the media who have long been pilloried by the Trump camp for purveying ‘fake’ news have relished in putting together in a long sequence some of the quite ridiculous statements that Trump has uttered in the past concerning COVID-19. The Democrats are worried, though, that if Trump only has a mild dose it will add to a ‘Superman’ type of image in which Trump can argue he was right all along and ‘true Americans’ can throw off the virus easily. On the other hand, if Trump were to get the virus really seriously, would this generate a type of perverse sympathy vote for him? The thought did occur to me as well that whatever the political ideology of the president, would anybody be fit to govern for the next four years, given the accumulating evidence of what is now being termed ‘long-COVID’ (i.e. debilitating consequences that persist for a long time after the acute phase is over) Of course, the same argument could be applied to Boris Johnson as well, but that is another story! This story will run and run…
Today was a special day as it was Meg’s birthday (now 74!) so we were going to have a routine that was out of the ordinary. We made a fairly early start to our day and then went to he church in Harvington, as we generally do on a Saturday, collecting our supply of newspapers en route. Today was a slightly sad occasion for us in that we have now decided to resume attendance at our ‘normal’ church as from next Saturday and hence today is to be our last attendance at St. Mary’s Harvington. Next week we shall return to our normal church which has been redecorated since it has been closed during the lockdown – attendance is now resuming but a booking system is going to be in place so that attendance can be kept down to ‘social distancing’ norms. This is going to seem rather strange next weekend but at least we will manage to resume contacts with old acquaintances.
After we returned home from church, we missed our general walk to the park (it was raining fairly hard anyway) but we indulged ourselves with some cake that had been baked for us by two separate friends. Then we made our way to our favourite ‘gourmet’ restaurant which is about some 5 miles distant where we had a magnificent birthday meal (crab followed by belly pork for Meg, a delicious pumpkin soup followed by beef for Mike) washed down with a lovely bottle of Rioja. Our meal was timed for 1.0pm but it was 4.0 pm by the time we had had our meal and a post-prandial coffee and chat with some fellow diners in the bar afterwards.
When we got home, we turned on the television to see what had happened to Donald Trump. As it happens, I was just posting last night’s blog when the news came through that he was about to be hospitalised in the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington – transported by helicopter. Although it was a rather unworthy thought, I did opine to some of the members of the church that we visited this morning that I was actually in some moral conflict – should I pray for the life of Donald Trump or for his death? Some of the scenes to which we were subject bordered on the farcical. The first was when a list of the medications that Donald Trump had been prescribed was followed by ‘and an aspirin’ The second scene which was hammily stage-managed was when some eleven white coated members of the medical team were assembled outside the hospital to say that Donald Trump was doing just fine. One doctor solemnly announced that it was his responsibility to look after Donald Trump’s ‘cough’ whilst many of the rest did not volunteer their specific role. However, one did get the feeling that there was a certain amount of dissimulation going on e.g. to the question ‘Has Donald Trump received any oxygen‘ we get a rather evasive answer to say that Donald Trump had not been administered any oxygen ‘today‘ which still leaves some questions unanswered. As I write, I did quick flick over to Sky News and it appeared that Donald Trump had been administered oxygen by his medical team in the White House yesterday and also that the president’s vital signs were ‘very concerning‘ yesterday evening – which is certainly not the story we were being fed yesterday the the presidents symptoms were described as ‘very mild’ and that he only being admitted to hospital because of an ‘excess of caution’. When a truer picture emerges in a day or so as to what exactly has happened a day or so earlier, one does get the sense that the news is being massively managed. Of course, we have been there before with Boris Johnson but he ended up in intensive care. The next few days are going to be critical for Donald Trump because if the virus is going to intensify its attack on his immune system, it generally takes a few days for this to happen. I think Joe Biden has done absolutely the right thing by taking the moral high ground and immediately ‘pulling’ any political advertising that was going to be critical of Donald Trump in person in the forthcoming election – of course, this might help to neutralise some of the poisonous advertising that it is going to come from the other side but I won’t hold my breath! The Sunday newspapers tomorrow may be contain fuller details of the inside stories that tend not to get mentioned in the Main Street Media press.
Today started off somewhat gloomily but I raced down to my friendly little newsagent to collect the Sundays and get back in time for breakfast and the Andrew Marr show – which is a part of our Sunday routine. What we did not expect was to see Boris Johnson put in an appearance. Perhaps Boris is starting to realise that his popularity with his own backbenchers is on the slide – indeed, I saw a survey recently amongst recent Tory voters that indicated that about 70% of them would not be unhappy if Boris were to replaced before the next election. To my mind, he made two revealing little slips in his interview with Andrew Marr. Firstly, then asked to account for his waning popularity within the party, he opined that the bluster and elan that he would exhibit when campaigning (for Brexit) or electioneering were not qualities that were very valuable in the running of a crisis like COVID-19. Boris Johnson’s lack of attention to detail, which is well known, is starting to manifest itself in several ways. During the last week, he was evident that he was not sure of the application of his ‘lockdown’ rules as they applied to the Northeast and he ‘misspoke’ as they say – and had to issue a correction later. When asked about the soaring numbers of new infections even in areas subject to increased lockdown he replied that he knew that re-opening the schools would ‘add to the risk side of the equation‘ which was certainly not admitted at the time. Meanwhile, 770 students at the University of Northumbria have tested positive for the virus (which to my mind is both horrendous and predictable once thousands of young people all over the country were urged to attend their universities where a large degree of into-personal ‘mingling’ is inevitable).
On our way down to the park, we passed the house of one of our ‘church’ friends who dashed out to give Meg a birthday card and a belated birthday present – we would have had this yesterday but in view of the weather, we decided to forego our walk yesterday. We discussed the fact that we have abandoned our new found ‘niche’ attending a service at St. Mary’s Harvington and we are going to return ‘to the fold’ next Saturday – but this will involve us making a telephone call to ‘book a place’ and attendance will be restricted to about 36 socially distanced worshippers. This, no doubt will be a slightly strange experience for us all the first time but I am sure we will get used to the new routine. Whilst in the park, we met one of our ex-Waitrose friends who had managed to get to France but know she would have to self-quarantine when she got back to the UK which she actually found very hard. We updated her on all of the news concerning some of our mutual friends. Then we ran into our Italian friend with whom we had a heart-felt chat – we gained the impression that she was actually missing her husband (and brother who only died a matter of weeks ago) quite keenly. Finally, we saw our next-door neighbour was busy walking his dog to the park and we exchanged all of the Trump news (and sentiments – we both felt the same way about him) which we had been following on the news bulletins.
There have been two quite extraordinary stories hitting the headlines tonight. The first of these is that some 23,000 new cases were registered as COVID-19 positive since yesterday and that is an enormous leap. It has also been revealed that some 16,000 cases had been omitted due to a ‘technical error’ and had not been recorded on the system and this will affect the figures reported for the last 10 days or so. At whose door we can lay the blame for this, it is hard to tell at this stage – some fingers are already pointing at Public Health England but that has often been used as a whipping boy in the past. I think we shall to wait and see until we get some in-depth analysis by tomorrow’s newspapers to really get a handle on what exactly has been going on. The other story this evening is that President Trump has seen fit to make a tour in his heavily armoured car (I think they call it ‘The Beast’) in order to wave to some supporters. It sounds like an act of sheer showmanship and nothing to do with being presidential! There is some talk that he may be discharged from the hospital tomorrow but of course, the real ‘crunch’ point to see if the virus is going to intensity in his system won’t be known for about 7-10 days since the start of his infection which should take us up towards the end of this week. In the meantime, we are learning that a week last Saturday, there was a huge reception for senior Republicans on the lawns of the White House to celebrate the latest Trump nomination to the Supreme Court and it does appear that some senior aids and about 2-3 senators were infected (some even by Trump himself). Being Republicans, none of them appeared to be wearing face masks…
This was an indeterminate sort of day not knowing whether it was to rain or not to rain. I did spend a certain amount of time sending off emails in various directions as, with the semi-lockdown existing in many areas, it seems more sensible to try and FaceTime or to Skype friends where I can. In the park, we met with the friend who had kindly loaned us her book on trees and we ended handing this back having had a good read of it. One of my friends had sent me a whole series of cartoons (COVID-19 themed) so we had a good chuckle at these and then passed them onto others who would appreciate them. Of course, when we undertake our walk we can observe the changing of the seasons and there is certainly an autumnal whiff to the air at the moment. Having got storm ‘Alex‘ out of the way which has given us such stormy and windy weather over the last few days, it was pleasant to get back to what you might term a ‘normal’ autumn day.
The day has been filled with the news of the 16,000 cases of COVID-19 cases that have somehow been lost off the system. There are two facets to this problem. The first is that a national data system should not have been processed using Excel software which will work fine for most day-to-day office applications but is not designed to cope with the kind of national data flows that we are gathering in the middle of a pandemic. So the first question is that Excel itself should not have been used but a large relational database, common in the NHS but apparently a mystery to Public Health England and the Trace-and-Test regime. And then, to compound the problem, an out-of-date version of Excel was being used which would only handle 65,536 rows of data. Modern versions of this software can handle millions of rows of data but in this case, data was simply ‘dropping off the end’ when the system could not cope with it. So the root of the problem was an out-of-date version of inappropriate software which is a problem that surely could have been foreseen. The tragic point of this story is that if you examine the thousands of cases not put on the system and therefore not within the purview of test-and-trace then literally thousands of people are in the community infecting thousands of people more with the virus – some of whom will undoubtedly die. Some £12 billion has been spent on this system, equivalent to the cost of two aircraft carriers and equating to a bill of £450 for every family in the country. One has to ask the question – who is going to get the sack for such a monumental (and fundamental) error like this? It seems that the government might have known about this since last July and knew they were coping with a ‘legacy system’ – one commentator has compared this to constructing a car by sellotaping the parts together. One has to say that presiding over a ramshackle type system and then refusing to apologise or acknowledge any degree of blame is rapidly becoming the hallmark of this government. My ‘back of an envelope’ calculations taking into account the current ‘R’ rate and the known death rate is that this data glitch might have caused about 180 deaths – about the same as a major air crash. Can you imagine the outcry that would have occurred if an aircrash could be attributed to a dubious reading on an out-of-date air traffic control system – but, in terms of lives lost, this is about what has happened?
As I write, it looks as Donald Trump is discharging himself from hospital whilst tweeting ‘Don’t be afraid of COVID!” Some medical professionals in the USA are absolutely appalled by the reckless behaviour of Trump last night going for a ‘drive-by’ in his specially fortified car. As this is sealed against chemical attack, then the risks of infection for members of the security staff, in the vehicle with him but without the benefit of PPE is quite high. At the very least, they should quarantine themselves for 14 days and it is is quite possible that some may develop the full-blown virus and then die – just to satisfy Trump’s vanity. Not for the first time, I am lost for words!
Today turned out to be quite a fine autumn day with only a hint or so of rain – fine enough to risk going out without any shower ware of any kind ( I think it is a Scandivanian expression that ‘there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing‘). Meg and I always have to keep an eye on the time on Tuesday’s because it is my Pilates day when I walk down to town with a neighbour to attend my class. We do Pilates together for an hour (as we have been doing for years) and then come home to a somewhat delayed lunch. My neighbour was having some external building work done in her garden (having a wall built) and when this happens, you suddenly develop an interest into how other neighbours and residents in the area have coped with similar problems. The one thing I have noticed is that the better-built walls fronting gardens tend to have a line of ‘blue’ (i.e. engineering style) bricks as a top course laid in a transverse direction. I suppose the theory here is that blue bricks prevent the ingress of water which would eventually make the top course of bricks unstable and the wall would degrade. In addition, better builders have always finished off with a type of coping stone in order to shed water. As soon as the building work is done, I am sure I will lose all interest in how such things get done!
After I had lunched and rested, it was time to make a Skype call which I had previously arranged with one of my friends and ex-colleague from the University of Winchester days. As his wife had been ill recently but was now well on the road to recovery, it was wonderful to have a chat about progress. We tended to roam over world affairs e.g. our reactions to Donald Trump and the various acts of showmanship that were being performed as we saw a COVID-19 infected president appear on the balcony of the White House to which he had been discharged from the hospital before theatrically ripping off his mask and walking indoors, to infect how many more members of the White House I wonder. From what I can tell, at least a dozen of those who had been close to Trump have tested positive for the virus but the White House is being extremely reticent about the actual numbers involved. There are some inside stories that tend to suggest that the ‘staffers’ inside the White House are going round in a state of panic and that no contact tracing seems to be at all evident. The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) in the USA is listing the number and type pf transgressions that are occurring – it appears, in any case, that the White House is exempt from any of the rules and regulations that affect the rest of the population in Washington, DC. The interesting thing about all of this from the point of view of a disinterested observer lime myself (!) is that as members of the Presidents entourage drop off one by one then it becomes difficult to disguise the fact that a lot of spreading of the virus is going on, not least by Trump itself. One item of news tonight is that ‘Twitter‘ has removed one of Donald Trump’s tweets tonight as he was suggesting that COVID was no more dangerous than the ‘flue – which is patently and evidently absurd.
In the meanwhile, it is evident that the virus is spreading really rapidly in the student communities and the areas of town in which students live. The first house that Meg and I was a terrace house overlooking Platt Fields Park in the area of Fallowfield, Manchester. The road we lived on overlooked the park but there was a block of terrace housing near the park built at the start of the twentieth century. This has evidently over the years been either bought or rented by the student community and, in fact, we must have been one of the first ever students to have bought in that area in 1968. Tonight, they had some TV cameras surveying that part of Manchester and it was amazing to see the parts of town in which you used to live the subject of current affairs in the news. It seemed from the TV reports that as well as the terraced housing occupied by students, there were now several businesses catering for the student community – but I haven’t visited there for some fifty years at least so I can imagine what the area actually looks like in 2020. By the way, the house we bought cost £1995 (but it would have only cost about £1400 if it hadn’t been overlooking the park!)
Today was quite a fine day, as the weather forecast indicated it might be, so we had different plans for the day. We knew that we could go off and do several things whilst the weather was set fair so we decided to visit Droitwich, which is a few miles to the south of us and which we used to visit fairly regularly. We made a telephone booking in our favourite cafe/restaurant and then set out having collected our newspapers from our regular little shop on the way out. Once we were parked in Droitwich we decided to call in at a little, old-fashioned ‘Olde World Teashoppe’ that we have visited before the era of the COVID virus. Once we arrived, they had all of their systems in place and we pointed our NHS test-and-trace app at the QR code to get ourselves signed in (which all worked perfectly). Meg ordered an Earl Grey Tea whist I ordered a Mocha coffee which turned out to be the nicest Mocha that I have tasted anywhere. We both treated ourselves to toasted teacakes and felt massively profligate (having restrained from eating too much carbohydrate recently). The cafe proprietor was a very jolly soul and in no time at all the cafe as a whole soon joined in the general merriment. Once a week they put on a special roast dinner at an incredibly reasonable price so we asked for one of their menus/cards so we can book a meal in advance if we so fancy it in a week or so. In fact,Meg and I remembered that when we had eaten there in the upstairs portion of the cafe, we had met a family who came from the area of the Potteries in which she was brought up so there was a lot of wandering memory lane on that occasion. Then we re-parked the car so as not to fall foul of over-assiduous parking wardens and made our way through the town for our lunch date. Although we had booked previously expecting the cafe to be teeming, it was in fact fairly empty so Meg and I ordered a lasagne (which I have to admit was delicious), and they very obligingly swapped the chips element which we did not fancy for some ciabatta bread with garlic butter. After lunch we called in a large ‘Wilkinsons’ hardware store (trading as ‘Wilco’ throughout the Midlands) at which we tend to replenish our supplies of cosmetics and stationery (although gardening, motoring, decorating and kitchenware etc. was available to us had we felt so inclined).
Just round the corner from the hardware store is a shoe shop from which Meg had bought a fantastically comfortable pair of boots about a year ago which she has worn most days on our journey to the park. So we thought that as shoes do not last for ever, it might be a good idea to see if they had any more of the same make. As it happened, they did not have that particular manufacturer’s line in stock but they did they did have some even better ones so Meg was more than delighted to have a new pair of boots (belated birthday present) In my own case, I have a pair of incredibly comfortable walking boots but when I examined them by turning them upside down the heels had worn away to practically nothing. I did a quick calculation that tended to suggest that I must have walked the best part of 1,000 kilometres in them so I thought I would see what the shop had on offer. Eventually, we were passed onto the proprietor himself who was extremely knowledgable about his stock and he found me a pair of Italian walking shoes (which looked good I must say) and these I was more than happy to purchase on the understanding that they might well last for 2,000 kilometres. I have to say it was a real delight to get that degree of personal attention which is all so often lacking in modern shops but the attention that we received was certainly an excellent way to build customer loyalty.
Tonight is the US vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence (solid, white, conventional American male) and Kamala Harris (brought up in California where she became the district attorney – the son of an Indian Mother and a Jamaican father). Normally vice-presidential debates do not attract a great deal of interest, but this time around there is a lot of interest. In the case of Mike Pence, it is quite possible that he might have to take over the Presidency if Donald Trump were to fall over in the next four weeks or at some time in the next four years should Donald Trump actually win. But much more likely is that Joe Biden will win but because of his age be content as a one term president which would lead the field open to Kamala Harris to become president ( the first woman president for the USA) in four years time.The debate starts at 2.0am GMT so I shall have to wait until tomorrow to see who draws blood!
I woke up rather early this morning – well, just after 4.00 am to be precise. I surmised that the Pence-Harris vice-presidential debate might be over by now and very often the media likes to announce a ‘winner’ But on this occasion, there seemed to be no such conclusion and when I listened to subsequent analysis, it seemed that a 0-0 draw was the best approximation. The most exciting point of the whole debate was a large black fly that seemed to embed itself in Mike Pence’s hair and could not extricate itself for the last 10 minutes of the encounter. Of course, Donald Trump tweeted that Kamala Harris had been a mass of evasions (but both candidates evaded some awkward questions). Tonight, as I blog, it looks as Donald Trump may be on the verge of pulling out of the next debate with Jo Biden. It appears that commission organising the debate in Miami on 15 October said it would have to take place remotely after Mr Trump tested positive for coronavirus and therefore it would have to be a virtual i.e. remote debate. Trump has refused this and is trying to renegotiate the timetable with Jo Biden refusing at this point. If Trump does pull out of the second televised head-to-head he will be shooting himself in the foot and handing the moral high ground (and the political ground) to Jo Biden who has just to keep on saying ‘no’ to any renegotiation of the timetable. Again, I have the feeling that this one might rumble on for several days.
On reading my emails this morning, I had a very pleasant surprise. One of my closest Winchester friends had read my blog in which I was reminiscing about the first house we bought on the edge of Platt Fields Park in Manchester. It transpired that his first teaching job In Fallowfield, Manchester at a college with a really innovative design which was known as ‘Domski’ and also the ‘toastrack’ This is because it did resemble a huge toastrack thrusting into the sky with a poached egg i.e. circular building at its base. It housed students studying domestic science and offered courses such as ‘Hotel and Catering Management’ I suspect that in organisational terms it straddled the divide between technical i.e. further education and higher education – it probably offered OND’s and HND’s and the latter would qualify it as higher education. My first teaching job was at Elizabeth Gaskell College of Education and that there was a course in Institutional Management in that college – in the eye of the public Domski and Elizabeth Gaskell College were often confused with each other, perhaps because most of the student body was female. As part of our ‘party scene’ in my first year at Manchester University, we certainly regarded the Domski students as ‘one of us’ as we did the students from the College of Commerce at All Saints and the Royal Northern College of Music which were later to become Manchester Metropolitan University. Whilst on a student theme, my heart is beginning to feel for those students, particularly at Manchester Met who have got themselves to university only to be faced with a bill for £9,000, only on-line tuition and an inability to go out, even to buy food on some occasions. A son of an acquaintance of mine had abandoned his course at Liverpool University where he could only see his tutorial group about once every three weeks and decided to save himself a packet of money (which he doesn’t have anyway) to live and study at home and then go off to Birmingham University to where he has transferred himself. Normally, one would say that the experience common in the UK to go away to university adds a degree of depth to student development but under these extreme circumstances, perhaps there is a logic to staying at home (and close to home comforts, not to mention food!) and then have the occasional face-to-face contact in one’s local university, only a bus ride away.
It does appear that tonight we can only be a few days from more stringent degrees of lockdown. The latest figures for positive testing is 17.540 with 2,000 recorded in the last week in Nottingham alone. The hospitals are filling up rapidly with COVID-18 cases and they are seeing hospital admissions jump by about a quarter in one day. However, there is still quite a lot of capacity in the hospitals at the moment and the death rate is not very high – the more ‘nightmare’ scenario is when the younger populations who have the virus inflict it upon he older populations who will soon fill up all of the hospital beds and then die in great numbers. We are, as the politicians keep saying every day, at a ‘critical juncture’.
As predicted, it was a brighter but colder day this morning so we really have the feeling that autumn is upon us. We collected our newspapers as usual and swung by Waitrose in order to pick up some bottles of tonic water which had inadvertently been left off our shopping list. Then off to our usual comestibles in the park although this time we had been treated to some delicious sausage rolls, handmade for us by our domestic help. Then on the way home, we waved to our friends who live at the bottom of the hill and communicated to them our news that we had got ourselves booked in for the church service tomorrow evening. As it happens our friend will be one of the people who needs to check us in and out of the church to ensure that we are one of the select 36 who has been booked in. We will, of course, be asked to quote our names so I thought that I would call myself Mr.B. L. BeZub to see what the consequences might happen to be. Because it looks as though we might be in some tighter degrees of lockdown early next week, our friends have invited us to have a socially distanced with them tomorrow morning, to which we are looking forward (as always)
We had to have a fairly rapid lunch when we got back and sometimes I used to make a salmon risotto – but have got out of the habit so as to avoid partaking in too much carbohydrate (aka rice). But today I thought I would try a little culinary experiment. The supermarkets sell these days packets of what they call ‘cauliflower rice’ which is, as the name suggests, a rice-like foodstuff made from the finer florets of cauliflower which has much lower levels of carbohydrate than rice. So I prepared some kipper fillets (boil in the bag) and then made a risotto out of the cauliflower rice, onions, peas, kipper fillets, grated cheese and yoghurt. The experiment worked – I will try this again another week.
This afternoon, Meg had another medical consultation via a ‘webbed’ link and, like last week, the technology worked well and the consultation filled all of its objectives. At this rate, one wonders whether one will ever see a doctor in the flesh ever again as I am sure that this type of video consultation will rapidly become the norm. Then this evening we had a wonderful FaceTime chat with one of ex-Winchester colleagues giving us lots of news about our respective families (and some not altogether welcome medical news as well)
Later on in the afternoon, I read a long and fascinating email from one of my Winchester friends who, as it happened, had worked at the ‘toastrack’ domestic science college to which I made reference in last night’s blog. He had a welter of fascinating stories about his early professional life as a lecturer in Manchester and as I am going to Skype him in a few days time, no doubt we can exchange a lot of stories about the parts of Manchester that we had both known so well – but separated by a period of about five years so we did not actually overlap. On Sunday evening, Meg and I are going to Skype a great-niece (aunt’s daughter?) who is currently in Seattle so we are going to exchange lots of news about both families, and then I suspect political news. Although we get a lot of political news from the army of correspondents, it is always interesting to see what people ‘on the ground’ are actually thinking. As you may have noticed, we are trying to keep in touch with more and people by Skype or FaceTime which helps to keeps us sane in the strange times in which we are living.
Finally, we are all getting prepared for more stringent measures, to be announced on Monday. These have been very heavily trailed so far (support of up to two-thirds wages for those whose businesses are forced to close, a three-tier local lockdown system, perhaps some restrictions on travel into/out of the worst affected areas). It will now come as no surprise as the government have been ‘preparing us’ and, perhaps, the sooner the better!
Meg and I had a somewhat different routine this morning because we had been invited to stop by at some of our friends in the Kidderminster Road thinking that a more stringent lockdown might soon be on the cards. We collected our newspapers, replete with supplements and then called by at Waitrose to pick up a bottle of wine. We then spent a most enjoyable hour and a half with our friends who treated us to some beautiful sandwiches and portions of cake whilst we chatted and joked away until we had to make our way home and prepare lunch. We treat ourselves on a Saturday to some Waitrose sausages which we bake in the oven and then have with (pre-prepared) carrot and parsnip mash before settling down to a solid afternoon’s reading of the Saturday newspapers. Halfway through the afternoon, I nearly leapt out of my chair with excitement when it was announced that Donald Trump had been admittted to hospital with a fever and I concluded that COVID-19 must be wreaking an unholy vengeance. I was soon to be disappointed, however, because there seemed to be a remarkable lack of attention to Trump being hospitalised – that is because they running a ‘review of the week’ program and the news of what was happening to Donald Trump related to the events of last Saturday and not today. So I sighed and carried on. I am preparing a metaphorical crate of brown ale which I will have by the side of my chair which I shall slowly consume as the American election results roll in (on what, for us, will be Wednesday, 4th November as the Americans are at six hours behind us) By tradition, my son has generally joined in these usually all-night election binges but he is now resolutely refusing to have any more to do with them. This is because every time he has sat down with me to watch the election results roll in, the side that he is not supporting is making all of the electoral gains. Hence, I am blamed for putting a jinx on whatever election we decide to watch together so I will have to do it on my own (although I may text some fellow election-night junkies) By consulting Google, I have discovered why the American presidential elections are traditionally held on a Tuesday. The assumption was that you attended church on the Sunday, travelled the quite large distances to where you are going vote on the Monday but knowing that Wednesday was sacrosanct as it was market day. So in the course of time, Tuesday became the best available day and was subsequently written into the constitution. I haven’t manage to work out why it should be the Tuesday following the first Monday in October, though.
Yesterday, an anticipated parcel arrived from Amazon which was yet another Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad. I treated myself to another one because this particular one is only 11″ in length (the iPad is 10″) and it does this by dispensing with a numeric keypad. It also makes it much easier to transport together with the iPad if we are putting it in a travel case of any kind. I followed all of the instructions to make the Bluetooth pair up and nothing seemed to happen. As I was preparing to reinstall the former keyboard, the connection suddenly seemed to work and hey presto! For only about a tenner, the keyboard is about as cheap and Chinese-y as it is possible to get but various key combinations work as they should (to give you the ‘Home’ button and the shutdown) so I am more than satisfied. The batteries should last at least a couple of months and perhaps even more – and it really is amazing how much more proactive you can be on an iPad when you have a proper rather than a virtual keyboard with which to work.
Tonight was the first night of returning to church for the 6.00 pm service (our former pattern) and it really did seem as strange as we thought it might. The congregation was limited to 36 and well spaced out (i.e. only every other row of pews and only 2-3 in each pew). I have to say that the atmosphere was not really there at all (although it had been present in similar circumstances in the much smaller church at Harvington) but I am sure we will get used to it in time. We saw the friends with whom we had spent coffee in the morning in church and I duly signed as Mr. B. L. BeZub for which I am sure some divine retribution will shortly be forthcoming. Tomorrow night, we are looking with great anticipation to speaking with a great-niece in Seattle and seeing how the Americans are coping with things…
I set off early for the newspapers this morning with the expectation that I would be back in time for the Andrew Marr show which starts at 9.00 am. I give myself the treat to listening to some tracks of Bach and Mozart loaded years onto my (massively outdated) iPhone 4 which I just use nowadays as a type of MP3 player. As it happened, the first track was the cantata ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring‘ which was played on solo trumpet and organ – as such, it did remind me of my old and good friend Clive who played this on his trumpet at our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations three years ago. Sadly, Clive died earlier on this year, just before COVID-19 really hit us hard so I shed a silent tear in his memory.
As I was on my own and in a reminiscent mood, I wondered when my interest in classical music was first aroused. It certainly was not the influence of my mother for whoever I located and tried to play some classical music on the radio, I would invariably get ‘When are you going to turn that incessant row off?‘ Our family dog did not appreciate my attempts to practice on the violin because on one of the occasions I brought the violin to practice at home, our mild mannered little dog threw her head right back and howled like a wild prairie wolf. So I would have to thank the influential music teacher who taught me at Thoirnleigh College, Bolton where I boarded for three years whilst my mother went off to train to be a teacher in the mid-1950’s. His name was ‘Jock’ McGovern and as a Catholic priest was entirely untrained as a teacher. However, he had some interesting teaching styles and tricks. Each week we would have two music lessons -on of the first of these we would do the conventional elements of musical education (staves, types of notes and so on) On the second lesson of each week, we were taught the life of a great composer. We were told the story of the composer’s life and then played some fragments of music that we would always associate with him e.g. ‘Fingal’s Cave’ for Mendelssohn, ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik‘ for Mozart. Our homework was always the same – from our rough note books we had to copy the story of the composer’s life into the lined pages on the left hand side of our ‘neat’ book whilst the fragments of music were copied onto the musical staves on the right. And then we were asked to draw, with the lightest of touches and using coloured crayons,a collage of scenes from the composer’s life (e.g. The father and son on horseback in Schubert’s ‘The Erl King‘ ) I have to tell you now that as a 11-12 year old (boys) we absolutely hated doing this activity as it made us think we were being infantilised and treated like little primary school children. But – this is the extraordinary thing. After over 60 years I can call to mind almost every one of those stories, complete with illustrations and, of course, the musical fragments that were completely lodged in my memory. All of this was done without the benefit of an ‘modern’ educational theory – ‘Jock’ just devised the system himself (I subsequently, though, read a tribute to him after he died a few years and other generations of school children has been equally inspired) I thought I was quite good at music always getting a mark of about 95%. Only later did I discover that the lad who came bottom of the class got a mark of 92% and the top mark was 99%. By all thinking we had got good marks, did that make us perform better? What Jock was not was an effete, tender-skinned aesthete – quite the reverse. He was a stocky, rough-and-tumble Glaswegian with a temper that was violent and effervescent – hence we both respected and also feared him somewhat. The school was rife with stories of how Jock has chased a miscreant schoolboy all over the school yard striking him with a violin bow (or trying to) for some misdemeanour. This I did not witness, but the following incident I did witness. The ‘runt’ of the class was a little lad whose (surname) was Harrison and who could never remember the difference between a sharp and a flat. In exasperation, Jock seized hold of Harrison who was facing away from one hand and with one hand under the base of his skull, raised young Harrison several feet off the floor, saying to hime ‘Now, Harrison, a sharp RAISES a note‘ Then he released his fingers and when Harrison crumpled to the floor, he shouted ‘And a flat LOWERS a note‘ ( I surmise that Harrion never every forgot that distinction ever again) Jock had a 650cc Norton motorbike and there was rumour that Jock had killed an elderly pedestrian whilst driving at 80mph on Blackburn New Road. In the days when car indicators were a little pop-up sliver of plastic, Jock had a special pair of gloves that had a metal contact between thumb and forefinger. Together with the batteries stored inside the glove, the motor cyclist could give a flashing indication of when they were about to overtake by extending their arm and activating the light by repeating pressing and releasing his fingers. We are naturally intrigued by this (in 1957). To conclude, Jock once gave the 40 boarders and 20 religious staff a 20 second lesson. ‘Well, we are going to try some Gregorian Chant this evening. You all know how staves work but this stave only has four lines, each note is a crotchet, a dot doubles the length of the note and every note is a tone apart. Off you go!‘ and so all 60 of us sang Gregorian chant perfectly after the minimum of instruction. My only concluding comment is that somebody of this ilk would not survive for 2 weeks in a course of teacher training and now he would be thrown out after such a series of transgressions.But think of the generations of students that this man had inspired over the years – is there no room for the unconventional in today’s educational system – I must ask the question! I attach a link to an obituary of this remarkable man:
As I was on my own and in a reminiscent mood, I wondered when my interest in classical music was first aroused. It certainly was not the influence of my mother for whoever I located and tried to play some classical music on the radio, I would invariably get ‘When are you going to turn that incessant row off?‘ Our family dog did not appreciate my attempts to practice on the violin because on one of the occasions I brought the violin to practice at home, our mild mannered little dog threw her head right back and howled like a wild prairie wolf. So I would have to thank the influential music teacher who taught me at Thoirnleigh College, Bolton where I boarded for three years whilst my mother went off to train to be a teacher in the mid-1950’s. His name was ‘Jock’ McGovern and as a Catholic priest was entirely untrained as a teacher. However, he had some interesting teaching styles and tricks. Each week we would have two music lessons -on of the first of these we would do the conventional elements of musical education (staves, types of notes and so on) On the second lesson of each week, we were taught the life of a great composer. We were told the story of the composer’s life and then played some fragments of music that we would always associate with him e.g. ‘Fingal’s Cave’ for Mendelssohn, ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik‘ for Mozart. Our homework was always the same – from our rough note books we had to copy the story of the composer’s life into the lined pages on the left hand side of our ‘neat’ book whilst the fragments of music were copied onto the musical staves on the right. And then we were asked to draw, with the lightest of touches and using coloured crayons,a collage of scenes from the composer’s life (e.g. The father and son on horseback in Schubert’s ‘The Erl King‘ ) I have to tell you now that as a 11-12 year old (boys) we absolutely hated doing this activity as it made us think we were being infantilised and treated like little primary school children. But – this is the extraordinary thing. After over 60 years I can call to mind almost every one of those stories, complete with illustrations and, of course, the musical fragments that were completely lodged in my memory. All of this was done without the benefit of an ‘modern’ educational theory – ‘Jock’ just devised the system himself (I subsequently, though, read a tribute to him after he died a few years and other generations of school children has been equally inspired) I thought I was quite good at music always getting a mark of about 95%. Only later did I discover that the lad who came bottom of the class got a mark of 92% and the top mark was 99%. By all thinking we had got good marks, did that make us perform better? What Jock was not was an effete, tender-skinned aesthete – quite the reverse. He was a stocky, rough-and-tumble Glaswegian with a temper that was violent and effervescent – hence we both respected and also feared him somewhat. The school was rife with stories of how Jock has chased a miscreant schoolboy all over the school yard striking him with a violin bow (or trying to) for some misdemeanour. This I did not witness, but the following incident I did witness. The ‘runt’ of the class was a little lad whose (surname) was Harrison and who could never remember the difference between a sharp and a flat. In exasperation, Jock seized hold of Harrison who was facing away from one hand and with one hand under the base of his skull, raised young Harrison several feet off the floor, saying to hime ‘Now, Harrison, a sharp RAISES a note‘ Then he released his fingers and when Harrison crumpled to the floor, he shouted ‘And a flat LOWERSs a note‘ ( I surmise that Harrion never every forgot that distinction ever again) Jock had a 650cc Norton motorbike and there was rumour that Jock had killed an elderly pedestrian whilst driving at 80mph on Blackburn New Road. In the days when car indicators were a little pop-up sliver of plastic, Jock had a special pair of gloves that had a metal contact between thumb and forefinger. Together with the batteries stored inside the glove, the motor cyclist could give a flashing indication of when they were about to overtake by extending their arm and activating the light by repeating pressing and releasing his fingers. We are naturally intrigued by this (in 1957). To conclude, Jock once gave the 40 boarders and 20 religious staff a 20 second lesson. ‘Well, we are going to try some Gregorian Chant this evening. You all know how staves work but this stave only has four lines, each note is a crotchet, a dot doubles the length of the note and every note is a tone apart. Off you go!‘ and so all 60 of us sang Gregorian chant perfectly after the minimum of instruction. My only concluding comment is that somebody of this ilk would not survive for 2 weeks in a course of teacher training and now he would be thrown out after such a series of transgressions.But think of the generations of students that this man had inspired over the years – is there no room for the unconventional in today’s educational system – I must ask the question! I attach a link to an obituary of this remarkable man:
JockToday’s blog will be a return to ‘normality’ following the excursion of yesterday’s blog down memory lane – forgive the self-indulgence. Today was a ‘spitting’ kind of day in which it was not actually raining as such but there was plenty of water in the air and a type of drizzle. Having collected our newspapers, we had a fairly soggy sojourn on our park bench but got into an interesting conversation with a lady who we recognise who regularly comes to our area of the park and who recognised us. We had an interesting conversation but had to rather curtail it because everyone was getting a little cold and miserable but no doubt there will be other occasions for a more extended chat. I did not mention that yesterday we attempted to Skype (but eventually Zoomed) Meg’s great-niece and her husband living at the moment in Seattle. We spent more than an hour chatting with each with other with family matters and politics being the main topics of conversation – we arranged to have another video-chat on the day after the election in the USA to which we are both looking forward in a macabre sort of way. Actually, all of the focus is on the presidential election but one-third of the Senate seats come up for re-election and it is just possible that the Republicans who have a very narrow lead in the current Senate lose that lead and the Democrats could end up with a lead of one. The American constitution (which we studied at university) is predicated upon a system of checks and balances and it does not often happen that the Presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives are ALL governed by the same party. Of course, there is till the countervailing power of the Supreme Court which could well have an extra ‘conservative’ nomination approved in the next week or so, leaving the balance of Conservatives to Liberals of 9:3. With an important case shortly to come before the Supreme Court (whether to exclude pre-existing conditions from the Americans ‘Affordable Care Act‘) then the composition of the Supreme Court can have a direct effect upon millions of Americans. So I shall try and follow the senate elections with as much interest as the presidential elections – remember, you read it here first!
Today has been a more technological kind of day. Last night, I managed to get Zoom installed upon my Mac and now I have to learn how to use it! One way or another, I have arranged for a good friend and ex-De Montfort University lecturer who runs her own research consultancy to get into contact next Saturday, so if I get that working OK then I will have most of my most significant contacts accessible on either FaceTime, Skype or Zoom. Tomorrow, for example, I have Skype slots to talk to ex-Winchester colleagues, one at 9.0am and the other at 4.40 (after my Pilates class) As the second wave of COVID-19 gathers pace, ‘winter draws on’ (a phrase once banned by the BBC) and the ability to meet people in the flesh diminishes, the uses of social and technological communication assumes a new level of importance.
As I write tonight, the UK is to be divided into three-tier lockdown levels – medium, high and very high alert levels. Much of the South and a half of the Midlands area in the medium-risk level, whilst much of the North and the North-East are to be placed in the high-risk area and Liverpool will be placed in the very high-risk area. Reluctantly, the central government appears to be conceding that the national test-and-trace regime is not fulfilling its potential and no wonder why when it was subcontracted to Serco and did not utilise the real expertise which the local authorities have ‘on the ground’. It does appear that a metropolitan i.e. London based government is laying down an almost colonial-style regime for the North and the Midlands – who are reacting with a degree of fury. Once totally locked down (as in Liverpool) then the night-time economy will ‘de facto’ cease and the workers will have to survive (or starve) on two-thirds of the national minimum wage (whilst paying 100% of their mortgages and food bills) There is a palpable degree of anger and frustration in the country tonight and a feeling of rampant unfairness. The Nightingale hospitals (emergency large scale industrially built hospitals) are being readied again and the NHS stands on the point of being overwhelmed again (if hospital admissions double every week or so) There is a feeling that ‘something has to be done’ but my own feeling is that it is ‘too little, too late’ I must admit to feelings of dismay when I ty to observe social distancing in my daily walks to the park whilst being dismayed by the scenes of what happens at pub turning out time with hundreds of young people, not generally masked and not observing any social distancing whilst the police stand by helplessly. (Just a thought – I said to the lady in the park today ‘Why don’t they use police horses like the way the used to police large crowds at football matches’ and then I saw a clip of videotape in which the police were doing just that in Liverpool!) But again – too little, too late!
It was an interesting, and somewhat different, kind of day today. At 9.00 am I had arranged to Skype one my Hampshire friends and this went ahead as planned, with the technology behaving itself as it should. My friend had worked in the same area of Manchester as I did back in 1969 but we were separated by a few years. Nonetheless, we spent a very pleasant hour going down ‘memory lane’ of significant points in our teaching career with our experiences when we first starting teaching, through the interesting encounters we had in validating degrees with the body known as CNAA (Council for National Academic Awards) to our more recent encounters with students and interesting colleagues. We are going to Skype at fortnightly intervals from now on but it’s possible that our interests will intensify as the American elections draw nigh. Then Meg and I walked to the park on a most beautiful day – sharp, bright and cool with plenty of almost warm autumn sunshine. In the park, we met with our Italian friend with whom we had a very interesting conversation – mainly reminiscing about the operas which we had been to see in the locality, sometimes in each other’s company. We also ‘tut-tutted’ about those people, fairly few in number and invariably younger than us, who did not seem to observe any degree of social distancing. On the way home, the weather had got more and more cloudy and it felt as though some rain might be imminent. Then we had a fairly quick turn around as I needed to walk down to Pilates with one of neighbours. When I got into the class, I announced that we all ought to be grateful to Present Trump as he announced that he was going ‘to kiss the guys and the beautiful women- a big fat kiss‘ So we worked out that if we had been present in Donald Trump’s rally in Florida last night we would have been thrown a face-mask (which we were not to wear) and then shoulder-to-shoulder (no social distancing) whilst Donald Trump threatened to kiss us all. You couldn’t make it up, could you? In the late afternoon, I had another fascinating Skype video link with one of my ex-University of Winchester friends and we exchanged news and gossip – we are going to repeat this exercise every week from now on.
The government have consistently claimed that in their response to the COVID-19 crisis they have always ‘followed the science’ However, tonight it has emerged that the SAGE committee advising the government (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) has recommended some weeks ago that there should be a 2-3 week ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown similar to what we had experienced in March/April. Whether or not this would include school children is not completely clear but presumably so as there is talk of the coinciding with the half-term break in any case. The government has chosen not to follow this advice (fearing the enormous costs, job losses, difficulty of re-starting the economy and so on) and consequently the virus seems to be spreading at an enormous speed. The Labour Party has now clearly aligned itself with the scientists and so there is now a clear split in the political consensus. The Labour Party view will not prevail because a sizeable faction of the Conservative party want there to be radically less restrictions (at what cost to the health of millions?) I feel, personally, that the intellectual arguments must align with those who argue for a rapid ‘circuit-breaker’ type of lockdown, although the costs (financial, emotional) are undoubtedly enormous. But if we had less restrictions, then the hospitals will be over-whelmed and people will die in their tens of thousands. As I said last night, the government’s present policy of three-tiers seems ‘too little, too late’
In the American elections, it does appear that Joe Biden might be 11% points ahead – according to the BBC poll of polls. But of course, this might be a misleading statistic as there is no point in piling up votes in California which is always Democratic anyway. The crucial factor seems to be the lead in the swing states (equivalent to our ‘marginal constituencies’) which is tending to be in Biden’s favour by anything from 2%-7% (although Ohio is leaning towards Trump still) As all the states have their own electoral laws and voting arrangements there is plenty of scope for ‘voter suppression’ (making sure your opponents can’t actually get to the vote) at which the Republicans seem to be particularly adept. One tactic is to exclude anybody who has been convicted of any offence (e.g. for possessing marijuana 40 years previously) or to make sure that in the predominantly black areas, the polling stations are so few and far apart if it is not physically possible for all of the opponents to vote on the day. To see what I mean. look at the following fragment gleaned from the web
Last week Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, ordered counties to close extra drop-off sites for absentee votes until they have only one each. The move means that the 4.7m residents of Harris County, which surrounds Houston, will all have to converge on the same drop-box if they wish to cast an absentee vote in person.
Watch out for all of the dirty tricks that will be played out for us, particularly in states such as Florida and Texas!
Today has turned out to be quite a busy day, as it turned out. The day before our Waitrose order is delivered, we always have to spend a certain amount of time updating it and, even so, there are always one or two things that you forget. Consequently, we popped into our local Waitrose store to buy one or two things of which we have run out before the order arrives tomorrow evening. Then home to prepare our, by now, traditional curry which we shared with our domestic help (who loves them!) This afternoon as the weather was set fair, I thought I had better ‘gird up my loins’ and go and get the grass cut, which activity takes some 40 minutes for the large communal grassed area we have in front of our house and then some 20 minutes for our own lawns to the rear. This proceeded satisfactorily and I am completing how many cuts are needed before the end of the season – one or two? The last cut of the season I try and time to be as near to November 5th as I can and it is always a bit fiddly in that the hour has generally gone back so I have to press on before the light fades. I am always scrupulous in ensuring that I have not petrol left in the mower to ‘clog’ up things during the winter, so in the last cut of the season I am generally walking up and down, over-mowing the already cut areas whilst muttering to the mower ‘Die! Die!’ as I am waiting for the last drop of petrol to be consumed. Then the season’s oil has to be drained out which is always a bit tricky. I try to ensure that I have a previously emptied tin can, shaped to provide a rudimentary lip before the old oil is stored in a bottle waiting for the next time that I go to the tip to dispose of it safely.
Today has been a day free of ‘video calling’ but I have one call arranged to call an ex-De Montfort University friend on Saturday and am in the middle of an email exchange to get something sorted out to video call an ex- University of Winchester colleague some time tomorrow. I am hopeful that once I get all of my systems and contacts set up, video-calling friends will become easier and easier once you have an agreed time to talk to each other.
Last night, before I went to bed I thought I would just do a quick check on the American media CNN and MSNBC to see what the polls in the American media were saying. The MSNBC results seem to be particularly detailed, giving Jo Biden a lead of 10.5% but also showing an indication of how individual polls were reporting in each of the swing states. Again, the majority of these reported that Joe Biden had a lead but the MSNBC reporting seemed to be highly ethical in that it would indicate ‘lack of sufficient data’ if the poll size looked too small or somewhat suspect. I thought I would also look at the massively pro-Trump Fox News to have a look at their spin which, as you might expect, was to generally agree that size of the leads but then to argue that the polls might have ‘over-sampled’ the Democratic vote. The big problem with all of this is that the intention to vote reported to an opinion poll is one thing, actually getting your vote into the system, regarded as valid (i.e. not excluded) and actually counted is quite another thing in a system where ‘voter suppression’ is so rife. On Election Day itself, we will be able to compare the opinion poll forecasts and what the actual counted votes reveal and I forecast quite a large discrepancy in the case of the Democratic vote.
The British political scene is showing signs of complete fracture. In Northern Ireland, a type of ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown has been announced lasting a month. Wales has banned all visitors from affected areas in England, the Scots are imposing tighter ‘lock-down’ rules than the English 3-tier system, many northern local authorities are pleading/demanding with central government the they receive much more financial resource before they will consider being moved from ‘High’ to ‘Very High’. In other words, the UK looks a complete mess at the moment as the national consensus has broken down with the Labour Party now supporting a 2-3 week circuit breaker for the UK whilst many Tories (on the right) want even fewer restrictions than we have at the moment. The situation does seem to be evolving day-by-day and it does appear that it will only be a matter of time (days?) before a type of ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown will be announced for the UK…
Today, the weather is fine i.e. we are in the tail-end of a high pressure system which is gradually moving away. We are also not in a lockdown at the moment, being in Tier 1 – BUT this may well change in a few days time. Apparently, the good burghers of Worcestershire have been called into Whitehall to discuss why the whole of Worcestershire should not be placed into Tier 2 as there appear to be high rates of infection of COVID in both Bromsgrove (121 per 100,000) and Wyre Forest (=Kidderminter, Stourport) which is 87 per 100,000 whilst the rate for the county as a whole is about 94/100,000. The fellow feeling of the rest of Worcestershire is self-evident as they are arguing furiously that Bromsgrove and Wyre Forest should be regarded as separate from Worcestershire and put into Tier 2 leaving the rest of Worcestershire (and their businesses) alone. It looks as though Bromsgrove (and Wyre Forest) will almost certainly be put into Tier 2 early next week but we shall know soon enough. As the rate of COVID increase is 50% in the past week, then this seems to me to be a cast-iron certainty. When our friends invited us to have some coffee and cakes with the last week, it looks as they knew what was coming – to be honest, they are very well-informed about local matters and affairs.
Meg and I thought we would seize the moment and go off to Droitwich to the little cafe we frequented about a week ago and when we knew they put on a special last dinner once a week. So we popped in to have our morning coffee and to put it our oder for lunch later on in the morning. Then we did our round of charity shops which seem to have proliferated in profusion over the last year or so and we bought a very fashionable type of cardigan for Meg which will go well with some of her kilts and, on the spur of the moment, I bought myself a felt hat which fitted me perfectly and which will be used on fine days if I feel inclined to leave my black leather Australian bushman type hat at home. When we eventually got ourselves seated for lunch, we were treated to the most enormous meal you could imagine. The roast was turkey and we each had about 4 thick slices, a mountain of stuffing, carrots, sprouts, roast potatoes and gravy. We neither of us felt that we were going to manage to eat it all but I packed away almost all of mine and Meg ate most of hers as well. There seemed to be a supply of regulars who turn up week after week – perhaps they do not need to eat anything else for the rest of the week, given potions like that. Then we popped into the local Waitrose to buy some odds and ends that we knew were not coming in tonight’s order.
Last night before I eventually rolled into bed I thought I would consult the American website, MSNBC, which I now know was created as a result of a merger between Microsoft and NBC in 1996 (but perhaps is not very widely known, or even accessible, in the UK). I found a fascinating analysis on that website which served to dampen my optimism at the prospect of a forthcoming Joe Biden election. The analysis examined the contest between Clinton and Trump in 1996 and then the context between Biden and Trump in 2020 in several of the key ‘swing’ states. The analysis was making a comparison at the same point in the electoral cycle i.e. about three weeks out and the startling thing was that Hillary Clinton was typically appearing to be beating Trump by an even greater margin than Joe Biden is at the moment – and then she still lost! This does give pause for thought. However, there are two important differences, the first being that four years ago, America was not in the middle of a pandemic with hundreds dying every day. Also, the news broke 12 days before the election that Hillary Clinton’s email records were about to be investigated again by the FBI with a suspicion that they might reveal evidence of corruption. This added to a very volatile and unstable situation for Clinton which led to her eventual eclipse in the polls – even though she did win several million more votes in the popular vote (but not, evidently, in the Electoral College) and the rest is history. The final point that I shall make about American politics is that as well as observing the Presidential race and the contest for Senate seats, the composition of several state legislatures could well ‘tip’ from Republican to democrat. Given that the Republicans typically pass legislation that makes life difficult for black people to vote (‘voter suppression’) then Democratic victories in some of the contests for the state legislatures could help to redress this balance. So another thing to keep my eye on!
We had a different set of routines for today so up to a point we were running to catch our own tails, as it were. In the morning, we had another video consultation for Meg and this took up most of the morning as it happened, although we were given the opportunity to have a break and a cup of tea in the middle of it! When all of this had been completed, we still needed to collect our daily ration of newspapers so we thought we do the unthinkable and collect the newspapers in the car (which we did), and then we made our trip to the park and a brief sit down and the briefest of walks before we return home in the car. On a Friday we used to make ourselves a ‘risotto’ but as this was principally a rice-based dish, we had got into the habit of doing another fish dish in its stead. But now I have discovered something called ‘Cauliflower Rice’ which is cauliflower florets made up into a rice-like consistency but with a minimal amount of calories. So I made a risotto using the cauliflower rice as a substitute, some kippers which were boiled in the bag and the other usual ingredients (onions, peas, yogurt) and the result was ‘OK-ish’ but I have made better, I must admit. In the afternoon, after a good read of the newspapers, I devoted myself to getting my accounts in order. Although it is not strictly necessary, I tend to write my transactions into a large ‘day book’ and then I have a complete written record of what I did and when. However, I not maintained my records for a long time so it took me an hour or so (the best part of the afternoon) to get all of this done. I am now firmly resolved to attend to my records a little more assiduously in the future. In the early evening, I had a video call with a Hampshire friend – we discussed mainly the American elections about which my friend is extremely knowledgeable but a domestic crisis intervened so we had to cut short our call and resume at a later date.
Being a Friday night, we are relaxing before the normal fare of end-of-week comedy. More unintentional comedy is being provided by Donald Trump who has apparently posted a tweet to a satirical news site that claimed that the whole of Twitter was being shut down to slow the spread negative stories about Joe Biden. The satirical website then claimed that the Twitter boss had smashed “as many computers as he could” with the help of a robot programmed to use a sledgehammer. It looks as though Trump eventually saw his mistake. The article ended by saying that “after hearing the Twitter employees talk about critical theory, the robot got woke and began attacking all the cis white males”. And as the president said ‘This has never been done in history‘ (You couldn’t make it up, if you tried!)
There seem to be two big political stories in town tonight. The first of these is the Brexit negotiations in which Boris Johnson has declared that negotiations are at an end. The consensus view is that this is but the last stage in a last-minute stand-off and, in practice, a deal might be achieved at the very last moment in which Boris Johnson will claim victory and the rest of the supine British press will agree. The second story is, of course, the huge row between Manchester and Whitehall with Manchester refusing to be pushed into Tier 3 of lock-down categories, like Liverpool. The central government will always have the upper hand here as they control the purse strings but there is a feeling that the bitterness created by this dispute will last for a generation. One can understand the frustration of Manchester in this respect as moving to a more complete lock-down means that many businesses in the hospitality business will close down never to re-open. On the other hand, despite its protestations, it appears that the government is actually working on a variant of the ‘circuit-breaker’ approach and we might see a sort of ‘circuit-breaker lite’ appear that will be timed to coincide with half-term and will last for some 2-3 weeks.
I always knew that today was going to be a bit busier than a normal Saturday and so it proved. Meg and I were a little late but then we bumped into two of our friends that we had not seen for a few days followed shortly by another so soon we were five (No. 6 was busy weeding so he had already had his share of attention) Of course, we are all trying to make the best of things before some kind of new lock-down emerges as we will probably move from Tier 1 to Tier 2 within a few days. Eventually we made it to our newspaper shop and thence to our normal park bench where we had a snatched coffee. We knew that we did not a massive amount of time so had to cut short yet another couple of conversations in order to get home by 1.00pm. As it happened, we just had time to throw some sausages into the oven and then settled down in our study to enter a Zoom session with our two of our friends and ex-colleagues from our De Montfort University days (although we have met for meals at approximately yearly intervals since then) It was really good to chat with our friends again but the technology (‘Zoom‘) rather let us down because the quality of the video was pretty poor – we looked as though talking to each from under the sea, and the audio seemed to come and go. Nonetheless, we exchanged what stories and reminiscences we could for over three quarters of an hour but resolved to try another technology (‘Skype’?) in two weeks time.
I knew that after lunch I had to make my way to a nearby hospital to have a (routine) CT scan, ordered months ago by my cancer surgeon after an episode some two years ago. I treated myself to a brand-new face mask as I was going to visit a hospital and, fortunately, the car parking charges were suspended as well. I won’t bore you with details of the procedure except to note that the first attempt to insert a cannula into my left arm failed so I had to have it inserted into the other arm (this was to allow for the injection of the radio-opaque agent which has the strange effect – upon everybody – of making the bottom of your abdomen feel all warm) Removing the cannula seemed to result in the spillage of a certain quantity of blood so I was relieved to get home and have a nice cup of tea! (The procedure itself was relatively quick and trouble-free). Then we had to prepare ourselves for going to our church service from 6.00-7.00. In theory, we should have telephoned to reserve a place amongst the congregation to be one of the 36 allowed maximum. So we got there 20 minutes early and pleaded the we were ‘lost sheep returning to the fold‘ and, fortunately, there was space so we were not turned away. The service seemed a little more intimate tonight for reasons I cannot exactly put my finger on. Anyway, at an appropriate point in the service, a beautiful rendition was made of John Henry Newman’s poem/hymn ‘Lead, Kindly Light – amongst the encircling gloom; Lead thou me on‘ The story behind the penning of these lines is quite interesting. Apparently, it was composed in the middle of a tempestuous storm where all the fellow passengers were being sea-sick and all feared for their lives – Newman just got on and composed the poem (I sent a recording of this to a friend of mine who was living out her last days in a hospice, hoping that it might bring a little bit of comfort to her. Whether it did or not, I do not know)
In the US, Donald Trump and Joe Biden did not debate with each other but each had what the Americans call a ‘town hall meeting’ with the two broadcasts transmitted at the same time. This format is favoured by Joe Biden and he appears to have performed well with a reasonable yet avuncular tone. Donald Trump did not fare so well, however, coming off second best to a feisty female interviewer and not helping to capture any of the middle groups by refusing, yet again, to condemn any of the white supremacist groups who are supporting him. In the meantime, the British political scene seems to be just as cantankerous but I am looking forward to tomorrow’s newspapers that often contain some interest insights/bits of gossip that do not get repeated much in the Main Street Media. It looks as though Boris is cooking up a miniature ‘circuit breaker’ of his own – it could be that something is devised which avoids the use of the term ‘lock-down’ or even ‘circuit breaker’ itself, whilst essentially being the same thing.
We thought that today was going to prove to be a normal, restful Sunday morning but it was not to be. Having collected our Sunday newspapers, I settled down to watch the Andrew Marr show only for there to be a powercut within a few minutes. Going around the house and consulting our circuit-breaker box it became evident that the fault was on the power circuits and only those our living room. Now we had the difficult job of trying to identify which of the consumers could possibly be at fault. My suspicions fell on a large Dimplex electric fire we have which occupies our hearth because it seems to chomp through bulbs at a fairly regular pace and we suspected that that was the source of the problem. However when my son inspected the bulbs in the rear of the fire (I know how to get in and out of it quickly having done it several times before). My son followed his instincts and pulled at the fire’s cable which went through a hole cut in the fireplace surround (by the installers when we had our fire fitted thirteen years ago) and then saw the source of the problem. The fire’s own cable would not extend to the wall socket so the cable was attached to an extension lead. The fire’s own plug had one of those types of fuses that used to be popular when the fuse is visible from outside the casing and can be replaced without unscrewing the whole. The fuse in the fire’s plug and evidently melted and fused itself into the fuse carrier rendering the whole of that useless. Still, having identified the source of the problem I hastened down to a hardware shop, purchased a new plug with a conventional, internal fuse as well =as some spares and then set about rearing the plug. This I hadn’t done for about 20 years but you don’t lose the skills and techniques of a lifetime but the diagnosis and the repair both proved to be effective but only after a certain degree of stress. Meg and I walked to the park and then had a conventional, Sunday lunch, upon our return.
Last night, I came across a fascinating article, probably because as search terms I had used terms like ‘Can Biden Lose?’ and ‘Voter Suppression‘. The article was entitled ‘A Campaign of Voter Subtraction‘ and I found it gave me considerable pause for thought (and some pessimism). I already knew that the Republicans would try a variety of electoral tricks to try and disenfranchise their opposition but I hadn’t realised how systematic this was. The article maintained that whereas the Democrats try and increase the size of the electoral roll by leading drives for voter registration, the Republicans try to actively subtract voters by making it difficult to vote. Although some of your own supporters will lose out in this process, the tactic attempts to ensure that even more of your opponents (generally lower-income and black) are denied the vote. For example, if your signature does not exactly match that they have on file then a postal ballot is liable to be declared invalid. Another tactic is that anyone convicted of a felony, even decades ago, is automatically disqualified. The House of Representatives (Democrat-controlled) is well aware of these abuses and had passed several bills to modernise the voting procedures, only to have this legislation voted down by the Republican senate. In this way, voter suppression has proceeded apace and may reach new heights in this 2020 election. The article concludes that it is quite possible that Hillary Clinton as well as leading in the popular votes had actually carried more states than Trump (i.e. she won) but the disqualified and largely Democratic votes in many cases was larger than the small majority by which Trump had carried several states. So the margins in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania totalled 107,000 across the three states. Of course, this proposition is conjectural but it is undoubtedly true that Trump won with razor-thin margins in these states. By the way, I am predicting that some ‘dirty tricks’ will emerge on about Thursday i.e. 12 days before the election as this is the date (not too close to the election, not too distant) in which any damage that might be inflicted is at its maximum (like the disclosure of the FBI investigation into Clinton’s emails 12 days before the 2016 election!)
Today was a little out of the ordinary as I shall explain. Meg was in bed for the morning after a slight stomach upset so I made the walk down into town on my own. I took the opportunity to pop into my local Poundland where I want to buy some cut-price Tipp-Ex. Of course, Sod’s Law took over and the Tipp-Ex was the only thing I wanted that was out of stock but I took the opportunity to buy a few bits and pieces that are always useful but not the kinds of things you would specify on a normal shopping list. Having got home, I realised that I had not made my weekly
In the late afternoon, we knew we had an appointment with one of my Winchester colleagues/friends who has recently retired and we had agreed to ‘Zoom<‘ each other. It took a certain amount of time to get our technology up and running but eventually we managed to liaise OK and had a wonderful chat, including news of old friends, pet cats and much else besides. We will probably repeat this about once a fortnight from now on and, as always in these COVID-19 days and the joys of video-technology, it is always rather wonderful to hook up in this particular way.
Now that the American election campaign is in its final stretches (15 days to go) I have found an incredibly informative website which gives a very careful analysis of the polling data without hyping up either side although its values do show! The title of the article I read was ‘8 Tips to Stay Sane in the Final 15 Days of the Campaign‘ and I found this to be incredibly informative. I was able to take a smidgeon of comfort from the fact that on average, since 1972, national polling averages had shifted by an average of 1.8 points and a median of just 1.4 points in the final 15 days of the race. Given that Joe Biden is some 10 points ahead in the polls nationally, this is somewhat reassuring. However, I do have to keep reminding myself that opinions given over the phone (or internet) to a pollster re. voting intentions is one thing, but actually getting to vote (or getting your postal vote organised and not regarded as invalid) is another thing altogether.
Meanwhile, pressure seems to be mounting for at least a limited lock-down. 67% of the population are in favour of some type of ‘circuit breaker’ and some 61% do not trust the PM on COVID-19. If we were to have a full lock-down, the models suggest that the number of deaths would reduce from 20,000 to 12,000 (8,000 lives saved!) whereas were we go for a partial lockdown keeping shops and schools open, then the number of deaths would reduce from 20,000 to 15,600 (4,400 lives saved!) Meanwhile the (Asian)MP for Bolton South has just been admitted to a Manchester hospital once her COVID-19 symptoms had worsened – apart from Boris Johnson, is this the first MP to be hospitalised? A quick and not very systematic search of the web indicates that about 3 MP’s have been hospitalised, two from the Manchester area and two as members of the Asian community. Let us hope for the best.
We really feel the season these days as the weather is getting quite autumnal. The leaves are gradually turning yellow and in the case of the acers and the maples a brilliant red so the park is quite a sight to behold at the moment. We made a reasonably early start this morning and so having collected our newspapers we sojourned for a little in the park but knew that we did not have to tarry too long. That is because Tuesday’s is my Pilates day and I need to do a certain amount of food preparation before I venture forth again for my Pilates session. I have inherited a very stout Korean leather jacket (found in the next door neighbour’s garage when it was being cleaned out). I thought I would use it solely as a gardening jacket but that seemed a waste of an exceptionally tough and warm jacket so I had it renovated and it has proved excellent on these bright cold days. Whilst it will stand a certain amount of water, I am not sure how it will fare in an absolute downpour so I need a waterproof jacket which is big enough to cover the leather jacket as well as myself. Fortunately, the second last time we were in Conway we had purchased an outsized jacket and this I now pressed into service. It proved excellent and – as the Scandinavians say ‘There is no such thing as bad weather – only inappropriate clothing‘ and never was a truer word said. The trouble about the UK weather is that you can look weatherwards and get a little streetwise about the likelihood of rain by combining your own knowledge about the height, colour and direction of movement of the clouds with a little bit of assistance from the weather app on my phone. I needed to get into town a little earlier on my Pilates day as Bromsgove holds a street market on Tuesdays and Fridays and there is a lady who runs a bag stall who also sells watches and belts and will fit a new battery for you. But on the day I need her, she wasn’t there so I availed myself of one of the local cobblers who fitted a new battery as required. I also did a quick dive into one of the local charity shops and bought myself a cheap leather/plasticky belt as well. I tend to buy things for an unconventional use and hence my purchase of a belt. As wearers of rainwear-plus-rucksacks will know, the straps have an annoying habit of constantly slipping off one’s shoulders but with a belt, suitable cut down to size, I can ‘tie’ the carrying straps together across my chest so the shoulder slipping problem does not reoccur. This gives me two hands free, one to carry my little lightweight stool that I use as a table for our victuals in the park and the other to link onto Meg to ensure that she does not trip over a kerb. I must add that Meg has form in this respect and a couple of years tripped over a kerb causing a ‘FOOSH’ injury (‘Fall On Out Stretched Hand’) that required surgery to correct and that we do not wish to repeat it unnecessarily.
This afternoon was dominated by the news of the stand-off between the Greater Manchester Mayor,Andy Burnham and the UK Prime Minister,Boris Johnson. Basically, Andy Burnham supported by all of the leaders of the local authorities in the Greater Manchester area was demanding that if the Manchester Region was moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 then some kind of support package was needed – more than the two-thirds of the minimum wage offered by the government. The whole thing came down to a haggle over money and the amount separating central and local government may have been as little as £5 million (small change to the Treasury when they have spent £12 billion on ‘Test-and-Trace’ i.e. 2,400 times as much) The whole episode is basically a tussle between an authoritarian inclined metropolitan government which feels that it knows best against the level of devolution which having a policy of elected regional mayors suggests. How this will end is unclear at this stage – but the resentments between ‘The North’ and central government may well reverberate for years. Some informed commentators are saying that a clash like this would be inevitable sooner or later and that a policy of devolution-lite had not been really thought through.
We know that the weather might be quite fine tomorrow but it certainly was not today as the morning seemed dominated by windy and squally showers. However, the wind was not particularly cold so our normal walk was not unpleasant but I still had to engage in the daily ritual of wiping the park bench dry – fortunately, we always pack a spare tea towel in our rucksack so we are well used to making the place habitable. From a distance, we spotted one or two of our normal ‘park’ or ‘ex-Waitrose‘ friends but I suspect that none of us wanted to linger for too long in case we got rained upon even more. Meg and I had a hairdressing appointment in the middle of the day (our hairdresser comes to the house accoutred with visors and gloves) and was on time, so Meg and I had had to schedule our lunch so we had got it all over (if not washed up) before she arrived. We now tend to pay people who provide us with services by electronic payments which saves scrabbling around for the odd £5 note (which incidentally seem to be rare as hen’s teeth these days)
As my mobile phone contract had run its three years and expired a few days ago, I thought I would go down into town and work out what my options might be. So I ensured that my existing phone was backed up and 100% charged before I set forth in the late afternoon. Although my contract was with EE, I was pretty sure that there was a CarPhone Warehouse on the High Street and so my game plan was to visit CarPhone Warehouse, see what deals I could be offered and then use this to trade a better deal with EE. But as I have not visited the High Street for some time, then Carphone Warehouse seems to have disappeared (I looked on the web and discovered just now that they have closed 531 standalone stores and made 2,000 staff redundant on 3rd April.) As our attention was elsewhere because of the virus, I didn’t know or even notice the demise of CarPhone Warehouse. Undeterred, I went into my (deserted) EE store, told them I was at end of my contract and wondered what my options were – I vaguely had in mind that I wanted to trade up to a slightly smaller and more convenient model than my current iPhone and had read some reviews of the SE model. Basically, Apple have done a most un-Apple like thing and combined some old technology (screen size, footprint) with some advances in chip design and performance to produce a phone with 90% of the performance of the bigger beasts in the Apple stable for about 50% of the price. I was pleasantly surprised to be told I could have a brand new phone at a price cut of 40% of the contract price I had been paying and they could transfer all of my old phone data over and have it installed on the new one within the hour. This was a pleasant surprise, and not what I was expecting The EE assistant pointed me in the direction of a cheaper shop that here I purchased a screen protector and a new case at a 20% discount and for about £20.00. So made my way home, amazed that everything had been so trouble free (as yet) as well as so much cheaper.
Meanwhile, back into the real world! the COVID-19 cases totalled 26,700 in a single day which is a frightening figure (you have to work out how many become seriously ill, then have to be hospitalised, them progress into a Critical Care unit and then, for some, die of the virus). South Yorkshire have joined Manchester into being promoted to ‘Tier 3’ which basically outlaws any indoor or outdoor meetings, pubs can only stay open if they are serving a ‘substantial meal’ How many business in the hospitality sector can survive? However, having said that, there is certainly the growth of what one can term ‘the night-time economy’ There are 650 licensed premises (principally pubs) in Manchester City centre alone. How many nightclubs there are is anybody’s guess and I have not been able to even make a guesstimate but I would I suspect that it is in the range of 50-100. When I was a student in Manchester in the mid 1960s there were..2! One has to ask the question – how many pubs/nightclubs does a city like Manchester need? (I realise this is a somewhat heretical question to ask but I ask it anyway)
Today was predicted to be a beautiful autumn day so we decided to make the best of it whilst we possibly could. So we decided to repeat the pattern of the last week or so and visit Droitwich, the small town to the south of us and home to a wonderful Waitrose, as it happens! We collected our newspapers and then headed off for Droitwich where we made our way hastily to our little teashop in which we were going to lunch later. Having had our elevenses and a chat and a joke with the locals (it is that sort of teashop) we headed towards the local Wilko store that we frequent almost every time we are in Droitwich. I bought a range of stationery items including things you do not see every day (such as a packet of address labels on sheets that can be fed into my laser printer thus making short work of my Christmas card list). Two years ago, I put in the investment of ‘computerising’ my Christmas card list thus alleviating the tedious chore of hunting through old diaries and address books to find the names of distant relatives to whom you only send a Christmas once a year to prove to them (and yourself) that they are still alive. After this, we did return to our tea shop to have one of their huge roast dinners that they put on once a week (on a Thursday) and partook of a huge lamb meal on this occasion. When we got home, we asked our son if he would like to join us next week and as he is ‘on leave’ he will do so which be a revelation for him. The only thing to mar our enjoyment of the day was to return to the car, only to discover it had been dive-bombed by a local, incontinent seagull who had made a right mess of the roof and both sides of the car. (Incidentally, why should it happen that only my car receives this treatment and not the two on either side which appeared to be absolutely pristine and unscathed) One of life’s great mysteries! So on my return home, I immediately got to work with a bucket of soapy water and a long-handled car brush to remove the offending deposits, As the car has not had a proper clean for a long time, after a cup of tea, I decided to treat it, and myself, to a good carwash in an establishment at the back of a pub run by a group of Kurds. As my contact appeared a little shorthanded today I had to wait about an hour and a quarter until it was ready. I entertained myself by spending a really long, leisurely wander around my local Poundland store – normally, it is a quick in-and-out job as I know what I want and where to find it. As we are approaching Halloween, the store was full of cheap crap which will end up in landfill in a few days time in the second week of November, no doubt. Nonetheless, I did manage to buy one or two stationery items which will add to my store.
It looks as though the Chancellor of the Exchequer has now appreciated the depth of the crisis of the individuals facing severe economic hardship in Tiers 2 and 3. So the scheme he devised in order to replace furlough has already been revised and made a little less mean than it was. Employees now only to work for 20% of the time (down from a third) to receive 75% of their wages (up from two thirds) whilst the employer’ contribution is reduced to a token 5% (down from 33%) and a system of cash grants will operate. The irony of all of this is that only two or three days ago, the government were quibbling about stumping up an extra £5 million to support businesses in Manchester when suddenly up pops a scheme which costs multi-millions of pounds. As Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester who led the revolt against the government plans for the Manchester region said tonight he was ‘open-mouthed’ because suddenly the government suddenly gave him everything he had been asking for a couple of days ago but were denying him. The truth of the matter, as several economists have observed, is the government is way ‘behind the curve’ and reacting to events in a panic/crisis mode rather than trying to plan rationally for what is evidently going to be a huge second wave of the virus.
Tonight we received a long and detailed email from one our closest and dearest Winchester colleagues detailing how very ill his wife had become and the various medical interventions being undertaken on her behalf. One feels so helpless in these situations and the only thing we can do is to reassure our friend of our continuing love and support in the days and weeks ahead.
Today was the last in a series of video-links in which Meg was undertaking some tasks and tests and this took up a good part of the morning, as you might imagine. When all of this had been conducted, Meg and I thought we would make a quick ‘short-circuited’ dash for our newspapers in the car which we did and were also relieved that our NHS COVID-19 app was now working. When I tried it yesterday, the app (on my new phone) said there was a conflict with other technology and so it wouldn’t run. So I dis-installed (i.e. removed) it, re-installed it and today it operated the way it should when I entered the newsagent. Then we made our way to the park, had a quick banana and made our way home after a somewhat truncated morning. We cooked ourselves a risotto (made with mackerel on this occasion) and the results were better than last week, I am pleased to say.
Tonight, as I was starting to blog I got a FaceTime call from my ex-University of Winchester colleagues/friends whose wife was now extremely ill. We discussed various matters at great length and I hope that we managed to exchange some useful information with each other. Actually, we spent quite a long time discussing Floridian politics as Florida is now such a key state in the forthcoming election. There was an extraordinarily good Channel 4 expose the other evening which detailed how the Republicans had got all kinds of demographic data which meant they could target individual members of the Florida electorate with a message tailored to their voting preferences. The Hispanic members of this particularly targeted precinct were illuminating but disturbing. Apparently one quarter were already firmly committed Trump supporters, one quarter was ‘persuadable’ i.e. uncommitted voters and a further quarter were voters who had to be dissuaded by any means possible from voting (for Clinton/Biden) Apparently, the techniques used four years ago had really intensified and the Democrats seemed powerless to contradict the social messages. So although Biden is a few points ahead in the current set of opinion polls, I am not at all sure and would be surprised if for a second/third occasion the Republicans just about sneaked it again. Only about eleven more days to go now, so the Mike Hart crate of brown ale, is slowly being populated whilst I wait for the election night (or rather the day after it)
The COVID-19 data seems a little difficult to interpret this evening. On the one hand, the level of new infections per day seems alarmingly high (about 35,000 new cases in the last day, according to the BBC website but 20,530 according to Sky News) It might be that these figures are capable of being reconciled but without doing a great deal of background work, I am not sure how, as I write this evening. On the other hand, it does look as though the rates of infection amongst the younger population (less than 30) seems to be moderating whilst the corresponding rates of infection for the more elderly age groups seem to be rising. There is also some evidence, tentative at this stage, from Public Health England that in this second wave the rate of increase may be levelling off somewhat i.e. although figures are rising by large amounts each day, it is not by quite the same percentage as the day before. It is certainly the case that Wales has a fairly complete lockdown whilst in England, the Tier 3 infections cover Liverpool, Manchester, Lancashire and parts of South Yorkshire. This pattern is evolving day by day and some areas might be about to be classified as Tier 3 in a few day’s time. The fact that the concentration of virus appears to be so much greater in the older, erstwhile industrial areas of the North and the Midlands must be a source of concern. Whereas there was always a health gradient between these older industrial areas and the more affluent and prosperous South of England, then COVID-19 seems to have added an extra layer (and twist) to these pre-existing patterns. What is needed is a redistribution of power and wealth across the national landscape – moving the capital to the North would help (although plans to move the House of Lords to York were soon squashed) Perhaps, also, the time is now ripe to move away from the ‘winner takes all’ approach in the first-past-the-post electoral system and that we move to a form of PR which would probably mean an almost complete era of coalition governments (which might be a recipe for disaster if the coalitions take weeks or months to form!)
We were a little delayed this morning getting some domestic jobs out of the way before we started our walk this morning. Although there was a little drizzle initially, by the time we made it to the park the heavens opened and we had to make a bee-line for the bandstand in order to prevent a complete soaking. I had forgotten one or two items on our regular Waitrose order so we called in at our local store (the one we used to frequent every day before the great lock-down) Although I only bought about three items, the staff who were on duty treated us like prodigal children and made us a present of a Victoria sponge cake. Once we got lunch out of the way, we had an afternoon of rugby for us to enjoy and watched quite a good match, if a little one-sided between Italy and Ireland. We didn’t see the last five minutes of what proved to be particularly exciting as we were getting ourselves to go off to our Saturday evening church service. After this, we got back home to have our traditional Saturday afternoon bowl of soup before we treated (if that is the right word) to a Wales vs. France match. As I write, the French seem to have got the better of the Welsh as one particularly brilliant fast running French player has scored three tries and has almost beaten the Welsh single-handed. The rugby matches are a completion of last year’s Six Nations and some of the players are in the strange position of starting off this year’s season for their clubs whilst completing last year’s internationals. However, at the end of the day, the Welsh seem to have beaten by a French team who were incredibly good at seizing opportunistic tries and exploiting weaknesses in the Welsh defence.
Tonight, there seems to be a proliferation of political stories. It seems that in Wales, many are objecting to the fact that supermarkets have been instructed to sell only ‘essential’ goods (and then to apply ‘common sense’). In London, there seems to have been some demonstrations against the lockdown (or rather the fact that London is now in Tier 2 rather than Tier 1) and some police officers as well have demonstrators have been injured (this might be the precursor of things to come) There also seems to be a rumbling discontent from some Tory MP’s that the majority of them voted NOT to allow children to have free school meals extended to half term and some councils, including Conservative ones, have indicated that they are going to continue to provide them. Some Tory MP’s believe that for comparatively minuscule amounts of money there is a public relations disaster in the making as the Government itself seems to be happy to let children go hungry – even some commercial companies, as well as local authorities, think this situation is so dire that they are providing funds for school meals. Meanwhile, the number of new COVID-19 infections has risen by one quarter since yesterday to 23,000.
On the other side of the Atlantic, it appears that both candidates managed to land blows on their opponent in the last Presidential debate but there was no clear winner or loser. The format of the debate helped in that the debate organisers had instituted a mute button so that listeners could not hear the interruptions of one candidate whilst the other was speaking (which made the first debate such a disaster) According to the BBC poll of polls, Biden is some 8 points ahead whereas, in the CNN poll of polls, Biden is some 10 points ahead. It appears that some 56.5 million voters have already voted (about 30% of the entire electorate) and the turnout may well be the highest since 1909. If the turnout figure is accurate, this can be an advantage to the Democrats as Democrat-leaning non-voting last time around certainly handed Donald Trump history. Of course, there are still about 9 days to go before the actual election date and a lot of eyes are turned upon Florida. This state is always a crucial indicator and may declare before some of the other big ‘battleground’ states. But if you wanted to be pessimistic, it could be several days (or even weeks) before the final result is actually known. Florida has always had really tight and sharply contested elections and this year will be no exception.
Today in the wee small hours of the morning is when the clocks were turned back one hour so this morning we were engaged in making sure that our various clocks and timers were all pointing in the right direction. Fortunately, our computers and clock radios which receive a signal automatically will update themselves without human intervention whilst everything gets our manual attention. I always find that the clock provided in the car always takes some thought but fortunately I remembered how to do this as well. I ‘cheated’ a little by going down to collect the newspapers by car instead of walking down and back as I normally do. Then, after the Andrew Marr show, which is a regular feature of Sunday mornings, Meg and I walked down to the park and got into an interesting conversation with a cyclist who was out taking the park air together with her father. We found that we both had solved a common problem i.e. at the age when children were old to acquire something like a juvenile or adult size bike but were not safe enough to be let out on the roads on their own, then one or both parents would buy an adult bike and accompany their youngsters on the open roads. We do have a few cycle lanes, of course, but they are actually few and far between an then one has to take a decision whether to risk the main roads (legal but not very safe) or ride along the footpath (safer, but of dubious legality). We then had a rather thrown-together type of Sunday lunch before we settled down to a really good long read of the Sunday newspapers. The Sunday Times had done a massive exposure on the ways in which in the early days of the epidemic (approx April) when admissions to hospital were rising at an alarming rate, then the government introduced a type of rationing system. In this the over 80’s, particularly if they had other contributing conditions such as heart disease, obesity or diabetes, were routinely denied admission to hospital or else were decanted into residential homes (often infected with virus) where they subsequently died. Some of the most severe rationing was eased somewhat when it was evident that the peak had passed but in the meantime, there were probably thousands of people throughout the country who lost loved ones early by them not getting the treatment that they needed. Of course, the government has denied the impact of these reports but the depth of the investigative reporting by the Sunday Times is impressive and it hardly likely that the journalists and investigators would have lied (whereas governments of all political persuasions have often taken the easy way out be being ‘canonical with the truth’ i.e. lying to their electorate)
The American elections, as you might expect, are extensively analysed and discussed by the British media. It is now becoming apparent that as a Biden victory looks more likely than not then the British government is finding itself badly wrong footed. Normally, a British government would make sure that it had constructive links with both sides of the electoral divide in the USA on the grounds that you wanted to establish good relations with whoever won. However, the Boris Johnson government has made practically no efforts to establish any links with the Democrats, preferring to see themselves as a natural ally of Donald Trump. According to Andrew Rawnsley in ‘The Observer‘ then ‘Being Britain’s Trump goes down almost as poisonously being Trump himself among many in Team Biden. They are bracketed together in the minds of the Democrats …because both are rule-breaking populists who have polarised their countries and trashed historic alliances.’ It looks as though this is impacting upon the Brexit negotiations – in the (now very unlikely) prospect of a Trump win then a deal with the USA may be on the cards and therefore a ‘no-deal’ Brexit more likely. But in the absence of any kind of sympathetic deal with the US, then the UK may be ‘forced’ by economic logic to accept some kind of minimal deal with the EU, even though they would ideally like to walk away. COVID-19 and Brexit are related,of course – many on the Tory right (i.e. the majority of the current Tory party) are salivating at the prospect of ‘no- deal’ with the EU because the undoubtedly economic cost would not be identifiable when the COVID-10 induced recession bites really hard.
Today was quite an unusual and atypical kind of day. Firstly, my car needed to go into the garage to get its MOT done before we trade it in within about twelve days. These days, the garages offer the most civilised of services. Instead of driving to the garage, the garage staff will come out to you in a car that you can utilise for the rest of the day. When your own is handed over to them, all the touchable surfaces are disinfected (keys, steering wheel etc) by staff who are all masked and helmeted before the car is handed over. Presumably the procedure is reversed at the end of the day when you got your own car back again but in our case the procedure was going to be delayed for a day whilst the garage’s MOT machine was being repaired) I checked with the garage that all would be well when we pick up our new car in twelve days time and I was reassured that all would be well, and we arranged a ‘pick up’ time for a week on Friday. This week, as it happens, will be our last biggish trip in our present car as we are due to meet some friends outside the National History Museum in Oxford where we are going to visit and then go off afterwards for a meal.
The next rather strange event was a phone call (pre-arranged) from one of the GP’s in our local practice. I had received the results of a CT scan which I had undertaken some ten days before and whilst my consultant (cancer) surgeon said there was no indication of any recurrence of bowel cancer the CT scan had raised an issue for me to discuss my GP. The GP seemed to be floundering about a little and I gained the impression that she was at a bit of a loss to know how to proceed. Eventually, we agreed a course of action which will involve referral to another consultant. I also asked her to recommend a course of physiotherapy for a finger which is troubling me and was informed that all of the physiotherapy procedures were now being conducted by an organisation called ‘Physiotherapy First‘ or something similar. I was given a telephone number to ring which, as it happened, was the physiotherapy centre next to the GP practice where I undertake my weekly Pilates. Having established I was an NHS referral, I then got an assessment interview for later on in the afternoon, which I gladly accepted. As it happened, the physiotherapist and I knew each other by sight both having been at the practice for about eight years. I had my assessment consultation today but any therapeutic sessions will take weeks to come through (but at least I am ‘plugged into’ the system) To complete my ‘medical type of day’ I had also requested a routine monitoring blood-test and this was arranged eventually (but it took half-an-hour in a telephone queue to get this booked) Whilst I am not complaining about the service I have received from the NHS, my experiences today have highlighted both the fragmentary nature of the current NHS with linkages that do not always work, as well as a system under pressure.
Channel 4 News tonight had quite an interesting revelation in a ‘Vox Pop‘ kind of interview with electors in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania (a traditional coal-mining state which Trump just managed to win last time on the promise of regenerating the coal industry!) The ‘Vox Pop‘ indicated that the ardent Trump supporters were convinced that COVID-19 either does not exist or is being grossly exaggerated for the purpose of robbing Americans of their traditional freedoms (i.e. to NOT wear face masks!) and is being used by the Democrats as just an electoral ploy to’steal’ the election which is rightly theirs by playing on people’s fears. I wonder how the state of Pennsylvania will actually go (Biden is narrowly ahead in the opinion polls) and what people will say on the after the polls are declared if Trump does lose Pennsylvania. Incidentally, the sight of so many ardent Trump supported displaying huge amounts of weaponry is undoubtedly unsettling if the election to be decided in Biden’s favour by a very slim majority.
Meanwhile, back in the realm of domestic politics,Boris Johnson is still refusing his policy of not extending free school meals to certain children over the half term period. He continues to say the the existing policy will not change whilst arguing that ‘no child will go hungry’ The government seem to appreciate that allowing children in a rich country to go hungry (at a cost of £21 million per week) whilst billions are spent elsewhere does not make for good politics, or headlines. I suspect that it is only a matter of a few days before there has to be a humiliating climb down but we shall have to wait and see!
This morning our car was returned good and sound having sailed through its latest service and MOT. What was so innovative (for me) was that I received a video with the car mechanic having video-ed each of the tyres with the amount of tread chalked on, the suspension, the exhaust and other bits of the car’s underside (rather like an endoscopy for cars) All of this is no doubt enabled by the ease of taking a video clip complete with running commentary and putting on the web for owners to view, but it certainly is a worthwhile innovation as reassurance for car-owners. Do all the modern, well-equipped garages do this nowadays, I wonder?
The major news of the day, however, was the news that arrived overnight in our email that the wife of one of our closest friends in Hampshire had passed away earlier on in the day. This was not unexpected but nonetheless it always comes as quite a trauma to the grieving partner when the inevitable happens. I wrote what words of comfort I could but on these occasions I find it difficult not to sound trite. I made the suggestion that perhaps we could a have a memorial meal or a similar social gathering some time in the summer when we might all be able to travel to be with each other and commemorate the the life of our friend. Another Hampshire friend had emailed during the night suggesting that we Skype at 9.00 this morning, but when the appointed time came along, so an email arrived saying my friends could not access Skype as the internet was down (and his wife was not well either, manifesting the line from Shakespeare that ‘troubles come not singly like spies but in battalions’). So we will have to Skype and chat on another occasion when the time is a bit more propitious.
Our trip to the park was conducted through rather blustery and rainy conditions. We had to wipe our park bench down with the tea towel which we keep inner rucksack for such a purpose – needless to say, nobody else was actually sitting down as we were.On the way home. we had a rather strange encounter with a man who was visiting Bromsgrove who was visiting his brother who he had not seen for twenty-five years. We were informed, though, that this man’s ADHD was probably the result of his mother’s Narcissism which had itself manifested itself by his mother taking off with another man the day after his father died (you DO meet some people in the park!) On our way up the hill, we were pleased to have a pleasant snatched conversation with one of our friends who we had not seen for several days and we made commiserations with other as to how strange Christmas was going to be this year when particularly extended families could not get together as they normally did. As the weather was inclement, we were pleased to get home and to have the prospect of a good long post-prandial read before our next social interaction.
In the late afternoon, we Skyped another of our Hampshire friends and his wife, with whom we all share some Manchester affiliations. I regaled them with one or two of our Manchester University memories.One of these was my encounter with the Professor of Surgery at Manchester University, long since dead so I can refer to him as Professor Boyd. I had discovered a little lump in my neck and somehow (to this day I do not know how) I finished up in his office requesting that he remove the offending tissue. He readily agreed to this but his post-graduate students seemed to be in a state of some panic as I had not been properly prepped before the operation. I woke up an hour later and was discharged from hospital the following day, only to discover when the swelling had gone down that the good Professor had missed taking up my lump about an inch and a half. I went back to see him and he looked me straight in the eye and said ‘Just don’t worry about it – I’ve had a lump in my axilla for decades and it hasn’t caused any harm‘ So I did just as he suggested until we happened to meet again as he turned up on my ‘patch;’ when I was a Census enumerator of the 1971 census. The good professor used to throw some exotic dinner parties, all seated round the large dining table he had in his living room. These dinners were fabled, not least because Professor Boyd possessed a pet monkey who lived to swing from the chandeliers and regularly used to urinate in a line across the dinner table just as the guests were sitting down to their soup. I heard this story from several old hands who, when they complained to the Professor (‘Excuse me, Professor, but your monkey’s just pissed in my soup’) would be informed ‘Don’t worry – its well filtered and should be biologically pure!” Now have I heard the ‘Don’t worry about it’ epithet somewhere before, I wonder?
Today turned out to be one of the most interesting of days. As we walked down into town this morning, we were called in to one of our oldest (church) friends who live down the hill and, as they espied us walking down, invited us in for a coffee and biscuits. They are such good company that we were delighted to accept the invitation. We engaged in what the Irish term ‘craic’ and I give the Wikipedia definition here: 'Craic (/kræk/ KRAK) or crack is a term for news, gossip, fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation, particularly prominent in Ireland.'' This is very interesting, not least seeing what I suppose is the original Gaelic term – otherwise if you were say ‘we enjoyed engaging in crack with our friends’ this is liable to a massive mis-interpretation. Anyway, we discussed our tentative plans to see each other over the Christmas period – and I had fun putting a bit of flesh on the ‘bare bones’ story (in last night’s blog ) with the Professor of Surgery at Manchester University whilst I was a student there in the mid 1960’s. After a very enjoyable get-together, we carried on into the town, picked up our newspapers, sojourned for a little in the park and made our way home in term for a somewhat delayed lunch.
This afternoon was, to be fair, a little on the lazy side but I do enjoy a good read of ‘The Times‘ before we made a Skype call to one of our ex-Winchester friends. This, too, turned out to be an incredibly enjoyable three-quarters of an hour with stories, jokes, reminiscences and so on. We are both looking forward with a kind of fascinated horror to the US election next Tuesday/Wednesday and will no doubt text/email each other constantly as the story unfolds. In the meanwhile, I have been busy ordering more supplies of my favourite tipple of Newcastle Brown (ale) which I intend to work my through, either by way of celebration or to drown my sorrows, whatever the case might be. (I hasten to point out, though, that if the result is delayed by several days which could well be the case, I do NOT intend to be in a state of permanent inebriation as normal life has to go on!)
As I blog this evening, it looks as though both France and Germany are heading quickly towards full-scale lockdowns similar to the spring (with the possible exception of keeping children still within the schools). If this is indeed the case, then can the UK be far behind? The difficulty is that we do not seem to learn the lessons of history and do ‘too little, too late’ so it could be that delaying the almost inevitable full UK-wide lockdown by a week doubles the number of deaths, infections, hospital admissions and so on. Of course there is a division of opinion between the libertarians who would wish for no lockdowns at all once the extremely vulnerable are protected and the majority of scientific opinion that seems to indicate that a full lockdown is better done sooner rather than later.
Every so often, you get a news story that leaps out at you and this is a story from Wisconsin, USA. There is an incredibly well informed website called ‘fivethirtyeight.com‘ and what they have to say is so extraordinary that I quote their headline in full (it was also reported on Channel 4 news in the UK):
Once in a blue moon, you see a poll that makes you blink twice to make sure you’re not seeing things. This morning’s ABC News/The Washington Post survey of Wisconsin was just such a poll. It showed Joe Biden 17 points (not a typo) ahead of President Trump, 57 percent to 40 percent, among likely voters. To put it mildly, this is a stunning margin in what is supposed to be one of the most competitive swing states in the country — a place that Trump carried by less than 1 percentage point in 2016.
Of course, this might be a completely rogue poll – as there are so many polls conducted in the USA, across all of the states as well as nationally, then statistically one would expect the occasional ‘outlier’ or statistical aberration. But what is so extraordinary about this poll is that it is conducted by ABC News/Washington Post which is regarded as one of the ‘gold star’ polls in terms of the methodology deployed. As I have now learnt, there are three ‘rust-belt’ states across the north of the USA in which many of the traditional industries have declined – these are Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. If Biden were to win these three northern states than together with other states that are pretty secure Biden should have enough votes in the Electoral College to gain the magic 270 votes needed (even if, subsequently, he fails to win Florida in the ‘Sunshine Belt’)
Today was a typical autumn day with a lot of low-hanging cloud and weather where the rain was sort of hanging in the air – i.e. not quite a drizzle but certainly feeling a little damp. I walked down to town briskly on my own this morning to collect our ration of newspapers because we had a lunch date in our favourite little cafe in Droitwich, to the south of us. We decided to take our son with us and as a threesome enjoyed a roast of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and all of the trimmings. The dinners are so large that we never have room for the sweets which are homemade (like trifles) and which are, no doubt, delicious. We ate early today because we needed to get back in time for our Waitrose delivery which was scheduled too arrive between 2.00 and 3.00 but in practice, turned up a little later. I have now added to my stock of Newcastle Brown Ale as I am getting well prepared for the election marathon night/day following the US election on Tuesday. It seems that over 75 million Americans have already cast their vote either by mailing in their ballot paper. or else by dropping them off at special ‘ballot drop boxes’ which seem to be a particular feature of this year’s election. Some states have had them for years but the popularity of this type of voting has increased tremendously with the COVID-19 virus ripping through communities. They have to be cemented into the ground and are subject to surveillance by video camera so, in theory, they should be tamper proof. The 75 million is well in excess of the 130+ million who voted in the 2016 Trump v. Clinton election and is probably one half of the 150 million who may well be voting in 2020. This is the point at which the story starts to get confusing. Each state has different laws regarding when the contents of ‘mailed-in’ and ‘ballot box drop’ votes will be counted. Some states will not start counting until the ballot has officially ‘closed’ whereas some other states allow for pre-processing e.g. taking the ballots out of their envelopes, checking that they are valid/legal votes etc. before the actual counting starts.
Now why should all of this matter? Well the following scenario may well play out. Pennsylvania is a crucial ‘battle-ground’ or ‘swing’ state which Trump just captured last time – but all of the indications are that Biden is narrowly ahead this year. However, we know that Republican voters typically vote in person whilst Democrat voters make more use of mailed-in or ballot drop boxes. The ‘in person’ votes are counted first so the initial indications may well be that Trump retained Pennsylvania – but the true result may well be known only in a few days time when the mailed-in votes are counted. So it is quite conceivable that Trump will declare he has ‘won’ Pennsylvania and attempt to use an army or lawyers to delay or invalidate the counting of the mailed-in votes, appealing all the way to the Supreme Court in the process (one of the reasons why he was so keen to get his own nominee, a proven conservative, to be confirmed in their position on the Supreme Court only days before the election). So if the result in Pennsylvania is critical for getting the requisite votes in the Electoral College (the magic figure of 280 vote) then we may now know the result of Tuesday’s election for days (or even a week or so) later. The scenario I have just outlined for Pennsylvania could well be repeated for each of the other crucial battle-ground states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida for a start)- no doubt we will see in the days following Tuesday (I hesitate to even say Wednesday)
And now to the UK domestic scene. The rate at which the COVID-19 virus is accelerating with an intensity and a ferocity not only in the UK but also in France and Germany is a source of real concern. More areas are being moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2 even today – residents in areas of Yorkshire and the Humber, parts of the West and East Midlands, as well as Luton and Oxford City will come under stricter measures. This may put our trip to Oxford on Saturday under some jeopardy but we shall have to wait and see. It looks as though half the country will soon be in Tier 2 or Tier 3 from next Monday – and perhaps most of the country by Christmas!
Today turned out to be an unseasonably mild day – the leaves were swirling around us in a wind that was not the bitter, biting kind you normally get in the autumn and winter but rather a mild and gentle kind. Having collected our newspapers (the very last ‘Times‘ in the shop!) we met with one of ‘park’ friends who we have not seen for a few days. She is a wheelchair user and comes to the park most days so we congratulated each other on keeping going to get our fresh air and exercise even while the intensity of COVID-19 seems to be increasing. On our way up the hill, we encountered our Italian friend who we have not seen for several days and we exchanged some very pleasant minutes together talking about families amongst other things. We made a general arrangement to meet over Christmas in one or other of our houses for a Christmas mince pie and sherry – although that is some way off, it’s nice to know that in the very truncated Christmas that faces us, we still have a circle of friends with whom we can commune. This lunchtime, we treated ourselves to one of my traditional curries (which I share with our domestic help) and now that I have discovered the joys of packets of cauliflower rice, I can eat my traditional curry without fear of sending my carbohydrate balance into overdrive.
Last night, we discovered rather late on that Oxford City is being ‘promoted’ to Tier 2 which puts into jeopardy our lunchtime date with friends tomorrow, where we were going to visit one of the of the Oxford museums before repairing to a meal. So, instead, after some emails and telephone calls, we went onto ‘Plan B’. Now we are going to eat in a Turkish restaurant in Bicester which has an excellent local reputation. The location is approximately equidistant between the two of us and it is quite easy to access from the motorway (and parking can be found quite easily) so we have rescued something from the lockdown restrictions, whilst keeping within the law. To be honest, Oxford was one of the last places I expected to be moved up a Tier and I wonder whether the great influx of students into the University (24,000 converging on the city) a few weeks ago has anything to do with the sudden increase in the COVID-19 infection rate. This seems more likely as I have seen a report that the COVID-19 infection rates in university cities such as Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham are up to SEVEN times greater than in the surrounding areas.
As the USA election approaches, the issue of ‘voter suppression’ is rearing its ugly head. Let us imagine that you are a staunch, and very committed Republican voter, who has followed the polling news given in various websites – you will be aware that Trump has trailed Biden by every poll since last January and the latest ‘poll of polls’ puts Biden at 52% and Trump at 43% – a 9% gap. As you know that approx. 50% of the electorate has already voted, then to reverse this pattern you would need a Trump polling figure of 52% (and Biden at 43%) within the next few days. To put on an increase of 9% in your share of the vote in the last 4 days would seem to be almost completely impossible, given you had been behind in the polls for the last nine months! So what to do? The only viable strategy is to get as many who think like you to come out to vote in person next Tuesday and do whatever you can to deter Biden supporters (more likely than not to be black voters) from voting. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. One is to get every retired policeman you know to turn up with preferably (large) weapons to march up and down the voting lines so as to act as ‘eyes and ears’ for the Republicans. Another technique is to rely upon your legislators in your local City hall to restrict the number of ballot boxes in your local area. So, far example, the Texas (Republican) governor has limited drop boxes to one per county. In Harris county, Texas, home to Houston, that’s one box for 4.7 million people. To round off, this merry section of news, the channel MSNBC (one of the liberal Main Street Media) has assembled a series of clips, including one from Trump himself, arguing that if the size of the electorate increases, the Republicans are always going to lose – and therefore, to ‘win’ you have to suppress the anti-Trump vote as much as you can relying upon the various courts (and the Supreme Court) to back up the decision. This is going to play out in the USA increasingly over the next few days. Watch this space!
Today was a pretty foul day with a lot of rain in the early part of the morning. As Meg and I had a lunch date in Bicester, we decided to play things a little differently this morning. To save a bit of time but also to get our bit of exercise in, we walked to the park (in the pouring rain) and then decided to go straight to the bandstand where we drank our coffee (although I managed to send half of my coffee flying as my rucksack fell off our little tripod stool) We then got home rapidly and jumped in the car, picking up our newspapers and dry-cleaning en-route and thoroughly confusing the sat-nav as we seemed to keep going in the wrong direction) The heavens really opened and we drove to Bicester through masses of heavy rain but fortunately, our timings were perfect and we got there with a quarter of an hour to spare before our lunch appointment and finding some parking quite easily. There we met with our friends for a wonderful Mediterranean meal (in a Turkish restaurant, which we have visited several times before) but I think we were conscious, right throughout the meal, that there was an impending lock-down and this might be the last meal together for quite some time (and so it proved to be). By the time we had finished our meal, we strolled down the pedestrianised High Street to have a post-prandial coffee and then we knew we had to make haste to get home. Fortunately, the heavy rain had finished by now so the journey home was quite uneventful. Then we had a fairly quick turn-around before we departed for our normal Saturday night church service – again, we were wondering if this was going to be the last time for some time. Once we eventually did get home, we were just about in time to catch some of the Downing Street announcements and press conference but availed ourselves of watching the France v. Ireland rugby match which occupied us nearly all of the evening. Then we waited unto the late evening news to get the full story of the new lock-down.
Naturally, we are interested in seeing how the new rules of lock-down will apply to Meg and myself. It seems that our daily walk to the park is still quite legitimate – even sitting on a park bench is now specifically allowed (according to Sky News!) Domestic help with the cleaning of the house will still be permitted, but attendance at church services is now out-of-bounds (except for private prayer – so that puts paid to our Saturday night excursions for a little while) It looks as though gyms are due to close so that means my Pilates class will bite the dust – I will probably join my Pilates’ teacher Zoom sessions if these are going to be put on again. Social mixing with other people inside their houses is now not allowed but the rules allow you to meet with one other person outside the house. (I can see this rule causing all kinds of difficulties as, so often, outside the house you meet with couples. Do you avoid talking to both of them? Or only one of them at a time? I am not sure how this has been thought through and how the police who are responsible for ensuring compliance with the law are going to deal with this one)
It will be interesting for me when I get round to watching ‘What the Papers Say‘ to see what the popular reaction to all of this is going to be. Boris Johnson is trying to sell the package on the basis ‘if we do this right. we might be able to enjoy Christmas a little more’ which I suppose is a sort of lifeline for many – if you think restrictions are going to be lifted after only one month (which I very much doubt). Speaking, absolutely personally, I am quite pleased that Boris Johnson has grasped the nettle and not dithered about any more. It is interesting to the principal correspondents from the main news channels (I am thinking of Laura Kuensberg for the BBC, Beth Rigby for Sky News both asked essentially the same question in the press conference i.e. why did you not act sooner, – say two weeks ago – and save 1,000s of lives. The answer was predictable (‘blather..blatther..blatther .. difficult balance, had to protect the economy as well as people’s lives, blather.. blather…’) I suspect that the right-wing of the Tory party will be incandescent with rage again but will they vote against the measures when they come (eventually) before Parliament? I suspect they may not but I am sure that Boris will now be ditched at the first possible opportunity when the immediate storm clouds have passed!
Today is evidently the 1st of the month but I resisted the temptation to utter my normal aphorism. As we woke up a little late, I went down in the car to pick up our normal supply of Sunday newspapers and just managed to get back in time to watch the Andrew Marr show from the start. Keir Starmer (Leader of the Labour Party) was interviewed and seemed to me to be very impressive in that he gave full support to the government lockdown but reminded the government that he had been calling for this lockdown together with the consensus of scientific opinion some two weeks earlier. He made the very interesting point that if the lockdown had been called a couple of weeks ago, then it could have coincided with the school’s half term which, combined with two weekends and one or two in-service training days, then you could have had the best part of two weeks with the children not in school. I must admit I had not fully appreciated that government scientists regard the level of infection amongst the older secondary school children as comparable with the wider population, but of course most of the school children will be asymptomatic. Nor had I realised that the SAGE committee had advised university students to be taught on-line and not to return to their colleges which, when the story of the pandemic comes to be told, will rank as another great mistake by the present government in not keeping the university students in their home communities.
We had an interesting chat with one of our oldest friends on the way down the hill and we exchanged news and views about the latest lockdown. To interpret at least one of the rules is going to be difficult. You are allowed to meet one person from outside your household bubble but in the case of our conversation this morning, would this have been legal? Meg and I were speaking to one person which is within the rules but out friend was speaking to two of us which is now forbidden by the rules. Given that a person on their own often meets a couple outside, then who is allowed to have a meeting and a chat with whom? This morning was a much pleasant day after the rain of yesterday for Meg and I to have a sojourn in the park where we were met by our Italian friend who was out for a stroll in the pale sunshine. We walked back to her house together, exchange COVID lockdown observations and speculated that for people like ourselves (enjoying the open air, meeting with acquaintances and friends) the new lockdown would not prove to be especially arduous but for some others who are housebound, then they must be regarding the next four weeks or so with a degree of trepidation. Finally, on nearing our own house we encountered some more near neighbours who we happen to know have both a dog and a cat who happily co-exist with each other, so we exchanged observations about how we were going to cope with the weeks ahead.
Being Sunday, we were happy to spend a lot of the rest of the day absorbing the contents of the Sunday newspapers. I was extremely impressed by a graphic design which I saw on the inside pages detailing how either Trump or Biden can chart their progress to wards the magic 270 votes in the Electoral College. The graphic showed for each candidate a line indicating the seats that they ought to have ‘in the bag’ i.e. a state which alway votes one way, plus a further component which ‘leans’ towards one candidate. In Biden’s case, the certain plus the probable would give him 233 votes – so he needs another 37 to get him over the finishing line. You then consult the graphic for the number of votes available in each of the swing states to work out what was needed. For example, if Biden were to gain Florida which declares early and would give him 29 votes than he would only need one more state to get him over the line. On the same logic, were he to carry the three northern ‘rust-belt’ states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, then he could afford to ‘lose’ Florida to Trump. So as you can see, this is going to be enormously useful to me in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning when I am following the progress of the elections. If Biden gains Florida early, I can go straight to bed – otherwise, it might be a nail-biting finish which extends or days (particularly Pennsylvania, for reasons best known too itself, is only going to start the counts of the postal votes the following day!) Of course, the more the postal vote, the longer the count might be – but it could also be that a very large vote hands victory to Biden sooner rather than later. We have just over two days left now to find out how this all works out!
Today was the kind of day for which the word ‘blustery’ might have been invented. The weather was a little on the cool side and there seemed to be the threat of a shower but fortunately we missed out on that. On the other hand, a fairly keen wind was doing its November job of stripping leaves off the trees and depositing them on pavements – which both children and young dogs loved to romp through. We were a little later than we should have been because we had to make, and receive, a series of telephone calls in the morning. In theory, we should be picking up a new car on Friday but of course Lockdown Mark II has intervened. We originally arranged with the garage to pick up the new car two days early if we could, on Wednesday. However, our existing lease runs on until Thursday and for a reason I cannot really discern, it could not by replaced by a new one (but if it had run out out on Wednesday, all would have been have OK) Anyway, the garage is undertaking various enquiries as to exactly what business can be transacted at the start of the lockdown in a case such as ours but if the worst comes to the absolute worst, we shall have to wait until the end of the lockdown (whenever that is) to pick up the new car.
We got back home fairly late this morning and had the roast we would have had at the weekend if we had not gone out for a meal. Then we kept an eye open on the weather because we knew that one day this week, our lawns needed their final cut of the season. We were aware that other things were likely to mess up our afternoons a little this week (Pilates on Tuesday, election watching on Wednesday, possible car transactions on Thursday or Friday) so we decided to take the ‘bull by the horns’ and get the lawns cut this afternoon. So far, so good – the grass turned out to be quite thick so a last cut was certainly needed. However, the last cut of the season is a bit special, as I like to run the petrol down to completely empty to ensure that there is no residual petrol hanging around in the system. This means that although I deliberately put no extra petrol in the tank this afternoon, when the mowing was completed I was marching up and down my lawn, complete with mower shouting at it ‘Die! Die!‘ which it resolutely failed to do for about half an hour, by which time it was completely dark. I remember vaguely that in these once-a-year a year type of jobs, I really needed to start at 2.15 rather than 3.15.This is because the clocks went back last weekend, which meant that by the time that engine had ‘died’ it was completely dark. I then had to empty the oil (not an easy task) by the light of the patio light and give the mower its end-of-season cleanup as I do not want to store it for months on end with layers of encrusted mud and grass under the mower hood. I managed to finish all of this little lot at 5.45 being a bit cold and tired and dying for a warming cup of tea! But at least, the job is now done until March 25th (my son’s birthday and the date at which I traditionally make the first cut of the new season)
Today is the last day of electioneering in the American presidential elections. Donald Trump knows that approx two thirds of the electorate have already voted and perhaps a majority of these votes will be Democrat and therefore the people who vote ‘in person’ tomorrow will be predominantly Republican. So Trump is suggesting that all counting should finish ‘on the evening of the election’ (i.e. when a majority of the vote is likely to be Republican) when he will declare himself elected. He will then rely upon ‘an army of lawyers’ to attempt to invalidate the 50-60% of the uncounted vote (not to mention a variety of courts including the newly Republican-packed Supreme Court). This is so outrageous a suggestion that all of the Main Street media have said that if Trump does such a thing, they will all collectively refuse to report Trumps claim. By the way, didn’t Hitler come to power ‘democratically’ – I must check up on my history to see if there are any historical parallels? I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a long night, unless of course, Florida goes to Biden quite quickly (unlikely, but not impossible) and some other states follow. Not long to go now – but I am not opening my first bottle of beer until the Democrats have won at least one or two of the swing states!
Well, election day in the US has finally arrived but of course, with the time difference of five hours between GMT and EST, the polls do not actually open until 7am at the earliest which is 12.0pm GMT. The news overnight is that some 100 million (actually 99.7 million) of US voters have actually already voted either by mail or by dropping off their voting papers in a ‘ballot box’ (which seem to have grown in popularity this election as a result of the COVID-19 crisis). There are already legal fights going on – first thing this morning, the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania was asked to overturn a ruling that any vote posted in time (according to the post mark) was a legal vote. The Republicans (naturally) suspecting that many of these mailed in votes would be Democrat was asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to declare these votes invalid – they failed in their attempt. I did see a clip on the MSNBC channel that the Attorney General of Pennsylvania was recorded as saying that the election authorities would stamp down hard on any illegitimate poll-observers engaging in voter intimidation (i.e. the Republicans giving the nod to some of their burley and well-armed quasi-militia to march up and down near the election venues to ensure ‘fair play’) He also announced that the election authorities would count every single ballot even if takes some days, thereby trying to forestall Donald Trump counting up the (predominantly) Republican votes that had been cast in person on Election Day itself and claiming that the election had been ‘won’ and trying to cast some doubt on the validity of all of the uncounted (and predominantly Democrat) votes. To UK eyes and the British sense of ‘fair play’ all of this seems absolutely extraordinary but ‘Hey! This is America! Land of the Free!‘ (i.e. free to intimidate, subvert and otherwise trick your way into an election victory.)
It was a most beautiful day today for Meg and I to walk down into town. We di not see any of our usual friends for a chat but we enjoyed a fine day where we could actually, at times, feel the heat of the sun on our faces. This was not too last – we ran into a little shower on the way home but it was more a really light drizzle rather than a full-scale rainstorm. We knew that we wanted to get home in reasonable time because as it was my Pilates Day (the last for until the end of the lock-down) I wanted to get most of the mid-day meal prepared so that it took just a quick microwaving when I returned just before 3.00pm. We had rather a doleful Pilates experience as we knew that whilst we could participate in some ‘Zoom’ classes organised by our teacher, we would not be meeting again as a group until the end of the lockdown – and we all suspected that the lockdown would ‘de facto’ last longer than the supposed four weeks. I suspect it will be extended by another two weeks and then we will run into a Christmas holiday period so we may not be ‘unlocked’ until January.
However, I did receive some good news in the late morning. I had a couple of telephone calls from the garage from which we hoped to collect our new car later on this week. Our salesman had some good news for us. The leasing company, perhaps armed with some more up-to-date advice from a government agency), had given us permission to pick up our new car next Friday, provided that all of the handover transactions take place outside the showrooms i.e. in the open air. I am sure we shall manage this OK – in the meantime, we are delighted that our original plans have not completely fallen foul of the new LockDown Mark II regulations.
I decided to have quick look at what Huff post (Huffington Post) were saying throughout the voting today. I was think it is fair to say that most of the commentary was apoplectic at the avowed intention of Donald Trump to ‘steal’ the election by force or by fraud. One comment that I read was illuminating:“He’s been laying the groundwork for this for months,” said Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor and the lead lawyer for House Democrats during Trump’s impeachment over his extortion of Ukraine to help his reelection bid. “Mind-blowingly fascist.” I have noticed that many very serious minded and not particularly partisan commentators (not all of them Democrat by any means) have been observing that the whole of american democracy is on trial tonight and not just the election of a president. I think the feeling is that if you win an election by voter suppression, discounting or not even counting some valid votes, using militia to engage in voter intimidation, challenging at every point with an army of lawyers all the way through the various state legislatures, appeal courts and eventually Supreme Courts (even as far as the United States Supreme Court itself, packed with die-hard republican judges) then the whole American democratic ideal has been subverted.
I do not expect that I shall see anything like a definitive result tonight. But I hope at least that the tide of opinion is such that once we have Florida out of the way and some of the other faster-counting states that there might be an indication by about 3.00am which way the wind is blowing and I can crawl into my bed and get some well-earned sleep!
I must be a real masochist watching elections of any type because I never seem to witness the result I really want. I tuned into the election broadcasts at 11.30pm last night knowing that some of the American polls would close at 12.00pm and thereafter we might get an exit poll or something. In practice, nothing seemed to happen for hours except that the predictable (i.e. states not expected to swing) announced first – the eastern seaboard states for Biden and the large empty, agricultural states in the centre of America for Trump. The first state of interest was going to be Florida in which the national polls had suggested that Biden had the narrowest of leads. In practice, it turned out that Florida was not going to turn away from Republican, and is Donald Trump’s adopted home state and the home to a sizeable population of Cuban heritage voters who are vehemently ‘anti-socialist’ and therefore responded to the message that a vote for the Democrats was a vote for ‘socialism’ (very much a ‘boo’ word in the US) Although political analysts talk about the Latino vote (or the Hispanic vote), in practice the ex-Cuban Americans have always been pretty right wing and do not vote in the same way as ‘latinos’ in other parts of the USA. So Florida stayed in the Trump camp and alter a little flurry of excitement in Texas, it too stayed in the Trump camp. I headed off for bed at 3.15 pretty dispirited and not convinced that the situation was rescuable for the Democrats as the later states were due to declare.
Meg and I walked down to the park on a beautiful Autumn day. Whilst there, we got into conversation with an elderly lady who hired a taxi at great expense to come to the park in Bromsgrove where she she said several ‘turns’ of the park to keep herself mobile. Having spent the first period of ‘lockdown’ confined to the house, she was determined to come to the park to exercise (and to chat) at least once a week if she could. It is quite inspirational when you see the efforts that some elderly people make (she was in her 80’s) to keep themselves connected with the rest of the world and mobile as well.
Upon our return home, we switched on the TV to see the latest election results.Donald Trump had assembled an audience in the ‘East’ room of the White House where he held a most extraordinary briefing. With a handle of ‘swing’ states under his belt, he declared that he was well on the way to victory, that he wanted ‘voting’ (by which he meant ‘ballot counting’) to cease in several other presidential races and he intended to apply to the Supreme Court to attempt to invalidate what he claimed was the election being ‘fraudulently’ stolen from him. We knew that Donald Trump was going to try this tactic but the audacity of it shocked the rest of the media. Then, there was just a glimmer of light for the Democrats. Eventually, they cornered the state of Arizona which was the first of the states held by Trump to ‘flip’ sides. Then it looked as though a neighbouring state of Nevada might be heading in the same direction., Finally, at about 8.00 in the evening, Wisconsin was ‘called’ for the Democrats which now puts Biden only 22 votes short in the electoral college (he needs 270 and is currently up to 248 votes so he needs 22 more) Where he to gain Nevada and Michigan, where he is about 0.5% ahead, then he will have secured the 270 votes needed even if does not get the big prize of Pennsylvania. The margin of 0.5% sounds incredibly small until you realise that the votes still to be counted are postal ballots and these are more likely to be Democrat rather than Republican and hence this 0.5% can only increase. As you might expect, the Republicans are already demanding a full recount in Wisconsin (they wouldn’t if they were ahead!) and law suits of every variety are flying thick and fast. I imagine that a lot of this will unwind some time tomorrow or even Friday – for some reason, they have stopped counting in Nevada but will carry on again tomorrow.
Needless to say, my bottles of Newcastle Brown ale have remained unopened – and will do so until some more states have declared. I suspect that with lawyers’ writs, recounts, challenges and the like, this whole election might take several days before we get anything approaching a definitive result. It is said that in China, there is amusement that a society can tear itself apart having a really divisive election – why not just have one political party (the Communist party) to make decisions in a society? However, wins the election, some commentators are already arguing that ‘Trumpism’ is now ‘baked in’ to the USA electorate and there will be a continuing culture wars for years ahead.
Well, today seems an ‘intermediate’ kind of day. This is because several things are due to happen tomorrow (USA election finally ‘called’ on favour of Biden or Trump) and we are due to pick up our new car tomorrow. So today, we contented ourselves with getting bits and pieces done before tomorrow. The weather was fairly fine but a little chilly today (in line with forecasts) and we enjoyed our walk, made more enjoyable by little chats on route. We met one of our oldest friends complete with child (grandchild, actually) who she had been taking to observe the ducks now that the grandchild is about 11 months old. We also ran into the very good neighbour of a friend of ours who has been having a bit of a traumatic time recently, having to undergo a series of tests (endoscopies) which didn’t work out as intended as well as some blood tests. We are hoping that the outcome of all of tis is not unfavourable but she only lost her husband about twelve months ago to liver cancer. Finally, on the way home we stopped to chat with a friendly guy who was trimming his hedges and seemed inclined to talk – it must be the fine weather that encourages people to smile and chat with neighbours. Actually, when I think about it, today was the first day of the ‘Lockdown Mark II‘ so you would have thought that there would been hardly any traffic on the roads and the streets would have been almost deserted. However, the traffic did not seem to have abated much and the number of people in the park about the same as aways (but then, of course, exercise is not only permitted but encouraged under the new regime).
Having got home and eaten an early lunch, I knew that I wanted to make a fairly early start in ‘prepping’ the car before we hand it in tomorrow in exchange for our new one. About a week ago, I had the car quite well valeted by one of a group of Kurds to whom we have been going for years and who operate from a carpark of a local pub (unused during the day!) This afternoon, I got myself into my car washing routine (which, as it happens, involved an assortment of watering cans used for the sole purpose of car washing) and buckets of detergent water. This bit went all right but I knew that when you hand over a car there are a variety of your own mats, boot impedimenta, CD’s, and other bits of documentation which are always kept in the car, such as the permit for the Municipal tip which has to be displayed before they let you in. The car is now in a fit condition to be handed over and we are are almost prepared for the handover tomorrow – I must remember to take along certain documents, handbooks, log books, spare keys etc. After all had been completed (whilst the daylight lasted) I popped over to see a neighbour because we wanted to check out some aspects of her house alarm system and it is always better to have two bodies (and heads) associated with this so that you do not inadvertently lock yourself out. As it happened, all was well so back into the house for tea.
I mentioned earlier that today was a kind of ‘waiting game’ in the US presidential elections. The system that seems to be deployed is that even though the count in a particular state is not complete, then a state is ‘called’ i.e. allocated to one candidate or the other if the gap between the candidates is greater than the number of ballots yet to be counted – even if all of the uncounted votes went to the losing candidate, then the gap is too great to be bridged. This is what you might call the ‘easy’ call of a state. But the American commentators seem to be deploying a much more sophisticated kind of calling that works that likes. Candidate A is 1.0% ahead (translated into votes) but you know that the remaining votes are coming from a county in which y% of people may have voted. If you know from historic voting patterns or other socio-demographic data that an uncounted county will generate so may votes for one candidate or another, then it is possible to ‘almost’ predict what the final result will be. This sounds unduly abstract but a good case in point is Pennsylvania. About 88% of the vote has been counted and Trump is leading Biden by about 1.4% or 90,500 votes. But there is about 12% of the vote yet to be counted which is approx. 870,000. It looks as though the majority of the yet-to-be-counted vote will be Democrat which will be about 470,000 which is five times the deficit. Is it any wonder that the Republicans want the count to be stopped ‘immediately’ whilst they are ahead. We have the strange spectacle (to us) of crowds of Republican supporters where Trump appears to be ahead shouting ‘Stop the Count‘ whereas in the states where Trump appears to be behind they are chanting ‘Count the Vote‘ Tomorrow, we will see how all of this works out!
Well, today was the day that followed last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and wondered what was going in the US Presidential elections – as I thought that Pennsylvania must just get called (what a hope!) I stayed up for an hour watching a variety of things on Sky News (as my Mac decided to update its operating system in the middle of the night, just when I wanted to use it so this knocked out about three-quarters of an hour). In the course of yesterday evening’s viewing, I did see Donald Trump’s rant from the White House and I seriously wondered whether the rant that ensued was a sign of seriously disintegrating personality – or worse. However, worse is bound to follow in the next few days.
Today was the day in which we were scheduled to pick up our new car so we duly made our way there to arrive at 11.00 am. The transaction all had to be completed outdoors to comply with various regulations these days, so we were signing various handover documents on a variety of clipboards, handing over documentation and the like on our existing vehicle before getting a mountain of documents on the new one. All to be seemed to be handled extremely expeditiously so having rescued the car mats from our previous vehicle, we were on our way home. I must say I do not particularly like the first hour or so driving a new car until one is completely familiar with all of the controls and updates. But we made sure that we had the car radio tuned into Radio 4 and Classic FM which suits us 95% of the time and most of the remaining controls seemed to be a ‘carry-over’ from our previous Honda. There is one particular feature which I particularly like and no doubt I will discover lots of others as the days and weeks roll by. In most of the cars I have had, the petrol gauge tends to be circular in nature but in this car, it is a linear scale. But immediately above it is another linear scale which measures the current mpg and so you can tell for any particular gear or road conditions how your mpg is responding. I noted, for example, that reducing my speed from 70mph to 60mph seemed to push up my mpg substantially to about 45mpg, so it is quite easy to adjust your driving to meet your desired fuel consumption. I found this an excellent feature – just the little refinement which makes a new car a joy to explore. When I got home and after lunch, I fitted our old car mats on top of the supplied ones. There is a certain logic behind off of this. I like to have some light-ish car mats as a ‘top set’ as it were and in the doors compartment, I usually store a car wheel brush. Then if I have been anywhere particularly muddy or I have a few seconds to spare at the end of a journey, I can easily remove the light mat and give it a quick brush-over (keeping the under-mats pristine as well)
This afternoon was a particularly delicious afternoon. We were watching the Biden count in the remaining four contested states gradually overhaul that of Trump and eventually gradually increase as new batches of votes (by county?) are gradually added. Much of this pattern is both predictable and predicted – Donald Trump asked his supporters to vote in person on the day which they generally did, thus building up ‘red’ majorities. But then the Democratic vote started what is known as the ‘Blue Shift’ as the votes come in form the larger urban areas in which voters had voted by postal ballot or by drop off box. The Republican voters tended to think that COVID-19 was largely a Democrat myth and did not mind queuing up next to each to vote in person on election day. The Democrat voters did believe in COVID-19 and their vote tended to be counted after the ‘in-person’ vote had already been tabulated.
As I blog, the Democrat lead over Trump is gradually increasing (14.5k in Pennsylvania, 20k in Nevada, 39k in Arizona, only 4k in Georgia) There will certainly be a recount in Georgia as the totals are within 0.1%-0.2% of each other) and in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) there seems to be a lot of military (posted votes) still to be counted. There does seem to be a movement ‘in the air’ that it is really important that each particular vote is actually counted and recorded and this may be the enduring impact of the ‘Black Lives Matter‘ social movement. The Trump rant to the effect that the elections are fundamentally flawed and subject to massive fraud all over the USA is being quietly contradicted by various leading Republicans who are re-asserting their faith in the counting process. We might add that in many of the states, the officials in charge of the counts are registered Republican but the integrity of the officials has been systematically traduced by Trump. It may well take a day or so to get the final totals from all of the states but when the overall result is in no doubt (i.e. Biden has unequivocally won the election, pending court cases notwithstanding), then one can watch with some pleasure. More on this as the days unfold!
What an interesting day it has proved to be today. Meg and I were somewhat late this morning and we would not have been surprised if our little newspaper shop had run out of our regular newspapers. But the Gods must have looked kindly upon us for we got the last copy of The Times and the second last copy of The Guardian. Although the road traffic seemed relatively quiet this morning (lockdown finally having an effect?) the park seemed to be as busy as usual with young mothers, toddler children and dogs in every shape and variety. We met one of our regular friends who comes to the park as we do almost every day and we exchanged little bits of news with each other. When we got home, we had a light lunch of soup and settled down in front of the rolling news programmes as it was evident that the US elections were coming to some sort of climax.
Just before the inevitable announcement came, there was a bizarre announcement coming from the Trump camp that his lawyers were going to hold a kind of ‘press conference’ in an industrial estate and the rumours were rife that the lawyers might be able to produce a witness to an election fraud that they were going to parade in front of the media. However, just before the scheduled time of 4.30 the BBC ‘called’ the election, perhaps slightly in advance of the rest of the media conglomerates. As you might imagine when the news broke that the Biden camp had received another tranche of votes that pushed his lead to 34,000 the dam broke. The world’s media went mad (with joy?) at the news of the Biden victory and there was massive of ‘vox pop’ with crowds in Washington, Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere. In the meanwhile, Donald Trump was filmed off playing golf in Virginia – news of the lawyers’ press conference absolutely disappeared off the media agenda. (For conspiracy theorists, is this why the BBC ‘called’ the result in Philadelphia some five minutes before the lawyers’ press conference?)
In the meanwhile, a little bit of background (courtesy of Associated Press) to explain why the result was called when it was. The election officials knew that were only 60,000 votes left to process and to overcome this the Trump vote would have to have been about 75% of this. As all the postal vote had actually been 75% in favour of the Democrats and the election officials knew that the remaining vote was from very Democrat inclined areas (urban Philadelphia) then it would have been unlikely in the extreme (although not impossible) that Trump could garner these votes. The election officials waited until the gap between the candidates was 0.51% at which point an automatic recount could not be called (as it has to be 0.5% gap or smaller) and then gave ‘the nod’ to the media. I think this is the most likely explanation but election nerds might have to consult the finer print of the quality newspapers.
The political implications of all of this are tremendous. It could well be that Donald Trump serves one term (he will be 78 at the time of the inauguration) at which point Kerala Harris (now the Vice President elect, who incidentally is the first woman and person of colour to successfully occupy the office of VP) will win the next Presidential election and if she has two terms, the the Democrats will have the presidency for the next twelve years. President-elect Biden has been sounding extremely Presidential and is making all of the right noises about ‘healing the nation’ whereas the Trump team are still breathing fire and brimstone and threatening all kinds of appeal to the Supreme Court next Monday (which they may not actually carry out) Amidst the welter of other media interviews there was one that stood out in my memory as he opined ‘if the Democrats were so corrupt and intent on cheating, why did they not do it four years when Trump was elected and it wouldn’t have taken many ‘frauds’ to deny him?’ The other point to make is the absurdity of the Republican position who are almost uniformly crying ‘foul’ but some of them are saying ‘Stop the Count' (in states in which Biden was ahead) but other Republican crowds were shouting ‘Count the Votes‘ (in states in which Trump was ahead). Just an interesting afterthought to all of this – who will be the brave Republican who is delegated to go into the room and say to President Trump ‘The game’s up – you have lost!’
A final statistic – the participation rate in this election has been the greatest since 1900 and 75 million voters (more than any other candidate in history) voted for Biden. This equates to a lead in the popular vote of some 4% (which could be 5% when all of the final tallies have been completed).
After the ‘excitement’ of yesterday, we slept a little heavily last night so we were up a little late. I went down by car to collect the Sunday newspapers and then we watched the Andrew Marr show, dominated as you might expect by the latest news in the US presidential elections. We then engaged in our normal walk down to the park but encountered one of our closest friends who had just completed his ‘bicycle run’. We had both been following the American elections intently and swapped all kinds of interesting stories and tit-bits that emerged over the campaign, particularly in the four days waiting for the count results to be revealed. Although we all know that, in theory, the red Republican voters had voted in person on Election Day and the democrats had generally voted by mail or by drop-off ballot before the Election Day. So that we all knew that there would appear to be large Republican leads in the first count (I think in the case of Pennsylvania it was of the order of 70,000 votes) but there was a fairly nail-biting time when the postal votes – more difficult to process and therefore to count – came in slowly by county (or electoral district) much more slowly. There was always this doubt at the back of one’s mind that if Donald Trump had done it once could he possibly do it again? But, as we now know, the so-called ‘Blue Wave’ rolled in and gradually in Pennsylvania, the Trump lead was eroded and eventually the Biden lead was over 41,000 votes.
In the park, we met up again, as did last Sunday, with our Italian friend who was just returning from a sort of Remembrance Day gathering held somewhere in the town. We had our usual chat and banter and it was wonderful to know that we can carry on to support each other in these difficult times. So we then proceeded home to have a light and leisurely lunch followed by a prolonged reading of the Sunday newspapers, as is our wont at the weekend. Obviously the papers tell us the inside story of the demographics of the whole campaign and how these are gradually shifting over the years, particularly in states such as Georgia which have just gone Democrat for the first time in decades. But there were three other lines of analysis that came out of the acres of newsprint. The first of these was an analysis of the persistence of what might be termed ‘Trumpism’ and the realisation that even when Trump has gone, the fact that over 70 million Americans voted for Trump on this occasion means that there is still a massive chasm which runs deep through American society. The second point of interest was the acceptance speech given by Biden which was skilfully constructed and delivered and appealed very much for unity after the divisions and conflicts of the campaign. But the third and most interesting analysis is how the Biden victory will impact upon the British political scene. It is certainly true to say that Biden has called Boris Johnson ‘a physical and emotional clone’ of Trump which is not the best of starting points. In addition, former Obama press aide Tommy Vietor responded to Johnson’s congratulatory message last night by calling him a 'shapeshifting creep', adding: 'We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump.' And it is also said that Kerala Harris (Vice-President-elect) has a visceral hatred of Boris Johnson after he had insulted Obama in 2016. One source told The Sunday Times: ‘If you think Joe hates him, you should hear Kamala.’ Johnson reportedly attracted the power-pair’s ire after calling former President Obama’s decision to remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office ‘a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire.’ This has been interpreted as a direct racial slur (and, of course, Boris Johnson has a lot of form in making insulting, quasi-racist remarks over the years)
This afternoon, I devoted a certain amount of time ‘repopulating’ the new car we have just acquired with some of the clutter removed from the old one. There are certain things that are always kept in the car such as CD’s and sweets to ease the tedium of long journeys, various car wipes for when they are needed and so on. I am determined that I do not transfer all of the old clutter directly into the new one and as the distribution of space in the door pockets differs (i.e. is smaller) I am having to think carefully what I really need to have to hand when I need it and that which I can do without. For the first few weeks of acquiring a new car, I am always a little ‘new car neurotic’ i.e. one lives in fear and trembling of having a car door opened on you from an adjacent vehicle in a supermarket carpark – this feeling fades over time but I suppose it is only human to keep the new car as pristine as one can before it will acquire the inevitable little clips (nearly always at the hands of other people)
So we now start a week in which the sequelae of the American election will start to manifest themselves. Whilst many off us (but not all) in the UK are secretly relieved that we may be seeing the back of President Trump, the sad fact remains that in the popular vote some 70 million Americans wanted him to continue as their president.We will have to wait and see what consequences flow from this today but of course being six hours behind us, every reaction seems so delayed.
Meg and I enjoyed our stroll down to the park this morning, calling by to pick up our newspapers and paying a lightning visit into Waitrose to pick up one or two things forgotten in our weekly order. Although we normally get a ‘home delivery’ from Waitrose, this week we are going to have ‘Click and Collect‘ on Thursday. This is because as soon as it was evident that a further lockdown was to come, people had evidently gone onto the web as soon as they could and all of the delivery slots for this week had been taken (although we have managed to book a slot for the week after). After we had left the park, we did run into our Italian friend again and spent a very pleasant time (probably at least 20 minutes) discussing family matters. I think this was therapeutic for all of us and again, we were speculating how and whether we can experience another get-together over the Christmas period.
I had set myself a little project this afternoon which was to gradually put some of our ‘indispensable’ things into the storage spaces in our new car. My son helped me to get my iPhone to get plugged into the Honda’s communications and video systems. After a pause in which the Bluetooth seemed not to work, we eventually got the iPhone’s and the car’s systems to communicate with each other so now it should be possible to both make and receive mobile phone calls whilst we are on the move. My son and I tested out that I could actually receive a call but I am sure it should be fairly easy to actually make a call once we have got this far.
The previous car that we owned had a really cavernous boot (very useful for accommodating two suitcases side by side when we went on holiday). To ensure that my shopping did not roll all over the place, I abandoned the system that I had been deploying (a couple of those low sided fruit boxes that supermarkets often use both to transport and also to display fruit such as apples and oranges) and decided to invest in a couple of what are technically called ‘car boot organisers’. There are a variety of these on the market and they are generally rectangular in nature but divided into two compartments – hence a couple of them gives you four storage spaces which are about the size that would each take a small own-brand supermarket woven carrier bag. So a typical weekly shop of about four bags full fits nicely into the boot organisers already in place (really bulky but light items such as kitchen paper and toilet paper goes on the back seat in any case). I transferred the two car boot organisers to which I had treated myself some three years ago into the new car, knowing that the new boot whilst fairly large did not match the capacity of my previous car. Then, I had some really good fortune. The two car boot organisers fitted well but with about a 10″ gap between them. But I also had in my garage a little rectangular bucket (in which I can store some day-to-day car cleaning materials) which was some 9″ in width and therefore fitted perfectly in between the two storage containers. In addition, I had a little rectangle of space left over in which I could completely accommodate the shopping bags (stored inside each other) that we keep in the boot of the car so that we do not forget them on a weekly shopping trip. All of this might sound incredibly pedestrian but it is good to have a nice neat system when the car is new so that you can carry on with the same pattern (although I shall probably persist with the Waitrose ‘Home Delivery’ system now that I am used to it)
The news this afternoon was dominated by news of the vaccine which may prove to have a 90% efficacy rate if it passes through its remaining regulatory hurdles and is is brought into use by the end of the year. The ‘big Pharma’ firms involved Pfizer and BioNTech (American + German ?) described it as a ‘great day for science and humanity’. I am pretty convinced that the announcement could well have been made some days ago but was delayed until the American elections were out of the way in case Donald Trump claimed ‘a cure was at hand‘ and managed to snatch a victory on the back of it.
In the late afternoon, we ‘Zoom’ed one of our good Winchester friends. I commiserated with her over the death of a faithful and long lived cat (who had reached the grand old age of 21) and the two of us are going to join a video link into the funeral of the wife of a mutual colleague/friend on Wednesday next. We have agreed to Zoom again in a fortnight’s time – I really must get myself a calendar which can record the dates and times of all of the FaceTime/Skype/Zoom calls were are now making quite regularly.
It seems hard to believe we are actually one week on from the American election and here we are with still some votes uncounted – Arizona and Georgia remain the two key states yet to complete their counting whereas Alaska, firmly in the Trump camp, seems to be a law unit itself. Away from elections as such, some of the political attention has shifted to the US Supreme Court where a large mass action on behalf of several Republican states is threatening to overturn the ‘Affordable Care Act’ Even though the Supreme Court has a massive conservative majority, whether they want to rip the heart out of the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a pandemic and with two-thirds support from Republican voters themselves is a fascinating question. It could well be that the Supreme Court will act totally ‘politically’ rather than ‘judicially’ I,e, it could decide that the social disruption to the body politic at this particular time is not a wise thing to do. Of course, they might just sit on their hands i.e. do nothing, until they can see which way the wind blows. Trump still refuses to concede, by the way, supported by most of the Republican Party whose line at the moment is that the president is quite within his rights to pursue whatever legal remedies he can.
It was quite a mild day today as we walked to the park. We decided to call in at the park first and have our elevenses to sustain us as we knew that we have to venture out onto the High Street where we needed to bank a cheque (an incredibly rare event these days – but the supervisor in the branch of Santander guided me how to do via their machine although no doubt I will have forgotten it all by the time I have another check to bank) Thence we trudged our way home, through the cemetery and, compared with our normal walk, we seemed to have covered a fair bit more distance and were pretty tired when we got home. I have no Pilates today was I normally would on a Tuesday (owing to the lockdown) so we looked forward to a lazy afternoon, reading the newspapers. In the late afternoon, we Skyped on of our ex-Winchester colleagues and his wife and we had a long, long chat about the American election results. As they had both spent some post-doctoral time in the States, they were well informed and we marvelled at the way in which the modern American media has the ability to drill down within a state to examine the counties (or electoral districts) from which a further tranche of ballots is due to be added to the main totals. Of course, we do not know how the next few days will pan out as the American prospectors used to say but I am pretty sure we will have recounts and then legal challenges which will prolong the agony even further. To try to understand the delay, the following from The Guardian website is instructive and helps to provide an explanation:
There was no early processing in multiple key battleground states this year, however, because Republican-led state legislatures refused urgent requests from local elections officials to pass new laws to allow extra time for ballot processing. Such a refusal in Pennsylvania produced enormous backlogs in cities such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, which has gone from counting about 6,000 mail-in ballots in 2016 to more than 350,000 this year.
Yet later in the afternoon, we FaceTimed some of our ex-Waitrose friends with whom we had not been in contact for a few days. We received some reassuring medical news about a mutual friend of ours who has just had a test for cancer turn out negative but she still has procedures to be undergone at the end of the week. We communicated news about new car and, for some reason, they chose not to believe me when I said we had it written off within 20 minutes when we turned into the path of an on-coming lorry. We are in the rather unusual situation of not having any holidays booked, or even visits to friends planned in view of the lockdown, so the car’s first really full outing will have to wait for a few weeks more yet.
Today turned out to be quite a busy day as it turned out. We decided fairly early on that we might make a trip out to a giant Sainsbury superstore on the outskirts of Redditch in order to buy some clothing items for Meg. So we had our customary walk in the park where we met up with a lady who we have met before and who gets a taxi once a week to the park in order to socialise and to get some exercise. She had been watching the Remembrance Day service in Westminster Abbey (shown on TV) and we reminded each other of the fact that Lutyens, the designer of the Cenotaph in London had designed it in such a way that it is also purposefully devoid of any religious symbolism, allowing people to project their own meaning onto the empty tomb, regardless of their faith. In fact, I now know that Cenotaph is derived from the Greek and means ’empty tomb’). A war memorial (admittedly not a Cenotaph) has just been erected in Bromsgrove decorated by a tasteful but undoubtedly Christian cross and I wonder to myself how those of a non-christian faith or none feel about that when it comes to the yearly commemoration of those who have died in conflict? We made our way home knowing that we had to make a lightning visit immediately to Redditch.
We found the Sainsbury’s quite easily – those who know Redditch know that it a series of roundabouts and bypass roads and it is quite easy to lose one’s way. The store which we have visited before turned out to be massive but we managed to get the things that Meg wanted with a fair range of choice. I then made enquiries to locate the ‘car maintenance’ section expecting to find a huge amount of shelve devoted to it, only to find that they only had about a shelf and a half devoted to motoring products. I managed to buy one or two of the things that I wanted and then we raced back home to be in time for the funeral service of our former colleague’s wife which was to be broadcast at 2.30. We had about five minutes to get ourselves a cup of tea and a biscuit to keep body and soul united before we joined the service.This link did not seem to work at first, although the test video said we were connected. So we changed browser and this time we got straight into the service and I doubt we had missed much, if anything, as the coffin was just being borne into the church as we connected. Then we had a very tasteful service ending, much to our surprise with the Bach cantata ‘Wachet Auf‘ (Sleepers Awake) – Meg and I had this played as the opening piece at our wedding in 1968 and we know it well, so this proved to be quite a coincidence. Although these video links into funerals are a relatively recent innovation, they do act as quite an acceptable substitute for those who cannot (or are not allowed to) attend the actual service.
Today is the day when we have just passed the hugely symbolic figure of 50,000 dead due to COVID-19. Even this figure is an underestimate because if you count those deaths where COVID is mentioned on the death certificate (and not just within the last 28 days) then the figure would arise to over 61,000 – and this is before you take account those who dies of untreated conditions which the COVID-19 crisis displaced from their operations or treatment programmes that might have saved their lives (or delayed their deaths)
There is a certain amount of breast-beating amongst the Democrats in the US. One evident question is ‘why were the polls so wrong?' to which the answer is ‘The polls were not very wrong given the margins of error associated with polls'. But two factors are starting to emerge from the pack.One is that getting the opinion of those who have already/are intending to vote by post in huge numbers has proved to be quite difficult. Another factor which may turn out to be quite significant is that many voters will not respond on their mobile phones to an anonymous polling organisation that they do not know and they may well trash the calls. In any event, a huge post mortem is under way and this involves not just an examination of the polls but also the Democrats strategy particularly for the Senate races where they did far less well than expected. It could be that some of the factors such as ‘defunding the police’ (whatever that means) was a massive turn-off for those of a centrist or floating voter disposition.
We made an early start today because we knew that I had to make an early morning trip to Waitrose in Droitwich (seven miles down the road) to pick up my ‘Click-and-Collect’ shopping order. Having picked up my daily ration of newspapers I then headed towards Droitwich but as the traffic was so light, I got there twenty minutes before my allocated ‘slot’ time. However, by making a slight detour from Waitrose I managed to visit my local hardware store, Wilko, from where I could purchase some screen wash and other car cleaning requisites at very affordable prices. And so I then collected my Waitrose order without more ado but I knew this was going to be a one-off, occasioned by the fact that on the news of the impending lockdown Mark II all of the available slots went like a flash. I have now secured slots for the next two weeks ahead as well as a special Christmas slot and know the system that as soon as new slots are released, it is a good idea to order two weeks ahead (which I have now done).
Our normal walk to the park was uneventful but it was a beautiful bright but rather chilly day – nonetheless, it is always heartwarming to have piece of autumn sunshine to raise the spirits. We chatted with our Italian friend (again) on the way home and then proceeded to make the by now conventional curry which is a habit which we have carried over from our student days some fifty years ago.
The COVID-19 news today is quite disturbing as the highest ever one day total (33.470 cases) has just been recorded. However it is being argued that as cases take several days to develop, the spike could only have been caused by infections in the very last days of October. The leak which broke the news of the lockdown landed on 30 October, a Friday night, forcing Downing Street to bring forward its announcement of a lockdown to 31 October, a Saturday. So it could well be that the very sudden ‘spike’ has a rational explanation – in the next few days if the rate of infection seems to diminish then this explanation may prove to be correct.
There is a massive row breaking overnight in which it looks as though some of the extreme Brexiteers who now inhabit the Downing Street fairyland are falling out with each other. It looks as though one ‘Vote Leave’ fanatic (evidently given a position of responsibility with Downing Street) named Lee Cain was promised the position of Chief of Staff to try to bring a semblance of order to the Downing Street organisation but this provoked such a severe counter-reaction from some Tory Mp’s and the PM’s own ‘live-in’ girlfriend Carrie Symonds that Lee Cain has resigned the position before he actually took up the post. If the phrases ‘Byzantine intrigue’ and ‘nest of vipers’ comes to mind, then this is hardly surprising under the circumstances.
There is a massive row breaking overnight in which it looks as though some of the extreme Brexiteers who now inhabit the Downing Street fairyland are falling out with each other. It looks as though one ‘Vote Leave’ fanatic (evidently given a position of responsibility with Downing Street) named Lee Cain was promised the position of Chief of Staff to try to bring a semblance of order to the Downing Street organisation but this provoked such a severe counter-reaction from some Tory Mp’s and the PM’s own ‘live-in’ girlfriend Carrie Symonds that Lee Cain has resigned the position before he actually took up the post. If the phrases ‘Byzantine intrigue’ and ‘nest of vipers’ comes to mind, then this is hardly surprising under the circumstances.
American politics seems just as byzantine at the moment. Trying to understand what sort of game the Republicans are playing, supporting a president who has evidently lost and will never succeed in the courts, then what is their strategy? The explanation I have managed to find is as follows.
‘So the name of the game is patience. They accept that the president has a right to make his claims, give him time to vent his frustration, but figure that there will be no evidence of sufficient magnitude to change the election results. Through their actions, if not their words, they’re acknowledging that come January, there will be a new president. Trump, too, shall pass.’
In the late afternoon, Meg and I just happened to be together in our study checking emails and the like when a Skype call came through from some of our Oxfordshire friends. This was so much more pleasant by being entirely unexpected (a bit like a neighbour dropping by a chat) we exchanged views of the American election and I passed on a tip to type ‘http://loser.com’ into any web browser to see what happens (I think you may be able to predict this, though). Our friends told us several of their stories before I was reminded of an experience of our own. We happened to be small bar in Almuñécar, southern Spain, reputed to have some of the finest hot chocolate in the area. In the bar, stuffed full of locals, a small baby was being passed from bosom to bosom of a group of neighbours – no wonder this (male) child had a beatific smile on his face. I asked an elderly gentleman was who was leaning against the bar whether indeed the baby was his. He replied ‘No Señor, this is a baby of all the world‘ and I could only but agree.
Despite the date, on which I shall not comment further, today was another fine, bright day with a clear sky and just a light cooling wind. We collected our newspapers and could not wait to get them home for a prolonged read because they would probably be full of the Dominic Cummings/Lee Cain story which rumbled out into the media spotlight yesterday afternoon. When these events happen, the TV channels are often very good at showing what is happening but when it comes to the explanation of exactly how these events have come to pass, then the traditional print media comes into its own. Few of the general population consulting their iPads and smart phones want to sit down with their phone for a good quarter-of-an-hour’s hard analysis and this is why, in my view, there is no substitute for a quality newspapers and a steaming hot mug of tea.
I decided to make a risotto using kipper fillets as the main ingredient to give some bite. I used to make a risotto week by week but rather abandoned it to cut down on too much rice/carbohydrate in our diet. Since then, I have discovered the packets of cauliflower rice which is very low in calories and hence I make the risotto in my traditional fashion. This involves browning a couple of finely diced onions before adding some chicken stock (cheating by using chicken gravy granules) and then adding a good dollop of plain yogurt nd some grated cheese when I judge the rest of it is cooked. The whole of it only takes about 15-20 minutes and our domestic help (whom I inveigle into trying some of my prepared lunches) which my son declared to be the equivalent of hot cat’s vomit (but then it didn’t taste it) as it was delicious)
Just before lunch, I went down to our medical centre by car after it had phoned me up early this morning to re-arrange a slot I had for later on in the day. Although it is a bit of a palaver going to a medical centre these days (ours holds you at the door and only allows 1-2 people in at any one time), I got in and out and had my routine blood-test within the allotted 15 minutes which means that I escaped a parking fee by a few seconds in my reckoning. From here, I made my way as in the car to a Sainsbury’s Express outlet (which sells only food) in order to take back an article of clothing recently bought for Meg which doesn’t quite fit. As it happened, they refused to take it back, much to my chagrin, which means that we will have to make another longish car journey in order to get a refund for the same.
After a delayed lunch, we settled down to watch the rolling news channel in the afternoon when I learned that Arizona had finally been ‘called’ by the news media for Joe Biden and the Democrats. This news had apparently been posted late on Thursday evening so it wouldn’t have hit the British news media until 5-6 hours later but I suppose our news media had much bigger fish to fry first thing in the morning and that is why I hadn’t heard the news. I did discern, though, that the Republicans were now offering money for any disaffected Trump supporters to come forward with tales of any electoral malfeasance (but what an American court would make of evidence acquired in this way one can only conjecture) I also saw a clip of film of a ballot box being transported with a tweet from Trump suggesting that something illegal was going on – whereas in practice, the filming of the ballot box being removed demonstrated that everything was perfectly legal and conducted according to the correct procedures. The final bit of American news I received was that the USA equivalent of our Electoral Commission had declared the election fairly won and lost.
There is “no evidence” the Nov. 3 election was compromised, committees within the Department of Homeland Security that worked on protecting U.S. voting systems affirmed Thursday. In a statement, they also called the 2020 election the “most secure in American history.”
And now to British political news. It transpires that after the departure of Lee Cain as the would-be Downing Street, then the ‘villain in chief’ i.e. Dominic Cummings, the PM’s most loyal adviser and organiser of the successful ‘Vote Leave‘ campaign, had decided not to wait until the end of the year but to walk immediately. All of the TV images were of the said Dominic Cummings leaving Downing Street by the front door (why not the back foor?) and walking disconsolately down Downing Street with all of his personal possessions in a cardboard box!
To those who may have forgotten, it was due to Cummings Svengali-type influence that Boris Johnson withdrew the whip (i.e. threw out of the Conservative party) such grandees as Kenneth Clark and Philip Hammond (both previous Chancellors of the Exchequer) as well as trying to organise the illegal prorogation of Parliament to get around some of the difficulties associated with Brexit. I doubt that ANY special adviser has ever had so much influence over a British PM as Dominic Cummings raising the question for the body politic of ‘Who (really) runs Britain?’
Today we slept in for a bit and consequently, I decided to go and collect our newspapers in the car so that this would shorten our eventual journey into the park and this also has the bonus of making sure that we get all of the Saturday supplements before they get sold out. Today was the kind of day for which the word ‘blustery’ might have been coined – we did get rained on somewhat on our journey down the hill but by the time we got to the park, the rain had abated. We went into our daily routine of flipping the water off the park benches with a tea-towel which we keep in our rucksack for this very purpose but we also took the precaution of using some of the excess plastic bags (in which our weekly shopping order is delivered) to keep ourselves dry as we sat down for a coffee. The wind started to get a little cold after having eaten our comestibles we were keen to get walking again and get home. As it happened, we were going to be treated to two international rugby matches today. There is a new competition which is theoretically the eight nations (the conventional six plus Georgia and Fiji) but as a result of COVID-19 the competition has had to cancel the France-Fiji match as some players have tested positive or are in isolation so the eight is already reduced to six. We first watched the Scotland-Italy match in which the Italians played quite well and seem generally the better team but could not quite overhaul the Scots who won in the end. Almost immediately after this was the England-Georgia match which seems like a bit of a mismatch except that the Georgians have a fearsome reputation for the aggressive way in which they scrummage. In the event, the English used the tactics of using their own scrummage whenever they could to make a point to the opposition and won the game easily 40-0.
We had an unexpected burst of pleasure in the early evening when there was a broadcast of Mozart’s requiem played by English National Opera (ENO) at the Coliseum. I wondered to myself whether the spacing of the members of the orchestra and the chorus would give a slightly enhanced and stereophonic effect. In the event, I felt the performance was a little disconnected at first but later morphed into something more successful. I do not wish to sound critical of the practical difficulties in trying to stage any kind of concert under present conditions and I was delighted that they felt it worthwhile to make the effort.
Meanwhile, things are not going well for the beleaguered Donald Trump who refuses to concede the election despite the fact that the votes available in the Electoral College are the mirror image of how he won in 2016 : 306 to 232. The court cases that he has tried to bring have all been thrown out fairly quickly with the judges showing no sympathy for claims brought without a shred of actual evidence (hearsay evidence, is evidently not allowed to be adduced in such cases) There are several more cases scheduled for next week but it seems likely that they will all bite the dust next week and the Republicans might then, bit by bit, concede the election having let Donald Trump have his way in the courts.
If American politics seems to be living in a parallel universe, then British politics seems also to be living in a complete fool’s paradise. At a time when the second wave of the COVID-19 is striking new heights (27,000 new cases yesterday and 462 deaths) and we only have one week to conclude the most critical trade agreement with the EU unless we leave with no deal at all, then what is occupying the British government? Why – an internecine conflict throughout Downing Street as ex-Vote Leave, ardent Brexiteers are being thrown out of Downing Street mid-afternoon (for having, apparently, briefed against the Prime Minister). Apparently, there has no progress whatsoever in the EU negotiations in the last week (when every day is precious) as the government tears itself apart and waits for the results of the American election to emerge (when we made alliances with the ‘wrong’ side i.e. Trump and have built up no relationships at all with the Democrats) One wonders if the Sunday newspapers will be replete with even more stories from the inside. The quote that I read recently which I rather liked was ‘The Vote Leave mob, drunk on their success in the referendum and the election, believed they were untouchable‘‘ and of course they act as a strange type of religious sect in which no criticism was ever allowed – however, as with all such sects they tend to ‘splinter’ and the various groups brief against each with an intensity that has to be seem to be believed. Truly , never was the expression ‘rats fighting in a sack‘ more apt.
I must say we have had a lazy, but fairly typical, Sunday engaged in a thorough trawl through the newspapers. I have marked out one article that I must read in the next few day, which is an account in his own words of Barak Obama’s first few years in the White House – Meg had previously read Michelle Obama’s autobiography and really enjoyed it when it was published last Christmas time. The political news from America is quite interesting today. Although Donald Trump has not (and may never) offer a concessions speech having lost the Presidential election, he has admitted for the first time that Joe Biden may have won the election but fraudulently blaming the ‘Fake and Silent Media’. I might add that the Sky news channel is running an item under the headline ‘US Election results – Donald Trump’s voter fraud claims debunked‘ which examines every fraud it can find and systematically examines them all to find that no claims of fraud can be proved. Later, Trump was to tweet ‘I concede nothing‘ perhaps in case his previous recognition that Joe Biden had won the election might be misinterpreted. A thought just occurred to me, however. If Donald Trump can get financial support of, say, $10 from each of the 70 million voters who voted for him, then he could fund a media channel (a string of TV and radio stations) which could pump out a stream of pro-Trump/anti-Biden propaganda for the next four years – just in time for the next Presidential election and for one of the Trump family to ’emerge’ as the standard bearer of the Trump legacy. I think this scenario is not too improbable – of course, we need to work out whether Donald Trump is successfully pursued and sued by all kinds of individuals once he does have the immunity offered to him by the Presidency. Given what Presidents of the US do in the final days of their regime and before a handover, could Donald Trump pardon himself for any misdemeanours before he actually leaves office – an interesting question?
More COVID-19 related news is the fact that euphoria over a potential vaccine is now abating somewhat under the realisation that the vaccine alone is only a part of the solution and has to be placed in the context of other measures such as social distancing and face-masks which seem bound to continue for the months ahead. A more sombre item of news is the fact that there is now a strong ‘anti-vaccination’ moment building up, with may of the population (17%-20%) refusing a vaccine even when it is offered. The social media platforms (FaceBook and Twitter) have already agreed to remove items posted on their websites which would appear to deny the efficacy of any vaccine (or even worse assume may consider the vaccine as actually harmful) but the time such posts have been removed, the damage is already done. The Labour Party is suggested criminal prosecutions for staff in the social media who do not comply – but is this closing the stable door once the horse has bolted?
Breaking news – to the second! I had just heard on the Sky rolling news programme that Boris Johnson has been asked to self-isolate for the next two weeks as he has been in contact with a MP who had tested as positive. Apparently, the ‘Test-and-Trace’ routine had caught up with him at just at the start of one of the most critical weeks that the government has to face.
Normally in these blogs I do not make any comment on the TV programmes that I watched the night before, but this morning I feel that I must make an exception. Meg and I watched last night ‘Small Axe:Mangrove’ by the noted film director, Steve McQueen. This was the story of a restaurant opened in Notting Hill in the 1960s (the Mangrove) which rapidly became a community centre for the whole of the Afro-Caribbean community. It was, though, subject to repeated police harassment which led eventually to a riot and a prolonged trial – which I will not spoil by revealing the outcome. However, I will say that Meg and I were on the edge of our seats, particularly in the later stages – in my view, it was one of the best bits of TV I have seen in the last ten years. Enough said – although I think there may be more in that series in which case I will be glued to my seat.
Meg and I had decided that we would make a venture out to a large Sainsburys store in the late morning to get a refund on a piece of clothing bought for Meg that did not fit. We nearly went to our local newspaper store but realised at the very last moment, that we had forgotten to bring our tokens with us (it is a weekly chore for Sunday evenings to tear the vouchers out of a little book and transfer them to my wallet for the forthcoming week). Every once in a blue moon – such as this morning, I forgot! So we had our elevenses in the park and made our home. Then we collected our tokens, collected our newspapers from Waitrose (as they had sold out from our local newsagent) and then went on our way to Longbridge. What used to be the home of car assembly in the Midlands has now been flattened and replaced by a series of superstores and quite a lot of new housing, built as a series of flats. We negotiated our way through the deserts of carparks, found our way into a gigantic superstore where we got our refund and then made our way home home. Once home, we had a lightening lunch (thank goodness for some of those bags of microwave vegetables which only take some 4 minutes because there are times, such as today, when you really want to turn around a meal as quickly as possible).
After lunch, I started to tackle a pile of unread newspapers – if we don’t get round to reading them that day we put things on a pile for ‘later’ and at some stage we need a quick flick through these to see if we have missed anything interesting. But what I did find particularly revealing looking at newspapers published just before the American election is that on several occasions, commentators had argued that Trump knew he was going to lose the forthcoming election having been seven points behind in the polls since about last January. So it was a well-rehearsed strategy that he was going to wait until he had some early victories under his belt and rely upon a ‘red wave’ of early Republican voting before declaring himself the winner, the uncounted mail-ed in Democrat votes as fraudulent and then relying upon the courts to add to the chaos and confusion. As things have turned out, this strategy did not work -but it was well predicted and under other circumstances might have been enough to secure him the sneakiest of victories. As it stands today, in American society there have been 11 million cases of infection and practically a quarter of a million have died – in the face of such an appalling pandemic, it is still a source of amazement that some 70 millions of Americans voted for Trump (and at leat a quarter of these believe that the whole election was fraudulent)
The news headlines today have been dominated by news of a second vaccine that seems, so far, to have come though tests upon 30,000 volunteers and seems to have a success rate of nearly 95%. Moreover, the new vaccine developed by a firm called Moderna can be stored at temperatures closer to that of a domestic fridge rather than the -70° of the Pfizer recently announced vaccine so it may well be a winner. However, during the course of the day, we had not taken out only options for any purchase of it (we have options on nearly all of the other leading vaccine contenders). Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, announced in the late afternoon that we now had an option on some 5 million doses (i.e. sufficient for 2.5 million people at two doses per person) available from April onwards. The government have appointed one of their own cronies at enormous expense to oversee the purchase of vaccines but as she had evidently failed in her job or be aware of this vaccine and take out options upon it, she was ‘not available’ to be interviewed on any of the media. In the meanwhile, Boris Johnson had been given a hard time by some ITV journalists on why he did not wear a face mask in a recent meeting with a Tory MP who has subsequently tested positive. This means that by not wearing a mask Johnson exposed himself to danger and is now having to self-isolate for 12 days. Of course, there is one rule for the politicians and another for the rest of the 60 million of us who have to comply…
Tuesday’s used to be the day devoted to my Pilates class mid-day but under the lockdown procedures, that evidently had to go. So we had our normal walk down to the park and bumped into some of our oldest friends who, as it happened, were on their way to a family funeral of an elderly aunt. How much singing they were going to do in church under the new regulations I am not sure but they had some interesting plans to broadcast something from the car radio system. Rather tastelessly I suggested that ‘Highway to Hell‘ would not be the most appropriate song to sing under the circumstances but we settled on ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as a better choice. We picked up our newspapers and set off for the park, finding many of our normal benches occupied. Nonetheless we met one of our regular ‘park associates’ there and chatted away before we made our way home for lunch – fishcakes with Cavalo Nero kale and carrots glazed with syrup once they have been parboiled (to make them a bit more interesting)
This afternoon was going to be devoted to car washing – or more specifically the first wash of the new car. This is always a rather particular occasion because it is the occasion when you may find some slight blemishes (although to be fair I found none as Honda cars are so well built these days). You also learn the individual curves and idiosyncrasies of each car the first time it has a detailed wash. I have a well-worked routine, although I got a little out of practice on the previous car. This involves using some watering cans to spray on the car to loosen the dirt first and a couple of buckets of warm water, one filled with detergent. My routine consists of a watering can routine first, detergent wash with a large soft brush, detergent wash with a specially microfibre ‘mitt’, followed by the wheels, the insides and finishing off with a clean of the windows. I must say that this Honda proved to be one of the easier cars to clean of any that I have ever had – perhaps being a bit shorter and a tad less tall helps. So now, I am resolved to get back into a good routine every 7-10 days.
The COVID-19 news tonight sounds dramatically bad – although the number of new infections had fallen by about 1,000 the number of deaths was up to 598 in a single day. It could well be that the statistics for the next few days will prove to be terrible as we are about 12 days since the start of the last lockdown. When a new lockdown is scheduled to start, many people try and have one last fling in pubs, bars and restaurants and this almost inevitably results in a huge spike in the infection rate two weeks later.
The American news is equally depressing. In the last few days of a presidency, an out-going president can issue a flurry of regulations- Donald Trump has been using his remaining days trying to make it much more difficult to obtain food and disability benefits upon which so many people rely. He also had to be persuaded not to bomb flat nuclear installations in Iran which are being used to enhance their supplies of uranium. This is actually quite a dangerous time for the world in general because goodness knows what an outgoing president of the likes of Trump might be tempted to do. One is just hopeful that there are enough ‘sensible’ people around Trump to try and ensure he does not do anything especially dangerous. On a slightly brighter note, there is also news that Dolly Parton has donated $1 million to aid medical centres in their search for an effective anti COVID-19 vaccine. Apparently, a portion of the singer’s money went towards funding an early stage trial of the Moderna vaccine. Dolly Parton is well known for her devotion to charitable causes. It is not particularly well known that Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a bookgifting program that gifts free books to children from birth to age five in participating communities within the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Republic of Ireland. This does help to restore one’s faith in human nature!
It has been one of those dark, gloomy days all day today – although mild and blustery, the rain seemed to threaten nearly all day and did arrive in some force during the afternoon. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our normal walk encompassing both collecting the newspapers and ending up in the park on one of our favourite benches. The leaves are now falling apace as you would expect in November and, on occasions, can prove a little hazardous. This occurs when you have a large flat leaf (e.g. from a horse chestnut tree) which then becomes flattened to the ground under the trampling of many feet – with the addition of a little moisture, they then become slimy underfoot and can send you flying if you do not take care. (In case this sounds a little extreme, Meg and I remember a guest lecturer from our Scraptoft Campus, De Montfort University days when a fit 28-year old dashed down the path because she was a little late and fell over.) She picked herself up and carried on but in the course of her lecture, she thought she was experiencing some pain in her left arm and shoulder. Later, as an experienced nurse, she returned to work and had a colleague examine her only to discover she had been nursing a broken collar bone. As it happens this is emblazoned on my memory – so I treat large flattened slimy leaves with a certain degree of respect!)
Today being a Wednesday, I treated ourselves to a (by now) traditional curry. I suppose that having done this approximately once a week for the last fifty years, it has become engrained into my psyche but the only variation to a traditional curry that I make is a sliced and diced apple ( or pear) in the summer with a handful of sultanas and a tablespoon of brown sugar. One of my former colleagues said to me ‘Ah – I see you make curry by the Arabic method‘ but of course, I do not really know, apart from the fact that I have always done it this way.
This afternoon, I busied myself gutting the last of my pile of newspapers and getting on with some filing. In the late afternoon, I Skyped one of my old Hampshire friends who, like me, has been keenly following the political news and the American elections. We exchanged commiserations with each other as to what might occur if Donald Trump goes absolutely rogue in her last few weeks. I did do a Google search wondering whether an insane president can be bypassed and found that there is a procedure, albeit cumbersome, in the 27th amendment to the American constitution. I think the difficulty here is that the Vice President has to agree whereas the existing VP says he is looking forward to a smooth transition towards the next Trump presidency. Apparently, the Democrats did think hard about this problem when Trump emerged from his COVID-19 episode declaring he was a ‘young man’ and other non-sequiturs but nothing came of their attempts to institute a speedier procedure to deal with the removal of an evidently incapacitated president. So far, I have not seen any resurgence of this question in the press but if Trump’s behaviour becomes quite bizarre, then perhaps even the American system might be stimulated to act.
There is increasing concern in the UK political system about how to handle the Christmas period. The latest thinking (or is a deliberate leak from Downing Street?) is that the lockdown which is due to expire on December 2nd i.e. in about two weeks time, will be extended by another month in exchange but as a ‘reward’ we will be allowed to have five days of relative relaxation over the Christmas period. Public opinion may be divided on this – I have heard two contradictory views on how to let a late 80’s grandparent experience Christmas. One view is to to forget about COVID-19 and let the elderly person enjoy one last Christmas with their family even at the risk of contracting the virus and then dying shortly afterwards. The contrary view is to keep the lockdown extended, over Christmas if necessary, if it preserves the life of the elderly person until at least the first few months of 2021. This is quite a difficult judgement call but I suspect that government will opt for a month extra lockdown until, in effect, the New Year but allowing a little bit of licence over the Christmas period (although it will undoubtedly come at a price)
The latest bit of advice (a bit late?) is to keep windows open for at least 15 minutes at regular intervals throughout the day in order to dilute the virus micro-particles which can stay in the atmosphere for some time as micro droplets. I am not sure whether the full import of this advice has been fully thought through – but I do remember a nursing book, written in the 1920s that I had read when I was teenager which advocated flinging open the windows of a ‘sickroom’ regularly – perhaps they were way ahead of their time?
Today was an interesting day in climate terms. When Meg and I walked down to the park, there was a sharp wind in our faces, with those tiny particles of rain that seem especially cold. It was touch-and-go whether we could sit on a park bench or seek the shelter of the bandstand but the weather abated a little and we availed ourselves of the bench. And then the clouds rolled away under the impact of a moderate breeze and suddenly the sky turned blue and the air seemed incredibly clear. It might have been a combination of the absence of pollution as there are fewer cars on the road, plus a beautiful autumn light and suddenly we had a vista across the park in which all of the colours appeared incredibly sharp. I suppose it was the sort of day that professional landscape photographers love as they can obtain incredibly sharp images – you sometimes get these type of conditions in February with an incredibly clear sky and dense air.
We had no Skype, Zoom or other calls in prospect today so we settled down for a final clearance of the newspapers. At the bottom of the pile of newspapers were two supplements with the latest Good University Guides where I still check the relative positions of De Montfort University (at which I had worked for 26 years) and the University of Winchester (where I worked for 10). They both tend to rise and fall over the years – more latterly, they seem to fall rather than rise. At the very bottom of the pile came a car brochure for the new car which we have just acquired – I allowed myself the luxury of a slow careful read of this as suddenly the words on the page seem to acquire an additional layer of meaning once you actually have the car in your hands, so to speak. In the late afternoon, I fitted the car boot liner I had acquitted a couple of days ago – this had had to be laid flat on my living room to allow the plasticky material to regain its shape after it had been bent in double for the transit. Having said that, it fitted like a dream plus all my other car boot storage boxes are perfectly positioned.
One big political story emerging this evening is the report into the behaviour of Priti Patel, the Home Secretary – she forced the resignation of of her permanent secretary and another senior civil servant had a heart attack whilst he was attempting to work late into the night to comply with an entirely unreasonable request. Every time I see Priti Patel on screen, I say to myself ‘Director of Publicity for the UK Referendum Party’, the predecessor of the Brexit party. Word emanating from Downing street is that the report will find the Priti Patel did break the ministerial code that enjoins standards of civility upon working with colleagues. However, there is no question of her being sacked as the report indicates that some of her behaviour may have been ‘unintentional’ (this to me sounds like an excuse as lame as the schoolboy’s ‘Sorry, Sir, but the dog ate my homework‘) A convinced and not particularly competent minister would never be sacked by the present PM and particularly not Priti Patel who makes bloodcurdling announcements as to what she like to do do with asylum speakers she deems to be ‘illegal’ (putting them on a deserted South Sea island was one of her ideas from which she had to be dissuaded). I am looking forward to ‘Newsnight’ on tonight’s BBC2 which might spill a few more beans. Apparently there is some delay in publishing the report (which Boris Johnson has had for months) as Patel argues the toss back and other whether an apology needs to be isssued – and if so, for her general conduct (as she ‘has form’ over several ministries now) or for any specific incidents of her behaviour.
The Brexit endgame is now fast approaching. Some Tories are in a real flap over the economic damage to be wrought by a ‘no-deal’ Brexit whereas others consider that as Cummings has now been despatched, the Brexit deal may be massively watered down.To make matters worse, one of the Brexit negotiators on the EU side has been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus so negotiations are paused for the moment – this is an additional complication when the timescale left for meaningful negotiations is already incredibly tight.
Today was always scheduled by the weather broadcasters as a ‘transitional’ day and it was certainly somewhat colder than the mild spell to which we have become accustomed. However, after collecting our newspapers, we made our way to the park where we sought out the shelter of the bandstand (along with other disparate groups of dog-walkers) to have our comestibles. We did not tarry too long as the wind was blowing a little too coldly for our comfort and after a brief chat with two of our park associates, we made for home. Today was the day when our domestic help was busy in the house and she had very kindly bought for us some Waitrose crispy battered haddock which we heated up in the oven and consumed along with some fresh tartare sauce. So it was really good to have a meal where we had scarcely done any preparation ourselves and we ate the kind of meal we would normally have cooked for ourselves.
Some of the American news is comic, not to say tragic. Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, had given the most bizarre news conference at which he was attempting to explain how Donald Trump had been defrauded of the election that Trump had actually ‘won’ but, as he got all hot and agitated, so his dark red hair dye started to drip down his face making him look like a pale imitation of Dracula. Needless to say, this didn’t help to get his message across (as the assembled journalists were laughing so much) Meanwhile, Donald Trump had summoned some of the ‘Electors’ (formal officials from the state of Michigan) to the White House and encouraged them not to certify the results from Wayne County in Michigan (containing Detroit i.e. predominantly black electorate) this allowing the Republican-dominated legislature in Michigan to award the state’s votes to Trump. Eventually, after much public protest the two Republican electors who wanted not to certify the vote relented and went along with the rest of their colleagues. The state now appeared to be delivered for Biden but the two dissident Republican electors swore some affidavits attempting to reverse their own decision. It is evidently a murky story but it doe show that some of the Republican Party are not at all averse to attempt to ‘steal’ a state that had legitimately voted Democrat to turn it into a Republican victory. If nothing else, this shows how contemptuous of democracy the modern Republican party has now become.
Of course, it is not only in American politics that ‘black is white’ and ‘white is black’ Here in the UK, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has been found by an official report to be guilty of bullying behaviour (swearing and shouting at staff) thereby breaching the Ministerial Code which all ministers have to sign upon taking office. And, by all accounts, she was warned of this behaviour at the start of her spell as Home Secretary. The report has gone to the Prime Minister who has sat on it for months and had now declared that ‘Priti Patel is NOT guilty of breaching the Ministerial Code’ and the matter is now closed. (This is unprecedented behaviour for a Prime Minister, by the way, in cases like this not to endorse the findings of an official, independent enquiry) For her part, Priti Patel has issued a sort of apology in which she states that ‘I’m sorry that my behaviour has upset people and I have never intentionally set out to upset anyone.’ So that’s all right, then! The senior civil servant and adviser who has conducted the enquiry and written the report finding a breach of the Ministerial Code has promptly resigned as his position is now clearly untenable. Boris Johnson has tweeted to his Conservative MP’s that they should ‘form a square’ around Priti Patel which they have promptly done, tweeting messages of support (what a wonderful Minister etc. etc.) Priti Patel has a lot of support on the backbenches (very right-wing, avid Brexiteer – in fact, one prominent backbencher opined they wished had more ministers like Priti Patel) Under these circumstances (i.e. almost universal support from the backbenchers) her position always looked secure despite the fact that (a) Teresa May had to sack her as a junior minister in the ODM for illegitimate bahviour and (b) this pattern of behaviour is not new but has followed her across several ministries. But if you are an incompetent, Brexit-supporting minister you can get away with practically anything.
As today is ‘Day 250’ since I started this blog, it feels like some kind of anniversary – but of course it isn’t. We did have a more pleasant and milder date than of late, so although there was a cooling wind we enjoyed our customary walk to the newspaper shop and the park. On the way down, we had quite a long chat with one of our closest sets of friends who espied us through her window and came out to greet us. Our pleasure was only increased when we encountered some more of our friends who were brave enough be outside doing a bit of autumn maintenance. We spent some time discussing what we thought might be the arrangements for more ‘normal living once this period of lockdown finishes on 2nd December. In particular, we were speculating whether the churches would be allowed to open in the post-lockdown period and what the arrangements might be for the various Christmas services which will be held, all being well, on Christmas Eve. We did rather go down memory lane and exchanged reminiscences of the student parties we used to enjoy in the 1960’s. This was the era before nightclubs so we all had to make our own entertainment. The ideal party lasted for about 12 hours (7.30pm to 7.30 am) and generally consisted of three elements. The first of these was a certain degree of drinking, sometimes with food if we wanted to be posh and to have a ‘wine AND cheese’ party. The stable musical entertainment were Beatles and Stones records played on something like a Decca Dansette record player (remember that Radio Caroline only started broadcasting in March, 1964 and we were at university in 1965 – out of the range of Radio Caroline anyway) The second phase of the party was when a certain pairing off ensued – generally couples sank to the floor and canoodled in the semi darkness for as long as was deemed necessary. The third and most enjoyable part of the proceedings started at about 3.30 in the morning when we would sit round in a circle on the floor and argue about the meaning of life, political and moral questions of the day and so on. We generally had a dim of view of engineers (if, for example, you looked in the Yellow pages of a telephone directory and looked at ‘Engineers’ there was a cross-reference to ‘Boring’). Medics, although well qualified in terms of their ‘A’-levels never got beyond their comfort zone. We seemed to have some of the most stimulating conversations with people studying Law, Geography, Town Planning, Psychology – on occasions I even attended some of their lectures out of interest!)Then you would wander home at about 7.30 in the morning with all of your physical, emotional and intellectual needs fulfilled (well, not completely fulfilled but you get my drift)
This afternoon, we watched a highly entertaining rugby match between England and Ireland which I had anticipated that the Irish would win – in the event, the England team steamrollered their way past the Irish who only made a score late on the game. We had intended to follow this up with watching the Wales-Georgia match but for whatever technical reason we could not get Amazon Prime to deliver us the video of the match today although we were successful last week.
The Priti Patel row is still rumbling on, despite Boris Johnson wanting to draw a line under the matter. There are several issues that are rearing their ugly heads. The first of these is that Boris Johnson had on two occasions asked the author of the report to ‘tone down’ his conclusions but had met with a refusal. In addition, opposition politicians are expressing outrage that the home secretary’s apology was for the upset caused, rather than the behaviour itself. There are also calls for the full report to be published rather than an edited summary of it – this might happen as a result of pressure from a Select Committee which is going to investigate the matter or even have to be produced as evidence in an Industrial Tribunal claim for unfair dismissal. If this continues to run and run, then as well as Priti Patel being damaged, the role of the Prime Minister in over-riding the decision of his own ‘independent’ report looks distinctly sleazy. Ultimately, of course, along as Priti Patel remains the darling of the Tory right wing and the ardent Brexiteers (i.e. nearly all of the newly constituted Tory party since Boris Johnson/Dominic Cummings organised the departure of modern voices such as Ken Clark, Philip Hammond, David Gauke- one could go on and on) then Priti Patel will be safe.
Today is what is popularly known as ‘Stir Up Sunday’. To any people, particularly those living in more rural communities, this is the day traditionally when people started to make their Christmas puddings, giving them plenty of time to be baked and then mature with liqueur before Christmas Day. It used to be the the tradition in some households that grandchildren used to help their grandmothers (typically) prepare the cake – sometimes, small coins (such as a silver 6d was included in the mixture). But the words ‘stir up’ actually relate to a much older tradition – the Collect for this particular Sunday used the words ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people‘ but the words themselves got a little displaced sideways to refer to culinary rather than theological, activities. I dare say that many of these old customs and traditions are dying out but there must be some elderly members of the community who remember them. Before I went down on my walk this morning, I listened to the radio station ‘ClassicFM‘ and heard the classic recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto by Jacqueline Du Pré who career was tragically cut short by MS at the age of 28. She was only 20 years of age at the time she made the classic recording – and is still regarded by many as one of the greatest cellists of all time. Listening to the recording and contemplating why it was so distinctive, it occurred to me that it was the exquisite timing of her phrasing – she seemed to pause for about a fifth of a second before entering each phrase and this gives an additional poignancy to her rendition. In fact, many followers of classical music will listen to a cello recording and say ‘That was the Jacqueline Du Pré recording‘ and as it was made in 1965, it had certainly stood the test of time being recorded more than half a century ago.
I collected our newspapers early as I tend to do on a Sunday and made contact again with my friendly Asian newsagent with whom I hd exchanged web addresses last week. His style of cooking seemed to evoke great admiration both in California and in London and I resolved to see if I could try and sample some of the style of his cuisine when (if?) I ever get to London again. In the meanwhile, he had read some of these blog entries and quite enjoyed them. After we had a pleasant stay in the park we walked home meeting nobody in particular (the Sunday ‘crowd’ in the park does differ quite a lot from the people we meet during the week – after all, the weekends do have a somewhat different rhythm to the weekdays). After a chicken dinner (prepared in the style of what I think is sometimes called ‘Spanish chicken’ – onions, peppers and tomatoes fried off and then added to a white lasagne sauce and baked in the oven for an hour) served with broccoli. Delicious, even though I say it myself. Then in the afternoon, we watched the France-Scotland rugby match where e had anticipated that the French would overwhelm the Scots – it was actually quite a hard-fought much with the scores level at half time but the French eventually prevailed as we thought was inevitable.
I have read in the Sunday newspapers from a usual well-informed source (Tim Shipman of the Sunday Times) that the days of Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, may well be numbered. The word ‘on the street’ appears to be that Boris Johnson has protected her ‘for now’ and to avoid giving the impression that he is bowing to Labour pressure. But come the reshuffle of the government, scheduled for early in the New Year, after Brexit is finally done and vaccines my be in sight to deal with the coronavirus then Priti Patel might be shuffled sideways to become the Chairman of the Conservative party (i.e. concerned with party organisation) as she is already the darling of the Conservative faithful. What is especially interesting is the notion being put about that she is moved because she is not particularly competent in her role. Perhaps if she was, she could resort to intellect rather than having to shout obscenities to her staff – to my mind, this is an indication that she is surely out of her depth. One of her university professors has opined that her MA at the University of Kent was so bad that he practically had to write it for her!
Well, it’s the start of another week. This morning it was dry and cold with quite a heavy fog when we awoke – as the morning developed and the day warmed up, so the mist intensified somewhat. We collected our newspapers knowing that they could be full of details of the post-lockdown arrangements which are to be announced formally sometime today. Our stay in the park was uneventful but we were fortunate on the way home to bump into both of our sets of friends who live down at the bottom of the hill. We made some tentative plans to have a Christmas ‘get-together’ for the four of us on the Monday after Christmas if the regulations then in force permit this. I sent off a quick email to my Pilates teacher to see if our class is resuming and she is going to get back to me on this – however, it seems that there is a relaxation of gym membership over the whole of the country on December 3rd. Talking of gyms and gym membership, I decided to weigh myself morning and was a bit horrified to have put on a few more pounds than I would like. So this afternoon, I started again on my ‘Stepper’ regime (a ‘stepper’ is like a small bench incredibly useful for exercise purposes) I have a favourite video of a routine demonstrated by a very vivacious but quite sensible young American lady who puts me through a series of routines, each only lasting a minute with a 10-second pause between each exercise. The whole routine takes about 10-15 minutes altogether and, to make sure I am in the correct frame of mind, I always change into my ‘tracksuit bottoms’ much as I would if I were actually doing a Pilates routine. The trick, as always with any weight-reduction routine, is to notch down one’s calorific intake a little (but not too much as the body goes Into ‘starvation mode’ and your metabolic rate lowers, thus increasing your weight in your attempt to reduce it). So a slight reduction in calorific intake coupled with a bit of exercise enough to raise your metabolic rate should be just about enough to lose about 1.0-1.5 lbs a week which out to be ideal. In a week’s time, I will report on my progress (or lack of it).
The really big news which hit the news bulletins this morning is that the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca seems to have an efficacy rate of 70% – or even a rate of 90% if the immune system is (counter-intuitively) primed by a half-doe followed by a full dose some four weeks later. The government is mega-excited about this for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the vaccine seems cheap to produce (about the price of a cup of coffee). Secondly, it can be stored at normal ‘fridge’ temperatures making it readily accessible. But thirdly, and most importantly, the Government has an option to obtain 100 million doses of the vaccine which should be enough for most the UK population. It is hoped that the those who need the vaccine the most (NHS front-line staff, those with especially compromised immune systems) should be vaccinated by Easter of next year. So truly, the end may be in sight. However, I refuse to be swept away in a wave of excitement as (a) there are still quite a lot of safety and regulatory hurdles yet to overcome and (b) we need to use the vaccine alongside more traditional safeguards such as social distancing, facemasks and hand washing. But one has to say that it is a tribute to the hard scientific work that has been done that not one but three vaccines have all appeared at once. The Russians have their own version of a vaccine as do the Chinese but one wonders what degree of rigorous testing has been undertaken compared with the protocols which we have experienced in the West.
Christmas, to which we are all no doubt looking forward, is going to seem very strange this year. On the one hand, there is a feeling of slight anticipation even though the opportunities for social intercourse and for Christmas meals will be limited. Nonetheless, the members of our immediate family will have a Christmas meal and we are making tentative plans for a Christmas tree and other festivities. Yet, on the other hand, I have a feeling that I want to get Christmas over and done with – the days will be getting longer by about a minute or so a day and there is always the spirit of optimism that the New Year will bring. I did float an idea that we should all cancel Christmas and celebrate it on June 21st – the Australians are used to having Christmas in full summer after all!
The month of November has just flown by and it seems incredible that we are only a week away from the end of the month and eight days before the end of the lockdown. The rules have just been announced for how as a society we will ‘celebrate’ (if that is the right word) Christmas this year. It seems that we shall be allowed to form a temporary three-household Christmas ‘bubble’ from 23rd-27th September which by my reckoning is the Wednesday of Christmas week until the Sunday, with Christmas Day itself being on the Friday. I can foresee that there may well be some problems how people are to interpret and behave in accordance with the new regulations. It is being pointed out the the coronavirus does not know it is Christmas and it is probable that we have to deal with a spike of infections in January as the increased social interactions will have given the virus more time to spread.
Today was a bit of grey and overcast day but it did not threaten any rain so we managed to collect our newspapers and enjoy our perambulation in the park as per usual. As well as the normal supply of ducks we also enjoy the presence of flock of gulls, except I am not sure which actual breed of gull it is (not a ‘seagull’ in any case) I counted up to forty of this morning and no doubt they feed on the bread which is often brought along (contrary to the advice given by the park officials) to feed the wildlife in the area.
We met with our Italian friend on the way down to the park this morning. She, quite rightly, takes all of the precautions advise to deal with the pandemic very seriously but it was interesting to know that she is in regular contact with members of her extended family in Italy and none of them, to my knowledge, have succumbed to the virus. In the late afternoon, I went through my ‘stepper’ routine which I am now resolved to do regularly and then we FaceTimed some of our ex-Waitrose friends. They have been through the wars a little, medically speaking, but had some good news to tell us. As they are in the category of ‘clinically extremely vulnerable groups’ then they were finding it difficult to get out and receive their routine ‘flu jab. However their medical practice had realised that according to the policy of rigid shielding they both had difficulties getting out to the surgery for their ‘flu jabs. However, the practice nurse had come to their house (well, a window actually) and had administered the ‘flu jabs to them both. In addition, she conveyed the news that the army was due to deliver supplies of the new Oxford University/AstraZenica vaccine as soon as it has received approval and they were in the highest priority group to receive the vaccine perhaps even well before Christmas. Whether this is possible or not I really could not say but our friends were delighted to discern a light at the end of the tunnel and were looking forward when they could get out and have a bit of fresh air and a change of scene.
In the US, the General Services Administration has declared president-elect Joe Biden the apparent winner of the US election, clearing the way for the formal transition from Donald Trump’s administration to begin after weeks of delay. The GSA said on Monday that it had determined that Biden was the winner of the 3 November race after weeks of Trump refusing to concede and violating the traditions of the transition of power at the White House. So whilst Donald Trump has not (and probably never will) concede that he has lost the election, he has at least authorised the executive of the General Services Administration to release funding which will allow for the orderly transition of power to Joe Biden. A key date will come in a few days time on December 14th when the Electoral College will meet – and formally cast the states allocation of votes according to the winner in each state. As the situation stands at the moment, Joe Biden has 306 of these votes and Donald Trump 232 – evidently, in a very close election, the winner of the election is the candidate who gets to 270 votes out of a total of 538 Electoral College votes. Sometimes, some individual electors do not vote the way they have been mandated by the popular vote in the state but we shall have to wait and see if there are any such shenanigans this year.
Today looked as though it was going to turn out to be a miserable day but we were a bit delayed in our walk down into town. I was awaiting a telephone call from my local GP surgery to discuss the results of some blood tests – what should have taken place at 9.30 eventually took place at 10.40 after some prompting. So this delayed me somewhat and then I had to update my Waitrose order which I always do the day before the order is due to be delivered. We are now onto a regime where if I can time the advance order correctly, I can get a delivery slot between 8.00am-9.00am two weeks later which is our ideal. I do have to remember to get the order in at just the right time but that is how people who use the system regularly have learnt how to use the online system effectively. So by the time we started to walk down to the park, the weather had cleared somewhat and it turned out to be quite a nice day.In the park, we met with our old and dear Italian friend who often seems to ‘take a turn’ in the park these days and had one of those interesting conversations that range over life, birth and death. As we walked home together, we helped to cement the relationships between two of our sets of friends and for whom we are the common factor – as it happened, they had some acquaintances in common. I think I have pointed out months ago a theoretical notion that one of our tutors at university (Professor Ronald Frankenberg) had espoused that one index of community is the density and interconnectedness of the social network – hardly a completely revolutionary notion in itself but one that is capable of a degree of mathematical measurement. The telecommunication and railway engineers are well aware of this aspect of networks – which can be made more robust if you can route a telephone call (or a train) though a verity of routeways to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’ if one of the legs of the network happens to get taken down. This incidentally, was also publicised in a book I read about the haphazard nature of the way in which the railway system as developed in the UK – if the Nazi invasion of Britain had ever taken place, then it would have been quite difficult to disable the railway network because those ‘in the know’ could always route a train through ‘Little Puddleton-on-the Marsh’ (a factitious nameplace) in the event of a link broken somewhere on the system.
This afternoon, after our traditional curry lunch for a Wednesday, Meg and I got to work with a variety of domestic tasks. Meg was mending one of her kilts (well worth the investment in time and effort given what useful garments they turn out to be the autumn and winter) whilst I ordered a supply of new clothes (mainly shirts) over the internet as we have not bought any new clothes since the start of the lockdown some eight months ago.
The political news today has been dominated by the spending review (a sort of mini-budget) given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The official figures have revealed that the depth of the recession facing the UK. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects GDP to decline by 11.3% this year, the biggest drop in annual output since the Great Frost of 1709, Europe’s coldest winter in 500 years that caused widespread death and destruction to agriculture. Added to this, and now public acknowledged in some forecasts, is that the results Brexit, dire in themselves, may be added to the effects of the pandemic and a ‘normal’ ‘flu epidemic to produce a crisis of almost epic proportions in which social order my well break down. In The Guardian today, there is a photograph of a huge queue of lorries, five miles in length, on the M20 motorway in Kent – all a result of the delays occasioned by the French trying out some new software that may well be needed whether or not there is a Brexit deal. The government last month apparently gave a warning that could be queues of some 7,000 vehicles on the main motorway routes to the Eurotunnel and Dover ferries before you reach for your calculators – if each lorry is twice the length of a car and they are separated by one one yard, then 7,000 lorries would occupy some 28 miles of road. (These incidentally, are the government’s own assessments of the ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’) This might impel negotiators of the UK side to seek some kind of deal as Brexit on top of all of other worries would only be throwing petrol onto an already blazing bonfire. And finally, today is the day when Diego Maradonna (one of the greatest footballers of all time) drew his last breath – at the age of 60.
Today started off with a rolling ground frost (as predicted in the weather forecasts) but this fog and frost was gradually burnt off and it turned out to be rather a nice day with clear blue skies nd a pale winter sunshine when not in the shade. Today was the first day in which our Waitrose order was due to be delivered in a morning slot (and it was, at 8.30am) so the day get off to a good start. We are making some very tentative plans to see if we can venture a bit further afield in about a week’s time to visit a much larger Waitrose store upon the outskirts of Worcester when there are ought to be plenty of choice for us to buy some Christmas food and drink.
Today was the day on which the new ‘Tiers’ were announced that would take over once lockdown is completed on December 2nd. It seems that Tier 1 is going to be used for areas of the country where the incidence of the virus is already very low (Cornwall, the Scilly Isles and so on) Tier 2 is going to be the ‘default’ position for most of the country (including us here in Bromsgrove) whilst Tier 3 is reserved for Birmingham and the West Midlands, the Manchester region and much of the North East. The overall situation is that most people will be covered by Tier 2 which is more stringent than the Tier 1 to which they had become accustomed. Some members of the Tory party are expressing extreme disquiet at the stringency of the new provisions and may rebel when there is a vote in Parliament next Tuesday. They are demanding a full cost-benefit analysis for their constituencies which is felt particularly acutely in these areas of the country here you have large centres of the population (where the virus rates tend to be high) surrounded by a large rural hinterland (where the rates of virus tend to be low) The government evidently has some kind of algorithm as to how allocate areas into the appropriate tiers. Factors that are taken into account are these: the use detection rate (particularly in the over 60s); how quickly rates are rising or falling; ‘positivity’ in the general population; pressure on the local NHS and finally, the local context and exceptional circumstances such as a local but contained outbreak.
There is quite a lot of discontent being expressed in the media tonight. Local businesses in the hospitality business who have just moved into Tier 2 feel very hard done by as do those areas in which there is a large discrepancy between urban and rural areas caught up into the same Tier. The government had promised to review the situation after a fortnight’s operation – but one does have the feeling that once you in a Tier (similar to being allocated to a class in a streamed secondary school?) then getting out of it may be incredibly difficult and the situation may not be resolved until the arrival of Easter and/or the vaccine. Evidently, a lot of businesses in the hospitality industries cannot survive this lack of footfall and subsequent income.
There is news from the Brexit front line, courtesy of Sky News. The government have set up a series of portacabins at which they attempt to show drivers arriving in the UK the complexities of a post-Brexit life. Until now, all they had to do was to wave a passport at the border staff – now they have to complete a customs declaration giving details of all of the goods that they are transporting. Many of the drivers have only a minimal command of English – so border staff are attempting to help with the aid of Google ‘Translate’ In addition, the app which they are supposed to be using does not even work yet. In total, this new pile of red tape will run to 270 million customs declarations a year, and, in practice, responsibility will fall to hauliers and drivers, 3.5 million of whom cross the short Channel straits into Kent, largely through Dover, every year. The Brexit talks are absolutely on a knife-edge. French President Emmanuel Macron threatened to scupper any Brexit deal that ‘sacrifices’ French fishermen, as he continues to stand in the way of Brexit talks reaching a breakthrough. He is said to be concerned that 20 percent of French fishermen risk losing their jobs if quotas are drastically reduced if the EU does not have the same access to UK waters after the transition period. French fishermen have also threatened to blockade lorries carrying Britain’s catch, as most of the fish and seafood caught by British fishermen is exported, with three-quarters of it going to the EU. As we have said often before – you couldn’t make it up!
Today turned out to be quite a fine and bright day, although it was pretty cold at the start. We are evidently in the midst of a high-pressure weather system at the moment and so enjoying the reasonable weather whilst we can. Today was the day when our domestic help arrives and we always have a good chat and a laugh about life’s vicissitudes before we start our morning walk. We met with two of our sets of friends today and enjoyed a chat on their drive – which actually passed quite a lot of the morning away. And so to home and to a risotto made according to my newly developed recipe (cauliflower rice, kipper fillets) which is turning out to be a Friday favourite. This afternoon, after lunch, I decided to have a second brisk walk into Bromsgrove on my own this time. I wanted to buy some cleaning materials and hardware type items that never quite make it onto our weekly Waitrose order – I am always amazed at the bits and bobs of things that you suddenly find you need (mainly cleaning materials) and I ended up buying and lugging home a large bag full of the kinds of things it is always incredibly frustrating to run out of. For example, I always like to have a supply of sponge cloths available to cope with a sudden spillage or other emergency and these start a progression down the cleaning order (ready used get relegated to car cleaning before their eventual demise) Several large parcels arrived including some shirts and other Amazon deliveries to keep us well supplied. I try to avoid Amazon when I can largely for ethical reasons and they are not always the cheapest – but they do tend to be the fastest and with ‘free’ delivery (via Amazon ‘Prime’)
The COVID-19 virus is causing myriad controversies. The Sage group are advising that the Christmas celebrations could cause the incidence of virus to increase ‘by a large amount’. Last night at the Prime Ministerial briefing, Chris Whitty the Government’s chief medical officer said ‘Don’t hug grandma if you want her to survive Christmas‘. So there seems to be an indication that if we do collectively relax our guard a little (for quite understandable reasons) there will quite a price to pay in the New Year. The difficulty is that this is just the period of time when hospitals naturally experience a lot of pressure with ‘normal’ respiratory conditions that require hospital treatment. So this does place most people with real Christmas dilemmas – do we engage in something that approximates to a ‘normal’ Christmas with relatives or do we attempt to soldier on for a few more weeks, knowing the end (via a vaccine) may be within our sight?
The Americans are facing quite an acute dilemma at the moment as they are trying to negotiate how to celebrate Thanskgiving (which is when many American families traditionally get together) with a pandemic that is still wreaking a terrible toll. The incidence rate is approaching 13.5 million and another 8 million have apparently had the virus and recovered. The death toll is 270,000 (more than a quarter of a million) and it could be that if the situation approximates to that of the UK, then this figure may almost double once we take into account the number of people who may have died prematurely because they could not be availed of suitable treatment when resources are diverted to cope with COVID-19 cases. I did read a terrible ‘Vox pop’ account about a week ago where some people who were dying of the virus had so swallowed the Donald Trump line about ‘false news’ that they refused to believe that they were actually dying of the virus – they thought they were dying of pneumonia. There is a conspiracy theory of which the majority of Americans have heard that powerful people actually planned the coronavirus – 5% of people think this is definitely true whilst another 20% believe it is probably true. If we were to stratify the responses by educational level, then approximately half of the American sample (educated only with a high school education i.e. without any form of higher education) believe that this conspiracy theory is definitely or probably true. Of course, this section of the population formed the bedrock of support for the Donald Trump vote so beliefs in the virus have helped to form a chasm in American society similar to that formed by Brexit in the UK.
Donald Trump has finally admitted that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden (which they will) But he explains that it is hard for him to concede because ‘we know that was massive fraud’ Of course, we do not know whether Trump is so deluded that he believes his own propaganda or whether it is all part of a massive game to keep his support base as high as possible.
Today was a dull and gloomy day and so it stayed all day. Meg and I went to collect the newspapers in a semi-drizzle but fortunately for us, the rain had just about ceased by the time we came to sit on our park bench and have our customary coffee. As the weather was so inclement, the park was denuded of its usual complement of mothers with young children and dog walkers – however, the joggers did not seem to be deterred and I suppose a modicum of rain might almost be both cooling and refreshing. We met with a friend of a friend and her husband who are evidently keen walkers and were not to be deterred – they had been to Hagley Hall ( a local 18th century stately home in the vicinity) the day before and enjoyed a good walk in the bright sunshine until the fog descended later in the day. This afternoon after our lunch we prepared to watch the England v. Wales rugby match which was broadcast on Amazon Prime. Fortunately for us, the reception as good enough for us to enjoy the match although we got the occasional drop-out and buffering factor (as Amazon Prime is delivered over the internet rather than through the airways as such) The England team powered their way to a place in the finals next week in what was an effective but not particularly pretty match to watch. The Welsh put up stout resistance playing in Llanelli but were eventually overhauled and could not prosper even in their home country. Of course, without a crowd, there is no home encouragement as such. To follow this match, we again tuned into Amazon Prime to watch the France-Italy match. The Italians started well and bravely against the French and even scored the first try but eventually, they were completely overhauled and lost the match by a large margin. In the interval, I amused myself (!) by trying on the four pairs of shirts we have recently acquired from a well-known shirtmaker who has a wonderful range of cotton, non-iron shirts (we don’t believe in ironing in our house!) These all fitted perfectly as we knew they would – we particularly appreciate the little metal stiffeners with which they equip their shirt collars to keep them looking straight and not ‘dog-eared’ looking.
The Tory party seems to be in absolute disarray, not to say open revolt this evening, after the publication of the new ‘Tier’ rules to which we are going to be subject once the lockdown ends on Wednesday next. It seems that the Tory MPs who have constituencies in the South of the country or in areas that are largely rural or where the incidence of the virus appears to be low are in open revolt, including even the Chairman of the 1922 committee (a committee that is supposed to represent the interests of ‘ordinary’ backbenchers – i.e. not on the ministerial payroll) and will they will probably vote against their own government in the vote next Tuesday evening. Boris Johnson appears to be back-peddling for all he is worth with promises to end the new rules early, to promise a review within two weeks and goodness knows what else as he is an absolute panic mode) It is a strange situation to be in where the only real opposition to the government comes from its ‘own’ MPs and not from the opposition parties (e.g. the Labour Party) who have yet to determine whether they are going to support the government or to abstain. If the Opposition were to deploy an interesting strategy, they could always vote with the government to ensure that the ‘Tier’ rules were approved – and then taunt the government by constantly telling Boris Johnson that he can only get his legislation passed because the Labout opposition has come to his assistance. This might drive an absolute wedge in the split between Boris Johnson and the rest of his parliamentary party – and will probably lead to his demise within a matter of months if not weeks. My own personal view is that once Brexit is ‘done’ in some kind of weird way e.g. a ‘deal’ which is so thin that it is actually more like a ‘hard’ or ‘no-deal’ Brexit than anything else and the vaccine appears to be alleviating the worse of the pandemic, then the Tory Party will ditch Boris at the first opportunity and get another leade who might prove to be a more suitable and adept Prime Minister (like Rishi Sunak?) to help to lead them out of the mire. I have just a final thought on this – to the casual observer is does appear that the protesting Tory MPs would not mind seeing the NHS overwhelmed and thousands of people dying so long as their own business interests were satisfied. Michael Gove has apparently been arguing that the NHS will be overwhelmed unless the new ‘Tier’ rules are adopted but large sections of the Tory party either choose not to believe him (‘crying wolf’) or else do not even care (which is probably worse)
I thought this blog was not going to appear tonight – or indeed ever again! When I tried to log on to my site, I got a system message to say that WordPress would not run on an out-of-date version of PHP (the programming language in which WordPress is written) and it needed to be updated. Whatever I did I got the same system message – to say I was distraught is an understatement. Not knowing that I do, I wrote a desperate email to my friendly web administrator in Canada from whom I rent the webspace. She suggested a solution which meant that I had to go into a special control panel (cPanel) and then access a specific program that would update every folder in my webspace. I did this with bated breath – and it worked! A heartfelt email went winging its way to Karina – how often do you get personal service like that? But I have rented webspace from her for about 15 years now and its on occasions like this that it is worth its weight in gold. And now to return to more mundane matters!
The day was dull and overcast so I went down and collected our newspapers by car before watching the Andrew Marr show (which is our default for a Sunday morning) Then we walked down to the park today and were a bit dismayed to find that it was absolutely teeming full – cars were parked on the nearby grass verges making a real mess of them as the car park was full to overflowing. Another source of dismay that there seemed to be a feeling that the lockdown had already ended – there seemed to be hordes of people none of whom seem to be making the slightest attempt to socially distance. I wonder of there will be a big ‘spike’ in about a couple of weeks time as the virus has had a field day? As I remember it, the current lockdown was due to be announced on a Sunday but the newspapers had got wind of it. So Downing Street brought forward their announcement to the preceding Saturday and some people must have gone wild in pubs, clubs and whatever because about two weeks after this there was a massive surge in the infection rate. I sometimes wonder how uninformed and ‘lacking in intelligence’ some people must be given the warnings that are all over the place about the necessity to socially distance and so on. I suppose that people get inured to the constantly repeated messages and if they only catch the virus in a mild form or are unsymptomatic then they almost pretend that life must be back to normal.
Tomorrow is going to be quite a busy day for us what with one thing or another. First thing tomorrow morning, Meg and I are attending an outpatient clinic for Meg and this might take a certain amount of time – the appointment was made at quite short notice and then we were phoned up with a list of questions to make sure that we were virus free. Then we will park the car and have our normal elevenses in the park before we go off to the Webb’s garden store to try to collect our Christmas tree voucher. Webb’s (a huge garden store with a national reputation) makes a special offer to its cardholders in that once you buy a tree at the normal price (which we always do) then most of the price is refunded in the form of vouchers in effect giving you the tree for nothing. We are doing that because in the evening my daughter-in-law and I are going to Webbs again to select our tree. Everything seems so much earlier this year – I have never started to think of Christmas decorations until December has actually arrived but there seem to be decorations going up all over the place. I wonder if people are so fed up the lockdown that they are desperate for almost anything to make life seem a little brighter in the meantime.
This afternoon we watched a rugby match (Ireland vs. Georgia) which you would have thought would have been one of the strongest teams against one of the weakest. As it turned out, the Georgians put into an extremely robust, not to say physical performance and performed very creditably against the Irish – so it turned out to be quite an entertaining match after all. Most of our TV viewing this evening got a little disrupted this evening as I was struggling with the WordPress technology.
There is a report this evening that Boris Johnson’s ‘concessions’ to some of the Tory rebels may backfire and instead of solving the problem may even fan the flames of rebellion. The cost-benefit analysis area by area is due to be published tomorrow but may well prove to be vague in the extreme. The vote itself is scheduled for Tuesday next so the next couple of days is going to be very interesting!
We always knew this was going to be a busy day and so it proved. We started off in the outpatients department of our (very) local hospital where Meg was attending for an outpatient’s appointment – all masked up and hand-gelled up as you might imagine. After a fairly long and quite satisfactory appointment, Meg was prescribed some new medication with might prove to be efficacious. Once we had concluded the outpatient appointment, Meg and I went to our little local newsagent where we sympathised with each other because we both had experienced computing difficulties in the past day. And so on to the park where we partook of our coffee on a blustery not particularly cold day. Fortunately, the park was much less busy than yesterday as you might expect on a dull autumn day. Then we jumped in the car and made our way to the Webb’s department store to collect our Christmas tree voucher (available only to club card holders). When we got to Webbs the queues were absolutely horrendous and must have snaked over at least one hundred yards with crowd control barriers that one got used to at airports in the days when we used to fly. Fortunately one of the Marshalls indicated that those wishing to seek Customer Services (as we were) could bypass the queues for which we were truly grateful as otherwise we might have queued for an hour just to get in. So we eventually got our precious Christmas tree voucher and made for home. In the early afternoon, I decided I would make a trip out to the pharmacists in order to get Meg’s new medication prescribed. Whilst it was being dispensed, I took the opportunity for a quick ‘whiz’ around Asda to get one or two things that I know that Waitrose does not stock and a few things that are so much cheaper at Asda. Then I picked up Meg’s medication and made for home. In the early evening, my daughter-in-law and I made a tip to the afore-mentioned Webbs store so that we could pick up our Christmas tree, as we always do. Normally, it takes us about 1 minute and 20 seconds to choose a tree but on this occasion, we did take two minutes and went seconds. Then we met with our next door neighbour (who happens to work in Webbs anyway) and she had very kindly arranged to transport our tree home. This was because both my daughter-in-law and myself have changed our cars in the past few months and as they are both shorter than the Honda CR-V we have used in the past, there as a severe doubt whether we could get the tree home by ourselves. (The problem does not occur in reverse because we chop up the tree into manageable ‘bits’ before we take it back to Webbs for recycling) So we got our tree home and it is now firmly in its stand but now ‘resting’ i.e. we are allowing its branches to settle a little before the act of decoration starts in earnest in a day or do. Although we do put some decorations around our living room and have our own little ‘fibre-optic’ Christmas tree, I have taken the view over the years that the fewer the decorations we use for adornment and the less elaborate is their deployment, then the easier it is to clear them all away on or before the traditional ‘Twelfth Night’.
The economic news tonight is that Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia retail empire has collapsed in the worst single corporate failure of the COVID-19 crisis to date, leaving 13,000 jobs hanging in the balance. Even though he was given his knighthood by Tony Blair, modern commentators are being far from kind to Sir Philip. The consensus view of him now is that he was not a natural retailer but he was very good at asset stripping. Apparently with many of his stores, he sold off the properties they occupied to a property management company domiciled overseas (where they paid hardly any tax) but under the control of Philip Green and his family. The stores, meanwhile, had to pay rent for he premises they occupied which reduced their profitability (and the amount of tax they had to pay) but the net effect of all of this was to make Sir Philip Green obscenely wealthy. It is said that Sir Philip Green’s wife once was awarded a dividend payment in excess of one billion pounds (but I have yet to check on the veracity of this story)
Well, I must say that I am really glad to be shot entirely of the month of November and to be entering the month of December. I always feel that the month of December flies by because of the intensification of social life as Christmas approaches – although this year, Christmas will be a very different affair for most of us. Also, as December 21st approaches, so does the shortest day which means the once Christmas is out of the way, at least the days are getting a little bit longer if only by a minute or so. The bad weather will also bear down on us in January and February but at least we have had a fairly mild autumn so far -when you have bad weather such as snow in the autumn, then the winter seems to go on for ever and a day.
It was a beautiful fine day on our walk down this morning with a clear blue sky and the sun even warm in places where it could strike the pavement evenly and not be obscured by tall trees on the other side of the road. We spoke with one of our acquaintances who was busy putting lights around the denuded branches of a young sycamore tree and we notice that many people are starting to decorate their houses and their front gardens. There is one particular house in a block long since sold off by the council where the owners really go ‘over the top’ when it comes to external decorations in the house and garden. On this one particular house, it appeared from a distance, that Santa Claus appeared to be in danger of an imminent suicide as he clung perilously to a window sill. In practice, Santa was hanging onto a translucent rope ladder, no doubt to be lit up later on this evening, but from the angle from which we were approaching Santa appeared to be in dire straits. When we arrived home, we had a nice conversation with our next door neighbour, mainly on the subject of the atrocious political leadership we were experiencing on both sides of the Atlantic and we were speculating how long our current Prime Minister can survive in office once the immediate crises of Brexit and Covid appear to be in resolution.
We had quite a busy time FaceTimeing in the late afternoon and early evening. Firstly we got into contact with our friends in Hampshire who have been in lockdown since the start of the pandemic – their feelings were very much that having come this far, they were not going to prejudice things over Christmas by too intimate a contact with family. Some family members were going to come and occupy a conservatory where they could communicate but were insulated from each by some glass – no doubt, families all over the country are having to improvise similar arrangements. No sooner had we made a ‘slot’ when we can chat again in a fortnight, then our ex-Waitrose friends FaceTimed us and we exchanged news of each other’s activities. They were slightly on tenterhooks at their end because a new edition to the family was in the process of being born (but had to be transferred from Worcester were there was no spare space in the maternity site to Hereford where they did have a space). Our son and daughter-in-law are busily decorating the newly acquired Christmas tree (another family tradition) so we can FaceTime a video of the tree when we are next in contact next week.
Car wash time has come around again – I am trying to get into a routine of washing once a fortnight (once a week seems excessive as we hardly go anywhere these days with the lockdown in operation) One has to time these operations quite carefully as the days are so short – I started at 3.0pm and had just about completed quite a comprehensive clean by 4.0pm when it was still just about light – but only just. When I get a new car, I always treat myself to some new cleaning materials and treated myself to some micro-fibre towels for a final finishing off. I thought this might have sounded a bit excessive but the results I am pleased to say were really good. So I gave all of my car cleaning cloths a quick machine wash ready for next time.
We expected that the government would get its own way and once the Labour Party, the Lib-Dems and the SNP decided to abstain, the result was not really in doubt. In the event, some 55 Tory MP’s voted against their own government supported by some 15 Labour MPs and some independents. The real question now shifts to about a fortnight’s time because then some of the regulations may be ‘tweaked’ and it is possible that as a result of political pressure and/or wheeler dealing so area might be detached from Tier 3 to join Tier 2. There is also talk of getting more ‘granularity’ in the data i.e. not averaging out the results of a low-virus rural hinterland with a high-virus urban area to get a result somewhere in-between that reflects neither.
Today will go down as those truly momentous days. It was announced first thing this morning that Britain’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, has ruled that the vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech which offers 95% protection against COVID-19 has been approved for use. Of course, this is tremendously good news. This is exactly how the new vaccine works:
BNT162b2 uses messenger RNA that describes one of the spike proteins that stud the outer surface of SARS-CoV-2. Though human cells don’t make spike proteins, they can still read viral messenger RNA and follow its instructions. When someone receives a dose of BNT162b2, their body responds by producing the spike protein, but only the spike protein, and no other part of the virus.
Since spike proteins aren’t normally found in human cells, their presence triggers the immune system, leading to a defensive response where the proteins are removed. Now that the immune system’s had some practice, it’s ready for the real thing. If someone who was vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 was exposed to the virus later on, their immune system is ready to react, and hopefully, fend off the virus.
Messenger RNA vaccines are relatively new on the scene, but have the potential to be safer and more effective than other vaccine types. There is no risk of getting COVID-19 from a vaccine, as the virus is never present in the body.
There is a slight downside to this good news and that is that the RNA is so fragile that the vaccine has to be stored at a temperature of -70º which is often available in specialised biological facilities but not in the typical doctor’s surgery. So it looks as though the initial supplies of the virus will be distributed to hospitals where they have specialised facilities and from here, it will be used to vaccinate NHS and other care staff in the first instance, There is then a descending scale of priorities that run from 1 to 9 with residents in a care home and the carers the first priority, 80+ and frontline health and social care workers the second priority, 75 and over the third priority (I won’t go on but personally I shall be in the this priority order and Meg being a bit younger will be in the next priority zone down the list). I suspect that it may be mid-February at the earliest that I shall personally receive a jab (with a follow up three weeks later) but at least we can say that the end is in sight – but only if combined with more conventional measures such as social distancing, face masks and gels.
Today was a bit of a dull day but nothing to stand in the way of our walk for newspapers and coffee in the park – we did have the bonus, though, that we did not have to utilise our tea-towel that we bring with us to dry the park bench as it had been dry and cold overnight. As we were starting to walk home, we met with some of our oldest friends and received some wonderful news. We informed them that we had consulted the website for our local church and ascertained that church services, subject to the normal restrictions, will start again from this weekend. We will need to make a telephone call to book our place but all being well, we are set to resume our normal church attendance from Saturday onwards (but minus any hymn singing, of course) Then our friends gave us some marvellous news. They were in touch with a group of church members who were organising a type of pilgrimage to Rome in September of next year. This will involve deploying the services of a contact in the English College in Rome (a seminary used for the training of priests) Also involved is a trip to the Sistine Chapel and perhaps even an audience with the Pope. In short, would we like to go on this trip? It took Meg and I about 0.1 second to ponder all of this and to say ‘Yes, please!” but we will have to wait for further details to arrive by email and trust that we can well and truly booked up (and it is not massively over-subscribed)
Tomorrow, Meg and I are going to make a special trip to Waitrose in Worcester. This will be a journey of about 20 minutes so but as the store is a very large and well supplied store, we thought it might be a good idea to make it into a trip here we can buy some Christmas food and drink (some of which will act as presents for some of our friends and acquaintances in any case) We haven’t been to this store before but the directions make it appear simple enough to access and there is always the Sat-Nav of course (the first time in this new car but it ought to operate like the previous one).
Today was an ‘interesting’ sort of day! It was raining cats and dogs, as they say but we were determined not to let it deter us. After we had collected our newspapers (our lucky day – the very last copy of both ‘The Guardian‘ and ‘The Times‘) we had intended to go into the park to have our coffee. But as it was raining so hard, we decided to go on our trip to a distant Waitrose on the outskirts of Worcester which we had been given to understand was huge and therefore full of choice at Christmas time. Although I had taken down the postcode, I had already looked at the directions via Google and it seemed to be just a straight run down the M5 to junction 7 and then a couple of miles along the main road into Worcester. But then we started to run into problems – the road which we though we wanted signposted us to Evesham and so we thought to ourselves – ‘No, not that way- it must this way’ Having gone for several miles long what was evidently a new ring road in the course of construction with massive digging vehicles and traffic jams all over the place we decided to trace our steps, take the road pointing to ‘Evesham’ and finished off where we wanted at the huge Waitrose. This really was like a cornucopia and we filled a trolley full of Christmas goodies (mainly death by carbohydrate such as puddings, Christmas cake, mince pies, stollen) and a quite a lot of alcohol most of which are intended as presents for close family. But we did treat ourselves to a nice Rioja and Cava for Christmas Day, not to mention replenishing our supplies of gin and sherries for when/if people call round. We did feel a little ‘Waitrosed out’ as a result of all of this because e had received our weekly online order from the said store which we are now scheduled to receive between 8.00 and 9.00am each Thursday morning. At this time of year, we have to find extra space in our cupboards and squeeze items in whilst avoiding the temptation to overflow things into our garage (nice and cool – but also a temptation too far for the local mice who have invaded us before)
In this morning’s email, my friend from down the road had sent me detail of the pilgrimage to Rome next September which he had mentioned to us in the park the day before. At the end of the details was an application form which I assiduously filled in at the end of afternoon but there were some questions it that required some chasing around in order to complete e.g. what was the policy number of the travel insurance it was anticipated that you already had, complete with the emergency telephone number to contact them which had already been supplied to you. But I managed to get it all filled in and got it put into an envelope ready to be despatched first thing in the morning. We will need to fly from Bristol Airport which is some 85 miles away but the access will be fairly fast via the M5 and A4 so that should not be very problematic for us – and better than Heathrow. We are hoping that by getting our application fairly early the tour as a whole is not over-subscribed and that our application to join the pilgrimage will be accepted.
Later on in the early evening, I was hunting for an envelope in which one of our Yorkshire friends (in whose guest house we used to stay and who has written a book about his experiences in which we figure) had sent us a Christmas card but with his address written on the back of the envelope – which I now couldn’t find. Somewhat distraught, I rang the contact number I had in my iPhone and was delighted to be able to make contact with our old friend again (who at the same time as myself was having some medical problems) To cut a long story short, we had an incredibly good chat catching up over our plans fo the immediate future – or rather the ways in which both Brexit and COVID-19 had laid waste to them. Anyway, we are now in WhatsApp contact with each other which means that we can use a video call facility to each other in the future. (I have never used this facility in WhatsApp but now is the time and the motivation to learn how to do it) It could be that we meet up in Spain for an extended holiday together when the coast clears, but of course until the E111 status becomes clarified as the result of the Brexit deal/no deal we are both little stuck. Nonetheless, our friend has assiduously been polishing his Spanish grammar (and he is a natural linguist and ardent anti-Brexiteer) so whoever we meet is bound to be a good trip down memory lane for the both of us!
Today was the kind of day for which the adjective ‘raw’ was invented. Meg and I had a rather uncomfortable walk to pick up our newspapers and thereafter, we went to the park and shivered whilst drinking our coffee. We then had a really uncomfortable walk back home with our fingers as cold as ice – I suppose having had such a mild autumn has made us, in a very old-fashioned word ‘nesh’ (OED definition:’weak and delicate, feeble’) but it does also have a rather pejorative overtone. Still, it was nice to get home and shortly afterwards I needed to go out in the car to the physiotherapists in our local health centre to whom I had been referred for an episode of ‘trigger finger’ in my left hand. I was given a range of strength and other exercises to perform and will be seen again in about six weeks time to assess my progress (or lack of it). After I got home, I cooked a special risotto (which our domestic helped to to consume). Then we made an interesting excursion around our garden to find suitable kinds of leaves and holly berries from which our domestic help can utilise her magic to create some nice autumnal displays. In the late afternoon and early evening, we engaged in some video-calls with some of our Hampshire friends. In the first of these we used Zoom but I always find this a bit difficult to get going and end up with a meeting in which I am the only person present until others are invited to join me. The ‘Zoom‘ link was pretty ropy with a lot of internet drop out- we weren’t quite sure whether this as due to the technology itself or the fact that is was an early Friday evening and we might be having bandwidth problems. The second call to a friend using FaceTime was much more successful but of course you both have to have Apple technology to communicate across this link.
The news concerning the EU and UK trade talks is not at all encouraging: it seems that some kind of stalemate seems to have been reached and the talks have been put ‘on hold’ for the time being. Saturday (i.e. tomorrow) will not be used for any more negotiations but rather for a briefing of principle (political masters). In a joint statement, Lord Frost and Mr Barnier said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson would ‘discuss the state of play’ on Saturday afternoon. The deadlock could be interpreted in two particular ways. The pessimistic way of viewing this deadlock is that there no meeting of minds and therefore in the absence of an agreement, the deadlock must point towards a ‘no deal’ outcome. However, there is another way of viewing the situation which is this. If the negotiators on either side have gone absolutely as far as they can go without breaking their mandates, then the ultimate ‘bridging of the gap’ can only take place as a result of direct political decision making. In other words, if Boris Johnson is determined to have a deal, then he can help to create one – but if is determined to leave with no deal, then all of the negotiations will have been in vain. It could be said that Boris Johnson is really on the horns of the most acute dilemma. If he ere to choose ‘no deal’ then the economic consequences will be dire for all kinds of industries in the UK.The compounding effects of COVID-19 and a ‘no deal’ Brexit will plunge the country into a massive economic crisis. On the other hand, whatever kind of minimal deal he manages to live with will be classified by the ardent Brexiteers and the right wing of the Tory Party as a complete betrayal and Boris Johnson will soon be ‘toast’ and will be dumped by the Tory Party as soon as possible. Of course, in the past, Tory Prime Ministers could rely upon a supine and generally supportive right-wing press to hail any kind of deal as a ‘triumph’ and could then could claim to have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.But the press has been much less supportive of the present Conservative Government which has hardly covered itself in glory after its maladroit handling of the pandemic. Watch this space!
Today was a fine, bright day (eventually) and we strolled down to pick up our newspapers and have our sojourn in the park in relatively good conditions. In comparison with yesterday when the biting wind gave a really raw edge to the morning, today was quite mild with quite a clear sky and a breeze that whilst cool did not have the cutting edge of yesterday. We walked home to our by now traditional Saturday lunch of sausages, knowing that we had three rugby matches in prospect. The first of these was Georgia vs.Fiji, two ‘second flight’ teams but who turned out to be a very interesting contest. The trouble is that I only saw about two-thirds of the second half of the match as it had started early and I had to fit in cooking lunch at some point. The matches were being provided over the Internet as a live stream on Amazon ‘Prime’ and this has proved problematic the last time we accessed it to watch rugby. The problem appears to be a live-stream, there is quite a degradation of internet quality, occasional freezes and a need for pausing for buffering. When it came to watching the second match which was Ireland vs. Scotland this problem became acute and I was on the point of abandoning the whole of the second half after I had been treated to several minutes of the screen saver. Eventually, I switched Amazon Prime back off and then back on again and this actually helped to ‘solve’ my problem. Having had a delay for several minutes and then restarting, the program re-started from practically the start of the second half. The program was now adequately buffered so I managed to watch the whole of the second half adequately. Then onto the third match which was Italy vs. Wales. We only managed the first half of this as the second half coincided with our visit to church, which had started to resume after the lockdown of a month. When we returned home from the service, we managed to watch the whole of the second half that was evidently provided a kind of ‘catch-up’ service from Amazon.
Our attendance at church was not exactly filled with unalloyed joy. Attendance was limited to a maximum of 36 and I doubt that there were that many of us. The necessity to socially isolate, a freezing church (as the boiler still had to be repaired) and the inability to meet with other parishioners all made for a somewhat bleak experience. Our mood was not exactly lightened by a chat we had in the car park as we were leaving with one of the parishioners whom we know well. One parishioner who we know and usually sits near us was ill in hospital with the COVID-19 virus. To compound difficulties, she had had a fall in her home but was not discovered where she had fallen on the floor for 24 hours. Another acquaintance had fallen and her glasses had caused her to have an eye injury. Moreover, the parish weekly newsletter informed us that our parish priest was stepping back from active ministry due to personal and private reasons. As he recently had a bout of colon cancer, we can only fear the worst and hope that his absence is only a temporary one. As I wrote to him on the occasion of his last illness offering him whatever support I could (as a recent sufferer myself) so I will do the same again in the next day or so and hope for the best.
The political news tonight seems to indicate that a stalemate has been reached between the UK and the UE over a new trade. I suppose it is theoretically possible that two savvy political leaders could agree to meet and resolve all outstanding issues by splitting them down the middle and then no side would be able to claim either defeat or victory. But I suspect that the issues that divide the parties are so deep and intractable that such a ‘splitting of the differences’ is impossible. For example, the EU is very keen to have a level playing field i.e. we all stick by the same rules and trade within them. But the UK wants to have an ‘unfair’ playing field such as abandoning common standards of protection for the workforce (such as the minimum provision of holiday pay, maximum hours worked) so that we could have a competitive advantage vis-a-vis other EU states. How it is possible to ‘square the circle’ in such fundamental issues of principle is difficult to say – it is quite possible that playing games of brinkmanship such as we have experienced recently can result in a bad outcome almost by accident. As they say, the next 48 hours should prove critical.
Today we entered into our normal Sunday morning routine which involves running down to the newsagents in the car to pick pop the Sunday newspapers in order to get back for the Andrew Marr show (which never quite manages to fulfil its promises these days). Our sit-down in the park was a little on the cold side but not really unpleasant. Whilst sitting on the park bench we were visited by a friendly dog (this is not at all unusual as their magnificent olfactory organs can sense the presence of food from a long way away and hence we are the target of their attentions). Once we got into conversation with the dog’s owners, we ascertained that it had been a rescue dog from the RSPCA. I opined to the owner that you were never quite sure what you were going to get if you acquired a rescue dog but we were informed that before a dog was entrusted to a new owner, it had a ‘behavioural analysis’ done on it. I suppose with a knowledge of the breed and some acute observation, the veterinary personnel who perform the behavioural analysis can have a fair idea whether the dog is going to be OK with children, other animals, not to mention human kind (all of this I didn’t know) On the way home, I got a telephone call from one of our friends whose wife was busy preparing the Christmas wreaths that we had already pre-ordered. As it happened, we were only two minutes away from their house so we called in had our choice of wreaths. Tomorrow we will pass by and pick them up and then when we get them home we will have to decide how and where we are going to hang them. As it happens,I have reel of fishing line wire which is very fine but has a 50lb breaking strength so no doubt I can utilise this when I choose a display point for the wreaths. Our friends also informed us, much to our delight, that they were going to make application to go on the pilgrimage to Rome next September. All of this means that there will be a group of some 7-8 of us who all know each other and it may well be that we can hire a minibus to take us all down to Bristol airport which seems to be our best accessible airport if we wish to avoid Heathrow.
The afternoon was dominated by our watching the England-France rugby final which turned out to have a pulsating finish. Two minutes before the end, England after concerted pressure all during the second half of the match eventually scored a try (and converted it) which managed to make the scores level. From then on, it was extra time and a ‘sudden death’ finish i.e. whoever scored would win the game. England appeared to have won the match only for a penalty kick to hit the upright post, traverse the goal and then not, in the event, go in. So with hearts in mouths, we watched England eventually get a penalty from which they won the match but it certainly, in the words of the Duke of Wellington, ‘a damned near-run thing‘ (said of the battle of Waterloo) Without it sounding too fanciful, I wondered idly if this result would have a deleterious effect upon the current increasingly tense EC-UK trade negotiations in which the French are said to be maintaining a very hard line. I was wondering whether the French might be stiffened in their resolve NOT to yield to the UK having just had victory just snatched from their grasp in the dying seconds of the match this afternoon.
There is no news yet of a COVID-19 negotiation outcome, as yet, as the negotiators have resumed their negotiations for ‘one last throw of the dice.‘ It looks as though day, or even some time tomorrow, might be the critical end-point for the negotiations. If and when the UK reinstate the clauses from the legislation governing the operation of the internal market (removed by the House of Lords) then the EU will probably walk away from the negotiations indicating there is no point in trying to reach and agreement if the UK government intends that it intends to break past agreements (the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’) which has the force of international law.
Meanwhile, there is quite a lot of excitement in the press over the imminent arrival of the recently developed vaccine. This looks as though it is going to be delivered to various hospitals and distribution points over the weekend with final preparations on Monday next and possible start of the injection programme on Tuesday. Various political leaders have indicated they are quite prepared to publicly receive their doses of the vaccine so as to increase acceptance of the virus in the wider community. Even the Queen has indicated she is willing to receive the vaccine (although not in public) and apparently there is a precedent for this in the early 1950’s when the monarch ‘did her bit’ for the acceptance of the polio vaccine.
Today we needed to make one of rare excursions onto the High Street in Bromsgrove and we decided to take the car for reasons I shall explain later. On the High Street, we visited Boots opticians in order to get a slight adjustment made to Meg’s glasses. This was all very straightforward and then made a trip round a cut-price cosmetics shop to get some bits and bobs of which we were short. We had a quick perambulation around the park but it was too cold for a stay on a park bench so we made our way back to the car and thence to the house of one of our friends. We had previously arranged to buy couple of Christmas wreaths (proceeds going to aid our church) and as I had chosen them previously, all I had to had to do was to and pick them up from a pre-arranged spot in their garden and then transport them home. I must say we were glad to get home today because we felt pretty well chilled so it was good to have our coffee and comestibles sitting by our own fire. After lunch, I surveyed our porch and gathered to gather a range of materials to help to hang them in the porch – a job I though should only take about 15-20 minutes. After that, our intention was to treat ourselves to watching ‘The Belles of St. Trinians‘ (the 1954 Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell version) although I vaguely remember that a much more up-to-date version has been made recently in about 2010 (when the girls were notably more street-wise than in 1954). So now to little Mike and his saga of how to hang two wreaths on the brick wall in our porch. The original idea was to hang them on other side of the downstairs (loo) window and to do this, I utilised a couple of stick-on-hooks with their action assisted by some strips of gaffer tape. As I was putting up the second wreath, the first crashed to the floor shattering into 2-3 pieces. So I abandoned the idea of sticking them to the brick wall and plan 2 was to stick them onto the plasticised? surround of the window frame. This resulted in as much failure as effort no. 1 so I needed to think of a third solution. Raiding my box of supplies, I found some picture pins of various sizes. The intention was to put the pin into the space between the mortar and the brick but this attempt, too, ended in failure as the pins bent upon attempting to hammer them in. So onto attempt No. 4 which was to attempt to put a screw again in the ‘weak point’ where the mortar meets the brick. This attempt, too, ended in failure. And so on to Effort No 5 where I had to think imaginatively. I made a small indentation between the mortar and the brick using a bradorl. I then enlarged this somewhat by hammering in a very small nail. Finally, I took a very small screw and using a bit of brute force and ignorance managed to get the two wreaths finally hung on the wall. I need to point out at this stage, that the wreath that had previously shattered into 2-3 pieces was repaired with some gaffer tape – when my daughter-in-law returned home, this too had crashed to the floor (for the second time, I might add) completely disintegrating it. But at least my wall-screw had held so I may be able to get a replacement. Overall, a 20 minute job lasted an hour and a half.
I have started to think that I must try and get my Christmas cards organised – fortunately, this task has been made much easier because a couple of years ago I ‘computerised’ my Christmas card list (i.e. made a text file of names and addresses) with the spacing between the entries so organised that I can easily print off some address labels on the printer. I have ordered a supply of Christmas cards from Oxfam but they tell me that it may take a few days to arrive so I went to my Christmas card box to see what I already had in stock. The first thing to do was to make sure that I had envelopes of the requisite size for each spare card (and I seem to have ended up with more cards than envelopes). I have these sorted into three piles (a) religious (typically an illustration of Madonna + child) (b) quasi-religious e.g.anything with angels or shepherds on it (c) secular, in that there are no religious themes in it at all – typically robins and snow-scenes. Then I have to make a guess as to the degree of religiosity or secularism before I choose a card appropriate to the recipient. Whether other people share this Christmas card dilemma, I do not know but I do not want to wish religiosity upon people who rather be without it.
Tuesday is always quite a busy day and today was no exception. As we walked down the hill towards the park, we called in at the house of one of our friends who had kindly supplied us with a wreath. I was hoping in the off chance that she might have had a spare to replace the one that finally mets its demise when it crashed (twice) to the floor, but alas it was not to be. Bromsgrove has an open street market on Tuesdays and Saturdays so I will try and get a replacement either later on today or, failing that, at the weekend. We collected our newspapers and enjoyed quite a pleasant day in the park. We suddenly realised that we were running a bit short of time so we had to put on a bit of a turn of speed to get home and get myself turned round ready for Pilates. My Pilates class had not met during the lockdown but our Pilates teacher had been keeping things going via her ‘Zoom’ classes. It was nice to be back in a class again (with a lot of jokes and banter) but we are restricted to four only – one in each corner of the room. As I was going through my Christmas card box, I discovered a card I must have bought some time ago. It showed two middle aged ladies observing a grossly overweight torso whilst one remarked to the other ‘It reminds you of our Pilates class on a Tuesday’ (Actually it doesn’t because we are all fairly slim and in good shape but the joke arises from the fact that it mentions Pilates on a Tuesday – so I was very pleased to hand it over to my Pilates teacher for her collection of other joke Pilates cards)
No sooner had I got in after my Pilates class had some lunch and got the washing up done when it was time to Skype one of my closest friends in Hampshire. This went ahead at 4.00pm and we chatted for well over an hour, mainly chatting about the things that had happened to us as academics. One way or another, the hour absolutely flew by and we will have a chat again in about a fortnight’s time.
The news agenda today is dominated by the first injections of the new vaccine at various hospitals throughout the country. As it happens the second person along in the queue happened to be a certain Mr. William Shakespeare from the county of Warwickshire. Whilst the press and the politicians have had a field day celebrating ‘the start of the fight back’ there have also been some words of warning as well. There are some legitimate fears that now the vaccine is here, the general population may relax their guard but there is still a long way to go. For a start, after the first dose of the vaccine a second dose has to be administered in about three weeks time and then full immunity occurs seven days after this – which means that full immunity only occurs some 28 days after the first dose of the vaccine. There are also encouraging reports about the success of the Oxford University/AstraZenica virus and, of course, this will be the really big one once it has been approved. This is because the government has ordered 100 million does of the vaccine and the cost for each dose it about the same as a cup of coffee.
The Brexit Dara is drawing to a conclusion. Boris Johnson is due to meet with Ms von der Leyen, president of the EU commission for some ‘very last minute’ attempts to reach a deal. There is some tittle tattle in today’s The Times that the French have suddenly become very hardline and have insisted that a tougher line has to be taken with the British. The UK has offered a small olive branch indicating that the clauses in the Internal Market bill that would break the Withdrawal Agreement (which has the force of international law) will be withdrawn if there is a trade agreement. But as the gap between the two sides is so wide and with only about one day left to negotiate, it looks extremely likely that we will slide out with a ‘no deal’ . The fact that the rest of the Johnson cabinet is prepared to countenance a ‘no deal’ irrespective of the consequences does not bode well and I fear that this is the fate due to befall the UK in the next day or so.
Meg had a visitor this morning who was a little delayed in getting to us and so most of the morning seemed to be taken up with these activities – whilst we were waiting for our visitor to arrive I spent some time quite productively getting my household accounts up-to-date. So we needed to alter our daily routines a little and decided to do things a little differently. We got to the newspaper shop in the early afternoon and wondered whether our favourite newspapers might be sold out. However, we happened to be in luck and got our copy of The Times and The Guardian with no problems at all. Now that we have been customers of the same paper shop for the best part of nine months, I was speculating to Meg whether or not we could ask the proprietors to always hold back a copy for us. As I was busy handing over my tokens to the boy in the shop, I indicated that I thought that I was lucky and the newspapers might have been sold out. ‘Well – we will put a copy on one side for you, if that’s what you would like‘ was the comment made to me and it felt as though my prayers had been answered. From there, it is just a short stroll to our local Waitrose so we thought we would pop in and replenish our supply of mince pies which is in danger of being depleted. Whilst there, we bumped into one of our regular staff who we remember from months past. We asked how she was keeping and were informed that she had been quite ill and just had a gallbladder removed. As the local hospitals were all concerned with COVID-19 cases, she had the operation performed privately and had only just returned to work in the last few days. Anyway it was good to see her again after all of these months. That remind’s me – I generally buy all the staff in Waitrose a huge box of chocolates for their staff room (and they, in return, tend to make us gifts of running-out-of-date flowers, sandwiches and cakes so there is a rough kind of equality involved!)
Later on this afternoon, I was exploring WhatsApp which I have installed on my iPhone and quite often use to send text messages, photographs and even video clips to friends. Evidently, I hadn’t explored this app to its full potential because as soon as my one of my Hampshire friends suggested that we share some communications over WhatsApp, I decided to test it out and, of course, it worked like a treat. I’m sure it doesn’t have the range, facilities or sophistication of a FaceTime or a Skype but for a quick chat between friends, it is more than adequate (as well as being free) As my friend had just sent me a WhatsApp message, I knew he was at the end of a phone, so organised another quick video call between us. Afterwards, I was sent some hilarious clips of video (which I am sure is probably the main use of the app so that amusing clips can quickly be shared across the globe)
Tonight is the night when Boris Johnson is in Brussels for a critical dinner with Ursula von de Leyen, the president of the Commission. All of the ‘mood music’ tends to suggest that the differences in philosophy between the two sides is so great (the EU wanting to keep the integrity of the market, the UK insisting that UK’s new sovereignty is to be respected’) that we really have reached the end of the road. The only slight prospect that some might hang onto is whether the two sides are inclined to give a little compromise to the other leaving the way open for further negotiations. If Boris Johnson really wanted a deal, it would not have been impossible to have engineered one. But where we stand tonight is a complete clash of ideologies in which neither side feel they can give an inch. My Hampshire friend was speculating whether Boris Johnson dare return from Brussels waving a piece of paper in his hand (redolent of Neville Chamberlain) but we are both agreed, gloomily, that we are on an irrevocable path to a ‘no deal’ by now. Even if we were to get a deal, it would be so thin and minimal, we would still remain outside the Customs Union and times ahead look bleak. Apart from anything else, the hard core Brexiteers seem to drive the whole business of government and nothing short of a complete withdrawal will appease them (I have a mental image of the British government on a sledge being pursued by a pack of ravenous wolves – the ardent Brexiteers) Even throwing them chunks of red meat from the back of the sledge will not satisfy their appetites and they will keep pursuing the sledge for even more – in short, they refuse to be satisfied by anything.
We seem to have been on a much more even keel today with no early morning appointments apart from the weekly delivery from Waitrose, which has become a weekly fixture in our calendar. The weather had improved just a tad so we worked down the hill with only a little adverse breeze in our faces. At our little newspaper shop, I was delighted that our new little ‘system’ seems to have worked because the minute I walked in, I was presented with our two daily newspapers of choice. We then popped into Waitrose to get some eggs that had been missed off the main order and so on to the park. Although we started off in some wan sunshine, the weather had all turned quite cold by the time we got to the park so we drank our coffee in some haste and did not tarry before we struck off for home. We knew that we had to have fairly quick turn around because our regular hairdresser was coming to the house to give Meg a perm (and I get a haircut that is fitted in the intervals between the rituals of a perm). On way or another, these hairdressing activities seemed to occupy a lot of the afternoon. I always ask our hairdresser if she can only snip up the grey hairs and leave the rest intact and she tries to oblige.
The COVID-19 news today is interesting if a little disturbing. Hospitals have been receiving more and more cases and it could just be that we are at the start of a third wave of the pandemic. I might add that the second wave is only just past its peak. In the meanwhile, the whole of London is right on the verge of being moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 (the highest Tier) and perhaps next Wednesday is the critical date when the distribution of areas between Tiers will be adjusted. There is also some evidence that schoolchildren may be transferring the virus from one section of the community to another – there is a suggestion that mass testing will be rolled out for all school children aged 11-18 across London, Essex and Kent (well, I suppose it makes change from the declining areas in the Midland and the North). The news from the USA is similarly chilling as today, for the first time ever, deaths have exceeded 3,000 and 106,000 people are hospitalised with the virus across the country. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) in the USA are predicting another 72,000 deaths in the next four weeks. Meanwhile 10 counties in California have run completely out of critical care beds – California is the richest state in the richest country on earth but there again, the Americans do not have our NHS!
Boris Johnson is now softening up the population for what appears to be an inevitable ‘no deal’ with the EU by announcing that there is a ‘strong possibility of no deal. The interesting question now becomes what the Brexiteers will make of all this because there is a strand of Brexit opinion which really does not want to leave with a ‘no deal’ One can almost hear the excuses for a ‘no deal’ that are already being prepared i.e. all of the fault of the dastardly EU not to mention the French who will not allow the English to trade with them on an ‘unlevel playing field’ i.e. the UK wants to trade with a competitive advantage by offering lower wages and conditions than the rest of the EU. When the reality of ‘no deal’ hits the general population, there may well be adverse reactions. One of the first of these is that medical insurance at massively inflated prices may make European travel too expensive for many who wish to take a holiday in continental Europe, now that the EHIC card will no longer apply. Phone charges for data roaming will also increase rapidly. We haven’t started to think yet about the food and medical shortages, traffic jams across the whole of Kent, ports brought to a standstill and so on. Of course, there is sways the possibility of a really last minute deal (as in the Greek case) but it looks more and more like the typical Greek tragedy when one can see the inevitable unfolding before one’s eyes!
Today has turned out to be one those busy but interesting days. Having collected our newspapers and drank our coffee in the park, we got into conversation with an Irish lady who was busy entertaining her two small children in the park (or rather putting away their buggies into her car). We told her tales of the Irish/Scottish landlady we had first experienced in Manchester. She ‘didn’t believe’ in baby sitters so gave the children aged about 5-6 a good 4″ of whisky in a glass to knock them out so they would sleep soundly all evening. The following morning, the children would have flaming red cheeks and would be wailing ‘Mummy – I have a headache” which of course the had, experiencing a horrendous hangover. Her husband, Seamus, drank a good eight of pints of beer a night and he explained to us that as his job was to undertake the electrical work upon cranes and they were obliged to crawl out to the end of the jib without any lines or safety harnesses, that he was so frightened that he only dare do it if he was still a little hungover from the night before (that was his story anyway). Then, as it happened, we bumped into our Irish friend and her husband who we will probably see at church tomorrow night and then her next door neighbour (a French lady – as her husband is of an artistic temperament, they have named their cat after Vincent Van Gogh). On the way home home, Meg were thinking to ourselves that in our little coterie we have an Irish couple, an Anglo-Indian couple, an Italian lady and a French lady. So altogether I suppose we form a little cosmopolitan ‘bubble’ contained with the Brexit-supporting majority which is the rest of Bromsgrove.
On Fridays, I often make a risotto with some kind of smoked fish (kippers or mackerel) rounded out with some softened onions, chicken stock, petit pois, yogurt and grated cheese. Our domestic help does not need much persuasion to help us to polish this off with a smidgeon of white wine but then we had a kind of logistics problem. I had previously picked up our domestic help whilst her own car was in for service today but now I needed to drop her back at her house, wait 5 minutes whilst she had a quick tooth clean and then whisk her off to the dentist by 3.00pm. As it happened, there were several reasons for me to visit the High Street in Bromsgrove this afternoon. Firstly, I needed to buy a new pair of rugby trousers from a men’s outfitters in Bromsgrove (the zip having given up the ghost on the previous pair rendering them useless) This was fine as they exactly my waist and inner leg size and then I went on hunt for a wreath (to replace the one that had recently met with an unfortunate accident) I had previously ordered a supply of Christmas cards from Oxfam but they have failed to arrive after several days so had to be chased with an exasperated email after 10 days and having banked my money. I decided to tour the charity shops to get a supply of Christmas cards so that I can start some addressing work over the weekend and managed to get the selection I wanted (some religious, some quasi-religious, some secular). I managed also to also obtain some ‘stocking filler’ presents whilst I was in the charity shops and finally topped up my supply of Vitamin D tablets (now recommended for all of us over a certain age – perhaps even available on prescription although it is more ethical to buy them directly and save the NHS some money).
Boris Johnson has said a no-deal outcome from Brexit trade talks is “looking very, very likely” ahead of Sunday’s deadline for a decision on the negotiations. Instead of using the term ‘no deal’ the Government have resorted to using the term ‘Australian’ deal (which is the same as a Turkmenistan deal – or no deal at all). For the purists, the deal Australia has with the EU even has some advantages for both which not be available to us if Britain accept ‘no deal’ and reverts to WTO terms. The thinking behind using the term ‘Australian’ deal is that it resonates much better with the public and has a positive glow to it (as in Aussie beer, cricket, rugby, and so on). Boris Johnson is increasing upbeat about the situation facing the country if we do crash out with ‘no deal’ , but this apparently upbeat public face does not square with the governments own Cabinet Office assessments of a 2% drop in GDP and a very severe jolt to the British economy as a whole. Many sheep farmers are in absolute despair and there is a well-founded prediction that a no-deal Brexit at the end of this year could lead to the premature slaughter of ‘millions of lambs’. We shall see!
Today was the day when I was due to have my annual eye-test. This has been organised for about a month now so I was quite pleased that the scheduled date eventually came around. Meg and I went to collect our newspapers and then we put our plan into action. This was to park ourselves, complete with newspapers in a local cafe which we did and whilst Meg was tucking into hot chocolate and a brownie I went off to see the optician I have been seen for years now. We spent a long time talking about rugby, of all things, before we got onto the eye-examination itself, proper. As things turned out, absolutely nothing has altered vision wise, during the last year which is always reassuring. The only bit of an eye examination I do not really like is when the optician examines the back of the eye with his special instrument – I am always fearful they are going to find something lurking there that indicates an abnormality (there wasn’t!) I can never get used to the ‘puff’ test either when the elasticity of the eyeball is tested by the puff air shot into the eyeball (and the elasticity is worked out by the velocity of the return air flow, so I understand) After I had my eye test, I went and gathered Meg from the upstairs room of the cafe and instead of going into the park we decided to go straight home and enjoy our elevenses in the comfort of our own home. This we did without stopping for a customary chat with anyone on the way home.
This afternoon, we decided to have a good old ‘tidy up’ of a table we have in our (largish!) kitchen that tends to accumulate the kinds of stuff that comes through the mail where you think 'I’ll have a look at that later‘ Anyway, it is certainly very satisfying to clear away a load of things you intended to file away or throw away at some stage but never quite get round it. Incidentally, when I was at work and accumulated a pile of ‘things to be done, but now now’ I did develop a technique that proved to be quite useful. I would take a pile and then turn it upside down.Then working from the new top of the pile downwards (i.e.from oldest to newest) you generally found you could junk a lot of stuff because the date for action had now passed or it wasn’t that important anyway. Halfway through the afternoon, two parcels arrived – on large and one small. The small parcel was one of some Christmas socks which I particularly needed for my Pilates class on Tuesday next (it is an annual tradition that it is obligatory to display one’s Christmas socks at this time of year). Two pairs had arrived but I only needed one pair so the other pair was donated to son/daughter-in-law to wear when they pay a flying visit to family next weekend.The largest parcel was my big supply of Christmas cards that eventually arrived from Oxfam – as I had bought an emergency supply of cards yesterday whilst I was on the road, I now have enough for two years (fortunately, Christmas cards do not bear a date so the excess will do for next year)
In the early evening, we went to church as we generally do on a Saturday evening. There were only about 28 of us (the limit being about 36) but the church was freezing cold so we were quite pleased when our weekly service was over. We had a brief chat with one of the regular parishioners to whom we have promised some damson gin as soon as it is bottled – and we also met with another parishioner who all being well is coming on the trip to Rome next September, all being well. As we have to make a telephone call to ‘book’ our places at the Saturday evening service, are names/addresses are checked in. One of our close friends was performing the checking in duty so I announced myself as Mr. B. L. Zebub but, extraordinary, I was still allowed in.
The Brexit saga continues tonight. Some talks are continuing through the night (is this a good sign or not?) Meanwhile, the British are preparing the navy ready to board French trawlers in the case of illegal fishing after January 1st, 2021 – so a hot war with France may be one of the first signs that Brexit has actually worked. Finally, an ex-security chief has indicated that in the absence of a deal ‘The British should be very worried‘ and as this observation comes from a non-politician, perhaps it should be taken very seriously.
Well, I have to admit that I woke up feeling a little tired this morning. I had got up reasonably early to make Meg and I an early morning cup of tea. Then I flew to Spain to represent GB in an international athletics competition and then flew home again. I donned a one-piece of athletics wear (called, I believe a ‘onesie’) in a shocking bright pink and then ran from my home to the Pilates studio when I chatted with my fellow course members about my activities of the night before. And then I woke up! Needless to say, all of my athletic ventures were part of a vivid dream which I had immediately after falling asleep again after I had brought my wife her early morning cup of tea. After these little adventures I had a quick wash and jumped into the car to get my supply of Sunday newspapers (which might be particularly insightful on the eve of a ‘no-deal’ showdown). We then watched the Andrew Marr show before walking down to the park. When we set off, it was absolutely raining cats and dogs so we even availed ourselves of an umbrella. We had determined that we would forget about attempt to sit down in view of the rain – but we would have our flask of coffee and then make for home. We made for the park bandstand which is our typical retreat when it is raining hard. When we got there we met an interesting trio. They were demonstrating a sort of adult tricycle (or a bike with two wide wheels at the rear if you like). The young men and his two female accomplices had chosen today to attract some visitors in order to demonstrate their appliance – needless to say, there was nobody around for miles around (apart from Meg and myself) After they half-heartedly pointed the major features of their bike (they were never going to make a sale aspires started at £1.000 and only went North of that) we chatted about this and that. One of the girls came from the British Virgin Islands (and the only thing that comes to mind there is ‘tax-haven’) whilst the others forebears came from East Africa (either Kenya or Uganda) I mentioned to her that Idi Amin, the Ugandan head of state, had thrown all of the Asians out of Uganda in the 1970’s and many entrepreneurial style Asians from Uganda, Malawi and Kenya made their way to England in general and Leicester in particular. (Leicester, to its shame, put out several adverts at the time saying ‘Do NOT come to Leicester‘) Our young friend had only a hazy idea of these events and thought that her grandfather may have mentioned Idi Amin. Anyway, I thought I would enlighten her about some of the interesting facts of past colonial history and how Churchill had granted Asians British passports as an inducement to move from Asia to East Africa to provide labour for the tea-plantations. We were asked how many years we had been married and when I mentioned 53 years (since 1967) and this provided me with the excuse of showing her our wedding photos where Meg was displaying her ‘Mary Quant’ style wedding dress. I hasten to add it was not a genuine Mary Quant – but Meg sketched out the designs and Meg’s mother, an excellent couturier, made it up. It was our chance to show the younger generation a bit of social history in any case.
The news came through late morning that the UK-EU trade deal talks were going to be extended – but we do not know for how long. The Observer this morning (not the Sunday Times!) was full of stories of how the leaders of manufacturing industry as well as ‘Tory grandees’ (Michael Heseltine but who else?) were getting seriously alarmed that with a ‘no-deal’ we might be throwing ourselves over a cliff – well a 6% diminution in our GDP on top of the COVID-10 induced damage. It does appear that none of the advantages promised for us by the ardent Brexiteers are showing any signs of appearance (after ‘the easiest deal in history’, ‘ an oven-ready deal’ and similar nonsenses)
After we had our Sunday lunch and a good read and then I started to update my Christmas card ‘database’ (actually a Word template) This is when the nightmare started! The print images showed several of the entries over-printing each other but this did not appear in the main file. So there were masses of inconsistencies that I tried to resolve but couldn’t. Anyway, I think I have run off 90% of the address labels that I need and then I need some hours (reconstructing? recreating?) the Word file so that next year it runs off easily as it should. The ironic thing is that last year, it ran off with no problems at all so what has happened in the meantime ? Perhaps amending some of the items threw things out of kilter, as they say.
Today started quite early – actually in the middle of the night. I had a wakeful period so I decided I would get up and do something useful. I thought I would apply myself to my Christmas card list problem (yesterday’s blog) and I thought of a solution.Basically, I made a copy of the original file (always a good idea in case you do irrevocable damage to the original) Then I put up two copies of the file side by side and basically cut and pasted from one file to another until I had two functionally working files. At least things are now OK for next year and I can always run off the entries from the later section as and when I need them. Tomorrow, I must concentrate on getting the overseas cards written and posted and I fear that time might already be running out as now there are 10 days to go.
After the rain and bluster of yesterday, it really was quite a pleasant walk into the park. We collected our newspapers as per usual and then, on our trip into the park, noticed a group of ‘oldies’ sitting around in their portable chairs and having a coffee and a natter.This was OK in itself except they were breaking the ‘only meet with 6’ rule as there about eight of them altogether. Hence we made our way homewards, not meeting anyone we know en route (not really surprising for mid December, I suppose). When we got home, I started the give the car its fortnightly wash – I knew that I would not managed to get it all done in time before lunch but I thought I could finish off the interior (quickly) after lunch. En route, Miggles our friendly cat made an appearance, accepted one or two strokes and then wandered off. As he/she doesn’t get fed (by us) first thing every morning, the visits to our garden are much more sporadic than we got used to.
After lunch, Meg had another video consultation with the hospital and this worked out much as we had anticipated. I finished off the car before activating the video link with about one minute to spare. This took a fair amount of the afternoon (at least whilst it was still light) after which I busied myself with a little urgent task. I have got used to buying rapeseed oil five litres at a time, produced and processed entirely by a small family firm. This then has to be poured into smaller bottles which are then easier to handle. We always encourage our domestic help to grab a spare bottle of this in the garage where it is kept (to keep in dark and cool). We tend to use this oil because it contains half the saturated fats of olive oil but a much hotter ‘frying’ point. So it gets used every morning when I prepare the omelette of red onions and cherry tomatoes which constitutes Meg’s cooked breakfast.
There are conflicting signals coming out of the Brussels talks to agree a trade deal. According the the British side, no significant movement has taken place in the talks where negotiators are trying to find a formula to ensure that if the UK uses its ‘sovereignty’ to lever an unfair commercial advantage, then automatically sanctions in the form of tariffs will apply to attempt to keep the playing field level. On the other hand earlier, an EU diplomat had told Sky News there ‘might now be a narrow path‘ to a Brexit trade deal ‘visible', but only ‘if negotiators can clear the remaining hurdles in the next few days‘. Having agreed to extend the deadline which should have been yesterday, there was even some speculation that the talking might continue right up to New Year’s Eve. I have the feeling myself that there may well be some sort of papering over the cracks that might appear in the next few days but before Christmas. Parliament is then going to have a special sitting (for one day?) to approve the deal and give legal force to the provisions contained in any agreement before 1st January, 2021.
As a footnote, today is the day when the College of Electors meets (in various state capitals) so that the 538 electors can formally translate the voting patterns in each state into the votes necessary to gain the presidency (270 votes is the magic number and Biden should have 306 i.e. well in advance of what he needs) Meanwhile, Donald Trump is refusing to concede and rushing through a series of executions from prisoners who have been a long time on death row. It has been the convention that outgoing presidents do not avail themselves of the facility to allow the executions to go ahead but Donald Trump has broken the traditions of the past 130 years.
Tuesdays are typically quite busy days and so it proved today. Having just got our supply of Christmas cards, we knew that one of the first priorities would be to get the overseas cards (to Spain) written and posted – and this would entail a visit to our local Post Office. We had five in total to post and had anticipated that Mondays would be murderous in the Post Office (as people would have written cards and packed parcels over the weekend) so always had in mind to get to the Post Office on Tuesday. To speed things up, we took the car and parked in our local Waitrose car park – as it turned out there were only about six people in the queue in the Post Office and so we were in and out quite quickly. What we did find was a shock, though, was the price of a first class stamp. These are 76p each and due to rise to 85p on 1st January- a 12% increase. No doubt the Post Office is trying to recoup some of the loss of revenues as fewer and fewer people are now sending Christmas cards these days. However, it was a relief to get out cards destined for Spain into the system (and beating the day recommended for posting) by one day. In the park, we happily drank our coffee and chatted gaily away with our Italian friend who was taking a turn in the park. Then we realised that we had precious little time left so we jumped into the car, gathered up my Pilates gear (we have to take our own mat these days for understandable reasons) and walked briskly down into town. I regaled my fellow class members of my (dream!) adventures last Monday morning where I had felt tired after flying to Spain and back and running down to Pilates in a on-piece shocking pink onesie. One of the other class members indicated I must be ‘somewhere’ on a scale! Having said, we had a jocular session as is normal and next week is the week when traditionally in our Pilates class, Santa comes to call with a supply of damson gin. We shall have to wait and see.
I had intended to spend what remained of the afternoon after we had our lunch (delayed by my Pilates venture) by starting to process our Christmas cards. In the event, I spent some manipulating my Christmas card labels program so that I could write a bit of family news onto an address label and then have this duplicated several times so the I am not writing the same thing on card after card. I know that some people from whom we receive cards must do this but I wonder at their patience.
Now that Joe Biden has been ‘formally’ elected president by the US Electoral College, he has come out fighting with a scathing attack upon soon to be ex-President Trump. It is interesting to note that eventually, the leader of the Republicans in Congress has congratulated Joe Biden upon his win but only after congratulations had come winging their way from both Russia and China. One thing that is seriously worrying those who follow politics seriously in the USA is the fact that so many Republicans have still failed to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the presidential election quite legitimately. Some senior Republicans have now recognised and even congratulated president-elect Joe Biden but the sizeable number of Republicans who have not is helping the view to gain credence in a sizeable minority of the American electorate that Joe Biden is not their legitimate president. As I write this, the White House is still refusing to acknowledge the fact of Trump’s defeat.
Tomorrow is the date when the revisions to the Tier levels will be published. But what has caused a greater shock is the fact that the whole of London has moved into Tier 3 and this has proved a profound psychological shock to many Londoners, as well as a threat to many businesses. There is a massive breach building up between the world view of the scientific community who by and large want to see Christmas effectively cancelled or massively curtailed and the political class who recoil from the notion of effectively cancelling Christmas. As I write, Esther Rantzen is on Channel 4 News arguing that Christmas should effectively be moved to the summer solstice (June 21st rather than December 21st) and that three-year-olds should be discouraged from ‘hugging’ (and hence ‘killing’) granny for Christmas. The mantra from government used to be that they ‘follow the science’ but that is not being heard at all these days. Whilst there is quite a fierce debate going on between various columnists, it is interesting that the older generation (of which I am one) is generally holding to the view that having come this far, surely we can go on for a few more weeks of semi-lockdown!
The day started off in a dark and gloomy way and did not improve practically all day. We are always a little delayed on a Wednesday because there were various cosmetic things that we decided to renew via the internet and then there is our weekly Waitrose order to update. This has to be done by 12 midday before our delivery slot tomorrow morning (between 8am-9am). We had intended to walk as usual to the park but it was raising so intensely we decided to ‘chicken out’ and go down to collect our newspapers in the car.Then we parked in the Sanders Park car park and made straight for the bandstand where we enjoyed our coffee in a vertical (i.e. standing) position rather than sitting on a soggy, rain-strewn bench. Then we made straight for home where we treated ourselves to some hot chocolate – we had got a little bit soggy but not drenched through which could have been the case.
When we moved into this house some 13 years go, the first thing I did practically was to use a firm which supplied us with address labels (Able-Label – they have been going for years) We ordered 1,000 labels but we are reaching the stage when they may soon be exhausted. About this time of year, I always use a supply of labels to stick inside my Christmas cards in case the recipient has lost my details and they know who the card is from. A friend of ours with whom we have a regular lunch date when we can had sent me a Christmas card but I realised that I didn’t have an address to send a return card. A few messages later on, we had got some address details to ‘stitch’ into our computer file and we promised each other to meet as soon as we could after the lockdown for another meal where we can catch up on what’s happening in each other’s lives. Anyway, I marshalled together all of the remaining labels that I had and worked out the I probably had just about sufficient for this Christmas cards so I ordered a new supply for when this runs out. The ‘old-fashioned’ way of doing this was, of course, to fill in the details carefully on one of their forms and despatch a cheque to cover the cost. But times have now changed – everything is composed in the firm’s web page and then it is paid for via Paypal (in my case). I took the opportunity to ‘squeeze’ the telephone number line so that I could get my mobile number also added to the address. However, whilst I was at it, I realised that the standard address label (name, address, postcode, telephone number which takes up six lines maximum needs to be supplemented for today’s communication needs. So I decided to order a new set of additional labels which now details my mobile, email address, (no FaceTime details as it happens), my personal website, the WordPress blog address and finally a text version of this blog I keep on another server in case the first goes down completely and all is lost. This new set of labels should prove quite useful if I know I am handing over details to friends and acquaintances who are computer literate so they can access these other information sources if the spirit moves them. Most of the afternoon was actually taken up with getting the labels ‘on screen’ line up as they ought with the sticky labels that are fed into the printer. I needed to print out several ‘trial’ sheets and then match up by eye to ensure the onscreen-entry actually matched up with the label that was to be printed. If you did it any other way, you would run the risk of wasting many sheets of the labels which are quite precious. Earlier in the day, I had ordered a new supply of computer labels ready fo the next time.
In the late afternoon, we had a FaceTime chat with some of our ex-Waitrose friends. We tend to chat about once a week, normally on a Tuesday, but we missed last night for a variety of reasons. Our friend’s daughter had just moved house and it all seemed to have been a somewhat nightmarish experience (some items damaged, demanding payment at overtime rates after a certain time and so on) Moving house can be stressful at the best of times, so we sympathised. When we moved into our present house, the removal men got to the house before we did, got let in by the cleaner who we had inherited and proceeded to deposit boxes willy nilly all over the place – even though we had got them labelled, it still takes the actual owners to know what goes where. I seem to remember the day after we moved in, we went to a hardware store to acquire a trolley so that we could move boxes (mainly of books!) to their intended resting place.
Yesterday was a foul day, weatherwise, with constant rain and a blustery wind that made us retreat to the car to collect our newspapers and curtail our visit to the park. Today could not have been more different as there was a beautiful clear sky and no wind to speak of. So we had a very pleasant trip down into town but this was not to last and the it started to cloud over as we walked home. After we had collected our papers, we made a lighting visit to Waitrose to buy a quick ‘surprise’ (stocking-filler) Christmas present for someone who shall be nameless!. We said ‘Hello’ to some of our friends who were all visored up and then a longer chat with other groups of friends who were busy in, and enjoying, their grandparent duties. When we saw both sets of friends we told them that we had a ‘cunning plan’ i.e. if the weather is beautiful and fine next Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday we will whip some mince pies out of the rucksack together with some sherry and paper cups and have an impromptu little Christmas party outside in the street (or even a front garden) No doubt, Sod’s law might apply in the run-up to Christmas but as I read the weather forecast for the forthcoming week (Christmas Day being on the Friday) we may just strike lucky.
This afternoon, I have been engaged in ‘doing’ the Christmas card. In theory, this is quite a simple process as I all I have to do is to write a similar message into each card (wishing that we all had a better 2021 than 2020) Then I stick inside an address label, further contact details and finally some information about Meg’s medical condition to keep people up to speed. Finally, people get ticked off a list. This all takes the best of 5 minutes per card and I estimate that I am about 70% of the way through the process at the moment.
One of Meg’s cousins together with her husband had relocated to Paris and, following that, to Seattle In the United States. Today, though, we got a Christmas card from their Cheltenham address so I have sent off a quick text message expressing the hope that we might be able to meet (in a park!) in Cheltenham and catch top on a lot of news as well as enjoying a proverbial mince more and sherry that we will drink out of paper cups (We have to have these dreams/fantasies to keep us going by the way)
The result of the Tier ‘adjustments’ has been published today and the direction of traffic has all been one way i.e. a lot of the South East has put into a Tier 3 ‘semi-lockdown’ much to their disgust. After Tier 3 had been visited so much upon the industrial North and Midlands, perhaps there is a certain poetic justice after all. The news is reporting that some 38 million people are now in Tier 3 – twelve areas had moved up from Tier 2 to Tier 3 and only one had moved down. The government privately is now quite worried as the level of infection has increased by 50% over the last week and there is a sickening realisation in government that there will be some kind of crisis in late January/February when the ‘normal’ winter-related pathologies hit their height. The COVID cases are continuing to surge and hospitals are coming under increasing pressure. I think that this time (i.e. in the second wave) there is a growing realisation that accommodating COVID patients means that routine tests and investigations eg. for cancer is going to be postponed or at least delayed. As cancers keep on growing inside patients COVID-19 crisis or not, then delays in diagnosis and treatment will mean more cases and probably deaths further down the road. The NHS chiefs are all too well aware of this and it means that whatever advances we might have made as a society in early diagnosis and then prompt treatment of cancer is being set back, perhaps by years.
Our daughter-in-law has finished at school today and I wonder to myself how many other professions apart from teaching will be ‘winding down. in the few days before Christmas. Of course, practically every family in the land will be having to work out how much (or much little) contact to have with parents and grandparents over the festive season, particularly as many people have not seen their extended family for months now. The experience of the USA (where there was a large ‘spike’ in COVID-19 cases after American families were reunited for Thanksgiving) must be giving many people pause for thought. And Esther Ranzen said the other day ‘Don’t kill your granny for Christmas’ which might sound over-dramatic but is certainly within the realms of possibility. One can only imagine how a child might feel if it could be demonstrated that they had contributed to the death of a beloved grandparent. In the meanwhile, the Education Secretary is suggesting only a ‘phased’ return to school after the Christmas vacation which must be an indication of the degree of concern of the government.
When we set off for our walk today, the weather seemed somewhat blustery and with a little bit of rain threatening, but nothing we thought to trouble us unduly. So we picked up our newspapers and headed for the park and that is when the heavens opened.We decided that discretion was the better part of valour and thought we would head towards the bandstand. It was at this point, we discovered to our dismay that we had left our (exceedingly precious) little portable folding stool somewhere. When we got to the newsagents, fortunately a public-spirited gentleman had found our stool leaning against the window and had handed it to the shopkeeper who promptly returned it to us. The rain shower was really intensifying at this point so we trudged back to the park, drank our coffee and made our weary route home, squelching with every step. Needless to say, we had to rip off several layers of our clothing the minute we got inside the house to get ourselves dried out.
I have been feeling pretty tired this morning but with the remainder of the Christmas cards to be processed, when I woke up in the middle of the night I decided to attack the remaining pile.To cut a long story short, I stayed up for several hours to get the rest of the cards done (about 45 in total, leaving aside about a dozen for our immediate neighbours and friends which will get hand delivered) The bulk of the cards I took to the post office (now housed in W H Smiths!) to ensure they got posted – somehow I dod not trust the traditional red letter boxes which are often full to overflowing at this time of the year. So having got home and dried out, I set about preparing the risotto which I typically cook on a Friday. This was absolutely thrown together in a hurry but was still enjoyed by Meg and myself (as well as our domestic help who is quite partial to a bit of my risotto and has even copied the recipe herself).
The COVID news tonight does not bring any good news – quite the reverse. The ‘R’ rate now stands at about 1.1-1.2 and the rate seems to be on the increase in the South of England. About two-thirds of the population are now living under Tier 3 conditions and there is quite a lot of concern about what may happen over the festive period. Whilst some parts of the population will evidently try and maintain the spirit of the existing semi-lockdown conditions, others will no doubt go a bit wild after months of restrictions. The Americans found that they had quite a spike after their Thanksgiving celebrations and some medical scientists fear that after the festivities, we will see a similar spike in just about a month’s time, coinciding with the period when the winter pressures on the NHS are at their worst. Some hospitals are already near to their capacity already and we have to remind ourselves that we are ‘only’ in mid-December and not mid-January or February.
We have one week left before the Christmas festivities start in earnest. We are going to have a family ‘Christmas meal’ next Monday, no doubt being a little socially distanced from each other. Some of the official advice seems to indicate that one should make every effort to allow any potential virus to disperse e.g. by having good ventilation and all of the doors and windows open. How far we go down this road remains to be seen -for example if two people not in the same ‘bubble’ are travelling in a car then the passenger should be on the opposite side of the car to the driver on the back seat with the windows open.
I sort of look forward to Christmas but only in the sense that once one gets past December 21st, then the shortest day has passed and we can expect it to be getting lighter by about 1 minute or so a day. Christmas occasionally has some good films on offer – for example last night we saw Hardy’s ‘Far from the Madding Crowd‘ which Meg studied for ‘A’-level. It was a version we had seen before but well worth watching again with superb cinematography. Meg and I look forward to an opera being broadcast but there is generally only about one in the whole of the Christmas period and sometimes not even that. On the other hand, Radio 4 often broadcasts some excellent archive material which is well worth a listen.
Today seemed full of promise and we woke up to a bright blue sky and a modicum of pale sunshine.We walked down into town and as we went, we hand-delivered our Christmas cards to immediate friends and neighbours (about a dozen in total). We then picked up our newspapers (helpfully, kept in reserve for us behind the counter, which helpful when there are a lot of supplements). On the way down, we bumped into one of our ‘park’ friends for whom I had been looking out as I had been carrying round a Christmas card for her for days. Anyway we coincided and she gave us news of an impending eye operation that she was to have in the New Year – we hope that it doesn’t impede her on her mobility scooter upon which she whizzes around at great speed leaving us in the shade.
One of our most pleasant surprises was a Christmas card from our ex near-neighbours in Hampshire. We remember their children particularly well for when they were aged about eight and five they came round to introduce themselves to us. As their own grandparents lived some way away (in Devon) we became sort of ‘local’ grandparents to them and they used to pop in most days for a chat about this and that. Anyway, they are both now well grown up and have both acquired First Class Honours in their respective universities. As they were both working from home (and living at home) we wondered if we might organise a kind of video chat between the six of us so we can catch up on each other’s news (we have been in Bromsgrove for thirteen years now and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge)
Late on this afternoon, we were treated to the sight of Boris making a special announcement at 4pm. This was heavily trailed and as it turned out, we had the most sombre looking prime Minister announcing a new Tier (Tier 4) that was going to apply to London and much of the South East, as well as Portsmouth, much of Essex and Peterborough. Moreover,Christmas has been effectively cancelled as the previously announced ‘Christmas bubble‘ which had been scheduled for about five days had now been reduced on one i.e. Christmas Day itself. What has spooked the government particularly is that a variant of the COVID-19 virus is spreading much more rapidly than the original virus and according to some estimates could be up to 70% more transmissible than the original strain of the disease. So all of London and much of the South East is now subject to, in effect, an almost complete lockdown. Every one is encouraged to work from home where possible. It means people in a swathe of the south-east and east England and London will not be able to mix with other households at all over Christmas. A stay-at-home message will be enshrined in law, and non-essential shops, as well as indoor leisure and entertainment venues, will close. Across the rest of the country, plans for five-day Christmas bubbles of up to three households have been dramatically scaled back. The rules will now only cover Christmas day in England, with Johnson urging all gatherings to be kept short and small.
As one might expect, these new restrictions have produced a massive backlash from the right wing of the Conservative party. They were already deeply unhappy about the size of the areas to be placed in Tier 3 and now these are in Tier 4. One argument being heard is that as Parliament originally approved all the Christmas arrangements in a parliamentary vote, only Parliament can approve the new arrangements in a new vote. However, the restrictions come into force at midnight tonight and a recall of Parliament might take several days, so this is probably a forlorn hope. But Parliament probably needs to be recalled if there is going to be legislation to push through a new (but as yet, not forthcoming) new trade agreement with the EU. It does look as Boris Johnson’s claim to fame night be ‘The Prime Minister who cancelled Christmas‘ To my mind, three interesting questions arise from today’s statement. Firstly, I have to say that the government has acted correctly and there was probably no alternative given the extremely rapid transmission of the new variant of COVID-19. A second question, though, is how many people will obey and how many will openly flout the government (incidentally not just putting themselves at risk but potentially the rest of the country) And finally, will the mood of the Tory MP’s be such that they actually want to ditch Boris? Incidentally, I think that this plays into the hands of Boris Johnson walking away without a deal with the EU as it might just save his skin with the rest off the Tory party. What a mess the country will be in within a fortnight if we have a no-deal Brexit, a massive economic crisis and a raging out-of-control pandemic!
We rather overslept this morning – or rather woke up at the normal time and then promptly went back to sleep again. Consequently, I had to rather race to throw my clothes on after a cat-lick wash in order to get the newspapers before our weekly dose of the Andrew Marr show. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary was interviewed about the latest lockdown measures and he appeared to be showing the strain of the last few months, weeks and days. He did announce that he got up at 5.00am this morning and was defending the government line that they were only informed about the transmittability of the new variant COVID-19 on Friday afternoon. But in a question of ‘Who knew what? When?’ there is a certain degree of dissimulation going on. It was pretty evident to many observers that London and the South East were experiencing rates of virus increase before the data about the transmutability of the COVID-19 was drawn to their attention, so as we have to come to expect by now it does look as the government was again ‘behind’ the curve rather than ‘ahead’ of it.
In the late morning, I started to prepare some of the bottles into which I am going to decant the damson gin which is ripe for bottling now, having been made over three months ago. Most of the bottles had already been cleaned up i.e. removed of labels but some had still be processed. I always remove all of the old labels and especially the glue that is often left behind. Some labels remove easily after a soaking in hot water whereas others are more problematic. The worst cases have to have my special treatment which is a dribble of boiling water to soften the glue, a bit of cream cleaner and some wire wool and then a lot of scrubbing – repeated several times. Then the bottles have to be sterilised – fortunately, this is quite easy using Boots sterilising fluid (used for babies bottles) and the bottle has to be filled with this diluted fluid for at least half an hour. Some of these preparations done, I then carried on to get our Sunday lunch (rather a light one this week as the family are having their Christmas meal tomorrow). Then I had a bit of a doze and a swift purview of the Sunday newspapers.
After lunch, the damson gin bottling started in earnest – although I do this every year, I still have to remind myself of the techniques I use. This year, everything worked quite smoothly. I used to some brand new dishcloths folded into about four to provide a good filtration medium. Then the liquor content of each Kilner jar has to be strained through the cloth into a wide-necked pyrex jar (this is the tricky part because you have to hold the straining jar on the one hand whilst pouring the Kilner jar with the other) One Kilner jar fills about 4-5 little 250cc bottles. The final real trick is to add the minutest quantity of concentrated almond oil essence into the top of each bottle but you only have to insert one or two drops no more into each bottle. Then the labels have to be prepared and I always have a few leftover from the year before but never quite enough so that is a quick trip into W H Smiths in the morning (I have a design I like to keep from one year to the next) I need about 4 bottles for friends down the road and five bottles for the Pilates class on Tuesday. The last-minute job tomorrow morning is to give them a quick wrap in Christmas paper ready for distribution – of leaving on the doorstep for those who are out.
The implications of the COVID-19 variant are still being assessed. and in some cases acted upon. The Health Secretary has admitted that the virus is ‘out of control’ in London and Southeast England. Many other European nations are rapidly putting bans of flight to and from the UK. Our screens showed some terrible scenes of train terminals jam-packed with people late on Saturday night as they ignored government advice and tried desperately to get out of the capital before the lockdown started at 12.00 midnight. As on commentator on the Andrew Marr show commented, these crowds of people, some of whom are probably incubating the virus, will be doing their bit to spread the virus right across the country. Another really worrying statistic is that some of the modelling suggests that the ‘R’ factor of the new strain might be 0.9 ‘extra’ to the underlying rate. As London had an R of about 1.1 then another 0.9 on top indicates why the government had to act, Christmas notwithstanding, to save the nation from a complete disaster.
Today is a day to which I have been looking forward for a long time! That is because it is the longest night/shortest day and after today, I can tell myself that it is getting lighter by about a minute a day during January. This might not seem much but I must say that as the years roll by, I do appreciate the fact that the days are lengthening, even if ever so slightly and we have the spring to which to look forward. Today was going to be of a ‘special day’ for reasons that I shall explain later so we decided to take the car into town and were fortunate indeed to get a car parking space. The combination of a wet Monday, Christmas only a few days away and the fact that the local authority has suspended normal car-parking charges (in an attempt to stimulate trade?) meant that that the car park was under severe pressure and we were fortunate to get a space. Having collected our newspapers, we made our way along the High Street because it was one of those (rare) occasions when we needed to access an ATM to get some money out. Then the main purpose of our journey which was to visit the stationers to get a supply of the stick-on labels I particularly like in order to label my bottles of damson gin. As it happened they had a supply of the labels I like in stock and so I bought five packets of the same which ought to keep me going for this year and next. These labels carry the appellation ‘Chateau Le Cerf‘ and then Bromsgrove, 2020.
Then it was time to start preparing the communal Christmas meal we were going to share with our son and daughter-in-law. The younger generation had generously supplied a magnificent leg of beef whilst my role was to prepare the vegetables. As I have the reputation of providing myself too many vegetables for the Christmas meal, I confined myself to roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, peas, and broccoli. We treated ourselves as a pre-dinner drink to a Waitrose special gin which we might have bought for ourselves last year and somehow never got round to consuming. This was then followed by a rather nice Rioja so all in all we had a magnificent meal. Afterwards, we were treated to some absolutely stupendous ice-cream. Our daughter-in-law had been loaned an ice-cream maker because the whole contraption seemed a little difficult to put together. Nonetheless, we succeeded in getting it working and the overall results were a marvellous way to end the Christmas meal.
In the late afternoon, we ‘Zoomed‘ one of our Hampshire friends who actually lives in Oxfordshire but the postcode might just be Reading. Anyway, we were amazed to discover that our friend had suddenly found herself catapulted from Tier 2 to Tier 4 and this had made all kinds of re-arrangements necessary to make sure that the Christmas meal fell within the correct ‘boundaries’. As it happened we had both picked our damsons at approximately the same time (first week in September) and I had a prodigious quantity of fully ripe damsons this year (9.5 kilos which was approximately ten times as much as last year). So I finished up making about 16 litres of damson gin altogether this year. Now came the time for bottling and I bottled just sufficient for my Pilates class members and one or two friends down the road. This evening, I labelled up the bottles I had prepared and wrapped them in Christmas paper – a particularly fiddly job I have to say. But now all I have to do is to write a few Christmas cards and hunt out my Santa Claus outfit for my class tomorrow. However, everything has to be done in a ‘socially distanced’ way and I shall have to think hard about the logistics of tomorrow. Of course, Santa won’t get his customary Christmas kiss and hug which is one of the perks of the role at this time of year. (Incidentally, one of my ex-colleagues often wondered why the Santa Clauses whose knee he sat upon every year as a child had nicotine-stained fingers and habitually smelt of gin) One of the sights that I remember from the 1970s was the occasion when all of the Santa Clauses in the department stores along Oxford Street came out on strike and paraded in a long line, complete with placards, the length of Oxford Street.
The new strain of COVID-19 which appears highly infectious has caused countries all across Europe to close their borders to the UK. The resultant queues outside Dover are a foretaste of what may well happen when a Brexit ‘no deal’ occurs – there are already predictions of shortages of salad crops within days. In addition, Government scientific advisers have argued that a new national lockdown is urgently needed and have warned that inaction could cost tens of thousands of lives and risk an ‘economic, human and social disaster‘, with the new strain spreading across the UK and overseas. But on the brighter side, there are hints that a deal on fishing might now be on the cards…
We knew there was quite a lot to get done today and we were particularly pleased to see our domestic help come and give us one quick ‘burst’ just before Christmas. Before we undertook our journey, we were having a conversation in the kitchen about the possibilities of Yogic Flying. I promised to do some investigation and saw some instances of
Yogic Flying on the net. As illustrated in the ‘YouTube’ videos which I viewed, Yogic Flying consists of sitting cross-legged and then basically launching along the ground in a series of bunny hop type moves. I am sure it is excellent for your pelvic floor muscles which is how I think the conversation arose in the first place. Meg and I collected our papers and bumped into one of our friends who informed us that he and his wife had just tested negative for COVID-19 – because we were in a bit of hurry we didn’t get the full story why they needed to have a test in the first place. The park was teeming today (no children in school, quite a fine day, dogs to be exercised) but we managed to locate one empty park bench that was fortunately dry. We knew that time was pressing but even so on the way back home we saw an ambulance draw up next to the neighbour of one our friends. We knew that the gentleman involved had had a stroke a few months previously and had just spent another spell in hospital so we just hoped for the best, also chatting with other of our friends about what may have been happening to his neighbour.
When I got home, I had a fly around to get ready for my Pilates class. Today I was going to play Santa Claus (a tradition going back for a few years now) but this was having to be organised in a completely different way owing to the COVID-19 crisis. I resolved to organise the logistics like this. Firstly, I pulled my red Santa Claus trousers underneath my normal ‘tracksuit bottom’. Similarly I donned a ‘Santa Claus’ red shirt and then wore my normal shirt over it. Then I had to transport by Santa Claus outer jacket + hat, five bottles damson gin and all of the accompanying Christmas cards which had to be rapidly written. I took down my Santa Claus ‘Ho, Ho, Ho‘ sack together with my Pilates gear within it by car when I parked on the Waitrose carpark and then walked along to my class. Cards were distributed each to another inside the class by people throwing them in their neighbour’s vicinity. Then we had our ‘normal’ Pilates class, a highlight of which is the 3-5 minutes at the end of our session where our tutor encourages some deep relaxation. Whilst my fellow classmates were deep into their relaxation (and presumably had their eyes shut) I busied myself in my corner off the room divesting myself of my track-suit bottom and shirt to reveal my Santa Claus gear underneath. All I now needed to do now was to pull on my Santa Claus outer robe, don my hat (and mask) and lie down for the remaining few seconds of the relaxation session. When they came round they observed ‘Santa Claus. in the far corner of the room, who then pranced round, distributing to each (and to the reception staff) their bottles of damson gin. The only problem on this occasion was that Santa only had to remember three words of which the first was ‘Ho’ but unfortunately, he kept forgetting the second and third words of his greeting. There was an almost universal feeling in the class that a full lockdown or something very similar was on the cards and therefore we might not be in a ‘live’ class together until Easter (although the ‘Zoom’ option is open for all of us)
Approximately 4,000 lorries are still waiting to get through the ports to get to Continental Europe. The French have suggested a solution which is to offer immediate transit for any lorry driver with a negative COVID-19 test – but the difficulty here is that the ‘gold standard’ test takes about 2-3 days for the results to be processed whereas the ‘lateral-flow’ test will give a result in 15-20 minutes but is regarded as less reliable. How this is to be resolved is not clear at this stage – there are some black rumours that the French are trying to indicate to the British what will happen with a ‘no deal’ Brexit. In the meanwhile, there are signs that a deal might be possible, although fisheries remains a great problem for both sides. There are suggestions that the talks might extend beyond the 1st January but No. 10 has firmly rebuffed any suggestions that this in the cards.
The latest COVID-19 figures are really frightful with 36,800 new infections in a day and nearly 700 deaths. Thee figures are as bad the country has yet experienced and there is a feeling that the worst is yet to come. It seems to be a racing certainty that more severe restrictions will be applied once we have Christmas out of the way. The Home Secretary (Priti Patel) was hinting that the country should get used to more severe lockdown conditions from the New Year onwards – but other commentators are indicating that once we get Boxing Day out of the way then the government may act immediately. What seems particularly worrying is the more infectious variant of COVID-19 seems to have ‘escaped’ London and the South East and is now represented in all parts of the country.
Today, the weather was terrible all day long with wind and squally showers which only intensified as the day progresses. However, paradoxically, we did not mind too much because as we had some Christmas presents to deliver, we had determined that we were going to take the car in any case. Our first port of call was, as usual, our newspaper shop and here I handed over a couple of bottles of our own recently bottled damson gin. I’m not sure if they have any alcoholic prohibitions in whichever faith they were raised but I am sure that there are some members of the family or friends who might appreciate the same. As it was raining heavily at the time, we rather had to dash in and not linger over Christmas pleasantries but this was the first of our missions successfully accomplished. The next venture was into our local Waitrose – we geared that we were going to be faced with a car-park full to overflowing and with a long queue to even get into the store. But fortune smiled favourably upon us because we found a parking space almost immediately and the store was not over-crowded. As I was the second customer along when the store opened two and a half years ago (on my birthday, as it happened) we have always had a special relationship with the staff of Waitrose who have often given little gifts of soon-to-be abandoned flowers or food. We have a tradition which goes back for two years now of buying the biggest box(es) of chocolates we can find and then donating them to the Waitrose staff restroom. We have a miniature easel upon which we place a favourite photo of Meg and myself (so that people know who is making them the present) and a few words of appreciation updated year by year. This worked like a dream this year because the minute we entered the store, we encountered one of our favourite members of staff who had helped us in this venture before. She helped us choose the chocolates, took payment for them at the till and then whisked them off to the staff restroom. I think that in the past, they have assembled a few staff in front of this little display and then posted it to their own online staff bulletin so I hope that the same applies this year. We were also the happy recipients of the news that the Waitrose store coffee bar may be reopening in January/February. As this was such an important social hub for ourselves and for many others, naturally we hope that this will come to pass as they say. When we got home, we treated ourselves to the coffee we would have had in the park if we had ventured that far today and treated ourselves to a (probably) calorie-bursting mince pie.
The weather forecast for tomorrow, Christmas Eve, is scheduled to be cold but dry, bright and sunny. If this proves to be the case when we wake up tomorrow, then we are going to fill our rucksack with some mince pies, a bottle of sherry and some paper cups and knock on the doors of some of our friends down the road. Then we may be able to have a series of impromptu but socially distanced Christmas ‘get-togethers’ which can take the place of that which we had intended to provide in our own house if COVID-19 had not intervened.
This afternoon, we treated ourself to watching the classic black and white film of Casablanca -although Meg and I had seen it several times before, I was still surprised by the twists and turns in the plot. Shot in black and white certainly added to the intensity of the drama and the emotions and forgetting exactly how it ended only added to our enjoyment.
The fairly dramatic news this afternoon was the announcement that yet another strain of COVID-19 had surfaced, with its probable origins in South Africa. Only two cases had so far appeared in the UK but the infectivity of this latest strain even exceeds that of the first variant. So the government has acted with a certain degree of speed and added several more areas to Tier 4, hoping to squash the latest variant. The government has said that emergence of a second variant of the virus is ‘highly concerning’ and, for this reason, millions more have been added to the existing Tier 4 in London and the South East. The new areas include Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Hampshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. Soon when most of the country is classified as Tier 4 then the whole concept of Tiers will break down and we might as well have one national lockdown. I think it is a fairly certain bet that we will be going into a full lockdown quite early on in the New Year in any case.
Finally, some sort of good news. It does appear that the EU and UK are edging towards a trade deal, perhaps to be settled sometime tomorrow. We are not quite there yet, but the indications coming from both sides is that many differences have been narrowed and negotiated and only a few more sticking points have got to be negotiated before a formal announcement tomorrow.
We knew from the weather forecasts that today ought to have been cold, bright and clear – and so it turned out to be. In anticipation that some of our friends might not be otherwise occupied this Christmas Eve morning, we loaded up various bags with a supply of mince pies, oloroso sherry and some paper cups, and supplies (presents actually) of damson gin. We dropped a bottle of damson gin at some acquaintances round the corner and then knocked on the door of ‘close friends No. 1’ As it happened, they were both in so we made a present of the damson gin and then we arranged an impromptu party in the garage which was airy and windy whilst we could be socially distanced from each other. Then we really got dug into our mince pies and sherry-in-a-paper cup contemplating what a very strange year it had been and how we had had to make adaptations to our normal routines. Then another couple turned up to visit our mutual friends so we invited them to join the party so there we were at our maximum six. As it turned out, we shall see them in church tomorrow morning when we get there at 8.30 in the morning. Then having taken our leave of ‘close friends No. 1’ we knocked on the door of ‘close friend No. 2’ and fortunately they were in as well. Our friends put a little table in their porch so we had somewhere to place our comestibles so we repeated our little Christmas party experience all over again. Our friends just happened to have some of their own home-made damson gin as well as some that their daughter had donated to them (which was actually about two years old) So we seized the opportunity to taste and compare all three of the gins – and I was relieved to say that ours compared very favourably with the other two. By now, full of gin, sherry and mince pies we thought we had better stagger our way to the newsagents. As they had been the recipients of some of my gin the day before, we were favoured by a Christmas and some chocolate treats which we thought we would preserve until we got home. Then we got home very late but just before our son and daughter-in-law were going off to the hotel (French cuisine, very sophisticated) which they had managed to get booked into a few days ago. Fortunately, I had put a ham on my previous Waitrose order and we had acquired some ready-to-heat red cabbage so we managed to rustle up a meal in two shakes of a lamb’s tail as they say. In contemplation of the morning’s events, we have to say that this was of the most impromptu but engaging series of encounters we have ever had!
In the afternoon, I realised that we needed to put our little crib in place and a few tinselly things that we scatter around pictures and the like (the tinsel I got into place in 11 minutes flat this year). Over the years, I have come to the view that the fewer bits of decorations we put around the house, the sooner they can put away on twelfth night – or whenever the deadline approaches when the Christmas tree is due for recycling at the local garden centre. But the major focus of this afternoon was catching up on the news of the trade deal that had eventually been struck with the EU.
The whole of this ‘just managing to get a deal done by Christmas Eve’ was actually tremendously stage-managed. I think it was fairly obvious that Boris Johnson was always going to a deal, or be close to a deal, the day before Christmas Eve. This way, all of the newspapers could say ‘A deal is imminent’ but nothing had been published yet which could be criticised. Some of the newspapers even participated in this ‘deception’ one of them obliging (almost at the suggestion of No. 10) with a cartoon of Boris Johnson dressed up as Santa Claus, pushing ‘goodies’ in the form of a ‘done deal’ down a chimney, making sure that there were lots of union jacks (what else?) Of course, being an ex-journalist, Boris would have known that there would no newspapers published on Christmas Day and by the time any more newspapers did appear (on Boxing Day) people would have lots of other things on their mind (such as Tier 4 classifications) which would distract them from any criticisms of the deal. Although the (subservient) UK press will hail the deal as a ‘triumph’ for Boris Johnson, in the cold light of day it will emerge that the UK has made quite a lot of concessions because we never had a very strong hand to play. Eventually, when it is too late, we will get the full-bloodied analysis of what has been agreed in our name. If we haven’t left the EU, we could have claimed a large share of the 750 billion euro fund that the EU is putting together to cope with the effects of the pandemic. Enough said!
Well, Christmas Day has arrived at last. I imagine that for many families around the country, Christmas Day in 2020 is to be enjoyed for itself but then got over with as quickly as possible. Bereft of family members, Christmas Day will seem a very strange experience for many families and some couples will be spending time along with their spouses for the first time in years – or ever. For Meg and I this is is not a particularly strange experience as we have spent quite a few Christmasses in each other’s sole company but we can imagine that it is a source of some heartache for many families. Knowing that we had to make a fairly early start this morning to get to church at 8.30 we did not want to oversleep and so so employed an additional alarm to make sure that we did not just turn over at 6.30 and go back to sleep. As the night had been particularly cold and we had several degrees of frost, we decided to line our stomachs with a good bowl of porridge before we set off for church at about 8.00am. The porridge strategy turned out to be a useful one as the church’s heating system has been out of commission for some weeks and this, coupled with an absence of hot bodies to warm it up over the weeks, meant that attending church was a pretty chilling experience. Of course, hymns are not allowed but we did hear Berlioz’s ‘A Shepherds lament’ which is a particular favourite of mine. On the way out of church, I did manage to smuggle a bottle of damson gin ready for the priest’s ultimate enjoyment – I am going to remind him when we next meet face-to-face that I hope it doesn’t get it mixed up with communion wine (although I think, in an emergency such as a POW camp priest is allowed to used anything of alcoholic content to act as a substitute). For Christmas dinner, Meg and I know what we like and we generally avoid turkey preferring to have some good topside of beef with a good bottle of Rioja to wash it down.
Christmas present opening time is always a source of pleasure and if we do it one present at a time it fills out most of the morning. I acquired four books which I know will keep me occupied for weeks – and was made a present of a fifth which was ‘All New Dad jokes’ which Meg has commandeered for most of the day. But fair exchange is no robbery because I have similarly requisitioned some classical music CD’s which I bought for Meg as a ‘stocking filler’. Actually, when I was in town a couple of weeks I happened to see in one of the charity shops that they were selling 5 classical CD’s for £1.00 (evidently, 20p each!) One of these proved to be absolutely superb. It was the classic recording of the three tenors (Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti) in that concert recorded live at the Caracalla Baths in Rome in 1990 on the occasion of the World Cup held in Italy of year. This CD has 17 tracks altogether and each rendition is accompanied by the applause of an enthusiastic audience which really added to the sense of occasion. I played the whole CD at quite a loud volume which I would not normally have done if Meg and I had not been alone in the house. As our kitchen is 27′ long and the heritage Sony sound system we keep in the kitchen is hardly ever extended to its real capacities, I really indulged myself whilst I was preparing the Christmas dinner. As I generally do, I had already prepared some parsnips, carrots and sprouts the evening before and had them chilling in the fridge overnight. Then I prepared rather a super onion gravy, supplemented by the meat juices from the slow cooker receptacle in which the beef was cooked. Then came the job of par-boiling the parsnips and carrots before getting them plus roast potatoes plus Yorkshire puddings plus dinner plates into the oven at the right temperature and in the right sequence. I found myself actually working quite heard as I also had to fit in preparing the smoked salmon starters, getting the Rioja wine prepared and ensuring that all of the necessary sauces were on hand. No mishaps occurred, I am pleased to say (because there is quite a lot that could go wrong) so Meg and sat down to our starters at 1.30 precisely. Needless to say, we treated ourselves to another hearing of the ‘Three Tenors’ CD which had given me so much pleasure during the morning.
We had intended to attempt to get into contact with our ‘family’ (i.e. closest friend) in Spain at about 4.00 in the afternoon. After trying FaceTime, WhatsApp, Zoom, their mobile numbers and their landline – all with no reply – we had to give up on our attempt and hope that nothing untoward has happened. I only mention this because Laura’s last email indicated they were going to have a pretty miserable time isolated and cut off from the rest of the family when Christmas time is normally a time when they are all together! No doubt, we will get the whole story in the fullness of time.
Well, if there was such a thing as a typical Boxing Day then today was it. Meg and I were a little slow to get going this morning, having stayed up a little later than normal to watch a film about Maria Callas, the great 1960’s opera diva. Today was a bit colder and more blustery than yesterday but we were a little dismayed when we got to our normal newspaper shop to find it shut. So we trotted around the corner to pick up our Saturday newspapers from Waitrose only to find that closed as well. That was quite irritating because today would have been the first full day after the EU-UK trade agreement had been completed on Christmas Eve and we were anxious to see what the informed journalists had made of the deal. So we drank our coffee as usual in the park and resolved to go out and collect the newspapers by car. First, I made a trip to our local BP garage and managed to pick up a copy of the Guardian but not the Times. However, this was remedied by another car trip so I could walk down our local High Street where I found a newsagent that had copies of the Times. As it happens, I was particularly pleased to have secured copies of the newspapers today. The Times weekend magazine had devoted itself entirely to a review of the year in political cartoons by their award-winning cartoonist, Peter Brookes. He has the facility to link together what has been happening on the political scene with other elements of popular culture. I will give you four examples of what I mean. The cover of the Times magazine has Boris Johnson masquerading as Vicky Pollard (the Little Britain character, played by Matt Lucas who as an irresponsible teenager will never accept the blame for any of her transgressions) The cartoon shows Boris Jonson in the guise of Vicky Pollard at the Downing Street press briefing. Where the podium is normally adorned with NHS slogans, now we have Vicky Pollard excuses such as ‘Yeah But’, ‘No But’ and ‘Yeah But’. In another cartoon, you have a make-believe film poster for the Good (portrayed by Richi Sunak), the Bad (played by Boris Johnson) and the Ugly (portrayed by Dominic Cummings). The American election is also brilliantly covered by showing Joe Biden at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House saying ‘Phew! I thought he’d never go! ‘ If you look carefully at the cartoon though, you can see a bulge in the curtains and the tip of a long red tie (belonging to Donald Trump) behind the desk. But my fourth example is one of a cartoon which I think is sheer brilliance and displays several jokes at once. The cartoon is as an advertisement for ‘Matt Hancock’s Half-Hour' in which the features of Matt Hancock have been cleverly morphed into those of Tony Hancock, the comedian who made ‘Hancock’s Half Hour‘ famous. Hancock is receiving an injection by a nurse who is saying ‘Just a little prick‘. In the body of the poster, there is a further text explaining ‘From the Blood Donor to the Guinea Pig‘ (Of course, the ‘blood donor’ is Tony Hancock’s most well-known and practically iconic sketch) Finally, across the right-hand corner of the cartoon is a little banner explaining ‘Live on TV’ (as Matt Hancock says he will be shown having the vaccine live on TV) This cartoon, as I have described it, combines at least five jokes into one – sheer brilliance!
In the afternoon, I engaged in that perennial exercise of removing sticky labels from my supply of damson gin bottles. The first fourteen have already been given away so I now need to prepare a second batch. Some labels float off very easily after the usual soaking but sometimes the wine manufacturers of those little 25 cl bottle that I particularly like to deploy reserve their toughest industrial glue for the front label. I find that this takes a combination of fingernails, a stainless steel scrubber, a brillo pad, and for stubborn case a little brass wire tool I have and a bottle of boiling water which, if dribbled on, softens the glue somewhat before being attacked by other implements. I hope to have everything in place to do this tomorrow.
The newspapers have had a preliminary chance to look at the EE-UK trade agreement but the full text is 1,246 pages and has only been published today – in time to be debated in Parliament on Wednesday, where Boris Johnson wants to have the whole thing debated and passed into law in one day. Needless to say, this is not enough time for proper scrutiny but of course, this was the idea all along and rather makes a mockery of the ‘supremacy’ of parliament. Already the fishing industry is crying out that Johnson has sold them out and of course services, including the important financial services which are a dominant part of our economy, are not included in the trade agreement in any case.
After the details of the EU-UK trade agreement had been published, I read that the EHIC card would be honoured as long as it was current but then was due to be replaced (details not yet worked out) So I went to look at our EHIC cards to ascertain when they were to expire only to discover that they had actually expired last September. By rather indirect means, I got onto the website that issues new EHIC cards and put in an application for Meg and myself – they may last as long as 5 years and, of course, are provided free of charge by the government. The issuing authority may take the view that if an application has been made before the deadline of 31st December 2020 and although it indicates that the application may take 10 days for the cards to be delivered, then we might prove lucky and get new ones. On the other hand, the government could take the view that any unfilled order by 1st January 2021 is void and refuse to fulfil our order. Having said that, I suspect the latter but we will have to wait and see. I went down to collect our newspapers by car to get back in time for the Andrew Marr show at 9 am only to find that the show was not on this morning.
After breakfast, we went on our normal walk to the park where it was quite busy with children and dogs as you might expect.On the way back we met with both of our sets of friends. One of the couples informed us that their son and daughter-in-law (I think I have this the right way round) has tested positive for COVID-19, as well as their two next-door neighbours so we really do get the impression that the virus is ‘moving ever closer’ Tomorrow morning, Meg and I may well to go down to the newly opened test centre and see if we can get an ‘on-the-spot’ test. In the meantime, we are determined to be very watchful in the next few weeks until we ourselves get vaccinated, perhaps towards the end of February. The local Arts Centre has also been converted into a vaccination centre so we are just waiting for our number to be called which, of course, will reflect the priorities by age-group ( I am in the 3rd category down according to the published criteria)
This afternoon, I had intended to spend some time betting more supplied of damson gin. I attempted to contact our close friends in Spain as I have done for the last day or so but to no avail. Then we received a telephone call from one of the nieces in Harrogate, N. Yorkshire, where we exchanged a lot of information about COVID-19 and how it was impinging upon various members of the family in Yorkshire. We are resolved to have some kind of ‘open house’ party in the Spring-Summer when the grip of the virus has lessened so that we can see the newest member of the family (now about 15 months old) as well as other family members.
As might be expected, a lot of attention is being paid to how EU-UK trade agreement was arrived at and what compromises had to be made and by whom. I m not sure whether the journalists had access to the full 1,426-page document before they began their analysis. The consensus view that has emerged so far is that we have a deal but an incredibly ‘thin’ deal (e.g. no services are included) which is near to a ‘no deal’ Brexit as it is possible to get. Many of our legislators are going to try and examine the deal in great detail before the one day debate next Wednesday and it seems very likely that, just like a Budget, that which seems OK at first sight, all kinds of little ‘nasties’ will emerge in the fullness of time. The New York Times has published a very good and objective analysis under the title ‘Brexit Deal Done, Britain Now Scrambles to see How it Will Work’ and their conclusion, at the end of the day, is given by the analyst called Kibasi who has concluded that ‘But the way it’ll play out is by damaging investment in the UK, so it’s a slow puncture, not a quick crash‘ Of course, to the ardent Brexiteers, the deal was never actually going to be about trade ‘per se’ because all they ever wanted was a dis-entanglement from the EU in order to regain ‘sovereignty’ whatever the economic cost to the nation.
Today when various members of the family were awake at 5.30am, it was a fairly typical late December day – but an hour and a half later, we had been dumped upon by a huge fall of snow which seemed fairly thick. After we had had a porridge breakfast it appeared to have stopped snowing so my son, daughter-in-law and I decided to brave the weather to walk to the shops. As it happened, walking on the snow was relatively straightforward but road traffic and other people walking to the park (with children and toboggans) was quite rapidly changing the snow into a more slippery slush. I was well prepared with two pairs of socks and two jumpers so I had lots of layers of clothing (as the Scandinavians say ‘There is no such thing as bad weather – only inappropriate clothing‘). Whilst the other family members were busy shopping, I made my way to my usual paper shop where I picked up our newspapers. I made an arrangement with the shopkeepers that if the bad weather were to persist and I couldn’t actually get my walk done to the shop, could they please keep my newspapers on one side and I would come in when I could and settle up with my vouchers. The walk home was uneventful and having had a good taste of the weather conditions and not needing to go anywhere by car, we decided collectively to let the snow clear itself and not bother with a few hours of energetic clearing. We had no snow at all last year and perhaps not even for the year before that but fortunately when the need arises we are quite all supplied with shovels and other snow-clearing equipment. Upon returning home, I did take a brush and push the thawing snow from our Lavatera outside the back window and also from those parts of the hedging around our BioDisk that I could reach.
It was evidently the kind of day to engage in typical Boxing Day type pastimes so I thought I would get to work bottling some more damson gin. I bottled another 19 bottles (four large Kilner jars worth) and had to stop only because I have run out of 25 cl bottles. I may fill up some 50 cl bottles and deploy these as intermediate storage jars in the meanwhile. Of course, I have to write my labels, which is a kind of mindless activity you can do whilst watching TV. When all of the bottling had been done (with the minimum of mess, I am pleased to day), I treated myself to watching a re-run of the Agatha Christie ‘Death on the Nile‘ featuring Hercule Poirot but several the other Boxing Day type films (The Jungle Book, Murder on the Orient Express) I had already seen relatively recently so gave them a miss.
For the first time, the number of new COVID-19 infections has exceeded 41,000 in a single day and 357 deaths. Horrendous though this figure is, there may be a degree of inflation as so many more tests are now being performed (presumably, the more you test you more you find) But what is particularly worrying is that hospitals are now operating at the peak levels that they were when the pandemic was absolutely at its peak last April. The epidemiologists know that two weeks after infection a proportion of patients will end up in hospital and two weeks after that a proportion will die. What the exact proportions are I do not at this stage know but we still have the major months of January and February in front of us. Further Tier 4 zones may well be announced next Wednesday – perhaps a complete lockdown like the initial one last spring is the only answer. I wonder, though, whether the bad weather that is keeping people indoors might help in stopping the virus spreading somewhat (although of course we do have the Christmas Day and New Year family gatherings to factor into the equation)
One of the nice things about this time of year is that people have received your Christmas cards including details of email addresses and so can write to you. One of our friends from Leicestershire who is now working in South Wales emailed me with a long and detailed email and I have taken the opportunity to reply to this, and to other friends as well. We inform each other of the various medical afflictions which are affecting our various family members and give each other a bit of mutual support.
Today was the ‘day after’ the snow storm of yesterday so when we woke up we anxiously looked out of the window to see if we had a fresh fall of snow overnight. We didn’t have any more snow but it did look as though some was threatened for later on. So Meg and I set off for our daily walk knowhing that snow was in the air and initially, we walked through some light sleet. On the way down, we bumped into one of our friends who kindly gave us back the empty bottle of damson gin which they had consumed over the Christmas period. We then popped the Times magazine political cartoons of the year through the door of other friends who we knew would particularly enjoy them. Having picked up our newspapers, the snow started again in earnest and the flakes fell furiously around us. We popped into Waitrose trying to buy essential supplies (dishcloths! our existing stock having been pressed into service and used in a quadruple thickness as straining agents for the damson gin I had just bottled). We didn’t find any dish clothes but we did buy some essential supplies (carrot and parsnip mash, chocolate) before we braved the journey back home again. The weather had eased by this point but nonetheless we were pleased to have made the journey despite the snowy conditions. We then pressed on preparing a lunch of chicken thighs (which we really enjoyed, searing them in oil and cooking them in a in peppers, onions and the remains of a white lasagne-style sauce. Even though so I say it myself, this turned out to be delicious complemented with broccoli and a baked potato.
When lunch was over, I was idly looking through the TV schedules to see what might be our evening viewing when I say that Jane Austen’s Emma was to start in 2 minutes time. This was the novel I studied intensively for ‘O’-level so it it always particularly interesting to see if the portrayal of the characters match up with the mental images formed when you first read the novel (fifteen years old in my case) When I was that age, the family had fallen on some hard times and I remember my emotions upon reading the very first sentence in the book which reads as follows: ‘Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich with a comfortable home and a happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence and had lived nearly twenty one years in the world with very little to vex or distress her‘ I can remember now how my lip curled with disgust as I thought to myself that I certainly did not want to read any further than this as I could see no points of congruence whatsoever between the world that Austen was about to describe and my own existence. As it turned out, I quite enjoyed the novel as it unfolded but my feelings of distate having read that first sentence have remained with me over the years. The minute was Emma was over, we repaired to our iPad where we were due to FaceTime some of our oldest ex-Waitrose friends. We were on the iPad for the best part of an hour and a half whilst we recounted to each the kinds of experiences that we had both had over the Christmas period – an experience largely revolving around the food we had enjoyed.
The COVID-19 news this evening is particularly bad, not to say shocking. The number of new infections has risen from 41, 385 yesterday to 53,135 today. That is a 28% increase in a single day! The latest daily figures come after it was revealed that England’s hospitals are now treating more patients than during the peak of the first wave in April. So it now appears that the NHS is facing the most ‘perfect storm’ and the real impact of the worst of the winter crisis has yet to bite (some time in late January or February) There are stories already of several hospitals at absolute maximum capacity with queues of ambulances outside hospital A&E departments as there is no space inside to receive the new patients, staff absolutely stretched to the limit and no space in the wards inside the hospitals. The fact that we have built several Nightingale hospitals all over the country is to no avail because where are we going to get the staff to staff them? Many of our European nurses appear to have ‘gone home’ For example there is a report (dated by now, from the Nursing and Midwifery Council) has shown has shown that the number of new nurses coming from the EU to work in the UK has dropped by 87% from 6,382 in 2016/17 to 805 in 2017/18. It is rather difficult to get accurate figures in this area as sometimes new entrants to the nursing workforce do not have their origins correctly stated but it is undoubtedly the case that the whole Brexit factor has deterred new entrants from entering the UK and several others (perhaps in their thousands) have returned home. Even a large majority of those who voted ‘Leave’ still want European nurses to come and work here but there are so many factors such as the ‘hostile environment’ promised to illegal migrants to dissuade many would be nurses wanting to come to live and work in post-Brexit Britain.
As soon as we woke up this morning, we were greeted with the news that the Oxford University/AstraZeneca virus has received the approach of the regulators and hence can be released for immediate use (from next Monday onwards) Whereas the dosage is normally one jab followed by another some weeks later, the regulators have approved the protocol that the first dose can be administered (giving about 70% protection) followed by a second dose some twelve weeks later. This approach means that the protection is being spread much more rapidly than if you had one jab followed by another some three weeks later. In order to protect the population, though, it is necessary to inoculate some 2 million people a week and whether this is achievable remains to be seen. The manifest advantages of this particular vaccine are its cheapness (about £3 a shot rather than £25 for the Pfizer alternative) and the fact that it only needs normal refrigeration conditions (and not the -70 degrees of the Pfizer alternative) This makes it much easier to get into residential homes. Also the government has taken out an option for 100 million doses of the vaccine should be sufficient to inoculate the whole of the ‘at-risk’ population in the UK. But it is undoubtedly a race between the rapidly advancing new variant of the virus on the one hand versus the rapidity with which the new vaccine can be ruled out across the population on the other.
Meg and I walked down to collect our newspapers in relatively overcast but not snowy conditions. It looks as though the Midlands lay in between two swathes of snow bearing clouds to the north and to the south. However, where the sludge had turned to ice along the upper reaches of the main road had to be negotiated with a certain amount of care so we either walked on the road or navigated our way with extreme caution along the pavements. Conditions improved as we approached the park, though (warmer temperature? more feet to melt the snow?) After we collected our newspapers, we popped into Waitrose for a carton of milk and then swung onto the High Street in Bromsgrove to go to replenish supplies at one of those cut-price ‘health and beauty’ shops that seem to have sprung up recently. This is because we suspect that we may be moved from Tier 2 to Tier 4 later on today when the changes are announced by Matt Hancock so we were planning ahead for a lockdown (or ‘semi-lockdown’) lasting at least a month. When we got home, we had a nice meal of our favourite Waitrose fishcakes and then settled down to watch the latest news on the rolling news programmes.
Today was the day when the EU-UK trade bill was being rushed through Parliament, with the idea being to get all of the stages passed and then through the Lords ready for the Royal Assent later on this evening. The Labour Party has been whipped to support the bill but in the opinion of many, the Labour Party should have abstained leaving the Tories to pick up all of the fall-out that will undoubtedly occur once the full implications of the deal start to become apparent (not least the mountain of paperwork that is now required, the fact that the fishing industry has been left in the lurch and crucially the position of the services industry is still undetermined) The Commons finally approved the ‘deal’ bu 521 votes to 73.
Last night, I wrote a long email to our friends in Spain who seem to be experiencing some difficulties in coping with the long months of lockdown – I get the impression that the Spanish police are much more assiduous with enforcing regulations than in this country (which may be a long felt hangover from the days of Franco even though he died in 1975). I am offering whatever advice and support I can, even including the suggestion that they try some Yoga which may have some benefits in alleviating long-term stress. It is interesting that the BBC is offering an item on their website under the title ‘COVID-19: Five ways to stay positive throughout the winter‘ in which they have assembled the help of several mental health experts who have provided a series of tips that may prove helpful for many.
Meanwhile, we in Bromsgrove (and many other parts of the country) have been moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3. I am not exactly sure how much more stringent this will prove to be in our day-to-day lives. It means that some three-quarters of the population are in the highest possible Tier 4 and most of the rest of the country in Tier 3. From the point of view of the politicians, at least they can say that this ‘Short term pain for long-term gain as the vaccine is on its way’
This is an interesting day that has arrived at last. I have the feeling that many people in the country are really sort of looking forward to today if only to say ‘goodbye’ to the year of 2020. On Thursdays, we are are sometimes a little delayed because we have the weekly order from Waitrose and that means everything has to be put away before our walk and hence we were a little delayed. Having said that, it was a beautiful day with a fine blue sky for our walk but Meg and I had to be careful when starting our walk together. Underfoot, there were places where it was icy in the extreme and we have not been holding on to each other, we both might have slipped twice. As Meg has endured a ‘FOOSH‘ (Fall On Out-Stretched Hand) fracture of her arm some eighteen months ago, we do not fancy a repeat of that when A&E departments are likely to be clogged up with potential COVID-19 patients. So we both exercised the maximum of care and then we got to the lower reaches of the road where the sun had managed to shine on the pavements and then ice had been turned to water. We saw one of our friends briefly (in their car) when we walked down and wished each other ‘Happy New Year‘ This year, in particular, we all seem to be saying to each other that next year cannot possibly be as troubled as 2020 – but of course, none of us really knows what terrors the virus has in store for us before we are ‘saved’ by the vaccine.
Today, I have promised Meg that I will say goodbye to an old and trusted friend (or should I say pair of friends) who have been very good to me over the past few years. I am referring, of course, to my tried and trusty boots which are superbly comfortable and the Vibram soles are still pretty sound. However, the heels are completely worn through and the rubberised section has completely gone and I seem to be at least halfway through a sort of composite which formed the heel. I suppose I must be particularly hard on the heels the way my foot strikes the ground as the rest of the boots seem OK. However, I calculate that I must have walked 1,000 kilometres in these boots and I do get rather attached to items of clothing that have served me well over the years. Tomorrow on New Year’s Day, I shall be breaking in a new pair of boots and I wonder whether they, too, will last me for 1,000 kilometres. I have in mind, though, not to absolutely throw my boots away for a week or so until the really bad icy and snowy weather is well and truly past us – if, for example, I get one set of boots absolutely sodden through in the snow (which can happen) then I will have another set to fall back on whilst the current boots are being dried out. I am going to give my boots some restorative polish before they start their journey but to be honest boots always seem to wear out from the bottom up rather than the other way around.
After lunch, I had said to myself that I would make another journey down into town. We had been a prescription from Meg’s consultant so I needed to get that into the system so that she does not run short of medication. Whilst on my way down, I popped a Kilner jar full of un-decanted damson gin so that one of my friends could either bottle it straight or blend it with some of her own. Whilst down in town, I availed myself of getting some cash from an ATM (an all too rare event these days) and popped into our local Asda supermarket which I do not really enjoy. Nonetheless, I was pleased to get a few items which I know I cannot get elsewhere – and I grabbed a large bag of red potatoes for £1.00 which contained several very large specimens that should be excellent for baked potatoes that I cook in the microwave. I needed to time my visit to town quite carefully because I wanted to get back before dark – and indeed the light held until 4.20 which was the time of my return. Once again, though, I did have to be especially careful not to slip on any of the icy sections of the pavement.
Upon my return, I treated myself to a nice cup of tea and yet another view of Paddington which I think is actually an extended social commentary upon the ways in which we treat and occasionally welcome newcomers to our midst. There are quite a lot of visual jokes which I still find hilarious – one of the best being when Paddington notices a sign on one of the escalators of the Underground which stated ‘Dogs must be carried‘ whereupon Paddington goes and seizes a dog to put under his arm assuming that was the point of the instruction!
Well, it is very pleasant to write 1st January at long last. I am sure that most of the population are only too happy to be getting rid of 2020 in its entirety. Too express our feelings, one of my close friends had sent me a videoclip, German in origin, which shows Santa Claus urinating (simulated by a series of little illuminated lights) on some kind of model which shows ‘2020’ Perhaps these are the feelings of many of us. I was going to watch the New Year in but fell asleep 5 minutes beforehand so was spared some of the celebrations which, of course, were not really taking place this year.
This morning as a beuatiful day to start off with a clear blue sky and some pale sunshine. Much of the ice and snow had melted so walking on the pavements presented no hazard. Today was the day when I was going to try out my new walking boots but first I gave them a treatment of leather preservative and finished off with a coating of dubbin. The boots, Aldi’s finest which I bought at least nine months ago turned out to be supremely comfortable – they fitted like a glove despite my two pairs of socks and had some good ‘D’ ring fastenings which I like on a walking boot. Let us now hope that they manage to last for as much as 1,000 kilometres like their forebears.
After lunch, we thought we would get into contact with some of our relatives. Meg telephoned her uncle in North Wales who is in his 90s now but who seems to be of nature’s great survivors. He seems to have survived Christmas quite well without incident but Meg is going to make another call in a day or so to continue the conversation. I telephoned my sister in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire who had also experienced a Christmas Day bereft of family but other family members had been in touch via a variety of social media which helps somewhat. We caught up on some family news and all expressed the view that having lived through some 9-10 months of coping with the pandemic we could surely hang on for a few more weeks before vaccines head our way. I busied myself with processing the damsons that remain once you have poured off the rest of the liquor as a result of my last bottling exercise.Without bothering to make a formal jam, I merely heated the damsons in their gin-enhanced juice with a modicum of sugar and then allowed the mixture to cool and set. Today I bottled and labelled the compôte and most of the bottles I will give away to friends and neighbours. After a quick Google search, I have ascertained that compôte only lasts about two weeks even when refrigerated but that’s fine. Meg and I had some with a bowl of rice pudding and I have to say it was absolutely delicious – but we will probably consume it quite quickly.
The COVID-19 situation is developing quite rapidly. A quick look at Sky News has just indicated that ALL of the London primary schools are to remain closed and it is not clear when the situation will be judged sufficiently safe for them to reopen. However, the situation appears similar to the first lockdown that we had in the spring because the schools will still remain open for especially vulnerable children and also for the children of key workers. The situation will be reviewed again on 18th January i.e. in two weeks on Monday. The number of new cases has again exceeded 50,000 for the fourth day in a row – numbers this high are especially serious when we know that after a couple of weeks hospitalisation is inevitable for a proportion of cases will die.The figure in the spring was that approximately one third of all patients admitted to hospital will die of the disease but this proportion has been slowly dropping (i.e. patient’s chances of survival increasing) as the medical profession has had a chance to learn from experience and to manage cases. The situation changes so rapidly that it is hard to get definitive and up-to-date stats in this area but it is certainly the case that the older you are and your sex (i.e. male rather than female) count very much against you.
The next situation to keep an eye on is how we are actually going to cope with Brexit, now that it has actually happened. The full situation will only unwind in the next week or so and probably only for exporters. The government has decided only to check for ‘controlled substances’ (alcohol and tobacco)coming in to the country and full checks on impairs will not take place until 1st July, 2021 – an even this might be extended. This sounds to me like a smuggler’s bonanza in the making!
Today was one of those kinds of days when you were not sure whether it was going to stay fairly quiet on the weather front or indeed even rain or sleet or snow. Nonetheless, we decided to venture forth and although there was a slight flurry of snowflakes, we felt it was nothing to bother us much. After we had collected our supply of Saturday newspapers, the weather worsened a little but we thought we would make for the bandstand where we were, at least, sheltered from the rain. Our intention was to drink our coffee and immediately make our way home. Also sheltering in the bandstand was a man we had recognised from some months in the park when we were occupying adjacent park benches. Our fellow park visitor had lived for a lot of his life in South Africa but we spent some time discussing how COVID-19 had implications for people of our age and generation. We shared a similar outlook wondering what the views of the medics might be if they had to make ‘life-and-death’ decisions in the dire event that we were struck by the virus and hospitalised. Would the medics apply a ‘Triage‘ system i.e. only bother to give intervention to those who they had a chance of saving given scarce resources (critical care beds, specialised nursing staff, ventilators) and how would we both fare if a medic was poised over us with a ‘tick-list’ and whether we would be offered any life-saving treatment or not. After these macabre thoughts, we started to discuss racism (particularly in the context of Southern Africa) as our park friend revealed that he was one eighth Sri Lankan and we laughed over the notions of there being such a thing as a ‘pure’ race, white or otherwise. This proved to be an entertaining twenty minutes or so, after which the weather was starting to close in on us and we made for home. However, there was no biting cold wind and the pavements seemed quite sound underfoot.
After a lunch of curry, we decided as a household to remove our Christmas decorations, the principal job being to ‘undress’ the Christmas tree and then carefully disentangle the electrics and store carefully the fragile ornaments. Now we came to disposing of the tree because on the way in, the tree was protected by a type of netting which was evidently removed once we got it inside the house. When we do things in reverse, we snip off some of the smaller branches to make the whole tree slimmer and capable of being taken outside without damage to anywhere. Then I set to work with my trusty bowsaw, inherited from Meg’s parents which is particularly well suited to tree pruning activities. The tree got divided into three largish chunks which will then fit into some garden rubble sacks and thence into the boot of the car without much more ado. We then gave the car a spin (to get rid of the snow lying on its roof) as far as our local garden centre which accepts back the trees you have bought from them and recycles them. After that, it was a relatively simple job to remove the decorations, take down the Christmas cards (which we will give one last read) and pack up our little fibre-optic Christmas tree and crib. I must say it is good to get rid of all the Christmas clutter once you are well and truly into the New Year but there is always a feeling that the livings rooms look a little denuded after them – and of course, the Christmas tree which used to illuminate a corner of our communal hall is now no more.
An interesting situation has now arisen since the Government’s latest U-turn which has resulted in all of London’s primary schools being closed (although still ‘open’ for looked-after children, children at risk and the children of key workers). A leading union has said that staff at schools have a legal right not to return to classrooms due to the spread of COVID, while another has started legal proceedings against the Department for Education. This raises the interesting question of whether schools can be regarded as safe places in which to work. although the government is desperate to keep schools as ‘open’ as possible. But in the face of infection rates that are soaring, is it sensible for school children of any age to return to school and whilst not becoming ill themselves may play a part in transmitting the virus to older generations? The interesting question about a legal challenge is that the government may be forced in any legal action to display the reasoning that has led to some primary schools being ‘closed’ whilst others remain open despite the fact that the local risk factors appear to be similar. it will be interesting to see how this plays out – a fortnight’s delay in returning to school for all school children may buy us a little bit of time and, perhaps, allow more time to have adequate testing facilities to be installed within the schools.
Last night there had been a scattering of snow so I wondered how deep it would prove to be this morning. As it happened, the snow was quite thinly scattered on an underlay of slush – I walked down in my ‘old’ boots thinking that a deep covering of snow might not do my new ones any good but in the event I did not need to worry. After I collected my newspapers, I was walking upon along the road (safer than the pavement!) when I got into a conversation with a lady cleaning the snow off her car. As our conversation progressed from one topic to another, it transpired that she was an evangelical christian and so we started to discuss some interesting points of theology e.g. in the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ the phrase ‘Lead us not into temptation’ in the Latin is ‘ne nos inducas in tentationem’ which could be translated as ‘let us not fall into temptation‘ which is subtly different. There is a massive theological debate in all of this in which the present Pope had expressed his view but time and space to do permit us to enter in the the intricacies of this debate just now. This all made me a little late for the Andrew Marr show but I was quite happy to miss a few minutes of Boris Johnson who was on the show this morning (complete with ruffled hair)
Meg and I made our usual trip to the park (the trip being foreshortened as the papers had already been collected) and we sat on a dry park bench to have our elevenses. As always, we were passed as we sat by the normal collection of young children on their scooters and dog walkers with their unleashed dogs (the latter always approach us thinking that some food might be in the offing, which of course, it never is) After we got home, we discovered that the lamb pieces that we had in a kind of stew and cooking throughout the morning was almost burnt to a cinder. However, I managed to resurrect it with some onion gravy and, in the event, we had quite a nice dinner. The afternoon was devoted to a long and lazy reading of the Sunday newspapers in which the two major topics of the day (the worsening COVID-19 crisis and the full implications of our exit from the EU now that we had a minimal trade agreement in place) were well and truly analysed.
In the early evening, we got into contact with our friends in Spain who were now in a happier state of mind as their daughter who is at university in Madrid has tested negative for the virus and subsequently has been allowed to go home to see her parents for ‘Reyes‘. (‘Reyes‘ literally when translated from the Spanish is ‘kings’ and is the day in Spain when children will traditionally receive the presents from their parents and friends). They might have opened a little present on on Christmas Day itself but ‘Reyes‘ which we know as the feast of the Epiphany is that day when major presents are given and received. In small fishing communities, the ‘Kings’ will arrive by fishing boat whilst on some of the islands such as Tenerife they might actually arrive by camel – all of this adds to the sense of veracity to impress the younger children.
The COVID-19 news continues to be terrible with new infections again at 55,000 and the number of deaths 454. Boris Johnson is insisting that schools are safe for pupils (probably true) and for teachers (probably untrue). Some teachers at the suggestion of their union are sending in letters indicating that they are not prepared to work unless the school can guarantee that they are entering a safe place of work. Even Boris Johnson is saying that further restrictions may need to be applied ‘in the weeks ahead’. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer (the leader of the Labour Party) is calling for an immediate national lockdown (similar to that experienced in the spring) and his argument is that the government is always doing doing too little, too late and we should attempt to be ‘ahead’ of the curve and not always behind it. If the virus continues to infect at the present rate, then perhaps the only solution may be another national lockdown. Some senior Tories (but not the government) are arguing that all children should be kept out of school until half-term (towards the middle of February). The situation is fast moving and it will be interesting to see if schools actually do reopen next week or whether the absence of teachers may force a ‘de facto’ closure. It may be that schools find themselves in an almost impossible situation and the headteachers and school authorities may have to cope with whatever complex situation confronts them when the schools actually resume next week.
Today was somewhat overcast and chilly but no snow was immediately in prospect. The cold spell is going to last a few more days yet but we are relieved not to wake up to a further dump of snow. So we conducted our normal walk, picking up our newspapers and making our way to the park which was not particularly busy. We had our elevenses and walked home without bumping into anyone although I am carrying a spare bottle of damson gin plus a jar of compôte in case we happened to meet with anyone who might be the recipients of further gifts. After lunch, we read our newspapers and listened to some of the rolling news programmes – the Scots are going for something approaching a full lockdown to cope with the COVID-19 crisis so it is a matter of speculation how far behind we will happen to be.
Earlier in the day we had a message from some of our near neighbours in Hampshire when all of the family were going to be at home and therefore accessible to a FaceTime webinar. We arranged a time in the late afternoon when we could all coincide – and we are looking forward to that as we have not seen the younger members of the family for about ten years now and with the passage of time they have got their GCSE’s and ‘A’-levels and graduated from their respective universities. But before then, we Skyped some of our Oxfordshire friends and had a good chat about events that had happened to us both over the Christmas period (which we were both glad to have behind us) as well as matters much more philosophical. We parted saying that we should Skype again in a fortnight or so, which we certainly shall. No sooner had this call ended before we repaired to our iPad which is a better technology for us to make and receive FaceTime calls. It was wonderful to chat whilst we were brought up-to-date on what each individual members of the family was doing – principally, their work life after graduation. The son of the family was shortly to leave to go and work in London – the last time we saw him he was actually the first questioner in an edition of Question Time which happened to come from Cardiff University. The daughter of the family was living locally but under a bubble arrangement could come home to work remotely (as though going to the office!). The family had lost their family dog over the years but acquired another, bear-like looking dog which, if my memory serves me correctly was a cockapoodle (or a mixture of a cocker spaniel and a poodle) or a similar mixture.There are not many occasions in which all of the family would be together ‘en famille‘ so we were pleased to seize the opportunity for a FaceTime chat whilst we could.
Tonight there is going to be a broadcast from Boris Johnson to the nation so it is fairly evident that something approaching a new lockdown is imminent. The important question about which there is speculation before the broadcast is whether schools are to be involved in the lockdown (like last spring) or not. I am continuing the blog few minutes after the broadcast so now some of the details have been filled in. It now seems that the lockdown will be total i.e. like last spring, but essential and key workers will still travel to work and continue to work, Really significant change, for all of us, is that the lockdown will stay in place until mid-February at the very earliest. The political commentators are suggesting that Boris Johnson did not sound at all confident that even some of the most stringent measures could be lifted after mid-February. In other words, the lockdown will last at six weeks and probably for a fair amount of time after that. The provisions will come into effect from midnight tonight but will become law on Wednesday (presumably after Parliament has approved the emergence legislation). People will be allowed to leave the house for essential shopping and exercise (once per day) but all social contact has to be minimised. In the case of the schools, children in general will be asked not to attend school but to engage in distant leaning whilst they can. But, as we have discovered this evening, the list of ‘essential’ and ‘key’ workers is long and complex and schools are meant to operationalise this sounds like a logistical nightmare. For example, is a parent living on a one room flat turns up with a child and claim a ‘carer’ status, what element of proof will have to be supplied to the school to work out whether a child is eligible to return to school or not? As I write, the senior staff in schools are frantically trying to work out how all of this going to work but it sounds as though the next few days are going to be particularly fraught at the school gates (or when the school is telephoned, if nobody can get through, of course, on over-whelmed phone lines)
Today started off with a fairly clear sky which indicated that we might have quite a fine day today. It is going to be interesting to observe how closely the impending 3rd lockdown will be observed today which was only announced by Boris Johnson at 8pm yesterday evening. In law, the lockdown only starts at a minute past midnight on Wednesday morning but we were being encouraged to start the lockdown straight away. As it turned out, the day turned out to be a comparatively ‘normal’ day. The volume and validity of the traffic seemed to be no different to any other day and we made our way to our newspaper shop, wondering whether this was to be classed as an essential service and was therefore going to keep open during the lockdown. We joked with the shopkeepers that the shop was evidently an essential service to the public as it sold both chocolate and wine (as well as newspapers). We then made our way to the park which had slightly more than its normal complement of children – Meg and I surmised that they had probably been informed (by text message) that the school was closed (or at least ‘not open’ for the majority of children) and hence they had come to the park to amuse themselves and/or let off steam. We ate our comestibles but an icy wind developed so we were glad to get going and into some pale winter sunshine. On our way back up the hill, we bumped into some of our oldest friends who were having some problems with the water supply into their property and the water board was there with a ‘gizmo’ which detects the presence of water underground. I have no idea how these detection devices work, by the way, unless it is by the means of some ground-penetrating radar or a similar technology. Whilst we were chatting, I gave them the jar of compôte I had been carrying around with me for a day or so now and I hope that it hasn’t gone ‘off’ before they have a chance to enjoy it.
We had no particular plans for this afternoon and intended to have a fairly easy afternoon. I was pleased to receive my fairly large parcel of address labels which I only order once every few years. I tend to buy them 1,000 at a time and they last for many years but at Christmas time, I tend to use them up in great quantity as I always stick a spare label in each Christmas card I send so that I know that th recipients have our latest contact details. On this occasion, I did take the opportunity of squeezing the lines of text a little so that I could include my mobile access number as well as our landline. However, I find that today there are a variety of other electronic-type addresses that you sometimes wish to convey which will not fit onto a conventional address label. So I am treating myself to an additional set of labels which I shall use sparingly which contains details of my mobile, email, website homepage and a couple of blog addresses (WordPress version and a text-based alternative). This afternoon, I took some time to hunt out our official NHS numbers which I intend to keep easily accessible as I may need them both in the fairly nature future. When we were chatting about the availability of the vaccine which we hope will be offered to us within the next 4-5 weeks, it is quite important that we have our NHS numbers easily available. It is evident (to us) that before we can receive any vaccine, those responsible for the vaccination will have to link onto our NHS records so that our eligibility can be confirmed. At the same time, once we receive our vaccinations, it is evident that our records will have to be updated and presumably the NHS number will act as link between the vaccinator’s own database and the rest of our NHS records. When you go to hospital and hand in a blood or urine sample, the nurse generally runs off a special label with the official patient details which can go onto the sample bottle. I typically ask the nurse if they will run off one or two spares and these ‘official’ labels can then go into my diaries and the like. In my own case, I had a spare label so I was catered for. In Meg’s case, I hunted through some old medical records and discovered a letter inviting her to a radiology appointment some ten years before but this letter contained details of name, address, date of birth and NHS number. These I managed to seal into a self laminating pouch so that means that I now have to hand both my own and Meg’s NHS numbers for when the vaccination call eventually comes. I am anticipating that I may be called in for a vaccine jab within some five or six weeks but we shall have to wait and see.
In the late afternoon, we were going to FaceTime some of our ex-Waitrose friends by prior arrangement but the Prime Minister was due to make a special broadcast so we watched this- complete with the news that something like 2% of the UK population is/has been infected with the COVID-19 virus which is quite a sobering thought. After this, we had a good long hour and a half chat with our friends before we settled down to a light supper of rice pudding plus our own special damson compôte (which was delicious).
Today was quite a fine bright day but we were somewhat delayed whilst I updated my Waitrose order this morning (a job for every Wednesday morning for the foreseeable future). We collected our newspapers and made our way to one of our two favourite seats overlooking the boating lake? duck pond? which is a feature of our local park. On one of our customary benches, we struck up a conversation with a chap we recognised from our past ventures in the park. We started off our chat with each other by comparing our (very similar) stainless steel thermos flasks – and then the state of our walking boots! One thing led to another and we discovered that we had quite a lot in common as our new found friend had recently retired as a lecturer from the University of Birmingham. As it happened, I had with me in my wallet some details of my email, websites etc. so I handed one of these over so that we could keep in touch by email, if we wanted. We promised ourselves a beer together when the circumstances allow – which may be months off yet but it is always nice to have something to which to look forward. We were a little late home and we had to have a fairly swift midday meal because we had a video call scheduled with one of Meg’s therapists in the early afternoon. We got the video call up and running after an initial hitch and then had an interesting and fruitful conversation which took us up to our afternoon teatime.
In the middle of the night, I was following the election results from the two Senate races in Georgia. These are absolutely critical because were the Democrats to win the two seats, then the Senate would be effectively tied at 50:50. However, in the event of a tie, the Vice President automatically has the casting vote and as the VP elect is Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s VP elect, then ‘de facto’ control of the Senate passes from the Republicans to the Democrats. This has enormous significance because, in the past, the Republican Senate majority had the ability to block any progressive legislation and Biden’s presidency would have been ‘cut off at the knees’ at the start. But with control of the Senate, as well as the House of Representatives, then President-elect Biden has the opportunity to press on with such issues as the fight against the COVID-19 virus, the measures to pursue a green agenda to combat climate change and so on. I was following the election detail by detail as the various counties in Georgia reported and I found the websites of the New York Times and a political website called ‘FiveThirtyEight‘ particularly helpful and informative. These websites not only give up-to-date stats of the counts from the various counties as they are uploaded but also some expert and informed commentary. As I write, the Democrats have certainly won one of the seats and are within an ace of capturing the other one, with 98% of the vote counted and the remaining vote to be delivered from areas that were largely black (in or around Atlanta ) and likely 85%-15% to split for the Democrats.
Tonight, as I started to blog, I got an intimation that Donald Trump’s supporters had stormed the Capital Building in which members of the Congress were trying to officially confirm the results of the election. I have to say never before have I watched TV news so open-mouthed as I saw the events in Washington DC unfold in front of me. Trump supporters had been all but encouraged to go and make their presence felt as they were protesting against what they thought was a stolen election. Donald Trump himself inflamed the crowd by suggesting that he had won by a landslide and the election was stolen from him by ‘false’ media and fraudulent Democrats! The very latest news that I have is that 1100 members of the National Guard (i.e. the military) have been sent in to support the local police together with an additional 200 members from Virginia. As Trump supporters almost to a man are armed to the teeth and evidently so are the National Guard then as the hours unfold it is possible that we see an armed shootout within the Capitol building. Members of the Trump mob can be seen wandering through the Rotunda and the New York Times have just published a photo of Nancy Pelosi’s (Democrat ‘Speaker’ of the House of Representatives) office being ransacked with a Trump ‘supporter’ replete with Stars and Stripes and his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. The rest of the world is watching in amazement as ‘American democracy effecting the transition from one president to the next’ is beamed throughout the world. Is the end of Trumpism? Or will it completely fracture the Republican Party between Trump supporters and traditional Republicans who are absolutely horrified by what they see?
Today was a very incredibly frosty day with the weather at about -4 degrees and with quite a misty freezing fog over the whole of the area. We had our Waitrose shopping order delivered an hour later than usual which we think will fit our timetables a little better – but by the time we got everything put away, our walk down the hill was delayed somewhat. We made our way a little gingerly but, in truth, the pavements were not especially icy or slippery. I am tempted to say that the weather was ‘cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey‘ which I always thought was actually a nautical term derived from the old sailing ships. The iron cannon balls were stocked in a pyramid on a brass plate (called a ‘monkey‘) and when the weather was very cold the differential rate of contraction between the iron and the brass was sufficient to give the pyramid a minute nudge and this caused the balls to fall off. However, in all honesty, I did find an internet source that comprehensively rubbished the whole of this explanation, including the fact that iron cannon balls were never even stored on a brass plate in the first place. Nonetheless, I think I will hang onto the first explanation. We collected our newspapers and ate our comestibles on a frozen park bench but the park was practically deserted. We did notice, though, that as the weather conditions seemed extreme, everybody we passed seemed exceptionally jolly. Is just the British tendency to smile in the face of adversity? Whilst we were in the park, we received the very sad news (via a WhatsApp message) that Don Mariano Baena one of our oldest Spanish friends had died. In his younger days he had helped to frame the Spanish Constitution and then became the Head of the Department of Public Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid which is how we came to know him. Later he returned to the Supreme Court but he was under the constant threat of death from ETA – the Spanish terrorist group. This was not an idle threat as several of his colleagues had been assassinated. As Mariano was aged about 90 and had had a stroke, we did have the inevitable pang of sadness but also a feeling that Mariano might well be in a better place (he was a fervent Catholic)
When we got home, we treated ourself to a nice hot curry – a dish we often prepare on a Thursday but one that seemed to be especially called for. We particularly wanted to settle down in front of the rolling news programmes to see the sequelae of yesterday – no doubt, the American nation as in 9-11 will be full of a period of introspection asking themselves ‘How did we allow this to happen?‘ Three particular things are starting to stand out in the cold light of day. Firstly if this was not a coup, then it surely was an insurrection as Trump had urged his supporters on to virtually occupy the Capitol building. Secondly, many, many contrasts are being made between the way in way in which the Black Lives Matter protest outside the Capitol was handled. On that occasion, the National Guard were all protected to the hilt and several peaceful protestors were violently manhandled and even arrested. Meanwhile, the mob yesterday were allowed to roam over the building and were even escorted out with perhaps many not being even arrested or charged. I think the number of arrests is about 60 out of a crowd which at the preceding rally was numbered in thousands and many of them joined in the storming of the Capitol. The FBI are now appealing for video evidence and anything that might identify them. (Why did the police when reinforced by the National Guard did not lock the building, handcuff everybody with plastic ties, put them in a secure location such as an army barracks nearby, try them in a specially convened court this morning and then keep them locked up for about two weeks until the inauguration was over? The suspicion remains that if they black, this would almost certainly have happened) Thirdly, there is now active consideration of the ways in which Trump could be removed from office immediately before he could inflict God knows what damage in the few days remaining. One possibility is Amendment 25 to the Constitution (the Vice President and the majority of the Cabinet with a quorum of 8) could declare the President ‘incapable’ and the Vice President could take over. Another possibility is impeachment which requires a two thirds vote in the Senate as as well as a resolution in the House of Representatives. This vote would pass through the lower house and then could pass through the new Senate if all of the Democrats and one sixth of the Republican senators (to give a two thirds majority) voted for it. This could be passed in one day, given the video evidence. I doubt, though, that either will happen but these are are unprecedented times. I always thought that a coup from the right was much more likely in the USA and the UK than a coup from the left and, of course in the UK, Boris Johnson tried to prorogue Parliament to prevent further debate before Brexit.The German government recalled that Hitler had arranged for the Reichstag to be burnt down before coming to power ‘democratically’!
Today was one of those ‘nothing much happened all day’ type of days. There had been a light scattering of snow overnight but nothing to trouble us on the pavements. Having collected our newspapers and trudging towards the park, though, it started snowing (fairly lightly) so we did not tarry excessively but drank our coffee and headed homewards. Today was the day that our domestic help comes to help so it was great to see her again after the excitement of Christmas and New Year – we chatted away excitedly about the kind of Christmas we had both had but, of course, we have to be particularly careful to keep a fair distance between all of us. We worked out little culinary treats that we are going to do for each other – whenever, I have some curry left over (which is nearly always) a save a bit extra for her and similarly she was to cook for us one of her specialist lasagne which, no doubt, will be streets ahead of anything you can buy or eat in a restaurant.
We had a fish dinner today (some pieces of cod which I found in an obscure part of the freezer that I had forgotten all about). We tart it up a bit by making a specialised little piece of hot sauce (equal elements of Thousand Island dressing, mayonnaise and tomato sauce heated up for a minute in the microwave) and it works a treat. We try the same dressing, incidentally, to make the fishcakes we tend to have once a week slightly more interesting.
Watching the rolling news programmes, it was amazing to see Donald Trump in something like a contrite mood and formally conceding the election as well as promising an orderly transfer of power. It is fairly evident to us what is going on. There is now a real possibility of being drummed out of office either via the 25th Amendment procedure or via another impeachment. It looks as though Trump is now seriously fighting for his political life and hence the strange spectacle of him reading out a statement condemning the rioters (that he had previously egged on) and indicating that the offenders would be prosecuted (but is anyone going to ‘shop’ them to the FBI?) It appears that some 4-5 people have actually lost their lives during this storming of the Capitol building. My son showed me something he had seen on social media that I had not been able to verify concerning how one of the rioters had lost their lives. After being photographed brandishing a couple of rifles in the air, he attempted to steal a picture from one of the walls. In the course of wrenching it off, he had discharged a taser which he was carrying into his own scrotum – in the subsequent distress he had inflicted upon himself, he had suffered a heart attack from which he died. I do not know if this story is correct but, if it is, it gives an extra twist to the meaning of the German word ‘schadenfreude’ which means 'malicious delight in another person’s misfortune'.
The COVID-19 news tonight is truly frightful. In the last 24 hours, there have been 1325 deaths recorded and 68,000 new infections. Of these statistics, the ‘new infection’ rate is always going to be the most important because a proportion of these are destined to become hospital in-patients – if there is any room left in the hospitals. The hospitals in London are at breaking point and the London Mayor has declared that the state of the London hospitals is now a ‘major incident’. As so many commentators are now saying, it really is a race between trying to get as many of the elderly and vulnerable vaccinated before the middle of February and the fact that the hospitals, already at breaking point, are going to have to cope somehow with an intake that seems to be increasing more than their discharge date day by day. Once the wards are full, the A&E corridor space is full with trollies and the ambulances outside are full, then what is to be done? The government is so worried about the next few weeks that they are going to start a major advertising campaign that members of the population should act as they are already infected by the virus and should keep to social distancing religiously – something that even a casual observation in the streets shows is not happening. Another source of worry is that a recent survey has shown that many people think they once they have been vaccinated, then many restrictions may be eased. It could be that ‘easing of restrictions prematurely’ will exceed the benefits to be derived from the vaccination itself which willingly prolong the misery for all of us.
Today has been an interesting day! It started off in a very conventional way as we walked down to collect our newspapers (saved for us behind the counter at our friendly local newsagents!) We then made our way to the park where we met up with our new found friend that we met the other day (an academic who taught OR [Operations Research] at Birmingham University) We had just about finished our chat for the day, social distancing well maintained, when we saw a group entering the park armed with a powerful portable loudspeaker and with a message to spread. This collection of individuals was declaiming that the whole of COVID-19 was a myth, that the vaccine was an abomination against nature, that the lockdown was fundamentally a fraud to deprive us of our liberties and similar scientifically illiterate utterings. If they had come anywhere near me, I would have had a real go at them for being (a) scientifically illiterate and (b) a positive danger to their fellow citizens if they were dissuading them from accepting the vaccine if offered. As it happened, the group turned off at a tangent with a massively amplified message broadcast across the park. We were on the point of leaving but as we did a couple of police cars turned up and two youngish but seemingly well-prepared police officers emerged (not your average ‘plod’) I approached them to report what I had seen and they quickly reassured me that they knew all about the ‘vaccine deniers’ and were on their way to deal with it.
On my way home, I reflected to myself (and to some of our old friends that we met on the way home) whether what we had seen was just the exercise of free speech or whether a threat to public order was in the making. Of course it is often argued that ‘your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins‘ or, to put it another way, given that all freedoms have to be exercised responsibly that one is not free to shout ‘FIRE’ as a member of a theatre audience. I suspect, but do not know, that the group may well have breaking local authority bye-laws particularly as they had been targeting a park. Would they have been equally free to spout the same rubbish up and down Bromsgrove High Street, I asked myself. I did wonder where the motivation of the group came from i.e. was it religious or political? I did a quick Google search and think that I MAY have some of the explanation. It is apparently the case that many climate-change deniers have now turned their attention to the pandemic, arguing in each case that a massive hoax is being perpetrated upon the great British public. This is what I discovered using on a very rapid search of the internet:
In the UK, one of the most prominent voices questioning the science of COVID-19 has been astrophysicist Piers Corbyn (the elder brother of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn). In 2020, Piers Corbyn attended and organised demonstrations across the UK and argued the pandemic is a “pack of lies.”
Corbyn has long rejected mainstream climate science as “fraud,” and has pushed alternative theories of global warming, based on analysis of the sun’s activity, through his company WeatherAction
Of course, it is possible that I am completely barking up the wrong tree at this point and that a more careful and analytical search might reveal a much more complex story. However, the fact that groups might have switched their attention from ‘climate change’ to something much more current which touches everybody’s life such as the pandemic does have a superficial plausibility to it. If conventional journalism or the Main Street Media pick up on these or similar stories then it would be interesting to know. In particular, is it just a Bromsgrove phenomenon or part of a larger nationally organised protest? I do suspect the latter, by the way.
And now to more prosaic matters. As part of my pre-Christmas rummaging about, I discovered a couple of old Nokia 1100/1101 mobile phones that I have not used for about a year. I always used to take one or both of them away with me on holiday because whilst I was struggling, on occasions, to get my iPhone to recognise the hotel’s Wi-Fi networks and protocols, I used to switch on my little mobile which would show a message ‘Welcome to Spain‘ One of them had about £70 of credit left on it (well worth preserving) whilst in the other the SIM card no longer registered, for whatever reason. So I sent off to Tesco mobile for a free Sim replacement (Tesco tend to have a policy of keeping your sim alive rather than ‘killing it’ after six months of inactivity as some networks do) So I spent the afternoon fitting the SIM card (a few seconds) and then spent some time getting some credit on it of a type that would not expire in a month (which is typically the case) As the technology is so simple (ante-dating smart phones and just monochrome screens with block graphics – but the talk time and charge time lasts for at least a week if not more) My efforts were crowned with success and one of the phones is now destined for the glove compartment of the car as a permanent ‘carry around’.
So the day 300 of this blog has actually arrived – it will only be a couple of months until we have completed a year of these musings. Today was a fairly typical Sunday in that I went off in the car to collect the Sunday newspapers before returning to get my weekly ration of the Andrew Marr show. Evidently, with the looming crisis in the hospitals and the fact that the pandemic is almost poised to overtake this, this was the major focus of the discussion. I did, however, think they might have spared some 5-10 minutes discussing the developments in America, considering that we claim to have a ‘special relationship’ with the Americans. Actually, although we claim to have a ‘special relationship’ with the Americans, they never seem to claim the same in reverse. I suppose the last time that the Capital Building was invaded and even set on fire was by the British in 1814. Apparently, the the ensuing fire reduced all but one of the capital city’s major public buildings to smoking rubble, and only a torrential rainstorm saved the Capitol from complete destruction. Also destroyed was their collection of special books and manuscripts from the Library of Congress – the Americans have regarded the Capitol building in which both the House of Representatives and the Senate meet as an almost ‘sacred’ place and hence the sense of violation after the events of last Thursday night were felt only too keenly. I read a most interesting article on the American FiveThirtyEight website which argued, very persuasively, that the storming of the US Capitol was not just a protest against a so-called ‘stolen ‘election or a simple manifestation of the president’s lies about the integrity of his defeat. Rather the whole article argues that like so much of American politics, this insurrection was fundamentally about race, racism, and the white American’s stubborn commitment to white dominance (and hence the Confederacy flags that were borne aloft) no matter what the cost or the consequence. As can be seen from the video footage which is plentiful, the mob of rioters carried Confederate flags, hung nooses, and paraded white supremacist symbols as they violently breached the Capitol. I mention all of this because, strangely, it does not get reported as such in the British media. The British media tend to say things such as ‘Donald Trump’s supporters, emboldened by the words of the President’ etc. etc. and not phrases such as ‘a white supremacist, racist mob invaded the Capitol intent on murdering Speaker Nancy Pelosi if they had happened to come across her‘ It is interesting that the secret service made sure that Vice-President Pence was led away to a place of his safety to protect him from the mob after he refused to accede Trump’s request to nullify the election. It is especially interesting that the members of the British Conservative party who had had snuggled up close to Donald Trump just after his election (but before Brexit) were keeping their mouths firmly shut at the moment.
In the park, we did not meet any of our usual gaggle of acquaintances but still got approached by all of the local un-leashed dogs, suspecting that a tasty titbit might come their way (although I doubt that oranges and chocolate biscuits would do them any good, even if it was offered). We did get into conversation with a lady who at the time of the initial lockdown in the Spring was actually in Portugal. Her opinion was that the Portuguese police handled their function pretty well being firm whilst polite and it was quite a marked contrast to the British police who’s presence has hardly been felt at all (near to where we live, anyway). We thought we were going to have a special lunch of roast partridge, bought recently from Waitrose. But when we got it out it out of its packaging and were preparing to put into a roaster bag, it did smell somewhat ‘off’. So we immediately threw the whole of it away, not particularly wishing to get a dose of salmonella and being stuck in an A&E department for hours? days? on a trolley whilst the pandemic is at its height. I spent some time this afternoon locating chargers for my trusted air of Nokia 1100 phones. Just out of interest, I looked up some of the specifications and reviews for the Nokia 1100 and its variants. It holds the record for being the biggest selling phone of all time. having sold some 250 million units – it had a talk time of about 3 hours and a standby time of some 350-400 hours, which is way over a fortnight!
It was quite a grey and overcast day today – the temperature was actually 2-3° higher than yesterday but there was a slight breeze to make you feel it was actually a bit cooler. We collected our newspapers and sat, as normal, in the park but we it was getting a little chilly so we were not inclined to linger for too long. I knew that the government were speaking about tightening up some of the rules surrounding how people behave in public and the following ‘guidance’ (which probably does not have the force of law) came today.
Mr Zahawi ( the minister in charge of vaccinations) highlighted people failing to wear masks or obey one-way lanes inside supermarkets.“These rules are not boundaries to be pushed at, these are rules that help all of us, hopefully bring down the death rate.” Asked on Times Radio if people should avoid sitting on park benches, he said: “Don’t go out and sit or have that opportunity of social interaction, because you’re helping the virus and that’s what we want to avoid.”
So that puts us in a bit of a dilemma because we are in receipt of some advice, issued in the Spring lockdown, that a sit-down was quite permissible if taken in the context of a long walk (in any case three kilometres) On the other hand, we do not wish to give the impression that we are openly flouting rules and sitting on the park bench each day might give that impression. So we have decided for the next three or four weeks, ur until we get vaccinated, we will stand in the bandstand and a have a quick swig of coffee and perhaps some ‘small eats’ in our hand such as as a banana and a cereal bar. I think we are conscious of the fact that voters may be observing our behaviour and assuming that we are breaking rules although it is not at all clear that we are. This is part of the dilemma of interpreting general regulations and trying to act within the spirit of them if at all possible.
The government are evidently getting seriously concerned about how to deal with the rapidly worsening pandemic. In the spring lockdown, the numbers of people keeping indoors was very much more (and the number of key workers was defined as less than now.) We now have a situation, though, where the new variant of the virus is much more infectious than before, the numbers of key workers seems to have been expanded tremendously, some of the primary schools are about 25% full with vulnerable and key-workers’ children and the population as a whole after 10 months do not seem to be taking things as seriously as they once did. Hence it is no surprise that the number of new infections is rocketing and the hospitals, particularly in London, are on the point of collapse. A vaccine will only give partial protection and is, by no means, a ‘magic bullet’ as the full immunity will not be released until the second dose is administered some 12 weeks later (and then a further 2-3 weeks on top of that) The government is rolling out vaccination centres across several points even including a race course such as Epsom) but I do wonder whether there are sufficient staff, even when assisted by volunteers, to get the jab adminsistered. In my mind, I am writing off ‘the call’ for a vaccination for some 3 weeks from now which is when I reckon the 80’s year olds have been done and they move on to the 75+ into which category I fall.
The news from America also makes some fairly grim reading. The FBI are warning that there could be fifty armed protests in State capital cities as well as in Washington, DC on inauguration day. The Democrats have drawn up articles of impeachment and that will almostcertainly pass through the House of Wednesday., There would not be enough time for the Senate, who act as jury, to one to a consideration before inauguration day. The Democrats, though, seem to be working on the assumption that Donald Trump’s wings have been clipped in the short term and he may not try anything dramatic in the next 10-12 days – but who knows? The Democrats may well wait for at least ‘100 days in office’ before the papers of impeachment are lodged with the Senate. In any case, President Trump will be the only president who has been impeached twice within his term of office. If the Senate (augmented, of course, by some more Democratic senators from Georgia) might just vote for a conviction, although this is a little unlikely and would debar Trump for running for office again. The thing that is really disturbing after the events in the Capitol last week is the number of Republican legislators (about a hundred) who still support Trump even after the attempted coup – and perhaps some 40% of American republican voters are still loyal to him as well.
Today’s date is one of those interesting ones which occur from time to time as it can be written: 12.1.21, which if you examine it means that it can be written backwards and the date will remain exactly the same. This is called a palindromic date and there are various cult groups who both study these things and also make dire predictions about them. For example, one cultish type group is convinced that the world is going to end today (but what happens when they wake up in the morning and find they are still alive?) Notwithstanding all of this, we were a little delayed on our walk down into the town today but encountered one of our near neighbours who we have not seen over the whole of the Christmas period and also our Italian friend who lives further down the hill. The topic of conversation soon turned to when we might receive the call to be vaccinated and our best guess is that this will probably be within about 2-3 weeks time. The government is hoping to have all of the over 70-year olds and the especially vulnerable vaccinated by the middle of February which is in some five weeks in time. Although there are some mass vaccination clinics being set up around the country, whether we would want to go and queue up in central Birmingham (the site of our nearest mass clinic) is uncertain. One rumour is that supplies of the Oxford AstraZenica vaccine actually arrived at our group practice last Friday, but, as with so many things in life, we shall have to wait and see. We were somewhat delayed because a gentleman we have met before in the park engaged us in conversation and the question tuned to politics – I might hasten to add that I never initiate a conversation like this but will not run away from the challenge. When I was asked if I could challenge the fact that the vast majority of the universities and the press in this country were left-wing, I realised that this conversation might not end well. So I got in a few parting shots (e.g. Brexit was hardly the last word in democracy as only 37% of the population actually voted for it, that referenda were beloved of fascist dictators and were generally used on the right to engineer social change and so on) and we then made our way homewards for a belated lunch.
In the afternoon, we had a couple of video calls to make. First I called one of our Hampshire friends whose wife had been ill and had had to have some further investigations but so far, these have turned out to be reassuring negative. We spent a lot of time comparing notes on the minutiae of the American ‘coup’ attempt by the Trump brigade and then turned to more domestic matters. After we had been chatting for an hour, it was time to terminate that call and start another with some of our ex-Waitrose friends here in Bromsgrove and we were chatting for some 75 minutes before we realised that our tea-time was approaching.
The pandemic news as well as the American news continues to dominate. After the announcements of yesterday when the politicians were arguing for more complete adherence to the lock-down rules, we imagined that the police and or some COVID vigilantes employed by the local authority might be more in evidence, but this was not the case. Although Meg and I enjoyed our normal coffee, we are still minded to cut short the quite legitimate (in our view) rests upon the park benches and replace them by standing up in the bandstand and having a quicker snatch of some coffee and some fruit. The American news continues to be of interest to us. Today, the Democrats are going to ask Vice-President Pence to invoke Amendment 25 which allows for the replacement of a president if the Vice President and rest of the cabinet agrees. This is extremely unlikely as Trump and Pence seem to have ‘buried the hatchet’ in the last day so it appears that a resolution will be passed tomorrow for the impeachment of Donald Trump. The current feeling is that the Democrats so as not to cause further distress before the inauguration on January 20th, a week tomorrow, will hold off until President Biden has completed his first 100 days and will then press the Senate for a vote after Donald Trump has left office. If successful (which is by no means certain) then Donald Trump would not be eligible to run for President again in four year’s time, which may be his intention. The news however is a little chilling in that the FBI are preparing for there to be armed protests taking place in each of the 50 state capitals on inauguration day. Were this to happen, is the USA on the brink of a civil war (or a re-run of the last one?)
We are always a little delayed on a Wednesday morning as it is the day on which we have to update our Waitrose shopping order in time for delivery in the morning. At the same time, I need to remember, (a few minutes after midnight!) to book my slot for a fortnight’s time. I have learnt over the weeks that new delivery slots get released just after midnight and although there were a few glitches with the website last night (on the server side), soon was all resolved and we got our order into hit the relevant slot.
The COVID-19 crisis continues to deepen as the number of deaths at 1564 exceeds the rate of one death per minute during the last 24 hours. There are some very slight signs that the rate of new infections (which eventually feeds into hospital admissions and ultimately, for some, deaths in hospital) may be just about lessening. It looks as though the death rate in this second wave of the pandemic has already exceeded the entire death rate from the first wave and we are not yet at the peak of this second wave. It could be that the lockdown measures are starting to have some import but it takes a week or so for these to be reflected in hospital admissions and even more in the death rate.
Meanwhile, many eyes this evening are focussed on the American political system as the House of Representatives may be about to impeach Donald Trump – if so, this will be the first time in history that a sitting president has been impeached twice. The House of Representatives have filed one article of impeachment, accusing Donald Trump of “incitement of insurrection”. This comes following the deadly riots that took place at the Capitol in Washington DC last Wednesday after a speech by Mr Trump to his supporters. Impeachment just means that formal charges have been laid and it takes a two thirds majority in the Senate to convict which is quite a high bar. However, there are other sanctions that can be applied which only require a simple Senate majority so there are several options open to the legislature after impeachment has actually taken place. As I blog, I am following the rather arcane procedures in the House of Representatives where each speaker is only allowed about a minute – this prevents the uttering of filibustering speeches I would imagine.
Returning to domestic matters, readers may remember that last Saturday a group entered the park with a portable loudspeaker declaiming loudly that the whole of COVID-19 is a massive hoax and similar rubbish. I read in a local newspaper feed that four people from the area have been arrested charged with offences against public order. The principal transgression is that this group have been entering local hospitals (often at night) and photographing empty areas of the hospital to attempt to ‘prove’ that the pandemic is a gigantic hoax. Four men have been bailed but with the condition that they are not allowed to enter a hospital, except in a case of medical emergency. I suppose this means that might still try and speak again in a public place but the press reports are very sparse so I only have the slightest of details.
There are several juicy little morsels of news this evening. One of these is that because of the intense pressure felt within the hospitals at the moment, there are plans to ‘decant’ several patients from hospitals into hotels to release much needed hospital beds. What the patients feel about this, I wonder – some might enjoy it but others may feel very nervous and worried by these procedures. A second little titbit of news is that Boris Johnson has admitted that the schools may not reopen after the half-term break in mid February. If this is the case, then we can forget about schools opening at all until well after the Easter vacation. The third little bit of news is the way that British politicians are positioning themselves in the light of the impending Trump impeachment. Boris Johnson for one is still arguing for the ‘special relationship’ with Donald Trump. Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has accused senior Tories of “sycophancy” in their dealings with the Trump administration. “Ministers were so eager to swallow the Trump playbook of how politics should be done that they abandoned British values, interests and their own self-respect,” she said.
Thursdays are our normal delivery dates for our Waitrose order and so this normally delays us a little. However, today we got things put away in plenty of time and started our walk in weather conditions that although a little cold and dull were not particularly unpleasant. This was not to last, though, and the journey home was somewhat unpleasant with a fine but sharp drizzle or it could have been the start of a freezing fog. The park was quite underpopulated today as, indeed, it was yesterday so I wonder if the message about the virulence and the proximity of the virus is eventually starting to ‘cut through’ with members of the public. Whilst having our coffee, an elderly lady passed us but it does not take long for the conversation to turn to the subject of COVID-19. She and her husband had just received her vaccination at a GP practice which is adjacent to ours. I was sufficiently ungallant to enquire as to her age and she informed me that she was 80 (although she didn’t look it) This means that she is the Priority Level above me (Priority Level 2) so you do get the feeling that the day will approach when we will get the call. All of the 80+ have to be vaccinated before they start on the next Priority level down so, in my mind’s eye, I still think it will be some 2-3 weeks before I actually get the call for vaccination. Whilst on the subject of medical matters, Meg had received her routine bowel cancer screening kit which is done once every 3 years – as I remember it, the procedures last time were quite a lot more complicated but now they seem to have refined the procedure so that you only have to submit one sample instead of several collected over several days. Anyway, we got that all done and dusted and posted off with the results promised in about two weeks time. Finally, I got a call postponing my physiotherapy appointment I was due to attend tomorrow but I am quite relieved about that because by the time the new appointment comes around, I might just then received my vaccine.
Another little ‘faux pas’ has been apparently been committed today in the person of Priti Patel, the Home Secretary. She was trying to provide clarity on whether one should exercise alone or not. (As an aside, Priti Patel is renowned for starting off a statement saying ‘Let me be absolutely clear‘ before embarking on utterances which are anything but clear) Apparently today she said that people should exercise ‘on their own’ giving examples from cycling and running where this might be the case. But she was swiftly contradicted by No. 10 who pointed out the policy remains that you can exercise with someone else in your own support bubble (typically husbands and wives) So not for the first time, we have ministers unaware of the guidance which is being issued to the population. It also transpires today that the Fisheries Minister had failed to read the portions of the Trade Agreement with the EU which details the new arrangements regarding shipping – so this, too, hardly inspires much confidence that the ship of state is in secure hands.
In Washington, the number of troops protecting the Capitol building now exceeds the total number of troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan at 26,000. The most elaborate security arrangements with barriers and no-entry zones are now established and even private companies are doing their bit. Airlines are refusing to let people with firearms board a flight for Washington in the next few days. Airbnb, HotelTonight has just cancelled all Washington, DC, metro reservations ahead of Inauguration. Meanwhile, for those addicted to conspiracy theories, there are some reports that the Capitol building received quite a large number of ‘unusual’ visitors in the few days before the insurrection. In The Washington Post, it is alleged that In the days before the Jan. 6 attack, immediately preceded by Trump’s remarks at a rally, a number of Democrats have pointed to speeches, tweets and videos that they have said raised questions about whether the attackers may have been inspired or helped by Republican members of Congress.
So we are counting down the days before the inauguration next Wednesday, hoping and praying that Trump does not do anything completely bizarre in the dying days of his presidency. The one thing that may be helpful is that removal vans have already been spotted in the vicinity of the White House. There are also reports that most of the ‘staffers’ in the White House are avoiding Trump like the plague for the next few days so that they will be not dragged into any controversial actions in the few days that remain of the Trump presidency. Meanwhile, armed Trump supporters may turn up at every state capital throughout the land next Wednesday – you couldn’t make it up!
Today proved to be one of our more interesting mornings. The weather was rather cold with a cold but not excessive wind. We greeted our domestic help as it was a Friday and then collected our newspapers. In the park we met up with our new found friend, the academic from Birmingham University, whose acquaintance we made recently. We met sort of by accident as we both knew the approximate time that we normally coincided. In order to make sure that we complied with the social distancing regulations, we met on adjacent park benches so that we could have a chat from a two-metre distance from each other – we formed a sort of triangle with Meg on one bench, our friend on the adjacent one and myself on the other side of the path. We are mainly discussing some of the literary figures that we had in common – for example, John Mortimer who wrote the ‘Rumpole of the Bailey‘ series, I was reminded of his biography which I believe was called ‘Clinging to the Wreckage‘ As a not particularly competent sailor, he argued that in the event of a capsize, it was ultimately safer in the long run to ‘cling to the wreckage’ and await rescue rather than strike out independently to swim for safety, probably only to die in the process. One journalist who had died in the last few days was Katherine Whitehorn at the ripe old age of about 92. I remember her for the way in which she took the well-known expression ‘Inside every fat woman is a thin woman trying to get out‘ and inverted it brilliantly to observe ‘Outside every thin woman is a fat man trying to get in‘ In the midst of all of this mirth, we encountered an ‘old’ acquaintance of ours who lives on the edge of the park and therefore used to walk quite regularly in the park with her little Jack Russell dog. Meg and I were saying to each that we hoped she was OK as we had not seen her since well before Christmas and then up she popped. She had received her dose of the vaccine earlier on that morning, so yet again we feel that our turn is not an incredibly long way off. She was pretty well and sprightly but as the cold did not suit her very much, so she was curtailing her walks in the park. And then some friends of friends who attended the local church came along – we had been introduced to them when we were regaling each other with mince pies and sherry at a kind of impromptu party on Christmas Eve, when the weather was quite fine and we entertained each other sitting in an open but well ventilated garage (sort of outdoors) The really interesting thing about all of this is that you don’t really know who you are going to meet on these occasions which makes the occasional encounter into quite a bonus. By this time, we were getting quite cold and the sharp wind had intensified so we made our way home with alacrity to cook ourselves a warming lunch. Although snow was sort of threatened, it looks as though some is definitely on the way together with some biting winds. It looks like a case of ‘winter draws on’ tomorrow (a phrase which the BBC under its first Director General tried to ban in the 1930’s as it suggested an extreme licentiousness, but there you are)
The vaccine news sounds reasonably encouraging. Although it is very early days yet, it does appear that the government attempts to roll out the vaccine may be starting to bear some fruit. This government tends to ‘over-promise but to under-deliver’ and this may well prove to be the case here. One closely guarded secret is the data on the supplies of vaccine as the government fears that some of this data is subject to commercial confidentiality. However, the Scottish government inadvertently let some data slip out before the relevant website was pulled but it could be the case that in Scotland it is possible that most of the population could be vaccinated by the end of July. Of course, a lot of this is speculation and I suspect that the next week or so are going to be really critical when several new vaccinations centres will get into full swing. As from Monday next, all air corridors into the UK are too be closed. As I write, there is an advert on the TV warning everyone how infectious the latest variant to the COVID-19 is so I surmise that the UK is seriously worried that the hospitals whilst at full capacity are not yet at their peak (expected in some 2-3 weeks yet?) and that some variant of the virus which is not susceptible to the vaccines may well appear on these shores.
Despite a prognostication of rain and even snow, today turned out to be quite a fine day. Meg and I appreciated the faintest glimmerings of the warmth of the sun which reminded us that although some bad weather is undoubtedly to come, at least we have some slight indications of the spring to come. Before we collected our newspapers, we came across two of our church friends who were having a chat with a neighbour whilst they caught up on news not having seen each other for about a week or even longer now. Then we collected our weekend complement of newspapers (bulging with supplements) and made our way to the park where we met with our new-found university friend. We now have a well-established routine of sitting on adjacent benches which helps to ensure social distancing. Just as yesterday, our elderly lady trotted along none the worse for her virus jab yesterday and we chatted variously amongst ourselves. Finally, on our way up the hill, we met with even more church friends (our oldest) and again caught up with each other’s news. Needless to say, it was quite late by this time but we enjoyed a lunch of liver and onions which we had promised ourselves for some time but not actually eaten for months. This afternoon was spent on a good long read followed by some necessary tidying up which is always necessary to avoid the clutter building up on my desk and computer work areas.
A big scandal is emerging at the Home Office where due to a ‘human error’ some 400,000 police records were wiped from the national police database. Apparently, Home Office computer engineers were urgently seeking to develop some code which might help to restore some of the lost records and ensure that this does not happen again. The mind boggles as to what kind of system the Home Office deploys if so many records can be deleted accidentally. As we all know from our own personal (and professional) experience, when you hit the ‘Delete’ button, things rarely disappear for good but are removed to a type of archive from whence they can be retrieved. This happens regularly with our emails, for example, and if our simple domestic systems can deploy a methodology to ensure the safety of even trivial (as well as important) records, surely there must be a back-up system that ensures the safety of critical police records. It will be interesting to see how much data the engineers manage to retrieve – and I wonder who will be fired as a result of all of this. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is being called to account although politicians grasp of technical detail is typically woefully deficient.
Naturally, we are all waiting to see what preparations are being made for the inauguration of Jo Biden next Wednesday. It has been reliably reported that President Trump will leave the White House at the latest possible moment before he takes a flight for Florida and his ‘stately’ home. One account is that he will initially fly to an Air Force base where he will have a little leaving ceremony (perhaps with brass bands, certainly with much flag waving) so it appears that he will be a showman to the last. I would think that this last gesture is just meant to provide some video so that his huge band of supporters can still be energised. Meanwhile, the CNN website reveals some shocking details of the events of last week:
Emerging details paint an even grimmer picture than the shocking images of violence broadcast live around the world last week. Evidence suggests planning by the insurrectionists, and there are concerns that they may have received support from some Capitol Police, current and former members of the military, and even some members of Congress.
As rioters broke into the Capitol building and some chanted “hang Mike Pence,” the seditious mob ripped through the “thin blue line” many claim to revere, kicking and beating police with their own batons, spraying them with chemical irritants, threatening to kill them. One policeman and four others died that day.
Sky News reports that some 3.5 million people have now received a vaccine – more than the total number of people who have been infected with the virus itself. The Sky News website even has an on-line tracker so that you can see in real time how many in the population have actually been vaccinated and the progress being made towards the government target of 15 million by mid- February. Entertaining if nothing else – and it is one small way of holding the government to account given its proven record of over-promising and under-delivering. The news from the COVID-10 front line is that the COVID patients are getting both younger and sicker – and the peak is still some 7-10 days away as of tonight.
Another conventional Sunday morning dawns. I popped down into the car to collect our supply of Sunday newspapers after which we watched the Andrew Marr show as usual. The weather was a little more mild than of late so we walked down as usual, meeting a couple of our friends (one out gardening, the other couple preparing to go out on their own ‘constitutional’ walk for the morning) The park was fairly busy with its usual complement of young children on their little bikes and a goodly supply of unleashed little dogs. However, we did not meet any of our usual park friends which was not unusual for a Sunday as you tend to have a different ‘flow’ of people who use the park at the weekends rather than those who are its daily visitors. For some reason, the weather seems to get a bit colder as they morning progresses (perhaps the cold air flows down hill) so we were pleased to get home and cook a very conventional Sunday lunch of roast beef (in the slow cooker) and Yorkshire pudding. After that, we indulged in a good in-depth read of the Sunday Times and the Observer which occupied most of the afternoon.
The forthcoming inauguration of the Joe Biden presidency on Wednesday next continues to occupy our thoughts. It will seem to be a very strange inauguration indeed with the Capitol building turned into an armed fortress (with some 21,000 troops) and the crowds will be kept a long distance away. Because of the pandemic crisis, the crowds are being urged to keep away which will guarantee that the crowd attending the Biden inauguration will be dramatically smaller than the Trump inauguration. Incidentally, as I remember it, Trump insisted that the crowds attending his inauguration four years ago were larger than those of his predecessor, Barak Obama. When photographic evidence was produced to show this was certainly NOT the case, then a series of rancorous exchanges ensued between Trump’s new press spokesman (he had so many!) and the White House Press Corps and these ill-tempered exchanges set the tone for what was to follow through much of the Trump presidency. When Joe Biden does take over, he is letting it be known that he will immediately issue a series of Executive Orders (i.e. with no debate from Congress) to immediately rejoin the Paris climate accords, to reunite families split at the USA-Mexico border amongst other things. When you think about it, President-elect Biden will be at his most powerful in his first 100 days when he can set agendas, institute programs and start to roll back some of the worst excesses of the preceding regime. I have a view (not shared by many of the commentators) that Joe Biden may surprise us all and prove to be quite a decisive and forceful president. Evidently, he is in a unique position because of his long experience as a senator of ‘working across the aisle’ (i.e. working collaboratively with the opposition parties who are the Republicans) as well as being the Vice-President to Barak Obama of course. I think he may realise that at his age (78) he is not going to run for office again so he has four years rather than eight to make a decisive impact. So time is short and he may well realise that he has most room for manoeuvre in the early days of his presidency whilst the Republicans are in some disarray so we might expect quite an exciting first few months. Many people think he will just ‘mark time’ so that his Vice-President, Kamala Harris (the first female and ‘person of colour’ to hold the office) can be primed as the next Presidential candidate for the Democrats. I am quite willing to be proved wrong in all of this but I remember well the case of Archbishop Roncalli who became Pope John 23rd. Most of his fellow cardinals thought that they were electing a real ‘patsy’ but he proved to be one of the most innovative popes in modern times, reconvening the Vatican Council to reform and update the institutions of the Catholic Church. So actually, Pope John 23rd turned out to be quite radical and achieved a tremendous amount in the five years before he died. I think you can probably see the parallels I am drawing here without labouring the point.
The numbers vaccinated here in the UK has now reached 3.8 million and several new vaccination centres are to be opened from tomorrow, Monday. It now looks as though the target of vaccinating 2 million jabs a week might even now be achievable. Incidentally, I am quite pleasantly surprised about the innovative thinking that has been at work in commissioning cathedrals to act as vaccination centres. They should be easily found, there is lots of space for people to sit down before and after the jab at a safe distance, being large and airy buildings will help to disperse any remnants of virus that might be in the atmosphere, cathedrals are part of a mission to ‘provide succour for the sick’ and so on. I think this is a brilliant idea – it has been adopted by Salisbury, Lichfield and Blackburn cathedrals for a start. Some cathedrals have hit on the bright idea of providing soothing organ music as well. All in all, I think this is an imaginative and innovative solution to a national crisis.
We were a little delayed this morning because we had an call from Meg’s support group and this took about an hour of our time that we were not expecting. Eventually, though, we got going but as we were a little delayed, we decided to vary our routine somewhat. I left Meg in the park chatting with our new ex-Birmingham University friend whilst I made haste rapidly to collect our newspapers. Then I rejoined our little meeting in the park and we chatted until the chill got to our bones a little and we decided to call it a day and make for home. Then we had a rather delayed lunch which we threw together (life being made a little easier as we had cooked our joint yesterday so all we had to do was to heat up some slices of the joint and then prepare some vegetables)
I have just given myself an amusing few minutes as I read that someone on Sky News has worked out that Donald Trump published 57,000 ‘tweets’ in ten years and has collected together some of the more outrageous of them. Here is but one to give you an idea of the flavour of some of them. Donald Trump is arguing that he possesses a tremendously high IQ and so he tweeted: ‘Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest – and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault’ But on a slightly more serious note, the esteemed Washington Post decided some time ago to establish a database of all of the lies that Donald Trump had ever told (while in post) The newspaper identified what they called a ‘tsunami’ of lies emanating from the Oval Office. The paper’s fact-checker reveals that on 9th July last year, when 62 false claims were made in one day alone, the total reached 20,000. Many of these came in interviews with Fox News (the incredibly right wing news channel which was Trump’s favourite but which ‘dumped’ him before the end of the presidential election campaign) The column also noted that Trump had expressed 1,200 lies about the pandemic alone. On this topic, there is now a plethora of concern about the legacy of a president who had lied so extensively and repeatedly about almost everything. Matt Frei, the respected TV correspondent for Channel4 News, posted an extremely thoughtful piece on the Channel4 news today about the dangers of the Trump election campaigns and presidency to American democracy. What is self evident to us now is that every little item of news that was remotely favourable to the presidency was lauded and magnified massively through the right wing channels. However, anything that was critical of Trump (of which there was a lot) was immediately labelled as ‘fake news’ as though it had been entirely made up. The really interesting question for commentators and observers is the fact that some 70 million of Americans were either persuaded that the so-called ‘fake news’ actually WAS fake, or that they know they were being lied to but did not really care as long as he stood up for ‘us’ (us being the downwardly mobile, trapped white working class population in the main). What we shall see in the next few weeks in court houses in USA (or at least in Washington DC) is what the courts will make of the excuses given by the rioters when they are eventually charged and they claim in defence that they had the ‘honest belief’ that their country was in danger because a ‘stolen’ election and they ere only acting out what they believe the president wanted them to do to save the country from ‘danger’ What is undoubtedly true is that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have defined the internal dangers to the USA as coming from the left and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and not from the racist, white-supremacist Trump supporters which is where the violence has actually emanated. We shall see!
I thought I would end on some really depressing news, for a change. An Oxford University research platform has recently computed that the UK death rate, expressed as 16.5 deaths per million of population, is actually in the highest in the world. Of course, we must hasten to point out that some countries will more readily put COVID-19 on a death certificate than others and hence world-wide statistics may be somewhat misleading. However, they will not be massively wrong – the USA death rate is about 10.0 per million which is about two-thirds of the UK rate. It is by now quite a commonly known fact that the British Army was seriously worried by the abject state of physical health of many of the young men called up to fight in the First World War – I have read a figure that as many as 40% were rejected on medical grounds but I suspect that as the Army got more and more desperate for manpower the minimum physical requirements were ‘tweaked’. It may well be that when (if?) we have an official enquiry into the UK’s preparedness for the pandemic that a similar moment occurs to the more thoughtful members of the British elite that more than a decade of Tory austerity has seriously weakened the ‘body politic’ i.e. the ability of the population as a whole to withstand a pandemic.
Today we carried on with the series of self-help sessions that Meg is undertaking via a Webex link with the local hospital so this took a little ‘chunk’ out of the morning. We texted our Birmingham University friend to say we would be a little late today and indeed did coincide, by chance, outside the newspaper shop. Once having collected our newspapers, we made our way to a pair of adjacent park benches where we could continue with our daily reminiscences and dreamt of the barmy summer days when we hope we can peregrinate up and down the Severn Valley (preserved) railway line, hopefully taking in some nice beer en route. In fact, in Bridgnorth station, there is a pub (‘Railwayman’s Arms‘) accessible from the end of the station platform that serves good range of beers (including a superb mild if they still stock it) which is always worth a visit. This afternoon, we read our newspapers assiduously and then FaceTimed some of our ex-Waitrose friends in the late afternoon. We were swapping news with each other for over an hour, mainly wondering when the vaccine will be offered to the four of us which we hope can only be about 1-2 weeks by now. The government rather ‘jumped the gun’ by announcing that the vaccination regime was to be rolled out to the 70+ age groups. However, they did not bother to inform the GP practices of this policy and many (or most) of them up and down the country had to cope with masses of telephone calls asking when the vaccine would be available. The actual story is a lot more complex than this. The government was attempting to indicate that IF all of the 80 year olds had been vaccinated, then a GP practice COULD start to extend vaccination to the 70 years if they had a mind. In practice, though, across the whole of the country only about one half to two thirds of the 80+ age group have actually been vaccinated and there are reports of shortages of vaccine to complete the job. To complicate matters, if a practice has a temporary excess of vaccine and is tempted to vaccinate the 70+ age group then these supplied will be diverted to those areas that have already run out of vaccine. Once again, we have seen an example of the ways in which the government is so desperate to generate ‘good news’ that it actually runs far ahead of what is the actual situation on the ground.
Tonight, we stand on the eve of the Joe Biden inauguration. This is going to be an inauguration like no other that anyone can recall, given that that there is the backdrop of the pandemic (which would be intensified if large crowds were allowed to gather as is customary), together with the foreground of the recent attacks on the Capitol building by the the Trump white supremacist mobs. In practice, the Capitol is guarded by some 25,000 members of the National Guard. The FBI have had to undertake some rapid background checks to ensure that no Trump sympathisers were embedded in the National Guard – in the event, some dozen members of the National Guard were ‘stood down’ when it was revealed that they had extensive links with extremist right-wing groups. In the place of actual people, there will phalanxes of American Stars and Stripes flags. In addition, the FBI said last week that it had separately identified more than 200 suspects threatening violence at the ceremony and had picked up an ‘extensive amount of concerning online chatter’. As it happens, the Capitol is so heavily guarded with troops and extensive barriers that it is unlikely in the extreme that tomorrow’s inauguration will actually be disrupted. But there must still be legitimate concerns that Trump mobs might turn up at any of the 50 state capitals across the country and threaten to overwhelm the local defence forces. The situation is confused because there is an enormous mount of right wing ‘chatter’ across the social media to make one last effort to prevent Joe Biden’s inauguration. On the other hand, there are some of these groups who are urging these members to stay away from these local conflicts as is is likely to be radical ‘left’ elements such as Antifa (= Anti Fascists) who are only pretending to simulate Trump supporters in order to discredit them. At this point, I have to admit that is is difficult for us Europeans to get inside the mindsets of the American right – listening to the ‘Vox pop’ interviews with some of the members of these groups, they have such a visceral hatred of Barak Obama (the preceding president) that one can only conclude that a deep vein of racism is actually fuelling their hatreds. Donald Trump himself seems to have been spending his last day in office cloistered with members of this family deciding how to distribute about 100 ‘pardons’ which traditionally is in the gift of each departing president (and is often shockingly abused, this year being no exception)
Today after a somewhat delayed start we wondered whether to brave the elements for our daily walk or not. Instead, we decided to compromise so we took the car down to collect our newspapers and then headed for the park. It was spattering with rain as we are still on the edge of Storm Christoph, which seems to be hitting parts of the North of England more severely. Having got to the park we decided to seek the shelter of the bandstand where, almost alone in the park, we met up with our Birmingham University friend. We braved the wind and rain together, surveying an almost empty park but still glad of a chat with each other. As we had the car, the journey home was relatively swift so we we did not get soaked through which is always a danger.
Today is the day which we thought would never come but here it is at last – the Inauguration Day for Joe Biden to be installed as the 46th President of the United States. Evidently, it was going to be a very different inauguration – for a start, President Trump vacated the White House (without being prised out!) and made his way to the Andrews Air Force base where he was greeted as president for the very last time. After a fairly perfunctory speech he wished the new regime well without referring to the name of his successor by name and eventually to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ll do it my way!‘ then AirForce 1, the presidential plane, took off for Florida and Mar-a-Lago, the Trump retreat where he stay closeted with members of his family for a while. Meanwhile, back in Washington, DC the inauguration organisers had to make the best of bad job, in the absence of any crowds. So instead of a Mall filled with flag-waving crowds, we now just had the flags placed at strategic intervals but fluttering nicely in the January breeze. The overall effect was visually quite effective. Then we had the arrival of the members of the political elite, principally all the ex-Presidents and their wives. The one exception, for understandable reasons, was Jimmy Carter who is 96, a survivor of both liver cancer and brain cancer, and whose health was too frail even for an inauguration. We had the normal patriotic songs and prayers followed by the swearings-in and the oath of office by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, then to be followed by the inauguration speech. This was full of appeals to unity (and was in marked contrast to that spoken by Donald Trump four years ago) To my mind, this was quite an effective call for national unity in the face of a raging pandemic, a faltering economy and a democracy whose fragility had been exposed by the invasion of the Capitol Building a fortnight ago, on January 6th. A theme of the Biden speech was that ‘democracy has triumphed‘ which is evidently the case after the earth-shattering events within the last fortnight. Normally, there would be an inauguration ball in the evening after a day full of ceremonies – I suspect that they have decided to cancel this in view of the pandemic. If my memory serves me correctly, Bill Clinton went off and played his saxophone on the occasion of his own inaugural ball years ago. The Biden presidency has started off with three acts of presidential empathy which must have hit the right tone. Last night, he went with Kamala Harris to the Lincoln Memorial, lit by an avenue of lights, and paid tribute to the 40,000 Americans who have died in the pandemic. He then paid tribute to them again in the midst of his presidential address by calling for a moment’s silence where people could offer their thoughts and their prayers for the dead. Finally, he went straight off to the Arlington National Cemetary again to pay tribute to past American heroes (and the burial place of past presidents). I suppose one has to say that if any presidential hopeful was capable of riding the huge divides in the American political life, then Jo Biden as a centrist who has often worked ‘across the aisle’ in the Senate is the best-placed person to do it.
Meanwhile, we have more grim news from the home front. The number of deaths is now at an all-time high of 1,820 (and a total of above 93,000 in total). Just to compound this diet of bad news, it is also a source of concern that the South African variant of COVID may be resistant to the latest vaccines – in time, of course, they could be tweaked like the ‘flu virus but there is still more time for more deadly mutations to arise. Meg and I are still awaiting the call for our vaccination which we suspect may still be at least two weeks off, amidst some reports of shortages of the vaccine in various places (who would have thought that?)
It was technically this morning (well actually. few minutes after midnight) but Sky News were indicating that they were going to broadcast the first Press Briefing from the Joe Biden White House. This turned out to be fascinating, if only for the massive contrast with the Trump counterpart. The initial Trump briefing started off with a massive row between the accredited press correspondents and the new Trump spokesman who was attempting to argue that the crowds at the Trump inauguration were the biggest in history – a ‘fact’ easily disproved by recourse to the available photographic evidence of how far the inauguration day crowds extended down the Mall. Relationships with the press started off on a bad footing and never recovered. The Biden press briefing was entirely different. The new spokesperson was very experienced having done a similar job at the State Department for years. She promised a policy of complete openness and transparency and the whole atmosphere made you feel as the years had just rolled away and what had transpired under the Trump regime was just a bad dream. One correspondent asked her whether the Joe Biden regime would prove to be boring to which she replied ‘I certainly hope so!‘ – none of the fireworks and press rows as previously but just old-fashioned boring government news!
Our Waitrose order came today and got put away, fortunately with nothing having been forgotten. Then we walked down under a fairly blue sky but quite a ‘nip’ in the air to collect our newspapers and thence onto the park. There we met with ex-University of Birmingham friend again plus the old lady who we know lives near the park so we had our normal pleasant chat before it was time to strike homewards.
This afternoon, I busied myself with going through a pile of old newspapers to see if there was anything worth preserving. What tends to happen is that any unread bits of newspaper from the day before get put onto a pile which gradually grows until it gets ‘attacked’ (as this afternoon). I find that I tend to keep any interesting cartoons from the Times, plus any important media/diet/exercise bits. The Times publishes its health section each Tuesday and this is generally worth a read. I happened to find an article on Joe Biden’s wife (who has a PhD in education) so this obviates me having to traverse the web for something similar. I have managed to get most (but not all) of this task completed by the early evening.
The COVID news this evening is interesting. The number of people now successfully vaccinated is approaching 5 million but it looks as though there are still a proportion of the 80 yr olds to be vaccinated before the next tranche of vaccines is administered to the 75+ age cohort. As you might expect, we are awaiting our call day by day but do not know whether it will be a letter, by a phone call or by text message. By my calculations, this call ought to come within the next week or so which will take us well into February. There is a certain amount of discussion going on about the efficacy of a ‘one-shot’ virus with a second dose following within 12 weeks rather than the three weeks the manufacturers recommend. The UK government scientists are arguing that it is better to ‘save’ the second dose that would normally be received three weeks after the first and to use to give a measure of protection to another person. This is following the utilitarian principle of the ‘greatest good of the greatest number‘. However, Israel has been enormously successful in vaccinating way over 90% of their population already but the scientific data is revealing that the amount of protection may be quite low. Amongst the over 60-year-old’s who need the vaccine protection most, the efficacy has been reported as only 33% – which still leaves them quite vulnerable. This question may take time some time to resolve – the Israeli data is the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine whereas in pure numbers the UK Oxford University/AstraZeneca accounts for a greater proportion of vaccination. Whether the government will admit it is wrong and has over-estimated the effigy of a one-dose shot of the vaccine is an interesting question. After all, it would not be the first time that the government have proved to be ‘economical with the truth’.
Returning to American politics to conclude, Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives seems keen to press ahead and try to secure a conviction against the impeached Donald Trump. She has argued that ‘you don’t ignore a president’s actions because people think we should be nice-nice and forget that people died here’ Although it may consume a lot of the Congress time and not help to create a bi-partisanship working relationship in the new Congress, then if you do not impeach a president who has urged, stimulated and abetted the invasion of the Capitol by a white-supremacist mob, then who would you ever impeach?
We always knew that today was going to be a different kind of Friday and so it turned out to be. I had a (routine) appointment for a CT scan in one of our local hospitals and the arrangements for this were interesting. Instead of making my way through the bowels of the hospital towards the Imaging Centre, instead I was directed towards a ‘mobile’ scanning unit which was situated in a pair of relocatable buildings erected in the hospital car park. This arrangement is no doubt safer because you are not breathing in potentially COVID-19 infected air or touching surfaces inside the hospital but rather the improvised treatment unit can (by design) only handle one patient at a time which must enhance the safety. I got there way before time but the car park was full to bursting so it was a nightmare trying to find somewhere to park. Nonetheless, I made my way to the unit and had my scan which must have only taken ten minutes for the whole procedure. Whilst waiting for my cannula (for the injection of a radio opaque die) to be removed, I chatted to the nurse who happened to be Spanish so we spoke in a mixture of castellans and English, swapping experiences of COVID-19 across our two societies. Needless to say, ‘Silvia’ had not seen her family for months and months – her husband, it transpired, hailed from Porto (Opporto in English) which is where Meg and I had a holiday booked last May but which we evidently had to abandon. So I got home to meet the happy throng of our son, wife and domestic help before a much needed cup of coffee. As it was a fine and bright day (but pretty cold outside), Meg and I decided to make a lightning visit to the park for a mini constitutional little walk in the park. There we met with some of our park friends who were not really expecting us because I had told them of my hospital visit. I was explaining to my new found ex-Birmingham University friend how I got into the string of research which was to climate in my Phd because a happy chance. After the fall of Maggie Thatcher, John Major took over and he wanted one ‘big idea’ to follow Thatcherism. This turned out to be the Citizen’s Charter. and then the Patient’s Charter in the NHS. One of the key metrics for the latter was that all visitors to the hospital out-patients’ departments should be seen within half an hour. Through the good offices of one of my part-time students who worked in Quality and Infection Control at Leicester General, I was asked to give some help in devising a measurement instrument for measuring outpatient waiting times. To cut a long story short, we devised a measurement instrument and I provided all of the statistical analysis in the form of reports divided by consultant. The hospital management then used the data I provided to institute whatever changes they could to reduce waiting times. The end result of all of this was that we reduced the waiting times from only about 48% seen within 30 minutes to about 85% in the course of three months. A stream of further papers followed, around which a ‘Quality Management’ PhD was written which was then submitted to de Montfort University which had changed its regulations allowing a a PhD to be submitted around a series of published papers. Having got my PhD in 9997, I was then a bit more marketable and went off to get a job as Professor of Business Informatics at King Alfred’s College which later became the University of Winchester. And the rest is history.
Tonight, there is the news that the Kent variant of COVID-19 appears to have a higher mortality rate than its predecessor, which is the kind of news that none of us particularly wants to hear. But there is some news to mitigate the gloom. Firstly, whatever evidence there is tends to suggest that the vaccines that we have are just as effective against the new variants of the virus as well as the original. And today, it appears that 400,000 more people (0.4 million) have been vaccinated in a single day, which really is a marked acceleration in the rate of vaccinations (largely as a result of new centres coming into service) The final hint of good news is that the ‘R’ rate seems to have dropped to between 0.8 and 1.0 which is good news as it stands. But the hospitals are still having to bear the brunt of whatever the infection rate was some three to four weeks previously, a proportion of which ends up in the hospital wards. There now seems to a near consensus building up that whilst the second wave is proving much more traumatic than the first wave, the numbers of people at work (and children of ‘key workers’ in schools) are so much greater than first time around and this is almost certainly aiding the increased rate of transmission of the virus.
Today when we awoke it was evident that we had had a short sharp snow shower the previous evening. All of the trees and shrubs, as well as the countryside in general, looked magnificent in the snow, particularly as by now we had bright sunlight and a clear blue sky. We made our way with a degree of caution down the hill but the snow was quite crunchy underfoot and indeed had quite disappeared on sections of footpath that had received the full complement of the sun’s rays. On our way to the newspaper shop, we bumped into Birmingham University friend so whilst he and Meg went off to the park together, I made a quick dash to collect the newspapers. Whilst in the park we adopted our customary juxta-position of our friend on one bench, Meg on another and myself forming the third point of the triangle. I am not quite sure how we got onto the topic but we got onto the subject of plagiarism in universities and what was to be done about it. Eventually, we explored some mutual interest in the philosophy of science where we discussed the work of Karl Popper and the principles of falsifiability. Although all sociology students will have been exposed to the work of Karl Popper, many physical scientists had not. We quickly established that both of us preferred slightly to be at the edge of our respective disciplines and hence sort of moved sidewise into cognate fields. Hence I started off my academic career as a sociologist but via teaching Research Methods and statistics finished up as a teacher of IT. Similarly, my Birmingham University friend’s discipline was in Mechanical Engineering but he had moved into Operations Research. So all in all, we found some interesting areas of communality in our various academic endeavours. We were speculating whether the journey home would prove treacherous but everything was fine. In fact, the sun had melted quite a lot of the snow on the pavements so compared with an hour previously, we had quite a quick journey home. Just outside the park we caught up with some of our church friends and as always happens got onto the perennial topic of vaccinations. As it happens, the husband of the couple with whom we had been chatting had just been vaccinated the day before whilst his wife was waiting impatiently for her own jab.
This afternoon, I thought I would bring a Bluetooth portable speaker into use that I bought several month ago but only used occasionally until now. As it happens, I often listen to a Piddock recording of Handel’s ‘Messiah‘ which I have playing on earphones through an old iPad which I have in the bedroom and which generally sends me off to sleep quite quickly (something to do with alpha brainwaves, I surmise). So this afternoon, I ran off a copy of the manual for the portable Bluetooth speaker (long since mislaid) and then found the recording I wanted on the net, courtesy of YouTube. I then paired my iPhone with the speaker and Meg and I listened to the recording during the later part of the afternoon. Having done this once, I might try it with other classic recordings that I enjoy.
According to the Weather app in my iPhone, we should have a continuous dump of snow between 9.0am and 12.0am. If this proves to the case, then we shall have to spend a lot of the late morning digging ourselves out because our daughter-in-law needs to leave for work at about 6.0 am on Monday morning. We have about 150 yards of driveway that services ourselves and four sets of neighbours but we are pretty well equipped with snow shovels so we shall have to wait and see. Actually, it is a few years since we had a large dump of snow so I suppose it is about time that we were due for one. I tend not to attack the snow the minute it had fallen as some people do but wait for the sun to do some of the work for me, if possible.
Politically, it seems that the government seems to have switched its tactics somewhat and does not seem as desperate as it was to appease its own right wing and ease the lockdown as fast as possible. The discovery of the new variants of the virus which seem to transmit much more easily militates against quick and easy of the lockdown in any case. It looks as though instead of ‘over-promising and under-delivering’ the government has decided that it is much more judicious to ‘under-promise and to over-deliver’ It does appear the vaccination rate has really picked up over the last few days but it is an interesting question whether they can get all of the vulnerable and over 70 yr olds done by the middle of February which was one of their promises.
Today was a snow-laden day and we were speculating how much snow had fallen overnight since our dump of snow the previous day. We got up at a reasonable time and I set out on foot to get our supplies of the Sunday newspapers. The snow was reasonably thick and crisp but relatively easy to walk upon. Although I took my ‘three-legged’ portable stool with me (which doubles as a walking stick), I did not really need it. The most unpleasant part of the whole journey was a stinging snow in my face as I walked down the hill – as the wind was heading towards me, I finished up at the newsagents looking like an abominable snowman by the time I had accumulated snow all the way down my front. I was relieved to see newsagent was open and so having collected my newspapers, I ate my customary banana for a quick burst of energy and then headed for home and the snow seemed to be falling a little less intensely. I must say I felt fairly tired having trudged through the snow so I was pleased to get to watch the Andrew Marr show as is customary on a Sunday. To get ourselves warmed up, I treated myself to a cup of powdered soup as I felt rather chilled to the marrow and then felt all the better for it. We had a quick consultation with the rest of the family as to when we would clear the snow from our communal driveways (about 150-170 metres all in all) and decided that we would eat in the middle of the day and then start to clear the snow at at about 2.30. We actually started off a little earlier this with a trusted team of myself, son and daughter-in-law (for whose benefit we were clearing the driveway in case she has to make it into work in the morning). We had a combination of tools to help us – my son was utilising a conventional plastic snow clearing implement whilst the daughter-in-law and myself were equipped with huge plastic shovels which, I believe, are designed primarily for mucking out the cow sheds. These proved to be worth their weight in gold as they prove highly effective in snow clearance. Whilst we were at it, we cleared the driveways of our immediate neighbours such that emergency vehicles, postmen etc. can easily get to them. The temperature is predicted to be -5° tomorrow and we suspect that our driveways will be especially slippery tomorrow. We need to get in a supply of rock salt and/or ice clearing material – I think that cat litter might prove to be a good anti-slip agent but I haven’t tried this. I did a quick web search in which I found enough information to discourage me – ‘Just don’t put the cat litter on your walkways. It’s clay and will form a paste once it’s saturated with water. You’ll have a hell of a time getting rid of it. You’ll track grey muck into your house all winter. And it’s somehow, slippery and sticky at the same time when it gets wet‘ . Having ascertained this, we will stick to rock salt and/or sand in the future- we managed to get all of our work done within the hour. Our daughter-in-law had to communicate with a lot of her staff using social media to ascertain how many of them can get into work in the morning.
I had consulted my emails and so on first thing this morning and I get a feed from a local news gathering app called ‘InYourArea’ which can be a good source of local news. We used to have a local Arts Centre called the Artrix which doubled as a cinema/theatre/performance space. In the past, we have seen films of operas transmitted there. Under the impact of various lockdowns, this has had to close its doors. However the whole building has now ben re-purposed as a specialised vaccination centre which is capable of performing 2,500 vaccinations per day (which according to my back-of-the-envelope calculations is ¾ million per year). According to their press release, opening day should be tomorrow and we should expect letters to arrive on our doorsteps on Monday or Tuesday. As there is plenty of car parking and it has a reasonably central location, I wonder if this will become the permanent vaccination centre for the whole of Bromsgrove – what with 2nd dosages of the COVID-19 vaccine and the ‘normal’ flue jabs, it should be quite well occupied in the foreseeable future. Tonight, the total vaccination rate in the UK has hit 6.3 million (approx 12% of the population) so what with lots of new centres like the our local Artrix centre, then perhaps the government target of having all vulnerable and 70+ people (some 15 million) vaccinated by mid-February could well be achieved. For once, the government might actually hit its own target but the debate whether it was wise to extend the period of time between the first and second doses of the vaccine from 3 to 12 weeks rages on.
Today has been the most interesting – and eventful- of days. The day started off well with a phone call from our local doctor’s surgery inviting me along for a COVID jab next Friday, which I was very pleased to receive, needless to say. I thought they ought to be getting around to the 75+ age group quite soon now. Although we had a fresh fall of snow yesterday evening, it was only a thin layer over the recently cleared paths and driveways so walking down to the park was a real pleasure as it was quite nice and crunchy (and not slippery) underfoot. On our way down, we met with one of our acquaintances who we know very well and is a supervisor in a local supermarket (name starting with an ‘A’) She was at home because the test-and-trace app told her she may have been in contact with an infected person so she was staying at home for the relevant number of days (despite pressure from her employers to get back into work!) Outside the park, we met with our Birmingham University friend so whilst he and Meg progressed on to the park I made a quick detour to collect the newspapers. After that and another detour to buy milk (having porridge in the morning makes us run out!) we all coincided in the park and had yet another interesting and fascinating chat. I was telling our friend the experiences I had had in Leicester when I was run over by a driver who had ‘fainted’ at the wheel (after a heavy night of all-night partying the night before) so there were quite a lot of stories about the accident and its sequelae with which to bore our new found friend. We made for home and met with some of the oldest of our church friends so we communicated the good news about the fact that I had been called in for our vaccination jab. On our final stretch of the way home, we were stopped by a couple (but I didn’t recognise them) They live on the new estate built where the orchard happened to be adjacent to our house and after they had moved in and their ‘cess-pit’ alarm was ringing constantly I had gone round to explain how the whole thing worked and what they needed to do about it (none of it explained by the builder/developer by the way) We exchanged news about the progress with vaccinations because as it happens they attend the same surgery as we do and they had received their invitations for a jab next Sunday.
In the middle of the afternoon, the fun started! Our next-door neighbour called round to thank us for clearing the snow in front of their house – useful as my neighbour has had some heart problems so a lot of energetic snow moving is NOT what the doctor ordered (one of my family doctors, when I was a teenager, died whilst digging his car out of the snow whilst doing his rounds). Our neighbour informed us that the newly re-purposed Artrix Arts Centre (see last night’s blog for details) was in operation today but they still had a degree of spare capacity as fewer people than you might have thought couldn’t get to them because of the overnight snow and ice. So I quickly grabbed my wife and we went down to the vaccination centre. As I had previously been a ‘wise virgin’ and got the NHS numbers for Meg and myself kept in a laminated card in my wallet, then processing ourselves was quite easy. We had to socially distance and then take our turn at one of four processing stations – fortunately, Meg and I were allowed to be ‘done together’ after answering the routine battery of questions. Meg did not feel a thing and I only experienced the slightest pinprick and so we were all done and dusted within about ten minutes. So all in all an eventful day and so what if we have a sore arm in the morning because we both feel quite good having had the vaccine (but realise it takes three weeks for your immunity system to be ‘primed’ and then another twelve weeks before we get the 2nd dose).
So this is V (for vaccination day) + 1 – in other words, we are waiting to see if the vaccine will inflict any of its side effects on us or not. We got up at our normal time, having had a night of untroubled sleep, and then settled into our normal routine. On the way down the hill, we were summoned to the door of one of our church friends and informed her we had been fortunate in being vaccinated the day before. We then collected our newspapers passing our Birmingham University friend en route and we said we would catch up with each other later. When we got into the park, we were hailed by our next-door neighbour who was busy giving his little dog a walk. We expressed our effusive thanks to him for having tipped us off the day before and we explained how we had all successfully received our jab. Then we resumed our conversation with our Birmingham University friend where we discussed a paper I had come across as a postgraduate student by Sir Peter Medawar, the principal executive of the Medical Research Council. His seminal paper was called ‘Is the Scientific Paper a Fraud?' (or something similar). His whole thesis is that the typical scientific paper proceeds by laying out the literature base of the extant theory, then some new theoretical insights arising from current work from which hypotheses are drawn, data is collected and then a conclusion reached as to whether the new theoretical formulation receives support (wholly or in part) or fails to be confirmed by the available data. The point of the Medawar paper is that describes the formal logic underlying the scientific paper – actual research, however, does not proceed like this and is actually quite a melange of data collection, hypothesis formulation and reformulation, some working adjustments in the light of the data – in other words, quite a messy and complicated business which is not at all like the ‘formal’ procedures outlined in the paper as it is actually presented for publication.
So you can see that we had quite a busy morning and came home to a meal of fish cakes. I busied myself getting some of our medical documentation in order (some of which will require copying and then a careful filing) In the late afternoon, we had a couple of video calls, the first of which was a Skype call to a colleague/friend from Hampshire – we then went down memory lane exploring some of the ways in which as external examiners or PhD candidates we had come across some current problems and concerns. Immediately following this, we engaged in a FaceTime call with some of our ex-Waitrose friends who had eventually secured a ‘slot’ for them to receive the jab. Actually, the husband should have received his call-up weeks ago because of his medical history but somehow the appropriate ‘flag’ had not been set on his records so he had got missed off the priority list. Anyway, better later than never.
Although I generally do not discuss medical matters, the reactions of our bodies to the jab is interesting. Meg and I have generally felt OK and it seems to be a characteristic of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that the older you are, the fewer symptoms you appear to have. Having said this, Meg and I are starting to have a few flu-like symptoms so we have switched the electric blanket on early and will probably go to bed an hour earlier tonight. The symptoms are signs that our immune systems are working as they should and are not a cause for alarm but they should last for 24-48 hours.
Today is quite a dramatic day in the history of the pandemic in the UK for it is the day when the death total since the start of the pandemic has topped 100,000 lives. One the government’s medical advisers had stated at the start of the pandemic that 20,000 deaths would be quite a ‘good’ outcome but this has now been exceeded five times and we are not near the end of the second wave yet. On the more encouraging side, the number of people vaccinated is now 6.85 million. It does appear that the death rates in hospital are less than the first wave of the pandemic as the medics have discovered new ways of treating (if not actually curing) the disease.
Meg and I went to bed an hour earlier last night as we were experiencing some slight flu-like symptoms after our receipt of the vaccine (an indication that our immune system is working the way it should). We enjoyed the benefits of an electric blanket and later on, when I awoke with a coughing fit, I treated myself to some genuine honey-and-lemon mixture which I made up into a good supply, had a good glass of it and then slept like a baby after it.
Today we knew we were going to be a little time-constrained as I needed to get to our local community hospital in the late morning for a (routine) blood-test. So we took the car down into town to collect our newspapers and then peregrinated towards our favourite park bench in the park. There we met our Birmingham University friend (which seems to be an almost daily occurrence nowadays) and talked about some of our joint interests in the way in which statistics are presented, communicated and interpreted. (We both enjoy a Radio 4 program called ‘More or Less‘ which does an extremely good job in uncovering and sometimes debunking statistical measures).
As we had planned, we made a fairly rapid exit from the park and I dropped Meg at home before I set off for our local community hospital. In order to effect my progress my system, I had previously taken a little stick-on print out I had acquired from a previous visit to a hospital and this contains your name, address, date of birth, NHS number and a bar-code which I suspect is your NHS number as well. This proved to be incredibly useful as I had to go through a COVID-19 screening first and needed to be logged in to the hospital system. Then I went on to the ‘bloods’ department (where I was the sole patient) and taking the required sample was easy and straightforward. I must admit I had not been looking forward to visiting a hospital but, in the event, I must have been incredibly safer than I would have been wandering around the aisles of a local supermarket where customers did not socially distance, where goods were handled before being put back on the shelves and the COVID-19 is reputed to be rampant. (I had read somewhere that supermarkets are the greatest simple source of infection ranking with people getting too close to each other not observing social distancing).
There is a massive row going on between the EU and AstraZeneca which is getting more acrimonious by the day. The first source of contention is that the EU provided some money upfront to AstraZeneca to help avoid the production difficulties which the firm is now claiming it is experiencing (I think this complaint may be justified). A second source of complaint is the feeling that the UK is getting preferential treatment, although it had signed contracts a lot earlier than the EU. There are some ‘insider’ stories that the UK contract stressed continuity of supply over price (giving the company the opportunity to charge a higher price so long as the supply was forthcoming?) The UE because of its bargaining power had prioritised price, no doubt because of its superior bargaining power. (In this respect, I think the UK is probably correct in having drawn up the contract to expedite delivery and well before the opposition) And then thirdly the EU is angry for the simple reason that all this plays into the idea that Europe’s approach to vaccination has been stuttering and sluggish, particularly in contrast to the UK. It is reckoned that about 11% of the UK population has now been vaccinated. The best-performing country in the whole EU is Malta, with about 5% of the population vaccinated. It looks as though the UK is administering 4.5 doses per 100 of the population whereas the comparable figure for Germany is only 2.1
Boris Johnson is now indicating that schools will not reopen until March 8th ‘at the earliest’ Personally, I think this is just to placate the right-wing of the Tory party (desperate to have the schools reopened, and not for the purest of motives) More realistically, rather than opening the schools for some children (they have already been ‘open’ to key workers’ children and others) I suspect that schools will not reopen until after Easter which is probably just as well to be on the safe side. The number of vaccinations in the UK is now 7.1 million but the argument is increasingly being heard that vaccines are not a ‘magic bullet’ but will have to be complemented by a variety of other strategies, not least social distancing and the avoidance of anything resembling a large crowd. The government have also put into place a rather half-hearted attempt to curb new strains of the virus entering the UK by requiring entrants from certain ‘red-list’ countries (e.g. Brazil) to stay in government-provided ‘quarantine’ hotels upon arrival. But, of course, anybody determined to get in will just arrange a flight so that it appears they are arriving from another country e.g. Holland. Too little, too late it seems!
This morning proved to be one of the most entertaining of mornings. Our Waitrose delivery was delayed as the SatNav on the Waitrose delivery van had directed the driver down flooded roads in the area so the driver had to take a roundabout route to reach us. We collected our newspapers and then on our way to the park we met one of the Waitrose staff that we know well who had a trolley full of bunches of daffodils. Somehow, somewhere Waitrose had finished up with masses of bunches of daffodils far in advance of what they could sell. They had already reduced the price from £1.00 a bunch to 5p a bunch and then decided to give the rest away to clients of a local veterinary centre and a local garage. We had a long chat with the Waitrose staff member and we exchanged stories (what else?) about how members of our respective families were coping with the pandemic and whether they had received the vaccine or not. At the end of our conversation, we finished off with five bunches of daffodils and so made our flower-bestrewn path to the park. After our elevenses, we proceeded up the hill and called in at two of our friends to donate each of them a bunch of flowers (gratefully received?) Naturally, we all compared our various vaccination procedures which almost invariably dominates all of our discussions thee days. Finally, we popped in one of our neighbours to donate to her our last bunch of daffodils. She had received her call-up to be vaccinated at our local surgery in a few days time but had tried to get vaccinated at the local Artrix centre. If she had made it before 10.0am they could have squeezed her in but after that time they were absolutely inundated (and the word from the street was that they had managed to vaccinate at a rate of approximately 2,000 each day) So she decided, having waited for 10 months, to wait for a few more days.
I do not intend to tread much into the AstraZeneca row which is boiling at the moment. But I will offer just two thoughts, both of which give pause for thought. The first is a quote from The Lancet (read by many if not most GP’s) published on January, 9th 2021. Here is the relevant quote: ‘Only 1418 (12.1%) of those assessed for efficacy were older than 55 years of age meaning that…we cannot yet infer efficacy in older adults’ This would appear to be quite a damning quote, admitting that we did not have the evidence base for older populations. On the other hand, UK medical scientists have been piling in this evening with statements of support, indicating that they had seen data that tends to suggest that the immune response in the 65+ age-group is high (but where is the evidence?) This is one of those situations where only time (and the availability of more evidence) will prove one side right or wrong.
We are right in the middle of a fairly mild spell of weather at the moment – that, plus the fact that the days are getting lighter to the tune of 1.0-1.5 minutes per day surely makes the spirits rise a little. Also, when we handed out our bunches of flowers (courtesy of Waitrose!), it was amazing to see how they lifted the spirits of the recipients. Of course, our own crocuses are out at the moment and daffodils will follow quite shortly. We also observed a Japanese flowering cherry which (I think) is on the point of bursting into bloom. One of the memories that we have when we used to Spain in January was to make a trip in the Alpujarras (mountainous area) to visit some of the highest villages in Spain. At some of our stopping off points, we used to marvel at almond blossom in full bloom right in the middle of the winter snows. I have been collecting empty boxes because I have a half-remembered idea (from somewhere) that I can get some seeds going at this time of year (perhaps some beet, leaflet, early lettuce) and get them going on a window sill. Then they should be quite easy to thin out and even easier to plant (as the fibre of the egg boxes should just rot away and of course, spacing becomes incredibly easy) As soon as I have acquired some more small wine bottles, then I can carry on with my damson-gin bottling activities as I still have several litres left to get processed. I must admit that of the two seasons, Spring and Autumn, I have a marginal preference for Autumn but after a year such as we have had with the pandemic, who can fail to look forward to the spring, particularly as the end is just about in sight!
Today started off as quite a bright, blue day so Meg and I enjoyed a pleasant walk down to the newsagents this morning. Then we struck out for the park where we coincided, after a day’s absence, with our Birmingham University friend. One little conundrum which were trying to puzzle out together is the exact meaning of the phrase ‘to have all of your buttons sewn on‘ which I have used in the past but the origins of which are lost in obscurity. It tends to imply that someone is completely rational i.e. in touch with the world (‘ he has all his buttons‘) but my two sources do not help. I have on my bookshelves a dictionary of idioms and their origins but no entry is listed here so that is no help. Nor is the internet (which tends to be very USA-oriented when you trying to track down British expressions) I think I may have an explanation for the origins of this phrase but I may be entirely wrong. I believe it is a tradition in parts of the navy, or perhaps just the merchant navy, that you cut the buttums off your dress uniform and transfer them from one dress uniform to another – to ‘have all your buttons sewn on‘ then becomes to have everything in order. I am quite happy to be told the correct explanation for this expression. Whilst on this subject, I did discover at the bottom of a hole in a wooded area which bordered on my garden a button which when cleaned up I identified as probably worn by a submariner captain in the 1940’s – how it got there in the wood, one can only imagine.
On our way home. we bumped into our two sets of friends who live near to each other so we had a genial chat. One of our friends is having some drainage work done which necessitates having a trench cut along the length of their drive. I reminded them if one partner reports to the police that their other half has suddenly gone missing and has not been seen for days, the police will look carefully at the patio to see if there is any signs of recent digging activity or irregularities in the patio surface – it seems in the light of experience, the best place to start looking.
After we had a lunch of risotto made with kipper fillets and cauliflower rice. Actually topped with cheese and with a big dollop of yogurt it turned out to be more delicious than you might imagine. Our domestic help enjoyed her portion anyway. After lunch, I walked down into town for the second time this day. The first thing I needed to do was to pick up some of the unsupplied portions of Meg’s medication – the pharmacist we use often seem to run out of things and give you a supply that will last for a few days but then you have to go back for the rest. My second port of call was to visit Boots in order to pick up some electric pre-shave which I buy from thenm when I can. As they never have any in stock, I decided to buy a couple of bottles online and then go to the shop to pick them up. This part worked OK and then I thought I would check the open shelves and, sure enough, Sod’s law appeared to be in operation because there on the open shelves were four bottles (which I never seen in stock for years)
Today, the media has got very excited about another two vaccines that appear to have extremely good efficacy. One of these has an 89% efficacy whilst the other Johnson and Johnson is 66% after a single injection. Each of these viruses work in a slightly different way so it is surely reassuring to have several arrows in one’s quiver so to speak. The EU, worried about its own sources of supply, is putting export controls upon vaccines manufactured in some EU-based factories and this has exploded onto the political scene in the context off Northern Ireland – which is evidently a potential border to be crossed between the EU and the UK. So this has the possibility of becoming really, really messy. One just hopes that cooler heads prevail and that everybody realises that it should be the virus that we are fighting and not each other. But again, national interests have sprung to the fore and the Germans, for one, may not recommend the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for their 65+ population (but is has just been approved for the rest of Europe)
Finally, we are keeping a careful watch out for a further bout of snow. We might get this in the next day or so and I, for one, hope this may be the last snowfall of the winter. At least we are fairly well prepared with snow clearing gear if we do get dumped on once again.
Well, we knew that the weather forecast for today was not good and so it proved. The day started with some swirling rain then turned into sleet which eventually turned into a rather light snow – but given the wind, one that looked as it would not settle anywhere. We decided to cut our losses and go in the car to collect our newspapers which we did. Then it was onwards to the park and we made for the Bandstand which is always our haven when it is raining/sleeting/hailing/snowing. As were enjoying our coffee (if enjoying is the right word) we were joined in our refuge with a young father who was looking after a four-year-old as well as a babe-in-a-pram. It was noble of him to brave the elements under the circumstances. It turned out that he was an environmental officer at Birmingham University whilst his wife was busy doing on-line tuition as an English as a Foreign Language tutor. You meet some interesting people in the park – needless to say, we were the only people in evidence save for a solitary dog walker in the far distance. We were pleased to jump in the car and have more substantive elevenses at home when we eventually got warmed up.
As it was a dull, wet afternoon, we decided to indulge ourselves with any old films being broadcast this afternoon. As it happened, BBC2 was showing the 1948 version of St. Joan with Ingrid Bergman which I assumed would be in black and white but was actually in colour. It was quite a brave film to make as WWII had only ended three years earlier and most of the films made in the era tended to be uber-patriotic and certainly anti-German with one or two exceptions (Rommel coming to mind) Actually the French squabbling between themselves did not come out of it too well and might well have fed into latent English prejudices about the French. I always find it interesting that UNESCO tried to write an ‘objective’ comprehensive history of Europe but couldn’t find enough consensus to bring their project to fruition. For example, the English always tend to trump their victories at Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt (particularly in Shakespeare’s plays) and consign to a small footnote the fact that the English actually lost all of their French possessions at the end of the period. The French, by contrast, will acknowledge some temporary defeats at Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt and stress, that at the end of the day they were victorious in repelling the English. They say that history is written by the victors, which of course is true. Before leaving this subject, how many of the British population realise that the USSR with a population of 170,000 million had quite a lot to do with the defeat of Hitler (and lost 20 million of their population in the process)
There are several distinguished diplomats in the EU who have been pulling their hair over the rushed decision to suspend part of the Brexit deal agreement on Northern Ireland, in its rush to impose restrictions on Covid vaccines, or components of vaccines, exported from the bloc. This decision was so ill thought-out and taken without the knowledge of the governments of the UK, Northern Ireland or Eire that it had to be reversed in a matter of hours. As a German newspaper put it, succinctly, ‘Brexit 1, EU 0’ and it does really look as though, at a stroke, the EU committed an enormous blunder and must fuel the Brexit-like feelings, wherever they exist in the UK or elsewhere in continental Europe.
Our ex-Waitrose friends had texted us halfway through the afternoon to say that they had received their doses of the vaccine (as had our friend in Hampshire, so we learnt last night). I am sure it will be a massive relief to them as they have patiently locked down for the last 10-11 months and have borne this with a great deal of patience and fortitude – but glad that the end may be in sight so that they can re-connect with members of their family. In the meanwhile, the numbers vaccinated has now reached 8.4 million out of the projected 15 million (to be reached by mid-February). The UK is vaccinating at the rate of 12.3 per 100 people (and Germany, by contrast, is only 2.6 per 100) and the UK has vaccinated some 16% of its population which is an impressive achievement given the timescales involved. Meg and I have entered ourselves in the COVID-19 computerised system which recognised that we had been given our first ‘shot’ and allocated us a date and a time for our final shot which will be 11 weeks after our initial jab. So this will be on 12th April so we have to be especially cautious until then (and subsequently). And to conclude, one public health expert is warning the population tonight that we might have to reconcile ourselves to a two-year wait (when vaccination rates in the rest of the world catch up?) before anything approaching a semblance of normality returns.
This morning I did not oversleep as I sometimes do on a Sunday morning and was therefore in plenty of time to walk down to the newsagents and get back again in time for breakfast and the Andrew Marr show. When I am walking on my own, I often use an incredibly old iPhone that I generally use as a music player – somehow (and I am not quite sure how how I did it) I have about 200 classical tracks stored it (a good selection of Mozart and Bach amongst other things. And now for the coincidence I am about to explain. At the time of our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations, I got out our large album of wedding photos to digitise them (which I did). Out from the middle of the album dropped a lined sheet of paper torn from a notebook and on it was the original organist’s notes detailing what we had played at our wedding in 1967. Meg and I can remember most of what we had played but it was nice to have the ‘definitive list’ as it were – and for this, I managed to go onto the internet and get recordings which very closely simulated what one would have heard 50 years ago. One of the things that we had sung at the wedding was the cantata ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring‘ by J. S. Bach (incredibly well known to almost everybody). It was sung for us by a close friend of Mike’s called Austin who was training to be an opera singer but we have lost contact with him decades ago (and he may no longer even be alive) Anyway, a very good acquaintance of ours was Clive who used to walk his two Jack Russell terriers every day and we often stopped to engaged in conversation and jokes. Clive had played the trumpet for about 80 years and was very accomplished – we asked him if he would like to attend our wedding celebrations which he did and played ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring‘ for us at our reception. Now for the coincidence. The recording of this I got from the internet was a trumpet solo accompanied by an organ (a stunning combination, by the way) and, as it happened, this on my iPhone. Now for the coincidence. As I was passing Clive’s house, what came up on the iPhone as a random shuffle was the track of the trumpet/organ version of the cantata. Is this coincidence? fate? Beyond the grave? I am not ashamed to admit that as I was only own, I shed quite a tear in remembrance of my very good friend Clive, who departed from us in his 80’s about this time last year.
We picked up our newspapers and proceeded to the park where we met with a couple of our park friends. One we had not seen since about Christmas time and I had been carrying round a bottle of damson gin in my rucksack for weeks but we had not coincided. Now at last I could hand my little gift over and I hope she doesn’t drink it all at once (although there is more where that came from) Then we met our Birmingham University friend and caught up on several things we have been discussing over the days (I told him my ‘Clive’ coincidence by the way) Then, on the way home we met with some of our oldest church friends who were waiting patiently for their turn of the vaccination jab.
We had a normal Sunday lunch and treated ourselves to Part 1 of the Channel 5 series on ‘The Great Plague‘ – we have seen this before but it was well worth watching again and we look forward to the next two parts. Tonight, by way of experiment, I tried to see if I could access YouTube from our TV. I can, and after fishing about with Gmail usernames and passwords managed to get myself onto the YouTube system. Now we are really enjoying a production of Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ (a production with stunning voices but I’m not quite sure in what theatre it was filmed and I don’t want to pause it or mess about with it in case I can’t get it back again – I can see to that in the morning no doubt) Now I can treat myself to all kinds of things that YouTube offers (in particular Amadeus, the story of Mozart’s life which is may favourite film of all time)
I see that the number of vaccinations is fast approaching 9 million (8.97 at the last count) so that looks well on track. I wonder whether the 70 year olds are easier to process as they find they can access the vaccination centres more easily compared with the 80 year olds. I also read tonight that the 100 year old Captain Sir Tom Moore is in hospital being treated for COVID-19. Apparently, he had not been vaccinated as he was suffering from a bout of pneumonia. Wouldn’t it be a terrible comment on the year if he succumbed to it? The nation must be holding its breath.
The 1st of the month – and I forgot to say ‘White Rabbits! White Rabbits! White Rabbits!‘ and all the rest of it, which I won’t repeat here. Having said that, I was mightily relieved to get January behind us – February is one of those months (like November) which just has to be lived through with better things in prospect. We collected our newspapers and I remarked to my local newsagent that I had found out how to access operas via YouTube on our Smart TV and we had entertained ourselves with watching a production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni from the Zurich opera house. My favourite line from this opera is that uttered by Don Giovanni when upbraided by his servant Leporello how he could be unfaithful to all of the 1003 women he had successfully seduced across various countries in Europe. His reply – ‘Well to be faithful to one would be unfaithful to all of the rest!‘ (Obviously, I couldn’t possibly comment on my reaction to all of this)
Having collected our newspapers, we made off for the park but via Waitrose where we pick up some extra milk (our porridge creating a dent in our supplies) There we met, a little later than usual, with our ex-Birmingham University friend. I had managed to find for him on the internet some examples of ‘Bullshit Bingo‘ which is a board game to amuse organisation members during boring and interminable meetings. You wait until you hear one of those incredibly trite expressions like ‘touch base’ or something similar. The rules are that when you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, stand up and shout “BULLSHIT!” (I’ve never seen this done, by the way).
We had not been very long home when the doorbell rang and there, on the doorstep, were some of our friends from down the road. They had very kindly cooked us a Lemon Drizzle cake in exchange for a jar of damson gin I had donated to them (as I have so many spare!) we thanked them profusely for this and shared it with our son and daughter-in-law before promising ourselves a carbohydrate treat with ice-cream for our supper later on this evening. During the afternoon, I had intended to give the car a wash but as it so cold and miserable with a sort of freezing fog, I wonder why I never got round to it. Instead, I amused myself with creating some ‘Day of the Week’ labels to complement the flip-over calendars of which we have one or two around the house. It is interesting how difficult it is to get calendars complete with days-of-the week. I had actually cut these out from an out-of-date Guide to the week’s TV and stuck them onto some pieces of thick white card (part of a box containing Christmas shortcake in an earlier life) and the finished product has a sort of ‘not bought but sort of home-made’ feel to them. I also got my iPad successfully reconnected with a 11″ Bluetooth plus mouse – I had successfully got them to communicate with each some time before Christmas but had neglected them for a few weeks so thought I would get them back together soon. The 11″ is quite significant because to make it transportable, you need a keyboard which is quite compact (i.e. does not stick excessively out of whatever little carry-on case you utilise for these sorts of things) Although the model I purchased is a bit tinny it was undoubtedly cheap (and so much cheaper than the Apple alternative) and so easier it is to produce text on than even the ‘virtual’ type keyboard available on the iPad.
I have just read the following on Sky News – it sounds almost unbelievable here it is:
Steven Brandenburg, who pleaded guilty last month to intentionally destroying more than 500 doses of the Moderna vaccine at his pharmacy, has been described as a gun-toting flat-earther who indulged in conspiracy theories, according to the FBI.
Brandenburg apparently believed the Moderna vaccines contained a microchip and would “turn off” birth control.
The FBI said: “Some of the conspiracy theories Brandenburg told [his colleague] about included: the earth is flat; the sky is not real, rather it is a shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God; and Judgment Day is coming.”
Remember – you read it here first! The ‘innoculation count’ is now up to 9.3 million and proceeding satisfactorily. I also read that that the Oxford vaccine (which was the one that Meg and I had) was up to 80% effective when the second dose was delayed by three months. The jab already provides 70% protection 22 days after the first dose, according to the UK’s Joint Committee of Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI), which advises the government. Meanwhile, the government is getting seriously worried that the ‘South African’ variant of the virus might have escaped into the community and is mass-testing in about half a dozen post-codes across the country.
Today, if my memory serves me correct, is what Catholics/some Christians call ‘Candlemas‘ day. According to our friend, Google, this is because it is the day when all of the candles used throughout the church year are traditionally brought into the church to be blessed. It is also the day, 40 years after the birth of Christ, when Mary the mother of Christ would be brought into the synagogue for a ritual purification (part of the Judaic tradition) I also speculated whether today was also the feast day of St. Blaise when a pair of sacred candles are held across the throat to act as a holy remedy against sore throats. I was not completely wrong but out by one day as the feast of St. Blaise is celebrated on February 3rd, which is tomorrow. But enough of this superstition. It was quite a mild day today but with quite a heavy hanging mist blotting out the son but nonetheless the warmth is surely appreciated. As we passed our park on the way for our newspapers, I espied our Birmingham University friend, so Meg was left with him whilst I sped off to collect the newspapers on my own. When we reconvened as a threesome, we espied some personnel with bright yellow HV vests on and thinking that they might be the COVID-19 rule enforcers (we call them the ‘thought police’) we made sure we were properly socially distanced from them until they had gone on their merry way. They might just have been local authority parks department workers but we didn’t want to risk being caught ‘in flagrante delicto‘ so we made sure we were on the straight and narrow. I remembered to bring with me some copies of ‘Bullshit Bingo’ handouts which I gave to our friend and we reminisced about the meetings we had attended where many of these phrases were bandied about. I must say that being employed at one time in a school of Business and Management, with the two halves sharply delineated from each other (Business tended to be CNAA undergraduate courses whereas as the School of Management concentrated on professional and post-experience courses). I have to say, from years of experience, that one has to listen to members of a School of Management to fully appreciate how relevant a game such as Bullshit Bingo can prove to be! Then we met some other mutual friends and had a fairly snatched conversation because it looked as though we were turning into a kind of social gathering (but, I hasten to add, we are certainly not alone in stopping to have little chats with people all over the place because ‘there was a lot of it about’) Perhaps the milder weather was encouraging people both to walk and to chat.
After a traditional Tuesday lunch of fishcakes, I knew that I needed to pay a flying visit down into town so I took the car down to break the back of the journey before I journeyed along an almost deserted High Street. I managed to replenish our supplies of money from an ATM which had to be done from the street – I had not realised that the building societies that have in-store ATM’s seem to have a policy of shutting at 2.0pm. Not having ventured along the High Street since the start of the latest lockdown, I was unsure of the local norms. But I managed to get a watch battery for Meg’s watch (surely indispensable) and one or two cosmetic-type items. Tomorrow is the day when I have to update my Waitrose order before 12 midday and to book my slot for a couple of weeks time.
The airwaves this afternoon have been dominated by news of the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore, the ‘centurion’ who captured the hearts of the nation and who raised £32 million fo the NHS by walking laps in his garden – he initially intended to raise some £1,000 but as news of his exploits was broadcast abroad, the donations flowed in. It is remarkable that the flags in Downing Street and even Buckingham Palace were immediately flown at half-mast – this is the kind of tribute that might only be paid to an ex-Prime Minister for example. When the media announced that Sir Tom was in hospital but his family were at his bedside, one did get the feeling that the virus might claim another victim. But what an inspiration to his family and to the rest of the nation! Having actually reached 100 years of age, there were not many peaks left to conquer but I am sure that the inevitable feelings of sadness at his demise must be mingled with admiration at Sir Tom’s exploits at his age. Amongst other things he performed in a cover version of the song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ sung by Michael Ball, with proceeds going to charity. The single topped the UK music charts, making him the oldest person to achieve a UK number one.
Some fascinating tests results by the University of Oxford, published in a pre-print report with The Lancet, showed a 67% reduction in positive COVID-19 swabs among those vaccinated, which may have a ‘substantial effect’ on the transmission of coronavirus. In the report, the university also said that a single standard dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is 76% effective from day 22 to day 90 after the jab. This means protection is not reduced in the three months between the first and second dose (which rather vindicates UK government policy of delaying the second ‘jab’)
The mild spell continues as we are getting a nice taste of quasi-Spring sunshine. However, I fear that this is the calm before the storm because the weather forecasters are telling us that another cold snap is on the way. Hopefully, we may just about evade the snow but ‘wintry showers’ are the order of the day. We were a little delayed this morning because it was the appointed day for our house alarm system to be checked over, which we do once a year about this time. The reason for doing it now is that it is the time of year when our house insurance has to be renewed and we always tick the box to say our alarm system has been checked – if we had not ticked the box or even worse had lied, then our house insurance might have been rendered null and avoid. After three quarters of an hour with the alarm whooping at various intervals in order to test it, we were given the all-clear for another year so that is a relief. We were also reminded how to press the ‘panic mode’ which is useful to know but not mentioned in the manuals, for some strange reason. We then enjoyed a pleasant walk to collect our newspapers and on the way, we met with our Italian friend who had been vaccinated on the same day as Meg and myself. We enquired whether she had endured any ill-effects (and she had not) so I said I was owed a ginger cake at least for taking her to the vaccination centre. From here, we made our way to the park, where we met up with our Birmingham University friend. We were discussing matters of a statistical nature – particularly the way in which statistics tend to get reported even by doctors. For example if a patient’s risk factor is to be increased by 50%, this sounds dramatic. But if the risk had increased from 1 chance in a 1,000 to 1.5 chance in 1,000 then for all intents and purposes this can be ignored. Whilst we tend to have a chat every day, we are going to try an experiment tomorrow and relocate ourselves to a different set of benches overlooking the park so that we can survey if anyone is going to approach us indicating we may be bending the rules. On our way home, we met with an old lady who we know well from our walks in the park – she was having a conversation with her son and grand-daughter and they were doing this whilst standing in a porch whilst the relatives were standing in the driveway. The things we have to do to comply with the spirit (and the letter) of the regulations. Finally, we met again with some of our old church friends and had another of our pleasant little chats before we returned home in reasonable time.
By this morning’s post, we received a letter from Meg’s cousin who is in the business of relocating herself from Cheltenham in order to live much nearer to one of her daughters in a small village just outside Derby. We had a wonderfully long and informative letter and Meg’s cousin does seem to have a routine which is not very dissimilar to ours in that it involves a circular walk, a chance to pick up a newspaper and one or two items of shopping. She also sent us some estate agent’s ‘blurb’ detailing a bungalow that she intends to buy and it seems, to our eyes, to be superbly adapted for her needs. The blurb did actually use the words ‘deceptively spacious” (this phrase is now so hackneyed I wonder that it is still actually used). Basically, this is a two bedroomed bungalow but the whole of the loft space has been converted into a potential third bedroom or even a work room which should our cousin’s craft activities down to the ground. In the reply I am going to draft tomorrow, I must work out what modes of communication we can now deploy other than a letter – FaceTime of course would be ideal if her daughter has equipped her with an iPhone.
Tonight, we were exhorted by Boris Johnson to ‘clap for Captain Tom’ which the members of the family duly did at 6.00pm. I actually use a metal serving spoon banged on the back of a large anodised cooking pot which makes a beautiful loud ringing noise right across our little square. Having just seen a programme on the plague, I was also tempted to cry out ‘Bring out your Dead’ which seemed funny at the time but was actually in the worst possible taste. Next time, I think I shall engage brain before mouth. I am slightly ambiguous about doing anything that Boris Johnson urges one to do but the case is truly a worthy one and Captain Tom was a life well to be remembered. I wonder if a statue will be erected to him, which is one suggestion doing the rounds this evening.
Today is the day when we receive our weekly delivery from Waitrose but it was a little delayed this morning (unusual as the delivery slots are generally very reliable). It is always reassuring to know that I have not omitted any crucial items but I did make a mental note of one thing that I needed to buy. As Meg was doing a ‘webex’ type consultation this morning, I busied myself on another computer with writing a reply to Meg’s cousin who is now relocating to Derbyshire. In the letter, I suggested that we might try communication methods somewhat more up-to-date than letter writing (pleasant though it is to receive one) so I suggested that via her daughter we might try whatever of the FaceTime/Skype/Zoom video links we can to see what we can arrange between us. Every few weeks, we have a gardener who comes and does the pruning of bushes and the like. We have arranged to perform a resurrection effort on a timber archway replete with honeysuckle that was rotting at the base- we arranged a plan of action for next Friday when I can act as a ‘gofer’ and act as an extra pair of hands whilst we re-construct the archway. We did intend to do it last year but COVID-19 got in the way, as with so many other projects. The weather was a tad cooler today after the recent mild spell but it was not actually raining for which we were duly grateful. We met our Birmingham University friend in a different location in the park today which proved to be fortunate. In our more usual spot by the side of the boating lake, the park workers are doing a lot of drainage work which involves digging trenches and laying a water conduit cable from one side of the park to another. Today we occupied a higher seat which afforded a better view of the park. Our friend had arrived before us and had had a word with the COVID-19 wardens. As it happened they were very friendly and informative and quite relaxed about allowing people like us to sit on adjacent benches and have a chat with each other, even on a daily basis – so this put minds at rest, as it were. I popped into Waitrose to buy some onions (how is it possible to start off any kind of cooking without a supply of onions, I ask myself) Again, we chatted with friends and friends of friends until we all started to feel a bit chilled and decided it was time to beat a retreat in a homewards direction.
After lunch and a good read of the newspapers, I decided to engage in one of those mindless activities with which one can amuse oneself whilst listening to ClassicFM. As it happened, I had a set of old University of Winchester business cards (now out of date) plus a set of address labels of a slightly non-standard size. It just so happened that one label would exactly cover the out-of-date details on one side of the card but it required a careful positioning of the requisite label (accurate to with half a millimetre in my estimation). I can now populate the other side of the card with both name and address as well as ‘electronic’ information – now all I need is a supply of people to whom the cards might be offered.
I see that some snow and ice is being forecast over the next few days, which I could do without. Although we have plenty of snow-moving gear, it does tend to slow up one’s daily walk but it has the bonus of making people much friendlier when you pass them in the snow – oddly enough, some of the friendliness disappears as the snow recedes as well. But I must say that my regular wearing of a Korean-made cow leather jacket (snigger ye not – I was given it by a neighbour who was clearing out his garage and it has proved to be a god-send, together with some new boots that are proving to be a worthy successor to the 1,000-kilometer boots to which I have recently had to bid a reluctant farewell. I am hanging on to them until the end of the ‘snow period’ in case I need them though and get one set of boots thoroughly wet)
Something rather odd politically is happening at the moment. Despite the fact that the government has made mistakes after mistake after mistake (not locking down early enough, not securing our borders, spending £12 billion on a test-and-trace which is a joke) the vaccination routine seems to have been a runaway success. The political conundrum is this. Normally, a government would suffer the penalty in the polls of making a multitude of mistakes. It looks, though, as though there has been a ‘rally round the flag’ moment in the first few months of the pandemic (i.e.the public are loathe to criticise their government when faced with a huge crisis) and now the positive feelings evoked by a successful vaccination may be wiping all of the bad memories of what preceded it (a bit like childbirth if you follow my drift)
The end of another week is fast approaching and Meg and I reassure ourselves that as each day goes by our immune systems should be getting just a little more primed in the fight against the COVID-19 virus. The press, in particular, is sensing the end of the lockdown and there is a lot of optimistic talk today about possibly getting most of the 50+ segments of the population vaccinated by May. I suspect that the public at large would welcome a fairly cautious and gradualist approach to any lockdown but some of the press and many Conservative MP’s seem to think that any end to the lockdown is just around the corner. Today we went to occupy our newly found position in the park and whilst I left Meg to contemplate, I made a rapid journey into town and back, complete with newspapers. In the park we met with friends of friends and chatted for a few minutes, seeing even more of our church friends en route. We knew that we could not stay too long in the park today because we needed to get home and make a fairly rapid lunch as Mike had a physiotherapy appointment in the early afternoon. I walked down into town and had my physiotherapy appointment, all duly face-masked up of course. Afterwards, as I was in town I grabbed the opportunity to visit a local hardware store and availed myself of getting a few bits and bobs that we needed.
There seems to be more ‘good’ data emerging around the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. Recent analysis seems to indicate that the vaccine is just as effective against the ‘Kent’ version of the virus which caused cases to balloon last September. This variant of the virus also appears to be responsible for much of the very rapid growth of the pandemic particularly in the United States so it is particularly good news that so far the AstraZeneca vaccine seems to be equally effective. Also, the emerging data is seeming to indicate that this vaccine is effective against the transmittability of the virus as well. The other vaccine manufacturers are rapidly examining the data as soon as it emerges so again, there are grounds for cautious optimism. The whole point is, of course, that when the virus is rampant, there are many more possibilities for new variants to appear and to gain ground and vice versa. What is going to be of most interest, of course, is to see whether in practice the AstraZeneca vaccine is equally effective for the 60+ segments of the population. I suppose that we shall just have to wait for a week or so until there are sufficient numbers of the population who have been received both doses of the vaccine before more definitive conclusions may be drawn – several European societies are restricting distribution of the vaccine to the younger age-groups until more data is forthcoming.
I decided to follow some of the American political news, and in particular what was going to happen to the Congresswoman who was a supporter of the bizarre QAnon sect. The US House of Representatives has voted to expel a Republican congresswoman from two committees over incendiary remarks she made before being elected last November. Marjorie Taylor Greene had promoted baseless QAnon conspiracy theories and endorsed violence against Democrats. Before the vote, she said she regretted her views, which included claims that school shootings and 9/11 were staged. Eleven Republicans joined the Democrats to pass the motion by 230-199. This is quite an extraordinary move, even by US standards because I do not think that such an event has ever happened before. The Democrats had ‘invited’ the Republicans to disown their recalcitrant member but when they refused, the Democrats having a majority in the Lower House, promptly voted to disbar her from membership of two committees to which she had been nominated by the Republicans. Given that at one stage Marjorie Greene thought that all Democrats (and particularly Nanci Pelosi, the Speaker) should be shot, then such a fate should hardly be of any surprise to her. Here is a reminder of how mad this woman is! Addressing her colleagues, Greene tried to dissociate herself from her “words of the past.” Contradicting past social media posts, she said she believes the 9-11 attacks and mass school shootings were real and no longer believes QAnon conspiracy theories, which include lies about Democratic-run paedophile rings. But she didn’t explicitly apologize for supportive online remarks she’s made on other subjects, as when she mulled about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi being assassinated or the possibility of Jewish-controlled space rays causing wildfires. And she portrayed herself as the victim of unscrupulous “big media companies.” She said in her search for more information about “things in the news that didn’t make sense to me,” she found QAnon conspiracies online and that she was “allowed to believe things that weren’t true.” You just have to analyse the nonsense of that last remark to really wonder what tortuous knots the American right are getting themselves tied up in.
Today was one of those days when we seemed to meet person after person. On our way down into town I bumped into a near neighbour who works in the hotel up the road. Her husband and son who has health conditions had already received jabs and our friend was due to get hers shortly, either by dint of being a carer or in her own right. We used to know each quite well because we used to occupy adjacent mats in our weekly Pilates sessions but our paths have diverged a little since then. Nonetheless, we always catch up on local news whenever we happen to meet. In the park, we went to a ‘new’ vantage point where we met with our Birmingham University friend. Whilst Meg and he sat chatting on adjacent benches, I made a rapid trek into town to collect my Saturday ration of newspapers. Here too, the lady in the newspaper shop had just received her jab (about an hour beforehand), so we exchanged notes. Then I went to meet up again with Meg and friend and a couple of our church friends (who we know very well) popped into view so we had a multi-lateral chat as we wont to do. Actually, the path in this ‘new to us’ location is quite a lot broader which certainly helps with social distancing when people come by with their dogs and parents supervise their children on a variety of wheels (normally, tiny little bikes with stabilisers for the very youngest) After all of this chatting, we were were a little late in getting home for lunch which had to be prepared a little more rapidly than usual as we were keen to get sitting down for 2.15 in the afternoon when the first of the ‘Six Nations’ rugby competitions was due to start. The first match was a rather one-sided affair between France (who were superb) and the Italians who struggled hard to make a match of it. The second match later in the afternoon was the Calcutta Cup, awarded each year for the match of Scotland against England. This match turned out to be memorable in many, many ways. Firstly, I have to say that the Scots have played better than I have seen them play for years. Conversely, the English played worse than for many years. The net result of all of this was the Scots won the match (11-6) with the Scots scoring the only try in the match. This was the first Scots victory at Twickenham since 1983 which is evidently thirty-eight years ago (half of my age!) The English coach, Eddie Jones, was magnanimous in defeat and observed ‘I take responsibility. I didn’t prepare the team well enough. We just had one of those days. We don’t have many, but we had a bad day today‘. Even Brian Moore who won a total of 67 England caps between 1987 and 1995 and now an esteemed commentator for the BBC tweeted: ‘Congratulations to Scotland, outplayed England all over the park and deserved winners’.
The progress towards the vaccination target continues apace with the latest figure being 11.47 million (the target being 15 million by the middle of February i.e. in 10 days time). It looks as though this target may well be hit on time as we need to conduct about 350,000 vaccinations each day for the next 10 days. Confident of meeting this target (even a day or so early) the Government is now promising a new target of all of the aged over 50 and over by the end of May. Of course, this could be do-able but if a new variant of the virus were to emerge, this might knock us of course. The figures of new infections, deaths etc, issued at the weekend are always a little unreliable as many statistics do not get processed over the weekend but the figures are all pointing in the same direction i.e. downwards!
I decided to look up some figures to attempt to gauge the magnititude of the vaccination task ahead of us. There are 4.7 million people in their 60s and 5.2 million in their 50s. In addition, there are 7.3 million people with vulnerable health status aged between 16-64. Adding up all of these figures we get a grand total of 17.2 million to be vaccinated between mid-February and the end of May. According to my calculations, there are about 105 days left between February 15th and May 31st which is about 164,000 (to the nearest 1,000) per day. Again this looks quite do-able at the present rate of progress but of course we do not know (a closely guarded State secret!) how much vaccine we actually do have and what the supply line looks like. As usual, we may need the fine print in the inside pages of the Sunday newspapers to work out whether these targets (and the calculations behind them) are correct.
I set the alarm for half-an-hour earlier this morning so that we could enjoy a cup of tea in bed and then I could leap out and go and collect our Sunday newspapers bright and early in the morning. This I did and the weather was a little on the chilly side but quite bearable – I consoled myself as is I always do on these occasions to listening to a selection of Bach and Mozart on my out-dated iPhone which I now use as an MP3 player. I was back well in time for the Andrew Marr Show which was reasonably informative, evidently concentrating on questions to do with the pandemic, vaccine efficacy, end-of-lockdown and so on. After we had breakfasted and watched the politics programme, we set off for our daily walk to the park but there was a bitterly cold and biting wind coming from the east which made our stay particularly unpleasant. I has just texted our friend that we meet in the park every day to say we were were bitterly cold and were going to strike for home and then he hove into view. Moreover, he introduce us to a couple of good friends of his who happened also to be worshippers at the same church as ourselves in normal times. We exchanged gossip about parish matters and then made for home, almost chilled to the marrow. When we did get home, we treated ourselves to some packet soup in a cup to warm ourselves up and have actually felt a bit chilled and ‘flu-ey’ all day long so perhaps we tarried too long in sub freezing temperatures. If the same weather conditions exist tomorrow, we shall still make the trip for the good of our health but keep walking and not sit on the bench as we normally do.
This afternoon was a real treat for us because it was the Ireland-Wales Six Nations rugby match. The two teams were very evenly matched and the lead changed hands several times but eventually, the Welsh overcame the Irish who were weakened by a red card issued to one of their players (a swinging knee straight to the head but more a product of over-enthusiasm than viciousness) Anyway, we really enjoyed the match but it was one of those where with a fortunate bounce of the ball and passes going to hand the Irish could well have sneaked a victory in the dying seconds of the game.
Tonight is another case of self-indulgence – we have located several copies of the opera ‘La Boheme‘ on YouTube so we are playing a production first performed in Monte Carlo. The singers are evidently not up to the calibre of Pavararotti/Freni which we could have chosen but the Monte Carlo production seemed to have the more imaginative sets and we thought this add to our enjoyment even more. So I can listen to the music whilst I blog but break off for the more dramatic arias as they occur.
The vaccination total has now reached 12 million which is quite a milestone. The infection rates and death rate are also heading in the same, downwards direction (but the figures reported at the weekend are always somewhat lower and under-reported.) Nonetheless, more than ½ million were vaccinated yesterday so the target of 15 million in just over a week seems achievable. Nobody seems to be saying loud and clear that this is a total tribute to the organisational efficiency of the NHS (comparing so well with the ‘Test-and-Trace regime which is having to rely upon dodgy use of statistics to make their performance appear somewhat better than it actually is)
I see that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is floating proposals that he raises revenue by putting a sales tax on the likes of Amazon. Given that sales of good and services have practically collapsed and Amazon successfully avoids paying its fair share of tax, this sounds like a thoroughly good idea. Of course, the argument is that things like sales taxes ultimately get passed onto the consumer but the Amazons of this world have been making money hand-over-fist during the pandemic as so many people are ‘forced’ to shop online. It seems that Amazon’s profits have soared by 51% to nearly £20bn in 2020 but it only had a tax turnover ratio of 0.37%.
Tonight, there is rather disturbing news concerning the efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. South Africa is suspending its rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine after finding it offers limited protection against mild disease caused by the COVID-19 variant discovered there. It follows disappointing results in a trial conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said. The government had been intending to give the AstraZeneca jab to healthcare workers soon after receiving a million doses produced by the Serum Institute of India on Monday. The South Africans are going to use alternative vaccines. It will be interesting to see how news of this will be reported in the UK and indeed whether other vaccines that work in a slightly different way are any more efficacious against the South African variant of the virus (the manufacturers have been silent on this point so far) The makers of the AstraZeneca vaccine are confident that their vaccine can be tweaked ‘by the autumn’ but a lot of people can be infected and can die before then!
The ‘Beast from the East’ more properly known as Storm Darcy was still very much in evidence this morning. Actually, it felt a tad less severe than yesterday and when the gusts of icy wind abated, there were hints of spring sunshine but we are having to get accustomed to sub-zero temperatures. The BBC weather app says ‘heavy snow showers and a gentle breeze’ for my postcode area but in practice there was only the slightest hint of a few flurries of snow in the wind which you would not have described as ‘gentle’. Nonetheless, we collected our newspapers and trudged up to see our friend in the park who had thoughtfully already dried the park bench for us with a towel he keeps for the purpose (and we ourselves have an tea towel reserved for park bench drying duties in our rucksack) We chatted for a little while mainly about the rugby (about which our friend is much more knowledgeable than are we – but then he used to play rugby in his younger days) Eventually, the cold got the better of both of us so we bid each other adieu and headed homewards for a cup of warming soup. Lunch consisted of chicken breasts which were seared and then add to the remains of the tomatoes/peppers/onions/sauce mixture left over from yesterday. This was delicious, particularly when complemented by baked potato and some freshly prepared greens.
This afternoon, after a good newspaper read, I promised myself that I would go through a pile of newspapers and other mailed items that I had promised myself I would read and then sort out. I notice that at this time of year, the newspapers seem to be full of supplements along the themes of keep fit/coping with the pandemic/ensuring your mental health (which are really inter-connected themes when you think about it) So eventually stuff either got thrown away or filed or put into the ‘books I got for Christmas which I haven’t had time to read yet’ pile.
There is quite a degree of concern that the South African variant of COVID-19 has popped up in various places throughout the UK including an area in North Worcester which is just about 15 miles south of here in Bromsgrove. The variant of the virus has differently shipped ‘spikes’ enabling it to lock onto human cells more easily and this makes it more infectious (although the severity of the disease does not appear to differ) The AstraZeneca vaccine seems to have limited power to vaccinate against this variant- the figures quote as ‘22% effective’ but I am not sure what this actually means. Does it mean that only 22% of viral particles are treated by the vaccine and the 78% escape the bodies immune system? The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is slightly less effective against the South African variant but certainly more than the AstraZeneca version. This situation is a little confused not to say worrying. The Government’s has been has been keen to stress all day that the AstraZeneca vaccine – the most popular one – is effective but it is in the public domain that it doesn’t to appear to stop mild or moderate versions of the disease in younger population. This leaves open the question of how effective it is against more severe infections of the virus? There seems to be quite a degree of ‘radio silence’ on this point but there is talk, not particular reassuring, that the vaccine is being ‘tweaked’ and that a third dose might be offered to people ‘in the autumn’ None of this, I must say, do I find particularly reassuring but I keep saying to myself that as it is two weeks since the initial jab and about another nine weeks to go before the final one, that I must take pains to be especially careful in the few weeks ahead of us.
We bumped into some of our church friends as well as our Italian friend on the way down into town – she was muffled up to the eyeballs both against the cold and also with her face mask so we only recognised her at the last moment. I am promised to a bottle of wine as soon as conditions permit by way of thanks for taking her to be vaccinated. This bout of bad weather is due to last for several days and Meg and I have acquired some sniffles and cold-like symptoms after braving the weather. We will have to make a careful judgement whether it is with while venturing out tomorrow but the weather is so changeable that when you set forth it does not seem too bad and then can take a turn for the worse. Whilst our daily walks probably do us more good than harm, it will be frustrating for us if our little sniffles turn into a full scale cold. We are taking some cold-and-flu preparations when we go to bed as a precaution in any case.
I wouldn’t say it was the most major of domestic tragedies but we happen to have quite a tall 1-litre capacity Pyrex measuring jug that is constantly in use – or at least twice a day. I use it to prepare the coffee for our elevenses every morning and also, because of its height, I tend to use it constantly to microwave green vegetables because we have a lid that just fits it nicely. To my display, I discovered that the tip of the lip had broken away and a crack was in the process of appearing over what might have been a seam. As I use it so constantly, I thought I would try and Amazon/Ebay search for a replacement, only to find it extraordinarily difficult. Most of the 1 litre jugs tend to be squat and wide rather than taller and narrower so it took a lot of searching on the internet to find a replacement at quite a price (about £14.00) but at least it was a ‘genuine’ Pyrex. Now for Sod’s law in operation. Meg may have caught a chill after yesterday’s stay in the park so she went to bed a little earlier last night and decided to stay in the warmth of the house today. So I went to collect the newspapers on my own and then made a quick detour into Asda (which I normally avoid) to see on the off-chance whether they stocked any measuring jugs of the sort I wanted. As luck would have it, they did have one which is an exact replacement of the one that had died a death but at a price of £2.70 which is about one fifth of the internet price – but how was I to know that what I wanted would be so readily available locally and so hard to find on the internet? I took the opportunity, though, to buy one or two things that I know only Asda sells though by inclination I feel like avoiding the store as much as possible.
Today was a very interesting day in the park. Near the entrance, I met my Birmingham University friend who was deep in conversation (about dogs) with a dog-walking couple. We then acquired the customary cup of coffee and went to take up position in our ‘by now’ usual vantage point only to meet friends, friends of friends, dog walkers that we know and so on. At one point, there were as many as eight of us in a gaggle but we quickly moved on so as not to constitute a ‘gaggle’ and to keep out of the purview of the COVID-19 rangers. By this stage, I was thoroughly chilled as the temperature is about -3° which is not too cold if you are constantly on the move but can get to you a little if you are stationary. So I got home a little late and prepared our lunch time meal of fishcakes dressed with yesterday’s sauce and some fresh broccoli.
This afternoon, I brought back into use a radio which is designed to be used in or near a shower. This I bought years and years ago for about £5 and it was cheap even then – it seems to keep going on two AA batteries for about 3 months so is evidently designed to perform well at a very low power consumption. The proof of the pudding will be tomorrow morning (I have it permanently tuned to ClassicFM which is the only radio to which I would want to listen in the shower) At 4.00 in the afternoon, I Skyped one of my oldest Hampshire friends and we regaled each with stories from our pasts. I enjoyed retelling the story of how members of Leicester Polytechnic enjoyed moments of ‘Schadenfreude‘ (= malicious delight in another person’s misfortune) The then director of the polytechnic wished to avail himself of the flat at the top of the Queen Anne mansion which was a feature of the Scraptoft Campus in order to entertain his current ‘amour’ at weekends (and for no cost!) To make his pleasure complete, the Director had ordered a double bed which the delivery men struggled for hours to try to get up the narrow spiral staircase of the Queen Anne mansion. Eventually, they failed and the bed had to be returned back to the delivery van from whence it came, much to the amusement of the members of staff who had watched the late Friday afternoon’s proceedings unfold with a fair degree of mirth. After this Skype call, we FaceTimed some of our ex-Waitrose friends as we do every Tuesday afternoon and caught up all with all of the week’s news. We generally take the best part of an hour and pass on any local news or gossip about things happening in the area. Tomorrow, if we are lucky, we should be getting our central heating engineer to come and see to our boiler which appears to be functioning OK in the exceptionally cold weather apart from the fact that a crucial pressure gauge is tending to read ‘zero’ which is a definite malfunction. As the boiler is fairly new, we trust that is a part has failed, we should be able to make a claim under the warranty.
Today was another fine but very cold day. The wind had abated somewhat and whilst the temperature was probably sub-zero, it was actually quite a pleasant day and, on occasions, you can feel the rays of a weak sunshine on your face which is always good to feel. We had a brief chat with some of our church friends on the way down the hill and then, having collected our newspapers as normal, made for the park where we met up, as usual, with our Birmingham University friend. We were having a chat today about some common pedagogic problems that we had faced e.g. I contended that ‘every teacher was a teacher of English‘ whilst our friend bemoaned the fact that standards of numeracy seem to have dropped over the years. We also discussed the fact that English is the most comprehensive of languages in that if it is an animal, cold and wet and standing in a muddy field, we call it by the Anglo Saxon name (cow, sheep, pig) whereas once it is cooked and served on a plate we tend to use the Norman-French derivative (bouef = beef, mouton=mutton, porque= pork) Another non-culinary example is that we use the French word for a room (chamber) but invest it with a new layer of meaning which in this was is a large, ceremonial room. All of this is well explained in Melvyn Bragg’s book which I think is called ‘The Adventure of English‘ which I would recommend to anyone who is interested in how our language has developed over the centuries.
Again, we chatted in the park until we got particularly cold again and then made for home just in time to cook our lunch at the normal time. This afternoon, after a good read of the newspapers, I ventured out to our local hardware store to pick up some bags of quick drying cement that are used to cement posts into position. Our gardner who calls by about once a month and I had decided that we needed to do something about a type of pergola, be-topped by a heavy growth of honeysuckle which forms a kind of archway down one side of the house. This has become rotten at the base (typical – this is water, air and microbial activity do their worst and why posts always rot at ground level and not, as you imagine two feet under) So on Friday, I am going to act as the ‘gofer’ and a second pair of hands whilst our gardner does the bulk of the work. I had previously let my neighbour have some spare cement and I wondered if he had any left over – as he had used it all up, I needed to go out any but some more. Actually, in the post I have acquired a wonderful tool designed to dig holes for fence posts. It is known as an ‘auger’ and in reality if just a giant corkscrew but in the past I have found that a good clean ‘corkscrew’ type hole only needs the post inserting into it followed by a few hefty blows of a sledge hammer which I have also in my stock of ‘heavy’ gardening implements. I hope the weather is not too cold on Friday next when we are scheduled to do the job as I do not fancy standing around much in this cold weather. However, I think the worst of the weather should be blown over by Friday.
As I write this blog, there. is a programme being broadcast on Sky News on ‘Learning the lessons of the pandemic‘ This may well prove to be very interesting because with the benefit of hindsight, it might be useful to reflect on where as a society, we went badly wrong and finished up with one of the highest (if not the highest) death-rates in the world. Of course, we all have our personal ‘takes’ on what has gone right/wrong and no doubt there will be an official enquiry eventually. But in the meanwhile, there might be a useful kind of stocktake so that we can learn the lessons. But do politicians learn the lessons from history – even a recent history?
From my own perspective, there are certainly highlights and lowlights. The outstanding success must be the brilliant way we have researched and brought a vaccine into use in a remarkably short turn around time. A ‘lowlight’ had got to be the abysmal performance of the ‘test-and-trace’ regime on which we have spent £22 billion – the money should have been spent on the local authority teams who have been doing infection tracing for a century and know how to do it. And, it is almost certain, that we started the first lockdown a week too late (where the infection rate is doubling every 3-4 days a week is a long time) and lifted our first lock down far too early. (Jeremy Hunt, previous Health secretary. has just said the very same thing on the Sky news programme)
I make no apologies for starting off commenting on the weather as last night was the coldest night in the UK for 25 years – a temperature of -23° was recorded in Braemar, Scotland. I had thought that this cold snap might be ending today but tonight might be just as cold, if not colder. This has an impact on things that I had intended to do tomorrow. I was scheduled, together with our gardener who calls by once a month, to replace a kind of wooden arch support down one side of the house. We were going to saw off the rotten base and then re-plant it in concrete (which I have already purchased in anticipation of the event) I was not looking forward to being out in the cold for several hours tomorrow morning so after a brief telephone chat with our gardener, we both agreed that the ground would be too hard for us to do anything so we had better postpone things for a week or so until the weather improves. I have to say I am not at all sorry about that! This morning was quite busy as our central heating engineer was fixing the unexplained loss of pressure in our boiler. He may (or may not) have cured a slight leak that we have somewhere on the system by introducing some sealant into a radiator but it will take some 2-3 weeks to percolate around the system. Then we had our normal Waitrose grocery delivery after which we set out on our walk, picked up our newspapers and met our Birmingham University friend ‘en route’ We called in at Waitrose for one or two forgotten items and made our way to the park. However, we jointly took the decision we would not loiter in the park but just drink our respective coffees and then get on our way – just to keep moving and hence keep warm. When we got home, we warmed ourselves up with some cuppa soups and then made a lunch of Swedish style meat balls (which I made a bit more piquant by adding them to some fried onions and peppers and then adding a modicum of gravy tarted up with a good dollop of brown sauce). It all worked out well, although it stands a little pedestrian. After a good read of the newspapers, I busied myself getting my accounts up to date (a process which involved working through my online statements and then recording the transactions in a large ledger that I keep) and I like to do this so that I do not get too many weeks behind. All my incomings and outgoings tend to take place in a flurry in the middle of the month which is now fast approaching.
I have been sort of following the Donald Trump impeachment proceedings in the senate, although the result is a foregone conclusion. The Democrats have put together a video presentation drawn from a variety of sources (and some of them not in the public domain) which shows that the mob were quite close to capturing some key members of Congress – including Pence, their own Vice-President. This video is apparently quite impressive whilst Trump’s defence lawyers are abysmally bad – I suppose it doesn’t help that he sacked one set about a week or so ago and is now working with their replacements who are definitely ‘second tier’. The Democrat case is primarily that Trmp had incited and ‘de facto’ given orders for the Capital building to be invaded. As the Democrats say “He invited them with clear instructions for a specific time and place – and with clear orders: ‘Fight to stop the certification (of the election result) in Congress by any means necessary’.” For a conviction to take place, 17 Republican senators out of 50 are going to have to vote against their own president and this is not going to happen. However, given the compelling nature of the video evidence any Republican senator who votes to save Trump must be doing so for reasons of pure ideology rather than any dispassionate discussion of the evidence.
British medical researchers have been trying to see if any existing drugs can be ‘re-purposed’ to assist them treat victims of COVID-19. They have discovered that a combination of two drugs may prove to be quite efficacious. These two drugs combined, tocilizumab and dexamethasone should cut death risk by about a third for patients on oxygen and halve it for those on a ventilator, the researchers say. This is quite a dramatically good result and may well to keep the death toll from the virus quite a lot lower than it would have been. Again, one has to pay tribute to the dedication of medical researchers who have discovered these drug combinations which makes COVID-19 more treatable than it would have been even a few months ago.
The icy cold weather still continues but, fortunately, we only have about two more days to endure before some milder air appears on Monday. After a chat with our domestic help, I went down to collect the newspapers on my own this morning. Fortunately, I had already agreed with our gardener to postpone the outside task we had got detailed for us this morning – Meg had decided to give today a miss as she has got pretty frozen in the last couple of days so I ventured forth alone. I did bump into a couple of my oldest ‘church’ friends who were busy giving their new granddaughter a push out in her buggy and we paused to chat but not for too long as it is best to keep moving in this kind of weather. Having picked up our newspapers, I made for my usual park bench and had taken the precaution of taking a flask of coffee along with me. Although I was on my own, no sooner had I got up to go but my Birmingham University friend spotted my Australian bush-stye hat from afar and made over to join me, sporting a similar one of his own. No doubt, we will soon have the reputation of the couple of old geezers who wear practically identical hats, although it does help to spot people at a distance. I have noticed during this pandemic and subsequent lockdown that I have learnt to recognise the shape and stance of people from hundreds of metres away, even though I could not actually discern their faces. I imagine that during World War 2, various members of the population (Dad’s Army?) were trained in aircraft recognition from the shape of the aircraft and perhaps also the sound – one had to learn to distinguish whether they were friends (i.e. one of ours) or one of ‘theirs’ in which case you might have to take rapid evasive action. (I am reminded of the not very amusing story that during the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, when an Exocet missile was seen winging its way across the surface of the sea towards one of our ships, a radar system was turned on called ‘IFF’ (interrogate French or Foe) only for the system to respond that as it was an Exocet owned by the French, it must be a ‘friendly’ missile, despite the fact that it was heading towards and actually hit one of our ships). A certain amount of re-programming of military computers then had to take place to indicate that even though it was manufactured or utilised by the French, they had taken the opportunity to sell it on to the Argentinians and therefore we could not infer that it must be ‘friendly’
We had a spare piece of cod leftover in our freezer and I baked this in the oven for lunch. However, under the expert tuition of son and domestic help, I managed to make a roux sauce, filled it with a packet of parsley sauce and then ‘spiced it up’ with some mustard and black pepper. The whole effect was delicious – so much so, that I am resolved to perhaps make an order to Iceland for another supply of Atlantic cod for the freezer. After a good newspaper read, I then devoted the afternoon to finally get all of my bank accounts up-to-date and ensure that all of my savings plans are as they should be (I tend to have separate savings pots for such things as vacation, car renewal, computing needs etc.)
Sky News is running a series of TV programmes and web-based presentations under the heading ‘Learning the Lessons‘. I am finding this quite interesting as it is a fairly contemporary account of how, as a society, we have done some things well and other things abysmally. No doubt, we will have official enquiries in the fullness of time but it is quite obstructive, as we are not far off from a complete year living with the crisis, of doing an ‘interim’ assessment of how were are doing. There is quite an interesting argument between medical scientists and epidemiologists going on within the Channel 4 news this evening. One side of the argument is that we have no real evidence that a delay in the administration of a second dose of the vaccine will be efficacious – this is probably true as most of the evidence from the initial trials were based upon very small samples. The counter-argument is ‘the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence (of an effect)‘ This argument derives from everything that we know about how vaccines in general work and how our immune systems respond. According to this side of the argument, we can infer that a delay in the second dose does not reduce, and may even increase. its effectiveness. This argument will probably resolve itself as we collect more and more data on different age-bands within the population but, of course, we had to wait until this evidence accumulates over time. It will be interesting for us to learn which side of the argument has more force i.e. is either confirmed or disconfirmed as the evidence does become available over the weeks ahead.
We are braced for only two more days of this particularly cold ‘snap’ which we trust will be over by Monday. Meg and I braved the walk to the newsagents today but the conditions were not at all pleasant as the icy winds were driving in our faces. Nonetheless, we survived and collected our complement of Saturday newspapers (which are always replete with supplements of various kinds, some of which go straight into the recycling bin) In the park we did meet with our Birmingham University friend but we all decided that as it was so very cold today (-3°but the wind-chill factor made it seem a lot colder than this) so we decided to drink our respective coffees and get on our way home so we did not catch cold. When we did arrive home, we regaled ourselves with some hot soup which is always a useful way to get warmed up from the inside. We then prepared a fairly traditional Saturday lunch which involves baking some of the specialist sausages we get from Waitrose and give ourselves the occasional treat.
The highlight of today was certainly the two 6-Nations rugby matches, one played in the early afternoon and the other in the late afternoon. The first match was England vs. Italy and England certainly improved on their abysmal performance of a week ago, when they were beaten by Scotland. Today, England had an easy win over Italy which was to be expected and their performance had certainly improved but they still have some way before they meet the Welsh who will be playing on their home ground in a fortnight’s time. The second match was Wales vs. Scotland and this proved to be pulsating. The Scots soared to several points ahead but then had a man sent off ‘(red-carded’) for foul play in the ruck and the whole tenour of the game changed with the Welsh coming back strongly. In the event, the Welsh won by a margin of 1 point and in the last few minutes of the game either side could have won with a last minute score. Actually, the Scots captain was heading for the line with the ball in hand and only 2-3 minutes left on the clock – but then he slipped on the wet Scottish turf and the opportunity was lost. This is just to show what fine margins there can be at this level and how often rugby games are won or lost with only a minute or so remaining (quite unlike Association Football)
The government is well on target to get 15 million vaccinated by Monday. The total tonight is 14.5 million so could well be exceeded by the end of tomorrow and certainly will be by Monday. The target seemed incredibly ambitious when it was set about a month ago so for once, the UK government has actually delivered to a target on time. This means that by Monday, all of the 70 + segments of the population will have been vaccinated, including some others whose health status is such that they need to be vaccinated immediately. The next target will be get all of the 60-69 year olds vaccinated and then all of the 50+ in the population. This last milestone when it is achieved may prove to be highly significant and important in the campaign against the COVID-19 virus. When all of the 50 and upwards have been vaccinated (in about a couple of month’s time) then Including the over-50s covers 98% of those who die from coronavirus – and about 80% of all those who go into hospital. Furthermore, as Professor Whitty has stated 'If we then vaccinate all the way down to people over 50 and those who have actually got pre-existing health conditions, you then get through virtually all the people who have a high chance of dying.' So it is hard to overstate the importance of this stage of the vaccination process once we get to it. Of course, the protection will need to be enhanced by a second dose some three months after the first (in the case of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine) and, then potentially, some additional boosters in the autumn to cope with strains such as the South African variant (and any others that might have emerged by then) And, of course, we will have the normal ‘flu vaccination programme starting in the Autumn, so I feel that we will have to get used to vaccinations for many months and years ahead.
Now for a piece of absolute trivia. When the Flying Scotsman first started its non-stop journeys between London and Edinburgh and offered a high class dining facility, what to do if you ran out of salmon half way through the journey? The solution was to put a message on a piece of paper and stick it into the cleft of a potato and then throw that into the vicinity of a passing signal box. The signal man would then telegraph ahead for fresh supplies of salmon which which find its way (somehow!) into the Flying Scotsman cab no doubt travelling at speed. How this was achieved was not actually revealed by my source (A BBC programme called Full Steam Ahead playing in the background)
Hopefully, today will be the last of our current cold ‘snap’ as a front of warm air is moving across Britain from the West, bringing with it a lot of rain and higher temperatures. I got up at 6.0am this morning and after a St. Valentine’s cup of tea (ever the romantic!) I got myself muffled up and stole off through the cold for our Sunday newspapers. After that I watched/dozed through most of the Andrew Marr Show, then Meg set off for our visit to the park where we met with our Birmingham University friend. We exchanged little bits of news and gossip, mainly talking about the rugby that we had so enjoyed on Saturday afternoon. But as it was still bitterly cold, we did not linger for long but had our coffee and comestibles and headed for home. The park, as you might expect, was well populated with dogs and their owners and although it just an impression, I am convinced that the number of dogs has increased since the lockdown last March. At least on the way home. the wind is behind us rather than in our faces and this makes the journey home seem a little less severe.
This afternoon was another Six Nations rugby match, this time between Ireland and France, played in Dublin (without any teams of supporters in the stadium) Wales was a little weakened owing to injury and a suspension and had a clutch of injured players in the course of the game. In the event, the French proved to be the superior team but only just and it was a hard-fought match with only a couple of points separating the two teams at the finish.
Today, as we suspected, the vaccination total surpassed the 15 million that the government had promised before mid-February and the total is now standing at 15,062,000. This means that all the 70 years and older should have been vaccinated (or at least been offered) vaccination and now the target moves onto the 60+ band of the population. Some research has just been released by a leading epidemiologist who has analysed data from 50,000 users who have been vaccinated with either the Pfizer or the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The very interesting results show that irrespective of which vaccine was used, then one dose gave 46% protection after two weeks but this rises to 67% after three to six weeks. This result had been anticipated from the initial trials of the vaccine but this data is collected from the first cohorts to be vaccinated from about a month ago and is especially interesting. As it happens, it will be three weeks tomorrow since Meg and I received our initial dose of the vaccine and we already have the second ‘booked’ in the system for 12 April with is about eight weeks away.
As we have to expect, ex-President Donald Trump was not convicted in the US Senate yesterday. A vote for conviction would have required a two-thirds majority which, given that the Senate is divided absolutely equally between Republicans and Democrats, would have meant the 17 of the Republican senators would have to have voted for Trump’s conviction. In the event, only 7 of the 50 for a conviction, thus leaving 43 out of 50 Republican senators who were unmoved by the mob ransacking the Capitol building and then seeking out the Speaker (Nancy Pelosi) and the Republican Vice President (Mike pence) presumably to try to execute them. If you do not convict for that, then what behaviour is liable to conviction? Our very own Boris Johnson has issued a statement to say that US democracy remains ‘strong’, despite the ‘kerfuffle’ over former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. If the result of the Senate failure to convict is regarded as a sign of the strength of American democracy then words fail one – it shows rather than approx 80% of American voters and Senators are not unhappy about mobs rampaging throughout the Capitol building so long as they, presumably are ‘on our side’ American society must now be so polarised that one wonders of any centre-ground still exists in the gulf between the two parties.
This week is going to be another ‘bottling’ week. After waiting to get a supply of miniature (200 cl) wine bottles, I am now faced with the task of removing all of the labels (some of which is easy, some of which requires a variety of implements and techniques) so that I can to bottle some more of the 16 litres of damson gin with which I started. Any tradesperson who comes to the house (e.g. service of the central heating boiler) gets a bottle of damson gin to help to keep them onside. All in all, I hope to bottle another 15 litres or so this week which is about twenty bottles or so and then they just have to be carefully labelled and they are ready to be dispensed again.
Today started off ominously with a brown envelope from the NHS but on opening it, my forebodings turned to delight. The origin of all this train of events lies in the Brexit negotiations at the end of last year. Everything got done in a tremendous rush towards the end of the year and it was touch-and-go whether or not we conclude a deal by 1st January. I had read in the press that one of the casualties of Brexit was the EHIC card (European Health Insurance Card) which allowed all members of the EC to enjoy treatment in other’s hospitals. What was agreed in the case of the EHIC was that any time existing on the issue of the card would be honoured but not thereafter. On reading this, I went to check the EHIC cards for Meg and myself only to find that they had both expired (not having been on holiday, evidently I didn’t bother to check them) I decided to quickly make a reapplication for two new EHIC cards, hoping that as as I was making application whilst we were technically still members of the EC, then it might be possible to be issued with two new ones. When I opened the iron envelope this morning, some seven weeks after making application for replacements at the end of December, I found to my delight that Meg and I had been issued with Global Health Insurance Cards (The word ‘European’ has been replaced with ‘Global’ as there MAY be some non-EU countries with reciprocal healthcare arrangements with the UK) Moreover, these are valid for the next five years i.e. until December, 2025 so we can make use of them in a few months time. (It is interesting, by the way, that the word ‘European’ seems to be banished from any situations in which it may encourage citizens of the UK to think well of the EU. For example, the EU has promised to fund 50% of all of the foodbanks in the UK but as this was a requirement for a notice to be displayed that ‘this project was part funded by the EU‘ then the government refused to accept any help from the EU as it probably felt that many of the population would say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ for being fed by the EU – and that would never do, would it?)
The day today was almost balmy as the temperatures of about -3° had given way to a temperature of about 5-6°, which is certainly a welcome change. We met our Italian friend on the way down into town as well as the cycling partner of one of our Church friends who was taking advantage of some non-icy conditions for a bike ride. We collected our newspapers and caught up with our Birmingham University friend but we had to keep a careful eye out for the COVID wardens who were doing their rounds at quite a leisurely pace. We timed our chats so that having them in our field of vision, we could ‘separate’ before they got at all close to us. Having said that, the day being the first day of half-term, there seemed to be kids and dogs absolutely all over the place, but that was to be expected.
This afternoon, I emailed the daughter of one of Meg’s cousins because we are hoping to set up a Zoom call on Wednesday so that about five of us can participate in a chat. I am not very sure of my ground when it comes to Zoom but our cousin’s daughter seems to have it well sorted it out so I have asked her for last minute instructions so that we can conjoin without a hitch. Incidentally, I felt a little sorry for the young adolescent couple who lived in separate towns in the West Midlands but had arranged to meet in a carpark for a kiss and a cuddle – whereupon, they were set upon by the local police and no doubt fined (would they each be fined, I ask myself)? All of this, the day after Valentine’s day as well.
There is a bit of an interesting twist to the success story of the vaccinations so far. That is Britain’s BAME community seem far more reluctant to be vaccinated than the rest of the UK population. According to SAGE, nearly 72% of black or black British groups say they are unlikely or very unlikely to be vaccinated. This may be a dramatic mis-statement of the true position but the latest data does seem to reveal that adults in minority ethnic groups were less likely to receive the vaccine than those in white groups, by between 10-20%. Misinformation spread within ethnic minority communities often plays on religious concerns — that the vaccine might contain gelatine, or other animal products and is not halal, or that it can result in modification of DNA. In the face of this rather disturbing information, there has been a bit of a fight back as community and religious leaders have been enrolled to spread much more positive measures. Locating a vaccination point actually within a mosque seems to work well as well (after all, we used cathedrals in the early stages of the mass vaccination campaign)
Every so often, computer manufacturers release new copies of their operating systems and it is generally beneficial to upgrade whilst one can. The major upgrades used to be once every two years but Apple now releases a major upgrade every single year. As the new releases come on stream, so support for older MAC models tends to drop away i.e. you cannot upgrade and the more cynical will say that this is Apple’s way of making you change your hardware every five years or so whether you want to or not. As it happens, the new operating system will install on the desktop MAC I have in my study and the portable I have in the lounge (on which I am typing this blog) and as they both date from 2015 that makes them both about 5-6 years old and therefore ‘just’ upgradeable. So when I had the chance to update my main system in the study, I did so – and that’s when the problem started. Every major release of operating system means that some programs which are well-loved and useful but ‘aged’ are no longer supported and therefore one had to learn to do without them. In my case, the update seemed to take most of the night and then the whole computer failed to start. I was in complete despair and thinking that I would probably have to buy a whole new system. What I did not know, but fortunately my son did, was that there is a special ‘Recovery mode’ for a dead MAC which enables a user with an apparently dead machine to reboot it with a special keyboard combination of keys and this forces a reboot using an internet connection. Anyway, this worked and I eventually got the new operating system installed. But then my son and I spent about four hours getting the system cleaned up of redundant and dead programs, ‘clutter’ and other things that might potentially cause problems. we still have a little tidying up to do but I was mighty relieved to get my system up and running and in a ‘cleaner’ state than it was in before the upgrade (If you install or re-install new programs, all computers accumulate clutter so this is well known to most of us) So all is well that ends well.
After a night of precious little sleep and a lot of concentration in the morning, I should have felt terrible but in practice felt quite OK – I suppose it was a sort of delayed exhilaration in getting a system working again. We were were delayed in getting into town but passed by two of our sets of friends en route as well as coinciding with our Birmingham University friend who we had not expected to see this morning. After an extended chat about our various academic experiences of how we award classified degrees to our students, we returned home to a very, very late lunch but managed to rustle together a meal which was actually ready in about 20 minutes, which was just as well. Then I spent some time playing? learning? some of the new features of the newly installed operating system with which I need to familiarise myself.In the late afternoon, we FaceTimed some of our ex-Waitrose friends that we communicate with every week on a Tuesday at about the sam time. It was good to catch up on current news (although neither of us had that much new) but I did manage to tell our friends about my success in getting my EHIC cards upgraded to the new GHIC cards which will be current for five years.
Tomorrow night, we will Zoom some of our cousins in Derby and fortunately, the entire system has been set up for us so with a bit of luck, all I need to do is to click a link and enter the appropriate password (sent to me in an email). Also on Wednesday evenings, there is an excellent series exploring the legacy of Donald Trump particularly from the perspective of other world leaders and this has been a fascinating watch for us. Tomorrow morning, in the wee small hours of the morning, I need to update my Waitrose shopping list for two weeks time – once in the groove, it is quite easy to get the slot you need with a bit of forward planning.
Yet another variant of the virus has been identified which may have the ability to bypass the vaccines so far developed. Although this sounds frightening, it is the fact that UK medical science leads the world in virus genome sequencing which means that we identify new mutations far more rapidly than other countries. There is some evidence that these newly occurring mutations are both deadly and can evade current vaccines which sounds bad. But on the other hand, as the rate of infection drops overall, it is easier for us to ‘jump’ on new mutations that do occur and hopefully try to prevent a rapid and harmful transmission process.
Last night, we had quite an interesting experience on our TV set. I had done a search on YouTube for Amadeus (the film of the life of Mozart) and saw an entry for ‘Amadeus – the Director’s Cut’. Excitedly, we started to watch it only to discover that was an advert for a particular version of Amadeus. Disappointed, we trawled the rest of YouTube but did find a full version of the film but with the dialogue dubbed into Spanish. As it happened, we did not mind this too much and could follow most of the dialogue but in any case we enjoyed the music and the way the plot unfolded. After a little lie-in this morning, we were again delayed whilst I updated my Waitrose order for delivery tomorrow – this, by now, is part of our regular Wednesday morning routine. As the weather was so mild, the park was absolutely teeming with both children and dogs so we won’t be sorry when it quietens down for a little. On the way down we met with some of our church friends who who were a little distressed that nothing at all is happening in our own parish church whereas other parishes are taking a much more pro-active stance by keeping church services running whilst radically restricting the numbers. We seem to have been caught in a vicious spiral of the lockdown, our parish priest who has somewhat mysteriously retired from public view and one of the other major organisers of the parish is in infirm health. What is distressing is that other churches are making the best of a bad job and it appears that many members of our church community are deserting it in favour of services in other towns and it is problematic whether or not they will return.
After lunch, my son and I got the rest of my computer system sorted out. This involved making sure my backup system was working correctly – we formatted one of my pocket drives and then got Time Machine to make a backup. This is one of the best possible utilities on a MAC – the first time it runs, evidently it makes a full backup but thereafter it performs hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups for all previous months. The backups are incremental i.e. it only backs up what has actually been changed in the last hour, day or whatever and works well in the background. Perhaps PC’s have a similar facility these days but it means that you always have a ‘roll back’ in case anything has gone dramatically wrong whilst you are working.
Whilst we had the computer more-or-less decluttered and the backup systems working as I wanted, then I turned my attention to the desk itself. I cleared everything off it and onto some large trays on the floor. Now I can go about carefully putting back only what I need and discarding an awful lot of junk along the way. I did discover two things that I knew were at the bottom of the pile – the button from a submarine captain’s jacket which I discovered whilst digging in the garden and also a roman coin which I shall have to clean up a bit to discover its actual denomination. Whilst on the subject of working with a tidy desk, I know that in these days of ‘hot desking’ that one has one’s laptop and absolutely nothing else – I have coasters for coffee, notebooks, pens, stationery items and I dare not mention what else besides. But as I often say to members of my family ‘I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety-nine just persons, which need no repentance’ – however, they are not convinced by this I am told that I need to keep on repenting (i.e. keep things tidy) I will admit to one foible, though, that I think is widely shared. If I leave out a letter, a document or whatever, then I know that some action needs to be taken on it but once it gets (neatly) filed away then the pressure to do something about it diminishes.
Tonight, by prior arrangement we Zoomed Meg’s cousins over in Derby. We had a wonderful hour together and are going to repeat the experience at regular intervals, perhaps once a fortnight, and are looking forward to the days perhaps in late April/May when we go and have a little ‘get-together’ even if is only own a socially-distanced way in a garden. Meanwhile, I read that in Germany the (British) Oxford/AstraZeneca virus is not being well received and there are reports of many fevers and headaches following the vaccination. However, there are no similar complaints about the Modena or the Pfizer vaccine which is preferred. Strange that, isn’t it?
As I reported last night, I was very pleased to get my computer system up and running again and all seemed to be well. I did, though, wondered whether or not I could use a client other than FileZilla which is a very reliable FTP program. I did have an app installed called Forklift which had good reviews when I installed it and automatically remembered your login credentials when in use. However, I updated my FTP password because the new operating system indicated to me that my previous one had been found in a data breach and so there was a theoretical possibility that my security could be breached. So I updated the password and used it once or twice but then my problems started (possibly my new password conflicted with a legacy password on the FTP server) Anyway, I got myself locked out of my own system and couldn’t access any of my website (or this WordPress installation) whatsoever. In desperation, I wrote to my extremely friendly Canadian web host provider – we have known each for at least 15 years and she often gets me out of scrapes. It transpired that I had made several unsuccessful log-in attempts after which the server automatically logged me out – and hence the system was completely inaccessible. I was in quite a deep cloud all day worrying about all of this but eventually Karina came to me rescue, unlocked my account and here we are. I think as a lesson learnt, I am going to uninstall the slightly dodgy software that got me into this mess in the first place.
Meg and I were a little late going for our walk this morning. In the first place Meg had a scheduled webinar that went on for an hour. I was unpacking the Waitrose shopping when it arrived and set to in my major task for the day. I am ashamed to say that after about fourteen years in this house, my principal computer desk had acquired all kinds of clutter so I took the ‘bold’ decision to clear absolutely everything off the desk and put everything on the study floor in a collection of plastic bowls which I keep in the garage for clearing up jobs of this type. Generally one bowl was filled with pens and stationary and the other with masses of bits of paper e.g. letter headings from when people had written to me in the past. So I did a massive, massive clearing out job which involved a ruthless weeding out of anything that was not strictly useful. I did make a little bundle though of ‘business card’ sized cards (colleagues, useful contacts, restaurants) and then another mini file, inside a notelet card of those letters and addresses that I particularly did not want to throw away. And so I now completed my comprehensive reordering so I now have besides the Apple Mac a scanner (behind the monitor) my two pocket drives for operating the backup systems, a plastic envelope complete with old pen drives, my correspondence cards and stationary now neatly filed, Tippex, staplers, sellotape dispenser and finally some desk tidies populated with important bits of paper to be actioned in a day or do. So as you can see, not much there then! At least I have some clear work space on which I can write and perform my other ‘office like duties’ I know this is a long way from a clear, empty ‘hot desk’ solution that many prefer but at least it looks very neat and tidy and I intend top keep it that way. This tidying up job took all of the afternoon by he way and I only finished it at 6.30 in the evening.
Three important bits of news are merging this evening. The first is that the new infection rate seems to be falling rapidly and this has to be good news, unless we all lose our heads and end our lockdown far too soon. Another piece of breaking news is the results of an investigation that reveals that those who die of COVID-10 lose on average 16 years of their lives, which seems dramatic considering that most of the deaths occur in the elderly anyway. But the third breaking bit of news is that the Australian government is trying to extract more money from FaceTime for its news content. FaceTime has responded by ‘unfriending’ practically the whole of Australia locking almost the entire population out of their FaceBook accounts. This conflict between media giant and democratically elected government had to come at some point of time, I surmise, and how this plays out with have implications for the rest of us. Needless to say, most of Australia is incandescent with indignation and although Google has backed down in a similar situation, FaceTime has not so we will have to see who blinks first in the situation.
Today was one of those kinds of days in which there was a degree of low-hanging cloud and showers always threatening but not quite materialising. We collected our newspapers and were in two minds whether or not to seek the shelter of the bandstand in the park – in the event, we decided to try our luck on one of the local benches and it although it was blustery and lots of water in the air, we were not being actually rained upon so we judged it better to try our luck on the bench. The poor weather kept some of the mothers with young children away whilst the ardent dog walkers were there in force as always. Talking about mothers and young children, I saw a young mother made up to the eyeballs who was dragging a two and a three year old through the mud. They were both howling and covered in mud but their mother dragged them along anyway, no doubt encouraging them to stand ‘on their own two feet’ which they didn’t. Just a little scene from park life. We didn’t meet with Birmingham University friend today as he had other things to do but we will probably meet on Sunday, all being well.
Today, I thought I would try something different for lunch. We had ordered some coley from Waitrose which actually came cut in the form of blocks of fish (but not reconstituted) I made a background mix of onions, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms and then added the fish. Under the instruction of our domestic help, I made a type of roux which went over the fish and then slopped half a jar of onion and garlic ‘goo’ onto it before the whole was baked in the oven. It did actually turned out OK and I am sure I have tasted something similar in a Spanish restaurant but I couldn’t recall what they actually called it.
This afternoon after a slight snooze and a read, I decide to carry on cleaning up the study because having cleared some much ‘clutter’ off the desk, I did need to do something with it. One of these items was what I think is called a Digital Picture Frame and I had purchased one about four years ago, principally with our (then forthcoming) 50th wedding anniversary in mind. During my cleanup, I had an extraordinary stroke of luck because I discovered an unlabelled pen drive near to the picture frame but I had no idea what was on it. Inserting into the computer, I found that it actually contained the ordinal wedding photos (from 1967) which I had digitised and soundtracks of the music that had been played. This afternoon, I took the picture frame, inserted the pen drive into the slot provided, turned on the ‘On’ button and wondered what would happen. What we actually got was a rolling display of the digitised wedding photographs from 1967, all of the photos of the guests that we had taken at the celebration we held in a hotel near Kidderminster in 2017 (some three and a half years ago) complete with all of the tracks of music (internet derived copies of the original playlist that approximated very closely to the originals). I felt that all of this was an absolute bonus so now that I know what a fantastic record that we have of the memories of both the original service and our celebration some fifty years later. I must box it up carefully and as soon as the lockdown ends, we can bore some of our friends rigid with it all when we next manage to socialise in each others houses. (I suppose I could take a big video of all of this on my iPhone but the resultant file might be multiple megabytes in length so perhaps not.)
More interesting vaccine news is forthcoming tonight. A study in The Lancet (weekly medical periodical) has shown that the efficiency off the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is raised from 76% to 81% if a gap of about three months is left between the initial and the second dose. The report also said that a single standard dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is 76% effective from day 22 to day 90 after the jab – meaning protection was not reduced in the three months between the first and second dose. The infection rate in London is also reducing very rapidly. What would be very interesting to know is how much of the reduction in the infection rate is due to the lockdown, how much to the vaccinations provided and how what is the ratio of one to the other. Perhaps in the fullness of time, we will tell. To round off the week, I FaceTimed one of my Hampshire friends who seems incredibly busy organising various Zoom events and we had a good old catch up on the last week’s news.
As today was one of those ‘raining all morning’ days, we decided to pop down and collect our newspapers in the car and then make our way to the park. Once there, we made for the bandstand as it was too wet to take a seat – but then we were joined unexpectedly by our Birmingham University friends. We spent about twenty minutes chewing the fat until we all decided we had got a little cold and decided to call it a day. Fortunately as we were in the car we got home without getting wet and immediately started cooking our mid-day meal. Then we had a lazy afternoon, reading the Saturday newspapers until I decided it was time to complete the tidy up of the study. On top of my book cases in the study, I tend to store the empty boxes of any hardware that we have bought in the past (in case anything needed to go back within the guarantee period) I located a little stool that I had underneath a desk and ‘liberated’ it so that I could make some space on the bookcase tops for things that I needed to store but keep accessible like our Photo Frame (which we may need to drag out once we make contact with members of the family). One thing that I re-discover was a type of hard-drive which we used to use with an Apple Mac – this particular model, whilst expensive, is the kind that film producers and professionals of a similar ilk use to make sure that their work does not get lost. To cut a long story short, it was already formatted for a MAC so I tried it out as an alternative backup mechanism and was delighted to find out it saved 16 Gbytes of data in about 8 minutes, which is a good reason for doing it regularly from now on.
It will be interesting to read the Sunday newspapers tomorrow morning to see how the world at large is responding to the imminent ending of the lockdown. The most immediate point of contention is whether schools should all be re-opened in almost the form of a ‘Big Bang’ on March 8th. Were this to happen against the advice of teachers and many in the scientific community (including the Government’s Chief medical officer, Chris Whitty. There is a strong feeling that whilst the right wing of the Conservative party are baying for schools to re-open, it may prove to be an incredibly risky procedure. I had not realised that children whilst not suffering much from the virus itself can certainly pass it on adults with whom they come into contact. Most of the scientific community are of the view that the current R rate of between 0.6 and 0.9 will rise to 1.0 and over if the schools get reopened in a ‘Big Bang’ sort of way. The Scots and the Welsh seem to be heading for a much more measured and phased return of children to school which is surely the way to go – but of course political considerations come dramatically to the fore. Whilst there is a consensus that this has to be the ‘last’ of the lockdowns, it it is far from clear how carefully we need to tread, as a society, to make sure we do not throw away the efforts we have made during the last 10-11 months. For example, most of the population are of the view that pubs should not reopen until about May at the earliest.
On the more positive side, it does appear that there will some liberalisation of the contacts between members of a family and their aged relatives in residential homes. What is being suggested is a very limited form of contact where holding hands will be allowed but no hugging or kissing – and members of the family must wear full PPE. Meg and I are anxious to try and see Meg’s cousin in Lancashire who is in sheltered accommodation. We will have to see what the actual norms are but I will wait until about Tuesday (the final versions of the regulations may well be published late on Monday afternoon). We hope that it may be possible to make a visit at least in a garden if we were to wait until mid-April and the regulations permit members of facilities to meet in the outdoors. Anyway, we shall to wait and see. I see that BBC are running an article in their website called ‘Coronavirus: What Europeans have learned from a year of pandemic’ and at first glance, it appears to be interesting to see how other societies have coped with the common threat. I think that we in the UK are particularly bad at learning from other societies – always assuming that we know and do things better than anywhere else on earth. But if do imitate other societies, it always seems to the worst of practices in the USA rather than our European neighbours.
Today was the type of day in which the poetic would say that the clouds were ‘scudding’ across the sky – in fact, I don’t know if we use that verb for any other object or activity except clouds. Anyway, I got up fairly early-ish and then walked down to the newsagent for our normal Sunday supplies, all done at this hour in the morning in order to get back in time for the Andrew Marr show (which, I am ashamed to say, I largely slept through). Then we made our way down to the park, being met on the way by some of our church friends. We continued our discussions as to what has (not) been going at our local church and the news to date does seem very encouraging for us. In the park we met with our Birmingham University friend and another park regular who occasionally seeks out our company and has a lot to say for himself. Enough said for the moment. We met some more of our church friends who told us that the police had been called out about 6.00 am to a large disturbance in the vicinity of the park involving several young males so I wonder whether some kind of illegal drinks party had been organised.
After lunch, and a brief rest, I thought I would busy myself with the tidy-up of the study. I had ordered several things from Amazon and I hoped that would package them in a fairly large box- which fortunately, they did. I could then use this box to store some competing ‘hardware’ which was adding to the clutter but now they are safely boxed up, labelled and put on a bookcase top where I cannot forget about them but quickly access them when needed.
There is still quite a debate going on as to whether the schools should be ‘open’ on 8th March (not that they ever closed as they catered for the children of key workers as as well as disadvantaged children) The government argue that they will be driven by ‘the data’ but all will be revealed tomorrow afternoon (to Parliament) and then other address to the nation by Boris Johnson at 7.00pm. What is interesting is that Meg and I watched the replay of Thursday night’s Question Time which is broadcast on the Parliament channel between 6.00 and 7.00 on a Sunday. The consensus view (even agreed to by the Tory MP who was part of the panel) was that any lockdown should be gradual in the extreme and there should be a pause after each step to ensure that the R factor does not increase.
The BBC seems to be taking its role as a public educator in these troubled times. I notice that on their website tonight, there is a contribution entitled ‘Lockdown review: What are the risks of schools, pubs and shops reopening?‘ The article appears interesting and informative and was written by a member of the BBC Reality Check unit. There seemed to be plenty of graphs and reference to the latest research evidence so this is probably worth a good read once I have the time.
his morning, acting on a whim, I turned to a section of Google called Google which will detail for any researcher who has published a series of papers how many citations have been received. In this context, a citation is a reference by another author to one’s own published work. In this way, it is possible to measure if only in a simplistic way whether one’s paper had any points within it that another academic wished to reference. I was surprised to find that the most popular paper (twice as many citations as the next highest) was a paper written on the subject of plagiarism.(By the way, my son commented ‘Who did you copy it from?‘) I think that myself and my co-author had just hit the rising tide of concern at just about the right time and also had it published in an electronic journal (which would it easier to find in a wide-ranging Google search, I imagine). The ‘citation indices’ are heavily used in the academic community to help to assess the quality of published work in what was called the Research Assessment Exercise, to which all universities had to subject themselves at regular intervals (every four years as I remember).
The latest data seems to indicate that some 17.5 million of the population (about a third of the adult population) have now been vaccinated. There is also a suggestion this evening that jabs may reduce the amount of transmission by about two-thirds. But we have a difficult job statistically to work out how much of the reduction in transmission is due to vaccine and how much is due to the generalised effects of the lockdown – perhaps this type of analysis might be forthcoming in time, but it is evidently far too early to come to firm conclusions at this stage in the proceedings.
After a somewhat delayed start, we decided that it was not going to rain today so Meg and I walked down to collect our newspapers and journey into the park as part of our normal routine. We found the park reasonably quiet after the weekend which is obviously always a busy time. We did appreciate the little bit of peace but found that every park bench was muddy as children had evidently clambered all over them in their muddy shoes. Fortunately, we came prepared for all contingencies and have an old tea towel which served both to wipe the mud off the seats and to dry them at the same time. Apart from a wave from a car, we did not bump into any of our sets of friends today, of the park genre or otherwise, so I read yesterday’s blog to Meg which I can access via my mobile phone.
This afternoon, I decided to tackle a pile of old files which required some rationalisation – and I hope to reduce the clutter a smidgeon by seeing how much of the contents I could dispense with. As is the way with things, quite a lot of things that seemed important at the time could now get junked so I helped to fill our outside paper-waste bin to overflowing before it gets emptied on Thursday morning. One of the tasks that I quite enjoy is to recycle some of the old files which I do by carefully peeling off the old labels – I noticed that on one, which had a label ‘stuck over’ a label, the original referred to the applications my son was making when he went to university which makes it about 34 years old! I also discovered a photo of myself with my ‘Spanish’ baby – well, not mine exactly, but the baby belonging to a professor from Barcelona who was a fellow examiner of a PhD in La Coruña, Northern Spain, about 6-7 years ago now.
As part of my clearing up activities I came across an old ‘pocket’ hard disk drive that I must have bought years before – when I looked on it, it did not have a great deal of data but it did have some oldish photos that I had forgotten about. So I copied these across to a legacy folder on my principal computer and then reformatted the newly discovered disk (it was FAT32 and I wanted to make sure it was NTFS compatible with the MAC) and then copied the files back over on it. As I was congratulating myself on a new discovered extra source of computer storage, I thought it might be a good idea to try to discover how old the disk drive actually was. By putting the serial number into a Seagate database, I discovered that it was about 9 years old. A bit of research on the internet indicates that most portable hard disk drives are only anticipated to have a life of about 5-6 years so I already appear to be living on borrowed time. So do I need to buy a new disk drive as a backup when the newly discovered one seems absolutely fine? I need to have a think about this one.
This afternoon’s political news has been dominated by the much-trailed ‘roadmap’ for the way in which the lockdown is be gradually released. Whilst I am not a fan of this particular government, I do feel that they have got the roadmap about right. They are suggesting a series of four gradual easing of restrictions and always subject to four criteria which are that vaccination rates continue, death rates are still reducing, infection rates are not surging and finally new variants of the virus do not threaten us. The innovative part of the proposal is that there should be a gap of five weeks before one stage and the next – this is to allow for an examination of the data to show that adverse consequence are not flowing before the next wave of the ‘un-lockdown’ continues. This all sounds incredibly sensible but as predicted the the right wing of the Conservative party (all ex-Brexiteers by the way) are still calling for restrictions to be eased at the earliest possible moment i.e. in time for Easter. The reaction of the popular press and any opinion polls gathered in the next few days will prove to be extremely interesting reading.
One treat I am saving for later on this evening is to view that new footage released by NASA of the ending of ‘Perseverance‘ onto the surface of Mars. This is said to be ‘stunning’ but I think it relates principally to the way in the craft was landed without damage, on the surface of Mars via a type of ‘sky crane’ from which the craft was lowered on a series of tethers. Whether is actually is stunning or just ‘hype’ I will be able to tell later on the evening.
It was quite a dull day today but the weather was quite mild so Meg and I walked down to collect our newspapers as usual. There I discussed with our newsagent the fact that we both owned Apple Macs and he told me that he had, at one stage, owned one of the very earliest MACs which he had actually given away. If you look on the web, you can see that vintage MACs are now a collector’s item and can be worth up to $1,000 each – or perhaps even more for a really early, vintage model. My newsagent told me that he thought that the MAC he had given away might now be worth thousands of dollars.
Having picked up our newspapers, we made our way to the park and there we coincided with our Birmingham University friend. We had a chuckle about colleagues that we had both experienced in the past who had proved to be irksome to us. I recalled one particular colleague who upon my return from the Complutense University in Madrid teaching Information Technology (in Spanish) to public administration students, informed me that he was ‘proud’ he could only speak English and no other language. Although we were a friendly and non-argumentative department, I did rather ‘express my displeasure at his attitude’ (and this is putting it mildly). But to put things into context, I only had one or two matters of really serious dispute in the whole of a teaching career and, in general, worked with a very amiable and professional set of colleagues in the two universities in which I worked.
Out of an idle curiosity, I thought I would look at the comparative merits and prices of hard disk drives (HDDs), solid state devices (SSDs) and memory cards in variety. Whilst I browsed for various items on Amazon and noted some prices, navigated away and then navigated back again, I noticed that one items I had been looking at had jumped from £80 to £100 in the space of a few seconds. I think this is an Amazon ‘ploy’ ultimately to extract a degree of profit as they might work on the principle that if you want something urgently you may be willing to pay a premium price for it. Anyway, I have come to no firm conclusions on this subject except that in my researches to examine which medium has the best storage properties, baked clay tablets that have lasted for thousands of years may have something to be said for them. But given the speed at which technology is advancing, can one be sure that the media one is using today will still be readable by a future generation in, say, 10-15 year’s time? The solution, I have discovered, is to think about a backup strategy rather than storage devices. A good backup strategy is to think of the 3-2-1 rule i.e. ‘The 3-2-1 backup rule is an easy-to-remember acronym for a common approach to keeping your data safe in almost any failure scenario. The rule is: keep at least three (3) copies of your data, and store two (2) backup copies on different storage media, with one (1) of them located offsite.’ So I will continue to have thoughts and ruminations about all of this.
In the late afternoon, I caught up with my emails only to discover that a Hampshire friend was suggesting we Skype in 20 minutes time. Then I discovered there was an ominous ‘question mark’ over the Skype desktop icon which suggests that the newly updated operating system could not use the out-of-date application in my computer. So I quickly deleted it and then managed to reinstall a more up-to-date version which fortunately worked like a dream. So I Skyped my friend and we had an entertaining few minutes before we FaceTimed some of our other Bromsgrove friends as we have a regular arrangement each Tuesday afternoon. So all in all, about an hour and a half of non-stop ‘chatting’ via video technology.
There is an interesting political ‘brew’ developing this evening. The Tory party has firmly set its face against anything that sounds like a ‘vaccine passport’ which may well be demanded by airlines, other holiday destinations and so on. But civil liberties organisations are alarmed about the project. “Vaccine passports would create the backbone of an oppressive digital ID system and could easily lead to a health apartheid that’s incompatible with a free and democratic country,” says Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch. “Digital IDs would lead to sensitive records spanning medical, work, travel, and biometric data about each and every one of us being held at the fingertips of authorities and state bureaucrats.” Nonetheless, the idea is gaining a degree of traction and the government may well be approaching a volte-face on this issue. Already some of the technological and ethical issues are being explored within government and something akin to the old yellow card, more formally known as the International Certificate of Vaccination may well emerge. I can firmly predict, however, that the government will call it anything but ensure that the old ‘passport’ is never actually used!
Today was a different kind of day and we knew that we were going to break our normal routine today. When we buy our Christmas tree, which we do from Webbs (famous garden store down the road), they give us a voucher which covers most of the cost of the tree. This voucher has to be used by the end of February and as it is worth £35.00 it is not to be sneezed at. The days of February are rapidly running out so it was a case of ‘use it or lose it’ So today Meg and I went down in the car to collect our newspapers and then headed straight for Webbs – once in the store, we replenished our supply of wild bird food (fat balls, peanuts and the like)and that was that. The catering facilities within Webbs were not open and there were warnings at the entrance to the store not to bring in your own food and drink. So we tracked backwards and went to our familiar haunts in Sanders Park where we drank our pre-prepred coffee and our snacks.
This afternoon, we made for lunch a huge curry (I always prepare too much but the remainder is always gratefully received by our domestic help when we see her on Friday) After this and a snooze, I thought I would tackle the on-line renewal of my driving licence. This proved to be remarkably straightforward so far as I can tell but it calls for the interrogation of three national data bases (DVLC, the National Insurance computer and the the Passport office) and, so far, the process seems to have gone as smoothly as I would have hoped. There is always a slightly ominous warning that ‘we have received your application and are checking that the supplied information is valid‘ or words to that effect and, all being well, I hope to have the new licence supplied within the week. Past the age of 70, your licence still needs to be renewed every three years and it does rely upon the integrity of the applicant e.g. to tick the box to say that you meet the eye-sight requirements. When I was last having my annual eye checkup, I asked our friendly optician (who we have known for years) what kind of checks were made once you had ‘ticked the box’ He thought that there none to speak of and we surmised between us that probably people lied about their eye-sight all over the country – which is slightly frightening when you think about it.
I have been been exploring some modern SSD external disk drives (Solid State Drives) wondering whether or not they might have a life of more than the five years associated with a typical HDD (Hard Disk Drive) – it is interesting that Apple seems to install SSDs by default in the computers it build these days. I have my eye on a particular Seagate drive which is offering a three year warranty (and a half-promise that if it fails Seagate will rescue information from it and return it to you!) and also some included software that means that every time you change or update a file on your main system the Seagate software will ‘mirror’ it (i.e. incrementally back it up) on the SSD which, given the speed at which they operate, I should imagine one scarcely notices. I am tempted but will do a little more research before I commit myself finally.
We got an email from our Spanish friend last night and she told us, that in common with both France and Germany, the Oxford/AstraZeneca i.e. UK developed vaccine was not being offered to anyone over the age of 55. This ‘excess of caution’ or is it just xenophobia may be due to the fact that the initial trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine did not include many people over the age of 55 in its initial trials and therefore might be said to be ‘unproven’ . However, in the last day or so, a study has been reported on the effects of the vaccines on ‘real’ populations and it shows the four weeks after vaccination, the Pfizer-BioNTech cut the chances of going to hospital by up to 85% but in the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, this was 94%. In other words, both vaccines have shown that when used in actual (i.e. not trial) populations, they have a fantastically beneficial effect at preventing serious illness. Even in Germany, the best selling newspaper of ‘Bild‘ is saying ‘Dear Britain – we envy you‘. It used figures from 21 February showing the UK had given 17.7 million people at least one vaccination, with Germany lagging behind on 3.4 million. 'While the British are already planning their summer vacation, Germany is stuck in lockdown' the newspaper added. It seems to me that there a certain amount of ‘not-invented here’ syndrome evident when it comes to evaluating the various vaccines against each other!
It was a beautiful day today and felt extremely ‘spring’ like – in fact, I think, the temperature at the moment is above the seasonal norm. This wonderful weather did not last for too long, though, as a huge black cloud soon intervened. Nonetheless, we were glad to get to the park and we resumed conversations with our friend from Birmingham University and another friend/acquaintance of his who is a dog walker but also very interested in all things to do with local history. We chatted until we all started to feel a little cold and, as we had been some time out of the sun, we all thought we had better strike for home. As this afternoon was quite bright and fair, I thought I had better give the car a wash as, with one thing or another, it had got missed for a week or so. As I washed the car, I thought there was a very fine film of something resembling dust but according to the weather forecast this evening, what we have actually experienced is a very fine layer of Saharan sand. Every so often when the weather conditions are right, we do get a thin layer of Saharan sand/dust which has whipped up high into the atmosphere by strong winds. The raindrops in the clouds acquire particles of dust and then they get deposited, the water evaporates and we are left with a very fine covering of sand which shows up on our cars (but it must be everywhere)
We have some interesting bits of family news. First of all, Meg’s cousins in Derbyshire have emailed us to indicate that as we all enjoyed the Zoom session last week, shall we have another one soon? We will probably settle for a fortnightly pattern from now on – our cousin had very kindly given us a link so that we can now view Amadeus (the famous film about Mozart) in English rather than in Spanish. So we might try that over the weekend. The other fantastic good bit of news we only got a few minutes ago. We have heard from Spain that our Spanish god-daughter has just won an Erasmus scholarship to come and study for a semester in the University of Gloucertshire (this is about 40 miles down the road) This means that we can see quite a lot of her (if she would like this) and, of course, there is a comfortable home to retreat to at the weekends. We are short on details at the moment but no doubt I will get a lot more once I have emailed our oldest Spanish friend to get all of the ‘inside’ information. I just hope the UK government is not going to do all kinds of daft things to make the lives of Erasmus students difficult (e.g. visas, enormous charges in case you ever need to use our NHS for any reason and so on) Of course, we should be able to do lots at this end just in case anything does go wrong and it needs a little sorting out.
After the complete mess-up last year over the ‘A’-level gradings, the education secretary has done a volte-fee and allowed the teachers to undertake their own assessments of their students – a massive degree of ‘grade inflation’ is being predicted. Even some of the pupils who are affected seem a little unsure as I think the more ‘streetwise’ among them realise that passing a public examination has a certain degree of credibility but a grade based upon teacher assessments might not be regarded so highly by future employers and the universities themselves. But when we were at school, we often used to pass our books to our next door neighbour in the classroom to be marked and then handed back again – would it be beyond the wit of schools to pair with a partner and to ‘mark’ each other’s work? I am sure this could be made to work fairly easily if a little bit of thought was applied to it.
An interesting question is emerging this evening. We know that the rate of vaccination is quite high across the whole of the UK and is now up to some 18.7 million. However, it does appear that in London and large cities such as Birmingham and Manchester the rates of vaccination are well behind the rest of the country. This is associated both with ethnicity and also with deprivation (as well as the interaction between the two). Why this is a source of concern for policy makers is that whilst the rates of vaccination increase for the rest of the country, we are, in effect, leaving behind ‘reservoirs’ of virus that could continue to infect the rest of the population. One solution to this problem is to create much more active ‘intervention’ strategies that would go and seek out those who need vaccination (using mobile clinics with a bus, more active use of community facilities such as pharmacies) and in this way help to avoid problems building up for the future.
This morning as we woke up, we realised there had been a slight ground frost and so we surmised, as it turns out correctly, that a fine day or at least a fine morning was in prospect for us. The air was like champagne and the sky was blue, all with a liberal dosing of pale spring sunshine. So we had an extremely pleasant walk down to our newsagents where we picked up our Saturday complement of newspapers, popped into Waitrose to pick up some frozen vegetables and then made our way into the park. As the weather was so kind to all of us and it was the weekend, then every man (and his dog) seemed to be present in the park. We kept on bumping into people that we know that included friends, friends of friends, park acquaintances and so on. It was so pleasant that we lingered awhile in the park and did not get back for lunch until way past our normal lunchtime. I rustled up a quick risotto (which I now make with some kippers and cauliflower rice – it might sound odd but with a normal complement of yogurt and grated cheese actually turns out to be a lot nicer than it sounds). I have recently developed a facility to communicate with the souls of dead pets (animals) and it works like this. I ask for the name of the favourite animal and then try to establish a line of communication between them and their long deceased pet. I then ask them to think of a number between 1 and 10 and ask them to perform a series of mathematical procedures on it. I then establish a link of communication with the dead ‘pet’ and then communicate a number which the deceased pet is ‘correctly’ communicating to the mind of the owner. Although this sounds complicated, it worked beautifully with our University of Birmingham friend AND with our Irish friend down the road AND with our domestic help who was still in the house when we returned home.
We are now at the total of 19 million of the population vaccinated which is 35% of the entire adult population. A figure just released is that 94% of the population indicate that they have either received the jab OR they intend to have it when their turn becomes due. Although there has been a slight hiccup of supply in the vaccine the UK as a whole still seems to be streets ahead. However the rates of infection are increasing in one of five (20%) of local authority areas. The ‘heat maps’ shown in the Downing Street briefings still show some worrying areas where rates of vaccination are lower, indices of social deprivation are higher and the rate of new infection may be increasing slightly. The government advisers are evidently worried that the population as a whole may ‘relax’ particularly as the weather is fine and that people might be ‘3-0’ up in a game of football only to relax and eventually lose the game 3-4 (an example given in the briefing tonight)
I sent off a long email to our Spanish friends expressing our delight that their daughter has just gained an Erasmus scholarship in the University of Gloucester (some 35 miles down the road) and promising all the help and support that we can give. We imagine that the university will give priority in university accommodation to Erasmus students (who cannot be expected to organise their own in the open market like indigenous students) We also sent them all of the information taken from ‘The Times‘ which details all of the stages to be undertaken in the ‘end-of-lockdown’ scenarios outlined by the government. A source of some dissatisfaction, though, is that police and schoolteachers are not to be given any degree of priority other than provided by age alone -figures are being quoted that, the government argues, shows that teachers and the police die at a somewhat lower rate than the rest of the population and should not therefore receive any degree of priority.
Later on this evening, we FaceTimed one of our Hampshire friends as we do regularly on a Friday evening, and spent an incredibly pleasant hour chatting on a whole variety of topics. Our friend is organising a lot of Zoom meetings for ex-IBM employees which is taking him some time and keeping him out of mischief.
The government seems to be edging slowly via a ‘review’ into a ‘de facto’ acceptance of a vaccine passport, although not to be called that. I read a letter in one of my daily newspapers that indicated that, as a newly qualified nurse, she had to show evidence of a BCG (anti-TB) inoculation before she could enter employment, so what is the difference in principle between that and a COVID-19 vaccination? It would appear to me to be axiomatic that one needs to be vaccinated before exerting a patient-facing role in the NHS so where is the problem?
Today was another fine and bright day with a brilliant blue sky and very much the ambience of an early spring day. In fact, I was reminded of the time that I spent a term at the Complutense University of Madrid in which the mornings were frosty and cold but the skies were blue and clear. The dining room in the Residencia (= Hall of Residence) in which I lodged opened at about 7.30 in the morning but I had to leave at about 7.33 to walk to a metro station, catch a metro and then eventually a bus to the University campus of Somosaguas. When the dining room opened, I used to dive in, gulp a quick cup of coffee and a small boccadillo by way of breakfast whilst also grabbing one or two to go in my pockets for a mid-morning break. Some other fellow diners who were also there when the restaurant opened use to say to me ‘This is terribly bad for your health, grabbing a little bit of food like that‘ to which I used to reply ‘I know- I know – but I haven’t got any more time!‘ However, it did make he breakfast on a Saturday and a Sunday morning a particular pleasure when you could have a leisurely breakfast and a civilised conversations with the many and varied visiting professors who were accommodated in the Residencia.
So we collected our ration of Saturday newspapers and made for the park where we met with our University of Birmingham friend and another mutual acquaintance of ours. Here we discussed the various statistics on the efficacy of the competing vaccines and racked our brains to see if we could remember the exact sequence of what is allowed when on the timetable of ‘end of lockdown’. We do remember that on Monday, 8th March i.e. a week on Monday, we will be allowed by the powers-that-be to have a coffee whilst sitting on a park bench and chatting to a friend (whether with or without a mask I am not sure – and do you have to be at opposite ends of the park bench or not? Decisions..decisions). We made our way home knowing that in the afternoon we would be able to watch a couple of rugby matches i.e. Italy versus Ireland and then Wales v. England which is billed as the ‘big one’ of the current 6-Nations. This last match seemed to be extraordinary insofar as the (French) referee made a serious of bizarre and controversial decisions which awarded Wales two tries they were not expecting in the first half. England fought their way back to a 24-24 draw with about 20 minutes to go and then threw it all away with a series of tactical errors and unnecessary penalties although the referee was behaving like a normal human being by this time (One view, shared by one of the commentators at half time was that if the very well known Welsh referee, Nigel Owens, had refereed the match, then the whole dynamics of the match would have altered and it is not inconceivable that England could have won the entire game).
By this evening, the total number of vaccinations has reached 19.7 million which must be about a third of the adult population. As we are approaching the month of March (from next Monday) it looks as though the 60-69 year olds and then the 50-59 year olds will be called forward to receive their ‘jab’. Tho 40-49 year olds will be started on 4th April. Then the 30-39 year olds will be started on 24th June and finally the 20-29 year olds will be started on 13th July. There are about 7 million persons in each category and the official government target is to have all adults vaccinated by the end of July, 2021. Of course, this does depend upon uninterrupted supplies of vaccine, a small overall refusal rate and no great sudden panic with the discovery of a new variant.
They talk about the power of words but I had not fully appreciated how the staunch (not to say rabid) Republicans were weaponising the word ‘Democratic’ as in ‘Democratic Party’. Here are some examples that Republicans of a certain hue are using. For example, rallygoers in Washington were urged to ‘put the fear of God in the cowards, the traitors, the RINOs, the communists of the Democrat Party.’ Yet others have argued that the claims of election fraud meant that Republicans were in a ‘death match with the Democrat Party‘. It does appear that the conservatives on the American right are seeking to identify themselves as members of the same tribe by seeking to define the opposition through demeaning language. Another example with which to conclude follows. After Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was removed from her House committees for espousing sometimes dangerous conspiracy theories, she tweeted: ‘In this Democrat tyrannical government, Conservative Republicans have no say on committees anyway.‘ In other words, the word ‘Democrat‘ or ‘Democratic‘ are always used in such a way that it evokes a negative sentiment in anything to do with the Democratic Party in the United States.
This morning was our by now Sunday morning pattern i.e. I get up a little earlier and then walk down in the cold, clear light of the morning to pick up our Sunday newspapers. Sunday morning is always a little treat for me because as I am on my own, I treat myself to a little concert on my trusty very old iPhone and this morning played some Bach and Mozart to myself. After breakfasting during the Andrew Marr show (not particularly informative, I must say), Meg and I walked to the park. The air was like champagne and we wonder how long this glorious little spell of high pressure is going to last but we think it is a few more days yet. The number of children on scooters in the park reached its typical Sunday morning ‘high’ but we met with a couple of park acquaintances and passed our time of day trying to solve the following (almost mathematical) puzzle, which is: ‘Why is it when you are waiting for a bus there is always a bus coming first in the opposite direction ? (Assuming that buses travel on each side of the road at 10 minute intervals)‘ I will leave this conundrum for others to sort out.
We dined on chicken this lunch time using our normal ‘chicken’ recipe. We sear the chicken and in the meanwhile fry off some onions, peppers and tomatoes. Then the chicken, fried vegetables and half a jar of lasagne type white sauce go into a casserole and then into the oven for about 30-40 minutes (served with tender stem broccoli and a baked potato)
There was no France-Scotland rugby match to entertain us this afternoon as half of the French team are laid low with the COVID-19 virus. (My son was of the opinion that as they hadn’t sufficiently self-isolated in training they should have made to field a 2nd or 3rd team of 15 or forfeit the match is necessary – I have some sympathy with this view) I found that the sports writers had no sympathy whatsoever for the English team and their performance and praised the Welsh diligence in keeping their discipline (and hence no penalties) as against the English who again offended considerably.
This afternoon is one of those little statistical ‘milestones’ in that we have passed the total of 20 million of the population having received at least their first jab – I think the proportion is well over a third of the adult population by now. But perhaps of some concern is that a cluster of six of the Brazilian variant of the vaccine have appeared and most of these cases occurred in travellers from Brazil but before the most recent lockdown. This tends to indicate that we should have locked down much more stringently and much more urgently. The present cases have been discovered in South Gloucestershire but there has been plenty of time for the virus to have spread much more rapidly. Apparently in Auckland in New Zealand they discovered ONE outbreak of the virus and immediately locked down most of the city for a few days! Meanwhile, the spell of really good weather is encouraging people to flock to the parks and to socialise as if the restrictions had already been lifted. I would not be surprised if we were to find that after this burst of fine weather the ‘R’ (reproduction rate) of the virus actually increases and this can well threaten the rest of the unlock down process. One of the scientists on the SAGE committee has already admitted that this is a ‘great worry to us‘ and one can understand why. What is so frustrating is that we have endured eleven months of turmoil and it doesn’t take much more self-restraint to ensure that we are not knocked back by a fair amount. But, I must admit. if the park is anything to go by there is already a feeling (probably unjustified) that we are nearly at the end of the lockdown and can therefore let go a little.
There are two political events of some significance during the forthcoming week and both on Wednesday. Firstly, we are having a budget on Wednesday – although it used to be the case that Chancellors of the Exchequer used to ‘go into purdah’ and make sure the budget contents remained a closely guarded secret. But today there seems to be a tendency to extensively ‘leak’ or ‘brief’ the budget contents several days beforehand, perhaps so any good news can be announced at least twice over. So we already know that billions of pounds are going to be offered to businesses to help them over the next month or so. The next big political event is going to be Nicola Sturgeon giving evidence to the Scottish parliamentary committee. It is really difficult for us down here in England to ascertain the exact cause of the dispute between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmon but it is a question of who knew what and when – somebody, somewhere is lying through the teeth but we may be a little nearer to the truth next Wednesday.
I suppose to be true to form, I should have started of the day by chanting ‘White rabbits! White rabbits! White rabbits!” (as it is the first day of new month) but I resisted the temptation. Having said that, I am very pleased to have got February behind me and March in front of me. The postman brought us some interesting news. We in this house (and presumably lots of neighbours) had received a circular inviting us to join a neighbourhood ‘support’ area for Kidderminster Road. It seemed genuine (i.e. not a scam) and quite a good idea, so I joined up as, apparently, a lot of my neighbours have done. I am taking the view that if a more ‘communitarian’ rather than ‘individualistic’ philosophy pervades our lives than in these COVID-19 days that only be a good thing. I said in my introductory statement that I walked to the park every day and how I could be recognised so I wonder how many (more) social contacts this might generate. We shall see! On our way down (and up again on our way back home) we bumped into near neighbours and had a good chat with them. Having collected our newspapers (and some extra milk!) we made our way into the park and quickly met up with some friends and friends of friends. There we had a laugh and joke before the bad weather overcame us all. Whereas yesterday, the temperature was a warm 11°, today the temperature had dropped to about 2-3° and we were enveloped in a kind of freezing fog with a chilling breeze to boot. So we could not wait to get home, as you might imagine, and Meg thought she hadn’t been so cold for years so she had to have a sit by the living room fire to get warmed up again. I cooked the remainder of the chicken for lunch and supplemented the special sauce I had made – if anything, it was even nicer than yesterday’s so I have saved a little for future use.
There has been some interesting (and encouraging new research evidence) announced today. To summarise this, briefly:
Infections fall from around three weeks after one dose of both vaccines
Protection against symptomatic COVID in those over 70, four weeks after the first jab, ranged between 57-61% for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 60-73% for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine
As well as the protection against symptomatic disease, people who had received a Pfizer jab had an additional 43% lower risk of emergency hospitalisation and an additional 51% lower risk of death
Those who had been given the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were found to have a 37% lower risk of emergency hospital admission, but there is insufficient follow-up data to assess its impact on death
If nothing else, this MAY help to persuade some fellow-Europeans that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine might have something going for it after all. But as it stands, there is still a marked reluctance for Europeans to accept this vaccine (although it is actually manufactured in Belgium) and one suspects an excess of ‘NIH’ (not invented here) syndrome. There is still quite a lot of concern about the ‘Brazil’ variant of COVID-10 of which six cases have been discovered in the UK. Five of these have been tracked down to individuals (and presumably their contacts) but the sixth case remains a mystery as they ‘failed to fill in in a test registration card’ according to PHE (Public Health England). It sounds as though there has been some sloppy work going here but it really does underline how insecure our borders might actually be in practice. I did hear some inside stories about the Border Agency’s inability to grapple with all of the complexities of the process of travellers arriving in the UK with a variety of vaccination records (in different formats and different languages) All that I can say without sounding too xenophobic at this stage is that what I heard on Radio4 did not inspire confidence.
The other major items of news this evening concerns the health of the Duke of Edinburgh. I do not follow the comings and goings of royalty with very much attention but I did receive my MSc from him 1969. As his mother or another near relative had died a day or so beforehand, we assumed that he would not turn up for the degree ceremony at Salford University but he did – I suppose it it is a part of the old-fashioned devotion to duty. The fact he has been transferred to Barts where an existing heart condition might be monitored is somewhat worrying – I do hope that he manages to make until the age of 100 sometime in early June. Presumably his wife will write him a special congratulatory letter if and when this happens (I believe the Queen writes to you when you reach the magic age of 100)
We wondered how today was going to turn out as the skies were initially grey and looked somewhat threatening. But once we got underway, the sky gradually changed from a freezing fog grey to a light blue and it turned out to be quite a pleasant day. I left Meg in the park in the company of our Birmingham University friend and walked quickly on my own to pick up our daily supply of newspapers. Upon my return, I found a little gaggle of friends, friends of friends and those of us who just happen to be exercising at about the same time of day every day. We laughed and joked for a while and then we get onto the more serious business of discussing backup technologies and strategies for the computers that we own. We swapped some bits of information and then departed as soon as the park police (actually two very young PCSOs – Police Community Support Officers) – were spotted in the distance from our vantage point and we judged it diplomatic to gradually start to disperse and make tracks for home.. It was a delightful walk home with some pale spring sunshine and a promise of some more to come in the days ahead. Although it was only about 1-2°warmer than yesterday, it felt a lot warmer as the wind had dropped. But I gather from the weather forecast that I have just heard that the weather is going to get colder and the winders stronger and keener in the next few days so we had better not greet the arrival of spring too soon.
We know that tomorrow is going to be a big day, politically as the two main events of the week unfold. One of these is the Budget which is more or less predictable (and has been predicted or at least well-trailed) But the other much more explosive issue is going to be the evidence that the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, will give to a committee of the Scottish parliament. If she has found to be lying or at least ‘economical with the truth‘ then she may be found to be in breach of the Ministerial Code which would normally lead to a resignation. Whether this is going to happen tomorrow or in the few days that follow, only time will tell but it looks as though Nicola Sturgeon will have the fight of her life tomorrow. I think it would be a pity if one of the most effective of the current generation of politicians (and one who has had a ‘good pandemic’) were to fall at this stage. There is a saying attributed to Enoch Powell, though, that ‘all political careers end in failure‘ (actually part of a much longer and less snappy quote) but of course this is a truism, usually determined by an election or a ‘defenestration’ (literally death by throwing someone out of a window but now used in a much more metaphorical sense vide what happened to Margaret Thatcher).
Tonight as I am writing this blog there is a wildlife programme on the television in the background when the young female commentator was commenting on the problems of an impala buck having to defend his territory during the mating season. The commentary that came floating over the airways explained ‘mating with fifty females whilst keeping an eye over your shoulder for any potential challengers can be quite an exhausting business‘ with which sentiment I can only say that I agree. I utter a silent prayer that I was not born into a religious tradition in which I might have be re-incarnated as a impala at stud – there again, envy is one of the most destructive of emotions. But in the same nature program, I did learn that 50% of black rhinos are killed in fights with other black rhinos but I suppose for an animal of that size there are not many natural predators.
Tonight, we FaceTimed some of our closest ex-Waitrosefriends and caught up with each other’s news for the week.It should only be about four weeks to go before we can (legally) meet in an open space somewhere – perhaps in the garden attached to the residential block where our friends live. We are not in the business just yet of making too many active plans at this stage but we will wait until we are about a week to go before we make firmer plans.Tomorrow night, we are going by appointment to have a Zoom call with Meg’s cousins in Derby so that will be another opportunity to catch up news but this time with much more family-centred news.
There is slightly better news on the Brazil variant of the virus this evening. Apparently, the one missing case has been narrowed down to one of a batch of 379 kits despatched out so with a certain degree of foot-slog, the miscreant person who has tested positive but failed to fill in the record card may well be identified – for all of our sakes!
After we got up this morning, there was an item on the Radio 4 ‘Today‘ programme which was genuinely uplifting. It was an interview with the well known singer/songwriter/benefactor Dolly Parton. She had taken her own song ‘Joline, Joline, ‘Joline‘ and had re-worded it so that it was rendered as ‘Vaccine! Vaccine! Vaccine!' Perhaps many people know by now the Dolly Parton is an exceptionally shrewd businessman as well as being a huge benefactor. She has started an ‘Imagination Library‘ in 1995 and, starting with her home state of East Tennessee, the program distributes 1 million free books a month to children at each month from birth to the age of 5. It has been calculated that 100 million books have already been given away FREE and not for nothing is Dolly Parton just as well known for being ‘The Book Lady‘ as for her country and western prowess. Dolly Parton donated £1 million dollars to the ‘Moderna’ vaccine program but she had only just today received her jab because she did not want other people to think that she was ‘jumping the line’ (i.e. queue). This is all quite inspirational stuff really – there are still millions of Americans who need to be convinced about the benefits of accepting the vaccine.
Today was a ‘grey’ day and the Midlands seemed to be swathed in a a cold mist which was not incredibly cool as there was no accompanying wind to increase the chill factor. Nonetheless, we picked up our newspapers in the normal way, meeting on the way one of park friends who is in his mid 80’s but still walks about 7-8 kilometres a day (but monitored at a distance by his daughter who can keep track of him, presumably via an Apple-type watch) We hope that we can sustain ourselves with such an energetic daily routine when we are his age but we can but hope. When we got home, it was straight on with cooking the mid-day meal and then watching the news unfold on the television. Today was Budget Day but a lot of this had been trailed beforehand in any case – I think the real surprise, though, was that the furlough scheme was going to be extended until September (as well as the £10 supplement to Universal Credit). I suppose it is quite easy to be a popular Chancellor of the Exchequer if you are still in the ‘giving out lots of cash’ stage but tax rises are on the way in a year or so. This will be done by the old-fashioned expedient of not increasing the actual tax rates but rely upon freezing the income tax threshold levels which means that owing to ‘fiscal drag’ more and more people get drawn into greater contributions of tax from 2025. After that, there is a prediction that the tax burden borne by the population will be the highest since the 1960’s and corporation tax will be increased in a year or so to a rate which is higher than now but below the level of other G7 countries. We all knew that the expenses created by the pandemic would have to be paid for how somehow. The other major story is the Nicola Sturgeon evidence before a Scottish parliamentary committee but this is is labyrinthine and tortuous to put it mildly and who is lying about what is difficult to disentangle.
This afternoon, I busied myself with one file tidying and I started on one of Meg’s old medical files. Some of this stuff went back for more than 15 years so it was a case of seeing what could be safely be junked straight off into our green bin, those documents that had to have identifiers removed and shredded and that which it is prudent to retain even if for historical purposes. This is but part of a much longer process of tidying up files but I intend to keep up this good work until a lot of junk has been removed. At 5.00pm, we Zoomed some of Meg’s cousins in Derby and this time we were joined by another family member still in Cheltenham so it was good to have a kind of family get-together. We find these occasions quite enjoyable so we are going to repeat the exercise at about fortnightly intervals from now on.
Various European societies (principally France and Germany) are now re-tghinking their opposition to the AstraZeneca virus. Although it was subject to a lot of ‘black’ propaganda, we now have the evidence from the several millions vaccinated in the UK over its effectiveness in stopping the rate of infection, keeping people out of hospital and so on. Given that the UK is so far ahead of other European societies in the vaccination race, it now looks as quite a re-think is going on in Europe but decision makers do not like to admit that they were actually wrong or mistaken!
Today was another cold day in the current spell of cooler weather with the thermometer just above freezing, but only just (about 4°) Tomorrow is going to be cold as usual and we have a few days more before the weather gets a little milder over the weekend. One would think we would be used to pretty cold weather at the start of March but we had got used to a few glorious days of spring-like weather a few days ago and I suppose we have got a little spoiled because of it. We collected our newspapers and sought friends and friends of friends in the park and we had a jolly good chat until the weather got to all of us (as we are standing around socially distancing) and so we made for home. I was telling our friends of an embarrassing incident that we had when we were students in 1968. Below the maisonette that we rented was a series of little stalls in some converted shops and one of them was a haberdashery stall, run by an Asian lady. At that time, we needed, in order to effect a minor repair, some knicker elastic (it is called ribbon elastic today) and it was on sale for 1½d a yard (i.e. the old money) We explained that we only needed a foot and the stall-holder told us ‘That’s all right – I will sell you a foot’ So she carefully measured it out, wound it round into a little ball and popped it into a little brown envelope. So we were asked to pay ½d – we handed over our 1d and got ½d in change. We felt a little embarrassed about this transaction even at the time – ½d is worth approximately a fifth of the modern day 1p coin.
News is emerging this evening about Sir Philip Putnam who was the previous principal civil servant in the Home Office and who was suing the Home Office for constructive dismissal. It has been announced that an out-of-court settlement has been reached and Sir Philip was to be awarded more than £1/3rd million after it was acknowledged that he had been subjected to a campaign of bullying and abusive behaviour. The Standards chief Sir Alex Allan found that Ms Patel had broken the code governing ministers’ behaviour and ruled according only for Boris Johnson to not accept his findings (and thereby exonerated Priti Patel) whereupon he promptly resigned. My own stance on this if she had the intellect to argue her case, she would not have to resort to bullying and obscene language. Every time I see her on the TV I am reminded that she was the communications director of James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party which then transmogrified itself into UKIP. Eventually she found a natural home in the right wing of the Conservative party here she is quite popular with the rank-and-file (although there are rumours that she is destined for the chop in the next government re-shuffle, probably forthcoming in June). I am reminded of the minister in the first Labour Government who was not given a new portfolio in the Labour Administration from 1945-1950. He sought an an interview with the (very headmasterly) Prime Minister, Clement Attlee who, when asked why he had not offered a new ministry to the disappointed politician merely drew on his pipe and uttered the immortal words ‘Not good enough!' And that was that. However, since then we have a legion of ministers who have shown the most astounding incompetence but still retained office (they are all right wingers needless to say) The most outstanding example was Chris Grayling (popularly known amongst MPs as ‘failing Grayling’) whoo is estimated to have cost the taxpayer some £2,778,072 (i.e. nearly 3 billion pounds) in a succession of eleven failed ventures.
There is some dark talk tonight of yet new variants of COVID-19 that have emerged in the last few weeks. These are always worrying in the extreme, not least because they appear to be ‘super-infectious’ and seem to have evolved by evading all of the current vaccines.It is possible (as with the ‘flu vaccine) to reformulate the current range of vaccines to cope with these new variants but in the meanwhile even more variants might appear. The one real answer seems to jump hard on even a single case that appears. For example, Auckland in New Zealand discovered one case of the virus appearing and immediately put the whole of the city in lockdown for several days (it goes without saying that New Zealand is coping with its COVID-19 pandemic much better than we are). But to be slightly more positive, we are now up to 21 million having received their first ‘jab’ which is practically 40% of the adult population. Meg and I are counting off the days until April 12th when we are scheduled to receive our second dose of the vaccine and about three weeks after that, our immune status should be as high as it can be.
Another cold day beckoned but we set forth with our usual vim and vigour, not least because walking at a certain speed helps one to keep warm. We collected our newspapers and made straight for the park where there was quite a gathering of the clans. We met up with our Birmingham University friend, another person who is a wheelchair user but who is often in the park with her battery-powered chariot which has fair turn of speed on it, and finally more friends of friends. Our conversation started off with a discussion of lithium-ion batteries such that we surmised would power mobility vehicles. From this we moved onto a discussion of lithium-ion battery technology (inspired by the impressive figure for the wheelchair performance) and came to a kind of consensus from things we had read in various places that it was less stressful to the battery of e.g. a mobile phone to give it two charges from 30%-80% rather than one complete charge from 0-100%. Like many of these issues, there is ‘street knowledge’, ‘informed knowledge’ (depending upon how good your internet sources have proved to be) and a sort of ‘everyday knowledge’ which that strange amalgam we carry round in our heads. On our return, I set to work preparing a risotto which I often prepare and eat on Fridays and prepared for a nice restful afternoon.
As it happened, I got anything but. I thought to myself ‘I’ll just run off an (internet) article before I sit down to a cup of coffee' only to find the printer completely dead. As it was working fine yesterday and he only thing that had happened overnight was an operating system update, I immediately came to the conclusion (wrongly, as it turned out) that the refinements of the operating system could not cope with out-of-date printer drivers so I tried to download some more. When I looked at them, though, the file was 9 years old and I thought it would be a bad idea to replace current drivers with 9-year-old ones so I abandoned that line of investigation. I then wondered what price a new printer would be but the current model I own is out-of-stock at Amazon (superseded?) As I have a supply of toner ready to hand, I thought I would explore a range of comparable printer models who use the same toner cartridges but this too drew a blank. Eventually my son and I solved the problem by getting rid of my little USB extender I was using to extend the number of slots beyond four and this proved to be my salvation. But USB slots quickly run out when you have keyboard in one, a printer in another, a scanner in a third, backup disk in a fourth and none left for memory drives and the like. One has to be careful in whipping USB plugs in and out in the case of external drives in case data is in the process of being written so you have to ensure they are completely quiescent and then (on a MAC) ‘unmount them’ i..e making them invisible at least temporarily to the operating system. Also I have decided to be a ‘good boy’ and not use any hub extenders at all but rather do a bit of judicious swapping (e.g. printer for scanner and vide versa) when required. I DO have powered hub but this adds to the clutter not to say confusion in a table of cables behind the computer so I am going to see if I can make out with the system supplied quota of four. As it happened, this took all afternoon to sort out so restful it certainly was not. At least I am now slightly bettered informed about what happens when you allow USB ports to proliferate and what to do about it.
At the risk of being somewhat trivial, there have been some stunning photos released from Mars as the ‘Perseverance’ trundles its way across the Martian surface. There again, a friend of mine did send me another photo, ostensibly from Mars in which a lot of little creatures who look as through they were dressed in potato sacks are lined up in front of a banner which stated, in bold letters: ‘F***k off’ and then another banner stating ‘Go Home’. I thought that was wonderful and wondered how it had been staged before it was released onto the world.
Finally, there’s good news about the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 as the ‘sixth’ person (who had failed to fill in a record card) has now been located. This, in theory, means that it should be possible to contain the Brazilian variant before it goes rampant but, of course, it might be lurking in lots of other parts of the country as well. One of our church friends caught up with us, very excited, as she was due to be ‘jabbed’ later on in the day. I think most people experience a sense of relief once the vaccine is actually in their arms.
Before we came out today, I received a text from one of my church friends indicating that church services were to resume in about a couple of weeks with a type of ‘rolling start’ but a booking system was being introduced so that would-be worshippers can ‘book their place’ several days beforehand. It looks as though things ought to be in place by ‘Palm Sunday‘ which will be on Sunday, 28th March i.e. in three weeks time. I got onto the church’s website to download some particulars of the new procedures that we have to follow before we can attend services again and I am glad that things are starting to move again. It looks as though a new priest may be installed before the Easter celebrations start but so far information is exceedingly sparse.
Because we were slightly late this morning we popped into the park first of all where there was a mini ‘gathering of the clans’ – well six of us anyway. The conversation got a little esoteric e.g. how likely is life on other universes? At what stage after the ‘singularity’ (i.e. the ‘big bang’ which may have started off the universe given that it is still expanding) did the laws of Newtonian physics start to apply? – the consensus view is that can be measured in milliseconds but needless to say, all of this is conjecture by the cosmologists. Anyway, we were fairly relieved to break off from these lofty not to say esoteric discussions, collect our newspapers a little late (although they had been kept in the back room for us) and so on up the hill. On the way home, we bumped into two more of our church friends and, again, we swapped whatever information we had concerning the resumption of services.
I had a heavy ‘computing’ afternoon where all finished very well in the end. The Apple operating system contains an app (‘Time Machine‘) which, once running correctly, will save backups hourly for the past 24 hours, daily for the last month and then weekly for all previous months (with the oldest being deleted when your backup disk becomes full). Although this seemed to be working OK for the first few days after I specified it be saved on my newly acquired portable drive, then I kept getting error messages to say that Time Machine had encountered errors and could not save. A quick search of the web indicated that the backup disk needs formatting in a particular way (Apple has about three different types of format, just to be confusing) Then I couldn’t ‘unmount’ the disk (make it invisible to the operating system) or reformat it so the whole disk seemed to have become useless. I was just on the point of packing it up and sending it back to Amazon and make a claim for a new one when I suddenly had a brain wave and managed to get it reformatted in the way I wanted on an ‘old’ i.e. legacy Mac that I have. In the meanwhile, I pressed an a former (very high quality) backup drive into action (made by a firm called GTech) and this seemed to work like a charm i.e. just as it should. Then I used the newly reformatted 2TB drive to store backups of most of my ‘every day’ files which must go aback about 20 years by now (e.g. all of my old lectures and teaching materials that I really ought to throw away but can’t at this stage!) Things seemed to back up more quickly than I might have imagined (I managed nearly 1½ Gbytes a minute using only USB 2.0) so I am well pleased. So now I have a Time Machine system which seems to be working the way I want and a more ‘personalised’ backup system if there is anything I desperately need to get hold of. Hopefully, everything will be fine from this point onwards with no more hassle.
Tonight, we were going to treat ourselves to a Mozart opera (‘The Marriage of Figaro) via YouTube but it would clash with a police series which we are watching on Saturday evenings, so we need to postpone that pleasure until tomorrow night.
There is a big row going on tonight over the pay-rise to be awarded to NHS staff i.e. 1% when the rest of the public are having a pay freeze. What is making the nurses and others so angry is that they had been promised a pay-rise of 2.1% (which only just about compensates for inflation) and Teresa May had indicated that this would be covered by the NHS revenue settlement announced in June, 2018. So having had expectations raised, they have now been dashed on the grounds that ‘we can’t afford it‘ which wears a bit thin when £22 billion had been spent on a barely functioning ‘Test-and-Trace’ regime. Again, the Sunday newspapers might play an interesting role if they carry opinion polls which the government might choose to ignore, being several points ahead of Labour following a ‘successful vaccine rollout’ bounce for the Tories.
The weeks roll by and yet another Sunday morning has dawned. I get up half an hour earlier on a Sunday morning and this gives me time to get up, showered, dressed and breakfast prepared before I trot down to get our supply of Sunday newspapers. I generally enjoy these trips down into town because I give myself a little concert on my trusty old iPhone – in this case a good dose of J.S.Bach’s ‘Brandenburg Concertos’ (full of early 18th century ‘joie de vivre‘) After our customary viewing of the Andrew Marr (politics) programme, Meg and got ready to wander down into the park and see who we might meet. As it is ‘back to school day’ tomorrow, we anticipated that the park would be less populated by young children – perhaps the coolness of the weather has something to do with it. We met a couple of park friends and enjoyed a scintillating conversation on the subject of computer ‘heat sinks’ before we struck for home. We had a largish ham joint cooking away slowly in our slow cooker but the Sunday lunch traditionally takes a little longer to prepare as there is onion gravy to prepare amongst other things.
This afternoon proved to be a typical Sunday afternoon for us. We spent a lot of the afternoon reading the print off the Sunday newspapers with a David Attenborough wildlife program on the television by way of passing interest. When we looked out of the window, it seemed to be a glorious Sunday afternoon – very inviting for a walk if we hadn’t already got our exercise done for the day. We treat ourselves to a re-run of Thursday night’s ‘Question Time‘ which is broadcast on the Parliament Channel at 6.00pm each Sunday. Tonight, we are going to treat ourselves to a roam through YouTube and hope to be able to get a viewing of an opera – tonight, hopefully, we will try and find and play Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro‘ That ought to set us up for the week (if only because the arias keep running through your head for a day or so after the viewing)
The political story that is running on and on (which we thought it would) is the 1% pay deal offered to the nurses – after they had been promised at least 2.1% a year or so back and this had been built into both government spending projections and even legislation. What must give the government pause for thought is that according to an opinion poll in the Observer, some 72% of the population think the nurses should be offered more than 1% (i.e. what would actually be a pay-cut in real terms once inflation, council tax rises and the like are taken into account). A clear majority of Conservative voters/supporters feel that the offer of 1% is too low so surely there must be a screeching ‘U-turn’ on the cards, particularly as there are local elections coming up on Thursday, 6th May which is not too far off once we get Easter taken into account. But I read tonight that the organiser of a protest over the proposed 1% pay rise for NHS workers has been handed a £10,000 fine by police. This is because about 40 people had gathered in contravention of current lockdown legislation but even so, this works out at about £250 a head! Perhaps the organiser ‘had form’ and had already been warned by the police but a fine of £10,000 for a first offence (if it were) seems to me to be unduly harsh. There is always the possibility that the organiser could appeal and have this fine adumbrated or massively reduced but we shall have to wait and see.
As we enter March, we start to think of birthdays and the like as our son’s birthday and that of our daughter-in-law are fast coming into view – and what to do for celebration in these days of (just about) lockdown? Evidently, we can’t go out for a meal so we decided to treat ourselves to a communal fish-and-chip supper on a date that bisects the two birthdays. I also have an eye on the end of the month because March 25th is the day that I traditionally like to think of as the start of the mowing season which involves getting new supplies of petrol, engine oil and so on. Once you start the mowing process, you have to carry on at approximately weekly intervals not least because of the act of mowing releases a hormone in the grasses which stimulate them to keep on growing. The first cut of the season is always a bit off a pig anyway as the grass is so tufty and I have to do it on a high setting to get the job done. But we have a bit more bad weather to face yet as there seems to be a horrendous Atlantic storm heading our way which is going to hit us with high winds and plenty of rain about next Wednesday.
Today had a morning characterised by what I think you would call ‘watery sunshine’ – the temperature was quite mild and our walk down to collect the newspapers was reasonably pleasant, particularly because as you go, it is just possible to discern which perennial shrubs and trees are starting to bud. My observation of this process is that many plants and shrubs may start in the late autumn and then undergo a halt in early spring, perhaps anticipating a late frost or snow and then suddenly burst into life with a flying start when the days lengthen and the temperature warms up. Just before I get onto our park bench meetings, today was the day in which you could legally sit down with a friend on a park bench and enjoy a cup of coffee – without the ‘excuse’ of the park bench bench being a necessary break in the middle of exercise which was the legal regime under which we have been operating since the start of the current lockdown. In fact, Channel 4 news devoted to a little item to the joys of the park bench and how it had (and will) continue to be the ways in which we can meet with old friends now that coffee shops and pubs are generally closed (as yet) to us. Anyway, we met with our Birmingham University friend and had a really useful chat about how we were going to manage our gradual ‘unlockdown’ transactions from now on. At least a couple of our park acquaintances met up with us and we chatted about how much we were enjoying the mildish weather, particularly as the children have returned to school today and the park had returned to a quiet and relaxing haven after the bustle of the weekends. There were several little things we had wanted to chat over with each other but this is not always possible when you are joined in conversation by others and then it is time to go home.
Today, I carried on looking at bits of my computer system and which I could usefully prune, move elsewhere and/or make part of my backup routines. Over the years I have collected a range of pen drives as the price has dropped dramatically over the years. I found one that was a SanDisk Extreme 32GB and when I checked out the current price, Amazon were selling it for £8.99. So I reformatted it and used it as an additional backup source for my system. I reformatted it to a MAC format and then was amazed that I could easily get most of my important files on it, writing at the rate of 2.34GB per minute and this only using the slow-is USB 2.0 rather than the more up to date and faster drive (on more modern machines than mine) which is USB 3.0. So at the end of the day, I do now have three backup systems – one being Apple’s own Time Machine, a second being a conventional and recently purchased Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and the third being the flash drive. In the course of poking around in my system, I found an audio file (and subsequently, on the web some movie files) of our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations in 2017. So Meg and I enjoyed watching these again, some 3½ years after the event. There were three video clips which were of great interest – one being of Meg and her observations on 50 years of marriage, one of me telling a range of tall (and largely true) stories and a third of ours who was a close friend, now deceased who came along to our celebrations and played some Handel for us on his trumpet. So this took a fair amount of time but we enjoyed looking at it was well as the range of photos which we took on the day itself.
Today the media has been dominated, as you might expect, by the Meghan Markle interview which was shown on the American media overnight and is going to be shown tonight on ITV at 9.0pm. Very much is being made of the fact that one member of the Buckingham Palace outfit had speculated as to the skin colour of the yet unborn baby and everybody (particular Oprah Winfrey) had reacted to this as though it was the purest expression of racism! On the hand hand, it could be that the person uttering the remark was imbued with a racist ideology but an alternative explanation is that a courtier of liberal views was expressing delight that the British royal family was modernising by including mixed heritage members within it. Anyway, I am thoroughly bored by the whole media blitz and attention and the programme has not even been broadcast yet.
Back to school today for millions of school children under some conditions (e.g. lateral-flow testing 2-3 times a week to be continued at home, face mask wearing for senior pupils etc.) I believe that some members of the SAGE committee are already of the view that this is bound on the ‘R’ factor (pushing it up from 0.6 to 0.9?) but, in any case, Easter beckons quite soon and provide a bit more respite.
Today was a beautiful day, at least to start off with, and Meg and I enjoyed a really pleasant walk down to collect our newspapers. However, it was not so much a case of ‘now is the time for the turtle dove to be heard in our land‘ but rather one gets used to the whirr of the lawnmower as the population gets geared up for the spring. Whilst in the newsagents, I indicated that I had managed to solve one of the great mysteries of life i.e. how is it that the newsagent can sell a bar of Cadbury’s Bournville dark chocolate for £1.00 whereas Waitrose sells the same bar for £2.00? The answer lies in the fact that although the bars look alike (width x. height) they nonetheless differ in their height or depth i.e. the Waitrose bar is twice as thick and consequently has twice as much chocolate and the commensurate increase in price.So now we know. In the park we met with our Birmingham University friend who, as it happened, had received his jab the day before and was feeling a little under the weather. We conveyed our condolences and told him that when he died from the after-effects of the jab, we would go to the local cemetery in order to pick up some flowers which we would then recycle for his own funeral – he was very grateful for this offer. We also met another long-standing park friend who is a wheelchair user but it transpired that during her working life she had been an NHS manager in a small local hospital, now long since closed down and the site developed as a housing estate. We also engaged in some gossip about other park acquaintances that we all know well but prefer not to get into arguments with, if we can avoid it. The park was pleasantly quiet today and we met a few friends of friends as well as the variety of dogs some of whom we are starting to recognise.
This afternoon, we sent ae email to Meg’s cousin in Bolton, wondering with the easing of the lockdown situation whether we might make a flying visit to see the family in early April. As it happens, the weekend we were thinking about is going to be quite busy with family reunions so we are probably going to settle for a date some time in May. This might suit our purposes quite well because it is my birthday towards the beginning of May so it may well be that we have a family reunion which includes a little birthday celebration at the same time. However, it is a thought that a lot of population think they are ‘safe’ because they have received one dose of the vaccine and there may be lots of family reunions and events all over the country. Then this might have all of the ingredients that we need for another surge of the virus.
After the Harry/Meghan interview, Buckingham Palace has tonight released but a terse but incredibly well-written statement. This indicates that they will tackle the issues raised, particularly racism, within the family and offering their continuing love and support. To my mind, this hits absolutely the right note and shows a degree of dignity and restraint – with absolutely the right words chosen for the occasion. The interesting question is whether the media is going to keep this particular story rumbling on and on or whether the public as a whole will get bored with it and public attention moves elsewhere. After all, there is an expression in the newspaper world that yesterday’s newspapers become today’s fish-and-chip wrapping paper.
One of the government health ministers (Lord Bethell) has tonight given his opinion that nurses are well-paid for the job they do. While he praised the ‘heroics’ of health workers during the pandemic, he said they had secure jobs that many people would ‘envy’. Given that a government re-shuffle is on the cards, this sounds like one of the most inopportune things that a government minister might admit to. Of course, the whole question whether nurses are to receive a pay-cut (given that a 1% pay increase when the rate of inflation is more than this) is still under active political discussion. It seems very likely that the government are going to receive a bloody nose over this particular conflict.
Late on this afternoon, we FaceTimed some of our ex-Waitrose friends, as we generally do on a Tuesday evening. We exchanged news of the various ventures which we can both look forward in the next few weeks. Our friends had got a trip booked in July to see both York (where Meg and I, incidentally, decided to get married) and then Harrogate (where I lived as a child from the age to 5-17) Meg and I don’t have any trips planned as such but we might make a lightning visit to see Meg’s cousins in Derby some time in April (i.e. after some restrictions end on March 29th)
Today, according to the weather forecasters, it should have been a rainy day in which waves of showers swept cross the country. Instead, we had a glorious autumn morning although it turned a little cloudy in the afternoon – not that that bothered us a great deal. I leapt out of bed at a fairly early hour this morning in order to pop down to pick up our copy of the ‘Sunday Times’ (our regular newspaper now on a Sunday morning) Then it was back in time to watch the Andrew Marr show – another fixed feature of our Sunday mornings. After this was over, Meg and I had a pleasant walk down to the park where the local branch of the Bromsgrove Literary and Philosophical Society were soon quorate with their four members (others get membership by invitation) To be fair, there was a lot of joshing today and not a lot of discussions of things cosmological or political – but we did try and remember who was starring in what film of yesteryear. We announced to the group that they would not see us around around for a few days as we would going on our jolly holidays to the Brecon Beacons in mid-South Wales. So then we returned home to a quick lunch of quiche and the kind of ‘day-before-you-go-holiday’ raid on the fridge where you try and eat everything up and ensure that you have nothing left in the fridge to go off over the next few days. Meg and I are looking forward to our holidays starting tomorrow and if we have no traffic jams, or parking difficulties we should have a restful time – but there is always a potential for things to go wrong even when holidaying in England. Also, after our last experience of AirBnB in North Wales, we trust that this experience should turn out OK as it is a conventional guest house attached to a farm but we shall seen find out. The owners have been in touch with us which is always a bit reassuring and, in addition, we now the app installed from Booking.com so that all of the details of the booking are actually stored on our phone which is useful to have. Our domestic help has very kindly said she would pop in just before our departure tomorrow to give Meg’s hair a ‘tweak’ before we set off so that she looks her best for the journey. We engaged in a new style of packing today in which we put everything that we intended to pack into neat piles on the double bed before eventually packing them away into the suitcase.
I know that almost anything can be reported in a survey but one was reported on Sky News with the following findings. This is that 20% of the adult population would be prepared to participate in the pornographic industry if the price was high enough – this figure increased to a third of the 18-34 year olds if they were paid enough. All I can say about this is that I think that I have ‘lived too long’ but then there are apps which almost facilitate our engagement in the porn industry if that is what you ‘want’ to do.
A big story is brewing politically on the subject of cuts to Universal Credit. The government at the start of the pandemic had given a £20 a week rise in the UC rate to help people cope with the worst ravages of the pandemic. Anyway, this was always meant to be a tempory measure and the time has now come for its removal. The sum of £20 a week might not sound that much but it could be half a week’s food shopping for some people – and there are fuel rises and the end of the furlough scheme to cope with as well. It looks as though some 800,000 people may be affected of whom 320,000 (40%) are in work and another 30,000 in a mixture of full-time and part-time work. A coalition of senior Tories are planning a Commons motion tomorrow which is only advisory but which could reverse the cut. My guess is that the Governmemnt will press ahead with the cut but ‘stage’ it in such a way that there will be a cut of £10 a week this year and other further £10 next year. The big problem, politically, for the Tories is that some of the voters worst affected witll be the ex-Labour voters in the so-called Red Wall seats who abandoned Labour and voted Conservative to help give Boris Johnson his 80 seat majority. But the whole of the ‘levelling up’ agenda might be put at risk because of the numbers involved. The extra benefit has been claimed by 800,000 people of whom 320,000 (40% are in work) and a further 300,000 in a mixture of full-time and part-time work. These voters could abandon the Tories very rapidly if the UC credit cut affects them very badly.
Well, the day has finally arrived when Meg and I are off on our jolly hols. I got up reasonably early and then did last minute packing, including the MacBook Pro I generally keep in the lounge to blog away quietly in the corner whilst listening to the TV on the one hand and, occasionally, having a conversation with Meg on the other. I made sure last might that I had all of the software I needed properly installed and, more importantly, all of the file structures in the right place. Then we had a quick breakfast and I popped into town as I needed to collect our newspaper, take out an extra supply of cash and replenish our milk supplies. As I was packing the car, our domstic help called by to give Meg’s hair a final tweak before we set off and we finally got underway at about 11.0am. The journey down the M5 and M50 was generally unproblematic and then we had quite a pleasant meander, minly using the A40 which was quite fast in places, until we finally arrined in Brecon just after 1.00pm. We decided to let the SatNav take us on a drive past the guest house with whom we have a booking and then we turned the car around and headed off into Brecon itself so that we could find somewhere to eat. We got the car parked in quite a tight parking space – as you can imagine a historic market town like Brecon built on a hillside does not have great areas of space available for car parking. Nonetheless, we did get parked and in town found a Wetherspoons where we had a lunch of ‘mini’ fish and chips with included drink which served the purpose. Then we had a gentle stroll through the town and visited one or two of the local (charity) shops where Meg bought some necklaces from a ‘hospice’ type shop. Then about 3.30 we ready to head for the guest house.
At first sight, we thought we were going to have another parking hell as there seemed to be little ot no space. Eventually, when the door was answered, we directed down to the traffic lights, then left, left and left again until we finally ended up in a sort of back street with the proprietor waiting for us where he had a huge block of parking spaces for his guests which gained access to the Guest house through his back garden. We had requested a downstairs room and, so far, everything seems to have worked out OK. We got connected through the WiFi very quickly and fairly soon got ourselves unpacked, sorted out and eventually treated ourself to tea and biscuits. I am trying to get this blog written and ‘put to bed’ quite early so that we can have a good night watching the telly and then straight off to sleep.
I have just about got my head around the causes and consequences in the price of gas – 250% since the start of the year and 50% since last month alone and four times the price of a year ago. For causes you can take your pick from the following clusters of factors operating together – a cold winter last year, supply problems in the USA following hurricanes, Russia using a bit of muscle to get its pipeline deal approved by withholding gas supplies, a broken connector in the North Sea, poor reserve controls by the UK compared with other societies such as Germany and so on. Now for the consequences. The UK government (or rather the regulator) has allowed a lot of ‘small players’ into the market’ to encourage competition. But unlike the ‘big boys’ they had not learnt how to ‘hedge’ their supplies and with a regulated price, the cost of newly purchased gas is exceeding the price at which it can be sold – and hence they are collapsing like snowballs in June. The regulator moves their customers from a big supplier to another but the big boys do not want new customers as they tend to be a bit fickle (not having chosen them) and hence the market ‘churns’ and they switch again. If you had to point the finger at anybody you would say that the UK government has been lax in encouraging competition over continuity of supply, the regulator has not enforced proper standards of probity on newcomers to the market (did they ‘stress test’ them) and the UK strategic reserves are dire compared to, for example, Germany. No doubt we thought – why build up a reserve when we can always go ‘to the market’ but of course markets can, and do, go wild on occasion. At the risk if being a little smug, we have just (in the last 2 weeks) arranged a fixed price for our fuel which is both a fixed price for the next two years and saves us £75 a month.
Meg and I spent a good night in our temporary abode last night. The TV and its reception quality in the hotel bedroom are of excellent quality which is also a bonus. In a wakeful period in the middle of the night, I used our iPad to listen to a recording of Brahm’s A German Requiem which I always enjoy hearing but I hadn’t played it to myself for some time. The breakfast arrangements in the Boarding House have been refined to a fine art in the light of the COVID regulations. The proprietor has guests organised into an earlier and a later time so that the breakfast room is not crowded out with individuals and we can keep our social distancing. Meg and I enjoyed a ‘Full Welsh Breakfast’ which was the traditional B&B/boarding house standard and all of the ingredients were locally bought (common for Wales) and beautifully cooked. We will probably have a lighter breakfast in the days ahead but it is now nice to enjoy the full fare on our first day. We remembered the following little story that we recounted to our host after breakfast. The proprietor of the B&B in which we always stayed when we visited family in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, has written a book about amusing incidents tht happened in the course of his catering career. Meg and I figure in one of these incidents and it goes as follows. Meg decided to have some boiled eggs for breakfast and enjoyed dipping slices of toast, cut into thin strips, into each soft boiled egg after which they are known as soldiers. As the propreioetor was clearing away the breakfast dishes and asked Meg if she had enjoyed her breakfast, there was a natural lull in the conversation over which Meg’s clarion like voice could be heard exclaiming ‘It’s a long time since I enjoyed having so many soldiers for breakfast‘ (after which the whole restaurant guffawed with laughter).
After breakfast, we knew we would have a gentle toddle around the sunny streets of Brecon which we did, making the highlight of our visit a trip to a ‘Savers‘ as we knew that we needed a good few toiletries for our story. For a start, the room is not serviced as part of the COVID regime so we knw we needed some shower gel and hair shampoo, not to mention the toothbrushes which, believe it or not, we had actually forgotten to bring with us (we did find one, extremely low quality NHS toothbrush which we carry round as an emergency in our toilet bag) Still, Meg managed to buy other things such as hair grips and lipstick, without which, of course all modern women would look like Gorgons (dictionary definition: A fierce, frightening, or repulsive woman. …)
I had consulted the internet last night to work out a good eating place for our meal in the middle of the day. We located where this was (at one end of the one of the principal streets) and then went off for a coffee and tea cake for our mid-morning prandials. As we were a little laden up with shopping, we walked back to the car, Sat-Nav’d the restaurant and then let it take us there. I had a magificent glass of local beer (starting with a half and quickly translated to a pint) followed by a chicken, leek and ham pie with mediterranean vegetables whilst Meg had a similarly good lasagne. We felt as though we had dined extremely well, as well as reasonably – on another occasion, we might go back and have a starter and a sweet foregoing the main course.
After lunch, we visited Brecon Cathedral which was a real treat. When we first arrived the Cathedral was unfortunately closed but we ran into a couple of the local cathedral volunteers who opened it up for us. The cathedral started life as a Benedictine Priory and is now regarded as one of the arhictectural masterpieces of mid Wales. The chancel is a superb example of Early English architecture, while the later nave is primarily Decorated Gothic in style. One gets the overall impression of beautifully uncluttered early gothic and we may well go back to enjoy some of the extensive walks around the grounds (about two miles altogether through beautiful woods but a bit much for the late afternoon) and now we know what we are looking at, a second visit to the cathedral and its shop and its tea-rooms might be very much worth while. We could always save it for a rainy day, if we have one.
Today was a day which we had allocated to a sightseeing of the Brecon Beacons so last night I ‘Googled‘ what I hope is to be a scenic route over the Black Mountains which I hope will give us the authentic experience. Meg and I both had a pretty good night’s sleep so presumably a change of locale and some good meals out are wreaking the desired effect. We both had excellent breakfasts for the second day running and by about 10.00 am, we were ready for the off. SatNav-ing just a road number does not get you very far so I thught I would SatNav a village at one end of he scenic route and then another at the other end so that we could hit the correct route over the 'Black Mountains’ correctly. As it turned out, we got the first part of the journey done OK and then slightly missed the turn off for the critical road which is the A4069. We knew we had gone slightly astray but that did bother trouble us a great deal as I was just about to enter a new set of coordinates in the SatNav in any car. But just then we spotted a strategically located hotel which looked as though it was in the busines of offering morning coffees so we treated ourselves to a cappuccino, a mocha and a nice toasted teacake between us. Then we had a stroke of real luck. We fell into conversation with a couple also taking a morning coffee – he was a bank employee celebrating his 60th birthday and she was a care worker from Indonesia. They knew the area quite well and also the road that we wanted so they encouraged us to follow them up the roundabout where we could turn off into the mountains – and took the same route themselves so that we could follow them. The mountains resembled some of the huge wide passes in the Lake District and I quite enjoyed them but as a driver I had to concentrate upon the road quite a lot. When we came down from the mountains we set a course for Brecon which involved some backtracking of our steps and then having made the wrong call at another roundabout, finished up traversing the Black Mountains in the reverse direction. The mileages involved over the actual tops are actually quite small and we were not unhappy to see the mountain tops again from a different direction. I managed, though, to get betters vews on my way back when I was ascending as when you are descending, you do not have a lot of time for sight-seeing when you are concentrating upon the bends on tne way down. There was quite a mist (not unexpectedly) so visibility was not as good as we might have hoped for, given the fine weather over most of the country.
We descended into Brecon at a fairly late hour for lunch (1.30-ish) and I decided to we might try a quirky little establisghment with rave reviews called the Hop Inn Beer and Gin. The reviews on the web showed statements like ‘Takes Tapas to a new level – worth coming Brecon just to eat here‘ and things in a similar vein. But the craft beer I had was not a touch on yesterday’s down the road and the egg, sausage and chips pedestrian – the lunch time menu was uninspiring. Perhaps, to be charitable, the place really comes alive at night but there was a big discrepancy between what the web reviews led one to expect and our actual experience. After lunch, we walked into the town to collect a copy of a newspaper (the ‘I’) and after we picked up the car, suddenly realised that we needed to stock up on much needed supplies such as milk and biscuits. I must say, we were rather pleased to get into our own room again and have a bit of a rest and a refreshing cup of own Earl Grey tea. As soon as we got in, we received a text message fom our son who required a formal letter from me for his own financial purposes – since we joined households together some fourteen years ago, there are occasional joint issues that have to be resolved or untangled. I needed to compose a Word Document which I did ‘in the cloud’ using Google docs but the resulting PDF would only display half the file and would not scroll as was intended. Eventually, I installed a new PDF reader (Foxit) and also accessed an online Word processing Word clone (Zoho) which I had used before – but it needed passwords, OTPs and the like. But my efforts were crowned with success as I managed to produce the document I wanted, save it OK and get a PDF downloaded onto my computer to transmit onto the son and heir – he seemed quite saisfied with it at the end of the day!
We slept in a bit this morning which is quite unusual for us, so not waking up until 7.30 we had a bit of a scramble around to get ready in time for breakfast. I also need to write a formal letter for my son to process so I was delighted that I had this MacBook with me (generally used on a desk in the lounge so that I can multi-task by listening to the TV, as well as talking with Meg and blogging) When we got into town, we enountered some strange weather conditions – the weather forecast had indicated that we eventually we were going to have a really sunny day but first thing this morning, we were presented with a kind of drizzle hanging around in the air which made us don some weatherproof clothing. After a certain amount of Googling last night, I discovered the location of the local Information Centre which you would imagine would have a really prominent position and easily accessible psition on the High Street. Yesterday, we found one of those ornate brass finger posts in the centre of the town but it pointed to the information Centre by indicating the middle of a building. We did locate it, rather hidden down a sidestreet and rather difficult to find – however, the sole person staffing it went out of his way to be helpful. When we complained (mildly) the Centre was a little difficult to find, we got the observation that the local planning commitee would not tolerate a more prominent signpost to it. I think I smell some dirty politics here – but there is a rival National Park Information Centre some way away in a little village called Libanus. Methinks that that is the place to go to get spectacular vies of Pen y Fan, the local ‘highest’ mountain and, I suspect, the start of some good walks. We discovered a completely delightful teashop decorated with a light and modern decor and friendly staff next to a huge town car park that we knew nothing about. So we had our customary elevenses but I had a hot chocolate which was really hot and delicious. We also indulged in a local teacake before girding our loins for another visit to the cathedral which was about a kilometre away up a steep hill. We enjoyed our second and more contemplative visit to the cathedral. On this occasion we stopped to admire the huge 12th century font dated to about 1150 but filled with symbols such as a ‘green man’ which might date the font back to celtic times. We avoided some of the military stuff although some of it is quite interesting e.g. the original colours brought back from the Rorke’s Drift Battles in January 1879, when 11 VCs were won by men from the Brecon area. There is also said to be a sharpening stone where the archers (many from the Brecon area) sharpened their arrows before the battle of Agincourt (but we didn’t happen to see this)
We made our way down the hill back to the same cafe where we had enjoyed our elevenses earlier on. We had taken the opportunity to examine their lunchtime menu and they seemed to have some excellent light lunches which we thought we might try. However, neither of us were particularly hungry so we decided to avail ourselves of a carrot and coriander soup accompanied by a scone. Having a chance to examine some of the maps of Brecon (now that we have visited the Information Centre) we now know that there is a huge car park just behind some of the main shopping streets with a supermarket at each end of it. This we knew nothing about until today. On our first day, on Monday, we followed the signs for the first carpark that we saw which had spaces for about 20 cars and have used that one ever since, as we knew it, not knowing or appreciating that evidently all of the locals use the large car park to the rear. We have noticed before, and Brecon is no exception, that you might have stayed in a place for a day or so before you really get used to the ‘systems’ in place for that particular town. Now that we have discovered this huge, and accessible, carpark we shall use it for the rest of our stay here. On our very first day here last Monday we had gone round an almost deserted Market Hall. This we intend to go round again before we leave because they are selling some local delicacies (I fancy the venison and herb pie) as well as a shop that was selling some good kitchenware at unbelievable prices – and I have my eye on a particularly good skillet pan, as it happens. This afternoon we had a lazy time in our B&B bedroom but, as I blog, I am enjoying watching for the second time the journey of the ‘Flying Scotsman‘ along the Severn Valley Railway line (of which our son knows every inch)
Today is going being to be our last day here in the Brecon Beacons so we decided to make the most of it. We decided to do today perhaps what we should have done on Day 1 and went to visit the Brecon Beacons National Park Visitor Centre. So immediately after breakfast we set off to find this just off the main Brecon to Cardiff road and up about a mile long purpose built road. When we got to the centre (smaller than we expected) we got some very clear instructions how to proceed on a local walk and we got underway. The two local peaks in the area are Pen y Fan (886m) which is the highest mountain in southern Britain, followed by Corn Du at 873m and Cribyn at 795m, and each year more than 250,000 visitors make the trek to the summits of these impressive peaks. We set off to climb another of the local hills and walked for about a couple of kilometres up a grassy track which would have led us eventually to an iron age hill fort (Y Gaer Fawr). However, we felt that we had walked enough and did not want to lose our way as the grassy tracks tended to fade and reappear so we turned around and made the journey, downhill all the way, down to the Centre. We were surrounded by a multitude of sheep but saw a couple of ravens (or incredibly large crows), some meadow pippits and some red kites. Also on our walk we disturbed a couple of ground nesting birds (larks?) and there was evidence that there must have been a large rabbit population as well. Upon our return to the Centre, we treated ourselves to some hot drinks and toasted teacakes but there ere only 2-3 couples using the facilities. We got into an interesting conversation with a lady who was there with her 16 year old daughter and year-and-a-half year old son, who happened to be born on lockdown day – as I had started blogging that day, I could tell her exactly her many days old he was. Then we had a ritual tour around the gift shop where we bought one or two little ‘prezzies’ and a few simple guides in case we decide to repeat our trip to the Beacons and can now get off to a flying start. Then we made our way back into Brecon and decided to visit the little cafe with the interesting menu that we discovered only yesterday. The meals that we ordered (a tuna salad and a veggie burger type creation) turned out to be so enormous that neither of us could finish our meals. Nonetheless, we ordered two elderflower pressés as we did yesterday, so we are now 4 bottles to the good of the approximately 27 that we will need to bottle our damson vodka and gin.
After lunch, we made a call to the Market Hall which we had whizzed round and eye-balled a few things last Tuesday. We made a beeline for a hardware store where they were selling heavily discounted goods and bought ourselves a heavy duty skillet pan. As I am now eating a bit more fish (like sea bass) than previously, I hope the skillet pan will come into its own. There are some styles that you do not wash but just keep well-oiled so I will read the manufacturer’s instructions with care. From the same shop, we also bought a really wide yard brush as our recent one, used primarily to remove leaves and berries, is now practically bald after about ten years of use. Finally, we made our way to a stall where we knew that they were selling some special home venison and juniper berries home-made pies. We bought three of these, one of these for our domestic help who I am sure will appreciate it – I must take her tips as to what kind of gravy I should prepare to go alongside it. After we got back to the Guest House and we had a little nap, we started packing up ready for the morning. Actually we have gone as far as we can but a lot of stuff actually has to be left until first thing tomorrow morning.
The lorry driver shortage is causing us a degree of concern – but we also wonder what the government is going to do about it. Only a day ago, the message from No 10 and Whitehall was that it was absolutely out of the question that visa restrictions could be relaxed so that we could recruit some lorry drivers from mainland Europe. Today, though, the message is changing. The latest line is ‘we have to consider every alternative’ and it may well be that the government are forced into a U-turn. Of course this is acutely embarrassing for the avid Brexiteers in the government (i.e. all of them!) as they will be forced to admit that if Brexit had not occurred then the shortages of lorry drivers would be nowhere so acute. Will the Government be forced to eat humble pie?
Today is the day when we are due to go home – as is often the case, we woke up early at about 6.00am and didn’t bother to try and get any more sleep as we knew there is alway a lot of last minute packing to do,. Having said that, packing to go home is normally quite a satisfying procedure psychologically as out of the ‘ordered chaos’ of the bedroom comes a degree of apparent order when things are packed up and put away occasionally even thrown away! I put some packages in the car (dirty washing bag!) to reduce the final lot and the proprietor’s wife called us into the dining room earlier than our allotted time slot. After our final big breakfast, we got into conversation with some fellow guests who were staying in Brecon to attend a relative’s wedding. We commiserated with each other that at our time of life, it is a sad fact of life that people of our age and generation are attending funerals rather than weddings. We managed to get underway at just after 10 am in the morning and remembered that there was a garage within a short distance of our guest house. We already had half a tank of petrol and filled up with no difficulty at all – in view of what appears to be happening in other parts of the country where people are panicking and queues for petrol are already forming we were exceptionally lucky (or perhaps the Welsh are not as panicky as everybody else) This situation, incidentally, is the perfect example of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that if people think that the lack of delivery drivers will result in petrol shortages then by their buying behaviour consumers will cause that they most fear. At the start of the pandemic it was toilet rolls although it has to be said that a shortage of petrol is way more serious. Without wishing to sound unduly pessimistic, I cannot see an early end to this petrol crisis or a simple resolution. We know that we are 100,000 delivery drivers short of what is required and these shortages were starting to appear bfore both Brexit and the pandemic. The demographic profile of the delivery drivers shows that many are male and in the fifties and year by year many more are leaving the occupation than are entering it. After Brexit, many delivery drivers just went back to their home communities and of course the pandemic neant that he ‘normal’ testing procedures whereby new drivers could get qualified was severely disrupted. In addition, the Priti Patel regime has ensured that lorry drivers (regarded as unskilled workers) find entry to the UK incredibly difficult – an explicit arm of government policy. It now looks as though, although the cabinet is split, Boris Johnson is insisting that temporary visas should be offerered for ‘up to‘ 5,000 drivers to assist in the present crisis. But one has to ask what impact an extra 5,000 drivers are going to make when there is a shortfall of 100,000? Also, the present government does not appear to have factored in that many continental drivers will not fancy coming to the UK at all even for somewhat higher wages. For a start, the state of the pound makes the UK less attractive than it was. In addition, tax changes designed to make drivers not be regarded as self-employed so that they start to pay Income tax and National Insurance at the correct rate will reduce their real wages. In addition, crossing borders in continental europe is now easy whereas in Britain, it is becoming a bureaucratic nightmare. It is a sad fact of life that the UK is providing no proper toilet or washing facilities on our transport networks. One hears horrendous stories that on the way to the ports, drivers are having to relieve themselves in their cabs and both urine and faeces are being thrown out of their cabs to adorn the countryside. So to cut a long story short,I do not think that extending visas to attract lorry drivers will have anything like the impact the politicans might hope.
We got home just after 12 and our daughter-in-law very kindly made us some homemade soup. We did a certain amount of unpacking and got the washing machine going whilst I dashed into town to get a few essential groceries to keep us going for the next day or so. Being a Saturday, we went to church in the early evening and were delighted to see our two lots of friends from just down the road. We feel as though we are getting ‘back to normal’ when we see our friends again but I have the feeling, naturally after an early start and the driving, that I could do with a holiday to get over the holiday. We notice the nights really drawing in but there is another month before the clocks get changed on 31st October which is five weeks away.
Another Sunday dawns and Meg and I are getting used to our ‘normal’ routine having just returned fom our jolly holidays. I must say I rather like getting back to a routine again after our stay in Brecon. Living in one room in a guest house is, I rather feel, rather like life in a submarine – everything has to be absolutely shipshape and all of your temporary systems (e.g. for making a cup of tea) is always a bit of a logistical challenge rather than the ease of doing things in your own kitchen. Today was an overcast day when I walked down for our Sunday newspaper but later on in the day it brightened up and even became quite warm by the afternoon. I was hoping that this little spell of fine weather might continue for one day more so that I can get the lawns cut tomorrow but if the weather forecasters are correct, then a heavy band of rain is going to sweep across the country all tomorrow but sometimes the forecasters get it wrong by a day if they do not forecast the wind speed accurately.
After breakfast we made our elevenses and progressed towards the park as normal. Meg had a bit of a stumble and slid gracefully to the ground but she is a bit of a weight to pull to her feet again. A passing motorist stopped to give assistance but by this time I had got Meg on her feet and steadied again. However, I have made a mental note to myself that tomorrow I must pop into town and buy a dog collar. Before you ask, I deploy dog collars in the following way – the rucksack that I utilise every day has a habit of gradually slipping off my shoulders and the best way to prevent this occurring is to have a small strap (e.g. a dog collar) to provide a bit of a ‘tie’ between the two straps of the rucksack. By doing this, I always have both hands free – or at least one as, in the other, I have my little portable, aluminium, three-legged stool which we use as a miniature table once we are seated on our favourite bench. It didn’t take too long before there was a congegration (aggregation during the week but a congregation on Sundays) of the Bromsgrove Literary amd Philosophical Society where we discuss issues of the day. This morning was an issue raised by the first showing of this season ‘Come dancing‘ where some of the professional dancers had not been vaccinated – should contestants have the right to refuse to dance with an unvaccinated partner? It is the age old question of one’s right to privacy versus the collective good and my general stance on this is to argue tht whereas freedom of speech is always to be desired, one is not at liberty to stand up and shout 'Fire‘ in a crowded theatre. But we soon descended from these lofty heights and discussed the local rugby (as the local team is enjoying some success), the weather, our holidays or what remains of them and a general sense of enjoying the autumn sunshine whilst it lasts. When we returned home, we treated ourselves to the venison and juniper berries pie that we had bought recently in Brecon, to which we added some onion gravy and a generous portion of curly kale.
This afternoon, I busied myself with ordering some more of our medications before they run out. In theory, the system should ‘know’ when you are about to run short and reorder almost automatically for you – or at least issue a reminder but it doesn’t always work out this way. Anyway, we made sure we had got all of Meg’s medications ordered so that she doesn’t run out. Then I turned my attention to reactivating my old National Savings and Investment account. I remembered that I had a dormant account from the days a few years back when George Osborne, I think it was, gave an exceptionally good deal in what became known as ‘Granny Bonds‘ aka Guaranteed Growth bonds. This account was empty but I had forotten the password and after three attempts I was locked out and needed to get a temporary password by post. This arrived but did not appear to work so yet another phone call to NS&I was needed. I was directed to another department where I had to dictate my new password but this required OTP verification with pressing a hash key on one’s mobile following by a OTP on the computer screen. One way or another and after several attempts, I now have a fully functioning NS&I account into which I may put my savings as the 0.5% I am getting at the moment is so derisory that I am happy to forego the derisory tiny bits of interest in exchange for something approaching 1% if I am lucky – and even remote possibility of even more if I am extremely lucky!
As the weather forecasters had predicted, we had a tremendously fierce rain storm at about 7.30 which appeared to wash a lot of dust from our cars – after this, the clouds seem to skud away and we had quite a pleasant morning and an even more pleasant afternoon. With one thing or another (like getting up a little late), we decided to go into town by car because we needed to do a little shopping in Waitrose. There we met one of our former Waitrose friends that we often meet in the park anyway and we enjoyed having a chat with her whilst I went and purchased a few provisions to keep us going until our next shopping day next Thursday. As we left for home, I decided to make a slight detour to visit the petrol station where I normally buy fuel but this forecourt was closed, not having had any fuel since Friday. We circulated near to our local Morrison’s store but there we could see the queues of cars queueing out of the garage, down the slip road and in danger of clogging up a local roundabout. Without counting, I would estimate a queue of about fifty cars. Whilst we were on the road, I decided to visit an independent garage/petrol retailer in a little village some 4 miles distant. Here there was only a queue of about 7 cars and we managed to top up the car again following our return journey from Wales. As we left the garage, I counted a queue of some 37 cars so I wonder if the local ‘social media’ had gone mad with news of locally available fuel. Later on this evening, there was an item on the local news that this independent retailer employed its own HGV drivers and had increased its deliveries from three a week to two a day. As an experiment, they had stayed open late on Saturday evening to give priority to NHS workers and may repeat this policy if necessary. Even so, on occasions, they had a queue of up to ¼ mile which, as they are situated just on a bend in the main Kidderminster Road, means that they have needed to have some careful marshalling to keep the cars queueing for petrol apart from the normal road users (not always an easy job).
After lunch, as it looked as though the weather was set fair, then it was an ideal oppportunity to get our lawns cut. Normally this takes about an hour and a quarter and I thought I had heard that the heavans might open again at about 4.0pm in the afternoon, so it was a question of seizing the moment whilst I could. The sun shone benevolently on me as I mowed the front lawn and I had just about finished it when my next door neighbour popped round for a chat. It was the first time I had seen him since the demise of his beloved litle dog who had reached the end of her days but we had quite a long chat with the subject often reverting to late 1950’s/early 1960’s popular songs of which our neighbour has a huge collection (and the juke boxes to play them on).
The German election results are really very interesting. It look as the SPD (equivalent of the Labour Party) and their natural coalition partners, The Greens, should take about 40.5% of the vote. Meanwhile the CDU (Conservative party) and their natural allies, the Free Democrats are taking about 35.6% of the vote. So to form a government either the SPD (most likely) or the CDU (less likely) have got to convince the leaders of the two next largest parties to enter a coalition with them.The difficulty is that the Greens and the FDP (Free Democrats) are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. So a coalition might take weeks or even months to undertake. According to the German constitution, Angela Merkel remains Chancellor until a new coalition is in place and the new leader confirmed.
In 2015, at the height of the migration crisis, Angela Merkel invited a large number of migrants to come and settle in Germany – estimates vary betweem ¾ million and 1 million. Many at the time thought that Merkel was signing her own political death warrant but within a year or so her popularity had bounced back to pre-migration levels. Her political slogan at the time was ‘We will manage‘ which was largely vindicated but there has been an increase in right wing parties and right wing violence direct against the immigrnt population. But the differences with British political culure remain stark. For a start, Angela Merkel gained a doctorate in quantum chemistry but lived in a squat after qualification as she was so short of money. Contrast that with the gilded and priveliged background of Boris Johnson whose occupational credentials as a journalist are often questioned. The Daily Telegraph eventually sacked him when they discovered that many of the articles displaying the European Union in a negative light were actually just made up – but the damage was done by then.
Today the weather has changed into a truly autumnal pattern and one has the feeling that the last warm days of summer are behind us. Before we left for our walk, I was involved in a financial transaction where I was decanting some small savings accounts I have with a building society into a larger ‘pot’ with which I am going to buy some National Savings and Investments (NS&I) Premium Bonds. Evidently, in this sort of operation one has to be ‘mega’ careful not to put in a wrong digit when it comes to transferring pots of money from one place to another. However, it was very satisfying to see that my various savings accounts had successfully been transferred into my current account from which they were used to fund the purchase of a block of Premium Bonds. This is now prominently displayed in my NS&I webpage and after they have been in the system for a month, they will be eligible to be put into the ‘draw’ at the very start of November. I have also downloaded a webpage which calculates the return that you might get from a block of Premium Bonds given the ‘average’ degree of fortune (or statistical probability, I ought to say). It might well be that over a year and a half, I only just match the 0.5% which my building society accounts were yielding but I have a feeling that with a block of Premium Bonds I might better this rate, particularly if I were to have a bit of ‘beginner’s luck’. Like all of these types of ventures, you have to be a little careful getting them set up but once the system is working as intended, it should be a fairly simple job to add to this block of savings whenever I wish to in the future.
Meg and I then walked down into town and bumped into our Italian friend half way down the road. We had long promised each other a little ‘get together’ once we had got our holidaying all done and dusted so we have gratefully accepted an invitation to call around for coffee with her on Friday morning. There is so much more that close friends can say to each other in the comfort of one’s own homes rather than a snatched conversation on the street and so that is something to which we are both looking forward. When we got down to the park, we were delighted when our University of Birmingham friend turned up ‘on cue’ – we converged on the same park bench practically to the second and we always enjoy each other’s company. Then we were joined by two more mutual friends and discussed the fuel situation locally (what else?) amongst other things. Then I was just about to peel off from the group in order to go and buy a newspaper when I realised that as it was my day to go to Pilates we were going to run out of time. Accordingly, Meg and I struck off for home and I had a few minutes of time to get some of the elements of our lunch prepared, change into my tracksuit bottoms and then trot down to my Pilates session. What with holidays last week and a hospital appointment for Meg the week before, I had missed two Pilates sessions in a row so I was keen to attend this particular session and get back in the swim of things.
This morning, we received an email from the daughter of Meg’s cousin who now lives in sheltered accommodation in Bolton, Lancashire. We have been trying to arrange a meeting for months now but lockdowns have kept intervening and we seem to have made arrangements several times over but events have always conspired to defeat us. We are hopeful that we can make a journey up to Bolton on Sunday next so it will be both a family reunion and Meg’s birthday as well. Evidently, we have to think carefully about the logistics of the trip given the scarcity of fuel situation but we are determined not to let events defeat us on another occasion. We think we can get up and down to Bolton on two thirds of a tankful of fuel if we drive carefully by motorway and maintaining a moderate speed all the way. Then we should be able to replenish our supplies next week at the local independent garage later on in the week. As we have not seen our relatives for a good decade or so we have quite a lot to catch up on. So we thought we would start off at Meg’s earliest recollections of her cousin (when they are teenagers?) and then carry a narrative forward from there, explaining our lives and work have evolved during the intervening years. Meg’s cousin had an interesting career as an opera singer in Germany (or was it Switzerland?) during the 1960’s so I am sure she has a lot of interesting stories to tell.
Today proved to be an interesting day. We knew that our routine was going to be a little bit knocked out of the ordinary because I had a ‘webinar’ organised by the Worcestershire Association of Carers from 10-12 around the theme of financial support packages. As I suspected, none of the issues that were raised in the webinar were at at relevant to Meg and myself so I spent a couple of hours sitting in front of a screen that was to all purposes completely ‘dead time’ But the facilitators had tried to fulfill their brief fully and the technology worked for all of us. The only thing that I did learn was that the Citzen’s Advice Bureau were in breach of their contract with various local authorities because they were no longer offering face-to-face contact or support which the contract (and I suppose the monies that flowed from it) specified. Hence there had been lot of argument going behind the scenes.
After the seminar was over, I walked into town on my own because I had some business on the High Street. I went to the branch office of my bank in order to bank a cheque (rare these days – but the refund from my ex fuel-supplier which was rapidly issued) I then toured one or two of the charity shops in search of a cheap belt. I need this so that I can adapt to act as a ‘tie’ between the two straps of my rucksack which have an unfortunate tendency to slip off my shoulders – this should alleviate this problem and it means that I have an arm free so that Meg can link onto me which should help to prevent any trips or falls to which Meg is now prone. I acquired a belt and also a ‘pooch’s dog collar’ from Poundland so I shall have to see which one these these proves to be the most serviceable under the cirumstances. On my way home, one of our Kidderminster Road friends spotted me and offered me a lift home. Normally, I would have refused this, preferring to walk for the sake of the exercise but in a moment of weakness I gratefully accepted the offer of a lift as I was running a bit late anyway. After we had had a spot of lunch and as it was a really fine (but cold) afternoon, Meg and I made a little trip to the park to get in a little bit of our daily exercise. Rather than coffee, we consumed a bottle of iced peach tea which I just happen to have left over from some entertaining or other. As we were now so late in the day, the population of the park had completely changed its character and according we bumped into none of the friends and acquaintances that we might have expected if our trip had been earlier on in the day.
Today we see the continuation of the coverage of the Labour Party Confrence (to be followed by the Conservative conference in a week or so) As you might expect, the Labour Party conference is rather a fractious affair which the press (and the BBC) are always eager to exploit. Personally, I do not find the Labour party conference particularly interesting as one has grown to expect a lack of consensus in a party of the left. However, it does look as though the left wing of the Labour party has been well and truly ‘put in its box’ and they have been completely out-manouvred by Keir Starmer and his immediate followers. So we are having lots of anguished cries from the left as they enter their death throes and perhaps a realisation that they will never dominate the party again as they did in the Corbyn era. The feature of the party conferences are that they are alway driven by the extremes as the activists and the delegates are always way to the left of the parliamentary party (the MPs) in the case of the Labour party and well to the right of the parliamentary party in the case of the Conservatives. I personally find the Conservative party conferences much more fascinating affairs. This is because they are generally the party of government and therefore the spokesman are generally ministers. It is said that many MPs and particularly ministers really fear the party conference because they have to make the most blood-curdling threats (meaningless of course) to find favour with the delegates. To do otherwise, means that it does not look as though they are in touch with their grassroots and therefore they may be liable to demotion or dismissal at the next reshuffle. At the last Conservative party conference (two years ago), it was the Brexiteers who were creating all of the running but now that Boris Johnson has an 80 seat majority and all of the Remainers in the last government were sidelined, dismissed or even thrown out of the party so the modern Tory party is an almost completely Brexit party.
Thursdays are the days when I traditionally used to have our weekly shop but this week, we are having to change our plans somewhat. Having used the Waitrose online and delivery service during most of the pandemic, I have started to shop in a Waitrose store in Droitwich which is about 7-8 miles distant. My new pattern involves getting to the store about one minute before the store opens so that I am often the first customer though the doors. It is ? was? an absolute delight to shop in a store like Waitrose which is absolutely deserted apart from the staff doing bits of last-minute restocking. However, today because of the fuel crisis and because we are going up to Bolton on Sunday next, I decide to have a somewhat lighter shop by patronising our very much more local, but smaller store, about ¾ mile away. This will save me some precious fuel-miles which might yet prove critical in the days ahead. So I turned up a few minutes after 8am and did a lighter shop as intended – it could be that I will get into a new pattern of a ‘lighter’ week just down the road followed by a ‘heavier’ week in the more distant store. I don’t think that I missed out anuthing important, though, even though the range of goods in the smaller store if commensurately smaller. Meg and I thought after breakfasting, unpacking the shopping and showering (a little late) we would decide whether to go into town by car on on ‘shank’s pony’ (old fashioned expression for walking!) The reason was that we wished to buy a plant as a birthday present for some of our closest friends and this might have proved a little awkward to lug home. But this had the bonus of us having a conversation in the Waitrose cafe who we remember from our pre-COVID days.
Having got home, I thought I would cook a more exotic lunch as we had some venison steaks in the freezer. For veg I decided to try an interesting combination as follows. I had previously bought some red cabbage which can be a little bland, not to say boring, so we cooked one quarter of this alongside a couple of our own cooking apples that are now ready for picking down in Mog’s Den. I put in a smidgeon of demerara sugar as well. For our second veg, I parboiled a carrot cut into small wedges, added some petits pois and then, having drained the pan, I finished off with some oil and a bit of runny honey which is a mixure I have tried before. All in all, this was quite a good dinner although we seem to have finished of with a moungain of washing up for our pains. Just after lunch, our friend called around to deliver a little ‘prezzie’ and a card for Meg on Sunday next. As it is our friend’s birthday the day before, we ended up exchanging cards and gifts and saying that we would have a bettter get together once the weekend (and our travels) are over.
What with all of the comings and goings in the morning, we had forgotten to pick up our newspaper. So I decided to walk into town, if only to get some eercise during the day. However, the weather was decidedly showery and blustery and walking was not a particularly pleasant experience. However, once this had been done, I ‘amused’ myself to adding to my Premium Bond selection (by running down some other savings accounts) I had entertained myself on my journey into town by doing calculations in my head how many wins I would need in the course of a year in order to match the measly 0.5% I am getting on my accounts at the moment. I am trying to convince myself that I will maximise my chances of winning a prize if I can get my Premium Bond holdings as large as possible.
The media today has been full of the sentencing of the murder of Sarah Everard, walking home in an area of London near Clapham Common. I do think it is important that society recognises and deals with the problem of violence against women but the circumstances of this case are very, very rare. A policeman had used his powers of arrest to arrest, handcuff, rape and then murder his victim. There are calls for all kinds of immediate action, one suggestion being that no policeman should ever arrest a suspect on his/her own but only when another colleague is present. When society reacts to very rare events, you sometimes get legislation with really bizarre consequences, particularly if the legislation is passed in a panic. For example, the Official Secrets Act was passed in 1911 (since repealed but going for about a century) which made it an offence to communicate any knowledge acquired as a result of one’s employment by the state. So it became an offence to communicate the colour of the walls of the office in which you worked as all such information was deemed to be an ‘offical secret’
Today turned out to be a very different Friday to the pattern of the last three weeks. For a start, our domestic help texted in to inform us that her dog, a long-lived family pet, had been taken very ill in the middle of the night and they had to take the dog to an emergency all-night vet (I did not know that such a service existed) The dog was diagnosed with a heart condition and breathing difficulties – this afternoon, I texted our domestic help to see if there was any news but have not had a reply so I am fearful that the eventual outcome may well be a sorrowful one. At 11.0 in the morning, we had been invited round to the home of our long-standing Italian friend for coffee and cakes. We were there ‘on the dot’ and spent a marvellous three hours with our friend as we had quite a lot to catch up. Our friend was mainly full of reminisciences about her late husband and we were informing her also about some of the medical difficulties that members of my family are experiencing in Yorkshire. So we left to prepare our meal of sea-bass, which is a particular treat for us each Friday and it might well be that our friend comes and joins us in a week or so’s time so that she can share some sea-bass with us. I now have the requisite casserole dish (complete with lid) to help to prepare this dish to perfection so I am hopeful I can repeat my culinary efforts and share them with friends along the way. After lunch, I walked down to collect our copy of ‘The Times‘ always held behind the counter for us by our friendly newsagent. I then popped into Waitrose to pick up a parcel (a surprise birthday present for Meg for next Sunday) and also to buy a birthday card. I don’t know why it is but a lot of birthday cards seem to feature wine bottles, champagne bottles and the like – on the assumption that a happy birthday can only be had if you have consumed an awful lot of alcohol. This may be true for many people but there are more things to make a birthday happy and memorable than a load of booze.
The repercussions from the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer continue apace. A counter-reaction to yesterday’s outpourings of grief and comment came form a North Yorkshire police commissioner. We were told that ‘So women, first of all, need to be streetwise about when they can be arrested and when they can’t be arrested. She should never have been arrested and submitted to that…. Perhaps women need to consider in terms of the legal process, to just learn a bit about that legal process.’ To add to some of this nonsense are such bits of advice as ‘Run away! ..Hail a passing bus!… Ask the policeman if you can use his radio to radio through to his control room to confirm his identity…‘ All of these bits of advice fall into the league of things you thought you would never hear. I call to mind the advice given to foreign visitors to St Paul’s in London to enter the ‘Whispering Gallery’ and shout as loud as you can to fully appreciate the echo. Another story which I well believe to be true is that the Vatican in the 1970’s authorised the use of condoms by the use of missionary nuns who were being raped (or in danger of being raped) by young Congolese mercenaries. The oficial advice given from the Vatican is that the nuns should offer condoms to the soldiers immediately prior to their acts of rape to enquire would they please put on a condom first! I kid you not. But there is another story today which is almost as silly. All the Germans living in the UK at the moment are being written to by the UK authorities to see is any of them would like to volunteer to become a HGV driver. Apparently, any licences issued to Germans before 1997 entitled the holder to drive a small tuck up to 7.5 tonnes in weight. So even though a holder of such a licence might never have driven a HGV in their life, the UK government is asking them if they can help us out in the current fuel crisis.
Some of the latest COVID news is either interesting (or disturbing) depending upon one’s point of view. A finding has been published that the highest rate of infection is to be found in ..secondary school pupils.The ONS data covers the week up to 25 September, and estimates a steep rise in infections in children aged 11-15 over the last few weeks, with nearly 5% now testing positive – up from 2.8% the week before. This is a figure of 1 in 20 whereas the figure for the general population is 1 in 90. Needless to say, whenever you see secondary school children outside in the shops and streets, none of them are wearing masks (even though they are 4-5 times more infectious!)
Today when we woke up, it was a constant drizzle and so it persisted all day. So whatever else we were going to do, we knew that our normal walk was probably out of the question. Today is very much ‘the day before the day afterwards’ because tomorrow is going to be our ‘big trip’ up to Bolton in Lancashire to see Meg’s cousing and her daughter. In preparation for this, we called in at our local Waitrose in order to buy a couple of pot plants for the members of our family tomorrow. This having been done, I whizzed off into town in order to replenish our supplies of money – I always feel as tough I need a certain modicum of cash with me before a long trip. Having done our errands, we then made for the park where we hoped we might bump into our University of Birmingham friend even though it was raining quite hard. We surveyed the distant benches (and realised they were unoccupied) and glanced towards the bandstand, which was similarly unoccupied. At this, we decided to call it a day and we drove home and had our prepared elevenses at home instead of shivering on a cold, rainy park bench. We made this do for our lunch as well as, by now, it was rather late in the day.
Last night at one minute past midnight was the time of the month when the results of the latest Premium Bonds draw were to be publicised. However, we had a rather frustrating time as the updated NS&I app which gives you notification of how you have (or have not) won that month was not behaving itself. This app has worked quite well over the months but not on this occasion. They had updated the app and all that it indicated was that ‘Results are not yet Available’ (although we had other indications that they might be). Eventually, we went onto the website and discovered that, between us, we had actually won £75.00 (which is rather nice as we had had a run of fallow months recently so we thought it was about time that our luck changed) We are checking the amount of prizes we have won and what kind of interest that would represent and after our latest winnings, I calculate that our putative interest rate works out at 1.32% which is a lot better than the 0.5% which all of the building societies seem to be offering at the moment.
After lunch, Meg and I had a rather lazy afternoon and decided to hop through the TV channels to see if anything attracted our attention. We settled on the ‘Yesterday’ Channel which was showing a whole series of Michael Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys. The minute we tuned to tuned into the channel, they happened to showing views of Harrogate which was interesting for me as I was brought up in that town and lived there from the age of 4 until I was about 18. Harrogate is a pleasant town in which to live (and many of the cosmopolitans from Leeds have decided to settle there) so we found the travelogue quite interesting – and carried on watching the rest of the programme (which detailed the journey by rail fom Hull to Llandudno in North Wales). My most abiding memories of Harrogate were working in the Old Swan Hotel Harrogate which in many ways was a financial lifeline for me and I worked there from 1960 until 1964 alhough, in truth, it seemed a lot longer than that) The stratification structure of a large 4-star hotel is quite fascinating. I started washing dishes at 2s 6d an hour (12½p an hour) and then progressed onto washing silver which was paid at the rate of 15p an hour. For this, I progressed onto washing dishes for the bar (at 20p an hour) and finally became an (underage) barman at 25p an hour. As well as doing these various jobs, I also worked as a porter (during the day to carry the suitcases of coachloads of American tourists to their rooms), and a night-time porter (one of my duties was to hoover the vast expanse of the ballroom) In addition, as a ‘trusty’ I was often detailed to set up a temporary bar and this involved getting the stock and the glasses, organising a float, setting up a temporary bar and then getting the cash back into the system and the stock returned to its proper home (and I was only 17-18 at the time).
In preparation for tomorrow, I have hunted out a pair of new slippers that I had in stock and I am going to use my ‘old’pair as a pair of really light driving shoes – all of this in an attempt to save fuel. The extreme of this policy, of course, is to drive in one’s socks and the lighter presssure of the accelerator helps one to conserve fuel (we learnt this during the fuel crisis of the 1970’s)
Today has been the most marvellous day. We knew that today was going to be a bit of a special day not only because it was Meg’s 75th birthday but it was also the day when we had plans to go ‘up north’ to Bolton to see Meg’s cousin (who we had not seen for decades) and her daughter who we think we have not seen since she was 3 years old (we are now half a century on) We set an alarm for 6.00am and leapt out of bed to make an early start. As a birthday present for Meg, I had ordered a dressing gown from John Lewis which had been delivered to our local Waitrose down the road. I brought this present up to the bedroom together with Meg’s early morning cup of tea and she tried on the dressing gown for size. As it happens,it was perfect size and one of John Lewis‘ best sellers and she was delighted to try it on and then to wear it. After we had had a ‘quickie’ breakfast, I walked down into town to collect our copy of the ‘Sunday Times‘ and then we had a schedule for the journey this morning. I remembered from the fuel crisis of the 1970’s that we needed to be very economical with the use of the accelerator and the best wasy to achieve this was to drive either in stockinged feet or in slippers. I decided to drive in a pair of old slippers and I figured out that as the distance of the journey was about 110 miles, I should allow for two hours actual driving time. I then suspected that I would have to queue for anything up to an hour at one or more petrol stations to top up before the return journey. Then I had allocated ½ hour for a ‘pit stop’ probably on the motorway and then another ½ hour for ‘getting lost’ or ‘fishing about’ time – some 4 hours in total. But .. the best laid plans of mice and men! The weather turned out to be a beautiful day for motoring and we kept to a steady 60-65 all the way up the M5, M6 and M61. The rest of the traffic seemed to be moderating their speed somewhat so we were not much slower than fellow motorists. We arrived in the vicinity of our destination address in Bolton and about a mile short of it, saw a huge Tesco store wih its own petrol station. We swept into it and filled up to the brim ready for the journey back. As I was paying the cashier, I mentioned the steps I had taken to conserve fuel and shot me a glance as though I was slightly mad. When I enquired about the availability of fuel in the Tresco store, I was told that they had plenty of fuel and in effect was told ‘Fuel crisis? What fuel crisis?’ As a result of my economising efforts, I discovered that I had used 9 litres of fuel (practically 2 gallons) and had travelled some 110 miles so I achieved a mpg of 55mpg which I don’t think I ever achieved before (and probably never will again) in a conventional petrol driven car.
So we arrived at the house of the cousin’s daughter and her husband an hour and a half earlier and had to make our profound apologies for arriving so early (but we had taken along some fizzy and pot plants with which to appease the household gods) Then we spent most of the next 4-5 hours catching up on family matters, filling in some family back history, talking about our current family members and generally making up for decades of neglect. The one question to which we needed an answer was follows. Meg’s family was rooted in the Potteries and we are in contact with several members of one branch of the family on Meg’s mother’s side. We are also in contact with a similar number of family members from the branch of the family on Meg’s father’s side. What we did not know was to extent these two branches of the family were cognizant of the other – whilst they knew of each other and might have met fleetingly at weddings and the like, how much did they actually know each other? The answer as it turned out was – not much! So after the most enjoyable of meals, sharing of family photos, stories and reminiscences , it was time to head for home. As we were not now having to super-careful of our fuel supplies we headed for home not bothering to keep our speed particularly low but kept up with the rest of the traffic and so we got home in a couple of hours. To complete our pleasure for the day, we watched a reprise on BBC4 of the life of the famous cellist, Jacquline du Pré which we had seen once before but was always worth worth a second viewing.
Today we had to make a fairly early start because we had a routine appointment at the dentist. Actually, we have a six-monthly appointment wiuth the dentist ‘proper’ as it were and a six-monthly appointmnt with the dental hygienist who we have been to for years and we lag one by three months compared with the other. This arrangement actually works extremely well because it means that our mouths, gums and teeth get looked at every three months rather than every six and any incipient problems can be nipped in the bud. This actually happened to me today as one of my fillings had developed a bit of a rough edge and the hygienist was able to ‘burr’ it down for me (it sound a bit less agressive than ‘file’ it down but the result is the same). Afterwards, I spent the morning helping our son sort out a communications problem he was having with his phones and we think at the end of the morning we are nearer to a resolution of the problem. Then we had a lunch of chicken thighs which we bought as part of a pack last Thursday in lieu of a joint.
In the afternoon, Meg and I spent a certain amount of time sorting out some of the contents of our (storage) chest of drawers in our bedroom. Over the course of a few years, things have got a little jumbled and out of place so we spent the afternoon having a fairly good sort out. In the fairly near future, we intend to have a much more comprehensive sort out and this will involove being ruthless about the things that have not been worn for a few years which need either to be salvaged, donated to a charity shop or even thrown away. Some things, of course, never get thrown away – I have tried to persuade the women of the household never to throw away used tights, as once washed of course, they make magnificent ties for things like stray branches on errant trees and bushes in the garden. The thing about tights is that not only is the material strong particularly when twisted but there is just a little bit of ‘give’ which can mean that shrubs, trees and particularly rose bushes do not get damaged in the process.
This afternoon, we watched, in snatches, some of the Conservative party conference (which I observe wih a kind of fascinated horror) Today was almost a master class in the art of dissimulation on the part of the Chacellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak. Several ‘messages’ were being sent out, seemingly woven like a tapestry into the same narrative, namely – I believe in fiscal responsibility as do all of you (= public spending will now be cut where possible), I do not intend to raise taxes but refuse to rule them out, spending will be kept severely limited (except just before the next election) even though this policy as espoused by George Osborne bore down most heavily upon the already poor, I am a true Brexiteer but I deny that Brexit has anything to do with current crises, I swear complete loyalty to Boris Johnson but know how to distance myself from ‘Uncontrolled spending pledges’ which are ‘Un-Conservative’. Absolutely all of this is nothing to do with the current problems that the country faces but absolutely everything to do with Rishi Sunak positioning himself as the darling of the Tory grassroots so that as as soon as Boris Johnson makes the most enormous gaffe and may (nearly) lose the next election, so a new leader is ready and waiting in the Conservative wings, ready to take over at a moment’s notice.
Another political story tonight is the so-called ‘Pandora papers’ (named after Pandora’s Box of Greek mythology). The Sky website reports:
The secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires has been exposed in one of the biggest leaks of financial documents. Some 35 current and former leaders and more than 300 public officials are featured in the files from offshore companies, dubbed the Pandora Papers. They reveal the King of Jordan secretly amassed £70m of UK and US property. They also show how ex-UK PM Tony Blair and his wife saved £312,000 in stamp duty when they bought a London office. The couple bought an offshore firm that owned the building.
I suspect that this story will not cause much of a political furore in the UK. Perhaps the public feel that all political leaders are to some extent corrupt and the fact that Tony Blair was involved in dodgy (but not illegal) shenanigans is hardly going to raise an eyebrow. But one point that should concern all of our policy makers is the way in which the City of London has become the laundering capital of the world – all kinds if dodgy money, probably quite illicitly acquired, has been ‘laundered’ into expensive mansions, costing millions, which are enoyable consumption goods as well as quite an investment for the rich and famous.
Last night we heard it raining cats and dogs during the evening and the weather was really gloomy this morning with a constant threat of rain all morning. We understand that the weather may improve lightly from mid-week onwards but, in the meantime, we have to content ourselves with living through these dreary days. But to lighten our gloom, we got a phone call from our University of Birmingham friend whon we arranged to meet in Waitrose. The last time I was in our local building society, they had a little table with a few donated books upon it for which you asked to donate £1 to a local hospice. On the table, I discovered a copy of a book which I already own by a science journalist,Ben Goldacre called ‘Bad Science’ According to the publisher’s blurb:
“Ben Goldacre’s wise and witty bestseller, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, lifts the lid on quack doctors, flaky statistics, scaremongering journalists and evil pharmaceutical corporations”
I bought this especially with my University of Birmingham friend in mind and was more than happy to give it to him when we met for a coffee.We spent a happy half hour or so together before I had to go shopping for a few provisions in the Waitrose store itself, before departing by car in order to get home promptly. I then put on my tracksuit bottoms and gather up a few things before I set off for my Pilates class (as I do every Tuesday) at 12.40 prompt. The Pilates session lived up to its usual promise although ‘as a treat’ we are allowed to have a few minutes ‘relaxation’ at the end of the session in Week 6. As I generally fall almost completely asleep during this relaxation period, there is a running joke that the quality of the Pilates teacher is always to be judged by how quickly they can send me asleep. My other class members swear that I always end up snoring but I think this is a leg-pull as a part of me is still conscious even though I was well on the way to being fast asleep. When we got home, I cooked some crispy cod fish fingers, just bought at Waitrose, which I attempted to microwave. I must then confess to cooking the worst meal of my 54 years of married life. The crispy cod fingers were as hard as iron – in fact, so hard that knife could not possibly cut through them. Even raising them to one’s lips and attempting to eat them like sausages was not much better as we were in danger of cracking our teeth into little bits were we to persist. So eventually, all of these wonderful cod fingers were consigned to the bin before we did any damge to our dentition or our gastrointestinal tracts.
We always have a bit of a foreshortened afternoon on a Tuesday and in no time it was 5.00pm. This is the time of the week when we usually FaceTime our ex-Waitrose friends and we have a general natter about the things that have happened to us in the last week. We detailed the way in which we had driven 110 miles and achieved 55mpg on our journey up to Lancashire about which we feel immensely proud.
One of the stories hitting the headlines tomorrow is the fact that healthy well-tended pigs are being sent to slaughter and then dumped – all because there are not enough staff in the abbattoirs to process the carcases. After Brexit, many of the workers from eastern europe as well as elsewhere have returned home leaving the UK 20% short of staff. So far today, 600 pigs have been slaughtered and then dumped but there are fears that this figure could rise to as many as 150,000 in the weeks ahead. Many of those responsible for the rearing of the pigs are said to be in tears at this needless slaughter. Whereas temporary visas have been offered in the case of HGV drivers and poultry processing workers, this facility has not been offered to those in the pig industry. The official government line on all of this is that we should expect, post Brexit, some transitional problems as we progress from a low wage, immigration-fuelled economy to a high wage, indigenous work force. As it is the Conservative party conference in Manchester at the moment and the convention centre is buzzing with journalists, there is a lot of oppotunity to question ministers over these economic transitions. One particular line of questioning (I am think of Beth Rigby interviewing Boris Johnson) is to ask ‘Where is the plan?‘ for this transition given that Brexit itself was six years ago now. It is becomingly increasing clear that there really is no plan at all and the governnment are just ‘muddling along’ The latest attempt to recruit extra HGV drivers from continental Europe has yielded 127 drivers so far.
Last night, I thought I would hunt around in the ‘pending’ tray in my study for my letter of appointment for the routine CT scan which I am going to have on Saturday in one of the local hospitals/treatment centres. As it happens, Bromsgrove is in the middle of a triangle of hospitals and for any procedures, investigations or indeed anything more serious one can be sent either to the Alexander hospital in Redditch, Worcester Royal (in Worcester) or sometimes a treatment centre (a downgraded hospital) in Kidderminster. As patients, we are well used to shuttling round between any of the three centres as we are approximately equidistant for each. The staff also get shuffled around and by all accounts the staff actively dislike this arrangement – but they have hardly any choice. The point of this story is that I discovered my letter of appointment for my scan on Saturday but also discovered, almost completely by accident, a routine urology appointment for today, Wednesday, at 10.0am in the morning. This appointment letter was sent to me in August and had somehow evaded my normal system where hospital appointments get marked up on the calendar and on our house ‘planning board’. When I arrived at the hospital this morning, the car parking although free was an absolute nightmare. Every single space allocated for patients was already taken and we were directed to an overspill carpark, itself an overspill from a staff carpark and seemingly hundreds of yards away from the main hospital. The hospital appointment itself was a breeze as there were no other outpatients around and the whole waiting area resembled the ‘Marie Celeste‘. I was seen by a nurse practitioner who was very chatty and informative and she arranged a further (routine) MRI scan for me which might take weeks to run through the system. She performed a little diagnostic test on me to reassure each other that all was well and then I was sent on my way, having given a blood sample en route. When I got home, the weather was really set fair and so I made up a flask of coffee and Meg and I made for the local park (as per usual) On our way down, we bumped into our Italian friend who had reported some gurgling water noises to the local water authority and they had turned up, dug a hole in the pavement and presumably identified the source of the problem which no doubt they were going to fix eventually (leaving a hole in the pavement in the meantime) We didn’t actually go directly to the park but called in at Waitrose to pick up a few things of which we were running short before our main shop-up at the end of the week. Finally, we headed for home and prepared a chicken meal for ourselves.
The news channels this afternoon were very much taken up with Boris Johnson’s address to the Conservative party Conference. This was an extraordinary affair to put it mildly. The speech as a whole was full of (not very funny) jokes and typical Johnsonian bluff and bluster. It was hard to discern any acual policy announcements and the whole ‘performance’ was designed only to entertain the party faithful. However, he did manage some digs at his predecessors (Cameron and May) by referring to ‘decades of drift and dither‘ and it is evident that Johnson is intent on painting a big picture (bereft of any detail) of ‘a high wage, high productivity, low immigration’ future for the UK. You would not imagine, though, that we were living in times when we were queueing for petrol, thousands of pigs were being slaughtered because there are not enough workers to process the carcasses in the abattoirs, the Universal Credit was being cut by £20 a week and gas prices were spiking again. Of course, all of these problems are just being dismissed as ‘transitional problems’ whilst we progress towards a fully post-Brexit economy. In circumstances like this, I always look forward to the analyses on Newsnight on BBC2 each night – as this is when serious analysis does get undertaken of the day’s political events and some detailed questionning can take place.
The other political mantra which is being constantly heard is the philosophy/politics of ‘levelling up’ and now we even a Ministry with the words ‘levelling up’ in its title.The big trouble here is that hardly anyone knows what ‘levelling up’ is meant to be! I think I can be pretty certain that I know what it will NOT be – which is a massive redistribution of income and wealth and life chances across the country. This would imply that the Tories are committed to the abolition of all social class, ethnic and regional differences across the whole of the country which is not going to happen. Instead, it is a rather innocuous soundbite which sounds good but is essentially meaningless. Eventually, some more money might be pushed in the direction of (Tory) local authorities which might be enough to prove that some regional inequalities have been ironed out but I suspect that like other meaningless slogans which means all things to all men it will eventually disappear.
Today has been a very strange day in all sorts of ways. Meg and I had a delayed start for our walk down into Bromsgrove but as we went this morning, practically everybody we met wanted to stop and chat. Our Italian friend’s water problems seem to have been solved – or at least, we think the leak has been rectified and the hole in the pavement filled in. In the park, we had a long conversation with a couple where we know each by sight. Today, we stopped for a much longer chat mainly talking about the ways in which ourselves and our families had coped with COVID over the months. We concurred that those of who live fairly near the park have had a pretty good COVID as we have had the opportunities of a good walk, a chat with friends and acquaintances and of course lungfulls of generally fresh air and the changing vista of the park to admire. After our extended park stay, we popped into town to collect our newspaper, went to an ATM to take out a bit more cash and finally called in at Waitrose so that we could replenish supplies of tea and milk before I go shopping in the morning (visit of our shopping trip to Waitrose delated by a day this week). As we walked up the hill to get home, we happened to pass one of our neighbours who lives just around the corner and whose husband acts as one of the marshalls in the Artrix Arts Centre which, here in Bromsgrove, has been re-purposed as a vaccination cntre capable of handling up to 2,000 vaccinations a day when fully manned. We were informed that the centre had plenty of vaccine and if we wanted to receive our booster vaccines, all we needed to do was to get ourselves down there. So after we had a rather thrown-together lunch, we got ourselves down to the Artrix to get our boosters.We had taken our NHS numbers with us (most useful of all) as well proof on our phones of our first two vaccinations and we were soon located on the system and received our jabs without further ado. We were mildly surprised to be getting the Pfizer vaccine as out first two vccinations were Astra-Zeneca – nonetheless, I think I have read (somewhere) that giving separate vaccines helps the immune system to produce a better response than a single vaccine. As we were last vaccinated last April, it is probable that our immune reponse might have lowered somewhat so we were pleased to get our booster way before the autumn cold gives the cold viruses (of all types) a field day.
Late on this afternoon, we thought we would FaceTime my sister who lives in Yorkshire. The news from Yorkshire was all a little depressing. My brother-in-law has suffered from prostatic cancer for some years but this has now migrated to his spine and it is severely impairing his mobility which is now almost zero. Needless to say, he has been getting depressed by all of this and its sequelae but a wheelchair was delivered this afternoon. On the strength of this, one of my brother-in-law’s sons was pushing him out to a local pub (or at least a place where alcohol is served) so it looked as though he might drink his first pint for many a long month. The news from the rest of the famnily was a little grim as well. My niece has been infected with COVID (probably by one of the pupils in the school in which she works) and has infected her husband and daughter so the three of them have been coping with all of this for the past week or so. We always knew that schools were massive reservoirs of infection but the government has kep on insisting that they are ‘safe’ (perhaps for other pupils but not for the staff who work in them) Tomorrow, I must get into contact with them and get all of their news from the horse’s mouth as it were.
Now that the Conservative party conference is over, three particular features remain in the memory. The first of these is that the whole of Johnsonian conference speech was devoted to what has been termed ‘blusterism’ where the speech was full of rhetorical announcements about a glorious future but no indication how we are to get there. The second feature is many of the business community (and even some on the Conservative right) are labelling Boris Johnson as economically illiterate and doubt that many of the ‘sunlit uplands’ might actually arrive. And thirdly, there are a whole series of absolutely massive problems building up (massive rise in gas prices as well as council taxes, cut in Universal Credit, possibility of rampant inflation and this is before we even start to factor in the results of Brexit unwinding).To these, the government appears blind with no policies to speak of at all (but they are still ahead of Labour in the opinion polls)
Today seemed a strange kind of Friday for a variety of reasons. Our domestic help turned up late which was very unusual and we feaed that she had another life-threatening episode with her beloved Jack Russell dog which looked as though it had suffered a heart attack last week and caused our friend a fair degree of trauma. This condition is now being treated with pills taken at particular intervals and seem to be working. So we feared the worst but our domestic help had overslept (not that we minded) – by the time she turned up and we exchanged all of our various bits of news mainly about family related matters, time had marched on somewhat so we were a little late undertaking our trip to the park. But we did meet up with our University of Birmingham friend as we had indicated to each other that we would meet up on Friday. Needless to say, we were also the object of attention from several of the local dogs (sitting on a bench maximises the chance in thir eyes that you are going to give them a titbit) After a pleasant chat we made for home and then cooked our Friday lunchtime treat. I had gone shopping to Waitrose in Droitwich a day later than usual but made sure I was there at about 1 minute past 8.00am in order to ensure a good, stress-free shopping environment. One thing to which I treat ourselves is some fresh sea-bass and I have now found the almost perfect way to cook it. Having dried the fish and with the minimum of oil, I then cook it for two to three minutes in a covered casserole dish, the skin-side down to make it fairly crispy and then I add some capers and a bit of butter before cooking the other side. I then serve it on a bed of salad leaves – I found that the richness of the fish and a good bowl of salad leaves (which the fish heats up) proves a very satisfying meal without bothering with other green veg – although i would cook tenderstem broccoli if I felt the meal needed it.
This afternoon was a sort of ‘tiding up’ afternoon. Actually, I was hoping to find two things that I had temporarily mislaid (sounds better than ‘lost’) but which my mind would be easier once they were located. The first was little wallet arrangement in which I carry some notes when I go shopping. I always try to make sure that this little wallet gets popped in a pocket which is zip-protected so that it doesn’t pop out inadvertently. Anyway this turned up in a ‘zipped’ anorak pocket where it was quite secure but not where I usually keep it. The second item was my front door key which had also been mislaid because on my Pilates day it has to go in a different location to a pocket in my track suit bottoms which I do not trust. Anyway, this too turned up moreorless in a location where I often keep it so I had a more relaxed afternoon knowing that I located both wallet and front door key. In the early evening, I FaceTimed an ex-colleagues and friend from my University of Winchester days. We tend to have a chat for about half an hour each week or more if the spirit takes us (as it did today) and we discuss what had happened to us in the past week before,almost inevitably, we discuss the latest political shenanigans.
A friend sent me a cartoon which is ostensibly quite funny but also can be interepreted more seriously. The cartoon depicts a dinghy overloaded with asylum seekers and the like in the middle of the English Channel and they are being hailed by a loudhailer from a UK coastal protection vessel with the question ‘Do any of you drive a lorry?' The serious side to this joke is that many of the migrants into British society may well seek to establish a toehold in UK society by taking the jobs that the indigenous British find not to their liking. As well as the fruit, vegetable and flower pickers, we also have the examples of lorry drivers, abattoir workers and numerous other onerous and low paid jobs.The fact that so many of the erstwhile workers in these industries have now been officially encouraged to ‘go home’ and have abandoned the UK means that of course, we now know that we need what they had to offer. To all of those who voted Brexit, I feel like shouting from the rooftops: ‘Well, this is what you wanted and what you voted for!‘ However, since Brexit we had had the pandemic, of course, and to Tory MP’s this is like manna from heavan because all kinds of things can be blamed on the pandemic alone. The truth is probably that labour shortages are a complex mixture of Brexit, pandemic related issues and local demographic factors – but it is interesting to note that Brexit as a root cause is scarcely mentioned or only in passing.
The spell of fine weather is mercifully continuing and is what used to be called an ‘Indian summer’. The origins of this expression seem to be lost in obscurity but I believe that the ‘Indian’ refers to native North Americans and a harking back to the conditions that they used to remember. Anyway, any spell of fine and dry weather is appreciated at this time of year. Personally, I like to get December 21st out of the way as after that date, it ought to be getting that little bit lighter (rather than darker as is the case at the moment). After our walk in the park and the collection of our newspaper, we had only the briefest of stops and chats as I had to get back by about 12.30 so that I could set off for my hospital appointment in the afternoon. I knew where the treatment centre was in Kidderminster and gave myself about 40 minutes to go the 12-13 miles. All is well until I was approaching the centre of Kidderminster to joing a large ring road that would eventually take me to my destination. The blocked off road pointed left and said ‘Diversion’ and that was that. If you no idea about the topography of Kidderminster, you would have utterly been thrown because you were sent all round the houses with no indication as how to get to where your ultimate destination might be. I figured out that I probably had to go round three sides of a square in order to try to access the ring road and, fortunately, this turned out to be correct because eventually I found the ring road, sailed past the blocked off access road to Bromsgrove and found the Treatment Centre and its scanners located in the carpark. I did arrive with two minutes before my appointment time at which I was pleased. Then I had to approach 2-3 large mobile units where the scanners are located in the carpark. This is actually quite a sensible arrangement because it means you should not come into contact with any other patients or staff beyond that which is strictly necessary. I approached the door of the mobile unit up a ramp and was greeted with a sign not to force the door but to knock – this I did but to no effect. I descended the ramp and was searching for an alternative entrance before one of the unit staff, sitting in his car, asked if he could be of help. I informed him I was there for a scan and was told ”Oh, we are having our lunch at the moment – go away for 7 minutes and then come back when we might be ready for you’ I decided that it might be a useful and strategic use of my time to pay a visit to the loo before the procedure, which I did in the main hospital. Upon my return to the unit, one other patient was waiting whose appointment was five minutes after mine. Eventually, the door was opened and the person in the queue in front of me was seen first as ‘he was first in the queue. So I waited for about five minutes and then it came to my turn. I have had these procedures before so I know what to expect. Having divested myself of anything metallic and having had a canula inserted for the contrast agent to be administered, I was ready for the off and the whole thing took about 2-3 minutes. Putting all my gear back on, I then had to circumnavigate the traffic system in order to get home. This time, I followed the signs to the Severn Valley preserved railway station and line – this, I know would get me back into the right track, which indeed it did. Evidently, to the people who know the system this is all a ‘piece of cake’ but if you have ever been to that Treatment Centre before, I can imagine that the whole logistics of getting there must have a nightmare. I was very pleased, though, to get home and to have a quiche lunch which had been warming at a low heat in the oven and was easy to prepare once I got home.
This afternoon is our attendance at church day so we were pleased to be back in the swing of things again. We had quite a long chat with our Irish friends from down the road and we have accepted (gratefully!) an invitation to go round for coffee on Tuesday morning. As we happens we have other things to do on Monday and Wednesday, so we shall look forward to this. As I write at the moment, I am listening to a performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto on Radio 3. I am trying to remember the plot as I write whilst also listening to the music – but Rigoletto is full of sparkling and hummable tunes anyway (‘La donna è mobile’) for example.
Today being Sunday, I walk down on my own to collect our Sunday Times and be back in time for the Andrew Marr show – both of these are fixed points in the week. When I was with the newsagent we chatted for a little about cars and he told me that several decades ago he owned a Jaguar XJ6 and used to journey from Birmingham to Manchester in one. I indicated that I did have a secret yearning for one but all you have to is to mention ‘supermarket carpark’ followed by ‘automatic’ to put one off for life. I did mention in my conversation that I used to live in the Rusholme area of Manchester (about 1-2 miles along from the University along the Wilmslow Road) and when we lived there in the mid 1960’s it was about 90% Irish – now with the ecological processes of invasion and succession (terms learnt from my urban sociology course, also in the 1960’s) it was 90% Asian and had become the curry capital of the region. This is so much the case that one occasion a filmcrew was taking street shots of the area and our flat (a modern flat built on top of some shops – quite a common pattern in the 1960’s) was caught in the camera panning shot. After Meg and I got ready slowly, we walked down to the park where a lively session of the Bromsgrove Literary and Philosophical Society ensued. Our discussions ranged over the success of the local football and rugby teams (both doing quite well) to the exact location of Beijing on a map (which for some reason had recently taxed the minds of some of us) Before we set off for our walk, I ventured onto our communal green area to see how our apple trees are faring. Several years, I planted some young trees from Aldi (bought for about £1.50) and these are now bearing fruit in abundance. One of the trees was so laden with fruit that the branch bearing the fruit had actually split under the weight. To the best of my memory, the variety of apple if ‘Jonathan’ which is a classic American variety, apparently. I picked about three or four of these so that I could taste one and give the others away to friends in the park (although I didn’t get many takers, bar one) The apples are small,very crisp (not like your mushy Golden Delicious) and with quite a sharp, semi-sweet flavour. Now that I know that they are in good condition for picking, I am going to leave it literally for a day or so and then avail myself of some ‘fruit trays’ in which I can store them. I generally try to ‘acquire’ some of these from my local Asda and ensure that the apples are not washed but are polished and stored so that they do not touch each other. Then if they are inspected regularly I choose the best of the bunch for the task in hand (eating apples, making into apple sauce, apple puree or what have you) and any that are going ‘off’can be quickly thrown away without infecting the rest. Mind you, I do have to be careful where they are stored because in the past the local mice have sometimes said ‘Thank you very much‘ and taken random nibbles, so I learn from experience. I have some cookers in Mog’s Den which are much larger but undoubtedly cookers and not eaters but I think these can be left on the tree for a week or so longer yet. One wants to get the crop picked before an autumn gale sends them all crashing to the ground.
Meg and I had a rare treat today which was a little piece of sirloin complemented by a glass of red wine. We have started to eat again in our kitchen instead of on our knees which was a COVID inspired measure but which is no longer necessary. We have enjoyed a good old read of the Sunday newspapers today after our lunch and are settling down to an evening of TV programmes very much to our taste.
The latest COVID news warning today is that COVID-19 and flu are co-circulating this year for the first time and those who catch both are twice as likely to die, early evidence suggests, amid fears of a ‘twindemic’. I must admit I am pleased to have got the booster jab behind me last week – I took a photo of the cards issued to Meg and myself so that I have a record of it on my iPhone. When I was younger, I seemed to get ‘flu every year and assumed it was just part of the normal ‘winter’ cycle but as things stand at the moment, I cannot remember the last time I was afflicted. Of course it could be that last year all of the precautions that we took against COVID protected us again ‘flu viruses as well but now we have all got a bit too complacent, then we might have to learn to be streetwise (and carry on wearing our masks – which we do every time we encounter a crowd e.g. inside any of the local shops)
Today was one of those ‘chasing your own tail’ days, if you know what I mean. Meg and I had a limited amount of time in the park (although the weather was absolutely wonderful) and, as well as picking up the newspaper, I needed to pop into Waitrose to pick up one or two supplies. Then we needed a fairly brisk walk home because our chiropodist was due to call at 12.45 – and we made it only being 10 seconds late. Quite unusually, she was a few minutes late as well so no harm done at all. After we had our feet done, we had our lunch (quite easy to prepare as the beef joint was cooked yesterday) and decided to ‘gird our loins’ to get the lawnmowing done. This is not a particularly big job these days (40-45 minutes at the front, cut ‘both ways’ and about 20-25 minutes at the back) but it so much more pleasant to do when the weather is fine. You can tell it is ‘that’ time of the year because we have mushroomy type growths appearing on our back lawn. We used to have a lot of ‘shaggy inkcaps’ and Google informs us that they were ‘edible when young’ but I would never trust any fungus growing in the garden in case I had mis-identified it. Anyway the lawns got cut whilst the sun was still shining (and even Miggles the cat, showed up for his customary treat)
In the lst few days, I have received a couple of emails from my flatmate when I was first a student at the University of Manchester in 1965. There were four of us lads altogether and one of our number hailed from what was then called Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) although he had spent his last few years in a boarding school in Bournmouth. We all get on well with each other and as my Sri Lankan friend and I were about the same size, he let me borrow his jacket for the one night a week when I went out with Meg (we used to frequent a Folk singing club each Sunday evening on the ‘J’ floor of the large Victorian building that was occupied by the Faculty of Technology – later to become a university in its own right as UMIST -University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) There are many tales I could tell of our experiences. At the end of our first year, our landlady had bought another house so three of the original flatmates plus Meg occupied the original house as a series of flats. In our final year, we all moved into a modern maisonette built on top of a row of shops, bu that is another story. The one incident that sticks in my mind is when we four lads were in our first year and were eating our evening meal round the communal table. Just then, the tearaway young son of our landlady burst into our room with a plastic tommy gun that made a loud rattling noise when fired. So he it was fired at all of us and we decided to play the part and play ‘dead’ as we all leant forward over the table. ‘Mummy, mummy‘ the youngster cried out – ‘I have just shot all of the students dead!‘ At this stage, our landlady came rushing through and shouted ‘Willy! Willy! What have you done!‘ At this point, we were all trying so hard to suppress our giggles that it was quite evident that we were not all dead and our landlady left us, indicating she was not a little bit amused by our antics.
Meg and I were married at the start of our third year in university (we didn’t believe in messing about in those days) but our Sri Lankan friend had returned home to see his family and missed our actual wedding. However, his family were extraordinarly generous to us and we were showered with wedding gifts. One of these was a bolt of cloth, shot through with silver thread, to be deployed as a sari (our friend had to teach Meg how to wear this) We also got a square tin of the kind that Jackson’s teas used to be sold whichh are about 5″ wide, 5″ deep and 5″ high filled completely with saffron. We used this very liberally in our cooking for the whole of the next year and when asked for a pound of saffron, the delicatessen owner had to explain that would cost us about £65.00 (about £2,000 in today’s money) Finally a tea-chest arrived (the old fashioned tea chests which were about 30″ wide, deep and high) stuffed full with Broken Orange Pekoe tea. I should explain that our friend’s mother now ran an elite cookery school in Colombo and hence the nature of the gifts, no doubt. But the generosity of our friend’s mother who did not even know us evidently knew no bounds.
Today turned out to be one of ‘non’-park days. Meg and I had been invited down to our Irish friends for a mid-morning coffee and more. As it happened, yesterday as I was cutting the grass I noticed that our clump of delphiniums seemed to be in full bloom again. Whether they have bloomed once, died away and come back again or whether they just stay throughout the summer I cannot say. I made a mental note to cut some tomorrow morning to take to our friends down the road. We also had a few apples that I had gathered as ‘tasters’ to see if the rest of the apple crop is worth harvesting and these I took down together with a little ‘something’ courtesy of our local Waitrose. Our friend had put quite a little spread for us and we really enjoyed both the natter and the food before we had to have for Mike’s Pilates class, which is a regular fixture on every Tuesday. We were running a little late so I cheated a little and went down in the car, parking some way from the centre but saving myself a vital 10 minutes or so.
After lunch, I needed to get my printer working again which I did by tweaking a printer driver. I think that when the Mac operating system updates itself, it seems to knock out my printer driver on the grounds that it is not the current 64-bit ( or is 32-bit version?) Anyway, I know how to tweak the printer so that it now works which is a relief. Then I set to scanning a document of which I needed a permanent copy as a pdf. I use a piece of free software called VueScan which has an interesting providence. A computer expert in the US had worked that literally thousands of quite serviceable scanners all over the world were being thrown away because there were no drivers available for them. So they started a company which distributed a programme that would work with any scanner and I am the happy recipient of this. Hover, I do not scan very often and scanning a single page is child’s play. Scanning a multi-part document seem a bit more problematic and eventually I found how to do it and got a .pdf of the document I wanted prepared.
This evening, we decided to do something we have not done for a very long time. We have abandoned the TV as there seemed to be absolutely nothing that took our fancy. Instead, we raided our collection of CD’s and discovered one that is ‘Carreras, Domingo and Paravarotti in concert‘ (they being, of course, the Three Tenors in the classic concert that everybody remembers.) The trio began their collaboration with a performance at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy, on 7 July 1990, the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final, watched by a global television audience of around 800 million. When our son and daughterin-law were away one Christmas, we played this incredibly loudly on the kitchen stereo system as though it was a live performance in the house and had a wonderful time. There is something about performances recorded ‘live’ complete with audience applause because I do not mind the slight musical imperfection compared with the sense of participation you get by listening to a live recording. One of the sad features of our high streets is that the ‘good’ charity shops have been replaced by lower quality charity shops. In Bromsgrove, we used to have an Oxfam charity shop which I frequented frequently for a variety of things, principally classical CD’s sold off for about £1 each, a wonderful supply of books (to which I used to contribute as well as occasionally buy from) and a collection of little knick knacks such as high quality porcelain dishes that I used as coasters for drinks and cups of tea. Unfortunately, this went ‘belly up’ at the start of the pandemic and although there is more than the usual assortment of charity shops, one one to be very discerning. I have noticed that really good little pieces do get snapped up by the cognoscenti very quickly though.
The interesting political story tonight is the report from two (combined) select committees of the House of Commons into the whole of the COVID pandemic. The report is very frank about some of the terrible mistakes that the UK government made particularly in the early days of the pandemic when lockdowns were being ruled out (even as other countries were introducing them) and relying upon a theory of ‘herd immunity’ The scientists do not come out of completely unscathed either. The net result is that the dithering cost the UK thousands of lives. A government minister (Stephen Barclay) was pressed very hard on the media but refused on eleven separate occasions to issue the word ‘sorry‘ – which is illuminating.
Today opened up as a dull and dreary day with a fair amount of rain ‘hanging around in the air’ That having been said, it was not actually raining and according to th BBC weather app, there was only a 10% of actual rain later on in the day. So we adopted our ‘normal’ routine for the day. When we arrive at our favourite park bench, fortunately I was able to bring into use the cellulose sponge and the old kithen towel that I always carry with me in the front compartment of my rucksack do give the park bench a good drying off. The park was practically deserted when we arrived, which is not unusual when we have rain during the night. Meg and I drank our coffee and ate our ‘snap’ before I set off on my my own to collect the newspaper. I popped into Waitrose on the way back because it seems to be traditional for us to run out of milk on a Wednesday (the day before our weekly shop). In my absence, Meg had been chatting with our friendly octogenarian who walks about 7-8 km each day, whatever the weather. Then we had to strike for home but en route, we bumped into Irish friends who, as the most conscientious of grandparents, were walking their (sleeping) granddaughter out in her buggy. We were a little short of time today, as yesterday, because our hairdresser was calling around at 12.30 (in theory!) and we both get done at home. Our hairdresser had previously made contact with us as she has a very heavy cold and she wondered whether to come or not. However, as she arrived suitably masked up, everything was fine and we were pleased to get our locks shorn. There does seem to ba a particularly vicious bad cold/chest infection sweeping the country – nothing to do with COVID as such. Various accounts in the social media are indicating that it might be the ‘worst cold ever’ and people are being badly effected by it, sometimes affected a couple of weeks at a time.
Straight after we had our lunch, I had completed a form which required our doctor’s signature and practice official stamp. I imagined that I would drop the form in and after I had been signed, I could then collect it in a couple of days. In practice though, it was much more complicated. After waiting in a queue at the practice receptionists, I then explained what I required. I was required, though, to fill in a form completing the details of the form tht I required to be signed and informed that it would take anything up to three weeks for this to happen – they would communicate with me and not the other around. I suppose the minor good thing to come out of all of this was to be told that I would not require a fee to be paid to the doctor. There was a bonus because I managed to re-arrange the blood tests that Meg and I both required, postponed from the time about a month ago when we seem to have run of of blood sample phials all over the country.
At the end of the morning, we received the unfortunate news that our daughter-in-law had suffered an accident whilst in school. We don’t have the full details yet but it seems that our daughter-in-law had missed a step and then badly twisted her ankle. She had attended our local community hospital which has a small accident and emergency department and after an X-ray determined that she had severe bruising. Presumably, after applications of bandages and the traditional remedy of bags of cold peas, things might settle down but I think we all have personal experience of how troublesome a sprained ankle can be. As a teenager, I attended the Leeds Branch College of Engineering Science and after a day release (three hours of Chmistry in the morning, three hours of Maths in the afternoon and three hours of Physics in the evening), we ran down the many flights of stairs, eager to be ‘let out’ after nine hours of study. I used to jump a flight of stairs (two flights to a floor) in two jumps – one half way down and the other jump to the floor. On one occasion, I jumped an entire flight of stairs and went over on my ankle and it swelled up to the size of a football. Fortunately, I got myself home using my scooter which I could just about ride home but it took a week or so for my ankle to return to normal.
We now have the highest number of new COVID infections since mid-July at narly 43,000 cases today. But the German infection seems considerably lower than ours as the the Germans have not abandoned their face masks and social distancing anything like the UK rate. One German study argued that the continued use of facemasks lowered the daily infection rate by 47%. This makes you think!
As today is Thursday, it is the day when I get up early and get myself off to Waitrose in Droitwich, hopefully as the store is just on the point of opening (today we were about four minutes late but that hardly matters) The nice thing about shopping at this hour is that you are absolutely free to browse without bumping into other shoppers. I tried shopping without a list today which is never a good idea and almost inevitably one discovers over the course of the next day or so what you have forgotten. One of the unexpected bonuses of shopping at this hour is that you can always go straight through a checkout with no waiting. Also, the checkout operators always seem incredibly chatty and so I learned this morning that it looks as Waitrose are going to charge for their home delivery service (so another reason to shop in store) After our normal, cooked breakfast, Meg and I wandered down to the park but the weather was somewhat cooler and decidedly overcast so it was no surprise that we met none of our park regulars this morning. As has happened for the last two days, we had commitments in the early part of the afternoon so we had to have a rapid ‘put-me-on’ instead of a conventional lunch.
Meg and I had an appointment to have blood samples taken from us. This should have happened about a month ago but there was a scare over the shortage of blood sample phials and the appointment never took place. However, better late than never so Meg and I got seen in the middle of a clutch of patients arriving at the surgery to get their COVID-booster jabs. So we both had our blood samples taken and have to wait a week or so to see what the consequences will be. As we were both in the car together, we decided to see if we could sneak into a parking place at the back of our local Asda and we were lucky. Whilst Meg stayed in the car listening to music, I went and got a few kitchen utensil type things which are always good value and of reasonable quaity if you avoid the bottom end of the range. As we have been in this house some fourteen years now, there are are always some items where you think they really need replacing or updating. I am amazed, for example, how long tin openers last given their heavy usage. Whilst I was in Asda, an all too rare occurrence these days, I made a tour of the fruit and vegetable sections and managed to liberate a couple of those long, low boxes which have contained fruit and is often used to display it. These boxes can be quite hard to find because Asda seem to make it a policy to never let an empty box stay in its place before it is whisked away for recycling, I presume. This type of box is excellent for the storage of my apple crop so presuming that it not raining cats and dogs, I intend to make this a priority job for tomorrow.
This evening, Meg and I thought we would treat ourselves to a meal of venison which I bought from Waitrose last week. As we now have a really super new pan in which to cook things like this and fish, I am more than happy to refine my culinary skills. I had some baked potato and broccoli for accompanying veg which were being microwaved up before I started cooking, The venison was cut into quite (but not very thin) slices which I then seared for a minute or so on each side. I then let it simmer for about 5 minutes but put a sprinkling of black paper and a splosh of red wine over it to keep it moist. I felt the need for a just a little sauce of some description so I made what I think might be called a ‘jus’ rather than a gravy. In a dinky little jug I had, I utilised a little onion gravy powder which I made a bit more exotic with a good dollop of brown sauce and a good old splosh of wine. When stirred and microwaved up, this exactly did the job I intended for it i.e. it gave us a little bit of a rich sauce to complement the venison without swamping the whole lot in gravy. It might be noted, at this point, that I am not really into precise measurements of ingredients but prefer to adopt a more intuitive approach. Sometimes, this ends in failure but often it can be surprising successful, as indeed it was this evening. I shall go ahead and repeat this little experiment next week as Meg and I felt we had a really enjoyable meal this evening (and the wine which was now well ‘chambréd’) helped as well.
Looking at today’s date, it makes one realise that the month of October is nearly half gone and, I suppose, it is a sign of advancing years that the weeks and months seem to fly by with increasing rapidity. The only problem with this is that October will soon give rise to November and November is one of my least favourite months of the year. I think the reason for this is any last vestige of summer has gone and, apart from November 5th which doesn’t hold any real attractions for me, the month of November always seems to me to be a bit of a ‘non’-month i.e. halfway sandwiched in between the months of October when we had Meg’s birthday and other liaisons to which to look forward and the month of December which, of course, has Christmas at the end of it. Also after December 21st/22nd the nights are actually getting shorter by a smidgeon each day. So all in all November is just a month to be lived through. This morning was quite a fine day so although it was a little cooler than days in the past, Meg and I enjoyed our perambulation as far as the park. We had our coffee and I left Meg on the park bench knowing that some of our other park regulars would soon be on their way, which indeed they were. We were discussing, inter alia, how far such terms as are increasingly bandied about (bi-polar, schizophrenic, autistic spring to mind) refer to real and immutable phenomena or whether they are only just society’s ways of attributing a label to behaviours that are defined as some as problematic. At other times and in other place e.g. Joan of Arc hearing ‘voices’ that led to the downfall of the English armies, what we now term as schizophrenia night have been interepreted as a ‘hotline to God’
After lunch, it was time to gather in this year’s apple crop. We have about 4 trees spread over two locations in the garden some of which are very productive and some of which have yielded practically nothing. The first tree was so laden with small, rosy eating apples that some of the slender branches bearing them had actually split but I gathered about 12lb of fruit althogether from this one tree. Its companion, though, bore practically nothing but I am just concerned with the total yield. Thee young trees themselves were bought from that well known horticultal vendor, Messrs. Aldi and were about £1.99 each as far as I can remember. I then moved on the fruit trees in Mog’s Den and these were undoubedly cookers as they were much larger and much greener. At a guess, I would say that I harvested about 15lb of cookers from these trees – all in all,it was three bucket full of fruit. Then, of course, I had to prepare the fruit. I decided that it woiuld be a bad idea to actually wash the fruit as this might leave the fruit slightly damp from which infections might follow. What I actually did was to wipe each apple well with a barely damp cellulose cloth and the fruit was further divided in Grade A (capable of longer term storage) and Grade B (little imperfections such as a bird strike which meant that the fruit neded to be eaten almost immediately) Now that I have my boxes of fruit all prepared (courtesy of Asda whose fruit boxes are invaluable) I am keeping them in our ‘outer’ kitchen-cum-utility room where I can keep my eye on them and remove any immediately in case a mould or rot steps in. In the past, I have fed some of the local mice with some munchy morsels so I am determined not to let this mistake occur again.
The news headlines have been dominated by the stabbing to death of a Tory MP, Sir David Amess. Of course, this is a second killing of an MP in recent years, the other being Jo Cox the Labour MP for Batley and Spen who was killed by a far right fanatic during the referendum campaign. Sir David Amess seems to have been a very different kind of MP. He was not at all interested in climbing the ministerial ladder but, by all accounts, was very committed to actually improving the lives of his constituents. For him helping improve the lives of constituents not only meant understanding the inner working of the Commons – he sat on multiple committees doing the often grinding work of approving legislation – but it was also about understanding that politics involves convincing people to join forces, something he did not only through argument but through charm, wit, showmanship and kindness. What is so interesting is that this type of MP is in fact, quite rare, and so he was very well respected on both sides of the House of Commons. No doubt, we will hear a lot more in the days to come how MP’s can be protected adequately whilst maintaining contact with members of the public.
For a whole variety of reasons, and now that the winter nights are drawing on, I have started to wonder whether a soup maker might be a worthwhile investment for the kitchen – particularly as after some rearrangement and rationalisation, I have now space for it. Our daughter-in-law is a great soup maker and consumer, as is our domestic help. So under these dual influences, I decided to take the plunge and order one. Although it was only ordered very late at night last night, nonetheless delivery was extraordinarily prompt and it was delivered before our morning walk this morning. During the night and having ordered the soup maker, I took the precaution of finding and then ordering a book full of soupmaker recipes and I also ran off two or three that I discovered on the internet. All of this was just as well because the Tefal soupmaker booklet which arrived with the machine which appeared voluminous was less so when you took into account that the booklet was written in 10 languages and included not only soups but also smoothies and purees. One of the recipes that rather took my fancy was a parsnip with apple soup and as I already had plenty of apples as of yesterday, all I needed to buy was some parsnips. I left Meg on her customary park bench and an earnest discussion soon ensured beween our University of Birmingham friend, the ‘NHS Queen’, the ‘World Traveller’ and myself before I was despatched to run my errands. Just before I went, though, we knew that the towns local football team (Bromsgrove Sporting) were in a crucial FA preliminary match against Grimsby Town. By halftime, we discovered that Bromsgrove were 3-0 down and by the end of the match, they had been defeated 5–0 which is about as comprehensive a defeat as is possible. Having then picked up the newspaper, I then popped into Waitrose and noticed some huge parsnips, which I bought together wih a supply of carrots, the last remaining coriander plants and some biscuits of which we were running short. Now I have enough root vegetables to make soup until it is running out of my ears so tomorrow I will devote to a bit of experimentation with my new toy/kitchen gadget. When we got home, we feasted on a special ‘Steak and Ale’ pie which we had bought from the market when we had our little stay in the Brecon Beacons. I decided to give the pie a bit of an extra twist by painting its surface with a raw egg which worked fine. We used up some red cabbage supplemented by a bit of our own apple and finally augmented the ‘jus’ I made yesterday so we could have some more gravy with the pie. Altogether a success.
This afternoon, we had a quiet afternoon, as we always do when we we know we are going to church later on the evening. The church was rather a subdued affair – the church heating sysem had broken down, beeen repaired with a new part and had then broken down again.
The reverberations from the killing of Sir David Amess continue to dominate the media. As a very well respected local MP with no ministerial ambitions, there is now a lot of concern how we can protect a vital part of our constitution i.e. the link that an MP must have wih its constituents by face-to-face contact. The political elite have come together in the face of the tragic events. Both Boris Johnson and David Cameron went jointly to lay wreaths at the murder site today. Also, there is a report that in the ensuing by-election, the Conservative candidate when chosen will have no opposition as other political parties will not field candidates (Even if they did, they woiuld have lost massively anyway.) The whole incident has been declared a terrorist incident even though the attacker seems to have been a lone-wolf attacker of Somali origins. No count, this is so that the secret organs of the security services can trawl all kinds of data sets not available to the ‘normal’ police so that they can ascertain if the assassin is part of a wider social network or not. Great parallels are being drawn with the murder of Jo Cox, a Labour MP, during the referendum campaign some five years ago. Two MPs murdered within a space of five years is a bit of a frightening statistic and one hopes does not lead to the situation, increasingly common in the US where elected populations feel the need to wear body armour and/or stab proof vests. As is often the case, one looks to the Sunday newspapers for a bit more in depth analysis of the background to a story like this. Normally NewsNight would fulful this function but not on a Saturday or a Sunday night.
So another Sunday dawns which is always a mark of how the weeks are rolling by. This morning, having got up early, a tremendous rainstorm passed over the Midlands but it had done its worst by the time I came to walk down, on my own, to collect the Sunday newspaper. After the Andrew Marr show, I prepared the elevenses and we walked slowly down to the park in weather that was damp but not actually raining. We found our University of Birmingham friend chatting with a dog owner (of a labradoodle, which are obviously quite popular). Not being a particularly ‘doggy’ person, I thought I would just put the word Labradoodle into Google to see what transpired. I was amazed at the wealth of information that the website provided on several headings of adaptability, all around friendliness, health and grooming needs, trainability, physical needs, vital statistics to be followed by extensive additional information on coat types, general temperament and I know not what else besides. I must acknowledge that the days are long gone when you saw a puppy sitting in the corner of a per shop window and you paid about 7s6d for it – or was it even more? Anyway, we were soon deep into a conversation whether hypocrisy (engaging in activity despite one’s declared politics) was much more rampant on the left than on the right. I argued that hypocrisy is always less on the right because they ‘own’ the system, benefit from it, and therefore have less need to iron out inconsistencies whereas the claim on the left is that they can manage capitalism better than the capitalists (which is occasionally correct but the general electorate remain to be convinced) Our political dicussions are like that – but they are always a little inconclusive. There is another line that we might pursue in the days ahead i.e. that voters are more influenced by sheer emotion (and those who manipulate symbols better, generally true of the right) than rationality, facts, figures and pure reason.
Now for the biggest disappointment of the day. Before we went for our walk, I unpacked our brand-ndw Tefal SoupMaker and followed the instructions to give it a preliminary clean. All you had to do was to fill it with hot water and press a button. What actually happened was that each of the control LED lights lit up in a sequence and nothing else happened. This was repeated several times with the same result – so it could well be a case of not DOA (Dead on Arrival) but Malfunctioning on Arrival. So I consulted the website and submitted a form to TEFAL asking whether this was a fault and should the unit be returned? The form was accepted but with a message to say that because of COVID restrictions on staff, it might be some time before a response would be forthcoming. There is also a Customer Service telephone number so this might have be tried in the morning. I suspect that it is a case of returning the whole thing (fairly easy with Amazon but a nuisance all the same) and hope that I do not get another from the same batch with the same fault occurring on the next one. Just to rub salt into the wound, my book on Making Soups in your SoupMaker arrived also from Amazon but this will have to wait until I get a unit that works. I tried a quick Google search to see how common faults might be on brand new machines but this information does not seem to be readily available (I wonder why?)
Sky News have produced a report called COVID crisis – The pandemic year. Their trailer for their report indicates: ‘You can look behind the scenes to discover what the government knew (and didn’t know) about the new coronavirus as the number of deaths began to rise. Make your own mind up as to what the UK got right, and where lessons can be learnt.’ This looks as though it might be incredibly informative – it is interesting that SKY are producing a report like this but the BBC which seems to me to have been totally emasculated in recent years would not do anything that appeared so critical of the government. Anyway, I need to give this a good read to see if it fulfills the promise.
The week ahead looks as though we shall enjoy (?) a mild but wettish few days and then a really cold blast is going to hit us from the Arctic with zero and sub-zero temeperatures to which to look forward. If it is going to cold and dry then this is one thing but cold with an icy wind is something else altogether. One is tempted to use the phrase ‘Winter drawers on‘ but people might realise that this phrase (or rather jokes) was banned by the BBC in their ‘Green Book’ published in 1949 along with any references to ladies underwear, honeymoon couples or fig leaves. One can only say that times have changed!
We knew that a band of rain was due to sweep across the country and so it proved. The rain was not particularly intense but enough to stop a normal sit down in the park. So Meg and I went together to pick up our daily newspaper and then swung back towards the park where we headed, as might be anticipated, for the bandstand. We imagined that this would be full of joggers and dog walkers but in the event, we had the whole bandstand to ourselves. Meg was seated in the middle of this on our three legged stool (which we take to act as a small improvided table as it is so light) and I juggled with the comestibles trusting that Meg would not make a sudden lurch to the left or right which, on a three-legged stool, might deposit her on the floor. Then we made for home so I could get on with a range of domestic jobs – principally getting on the phone to organise or reorganise various payments. Firstly, I managed to get the car booked in for a service and that was very easy. The next client along was the online delivery firm Ocado which I had used about a year early in the early stages of the pandemic but not recently. I managed to cancel my subscription to their services – incidentally, isn’t it interesting that to sign up for things takes only a few ‘clicks’ and is all too easy – whereas to cancel a service takes a phone call and is certainly not a prominent option on the organisation’s website. But this experience ended OK as well because I did get through to a friendly person who accepted my cancellation and even said they would return the small payment that had somehow crept onto their system (despite an out-of—date card) which was fine by now. After lunch, I was due to tackle ‘the big one’ because I have had a feeling that I am paying too much for my landline and feel the need to reduce the costs to an acceptable minimum. When I did get onto BT, I asked to be put through to their ‘retentions department’ and threaten to cancel my account altogether. My bills were higher than usual because I was on an unlimited tariff (which I didn’t realise) so I got this put right by getting put on to a minimal tariff. Then I was transferred to a different department to explain why my bills seemed to be doubling compared with last March but for no apparent reason. The explanation seemed rational but irrational at the same time – my bills last year might appear low because I had built up some credit which lowered the quarterly bill but as the quarters rolled by so the credit expired and the bills increased. Then I asked where the credit had come from and how it got built up and the explanation seemed arcane. However, I have now simplified my payment system to a single, direct debit system which avoids the problem of BT estimating my bills, charging me against that estimate and other weird and wonderful accounting methods which do not appear to be particularly transparent. However, by the end of the afternoon I got myself in the situation where I wanted to be which was lower bills for the same service and a more transparent insight into how my bills get calculated. In the fullness of time, I may try and get my broadband and fixed line systems aligned when they are each up for renewal provided always that I can keep my landline number which is on countless lists by now.
Later on this evening, it was my chance to put my newly acquired SoupMaker into use, now tht I have found out how to actually use it. The recipe I had downloaded from the net indicated that I should use four parsnips but did not specify their weight. I had bought some enormous parsnips from Waitrose the other day so I decided to peel 1½ of them and parboiled this as I suspected that it might be left a bit too chunky of I put them in absolutely raw. The recipe called for some sautéd onion as well as some Granny Smith apples – the apples were no problem as I now have plenty of those. And so I started on my first soupmaking venture – after some huffing, puffing and blending my first results were ready in about 25 minutes. The results were even better than I had anticipated as the result was very ‘creamy’ and piping hot and we really enjoyed our very first meal. I had prepared too much parsnip and apple as initially I looked as though I was going to exceed the ‘maximum’ limits so I swiftly divided my prepared veg into two tranches. No doubt tomorrow (carrot and coriander?) I will be able to make much faster progress than even today.
Today is rather a ‘special’ type of day as it is 14 years ago by the date that we moved into our present house. Fourteen completed years seem to have flown by and exceeds by a few months the longest that we have ever stayed in any one house. We know that we moved in on a Friday and we can check that out in the following way: 14 years + 4 ‘leap’ years then there is an extra day (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) makes 18 days ‘forward’ as it were. If we were to count back 18 days from a Tuesday, we would get to a Friday which is absolutely correct. In our 14 years we have done a fair amount in that we have acquired the whole of the drainage field and associated roadways (in concert with some neighbours), put a thick hedge around our BioDisk facility disguising it completely, acquired a thin triangular parcel of land which has become ‘Mog’s Den‘ and evidently kept all of the systems of the house up and running. Meg and I treated ourselves to a trip down to Waitrose where we had a cappucino and met up with one of the erstwhile regulars. We had determined to do this anyway on a Tuesday because we need to be back in plenty of time for me to undertake my walk down to the Pilates class, which is a regular feature of every Tuesday. Whilst in Waitrose, I went to buy some vegetable stock and was delighted to find that a new line has been introduced into their store called ‘Zero Salt’ vegetable stock. What is interesting, though, is that a product without salt is twice the price of a comparable product with salt, which tells us something. The nutritionists tell us that ‘salt is the new sugar’ i.e. to be avoided by those in danger of developing hypertension. So we made our way rapidly home and I walked down to Pilates, avoiding the rain which I also avoided on the way back home again.
This afternoon, my son and daughter-in-law were upgrading their computer systems and there is always a certain element of doubt whether things will work as, in theory, they should. Anyway, all is well that end’s well and I am very pleased that they can relax knowing that their systems are now functioning well and as intended. Whilst they are at, they may be upgrading their TV system which is probably about ten years old and, of course, technology has moved quite a lot these days.
I am not normally a follower of Twitter but a very authoritative source has posted the most disturbing of tweets. The expert in question is Anthony Costello who is Professor of International Child Health and Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health. He has tweeted the following, along with a table of data to prove his case:
'The UK has the highest case rates of COVID-19 in the world. One third of our population is not protected. China has already vaccinated a higher % and through infection control has a death rate of 3 per million. Our death rate is 2028 per million. The govt + advisers are silent.’
Even allowing for a selective quotation of statistics and perhaps a desire to make a political case, the implications of some of this data are disturbing in the extreme. Even the government is saying that it is getting worried as COVID cases top 40,000 a day and deaths are the highest for seven months at 223. One has to ask why these rates are so high compared wih the rest of continental Europe and it does appear that we have certainly unlocked down far, far too early. Other countries seem to have vaccinated their school populations starting months ago whilst we have only just got round to it. Also, the absence of facemask wearing not to mention absence of social distancing must collectively be taking their toll. In addition, the booster jabs seem to have slowed to a crawl just at the point where the effects of some of the earlier vaccinations might be washing themselves out.
The government has published its ‘Green’ Strategy in advance of the COP (Climate Change) meeting to be hosted in Glasgow in about three weeks time. This is a multi-pronged policy quite a lot aimed at the domestic market, the ambition being that no new gas boilers will be sold by 2035. It is anticipated that ‘heat pump’ technology will take over the role provided by today’s gas boilers and to this end, there will be a grant of up to £5,000 per household. In addition, there will be an end to the sale of diesel and petrol driven cars by 2030. It is intended that there will be a host of measures to have a new generation of small nuclear reactors. According to the PM, up to 440,000 new jobs will be created in ‘green industries’ by 2030. How much of all this will come to pass is unclear but the direction of travel has been laid out for us.
Today really was a rainy day and we were resigned to the fact that our normal activities would have to be curtailed somewhat. Consequently, we took our time getting ready and when we were ready to set forth, we had changed our plans somewhat. We collected our newspapers and then went to the park where we only intended to walk through the drizzle to the bandstand – which we did. Needless to say, nobody else of a sane disposition was walking in the park save one intrepid beagle owner so we went to the bandstand and ate a few biscuits which we had taken with us, foregoing the coffee which is fiddly when you do not have a park bench to perch upon. As we were finishing off, the clouds rolled away and we were subjected to that kind of really bright sunshine that you tend to get after a storm, with all the colours of the trees and shrubbery having a specially vivid appearance. We knew we had to have an early-ish lunch because I was going to be telephoned by the doctor to discuss some blood tests some time after 2.00pm. The doctor actually phoned at about 1.30 and we had a general discussion with the result that I am being prescribed some iron for my sins.
After we had discussions with family and neighbours we have heard mention to two or three free-to-air programmes at least that we do not seem to be able to receive. I am never very happy about re-tuning the TV but after some reading around the subject, it looks as though this is what is required in order to get the TV to update itself. So after midnight, I took my courage in both hands and re-tuned the TV which was actually quite a breeze and only took some five minutes or so. Later on today, I thought I would have a quick look at the channels I hd managed to access. One of them is Sky Arts and another is PBS America (Public Service Broadcasting, America) and whilst lingering on the channel, we stumbled into a documentary on Annie Oakley, the great all-American ‘Wild West’ heroine. Another channel is the Smithsonian (associated with the great American museum of that name) and I am looking forward to exploring this channel and the other two if nothing else grabs my attention. To be honest, I tend to find the things I want to watch on BBC2, BBC4 and Channel 4 so now I feel that I have expanded considerably my viewing options.
Late on this afternoon, I did some mundane little tasks (screwing a new head on a brush – something for some reason I seem to spend all of my time doing in my mid-teens) and then came the Wednesday afternoon ‘chore’ in which I drag our brown and green bins to the end of the drive where they can be accessed by the Refuse Disposal vehicles (we have to do this because our road is ‘private’ i.e. unadopted and the bin men do not/come down our road) Whilst doing this I met and had a long chat with one of our near neighbours who I had not seen to chat to for several weeks now. When we moved into this house her two children were very much younger. Now of course they have grown up, both gained first class degrees from De Monfort University in Leicester and are now in gainful employment and living fairly locally still. We were just finishing off this conversation when our immediate next door neigbour swept into view and we are always good for a natter whenever we coincide. Sometimes the topics centre around classic pop songs/groups of the 1950’s and 1960’s of which our neighbours has an encyclopaedic knowledge (as well as a collection of juke boxes whih he lovingly collects whenever he comes across a good specimen)
The COVID news is dominated this evening by our Health Secretary (Sajiv Javid) warning us that the number of cases of the virus, currently nearing 50,000 cases a day could well reach 100,000 cases before too long. It seems to me that the Health Secretary is almost trying to blame the public for this state of affairs by urging everyone to come forward as soon as possible for their booster jabs (as the immune status of the first vaccinated might be waning after six months) He could always make a start, of course, in making sure that the massive reservoir of infection otherwise known as schools receive the attention that they deserve (particularly as other societies have been vaccinating schoolchildren for months) I suspect that face-mask wearing (or the absence of it) is not helping the situation as it worsens day by day. I listened to an interview with an A&E consultant explaining that the number of attacks on staff was increasing rapidly. Some of the frustrations amongst patients was caused by the reluctance of patients to wear masks, wash their hands and generally accept that hospitals differ from other spaces!
Today was quite a sharp contrast, weather-wise, with the past few days. There was a clear blue sky and plenty of sunshine but the temperature had dropped dramatically to about 7° so we were experiencing our first cold ‘snap’ of the winter. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a wonderful day for walk but not today as we had plans to visit Droitwich (6.5 miles down the road). As is our new pattern on Thursdays, I leapt out of bed to get ready so that I can leave the house at 7.40 and get to the Waitrose store in Droitwich about one minute before it opens. Then I have quite a pleasant hour shopping and avoiding temptation (some of the time) but the eventual bill is mitigated somewhat by the £8 voucher if you spend over £40 and have a Waitrose loyalty card. After we had put the shopping away and had a delayed breakfast, we went by car to collect our newspapers and then made a journey straight to Droitwich as we had planned some days ago. We had made a lunch booking for 1.00am but arrived a few minutes earlier so decided to have a little wander via the charity shops (of which there are several in Droitwich, as every other High Street these days) On our way we passed a second-hand shop full of all kinds of things that you imagine might be useful. For example, they had two guitars in stock – one at £15 and the other at £20 although they did not look like the full size article to me. But what caught our eye was a collection of 4 CD’s ( a total of 58 tracks altogether) of famous operatic arias for the grand sum of £3.00 We bought this without demur because we thought it would provide a very good accompaniment for us when we go on a long car journey and we do have one in prospect. Then we make our way to ‘Ye Olde Worlde Coffee Shoppe‘ (not its actual name) where we had booked in for our roast finner. Everybody is absolutely crammed in but there is always a lot of jollity around. We had a lamb roast where our plate was piled high and accompanied by roast potatoes and two other veg. The meals are always so huge that it is quite a struggle to finish them but we did polish them away together with a couple of glasses of cordial – all for the princely sum of £18 for the two of us.
After that, we progressed onto one of our favourite hardware stores which is Wilko. This is a kind of hardware store that also sells stationary, cosmetics, kitchen and gardening goods and so on. I had a little list of some stationery items and some kitchen utensils and was moderately successful in buying what I wanted. One particular thing I wanted was some fairly long bladed scissors, a size greater than the normal offering you get in stores these days. On ‘spec’ I bought a pair of scissors advertised as ‘Fabric’ scissors, not knowing the exact difference beteen them and ordinary scissors. When I got home, I did a bit of research and discovered that fabric scissors are generally longer-bladed and are manufactured from a carbon steel (easier to sharpen and harder) rather than stainless steel. There are lots of imprecations that you should never cut fabric with ordinary scissors and vice versa but I discovered a website which details the differences for you. Apparently, in the process of paper manufacture there are harsh fibres, minerals ,various clays, calcium carbonate and other additives that will blunt the scissors. The website had assembled a series of experts (usually scissor manufacturers) who explained why, in general terms, you should avoid cutting paper with fabric scissors. But according to at least some of the experts, all scissors become dull with use eventually. But if you do need to cut paper with fabric scissors, make sure that the paper lint is wiped off the blades after each use. One conclusion is that the harm done to scissors by cutting paper is often exaggerated by those who use them for dressmaking. So in conclusion, I am pleased to have paid £1 extra for a superior product that has a sharper blade, feels a ‘tighter’ fit and with larger, more comfortable handles. You live and learn.
The COVID story rumbles on and I have a fair idea of how this is all going to end (i.e. a government climb-down, too little and too late) The UK government has changed its booster jab advice so people can book without being contacted; more than 50,000 daily cases are recorded and it is the highest figure since 17 July; doctors warn the UK is being “wilfully negligent” by not moving to Plan B. In the meanwhile, the most mixed of messages are being conveyed. In the House of Commons, none of the Tories will wear face masks for, as the Leader of the House (William Rees-Mogg explained) ‘after all, on this side of the house, we all know each other!‘ (I am sure the virus has the intelligence not to transmit itself if the recipient is already known to the transmitter)
Today turned out to be a beautiful day as the sun was shining, the sky was blue and there was still a modicum of sunshine to enjoy. We were a little late down into town today as our domestic help gives Meg’s hair a specialist ‘twirl’ after we had showered and this, plus other general chats, ensured that we were a little tardy. When we got down to our favourite bench, none of our friends were there so we drank our coffee and ate our biscuits (Meg) or oranges (Mike) before we set off in the general direction of the newsagent. On our way down through the park, we bumped into our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller friend who were having a coffee together in the sunshine and near the café which was the source of their coffee. After a chat about films (particularly what the Americans had detailed in the film ‘Pearl Harbour‘) I went off to collect our copy of the Times. It is often said that war is the American’s way of teaching themselves geography – so I wondered by extension whether Hollywood movies are the American’s way of teaching themselves history and so on. Whilst on the subject of American history, I was exploring the two channels to which I now have access once I have retuned the TV. I stumbled into a documentary about Annie Oakley, the great American wild west hero (either on the Sky Arts channel or the PBS America channel – probably the latter). Annie Oakley regularly took part in ‘Wild West’ type shows, involving her shooting and horseriding skills. On one occasion, she was subjected to a hoax by an imposter who suggested that Annie Oakley herself had committed several dastardly crimes and was having to spent some time in a penitentiary. The ‘true’ Annie Oakley reckoned that the ‘imposter’ story had to be denied and rebutted at every single opportunity so she spent years suing every newspaper (including those in the Randolph Hearst stable) to restore her reputation. Although she won every one of her cases against the newspapers (bar one) she hardly made any money out of all of this, most of her ‘winnings’ that were small spent on the lawyers engaged to defend her. I am reminded of the expression, though, that ‘A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on?‘ Some version of this saying has existed since Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) and probably well before him. This particular phrasing is usually attributed to the American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) or to the former Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill (1874–1965). It should be attributed to a British preacher named C.H Spurgeon (1834–1892) whose 1859 book has it as: “A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.” The interesting thing about all of this is that the expression has been coined, and quoted several times, before anything approaching the era of mass communications has dawned. This raises the interesting question of why lies are often believed but the original (true) story is disbelieved?
After I returned home, it was time to start cooking in earnest. I had promised our domestic help that I would cook some sea-bass for her (as she had originally taught me how to do it in the first place) So this only took five minutes (three minutes on the skin side, two minutes on the other) served on a bed of salad leaves and served with some tenderstem broccoli. This was washed down with some glasses of Pinot Grigio (I had a bottle in the fridge and thank goodness for screw tops as it only took a few seconds to serve) We all really enjoyed the meal and I promised that next week, I would treat us all to some home-made soup. Whilst on a culinary theme, I was a little bolder in my soup-making activities this evening. I decided to use up the coriander-flavoured carrots left over from last night’s soup and then added to it a fried onion, some parboiled parsnip (half of a huge one), a third of a tin of coconut milk and a smidgeon of curry powder. The result was pretty good (even though I say it myself) but again I prepared too much and saved half of it for a future occasion. I am still a learning curve here but so far so good. I think next time I will avoid any parsnip or carrot based mixture and try a leek and potato instead.
The COVID story rumbles on with results as predictable as a Greek drama. On the one hand, we have an almost united medical profession saying ‘Start Plan B immediately‘ (i.e. compulsory facemarks, work from home). They also make the point that it is better to act now rather than later when the virus is even more rampant. On the other hand, Boris is terrified of his own right wing and the Daily Telegraph and will only act when forced (but too little and too late – have we been here before?)
The weather today had gone decidedly cooler so Meg and I needed to wrap up a little more warmly than we have been accustomed. We took our time getting ready and then sauntered down, fairly late, into the town. On the way down, we were delighted to see two of our Catholic friends from down the road that we do not seem to have seen for a couple of weeks. We were delighted that the friend who had some heart problems now seemed incredibly well on the road to recovery and was busy gardening away to her heart’s content. We exchanged family news and our various comings and goings and indicated how pleased we were to see each other again – but, in truth, it was a little bit chilly for us to stand motionless so we resumed our walk and our friend her gardening activities. When we got to the newsagents, I was persuaded by the owner to purchase some pink Himalyan sea salt. This is claimed to have all kinds of benefits not bestowed by other kinds of sea salt. The benefits appear to come from about 80 minerals, some iodine and oxides of iron which gives it the pink appearance. Tomorrow we will be having a ‘quickie’ i.e. not a normal cooked breakfast but I will try and give it a good trial on Monday morning when I will prepare a cooked breakfast of red onion, tomatoes and mushrooms made into an omelette for Meg and left as cooked vegetables for Mike. We needed to pop into Waitrose which we did in order to buy some things that we had run out of and eventually got tho the park very late. We bumped into our friend Seasoned World Traveller as he was leaving the park and we were entering it. As time was pressing a little, we went onto one of the benches adjacent to the lake that we used frequent in the past and ate our comestibles before heading off for home. By this time, it was about 2.00pm but we had a quiche ready and waiting in the oven just to be heated so we managed to make ourselves a ‘quickie’ lunch (thank goodness, for frozen ‘petit pois’ and a tin of plum tomatoes). Then the afternoon, or what remained of it, was a somewhat lazy affair reading newspapers and generally crashing out before we go to church later in the afternoon.
Our next door neighbour (in the newly built mini-estate of some 18 houses) is doing some building work at the side of his house, the details of which I cannot discern as there is our own fence and his own fence in the way. I assumed, in my naivety that he was probablt finishing off the side to his entesnion that he built about three or four years ago and has remained uncompleted for some 2-3 years now. One of the workmen constructing the ‘new’ edifice came round to ask permission to jump into our back garden (Mog’s Den actually) to finish off some pointing. I agreed readily and was pleased that they had bothered to ask permission (they have never communicated with us before). Later on in the afternoon, I went down into Meg’s Den to discover that our neighbour seems to be building ‘something’ which can only be a metre wide and the wall is about 1″ at the very most from our boundary line. What the new construction (which needless to say is only about one third built) is going to be I can only guess. One possible use might be secure enclosed space that might accommodate overflow things from the garden (kid’s toys, his own Harley Davidson) that would release some space in the garage so that things can be put away at night. We shall just have to wairt the ‘thing’ is finished and then try to infer what is going on. My only real concern at the moment is that there is no space for any rainware goods so I am trusting that we won’t have cascades of water coming into our garden from next door. Under recent planning permission regulations, people can do all sorts of things without even informing the planning committee so we shall just have to wait and see before passing any judgement on this.
As we suspected, some of the medical experts are giving much more explicit warnings about the COVID infection rate. Sky News is reporting that:
The nation is “dilly-dallying into lockdown” and action should be taken now to avoid much tougher COVID restrictions later, a government scientific adviser has warned. Professor Stephen Reicher told Sky News that vaccines are “not quite enough” on their own and “other protections” are needed now to tackle coronavirus
Of course, this is evident to most of us (as recent editions of this blog will testify) but, once again, the government looks as though they are trying to ‘tough it out’ as they are frightened to death about anything which even remotely looks like another lockdown
Today was the day which we had planned a few days ago to see our some of our good old Winchester University friends so we knew that we needed to make a fairly early start. Instead of going down on foot to collect our newspapers, we decided to collect them ‘en route’ as we set off on our journey. We allowed ourselves plenty of time and only had a brief stop in a layby where we could drink our coffee. This we did as the traffic thundered by within feet but at least this section of the M34 (between Oxford and Newbury) is quite well supplied with laybys which are OK for a snack or an occasional drink of coffee – not so good for answering the calls of nature. We made good time and got to the vicinity of our friend’s house about 20 minutes or so before the allotted time so thou ght we had better give them a ring so that we did not arrive before our time. When we got there we handed over some of our gifts that we used to appease the household gods (one of the things that I learned from my early years in Latin, which also incorporated parts of Roman history is that the Roman hearth/home was protected by the household gods Lares and Penates). So whenever, we visit friends we try to ensure that the housegold gods are well and truly appeased. Today, some of the oblations were our own produce (damson gin, cooking apples, eating apples) and a few opera CDs. After that, we had the most magnificent meal with our friends and the time actually flew by. The thing that sometimes emerges from these occasions (sharing a meal together) is that as your friendship lengthens and deepens, you find out parallels in your own lives. Foer example, my friend and I had worked in the same area of Manchester separated by only about a mile in distance (but about 4-5 years in time) We had a pretty simple journey home, punctuated only by a brief visit to a service station about two thirds of the way home for a loo visit which we thought might be prudent for the both of us. Our visit to that part of Hampshire proved interesting for us, not least we left fourteen years ago but, almost inevitably, new blocks of housing seem to be springing up all over the place.
Tomorrow being Monday morning, I must get to making a lst of all the things that need to be done during the week. Having said all that, I not really a ‘making-a-list’ type of person. In a job that i held in the Reference Division of the Central Office of Information (a Government department in London, now dissolved) I had a fair amount of discretion in my own workflow. I started making lists and generally had about 7 items on the list of which I managed about 2½. The reason for my apparent tardiness was that the telehone would ring with a query to which an answer had to be given as quickly as possible (many of the staff of COI were journalists, TV producers, exhibition specialists and the like and they needed the answer to questions as quickly as possible – in those pre-Google days. Absolute priority had to be given to these telephone queries and hence progress on my own list was slow. So I would add my 4½ items on the list left over from yesterday onto today's list which was now a dozen items. And so on and so on. By the end of the week, I had an incredibly long list with items of a different priority and through the dint of bitter experience, I learnt that not making a list was quite a sensible policy. Of course, you always keep a list in your head where you can reorder priorities more easily.
My Seasoned World Traveller friend in the park asked me the other day why I was so disputatatious – or least inclined to argue the toss about almost anything. I think it all starts from the first few seconds I experienced in my very first University tutorial where a general question was put to the group. Racing through my head for a few seconds was the fact that I had left school 4 years ago and worked for most of that time, suffered a life-threatening illness and done all of my ‘A-levels on my own with no tutorial assistance at all(I didn’t write a single essay) I thought to myself ‘I have struggled this hard to get to University so I am not going to just sit there but I want to learn (preferably through argument – a lesson I gleaned for the preparations I made in my A-level Logic course). So I opened my mouth, gave my opinion and a fellow student took issue with me – and we argued our way through the subject for the whole of the year (everyone else kept quiet!)
Here we are at the start of another week. Our son and daughter-in-law are going to be away for a break for a day or so so we are a little bit left to our own devices. Meg and I are somewhat toddling along in second gear today after our car journey to Hampshire yesterday but still full of the glow of a wonderful shared experience seeing our friends. Today, the weather is certainly drifting down to some degrees colder and although we have had some blue skies, we have also had a few periods of an incredibly fiine drizzle – but nothing to deter us from our normal activities. We collected our newspaper and then popped into Waitrose where we met with our friendly staff who know us well. We exchanged experiences about the wine that we had both been recommended (by another staff member) and had both, by pure chance, sampled yesterday. Our shared experiences were so positive that we are are resolved to buy one or two bottles of this marvellous vintage, particularly whilst it is on special offer in Waitrose. But we did have a very pleasant surprise this morning. Meg had lost her handbag (one recently purchased and just the right size and colour which we found in a ‘hospice shop’ whilst we in Brecon recently) Thinking about where it might be, we speculated to ourselves that that she might have left it behind in the toilet within the Waitrose store as we could not think where else it might be. As it turned out, our hunch was correct so Meg and handbag are now reunited. The only question that remains is how to keep things that way. What with one thing or another, we had a very late lunch today – I think it was nearly 3.00pm in the afternoon until we eventually got round to it. In the late afternoon, I phoned my sister and brother-in-law to catch up on their news. In the past few days, they have both been in hospital – my brother-in-law as part of his recurrent condition and my sister who was worn out looking after him. Meg and I feel a little powerless in this situation as the last thing that we should do is to pay a visit to them which would only add to their problems. So we are in the situation when all we can do is to watch and pray until the situation improves sufficiently for us to make a journey to Yorkshire.
There used to be a time when Budget secrets were closely guarded and prior disclosure resulted in huge penalties (including one famous case in the 1950’s when on the golf course a budget secret was revealed as part of an imprecation to ‘tea (tee) up’). But the situation today is one where budget anouncements are being made on a daily basis before the budget is actually held on Wednesday next. So we are being fed announcements on the minimum wage, NHS capital funding, infrastructure money and God knows what else. I am pretty sure that the Speaker of the House of Commons will take a pretty dim view of budget announcements being made like this rather than to the House of Commons – I suppose the Government takes the cynical view that announcing something a day or so before hand, getting the newspapers to publish it the following day and then ‘officially’ announcing it on Budget day is a good way to let the ‘good’ news spin out (literally) over three days rather than one.
Tonight, as it was a little chilly outside, we decided to have the other half of the soup that I made in the SoupMaker some two or theee days ago. This was basically a curried parsnip soup but about a third of it was carrot and coriander from the day before. Today, it was a little thick and gloopy so I supplemented it with a third of its volume with whole milk and the result was – delicious! I am not sure if soup can actually improve having been stored for a day or so but I served it up with a rice cake (to add a bit of crunch) and some grated cheese on top. These results were so good I am going to try and replicate them in the future.
Some of the latest COVID news where I just quote the bald statistics. If you remember, Italy was the first country to feel the full force of the pandemic (particularly in the city of Bergamo) but the latest comparisons show us the degree of complacency from the present governmemnt. By the way, Italy has a population of nearly 61 million and the UK 65 million so the two countries are roughly comparable.
New cases: UK (35, 567) Italy (2,535). UK rate is 14 times the Italy rate. Deaths in the last 24 hours: UK 38 Italy 30. UK rate is 26% higher No further comment at this stage!
Today would normally have been my Pilates day – but as it is half-term, I have the ‘day off’ today. This means that I don’t have to rush back to get changed into my tracksuit bottoms and walk down to the studio. It was a kind of day today when it really was a ‘toss up’ whether we made a journey by car or whether we went on a walk as normal. Surveying the sky, we felt it was probably safe to go for a walk and so we collected our newspapers and called in at Waitrose for some more milk (we always seem to run short at this time of the week). And so we made our way to the park, wondering who we might run across on an indeterminate kind of day like today. We were were well into our flask of coffee and biscuits when our incredible octogenarian walker friend hove into view. He seemed hale and hearty which was incredible news to us. We knew that last Tuesday, he had needed to go into hospital for a prostate operation but of course we don’t want or need to know any of the gory details of this. Our friend referred to his procedure as a ‘rebore’ which one can sort of understand but I am not sure to what procedure he was absolutely subjected. He was in hospital a couple of days and then seemed to have resumed his normal round walk of some 7-8 kilometers per day. According to the app he had on his Apple Watch, he was supposed to be walking a route somewhere in the north of Scotland which sounds a lot more exotic than Bromsgrove. He never tarries for long because he doesn’t want his muscles to get cold but he kindly relieves us of our little plastic bag of rubbish (banana peel and tissues) in a proximate bin. We also chatted to some other park regulars that we know by sight. At this time of year, we take pains not to slip on the large forest type leaves which can go slimy and slippery when wet at this of year and before a frost shrivels them up and a wind blows them away. The colours of the trees are just about starting to turn. Meg and I admired on acer-type tree that was starting to turn a flame red and it reminded us of a novel, set in Kenya, which was called ‘The Flame Trees of Thika’ as fas as we can remember. When we eventually made it home, it was lunchtime so we popped some fishcakes into the oven and cooked some broccoli as a green vegetable. As a second veg. I decided to innovate and cooked an onion and some green peppers which I then made a bit more exciting with some tomato passata and brown sauce (quite a change)
After lunch, we had intended to do various jobs but finished off with a good read of both yesterday’s newspapers. Yesterday’s Times contained a fascinating article by an immunologist who was suggesting the practical ways in which we can keep our immune systems fine-tuned in the face of COVID vaccines, flu jabs and the particularly vicious cold circulating around the country this year. But then I read a sentence that almost made the eyes pop out of my head. The immunologist explains: ‘If you are mixing with people, you might get sick but you can reduce the odds by eating healthily, staying active and getting outside as often as you can. It is not just the activity elementof being outdoors that’s beneficial. Plants and trees release compounds that boost our natural killer cells, the body’s first line of defence against infection making a walk in the park one of the best things you can do’ (It was the bit about the ‘walk in the park‘ which I found amazing)
And so on to today’s Times which, being a Tuesday, is the usual medical and life-style day. here again, I discovered something very much in my own self-interest. One of the by-lines in the article in the T2 section of the Times was the view of some experts ‘cutting carbs to lose weight could be a mistake‘ The argument here is pushing up the amount of fibre is particularly beneficial and top of the list comes All bran cereal followed by porridge oats, wholegrain bread, pears, avocados, baked beans and chia seeds. As I have been trying to cut down on the carbs but am very partial to All-Bran and porridge oats, this is music to my ears. The advice that is given, which sounds very sensible is that ‘consuming food as close to its natural state is the best way to get more fibre. In general, that means minimally processed food and whole fruit and vegetables’ Knowing all of this, I can see that at my next visit to the supermarket on Thursday, I shall be reordering some of my food priorities.
Today was another of those indeterminate type days in which it appeared to be uniformly cloudy but not actually raining or drizzling, although the threat was there. Meg and I walked down to collect our newspaper, as per usual, and then made our way to our normal bench overlooking the rest of the park. Whilst we were sitting there, we seemed to be passed by all kinds of people, including a near neighbour and had chats with four sets of friends and acquaintances overall. Some of our friends were off to watch the World Cup cricket on Sky TV and we talked cricket with another of our acquaintances as well. I told them the story that I had few regrets in life but one of them was as follows. If I had stayed on for one more year at Thornleigh College, Bolton (in which I was a boarder whilst my mother trained to be a teacher in Newcastle upon Tyne) then it was more than likely that I would have received some coaching from an up and coming West Indian cricketer who was coming over to play in what was called the ‘Lancashire Combination’ and who had secured a coaching contract with the school. The name of this West Indian cricketer was – Garfield (Gary) Sobers. We are taking about 1958 here so it was long before Gary Sobers reached his full potential (and greatness) as a cricketer. When Meg and I walked home, we felt quite enervated by the conversations we had had – of course, it is very much ‘luck of the draw’ and we could have ended up talking to nobody. After lunch, we finished up with a bit of a look-in to the Budget speech being given today but a lot of it has been pre-announced this year, to the great ire of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Then I got back onto BT to clarify the terms of the new (reduced) contract that I thought I had negotiated with BT about a fortnight ago. The trouble is the what I was I told at the time, the documents I received subsequently from BT and my account on the BT website all show different and to some extent contradictory things so this needed some resolution. The car is due in for service tomorrow but fortunately, I am on one of those schemes where the garage picks up the car to be serviced and then delivers it back either that day or the following day. So this makes life (in this respect) extraordinary easy for us.
The next experimental day along and today it was the turn of ‘Leek and Potato soup’ The result was fine, if a little bland, although it was delightfully creamy as the result of some coconut milk in the mixture and a large dollop of yogurt when it was served (and helps to cool it down as well) I still have half of the ingredients left for another day so I think that as this preparation is done I may experiment with some home-made croutons and perhaps a sprinkling of some fresh herbs. Looking at some cooking websites, it looks as though some fresh rosemary, thyme or even, for an exotic touch, chopped hazel nuts might do the trick so perhaps we might experiment a little next time.
It was budget day today and we get the usual smoke-and-mirrors performance from a chancellor (of either party) Sometimes, the full implications of a budget are not felt for a day or so until analysts have had a chance to dissect the ‘Red Book’ which is the huge folio published at the time of the budget containing a lot of data, statistics and graphs. Some commentators are calling this budget the end of Osbornomics (= austerity). Some are even calling it a ‘Labour’ budget given that this Conservative chancellor has raised taxes by a record amount, with the tax burden now at a level not seen since 1949, and increased spending to an extent that the state is bigger than ever before. But the acid test for this budget isn’t how it lands in the next few days but how this lands in the coming months against a backdrop of inflation, predicted to hit 4% next year, and continued cost of living pressures in the form of energy bills and rising prices, which the chancellor himself warned would take months to unwind. We have to take today’s measures in conjunction with the tax rises that will come into effect next April (National Insurance increases) and with the prospect of inflation rising to as much as 4%
As the political commentator Beth Rigby obsserved: ‘And in the meantime, there is a real risk that the gap between the optimism and the lived experience of people is going to grate and this budget and government could soon look very out of touch with the people they lead’.
Well, it was of those ‘chewy’ type days, not getting off to a particularly good start. Thursday is the day when our bins get emptied – grey bins once a fortnight and green bins in the intervening weeks. We always have to remember to put the bins out for collection as it goes dusk on Wednesday evening and every so often, as last night, we forget. In the case of green bins (paper waste) this not matter so much but in the case of grey bins, that may well contain food waste, this is a bit more problematic. So we knew that we would probably have to head for the tip to dispose of our ‘grey bin’ household rubbish because even in the winter, I do not wish to food waste hanging about for the best part of a month. But first, we had to wait until we had the car returned from the garage after its annual service. The rather nice thing about modern technology is the way in which the quality garages inform you about the progress of the service on one’s car. We received a ‘video clip’ showing us the amount of tread marked in chalk on each tyre (in our case more than 4x the legal minimum) plus the condition of the brake shoes, the suspension and the ‘floor’ of the car indicating any possible oil leaks. So this was all very reassuring and the car was returned to us in the late morning. Then we set off for the trip and evidently, today of all days, then ‘Sod’s Law’ swung into operation as the road to the tip via one of our neighbouring villages was completely closed. This meant that we had to make quite a lengthy detour but at least we remembered how to do this and got our household rubbish safely and legally disposed of. Afterwards, we got back into Bromsgrove and treated ourselves to a coffee and cookies in Waitrose – whilst Meg was safely esconced with her coffee, I went off to get our newspaper. I then went to get some monety out of an ATM and, once again, mine seems not to be accepted (even though it is only about 2 months old – so I perceive more hassles ahead with my bank as I want to retain the same number which may not be possible) Then, I decided to make a lightning tour through Poundland but of course they would have to be altering the layout of items in the store that they have had for the last ten years. This means that the simplest thing has to be hunted for – and one or two of the little items I wanted/needed no longer seem to be stocked. On the other hand, I did acquire some ‘branded’ 10″ scissors which I intend to use as general purpose scissors in my study. When I checked these out on the web, Ebay were selling them for about twice the price that I paid in Poundland so I did feel that I had at least got a ‘good buy’ if not a bargain. I spent a bit of time in the afternoon making a little cardboard sheaf for them so that after a trace of machine oil they should keep themselves in good condition for as long as I need them.
So I set myself a couple of outside jobs just before our afternoon cup of tea, one of which involved the sweeping up of holly berries which tend to arrive in profusion at this time of year and can easily mess up one’s shoes. The other was to take the contents of our two shredders. and dispose of the shreddings in our compost bin at the bottom of the garden. ‘Sod’s Law’ immediately swung into operation once again as the heavans opened the minute I got outside to do my outside jobs (and, of course, ceased as soon as I go inside again) I suppose that every so often one gets days like today.
With yesterday’s Budget subjected to more intense media scrutiny, it is now starting to dawn on people that the budget is not as rosy as the government is trying to pretend. With inflation heading for 4%-5% and big tax rises due next April then living standards will be very much under threat in the forthcoming financial year. The fact that Universal Credit will now be ever so slightly eased by the taper being reduced somewhat will do nothing for those, who through no fault of their own, are receiving Universal Credit but are not in work.
The latest COVID study reveals that the tranmissability of the Delta version of the virus remains high even though one has been vaccinated. This might help to explain why rates of infection, particularly of the Delta variant remain high (and very much higher than the rest of Europe) even though the proportion of those vaccinated is slowly creeping up (but still behind the European average)
Another Friday dawns but today we had a huge band of rain sweeping across the whole of the country. This being the case, we did not rush to get ready too early – and in any case, it is the day when our domestic help calls round so we always have a lot to communicate with each other, one way or another. By the time we were ready for our walk, it looked as though most of the rain had passed over us and was well on its way but we thought we would not coincide with any of our regulars which was, indeed, the case. Probably because of the rain, the park had very few visitors and we saw none of our regulars today. When we got back, we knew we had to prepare some lunch – whilst our domestic help was titivating Meg’s hair a little, I got to preparing the lunch. I had bought some sea-bass from Waitrose earlier on this morning. Normally, Thursday is my normal shopping day but we had to make a delay of one day as our car was being serviced yesterday and we were ‘carless’ in the morning. I got to the store at 2 minutes after opening time which always makes shopping quite a pleasant experience although I did notice that Friday mornings are quite a lot busier than Thursdays, for understandable reasons. We invited our domestic help to help us consume the sea-bass (after all, she had taught me how to cook it only a few weeks previously) and again, this was delicious. Mind you, I think the remains of a bottle of Pinot Grigio helped to really enhance the meal so a weekly treat became even more of a treat when we could share it with friends. Next week, our domestic help is coming a little later so will definitely stay and share a meal with us. She has put in an order for a risotto which I used to make regularly but I have got out of the habit of doing recently, probably in my desire to cut down on too many carbohydrates. If I want to have a ‘rice’ type meal, I tend to indulge myself in a cauliflower rice which is now available in packet form from Waitrose and is almost indistinguishable from the main thing. I must admit that I tend to sometimes guage the risotto I make myself against risottos made ‘professionally’ in an Italian restuarant and, so far, I am quite happy with the results I have achieved on my own. One always has a choice whether to make the main ingredient fish salmon or mackerel (which gives a much more powerful taste) but next week it is going to be salmon.
It seems as today all that I am doing is talking about food but it has been one of those days. On looking at my fridge, I had various bits of soup making ingredients left over from carror and coriander, potato and leek and some raw parsnip. So I thought I would add all of these ingredients together to make a type of root vegetable soup. Last night’s leek and potato soup seemed fine but a little on the bland side, so I decided that tonight I would be a little more adventurous and make my own croutons. This was not as fiddly as I thought it might be. I cut a couple of slices of brown bread into squares which I then fried off with some rape seed oil. Our domestic help suggested throwing in whatever herbs I fancied – in the absence of any oregano, I threw in sprinklings of garlic and marjoram until the mixture was a little crisp – I then transferred it to a dish in the oven to bake off for a few minutes. I have to say that the croutons made this way gave the soup a dramatic lift – is that why they are so often offered as an option when you have soup in a restaurant, I ask myself?
The COVID news is anything but reassuring this evening. According to the latest SAGE projections, future COVID-19 waves cannot be ruled out. Experts from Imperial College London project a substantial wave of total infections, hospitalisations and deaths, totalling 9,900 deaths by the end of March next year. Meanwhile the sitrauions in schools remains a source of concern. Current high numbers of coronavirus cases in schools where only some teenagers have been vaccinated “provide the ideal conditions” for a new variant to emerge, government scientists have warned. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies says that “very high prevalence in schools combined with partly-vaccinated 12 to 16-year-olds in a highly mixing population” makes a vaccine-resistant mutation of the virus more likely. The thing I find surprising is how little public outcry there has been about the situation our schools. We are gradually getting round to vaccinating the school population but other societies (including the USA) did it months ago.
Today has been one of those days when, fortunately, everything turned our right rather than wrong – to be honest, I am so used to little things going wrong that I am quite surprised when lots of things in a row go right. I have two iPads, one bought at least 6-7 years ago and which I had almost written off when it got clattered onto a hospital floor over three years ago now and the display went horribly wrong. ‘That’s it‘ I thought to myself at the time – I had better get myself a new and more up-to-date version when I get out of hospital, which I did. But then the old one ‘repaired’ itself – I had assumed that a clatter on the floor had misaligned some of the screen technology and once broken, it would stay that way. Anyway, as if by magic, it repaired itself so I regard this very old and original iPad for one thing only and that is to act as a source of music to get me quickly off to sleep. Since coming back from Wales, I had ‘mislaid’ my old iPad but suddenly I stared at at a blue cover sitting on a chair in my study and realised that it was hiding ‘in plain sight’ as it were. The whole point of this story is that I decided to restore it to its bedtime-sleep-inducing function. After a recharge of its batteries and location on a tiny little bedside table I had acquired which was exactly the same height of the bed (to avoid another clatter on the floor), I had a yearning to hear a particular piece of music which I very much enjoy and that is Brahms’s ‘A German Requiem‘ . I have to say this worked like a charm as I was off to sleep in about two minutes. Even when I got up in the middle of the night to attend to the call of nature and put on my especial favourite which is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23. This time I was off back to sleep before about 10 bars had been played, so another astounding success.I struggled a bit with a pair of Apple earphones which had the unforunate tendency, shared my many of its species, to drop out of one’s ears on the turn of a head. Then I remembered that I had about two years ago, bought some absolutely excellent Panasonic earphones which were carefully and skilfully designed so that theuy did not drop out of ear (and hence were much appreciated by the jogging community) So another set get ordered via Amazon at the very reasonable price of £6.00 or so so I shall certainly manage until they arrive.
This morning, as forecast, we had a tremendous band of heavy rain sweeping across the country. After it, though, we had a wonderful burst of sunshine and when Meg and I went on our walk, we even felt the warmth of the sun’s rays as a bonus. We popped into Waitrose to purchase one item of which we were running short and I treated myself to a round of brown toast and Marmite. Then we made our way to the park, knowing that we would not see our University of Birmingham friend who had texted us to say that he was suffering from a very heavy cold and even though he might come to the park he did not want to make contact with us and possibly infect us (very thoughtful of him) Just then, our Italian lady friend turned out and we always have time for a good chat – we were wondering whether it would be safe for us to go and watch a performance of ‘The Nutcracker‘ at the Birmingham Hippodrome (postponed from last year). As we were talking, we had another conversation with our avid walking octogenarian acquaintance before we were joined on the adjacent park bench by our Seasoned World Traveller friend. We introduced our two friends to each other and in no time at all they were arging the toss over something or other (in agreement, actually, whether we should treat the perpetrators of violent crimes as ill rather than bad). Then we set off for home, knowing that lunch was quite delayed. On our way home, though, we bumped into our Italian friend again (she had gone home by car!) and this occasioned a further chat.
Tomorrow is the coincidence of both Halloween and the end of British Summer Time (when the clocks go back) I cannot remember when there was last a coincidence like this but it must have occurred before today. Most of the paraphernalia surrounding Halloween such as ‘Trick-or- Treating‘ seems to have originated in 1930’s America, although Europe does have Halloween traditions of its own. To commemorate the end of Summer and the beginning of winter, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.
Today was one of those days when it was raining cats-and-dogs when I woke up. However, this does not matter a great deal to me as it was the night after British Summer Time had ended at 3.00am in the morning and, consequently, all of the house clocks needed to be put back by one hour. Normally, this task proceeds quite smoothly but there are always one or two household appliances where I can never remember exactly from one six month period to the next how to make the adjustment (e.g. the cooker) Nonetheless, I got all of this task accomplished and then looked skywards to see if I could brave a walk doen to the newspaper shop or not. As it was still raining pretty hard, I decided to go in the car and took the opportunity to change the car’s time whilst I was at ai it. There was nobody in the newspaper shop so I had quite a chat with the young lad is regarded as a ‘trusty’ and who opens up the shop first thing on a Sunday morning. We exchanged experiences of both having had bar work in the past and I had a look at the range of wines offered in the newspaper shop, which I have noticed out of the corner of my eye but never really had occasion to buy from. When I got home, we watched the Andrew Marr show (as usual) and then had to decide how to fit in our morning walk. As there were spells of sunshine followed by blustery squalls, we decided to walk down to the park whhilst the weather was fair (i.e.not actually raining) but we equipped ourselves with plenty of rainwear and took an umbrella with us. Then we made for the Victorian bandstand (full of wrought iron work) and were half way through our coffee when we joined by one of our regulars in the park, Seasoned World Traveller. Our conversations this morning ranged over the typcal bizarre range (the innate characteristics of the friendliness of labrador dogs, the degree of ‘wokeness’ exhibited by the Labour front bench) before it was time to go home. As we we walked, we were greeted by a burst of sunshine where we felt the warm rays of the sun upon our cheeks – perhaps the last for several weeks or months as the weather is predicted to go several degrees colder in the next few days. We then started watching the England vs. New Zealand womens rugby match which was reasonably entertaining – particularly as England were 17 points up at half time. We had one of those ‘chicken-in-its-own-tinfoil-tray meals’ cooking away in the oven which we ate at half time before we saw the English women complete their biggest victory over the New Zealand team (called the ‘Black Ferns’ no doubt to distinguish them from the ‘English Roses’)
Today is the first day of the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow which is opening today. Actually, nothing that much appears to be happening as various world leaders are still making their way from various parts of the world,including the G20 meeting in Italy. Perhaps later on tonight, there will be a formal welcome and procedural opening but the full work of the conference does not start in earnest until tomorrow morning. I must admit that I have a certain sense of foreboding that as China, Russia and probably India and Brazil will absent themselves from the conference (and Jo Biden from the USA may well arrive empty handed) then the prospects cannot be very good at all. As the conference will proceed for the best part of a fortnight, then some minor areas of progress might present themselves but whether the magic target of reducing the increase in global temperatures to 1.5% is problematic in the extreme.To achieve this result, one would have hoped for a lot of quiet diplomacy in the background over the months – instead the English and French are tearing chunks out of each other Brexit (and the row may rumbleon right throughout the conference)
The same sorry Brexit story is unfolding in quite a predictable way. The Sunday Times reports today the astonishment of other members of the European ‘family’ who are watching the UK as its infection rates soar to several multiples of theirs whilst the school children remain unvaccinated and there are images of semi-clad tennagers cavorting in the pubs and clubs with no social distancing, masks or anything that would remotely help to avoid the spread of the virus. I must admit that my sentiments are very much attuned to the words of Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds, who says 'the disappointing booster uptake is unsurprising given the hesitancy from the government about vaccinating children.This decision has made the booster programme increasingly important. We are indeed in dire need of this booster programme, but it is at least partly of our own making as a result of policy. Yet again, it may become a case of too little, too late, despite the availability of fantastic vaccines to help steer the ship.’
Today being a Monday and also the 1st of the month, it very much feels like the time of year to make (and keep) good resolutions. As a baseline measurement, I decided to weigh myself for the first time for a month or so and was quite reassured to finish off with a BMI of 27.3 The evidence is somewhat mixed on this measure – there are some studies that suggest that anything over a BMI of 25 contributes (somewhat) to a reduced mortality but there are some studies ‘out there’ that indicate that a BMI a little over 25 can actually reduce the overall mortality. The reason for this discrepancy can be found on the amount of muscle mass that an individual possesses. As muscle is denser than fat, then a BMI of 27 for a muscular person may well be heathier (i.e. people die less ) than a BMI of 25 of which a higher proportion is fat rather than muscle. Notwithstanding all of this, I intend to nudge my weight down (particularly in the weeks before Chrismas) and get my BMI to below 25. Meg and I tarried a little as there seemed to be rain showers still sweeping across the country. Nonetheless, we walked down to the park and made for the bandstand as showers could engulf us at any moment. There we were joined by Seasoned World Traveller and we chewed the fat a little (politics, mainly) until the time came to strike for home. Then we had another meal of chicken which seemed to taste even nicer than yesterday’s.
After lunch, we were having a bit of a tidy up after lunch when we received a telephone call from the wife of the person who gardens for us (the ‘heavier’ and ‘more arkward’ type of gardening such as pruning) He had been found collapsed and was quite seriously ill in hospital whilst the medics were using scans of all kinds to discover the sources of the ‘leak’ of blood. After transfusions, he was in a better state than yesterday but investigations are continuing. Needless to say, our Thursday ‘garden up’ has been cancelled and all we can do is to send our good wishes and hopes for his speedy recovery.
Today is the first full day of the COP26 and there have been a number of stirring speeches. Prince Charles, who made one of them, must feel as though his hour has come as he has been going about this and similar green issues for about the last fifty years! But of course, stirring speeches are one thing and then we have to determine whether enough countries will pledge towards trying to achive the 1.5% target (in the rise of emissions). Finally, of course, a pledge is one thing but how many countries will actually achieve their goal is another as parts of the electorate may reject or not be able to afford critical policies (e.g. replacing domestic boilers with much more expensive heat pumps). A question to which I have been trying to find the answer is as follows. How are we going to judge whether the delegates as whole approve a move to a 1.5% target? Evidently, it will not be a simple majority of the delegates (even weighted by the size of their populations) – so will it judged to have been ‘adopted’ of a certain proportion of the earth’s population (measured via their delegates) reaches a certain trigger length, say 70%? No doubt, this question may well be answered once we get towsrds the end of the conference but in the meantime, I can only just wonder.
For the COVID news tonight, I will just quote just one statistic. The last UK figure was 40,000 new infections today whilst in Disneyland Shanghai the entire number of visitors (nearly 34,000) were in lockdown because of one positive case of COVID.
One political story this evening is the amount of money that has been completely wasted by the present government. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has insisted it is ‘slightly unfair’ to focus on the amount of taxpayers’ cash lost to fraud during the emergency rollout of schemes during the coronavirus pandemic. Labour’s Dame Angela Eagle raised concerns about the £37 billion spent on the test and trace scheme and the possible £27 billion lost to fraud under COVID support schemes. It is certain true that the government threw all kinds of cash around in the early days of the pandemic and an enormous number of ‘white collar’criminals made off with an eye-watering amount of government cash with little or no accountability.
SoupMaker time again this evening and my fourth venture in this regard was to make some celery soup (the recipe also calls for some fried onion and a couple of potatoes as well) This worked out fine and I used some of the croutons I made the other day (and had deep frozen) which got reheated with a little hot oil and some marjaram herb (out of a pot)
The day started, as far as I was concerned, at 5 minutes past midnight as this was the time when we could access the National Savings and Investments (NS&I) Premium Bond checker to see if we had any success in the November draw. I have been impatiently waiting for this day to arrive as I had consolidated some of my savings into Premium Bonds on the basis that ½% interest was so miniscule that I might as well as forego this in order to participate in the NS&I ‘lottery’ that takes place every month. If you are successful, these ‘winnings’ can be added to the rest of your bonds – they are, in effect, a type of interest payment but there is the remote chance that you might win quite a lot. On the other hand, once you have built up a certain number of bonds then statistically you should be able to generate some ‘interest’ by winning a prize every month. Having got my collection of bonds in place by the end of September and then waiting the mandatory month, then the November draw is the first in which your tranche of bands can participate. I was delighted, and a little relieved, to find out that I had actually ‘won’ £25.00 in the November draw, which is then added to my total.
I was awoken early in the morning by my wife who informed me that the toilet in our ensuite was blocked. When I got up, I discovered that it was not only blocked but I suspect that my wife had panicked and flushed the loo again with the net result that it had actully overflowed. A quick burst on the long handled plunger which I always keep to hand in the garage was immediately put to use and whatever blockage there was was transitory in the extreme as the loo cleared itself and stayed unblocked after several more flushes. In the meantime, I had to cope with the effects of the flood which was mainly a soaked carpet although the toilet pedestal mat had taken some of the brunt. Several applications of ‘jumbo’ sized kitchen paper, treaded carefully to ‘lift’ the water out of the carpet eliminated most of the overflowed water so I have now put ‘policies’ in place to make sure that this event does not reoccur.
Immediately after breakfast, I telephoned our doctor’s surgery to get an appointment for Meg as we had been urged by a recent circular letter to phone for an appointment as part of a ‘normal’ annual monitoring to which Meg is now subject. We were were offered a telephone appointment in the late morning which, whilst wecome, rather threw a spanner in our normal daily routine. So I went by car to pick up our newspaper and milk from the local Waitrose which we often treat like the old-fashioned corner shop on occasions such as these. Then we had our elevenses at home eliminating any walks to the park and sitting back to wait for the doctor’s call (‘in the late morning’) This duly came along at 12.10 so we just had time to get this consultation all done before it was time for me to start my weekly walk down to attend my Pilates session. Once this was over and done with, we go home and had a rapid lunch and washing up knowing that we had arranged a Skype call with one of our Hampshire friends at 4.00pm in the afternoon. Then we had the most wonderful chat but an hour shot by incredibly quickly so we had to make a fairly rapid farewell to our friends. This was because we have another regular FaceTime call with some of our oldest Waitrose friends who we call to have a chat once a week. Once again,more than an hour shot by and then it was time for our tea.
We have been following the COP26 talks with more than a passing degree of interest. Two interesting things have actually emerged today which actually might just be a sign that all is not lost on the Climate Change front. The first of these is an ‘agreement’ from several countries, including Brazil, Russia and Indonesia that aims to halt and reverse global deforestation over the next decade as part of a multibillion-dollar package to tackle human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. This is particularly significant as forests are one of the major ways in which carbon (dioxide) is actually removed from the atmosphere. The second agreement was potentially just as important. Leading an alliance of more than 100 countries, US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have launched the Global Methane Pledge – an agreement to cut methane emissions by 30% between 2020 and 2030. As methane is some 80 times more lethal for the environment than carbon dioxide, then this too is another step in the right direction. One is intrigued to know how this reduction is to be achieved – if we can put men on the moon, surely it is quite possible that we fix low-cost contraptions to the back ends of animals to mitigate the effects of excessive methane emission.
Today started off with one of those irritating little things that come along to try us. I was expecting a small package to be delivered to us from our doctor’s surgery as they had previously told me it was ‘in the post’ But instead of the package, I received a little note to indicate that insufficient postage had been paid and ‘inviting’ me to pay the missing postage and organise a new date of delivery. So I negotiated the Royal Mail system to pay them the £2.00 which they reckoned they needed and now I can expect delivery not today but on Friday. This I could do without. It was one of those when it was touch-and-go’ whether we went down to the park by car or on foot. We took a gamble and went on foot and were glad we did. On the way down, we had a chat with our Irish friend which was welcome as we had not seen her a few days. Then we bumped into one of her near neighbours, a French lady, who we are getting to know quite well and we thought we would seize the opportunity to have a coffee together as soon as we can see our way forward. After we had collected our newspaper and made our way to the park, the weather, although cold, was starting to brighten quite a lot leaving the park trees looking tremendous in their autumnal colours. Then we walked home slowly enjoying the sunshine and wondering how long we were going to have a few fine days like this.
One is very conscious, particularly in November, to do what one can before the natural light fades. Knowing that I was running short of petrol, I went off fill the car up before I go shopping in the morning. Then, as it was adjacent to the petrol station, I availed myself of one of the new ‘Home and Garden’ type stores so that I could buy some bits and bobs. One little thing I bought that our chiropodist had told us about and actually used was a little hand-held device made entirely of copper and zinc which enables a person to key in values on a public screen or even to pull a door shut behind oneself without actually touching the offending surface. Although the immediate need is probably much less now than in the months gone by, there will no doubt be instances when it will prove its worth. I also bought a few tiny little glass bottles into which I can put coins of various denominations. Then when I am dashing forth and know that I need money for a carpark or whatever, I grab the coins that I think I will need and this obviates the need to carry around a purse or lots of spare coins. I also took the opportunity to buy some cheap toiletries and one or two household things of which we were running short.
Tonight, we have seen one of those things that really brings the whole of the House of Commons into disrepute. A Conservative ex-minister (Owen Paterson) had been found guilty by a House of Commons Committee of flagrantly breaching parliamentary rules by being a paid lobbyist without declaring his interest. He had been paid more than £110,000 for these activities and a two year investigation into his conduct concluded that there had been a flagrant breach of the rules. The House of Commons, following precedent, would normally have voted for a 30-day suspension.But as Boris Johnon has a majority of 80, they decided to abolish the committee that had adjudged Owen Paterson to be guilty and were going to set up a new committee, with a Tory majority to judge his case again, the first ‘guilty’ verdict having been set aside. Opposition MPs are incensed and are refusing to serve on the new committee which means that we will have the ultimate in Tory sleaze in which Tories break the rules, but then members of his own party rescue him by changing the rules after the event in a committee composed only of members of his own party. Whether this plays badly in the country or not, who can say? But the net result is that all politicians, not just Tory MPs, are adjudged to be guilty of sleaze and the reputation of the House of Commons as a whole sinks further into the mire.
A very interesting telephone call came my way in the early evening. This was the senior partner in the medical practice that looks after Meg and myself and he was telephoning to ask a favour. He conducts some training sessions with trainee doctors from the University of Birmingham and he wondered if he could use me as a resource for the students to question of a patient on the brink of diabetes who ‘hauled themselves back’ by radically reducing their weight (which I did four years ago) So I am standing by my phone/ipad to participate in this training session tomorrow. Quite exciting really!
Thursday is the day which we have decided to make our main shopping day. Accordingly, I set off in plenty of time and arrived at the door of Waitrose in Droitwich two minutes before the doors were due to open – and third in the queue. As always, shopping is quite a pleasant experience at this time and, apart from one or two of the shelves being somewhat understocked, something to which I quite look forward. So all the shopping having been done, we treated ourselves to the first breakfast of porridge of the winter (suitable when the weather is pretty cold outside). As I wrote this, I pondered which spelling is correct: porridge or porage. What I discovered was this. The conventional spelling is porridge but Scotts, the firm behind the famous breakfast oats cereal devised a unique spelling as a marketing trick to distinguish themselves from their rivals and they combined the spellings of porridge and potage – a French word for a thick soup – and ran with it from 1914 onwards. I think it is by now common knowledge that a bowl of porridge is very good for one first thing in the morning as it provides a source of slow-release carbohydates right throughout the morning. Furthermore, as regards the health benefits, scientists at Harvard University’s School of Public Health in 1984 have been following the dietary habits of around 100,000 people and have now come to the conclusion that those of us who regularly eat whole grains, such as porridge oats, can expect to live longer and healthier lives. Just one small bowl of porridge a day can increase life expectancy by 5 per cent, and reduce the risk of death by heart disease by 9 per cent.
Eventually after a slow unpacking of the shopping, Meg and I realised we were a little short of time. So we took the car down into town to hand deliver a form that we needed to hand in to Bromsgrove District Council. This having been done, we collected our newspaper and then popped into the park for a reduced walk and a quick burst of elevenses (although, strangely, I had made up the flask and then forgot to put it in the rucksack). We met up again with our octogenarian daily hiker as well as Seasoned World Traveller – but as the cold wind was starting to blow, despite the sun and a blue sky, we did not tarry too long but were keen to get home. I needed to strip the carcase of our chicken of little bits of chicken meat which I made into a kind of risotto with some quasi-rice I had manage to get hold off which claimed to be exceptionally low in carbohydrates. This having prepared, I gave Meg her portion but left my own to eat after the training session I was scheduled to have with medical students.
Promptly at 2pm I receivd a FaceTime call from a young female Asian student who was going to be my contact for the day. The conversation flowed freely – and I must admit I probably was speaking too much. We started with what our GP had wanted us to act as a discussion point (how individuals via diet and exercise could reduce over-high blood sugar levels which is used as a marker for the onset of diabetes) but after that the conversation becaame quite wide ranging and what should have been a chat for about 20 minutes became 40. I am not sure if I fulfilled the aims of the whole training exercise but I am sure that the young student at the other end of the FaceTime camera would go on to make a very good doctor).
It has been a day of great political drama today, not to say screeching government U-turns. After the government had seen the hostile reaction from all of the opposition parties and many on their own side to their ‘rewriting of the rules’ to save Owen Paterson, the determing factor may have been the uniformly hostile press, with even the Daily Mail joining in to give them a good kicking. So William Rees-Mog, the Leader of the House of Commons was desptached to announce a government reversal of yesterday’s policy. It became evident within minutes that as the government majority on a whipped vote was only 18 last night, then an ‘unwhipped’ Conservative party would surely despatch Owen Paterson to oblivion. It was quite evident that he could not survive and, later on in the day, he resigned as an MP (he could well have been subjected to a Parliamentary recall and thrown out if he hadn’t resigned) He claimed that he was standing down as a result of his children persuading him to go – disingenuous in the extreme and to the end because having accepted emoluents of £110,000 a year and then lobbying ministers for ‘favours’ towards his paymasters, he was clearly in breach of the rules. I look forward to the completion of the evisceration which well happen in NewsNight tonight at 10.30pm (BBC2)
Today started bright and cold and it was truly one of those days when one needed to reach inside the store cupboard and have a steaming bowl of porridge (complete with syrup, of course) Today we shared out breakfast with our son who was hard at work in his little ‘office’ upstairs and for whom the porridge was especially welcome. Our domestic help was a little delayed this morning but eventually we got off into town and picked up our newspaper before making for the park. There we were delighted to be joined by our University of Birmingham friend who we had not seen for several days as, very conscientiously, he was nursing a heavy cold so had kept hmself out of our vicinity lest he inadvertently infect us. Fortunately, his cold is not of the extremely ‘heavy’ kind that seems to be sweeping the country and laying people low. As we sat together (or relatively near to each other) on adjacent park benches, we commented to each how beautiful the park looked in its autumn colours, how fine and almost warm the day had turned out to be and how few people there were in the park today to enjoy it all. I think, though, that the high pressure system giving us this fine weather is going to slide away so we have to enjoy the last days of summer (or autumn) whilst we can.
Lunchtime today had been desgnated as ‘risotto’ day, which we were going to share with our domestic help as a special treat (and she was supplying some white wine to perfectly complemnt the meal) I used to make risotto regularly each Friday but I have rather got out of the habit since I tried to cut down on carbs as part of a weight reduction programme (but I thought once in a while would not hurt) I had made sure that I had bought some ‘arborio’ rice for the risotto and, from Waitrose, I had purchased some smoked trout. Although thrown together, the meal turned out fine and I was pleased that I not lost the knack. I knew, however, that we could not tarry long over lunch because I had designated this afternoon as the final lawn-cut of the season. For this to be successful (i.e. possible) one needs a fine afternoon and hopefully the absence of rain for a few days so that the grass-cutting is not incredibly soggy. The grass-cutting itself was uneventful but in the last cut of the season, I need to run the petrol down to absolutely zero so that no ‘gunk’ is left in the tank. So I engaged in the by now traditional rite at the end of the grass-cutting of keeping the mower running whilst I walk up and down with it muttering under my breath ‘Die! Die!’ until, as the daylight fades to practically nothing, the petrol tank runs dry. Then the final task, difficult to perform to perform at the best of times but more difficult in the practical darkness, is to get the old oil drained out (whilst it is still hot) into a tin saved for the purpose. So I was particularly pleased to get this done on the traditional day I designate for the last cut of the season (November 5th) whilst the first is my son’s birthday on March 25th. Several years ago, I heard a tip from Alan Titchmarsh (the gardening guru’ but now with a new career on Classic FM and several other TV shows) His tip is always to mow the lawn at the end of the season even though there is no grass long enough to cut but assuming there has been a leaf fall. The mower will shred the leaves into smaller pieces making it easier for the worms to drag them down into the soil and hence contributing to its overall fertility.
The fallout from the Government ‘U’-turn continues as Tory MP’s turn on each other (particularly the recently elected, recent generation of MPs compared with the old school veterans) Personally, I think Boris Johnson should have sacked the Chief Whip, Mark Spencer. The conversation could have gone like this, assuming that Boris Johnson might have been the ultimate author of the policy -‘Even though you were carrying out my instructions, you should have warned me of the possibility of masses of abstentions or even members of our own party voting against us. The fact you didn’t warn me of this means that you were not in touch with back bench opinion and mis-read the mood of the House. This has led to one of greatest debacles in modern parliamentary history for which I hold you responsible. I will give you two minutes to consider your position…‘ Of course, none of this is going to happen (is it?) but I suspect that there may be all kinds of fallout from the recent debacle. Not least, is that fact that the younger generation of Tory MP’s may be very unwilling to act as ‘lobby fodder’ and follow their Whip’s instructions without question for the rest of this Parliament.
I suppose we ought to celebrate the 600th edition of this blog but I am not sure how – so we shall just progress as normal. Today, we woke up to the fact that the high pressure weather system we have known for the last few days is gradually giving way to a low pressure system, characterised by some scudding clouds (but no actual rain) and quite a sharp wind that brought a degree of wind chill with it. On our way down the hill, we bumped into our Irish friends and exchanged some gossip about what is happening in our local church as well as our normal chit-chat. Naturally, we had a chat about the ‘goings on’ in Parliament and how long ‘King Boris’ could survive all of the scandals which appear to engulf him. Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi seemed to thrive on lurid sex lives which didn’t appear to do them any harm so we concluded that in our working lives, we must have been in the wrong job. In the park, we met up with our intrepid octogenarian hiker which is nearly a daily occurrence by now. We wished him well, ate up our comestibles and set off for home in a little pale sunshine but no wind.
After lunch, I needed to make a lightning visit into town to get some money out of an ATM and to do my rounds of shops selling toiletries and cleaning materials not to mention Poundland for other bits and bobs. The whole of this took an hour of the afternoon and then it was a case of a quiet cup of tea before we started to get venture for our weekly visit to church. In place of a sermon, we had information from our stand-in priest that although he had been scheduled to leave us shortly, he had been ‘persuaded’ to stay with us until immediately after Christmas after which time he would return to his parish of origin. Whether a replacement priest can be found to take over our parish from 2nd January onwards is an open question (and I am not particularly hopeful as the number of priests in the UK as a whole has been dropping like a stone)
Tonight, our University of Birmingham friend who was off spectating at a rugby match today had texted me the channel numbers upon which, in theory, I might be able to see highlights of the England vs. Tonga rugby match, played earlier on today. I somehow feel that I am not going to be successful finding this channel as I am sure I will have run across it by now but we can but see.
Sir John Major, the ex Conservative Prime Minister, has made a most vituperative attack upon Boris Johnson and his government. Sir John had his own problems of Tory sleaze with ‘cash for questions’ during the period of his premiership but he reminded us that he set up the Committee on Standards of Public Life – the Nolan Committee – to cope with the aftermath of Tory sleaze. Sir John Major said parliament’s reputation had also been damaged by the affair, adding: ‘Many Conservative MPs – who are clearly in their own minds unhappy about what they’ve been asked to do – were forced and in some cases put under real bullying pressure to vote for the amendment and to vote not to proceed with the suspension of Owen Paterson. So people are bound to wonder: can we trust them or can they be put under pressure to do things that they know are wrong?‘ Of course, what is always interesting about these type of scandals is the reaction of the (generally Conservative supporting) Sunday newspapers. It looks as though the reaction of the daily newspapers in the last week, including the normally loyal Daily Mail might have had quite an impact. One former minister told the Daily Mail that Mr Spencer had not done his job properly. ‘If the PM was told about the extent of dissatisfaction then he wouldn’t have pushed it,’ they said. ‘You could tell there was a problem because the whips were literally running around the Commons.‘ Another Conservative MP said Mr Spencer is a ‘very nice guy’ but ‘out of his depth …The Cabinet is full of nodding yes men. I had two marginal male MPs from Red Wall seats in tears looking at their social media feed, looking at their emails coming in after the vote, going ‘what the hell have we done?‘
There have been massive street protests today (Saturday) in Glasgow as the demonstrators are tring to impress upon the conference organisers the strength of feeling felt by many young people. The organisers claim that 100,000 demonstrators were out on the streets today – but the police (untypical) did not put their own estimate on the size of the crowd. Typically, organisers ‘talk up’ the number of demonstrators whereas the police have their own motives in underestimating the actual crowd size. It is somewhat difficult to ascetain where the truth lies in these circumstances.
Today being Sunday, I collected our Sunday newspaper from the newsagent and then Meg and I watch the Andrew Marr show on the TV, all routine stuff for a Sunday morning. On consulting my phone, my daughter-in-law (following last night’s blog) had sent me a text informing me that the current series of rugby matches can be seen on Amazon, not the normal channels. However, we met our University of Birmingham friend in the park and I said I would bring along a copy of the Ladybird reading scheme books which we have retained since the days when we were teaching our son to read (approximately 49 years ago) This book was written in the mid-1960’s when Ladybird had been criticised for outdated and probably middle class images of young children and their interactions with other. So the principal characters, Peter and Jane, had been modernised somewhat, Peter having longish hair and Jane now wearing jeans rather than a skirt. Ladybird tried to bring their work up-to-date but there are still massive ‘tell-tales’ in the book. For a start Peter plays with his football (which he subsequently retrieves from the highest branches of a tree) and chooses a toy tractor in the toy shop whereas Jane still chooses to have a doll (but is pointing, with a degree of political correctness, to a ‘black’ rather than a white doll, trains the dog which she is taking for a walk and encourages Peter to retrieve the lost football but does not climb into the tree herself. In another Ladybird book of the era, Jane helps her mother to bake a cake whilst Peter helps his father to paint the fence. Just to make everything worse, the book shows an illustration of Peter and Jane on the beach and is entitled ‘Play with us’ (a title that must rank alongside Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts movement, whose book was entitled ‘Scouting for Boys’) One has to say that in these sad times of 2021, neither of these books could have been entitled thus.
I also amused our University of Birmingham friend with a letter than had been written by Boris Johnson’s house master and classics teacher to Boris Johnson’s father. The letter indicates with a startling clarity with what we know now that ‘Boris really has adopted a disgracefully cavalier attitude to his classical studies…Boris sometimes seems affronted when criticised for what amounts to a gross failureof responsibility (and surprised at the same time he was not appointed Captain of the School for next half) I think he honestly believes that it is churlish of us not to regard him as an exception, one who should be free of the network of obligations which binds everyone else…‘ I must point out that this letter was written in April 1982 and here we are nearly 40 years later and it must be said ‘plus ça change’ ( or ‘what has changed?’)
This afternoon, Meg and I watched a most enjoyable game of women’s rugby in which the English team (the ‘Red Roses‘) surpasssed their win of last week over the New Zealand (the ‘Black Ferns‘) by winning 56-15 (a largest margin of victory than last week’s 46-12) At half time,the New Zealand team had no points on the board at all and the commentators were speculating whether they might end the match without scoring at all. Next week, though, they play France so that might be an interesting game as well.
Soupmaking experiments are continuing later on this evening. I am going to try a combination of celery, swede, carrot, potato and perhaps a little parsnip to see how all of that pans out – it is, after all, a classic root vegetables type of soup but how the flavours will combine or not we will have to wait and see. It actually turned out to be a lot better than I predicted that it might – so I am pleased that I saved half of the raw ingredients so I can quickly make another batch if the weather turns particularly cold in the next week.
The next week is going to be a crucial one for Boris Johnson. Not only is COP26 Climate Change coming to an end (with what result?) but the sequelae of the Owen Paterson debacle are rumbling on. Even John Major the ex-Tory PM was driven to declare that the present government was corrupt – a very powerful word in politics. Basically, the Tory party collectively put its foot down and the newer intake basically said to the Brexiteers and the ‘old guard’ that they could not be rolled over. Does this make the present Tory party almost unwhippable? Also the position of the Leader of the House (Rees-Mogg) and the Chief Whip must now by in doubt – in any event, they have lost all credibility and will they ever be believed again after last week? Watch this space!
Today was one of those nondescript days which, I suppose, is typical of November. The sky was overcast but it was not actually raining so we ventured forth and picked up our newspaper before our sojourn in the local park. We were half way through our coffee and comestibles when our good Italian friend hove into view and we exchanged pleasanteries and observations about the weather. Just then, our intrepid octogenerian walker came by on the first of his two laps of the park. He had been out with his family for Sunday lunch the day before and I made a mental note of the carvery which he had frequented so we might go there one weekend if we are entertaining. After a while our friend departed and it was time for us to make our way home and prepare lunch.
This afternoon was the day scheduled to a three hour debate called by the Liberal Democrats on the Owen Paterson ‘sleaze’ debate: Meg and I decided to sit through all of the three hour debate and it proved riveting (to us, at least) Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the House, sat on the government front bench and was the epitome of misery throughout. After all, it is a rare event for a Tory to have to sit and have abuse hurled at you from all sides but as Rees Mogg was not going to speak in the debate, he just had to sit there and endure it. MPs as a whole launched a blistering attack on an absent Boris Johnson during the emergency debate. Labour leader Keir Starmer accused the prime minister of ‘giving the green light to corruption’ after his government tried to overturn the suspension of shamed former cabinet minister Paterson, before trying to shut down parliament’s standards committee entirely. The Tory benches were almost entirely empty (no doubt the Paterson ‘friends’ stayed away) and in the course of three hours, Paterson only had about two defenders in the whole of the three hour debate. The main Tory line of defence was that the verdict on Paterson by the Committee of Priveliges was flawed in the extreme because there was no appeal process with independent questionning of witnesses. The counter to this was that there was a quasi-appeal process built into the process because after the committee had concluded the outline of its report, the MP before the committee had the right to appear in person and to submit more evidence in writing. However, as Chris Bryant the (Labour) chair of the committee pointed out, there was hardly a need for an appeal process because Owen Paterson had denied any of the facts of the case and, indeed, said he would do the same again. The overwhelming view of the House of Commons in the debate was that Peterson was ‘guilty as charged‘, that natural justice had been done, and the government’s attempt to subvert the whole process by issuing a three-line whip to Tory MPs to reject the guilty verdict as evidence of corruption. To get the overall verdict on this, it will be interesting to see what ‘NewsNight‘ on BBC2 makes of all of this at 10.30 and ‘What the papers say‘ on Sky News at 11.30
One does get the impression that the government is starting to panic with the COVID situation as it is. For a start, there are still 4.5 million people who have not received even their first doses of the vaccine and only 10 million (out of 50 million?) have received the booster vaccine. A fact not much appreciated is that as the immunity offered by the vaccine wanes over time, then those who received their first jabs in September may have precious little immunity left six months later. People are being urged to book their second jabs as quickly as possible and already there are accounts that some hospitals are under extreme pressure, not least because they are understaffed and there is quite an absenteeism rate with COVID anyway. Laying bare the toll of the past 19 months on the profession, an investigation has showed nursing staff are needing more time off for mental health problems, respiratory illness and migraines than they did prior to Covid-19 and absenteeism rates are up a fifth on pre-pandemic times. Those absent with mental health or stress-related conditions has increased by about 40% over the last year. So the government is actually pretty worried that they are caught in the vicious pincer movement between an understaffed NHS on the hand hand and a mixture of winter-related seasonal illnesses with COVID on top on the other hand.
I am hopeful that tomorrow might continue to quite a fine day. Before the fine weather disappears almost completely, I want to get little bits of ‘routine’ gardening done at the rate of about 20 minutes or so a day. I know from bitter experience that if you start off the spring with a generally weed-free garden, you get off to a flying start – and vice versa.
Every day has its own character and Tuesday is no exception. As it is the day in which I attend my Pilates class, we have decided as a matter of policy to forego a walk in the park but to replace it with a trip to Waitrose (by car). This means that as well as a little treat for ourselves, I have enough time to get home, change into my track-suit bottoms and then walk down for my Pilates class. In Waitrose, we had a delicious (and hot) cup of cappucino and I did some shopping for some things that were needed. Although I have some curry powder at home, I wanted to buy something that would add a little bit of ‘spice’ to our root vegetables soup which I intend to cook this afternoon. I finished up impulse buying a couple of Sharwoods cooking sauces, one of which was a Korma and I thought would give us just the kind of spices that I needed. Having got home, we did our normal mid-day Tuesday turn around and as I walked down into the town, I bumped into some of our church friends who were just returning home by car. In my brief chat, I told our friends about our soupmaking activities and was given a recipe for pea and mint soup (which I confirmed a little later on when I got home by consulting one of my recipe books). Then I had my Pilates class in which there are five regulars after which, I was back from my class a few minutes before 3.00 pm which is the norm. Then we had our lunch of cod fishcakes and some special Waitrose vegetables that microwave in about 2 minutes.
After lunch and a rest, I got out the other half of the root vegetables which I had prepared (diced) a couple of days before and got them simmering so that could be parboiled. Then I FaceTimed my sister in Yorkshire to get news from their particular home front – but nothing all that much had altered in the last week or so. Then it was time for us to FaceTime our old Waitrose friends which we do every Tuesday in the late afternoon. In the middle of our chat, I popped out and got the soupmaker running so that we could have our evening repast as soon as we had finished our weekly chat. Now for the soup which I think was probably one of my best yet. The root vegetable mixture comprised a couple of sticks of celery, a large carrot, some swede, one parsnip and some fried-off onions. My stock was a vegetable stock made by dissolving a zero-salt vegetable stock cube (just recently on the market) and some Bouillon stock mixture. This went into the soupmaker together with about a third of a tin of coconut milk and half of jar of Sharwood’s Korma sauce mix. The end result was – stupendous (even, though I say it myself) I served it with some croutons and a large dollop of yogurt (which aids the creaminess and helps to cool it down from its boiling point). I am going to make the whole mixture again in a couple of day’s time and leave some over to leave a little ‘taster’ for my daughter-in-law (the soup making expert in our house) and our domestic help who will come round on Friday and whose judgement I trust on these kinds of preparations.
Although I have been sort of following the COP26 proceedings, I must say I do not have much of a handle as to what kind of progress is being made. I had not realised that Amber Rudd, the Conservative politician, had been one of our lead negotiators at the last conference in Paris. She was arguing that in Paris all came good at the very last moment after days and days of wrangling. This time around, a more sober assessment must be that there is no way that we are even going to get near the limit 1.5% which is the overall goal of many. An influential report has suggested tonight that the pledges to cut methane, coal and protect forests made at COP26 will reduce global warming by just a few tenths of a degree – with temperatures on course to be at least 2.4C higher by 2100, according to the first major assessment of commitments at the summit. When you see the massive contribution that China makes to global warming, one thought might be to try and persuade the Chinese to cut their emissions by just 1%-2% a year – whilst small in the context of the Chinese economy it might in quantitative terms be almost as much as many of the poorest African societies combined. Of course, it is possible that the Chinese are playing their cards close to their chest and might pull something out of the bag at the very last moment but I am not particularly hopeful about this.
The day started off today at about 2.00am in the morning when I was awoken by loud screeches coming from the garden. I assumed it was a fox-emitted noise and after a quick search on the internet, I managed to ascertain that the sound I heard was indeed a fox. Apparently, these sounds are likely to be heard in the dead of night in the middle of winter because it is the fox’s mating season and the sounds travel much further when there is an absence of trees on the leaves. So having got out of bed I read a few emails and consulted a few websites before making off to bed again. Today was one of those intermittently showery types of days so after a little deliberation, Meg and I decided to make the best of a bad job and we went into our ‘bad weather’ routine. We went in the car to collect the newspaper and then proceeded to the park where we parked up and made a little trip to the bandstand – our refuge when the weather is poor. We drank our coffee and ate our biscuits in complete isolation as the park was practically deserted. We knew that we were to have a fairly busy afternoon and no sooner had we sat down and were enjoying a cup of tea, then our hairdresser turned up. We knew from our ‘planning board’ that our hairdresser was due today but were a little unsure of the time. So we had a delayed lunch after Meg had had per perm and I was shorn of my usual locks. No sooner had we despatched our hairdresser then our chiropodist arrived – again by appointment but it is still unusual for us to have two appointments like this on the same day. After the chiropodist had departed we were paid a visit by the Treasurer of our residents association who had brought us some unwelcome news. The bank that looks after our accounts had decided to close our account, afer some thirteen years. Even though we have been in a relationship with our bank for the past thirteen years, the bank is saying that we cannot prove who we say we are and despite several telephone calls from both the Treasurer and myself to the head office (but nothing can be handled in branch these days) the bank had decided that we did not meet their safeguarding procedures (or what-have-you) and premptively closed our account without notice. So tomorrow morning, I will need to go and argue with our original bank (which may prove fruitless) and after that, we may need to go and hassle with another bank for a ‘community’ account which will no doubt take a tremendous amount of bureaucracy to set up. Our chiropodist sympthathised with us and told us that the same bank (which I shall not name) had done something similar to her and was generally ‘bad news’ The trouble is that the number of staff in the branch can be numbered as one or two individuals and then they are not empowered to take any decisions on their own. Then one has to hang onto a telephone for about 3/4 hour to be able to talk to a ‘real person’ who then has to refer you to a colleagues with a similar wait of hours. I look forward to tomorrow with a certain amount of dread, having been through their validation procedures once before and thinking that everything had been sorted out.
Tonight is the night when we have to drag our bins out from our individual driveways and put them into an accessible position at the kerbside, ready for the refuse delivery vehicles will call very early on Thursday morning. This is somewhat more than a trivial task as have to drag the bin for about 200 yards – and then I do the same for my two neighbours (one deceased, but the family visits the house occasionally to dispose of rubbish) and the other for our next daoor neighbour who can sometimes forget if he has been out at work all day long. This task always seems to be so much more irksome when you do it in the hours of darkness and one is manipulating a torch alongside two bins (one in each hand).
The latest sleaze crisis rumbles on and on. It has since emerged that former Attorney General, Sir Geoffrey Cox, earned more than £800,000 while working as a barrister for law firm Withers, which is representing the British Virgin Islands (BVI) government in a corruption case brought by the BVI government. The particular offence seems to be that he was doing this from his Westminster office (i.e. within the Houses of Parliament) which would be a clear breach of the rules. In the meanwhile, No. 10 Downing Street seems to be losing patience particularly as Geoffrey Cox may have earned £800,000 working as a barrister on behalf of the government of the British Veirgin islands (in what may be, paradoxically, a corruption case!) Boris Johnson has said MPs who break parliamentary rules on second jobs ‘must be investigated and should be punished’. We shall see… but we have been here before and do not hold your breath.
Today was one of those days when, as you wake up, you basically contemplate the day ahead and wonder how everything is going to work out. Having said that,Thursday is always an early-to-get- going day because I jump into my clothes and off in the car to get to the Waitrose store in Droitwich as near to opening time as possible. To be truthful, I was about about five minutes late this morning but there were only about four or five us in the store so basically, a peaceful saunter around the shop lay ahead of me. I used to take a list with me but now I wander around every aisle very slowly but trying to keep myself disciplined to only buy the things I absolutely need. At the end of the day, I think I only missed out on one item which I can always get from the Waitrose down the road from us. The major project that I had lined up for myself was to go and argue with the bank with whom our residents’ association has a community bank account but which has been unilaterally discontinued – much to our discomfiture. So I took some time getting ready this morning and was getting some of my accounts in order before I set off for town. Because I knew I could be stuck in the bank for hours (and this proved to be correct) I decided that I would walk into town avoiding the car park, as otherwise I wouldn’t know for how long I needed to pay a carparking charge. Having picked up my newspaper, I made my way to the bank and explained my dilemma to the counter staff (they only have two on duty in the whole of the branch) I was directed towards a workstation where I could phone the bank’s HQ using the branch’s own phone (and telephone bill for that matter) I was kept on hold for 48 minutes altogether with the speaker phone blasting forth’Your call is important to us but all of our agents are busy at the moment…’ which could be heard all over the store. In fact one well-meaning lady popped over to offer her commiserations at having to wait for so long. Eventually, when I got through to the Safeguarding centre, I received some sort of good news. Our community account was going to be reinstated for a period of 30 days in which the direct debits would be honoured. In the meanwhile, I would be sent an email with specialised instructions how to complete the whole of the rest of the safeguarding procedures online after which normality should be restored. It was explained to me by the branch staff before I embarked upon my marathon telephone call that the safeguarding Unit’s word was law but basically, they were under the strictest of supervision by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) to investigate thoroughly every account that was held on behalf of a group (such as a church, voluntary organisaion or residents’ association like ourselves) The argument is, apparently, that fraud is potentially much more likely when more than one signature is involved. (You could argue that as every signiicant cheque reuired two or more signatures then the accounts should be more rather than less secure but I was not in the mood to second guess the FCA). So eventually I got home having spent 1½ hours in the bank, feeling quite pleased with myself. The pleasure was reinforced by the fact that our Treasurer had gone to the branch in the High Street the day before and had ‘argued his case vociferously’ i.e. got angry with the staff member which got himself nowhere. However a more patient approach on my part weilded dividends so when I got home I emailed our Treasurer to give him the good news that we would not have to tramp the High Street in search of a new home for our little bit of money. This afternoon was deliberately kept lazy – not least beacuse I had to whizz around to make a lightning quick lunch.
For tea this evening, as I had been shopping and had got all of the ingredients I decided to make another batch of what I think I shojuld call a spicy winter root veg soup. Basically I dice and then parboil some celery, swede, carrot, parsnip and potato to which I then add some softened (i.e. translucent onions) I then add some vegetable stock (made with zero-salt stock cube), a third of a can of coconut milk and half a jar of Sharwood’s Korma cooking sauce. Once cooked, this is served with a good dollop of yogurt, some freshly prepared croutons and a sprig of mint. Voilá – total success again.
We have a dripping kitchen tap which has been driving us mad but today, to round off a good day, we got a definite appointment for our local plumber to call round – but we have to be patient until next Tuesday.
Today was the day when our domestic help calls around and – as always- we have a good old natter over the obligatory cup of tea (which has become additional upon her arrival) As it happened, there was something that I wanted to have a word with our domestic help because I always trust her on all things culinary. I had put a little bit of last night’s homemade soup in one of those special, microwaveable beakers because I wanted the experience of her tastebuds to act as check on my own. As she is a great soup lover, we were exchanging recipes about the types of things that I might try out in the fullness of time.
The weather was competely indeterminate insofar as we could not work out whether it was raining hard enough to go down into town by car or not raining hard enough so that we could venture forth with a walk. Anyway, the question was determined for us by our University of Birmingham friend who wondered what our intentions were for the morning. We all quickly decided to rendez-vous in Waitrose where we had a cappucino and some teacakes – good on a wet and windy morning. There is an Asian member of staff who I know well and whose opinion I sought as to the most suitable type of curry/curry paste to tart up my root winter vegetables soup if I wanted to avoid the extra calories associated with a ‘korma’ cooking sauce. My Asian friend went on a quick tour of the shelves which are groaning under the weight of specialised spices and eventually chose one for me to try which is called ‘Baharat‘ which occording to the blurb on the tin was an ‘aromatic and peppery spice blend used in Middle Eastern inspired cooking’ which sounds as though it was going to be suitable. Moreover, you get a beautifil little tin in which the spice is held within a little plastic bag but I am sure I can find a use for the little tin afterwards. When I get home, I compared the ingredients wth by Bart’s version of ‘Curry Powder’ where there is about a 60%-70% overlap in the spices deployed in the mixture. So now I can try both and work out which gives me the flavour I want without the calories. Lunchtime is the by now traditional sea-bass which is incredibly fast both to cook and to serve. Basically, it is three minutes on the skin side, two minutes on the fleshy side, cooled with some capers and served on a bed of young sweet lettuce leaves. I am sure you would pay a fortune for this type of meal in a restaurant but we now enjoy it every single Friday. A bonus is that the entire meal only takes 5-6 minutes both to cook and to serve and we treated ourself to some Vinho Verde (Portuguese white wine from Aldi) whch seems the perfect accompaniment.
We decided to utilise some of our eating apples to have with our custard for an evening meal. They were delicious and I threw a few sultanas in to add a little extra spice to the overall mixture. This is another experiment which is well worth repeating and we also have some left over for another day.
In the early evening, we had a FaceTime call from one of our Hampshire friends who is in Florida visiting some of his wife’s relatives (his wife had died a few months ago but he is still contact with friends and family over there) We were regaling ourselves with the various problems we were having with banks on both sides of the Atlantic. In our friend’s case, of course, it becomes difficult to open an account if you are not an American citizen and basically, all such procedures require a form, signed by a notary, followed by more forms. Like us, he had been stuck in a bank trying to get a relatively simple procedure underatken but this required authoriation with code numbers and goodness knows what else. Like us, he had entered the bank at a particular time and left about 2½ hours later. We agreed to carry on discussions via FaceTime next week and there does seem to be difference in transmission speeds between Hampshire UK and Florida. By way of comparison, I am reminded when our son spent an academic year in a university in Mexico before he went to his university course in this country. Basically a letter took three weeks to get from the UK to Puebla in Mexico (the third largest city)and then a reply, even if written on the same day, took another three weeks to get back. This was the period in history when emails, although known about by the cognoscenti, were not in general use by the rest of the population. When modern technology delivers results like this across continents one can still only marvel.
We didn’t make a particularly early start this morning as we had a few domestic jobs done and then sauntered down to the park, where we knew already that we would meet up with some of our park ‘buddies’. We were not disappointed, either, because we met up with our University of Birmingham friend, Seasoned World Traveller and Intrepid Octogenarian Hiker. Our conversation often turns to the subject of politics and today we were asking the question for how long the UK will continue to vote, and to think, Conservative as the sleazes multiply and deepen. Having said that, there was one opinion poll (possibly a ‘rogue poll’) which indicated that the Tories having been 3 points ahead of Labour were now six points behind – and that all within a week (according to ‘The Sun‘) As always, the Sunday newspapers may well give a deep analysis to this week’s events but it does appear that the Tories are deeply divided between those representing affluent southern seats and the so-called ‘red wall’ Tories who won seats from the Labour party in the (industrial) areas of the Midland and the North. The latter group of MP’s being younger and having attracted ex-Labour voters are extremely critical of the ‘Toff’ tendency in the Tory party where MPs sit on large majorities and often ‘feather their own nest’ by taking on lucrative second jobs (for which they often tout in the first place) We have used over the years to seeing great splits in the Labour party between the leftwingers and the more moderate factions but this is now mirrored in the Tory party. Well, it is going to make for some interesting politics in the next few days. There was one contribution on ‘Question Time’ which really attracted the media’s attention. This was the observation by Alastair Cambell, the ex-Labour party press spokesmen. He has argued 'He breaks the rules on the Ministerial Code relentlessly…If the Prime Minister consistently, regularly, breaks the Ministerial Code why shouldn’t other ministers think they can do exactly the same and get away with it?… We’ve just got to face up to the fact we – sadly, in my view – have elected a prime minister who has no moral compass whatsoever.'The interesting thing about this very personal attack on the Primne Minister is that it has already attracted quite a degree of support and so far, as far as I know, no Tory MP has come to Johnson’s defence.
The weather in the park today was decidely autumnal. Many of the trees had lost their leaves and those that had not displayed some wonderful russet colours. We especially noticed as well that the fallen leaves, in many places, had been dessicated by early morning coolness and a variety of animals (young children, dogs, squirrels) were enjoying a romp throughout the leaves where they had aggregated into clumps. The temperature, though, is not especially cold and so we must say that we have had a pleasant autumn so far. Can the frosts, snow and ice be far behind?
Today was the day when at Church we had a pre-Christmas craft fair. Various worthies in our parish community turn their attention to producing jams, sweets, christmassy decorations and a whole variety of knick-knacks. We did our best to support the local efforts by buying a selection of foodstuffs and Christmas decorations – if I had thought about it, I could have donated some bottles of damson gin to help the proceedings along. We met with two of our close friends who had made some of the things on display and were manning a stall – but of course it was a little cold and dark and not the best time to loiter outside the church.
When we got home, we decided that we would have the other half of the spiced vegetable soup that I made with such success the other day. We had parboiled the vegetables and upon our return from church, all we had to do was to make up some stock and get the SoupMaker started. The results, though, were an abject failure – and the worst soup I have made to date. I think the problem was that ‘the perfect is the enemy of the good’ – I was trying to improve on my previous efforts by avoiding the calorie rich Korma sauce and tried putting in a level teasponful of the recently acquired spice ‘Beharat’ (which just the Arabic for ‘spices’) The result was a soup which was incredibly hot so that it almost burnt our throats and the whole eating experience was terrible. We had to abandon our soups, even though we put in extra dollops of yogurt to compensate and consoled ourselves with some choc-ice bars (which were not only delicious but cooled our mouths down). I do not know if I got the quantities all wrong (or may have got a bad batch) but next time, I will try about a quarter or a third of the level teaspoon to see if I can get the amount of seasoning about right.
Today being a Sunday, I leapt out of bed (fairly) early as I collect my newspaper first thing on Sunday mornings. On my way down, I was ‘spotted’ by a couple of Jack Russell terriers that were being taken for their morning walk. They used to belong to my old friend, the trumpet player Clive who unfortunately died about a year and half ago. But the dogs recognised me and came dashing forward barking (as is their wont) but with thir tails wagging ferociously by way of greeting. I walked with Clive’s daughter-in-law for a hundred yards or so until our paths diverged and we chatted about the jobs we had lined up for ourselves as autumn tasks in the garden. I treated myself to a little of Mozart’s ‘Requiem‘ on my trusty aged iPhone (used as an MP3 player) and got back just a little late but before missing too much of the Andrew Marr show. Today is the day after the ending of the COP26 Climate Change conference held in Glasgow. All seemed to be heading for a world ‘phasing out’ of the coal industry until the China and the India, at the very last moment, forced a change in the draft treaty so that ‘phasing out’ of the coal industry became a ‘phasing down’ which weakens considerably this particular commitment. The conference, as it was hosted in the UK (in Glasgow) was chaired by the cabinet minsiter, Alok Sharma, who could be seen fighting back the tears as he was forced to accept the Chinese/Indian amendments of the draft treaty at what might have been the 59th minute of the last hour of the conference. I have not seen any particular comment upon the way in which Sharma has performed his role but to chair an international conference and to try to achieve consensus amongst twenty-five thousand delegates from 200 countries attending and around 120 heads of state must call for a degree of political skill. This might do him no harm at all in any leadership stakes that the Tory party might eventually have when (if?) they get tired of Boris Johnson.
On our way to the park, a car drew up alongside Meg and I and it was a friend of ours from church who manned one of the craft stores – she was giving us a little spiced ginger cake to enjoy in the park. We thanked her effusively and then met up with a gaggle of our park acquaintances where we engaged in some mutual joshing as well as some more serious conversation. Eventually, though, we started to get a little chilled with standing around so we made for home, knowing there was a Sunday lunch to cook. This is always a bit more work on a Sunday because we tend to slow-cook a joint of meat (unsmoked gammon today) which we always divide into two, once cooked, and save half for another week. This is obviously part of our strategy not to overdo the amount of meat that we eat but it has the exceptionally minor consequence of our doing our miniscule bit to save the planet (by minimising the methane production associated with the rearing of animals for domestic consumption) This afternoon, we really enjoyed watching the English women’s rugby team win their match against Canada by a score of 51-12. Actually, this score flatters England and the Canadians proved quite a tough prospect – this brings the running total of the England women’s rugby team to 17 wins in a row. Next week’s match will be against the USA who may prove a tougher nut to crack. Incidentally, the match commentators on more than occasion apologised for the bad language uttered on the pitch, although I must admit I didn’t actually catch any of it.
The latest COVID news has some interesting twists and turns. Austria is putting all unvaccinated residents into lockdown from midnight on Sunday, the government has said. Anyone over the age of 12 who has not been double-jabbed will only be allowed to leave their homes for work, school, exercise and buying essential supplies. Part of the explanation for this is that Austria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe and an infection rate of 775.5 per 100,000 people compared with the UK equivalent of 348.7 per 100,000. The other interesting bit of news is that there seems to be a cross-over between climate change deniers and vaccine-benefit deniers. COVID-19 conspiracy groups who have attempted to undermine efforts to bring the pandemic under control are increasingly sharing climate change misinformation. One suspects that ‘climate change denial’ came before vaccine denial but now there seems to be a mutual feedback. Only a few days a group of women protestors stood by the side of a busy roundabout in Bromsgrove (where traffic was forced to slow down) with rediculous anti-vaccine sloganser written on them. I did my bit by shouting ‘Murderers!’ at them as I walked past them (on the other side of the road, I hasten to add)
Apart from being the start of another week, I am driven to reflect upon the fact that when today is over (being the 15th of the month) then half of the miserable month of November will be over. I suppose it is a truism to say that as you get older, the days seem to fly past at an increasing rate and personally the date to which I look forward at this time of year is 21st December. This is because after this date, the days are starting to get longer again by 1-2 minutes a day and even though there is bad weather yet to come, at least the days are getting (imperceptibly) longer. Meg and I knew that we needed to visit the High Street in Bromsgrove to get Meg’s spectables adjusted in our local opticians. This they do on ‘while-you-wait’ basis and it only takes a minute or so. After this I called in at Waitrose to replenish a few supplies and then we made our way to the park by car. As we parked in one of the more distant car parks, I could not help noticing a chap who seemed to be pointing his camera at the bare trees. I assumed that he had a app on his phone that identified the trees by their shape and foliage – I know that apps exist like this for plants and shrubs so I assumed that the chap I noticed was doing a similar thing for trees. As I approached him, he was very friendly but he showed me what he was actually doing which was to control a drone he had just purchased with a controller that had on it a screen (to show what the camera on-board the drone was showing) The drone was apparently quite small its camera showed magnificent aerial views of the park which showed all of the trees in their autumn finery. We even manipulated the camera so that the two of us (the drone owner and myself) could be seen as minute pin pricks standing in the car park. I wondered aloud what were the implications for the privacy of individuals with the operation of drones such as these but the drone-owner assured me that to operate a drone like this was beset with a host of restrictions and regulations about what one could and could not do. It is said, of course, that Amazon are experimenting with drones and it may not be too long before a combination of a drone assisted by AI (Artificial Intelligence) will start to drop parcels for us just outside our front door.
As it was a Monday, lunch was easy to prepare as had one half of yesterday’s gammon joint so all we needed to do was to microwave soome baked potato and green-stem broccoli to go with it. After lunch, there was a little sweeping job which I needed to do at the back of the house. Our roof on the easterly side seem to accumulate little bundles of moss on the roof titles which eventually drop off and litter up our patio. Sweeping them up was a simple little job which I did when the daylight was just starting to fade. Then it was brought home to be quite forcibly that Miggles, our adopted cat, has not been seen for over a week either in our back garden or anywhere in the vicinity. I am forced to the view that given the territorial nature of cats and as Miggles was adventurous in the extreme, I could only conclude that Miggles was no more. According to Google predation of cats by fox is extremely rare and it is much more probable that Miggles has come off worst in the fight with another cat, not to mention a road vehicle. Having given us hours of pleasure since he/she walked into our lives, I can only conclude that he/she has now walked out of them. As Miggles often made an appearance at dusk to observe what I was doing (and snaffle a few titbits, I have to say), then I felt a few pangs of separation thinking that in all probability Miggles would never be seen again. I write this without wishing to sound mawkish or over-sentimental but I do have a good series of photos and one or two videoclips to bring back some memories.
And now for some interesting political news emerging from the USA. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has surrendered to the FBI to face criminal charges for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the US Capitol riot. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on one count of contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for a deposition and a second count for refusing to provide documents in response to a subpoena. He is expected to make his first appearance in federal court later on Monday after being taken into custody.
Today was a Pilates day so we needed to make a fairly early start to ensure that we got everything done on time. We collected our newspaper and made our way to the park where we ate our comestibles on one of the ‘lower’ park benches. As we leaving the park, we ran across our acquaintance, the Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was just completing his second lap of the park. We knew that he generally put in about 7km doing his regular tours. What we failed to realise was that after coffee and a bite of lunch he started off aagain to get another 3km under his belt (making 10km for the day). We were in plenty of time and we managed to get home with a good ten minutes or so to spare. This just about have me enough time to change into my track suit bottoms, grab my Pilates things and pop some fishcakes to slow-cook in the oven for us whilst I was away. As I was returning from my Pilates session, a van was appraching the house who was the plumber/central heating engineer who had installed our kitchen tap now leaking vigorously even though it was only about 18 months old. After one look at the tap and examining the name of the maker, it was immediately pronounced ‘faulty’ and as it had a five-year warranty on it, there was no problem with it being replaced by a similar unit. After a quick call to his supplier, we were informed that we could have a whole new tap under the warranty which was reasonably good news. It has to be ordered first and then fitted secondly and who pays for the fitting charge is a moot point (the manufacturer, the central heating firm or ourselves) – however, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
Normally, I do not comment on TV programmes but today I want to make an exception. Last night, when we consulted our TV schedules, we noticed that there was to be a production of the opera Rigoletto by Verdi, to be performed on Lake Constanz in Austria. What we actually witnessed is hard to describe in a few words but I will try. The set was ‘avant gard‘ in the extreme, with a giant clown’s head the size of house plus a huge hand and cuff to complete the scene. If I were to tell you that the mouth and jaw opened to form one balcony as did the two eye sockets (once eyes had been removed), the nasal cavity and the top of the skull providing additional performance areas. The singers had to be ‘miked up’ and transported from one part of the scenery to another by balloons, aerial wires and good knows what else. The rake of the ‘stage’ was so extreme that some of the circus performers who constituted the chorus would fall off and into the lake with a loud splash. (whether this was by accident or by design I cannot tell) Gilda, the heroine was left stabbed and hanging in a sack over the stage whilst the assassin, Sparafucile’s daughter was attired as a knife-throwers assistant, doubling up as a dominatrix and ‘helped’ in her some of seduction scenes (where she lured victims to their deaths at the hand of her father) by a bevy of ‘helpers’ who had exposed breasts the size of pumpkins – and often more than two as well for good measure. Shall I go on? This spectacle was performed before an audience of 7,000 people at a time with no intervals in the two hour performance. One had to view and listen to this with a type of split brain – one half listening to the music and remembering the plot whilst the other half was looking at the aerial antics of the cast members as they were whisked from place to place (you could see their safety lines at times). Did I mention that some of the circus performances were dressed as chimpanzees! And that the clowns head was eventually transformed into a skull by losing its eyes (I think I may have dozed a bit at this point)
The political scene was amazing today. Boris Johnson announced today that he he was going to suggest a ban on practically all second jobs, particularly those where MPs acted as paid political consultants or lobbyists. This announcement was made at the exact second when Keir Starmer was announcing that the Labour party would legislate for a ban on such jobs. Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley Johnson, has been accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards a would-be MP (saying to the prospective MP for Romsey that she would have a magnificent seat whilst slapping her across the bottom) Ant the Yorkshire leg of the HS2 (from the Midlands to Leeds) is now being abandoned, although this was heavily trailed in the Sunday Times on Sunday) One wonders how many marginal constituencies lay along the route, now abandoned.
Today was always going to have a different kind of timetable because our energy company (which we have just decided now to use) are going to have our smart meters updated today. We already have some smart meters installed but not the very latest versions that send readings directly to the energy utility, thus obviating the need for any meter readings. We have been given a time-slot of any time between 8.00am and 5.00pm but we will get a phone call some 30 minutes beforehand so that we can be ‘at home’. I decided to walk down into town early because I needed to collect my newspaper and get some money out of an ATM. All of this worked out well and I got home in plenty of time before the anticipated phone call came through. My installer was a young Asian lad who seemed exceptionally conscientious and meticulous about everything he did. Naturally, as is common these days and no doubt following a protocol, smartphone snaps were taken of all critical things such as existing meter readings and then we were left without power for about 50 minutes. We had to ensure, of course, that all of our computers and other consumer units were switched off and I was a little worried that the alarm system of the house might not function correctly after an interruption to the power supply and that the central heating boiler would similar survive a power down. In the event, both worked perfectly when power was restored and the various computers and other devices within the house power up again so I am now left with a system where I can check what electricity has been used (at 10 second intervals) or my gas consummption (at 30 minute intervals). Now we are just left waiting for our central heating engineer to call around and install our replacement kitchen tap and although promised at 4.00pm, we still have a no-show two hours later. Today, though, has generally been one of those days when everything has gone well as opposed to those days when Sod’s Law prevails (‘if something can go wrong, it will’).
At last, Boris Johnson has tried to draw the sting of the ‘sleaze’ allegations against him and his government. He has finally admitted the Conservative ex-minister at the centre of Westminster’s sleaze row broke lobbying rules – two weeks after the prime minister encouraged a bid to save Owen Paterson from a House of Commons suspension. Under questioning from a Commons committee of senior MPs, Mr Johnson acknowledged that Mr Paterson had ‘fallen foul of the rules’ on lobbying. ‘I think it was a very sad case but I think there’s no question that he had fallen foul of the rules on paid advocacy as far as I can see from the report’ the prime minister told the liaison committee.
Despite the best efforts of our vaccination authorities, it appears that a full ‘4th wave’ of the COVID virus is hitting many European societies. Angela Merkel, the outgoing German Chancellor , is reported as sayting that the 4th wave of the virus is hitting Germany ‘with full force’ as the seven-day infection rate hits a new peak for the 10th consecutive day. Mrs Merkel told a congress of German city mayors that new infections were higher than ever before and the daily death toll was ‘frightening’. The central government and leaders of Germany’s 16 states are due to meet this week to discuss new national restrictions. There are also concerns that Germany’s renowned Christmas markets could be cancelled for a second year running.The question that must remain is whether the UK can ever gets its infection rate below a certain level (of about 39,000 new cases a day) whilst the threat from other European societies remains.
The inflation rate has today hit 4.2% and shows many signs of increasing rather than decreasing. The big economic question is whether this rise in the inflation rate is just a ‘blip’ which like a wave might pass out of the system or whether it will generate further inflationary rises in the future. I have just read in today’s Times that gas prices rose by 17% in one day yesterday. Without wishing to sound smug, I am incredibly glad that about two weeks before the current fuel price increase hit us, I had decided to change my energy supplier and got a rate fixed for the next two years. Having said that, and perhaps inspired by the newly installed consumer unit for the smart meter, I am starting to look quite hard at appliances that are left on (TV on standby) and to turn off unnecessary lights when I see them. I do have an old ‘standard lamp’ where I have just downgraded the bulb from a 100 watt to a 60 watt version without a great diminution in available light. My optician tells me, though, that as you get older, your eyes probably require more light rather than greater magnification so it is a temptation to put in more powerful bulbs in various places.
Today was a typical and non-descript November day, alleviated by the fact that the temperatures are fairly mild. We are told, though, that the jet stream will bend away from us exposing us to a blast of cold arctic air from Sunday onwards. We were a little late getting to the park this morning as I had engaged in an early morning shop-up at Waitrose in Droitwich, getting to the store at about 7.55 and actually being let in about 2-3 minutes later. The way back, though, was marred by the most horrendous traffic jam. There had been some kind of multiple crash in the Droitwich area so the police had intervened, countermanding the traffic lights and attempting to manage a queue of traffic about a mile long. The proximity of the M5 junction only complicated this situation so the journey back home took about 20 minutes longer than I would have anticipated. When Meg and I eventually got to the park, we fell into conversation with a lady dog walker with whom we had conversed before. I had evidently spoken to her about my soup-making activities and I told her about my recent successes and failures. Then we got onto the subject of fell-walking about which we were both evidently keen and we were soon swapping stories about our experiences in the Lake District, Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons. She was explaining to us how her dog (a Staffi?) had developed dementia at the age of 11 and had to be reminded how to do certain things e.g.how to drink water when it was thirsty. I really didn’t know that animals suffered dementia in the same way that humans do and I wonder whether the causes are the same. According to our NHS website, Alzheimer’s disease is thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells. One of the proteins involved is called amyloid, deposits of which form plaques around brain cells. The other protein is called tau, deposits of which form tangles within brain cells. There was a report in the Times a day or so that some scientists have found a way of attacking these rogue proteins in mice – but of course it is a big step to humans.
The principal political news today is the abndonment of the Midland to Leeds branch of HS2. This had been forecast by the Sunday Times and, one suspects, that a certain amount of ‘leaking’ and ‘news management’ has taken place in order to lessen the impact of the announcement. As I indicated in last night’s blog, it is the case that one has to examine the number of marginal ‘red-wall’ (i.e. ex-Labour, now Tory) parliamentary constituencies in the North Midlands and Yorkshire to understand some of the cynical manouvering behind the announcement. These seats will experience the disruption of the construction work but none of the benefits as the new HS2 line would have passed through them. Any government really serious about HS2 would have started with a fast Manchester to Leeds line and then proceeded southwards rather than the other way around.
There is a story in today’s Times that I am finding it hard to believe but almost anything bizarre that emerges from our not-fit-for-purpose Home Office is no longer a source of surprise. The plan is that when asylum seekers land upon our shores, they will be immediately shipped out to Albania whilst their claims for asylum are considered. The costs including accommodation and flights will cost the Home Office £100,000 per refugee. The theory behind this scheme is that refugees will be deterred from the prospect of trying to get imto the uK once it becomes known that they will have to spent perhaps years in Albania – a country not noted for its liberal tendencies. Having rejected a similar approach once before, presumably the Albanian government are tempted by the £3 billion that they might make from the UK government if you multiply up the latest published figures for asylum seekers (31,000) by £100,000. In the same report in the Times, it was also indicated that asylum seekers could refuse to go to a third country as this would be contrary to international law. So I wonder what inducements or sanctions might be applied to asylum seekers who refuse to go to Albania? I have also read somewhere that this problem is becoming a prominent issue ‘on the doorstep’ in the ‘red wall’ seats according to some Tory canvassers – presumably, a degree of racism found in these types of communities finds a cost to to the Home Office budget of £3 billion quite acceptable. When I consult some Home Office budget figures, I discover that the Home Office has a budget of £67m for asylum support costs and for asylum system transformation so the proposed £3.1 billion means that this estimate will have to be increased 45 times over. I wonder what the Treasury will make of this? The story has hardly made any prominence in the UK press to date – is this because it is too mad to call out?
Today started off as a typical Friday as it is the day when our domestic help arrives to do her stuff. We always stop what we are doing for a chat but today we had a slightly different routine as our help typically gives Meg’s hair a bit of a ‘titivate’ as it now some days since our hairdresser called to give Meg a perm. As we happen to look out of the window I espied our especially friendly cat who as adopted us (Miggles) and whom I presumed dead as I had not seen him/her for about 10-12 days. I espied Miggles two gardens away running along the top of a garden fence (an adept skill) so I raced downstairs and prepared a little bowl of titbits which I do keep in store. Upon rattling her bowl on our ourside metal table, the cat appeared within seconds and devoured the titbits (which is about normal) After a lot of stroking and exclaiming ‘Miggles – where have you been?’ all I received was a brief ‘Miaow‘ which did not tell me a great deal. The cat has definitely fattened up a bit so I suspect that there may be another household on his/her extensive rounds who rewards the cat with copious amounts of food. I did supply a bowl of water some of which was lapped up so I suspect that the animal may have been both hungry and thirsty. I now wonder whether we will receive regular daily visits again or whether the visits may becomee a lot more sporadic. I realise now that the semi-grieving through which I went was probably misplaced. I have just read that basic instincts govern felines, so your house cat may go missing for hours or even days at a time. Usually, a cat wandering off is due to curiosity, hunting, or territorial instincts. Cats like to explore their terrain, which could keep them away from home for a while.
We made a telephone call to our University of Brmingham friend and we arranged to meet in our local Waitrose. When we got there, we formed a foursome with Seasoned World Traveller and enjoyed a coffee and cakes together (although I avoid cakes in favour of a slice of brown bread toast, served with Marmite. When I did our weekly shopping, I bought a four-portion of sea-bass which we often eat on a Friday. I persuaded our domestic help and our University of Birmingham friend to share the sea-bass with us. I was delighted when they both accepted my invitation because the sea bass is incredibly quick both to cook and to serve (on a bed of sweet salad) and we treated ourselves to some half glasses of white wine for our guests and a smidgeon of La Gitana (the Gypsy girl) which is a particular form of Manzanilla – a type of dryish fino sherry. So we had an impromptu little luncheon party and our domestic help realised that she had bumped into our University of Birmingham friend once before as they were buying a coffee in the pavilion down in the park. So all of that helped to brighten up a dull but not particularly cold November midday.
We had a lazy afternoon, with a good sustained read of the Times. But as I was preparing a simple supper for us, I heard on the news on the radio that the veteran broadcaster, Andrew Marr, was to leave the BBC after a career of some 16 years. Apparently, in a training video for the BBC he is reported to have said ‘When you join the BBC, all of your critical organs are cut off and preserved in a jar of formaldehyde. Then you pick them up again on the day that you leave the BBC‘ Although not the most penetrating or pugnacious of interviewers (unlike Andrew Neil), one has to admire his ferocious work rate. As well as the Sunday morning Politics show, he is also a prolific author – and I notice that I have an (unread) copy of his ‘A History of the World‘ sitting on my bookshelves and I am sure I have others such as ‘The Making of Modern Britain’. According to a quick search on Google he is the author of some 60 books in total. He also chairs the programme on Radio 4 programme ‘Start the Week‘ on Monday mornings. He is to join LBC and I think he is also scheduled to present a programme on ClassicFM where he will be interviewing guests from politics and the arts.
Days after Austria imposed a lockdown on the unvaccinated, it has been announced that a full national Covid-19 lockdown starts on Monday. This would last a maximum of 20 days and there would be a legal requirement to get vaccinated from 1 February 2021 and is a response to record case numbers and one of the lowest vaccination levels in Western Europe.
Today started in quite a dramatic way but first I need a few words of context. My immediate next-door neighbour in the new estate which now occupies the area in which there was an ancient apple orchard is forever thinking of ways in which his house can be improved. For example the whole of the garden has been replaced with an artificial grassed area with a bar (adorned by a union flag in one corner of the ‘garden – I kid you not) and every type of children’s playground equipment one can imagine -trampolines etc.) The ironic thing about all of this is that one of the plans for the development of the land next door involved the creation of a public playground for children. Whilst this proposal was defeated, the same effect has been created in a private house because all of the local children have flocked to it as though it were a public park – way in excess of the 2-3 children who actually live next door. But this is a digression. During the summer, our next door neighbour has completely transformed the garage into another living room. In order to store ‘garagy’ type things, he has decided to create a ‘structure’ (hard to describe it) which is like a long, thin extension to the house all down one side. This has been built absolutely up to the boundary line – the existing fence has been removed and the new structure is now built within a millimetre of our fence posts. In the last few days, some rafters have started to appear – before this, I had no idea whether it was going to be a flat topped structure or not. On inspecting the new structure from my side, I have worked out that it is going to require some water shedding arrangements in the forms of guttering and once affixed, these would certainly constitute a permanent trespass onto our land i.e. they would be built on land that does not belong to them, as any guttering must extend beyond the extension wall and that is built, let me remind you, 1mm from our boundary line. Now when I woke up I discovered that three workmen were in our garden erecting soffits or similar to the side of the new erection. I quickly donned some gardening trousers and a gardening jacket and went outside to challenge them and ask them what they thought they were doing! About a month ago, I had given permission to one of the builders to come onto our land to point their brickwork – to have refused might have seemed churlish. The next door people have taken this to mean that they have an automatic permission to jump into our garden and do whatever work they want. I informed them in no uncertain terms that I had not granted them any permission to enter my garden – they said that one of the number had called round and asked for permission in the last few days (surely a try on) and I informed them this was certainly not the case. I also indicated that I could not tolerate the intrusion of any structure e.g. guttering that strayed beyond their building line land onto our land. They were reasonably apologetic and said that they would construct a valley gutter presumably within their own building line. I am not sure exactly how they are going to do this despite consulting the internet but that is their problem – unless of course whatever they do finishes off shedding water onto our land which then becomes our problem. I had been contemplating asking the planning authority to come and check on what was being done but this might take some time and building work might carry on apace. However, a warning shot has been well and tried shot across their bows and they seemed to disappear from our garden as quickly as they came. I have considered sending them them a formal letter complaining about their trespass and indicating that any further transgressions would result in calling police/surveyors/lawyers in some combination, but I am staying my hand for the moment because a formal letter could be construed as a ‘dispute’ with a neighbour and this would might be problematic were we to sell our property in the future. Neighbour disputes should be disclosed as part of the sellers’ property information form (also known as a TA6 form) and this is a legal requirement. More on this as it develops, no doubt.
This afternoon, before going to church, I had to undertake a routine MRI scan in one of the local hospitals. This is quite a lengthy procedure wth masses of loud clanking as huge magnets send pulses through your body which can build up a detailed picture of the soft tissues within your body. This procedure took about an hour and half in total and I had to race home, avoiding the streets blocked off to faciliate the Bromsgove ‘Opening Christmas Lights’ celebrations but I made it back and got us to the church on time.
As we expected, today was a fine and bright day. The jet stream has apparently ‘kinked’ the other way and this helped to release the cold artic air which is now descending over the most of the UK. The temperature is declining from a run of several days when it has been greater than the average but now we are expecting something a bit lower than the average which means we are in for a cold few days. Following the incursion into our garden from the neighbour who is building himself an extension absolutely flush with the boundary line, I have now decide to invest in a security camera and the appropriate signs. Fortunately, there is a nearby tree that will provide the best possible fixing point and when it arrives it may help to deter any further incursions. I have emailed a surveyor who did some work for us when we had to determine the exact position of our fence line, requesting that we employ him to give us an expert opinion on our options. All of this equipment should arrive fairly soon so I hope it is not too long before we have a fully installed security system.
I walked down through the clear, champagne like air to collect our Sunday newspaper this morning and treated myself to my weekly ration of Mozart (‘Exultate, jubilate‘) and Bach (the double violin concerto) These two pieces alone are enough to left the spirits,not that they needed much uplifting. Then it a watch of the Andrew Marr show as usual and when this over, we made our preparations for our lunch date to see our friends in South Oxfordshire. We have worked a slightly different route for us and it all worked incredibly well. We had a stop about two thirds of the way down for a quick cup of coffee from our flask and then we proceeded to out friends, arriving one minute before the appointed time. We had taken a little ‘prezzy’ with us of a display of flowers in a little watering can and this immediately took pride of place on an outdoor table where it was just the kind of winter outdoor decoration they liked for that location. Our friends had invited another fellow academic for lunch as well. He was of Dutch heritage but was a citizen of Canada and enjoyed travel around Europe so we had a lot to chat about. He was very good company so together with our friends, we really had the most enjoyable meal and enjoyed lots good food, fine wine and interesting conversation.
Part of the way in which we do things as a family is to have a whiteboard on which items are calendared on a day-by-day basis. This serves the deal purpose of looking at commitments (usually medical appointments) at a glance and it also means that w all know what each other is doing in the days ahead. What is amazing, though, is that when we look at next week, we have an absolutely free week so we may take the opportunity to go ‘down the road’ to Longbridge where a huge Marks and Spencer store has been built on the site where British Leyland/Austin Rover production line turned out MG’s and Rovers. What I hadn’t realised was on this site during World War Two, over 3,000 aircraft were also produced at Longbridge – including the famous Hawker Hurricane, which won around 60% of air victories in the Battle of Britain.
We have started vaguely to think about Christmas, now that the month of November is two-thirds over. Having had a traditional Christmas tree for years, we just might do the absolutely unthinkable and get an artificial tree this year, perhaps going for a ‘silver’ one which we would decorate with coloured lights. I haven’t made my mind up on this and there is plenty of time yet to do the necessary. One of the abiding memories that I have of going to primary school in immediately post-WWII England, as children we were deployed crayoning in little strip so paper to make paper chains. These were glued togeter but seemed to be perpetually falling apart. I think that in those days when everything, including paper, was in sort supply you had to make your own decorations because I do not think you could actually buy such things in the shops (I am thinking about 1951-52 – not that I shopped for anything except ½p sticks of ‘Spanish’. Liquorice is a constituent of the root of the liquorice shrub which grows wild around the Mediterranean, including Spain. … Hence the term ‘Spanish’ has been traditionally used to refer to sticks of liquorice root sweet enough to be sucked as they are (I have found out from Google). Years ago, there used to be a slogan ‘Put Christ back into Christmas‘ which I think is a bit rich as the origins of the mid-winter festival are undoubtedly pagan and Christianity has conveniently latched onto it and colonised it with the Christmas story.
Today was going to be the kind of day that the weathermen predicted – a very clear blue sky and a temperature that had dropped from about 14° to about 7°. We both felt a little tired today, perhaps after the long journey of yesterday so we were determined to take things easily and decided to go by car to collect our newpaper and to visit the park. In the park, we met with a couple of our older Irish friends who we first met and drank damson gin half-in,half-out of the garage last year in the house of mutual friends last Christmas Eve. We were observing the lockdown regulations at the time and hence we were half-in, half-out of the garage but determined to make the best of bad job. Here we are, though, nearly one year later. No sooner had we said goodbye to one set of our friends when our Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker strode into view and again, we expressed our admiration for his hiking ventures. What Meg and I had not fully appreciated was that via the app on his smart watch, he could pretend to be undertaking all kinds of exotic walks, after which he could collect a medal. He said that at the moment, he had a shelf-full full of medals which I am sure are fully deserved. Once he has completed his morning treks, he goes home for a coffee and what-have-you and then turns out again in the afternoon to do another 2km to complete his minimum of 10km for day. And all of this in an 88-year old, as well. Whilst we were in the park we got a telephone call from our central heating engineer who explained to us the problem with the delay in replacing our dripping kitchen tap. He has to get an invoice from his local suppliers and this has to be sent to the manufacturers who will then issue a replacement part – but as you can imagine, all of this will take some days yet.
Although we were going home by car, we pulled up outside the house of our Irish friends because there were a few things about which we needed to chat. He had heard via his wife who reads our daily blog of our problems concerning the new building work next door. He also had a problem with a neighbour’s building construction where gutters had threatened to intrude and so he was sympathetic to our plight as he had encountered a very similar problem in the past. In the late afternoon (and after dark), we received our new external security camera which we are going to deploy on a tree which conveniently overlooks the portion of path which we wish to protect. So this will have to get fixed tomorrow morning. In the meanwhile, I have some additional CCTV warning signs arriving in a day or so. These I can stick on some MDF and attach to the fence so that anybody who attempts to work on the fence on our side will have been well and truly warned that they are caught on camera.
Late on this afternoon, I got the communication from the bank which looks after our Resident’s Association affairs which will allow me to complete the safeguarding procedures online. This looks complicated enough – one’s code is necessary to be sent another OTP code as well as one’s own username and password (which I have forgotten) so I am going to devote an hour or so tomorrow on this and see how I get on. I am somewhat fearful that I will get so far along the procedures and then a little ‘something’ (a forgotten detail) might trip me up but ‘sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof’. Tomorrow is going to be the kind of day that has to be carefully negotiated.
This afternoon, the most extraordinary speech ever made by a British Prime Minister has hit the airwaves. He was addressing the CBI conference and the speech was even more shambolic that that of Teresa May at the Conservative party conference when all of her election slogans kept dropping off the wall. This afternoon, Johnson seemed to have total lost his place, swore and then tried to improvise. He went on a rant explaining the virtues of Peppa Pig and then compared himself with Moses coming down from the mountain with the equivalent of the 10 commandments. He is also trying to justify the government’s new approach to social care which means that ‘poor’ people might have to sell their houses to pay for their care but ‘rich’ people will manage to keep about 80% of the value of it. There may be some Tory rebels in the vote taken later on tonight but with a majority of 80, anything less than a really massive rebellion will mean that the Government will get its way. But this is yet another election promise broken and impacts worse on the newly won ‘red wall’ seats where ex-Labour voters may have cheaper houses which will have to be sold to be used up to fund their own social care.
Today was quite a fine day – although a little overcast, it was still quite a pleasant start to the day. When the post arrived, it contained some of the warning stickers (advertising the presence of CCTV in the vicinity) which had not been anticipated until Thursday or Friday. As these had arrived, they promptly got put into position onto two of our concrete uprights and secured with some really heavy duty tape which should help avoid the ravages of any wet weather.
Meg and I decided to make an earlier start than normal because we always need to get back in time for Mike to depart in good time for his Pilates class. We particularly wanted to get a good walk in today whilst the weather remains mild-ish and before the ice and frosts intrude. In the park we met with our Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who had completed about 7km of his 10km daily routine and also another younger friend who we meet quite often but not as regularly. Then of course we had to make our way home quite rapidly so that Mike could get changed and go down to the weekly Pilates class. On the return home, we had quite an innovative lunch. We both enjoy kippers but they have to cooked with a degree of care so that they do not smell out the house with a cooking spell. This time around, though, we took the expedient of cooking the kippers by a ‘boil-in-the-bag’ method which does minise the cooking smell. We had these with a new type of ‘quasi-rice’ which is on the market but which contains beetroot and some other plant-based foodstuffs but which do not carry the calory overload associated with conventional rice. This all turned out to be quite a delicious meal and certainly one which we will repeat next Tuesday when turn-around times are tight and we have to cook a meal in a hurry.
There is a very interesting COVID story which is starting to hit the airwaves this evening. The nub of the story is that the AstraZeneca virus may be helping to protect the UK population in an interesting way. The chief execustive of AstraZeneca explains why hospitalisations in the UK might be less than in Europe despite the fact that we have an average of approx. 40,000 new infctions every day.
He argues that ‘both the antibody response and the T-cell response were important factors in the body’s immune response to a virus….Everybody’s focused on antibodies, but antibodies you see them decline over time. What remains, and is very important, is this T-cell response and as soon as the virus attacks you, they wake up and they come to the rescue and they defend you. But it takes them a little while, so you may be infected but then they come to the rescue and you don’t get hospitalised.’ This is all quite interesting stuff and it may that a positive ‘spin’ is being put upon the effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine which, of course, has several competitors. For a reason about which even the search engines is unusually opaque, the AstraZeneca vaccine has not been authorised for us in the USA. But from what I can gather, they have ‘given’ away 4 million does of the vaccine to their neighbours (in Canada and in Mexico) and have an option or may have purchased another 60 million doses. So I can only infer that the USA Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) are operating a ‘not invented here’ syndrome which may have the effect of protecting some of their home-made vaccines. It may be that the Americans are being super-cautious because of the reported, and very rare instances of blood clots associated with the Astra Zeneca vaccine. But the incidence of blood clots is incredibly small. For the vast majority of people the benefits of the vaccine vastly outweighs the risks. By the end of April, according to the UK medical regulator, the MHRA, 79 cases were identified, and 19 people died. This was out of a total of more than 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which has been given in the UK at that time. And the incidence of blood cots is less than associated with widely available contraceptive pills (made, of course, by American manufacturers) Forgive me if I ‘smell a rat’ in all of this but I am sure that a degree of ethnocentrism is involved in all of this – it seems bizarre in the extreme that a vaccine is judged good enough for one’s neighbours and for export to every other part of the world but not for your own population. What must be remembered is that the US government authorised the first trials of the oral contraceptive not on its own population but on a population of Puerto Rican women in the mid 1950’s – a population that happened to be black, local and compliant enough to be ‘leaned upon’ by the American medical authorities. Need I say more?
Today we were going to have a different routine because we thought it would be a day for a little shopping expedition. So we went and collected our newspaper by car and then journeyed to Longbridge, the erstwhile manufacturing site for ‘The Rover’ but now devoted to new housing schemes in blocks of 3-4 storeys and some large retail stores including Marks and Spencer. It had been some time since we had been to Marks and Spencer and a few changes were in evidence. For a start, they were advertising for staff anticipating a Christmas shopping spree, no doubt. There was also a new Opticians service which we didn’t know anything about. We were shopping for some underwear for Meg and I have to say, as a mere male, I was throughly confused/bemused by the vast amount of different kinds of brassiere. Needless to say, that I am not an expert in all of this but we had availed ourselves of their fitting service in the past so decided to return to see what was on offer this time. However, I did buy myself some socks but decided to break the tradition of a lifetime. Normally, I buy simple, unadorned socks in a dark colour and do not hunt around for anything ‘fancy’ However, in my Pilates class where we perform in our stockinged feet there is always some friendly rivalry, not to say mutul admiration, of the various animals depicted on our socks. In this friendly rivalry, I have not managed as yet to participate as my socks are normally clerical grey or dull black. However, I took the opportunity to buy a multiple pack of socks with dogs on them but I haven’t had time to examine them minutely enough to discover what kind of dog they are meant to be.
This afternoon was a fairly mild afternoon so I thought I would at least make a start in installing my new video surveillance system for the back fence. When I explored in the garage I discovered I had a sort of flat spatula type of cooking implement (complete with hanging hole) which I had been soaking in some cooking oil before bringing it into use. This would turn out to be an excellent ‘back-plate” for the camera as it could then be ‘hung’ rather than permanently affixed to one particular location. I was also lucky in that I discovered that I had invested in some stout hooks which I had no doubt intended for all kinds of typing up jobs in the garden but had forgotten about. To cut a long story story, once the camera was mounted on its back plate it was quite easy to locate in in a particular spot in a hawthorn tree where I could easily access it for maintenance. Then I took my little piece of MDF (liberated from a skip down the road) and then cut to size for the exact dimensions of the ‘CCTV in operation’ sign supplied with the camera. I made sure the MDF was waterproofed by the addition of very strong black tape that I have and then the sign could be affixed adjacent to the camera. Any intruders ought to be left in no doubt that their presence was being noted and even recorded. So this sign went on the tree and my final ‘warning notice’ was screwed onto the fence. I now have a system which ought to do its intended job which is to deter any errant workmen from jumping into my back gaden in order to complete their building work. The interesting thing is that I have shared my recent experiences with some ex-Waitrose friends who we FaceTime every Tuesday afternoon and they (like our friends down the road) had had a very similar experience to our own. Although the English are temperamentally fairly peace-loving and slow to anger, we really do as a society fall out with each ‘big time’ when it comes to issues such as boundaries and fences.
There has been some shocking news emerging from the channel this afternoon. Some 31 migrants (at the last count) are reported dead and several injured. As the craft carrying them – it may have been an inflatable dinghy- capsized, than perhaps no one survived uninjured. The French and British authorities are both using their resources to hunt for survivors which happened just outside Calais. One wonders where the political blame for all of this will settle. No doubt, the UK government will blame the French for not stopping the dinghy from sailing in the first place – what the French will say, who knows. This item is fast rising up the British political agenda – it has been confirmed that as well as discussions with the Albanians, it is understood that the Foreign Office carried out an assessment for Ascension Island – a remote UK territory more than 4,000 miles away for the ‘remote’ processing of invdividuals caught attempting to cross the Channel.
Thursdays are my early morning shopping days which means that I leap out of bed, have a fairly quick wash, throw some clothes on and start off for Waitrose in Droitwich at about 7.35 Then I should be all prepared to enter the store the minute it opens. Today, I realised a little too late that I forgotten to take with me my trusted collection of Waitrose hessian shopping bags, so I knew I would have to see what Waitrose had on offer when i got there. As it happened, I purchased four of their more recyclable bags but they were only 50p each and their purchase was financed by staying my hand on one or two purchases, plus some vouchers that Waitrose send me from time to time. I managed to get everything that was ‘in my head’ that we needed to purchase and it is always quite a good feeling to get home and unpack knowing that you have not forgotten anything. We had quite a big washing load this morning, as I wanted to wash the five pairs of socks that I had purchased from M&S yesterday, together with some underwear ordered over the internet. I had been sent a text, telling me that the delivery of my ordered Christmas tree from Wilkinsons would be delivered by carrier not tomorrow as first indicated by today – between the hours of 11.00am and 1.00pm. Thinking that a signature might be required, Meg and I stayed in this morning, only to discover a small package had been left outside our front door, so we did not need to stay in at all. The small package was the extension cable and the Christmas tree lights that I had ordered at the same time – so I can only assume that the Christmas tree itself will arrive tomorrow, as originally intimated. So I popped into town by car to collect the newspaper and Meg and I had elevenses at home, rather than sitting on a park bench which would have been pretty cold in any case. In the late morning, I collected our dustbins from where they were left for emptying by borough council Refuse department and ran across Miggles, the cat who has adopted us, sunning himself in a sunny spot at the front of the house. I suspect that there is a bit of reflected heat from our metallic garage door which creates a bit of a micro warm spot suitable for cats. Anyway, true to form Miggles trotted around to the back of the house and availed himself of some Waitrose special tit-bits to which he is particularly partial. Today, when shopping, I noticed some diced sweet potato so I bought that with a view to making a sweet potato and leek soup which will be another ‘first time’ for the soupmaker. When it came to it, I didn’t have any spare leeks but I did have some celery which I used instead – and half of my sweet potato mix. The result was really good – perhaps it’s the addition of an onion lightly fried and about a quarter of a tin of coconut milk that makes all the difference. This is good enough to repeat during the week, without getting bored by it.
Late on this afternoon, my sister phoned from Yorkshire with not very good news. My brother-in-law is in hospital again, this time with a bout of cellulitis and he seems to be getting a bit weaker day by day. My sister sounded very worried and pessimistic about her husband’s prospects and I tried to make what soothing noises I could. Although my sister seems to think that her husband might stay in hospital for quite some time yet, on the other hand hospitals are well known to empty themselves considerably just before Christmastime, no doubt because staffing difficulties over the Christmas period must be extreme. We can only hope that with a bit of timely intervention, by brother-in-law might receive enough amelioration to be home in time for Christmas.
The tragedy of some 27 lives lost in the Channel yesterday has dominated the airwaves and the media throughout the day. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is under massive pressure from the Tory constituencies to ‘do something’ about immigration, not to mention her own vociferous right wing. It looks as though the UK has offered a lot of joint working of the UK police with French police and perhaps, behind the scenes, they are trying to do something about the supply chains stretching back across the continent. I understand that many of these ‘dinghy’ type boats are manufactured in Germany but they have to get to the northern French coast somehow. Having thrown brik-bats at each other for days and weeks now, I think both the French and the UK governments now appreciate that massive collaboration with each other is called for and is really the only viable route forward.
Today being a Friday was the day when our domestic help calls around and we always seem to have a lot of news to share with each other. Today was no exception and so our trip down into town was somewhat delayed. I had phoned our University of Birmingham friend to arrange that we meet in the Waitrose café and we fixed a time for 12.00pm. When we got there, though, we were a little dismayed that the whole of the cafe area was given over to a display of extra Christmas food and goodies. To be fair, they had told us about all of this when we visited last Friday but we had actually forgotten. So we made our way to another coffee bar on the High Street where the coffee is good and they had evidently taken pains to prevent any COVID style cross-infections by installing some perspex shields between each table. How effective these are, who can say but at least it shows that the management was taking these matters seriously which offers a degree of reassurance. So we settled down to some coffee and toasted tea-cakes and stayed sufficiently long chattering that we needed to treat ourselves to a second cup of coffee. We did get onto the absorbing matter of our respective family backgrounds and without going into details, we each have a fairly interesting story to tell each other. Evidently, Meg and I know a lot about the back-history of our respective families but this was news to our friend and similarly the reverse is true. So we had a fairly fascinating time in our conversations and it was interesting for all of us, I believe, that there were some similarities and continuities despite our different histories. This sort of takes me back to a very influential book by an American sociologist, C.Wright Mills who wrote in ‘The Sociological Imagination‘ that sociology connects an individual’s circumstances (biography) with the larger institutional context (history). Possessing the capacity to exercise your sociological imagination, to understand how your life is conditioned by social institutions, is empowering. In 1998 the International Sociological Association listed the work as the second most important sociological book of the 20th century (Max Weber’s ‘Economy and Society’ being ranked as No. 1).
Earlier on today, I had taken our domestic help down into ‘Mog’s Den‘ so that she could see for herself how the building work of our next door neighbour is being built directly against our boundary fence post. In particular, I showed her how the newly installed video surveillance system worked and she was duly impressed. I am giving this an inspection every day now so that I can assure myself that the system is working as intended and that no further incursions seem to have taken place. So as it is now six days since I spotted the intruders last Saturday, it is a case of ‘So far, so good’. Later on this afternoon, we had an update from our plumber concerning our permanently dripping tap.This is undoubtedly faulty but the manufacturer had ‘run out of’ the internal cartridges’ which is an intrinsic part of the system. So a whole new tap unit is on its way to our firm of plumbers and should arrive with them by about Monday or Tuesday. Then, once arrived, it has to be fitted into their work schedules so we are talking about next Wednesday or Thursday before we have a properly functioning unit again.
This afternoon, it appears that international concern about the new variant of the COVID virus is increasing rapidly. The new variant of coronavirus has been found in Belgium – the first case detected in Europe – as the UK’s health secretary warned there was 'huge international concern' over the strain. Sajid Javid said it could be more transmissible than the Delta variant and there is a ‘possibility it might have a different impact on individuals’ who get COVID-19. Designated as B.1.1.529, scientists are still unclear whether existing antibodies would react well to the variant – which has 32 spike protein mutations. Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, branded the mutations 'really awful'.
Relationships between the UK and Fance are hitting a new low today. The French are particularly upset not just by the messages coming from the UK as by the method of transmission. The UK is putting forward a plan suggesting that France should take back anybody that the UK returns to them. What has caused particular ire is the fact that the suggestions to the French government has been published as a public ‘tweet’ (echo of Donald Trump here). The French are saying that the approach of the UK is just political grandstanding and not a serious attempt at the way in which governments should communicate with each other to solve a common problem. As a consequence, Priti Patel has been ‘uninvited’ from a meeting with her opposite number over the weekend. I must say I sympathise with the French complaint about UK behaviour – this is not the way to collaborate with one’s neighbours in the EU.
Last night and in the small hours of this morning was when the storm Arwen passed over the UK, affecting parts of the country in the North East much more severely than the rest of us. Nonetheless, we awoke with a smattering of snow on the ground and the remnants of some sleet and snow flurries as the storm had evidently passed over and we were in the tailwinds of the storm proper. So as it generally quite cold and the temperature outside was down to about 1°-2° although projected to rise a little as the day progressed. In view of these weather conditions, we decided to go down and collect the newspaper by car and to forego the dubious pleasures of a walk in the park with icy-cold winds. So we came home and had our elevenses at home before preparing ourselves a treat of a lunch which is some venison burgers which we had with a baked potato and Cavolo Nero kale. This afternoon we thought we going to have a rugby match of Barbarians vs.Western Samoa but I think they had to pull this match at the last moment as some instances of COVID had appeared in the participating teams. Instead we were treated to Barbarians women vs. South Africa women and this turned out to be yet another rout (60-5) as I remember. Mid way through the afternoon, I ventured into Mog’s Den to check on the electrics of my new fence surveillance system and to check that no falling branches had done any damage overnight. As it turned out, things were fine on both counts but this morning, I had to use a broom to get rid of the heavy, slushy snow that was bending our lavatorial branches right over – and if left as they were, then they could eventually split and cause a real mess to be cleared up. Again, it was a case of a ‘stitch in time saves nine’.
The new variant of the COVID virus has been officially named ‘OMicron‘ and has already caused a flurry of activity from government. Many if not most of the flights from South Africa and neighbouring countries have been banned. Also, in a news conference, Boris Johnson has announced that face-masks are to be made compulsory in all shops and on public transport. These extra regulations are to be reviewed again in three weeks time. He added that day two PCR tests will return for all international travellers, saying the government ‘will require anyone who enters the UK to take a PCR test by the end of the second day after their arrival and to self-isolate until they have a negative result‘. All of this sounds incredibly sensible – two cases of the new variant have already been discovered in the UK (in Chelmsford and in Nottingham) so the time to transmit from Southern Africa to the UK has been incredibly rapid.
This Omicron variant appears to be really nasty. This has all the hallmarks of a really nasty variant. Never before have we seen so many mutations all arising at the same time. At least 30 are in the spike protein, the part of the virus targeted by the vaccine. The scientists are deeply concerned but a lot more investigation is required before we know how dangerous this new variant really is. That doesn’t necessarily mean that vaccines would be completely ineffective against OMicron but it is the impact the individual mutations have on the shape of the spike protein that matters, not the total number. But the fear is that the protein would have shape-shifted and that could reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine. It’s not clear by how much, though one senior expert at the UK Health Security Agency said it was the worst variant seen so far.
The reaction from various parts of the UK has been interesting.The reaction of the Welsh and Scottish governments has been to approve the new regulations and to point out that this is what may happen if you relax regulations (e.g. on international travel) too far. Andy Burnham the mayor of Greater Manchester has opined that ‘This is right but shows why they shouldn’t have been relaxed. It will now be harder, and take longer, to get levels of compliance up to where we need them to be.’ The next week or so are going to be quite critical in our reactions to this new variant. One particular feature is to work out just how transmittable the new virus will turn out to be – if it spreads even faster than the Delta variant, then we are in real trouble! A second feature is what degree of illness the new variant induces – it could be that even if a person is infected, the results might be less (or even more) severe than other variants. Existing vaccines may prove to have some limited effect but as of today the scientists have not the opportunity to test how vaccines have any effect upon the new variant. In practice, we may not get the answer to this question for several weeks.
Today being a Sunday was the day for me to get up early and walk down to our local newsagent. Yesterday we saw the aftermath of storm Arwen which did its worst yesterday. This morning it was quite cold but there was no icy wind so it was not an unpleasant walk for me this morning. In our hall at home, we have a piece of furniture called a ‘Monks bench’ which combines a temporary set with a cupbord underneath and in this we store hats, gloves and scarves. In the course of time, the contents have got rather jumbled so I spent a certain amount of time sorting out a pair of usable glothes from the jumble inside. Once I retrieved the various left hand and right hand gloves, I have left them all out so that we can have a good rationalisation. I retrieved, though, one pair with quite good cuffs on them and they made my hands as warm as toast on my walk down. After a breakfast of porridge (what else in these weather conditions), Meg was still feeling a little shivery so she stayed warm at home whilst I walked down to the park with a flask of coffee. There I met our University of Birmingham friend who was having a coffee with Seasoned World Traveller so once I had ascertained where they were in the park, I joined them in their coffee sojourn. We started off our conversation exchanging what we knew about the Omicron variant of COVID and then moving onto deeper questions,more related to the philosophy of science than anything else. Then it was time for me to drag myself away and make sure that the chicken I had put in the oven for lunch had not exploded or got overcooked. But everything was fine so lunch was quite easy to prepare. As it still quite a cold day, I am going to prepare the second half of our sweet potato and leek homemade soup into which I add one quarter of a tin of coconut milk and a soupspoon full of a Balti cooking sauce which should give it just a little degree of spice flavour, without being overwhelmed by it. This has again turned out OK, I am pleased to say.
On the subject of Omicron, Sky news is reporting the opinions of Professor Schoub, the award-winning author of ‘AIDS And HIV In Perspective’ who previously advised the World Health Organization (WHO) on several vaccine programmes He said: ‘This virus is a plastic virus – in other words, it tends to mutate very readily. And under conditions where it is mutating – particularly in people who might be partially immunosuppressed, in other words where they’re not getting rid of the virus – that remnant virus which remains will be selectively enriched to escape immunity and to become more transmissible‘
This is an interesting perspective and underlines the importance of getting as many of the population vaccinated as possible. There was a fairly heart-rending article in the edition of the ‘Sunday Times‘ today. This was written by a palliative care doctor who was explaining that many of the intensive care beds were actually filled with unvaccinated COVID patients. Some of them actually beg to be vaccinated – all of which is of course in vain. One can only imagine the psychological angst of the medics who are desperately trying to keep alive those in intensive care beds who are there only because they refused to believe in the efficacy of a vaccine which could have saved their lives.
Although the government has always claimed that schools were ‘safe’ places, they ignored the fact that school pupils could be carriers of the virus and could infect the adults around them in schools. But tonight, the government is suggesting that all Year 7 pupils (basically 11-12 years old and upwards), as well as all adults and visitors, must wear masks in communal areas. They are also privately desperate for the school holidays to begin in about 3-4 weeks time because this, too, will help to stop the spread of the virus. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is now carrying out targeted testing in places the person visited when they were likely to be infectious – including, it is thought, Westminster. Of course if Westminster is threatened, does this account for the speed of the government response? The UK government is calling for a meeting of all of the G7 health ministers so that a coordinated response to the new variant can be organised.
It seeems incredible to believe that the month of November has practically ended and on Wednesday, we will usher in the month of December. ClassicFM to which I listen a lot is heavily trailing the fact that Christmas music will have an official start next Wednesday which is, of course, 1st December. They must have taken a policy decision that exposing people to Christmas music before the end of November is not a good idea.
The cold weather snap continues today and the weather remains raw. Judging by the appearance of cars parked outside, we had another dump of snow during the night so some of this was removed by the old trick of a watering can of warm water trickled onto the windscreen. Some time in the past, I had invested in one of those more specialist watering cans that had an especially long spout and it is incredibly useful on occasions like this. With having porridge every morning for breakfast, we have been running down our milk supplies so I popped into town by car to pick up extra supplies of milk and porridge – whilst parked nearby, I popped into Poundland for one or two little items that I needed.
The news today has been dominated as might have been expected by the increasing concern over the Omicron variant of COVID. As we write, the number of reported cases has risen to 11, with a cluster of 6 cases in Scotland. Judging by the speed of the government’s response so far, it indicates a degree of worry within Government circles that this variant could wreak massive damage if it evades the vaccines currently on the marketplace. The government is evidently playing for time as the scientific community is desperately seeking answers to various questions asked of the new variant such as how virulent is in in transmitting itself? Does one get seriously ill with this version of the virus? To what extent has the virus got itself embedded at the community level (i.e. there is no evident link with any of the South African bearers of the virus). To illustrate this degree of concern and also so that the government can get to grips with the scientific analysis that it being rapidly undertaken, then the following steps have been announced by the government:
• Booster jabs for everybody over the age of 18 • Shortening the gap between a second jab and a booster from six months to three months • Giving a second jab to children aged between 12 and 15 – again after no less than three months • Severely immunosuppressed people given access to another booster – meaning for some, a fourth dose this winter • Boosters consisting of either a Pfizer vaccine or a half dose of the Moderna jab
All of this is quite a marked change of gear. There is quite a lot ot talk about ‘saving Christmas’ but a thought that must be in the back of the Government’s mind is the pressure that placed on the NHS which is already practically overwhelmed as it attempts to deal with the backlog of patients not having been seen or treated during the first 18 months of the COVID provisions. The tentative knowledge that we have do have at the moment is that the Omicron variant might prove to be highly transmissable but so far it appears that this strain is not more virulent than others and it may even be that the effects are that it is even milder. The analogy being used is that of a race between the virus and the vaccine manufacturers. So far, the virus had undoubtedly got a headstart because it might be out there in the community (and perhaps as many as at least eleven countries so far). In the meanwhile, we have to tweak a vaccine, manufacture it and then get it into the arms of a population which must take a matter of weeks and/or months by which time the virus might have infected even more and mutated yet again. Scary stuff.
There is a crisis in the British pig industry but the stories have been entirely relegated in the news media because of the migrant crsis and deaths in the English Channel first and then the mergenec of Omicron second. The slaughter of healthy pigs has begun on British farms, with farmers forced to kill animals to make space and ensure the continued welfare of their livestock, amid an ongoing shortage of workers at slaughterhouses. Pig farmers have been warning for several weeks that labour shortages at abattoirs have led to a backlog of as many as 120,000 pigs left stranded on farms long after they should have gone to slaughter. Practically all of this is, of course, caused by Brexit as many the more unplesant jobs in our abbattoirs were performed by workers from Eastern Europe who have been ‘encouraged’ to return home. The COVID pandemic has added a twist to this labour shortage, of course. One always has to add that the British population as a whole voted for this to happen, so if that is what people wanted, then why should we be surprised when it actually happens? However, now is the time when surely we could do with thousands of additional nurses – one estimate is 50,000 are needed immediately. One estimate is that we need an additional 1.1 million nursing and social care staff by the year 2031 and where are these to come from?
Well I must say I am rather glad to be at the last day of November which I always think to be a type of ‘non-month’ and one that has to be lived through rather than actively enjoyed. The month of December always has a few things in it to be enjoyed. Evidently, there is Christmas Day itself (which, I must say, has to be carefully managed) but then there are the social events with friends which is always a real pleasure. In a perfectly managed world, I suppose one should have massively cut back on the carbohydrates to prepare for the excess of carbohydrates with which one’s system is assailed in the latter days of the month. At the same time, I always look forward to December 21st/22nd of the month, after which it starts to get lighter by an imperceptible minute or so per day and this helps to raise the spirits.
Tuesday is my Pilates day so we never quite have time enough for a normal walk down into town. We got up somewhat late this morning so all we could squeeze in was a quick dash to the newsgents by car before we returned home for a quick elevenses and then I began my walk to my Pilates class. As a matter of tradition, we generally wears pairs socks desporting some kind of animals – our teacher’s favourite socks, for example, always seems to be a pair displaying seals. When Meg and I went shopping to M&S last week, I hunted out some socks and discovered a collection of socks which happened to feature dalmatians (the sausage dog, that is). But this was enough for me to awarded the prize of ‘sock wearer of the week’ which makes a change. After next week, we shall all flash our Christmas socks at each other and I am pretty sure I have some stuck in a drawer somewhere with reindeers frolicking around which, evidently, I only wear at Christmas time. When I got home, we were going to have a fish-based meal and last week I had bought some mackeral fillets that could be eaten either hot or cold. In order to solve the dilemma of how to heat up the mackeral fillets without smelling the rest of the house out, I hit upon the idea of taking some of the mackerel fillets (that could be eaten either hot or cold) and putting them on a small plate absolutely covered in cling film. This was then lowered into a saucepan of boiling water which I hoped would impart a little of heat to them. This sort of worked but I think I need to refine my technique a little before I repeat the experimemnt next week.
Now for the ‘isn’t that completely obvious’ time. I have been doing a little bit of research into disposable batteries – and it isn’t really obvious that you get what you pay for. Like the rest of the population, I tend to use Duracell or Energiser for things that I regard as absolutely essential such as my computer mouse. More trivial things can take the cheaper ‘Poundland‘ type offerings. Well, we all know that lithium batteries are the best and the most long-lasting but they do cost the earth compared with the others. The middle of the range are the alkaline batteries which have a wide range of uses. The cheapest battery of all (the kinds that Poundland sell 10 for £1) are typically zinc batteries and self-evidently do not last for long. The important thing that one must remember is whether you intend to put the battery into a ‘high drain’ device such as a digital camera, portable video game or radio-controlled toys. By contrast, low drain devices are things like clocks, smoke alarms and a computer mouse. Whereas you would use lithium or alkaline batteries for high drain devices, you can put the ‘el cheapo’ batteries into low drain items. The battery makers Duracell reckon that many of their batteries are thrown away with up to 40% of their potential powr unused. If it ‘fails’ a high drain device then it might have a lot of useful life left if put into a law drain decide. That I didn’t really know or appreciate. One trick is to take out you ‘Duracell‘ battery out of your high drain device, leave it for a few hours, warm it slightly (top of a radiator is excellent) and then insert into a low drain device of which clocks are the best example.
The location of the Omicron cases has been revealed. They are as follows:Barnet 2 (new), Brentwood 1, Camden 2 (1 new), Haringey 1 (new), Liverpool 1 (new), North Norfolk 1 (new), Nottingham 1, Sutton 1 (new), Wandsworth 1 and Westminster 2 (1 new). Of the nine cases in Scotland, five are in Lanarkshire and four are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Boris Johnson has given a news conference in which it has been announced that all adults in the country should have received a booster by the end of January. Is this a case of being really prudent or a panic reaction by the government?
Well, I have to say that today has been a thoroughly miserable day. Meg and I have not managed a walk down to the park for a day or so for one reason or another but we decided to risk it today as the weather seemed to offer a brief respite. But no sooner had we collected our newspaper and made for our customary park bench when a really icy wind laden with a kind of stinging drizzle assailed us. This was so unpleasant that we shared one cup of coffee between us and quickly packed up our bags and struck for home. When we got out of the park, the stinging rain abated somewhat but we have to say that this was one of the most unpleasant walks we have had for several months. As soon as we got home, we started to prepare our lunch which we could not prepare too soon. It was one of those days when wet clothes had to be shaken off and stored in the garage, my leather hat had to be dried out and we gradually got round to being slightly less miserable once we were home and dry. Later on in the day, I has the exciting job of picking the usable morsels of meat off our chichen carcase which we will form the bedrock of a curry for tomorrow’s lunch. If the weather worsens again, then a hearty curry will be much appreciated. We have generally maintained the habit of preparing a curry from the leftovers of the weekly joint, a habit we acquired in our student days and have maintained for about 56 years now.
The COVID news this evening is about what one might expect. The number of cases of variant Omicron has risen to 32 as I write and one hopes this does not explode into hundreds or even thousands in the few weeks ahead. The news from government today is that that we may know within about 2-3 weeks how severe and transmittable the Omicron variant will prove to be. The fact that the government policy is now to go ‘hell-for-leather’ to get all of the adult population vaccinated both with two doses and a booster by the end of January is an indication of the race against the virus. It may well be that in about three weeks time, it may become somewhat more clear whether or not we are losing the race and we need to look forward to even tighter restrictions (or a lockdown by any other name). Meanwhile two supermarket chains (the Co-op and Iceland) are saying that their staff will not enforce the wearing of masks within their stores – despite the fact that this is now the law of the land. I must ask myself how it is that supermarket chiefs take it upon themselves to inform their staff which of the laws of the land are to be obeyed and which ignored, however unpleasant some of the reactions of customers might be. Can supermarket chiefs be prosecuted to telling their staff to not enforce the law, I ask myself (although it would never happen). The number of new cases of infection which has been hovering around the 39,000-41,000 mark for a few weeks now as today risen to 48,000 which sounds that infections are going in the wrong direction (when, in theory, they should be going down as the proportion of the vaccinated pop[ulation increases)
There are two political stories to note this evening. The first is the revelation that Downing Street threw a party for their staff last December when the rest of the country was well and truly locked down and relatives could not even visit their families over the Christmas. There seems to have been quite a ferocious row at Prime Minister’s Questions today in Parliament and Boris Johnson does not deny that the party took place but just that ‘all of the relevant rules were followed’. The rule in place at the time was that Christmas parties and functions should not take place so the Prime Minister’s assertion that all of the rules were followed appears to be, to put it baldly, an untruth.
The other big story comes from the United States where the US Supreme Court is being asked to either approve a draconian abortion law that radically retricts the availability of abortions. It is today considerering a Mississippi law which asks the court to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Its final ruling, due in June next year, could cut off abortion services for tens of millions of women. Although the case is being heard today, I am not quite sure why it should take 7 months before a ruling can be made. If the Mississippi law is upheld, then it will open the floodgates for many other conservative-run states to pass similar legislation which will all be deemed to be ‘constitutional’ Of course, all of this is a consequence of the fact that Donald Trump got many of his nominees (ultra conservative) to become Supreme Court justices and they hold power for life (i.e. until they die). The balance of the Supreme Court was altered from about 5:4 to 6:3 (conservative vs. liberal) This means that the legacy of Donald Trump could persist for another 30-40 years (or until the balance of the Supreme Court alters)
This was a day for leaping out of bed early and heading off for Waitrose bright and early. After a very vivid dream (basically it involved smuggling myself from Mexico into Brazil, bartering for a large and gaudy cake and then smuggling myself back again, all without papers) I made some tea in the early morning and promptly fell back to sleep again. After I had thrown some clothes on, the weather had been so frosty overnight that the car required the trusty old method of a trickle of warm water across the windscreen and window areas before I could set off. I got to the supermarket only a few minutes after the opening time, got some cash out of their ATM and then proceeded with my normal weekly shopping. Finally, I got home a little late having filled the car up with petrol on the way home and then Meg and I had a quick breakfast and a slow unpacking of the shopping. Then we had a long phone call lasting ½ hour to work out what had happened to our Christmas tree which should have delivered a week ago and seems to have ‘stuck’ in the carriers. As we going out in the afternoon, we again popped out in the car to pick up our newspaper and then proceeded to prepare our lunch of chicken curry. Half way through this, our central heating engineer arrived and we were mightly glad to see him. The kitchen mixer tap which was a good make and failed after only about 18 months of use was still covered by the five year warranty. But our central heating firm had to request an invoice from their wholesalers that had to be sent to the manufacturers who then had to authorise and post on a replacement mixer tap. All of this process has taken the best part of 2-3 weeks in which time, Meg and I have had to suffer a slowly running tap which couldn’t be turned off and after a while, this proved irritating beyond all measure. But the replacement tap is of a variety named ‘Easyfit’ and indeed so it proved. The whole job took only about 5 minutes to fit and as well as fully functioning tap, we could then restore the contents of the undersink cupboard to their proper home (relieved of their contents in case more serious access was required).
This afternoon, we had been invited out to visit close friends who had just moved house. It is always an interesting experience to see furniture that you are used to seeing on one place relocated to entirely new surroundings but the overall effect was stunning. The new flat contained a mixture of both the existing furniture, some bought from the previous owners and some newly purchased but they blended with each other perfectly. Moreover, the views from the new dwelling were absolutely fabulous and we were delighted that everything had worked out well in the end. When you see someone else’s place, you are never fully aware of the various little traumas that have been involved getting things to exactly the way they would like them. So it was back home braving the Bromsgrove rush hour which I had forgotten can be truly dreadful if you happen to find yourself in the middle of it.
The COVID news this evening sounds rather alarming. Omicron has a ‘substantial’ ability to evade immunity from a previous COVID infection, according to the first real-world study of the variant’s effect. The finding suggests the new variant could cause a substantial wave of infections, even in populations with high levels of antibodies. Researchers at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) warn their finding has important public health implications. They add: ‘Urgent questions remain regarding whether Omicron is also able to evade vaccine-induced immunity and the potential implications of reduced immunity to infection on protection against severe disease and death.’ On the other side of the equation, there are also reports that cases of the Omicron variant might be much more infectious but has symptoms that are mild rather than severe. The trouble about all of this is that the data upon which predictions are based is at best, incomplete, and at worst misleading. The early findings from the South African data (where the variant was first identified) were from a population that was predominantly young and we know that the COVID virus, in general, affects the young less severely than the old. So at this stage, it is incredibly difficult to form any firm conclusions and we just have to wait for 2-3 weeks until we have a sufficiently large data set upon which we can draw even tentative conclusions. The debate in this country is still intensifying as to whether we should hold Christmas parties as normal, scale them back radically or avoid them altogether. Some government advice is not particularly helpful or enlightening such as ‘do not snog a stranger at a Christmas party‘ which sounds rather like the first entry in the Manual of the Exceedingly Obvious.
Friday has rolled around once again and normally it is the day when we meet our University of Birmingham friend either in the park or in a local coffee bar, depending on the weather. Today, though, we had an exchange of text messages and we have agreed to meet tomorrow rather than today, all being well. Today, we had our usual natter with our domestic help whose ‘day’ it is on a Friday and we always seem to have a good laugh, one way or another. As the weather was a little indeterminate this morning, we decided that we would collect our newspaper by car and then go and park in the ‘top’ carpark in the park. This way, we have a little walk to give us a breath of fresh air and to blow away the cobwebs but without getting thoroughly chilled. Meg is still fighting off some sniffles and although it is not a fully fledged cold, we are not tempting fate by getting needlessly chilled. Later on in the day we decided to sort to sort out our collection of gloves that had been populating the piece of furniture in our hall called a ‘Monk’s bench’ and bring some kind or order to the motley collection. Once we had matched up the pairs, we divided them into ‘quality’ items such as real leather gloves and ‘utilitarian’ gloves, normally made of a wool mixture and made weather resistant somehow (the trade mark is ‘Thinsulate’). We did end up with a collection of leather gloves, woollen gloves, fingerless gloves (that we must have thought useful at on time e.g. if you don’t want to take gloves off whilst tapping the keys of an ATM) and a couple of odd gloves of which the companion must have been lost. My first thought was, of course, to throw these away but, in the event, they finished off in the boot of the car where I reckoned they would always come in handy to clean off a misted or frozen window.
Today being a Friday, we had our by now traditional meal of sea-bass with salad – which only takes about 5 minutes to prepare which is just as well as we often seem to run late on Friday mornings. This evening, we raided our supply of diced carrots and parsnips from which we made another hearty soup, given a slightly spicy twist by the addition of a spoonful of Balti cooking sauce. I am getting into the habit of buying from Waitrose some diced vegetables known by the Italian name of ‘Soffritto’. I had no idea what the constituent parts of this mixture were but, by consulting the web, I have learnt that Soffritto’ is actually a mixture of diced onions, carrots and celery with perhaps a bit of garlic thrown in and tossed in an olive oil. This means that the hard work of dicing the vegetables has already been done and after a bit of parboiling it just have to be thrown into the SoupMaker, together with some ‘sweated’ onions and eventually served with some croutons and a big dollop of yogurt (which helps to cool it down).
The Omicron variant news coming this evening continues to be a source of concern. More than half those who were confirmed to have been infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus in the UK were double jabbed, health officials have said. A new technical briefing from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says 12 of the 22 known cases up to 30 November had been fully vaccinated. Admittedly, this is a very small number of cases upon which to base a trend but I am not sure that this news has fully sunk in with the general population. If one has to go in for ‘clutching at straws’ time, then there are a few very slight indications that the severity of the new variant might be less than than other variants and, in particular, the Delta variant which is now the dominant one.
This afternoon, I spent a certain amount of time completing the most esoteric questions that are a necessary to fulfill the safeguarding provisions of our community bank account. One of the questions asked whether any members of our group had any dealings whatsoever with the ‘Crimea’ which is, of course, the bit of the Ukraine that Russia seems to have reclaimed in the last few years – with more to come. The interesting thing about all of this is if I did have any connections with the Crimea are other outposts of the Rssian empire, I would hardly tick the box marked ‘Yes’ on the form. I seem to have got to the stage where the whole of my complex form seems to have been completed and submitted and I am now told that is being ‘considered’ by the SafeGuarding unit of the bank so I have to wonder all of this is going to take.
Today dawned fairly bright and clear and the only thing to disturb our equilibrium was that quite a cold and gusty wind blew from time to time. On hearing some banging noises from an adjacent garden, we looked out of our bedroom window and noticed that our next door neighbour was completing the construction of his garage-type replacement adjacent to his house and right up to our boundary fence. We spent several minutes observing them closely, largely so that we could act immediately in case there were any more trespass to occur as it did about a fortnight ago. The builders (evidently, employed to work over the weekend) were busy putting on a type of damp proof membrane, fastening it down with battens and finally hanging the tiles on it. When they evidently having a coffee/cigarette break, I popped down into Mog’s Den to ensure my video camera was working OK (which it was), largely to act as a reassurance that we wouldn’t have workmen hopping over the fence into our garden to finish off the job. Meg and I walked down to the park, where we met with our University of Birmingham friend by prior arrangement and he turned up with Seasoned World Traveller so that we could make up a foursome. About a couple of days ago, Meg and I had watched the first hour of the spoof disaster mobie ‘Airplane‘ that we had first seen in a little local cinema in Leicestershire about 36 years ago. We still enjoyed many opf the visual gags and some of the dialogue, funny at the time and still funny, could not be repeated in these more politically correct times. So we spent a few happy minutes mutually recalling some of the more memorable scenes in this and similar movies before we were joined by one or two of the local dogs (complete with their owners) who sensed that food was in the offing whilst Meg nd I were consuming our coffee and biscuits and they hung around expectantly, to the chagrin of their owners, waiting for crumbs to fall from the rich man’s table, as it were.
We collected our Saturday newspaper and were then fortunate to bump into one of our Irish friends who we had not seen for several days as we had tended to make our journeys by car rather than walking down in the last few days. We got invited around for coffee tomorrow morning at 11.00am to which we will look forward tremendously as we have quite a lot to catch up with one thing or another. We also saw some of our other oldest friends who had been espcially busy preparing Christmas wreaths which are sold through the church. Having spent some time last year getting suitable screws into the walls in our porch upon which to hang our wreaths, we will be delighted to receive ours in about a week’s time. Needless to say, we haven’t heard any more about our missing Christmas tree so I expect that will be even more hassle and another ½ hour wait on the customer helpline on Monday.
We had to have a ‘quickie’ lunch as we got in a little late after our conversations this morning. The wind was biting cold and most unpleasant on the way home so we were delighted to get home as soon as we could. One thing that we could not help noticing as soon as we got home was that the building work next door seems to have been largely completed. I took Meg down into ‘Mog’s Den‘ so that she, like myself, could inspect the new edifice at close quarters. From what we can tell, the overall result is not displeasing – the bricks match up with the original house and the new construction has been tiled. From what I can tell, there has been no provision made for any rainwear goods so I suspect that after my intervention of a couple of weeks ago they have decided not to bother. The ‘catchment’ area for any rainwater is not huge but nonetheless I suspect that in the fullness of time a certain amount of water, not to mention snow, will shed onto our land. I will have to decide what to do about this a little later on. At the same, I showed Meg my new video camera which is trained on the fence and provides us with a measure of security, as well as capturing images of any would-be trespasser. Much to my surprise, Meg thought the installation looked very professional and would certainly do the job for which it was intended. At the same time, I can check that the electronics are all working as they should.
Meanwhile the number of Omicron cases has risen to 160 in the UK. The government has also announced today that all travellers to the UK will have to have a negative test before they are allowed to travel to the UK.The rule applies to all travellers visiting the UK or returning from a holiday, regardless of vaccination status, and will come into force from 4am on Tuesday 7 December.
Winter has set in with a vengeance and today dawned with a generally raw and icy blast. As is customary, I walked down to our local newsagent on my own coming back in time to watch the Andrew Marr show. The deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, was interviewed and I was wondering how he was going to reply. He admitted that a ‘formal party’ in Downing Street last December would have been contrary to Covid-19 guidance saying it would have been ‘the wrong thing to do’. However, Boris Johnson had assured him no rules had been broken over the alleged gathering last year, despite reports from various sources in several newspapers. So that is all right then! Meanwhile, some of the Sunday newspapers are recounting poignant stories of how about a year ago now, relatives were not allowed to be present at the deaths of their close relatives (observing the rules) whilst a party was taking place in Downing Street (where ‘no rules were being broken’). Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday has not denied that the party took place but has denied that any rules were broken. But holding a party (breaking the rules) is not breaking the rules. This is Alice in Wonderland politics and I wonder for how long the present government can continue with such rampant dissimulation.
Meg and I got into contact with our University of Birmingham friend to indicate we would have to have a truncated meeting this morning as we were off to visit our friends down the road for a coffee. In the event we decided to call off our meeting in the park and we made our way, cold and shivering, to have coffee and a chat with our Irish friends. We spent a very happy couple of hours and it was particularly nice to accept the offer of a hot toddy (whisky and boiling hot water) to help to overcome the effects of the cold and streaming colds that are afflicting Meg and myself. I think it migh be another case tonight, as last night, to have a ‘cold relief’ type of medication before we settle down for the night. Our chat was very useful to us, though, in lots of ways because as well as a laugh and a joke, we discussed some of the ways in which we might align our holiday plans for later next year. It could be that we go off to our normal haunts in Northern Spain next year when the coast has cleared (in the spring) and then we might holiday together on the same pilgrimage to Rome and Assissi in Italy in the autumn. Of course, so much depends on how much damage the new COVIFD variant of Omicron manages to wreak on the European population and how viable travel to any European country turns out to be.
In the Sunday Times, I read a wonderful quote which rather tickled my fancy. This was an apparently an old expression that if you being pursued by a bear who wants to eat you, then it not important to be at the front of the group of people who are running away but rather one should strive not to be the slowest person in the group (at the back). This rather reminds me of an article which I read decades ago and this was entitled ‘Protection of the Inept’ The idea here is that all organisations contain within people who are obviously inept in their current role for the psychological well-being of the other organisation members. These may well say (or think) ‘However badly I am doing, I am not doing worse than X’), the principle being that all organsations find it useful not to sack evidently inept people. Whether this was intended to be a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ article or a serious organisational principle, I am not in a position to determine – but it is an amusing idea. I am pretty sure that I can discern this princple at work in every organisation in which I have been employed (since 1962)
It is scary time in the Omicron saga again tonight. The number of new infections in which Omicron has been identified has leapt by 50% in a single day. Whilst the absolute number of cases is not huge at this stage, the rate of increase is dramatic. The cases have risen from 160 yesterday to 246 today and this must be getting close to an exponential rate of increase. According to the scientists, we have to wait for about three weeks (which takes us very close to Christmas Day) before as a society, we can discern what degree of threat the new variant poses to us and what further measures might be necessary. I can see another lockdown coming on but no doubt it won’t be called that but will have the attribution of ‘Plan B’ or something similar. I think the degree of complacency in our current political leadership lamentable – one suspects they are holding their fingers and hope it all goes away (but we have to have lots of socialisation over Christmas to give the new variant an especially forceful boost)
We woke up to quite a raw day today but there no active frost or snow – just a constant icy drizzle. Last night, Meg and I were fighting off streaming colds so we treated ourselves to our second hot toddy of the day (whisky, sugar, lemon,boiling water) and took some cold and ‘flu relief powders as we were going to bed. We woke up feeling marginally better so perhaps the self-medication was proving its worth. I needed to pop into Waitrose to buy one or two things of which we were running short so we went down in the car, collected our newspaper and provisions from Waitrose and then shot home to have our elevenses at home. We cooked ourselves a small joint of gammon (transferred from yesterday) and then settled down for some afternoon chores. One of these consisted in hanging onto the help line of the customer services firm from which we have purchased an artificial Christmas tree but which has got stuck somehow at the carriers. I somehow feel this is a saga which is going to run and run but as I have already paid for the tree, I feel I must try and get through the suppliers (on the non-suppliers) somehow.
The health secretary has admitted that the latest Omicron figures are such that he is uncertain whether or not the UK will be knocked off by the latest figures which have now risen to 336. Sajid Javid has admitted that there is now ‘multiple community transmission’ which means basically that the new variant of the virus is all around us and looks as though it is outcompeting the Delta version of the virus and will become the dominant variant of the virus within a few weeks i.e. by Christmas. What I think is quite interesting is to see how a virus-weary population might respond to all of this and whether it will impact on the family visits and celebrations over the Christmas period. I would imagine that many of the traditional Christmas parties might be abandoned or radically scaled back but I doubt that it will stop people seeing their relatives as happened last Christmas.
We have received some very worrying news about my brother-in-law, still in hospital in Yorkshire. It looks as though the cancer from which he is suffering has spread from his spine to his liver so may sister and the rest of the family are preparing for some very sad news in the days and weeks ahead. Because of COVID restrictions, only one member of the fairly large family may see my brother-in-law at a time (my sister has four children and they all live fairly locally) The family are doing all that they can to support my sister who now seems resigned to the inevitable – but it is a very sad and troubling time for all of the family.
We are looking forward., if that is the right term, for the latest storm to sweep across the country. It looks as though we are in for a period of high winds and freezing temperatures – but the snow looks as though it may fall mainly on the high ground and in the already afflicted north east areas of the country. I think it was a hardy Scandinavian who coined the epithet ‘there is never bad weather, just inappropriate clothing‘ so I suppose we need to prepare ourselves with multiple layers of jumpers supplemented by good outerwear, gloves, scarves, hats and sound footwear plus trekking poles (if the need should arise). Tomorrow is the day when I traditionally walk down to my Pilates class and it looks as though the height of the storm might just be as I am undertaking my walk. But, ‘sufficient to the day is the evil thereof‘ as the good book says.
A most extraordinary new principle by which we are policed has just been announced. Some Labour MPs have reported to the Metropolitan Police (in the capital) that Downing Street had had a party about this time in contravention of the then regulations. A spokesman for the police has announced ‘we do not investigate transgressions of the regulations that might have occurred in the past’ (in other words, they don’t want to tangle with the political elite who do not feel themselves bound by the same rules as the rest of us) As has been suggested on Twitter, one could always try this out on the police next time one has an encounter with the police, say for a traffic offence: ‘Well, I might have been speeding in the past, officer, but I am not speeding at the moment.‘ It is also reported in the headline in today’s Times that Boris Johnson is to instruct the members of his government if any of their actions are subjected to judicial review that they should ignore the rulings. This is the start of an authoritarian progression which means that the very foundations of our democracy are being undermined by a Prime Minister who is beholden to the right wing of the Conservative party.
Today was the day when Storm Barra (named by the Irish Meteorological Service) swept across the country and we knew that, according to all predictions, it ought to sweep across the Midlands mid-morning. In view of all of this and as it was my Pilates day as well (when we normally have a ‘tight’ turn around), we decided to go down to town by car so that we wouldn’t end up soaking wet. So we picked up our newspaper and headed for home so that we could have our elevenses snug at home rather than shivering on a park bench. Meg and I are gradually getting over our ‘sniffly’ colds thanks largely to some ‘colds and ‘flu’ capsules that we had stored away in a kitchen drawer waiting for a time when we would really need them (such as this). Once we had got home, I started to prepare some of the elements of lunch so that we could eat rapidly once I had got home from my Pilates class. Then I spent a certain amount of time looking around for some of the specialist Christmas socks I was certain I had bought last year. I did discover some with a discreet motif of reindeers on them but I was sure that I had purchased several more festive pairs last year but I couldn’t find them in my search through various sock drawers. My ‘reindeer’ socks were easily surpassed in festive spirit by the socks worn by my fellow class members so I shall have to do something about that by next Tuesday.
My thoughts are gradually turning to more Christmassy things, particularly now that Christmas cards are starting to arrive by every post. Prime amongst these concerns is trying to find out what has happened to the Christmas tree which we have purchased and now seems to be ‘stuck’ somewhere in the carriers (Hermes) When I try the tracking sytem I am informed ‘Parcel being processed in the depot’ but it has been like that for days. After my abortive efforts to get through to the retailers yesterday, I tried again to get through to the retailer who agreed that there was a problem. They consulted their stock records and as I feared, this particular model of Christmas tree is now out of stock. So I accepted the offer of a full refund (which might take 10 working days to process, by the way) and am left to contemplate my options. I got onto Amazon and ordered another tree, similar in design to the previous one but perhaps not quite as nice and certainly more expensive. However, this ought to arrive by tomorrow which means I get round to putting it up on Friday (with a bit of assistance from our domestic help were I to need it). The next Christmassy thing is to get my Christmas cards (computerised) list run off. If this works satisfactorily, then it considerably speeds up the mechanics of Christmas card writing but it is always a slightly anxious few minutes to make sure that the address label printing system works as intended without a lot of abortive and wateful trial runs to get it right before you initiate the final run. I have to check in my particular storage space if I have the right number of sheets of labels and, if necessary, order some more before I start this year’s run. Another Christmassy type job that I will have to think about is bottling at least some of my supplies of damson vodka/gin so that ‘Santa Claus’ can have his normal jaunty visit to members of my Pilates class this year.
Sky News has got a remarkable scoop this evening. Thy are reporting that the Labour Party has accused Number 10 staff of ‘laughing’ at the British public after footage emerged of Downing Street officials joking about a Christmas party during a time of strict COVID restrictions. In a video recording of what ITV News reported was a rehearsal for a TV media briefing, senior Number 10 aides were filmed talking and laughing about a Christmas party. According to the report, the footage is from 22 December last year – four days after an alleged Christmas party took place in Number 10. I wonder if the Downing staff will try and argue that just because you are rehearsing what you will say in the event that one’s party has been ‘discovered’ just not mean to say that that the party actually took place.
Boris Johnson is quoted tonight as opining that the Omicron variant of COVID appears to be more transmissible than the dominent Delta variant which is confirmed by the very rapid rise in the number of new cases reported daily. There were 101 new cases reported yesterday taking the total to 437, a 30% increase in one day. However, there are the slightest of slight indications that the new variant may be somewhat less likely to cause severe illness rather than the Delta variant but we shall have to wait about 2-3 more weeks before this prediction can be confirmed (or not)
Today has been quite a momentous day, one way or another. After the release of a video by Downing Street staff showing a rehearsal of how the press team would respond if informed there had been a party in Downing Street (held against the regulations), there has been a lot of interest into exactly how the Prime Minister would respond in Prime Minister’s Questions at 12.00 today. What made the video especially obnoxious was the fact that that Boris Johnson’s then adviser and press spokesman, Alexa Stratton, was giggling throughout her rehearsed answers which were, in themselves, a quasi-admission that the party had actually taken place. To the thousands of relatives who could not be present at the death of their parents and loved ones, let along hold their hand whilst they were dying, they were confronted not only with the fact that the Downing Street were not only having a party but were giggling about the possible consequences of their illegality. This has been like a red rag to a bull and has absolutely enfuriated bereaved relatives all over the country.
Meg and I tuned into Prime Minister’s Questions where Boris Johnson apologised abjectly for the fact of the release of the video (and therefore its contents) but also promised an enquiry by the Cabinet Secretary as to whether or not there had been a party. According to an opinion poll in Sky News, 64% people believe that there actually had been a party. Only about 7% think that Johnson is telling the truth but as I have indicated in previous blogs some ‘vox pop’interviews have tarred Labour politicians with the same brush assuming that all politicians lie.
No sooner was Prime Minister’s Questions over, then I received a telephone call from my sister with the incredibly sad news that her husband of 55 years had died in hospital in Harrogate. He had taken a dramatic turn for the worse a few days ago and members of the family had been in a constant vigil. He died peacefully holding the hands of his two daughters and my sister arrived within minutes of his death to bid her farewell. One of my nieces who was sharing the telephone call with my sister giving us the sad news left me with a poignant comment that ‘Although people might have thought that (my father) was a funny old thing at least he was OUR funny old thing’ The most immediate questions that arise is whether there will be new COVID rules which will hamper the holding a full funeral and Meg and I are holding ourselves in readiness so that we can immediately make a booking in a local hotel (if that is possible) for the funeral wenever that might be.
I remember particularly clearly my sister’s wedding day on a very cold day in February, 1966. I was in my first year at university and was not the possessor of a lounge suit so I hired one from Messrs. Moss Bros (as one did in those days) Although they had measured me up for a suit the one that was supplied was extraordinarily ill-fitting so I felt the need for some braces to keep the trousers up. I raced into town (Leeds) early that morning and dashed round Woolworths but all I could find was ‘suspenders’. Cursing the Americans for replacing a perfectly good English word (braces) with one of their one I bought the suspenders only to find when I got them home that I had bought a pair of sock suspenders. To make the best of a bad job, I took the pair of suspenders and twisted them together to form a type of elastic rope which I then tied together under my armpits to keep the trousers in more or less the right position – the ‘suspenders’ were hidden from view by the waistcoat. I was ‘giving’ my sister away as my sister and I were part of a one parent family and I recall that we had a taxi to take us to the church. To give ourselves a little Dutch courage, we swigged from a hip flask of whisky but as the taxi arrived early, we had to keep ‘going round the houses’ to use up a bit of time, swigging constantly as the taxi circulated around. The rest of the wedding went off without any hitches. My brother-in-law as well as running his coal and haulage business was equally deducated to snooker in his earlier days (when he won the prize at his local Conservative club quite regularly, fishing (into which he inducted his two sons) and last, but not least, cricket. He was an avid follower of Yorkshire cricket and would have been saddened in the extreme to see what has happened to his beloved in recent weeks – he could be that he was too ill to fully appreciate the most recent event when most of the committee members of Yorkshire cricket club have resigned in the wake of the Azeem Rafiq revelations about rampant racism within the club.
Today seemed quite a fine day after the storms of the last week or so. As Meg and I walked down into the park, it semed almost mild and n enjoyed some pale sunshine – admittedly, it is still a little on the cold side but with the absence of icy winds blowing from the storms, it was quite a pleasant experience. On our way down this morning, one of my Irish friends had learned, through this blog, of the sad death of my brother-in-law and came out of the house to offer her condolences. Our other friends were also on their way out shopping in the car and stopped by to remind me that the wreaths they had been making for us were ready for collection. So I promised I would call by later in the car and pick them up. After we had our walk in the park including our elevenses, we set off for home. I made a curry with some leftovers and following the family tradition of hving a curry about once a week (carried over from our student days, a long long time ago).
After lunch, I knew that I needed to make a trip into town bar car. Firstly, I picked up our wreaths with which I am going to adorn our porch some time in the morning when I have plenty of light and I can see what I am doing. Then I needed to buy some bereavement cards for my sister and for each of her four children (who have just lost their father) I went to WH Smiths for the cards as I could buy stamps at the same time and managed to get five cards which did not duplicate each other. Then I popped into Poundland to buy one or two bits and bobs and then finally struck fo home. I decided that we would have some homemade soup this evening for our afternoon bit of supper so I took the 500gram bag of Soffritto (carrot,onion and celery) and weighed out a third of this. Then I parboiled these together with one half of a (huge) leek and a fried onion and got them going in the soupmaker, together with one desertspoonful of Balti cooking sauce and some vegetable stock. The result was just how I wanted it to be, even though I forgot to put in some coconut milk which I had purchased this morning.
After we had our tea, I got a call from my sister who was bearing up well after the death of her husband yesterday. She was in a position to gve me the date of my brother-in-law’s funeral and it is now planned for a week tomorrow i.e. Friday, 17th December. This is excellent in many ways as it means that we can have the funeral well before Christmas. At the same time, I can take some time to meet the Yorkshire branch of the family so I am pleased that we did not get into a situation where there delays all the place because Christmas is now so close. After the phone call, I did a quick search on the web to see what accommodation was available. The hotel we stayed in before and the B&B which used to stay in (now converted into an ApartHotel) both seemed pretty expensive but one of the big hotels in the city centre had a special offer on and we managed to book a room at this price. In particular, the advantages of hotels over B&B’s in Harrogate is the availability of carparking – the B&B’s in Harrogate have to rely on street parking which can be a nightmare. So we can now go up for the funeral the day before (i.e. on Thursday), have the funeral on the Friday and then stay one extra day on the Saturday before we head for home on Sunday. This way, we have enough time to spent a bit of time with the members of the family that we have not seen for about two years now.
The press are still having a field day with what you might call ‘Partygate’. It now seems that apart from the infamous party that took place on 18th December last year, there are two more that are also going to come into the investigation that Boris Johnson announced in the Commons yesterday. One Conservative MP when asked if he thought that there was actually a party replied that when you put together the ccounts of the food and drink that got wheeled in, the ‘secret Santa’ presents that were organised, some incredibly loud carousing that went on until about 1-2 in the morning plus the damage to a door that had occurred during the proceedings, he replied ‘Well, it sounds like a party to me’ Today it has also been announced that the Conservative party have been fined £18,000 for not properly declaring the donations from a wealthy Tory party donor in their accounts to pay for the refurbishment of the flat in No. 10 – and it looks as Boris Johnson may have lied to Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers’ interests.
Today is the day when our domestic help comes round and we immediately told her the news of the week, namely the death of Mike’s brother-in-law. As we will be away when she calls around next week, then she needed to know of our plans and indeed our whereabouts. Late last night, after I made the booking with the hotel, I realised that car parking might always be a critical issue and it appeared that our chosen hotel had a limited amount of parking but was only 2 minutes from a public carpark (which we did know about and, in fact, often used when we were in Harrogate) I decided that I would email the hotel to see if they could reserve a space for us when we go up in somewhat less than a week’s time. We were pleasantly surprised to get a reply quite early on this morning where it was indicated that a space would be reserved for us, so needless to say we were delighted with this news. The Christmas tree that I had orered as a replacement for the one that got ‘lost’ at the carriers arrived yesterday and I had done a rough job in assembling this. The assembly took only a matter of minutes but what did take the time was working round the tree branch by branch to ‘spread out’ the wire branches and twigs around the tree. Our domestic help and I spent several minutes making the tree look a presentable shape and we agreed that it was quite OK for now but would be considerably improved once dressed i.e. had its lights draped on it and decorated with a few baubles – but more of this later.
Meg and I walked down to the park and met up with our University of Birmingham friend whilst I shot off to collect the newspaper and to post the ‘In Sympathy’ cards to my relatives. Although the weather seemed quite fine when we walked down, an icy wind had sprung up from somewhere and we were very glad to get home. When we did open our front door, we had a real surprise. Our domestic help knew where the Christmas tree lights were (which we had recently purchased) and took it upon herself to decorate our Christmas tree for us. When the hall curtain was drawn (to minimise the light), the effect was absolutely stunning and to say we were delighted is a massive understatement. Then our chiropodist rang to say could she come an hour or so early as she had a cancelled appointment which was fine by us and we had been expecting her later on in the day anyway. Then the doorbell rang – it was our domestoc help who had left us some time before but gone down to Age Concern where she knew they had masses of spare decorations and bought a collection of very tasteful baubles for us with which she proceeded to finish off the decoration of the tree. I suspect that she hates to see a job only half completed but the net result is that at the end of the day we have a superbly decorated tree which is one of the best we have ever had.
The COVID news today is all very worrying and the mathematics of Omicron are terrifying. Infections are currently doubling every two to three days (apparently slightly faster in Scotland) and today the UK Health Security Agency estimated that by the end of the month that doubling would mean at least one million people being infected with Omicron. There are two potential silver linings to the cloud of uncertainty. One of them is that the severity of the illness that the Omicron variant causes may well turn out to be mild – and therefore less likely to result in hospitalisations or even death. While it looks like boosters will act as a powerful shield against Omicron, just a tiny reduction in vaccine protection against hospitalisation could make a massive difference to the NHS. Earlier this week, SAGE estimated that a drop in the vaccine’s ability to keep people out of hospital from 96% to 92% would mean a doubling in the number of people going to hospital. This is a very, very sobering thought for a variant that spreads much faster than any one we’ve known so far.
The other political sport so far is to see whether a rebellion against Boris Johnson will intensify or not. As the Labour Party are going to support the new government measures in the House of Commons next week, it could well be that Tory MP’s will feel inclined to rebel knowing that the life of the government is not threatened. But of course, the critical thing will be the bye-election next Thursday in Shropshire North which ought to be a really safe Tory seat wit a majority of nearly 23,000. In all probability, the Tories will still win this (as the Liberal and Labour campaigns do not intend to step aside in favour of the other) but were the Tories to lose, then the Tory party may well run into panic mode and ditch Boris Johnson.
It is extraordinary to think that Christmas is now only two weeks away – for a reason, I cannot quite put my finger on, Christmas really seems to have crept on us this year and I am starting to think about all of the jobs that need to be done before Christmas. Principal amongst these are the Christmas cards which, in theory, ought to be quite easy. All I have to is to make sure I have enough labels of the requisite type, find the appropriate file, conduct an experiment with one page to make sure all goes well and then run off the completed file. I think we have about 55 contacts altogether so at 10 to the page, this should take six pages of labels. When I checked, I only had 3 x. 10 left so I needed to make a quick foray onto Amazon to have a few more of the relevant type sent to me. I am making my absolute cut-off point 12.00 on Monday for the following reason. No doubt, lots of people will be writing their cards this weekend so Monday morning at the post office is liable to be hell-on-earth. If I delay until Monday afternoon, then I should manage to get everything posted off in plenty of time. In the meantime, I have to make sure my list is up-to-date. I seem to remember that last year I sent a Christmas to one of Meg’s cousins and got an out-of-date address for the cousin fron an old address book. The recipients of the Christmas card sent it back to me (as I always stick my own address labels on each card I send) with a note saying that the perspn for whom the card was intended had moved at least 10 years previously. I am sure this must happen quite a lot, actually, but I need my list to be as accurate as possible before I start this year’s run.
Meg and I walked down to the park today in weather not particularly inclement. There we met with our long time park acquaintance, Seasoned World Travellor, and we exchanged Christmassy type things, as well as Omicron and related news with each other. Because of the cloud cover, it ssemed to start getting dark at about 3.15 and for this reason, as well as the fact that there is a Thomas Hardy film on the TV tonight (‘Far fom the Madding Crowd‘) which I particularly want to watch. By the way, ‘madding’ in this context mens ‘frenzied’ which I didn’t know until a visit to Google. When my mother was alive, she would often bewail the fact that ‘the light was failing’ when she was trying to do jobs at this time of year. As a teenager, I had no idea what she was talking about and could not discern why she didn’t just put on the (electric) light and make do with do that. Several decades later on, I think I know what she was talking about because there are some jobs (of the cleaning variety) where you actually do need genuine daylight as far as possible.
The COVID news continues to dismay. With no further restructions than the ‘Plan B’ that we already have in operation, there are authoritative projections that buy the end of the month, we shall have 1 million new infections and 75,000 deaths. Already there is talk of a ‘Plan C’ to be implemented immediately that Plan B appears not to be working. Yesterday, the increase in cases over the day before was 50% as the number of new cases rose from 1265 to 1898 so the exponential trend of the number of new infections doubling or tripling within days is being played out before us. Schools have not been mentioned recently and I suppose this is because we are now entering the period (a week and a half before the Christmas break) when school attendance ought to be high. I wonder, though, whether at this rate of progression, it would be sensible to delay the start of the new term by 2-4 weeks. The trouble for the government is that the scientific and medical community seem to nearly of one voice, or at least ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’) as the Omicron data slowly emerges. However the libertarian (= right wing) of the Tory party are threatening to withhold their support from the ‘Plan B’ measures when the vote takes place next Tuesday – and, of course, there is the critical by-election in Shropshire North next Thursday. If the Conservatives lose this seat, I can see the pressures on Boris Johnson to move aside or be replaced may well be overwhelming. Just to make matters worse for the government, it has been that some staff at the Treasury had office drinks while England was in lockdown last year. It has been reported that around two dozen civil servants were present for the drinks on 25 November, 2020.
Today being a Sunday, I leapt out of bed at a very early hour (for me) to walk down and collect our Sunday newspaper. Actually, it was quite a mild day with a brilliant pink sunrise as I walked down to town in a generally easterly direction. Although I normally see nobody at this time, I did bump into my Irish friend who was popping something into the boot of his car so we discussed some church matters such as the exact name of the new priest who we were informed last night will be taking over early in the New Year. Then it was a routine watching of the Andrew Marr show from 9.00am onwards and I thought that Keir Starmer was making exactly the right noises in his attacks upon the Prime Minister (quote: ‘the worst possible prime minister at the worst possible time‘) After we had collected our thoughts together, we walked down to the park in quite pleasant conditions – it was not too long before we were joined by our University of Birmingham, friend and a few minutes later, Seasoned World Traveller. We discussed some of the implications of the Omicron new variant, including the view that this might have arisen in the body of an immune-compromised individual being treated for Aids in South Africa. There is also the possiblity that Omicron might already have generated new ‘sons and daughters’ which are themselves the mutation of a mutation. A little like Atlantic storms, some of which fizzle out and some of which develop into major storms that sweep our stores, so the virus may act in the same way. As mutations in a virus are are fairly common, presumably some turn out to be ‘dead ends’ whilst others adapt to be highly dangerous. Yesterday, it appeared that the incidence of Omicron had increased by 50% but today, the situation is such that the increase is nearly 100%. The government is trying to roll out the booster jabs to everybody (including schoolchildren) as rapidly as possible and it is hopeful that this will hold the line. However, Boris Johnson is due to address the nation at 8.00pm this evening, probably to try and build up public support for the ‘Plan B’ measures in advance of 60 odd Conservative MPs rebelling against the new measures when there is a vote in the House of Commons next Tuesday. Up to a point, though, this will be a ‘pain-free’ rebellion as the new measures are bound to be approved as the Labour Party are committed to voting for them – hence any Conservative ‘rebellions’ will only reduce the size of a huge majority in support of the measures.
This afternoon, my sister and I were in contact with each other whilst we discussed some of the practical details of our forthcoming visit to Yorkshire to attend my brother-in-law’s funeral. Once we have discussed some of the details (difficult to park both near my sister’s house and at the church and at the crematorium and at the venue for the reception) we are formulating a ‘Plan B’. Meg and and I have had a series of unfortunate experiences at the last 3-4 funerals we have attended. Basically, the locals know the wereabouts of the local church/crematorium/venue for the subsequent refreshments. By the time you hve sat-navved your way to the church/crematorium/eating venue, you are invitably at the back of the queue (as the locals know their way around and secure the best of the available parking spots/seat at the venue and so on). The last funeral we attended for a near neighbour we have known for the past 14 years turned out to be particularly disastrous. By the time we had got a distant parking spot at the crem and an even more distant parking spot at the eating venue, there was no space left for us to sit and no food left for us in any case. So we came home feeling a bit frustrated that some of the attendees at the funeral who had not seen our neighbour for years managed to secure better parking/seating for themselves. The problem arises because we are always coming from a good distance away and generally do not have the insider local knowledge that other attendees possess so you inevitably at the back of whatever queue there is. The problem is compounded when more people turn up to the event than had been catered for. We think that one solution is to leave the car in the hotel and catch a taxi to the church. Then we might have to rely upon other people’s generosity to get a lift to wherever the eating venue is. It would be a great shame if after the journey and the hotel expenses of attending the funeral of a close and much-loved family member, Meg and I found ourselves in the really unsatisfactory situation that we have had the misfortune to experience on the last four such occasions.
Today was the day when I had planned to get a lot of my Christmas cards written but the ‘best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry‘ (I don’t give the full Gallic rendition of this in the interests of clarity) What made things go slightly awry was the fact that I received an email some time in the last 24 hours which was from the bank which is used by our Residents Association to organise our communal affairs. I had already filled a long electronic form which I had previously submitted to the ‘safeguarding’ unit of the bank but I received an intimation that further details would be required to process our safeguarding progress. It transpired that they required the date of birth of the Treasurer of our association, plus the exact date upon which he moved into his property. Evidently, I don’t have these details to hand so I had to send him an urgent email and when I get these details, I will have yet another go. I felt that this had to take priority over my own domestic concerns and hence I was delayed by about an hour. But eventually, Meg and I set off for the park only for me to realise half way through our walk that I forgotten to bring with me the pre-paid token that I take with me every day to pay for the newspaper. So we needed to have ‘Plan B’ which was to go to the park and then later go back in the car to collect the newspapers and some supplies from Waitrose of which we had run short. In the park, we often get into conversations with dog walkers and today was no exception. Today, though, we got into conversation with a friendly young lady who turned out to be a Jehovah’s Witness – so we had quite an interesting and friendly conversation on matters liturgical and theological (with neither of particularly wanting to convert the other to their own religious persuasion) When all of this got done, I was then in a position after we had lunch to start the Christmas card ‘run’ for this year. I have got the address address in a ‘Word’ document which is in the ’10 to a page’ format and I knew that I had sufficient labels to make a start on the address list but not to complete the whole of the job. This is because I run off a separate set of labels to inform recipients how Meg’s health is progressing. Actually, the same labels that I used for last year were sufficiently general to be used this year without amendment. Half way through the job and just in the nick of time, an extra set of labels that I had ordered from Amazon came through the door and they worked without problems. Now we come to the job of writing the Christmas cards themselves. Into each card, goes three ‘sticky’ labels, the first being the one that detail’s Meg’s health, the second being our own name and address and the third being an additional label that I use containing additional contact details such as this blog, my website, my mobile number all of which require an additional label as they would not fit onto one standard address label. Now we come to the interesting question of which cards to send to which people. I usually buy cards that come into three categories and I use them as appropriate. The first set of cards are the religious ones (typically a ‘Madonna and Child’) that we send to people who would definitely appreciate a card with a religious theme. The second category consists of people who may well be offended by religious cards so these are the people who receive the more generic Christmas cards (robins, reindeers, snowy scenes and Santas being typical themes) Then there are those amongst my friends who are definitely of an internationalist perspective and I always try to send a card with a multicultural and diverse ethnic flavour. Finally, there are some who would appreciate the ‘dove of peace’ type of illustration (but this category tends to overlap with the internationalist one) Then I have to make a judgement as to which type of card to send to which recipient) I tend to write particular messages to several of our friends who we meet periodically for a meal, expressing the hope that we can get together in the Spring and as soon as the pandemic allows. Finally, of course, each card has one of our own address labels affixed to the rear of the envelope so that that any misdelivered cards can get sent back to us) Finally, and hopefully tomorrow, I can make a trip to the Post Office to get stamps on them and get them posted. We tend to leave cards for local friends and neighbours to the end of the run, giving priority to the ones that have to get posted, knowing that the local ones can be popped through letter boxes in a day or so.
We always knew that today was going to be a busy kind of day and so it proved. Last night, I had made a start on getting the Christmas cards processed and managed about 60% of them. This morning, I carried on until the task was complete. By the time I had completed the major part of the task, there was no real time to go down into town and get them posted. The rather sad part of completing one’s Christmas card list is the relisation that one has to delete from the list those from your friends and associates who have not survived the year. Apart from the recent death of my brother-in-law, we also experienced the sad loss of Mariano Baena, the Professor of Public Administration at the Complutense University if Madrid. In an earlier life, he had help to write some of the parts of the reformed Spanish constitution after the death of Franco and the birth of a liberal democracy. At one time, as a member of the Spanish Supreme Court he was under threat from Eta, Basque separatist movement in Spain and received police protection (but not between 2.00 and 5.00 in the morning when ETA could have murdered him if they so felt so inclined). Meg and Marino Baena organised between them the first exchange of students between Leicester Polytechnic (later, De Monfort University, Leicester) and later he faciliated my spending a term teaching (in Spanish) some Information Technology to public administration students in Madrid. So both Meg and I had both owe, in our own ways, a debt of gratitude to Mariano Baena and his passing is mourned by us both. Meg also lost a former long-term colleague (Commander Robert Rendall) which she worked intimately for many years as the organiser of the supervised work experience of our students. We have also lost our next door neighbour in August, Pat – who got me into Pilates many years ago now. Finally we lost another colleague of ours who lived in Thurnby village with whom we were friendly because we not had shared academic interests but also lived in the same village in Lecestershire. When the task of writing and checking our Christmas cards envelopes was complete, we had our ‘elevenses’ at home because in a few minutes, we knew that I needed to get ready for my Pilates class later on.
Our Pilates class ran as normal with a lot of good natured banter and anticipation of what might happen in the final class of the year next Tuesday (when it is rumoured that Santa Claus might appear and, by tradition, brings with him some little bottles of home-made damson gin!)
After a late dinner had been consumed, it was a trip down into town by car to both pick up our newspaper and also to post the batch of Christmas cards – some 40+ in number, excluding the local ones that will get written and then hand delivered to neighbours and nearby friends in a day or so. We were pleased that we had got inside the posting ‘limit’ for Spain which is next Thursday so that we hope that the three Spanish cards that we have stent this year should arrive before Christmas Day itself.
A very large number of Conservative MPs (approx. 100) have voted against their own party tonight, to express their displeasure at the new ‘Plan B’ regulations which the Government are putting in place to attempt to hold the wall against th spread of the Omicron variant – which is spreading at the most alarming rate. As the size of the revolt (100+) is in excess of the Government majority of 80, then we have the interesting position of a government passing legislation (statutory instruments) only with the assistance of the Labour party. Whereas Tory MPs are not in the habit of rebelling, the experience can prove instructive for them. Loyalty is the Conservative Party’s secret weapon but rebellion does not come naturally to them. But, once MPs get the taste for rebellion, it gets easier for them. Aslo the role and influence of the government whips (in charge of party discipline) is very much diminished when the size of the rebellion is so large. Boris Johnson may well feel that his hold on power is a bit more tenuous after tonight’s votes but, of course, Tory MPs could ‘revolt’ knowing that the legislation would pass with Labour support. The really crucial event this week is the North Shropshire by election where a Tory majority of about 23,000 is under threat. The latest opinion polls put the Liberal Democrats 1% behind the Tories, whilst the bookmakers are favouring the Liberals. We shall know in the wee small hours of Friday morning and if the Tories were to lose this by election (unlikely, but not impossible) then Boris Johnson’s hold on power will be seriously under threat. Many Tory MPs always knew that Boris Jonson might be a brilliant campaigner (i.e. election winner) but was unlikely to be a success at the task of government itself. Compare his performance with John Major or Gordon Brown for example.
Although Meg. and I had a fairly good night’s sleep, we slept in just a little this morning but enough to make sure that we were running somewhat behind our normal morning schedule. By the time we had breakfasted and showered, we were getting ready to go down for our normal walk when we glanced at our ‘planning board’ only to discover we had an appointment for later on that morning. Our ‘planning board’ is a large whiteboard divided into 49 daily ‘slots’ i.e. 7 weeks worth and we have this so that we can put on it the things for a few days and even a few days ahead so that we do not forget about them. This is worth its weight in gold but, of course, you have to remember to look at it daily. Today we realised with about a quarter of an hour to spare that it was the day for our hairdresser to call around. So we took our ‘elevenses’ that we had prepared for the park and immediately had our coffee and biscuits at home waiting for the hairdresser to arrive. Whilst we waiting, we tuned into ‘PMQ’ – Prime Ministers Questions- because yesterday was a most extraordinary day in Parliamentary terms. Although Boris Johnson has what would seem to be an incredible majority of 80, yesterday 100 Conservative MPs rebelled and the measures to put ‘Plan B’ into effect were only passed because of the support of the Labour Party. So this means that we have the most extraordinary spectacle which I do not think I have witnessed since the time I have been closely following politics for nigh on sixty years of a government not relying upon its own MPs to get legislation passed but having to rely upon the votes of the Opposition. So PMQ turned out to be an extraordinary event where Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, could accuse Boris Johnson of having lost control of his own party if he has to rely upon the votes of Opposition members. As I blog, Channel 4 News is reporting some rumours that the depth of the revolt might have been 120-130 MPs but Boris Johnson promised, behind the scenes, to recall Parliament during the Christmas period if any more measures were planned. We also had the extraordinary event of the Prime Minister denying that it was true that the government measures were passed with Labour support saying that Conservatives ‘passed’ the legislation last night. Such an outright denial of the absolutely obvious left the Labour leader practically lost for words – but then Boris Johnson has lied consistently to everyone since he was a child (and has a record of being sacked for it).
When our hairdresser did arrive, Mike had his hair cut first and then started off for a daily walk to pick up the newspaper and to buy a few things. At the newsagents, we handed over a Christmas card to the proprietor and his wife and his two ‘trusted’ regular employees, one of whom we think goes back even further than the current owner of the shop i.e. she has worked there for years and been ‘inherited’ by the current owners. We also tend to exchange a few token gifts with each other a little bit nearer to Christmastime itself. Then it was ‘onto’ the road to buy some apparently simple things. One of these is to buy supplies of powdered potato which Asda sell in sachets for about 25p – needless to say they were sold out. The other thing that I needed was the ‘C’ size of batteries to put inside our house doorbell. We didn’t hear the doorbell when the hairdresser arrived so thought we had better get them replaced as soon as possible. I tramped up and down Bromsgrove High Street attempting to buy some ‘C’ size batteries. Many retailers do not stock them and the one that I did had almost run out as I bought the last two but I really needed four. Eventually, I bit the bullet and bought some Duracell ones at a fabulous price but I suppose that once a much needed commodity becomes in short supply, shoppers such as myself scour the local shops and they soon vanish.
The Omicron virus figures are now in the realm of the truly, truly scary. The number of new infections has risen by nearly 20,000 in a single day (from 59,000 to 78,000). At this rate, the virus seems to be doubling every couple of days which could mean that by Christmas Day, the rate might have risen 16-fold. BBC news reports that Prof Chris Whitty has said: ‘Records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks’ adding Omicron is spreading at an ‘absolutely phenomenal pace‘. Earlier, Health Secretary Sajid Javid refused to rule out the prospect of fresh measures over the coming weeks. All of this is happening as a backdrop to the fact that we are travelling up to Yorkshire tomorrow for three nights to attend my brother-in-law’s funeral on Friday.
Knowing that we were going to journey to Yorkshire today, we got up in plenty of time at about 6.00am in the morning,knowing that there was a fair amount of final preparations to be done before we could start off on our journey. There are always some things that you want to hang in the back of the car rather than pack them into a suitcase where they could become incredibly creased. In addition, I had promised my sister that I would make some home-made soup so although I had parboiled the vegetables, I finished it off in the soupmaker this morning. But we made good progress and managed to set off at about 8.30 which meant that having collected our newspaper, we managed to get onto the M42 for a journey northwards around Birmingham. Altogether, our journey had been mapped out at 149 miles and we stop at our favourite service station, Tibshelf, which is about a mile or so beyond the half-way point. At Tibshelf, we treated ourself to a cappuchino and a mince pie as well as a loo visit and managed to leave only 5 minutes behind our own schedule but the second half of the journey is much easier than the first. We hit Wetherby at about five minutes to 12 which was absolutely superb from a timings point of view. We were about the second or third set of diners though the doors and so we could choose a nice and quiet i.e. not overlooked table location. We dined on a scampi salad and found the portions enormous so having eaten our fill, we left a lot of the food on our plate. Then we texted my sister and got to her house almost exactly as planned at about 1.30 in the afternoon. When we got there, we were delighted to discover that my sister’s eldest daughter was there in the house, together with her own daughter who has just got back from university (where she is really enjoying her Psychology course) We spent a happy afternoon together, talking about family affairs and sharing photographs of family members that we had on our respective iPhones. Then at about 4.0 in the afternoon, we thought we had better and check into our hotel in Harrogate. The hotel upon which we alighted was one of the bigger ‘old-fashioned’ hotel and we especially fortunate to secure the very last parking place in the car park. The room is itself is delightful and spacious and seems clean and well appointed. However, it has one fateful flaw from my point of view which is the absence of any power sockets apart from one immediately below the TV set. This is making preparing this blog incredibly difficult. My laptop is perched on the top of our smallest suitcase which in turn is perched upon a chair. To accommodate the mouse, I have had to draw up the suitcase rest, balance my iPad (precariously) on the top side of that and then use my Ipad turned upside down to give myself a suitable flat surface on which the mouse can operate. Hower, I am pleased to say that after an awful lot of improvisation, I am managing to make some progress, although it was slow at first. However, I am sure than experienced journalists on location in small and poorly equipped hotels in far flung corners of the earth are skilful in making the most incredible improvisations to get their stories written (if any get written rather than just transmitted via a satellite these days). Even so, I am sure that accessing the satellite in an allocated time slot must call for considrable ingenuity at times.
The latest scary Omicron virus news is enough to frighten most people out of their wits. We are starting to get data about the spread of Omicron, almost three weeks on from when the first case of the new COVID variant was detected in the UK. Scientists estimate the number of new cases is doubling in less than two days, with every person with Omicron infecting three to five other people on average. The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) suggests that the new variant now accounts for 41% of cases in England and more than one-fifth of cases in Scotland. The number of new infections was more than 90,000 yesterday and the latest estimates are that the virus has an ‘R’ rate (infection rate) between 3-5. This means that each new case of the Omicron infection will infect 3-5 people. The economic pain is starting to be felt in the hospitality industries. Many people are heeding government advice and either working from home or avoiding events that it is not strictly necessary for them to attend, Apparently food is being thrown away on an industrial scale because the hospitality industry has got geared for a really busy period but demand is dropping like a stone so the food is having to be junked.
Well, the day has dawned when it is the funeral day of my brother-in-law. In truth, the day started a lot earlier than this because I awoke in the night at about 3.00am and turned on the TV (at a low volume) to see if the results of the North Shropshire had come through where the Tories were defending a majority of some 23,000. The indications at this hour were that the results would take another 30 minutes to come through but in the meanwhile the Liberal Democrats were getting supremely confident of gaining a big victory. The reasons for such confidence is because (by tradition?) the counted votes are put into bundles to form a long line for each candidate and if one candidate has a discernible lead, this is evident to the observers who are allowed by law to watch the count as it proceeds. I dozed on the bed until after the count was actually announced and then discovered, some time after 4.00pm, that the Liberal Democrats had taken the seat with a majority of newly 6,000. This was the second biggest by-election swing since 1945- which makes it the second biggest swing for about 75 years. By all accounts, the Liberal Democrats had gained a lot of support once the full details of illegal parties in Downing St. started to emerge and this cut through in a massive way to those who were not allowed to see their dying relatives whilst their political lords and masters were partying in Downing Street. Meg and I showered and then got dressed up in our funeral-going gear before going down for breakfast. This had a variey of cooked or continental style breakfasts and was of excellent quality. The dining room was in what was evidently in a former time the hotel’s ballroom and I thought the the interior compared incredibly well with the Old Swan hotel just down the road, which I know well, having previously worked there for about 3-4 years. I seem to remember my mother telling me that the Air Ministry had requisitioned the hotel for wartime use in 1939 and had actually only completely vacated it in 1959, allowing it to be converted to a 150 room hotel. I think that she had actually worked there at some time during the war, probably in a clerical capacity. The building as a whole was built as a mansion some time in the 18th century and still looks imposing. After breakfast, we spent a bit of time chatting with a mother and daughter from Teeside who were also visiting this hotel for the first time. The daughter was a probation officer whose job entailed working within one of the local prisons and as Mike had taught some summer schools for the Open University with Gartree prison in Leicestershire, we found some points of mutual interest for an interesting little chat.
Meg and I went for a little walk in town and had a coffee before departing for the church for the funeral service which was timed to start at 1.00pm. We arrived there half and hour early, managed to park without difficulty and had the opportunity for a chat wih some of Mike’ extended family members that we had evidently not seen for over two years. The service was very dignified and moving in parts with poems read by family members as part of the proceedings. And so we proceeded to the crematorium where again we managed to follow the funeral hearse and arrived at the relevent part of the cemetery for the commital proceedings. This also was dignified and restrained but Meg started to feel ‘wobbly’ so we missed the reception part of the proceedings so that we could get Meg back to the hotel for a rest. After a couple of hours on the bed, she felt a bit better so we made our way back to the same cafe in which we had had taken coffee this morning. We had a delayed lunch (of lamb shank, which we had noticed during our morning visit) and then chatted to the staff in a mixture of French and Spanish as the proprietor was Moroccan, the waitress was French and the chef was Spanish so we felt as though we had quite an uplifting little continental experience. We received telephone calls from members of the family to check that Meg was OK and we managed to give some reassurances that after a rest she had revived somewhat. Tomorrow will be a quiet day in which we will do a little quiet shopping in town in the morning and then pop along to Knaresbrough to see my sister in th afternoon. We have been in text contact with my son this afternoon who was hoping that the day’s proceedings had gone well so we indicated to each other that we would be glued to the Channel 4 news to get some good in-depth analysis of the political upheavals fillowing the bye-election result in the wee small hours of the morning.
So here we are the day after my brother-in-law’s funeral and the consensus amongst family members is that we all experienced dignified whilst emotional farewell rites yesterday and my brother-in-law had received a really fitting tribute to his life. Today we had planned to have a toddle throughout Harrogate this morning and to see my sister in the afternoon. The breakfast room is largely self-service and there is only one waiter on duty to cope with anything that needs doing as well as a lot of clearing up. I had chatted with him briefly yesterday about my experiences working at the Old Swan Hotel (just down the road) and this morning the waiter was in the mood to chat a lot more about our mutual experiences of life in the big hotels. He did tell us, though, that the hotel we were staying in had endured three changes of management/ownership within the last five years – the manager himself, though, was not stand aloof but would get ‘stuck in’ to help out wherever a pinch point happened to be. As might be expected, there seemed to be quite a flurry of people booking in for a kind of pre-Christmas holiday day cum shopping trip. I remembered well my Old Swan days when as a 15-20 year old, the locals were treated to a contingent of young female staff (waitresses) who had been supplied by a local catering college elsewhere in Yorkshire and the hotel offered them some accommodation as it needed a lot of extra staff to help to cope with the demands of the festivities ahead. As you may imagine, the local youths working in the hotel were more than happy to receive and induct this new augmentation to the hotel staff and to show them ‘the ropes’ as it were. So after a leisurely breakfast, our first task was to get into town and to buy a charging cord for my iPhone as I had neglected to bring one with me with the other things I had to think about on Thursday morning. Having acquired a charging cord, we set off in search of a coffee outlet but Harrogate is liberally supplied with these. We managed to secure the last seat in one (it was a popular time) but we had the good fortune to have a power point completely adjacent to our table so our iPhone could charge whilst we were tucking into tea-cakes and Yorkshire tea. We texted my sister to confirm it would be OK for us to turn up in an hour or so. The other family members were busy at work or busy entertaining relatives of their spouses who were visiting over the Christmas period. So we journeyed from Harrogate to Knaresborough and spent a quiet and contemplative few hours with my sister where various details of my childhood were revealed that I knew nothing about. One of these involved a stout wooden kitchen table which had a top about a metre square. Apparently, in my imagination this made a wonderful craft with which to navigate God knows what stretch of water. Apparently at the age of about 3 or 4, I had taken one of my grandmothers blue dresses and cut a lare hole in it (for what purpose I cannot imagine) so that I can make either a flag or a sail to expedite the journey of our pretend boat. What happened to me as a result of this I do not remember but I suspect my grandmother did not say ‘There, there – boys will be boys‘ but probably exacted a kind of retribution that would have made an Old Testament prophet grow pale. My sister fed us with some of the left-overs from yesterday’s ‘do’ (buttered scones and the like), so Meg and I did get to consume some of yesterday's victuals after all.
We returned to Harrogate in the late afternoon and were delighted that the hotel had reserved a parking place for us. We made a lightning visit into town where we were tempted into an Oxfam bookshop and bought a couple of items and also a few iron rations to sustain us a little this evening before breakfast tomorrow morning and also upon our return journey. We do not feel inclined to do any packing this evening but may throw things into the suitcase first thing tomorrow morning.
The Omicron variant is spreading fastest in London and 26,000 new cases have been declared in London alone. This has resulted in the mayor of London declaring a ‘major incident’ as hospital admissions have been rising fast but, even worse, staff absences have been going up massive levels. There is now talk of a Plan ‘C’ to act as a follow on to Plan ‘B’ and even of a two week lockdown immediately after Christmas. Whether a lockdown is declared officially or not, some of the country is going into an unofficial deadlock over Christmas with working at home, Christmas parties cancelled, sporting fixtures largely devastated and a general feeling of alarm and despondency.
Today we were scheduled for departure from our stay at ‘The Crown‘ hotel in Harrogate. We both woke up relatively early and I always find it to be a much easier job to pack to come home rather than to pack when coming away. We got most of the job done in about an hour and a half and I transferred most of our ‘funeral’ clothes into the body of the car where they could be hung up without creasing. Breakfast ran a little later in the hotel at the weekends (so people could have a lie-in) and there were only two other couples in the dining room when we got down. At the end of our breakfast, we have a chat with our friendly waitor and then with two reception staff at the entrance to the dining room. We explained to them that we had had a very pleasant stay and may well be back and then shared some experieces of hotel work with them, based upon my earlier Old Swan experiences. As it turned out, the very blonde female was from Poland and her older colleague was from Lithuania but if I had been forced to guess, I would have each coming from the other’s country. What was quite interesting was the lady from Lithuania and I agreed with each that hotel work seemed very diffierent from other types of work and it was not unusual for people to have had a variety of jobs within the hotel. I recounted my experiences of starting my hotel life by washing dishes, then washing silver, then working in the still room, then washing glasses for the bar, finally working as a cocktail barman as well as some portering jobs (including night portering) and even a spell in the laundry. The hotel worker from Lithuania, too, had done many different jobs in the hotel and this was actually quite common. I mentioned that the highlight of the Christmas proceedings occurred on Christmas Day lunch when the head chef donned his best (newly laundered) chef’s clothing and then a huge plum pudding was set alight with brandy and was then carried aloft over his head in a darkened dining room in which all of the lights (apart from candle light) had been extinguished. The spectacle was amazing and brought gasps of astonishment and applause from the assembled diners. I asked if anything like that took place at the ‘The Crown‘ these days – they both laughed and said it would not be allowed under current Health and Safety legislation! So we left at about 10.30 and received a telehone call (via the car’s audio/bluetooth system) from my niece when we had just about hit the M1. We had a stop half way down and enjoyed some Costa coffee and some of our own mince pies and then got home some time before 2.00pm. We were delighted to be home and did a bit of gentle unpacking (including the washing, which we bundled into the washing machine) and then gradually starting picking up the pieces again.
The Health Secretary, Sajiv Javid, is reported as saying that the COVID situation is being reviewed ‘upon an almost hourly basis’ which I am sure is probably correct. I am sure that given the overwhelming scientific advice and the amazing spread of the Omicron variant that the government have probably decided ‘in their heads’ to produce radical new measures but are puzzling how to sell it to the libertarian wing of the Tory party and when to do it. My guess would be that the government is relying upon the fact that a few days before Christmas many are ‘voting with their feet’ and staying away from large crowds and parties so we have a semi-lockdown in all but name. Then new measures might be announced that will take effect one day after Boxing Day i.e. let the population have their Christmas dinner and then hit them with new restrictions whilst their gaze is diverted by Christmas jollities.
I have just read a story on BBC News that a pet monkey, a Marmoset, was found which had been fed cocaine and then flushed down a toilet. The monkey has survived and the owner is being prosecuted. When I first read the story, I assumed that it was either a joke or a story of the ‘Freddie Starr ate my hamster‘ genre.
On the political front, Nadine Dorries has just tweated that “I’m aware as someone said today that regicide is in the DNA of the Conservative party, but a bit of loyalty to the person who won an 83 majority and delivered Brexit wouldn’t go amiss.” As a result of this she has just been removed from the (right wing) Tory MP’s ‘WhatsApp‘ group – which may be an indication of the way the wind is blowing and that Boris Johnson’s removal has been decided in principle – it’s just a question of when!
Today being Monday and the start of the week before Christmas, I started to get focused on what needed to be done in the next few days. The first thing on my mind was the location and condition of my ‘Santa Claus’ outfit which, by tradition, I deploy on the Tuesday before Christmas when members of my Pilates class exchange Christmas cards – and occasionally other goodies. With the things that you only use once a year, I had a rough idea of where my outfit was but fortunately I went straight to a cupboard from whence I could retrieve the required items stored in a Father Christmas style hessian sack. Instead of the considerable rigmarole of having to change in the toilet area of the Pilates studio, I am going to wear all of my gear underneath my Pilates clothes – then, at the requisite time after we have the ‘treat’ of a relaxation session, I ‘wake up’ half way through and complete my transformation. In the past, I have composed a little song to the tune of ‘I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus’ but somehow the creative spirit has left me this year so I may give this a miss. The second tradition associated with my Pilates class is to make a present of a little bottle of our own bottled damson gin to each of my class mates. I knew that I didn’t have time to bottle any of this years but again, fortunately, the year before had been a bumper year so I just happened to have the exact number of small 200cc bottles of gin left over so this has saved me a bit of work. First thing in the morning, I need to wrap up each bottle in Christmas wrapping paper and write a little Christmas card for each person. All of this takes a certain amount of organisation but traditions must not be allowed to die. After getting all of this sorted out and the rest of the unpacking done, Meg and I were a little late in getting down into town today. It was a slightly chilly day but nothing that couldn’t be tolerated. We picked up our newspapers, called by Waitrose to pick up a few supplies and made our way to the park. One of our purchases at Waitrose was a copy of the Radio Times which we tend to buy only once a year at Christmas time so that we have a good guide to the programmes not to miss over the Christmas period. Whilst films at Christmas time are often used just to fill up the empty schedules, occasionally there is a real classic which is well worth watching (last year, for example, it was Casablanca which in black and white had a particular quality to it) Although it was the first day of the Christmas vacations, there were hardly any children around and even the dog walkers were in short supply this morning so we were quite pleased to drink our coffee and head for home.The thing about doing walks in the summer is that often people are toddling around their front gardens and do not mind stopping for a chat but just before Christmas, no doubt we are all being driven crazy finding Christmas stuffing or its contemporary equivalent.
One of the chores at Christmas time is the writing and sending of Christmas cards and I am always mightily relieved when this task is done. On the other hand, you have the undoubted pleasure of getting cards from friends and relatives and catching up on their news. We do tend to keep a tally in our heads of the people from whom we have received cards if only because if we do not receive a card from one of our regulars, then we start to get a little concerned lest they be seriously ill – or even worse. However, the Christmas card list does have one set of macabre bonus. When I compiled it for the first time, I gave a copy of it to our son and daughter-in-law with the admonition that whever Meg and I died, this was to the the ‘people-to-be-contacted’ list. I say this because sometimes relatives have the task of sifting through old address books to try to discover old friends, current friends, now forgotten friends and so on. To have an up-to-date list is always useful but with the various amendments that take place from year to year, I must remind myself to give my heirs the up-to-date list this year.
Boris Johnson gave a Prime Ministerial broadcast today which I was glad to miss. Torn between the scientific community and medical experts on the one hand and the libertarian right of the Tory party (to whom any lockdowns are anathema) on the other, Boris decided to do – nothing! However, the situation is to kept ‘under constant review’ and could change at a moment’s notice. I think the ploy here is all too transparent – i.e. get Christmas Day and Boxing Day over and then go for a lockdown in all but name before the NHS is completely overwhelmed.
Well today the shortest day and longest night is now upon us. The technical moment was 15.58 this afternoon so we are now moving away from the period of maxiumum darkness. The coldest day is often in the middle of February, however, so we can expect to shiver for a few weeks yet. Once Christmas and the New Year are out of the way so to speak, one can observe that the days are lightening just a smidgeon but, of course, there is a lot of the winter to go yet. I always wonder how our primitive forebears managed with formal calendars to mark out exactly when the winter solstice occurs. Of course, if you go into the intricacies of Stonehenge, then it does appear that the Winter Solstice was marked when the sun’s rays appared at a particular point between two of the uprights. We also know from quite recent archeological evidence that a huge quantity of pig and cattle bones were found near Stonehenge and these animals may well have been born 9 months before and reared so that they could be slaughtered in good time for the winter feasting and celebrations. On a more serious note, our ancestors might have needed the exact date of the solstice so that they could plan when to plant their crops, rear their animals and the like. Christianity grafted itself onto these traditions. The very earliest Christians did not celebrate Christmas but about 200 AD the date of Christmas was assumed to be January 6th. But as earlier Egyptian source celebrated the solstice often representing it as the birth of an infant child, so the early Church Fathers realigned Christmas to be coincide with the date of the earlier pagan festivals – and hence December 25th.
This morning, I busied myself putting some labels on the bottles of damson gin and then wrapping them up (crudely) in Christmas wrapping paper and then writing a card to each of my Pilates class mates. Then as we were short of time, Meg and I made a lightning visit to the park by car and had a quick drink of our coffee before we raced back in time for me to make my Santa Claus decorations. I decided to wear my Santa Claus trousers underneath my tracksuit bottoms and may Santa Claus top underneath my normal shirt. Then I bundled my Santa Claus coat and hat into my hessian bag, complete with the gin, and set off for the class. As it popped down, I rehearsed the lines of my Sanata Claus ditty which I won’t repeat just now but it starts off with ‘I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus‘ and quickly progresses onto the birth of a baby Santa Claus who proceeds to get outrageously drunk on damson gin. By tradition, the very last five minutes of the Pilates class before Christmas is devoted to a period of relaxation. So I wait for a couple of minutes until I think everyone’s eyes are shut and then sneak out of the door to complete my transformation (which involved ripping off shirts and track suit bottoms in the foyer before I don my outer robes) Then in I pop, with excellent timing as the class were just being woken up and I exclaim ‘My goodness, girls and boys – you have grown a lot in the last year‘ and I proceeded to sing my little ditty and distribute the gin – all in a socially distanced fashion of course and hence no Christmas hugs (Sigh!) But my fellow class members have been denied this spectacle last September so it is two years since I performed my act. I make sure that the reception staff and the owner of the clinic also receive their prezzies as well, so that is all over for another year. I must say that I was minded to walk down to the park on Christmas Day in my Santa Claus regalia but my son cautioned me out of this on the grounds that all of the little children in the park might rush towards me and would have to be severely disillusioned. I do agree with this analysis but I might don a Christmas hat at an appropriate point in our sojourn in the park – after all, one of my fellow Pilates class members came along with a pair of green antlers (which had to be removed before the exercises).
There is the whole of the Christmas grocery shopping yet to be done and I have known some horrendously busy supermarkets in the past. However, tomorrow I intend to be at the door of my local Waitrose store in Droitwich at 1 minute before opening time and then I shall have to have a good race around. Tomorrow evening, we are having our next door neighbours in for a Christmas drink so I can get well and truly provisioned in my shopping trip in the morning.
Today I knew was going to be quite a busy day so I set the alarm to get me up promptly at 6.30am. Then after a wash and a quick bite of cereal, I made my way to Waitrose in Droitwich, anticipating being there about 2-3 minutes before the store opened. When I did get there the store was already open and seemed quite busy so the store must have (quite sensibly) opened an hour early to accommodate the Christmas shopping. This was always going to be quite a big shop- up and so it proved as we missed out on a shop-up when we went up to Yorkshire last week. Also, there were various things that I knew we had run out of so I needed to bear in mind the extra things that inevitably one buys at Christmas time (Christmas pudding and the like) as well as some extras because I knew that we were entertaining our next door neighbours this evening and a solitary mince pie looks parsimonious in the extreme. The shopping and the extra shopping took a lot of unpacking so we were late getting on our normal excursion to the park. In fact, we were so late that we decided to go by car not least because once we had picked up our newspaper, I needed to buy some more (first class) stamps to ensure that last minute Christmas cards got to their destination on time. Once we had made it to the park, it was so late and a bit cold and damp so we decided to cut our losses and get straight home and have our elevenses at home, which we did. Then we decided to eat our quiche which I complemented with a tomato/mushroom/garlic sidedish which complemented the quiche very well.
Before it got well and truly dark this afternoon, I got our dustbins pulled to the front of our access road and then did a quick consultation with my email to see if one of Meg’s cousins had replied to an earlier plea asking for addresses of relatives that had escaped our system. Meg’s cousin had replied so we set up a time when we can ‘Zoom’ each other. Armed with an up-to-date address for another of Meg’s cousins, I thought I would make a lightning visit down into town hoping that the Christmas card for which I now had an address would manage to get to its destination on time. It was raining cat and dogs but I managed to get to a postbox where I think (hope) that I will have caught the last post today so I am hopeful it may arrive tomorrow or Christmas Eve at the very latest. When I got home, I immediately starting to plate up the ‘small-eats’ which we needed to entertain our next door neighbours later on this evening. We had slightly mistaken the time they were due to call round but no problem as we had just about got everything sorted out anyway. I had bought some Rose Prosecco from Waitrose this morning as well as some medium sherry and both of these were pressed into service this evening. Then we had an incredibly enjoyable couple of hours with our neighbours and we have them a blow-by-blow account of how the funeral services had gone (well) and lots of other neighbourly type of things to chat about. I regaled them with some of my civil service escapades which are ‘old hat’ by now but at least they hadn’t heard the story before, nor of my escapade sailing my boat (upturned kitchen table) when I was aged about 3½ or so.
It is always nice to get this stage before Christmas i.e. shopping done, neighbours entertained, cards delivered – although the immediate neighbour’s cards still have to be done. We are now at the stage when all ought to be plain sailing. I have always thought that Christmas, particularly Christmas Day, has to be carefully planned and I allow myself to relax from Boxing Day onwards. Last night, I suddenly thought about the diary which I need for next year (I tend to buy the same model of Letts so that they form a series oer the years) and a large Collins type of wall calendar that I have displayed next to me desk so that I can look at commitments for a week or so ahead. Fortunately, both of these were in stock and the diary will be arriving tomorrow and the calendar a day or so after that.
Now that another ‘semi-lockdown’ seems to be upon us – I would guess some time immediately after Boxing Day – it may well be time to activate our Zoom, Skype and FaceTime networks. The peak of the Omicron virus is not yet quite in sight but in a few days we might see if the curve is flattening at all. Getting reliable data over the Christmas and New Year period may be arkward but I suspect that in about a fortnight’s time, the epidemiologists might have enough data to firm up their predictions.
I thought that today was going to be a quieter kind of day but I suppose that for the few days just before Christmas, that has got to be a case of wishful thinking. After our entertaining last night and then sqeezing in writing my blog in the intervals between a repeated showing of ‘Endeavour‘ (i.e. the young Morse), Meg and I allowed ourselves a little bit of a lie-in, given that I was up at 6.30 yesterday morning. However, I have it in mind that in the New Year, I might train myself into a new pattern in which I get up at 6.30, walk down to get the newspapers each morning which will give me an extra bit of exercise and then Meg and I can still walk to the park but the newspapers will have been collected which attenuates the walk somewhat. But that is a New Year resolution which may not survive beyond a day or so. Today, though, as we were having a lesiurely breakfast we had occasion to look outside our front door and we noticed that Santa Claus had made an early visit to our house. Delighted as we were, we realised that a certain amount of present buying needed to be done, not least for our assiduous domestic help who is due round tomorrow morning. So Meg and I revised our plans for the day and decided to collect the newspaper by car and then pop by into Waitrose where some goodies were awaiting us. In Waitrose, as well as getting the things that we wanted, we had both a pleasant and an unpleasant surprise. The unpleasant surprise was one of the regular staff telling us that the coffee bar area which had been requisitioned to act as Christmas fare overflow area was unlikely to reopen as a coffee bar immediately after Christmas. The official word is that they are going to ‘wait and see’ for a bit, but I suspect that they find it more profitable to abandon the coffee bar area altogether and to reopen it as a type of special offers or promotions section. This confirms our belief that once a facility closes, it is so much more difficult to reopen it and the higher management of Waitrose are thinking of redeploying this floor space altogether. But then we had some good news because one of the regular staff made us a present of some hyacinth bulbs which is always a reminder that as it blooms, there will be a Spring upon the way in a few weeks time. So Meg and I went home and had our ‘elevenses’ at home, substituting some of last night’s left-overs for our normal fare and set about wrapping our newly purchased purchases in Christmas paper,labelling them up and writing the Christmas cards to go with them. Then we set out by car on our errand to drop off presents. The first went to our Italian friend down the road and then we popped presents near the front or back doors of our church friends and our Irish friends respectively.
Some interesting analyses on the severity of the Omicron variant have been released today by the UK Health Security Agency. The findings, in brief, are that:
⊕ The People with Omicron are significantly less likely to develop severe symptoms, according to the first analysis by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
⊕ Early results suggest people are 30-45% less likely to go to A&E if they are infected with Omicron rather than Delta.
⊕ They are also 50-70% less likely to need to be admitted to hospital.
⊕ It shows that 10 weeks after the booster the effect in preventing symptomatic disease dropped by 15-25%.
⊕ Independent scientists have warned that even a “milder” virus that causes large numbers of cases could still lead to a surge in hospital admissions.
So this news appears to vindicate the stance taken by Boris Johnson and the Cabinet to play for time. However, to moderate our optimism, the number of new infections is still hitting daily records (at 120,000) which is evidently a 20% increase over yesterday but nothing like as bad as the doubling every 1-2 days which was predicted in some of the modelling. Some ground-breaking laboratory studies seem to indicate that the Omicron variant concentrates in the larynx which may account for its greater transmissibility but is not as capable to binding to lung tissue (and hence this lessens the severity of this variant) The broadcaster Jon Snow is hosting his last Channel 4 News this evening having been the anchor of this programme for 32 years. He will continue to work for Channel 4 News on longer term projects but at the age of 73 years old, he may be wanting to take it a little easier. Channel 4 News mounted their own tribute to Jon Snow this evening which ended in a sort of ticker-type walk through the production studio where he embraced (and was embraced) by many of his co-workers. He will be sadly missed (by me, at least)
Christmas Eve has dawned and I leapt out of bed fairly early for me because I thought I would walk down to the paper shop before breakfast to liberate a bit more time during the rest of the day. Walking down to town at about 7.30 in the morning was quite an interesting experience because some people had their lighted decorations on (which they may switch off during the day). I have seen a fibreglass reindeer in one of the front porches down the road but I haven’t realised before that this could be illuminated by flashing LEDs (which sounds tacky in the extreme, but actually it was fairly tasteful). At the newsagents, I picked up my newspaper and I exchanged seasonal greetings with the wife of the newsagent who has lived,with her husband, in California. We were having a chuckle about the fact that the American cricket team had secured a victory over the Irish which was quite notable for them – but the source of amusement to us both was that about 8 of the American cricket team were Asian and another two Afro-Caribbean – I think one solitary white American male had crept into the team somehow. When I got home, I prepared our normal cooked breakfast and then our domestic help turned up and we always have a lot to natter about, particularly in view of our little Yorkshire venture for my brother-in-law’s funeral. We indicated that all had gone well and the whole proceedings were both dignified and emotionally uplifting. I then had to go ahead and get the cards organised for the neighbours. As it turned out there were about seven of these and again I tried to match the Christmas card to the neighbour. Hence to two of our Asian neighbours, I try not to offend them with overtly Christian type cards but tend to use those which evidently have an international flavour. For one of my park friemds (who as it happens was not there this morning) I chose a vaguely amusing card which had on it a flock of sheep bah-ing ‘Happy Christmas bleatings’ (which, although not rib-tickingly funny might bring a slight smile of amusement when he eventually gets it). So Meg and I set out on our journey to the park, hand delivering the cards as we went. When we got to the park, neither of two regular friends were there but I had a quick telephone call with one of them to arrange a rendez-vous for Sunday. We did, though, meet up quite by chance with an elderly Irish couple who are close friends of our other Irish friends along Kidderminster Road. I reminded them that last year, the six of us had partaken of some of the damson gin which I had taken down for some of friends. Because we were in sort of lockdown conditions last year, we actually sat in the doorway of an open garage so that we could indicate to passing officaldom that we were actually outdoors (which complied with the regulations then in force) I had taken along a largish bottle of the 2020 vintage of our damson gin (I had made six litres last year and hence had some left over before this year’s is bottled) I had brought with me some paper cups so they both imbibed my damson gin and I reminded them that as we had been doing this for two years, we had actually started a tradition. After the Irish couple proceeded on their way, we encountered anothr couple that we know slightly by sight (or rather their dog bounded over searching out titbits which is quite a common occurrence) We had a very interesting chat for at least 20 minutes or so talking about the houses in which we had lived in the past, both of which happened to have extremely long gardens. So after this chat we had to race home and I cooked some sea-bream which I had promised all of us this Christmas Eve lunch.The point about this particular fresh fish is that it only done for about three minutes on one side and two minutes on the other and then served on a bed of salad – so the whole meal can literally get thrown together ina few minutes. We then exchanged some Christmas gifts that we had bought for each other but our domestic help ( an excellet cook, by the way) brought along a courgette and ginger soup (which we were to have later on this evening) and some absolutely delicious treacle-type ginger cake ( and in return, she had some of our beer and Cava of which we had a spare bottle) so I am sure we will have a wonderfulChristmas day opening up all of these prezzies.
This evening we went to the Christmas Eve service in which we imagined that the church would be packed full. It was but we had got there 15 minutes before our normal arrival time. It was raining ‘cats and dogs’ both when we got to the church and when we came out so we were pleased to get home and enjoy some home-made soup.
It seems a bit strange writing a blog when you haven’t really done anything all day, but here goes. Last night, the Christmas Midnight Mass was only broadcast from our local cathedral in central Birmingham. I have not visited St.Chads but it has several associations with the eminent architect Pugin as the Cathedral and Bishop’s House (originally opposite), and their interiors, were designed by him. The cathedral is an internationally significant building, being the first Catholic cathedral to be built in the UK since the Reformation. I also discovered that in 1940 a bomb dropped through the ceiling, burst some central heating pipes and the escape of water from the same put out the fire which would have otherwise ensued (and therefore the fabric of the cathedral was saved). Perhaps it was the TV shots but the cathedral was not, at first glance, a particularly memorable building – I suspect that I need to visit it and have a good wander around to appreciate its undoubted qualities. When the service was over, it was now being well and truly Christmas Day, I sent off a series of tweats to family members and also received an email from an old friend in Spain. The rest of the day followed a fairly predictable Christmas Day routine. After we had had our breakfast and opened up our Christmas presents, we were entertained by the adventures of ‘Sean the Sheep‘ which brought wry smiles rather than rib-tickling gales of laughter. Then it came to the organisation of Christmas dinner. This is always an exercise in logistical rather then culinary skills but I am pleased to say that I managed to get the beef, gravy, roast potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, chestnuts and finally Rioja well and truly coordinated and we had a (rather large) dinner at just about the anticipated time. After lunch, I idly flipped through various channels on the telly and settled upon a programme on Channel 5 going through Abba’s greatest hits which I must say I rather enjoyed in a post-prandial haze. Then it was time for the Queen’s broadcats at 3.00pm. I must admit that I have never followed these assiduously over the years but on this occasion, it seemed a little different. For a start, the Queen had decided to stay at Windsor rather than having a traditional ‘family do’ at Sandringham – was this a message to the nation? A lot of the broadcast was then devoted to the fact that the Queen had lost her husband earlier on this year and she was reflecting upon the fact that Christmas time can be a particularly poignant time when loved ones have passed away. I thought the whole broadcast was particularly well crafted (even though much of it is put together by some of her wordsmiths). I rather enjoyed trying to decode the subliminal messages (who is ‘up’ and who is ‘down’ in the modern royal family by the mention or the absence of a mention as well as which video clips are displayed to illustrate the broadcast)
Almost inevitably at this time of year, one reflects on Christmas in the past. One of the earliest recollections that I have must have date back to about 1950 when I was aged five. My mother worked as a clerk/typist in the Education offices in Harrogate. She used to tell the the story that she and her fellow workers used to wait for their boss to do his round of the offices to wish everyone a happy Christmas at about 3.30 or 3.45 on Christmas Eve. This was then a ‘cue’ for everyone to leave and all of the Christmas shopping that needed to be done was left from about 3.45 to 5.30 on that afternoon. The memories that I retain was of my mother coming home on her bicycle, laden up with carrier bags and with a small Christmas tree sticking out of one of them. To be fair, the shops were so short of anything to buy just after the Second World War and people were so short of money in general that this not the privation you might imagine. Of course, times were very much simpler 70 years ago. Even later, as a teenager, when I worked at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate (washing dishes at 12½p an hour) I would start at 6.00pm and would leave home to cycle into work at about 5.30. Our shift would carry on until about 2.00am the following morning and I did this for several years as a teenager. To be honest, you had Christmas Day with your family and then saw work colleagues in the evening. The management was extraordinarily generorous in those days – staff were not offered any extra pay for working on Christmas day but each member of staff was rewarded with one (small) glass of sherry (which the hotel used to buy by the barrel directly from Spain and then bottle themselves with an ‘Old Swan’ label stuck on it).
Today being Boxing Day makes tomorrow Bank Holiday Monday, I suppose, as the Bank Holiday gets transferred from a Sunday (i.e. today) until the following day. So this morning, I decided to pop down early for our Sunday newspapers on my own so that would liberate a bit of time later on in the day. The weather has been incredibly wet for the last few days but at least the rain had eased off for my walk down into town today and it seemed as though the rain would hold off for the rest of the morning. Meg and I walked down and had coffee on our ‘normal bench’ and thought we would not bump into any of our regulars but no sooner had we consumed our coffee then our University of Birmingham friend turned up with a couple of other mutual friends that we had not seen for a couple of weeks. So it was good to bump into friends and we exchanged news about the kind of Christmas Day we had had. To some extent, we were not unhappy to get Christmas Day itself over and done and now we were ready for a more relaxing time on Boxing Day. When we got to the park, I substituted my normal leather Australian style hat for a Santa hat. The Australian hats are occasionally known as ‘Bush’ hats and sometimes as ‘Cowboy’ hats but I have learnt, to my cost, not to leave them behind in a railway carriage or a pub because they never, ever get handed in as lost but are claimed under the principle of ‘Finders-Keepers, Losers-Weepers). After we had our chat the drizzle started to come down so we started to make for home. As we had plenty of food and drink back in the house, we invited our University of Birmingham friend back into the house where we had a quick drink followed by an instant Boxing-day style meal. We had got plenty of cooked vegetables left over from yesterday so we cut ourselves some slices of ham and quickly microwaved up the vegetables so we had a meal in an instant. Whilst we were at it, we decided to have a go at the Christmas pudding that we had in stock and was far too much just for the two of us. So we had some enjoyable food and drink and even more enjoyable conversation as we recounted some of our university experiences. We expressed to each other the feelings that we had of quiet satisfaction that we were not part of present day employment conditions in the higher education sector. This is so highly casualised these days and the students having to pay up to £9,000 a year (and take out loans to cover the costs of maintenance) and are starting to express their discontent. Some university staff have taken strike action in recent months as plans are in place to fund the Universities pension schemes with cuts to benefits. The employers claim the cuts will amount to something between 10%-18% whilst the college unions claim that the cuts amount to 35%. I cannot start to arbitrate between these conflicting estimates but it does seem that conditions have changed considerably since I was in employment in a university. For decades we contributed about 7% of our salary towards our final pensions and the employers contributed a more than equal amount. Trying to understand why and how the deficit has arisen is contentious. However, from what I can glean, it appears that deficits in defined-benefit pension schemes have been made worse by central bank action to deal with the coronavirus. By pushing down interest rates in the hope of stimulating an economic recovery, they have made long-term pension promises much more expensive. Retired workers are also living longer, adding to the increase in expected future costs.
The COVID situation is currently exposing divisions in the approach taken to the Omicron variant of the COVID virus in the various constituent nations of the UK (although it doesn’t feel very united) The Celtic fringes of Wales, Scotland Northern Ireland are generally re-imposing conditions on meetings of large numbers of people and nightclubs are generally being closed – but not in England. It appears that England is still taking a more ‘libertarian’ approach with looser restrictions on the use of face-masks and the like than other countries. However the situation is being kept ‘under review’ and it is possible that England might eventually come into line with all of our immediate neighbours. Also, there is a firm commitment that schools will reopen as usual in about a week’s time and I wonder what the effects of this are going to be. I suspect that we may see the worst of the Omicron variant towards the middle of January and whilst government policy is to give a booster dose to as many as possible, it may be that the protection ‘enjoyed’ by many members of the population may be fast waning. So some societies (like Israel) are already considering a fourth vaccination (a second booster dose) and it could be that this will become necessary in the UK as well if the infection rate soars.
We were up fairly late this morning because we watched the broadcast of La Bohème on BBC4 last night. Meg and I quite enjoyed this production but we have seen better. The singing was of a generally high order but I was not completely convinced by some of the staging. The trouble with La Bohème is that we have seen so many productions of this, both live and on video, when one automatically makes comparisons in one’s mind with past productions. I felt this was a ‘curate’s egg’ i.e. it worked well in parts and at other times, I was not so sure. But the death of Mimi in the final moments of the opera is always a totally compelling emotional experience which is, after all, what opera is all about. We had earlier watched young ballerinas and the youngsters from White Lodge (the Royal Ballet training school for 11-16 year olds) going through a fairly gruelling training procedure. When you watched the ultimate performance, one’s heart was in one’s mouth that nobody made a mistake – I suppose they would have edited out anything that was a disaster. But the physical and emotional demands on trainee dancers has got to be seen to be believed. If you do a Google search for ‘ballet mistakes’ you will see what happens and how quickly some of the dancers recover from a terrible mistake. Sometimes, I wonder if some members of the audience even notice.
Being a little delayed this morning, I walked down to collect the newspaper and do a little bit of shopping for supplies that had run short – Meg and I decided to forgo our normal walk so went down to the park by car. En route, we stopped off with our Irish friends down the road in order to invite them around for a Christmas drink and they were busy with their two grandchildren keeping them suitably entertained no doubt. When we got to the park, it was raining with a stinging type of drizzle despite the weather being on the mild side. The park was deserted – so we walked a circular walk avoiding our normal stay on a park bench (which would have been both wet and cold) and decided to come home and have our prepared elevenses at home. This we did and then pressed on with lunch, eating some more of our Christmas beef. Both Meg and I felt that our ‘leftovers’ tasted particularly tasty this morning. This sometimes happens with a joint which tastes better the day after rather than the day of cooking and our broccoli had benefitted for being the fridge for several days. Even the glass of wine we had tasted a little better than on the day of opening itself.
This afternoon was devoted to some little tidying and mending jobs – the kind of jobs that you always say you are going to get round to eventually and then the hour of reckoning comes. I also tried some experimentation with Meg’s iPhone to see if I can temporarily switch the passcode off (I can!) The idea behind this is to get something approximating to a ‘one touch’ system so that when I am out of the house, Meg can use my iPhone to contact me almost instantly should the need arise.
I came across a nice little expression in the last day or so, namely ‘Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.‘ There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an emergency you must start with this one thing: the very definition of ’emergency’ is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning. The details of a plan which was designed years in advance are often incorrect, but the planning process demands the thorough exploration of options and contingences. The knowledge gained during this probing is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as future events unfold. So there we are.
I was disappointed to learn that our Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced that there will be no further restrictions before the New Year – this on the day that we had the highest number of infections ever at 113,628. I dare say that the government are gambling upon the fact that there has been a degree of ‘semi-lockdown’ as people have withdrawn from various activities, such as shopping, over the recent period. Also the apparent ‘mildness’ of the Omicron variant means that hospital admissions have not risen at the same rate as the infection rate. On the other hand, on the ‘supply; rather than the ‘demand’ side of the equation the hospitals are under the most extreme pressure because so many NHS staff are ill with COVID are self isolating. The absenteeism rate due to COVID has risen by 40% since last year. Covid staff sickness rose by 122% in a week at hospital trusts in London, which has had more Omicron cases than anywhere else in England.
Today has turned out to be one of those frustrating days when nothing seems to go quiteright. As it seemed a tad cooler than of late, we decided to treat ourselves to steaming bowl of porridge and this bit of the day turned out OK. We knew that we needed to get back into the house by 12.00pm as we had an arrangement to Zoom with some of Meg’s cousins so we had to ‘cut our coat according to our cloth' I texted our University of Birmingham friend to indicate that we would go down to the park by car and then have our coffee and biscuits in the bandstand where at least we would be sheilded from the worst of the showers. Then we phoned or friend to tell him where we were and the rest of the park was deserted. He was busy visiting a relative so we made a rendez-vous for next Friday and then shot back home in the car ready for our ‘Zoom’ meeting. This was when our frustrations really started. Meg’s cousin generally sets up the Zoom and we link into it just by clicking a link on an email which has been sent to us – but no email was forthcoming. So I tried setting up a call myself which only had one participant (myself) and although I emailed Meg’s cousin several times nothing seems to have happened. When playing about with the settings, though, I did manage to get a view of myself (courtesy of Zoom) as though I was a larger-than-life spaceman floating over the earth which looked rather grand. After getting nowhere, I emailed my son who was busy at work to see if he could link into my conference call but this drew a blank as well, despite my sending him (and our daughter-in-law) a link to click. Having drawn a blank and been on the internet for the best part of an hour, we abandoned it and cooked myself some lunch. After lunch, I checked my email and Meg’s cousin who should have been at the other end of the Zoom call who was full of apologies. Her mother had taken a tumble and although no bones were broken she was somewhat bruised and certainly shaken up. So evidently, this had absorbed all of the cousin’s attention and energies and she had completely forgotten about the Zoom call.
After lunch, I knew I wanted to dash into town to get some things from AsdaA which are unobtainable elsewhere. But first I needed to get some money out of an ATM but the ATM I chose (and a few others) all refused to accept my card saying it was ‘invalid’. So then I popped into the store (not my favourite) and spent several fruitless minutes searching for some thin-style calendars of which they had a good display this last year. I cannot find what I was looking for but an assistant pointed to me to a temporary display (not on the normal shelves) so it was no wonder I could not find what I was looking forward. But eventually, I found a calendar more or less to our taste and then proceeded to try and find some packet potato which I use constantly as a gravy thickener. Needless to say, I couldn’t find what I was looking for but eventually I found some where the contents had increased by 50% but the price had gone up from 30p to £1.00. At least the card worked at the paypoint so I could pay for my purchases.
Finally at home, frustration number 3 of the day. The treasurer and myself are still struggling through the safeguarding procedures of the bank which supplies banking services to our Resident’s Association. Their ‘safeguarding procedures’ means that we have to jump through multiple hoops to carry on what we have been doing for the last ten tears or so. After a great deal of searching and an abortive telephone call to the bank, I managed to locate our user name but not the password set up ten years ago. So I went through the password reset routine but this required a form to be downloaded, then signed by all of the relevant people (i.e. the Treasurer and mysellf) and then had to be submitted to be ‘considered’ by the relevent part of the bank before they would allow me to change my password for one I can remember. I also submitted even more details to the ‘SafeGuarding’ unit of the bank who again are ‘considering’ the information so in some ways, I have got nowhere. On the other hand, I have done as much as I can do and then I shall wait for my email inbox to fill up wih even more requests for information. The whole of this ‘safeguarding’ is being enjoined on the banks by the Financial Conduct Authority – I am sure that thousands of us are being put through the mill but the genuine money launderers (much of the London property market in big houses) will no doubt have found a way round all this.
Today has turned out to be another day with some frustrations built in but life must go on. The weather is unseasonably mild at the moment – this time last year, I am pretty sure that we were shivering in the snow as soon as Christmas was over. Today, though, Meg and I went off by car to collect our newspaper and then we made a brief excursion into the park where we sat and drank our coffee as per usual.The I dropped Meg back at home and I went on my way do visit a few places on the Bromsgrove High Street. I started my series of errands by calling in at our local pharmacy to pick up a lateral flow test. Admittedly, the Government’s own website indicated that there are no kits available for distribution from the centre – but nonetheless encouraged visitors to the site to visit their local pharmacy. So I got my special authorisation code sent to me and also available on the phone but when I arrived at the pharmacy, despite my code, they had no supplies and did not know when they get future supplies. Apparently, a lack of lateral flow tests (LFTs) in UK pharmacies is a ‘huge’ problem as people have been requesting them every five minutes over the Christmas period, providers have warned. ‘What our members are telling us is that demand for the lateral flow tests is very high at the moment due to the current guidelines around self-isolation. Pharmacies are reporting that every five minutes, approximately, somebody comes into the pharmacy asking for a test' BBC Radio 4’s Today programme was told. So this looks like a case of non-joined up government with the official advice being to test yourself before going to meet relatives or other crowded spaces, without making sure that adequate supplies of the test kits were available. The more responsible that people try to be, the more the government has not made it possible for people to act responsibly. So this was frustration ‘Numero Uno’ this morning. The next one was to follow shortly. I walked along to my local bank as I had done yesterday only to find them shut. Today, having arrived there to get our debit cards sorted out (as the ATM’s will not recognise them), I found the branch shut again. Apparently, all of the available staff have COVID so there was nobody to open up the branch. Having negotiated my way up the queue of frustrated clients, the bank had a couple of people outside the bank saying to come back tomorrow. I explained my dilemma to these staff who advised me to ring the number on the back of the cards. So that was Frustation No. 2. But I did manage to pick up a supply of perfume which had come through to Boots after a delay of some days – a belated Christmas present for Meg. So I got home and threw lunch together before I tackled the issue of contacting my bank. After a wait of some 40 minutes (and having been made to supply voice recognition samples in the meanwhile) I did speak to a human employee, I was informed that a new card could be supplied but it would take some 4-5 working days and even then it would have a new expiry date and 3-digit security code. So when this new card arrives, I will still be put to the trouble of going to various websites where my credit card details are lodged and getting these updated which is always a pain. So that was Frustation No. 3 for the day.
This afternoon, though, we did manage a Zoom session with Meg’s cousins and this all worked very well. We managed to get an up-to-date address for a relative whose most recent address details we had lost. We had quite a jolly time chatting with the cousins and have arranged a date in about 10 days time when we get ourselves to Derby and we can all go out for a meal together – or some oher kind of face-to-face interaction. We are all looking forward to this as we have not seen this particular branch of the family for some two years now.
The Omicron variant continues its macabre progress. We have learnt today tht up to 90% of people in intensive care had not had the booster jab. Pharmacies have reported that they are asked for lateral flow tests every 5 minutes but adequate supplies have been promised in time for New Year’s Eve – which is only just over a day away. In France, it looks as though the number of new infections may top 200,000 new cases compared with 183,000 in the UK. But the situation in French hospitals as here in the UK is that whilst hospitalisations are rising, the rate of increase of new COVID cases is not yet overwhelming. Even so, in the UK, the number of COVID hospitalisations in the UK jumped by 900 in the past 24 hours.
Today is our ‘shopping’ day so I made sure that I could leap out of bed in plenty of time to get washed, tea made for both of us and then I could set forth in plenty of time to arrive in Droitwich about five minutes before the store opened its doors. All of this worked well but I must say that I was surprised to be about No. 4 or No. 5 in the queue. After last week’s heavy expenditure, I decided I was ging to be much more circumspect about my purchases and only buy an item if I thought it was absolutely necessary. All of this having been done, I got home at about 9.30 having spent an hour shopping and then did a slow unpack. As we were going to bed last night, the guilty verdict in the Ghislaine Maxwell case had been announced and there was a rapidly increasing throng of the asoociated media assembled at the front of the courtroom. No doubt reporters and photographers were waiting for members of the Maxwell defence team to appear. Certainly, some members of the family of Maxwell had seemed to escape from the back of the courtroom and the lawyers did not make an appearance for a couple of hours. At this stage, I had gone to bed so I don’t know if the lawyers actually did appear but I did fancy a bit of bloodsport if the lawyers had to run the gantlet of the press. Ome of the commentators on the case opined that the Maxwell family was shocked and disappointed by the verdict and they had expected that they could destroy the integrity of the witnesses. They had hoped to convince the jury that Epstein was the main culprit in the case and as he had committed suicide in prison, then Maxwell was being pursued by the authorities in lieu of Epsten himself. But the jury returnd a unanimous guilty verdict on five of the six charges.
After the shopping had been put away, it was time for me to make a visit to my bank to try to get to the bottom of the debite cards which cannot be read by ATMs. I must say that I was very well and sympathetically treated by the bank staff which took me into a back office and tried to get to the bottom of my problems. The upshot of all of this is that two new cards have been ordered for Meg and myself. When they turn up, I think I am going to store them very carefully because I suspect that in case the magnetic strip has been compromised so I evidently want to avoid all of these issues arising again when the new cards appear.
After lunch, we were engaged in more Christmas entertaining with some of our closest friends who had spent time away over Christmas so it was delightful to see them and to share a lot of our family and other kinds of news. So we had a very jolly time for most of the afternoon but we had some more close friends calling around in the early evening so it was case of saying a hurried set of goodbyes to our departing friends and a quick whiz around until our other friends turned up. This is really quite a frantic time of year because we are popping into yet more friends for a Christmas drink on Sunday morning and our Italian friend from down the road is also organising a little rendezvous-vous for us as well. No doubt, we will get down to earth early on next week but then, of course, it will be at the start of a New Year.
Tomorrow we will be seeing our domestic help and we always look forward to our lively chats. Moreover, we anticipate seeing more of our acquaintances in the park tomorrow so we need to make the most of the mild weather spell we are experiencing at the moment. New Year’s Eve is often the time when people go out to celebrate the New Year but Meg and myself are more than content to see the New Year in with a quiet drink on the stroke of midnight.
The COVID news at the end of the year is that the number of new infections continue to soar (to over 180,000) Meanwhile sites are being prepared all over the country to help the NHS cope with th surge of cases that are bound to hit within the next week or so. Even though the hospitalisation rate is not increasing at the same rate as infections then the basic mathematics remains of great concern. Even if only a few very percent become seriously ill, then a small percentage of a very large number of infections could still mean 5,000-10,000 additional cases a day hitting our NHS hospitals, Do we have the staff to cope with all of this?
Today dawned as the last day of the year of 2021 and I an sure that quite a few of the population will be saying ‘Good riddance’ and will be looking forwrd to the New Year. Meg and I were a little delayed in our walk this morning because we got to bed a little late last night and allowed ourselves a little lie-in this morning. But upon reading my emails, the bank that looks after our community affairs told me that my new password had been approved. But I still needed to make a voice contact with the Bank so that they could send me a special onetime password with which to activate the little ID device that the Bank supplies for us. This had to be set up with its own pin and was then operated to provide a special code which then had to be fed into the Bank’s website. Eventually, though, I was successful but the palaver in getting access to one’s own account has to be seen to be believed. The weather was continuing its mild spell but we took the car down to the newsagents where we shared thoughts about the forthcoming New Year. I am reminded what was said to one of our neighbours as we were walking down for our Pilates session. She met some old friends who she had not seen for several months and when the ritual enquiries were made of each other’s health, they replied ‘We’re still above the ground‘ – and I think this is quite a good motto to adopt. So the newsagent and I congratulated each other with the sentiment that we were at least ‘still above the ground’ as we looked forward to 2022. Once we had picked up our newspaper, we made our way to the park where our University of Birmingham friend happened to be waiting for us. Then the sun broke through and we had several moments of glorious sunshine as the clouds had rolled away. In time, nearly all of the regulars turned up including our veteran octogenerian trekker, a lady in a wheelchair who often joins us and several other of the faithful regulars. There is a particular feeling about both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve when most of the people one meets seem to be full of bonhomie and there is a general feeling that everyone wishes to be friendly. So we had several entertaining chats and wished each well for the New Year with the indication that we might just meet each other in the park tomorrow anyway. After we had returned home, we made ourselves a quick meal of risotto. We then started to watch some Christmas Eve daytime films but the promised comedy did not live up to expectations so we settled down to a quiet read. Then I did a flick up the TV channels to see if I could discover anything and ineed, on the Drama channel, we discovered that they were broadcasting the whole ‘box set’ (series of episodes strung together) of Hardy’s “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”. This was half way through by the time we discovered it but nonetheless, although we had seen this particular film version before, the whole film was well worth watching through to its conclusion. In the novel itself which I just happened to re-read only a few years ago, the principal male character and husband of Tess walks up ‘West Hill’ outside Winchester and has a view overlooking the prison where his wife has just been hanged. The final scene of the novel is set in a location in which King Alfred’s College, Winchester is only a stone throw’s away so upon reading the novel, one is left with a real sense of a link with the novel as Hardy incorporated many geographical elements of the Wessex countryside into his novels.
A little bit of COVID news has been released to puncture any updue optimisnm that we may feel. A study by the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) revealed the reduced effect of vaccines as Omicron spreads – with even a double-dose of AstraZeneca providing no effect against symptomatic infection from the variant from 20 weeks after the second jab. This means that without the booster jab, people may feel that have been protected but they may be living in a fool’s paradise. Even after a booster jab, natural immunity may decline over the weeks so although the population might thnk of itself as well protected by vaccines, this is only true if they are fairly recent. Perhaps we might start to get some news of a 4th jab (second booster?) some time in the next few weeks but in the meantime a certain complacency night have crept in. On a slightly more positive note, boosters did all still offer good protection against hospitalisation, according to the UKHSA analysis, rising to an 81% reduction in risk after a third jab. The study also showed that the risk of hospitalisation from the now-dominant Omicron variant was about one-third of that of Delta.
I am sure that quite a few people are more than happy to see the back of 2021, particularly if they have experienced family sickness or worse in the last year. I waited up until midnight and then ‘saw in’ the New Year, complete with a minute tot of whisky. I spent some minutes sending texts to various people on the phone’s contact list. Out of the blue, I received a New Year text from a Dutch friend that we have not been in contact with for about 15 years, as far as I can remember. The Dutch family had come over to see us and helped us celebrate our wedding anniversary some 15 years ago and we certainly had a family holiday with them in the Lake District but we have rather lost contact over the years. Anyway, it was nice to hear from them and in cases like this, I send the URL of this blog so that people can read something about our day-to-day lives, humdrum as it might be. One of my flatmates from our university days who currently lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, also sent me an incredibly short text which read ‘Still reading your blog’ We tend to remember each other’s birthdays if only bcause it happens to be on the same date in May.
Upon rising, I popped down to the newspaper shop and the shop proprietor and I, after wishing each seasonal greetings, were trying to work out what we would both do if we were to win £1 million in the next few days (I was thinking of the forthcoming Premium Bonds Draw) We came to the conclusion that if we won, the greatest happiness would be secured for both of us by giving all the money away. It did not occur to me that the shop would not be open but, in theory, the shop should not have opened. However, the proprietor opened up if only because so many of his regulars (including ourselves) didn’t think and just came along to collect our newspaper as normal. Through an unfortunate oversight, the supplement to ‘The Times‘ which includes all of the details of the TV programmes for today, was missing so we had to make do one way or another. In the park, we met up several of our friends including our University of Birmingham friend as well as Seasoned World Traveller. As we had not seen the latter for about a couple of weeks, I was mightily pleased to see him if only because I had been carting a small token Chrissy present of a few mince pies together with a card for him. We discussed the virus news and some of the good films we had seen on the telly over the last few days and met diverse others and their associated dogs whilst sitting on our usual park bench. Eventually, we made for home and had some quiche and seasonal vegetables for lunch.
In the afternoon, which was a little attenuated by now, we stumbled across a ‘box-set’ of Pride and Prejudice, broadcast on the Drama Channel like yesterday’s box set. This was one of the classic productions and there seemed to be a lot of detail of the dialogue that would normally be cut if the whole of the action had to be cut down do a conventional 90 minute film. We enjoyed watching this until it was time for us to get ready to go to church which we always do on a Saturday afternoon, leaving the house at about 5.30. When we got back, we had a bowl of soup and settled down for a conventional TV viewing for New Year’s Day. At about this time of year, I quite like the kinds of programmes that give you a ‘review of the year’ to remind you of the significant events you have just lived through. A few years ago, there used to be a programme which ran for several years which looked at a really ‘classic’ photo month by month and they managed to track down the photographer who gave an account of how he was fortunate enough to get one of those ‘classic’ shots where you just have to be in the right place at the right time. However, there don’t seem to be any of those of that type of programmes around this year (or we might have missed it whilst we entertaining/being entertained)
Whilst we were walking down to the park, our Italian friend spotted us and pressed a present into our hands and we are popping round to see some of our oldest friends tomorrow morning. Finally, the French lady who is a near neighbour of our other friends has invited us round for tea next Monday so we are finishing off the Christmas/New Year festivities with quite a flourish. After next Monday is over, we shall have to think about taking down the decorations and packing them up until next year.
It was a bit of a wild and stormy night last night so whether that made Meg and I sleep in a little later this morning I cannot say. We knew that we were going round to see some friends from 11.00am onwards and we also got a casual arrangement to meet with some friends in the park. Before we set out on our normal venture, I suddenly thought that I had no idea what was the modern terminology would be for ‘Negro Spirituals‘ – as you might imagine, this terminology is no longer used but I think if you were browsing in a music store you would head for any section called ‘Gospel’ or even ‘Gospel and Blues’ Many of the outstanding black American female singers, of both opera and popular music, have probably been noticed at an early age in their local church choir where no doubt the talent of the youngster was spotted and they were set on the right track early on. Whilst browsing around, I put ‘Gracias a la vida’ as a search term into Google and quickly came up with two outstanding Latin American singers – Violeta Parra (Chile) and Mercedes Sosa (Argentina). At a concert in La Plata in 1979, Sosa was searched and arrested on stage, along with all those attending the concert. Their release came about through international intervention. Banned in her own country, she moved to Paris and then to Madrid. Their recordings of ‘Gracias a la Vida‘ (‘Thankyou to Life’) are both incredible – Parra has an incredibly pure voice whilst Parra adds a sonority and a depth that has to be heard to be appreciated. My little diversion for a Sunday morning.
So to save time, we went out by car this morning once we had indulged ourselves on the internet and picked up our newspaper and then went onto the park where we made a lightning visit to meet with some of our normal park friends. Then we were to leave them to pop into our friend’s house along the Kidderminster Road for a little Christmas nibble. We spent a wonderful 2-3 hours with our friends and we talked over a lot of things, including family histories on both sides. We admired their wonderful display of Christmas decorations and the illustrations of some of their parents and grandparents were fascinating. As it happened, I had a photograph (colourised) of my grandmother taken in about 1908-09 on my phone and we wondering exactly how commercial photographers got colour into their photographs in those days. Anyway, the time just flew past and we made our way home, ready for a sustained reading of the Sunday newspapers. To my mind, there was not very much analysis in the papers this weekend although the ‘juicier’ stories were the aftermath of the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell and the various political dilemmas now facing Boris Johnson. It appears, though, that the next few days might prove of critical interest. On Tuesday, Prince Andrew is having to navigate some court proceedings in which he is trying to argue that his accuser Virginia Giuffre has no case as she was not a US resident at the time. If Prince Andrew loses his case, then he will certainly go on trial in the autumn and this is a case he may well lose.
More COVID developments are taking place now that Christmas and New Year are out of the way. For a start, the education secretary has declared that masks are to return in England’s secondary school classrooms to help curb spread of Omicron. This in itself is a sign how seriously the government takes the view that school children may be a ‘reservoir of infection’ – this might prove very difficult to teaching staff to operationalise. The government is also drawing up contingency plans over fears that a quarter of public sector workers could be absent due to Omicron. This coupled with the fact that substantial numbers of medical staff may be absent due to COVID related reasons means that the NHS may find it increasing difficult to cope in the next few weeks ahead. The leader of Britain’s A&E doctors said on Tuesday that Omicron could lead to high numbers of hospital staff having to take time off ill just as the NHS was grappling with winter pressures. Soaring Covid cases could cause major shortages across industry, hospitality and healthcare, ministers have been told, as rail companies cancelled services and Royal Mail said it was experiencing high staff absences. West End shows have been cancelled because of the surge in suspected Omicron cases, while waste collections, deliveries and schools are all under threat from shortages. There is also evidence that not only public services but several other parts of the economy are under severe strain as the infection continues to rise. The government appears to be playing a terrible game of ‘chicken’ trusting that a policy of offering boosters will hold the line and that hospital admissions do not rise to unsustainable proportions. Nonetheless, 4,000 emergency COVID beds are being supplied via COVID pods attached to hospitals throughout the country.
Today is Bank Holiday Monday and is one of those rare occasions, which happen once every seven years I suppose, when the Bank Holiday associated with 1st January is shifted not to the day afterwards (which is a Sunday) but the day after the day after. Now I come to think of it, I started work in my very first job on 1st January, 1962 – New Year’s Day was not to become a Bank Holiday until 12 years later in 1974. My wages in that first job was the princely sum of £3 17s 6d which translate to the sum of £3.86 a week. My second job, though, was to triple my wages at the National Lending Library for Science and Technology, Boston Spa in Yorkshire. But today was one of those days in which, although it was a Bank Holoiday, many shops including our local Waitrose were open whereas many shops were actually closed last Saturday (which was New Year’s Day itself) Meg and I made our trip to the newspaper shop and then detoured slightly on way home to call in at Waitrose to buy a little ‘something’ before we go out for tea this afternoon. On our way back home, I called in to see our neighbour because I wanted the name and telephone of his electrician so that he could do a little repair job for us when next he is around. Chatting with our neighbours is always pleasant and I tapped his musicological memories to try to assess the relationship between folk singers and their typical political leanings. I was given a present of some Christmas cake which actually turned out to be extremely timely. This is because we were running somewhat short of time as our chiropodist was due to call at 2.00. We made a shortcut of lunch by consuming a slab of the recently donated Christmas cake with a large slab of Wensleydale cheese. This is a little delicacy often given as a treat to customers of public houses in Yorkshire. When I was a youth, it was not uncommon for the publican and/or the publican’s wife to offer a slab of Christmas cake with a slab of Wensleydale cheese upon it to all of the pub’s customers, many of whom would be regulars at this time of the year. Then our chiropodist called round and made sure that Meg and I had properly manicured ‘trotters’ so that we could proceed with our daily peregrinations. Incidentally, we find it always useful to keep our feet in good condition and hopefully with hundreds or even thousands of serviceable miles left in them.
This afternoon, we had been invited to have a Christmas ‘afternoon tea’ with a neighbour of a friend who we have to know quite well over the last few months. She is French by origin and taught the language for many years locally although we discovered today that her first foreign language, studied at University, was actually Spanish. We did discover something in the course of our very lively and informative conversation that we had not appreciated before. Our French friend’s university course was rather punctuated by the fact that many male members of the course were constantly being called up to provide conscripts for the French-Algerian conflict. This is formerly known as the Algerian War for Independence and is formerly dated as 1954-1962.The height of the conflict was known as the Battle of Algiers (1956–57). French forces (which increased to 500,000 troops) managed to regain control but only through brutal measures, and the ferocity of the fighting sapped the political will of the French to continue the conflict. Apart from our conversations about some matters of French history and geography of which we were a little bit ignorant, we also discussed both French and British politics. We also have some acquaintances in common via our Italian friend who we saw the other day. We left our friend after a fascinating afternoon and perhaps we might explore the possibilities to see each other a bit more often and not just at Christmas time if the winter days turn out to be indeterminably long and miserable.
The political news today is the revelation that Epstein agreed to pay $½ million to Virginia Roberts/Virginia Giuffre. The file having now been ‘opened’ and made public, it is up to a judge to decide tomorrow whether its wide-ranging provisions to extend immunity for further legal actions applies to Prince Andrew or not. Tomorrow is probably the only thing that can save Prince Andrew and as I see it at the moment, which way the judge will decide is really too close to call. In domestic politics, the government is so desperately anxious to keep schools open that it has already been announced that all secondary school students in England will be required to wear facemasks in class as well as in communal areas when they return. Pupils will also be expected to take lateral flow tests on-site and take a test twice a week from home. In the event that there are not enough teachers, then head teachers are urged to ‘merge’ classes to avoid school closure.
Today the weather has taken a decided turn for the cold – whereas we have been used to a mild spell with temperatures of above 9° or 10°. Under clear skies, the temperature could drop to -3° tonight and could rise to about 6° tomorrow in the sunshine so we need to acclimatise ourselves to near freezing temoperatures and not much more than that in the few days ahead. Meg and I collected our newspapers today, journeying in the car. When it is my Pilates day on a Tuesday, we tend to make our excursions out by car if only to save enough time for us to get turned around in time for me to start my walk down. Today as it so cool we decided to walk round the lake but did not really fancing sitting down on a freezing cold park bench. So we had a reasonable little walk arond the park lake and then turned for home and had our coffee and elevenses, already prepared, by the warmth of our own fireside. Then it was a walk down into town for our normal Pilates session. Our Pilates teacher is always kind to us after two weeks of inactivity,not having performed our stretches for a fortnight now because of the Christmas break. I am sure this was much appreciated because we all felt a little creaky after the break. In little breaks between the exercises, we discussed how many professions used Pilates as part of their professional exercise regime, with professions as diverse as football, rugby, tennis and ballet dancers always incorporating Pilates routines into their own. As our Pilates teacher explained, most exercises tend to get muscles to contract and to shorten whereas the Pilates techniques are more geared to stretches of a variety of kinds and this acts as a kind of corrective.
Now home to what I hope what was going to be a quiet afternoon. I did have a plan to do do a little repurposing job this afternoon. I had an old (but unused) diary with a leatherette type cover which I decided to make into a credit card holder. This involved removing all of the pages with a craft knife, using tape to cover the rough margins and then incorporating some envelope sections (with the bubble wrap on the inside) and then a combination of ex-punched cards, band elastic and superglue to hold it all together. I have to say that I never seem to have good experiences with superglue but today was no exception. However, using a combination of materials I managed to get more or less what I wanted even though the cards do protrude by half a millimeter but I managed to engineer a type to solution to all of this. The whole is held together with I call a girly band (used by young women to hold their hair in place) which I tend to use in place of a crude elastic band. Having got most of the artefact made according to my satisfaction, I think I will leave it until the morning to make any refinements.
A lot of the media attention has been focused on the outcome of the court case which may or may not go well for Prince Andrew. What I think I had not fully appreciated was that if Prince Andrew loses the case, then evidently he will have to face a full scale trial in the autumn which will not go well for him, one feels. If however, Prince Andrew loses the case the fact that he got ‘let off’ by a technicality in which a convicted sex-offender paid $½ million dollars to one of his victims in order to buy her silence and Prince Andrew was semi-protected by a document which should have been kept secret but was only opened by a court order will not serve him well in the years ahead. It looks as though the Royal Family are trying to distance themselves as much as follows from the fallout which will inevitably follow.
The NHS is now being put onto a ‘war footing’ now that the level of infections has risen to nearly 219,000 cases. The bigger problem is, of course, how many key workers in excess of the 10% already off sick within the NHS will get the virus or have to self-isolate. It is admitted that the next 2-3 weeks are going to be critical for the NHS. On the one hand, the Omicron variant shows the slightest sign that the curve may be ‘flattening’ but on the other hand we have not had the full set of figures coming through from the Christmas and New Year celebrations – which will surely boost the infection rates. Multiple hospitals are now reporting that they are experiencing ‘critical incidents’. The government, though, is firmly committed to ‘Plan B’ which is basically no change from the ontardictory advice given out e.g. it is OK to attend football matches but everyone is encouraged to work from home.
Today was one of those ‘intermediate’ type of days when you know there is a lot to be done before the day that follows. We knew that we had to ‘stay in’ all this afternoon because I had received an intimation from one of the local hospitals that a consultant was going to give me a routine ‘telephone’ conversation some time this afternoon – could I hold myself in readiness some time between 1.00pm and 5.00pm. So in order to save a bit of time, we went down into town by car (again) in order both to pick up our newspaper and to get to the park more quickly. On our way into the park, we bumped into Seasoned World Traveller but he had been in search of a coffee from the closed cafe in the park so was heading off to the High Street in search of a decent cappuchino. So we went up to our normal bench, the weather being reasonably fine but pretty cold. Nonetheless, we bumped into an elderly Irish couple we know fairly well (friends of friends) and we exchanged seasonal greetings and chatted about things meteorological. Then they walked on and we met anothet couple that we know quite well by sight and so another interesting chat ensued. By now, the time was pressing on so we raced home and made ourself a fairly quick dinner of quiche and quick cook veg. Now we were all set up to do our jobs for the afternoon but no sooner had sat down when our near neighbour came round to the house with even more intimations from the bank that manages our community affairs that there were going to discontinue our account.
Then followed an unbelievably frustrating afternoon. First we had our Treasurer’s credentials restored and this we managed at the 3rd attempt. For the first two attempts, our generated key code would not be accepted so we had to enlist some online help who could only suggest that we log out and then log in again as the problem may be due to a time-out problem. So eventually we got our Treasurer reinstated leaving me to try to tackle the bank once again to get through their safeguarding procedures. This is when he frustration (on my part) reached unbelievable levels because the voice on the other end of the phone wanted to go through my security credentials. I pointed out I had already had two long vists to the bank and supplied them with an updated form on two occasions which they were ‘considering’ but they needed to be told the exact date upon which I had last visted the bank. Because I could not remember the exact date upon which I had at last been in the Bank, this was regarded as a ‘failure’ of their security procedures and so do the SafeGuarding Unit of the bank could not unlock my previous correspondence with the bank as I couldn’t prove who I was. I was advised to go along to the Branch (with passport etc,) to follow their procedures to identify me even though this has been done on two occasiopns before. After I had had a cup of tea, it occurred to ne that I could consult past issues of this blog which I did and discovered the exact date of my visit. I then telephoned the Bank again, feeling pleased with myself, but they refused again to allow me hrough their security procedures on the grounds that I had just failed to get past their security procedures – until I had filled in a form, printed it off, signed it, made a .pdf of it and then go down to the Bank (for a third time) so that the bank staff can verify my identity and submit a form which verifies my identity before they will even start to look at the ‘locked’ file which details what I have done to comply with safeguading proedures. So this will have to wait until Friday.
Now it was time to take down the Christmas decoration. This was a multi-stage process. First I removed the Chrustmas cards in time for a careful read and a note of news and any new addresses. Then the actual decorations came down. Then I disassembled the little fibre optic Christmas tree I have in our living room and put away the little cribs that we get out at Christmas time. Then it was time to disrobe the Christmas tree and that did not take too long. Then this has to be split into sections and packed away in the box it came from. Then all of this lot had to be got into the loft after which I hoovered the floor, reestablished the location of our Monk’s Bench in the hall and breathed a sigh of relief that all was put away for another year – and on 12th Night as well!
Today was a day to which we had been looking forward for some time, although it was going to be quite a busy one. Initially, it was a case of getting up early and then making sure that I could set off in good time to get to the supermarket before it opened. It was one of those mornings where we needed to resort to our well-established routine of pouring a watering can of hot water, equipped with a long spout (designed for treating inaccesible plants and hanging baskets) over the car windscreen and windows to defrost it. Although the car was frosted, I have known worse and we were quickly (and safely) on our way. I made sure in my shopping that I bought some Cava and some houseplants for Meg’s cousins who we were shortly to motor off and see in Derby. We set off only 15 minutes later than the time we had set for ourselves and had to make a slight detour to get our newspaper from Waitrose as our regular newsagent was in a ‘self isolation’ COVID mode for the next few days. We got to Meg’s cousins just about on time but the SatNav whch is normally very reliable finds it difficult to cope with the last 100-200 metres where we have to navigate a sort of semi-made up road. Using a combination of the SatNav and our own memory from over two years ago, we managed to get there only a minute or so late to see Meg’s cousins and her daughter and husband. We had quite a lot of news to catch up even though we have ‘Zoomed’ each other quite a lot over the months – news is so much easier to convey face-to-face, though, rather than electronically. Once we admired the masses of decorations, we sat down to a magnificent meal of beef-and-game-stew with masses of beautiful vegetables (some home grown and retrieved from the freezer) This was followed by a rhubarb pie and lashings of custard so we felt replete after this magnificent meal. Naturally, we talked a lot about family members and there was opportunity to tell the odd story as well. My cousin had moved up from Cheltenham to be nearer to her daughter last summer but because of COVID restrictions we had not managed to pop over and make contact before now. Now we admired the bungalow which is a tad larger than the house Meg’s cousing had had in Cheltenham and I think will suit her needs down to the ground. She had more kitchen space and ‘utility’ space in an adjoining utility room so we were amazed at how well settled in she was in her new home. We had not wanted to pay a visit whilst she was busy settling in – it is always a slightly odd experience when you see furniture and pictures you associate with a former house now in place in a new location. Meg’s cousing had done a grand job in making it really festive (even down to ‘Santa Claus’ toilet paper which I had never seen before) and then we set off for home. Although bad weather had been forecast and indeed a flurry of snow passed overhead whilst we were busy eating, the journey home was mainly rainy but tolerable. In the dark, despite the SatNav we made a slight error but quickly corrected ourselves and got back on track quite quickly. When we got home, it was a case of a quick bowl of soup and then ‘passing out’ in front of the TV for the night.
Today is the anniversary of the days that the mob (what other name is appropriate) of Trump supporters who invaded the Capital building. What seems absolutely amazing to us on this side of the ‘pond’ is the act that a majority of Republicans (53%) believe Trump’s claim that the election was ‘stolen’ from them against hardly any Democrats who believe this (3%). These proportions have not moved a great deal in the last year which is a sign of how divided American politics has become. ‘Republicans did not conclude from the 2020 election that the experiment with Trumpism had failed. On the contrary, most Republican elected officials and the clear majority of Republican voters consider Joe Biden and the Democratic presidency as fundamentally illegitimate and they remain united behind Donald Trump‘ argues a German observer of the American political scene, Thomas Zimmer.
The PM came under fire from Lord Geidt for not being clear about how his Downing Street flat refurb was funded and has tonight issued an abject apology, claiming that his requests for money to refurbish the flat were ‘on an old phone’. All of this comes just a month after the Conservative party were fined nearly £18,000 for failing to declare the contributions to the Conservative party (to pay for the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat).
Well, today is the day when I am scheduled to visit the bank which looks after our residents association affairs to attempt to get through their Safeguarding procedures. As it was the day for our domestic help, we did spend a certain amount of time catching up on our post-Christmas news. We both expressed the view that it is quite a lot of hard work for not very much pleasure at the end of it and although it sounds a little curmudgeonly to say so, it is rather nice to have it all over and done with and everything put away. Once we had got ourselvs sorted out I walked down to the bank and enlisted their help to get through to the SafeGuarding unit – and then the problems started all over again. My passport was checked and so far, so good. Then could I please supply evidence that our business address is where it says it is (yes – the address to which they send letters and statements of account) by supplying a tax demand (we do not pay any tax), a council tax demand (we do not pay any council tax) or a bill (our only regular bills are paid by a couple of direct debits). In extremis, a driving licence would do (even though it does not tie me to the Residents Association) So I walked home and Meg and I had an ‘instant’ type meal. Then I went down in the car, raced down to the bank and let them have my driving licence (to scan), a communication from the company that services our BioDisc (even though it said ‘date as postmark’ and was probably not valid) and finally a duly signed form which I had downloaded from the relevant website and then filled it and signed. But when this was submitted, it also needed the signature of our Treasurer (ie neighbour) on it but of course, he wasn’t in. On checking my documents, I found I had lost my driving licence – so I raced down to the bank for a third time that day to see if I had left it at the bank. After I had paid for my parking fee and was returning to the car, I discovered my driving licence had escaped from the file and was nestling on the passenger seat so there was huge sigh of relief. I have to admit to saying my prayers than for a long time to secure its safe return and so it proved. So I need to get my neighbour’s signature over the weekend and then to return to the bank for the fifth time to try to make progress. I did say to the local counter staff (who were sympatheric but helpless under these circumstances) that I had in mind to bring a camp bed down on Monday morning, plus an invoice for £4,000 (20 hours of work at £200 an hour). They grimaced but did not demur. When I got home, I made sure that the driving licence and the passport were returned to their proper homes, waiting for the next time.
Today, Meg and I took our first ‘Lateral Flow’ test. We had in stock two boxes of 7 tests which I had pre-ordered a few days ago, ready for when we might need them. The impulse to use them this morning was the fact that we had visited some relatives yesterday. Also, when we called in at our normal newsagents before setting off for Derby, the newsagent was closed for a few days with the note that he was self-isolating for a few days. When I use the store, I always use the COVID app on my iphone before I enter the store and the system has not informed me of any potential contacts. Does this mean that the ‘Test-and-Trace’ app was not working as intended or does it mean that the cause of the self-isolation was so indirect that there was little to be worried about? However, it is always reassuring to test negative and I have ordered another box of tests so that we have a supply in stock. The government website tells me that I can order a new set every day so I trust I am just being prudent and am not contributing to any shortages.
Having been ‘boosted’ there is a natural feeling that we might have that we are ‘protected’ against the virus. However, protection wanes fairly rapidly. On the positive side, protection against hospitalisation is about 90% for people aged 65+. But protection against mild symptoms is more short-lived and drops to about 30% by about three months ago. As our booster jab was on 7th October, our booster jab is now exactly 3 months old. When will a 4th jab be rolled out (if at all)?The Government has set its face against so far so I am not very hopeful.
We were looking forward today to a fairly quiet and relaxing day and so it turned out to be. The weather was rather playing ‘ducks and drakes’ so we were in two minds to take a walk down to the park which is always our preference, or to make a journey by car. As the weather was overcast when we were ready for our excursion, we decided to walk down to the park but within a short time we encountered a very fine drizzle which rather put a damper upon things. We called in at Waitrose to collect our newspaper (our usual newsagent is still in a self-imposed isolation) and some milk and then made our way to the bandstand in the park – our normal ‘refuge’ when the weaher turns a little nasty. There we drank our coffee and ate our biscuits fairly rapidly and then had a fairly miserable walk home as the drizzle persisted. But when we did get home, a little late in the day, our dinner of fresh-seabass did not take long to prepare (3 minutes on the skin side, 2 minutes on the flesh side) and then served on a bed of lettuce.
We scoured the TV schedules for anything diverting during the afternoon but nothing really appealed to us. So I decided to ‘turn out’ one of the cupboards in our outer kitchen which was threatening to become a little jumbled. I turned up both an iron and a travelling iron which promptly went to the back of the cupboard again. Then we organised some soups (both in tins and in packets) so that we could equally put our hands on whatever we fancied and then tidied up our supplies of potato and onions that we keep in the cool of the outer kitchen. Then a good job having been done, we got ourselves ready for our departure to church in the late afternoon. We have a new priest in charge of the parish after the retirement of the Monsignor more than a year ago and then one or two ‘stand-ins’ followed by a more permanent ‘stand-in’ who looked after the parish for about 10 months. The new priest is Indian and is a member of a missionary society in the Indian state of Kerala. Meg and I feel that it might be difficult to quickly establish a report with a traditional, but largely white population in Bromsgrove – however, the new priest is still finding his feet having been in charge of the parish only for a matter of days.
The COVID-19 pandemic has passed a symbolic milepost today as the number of deaths from the virus has now passed 150,000. A further 146,390 COVID cases have also been reported, according to the latest government data, taking the total number since the beginning of the pandemic to 14,333,794. Saturday’s figures compare to 178,250 coronavirus infections and 231 fatalities reported yesterday. The Omicron variant seems to have gone its peak in London but the concern is now that the NorthWest region of the country is seeing a sharp increase in hospitalisations. As well as this regional effect, there is also an ‘age-related’ effect and the elderly are now beginning to feel the effects of the Omicron wave, which will send shudders through the NHS. The latest COVID surveillance report from the UK Health Security Agency shows a steep rise in the number of over-85s being admitted to hospital in England. Hospitalisations in the age group doubled from 62 in every 100,000 in the week leading up to Christmas to 121 in every 100,000 a week later. How should the government respond to such alarming trends? It does look as though the number of new hospitalisations is already ‘baked in’ as any current hospitalisation rate is a lagged function of the infection rate of some 2-3 weeks previously. It looks as though the government strategy is to try and ‘tunnel through’ what is going to be a really tough 2-4 weeks during the reminder of January and then hoping? trusting? that the figures will start to move past their peak at that point. Apart from sending in army medics which has already happened for some London hospitals, there seems to be precious little that can be done at this stage.
There is some speculation that later in 2022, we as a society will move into a ‘post-pandemic’ phase in which COVID-19 settles into place as an endemic disease, in much of the same way that we currently experience colds and the ‘flu. Of course, this presupposes that another variant does not come and out-compete even the Omicron variant. Although a new variant has been identified in France, it does not seem to have the infective propensity of Omicron and might not make too much headway. However, I do get the impression that as COVID-19 has been with us for nearly two years there is a certain ‘world-weariness’ and even complacency has settled in.
Normally on a Sunday morning, I leap out of bed at an unearthly hour in order to walk down to my friendly Asian newsagent and then get back in time ready to have a breakfast in front of the Andrew Marr show. Today was a little different, however, as my newsagent has closed for a few days in a period of self-imposed isolation so I knew I would have to wait until Waitrose opened before I could pop in for my copy of the Sunday Times. So we watched the successor to the Andrew Marr at our leisure, learning nothing very much. Eventually, we got ourselves into gear and started to trek down into the town. Meg is finding it increasingly difficult to walk downhill these days so I have to keep her arm firmly linked into mine to make sure she does not stumble or fall. When on the flat or walking uphill, Meg seems to cope somewhat better so we are thinking of making some adaptations to our daily routine. Next week according to the week-long weather forecast, it appears that we may be in for a spell of dryish weather with some clear skies all of which helps to make walking more pleasurable. It may be, though, that we need to adapt our routine somewhat to make sure that Meg gets some exercise as well as a burst of fresh air and the other benefits of walking. One thing that we will probably do is to take the car down into the park and park in the lower car park and then take a walk up to our ‘normal’ benches in the upper regions of the park. This will cut the amount of walking down somewhat but I may need to take whatever opportunities there are to walk on my own to make sure that I get the exercise I need to keep myself in reasonable condition. Early on today, our University of Birmingham had phoned on two occasions. In the first of these calls, he explained that he had a very sore throat and a bad cold and did not want to come and possible infect us (and any of our friends). Then we received a second phone call from our friend explaining that he had just administered a ‘Lateral Flow’ test to himself and this had tested negative – so he wanted to pass on this bit of news to us so that we not to worry. In the park, we did meet, though, with Seasoned World Travellor as we might have expected and without excessively dwelling on the matter exchanged news of hospital appointments that were forthcoming for both of us in the week ahead. Although Meg had a somewhat difficult journey on the way down to the park this morning, she nonetheless did find it easier to walk uphill on the way home. We had hoped to bump into some of our Catholic friends on the way home to exchange news and views of the new priest who has just taken charge of our parish but no doubt we can seize the opportunity some time later on in the week.
The COVID news is a little confusing, as I read it. According to some sources, there are some slight indications that the incidence of the Omicron variant may have peaked in London, whereas the rate is still rising dramatically in the Northwest of England, where 17 hospitals are declaring ‘critical incidents’ as they struggle to cope. There is also some talk emanating from government that we may be passing from the stage of a ‘pandemic’ to an ‘epidemic’ and we should look forward to living with the Omicron variant for the foreseeable future – much as we do with flue each year (from which, incidentally, some people will die). The emerging data tends to suggest that the hospitalisation rate and even more, the death rate, is dramatically different with the Omicron variant – the death rate may be 21 times lower than it was during the country’s second wave. For this reason, following a large wave of cases in the U.S., some experts say that the variant could lead to even higher levels of population immunity – meaning that future surges will be even less severe. To make sense of this, I am speculating as follows. Firstly the metropolitan effect may mean that our decision makers assume that what is true for London may be true everywhere else. Also, in a polity in which stock exchange philosophies predominate (discounting the present, anticipating the future), perhaps our decision makers were thinking as though they were dealing with an economic trade cycle in which a boom will follow a slump. Therefore, the reasoning goes, we are over the worst and all we have to do is to ‘tunnel through’ the hump. There are masses of assumptions built into all of this anaylsis but I wonder if we are relaxing our grip a little too soon (just as we did before the Omicron variant hit us) and we shall have to live with the consequences.
Today we decided to try out an alternative way of accessing our local park. After a delayed start, we went down by car to call in at Waitrose to pick up a copy of our newspaper and to buy a few much-needed supplies. Then we drove to the park and occupy a position in the lower car park whilst we undertook our constitutional walk to our favoured spot on the top benches. We had not been sitting too long, enjoying our coffee, before Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker strode into view. He was on the first of several circuits that he makes within the park and we saw him a day or so anyway. We chatted for a few minutes about this and that before he went on his way and we started to make for home. Whenever we go to the park, we take with us an incredibly useful folding stool. This used to be (and perhaps still is) sold within National Trust shops. It is made of aluminium which makes it incredibly light and also has a very robust construction. The seat folds down from a vertical to a horizontal position and we utilise it not as a seat but as a minitaure table upon which we put our coffee cups and flask as we pour out the coffee. Naturally, we have with us a variety of cloths that we use to dry the park bench before we actually sit down but the folding stool has attracted many an admiring glance and comment. We have the feeling that if ever we left it behind outside a shop (which has happened once or twice) then we might never see it again. Today, we ‘experimented’ by seeing how much of a use it is to Meg to use particularly when traversing downhill sections of our walk which has proved a little problematic. We shall continue with these pragmatic experiments to see if is useful as a quasi-walking stick although it is intended as a temporary stool for weary travellers.
After lunch, I took my Community Bank file along to my neighbour who acts as Treasurer to our Reidents Association and secured his signature on a document designed to reset the security on our account. The staff in the local branch informed me that when the document had been received, those in charge of security at the bank would consider this and then and then email me to arrange for us to have a chat so that I can answer future security questions. If I get through these series of hurdles, I might then be able to talk with (or at let communicate with) the safeguarding procedures of the bank who I still have to satisfy. At this rate, the saga will rival ‘War and Peace‘ and I have an uneasy feeling that it might all end in tears – but all we can do at this stage is to wait and see.
The latest Downing Street ‘sleaze’ event was first leaked by Dominic Cummings – and it concerns a ‘socially distanced’ drinks event held on 29th May in the Downing Street garden. Dominic Cummings has blogged that he and one other SPAD (special adviser) had advised against but they were ignored. When Boris Johnson was asked whether or not it was true that he had attended together with Carrie, his then fiancee, he did not deny that he had attended but referred to the ongoing investigation into multiple Downing Street parties being conducted by senior civil servant Sue Gray. The Sunday Times yesterday cited three sources stating Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary Martin Reynolds emailed officials with an invite to the event on 20 May suggesting attendees ‘BYOB’ (bring your own bottle, or booze). All of the indications are this evening that Martin Reynolds, a civil servant, is being lined up to carry the can for all of this and indeed may only survive for a day. This may be a way, of course, that the politicians hope to deflect criticisms from themselves. The fascinating question tonight is whether this transgression by the PM just by attending is sufficient to bring about his resignation. In the past, motions have been passed by the Commons to reduce a ministerial salary by £1 as a symbolic gesture but, of course, the Gray report is still to be published. If it does see the light of day, I suspect that it might be released the day after there is a Parliamentary recess for Easter (or another natural disaster occurs so it is a good day to publish ‘bad news’ as it may be overshadowed)
I was interested to see an analysis of which countrties had fared best and worst in the pandemic crisis. According to The Economist, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are all near the top, and America has also performed reasonably well. Many big European countries, however, such as Britain, Germany and Italy, have fared worse. Spain has done worst of all. What needs further analysis, though, is to ascertain precisely which features of a society enable it to fare well (or badly) in international comparisons.
Today was always to be one of those days when there was a certain amount of running around to do and things to get packed into the day but in the event all ran smoothly. The prime event this morning was I due to attend one of the local hospitals for a routine monitoring and afterwards there was a Pilates session to fit in. I got to the hospital in plenty of time and was seen fairly promptly, with only three of us in the waiting area. I do think that in these pandemic days, the occasions when one had an outpatient appointment and joined a clinic of anything between 30-50 people jammed in like sardines are well and truly over. (I remember a fracture clinic which Meg had to attend which was somewhat like this in the pre-COVID days) Having been seen, I needed to have a blood test but for this I was ushered into a room next door, had the blood taken and am then to have a telephone appointment in some six weeks time. I asked the HealthCare assistant if she knew the original Tony Hancock sketch often associated with blood tests and blood transfusions but she had not. This was a particularly famous Tony Hancock sketch in an episode called ‘The Blood Donor‘‘. Tony Hancock had a pin prick in his finger in order to supply a smear of blood, presumably to determine a blood group. Having been so pricked, Tony Hancock exclaimed ‘‘Can I have my tea and biscuits now?‘‘ in the belief that this was the end of the procedure. When informed by doctors that in a blood donor session, one was expected to donate a pint of blood, Tony Hancock exclaimed ‘‘A pint – that’s an armful!‘‘ (incidentally, as there are eight pints of blood in the human body, then a pint of blood being an armful is approximately correct). In my experience, many people of my age will say to the haematologist ‘‘Are you going to take an armful?‘‘ and many personnel know about the joke but not many have seen the original sketch (a videoclip of which has been shown on numerous occasions) Having emerged from the hospital relatively quickly, I got home as rapidly as possible and prepared myself a cup of coffee and a rice-cake biscuit. Then it was down into town to call by my bank to get some much needed cash out of an ATM. I approached this task with a certain degree of trepidation as both Meg and I have had to be isssued with new debit cards, the previous ones not being accepted into the machines (although the chip driven contactless payments seem to have worked OK) Both of these cards have worked as they should on their first occasion of use. In order to make sure that that cards do not rub against each other or the magnetic strip gets compromised, out of an old diary I have constructed a special card holder which can accommodate two cards securely but safely and this little system, too, has worked very well.
Today’s political news is dominated by the seqelae to the ‘drinks party’ held in the Downing Street garden on 20th May, 2020. The few clips I have seen of the Labour-called debate in the House of Commons have been fascinating. The Labour benches are full, the Tory benches are practically empty as the Tories do not seem to relish the prospect of turning up to defend a Prime Minister who has not denied the allegation that he attended this party (at which attendance was then illegal, a crminal offence and with a potential fine of £10,000 for the organisers of a large event). Some of the contributions of MPs were heart-rending, particularly from one Northern Ireland MP who broke down in tears whilst making his speech, distraught at the death of a near relative). Tomorrow Boris Johnson did not even turn up to Parliament to face the music but tomorrow he has no option as it is Prime Minister’s Questions. Meg and I intend to watch this live in tomorrow’s transmission as it promises to be a blood sport. The ‘resignation’ word is now being used and the Leader of the Scottish Conservative party has called for the Prime Minister’s resignation if any illegality is proved. The rampant hypocrisy is really cutting through with members of the public who are painfully recalling their experiences in May, 2020 when they were not allowed to be present at their relative’s demise under the then current COVID regulations whilst the Downing Street personnel seem to be enjoying themselves in a totally illegal drinks party. The rules at the time were that one should only meet with one person in the open and keep them at a distance of two metres. Athough we are awaiting for the report into the Downing Street parties by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, it also seems that the police may (at last) be taking an interest although it was evident from the last Downing Street transgression that they are not interested in ‘historic’ transgressions.
Today was the day on which Boris Johnson had to come before the House of Commons and answer PMQ (Prime Minsisters Questions) on what is being dubbed the ‘partygate’ affair. Since the publication of an invitation sent to 100 staffers in Downing Street and whose authenticity has not been denied, it was evident that Boris Johnson had to come before the House of Commons and give a credible explanation of the events of 20th May, 2020 (the height of the first wave of the pandemic). Meg and I organised our day so that we could be sitting in front of the TV at 12.00pm, so we went down to Waitrose by car and picked up a newspaper and some milk and then made our way to the park for a mini-walk so we could get a breath of fresh air. It was a magnificent blue sky and clear air but pretty cold. We walked sufficiently long to feel that we had had some exercise and fresh air and then jumped into the car to observe the ‘blood sport’ In anticipation of the forthcoming Question Time. I was wondering to myself exactly what Biris Johnson’s lines of defence would turn out to be. In the event, the apology came in the form of ‘I wandered into the garden and assumed that the gathering was a ‘work event”. The second line of defence came in a repeated plea to wait until the investigation into Downing Street parties by the senior civil servant, Sue Gray, was complete and he, Johnson, would come to the Commons when all the facts were known. These explanations were treated with scorn by all of the opposition parties. In particular, Keir Starmer was forensic in the way that he dissected the Prine Minister’s assertion that this was a ‘work event’ when everybody had been asked to bring a bottle and food was laid out on trestle tables. Johnson maintained that he had only come into the garden to ‘thank’ groups of staff but after 25 minutes he retreated back into the main building to carry on with work. The first explanation offered by Johnson that he didn’t realise that he was attending a party met with universal scorn and was simply not believed. The second explanation i.e. waiting for the enquiry to complete its work was universally characterised as ‘playing for time’ and ‘kicking the can down the road’ I found it interesting that Johnson was accused several times of lying and I always thought that that was an example of un-parliamentary language that the Speaker would insist on being withdrawn. In fact, the Speaker issued no such request (presumably because he believed it to be true) but it is interesting that the term was allowed to be used and will be entered into Hansard (official report of the proceedings) One senior MP has described Boris Johnson as a ‘dead man walking’ and it is hard not to agree with this conclusion. Immediately after the PMQ, Boris Johnson was seen ‘working’ the Commons tearooms, a well known technique for drumming up support but one in which Boris Johnson has not indulged before. In a highly charged atmosphere, the whole political class are waiting for any further revelations (even a photograph) and it would not take much to push Johnson over the edge. With what is coming down the road (inflation at 7%, gas price rises, National Insuramce rises, local elections in May) it seems almost impossible that Boris Johnson can survive for long. What I found disturbing was that not a single Tory MP would criticise their own PM in public (this was left to the Leader of the Scottish Tories who has argue that lawbreaking must lead to a resignation) If I were a cartoonist, I would have illustrated Boris Johnson has hanging onto a grid over a huge sewer whilst other politicans stepped on his fingers to make him lose his grip.
A second ‘how are the mighty fallen’ moment was to come in the afternoon when it was announced that Prince Andrew’s attempts to have the action brought against him by Virginia Giuffre had failed. This leaves Prince Andrew with three options, all equally unpalatable. He can go to trial (which he will probably lose as in civil cases a jury has only to be convinced with the ‘balance of probablitities’ burden of proof rather than ‘beyond reasonaable doubt’ in criminal cases) A second option would be to appeal the court’s rulings but this is estimated to have a success probablity of 40% at the very best. The third option is to settle for what would no doubt be millions of dollars (and would be tantamount to an admission of guilt) It is rumoured that the Queen is making Prince Andrew pay his own costs in this and hence a villa is being sold in Switzerland but I am sure the ‘bank of Mum and Dad’ would be accessed as a last resort.
Today was ‘shopping’ day so it was a case of setting up the alarm, getting ready promptly and motoring (on a very icy morning) to Droitwich Waitrose to be there at the moment that the doors open. I must say I almost enjoy doing this now that I am on a regular routine and evidently, the number of fellow shoppers is minimal. So the shopping was completely unproblematic although it never ceases to amaze me how two little people manage to consume so much. However, I don’t think I forgot anything of great importance which is always a danger if you enter the supermarket ‘listless’. Since the Christmas tree got put away on ‘Twelth Night’ (over a week ago now) the corner of our hall which the tree used to populate looks incredibly sparse. So I have installed a low-energy minimalist-style table lamp to illuminate that corner and I must say in these dark early mornings and evenings, it is wonderful to behold a little fountain of light. Whether I will continue with this little experiment once the days start to lengthen and the nights shorten, I am unsure but in the meantime it gives me a little fillip of pleasure when I glance down the hall. Meg and I realised that we had a fairly tight turn-around this morning as our hairdresser was due to call at midday. So again we decided to use the car so that we could make a lightning visit into town to get our copy of ‘The Times‘ and get back by midday. After our hair had been cut, we then prepared our lunch which was a little special today as we were treating ourselves to some venison burgers. When we were having a little holiday a few months back in the Brecon Beacons, we popped into a little market hall where we found some superior grill pans being sold off quite cheaply. We bought one of these and I must say it has proved its weight in gold to cook burgers (and fish). It has a ridged design which means that the cooked item does not stick to the bottom of the pan and it takes a real minimum of cooking oil. I have a glass lid to another cooking pot which, quite fortuitously, just happens to fit the square design of the grill pan and so I can cook away without any fear that I will be making a mess of our kitchen hob.
This afternoon there was a lot of tidying up tp be down and after an involuntary snooze, I set to filing quite a lot of stuff that had accumulated in the last week or so. We had also put all of our Christmas cards on one side because I like to go through a little later rather than throwing them straight away so that I can extract any change of addresses (there are always some) and also keep any which merit a longer reply now that we have the Christmas season well out of the way.
There have been a slew of political (and quasi-political) announcements this afternoon, each of whih has been significant in its own way. The principal story today is, of course, how MPs are positioning themselves with reference to Boris Johnson’s ‘apology’ If we start off in Scotland, each one of the Tory Scottish members of Parliament (MSPs) has now demanded that Johnson should resign after which the insults started to flow as Rees-Mog called the Scottish Tory Leader a ‘lightweight’ and the recriminations have been flying back and forth all day. The Cabinet have been coralled into voicing their support for Boris Johnson which has been enthusiastic by some (Priti Patel, Liz Truss) and lukewarm from others (Rishi Sunak). But practically everybody is waiting to see what the Sue Gray report into ‘partygate’ will reveal. Some members of the Tory Party have been advancing some of the most specious explanations to support Boris Johnson’s walking into his own ‘party’. One was explaining that when he worked in the City, alcohol was often freely flowing so just because alcohol was around doesn’t mean to say that they were not at work (the riposte came from a NHS employee who retorted that if they brought alcohol into work and immediately starting to consume it, they would be sacked on the spot). The second major story is that Buckingham Palace have moved swiftly to ‘take back’ all of the honorific appointments enjoyed by Prince Andrew including his use of the honorific ‘His Royal Highness’ (HRH). This is evidently the Queen trying to ensure that Prince Andrew’s shenanigans do not completely overshadow the celebrations later this year for the Queen’s 70 years on the throne. But it does seem as Prince Andrew is being cast into the outer darkness and is now on his own. The third big news item was the announcement that isolation periods were now to be reduced from 7 days to 5 days (but with lateral flow tests on day 5 and Day 6)
Today was the day when our domestic help comes to ‘do’ for us and she is always a welcome sight as we chat over the week’s events. The weather was one of those days when the sky is the clearest blue and the weather was icily cold but not bitter as there was a complete absence of wind to add a chill factor – this is always the kind of climate I associate with Switzerland. It proved to be quite an interesting morning for Meg and I. On our way down the hill, we bumped into our Irish friend and we exchanged our perceptions of the new priest who has just taken over at the parish. We have been invited round for a coffee in the days ahead to which we shall look forward as well as to chat over lots of other things. We also said ‘Hello’ in passing to yet more friends of friends and then proceeded onto our our local newsagents. The shop was open today for the first time in days as it is has been closed as a result of the virus. Apparently, the newsagent and his wife had a light sniffle, tested themselves and were dismayed to find that they tested positive, even though their symptoms were extremely mild. So they had shut the shop for the requisite number of days only to reopen today. Whenever I visit (each morning) I also register my presence via the ‘Test-and-Tace’ app and I had always imagined that in the face of a proximate infection, I would have been informed so I am a little puzzled as to what is going on – perhaps the ‘Test-and-Trace’ has not or is not working as was intended. Once we got into the park, we met with our Italian friend who we have not seen for a few days and we had a good chat. I showed how to access this blog on her own smart phone so that she can follow our comings and goings, pedestrian though they might be. Then after we had had our coffee, another couple hove into view who we know by sight but had not seen them for a week or so – we exchanged pleasantries and compared notes about the damson gin that we both make. Then we made for home and, together with our domestic help, rationalised a few of the drawers in our bedroom where clothes we had not worn for years and were dispensable were junked to make additional storage space for more recently bought items. Then we treated ourselves to a good meal of trout fillets that we had purchased from Waitrose last Thursday. This was delicious and I felt it probably tasted better than had it been salmon. I cooked it in the same as the seabass we often have but made sure it got turned regularly, as the filletts were quite thick.
The news bulletins are still on a ‘partygate’ feeding frenzy, not least because revelations keep appearing very day. The latest one reveals that the night before the funeral service of the Duke of Edinburgh, some of the staff in Downing Street were partying away in two separate parties, one playing loud music before the two parties combined in the garden of No. 10. When one of the parties ran out of alcohol, someone was dispatched to a local Tescos with a suitcase, presumably to disguise the contents, so that the party could continue. On the same day, a woman in Hackney was fined £12,000 for holding a large belated birthday party and what influenced the police at the time that this should have been a day of national mourning. I have seen a videoclip of a crowd assembling outside the precincts of Downing Street, complete with Boris Johnson masks and wine glasses pretending to hold a riotous party. It is now a case of people making fun of the Tories i.e. they are being openly the object of ridicule, which might be much more damaging to them than the conventional modes of political opposition. What has made these events so newsworthy in visual terms is that the news editors are constantly replayng images of the Queen having to sit alone (because of COVID restrictions) at her own husband’s funeral contrasted with reports of the parties going on at No. 10. The Prime Minister has taken the almost unprecedented step of communicating directly with Buckingham Palace in order to prefer apologies – a most unBoris like thing to do but I suppose by convention he has to go and see the Queen once a week so perhaps he thought he had better get his apology in quickly.
Before we all get too excited about the wane of the Omicron variant, it looks as though a wave of Omicron cases is possible over the summer as people resume social activities and the effect of the vaccines wanes, according to scientists advising the government. I would have thought this was a cast-iron certainty as people will certainly relax ‘too much’ and all precautions will be thrown to the winds.
Today being Sunday is a morning of early rising so that I can go down and collect my newspaper before breakfast. It was an overcast morning but not particularly cold and as is usual at this time on a Sunday morning, I was passed by the occasional jogger but that was all. After breakfast, we watched the successor to the Andrew Marr (politics) show, imaginatively called the ‘Sunday Morning‘ programme with a new presenter in Sophie Raworth. The BBC say they have plans to relaunch the programme with a new title, a new look and a permanent presenter but Sophie Raworth did a good job in some penetrating interviewing of Keir Starmer. It seems an irony that the next week or so may be some of the more dramatic weeks in British politics with the ‘partygate’ scandal running continuously but the BBC are working with a ‘temporary’ programme format each Sunday morning. After breakfast, we slowly got our act together before making a lesiurely trip down to the park.There we met with two of our Sunday morning regulars – our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller with whom we chatted yesterday. Today, I took along with me a couple of tubes of Ibuprofen gel which had prescribed for me by the doctor when I was suffering from an affliction called ‘trigger finger’ (now righted itself without much intervention). As my medication prders repeat themselves, the Ibuprofen supplies seem to keep expanding so I thought I would give a couple of tubes away to friends and associates (both appreciated by the way) Just after midday, Meg and I went along to have a coffee with our Irish friends down the Kidderminster Road. The coffee transmogrified itself a beer and as it was cold outside, our friends had kindly made some soup and sandwiches for us so we finsihed off having an instant (and very welcome) lunch. We always have the most wonderful of chats and, as usual, we always seem to have masses to talk about, not least the national political scene now that Boris Johnson’s Operation Save Big Dog is swinging into action. I think this weekend may prove to be quite significant, even though no announcements or political action takes place on a Sunday, as the weekends are times for MPs to have conversations with families and supporters in their constituencies and therefore get an intimation of what the current electorate are thinking of the goings-on on Downing Street. When MPs return to Westminster on Monday mornings, some of these soundings can be compared with the perceptions of their fellow MPs once they return to the metropolis. Of course, everyone is waiting for the Sue Gray report into the partying at Downing Street but I have a feeling that the whole may yet prove to be a damp squib. After all, on a factual basis, the journalists have done a pretty good job in ferreting out that which needs to be known.
There are various items in the news today – and they all share common features. The principal item is, of course, the personality of Boris Johnson, because it is evident to many (not least, his house master at Eton) that Boris Johnson refuses to be bound by the rules that affect the rest of us. The second item is Prince Harry who is asking for a level of police protection when he comes to visit the UK. This request reveals a mindset in which Harry wishes to be a member of the royal family when it suits him but not a member when it suits him. The third example is Novak Djokovic whose appeal against deportation from Australia was lost. It appears from various press accounts that Djovic is a vaccine denier – when attempting to enter Australia legally for the first time, he made a false statement on the immigration form so do the normal rules apply to him? The Spanish authorities are also pursuing Djovic for the same reason in that he may have not been entirely honest when it came to declaring his vaccination status. To my mind, each of these examples (and I haven’t bothered to mention Prince Andrew yet) all share one common feature which is this. They relish their ‘elite’ status and then to argue that the rules that bind the majority of the population do not apply to them. Hence they are prepared to ‘bend’ the truth, make false or misleading statements or otherwise argue that they are a ‘special case’. I think it is this aspect of ‘partygate’ as it is beginning to be called as members of the public are rightly incensed when they had to endure the emotional agonies of seeing relatives and loved ones die without being at their side whilst partying was going on in Downing Street. The press have seized on ‘partying’ but in most cases, the transgressions occurred in what, is effect, an ‘after-work drink’ but the wider point is still valid in that most of the population observed the rules whilst the Downing Street personnel did not.
The high pressure over most of the country remains today and we looked forward to our daily trip. In fact, a wonderful golden light seemed to suffuse the morning air and whether or not it was a trick of the atmosphere I know not, but it felt a beautiful day for our walk.As it happened, we were a little late setting off this morning so we decided to make a trip by car which actually turned out for the best. On our way out, we bumped into our neighbour and we exchanged notes about the bungalow facing us across our green communal area (which I call ‘Meg’s Meadow’) and which is now on the market via the Purple Bricks agency. We discussed what we thought may well be an inflated price but the housing market is all a little cray at the moment so we shall have to wait and see. Then we popped down to Waitrose where we needed to buy quite a number of items and bumped into one of our favourite staff members who gave us some good news. She informed us that the coffee bar area in the store, long since unused because of the COVID restrictions, was scheduled to reopen at a date probably in February. It appears that a policy decision may be taken at higher echelons within Waitrose that whilst some coffee lounges would close ours would be reprieved. Needless to say, we earnestly hope that this is the state of play and if so we will patronise it regularly and encourage many of our entourage to use it as well on the basis of ‘Use it or lose it’ When we eventually got to the park, later than we would have liked, we encountered many of our regulars. One is the Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was busy doing his series of laps so that he can complete the 8-9km a day which is a part of his daily routine. He told us that his daughter-in-law organises these ‘walks’ for him and, following the app, you pretend that you are actually walking in China, the Andes or where-have-you. Once you have walked an actual 60-80 kilometres, the app which has measured you awards you with a medal! Our friend now had a display cabinet full of these medals. I joked with him that when he dies, if they hung all of his medals around the outside of his coffin they would clink together as they carried his coffin down the aisle! (In case this sounds like incredibly poor taste, he agreed wholeheartedly). Then we met with Seasoned World Traveller who we had seen yesterday but he nonetheless trundled along today. We agreed to differ on whether the Brexit referendum was a ‘fair’ result but we have disagreed ever since we first met so it is unlikely that eiher of us will convince the other now – but we don’t fall out about it. Finally, we met with another couple that we know well by sight but whose names we have not yet ascertained and we chatted for a bit before the cold crept into our bones and we made for home. I haven’t mentioned our friendly cat, Miggles, who has adopted us but as soon as we got home, he/she recognised us when we got out of the car and came running towards us. Knowing the intelligence of the moggy, I let her follow me to the (locked) back door gate and indicate that some treats will be available in a moment. As soon as I have got into the house and prepared the ration of treats (courtesy of Waitrose) Miggles has negotiated the tall back gate (at least six feet high) and I can guarantee will appear, face appearing in the cat-flap portal installed by the previous owners, waiting for the treats.
There is some interesting political news this evening. In his latest blog post, Dominic Cummings accused Mr Johnson of lying to parliament about parties in Downing Street. Referring to the “bring your own booze” party organised by principal private secretary Martin Reynolds on 20 May 2020, Mr Cummings said the prime minister had agreed the party should go ahead. At least two other people had said the party should not happen, the former aide said. Mr Cummings said he would ‘swear under oath’this is what happened (all of this courtesy of Sky News) Incidentally, as a sign of how emasculated the BBC has become on a day when the Culture secretary accused the BBC of a systematic left-wing bias, it is interesting to nore that this Dominic Cummings was the lead story on Sky News but on the BBC website, there is not even a mention. Cummings goes on to say that “Amid discussion over the future of the cabinet secretary and PPS himself, which had been going on for days, I said to the PM something like: ‘Martin’s invited the building to a drinks party, this is what I’m talking about, you’ve got to get a grip of this madhouse …The PM waved it aside.” If Boris Johnson can be shown to have lied to the House of Commons, this is instant curtains!
As the day dawned, it was evidently going to be quite a raw day – and so it proved. The clear skies that we have seen in the last few days had been replaced by a sort of low-hanging cloud and it was evident that although we were not going to have any rain or snow, it was going to be a misty/foggy type of day. As we looked out of our bedroom window this morning, there was not much of evidence of a ground frost but there was a low hanging, icy looking mist rolling across the adjacent fields envelopimg the sheep in its midst. We decided to go down into town by car today as time is always of the essence on a ‘Pilates’ day. We did collect our newspaper and than made off for the park where we retreated to our normal bench, thinking to ourselves that we would just have our coffee and then make for home. We did encounter one or two of the regulars, some of whom we know by sight rather than by name and then we were glad to beat a retreat back into the car and thence homewards. Once we got home, we turned on the TV to see if there was any more breaking political news (about which more later) and then I started to get my gear together in time for my Pilates session. Down the road, we have recently made friends with a French lady, recently widowed and she invited us round to her place the other day for some afternoon tea. As we know she is on her own a fair bit and also particularly dislikes the cold, dark days of winter we thought that we would invite her round to share some fresh seabass with us (bought the day before in Waitrose). So on my way down into town, I popped a note through the door of our French friend inviting her round to have a simple meal with us. Half way through the afternoon, I got a telephone call from our friend who cannot make it to dine with us this Friday but in ten days time, a week on Friday, that would be fine. So now we have a little ‘dinner date’ to which we can look forward and, of course, the preparation is minimal. The fish as I well know by know only takes five minutes to cook (three minutes on the skin side, two minutes on the flesh side) so we can wait until our guest arrives and then cook dinner on the spot.
There are four little twists to the Boris story, each small in itself but taken collectively, perhaps they are quite significant. The first of these is the utterance from the man himself who has complained that ‘nobody came and told him that having a party/after work drinks’ was against the rules. This is one of the most pathetic of excuses possible and Beth Rigby of ITN tackled him fair and square telling him that as the PM in charge of the government who framed the rules, he hardly needed to be explicitly told what the rules were. The second bit of news is probably the most damning of all. News has leaked out that Dominic Cummings is to be interviewed as part of the Sue Gray report and this means we shall probably have a direct conflict of evidence as to who is telling the truth. Either Dominic Cummings or Boris Johnson has to be lying – and Cummings has indicated that he shall swear any oath necessary that his account is true. The third snippet is a little clip I heard from a barrister, well used to hearing accounts in court where witnesses knew that they could not commit perjury but wanted to tell less than the whole truth. This can help to explain why the Boris Johnson defence that ‘nobody told him of the illegality’ has a slight chance of being true (why tell somebody what is obvious to nearly the whole population?) whilst being completely not credible. The fourth snippet is much more impressionistic but may well turn out to be prescient. This is the observation from Beth Rigby and some MPs that after Tuesday’s broadcast interview the moment the prime minister admitted – in his body language and demeanour rather than his words – that the game could be up. Appearing for the first time in public after nearly a week, to face further accusations over Downing Street parties and exactly what he knew about when, he looked defeated. The betting at the moment is between those who believe that the Gray report will have sufficient in it for Boris Johnson to realise that the game is up even if no direct blame is attached to him. The other school of thought is that he may be able to cling on until the May elections and that will be the final death knell for him.
Today seemed quite a gloomy day and because of the political news likely to emerge during the day, we decided to re-orient our routine somewhat. In particular, as today is a Wednesday there will be a session of PMQ (Prime Minister’s Questions) at 12.00pm. So I decided to walk down to the paper shop on my own (which I did). When I was on the point of setting off, a shower was passing overhead which necessitated the use of a waterproof. Having collected my newspaper and some comestibles from Waitrose, the sky cleared somewhat and it was quite a fine day. I got back and consumed my elevenses in plenty of time to observe PMQ which always starts promptly at 12 noon. I think today’s PMQ was very much anticipated because Sky’s Beth Rigby performed a complete evisceration of Boris Johnson yesterday and many commentators observed that Boris Johnson in his body language looked a completely broken figure. Just before noon, though, there was news of a direct defection from Conservative to Labour, by the MP Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South. If my researches are correct, the last time there was a direct defection from Tory to Labour was in 2007 which is 14-15 years ago. This was announced just before PMQ and the MP was in his place on the Labour benches. Keir Starmer put in an impressive performance, poking fun at the Prime Minister’s constant change of story regarding the ‘parties’ in Downing Street and in particular the latest excuse which was ‘nobody told me this was against the rules’ Boris Johnson, though, seemed to have regained some of his usual composure and blustering style since yesterday and put in a typical bravura performance in which none of the questions asked was even remotely answered and the focus of the reply was to praise the Conservative party’s record in rolling out the vaccines and to denigrate any of the positions taken by the Labour Party. This more typical performance by Boris Johnson might buy him a few days respite until, of course, the Gray report is published, perhaps at the end of next week. Right at end of the PMQ, though, David Davis (an ex-Brexit minister) invoked a past parliamentary attack on Neville Chamberlain with the imprecation‘You have sat there too long for all the good you’ve done. In the name of God, go.’ However, the first person to have uttered these words was Oliver Cromwell addressing the Long Parliament in 1653 and the exact words used were ‘You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God go.' I think it is too early to assess the impact of David Davis’s call for a resignation but Boris Johnson’s reaction was to reply that he did not understand what David Davis was saying. Earlier in the day (well, in the middle of last night, actually) I saw a most incredible ‘spoof’ video in which Boris Johnson was interviewed by the Line of Duty (television series) team. This has apparently ‘gone viral’ as they say and Boris Johnson’s own words were interpolated with questions from the Line of Duty officers. Some wags have pointed out that whilst the Met have not and will not interview Boris Johnson, at least he has been interviewed by some police officers (albeit fictional ones)
The other political news today is the announcement of the end of Plan B restrictions by Sajid Javid. Whilst it is true to say that the Omicron variant of the pandemic seems to be past its peak, I suspect there is a danger that we are relaxing too soon. There is always the impression that this announcement (on the end of Plan B) has been advanced by several days to help Boris Johnson out of his current difficulties. When a Prime Minister has his back against the wall, there is no lengths to which he/she will go, even though the the country as a whole may the loser. If a successor to Omicron rears its ugly head, without more vaccines and lockdowns, what strategies are we going to deply as a country to cope with a newly emerging threat?
The latest episode in the saga of the attempt to satisfy the safeguarding procedures of the bank which looks after our residents’ association bak account continues apace. Today, I managed to wait for only about three minutes (the maximum has been 50) and sailed through the security procedures – at which I have been denied access before. Then I was asked some bizarre questions such as had I or any members of my fanily been part of a UK diplomatic mission. When asked for proof of my address, I pointed out that I had previously shown ny driving licence in branch, which satisfied them. Then they gave me a code to update the safeguarding form – but it didn’t work. The voice at the other end said they would process the form for me – all I have to do is to wait for email – in 5-10 working days! We shall see…
Today is my ‘shopping’ day but I get up bright and early so that I can get to Waitrose in Droitwich before the store opens. This morning, as it had been so frosty overnight, the car required its typical watering can of warm water over it to defrost the windows. Anticipating that there may be delays in getting to the supermarket, I set off in plenty of time but, as it turned out, there were no holdups on the road so I finished up waiting for ten minutes outside the store waiting for it to open. I then had a fairly diligent shop before I returned home before having breakfast and putting the shopping away. When Meg and I started on our walk down into town, the sky was very clear but the air temperature was pretty cold. In the last few days, I had seen a special offer over the internet of ladiies fur-lined boots which I was tempted by and actually did purchase. They duly arrived this morning, a day or so before they were promised so Meg trotted down to town freshly shod as it were. On our way down into town, a near neighbour called us into the house to impart some neighbourhood news to us and whilst chatting, we were introduced to both her dog and her cat to whom she is evidently devoted. We spent several minutes chatting whilst she told us her news to us and we sympathasised with her about her husband (who we know quite well by sight) who had had endured a life threatening illness some three and half years ago and from which he is making a slow recoveryy. Once we collected our newspaper and got as far as the park, we savoured our coffee but suddenly a fairly icy blast seem to spring out of nowhere so we decided not to linger. As we were departing, we bumped into another couple of regular park walkers whose names we had been told but which we have forgotten. Pleasant though the little chat was, we were pleased to get walking again to keep us warmed up and truly ready for our lunch. Now that the month of January is more than half over, we are starting to discern how the days are lengthening about a minute or so a day and this is always heartening and we know that whilst some bouts of bad weather may still lie in front of is, at least the prospect of a beckoning spring is not too far off.
After dinner, we carried on with completing some clerical tasks that have been hanging over us for a while now. When I settled down to have a read of The Times today, I was amazed to see that the front page of ‘times2‘ was devoted to an examination of the ‘Led by Donkeys‘ spoof video in which Boris Johnson is ‘interviewed’ by members of AC-12 as in the fictional series Line of Duty. (‘Times2’ is the supplement to the The Times which contains some extended articles and media news, including TV and radio schedules) It is a tribute to the professionalism with which the video has been made that it has ‘gone viral’ and seen by 6 million views (twice as many as PMQ held just over a week ago now). The video is very clever in that Boris Johnson’s actual responses to various questions put to him are used and some of the original lines from Line of Duty. But it does appear that some of the original cast members have actually recorded some of the more specific questions and these are ‘stitched into’ the whole of the video. Sometimes, these videos can have enormous impact. I seem to remember that shortly after Spitting Image portayed Margaret Thatcher as completely mad with rolling eyes and wild gesticulations that members of the Tory party started to convince themselves that they could never win another election under Thatcher and that led to her downfall.
There is bit of interesting political news that has hit the airwaves today. This is the claim by a Tory MP, William Wragg, chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, who said that a number of MPs have faced intimidation in recent days after declaring, or assumed to have declared, their desire for a vote of confidence in Mr Johnson. This claim is also backed up by Christian Wakeford, the MP who defected from the Tories to Labour yesterday. He has claimed that the whips had indicated to him (over a previous threatened rebellion) that his constituency would lose the fundings for a new school in his constituency. Of course, all whips exert a variety of pressures from the personal to the political but this story that a constituency itself might be deprived of government largesse probably goes across the line of what may be considered legitimate pressure by the whips.
Today dawned as a somewhat raw and cold day so Meg and I did not exactly leap out of bed with alacrity. Our domestic help arrived getting on for half an hour late because there had been an accident somewhere in the Bromsgrove road system and when this occurs during the rush hour, it does not take too much for the whole town to get absolutely gridlocked. As a matter of planning, if Bromsgrove were to build the number of houses in the places that they intend to build them without improving the road system (which is the responsibility of the County Council, not the District Council) then it is quite possible that the town will soon be gridlocked with normal rather than abnormal traffic. In recent planning applications, the District Council is arguing that it is assumed that many people will walk or cycle whereas it is much likely than Mum, Dad and 2-3 children become eventually a four car household. Of course, these assumptions are built on ‘pre-pandemic’ work and travel patterns but it is possible that, as the government hope, we will quickly revert to these patterns but I doubt it somehow. Being a bit delayed this morning, we popped down into town by car and then made a visit to the park hoping to see our University of Birmingham friend. In the event, we met no-one we knew in the park which is hardly surprising as the weather was cold and miserable (as were we) and the park was pretty deserted today. So we came home and had lunch of pollock as I have just bought a 1kg pack of Alaskan pollock from Waitrose. I had purchased some parsley sauce in a packet but I think I will look out for some garlic and chilli sauce which I suspect I may be able to buy in a bottle (or at least something similar) Pollock as a fish is like a poor man’s cod and has the reputation of lacking in flavour but I am sure that nowadays it is possible to add some flavour whilst also preserving the health benefits of 1-2 potions of fish per week, which is our aim. Next week, though, we may well revert to our treat of seabass which is always available as a fresh fish in Waitrose. Last time I was in the supermarket, I treated myself to some of theose ‘instant’ packets of porridge oats which you can prepare with a 1-2 minute ‘zing’ in the mircowave in the days when I tend to leave the house early and need something hot inside me.
A former Cabinet Minister, Rory Stewart, is tonight reported as saying that ‘Boris Johnson is a terrible prime minister and worse human being‘ which is quite a quote when you come to think of it. He goes in, in an article published in the Financial Times to accuse Johnson of ‘mendacity, indifference to detail, poor administration and inveterate betrayal of every personal commitment‘ and argues that as a majority of Conservative MPs and party members had voted for him that he, Boris Johnson, was not an aberration but a product of a system that will continue to produce terrible politicians long after Boris Johnson is gone. This is quite an interesting line of argument in that Rory Stewart is condemning not just an individual politician but a political scene in which the lies and evasions of our current Prime Minister will be overlooked so long as he manages to deliver winning seats for the Conservative party but whose MPs are likely to dispose of him if Boris Johnson is seen as a liability. We have seen the same mindset with the supporters of Donald Trump in which his manifest failings are overlooked so long as he delivers a victory to the Republican Party. If you follow the logic of this analysis through, it is extremely depressing to come to the realisation that in our modern democracy, incompetence and malevolence are set at nought provided that electoral victory always ensues. By this token, there are no moral values or standards of probity any more at the highest level of our political life – one can only wonder what the private thoughts of The Queen, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown (and Margaret Thatcher were she still to be alive) might be on this state of affairs. There are persistent rumours a few days in advance of the Sue Gray report into ‘partygate’ that ‘smoking’ emails have been discovered which show that the Prime Minister, or his immediate aides, had been informed of the probable illegality of the planned parties but they were ignored. My best guess is that Boris Johnson will try to ride out what the Sue Gray report says or does not say about him but that the letters will go in to the 1922 committee and Boris Johnson will have a real fight for his political life (which he may well win but only in the short term) towards the end of next week.
So Saturday has dawned with a cold but not that cold feeling compared with some days recently. These days, I seem to be counting off the days until the publication of the Sue Gray report into ‘partygate’ for which the latest best guess seems to be Thursday so not too long to go now. Once Meg and I got our act together, we wandered down into town under no real political pressure and I dropped Meg on the bench outside Waitrose whilst I went off to collect the Saturday edition of the newspaper. Whilst inside Waitrose, I looked at their extensive sauces section and discovered some sachets of Sweet Chilli and Garlic cooking sauce. Why I am delighted to have found this sauce is because when I consulted the web, I discovered an excellent YouTube video in which an (English) chef demonstrated exactly how pollock could be cooked using the chilli and garlic sauce as a type of marinade. This looked so easy to prepare and so good to eat, I am looking forward to my next culinary adventure. The interesting thing about all of this is that when you look at the completed meal, the cost of the sauce is probably equal to the cost of the fish in the first place. But given that pollock is such a mild-flavoured fish, it is necessary to add some flavour to it and this recipe has obviously been tried and tested before the video was made.
Tonight is the night when we attend church for a 6.00-7.00 service and it will be the third week that we have experienced with our new priest. Attendance is alwasys a little down when the weather is poor and the cold strikes but we expect to see many of the regular ‘old faithfuls’ this evening. I am always quite interested in the sermon as this part of the service is completely unpredictable and I am always interested to see what messages can be crammed into a five-minute slot. On Radio 4, there used to be a regular slot called ‘Thought for the Day‘ and this was generally given over to a variety of denominations and religious speakers – the contributions of the speakers from the Jewish, Sikh, Muslim and Hindu callings was always quite interesting, given that in the normal course of events one would not often hear what these religious persuasions had to offer. However, I was always incredibly impressed by what various speakers could cram into a 5-minute slot. I particularly remember Rabbi Lionel Blue (the first Jewish Rabbi to acknowledge the fact that he was gay) and he contributed to ‘Thought for the Day‘ for a period of 25 years. His Wikipedia entry is particularly interesting and his contribution was nearly always a comic and often self-deprecating story or extended joke with a little moral twist at the end. Given what could be said in 5 minutes, I often used to wonder in my lecturing days how good a lecture I could deliver if it turned out to be the equivalent of 12 times a five minutes ‘Thought for the Day‘ slot.
When the TV is poor on a Saturday evening, Meg and I often turn to YouTube for an opera performance. The only slight snag about this is that unless you know the opera particularly well, you are never quite sure how long the performace is going to be and we don’t particularly fancy making a late night of it, even though tomorrow is a Sunday. If we try that this evening, we must remind ourselves to get our viewing started quite early. We tend to stick to our favourites drawn from Mozart, Puccini and Verdi so we might just might have a go at ‘Madame Butterfly’ (Puccini) this evening. The fascinating thing about this opera is that the theme (an American fathering a child in an oriental coutry and then coming along to claim the child as their own and taking them back to America) is exactly what happened when American GI’s fathered children in Vietnam several decades after the opera was written. Some 26,000 children were brought back to the USA. They grew up as the leftovers of an unpopular war, straddling two worlds but belonging to neither. Most never knew their fathers. Many were abandoned by their mothers at the gates of orphanages. Some were discarded in rubbish bins.
The big political story today is whether the over-zealous behaviour of the Tory party whips has led to consequences which might have crossed over illegality. One particular charge is that the whips had threatened to deny the constituents of a particular Tory MP a new school if the MP rebelled (paradoxically, over the withdrawal of the provisions for free school meals). Labour MP Chris Bryant, who is chairman of the Commons Standards Committee, said alleged threats to pull public funding from members’ constituencies amounted to ‘misconduct in public office’ and should be reported to the police.
You never know what a day will bring and so it proved today. We did not get to a particularly brilliant start today because no sooner had I arrived at the newsagent than I realised that I forgotten to bring my pre-paid token along with me. I know I could have asked to get the newspaper ‘on tick’ until I could go down and supply my token but I thought I could probably collect the newspaper later in the day so I turned on my heel and walked straiught back home. After Meg and I had watched the ‘Sunday‘ (politics programme) we made our way down to the park hoping to see our University of Birmingham friend today. However he texted us to say that he had to help out a friend in distress who had just experienced a flood so he was going to go over with some heating devices and help to dry him out. Instead, we had our coffee and were than approached by a chap who seemed rather garrulous. It transpired that he had a brain haemorrhage a few years ago and was the the surgeon’s knife for hours and could well have died. Anyway, it appears that by perseverance, he had managed a fair degree of rehabilitation and although he still had some balance, coordination and concentration difficulties, his speech was totally regained. We complemented him on the remarkable recovery that he had shown – and hope we could do the same if a similar event occurred to us. Just then, our friend the Seasoned World Traveller hove into sight and, despite the cold, we stood and chatted for a bit about politics, recent TV viewing and the like.Then we started back home, not least to rescue some vegetables that I had roasting in the oven and were pleased to meet up (by accident) with our Irish friends who are off on holiday to Tenerife in a few days time so we were pleased to have a chat before their departure.
This afternoon, I set myself the task of going through a pile of newspapers which I have kept in case there was anything of interest I wished to retain. Most of this pile eventually got junked but I did find something quite useful which I had overlooked. Each year, towards the end of the year, The Times publishes in its colour magazine a series of cartoons generally picking out the newsworthy highlights of the year. The Times cartoonist does tend to tie two current events into a single cartoon so sometimes the actual cartoon fails to amuse as much as was intended until it is decoded by the background knowledge of the year’s events. This particular edition of the colour magazine is well worth keeping for the brilliance of the cartoons and the acerbity of the political comment. Having got this quite onerous task disposed of, I then started on the more pleasant task of soup making. I am used the Waitrose ‘Soffrito’ mixture but I complement it with a lightly fried onion and 2-3 desert spoonfuls of a Balti sauce to add a little, but not too much, piquancy. On this occasion, I am going to split the soup into two halves so that we are not overwhelmed today and have some left for later on in the week.
The political news today is dominated by the claim by the UK’s first female Muslim minister (Nusrat Ghani) that she was not reappointed to her ministerial job (sacked?) because ‘her Muslimness made colleagues uncomfortable’ After her sacking, she apparently had an an unpleasant meeting with the Chief Whip and subsequently with Boris Johnson, both of whom indicated that she should take matters of concern like this to the Tory party’s own complaint procedures. Her counter-argument is that this is a Government matter, not just a matter for the Conservative party – but you can see here where both sides are coming from. The interesting thing about this is that some fellow Asian (and Muslim?) ministers like Sajid Javid and Nadhim Zahawi have spoken generously in her support whilst the Chief Whip has implied that her account is a fabrication. Not attempting to arbitrate in this tangled story, it does appear that Boris Johnson has not demonstrated a firm and decisive hand in this story and current fractures within the existing cabinet must be the last thing that Boris Johnson needs at the moment. Dominic Cummings is to be interviewed by Sue Gray tomorrow before the compilation and presentation of her report on or about Thursday. Cummings has argued that he will swear on oath that his account is true – would Boris Johnson do the same? Certainly his evidence looks damning but is it just words – or is there anything approaching proof that his account (that he informed Boris Johnson of the illegality of drinks parties) is to be believed? There may be a straight conflict of evidence here (Cummings said one thing whilst Johnson says another) Will Sue Gray be able or willing to adjudicate between two conflicting accounts? We shall see in a few days time.
Meg and I woke up feeling tired this morning – perhaps the overcast and gloomy skies have got something to do with it. We knew we were going to have a slightly different routine this morning as we had scheduled dental appointments right in the middle of the day and there would not have been time to get our walk in and still get to the dentist on time. We have in our bathroom two of those ‘disposable’ electric toothbrushes that we find less aggressive than the expensive ones on the market. Both of these toothbrushes had tiny AAA batteries in them that had died so we set about to change them. Is it just me or is it made extraordinarily difficult to change the batteries in the disposable variety? One of them involved the most minute of grub screws that people of poor eyeseight might not even notice whilst the other required the combination of a thin-bladed screwdriver and a rubbery ‘cap remover’ (used to enhance one’s grip) to reveal its guts inside. Anyway I managed to get that done and then we thought we had better get a lateral flow test done on ourselves. Even though the modern versions of the test seem to miss out the throat swab before the nostril swab, I have read (somewhere) that you enhance the reliability of the test if you continue to perform the test on both throat and nose. This is what Meg and I did and it is always reassuring to find out that we are both negative. We both have the slightest of winter sniffles at the moment and it is possible that we could have tested positive but we live to fight another day. Then it was off to the dentist where each of us had to fill in three forms – one a patient information form, one a health questionnaire and the final one bing a COVID specific form. Anyway we both got seen with the minimum of fuss – although I have a slight cracking of the enamel around an old filling that will need to be put right in a week or so. As we were in the car, we picked up the newspaper and got straight home, not unhappy that we had missed out a walk as the weather is not too pleasant.
In the afternoon, I thought I spend another plesant hour communicating with the bank that looks after our communal facilities in order to navigate thir safeguarding procedures. All of this is because in the last few days I received one of their ‘We require more information..‘ type emails. I got through relatively quickly, passed their security but had the misfortune of getting a heavily accented voice at the other end who was difficult to understand. The upshot of all of this is that I have to wait and ignore the request in the last email because they are still in the process of evaluating the latest provided information. I am almost certain what the next step in the procedure is going to be and it won’t be a ‘we are pleased to inform you that you have complied with all our safeguarding procedures‘ type of letter but I suppose I have developed a lot of patience in all of this saga.
Whilst on the computer, I saw a clip on Sky News that I have never seen before. This was Lord Agnew, a government junior Treasury minister (in the Lords) with responsibility for combatting fraud resigning whilst actually at the dispatch box. He has resigned because the peer told the chamber that the Treasury ‘appears to have no knowledge or little interest in the consequences of fraud to our economy or our society‘, adding that a mix of ‘arrogance, indolence and ignorance freezes the government machine.’ Under these circumstances and with millions of pounds being handed to companies some of whom were not even trading, the peer felt it would be immoral to continue in post. The astonished lords even gave him a round of applause as he swept out of the chamber. Meanwhile, Dominic Cummings has announced that he will only give evidence to the Sue Gray enquiry into ‘partygate’ in writing rather than verbally (for somewhat obscure reasons) but he is also intimating that there is a lot more incriminating material out there in the form of emails or even photographs but that individuals are not releasing this just yet as they are being threatened by Boris Johnson’s coterie – however, Dominc Cummings has hinted that this may be released after the Sue Gray report sees the light of day. The Prime Minister has committed a ‘U’ turn by ordering a Cabinet office enquiry into the fate of the woman Muslim MP, Nusrat Ghani. She has claimed that a government whip has said to her that ‘her Muslimness was raised as an issue’ when she asked why she had lost her job as a junior Transport Minister.
Today is my Pilates day so we always need to have a fairly quick turn around on days like these. However, in the wee small hours of the morning, I decided to access the Aldi website to discern their opening hours because I am minded to revert to my previous shopping haunts at least for an experimental period. It may well be that I get ino a pattern of alternating Aldi with Waitrose and that way I can get the cheapness of Aldi with the quality associated with Waitrose. I was quite pleased, though, to be offered the option of a ‘Click and Collect’ option at my local Aldi store and so, almost on the spur of the moment, I decided to give it a go. Although it was the middle of the night, I imagined in my mind that I was traversing the aisles of Waitrose so that I could compile my shopping list for Aldi. When it came to the checkout, I was amazed to discover that despite the levy of £4.95 for the Aldi ‘Click and Collect’ services (lessened by savings on petrol and car parking charges), my entire shopping bill came to less than half the price I have been paying these last few weeks in Waitrose. So this Thursday, if all works well, all I do is turn up with my receipt between 8.00 and 9.00, and presumably some shopping bags and everything will have been done for me. During the course of the day, I have remembered some things which I had forgotten in the middle of the night but I can make adjustments to the list right up to the night before.
We knew that we had to have a quick turn around today but we collected the newspaper and then into Waitrose to pick up some supplies. There we heard the incredibly good news that the coffee bar in Waitrose, despite being closed in several Waitrose stores, is definitely to be reprieved in ours – and the newly appointed manager may even be thinking of a little party-cum-celebrations on the opening day which is in about a month’s time towards the end of February. We bumped into our Irish friend on the way down, met with a Waitrose regular who told us the good news about the coffee bar reopening and thence to our normal seat. There we gulped down some hot coffee, had a brief chat with Veteran Octogenarian Hiker who was busy trying to get 10k of kilometres under his belt for today and then shot home where I had about a five minute turn around time. I needed to depart for my class so that I could pop along the High Street and get the battery replaced in my watch which has just stopped working. As it has not replaced at all during pandemic days, then it is probably about 2½ years since I had the previous battery installed. I was promised that the new battery would proibably have a life of some 2-3 years which suits me just fine – the battery cost me £5.00 to replace but I could have bought a whole new watch for either £5 or a better design for £7.
Some quite dramatic political developments were evident this morning when the Metropolitan Police announced that there was to be a formal investigation of some of the ‘gatherings’ in 10 Downing Street. Later in the day, it emerged that the police were going to investigate some 7-8 of the approx. 17 happenings that had been reported to them. It seems as though Sue Gray herself had passed evidence of possible breach of the COVID regulations to the Met. For its part, the Met indicated that some of these incidents passed their own criteria for police investigation – that personnel had knowingly organised illegal parties, that there was no apparent defence to these allegations and that public trust and confidence in the judicial process would be undermined if further investigations were not pursued. At first, it seemed that the Sue Gray report might have to be put on hold before it was announced that the ‘findings’ would be published immediately. The question remains swirling around Westminster whether the report will be published in full or whether there will be some redactions so that junior civil servants, for example, are not named and shamed. In Parliament, Boris Johnson announced his satisfaction that a police investigation was underway. I am starting to wonder whether despite the close association with criminality, Boris Johnson might be gaming the fact that he himself would not be unduly ‘fingered’ (as this might smack of interference with the governance of the country) and he could point to the ‘criminality’ of others in order to deflect criticism of himself. Meanwhile, the phrase has been used this evening that Johnson could be accused of ‘misconduct in public office’ for which the penalty could well be a gaol sentence. It is possible that the Sue Gray report may be published tomorrow, Wednesday but I suspect that Thursday might be a better bet.
Today was going to be the day when the long awaited Sue Gray report could perhaps be published but more of that later. As it was, Meg felt a little poorly this morning so decided to stay for an extra hour or so in bed to recover (which she did). In the meantime, I went into town on my own to collect the newspaper and to pop into our local Waitrose which I now use as though it were a corner shop. Then it was a question of rapidly home in order to be parked in front of the TV for Prime Minister’s Questions which normally starts promptly on Wednesdays at 12.00 midday. The burning question today is to whether the Sue Gray report will be handed to Parliament (and the world) in its entirety or will it be delayed, redacted, edited, provided in only summary form of the findings alone or whatever permutation. Boris Johnson under intense questionning from Keir Starmer agreed that the report said ‘Of course, I will do what I said‘. This rather Delphic reply has left many of us scratching our heads and thinking what it is said that he has said on this subject to which he was referring. There is a view that the PM has left himself a bit of ‘wriggle room’ in case he wants to let out a version of the report that just happens to be the least damaging to him. The whole of PMQ was a fairly typical scenario in which the lawyer-like approach of direct questions from Keir Starmer was met with bluster and half evasions by Boris Johnson who, needless to say, would not directly answer any of the questions put to him. In the meantime, the whole country is awaiting for publication of the Sue Gray report which seems to be held up by being passed through the hands of government lawyers. Given that Friday is the day when many MP’s leave Westminster in order to devote themselves to constituency business, it could well be that the whole report will be delayed now until next Monday.
This afternoon, I had just settled down to reply yet again to the bank who looks after our communal affairs with yet another request to fill in parts of a doument which I have submitted to them four times already. I have the feeling that there is a computer algorithm rather than a ‘human’ assessing the form because every time I speak to a member of the safeguarding team, they can never tell me what information the system requires that they do not already have. But just before this task, I consulted my emails and one of my University of Winchester ‘buddies’ had suggested that we have a Skype session at 4.00pm this afternoon. So faced with a bank session or a videochat with old friends, it was no contest really and I readily succumbed to the pleasure of chatting, albeit at long range. Time flew by and we spent an hour and a half before we realised that we did need to prepare tea and get other things done this afternoon.
Another scandal has emerged today and, interestingly enough, nothing to do with parties held in Downing Street in contravention of the COVID-19 regulations. This was a story in which the PM’s wife, Carrie Johnson, may well now have a measure of responsibility. The story relates to the rapid evacuation of the embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in which there were heart-rending pictures of people who helped the British (interpreters and the like) and their families not being able to get on an evacuation flight. All of this was redolent of the images we remember of the fall of Saigon when the Americans withdrew ignominiously from Vietnam. There was a charity, run by somebody with evident connections with the military, concerned with the evacuation of sick and wounded animals from Afghanistan. Of course, this was being done as a ‘private’ operation and the UK government have consistently maintained that it had no part in the evacuation operation. However, a Foreign Office memo has now arisen in which Boris Johnson is said to have ‘authorised’ the flight which evacuated the sick animals. So the fundamental political question which arises is this: did the authorisation and emergency evacuation of sick animals take priority over the evacuation of human personnel? This is quite a murky story, as one might imagine, compounded by the fact that the Foreign Office have always denied that evacuation of animals impeded the evacuation of humans. But a memo has now emerged in which the PM did authorise such a flight – and it quite easy to construct a narrative, all too believable in the case of the British, in which animal life took precedence over, or least impeded, the evacuation of human life. The fact that the story has emerged today only adds to the picture of a government mired in duplicity and evasion.
Today is the day when I generally get up early and get off to Waitrose in Droitwich to do my shopping, aiming to get there the minute that the store opens its doors to minimise my exposure to other shoppers. But today, I an due to revert to my erstwhile shopping habits by frequenting Aldi but availing myself this time of their ‘Click and Collect’ facilities. The ordering procedure and updating it seemed pretty straightforward and the instructions then told me to get to the Aldi car park, park in a ‘Click and Collect’ zone and then reply to the text that they had previously sent me including my name and the number of the bay where I was parked. I waited about 5 minutes and then my order arrived, loaded into large plastic bags just about strong enough to get the load they contained into the boot of the car. I thought that the load seemed a little on the ‘concise’ side but I didn’t give it much of a second thought until I got it home and started to unpack it. Then I realised that several critical items (e.g. milk and yogurt supplies for the week) as well as half a dozen other items were missing. It seemed to me as though the whole of a plastic container load had not been loaded onto the trolley ready for lifting into the car. So I immediately shot back to Aldi where I explained (eventually) to a young manager that I had been a regular customer of Aldi, was now returning and this was my first experience of ‘Click and Collect’ The young manager apologised and set about picking up the deficit items himself, making a mistake in the process. He explained that an inexperienced young worker had been charged with compiling the load and, not to put too fine a point on it, he had absolutely made a ‘pig’s ear’ of the whole thing. But the young manager rewarded me with a bottle of Prosecco for my patience and forbearance, so this was gratefully accepted. But then we realised that the young packer had not made some crucial substitutions e.g. by substituting smaller cartoms of yogurt when the jumbo sized ones were unavailable. So I needed to get back inside the store and buy these items afresh as they would have been marked as unavailable previously and therefore I wouldn’t be charged for them. Eventually, I got home and unpacked the shopping and all I can say at this point is that it was considerably cheaper but quite a palaver. I think that next week, I shall probably forego the ‘Click and Collect’ option and get straight to the store at opening time as I used to do at Waitrose.
When we went to Droitwich, we went to our favourite coffee bar which serves a nice hot cappuchino and an enormous teacake which, once toasted, is easily enough for the two of us. Then we had a turn around ‘Wilko’ our favourite hardware store. Whilst Meg peruses the cosmetics, toiletries and household cleaning, I make a beeline for the stationery section followed by kitchen implements. Between us, we bought a staisfying array of things and then made our way to our favourite little ‘non-nonsense’ cafe which does a magnificent roast each Thursday (lamb today) at a ridiculously cheap price of £8. This little cafe and coffee shop has a very loyal following for its roasts which it puts on once a week and for which you have to book up a couple of days in advance to get a seat. Whilst there, we got into conversation with a fellow diner who turned out to be a local councillor. She overheard the conversation I had with the waitress which was to ask her whether she knew why mint sauce was typically served with lamb. The answer goes back to Elizabethan times in which once it was recognised that sheep could provide mutton as well as really valuable wool which then was the source of England’s prosperity. As the wool trade was threatened, Elisabeth 1 passed a decree that sheep meat could only be eating if eaten with a ‘bitter herb’ In those days, mint was plentiful but sugar had not made it across from the New World and the rest is history. Anyway, we had a really pleasant conversation and our our whole meal and conversation lasted for an hour and a half.
The Sue Gray report being temporarily parked, the media attention has turned to the fact that Boris Johnson appears to have authorised, or at least sanctioned, a mercy flight for animals rather than for people when Kabul, Afghanistan was abandoned when the Taliban took over. Boris appears to have been caught lying again even though there is an email trail which appears to show an authorisation of this private animal rescue flight. Boris Johnson is calling the ensuing row ‘rhubarb’ (but is meant to be a denial or not?)
So another week is drawing to a close and, with it, the month of January is nearly over as well. After our normal catching up on the week’s news with our domestic help, Meg and I made our way, somewhat belatedly, down to the park. The weather was bright but a little on the chilly side but we reached our normal bench without much ado. No sooner had we finished supping our coffee but our University of Birmingham friend spotted us from afar and came to join us, cup of coffee in his hand. As we didn’t see him (much) last weekend, we had quite a lot to catch up on and after we had chatted for a bit, I made my rapidly to the newsagent to pick up our daily ration and then on to Waitrose which is almost like a corner shop for us now. Then I made my way back to the park and we carried on with our chat. But by now, it was getting a little on the cool side so our friend very kindly gave us both a lift back which was especially welcome as it saved us some time and we needed to cook some lunch for Meg and I and our domestic help who was joining us. Lunch today was going to be some pollock, made a bit more flavoursome with a sweet chilli and garlic sauce which I had seen on a YouTube video was a good way to enhance this fish which,whilst being nutritious, is somewhat bland in flavour. I approached my cooking venture with a degree of trepidation as I cooking with some fish that was not completely thawed so I had to pre-cook a little before applying the marinade. However, all worked well and I served the fish on a bed of lettuce and a glass of really dry white South African wine. I am pleased to say that all of these ingredients blended really well with each other and feel quite confident about repeating this on further Fridays. On my son’s advice, I was pretty sparing in the use of the sauce/marinade so as not to overdo the amount of salt to which I might otherwise be exposed but it is always good to prepare a meal which is nutritious as well as being low in calories, salt and the ubiquitous sugar.
There is quite some turmoil going on behind the scenes which seems to delay the publication of the Sue Gray report – originally thought to be last Wednesday/Thursday. It looks as though the Metropolitan police have asked that the Gray report not reveal any information which might prejudice their own enquiry – which itself might take weeks or even months. The Met’s request indicates Ms Gray will either have to make significant changes to her report before publication or delay it until after the force’s inquiry. This places a tremendous burden upon Sue Gray. She has the option of delaying her report until the police investigation is complete (which may be months) or publishing an incomplete/severely redacted version in the next few days which has all of the appearance of a ‘cover up’. Indeed, some lawyers are even now starting to wonder out loud whether the police have the legal right to request that the internal Gray report be amended or delayed. In the meanwhile, Boris Johnson must be laughing his socks off as with each day that passes, he has the ability through the power of delay to minimise its impact. It is already being said that various ‘trade-offs’ are being negotiated as I write to the effect that backbencher support might be sought for the proce of delaying the much disliked National Insurance rate increases due shortly. In practice, Boris Johnson through the delay and whilst playing for time may emerge not badly damaged from all of this but only time will tell. Some late breaking news on Sky is to the effect that the Met are denying that they are delaying the report and Commander Catherine Roper (in charge of the investigation) has indicated that ‘We have not delayed this report and the timing of its release is a matter for the Cabinet Office inquiry team.’
In the early evening, a friend of mine from down the road phoned me to see if I could help with her energy supplier. The energy supplier he was with had just gone bust in common with many others of the new, small entrants to the market and the Regulator had allocated him to British Gas. They, in turn were proving very difficult to contact so my friend was in a certain amount of turmoil because the existing company had gone bust and therefore couldn’t be contacted and the new one (British Gas) was not keen to talk to customers. As I had just changed to a new supplier which I will not now name but have had excellent service at a reasonable price, I managed to dig out a telephone number to see if they could be of any assistance.
Today was always going to be a quiet day and so it proved. Meg and I got up a little late and by the time we had done a few jobs, we were a little delayed. I had busied myself this morning making a little wallet for the business cards of which I have just received a new supply. Fortunately, I have a supply of postcards and when I take one and fold it in half it is the perfect size. All I have to do then is to apply some coloured tape (of which I happen to have a good quantity) and now I have a supply of cards ready for use. One wallet I am going to keep permanently in my rucksack so that if all else fails, I always have a supply. We took the car down to town to save time and then called in to collect our newspaper and some milk from Waitrose. Then we progressed to our favourite bench in the park and were soon observed by our Seasoned World Traveller friend who had availed himself of a coffee, spotted us and then proceeded up the hill for a chat. We had little fragments of conversation with several other of the park regulars – their dogs tend to bound over to us thinking there might be some food in the offing and their owners trail behind, always apologetically. When I reflect upon the dogs I see in the park, many are young and chase enthusiastically after balls thrown for them with the aid of a ‘ball launcher’ but others are much more sedate whilst yet. others (according to their owners) are affflicted with the diseases of old age such as diabetes, osteo-orthritis, obesity and in one sad case dementia. We discussed the latest political situation with our friend (what else) and were trying to discern what combination of conspiracy theories, Machiavellian doings and incompetence on behalf of the Met we chose to believe. Last night, I saw an extraordinary little interview on ‘Newsnight’ when Dawn Abbott (leftward leaning from the Labour Party), a right wing Tory MP and Lord Sumner (ex High Court) were all in total agreement that there was no legal impediment why the Gray report should not be published in its entirety – in their consensus view, the Met was really ‘trying it on’ where according to Lord Sumner it was quite common for fact-finding enquiries to be conducted first and more serious criminal charges pursued later. He cited Hillsborough as the prime example where this had happened. Of course playing for time always works to the advantage of the power centres in society – a fairly common view is that Cressida Dick (head of the Met) has practically handed Boris a ‘get out of gaol’ card for free. It is very interesting that both political left and right are asking for the Gray report to be published in full. The verdict of the Sunday newspapers tomorrow morning is going to be interesting. I suspect that the report will hit us some time on Monday morning. I have just read a rather disturbing account from a journalistic expedition to Grimsby, which is a former Labour seat (‘red wall’) which turned Tory in the last election. There it was reported that he sense of expectation exuded by Westminster ahead of the Sue Gray report is hard to find in Lincolnshire – where one voter said the outcome wouldn’t affect their business, and another said ‘keeping the country running’ is more important than ‘what slice of cake’ the prime minister had. I also listened to the Radio 4 programme, Any Answers in which listeners phone to air their opinions after the Any Questions? panel discussion that precedes it. I must say that an overwhelming view of those who phoned in (Conservative as well as Labour) was that the Gray report should be published in full and unredacted. But, perhaps as an indication of the views of a silent majority, was the view that Boris Johnson and the Downing Street crew were only doing what the rest of us(!) had been doing all along by bending or not observing the law. In a garden not an incredibly long way from our house in which a bar had built in the corner of the erstwhile garden, a party was held in which some 16 adults and children were drinking and cavorting at the height of the pandemic. These parties stopped very abruptly and I suspect that a neighbour (not me!) had complained to the police who probably came along and felt a few collars.
When we got home, it was time to prepare lunch – in this case a curry. I put together the normal ingredients (onion, peppers, left-over cubes of meat, sultanas, some peas and gravy) before adding the Chinese curry paste, serving on a bed of sweet potato rice and topping off with some yogurt. Then we had a fairly lazy afternoon, not doing anything very much knowing that we would leave the house to go to church in the late afternoon.
As I walked down for my newspaper this morning, the sky was clear and bright blue but it was still quite chilly without some rainwear. I collected our newspaper, checking that it contained the ‘Culture’ section which details all of the TV and radio programmes for the week ahead. Then it was a quick breakfast whilst watching the new ‘Sunday Morning’ hosted now by Sophie Raworth who has replaced Andrew Marr since the latter’s retirement. I must confess that after getting up and then two vigorous walks (there and back) I sometimes tend to doze – but knowing that it Liz Truss being interviewed, there was nothing much to keep me awake. On the subject of Sunday politics shows, Channel 4 are hosting a new evening show by Andrew Neil who could only stand GB News for a fortnight before falling out with them. On his new show, he is expected to reflect on the day’s news, interview heavyweight guests and look ahead to the coming week. Neil has agreed to present a Channel 4 documentary examining the prime minister’s leadership crisis: Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road? is to be screened tonight. It will explore a string of scandals on the leader’s watch, including the Owen Paterson lobbying row and the continuing Downing Street party saga. Meg and I walked down to the park where we met (by prior arrangement) our University of Birmingham friend and then we were, in fact, joined by some other mutual friends who, like us, are regular park walkers. We discussed politics (of course) and eventually finished up talking about the causes and consequences of the 1958 Munich air disaster in which 50% of the aircraft’s passengers, including members of the Manchester United football team, perished. It was later established that the crash was caused by the slush on the runway, which slowed the plane too much to enable take-off. The pilot was initially blamed for which he was very bitter (I knew his brother) He was cleared in 1968, ten years after the incident. Then it was a walk home before a somewhat delayed Sunday lunch (chicken thighs)
I have been feeling moderately pleased with myself, having got a file manager to work which had suddenly stopped working. On occasions, you may want web page which is nothing more than a vehicle for a lot of clickable links. Although this can be done in HTML, if you have a file manager (with clickable links) then all you have to do is to put a .php program in each folder. I have had one such directory lister as they are called but for some reason it has suddenly just ceased working, presenting the user with just a blank page. I do not have the technical skills to wade through 400 lines of PHP code to discover what is the source of the problem – it might be quite a simple thing but the best thing to do is to abandon that directory lister and to find another. After a few judicious searchings on the web, I found a script which works quite well but does not quite give the neat, compact tabled results that my old program gave me. Anyway, I managed to ‘tweak’ the script so that each link became a clickable rather than a downloadable link and also got rid of a huge chunk of code whose function was obscure but not essential. I managed to get the program down to one quarter of its original length and it works fine for the purposes for which I want it. When I look at the ‘permissions’ associated with the script, provided one keeps the copyright notice in place, one is given the legal right to alter, modify and even sell the program as the spirit takes you. It is always very satisfying to find a computing solution that works, once you have run into a roadblock.
The COVID news is somewhat more positive this morning. The number of new infections has dropped to the lowest since 14th December (six weeks ago) and this appears to show that the fight against the Omicron variant is starting to show some positive results. To counter this, though, the infection rate in schools is increasing so rapidly that some staff are not implementing the latest ‘liberalisation’ rules announced in the middle of last week. My own observations are that individuals are still observing mask-wearing and hand-sanitising procedures both in the shops that still request these and even when walking in the open street where presumably, the virus is less extant. However, I still feel that an undue complacency may set in and I would not be surprised if another variant or even a sub-variant were to arise and bite us when we are least expecting it. The scientists seem to be uncovering the explanation of why lung function is affected in Long-Covid cases. Whether this lung damage is permanent or not, I do not know but if recovery is possible, it is likely to be very slow.
Today it was announced fairly on that Sue Gray had delivered her interim ‘update’ (rather than a report) to the Prime Minister. So to a large extent, the rest of the day was a holding operation until the heavily redacted summary of the report is published, Boris Johnson has appeared in Parliament and the reaction of the Tory MPs in Westminster can be gauged. Meg and I took a hard look at the weather forecast and decided that we would walk down to collect our newspaper and then to pop into Waitrose to get some supplies. This we did and then we made our way to our normal bench in the park where the weather was generally fine but it was somewhat on the cold side. We were just preparing to leave when we were recognised by a member of the congregation at our local church so we lingered for quite a lengthy chat about her dog which seemed incredibly enthusiastic and friendly not to only to us but to every similar dog of a similar heritage (broadly a variety of poodle cross) We walked home and realised that we did not enough time to have a proper cooked lunch in view of the fact that we knew that Boris Johnson was about to make a statement to the House of Commons at 3.30. Whilst we having our ‘quickie’ lunch (a microwaveable beetroot risotto supplented by a tin of tuna and some petit pois), the Sue Gray interim report was published and we had a quick journalistic summary of some of its findings. From what we could tell, there were some pretty damning things even in the interim report whilst we must still await for the 12 most serious incidents of parties which were investigated for criminality by the Met investigation.
After we had lunched, we prepared to go down the road for a little ‘tea party’ in the house of our French friend where we were also to be joined by some of our Catholic friends who are near neighbours. We spent over two and a half hours of really interesting chat whilst we consumed our tea and biscuits. All in all, we spent a wonderful afternoon and then raced home to be seated before the TV in order to get the full political news. It seems that Boris Johnson is under serious political threat even though the available published evidence is lightweight in volume. But what is published is damning in the extreme and tonight Boris Johnson is to have a meeting with all of his MPs and it will be fascinating to see what some members are prepared to reveal of this meeting once it has concluded.
Some of the key findings even in the abridged Gray report are show below:
– 16 events in 2020 and 2021 were investigated – the Met Police are looking into 12 of them
– Some of the behaviour surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify
– A number of the gatherings should not have been allowed to take place or to develop in the way that they did
– At least some gatherings represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of government but also of the standards expected of the entire population
– There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office
– The garden at 10 Downing Street was also used for gatherings without clear authorisation or oversight. This was not appropriate
– Some staff wanted to raise concerns about behaviours they witnessed at work but at times felt unable to do so
– Steps must be taken to ensure every government department has a “clear and robust” policy over excessive alcohol consumption in the workplace which is ‘not appropriate’
Of these observations, possibly the most damning of all is the statement concerning ‘failures of leadership and government’, whilst a close second is ‘a number of gatherings should not have been allowed to take place’ In the House of Commons, Teresa May asked some devastating questions saying 'So either my right honourable friend had not read the rules or didn’t understand what they meant and others around him, or they didn’t think the rules applied to Number 10. Which was it?' This drew only a fluffed reply from Boris Johnson. Some more revelations from the report are that Sue Gray has several more (damning) findings that have to be kept under lock and key until after the Met investigation is completed. In addition some 500 pieces of paper and 300 photographs have been handed over in evidence. One view that is emerging in a fast moving situation is that there may be enough MPs to send in letters demanding confidence vote in the PM but there is a serious division about tactics. There are two schools of thought one of which is to strike now before the issue ‘fades’ whilst the other is to wait for an event such as the May elections which may ultimately prove to provide the fatal blow.
Well, it is always nice to get rid of one of the ‘winter months’ and here we are in February with having had a pretty good winter so far. The last week or so has been dominated by a high pressure system which has generally meant blue skies, coolish mornings and the absence of snow, hail and rain which is often our lot at this time of year. I am sure that the water companies will not be particularly happy as they rely upon precipitation in the winter months to fill up the underground aquifers and their profits will be adversely effect if they have to build or maintain overground reservoirs or if we have a long, hot summer that restricts demand. On Pilates days such as today, we tend to take the car into town as much to save time as anything else. So we collected our newspaper, made a lightning tour of Waitrose for some supplies and then treated ourselves to only a 15 minute stay on our normal bench. Then it was a case of scampering home and having a quick turn around before I walk down for my Pilates class. I needed to sear off some chichen thighs before I adjudged that they could go on cooking slowly in the oven in the remains of the sauce from yesterday.
Last night, when I was up in the middle of the night and consulting my emails, I did receive one that was a pleasant surprise. Regular readers of this blog will know of the battles I have been having with the bank that looks after the communal affairs of our residents’ association to comply with their safeguarding procedures. Well, the email I got sort of indicated that we are now in the clear but they do not say as much. All that we do know is their admission that ‘We recently contacted to you to ask for further information as part of your Safeguard review, however we have all we need. Thank you if you already responded to our initial request, any information provided will be added to your profile, but for now, there’s nothing else you need to do.‘ I suppose this is a roundabout way of saying that we have complied with their procedures but it seems a bit like a weasly worded email, particularly as later on they say they might jump upon me at any time for more information. The next thing will be an augument with them over fees as they now have started to charge us for each item which is a change to how the ‘free’ account has operated for the last 8 years or so.
In the wake of the Sue Gray ‘partygate’ (truncated) report to the PM and to Parliament, yesterday there have been two ‘U’ turns emanating from No 10 Downing Street today. The first one was an admission (after an initial refusal) that Sue Gray’s report will be published in its entirety once the investigations conducted by the Met have been concluded. The second ‘U’ turn is a reluctant admission that if the PM is subject to a fixed penalty fine for transgressing COVID regulations, that this fact will be released to the public rather being kept as a ‘secret’ with Downing Street. However as the names of members of the public who have been fined are not released by the police into the public domain, then the same would apply to Downing Street – despite the overwhelming public interest. So a policy of secrecy and non-disclosure – anything but transparency – will extend to all of the law-breaking personnel in Downing Street which may extend to some very senior figures indeed. The promised ‘new regime’ at Downing Street, promised yesterday by Boris `Johnson, has yet to be take place but certainly the ‘old guard’ are doing all they can to protect themselves. Mind you, it will be quite possible that leaks might take place emanating from some disgruntled staff. In the meanwhile, another Conservative MP has indicated that he has sent in his letter to the Chairman of the 1922 (backbencher’s committee) but we knew this already. Another Tory MP who is a suppoirter of Boris Johnson has indicated that the report needs to be published in full and immediately and that some of the interventions by Boris Johnson’s allies had been ‘so cack-handed that the best way they could be of assistance to the prime minister would be to disable all their social media platforms and cease carrying out media interviews‘. Another clip has resurfaced in which Boris Johnson categorically assured Parliament that no party took place on his flat on 13th November, 2002 – now that this has been documented in the Sue Gray report and is being investigated by the Met, we can assume that the Met are not investigating something that did not take place? So do we have here ‘prima facie’ evidence that Boris Johnson lied to the House of Commons and this one fact, be itself, is enough for him to be removed?
Today was always going to be a slightly foreshortened day because, for better or for worse, Meg and I wanted to be home in town to watch PMQ [Prime Minister’s Questions] at 12.00pm. So we ‘cut our coat according to our cloth’ and just made a lightening visit into town to pick up our newspaper before making sure that we were parked in front of the TV, coffee in hand, wondering what attacks would be made upon Boris Johnson in this post Sue Gray era. Watching Boris Johnson’s typical blustering performance, I am reminded of the expression used by Charles Falcolner who was Lord Chancellor in Tony Blair’s government. He wrote a memorable newspaper article which was entitled “‘Greased piglet’ Boris Johnson could evade justice due to the Met’s disastrous move”. This headline evidently struck a few chords because there was a brilliant cartoon illustrating just this in last week’s Sunday Times and evidently most of the political class knows what a slippery and evasive customer Boris Johnson is. Dominic Cummings is on record as alleging that Boris Johnson lies to absolutely everybody including his own wife: ‘While it’s true that I think Carrie has been a dreadful influence, and it was incredibly foolish of her to start a briefing war with me and others, it’s also only fair to point out that he lies to her all the time about stuff and she’s often operating on duff information herself. This is obviously an incredibly toxic combination.‘ Today in Parliament, Meg and were watching to see if anybody could land a blow. The most critical point here is to have an account of what happened in the PM’s flat on the night of 13th November. Boris Johnson has consistently denied that a party ever took place but even the BBC’s political correspondent, Laura Kuensberg, is convinced by all of the accounts of the party, including the loud playing of Abba tracks that could be heard elsewhere in Downing Street. Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader, specifically asked if there was a party held in the 10 Downing Street flat on 13th November 2020 and, of course, got an evasive reply in which Boris Johnson argued that he was working on COVID measures dduring the month of November (‘Greasy pig’ time again) So a well-directed and crafted question could not be landed. Incidentally, it is a very sad commentary on our Parliamentary life that Ian Blackford was thrown out of the Commons for the day when last week he specifically called the PM a liar. As this is ‘unparliamentary language’ , the Speaker felt he had no option but to suspend the SNP leader for the day. On the other hand, Boris Johnson repeated a lie about Keir Starmer that he was responsible for the non-prosecution of the serial sex offender, Jimmy Savile, whilst Keir Starmer was the Director of Public Prosceutions. This is a ‘meme’ that has been circulating on extreme far-right social media for some time now and had been comprensively refuted. Even Boris Johnson’s advisers told him not to repeat this well-known falsehood against Keir Starmer but evidently Johnson could not resist the jibe. The Speaker was in the position of having to rule that an MP who told the truth but used unparliamenty language (Ian Blackford, the SNP leader) had to be suspended for the day whilst somebody who told a lie but did not use unparliamentary language (Boris Johnson) could not be sanctioned. Meanwhile, three more Tory MP’s have publicly withdrawn their support for Boris Johnson by submitting letters to the Chairman of the 1922 committee so we are now seeing a steady haemorrhaging of support, one might say ‘drip by drip’.
The big political announcement in the Commons today was Michael Gove’s 300 page document promising the ‘levelling up’ of the UK. After a great deal of verbiage it was revealed that the whole of this agenda was to be accompanied by no new money. As Lisa Nandy was driven in exasperation to note at the of the the Michael Gove presentation ‘Is that it?’ One is tempted to retort that we don’t need any 300 page documents full of flim-flam – rather, all that it takes is a one line Excel formula in a spreadsheet which reverses (and compensates) all of the local authorities that had a disproportionate cut in the Rate Support Grant (or whatever it is called these days) during the years of ‘austerity’.
Tomorrow, I am going to try a new pattern in my weekly shopping. After a few years of pre-pandemic shopping at Aldi (followed by post-pandemic at Waitrose) I am going to try Morrisons supermarket in which I used to shop a few years ago. To prepare myself, I composed a computerised shopping list of all the items I might possibly need (some to be deleted as the need arises week by week) as to all intents and purposes I will be shopping in a ‘brand new’ (to me) supermarket. So I intend to be there at 7.00am and we will see what happens.
Thursday is my shopping day and today I am due to try out a new supermarket store (well, one I have not used for about 4 years) I have decided to give Morrisons an experimental trial after my experience at Aldi last week. Last night, I spent a certain amount of time producing a shopping list of almost everything I could possibly buy. Today, I got up early and made sure that I got to the supermarket at just about 7.00am in the morning. Whilst there, I bumped into the one of our ex-Waitrose coffee shop friends that I FaceTime regularly. When we were having one of our regular chats last night, we said that we would probably bump each other at 7.00am in the morning and so it proved. However, we only had the briefest of chats as we were both intent on getting our respective shopping done and we scurried on our way with lists in hand. Altogether, I spent a good hour and a half shopping as I thought I would as I was unfamiliar with the layout and some things are not always where you expect to find them. Nonethless, at the end of the day, I was relatively pleased at the range of goods on offer and the overall size of the shopping bill. However, having shopped in smaller stores for the last year or so, I must say that Morrisons seemed quite large by comparison and although I did not do too much back-tracking (when you forget something), nonetheless I covered a goodly number of yards in my peregrinations. Out of a shopping list of more than 40 items, there was only one that I finished without and that I can probably get from Waitrose on my normal walk for the papers. Next week, though, is a bit of a dilemma. I may well go back to the smaller Aldi store in which I used to shop before its larger big brother opened. In some ways, I quite like a lot of the smaller stores without a vast array of choices and which makes shopping a much more compact experience. So next week, I am minded to try another experimental forage and then I will sit back and think about the balance of advantages and disadvantages associated with each of the local stores.
Today, Meg and I took the car down to the park as were running a little late. We did not expect to see any of our regular crew and indeed we did not. We did strike up a conversation with an interesting young lady who was out exercising her labrapoodle. Not being a ‘doggy’ person and therefore not knowing much about this particular cross-breed, I thought I would explore a little and discovered from the web that they are a cross between the nation’s much-loved Labrador and Poodle breeds. Labradoodles, we are told, are kind and affectionate with plenty of energy and a playful nature, making them an ideal family dog. High energy, these active dogs are best suited to families who can take them for long, interesting walks of up to an hour a day. Certainly, this description seems to match up with the labrapoodles that we seem to notice every day in the park so perhaps there is a lot to be said for this admixture of genes. I often ask the owners whether such cross-breeds ‘breed true’ as they say, but they never seem to know. Then Meg and I got home to cook ourselves a vegetarian style lunch with a quiche as its centrepiece and then followed this up with a quick doze. In the late afternoon, there was some vital photocopying that needed to be done and I was reassured that everything concerned with the scanner worked like a treat, I employ a particular piece of software called ‘Vuescan‘ which had its origin in a small family firm in the United States. The founders were appalled at how many scanners were ‘junked’ because the original software had been lost or mislaid – easy to do if you have changed machines and cannot find the software to re-install it. So they set about writing an ‘all purpose’ scanner which will will run practically any basic scanner ever made and I have found it marvellous and easy to use. Not only is it free but regular free updates are also made available to registered users.
The political news this afternoon is centred around continuing feedback from the Boris Johnson personal (and unjustified) attack on Keir Starmer made last Wednesday. Two of his key aides (his ‘policy chief’ who has been with him for many a long year and his communications director) have both resigned. Apparently, his policy chief pleaded with Johnson to make a genuine apology – but all Johnson could manage was a semi-retraction whereupon the two officials felt they had no option but to resign. As I write, No. 10 has revealed that both Dan Rosenfield, the prime minister’s chief of staff, and Martin Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, are leaving their roles. Is this a case of rats leaving a sinking ship?
Well, the weeks roll by and here we are at the end of the week i.e. Friday again. We have the usual chat with our domestic help and exchange news with each other. I needed to get an urgent form in the post so I popped down to Bromsgrove by car and then got my form into the Post Office which I wanted to send as recorded delivery. Then I collected our newpaper from the newsagent, telling him one of my favourite jokes in the process and then drove home. Then, with a slightly foreshortened journey Meg and I walked down to the park and claimed our usual bench. We had just about finished our coffee when our University of Birmingham friend accomapnies by our Seasoned World Traveller so this made the Bromsgrove Literary and Philosphical Society quorate and we contunued to debate some of our favourtite scenes from films. I have to point out that Seasoned World Trdavellor is an inveterate film watcher and there does not seem to be a significant film in the past 3-4 decades which he has not seen so the rest of us have to work hard to compete with his encyclopaedic knowledge.
Today has been a day with some culinary successes in it. For a start, prepared our normal-for-a-Friday fish dish where we raided our deep freeze stores of pollock. To make this more tasty, we marinaded it with a Sweet Chilli and Garlic sauce (courtesy of Waitrose) and then cooked it on a bed of capers. The end result was a tasty fish where you would be hard put not to identify the meal as cod and we served this with a good helping of Calabrese (broccoli) – so this as success No. 1. This evening, I decided to make some soup in our soupmaker with some vegetables I had got in the freezer for a week and were well chilled. The main ingredients were basically parsnip and carrot in approximately equal proportions, complemented by a few sticks of celery and one large onion almost caramelised. Then to make the soup especially nice, I added about a third of a tin of coconut milk and about 3 soup spoonfuls of a Balti cooking sauce. The result was a beautiful creamed soup with just a hint of spice to it but I always serve it with a good dollop of Greek yogurt (which helps to cool it down from boiling) and some croutons. This was so delicious that I was glad I had only used up one half of it and still the rest ready for a meal with in the next day or so.
Most members of the population need to get braced for a severe blow to their household budgets from April onwards. Those in work have got rises in NI contributions as well as a non-indexation of income tax brackets which is always the government’s sneaky way of raising income tax without saying so. Those in receipt of Universal Credit will have to accept jobs outside the spheres of employment for which they are qualified. But the real killer is going to be energy prices which will now rise by about 50% for everybody. In order to alleviate the ‘sharp spike’ the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that suppliers will be offered taxpayer-backed loans to knock around £200 off the more than £600 expected jump. But this is only a ‘loan’ so each of us will have to pay the £200 back in the next five years so we are, in effect, being bribed with our own money. And inflation may well have risen to 7% by then as well. And I forgot to mention that there are council tax rises as well. So the overall effect of all of these increases is that Britons will experience the biggest drop in living standards since the present set of records began – probably fifty years ago.
In the political arena, Boris Johnson has lost one more adviser from his policy unit and another MP has sent in a letter expressing his lack of confidence with the Prime Minister. Also the backlash from the disastrous slur sent in the direction of Keir Starmer at Prime Ministers Questions last Wednesday continuing to reverberate with Sajid Javid now distancing himself from Boris Johnson’s remarks. A few cabinet ministers have tried to defend the Boris Johnson lie (Nadine Dorries springs to mind, who made herself look absolutely ridiculous) but this is going to be like a running sore for the Johnson entourage. An interesting statistic with which to round off the week – three cabinet ministers are now isolating because they have COVID (Grant Shapps, Nadhim Zahawi and Liz Truss)
Today was a fairly conventional Saturday morning but with the prospect of the ‘Six Nations’ rugby matches on the TV this afternoon and again this evening as we watch the England-Scotland match on ‘catchup’. I had a certain amount of shopping to do this morning so I took the car down into town to do my little bits of food shopping at Waitrose before collecting the newspaper and heading for home. It was a fairly fine morning with a bit of chill in the air but not the icy blast that greeted us yesterday in the park. So we set off, complete with our flask of coffee and comestibles (biscuits for Meg, oranges for me) before we bumped into two of our more elderly Irish friends who has just returned from holiday in Tenerife. By all accounts, they had had a lovely sunny time and were now back to the cold of an English winter. As we were finishing our coffee, then our companion Seasoned World Traveller came to join us and we had another of our interesting chats, on issues medical, political and cultural. We none of us wanted to stay chatting for too long because the cold does tend to strike at your bones a little which is not the case when you are walking along, even at a gentle pace. Then we walked home knowing that we would have to crack on and prepare a lunch fairly rapidly so that we could sit down and watch the first of our scheduled 6-Nations rugby (Wales v. Ireland) We then go to church leaving the house at 5.30 so will watch the Scotland-England match on catch-up when we return.
Through the ‘ether’, as it were, I have been sort of following what Nadine Dorries has been saying recently – she is the Minister of the Departmentment of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and as such is the minister who may have the ultimate decision on the future of the BBC as well as being responsible for publishing and piloting the ‘Online Safety’ bill through Parliament. This latter is important as it is the first attempt of the UK Parliament to attempt any kind of regulation over social media and the tech giants that have come to dominate our lives in recent years. What makes Nadine Dorries a particularly interesting figure is that she appears to absolutely idolise Boris Johnson – indeed, there are several images that have been captured of her in Parliament looking adoringly at Boris Johnson whenever (and whatever) he declaims from the dispatch box. There are two particular video clips which have seen the light of day, both of which have, I believe, had the label of ‘Car Crash’ attached to them. The first of these is Dorries appearing before the DCMS committee in which she was challenged to explain why she has used the obscenity ‘F***wit’ about another TV presenter. At first she denied this, then claimed that she had been victimised and was actually the object of online abuse herself before she finally admitted it and then changed the subject. The impression she did (not) make on the members of the DCMS committee can only be imagined. The second clip is of Dorries trying to defend Boris Johnson making a slanderous allegation against Keir Starmer – known to everybody (and even Boris Johnson himself) as being untrue. Eventually she is led to look the interviewer in the face and to declaim ‘Boris Johnson always tells the truth’ This is so manifestly untrue and known to everybody in political circles that the interviewer was left open-mouthed at her adoring loyalty. The latest manifestation of all this is her claim that 97% MPs support Boris which given the known schisms within the present Tory party seems a ridiculous claim to make. A final suggestion that is made is that most of the opposition to Johnson comes from ‘Remain’ voters who are trying to get back at the PM to get their revenge for Brexit having been implemented. However this is easily refuted: out of the 15 Tory MPs who have so far publicly called on Boris Johnson to go, just seven of those backed remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum.
Having got back from church, I was looking forward to looking at the England v. Scotland Six nations match on iPlayer. Having got to the point where this can be viewed, all I get was a message that ‘England v Scotland is not available on iPlayer‘. Tomorrow night, it looks as though I can view one half of an hour of a summarised highlights programme. When I turn to the web, I cannot find an explanation why iPlayer does not make this match available. I realise that this is a rights issue but it would be nice if the potential viewer can be informed of the fact. But given that Scotland beat England in a tight match, perhaps I am not too interested in watching the match after all.
Today being a Sunday, I fell into my normal routine of setting the alarm a little early and then walking down before breakfast to pick up my copy of the ‘Sunday Times‘ As it was likely to be quite a chilly morning, I regaled myself with one of those little packets of ‘instant’ porridge oats that you can do in the microwave for two minutes- I had previously bought myself a little packet of these instant oats for just such as occasions as these. Then I treated myself to some Bach and Mozart via my headphones and ancient iPhone retained for its music playing facilities. I thought the Sunday Morning politics show was OK without having especially penetrating interviews but Sophie Raworth seems to be doing a reasonable job in following Andrew Marr without exactly setting the world on fire. After we had breakfasted and I had made some preliminary preparations for lunch, Meg and I went down to the park by car (principally to save a bit of time) and there we met our University of Birmingham friend as well as Seasoned World Traveller. Knowing that the latter was quite a film buff, I asked him if he remembered a film made in the early 1950’s I would think, that portrayed Rommel in quite a sympathetic light – he had, as it happened. What is so interesting about the film is when it was made ie. 1951. I suppose in the late 1940’s there were a host of war films always exploring the daring-do of the heroic British and these had to run their course before the film makers turned their attention to Rommel. According to Wikipedia: The movie played a significant role in the creation of the Rommel myth: that Rommel was an apolitical, brilliant commander, opposed Nazi policies and was a victim of the Third Reich because of his participation in the conspiracy to remove Adolf Hitler from power in 1944. So perhaps it played into the Anglo-American narrative of WWII after all.
This afternoon, I settled down to watch the France v. Italy ‘6 Nations’ rugby match, played in the pouring rain in Paris. Of course, one always suspected that the French would win such a contest but by half way through the first half, the Italians were actually in the lead. Naturally the French overhauled them, getting gradually stronger and stronger but with the typical British respect for the underdog, one always hopes that the Italians might actually win a match one of these days.
There is an interesting political story emerging at the moment which is that Carrie Johnson, the ‘power behind the throne’ has been instrumental in leading Boris Johnson to decisions that often turn out to be flawed ones. One of the most repeated stories is that she was the motivating force behind the decisions such as the refurbishment, at great expense, of the Downing Street flat. The flat refurb, involving gold wallpaper and a £112,000 price tag, has seen critics brand her ‘Carrie Antoinette’, a label she is known to dislike. There are two narratives currently circulating and I shall not attempt to arbitrate between them. The first one is that attacks on Carrie Johnson are ultimately sexist and misogynistic and are being used by critics of Boris Johnson in order to bring him down. The alternative narrative derive from Downing Street insiders, quoted in an explosive new biography written by Lord Ashcroft, which have suggested that Ms Johnson wields huge power within Whitehall and warned that ‘if she doesn’t like you, there can be big consequences’. Among her alleged scalps include Ellie Lyons, a one-time advisor to Boris Johnson during his leadership campaign, who was reportedly dubbed ‘the sexy spad’ by a handful of people in Westminster. It has been said that Carrie was instrumental in getting rid of her because she was an attactive red-head and intelligent and therefore could be seen as a rival for the PM’s affections.
Today is quite an interesting day historically because on this day 70 years ago, the present Queen’s father, George VI died and Elizabeth ascended to the throne. This 70 year span is unparalled in British history. She has intimated that she would like Prince Charles’ second wife, Camilla, to eventually become the ‘Queen Consort’ rather than the ‘Princess Consort’. At the age of 95, it appears that discreet preparations are already being made for the accession of Charles as I imagine that the Queen who has had some bouts of ill-health recently is not immortal and as my family doctor said to me when discussing the health of a 90 -year old uncle of Meg’s that in his experience a person of that age could be blown away by a puff of wind. I suspect that the Queen is going to relish the prospects of several Jubilee events, timed for when the weather will be better in the early summer, but once these are over and done with, she is ready psychologically if nothing else to gradually ‘let go’.
Today being the start of a new week is always the time for a sort of ‘mini-resolution’. Mine is to keep a careful watch upon my weight and I need to nudge my BMI from a shade over 27.0 to something in the range 25.0-27.0 The BMI is not a particularly exact diagnostic measure but it is in very wide use and is the sort of statistic that is computed and used in medical records when you attend a ‘Well Person’ clinic and for this reason alone may be worth keeping an eye upon. Having said that, I have lost ¾lb since I last weighed myself which is always reassuring so with a good start, I am resolved to keep the carbs off and the protein sufficient. The official Department of Health advice is to keep red meat at the level of 70g-90g a day. For those of an older generation, 70 grams is about 2.5oz which is a pretty small quantity when you think about it.
It was an overcast but not particularly cold day today so Meg and I decided to make a full round trip which means collecting the newspaper, calling in at Waitrose for one or two things and finally getting to the park for our coffee. We did not anticipate meeting many of our usual park acquaintances as it was a Monday and the park is usually bereft of its normal clientele at the start of the week. The dogs continue to bound towards us, of course, expecting ‘crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table’ and their owners are typically effusive in their apologies for the presumed poor behaviour of their family pets. Then we made our way home and cooked lunch at the normal time for us.
After lunch, I engaged in a certain amount of tidying up of paperwork and consequent filing – one little interesting dilemma is where and how to file an invitation to renew our holiday insurance. I am not sure whether I paid for any last year but I may have done two years ago and it would be an act of faith to do so now. Once our way becomes clear as regards holiday destinations, we will consider whether to renew a bit nearer the time. Again, as part of my ‘new week’ resolution I thought I would resurrect my ‘stepper’ routines in order to increase my exercise quotient somewhat – a stepper being a type of low plastic bench upon which one steps up/down to engage in the exercise. In the past, I have used a particularly good (appropriate) stepper routine created by a youngish American instructor called Kelly-Anne. Actually, I think she is very good because she has tried to make her routines demanding but not too demanding and suggests that you adapt the routines if you want to reduce impact on joints e.g. by stepping up/down instead of jumping up and down. I knew that I had a shortcut link to this particular video on YouTube but as I have not used it for months, I couldn’t quite remember what it is. I did manage to find my link though – it contained one capitalised letter which is why I found it difficult to remember in the first place but after about 15 minutes of searching I managed to find it. I always change to wear my ‘track suit bottoms’ which I also use for Pilates as I find there is a powerful psychological effect at work here. I suppose it is the adult equivalent of changing into ones gym kit when you are at at school as once you do this, you are in the right mindset to engage in exercise. It is only 15 minutes in length but sufficient for you to feel a little out of breath and in need of a long drink and a sit-down afterwards. No doubt, if I keep up this regular routine, I will slowly increase my fitness level and it will become a tad easier day by day.
As a society, we are now starting to see how the NHS can respond to all of the conditions in the population that have not been treated due to the pandemic. The Labour Party has conducted research that indicates that in the case of cancer treatment, the wait between seeing your GP and seeing a cancer specialist is now about 13 times higher than before the pandemic. Because of the often fast-developing nature of cancer, these delays to treatment ultimately mean that many people die who would not if the NHS was able to treat them as quickly as they were 10 years ago. This is quite a scary statistic once you start to digest the implications of it. Today was meant to be the day when the NHS was due to announce its post-pandemic recovery plans but at the last moment, it looks as though the Treasury are denying the appropriate funds and hence the principal announcement was pulled. There are some people arguing that the politics of skulduggery is at work here, the Treasury (under the control of Rishi Sunak ) being unwilling to hand Boris Johnson the propaganda coup that would result in the NHS being handed the necessary extra billions of £s that are undoubtedly needed.
Today felt a little like ‘the calm before the storm’ because the temperature was going to be at least 10°C potentially rising to 14° during the day. We had got up fairly early this morning which is just as well on the day I have my Pilates class and then set off for our morning walk. Once we got underway, it got incredibly windy but, thank goodness, it was not particularly cold. Meg was finding this particular stretch of walking a little beyond her this morning so I left her on a convenient bench, located on the main road half way between the park and our local Waitrose store and she remained resting there until I had both collected the newspaper and also popped into Waitrose which I tend to use just like a ‘corner shop’ these days when I run out of things. Before we walked down into town, and knowing that tomorrow we are going to make a day out for ourselves in the pretty little town of Malvern, I decided to do a little reconnnaissance before I trip. I ‘googled’ the main theatre in Malvern knowing that it would be surrounded by good parking spaces and coffee shops and therefore would be a good base from which to start. I discovered that the theatre was going to host at least three operas in the next month or so – Puccini’s ‘Madam Butterfly‘, Verdi’s ‘Aida‘ and Bizet’s ‘Carmen‘. We have to make up our mind which of these we would really like to see and perhaps tomorrow we can make a booking if any tickets are available for any of them. I would not be incredibly surprised if having coming to it this late, all of the performances were sold out – and each one is only available for one night. I am sure that in the environs of the theatre, there will be several restaurants and I am trusting that some of them will be open tomorrow lunchtime so we shall not go hungry. I then walked down to Pilates and back again for lunch. This afternoon is going to quite busy because as well as writing this blog I want to repeat my soup making success of two days ago and the vegetables will take some preparation, as they need to be diced. Then we shall have our weekly FaceTime chat with our oldest Waitrose coffee bar friends and then after the abligatory 7.0pm Channel 4 news we have three hours of good comedy programmes this evening to send us to bed happy and relaxed.
The political news today is dominated by the seqelae to the mob that surrounded Keir Starmer yesterday shouting ‘Savile’ at him and the police were forced to intervene and rescue him by surrounding him with a posse of burley policemen and then bundling him into a police car for his own safety. I quote from some of the verbatim news reports below.
There was little respite for Boris Johnson overnight as pressure mounted on him to apologise for comments about Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile. At least six Conservatives, including a former cabinet minister, joined MPs from across the political spectrum in linking the harassment to the baseless claim the PM made while under pressure over the partygate scandal. He falsely claimed Sir Keir ‘used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile’ while director of public prosecutions (DPP). As he faced growing condemnation, Mr Johnson tweeted the ‘behaviour directed’ at the Labour leader was ‘absolutely disgraceful’ but did not address the nature of the abuse. Julian Smith, who previously served as Mr Johnson’s Northern Ireland secretary, tweeted: ‘What happened to Keir Starmer tonight outside parliament is appalling. It is really important for our democracy and for his security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.’
The significance of this happening is causing ripples across the whole of the political landscape. The Speaker of the House of Commons (who has a general responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of all MPs) made a statement in the House today again suggesting that politicians should weigh their words with care as what they have to say and the manner in which it is said has consequences. Obviously, these remarks are directed almost exclusively towards Boris Johnson. I think that all MPs are conscious of the fact that when emotions are heightened in this way, there can be dire consequences as the Labour MP, Jo Cox, was murdered in full daylight by a right wing fanatic during the Referendun campaign. Many people are drawing attention to the fact that these are the tactics that Trump used with tacit approval for the fascist fringe to take matters into their own hands (as when the Capital building in Washington was invaded) and there is a horror that this poison could infect the British political scene as well.
Wednesdays are quite good days for us to have a day out as it is sandwiched in between my Pilates day on a Tuesday and our usual shopping day on a Thursday. Today we had promised ourselves a day trip Malvern which we had visited only once in the last fifteen years and was well worth another visit. So having picked up our newspaper this morning, we headed straight off for Malvern and we got to the vicinity of the theatres reasonably easily. However, a cold drizzle had settled upon the town so it was not exactly the weather for casual wanderings about. Nonetheless, we felt that a coffee shop was destined to be our first stop and avoiding Costa and the other national chains we managed to chance upon an empty but tastefully fitted out little coffee bar-cum-bistro where we enjoyed a very nice cappuchino and toasted teacakes. The proprietor and his assistant were very chatty and told us that Malvern had the highest proportion of independent business (and therefore the lowest proportion of chain shops) of any comparable town and this we could believe. We suddenly realised that we were maskless so we returned to the car and reparked it so that we start another two-hour slot. Then we made our way up one of the major streets and encountered an Oxfam shop which was magnificently stocked with CD’s, books and knick-knacks. We availed ourselves of some spectacular bargains. The most dramatic of these were two boxed sets of ‘Spectacular Classics’ tracks, each box containing 10 CD’s which were on offer for £0.99. Naturally we bought both of these together with a double CD set of ‘Best of Opera’ also £0.99. Then we splashed out on three more CDs – a Bach, a Mozart and a Bryn Terfel for which we paid the lavish price of £1.49 per CD. I reckon that I have purchased about 175 tracks of music at an average of 7½p a track. Some of these CDs can be left in the car to play on long journeys and the rest we can gradually sample over the next few weeks at home. Then we browsed in the book section in which we could have browsed for hours. The book selection was in effect an adjoining shop and was divided into sections as if it were a library but we confined ourselves to buying ‘The Pedant’s Revolt‘ which we can reserve to ourselves or use as a future birthday present. Then it was lunchtime and we managed to locate the type of cafe which serves light lunches. Meg and I both indulged in the same lunch which was a home-made quiche with a baked potato and salad together with a huge teapot of Earl Grey tea. On our way out of the cafe we noticed in a little niche a couple of photos of Edward Elgar. When we read the attribution on the photos, we discovered that this little upstairs cafe happened to be one of Elgar’s favourites so this seemed to a suitable subject for a quick photo on the mobile phone. As we wandered slowly down a very steep street towards the car, we encountered the charity shop associated with a local hospice, again which we could not resist. We bought a box of quality coasters and a few kitchen knick-knacks. I also found a set of four elongated glass dishes which I believe are actually corn-on-the cob dishes but whose size and shape makes them ideal for storing pens on a desk top. One would have been sufficient but what was on offer was a complete set of four. Then we returned home and watched a little of the Winter Olympics.
If we had been at home in the middle of the day, we would have watched Prime Minister Questions at midday. One of the revelations today was a photo from the so-called ‘Zoom’ Chrustmas quiz held in Downing Street. The photo shows Boris Johnson, one of the Downing Street staff wearing tinsel, a bottle of champage and some party food. The Met had apparently considered the case of this ‘Zoom’ quiz and had concluded that the available evidence did not merit further investigation – but in the light of this photo they said that they would reconsider their previous decision. It certainly looks damning enough as the elements of a ‘party’ seem to be in place but not a quiz. Boris Johnson’s retort to all of this was that Keir Starmer was ‘in error’ whilst Dominic Cummings was letting it be known that were many more and even more damning photos than this one available. Whether he has these in his possession or merely knows that they exist in an interesting question. In the last 24 hours, a major Tory party donor who has donated more than £3m to the party and £½million since Boris Johnson became party leader has indicated that he feels that the PM has ‘past the point of no return’ but how many more of the current batch of Tory MPs agree with him?
Thursday is my shopping day so like last week with Morrisons, I was resolved to renew my acquaintance with the Aldi store I used to frequent years ago. On a purely intellectual level, I thought I rather liked the Aldi approach which was not to offer five varieties of everything but to concentrate on having one of what-have-you and organising a deal with the manufacturer to devote their exclusive output to one outlet i.e. Aldi. This is one of the ways that Aldi managed to keep their prices low and I must say that at the end of my morning’s shopping I had spent just over a half of what I spent in Morrison’s last week. Needless to say, the ‘baskets’ of goods were not completely comparable but sufficient in terms of quantity to make a comparison interesting. So this morning I had to accomodate to the twists and turns of what was effectively a brand new supermarket and I had to recognise that some esoteric items had better wait until I could make a quick call into Waitrose perhaps tomorrow. Nonetheless, the overall shopping experience was such that I felt it was a worthwhile venture so for the next few weeks I will persist in a ‘bigger’ shop up at Morrisons once a fortnight for more choice and more specialised items but then alternate these with a ‘smaller’ shop at Aldi. In a few weeks time, I should be in a position to determine whether all of this turns out to be a sensible shopping pattern or not. When I got home, I took some time to unpack the shopping and to chat with our domestic help who had swapped her normal day this week as a one off. Tomorrow is going to be a ‘chewy’ day because we have an electrician call round round to assess a little job for us and he has indicated that he will be along some time ‘in mid morning’ which can mean anything. So Meg and I will stay in until he calls and then may well go down to town in the car if we are pressed for time. As it turned out to be a beautiful day, Meg and I walked down to collect our newspaper and then go off to the park. This walk, whilst we are attempting to do it on each ‘normal’ day is just getting a little to the limit of Meg’s capacities so we may have to judge it quite carefully. But we have a ray of hope opening up to us in about ten days time because by then our local Waitrose should be reopening their cafe and this alleviates the pressure on us a little because Meg can wait in the cafe whilst I go off and collect the newspaper from around the corner.
The political news this afternoon is the attack that John Major has made upon the Boris Johnson style of government and its consequences – which he feels is damaging Britain not only nationally but internationally. I think there are two interesting things that can be said about the John Major attack. One of these is the commentary that I have heard on Sky News (in the background) that whilst this kind of attack might have seem exceptionally wounding in the Conservative party as in John Major’s time, the Conservative party as a whole has been remoulded in the Johnson image. For a start, all of the heavyweight ‘remainers’ and non-Johnson aficionados have been thrown out of the Conservative party which is now a Brexit party (almost a UKIP party) in all but name. So many of the current crop of Tory MPs in the current House of Commons who owe their election to Johnson may well shrug off whatever John Major has to say, arguing that it just the view of an ex and embittered Prime Minister.
My second observation is as follows. I have noticed a kind of thread between external events in recent days. If you have overt aggression (Russia and the Ukraine), internally (mobs attacked the Leader of the Opposition) or more personally (e.g. a robbery) then it is easy for this PM and government to utter imprecations about the force of law and so on. But if the threat is more insidious and less visible (Russian oligarchs laundering money through London, the power of the social media to allow space to far-right political ideologies and threats, the PM to argue that crime is actually decreasing by choosing to ignore fraud and online frauds which, when included in the official statistics show that crime is actually increasing) So the argument here is the government only acts against the overt and the visible and the televisual whilst ignoring, minimising or even condoning more insidious forms of transgression. I may be guilty of over connecting events in this way (to which I plead guilty) but at least there are evident parallels in the governmental reaction to different types of law breaking and infraction.
Another working week has rolled by and here we are, still with a spell of fine weather. It may be a case of enjoying it whilst we can because a heavy band of rain is due to sweep across the country. Meg and I needed to wait in this morning because an electrician was due to come and assess a light unit over our shower which will probably need replacing. The electrician and I had a quick decision whether to try and effect a repair of the existing unit or replace it with a more modern LED so it was quite an easy decision for us to go with this latter option. All being well, he will be around early on Monday morning so hopefully we will things fixed in a few days. We have been surviving with an admittedly very powerful LED light which we have affixed to the wall of the shower and which has served us very well on a temporary basis. Once the electrician’s visit had been completed, we went by car to pay a visit to the dry cleaners, picked up our newspaper, and then whizzed around Waitrose. Whilst we were in the store, the staff informed us that the re-opening of the cafe had been delayed for a further five weeks so the next scheduled date of the cafe to reopen is 30th March which is evidently some weeks away. Whilst we were in the park, we were spotted by our University of Birmingham friend accompanied by Seasoned World Traveller who had been having a coffee together but spotted us on our bench and came to join us. Naturally, we discussed the Cressida Dick dismissal yesterday evening and its possible ramifications. I have two theories about what may pan out from all of this. The first scenario is that Boris Johnson and Priti Patel between them may seek to further delay the Met investigation into ‘partygate’ and between them choose a candidate to lead the Met who may not absolve them over ‘partygate’, at least ensure that they are not given a hard time. In order to understand the mindset of government ministers at this juncture, I have read an opinion in ‘The Times’ that the effective business of government has almost come to a halt whilst all ministers do whatever they can to preserve Boris Johnson (and therefore themselves) in power. If a new Prime Minister were to come into office, then there would be a cabinet reshufffle and many of the existing office holders would lose their jobs and the perks that go with it so preserving the present occupant of No.10 is the over-riding preoccupation of the day. However, a second scenario is possible although not (unfortunately) very likely. This is that Cressida Dick may say to herself that she now has nothing to lose, having been the human shield for Boris Johnson for a long time now. One can only adduce in evidence the fact that the Met have not seen fit to investigate ‘partygate’ until the transgressions and the evidence became glaringly apparent whereas other corruptions (financing of the Tory party, dirty Russian money making London the ‘money laundering’ capital of the world) were ignored. So in this second scenario, Cressida Dick may feel she has nothing to lose and will try to ensure that the Met concludes its investigations as quickly as possible and that any judicial punishments (probably fines) are administered as quickly as possible and without fear or favour. As events unfold, no doubt we will discern which of these two scenarios best fits the drama unfolding before us. Before leaving this topic, I have just read the almost incredible view of the legal counsel for the Met that ‘partygate’ had not been investigated since ‘no-one admitted to attending a party’ and that in the absence of social media, they had no proof of any transgressions. So using these criteria, I can continue to commit my multiple and various internet frauds secure in the knowledge that if none of my mates ‘snitch’ on me and I avoid social media , then I should be free from investigation. Just to conclude this thought, just 3% of incidents reported to Action Fraud result in a charge or summons and as little as 1% of police resources are dedicated to this form of crime.
We were just in the process of cooking lunch when our next door neighbour popped around to invite us around for ‘tea and sandwiches’ on Monday afternoon next. My next door neighbour and I have both invested in the same brand of soupmaker and are both fairly early on in our learning curve for all of this – so we are going to swap our soupmaking stories and recipes when we meet on Monday. I must say that is on the one of the best investments in kitchen equipment that I have ever made and no doubt I can get more ambitious once I have the basics mastered.
Everything today was to be dominated by the rugby matches that were to be played this afternoon. Accordingly, we breakfasted in plenty of time and then I went down by car to pick up our copy of The Times. Once this was safely delievered home, Meg and I set off for the park as we had a sort of loose arrangement that we were to meet in the park about 10.30 – which is a little earlier than our normal pattern. We made a rendezvous-vous with our friends and we teased each other a little over our known proclivities – but this is fairly normal for us these days. There was quite an icy blast and the wind chill factor made the air temperature seem colder than it really was, so after we had all drunk our respective coffees we decided to go on our way. We needed to get lunch well and truly out of the way and all of the washing up done before the rugby (Wales v. Scotland) started at 2.15. This, as it transpired, was a pretty tight match with the lead changing constantly between the two teams and for most of the time one team was leading the other only by a margin of about three points. At half time and three quarters of the way through the match, the scores were absolutely level but I surmised that as the Welsh were playing in their own Millenium Stadium for the first time in two years and with a passionate capacity crowd urging them onwards, the Welsh might have the slight edge and so it proved, winning by three points. The other really big match today is been Ireland v. France and whoever wins this particular contest will probably take the championship. I have set the video recorder to record and if I have set it up correctly (which I may not have done) then we can watch this match when we return from our trip to church this evening. As it turned out, i managed to view the recording and it was a really pulsating match from start to finish, as we suspected it might be. The Irish could never quite catch the French but made a valiant effort to do so.
There is an absolutely horrific story that has hit the headlines in Sky News this afternoon. As evidence of the so-called ‘canteen culture’ (instituonalised racism and misogeny) which has characterised the Met in recent years, an image has surfaced of a black recruit whose face was painted white with shoe whitener before telling him ‘Now you fit in‘ The black recruit admitted that he was ‘complicit’ in the abuse (did he have any option to resist I ask myself) and therefore did not report the abuse to his superior. Many of his fellow recruits then went on to have lengthy careers in the Met. In many ways, I find this image to be particularly shocking.
As always on Saturday, I find it quite interesting to see what kind of stance on the week’s political events is taken by the Sunday newspapers. It is possible to have an indication of this by lookimg at the BBC/Sky News report on the next day’s first editions as they come in at about 11.00-11.30 each evening. We know already that Boris Johnson and more than fifty Downing Street staff politicians and staff in total have been issued with questuionnaires by the police and these have the status of the written equivalent of police interviews under caution. At least three ex-Tory leaders and two ex-Prime Ministers have intimated that if Boris Johnson were to be issued with a fine, this would grounds for his dismissal or resignation. No 10, on the other hand, is trying to tough it out. The questionnaires have to be completed and given to the police by next Friday and if the Met then have a couple of weeks to decide whether or not fines are to be issued, then this would constitute about three weeks, I reckon, before some kind of crunch point comes. In the meantime, Boris Johnson and No. 10 are broadcasting the opinion that the PM was elected with a huge majority and corresponding democratic mandate – and therefore it would be the negation of democracy to remove a PM, even one who has acted illegally.
The situation at the Ukraine-Russian border continues to dominate the news headlines and it is an interesting question whether this is just a game of Russia and the West sabre rattling and playing ‘chicken’ with each other. One interesting perspective which was viewed on Newsnight the other night was that even if Russia did overwhelm the Ukraine, then the Ukrainians would fight to the last man against an army of conscripts whose heart might not be in the conflict. In other words, Russia might occupy the Ukraine but could it hold it? That is to say, the Ukraine could prove to be another Afghanistan Mark II from the Russian perspective.
Sunday dawned as quite a blustery day and when the rain showers started, it seemed to carry on for most of the day. On my walk to collect the Sunday Times, I needed to avoid my hat blowing off which it did on one occasion. I have learnt over the years to incline my head slightly into the wind when I feel it gusting to avoid my hat blowing off altogether. One the few occasions that this happened, the cars in front of which my hat has happened to blow have been sympahetic and they all have always slowed or stopped to allow me to retrieve my hat completely unflattened. On my way back home, I observed in one of the houses along the Kidderminster Road that the two flowering cherries in the house’s front garden had started flowering. I thought I had first noticed this yesterday but I needed to give the trees a good long hard stare to make sure that I was not mistaken. This sight of the flowering cherries reminds me of the holidays that Meg and I used to take in Salobreña in southern Spain (east of Malaga) in January of each year. We used to take these holidays to draw the ‘teeth’ of the winter and when I as at work it coincided with the inter-semester break as well. We always used to take a trip in the Alpujarras which is a mountainous area with some really pretty little villages. On this trip we often used to see almond trees in bloom even though the weather conditions were icy and it was not unusual for snow to be swirling around. Almond trees do flower in the late winter or early spring which is usually mid-February to mid-March and they seem to thrive best when the buds have been exposed to a winter cold spell. Almond trees have the reputation of being amongt the first to flower but here in Bromsgrove it is equally cheering to observe the flowering cherry. Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day and I am not waiting with a bated breath for the postman to drop a special envelope through our door. However, my good friend Clive who lived down the road and who I often used to see exercising his two little Jack Russell dogs most days. One occasion he mentioned the name of one of his very first girlfriends and the fact that she used to live in Manchester. Each year, for about three years, I used to ensure that Clive got a Valentine card with a message inside indicating ‘I remember well the passionate days that we used to spend together when we were both eighteen‘ I am sure that Clive must have guessed who had sent the card but he never ‘let on’ as it were and used to proudly show the card around the menbers of his extensive family. Alas, Clive died some two years ago but at least he was spared some of the most irksome characteristrics of the first lockdown period.
When we got home, it was time to prepare the Sunday lunch and I discovered a bit of venison that I had evidently stored in the freezer.Instead of preparing a conventional meat+two veg. type of meal, I decided to experiment a little. So I cubed the venison into cubes about ¾” square and then seared them off. Then I prepared more than a pint of onion gravy-cum-stock and into the venison and stock mixture I added some carrots, potatoes, onions and peppers all cut into the same chunk size of the venison and then I cooked it in the oven for about an hour and a quarter. I added a little sprinking of powdered potato by way of a thickening agent half way through the cooking and served it with some freshly steamed broccoli. Although it was a bit of an experiment, it was so enjoyable that I am resolved to try the same basic recipe again perhaps with some stewing steak or similar. I may need to pay a visit to the butchery section of a supermarket to get just what I want.
Meg and I settled down to watch the Italy-England rugby match this afternoon. Of course the result was never really in doubt and to be truthful the second half was not particularly memorable. However, the English did confine the Italians to a zero score. We shall now have a two week break (for injuries to heal) before we have another weekend of 6 Nations rugby.
In the political sphere, Boris Johnson continues to receive messages of undying support from some of his loyal supporters whilst other Tory voices are proclaining that he is ‘finished’ I am sure he will cling on to the bitter end until most Tory MPs conclude that he is no longer an electoral asset to them and then they will dump him unceremoniously. But we may have to wait until the May elections for that to occur.
Today was always going to be quite a busy day and so it proved. We knew that we had our electrician calling aroundat 8.30am in order to fix the light that we have inset into the sloping wall over our shower. We had previously decided that we were going to ditch the previous unit which is at least 17-18 years old so we decided to replace it with a modern LED type unit. When the electrician came along I did my little bit by focusing a temporary battery-operated lamp that I had been using to illuminate the shower upon his work area. Good fortune was with us as the new unit exactly fitted the ‘hole’ in the tiled area occupied by the unit that had died. The new unit is LED driven and we could have a choice of warm light, daylight or a brighter white so we chose a warm light to be consistent with the rest of the bathroom. The new unit has a guaranteed life of either 50,000 hours or 15 years of life so should never need replacing whilst we are around – should the unit fail, we will be covered by the warranty in any case. So this was a good job around the house that was good to get fixed. Then we decided to make a little trip out to Droitwich, our neighbouring town. First we treated ourselves to a cappuchino and huge toasted teacake in our favourite cafe in Droitwich. After that we had a quick whizz around some of the local shops and finished off in Waitrose where I bought some things that I know I can only get in Waitrose. Then it was a case of getting home and finishing off the delicious veal casserole I have made the previous day. Our principal appointment of the day was to pop around and have afternoon tea with our next door neighbours with whom we get on tremendously well. We had a variety of finger sandwiches and some delightful cakes before we settled down to go down memory lane. My next door neighbour has a hobby of collecting and caring for classic juke boxes and he was proud to show us his latest acquisition – which I must admit has the wonderful warm sound as opposed to its digital counterpart. We then got onto the subject of popular music from the mid-1950s until about the mid 1980’s. I told our neighbours about my association with a band who played in Tiffany’s in Manchester who went by the wonderfully quaint name of ‘Ross Mitchell and Les Nocturnes‘ The two girl singers (Eve Graham and Lyn Paul) when on to have an illustrious career as the girl singers in the band ‘The New Seekers‘. This band came second in the Eurovision song contest and is most famous for the Coca Cola advert ‘I want to teach the world to sing’. The two female singers went on to have independent careers and are still alive and sometimes performing. They have never quite got over the fact that they never quite got the recognition or the money that they should have earned from these very popular tracks.
The situation regarding COVID remains unclear in my mind. There seems to be a notion abroad that as the Micron variant of COVID was milder in its effects than the Omicron and Delta variants, then any future variants might be milder still yet i.e. nothing that much to get too worried about. But virologists are arguing that there is no treason why other variants might not prove to be deadlier and it could be that any variants might prove to be even more infective (more transmissible) and have more adverse long-term consequences than even the variants we know about at the moment. I think it is now acknowledged that the move to rid of the country of all restrictions are more led by politics rather than by science. Boris Johnson may only have a few more weeks left to play with and this may well explain why restrictions are being lifted so early.
In the wake of the Cressida Dick resignation as the first female commissioer of the Met, much attention has been focused on the role played by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Whilst in constitutional terms not to mention ‘realpolitic’ it is perhaps not surprising that Sadiq Khan has chosen to weild the knife at this point of time. But it is an interesting question why he chose to act now and not to stay his hand for about 2-3 weeks which may be the time when possible fines are to be levied by the Met on Downing street staff, including the PM. With the benefit of some hindsight, Sadiq Khan could well have left Cressida Dichk ‘dangling’ for a little and I am puzzled by the fact that he only gave her a day or so to come out with her proposals how the culture of the Met was to be turned around before adminstering the ‘coup de grace’
Today was a really gloomy day and it never really seemed to get light all day, The country was evidently covered with a dense layer of rain cloud and so we ruled out our daily walk. For some reason, Meg and I slept in a little this morning although we did not have a late night last night. My main computer system is slowing up a lot for a reason which is a mystery to me at the moment – otherwise I would have fixed it. My son had a spare hour this morning so we decided to have a go to see what we could do between us. For a start we took off all of the USBs except the one driving the keyboard. Then we looked at the disk system and it only seemed about 20% full so the problem did not lie in this direction. Then we looked at the memory system but the computer had passed all of its POST (Power On Self Test) system so nothing was self evident here. Then we looked at the Resouce Monitor to see what might be clogging up the system and removed some Western Digital software (driving a backup hard disk) to see if this helped. Then we used an app callled AppCleaner which is good at removing software from the system and took off one or two things that might be slowing things down. Impressionalistically, I think the system is now a little crisper (by which I mean less sluggish) but it still runs as though the CPU is being throttled by something we know not what. As the system is now 7 years old, it may well be that we have to think about replacing it with more up-to-date hardware. The alternative is to hoik the whole sysytem of the Apple shop in Solihull where they might be able identify why the system is running slowly – but the system is still quite old in computing terms so the money spent might be better spent in defraying the cost of a brand new system. Having done what we can to make the system a bit more liveable with, I need to decide whether to ‘bite the bullet’ and go ahead to upgrade or not.
Eventually, Meg and I decided just to pop into town by car to collect our newspaper and then we came back home to enjoy our coffee and elevenses in front of our own home fire. Then it was a case of popping on my tracksuit bottoms and hastening off (in the pouring rain) for my Pilates class. We had the normal exchange of banter as we have all known each other for years but I always take the opportunity to alleviate the ATM of some of its cash whilst I pass it each week. Then it was home for a delicious meal of haddock fishcakes which we have doing in the oven whilst I am out of the house. After lunch, I made a quick visit to Waitrose to buy some wine and a plant before our dinner date tomorrow.
We now have learnt that, as we suspected, at the height of the pandemic plum jobs were being handed out to those very well connected with the Tory party. Former health secretary Matt Hancock broke the law when he appointed Tory peer Dido Harding to a top job during the Covid pandemic, the High Court has ruled. Two judges have ruled that then health secretary did not comply with a public sector equality duty when he appointed Harding as interim chair of the National Institute for Health Protection in August 2020, and former Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe as director of testing at NHS test and trace a month later. I am not sure what sanctions or penalties are to applied in this particular case but it does add to the present government’s tendency to engage in nepotism and sleaze.
The breaking news this afternoon is that Prince Andrew has finally come to a settlement with Virginia Giuffre which means that a really damaging court case is now avoided. The amount of the setllement has not been diclosed but it will probably be of the order of about £10 million. From the point of view of Prince Andrew, this settlement will no doubt draw a line under the affair – but how strange to give a woman several millions of pounds when you claim never to have met her. I am sure the rest of the Royal Family will draw a collective sign of relief. Whilst I do not like the ‘bread and circuses’ aspects of royal junketings for the Queen’s 70th Jubilee, I think that a monarch who has been that length on the throne is entitled to a smidgeon of celebration unsullied ny newspaper headines of one’s favourite son embroiled in a long and damaging court case that can only damage the reputation of the Royals as a whole.
Today is the day when we are going to see our friends in Oxfordshire so we got up reasonably early to get breakfasted and our washing done. After my son had a good old ‘go’ at my desktop computer to attempt to ascertain why it is running so slowly, I think I may have identified the source of the problem as virus checking program seemed to be hogging a lot of CPU resources. My son and I might have a go at uninstalling the virus checker which is not as simple as it sounds as this sort of program protects itself against attempts to disable it – for obvious reasons. We may have to search on the web for a specialised uninstaller specific to the make of virus checker, then see if its absence makes any difference and then possibly installing another program that may prove to be less problematic. I have investigated the price of new systems and I may have to buy a new one in a few months time but not yet. I have started to log the amount of time that it takes to log on and whereas it was 7 minutes yesterday, it was 5 minutes today so it is possible that our attempts to clean up the system are meeting with a modicum of success.
We called in to collect our newspaper before we set off on our journey. I had previously given our newsagent the web address for my collection of ‘Vertically Challenged Anecdotes’ – this is so named because my collection of stories are not ‘tall stories’ but are basically true and therefore the opposite of ‘tall stories’ – hence they ‘vertically challenged’ or short stories.
We set off to see our friends in plenty of time and once we had located a particularly tricky junction south of Oxford we pulled into a favourite parking spot and allowed ourselves a quick cup of coffee and a banana to sustain us. Although the weather had been fine for most of the journey, once we got into Oxfordshire the rain clouds had started to gather. We did notice at fairly close range a couple of red kites- there is a colony of them towards the south of the M40. We then proceeded to our friends, ignoring the Sat Nav’s instruction to us to take a narrow ‘forest’ road – if you ignore this direction, the Sat Nav takes you by a more sensible route a mile or so down the road. Then we arrived at our friends about 20 minutes early but no matter. We had a wonderful meal all made with home-grown type ingredients and of course several hours of wonderful conversation. As well as the perennial politics, our friends were telling us about a car crash in which they had been involved a day or so ago but fortunately with no injuries of any kind. We then gravitated onto the topic of how we were all growing old (dis)gracefully and other family matters. We left for home whilst we still had a couple of hours of daylight left to us and made progress at a reasonable pace until we were half way up the M40. Then the skies darkened and we ran into a torrental rain storm – or rather it ran into us. Fortunately, the rain was of an intensity that the windscreen wipers could cope without difficulty but we passed a crash which must have occurred minutes beforehand in which one car had run into the back of another.
Not being of a particularly royalist disposition, I did feel a smidgeon of sympathy for the Queen. Yesterday it looked as though the Prince Andrew affair had been finally put to bed as an out-of-court settlement had been made. There is no way Prince Andrew would have won this case with the damning evidence of his arm around Virginia Giuffre (nee Roberts) and the standard of proof set as ‘the balance of probabilities’. It is rumoured, by the way, that the Queen might be digging into own pocket to fund the (reported) settlement which may well be of the order of £10-12million. So the Queen might have slept easily for one night before police have launched an investigation into a bid to give honours and citizenship to a Saudi national linked to the Prince of Wales’s charity The Prince’s Foundation. The Met said in a statement: ‘‘The decision follows an assessment of a September 2021 letter. This related to media reporting alleging offers of help were made to secure honours and citizenship for a Saudi national.‘’ So in two days we have two large scandals both involving sons of the Queen and, in Charles case, the Monarch in waiting. Needless to say, all kinds of questions are now being asked about the future of the monarchy – republicans must be rubbing their hands in glee for this conjunction of two scandals in two days!
Today is our grocery shopping day so it was up at 6.15am so that I get to the supermarket at 7.00am in the morning before there are a significant number of shoppers around. I must say that I have felt somewhat tired this morning as a result of my long journey of yesterday followed by not too much sleep during the night. I have taken with me a very long (computerised) shopping list from which the items I do not need this week have already been scored out. But as always in a (newish for me) supermarket you can spend trudging around and looking for eg soy milk. Should this be with the other milks? With cream and cheeses and so and and on on. Eventually I sought the help of one of the shelf stackers who took me to the other end of the store, explaining that all of the ‘vegan’ type stuff was now stored a long way away from more conventional lines. As always there is a logic in all of this but it will take some getting used to over time. Altogether, my shopping trip took well over an hour and a half so next week should be a lighter week and therefore easier to cope with. Once the shopping was unpacked and Meg and I had breakfasted, I went down into town by car and picked up our daily newspaper and then we had a fairly early lunch and decided that we would have a little walk some time after lunch when the weather was a little more accommodating. After lunch and a nap, we journeyed to the park by car and did one complete circuit around the lake so as to give ourselves a little bit of exercise and some fresh air. On our way home, we needed to call in and see our Irish friends because we had some potential holiday arrangements to discuss. Our plans to go together to Rome as part of a larger group from church have been subjct to constant change as the pandemic got in the way of our original plans and then flight information and availability kept changing. The travel agent who is trying to cope with all of this emailed us so that we could decide upon and then coordinate the various options that are now open to us. We had a good opportunity to discuss the various ins and outs of the options under discussion and we have now decided that we shall postpone the plans for this year, take the offered refund of the deposits that we had paid and then start again with new plans next year when the situation should have clarified considerably.
In the last few days, Meg and I have been evaluating some of our clothing options. Meg has a series of kilts of various tartans and they are incredibly versatile pieces of clothing because they never really date, are really practical and are very hard wearing as well as being good ‘winter clothes’ weather. We evaluated one of Meg’s favourite kilts which is now getting a little ‘tight’ around the waist so we took it to our local dry cleaners who also act as a agency for clothing repairs. When the kilt was examined in the shop, the assistant was of the view that there was not sufficient spare material to extend the waist in a properly tailored way. We explained this dilemma to some of our ex-Waitrose friends when we were FaceTiming them the other day and they told us about the concept of ‘waist extenders’ (which was, of course, news to me, a mere male) So I got onto the web and bought very cheaply a set of five ‘extenders’ which arrived today. The things that arrived were actually designed and marketed to extend jeans and they were interesting little gadgets, being like a loop of really tough elastic with a metal design button on one end. You loop the extender over the existing button and the new button will take over about ¾” displaced to either left or right. So tried this on Meg’s kilt and actually used two (an extender on an extender) to give an extra 1½” on the kilt. This was worked superbly well, so Meg can now bring a wonderful garment back into use at absolutely minimal expense -so you live and learn.
There is a huge storm (codenamed Eunice) destined to sweep over the country tomorrow with the South West taking the initial brunt of the storm. This storm is predicted to be the worst that the UK has experienced for decades – so a rare red warning (imminent danger to life) has been issued by the Met Office. All trains have been cancelled in Wales, the army is on standby and the country is waiting to see what damage winds of 90mph might cause. Exceptional winds and heavy snow could hit many parts of the UK so we await tomorrow with a degree of trepidation.
This was a very strange type of day. We have been given lots of warning by the meteorological authorities that storm ‘Eunice‘ may well be the worst to hit the UK since the infamous great storm of 1987 which did all kinds of damage across Southern England. Because at that time the country did not receive sufficient warning as was thought that the storm would veer away and only clip the UK, I get the impression that nothing is being left to chance this time. So we have had lots of warnings including a ‘red’ warning from the Meteorological Office and people are being urged to stay away from the coasts as they could literally be swept away. So when I woke up this morning, I expected that there would be at least some premonition of the storm yet to come but there was only a strange calm. I had previously texted our domestic help to delay her journey to us in case the storm was at its height first thing in the morning but in the event there was no need and she arrived at the normal time. By mid morning, the weather conditions were evidently worsening so I texted our University of Birmingham friend to suggest that we meet in a coffee bar along the High Street. This we did, arriving within a couple of minutes of each other so we sat down for a nice long (and warm) chat with some cappuchinos and a round of teacakes inside us. The wind had got rather swirly and rain-filled as we made our way to the coffeeshop but when we emerged about an hour and a half later, the height of the storm seemed to have passed us over. We invited our friend to come and have some lunch with us and he readily accepted. I was cooking a simple rissotto with some smoked mackerel as the protein element so our friend stood at my shoulder as I cooked the meal (which I have done many times before) to learn some lessons. Then we had a very pleasant meal which we complemented with half a glass of white wine and a good time was had by all. This afternoon, we have a kept an eye on the news broadcasts to see if the storm damage was extensive or not. The most dramatic pictures were of parts of the (plastic) roof of the O2 Millenium Dome building being ripped away in London whilst the church spire of the principal church in Wells, Somerset was pictured in the act of being blown away. There were also some dramatic pictures of trees being uprooted and falling – I suppose with the ubiquity of mobile phones, it is easier to capture these images than would have been the case in 1987. I am going to email some of our Hampshire friends to see how they have coped and as they tend to live in rural environments, whether they had been troubled with falling trees or worse.
To overcome my conputer problems (my computer getting slower and slower for none of the usual self-evident reasons) I have resolved to start a miniature savings programme and to replace my desktop computer in or about May time. This gives me the time to do as well as a certain amount of saving as well as ‘project managing’ the transition from the old computer to the new. This is the kind of thing that has to happen every 5 years or so or whatever is the interval that people choose these days to update their systems. Things are a little different this time around as ‘normally’ one gets as much RAM as you can afford and, more or less the same for storage capacity. But Apple has rather changed the nature of the calculations insofar as they have developed a new generation of chips (M1) with what what is called ‘unified memory’. Without getting at all technical, this allows their minimum configuration of an 8GB memory to be tightly integrated into the CPU to give the same performance as a conventional 16GB configuration often regarded as the minimum necessary for today’s ‘normal’ home user. I have got the benefit of time on my side and I may be able to resurrect the arrangements that I have made in the past to get an Education discount on my hardware although this has proved possible but a little complicated when I was last in the market.
The winter Olympics in Tokyo has largely failed to set the nation alight, no doubt due to the fact that many of our hyped up medal hopefuls have not managed to deliver and it seemed very likely that as the games end in a few days time that the GB team leaves Tokyo with the sum total of zero medals. But in the past few hours I gather that both the men’s and the women’s curling teams have pulled off thrilling last-minute victories over their rivals meaning that they have both qualified as finalists. That means a guaranteed silver even if both fail to achive their ultimate victory so there may be some interesting highlights to catch up on later.
Today is the day after the ‘big storm’ that was Eunice and I must say that here in the Midlands, we have got off fairly lightly. On the other hand, when I was FaceTiming one of my colleagues from the University of Winchester who lives in rural Hampshire, he seemed to have a bit of a torrid time with sheds being moved off their bases and trees shedding some of their branches. The possibility of severe tidal flooding along the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary did not materialise, but the severity of the winds caused significant damage and loss of life across the South of England and London where red warnings were issued by the Met Office.
Meg and I were not quite sure how the day was going to pan out, weatherwise, so we decided to play safe and we went down into town by car. Having collected our newspaper, we popped into the park and did a circular walk for about 15 minutes or so but we broke with tradition by not bothering to sit on a bench and consume any of of our own coffee. Having completed our walk, we were both feeling a little chilled so we were pleased to get home and enjoy our coffee and biscuits when we got home. Lunch was fairly easy to prepare as we had some venison meatballs in their own onion gravy which we complemented with some green veg and prepared fairly quickly.
After lunch, we were exited to discover that there was a film of ‘Pride and Prejudice‘ on BBC2. This was a 1940 production in black and white and starring Lawrence Olivier as Darcy. But somehow we felt that it did not capture our imaginations in any way and seemed to pale into comparison with modern productions that we have seen. There was quite a lot of flouncy 1940’s style versions of 18th century costumes and a declarative style of acting which seemed to us to miss the subtleties and the nuances of more more recent productions so we turned it off and devoted ourelves to an afternoon of reading before we leave for church in the late afternoon.
I am in now in the research phase of what model of MAC I shall use to replace my aging and slowing desktop machine. The basic version will give you the astounding new MI chip in which Apple have integrated memory onto the chip but seems a little compromised in terms of the size of the solid state disk that they supply and particularly the number of ports. So I am leaning towards the next model upwards in the range and getting my finances arranged accordingly. Even here there are several options. I could go to the Apple Shop which never discounts and always charges the full ‘official’ price. On the other hand, I have in the past received an education discount but this has to be organised through a third-party firm and the procedures are a little tortuous, although I am in email communication with them. On the other hand, John Lewis seems to offer what I want with the equivalent of a 10% discount and an automatic two year warranty plus an interest free finance deal over three years all of which sounds sufficiently attractive for me to consider this as well.
Team GB has sceured its first medal in the Winter Olympics but Silver rather than Gold. The men’s team were playing Sweden and although they were behind for most of the match they drew level with the Swedes but were eventually were defeated by one of the last ‘stones’ launched by the Swedish team. Meanwhile the Women’s team are due to play the Japanese in the wee small hours of the morning tomorrow and, like the men, they are guaranteed a silver but a gold may be within their grasp. No doubt, win or lose, the TV programmes will be full of the repeats of this match tomorrow.
The news headlines are also dominated by the stand-off in the Ukraine at the moment. I cannot but help feel that there is an awful lot of posturing going on here and if an actual conflict does occur, it is because either side has stumbled into it by accident rather than design. Yet one does get the impression that whatever happens, Putin will emerge as the happier party when all is said and done. After all, he has a succession of world leaders calling on him to enhance his international standing and they are being subject to a sort of ritualised humiliation as they are forced to sit at end of very long table with Putin at one end and themselves at the other. Despite all of the threatening noises being made about sanctions that NATO might try to impose, I am not sure how you disentangle the ‘clean’ from the ‘dirty’ Russian money that has flooded into London and then into property – if this were easy, would it not have been done by now?
Today was almost a typical Sunday but not quite. I got up relatively early, as is my wont on a Sunday morning, and strolled down to get the Sunday newspapers whilst listening to a diet of Mozart which is my weekly treat. Then it was time to have a bit of breakfast on our knees whilst watching the Sunday morning politics show. As most of us are suspecting these days, Boris Johnson is absolutely loving the Ukrainian crisis because it is making him look like an important statesman rather than a rather grubby politician. The more the Ukrainian crisis drags on, the more Boris feels that he is putting ‘partygate’ behind him and that the public attention is being devoted onto other matters. As ‘partygate’ fades for the time being, so the postbags of MPs are not being filled wih indignant letters from the electorate and therefore, of course, the pressure to remove him lessens – at least for the time being. I think it was at university that I read (and was very impressed) by a book by Lewis Coser called ‘The Functions of Soial Conflict‘ and it was from this source that I first learnt that all right wing politicians typically engage in aggressive relations with ‘foreigners’. This is because, by so doing, attention is diverted from what might be massive sources of conflict at home whilst the political benefits will accrue from what might be termed the ‘rally round the flag’ sentiment in the population as a whole. So the whole sabre-rattling continues on both sides – but I find it intriguing that the Ukrainians themselves are getting irritated by the increasing bellicose noises coming out of Washington and the NATO alliance. At the end of the day, I suspect that a ‘diplomatic’ solution will emerge in which, in the short term, Putin emerges as a stronger figure than before. Incidentally, the Lewis Coser observation on right wing leaders applies equally to figures such as Putin who has every interest in diverting attention from domestic difficulties within Russia. Meg decided not to walk down to the park this morning as the weather did not bode too well and she was feeling a little on the chilly and fragile side. So I made myself some coffee and made for the park but I did not tarry on our usual benches but instead carried on walking around the lake to look in on the small cafe which is normally open at the weekends. As it happens, as I suspected, both my University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller were there so I joined them for about half an hour. We swapped some funny (medical) stories wih each other as well as discussing the fact that in many societies, one goes directly to a specialist to get one’s problems attended to whereas in our NHS one is used to the GP acting as a ‘gatekeeper’ to the specialist who is not approachable directly in the UK system. Obviously, on can approach the specialist directly in societies where there is a cash nexus up front ie one pays directly (even if some costs may be reimbursed later by the state). Before I had walked down to the park, I had prepared some ‘chunky’ root vegetables which were parboiled and then thrown together with some turkey thigh meat to make a huge casserole dish that could cook slowly in the oven whilst I was on my walk. All of this worked out very well and, when I returned, I just need to steam some green vegetables to have a complete meal.
This afternoon, I devoted myself to a leisurely reading of the ‘Sunday Times‘ before I started to tackle getting my computer gradually de-cluttered. I have come to the decision to replace my aging machine but if I do not get the existing machine de-cluttered, I will end up transferring clutter from one machine to another which is not exactly what I want. I suppose it is like having one cluttered desk and a brand new clean disk beside it. If you were to merely transfer all of the clutter from one desk to the other, then you would be no better off. This analogy is not completely sound, though, because as computer systems age there is a lot of junk left around from incomplete installations which can be difficult to locate and delete.
The weather today has seen the aftermath of the Storm Eunice as it has moved on from our shores. The weaher this morning was a bit of a lull but it was then followed by a very windy period and then torrential rain later on in the afternoon. We now learn that another storm, codenamed Franklin, is on its way and I think that succession of these storms are on their way. And to finish off today, we learn that the Queen has been declared positive for COVID and although the symptoms are declared to be ‘mild’ and the Queen will be undertaking ‘light duties’, nontheless there is a degree of concern as the monarch will shortly by 96 years old.
Today opened as a very windy day as the succession of storms proceed across the country. If anything, I think the intensity of the wind might have been worse than we experienced with the storm Eunice a day or so ago and last night we certainly seemed to have a lot of intense rainfall. These weather conditions put our walk this morning in some jeopardy so we did not rush to get ready this morning, hoping that the storms would rapidly traverse the country. When we did venture out as far as the park, we had decided to go by car and went on a small perambulation intending to stop on a bench to drink our usual coffee. However, the conditions were so unpleasant that we decided to cut our losses, come back home in the car once we had had a walk of several hundred metres and have the coffee from our flask in the comfort of our own home. Lunch was easy to prepare as we still had a good portion of our turkey-and-root-vegetables stew left from yesterday so we heated this in the oven and served it with a baked potato and some green beans.
During some spare time I had this morning, I continued with my decluttering of my Apple Mac and am pleased with the progress that I have made. Basically, I have taken all of the items off the desktop apart from an icon showing the system’s hard disk and put them away in a folder I called XS-Files which is itself subdivided into video, images, apps and so on. The huge download file has now been copied in its entirety to a secondary storage (a 1TB external pocket drive) where it can be pruned at my leisure at the same time releasing space on the main hard disk.
Late on this afternoon and by prior arrangement, I was delighted to be able to Skype my ex-University of Winchester friend. We seem to have kept missing each other for the last few days what with one thing or another but we certainly made up for it today with a good old hour and half long natter about things. We are both getting a little frustrated about the weather which is curtailing our normal walking activities but as restrictions are easing, we are cautiously looking forward to being able to resume some more of our social contacts. Boris Johnson made an announcement in the House of Commons this afternoon announcing the legal end to all pandemic restrictions from next Thursday onwards. This was followed up by a news conference from 10 Downing Street announcing the same end of restrictions, including the necessity for self-isolation, to members of the public at large. There was some speculation that the two scientific advisors would not appear along Boris Johnson but nonetheless they did do so and dutily went through their graphs but one certainly did not sense any degree of enthusiam for their task. As well as an ending of legal requirements, there was also an announcement that free testing was due to end and people would have to pay for this in future. After the news conference was over, I heard an excellent contribution on the BBC rolling news programme from a professor at the University of St. Andrews. He was making the point with a great deal of force and cogency that those who had the resources to afford lateral flow tests for themselves would indeed have more ‘freedom’ how to conduct their affairs. However, a low paid worker who had not seen, for example, an aged relative and who also needed to go back to work to put food on the table has his ‘freedoms’ restricted if they have to make a choice whether to visit their relative or not and cannot afford the cost of a test. The Professor also made the excellent point that the during the pandemic the motivation of the public to comply with restrictions on their liberty was pretty uniformly high – but the ability to comply with legislation was very much governed by the economic ability of the individual. A previous social theorist, R H Tawney, expressed this dilemma extremely pithly when he pronounced that ‘freedom for the pike was death for the minnow‘. The wider point here is that one person’s freedom is often at the expense of another. All ‘freedoms’ (how I dislike this term) have to be exercised in the context of obligations to others and therefore one is not ‘free’ to show ‘Fire‘ in a crowded theatre or cinema.
In the last hour, Putin has just announced that he will recognise the ‘independence’ of the two provinces of eastern Ukraine that have large Russian-speaking populations. Is this going to be the green light for him to roll in his tanks in support of their ‘independence’? I actually think not but it enormously ratcheted up the pressures that Nato now faces as well as being contrary to the Minsk agreements as as well as international law.
Well, this has been a bit of a strange day – or should I say a day that follows a long night. In the wee small hours of the morning, I got up and spent a bit of time on my desktop computer and wondered if it was eligible for an upgrade of the operating system. The latest version of the Mac operating sysytem is now Monterey and it was released at the end of October last year. Knowing that installing a new version of the operating system is a good way of getting rid of the ‘junk’ files which tends to accumulate over the life cycle of an operating system, I thought I would go ahead. The new operating system took over an hour to download but I thought this was probably just about acceptable as I pop into bed at about 3.00am in the morning. The download seemed to proceed to plan but what I had not realised that it took another hour to install the operating system. This is because the system has to reconfigure and update parts of itself, rebuild fle indexes and goodness knows what else – the system had to restart itself about five times altogether as various components got installed. Eventually everything seemed to be installed and I had to have a minimal ‘play’ with things to ensure that the new system was actually working as it should do – it is not unknown for a new operating system to completely fall over and, in that instance, one has to somehow revert to the old system if that is possible. After a minimal ‘play’ the critical things (email!) seem to be working OK but I haven’t had chance for an extended investigation until later on. At first glance, the system seems just about as slow as the old system was so that the theory that an upgrade of the system should have cleared out an aberrant file that was slowing down my old system seems to have misplaced. Having said that, systems speed up over time as commonly used software gets prioritised – at least it does on the modern Windows system so I sure the Mac software engineers would have done the same. I crept into bed at about 4.40 not intending to spend half the night supervising the installation of an operating system but I have been there before and therefore should not express any degree of surprise. So after all of this, I slept in a bit this morning and generally felt like ‘death warmed up’ until I had got some breakfast inside me.
In view of all of this, Meg and I did not have time for a walk this morning but time is always a bit limited on a Tuesday morning when I have to prepare for my Pilates session later on. So I shot down to town by car to pick up our Tuesday newspaper and then got changed into my tracksuit bottoms which is my ‘de rigeur’ outfit for my Pilates session. Then it was a brisk walk down and I passed our Italian friend but had to rush past her saying there was no stop to stop for a chat. After my class, I bumped into my park friend, Seasoned World Traveller, and we had a few words about the situation in the Ukraine and then a little later on my Irish friend who was busy transporting a bag of things for the charity shop so I assume she had been doing some ‘spring’ cleaning – or at least cupboard clearing out time. After I got home, I prepared our traditional ‘fish cakes’ meal that I have upon my return from Pilates and then it was into a spot of dozing and newspaper reading before we get to FaceTime our old Waitrose friends which we do regularly each Tuesday evening. As Tuesday night has a couple of old fashioned comedy programs (one of them Yes Minister!) we tend to always watch these and it means that we have to get ourselves organised in time for these.
As you might imagine, the Ukraine crisis has dominated the airwaves today. The situation is not quite as clearcut as a starightforward invasion of one (small) country but another,much bigger neighbour would suggest. I refreshed my memory about the Russian ‘takeover’ of the Crimea and discovered that Russia formally annexed Crimea on 18 March 2014, incorporating the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol as the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia. Despite its annexation, Crimea was considered by most countries of the world in a UN resolution of March 2014 to remain part of Ukraine. I did not know, though, that the USSR formally transferred the Crimea from Russia to the Ukraine as late as 1954 for reasons which are too tortuous to begin to explain. I suppose that it was about the time of the repossession of the Crimea that the two Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, the two provinces of the eastern Donbas region, are only about one-third controlled by the separatists now recognised by Russia. But separatist officials in Luhansk demanded on Tuesday that Ukraine removed its troops from the Kyiv-controlled parts of the province and threatened they would ‘take measures to restore the territorial integrity of the republic‘ if ignored.
As I was getting up this morning, I listened to some fragments of the excellent Radio 4 statistics programme ‘More or Less‘ I must say at the outset that I only caught some of this debate and may be mis-representing it entirely. But the debate went something like this – in assessing the impact and incidence of the COVID pandemic across most countries do we place more faith in (a) statistical modelling or (b) detailed inter-country comparisons, insofar as they are valid, to try to evaluate the effect of any one policy (e,g, wearing vs. non-wearing of face masks). I think I am right in saying that approach (b) was adjudged to be more fruitful but even here there are pronounced political and social differences between societies. Authoritarian compared with more ‘laissez-faire’ societies (who are inclined to punish infractions immediately) may well generate ‘better’ results even though both types of society have the same policy on mask-wearing. I am sure these statistical arguments and approaches will go on for years but if there is any consensus, it is that early and decisive action at the intimation of a pandemic generates better societal results in the long run.
Last night, as the newsreader was going through various items in the bulletin, there seemed (at first sight) to be an odd pause nwhen it was announced ‘Let us just have a quick time check‘ The time check was scheuled (to the second) to be on 22:22:22:22:22 i.e. the 22nd second of the 22nd minute of the 22nd hour (i.e. 10pm ) of the 22nd day of the 22nd year. To students of numerology, no doubt this was a second to savour but I suspect that it passed most of us by without a second glance.
When Meg and I gazed out of our window this morning, the sky was blue and the sun was shining so we thought this would be a good day to make an impromptu visit to Droitwich just down the road. This seemed to be a good idea at the time but after we had collected our newspaper and then motored to Droitwich the skies had clouded over and the whole environment semed a lot less pleasant. Nonetheless, we trundled off to our favourite coffee bar but a couple of things conspired againt us. Not only was it half term (lots of screaming kids looked after by fraught grandmothers) but we got there at just about the minute late morning when the whole world suddenly determined they were in desperate need of a coffee and more. Nonetheless, we felt disinclined to go roaming much further afield so eventually we acquired a table and after a period of queuing ordered our favourite cappuchuno and teacakes. After this we had a long way to travel (next door) to the Oxfam charity shop which is always stuffed full of high quality goodies. Most of the china goods were things that we would not want or need but the quality was universally high. We did, though, purchase a good handbag and bought some Easter cards which are occasionally hard to find. We had spent so much on this that we went straight to our cafe-cum-bistro where we knew we could get some high quality comestibles and we had not booked thinking, quite rightly, that the venue would be pretty quiet. The café had an interesting menu in that for its ‘specials’ board it was displaying some soup (lightest of meals), pasta with meatballs (a light meal) and finally salmon with new potatoes (a full meal) We opted for the pasta which was delicious and eventually I got into conversation with the chef to see if we could reproduce the same result at home. To drink with our meal, we also ordered some elderflower pressé and this was delivered in two stout bottles. When the waitress told me they would only throw the bottles away, I ‘begged’ them so that I could utilise them for my damson gin, cheekily asking her if she could possibly retrieve the screw-on caps for me (which she did).
About the Ukraine crisis, I have only thing to say at this point in time. Our government have been extremely forthright in indicating that sanctions would be applied against Russia to counter their incurson into the Ulkraine. However, the actual sanctions imposed amount only to the slightest slap on the wrist as it is said that the government is now going to pursue three Russian oligarchs and two minor Russian banks (which the americans had sanctioned months ago on any case) Even some Conservatives in the House of Commons think that the UK response is weak in the extreme. The Germans, for their part, with practically no fanfare, have suddenly halted the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which is designed to double the flow of Russian gas directly to Germany. This must have quite an impact on the German economy but it looks as though they are prepared to put principles before money (whereas the UK approach is the reverse i.e. to put money before principles)
Today did not start well – which is rather an understatement. I had set my alarm to 6.15 in order to go shopping early and when the 6.30 news came on, I found that Russia had launched a full scale invasion on the Ukraine. I say full scale but in the first few hours it seemed that a two pronged attack was in place from Crimea in the south (what a surprise) and from the Russia-friendly Belarus in the North, supplemented by some missile strikes on military facilities in the vicinity of Kiev. As the day progressed, it started to become evident that Russia intended to take over not only the two self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk but probably were intent on a decapitation of the Ukraine and were prepared to install a puppet government in Kiev. But more of this later.
When I got to the larger Aldi supermarket in Bromsgrove, I realised that to my dismay I did not have a £1 coin or a trolley token to release the shopping trolley. A queue of about 10 had already formed and although I went down the queue, nobody was prepared to exchange my two 50p pieces for a £1 coin (which, I must say, I found rather incredible) So I had no alternative but to go back home, avail myself of a couple of £1 coins (one to use, one to keep permanently in the car) and then went off to the smaller Aldi that I used to frequent some three years ago now. I spent quite some time looking for items which were not where I expected them to be but one of the delights of Aldi’s is the ‘middle aisle’ where hardware and household goods (often high quality but remaindered) are sold off. I actually bought Meg a pair of pyjamas which she needed and also an extending bamboo cutlery drawer which is a bit more useful than the one we have in use at the moment.
After we had got unpacked and breakfasted, Meg and I went by car to pick up our newspaper and then we decided to go to Aldi’s to pick up a second pair of pyjamas as useful things tend to go extremely quickly – as Aldi say ‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone‘. We managed to locate the pile buried amongst other items and bought a second pair, albeit a size smaller but we trust that this will do. I also bought some leather gloves which happened to be in the vicinity, and not to be outdone Meg bought herself a pair of knee-length socks as well. Afterwards, we went to the park but it was bitterly cold and we did not want to linger. Nonetheless, our park friend Seasoned World Travller spotted us from afar so we had a brief chat about our reactions to the Ukraine invasion. But neither of us wanted to hang about chatting for too long as we were assailed by an icy wind, with lots of sleet and/or snow inside it. Then we came home and had ourselves a quick curry, necessary in view of the weather.
Needless to say the airways were dominated by the Ukraine invasion and we followed this quite intently, as well as viewing the feeds of the reaction of the PM and the Leader of the Opposition from Parliament, which was interesting to see. One the one hand, the channels are eager to report what is actually happening as it is the first time that a European country has invaded another neighbour since 1939 – 83 years go. And secondly, when I consulted the web, I found the following Question and Answer. Question – Why did Germany invade Poland? Answer – Germany invaded Poland to regain lost territory and ultimately rule their neighbor to the east. The interesting thing about this pithy piece of history is that you could just substitute the countries ‘Russia‘ and ‘Ukraine‘ and the sentence would still hold good. I am sure that when we get as far as Newsnight tonight, some of the military analysts will be available to air their opinion. Thinking through some of the longer term possibilities, then if the Ukraine does manage to hold off Russia, then they will surely want to join Nato as soon as they can. On the other hand (and more likely), if Putin gets away with Ukraine, he may well go after some of the much smaller Baltic states such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These three are members of NATO and the EU since 2004 and wish to be even more integrated into the NATO alliance. There are reports that the populations in these three countries are almost literally ‘trembling in their boots’ because they used to be under Soviet rule for decades and if Putin manages to regain Ukraine for Russia, then he will almost certainly go after them. So whichever way one plays out the scenario, it looks as though Russia and NATO are going to square up to each other for another version of the ‘Cold War’ The first one lasted from 1947 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 which is some 44 years.
Today the weather looked set fair so after our customary chat with our domestic help whose day it is on Fridays, Meg and I set off for the park. For the past few days what with one thing or another, we have tended to utilise the car but today it was almost a spring-like day – although the sky was blue, the sun was shining and a gentle wind did not make us feel particularly cold. We occupied our normal bench for about twenty minutes and then chatted with an older couple who recognised us as being members of the same church congregation. Then we walked down to the lake and espied our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller having a coffee in the open air at one of the few tables provided by the owners of the park’s cafe. I bought a round of coffees and left Meg whilst I popped into town to collect our Friday newspaper. In the newsagent, I espied a bowl of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs on the front of the counter. This prompted me to remark that when Meg was pregnant many decades ago now, she had a particular craving for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs. When I mentioned this to the newsagent he remarked that if he spotted Meg coming into the shop to buy a supply of the same, he would then draw the appropriate conclusions. I then popped back into the park to sit at a table with Meg and our two park friends and, of course, we spent most of our time discussing whether Putin was ‘mad’ or just ‘bad’. This is quite an interesting debate as it happens because there is a blog which comes my way via my email account where there is quite a long and intelligent discussion whether Putin is displaying rational behaviour or whether what is seen in the Ukraine is an example of the deranged delusions of the Russian leader. I think that it is possible to draw these two threads together, though. It is possible that Putin, acting as a chess player, has a carefully calculated plan which is now being put into effect. On the other hand, even some multiple murderers (for example ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’, the Moors murderers) might exhibit a complete lack of any emotional empathy whilst carefully planning their crimes. So we might label this complete absence of any emotional feeling state as behaviour which is ‘mad’ but this is not to deny that they are rational within their own terms.
The Ukraine invasion is now being reported upon and analysed by all of the world’s media. Channel 4 news, for example, is showing some incredibly compelling footage from inside the Ukraine and some of their focus has been upon the refugee crisis that we are witnessing in the heart of Europe. I suppose there could just about be some 95 year olds in Poland and France who can recall what it was like when Warsaw and Paris fell in WWII. I hasten to add that I think it is common knowledge that the French did not really much to defend Paris putting a lot of their resources into the Maginot line which the Nazis just walked around. However, I know that military history is a lot more complicated than this but the ‘decapitation’ of the Ukraine now looks a distinct possibility. Although the fall of the Ukraine is now almost certain, I do not think this is by any means the end to the story. I think it is true that whilst an army of ‘x’ thousands might conquer a territory, one has to multiply that by several times (3-5 times) to install an army of occupation. In the Ukraine, the authorities have been handing out Kalashnikovs to a goodly proportion of the population as well as encouraging the population to prepare Molotov cocktails. Whilst many if not most of the women and children are sheltering or fleeing, there is conscription in place for all adult males aged 18-65. So we may see the prospect of hand-to-hand fighting through the streets of the Ukrainian capital. The Russians, of course, might just try to utilise missiles against what they can but already some blocks of flats in the capital have been destroyed by missiles. Were these random attacks or a mal-functioning missile? As the veteran Labour politician (and doughty fighter as a tank commander in WWII) Denis Healy pronounced: ‘In war, the first casualty is truth‘ No doubt, within the next day or so, we shall start to see some terrible events unfold before our eyes and the journalists can rely upon quite a lot of video-footage captured on mobile phones.
Tomorrow, we have some more ‘Six Nations’ rugby matches to keep us entertained but the match I really want to watch (Wales v. England) clashes with our our regular church attendance so I will have to try and time-shift it, if the BBC allows this (I was unsuccessful the last time I tried this as there may be ‘copyright’ issues)
Having woken up quite early this morning, I took the opportunity to pop down into town on my own, before breakfast, to collect our copies of the Saturday newspapers. At this hour on a Saturday morning, I only encountered one jogger and one dog-walker but the weather was quite bright but chilly. Before I set off on my journey, I availed myself of one of those ‘instant’ packets of porridge oats which help to set you up for the day. Then it was a case of getting home, getting a quick update on the Ukrainian situation (about which more later) and our normal ‘cooked’ breakfast which is normally a fry-up of a red onion, a tomato, some mushrooms, a spoonful of instant garlic and some tomato and onion pasta sauce. This constitutes a filling for an omelette that I make for Meg whilst I have some of the mixture only.
And so, we return to the Ukrainian situation. I would not have been surprised if the Russians had not taken the opportunity to roll on into the centre of Kyiv under the cover of darkness. Having attacked Ukraine from multiple directions, it appears that one of the war aims of the Russians is to move quickly onto Kyiv to attempt a swift ‘decapitation’ of the Ukrainian government. Western officials estimate that Russia had up to 190,000 troops on Ukraine’s border – far more than Ukraine’s entire regular army of 125,600. Russia also has an overwhelming superiority in terms of control of the air ways. According to military analysis, which is being well explained on the Sky News channel, the Russians are assembling a range of terrifying armaments including precision fighter bombers, tanks, armed personnel carriers and artillery that can inflict untold damage. The Ukrainians are evidently completely outgunned and no match for the military might of the Russians. However, by all accounts the Ukrainians have so far been putting up a dogged defence of their country against overwhelming odds and have slowed the advance of the Russian army, much to the surprise of the Russians. The Ukrainians, though, have to make some terrible military decisons. They can decide to try and attack the Russians who are are now within 20 km of the city centre and perhaps even closer. Were they do this, they would certainly be overwhelmed and Kyiv would all to intents and purposes be left undefended. On the other hand, if the Ukrainians stay their hand somewhat and allow the Russian forces to enter the city down the main roads, then the advancing forces are much more vulnerable and susceptible to guerilla style attacks.The latest thinking seems to be that the Russians are assembling their forces today (Saturday) and may make a final concerted push into the city during the hours of daylight tomorrow, Sunday. If this is to be the case, then the onslaught into the Ukrainian capital will be terrible to behold and the civilian population that remains (women and children and the aged) will be subject to the most horrendous slaughter. There is no doubt, of course, that the Russians can and will conquer the Ukraine in that way but the huge question remains that once a city has been ‘captured’ can it actually be held and occupied without a really massive army of occupation? Imagine a tank or a personnel carrier advancing down a modern urban street but subject to attack by AK-47 rifles (Kalashnikovs) which are being handed out to whoever in the civilian population is prepared to handle a weapon. The Russians may have thought that they were going to enter a country where they were greeted by flowers and flag-waving crowds – instead, they may have to engage in hand-to-hand fighting street by street and house by house – for which they are almost certainly not prepared.
The international ramifications are also become interesting. Yesterday, in the Security Council a resultion was passed by 11 votes to 1 (that one being Russia) and three abstentions, the most critical one being China. Although in the Security Council, each of the 5 permanent members has the power of veto, the way might now be open for a general vote of the 192 members of the UN where no power of veto exists. So this will be interesting to watch in the days ahead. There is also talk that both Sweden and Finland, noted for their neutrality (particulaly Finland) may now be prepared to join NATO. Russia is now issuing blood-curdling threats against Sweden and Finland so if these if these two states join Nato then it could be that Putin has completely overreached himself. The Russian propaganda is also interesting and one wonders if they really do believe it themselves. They are arguing that Ukraine has been captured by a cabal of drug-crazed neo—Nazis,hell bent on the genocide (of any Russian speakers in the east, presumably). I would surmise that the rest of Europe will now start to pour weapons of every description into Ukraine so that the remaining citizenry can arm themselves for the conflict to come.
Today being a Sunday was my day to get up early and get to the newsagents in plenty of time to get back for the Sunday morning (politics) programme. I listened to a selection of Bach on my way down but at 8.00am in the morning, I don’t think I passed another soul on my walk there and back. It was quite a fine day but pretty cold at that hour in the morning, as you might imagine. The newsagent and I spent a certain amount of time discussing Putin and how the world had suddenly become somewhat disordered. On the Sunday Morning show, Liz Truss (our Foreign Secretary) was the weekly member of the government to be interviewed and, for once, I found her fairly forthright and to the point. For example, she acknowledged that the conflict with Russia might last for years, that an attack of Ukrainian democracy was in effect, an attack on all European democracies and that mechanisms should be fast forwarded to allow entry into the UK of any Ukranian passport holder. The Immigration minister, Kevin Foster, has apparently tweeted that any Ukrainians who wish to flee from Putin should apply for a vacancy as a fruit picker and then wait for several months for the application to be processed – and entry into the UK to be granted or denied. To show the dvisions in the Tory Party over this, Fraser Nelson, another guest on the programme who is the editor of the Spectator (right wing weekly periodical) has suggested that any Ukrainian passport holder should be offered immediate and unconditional entry into the UK – along the lines of wht was offered to the Asians who were being thrown out out of Uganda by Idi Amin in the early 1970’s or even the deal currentlly on offer to any of the residents of Hong Kong who wish to relocate here.
Before we walked down to the park today, I had the quickest of scans through the ‘Sunday Times‘ and found some analysis that suggested that Putin was ‘mad’ rather than just being ‘mad’ It is being said by those who have known Putin for a long time that he has undergone quite a personality change in the last year or so (since COVID). He has apparently almost become a social recluse and only surrounds himself by his acquaintances of many years ago when they were both officers in the KGB. The long table that we have seen in recent videoclips of Putin with other world leades urging a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine ‘problem’ is Putin’s attempt to keep as far away as possible from any potential sources of infection.
Be this as it may, two amusing stories have arisen from the horror about to be unleashed in Kyif. The first of these relates to a Russian armoured vehicle which had run out of fuel and was surrounded by local Ukrainians. When asked what they thought they doing, the young Russian soldiers admitted that they had no idea where they were i.e. what country they were in nor did they know where they meant to be going. What eventually happened to them, I know not. The second story I rather like. It has reported that in Kyiv that the local popuation are doing what they can to remove street and direction signs that might be of some use to an invading army. It is said that directions to nearby cities have been replaced with profanities that could be translated as 'Go f**k yourself', 'Go f**k yourself again' and 'Go f**k yourself back to Russia'. but the story may well emanate fron Ukraine’s road sign agency Ukravtodor which has mocked-up a road sign containing these profanities in Ukrainian.
The more serious story tonight is that, using veiled language, Putin has ordered his miliary chiefs to get ‘readied’ and put into position some nuclear weapons, both tactical and long-range. One has to say that is probably bluff and bluster but, of course, it is very difficult to read Putin’s mind and to know whether he just might launch nuclear weapons. In the case of the American nuclear deterrent, I believe that has to be a ‘dual lock’ policy i.e. a nuclear strike has to be got to be authorised by the President and a senior member of the military. It was rumoured in the dying days of the Trump presidency, the suitcase containing the military codes necessary to activate a nuclear strike was kept well away from the President. One presumes that the american military might be composed of Republicans but not deranged Republicans à la Trump. The interesting question is whether the Soviet military planners thought of a similar contingency in case a nuclear war be started ‘by accident’ by a deranged President of Russia. The slightest glimmer of hope tonight is that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have decided to meet with each in a neutral location in Belarus. Is this a tacit acknowledgement by Putin that things are not going to plan?
Here we are the last day if the month – I have always wondered when those individuals born in a leap year on February 29th actually celebrate their birthday and I suspect March 1st which day it is tomorrow. The day started cloudy and with a band of rain threatened to sweep across the country later in the afternoon which it duly did. Meg and I decided to go down into town by car as we needed to call into Waitrose to collect a few things. Whilst there, we managed to make contact with one of the old established staff and ascertained that the coffee lounge facility will definitely reopen on 30th March which is in just over four weeks time. After this, we made our way by car to the park and chose a carpark near to the park’s café just in case any of our regular friends were lodged in there. As it turned out, there were not, so we made our way to our normal park bench in the upper reaches of the park where we consumed our coffee and were immediately visited by several dogs, liberated from their leads, who bound towards us hopeful that there may be a titbit coming in thir direction, which there never is. We got back home relatively early after all of this as we were quite keen to watch the latest news available from the Ukraine where it does appear that the remaining popoulation in the Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, are being subjected to the most horrendous bombardment. For a start, the Russians appear to be using cluster bombs (which are, incidentally, illegal) and the Ukrainian authorities are admitting that dozens have been killed. The Russians may well utilise what is termed as a ‘Thermobaric‘ bomb, otherwise entitled ‘The Mother of All Bombs‘ This is the largest bomb yet manufactured short of an actual nuclear weapon. It is exploded in mid-air and sucks all of the oxygen out of the air for 300 metres around, as well as having the destructive power of 44 tons of TNT. Thermobaric weapons are considered to be one of the most brutal war weapons that exist and their destructive power, via the shockwave that they create, is immensely destructive both of people (whose internal organs are shredded to pieces) and to buildings. By some accounts, this weapon has been authorised for use in Ukraine but whether it has actually been used has not yet been reported upon.
As I write this blog, I am half-listening the Radio 4’s PM programme in the background. There was an interesting discussion whether the Russian population, subject to the most heavy of censorships, had any idea what was being done in their name. After all, the Russian government has banned the use of words such as ‘war’ or ‘invasion’ but are instead speaking of ‘military operations’ But in the absence of any real information, how do the Russian population react to the fact that all of a sudden interest rates have risen to 20%, the rouble has collapsed, that football matches are being withdrawn as well as cultural events such as Eurovision, that all of. sudden people are abandoning the ‘normal’ ATM’s that only dispense roubles but instead are queuing to access any sources of money that are not roubles? The same report which was trying to assess the mood and knowledge of the war in the Ukraine reported the response of one citizen who, years ago, was asked their opinion of the fact that the Crimea had effectively been annexed. The response was ‘Do you want me to answer ‘offically’ or ‘unofficially’ Meanhile there were heart- rending scenes of refugees at the Hungarian and other borders. About ½ million refugees have already fled the Ukraine but at the borders, as there queues of people up to 20 miles long, they were letting individuals through about 50 at a time. So when the barriers went up, the women and children were let through but any of their husbands or sons who had helped to flee now had to turn back into the Ukraine, perhaps to their deaths, in order to fight the invaders.
And now for some slightly more cheerful news. I have been gradually getting my MAC computer to run at somewhat like a decent speed instead of an incredibly slow crawl. A major step forward was updating the operating system to the latest version which is called ‘Monterey‘ (a mountain range in California) This has the advantage of clearing out a lot of system junk but the present age of my machine (2015) means that it is only just capable of running the new operating system. I have now adopted the practice of only turning it on/off about once a week or a fortnight, the rest of the time resorting to a ‘Sleep’ mode which keeps all of the programs still in memory with a trickle charge of current. This makes it easy and fast to turn on, with no long waits and the system even updates instead whilst it has having a ‘sleep’ or, as Apple say, a ‘power nap’
Today we had to get up fairly early and get ourselves going because it was the day scheduled for our house alarm system to receive its annual maintenance. We always make sure that this is done more or less on schedule because on our house insurance policy document, we have to tick a box to say that our alarm system had been subject to an annual service. If we ever had to make a claim, we would not wish for it to be denied on the basis that we had made a false statement in our house insurance documentation. This whole procedure only took about 30 minutes or so and after it was all done, Meg and I set off for the park as it was quite a fine day. The sky was fairly clear when we started out and there was a coolish wind which was not sufficient to deter us from making a journey on foot. On our way down, we chatted with our Italian friend along the Kidderminster Road and then picked up our newspaper and made for the park. There was quite a gaggle of people and their dogs as we were approaching our favourite bench- to be honest, I suspect that the dogs are inclined to engage in greeting each other, after which the owners have little choice but to join in. We had our coffee and comestibles but did not linger too long because we knew that we needed to get back in time for me to assemble my Pilates kit and leave the house in plenty of time for a leisurely type walk down into town. At the same time, I relieved an ATM of some of its spare cash and proceed to my class, after which it was home and then a somewhat belated lunch. Today, as we often do on a Tuesday, we had some haddock fishcakes which I have to say were delicious and we serve them, as time is limited, with one of those special packs of microwavable veg that cook in about a couple of minutes.
The news from the Ukraine is as grim as you might expect. What is dominating the visuals is the sight of a Russian convey some 40 miles in length. The column is made up of armoured vehicles, tanks, towed artillery and other logistical vehicles and is believed to be around 17 miles from Kyiv. Of course, if the Ukrainians had an airforce or ballistic missiles of any real clout then it could have tried to ‘take out’ some of these convoy of vehicles. It looks as though the Russians intend to completely encircle Kyiv and then proceed with tactics that combine both elements of a mediaeval siege but which also might attempt to tighten the noose. But some military analysts on Sky News are reporting that Putin might be planning two absolute massive strikes on both Kyiv and the second city of Kharkiv. The web is full of contributions sufficient to make us all ‘armchair generals’. There are two interesting things I have read though, just today. The first is from an an urban warfare expert has said Ukrainians ‘have all the power’ and a ‘real possibility to win’ as he described how untrained civilians could beat back Russian forces. Retired Major John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, urged civilians to ‘keep resisting’ as the battle to control Kyiv intensifies. He told Sky News ‘the challenges are only going to increase’ now that Ukrainians have ‘successfully hurt the Russian army’. The second amazing bit of web advice is how to engage the local population in modern urban warfare. For example, there is advice how to set up road blocks in such a way that your own vehicles can quickly navigate them but invading forces have to circumnavigate a route full pf ‘S’-bends between tall buildings in such a way that individual vehicles can be attacked with molotive cocktails and/or small arms fire. Whether all of this is useful advice or not, I cannot say but it does seem to be true that an army of invasion is one thing but an army of occupation needs to be some 5-10 times larger. The Ukrainians are already arguing that the Russian casualties are already at the level of 5½ thousand. In time, the body bags will start to come back to Russia but, of course, they will probably be brought back with the minimum of publicity. It is said by some informed insiders that Putin’s greatest fear is the publicity which may (or may not) surround the repatriated body bags as a visible reminder of the price that Russia is paying. The Americans realised that the sight of body bags coming home helped swing public opinion against the war in Vietnam. The Presidents Bush (father and son) ‘solved’ this problem by not allowing the filming of dead American soldiers in their body bags in 1991 and again in 2003.
Today must have been one of the gloomiest days I have experienced for a long time. There seems to have been a thick blanket of cloud all day long long and intermittent bouts of rain. So Meg and I were running a little late today so we decided to pop into town by car, collect our newspaper, pop into Waitrose where we pick up some supplies of things that we only seem to get in Waitrose and then get back home to have our ‘elevenses’ at home. Then, as it was such a gloomy day we decided to cheer ourselves up with a heart-warming curry. This is a sort of tradition which we have carried over from our student days. Even then when Meg and I lived in a block of flats with a couple of our university friends, we shopped in a ‘Spa’ supermarket down below. Thursday was always our traditional night to shop becuse we didn’t want to clutter up our Friday evenings which were devoted to partying. By Wednesday, we were running out of a lot of our provisions so anything we had left over tended to go into the curry on a Wednesday evening. The curry that we made today followed our fairly conventional formula which is always to start off with frying some onions and then using up the last of the tomatoes and mushrooms bought in last week’s shopping. In the absence of any meat left over from the weekend, we threw in some Quorn ‘mince’ and then supplemented the whole of this with some frozen petit pois and a mugful of onion gravy. The bit that makes it a bit special is that we always throw in a few sultanas, a couple of apples diced small and a spoonful of demerara sugar. This makes it a little bit special – we serve it not on conventional rice but on of those specialist pouches that are available these days of what is sold as ‘Riced’ sweet potato which claims to be 62% lower in carbs than white rice. Just before serving up, I stir in some Chinese curry paste to which I am partial and then finish it all off with a big dollop of Greek style yogurt.
The assault on the Ukrainian cities is terrible to behold – and it looks as though Russian paratroopers may actually have landed in the second city of Ukraine which is Kharkiv. The number of refugees is now of the order of 800,000 whilst the Ukrainians are claiming that they killed nearly 6,000 Russian soldiers. Of course, both sides have a vested interest in over or understating military casualties but even the heavily censored Russian state media is now admitting to deaths in the Ukraine. I realise that it is just part of the propaganda war but the Ukrainians are doing two things which are interesting. Firstly, it is broadcasting pictures of captured or killed Russian militia so that their families in Russia can identify them – this, I believe, though is a contravention of the Geneva convention. Another thing that they have done is to broadcast the interviews of some captured Russian POWs in which young conscripts were saying thay were tricked into the invasion. They claim that they were told they were just part of a military exercise – when they discovered they were part of an invading army, they were warned they would be shot as ‘enemies of the people’ if they did not continue with their mission. They claim that they were ‘cannon fodder’ and, as such, were cynically used by the Russian military authorities. Back home, Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that the Russians were guilty of war crimes and certainly the evidence is being collected on the ground on a day-by-day basis. The Ukrainians are calling for a ‘no-fly’ zone across the whole of Ukrainian air space. But if Nato were to introduce a no-fly zone then they would be committng themselves to shooting down any Russian military aircraft and this would certainly trigger a complete war against Russia. With Putin in such an unpredictable mood, then this could be the start of Amarageddon so NATO is probably quite correct in not being drawn into this. But I am puzzled why some powerful weapons could not be smuggled in the Ukraine so that they could fire them at the apparntly static 40 mile long Russian convoy making its way to Kyiv.
Our son popped by this morning and helped me to reinstal the virus protection on my Apple Mac desktop and which does not seem to have been properly operative since the upgrade to the operating system. Nonetheless, we managed to get the virus checker properly reinstalled so this has got to be a ‘good’ thing. In the meanwhile, I am enjoying using my system where I put the system to sleep when it is not in use and with a keystroke to bring it back into use when needed.
Today was another gloomy day but not quite as gloomy and overcast as yesterday. As Thursday is my shopping day, it was time to go to the larger supermarket where I have a more extensive shop. I had a very comprehensive list with me but on reflection, I am not entirely sure this is always a good idea. I suppose if you have a list ‘in your head’ which is how I used to shop, then if you forget one or two things it hardly matters whereas if you have a printed list in front of you there is a compunction to try and buy every single item on it, and perhaps one or two things in addition. Next week, I am due to the go to the (smaller) Aldi store and I think this might make for a less stressful shopping experience. I might, as an experiment, try and shop without a list next week (which is the way I used to shop) and see what kind of a difference this makes.By the time I had got back from the shopping, got it all unpacked and then had breakfast, time was moving on. So Meg and I went into town by car, collected the newspaper and then just had a quick walk round the park, without the benefit of a flask of coffee because we thought that we would have all of this at home. After we got home, it was a case of having our mid-morning coffee and then catching up on the latest grim news from the Ukraine before cooking lunch.
The news from the Ukraine is enough to make one weep. The Russians have two terrible weapons in their armoury – cluster bombs and thermobaric (vacuum) bombs. Cluster bombs release a series of bomblets which are spread over a large area and not all of these explode. This means that an area of land where they have been used can remain dangerous for years – although they can be removed painstakingly from some battle ground terrains, whether they have been removed successfully from an urban area is open to question. The second kind of weapon, popularly known as a vacuum or thermobaric bomb, is exploded in the air. After the initial ‘explosion’ the released material combines with the oxygen in the air to produce a weapon of complete ferocity. Both of these weapons are not completely illegal although some military authorities have said they will never use them – but not Russia. They are designed to be used against purely military targets but their use against civilian populations is certainly a war crime. There is already some evidence that cluster bombs have already been used in the battle to take Kharkiv – to date, we have no definitive evidence that the thermobaric bomb has yet been used by the Russians but we do know that they have them available for use. Although the Ukrainians are putting up the most incredible resistance, in the long run it is almost inevitable that will succumb to the might of the Russian military regime. As I blog this evening, there is some news that human corridors are going to be provided, presumably under the cover of a temporary cease fire, to allow residents to leave a city before a final onslaught. The Russians are indicating that once they have encircled Kyiv they will probably pound the city almost to destruction in order to secure a victory. The nearest exemplar that we have from history is what the Russians did to Aleppo in Syria when most of the city was physically destroyed and there was a massive exodus of its peoples.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to sharing our lunch with a French lady who lives next door to our Irish friends and who lost her husband in the autumn. We have already had ‘tea’ in each other’s houses but we are trying to take the opportunity of sharing the occasional meal with other if only to try and make the winter go a little bit more quickly. Tomorrow, we are just going have a simple meal of sea-bass which will take no time at all to cook – we will wait until our friend arrives and then do a bit of cooking on the spot. Tonight I deployed the soupmaker, making a soup out of a variety of root vegetables (swede, parsnip, carrot, celery and some fried onions) and as is usual on these occasions made far too much. I have enough prepared for a second meal which just requires heating up and also a supply of ‘diced’ vegetables which means that all of the hard work of preparation has been done for future meals. What, I suspect, absolutely makes the difference to these root vegetable soups is a few spoonfuls of a balti cooking sauce which just add a little bit of spice to the finished product, without overwelming it all. Late on this afternoon, the book on the Monterey operating system arrived (only ordered yesterday from Amazon) so I am hopeful that I will uncover a lot of ‘tips’ to more fully exploit the new operating system.
Meg and I were a little late up this morning but we still enjoyed a chat, as is customary, with our domestic help who calls around each Friday. Once we had got ourselves up and running, we took the car into town and then collected our newspaper. Then we popped into the park and stuck our heads inside the cafe to see if any of our friends were finding refuge inside. There we teamed up with our University of Birmingham friend as well as Seasoned World Traveller. We had our usual exchange of banter over some extraordinary subjects before Meg and I had to make a fairly rapid exit to strike for home. This is because we have a lunch date with the French lady who lives down the road and who we have we have to got to know a lot better recently. We have had a long running agreement to choose a Friday when neither of us had any other committments and this Friday fitted the bill perfectly. Just after our friend arrived, I got cooking the sea-bass which is extremely easy to cook (3 minutes on one side and then 2 minutes on the other). This is then served on a bed of salad and eaten quickly and we washed it down with some glasses of white wine as well. During and after lunch, we had some interesting chats including explanations of the contacts that we had in Spain and in Mexico. We learned today that our friend during her university course in France was due to go off and have a placement in Spain as she was studying this at University. But her course coincided with that period in French history when lots of young men were being called up to serve in the French army in order to combat the Algerians in what was to become the Algerian War of Independence. Her course was quite badly impacted by this as when several course members disappeared, they had to keep reorganising the course around the existing students. So whilst the university experience of the present generation of students has been badly impacted by the COVID pandemic, so her own undergraduate experience had been affected by France’s last colonial war (as I suppose it was) We had a really interesting chat over lunch and coffee and I dare say we will keep on exchanging social contacts like this, which we both enjoy.
The really big Ukrainian news this afternoon is the attack on the nuclear plant which is the largest in Europe. It looks as though the Russian attack was intentional and not accidental. As it transpired, the Russian shells had set alight a training facility building which was a little set apart from the main series of reactors, some of which were shut down. I suspect that an inexperienced commander made completely the ‘wrong’ call when it came to firing on or near a nuclear reactor but if the decision was taken higher up the chain of command this constitutes irresponsibility of the highest magnitude. The USA and many other countries are calling this attack on a nuclear facility a war crime – it may be that this is written into some international law somewhere but I am sure that ‘war crime’ is an accurate description. The world may well have narrowly escaped from a Chernobyl Mark II – the important point here being that the nuclear reactors themselves do not have to be directly attacked but if their power supply fail that automatically cools the core, then we would literally be in ‘melt-down’ situation. This version of the nuclear reactor is better designed and more capable to containing nuclear escapes that was the case in Chernobyl but we have to say that the world as a whole has just ‘dodgd a speeding bullet’ as it were.
Late on this afternoon, the news came through that Shane Warne, the legendary Australian spin bowler had died apparently of a heart attack (or natural causes) at the age of 52. One does have to be a follower of cricket to appreciate that he had a prodigious talent – in general terms, leg spinners do not attract the kind of adulation that fast bowlers do in the whole world of cricket but one has to perfect one’s skills over many years as a rule. It is true to say that Shane Warne lived life to the full, both on and off the cricket field and he was actually found dead in his house in Thailand. The bit of video clip which is replayed constantly is the way that Shane Warne dismissed Mike Gatting, the English captain, with his first ball in the Test match of 1993. The ball itself pitched outside leg stump and then turned prodigiously to nick Gatting’s off stump. Although I disapprove of the habit of ‘sledging’ (loud comments made by a fielding side to disconcert a batsman) one of Shane Warne’s was very funny – he called out ‘How is your wife doing today – that is, your wife and our kids‘ (the implications of which one does not have to dwell upon too much)
The gloomy spell continues over much of the UK – in fact I read with some dismay that the spell of gloomy weather having spread eastwards may now reverse itself and backtrack on itself to persist for a few more days. I have started looking forward to ‘Weather for the week ahead‘ on the BBC News Weather tab and from this I learn that ‘Chilly, sunny and dry weather will slowly give way to wetter, windier and milder weather in the coming week.‘ As it looked as though the rain was going to hold off, Meg and I walked down to the park but a chilly wind started to blow. We made our way to our norml bench and had our coffee but our two regular park friends must have spotted us from their vantage point of the café below us so they wandered up for a chat. I left Meg with them whilst I made a fast walk into town to pick up the Saturday edition of The Times and then, upon my return, we decided it was a bit chilly sitting down for an extended chat so we made an arrangement to meet in the park cafe tomorrow for our ‘elevenses’ coffee.
Meg and I typically have a lazy afternoon on Saturdays and today was no exception. This is because we leave to go to church in the late afternoon (and now, fortunately, it is light when we leave the house) and then return later for something like a bowl of soup. Fortunately, I still have some left over from the other day so this is always a bonus. Tonight, I am going to try to give it a slight ‘twist’ by adding a rice biscuit and some grated cheese of which I have plenty since my weekly shop-up. We may treat ourselves to an opera via YouTube this evening but if we do, we have to be slightly careful not to choose an overlong performance as we do not like to gt too late to bed these days. Whilst intermittently reading the nespapers and dabbling bout with my Apple MAC now that I have got it restored to functionality, I cam across a little known feature of the newly-installed operating system (Monterrey) that will help to enhance the security of computer browsing. Apple call this technology ‘Private Relay’ and it gives you some of the advantages of a VPN (Virtual Private Network). It is quite possible to be identified over the web with ‘normal’ browsing when two pieces of information are combined i.e. the actual address of your computer called an IP ddress and the address website you are visiting. The Apple technology splits these two bits of information, routing them via different servers (one of them, not Apple’s) and also encrypts the address of the wbsite that you are visiting. There are many more technical details than it is not appropriate to go into here but basically for a user such as myself one’s internet browsing experience is enhancd without having to go through the hoops of a VPN (Virtual Private Network) This all sounds a ‘good thing’ and time will tell, I suppose, whether my system is made significantly more secure than it otherwise would have been.
Russian forces continued to shell the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday, despite agreeing to a ceasefire just hours earlier – throwing an attempted mass evacuation of civilians into chaos. as one resident said ‘I can see cars of people who tried to flee and they are coming back. It is chaos.‘ Three hours after the ceasefire was supposed to begin, at 09:00 (07:00 GMT), Mariupol authorities announced they had postponed a planned mass evacuation because of the continued bombardment. Whether all of this is bad faith on the part of the Russians or just a military ‘mess-up’ it is not possible to say – the Sunday newspapers tomorrow may give us a fuller picture.
At this time of year as we experienced ‘pancake Tuesday’ and then Ash Wednesday last week, then all of this presages that Easter is not too far away (although I think Easter is a little late this year on 17th April). I can remember fairly vividly when we first started supermarket shopping when we were students (in the mid-1960’s), one did get a graduated approach to the onset of Easter. As I remember it, the very,very first potatoes in the stores were Egyptian which were followed a week or so later by potatotes from the Canary Islands (quite a way south of Spain!) Then we go the new season’s earliest offerings from Cornwall before finally, the very earliest of our own new potatoes might have been ready in late April or May. Nowadays, the potatoes seem to have sprayed with something and then kept in a cold store and then bagged and could potentially be months old. Personally, I quite like waiting until foods come into their ‘proper’ season instead of having goods sourced from all over the world and completely at the ‘wrong’ time of the year.
On Sunday mornings, I get up a little earlier than I would normally feel inclined because I like to set off to collect the Sunday newspaper at about 8.00am so that I can get back, prepare breakfast and watch the Sunday Morning (politics) programme. As it tends to be quite cold first thing in the morning, the last time I went shopping I bought some of those packets of ‘instant’ porridge which takes about 2 minutes in a microwave. I am finding these very useful on those days when I leave the house early, for example to go shopping, although I find that I have to watch the microwave very carefully to make sure that they do not bubble over. After we had watched our fill of Sunday morning TV, Meg and I set off for the park and, quite unusually, we did not take any provisions with us. This is because we had a loose arrangement to meet our two regular friends in the park cafe. We started off drinking some coffee outside but eventually, the cold wind got the better of us and we beat a hasty retreat to one of the few tables provided inside. A lot of our discussion today, as almost every day, was to discuss Putin’s frame of mind and his likely courses of action. One line of speculation that we have is whether the American diplomats are in touch with the Chinese president (Xi Jinping) and whether it would be in China’s long term interests to put some pressure upon Putin (by not buying any of his gas?) in order to resolve the situation. This might consolidate Xi’s position as a world leader but I am sure that the situation is being watched with interest from Beijing. After we had sorted out the geo-politics of the world, we set off for home and cooked a Sunday lunch of turkey. We had some sprouts left over from last week but I have discovered a rather innovative way of ‘tarting’ them up a little so that they become a culinary treat. We have in our kitchen some chopped apricots which bought because we could not find any of the whole ones. To make the sprouts a little special, I have cooked them in some boiling water (with a little demerara sugar added to counteract a ‘sprouty’ smell) and then drained and dried them off and returning to the saucepan with some cooking oil. Then they get tossed in oil and a little bit of runny honey added at the last moment and this makes for a delicious – and unusual- vegetable.
The Ukrainian situation continues to appall. Firstly, in the nuclear reactor which narrowly avoided damage in the conflict in the last week, the Russians in control are cutting off phone and internet contact in the area. This is making the plant very difficult to operate by the native Ukrainian staff and the international nuclear autorities are getting increasingly concerned about the situation. Secondly, the number of refugees from the Ukraine now constitute the biggest flow of immigrants since WWII and is 1½ million and rising. But thirdly, the protest movements are really starting to underway in Russia itself. The Russian government has banned the use of the phrase ‘war’ or ‘invasion’ under pain of a 15 year prison sentence. Nearly 4,000 people have been detained at anti-war protests across Russia on Sunday, rights groups and Russian authorities say. Some 1,700 people were detained in Moscow alone, the RIA news agency reported, citing the interior ministry. The OVD-Info rights group says detentions took place in 53 cities. Although protests have become increasingly restricted in recent years, numerous rallies have taken place across Russia since the invasion. In the last 11 days, more than 10,000 people have been detained at protests, OVD-Info says. So the amount of internal repression is enormous but in these days of the social web, it is increasingly difficult for the Russian authorities to maintain the tight control over news events to which they are accustomed. The older (and non-internet savvy) elements of the population do tend to believe the messages that their government is feeding them. But If the protest movements keep growing in size, a point will come where the government cannot shoot and imprison all of the protesters in the country.
Meanwhile, at the border in Calais, the French are saying that the UK authorities are displaying a great ‘lack of humanity’ in denying Ukrainian refugees. According to the French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, 400 Ukrainian refugees have presented themselves at Calais border crossings in recent days – only for 150 of them to be told to go away and obtain visas at UK consulates in Paris or Brussels. Priti Patel (the UK Home Secretary) later denied France’s accusations that Britain was not doing enough to help those Ukrainians in Calais. So who to believe? This is just another example of the constant spats between French and British officials over whole of the refugee crisis.
This morning we knew that our regular central heating engineers were due to call around to give our gas boiler its annual service so we were prepared for a slightly different routine this morning. Fortunately for us, the firm we utilise, who live almost around the corner from us, turned up reasonably early so we got the boiler serviced with the minimum of fuss. It was interesting to chat with the central heating engineer as to what he thought the future held in store. We got the ‘low down’ on the different alternatives and varieties of heat pumps such as air source heat pumps (a bit like air conditioning in reverse) and his view, for what it is worth, is that many of the alternatives have not been thought through and we could see the return of traditional gasometers filled with LPG. His own view was that hydrogen is a fuel worth considering apart from the fact that every house will contain within a potential bomb if hydrogen technology to become more extensive. Once the gas service had been completed, I walked down to town on my own because I wanted to visit a few shops after picking up the newspaper. So I made a trip along the High Street, making an appointmnt at the opticians, paying a visit to an ATM and finishing off with buying some cosmetic items principally for Meg. When I eventually got home, we decided to have our ‘elevenses’ at home amd then proceeded straight away to cook our lunch. The afternoon seemed to presage a beautiful sunny afternoon as the sky was blue and the sun shining brightly but only when we got outside did we realise that there was actually quite an icy blast. So Meg and I decided to reverse our normal pattern and go for our walk in the afternoon. Of course, the park has a different clientele at this time of day as there are fewer dog walkers and youngsters on their little bikes and more school children making a shortcut through the park on their way home. We were pleased to get home, though, as by the time we had left our bench the icy blasts had started to chill us more than was comfortable.
The Ukraine news still appals us and fascinates us at the same time. The most extraordinary ‘event’ of today is that the Russians have established some humanitarian corridors but only if they lead to Russia or Russian-controlled areas – for example, a corridor has been established out of Kyiv but only straight to Belarus. Naturally, the Ukrainians have rejected these ‘offers’ believing that Ukrainians who availed themselves of these corridors might end up being used as a propaganda tool for the Russians. One particularly heart-rending stories of today is the account of the death of mayor of Hostomel, a small town close to Kviv and home to the Hostomel airfield, a key strategic point at the centre of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces. The mayor had been shot and killed, dying with a couple of his colleagues while distributing bread and medicines to those in need. There are numerous other stories of direct attacks upon civilians and their dwellings which must, by any account, constitute a war crime. There are some Ukrainian journalists compiling careful evidence for what may well become critical evidence when those responsible are charged (as they will be) with war crimes.
Now this may be clutching at straws but here goes anyway. There are some intelligence sources which claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is suffering from terminal bowel cancer. An ex-military intelligence offer working at the Pentagon in the US said analysts had been studying the 69-year-old and that they believe him to be gravely ill. The ex-intelligence offer says that his ‘puffy face’ is a sign that he is taking chemotherapy drugs or steroid and that his unsmiling expression shows that is he in constant pain. This could have made him more aggressive or he may be attacking Ukraine as he knows he is dying and wants to leave a legacy. The source said: ‘In the past we have seen him smile, but in 2022 there are few pictures of him looking happy. His look suggests he is in pain and our people suggest his angry look is most likely as a result of him being in agony.Our people are confident he is ill – he is concerned about Covid as he keeps his staff at a distance.’ Well, this might be largely material designed to bolster the confidence of everyone opposed to Putin and I would take it with the very largest pinch of salt but it is interesting nonetheless. Of perhaps more significance is the story that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the United States was ‘working actively’ on a deal with Poland to supply Ukraine with jets to fight invading Russians.The deal, according to reports, could involve Poland handing over its existing MIG-29s, a Soviet/Russian-made jet fighter Ukrainian pilots are familiar with, and the US would then provide its F-16 fighters to Poland as replacements.
Today is my Pilates day so to some extent, this dictates how the day is going to shape up. It seemed to be quite a fine morning although a chill wind was blowing. Nonetheless, Meg and I went down to collect our newspaper and then made our way into the park. As we were a little conscious of the passing of time, we occupied some of the benches overlooking the lake where we consumed our coffee and ate our biscuits (well, Meg did – I treat myelf to an orange to cut down on the carbs) Then we had plenty of time to get home and I put some fishcakes in the oven before i departed for my Pilates class, which I must have been doing for about 9-10 years by now. Our sessions are organised into six-week blocks and we typically have a mini-period of relaxation in week 3 and a somewhat longer one at the end of the final week of the block, week six. However, if any one has a birthday in the preceding week (which one of our number had) then our Pilates teacher relents a little and allows us 5 minutes of relaxation at the the end of the session. My contribution to this is that I nearly always manage to fall into a sleep before the end of the 5-minute relaxation session and I gently chide my teacher if she fails to induce me to sleep.
This afternoon after which we had our lunch and a doze the TV event of the afternoon was to witness the historic video link by means of which President Zerlenskyy made the first ever address by a foreign leader to the House of Commons. Sky News reports the ‘first ever address’ but a quick Google search indicates a list of about 50 people from 1939 onwards who have addressed a joint meeting of the House of Commons so I find this claim a little misleading. But an interesting political development has emerged this afternoon. A fascinating report has been published in the Jerusalem Post this afternoon, which quotes sources it says were privy to a meeting three days ago between Israeli PM Naftali Bennett and Vladimir Putin. This reports indicates that the gap between Putin and Zerlenskyy is not as great as popularly supposed. The report indicates that Zelenskyy can fortify Ukraine’s independence but will have to pay a heavy price. Assumptions are that he will be forced to give up the contested Donbas region, officially recognise the pro-Russian dissidents in Ukraine, pledge that Ukraine will not join NATO, shrink his army and declare neutrality. If he declines the proposal, the outcome may be terrible: thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of Ukrainians will die and there is a high probability that his country will completely lose its independence. It is slightly difficult to know what to make of this report. One might not have been totally surprisd if this report had surfaced in about a fortnight from now after the Russians had totally over-run and were, in theory, in control of Ukraine. On the other hand, and against all of the odds, it does seem that there is today a prospect that the Ukraine will not actually lose this conflict. There seem to be inflicting casualties on the Russian troops (about 12,000 by their own reckoning, but about 3,000-4,000n according to America’s CIA) The apparent superiority of the Russian military machine must be tempered by the knowledge that many of the raw young recruits, used by the Russian invading army, do not seem to have too much stomach for a fight and, according to many reports, feel that they hve been cruelly deceived by their military leaders, many believing that the were only on an ‘exercise’ and not knowing they were actually in the Ukraine. The 40 mile long column of military vehicles to the north of Kyiv appears to be literally and figuratively bogged down and crippled by shortages of fuel, food, water and critical supplies – and it appears to be going nowhere in the short term. A least 2-3 senior Russian military leaders have to have lost their lives and there is the prospect that some Russian Mig-29 fighter planes might be sent from Poland to bolster the Ukrainian air defences. The Ukrainians seem to have had quite a lot of success by utilising drones that have successfully attacked the Russian supply chains. So, in my book, it is still a little too close to call.
The breaking news tonight is that Poland is going to hand over all 23 of the Mig-29 fighters (Ukraine already has 37) to the Americans, at no cost. They, in turn, will resupply Poland with the latest generation of fighter aircraft whilst the 23 will be ‘given’ to the Ukrainians. This will increase the supply of this particular fighter by some two thirds and, of course, the Ukrainians already have pilots who know how to fly them. How much of a difference is this going to make and how soon can the aircraft be deployed?
Wednesday is a generally a day free of other commitments for us and is therefore a good day to enjoy a day out. We determined a few days ago that if the weather was to be reasonably fine, we would make a little trip out to Evesham. So after we had had breakfasted at some leisure, we set out for Evesham which we have not visited from way before the pandemic so it must be at least three years ago now. When I consulted one of my trusty road maps to give myself an overview of the road systems, Evesham lies at the opposite corner of a parallelogram from Bromsgrove so we could basically choose an easterly route or a westerly route, the difference in timing and miles being minimal. We chose a westerly route which turned out not to be ideal. We had been making reasonable progress until we had come to one of the villages through which we had to pass to get to Evesham but the road was entirely blocked so we sent on quite a long diversion to get into the town by another route. We got parked reasonably centrally once we remembered the layout of the town- by this time, it was getting a little late so instead of seeking out a place for a late coffee we decided to cut our losses and make for an early lunch. We walked down the high street which we vaguely remembered and then espied an Italian restuarant in which we recall having had a magnificent meal, probably the last time that we visited. As we approached it, we realised with some dismay that it was only open in the evenings and at lunchtime on Fridays or Saturdays. One can sort of understand this – often better restaurants do not have a lunchtime opening and last time we came, perhaps we had struck lucky and come on a Friday. So we progressed down the main street and came across another place which was evidently serving both coffees and light lunches. So we entered and ordered a risotto which was pretty good once it arrived. It contained salmon as the principal ingredient and was garnished well with watercress but had a lightly poached egg served on the top of it which seemed an excellent idea (as the egg overflowed into the rice once you started to eat the dish) I thought this was a good idea so I have ‘filed it away’ in my mind to do this the next time we cook a rissotto for ourselves. I used to do this about once a week but have got out of the habit since I am trying to minimise carbs when I can. After lunch, we strolled around the old buildings which constitute Evesham Abbey and its surrounding buildings. But by this stage, the wind had really intensified so we did not stay overlong but reminded ourselves of he magnifient view over the park which runs down towards the river (Avon). The last time we were here, we seemed to remember it was a brilliantly hot summer day which is when the park can be appreciated at its best. We viewed the memorial to the burial place of Simon de Montfort which we remembered as having a prime location. Simon de Montfort’s parliament of 1265 is sometimes referred to as the first representative English parliament, because of its inclusion of both the knights and the burgesses, and de Montfort himself is often regarded as the founder of the House of Commons. So the specially constructed memorial stone had been formally opened/re-opened by the Speaker of the House of Commons in 1965. As it happens, I remember the date of 1965 well as it was the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Parliament. I was working in the reference department of the Central Office of Information, in London, and we were beseiged with whatever information we could uncover to feed to the world’s press at the time. This was quite an eventful year because it was also the year in which Winston Churchill died which occasioned another feeding frenzy from the world’s press.
My observations of the last few days concerning the donation of Mig fighter aircraft from Poland to the Ukraine via the Americans now seems to have been unduly optimistic. Basically, the Americans are refusing to ‘play ball’ with this proposal arging that the plan was ‘untenable’. Evidently, the USA feels that this whole gesture might be seen as a hostile act by NATO and might occasion a Russian attack on NATO which would almost certainly be the start of WWIII. Meanwhile, the stories emanating from the Ukraine are equally horrific. It seems that the power has been cut to the crippled Chernobyl reactor which could mean that the ‘normal’ cooling processes of the radioactive waste become less viable. The even more horrific event is the shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol in which it looks as though newly born infants (and presumably their mothers) will have been buried alive in the rubble. One could not think of a clearer example of a war crime than this.
Thursday is my shopping day and so, in theory, I should have got up in plenty of time to get to the supermarket as it opened at 8am in the morning. But I overslept a little and it was practically 9.00 am when I arrived at the supermarket but it seemed pretty uncrowded at that hour in the morning so I was not too unhappy to be an hour later than planned. Today I was trying an experiment which was to go the smaller of the two Aldi stores that we have here in Bromsgrove and also to go round the store without the benefit of a list. Taking one thing with another, I think that both of these strategies worked as I intended. Without a list, there was less chasing about the store looking for one particular item. Also, the fact that the store is quite compact means less overall trailing up and down. As it turned out, there was one or two items that I could not find or they did not stock but I can always rely upon the Waitrose at the bottom of the road to remedy any deficiencies. Whilst I was out, I also collected the newspaper and this means that when we eventually walk to the park, there is a slightly less long walk for Meg to cope with. So after the shopping was unpacked, Meg and I went on our customary walk and the weather was almost springlike with the flowering cherry starting to blossom in various places and other shrubs and trees ready to burst into life at a moment’s notice. It was fairly late when we got back so we had a somewhat delayed lunch of quiche.
This afternoon, we had three pleasant surprises to brighten up our afternoon. The first of these was the fact that I had ordered yesterday a 64Gb micro memory card – I nearly always tend to buy SanDisk cards as they have a 10 year warranty upon them which is good enough for me. As this was cheap enough, I also bought a microSD card reader which plugs into one of the USB3 ports in my MacBook. This, in effect, gives me the facility of an additional card reader on my MacBook and I have already made a backup of my usual working files. The second pleasant surprise was that my sister called me on the phone and we converted this into a FaceTime call between my sister and Meg and I. We exchanged news as to how we were both coping on a day-to-day level and my sister seem to be getting her ‘act together’ in seeing neighbours. She is talking about getting a mobility scooter when the spring advances a little and I think this is an excllent idea. I am trying to encourage my sister, despite her mobility difficulties, to do what she can to maximise social contacts as a way of counteracting the loneliness she undoubtedly feels after the death of her husband. The third good thing to happen this afternoon was that we were preparing to eat out little bit of supper in front of the TV, the doorbell rang and it was our next door neighhbour distributing some hot apple crumble and cream that she had just dished up and wanted to share with us (a sort of ‘Meals on Wheels’) We did not have the time to have a chat on the doorstep but it was a most wonderful,and neighbourly, act to look after the ‘old folks’ next door.
Talking about the ‘person next door’ the house that had belonged to our neighbour, across the way from our communal green area, has been up for sale since the death of our neighbour last August. It has on the market with the ‘Purple Bricks’ estate agency and although there is undoubtedly a presence online, we have not observed anyone coming around to confirm their ‘online’ views with a site inspection. As of yesterday, though, we noticed that a ‘Sold’ sign had just been affixed to the board and today we did notice a couple of largish vehicles were paying a visit to the bungalow. So it looks as though in the fullness of time, we shall be expecting some new neighbours. I suspect that it may be a month or so yet until people move in as in all probability the house has been bought in order to secure it and as there is no onwards chain, the vendors will be disposing of their current property before moving into their new one.
In the Ukraine, the artillery attacks on the Ukraine cities seems relentless. Some are arguing that the Russians have derived their tactics from their conflict in Syria where at least one city, Aleppo, was systematically flattened. On the other hand, the Ukrainians seem to be having some success when it comes to ‘taking out’ strategic parts of the convoy of miliary vehicles (as in north of Kyif) when they come across them.
Today was a dismal day but we did not mind too much because it was the day when our domestic help calls around and we are always glad to have a chat and a catch up on the week’s news. But through the post this morning, I received another flash drive which is the same size as the SSD in my MacBook (a measly 128GB) so I rapidly reformatted it to the MAC formatting system and then got it to work making a backup of all of my transient (non-App) files. This was going to take it about an hour and somewhat more so I just let it get on with it whilst I had breakfasted and then showered. As the day was so showery, Meg and I had a think (but not for long) and decided to go down into town by car. So we collected our newspaper and then set off for the cafe in the park where we anticipated that we would meet with our two regular friends. This proved to be the case and in no time at all we were discussing big geo-politics. Should Estonia be admitted to Nato and was it a good idea to admit the Baltic states to Nato and so on. Of course, the over-riding question to all of this is to determine if there is a point at which ‘the West’ feels compelled to challenge Putin’s Russia directly although the risks of a third World War and a nuclear confrontation are increased considerably. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the country has reached a ‘strategic turning point’ in the conflict, and that he is convinced Ukraine can win. He also accused Russia of deploying Syrian mercenaries into Ukraine, following Vladimir Putin’s invitation for volunteers to fight for the country. Meanwhile, there are several reports that are indicating that drones are being successfully used to attack Russian supply lines and 2-3 Russian commanders were killed in the last day or so. Also, the Ukrainians are very successfully utilising some not so subtle propaganda when they capture any Russian soldiers who are usually conscripts. The first thing they do is to put a mobile phone in the young conscript’s hands and say ‘Phone your mother and tell her where you are and what you have been doing‘ This is proving to be quite an effective tactic as it means that information not provided by the Russian state is going straight into the families and communities from which the young conscripts come and this is certainly helping to fuel whatever counter-culture there is in Russian society at the moment.
And now for domestic political news – although not a million miles away from the Ukrainian conflict. I think it is fair to say the UK response to accepting refugees from the Ukraine has been laggardly, bureaucratic and quite frankly inhumane. We are requiring that refugees have passports and then must travel from Calais to Lille or to Paris or to Brussels to get a visa having submitted a long application form and supplied their biometric data. Practically every other European society are allowing the refugees in instantly and indicate they will get the paperwork sorted out later. But the UK is insisting that everyone supplies a visa and biometrics in case terrorists use the crisis to ‘sneak’ into the UK. Two sources told Sky News that Mr Johnson, his new chief of staff Steve Barclay and Number 10 head of policy Andrew Griffith have been cautious about opening up routes for Ukrainians to come in large numbers without full checks. ‘The problem is Number 10 – the PM and Steve Barclay – who are personally slapping this down’ said a source. A Tory source said that some people in Number 10 have been more hardline on migration issues than many expected, and it was unfair that Ms Patel was getting the blame. It does seem almost unbelievable that Priti Patel’s suggestions for more humanitarian approaches are being slapped down. There has been some reluctant liberalisation announced day by day and the latest sitution is that one can apply online (assuming, of course, that you can supply biomtrics and passpports online). It really does seem that our present Home Office throws up every (bureaucratic) obstacle it can think of to allow more Ukrainians to enter the country but the media are already focussing upon the cruelties involved in the system – asking a blind, 80 year old mother who have never used the internet to travel to Lille or to Paris and wait there for days until an application for a visa is accepted or rejected. To illustrate the problem, then about 760 visas have been granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme, with 22,000 applications ‘on their way through’. This represents less than 3.5% of the total eligible. Home Secretary Priti Patel was asked multiple questions about the UK’s handling of Ukrainian refugees at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, a government source said, with everyone said to be raising concerns. As one cabinet minister is reported to have said ‘The process isn’t necessarily going as fast as it could be. Is the Home Office the right department to be running this? Not sure’ If I were a cartoonist I would certainly draw a cartoon of Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus in their flight into Egypt being turned back at the border because they did not have a visa.
Today dawned nice and bright so Meg and I after breakfasting at our leisure prepared to walk down slowly into town to enjoy a bit of spring sunshine and get our exercise done. We had a loose arrangement to meet with our regular couple of friends outside the park cafe and so we all enjoyed a sit-down in the pale spring sunshine, which was quite a change from the rainy day of yesterday. Whilst Meg was sitting with our friends having a coffee, I took the opportunity to walk quickly the remaining distance to the newspaper shop to pick up the Saturday edition of The Times which, apart from other things, contains a good guide to all of the TV and radio programmes in the week ahead. We spent a pleasant half hour or so in the company of our friends and also had chats with another couple and a park regular who we had not seen for a few days now. Once we had put the world to rights again, we all took our leave of each other knowing that we would be at home in plenty of time to watch the ‘Six Nations‘ rugby matches which were scheduled for the early and the late afternoon. The first of these matches was Scotland vs. Italy and I do not think we had great expectations of it. Nonetheless, although Scotland always seemed likely to win the match, which they did with some degree of ease, nonetheless the Italians played with a great deal of flair and imagination. They brought on a young winger who obviously had a lot of talent and upon his debut he managed to ‘wriggle through’ and score a couple of tries, which is quite something for Scotland. One has to remember that they went through the match wih Englnd without scoring a single point so to score a couple of tries in the second half was no mean feat for them. The really ‘juicy’ match this afternoon is going to be the England-Ireland match which I cannot see Englnd winning. This match (or rather the second half of it) exactly coincides with our attendance at church on a late Saturday afternoon so we have got our PVR set up to record this and we can watch this after we get home. We will also be looking forward to our homemade root vegetable soup which I made a couple of days ago and which, as it contains no preservatives, we like to consume within a couple of days of it being made.
There is a sort of interesting potential development in the Russia-Ukraine war this afternoon. Apparently, the Israelis are having some success in getting the two sides togther and not just grandstanding with each other, which has been the story hitherto. I suppose the Israelis have plenty of experience of occupying neighbouring territories and the problems thrown up by this – given the exodus of some Jews from Russia to Israel, I suppose they have a fair number of fluent Russian speakers who might have some skills in delicate negotiations so, although it is clutching at straws time again, this may be a glimmer of hope for the end of the conflict.
After we got back from church we we had some of our homemade soup and then settled down to ‘watch’ the England v. Ireland rugby match. However, this turned out to be incredibly frustrating experience as we manged to get the vision part of the transmission but the sound channels was completely garbled. We were on the point of abandoning this altogether and decided to cut pur losses and watched a pre-recorded version of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ but again, we got no sound. So we turned the control back to TV and then back onto the AV and suddenly the sound came back. So we started watching the rugby again from the beginning but after about 30 minutes, the same old problem started to recur. So we stopped the whole lot, fast-forwarded to the interval and now it started to work again. So all of this was an incredibly frustrating experience and I do now know whether the fault lies with our VCR or whether there was a problem with the quality of the trasnmitted signal that out VCR couldn’t cope with. We are going to see if we can see most of the second half but are not particularly hopeful.
The application to examine listing of files in their folders in the MAC operating system is called ‘Finder‘ and this has its frustrations – for example, if you have copied over a whole group of files, then Finder does not always update itself correctly. I downloaded a free app from the Apple App Store called ‘Commander One‘ Their ‘Help’ screen is interesting as it states ‘For all those who’ve been longing for a dual-panel file manager for Mac, we did our best to stay close to Windows classics, and did it with all the affection to OS X users‘. I have not had much opportunity to play with this but at first sight, it seems to be just what I want i.e. a source screen on the left (the MacBook’s hard disk) and a second screen on the right (destination screen of your backup) and it is very easy to transfer files from one pane to the other. I think it also has an FTP capability but this I will have to explore when I have more time.
Today being a Sunday, I got up fairly early and hd a quick snack of one of those ‘instant’ sachets of porridge that can be prepared in two minutes in the microwave. Then it was off, just after 8am in order to get our copy of the Sunday Times before I get back to watch the Sunday Morning (politics) programme from 9-10. Meg and I breakfasted and then slowly wandered down to the park, being in no particular hurry this morning. Then we met up with our two friends and treated ourselves to a cappuchino and a slice of toast with a mountain of grated cheese on it which the cafe does rather well and cheaply. We chatted on a variety of social and political issues, as is our wont, before the wind started to get the better of us and we judged it time to go home. I had a gammon joint cooking gently away in the slow cooker at home, so lunch was fairly easy to prepare. After lunch, I was prepared for a nice lazy afternoon but it turned out not to be. I have over my desk one of those ‘Anglepoise’ lights, popular in the 1970’s but less so nowadays, whose great virtue was that it was adjustable to almost any height or orientation that you wanted – very useful if you were engaged in a tricky little job. Anyway, I noticed that the fitment inside the shade had loosened and there was no way it could be evidently tightened up. As any bulb was at a crazy angle the whole thing was a heat and appliance disaster and I felt that it had to go. The trouble was that the extended flex went round the back of a filing cabinet and god knows what other things I had stored around the filing cabinet so it almost took a reconstruction of my study to get the whole flex located and removed. It gave me the opportunity of a mini tidy-up and I discovered one or two things that might come into useful to me now that I know where they are. Then I started work on the light itself to see if I could perform a quick repair on it or not. The answer is that after an hour, I came to the conclusion it was not reparable and decided to salvage some bits of pieces. Everything semed so engineered, though – even the flex extender I had put on it to give me an extra long flex had four screws on one side and two on the other, so even this took some time to deconstruct. So a quiet afternoon ended up with screwing myself into incredibly tight corners and then doing a lot more sorting out and tidying up than I had bargained for. So I am looking forward to a quiet evening.
The news from the Ukraine is simultaneously horrifying but, at the same time, there is some prospect of peace. The Russians really do seem to be tightening their grip on several cities and they are getting ‘all of their ducks in a row’ before threatening Kyiv itself. However, the slightly more optimistic reports of negotiations indicate that the Russians are adopting a more constructive attitude – perhaps they are beginning to realise that hnd-to-hand fighting street by street is not what they had anticipated. Perhaps they are also realising that ‘capturing’ cities in the Ukraine is one thing but holding them quite another thing altogether. For example, in one town where they had arrested the local mayor and installed one of their own, they had not anticipated thousands of people coming out on the streets, unarmed and standing in front of their tanks to demand the release of their mayor. Also, the Russians must also realise that an anti-war movement can only grow in Russia itself and the prospect of another Afghanistan and the prospect of an eventual ignominious retreat is bringing them to the negotiating table. There is some optimistic talk that talks leading to a settlement could be arrived at ‘within days’ but, of course, there is often a false dawn before we can allow ourselves to be optimistic.
Meanwhile the goernment is to announce a policy tomorrow in which it looks as though individuals will be offered £350.00 a month for members of the great British public to provide some accommodation for refugees from the Ukraine. It will be fascinating to see if these ideas come to fruition and how many places are actually forthcoming. The interesting thing about all of this is that it appears that the public is way ahead of the government in this and takes a relaxed view about large but short-term immigration from the Ukraine as the horrors of the crisis have made a deep impact on public opinion. It also looks as though Priti Patel (Home Secretary) who theoretically is in charge of all immigration issues is being completely sidelined by Michael Gove. One does wonder if some members of the government are quite happy to ‘diss’ some of their cabinet colleagues
Today was the most beautiful fine day and we looked forward very much to a pleasant stroll in the sunshine. On our way down, we were pleased to run into our Irish friend from down the road and we chatted for a bit about church matters and a tooth her husband was going to have extracted, which occasioned him having to undertake a COVID test. This involves going to Worcester Royal some 14 miles away which is always a bit of a pain. But to alleviate the absolutely horrendous carparking provision in the hospital, one has to drive up to a special COVID pod and all of the procedures are done through the open car window which makes a lot of sense to every one concerned. We went on our way and called in at the newsagents where there was a notice in the window displaying the fact that a large insurance company that occupies a very prominent position in the town was going to organise a ‘cake sale’ with the proceeds going to the Ukrainian relief fund. The newsagent and I chatted about this and we were delighted that a communal effort was going in in the town. Meg chatted to his wife who was just leaving the shop and she was explaining that her daughter, who she had not seen for two years, had just completed a flying visit from Los Angeles and had just returned to the States. We go to the park and the fine weather seemed to bring out lots of our park acquaintances. In particular, we had quite a long chat with a lady who had an incredibly friendly ‘working collie’. I have subsequently discovered that a ‘working collie’ is a dog bred not to be a pet as such but to a ‘working sheep dog’. I now know that to become a fully accredited working sheep dog is quite a long and arduous process where the dog in question has to exhibit various skill levels. The dog that we met in the park was insistent that we throw the ball as far away as we could so that the ball could be retrieved and dropped at our feet waiting for the next throw – you could spent all morning doing this. As we sitting in the pleasant spring sunshine, we were passed by a goodly number of our regular park acquaintances – we evidently all appreciated the beautiful weather. In the park, the flowering cherry trees are in almost full bloom ad the weeping willows next to them are coming into their greenery so the two types of trees complement each other well. Then we progressed home and had a lunch consisting of the ham cooked yesterday and a mélange of vegetables cooked today.
In the afternoon, I needed to devote a certain amount of time to get my accounts into order. This is because at this time of the month I have some payments flowing in and several more designed to flow out again so I need to ensure that my various records and spreadsheets are duly updated. This seemed to go fairly effortlessly and I was pleased to get it done for another month.
The latest news from the Ukraine, despite the tightening of the Russian noose around the Ukrainian neck, is showing some slight signs of hope. There is another round of Ukraine-Russia negotiations underway today, via a video conference and the Ukrainians were presssing for a cease fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and some security guarantees for Kyiv. On a somewhat more positive note, a total of 10 humanitarian corridors have opened in the Ukraine today. It is hoped that an aid convoy could relieve the stricken, shelled city of Mariupol after days of failed attempts.It is understood, though, that some 2,5000 have died in Mariupol since the Russian invasion and the whole city seems to be without power, water and food in the middle of a Ukranian winter. People are so desparate for water that there are reports that frantic inhabitants are opening up their radiator systems to get access to the fluid circulating inside (which, if you have ever seen it, is black and iron oxides contaminated) The latest reports tonight have indicated that a relief convoy into Mariupol has failed yet again but a convoy of about 160 cards managed to leave the stricken city during a two-hour break in the hostilities. The news from around Kviv is that the Russians have laid waste to a string of small towns to the north of the Ukrainian capital. Their tactics may be to ‘clear’ these areas before starting a final sweep into the Ukrainian capital.
At home, Michael Gove has announced a scheme, already trailed in the media yesterday, that there will be a scheme offering £350 a month to anyone offering accommodation to Ukranian refugees. Government sources later said, as of 6.30pm on Monday, 20,000 people had already signed up to offer their homes to Ukrainians. This included 1,500 people registering to offer support within the first hour of the website going live on Monday afternoon.
Well, today has been quite an interesting day what with one thing or another. Again, like yesterday, it was a beautiful day and Meg and I walked to the paper shop, calling in at Waitrose en route to collect some supplies. Then we made our way to the park where we were pleased to have a sit down and to enjoy a little more spring sunshine. We knew that we did not have to tarry too long as Tuesday is my day for my weekly Pilates session so we set off for home in plenty of time. On the way home, though, we bumped into our Italian friend and we had quite a long chat, mainly discussing the practicalities of hosting a Ukrainian refugee family. I told our Italian friend about the ‘Cake Sale’ being organised on Friday by one of the large insurance companies in the town and Meg and I will no doubt go down there (even though cake is not really ‘our thing’) and I wonder who else we will bump into when we get there. The chat with our friend made me a little late for my Pilates class so I really had to put my skates on to get myself turned out and ready for the class. On my way down, there was some surveying work going on along the pavements along the Kidderminster Road and I suspected that the firm was using ground penetrating radar or other types of instrumentation to determine the cables buried beneath the surface. But what was so remarkable was the variety of colours of both spray paint and chalk there were being used to indicate the type of cables and their location. I counted six different colours of paint that were being utilised (white, yellow, blue, green, orange and red) and the pavement rather looked as though a gaggle of primary school children had been let loose to do their best. In fact, when the work started yesterday, I asked one of the operatives whether they had been deprived of coloured crayons when they were a child and hence they had now got themselves into a job where they could spray away to their heart’s content.
On the way down to my Pilates class, I called in at an ATM in the wall of the Asda supermarket which is on the way to the location where my class is held. I requested that the ATM dispense £200 and my card was accepted and then returned to me. Then a message came up which indicated that my cash was being counted and after an indeterminable time grinding some sort of mechanism, I waited for my cash in vain. After what seemed to be an eternity, a message came out to say the machine could not comply with my request but had I just lost my £200? Either the ATM had run out of cash or it was malfunctioning but there was no way of knowing which of these possiblities it was. The supermarket actually has two ATMs adjacent to each other and I managed to get the cash that I needed from the neighbouring machine. Then it was off to Pilates and my class before I walked home – but evidently whether or not I had just been deprived of £200 was preying on my mind. So when I got home, I immediately got onto my internet banking to discover that the first machine had indeed debited my account – but then another system had reinstated the money when it failed to dispense the cash. I suppose that this is the system working as it should but I have to say that having used ATMs for about 25 yers or so now, I have never had the experience such as I have experenced today. It really is one’s worst nightmare when the cash fails to appear but I suppose they have to run out of cash every so often and perhaps many people have this type of experience before – but not me.
There was an incredible happening on Channel One of the Russian state broadcaster. During a live broadcast on Monday evening, Marina Ovsyannikova, who is thought to have worked for the company for years, walked on to the set behind the presenter with a placard denouncing the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Following a court hearing, she was fined 30,000 roubles (£213), state media reported. It is not clear if she will face other, more serious charges over the protest because, in theory, she could spend the next 15 years of her life in gaol.
There is a hint tonight that the Ukrainian negotiating team may be prepared to buy peace by abandoning Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO. But, when the war ends, if Ukraine as an independent nation gets itself armed to the teeth and acquires a superb air defence system, perhaps it doesn’t need to join NATO at all. The Russians are not going to invade a well armed and prepared Ukraine on a second occasion, after all, if they eventually withdraw with a bloodied nose.
Today turned out to be wet and windy – just as the weather forecasters had predicted but unpleasant enough to be sure. We did have plans to go out to one of the small neighbouring towns but it was not the kind of weather for strolling up and down a place you do not really know so we quickly bandoned those plans. Instead, we decided to go back to our usual haunts of a trip to Droitwich and then we got there, we made for our usual coffee shop and treated ourselves to coffee and scones – scones are not really my thing when I am trying to count the carbs but their teacakes had failed to arrive this morning. Then we went round Wilko which is always a pleasure. I managed to buy a replacement for an ‘Anglepoise’ style lamp which bit the dust the other day. Its replacement is a small but beautifully designed little spot light in a dove grey which completely lights up the dull corner of my deak and cost me the princely sum of £6.50 (which is about half the price of its nearest competitors such as Asda and even Argos) Other purchasers seem to have given it glowing reviews (if these are to be believed) but so far, it absolutely needs my needs and according to the blurb on the side of the led bulb box, the bulbs should last for an average of 25,000 hours (11-12 years of use if I have it on for 6 hours a day.
The news today has been dominated by news other than from the Ukraine. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian woman who has been in jail in Iran for six years. Her husband has campaigned tirelessly for her release but the Iranians have been hanging onto her for years on a variety of trumped up charges in an attempt to get the UK to pay a long-standing debt. This is a historic £400m debt for tanks bought by the Iranians but not delivered (in the days of the Shah of Iran) For years, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) claimed the two issues (of the unpaid debt and the gaol sentence handed out to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe) were not connected. But in practice, the Iranians made them one and the same issue. Some in the FCDO had wanted to pay the debt but were prevented initially by reluctance within the Treasury and the United States, fearing it would reward hostage-taking and even fund terrorism. So this good news has largely crowded even the Ukraine war.
There are some indications this evening that the Russians and Ukrainians may be having ‘serious’ peace talks with each other. With Moscow’s ground advance on the Ukrainian capital stalled, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said a neutral military status for Ukraine was being ‘seriously discussed’ by the two sides. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s demands for ending the war were becoming ‘more realistic’. According to the Financial Times, a 15-point plan to end the fighting has been drawn up. This includes a ceasefire and a Russian withdrawal, with Kyiv having to accept neutrality and curbs on its armed forces. Citing three sources involved in the negotiations, the FT said Ukraine would have to give up its bid to join NATO – something Mr Zelenskyy has already hinted at. Of course, it would not be the first time that negotiations have started, appear to be progressing and then break down. There was also the reaction broadcast on Radio 4 this morning that sometimes both sides, even in a severe conflict, may find it in their interests to ‘pause’ or having a temporary ceasefire if only to resupply and this despite the negotiations going on above their heads.There seems to be a tacit acknowledgment that the Ukraine’s potential membership of NATO is now ‘off the table’ and I am sure that the degree of autonomy to be given to the two Russian speaking areas will be contentious in the extreme.
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that the number of today’s blog is 730 i.e. exactly twice 365 or a complete two years of blog. So this blog started when as a society we were just about to start on the very first lockdown and one has to reflect that we have had quite a significant couple of years. In fact, the everyday news of the pandemic seemed to end on one day and the war in Ukraine started on the next. I do get the feeling that like those kaleidoscope puzzles that you shake and then all of the pieces end up in a different configuration, one has almost the same feelings about the current world order. For example. Germany has made an immense shiftt in its own foreign policy and is now going to sepnd a much higher proportion of its GDP on armaments – no doubt reasoning that with Russia in its present leadership this is no time for pacific sentiments.
As yesterday was dull, rainy and blustery so today was almost the exact reverse. We awoke today to a frosty scene in which cars had to have a certain amount of the ‘hot water poured from a watering can’ regime to make sure that we could unfreeze the car locks (and retractable mirrors) before we could set off for our weekly food shopping. Today I went to the smaller of the two Aldi stores that we have here in Bromsgrove and was queuing outside the door at one minute to eight before the store opened its doors at 8.00am promptly. I must say that I felt quite pleased with my shopping experience here today as I managed to get every item that I felt that we needed and with no omissions. Doing things in this particular fashion means that I am somewhat faster overall and I think the cost for the six bags of shopping was probably only purchased for about two thirds of the cost of their equivalent at Waitrose. Once we had got the shopping all put away, it was time to get ourselves ready for our little trip out today. We had decided to visit a little market town of Alcester which has a population of about 7,000 and is reputed to have a pretty High Street and some excellent charity shops. Meg and I got there some time before 12.00pm amd immediately set about finding ourselves a coffee shop where we could have some cappuchino and, hopefully, some toasted tea cakes. This is when the fun and games started as the shop had invested in a new microwave oven which was evidently hypersensitive and at the touch of a hat the residual cicuit breaker would trip plunging us all into darkness. Actually, a long time ago, Meg had and I had a microwave that kept doing this and it was particularly frustrating if you happened to have the computer running as your work was liable to be lost (at best) or files corrupted (at worst). In the event, after a couple of such blackouts, our toasted teacake duly arrived but we had no idea we were going to spread so much mayhem in our wake. Well, our friend who told us that Alcester was full of good quality charity shops was certainly not wrong. I bought a glass ovenware dish that I think will complement our range of other ovenware cookware. But then in another shop I espied what I thought would be an excellent and stylish three-quarter length coat for Meg which I think be excellent for our daily trips down into town, particularly as the weather is now improving. We did a quick ‘try on’ in the shops to make sure that all of the crucial zips were still in working order and then completed our purchase. We then had a quick flash around other shops, including one of those hardware shops that seems to stock everything and you suddenly realise that you might utilise a 'thingamabob' which the store stocks. In our peregrination up and down the High Street, we had espied a place where we might lunch and this was an old coaching inn that were offering two course meals at special prices for pensioners. Meg and I are not proud in this respect so we ordered a meal of roasted vegetables lasagne (for Mike) and a spinach and ricotta pasta (for Meg), both served with a very good salad and some coleslaw. These meals were absolutely delicious and we asked our waitress if she could also let us have a serving spoon so that when we were a certain way through our meals we could do share each other’s meal. Then we treated ouselved to some baked sponges (typical nursery food) served with either with cream, ice-cream or custard. A couple of these two course meals cost us £20 so I do wonder whether at this price, considering the costs of food preparation and service, whether we are getting to meals at practically a cost price. Feeling replate by now, we decided to return home which was just as well because the weather had darkened and we had certainly had the best of the day.
Yesterday, at the end of a press conference, President Jo Biden promised an extra $800 million in military aid which brings the total delivered or promised this week to $1 billion. As he was leaving the press conference and in an apparently ‘off the cuff’ remark, Jo Biden called Putin a ‘war criminal’. What had prompted Biden’s remark was the fact that a theatre in Mariupol housing more than 1,000 women and children and with the words ‘Children’ (in Russian) clearly marked outside had just been flattened by Russian rockets. Although there are some survivors, it is hard to know at this stage the even approximate numbers of survivors. Now whether this is objectively a ‘war crime’ or not, it is interesting to speculate whether it is politically useful or inept, to decribe Putin as a war criminal. Putin has reacted with absolute fury – which may not be helpful if the final negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine are at a particularly delicate stage.
It was another fine day today and Meg and were looking forward to our walk into town. First, though, as is customary on a Friday we had to catch up on the week’s news by chatting with our domestic help, whose day it is on a Friday. In particular, after our day out to Alcester yeserday, we were pleased to show her Meg’s super new three-quarter length coat which we bought from a charity outlet yesterday. Meg’s new coat is made of a material which will certainly make it windproof and we suspect it is showeproof as we. The label inside says ‘Betsey Johnson’ who is a quite a famous American designer of high quality and fashionable clothing and I must say that with a slightly flared line from the waist, it certainly does seem to be a cut above the ordinary. We had a slightly fuller morning than is customary. We decided to inhabit our normal higher seat in the park and saw one of our ex-Waitrose who had just returned from a few days holiday in Wales. The next time we see her will probably be in the Waitrose café when it reopens a week on Wednesday. Having had our coffee, we walked down the hill and saw our friend ‘Seasoned World Traveller’ who was entertaining as ever. Then we left him and went to collect our newspaper, after which we called in at Waitrose to collect some more cordial which only Waitrose seems to stock. Then we thought we would make our way to a large insurance company that occupies a large and prominent site in Bromsgrove. We knew from a poster in our newsagent’s window that a ‘Bake a cake’ sale was being organised, with all of the proceeds donated to assist people in need in the Ukraine. We picked up a couple of cakes (we are not big cake eaters, but that is not the point) and then made a donation to the appeal funds. The system was wonderfully unbureaucratic in that you took whatever cake you wanted and donated whatever money you could afford to the appeal fund. There was also an appeal for non-food donations (in the main cosmetics, nappies, blankets) and this afternoon we will load up some carrier bags with some surplus stuff we are bound to have in our bathroom cabinets and this we can add to the pile of donations in the morning.
This afternoon we had been looking forward to a bit of a rest but it proved not to be. As our domestic help was leaving, she informed us that the toilet in the family bathroom was not draining as it should and evidently needed some attention. My son was working in what had been his office in the house today and between us we tried to investigate and cure whatever was the blockage. First we had a go with a really super plunger which I had bought last time we had a loo problem but initially this only seemed to make the problem worse. Then my son tackled it with a tiny little sink plunger which seemed to be effective, particularly with an arm half way round the S-bend. We went to investigate the rodding eye outside and nothing seemed afoot. But after our latest plunge we heard the most enormous gurgling sound from outside (this is the polite way of expressing it) and this seemed to cure the problem. We put a load of bleach down the toilet and we are going to leave everything until tomorrow morning to see if the loo is still free running.
The big news from yesterday with a lot of repercussions today was the shocking news that the P&O shipping line (itself the subsidiary of a company based in Dubai) had dismissed 800 employees on the spot and immediately replaced them all, all the way from captains down to booking clerks, with cheaper labour force supplied by a ‘third party’. There were some accounts that security staff in balaclavas were putting existing staff in handcuffs and escorting them off vessels before the new (and considerably cheaper) labour force could take over. There is a huge debate going on whether all of this is legal or not, including whether the necessary statutory notices and consultations had been undertaken. This does not appear to be a case of using Brexit-related absence of regulation as British employment law is still largely within the remit of EU legislation. The wider point is that P&O ferries is a subsidiary of DP World P&O Ferries and is losing money – £105m in 2020, according to the accounts for the relevant local holding company However, DP World itself is one of the world’s biggest logistics firms and recorded top-line earnings of $3.8bn (£2.9bn) last year. It ought to be able to handle a £100m crisis in a minor subsidiary in a calm manner and without resorting to such extreme tactics.
Another fine day bcckons, so Meg and I are resolved to make the most of it. Today was always going to be quite a full day what with one thing or another. Whilst Meg was occupied showering, I went through some bathroom cabinets to rescue what duplicates we have of shower requisites and diverse other cosmetic type things to donate to an Ukraine appeal. As the bag was so heavy, we felt we had better go down to the insurance company organising the appeal and parked, semi-illegally, for the minute or so that it took to drop off our goodies (and they were teeming with material) The newsagent’s wife tells me that she herself had donated two carrier bags full, one of groceries and the other of toiletries in the last day or so. Apparently, the ‘cake sale’ raised £750 which the insurance company were going to match, thus doubling the total. All of the donated goods are going to go to the premises of the ‘Worcester warriers’ rugby club where they are going to be sorted and appropriately parcelled up. From there, they are going to be transported to the Poland-Ukraine border for distribution where they are needed – presumably in Poland itself. as they have 1.1 million refugees. I imagine and hope that there is a massive collective effort going across Europe to assist those who the Russians accuse of being ‘Nazis’ and ‘Fascists’ There is a terrible appropriation of terminoloty here as Vladimir Putin is himself a fascist autocrat, one who imprisons democratic opposition leaders and critics. He is the acknowledged leader of the global far right, which looks increasingly like a global fascist movement. Ukraine does have a far-right movement, and its armed defenders include the Azov battalion, a far-right nationalist militia group. But no democratic country is free of far-right nationalist groups, including the United States. In the 2019 election, the Ukrainian far right was humiliated, receiving only 2% of the vote. This is far less support than far-right parties receive across western Europe, including inarguably democratic countries such as France and Germany. Meanwhile, back at home, there was a prayer service for Ukraine organised by the borough council and a local baptist church (in the bandstand, which we often occupy when we are being rained upon). Next week, in our local Anglican church (the biggest in the town, complete with a clock and steeple) there is going to be a concert at 7.00pm next Saturday evening with attendance ‘free’ but donations sought to go the Ukranian relief effort. I presume that local musicians and choristers are giving their services free and I do not know what the programme will be. It must be the things that the musicians know well and do not need to rehearse and, under the circumstances, one would be very forgiving of an under-rehearsed performance.
Our friends in the park were explaining to us recently how Russia possesses, and had deployed, a new type of missile known as a hypersonic missile. Cutting the technicalities to a minimum, these missiles are fired into space and then drop to earth, presumably with a satelite guidance system onto their target at speeds which are Mach 4 i.e. four times the speed of sound. By way of comparison, a bullet from a high velocity rifle might travel at twice the speed of sound. Because of their speed, these weapons are almost impossible to guard against as no missile tracking system can track them or lock onto them. When they hit the target, they have enormous destructive power (imagine a small meteorite hitting the earth) before we even start to consider their explosive charge. Russia has claimed it used a hypersonic missile to strike a large weapons depot in western Ukraine. It marks the first time a Kinzhal – or ‘Dagger’ – missile has been deployed since Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. So this help to explain why the cities of the Ukraine are being pulverised as it were.
As a follower of ‘Six Nations’ rugby, one of the biggest upset in the history of the competition took place this afternoon. Italy has participated in the competition and played 36 matches without a victory until now. But in their match against Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff this afternoon, the Italians were actually leading the Welsh until 12 minutes before the end. Then the Welsh scored and it looked as though the match was all over. Then in the last few minutes of the game, the Italians scored an incredible ‘break away’ try which was easily converted to give the Italians a one point victory. It is fair to say that the Italians have been steadily improving game by game but they have never even come close to beating an opponent until this year. The Welsh gave away a lot of needless penalties and one can only be extremely glad for the Italians to have gained a victory against anyone at last. The competition as a whole can only benefit from this, of course, even though Italy still occupies the bottom slot in the table.
Being Sunday, it was my day to get up a little bit earlier and go down to collect our Sunday newspaper. On occasions such as this, when I need to leave the house early, I treat myself to one of those ‘2-minute’ porridge sachets that are prepared very quickly. The variety that I am using actually encourages you to first empty the sachet into a microwavable dish and then to fill up the packet according to the guidance line with milk. As you might imagine, you have to do this with a certain degree of care but saves having to get another measuring vessel to measure out the milk. As usual, I got down into town and then back again in order to watch the 9.00am politics show on BBC1 with Sophie Raworth. After Meg and I had both breakfasted and got out ourselves ready, we popped down into town by car and then frequented our usual bench – but a bit of a cold wind sprung up for somewhere making us a little uncomfortable. Then I did something I have only managed to do twice (including this morning) in the last two years which is to knock my coffee cup over and deprive myself of a drink. After this minor calamity, we strolled down the hill where we made contact with Seasoned World Traveller who often has his coffee on on an outside table – but he, like us, doesn’t like it if the terrace is teeming with people. I popped inside to order ourselves some cappuchino and a treat which was a slice of cheese on toast which we both enjoy (warm and filling). Inside the café, a father was buying an icecream for his daughter and having a splash of raspberry sauce drizzled over it. I informed him that we were young, we used to call this ‘monkey blood’ so whether this priceless bit of information was passed onto the grateful recipient, who can say. As we were in the car, we stopped outside the house of our Irish friends and this proved to be very fruitful for us as they spotted us from inside the house and popped out for a chat. If the weather bodes fair and we can find a mutually acceptable time, we will look forward to inviting them around for a spot of afternoon tea. When we actually got home, we had a phone call which was a really pleasant surprise. It was our French friend from down the road and I think she had heard from somewhere that Meg and I were going to go to the concert being held in the parish church at the bottom of the hill (with no entrance charge but collections being taken for the Ukrainian relief fund). After the concert was over, our friend who is very ‘communautaire’ as the French put it, is going to have a little soirée in her house to which we were invited, together with some of her neigbours with whom we are already friendly but we have not seen for a week or so and some other friends, one of whom is a Spanish speaker (so, perhaps, quite interesting for Meg) It is always nice to get an invitation like this and we are looking forward to it enormously.
When we look at our planning board in the kitchen which details all of our forthcoming commitments for the week(s) ahead, we see that we have quite a heavy week this week with appointments for haircutting, footcare and a routine eye appointment. Also, I do not like to give the grass its first ‘cut of the season’ until on or about 25th March as once you start, it will be a weekly cut from now on. I need to ensure that I have supplies of freshly drawn, high quality petrol as well as some petrol stabiliser which prevents the ethanol which is ofen as much as 10% of petrol these days absorbing water from the atmosphere and not being friendly to the petrol engines you have in lawn mowers. So I have the whole of the week to get these ingredients in place. Tomorrow morning, Meg and I may well pop off to the vaccination centre to see if we can get Booster No. 2 (I qualify for this, but Meg is on the cusp so that may/may not accept her tomorrow).
There is a report that had surfaced today whose import is that Russia has committed nearly all of the war crimes that humanity has ever seen. Also, for the second day in a row, Russia says it has launched a hypersonic missile, which is capable of striking targets 1,250 miles away at a speed 10 times the speed of sound. One wonders whether in the years ahead, the western powers will try and keep Russia in such an economic stranglehold that attacks like that on the Ukraine will no longer be possible. But to be pessimistic, once nuclear weapons and hypersonic weapons have been invented, they cannot be disinvented.
This blog may be delayed for several hours as my Internet Provider is having multiple problems right across the country so I wonder if the network hs been subject to a massive cyber attack – one always fears the worst but in the meantime, I am working off-line and may be able to resume a normal post later on. It has been announced in several places that the 2nd booster (4th jab in total) will be available for the 75+ age cohort and I got a text to that effect asking me to make an appointment at my local surgery. But rather than doing that, Meg and I took ourselves off to the huge walk-in centre where we have received our previous jabs. This is a fairly large theatre-cum-Arts centre which was re-purposed to be a vaccination centre at the start of the pandemic and has remained so ever since. When Meg and I got there, we were greeted by one of our neighbours who had been volunteering there as a steward for ages. The centre was practically deserted so Meg and I did not have to queue but were vaccinated (by the Pfizer vaccine, like last time) so we should be well and truly topped up. We had to wait for an obligatory 15 minutes to make sure that we did not keel over after the jab and then went to a local supermarket primarly to access their ATM (as parking is available straight outside). This having been done, we went off to collect our newspaper. The newsagent had been so taken with the story that the Russian cosmonauts going to the International Space Station had somehow got their spacesuits to be decorated in the colours of the Ukranian national flag (blue and yellow) that he had taken a photo of this from one of the newspapers and posted it in his window! I wonder if the Russian TV authorities dare show their valiant cosmonauts getting to the space station dressed in the Ukrainian national colours or whether they will substitute some ‘still’ photographs from their archives and swiftly move on. One way or another, I have a suspicion that the Russian public will find out. As we were parked near the newsagent’s shop, we wondered w]hether to try out a new sort of cafe which is almost adjacent. Actually, it is not a cafe as such but is the base of a sandwich operation which they distribute to local workspaces and of course some people pop in to buy them fresh. We discovered they got to the shop at 4.30 in the morning to start preparing their ingredients. They had a couple of tables in there so we thought as we had had a fairly full morning that we would call in and sample it. The actual shop turned out to be a little cold as people came in off the street the whole time and the door was left open but we spent several happy minutes chatting with the proprietor and establishing some connections. It turned out that they may have distantly related to or least long term friends with our our newish next door neighbours so it was a case of, as they say, ‘wheels within wheels’. In about ten days time, we shall to frequent the reopened café in our local Waitrose where we are liable to bump into more friends. This afternoon, Meg and I thought we would have a quiet afternoon reading, just in case either of us started to feel a little worse for wear after our jabs this morning, but apart from the faintest suspicion of a soreish left arm, so far so good.
The news from the Ukraine continues to depress. Practically every report that we see from the Ukraine contains the proviso at the beginning that ‘the following report contains material that you may find distressing’ Every war has its own particular catalogue of horrors but it is now recognised that the battle for Mariupol, crucuial for the Russians to link up the Crimea with their eastern heartland such as Donetz, is practically being razed to the ground. The Russians had apparently transported several of the surviving inhabitants to ‘safety’ in Russia where they going to be dispersed to far-flung Russian towns and probably the equivalent of gulags or concentration like camps. I find it amazing, and appalling, that the rockets fired by the Russians have such destructive power – for example, it appears from the video images that it does not take too much rocketry to completely wreck a whole block of flats or even flatten a shopping centre. It is said that the Russians have targeted not only an Art Gallery but also a school and a residential home for the aged in which the combined casualty toll has got to be huge. The Russians had offered the surviving inhbitants of Mariupol a surrender and transport to places outside the city – but the offer was promptly rejected as the Ukranians argued the Russins could not ever be believed. However, the city is effectivly encircled and tonight it looks, literally, like a fight to the death for the remaining Ukrainan military forces. So by the morning, the most heart-rending decisions have to be taken either to surrender to the Russians or die.
Well, today was the not best of days as we shall discover. At various times last night, I was testing our computer systems to see if internet access had been restored- at my sons suggestion, I turned the router off and then back on again but all of this was to no avail. Via 4-G on our phones, we got onto PlusNet to see what could be done. This included a HELP! call to PlusNet who informed us that the connection down as far as our socket seemed to be OK. My son nd I started work on this lot at 6.15 this morning and we managed to ascertain (lthough my son is much technical than I) that the problem lay in our router. As a complicating factor, as I am taking over this account I ha out in a new email contact and password so we were wondering whether some kind of conflict had been set up and hence we kept on getting ‘failure to authorise’ messages. My son got onto PlusNet and they tried to guide him through what we could possibly do – we had to resort to a bent paper clip and a reset back to factory settings on a number of occasions. At the other end, they thought that we would have to gave recourse to a BT engineer to sort us out. Then between us, my son and I (more him than me) decided to access the router diretly though its own IP address which is a set of four numbers. Eventually, after quite a long wait we had to go through the procedure of an admin password and then my son remembered (or had got written down somewhere) the routers own password that we had used when we set up the sysem about 8 years ago. After a wait of about a minute or so we found that our internet access had been restored. In the meanwhile, we still have an engineer booked between 8.00am and 1.00pm tomorrow so we decided not to cancel this particular call.This is becaise we think that we can probably port our landline number across to PlusNet which, if it works OK, will save us about £25.00 a month. The person at the other end of the phone (the PlusNet employee) thought we could ‘probably’ port our number over but we thought it would still be worthwhole to talk with an actual telecoms engineer before we take a decision. So all of these shenanigans took us the best part of four hours but we felt a little exhausted, but relieved, one we had got things fixed. Last night’s blog had already been written ain a text editor so it was a simple job to cut a cut-and-paste followed by a ‘publish’ button.
Meg and I decided decided that we should still have some to get into the park so we went and occupied our normal bench. Then we met up with out University of Birmingham friend as well as Seasoned World Travellor but we had a little chat before all gping on our various ways, as we all had other things to do this morning. I then walked down to my weely Plates session but we were a little light today with only three of us. Then after an hours stretches, it was a stroll up the hill and a lunch of fish cakes. This afternoon, I felt pretty exhausted what wih the potential after-effects of vaccination jab No. 4 and all of the turmoils of this morning. It was a pretty warm day when I walked down for my Pilates, so in retrospect I could have dispensed with a jumper.
Some news coming out of Kyiv, which is probably juat propaganda, is that some 220 Russian troops are refusing to take part in the invasion (presumably, further pushes into the cities which may involve fighting almost hand-to-hand and street by street. We know that the morale of the Russian conscript forces is quite low in various places. Another argument that is being used to buttress the first argument is that the Ukranians are putting it about that the whole invasion can almost be over in some 2-3 weeks. Evidently, there are some major towns such Mariupol that may be considered a lost cause. But in Kyiv and Lviv which are incredibly stoutly defended, the amount of resistance is inspiring. There have been one or two video clips of the population coming out ‘en masse’ to confront the invading tanks which rather than advancing just retreat. An American tank commander has expressed the view 'That’s a lack of training. You’ve got to get off the roads to manoeuver. The roads are death traps, particularly for armored vehicles, particularly when you’re fighting people that have good anti-tank systems, and the Ukrainians do have good anti-tank systems'. Moreover, I suspect that the British and others have been piling in shoulder-held anti-tank missiles into the Ukraine in in great volumes and this has helped to even up the score somewhat.
The spell of fine weather continues, so it is a case of enjoying the spring sunshine whilst we can. Although Great Britain generally enjoys a ‘north atlantic’ style of weather system in which storms and weather systems sweep across the country, we seem to be enjoying a high pressure system over most of continental Europe. As we know, high pressure systems tend to persist as other low pressure areas ‘bounce’ off them, so that it seems that we will enjoy this good weather for a good few days yet. This plays into our personal plans quite well as tomorrow we intend to make a trip out to another small market town in Worcestershire (Pershore) to see what delights it has to offer. The big day in my personal calendar is this Friday, March 25th, This is for two reasons, the most important being that it my son’s birthday. We shall see some of him this Friday because he is working a little from his ‘office’ which he has in our house and then from mid-day onwards, I am going to run him to the station so that he can go down to London, staying with a friend overnight, whilst the two of them join another party of ‘rail enthusiasts’ starting from Paddington, I believe, and going off to Paignton. I have another reason to have Friday marked in my personal calendar because it is the date when I traditionally start the grass mowing. As experienced gardeners will know, once one starts the season of grass cutting, a hormone is released from the cut grass which stimulates further growth. I tend to delay this first cut as long as I can because I know that once I start, I am then on a weekly regime. The first cut of the season is always quite an arduous one because one has to have the blades set as high as possible and the overall effect always looks a little untidy. This is because I do not have a conventional grass collecting mower but a ‘mulching’ mower in which the grass is cut, thrown upwards and then cut a second time on the way down. When the grass is a normal length, the cut pieces are mulched into the surface of the grass. I have to ensure that I start off with a gallon of freshly drawn, high quality petrol (hopefully low in ethanol) whih will see me through for the first half of the season.
This morning was always going to be a slightly ‘chewy’ morning as we have two appointments in the middle of the day and we had to hold ourselves in readiness for a telecommunications engineer who was coming to check our internet connections/router/ASDL box and he was due any time between 8.00am and 1.00pm. Meg and I made a lightning visit by car to get out our newspapers collected on time and the engineer called us, when we were on the way home (and fortunately could pull in at the side of the road to receive the call) and we were to expect him in 10-15 minutes time. When he arrived he gave our system a good check over and fortunately it was in the best of heart even though router is a little ‘old’ by today’s standards. As our internet provider, PlusNet, had ordered the inspection they were going to pick up the bill. We received some good advice as to whether or not we could convert our existing landline to an add-on with our existing PlusNet package- but this is a discussion for another day. We started to watch the Chancellors ‘Spring Statement’ in which there is particular interest this year as inflation is rapidly rising and the OBR is forecasting the greatest reduction in living standards since modern records began. More of this later, no doubt At about 1.15 I took the car into town as I had a routine optician’s appointment. We always greet each other in the same way which is ‘I cannot believe that it a whole year since our last appointment‘ and then spent a certain amount of time, before we got down to the serious business of an optician’s appointment of discussing our university experiences. I was pleased to learn that my eyes have shown no signficant changes in the last year so as my mother had a history of glaucoma at my age, this is good news. As I was in town already, I popped into the Asda supermarket to buy a few things that I know I can only get in that store so this was a good opportunity. By the time I got home, I was in no mood to cook a conventional lunch so we treated ourselves to a hefty cheese and pickle sandwich as by this time, it was late in the afternoon.
A senior Putin advisor has reportedly resigned from his post and fled Russia. Whether this is an isolated event or the start of a steady stream of ‘rats leaving the sinking ship’ we shall just have to be patient and see.
I had set my alarm to be awakened at 6.30 so that I could have a leisurely breakfast and get to my supermarket of choice by 8.00 in the morning. This worked out very well and I managed to access an ATM for some cash and arrive at the supermarket some 30 seconds after opening time. I think I was about the second or third person in the store but shopping is an almost pleasant experience when you are not having to dodge other shoppers. The shopping have been done, Meg were all set for a little day out to Pershore which is even signposted as a ‘historic Georgian town’. The ‘Visit Worcestershire‘ website indicates that Pershore is an unspoilt, picturesqe market town. The website continues and is fulsome in its praise by declaring that ‘Pershore is famed for its elegant Georgian architecture, magnificent Abbey and the charming River Avon flowing parallel to the High Street.’ We had not read the website before we went and I think we were assuming that it was a bit like Alcester, the town we visited last Thursday but on a larger scale. I must say that our first impressions did not really match up to the hype. Perhaps we got off to a bad start by following the signs to a local carpark which also served an Asda supermarket and although we availed ourselves of a coffee and toasted teacakes in the vicinity of the carpark we really should not have bothered. ‘Ye Olde Worlde Teashoppe” it was not and, I suppose we should not jumped at the first watering hole that we found but taken the time to make a more discerning choice. We wandered up and down the High Street but somehow it failed to make any kind of favourable impression on us. I think that next time we visit (if we do) we should set out to visit the mediaeval abbey and then attempt to walk down by the River Avon, both of which I suppose we should have done today. Not immediately finding anywhere that would offer us the kind of light lunch we would want in the middle of the day, we decided to cut our losses and have lunch at home. On our way home, I stopped off at a garage to get a six-litre plastic can filled with fuel for the lawnmower. As the lawnmower is very frugal, I do not mind buying it the best quality fuel but as it was, then 6.5 litres of the highest quality fuel cost over £11.00 but at least this is only twice a season. Tomorrow is the day for the first mow of the season which is always rather hard work and of course one always the psychological fear once the mower has been dormant for the past six months then will it start and keep running. My next door neighbour who is generally a day or so later than I am to mow has beaten me to it this year but I am hopeful that by tomoroow afternoon, all of the hard work has been done.
News of the Ukrainian war is still filling the airwaves but one particularly dramatic image is the fact that the Ukrainan navy have managed to destroy a Russian landing craft near the coastal city of Berdyansk, as the country marks one month since the invasion began. Pictures appear to show fire and huge plumes of smoke rising into the air near the Sea of Azov port, which has been under Russian control since 27 February. In a statement on Facebook the Ukrainian navy said it had destroyed the Orsk landing ship, a loss not confirmed by Russian authorities. There is an amusing twist to this story as apparently the Russian media had filmed the ship off-loading military equipment as part of a propaganda effort. However, in so doing, the propaganda film indicated the exact location of the ship which was then a target for the Ukranian navy. Two other ships were also damaged and were seen ‘slinking away’. This may be a very small incident in the overall course of the war but the boosts to morale amongst the Ukranian fighting forces must be immense. NATO has been meeting today in Brussels and the urgent question is to work out how to get usable weapons into Ukranian hands so that they can defend themselves. Boris Johnson has pledged 6,000 extra missiles and the UK-supplied anti-tank missiles (fired, I believe, from the shoulder of a single soldier) seem to have been used to devasatating effect. The Ukrainians are asking for tanks and for fighter jets but NATO and other European nations seem to be concentrating on getting weapons into the hands of the Ukrainians that they can use with minimal training in order to slow down, or ameliorate, the worst effects of the assault upon their cities. Some really disturbing news is that Mariupol City Council has claimed that 15,000 residents from the Levoberezhny district have been forcibly deported to Russia.
Well, you never know what a day is going to bring, as we shall see. Today is my son’s birthday and he was going to call round and do a little bit of work in his office here before catching the train to London via Birmingham New Street and he was teaming up with a long standing friend before they went off on a rail tour together. I have had a sniffle for a day or so but I was reminded that so did my friend down the road before he tested positive for Covid. I had intended to give my son a big hug on his birthday (what else?) but a little voice inside me said that I ought to test myself first in case the sniffle was more than that. So I tested myself for COVID and was dismayed to test positive. My wife tested herself and she was negative. My son also tested himself and he was positive. According to the natrional data (a random sample conducted across the UK) the number of infections in the UK has risen by 1 million in the last week and is now 1 in 16 (and as high as 1 in 9 in Scotland) I know that this is a virus that we have to learn to love with from this point on – nonetheless, I cannot suppress a rumbling anger at the government who, utterly beholden to a libertarian right ideology are dismantling controls, testing and testing as rapidly as they can whilst infection rates are soaring. Hopefully, many of the cases will turn out to be mild and transient but I have seen estimates that ‘long covid’ type symptoms can persist in anything from 10%-50% of cases, which to my mind is unacceptably high. So now I am having to change some of my plans for the weekend. Tomorrow night, after church, we intended to go to a concert in our local Anglican Church, St. Johns, at which domations were to be sought to help victims of the aggression in Ukraine. After that, we had been invited to go the house of a mutual friend for a little bit of supper. So I had to write a quick note to my friend saying that Meg and I would not be attending church, or the concert or her little ‘soirée’ all of which is a disappointment to us. But I think it would be massively irresponsible to go ahead with our social engagements as though nothing had happened.
This afternoon was the planned afternoon for the start of the ‘big mow’ of the communal green area in between our houses which is about 500 square yards followed by our own individual lawn. At the start of the season, the mower evidently has to be ‘oiled up’, followed by a check of the air filter and a filling with high-quality petrol well-primed with fuel stabiliser to prevent any ethanol attracting water from the air to contaminate the fuel. After all of this preparation,the mower started at the very first pull of the starting handle which is not bad when it has been idle for about 150 days. I started today’s session with the blades set on the highest of the five ‘notched ‘ settings, but as as I tend to mow the large area twice (once in one direction and then another at right angles to it), I notched the height down a position after the initial run. The mower ran very sweetly, both for the communal area in the front of the house and then for our own lawns which are about 50% of the size of the former. I am pleased to have made a start as all of my neighbours seem to have been mowing for a week or so now.
The Russians will focus on the ‘liberation’ of Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region after mostly completing the first phase of its military operation, Moscow’s defence ministry has said. It claimed that Russian-backed separatists are controlling 93% of Luhansk and 54% of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbass. This will eventually be an extremly hard decision for the Ukrainian government to have to take i.e. wheher to cede some of the country to protect the integrity of the rest of it. One thing that is certain is that when the immediate conflict is over, the rest of the Ukraine will be so well armed that Russia might never be tempted to try and enlarge what gains it manages to make in the present conflict. In a kind of thought experiment, if the Russins were to ‘control’ the whole of the Ukraine, they would have to have some kind of miliary vehicles (tanks, armoured personnel carriers) patrolling the streets. But if every single Ukrainian house were to have an anti-tank missile ready to be fired, then do the Russians have any hope whatsover of actually holding the Ukraine? There are also some reports tonight that a Russian general may have been killed (or possibly just injured) by his own troops. Even if this is ‘untrue’ I am sure that many Ukrainians will believe it to be true and will take heart from it.
The start of another beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. It is a wonderful sight to look out of our upper storey windows and to behold a vista of beautifully cut lawns – but, of course, they are a reminder that they have to be kept that way with a weekly mow. I am also reminding myself that now some of the hard work of spring cleaning the garden actually starts. The basic mowing having been done, the next major task is to edge the lawn and to clear the gullies. I have found over the years that using the edging tool to cut off overhanging grass strands is one thing but the way that our garden is, there are quite a few neighbouring areas and gullies that also have to be cleared. I have found over the years that the best way to do this is by adopting a semi-prone position i.e. lying on one’s side and then utilising a lot of handwork by pulling our perennial weeds by the roots. In the worst affected areas of the garden, this can be a combination of nettles, bamboo and even ivy not to mention varieties of other creeping weeds. When I used to weed my next door neighbour’s garden on a ‘grace and favour’ basis, I once heard a narvellous piece of advice how to get rid of ‘ground elder’, a particularly pernicious type of weed introduced by the Romans I believe and with a habit of reproducing itself from a fragment about as small as half a thumbnail and with a habit of insinutaing itself round the roots of legitimate plants like roses. The advice I had heard was ‘move house’ – in the absence of this, one had to persist for about five years or even more in order to eradicate this pestilent weed from your beloved borders. I am telling myself that I need to do about 20-30 minutes day regularly each day but I evidently need to be self-disciplined about this. As is so often the case with these projects, I intend to start on this ‘tomorrow’. Meg and I walked down to the park today and we occupied our normal bench, admiring the flowering blossom unfolding on the trees in front of us. I left Meg on the bench to save Meg’s legs somewhat whilst I collected the newspaper and then we slowly walked home, enjoying the sunshine whilst it lasts but conscious of the fact that in a few days time, the warm spell will end and we shall have to get used to some icy arctic blasts early on next week. When we we were in the park and knowing that following the ‘Six Nations’ we were going to have women’s international rugby, we thought that a treat was to follow. However, the first scheduled match was between England and Sotland and started at 12.00 midday so we realised that we should just about be in time to watch the second half. As the half time score was someting like 38-5 in the favour of England, it was hardly going to be a competitive second half- or a particularly absorbing one. The Scots made a few bold approaches but seemed to lack the killer punch to make it across the try line at all in the second half.
Some particularly poignant news is emerging in the aftermath of the bombing of the theatre in Maiupol where about a thousand refugees were sheltering (incuding some transported there from a local hospital). A woman who survived the bombing of a theatre in Mariupol has said she believes the panic of the crowd rushing to escape killed more people than the strike itself. The building sheltering more than a thousand civilians in the besieged southern Ukrainian city was bombed by Russia on 16 March. The blast killed around 300 people, authorities in the country have said – which would make it the war’s deadliest attack on civilians. Mariupol resident Maria Radionova, 27, who was among those who made it out alive, has told of the chaos as the bomb hit. Today, President Biden has been in Poland, pledging more support to the Ukraine and also positioning more American troops in the Nato territories that border Russia. He has been making the quite legitimate point that whilst Putin actually wanted and tried to engineer a weakened and divided NATO, he now has the absolute reverse on his door step. Although there is a certain amount of rhetoric in all of this, what divisions may have existed in NATO now appear minimal. The ‘volte-face’ by the German government when they decided on a much energetic and funded defence strategy is of enormous significance and the Japanese are also considering changing their traditional defence policies in the light of Putin’s aggression. Signals from the Russian Government is that they may attempt to concentrate their energies on the eastern Donbas region where Russia has been supporting secessionist Russian-speaking militia since the detachment of Crimea. Western analysts are thinking, in effect, ‘words are cheap’ and let us see what, if anything, happens on the ground.
So British Summer Time (BST) officially started at 1.00am this morning and we are now entering the period known officially as ‘Daylight Savings Time’. All of this means that we now have lighter evenings to which to look forward but at the (slight) cost of slightly darker mornings. The principal task this morning is also to adjust various clocks throughout the house. Fortunately, our computers and radios automatically adjust themselves but I have to remember to adjust the central heating clock (our previous controller used to do this automatically but our current model does not). There is always one device which I can never quite remember how to adjust and in my case, its the oven clock but everything else, as far as I remember, has been adjusted. I seem to think that there was a movement some time ago to go onto what is called ‘Double Summer Time’ i.e. putting the clocks forward by two hours which incidentally aligns us with continental Europe. Actually, in 1968, a three-year experiment was conducted with British Standard Time, keeping the clocks fixed throughout the year on GMT+1. However, the dark winter mornings were unpopular, particularly in Scotland. In 1971, MPs voted to return to the system that endures today. Yet the debate continues about transferring to Single/Double Summertime (SDST) – the current convoluted buzzword. Research showed an 11.7% reduction in road casualties between 1968 and 1971. An extra hour’s light in the evening is thought to offer savings of up to £35m in fuel costs. Crime rates also drop with longer evenings. What is interesting, in these post-Brexit days, is that the idea has never sprung to the fore again but as the energy crisis hits us it may force its way up the agenda in the foreseeable future. Having got up early, amended our clocks and fuelled myself with some instant porridge, I set off for our Sunday newspaper and there was not a soul around (just after 8.00am) as I set off – I suppose all sensible people were busy trying to recoup their extra hour in bed and even the usual accompaniment of joggers and dog-walkers seemed to be absent. On returning home. We watched the ‘Sunday Morning’ show which is a regular Sunday morning fixture and I prepared our elevenses for later on in the morning. I then received a text from my son who was returning from a rail trip and with whom I had an arrangement to pick him up from the station. This Meg and I did but all not gone particularly well on this particular rail trip (booking offices not open when they should be, scheduled trains not running and similar kinds of misfortunes) so our son was not a particularly happy bunny when we picked him up. Then Meg and I went for our ‘normal’ Sunday morning walk to the park and ran across a few of our ‘park regulars’ this morning before we returned home to cook Sunday lunch.
The Ukrainian war is not often a source of amusement but one particular series of incidents is hitting the newspaper columns of papers such as the Sunday Times. At the airport serving Kerson, Moscow first ordered Russian troops, armour, attack helicopters and logistical support vehicles to occupy the airport on February 27. A Ukrainian drone filmed them as they moved in and then opened fire, damaging several helicopters. Undeterred, Russian commanders moved in more helicopters and scores more vehicles. Ukrainian artillery answered with a massive, concentrated bombardment against the airfield on March 7. Footage released by the Ukrainian military shows dozens of flashes lighting up whole sectors of the airfield in rapid succession, with rockets blowing apart the vehicles stationed there. The attack wiped out at least 30 helicopters and dozens more armoured vehicles To cut a very long story short, the Russians have reinforced the airport on ten occasions. Each time, there has been an Ukrainian air strike destroying helicopters and other military equipment. A Russian commander, Lieutenant General Yakov Rezantsev, promptly put himself in the front line to work out was happening – and was promptly taken out by Ukrainian attacks. The Ukrainians themselves cannot believe just how unbelievably stupid the Russian tactics have been. This may be the result of a cultural trait in which the Russian military blindly follow orders and there is little room for any independent ‘thinking’. By contrast, the Ukrainians have shown themselves to be flexible, adaptive and fast-learning and hence the successes that they are enjoying against vastly superior Russian fire power.
Last night, Meg and I attempted to watch some opera videos on ‘YouTube‘ and each of these attempts resulted in disaster (some 5 seconds of video followed by two minutes of ‘buffering’) As my son called round today, we thought we would investigate what was going wrong, as I suspectd that resetting the router during the week had not helped matters. But this afternoon, everything worked as one would have expected so I suppose I was just unlucky to have hit of patch of very low connection speeds last night.
A nice fine day today, but I wonder how long it is going to last. Last week, it was being indicated in the longer range weather forecasts that today the high pressure system which we have been fortunate enough to experience for the last few days is going to break down under the influence of a mass of arctic air moving its way south. So it appears that we may be subject to a bout of rain and perhaps even snow slowly sinking from the north towards the end of the week. This has quite a practical implication for me as I want to get as much of the routine gardening (mainly edging, gully and border clearing) done whilst the weather is fine. Meg and I were a lttle delayed this morning but eventually we got our act into gear and got into town by car, where we picked up the newspaper. Afterwards, we pereginated to our ‘normal’ park bench where we chatted with a couple of regulars, all of us enjoying the sunshine whilst we can, but conscious of the fact that some unpleasant weather is on the way. Then we popped home and finished off the other half of the beef joint that we cooked in the slow cooker yesterday.
As the weather was set fair, I thought I would make a start on the garden tidy-up. As I was assembling my garden tools I was visited by a little furry friend (the local cat who has adopted us – Miggles) so evidently the cat had to have some of its treats. Then I had to look out for the set of handtools which I particularly use in clearing my borders and gullies. The biggest of these is evidently some edge clippers whch I try to keep sharp and in good condition – I tend to put WD-40 or its equivalent on the blades both before and after use. Then I have two or three particular tools without which I would be lost. The most important of these is a weeding tool which has a bit of a swan-neck and then a deep V-shaped notch in its working end. I also have a dandelion rooter which has a long shaft, much needed as dandelion roots can be very long and persistent. Finally, I have a really stout stainless steel trowel. I find I use these three tools constantly and I take care to look after them before I put them away for the night. I ought to mention last but not least are those kinds of gardening gloves that have a fairly ‘grippy’ coating on the front – this enables one to get hold of a weed and give it a long, slow tug in order to clear the roots from the soil. Once I started on my task, I never cease to marvel at the versatility of the human hand which I use to sieve the surface of the soil as well as removing weeds by their roots. I have deliberately set myself rather limited objectives so that I do not absolutely exhaust myself on ‘Day One‘ and I managed to achieve a clearance of one third of the long border by the side of our green communal areas at the front of the house.
Perhaps I do not need to mention that in all of my gardening activities this afternoon, my efforts were supervised at all times by Miggles the cat. After leaping about in the sunshine as though to capture imaginary beasts, the cat decided to show off by climbing as far as it could up the ‘acer campestre‘ (field maple) I planted some years back. When the cat got to the stage where each branch swayed perilously and was in danger of shedding the cat back to earth, Miggles turned around and decided it was time to beat a retreat before a bout of lying around in the sun. Then it was obvious that it needed to sit on a patch of cleared earth about 9″ in advance of where I was working. I rather think the cat thinks that some strange beastie is going to appear from the earth and weeds as the border gets cleared and is getting itself in a good position to leap on it. After an hour, I packed up my tools, had a nice cip of tea and left the cat to walk up and down the patch of fresh earth I had just cleared ( a pettern of behaviour I have witnessed before. More of these activites tomorrow, I am sure, if the weather holds up.
There are hints tonight in advance of further peace talks tomorrow in Turkey and Russia and the Ukraine are edging towards each other. Each side has conceded an ‘easy’concession – the Ukrainians are indicaing that a ‘neutral’ i.e. non-NATO Ukraine could be on the cards whilst the Russians have claims to take over the wjole of the country. The really difficult bit to negotiate is how much of the east of the country to cede in exchange for peace. As it is now, Zelenskyy has said he was seeking a ‘compromise’ with Moscow over Donbas, the region which has been partly controlled by Russian-backed separatist groups since 2014.
It was another fine day today so I am keen to make progress with the gardening as soon as it can be fitted in. I went off into town to collect the newspaper, which once accomplished, meant that Meg and I could just walk to the park without the additional journey to the newspaper shop for Meg. It was certainly a cooler and more overcast day and we can feel that a change in the weather system is underway. It started to brighten a little half way through the morning so we were pleased to get home in good time so that I could get an hour’s border clearance in before lunch. We had our traditional Tuesday afternoon lunch of fishcakes which were as satisfying as usual and then, after a swift coffee, I was off out again to complete the gardening. I just managed to catch a little snatch of the memorial service for Prince Philip, and although it seemed ‘touch and go’ whether the Queen could make it on this occasion, I was very pleased for her that she managed to do so. The service was cut down to size to make it not too overlong for the monarch and some sensible corners were cut e.g. she entered Westminster Abbey through a side door to cut down on the amount of walking and she leant on the arm of one of her grandsons (William?) to take her seat and upon leaving. Ever since Prince Philip awarded me my MSc at the back end of 1969, I have always had a soft-ish spot for Prince Philip if not other members of the Royal Family. I suspect that Prince Philip’s gaffes, non-PC utterances and other sayings could well fill quite a voluminous book. One of the more polite ones was his exhortation to British industry to ‘get your finger out’ – this in response to an appeal to raise British productivity which always seems to have been lagging behind the economies of our competitors.
Today if there hadn’t been wars and Royal events to divert the public, we know that 20 letters were to be received about by about 20 members of the Downing Street staff and although the identity of the recipients has not been revealed, it seems as though Boris Johnson is not among them. One has to say ‘yet’ because all of the indications are that Scotland Yard is going to be concentrating upon the ‘low hanging fruit’ i.e. the apparently ‘open and shut cases’ where there is no real dispute and, having submitted questionnaires to the police, the recipients must have been expecting them. Receiving a ‘fixed penalty notice’ in this way in not a criminal offence but could become one if you were to refuse to pay the fine. I suspect that the decision to send Boris Johnson a fixed penalty notice or not will be taken at the highest possible level in view of the political sensitivities involved. Would it go as high as the Commissioner of Police who is currently serving out her notice or her acting deputy one wonders?
And so for the final tranche of gardening that I had set for myself this afternoon.I intended to set myself a couple of hours with a tea break in the middle – as it happened, I achieved my objective with two minutes to spare. Needless to say, I was ably assisted by Miggles the cat, who at one point sat about two feet in front of the patch upon which I was working but with a tail in the way of my trowel. Needless to say, I had to move the cat’s tail out of my working area at which the animal took the point and found something else to do. The weeding having been done, I have two options open to me. The first which I was a little tempted by, was to purchase some forest bark and spread over the border which would look tremendous. However, how successul it would be at weed suppression is another question. I will probably go for the second alternative which i have tried before and has worked well in the past. This is to dig the whole with the aid of a particular type of spade with a pointed blade which I have found particularly useful in the past for accessing tricky areas beween shrubs and trees. I must say that I am rather fond of digging and find it so much easier than hand weeding. In addition, I absolutely love the appearance of newly dug soil. I tend to keep the spade-fulls of soil fairly intact and chunky as experience has told me over the years that weed seeds find it more dfficult in this type of terrain. Besides, if you have done the digging effectively, then many of the weed seeds at or near the surface get buried a good 6"-9″ under.
Today was going to be a day of self-imposed deadlines, as we shall see. There were two factors that governed today, the most important being trying to see if I could get a 36′ foot garden border dug over before the rains took over. But a second deadline, very much associated with Wednesdays, was that it was PMQ’s (Prime Minister’s Questions) at 12.00am today. So I popped down to get the daily newspaper and made a lightning visit to get some of the things I always seem to run out the day before I go shopping first thing on Thursday morning. Meg and I strolled down to the park where we chatted with some of the regulars (mainly dog walkers). One very persistent dog even insisted on dropping a ball at our feet, desperate for it to be thrown in order that it could be retrieved. When at first we didn’t comply, the dog brought the ball even nearer to us in case we hadn’t got the hint. Eventually, I succumbed and kicked it away to the dog’s evident delight. Meg and I managed to get home in time for the Boris Johnson show but I honestly wondered why I bothered. As the police had handed out at least 20 ‘Fixed Penalty Notices’ to Downing Street staff, subsequent to their evident ‘partifying’, then there appeared to be an open and shut case of Boris Johnson having lied to (or misled) the House of Commons when last December he had repeatedly denied any illegalities. But somehow the opposition and Keir Starmer never manage to land a particularly telling blow and with 70 MP’s behind him cheering his every utterance, one wonders whether Boris Johnson would be equally successful if he just stood up and answered ‘Blah! Blah! Blah!’ . Even when asked a direct question about his own venality, Boris Johnson does seem to have an ability to return to an ‘ad hominem’ (personal attack) to roars of approval from the benches behind him. It is at times ike these that I despair for the democratic process.
Having consulted the weather app on my iPhone, I know that there was a 30% chance of rain by 3.00pm so at about 1.45 I set about my digging task with a vengeance. What was to slow me down somewhat was the fact that I had to contend with several underground tree roots from the hawthorn and the field maple (‘acer campestre‘) so these had to be navigated with a degree of care, just turning over an inch or so of soil when the roots impeded. Needless to say, my work was well supervised by Miggles the cat who first climbed half way up a tree to impress me and then sat impassively at the start of the border just to check that I was doing a good job. I was planning to get finished by 3.00pm this afternoon but the smattering of rain arrived about 15 minutes too early and I had to rather hurry my last 20-30 spadefuls. Nonethess, I was very satisfied to have got the job finished and I am going to wait until we get a burst of late afternoon sunshine (which is not uncommon) to administer a dressing of lime to help to ‘sweeten’ the soil before I contemplate what to do with the border. The way I feel at the moment is that I will let the earth and lime settle a little and will then rake it to a fine tilth. Then I think it is a case of a row of leafbeet, a row of beetroot and a row of leeks, all of which should be quite easy to tend in the weeks ahead.
There is a report circulating this evening, albeit from an American political source with a commensurate ‘spin’ , that ‘ Putin’s military chiefs are too afraid to tell him the truth’. However, it is reported that the Russian leader feels he has been ‘misled’ about the country’s failures on the battlefield in Ukraine. According to the offiical, information on those losses and the impact of sanctions is not being fed to Mr Putin ‘because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth. We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth‘ the official said on condition of anonymity. Before we triumphically crow about the superiority of western liberal values, practically the same comments could have been made about ex-President Trump i.e. that none of the Republican Party would tell him to his face that he had substantially lost (rather than won) the presidential election. Perhaps, in bygone days in the USSR when there was a more collectivist rather than individualistic style of leadership, members of the PolitBureau might have been a restraining influence upon Putin. But once a leader in any political system acquires and weilds a tremendous amount of centralised power, it is almost inevitable that alternative and more cautious voices are not heard.
Thursdays are the days when we get up early to go shopping and I was waiting outside the door of the supermarket at a minute or so before 8.00am as planned. Now that I have started (again) to go to this somewhat smaller supermarket, I know where everything is to be found but there are always one or two things we would like to have which are not stocked. One particular ‘treat’ in Aldi once the main food shopping has been done is to wander up and down the cenral aisles which are stocked with a variety of household and gardening type things. Today, I succumbed to temptation and bought one of those 40 litre garden tubs that are worth their weight in gold when it comes to gardening clearance tasks because it minimises the amount of time you are up and down to fill the main gardening compost wheelie bin. When I got home, I checked the price I paid against the price that Amazon is charging and was pleasantly surprised that the Aldi price was about 60% what you pay for an equivalent product from Amazon. What tends to ‘go’ on these tubs are the handles, particularly if you snatch at the handle when full.
Well, we knew that the weather was going to worsen today and so it did. To be honest, it was not universally bad but one of those days when there is a sharp shower following by an intense burst of sunshine. Knowing how variable the weather is, Meg and I decided to take the option of collecting the newspaper by car, which we did. Then we drove to the top entrance of the park and made our way to our normal bench. Needless to say, the park was bereft of children, dogs, dog walkers and the like and only the most foolhardy of walkers ventured out. But no sooner had we sat down than we were assailed by an icy blast with a considerable wind chill factor – accordingly, we drank our coffee as quickly as possible and then immediately struck for home. We had a curry meal in the freezer so we supplemented this for our midday meal.
This afternoon, I intended to go out and do a little ‘finishing off’ of the border I had cleared yesterday. No sooner did I look out of the window after lunch, though, but a snow shower hove into view which was eventually followed by some bright sunshine. So I had to wait until a suitable moment came along when I judged that the showers had now passed us by. What I had in mind to do today was to take yesterday’s border and creae a deep ‘V’-shaped edge to it by taking a spade- full of earth and then throwing it forwards rather than just turning it over. This way, in theory, you end up with a fairly deep ‘edge’ to the border in which any grass cutting from the lawn shears falls into the ‘base’of the ‘V’ from whence they do not have to be collected but can just be pushed down into the soil by the lawn shears where they will rot. If this sounds complicated, it is because I am always trying to develop techniques which, in the long term will both save time and does not add unnecessarily to the organic matter to be thrown away. The second little task I did this afternoon was to take a trusted and very light weight push mower and to do the ‘fiddly’ areas around bushes and the border edge itself so that, when I do the main mowing tomorrow, the task will be so much easier. The theory of this is fine if the grass is relatively short (which it is not, just yet) and if the grass is not too wet and ‘clingy’. As it was, the task proved a little bit harder today than I had bargained for but as a ‘dual-cut’ technique, it seemed to work very well when it was difficult to heave the very heavy battery-driven model of lawn mower I once had through tight and fiddly spaces. I suspect that my task may have been made slightly more difficult because one of the lightweight mower’s roller adjustment screws seems to have gone AWOL (in other words dropped off) so given a few spare minutes, I shall have to see if this can be fixed somehow.
There is a certain ‘gung-ho!’ atmosphere in the media tonight with reports that the war in the Ukraine may be approaching a turning point as it appears evident that Putin may well have overreached himself. There are multiple stories to the effect that Putin faces a mutinous army and a cadre of officials who dare not speak ‘truth to power’. But I suspect that many of these stories are part of a ‘psychological ops’ campaign by the west. The difficulties in ejecting the Putins of this world from power are immense (think of Robert Mugabwe in Zimbabwe) and I personally think we would all be better off if we were to think of a campaign in the Ukraine which might be a long war of attrition that last months or years rather than weeks.
Today is the day when traditionally schoolchildren, as well as others, used to play ‘April Fool’s‘ tricks upon each other. I get the feeling that this is done far less than used to be the case in the past but I am reminded of one of the greatest hoaxes of all time. The authoritative BBC current affairs was Panorama and they always chose a subject for the program of great topical interest. The presenter was the eminent broadcaster, Richard Dimbleby, who added a great air of authority to whatever he did. The 1st April, 1957 fell on a Monday and this was a Panorama broadcast day. From somewhere came the idea that Richard Dimbleby would do a report on gathering in the spaghetti harvest from a field full of spaghetti trees. The spaghetti-tree hoax was a three-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools’ Day 1957 by the BBC current-affairs programme Panorama, purportedly showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the family ‘spaghetti tree’. At the time spaghetti was relatively unknown in the UK, so many British people were unaware that it is made from wheat flour and water; a number of viewers afterwards contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees. Decades later, CNN called this broadcast ‘the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled’. No doubt, this can be viewed on YouTube to see a clip of the full story but many, many people were convinced for years afterwards that spaghetti grew on trees.
Today the weather was as variable as yesterday although just a tad warmer, as the wind was a little less cutting. In view of the very changeable weather conditions, I collected the newspaper by car and then Meg and I went down to the park by car rather than our usual walk. This was just as well because having had our coffee on the usual bench, it was no weather to be sitting about and the park was practically deserted in any case. So we got home to cook a traditional Friday midday meal. This week I had bought some smoked hake from Aldi last Thursday and preparation and cooking was minimal as all that was required was to wrap the fish in tinfoil and then bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes. This turned out to be absolutely delicious – I served the fish with a knob of butter and some horseradish sauce – I think I first ate horseradish sauce with smoked meat/fish at a holiday in Austria and it is rather a good combination. So I am hoping that this will be a regular ‘line’ at Aldi and not just a one-off.
Straight after lunch, it was lawn cutting time. Although the weather seemed OK when I started, some flurries of either sleet or snow threatened but unfortunately these clouds were quite soon swept aside. The lawn mowing was unproblematic for the second week in a row but the grass is now down to its ‘regular’ height so all I have to do I to keep up a good weekly routine from now until 5th November – my traditional end of the mowing season. After I had finished the routine mowing, I turned my attention to the lightweight handmower I occasionally use instead of the main mower for cutting edges and tricky areas around trees and shrubs. This particular model had an adjustable little back roller which is adjustable by the means of spring loaded spigots. All was fine at one end but the other was more free floating so I was not sure if a securing bolt had dropped off without my knowledge. I set myself the task of fixing the errant end in a fixed position (as I don’t intend to keep on adjusting it) so this involved hunting threw a tin of old screws to find a screw that would double as a spigot. I managed to find one that was marginally too small in the thread so I improvised by wrapping some back tape round it to make the thread ‘bite’ At this stage, I must say that one man’s ‘bodge up’ is another person’s ‘innovative solution adapting whatever materials one has to hand’.
Tonight there are a variety of report concerning the situation in the Ukraine. One the one hand, it does appear that the Russians are withdrawing troops from around Kyiv and it may well be that they have determined that they cannot, and will not, attempt to take the Ukrainian capital. On the other hand, they are probably concentrating and redeploying their forces in the east of the country in the Donbas region (principally but not excusively Russian speaking). Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross are desperately trying to deliver aid to the southern port city of Mariupol where 5,000 have been killed and 170,000 are still trapped and struggling without food, water, or electricity, according to the mayor. It has failed today but is hoping to organise a convoy of coaches tomorrow (Saturday)
It seemed quite a bright and cheerful day today and we were in a good mood as we contemplated the rest of the weekend. As we were having breakfast, we turned on ClassicFM on the kitchen radio, which is quite normal for us, but when it came to a ‘tumpty-tum’ type of Strausss walz which is not really our cup of tea, we flipped onto Radio 3. Quite by accident, we landed on a programme which, first thing on a Saturday morning, is called ‘Record Review‘ (I think) The musiciologists were discussing what they considered to be some of the finest recent recordings of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ which, as it happens, is probably our favourite opera.This programme turned out to be absolutely facinating because they were taking each of the individual aria, discussing its context and then playing what they thought was the finest of the recent recordings. As we know the opera very well, it was an extraordinarily good listen to experience the dissection of each aria by the musicologists and we listened in rapt attention until the program concluded. So this was a bonus way to start the day. By this time, we were a little late so Meg and I went to collect the newspaper by car. Then we parked in the bottom carpark in the park which meant that we were allowing ourselves a much longer walk around the lake. We had our normal coffee and comestibles and then, on the way home, we parked for a minute outside the house of our Irish friends. We were soon spotted and then the four of us had a brief chat to catch up on the week’s news and our various comings and goings. We got back to the house just in time for the 1.00pm news on Radio 4 which on a Saturday is always followed by ‘Any Questions‘. There was an interesting discussion amongst the panellists (followed up by the subsequent programme which is ‘Any Answers’) dominated by the two big issues of the day, namely the cost of living crisis on the one hand, followed by the bureaucracy concerning the issue of visas to Ukrainian refugees on the other.
This afternoon, I had set myself to at least make a start on a little gardening job. This is to edge and neaten up the edge of our communal green area which borders our access road. I know there are 20 yards of this as evidently when the roadway was laid down, measures were still in feet and yards (and not metric) as each kerb stone is 36″ long. I managed to achieve about a third of the total this afternoon. The task is not as simple as it sounds as I like to ensure that the grass abuts and does hang over the kerbstone so this generally involves using a succession of implements in a sequence such as an edging tool, conventional edge clippers and even a knife which is run down the inside of the kerbstones. Once it has been done for the season, it should be relatively easy to keep it in good conditiuon, but as always, the first cut of the spring is always the worst. When I had finished this, I was going to give myself a treat which is to watch the Wales vs. Scotland Women’s Six-Nations rugby. In the first half, the Scots were dominant with a lot of possession and some really fast line speeds. But in the second half the positions completely reversed themselves. About 5 minutes from the end, the scores were tied and then the Welsh scored a try which they converted. But then the Scots came back hard and were within an ace of scoring a try after the clock had gone red but a ‘play’ was still in process. All ended in tears for the Scots when a pass went forward but it was one of those matches that could have ended in a tie, or a Welsh win, all the way to the final whistle.
There seems to be a lot going on for the Sunday newspapers to get their teeth into tomorrow. On the Ukraine front, it looks as about 30 areas around Kviv have been recaptured by the Ukrainians. A Red Cross convoy is still attempting a mass evacuation from Mariupol but whether they will be successful is too early to say. A Tory MP has had the whip withdrawn for ‘inappropriate behaviour” and Rishi Sunak is having to defend his wife’s massive investments in Russia. Partygate rumbles on – but will the press manage to discover any of the identities of the Downing Street staff who have fined? Meanwhile, people are taking to the street in many of our major cities whilst the citizenry protests against crippling cost-of-living increases. Tomorrow may well prove to be a good read if any of our press get their teeth into any or all of these stories – but it won’t be the first time that the Sunday press fails give the issues the coverage that they deserve.
Today was one of those bright and clear days when it had evidently been very cold overnight and there had been an air frost overnight. So it was reasonably cold when I popped down to get our Sunday newspaper before returning home in time for the Sunday politics programme. I understand that Laura Kuenssberg, the ex-chief BBC political correspondent is going to take over as the permanent presenter of this programme now that Andrew Marr has moved on. So I suppose we will have to get used to a series of political interviews in which punches get pulled and really penetrating questions are avoided. Those who do ask penetrating questions like Emma Barnett tend to get moved on. After breakfast, we decided to take the car down to the park and in the park we met with our Irish friends (who we happened to have a chat with yesterday) Having exchanged our news, we strolled up to our normal bench and drank our coffee. Then our two park friends, University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller, hove into view and we chatted exchanging news of the week (usually a comibination of COVID news, interspersed with politics) We were joined by another couple we know well and then we made our way home for Sunday lunch. Today, I was cooking a gammon joint on the slow cooker and to complement this I prepared a carrot-and-parsnip mixture, mashed with a big knob of butter and a touch of yogurt and this all got served with some tender-stem broccoli. So although Sunday lunch always takes a little longer to prepare, we tend to take whatever joint we are having and to freeze one half of it. This way, we consume enough ‘red meat’ to keep us healthy but we keep our overall consumption within healthy limits.
After lunch, I was determined to get out and carry on with a little bit of gardening. In particular, I wanted to do another section of the lawn edging of the communal green area alongside which runs our communal roadway. The lawn edging is quite a complicated procedure and involves taking a six feet section, edging with lawn sheers, using a specialist edging tool on the ‘lawn side’ to cut off any deep roots, then utilising an old bread knife that I have saved for this particular purpose and finishing off with one of those more specialist tools used to weed in between the stones of a patio. I then finish off with the edging sheers at an almost horizontal angle and finally all of the grass cuttings are gathered up with a gloved hand. In case this sounds complicated, it is but then I tend to develop these techniques and ways of utilising my hand tools but then I forget the procedures if I have not utiised them for a year or so. In such cases, I need to do what I do when I have discovered how to do something on the computer and that is to write it down so I don’t forget it, in a specialised ‘Gardening’ book I keep for the purpose. Once I have got things put right for the season, it tends to require relatively little maintenance – tomorrow, I have the final third of the entire length to finish off.
The news from the Ukraine is particularly grim this evening. Images have emerged of Ukrainian civilians lying dead on the streets of Bucha with residents saying the victims were killed by Russian soldiers without any apparent provocation. Vladimir Putin’s forces have been accused of ‘genocide’, but Russia has denied its troops killed civilians. Bucha’s mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk, said more than 300 residents had been killed. Ukrainian prosecutors have found 410 bodies in towns near Kyiv and 140 of them had been examined, prosecutor general Iryna Venedyktova said. Reports have indicated that some bodies have been found in which the vistims were bound hand and foot and they were then shot in the back of the head. This is undoubtedly a ‘war crime’ but who exactly gets prosecuted under these circumstances – can individuals be sought out and identified in the chain of command who could eventually be prosecuted? A lot of evidence is currently being collected to be used in evental war crime charges but I fear that it may take years (if ever) for a successful prosecution.
Meg and I both slept in this morning for a reason we cannot discern – after our early morning cup of tea, we both fell asleep again for about three quarters of an hour. I tell myself we must have both needed the sleep. The day opened as a ‘grizzly’ kind of day with a sort of sky I would describe as ‘glowering’. Meg was not feeling too well this morning so after our cooked breakfast, I walked down to collect the newspaper on my own. Afterwards, I took the opportunity to pop into Waitrose because there were several things that we can only buy at Waitrose so we have to do without until I make a special trip. So I lugged a bag of fairly heavy shopping up the hill and was pleased to get home and have a nice, but delayed, cup of coffee. As I have almost finished my big edging job, I am motivated to keep this edge to the lawn in good condition so I went on the web and treated myself to what is described as ‘Long handled patio weeding knife’. Although I could have bought cheaper I ensured that I bought myself with a long handle (160cm), from a recognised make (Kent and Stowe) and with a warranty that they say lasts for 10 years. The point about the long handle is that I know from experience you get a lot of leverage and it saves a lot of back-bending – I am hopeful that because of its design and quality, all I have to do on a weekly or fortnightly routine is to pull the knife immediately adjacent to the kerbing and I should be able to maintain the edge in pristine condition right throughout the growing season. I started to wonder whether I had any tools that would assist me in this task and I knew that several years ago, frustrated by several long handled tools that keep falling over in the box in the garage in which they were located. I had bundled several of these tools toegther with some tree ties and generally forgot about them. When I examined this bundle again this morning, I discovered a wonderful implement I never knew I had. I have no idea what this kind of implement is called but from a basic ‘L’ shape there is the equivalent of a half circle removed (approximately orange size) but with a sharp edge. I suspect that this implement is designed to pull through the ground and to slice through small but hidden roots but this is only a conjecture. I took this newly discovered implement and together with a small, liberated hoe and my trusty garden edge shears I gave them all a good cleanup with a brillo pad, then an oiling with WD-40 type oil to keep rust at bay and finally gave them all on a sharpen using a Spear and Jackson ‘5-in-1’ blade garden blade sharpening tool. This latter even had a tiny phial of a specialised rust-resisting oil complete with applicator sponge that resides within the body of the tool itself and is accessed by a plastic screw. I think the idea is that any tiny shards of metal created by the sharpening process can be wiped away and the oil keeps your tool in a rust free condition.
Whilst thinking about keeping my tools in good conditiion, I reminded myself when I used to teach sociology to College of Education students from 1969-1971. As it transpired, lecturing was quite a disconcerting experience for me as I taught in the college’s one tiered lecture theatre in which even the first row was a step above ground level. This was the hey-dey of the miniskirt and every single teenage girl wore one – but what was especially disconcerting was that as each girl occupied a seat and then crossed her legs (which they all seemed to do) then by looking straight ahead of me I could see the colour of each pair of knickers all across the front row. It is slightly difficult to explain Marx’s theory of dialectic materialism when faced with this distraction. On one occasion, I was letting a bit of social anthropology creep into a lecture and was desperate to avoid the use of the use of words ‘tool’. Eventually hesitating when I wanted to use the word and substituting ‘implement’ or a similar synonym my mind raced ahead of me and I thought that I had better grasp the bull by the horns as it were. So I thought I had better say the word ‘tool’ at some point – what came out ‘And so there is a general cultural prohibition of handling the tools of the opposite sex’. I may have giggled or smiled just after I said it, but what ensued was a pandemonium of laughter from which it took minutes to recover.
On a more serious note, I did finish all of my edging including cutting the grass back from two access manhole covers associated with our BioDisk system which I need to keep clear of grass and weeds in case the maintenance engineer needs to lift either of these covers to inspect the correct workings of the system.
Tuesday is my Pilates day so we always have a somewhat earlier routine on a Tuesday. Nonetheless, we made a fairly early start walking down to the park a little earlier. I had previously picked up our newspaper in the car as well as some milk from Waitrose so Meg and I had a leisurely walk in the sunshine but with a little cooling wind. In the park we met up with our octogenarian intrepid hiker who, according to his trekking routine, is half way up or down the Grand Canyon in his latest app which simulates his walk for him (all organised by his medic daughter-in-law) On our way back home, we were a little delayed by bumping into some of our church friends who we have not seen for about a week or so. We were delighted to chat over gardening related things but we had to take our leave fairly quickly in order to effect my quick Pilates turn around. After my Pilates session and a traditional (for us) lunchtime of haddock fish cakes, we idly wondered if there was anything remotely interesting on the TV. We noticed that there was a going to be a showing of Peter Sellars in ‘The Pink Panther‘ and although I watched the first 20 minutes or so of it, I found it strangely unfunny after all of these years. So I engaged in a little cleaning job which was a little irksome for me. This morning, I had delivered my high quality long-handled patio weeding knife. But when I took off the tightly wrapped black plastic wrapping, there were some strange black marks that spoilt the appearance of the otherwise beautiful ash handle. Whether this was a result of the manufacturing process, or the wrapping or even the transportation who can say, but it was not very pleasant to take delivery of a new item which you immediately have to clean. I used some cream cleaner and I thought the stains would be surface deep and easy to remove but that was not the case. Afterwards, I treated the shaft with some teak oil to preserve its natural sheen and then a WD-40 treatment of the cutting edge so presuming we have a fine day next Friday, I can then put it to its first use. In the late afternoon, we were due to FaceTime some of our old Waitrose friends but we got some messages to the effect that they had contracted COVID – so we sent them our good wishes and trust that as they are quite well vaccinated-up then any affliction might only be a short-lived one.
The news from Bucha, the town in the Ukraine now abandoned by the Russians, is truly horrifying. It now looks as though victims were tortured whilst some had limbs hacked off. Several corpses with bound hands and feet and then signs of fatal bullet wounds to the head and chest have been discovered. The Russians, for their part, have been showing the images of the bodies lying in the streets of Bucha but with the caption ‘Fake News‘ in bold red type all over the images. The Russians are claiming that the ‘bodies’ were just actors who were ‘playing dead’ and had simulated wounds cosmetically applied to them as part of a Ukrainian propaganda push. However, this claim is easily shown to be the nonsense that it is because the West had access to satellite photos showing bodies lying around in the streets for days, and perhaps even weeks, well before the Russians departed. All wars exhibit some elements of depravity but these must rank high in the annals of atrocities once the final story is told.
We were having an interesting discussion in the park the other day whether Putin suffers from the ‘little man’ or ‘Napoleon’ complex i.e. the theory that leaders of less than average stature are unduly aggressive in their behaviour patterns. There are several problems with this popular analysis. Whilst it is true that most political leaders tend to be of more than average height, the likes of Putin may be relatively smaller than the average leader but not necessarily markedly different from the rest of the population. Putin, for example, is 5’7″ which does not make him of incredibly short stature. It could be argued that the relative absence of height has marked psychological correlates (including the need to achieve, for example) but all of these explanations are a little too simplistic. There used to be a parallel argument about the effects of an extra ‘Y’ chromosome and criminality but all of these types of arguments suffer from the same fundamental logical flaw. That is there may be an equal proportion of leaders of less than average stature/men with an extra ‘Y’ chromosome that do not exhibit any particular behaviour patterns. In fact, multiple regression analysis tends to show that many of the attributed effects of an extra ‘Y’ chromosome can be attributed to a lowered intelligence level. So perhaps that puts all of those types of argument to bed for the time being.
Today was to all intents and purposes the typical April day with many showers followed by bursts of sunshine. In view of the variable weather conditions, Meg and I decided that we would pay our visit down into Bromsgrove by car. On our way down, we popped off a new wire brush for the benefit of our friend who was busy restoring one of the pair of flower stands that adorns our local church. Most churches, irrespective of denomination involved, tend to be a blaze of spring flowers with which to adorn the church over Easter and this year, Easter Sunday falls on one of the latest dates possible. Having collected our newspaper, we then paid a visit to Waitrose and, in particular, which has just re-opened fully after bing closed for the best of two years (to be fair, it did open for a short period in between lockdowns) But now it seems to be one of the few cafes in the Waitrose network that has been reprieved. We were pleasantly surprised to see the cafe was practically full and we got the last available table. By happy chance, on the next door was our old park friend, Seasoned World Traveller, so we had a fascinating conversation over a whole range of subjects – we spent a good half an hour and perhaps even more in the most conducive of surroundings. Neither of us would have appreciated being rained upon in the park so it was wonderful to be back. One of the staff who knows us particularly well gave us a little ‘Welcome Back‘ present of one of the small Waitrose hessian bags which will prove tremedously useful to us as it just the right size to accommodate our newspapers and one or two small items of shopping. Then we returned home and had extensive chats with our domestic help who has swopped her normal Friday day for today. She and her husband are due to go off to Venice shortly to enjoy a delayed wedding anniversary trip – as they actually got married in Venice, they are hoping to retrace some of their steps and experiences from their wedding/honeymoon days. We are hopeful that they will get away in time as I have just read in The Times that there has been chaos at Manchester Airport with the director resigning and walking out in the midst of airport chaos and the police are having to step in to restore a modicum of order. But as our friends are leaving from Bristol airport and not one of the large metropolitan ones, and so perhaps the omens are set fair for an uneventful trip. We have promised some interesting photos once they are safely there.
This afternoon I thought I would pop out do a bit of gardening, but everytime I was thinking about it, there seemed to be an imminent shower and the subsequent sunshine did not last for very long. Eventually, I decided that even if the sun was shining, the gound was likely to be soggy or even downright muddy so I decided to write off all thoughts of gardening for the day.
The latest Omicron virus figures are hgher than ever and the latest rates show that 1 in every 16 people in the country are infected by the virus. The infection is by the mildest version and some peopke have no symptoms or just the slightest sniffle to indicate that they have the virus. Evidently, we are in the phase of the pandemic where we are ‘learning to live’ with the virus but to withdraw the free availability of the lateral flow tests appears to be premature by at least a couple of weeks. Whilst the economy can still function as barely infectious personnel resume their work roles, the possibilities seem to be immense that a new variant might well arise. There is no law of biological viral evolution that indicates that one mutation of the virus should prove to be less dangerous i.e. able to generate a severe illness, than another. Therefore it is quite possible that we are living in a ‘fool’s paradise’ and another variant of the virus might be around the corner to bite us severely in the behind.
Tomorrow, whilst it is our normal shopping day, we may take the opportunity to make another little visit to Droitwich is about some seven miles away from us. Droitwich has several attractions for us, not least the Waitrose and Wilko stores both of which we like to visit but also some congenial coffee shops and interesting charity shops. There is also an ‘Olde Worlde’ type teashop which every Thursday puts on a magnificent roast dinner – these are so popular that space is limited and one has to book to ensure a chance of a meal. So we shall see how we feel in the morning but Droitwich is always a pleasant little toddle for us and has the advantage of being quite compact which cuts down on the amount of walking that Meg has to do.
Today was the type of day that I would describe as ‘glowering’ in that it was generally overcast with just some slight bursts of sunshine that did not seem to last very long. But there seemed to be a very strong and blustery wind which made any kind to the park an unpleasant prospect. We were a little late this morning because, as is normal on a Thursday, I had got to the supermarket to go shopping and all of this worked out as planned. One of the joys of Aldi is that after the food shopping has been done, there are always the ‘central aisles’ in which there are a variety of household and hardware type goods (probably remainders from high quality manufacturers) in which you are never quite sure whether you find something useful. Last week, for example, I bought from the central aisle one of those incredibly useful garden ‘Flexi Tubs’ as Amazon calls them – needless to say, they had practically all gone by today which is typical for incredibly good bargains which shoppers are wont to snap up. Today, I was wondering whether it was possible to buy some more pyjamas for Meg as the ones we bought about a month ago have proved to be excellent. Today, though, I picked up what is advertised as a children’s ‘athlete’ suit and looking at the size of the garment which would fit a 13-14 year old child, I was sure they would double as an extra pair of pyjamas for Meg. So I took a chance and bought them and they have proved to be an excellent purchase insofar as we can tell – let’s hope that they survive their first immersion in the washing machine without shrinkage tomorrow morning. After we had unpacked the shopping, neither Meg nor I felt inclined to go on a trip to Droitwich as it was so windy and unpleasant. Instead, we went by car and treated ourselves to a coffee in the newly opened coffee lounge in our local Waitrose we have now started to frequent once more. I bought a few things I had forgotten in the morning shop and then it was home for a lunch of quiche.
Friday (tomorrow) is the day when I routinely cut our grassed areas, both the communal areas to the front of the house and our own private lawns to the rear. Whulst my trusty ‘Stiga’ (Swedish) mulching mower does a wonderful job, I also bought some years back an extremely light weight push mower (about 7 kg in total). As well as being a backup in the case of a total failure of the petrol mower, I have in the past used my lightweight push mower to cut one of the long borders which can prove tricky when two of the wheels are on the grass and the other two overhang the edge. I have been doing some research on the exact differences between conventional rotary mowers and the new generation of lightweight push mowers and this is what I have discovered (from the web) A reel ( or push) mower cuts grass like a pair of scissors. It has blades that spin around a central axis. The spinning blades create an updraft that causes grass to stand up straight for cutting. As the grass meets the cutting bar, a blade comes down to chop it. A reel mower can either be a push (human-powered) or powered (petrol, electric), although push reel mowers are more common around home. A rotary mower is what most people think of when they think of petrol or electric mowers. It has a single blade that spins around to cut the grass, like a helicopter. The blade whacks at the grass to cut it. When it comes to comparing the actions of these two types of mower at the ‘micro’ level, then the push reel mowers literally cut the blades of grass whereas the rotary mowers just whack it, by rotating a blade at high speed. A ‘clean cut’ is undoubtedly better for the grass than just a ‘whack’. When I come to clean up the push mower, I appreciate how very sharp the blades actually are and if the mower is properly adjusted (which mine appears to be) then you can actually cut one sheet of paper as though you were cutting it with scissors if it is inserted at the appropriate point between the spinning blade and the base blade. So overall, I was very pleased with my ‘pre-preparation’ of the lawn this afternoon and hope that I can continue to repeat this procedure week by week, time and weather permitting of course.
I have just watched the Sky News interview of Putin’s press spokesperson with Mark Austin and, of course, it is incredible to watch a Russian spokesman so wrapped into their ideological world that they are trying to argue that Ukrainian actors played the part of dead people whilst the Russians were busy patrolling the streets – according to the Russian account, Ukrainian ‘Nazis’ have committed all of the atrocities in the Ukraine. Meanwhile, some breaking news is that the UN General Assembly has just voted to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council.
Today dawned bright and clear and all of the indications were that it was a fine day for a walk. But Meg and I found it a little difficult to get ourselves going this morning but eventually we got ourselves ‘into gear’ and set off for town mid morning. Before we left, we had a phone call from some of our church friends thanking us for some wire brushes which I had spare and left on their doorstep (to help remove rust from some gardening tools – what else?) As we walked down the hill, we bumped into our Irish friend who was getting herself prepared to go off for a few days holiday (coinciding with half term) with some members of her family. Then we struck out for the park and no sooner had we consumed our coffee than our University of Birmingham friend strode into view and as we have not coincided for quite a bit what with one thing or another so it was pleasant to catch up on all of our news. We were putting our heads together to see if here was a small friendly Spanish town to which our friend could journey on his own, to improve his Spanish (hence wanting to go alone – if there is more than one of you, then you form a ‘little bubble’ and do not interact thorughly with the country whereas on one’s own, you have to sink or swim by yourself). We then met up, as is usual with Seasoned World Traveller and then Meg and I pushed on into town where we picked up our newspaper and then made a quick visit to Waitrose, as is our wont, to pick up some things that I have invariably forgotten in my main shopping earlier in the week.
This afternoon was my lawn cutting day and everything worked out well. At this time of year, one can practically see the grass leaping out of the ground so it always good to get this routine job done. The gardening books always used to say, quite irritatingly, that for any particular job that one should ‘choose a nice day’ as though one had complete ability to order a particular set of weather for a particular day. But as soon as the major mowing had been done, there was a little measuring job that needed to be done. I have set myself the objective of trying to work out the rpm equivalent of my little push mower whch I utilised yesterday. By a fortunate coincidence of numbers, the recommended mowing speed of 2mph is almost exactly 1 yard per second and this fact comes in useful later on my calculations. I then measured the circumference of the driving wheel which is 27″ – hence it takes one and a third revolutions of the driving wheel to cover a yard. I then worked empirically (and this was the tricky bit) the gearing ratio between the driving wheel and the reel speed which turned out to be a ratio of 1:5.5. As there are five cutting blades this makes one revolution 5.5 x 5 which is 27.5 ‘hits’ of the blade per revolution or just 36.67 hits of a blade per yard. From this data, I have mnaged to work out that the RPM equivalent at 2mph is actually 60 times this which is 2200rpm. At a walking speed of 2.5 mph, this would be 2750 rpm which is pretty close to the 3000 rpm which a conventional hover mower would offer. Or so I reckon.
Two bits of Ukrainian news are hitting the headlines this evening. One of these which might just be wishful thinking or western propaganda is that in the retreat from Lyif, some Russian troops may have abandoned a lot of tanks and artillery. The abandonment of vehicles is said to be ‘a collapse of the will to fight’ which bit of information is certainly consistent with several other stories to the same effect. But the other really terrible piece of news is the fact that thousands of people had crowded into a railway station in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. Estimates of the numbers killed range from 30-50 and hundreds have been killed. It was well known to the Russian military authorities that thousands of civilians were assembling in the railway station to effect their escapes from the shelling that is going to be unleashed upon them. It looks, therefore, that the attack was intentional and the clearest example of a ‘war crime’ to add to the growing list. Bit by bit, the West seems to be adding more sohisticated weaponry to the Ukrainians, no doubt stimulated by the scale of the atrocities that are revealed as the Russians retreat from the north. Boris Johnson has said he would give Ukraine’s military more Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles, another 800 anti-tank missiles, and precision munitions. He also promised more helmets, night vision googles and body armour. Whether this will prove effective in the coming onslaught in the East of the country, time will tell.
Today dawned as a beautiful bright day but it was one of those that when I arose to make our early morning cup of tea, it was evident that there had been quite a hard frost during the night as the lawns were white over – however, as the sun rose, this soon burnt off. It is always a pleasure to look out on the front lawn once it has been mowed (and edged) the day beforehand. After breakfast, Meg and I walked very slowly down into town. We passed our Irish friend who was busy on his knees in his front garden (planting rather than praying) and he was busy planting out some dahlias as his others had not survived the winter. Once we got into the park we had our coffee and I left Meg to go and off and collect our newspaper. I did have a brief chat on the way back, though, with Seasoned World Travellor who was having a coffee in the poolside cafe. When we got home, we cooked some chicken breasts for lunch – I was anxious to ‘tart them up’ a little as otherwse they might have been a bit too bland. I decided to experiment with a honey mustard sauce, augmented with a little barbecue sauce. In theory, this should have been OK but I suspect that I overdid the mustard somewhat so I am making a mental note to myself to moderate the amount of mustard the next time I try something similar to this. This afternoon we are due to go to church leaving the house at 5.30 and returning just before 7.00pm. What is rather good now that the hour has gone back is that we both go and return fom church in the daylight which always elevates the spirits a little. When we get to church, we must stop and admire the floral decorations in which one of our friends has been heavily involved, tomorrow being ‘Palm Sunday’. We will have to wait and see whether we get our traditional palm (folded into the shape of the cross) which used to be the tradition years ago, but of course things change.
One of the unanticipated consequences of the conflict in Ukraine is the likely absence of wheat which has probably not been sown and/or harvested. Ukraine and Russia account for a third of global wheat and barley exports, which countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa rely on to feed millions of people who subsist on subsidized bread and bargain noodles. They are also top exporters of other grains and sunflower seed oil used for cooking and food processing. So there are some predictions that the hungry of the world might be even more hungry once the full consequences of the war in Ukraine have played out. The other news from the Ukraine is equally depressing. Sky News reports that General Alexander Dvornikov has been placed in charge of Russia’s invasion after it failed to gain control of Kyiv. Formerly commander of Russia’s southern military district, General Dvornikov has been linked to some of the worst atrocities committed by Russian-backed Bashar al Assad forces in Syria. Speaking to Sky News earlier, former UK ambassador to Russia Sir Roderic Lyne appeared to confirm the reports. Claiming Vladimir Putin has failed in his military objectives, he said: ‘I think that’s why they are re-concentrated their efforts on the south and the east. They’ve appointed a new general with a pretty savage track record in Syria to try to at least gain some territory in Donetsk that Putin could present as a victory.‘
Tonight, or rather late on this afternoon, I put all of the ingredients together for a ‘souper’ winter vegetables soup. So far, I have used carrots, parsnips, swede, celery and turnip supplemented with a fried onion and made with half a tin of coconut milk. This should be bubbling away whilst we are out and ready to consume when we return.
It is the first round of voting in the French president election tomorrow. Normally, this would not be of a great deal of interest to us in the UK but this time around, things are different. This is because the extreme right candidate, Marine Le Pen is within a percentage point or so of beating the incumbent president, Macron. She took over from her father as leader in 2011 and, in an attempt to distance herself from his reputation, banished him from the party in 2015. After losing out to Mr Macron in 2017, she rebranded the National Front to National Rally. Although anti-immigration by nature and a previous supporter of Mr Putin, Ms Le Pen has been quick to announce her support for Ukrainian refugees. She has also focused heavily on the cost of living crisis, which many credit with her recent uptick in the polls. Were she to win through in the second round, the dynamics of the politics of the whole of Europe would receive quite a jolt.
Today being Sunday was the day for an early rising and then a trip down to the paper shop for our copy of the ‘Sunday Times‘ It was quite a nice bright and not particularly cold when I started walking down, accompanied by a bit of Bach on my ancient iPhone which is my Sunday morning treat. On such occasions, I often think of little numerical puzzles I have encountered – for example, I have discovered that with a bit of rounding a square metre is 1.2 square yards- conversely to convert square yards to square metres, one multiplies by 5/6. As a case in point our communual green area, minus the BioDisc is 300 square metres which it is easy to convert into 250 square metres. But it whilst I was doing a bit of internet searching into push mower rotation speeds that I came across the opinion that revolutions measured in revolutions per minute (rpm) is a particularly pointless idea and one to which we cannot really relate. For example, I know that at my 2mph my little push mower will rotate its blades to give the equivalent of 2200 rpm which is about three quarters (2900 rpm) of the conventional standard for hover mowers and some petrol driven mowers. Now 2200 rpm sounds not to be a particularly fast rate but if you convert it into seconds, it becomes 36.7 revs per second, which ‘sounds’ a lot faster. Again, to try and get my mind around the magnitudes of revolving objects, I now know that a human blink has a typical duration of one third of a second. Now my trusty little lawn mower will deliver a cut with one of its blades at the rate of 12 for each eye blink. Now rather than my ‘slow’ 2200 rpm, I have an incredibly fast 12 ‘cuts’ per blink-of-an-eye which sounds satisfing fast – but all of the statistics are essentially the same. On a similar theme, there is one fact that had stuck with me since my GCE ‘O’-level days and that is a little formula that ‘60 mph is 88 feet per second‘. With a bit of rounding up to 90 this is 90 feet (or thirty yards per second). I mention this only because in my late 20’s I was involved in a bizarre accident in the Polytechnic in which I then worked. The campus straddled and was criss-crossed by some busy roads. One of these was a ‘T’ junction and approaching one of these a driver ‘fainted’ and crossed the road, hitting me first and throwing me into the air and smashing both my legs and taking two of my students on its bonnet through some iron railings. I reckon the car was going at about 40mph and was about 10 yards (30 feet) away from me before the car accelerated across the ‘T’ junction and hit me. As 40mph is 60 feet per second, then I had about half a second to react to the car speeding towards me. Meg’s father, when we recounted the story of the accident to him could only observe ‘Why didn’t he jump out of the way?‘ All that I can say is that I had just about enough time for my brain to register to not continue walking forward and hence the car hit me with the corner of its bumper rather than full on (when I might have been killed outright) I just thought I would mention how some of these equivalences might work out in practice (As a sequel, the ‘fainted’ driver recovered and fled the next day to Florida where our lawyers served a High Court writ upon him and the case came to court some 5 years later.) Incidentally a ‘fainted’ body at the wheel of a car is not legally responsible for their actions and therefore a legal case where one has to prove that the driver was ‘at fault’ is difficult to construct – but that is another story which I will not go into just now).
Around Easter time, I always like to listen to a rendition of an oratorio, typically broadast upon Radio 3. Today, I looked at the offerings for Palm Sunday and was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was a live performance of J.S Bach’s ‘St John Passion‘ so Meg and I particularly enjoyed listening to this whilst we were having our Sunday lunch and a pleasant relaxing read of the Sunday newspapers. Later in the week there is a performance of ‘Matthew Passion‘ on Wednesday evening (rather an odd choice of day as one would associate this with Good Friday or Holy Saturday (Easter vigil). When we go to church next Saturday, there will be a special Easter service starting at 8.00pm (when it is just about getting dark) when a special ‘flame’ accompanied by candles. I learn from the web that by Constantine’s realm in the fourth century CE, the night of the vigil of Easter began Saturday at dusk, with the lighting of the ‘new fire’, including a large number of lamps and candles and the paschal candle. The paschal candle is very large, made of beeswax and fixed in a great candlestick created for that purpose; it is still a significant part of Holy Saturday services.
It was good to wake up to a fairly bright day and the prospect of a nice spring day. Meg and I had already determined beforehand that we were going to make our journey by car this morning and, so after breakfasting, we set forth. I had a particular reason for wanting to take the car this morning. Over the weekend, we noticed in Waitrose that they had some arrangements of ‘sweet peas’ with a little bamboo framework to support the young plants. We have a particular raised bed on our patio which is tailor-made for the growing of sweet peas and we already have our support framework in place against a fairly sheltered wall but in full sight of the kitchen window. I had determined to buy a couple of these plants and to get them planted as soon as possible because we did not wish to ‘miss the boat’ as we have occasionally done in years gone by. But by the time we got there this morning, all but one of the plants had been sold but at least we secured one. We contacted the member of staff whose duty it is to look after the plants and flower sales in Waitrose and discovered that although the Bromsgrove store might not receive any more supplies, the Droitwich store probably had some still in stock. So we resolved to make a flying visit to Droitwich in the morning but we will have to be fairly expeditious as Tuesday is my Pilates day.
We had an earlyish (for us) lunch and then there a ‘little’ gardening job scheduled for the afternoon. This little job seemed to be a bit more complex than originally envisaged as we wish to neaten up where the lawn abuts our paved patio. This job, as it had not been done for some time, involved several ‘passes’ with a variety of implements. First we had to cut off the grossly overhanging grass and then used a veriety of edging tools and our new patio knife to achieve the kind of effect we wanted. The first time in a season is always a little on the time-consuming and demanding side. but subsequent neatening efforts – every few months- should prove to be a lot less problematic now. So although I wanted to only spend about a half hour on the job, I fear it was a little longer and I feel as though I may ache a little afterwards.
The Ukrainian situation is full of foreboding today. Russia is probably looking to ‘double or perhaps treble’ the amount of troops they have in the Donbas area in the next phase of its war in Ukraine, a western official has said. It is evident that Russian troops from around Kyif have been withdrawn and are now being regrouped and reinforcing the trpps amassing in the east of the country. The Russians seem to be augmenting their troops perhaps with some ‘veteran’ troops from past conflicts, removing troops from the Syrian theatre of war and even utilising mercenary forces. In the meanhile, a new general has been appointed who the press have dubbed ‘the Butcher of Syria’, Alexander Dvorknikov. According to John Simpson, the BBC World Affairs correspondent, Dvorknikov has great form when it comes to the planning and execution of war crimes. It is said, for example, that in Syria he would shell a city until the emergency ambulance and fire fighting personnel had been deployed and then he would shell it again to maximise the impact upon the civilian population. Everyone in the west is expecting the next few weeks to get incredibly nasty. One particular date that figures large in the Russian military mind is May 9th, known as Victory Day. This is a holiday that commemorates the surrender of The Greater German Reich in 1945. It was first inaugurated in the 15 republics of the Soviet Union, following the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender late in the evening on 8 May 1945 (after midnight, thus on 9 May Moscow Time). It is believed that Putin wants to be in a position to announce a great military victory on that date – therefore, the Russians may make the most almighty onslaught on the Donbas (eastern) regions of the Ukraine which border Russia and have been the site of ongoing insurrections and conflicts between local insurrectionist and Russian-speaking militia and the Ukraines since the invasion of Crimea in 2014. There is some other Ukrainian news to give one pause for thought. Apparently, some of the nuclear materials have been ‘liberated’ from the wrecked nuclear reactor in Chernobyl. The Russian soldies have contaminated themselves by churning up the ground with their military vehicles and the nuclear materials that they have stolen may well kill them within the year (unless they handled with a great deal of care and specialist knowledge which seems unlikely). The Ukrainians themselves are reporting that the ignorance of the typical Russian militiamen has to be seen to be believed.
When we woke up this morning, we had evidently had quite a drip-drip of rain during the night and it continued throughout most of the early morning. If I have done some gardening the day before, this always gives me rather a smug and self-satisfied feeling that I have got my quota of gardening done before the heavens opened. To be honest, we were not particularly concerned about the rain as we had intended to make a journey to Droitwich by car in any case. So after breakfast, Meg and I collected our newspaper and then hit the road for Droitwich. Following our well-established routines, we made for our favourite cafe where we indulged in cappuchinos and our favourite large toasted teacake between us. After that, we had a quick tour round the charity shop next door to the coffee shop. Within seconds, my eyes alighted on a very sophisticated purple top made by Eastex which I suspect was brand new stock but ‘remaindered’ so we snapped it up. Tomorrow, Meg may well have the occasion to wear it as our son and daughter-in-law have invited us out to our favourite hotel/restaurant just outside Kidderminster and she can no doubt show it off. We knew that we were somewhat time-constrained this morning as Tuesday is my Pilates day so we then made a lightning visit into our local Wilko hardware store. Here I bought several packets of seeds which I intend to sow in the next few days, assuming the weather conditions are propitious. I bought some parsnip, leek, beet, spinach beet and lettuce seeds and I already have the reclaimed space ready by the side of our communal area once the soil has warmed up a little. Whilst I was it, I also bought some seed pots for young plants and a Wilko carbon steel edger tool which previous buyers have raved about in their evaluations on the web. The purpose of our visit was ultimately to pop into Waitrose to buy some more sweet pea ‘baskets’ but in this respect I was disappointed because the Droitwich branch of Waitrose were offering some different kinds of swet pea baskets which were 50% more than their Bromsgrove counterparts so I decided to give this a miss and see if our local Aldi have some more suitable offerings when I go food shopping on Thursday.
After I had attended my regular Pilates class in the middle of the day, I popped into our local Asda because there are one or two things that I can only buy there. I made for the motoring section and bought one of those special brushes that are designed to fit the irregular spaces within car wheels and associated trim. These brushes are of a slightly unusual design as they are effectively two loops of wire with the brush components set at right angles to each other. I think that one of these brushes will prove invaluable for cleaning the blades of my little cylinder lawn mower in sparkling condition and whilst I was at it I bought a large canister of WD-40 at a good Asda price. Well, I thought the canister was a bargain because it looked twice the size of the regular 200ml which I am using at the moment – but this was a triumph of marketing and appearances over actual contents because although the tin looked as though it was probably double the size, the contents were only an increase of 25% over the ‘regular’ size.
When I got home, I discovered that Meg was in a state of high excitement and had been glued to the TV. This is because the news had broken (at about 2.00pm) that Boris Johnson, and his wife Carrie Johnson and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak have all received Fixed Penalty Notices as the Met police have adjudged that they are in breach of the COVID regulations in force at the time. By all accounts, these fines have been paid already which means, presumably, that the recipients are acknowledging their guilt rather than denying the offences and arguing their case in court. Of course, the most critical players in this scenario are Tory MP’s who have the power to dispose Johnson within minutes if they had a mind. Sky News, though, have been organising a little ‘diary’ of which cabinet ministers have already pledged their support to Boris Johnson and when (it comes as no surprise that first out of the blocks was Nadine Dorries) The rest of the Tory party appear to be biding their time but of course the overriding sentiment is that one should not change the prime Minister whilst the country is so heavly involved (if not actually at war) with the situation in the Ukraine. This, of course, is a specious argument as it is being quoted that Churchill replaced Chamberlain just days before the Second World War, Lloyd George replaced Asquith weeks into Somme and Eden lost his job during the Suez crisis. But many Tory MP’s are of the opinion that Boris’s indiscretions are ‘priced in’ to their loyalty to the PM.
Today was a day slightly out of the ordinary. In the middle of the morning, Meg and I had a chiropody appointment which had had to be rearranged from a week or so ago and this all worked out as planned. Our chiropodist told us that in a few week’s time, she was due to make an attempt on the Three Peaks (Scafell Pike in England, Snowden in Wales and Ben Nevis in Scotland) and I think she was very brave to attempt such a feat. I think she was going to do one or two preparatory walks and then the logistics of the assault on the Three Peaks was handled by a company who transported people from place to place. I suppose that being a chiropodist she will know how to handle to prevent and/or treat any blisters that might ensue. She assured me that she had a good pair of boots which I suppose is a prerequisite – you do not want to be in a position to be breaking in a new pair of boots before a mammoth walk. After our appointment, I went down and collected the newspaper and we then had our elevenses at home but watching all of the shenanigans following the fining of Boris Johnson for breaking COVID regulations. We have recently received one or two Easter cards and this prompted me to think of the Easter cards which we intended to send this year. I quickly rustled up the addresses of most of the people to whom we send Easter cards, ready for posting later in the day. Towards midday, we drove to our favourite hotel/restaurant near Kidderminster where we were booked in for a family meal with our son and daughter-in-law. There we had a pleasant meal and on our way home, I presented our daughter-in-law with a little present of some patio roses in an attractive little container which they were selling off in our local Waitrose a few days ago. Then I popped out to the post to get our Easter cards well into the system and hoping that they get by Saturday at the latest. All post boxes have a little metal tag which should be changed daily so that you can can whether you have just caught or missed the post for the day – in our local pillar box, though, the little metal tag was missing which always leaves you with some uncertainty whether you have caught the post or not.
The seqelae of the ‘partygate’ affair rumble on today. One justice minister who is a member of the House of Lords has resigned today and one MP has broken ranks to call for the resignation of the PM. However, one has to say that the resounding silence of practically every Tory MP speaks volumes – by their silence, are they condoning the fact that the first Prime Minister ever to have been convicted of a non-trivial offence is considered still fit to be their leader? We are not at the end of this saga by a long way. For a start, the Met police have not finished processing all of the potential ‘partygate’ transgressions so it is possible that Boris may be fined over and over again for subsequent offences. Then the Grey report will take over once the Met investigations and issuing Fixed Penalty Notices has run its course. And hanging over everything of course is the act that the local elections to be held on 5th May will be the first opportunity for the electorate as a whole to express its opinion of partygate.
The Ukrainian news tonight is that the crucial city of Mariupol may well fall in hours to the Russians.If the Russians succeed in capturing this city, which now looks overwhelmingly likely, the the Russians will link the swathes of territories in the east with those in the south, including Crimea. This may well be the ‘victory’ that Putin craves in order to declare a triumph in the big military ceremony that the Russians hold each 12th May. Assuming that the Russians do manage to ‘capture’ this territory, there will be the possibilities of ethnic conflict and ethnic tensions for decades ahead.
There is an opinion poll tonight that indicates that people in general are more worried about the cost of living crisis which is engulfing us than catching COVID-19. As the inflation rate has hit 7% today, there is even worse economic news to come as the inflation rate has hit 8% and over. The same survey reveals that some 49% said they felt in control of their mental health, compared with 54% six months ago, with the number of people reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression at its highest level for 11 months. This probably indicates that we will have a chronic mental health crisis hanging over us and, as we know, the mental health services have always been the ‘Cinderella’ services (ie underfunded) of the NHS.
Today was my normal ‘shopping’ day and I got to my local supermarket in plenty of time before it opened at 8.00am. I was a little surprised to see that quite a lot of people have evidently had the same idea as myself because although I was there a few minutes before the opening time, I was still about fifth in the queue. I spent some time looking at the garden requisites that they store outside the store and noted the code numbers for two different kinds of sowing compost which I intend to buy (one for myself, one for my daughter-in-law who was on the hunt for peat-free compost) Shopping was quite a painless affair and I was pleased to see that the store was still stocking some smoked hake which we bought a couple of weeks ago and found absolutely delicious. I mentioned the code numbers of the bags of peat to the assistant as the bill was being totalised and they just got added onto the end. So this made life easier as all I had to do was to pack the shopping inside the car and then collect my two bags of peat to sit on the top. Meg and I had a leisurely breakfast followed by the unpacking, during which time Meg was getting ready. Then we went off in the car to collect our copy of the newspaper and set off for the little town of Alcester which we intend to visit on a further occasion as we had a nice time there some weeks ago. It was some time after midday when we arrived so we decided to forego the customary coffee and teacakes but instead did the rounds of some of the local charity shops which are all of an excellent quality. Meg bought herself a pair of espadrilles (or something similar to that, as they had stout soles but a very pretty fabric ‘upper’ and we probably use these as slippers or ‘house shoes’). For my part, I got tempted to buy a pair of walking boots which were a very subtle tawny colour and looked both unusual and original. These can become my ‘main’ walking boots and some of my others can now be downgraded to the status of ‘gardening’ shoes as my existing gardening shoes I have had for several years and are practically dropping to bits. Then we made our way to the local hotel which we know offers special ‘deals’ midweek to ‘Senior Citizens’ but they were quite heavily booked already for lunchtime. We accepted the offer of a later lunchtime appointment and in the meanwhile availed ourselves of their very pleasant lounge whilst Meg drank a coffee and I treated myself to a low-alcohol beer. Eventually, an early slot was found for us as there had been some ‘no shows’ so by this stage, we were pleased to get ready to eat. Once we had our meals delivered, we were not disappointed, Meg having a prawn salad and I had a vegetable lasagne. These were both delicious and we treated ourselves to some homemade apple pie cake – unusual but equally delicious.
When we got home this afternoon, we had a customary cup of tea and then I started to do a little gardening job which is to mow the edges of the lawn and the ‘fiddly’ bits around the communal green area with my little hand mower. Whilst outdoors, we had a pleasant chat with our next door neighbour whose company we enjoy tremendously. We discussed the war in Ukraine amongst other things and generally put the world to rights. There is rarely anything to smile about in the Ukrainian conflict but a recently reported incident brought us some flickers of satisfaction. The flagship battle cruiser of the Russian Baltic fleet has been successfully attacked by the Ukrainians, starting a fire on board which resulted in all of the ammunition exploding. The ship had to be abandoned and was then towed back to port. This missle cruiser (the ‘Moskva‘) was not particularly state of the art and was quite ancient but it is is being reported that this may well be the biggest naval loss in conflict since the end of the Second World War.
Meanwhile, back on the domestic front, there is a scheme unveiled today by Priti Patel to take all single male asylum seekers who arrive in Britain across the channel and to resettle them in Rwanda, some 4,000 miles away. Whether this policy will work or not is an interesting question – other countries have tried a similar policies which have failed and the costs involved may be quite enormous. Of course, this may be a welcome distraction from ‘partygate’ and it is not unusual for the Tories to run an immigration scare story to distract attention from things happening at home. Rwanda has rather a poor human rights records so one wonders how many asylum seekers would fare.
Today dawned bright and fair so this presages the start of some good weather. Once Meg and I got ourselves showered and breakfasted, we popped down into town by car, primarily because I wanted to pick up one or two things at Waitrose, which we treat rather like a corner shop when we run out of one or two things. We met up with our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller and we had quite a jolly time talking about the sinking of the Russian battle cruiser, the Moskva. The Ukrainians had commemorated the original act of defiance in which some Ukrainian military had shouted at the Russians ‘Russian warship, do (obscenity) yourself‘ These military had been captured but then released quite early in a prisoner exchange and were promptly awarded medals for gallantry by the Ukrainian president. The Ukrainians have subsequently issued a stamp which shows the Russian battle cruiser in the background but Ukrainian soldiers in the foreground making an obscene gesture in the direction of the warship. But of course, this stamp is already outdated because the image of a ship needs to be replaced/superimposed by the image of a sinking ship. The ‘inside’ story is starting to emerge today, courtesy of Sky News. The pride of Russia’s fearsome Black Sea fleet was taken out in one of the most cunning operations of the war. Ukrainian commanders destroyed the huge Moskva warship by using drones to distract its defence systems and allowing surface-skimming missiles to strike. The 12,500-ton cruiser’s protective sensors seemingly did not see the Neptune rockets heading its way because they were tracking Turkish TB2 drones. Providing a massive boost to morale in Kyiv, and a huge blow to Vladimir Putin’s navy, two missiles slammed into the port side of the 611ft Moskva, rocking her violently and causing a catastrophic explosion and huge fires. As flames lit up the stormy Black Sea, the ship’s 510 crewmen frantically climbed into lifeboats and fled. As a postscript to this account, the Ukrainians are now claiming that the captain of the battle cruiser was killed. American intelligence sources think that several other crew lost their lives in the fire and subsequent explosion. The Russians are admitting the fire but not the missile damage. However, as if to undermine their own story, the Russians have immediately started to bomb a Ukrainian factory near to Kyif which both manufactures and repairs anti-ship missiles. One wonders why they would do this if, as the Russians would have us believe, the ‘fire’ on board their battle cruiser was accidental or not caused by a Ukrainian missile. By all accounts, though, the Russian cruiser was bristling with defensive equipment which should, in theory, have protected it. But does the failure of these systems to work point to failures in the technology itself and/or to the training of the naval personnel on board? The military significance of the loss of this ship means that any attack on Odessa might be more difficult as the Russians would have to rely upon more amphibious landings.
We lunched on some smoked hake fillets, first purchased from Aldi some 3-4 weeks ago and then purchased again last Thursday. Like last time, these proved to be absolutely delicious – I follow the cooking instructions to the letter wrapping them tightly in tinfoil and then baking them in a pre-heated oven for some 17 minutes. They were delicious and I have an idea they may be a regular part of our cuisine from now on. Last night, we were just setting down to watch our evening’s TV when there was a knock on the door – it was our next door neighbour with two delicious bowls of apple and rhubarb crumble complete with custard which she had just served up. We devoured these with alacrity, secure in the knowledge that now we won’t starve with a good neighbour like that next door. When today’s lunch was well and truly over, it was time for the weekly lawn mow. As it was such a pleasant afternoon, I even had to divest myself of my gardening jacket and mow in my shirt sleeves. I was three quarters finished when our next door neighbour wandered across for a chat. As well as revelling in what had happened to the Russian battle cruiser, we were discussing gardening topics and, in particular, vegetable growing. My neighbour has an allotment or even two and is growing quite a lot of his favourite vegetables this year. I showed him the section of land that had been devoted to dahlias but is now being pressed into service as a vegetable plot. In the next few days, provided it is warm, I will get to work raking the soil to get it into a fine tilth and then I can proceed to sow in the open air. Yesterday, on our day out, I popped into a hardware store that sold vegetable and flower seeds and bought his last remaining packet of sweet pea seeds so these can now be sown pretty quickly.
We awoke to a beautiful spring day and the promise of fine weather all day long. After we had breakfasted, I collected the newspaper from the newsagent by car and then Meg and I decided to make the best of the beautiful weather by strolling down to the park. We met our two regular friends in the park, our University of Birmingham friend as well as Seasoned World Traveller and we spent some time talking about films that had impressed us as well as other things. Eventually, it was time for us to leave so having drunk our coffee and had a good chat, we made our way up the hill to home. On the way, we espied our Italian friend who was busy mowing her front lawn but as it was such a lovely day, she stopped and we had another chat. When we got home, we had a lunch of quiche and prepared ourselves for some gemtle gardening this afternoon. Before I actually started what I wanted to do, I ‘restored’ to good health a very useful and heavy tool which almost defies description. It has a thick triangular head and Amazon have two tools which approximate to it. One they call a ‘Root Breaker’ for fairly obvious reasons whilst the other implement is called a ‘Multi-Purpose Demolition Scraper’. I have evidently felt the need for this tool in the past when I was laying out paving stones and similar ‘heavy’ garden jobs but I have not felt the need for it for some time. Afer a bit of rust removal, sharpening and conditioning with WD-40, it was ready to be put to work. I intend to use it to get a nice vertical ‘drop’ in the long border where the communal grassed area abuts my newly created vegetable bed. The idea behind all of this is that I can do a quick ‘whiz’ up and down the border each week and do not have to bother about any grass clippings as they can be pushed towards the bottom of the ‘V’ recently created and they will then rot down. Whilst I was at it, I used my sharpening tool on the new lawn edger I purchased from Wilco last week as well as my trusty side shears. Armed with these newly sharpened and oiled tools, I then put some finishing touches to the long edge I have in the front of the house. I must say I was very impressed by the Wilco tool which I bought (manufactured in India). One of the reviews I read was from a professional gardener who reckoned it was the best of its type and he has used several over the years. I was very pleased that the tool really lived up to its promise, made even sweeter by the fact that it was only about half the price of some of its competitors but with plenty of built in quality. Having done some edging and weeding around our BioDisk, I felt I had done enough for the day and retreated indoors to get a well-earned cup of tea. Perhaps it is of no surprise to learn that Miggles, our adopted cat, came along to supervise all of my activities during the afternoon to ensure that I was doing everything right. The cat has recently taken to rolling around on the newly dug soil, together with the ‘friend’ of another local cat who I have christened ‘Black Peter‘ The internet indicates that sometimes cats do his just to cool down or sometimes even to play (like children at the seaside and sand?)
I sometimes listen to ‘Any Questions‘ on Radio 4 which is first broadcast on a Friday evening and then repeated at lunchtime on a Saturday, immediately followed by members of the public phoning in to ‘Any Answers‘ broadcast immediately afterwards. One of the questions from a member of the audience to the panel was to ask ‘What is the difference between a Ukrainian fleeing Russian persecution in the Ukraine and a Syrian refugee, fleeing Russian inspired aggression in Syria?’ The simple answer, of course, is ‘None’ but in practice, one suspects that the two cases would be treated very differently by British immigration officials. One could point out that despite the surface similarities, one refugee is European and white whereas the other is Middle Eastern and non-white. I think that a United Nations report has recently highlighted the differences in outcome between the two different cases of individuals seekingg respite from Russian aggression but the whole issue gives one pause for thought.
I also came across another quite stimulating piece of political commentary that was making the case that disillusionment with the political process (in the face of evident venality, not to say mendacity and corruption) acually worked against the left – and harmed the left as much as the right. The argument is that members of the public might feel ‘Well, the other lot would be no better’ and therefore despite the recent scandals (partygate and so on), the right are not as damaged by this as you might think (and correspondingly, nor does the left profit much from it either)
Today is Easter Day and the weather has dawned bright and cheerful. Although I do not comment on things religious, last night was rather special. It was an especially long service as it was part of the rite for Easter Saturday – called the Easter Vigil. Last night’s service was especially long as it involved a group of people who, accordingly to the terminology, were ‘under instruction’ and were being formally received into the Catholic Church as part of today’s ceremony. We started by congregating outside the church around a glowing brazier from which was lit the Easter (Pascual) candle. Then each member of the congregation was equipped with a candle and we processed with our lighted candles into a darkened church. At an appropriate moment in the ceremony, the candles were held aloft, the purple coverings which by tradition cover the altar and altar pieces were removed, the sanctuary lights and candles were lit and the congregation burst into an Easter hymn. The symbolism is clear i.e. emerging from a darkened tomb into the light of an Easter Day. I believe that most of these rites are much more highly developed in the Eastern (Byzantine) church and a pale imitation has been re-introduced into the western churches. Nonetheless, even for a person who might have no religious faith of any kind, the pure aesthetics were worth the experience. Meg and I had never attended an Easter Vigil before and therefore did not really know what to expect but the sight of a congregation being symbolically reborn, as it were, was quite inspiring.
This morning Meg and I walked to the park and had our normal coffee. On the park bench, we coincided with a couple of about our own age that we sometimes chat with and exchanged various bits of news. Then it was homewards but neither of us felt particularly hungry so I threw together a sort of salad based upon a tin of corned beef that we always keep in stock. Then it was a good read of the Sunday newspapers that are still speculating about the kinds of hurdles that Boris Johnson is yet to face – the consensus view is that Tory MPs are going to sit onto their hands until after the local elections of 5th May (two and a half weeks away) and at that point will decide whether to keep Boris Johnson as their leader as not. There seems to be a view gaining ground that Boris Johnson will not lead the Tories into the next election and even people like Jeremy Hunt (who has relatively ‘clean hands’) thought about as a potential successor. After a bit of a rest and as the weather was fine, I decided to do a little gardening. I do suspect, though, that every single job that you think of as being a simple little job turns out to be more complicated than first thought. I was renovating a border which when I constructed it some four or five years ago was a wooden ‘stay’ bordered by some large flat pebbles.This lot had to be deconstructed and de-grassed before i put it all together again. The donkey work has been done today and I can no doubt do some refinements tomorrow. When I came in and we had some light tea in front of the TV, we idly flipped through the channels and came across the closing moments of the 1956 epic of ‘The Ten Commandments’ This, by modern tastes, was so unbelievably naff that it was fascinating to watch. The highlight of this, if you can call it such, was the vision of the patriarch Moses ascending Mount Sinai in order to (eventually) receive the Ten Commmandments. When Moses beat upon a rock face and called out ‘Lord, what I have left undone‘ Meg called out ‘Your shoelaces‘ Well, the film evoked that source of response. From thence, we descended into a few moments of ‘Carry on Cleo‘ which, must again, be awarded the badge of honour for pure naffdom.
Partygate is rumbling on and when Parliament reconvenes next Tuesday, there may be further developments. The Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, is being asked to officially make a ruling whether the House of Commons has been misled by the PM now that at least one conviction (or Fixed Penalty Notice) has been issued. The word on the street in the Westminster village is that the penalty notice served upon Boris Johnson is for one of the most ‘minor’ of the transgressions and there may be more (perhaps about 6) of a more serious scale in the pipeline. In particular, the ‘bring your own booze’ event held in the Downing Street garden on 20 May, 2020 may well have been instigated by Johnson himself. The Sunday Times is reported saying that a gathering in the Downing Street press office did not start as leaving drinks – rather, it was the ‘usual Friday evening wash-up drinks’ But Mr Johnson ‘came fumbling over, red box in tow’, and ‘gathered the staff around the press office table, which did have bottles of alcohol on it and started pouring drinks for people and drinking himself’. A photographer is said to have been present throughout and is believed to have captured pictures of the prime minister. Downing Street source does not dispute the description of the event but denies that Johnson had organised it. Watch this space!
Bank Holiday Monday dawned as quite a fair day with the promise of some nice spring sunshine. After breakfast, I popped down by car to collect our copy of the newspaper. Then, as it was such a fine day, Meg and I walked to the park, enjoying the sunshine. The park was not at all busy considering it was a Bank Holiday – we half expected it to be teeming but perhaps the rest of the population has better things to do on a Bank Holiday. Quite unusually, we did not meet with any of our regulars apart from a snatched conversation with Seasoned World Traveller who was sitting on his own near the lake. We made for home and then I set to work cooking the chicken thighs which we should have started yesterday. What eventually emerged was something approximating to the spanish dish Polla a la Española but minus the bacon or the chorizo. We did deploy some onions and peppers and then utilised half a jar of a lasagne type sauce before baking in the oven for over an hour. The result turned out to be very tasty – just as well, as we are going to have very similar tomorrow to finish off the chicken thighs. After lunch (and a bit of doze) I set to work finishing off my bit of border which I was trying to put straight after yesterday. Once again, quite a simple job turned out to be quite complicated. I needed to resurrect some large round pebble like stones that I had evidently utilised some years back but had got themselved buried in overgrown vegetation. One way or another these got resurrected and then recycled and were used to surround some plastic lawn edging ‘units’ that I had been hanging onto for some time. To be honest, anything plastic put into the garden is liable to be a bit bendy and wavy and, as usual, whenever you dig anything too deep into the soil on our back garden you are likely to meet pieces of brick as obstacles. This is is because the land upon our house was built was not a ‘greenfield’ site but had been a small market garden with a range of outbuildings. By all accounts, these were flattened with a bulldozer (and not properly cleared away) and then soil pushed over the top of them. Hence gardening is always likely to encounter a half (or even a whole) brick and shards of glass that have a habit of working themselves to the surface. So a little job that I thought was going to be about 20-30 minutes turned out to be an hour and a half – still, it should be OK for the rest of the season and I will try my best to keep it tidy from now on.
Meg and I have the prospect in the next day or so of following what happens in Parliament, largely as the ramifications of ‘partygate’ unfold themselves. As Parliament reassembles after the Easter break, so I think members of the opposition parties are prepared to taunt Conservative MPs who, by staying silent, are judged as condoning Boris Johnson’s illegality. The charge of the opposition parties is that the party of ‘law and order’ is remarkably silent when it comes to any transgressions committed by their own Prime Minister. No doubt, the taunts will come thick and fast and if Boris Johnson acquires any more Fixed Penalty Notices (which seems increasingly likely) then the continued silence on the government benches implies that Tory MPs are not condoning just one act of illegality but a whole series of them. There are some indications of fireworks in Parliament tomorrow (and even Sky News are advertising their coverage of this before the event) and perhaps even more on Wednesday which is the day for Questions to the Prime Minister. Today, the energy minister Greg Hands told Sky News: ‘The prime minister will have his say in parliament and will outline his version of events and face questions from MPs.’ Mr Hands said he strongly supported the prime minister who he said was ‘getting on with the job’, citing the COVID-19 vaccination programme and Britain’s support for Ukraine.
Meg and I are starting to wonder about holiday plans or at least short term breaks. The British airports, or at least the major ones, seem to be in a bit of mess with some travel experts arguing that the shortages bedevelling the airlines (quick to fire staff after furlough ended, but harder to re-hire as security checks and retraining need to take place) may persist for months. We are thinking that by September, things might have quietened down sufficiently for us to contemplate a trip to see our close friends in Coruña. In the meanwhile, we may well go back to Chester that we know well for a variety of reasons. The city is quite a ‘human scale’ to walk around which will suit Meg quite a lot. At the same time, we can go north to visit cousins in Lancashire and southwards to visit an aged uncle in Alsager.
The weather still looked as though it was set fair this morning, but in the event things turned out to be a little cooler. I popped into town by car and also took the opportunity to buy one or two things from Waitrose. Outside the store, I bumped into an acquaintance that we used to meet about once a week in the pre-pandemic days. She has started to frequent the store once again but we have not coincided inside the store. We exchanged news of the health conditions affecting our spouses and managed to offer sympathetic noises to each other as we had experiences in common. Once I got home with the little bits of shopping, Meg and I took the car down to the park and when we made for our usual bench, we were delighted to meet with our University of Birmingham friend who we occasionally meet on a Tuesday. Then we got joined by Seasoned World Traveller and seen got into a debate about the morality and politics behind the policy of resettling asylum seekers to Rwanda. There is quite a difference in language here as the government tend not to refer to asylum seekers but rather ‘illegal immigrants’ There is quite an interesting legal point here as the Government through its ‘Nationality and Borders’ bill is seeing to make it a criminal offence to land on these shores via a dinghy or other ‘unapproved’ route. Technically speaking, an asylum seeker cannot have the epithet ‘illegal’ applied to them but that might change when the bill becomes law. I have got to say that we did not not see eye-to-eye on this, particularly as I expressed the view forcibly (and perhaps a little too forcibly) that the government was anxious to throw ‘red meat’ to some people in the country who feel threatened by immigration and many, if not most, on the Tory back benches. Perhaps the government knows that the policy is impractical and doomed to failure (probably at the hands of judges) but at least they can show that they are fulfilling many of the wishes of the electorate who want the whole problem of immigration just to go away and, if the price for this, is transporting people to a landlocked African country with an appalling humn rights record, then so be it. As an afterthought in all of this, I wonder how many Ukrainians who make it to these shores will be liable to deportation to Rwanda. I somehow feel that myself and Seasoned World Traveller are never capable of reaching even a simple compromise agreeemt on this issue.
After lunch, I went outside to finish off my creation of a new border. I laid down a series of bricks, mostly of the old Victorian variety that seem about two or three times the weight of their modern counterparts (with holes in the middle) These old Victorian bricks, dug up from the garden at regular intervals, are so heavy that they tend to ‘stay put’ which suits my purposes quite well. This afternoon, Meg and I were looking forward, if that is the right term, to seeing Boris Johnson in the House of Commons which is the first opportunity for MPs to question the PM after he had received a Fixed Penalty Notice. The performance was much as you might expect in that a few sentences of contrition gave place to a statement of the ways in the UK was giving aid and succour to the Ukrainians. In fact, moving the topic on to the subject of the Ukraine took up some two thirds of Boris Johnson’s statement to Parliament. Tory MP’s in general took the hint and, they too, all moved on as quickly as possible to praise Boris Johnson’s aid and support to the Ukraine. One did notice, though, that the Tory benches tended to get thinner and thinner as many Tory MP’s just slid away whereas the Labour benches were full of quite predictable but heart-rending stories of how constitutents could not hold the hand of their dying spouse/parents/loved ones whilst in Downing Street they are ‘partying’ . I think it was Joanna Cherry from the SMP and a barrister made the telling point that if Boris Johnson was not lying, why did he not dispute the Fixed Penalty Notice and argue his case in court? The Labour Party did manage to secure an emergency debate on Thursday night (which is the day after ‘Questions to the Prime Minister’ on Wednesdays) to refer the PM’s illegality to the Committee on Privileges. As the debate is going to be ‘whipped’, then the outcome of the debate is unforuntely not in doubt. What might have been interesting, though, is to see how Tory MP’s would vote were it not to be a ‘whipped’ vote. A poll by JLPartners found that just 16 per cent of people would use positive language to describe the prime minister with more than 70 per cent characterising him in negative terms. Voters were asked to describe the prime minister, with the most frequent description being that he is a ‘liar’ – followed by ‘incompetent’ and ‘untrustworthy’.
Although today was a cooler day, the weather was set fair for a fine day. So having collected our newspaper, Meg and I walked down to the park. Once on our normal bench, we were joined by an acquaintance together with his cross-breed dog, Alfie, who is a labradoodle (a cross-breed beween a labrador and a poodle) Apparently, they were first bred to have a dog that was hypoallergenic and also a good guide dog. But now that so many breeders have got in on the act since the 1980’s, we now have a generation of labradoodles that are neither hypoallergenic nor good guide dogs – and they may be prone to more health problems as well as the parents were mated as they were less than perfect specimens of their breed in the first place. The point of this story, though, is that quite by accident we suddenly had an ‘aggregation’ of labradoodles all of whom seemed to know each other and some may have been related as well. When their owners let them off the leash, they raced around full of the doggy equivalent of ‘joie de vivre’ but I was very impressed that when their owners called them, they came immediately to heel and let themselves be put back onto the leash again. So Meg and I made our way back home and started to watch the later stages of Prime Minister’s Question Time. Some of the commentators felt that Keir Starmer was really starting to needle Boris Johnson, not that he cares much anyway as he was shortly to fly off to India. There is to be a vote tomorrow to refer his conduct to the Committee of Priveliges but the Conservative party as a whole has been whipped to vote against this. The only slight smidgeon of interest at this stage is how many Tories will abstain as an indication of their displeasure with the whole ‘partygate’ affair. The consensus view seems to be that Boris Johnson has bought himself some time (which is quite a typical story) but there are more dangers ahead in the form of further fines that may be forthcoming and, of course, the local elections in about three weeks time. But the local elections are for London, Scotland and Wales – in England, most of the seats will be contested in London – 1,817 seats across 32 boroughs – where Labour controls the vast majority of councils. Outside the capital, a wide variety of councils are up for election: 33 metropolitan borough councils covering 904 seats; 21 unitary authorities, with 627 seats; 60 district councils (1,011 seats). Six mayors will also be elected in London boroughs, and one in the South Yorkshire Combined Authority. So the upshot of all of this is that the seats that are up for election this year are not particularly representative of the country as a whole.
This afternoon I finished off the bit of gardening that I needed to do. In a rather overgrown bed bordering the back lawn, I have laid some lawn edging supplemented by heavy Victorian bricks dug out of the garden at various times. Then I cut back some of the creeping ground covering vegetation whose name I do not know and have constructed a short of ‘channel’ into which I have planted some leaf beet seeds and topped off with a covering of top soil. These plants should be quite easy to tend if/when they germinate and provided I keep the slugs off them as they grow.
On Sunday next, it will be the second final round of the French presidential election. The two candidates who came top of the poll in the first round were the existing president, Emmannuel Macron and Marine le Pen. We have the possibility when the second round of voting takes place on Sunday next that France might elect a far-right President who is on record as wanting to withdraw France from the EU. Hence this course of action has been been dubbed as ‘Frexit’ (the French counterpart of Brexit) Tonight, there will be a face-to-face stand-off between the two candidates – at the time of the last presidential election, Marine Le Pen fared extremely badly and the TV interview was judged to be one of the reasons why Le Pen lost the election. Macron’s projected lead for Sunday’s decisive second-round vote now averages eight or nine percentage points across all polls, with the latest, published on Tuesday, suggesting the gap has widened from eight to 12 points since Friday. It looks as though the Le Pen camp are claiming already that the polls are ‘rigged’ in Macron’s favour. Presumably, if Marine Le Pen was ahead in the polls her supporters would not be making these claims so there is plenty to play for this evening. We shall have to wait until the 10.00 news programmes are broadcast tonight to see who wins or loses in the presidential debate this evening and Channel 4 are promising full coverage in the few days remaining.
We are still in our period of fine weather and so we are still enjoying some spring sunshine – even the cool wind had moderated somewhat. Today being a Thursday was our ‘food shopping’ day so I made sure that I was outside the door of the supermarket a minute or so before the doors opened at 8.00am. There were about four of us in the queue and, of course, once inside we seem to disperse very rapidly. I got all of my shopping done in just about an hour and then I went off to collect our newspaper before getting back home and unpacking the shopping. Then Meg and I strolled down to the park at a very leisurely pace and we seemed to meet a lot of our friends and acquaintances on route. For a start we met our Irish friend before we got into the park and chatted about her recent holiday. Then, as we were sitting in the park, we were passed by two prominent members of the church we attend on Saturday evenings and discussed how the celebrations had gone in the Easter vigil last Saturday. Then we had a chat with our Italian friend who was walking in the park with her companion so all in all, we seem to have had quite a conversation-filled morning. We got home just after 1.00pm ad then had a completely vegeterian lunch of quiche, carrots finished off in some hot walnut oil and with a touch of syrup to add some sweetness and finally, the remainder of some spring greens. We found the whole very tasty and then settled down, after lunch. to watch the debate in the House of Commons.
As it turned out, the Tories got themselves into a bit of a mess over the vote which was on a motion proposed by the Labour Party that the PM be referred to the Committee on Priveliges (a committee which in one shape or form goes back centuries) Last night, the Tories tabled an amendment to the effect that any referral to the Committee on Privileges should be delayed until after the Met police enquiry was concluded and the Sue Gray report was both concluded but also published. This was largely seen as a ‘kicking of the can down the road’ and it became evident to the government whips that a lot of Tory MPs would suddenly discover that they ‘had COVID’ and would absent themselves from the vote. The Labour Party had promised to plaster the constitutencies of all MPs who voted to delay the further investigation and support Boris Johnson with news of their backing for the PM and this might have spelled electoral disster for them. The government whips realised that they could not win the vote on their own amendment and withdrew it. Then they announced that Tory MP’s could vote however they wanted. In the event, when the question was put to the House at the end of the debate, there was not a single ‘Noe’ in response to the Speaker’s traditional question and therefore the whole Labour motion went through ‘on the nod’ without a vote taking place. When Meg and I observed some of the debate, it was principally crowded opposition benches telling heart-rending tales of how their constitutemts were not allowed a few minutes with their dying relatives as the Tories were partyfying. The tone of the debate was set by senior Brexiteer, Steve Baker, who told the Boris Johnson to resign over the partygate saga, sayig ‘The gig is up’. In an amazing U-turn, Steve Baker had led to the de-fenestration of Teresa May in favour of Boris Johnson. Of course, Opposition MPs had prepared their speeches which they delivered to a House of Commons in which there were only about 4-5 Tories in the Chamber to be berated by the Opposition benches. The whole point about being referred to the Committee on Privileges is that this Committee has extraordinary power to call for documents, including photographs (several of which are known to exist and are incriminating) If found to have misled the House, then Boris Johnson could be suspended from the Commons and might even be subject to the members of his constituency being allowed to have a vote of recall. In the view of all of this, the word on the street today is that the Prime Minister is already ‘toast’ One is reminded that when Margaret Thatcher was out of the country in Paris, the Tories turned against her as she failed to muster sufficient votes in a Tory leadership election. Boris Johnson is on a visit to India at the moment – was this ill-advised? It used to be said that Soviet leaders were anxious at travelling abroad lest they be deposed in their absence. According to the Channel 4 political editor, Gary Gibbon, the Speaker of the House of Commons gave special dispensation for the word ‘liar’ to be used with reference to Boris Johnon as normally it would be contrary to the rules of the House and unparliamentarty language to use the word ‘liar’
Today we seemed to be running a little bit late all day. Our domestic help had been delayed whilst she was taking her much beloved Jack Russell terrier to the vets where it appeared to have been poised between life and death for a few days. In the meanwhile, the vets seemed intent on suggesting more and more expensive treatments at what appeared to me to be outrageous prices but at least the dog has now rallied and seems to be intent on inhabiting the world of the living for a bit longer yet. We were just on our way out to the park when our domestic help arrived – as she and her husband had just enjoyed a wonderfuly sentimental journey back to Venice in which city they were married some 25 years ago, we had quite a lot to chat about. Eventually, though, we got down into town by car and treated ourselves to a coffee in Waitrose but unfortunately we did not bump into our former acquaintances in the coffee bar who, since the pandemic, have no doubt developed new haunts. Eventually, though, we made it home and enjoyed a wonderful lunch of smoked hake for which I have recently acquired a taste and which I buy at a ridiculously cheap price as part of my weekly Aldi shopping.
This afternoon was my regular lawn cutting day – and I still breathe a sigh of relief when my trusty petrol mower starts at one simple pull of the starter cord. Although it is not absolutely necessary, I tend to cut the lawn in one direction and then perform a second cut at right angles to the first as a kind of cross-cut. Where the wheels have traversed over the ground, they still leave behind a faint impression which gives the lawn overall a sort of vaguely striped appearance which adds to the overall manicured effect. The grass in the front of our house, when originally planted by the builder, evidently did not use some really fine lawn grass but it is what I call ‘meadow’ grass whose apppearance is enhanced by not having it cut incredibly short (and it is probably better as regards water retention and the like not to have the grass cut too short)
Boris Johnson is still hoping that a degree of bluff and bluster will see him through the latest ‘crisis’. However, one analysis has pointed out that the reference yesterday of Boris Johnson’s behaviour to the Committee on Privileges will keep the issue alive for months, whereas the PM himself is desperately trying to move the agenda onto other issues. What I think is slowly sinking in is that there are now three enquiries into Boris Johnson’s behaviour. For a start, the Met have got to complete their work and this may take some weeks more. They revealed the other day that they are not going to make any more pronouncements as to who may or may not have received a fine until after the elections on May 5th – this kicks the can down the road for another two weeks. Only then can the Sue Gray report be concluded and handed in – there may even be a delay before it gets published or see the light of day. After these two enquiries have been concluded, the Committee on Privileges will start its work but, with holiday breaks and the like, the Committee may not be able to report until the autumn. This will keep the issue alive fror about the next six months, unless other things (such as election-induced resignations) intervene.
The French presidential election seems to be heading for a fairly predictable conclusion. Marine Le Pen has failed to deliver anything approaching a knock-out blow to Emmanual Macron so the French president looks set for another term. The French electorate, given the choice between the two candidates have one who has a small minority adore (Le Pen) but who does not appeal to the centre ground whilst the other (Macron) seems to generate enthusiasm from nobody but at least they are not Le Pen. A week or so ago, it looked as though the contest was going to be very much closer than seems to be the case – on Sunday, no doubt, a predicted result will appear within seconds of the polls closing and then all be over except for the counting.
One of the pleasures of having a largish garden is that you discover things in odd places that you did not expect. Whilst I was waiting for Meg the other morning, I looked down the slope towards our fence and discovered a tree about 5′ tall I never knew I had. To be honest, when I periodically tidy up this area, if I discover a small set sapling, I tend to replant it near to the fence and then forget all about it. From the shape of the leaf I think this tree is a horse chestnut but it may be a self-set maple – when the leaves get a bit bigger, I may be able to ascertain more exactly.
Yet another fine day dawns and we wonder what is in store for us. Having collected the Saturday neswpaper, Meg went by car to the park and took a long walk round, wondering whether we would bump into any of our Saturday regulars. In the event, we did not so we had our coffee and comestibles and then went home via the side road which borders the Kidderminster Road. There was a method in our madness as we thought we might coincide with some of our church friends and so we did. We had a nice chat whilst we congratulated our friend on a magnificent set of flowers and decorations for the church, for which she is largely responsible. So we got home relatively early and had a lunch of mince and onions at an early time for us. This is because I needed to make a start on a fairly big job outside the house. We had a big and very old clematis which had been attached to a framework at the front of the house. But under the combined weight of the plant and some high winds, the whole of this had blown off the wall and we had to make a decision how to put things right. The weight of the foliage was so great and there was so much dead wood in evidence as well as new growth that I thought the best thing was to get the whole thing detached from the wall, which was easier said than done. I finished up using my body to lean against a mass of foliage whilst I snipped away at various tendrils to detach a whole bundle of foliage, which I think was about one fifth of the total. Then came the job of snipping the whole mass of vegetation into smaller chunks such that they could be thrust into a blue plastic sack and ultimately into our ‘brown’ (vegetation) bin. My next door neighbour who had been watering his garden came over and offered some supportive words of advice. This was reassuring in that he thought that if had the same problem, he would have sorted it out in a simiar way. At least today, I have made a symbolic start to this quite large clearing up job and I shall attempt to tackle it in lots of ‘bites’ over the next few days. I think it would be a mistake to attempt all of tis job in one fell swoop so I am glad to divide it into manageable portions and do it bit by bit over the days.
Today being April 23rd is St. George’s Day – the patron saint of England. But he can be found all over Europe and he is the patron saint of no less than 15 European countries (including Georgia and Greece). But you tend to see most images of Saint George in the Spanish (or rather Catalan) version where is known as Sant Jordi. If you visit the Barrio Gòtico of Barcelona especially one figure is present everywhere: Sant Jordi. The knight is of course Saint George – in the Catalan version his name is Sant Jordi. You see him on buildings, squares, in paintings, fountains, etc. The knight with his sword is fighting the dragon and saving the princess. This is all rather strange to an English person visiting these regions of Spain (or rather Catalunya) as I imagine that we all think of a patron saint as ‘ours’ and not shared with the rest of Europe. Most of the things that English people think about St. George are probably wrong. For a start he was born in what is now modern day Turkey and died in what is modern day Israel, without ever visiting England. He was probably not a knight, either, but probably a soldier in a Roman army. However, he did have a reputation for virtue and holiness spread across Europe and his feast day – the 23rd April – was celebrated in England from the 9th century onwards.
Way back in the 1950’s all of the cubs, brownies, scouts and guides used to participate in a St George’s Day parade – probably on the Sunday nearest to April 23rd. All I can remember is that we used to walk waving a flag and assemble with the other ‘packs’ in the town. Either immediately before (or immediately after – I cannot remember which) all cubs and scouts used to go knocking on doors and asking to perform little tasks for which they ought to have paid one shilling (5p). This was known as ‘Bob-A-Job’ week. The Scout Association’s annual ritual for much of the last century came to an end in 1992, amid fears of predatory paedophiles and harm to the health and safety of children working unsupervised. My memories of doing these ‘Bob-A-Job’ were that that the tasks were so incredibly hard, thet they were impossible (e.g. trying to dig over a whole patch of sun-baked earth on which you couldn’t even insert a spade) On the other hand, some people used to give you the money for nothing as they couldn’t find a job for you to do.
The run of fine weather is continuing with only a slightly cold wind to spoil a stroll in the sunshine. In fact, the gardens are feeling as though they could do with a good soaking of rain but I suspect that we shall have to wait several more days for that. I got up early to collect our newspaper and then back in time to see the Sunday Morning (politics) programme which was reasonably interesting but with no real revelations or noteworthy things. After that, Meg and I spent some time choosing what outfit she was going to wear today. We chose a skirt which we think she has not worn for at least a couple of years and, in fact, we couldn’t remember where we bought it. As the skirt is patterned we located a plainish top with a little motif that goes superbly well with the skirt – so much so, that it looks as though they could have been designed to go with each other. We might make a note of the fact that these two items of clothing go so well with each other but as skirts are stored in one place and tops in another, they evidently get separated when we come to put them away. When we were ready, we sauntered down to the park and were joined by an acquaintance we know who has a rather striking labrapoodle. I am not quite sure how we got onto this topic but eventually we got onto the subject of riding horses and he let slip that he had last ridden horses when he was visiting Venezuela and Cuba. I let him know that my horseriding experience was limited to 10 seconds or so. When I was about 9 years old, the village kids in the small village in Yorkshire in which I lived were stuck on the back of a horse which was an ex-racehorse and although black had been liberally dusted with flour to make it look a sort of grey so that the village kids could parade as Uncle Tom Cobley and all. But when the race horse heard the sound of the musical loudspeaker van, it remembered its time at the races and broke into a trot, whereupon all of the kids on its back promptly slid off. In the park, we were joined by our University of Birmingham friend where we had a good chat. Eventually, we were also joined by an old lady that we know quite well who lives on the edge of the park and whose husband used to work in the park as one of the maintenance men and has a bench located next to the lake with his name on it. The old lady has a dicky heart and was a bit breathless by the time she made it as far the bench so we readily gave her a seat so that she could get her breath back again. And so a journey home with the wind behind us on the way up the hill and a lunch of gammon.
After lunch and a good read of the Sunday newspaper, it was time to go out and do a spot more of snipping up the huge old clematis which has now detached itself from its support and our front wall and needs to be disposed of bit by bit. I am tackling this job by getting bits of plant, both alive and dead, which I am chopping up into reasonably sized chunks before they get disposed of in our brown ‘garden waste’ wheelie bin. This whole job is going to take several sessions to complete so I am trying to do it in about ¾ hour sessions. Whilst I was at it and had the clippers on my hand, I had a go at removing some straggly branches of our Elaeagnus shrub which was threatening to brush the car as we drive it round the bend in our drive.
In my reading of the Sunday Times today, there was a very long and detailed exposé of the ways in which the UK in particular has ‘sucked up’ to the Russians, allowing dirty money from the Russian oligarchs to flood the London housing market. In the context of the Ukraine conflict, apparently the Ukraine has repeatedly asked for help to defend itself any Russian incursion. The West in general and the UK in particular have taken the view that ‘we must not upset the Russians’ and, in any case, given the military might of Russia they would overwhelm the Ukraine in no time at all (which assumption has turned out to be false) Then we were meant to receive a detailed report of the ways in which there may have been illegitimate attempts by the Russians to influence the Brexit campaign and subsequent referendum. Of course, a lot of Russian money has found its way into the coffers of the Conservative party. The report into Russian activities was delayed for a long time,kicked into the long grass as they say and its potential impact systematically minimised. So this was a fascinating, but disturbing, set of revelations some of which we already knew anyway.
Today was the most beautiful spring day so Meg and I decided that we would pop into Droitwich, some seven miles distant, as there were one or two items that we need that we could only get in the Droitwich branch of Waitrose. As is customary by now, we paid a visit to our Coffee#1 coffee shop for our regular capuchino and toasted teacake. This was as as good as usual and, of course, we could not resist a visit to the local Charity shop which just happens to be next door. We discovered a wonderful skirt for Meg and also indulged in a pack of men’s socks and a very stylish leather/suede pair of shoes for myself. These will make good formal wear for the occasions when I want to smarten myself up a little. After we had indulged ourselves in the charity shop, I could not resist into my favourite hardware store which is Wilko. The last time we were in this store some 2-3 weeks ago I noticed that they had a particular gardening implement and I wondered if they still had them in stock. I was delighted to say that even though they had moved them to a different location (isn’t it annoying when stores do that?) I readily purchased a Wilco ‘root breaker‘ These implements are made in a heavy carbon steel (in India) and I have always been impressed by their quality and price for other implements I have bought in the range. This ‘root breaker’ has a cast iron shaft as well as the cutting edge itself, so I reckon it would function very well without breaking unless you were to use it to lever up a most enormous weight, which is not very likely for me from now on. When read the online reviews, it was also mentioned that these implements could be used as fence post hole creators which, I must admit, is not a usage that would have occurred to me immediately but I can see how it would be useful in this respect. Finally, we made our way to Waitrose where we got the things we needed and then finally got home just in time to listen to the 1.00pm news. This afternoon, after lunch, I resumed my attack on the huge old clematis that is having to be removed bit by bit. I did my stint of ¾ hour but, I must admit my next door neighbour and I had a bit of a chat how to restore a degree of world order. Just as we were finishing, we noticed that one of our drains (which, I suspect ends in a sort of big ‘U’ shaped bowl shaped sump) seems to have got itself filled up with leaves and other detritus. Me neighbour and I decided to tackle it there and then, although my neighbour did most of the hard work. We used a variety of implements between us, the leaves floating on the surface being deposited in our garden waste bin. There was quite a lot of a black sludge which we reckoned was quite a nutritious liquid (actually sloppy) type of compost. So we took out two large builder’s bucket loads of this stuff and I spread it onto some of the areas of the garden. The drain is actually at the junction of our two properties so it was probably just as well that we tackled the drain promply and together before it became a problem for both of us. Tomorrow, I shall cover it with a blue garden bag before I start my next tranche of cutting up the old clematis plant to ensure that bits of vegetation do not fall into and clog up the drain, now that we have it cleared. We could just do with a good downpour to give the drain a good washing through now that we have done this good work.
Last night, we received a very welcome invitation to go to visit Meg’s cousins in Bolton, Lancashire. We made several attempts last year but pandemic and other issues constrantly got in the way although we made it in the end. We hope that everything should run smoothly this year and we have jointly agreed a date for 15th May which is the Sunday afer my birthday the preceding Wednesday. I think last time although we took up our iPad there are a lot of photographs to catch up over the years so we will try and make amends this time around. At the same time, we are in the middle of trying to arrange a lunch date with some friends who had a base in both Leicester and in London but are now based exclusively in London. There is a restaurant that my son and I have used round the corner from Marylebone Station and we hope that we may be able to fix a rendez-vous there in a week or so’s time.
Today turned out to be an interesting day. As Tuesday is my ‘Pilates’ day, we know that we have to time manage things quite carefully. Accordingly, we went down to collect the newspaper by car and then visited Waitrose to treat ourselves in their coffee bar. Whilst there, we bumped into one of the old ‘regulars’ that we have scarcely seen since the onset of the pandemic. We had a certain amount of news to catch up, particularly as her husband’s health had deteriorated somewhat and this was impacting upon our friend’s health (who also has problems of her own) Then another of the Waitrose regulars walked in but we have often seen that particular friend in the park over the months so we had less catching up to do. I was eager to see this latter friend because in the green fields quite near to where she lives, a whole swathe of what must be (or has been) green belt is to be developed for some 505 new houses. All of the locals are very strongly opposed and not just on the ‘nimby’ principal (‘Not in My Back Yard‘) The principal problem is that some minor tinkering of the local roads is planned but this is by no means adequate for the traffic that an extra 500 cars will generate. If you were to say that each house would generate 2 extra cars (Mum, Dad and at least one teenage child) then 500 cars would constitute 2¼ miles of traffic (all the way into Bromsgrove and back again) and the consequence is that no one would actually go anywhere as it could be that we end up as the first town in the country to be absolutely and utterly gridlocked. This is by no meand a ridiculous scenario. About four years ago, way before the pandemic, I had an appointment at the local doctors at about 8.20 in the morning and I found that I could get to the end of the Kidderminster Road faster by walking than going by car (the main road was practically gridlocked then). But the point of this story is that we had noticed some bulldozers excavating strips of land in the field designated for the new housing and we assumed that the new housing build had started. However, our friend who lives quite close by was able to give me the relatively good news that the bulldozers were there to dig out strips for a local archeological survey as there is a possibility of some Roman remains – none were found however. So the new build has not started yet but when and if built, then the possibility of a Western Relief Road (which the town desperately needs) will be lost for ever. Our friend informed us that our University of Birmingham friend had enquired after us in the park as were not situated in our usual bench. So we shot off in the car to see if we could make contact with him but in the event, we missed. We did bump into our Seasoned World Traveller friend who has having a coffee in the park’s own coffee shop but we had to have a really snatched conversation as we needed to get home to change into my Pilates track suit bottoms and then make my walk down into town.
After my Pilates session, I came back via town in order to pay a visit to the Salvation Army charity shop where there was an item upon which I had my eye. Needless to say, although I had seen what I wanted on Sunday it had been sold on Tuesday. But when I was in the shop I did see a pair of workman’s shoes (buffalo hide, steel toecaps etc) which were being sold as a brand new pair for £5.99 As my old gardening shoes are absolutely on their last legs, I knew that they needed replacing shortly so I snapped these up and will bring them into use once I have given them a good conditioning probably with some dubbin if I can still locate it to givethem an addional degree of waterproofing.
Yesterday a new TV channel hit the airways ‘TalkTV‘ with Piers Morgan as one of the lead presenters. As I write at the moment, an interview is just being broadcast between Piers Morgan and Donald Trump. This program is called Piers Morgan Uncensored and contains some amazing moments (such as when Trump claims to have saved ‘millions of lives’ by advocating the use of a COVID vaccine). But this is the interview that does not end well as, by all accounts, when Piers Morgan put it to Trump that he had lost the last Presidential election, he called Piers a ‘fool’ for believing the outcome was a fair and free result and then says ‘you haven’t studied it’ before storming off the show. I must say that the Trumpian view of the world has to be heard to be believed. It is early days yet but it will be interesting to see how the program pans out over time.
Today started off as rather a gloomy and ‘glowering’ kind of day but brightened up latter on so by mid afternoon, it was actually quite a pleasant day. The news came through mid-morning that the government had been found guilty in the High Court of discharging patents from hospital to care homes even though they had tested positive for COVID-19. More of this later but Meg and I thought we would like to get home to see Questions to the Prime Minister which typically takes place on Wednesdays just after 12.00. I popped into town to get our newspaper and a few things from Waitrose and we got back to see the bulk of PMQ. This particular one is quite significant because there are going to be no more PMQs for three weeks, local elections being in about eight days time so we expect the questionning to be particularly pointed as each side tries to put on its best possible face just before the political parties have to come face-to-face with the electorate (admittedly only local elections in Scotland, Wales, most of London and a few more elections for mayors in England) The High Court judgement was put to Boris Johnson who managed to bat it away quite easily (‘we will study the judgement with care’) whilst also conveying another mistruth to the house of Commons. It was claimed that not much was known of asymptomatic transmission of COVID at the time and Matt Hancock – the then Health Secretary – is putting the blame on Public Health England claiming ‘we were not told’. But some of the UK’s biggest care home operators have told the Guardian they repeatedly warned Matt Hancock’s department about the risk of not testing people discharged from hospitals into care homes in March 2020. Care England, which represents the largest private chains where thousands of people died in the first months of the virus, told the Guardian it raised ‘the lack of testing in hospitals and in the care sector’ several times in correspondence with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as well as NHS England in late March 2020. The bottom line to all of this is that 20,000 care home residents died of COVID in the Spring of 2020 – some may have been infected by care staff bringing the virus into the home but the care home sector were forced to receive COVID positive patients as the Government were in an absolute panic and desperate to clear the wards of many cases as it could before the full force of the pandemic was to strike. The implications of this are so huge that the government may well appeal but if their appeal fails, then will the government be liable to be taken to court and compensation demanded in view of their illegal behaviour?
This afernoon I set myself the task of two further ¾ hour tranches of time to reduce our old and decrepit clematis to little pieces. This I finished off this afternoon and this just leave the huge old roots to be taken out tomorrow. Whether this is going to be easy or difficult, I cannot say at this stage but all will be revealed tomorrow. I have my clippings all stored in some garden sacks and they will deposited in neighbours’ garden waste bins in about a week’s time. Whenever I am engaged in a routine but monotonous procedure, my mind inevitably toys with a well known phrase or saying which, in this case, was ‘death by 1000 cuts’. I estimated, though, that it took well over 2,000 snips of the secateurs and about three hours of work to get this partiicular task acomplished. I have in mind buying a good ceramic pot from Wilco and then planting a single clematis in the same spot as there are still supports in the walls that can be utilised. However, if we choose our plant carefully we should still see the beauty of the house brick behind the plants but having its roots in a pot may restrict its growth somewhat. I decided to Google the well known phrase ‘death by 1000 cuts’ to ascertain the origins of the phrase. I have discovered that it refers to a traditional Chinese form of torture and execution in which the perpetrator of a particular heinous crime was tied to a structure like the Roman crucifixion cross and then chunks of flesh were removed, first from the chest, then the arms and finally the legs until the unfortunate vistim died. Some people are reported to have endured this form of torture and still be alive after 2,000 cuts. This method of execution known as ‘ling-chi’ had been in use since the 7th century but was officially abolished in 1909.
Meanwhile, as though things could not worse for the Tory Party, a male MP has been accused of watching pornography on his mobile phone whilst in the Commons. Two women MP’s have reported him to the Tory chief whip – will his identity be revealed by the newspapers before local election day in eight days time?
It was remarkably colder today – I suppose we have got quite used to the almost balmy spring days in the last week or so and hence it comes as a bit of a shock to the system when the weather drifts remarkably colder, which it will for the next few days. Thursday is my shopping day so, as usual, I got to the supermarket about one minute before opening time but I did allow myself a quick perusal of both ceramic planters and clematis in case we eventually decide to replace our moribund clematis plant with a new one. By the time I had got the shopping unpacked, we were running a little late so Meg and I decided to make our visit down to town by car. Once we had collected the newspaper, we installed ourselves upon our usual park bench in an almost empty park. As it was pretty cold and I had a job to be done this afternoon, we decided not to linger but made our way to the parked car. As we wandered along, we remarked to each other that we had not seen our Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker for several days now but as we got near our car, he hove into view. It transpired that he had recently had a dose of COVID- paradoxically, he may have been exposed to the virus whilst he attended a busy doctor’s waiting room as he was attending the clinic for his second booster (4th jab in total). He had experienced a few mild symptoms and one of his eyes had been somewhat affected but taking one thing ith another, it had not set him back too much. However, it did explain why we had not seen him in the park for several days.
When we got home it was only about 1.00pm so I decided to make a start on removing the big old clematis root, now that I had got the whole of the old plant snipped into little pieces and ready to be disposed of. I have a particularly good spade for this particular job which i think I had inherited from Meg’s father. It is a ‘Spear and Jackson’ and goes by the rather quaint name of ‘Neverbend’ but it does have the virtue of having a pretty hefty iron shaft. A quick look on the web reveals that this brand name for the spade is still in use and users claim to have massively abused their gardening tool but it has withstood all rigours over the decades. I wanted my trusty old spade to cut through tree (or rather shrub) roots and I had recently sharpened it so it should have been up to the job. Indeed it was and the old huge stump came out in about ten minutes of concentrated effort. I then sawed it in half to aid its disposal and spent a fair amount of time disposal of a huge quantity of dead leaves that had been left behind. I think I will sink my yet-to-be acquired ceramic planter so that it sits in the hole left by the old root and I have also left some of the support wires and hooks in the wall so that I can quickly support the new clematis as and when it is needed.
Immediately after lunch, our hairdresser was due to call but she was delayed by about half and hour. By the time Meg and I were shorn, we decided to have a rather lazy afternoon so I devoted myself to writing a few emails and then to a good read of the newspaper.
This Thursday, Parliament is due to be ‘prorogued’ i.e. this session of Parliament is brought to a close and then a new parliament will open with a Queens Speech on May 10th. No business can be carried over from the current Parliament to the next, so any legislation which is only half way through the process is, I believe, lost. When the new Parliament commences, there will be a ‘Queens Speech’ (written for her by ministers) delivered in the House of Lords, where the members of the Commons have to crowd in to whatever spaces are available. But what is significant at this time of the parliamentary timetable is that the Government has to really make up its mind and decide what legislation will be brought forward in the next session of Parliament and will therefore be announced in the Queens Speech. But whilst Parliament appears to be in abeyance, there is plenty going on behind the scenes. Most importantly, of course, are the elections to be held next Thursday. Also several scandals are rumbling on, of which one is the Conservative MP recently discovered to have been watching porn whilst in the House of Commons chamber. Some other MP’s (female Tory MPs) know who that MP is but given the rumour mill at Westminster, will the identity of the Tory MP leak out (before Election Day?)
Well, today turned out to be a beautiful day and whilst a trifle cold, there was not much to spoil our enjoyment of the day. Meg and I tarried a little this morning so that we could have a chat with our domestic help who arrives every Friday. She was a little later this morning as she was taking her dog to the vet (and, incidentally, it seems to be overcoming its health problems and responding well to treatment) So we strolled down to the park and had a chat with our Italian friend down the road who was about to give her plants a bit of a watering. We got to the park about midday and fell upon our coffee and comestibles of which we were by now feeling the need. Before long, our Univesity of Birmingham friend strolled along and we had our usual far-ranging discussions, speculating about which parts of Spain we wanted to visit, and when. Our friend is teaching himself Spanish and is going to organise an expedition to Spain by himself where he can just sit and chat and absrb the culture. He is thinking, and quite rightly, that the best way to really learn a language is to travel alone which forces you to interact with the culture. If you travel with a companion, then the two of you will always form a ‘bubble’ within the country that you are visiting – travelling alone forces you to interact with culture and get things like bus and rail tickets organised, meals and drinks ordered and the like. Meg and I think he is absolutely right in all of this and although it would be wonderful for us to travel together, we respect and understand our friend’s reasons for wishing to travel alone. Then a surprise was sprung upon us- our friend had acquired a cake cooked by his 92-year old mother-in-law but he is trying to cut down on his consumption of cakes and the like so he wondered if we would like it. We accepted it gratefully as we could regard it as an advance birthday present (in less than two weeks time) To help us transport the cake home, our friend gave us a lift home which, again, was gratefully received and we said we would meet again tomorrow to discuss some other matters of mutual interest. Whilst at home, we cooked our by now conventional meal on Friday which is smoked hake baked in the oven. Our domestic help who loves smoked fish shared a smidgeon of this with us and we also helped us to a little, advance portion of the cake we had just received.
Being a creature of habit, Friday afternoon is time allocated for the weekly mow of about 250 m² of our communal lawns at the front of the house and approximately half of that for our lawns at the back. I preceded my main mow with a quick flash of the edge overhanging the gullied area with the ultra light hand mower. This adds only about 5 minutes to the overall cutting time and ensures the grass is cut right to its edge. The main mowing proceeded to plan and, as it was so warm, I even needed to take my gardening jacket off. When I had finished, my neighbour who was toddling about in his own garden, wandered over and gave me a few complimentary words about how well the overgrown and troublesome clematis had been disposed of. By this time, it was time for tea so we popped in and treated ourselves to some fruit and ice cream.
I have been wondering over last few days whether the identity of the Tory MP who has been ‘caught’ viewing porn on his mobile in the Commons Chamber will be revealed – if not by the (female) Tory MPs who witnessed his viewing or by part of the ‘sisterhood’ if one of the Tory MPs had communicated with her one of non-Tory brethren. Tonight, the identity of the male Tory MP in question has actually been revealed – a certain Neil Parish, who is the MP for Tiverton and Honiton. I must say, though, that the way the MP is being treated by the press so far is quite extraordinary. A male Sky News reporter started his questionning of the MP with the question (or something similar to it) ‘I wonder if you came across the porn site and opened the file by accident‘ to which the ever-grateful MP responded ‘Well, yes, it was an accident…‘ One cannot imagine that a non-Tory MP would get such a lenient and sympathetic tone of questionning, nor can I imagine that a female journalist would come up with a similar tone of questionning. However, no doubt, the satirical programmes broadcast late on a Friday evening wil have a field day and I am also looking forward to what ‘NewsNight’ has to say on BBC2 (hopefully, one of their female presenters)
Today seemed to be one of those ‘running around’ days where I rushed from one thing to another. I went down by car to collect the newspaper even though it was a fine day. This is because we wanted to meet up with a Waitrose acquaintance way back from our pre-pandemic days. We had arranged to see her for a coffee in Waitrose because I wanted her to have some material in my possession fron a body called ‘Worcestershire Association of Carers‘. From what our acquaintance had told us the other day, it was evident that she was having to give a lot more care and attention to her ailing husband – as I already had several leaflets and pamphlets in my possession, I thought some of the material I had might be useful to help her get ‘plugged’ into whatever networks she might find helpful. So I was glad that we made contact and shared a few stories before I had to dash off to WH Smiths both to buy a birthday card and to get it into the postal system as soon as I could. Having selected my card I found an incredibly long queue at one of the counters. There were two counters in operation and one counter was being used to check the passport application of a couple who were getting married/re-married. Whilst their complicated form was being processed at one counter, a queue of about 20 were waiting (impatiently) in the other queue. I decided to save time by writing the birthday card as I waited in the queue but even this became complicated as I needed to handle/juggle a parcel I needed to post, a diary with the address of former colleague within it, the card itself, its envelope and finally a stamp to transmit the whole thing. Fortunately, I managed to finish this and pop it into the post box as the queue slowly advanced through the shop. When I reached the counter, I needed to post my parcel (maps of Madrid for a former colleague who is visiting there in a week or so) and I also bought a ‘book’ of first class stamps. A first class stamp is practically £1.00 (95p actually) and the Post Office are trying to compensate for this by making the stamps bigger but also incorporating a bar code. Although I like to have a supply of first class stamps in the house on a ‘just-in-case’ basis, today I only bought the stamps that I knew I was going to actually need in the next few days. Several of my former colleagues all have their birthdays in May so I need to get myself organised to get the card buying and posting activities suitably sequenced. After all of this, I made a lightning visit round one of our local cut-price cosmetic stores to get Meg and I things we both needed and finally, I picked up Meg at the entrance to Waitrose, still chatting. Meg and I made our way to the park and to our normal bench but we did not have our coffee flask with us as we had drunk our fill in the Waitrose café. I left Meg on the bench to see if I could locate our University of Birmingham friend in the park cafe. Fortunately, he was there and I managed to hand over a few little calculations I had done for him and wanted him to have before we both forgot. When we got home, I made up a salad by throwing together some thing I already had in stock, supplemented by a few last minute purchases at Waitrose.
Once we had done this and were settling down after our lounge, I was perusing the newspaper to see what we might watch this evening (not a lot as it turned out). The newspaper told us that it was the England v. France Rugby final of the Women’s ‘Six Nations’ both teams having undefeated before this match. So we settled down to watch this, the match only a minute or so old. The French women made a storming start and scored a try which they converted in the first few minutes. But the English women slowly started to reassert themselves and eventually won the match 24-12. It seemed that French errors, typically in the lineout contributed to their demise. The English team certainly had the maul perfected and scored several tries after their maul and the English defence was very robust. Both England and France had a player ‘sin-binned’ for transgressions that were more technical than as a result of foul play but in the end, not even the partisan French crowd would deny that England were the better team.
After the rugby match, I shot outside to do a little lawn edging at the font of the house. This took me about half an hour and I am going to keep on top of this if I do it the day after the main mowing is done. Then we went to church which is usual each Saturday evening and treated ourselves to a bowl of ‘good’ soup before we settled down for the evening.
As predicted, it was evident that we had some showers of rain during the night. As I walked down for the newspaper early on this morning, it was gloomy and a certain amount of rain was hanging in the air but not actually drizzling. Having collected the newspaper, we viewed the ‘Sophie Rayworth‘ politics programme but I must admit it seemed a bit anodyne to me. In view of the political happenings of the week when a Tory MP resigned after admitting to watching porn on his mobile phone on two occasions and subsequently resigned, I thought there might be somewhat more in-depth questionning of the moral depths to which the current Parliament seems to be sinking. The Tory MP who has been forced by the pressure of his colleagues to resign, Neil Parish, has claimed that he was searching the web for pages concerned with tractors and in the pursuit of this, happened to stumble across the porn website. One wonders what search terms he was using because it is almost impossible to think of any natural affinities between sites showing tractors and porn sites. So even this explanation seems to be a not very convincing. Some Tory friends have rushed to his defence saying that ‘Dominator’ is the name of a popular make of tractor but I am not at all convinced. We went by car down to the park and sat on a rather soggy bench to drink our coffee (but we do have an old tea towel to dy off the park bench on occasions such as this) Then we made our way home without tarrying a great deal.
We had plenty of time to enjoy a beef dinner this lunchtime, the beef having cooked in the slow cooker during the morning. I have to prepare an onion gravy, of course, to which slices of the cooked beef are added and we accomapnied this with baked potato and some primo cabbage. Everything was much more tasty than I would have predicted and half of the cooked beef was labelled up and going into the freezer to be eaten in a few weeks time.
It really has been a ‘drip,drip’ of rain right throughout the day and so gardening was completely out of the question. Instead, we treated ourselves to an episode of ‘Morse’on ITV3 which occupied most of the afternoon. It is pretty evident in both the ‘Morse’ and the ‘Endeavour’ (= young Morse) series that the overarching themes always seem to centre around the powerful either in the police, local authorities, Oxford colleges and the like are eventually exposed for thir wrongdoings but not before various attempts of the local elites to protect themselves. One wonders if the writer, Colin Dexter, was actually on a mission. One commentator had advanced the observation that ‘Dexter’s Oxford, which is the backdrop for Morse’s adventures, is the most enduring fictional representation of a UK university – perhaps any UK educational institution. It includes depictions of town as well as gown, and balances an idyllic surface by plumbing the murky depths of elitism and corruption.’
The crisis surrounding the toxic culture in Parliament is now receiving a lot of media attention. According to the Institute for Government, the Palace of Westminster, home to the UK parliament, is a workplace as well as a cornerstone of the nation’s democracy. There are 650 MPs in the House of Commons, over 800 peers in the adjacent House of Lords, and 3,000 parliamentary staff serving both – as well as the staff employed by individual members. When you consider that the legislators themselves are greatly outnumbered by advisers, researchers, journalists, lobbyists, secretarial staff and I know not what else, then the legislators themselves seem to be outnumbered by more than two to one. Many of these will be young men and women,at the bottom of the pecking order but eager to establish a career for themselves and perhaps susceptible to advances and ‘offers’ of various kinds. Fuelling all of this are some thirty bars selling alcohol at subsidised prices. Even in the 1980s it was reckoned that some 10% MPs were alcoholics nd at least one party leader (Charles Kennedy, Liberal Democrat leader) drank himself to death. We might add to this the fact that normal ’employment laws’ do not seem to apply as MPs act as their own employers, often without the slightest idea of what is regarded as ‘normal’ relations between employer and employee. Whilst not being an apologist for all of this,one perhaps has to ask the question why there is so little sleaze and corruption in the Palace of Westminster rather than so much. Of course, there is a great feeling that we are all ‘marking time’ until the local elections have taken place on Thursday next. Being a bit of an election junkie, I am going to arm myself with several bottles of Newcastle Brown and I hope to enjoy myself when the results come rolling in early on Friday morning.
The gloomy spell is continuing but we hope not for very long as the forecast for the next few days ahead indicates that a high pressure system might be heading our way from the Azores so that we have something approximating to May rather than April weather. According to the weather app on my iPhone, it was going to be cloudy and gloomy all day but no actual rain was forecast. Meg and I were just about prepared for this but no sooner had we got outside then a few splatters of rain started to fall, so we cut our losses and decided to go by car. We picked up the newspaper and then made our way to the park but even for a Bank Holiday the numbers in the park were reduced apart, of course, from the inveterate dog walkers, who like us brave the elements almost every single day. We were not surprised not to see any of our park regulars so after a chilly episode drinking our coffee we made for home where we made short work of polishing off the beef that we slow-cooked yesterday.
After lunch, we thought we would entertain ourselves a little by looking at some old films broadcast on ITV4. Whilst tuning into this channel, i saw the last five minutes of ‘Bridge over the River Kwai‘ (British POWs captured by the Japanese) and was just in time to see the denouement of the film which I vaguely remember from about sixty years ago. In this final scene, the British hero played by Alec Guiness collapses on top of the detonator which happens to blow up the bridge built by the British in Burma, just at the point where a train was crossing and evidently plunged into the river below. I was glad not to have seen any of the preceding action because I stumbled upon the most memorable part of the film at the very end. Then Meg and I started to watch ‘Spartacus‘ (made in 1955) but this was so naff for modern tastes that we abandoned this fairly quickly. Flipping through the channels, we found a ‘Mr Bean goes on holiday‘ type of film but this was not particularly funny so we abandoned this as well. Having got to this stage in the afternoon and as the weather had brightened somewhat, I decided to go and spend some 20-30 minutes carrying on the big job of lawn edging/gully clearing. I must say this was not the most pleasant of jobs when everything was still a bit soggy but nonetheless, I made a bit of progress. ‘En route’ I took out some enormous dandelions that had established themselves in the back lawn. I have a specialist dandelion ‘rooter’ which is almost exactly like the old fashioned tack lifters but on a bigger and heavier scale. In theory, this should enable you to take out the whole of the dandelion the roots of which might extend for several inches into the earth. Sometimes, though, the dandelion root will break off half way down but at least its regenerative powers ought to have been severely compromised. This being completed, I came in for a cup of tea and then deployed a certain amount of willpower to start off again with a series of ‘stepper’ routines to keep myself fit. The theory here is not only to reduce carbohydrate intake wheever this is possible but also to increase your exercise quotient slightly so that your body responds to these two extra demands by burning off some fat reserves. I have a particular ‘stepper routine’ video which I have used for about four years and have found very good. The video figures a yong American instructor called Kelly Anne who I think has a good instructional technique and after some warm-up exercises, you enter the main body of exercises which each take about a minute. All in all, the entire regime takes about 12 minutes and to ensure that I am in the right mind set for this, I change into the track suit bottoms which I wear for my Pilates exercises each Tuesday. Not having done these exercises for a bit, I must say that I found them somewhat on the ‘tough’ side today compared with how I found them four years ago but that is only to be expected, I suppose. I am hoping to achieve a steady but unspectactular weight loss of about 2lbs a week (a kilo per week) and at least I know I have done this all before. One factor impelling me onwards is a recent article in The Times extolling the virtues of losing ½ stone in weight so I keeping it and re-reading it every so often to keep the goal before my eyes. Earlier in the day, we have made an arrangement to have a meal with four of ex-Leicester Polytechnic colleagues and we have now found a date and time in about a couple of weeks and a location which is relatively central for all of us (Leamington Spa in a little bistro that we used in out last pre-pandemic ‘rendez-vous’)
Today is the day for my Pilates session so that rather dictates how we plan out our morning.It was a somewhat gloomy start but with the promise of better weather to come later in the day. Meg and I went by car to collect our newspaper and there we were quite surprised when the newsagent enquired after my five daughters. I had to disabuse him of the fact that I had any daughters, let alone five, and I was reminded that even Mr. Bennet, the patermilias of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice only laid claim to four. I cannot for the life of me think how such an impression might have arisen apart from the fact that in the very earliest day of the pandemic my son and/or daughter-in-law used to call in at the newsagent, complete with my token, to collect the newspaper on a daily basis. Perhaps he thought that each time my daughter-in-law entered the shop, she was a different person but who can say – anyway after this revelation we journeyed on to Waitrose. We rather hoped that being a Tuesday, we might bump into one or two of our pre-pandemic Waitrose friends but it was not to be. So we made our way home and I got things prepared for the rapid lunch that we have when I return from my Pilates class. On my way back home, I made a lightning visit to my local Asda store because there are one or two things which I know can only buy there. It was frustrating to find the item that I really wanted to buy was sold out so I shall have to see that as we are on the road, we might be able to find out what we want from Waitrose in Droitwich. But whilst in the Bromsgrove store, I did manage to get one or two things that we needed. Later on this afternoon, we popped round to see our neighbours because I needed them to witness a document which they readily did and provided us with a nice cup of tea and biscuits as we were there. In the late afternoon, we always FaceTime some of our Waitrose friends and we exchange news about the sort of week we have had. Both of our friends have badly compromised immune systems so thay were incredibly cautious during the whole of the two years of lockdown that they had endured. Anyway, now they are getting out and about quite a lot more and really appreciating a taste of liberty. They gave us some advice about a local Crafts Centre complex in the locality that we intend to visit tomorrow. We understand there are a variety of craft workshops which we can visit as well as a tearoom/restaurant so we shall have to see how it all works out.
There is quite a big political story playing out in the Unites States at the moment. One ‘achievement’ of the Donald Trump presidency was to make nominations of known right-wingers to the Supreme Court such that the balance of the Supreme Court has changed from a position of approximate equality to a conservative majority of 5:4 or even a 6:3 split on some issues. Many on the extreme right of american politics have been waiting to bring a raft of issues to the Supreme Court of which the most prominent and important is abortion but many other issues queuing up behind such as LGBT rights and some raclal equality cases. The most famous case in abortion law is Roe v. Wade which is the classic case that guaranteed abortion rights to US women for the last half century. But the conservative right have been pushing issues upwards towards the Supreme Court to facilitate it making a decision that would effectively set back abortion law to the position of at least fifty years ago. There are several states which have already passed legislation such that when Roe v Wade is nullified, their own state legislatures will immediately bring in draconian abortion laws into action. In the case of Texas, a prosecution can take place when a women is only six weeks pregant (as soon as a foetal heartbeat can be detected) and before some women even realise they are pregnant. Any citizen can initiate a prosecution and anybody even remotely involved in an abortion, e.g. a taxi driver taking a women to an abortion clinic can also be prosucuted and sued for thousands of dollars. Now to bring us up-to-date. It seems that the draft of what may be the majority opinion has been leaked, the full judgement being available in July. The draft judgement is rumoured to rule that Roe v Wade has never been constitutional and should be repealed immediately. This judgement is much more severe than anybody could possibly have projected and the whole issue seems likely to split the USA from top to bottom. Most of the population support the abortion provisions of Roe v Wade but the conservative right have money, a lot of the airwaves and extremely vocal advocates so a battle royal is in the making.
Today started off with sporadic rainfall, although it was quite sustained in the early part of the morning. We did have some tentative plans to have a mini-day out this morning but, having picked up our newspaper, we only made a decision where to go at the very last moment. We eventually set course for a local crafts centre called Jinney Ring. This curious name comes from the invention of the Jinney Ring which allowed horse power to be converted to drive the previously manual farm equipment. The horse would walk around a large wheel with cogs, which turned shafts, and then the belts and chains of the farm equipment. We had often seen signs to Jinney Ring but never got round to actually going there until this morning. We made straight for the restaurant where we ate some locally prepared produce (apple pie) to go with our cappucchinos. Then we had a cursory look at some of the arts and crafts on display but I did not have a burning desire to purchase a pen with a genuine wood-turned barrel (at either £49.99 or £99.99) or to buy any glassware or pottery. But we did tarry a little at one of the units which was selling plants and purchased both a sweet pea plant also a mange tout pea plant – these we can plant out almost straight away. As our elevenses turned out to be quite filling, we decided to prepare a light lunch once we returned home as we had most of the ingredients to make up quite an extensive salad lunch for ourselves. This turned out a bit bigger than we initially thought but there again we did manage to combine a lot of different flavours and if we hadn’t used up some of the ingredients they would have gone to waste anyway.
As from 1st May, I have decided to try and keep a tight control over my diet with the aim of losing 7 lbs (½ stone) over the next few weeks. This is going to be established not by a rigid or a crash diet but just by being careful with my carbohydrate intake, whilst at the same time keeping my exercise levels at just above the previous level. So far (after only a few days) I am on track and am keeping my results in a little spreadsheet. I do have some historic spreadsheets where I have recorded BMI and body-fat indicators and I am stitching my recent results into this historical series (which, I must say, is rather sporadic) However, it is quite reassuring to know that I am only 2-3 lbs away from the weight that I recorded at the same time of year three years ago.
This afternoon, the highlight of my afternoon was a Skype call to one of my Hampshire friends. We have been in touch by email quite a lot over the last few weeks but have not had a face-to-face session via Skype so we thought we would make up for it today. We had a good old natter over topics more numerous to mention but after an hour and a half we felt our respective spouses might be wondering what had happened to us so we decided to call it a day. I knew that in the late afternoon, I had a job to do which had to wait until it was the relevent bin-emptying day. This was to take the canvas bag garden waste containers in which I had stored my chopped up pieces of my moribund clematis plant and dispose of the contents via my neighbour’s ‘brown bins’. I managed to squeeze three of my four bags of clippings into two of my neighbour’s bins but they were already at least three quarters full. I was relying upon the fact that the bin belonging to the empty house across the way from our communal green area could be utilised but it looks as though the relatives of our neighbour (who died last August) had turned up to tidy up the garden, no doubt to attempt it to make it look more attractive to facilitate its sale. So it looks as though once the shopping has been done in the morning, I shall have to make a ten mile round trip to our local domestic refuse site to completely get rid of garden clippings.
A bit of breaking news which is quite significant. Last week, the High Court ruled that the government acted unlawfully by discharging untested hospital patients into care homes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government have decided not to appeal against this ruling and therefore, it should follow, that relatives might have a claim for compensation against the Government. The Government may have cynically calculated, of course, that any court case claiming compensation may well fail because of the difficulty in establishing an exact line of causation or route of infection. The Government could argue that COVID-19 could have been brought into the home by a care worker or transmitted from another resident.
Thursday is my shopping day but I departed early so that I can make a flying visit into the adjacent Morrison's supermarket which is practically next door. I was pretty sure that they would stock the Beet juice that I wanted (but our local Asda was out of stock). I availed myself of a couple of cartons and at my normal rate of consumption, that should last me for a couple of weeks. When I eventually got home, I checked whether I could get it online to save me a lot of traipsing around and indeed I can, so I think I will do that in future. I completed my Aldi shopping getting everything I wanted and was pleased to be able to buy one of those chickens that you roast completely in its own bag, just popping it into the oven for the relevant amount of time. I have found in the past that this saves so much time and hassle so that is destined for our Sunday roast. When I got home, I unpacked the shopping but Meg was not feeling too well so was spending some extra time in bed whilst I occupied myself with other tasks. I had intended to go off to the Domestic Refuse facility ('the tip') in order to dispose of my final garden bag of plants clippings but I just filled up my brown bin (only emptied this morning), judging that I could better use of my time and money than making a round trip to dispose of one bag full of rubbish. A second task in which I was engaged was attempting to get a really accurate measure of my height, so that I can feed them into my BMI (Body Mass Index) calculations. This is quite difficult to do on one's own. It is easy to get a measure of your height when lying down - I tend to use an empty shoe box as a 'top' marker and then measure the distance from the skirting board to the shoebox. But your height is different by quite an amount when you measure yourself standing up. Each vertebrae compresses very slightly but the cumulative effect is to make a difference of about ½" - and even this amount can vary during the day. Using the shoebox method on the top of one's head, followed by a pencil mark and subsequent measurement with a tape measure, I think I have lost about 3.6cm (1.4") over the last four years. I know that I had a really accurate measure of my height just before I was in hospital some four years ago now but I thought as I am now in a measuring of BMI mode again, I would try and get a really up-to-date and accurate measure. I think I might enlist the assistance of my domestic help tomorrow as an extra pair of hands and eyes to make my measurements accurate to the millimetre.
This afternoon was quite a fine afternoon. Just before lunch, I managed to get my lawn edges a quick whizz with my manual mower before the main cut with the petrol mower tomorrow. This afternoon, I really wanted to get a big pebble-dressed circular bed weeded and tidied up and this job too was satisfying to get done of the day. Meg and I enjoyed a bit of late afternoon sunshine after I had flashed a cleaning sponge over the outside table and chairs and the day's gardening quota had been completed.
Today is Election Day and of course nothing really kicks off until about 11.00pm this evening. Nonetheless, being a self-confessed election junkie. I thought I would get myself prepared in the traditional fashion. I have bought today a bottle of Newcastle Brown and some bottles of a particularly good low alcohol lager which I used to buy from Waitrose but was being sold in Morrisons. I have a strategy in place to consume this alcohol as the election results trickle in. If it appears that the parties that I support or doing somewhat less well than the pundits predict, I shall open the good low alcohol lager. On the other hand, if the results are just about what we would anticipate, then I enjoy a can of low-alcohol Guinness that I happened to have in stock. But if the results are much better than predicted, then I shall go the whole hog and drink the bottle of Newcastle Brown bought for such an occasion as this.
The Bank of England interest rate was raised to 1% today and there are predictions of more rises to come. But there is also a prediction that inflation will exceed 10% in the year ahead and the economy as a whole may contract by ¼%. The present generation has never known such economic pain before. The reasons for this are put to a combination of the Ukrainian war, the rising fuel prices and the aftermath of the pandemic. Strange that Brexit does not get a mention, though, isn't it?
Last night, Meg and I decided that we would stay up for an hour or so to watch the Election programmes which were being broadcast from 11.00pm onwards. In the event, nothing really dramatic was apparent in the opening hours but we both managed to fall asleep in our chairs and then drag ourselves off to bed at about 2.30 in the morning. Consequently, we have both felt somewhat like ‘death warmed up’ today and, in truth, it would have been better if we had gone to bed at the normal time and listened to results on the radio (and, no doubt, we would have fallen asleep in the middle of this also) This morning, it was the day when our domestic help calls around and so we had our normal chat and a joke or two before we took the car into town. I collected the newspaper, bought a few provisions at Waitrose that I had forgotten about last Thursday and then we made our way to the park. It was quite pleasant although a little cool on our normal park bench and after a little while, we were joined by our University of Birmingham friend to which we had been looking forward as we often ‘touch base’ with each on Friday mornings. Our friend is trying to plan a trip to Spain on his own to improve his Spanish so we spent several happy minutes talking about potential routes, towns, airports and the like. No doubt, we will carry on a bit more tomorrow once we have had the chance to Google a bit more information for ourselves.
Once we eventually made it home, I started cooking what used to be a Friday favourite of ours which was a risotto. Our domestic help is particularly partial to the risottos that I make but I started off putting some smoked haddock into the oven to cook for the prescribed 17 minutes. Then I built up the risotto in stages starting off with clarifying an onion and then gradually adding the chicken stock, a bit of ready mashed potato which is a bit of a cheat but I use it as a thickener. Then, after adding the cooked fish, I finish off with a couple of huge dollops of plain yogurt and some grated cheese. To keep the carb count down, I do not use convetnional rice any more but some of those veg alternatives such as cauliflower rice which cuts the carb quotient dramatically. Once we had this meal inside us (washed down with a smidgeon of Pinot Grigio which all I had left in a bottle) I knew that the lawn mowing beckoned. Accordingly, I got my weary limbs into gear and started the weekly mowing, conscious of the fact that rain is threatening at about 4.00 in the afternoon. I reckoned I had an hour and ten minutes which should have been just about right. I got all of the mowing done in time just before the threatened rain was scheduled to arrive and then parked myself in front of the TV to catch up on the local eletion results. By this stage in the afternoon, the results from Northern Ireland were starting to come through and it looks as though the Irish nationalist party of Sinn Féin may end up having the most seats and largest share of the popular vote. The fascinating question is whether the ‘Democratic’ Unionist Party (DUP) will live up to its name and accept its part in the democratic process, according to the Good Friday agreement, in which the two leading parties can nominate the roles of First Minister and the deputy. I am not going to get into the attempt to understand the labrinthine nature of Irish politics. But it is a case of ‘watch this space’ In Scotland, the Scottish Labour party has more or less got its act together and relegated the Tories to third place whilst the SNP goes onwards and upwards. I have not seen the analysis yet but no doubt the following analysis will be analysed in depth. This is that by the time you have put together the votes of the SMPs, the Liberals and the Greens will there now be a great push to advance the cause of Scottish independence. When the Scots view what the English parliament has got uo to in recent months, no doubt this will give a further impelling twist towards Scottish independence.
Whilst the election results will no doubt be chewed over in the Saturday and Sunday quality press, a thought has occurred that if you put together the Labour votes with the great success of the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, then it might just be possible for there to be an ‘anti-Tory alliance’ at the time of the next General Election. The Irish MP’s (Sinn Féin) do not take up their Westminster seats so there may be a majority of literally one or two for an ‘anti-Tory alliance’ to form without needing the support of the Scottish Nationalists. This, in turn, has implications for any future push to Scottish independence. Food for thought only, at this stage.
It was a most beautiful day today so Meg and I were keen to get a ‘normal’ walk in whilst the weather was set fair. We did not quite get up at the crack of dawn, recouping somewhat some of the sleep that we had lost by staying up for the early election results on Friday morning. So when we had breakfasted and showered, we went together by car to collect our Saturday edition of ‘The Times‘ which is always stuffed full of a variety of supplements. Then dropping the car back home, we started a gentle walk down to the park which was generally in its spring greenery. I had noticed with a certain amount of satisfaction that the hornbeam tree I planted about a year ago and which looked pretty dead only about two weeks ago had now burst fully into leaf which proves, I suppose, that it is in a certain amount of health. It was planted on a slope in ‘Mog’s Den‘ and so is not the easiest of locations to ensure that it has an adequate water supply whilst relatively young as water tends to drain away quite rapidly. In the park, we met with our University of Birmingham friend briefly but he had to leave us quite quickly to lend his expertise to a type of community repair service. I think that the idea behind this is that anyone can bring along an appliance of any type that needs fixing and the volunteers can bring their experience and skills along to see what they can do. I suppose you could call it a type of recycling as otherwise relatively useful appliances might be consigned to landfill or wherever else they go. When we got home, we had a midday meal of mince and veg before listening to ‘Any Questions‘ and ‘Any Answers‘ on Radio 4. I can listen to this program whilst preparing lunch and it sort of keeps me in touch with ‘Middle England’ but the panellists are generally quite sensible (Matthew Parris who writes for ‘The Times’ being one of them)
After lunch, I decided that I really needed to tackle the weeds on the patio outside the kitchen window. The most eye-sore weeds had already been removed but I decided that the remaining moss and weeds in between the paving slabs had to be tackled. This proved a much bigger job then I had first anticipated. Eventually, I worked out that for each slab I needed a three stage process. The first involves a gloved hand to remove or pull out whatever weed was easily graspable. Then for the second stage, I had a spcial tool designed to remove weeds from in between paving slabs and then finally, the most useful tool of all is a wire brush which does a magnificent job in removing all remnants of even the tiniest of weeds from between the slabs. I also found an old washing up brush quite useful to be pressed into service to make things neat and tidy. Of five ‘lines’ of slabs, I have managed to do two of them so I am 40% of the way through the job – more tomorrow if the weather holds good.
There is a rumour doing the rounds of the media this afternoon. Next weekend, the Eurovision Song Contest is going to be held in Italy. But certain interesting rumours are alreasdy circulating: in particular that the song from the Ukraine is bound to win. I suspect the European song contest has got more and more political as the years have gone by but this year, the Ukrainian band, will use their presence at the contest to ‘remind’ the audience of the war in Ukraine. I think that people have surmised that all of the Baltic countries and countries neighbouring the Ukraine will vote for it (rather than for each other). In addition, there may be massive sympathy votes from all quarters of the continent and, if you add all of these factors together, one can predict an out and out win for the Ukraine. Russia is banned from the contest (if they had not been, can you imagine a Russian jury voting for the Urainian entry) So this is not exactly a fix but an infomed guess as to how things will work out. I will watch it with a particular interest this year (rather than having it on in the background which is normal)
All this afternoon, the elections in Northern Ireland have been unfolding. I say ‘unfolding’ because in the system of proportional representation adopted in the province, the voters number preferences 1 to 5 in groups of constituencies each group generating 5 MLA (Members of the Legialative Assembly). In the Northern Ireland context, any member gaining 1/6th of the vote is automatically elected but that is when it becomes interesting. The person who gets the fewest vote in a round is eliminated and the second preferences are allocated. This process proceeds until all of the seats have been filled. It now looks certain that Sinn Féin will have the highest portion of seats and of votes, beating the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) Whether the DUP will participate in the process whereby the Sinn Féin leader becomes First Minister and the Leader of the DUP becomes their deputy remains to be seen – I suspect not.
Today being Sunday, I got up early and strolled down to pick up my copy of the ‘Sunday Times‘. On my walk down, I entertain myself to listening to some classical music tracks on my trusty old iPhone, retained just for this purpose. The first track which played was Handel’s ‘Zadoc the Priest‘ composed for the coronation of George II and played at every coronation ever since. The interesting thing about this piece is that there a long introduction of what might be termed ‘tum-ti-tum’ music played on the strings which occasionally swells and diminishes in volume without seemingly going away. One can imagine the rows packed into Westminster Abbey with the crowd waiting patiently in their crinolines (or whatever else was fashionable in 1727). Eventually, the choir breaks in, declaiming in full voice with the start of the anthem singing ‘Zadoc the Priest..” One can only imagine the impact that must have been made on the congregation when it was heard for the very first time and it still thrills. Another track was the ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks‘ and I discerned it was excellent marching music as I could time my steps to the on beats – it would have to be a quick march, I imagine. Another concert favourite was ‘Jerusalem’ which must be, by now, practically England’s (if not the UK’s) second national anthem. I have always found it interesting that the Blake poem decrying the ‘dark Satanic Mills’ of the early periods of industrialisation evokes sympathetic responses from both the political left as well as the political right. I cannot think of any other tract or poetic work of a similar ilk. The final piece that caught my attention was the ‘Halleluja‘ chorus from Handel’s ‘Messiah‘ and this also evokes a memory of the Huddersfield Choral Society singing in Huddersfield Town Hall, which itself contains a Concert Hall seating some 1200 people. I believe that it is still the case that in various towns and cities across the land, if you have a reasonable single voice you can turn up to perform a rendition just needing a score in your hand and allocation to sopranos, altos, tenors or bases. I have never done this but I reckon it would be quite an inspiring experience to do it.
Meg and I made our way to the park after watching the ‘Sunday Morning‘ (politics) programme and there we coincided, as we thought that we might, with our University of Birmingham friend. He had been busy yesterday in a community workshop repairing whatever came before him – generally radios with corroded contacts and the like. Then we bumped some other mutual acquaintances who we have not seen for a week or so but they had been away on a trip to Yorkshire. Then we made our way home for a nice Sunday lunch of chicken which was one of these supermarket offerings complete in its tray and roasting bag which just has to be popped into the oven for an hour and a half before its final finishing off with the roasting bag removed. After lunch and a brief rest reading the Sunday Times, I resumed my task in weeding the patio outside our kitchen window. These tasks always seem to take longer than you think if you do it relatively conscientiously and I had set myself the goal of doing one more ‘line’ of slabs makng only two more yet to be done. I set myself the goal of trying to get today’s quota done in ¾ hour because we had decided to watch a repeat episode of Morse on ITV3. This episode we thought we had not seen before but half way though we realise how the plot unfolded to its denouement but it was enjoyable all the same. When this episode of Morse was over, we wanted to watch Andrew Neil whose politics show, including interview, is starting a run on Channel 4. This first programme was pretty good, I thought and Andrew Neil was just about getting the better of William Rees-Mogg when the interview was made to give way to a set of adverts half through the programme. To my mind, the program seemed slightly too short at 30 minutes and I felt it could easily have been extended to 40-45 minutes. Anyway I shall watch the next one next Sunday as I think that Andrew Neil takes no prisoners and will ‘go after’ an interviewee if he feels it to be necessary.
There is an interesting ‘afterthought’ that has been occurring to some political analysts after the elections last Thursday. The popular view was that Labour had done OK but had not any dramatic further advances apart from capturing key seats in London. The Tories, for their part, felt it could have been worse and they can probably rise out any short tern unpopularity. But another view which is circulating is that voters in the South were determined to punish Johnson not just by not voting Tory but actively voting Liberal Democrat to actually punish the Tory party. If this view persists, then in the next general election, it may well be that the Tories will lose power, ceding to a minority Labour government tacitly supported by the Lib Dems.
It was an intermediate day today but pleasant enough for our daily walk. My routine differs a little these days in that I tend to take the car down into town on my own in order to collect our daily newspaper and this means that Meg and I for a walk only to walk as far as the park (about 800m at a rough guess) and not the 1200m to the newsagent. Although we visit the park every day, we always notice new things that hadn’t impinged upon our consciousness. As we looked down the hill towards the cafe in the park, I noticed that it was one of those modernistic 1970’s type designs in which the roof took the shape of a ‘V’ rather than the conventional hipped roof. At the same time, I noticed that there were no rainwear goods attached to the outside of the building and therefore I speculated that the design of the roof must be such that with a slight ‘fall’ for water to drain away, then might be the need for only one drainpipe in an unobtrustive space towards the rear of the building. Perhaps some of my park acquaintances might be able to put me wise on this. Whilst sitting on our normal bench, I started to speculate how far the distance was from the point at which we were sitting to make a complete detour of the lake by the normal paths and return to one’s starting point. At a guess, I would think this is 1km so I may ask some of the regular runners and/or walkers in the park if they have any measuring devices with them to measure this distance for me. I suppose I could get an app and do it myself on the iPhone but it might be easier to ask someone. On our way back from the park, we walked past the garden of our closest Irish friends one of whom was gardening (until we interrupted him) and the other was busy hoovering. As they are going on a trip shortly and will be away for eleven days, no doubt there are a lot of domestic jobs to be done before they depart in a day or so’s time.
After lunch, I had only the briefest of rests because I wanted to really ‘crack on’ and get the weeding of the patio outside our kitchen window completed. I have got my technique off to a fine art now and after about an hour and a half of concentrated effort, the task is now completed to my satisfaction. I think the ‘root’ of the problem, if I can put it this way, is that we used to have a regular gardner who kept the terrace looking neat and tidy. However, I suspect that the strimmer that he used took the top off the weeds but left the root systems in the ground, free to grow away again if left unattended. Now that I have done a ‘root and branch’ clearance, I intend to keep it that way. I think that I may use a combination of an old but stiff washing up brush together with a small wire brush to eliminate any weeds too small to be grasped by the fingers. If I do this on a regular basis, then I can keep the terrace looking pristine. After this task had been completed, I dashed off into town because I wanted to go into our local Waitrose to avail myself of some cupcakes because it had been intimated to me that the rest of my Pilates classmates would expect no less of me in a birthday week. Having got my cupcakes, including some gluten-free goodies for my Pilates teacher, I then bought two or three things to keep us going until our next shop up. Then I was the ‘victim’ of one of the most obscure accidents in the history of shopping. I was behind one other customer and so I slapped my £10 note, my car parking token and my Waitrose card on the conveyor belt. When I came to be served, the £10 note and car parking token had disappeared and the assistant and I concluded that the belt had transported both of them neatly into the internal workings of the belt. Neither of us had ever known this to happen before but I said I was quite happy to wait a day or so in case an engineer had to be called. I left my name and contact number with the assistant who served me and came home to tell the story. Then I got a call on my mobile. The Waitrose manager had equipped himself with a screwdriver, taken off a panel by the side of the belt and retrieved the errant note! They are going to leave it at the Help Desk so that I can retrieve it when I return from my Pilates class tomorrow.
Another beautiful spring day has dawned but as it is my Pilates class today, the schedule of the morning’s activities has to be carefully managed. After collecting the newspaper by car, Meg and I started a fairly gentle walk to the park. On the way down, we were delighted to bump into our Italian friend and we stayed chatting for several minutes, swapping tips and hints about to keep our patios in good condition. When we got down to the park, we had hoped to meet up with our University of Birmingham friend but it was not to be today. So we had a pleasant drink of our coffee and a pleasant stay in the warm sunshine before we made our way up to the hill to home. Then I changed into my track suit bottoms and proceeded down the hill again walking to my Pilates class. It has become a tradition in our little class that in every six week session, we have two sessions of relaxation for a few minutes at the end of our routines, typically in week 3 and week 6. However, if it is your birthday (or even birthday week) then for a special treat, an additional relaxation session is provided as a type of birthday treat from the rest of the group. As it is my birthday tomorrow, we enjoyed our little relaxation at the end of our session today and, in return, some cup cakes were distributed to my fellow class members, as well as some gluten-free cookies for my Pilates teacher. On my way home, I popped into Waitrose and there I presented myself at the Help Desk and managed to reclaim the £10.00 note which had been retrieved from the nether regions of the conveyor belt leading to one of the tills which I had lost yesterday. The staff and I reminded each other that tomorrow was the fifth anniversary of the opening of this particular Waitrose store, a fact that sticks in the mind as it just happens to be my own birthday as well. Five years ago, I had hoped to be the first person through the doors when the store opened – in the event, I ended up as the second as I was beaten to it by a rather pushy young woman. Then it was a walk home and the by now traditiuonal lunch on a Tuesday of haddock fish cakes which ‘do’ in the oven whilst I am doing my Pilates and can be quickly complemented by one of those vegetabke packs that can be cooked in the micrwave for about three minutes.
This afternoon, although time was a little limited, I thought I would spend a small amount of time doing some weeding at the front of the house. We have across our access road a series of large cobbles which technically mark the boundary between our own property and the roadways accessed by all of the houses in the Close. This task was not particularly difficult but I am determined not to injure my back by over-much bending. Accordingly, i sort of ‘lay’ on my side on the ground from which position I could quickly attack the weeds I wisjed to remove. As I was just about completing my task, my neighbour approached in his car (we often swing our cars into each other’s space so that we can reverse into our own properties, thus enabling us to drive out forwards the next time we use the car). When I saw my neighbour’s car approaching, I thought for a moment that he was not going to be able to stop in time and I was in danger of being run over. I jumped up to get out of the way and when my neighbour strolled over for a chat he was laughing his head off because he had seen me in plenty of time but he reckoned he had never seen a prostrate figure get to their feet so fast in all of his life. Actually, I was glad to have a chat because my neighbour has absolutely transformed the bungalow which is next to us and has generated a whole raft of improvements both inside the house but even more outsides. He is extremely knowledgeable about gardening ‘things’ particularly when it comes to little landscaping projects so I was very pleased to be able to tap into his expertise about the most effective way to get my patio repointed/re-grouted as necessary and how he would tackly my own patio if it were his.
Today was the State Opening of Parliament which is normally the preserve of the monarch. On this occasion, the Queen had very reluctantly decided that her mobility problems meant she had to miss this occasion which has happened only twice before and that when she was pregnant. So the Queen’s speech from the throne outlining the government’s legislative programme was actually read by Prince Charles acting under ‘Letters Patent’ whilst the absent Queen was symbolised by a crown on a table placed besides Prince Charles. It was all rather poignant and certainly may be a sign that the monarchy is itself in a transitional period.
Well, today of all days did not start well. As I was concluding this blog last night, suddenly my MacBook upon which I write this blog (whilst keeping one ear on the TV and the other ear on Meg) became completely unresponsive. I tried a reset of the computer, including a reset in ‘Safe’ mode (i.e. with minimal drivers ) but I could only get as far as the ‘Log In’ screen and no further. I went on the web to identify problems and solutions and it was not uncommon for MACs to stick at this stage, particularly after an upgrade. So for hours I tried a variety of solutions thinking that I would have to take the laptop off to the Apple Centre in Solihull for a diagnosis and repair. At about 2.45 in the morning, I noticed that although my mouse showed a cursor across the screen but would not effect a double-click, the trackpad appear to work as intended (although I never use it). After some experience with another (wired) mouse, I finally came to the conclusion that it was my own mouse that was faulty because of practically spent batteries. The fact that I could move the mouse cursor across the screen did not alert me to exhausted batteries but evidently, the batteries had sufficient for a cursor movement but insufficient for a double click. The relief when I got the problem both identified and solved was overwhelming because I was having to contemplate the prospect that the entire laptop had gone ‘belly up’ and there would be no alternative but to replace it. So I crawled into bed, tired but happy, at 3.15 in the morning.
Today being my birthday, I had a whole series of interesting cards – nearly all of them relating to age/gardening/neighbourly activities. I must say I particularly liked one card in which one neighbour had been shaping the dividing privet hedge into a series of topiaries shaped as as a series of ‘V’ signs. The caption read ‘Relations with the neighbors seem to be deteriorating’ so I thought I would share the joke with my next door neighbour when next I see him. A present of a series of craft beers had been left on our doorstep by our Irish friends before they got away to Munich – fortunately for them, the airport was relatively clear because Birmingham Airport has been badly hit in recent days with an excess of passengers over staff to deal with them. Our domestic help called around today rather than Friday, again bearing some cake (as did our former Waitrose friends who dropped a specially baked cake around for me last night) I now have enough cake to put on several pounds but I am pleased to report that I have now shed 3½lbs in 10 days which is just about the right rate of weight loss for me so I am hoping I can maintain this progress. Meg and I decided to go to our favourite little Georgian town of Alcester down the road – this will be our third visit but we did have an ulterior motive as the range of good quality charity shops is superb. We got there and had a coffee before diving into one of the shops and buying a couple of skirts for Meg. We have noticed that the charity shops seem awash with tops but comparatively few skirts which reflects the fact that so many trousers are worn these days. Then we went off to our favourite hotel for a meal of lasagne which again was excellent. We had taken the opportunity of making a booking just before we came out which was just as well because with no booking we would have had to have waited for our meal. After the meal, we proceeded to the end of the high street where I purchased a series of beets ready to be planted out. They looked a little the ‘worse for wear’ to be honest but if I get them planted out quickly (tomorrow) they will revive. I also bought some ‘Rosso’ lettuce plants and some runner beans which I am sure I can plant in a little ‘wigwam’ built of canes in a corner of the garden. I treated myself to a high qulity shirt as well, very much like I already own but obviously the collar and cuffs are pristine and not showing signs of wear. After this huge meal we got home and collapsed a little in front of the TV after our exertions of the day.
There was an item on the news which was quite shocking. The Ukrainians exploring the areas that the Russians has first invaded and from which they have been beaten back have discovered the bodies of several dead Russian soldiers. The Russian authorities, though, are refusing to take them back or to share any DNA database with the Ukrainians so the soldiers can be identified. At the moment, they are being stored in refrigerated railway wagons until, presumably, the conflict is over.
Thursday is my shopping day so I get up reasonably early so that I can get to the supermarket as it opens at 8.00am. Today, though, I left home five minutes early so that I could mak a flying visit to the Morrisons store which is adjacent practically to the Aldi store I use. I had had my eye upon some particularly nice large ceramic planters which were very reasonably priced. Fortunately, even at that hour, there was assistant bobbling about who took my payment in the gardening section attached to the store and then carried the planter to the car for me. I got it home by putting on a protective cloth I keep in the boot for occasions such as this and did my normal weekly shop up. This finishes off with me calling in at my regular newsagent as they are in the vicinity and thence home. After a slow unpack and a bite of breakfast, Meg and I were ready to wander down into the park. Once in the park, we did not expect to see any of our regular acquainatances but our Intrepid Octogenerial Hiker strode into view and we exchanged news of our various comings and goings. As he regularly does circuits of the park and has a special Apple watch with an app that records his steps, I asked him for some assistance with a little query that I have. As our friend regularly does a complete ‘circuit’, I asked him to measure it for me and he already knew the answer which was 1000 steps. We then needed to know how many feet he has in a typical step. To solve this problem was fairly easy because we measured the distance from where we were towards the end of a fairly adjacent bench which we measured both there and back and took an average.Then I did the same and I could compare my steps with those of our friend. The results were that my stride is three times the length of our friend (who is in his 80’s and takes quite small steps). From this we managed to compute that the distance round the lake is 1000 x.2ft andd the net result of all of this is that the distance around the lake is something of the order of 600m. Estimating by eye,I thought the distance was near to 100m (1 km) so I may have to do a special walk to solve this particular problem to my own satisfaction. Incidentally, is it a ‘man’ thing, this constant desire to measure and record things? I think I will leave this topic for now.
After a lunch of quiche and a bit of a doze, I was ready to start on my afternoon’s project which is to get some of the beetroot and lettuce plants that we purchased yesterday to get planted out. The section that I have marked out under some of our bordering trees used to be devoted to my daughter-in-laws superb dahlia growing but the land has ceded back to me and hence my planting regime. I had ‘rough’ dug the area some weeks ago and then limed it well, as it probably not been limed for years if ever at all. It was then a very simple task to make the soil into a friable condition by a simple raking, assisted of course with a good trampling underfoot under some heavy gardening boots. I know that I had near our compost heap in the far regions of the garden some pelleted chicken manure and I put some of this into an empty tall sauce jar which makes an excellent way to distribute the fertiliser evenly. I then made some drills and fortunately rescued from Mog’s Den a short offcut of timber with a 2″ x 2″ square cross section. This proved to be an excellent way of creating some planying holes which almost exactly match the cross section of the plastic cells in which the newly purchased plants were sold. The upshot of all of this was that I planted out 2 x. 2 rows of beet plants which I hope will now grow away quickly as there is no thinning to do. Beet plants have the added bonus that you can eat the tender young red/green leaves in a salad as well as cooking the roots which are always delicious if home grown ( and even more if baked which I will try if I achieve some success) I finished off with a row of lettuce plants which I think are of the ‘Lollo Rosso’ (i.e. red-leaved) variety. Finally, I doused each of my plants with a special anti-slug solutuon which is ecologically sound and works to a completely differemt formula to the conventional slug pellets. A ban on the outdoor use of metaldehyde slug pellets is to be introduced across Great Britain from spring 2022.
Downing Street has been issued with 50 more fines which brings the total to 100+. The latest fines relate to a Christmas party which we know that Boris Johnson did not attend but there is always the possibility that he will be fined when news of further tranches of the fines is realised by the Metropolitan police as their investigations proceed.
Today was a fine spring day and we were looking forward to our walk in the park. Meg and I had breakfasted relatively early so we were in plenty of time this morning. When we arrive at the park, we enter not by the main entrance but in a small side entrance that runs alongside the local Girl Guides clubhouse. Then we normally have to cross a rough area of grassland for a hundred metres or so before we join one of the main paths around the lake. But yesterday, the park groundsmen had lowered the normal cutting height of their mowers by about a half and then specially cut two ‘paths’ across the grass, one direct and the other more curving. This seemed to be a brilliantly simple idea as many people (principally dog walkers) as well as ourselves use this top entrance and I thought that a path was long overdue. But now this broad access strip has been mown, psychologically it is easy to walk along it and, in the fullness of time, this path will remain a green path but will no doubt make itself under the pressure of many feet (and some paws). We noticed one of the groundstaff working on his tractor nearby, the tractor pulling some wide cutting units. We mentioned to him to pass on to his superervisors what a thoughtful and intelligent thing the staff had done for regular park users. The groundman explained to us it was part of a conservation unit to encourage people on some parts but bees and flora and fauna in the remaining parts. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that the Massey Ferguson he was driving was manufactured in France whilst the grasscutting units were imported from New Zealand at a price of £18,000 per unit whereas the British equivalent would cost in the order of £30,000. So we then continued with our walk and had our coffee but hoped we make contact with our University of Birmingham friend but it was not to be, even though we made a detour on the way home hoping that he and our friend might be having a coffee in the park’s own café. Meg and I needed to get home and have lunch because we have some trademen calling around at 1.30pm. As we walked home yesterday, we noticed a specialised form that was cleaning the drive (and the roof) of one of the nicest houses on the other side of Kidderminster Road. We asked one of the workers for a leaflet which they gave us and we also made arrangements for them to call around to our house and give is a quote today. But despite having lunched, got washed up and were generally well prepared, the firm did not show up. So I had a quick read of the newspaper and then made a weekly start of the weekly mowing. I use my extremely light hand mower to do all of the lawn edges (a task taking me some six minutes) and then the main mowing.
After all of this had been completed and refreshments had been taken, Meg and I went to our local Morrisons where they have a little mini-garden centre just outsde the store. We needed to buy a couple of potted plants to take up to our relatives in Bolton in two days time and we also wanted to buy some clematis plants for ourselves. This we succeeded in doing although the clematis plants on offer were quite small (albeit cheap) but climbers ought to grow quickly if we get them into their position early and we have a spell of warm, alternating with wet, weather which seems to the the weather forecast anyway. Traditionally, I always liked to grow parsnip and although this is not a ‘difficult’ plant to grow, the seed needs to be this years and there is quite a long germination period. But I have seen some internet tips how to speed up germination, one from Alan Titchmarsh no less, which involves mixing some parsnip seeds in some potting compost and then keeping the bag with the mixture in the airing cupboard for a few days. Well, it is worth a try anyway. If and when the seeds have germinated, I am trying a novel experiment to get them growing to a certain size and then planting out. This involves taking a toilet roll inner, making a cone-shaped base from the relevant part of an egg box, filling with seed compost and then priming with seeds. When (if) they get going, then the whole tube is to be planted and obviously the cardboard tube will rot away and you should get long, straight parsnip roots as the developing roots will find the easiest way to exit i.e. through the bottom. I am going to give it a try anyway – this has the advantage of not having to thin the young parsnip plants so the ‘tubes’ can be planted at the optimum distance some 10″-12″ apart.
Well, you never know what a day is going to bring and so it proved today. The day started off whilst Meg and I were in our dressing gowns as the patio cleaning firm which we thought would turn up yesterday actually turned up today. After an estimation and a price had been agreed, the trio of men started work. The first stage was evidently to clear everything off the patio and it was piled, somewhat higgledy-piggledy upon our back lawn. Then a special solution was applied the function of which was to attack both the black mould and the white spots of algae that had eaten their way into the stonework. The crew departed for an hour or so and then came back and started work in earnest. I have to say that the end result was that the stonework came up in a series of muted colours that we had not realised actually existed. Evidently, when the patio had been laid down some 17 or so years ago, a selection of stone had been carefully chosen and the colours came up to give a very pleasing effect. The patter from the head of the crew was that if you were to lift these stones (which we would not) and sell them they would go for at least a couple of thousand. Whether this is true or patter who is to say. but it was certainly streets ahead of the buff coloured concrete that passes for patio paving these days. Now this is when the fun started. The act of hosing/cleansing had loosened if not dislodged vast chucks of the original grouting. If the truth be told, it was never in the first place a professional grade grout but rather a simple sand-and-cement mixture and over time this had cracked and loosened. Meg and I knew in our heart of hearts that the existing ‘grouting’ was not really fit for purpose and it was pointed out to us, quite forcibly, that if we mixed ‘old’ and new grouting the overall effect would like a bit bodged up. So we did agree to a much more extensive job in which all of the old grouting was removed. I would estimate that we had 250 yds of grouting to be replaced and I knew from previous researchs on the internet that the specialist grout compound on its own could cost us a pretty penny. Anyway, after some negotiation we agreed a price which was a considerable increase on the initial quote. However, we have been saying for years that our patio needed a makeover so we reluctantly agreed. At the same time, the firm cleaned a small area of roof for us (the difference being dramatic) and was then touting for the whole roof to be cleaned with their specialist steam cleaning equipment. At this stage, we telephoned our son and daughter-in-law to have a family conference on whether we should go head. or not and the consensus view was ‘enough was enough’ and we should assess whether the patio cleaning job turned out to be as good as claimed and we could then make a decision as to whether to proceed with the roof or not. We all agreed upon this and although the firm kep on discounting the price to us we felt we had probably agreed a price that somewhat on the high aide to start off with so we should stay our hand and be content with the patio alone.
As our son and daughter-in-law had come over to help us assess what had been done and how we progress from here, they stayed on throughout the rest of the afternoon. My daughter-in-law helped Meg to sort out some of her clothing so that she can find quickly ‘what goes with what’ and then Meg and went to church at our normal time. When we returned home, I looked at the ‘mess’ of things on our lawn which were now all covered in a sort of sandy grime. The firm had initially indicated that they would put everything back the way they found it but then at the end of the day informed us that we had best keep off the patio for a week to allow the grout to settle. So during the week, I will have quite a job to clean up some of the things we stored outside such as our rubbish bins, some gardening things, table and chairs and what-have-you. Having quickly made some order out of the chaos, I knew that the car needed a quick flash of a wash before we made our journey up the motorway to see Meg’s relatives in Bolton tomorrow. Now we are settling down to ‘watch’ the Eurovision song context except that Meg and I will go to bed about 10.00 or before and listen to the rest of it in bed anyway. Ukraine are bound to win – but can the UK come second this year? At the last moment, though, we decided that Hardy’s ‘Far from the Madding Crowd‘ was a better watch for us.
Today was the long anticipated day when we were due to travel North to visit Meg’s cousins in Bolton, Greater Manchester. We did not bother to set an alarm but just got up at the normal time and had our an ‘oats and bran’ quick breakfast for a Sunday morning. We prepared some comestibles and a flask of coffee ready to be consumed on the journey. The journey itself went very smoothly and we made a pitstop at Keele Sevices which is an approximate half way point. We secured ourselves a relatively secluded little location inside the services station where we could drink our coffee and ‘eat our snap’ before resuming our journey. The motorway systems around Greater Manchester are complex so we stuck rigidly to our SatNav which dropped us to the door absolutely on time. By the time we had got ourselves out of the car and laden with the pot plants and wine we were taking long, we managed to arrive practically on time, practically to the second. Inside we were greeted by Meg’s cousin, Meg’s cousing once-removed i.e. the daughter and her husband. The family dog also put in an appearance and after a few barks and sniffs accepted us aspart of the family. As always on these occasions, we spent most of our time talking about family members, particularly a generation or so ago and we managed to convey a few things about Meg’s extended family that they did not know (sort of ‘skeletons in the cupboard’ time) Then we had a magnificent meal of chicken and lashings of vegetables before we started to access some of the photos on our iPad telling the story that lay behind them e.g. the photograph of my grandmother, probably taken by about 1910 which had been ‘colourised’ by the technques popular at the time. My grandmother was wearing a beautiful dress and even more exotic headgear but we understand that photographers often had this type of clothing available for their suubjects to wear. The afternoon seemed to absolutely speed by so at 5.00pm we took our leave before we outstayed our welcome and headed for home. We had a quick ‘pit stop’ on the way back down and got home before 7.30 By the time we arrived home, the rain had started to fall quite gently. We noticed with much pleasure that the patio that we had cleaned yesterday looked absolutely fabulous as the colours glowed in the soft rain. This reminded Meg and I that we had a feature constructed in the garden of our house in Hedge End, Southampton which was called a heritage circle. This utilised a series of differently coloured and sized slabs arranged in a circular pattern and we reminded ourselves that in the rain this also looked stunningly beautiful but as that was some fifteen years ago, we had forgotten all about until today.
There are persistent reports concerning the health of Putin this evening. Some of these reports may be a case of wishful thinking on the part of the West but a persistent report is that Putin is seriously ill and may well be suffering from leukaemia or a similar illness. The puffiness around the face that Putin seems to be exhibiting is probably the consequence of the use of steroids, western medical experts are saying. Whether this is true or not is difficult to say but even if Putin is ill, it may take him some time to die and the war in the Ukraine rages on. In the fullness of time, Putin’s miscalculations may cost him dear but this evening, both Sweden and Finalnd are busy abandoning decades of neutrality and are making haste to join NATO. If these applications are successful, then in the ase of Finland, Russia is now faced with an 800 mile border (with Finland) now facing a hostile NATO front line. There must be some minds in Russia who must be secretly appalled by the miscalculations that Putin has wrought, making Russia less rather than more secure. All that this does is to lower the threshold at which the Russians may feel inclined to utilise tactical nuclear weapons which well presage the start of World War III.
Eggs have been thrown after a statue of Baroness Margaret Thatcher was lowered into place in the former prime minister’s hometown of Grantham, according to Sky News this evening. The original plan was to have the statue erected in Parliament Square in London. After fears that the statue might be attacked or vandalised by ‘far left’ groups if erected in London, it was thought better to erect the statue in Thatcher’s home town of Grantham, Lincs. But after South Kesteven District Council approved a £100,000 unveiling ceremony in 2020, a Facebook group proposing an ‘egg-throwing contest’ at the event attracted interest from more than 13,000 people. What will be interesting to observe in the next few days is whether the statue will attract similar protests some two years later – perhaps the relevant authorities have placed it at such a height or with a physical barrier such that any egg-thrown missiles will fail to reach their target. We shall have to wait and see.
Today was one of those ‘sorting out’ days when I knew there was quite a lot to be done. Before I went down into town, I phoned up my Internet provider who had sent me a text to say that a payment (by direct debit) had not been made this month. So I made a phone call and when I got through to a human being, he could not access my account. All he could suggest was that I abandoned the call and get another operator who might be able to access my account. This I did and whilst the more helpful operator was consulting with colleagues, I discovered that a direct debit had indeed been taken about two days ago. So the internet provider apologised for their systems saying I was both up-to-date and also overdue. In the course of all of this, I rediscovered the new password I had been given and this worked as well. So at least, I was not in danger of being disconnected for non-payment (which happened about a month ago) I then went down into town to my branch bank bevause I needed some cash to pay my dues to the patio cleaning crew. This was quite helpful because they upped the limit on the amount of cash I can withdraw in branch and this might be more than useful to me. Whilst on the High Street, I managed to get some cosmetics of which Meg was in need and also did a quick whizz through Poundland where I bought a small tarpaulin for £1.00 (always useful) and some potting compost as I have some little pots that are crying out to have some seeds planted in them which I will germinate on a window sill. Then it was home to prepare a lightning lunch before our chiropodist called around at 2.00 to do our feet so that we can keep on going for hundreds or thousands more miles yet. After the chiropodist had finished with us, I got onto our internet provider because they are offering a deal which include my landline with the retained number at a price which is actually less than I am paying at the moment. If all works as intended, I can dispense with my BT account (and associated payment) and all of that ought to be taken care of automatically, so they say. All that I can say is that I believe all of this when I see it but at least that is what I have been promised.
After we had our afternoon cup of tea, I set myself the task of starting to do a cleanup of the various bits of garden furniture that had got splattered by the cleaning process yesterday. This turned out to be quite a messy job but I made a start by cleaning up the various wheelie bins that had been stored temprarily on the lawn. I got through about half the entire job but I can always finish off tomorrow. Last night we had evidently had quite a downpour and this had loosened a certain anount of moss that had fallen in some clumps onto the newly cleaned patio. I remedied this with a quick sweeping up job and this has stopped the moss from causing a mess on the newly restored surface. However, a longer term solution is required to remove this moss, preferably on a continual basis so I had a bit of a think as to what to do. Our dormer bungalow has a roof that is relatively accessible from ground level so I went on the internet and ordered from Robert Dyas a special brush which has a specially extensible three metre handle. I am pretty sure this will facilitate the removal of most of this moss and I will then find another solution for what I cannot reach. Quite fortuitously, I had bought a tarpaulin from Poundland for £1.00 and at this price I can buy one or two more which should help to protect the newly cleaned patio surface before the moss comes down. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as they say.
After our trip up to Bolton yesterday, we have had an exchange of emails in which we each thanked the other for the wonderful day we had yesterday. Meg and I were in the state of preparing ourselves for another reunion, this time with ex De Montfort University, Leicester colleagues that had been organised for Wednesday. But fate has intervened and the mother of one of the party has passed away at the ripe old age of 98. So we have had to put this particular reunion in Leamington Spa on hold for the time being until we can all find another mutually acceptable date. We were looking forward to discussing the political situation both here and also in France (where two of our friends have another residence) but by the time we meet, there may be even more to discuss.
Another Tuesday in which we have to organise our time a little carefully, as it is my Pilates day. Having picked up our newspaper by car, Meg and I wished to have a walk down to the park as we have missed this for a day or so what with one thing or another. We walked down a little early according to our normal schedule and hoped to coincide with some of our park regulars but we were out of luck this morning. So we just enjoyed the spring/summer sunshine whilst we have it and drank our coffee alone. After. we had finished, we made a slight detour as fas as the park café but again missed our normal contacts. So we made for home and after another drink I made for my Pilates class. All was proceeding until half way through our normal routines when our Pilates teacher was called out of the class to receive an emergency telephone call. It transpired that our teacher’s husband who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease was thought to have suffered from a minor stroke and was told to make his own way to the hospital in Worcester some 15 miles distant. Our teacher’s inclination (and sense of duty) was to carry on with her class until its natural completion in half an hour’s time. All of the class members insisted that our teacher abandon a class immediately and go and transport her afflicted husband to hospital – as we all know, if the symptoms were to be a stroke then the sooner that a firm diagnosis is made and treatment administered the better. We were relieved that out teacher took our advice so we all gave out our good wishes and made for our respective homes half an hour early. After lunch was over, I managed to locate my ‘edge cleaning’ tools which the patio cleaning crew had unceremoniously dumped in of the raised shrub beds by the side of the house and then started work to attack the weeds in the junction between the kerbstones and the roadway along the long side of our communal grassed area. As is often the case, I have a variety of tools to assist me in this task. Of course the bigger weeds are easy to pull out but more problematic are of couse those insidious little ‘flat’ weeds and, of course, the dandelions which always have a habit of seeding themselves in inaccessible locations. I have a little curved patio weed rake, a dandelion remover, a general weeding tool, an old but stiff washing up brush and then a general purpose softer hand brush. I find that this combination of tools allows one to loosen the weeds, rake them out and finally leave a nice clean and weed-free edge. There is a 20 yard section that I had wanted to get in the time I had allocated myself this afternoon and it is always satisfying to fulfil one’s objectives. Later on this evening, as we always do on a Tuesday, we FaceTime our oldest Waitrose friends and exchange news. Later on there a couple of comedy programmes that we like to watch and ‘Yes Minister‘ to us never seems to date. I think it is generally well known that the ‘Yes, Minister‘ Storie all have a foundation in fact. Harold Wilson’s private right hand woman, Marcia Williams (later Lady Falkender) and another policy wonk whose name I have not remembered, used to meet with the scriptwriters of ‘Yes Minister‘ each Monday morning and feed them several of these stories. The scriptwriters basically elaborated upon the stories and spun each into an episode for TV and there may have been a certain degree of artistic licence but the kernel of the story is in fact true.
In North Korea, COVID-19 seems to have taken off with a vengeance in a society in which nobody at all has been vaccinated. It seems that 50 people have died and 1.5 million have been infected but this secretive society has, this far, rebuffed all offers of help and prefers to rely upon their own self-reliance. The population are advised to gargle each day with salt water and to drink willow leaf tree three times a day. As I am writing this blog, a breaking news story is the latest sex scandal from Westminster. Scotland Yard confirmed in a statement that a man aged in his 50s has been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office. These offences were committed between 2002 and 2009 and is believed to be a Tory MP – the whips had avised that he absent himself from the ‘parliamentary estate’ but at this precise moment he appears to be in custody. It will be fascinating to see how well the rumour mill is working and whether a name will emerge later on the evening. Try as they might, political parties find it very hard to keep the identities of their errant members private.
Today was the day when we were meant to be going to Leamington Spa to have lunch with our De Montfort University (Leicester) colleagues but unfortunately this had to be postponed as the (very aged) mother of one of our colleagues had died so evidently funeral arrangements had to take priority. Our domestic help called around today rather than Friday and we are always pleased to see her and exchange news of families. One of her sons, training to be a jockey, had won his first race the other day so there were a lot of interesting photos to be shared. The weather was cloudy but fairly bright so Meg and I looked forward to a pleasant walk down into the park. We were speculating whether the park had got a little busier than was the case a year or so back and we surmised that people might have got used to using the park during the pandemic (lots of fresh air, exercise, ability to avoid others) and having got into the habit had changed their life style. So we walked back at a lesiurely pace and immediately got to work throwing together various bits and pieces into an impromptu salad. As she was a little late coming to us this morning, our domestic help was happy to help us consume the salad which she really enjoyed and polished off in no time at all. Our domestic help is thinking of getting her patio professionally cleaned so we found a local firm who happened to be only about a couple of miles or so from where they live so she was going to get a quote from them this afternoon. After lunch, I knew that I wanted to tackle the weeding on the other side of the communal roadway but as some of it is in almost perpetual shade, I knew that removal of the weeds (particularly of the creeping kind) was going to be more difficult. In the time limit I had set myself, I managed to get about three quarters of the whole length completed leaving a more difficult section to be finished off tomorrow. As it was ‘brown bin’ (gardening refuse) emptying day tomorrow, the bins have to be out at the end of the roadway this evening so I took the opportunity to remove some of the ubiquitous holly leaves which are littering up the side entrance to our property.
On the political front, it looks as some kind of ‘U’ turn may be on the cards. The government has consistently resisted the move to tax the anticipated profits of the big energy suppliers (oil companies) to help to supply some relief to ‘ordinary’ consumers. However, this is an evident source of revenue that costs the government nothing and even the oil companies are admitting that they did not have to ‘do anything’ except sit back and received the extra revenues from the higher prices. As all of the opposition and even some government backbenchers are calling for a one time levy, it will be interesting to see how, or if, the government effects a change in policy. At the moment, they are are repeating the mantra that ‘no measures are ruled out’ There is also some local political news with an interesting twist. In Staffordshire, some HS2 (High Speed 2) protestors have taken to tunnelling their way across part of the projected route. To counteract this, the contractors are using their own tunnellers, presumably to dig their own tunnels. Does this mean that we shall have underground battles between groups of tunnellers? And how does one group of tunnellers combat another? The imagination boggles.
Later on this evening, a heavy band of rain is due to sweep across the Midlands so I have had to ensure that some of the equipment left lying round on the lawn until it gets put back onto the newly restored patio tomorrow evening is basically waterproofed. Just out of interest, I managed to locate some photographs that we had taken of this property nearly 15 years when we moved in and, in particular, to look at the colour and condition of the patio as it was when we moved in. Now, we have a series of quite interesting colours and we can discern some five or six different colours that have been used in the patio construction. Having been cleaned, it looks pretty impressive (and even more so after a shower of rain). As it was, our domestic help thought that the whole of the old patio had been removed and replaced by a new one. So now, without being neurotic about things, I am taking measures to keep everything looking pristine. I think the crucial thing is a constant brushing with a soft bristled brush so that the surface is not damaged. I already have a leafblower which I am using more and more, even though I only get about 10 minutes or so out of the battery unit until a recharge is necessary.
Today dawned bright and fair, which was a relief for me as I have several outdoor jobs lined up to get done today. First, though, having got up a little early I got to my local supermarket at just before 8.00am and was the first to get through the doors as they opened. Then it was a fairly routine shop-up followed by my collecting my newspaper as I was in the area. Then it was home for a quick breakfast and an unpacking of the shopping. Whilst I was waiting for Meg to get herself ready, I had a stroke of good fortune. Since I have had our patio cleaned up so that it looks like new, I am anxious to keep it that way but I know that this is threatened by fairly large clumps of moss that have accumulated on the bottom edge of some of our roofing tiles. I have as part of my gardening equipment, an exceptionally long bamboo cane constructed by lashing three long bamboo canes together with cable ties. At the end, I have a little wire hook arrangement shaped a bit like a curvy ‘L’. When I constructed this tool several years ago, I had used it to ensure that a climbing clematis that I had could make some progress through some of our bordering holly trees. This tool worked very well for the purposes for which it was constructed. Rather than getting rid of it, I had stored it down the side of the house (on the mid-wall brackets holding the drain pipes where it was well out of the way) Anyway, as a type of experiment, I wondered how far up the (dormer) roof I could reach with my home made device. I was delighted to say that the moss only needed a little tickle to detach from the tile and fall either into the gutter or over the side onto the patio. I immediately swept up the fallen moss with a very soft long handled little brush that I have and the net result was that I had cleared about three quarters of the side of the house that was worst affected for only about 20 minutes of effort. This means that if we have we have the anticipated heavy downpours in the next day, the amount of moss that will will tumble down will be minimal and easily dealt with.
After this (and in fairly high spirits) we set off for the park for our daily walk. Sitting on the park bench, we had several chats with some of the park regulars where we know each by sight even if we are not on first name terms. Then it was case of a gentle walk home for lunch which was to use up a small portion of gammon and some spring greens that needed using up. This turned out to be surprising tasty even though it was just using up ‘odds and ends’. I had a little project for the afternoon which was to finish off weeding the ‘other’ side of the communal roadway. This sound to be s simple task but in practice it was complicated. This is because of the type of weed growing on the gravel was generally quite a flat and spreading type of weed that had established long roots as the plant burrowed through the gravel searching for moisture and nutriment. So it was not just a case of pulling the head and and leaving the rest of the root system to regenerate but rather giving the gravel rake with a weeder and then hunting for a tap root so that I could pull out the weed roots and all. In order to prevent me having a bad back on what could be a backbreaking task, I adopted a technique of lying on my side with my hip on a foam kneeler and then attacking the errant weeds that way. At the end of the day, I am pleased to have a good ‘root-and-branch’ job done and in the next day or so, I shall use some ‘Pathclear‘ on this gravel to keep things OK for the rest of the season. My next door neighbour returned home from work and gave me words of support and encouragement – when they return from holiday we are going to tackle an overgrown ‘Elaeagnus‘ shrub which is overhanging one of the corners in the roadway serving our houses. My weeding task completed, it was then a case of washing down the rest of the garden furniture residing temporarily on the lawn and putting it back into position on the patio. Several bits of gardening ‘clobber’ which is in constant use and I tend to store around the sides of the house have now been relocated to some decking much further down the garden where they are ‘out of sight, out of mind’ with the overall intention of keeping the patio area clutter-free and easy to maintain (by clearing away moss, leaves and the like)
The day dawned somewhat gloomy and I imagined that it would be raining on and off most of the day and this would alter what I intended to do. In the event, I popped down into town to collect my newspaper and by the time I got home, it was raining on and off to make life a little miserable. We decided to go into town by car, neglecting our walk, and decided to treat ourselves to a coffee in Waitrose. When we got there, we were delighted to see two of our pre-pandemic friends in there that we have not seen for well over two years. The husband of the pair has memory problems and of course, things have not got better over the past two years. Nonetheless, we had quite a lot of ‘catching up’ to get on with and I was amazed how well the wife who is 88 was caring for her husband despite having her own health issues to cope with. They tend to visit the cafe on Fridays, as indeed they did in the pre-pandemic days, so we will probably get in the habit of making a trip to Waitrose every Friday from now own to rekindle a friendship. Then we popped home and we organised a fairly early lunch of smoked haddock risotto to see if it would be possible to get a lawn mowing done. At the start of the day, I had written off all mowing until tomorrow but I knew from my weather app that we ought to have a window of opportunity open to us between 12.00 and 4.00pm. The gods must have smiled upon us because we did have a window where the rain held off and it was real bonus to get our lawns cut today as earlier in the morning, I thought it was pretty certain that we would be rained off. After our post-mowing cup of tea, I thought I would make a start on the hand weeding of the semi-circular gravel bed that occupies a position in the front of our hopuse. Just as yesterday, the weeds were not particularly easy to remove as it was a case of finding the tap root and ensuring that the weeds got taken out root and all – which actually sounds easier to say than it is actually to do. Nonetheless, I managed to get about two thirds of this big gravel bed weeded and, in turn, they will get a good dose of PathClear once the weeds have been removed and the weather is propitious. All being well if the weather is fine, I can finish this off tomorrow.
There is a certain degree of astonishment from both of Boris Johnon’s supporters and detractors, that the Metropolitan police have concluded their enquiries into the Downing Street ‘partygate’ with a sum total of 126 VPN (Fixed Penalty Notices) issues but no further fines for Boris Johnson or any other politicians. Altogether, twelve officers worked on the investigation full-time and others were brought in when required. They investigated events on 12 days but only ended up fining people for eight of those days. There is a certain of jaw-dropping at the fact that Boris Johnson was not fined again and that those who received the fines seemed to be fairly junior staff who were presumably told by their superiors that an ‘event’ was to be held and the Prime Minister might be in attendance. One line of thought is that that inadvertently, the Met may have helped Boris Johnson because as their investigations proceeded, the whole issue ‘cooled’ and dropped out of the public gaze whilst other events (the war in the Ukraine) intervened to save Boris Johnson’s skin. This gives a further twist to the cartoonist’s view of Boris Johnson as a ‘greasy albino piglet’ who can successfully evade/escape any attempt to capture him. We are now waiting the full publication of the Sue Gray report which is expected some time next week. Although some who seen an initial draft claim that the language is ‘stomach-churning’ the report is probably written as other official documents tend to be which is a factual statement of what happened and when and whether the finger will be pointed at any of the senior Downing street staff or their political masters remains to be seen.
I am trying an experiment to germinate some parsnip seeds. A selection has been put into neat rows on kitchen paper and then kept moist (with an occasional spray of water) for as long as it takes. The trouble is that parsnips are easy to grow but quite difficult to germinate but when/if I get them going, I am then going to keep them going in a system which I have devised (toilet rolls filled with compost) This way, ought to keep the roots long and straight and they can be planted out in their toilet roll holders without needing to be thinned, the toilet rolls should rot away into the soil and we should be left with some lovely long parsnip roots in the autumn. We shall see.
Today dawned quite a cloudy day but no rain was forecast all day and there was the promise of sunshine later in the day. In fact it was fairly warm and almost muggy and one would not have been surprised if thunderstorms had threatened. But there were none on the radar and none forecast so we looked forward to a day when we could walk and complete some gardening. Once I had collected the newspaper this morning, Meg and I set off the park at a gentle pace and after some chats with dog-owners that we know by sight, we were joined by our University of Birmingham friend. As we had not coincided for quite a few days now, we were delighted to see him and we chatted about a variety of things, including holidays that we both might make, separately, to various parts of Spain and when we might undertake such trips. After a long chat we said we would meet again tomorrow in the park and we wended our way home. To go with the quiche that we were warming in the oven, I decided to put together a type of ‘melange’ of vegetables which consisted of a gentle fryup in some good oil of peppers, onions, tomatoes and a few frozen French beans that I had steamed to tenderise them. I let these cook for some time until the onions were almost caramelised and the results were so good (to my taste) that I may well repeat it another time. If I had need to, I could have put in a dollop of brown sauce or even some a splash of onion relish but in the event the result were delicious enough not to need further enhancement. I must confess I also wanted to try out a new ceramic saucepan I was tempted to buy when I was last in Aldi and I reckon that. new one is overdue as I do not think we have bought a new saucepan in 15 years. Anyway, this new one is absoliutely excellent as after my fry-up, it just took a quick wipe with some kitchen paper, a dip in some hot soapy water and it was cleaned up like new in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Straight after lunch, I got to work to finish off the semicircular gravel bed which lies at the front of the house and which badly needed a radical weeding. By the time this was done, we had our afternoon cup of tea and then I thought that I would finish off a complete weeding of the roadway which constitute the principal access way to the Close in which we live. Now that all of this is completely weed free, then tomorrow all of the work I have done in the last few days will be finished off with a good soaking of PathClear which should keep us all weed free for several months. Now it was time for a weekly visit to Church which is a regular commitment for Meg and myself each Saturday afternoon.
There is quite a ‘briefing war’ going in around Downing Street at the moment. The Sue Gray report into ‘partygate’ is due to see the light of day early next week. This report has been said to be ‘independent’ but it now transpires that Boris Johnson and Ms. Gray have already had a meeting about the contents of the report some time ago. No. 10 first suggested that Sue Gray had asked for the meeting – if Boris Johnson had instigated it, then this would be tantamount to an attempt to influence the contents of the report. This was then denied by Sue Gray but it is now clear that the meeting had been organised by ‘some’ officials in No. 10. One way or another, Opposition politicians and many independent observers are bound to smell a rat. The Labour Party is calling for full transparency of what appears to be a secret meeting and one has to wonder what was the purpose of the meeting. As it is, both parties are manoeuvring to try to demonstrate their independence but I suspect that some of the beans may well be spilt by some of the inside analysis to which we can look forward in tomorrow’s Sunday newspapers.
My newsagent was telling me that are some plans for Bromsgrove to close off some its streets and to host an impromptu ‘street party’ to celebrate the Queens Jubilee in a couple of week’s time. This does not sound to be exactly our ‘cup of tea’ as it were and I am not sure I want to engage in jollities with lots of people on the High Street. This feeling is intensified a little as about a couple of days ago I received a text to say I had been in contact with a Covid infected person. I immediately did a lateral flow test on myself which tested negative but it seems strange to get the text out of the blue and when the pandemic has lost it sting.
Today being Sunday, I walked down early in the day to collect our Sunday newspapers. At this hour of the day (8.00am) the only people out on the road are dog-walkers and joggers, all of whom are intent on their particular activity rather than chit-chat. As I treated myself to my weekly ‘concert’ on my ancient iPhone, the second track along was Bach’s cantata ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring‘ This is quite significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was one of the pieces of music that Meg and I had chosen when we got married nearly 55 years ago. Secondly, I remember well the morning after I knew that I had been awarded my PhD way back in 1997. I always used to have some Bach playing on my computer when I switched it on in the morning. and this track started to play. I was suddenly overcome with emotion and burst into tears – more of relief than anything else. Thirdly, our good friend Clive who had been taught the trumpet in a Salvationist household when he was about 10 years old was still playing the trumpet some 75 years later. Clive came along to our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations and played this piece for us. This was of particular significance because at our wedding all of those years ago, the cantata was sung by a very good friend of ours, Austin, who was training to be an opera singer. I have lost contact with Austin over the decades and he was about ten years older than me, then there is quite a fair chance that he is no longer alive. But here was a neat kind of symmetry in that the cantata was performed for us by close friends at the original celebrations and again fifty years later.
After the Sunday politics programme, Meg and I walked slowly down to the park. On the way down into town, we had quite a long chat with our Italian friend who was busy making her immaculate garden even more immaculate until we interrupted her. Then when we got to the park and had our elevenses, our University of Birmingham friend strode into view and we chatted at length about the Rick Stein programme which we had seen on TV last night in which he was extolling the virtues of the sights (and even more the food) of Cadiz which is a city we have visited before. After we had put the world to rights, we made for home and on our way out of the park, we bumped into our Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who we have not seen for a few days. He was just starting one of his many trips around the park when we coincided and, as always, I marvelled at how fit he keeps himself by keeping to his regime of about 9-10 kilometres a day at the age of 88. Then it was home for lunch and some tasty beef accomapnied by tender-stem broccoli.
After lunch, I set to and gave all of the newly weeded gravel areas in our front garden and adjacent roadways a good soaking in PathClear, a weedkiller, which should keep everything looking shipshape for at least the next three months and probably longer. Of course, with walking up and down the roadway every day I can now despatch a weed whever it ventures to raise its head from now on.
I have been reflecting upon the ways in which politicians in general, and Boris Johnson in particular, survive whatever particular difficulties they happen to be in by ‘kicking the can down the road’ At one time, when Johnson’s premiership seemed to be in peril the word on the street was waiting to see how many letters calling for a leadership context would be submitted to the chairman of the 1922 (= Tory backbencher’s) committee. When this revolt seemed to fizzle out, the Tory backbenchers were saying ‘Let us wait for the results of the local electons in May’. Then it was a case for waiting for the Sue Gray report into ‘partygate’ Then this had to be forced into abeyance when the Met decided to investigate. Now that the Met investigation has been concluded, it may well be a case of waiting for the full publication of the Sue Gray report which is expected this week. If this fails to deliver a knockout blow, no doubt people will be saying that it might be better to wait until the results of the two by-elections due next month. And so on and so on. Then of the course the war in Ukraine has happened which has enabled Johnson to pose as a Churchill-type figure and the focus of the political gaze has altered. It is often forgotten that Margaret Thatcher was the most unpopular Prime Minister of all time immediately before the Falklands War but became the most popular Prime Minister of all time after its successful conclusion. Not for the first time foreign affairs have helped to distract from unpopular policies on the domestic front – authoritarian right wing leaders across the world have typically used the fight against an external enemy as a useful distraction from unpopular domestic policies.
Today was an indeterminate sort of day with us being unsure how the weather was going to pan out. We knew that we were going out to tea later on in the afternoon so I shot into town to collect our newspaper and to pop into Waitrose where I needed to buy a little ‘prezzie’ for later on this afternoon. At the same time, I shot into Poundland in order to replace the dog-collar which I have mislaid. In case the question arises why I should require a dog-collar (i.e. something to put round a dog’s neck rather than a clerical garment) the explanation is as follows. When I walk down to the park every day, I carry our flask of coffee and other comestibles in my trusty rucksack. This has a slight tendency for the straps to slip off my shoulders, particularly if I am wearing something remotely shiny. The solution to this is to have small leather strap that ties together the two straps so that they do not have a tendency to wander. I have used a specimen of dog-collar bought from Poundland some months ago but it has gone ‘walk about’ so I needed to replace it. The new one works just about fine and it means that it is easier for Meg to link arms with me and not fall when we walk down the road. The park, as we suspected, was pretty deserted and so we were not surprised to see only one of our regular acquaintances. Then we made our way homewards, preparing a fairly lightish kind of lunch as we suspected that our calorie count was going to be radically increased this afternoon. Just before lunch, I spent about 20 minutes pruning back some of the errant branches of an Elaeagnus shrub which stands at the corner of our roadway and is threatening to get well and truly out of hand. My neighbour and I are going to tackle it properly when he returns from holiday but in the meanwhile, I snipped back some of the branches that vehicles were likely to brush against if no action had been taken. I kept all of the branches in a fairly neat pile at the corner of our communal grassed area and tomorrow, presuming the weather is fine, I will wheel up our garden refuse bin and chop the branches into smaller pieces in order to dispose of them.
This afternoon we went out to tea with the French widow with whom we have become friendly in the last year or so. At the same time, our two lots of Catholic friends who are very near neighbours were invited along side so we formed a merry little group of six. Our French friend had hoped that we could have a nice little party outside but it started to spatter with rain so our friend had moved to ‘Plan B’. She has a double length garage but the portion nearest to the garden has been made into a sort of garden room so we all sat down for tea inside the house as it were. We had a lot of jolly conversation and as our friends had just returned from Oberammergau in Austria, we had a lot of travellers’ tales. Meg and I had gone down the road by car which is just as well because shortly before our tea was concluded, the heavens opened and we had the kind of downpour you typically associate with May/June. No doubt the gardens will appreciate all of this water and I was glad that I had got my outdoor jobs done before the heavens opened. When we got home, I assembled the parts to a 36″ soft brush to which I have treated myself. This should help to make short work of keeping our newly refurbished patio in good nick as well as the never-ending job of keeping the holly leaves at bay which fall at the front of the house.
Tonight a photo has seen the light of day which shows Boris Johnson with glass held aloft evidently making a toast at one of the Downing Steet ‘parties’ The other faces have been blanked out but it is evident that social distancing is not being observed. Moreover, this photo has emerged at one of the gatherings when Boris Johnson had categorically told the House of Commons that no party had taken place for the date in question. Whether this photograph is one of those which may well be published in the Sue Gray report when it sees the light of day is unclear at this point. However, when matched up with Boris Johnson’s categorical denial that such an event had taken place, then this is the nearest to a ‘smoking gun’ to have emerged so far. There is an interesting observation in The Times today which indicates that junior staff were told to be truthful when questioned by the Met and were subsequently fined whereas some of their superiors and their political masters were much less forthcoming and tightlipped on the advice of Conservative party lawyers on the assumption that the Met would have to go after them which they generally did not. So many of the senior staff seem to have got away scot-free.
As Tuesday is my Pilates day, we know that we have to manage our time quite carefully. We knew that some of our pre-pandemic Waitrose acquaintances had started to frequent the coffee bar again since its reopening about a month or so ago. We called in at our friend along the Kidderminster Road where we had our little tea party yesterday as I had taken along some slippers to wear and forgot to change into them. I had left them behind me so I called in to collect the same, thinking that I had better not get into the habit of leaving items of clothong in the houses of French widows. As soon as we entered the Waitrose store, we met up with our acquaintances and sat down to make a foursome. Then we joined by another mututal pre-pandemic acquainatnce and that brought us up to five. The female members of the party were each handed some flowers by the Waitrose staff – when flowers go over their sell-by date thay tend to given away to some of the stores oldest and most regular customers. In addition, one of the assistants that I know particularly well excitedly pointed me in the direction of the shelves where concentrated fruit juices were shelved. I had requested through her that the manager start to stock some beet juice which Meg and I have started to have as a regular part of our diet. This request had evidently been complied with and had worked its way through the system so I now have a regular supply on tap withut having to roam around the other Bromsgrove supermarkets to find it. Then my friend from the park Seasoned World Traveller occupied the next table and I have not bumped into him for a couple of weeks now so that we rapidly got up to speed on the ‘partygate’ developments, each of us trying to speculate what the next developments were likely to be and speculating upon the role played by the Metropolitan police. It was just as well we had taken the car down to Waitrose because just before we left there was a pretty heavy shower and we would have been drenched if we had made our regular walk on foot.
Today being my regular Pilates day I walked down at the usual time and was delighted to discover that the health scare which my Pilates’ teacher had suffered last week turned out to be just that i.e. a scare. and not a suspected stroke. But it still took a four hour wait in Worcester Royal’s A&E to get this diagnosis. After my class, we dined as we always do on a Tuesday on haddock fish cakes which seemed particularly delicious today for a reason I cannot discern. After a brief rest, I was eager to start work on clipping up the pile of Elaeagnus branches that I had left lying at the top end of our communal green area. I suspected that this job was going to be done in two tranches but suddenly the pile seemed to diminish rapidly so I got it all done in one day with just a certain amount of clearing up of leaves to be done tomorrow.
Westminster is still full of anticiation for the Sue Gray report into ‘partygate’ to be delivered in the next day or so. As you might expect, there is a sharp division of opinion concerning the photograph that shows Boris Johnson proposing a toast to a departing colleague. In the photograph, are several other personnel (with faces blurred out) but evidently no social distancing has taken place. In the photograph, there is a table laden with bottles of booze. The Johnson loyalists are saying that this is just a ‘work-related event’ and thus falls within the rules applicable at the time whilst the majority opinion (all of the opposition and a few Tory MP’s) maintain that this is clear and evident proof that Johnson lied to the House of Commons when he said that no parties took place on that day and that all social rules had been observed (it is evident, from the photograph, that they were not) In advance of the publication of the Sue Gray report, The Times reports that Boris Johnson had asked Sue Gray to pull the whole report as most of the findings were in the public domain anyway. If true, this would be a clear attempt to influence the outcome of the ‘independent’ report. No. 10 denies this furiously – but then, they would say that, wouldn’t they? Three individuals have told the BBC that they witnessed regular rule-breaking events during restrictions of 2020 and 2021. According to their testimony, staff crowded together with some sitting on each other’s laps at parties. The fact that Boris Johnson was present and did not tell the party goers to disperse was taken to be a tacit acknowledgement that their attendance at these events was quite legitimate. A lot more will emerge in the next few days, no doubt.
Today was the day when the Sue Gray report was rumoured to be published and Sky News broke the news at about two minutes past 9.00am that the report had indeed been received in Downing Street. From this moment on, the media airwaves were evidently going to be dominated by the revelations of the report and after Boris Johnson had answerd a routine PMQ, the time came at 12.30 for Boris Johnson to answer questions on the report. As we have come to expect, there was a period of quasi-contrition soon to be replaced by Boris Johnson going on the attack suggesting that Keir Starmer, himself under police investigation, should have resigned by now. After about half an hour in which the Tory benches (apart from one or two brave souls) seemed to offer tacit support to the Prime Minister, the green benches occupied by the Tory party seemed to rapidly empty leaving only the ministerial teams in place. One shot of the House of Commons was particularly revealing becase it only seemed to show one or two back benchers in place to give support of ]ohnson.
The Sue Gray report itself would appear to be fairly damning but fails to point a loaded gun at the Prime Minister. It does point out that parties went on much longer than they should have done, that there was evidence of excessive use of alcohol and one member of staff being sick, two Downing Street personnel having a fight (called an altercation), a child’s swing in the garden being broken. Quite amazing was the revelation that cleaners and security staff were abused by the revellers when it was time to move them on. One particurlarly newsworthy incident is the fact that in one message after a ‘bring your own booze’ party to which 200 people were invited in May 2020, Martin Reynolds, the prime minister’s principal private secretary, said: ‘We seem to have got away with [it].’ So there seemed to be widespread knowledge of the illegalities of the gatherings. Political commentators are also pointing out one massive ‘hole’ in the report. One of the infamous events was the so-called Abba party, held in the Downing Street flat on the occasion of Dominic Cummings leaving Downing Street, where there was evidently much loud music and stampings of feet that sounded like dancing. Sue Gray started to investigate this event but then stopped short when the Met began their investigations. The Met issued no fines after this event and there is some doubt whether it was properly investigated or not. There are also persistent rumours that senior staff filled in the police questionnaires with the barest minimum of detail lest they be incriminated which was a remarkably successful tactic as the majority of fines were handed out to junior staff and not to their bosses. When the Met did not investigate further, Sue Gray concluded that it would be inappropriate for her to investigate this further and so one of the most extreme examples of partying might not have been fully investigated at all. Boris Johnson’s defence in the Commons was generally to say that he was present for only short periods of time, that he genuinely believed that he was acting as a good employer by turning up to pay a tribute to departing staff and that rather than resign he had much more important work to be getting on with to fulfil the government’s agenda, not least with the economic crisis. A package of measures is being rushed through the Treasury in the hope that these can be announced tomorrow, but cutting short any criticisms that might follow the evelations in the teport. Critical, though, is the view of the 1922 bachbenchers committee of MP’s who will be making the crudest of political calculations whether Boris Johnson is an asset to them and can help them to win the next election or a liability for them and is therefore likely to lose it for them. About 60% of the population are of the view that Boris Johnson should resign over partygate but it could be that the ‘albino greased piglet’ as Boris Johnson was depicted in a particularly vivid cartoon may have escaped yet again. An interesting question for the Met is why when some people in a party received fines, the entire gathering did not receive a fine. If it was illegal for any person, then surely it must have been illegal for all of the attenders at the party? Later on this evening, it may well emerge what the mood of the 1922 Committee is liable to be but it does appear that journalists are much more likely to hold the PM to account than his own MPs. From accounts of the meeting of the 1922 committee meeting this evening, it appears that Boris Johnson had ‘struck the right tone’ with them and his support remained high amongst the recently elected ‘red wall’ MPs (Conservatives who won the seats traditionally held by Labour) The older generation of Tory MPs were less likely to give Boris Johnson the benefit of the doubt, however.
Today was always going to be a different kind of day because I had a clinic appointment at 9.10 which rather set the running order for the day. So I set off by foot and collected our daily newspaper before making for the clinic appointment. Things are somewhat different now as last time I was anyway near the building, there were burley security guards, masked up, making sure that nobody could get in unless they had absolutely firm appointments. I remember having quite an argument at the height of the pandemic as I was trying to make a doctors appointment and was not allowed into the building to do it. Instead, one had to hang onto the end of a telephone and wait for 20-30 minutes to get an appointment in 2-3 weeks time. However, today was routine monitoring, neglected over the last two years and I received two pleasant surprises. The first one was that my blood pressure measurements, when taken with ‘proper’ equipment, showed that I was only about 10% above normal rather than the 40% which my home monitoring equipment was showing. I am now thinking that the unit I have at home is too cheap and not sufficiently clinically accurate so I think I had better pay somewhat more money and get something that approximates to clinical accuracy. The second pleasant surprise was that I asked the Health Care assistant who was taking some of my readings and asked if she could do a really accurate height measurement for me. This she did and it was good to read off the result, clearly indicated in a little magnified ‘window’, that showed my true height differs by about 0.004m from the attempts we made at home to measure my height accurately. I need to point out that this really is a two person job – measuring your own height lying down is easy but inaccurate as you are ‘longer’ when lying down because you do not experience the compression effect on the vertebrae when you are standing up. After I got home, Meg and I decided to have a little trip out to Droitwich to give us a change of scene. We went to our usual coffee shop where we indulge in cappucino and a huge toasted teacake shared between us. Then it was a quick whizz around the adjacent charity shop, then Wilko which is pretty close by to get some cosmetic and cleaning products and finally into Waitrose to collect some things that we know we can only buy there. Then it was home for a quickly prepared lunch of quiche and some accompanying vegetables.
After lunch even though the weather was a little gloomy and windy, I thought it would be a good opportuniy to plant out the two Clematis plants which I bought a few days ago to replace the venerable old clematis at the corner of the house. I made a little ‘pit’ into which I sunk a ceramic pot and then planted out the two clematis plants using a combination of the existing soil and a bag of topsoil which I had already standing by. The new plants had some bonemeal at their base which is very slow acting but I also incorporated some chicken manure pellets I had in stock so that should give a boost of nitrogen to get them growing awy quickly. Then I turned my attention to a little trellis work we have at the back of the house and planted a perpetual sweet pea in it. This, too, had been waiting for an opporunity to get it planted so another good job done. I had wanted to make a start on applying some Danish oil to my new outside broom to weatherproof it so this will have to wait another day.
Today, the Chancellor has announced a £15bn package of measures designed to assist all members of the population, and particularly the poorest, to cope with the crisis caused by an inflation rate of 10% and fuel bills that may well triple by the autumn. The most significant part of this package is that one third of it will be funded by a ‘levy’ on the additional profits of the energy companies – in other words a ‘windfall’ tax. Most commentators are of the view that this package of measures upon which the Treasury have been working frantically have been timed to appear the day after the Sue Gray report into partygate. In this way, No. 10 wants the country to ‘move on’ and not concentrate on the continuing fallout from the report. Three or four additional Tory MPs have now announced that they have no confidence in Boris Johnson but the total number who have done this falls a long way short of the 54 letters that are needed. If an abortive attempt is made to attempt to unseat the PM and it fails, then no further attempt can be made for at least a year. Hence many unhappy MPs are ‘staying their hands’ until there is a strong tide running in their favour (unlikely at the moment) and an evident successor appears on the horizon.
Today proved to be the most beautiful day so Meg and I were looking forward to our walk in the park. First, though, I needed to go and do my weekly shopping and I arrived a minute or so before opening time. However, as it was a Friday (instead of my usual shopping day on a Thursday) there was a queue of about 8-10 people of which I was the No. 2 and evidently Friday is a much busier shopping day than my usual Thursday. I thought I would treat ourselves to some sea bass to be served on a bed of a simple salad but this was to come later. Meg and I had a pleasant coffee and comestibles and when we had finished these, we went in search of sone of our park companions. In the vicinity of the cafe we came across Seasoned World Traveller and actually quite an interesting discussion on the accuracy of domestic (rather than clinical) blood pressure monitors. I have decided to purchase a new one as there was such a large discrepancy between the results I got with testing myself at home and the results when taken by the Health Care Assistant yesterday. I discovered that there is a list of NHS approved ‘home’ monitors and having consulted the list I chose the one at the top of the list that came out as the ‘Most recommended‘ in the NHS list and seemed to have a very high proportion of favourable reviews. Having said that, I am slightly wary, not to say cynical, about a host of glowing reviews, because it is well known by now that these are capable of manipulation.
After lunch my son and I negotiated a new package with our broadband provider. To be honest, we need to wait until an engineer comes to assess whether our property is capable of being wired up with a new fibre optic cable and only when we get his report do we know if an upgrade to our broadband is feasible. A new router is being provided by our broadband provider and all we have to do is to pay for the postage to our house. Although the broadband supplier is saying that fibre optics are being rolled out in your area, we are not sure whether this is feasible down what is a private road when the cabling was laid down about 17 years ago. When the telephone call with our broadband supplier had been completed to our satisfaction, I needed to get the lawn mowing done. Before I could start on this, though, I received a text from the Community Pharmacist of our GP practice indicating that as a result of the blood sample taken yesterday (and analysed probably by computer in the last 24 hours) one of my medications could now be discontinued. I got in touch with our practice but this took a long wait of about 20 minutes or so. However, I requested that I be given a full copy of the blood serum analysis and was informed that I could pick up a copy today if I could get to the surgery by the time they closed at 6.30. So the minute the lawns had been cut, it was time for a swift cup of tea and then a lightning visit by car to pick up my results. I had a rather curious but quite amicable exchange with a receptionist as she was handing over my results. As I handed over a list of the dates when I recording my weight reduction programme, the health care assistant said she would scan these and affix them to my medical records. The doctor who received my test results had evidently seen these scanned results and indicated that as I looked as though I had some ‘unexplained weight loss’ perhaps I should seek a consultation with the practice in case the ‘unexplained’ weight loss was an indication of something more serious!
Boris Johnson’s latest manoeuvrings make one almost gasp with disbelief. He has rewritten the Ministerial Code so that ministers will henceforth not be expected to resign for breaching the code. Johnson has also blocked his independent ethics chief, Christopher Geidt, from gaining the power to launch his own investigations and has rewritten the foreword to the ministerial code, removing all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability. All of this at a time when he himself is under investigation by the Privileges Committee for misleading Parliament. Labour and the Liberal Democrats accused Johnson of rigging the system to ‘get himself off the hook’ ahead of the inquiry and one has to be amazed at the constitutional propriety of rewriting the rules when you yourself are under investigation. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and chair of parliament’s standards committee, said the weakening of the system was ‘appalling’. He writes “The new ministerial code is a disgrace. It means that the tiny semblance of accountability disappears. ‘If you break the rules, just rewrite the rulebook’ is the motto of this despicable government”
A beautiful day dawned and it was a delight for us, on a Saturday morning, to look out over the front and back lawns freshly mown as of yesterday. After we had got up and showered and I had made a lightning visit into town by car to pick up the newspaper, Meg started to undertake our daily walk down into the park. We drank our coffee and ate our comestibles in comparative isolation, after which we strolled down the hill in search of companions. We soon bumped into Seasoned World Traveller and after we had decided to buy a coffee from the park’s own café, we were shortly joined by our University of Birmingham friend. His slight tendon injury which had left him not being able to play tennis during the last week seemed to have healed so he was looking forward to a normal round of tennis matches. Seasoned World Traveller and I exchanged some observations of a medical nature, as well as talking politics and then we made our way home for a Saturday lunch. I had prepared some Quorn mince which I tarted up a little with some fried onions, peas, onion gravy and some brown sauce which I often utilise to impart a bit of flavour. So we had a total vegetarian dinner but it felt like a ‘meat and two veg’ if you know what I mean.
I had a little project upon which I was intent in the afternoon. I wanted to stake up a Weigela which I want to grow up as tall as possible to provide a bit of screen from our next door neighbour’s garden. I had already purchased a stout piece of timber and I put a point on it with a saw and a spot of Danish Oil to help to prevent the stake rotting in a year or so. In the event, though, I found the hornbeam I had planted about a year back had actually grown a really stout ‘bole’ (the technical name for a tree’s trunk) and so instead of sinking a stake, all I had to do was to utilise some rope to lash the Weigela into a somewhat more upright position. This particular Weigela has beautiful ruby red flowers and I am hoping that it will grow to its full height of 2.5m within a year or so. Having got this job done, I then gave the communal green area a quick edging (as it quickly grows over its natural borders at this time of year) and then Meg and I spent some happy minutes having a chat with our next door neighbour who had just returned form a week’s holiday. We love discussing politics and have a sort of macabre fascination for the machinations of Boris Johnson so we are speculating how the whole of partygate will play out in the longer term.
As is normal on a Saturday, we attended church in the early evening. One of the parishioners who is ‘sport mad’ asked us if we were going to watch the European cup match between Liverpool and Real Madrid which he assured me was on terrestrial TV. Once we got home and had some soup, we realised that this was somewhat duff information so we had to content ourself with the normal Saturday night fare for a Saturday.
There has been a dripfeed of Tory MP’s who now realise that they cannot continue to support Boris Johnaon any more and are consequently writing letters to that effect to the Tory MP who chairs the 1922 (= Tory backbencher’s) committee. The magic number is 54 ‘letters’ but Sky News is keeping a tally of those Tory MP’s who have called upon Johnson to go and think that the tally might be 24 i.e. less than one half. However, I suspect that two events may prove to be significant. Parliament is now in recess until after the Queen’s Jubilee junketings which start on Thursday and I suspect that many Tory MP’s might be having thir ears bent by their constituency party chairmen and committee members when they are in their constitutency for several days. I suspect that the numbers of ‘malcontents’ may be larger when MPs return back to Westminster in about 10 days time. There is another theory about the days ahead which is interesting. There are two bye-elections next month and one in Tiverton is interesting. There the majority is 25,000 but if the Lib-Dems, most of the Labour voters and discontented Tories join forces this could be a stunning Lib Dem victory. Even if Lib Dems fail to take the seat but reduce the Tory majority from 25,000 to say 1,000, then this would put scores of seats across Southern England in danger. Ex-Tory voters might be more willing to vote Lib Dem if by so doing they are not allowing a Corbyn-led Labour Party into power, being able to tolerate a Starmer-led government for some years. We shall have to wait 3-4 weeks until the bye-elections are held to see what will transpire.
Today being Sunday I walked down early to collect our newspaper and then got back to have a bit of breakfast in front of the TV whilst watching the Sunday (politics) programme. The show today was hosted by Clive Myrie and also included was a fairly lengthy extract of an interview that he had conducted with the Russian ambassador. Clive Myrie, in my view, did an absolutely excellent job in presenting the Russian ambassador with evidence of war crimes (which the Russians say is all ‘faked’ evidence). He had a quiet, polite but very insistent style of interviewing. One suspeccts that he acually made more headway than a more aggressive style of interviewing. Wishing to confirm my impressions, I did a quick Google search and came up with the following: ‘Clive Myrie was brilliant, there is no other word for it. There were some close ups of The Ambassador’s face and looking at his eyes I felt that not only was he lying he was afraid, probably of saying the wrong thing and incurring Putin’s wrath.’ I am sure that in professional terms, Clive Myrie has done himself no harm at all and he must have shot up in the estimation of his bosses at the BBC. After breakfast, Meg and I walked to the park and decided to vary our route slightly – quite by accident, we bumped into Seasoned World Traveller and our University of Birmingham friend and whilst they made room for Meg on the benches, I sat on our portable, three-legged portable stool facing them so that we could have a face-to-face conversation. We had quite a long chat on politics and a certain amount of confessional times in which in our lifetime careers we were in danger of getting sacked, largely because we stood our ground in the face of managements who wished to go down rather a circuitous, not to say devious, route. After a fairly long chat, we made for home and ran across one of Irish friends who was busy gardening, until we interrupted him. Having got home, it was time to cook Sunday lunch and this is always a slightly a longer procedure as we have slow cookers to clean up, onion gravy to make and so on. However, it makes subsequent meals during the week so much quicker and easier to prepare and we also take the opportunity to divide whatever meat we have cooked in two as one half gets labelled up and then frozen for future weeks.
I enjoyed reading some of the detailed accounts of the ways in Downing Street, despite all protestations, tried and may have succeeded in influencing the final draft of the Sue Gray report. The Sunday Times lets us know that Carrie Johnson may well have had another party (illegally) besides the infamous ‘Abba’ party, the initial draft referred to loud music emanating from here but this was excised from the final report, the numbers of named people was reduced from 30 to 15 and the reports of a couple having sex whilst ‘at work’ or even partying did not make it to the final draft (because of absence of proof which is not surprising) I have a feeling that little revelations will keep dribbling out and whilst 10 Downing Street wants us to ‘move on’ I suspect that this is a pious hope. The Labour Party, for example, in one of the days when they can choose the subject for debate will undoubtedly spend the whole debate discussing the Sue Gray report and will challenge any Tory MPs present in the chamber to defend Boris Johnson in public.
After lunch, I did a little bit of gardening. Principally, this was a quick flash with my edging tool up and down the ‘long edge’ of our communal grassed area, pulling out some of the bracken fronds which can appear and make tremendous growth if not pulled out immediately and finally a cleaning and tidy up of some of my hand tools which had been left in a state of some disarray when the patio and associated paths down the side of the house were cleared before the cleaning job we had performed upon it.
The Champions Leage Final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Paris turned into a debacle last night with the start of the match delayed for more than half an hour and several thousand Liverpool fans not being able to get into the ground until half-time. Sky News have unearthed some video evidence that shows a broad access way was blocked by 3-4 police vans parked across one of the accessways causing a bottleneck which was the start of all the problems. UEFA themselves claim that many of the Liverpool fabs had forged tickets which may, or may not be true. Given the powerful vested interests at work, I suspect that a completely independent investigation of ‘what went wrong’ may never actually take place. I would not like to have paid a huge price for a ticket and then travel to Paris only to see one half of the match and one’s own team beaten.
Today started a little gloomily and there were a few spatters of rain early on. But this soon gave rise to some sunshine and what turned out to be quite a pleasant day. As we needed to do a little running around today, we decided to take the car into town so that we could retreat reasonably quickly if we were caught in a sudden downpour. So having collected our newspaper, I then called in at Waitrose to get one or two things that we needed. I then called in at our local Health Centre (a newish building housing two of the largest GP practices in the town) to drop in a sample and to make a further appointment for a blood test that seems to have been overlooked.We then drove to the park and had a short walk to our normal bench where we communed with dog walkers which is quite normal for us. The skies started to darken so we were pleased that we had got the car with us as a real downpour threatened but did not actually materialise. Once we got home, we had an easily prepared lunch and, as the weather had brightened, started to think of some little jobs to be done outside. I wanted to apply some Danish Oil to a couple of new outside brooms that I have so that they will be weather resistant i.e. will not rot if I were to leave them outside. Danish Oil is a miexture of linseed oil and Tung Oil and, once applied, it has great resistant to water and other liquids. Danish oil works as a waterproof coating on your woodwork. The reason for building this kind of strong water-resistant layer is that the particles that are contained in danish oil react with atmospheric oxygen for a highly polymerized strong solid structure. Moisture cannot penetrate through this surface. This makes danish oil great for outdoor furniture. As it turned out, the oil was incredibly easy to brush on but I had diluted it with 20% white spirit to help it penetrate brand new timber (as it suggested on the tin). Altogether, I am going to put about three coats on so I will put a second and third coat in the next day or so. Whilst I was in the middle of my painting job, I received a telephone call from the surgery and it seemed that there was some doubt as to whether one of my scheduled blood tests has actually been performed although the nursing assistant with whom I spoke can remember requesting it on the form but the results don’t seem to have come back. So I am going into the surgery at midday tomorrow so that, if the blood test has not been done, I can get another one into the system ready for a chat with a nurse in my appointment in a couple of week’s time. As I finished my painting job quite quickly, I spent a bit of time clearing a gully of holly leaves that I thought was going to be quite an unpleasant task. But slugs and snails do not like crawling over holly leaves, so armed with some industrial style gloves, I need to build this into a fortnightly routine i.e. in the day before our garden waste bin is due to be emptied on a fortnightly basis.
One of the The Times regular columnists, Clare Foges, has floated a very interesting idea in today’s edition. She floats the suggestion, first formulated by a Conservative peer, that we establish an Office for Demographic Change analagous to the Office for Budget Responsibility. Given the toxic nature of immigration in British politics and the enormous role that it played in our EU referendum campaign, perhaps this is one in which, as a society, we could work out how much immigration we need and of what type and how we can accurately measure both the costs and benefits of whatever level of immigration we collectively desire. I wonder whether this suggestion will be taken up by any of the political parties.
‘Partygate’ continues to rumble on and the number of MP’s who have now written a letter to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee (requesting an election for a new PM) now numbers 27. One of the MPs who declared today is Jeremy Wright who is a former attorney general. He has also published a long statement on his personal website indicating the sources of his dissatisfaction with the PM. So we are now at the ‘half way’ point of MPs calling for Johnson to go (the critical number of letters that need to be sent in being 54). I suspect that the numbers may grow slowly as MPs have a chance to chat with their constituencies over the next week but the critical event is going to be the two bye-elections in about 3-4 weeks time which will be a good indication of far the electorate as a whole are prepared to withdraw support from the government.
Today we are on a half-term week and evidently, the count down to the Jubilee celebrations due to take place from Thursday onwards. Today, although there were quite frequent showers, we decided to go down to the Waitrose café by car because we wanted to bump into some of our pre-pandemic friends. They were a little bit earlier than their normal routine and consequently we were quite fortunate to coincide with them in the foyer of Waitrose just as they were leaving. We had a chat about some matters of mutual interest and promised each other that we would have a longer chat next Tuesday, all being well. The day started off quite well as we received news from one of Meg’s Uncle Ken’s oldest friends that he moved from a care home near to his son-in-law (and incidentally where his sister is a resident) and is now in a care home in Conway where he has a deep association. At one time, Uncle Ken and his wife had been on the management committee when this fairly new care home had been set up by the Methodists and Ken always wanted that home to be his final resting place. Now he seems by all of the news that he is very happy there and many of his former friends and neighbours can now visit him more easily. Now that we have some very good news, Meg and I have got ourselves booked into a hotel that we have stayed in several times before. This particular Holiday Inn is actually very convenient for us as we can make rapid transit along the A55 expressway into Colywn when we wish to visit Uncle Ken and his relatives. In a fortnight’s time. we intend to travel up the day before, have a really good meal in a country club we know well some three miles down the road from the hotel. Then we can see Uncle Ken and some other relatives on the following day and Friday is left free for us to have a day wandering around Chester that we know quite well by now and is on a very compact and ‘human’ scale. So all in all, we will be having a mini-holiday even though we are visiting past haunts – at least the know the good places to eat and drink (and the places to avoid) and we always enjoy a little pilgrimage around the cathedral which is not over-full of the kind of military impedimenta which I think is not always an adornment to Anglican cathedrals.
At midday, I walked down into town where I met with the Health Care assistant who I had seen a few days ago. Although she has indicated on her documentation that one particular blood test had been ordered, this did not appear to have been conducted and so I gave another sample to be sent off so that the Nurse Practitioner would have a full set of results when we come to a review in a couple of week’s time. After I had left the surgery, I went onto the High Street and banked a cheque, being a returned deposit from an Italian holiday that never came off. Then I wandered into one of the many charity shops and bought a shirt which is identical in design and size to a ‘Next‘ shirt I had bought a few weeks previously. Whilst I was at it, I impulse bought a pair of workplace boots to be used as gardening boots. When I got them home, I discovered they were a ‘Screwfix’ line, very well regarded by the online reviews that I had and one seventh of the price that I would have paid if I had bought them brand new. To extend their life, I have given them a cleanup (not that they needed much) and a good reconditioning with some black shoe polish and I will leave them for another day or so for the polish to work its way in before I give them one more treatment and then bring them into use.
The political news is getting more and interesting. The trickle of letters going into the Chairman of the Conservative 1922 committee is still flowing and now we are getting some more heavy weight MP’s showing their hand, such as Andea Leadsom ex-leader of the House of Commons. As some MPs will have submitted letters without announcing the fact, it may well be that we are already near the total of 54 letters needed to trigger an election for Tory leader. Aficionados of political history may well recall that Jeremy Thorpe, an ex-Liberal party leader, was involved in an enormous scandal in which a Great Dane dog called ‘Rinka’ , belonging to his gay lover (Normal Scott) got shot. As there is a precedent for a big dog being shot, and Boris Johnson had called his own operations to save his political skin ‘Operation Save Big Dog‘, then the anti-Johnson MPs are calling their actions ‘Operation Rinka‘
We were a bit delayed this morning for a variety of reasons, not least sleeping in a little longer than usual. Then when we did get going, our domestic help turned up as she has switched her day from Friday to Wednesday for the next few weeks ahead. Answering a ring on the doorbell, two large BT Openreach vans had turned up intending to do a survey (from the outside) on our property to ascertain whether it would be feasible to supply us with BT Fast Fibre broadband which is being organised for us by our current broadband supplier. The two youngish operatives set to work identifying the location of the ducting that would bring the fibre optic cable into our house and then got stuck. It transpired that there was a blockage outside one of our neighbours houses. The BT personnel indicated that this happened quite often – typically fencing posts when driven in damaged the BT cables. So we informed that a civil engineering team would work on the blockage and repair the damaged section – fortunately, the BT staff had secured the permission of the relevant neighbour to work on their property boundary so we shall just sit tight and wait for this to happen, with the bill being picked up by BT. Once the BT staff have established a clear run, then we shall some cable put into place stopping short of our access point but waiting for the installation to be completed together with a new router inside the house. The BT staff were pretty confident that they would be overcome the slight difficulties that they had encountered and which they reckoned were commonplace. Having been delayed by all of this, we decided to go into town by car to collect our newspaper and to take the car to the park for our daily walk. We swung by the café to see Seasoned World Traveller but he was a bit preoccupied evidently waiting for a telephone call. So we left him in piece and tracked up to our normal bench to have our coffee. Then on the way back down, we managed to have a brief conversation with our friend in the cafe but the expected telephone call came through so we took our leave. Then it was a case of getting home and putting together a quick kind of lunch where we had promised our domestic help a taster of a specialist type of fish risotto I was preparing. Our hairdresser turned up just before we dished up our meal but our domestic help and I ate the meal off our knees in the living room whilst the hairdresser worked on Meg in the kitchen (where we normally eat our meals). The meal lived up to all our expectations I am pleased to say and then after a brief rest, it was time to go into town.
I walked into town primarily to visit our local cobblers who offer a wide range of services. Firstly I had a couple of new (and spare) keys cut which I felt were needed and to be kept in a secure place in case I ever lost the front door key I use every day. Then, I needed some new and fairly long bootlaces of the correct type to go into the boots that I purchased yesterday. As they were one size too large, I had fitted some insoles into them and put on an extra pair of socks and then walked into town in my newly acquired boots to ‘break them in’ if necessary. But in the event, they turned out to be supremely comfortable. Whilst I was the cobblers, I took in our portable stool and had three new rubber ferrules fitted which have been needed for some time now but I was waiting until I needed to go into the cobblers to get this job done. Finally, I handed in my trusted leather hat which I wear every day as it has a leather band glued above the rim but over time, the glue dries out and it needs to be replaced. These particular cobblers, well known throughout Bromsgrove do all kinds of leather work repairs so they take this in their stride and have done it for me me, albeit some two and half years ago now in the pre-pandemic days.
Tomorrow the Jubilee clebrations are going to kick off with a vengeance and consequently all political activity will be stayed for a few days until the MPs return from their constituencies after the various junketings. The number of MPs voicing their dissatisfaction with Boris Johnson has now reached 28 and experienced commentators say that this figure can be multiplied by 1.5 to ‘guesstimate’ the number of letters actually submitted to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee which may now number 42 – approaching the 54 letters needed to trigger an election. Again, some commentators are saying that many in the party may see the result of the bye-elections to be held in three weeks time to guage precisely the extent of dissatisfaction with the Tories in general and Boris Johnson in particular.
Today being a Thursday it is my routine shopping day so I set my alarm to get up a little earlier tham usual. Then I made for my local supermarket but as I was several minutes early, I managed to get some money out of an ATM and also fill-up with petrol at an adjacent supermarket. Then it was a case of getting home, having a ‘quickie’ breakfast and an unpacking before I prepared our coffee and ‘small-eats’ ready for our trip down to the park. It was beautiful day down in the park and we assumed that it would be teeming with children. But there seemed to be no more children that we anticipate in a normal weekend and we were diverted by some of the local dogs trying hard (and failing) to catch a squirrel that scampered amonst them and then made an escape up one of the trees in the park, much to the frustration of the local dogs who could not follow. On the way down to the park, we spent a few minutes in discussion with our Italian friend and she explained to us how typically a fiesta would take place in Italy. What made these things special for her in her home town is that her father was a talented musician and was always heavily involved in both both organising and participating in local concerts whenever it was fiesta time.
After lunch, I knew that I needed to go into town to collect my repaired leather hat from the local cobblers. This morning, though, when I got into the car to go shopping, a strange symbol appeared as a warning message in my car’s notification area. I had no idea what is meant to symbolise so I needed to consult the car manual and after wading through masses of information symbols, I discovered that it meant that the battery in my key fob (used for opening/shutting the car) was running low. So knowing that my cobbler changes batteries in car key fobs, this was an additional incentive to walk down to town and to get the battery renewed once I was picking up my repaired hat. On my way down into town, I bumped into a Teaching Assistant neighbour who we know fairly well, living on the main Kidderminster Road. Her husband/partner had been incredibly ill some three or four years ago but is making. long, slow recovery. So we exchanged some notes about caring functions and it may well be that we invite each around to each other’s houses for a cup of tea and a chat.
When I got to the shop it was shut even though yesterday, they had said to me ‘See you tomorrow’ Eventually, I walked the entire length of the High Street hoping I could find a jeweller or similar shop who would change the battery for me. I know that I have been caught out with these kinds of dilemmas before – typically on Good Friday, despite the Bank Holiday status, one half of the shops are likely to be open and the other half shut. At the end of the High Street, my local Waitrose store was open so I managed to get some (but not all) of the things I need to buy in Waitrose as the Aldi in which I do my main shopping does not stock them.
There is wall-to-wall coverage of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations today and tonight as you might expect. I will be quite interested to see how the media covers the lighting of the beacons across the country and whether you will see the beacons gradually being lit if the media capture this event with modern technology at their disposal. Of course, in the past these beacons were spread at strategic locations across the country such that one beacon was visible from another. Hence in days of great national danger (for example, the Armada in 1588), the beacons were a way of quickly disseminating a message across the whole if the country. Evidently, as soon as we had modern communications, this function became redundant but over time, the lighting of beacons across the country is deployed at times of national celebration and this continues to this day. When we lived in Leicester, the highest point of the county in the north of the county was called ‘Beacon Hill’ for evident reasons nd I am sure that there are similarly named high points across the country.
No doubt thousands of words will be written about the Depp/Heard libel trial but theee particular features stand out. Firstly, Johnny Depp lost a similar case in the UK but won it (against the odds) in the USA. Secondly, the social media massively swung behind Depp for whatever reason. And finally, as strategy was deployed in the USA court case in which the accused becomes the accuser and vice versa. “Lawyers and judges tend not to fall for it, but it’s very, very effective against juries” one american lawyer has argued.
Today was scheduled to be quite a heavy gardening day because we knew that the weather was going to be fine and a Jubilee bank holiday meant that nobody was going to work. There were two tasks scheduled for today and my son and daughter-in-law had very kindly volunteered to get stuck into what you might call ‘once in a year’ tasks. My son had volunteered to clear out the gutters on our dormer bungalow as the east facing side of the house always seems to generate a lot of moss much of which detaches and finds its way into the gutters. Without periodic cleaning this would create problems for when we have heavy rainfall which is, of course, quite common at this time of year. So whilst my son busied himself clearing out the gutters, my daughter-in-law had brought along her battery operated hedge trimmers to trim the hedge that we had planted around the BioDisk some fourteen years ago now. The hedge is probably about 20 metres around but is a metre and a half high and the same width. We had it massively pruned back about a year or so ago but consequently, it has gone really thick and bushy evidently relishing being pruned. Whilst the cutting job is arduous enough, the real work is in the clearing up. One garden wheelie bin was vey quickly filled up and we then used our garden rakes to fill about half a dozen large, heavy duty plastic sacks to take the rest. However, armed with copious cups of tea and a really fine morning, we got the job completed relatively quickly so now to have to choose an opportunity to dispose of the clippings. It might be worth a trip to the domestic tip even though it is some 5-6 miles distant but otherwise we will see if we persuade other neighbours to accept some of our excess when the gardening wheelie bins get collected in another ten day’s time. After a salad lunch, it was time to do the routine lawn cutting which is a job generally reserved for Fridays. At about half past two, there was a most tremendous roar overhead so I rushed out into the open to see if I could spot what aircraft was going overhead. It was pretty cloudy when I heard the sound so I did not manage to spot anything. I have done a quick search on the web which details a lot of the flypasts that are taking place this Jubilee weekend. Yesterday, though, I think I missed a Lancaster and possibly a Hurricane and a Spitfire which were on their way to a Midland airshow yesterday afternoon – the flypast was when I was walking down to Bromsgrove and I did not notice anything yesterday.
I must say that having two Bank Holidays on a Thursday and a Friday before a weekend rather plays havoc with one’s sense of time. I had the feeling all day that today is a Saturday and not a Friday. Thinking how the present Jubilee celebrations have been planned for quite some time now, I wonder whether anything is being planned for the 70th anniversary of the Coronation in 2023 i.e. next year. Of course, too much advance planning might be difficult as the Queen may not survive that long. But her mother lived to be 101 so perhaps genetics is on her side. As a child, I seem to remember painting in lots of illustrations of the Coronation coach which is how they used to entertain us in primary schools in 1953 and make us anticipate the event.
There is a sort of moratorium on political activity this weekend as I suspect that politicians themselved want to engage with their local communities and overt politicking might seem to be counterproductive. No doubt, on Monday morning or whenever the Commons resume, politics will resume with a vengeance. Some commentators believe that the challenge to Boris Johnson may come in the next week whilst others think many MP’s will stay their hand until the results of the two by-elections to be held on Thursday, June 23rd (Wakefield, Tiverton and Honiton). But when Boris Johnson and his wife arrived at St.Pauls today, then Sky News reports that the PM was greeted with a mixture of ‘boos and cheers’. But if you listen to the clip on Sky News, then it appears that there was probably four to one in favour of the boos. The only other PM I can recall being booed in this way was Tony Blair addressing the Women’s Institute, mis-cuing the tone of what needed to be said and then faced with a completely hostile audience and a slow hand clap. Tony Blair should have made his speech totally non-political but he viewed this as a potential platform for a relaunch of Labour’s policies with disastrous consequences.
Rather late in the day, some accounts are now emerging of the violence inflicted at the ill-fated final in Paris between Real Madrid and Liverpool. UEFA have now issued a formal apology to both clubs as it has emerged that there appeared to be groups of 30 men, running around in big packs. Some of them had weapons: machetes, knives, bars and bats. People were being pinned to the floor and having their watches taken.
Today started off in rather a gloomy manner and we suspected that whatever day we were going to have would be rain bespattered. I walked off down into town firstly to get my trusty black leather hat – my constant companion – picked up after its repair and also to have the battery replaced in my car’s remote control. Whilst near the High Street in Bromsgrove, I allowed myself to be tempted by a shirt I had seen in one of the charity shops which I then tried on the minute I got home. It was one of those items that looks better on than off and was absolutely the right size for me. Afterwards, I picked up our (fat) Saturday newspaper and then walked home for breakfast. Meg and I decided to brave the weather and, having got dressed in slightly warmer clothes, we then made for the park. Whilst there, we had to endure a bit of gentle rain but we soon shook it off. Then, on our way out of the park, we ran across our University of Birmingham friend and exchanged notes about what we had been doing or were about to do in the next few days. As we passed our long-established Irish friends wer were hailed inside and were then given an impromtu lunch of soup followed by strawberries and cream. We had a wonderful chat for well over an hour and then made for home when, fortunately, the rain clouds had swept away.
Saturday afternoons are always rather quiet affairs as Meg and I know that we are going to leave the house in the early evening to attend the Saturday evening church service. However, I made one important telephone call during the afternoon and I was glad that I had. When our domestic help called round in the last few days, she told us the sorry tale of the person who used to come along about once a month to do the kind of gardening for which I normally do not have the time nor the inclination. Several months we received the message that he collapsed in a garden (whether his own or a client’s I cannot say) and then had a long period of illness in hospital having to receive several blood transfusions. Evidently, this put paid to his gardening activities and to be honest, I did not know whether he was in the land of the living or not. Our domestic help informed us that she had seen our gardener in the streets of Bromsgrove and was told a story of a whole series of domestic tragedies which had befallen him and which made feel that the whole of his world had collapsed. I made the telephone call to invite our gardening friend to the house just for a cup of tea, a chat and a shouldier to cry upon. He was tremendously grateful to receive my call and we have arranged one day in the afternoon next week when we can have tea in the garden.
In the late afternoon, I took some of the excess vegetables from the last time I made one of my special soups (courtesy of the soup maker) This was a blend of carrot, parsnip, swede and celery put upon a base of fried onions and then supplemented with some coconut milk, an onion gravy stock and a touch of balti sauce to make a really delicious but somewhat spicy vegetable soup. I got the soup prepared and put some into a container for our friends that we we knew we were going to see at church later that evening. Then when we returned, we had our portion of the soup which we really enjoyed. If it had been a failure, then I would have owned up to that but I have tried this combination of root vegetables before so I know it is pretty reliable. When we got back from church, we looked at ‘Today at the Test’ which is the highlights of the day’s play in the cricket Test of England versus New Zealand. Today’s play had everything you could wish for and suffice it to say that the day started with England facing a potential defeat but ended with England in sight of victory if they continue to play as well as tomorrow as they did today. Tonight, there is a special ‘Platinum Party at the Palace’ being performed on a specially constructed stage in front of Buckingham Palace. Although popular music is not really ‘my scene’, I have to admit that from what I have seen this evening the atmosphere seems to be electric and the excitement practically contagious. It must have cost millions to stage and I wonder (cynically) if the government is funding it all on the ‘bread and circuses’ principle. Those who know their Roman history will know that when the Romans were faced with incipient revolts from the population, they bought them off with a free suppy of bread (help with gas bills?) and a free show in the ampitheatre – hence bread and circuses. Nothing changes!
Last night their was a massive concert staged in front of Buckingham Palace for the 3rd day of the Queens Jubilee weekend celebrations. But what stole the show was a 2½ minute video clip of Paddington Bear having tea with the Queen. Paddington, when invited to have a drink of tea, drank a whole teapot full directly from the spout of the teapot, leaving only a few drops for the Queen. Then followed some antics in which the teapot itself was juggled and an equerry got spattered with cream. Finally, Paddington offered the Queen some of his trademark marmalade sandwiches whilst the Queen revealed that she always kept some marmalade sandwiches in her handbag ‘for later’ The clip ended with the Queen and Paddington accompanying the band playing outside by chinking their teaspons on their cups. This was a delightfully and skilfully played sketch in which the Queen displayed her own sense of humour. Parallels were inevitably drawn with the way in which the Queen participated in another comic sketch at the time of the opening of the Olympic Games in London when it appeared that the Qeen was being whisked by helicopter to the Olympic stadium and was then parachuting down in order to open the games. In order to play the clip again to Meg, rather frustratingly many sources cut the clip from 2½ minutes down to 1 or 1½ minutes but I think I found the whole thing on Twitter rather than YouTube. One cannot just imagine other national leaders having the self-confidence of participating in a huge national joke like this.
As it had rained throughout the night and seemed to be still smattering with rain this morning, Meg and I went down to the park by car. There we were pleased to join our University of Birmingham friend and after a short interval we were also joined by Seasoned World Traveller. We discussed our reactions to the Jubilee party last night, which I rather enjoyed and then inevitably some politics. Some of our discussion centred upon the micture of boos and cheers (far more boos than cheers) than greeted the Prime Minister and his wife when they attended the service at St. Paul’s yesterday. It is interesting to see what effect the whole of this adverse crowd reaction from committed royalists might have had upon wavering Tory MPs when it comes to ‘normal’ politics which will no doubt resume tomorrow morning. There is a joke circulating around the web at the moment which I must say I really enjoyed so here it is.
“Grandad, how did you spend the Platinum Jubilee weekend?” “I watched the video of Boris Johnson being booed 2100 times.”
Today, we feel rather ‘Jubileed out’ as we watched the whole of the fantastical Jubilee pageant that took place in London from about 1.30 until 5.00pm. More than 10,000 people – including the military, performers and key workers – took part, while politicians and members of the Royal Family watched from stands outside Buckingham Palace. The variety, versatility and sheer ‘quirkiness’ of some of the floats almost defied imagination and illustrates the fact that the British are rather good at pageantry and displays, although one suspects that quite a deal of money had been thrown in the direction of the performers. Various community groups had no doubt prepared for months but obviously rehearsals were limited and it had to all come right on the day. Given that an event like this is a one in 70 years occurrence, it was well worth watching. The Jubilee has given the broadcasters the opportunity to use a lot of their archived material – and not just images of the Queen over the decades.The opportunity has been taken, and this was well exemplified in today’s pageant, to record the cultural and musical highlights of the last seventy years. So, for example, the pageant today had a series of open top buses each of which contain celebrities from the appropriate decade together with the music and images of the decade. This is a good way of providing something for everyone because all of us have memories of past decades which it is interesting to remember.
Politics with a vengeance will return at Westminster tomorrow morning. MP’s will have spent several days in their constituencies and will have been told in no uncertain terms what their local electorates think. The so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats are that traditionally used to return Labour MPs but which the Tories captured at the last election under the slogan ‘Get Brexit Done’. One of these seats is Wakefield and there will be a by-election there on June 23rd. An opinion poll has put the Labour party 20 points in the lead over the Tories and if turns out to be the case in all of the ‘Red Wall’ seats then the Conservatives are destined to lose power unless they change the leader who is causing so much voter dissatisfaction. The answer lies in the hands of Tory MPs themselves of whom exactly a half (180) would need to vote against Boris Johnson for him to lose power, even if an election for a new party leader to be called.
In the last few days, I have been saying in this blog that when MPs return to Westminster after the Jubilee celebrations at the weekend, then politics would return with a vengeance. It seems, though, that many MPs have had their ears bent by members of their constituency parties as they have been with them since last Wednesday evening, ready for the two Bank Holidays. It now seems that a clutch of MPs have sent in letters but ‘post-dated” as it were, to allow for the Queen’s celebrations to take place without the intrusion of politics. We now know that by last night, Sir Graham Brady the Chair of the Tory backbenchers 1922 committee had enough letters to cross the threshold of 54 MPs, being 15% of the parliamentary party. Incidentally, if you ignore the ‘payroll’ vote of ministers of all ranks who cannot make a profession on disloyalty without losing their jobs, then the 15% becomes about 30% of Tory MPs who are not office holders. This is getting on for a third of the ‘genuine’ back benchers and is quite a sizable chunk when viewed in this light. We woke up this morning to hear that the Chairman of the 1922 committee and the PM had been in touch last night, and there was agreement that now the 15% threshhold had been breached, a vote on Johnson’s leadership would take place from 6.00pm-8.00pm tonight in a secret ballet with the result announced at about 9.00pm. Boris Johnson needs to retain the support of 180 MPs but as 160-170 MPs form the payroll vote (ministers of various ranks, parliamentary private secretaries, trade envoys and an unknown number of party vice-chairs), he only needs 10-20 of the remaining 190 odd MPs to retain his position. It is widely anticipated that Boris Johnson will certainly get the 180 votes that are needed but the critical question is the size of the rebellion against him. To use an analogy popular with the grouse-sheeting fraternity, it is probable that the PM will be ‘winged’ but not brought down. However, the historical precedents of Margaret Thatcher and John Major suggest that even though a Prime Minister easily survives a vote of this nature, they are mortally wounded and their demise might only be weeks or months away. Certainly, the prospects of Boris Johnson leading the Tories into the next general election in about two year’s time will be much diminished – and the greater the vote against him, the less likely he is to be at the helm when the next general election comes. In two and a half week’s time, there are the two critical by-elections in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton. In Wakefield, the Tories may already have written this off as the Labour lead appears to 20% according to an opinion poll but I have not seen any opinion polls on the situation in Tiverton as yet.
When I showered this morning, the water pressure from the shower head seemed rather weak and then I discovered that there was a leak near the shower head and therefore a new shower cable was indicated. So we decided to go and collect our newspaper by car and then made our way to the local hardware centre to get a new shower cable. I chose one from a selection of cables that was hanging up, checked with the assistant it was probably what I needed and then popped into Waitrose to get some de-caff tea which I needed. Then in view of the political situation and the poor weather, it being quite cold, we decided to go home avoiding the park for the day and have our elevenses in front of the TV in view of the rapidly developing political situation. After lunch, I set to work fitting the new shower cable and was then faced with the reluctant conclusion that the cable I had not bought did not have the correct fittings at one end. So I took the old cable with me down to the hardware shop and got what I had purchased this morning with was properly packaged up and sold as a ‘shower cable’ The moral to all of this is that I should have taken off the old part and showed it to them in the store before I purchased the new one. I was pleased to see that the new cable seemed to go on quite easily with no dribbles or leaks which can occur if the cable and/or associated washers are of a lower quality that is necessary. Whilst I was out, some neighbours called round wanting to seek clarification about what work the BT team were going to do to install our fast broadband cable and that a blockage had been identified adjacent to their property. I managed to reassure them that the guys who popped round to see them from BT were genuine and not some kind of con artists. At the same time, I managed to show them the markings on the kerbstones adjacent to their property and the point at which a civil engineering team would call around to repair the portion of the BT cable that was blocked.
Tuesday is always the day of my Pilates class so this rather dictates how the morning will pan out. Meg and I have decided that whatever the weather, we will always pop down into Waitrose by car every Tuesday morning because this is the way in which we can bump into some of our pre-pandemic friends. We got down to Waitrose in plenty of time and, in truth, we were a little too early for some of our regulars. But by arriving early, we did make contact again wth a young mother who we used to see regularly in our our pre-Covid days. We have seen her once by accident in the past two years but as we used to chat about twice a week, this was one social contact that I have rather missed. The ‘baby’ she had more than two and a half years ago is now aged 3+ and consequently is at nursery school. Our friend is a teacher of politics and modern history in one of the local schools and in the past I have off-loaded a lot of my somewhat dated politics books onto her so that she could either use them herself, donate them to the school library or even let some deserving students have them if they would prove useful. Naturally, as this was the ‘morning after the night before’ we spent some time discussing last night’s vote on the leadership of the Tory party where the result was announced at about 9.00pm last night. More on this later, though. After we had been in the café for about an hour, we were joined by two of the friends that we were expecting to see in the café this morning. The four of us were soon joined by a mutual friend so we formed a jolly little table of five of the erstwhile regulars. Then Seasoned World Traveller hove into view so I split my time talking politics with him and more gentle banter with our friends on the other table.
Now for a discussion of last night’s vote. This needs to be contextualised in a way that is evading most of the commentary found on the media. When the vote was announced, it was evident that Boris Johnson was always going to win it but the margin of the scale of the rebellion against him was the subject of much speculation. Of the 359 Tory MPs, one has to be aware that some 160-170 of them are already on the government payroll. This means that if they voted against Johnson and were successful, they would be voting themselves out of a job. For this reason, we could anticipate that the vast majority of the ‘payroll’ vote would vote in favour of Johnson and their own jobs. Subtracting the ‘payroll’ faction from the electorate leaves about 199-200 ‘non-payroll’ MPs. The vote against Johnson was 148 votes which means that 3 out of even 4 ‘non-payroll’ MPs voted that they had no confidence in the PM. Although the MSM (Main Street Media) have not really undertaken this analysis, I was delighted to see that Channel 4 news were forcibly making this point and confronting a ‘Red Wall’ Tory MP with these unpalatable truths to which he had no reply or response. For this reason, most of the informed commentary who have worked out that Johnson received a lower proportion of supportive votes of either Teresa May or Margaret Thatcher and both of these resigned very shortly after a damaging vote although, like Boris Johnson, they had mathematically ‘won’ the vote. So a lot of the discussion today has been on the political rather than the mathematical implications of the vote. The conclusion is that the Tory party is very, very badly split at the moment and divided parties do not win general elections. Most of the opposition parties are silently rubbing their hands in glee, watching the Tories tear them themselves apart with ‘blue on blue’ personal attacks on each other already taking place.
My Pilates class took place as normal today. When I got home, I cooked a meal of smoked hake which we served on a bed of salad. The beauty of a meal like this, apart from its health-giving properties, is that it is incredibly quick and easy to prepare and with the minumum of washing up afterwards. In the middle of the day, I was delighted to get a phone call from one of my Hampshire friends. He had just returned from a business-cum-vacation trip to Portugal that sounded anything like restful. He had been delayed in the airport on the way out for five hours and then the hotel he was intending to stay in had an out-of-hours service by the time he arrived where the system seemed to fall over. So it seemed like quite a stressful time and makes me wonder whether things will have improved by September when we may (or may not) make a trip to Coruña in Northern Spain after an absence of some 2-3 years.
We knew that today was going to be a messed around day as we had a telephone consultation scheduled with the doctor for this morning and we had been told to hold ourselves in readiness for the call some time between 8.30 and 12.30 which is a long time slot. We were actually phoned up at about 9.30am and altogether, the consultation lasted the best part of half-an-hour, which I suppose is an improvement over the more general 10 minutes and we felt that we had a fairly satisfactory session. Knowing that doctors typically take your blood pressure if attending face-to-face, we thought it would be a good idea for Meg to have some up-to-date readings before we chatted with the GP. We had recently bought a new blood pressure monitor for ourselves as we suspected that the one we have had for years may be becoming unreliable. So I took two sets of blood pressure readings, one with the old machine and one with the new before our consultation with the doctor. The upshot of all of this is that out doctor in a telephone consultation wanted us to take a week full of observations and then get them into the clinic so that one of the doctors can decide whether any medication is called for or not.
By the time we had done all of this and greeted our domestic help who was here for her weekly session, we then set off for the park as it was quite a beautiful fine day. On our way down to the park, we were pleased to run across our Italian friend who was busy poring over the innards of her car. But all she was doing was adding some oil to her trusty Toyota Corolla. She and her neighbour who we we know well by sight were marvelling how clean and orderly the engine appeared even though the car was approximately 17 years old so we went on our way to the park. There we were joined by our University of Birmingham friend who had been busy in a community ‘repair’ shop where anybody who wants can bring along a household appliance that just requires a bit of attention to get it functioning again. This sounded like an excellent idea but the only trouble is that there were more volunteers offering their time and skills to repair household items than there were clients bringing along objects for them to repair. It all sounded like a sound idea but its long term future does not seem assured.
This afternoon we were expecting a visit from a gentleman who for some years now was doing some of the ‘heavier’ gardening for us (such as shaping and trimming bushes and the like) We knew that he had been incredibly ill having collapsed in a garden whilst he was working and consequently had spent several weeks in hospital receiving multiple blood transfusions. When he got home, he had had a whole series of domestic misfortunes and when our domestic help had run across him by accident in the High Street in Bromsgrove, it seemed as though a cup of tea and biscuits and a shoulder to cry on might prove timely. So our gardener called around and we spent a certain amount of time inside the house talking over the issues that had affected him. Eventually, the clouds rolled away and there was a burst of sunshine where we all sat outside and our friend could admire our patio which of course he had seen countless times as he worked in our garden but he, like us, were amazed at the variety and appearance of the patio once we had engaged in a radical clean up of the paving stones two or three weeks ago. As our gardener has been a horticulturist nearly all of his life, I took the opportunity of rescuing a shrub that was being grown in a large pot in the recesses of Mog’s den. He identified it for us as a hazel shrub/tree – now all we have to do, is to find a nice location for it. I cannot remember how I came by it except to say that I often rescue viable little shrubs and trees without always knowing what they are. We finished off our afternoon exchanging contact details so that we can keep in touch on a regular basis.
Sky News is reporting today severe disquiet at the way that the new ‘deportation to Rwanda’ policy is working out. A Home Officer worker has reported they feel ashamed to work for the government because of its plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. They told us there is ‘disbelief’ at the policy within their department – likening it to a form of human trafficking. The worker – who we have agreed to give anonymity to – has been in the asylum department for a number of years and spoke to us exclusively just days before the first flight is due to leave. They told us: ‘We should offer sanctuary and provide safe haven for those who need it but it feels like we are taking part in human trafficking – transporting people against their will and paying another country to take them‘.
This turned out to be an interesting day for reasons that will become apparent. But being a Thursday, it was my normal ‘shopping’ day but I must say that things seemed extraordinarily quiet this morning, for reasons I cannot immediately discern. As we intend to go away in the middle of next week, I made the shopping into a very ‘light’ week as I hate shopping for food only to throw it away a few days later. The shopping having been done, I returned home for a quickie breakfast and then wrote a quick note to Meg’s Uncle Ken in North Wales to remind him that we were due to visit him in a week’s time. When we started to think about our walk, it was evidently a very indeterminate type of day, weatherwise, and we were unsure whether little spots of rain were threatened and whether we were due to experience a more serious downpour. By the time we got ourselves ready for a walk in the park, it had already stated to spot with rain so we had to reluctantly dive back inside the house and don some outerwear. By the time we were firmly seated on our park bench, it started to rain quite steadily so I did what I have never done before. I took our poured out coffee and put back into the flask. Then we headed for the bandstand, knowing that it would give us respite from the rain for sufficient time for the rain to blow over. Sheltering under the bandstand roof, there was a motley crew of individuals all sheltering from the rain. We had small children and dogs as well as an adverising board for a local radio station and a presenter who was awaiting a person running across England to raise money for diabetes research. When the rain ceased, we struck out for home and I previously prepared some veg to have with our quiche at lunchtime. I had pre-prepared some little sticks of carrots and parboiled them with some petit pois. Then, when we got into the house, we finished off the cooking of the veg and then gave them a quick stir in some hot olive oil, to which we added a spoonful of runny honey. This makes a fairly boring vegetable mix a bit more exciting and we enjoyed it very much with our quiche.
In the afternoon, I knew that I needed to send a long and detailed reply to a solicitor who was representing the relatives of our neighbour who lived ‘across the green’ from us and died last August. The solicitor had submitted a lengthy list of questions on matters generally related to the ‘drainage field’ and associated access pipes and roadways. A lot of these questions could have been answered if the relevant documents had been supplied to the solicitor in the first place. But this involved sorting through historic files and then the computer to see if I had these documents as a PDF. The documents were quite various and included things such as the legal agreement that we and a couple of our neighbours had signed giving us a mutal purchase of the drainage field, the Klargester BioDisk and all of the associated roadways and fences. In addition, we had been gifted a long sliver of land by the previous owner of the field upon a new mini-estate has been built. Several years ago we had needed to establish exactly where our boundary line lay because it had been very vague in the past (‘following the tree line’) but once we had been gifted this land, it needed a trust agreement establishing joint ownership and then registration with the Land Registry. So all in all, I needed to supply a variety of legal instruments, location maps, Land Registry TP1 forms and the like so that the conveyancing could go ahead. But the lady across the green from us who had died had all of these documents in her possession but it looked as though they had never been bundled up with the rest of the legal documents or handed over to the solicitor. So it ws evident from the list of questions that the old lady’s relatives did not really know what they were selling so it took several hours of work for me to indicate who owned what and in what proportions. This whole venture took several hours of concentrated work and I was not best pleased, particularly as I had offered to discuss any practical details of these deals with the neighbour’s relatives but they brushed off us off indicating that they knew all that they needed to know (which was evidently not the case) So at end of the transmission of several documents to the vendor’s solicitors, I did indicate my displeasure at having to spend hours of work to establish who owned what when it was not my place to do so. But at least, the hard work is now done and I await a response from the solicitor with interest.
Today started off with an interesting knock at the door from a team from BT OpenReach who had come along to see what could be done about the blockage in the ducting that they had identified which means that we cannot yet install some superfast broadband via a fibre cable. Three large vans turned up but eventually they got to work at the site around the corner next to our neighbour’s garden fence where the blockage had been identified. After an initial lack of success they identified the source of the problem. This is a common problem with which they have to cope most of the time. When a fence post is being erected, whatever digging tool is being used may well damage the ducting. There is generally a telecommunications cable of some kind within this but when the concrete for the fence post is inserted into the hole, it enters the ducting and then blocks it off. Having got the problem identified, they managed to rectify it and put a rope through it (so they said) so that when the installation comes along in a week or so’s time, all they have to do is to attach the cable to the end of the rope and then pull it through. Then it will go as far as the access point outside our house, be taken inside the house and then the engineer will install the new fibre cable into a router that they will supply and then, if all goes well, we ought to have superfast broadband. When Meg started our walk down into the park, the men were still working away but had just completed their work (successfully) upon our return. We bumped into our Italian friend just down the road and then in the park met up with our University of Birmingham friend. He had phoned me up earlier in the morning asking if he could borrow again some ‘Teach yourself Spanish’ books which I had lent to him before but now he wanted to extend his knowledge. I also had a couple of travel guides (the kind copiously illustrated with photos of interesting things to see in whatever region of Spain you visit) so our friend could delight in leafing through these as well. We also met up with Seasoned World Traveller who hunted us out and we continued our discussions of what makes people tick – unusually, we did not broach the subject of politics in any shape or form today. Once we returned home, we had a meal of fish to which we often treat ourselves on a Friday which is seabass cooked for three minutes on one side, two minutes on the other (with some capers) and then served directly onto a small bed of crispy salad.
After lunch, we knew that it was lawn cutting day again but at least we had a wonderfully fine afternoon. Once the lawncutting had been completed, Meg and I treated ourselves to a little bit of afternoon tea in the garden. Then I had a recently purchased sweet pea to plant and fortunately, I already have the trellis in place by the side of the house. Then I needed to tie back a rose in the front garden that was in danger of falling over in the high winds but I suspect given the age of the rose, I will need a much longer stake in time. I also gave my recently planted clematis plants a bit of support and hope to train them to occupy the space previously occupied by a much older plant, now deceased. Whilst at the front of the house, I saw our neighbour and invited him and his wife around for tea late on Monday afternoon. What I want to do is to show them the email correspondence I have recently had with the vendor’s solicitors for the vacant house across our communal green area. As the solicitors are in Guildford,Surry and the house was sold through the Purple Bricks agency we are speculating whether the purchaser has used the internal photographs of the house but has not actually seen the garden and the environs of the house. An ‘old fashioned’ estate agent would have shown people around and answered a lot of questions but I have every indication that this is not what has happened on this occasion.
During the day I have been in email correspondence with one of my ex-University of Winchester friends who has recently retired. She has visited the house before and gave me a lot of practical and useful advice and support when I was ill some four years ago now. So she accepted a long standing invitation to come and stay with us for a day or so, so having booked her cat into a cattery all is now organised for her to visit in about two weeks time. Although we have been in regular email contact over the years, it is so much nicer to have a face-to-face so that we can catch upon all of the news that we wish to impart to each other.
Today was a fairly typical Saturday but the day started off fairly bright, albeit breezy, so there was no reason for us both not to enjoy our walk onto the park. I popped into town to collect our newspapers by car and then we were ready for our walk. Before I left, I had exchanged some emails with our erstwhile colleague from the University of Winchester who is coming to stay with us in about 12 days time but in the meantime, we are getting a little more focused on our trip to North Wales starting next Wednesday. I did a quick web search and discovered a pub in Old Colwyn that seems to offer good but reasonably priced meals in the middle of the day so if we do not find anything else locally, we always have the postcode of an eating place that we might visit. The thing about pubs that offer food is that they typically have a reasonably sized car park which can make life easier than having to find a car park adjacent to a restaurant. We walked down into the park and enjoyed our coffee on the park bench and were soon joined by our University of Birmingham friend. After we had chatted for a few minutes we were joined by our Seasoned World Traveller friend but then it started to spot with rain so we all repaired to the shade of a nearby tree which afforded us some respite. Then we had quite a discussion about the accuracy of blood pressure monitors and whether they should be deployed before or after taking blood pressure medication. All three of us males had been given somewhat differing modes of advice by our various surgeries and clinicians so we attempted to pool our knowledge and best practice. After all of this quasi-medical discussion, we walked slowly up the hill and prepared a salad for ourselves that was fairly easy to throw together. Then we had a quietish afternoon, knowing that we were going to attend our normal church service in the early evening.
According to Sky News, the government are shortly to intervene in the nation’s food habits. This is always a particularly tricky area for government because if they leave things to the untrammeled operation of the market (which is the natural default state for members of the Tory party) then we will be fed a diet high in salt, sugar and junk foods which are cheap to produce, profits are high and the nation’a health suffers dramatically (with increased incidences of diabetes, cancers and othet degenerative diseases) Intervene in the market, though, and the government’s critics will decry the operation of a ‘nanny state’ and the regulation of a market place which looks and feels somehow more ‘socialist’. A report due to be released on Monday contains recommendations to expand free school meals, impose a long-campaigned for salt and sugar tax, and introduce GP prescriptions for fruit and veg. At the same time, we will be urged to increase our consumption of ‘responsibly sourced venison’, increase the consumption of food from algae proteins, and encourage technology to help cattle produce less methane. This all sounds well and good but I suspect that some of the wilder recommendations (eating not just venison but ‘responsibly sourced venison’ however we are meant to ascertain that on the supermarket shelves) will be absolutely trashed by the Tory supporting ‘middle-brows’ of the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. Then we will be left with a policy which is high on aspirational details but low on any practical policies. All of this is happening at a time when most of the population are cutting back on food in order to fund sky-high energy bills and the temptations to fill oneself with cheap but junk food must be considerable for the poorest parts of the population.
In the Ukraine war, there is intense street fighting in the strategically important city of Severodonetsk. It looks as though the Ukrainians are rapidly running out of ammunition and the Russians are fighting in the only way that they seem to know how. It is reported that Moscow is using 1960s era 5.5-tonne anti-ship missiles against land targets. When employed in a ground attack role with a conventional warhead they are highly inaccurate and can therefore cause significant collateral damage and civilian casualties. The conventional military opinion at this stage in the war is that the Russians are likely to be successful in their policy of blasting their way into urban settlements but at the cost of many losses both to themselves and also to the Ukrainians. It may be that Russia is resorting to older technology because it is running hort of more modern and more precise missle systems. On the other hand, overwhelming and occupying a city is one thing, but holding on to it for any length of time is much more problematic and may take many more troops than Russia is prepared to commit.
Today being Sunday, I walked down as usual to collect our Sunday newspapers. Knowing that our friend from Oxfordshire is coming in about 11 days time, I was trying to look at a familiar journey through the eyes of a visitor and noticed how green things were, taking one thing with another. On the way back, as I was crossing the road with a sustaining banana in hand, a car stopped for me and the lights flashed. When the window was wound down I then realised it was our Irish friends from further up the road. We had a snatched conversation for a few seconds before the traffic built up behind and we both had to resume our separate journeys. After the Sophie Raworth show at 9.00am and yet another apologist for Boris Johnson, we started to make preparations for our journey down into town. I prepared our normal flask for our elevenses and then devoted some time to tidying up a table in our dining room that I use as a bit of overflow workspace and from where we occasionally FaceTime some of our friends on the iPad. This was a useful 15 minutes whilst waiting for Meg to get ready which were well spent so I can carry on and make it even more ship-shape in the next day or so. It rather looked as though a bit of rain might threaten, so Meg and I indulged ourselves by going down to the park by car. The park was teeming with 3-4 year olds on a medley of scooters, bikes and tricycles and we were lucky that the seat we were going to sit on was vacated for us just a minute or so before we arrived. We bumped into one of our regulars who whizzes all over the place at very great speed in her wheelchair but we had not seen her for about a week or so. After she left us, we walked down the hill and we made contact with Seasoned World Traveller. I had read an article in yesteday’s Times that I suspected might be of interest to him so I said that I would rescue it from the ‘vertical’ filing system and keep it in my rucksack ready for the next time I see him. Then it was a quick ride up the hill and I started to think about the lunch that we were going to have. Fortunately, it was easy to prepare as I had taken the frozen half of a joint cooked some weeks before and all I had to do was to prepare some onion gravy, cut into slices and
Voilá.
After lunch there was documentation I had set myself the task of completing and fortunately this seemed to be unproblematic. I needed to consult some government websites but these seemed to be well written and error-free as well as being easy to navigate so I was pleased to able to complete my task relatively quickly. As I had now had a bit of time in hand and the weather was set fair, I thought I would tackle some of the really overgrown bits of Mog’s Den. This is the sliver of land (more of a triangle actually) which was gifted to us when we settled the line of our boundary fence and which I am making into a sort of ‘wild’ garden. But the plum tree is manifesting a fair bit of fruit this year and some of the Vinca major (Greater Periwinkle) is doing a great job of providing some colourful ground cover where nothing else will grow as it is so shaded. A bit of benign neglect can sometimes yield some nice surprises. But not having tended Mog’s Den this season meant that some really tall weeds had gone somewhat rampant. These were largely rose bay willow herb and nettle and being shallow rooted I managed after half an hour’s work to effect quite a change. The idea is to do a little bit each day so that when our friend – a keen gardener- comes to stay with us, then Mog’s Den will look a little less of a wilderness. I am hopeful that after a bit of turning around, this little plot of land will stay pretty maintenance free.
Before the two by-election results which will be a week on Thursday, Boris Johnson has evidently engaged to two policies designed to throw some ‘red meat’ to the most fervent of his supporters. One of these is the Northern Ireland Protocol where one senior Tory has told Sky News that planned legislation on the Northern Ireland Protocol is ‘clearly not in the national interest but is about appeasing the ERG’. ERG is the ‘European Research Group’ and is a group of Tory MPs radically opposed to anything remotely European. The other policy is to take asylum seekers and to transport them to Rwanda – the policy of transporting such individuals to ‘darkest Africa’ is seen as a masterstroke by some of Johnson’s supporters. But an appeal against the first trasnportation of refugees to Rwanda will come before the Appeal Court tomorrow.
This morning, Meg and I spent a certain amount of time sorting out what clothes we intend to take away with us when we make our journey to North Wales starting on Wednesday. This really did take not too much sorting out as it was case of which top ‘goes with’ which skirt and we know that certain combinations work very well. So we have our Wednesday/Thursday kit sorted out as as well as our Friday/Saturday kit. According to the weather forecast, the temperature in certain parts of Englnd may well exceed that of Hawaii as it seems that a plume of hot air over Spain is being pushed northwards towards the UK. Eventually, we decided to go and collect our newspapers by car as we needed to buy a few provisions from Waitrose. Whilst there,we were tempted to buy a ‘butterfly’ mixture of seeds and bulbs for, as it happens, I just happen to have a little plot of spare land in Mog’s Den into which they can be sown. Once we got onto our bench seat, we made our number with Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was still completing his 9-12 kilometres a day as he has been doing for months now. We had not bumped into him for a week or so now but he still seemed hale and hearty – as always, he did not linger too long as his muscles get cold if he stops too long and he is eager to get on this way. After we had exchanged gossip with him we met a couple of our elderly Irish friends who had just returned from a cruise and I suspect might be preparing for another one. They were planning a trip down the Rhine and the tour company with which they are booked picks them up coach from Bromsgrove bus station and once their luggage is loaded, the next time they see it is when they are in their cabin in their cruise ship. To avoid all UK airports sounds fantastic so I think this may be an option well worth exploring. When we returned home, we cooked ourselves a fairly rapid midday meal of unsmoked gammon, baked potato and some Hispi cabbage and very tasty we found it.
When I was doing a tidy up of Mog’s Den yesterday, I was exploring some of the things that I had evidently rescued and after some months of benign neglect, were now busy growing away in some of the large pots I have distributed up and down the quite steep sides slopes of the den. When I examined one of the pots more closely, I realised that it was a lilac tree or bush which was about a metre tall. So I have made some space for it next to the much a larger lilac tree on the patio that was bought for me a couple of birthdays ago and which flowered for the first time this year. Apparently, it is a characteristic of lilac trees that they take about 2-3 years to flower but the specimen I have just discovered will no doubt respond to a bit of TLC, some fertiliser and a somewhat more regular watering. Later on the afternoon, our next door neighbours popped round, by arrangement, to take a spot of afternoon tea with us. We wanted to show them the correspondence into which I had entered with the solicitors of the vacant bungalow across the communal green area from us. Like us, they were fairly amazed that we should have been put to so much trouble and reinforced our own view that the solicitor should have pressed their own clients much harder to supply all of the details of the property which they were trying to sell.
Late on this afternoon, the Government has published its proposal to overturn critical parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol – an international treaty which Boris Johnson had both negotiated and agreed to. So it appears that we may be on the edge of a trade war with the EU given the plain illegality of what is being proposed. However, the UK government is arguing that the Northern Irish situation is a ‘genuinely exceptional situation’ and because of this, the UK feels it feels it can disregard a treaty which it itself had signed. One has a suspicion that all of this may be just be playing ‘hard ball’ in negotiations with the EU but the legislation will have to pass through the House of Commons first. This is by no means certain, because a significant numbers of MPs opposed to Boris Johnson many feel that this is a step too far and refuse to vote for the legislation in the Commons. Then, of course, the legislation will almost certainly fail to pass through the House of Lords. One does get the suspicion that ‘normal’ government has been suspended and that Boris Johnson will pursue whatever policies will feed the appetites of his own fervent Brexiteers. So anything that seems to pick a fight with the EU or draconian measures to deal with asylum seekers will automatically throw ‘red meat’ to whatever supporters or voters he needs for his survival.
Today was always going to be a really ‘action packed’ day and so it turned out to be. As Tuesday is my Pilates day, then we know we would have to have a quick turn-around so that I can be ready to walk down into town. So Meg and I went straight down to Waitrose by car expecting to see some of our friends and acquaintances. In the event, no sooner were we sitting down having our coffee and comestibles, than we bumped into a friend of our pre-pandemic friends who we have now got to know quite well. Then the wife of our pre-pandemic friends turned up so soon the four of us were busy chatting away at a table. As there was a photograph of some members of the Order of the Garter in my newspaper, I told the story of how King Edward III who founded the Order of the Garter was the recipient of several titters when a garter slipped from a lady’s leg (thigh?) whereupon he put it around his own leg and spake (in normal French) 'Honi soit qui mal y pense'. (‘Shame on anyone who thinks evil of it’.) This story is probably apocrypal and I may have mis-remembered some elements of it but it is essentially correct. I seem to remember my mother telling me the origin of the phrase whilst I was still quite young (and not into lady’s garters or any other kind) After this jollity, we were joined by a wheelchair associate of ours who had heard the peals of laughter and wanted to be a part of it. In the midst of all this jollity, Seasoned World Traveller turned up and I gave him a press-cutting I had been carrying around with me. Then I espied a particular friend of ours who teaches Politics and History at Bromsgrove School who was stuck in the middle of marking. I commiserated with her, explaining that the prospect of marking about 75 assignments at 45 minutes for each one making a total of 50 extra hours of work that had to be handed back within days was not a happy memory. This generally meant several late nights until about 3.00am armed with tea and biscuits which was not good for one’s waistline. When faced with a lot of irrelevant material (a common failing when students do not know the answer to the question but fling together random facts rather like mud at a wall hoping that some of it might stick), I was reminded of the schoolboy who answered thus. In a Religious Studies examination when asked for a list of the 10 commamdments he indicated that he had forgotten them but he could (and did) reproduce a list of the first thirty kings of Israel. So eventually, we left for home having met five of our acquaintances in one place.
When we got home, I prepared some of the elements of the quickie meal of fish fingers which we have upon my return from Pilates. Then immediately this was over, I needed to check over the document I as preparing that needed some signatures on it. Fortunately, my next door neighbour proved to be more than obliging and so I have all of the elements in place to have my document dspatched in the morning. Then I had to have a quick change of clothing into something vaguely respectable as I had been ‘volunteered’ for membership of the parochial church council which was meeting for its inaugural meeting tonight at 7.00pm. One of the chief items of business in the evening was to elect a Chairman and a Secretary. After an embarrassed pause in which no-one was willing to step forward, I made a suggestion which helped to ease the logjam. Instead of a permanent chair ‘person’ I suggested that we think of electing a Chair and a Vice-Chair (of different genders) so that one person could grow in to a role and take over after a year of observation and experience of the meeting. Quite quickly, having gone round the table to introduce ourselves and indicate what we could offer to the Council, a Chair and a Secretary seemed to emerge quite quickly and we are are going to meet again in some 2-3 weeks time to refine some of the draft documents we had in front of us as models for our constitution so that we can fashion a Council in our own image. Tonight, of all nights, I had to miss ‘Today at the Test‘ where the England team had pulled off one of the most stunning of victories. Some 299 runs needed to be scored and the BBC Sports website gives us a summary: On a breathless final day at Trent Bridge, Bairstow made the second-fastest century by an England batter in Test cricket as the hosts strolled to what should have been a challenging target of 299 from 72 overs. Bairstow’s outrageous hitting in the spell after tea took him to three figures from 77 balls, only just missing the England record of 76 balls that has stood for 120 years. He was eventually out for 136 from 92 balls, having clubbed 14 fours and seven sixes in front of a delirious full house. Unfortunately attendance at the church meeting means that I missed seeing a summary on one of the most exciting day’s cricket in decades.
Today was the day when we were due to travel to North Wales but there was a lot of running around to do before we got underway. Apart from the last minute packing including the laptop on which this blog is written, there were several urgent jobs to be done. One was to take the five sacks of hedge clippings that had been stored waiting for the day upon which gardening waste is collected. I was relying upon the fact that the empty bungalow has a practically empty bin apart from the grass mowings that the relatives are doing weekly to keep everything looking tidy. I was in luck and managed to squeeze my five sack fulls of clippings into their garden waste bin ready to be hauled to the end of the road. Then I had to get the document upon which I had been working ready for despatch but it required one more signature from a really obliging neighbour as a witness. Then all was ready so we shot into town and picked up our newspaper before dashing to the Post Office to get my document posted and ‘into the system’. I realised that in my panic to get things packed quickly, I had forgotten some toothbrushes and toothpaste but this was quickly remedied by a dive into one of the many cosmetic type shops in the High Street and finally we set off, some ten minutes before the time I had scheduled for ourselves. The first half of the journey was uneventful and we had a pit stop at a halfway point where we ate some of our own elevenses on some benches meant to be used exclusively by Starbuck customers but nobody moved us on. In the second half of the journey, we encountered a fairly large traffic jam because of some roadworks south of the Langollen turn off but once this was put behind us we get to the hotel at about 12.30 after a journey of 97 miles.Then we dumped everything into the room, did a quick unpack and then had a quick freshen up and then made for our Country Club restaurant a couple of miles down the road at which we arrived some three minutes before our appointed luncheon time. We had a wonderful meal starting off with some starters (liver pate, wild mushrooms) which we shared and each had a panfried sea bream served with seasonable vegetables. We found this meal incredibly filling and satisfying and I quaffed a point of a dark local cask beer, vaguely reminiscient of a porter, which again I really enjoyed.
Meg and I enjoyed crashing out this afternoon and I must say, the Holiday Inn room that we have lived to all of our expectations. It is certainly large enough and well appointed and all of the systems seem to work as we would wish. We have been absorbing the news during the day of the fact that the flight of sylum seekers being sent to Rwanda for ‘processing’ was finally abandoned last night after a legal challenge by the European Court of Human Rights. Naturally our Home Secretary (Priti Patel) has been spitting teeth and there are all kinds of threats that we should withdraw from this court. But not many people realise that this court has nothing to do with the European Community which we have just left but its origins were in the early 1940s when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill raised the idea of a ‘Council of Europe’. In the wake of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust, the idea behind the Council of Europe was to set up an international organisation to promote democracy, the rule of law and human rights. This was eventually to become the European Court on Human Rights. British lawyers were very much involved in the discussions of principles and the shaping of the Court. The European Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and the UK was the first signatory to the Convention. The Convention entered into force on 3 September 1953. So all in all, if Britain were to leave such a court that we had helped to establish then Britain’s standing in the world would reduce our moral status almost to vanishing point. The whole of the Good Friday Agreement which has brought peace to Northern Ireland is underpinned by the ECHR so it is doubtful if the UK could withdraw without threatening the whole of this agreement. Nonetheless, some Tory MPs are calling for the UK to withdraw. As I write this blog, a story has broken in the last minute that Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, Lord Geidt, has resigned after saying there was a ‘legitimate question’ over whether the PM had broken ministerial rules over Partygate. He had threatened to do so a week or so ago and was evidently agonising over his role and function but he is now No. 2 in the queue to resign from this position.
Today was the day when we had determined that we were going to visit Meg’s Uncle Ken in Rhos-on-Sea, Old Colwyn. But first we got up after a good night’s sleep and then had a marvellous breakfast, as we have by now come to expect from this particular Holiday Inn hotel. We had been informed by one of Ken’s relatives that we needed to have a negative lateral flow test before we entered the residential home. In the event, although we said we had both tested negative, the residential care staff did not seem to be unduly concerned. So we had a long chat with Uncle Ken in his own room and then decided to join the coffee morning that was taking place in the lounge downstairs. We arrived just at the end of the ‘coffee session’ and they were now preparing for lunch. But we got into conversation with a Methodist Homes for the Aged chaplain who seemed to be an almost permanent fixture of this particular home so he very kindly got us a coffee. He had had a varied and interesting career starting off as a maths teacher before becoming a methodist minister and then rising through the Methodist hierarchy. We exchanged some notes of an ecumenical flavour and then we took our leave of Uncle Ken. As we were only 5-6 miles from the town of Conwy (Conway in English) that we know well, we made our way to our favourite restaurant which is up a flight of stairs and not always attracting a lot of the normal ‘street’ trade. We imagined that it would be teeming but it was only about one third full so we were delighted to avail ourselves of one of their lunches. I had a pea and ham risotto and Meg had a salmon pasta – we swapped meals half way through and found then almost too abundant for us to do justice to them. As part of the music in the background that was being played, one of the tracks was the cabaret classic ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ I got into conversation with the waitress who was evidently enjoying the music and told her the story of Eve Graham who sang this number to a nightclub (in which I worked as a barman) stuffed full with about 1,000 people one Christmas Eve with such effect that everybody stopped dancing and/or drinking just to listen to this stupendous performance. Eve Graham became part of a group called the ‘New Seekers’ whose most famous claim to fame was to turn the Coca Cola jingle into the World beating ‘I want to teach the world to sing, in perfect har-mon-y‘ In 1972, the New Seekers took a follow up song to this to No. 2 in the Eurovision Song Context. Eve Graham is still alive and performing but she has let the world know that the singers did not accumulate any real riches after their evident successes as so much money was creamed off by managers, agents and the like. After I told the waitress of my slight connections with the music world, I also pushed my luck and asked if I could retain the small 275cl bottles in which we had had some elderflower cordial. I told her that these bottles were like gold dust as I needed about 20-30 for the damson gin which I still have to bottle.She agreed and let me have several more bottles which they would otherwise have thrown away. Not having a bag to carry them away in, I casually enquired if they had a spare bag behind the bar and was promptly supplied with quite a substantial jute bag which they just happened to have spare and was very generously donated to me.
After lunch, we proceeded along the High Street in Conway to buy some things of which we were quite short, not least some fresh milk for our bedroom cups of tea. When I got back to the car, I looked in the boot and realised with some dismay that the file with a lot of booking information and sat-nav directions in it, I had left behind at Uncle Ken’s residential home. I managed to consult the Sat Nav history to get us back to the care home which was not too far distant, Fortunately, I then retrieved the file I had left in Uncle Kens room and so we could then make our way back the hotel bedroom for a bit of a rest and afternoon tea.
The Prime Minister’s adviser on Ethics, Lord Geidt, resigned yesterday with the briefest of resignation letters. But the mystery hs deepened today as Downing Street has published Lord Geidt’s resignation letter a day after he unexpectedly decided to step down. In his letter he said he had been asked to offer a view on ‘measures which risk a deliberate and purposeful breach of the ministerial code’. We shall have to wait and see what more there is to this story as the hours unfold but it looks like another brick in the wall around Boris Johnson has been removed.
Friday was the day when we had planned to visit Chester without any other obligations and we were not to be disappointed. We had another marvellous breakfast at our leisure and then set off for Chester, making for the ‘Park and Ride’ system on the outskirts of Chester. This really could not have been more straightforward – we entered £4 into a machine to give us two inward and two outbound journeys and set off within about two minutes after boarding the bus. The journey into Chester is really quite interesting and we looked at the new building that had evidently been taking place since we last made this journey over some two years ago. But we trod a familiar route, visiting a cafe that we know well which is just inside the Roman walls where we had a coffee and some toasted fruitcake. Then we walked on down to town and made for an Italian restaurant – Sergios – which we know is immediately adjacent to the cathedral. We then did a tour of some of the ancient streets, doing some shopping for a few items as we progressed. But by this time, the sun was getting pretty high and so we were relieved to seek some solice in the cathedral. We particularly like Chester cathedral because unlike many Anglican cathedrals, it is not adorned with too much 18th and 19th century militaria – the military plaques that are displayed are relatively unostentatious and often quite interesting. We eventually found our way to a little chapel that seemed to be dedicated to the Ukraine. There was certainly a classical Byzantine Madonna on display, plus a statue and a crucifix that could have been of Ukrainian origin but there was a map of the Ukraine – evidently not of recent origin – where of course one could recognise many of the place names on it. We lit some candles in remembrance of some of our dear departed relatives. As we were leaving, it was quite touching to see that there were a plethora of Ukrainian ribbons tied onto the railings complete with a collection of little tapestries, many of them with appropiate homilies written and embroidered onto them. One typical example was ‘Albert Einstein was a refugee‘ which gives you a flavour of the type of homilies that were displayed.
Just after 1.00pm we strolled into our by now favourite Italian restaurant and immediately rewarded ourselves by sinking some cool Peroni (Italian) beer. We wanted to eat something that we wouldn’t necessarily have at home and having eaten some very filling pasta and risotto yesterday (which we enjoyed but didn’t quite finish) we decided to vary our choices. We started off with two different starters – a Funghi (mushrooms) for Meg and a stuffed Zucchini for myself. This we intended to share after we had eaten about half each which we often do. Then the menu had on offer a speciality Zuppa di Pesce which is Italian Fish and Seafood Stew and we asked that we be served with just one portion of this but to be shared between the two of us. This the restaurant did and we both had a wonderful gastronomic experience without feeling over full or bloated at the end of it all. But we had an expected bonus as it transpired that at least three of the staff happened to be Spanish rather than Italian. So we chatted with one waiter who was from Malaga (in Andalucia) and another who hailed from Asturias in the north. Taking one thing with another, the food we were having, the conversations we were having and the whole ambience of the restaurant made us feel as though we were in Spain without being in Spain.
After lunch we made our way through sunny streets to the bus station where we caught the coach taking us to the Park and Ride. When we got back to the hotel, we are were feeling rather hot and thirsty so, rather unusually for us, decided to have a drink of lager in the hotel bar in order to cool off more than anything else. As we were leaving, we entered into a conversation with one of the hotel’s managerial staff asking her, as we often do these days, where she hailed from. She was Romanian and we chatted about when we had heard Romanian spoken on the TV, we were surprised that we could understand a fair proportion of it. The manageress explained how Romanian was one of the most latinate of languages being one of the first territories in the Roman conquests – it’s all in the name, after all. She herself had worked for three years in Rome and told us her Italian was better than her Romanian. She had also worked in the Italian restaurant in which we had just dined. So this was quite a fascinating little conversation. Whilst in our hotel bedroom and before we start to think about packing, we discovered No. 10 had informed the Northern group of Tory MPs who were having a major ‘red wall’ regional conference that Boris Johnson was on a train to see them whereas in practice he was on a plane visiting Kyiv in the Ukraine. Some commentators have wryly pointed out that Boris Johnson would have a much friendlier welcome in the Ukraine than he would in the North of England – is this a sign that he knows that the Wakefield by-election next Thursday is irrevocably lost?
Today is the day when we return home from our mini-break holiday in Chester. Instead of bothering to do any packing last night, I reckoned it is so much easier to pack up when you are coming home rather than planning your outward trip – after all, everything in the romm is to be packed up or thrown away. We got up at 6.15 and basically we were all done and ready to go down for breakfast by 8.00am. We enjoyed our last breakfast as indeed we have enjoyed our previous two but today we felt the need to supply ourselves with a few comestibles for a little break half way though the journey. I made a couple of trips to the self-service coffee machine to fill up our flask and managed to snaffle a few little pastry type things plus a banana which all fitted beautifully into our little jute bag which had been so kindly donated to us yesterday. This little bag is going to be so useful to us when we have little breaks away that I have ensured that it is packed away into our normal ‘going away’ suitcase so that we wil always have it to hand. By the time we had breakfasted and checked out, it was a few minutes before 9.00am so we were pleased to make a prompt start. The first part of the journey was rain-free but the little splatters of rain become heavier and heavier so the second half of the journey was a wet affair. We were in a bit of a dilemma where to have our mid-journey break because we did not really want to pull off at Shrewsbury services, which is a halfway point in the journey. So we were determined to find a convenient layby just short of the M54 motorway where evidently stopping for any purpose is not allowed. What we found interesting was that just before the clearway section at the end of the dual carriage way, there seemed to be several lay-by areas provided within the last mile or so. Thinking about, the road layout designers must have appreciated that people would want to stop for a variety of reasons before they eentered the M54-M6-M5 motorways network and hence we found about three substantial lay-bys provided within about a mile. Evidently, I have never thought about this before but it worked out really well for us. We availed ourselves of one of the lay-bys some five miles short of the M54 network which had the added bonus that a really colossal refuse bin had been provided for the disposal of travellers’ waste. As we were making good time, we popped by the newsagents so that I could pick up today’s newspaper before we arrived home.
The day was pretty humid and muggy when we got home so we dined on some icecream followed by cheese and biscuits which was more than adequate for us in the middle of the day. Then in a bustle of activity, I made sure that all of our holiday washing was put through the washing machine and dryer before being all put away. We got out suitcases fuly unpacked and their contents restored to their ‘normal’ homes because, as well as clothes, we always have some items which are useful to us like teabags, a supply of plastic sacks, a range of cosmetics and medicaments and so on. It was very satisfying to get all of these put away before we settled down to a lesiurely read of the newspapers before we get ourselves prepared for chuch when we leave the house at 5.30. It is just as well that we got ourselves sorted and organised today as next week will prove to be quite busy for us. On Monday our broadband is due to be upgraded and on Tuesday, in addituon to my Pilates class we have made an arrangement to see our our pre-pandemic Waitrose friends but in the park (weather permitting). On Wednesday, our University of Winchester colleague will be arriving for a couple of days stay but we have already got planned out a little priogram of activities to keep us all entertained.
Of course, the big event (in my calendar) next week is going to be the result of the two by elections to be held on Thursday. Wakefield looks a foregone conclusion but Tiverton and Honiton, a Devon rural seat, looks much more 50:50. There seems to be a summer spike of COVID hitting us shortly as the number of infections has risen by 43% in a single week. It looks as though the latest variants of the virus are less severe but more trasnmissible and with the virtual ending of ‘Test-and-trace’ how many of us are walking around and unintentionally infecting others? To be pessimistic, I suspect that we might get hit by something nasty in the autumn and winter months as we may have relaxed our guide far too early. Some commentators are blaming all the Jubilee get togethers for this rapid rise but who can tell?
It is part of my normal Sunday routine that I get up early and then walk down to town to collect my Sunday newspaper. It had rained heavily yesterday and evidently the rain had dislodged some of the moss on my roof which I was anxious to remove from our newly restored patio. As I was sweeping the path near to our back gate, I heard a familiar rustling sound and, sure enough, it was Miggles (our adopted cat) who upon hearing the sound of the sweeping decided it was time to pay me a visit. Mind you, it not my company that he/she seeks but a little dish of premium cat food which is always forthcoming. I thought that the cat had showed a degree of prescience to associated the noise of my sweeping to the fact that food was in the offing. Once we had viewed the early morning politics program, Meg and I decided to go down into town by car as the weather looked a little indeterminate and we did not particularly want to get caught in a shower. So we made our way to our normal bench and wondered if we coincide with any of our park regulars. In the event, we did not, so we decided to walk in the region of the cafe to see of any regulars were having coffee in the park’s own coffee bar. Again, we were not in luck but as we walked back to our car in the top car park, we noticed that a huge branch of a weeping willow that must have been a foot in diameter had been wrenched off by the wind and had completely broken off. I imagine that it will some time with a chainsaw to chop it up into smaller pieces and do whatever is done with the timber from fallen branches. It rather reminded me of the occasion when we motoring in mid-Wales and on approaching Betws-y-Coed we were only a minute or so away from being at the receiving end of a falling tree with which fortunately we did not get entangled. And so it was home for a Sunday lunch that was rustled up from bits and pieces that we had in the fridge and the freezer but nonetheless gave us a tasty meal.
Last night, we promised ourselves that we would treat ourselves to an opera, courtesy of YouTube on the TV. But we started off with a frustrating period when our access to anything on the net was met with the informative message ‘You are not connected to a network’ or similar. I think, but am not sure, that I had activated a ‘Reset’ button but nothing seemed to happen for quite some time. Then, in about 10 minutes, the system indicated that it had made an internet connection so we pressed ahead and found a copy of La Bohème featuring Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni. The singing was of quite a high order although both singers looked as though they were in the mid-to-late stages of their careers. We got subtitles in Italian which was a little interesting in itself as you could match up the words coming out of the singer’s mouth with the actual text. Fortunately, this opera is not exceedingly long so it meant that Meg and I could crawl into our beds at a reasonable time.
The political story which is going to dominate the headlines for the next few days, or at least until the results of Thursdays by-elections are known, are the three days of strikes timetabled for later on this week. About half of the entire rail network will be affected and the strategy of striking for three days in which trains are automatically out of position makes a three day strike into effectively a five day strike. Besides the transport workers, there are many other public sector unions queuing up for what may well be a ‘summer of discontent’ as wages have been ‘restrained’ for so long. But as the pandemic and associated furlough schemes have been wound down, so a lack of parity is increasingly evident and all of this is before a predicted inflation rate of 11% hits us. Official data show annual growth in total average earnings reached a 15-year high of 6.2 per cent in the private sector in the first three months of 2022 — while falling to a five-year low of 1.9 per cent in the public sector. There are some indications that both unions and government are itching for a fight. From the government’s perspective, it is quite easy to demonise union leaders and to mobilise public opinion against the strikes. In a week when the government might appear to be on the back foot before voters go to the polls on Thursday, then the government must think of a strike as like manna from heaven. On the other hand, with so many public sector workers in the queue whose wages have been less than the inflation rate for years giving a real-terms pay cut, then the government must feel that it cannot afford to cede an inch to the transport workers. As the strike continues without a resolution, so the government must feel it is quite content to let it run and run if it delivers political advantages for them.
Today turned out to be one those frustrating days which will be familiar to most of us. In getting my broadband upgraded to ‘Super Fast Fibre’ for the same price that I am paying at the moment, BT OpenReach came to survey the roadways from our property to the BT junction box near the distributor road which our own (private) residential road joins. The OpenReach team had found a problem which was not uncommon that they could pass a cable so far and no further so they reckoned that their ducting near to a neighbour’s fence was blocked. The BT staff reckoned that this was happening all the time and was quite a common problem. When a concrete fence post is driven in, then the BT ducting is often damaged and when concrete is poured in for the fence post, some enters the ducting, solidifies and a blockage ensues. BT sent out a civil engineering team some days later and they managed to clear the blockages and put a piece of rope through the ducting all the way from the BT junction area to the access point at the side of my house. Today, we were expecting an OpenSource engineer to call and install the fibre optic cable into the house attaching to a new router in the process. According to our calendar, we were expecting the engineer at any time betweem 8.00am and 1.00am but as nobody had turned up by about 11.00am, I started to get suspicious. So I phoned up my internet supplier who could find no record of today as an installation date even though I had been told of today’s date over the phone and had written it onto my calendar. After hurried consultations a date in about 9 days time was specified as the ‘correct’ date so we will just have to sit tight until that happens. I am sure I am not the first person, or the last, to have waited in all morning for somebody not to turn up. I had made the best of a bad job by getting my accounts up-to-date and ordering a big new ledger book for myself as my existing one is practically full. When I knew that no one was now calling at the house, I made a quick visit into town by car and picked up the newspaper and then into Waitrose for some vital things (such as milk) of which we had completely run out. This afternoon, the weather was set fair so I toddled around the garden getting some things tidied up before our visitor stays with us for a few days arriving on Wednesday.
Another Boris scandal is in the offing today. Downing Street has confirmed it was in conversation with The Times around the time the newspaper dropped a report claiming Boris Johnson tried to appoint his now wife to a government role when he was foreign secretary. In a story published in the first edition on Friday night, the paper reported that Mr Johnson attempted to hire Carrie Johnson, then Carrie Symonds, as his chief of staff at the Foreign Office in 2018. But after a telephone call to The Times, it appears that the story was pulled. So it seems that Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary attempted to have his then girlfriend made into his own ‘Chief of Staff’ which does reek of nepotism. It is reported that the post would have attracted a salary of £100,000 but Boris Johnson was given advice to the effect that this kind of apponitment should not go ahead. To compound this story, than any adverse criticism of this manouvre was then stifled by getting the story pulled from ‘The Times‘. I suppose these dodgy dealings are par from the course and may be common place in the vista of politics today but it does make the action of government ministers appear decidedly sleazy if not outright corrupt.
The media this evening is full of the speculation that after the RMT strike actions later on this week, there is quite a large queue of public seector workers who will also shortly be pressing claims for substantial pay increases. At the moment, the list included teachers, nurses and other NHS staff. In case this sounds like a uniquely UK problem, nothing could be further from the truth. In Eire and many other EU countries, public sector workers who have had their wages held down throughout the days of the pandemic and are now faced with rising rates of inflation which means that their real wages are, in effect, being cut and they are on the march. There is some talk of conditions approaching a general strike but certainly the discontent is very widespread.
If you thought that Brish politics was fractured, then it is even more so the case in France. In the French Parliamentary elections, Macron needed to to get 289 votes for a majority but only secured 245. A coalition on the left secured 131 votes whilst the combined right is 89. In other words, Macron has almost as many deputies ranged against him as his own deputies but that they are split between left and right who will not collaborate. So France will be entering a very unstable period for the months ahead.
Today started off with what is becoming a regular pattern. When I get up in the morning and before I start to shower and to breakfast, I have started a little routine whereby I use a soft brush to sweep the newly restored path by the side of the house free from holly leaves and holly seeds which fall constantly. Making this into a daily routine is a nice way to get a breath of fresh air and is not at all onerous if done on a daily basis. However, our adopted cat Miggles who evidently has the most acute of hearing will respond to the sound of a soft sweeping brush ‘shwooshing’ along our paving slabs by leaping over our six feet high garden gate knowing that a little tasty treat of a fish breakfast awaits him/her. The cat, like myself, has routines in that it as some breakfast, comes for a limited amount of fondle and then seeks out a space in the sun where a spot of sun bathing can be indulged in. The same pattern will repeat itself in the afternoon particularly if we have been out in the car. The cat will respond to the car’s arrival by coming to greet us and, when I indicate to the cat that it should stand by the (locked) back gate, it takes the cue that the gate is to be jumped over as food treats await shortly. Today being a Tuesday, it is my Pilates day so we went by car to pick up our newspaper and thence to repair to the Waitrose café to meet some of our regulars. We met with some of our pre-pandemic regulars and we got joined eventually by our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller. I rather indulged myself by telling some traveller’s tales centering around my month long stay in Jakarta, Indonesia when I was teaching a module on De Montfort University’s out-distanced MBA. This was an interesting arrangement as each teacher was ‘the University’ as they taught their module and I was the second person along in the queue. Once we had several conversations with different groups of friends, we bought a birthday present for our domestic help but as it was her birthday today we took a card and a bottle of wine around today to deposit on her doorstep but her ‘proper’ present will wait until tomorrow which is now her regular day.
A lot of today is devoted to some preparations for the visit of our University of Winchester friend who should be arriving, motorways permitting, at some after 12.00 tomorrow. I have some plans afoot for us to share in one of my more special risottos which I am going to make with mackerel and some of that ‘low calorie’ rice occasionally to be found in Waitrose. After that, we are booked into Harvington Hall, a local Elisabethan Manor House just down the road from us which we have visited several times before but is fascinating for some of its features, more of which tomorrow. I managed to negotiate the website and got three tickets for the last of the ‘timed’ tours of the house which starts at 2.30 tomorrow afternoon. Hence the lunchtime meal of risotto which can be prepared quickly, consumed quickly and we can be on way for our afternoon visit. On my way back from my Pilates class, I popped into Asda to get a few things that I know we need and I may well get up early in the morning to do a more regular weekly shop up before our guest arrives. After a delayed lunch an a quick doze, it was time to get some jobs done before tomorrow. The first of these was to get our gooseberries picked before they dropped off the bush. Our gooseberry bushes were quite prolfic at one time but their productivity has dropped off a bit and I suspect that the long straggly branches could do with a dramatic pruning which I shall do shortly now that the fruit has been picked. Altogether, I picked 145 gooseberries which gave me about 650 (two thirds of a kilo) of fruit. Tomorrow, I will stew some of them in a little sugar and although they may be a little tart, the taste of freshly picked gooseberrries is always superb. We will eat them with a dollop of raspberry icecream and some plain yogurt. Then there was dead shrub which needed removing and cutting up for disposal into our garden waste bin. Then I needed to tie up a large branch of one of our very old damson trees which is laden with fruit and well worth preserving but the branch still needed hoisting back into position where it does not block one of our paths. Finally, I chopped a large chunk out of my neighbours Alchemilla which had started off in our garden but an offshoot of which had been donated to my neighbour’s garden whilst its parent in our garden (donated by our University of Winchester friend on a previous visit) had died.
Today, I felt that I needed to do some of my weekly shopping as last week we had missed out on shopping by going on our trip to Chester. I was a little short of ready cash but thought I would go to the ATM in the walls of an adjacent supermarket. Here I discovered that both of the ATMs were either empty or malfunctioning so I did a little tour of two local places where I might access an ATM but with no success. So I went around my regular supermaret only buying the bare essentials to make sure that I had the cash reserves to cover the bill. Later on today, our University of Winchester friend was coming to see us and stay for a couple of nights. It was also the day when our domestic help comes to give our house the ‘once over’ so we were looking forward with some anticipation to the hours ahead. The day was delightfully warm and Meg and strolled down to the park knowing that time was a little limited but aiming to be back before our friend was scheduled to arrive just after 12.00pm midday. We had had a really good laugh earlier in the day when I was explaining to our domestic help the incident that occurred to me when I was a university student. I had discovered a small lump in my neck which was probably a little blocked cyst or something similar. I explained that I had somehow got myself into the office of the Professor of Surgery at the University and he agreed to operate on me in a few days time. This he did but as I recovered from the minor operation it became evident that he had ‘missed’ whatever it was he was meant to be removing. When I presented myself again in his office to show that the operation site had missed the cyst by over an inch, he just stared me in the eyes and told me just to forget all about it – which I did. After all, he was the Professor of Surgery but seemed to me to be in his 80’s although according to the web, he was only 61 at the time. He retired from his post some five years after I saw him. I next bumped into him when I was a Census enumerator for the 1971 Census and he was on my patch. I subsequently learnt that he as a lifelong bachelor, he had a reputation for lively dinner parties, made even more so by a pet monkey in his possession which used to swing from the chandelier in his dining room urinating across the table as his guests were eating their dinner. When his guests remonstrated, he used to argue that the urine was biologically pure and they shouldn’t make such a fuss. I was trying to convey the kernel of these two stories to our domestic help who had got elements of the two stories intertwined and she was amazed, so she thought, that the monkey was allowed to perform the operation on me in the first place. We laughed so much at all of this that our sides ached.
Our friend arrived very promptly just after twelve and after we had exchanged some news, I got down to cooking a risotto for Meg and myself, our friend and our domestic help. This turned out to be quite a success and we helped it down with one half of a glass of white wine. Then we set off for Harvingtom Hall which is some seven miles down the road. We have been here several times before and always had a good tour but today was exceptionally good. Our guide was ‘togged up’ in full Tudor dress but was exceptionally knowledgeable and we discovered all kinds of things that we did not know before. The house is famous for being full of priest holes, none of which were actually discovered. One of the most concealed of these (behind a beam which swung on a swivel) I had previously been allowed to get inside but all of this activity is now banned as ‘Health and Safety’ regimes have swung into play. After an incredibly interesting tour, our friend treated us to some afternoon tea in the garden which wounded off a perfect afternoon. When we got home, we treated ourselves to a cold drink of cordial and eventually some strawberries, yogurt and icecream by way of tea. Then we spent a very pleasant evening talking over aspects of our two family histories which at one stage might even have coincided. I knew that my father had trained to be a pilot out in Rhodesia during the war years and our friend told us that her grandfather was an instructor of British pilots in Rhodesia. Although it is conjecture, it is quite possible that these two individuls might have known each other or even that my father was instructed in flying by my friend’s grandfather. All we can say at this stage is ‘Who knows’ as both are long since dead.
Today has been the most interesting of days as we suspected that it would. I awoke our University of Winchester guest, who has been staying with us, with a very welcome cup of tea at 7.00am and Miggles, the cat, dropped by for a fishy breakfast. Then I set to work on cooking a couple of monster omelettes of red onion, tomato and mushroom upon which we all dined well. Then our son dropped by and it was not too long before he established with our guest that they were both rail enthusiasts and, in no time at all, they were swapping stories of railway memorabilia, locations of interest to rail enthusiasts and some interesting stories about our guest’s grandfather who was commemorated for his railway work in the station at Okehampton. This was quite amazing becuse we had no idea that this was a shared enthusiasm. The conversation then progressed to shared interests in natural history and in no time at all, we were into the various images of moths, butterflies and caterpillers that had been captured in the past on mobile phones and then put onto websites. So it was a long time since we have had such a detailed and intimate sharing of subjects across the breakfast table. As soon as we felt able, we went by car as far as the local park and I showed our guest the vistas that Meg and myself are used to appreciating every morning. Then, and particularly pertinent in view of our long conversations across the breakfast table, we took our guest to view a special type of memorial which is situated in the churchyard-cum-park of the large Anglican church dedicated to St. John the Baptist. This particular mounument consists of a a large and moving tribute paid to the driver of a locomotive who was killed when his locomtive engine boiler exploded in about 1842. I suppose that might have been a fairly common occurrence in these early days of steam locomotives. There was a long and poignant poem engraved into the monument and it looked as the fireman died the day after his companion and workmate. It is only when you reach the very end of the inscription on the monument that it was revealed that the monies provided for the erection of the monument was provided by the locomotive crew’s workmates (and interesting that any management contributuon to the cost of erecting this monument is conspicuous by its absence) Our friend took a photo of the monument to share with a cousin who was also an avid rail enthusiast. I first spotted this monument which was in rather a run down condition when I first moved to Bromsgrove some fifteen years ago but in the last few years the monument has been removed and restored off-site before being reinstalled. It is perhaps interesting to note how few people in the town seem to know of this monument and traversing the park several times each week, I suspect that the memorial does not receive very many visitors.
After this interesting little venture we repaired to the solace of the coffee bar in Waitrose which we know so well. Our friend is a real Waitrose devotee so this was much appreciated and we just missed seeing Seasoned World Traveller who was on his way to the park. Then after a brief pit stop at home, we journeyed on to Droitwich where we all intended to lunch at one of our favourite eating places in the town. We experienced a certain amount of disappointment, though, as the establsihment that we know well seems to have changed ownership and the menu is somewhat more restricted than we have been used to over the years. Nonetheless, the meal was adequate enough for us in the middle of the day so we returned home after a very hot morning in the sun. We were quite content to rest in the cool of our lounge at home and chat before we ventured out into the garden. Here we refreshed ourselves by drinking either cordial or tea – in my own case, I was delighted to try a beer local to Berkshire whih our friend had thoughtfully brought along for our enjoyment. Then we had a simple ‘nursery’ style tea of bananas and custard before we went indoors to catch up on the Channel 4 news programme.
There is depressingly disturbing news emerging from the USA this evening. After the latest recent episodes of mass shootings with a school and calls for some degree of gun control, then the US Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution gives people the right to carry a gun outside their home, in a significant new ruling for gun rights. The decision is expected to allow more people to legally carry firearms in some of America’s biggest cities – such as LA, New York and Boston – and is the court’s first major decision on gun rights in more than a decade.
We are all eagerly awaiting the results of the two by-elections held today but it may be 2.00am before we get a glimmer of either of the two contests. The Main Street Media is full of speculation but we will just have to be patient to see what the electorate thinks in these two critical by-elections.
Although it was predicted that the by-election results would not be available until 4.00pm in the morning, I thought I would stay up for a bit. Then Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader tweeted at about 3.00am that they were on the verge of a historic victory so I dozed in the chair until the two results came through. As we suspected, Boris Johnson got a kicking, the bottom line being in both of the by-elections that either Labour or Lib Dem are quite willing to set aside their usual loyalties in order to register an anti-Conservative vote. If this pattern persists and Boris Johnson is not replaced, then there is no way that the Conservatives can form a majority government next time around. Also, no party at all will enter into an alliance with them so the longer term future of a Conservative government must look grim after they have been in power for twelve years. So eventually, I crawled into bed and got up an hour later than I normally would and then our University of Winchester friend, Meg and I had boiled eggs for breakfast – a pattern we have got out of over the years. After breakfast, I showed our guest the video clip that I had of Clive playing J. S.Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring‘ on his trumpet at our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. Whilst I had got our personal wedding website open at the appropriate page, we also played the audio clips of the anecdote-laden speeches that both Meg and I gave separately at the celebration that was held in Yorkshire for our Yorkshire relatives as they could not necessarily travel for the celebrations we held in the Midlands. After that with may hugs, kisses and photographs taken for the records, our friend got on her way and Meg and I looked at the weather to determine whether we were going to brave a walk or not. It looked pretty threatening so we went down into town by car, picked up our newspaper and then treated ourselves to a coffee in Waitrose. Inside the store, we bumped into our Irish friend who had not seen us for a few days but knew we were still alive because she reads this blog quite regularly to ascertain that nothing dramatic has happened to us. Then it was home to have a lunch of sea-bass on a bed of lettuce which is a lightish but healthy lunch we often have on a Friday lunchtime.
This aftenoon, as I had had so little sleep last night, I allowed myself the luxury of an extended doze on the living room floor. Then, through the ether as it were, came the news from the US Supreme Court of the reversal of the classic Roe v. Wade which was the judgement in 1973 that legalised abortion across the whole of the United States. Ever since Donald Trump had appointed conservative justices to the Supreme Court ensuring a 6:3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, then it was only a matter of time before Roe v. Wade was reversed as the American right had had this in their sights for the last fifty years. Nonetheless, like the death of an aged relative, when the nws actually came though it was not unexpected but quite a shock all the same. A fair number of states had passed legislation through their Republican controlled legislatures wich was so-called ‘trigger’ legislation in that as soon as they received the green light from the Supreme Court, their own anti-abortion legislation would be immediately enacted. Jo Biden made quite a powerful speech pointing out that the national consensus that had prevailed through 50 years of both Republican and Democrat congresses and presidents was now broken. However, America is now almost completely polarised and the judgement in the Suprme Court having made may last for decades (as justices are appointed for life and you have to wait until several die before it is possible that they may be replaced by more liberal members to revert the balance).
As you might imagine, the domestic political news is dominated by the Conservative losses in the by-elections, the Liberal Democrats having got the biggest swing against the governing power ever recorded. There was a swing of 29.9% to the Liberal Democrats and as the Conservatives had a majority of more than 24,000 and the new Liberal Democrat majority is now over 5,000 then any Conservative MP with a majority of less than 30,000 might be vulnerable in a general election. On the one hand, governments always have swings against them in their mid-term. On the other hand, there now seems to be a determined mood in the electorate to try and get rid of Boris Johnson by any means possible. One scenario is that the 1922 back bench committee change their rules so that the PM can have a challenge against him within a year of the last vote and there are now a sufficient number of Tory MPs frightened of losing their own seats that they are willing to get rid of Johnson as an electoral liability (as they did with Margaret Thatcher, of course).
After we had breakfasted on boiled eggs this morning, Meg and I spent a certain amount of time on the net thinking in the broadest of terms about what type of late summer holiday we might like to think about. Some parktime acquaintances of ours had just returned from a holiday down the Rhine and they explained to us that they loaded their suitcases onto a coach in Bromsgrove and the next time they saw them they were on board their cruise ship. So we investigated one of the best companies who specialise in this type of business (‘Shearings’) as the thought of avoiding all of the hassle of security checks in crowded airports seems quite attractive to us, not least as we would not have the trouble of hoisting suitcases all over the place. There were several options of tours of classical Spain that we thought sounded quite attractive until I realised that the tours on offer were for 2023 not this year. So we abandoned that idea temporarily. Then we started to think whether we could visit our familiar old haunts in La Coruña, Northern Spain but even here things have changed. For a start, our preferred airline that flies direct to Coruna only now seems to fly out of Gatwick and not Heathrow. Nonetheless, we could get our preferred hotel at a ‘normal’ price and the flights are more expensive than they were but not massively so, so we are still considering this as an option. I investigated getting to Gatwick by train and I think I can do this in a couple of hops if I can get to Reading and then a direct train to Gatwick. But when I thought of a train jouney with two or three changes, perhaps I just might be better just taking the car to Gatwick where I think the journey is only about 25 miles longer than Heathrow. So this is another possibility. I then went back onto the Shearings websites and there are some possibilities of touring the Pyrenees by a succession of ‘Little Trains’ this September. So we are in the position where we might assemble several of our options together and then try and choose the least stressful looking at the journey as a whole. It might well be that we go to La Coruna for the last time under our own steam this year and then rely upon coach tours (avoiding airports) for holidays from 2023 onwards.
All of this investigation delayed us somewhat so we went down to collect our newspaper by car and then took the car to the park in case we caught in a sudden downpour. Whilst in the newsagents, I saw a flyer advertising a free concert tomorrow night in the local Anglican Church and would enjoy all of the items on the programme. So if we manage to get along to this, I popped in to see our Irish friends to see if tomorrow night we could park our car on their driveway and then we only have a walk for about 200-300 years to the church. They agreed to our request so we got home and cooked ourselves a Saturday lunch of quiche. To make our vegetables a little more interesting, I had parboiled some little sticks of carrots before we went to the park and then I popped these and some petit pois into a little saucepan which I quickly tossed in oil and I added a spoonful to syrup which makes this mixture somewhat exotic. After lunch which we had taken quite early, I thought that I would seize the opportunity to get the lawns cut today. This was quite a bonus as I imagined that after the showers orf rain we had had today then the lawns may have been too wet. But I did manage to get the lawns cut with only a little smatter of rain two thirds of the way through to impede my progress. Then in the late afternoon we went to church as we always do on a Saturday and returned home to watch a summary of the cricket Test Match whilst we ate a ‘nursery tea’ of rhubarb, yogurt and Neapolitan icecream. No sooner had we finished this but our next door nigbour knocked at the door with two little bowls of stewed fruit and cream which were absolutely delicious. Our neighbour does this for us on quite a regular basis and we are always delighted to receive her offerings which are always welcome.
The sequelae of the reversal of Roe v. Wade (legalising abortion in the USA) are still playing out today. The Supreme Court was thought of as a body helping to keep other arms of government in check or balance with each other but in recent times it has become massively politicised. The Republican controlled Senate refused to conduct any hearings into Supreme Court nominees made by Barak Obama if these were of a ‘liberal’ disposition. This paved the way for Donald Trump to propose and have accepted three conservative justices and the Supreme Court is now acting as practically another agency of government. Having overturned Roe v Wade, they now have their sights on abolishing free advice on contraception, single sex marriages and gay rights in their desire to turn the clock back some 50 years. Nedless to say, the whole of American society is deeply polarised by these culture wars that could go on for decades.
Today being a Sunday, I got up a tad early and had a quick breakfast of one those little porridge packets that gives you an instant breakfast of porridge in about 2 minutes. Then it was back in time to give Meg and I a little more cereal whilst we were watching the Sunday Morning (politics) programme. I do not know if the Sky News and BBC studios are very close to each other but they have Brandon Lewis as a government spokesman on one channel with a plethora of bland excuses for the present government’s performance only to see him a few minutes later on the other channel. Meg and I took the car down to the park and soon made contact with two of our regular park ‘mates’ – Seasoned World Traveller to be followed shortly by our friend from the University of Birmingham. We entered into a long and detailed discussion as to what chain of events would lead to the resignation of the Prime Minister and what actual mechanisms would be used if he literally refused to leave office (there are hints here, of course, of Donald Trump and the White House). Then we started to discuss the Roe v Wade reversal in the US Supreme Court and this led to a much more detailed discussion of the rights of women, of unborn children, where the line should be drawn between abortion and the preservation of life and so on. Evidently, there was no fixed or final conclusion to all of this but the discussion was intense and non-acrimonious.
After we had got home, we lunched on some beef that had been cooking in the slow cooker in our absence and then settled down to a nice long read of the Sunday newspapers. Knowing that we were going to be out this evening, listened to the Test Match on Radio 5 Live Special and England were making a good fist of chasing a total of nearly 300 runs. They finished off the day with 113 runs yet to score and 8 wickets in hand so that ought to be a straighforward task tomorrow, provided they keep their heads. At 7.00pm we set off in the car for the concert which is going to be held in St. John’s Anglican Church, one of the largest performance spaces in Bromsgrove. Most of the programme is of particular significance, one way or another. Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto was one item which was particularly well played and it always scores highly in our list of emotionallly memorable pieces because our son won his school’s music prize when playing the second movement of this piece. I first heard it when I was in bed suffering from ‘Asian ‘flu’ in 1957 and, at one stage, I think about 60% of the class were ill with it. My dormitory master who was also my art and music teacher smuggled a record player into our bedroom so that we could listen to it for the first time. Another piece was Beethoven’s 6th (the Pastoral Symphony) which again I remember well because it helped to get me through a dark patch when I was a teenager and suffering an illness. The concert was provided ‘free’ but of course most people dropped some money into a collection as you would have paid for a concert performance anyway. After a break for a glass of wine half way through the performance, there was quite a novel ending. The final piece was to be the the Halleluja chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Almost as a piece of fun to round off the evening, copies of the score were handed round and then you had to self-allocate yourself to one of the four parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and sing along accordingly. Those who knew the score were encouraged to stand up and to ‘belt it out’ – fortunately for me, there were some very powerful singers who had evidently sung the score several times before standing in the row behind us, so it was quite easy to follow their cue and thus to participate. For a scratch orchestra, the standard of playing was surprising high and the clarinetist was very accomplished. It reminded Meg and I of the famous Jack Brymar who we heard play this concerto in the little jewel of a Georgian theatre in Bath probably some 35 years ago now.
The political fallout from Roe v Wade is still continuing in the USA. I heard one pro-life activist justifying the use of guns as instruments that save lives in the same way that banning abortion saves the lives of unborn children. One could argue that more lives are lost than saved in the American love affair with the gun and that botched abortions kill people also but these inconsistencies are lost on the absolutely committed. Jo Biden and the rest of his administration are seeking ways in which the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision may be minimised – we may yet see federal administrators attempting to cock a snook at the ban on abortions but this culture war may continue for decades.
Today we knew that we needed to make a trip along Bromsgrove High Street because we knew that we had to visit an ATM and we also needed to visit a local stationers where I had an item on order. Having picked up our newspaper, we then treked along the High Street and picked up some cash. Then we picked up the blank ledger book I had pre-ordered from Rymans and also bought some cosmetic items of which we were running short. We took the opportunity to dive into a charity shop and I treated myself to a brand new long sheeved shirt of quite a subtle blue shade (and a very good make). I am finding that my supply of pre-Covid long sheeved shirts are now getting frayed around the collar and cuffs so I find I am needing to renew my supply. The we went off to the park and drank our much delayed coffee for which we were gasping by the time we were installed upon our bench. In the park, we met some of our regulars – Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker for a start and Seasond World Traveller just as we were leaving. In between, we also exchanged news with a couple we meet quite regularly in the park but we have only just around to exchanging names so that we can be on first name terms with them in the future. It was getting towards 2.00pm when we got home so we needed to make a super prompt lunch, which we did. I steamed some Hispi cabbge in the microwave and in order to save some time, we made some instant mashed potato with ‘Smash’ to which we added a smidgeon of boiling water, some butter and an egg.This actually makes for a very tasy mixture to complement the remains of the beef which we slow-cooked yesterday.
After lunch there were a couple of outside jobs which went quite smoothly. Th first of these was our outside washing line that had drooped over the years but when I investigated one end of it, it passed through a type of ‘O’ ring and then secured by a cleat. Fortunately, it proved to be very easy to adjust to the right height afer which the washing line was cleaned down and we got a supply of towels pegged out onto it. In my travels up an down to the paper shop there is a little patch of waste ground and I had noticed for some weeks past that there seemed to be a capping stone lying around with no evident owner. When I collected my Sunday newspapers, I liberated this and brought it home in a plastic bag but I must say it was tremendously heavy. I suspect on closer examination that it may have been made with vibrated granite but it was certainly not simple cement. This afternoon, I gave it up a good scrub in a bucket of soapy water and it is now several shades lighter and of quite presentable appearance. I have pressed it into service to act as a weight so that the green plastic table cover we have on our patio table does not take off in the wind and I think it will serve this purpose very well. I estimate that it must be about 3kg in weight so I am sure it is not going to displaced very easily.
In the late afernoon, I FaceTimed my sister in Yorkshire and was fortunate to have a few snatches of conversation with my niece who just happened to be calling upon her mother. My sister is taking the death of her husband quite hard and I offered what words of consolation I could. The purpose of my video-call was to see if we could establish the most suitable time in the next few weeks for us to pay a visit to Yorkshire, now that we have seen Meg’s Uncle Ken in North Wales. We have agreed a timeslot some time in late July which is a period of time after my niece has broken up from school and before she goes off on holiday to Portugal. There are a range of hotels that we can think sbout – we used to enjoy B&B’s in Harrogate but parking in Harrogate is a bit of a nightmare and so hotels do have the advantages of generally having some car parking space available.
Tonight news has come through of the shelling of a shopping centre in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. The shopping centre probably had about one thousand people within it and the dead and injured must be numbered in scores. Western analysts are saying that the Russians were probably using out-of-date artillery designed to combat ships rather than being ‘precision guided’ to a military target on land and these 1960’s artillery shells are notoriously unreliable. Nonetheless, one has to ask whether hitting a civilian shopping centre, even if aiming for the industrial centre beyond it, must surely constitute a war crime.
Today we enjoyed our Tuesday morning routine which is to make a journey to the Waitrose coffee bar, knowing that some familar old faces will be in evidence. As we suspected, three or four of our ‘pre-pandemic’ regulars were taking their coffee as usual as well as Seasoned World Traveller who seems to make a point of coming to Waitrose on a Tuesday. I wouldn’t say that we were a noisy crowd but we are a little on the excitable side. During the morning, several of the regular staff popped their heads around the corner to say ‘Hello’ to us all and I am now wondering if they rather like the whole of the previous gang coming back as it helps to justify and sustain the coffee bar enterprise as a whole. As it is getting towards the end of my normal ‘shopping’ week, I rather welcome the opportunity of popping round the shelves to pick up some things of which I know we are short. In common with other supermarkets, Waitrose is having to reorganise itself to comply with the new HFSS regulations (‘High in Fats, Sugar and Salt’). These regulations are designed to ensure that HFSS goods receive less prominence and should be denoted from positions at the end of aisles and near to the checkouts. For smaller stores, like our Waitrose, this means considerable reorganisation throughout most of the store, and the practical consequence of this is that many familiar items now have to be hunted for and the overhead aisle signs are no longer accurate. So this meant that I needed to hunt considerably for a few staple items such as tea which is no longer where I thought it was. After our jolly discussions, it was time to get home and start preparing for my Pilates session in the middle of the day, As rain still threatened, I thought it wiser to walk down into town wearing a waterproof in case the heavans opened.
In my Pilates class, our instructor kept us amused as we all tried to balance on one leg for a minimum of 10 seconds. A very important study had been published in ‘The Times‘ which shows that if you cannot sustain a flamingo type pose on either of your feet for 10 seconds, then you are at almost twice the risk of dying within the next ten years. Even more dramatically, those who could stand on one leg with their eyes closed were most likely to be well in 13 years time (the study being performed upon people in their 50s). Those who managed only about 2 seconds were three times more likely to die before the age of 66. Now none of this is absolutely ‘new’ knowledge in that the relationship between balance and the aging process has been used by physicians for a long time. For example, it is well known to GPs that an 18-year can stand on one leg with their eyes close for at least 30 seconds whereas for a 90 year old it is likely to be 2 seconds. The point about eyes being closed is that one’s balance without input from the eyes to adjust the balance means that one had to rely upon very primitive parts of the brain’s structure to maintain balance and this ability deteriorates wiith age, even amongst athletes. Having recovered the article from our vertical filing system (the ‘green’ waste bin for papers and plastics that we keep outside out back door), the article is well worth a detailed study. But there is some room for hope because there is evidence that balance work for just a few seconds a day can bring health dividends for us all.
Tomorrow all being well we should have our super fast fibre broadband installed. This should have been done about ten days ago but tomorrow is the day of reckoning. I am just hoping that once we have a new router installed, that access to the internet is trouble free for us because over the years – from email to banking – we have all become accustomed to life with the net for all of our daily living activities.
Today is the day when Gislaine Maxwell is to be sentenced after her conviction but there seems to be quite a lot of courtroom darama to be played out so I imagine that the sentencing process will take hours. It is always a rather gruesome part of American style court proceedings that prisoners appear shackled in chains – as though escape were at all likely. I am sure that this is a part of the humiliation process and although I am not a lover of things American, I would surely like to see some of our bankers and other high profile criminals to appear at the Old Bailey chained around their hands and feet. In the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the sentencing may well appear to be academic. Maxwell’s lawyers are suggesting a 4-5 year sentence whilst Government prosecutors are pushing for Maxwell to be sentenced to anything between 30-55 years. In the event, she was sentenced to twenty years.
If this blog has been delayed, it is because we had our super fibre cable installed this afternoon and, guess what, but I am now left without internet access. The installer told me to get onto my Internet provider to supply a router and when I got through to them, I was told that we were scheduled for delivery of a router but it might take anything up to five working days to arrive through the post. In the meanwhile, we were told that our ‘normal’ broadband would function as normal but of course it does not. Hence I am writing a text version of this blog which will be transferred into WordPress as soon as (or if) I get internet access back again. Thinking that the installer was due this morning, Meg and I delayed our walk down into the park but when I checked my notes, I discovered that the installation was scheduled for between 1.00pm and 6.00pm and in the event, the installer turned up just after 1.00pm and was with us for about an an hour and a half. The new cable had to be dragged from the GPO access point near the street and then we needed a hole drilling in the wall so that the necessary gubbins could be fixed internally and externally. Quite a neat and tidy job was done and now we await our router. I begged the long length of thick string that had been used to drag the cable from its access point and as this would just have been thrown away anyway, I thought I could make use of it to tie up some errant rose bushes.
This morning, Meg and I went by car to the park. It was a beautiful day and well worthy of a walk but we had been a bit delayed waiting around for the BT installer to call around this morning before we realised it was actually this afternoon. In the park, we met with our Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was making progress, according to the ‘app’ on this phone, somewhere in Japan. He had managed about 8,000 of the 12,000 steps he had scheduled for the day and after a chat with us was soon on his way for another circuit of the park. So we progressed back home, knowing that we would have to have a fairly early lunch so we could devote some time if needed to the installer this afternoon. After he had left, we decided that it would be quite a good idea to immediately make use of some of the thick string we had been given and the first priority was to get it around a tall and straggling standard rose. This was not an easy job as the branches were somewhat straggly and the thorns incredibly sharp but I got several lengths wrapped around its torso so that when the high winds and rain come along, its overall shape will be preserved. Thursday is the day when each fortnight our paper bin and our garden waste get emptied. Accordingly, every other Wednesday is a good opportunity to get rid of some of the holly leaves that get swept off the path each day into an adjacent gully. Once this was done, I pulled our own bins into their collection point and then did the same for our immediate neighbours and also for the vacant bungalow across the communal green area.
When our friend came to stay last week, she gave us a pot of winter flowering jasmine which ought to give is a splash of colour in the autumn and early winter when the rest of the garden might be looking a little bare. So I managed to replant this plant in a pot with some good compost and then put it into position at the edge of a bed such that it can use a drainpipe for some support although I do not know if it is a very ‘clingy’ plant. But it was good to see that the mature sweet pea plant that I planted the other day and kept well watered was now starting to flower so I hope that if we keep this well tended, it will keep on flowering right throughout the summer.
A day or so ago, I FaceTimed my sister in Yorkshire and had a chat with her and with one of my nieces who happened to be calling by. I established a time in late July when we might make a flying visit up to Yorkshire and the last week in July seems to be quite a good time for all of us. So later, I had a trawl through the internet and the hotel in the centre of Harrogate in which we stayed last autumn was offering quite a decent rate. I made sure that the room offer included breakfast and then got an even better rate by aceepting the offer to book in through an agency I have used before. So we have booked into this hotel for three nights in late July and are looking forward tremendously to our visit in about a month’s time.
I always suspected that today might be a fraught day and so it proved. First of all, I got onto my internet provider to ask why my BT line had been disconnected after the super fibre cable was installed yesterday, Ominously, I had received a terse one line email which I read on my iphone to tell me my BT service had been cancelled. My internet provider said it was nothing to do with them so contact BT. This I did on about three or four separate occasions because each time I was out on hold the line seemed to go dead. To add to my frustrations, every time I was handed from one department to another (which happened frequently) I had to go through the procedures of validating who I was with a clutch of security questions. Eventually, I was told that the number I have had for nearly 15 years has been cancelled as of yesterday and cannot be retrieved. Eventually, I asked to speak to the operative’s manager who happened to be a lot more sympathetic. She indicated that something had gone badly wrong in the whole transaction beween the internet provider and BT and she would attempt to sort it out for me but it should take some time. She arranged to phone back at 3.00pm but no call came but eventually it transpired she was in a meeting so her manager had tried to take over the case. In the meantime, BT asked me to get onto my internet provider to find out what had happened. It seems that the information I was given – that I could take out a fibre plus contract and keep my BT landline was incorrect and I should never have been told this in the first place. Eventually, I landed up speaking to someone in the Contracts department who confirmed that I had been given the wrong information and I could therefore leave the contract with no penalty (or so they are saying at the moment) Eventually, I put to the manager’s manager in BT that the situation could be resolved if both broadband and the phone line could be moved onto in its entirety to BT. We are working on this as a viable option, we think, but BT are having to check whether the number taken away from me can be retrieved (even though I was told that it could not be) and for a contract price which is in the same ballpark as I am paying at the moment. We are having to wait until tomorrow to see what the final situation might be but there is an acknowledgement that the whole thing has been handled badly with mis-communication and wrong information supplied. In the next day or so a router will arrive from my present internet supplier which will have to be sent back and I will then have to wait for a BT router to be delivered and then installed. I have a feeling that this whole episode might go on for days yet but there is a glimmer of resolution – tomorrow we shall see. Altogether I was on the phone for about 2 and a half hours, constantly kept on hold, tarnsferred from department to department, told that it was a complicated case and so on and so forth. My feeling is that if everything in with one supplier (BT) this might be avoided in the future – but there is still an element of doubt whether my discontinued number can be retrieved. As is happens, there is a programme on Channel 5 tonight detailing how terrible cutomer service is in the UK these days with massive ‘holding’ waits whilst a few over-whelmed staff try to deal with thousands of disgruntled customers – but I cannot bring myslf to watch it, being right in the middle of it so to speak.
After lunch we had our hairdresser turn up to give Meg a perm and a regular haircut for myself.I was telling our hairdresser my tale of woe and she told me of a similar one where she is trying to open a bank account for her mother but is having to turn up (early in her own business hours) only to make an appointment for another time in the working day (when she will lose income if she attends) I wonder how businesses are going practically bankrupt because the companies with which they have to deal (banks, utility companies) are giving them such a run around and not solving problems when the businesses themselves are trying to make a living. We might see, of course, say welcome to post-pandemic UK where I am sure these sorts of sorry stories can be multiplied.
More sequelae from the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US Supreme Court last week. In Kentucky and in Florida, judges have been petitioned and have at least temporarily put a halt to the automatic ban on abortions that Kentucky and Florida were due to impose. This may well happen across the country as many civil rights groups are petitioning their own state legislatures across the country. What an unholy mess!
Well, today is a ‘White rabbits! White rabbits! White rabbits!’ day being the 1st of the month. But Meg and I had a special treat lined up for ourselves today as we had promised our domestic help that we would have a jolly day out enjoying ourselves in Alcester, which is a pretty little Georgian town not too far from us here. Meg and I have been there about three times before and there are two particular attractions to the town. The first of these is that there are about six or seven really high quality charity shops up and down the High Street and we a share a weakness with our domestic help of loving to browse for clothes, bric-a-brac and whatever other bargains seem to be going. Secondly, there is a very old coaching inn with parking just outside which does the most magnificent home cooked lasagnes and other similar meals which it makes available in the middle of the day at ‘pensioner’ prices which cannot be much more than cost price. So we set off for there mid-morning and after collecting our newspapers, we got there in good time and treated ourselves to a super coffee and stem ginger cookies at a venue along the High Street. Then it was time to get our shopping done in earnest. We bought Meg quite a stunning dress whilst our domestic help bought herself a decanter and glasses set. I treated myself to a lightweight outdoor rainwear jacket which will go nicely over my leather jacket if I happen to get caught outside in a shower, as well as a little case for a laptop which will be marvellous for the occasions when we go away and we need to take our MacBook with us. By now, it was lunchtime so we did go off to our restaurant down the road and, true to form, we did have some magnificent lasagne and a crunchy salad which filled us up so much that we had no room for the delicious sweets they were throwing in for a couple of pounds extra. Then it was off to another charity shop or so and then we popped to a shop at the end of the High Street who always has a magnificent display of pot plants to buy and, once again, our domestic help had to have some of her favourites. A slightly disconcerting thing is that all during the day I have had my phone next to to me expecting to get a call from a BT manager somewhere in the country to resolve my comms problems from yesterday and, of course, the phone call never came. So eventually we got home having had a really enjoyable ‘day out’
During the course of the day, some political news has been developing. The Deputy Chief Whip of the Tory party, one Chris Pincher, resigned last night from his post as Deputy Chief Whip after a drunken spree at the Carlton Club (hangout of many Tory MPs). Wikipedia tells us that the Carlton Club is a private members’ club in St James’s, London. It was the original home of the Conservative Party before the creation of Conservative Central Office. Membership of the club is by nomination and election only. In the drunken spree,Chris Pincher had groped two other men. The reaction from No. 10 and Downing Street was to accept the resignation and let the matter rest there, which of course it did not. After several MPs, both Tory and Labour, had complained to Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance body, then eventually the whip was withdrawn from Chris Pincher so that he is, in effect, no longer a Tory MP. Some Tory MPs fear the Pincher fiasco could be more damaging than partygate for Boris Johnson – confirming, critics claim, his blind devotion to mates, terrible judgement and lack of ethics. Of course, the loyalty is due to the fact that Chris Pincher had helped to secure Boris Johnson’s election and subsequent survival of the vote against him but has has the effect of making a sleaze-ridden party appear even more sleaze-ridden. It may be the case that Pincher is forced to resign as an MP – after all, a fellow MP was forced to resign for watching porn and surely groping two other men in a drunken spree must outrank this in terms of severity. That would mean in the fullness of time yet another by-election which the Tories would find hard to win under the circumstances but we shall have to see how the story unfolds in the days ahead. The finger is still pointing firmly towards Boris Johnson, though, as Pincher has had accusations of inappropriate sexual contact before, which he managed to brush off. So Johnson reappointed him as Deputy Chief Whip knowing that this MP had ‘form’ as it were, so it points to an incredible lack of judgement on Johnson’s part.
After the wonderful day out we had yesterday, today was the day when we had to try to reestablish our comms networks. I started by getting through to the technical support of BT which happened to be an engineer working from his own home in Sheffield. He was extremely painstaking and was seeking to establish a full ‘log’ of the sequence of calls and actions promised two days earlier. He was very painstaking and methodical and promised that if he had to put me on hold, then he would monitor this so that if the line dropped, he could call me back on my mobile. I must have been on the phone to him for a good half hour after which I got transferred to a team which concentrates on re-connections. I had to go through the full procedures of setting up a brand new package with BT and a new telephone number will be allocated to me. When this happens, they may be able to port my old number back to me again but it was explained to me that this might not be possible and it was difficult to do. Nonetheless, I took the view that if broadband and telephone line were all with BT then this might be possible than if I had gone off with another provider. We are going to have four new handsets andd a new router – the big downside to all of this is that nothing is going to happen until Monday, July 18th i.e. a wait of 16 days without the internet ‘proper’, email or a phone. But in the meantime, I am relying upon my iPhone and ‘hotspotting’ to the internet using this phone and so far this seems to work OK. If it transpires that my old phone number is dead and gone and cannot be retrieved, then despite the fact that I had recently renewed all of my business cards and address labels, then I might have to do the same all over again and friends/relatives some of whom are not IT savvy will only have an out-of-date telephone number (communicated on our Christmas cards amongst other things).
Meg and I were delayed in our walk to the park this morning so we picked up our newspaper and headed for the park. As it was spotting with rain, none of our friends were there so we did a tour of the pond and then came back home so we could drink our coffee in the comfort of our own home instead of sitting on a rainy park bench. Then we lunched on some salmon pan-grilled and served on a bed of lettuce and had a restful afternoon, reading the Saturday newspapers. In the late afternoon, it was time to go along to our normal church service. Today happened to be the feast day of St. Peter and as the church we attend is ‘St. Peters’ it was a type of saints day for the church as well. Accordingly we had a few extra ceremonies around the statue of St. Peter which adorns the back of church but we generally shuffle past on our way into and out of the church. In a couple of weeks time, the church is going to be the home of a ‘Bite-Size Classics’ concert which is a part of the Bromsgrove yearly carnival type activities. The concert is free but donations are to be solicited to be donated to Ukraine refugees and I have no doubt that this will be generously supported. I suspect that some of the curious elderly population of Bromsgrove who have never seen the inside of a Catholic Church will no doubt come along if only out of a sense of curiosity. Apart from Edward Elgar probably having played the organ in the church (when it was still playable), the church is also noted as housing the grave of Tolkien’s mother. We happen to know where this is located because when our Christmas wreath is taken down (on 12th night) we have in the past put on this grave rather than throwing awy the wreath entirely.
Little fragments of news have emerged from the Ukrainian conflict. The first is that that the Russians have lost one of their own landing craft when it was blown up by a (Russian laid) sea mine.The other fragment of news is that Ukraine has found a hard drive containing some 100 GB of Russian military data, according to the State Border Service. This mainly contains staff lists and some biographical data as well as some details of military hardware.‘Ukrainian law enforcement officers now have photos, characteristics, copies of passports, and other documents of the invaders’ the Ukrainian State Border Service has indicated. The local political news is that Chris Pincher, the Tory Deputy Chief Whip now notorious for a drunken groping of two males in the Carlton Club is now seeking ‘professional medical support’ presumably for alcoholism rather than his sex-pest activities.
So a Sunday morning has dawned again which means that I get up fairly early and then make my own way into town to pick up an early copy of our Sunday newspaper. Then the Sunday morning routine takes over which is breakfast of cereal munched during the Sunday morning (politics) show, hosted by Sophie Raworth. The questioning of a government minister about whether Boris Johnson knew of the proclivities of Chris Pincher led to the following statement : ‘To the best of knowledge, the Prime Minister was not aware of any specific allegations’. Of course, the interviewer should have then followed with the question ‘Were you aware then of any general, if not specific, allegations?’ but failed to do so. As Chris Pincher had a reputation as a sex pest and even Boris Johnson had said of him ‘Pincher ny name, pincher by nature’ (not denied by No. 10) then it beggars belief that Boris Johnson did not know or did not care about the reputation of the man who he appointed as the Deputy Chief Whip. When the government minister called upon to defend Boris Johnson was asked how she knew that the Prime Minister had no knowledge of Chris Pincher’s reputation, she indicated that the source of her information was the No. 10 Press Office which is hardly the most reliable or objective of sources. One does get the feeling that eventually this MP will be thrown to the dogs and another by election will be forced upon the government, even though they are fighting tooth and nail to prevent it.
After we had some breakfast, Meg and I consulted the ‘Weather’ app on our phone to try to work out whether to take a walk or go by car if rain was threatened. In the event, we went by car which proved to be a judicious decision. After we had had our coffee, we were joined by Seasoned World Traveller but we did not have too long to chat because the sky darkened and we started to get rained upon. Accordingly, we walked briskly to our car and then got home to have an early lunch. We had a ‘spatchcocked’ chicken cooking away in the oven and it was just nicely done by the time we got home. We prepared the vegetables of a baked potato and some Savoy cabbage and then we found that one breast was easily enough for one meal. So we have at least two more meals of this chicken ( a breast and two legs), with the remains bagged up and ready for consumption later in the week.
After lunch, we studied the sky and then our weather app to see if we get the weekly lawn mowing fitted in this afternoon. Fortunately, the weather brightened a little and so I got the lawns cut only a day behind the normal schedule. It must be the time of the year and the combination of both rain and sun but the clover, both white and purple, seems to have gone mad on our communal grassed area but the mowing regime seemed to at least keep this under control. It seems that we may be having a few days of hot weather in the week ahead so this is a cue for me to get some much needed gully and border clearing done whilst I can.
I have started to think ahead a little of the trips and ‘staycations’ that we might have during the summer. The more I think I think about the hotel room we have booked at a four star in central Harrogate later in the month, the more convinced I am that with breakfast included we have got an incredibly good deal. It is my sister’s birthday in late August and as it is her 80th, we may well plan a further trip to the same hotel in August so I can treat my sister to some birthday celebrations. A very good friend of ours now lives near Scarborough and we may well make some plan to meet halfway, perhaps in York, where we can travel easily by train from Harrogate. We will probably be able to find a restaurant appropriate to our needs in the vicinity of the station so I think we shall try and get some arrangements made.
Now for a final political story. The Tories have promised that we shall have 40 ‘new’ hospitals by 2030 but the National Audit Office are going to investigate this claim as part of a ‘value for money’ initiative. It transpires that a ‘new’ hospital is so called whenever a hospital upgrades some of its facilities such as they do regularly in any case. Ministers and the health department have been instructed to refer to refurbishments or the construction of new facilities at existing hospitals as ‘new hospitals’. So the claim of 40 new hospitals is misleading in the extreme as we might expect from this government by now and won’t be delivered in any case.
Today being a Tuesday is the day when we both meet with our ‘pre-pandemic’ crowd in the Waitrose cafe and also the day, later on, when I have my weekly Pilates session. Knowing that however fine the weather, we were still going to go down by car we did not rush unduly to get going this morning but we did take the opportunity to write an email to our friends in Scarborough to enquire whether we could put some arrangements in place to meet later on in August. Then we went down into town to collect our newspaper and arrive in the cafe at at about 10.30. There, almost on cue, we met with three of our regular Waitrose friends and also Seasoned World Traveller who we now often meet in the cafe on Tuesday. We had a particularly jolly morning this morning with another round of story telling and general good humour before we all went our separate ways. On Tuesdays, I take the opportunity to buy one or two things of which we are running short before we returned home and I got ready to go down for my Pilates class. I returned a telephone call to one of my Oxfordshire friends to arrange a luncheon date some time in early August. We have both been busy in the last week, he with his daughter getting married in a marquee in the garden last Saturday and myself with our well documented comms difficulties.
After lunch which is always a bit delayed on Tuesdays, we had a restful afternoon whilst observing, open-mouthed, the wriggling and squirming that is going in No. 10 at the heart of our government today. Things did not start well for the government this morning as Lord MacDonald, the previous senior mandarin at the Foreign Office revealed that the Prime Minister had been briefed in person of the fact that Chris Pincher had been warned about his activities (probably his groping tendencies) and he had not been exonerated. This put 10 Downing Street into a quandary as ministers had hit the airwaves in the last day or so having been informed (wrongly) that no specific allegations against Chris Pincher had been made. A Cabinet Office minister was then despatched to the House of Common to admit that Boris Johnson had been informed but that he could not ‘immediately recall this’. The Tory benches in the House of Commons were practically empty to receive this news but on the Labour benches, the news that the Prime Minister had had a convenient lapse of memory met with laughter from some, gasps of disbelief from others. In all of the years that I have been following politics, I cannot remember an excuse as lame as the equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework’ Because of all of this, I wonder what other developments may occur this evening as several Cabinet Ministers are unhappy in the extreme that some of them have been sent onto the airwaves to in effect lie for the government. The backbenchers are similarly unhappy and one suggestion that has emerged is that Tory MPs may well go ‘on strike’ i.e. refuse to turn up to vote through legislation, effectively making the business of government grind to a halt. So I am looking forward in particular to ‘Newsnight’ this evening as well as Channel 4 news that are both likely to be quite forensic in their examination of how the No. 10 machine is operating (or rather not operating) Tomorrow is going to be Prime Ministers Question time at 12.00, followed I believe, quite by coincidence, to a session where the Prime Minister submits itself to an examination of the government’s progress by senior MPs (a liaison committee which I think is composed of the chairpersons of Parliament’s Select Committees) So I think that Boris Johnson’s lapse of memory is going to come under the most intense examination, if not direct scorn, with members of the House of Commons.
Sporting events, and Wimbledon in particular, are dominating the airwaves for the next few days but toniht Meg and I are going to enjoy ‘Today at the Test’ in which we can see the summary of one of the greatest run chases in Test Match history, in which England chased down an incredibly large total (of about 380 odd runs) to win the test match, and the series, against India who are one of the finest teams in the world. We have had a dramatic end to the day today. Boris Johnson gave an interview apologising for the fact that Chris Pincher had ever been ppointed and almost implying he should have been sacked on the spot. At the conclusuon of the interview, Sajiv Javid (Health Secretary) and Rishi Sunak (Chancellor) have both resigned and at two least junior ministers have resigned as well. The big question is how many more ministers will follow the two resignations from the Cabinet tonight although a few Cabinet members have sworm undying loyalty (although their days as Cabinet Ministers must be numbered) By the time we go to bed tonight at 10.00pm there may be even more resignations.
We always knew that today was to be quite an extraordinary day in the political life of the nation, but more of that later. Today is the day when our domestic help calls around to do her bit and, as always, we always have a chat about holidays and the like. Our domestic help is going on holiday next week so we were coordinating plans for when we see her in a couple of week’s time. In the meanwhile, Meg and I made sure that we could walk down to the park and get back in plenty of time for Prime Minister’s Questions. It was a fine day but a little cloudy overall which made the atmosphere feel somewhat muggy but we wandered down, bumped into some acquaintances in the park and then walked back in plenty of time for parliamentary proceedings at 12.00pm. PMQ as it is is popularly known was quite an event to behold. To be sure, there were rows and rows of Tory MPs sitting in their place but they were generally stony faced. Boris Johnson as you might expect was full of his usual bluster which often ‘cuts it’ with his parliamentary party but not today. In fact, one could say that each evasion or inability to answer pointed questions got more and more damning. Keir Starmer put on a pretty devasting performance and although they were well rehearsed, there were one or two noteworthy attack lines. One of these was ‘the first recorded case of the sinking ship fleeing the the rats’ Another attack line that must have struck home was addressed to members of the cabinet who had not resigned with the line ‘what a z-list of nodding dogs’. At the end of PMQ Sajiv Javid who resigned yesterday as Health Secretary is allowed a personal statement – by convention, this is is listened to in silence i.e. without any interventions from other MPs. The attack was quite devastating although with the emotion of the moment, one or two lines were fluffed. But the adjective used most often was ‘excoriating’ and the thing that seemed to have driven Sajiv Javid to resign was the way in which ministerial colleagues had been sent out to lie, lie, and lie again about what the Prime Minister knew. The initial statements from No. 10 was that Boris Johnson had no knowledge of the Chris Pincher sexual antics but this story kept and changing and changing again until eventually Boris Johnson said that he could not remember that he had been informed of these! MP’s streamed out of the House of Commons and, in the meanwhile, the media such as Sky News were keeping a running tally of the number of ministers from the junior ranks had resigned.
At this point, we had a lightning lunch and then I shot into my local supermarket to do my weekly shopping. This is because my son and I have a joint appointment with our financial advisor tomorrow which rather gets in the way of our normal Thursday morning shop. So I raced around the supermarket and was fortunate enough to get all of the shopping done and unpacked before Meg and I sat down to watch the Liasion committee of the House of Commons. This is a very powerful committee in the House of Commons and is formed of the chairpersons of all of the select committees. The House of Commons invites the Prime Minister to attend this committee once or twice a year and it must tax even the most agile of Prime Ministers who have a superb grasp of detail. Now it is well known that Boris Johnson has never had a good grasp of detail and it was very evident this afternoon as he flailed around like a drowning man clutching at straws. All the while, Sky News was running a total of the number of resignations which had reached 38 by the end of the two hour session. Towards the end of the session, he was informed by one of the members of the committe that a delegation of MPs including the chief whip,the new Chancellor of the Exchequeur (only appointed last night) and the Transport secretary had formed a delegation of cabinet members to be joined by several others who were going to tell Boris Johnson that the game was up.
Channel 4 News has extended its coverage by an extra half hour tonight and the media are camping outside Downing Street and inside the Parliamentary lobby of the House of Commons itself scenting that a Prime Minsiterial resignation might be near, even this evning. If Boris Johnson does not go, then the 1922 committee have agreed to accelerate the elections to its executive committee next Monday. They will then change the rules to allow another vote on the PMs future and this might take place as early as next Tuesday or Wednesday. Given the number of ministerial resignations, it is mathematically almost impossible for Boris Johnson to survive that vote but it is possible that the cabinet have persuaded Boris Johnson to quit before then.
It seemed inevitable like a Greek drama that today was going to be a day of great political drama and so it proved. As the number of junior ministerial resignations started to mount and reach a figure of about 35, it was evident that on the mathematics alone, there was no way that Boris Johnson could survive another leadership contest. At about 10.00pm last night, the news came through that Michael Gove, the ‘Levelling Up’ minister and a cabinet big-hitter had been sacked over the phone. The animosity between Johnson and Gove goes back over the years but this was perceived to be an act of sheer vindictiveness and did not go down at all well with Conservative MPs. As soon as my radio switched on at 6.30am, the junior ministerial resignations continued to rise and some more cabinet ministers had also withdrawn their support. It must have been evident to practically everybody, apart from the PM himself that he was doomed. I wonder, though, what was the influence of Carrie Johnson, Boris Johnson’s wife? Those who follow politics closely will know that it was Denis Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher’s husband who sat down on a sofa and gave a glass of whisky to his wife and said ‘Come on, Maggie – you must know the game is up’ Why the story is interesting is because Denis Thatcher liked to cultivate the image of a rather bumbling, gin-soaked, golf-club bore – hence the columns in ‘Private Eye’ under the title of ‘Dear Bill’. But actually, Denis Thatcher was no fool and had quite a sharp political brain. So I am speculating whether it is political spouses who give the final push at the tipping point. I think the news came through just after 9.00am that Boris Johnson had decided to bow to the inevitable and to resign as leader of the Conservative party whilst remaining as Prime Minister until a new leader is in place. However, this itself is massively problematic. One the one hand, we have to have some sort of more or less stable government in place so that crucial decisions can take place – not least because of the cost of living crisis and soaring inflation levels. On the other hand, the opposition parties and many in the Tory party feel that a discredited Prime Minister who has lost the confidence of his cabinet and parliamentary party does not deserve to be in office for a moment longer than is necessary. The solution may lie in the hands of the 1922 Committee of back bench Tory MPs who may decide early next week to rapidly accelerate the procedures for selecting a new leader so that the ‘runners and riders’ (of which there are many) can be reduced to the two front runners as soon as possible. When the field has been whittled down to two, the decision is then put to Conservative party members in the country and this is how the final decision is made. At this stage, though, there is likely to be one candidate who is a clear front runner as was the case in the run off between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt at the time of the last contest.
My son and I had an appointment with a financial advisor this morning, which was necessary to tidy up some details on a mortgage on my son’s property. The meeting proved to be very satisfactory and has the advantage that the location of the firm of financial advisors is easily accessible for us as well as having a very good reputation. Whilst we were there, the news of Boris Johnson’s resignation came through on our mobiles so when I returned home, I followed the breaking news on the news media and, in particular, the resignation speech which came a tad after 12.30. To my mind, this was quite an extraordinary speech with Johnson seeming to blame everyone but himself and with not a hint of contrition about it. In one memorable phrase, he indicated that ‘when the herd instinct takes over, the herd moves off’ which if you were to decode it is very insulting to the rest of the parliamentary party. The social historian Anthony Selsdon was interviewed and opined that Johnson would come to rue the day when, as the history books are written, it has become evident that Johnson has no capacity for self-reflection or indication that he may have made mistakes or even crass errors of judgement. Meg and I decided to treat ourselves to a Waitrose coffee but once we were safely parked in the carpark, we were approached for a soundbite by a reporter from BBC Hereford and Worcester for a soundbite about the Johnson resignation. On the spur of the moment, I mentioned my delight at Johnson’s resignation, and when pressed for reasons mentioned his constant lies, his desregard for any of the constitutional proprietaries and the total disregard for any norms of ethical conduct. The reporter mentioned to us that our little soundbite might be broadcast between 4.10-4.20 and although we are not regular listeners to Radio Hereford and Worcester, our soundbite was included as part of a collage of responses from members of the public in Bromsgrove. After lunch, Meg and I were glued to the TV to watch the sequelae of the Johnson resignation as the various manifesttions and reactions were gathered from interviews in Downing Street and in the lobby of the House of Commons.
The day dawned bright and beautiful with a weather forecast that seemed to presage temperatures in the 80’s (I always remember that 28 degrees C is equal to 82 degrees F) I went down early to collect the newspapers today before Meg and I walked down to the park to enjoy the summer sunshine. Having drunk our coffee, we were joined by our University of Birmingham friend and then shortly afterwards by Seasoned World Traveller. Needless to say, the demise of Boris Johnson and all of the unfolding political events was a massive topic of interest to us. A point emerged in our discussions which is also reinforced by the editorial in todays Times. The point is that both political parties have in the past few years refined their leader selection procedures such that whichever candidates emerge, the final decision is left to the members of the respective political parties. Now it is a truism of the political scene in the UK that the constituency parties are well to the left of the Labour Party (in the case of Labour) and well to the right of the parliamentary party in the case of the Conservatives. So this has given rise to Corbyn and Corbynism in the case of Labour and, of course, Boris Johnson in the case of the Tories. In other words, the leadership and tenour of our political parties are being dragged towards the extremes and one has to wonder whether this is a good thing or not. One solution might be to confine the leadership canidates and campaigns solely to the partrliamentary parties but with the proviso that legitimacy should be subsequently sought by a general election to be held within a year (in the case of a governing party, which is nearly always the Conservatives) When trying to think this through, I suspect that a government which is moderate right or moderate left is likely to be more effective in effecting change for the nation and ‘good governance’ than an incredibly mish-mash of pure centrism. To reinforce this view, I read fairly recently that it is quite possible that in the American context, a Republican voter might not know a single Democrat voter in the whole of their social contacts and vice versa. Hence the situation in which 70% of Republicans do tend to believe that Trump actually won the last election (only getting their news from social media). One would hope that the British political system would try to avoid rather than imitate these American trends and we could therefore take some steps to avoid our political parties being taken over by the rabidly committed (Brexiteers, populists, hard left). All of this, of course, in the context of the current leadership context in the Tory party and is it a good thing that the normal procedures for electing a new leader may mean that the discredited Johnson stays in power until September, two months after a sound rejection by his own cabinet and his own party?
Meg and I came home and had a good meal of fried salmon on a bed of lettuce which is our ‘norm’ for a Friday. We really enjoyed though reading the acres of newsprint that were devoted to a blow-by-account of how Boris Johnson’s grip on power was gradually loosened and, of course, a lot of deep analysis about the personal flaws (i.e. extreme Narcisism) that has characterised the Johnson regime since its inception. After all, Boris Johnson’s housemaster wrote to his father words to the effect that ‘Boris does not seem to believe that he should be be bound by the rules and social obligations that apply to the rest of us‘ and nothing seems to have changed over the subsequent years.
Over the next few weeks, we are planning one day out a week to a neighbouring town and next week we thought we make for Stratford. As we are going to run into a heatwave, though, we are going to avoid the town centre altogether and then just make for a good stroll down by the river. We have been directed to a particularly good car park with the river on one side and some good restaurants on the other so we are going to make for that. The last time we went to Stratford with some friends, I remember that we were incredibly impressed by a group of strolling players who, when given a suitable quotation from Shakespeare, could immediately launch into a soliloqy from whatever play it happened to be. I suppose they had all played many parts over and over again but I found their powers of recall to be absolutely amazing. Stratford at this time of year, just before the school holidays start and before masses of foreign tourists descend upon it is probably delightful but I have bad memories of visiting the town in August with our Spanish friends when the town was teeming and all of the restaurants and bars appeared to be full. But I am sure things will be better than that when we go next week, all being well.
Today dawned as another beautiful fine day so we are, no doubt, going to enjoy a heatwave over the next few days. We did not hurry ourselves this morning but instead breakfasted on an egg and some beet juice which is our new formula for a healthy and sustaining breakfast. When we had got ourselves turned around, we went by car to collect the Saturday newspaper and then on to the park to have our elevenses. We were soon joined by Seasoned World Traveller and we continued our discussions as to the next way ahead in the Conservative party elections for leader. What is interesting about these occasions is the way in which former allies turn on each other with a vengeance. A case in point is Rishi Sunak who was quickly out of the blocks wih an extremely slick, some would say too slick, campaign video which showed evidence of some serious professional attention, not to say money behind it all. No. 10 have started attacking the candidature of Rishi Sunak – surely, it ought to be the role of No. 10 to keep their heads down and not interfere with the normal processes of the election of a successor.
As we had had a fairly early lunch, this gave me some time to get the lawns cut this afternoon. By the time I had nearly finished the big grassed area, my next door neighbour came out to have a chat. Like us, he had been having some problems getting his broadband supply sorted out. In his case, he had been struggling for hours with his supplier who was now trying to charge him an outragous price now that his initial ‘sweetener’ deal had expired. Apparently, he had been on the phone for hours trying to secure a deal which meant he did not have to change supplier and gave him more or less the servive he was getting at the moment and at a similar price. We commiserated with each other as we still have to wait a week until our own comms problems start to be sorted out and who knows what a week on Monday might bring. After that, we discussed with a certain amount of glee what had been happening with Boris Johnson having to relinquish leadership of the Tory party. Occasionally, Meg and I listen to the programme on Radio 4 called ‘Any Questions’ where members of the audience ask questions of a panel broadly representing the range of political opinion. But in today’s broadcast, the Conservative member of the panel was Rees-Mogg who was defending Boris Johnson to the hilt although the other three members were critical of him (incidentally, this probably reflects the state of opinion in the country as a whole) But the audience from Dorset completely howled down Rees-Mogg which I am sure he was not expecting from that part of the world. The BBC normally tries to get ‘balanced’ audiences and it is possible that the Liberal Democrats had managed to smuggle of lot of their own supporters into the programme. But I suspect that echelons of the Tory Party have no idea how much they are loathed in much of the country as, until recently, members of the cabinet had supported a regime of lies, lies, and lies again. Eventually, as we now know, members of the cabinet who had been briefed to go onto the airways and lie on Johnson’s behalf revolted and the rest, as they say, is history.
Next week, a concert of popular classics is going to be put on in our regular church. So instead of attending for a service ay 6.00pm we shall turn up for a concert at 3.00pm after which there will be a bunfight in the church hall and then the normal Saturday service will start at 6.00pm. Meg and I will be well prepared, having gone to a concert recently in the Bromsgrove’s largest Anglican church, so we know to take along cushions to provide a softer surface than the normal church bench on which we will be sitting for hours. I am looking forward to the coming week because having had Wimbledon dominating BBc1 and BBC2 for hours and hours most nights, I will be glad to see the back of it. In its place, we should get the Proms (Promenade Concerts) broadcast on BBC4 and BBC2 from about Friday night onwards. The Proms always puts on some newish or experimental work and I haven’t seen any advance information on this year’s offerings but we shall soon see. We haven’t coincided with our Irish friends for quite some time what with one thing or another so we may drop by and wave from outside the house to let them know that we are still alive! As always, we are looking forward to the kinds of analysis of political events provided by the Sunday Times as we are likely to get a blow-by-blow account of what eventually persuaded Boris Johnson after all of his bluster that the game was up.
As is customary on a Sunday, I got up early and treated myself to a little bowl of cereal before I collected our ration of Sunday newspapers. On my way down into town, I was greeted by a couple of our Catholic friends with whom I had not coincided for some time and I said that I would catch up with them both later, which we did. On my way down into town, I treated myself to a ration of Mozart on my trusty old iPhone and then got home to watch the Sunday morning politics programme with Sophie Raworth. Much of the programme was devoted to some of the election campaigns of the ‘runners and riders’ in the Tory race to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the party. We are currently at about 10 declared MPs and there may be one or two more than declare tomorrow. The issue that is emerging so far is absolutely nothing to do with Brexit, incomplete as it is at the moment. The big campaign theme which many of the would be hopefuls have seized upon is their desire to ‘cut taxes’. There are two problems with this particular approach. From a purely economist’s viewpoint, cutting taxes and thereby giving people more money to spend when inflation is running at 10%-11% is likely to add another twist to the inflationary spiral. But of much more significance is the fact that none of the contenders are saying what they would cut from public spending in order to fund the tax cuts. If one were completely cynical, it could be argued that cutting taxes is just a way of funnelling money towards the already rich and particularly Tory party donors. There is a particular irony in that two of the candidates were ex-Health ministers – in that role, they wanted as much public money as they could get for the Healh Service whilst simultaneously arguing for a lower tax burden overall. But what goes down well with Tory MPs and even Conservative party members in the wider society may well be at a sharp variance with the public as a whole. Some of the MSM (Main Street Media) have seized on this idea but there is quite a sharp divide between those who run their own businesses (and who would welcome a tax cut) and those employed in the public sector (for whom a tax cut may well be a reduction in services and in public sector jobs). When Meg and I walked down to the park this morning, we bumped into our Catholic friends again as they were out gardening and sympathised with our female friend who had broken her arm (or rather cracked a bone at the end of the radius/ulna) and was going to have to keep her arm in a sling for the next three weeks. Nowadays, they do not seem to plaster or even bandage a crack in an arkward place like this but A&E have given our friend a sling which is going to be her constant companion for the next three weeks.
AThis afternoon was the Wimbledon Mens final and although I was reading the Sunday newspapers, I started to watch the final stages as it became exciting. In a tense match, Djokovic finally overcame Kyrgios although there were a few outbursts on the way. When the match was over, the two finalists appeared to be on quite good terms with each and, of course, they are likely to meet up in championships all over the globe. When the match was well and truly over, I decided to go and give some plants in Mog’s Den (a strip of land to which one to descend where I indulge myself with growing this and that) a good soaking in water.This is because some of the plants are in tubs which therefore need a watering and the rest are on a slope where it is slightly more difficult for some of the trees I have planted to establish really deep roots.But I was encouraged to see that some that some of the tree roots are in quite a deep shade which will help to preserve moisture in these very hot conditions. I have not done any maintenance gardening in Mog’s Den for a few weeks now but I was quite pleased to see that after a period of benign neglect, some of the plants I planted last year are really coming on. For example, I purchased a ‘tri-coloured’ buddleja which does not seem to have flowered yet but has shot up to about 8′ in height. There are some large brambles that will have to be removed but some other plants seem to be establishing themselves, not least a little oak tree which is itself grown from an acorn from a little oak tree that I brought up to Bromsgrove from our house in Hampshire.
The heatwave continues today and there are warnings across the country that people should take the necessary steps to protect themselves. I think it is fair to say that Meg and I have not been unduly stressed by the heat so far but we are aware that as one ages, the body’s ability to cope with extreme heat diminishes. So we are taking the necessary steps to protect ourselves by not exposing ourelves to too much sun and keeping ourselves hydrated during the day. So we decided to take the car to collect our daily newspaper and then went off to the park by car. Having parked the car, we made for our usual set of benches but deliberately chose a seat that was in the shade rather than being in the full blast of the midday sun. We drank our coffee and ate our pieces of fruit and then made for home relatively early. We cooked ourselves our midday meal a little early because we knew that our chiropodist was due to pay us a visit in the early afternoon. Just after she had left and we had organised her fee payment over the internet we experienced a power cut. This only lasted for five minutes or so but there are always some appliances that need resetting after a power cut such as our bedside radio so this is one job for later.
Today is going to be quite an important day politically as the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs will choose a new executive committee today and will then determine the timetable for the election of a new party leader. The number of declared candidates stands at 11 at the moment and if Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, decides to stand then this will make 12. However, it seems to be a racing certainty that the 1922 committee will increase the number of MPs who have to sign the nomination papers for a candidate. At the moment, I believe this is 8 but it will probably be increased substantially to at least 20 and perhaps as many as 30. This will have the effect of cutting the number of candidates at a stroke as many will fail to attract enough signatures to stand. We expect the conditions for the election of a new leader to be announced some this evening but in any case, the Tory High Command, if I can put it that way, are determined to reduce the number of candidates to just two before parliament adjourns in about 10 days time. If one candidate does not withdraw (as happened when Andrea Leadsom withdraw from challenging Theresa May as she was so far behind) then the two candidates will be put forward to the Tory Party in the country and their votes will determine the outcome. There is a slight possibility that this last step might be truncated in view of the very special circumstances this time around and the fact that Boris Johnson is still the Prime Minister despite the wishes of most of the parliamentary Conservative party) but we shall have to wait and see. In any case, I am not sure that issues like this should be determined by members of the political parties in the wider country as this gave us Corbyn (on the left) and Johnson (on the right) and has the effect of pulling the parliamentary parties towards the extremes of left or right.
As we have mentioned in previous blogs, the issue of tax is tearing the Tory party apart at the moment. Most of the candidates (practically all of whom are from the right of the party) are in favour of tax reductions or reversing the rise in tax and NI contributions that the Johnson government had put in place to fund, inter alia, the costs of social care which is not a trivial problem. One the one hand, many older (and Conservative) voters are having to fund the entire cost of social care themselves by selling their houses and the arguments as to who will fund the social care costs of individuals who are ‘bed blocking’ within the NHS still needs to be resolved. If we have another wave of the COVID virus and already it is the case that hospital admissions are increasing, then in the autumn all of these pressure will become acute again. At the height of the pandemic, the care home owners were asked by the government to increase the supply of places available in the system to ensure that the acute wards could be cleared to make space for the wave of COVID cases. The government agreed some special payments to the bosses of the care home systems (dominated by a few large off-shore firms) who promptly took the money, paid themselves a massive bonus and most of the money disappeared into off shore tax havens and was not spent, as it should have been, on making that the care homes could hire enough staff and equip them with PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) upon which the lives of the caring staff may well depend.
Today was a day when Meg and I were going to treat ourselves to a day out and we had chosen to spend the day in Stratford. Our domestic help had helpfully given us the postcode for a central car park in Stratford and having collected our newspaper and then filled up with petrol, we made our way there with no difficulty. When we were navigating Stratford today, although we had visited it previously, it seemed both enormous and teeming with tourists. The car park was attached to a huge leisure centre and it was not immediately evident to us whether to navigate to the north, south, east or west out of the car park. Fortunately, we seemed to head off in the right direction and we walked in the vague direction of the river. We found ourselves in an Italian type coffee bar and here we had some elevenses and enjoyed an indifferent cup of coffee and an equally indifferent pastry. But then we got into conversation with the couple on the next table and enjoyed an exceptionally stimulating half hour of chat. We started out with politics (trying to discern who might be forced out of the Tory leadership campaign in today’s vote when the results will be announced at 5.00pm this evening). We then chatted over a whole range of issues as our chatty ‘coffee neigbour’ was a business studies graduate so we had quite a lot in common swopping some of our industrial experiences and a few stories and jokes from our collective memory. Eventually we parted having exchanged business cards and as it was 1.00pm by this time, Meg and I went in search of a suitable place to lunch and found a Cafe Rouge which is rather a conservative choice of place in which to lunch but we did not feel like trailing about too much. We had a middling type of meal after which we were quite happy just to retrace our steps and return home.
The really big political news this afternoon was the result of the first round of voting for Conservative MPs to choose their own leader. Of the eight remaining candidates it is perhaps interesting to note that that the candidates split equally male and female (4 apiece) and are equally split in terms of ethnicity (again, four ‘white’ and 4 BAME candidates) But this round is going to be particularly interesting because after all of the protestations of support, this is the first time that in a secret ballot it may become apparent who has real support from fellow MPs and who does not. In some ways, it reminds me of the ways in which the Pope is elected from amongst the cardinals in the Catholic Church as some candidates evidently gain ground through the rounds of voting and some fall back. At 5.00pm the results were announced and the eight candidates were now reduced to six as Jeremy Hunt failed to reach the required threshhold of 30 votes as did Nadhim Zahawi. Personally, I was surprised to see that Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, just crept over the line into the next round and even the Times was saying today that nobody thinks that she will come close to success. But the real ‘dark horse’ of this round of voting was Penny Mordant who was a former defence Secretary, sacked by Boris Johnson (perhaps on the grounds that she was a bit too competent to be in his cabinet and might have stood up to him). For reasons that are not entirely clear, she has become the darling of the members of the Tory party out in the constituencies, replacing Liz Truss who used to hold the No. 1 spot. In today’s round of voting, Rishi Sunak retains the pole position but Penny Mordant had established a real momentum, rapidly improving the numbers of committed supporters and endorsements and taking the number 2 slot quite convincingly. There will be hustings tomorrow morning and then a further round of voting tomorrow afternoon but I do not think it has yet been announced what the threshhold of successful votes will be – this is in the hands of the 1922 committee who decide it round by round. Penny Mordaunt has kept a fairly low profile hitherto. Her promotional video may have seemed rather ‘naff’ to the media professionals and started off badly by showing Johnny Peacock, the paralympic champion, winning one of his contests but the video clip was not included with his permission and he insisted that he be removed from it in case it might appear that there was a degree of endorsement. The rest of the video was full of Churchillian rhetoric and rousing patriotic music reflecting Penny Mordant’s close military associations and this probably appealed to the ‘blue rinse’ brigade back in the ranks of the Tory party faithful. But I suspect that her real appeal is that she was not part of the Johnson cabinet and could therefore distance herself from the current administration all of whom were complicit in the Johnson lies and often defended them in public. Tomorrow’s results will again prove interesting.
Thursday is the day when I do my weekly shopping and today was a ‘heavy’ week as last week’s proved to be quite a light one and these things balance out. I was first in the queue to get into the supermarket and shopping is quite a stress-free experience this early in the morning. On my way home, I collected our newspaper and then it was off to home for a tiny breakfast (a poached egg on a rice cracker, following the slogan coined, I think, by Salmin Rushdie to ‘go to work on an egg’) Then it was a case of getting all of the washing hung out on the line as it was such an excellent drying day, fed Miggles the cat and finally prepared our elevenses for our trip to the park. We went into town by car this morning as time was marching on and we were delighted to have a conversation with Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who we see practically every day that we go to the park and who is always busy completing his 9-10 kilometres for the day. We then made contact with our our recently established Lickey friends who follow this blog and told me things about myself I had long forgotten. We had some interesting discussions about the ways in which, when we teach ourselves languages, it is quite possible to make terrible mistakes. There are what linguists call ‘false friends’ where you are pretty sure you know the meaning of a word but it can land you in some trouble. The best example of this genre that I know of is the Spanish adjective ’embarasada’ which sounds to English ears to mean ’embarrassed’ but actually means ‘pregnant’ so you can see how this is likely to end up wih gales of laughter. So we had a pleasant chat and no doubt there will be many more in the days ahead. After we lunched (and dozed for a litle) I got onto BT to see if there was any news about the four phones and the router that we have on order with them and that we need if we are going to get our landline and fibre-based broadband up and running next Monday. Time is rapidly running out for these items of equipment to arrive so having got through to the relevant department within BT, I found out that the required kit had been despatched today by BT and was now in the hands of Royal Mail itself and I was informed that the gear should arrive with me on Saturday. This sounds like ‘just in time’ with a vengeance but I suppose there is always Monday morning but things might be a little frantic by then.
The results of the second round of voting for the Conservative party leader were announced at 3.00pm. As widely predicted, the Attorney General Suella Braverman who had only just crept into the the current round actually lost votes and was then eliminated. Now the total list is down to five and this has to be whittled down to two. Of course, when candidates are eliminated, there is a frantic lobbying to try to secure their erstwhile supporters for the next round. Sometimes, this is easy to predict as the ‘wings’ of the party tend to be very loyal to each other – but not always. So the 28 or so Braverman voters will almost certainly go to the most convinced of the remaining right winger/Brexit inclined candidates which in the current context means Liz Truss (and this is what happened) But this is where the politics gets really Machiavellian because if it can be demonstrated that you spotted the eventual winner at an earlier stage and publically pledged your support, then there is always the prospect that you will be rewarded with a Cabinet position. This sometimes means that MPs such as Gavin Williamson, one of the least competent Ministers of Education in the modern era, owe their appointment to the fact that they led the campaigns for the winning candidate. So this is politics – promises are made and then not redeemed, a certain amount of black propaganda and ‘dirt’ is hurled backwards and forwards. There are some stories that some of the candidates have been leaking ‘unsavoury’ details of other candidates that might be damaging to them to the Labour Party so that the ammunition is fired by the official opposition rather than one’s own side. It brings to mind the oft repeated aphorism in politics, with particular reference to the House of Commons that one’s opponents are to the front of you (i.e. the opposition) but one’s enemies are behind you)i.e. members of your own party). Although Rishi Sunak is the candidate in the lead as of this evening and Penny Mordaunt is not too far behind, getting into the last two is not the end of the game. It seems that Penny Mordaunt is much more popular with the Tory rank and file in the constituency parties out in the country so that it could be that even if Sunak + Mordaunt come out as the two preferred candidates of the parliamentary party, the real election may well depend upon the wider votes of Tory members in the constituencies so Mordaunt may well romp ahead and win the entire contest.
Last night, I received a very welcome voicemail from our Irish friends down the road. They had been trying to bump into us (and us into them) for some days now but we got an invitation to pop in for coffee at 11.00am this morning. This we did because we had got the accumulation of lots of bits of family and other news that we wished to relay to them. We glanced at the weather before we walked down this morning but I had already made a journey by car to pick up our copy of the Times and the sky seemed to have a few clouds to keep the temperature down a smidgeon so we pleased to walk down. On the way, we paused to have a chat with our Italian friend who was bobbling about in her front garden and we keep on promising ourselves that we must make time for a longer chat rather than just a chance meeting in the street. With our Irish friends, we had a wonderful selection of sandwiches and some cake and were persuaded, as we were not motoring back, to have some refreshing alcoholic beverages as well. One of the things we wanted to do was to see if we could set up something for our 55th wedding anniversary which is going to be in early September. Although we are now six weeks before the anticipated date, we are conscious of the fact that bookings are best made some time in advance. Our friends have their own favourite restaurant in which we can eat midday so without further ado, our friend made a note of our agreed date and is going to make a booking for the four of us whilst we still have plenty of time. There were some church related matters that we were pleased to chat over with other and then we caught up with bits and pieces about which we had wanted to chat for a long time. We spent a couple of very happy hours in the company of our friends and then walked slowly home. The sky was quite cloudy and it did not look as though rain was really threatening so it was a pleasant walk home. Having said that, the Met Office had today issues a red warning about the extreme heat which is going to hit us on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday where it is anticipated that the temperature may well exceed 40 degrees somewhere in the UK. So if Meg and I make any venture out in the days ahead, we will take every precaution because red warnings from the Met Office are very rare and are presumably meant to be taken very seriously. When Meg and I got home, we cookd ourselves a couple of fillets of seabass served on a bed of lettuce – this meal has the advantage of being nutritious,non-fattening but exceptionally quick to prepare.
Once we had had our post-prandial rest, I texted my sister in Yorkshire and some friends who now live in Scarborough. I am trying to arange a window of time in which I can take my sister out for a celebratory meal of some sort as she will be 80 years old this year. In the same visit up to Yorkshire, we are hoping that we can coincide with our friends living in Scarborough and the plan, if it comes off, is to each take the train to York and then find a restaurant for a long midday meal and catchup. We are planning this for some time in late August and are hoping that the really good deal which we got on the hotel in central Harrogate we can manage to repeat on the dates that we want. This evening is going to be the opening night of The Proms and there is a going to be a performance of Verdi’s Requiem to open this season’s concerts. When I worked down in London in the mid-1960’s, I quite often went to concerts in the Royal Albert Hall. This is because they often sold tickets at some heavily discounted prices which even as an inpecunious civil servant could afford. I cannot quite remember how I got the tickets now but I think that an allocation went to the London Hostels Association which was a non profit making body which provided accommodation to young civil servants, as otherwise they could not afford to take up a position in London. We did lots of things that were cheap and cost no money such as organising a series of quizzes across the various hostels. Eventually, I became very friendly with the Sports and Social organiser for the LHA and helped him to put together the little booklet which we produced once per month and sold to the hostel residents. This is when I think I acquired a sort of taste for journalism which has stayed with me (for better or worse) throughout life.
First thing this morning, my package arrived from BT which contains a router and four new specialist phones. Our new service becomes ‘live’ some time on Monday and, in theory, all one has to do is to plug in various leads and off you go. I am sure it is not going to be as simple as this but our son is going to come over in the cool of the evening on Monday night to help us in this venture. Today, we are counting down towards the really horrendous heatwave which is heading our way, moving northwards from the rest of Europe. On Monday and Tuesday next, it appears almost certain that somewhere in the country, a spot will reach 40 degrees celsius. The previous record was 38.7 and this was set in Cambridgeshire. The Met Office have issued a red warning (danger of loss of life)for a great plume of heat hitting Central, Eastern and Southern England. All kinds of warnings are being given, not only to damage to individuals from excessive heat but also to the nation’s infrastucture. Tar seems to be bubbling up from roads, railway lines are in danger of buckling, utility pipes are in danger of cracking and so on. The warnings are so severe on this occasion that I think most of the country will almost ‘de facto’ shut down on Monday and Tuesday. So I think that many people are moderating their behaviour, for example by taking their exercise, including dogs, very early in the morning and then keeping to the coolest place in their houses or gardens during the heat of the day on Monday and Tuesday.
Today was Carnival day in Bromsgrove. We picked up our newspaper by car and could not then get near to our local park because it was let over to Carnival type activities. The normal car parks were out of bounds but, fortunately, we managed to knock on the front door of our Irish friends and to park our car on their drive. From here, we managed to get into the park via a side entrance, only to find the park full of fun-fair rides, fast food stalls, temporary toilets everywhere and all of the other things that accompany a carnival. We managed to get to our usual bench and were soon joined by Seasoned World Traveller who came and spent a few minutes with us. We exchanged messages of support to each other to keep ourselves safe for the next few days and we may not even venture out of the house. On our way out of the park, we witnessed the carnival ‘floats’ going past on a series of large low loaders and flat bed trucks and there seemed to be lots of young people dancing away and enjoying themselves as the floats moved at a snail’s pace up the road. We got back to our car through people thronging the main road to witness the carnival parade and then made a circuitous journey back to our house, as some of the more immediate ways home were closed or blocked off to allow for the carnival parade. When we got home, we made a quick lunch of quiche and some salad type things which were quick and easy to prepare. This was just as well because it was going to be the ‘Bite Sized Classics‘ concert in our local church. We set off at 2.30 in order to get to the concert in plenty of time for a 3.00pm start and sat in our usual pew. The concert was provided by a prodigiously talented local musician who was accompanied on a keyboard by her father. The repetoire contained some some stunning classical ways by Handel and by Mozart that we had not heard before as well as some film classics such as ‘Ladies in Lavander‘ and ‘Schindler’s List‘ which are probably familiar to everyone. The concert which was only an hour long but contained about 8-9 items was most enjoyable and, after that, many of us piled into the Parish Hall for some tea, biscuits and cake. At the end of the performance, people seemed to give freely and generously to the collecction plates soliciting donations that were destined eventually for the Ukraine.
When the ‘bun fest’ was over, some of us were in a dilemma because we had an hour to spare before our ‘normal’ Church service started on Saturday evening. We decided to stay behind and chat with one of my fellow Parochial Church Council committee members who know us anyway from chatting to us in the park. We did exchange a few ‘medical’ stories as we are both of the age when we have required surgery in the last few years but it was pleasant to get to know one of our fellow parishioners through a more extended chat than is possible when arriving or leaving church on a normal Saturday evening.
Today started off quite well. First of all, Meg and I made sure that our bedroom was sufficiently cool for a good night’s sleep and this we both obtained, so at least we got off to a flying start. Then quite early on, I sent off a quick email and WhatsApp message to my friend in Scarborough to check his availabiliy for late August. Once I had received a positive reply, I went ahead and made a booking with the same hotel in Harrogate for which we already have a booking in ten days time. We were offered an incredibly good price – better than some B&Bs – so I was tempted by and quite readily accepted a room upgrade which means that we have an even better room when we go at the end of August for about the same price. Actually things could hardly have worked out better because when we have a stay in the hotel at the end of this month, we can make some arrangements for a good afternoon tea for my sister and we will be able to enquire what arrangements we are able to make for a suitable birthday cake. All of this having been done, we then decided to make our cautiously down to the park for our daily perambulation. I had already picked up the Sunday newspaper early on this morning as part of my usual Sunday morning routine. As I walked down for the newspaper, I noticed that the park gates were shut so we parked on a service road opposite the park. Then we made our way onto our normal bench and were soon joined by our University of Birmingham friend who we were especially pleased to see as we had not seen him for several days. We were just on the point of leaving when we joined by our Irish friends who were off on an extended walk as they often do on a Sunday morning so we had our normal jolly little chats before we made our way home by car as we specially wished to avoid walking in the full mid-day sun today. Looking at the TV schedules for this afternoon, we noticed that they were putting on a re-run of The Railway Children which, of course, we all saw decades ago. I think the reason for the re-showing at this point of time is because a sequel to The Railway Children has just been written and is due to be released into cinemas quite soon now. Many of the TV pages are saying that it would be a good idea to see the original before you go off and see the updating, so this repeat makes a lot of sense. Jenny Agutter played the part as a 17-year old and will star all of these decades later as the grandmother in the update of the story. We had some ham cooking in the slow cooker so to make sure we did not waste any time cooking on an already hot day, I put thick slices of ham between two slices of toast (for Meg) and rice cakes (for myself) so we finished off having a hot, but smallish meal, within minutes of getting in so that we sit down and watch the film in some peace.
This afternoon, and thinking ahead to our second little stay in Harrogate towards the end of August, I decided to renew my Senior RailCard. As it hapened, Meg’s card had a couple of years left on it but mine runs out some three weeks before I intended to use it again. You would think that the system would be simple enough to set up and run but it kept falling over and apologising for enexplained and unanticipated errors. I was just on the point of clicking ‘Accept’ when I noticed that they had my details and Meg’s intertwined even though we obviously had seperate numbers. Eventually, I got my card renewed by following different routes on the website but this one needed one to type in a 30+ ID number fom one’s passport as proof of identity. Although it was time consuming and error prone, I eventually got my renewal conducted on time and opted for a plastic card rather than a digital one on my phone as if my phone goes AWOL or the App falls over then I would have no backup. So at the end of today, I have two little mini-breaks in Harrogate ordered as well as a luncheon date with our friends in Oxfordshire. In addition our Irish friends are going to make a booking for the four of us on the occasions of our wedding anniversaries in early September that are within days of each other (and hence a joint meal). Meg is looking forward to seeing the adapation of ‘Little Women‘ which is the kind of book which was put in the path of adolescent girls whilst we males were fed a diet of G H Henty and similarly (vaguely imperialistic) stuff by G Rider Haggard if I remember the author’s name correctly.
Well, today has arrived which is the first of the two really hot days through which we had to ‘tunnel’ as it were. Very first thing this morning, our son called round and we got round to installing our new BT router. This really was incredibly simple and all we had to do was to plug it in and then enter the passwords for the new network into our computers and phones. So far, so good but we haven’t yet tackled the TV which we will do in the fullness of time. Then we have four new phones which we had to register with the router, which again could not be more simple (it involved pressing a button for two seconds and that was it) Then all we had to do was to ‘name’ each handset (kitchen, study, lounge, bedroom) and this too proved simple. Having got all of this done, we tested the broadband speeds and got 50 MBps which seems adequate but it is actually slower than the copper cable which it replaced. But more on this later.
After breakfast, the priority was for me to get out onto the road before it became too hot both to pick up our daily newspaper and also to visit our preferred supermarket to get a supply of ice cream. Normally, we would have been quite well stocked up on this but when I last did a regular food shopping, nearly all of the ice cream was gone, no doubt with people stocking up in anticipation of the warmer days ahead. I managed to get three tubs of ice cream and some ice cream lollipops on a stick and this was a fast and easy transaction. When I got home, the next thing to do was to get onto BT to ask them if they could resurrect my old landline number. There is a rather obscure department of BT called ‘Keep Live’ or something similar so it is all in their hands at the moment and I await a text or similar communication in the days ahead to see what success they are having.
As you might expect, the rolling news programmes are full of the up-to-minute accounts of what is happening around the countryside as people try to cope with temperatures heading to be in excess of 40 degrees celsius. Long distance trains are having to keep their speeds well down as a buckled rail could give a rapid derailment so a journey from Leeds to London will take five hours rather than 2.5 hours. Several airports are having massive problems as the tarmac on the runways melts literally making the aircraft stick to the ground. There is masses of advice how to protect one’s health and drinking plenty of cold fluids is stressed, not least because excess heat and dehydration mkes the blood less viscose and therefore more liable to clot which translates into heart attacks and strokes. In the light of this information, I have filled several half pint glasses with cold water and some cordial and placed them in our fridge. Every time to go past them, we have several gulps of fluid which strategy seems to have worked fine so far. In the early afternoon, I consulted the thermometer which we have outside the house and the maximum displayed was 34 degrees at about 2.30pm. By 3.00 pm it had come off the peak very slightly and is now about 33.5 degrees at 4.30 in the afternoon.
Now that I have the internet freely available to me, I decided to do a ‘browse’ and see what BT packages were available to me and whether I was on the correct package or not. I suspect that I was on the lowest tranche of fibre broadband and then get onto BT to see if I could speak with anyone sensible. After my past experiences, I avoided all of the sales teams altogether and got through to a technical department where I explained that I had fibre broadband installed that morning and wondered if I was on the correct package. They started talking about the most expensive options with ‘silly’ broadband speeds and even sillier prices but as they talked me down the various options, I eventually chose an option which increases my broadband speed 10-fold for another £20.00 a month. This seemed quite acceptable to me and after going through all of the terms and conditions, to which I assented, I should be upgraded to this fast broadband speed sometime tomorrow morning. This may be as late as 23.59 hours but could be as early as tomorrow morning (after all, all they have to do is to ‘click a box’ on the software that will control such things).
In the elections for the Conservative party leadership, several candidates have pulled out of the ITV hustings programmes tonight as the Conservative party were getting dismayed at the ‘blue on blue’ attacks. The latest round of voting takes place this afternoon and the latest result will be available at 8.00pm this evening.
Today was a day when it was widely predicted that temperatures would exceed 40 degrees celsius perhaps in several places across the UK and this inevitably came to pass later on in the day. Meg and I knew that we would have to be especially careful throughout the day and that we had to take pains not to expose ourselves to any unnecessary degree of risk posed by the extremely hot temperatures predicted for the day. The huge plume of hot air may well move northwards to be followed by thunderstorms perhaps as early as tomorrow so we are aware that today is the type of day to be ‘tunnelled’ through as it were. After we had some cooling showers in the bathroom, we went by car to collect our newspaper and to see if any of the jolly Waitrose crowd were in evidence in the coffee bar. There we met with one of pre-pandemic friends as well as Seasoned World Traveller who made an appearance so we chatted about the events of the day (politics, weather and so on) Having taken advice from several people around me, I made the decision not to attend my Pilates class in the middle of the day. Although the exercise studio is air conditioned, it still meant going by car in the hottest part of the day so I texted my Pilates teacher to say that I was going to give today’s session a miss. She was a little disappointed, I think, but at the end of the day I thought I was probably making a sensible decision. When we got home, we treated ourselves to an ice-cream on a stick which I bought in the supermarket the other day and it was just the job for a day like today. I have a policy of getting us through the day of having a series of pint glasses each filled with cold water and cordial lodged in the fridge and each time we pass them by, we have a gulp of cold water. We had a simple lunch of fishcakes with a few steamed vegetables and some coleslaw and it took the minimum of cooking.
After we had lunched we were eager to see the latest round of voting in the Conservative elections for the party leader and, as expected, Kemi Badenoch was eliminated having has a good run so far and enhanced her chances of a good cabinet post substantially. There is going to be a terrific fight for the second place behind Rishi Sunak but I am pretty sure I know what is going to happen. I reckon that at least 50% of the Badenoch votes will now go to Liz Truss (as right wingers allways support each other massively) and from this stage on Sunak and Truss will go the country. Here, according to all of the opinion polls, Truss supporters will easily outvote Sunak and hence I predict that she will be the next Tory leader, not least as she can sort of claim that she is carrying the ‘Johnson heritage’ forward. Having said this, a videoclip is circulating of her saying what a disaster leaving the EU would be when she addressed the Food and Drink Federation just before the referendum. Also, she regularly cmne bottom in all of the TV debates where viewers were asked to rate the perfomance of the candidates. On the other hand, the Labour Party may feel that she is quite a beatable candidate rather than Sunak. You read it here first!
I had a rather extraordinary telphone call with a representative of BT today. I had got a text on my phone to see if I could discuss my latest upgrade to Super Fibre 500 which as it turns out gives me 10x the speed for only an extra tenner a month. It looked as though some kind of duplicate order had crept onto the system so my contact in BT, who I shall call Susan, quickly cancelled the misplaced contract. Then she asked if there was anything she could do for me and I mentioned the landline I wanted to get back. She put this through the system and thought that all being well it could probably be restored by next Monday. Asked if she could do anything else for me, I mentioned the poor reception that we get one of the bedrooms in which my son works when he calls around. She performed a series of tests upon the line for me and we looked at some settings in the router. Finally, if at all fails, she thinks she could probably solve our problems by some repeater units (up to three) which we can have around the house – if they don’t work, then we have a fourteen day cooling off period so we cancel the order and return the units. She is going to phone me back within a 2-hour time slot next Tuesday when my landline number should have been restored and we can discuss options to increase WiFi reception in the relevant bedroom. But I have experimented with my iPad and we may get the reception we need by altering the location of the desk and the WiFi within the room but we may need to experiment further.
Today was very much ‘the day after the day before’ as we seem to have survived the unprecedented heat of yesterday. The sky was a little clouded over and whilst still a bit close and muggy, there was a gentle and cooling breeze which was so welcome after yesterday. Meg and I got slowly underway this morning and eventually I went out by car to collect the newspaper and popped into Waitrose for one or two things. Then it was just a gentle day, taking care of my accounts and filing some paperwork. I imagined that I was going to have to get into an argument with my ex-broadband provider as my email inbox suggested that another bill was on its way. But when I studied my account details on the net it seemed that the ‘bill’ was actually a refund for services not used and the account was now closed, as indeed it should have been. As Meg and I had not had a walk anywhere this morning, we thought that we would have an early lunch but did not fancy anything too heavy. I had got a small quiche out of the freezer so we decided to have this warmed up complemented with some salad type things that I have left over from this week so this was a meal quickly thrown together and easy to clean up afterwards.
We watched Boris Johnson at Prime Minster’s Questions which was Johnson’s last stand at the despatch box as Prime Minister. The performance was much as you would expect with a massive amount of bluster. For his part, Keir Starmer just read a list of the ‘blue on blue’ attacks that have taken place as candidates in the Conservative party leadership race have just been taking great chunks out of each other. But the major event of the day was always going to be the announcement at 4.00pm to see which of the remaining three contenders for the Conservative party leadership would be eliminated leaving the top two to put themselves forward to less than 200,000 Conservative party members. When the result came, it was a bit of an anticlimax as Rishi Sunak secured the first place and the second place was easily taken by Liz Truss as was predicted in this blog yesterday. This was because about one half of the Kemi Badenock (right wing, Brexit type vote) went immediately to Truss with the remaining half split almost equally between Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. All of the commentators had said that it was going to be an incredibly tight race and all kinds of ‘games’ were being played with some candidates rumoured to be lending votes to others in order to block a third. But it was very simple really as the right wing, Brexit vote just flowed from one candidate to the next and it was pretty obvious (well, to me) that Truss would come through. According to various surveys that have taken place, it seems that Liz Truss is way ahead of Rishi Sunak amongst the Conservative party membership so it is a foregone conclusion that she is going to be the next Conservative party leader and Prime Minister although the result will not be announced until the first week of September. In the meanwhile, Liz Truss has tweeted that she is ‘going to hit the ground running’ but forgot to include the word running which has caused a lot oF amusement in Labour Party circles. I think the Labour Party think that Liz Truss is quite beatable when it comes to a general election in about two years time.
If I have to reflect upon the terrible events of yesterday when several houses in the village of Wemmington in the East of London were consumed by fire, it is that finally the reality of climate change may be brought home to many people. I am not sure how the climate change deniers account for what happened yesterday but I suspect there is a realisation that the scientists were right. Without making an overtly political point here, it does appear that what the Greens have been saying for decades is probably correct and we need to rethink our social and economic structures. One comment heard today is that the London Fire Service has had its busiest day since the Second World War which, of course, ended some 77 years go.
This afternoon, whilst waiting for the Conservative party leadership elections to unfold, I started filing all of my BT broadband paperwork and exploring what the website had to offer. As part of the package, I am given an allocation of eleven email addresses with btinternet.com – normally one would have one’s own name but the evident one has been taken so I am thinking of some variations tht I can use. One of them I have utilised to ‘file away’ most of the email correspondence I have received from BT so that this is all in one place and another I am going to use for email that could be ‘spammy’ but no doubt I will think of uses for the remaining addresses. It seems as though I have unlimited storage, though, and the email system is bare-bones but adequate for the occasional use.
Today my son and I (well, my son actually) installed the updated ‘gismos’ that we have just bought that route the WiFi signals through our house’s mains wiring system. The old units were about 8 years old and may have been a little outdated as the world of comms technology is coming on in leaps and bounds. The new units increased the WiFi signal strength sufficiently to give my son a workable signal strength and download speed in the corner of the house where he prefers to work (but where the route to the router is somewhat indirect) So this is another protential problem averted and we are now back more or less to the state we were in about two weeks ago, except that we now have a much improved download speed in the ground floor of our property, given that the fibre cable comes through a hole in the wall and is located in a room in the front of the house. Today is the day when I go shopping first thing in the morning so there I was at one minute to 8.00am queuing outside th supermarket door. Having got the shopping home, I then unpacked it whilst chatting with our domestic help and cooking a breakfast for Meg and myself. When all of this was done, we decided we needed to go to Waitrose in Droitwich to buy some items of clothing for Meg which I know the store stocks. But in the event, getting to Droitwich was less than straighforward. For a start, we soon discovered that the main road to Droitwich from Bromsgrove was blocked at some point, so we had to turn round and find another route. Even this second route seemed a bit problematic so we worked our way around that and eventually got to Droitwich. As soon as we got there, we made straight for our favourite coffee bar and treated ourselves to some good coffee and a huge toasted teacake which was split between us. After this, we piled into the Cancer Relief charity shop which is immediately next door. Whilst there, we discovered a stunning blue top which suited Meg down to the ground. Whilst she was trying it on, I discovered a stainless steel cafetiere but I was not quite sure how it worked. When I asked for some assistance from the shop assistant who could not provide me with any, another very friendly customer who was nearby told me he had one almost exactly the same and showed me how it worked. On the strength of this, I went ahead and bought it and then we made our way to our favourite Wilko hardware store. Whilst there, we bought the normal smattering of goods (some cosmetics, some stationery and so on) and finally we made our way down to Waitrose which was meant to be the object of our visit in the first place. I popped into the store and bought Meg the ‘knee-highs’ that are stocked within the store. Finally, it was a circuitous drive home as the traffic obstructions that we had encountered earlier were still there. The minute I got in, I started cooking a fish dinner with some smoked hake fillets I had bought earlier on in the day and our domestic help was more than happy to have a little of this as I also cooked some very low calorie rice substitute which I bought earlier.
After lunch and a doze, I realised that there were one or items I had forgotten from the morning shopping so I shot into town by car to get a top up. I also bought one or two things from a neighbouring store including some rather fine quality ceramic mugs wich we are going to take up to Yorkshire with us to help us enjoy our drinks of tea and coffee. Although we do not go until next Wednesday, I am collecting one or two little things that I know we can take with us to make our stay in the hotel so much more restful. Today has been a much cooler day, weatherwise, with a hint of rain in the air when we were out in Droitwich. According to the app on my iPhone, we should be getting quite a continuous band of rain during the night and this may well persist throughout tomorrow morning. I think we are all longing for one of those prolonged downpours but it may well be that we just end with a slight smattering of rainfall which hardly penetrates the earth at all.
Now that the two Conservative candidates are putting themselves forward to the Conservative party membership across the country, there is quite a lot of detailed scrutiny of the the two candidates. Liz Truss’s brand of economics is receiving particular attention as most economists are of the view that in present conditions, reducing taxes will be inflationary and the impact on growth will be minimal. Rishi Sunak’s past financial dealings whilst a young man is also receiving a lot of scrutiny and we will have weeks more of this yet. As things stand, Truss is way ahead of Sunak in the minds of the Conservative members and were they to vote early, then Sunak’s bid to become Prime Minister seems doomed from the start.
The day dawned today as one of those murkey looking days with a yellowish type of tinge to everything. We suspected that it was going to be one of those overcast drizzly type of days and so it turned out. We eventually decided that it would be a good policy to collect our newspaper by car, which we did, and then we made our way to the park carpark. At this stage, although the main rain showers had passed by, it was still spitting somewhat so we decided that today was one of the bandstand days to which we typically repair in weather conditions like todays. Two other groups of people had also intended to have a little picnic in the park so that they, too, also headed for the bandstand. This does have the slight disdvantage that there is nowhere to sit so I have thought of a little reminder to myself to hunt in the garage to see if we have a really lightweight little camping chair which we can take with us on days like these so that Meg has something upon which to sit. Needless to day, the sun was practically shining by the time it came to leave and we decided to pay a quick visit to Waitrose to see if any of our park acquaintances had finished up there. I popped my head round into the coffee bar area, saw no-one we recognised and so we made for home and thought we would treat ourselves to a quick viewing of the 1.00pm news before we started on lunch preparation. We had a simple lunch incorporating the one kipper fillet I had dug out of the freezer into a Friday risotto which used to be a staple for us every Friday lunchtime.
In my long, leisurely read of The Times over the last day or so, I have taken great pleasure in reading a commentary upon the important speech that Liz Truss made to the Food and Drink Federation when she was an advocate of remaining within the European Community. In this speech, she gave several detailed examples of the ills that would befall us were we to leave the European Community and the really interesting thing is that she was remarkble prescient, and accurate, in the things that she said before she ‘changed her mind’. Evidently, this is causing some glee amongst erstwhile Remainers amongst the staff writers and commentators. Of course, when it comes to a General Election, all of these just have to be constantly repeated back to Liz Truss and no doubt she will constantly asked exactly why she changed her mind (if not for naked political opportunism) and why she things she was wrong then (although she was right) and right now (although she is wrong) A rather shocking statistic is that only 31% of Tory MP’s actually voted for Liz Truss and, assuming she does become leader of the party, then some 69% of the parliamentary party of which she shall be the leader did not vote for her. To put it mildly, even some Conservative thinkers are worried that this will be a recipe for long run political stability even though loyalty used to the ‘secret weapon’ of the Tory party. In fact there is quite a massive tension between the ideological, Brexit-driven wing of the Tory party and a more centrist managerialist wing, typified by Rishi Sunak. To a large extent, this is a mirror image of the problems that the Labour party used to have where Jeremy Corbin led a parliamentary party here the majority of members had not voted for him.
I spent some of the afternoon exploring the email client provided by BT, now that I have eleven spare addresses ‘free’ provided to me as part of my new fibre broadband deal. If you look at the reactions of many users, there seems to be a consensus that the BT offering is terrible but as I am only going to use it fo the most occasional of uses (including quoting an address might eventually be ‘spammed’), this is not really source of concern to me. I have worked out a way I can navigate straight into my preferred email without having to go through the more general BT portal in the first place. I have also set up one auto-forward which means that anything that lands in my BT mailbox will be forwarded to my normal email client so that I can see what it is. Tonight, as we have our TV stitched into our new wifi-through-the-mains service, we are going to treat ourselves to an opera and see if we can get this viewed without any buffering problems which have plagued us in the past. I have one of those Amazon ‘USB’ gizmos stuck in the back of the TV and through this, I can access YouTube and hence to whatever operas they happen to have available. These tend to be very dated but nonetheless excellent productions, probably made 20-30 years ago.
You are never quite sure what a day is going to bring and so it proved to be today. The day dawned bright enough but it was somewhat cloudy, not to mention muggy, and looked as though we might get a smattering of rain although it didn’t arise. Getting into town to pick up our newspaper proved to be a little problematic. There were enormous traffic jams throughout the town and particularly upon the street on which our newsgagent has his shop. When I eventually, and patiently, found my way to the shop I was infomed that a drunken driver had crashed into one of the local traffic signal staunctions and as a repair crew were busy working upon this, there was a complex sytem of temporary traffic lights. On our way down into town, we espied our University of Birmingham friend and wound down the car window to tell him we would meet him in the park. When we did get there, rather later than we had anticipated, we met two of our regulars (our friend just hailed and Seasoned World Traveller) who were sitting on a park bench together. These two are being a smidgeon careful in each other’s company as they both have had sniffles in the last week and were anxious that if they were harbouring anything a bit more serious than a slight cold, then they had no wish to inflict it upon each other. Nonetheless, we all did meet up on a regular ‘high level’ bench which overlooks a lot of the park and which is our favourite watering hole. We have a bit of a suspicion that when we start to talk politics, which is nearly every day, other members of the public who are nearby do not want to overhear any part of our conversation, even by accident, and tend to get up and walk away. This may well reflect a deeper division which sociologists in the past have labelled the difference between a ‘local’ and a ‘cosmopolitan’ world view. I suppose that with a mutual interest in national politics and more broadly in international affairs, we are firmly in the ‘cosmopolitan’ camp and are frankly just a bit bored, not to say uninterested, in what is happening within the very local vicinity (say within a couple of miles). This is perhaps too crude a distinction because one can be both local and cosmopolitan as the mood might take you although ‘pure’ locals are more likely to stay that way. As we were sitting on the bench we were passed by a couple of elderly Irish friends (friends of friends) that we know quite well and who attend the same church as we do but on a Sunday rather than a Saturday. We all congratulated each other how we had managed to survive the horrendous temperatures of the past week when the temperature reached over 40 degrees in Lincolnshire. Finally, Meg and I set off for the car on a way home and were enthusisatically greeted by a labradoodle type dog – this is quite a common occurrence. We got into conversation with the middle aged lady owner and one topic of conversation flowed on to another. Eventually, it transpired that she was a headteacher of a Catholic school in a neighbouring town but also attended our church but on a Sunday rather than a Saturday. We found we had quite a lot of interesting points of mutual interest, so I gave her one of my business cards which I keep with my phone in the event that we have a chance meeting like this. As my daughter-in-law is a headteacher, we understood to some extent the occupational pressures that she was under and we parted wondering if we might bump into each again somewhere. Finally, before we actually reached the car, we encountered our Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker and we exchanged some reminisciences about the characters that we could remember from ‘The Beano’ of our youth (principally Dan Dare, Dennis the Menace, Pansy Potter, Beryl the Peril and Desperate Dan) I will not start to explain who these characters well but readers of a certain (more advanced) age may well remember them quite well. In addition, as I ran around with the ‘vicarage’ children in the small village in which I lived in Yorkshire, I was introduced to the very middle class comic (‘Eagle‘) because the CofE vicar himself was very friendly with Marcus Morris who founded the ‘Eagle‘ and ‘Girl‘ comics in about 1950 and it survived until about 1969. These two vicars had served together with each in WWII and hence their friendship.
This morning, I amused myself by creating a little ‘Group’ of my BT email addresses in one of my companion email clients. This is so that I can send a ‘keep alive’ message at least once every 150 days which is a condition of use for the BT accounts in order to keep them active. So I have put a note on my calendar to activate my ‘Keep Live’ routine in about four and a half months time.
Normally when we go to church each Saturday evening, it is a fairly ‘low key’ affair but yesterday proved to be the exception. About 10-15 minutes into the service, it was evident that something was happening at the back of the church because we could hear some groaning, a bit of a kerfuffle and lots of loud, worried whispers. As all of this was happening in the back of the church, none of us could see what has happening without turning round to gawp. Our parish priest, though, who was facing the congregation could discern what was going on which was the collapse of an elderly gentleman. One of the assistants to the priest went into the Sacristry and gave the priest some sacred oils which means that he could perfom the sacrament of what used to be called ‘Extreme Unction‘ but which nowadays is more accurately described as the ‘Annointing of the Sick‘. The theology behind all of this is that this sacrament is meant to be administered to a person who is on the point of death and gives remissions of sins and such like to ease one’s passage into the next world. The priest went to the back of the church and annointed the sick gentleman – whether he was conscious or not at this stage, we did not know. After a brief pause and after some prompting from the congegation, the priest continued with the rest of the Mass but when it came to the administration of Holy Communion, the priest went immediately to the back of the church to minister to the stricken gentleman. The whole congegation exited the church through the Sacristy at the front of the church (as we used to do in pandemic days as a form of simple crowd control) only to be greeted by not one but three ambulances in the church car park and the street nearby. One of them was even bore the message that it was part of the ‘Air ambulance’ service. I suppose people can be taken seriously ill almost anywhere including cinemas and theatres and so perhaps a church is probably as good a place as any for such a trauma to occur. Then we had to navigate home through a new route as our normal route back home was impeded by two sets of temporary traffic lights (one a consequence of the demolition of a local pub, the other being due to the flattening of the normal traffic light by a drunken driver) So it was good to get home, have a spot of tea and then settle down to what might be called a more normal, peaceful evening.
Today, although the weather was cloudy, I had already collected my Sunday newspaper first thing in the morning so Meg and I decided to take a walk down into the park. We took our coffee on our ‘normal’ bench and waited for a few of our friends to turn up but none did. But as we turned for home, our University of Birmingham friend turned up, apologising for being a bit later than usual. Nonetheless, it was very useful to have a little chat with him as we could inform him that as we are going to be away next week and only returning on Saturday, we would not coincide with him again until next Sunday morning.
I have not had the chance yet of a detailed read of the Sunday newspapers, although they are giving a lot of the ‘insider’ information into both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. I do not suppose there is a lot of point being well informed about the strength and weaknesses of the two candidates as the whole result will bbe determined by about 160,000 Conservative party members in the country as a whole. The rest of the 60 million of us are reduced to the role of passive bystanders whilst the next Prime Minister is chosen by about 0.4% of the voting population. One particular feature of political parties in the UK is that the constituency political parties being populated by the activists and the committed are always more extreme than the parliamentary parties (for MP’s have had to appeal somewhat to the middle ground in order to be elected) So the constituency labour parties are to the left of the parliamentary party and as in a mirror image the constituency Conservative parties are to the right of the parliamentary party. Therefore the two candidates for the post of Prime Minister are having to pitch their appeals to the right wing members of the constituency parties which are themselves to the right of an already right wing parliamentary party. Today, both candidates have chosen to use the subjct of immigration to gain some electoral support. Liz Truss is arguing that we can search for other countries as as well Rwanda to accept would-be asylum seekers whilst Rishi Sunak is proposing a cap on the numbers to whom the Home Office eventually grants settled status. When all other arguments are exhausted, the Tory party can always rely upon ‘immigration’ and its modern day variants in order to garner support.
I suppose all days are likely to have minor triumphs and some disappointments and such a day it was today. However, our day started off exceptionally well because our ‘old’ landline number, disconnected when we upgraded to Full Fibre acquiring a new number in the process, was successfully ported over to our fibre connection. To be fair to BT, one of their technical staff last Monday promised me that they could ‘probably’ restore my old number starting today and they confirmed by text in what they called a new order. If you were to go on the web and look at some of the kinds of discussions that people have had in similar situations, it has often proved to be quite problematic as BT had often said that they would attempt but not guarantee to get the old number back again. So the strategy that I deployed to move my whole fibre package over to BT so it was a case of transferring from ‘old’ BT landline to ‘new’ BT fibre broadband, seems to have paid dividends. Tomorrow morning one of the very helpful BT technical staff with whom I dealt last week is going to contact me (ring me on my new number?) to check that everything has worked all right. I am not committed to my old number for sentimental reasons but it is is printed on lots of business cards and address labels that I put inside Christmas cards and the like so the ‘old’ number is probably written into diaries all over the country. Now that we our comms restored to something like a decent state, I texted some of our friends with whom we have not been in contact for a week or so to arrange a FaceTime ‘chat’ with them tomorrow. Then I downloaded the instruction manual for the new phones so that I know how to utilise all of the features (including the volume control). After all of this, Meg and I decided to return to our re-purposed Arts centre where we have already received two vaccinations plus two ‘top-ups’. It is unclear to us whether we are now due to receive a third top-up as our last one was on 21st March which is now four months ago and our enhanced immunity status might have diminished a fair bit. But when we got to the centre, the whole building was closed and will only re-open at 2.00pm tomorrow afternoon. So this means that Meg and I will need to return tomorrow after my Pilates class and a somewhat delayed lunch so we could have done without this on the day before we are due to go away.
Although we have had several days of intense sunshine, like the rest of the country, the lawns were looking a little sorry for themselves with some tall-stemmed wispy looking weeds spoiling the overall appearance. So as the sun was shining I took the opportunity to get our grassed areas cut which I like to have done before we go away for a few days. When I was in the middle of this, two cars appeared outside the empty bungalow which faces us across our communal green area and this was no great surprise to us as the house which was ‘Sold’ then reverted to ‘Unsold’ and then again to ‘Sold’ all within the last week or so. I imagine that the cars belonged to new owners, either actual or potential, and they might have a word with me about how the BioDisk works and related issues but in the event they just drove away.
Tonight, there is going to a ‘Question Time’ type of program in which Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are going to defend their political stance in front of an audience of Conservative party members. This may prove to be another ‘bearpit’ after some of the hustings last week but as Liz Truss is apparently so far ahead in the opinion polls of Conservative party members, tonight’s program is seen as crucial for the Rishi Sunak campaign. The debate is going to be held in Stoke-on-Trent as it was one of those Labour ‘red wall’ seats that swung massively behind Boris Johnson. From this, we might be able to infer that many of the audience will favour Liz Truss as she is seen as the Boris Johnson ‘heir apparent’in a community like this. How the BBC is going to get a ‘balanced’ audience tonight is an interesting point because in the run up to the EC referendum, most editions of ‘Question Time’ seemed to dominated by very vociferous Brexit audience members whereas Remain members appeared much more subdued. Some fairly late news this evening is that Rishi Sunak has agreed to be interviewed by Andrew Neil – in my view, one of the most penetrating interviewers in the whole of the media scene. For her part, Liz Truss has not agreed to be interviewed. So I suppose the very evident front runner feels she has everything to lose and the candidate who appears to be a long way behind has everything to gain.
Today was always going to be rather an ‘action-packed’ day because there were quite a lot of domestic chores to be undertaken before we start our preparations for spending a few days away in Yorkshire. First thing this morning, I received a voicemail from my BT contact from Lincoln – unfortunately, I had missed her call on my mobile and she did not phone me on my newly restored landline but, in truth, we had hardly anything to discuss because with my ex-landline restored (or more technically, ported over to the Fibre Plus plan I now have with BT) then everything we needed BT to sort out was now actually working to our satisfaction. As today is a Tuesday, Meg and I indulge ourselves with going down to Waitrose where we did bump into one one or two of our regulars. I took the opportunity of doing a little bit of shopping, the most important of which was to have longer-life milk that will survive the rigours of a hotel bedroom whilst we make ourselves drinks as we require them. Then it was case of going home and getting through a pile of papers that needed to be processed i.e. either junked once the addresses had been shredded or else filed. When all of this, I was ready to change in my Pilates track-suit bottoms and then walk down into town. Our class is currently quite small and there were only two of us today – one of our regulars is fitting in to a Thursday class and another regular to another class this morning. We had the usual jokey session as our tutor and my fellow-class mate and I have been attending for some 8-10 years, I would estimate. Then it was a case of getting home and cooking a quick dinner for the two us. This afternoon, Meg and I thought that we would make a trip to our local vaccination centre to work out whether we needed a COVID booster jab or not. We have both had the two initial vaccinations and two boosters but nonetheless our local surgery had written to us to request that we present ourselves for a ‘spring’ booster. But this, too, proved to be as fruitless a journey as was yesterdays. The very friendly nurse on the entrance door explained that the vaccination centres all over the country were being closed down and further vaccinations would now be under the aegis of one’s own GP/medical practice. She explained to us that most of the time she was busy turning people (like us) away as part of the NHS machine was urging you to attend whilst another part was turning you away. So we now have it from the ‘horses mouth’ as it were that we would wait for the official autumn boost to the vaccine to be rolled out for us in September. On the way home, though, we took the opportunity to get the car topped up with petrol and we also dived into a nearby supermarket to buy one or two cosmetic items.
Last night was a televised debate beteen Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss in pursuit of the Conservative party leadership. Rishi Sunak made a pitch which seemed overly aggressive to many with a host of interruptions. For her part, Liz Truss seemed somewhat robotic as she evidently had prepared ‘mantras’ in which the word ‘deliver’ was certainly overused. In an opinion poll after the debate,the two candidates appeared to be level pegging. But amongst Conservative party members, Liz Truss held the lead whilst Rishi Sunak held a similar lead amongst Labour supporters. A debate held on TalkTV tonight was halted though when the presenter, Kate McCannn, fainted half way through the broadcst. Liz Truss appeared shocked and rushed to the aid of the presenter but the broadcast was immediately abandoned. Both candidates subsequently tweeted their good wishes to Kate McCann who seemed to recover from her faint but the programme makers had to issue an apology citing a medical incident. The debate so far this evening appeared to be much more even tempered but I think the spin doctors and associated journalists probably had to consider the whole of tonight’s confrontation as a ‘non-event’
We took the opportunity to FaceTime some of our pre-pandemic Waitrose friends this evening and we had quite a lot of news to catch up on. Earlier in the day, I had texted my two nieces in Yorkshire and it looks as though we can see both of them on Thursday as well as my sister. So far this leaves Friday for Meg and I to enjoy ourselves in Harrogate but we will see what emerges from our opportunities to catch up with our relatives who seem to be leading hectic lives (moving house, changing jobs) and so on. The weather seems set fair in the days ahead so this will no doubt enhance our little stay away.
Today was the day when we are due to go off to Yorkshire for our little ‘mini-break’ The football was pretty exciting last night when the English lionesses (i.e. women’s football team) scored an outstanding 4-0 victory over Sweden who were one of the tournament’s most fancied teams. By the time we had watched all of the victory celebrations now that the England team are through to the final on Sunday, we felt rather too tired to start packing tonight. We reckoned it was better to get to bed straight away and get up at 6.30am in the morning and do the packing we minute we wake up. This we did and it was a successful strategy because we got packed up in plenty of time, so much so that we could actually leave at 9.00am rather than 9.30 which was our planned hour of departure. We collected our newspaper and then set off in plenty of time, having just one pit stop for a coffee half way along the journey. We wanted to hit the little town of Wetherby by just about midday and, indeed, reached there at about 12.05 and we lucky to get one last parking space in the main street that runs through the town. We have a favourite fish restaurant in Wetherby because they open up their upstairs fish restaurant at 12.00 and it pays to get there early as it fills up very rapidly. We avail ourselves of a ‘pensioner’s menu’ where I suspect that the portions are scaled back a little. We had a wonderful and very satisfying three-course meal starting off with a homemade tomato and basil soup, followed by plaice and chips (I forgot to order salad instead but ate half of the chips) and then a lemon drizzle cake served with a huge dollop of vanilla icecream. This is also served with slices of bread and butter and a pot of tea so we felt the two of us had eaten quite royally for less than £30.00. We did not want to get to Harrogate too early to pick our hotel room which is avaialable to us after 3.00pm so we went in search of a plant shop because I had a vague notion that there was one not too far away from the main High Sreet. Eventually, we were directed to a rather super-duper florist where we made some purchases thinking about members of the family we are to meet in the next few days. We still had plenty of time in hand and so found both a quixotic little coffee shop which sold exquisite coffees and some very specialised (but not low-alcohol) beers. Then we found an Oxfam shop where we were tempted to buy a boxed ClassicFM cd set and so we set off for Harrogate.
When we arrived at the hotel, we entered the quite small car park and immediately made for one small space which we espied in one remote corner of the car park. But when we got to the desk and booked in, we mentioned the special car parking facility we had requested when we made our booking and the very helpul receptionist showed us that a space had already been reserved for us (as I requested more than two weeks ago) straight outside the front door. We were delighted to get this level of service, which completely vindicates coming back to this hotel in which we first stayed last December on the occasion of our brother-in-law’s funeral. We got into the room and quickly unpacked our suitcase. As soon as the laptop was fired up, it found the relevant network and we got ourselves online with he minimun of fuss and bother. I am sure it is getting easier these days because I’m sure in the past we had to fiddle around to get ourselves connected but it now seems so simple and straightforwrd as it should be. After I had had a few words with the reception staff, I am going to make contact with one of the managerial team here at the hotel to see if we can make some forward plans for when we visit again in four weeks time. When we come here in August, we are planning to see our friend who is now living in Scarborough on one day whilst we see my sister and members of the family for a little 80th birthday party celebration on the next.
As you might expect, the media is going silly about the prospects of the English women’s football team who have now qualified for the final on Sunday next, when we will have returned home. Tonight is going to to be the second semi-final in which the contestants are Germany v. France. There is an expectation that Germany will prevail as it has won this competition many times before but in all sporting events the unexpected can happen so will watch tonight’s game with some interest.
Today is the first day of our mini-break. We both slept quite well in what was an extremely comfortable bed and then we mastered the intracies of our shower system – which was actually very straighforward. Whilst I was waiting for Meg to get completely ready, I was thumbing through some publicity leaflets for events happening in Harrogate ovwr the next few days. There is quite a magnificent Victorian concert hall called the Royal Hall which I have not visited for decades although I used to attend concerts by the Halle orchestra when I could. In fact, the last performance that I remember was one when Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ was being played and the orchestra’s conducter – George Wheldon I believe- walked off the podium when he could not slow the orchestra down when they were playing at too rapid a pace halfway through the piece. There is going to be a concert tonight in which Rossini, Mozart and Beethiven are to be played. I managed to secure some tickets over the internet so Meg and I just have to turn up a quarter of an hour or so before the performance starts in order to pick up our tickets. The Royal Hall is only about 400-500 yards from the hotel so we can walk there with no pressure of time and not have to worry about car parking.
This morning, Meg and I called around to see my sister and one of our nieces and her two children (one at university, one at school) were there as well. We spent the morning, as families do, chatting over some family issues and enjoyed the tea and scones which my sister had provided. Fortunately, I had taken along some quiche for us to have a quick lunch. This was quickly warmed up in the oven and did not seem to have deteriorated much in the journey up north so we enjoyed it with a few salad things my sister had provided. As we approached Knaresborugh this morning through what I called the ‘back end’ approach to it, we went past the street upon I used to lve and could not resist a quick look at it.The street used to be terminated by some rough fields and then a golf course but the field and golf links had been sold off long ago to provide additional housing. In our journey to Knaresborough by this ‘back’ route, we noticed a large garden centre which contains its own coffee shop and restaurant. We have arranged to meet there at 5 minutes before midday tomorrow so that at midday my sister, niece, Meg and I can have a quick family lunch with each other and carry forward our discussions of family related issues. Then we took leave of my sister and went to Harrogate by car to visit another niece and her family who had just moved house into a larger Victorian villa not a great distance from where they used to live in Harrogate. In theory, this shoukd have been easy to find but in practice seemed to be a bit more difficult than might be imagined. For some reason, our SatNav system gives the street that runs at the back of their new address when one enters the postcode and I had to make a quick telephone call to ascertain that the SatNav would not take us to a completely erroneous place. We spent a lovely afternoon having tea and biscuits and chatting over the horrors of moving house. We both seemed to have internet horror stories of having to live without the technology whilst our internet connections were sorted out but in both of our cases, we have lived to tell the tale. We admired their lovely house which is on three stories (four if you include the basement converted into work space) so there is now more room for their teenage children to enjoy their adolescent years. Our niece is still continuing with the writing in which she use to engage regularly and she had just discovered that one of her pieces if being ‘long listed’ for for an international award which is a source of some pleasure. We were also pleased to congratulate her upon being her awarded her MA in Literature. We discussed the little birthday celebratiomns I intend to hold for my sister at the end of next month but they will be on a much anticipated continental holiday at the end of next month so unfortunately will not be able to attend. We discussed some anticipated birthdday presents for our celebrations and think we shll probably be able to meet again near Christmas time when we make another visit to the family about Christmas time which we normally do. Finally, Meg and I returned to the hotel where we had a little rest before we spruce ourselves up a little before we venture forth for our attendance at the concert this evening.
Last night, we attended a concert in Harrogate’s Royal Hall and we have attended a run of concerts recently – two in Bromsgrove as part of the Bromsgrove festival and finally the one last night which acts as the culmination of the Harrogate festival. Meg and I really enjoyed the concert last night, made enjoyable as it was only a few minutes away from the hotel in which we are currently staying. During the interval, we joined the crush for the bar and then got into conversation wih a lady who appeared to be on her own but who was the wife of (I think) a double bassist in the orchestra. By way of opening up a conversation, I remarked that this was the first concert I have attended in this Hall since 1963 which is about 59 years ago. For her part, she let us know that the Wigmore Hall in London runs Sunday morning concerts in which, if you in the know, you can attend and have a glass of wine thrown in for a tenner. Whether this is accurate information or not, I am not in a position to say but it made for a few minutes of interesting conversation. The piece after the interval was Beethoven’s 7th Symphony so in addition to Beethoven’s 6th which I heard recently, this makes for a couple of Beethoven symphonies I have heard in the last couple of weeks. As I have just head two good but not world class orchestras play Beethhoven recently, I think I have formed the view that this composer produces the ultimate stress test for orchestras. I think the combination of multiple tonalties and quite complex entrances at just the right microsecond really sorts out the good orchestras from the world class – this having been said, I still enjoyed last night’s performance immensely but it was over by 9.30pm so we were soon back in our hotel bedroom.
This morning, we enjoyed another magnificent breakfast in the hotel’s quite spacious ballroom which doubles as a breakfast room. As we were going to meet with my sister later on in the day, I decided to wear my special Batique (Indonesian) shirt I had acquired in Indonesia when I did a quick spell in Jakarta at lest 25 and probably some 28 years ago. The trouble is I was somewhat slimmer then and even at the time, it was a slimfit garment. As I was putting it on, a strategically placed button in the centre could no longer handle the strain and it pinged off. I enquired at reception whether they had one of those little sewing outfits that hotels sometimes supply but they had run out. So in desperation I turned my toilet bag upside down and located one of those little kits, complete with spare buttons and a needle, which I must have carrying around with me for decades. Threading an incredibly fine needle is a skill I have lost over the decades – nonetheless I succeeded and sewed the button back on again about which I was pleased but was something I have not done for best part of 60 years. After all of this this, we had a gentle walk into town and stumbled across a fabulous little Italian coffee bar which, according to press reports which they proudly displayed had been voted as one of the finest in the UK some years ago. The coffee bar was run by a couple who came from Malta and Albania respectively and they took pains to prepare all of the food on the premises. Certainly, the coffees were of excellent quality and not exorbitantly priced. After this, we jumped into the car and made for the garden centre just outside Knaresborough where we had arranged to meet my sister and my niece again for a luncheon date together. In the restaurant which is franchised by the garden centre, bookings are not routinely made but you have to get there just after midday. We got there at about one minute past 12.00pm and secured a table for four and had a very enjoyable meal with a lot of conversation about family matters. I was tempted to buy (and actually did buy) a concrete owl to which I took fancy as a garden ornament and I think I know of a good location for it on our garden terrace – despite being cast in concrete, it is a reasonably good looking exemplar so we will see when I get it home tomorrow. Then as we were not far from my sisters house we went home and drank tea all afternoon and caught up again on family matters, making some arrangements for my sister’s birthday treat when we return ‘up north’ in a month’s time. Tonight we were watching TV in our hotel bedrooom and saw Andrew Neil tear into Rishi Sunak which will not have helped him in his leadership campaign one little bit. Mind you, I would hve much preferred the spectator sport of watching Andrew Neil tear Liz Truss apart limb for limb which he probably would have done. As Liz Truss is so far ahead in her race with Rishi Sunak, she turned down the offer of an interview with Andrew Neil so as Basil Fawlty would have said (in ‘Fawlty Towers’) that is yet another avenue of pleasure denied.
Today is the day of our departure after our ‘mini-break’ which we have enjoyed enormously. We woke up at 6.30 and immediately started packing but it is so much easier to pack up when you are coming home than it is when you are going away, if only because the decisions make themselves – everything in the wardrobe needs to be packed and so on. We were packed up by 8.00 and so had an early-ish breakfast. One of the waitors recognised us and asked if there was anything we required and so we requested some muesli which was missing from the cereals corner. Then it was case of getting everything into the car in stages and we set off a little after 9.00am. We have details of how to get through directly to the reception manager at the hotel in order to organise our little get-together for my sister next month and also have a clearer idea of the numbers of people who will be able to attend so we are now in a position to firm up some of the arrangements that we have put in place. We made a stop half down the motorway and bought some Costa coffee whilst consuming our own food which was a pattern that everybody else seemed to be deploying. The first part of the journey was quite straight forward but the second half was more problematic as we were taking the M42 going around Birmingham which was quite massively congested and we crawled along at a very slow pace. This added about 30 minutes onto the journey overall but we collected our backlog of newspapers from the newsagent and then made for home. As it was a little warm and muggy, we just had a ball of ice-cream to accompany some apple tarts that we had bought as a ‘hotel bedroom’ snack and this made for a quick and instant lunch. Then we got the washing underway, got our suitcases unpacked and finally put everything away (e.g. our food bag, some of the ‘kitcheny’ things that we typically take with us to hotel bedrooms to make our stay a little more comfortable) So having got all of our systems put to rights, as it were, we are having a relaxing afternoon before we go off as we normally do to church on a Saturday evening. In the background, we have the Commonwealth games on where there are some sports that have not completely grabbed our attention just yet. But what is impressive so far is a huge mechanical 10-metre tall metal bull with the various pulleys and mechanical bits that aid its locomotion visible from the outside. After taking part in the opening ceremony, the bull has been transported to Birmingham City Centre where it is already being regarded as a tourist attraction. I think the original intention was that it would be dismantled after the Games were over but I would not be surprised if it could be kept (and occasionally operated) on a more permanent basis in the city centre.
It has been one of those cloudy days with the very occasional smattering of rain. One does wish that the heavens would open and that we could have a good proper drenching but instead we just have gloom interspersed with very light and inconsequential showers. When we return from church this evening, if nothing else in the Commonwealth Games grabs us, then we may treat ourselves to an opera via YouTube. Now that we have faster speed broadband on tap, then we don’t suffer the buffering delays that we have experienced in the past.
Whilst I have been absorbed in family activities for the last few days, I have not followed political events as closely as I generally do. But there are hints on both sides of the Atlantic that some dramatic political events may be unfolding. There is the possibility, foreshadowed in opinion polls, that the revelations of the insurrection and invasion of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021,condoned by ex-President Trump, may finally be making an impact on Republican voters in the USA to the extent that they may be withdrawing support for Trump to have another run at the Presidency. On this side of the Atlantic, Rishi Sunak is trailing Liz Truss so badly after two other prominent Conservatives have swung behind Liz Truss that there are some suggestions that Sunak might withdraw, rather than risking a humiliating defeat at the hands of Conservative party members. As always, the Sunday newspapers may give a lot of informed insights as to what is happening in the actual campaigns. At one stage, Johnson (like Trump) looked as though he might try and effect a comeback bid there is plenty more ‘dirt’ yet to be revealed, I suspect. The Labour Party is speculating that Liz Truss may quite an easy candidate to beat so they are just sitting back and watching developments with some amusement.
Today is going to be a day dominated by sports news as the Commonwealth Games are proceeding apace and at 5.00pm this evening, England will play Germany in the UEFA women’s football finals. But first things first. Being a Sunday, I collected our newspaper first thing this morning and then Meg and I breakfastd on cereal as we normally do on Sunday mornings. Miggles the cat turned up for a plateful of food for the first time in about ten days so we at least we’re not forgotten. The weather looked as though it was going to threaten us with rain so we decided to play it a little bit safe and go down to the park by car, also making sure we had some rainproof outerwear on in case we were subject to a sudden downpour. As we were a little earlier than is normal, we were not particularly surprised not to bump into any of our regulars. In any case, we needed to get back fairly early because I was due to go to the railway station at about midday in order to pick up my son who had been minding a house for his sister-in-law and her husband in Hertfordshire, which is an engagement which is undertaken every year. After we had returned home and had an early lunch, we watched in its entirety a mixed relay Triathlon. There are four members in each team, two male and two female. Each athlete has to first cold-water swim 300m, then undertake a 5km bike ride and finally run a 2km walk. Apart from these three events following each pther, the competitors have to ‘transition’ i.e. change from event to the next observing very strict protocols about where they should dismount their bike, for example. The England team got off to a flying start and perhaps the gold medal was never in doubt but there is always the possibility of things going wrong such as your bike getting a puncture. Much more exciting was the battle for silver or second place. At on time, the Welsh female runner on the last leg was about a couple of yards behind the Australian runner with the New Zealand runner breathing down her neck and in a good position to overtake. In the event, the Australian and the Welsh runner put on a spurt and put some distance between themselves and the New Zealand competitor. Evntually the Australian and the Welsh girl seemed to be running shoulder to shoulder but eventually the Welsh athlete managed to gain an edge and subsequently with the silver medal quite easily (but somewhat unexpectedly).
Late this afternoon we had the European Womens Cup Final between England and Germany. The two sides were very evenly matched but then about half way through the second half, England took the lead with a well-timed lob over the German goalkeeper. But could they hold on until the end of the game? The answer was no because just before the end of the game, the Germans scored a well deserved equaliser. So the game was destined for extra time. Normally in football matches, whoever scores the equaliser goes on to score a final and decisive goal and I was convinced this was going to happen on this occasion. Neither team made much impression upon their opponents in the first period of extra time. In the second period of extra time, England managed to score after a goalmouth scramble from a corner kick which the Germans failed to clear and then the England team had to hang on for about another ten minutes until the final whistle. They did ‘game manage’ this part of the match brilliantly by taking short throw-ins and then making sure that when tackled by a German defender the ball would bounce out for another throw in – all of which wastes precious seconds. So the final scoreline was Englnd 2 – Germany 1 but in all honesty, the game could really have gone either way. It is not that England were lucky to win but that it was a game of incredibly tight margins. The Germans have won this particular competition on nine previous occcasions and when they lost, they seemed to take defeat incredibly hard. The celebrations on the pitch went on for about an hour what with the formal presentations, the parading of the trophy around the pitch, innumerable TV interviews and so on. No doubt, tomorrow morning there will be masses of headlines to the effect that the ‘lionesses have roared’. But some of the football pundits were speculating that after this success, the shape of women’s football in England will have been dramatically changed and we may well see that girl’s football will now be much more prominent in the school curriculum.
The Sunday Times analysis of the Conservative party ‘race’ to be party leader was interesting,in a way. There a huge double page spread given to the contest but one quarter of one page (i.e. one eight of the double page spread) was devoted to Rishi Sunak and the remainder (i.e. seven eighths) to Liz Truss. This is hardly and fair and equal treatment but I suppose the Sunday Times has decided who the winner is going to be and thrown in their weight behind the likely winner. If I were part of the Sunak camp (which I am not!), I imagine I would rather peeved by this absence of equal coverage but politics is not a fair game in any event.
Today is very much the day after the night before. As you might imagine, the media as a whole and every newspaper is completely dominated by the success of the English Lionesses aka as the England Women’s successful team who triumped in the EUFA finals by beating Germany 2:1. The Queen in a message to the team included the line ‘..You have set an example that will be an inspiration for girls and women today…)’ Given that the scorer of the winning goal, Chloe Kelly, ripped off her shirt in celebration and ran down the pitch in a Nike sportsbra (for which she earned an instant yellow card, being the current regulation for shirt removal), then I think the Queen might have been slightly more judicious in her choice of words. No doubt it will become commonplace for young women to rip off their tops when celebrating any success as they have been informed that the women’s football team have been told by the monarch herself that they have set an example that will be an inspiration etc. etc. My copy of The Times had included a supplement to celebrate what is the first real success we have had since the World Cup final of 1966 (56 years ago) and I am sure that most other newspapers will probably have done the same. The German press, though, have been muted in the extreme and are claiming that they were denied a handball which would, if awarded, could have given them a penalty and probably the game itself. The ‘handball’ in question was during a goalmouth scramble in which the pall was pinging about all over the place and it did look as though the ball had hit the outstretched arm of an England player but neither the referee nor the VAR saw any intent in the incident and let it pass. To the best of my recollection, none of the German players claimed a handball either so this does look a case of ‘sour grapes’ After all, the Brits are used to being denied championship glory after some ‘iffy’ refereeing decisions but then we are quite used to losing – and the Germans are quite used to winning. I suspect that the Germans do not really know how to take defeat very easily – apparently some of the German press are even claiming that that they were robbed of success in the 1966 World Cup Final after all of these years. There has been an impromptu party held in Trafalgar Square this morning where a comment that was made was they the women had spent more time partying than they had playing fooball in th past 24 hours which is almost certainly true.
This morning I experienced a strange incident as I had received a text on my phone saying I had tried to pay someone I did not recognise and could I click a link to ‘resolve’ the matter so that a payment of something over £150 could be paid. I did smell an instant rat in all of this and got onto the fraud department of my bank. This sounds an easy thing to do but took several minutes of hanging on, not to mention going through lots of security filters. Eventually, I spoke with a ‘real’ person and I was quite right not to have clicked the dubious link. The bank official checked over my account and confirmed that no suspicious activity had taken place or was pending and then gave me a specialised email address to which I could forward the suspicious text. This I did and although a certain amount of time has been ‘wasted’ by these activities, at least I did not fall for a scam to which it might have been all too easy to have fallen prey.
This afternoon has been a gloriously sunny afternoon which I have spent in rather an indolent way. First I read all of the footage and some of the back stories to the England success. I have just one fear after all of this adulation because it is reckoned that many honours and no doubt cash will accrue to all of these players. Now honours are one thing and well-deserved, and cash that finds its way into the development of the women’s football game is only to be applauded, but I do worry that showering players with a lot of cash and sponsorships are not a good thing, either for these young women as individuals or as sports personalities. I fear that for some of them, too much cash could be the ‘kiss of death’ and would have to be handled with a great deal of care.
The political scene continues to amuse. Rishi Sunak is so desperate to make up ground on Liz Truss that he has promised to cut income texes before the end of the next Parliament i.e. in seven years time. This must be the crassest of own goals as the Truss team are saying ‘we will cut taxes within seven weeks, not seven years’ which is the evident riposte.
Today was always going to be one of those fairly ‘full’ days and so it proved. Tuesday morning is a morning when traditionally we go down and meet with people we know who turn up for a coffee in the Waitrose café. True to form, there were three sets of people there that we know and we actually bumped into a fourth as well – the only difficulty is that I feel I need to spend a little bit of time with each acquaintance, some of whom already know each other but some of them do not. I had taken along with me a double page spread from The Times which both carried a message from The Queen declaring that the success of the ‘lionesses’should be an example to all young women and girls. But on the other side of the two page spread was the dramatic and iconic image of Chloe Kelly who, having scored the winning goal, whirled away, whipped her England shirt off and twirled it over her head until she was embraced by the rest of her teammates. Incidentally, this was amazing and totally free advertising for Nike Sports Bras and, indeed, sales have really taken off since the incident last Sunday. I showed two of the more elderly ladies both what the Queen had said and the example of the young footballer and said that I expected them, in their moments of triumph, to rip off their tops and go dancing through the local parks. The laughter was heard all of the way throughout the store, so much so that the regular staff knew that the Tuesday crowd were back in action again. I then needed to go round the store and buy quite a few things which I knew we needed because having been away last Thursday we had not done a normal weekly shop last week. Principally, one of the things that I needed to buy was a ‘double sandwich’ One of these was for Meg and the other I was going to consume later on. Immediately after my normal Pilates class had ended at 2.15 today, I also had a special eye clinic appointment that I needed to attend at 3.00pm. There was no time to go home in between the two appointments so I made my way to a local park and ate my sandwich. Then I got some money out of a local ATM and also popped into Asda to pick up one or two forgotten items and then went on to my eye clinic appointment. This was was one of these routine monitoring appointments that I have once a year but I was not really looking forward to it. This is because a technician puts drops into your eyes which massively dilates the pupils and then photographs are taken of the back of the eye with a very specialised camera. At tne end of all of this, though, your eyes are sensitive to light and everything appears fuzzy and this effect can last for as long as 4-6 hours. So I walked home in some dark glasses that I had purchased years ago especially for occasions such as this one and then I just to mooch around at home until the effects of the drops wears off. I find this all a little disorienting for the few hours that it lasts but at least it is only a procedure that takes place once a year.
The Truss regime has suffered an embarrassing blow today. It all started off last night when the foreign secretary said she would save £8.8bn by introducing regional pay boards instead of national ones to set salaries for civil servants, reflecting where they lived. This figure was always an obscure one as the total civil service bill is only 9 billion. But this would mean paying government employees in poorer parts of the country less than their counterparts in more affluent areas, such as the South East and London. And experts warned to reach the sum, the plan would have to branch out further than government departments, with the likes of teachers, nurses and police officers also facing lower wages than workers in the South. However, there has been an instant uproar from Conservative party members and MPs who are arguing that this is the absolute reverse of a levelling up policy. Employees in the public services who are living in the less affluent parts of the country would then effectively receive a paycut in addition to the fact that their pay is being ‘de facto’ cut by any pay rise less than the rate of inflation. When this double pay cut on public workers throughout the country was denounced, the Liz Truss team did the most screeching of ‘U’ turns saying that the policy had been ‘misrepresented’ and it was very promptly abandoned. One has to wonder what the quality of a potential prine minister is going to be when they advocate an ill-thought through policy in the first place and then abandon it within hours.
The day dawned bright and sunny this morning, although it was still quite a humid day. Today is the day when our domestic help calls around and we are always pleased to see her and to have a chat, not least about the football success last Sunday. I popped down into town to get our newspaper and on the way backed espied our Irish friend taking her grand-daughter out for a stroll in her ‘buggy’. So I swung the car into the access road and we stopped to have a quick chat about things, not least about our very good stay in Yorkshire recently. Incidentally, I have have just had a friendly email from the hotel where we stayed a week ago and where we intend to stay in about three weeks time where, no doubt, they are trying to tempt you into upgrades or additional services. Nonetheless, we have had very good service at a good price from this hotel so they certainly have our loyalty from now on. As the weather was so fine, Meg and I walked down into the park today and, true to form, we found one of regular park couples with whom we exchange news and gossip. One of the things that was exercising us both today was the new developments that are taking place on the edge of the town without a commensurate increase in roads and other vital infrastructure. The official planning view is to encourage us all to ‘walk and cycle’ which advice may be OK for some but absolutely impractical for the vast majority of new houses that are to be built. In the latest development recently approved by the planning committee but bitterly opposed by all of the local residents, a plan was passed that allowed for 370 new houses. If each house had one car (average length of 4.4 metres) then these 370 houses will generate 1.3km of traffic if these cars were put end to end. Each home may well have 2.5 cars (Mum, Dad and teenage children) which again will imply a total traffic queue of 3.2km which is about the total distance from the new development to the centre of Bromsgrove and back again on roads that are already completely congested. The upshot of all of this is that Bromsgrove may be the first town in the country to suffer a total gridlock with nobody going anywhere. When the houses are built and the roads only improved to the most marginal extent, then nobody will be going anywhere soon. In case this sounds melodramatic, about two years ago I had an appointment at the doctors at about 8.20 in the morning and hence walked down into town along the Kidderminster Road. Even then, I found that making a journey on foot was faster than the queue of cars down Kiderminster Rad at that time in the morning and since that time, the traffic situation has deteriorated and I predict that total gridlock will occur when the new houses are actually built. The developers are already advertising that the new houses will appeal to ‘those looking to commute into nearby Birmingham’ which means that the benefit to the local community is already being attenuated.
This afternoon, Meg and I indulged ourselves by watching some of the coverage of the Commonwealth Games that are being held in Birmingham. We saw the final stages of the Mountain Biking being held on Cannock Chase and an English girl was the winner of this. Then we switched to the finals of the Womens heavyweight weightlifting competition in which an English woman and a Somoan battled it out for gold and silver – the English girl got gold. Of th various cometititons we have followed, one theme has emerged which is the depth of the local regional talent and the support that is garnered. As one of the English judo players explained, after his gold medal, that he had the support in the hall of his family, relatives, neighbours, friends, university friends, fellow athletic club members and anyone else who knew him. He pointed out that he actually spotted one of his ex-university teachers in the crowd. So the level of support for individual local athletes must be immense. A second feature that has struck me in sport after sport is that once you take into account skill levels, strength,fitness, strategy and tactics that a lot of the actual game are played out in the mind. You could see this in the weightlifting where in the case of an Indian competitor, their mind and focus was not in the right place when they approached the bar. In the case of the English weight lifting champion, she knew that she had actually lifted heavier in training which means that a particular psychological barrier is already broken. Of course, the athletes always paid tribute to the hours of training and to their families and are already think ahead to greater heights to come such as World Athletics championships and the Olympic Games in Paris to be held in 2024.
Today was a beautiful, bright and sunny day but somewhat on the humid side. First thing I did this morning was to visit an ATM, top up the car with fuel and then race round my local supermarket all in advance of our trip down to Oxford today. We set off 15 minutes earlier than we would have intended as Bromsgrove is experiencing horrific traffic delays at the moment whilst a four-way traffic scheme is in operation as some of the critical junctions in the town centre are being widened (or so I am told). The traffic delays are horrendous and a lot of local businesses are suffering a bit hit as nobody can get near them to spend any money. We stopped just north of Oxford in the car park belonging to a cafe which I used to use when I journeyed down from Leicester to Winchester some 25 years ago as this car park represented the half way point through the journey. We used the SatNav to locate the restaurant in which we were booked at midday before we set about finding a place to park (not easy in central Oxford) We turned up at the restaurant the minute it opened as did our friends who had travelled through Oxford on bike (parking their car on the outskirts and then cycling a couple of miles into the city) We had a pretty good ‘meal du jour’ and a wonderful chat, which is par for the course. We tend not to have coffee in the restaurant where we have had a meal but we search out a more specialised coffee house with the prospect of enjoyable cake also being available. As you might imagine, Oxford was teeming with tourists and we stumbled through crowds of tourists, some of whom were being a guided tour to the Oxford Colleges. As well as these more ‘normal’ tourists, there are are also others who are following the Morse/Lewis/Endeavour trails as these popular television programmes typically use Oxford as their backdrop. Oxford appeared amazingly cosmopolitan with a massive range of accents, dress, hairstyles and the like mingling in the streets. After we had lunched and then located a suitable cafe for coffee and cakes, our Oxfordshire friends have given us some magnificent gifts of eggs (newly laid from their own hens), honey (from their own hives) and finally a book on Beekeeping that our friend had just written. It seems to be a day for friends displaying the books they have written because our friendly newsagent from whom I buy a newspaper every day has a big banner in his window advertising the book that he himself has just written.
When we got home, we turned on the TV and watched the news items concerning the Commonealth Games currently held in Birmingham. This afternoon we had quite a lot of ‘background’ stories explaining how individual athletes and even presenters were performing in these games. Although the games are entitled the ‘Birmingham’ games, it is in fact a West Midlands regional games because many of the venues and the atheletes themselves come from many different parts of the West Midlands. For example, today’s time cycling trials were held in the streets of Wolverhampton and the citizens had come out in their hundreds and even thousands to cheer on the competitors. Compared with similar games that have been held in the past, several themes are very prominent. The first of these is that the paralympics athlete events are integrated into the overall programme so we do not have a pattern, as in the Olympic games, where the able-bodied athletes in one time period are then followed by the paralympic atheletes about a fortnight later. So the Birmingham games are massively inclusive in terms of different classes of athletes but also the LGBT+ communities are finding an incredibly inclusive atmosphere suffusing the Games. The multiculturalism that ‘is’ Birmingham is being shown in many diverse ways, not least in the ways that the street vendors of different kinds of food are finding great opportunities to bring their foodstuffs to the spectators of different events. It is already being said that these are the ‘friendly’ games and there certainly seems to be a fund of good will in evidence at every sports venue around the region.
Tonight Sky News are going to stage a debate between the two Conservative party front runners before an audience of Conservative voters. It is being trailed that the key presenter, Kate Burley, is going to try her hardest to ensure that the candidates actually answer the questions that are put to them. I suspect that she will fail in her efforts, however well intentioned, as politicians seem almost as a class to be programmed to answer a questions that was not actually asked, to be enamoured of a soundbite and despite the fact that they claim that debates are all a matter of policies, in practice the whole debate will be seen in terms of style rather than substance i.e. how well they manage their own self images rather than a projection of policy issues ‘per se’.
Meg and I were a little tired today after our very enjoyable day out in Oxford yesterday. Fortunately, the roads were not too busy and we made good time both on the journey out and back again. This morning, though, we decided to go down to town by car where we collected our newspaper and then, as it was not getting a little late, we went to the park where we met up with two of our regular park friends that we tend to always meet at the weekends. Today, Seasoned World Traveller and I spent some time discussing the rank folly (in our joint view) of Nancy Pelosi, the veteran Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States making a visit to Taiwan which could only inflame world tensions with China. The Chinese have reacted immediately and strongly to what is perceived as the ‘understanding’ between China and the USA (‘constructive ambiguity’) being breached. The latest move today is that China is withdrawing cooperation with the United States over climate change policies and the cack-handed move by Pelosi may well means that the Chinese and Russian leaders now make common cause with each other. In short, we looks as though we are all going to be losers and the world is now a less secure place. After we had had our coffee and a chat, Meg and I made a visit to our local Morrisons. This is because parking is easy and we needed an item from the pharmacy so it is likely to be cheaper and less bother than going into town. In the supermarket, we also picked up some icecream that we always need in this type of weather, some alcohol free beer (ditto) as well as our pharmacy item. Then it was home to have a lunch of smoked hake that we often enjoy on a Friday. The weather was set fair this afternoon and although the lawns had hardly grown in the recent hot wather, they were a little wispy and untidy. So I got them cut using the last bit of petrol that I had in store – the petrol mower only takes two gallons a season so I must remind myself to get some more before next week.
Last night, Meg and I watched the Sky News debate between Lizz Truss and Rishi Sunak on Sky News. They had an interesting format in that the audience consisted of uncommitted Tory party members. Each candidate had to field questions from the audience for 30 minutes and then Kate Burley fired a series of penetrating questions at each of the candidates. For me the best moment of the night came when Kate Burley put a series of about 5-6 things on which Liz Truss had apparently changed her mind, some historic and some recent, and then asked ‘Could the real Liz Truss stand up?’ She had no real answer to the inconsistencies and resorted to formulas such as the policy to reduce the pay of civil servants in the regions was ‘misinterpreted’ but she could not say by whom. Rishi Sunak came over as sharp, on the ball and pretty dynamic although some of his detractors would say that he was ‘too slick’. The audience had been equipped with the technology that has been around for years where they press either a ‘1’ or ‘ ‘2’ on their device and the results are collated and immediately shown on a large screen. (I used something similar in my last days of lecturing and that was 15 years ago) But when the results were due to be shown, the technology had ‘crashed’ although I do smell a rat here. So Kate Burley asked for a show of hands and my impression was that Liz Truss got about 20% of the audience vote, Rishi Dunal about 60%. Certainly there was a clear and uneqivocal winner. As this was not the result that the presenters had been expecting, I wonder whether the software crash was actual or diplomatic but the show of hands was quite decisive. I doubt that this will cut much ice with overall Tory party electorate who are giving Liz Truss a 30 point lead as the the Boris Johnson-lite candidate. There is a story hat Boris Johnson would probably win the vote if it were left to voters in the constituencies. I am reminded of the classic American debates between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. This was not decided on policies but on candidate ‘appeal’. Richard Nixon needed to shave twice a day but did not and acquired a 5 o’clock shadow which gave him a slightly shifty appearance, The Democrats exploited this tremendously with the attack line ‘Would you buy a used car from this man?’ Richard Nixon carried the soubriquet of ‘tricky Dicky’ thereafter and of course, he lost this election to Kennedy (although he won on subsequent occasions)
Today was the most glorious of days with a brilliant blue sky but just a few puffy white clouds and the gentlest of breezes to ensure that we did not get too hot. We had a leisurely start to the day and then went down into town by car to pick uo our newspaper and then we made our way, a little earlier than usual, to the park and our favourite bench. Whilst we were drinking our coffee, we bumped into someone we know by sight and we indulged her by throwing a ball for her cocker spaniel. She let us know that her dog spotted us from quite a fair distance and made for us like an arrow from a bow, anticipating that we throw a beloved tennis ball as far as we could ready for the dog to retrieve. Actually, it seems like an animal day today because I went outside just after breakfast wondering if the sound of my sweeping the path would be picked up by Miggles, our adopted cat and indeed it was. After a gap of nearly a week, the cat seems to have rediscovered us (or rather a saucer of rather delicious cat food to which he/she is partial) We also met our old acquaintance, Seasoned World Traveller in the park and we spent some time talking about mobile telephone technology and then, inevitably, the Conservative party leaders election. Then we made our way home and prepared a lunch with some TVP mince, broccoli and baked potato. As it such a beautiful afternoon, we took a load of washing and soon had a lineful drying in the sun. The washing today was a little fuller than usual because I had bought a pack of five socks yesterday and thought I would give them a wash today before I start wearing them.
On consulting the TV schedules, I notice that there is a showing of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ this evening – the downside of all this is that it starts at 6.00pm which is just the time when we will be attending church. I thought I would see if I could make a recording of this to ‘timeshift’ this but when I tried the control on our TV set I just got a message saying ‘PVR’ and nothing else at all. I don’t know and cannot tell if there are other buttons I should be pressing of if the PVR unit as a whole has failed. Later on, I am going to try and catch it on i-Player which may or may not be helpful to me. In the event, I did manage to get it in iPlayer even though the original transmission was still continuing at the time.
The Tory party leader hustings are carrying out with various meetings across the country. What is interesting about the Liz Truss campaign is that be common consensus with all economists (except the radical right Patrick Minford) is that the Truss nostrum of ‘tax cuts now’ will only add to the inflationary spiral. Nonetheless, her message seems to be well received in the conservative membership as a whole. If these are overwhelmingly white, male and middle class then perhaps they are quite pleased to get tax cuts – and increased rates will only add to the returns on their investments so perhaps what is good for them is dire for the rest of the country. After Liz Truss is elected, she will have to make actual decisions and one wonders how rhetoric and ideology are going to square with the pragmatic business of running a country going into one of the worst economic scenarious that any of us can remember in our lifetime. Whilst on this subject, it appears to be that the country is heading for the most severe of economic downturns whilst there is no Prime Minister or Chancellor of the Exchequeur in evidence as they are both on holiday. So we have a zombie government and no government action or steer whilst it looks as the country is speeding downhill. Given the state of the crisis ahead of us, perhaps it is time for the most radical of measures somewhat similar to that experienced in the 1970’s when we had the power disputes that put the country into a three day week. I think there is scope for measures that parallel those that we experienced during the pandemic. How about reducing thr national speed limit to 50mph to save fuel for the nation, reducing all street lighting and turning it off where possible, having a crash insulation programme all over the country, a massive raid on the unearned profits of the power and utility companies with all of the taxes raised going to all of those on UC (Universal Credit) and so on. I am sure that there must be imaginative ways in which the population as a whole and their political leaders can navigate their way through this particular crisis but it will take some imagination, intelligence and political flair none of which will be manifest when a new Prime Minister emerges.
Another fine day dawned with the promise of a sunny day ahead. Being a Sunday, I walked down to get the newspaper first thing in the morning and the only people on the road at this time are joggers and dog-walkers. Meg and I breakfasted watching a bit of Sunday morning TV – normally, it would have been a politics programme but they are all off having their summer break at the moment. Meg and I took the car down to the park where we encountered Seasoned World Traveller as we have expected that we might. After a while, some other park acquaintances turned up, a couple who we had not seen for a couple of weeks but they like a lot of the nation had been taking some holiday (in England) and taking the opportunity to meet with relatives as well. As well as the congestion at the airports, the Mediterranean style of weather we are enjoying at the moment lessens the incentive to go off to foreign climes in search of the sun. We had a Sunday lunch of a ham joint which, these days, we tend to cook and then save half for another week to ensure that our consumption of red meat is kept within reasonable bounds. After lunch, we indulged in a lazy afternoon reading the Sunday newspaper whilst keep an eye open on the film of ‘Around the World in 80 days’ which is one of those spectaculars where you can watch the more interesting bits if you want to and ignore some of the rest. In the Commonwealth games, we watched the end of the men’s cycling road race, some boxing finals and finally some diving. The athletics finals tend to be broadcast in the evenings and this is a bit more to our taste, particularly when there are relay races and the potential for things to go wrong disastrously if the baton changes are anything less than perfect.
As one might expect, there is quite a sustained analysis of the contest to be the next Conservative party leader and therefore, Prime Minister. Some analysts have attempted a more in depth analysis of why Liz Truss is enjoying her current 30 point lead over Rishi Sunak and is coming to conclusions which are not really earth shattering. The ‘finding’ which some will find disturbing is that the actual policies and performances of the two candidates is relatively unimportant, whatever the rival camps might say. Much more significant is the appeal to the two ‘tribes’ within the modern Conservative party. Rishi Sunak enjoys a lead over the erstwhile ‘Remainers’ whilst Liz Truss has an overwhelming lead amomgs the ‘Leave’ group. As the latter group is so much larger than the former, this explains the huge lead that Liz Truss is enjoying. But there is a certain dramatic irony in all of this as Rishi Sunak has always been a ‘Leave’ campaigner whereas Liz Truss voted ‘Remain’ but very rapidly converted as soon as she saw which way the wind was blowing. One is tempted to remind oneself of the remark by Groucho Marx that ‘Those are my principles, and if you do not like them… well, I have others’. The other thing which is all too self evident is that many of the current crop of ambitious Conservative politicians have seen which way the wind is blowing and thrown in their support behind the likely winner (Liz Truss), evidently hoping for a ministerial job and all of the perks that follows. So we have seen many of the defeated candidates (Tugendhat, Mordant, Javid) all pledging their support for Truss despite having previously disagreed with many of her policies.
I rather like quotations, particularly political ones, and whilst they can sometimes be very trite, sometimes they do give pause for thought. Quite by accident, I came across this one recently which, whilst an oversimplication, is witty. The author was Desmond Tutu, the esteemed Soth African Archbishop: ‘When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land’. Tonight, after we had had some tea, I thoght I had better throw some water over some of our plants in pots. Some have suffered tremendously. in the extreme temperatures that we have been experiencing and the diffuclty is being able to discern whether a plant is now too far gone (and therefore not needing watering) and those that might survive from a good soaking. I shall just have to be empirical about this but when we are all trying conserve water in this drought I don’t wish to appear wasteful. Perhaps in future, all houses will be designed so that water that runs off a roof can be diverted into a waterbutt for gardening or for car washing which will be a minimal addition to the overall cost of a house after all.
This morning, I had a special mission when I collected my copy of The Times from my local newsagent. I knew that he was working on a sort of science-fiction-cum-philosophy type book and as he was advertising it on a banner poster on his front door, I sent off to Amazon for my own copy. This arrived on Saturday so I took it down today to have it signed by the author. This put me in mind of a famnous story told by Spike Milligan. Apparently, a lifelong fan had written to him saying that he would dearly like to have a ‘singed’ publicity photo. Spike obliged by getting one of his publicity phots and with a cigarette lighter ‘singed’ each of the edges and duly sent it off. A few days later, Spike received a letter from the disappointed fan who explained that he dearly wished to have a ‘singed’ publicity photo but all that he received was a publicity photo which was ‘signed’ along each edge! Anyway, it is always precious to get a book personally signed by the author so I shall have to read it cover-to-cover in the next few days. Today in the park we met two of our regulars, Seasoned World Traveller and Veteran Octogenerian Hiker but to be honest, it was so hot in the middle of the day that we cut our converations short and repaired to the shade of a nearby tree where we could carry on our conversations in relative comfort. Upon our return to the house, we had some weeds growing along our curtillage (if that is the correct term for a raised pebbled area at the base of the fence bordering our roadway). So the biggest of these that were easily hand-pullable were duly got rid of but I used my own home made weedkiller for the smaller ones that were less easy to grab. MY own weedkiller is basically a strong vinegar with a tiny bit of washing up liquid, the function of which is to reduce the surface tension and thereby make the solution ‘wetter’ Then if the weeds get sprayed in the middle of the day when the sun is high, then there should be a massive dehydration effect and the weeds ought to shrivel and die within hours. In the past, this technqiue had worked pretty well but I only use the solution for small pesky weeds that are troublesome to remove. After lunch, we felt that we needed to have a quick word with our Irish friends about some church issues but they were not in. Down the road, though, we saw our Italian friend and on the spur of the moment, invited her around for a quick cup of tea or even a glass of wine. But she was dosing herself on some antibiotics for some swollen glands so declined our invitation today but we thought we would get together for a longer chat when she is feeling a bit better. Tonight is the closing night of the Commonwealth Games but that clashes with an ‘Endeavour’ to which we are well and truly committed – the highlights of the closing ceremony will be shown later on in any case. Last night, we had a wonderful Mozart concert on BBC4 with a film later on about Mozart’s life and times whih we enjoyed whilst we were getting ready for bed.
This afternoon, I struggled somewhat trying to get a photo of myself which I need to get into a reasonable shape for a church related function. I had tried to take some selfies of myself by reversing the camera on my iPhone and succeeded in taking images that looked as though I was an escapee from Alcatraz. I had also had an acquaintance in the park take couple of mugshots of me that were a bit more presentable but there was a background behind my head of green grass. This I tried to remove with an editor native to Apple that only worked in rectangles but I finished off wih an image that was tolerable. The trouble is that it was a .png file and when I tried to convert it to a JPEG file the results were absolutely dire. So I managed to get photo ready for onward transmission but I am not really happy with any of them. There is some specialist software that will remove backgrounds from photos but I am wary of downloading anything ‘free’ from the web these days so I may be forced to a more kludgy solution to get something which is halfway presentable. I have been in correspondence with the under manager at the Harrogate hotel regarding the little ‘party’ for my sister in just over two weeks time and it looks as though I need to organise my own cake to take along to Harrogate for me. Mind you, there is a good cake making firm on the High Street in Bromsgrove so this might do the job for me.
I have come to expect Tuesdays are busy days and today was certainly no exception. Tuesday morning is the morning when a lot of the pre-pandemic Waitrose ‘gang’ congregate in the Waitrose coffee bar to see each other, exchange news and gossip and generally enjoy each other’s company. I seem to be at the intersection of many overlapping circles so I have to manage my interactions with a degree of care, giving a certain amount of time to each one. I started off having a few words with Seasoned World Taveller who I see in the park many days each week but he seems to have got into the habit of 10.30 on Tuesday mornings. Then there are three more elderly ladies, all of whom of course know each other. Two of them have husbands with dementia so to some extent we act as a source of mutual support to each other. Finally, there is a person who used to be our regular gardener and he himself is recovering from quite a serious illness so again, we do what we can do to help his recovery which seems to be taking place im very small increments. As my regular shopping day is a Thurday, if there is anything of which I have run out, then Tuesday is a good day to top up supplies and today there were about five or six things that I needed to buy. Then, of course, we need to return home and get some lunch organised so that upon my return from Pilates, we can eat wit the minimum of delay. There were only two of us in my Pilates class today which was a little unusual but some of the regulars are either away on holiday or have moved, temporarily or permanently, to other classes. On the way home, I popped into my local Asda to buy one or two commodities that I know I can only buy from there – it was very hot walk back so it was one of those days when I was actively seeking the shadiest part of the street. On my way down to Pilates, I had a quick word with our Irish friends and the upshot of this is that Meg is going to spend part of he evening with the lady of the house whilst we two husbands are off to the church for a church meeting which will take place every 2-3 months, once things settle down.
This afternoon, I busied myself getting some documents run off that I need for the meeting this evening. At the same time, and knowing that I need to get myself a birthday cake for my sister, I found a website from a firm in Nottingham that makes personalised cakes and delivers them by post. Rather than chasing all over Bromsgrove choosing, ordering and then collecting a cake, I have bit the bullet and ordered what I need over the web. The design I have chosen looks excellent and my ordered cake will arrive in a few days time. I have sent a query off to the firm to which they say they will respond within 24 hours to ask about such things as keeping qualities, storage advice and so on. It may be that I have odered it a tad too early but I was not sure how long the delivery was going to take and hence my spur of the moment order today. You can see why busy people resort so much to the internet as you could spend a fortune on petrol chasing around to find even a local retailer who will supply you with what you need. We will see if my questions are answered when the reply comes.
Today the political debate seems to be intensifying. A consensus appears to be developing across most of the political spectrum that massive problems are facing the country with rocketing fuel increases and an inflation rate that may well exceed 13%. But there do not seem to be any government plans to do anything about all of this until the new Prime Minister is first announced on 5th September and then takes office some weeks later. Gordon Brown, the ex-Labour Prime Minister who lost to David Cameron is suggesting that there is now a need for an immediate, emergency budget. The Conservative front runner, Liz Truss, is announcing that she will cut taxes and green levies but is setting her face against what she calls ‘handouts’. Such a policy will benefit the already wealthy but those on low incomes and Universal Credit will soon experience massive cuts to their living stndards. Some are arguing that such a policy spells electoral suicide for the Conservative party but in the race to be Conservative leader, this seems unimportant to members of the conservative constituency parties who form the electorate in the voting for a new Prime Minister and amongst whom Liz Truss still has a commanding lead of over 30%
Needless to say, the day started off hot and sultry and is probably the start of a series of 4-5 days until a thunderstorm might cool us all down. In the 1970’s, we all got used to lawns that were scorched yellow and it is almost the same all over again, although I suspect that the temperatures now may be hotter and more extensive than they were fifty years ago. It is evident that we need to save whatever water we can in the few days and weeks ahead so I am trying to do my little bit by not throwing away washing up water but letting it cool down and then throwing it over some of the plants (in pots) outside our back door. We had a morning filled with one of the minor frustrations of life. After we had collected our newspaper, we then repaired to the park and had our coffee and were it not to be for the slightest of cooling breezes, we would have been burnt to a frazzle. Then we toiled to the far end of the High Street in seach of a branch of Barclays Bank with whom we have some financial affairs to settle. As soon as we got there, the branch looked closed as indeed it is every Wednesday and, as from October, we were told that the branch was going to be closed completely and those who had dealings with Barclays Bank would need to travel to Redditch, a neighbouring town some 7 miles away. When I talk with neighbours and friends, I am constantly given horror stories about how badly banks treat their customers these days – I suppose since ‘quantitative easing’ when shedloads of mony was pushed by the Bank of England towards the Banks, they do not really need customers like us any more and we just represent a cost or even a nuisance. Not everything you want to do can be handled online but the banks do make it harder and harder for ‘ordinary’ customers.
This afternoon, our hairdresser called round and so we are both duly shorn. We were also expecting our chiropodist who failed to turn up which was no surprise as we had misread our own planning board as she is not due to come until tomorrow. After the shopping is done first thing tomorrow morning, we might go the large M&S store in Longbridge (ex-site of the ‘Austin’ factory, aka British Leyland) It is a little kmown fact that during World War Two, over 3,000 aircraft were also produced at Longbridge – including the famous Hawker Hurricane, which won around 60% of air victories in the Battle of Britain.) I happen to have a particular fondness for the Hawker Hurricane ever since I made a model of one when I was a boy in about 1960. There was a firm called ‘KeilCraft’ who printed out designs on balsa wood. To construct the model of your coice, you cut it out with a craft knife, glued it altogether, covered it in a tissue paper to which ‘dope’ was then applied to shrink it over the frame and finally it got painted in the authentic colours of the originals. Needless to say, it took a lot of patient hours of work and one wonders if there is any equivalent in the toys and handicrafts of today.
Today, it looks as though the seriousness of the crisis facing the British economy is finally starting to strike home. A Treasury minister has confirmed that a package of measures is being worked upon in the background and despite denials from the politicians, whoever wins the election for the party leader will no doubt implement a lot of what officals have decided. Liz Truss,in particular, has always maintained that tax cuts plus removal of the ‘green levies’ on fuel will be her principal policy choice – but she has no answer to the fact that this alone cannot bridge the massive increase in fuel costs. The average fuel bill was £1,400 in October 2021 but after fuel ‘caps’ are removed, this is expected to rise to £4,266 next January. The government is committed to giving everyone £400 towards this increase of £2,800 which is about one seventh of the anticipated increase. There is now sheer panic sweeping the nation as many Direct Debits are already in place that will anticipate this rise in fuel prices. Martin Lewis, the well-known and respected financial guru, was practically apopletic on Radio 4 this morning claiming that ministers’ claims they can’t do anything until a new PM is in place are “simply not true”. It is rare to find anyone so respected and authoritarive as Martin Lewis so angry which may help to explain why Treasury ministers have been spurred into action. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has said that any new PM will probably hand out more money to consumers and even Lizz Truss is starting to hint that despite her opposition tom ‘handouts’ that she, too, will change policy and support some sort of package of measures. But so far, it is all smoke and mirrors and everything is on hold until September 6th (days after the new cap on fuel prices has been lifted)
Today being a Thursday is my shopping day so I got up in plenty of time in order to arrive at the supermarket before it opens at 8.00am. I was there at 5 minutes before opening so myself and another ‘early bird’ spent some time chatting about how we were coping with the extremely hot weather and the uses of vinegar as a home made weedkiller. I mention this because the acetic acid in the vinegar acts as a dessicating agent and the hotter the sun, the more the leaves will shrivel and die at minimal expense. After I had done the shopping and then whizzed around for the newspaper, I got home and had a delayed breakfast. By the morning’s post, some pre-odered SIMS arrived for a couple of ancient mobile phones that I am going to use as backups. I have found through bitter experience that one of the best low-cost but reliable providers is Tescomobile and as I already have an account set up, it is easy to add a couple of ‘Family and Friends’ into my account details and then adding a little bit of credit to each becomes a breeze. I have also discovered over the years that this provider has a top-up number which repeats the number of the SIM back to you and this is particularly useful just to ensure that the newly installed SIMS are working as intended. Another reason for using this service is that they do not necessarily cancel the account if it is left unused for a period of time (as backup phones typically are) and although their terms and conditions state that one should make at least one chargeable call every six months, I think that in practice this is often as much as a year. After extolling the virtues of this, I also have ordered a spare SIM for Seasoned World Traveller who I will probably see in the park over the next day or so. After that, Meg and I made for the huge M&S store at Longbridge just ‘down the road’ where we were shopping for underwear. Bewildered by the range of choice in ladies undergarments – I will not be more specific at this stage – we got the assistance of a very friendly shop assistant who managed to direct me to the correct style, size and colour of the garments in question. We treated ourselves to cups of coffee and a dainty little sandwhich which I figured would be better for us than filling ourselves full of cake and so we made for home. It was so hot today that I made ourselves a very light lunch based around a tin of tuna which I always keep in stock for such occasions and it certainly sufficed. We knew that our chiropodist was due at 3.00pm so we made sure that we were all lunched, washed up and tidied up before she arrived.
This evening, Meg and I had scheduled for ouselves to attend a special church service which was the ‘official’ induction of the new priest. We got there in plenty of time and in no time at all, the church was absolutely packed. As well as the ‘normal’congregation there was also delegation from the cathedral and other members of the church hierarchy, some members of cognate congregations and quite a fair number of relatives. The only similar event I have ever attended was as a guest to the inauguration of a distant cousin of my mothers to the bishopric of Liverpool in the Anglican church and this was held, as I remember, in York Minster for some reason now forgotten. This occasion was marked by a profusion of ritual but I was quite touched by the emotional appeal of it all as the responses of the congregation was quite heartfelt and vociferously expressed and the congregation joined in the singing of the hymns, and the occasional sung response, with a gusto more redolent of Methodism than Catholicism. Afterwards, there was a magnificent buffet and Meg and chatted with people some of whom we knew a little by sight and some of whom recognised us from the park. We were delighted to meet up again with a doughty Geordie lady who is in her mid 80’s but who, after a bad episode of COVID and quite a long stay in hospital, now preferred to worship ‘on line’ rather than attending Church in person. She was very sweet and kindly when I updated her on Meg’s ailments and whilst Meg was chatting, I circulated a little and told some of my theological jokes (such as the Desmond Tutu story mentioned in the blog a day or so ago) to anyone I thought I would appreciate it. I was very touched to see the warmth with which members of the congregation came to express their congratulations and support for our new priest and Meg and I were practically the last to leave. Tomorrow morning, we have no pressng commitments so we might allow the luxury of an extra few minutes in bed after all of this excitement.
Today we were pleased to have no particular commitments and all we had to do was to develop strategies to survive the heat. The next three days are probably going to be critical and, thereafter, there ought to be some cooling and the possibility of downpours with, perhaps, a thunderstorm or two thrown in. To avoid the heat, we travelled by car to pick up our newspaper and then made our way to the park. We were practically fried to a frazzle on our normal bench but shortly afterwards the adjacent bench. nicely located under a large sycamore tree, became vacant and we were delighted to occupy it and to enjoy some gentle breezes. We had hoped to see one or two of our regular park friends today but neither made an appearance so after a suitable wait, we made our way home. Fortunately today we had a very simple lunch planned which was a meal of seabass served on a bed of lettuce. This is quickly and easily prepared and is nutritious without being too filling but in view of the tremendous heat (28-29 degrees outside our back door), we treated ourselves to a sweet of cooling ice-cream. This afternoon, Meg and I started off the afternoon by changing into some nice cooling clothing, appropriate to today’s conditions, because we have to do everything we can to keep ourselves stable in these unprecedented times. I have already filled the fridge with several bottles of tap water so that we always have some cooled water available. Then I replied to some of my emails at length. First, one of my university flatmates who lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, had lost the address of my blog so he had written to a mutual friend/flatmate. I supplied both the WordPress and the text version web addresses and also included my current business card which some months ago, I had the foresight to put on an easily accessible website. Then I wrote a long email to our University of Winchester friend who lives in a little hamlet in Berkshire and updated her on all of the activities in which we have been engaged since she came to stay with us about a month ago. After this, I texted one of our friends with whom we hope to rendezvous when we make our visit up to Yorkshire in about 12 days time. I have done preliminary research to locate a restaurant within easy reach of York station that will act as a meeting point for the four of us – my first choice of restaurant had to be abandoned when I discovered that it only opens in the evening and not at lunchtimes apart from the weekends but I have now located a hotel with a good restaurant in the approaches to the station which I think will fit the bill for us.
As I write today, there is a special program to which I am half listening on the heatwave and the drought. One fact that has emerged is that one fire started on a farm somewhere in the South where an agricultural implement had struck a stone which created a spark and that was enough to set the grassland alight and for the fire to take hold. There is also quite a lot of talk about the reservoirs that have been built (or rather not been built) in the past few decades. Although there are plans to build a new reservoir in Havant to assist the rain starved South of the country, it appears that many reservoirs have been been sold off to increase the profitability of the water companies rather than to enhance the supply of water. I heard one account that suggested that the last major reservoir to be built ‘in the South’ was Rutland Water, perhaps commentators being ignorant of the fact that this is the East Midlnds and not the South! There is also a report that the capacity of Rhine has reduced so much that the clearance of the huge barges that ply up and down the Rhine is now down to about 40cm (about the size of large rock) The Rhine is decribed as the ‘M1’ of Germany as so many heavy goods are distributed up and down its length. The solution of the Germans is to transport loads in much smaller barges only one quarter of the capacity of the normal transportation barges. This is evidently inefficient, clogs up the river and the cumulative effect of all of this may be to knock half a percentage point off the anticipated economic growth of the German economy this year. There seems to be a growing consensus that these extremes of heat are going to be the ‘new’ normal and this means that serious thought has to be given to stop leakages and increase investment in water. Of course, privatisation was meant to be the ‘solution’ to all of these problems but we are seeing a familiar pattern in which concern about returns to shareholders seems much important than investment to improve the water supply, whatever the water regulator attempts to do.
We have two days of hot weather to either enjoy, or endure, and the weather forecasters tell us that the temperatures should dip a little lower on Monday and then we may have some thunder and rainstorms on Tuesday. Whether we get the rain or not, we shall have to wait and see. This morning, we thought we would make the best of the fine weather by having a full load of washing done and then pegged out onto the washing line by 10.30 and with these temperatures, it should not take too long to be completely dry. Meg and I went by car to pick up our newspaper and our friendly newsagent informed us that he was going to be shut for a week as he is going on holiday to Vienna, which sounds marvellous. Next week, we shall have to get used to getting our newspaper voucher exchanged at Waitrose, as we used to in years gone by. Meg and I made our way to the park and passed the time of day with Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was half way through his regime of some 9-10 km per day. Then we were joined by Seasoned World Traveller for whom I had acquired a SIM for his standby mobile. We gossiped a bit about mutual acquaintances and thought we would probably rendezvous again on Tuesday morning in Waitrose. We drove home and made a lunch of mince,broccoli and baked potato – unremarkable but typical on a Saturday. This afternoon,after a siesta, I made a brief foray into the garden to remove a bramble that had suddenly grown and was annoying me but making descent into Mog’s Den for the first time in a week, I noticed with some pleasure that a buddleja I had planted last year has now grown to an enormous size. In fact, it probably needs a good tying up but I am going to wait until the weather cools down before I attempt this.
The news came through yesterday of the stabbing of Salman Rushdie and I found myself quite upset by it. I was talking to our chiropodist about the partition of India and the novel by Salman Rushie ‘Midnight’s Children’ which is fictional in one sense, but absolutely realistic in another as it documents the traumas suffered when the Musim and Hindu populations that had coexisted pretty well for decades in Indian villages were wrenched apart by the dynamics set in place by partition, many families finding themselves the ‘wrong’ side of the line. The British by and large stood by and did nothing whilst the communal violence flared across the border areas. There are a series of programmes (on Channel 4 I think) where descendants of British Asians have gone back to find the villages in which their grandparents had lived and whether they were remembered at all from those traumatic times in 1947. Salman Rushdie appears to be quite seriously injured and as I write, it may be that he will lose one eye completely, the nerves in one of his arms has been severed and his liver badly damaged by the attack. One commentator has observed that ‘his fight is our fight’ and I suspect that this is a sentiment shared by many of us. It may be some time before Rushdie’s medical condition stabilises for a firm prognosis but what is particularly shocking is that this attack took place some 32 years after the fatwa (a type of call for assassination) was pronounced on Rushdie by the Ayatollah of Iran in 1989. The attacker has now been charged with murder but we must await some of the news bulletins to ascertain whether the attack actually was the result of the ‘fatwa’ or something more random.
I have been in contact with our friends in Scarborough to firm up the arrangements for us to meet in York in about twelve days time. I think I have found a suitable hotel on the appoaches to the station and once I have heard from our friends, I can go ahead and make a firm booking for the four of us. We will have tremendous amount to catch up on as we we have not actually met face-to-face for I think about four years now and quite a lot of water have flowed under the bridge in both of our lives. I have ensured that Meg and I both have up-to-date rail discount passes so that we can make the journey from Harrogate to York without having to trouble ourselves with car parking in central York. Meg and I decided to get married in York and our son went to boarding school there, so the city of York has very happy associations for all members of the family. We think we should be clear of train drivers’ disputes on the day we intend to travel but we will keep our fingers crossed!
Today is hopefully the very end of the very hottest of days as tomorrow, according to the weather forecasts, the temperature should moderate by a degree or so whereas on Tuesday it may be that we have some thunderstorms and perhaps, if we are lucky, torrential rain. So Meg and I are doing what we can to keep ourselves cool all day long. As today is a Sunday, I walked down to get the newspaper and perhaps because of the heat, I did not come across any joggers or dog-walkers which is typical on Sunday morning. My newsagent told me yesterday that he and his wife were going to go on holiday for a week to Vienna. So I scoured the bookcase in which we shelve all of our travel books and guides and discovered that we had a Baedeker guide to Vienna that we must have purchased decades ago and has been languishing on our bookshelves ever since. So I was delighted to loan the guide to our newsagents and trust it will be useful. I asked them if they would say a special ‘Hello’ to the statue of Beethoven for me in central Vienna and I reminded them of my favourite Beethoven story. The memorial in central Vienna was not Beethoven’s initial resting place but some time in the late nineteenth century, his grave was relocated to central Vienna. When the coffin was disinterred, the gravediggers could not help but to have one last look at the body (or skeleton) of Beethoven. When the coffin was opened, they were amazed to discover that the skeleton was using his left hand and was evidently writing something but in a backwards direction. Then one of the gravediggers turned to each other and explained that it was evident that Beethoven was just busy de-composing!
Meg and I took the car to the park but today was a special ‘green fun day’ in which evidently Bromsgrove District Council were putting on some activities, perhaps to amuse children, in the middle of the summer holidays. So entrance to the park was restricted but we explained to the local authority personnel manning the gates that we visited the park every day and they allowed us to enter and park in our usual spot. We did bump into Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker again this morning who had busy walking since 9.30 in the morning and by this time it was nearly midday. But I must say that the normal clientele using the facilities of the park on a Sunday morning seemed to be much less than normal and we wondered if various people had turned up to the park, seen the control on the gates and had been deterred from entering. We occupied a shady seat but made sure that we did not stay too long and made for home. On the way home, we were greeted by our next door neighbour who made us a gift of some newly picked french beans which we were delghted to accept. In the oven whilst we were away, we had cooking one of those chickens that cook in their own tin tray and cooking bag. We complemented this with some carrots which I cut into small ‘sticks’ and then finished off in the hot oven with a drizzle of honey and this made for a really tasty and delicious dinner. We have masses of chicken left over for the rest of the week only consuming one breast for today’s lunch and leaving the other, the legs and other meat for meals later on this week. As today is likely to the hottest day in the current spell, Meg and I changed into really light clothing the minute we got into the house and made sure that we had doors and windows left suitably ajar to keep the house as cool as we can. This afternoon, we got rather absorbed into watching the final of the women’s gymnastic floor exercise. There were ten finalists and the first to perform was an Ialian girl who set an impressvely high standard. This performance was almost, but not quite, bettered by her Italian teammate so the first two competitors seemed to have set themselves up for gold and silver. This position remained throughout the competition until the British competitor, the current European’floor’ champion took to the floor as the last competitor and retained her gold medal beating the Italian girl by something like 0.066 of a point (out of a potental 15). So this was enjoyable in the extreme.
Today, there has been an update on the condition of Salman Rushdie, the object of an attempted assassination a day or so ago. The latest news is that he is now off a ventilator, can speak a few words and athough still quite critically injured, he appears to be on upwards trajectory (with, I am sure, a sigh of relief from most of the world community) I am wondering whether the world’s artistic elite, or an American benefactor, might club together to ensure that Rushdie has round the clock protection for the rest of his days.
Today was meant to be the day when the temperatures moderated and the possibility of a smattering of rain increased. The weather app on my mobile which is generally quite reliable put the probability of rain at 12.00pm at 90% but it didn’t happen. Thereafter, the time at which we might get a shower was a moving feast being first 6.00pm and then 9.00pm and then, perhaps, tomorrow morning. But the weather is definitely on the change and we look forward to whatever rain we can get, when it comes. This morning, I had intended to pop along to our local branch of a high street bank in order to make an appointment for me to conduct some financial transactions but I thought I would make a quick telephone call to them first in order to make sure that I could make an appointment to make an apppintment. However, the number provided on the web was a national number and instead of getting through to the branch to make an appointment, I finished up doing a lot of the preliminary work over the phone. After waiting for three quarters of an hour on the phone, I was then on the phone for at least another half an hour where basically before I could make the appointment that I wanted, I had to supply a lot of the financial details (not to mention security questions) that would be discussed in the appointment even before I could make an appointment. This sounds excessively cumbersome and I am sure that the banks are trying hard to cover themselves. However, Meg and I were successful in getting through preliminary checks and we now have an appointment made by a real live person in Worcester in about a fortnight’s time. This took a certain amount of pushing but eventually everything worked out the way that I wanted but I do need to supply a lot of the documention that the bank requires several days before the appointment itself. At the end of the day, though, and although it took the best part of a morning, Meg and I are fairly satisfied that when we do have our meeting with a ‘real’ person (instead of doing everything over the phone) everything will be sorted out in the way that we would wish and intend. Meg and celebrated this minor triumph by going down to Waitrose for a cup of coffee and to pick up our copy of The Times, as our regular newsagent is on holiday for a week. Then we had a quick lunch and it was time for telephone marathon Number 2. First thing this morning, I got the correct credit allocated to my new tariff on Tescomobile (whose praises I have been singing recently) with the operative informing me that had been a ‘system error’ But the reaction I got when I wanted my second phone regularising could not be more different and the operative insisted that I had lost my credit by changing tariff, that his colleagues who had put things right for me in the morning had made a mistake in my favour. I asked to speak to a supervisor but none was available and although I kept my cool, basically I got nowhere. So I phone off, phoned in again and got a customer care staff member who could not have ben more helpful, made lots of reassuring noises and then eventually put the credit where it belonged in one or two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Who was actually ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in all of these transactions, I would not to speculate but again, at the end of the day, by being insistent and polite but getting a different operater, I achieved the result to which I think I was entitled. I think I draw no particular lessons from this story unless it is that if you draw a blank with one particular ‘customer care’ assistant,then you can always try another and you may well get a different result. I do resolve, though, not lose my temper despite the evident frustrations and try to not antaganise the person at the other end who is no doubt following a script and does not have the discretion to depart from it.
Meg and I got some washing both pegged out and also taken in which was a bit of a bonus for us. Whilst we were outdoors, I popped down into Mog’s Den and staked up a large buddleja I had purchased last year and half forgotten about. This has now grown to eight feet tall and I think it was sold to me as ‘tri-colour’ plants. Anyway, there are certainly purple and white flowers on it but what the third colour is meant to be, unless it is a type of pink, I cannot say. But it has certainly thrived on neglect – is that why you see it all over railway sidings when you are approaching a train station, I ask myself.
I know that I am the creature of habit but nonetheless it is pleasant to drop into our ‘normal’ Tuesday morning routine. The weather is going to break today and we shall expect showers at random intervals throughout the day. But we had a fairly leisurely breakfast and then popped down into Waitrose by car so that we can pick up our copy of The Times and also bump into some of our Tuesday morning regulars. First of all we met up with Seasoned World Traveller and after my experiences with the phone provider yesterday, I managed to pass a few tips about the tariff that he needed to request after he had installed the SIM that I had ordered for him. Then, seated at one of the tables was our Knowledgable Gardener who used to come along on a monthly basis and do the heavier ‘trimming’ work in the garden before he was taken ill. I enquired about the progress that he had been making in his recovery and it was reassuring to know that he is being monitored quite regularly by various clinicians i.e. not just abandoned to his own devices. Then I started chatting with one of pre-pandemic acquaintances who we often meet on a Tuesday. Her husband had recently been admitted to long term residential care but it appears that both ‘partners’ to the couple are adjusting reasonably well to their changed circumstances. Finally, I was delighted to espy ‘Bromsgrove School Teacher’ who often used to freqent the Waitrose coffee bar in the pre-pandemic days. She and I were both teachers of politics and I had actually given her some of my politics textbooks in the hope that some of them might be useful either for some of her young scholars or as an addition to the school library. I have only seen her once or twice in the past couple of years so we had we had an enjoyable chat and ‘catching up’ today. Her baby which was pretty young in the pre-pandemic days is now a boistrous three-year old but was in pre-school this morning. I managed to pass on the bad news that if her child had got into the habit of waking every morning at about 5.00am and he was anything like my own son, then this early riding habit would probably persist right throughout his working life. So all in all, as last Tuesday, it was a conversation filled morning. I walked down to my Pilates class in slightly muggy conditions but when the class finished at 2.15, it was announced to the class that it had rained and was, in fact, sill raining. In practice, it was the lightest spattering of rain that could be imagined and I am sure that the water would probably evaporate again the minute it touched the sun-scorched earth. Elsewhere in the South and the Midlands, it may be that the long expected rain was more like the deluge that some of us have been hoping for but all the rain has done for us so far has been to add to a general feeling of humidity.
In the latest political news, it has been revealed that eleven Government whips have now come out collectively in favour of Liz Truss. The fact that this expression of support has come so very late in the day speaks more of the fact that MP’s are positioning themselves for jobs in a new administration. It could well be that the race is already both won’and ‘lost’ as most of the Conservative party members will already have submitted their votes and there is almost no way in which the enormous lead that Liz Truss has in the polls is likely to be reversed. There is quite a wicked story doing the rounds that Boris Johnson is convinced that Liz Truss will prove to be so incompetent in the job that it is only a matter of time before the Tories say ‘Come back, Boris! All is forgiven!’ The first part of this proposition is almost certainly true – but who knows whether Boris Johnson will ever worm his way back into the affections of MPs? Meanwhile, the Labour Party and Keir Starmer have put forward a policy to combat astronomical fuel bills and inflation at the same time by suggesting that the ‘cap’ on fuel prices should not be lifted in October. This policy will be expensive (in the tens of billions) and may even rival the costs of the furlough scheme but it is a policy which even meets the approval of three out of four Tory voters – will this prove to be a game changer? Certainly, it makes the policies of the two Tory leadership contenders seem a little anaemic, not to say indecisive. But the interesting thing about the Labour policy is that telling people that Labour believe they shouldn’t pay ‘a penny more’ for energy over the winter than the current cap – an average saving of £1,000 – is easy to understand and promote. Also, whilst some may ask for a more targeted approach, the point about a universal policy is that there are no administrative costs in applying complex rules as to who may or may not qualify which always creates anomalies.
It has been rather a strange day today, but so it goes. It had been raining quite a lot yesterday evening and during the night so it was refreshing to wake up to quite a drippy morning. Our domestic help called round this morning but after a chat and some consultation, we felt that we needed to pop to a pharmacy to pick up some medication to cope with some problems caused by the excessive heat of the last few days. We went to our local Morrison’s store, if only because parking is so easy outside, and requested a consultation with the pharmacist. Normally, I have quite a regard for pharmacists and trust their advice but the service we got today was quite perfunctory. Eventually, though, we took the advice of other pharmacy assistants who seemed a lot more helpful than the actual pharmacist so once we had supplied ourselves with medications we made for home. I have quite a lot of my financial ‘book-keeping’ that I needed to do to keep my records up-to-date so this took the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon as well. I change to a different sheet of my financial spreadsheet once a month and this helps me keep track of my monthly receipts and outgoings.
Some of the recent projections about the cost-of-living and inflations crisis that is threatening to overwhelm us are mind boggling. Today, inflation has jumped to more than 10% – the highest for 40 years. One in four people won’t be able to afford to pay their energy bills in October, based on current forecasts. The figure could jump to one in three (34%) people in January when prices are predicted to soar above £4,200. Citizens Advice says more than 13 million people could be left in the red, as spiralling costs rapidly outstrip the support on offer. Of those who won’t be able to pay in October, the majority (68%) have a household income of less than £30,000. Some 3.2 million disabled people and 4.4 million families with children are set to be unable to afford October’s hikes. The political reaction to all of this is interesting, if only because in about three week’s time, we will have a new prime minister, probably Liz Truss, who is committed to providing ‘no handouts’ If and when Liz Truss is elected, this particular commitment of ‘no handouts’ will surely bite the dust, so we we will have the fascinating scenario of a politician elected on the slogan of ‘no handouts’ reversing the slogan upon which they have been elected within hours. Nobody is talking yet of a mass uprising on the streets but this must remain a possibility. I remember very vividly the story about the bankruptcy of Uper Clyde Shipbuilders in 1971/72. The then Prime Minister, Edward Heath, receive a phone call from the Provost (equivalent of Lord Mayor) of Glasgow indicating that was the very real possibility of a violent uprising on the streets of Glasgow which the police and military would not be able to contain – therefore the Provost could not guarantee there wuld not be the equivalent of an insurrection in Glasgow, not to mention other parts of Scotland. Ted Heath apparently went white with fright after receiving the phone call and ordered an imediate ‘U-turn’ in whih Upper Clyde Shipbuilders was to be nationalised, even though the right wing members of his government wanted it to go bust and to tough out the consequences. I am not sure whether his story has ever been fully documented but that there was a very sudden U-turn which is well documented in all of the political histories.
Some politicl news from the other side of ‘the pond’ is disturbing. Liz Cheney has been one of her party’s most outspoken Trump critics, and was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the former president after the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021. She has had to concede defeat to Harriet Hageman on Tuesday, whose candidacy was endorsed by Mr Trump in the Republican primary. Observers say Ms Cheney’s loss indicates that Mr Trump still has a grip on the Republican Party, as his critics fear he is considering running for president again in 2024. Speaking to Sky News’ US partner NBC News on the morning after her election defeat, Ms Cheney said she will do ‘whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office’. Dick Cheney was a former Vice-President of the United States and to British observers, it is a little jaw-dropping that the daughter of such a prominent ‘neo-con’ as Dick Cheney could come out so strongly against Trump. Her defeat in the State of Wyoming against Donald Trump’s preferred candidate for Congress, was massive – and Donald Trump’s reaction was that Republicans like Liz Cheney who is called a ‘RINO’ (Republican in Name Only) has evidently thrown in her lot with the radical left. But Liz Cheeney is convinced that Donald Trump is a truly dangerous actor but he seems to receive the adoration of much of the Republican party (who believe, like Trump, that the election was actually ‘stolen’ from them)
Today is my shopping day so, as usual, it was up bright and early and to the supermarket, via an ATM, a minute or so before the supermarket opened. As we are going away next week, I have to cater for one day less in the week but on the other hand, tend to buy one or two things that will be useful as a repast during our journey. The shopping having been unpacked, it was then time for Meg and I to make our customary journey to the park. The car park seemed to be teeming with cars and, as we have come to expect, there were a fair sprinkling of scooters in variety. We did manage to have a few words with an acquaintance that we only meet every so often, and then she shot off in her motorised wheelchair which seems to go at a ferocious pace before she has a quiet read of a book under the shade of one of the park’s trees. When we got home, I resurrected the rest of the chicken carcase to make into a fricasee type meal and then we settled down to see what offerings there were in the various sporting competitions taking place at the moment. We were fairly interested in the one metre springboard synchronised diving and the female British pair were edged into a fourth place by 0.4 of a point which must be one of the cruellist place to be. On the other hand, our male gold medal holder successfully defended his title so there was fairly mixed news. Tonight, on the athletics track in Munich, there should be some interesting semi-finals with British interest as well as the final of the 1500 metres which, to a British audience, is always a ‘must watch’ event.
The latest news from the contest to lead the Conservative party is more of the same. It seems that Liz Truss has a lead of some 32 points (66 to 34) and some 57% of the constituency parties electorate have already voted. Of those who have yet to vote and have made up their minds, some 44% are committed to Truss and 29% to Sunak. The interesting thing about this campaign is that on the occasions when the two candidates have publically debated face-to-face, most famously in the Sky News debate, Rishi Sunak is nearly always adjudged to be the winner. Nonetheless, despite the very slight tightening of the polls that have taken place recently, this hardly seems to have harmed the Truss campaign at all. This reinforces, for me, a couple of points. Given the existing make up and mood the Conservative party out in the country, being ‘competent’ hardly seems to be important whereas garnering the votes of the right wing (and Brexist faction of the party) seem to be critical. Rishi Sunak is damaged, rightly or wrongly, for two things. The first is that he is blamed for using the dagger of revolt against Boris Johnson. This is despite the fact that eventually a substantial part of the Conservative party came to the view that Johnson was not fit to be their leader any more. A second factor was the non-dom status of his millionaire wife damaged him enormously – a fact that was not helped by the the fact that Sunak has admitted to holding a green card while living in Downing Street – declaring him a permanent resident of the US and part of this arrangement is a declaration that one intends to become a permanent resident o the United Statess. Also reinforced is the point that the overall ‘look and feel’ of candidates is of greater significance than either the policies that one espouses or even the generally acknowledged level of competence one exhibits. Those of long political memories may recall that one of the most brilliant Conservative policians of the 1960’s and 1970’s – Iain McCloud – was damned by getting the reputation that he was ‘too clever by half’ Finally, the same survey showed that if Boris Johnson had been a candidate in the present election, not only would he have won but he would have garnered as many votes (practically) as the other two candidates put together. This must surely mean that to many conservatives, the fact that Johnson was demonstrated to be a serial liar as well as the Prime Minister who tried to dissolve Parliament illegally is not at all important to them.
Today dawned as a bright and cheerful day but after Meg and I had breakfasted, I needed to go in search of some pharmaceutical stores where I could buy some medicaments for Meg wo has been suffering lately with the excessively high temperatures that we have experienced of late. I got several preparations that I think are going to be useful for Meg so after applying one of these, we were ready for our venture into the park today. Perhaps because it was a Saturday, we seemed to bump into a lot of people, some of whom we have not seen for some time. We had just about finished our coffee when we bumped into a couple who are the next door neighbours to one of ex-Waitrose regulars. They had been on holiday to Croatia which explains why we had not seen them for some time. Wev exchanged news about the holidays that we had taken in the former Yugoslovia and it happened that we had both visited some of the same places in the extreme north of the country – Pula with its magnificent Roman ampitheatre which must be one of the best preserved outside Italy and the lakes of Bled (where rowing competitions are often held) and Bohinj both on Slovenia. Then we were joined by Seasoned World Traveller and shortly afterwards by our University of Birmingham friend. Then, they too were joined by dog-owning friends and their dogs so lots of multiple little conversations were taking place between several of us. Then we made for home and had a completely vegeterian lunch of some quiche, primo cabbage and a melange of tomatoes, peppers, onions made a little spicier with some tomato and some brown sauce.
This afternoon, Meg and I were absorbed in the mens team event finals in the European gymnastics competition being held in Munich, which may be a part of the entire athletics competition. Here there were five male British gymnastics who have to perform on four pieces of gymastic equipment as well as a floor piece. The British team were favourites and eventially won the competition with over 6.5 points clear which is quite a high margin. The gold medals have to take an awful lot of winning when you think of the various events at which needs to excel. When it came to the medals ceremony, it was interesting to see that the coach is also awarded a medal which must surely be fair. What is extraordinary about this competition is that the gymnasts have come hot from the Commonwealth Games of only two weeks ago so the amount of recovery time after competition must be minimal. To cap all of this, two British girls have just won gold in the Diving finals held in Rome although the field of competition was quite low. But the British pairing had only to start to dive with each other a few weeks before the Commonwealth Games competition and this one so that is a gold-rush if ever there was one. Tonight, as last night, will be a fairly full night of semifinals and finals in the track and field events so we will probably be glued to this all night. Earlier in the afternoon, I suddenly thought about the train tickets that I needed to buy for our journey from Harrogate to York next week. I use ‘thetrainline’ to buy tickets but with the pandemic having been rampant, I have not bought any train tickets for a couple of years. I had forgotten that you can actually nominate a train station from which you can pick up the actual physical tickets if you feel he need for them. However, I opted for electronic tickets and, fortunately, this worked out OK and I printed out the electronic tickets complete with QR-codes. There is probably an app I can download onto my phone but I have not investigated this yet.
In the Tory leadership elections, Michael Gove has accused Liz Truss of taking a ‘holiday from reality’ with her plans to cut taxes during the cost-of-living crisis, and warned the Tory leadership frontrunner is putting ‘the stock options of FTSE 100 executives’ before the nation’s poorest people. The former cabinet minister launched the outspoken attack as he endorsed Rishi Sunak to be the next Conservative leader. After this attack, perhaps it is no surprise that Michael Gove intimates that he will not be offered another Cabinet post and therefore he is resigned to living the rest of his Parliamentary days on the back benches. There is quite an irony in all of this as Michael Gove had the reputation of being one of the most effective ministers in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, finally taking on some of the big builders to make them responsible for correcting the cladding on many of the hgh rise buildings that have been built recently. But as Enoch Powell, the notorious conservative politican observed (and I paraphrase a lengtheir quotation) : ‘All political careers end in failure’
As we are due to travel north to Yorkshire on Wednesday, my activities in these two days before we travel are devoted to making sure that ‘all of my ducks are in a row’ before we set off. I have three tasks which I need to perform in the next few days of which one is getting my financial statements prepared and uploaded before we meet the Bank reprentative on 31st August. Next, the car badly needs an outside and inside valeting so I think I need to get that pulled in today if I can. Finally, I need to make sure that tyre pressure and washer bottle supplies are adequate before we start a long journey. I have an empty cupboard at home amd am utilising this to drop into it things that I know I need to make our hotel stay a little more domesticated. After Meg and I had picked up our copy of The Times, we made our way to the park where we had quite a pleasant sojourn. We did not encounter any of our regular park friends but Mondays are always traditionally very quiet days in the park anyway. When we got home, I made sure Meg was well supplied with food and drink before I made a journey down to see our firm of Romanian/Iraqi/Kurdish car washers. I got there seconds after another client so I was given a wait of an hour and a half before it would be ready for me. However, this turned out almost like like ‘manna from heavan’ as it meant that I was free to explore some of the charity shops along the High Street in Bromsgrove. First, I popped into a shop where I could buy some cosmetics for Meg and some toiletries that would be useful for our hotel bedroom. But I was fundamentally foused upon one item of purchase upon which I was intent and that was some extra skirts for Meg. Generally speaking, Meg and I preder to shop for clothes in the charity shops of Alcester, a pretty little Georgian town some miles distant but has a reputation for an excellent range of shops. So my expectations of fine quality clothing in Bromsgrove were not high, but I had plenty of time on my side. I have noticed that the shops seem to be replete with tops of every shape and size but skirts seem to be in short supply, particularly if you avoid the trousers and the discarded mini-skirts that are are generally housed on the same rails. A slightly complicating factor is that my wife used to be a standard 12 but with the ravages of time and the pandemic, the default size for which I now search is a size 14. In my searches through several charity shops, though, I did snap up two items, one of which is a ‘John Lewis’ marque and the other highly original design of multicoloured butterflies of which the label seems to have got detached. I was relieved that when I did transport them home Meg liked the design of both so that will help to extend her range of outfits somewhat.
We had a bit of uncalled for drama in the middle of the day which we could have well done without. I had previously ordered over the ‘net’ a birthday cake for my sister so this had arrived just as I was leaving to go down into town and now was the time to unpack it and inspect that all was as it should be. Imagine my horror when the cake’s icing said ‘Happy Birthday to Pauline and Alex’ with a design that was not the one I had chosen. The packing note with the cake had a photo of the design and text that I had chosen for my sister so in the midst of preparing a delayed lunch (hastily) I made several attempts to make contact with the firm supplying the cake. They are horrified at what had happened and promised to put it right by despatching the correct version of the cake, plus text, that should arrive tomorrow (or so they promised) In the meanwhile, the firm would have to try and track down the ‘Pauline and Alex’ from their range of customers to indicate they would not be gettng their cake when they thght that they would and presumably another customer has ours. If there has been a more systematic error in which each customer on the list has been displaced by one, as it were, then they could potentially have a queue of dissatisfied customers. As to the cake that that is now in possession we can either throw it away or eat it (we will do the latter!)
In the latest of the series of industrial disputes that is afflicting the nation, then barristers have voted to go on an indefinite, uninterrupted strike in England and Wales from next month. The walkout by members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) will begin on 5 September. This seems to be the way to go on strike if one intends to do it – no messing about for a day or so but a full-scale, wholehearted, 100% withdrawal of services. One might think of barristers as being well paid but successive cuts have reduced their remuneration to little more than the minimum wage, so they claim.
So the day of travelling has arrived but I never sleep at all well if I know that I have a long journey the following day. We had an alarm set for 6.15 so we got up, had a cup of tea and then got going with the final bits of packing, a few items of food for the hotel bedroom and some bits and pieces that make life in a hotel bedroom a little less like indoor camping. We managed to set off at just a few minutes after 900 am and then hit our morotorway service station which is almost exactly half way at just before the projected time. Then it was off for Wetherby at which we hoped to arrive at just about midday. We were slightly thwarted in our efforts because having travelled 150 miles trouble free we then ran into a massive traffic jam just north of Leeds. There is a place called Bramham tht was having a ‘horsy’ kind of event, I think, and there were a lot of temporary traffic signs routing the traffic for the Leeds International Musical festival and I think that this might have added to the overall slowdown. We eventually got to Wetherby just after 12.00pm and after a little bit of lurking managed to get a convenient parking spot Then it was inside the ‘Wetherby Whaler’ for our senior’s three course meal which, as always, was delicious and satisfying. After lunch, we sought out a florist that we had spotted when we were here about one month ago and bought something that we had our eye upon. Just round the crner was a coffee and cake shop, independently owned, where we had a cappuchio and a mocha of the highest quality. We got into conversation with a couple from outside Lancaster who were treating themselves to a little visit to Yorkshire. In the past, they had taken some of their dogs along to dog shows, including Crufts on one or two occasions, so we exchanged notes about what we know about dog breeding (which is practically zilch), but since my sister and my mother had both shown dogs in the past, we could make some sort of connection. To be honest, we spent more time talking about how we had coped with the pandemic in our various ways rather than dog breeding as such.
Then we struck off for Harrogate to the hotel in which we were booked. True to their word, they had reserved a space for us (which we had requested in advance) and we were pleased to have this at our disposal. The only downside to our room is that although on the last two occasions the internet connected instantly and flawlessly, this was not true today. I followed the instructions but got an obscure message to the effect that I had joined the network but the network could not access the internet. After several fruitless efforts in which I tried everything I could think off, eventually I started to ‘hotspot’ using my iPhone and this seems to work OK so I will put up with that during the length of our stay. Most of the afternoon was involved in unpacking and getting out little ‘hotel systems’ in place which we deploy to make life more comfortable.
The political news today is almost predicatble. As the Ukraine is trying not to over-celebrate fify years of independence from Russia, Boris Johnson could not resist anoher ‘surprise’ visit to the Ukraine where (surprise! surprise!) he was given an award by the Ukrainian leader. The Tory election campaign is now in its last two year and, enboldened by a thirty point lead over her rival, is now uttering warnings of the type of Prime Minister she is likely to be. In the past few days, she has indicated that she would not appoint an ethics advisor, has indicated that the Environment agency wastes money, that OFWAT over-regulates and so she tacitly suppots the dumping of untreated sewage straight in the seas around the UK and that NKS doctors are overpaid. Of course this is Daily Mail pandering to the right and the extreme right of the conservative party. It is no forgotten that the Conservative party effectively swallowed up UKIP and followed their policies and has become a de facto ‘English National’ party. But there are now indications that a new Truss cabinet will be exclusively drawn from the right of the party whereas, with the exception of Boris Johnson, post war prime ministers, both Labour and Conservative, have tried to ensure that a cabinet does reflect the various ‘wings’ within the party. With an extreme right wing cabinet, the stage is set for confrontations or at least a rumbling war in the majority of the conservative party who did not vote for Liz Truss (the critical figure being that only 32% MPs voted for Truss in the last round of voting by MPs). So upon election, Liz Truss will be faced with the dilemma of instant policy ‘U’-turns or grumbling resentment from the two thirds of the party that did not vote for her.
Today was a day which was long planned for and anticipated and we hoped that all would turn out for the best. We slept a little later than we had anticipated but nonetheless we got up at 7.30 and I had a wonderfully refreshing shower whilst getting Meg organised with various creams and lotions that she still needs after her little episode of prickly heat. We went down into the breakfast room which is magnificently large and ornate that may well seat hundreds if one were to be having a full scale formal dinner. But breakfast is always quite a relaxed occasion and there were only two or three couples in the dining room when we entered. This hotel used to house the Air Ministry during WWII and they kept it on for several years after the war ended until the early 1950’s. When my mother was alive, I am sure that she had mentioned to me that she worked in this building, requisitioned by the military and one could imagine that the dining room could have been a high operations centre, such as one sometimes sees in black and white films illustrating the second World War. So I started to think to myself that there was a fair probability that my mother had actually worked in the very room where I was having breakfast, probably some eighty years previously. This was quite a thought, actually, and I did feel a slight link between the point where biography and history intersect. I got into conversation with one of the hotel staff about the little tea party we are to hold for my sister tomorrow afternoon and was actually offered a choice of venues. We had a look at several alternatives and it looks as though tomorrow we can have our little tea party in rather an individualised location.
Today was the day when we had organised to see some old friends that we have not seen in the flesh for several years now, although we have been in contact by message and email. We decided to walk up through the town and to have a coffee in a rather specialised little coffee house quite near to the station. This we did and the station proved to be pretty close by. So we organised the purchase of a copy of a newspaper and made it to the station in plenty of time – so much so, that we actually caught a train half an hour earlier than we had intended. The QR codes that had been generated for us when we bought the tickets a few days earlier worked unproblematially. So we arrived in York station with plenty of time to spare but this we did not mind as it gave us plenty of time to find our chosen luncheon venue. We did not know precisely where this was but we knew if was very near the station on one of the approach roads to the station. We consulted a street guide at the entrance to the station concourse and found our chosen lunch venue incredibly easily. We arrived there way before the time we had agreed with our friends but they too arrived early so we were delighted to make contact with each other well before midday. After we had had a wonderful natter, we ordered a light lunch which proved to be excellent under the circumstances – Meg and I ordered a roasted tenderstem broccoli and edamame bean risotto which turned out to be absolutely delicious. But we hardly had any time to contemplate the food as we were excitedly catching up on all of the family news and other domestic news since we last met. Our friends are avid Europeans (having worked in both Germany and Holland and the wife of the couple is actually Dutch in any case) so we spent a certain amount of time discussing politics, national and international. The time actually flew by and soon it was time for us to part. However, we intend to keep on meeting at least once a year. There is going to be the world premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s 87th new play (‘Family album’) during the month of September in Scarborough so this might be the occasion of another visit ‘up north’ if we and our friends can coordinate our diaries. We walked back to the station and caught a train that was waiting for us in the station. Then, arriving back in Harrogate, we had a very pleasant walk back through the town (largely downhill) and got back to the hotel where evidently we regaled ourselves wih a cup of tea. Then I made a quick call to my sister who had just returned from a little break in the Lake District and we checked out all of our arrangements for our little birthday tea tomorrow afternoon. We will also meet with our niece and her family who are taking tea with us and we trust that the arrangements that we have put in place for tomorrow will work out as smoothly as everything has done today.
Today was the day when we were due to hold our little tea party for my sister’s 80th birthday in the hotel this afternoon. We started off by having a leisurely breakfast and then went for a little tour of the Valley Gardens which are a magnificent and much appreciated part of the Harrogate scene. On my way into the Valley Gardens, I remembered a memorial plaque to a US hospital unit that was stationed in Harrogate and whose leaving date happened to be the absolute day on which I was born in 1945. Then we made a leisurely stroll through some of the familiar Harrogate streets, hoping to end up at the little unpretentious little restaurant that we used frequently when in Harrogate. But this desire was thwarted when we found that the cafe was closed for their annual holidays so we made our way to the Italian style cafe bar (run by a variety of nationalities but mainly Greek) which we visited yesterday. We thought we would try an iced coffee for a change but were not overly impressed. Then we made our way slowly back to the hotel to dump some of our stuff and then sauntered out to another cafe near to the hotel that we used to visit quite freqently but which has now changed hands. We ordered two soups which were all we needed at this hour in the day and also begged a couple of elderflower cordial bottles which will be tremendously useful when we eventually get round to bottling last year’s damson gin. Then we repaired back to the hotel and enjoyed a bit of quiet time before our celebrations were due to start this afternoon.
The hotel had done us proud and set out a nice little area to seat the seven of us and included a cake stand. At the suggestion of the staff who had organised the event for us this afternoon, we did indulge in one bottle of prosecco between the six adults of us. For their part, the hotel had also presented my sister with a signed card of the hotel and a little key ring token of the hotel. We set in the middle of the table the vase which we had lovingly transported from Bromsgrove. Whilst we were in Wetherby the other day, we had bought a small collection of wild dried flowers which complemented the vase well and we had this displayed as a centrepiece of our tea table. Then after the prosecco, I gave my sister the vouchers that we had bought in the special Wetherby flower shop as well as two birthday cards, one from Meg and myself and the other from Martin and Mandy. The card from Martin and Mandy was particularly interesting as it featured 1942 (the year in which my sister was born as she is 80 this year) The card contains a host of interesting little ‘facts’ which illustrated the year of 1942 and really made for the most interesting of cards – one that you would not want to throw away when the celebrations are over. Once the prosecco was drunk, tea was served to us consisting of a variety of daintily cut sandwiches and some little cakes in great variety. Finally, we came to the cutting of the cake and sharing it round us and it was delicious and sufficient for the seven of us. The hotel kindly wrapped up the remainder for us and so we all made for for our way home. My sister messaged me with some heartfelt thanks and we exchanged messages, pleased with the way that the whole afternoon had gone and that a wonderful and memorable afternoon had been enjoyed by all. I was so pleased that everything had worked as intended and, in truth, it was very easy to organise and the hotel played their part magnificiently. Given that ‘formal’ afternoon teas are not the kind of thing that you do every day, I think that a warm glow of satisfaction was enjoyed by all and the afternoon had just flown by.
The news about the rising of the fuel cap to an astounding £3,549 from its previous approx. £2k is generally frightening, particularly as there are more projections of even more horrendous increases in the spring months. The media is full of news indicating that so many people are already finding it increasingly difficult to survive on their present resources and where are the extra £1,000s going to come from? Many people are cutting heating down to the minimum including, of course, any heating for food and it looks as though millions of us are going to grow not only cold but also hungry. The politicians are making vague promises that when the Tory election campaign is over, many more resources will be made available but this is rather a case of ‘jam tomorrow – perhaps’. The difficulty is that people’s bills are going up now but any action is promised weeks later and this will almost certainly be too little, too late. As we have a ‘zombie government’ active at the moment,no political spokesmen are available from any of the relevant government departments. Will the population eventually take to the streets, I ask myself?
Today is the day when we are due to depart – unfortunately. We got up at 7.30am and finished off most of our packing fairly quickly. We had packed the wardrobe and ‘main’ suitcase the evening before and I always find packing to go home so much easier than the other way round. After all, everything in the room has to be either thrown away or packed but we took several of the smaller packages into the car when we went down for breakfast and that made the final exit from the hotel bedroom so much the easier. We paid our bill and were ready to set off at 9.45. It was the most glorious of days and the motoring was really pleasant. We stopped at the normal service station on the way back which we know is exactly half of the distance between Bromsgrove and Yorkshire and then proceeded on our way. Half way through this second half of the journey, we were nearly involved in a really nasty accident on the motorway. We were motoring at a straight 70mph in the ‘slow’ i.e. inside lane when suddenly a car seemed to slide sideways almost into us. For our part I veered leftwards so that I was half on the hard shoulder and this avoided any contact between us. What had happened was that an aggressive driver behind us had hassled the car in front who had evidently drifted left to get out of the aggressive driver’s way but without checking his mirror and hence nearly collided with us. Fortunately, no harm came to any of us but the aggressive driver shot off into the distance never to be seen again. We celebrated our good fortune by treating ourselves to a boiled sweet and continued with the rest of the journy being just a little more alert than normal.
We received some rather bad news from a close friends of Meg’s Uncle Ken late last night. He is very elderly (about 93 I think) but has suddenly seemed to have lost the will to live and is refusing any food and drink in his residential home in Colwyn, North Wales. How long an elderly frail person can survive without sustenance is very hard to say but we fear that Uncle Ken may not have many more days left to live. Meg and I have tried to work out our options are and we think that a flying visit is not really possible tomorrow (Sunday) and we would not want to be on a motorway on Bank Holiday Monday. Because of other commitments we have during the week, we think that Thursday may be the first day that we can actually motor up to see Uncle Ken (if he is well enough to see us, in any case). We are keeping in close touch with other relatives and friends although Meg is Uncle Ken’s closest living relative and will have to resolve what we are going to do when we get some firmer news. So as things stand we shall see if get an update sometime tomorrow morning and on Monday and then we can make plans accordingly. I got into contact with my daughter-in-law who promptly came round so that we could discuss our best course of action face-to-face and, as always, she was a fund of useful and practical advice. She herself has had to cope with the deaths of some of her own close relatives and so is in a good position to help us to work out our options. In the late afternoon, we went to church as we normally do on Saturday afternoons and then settled down for a leisurely evening once we have consumed a bit of supper.
The current chancellor of the Exhequeur, Nadhim Zahawi, is in a massive dilemma today. Firstly, he may not still be in his current post in about 8 days time as the new Prime Minister is elected and a new ministerial team subsequently appointed. But he has now admitted that in the current ‘cost of living’ crisis, Britons on £45,000 (50% more than the average wage) will probably need help in paying for energy bills as experts warn that the price cap could rise to £7,700. Meanwhile, he has also told the Daily Telegraph that households must try and reduce their energy consumption, and that he fears gas prices could remain elevated for another two years. The ‘official line’ coming from the government is that options for a variety of support packages is being prepared in the background but nothing can actually happen until a new ministerial team is actually in place. In the meantime, the amount of stress in the general population that the rising fuel crisis is generating cannot be underestimated but nothing seems to be happening as the whole governmental machine is effectively in suspension. I am still trying to comprehend the actually reasons why British fuel dprices should have to rise to such an extraordinary extent. For example, EDF energy prices rise by 4% in France compared to 54% in UK but EDF (Electricitie de France) is a State-owned firm was was forced to take a £7 billion pound hit to protect French households.
I won’t bore you with the details of how the folder containing all of nearly 900 text files which constitute the text version of this blog seemed to disappear from my laptop on which I typically type whilst Meg is watching TV. I used some backup files and a bit of native cunning to get everything back the way that it ought to have been but it took me until 3.00am in the morning. However, I have ensured that I have backed up my files on two different types of flash memory so if disaster should strike again in the same place, I can get things restored fairly quickly. The only thing that I can think of is that I accidentally deleted the whole folder in a moment of lack of concentration but all is well that ends well. After too little sleep, I got up and collected our Sunday morning newspapers and then Meg and I had a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast. Then it was down to the park on a really beautiful day – it was pleasantly warm but just with a degree of freshness that made the whole day delightful. In the park we met up with Seasoned World Traveller who we have evidently not seen for several days. We updated him about our various comings and goings in Yorkshire and eventually turned our attention to more serious philosophical topics. What excited us this morning was the observation that many Asian societies seem to massively outperform their UK counterparts particularly in the fields of mathematics and many of the technologies. We were thinking aloud how many of these differences are cultural (avoiding the idea that they are genetic difference) but we evidently did not come to any particular conclusions. We do know in the field of mathematics, according to an OECD analysis conducted some years ago that Singapore is the smartest country in the world, followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Finland, Estonia, Switzerland, Netherlands and Canada rounding out the top 10. A more dated research study though is interesting – Ken Todd of York University’s electronics department analysed the performance of hundreds of first year students over 15 years, and found a ‘severe decline’ over time in the proficiency in mathematics of undergraduates who had the same grades of A-level pass. Writing in the magazine Mathematics Today, he reports a collapse in scores on the 50-question multiple choice maths test students sit on their second day at university. In 1985, the average score was 39, well above the ‘worry line’ of 30. Today, the average is 19. ‘It is deeply worrying that an average student with grade B maths is only able to obtain a score marginally better than could be obtained by random guessing,’ said Dr Todd. ‘Algebraic skills are generally poor. The manipulation of powers and logarithms is a dark mystery to many.’
After lunch, we had a nice relaxing time enjoying the in-depth news from the Sunday newspapers. In the ‘Sunday Times‘ apart from the discussion of the cost-of-living crisis which is dominating the news bulletins whilst we await the probable election of Liz Truss as the new Tory Prime Minister, there were two particularly interesting stories. The first of these is the agenda facing Liz Truss the moment she is elected as two thirds of the parliamentary party have never supported her and there is some evidence, even now, of seller’s remorse as Boris Johnson is still preferred by many out in the country. There is a small but not to be discounted possibility, that Liz Truss may even face a leadership crisis the minute she is elected as some may try to win back ‘Boris’ as a likely vote winner. The second story which is of some interest is an analysis of why voters in general have lost so much faith in their politicians. Of course, Brexit is a part of this but it is not the whole story and there is very little confidence that any of our political leaders have the answers to the problems facing the nation. As expected, though, the Liz Truss ‘line’ has changed from ‘no handouts’ to a considerable package of (unspecified) support once she is elected. The full consequences of these astronomical rises in fuel costs is gradually dawning. The proportion of the population living in ‘fuel poverty’ (more than 10% of one’s income spent on fuel) is likely to rise to 50% of the population and perhaps most of the populaation if bills rise to as much as £7,000+ a year which is one current prediction. At the same time, many people’s entire savings will be wiped out. Hardly receiving any analysis until now is the survival of many small businesses particularly in drinks, hospitality and catering – as businesses, they themselves will be faced with massively increasing costs whilst at the same time, many of their potential clients will not have the disposable income to afford what the firms have to offer.
Today is August Bank Holiday and I always find these days are a little strange as some shops are open and some are not, most assuming a Sunday pattern in any case. As we did not do a normal shopping last Thursday, we were running short of one or two things so Meg and I went to collect our newspaper by car and then popped into Waitrose to top up our supplies somewhat. Last night our next door neighbour had popped round with some recently warmed apple pie and custard (this, by the way, is not an unusual occurrence) but also gave us the sad news that a sister who had been ill for many years has died. So whilst I was at the newsagent, I bought a 'Sympathy' card and then we popped that in to our next door complete with a tray upon which she had brought us our sweet last night. Our trip to the park today was unremarkable as being a Bank Holiday, none of the regulars with whom we generally have little chats were present. The park seemed to lack its normal complement of dogs and toddlers on their scooters so we struck off for home without any of our normal conversations. When we got home, we prepared a fairly conventional midday meal before wondering entertainments we might fancy on a Bank Holiday afternoon. We could not bring ourselves to watch 'Murder on the Orient Express' for the umpteenth time and instead tried to discern whatch we could on Prime TV as we have a Firestick that is plugged in to the back of our TV. I did not know any of the film titles but eventually did a search for 'Warhorse' which indeed they had. We watched this for about an hour and then the programme packed up wih an internet buffering error, about which we seemed to be able to do nothing. We watched the news channel for a certain length of time and then I tried Prime again, but this time managing somehow to get onto our latest network connection from BT. We managed to pick up the film from just about the point at which it had stopped about which we were mightily pleased. Meg and I have seen 'Warhorse' once before several years ago but I was quite happy to give it a second watch. I must say that I found it a very compelling film to watch emotionally and the emotional high spots came quite fast and furious throughout the film and not just in the later stages. Having successfully used Prime for the first time, I must see that if there are any more 'must see' films for later occasions when we run into a dead patch on the TV.
There is an interesting headline in The Times this morning which I did not think that I would ever see. A recent poll has found that half of the people who voted Conservative at the last election would support the public ownership of the energy utilities. When you see how the French government exerts control over Electricite de France (EDF) this is hardly a surprise but presumably support throughout the whole of the voting population will greatly exceed 50%. At the same, the water companies are increasingly subject to consumer dissatisfaction as the water companie have continued to make discharges of raw sewage into our seas and rivers. Water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers and coastal waters in England more than 400,000 times in the past year or so, Environment Agency (EA) data has revealed. Untreated human effluent poured into rivers and seas for a total of 3.1m hours via storm overflow pipes that are supposed to be used only in extreme weather to relieve pressure in the sewage system. So whilst the rationale for privatisation the water industry was to secure sufficient investment in a largely Victorian sewage system, this has taken place but dividends to share holders has also been enormous. Our railway system is in a sort of semi-public ownership as the government have taken back various rail franchises which have not performed as well as anticipated. So the fact that there is public appetite, and even enthusiasm, for public ownership of some of our core utilities is a source of some surprise, particularly as the Labour party seems to be very lukewarm tp public ownership in their most recent policy announcements. Of course the language used in thee debate evokes quite strong passions as surveys in the past have revealed a strong public antipathy to 'nationalisation' but much more supportive attitudes to 'public ownership'. In the 1950's, if my memory serves me correctly, Conservative governments deployed a policy of buying 51% of the shares of BP and perhaps other large compaies as well. In fact, the British government's stake in BP has been gradually reduced since 1977 to just under a third from 68.4% through four prior stock offerings, three by Thatcher's Conservative government. A policy of aiming to own 51% of the shares of a company, particularly if one has a large stockholding already, is fairly easy to achive if shares are bought up gradually wheever they become available. I am looking to see why such an approach to public ownership might not be tried again in the years ahead?
And so Tuesday dawns, the start of a ‘normal’ week given that yesterday was a Bank Holiday and therefore a day when nothing much could get done. Tuesday is the day when we normally go down to Waitrose and see a regular group of our pre-pandemic ‘buddies’. After this, I generally go off to my Pilates class but not today as my teacher is away on an extended weekend break. In Waitrose, we met with four of our little gaggle of friends and I tried to split my time between all of them – we had an stimulating chat and act as a ‘de facto’ support to each other as three of us are acting as carers to husbands/wives with long standing health conditions. After this interesting morning, we got home quite early and had a good read of The Times before striking out again this afternoon. Meg has received a communication from the opticians to make an appointment so we got to the High Street by car in the afernoon to make an appointment in two weeks time. Meanwhile, I got a letter from my own long-term monitoring of eye condition to let me know that all appeared well so this is useful to get behind me for another twelve months or so. Whilst on the High Street, I popped into one of the charity shops and relieved them of a shirt which is just my size and preferred colour and also went to a stationers to get an academic year diary which they were selling off cheaply and which I am intending to use for some little medical notes day by day. At lunchtime, we received a pre-meeting phone call from a representative of the bank to which we are going to pay a visit tomorrow after which I needed to make a call to the solicitors who conveyanced our house some fifteen years ago. It is a long story but the bank should have communicated somewwhat better to me what thing we needed to get our ‘ducks in a row’ before our planned meeting tomorrow. This afternoon, I waited patiently by my phone for a call that came (eventually) but after waiting all afternoon.
Until we get a ‘new’ government in place, the media is full of stories indicating what the consequences are going to be of energy prices that by next spring could be three and a half times what they are today. In particular, it is gradually dawning that many small businesses in the entire country will almost be completely wiped out by the dual effect of the fuel increases for themselves (and there are no announced plans to alleviate these measures for them) and the absence of purchasing power in the population at large to buy the goods and services that they offer. An observation heard more and more over the airways that the damages caused by the lockdown to counteract the pandemic may be like a ‘walk in the park’ compared with the enormity of the economic crisis that is due to hit them. More and more correspondents are indicating that we need a government of some talent and intelligence and not one that panders to all of the prejudices of the extreme right wing which is what the present conservative party has been driven to. There is also some talk of reving a ‘Goat’ government (‘government of all the talents’) and of course in days of supreme national danger, such as WWII we even had coalition governments where normal ‘opoosition’ politics are abandoned. I cannot think of a similar situation when an incoming government has been faced with so many diverse problems and of such a magnitude that simple ideological slogans (such as Liz Truss’s ‘cutting taxes’) will not solve. Talking of Liz Truss, she is advised by an eccentric, not to say wacky, right wing economist called Patrick Minford who is an advocate of ‘supply side economics’ in which it is believed that economic growth will only follow tax cuts to release the potential of enterpreneurs who can kick-start an economy. Most economists believe that this is sometimes the case but not invariably the case and certainly not in present conditions. Even Patrick Minford argues that interest rates may well rise to over 7% in his modelling – but Liz Truss has indicated that she believes all the rest of his economic analysis but not this bit (a bit like believing in God but not in Heavan). In the meanwhile, Liz Truss was lined up for a half hour examination of her economic policies by Nick Robinson on BBC1 tonight where she probably would have been crucified and exposed as a total economic illierate – so Rishi Sunak has undergone such an examination but not Liz Truss. This is incredibly dangerous for our political system in which politicans of extreme views are not challenged. Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, has written in The Times that: ‘You clearly can’t do all of this without completely crashing the public finances. This simplistic mantra that you cut taxes and the economy grows more, that you cut taxes when you have a big deficit and high inflation, and you don’t do it with any other part of the plan, is quite worrying‘. What could be more damning than that?
Today was always going to be quite an interesting day. It started off by greeting our domestic help who had been incredibly busy organising a large 21st birthday party for one of her sons and she had evidently worked extremely hard to achieve a successul event. Of course, she achieved these aims but was now feeling somewhat tired after all of her efforts and exertions over the past few days. Meg and I know that we were going to make a visit with fellow family members to Worcester later on in the day so we had to organise our day to fit in around this event. Meg and I collected our newspaper and then made a fairly fast and brisk visit to the park to drink our coffee before we set off with son and daughter-in-law to visit Worcester by train. We had decided to go to Worcester by train as parking in central Worcester is a bit of a nightmare whilst one of the suburban Worcester railway stations lies within easy reach of the High Street, which was our ultimate destination. As we arrived in Worcester in plenty of time, we dived into a little coffee-cum-pancake bar where we had a carbohydrate filled lunch with quite an innovative little menu. We got along to a meeting a few minutes before 2.00pm and then spent an hour discussing some mortgage issues with the Bank. The adviser that we saw was very helpful and we were somewhat early in the application process so we have made an appointment for three months later in the year. The meeting today with all four of us was quite fruitful and now we have a name and a contact number for the person who is going to handle our transaction from this point on, so that was very useful. Also we now have an updated list of the documents we need to supply (and, more importantly, what we do not) so we feel fairly sure that we have had a successful day and we hopeful that future transactions can be completed without a hitch. On our walk back to the station, I made a brief diversion down a little arcade that Meg and I used to visit quite often when we came to Worcester using their Park-and-Ride system (now abandoned by the city council as they say they could not afford the scheme) I ascertained that the excellent little cafe that used to prepare dishes like a lasagne or a fish pie was still in operation as we had not visited it since pre-pandemic days. Now that we have re-discovered it yet again, Meg and I may well have some little days out in Worcester by travelling in by train, enjoy the excellent little café with its excellent home made food and have a toddle about the kinds of shops we hope to visit (which probably included Marks and Spencer).
After we had returned home to the customary cup of tea, we made a telephone call to the very close friend of Meg’s aged uncle in Colwyn, North Wales. Meg’s uncle is very aged and is now refusing food and drink and really wants to be reunited with his maker. The residential home in which he is lodged is run by Methodist Homes for the Aged and we know from our last visit, that there is a semi-resident Methodist pastor who is on hand to give aid and support as required. We know that he is in constant contact with Uncle Ken and are therefore reassured that his spiritual needs are being met. The purpose of our phone call is to work out whether it is sensible to make a lightning visit to North Wales tomorrow as Ken’s days left on earth must surely be numbered. His close friend who sees him every day gave us the good advice that if were to make a journey up to North Wales, we would achieve very little as Uncle Ken’s powers of communication after several days not partaking of any food and drink are severely limited and indeed he may be semi-comatose. After a great deal of thought and taking advice from family and friends we have decided not to make one final visit but to let nature take its course. In any case, we would certainly attend any forthcoming funeral so that we could participate in a celebration of his life and for this we are ready to go at the drop of the proverbial hat. As we were away in Yorkshire last Thursday, we do need to go shopping for a conventional ‘weekly’ shop up and so I intend to do just that at 8.00am tomorrow morning.
The Tory leadership campaign is surely coming to its conclusion this evening with final hustings taking place. The voting in the election will cease on Friday and the final result will be announced on Monday. After that, there will be a break in tradition when the winner (Liz Truss by a huge margin) will travel to Balmoral to see the Queen and accept an offer to form a government. Then it is back to London, the announcement of a new cabinet and Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Ho Hum!
When I woke up this morning, I knew that I had to make an early start to get our weekly shopping done – and then realised, with a sort of sickening thud, that I had neglected to put our wheelie bins at the end of the drive ready for collection by the bin men. As we are a private road, I have to drag the bins about 150 yards along our access road to the end of the drive and, if you forget, this means a wait of a fortnight until that bin can be emptied again or an actual visit to the tip some 5-6 miles distant. Anyway, I got the bins there in time and so was mightily relieved. I then shot off to my shopping after accessing some cash from a nearby ATM and did a fairly full week’s shopping. This all worked out fine and I only forgot one item for my sins. Then it was a case of a slow unpacking after which I prepared our elevenses for the park. It was a beautiful day, albeit a trifle windy, so Meg and I decided that we would walk to the park today and not take to the car at all. We chatted to no-one in particular and therefore got home fairly quickly. Our daughter-in-law had made the very generous offer to come around to our house today and cut the tall growing hedge which surrounds our BioDisc (mini sewage treatment facility) with a pair of electric hedge clippers. Whilst we were outside the house, we had a jolly time with our next door neighbour who works at the big garden centre down the road and they are now reducing the prices of all of their plants by 20%. I suppose children will go back to school next Monday, summer holidays are over for many and perhaps people are turning to thoughts other than gardening. Then we all engaged in tidying up all of the hedge clippings and clippings from other shrubs that had received a haircut. As is typically the case in such circumsstances, it is not the actual clipping but the clearing away of the clippings that takes the time. I realise that the lawn has not received attention for a week or so and although the main body of the grass is still somewhat yellow, there is quite a lot of tidying up for a mower to perform around the edges. I need, though, to go and get a gallon of petrol for the lawnmover – it only takes two gallons a year but I generally buy high quality petrol to avoid the problem of the ethanol with which they bulk out petrol these days absorbing water vapour and causing mower problems. But as it was the height of rush hour, I decided to wait until tomorrow when Meg and I get the petrol whilst we have the car out to go to the park.
The Chancellor of the Excheqeur, Mr Zahawi, promised there would be additional help for struggling families. However, he stuck to the Downing Street line that it will be up to the new prime minister – due to be named on Monday – to decide what shape it takes. The chancellor’s comments come as the Resolution Foundation warns British households are on course for the deepest living standards squeeze in a century, with real household disposable incomes expected to fall by 10% this year and next. The trouble is that none of the present holders of a ministerial office may still be in post next Tuesday, after Liz Truss is confirmed as Prime Mnister next Monday. So there has been a period of complete government paralysis whilst the election campaign has rumbled on through the summer. Incidentally, I hear a ‘vox pop’ with a member of the Tory party in a leafy constituency somewhere in the south of England. When the interviewer pointed out that the next Prime Minister of the country was going to be selected on the basis of conservative constituency members, the lady replied, with no apparent sense of irony, that the next Prime Minister was going to be chosen by the ‘best’ people in the country! Meg and I are looking forward to tomorrow when we do not have to get up early for any pressing reason so we can allow ourselves the luxury of a little lie-in. We have not seen our normal gaggle of friends in the park over the last few days, so we are looking forward to more social intercourse tomorrow. According to the ‘auction’ of energy contracts last month, it now appears that the cost of generating elecrity from windpower is now one quarter of the price of the gas equivent – I did her on the radio a university academic arguing that the ratio is now one seventh (which I have not been able to verify) But I have to ask myself why the price of all energy is so high (and increasing) at the moment?
We didn’t have anything much planned for today apart from a realisation that a period of wet and windy weather might be upon us over the weekend and so therefore today was a good day to apply the mower to the lawns (I hesitate to say ‘cut’ the lawns because they are still largely yellowy brown but they certainly need some tidying up as some tall weeds seem to be growing along their margins) We set off in the car this morning as we needed to make several calls along the road.The first was Asda because there are some things in that store that I cannot find anywhere else. We were successful in buying two of the three things we needed but could not find any of the brown paper bags designated for composting food waste which we use to store vegetables such as carrots in the fridge. To stop a lot of fruitless chasing around in the future, I have ordered some over the web which should take a few days to arrive. Then we went on to collect our newspaper and make our way to the park. The park’s car park seemed unusually full this morning but we occupied a space only when another visitor vacated it and enjoyed our coffee and biscuits when we were finally occupied our favourite bench. Finally, it was off to a petrol station to collect a gallon of petrol for the lawn mower – ideally, I wanted some ‘super’ petrol as I only buy two gallons of this a year for the lawn mower and I suspect it is ethanol-free. To cut a long story short, I concluded that the supermarket did not stock a ‘Super’ grade but filled up with regular petrol. When I enquired at the pay point, I was told they stock ‘Super’ grades of petrol but I had not found it because all of the pumps supplying it were busy with other customers. I have a special Briggs and Stratton additive (‘Fuel Fit’)which I can add to my petrol and according to the website, it prevents stale fuel, stabilizes fuel up to 3 years, cleans the fuel system and is the perfect stabiliser for lawn mowers and other equipment. Finally, we got home and had a quick lunch of sea bass on a bed of lettuce. This is our Friday ‘treat’ and as well as being very tasty, it is incredibly quick to prepare and gets our lunch (and the subsequent washing up) over and done with quite quickly. Finally, I got out fairly early in the afternoon to get the lawns cut. The mower started (eventually – I suspect that the really hot weather has caused the fuel in the fuel line to vaporise) and the lawns then got cut in the normal time (40 minutes for the front, 20 minutes for the back).
The campaign to be the next leader of the Conservative party, and therefore Prime Minister, thankfully ended at 5.00pm this afternoon. The result, practically a foregone conclusion, will be announced about midday on Monday morning. There is an almost universal acceptance that the election process, consulting as it does with the ‘grass roots’, has gone on far too long. The MP’s whittled their choice of candidates down to the top two in about 10 days but this consultation with the constituency parties seem to have gone off for weeks, right during the summer. The MP’s had to make their decisions quickly before the Parliamentary session ended, but even so most people are now of the view that MP’s should have been given a little more time and the constituency parties considerably less. A figure of two weeks for the latter has, I think, been mentioned. The last time the Tories activated this procedure, Angela Leadsom quickly withdrew from the contest with Theresa May and hence the whole process of choosing a new leader was considerably shortened. It was unfortunate for the Tories that this period of consultation coincided with the war in Ukraine and one of the worst economic crises to hit us in decades. It may well be that once this election is well and truly over that the Tories learn the lesson and perhaps have different procedures for when the party is in government (which is practically all the time) and when they are in opposition (which is correspondingly quite rare). The Labour party could do well to draw lessons from all of this as well. After the ‘coronation’ of Liz Truss is confirmed next Monday, political attention will turn to the Committee of Privileges of the House of Commons and whether Boris Johnson, in his uttterances, misled the House. The critical phrase is whether this was an ‘intentional’ misleading or not. Boris Johnson has received un an anticipated boost as in a published legal opinion commissioned by the government, Lord Pannick – a crossbench peer who sits in the House of Lords – described the Privileges Committee’s approach to its investigation into whether the PM misled MPs as ‘unfair’ and ‘flawed’. Boris Johnson will always argue that he ‘unintentionally’ misled the House – but was he really totally ignorant of all the partying going on around him, not least in his own flat when Dominic Cummings resigned?
Today there was a decidedly autumnal feel to the air when we got home. It had evidently rained during the night which is surely needed after all of these dry spells – I was pleased that we had got the lawns and the hedges cut before the rains came and we shall probably expect a little more tomorrow. The generally autumnal air was assisted by the choice of music by Alan Titchmarsh on ClassicFM this morning where we had a Mozart Horn concerto closely followed by the Elgar cello concerto. I think these two pieces were well-chosen to reflect the ambience of the day and although it is not exactly the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ in the words of the poet, the fact that so many trees are losing their leaves in a kind of false autumn means that the seasons are well and truly out-of-kilter with the actual months – after all, we are only just into September. Before we went down to the park, I had a large load of washing to peg out but no sooner had I started but the washing line broke in the very middle.I suspect that this is where our clothes prop that has a very tight clasp had worn away at the clothes line. Needless to say, I was being able assisted in putting out the clothes by Miggles, that cat who had adopted us. Repairing the line meant accessing the lower branches of one of our holly trees to release some spare portions of line. Once the line had been repaired (with a simple knot) the cat ascended the tree to inspect the cleat where the clothes line was affixed and almost got itself stuck. Afterwards, Meg and I went down by car to pick up our Saturday newspaper and after that, we made our way to the park. There we met up with Inveterate Octogenerian Hiker who we we had not seen for well over a week. We exchanged news of our various comings and goings and indeed we will not see our acquaintance again for at least a week as his daughter was going to whisk down to Chicester for a little holiday. I was reminded vividly of how the recent heat wave has thrown the seasons out of kilter because as I was cutting the lawns yesterday, I noticed that our solitary pear tree in the back garden was absolutely laden with fruit, whereas last year I think that it only bore a single pear. I selected the largest pear and sampled it, expecting it to be fairly tart but was pleasantly surprised that the taste was quite tolerable so I may have to think about picking the crop a bit earlier than I would have thought. At the same time, the old damson trees at the end of our garden (part of a hedgerow which I think forms part of the ancient boundary fence) is absolutely teeming with damsons. When I got indoors, I consulted my ‘gardening diary’ in which I record various things and notice that in the past I have picked damsons as early as 5th September. The only problem is that I still have not got around to bottling last years damson gin and damson vodka so I really need to find the time to do this in the next few days in order to release Kilner jars in which the damson gin is made. I should really have got around to this a lot earlier but somehow other things have always tended to intrude. This afternoon, Meg and I were watching ‘Sense and Sensibility‘ whilst simultaneously reading The Times not to mention my current writing. In the late afternoon, I also thought I would get back into soup making mode again as the nights are getting a little colder. I made tonight’s soup out of some fried onions, carrots, swede, celery, half a can of coconut milk and finally a dollop of Marsala sauce which adds just a little bit of piquancy to the whole. I started off this lot just before we set off for church and when we got back, the soup was all ready for us. We just needed a little bit of toast in lieu of croutons and a spoonful of greek yogurt and it feels like old times again. I have some cooked ingredients left over for an additional soup type meal during the week.
Finally,more Tory sleaze has energed. Liam Fox denies wrongdoing after receiving £20,000 from COVID testing firm he recommended but claims that all he did for his money was to make a recommendation to government. As we are in a kind of interregnum between Prime Ministers, I would be surprised if this was taken any further, particularly as so many ministers benefitted in a similar way at the start of the pandemic. Nobody seems to call out this corruption any more as it seems normal in the current state of politics.
This morning was a gloomy morning which threatened rain later on in the day. As it was, I walked down on my own to collect our copy of the Sunday Times and then it was time in home for what is now the Laura Kuennsberg show, now that Andrew Marr has retired. The show was memorable for an interview with Liz Truss who will surely get the news at 12.30 tomorrow that she has been elected as the leader of the Conservative Party and therefore Prime Minister. For me, the whole show (apart from the antics of the comedian Joe Lycett who practically derailed the show) was a graph shown to Liz Truss showing how reducing the National Insurance contributions was amazingly regressive – the higher one moved up the income scale, the greater the benefit). Laura Kuennsberg’s question to Liz Truss was ‘that was not fair’ to which Liz Truss replied that it was absolutely fair. This is a jaw-dropping admission – that the richer one is, it is more fair to give them bigger tax reductions than it is to help the poorest who are are hardly helped at all by the reduction in National Insurance. Practically no politician has dared to day this in the last forty years (but I suppose Tories feel it to be true). Liz Truss went on to say that we should not be arguing about redistributing the wealth of the nation but stimulating economic growth by making the rich richer. This is part of a wider theory called ‘trickle down economics’ in which it is assumed (with very little evidence) that making the rich richer makes wealth ‘trickle down’ to reach the poower sections of our society. The renowned economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, described trickle-down theory as ‘the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows.’ This pretty much summarises what has happened in practice over the past forty years as the theory has been rigorously applied by giving tax cuts to rich people and powerful corporations. But the rich have become very much richer, the corporations have become very much more powerful, and the sparrows are getting a whole lot thinner as fewer oats make it through the system. The Twitter-sphere is full of comments about this gaffe (if it was a gaffe) and are arguing that the Labour Party must be rubbing their hands in glee at this statement of philosophy before Truss is even elected. Others have commented that as we have had several years of trickle down economics, why do we have 200+ food banks across the country? I hope that Keir Starmer uses it to good effect at Question Time next Wednesday. The amazing thing is that even some Tories are even now, before she is even confirmed as having been elected, thinking of ways in which she can be removed – after all, only 30% Conservative MPs actually voted for her in the final ballot. If Liz Truss appoints an incredibly right wing cabinet, then this will spell masses of trouble on the back benches who feel that the Tory party is anything but united. On the other hand, if she appoints people who disagree with her, she must hate having them in the cabinet voicing their opinions and eventually being sacked in a blaze of publicity. It is no wonder that Boris Johnson is going to lurk around in the wings, assuming that a Liz Truss premiership will implode as right wing ideology has to meet with the reality of mass hardship and deaths amnongst the elderly. Of course, having appealed to right wing constituency party members with ‘no handouts’ she may have to ditch this ‘promise’ within hours when faced with the depth of the economic crisis coming down the road.
Meg and I took the car to the park as we often do on a Sunday mornimg. We had just drunk our coffee and were preparing to leave when our two friends, University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller strode into view, probably seeking us out. We had quite a jolly time joshing with each other about this and that. I had discovered a little child’s toy – a ball that illuminates when it is bounced – so they volunteered to hand it in at the cafe so that it can be donated by them (and not by me)to any passing toddler who can make use of it.
Today, we had a conventional beef dinner and teated ourselves to some Yorkshire puddings to go with it. After lunch, we were delighted to see that we had a really good old-fashioned downpour which did not last very long but is a sight to which we have not been treated for several weeks now. Later. on this afternoon, I am going to prepare some apples which my daughter-in-law picked for me and we can have a good old-fashioned nursery tea of stewed apple with custard. We are also looking forward to a BBC4 presentation later on this evening of the life of Beethoven on the one hand, to be followed by a rendition of the 9th Symphony (Choral Symphony) on the other.
Last night, as I lay abed in the wee small hours of the morning, I heard the rumbles of thunder and the sound of heavy rain falling (which was, incidentally) a wonderful sound to hear. There is an app you can get which I have on an iPad which is just the sound of tropical rain falling steadily and indeed it is quite hypnotic and soothing, provided of course, one is not in a small 6’x.4′ tent which I had as a boy. I consulted the weather app on my phone and saw that it was not due for the band of rain sweeping up the country to hit us until about 4.00pm in the afternoon so we could walk to the park without the benefit of outerwear. We made our trips by car today which is becoming the norm and after we had picked up a copy of The Times, we made our way to the park not expecting to see many people as Monday is generally quite a light day. In the park, we met with a couple who had a very young and not-as-yet well trained Alsatian puppy who had a tendency to bark at other dogs that it encountered. However, its ‘owners’ indicated that they had only had the dog for about 15 hours as it was a ‘rescue’ dog and they were acting as sort of foster-carers for it. Presumably thy were ‘doggy’ people and were well used to getting dogs and licking them into shape, as it were, but it struck us us rather a bold and altruistic thing to take on as the dog’s eventual full time owner would be the ones who would eventually benefit. However, we had quite a foreshortened morning because we wanted to get home in time for the announcement of the next leader of the Conservative party at 12.30. There was quite a lot of self-congratulaory announcements about how well the election process had been run, what a depth of talent from which they had to draw and so on all of which delayed the actual announcement of the result by Sir Graham Brady, the Chair of the 1922 Committee. When the result was announced, it showed that Liz Truss had secured 57% of the vote and Rishi Sunak 43% – a margin of difference of only 14%. The victory of Liz Truss was quite significant in its own way because well before the event, it was said that Liz Truss had a lead of 30% plus. In the event, Rishi Sunak performed better than many had predicted and Liz Truss worse – in particular, the 57% of the vote that she secured was less than the 60% that many of her supporters were hoping for and significantly less than the 66% secured by Boris Johnson. The impact of all of this is almost immediate as to the informed political cognoscenti, it look as though Liz Truss might have to ditch plans to fill her cabinet with ‘trusted’ right wingers and instead appoint a cabinet (as most Prime Ministers until Johnson did) which is more representative of the party as a whole and make sure that potential enemies who might seek to undermine her are not given a lot of ammunition at the start. Of course, the really big policy announcement might have to wait until about Thursday with the overriding question being what to do about sky rocketing fuel bills. There is a suggestion abroad, even now, that the new prime Minister might do a complete volte-face and order a freeze of all energy bills, effectively stealing the Labour Party policy which seems to have a lot of public support.
This afternoon our calendar had two principal engagements. First of all, we had a visit from our chiropodist who helps to keep us mobile. I remember a cartoon in which a postman’s feet were being examined with the slogan ‘Good for another 3,000 miles’ After that, we had a video link with a health service professional who was helping us manage some of the conditions that are afflicting Meg at the moment. This consultation was three quarters of an hour long and whilst the health service worker was friendly and informative, at the end of our allotted time span we had not learnt a great deal, if anything. However, I think it is true to say that the little group of us who meet in Waitrose each Tuesday morning probably gives us the kind of mutual support that is as good as anything.
Late on this afternoon, the news broke that Priti Patel had resigned as Home Secretary – this largely bcause it had been intimated that she would not retain the position of Home Secretary in a Liz Truss administration so she jumped before she was pushed. I must say I could not resist a quick look at the Twitter-sphere who, as you might expect, was full of undisguised glee at what most contributors thought was the worst, and most duplicitous, Home Secretary we had ever had. In particular, her claim to have ‘added’ 20,000 police officers was regarded with astonishment when her own policing minister admitted that 45,000 officers were required just to back-fill retirements and that the police have also seen an 18% reduction in real terms pay under the Conservative Government.
Tuesday is a day to which Meg and I increasingly look forward as it is the day upon which we traditionally meet with a clutch of our pre-pandemic friends in the Waitrose coffee bar. The day was one of those in which showers were quite frequent and there was quite a lot of rain ‘in the air’ but nonetheless, having picked up our newspaper, we made it to Waitrose by before 10.30am which is the time at which we conventionally meet. When we first arrived, I had a few political discussions with Seasoned World Traveller who is often there on a Tuesday morning together with our previous gardening guru. After that, the three old ladies plus Meg and myself formed a jolly little group – the Waitrose staff themselves said how much they enjoyed hearing the gaggle of voices because it reminded them a little of the pre-pandemic days. I took the opportunity to get some much needed supplies from the supermarket as I was there anyway including some cakes that I intend to share with others and consume on Friday. Once we got home, I changed into my Pilates track-suit trousers and attended my normal weekly Pilates session, after which I walked home and we had lunch. Walking home was quite an interesting experience as it was quite bright and sunny but nonetheless many leaves were falling off the trees as though it were later in the autumn. So we had the combination of a late summer’s day sunshine but with the leaf-fall associated with much later in the year. Once I get home after my Pilates session, we have a lunch traditional to us for a Tuesday of haddock fish cakes (warming in the oven whilst I am out) accompanied by those veg which can be quickly microwaved and only take a few minutes to prepare.
This afternoon the news, and the terrestial media, is dominated by the transfer of power as Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street for the last time, Boris Johnson flies north to Balmoral to see the Queen and formally tender his resignation, Liz Truss flies a little later in a separate jet to Balmoral to formally ‘kiss the hands of the monarch’ and to be asked to form a new government and finally, Liz Truss flies back to London destined for Downing Street in a separate jet. Apparently Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have to fly on separate jets for ‘security reasons’ but the unworthy thought occurred to me that if they on the same jet and it were to crash, then we could simultaneously get rid of two troublesome politicians at once. One suspects though that the reasons are slightly more prosaic than this – the fact that an ex and an incoming Prime Minister might be on the same flight might give rise to friction or even fisticuffs between the two. Then, a rather farcical staging of events took pace. When there is a transfer of power, traditionally the incoming Prime Minister is photographed on the steps of 10 Downing Street and then has to be seen to be entering the building (only through the front door but not through the back door) There were several MPs and anticipated cabinet mnisters huddled around the door of No. 10 but as the car bearing Liz Truss approached, there was a tremendous and fierce shower. To those who like to stage manage these events, it would have been unthinkable to have a symbolism of Liz Truss arriving in the pouring rain and, even worse, giving her first speech in the pouring rain. So the umbrellas went up and the lectern for the PM’s address was adorned with a black plastic sack in the vain attempt to keep it dry. Meanwhile the Liz Truss limousine kept circulating around the London streets until the worst of the shower had passed by so that the occasion of Liz Truss symbolically entering Downing Street was not accompanied by a shower of rain – the symbolism might have been prophetic. Then we had the normal incomer’s speech, but shorn of rhetoric with the first priority being not to do anything about the rocketing costs of living but to ‘grow the economy with tax cuts’ If it could be shown that the super-rich funnel tax cuts into productive investment, then this argument might carry some weight. But the weight of evidence, and of history, is that such tax funds tend to be squirrelled away into expensive consumption goods (country houses, yachts, tax havens) and goes nowhere the deprived communities that desperately need the inward investment.
Now for some slightly more cheerful news. When I was at work in the University of Winchester, many moons ago, a group of five of us had birthdays in May so we decided to have a collective birthday meal. Since then, we formed a group called ‘The Old Fogies’ and we used to meet at least twice a year to have a chat about how good things were when we ran them! But the pandemic has rather attenuated all of that but now there is a strong feeling that we should get together again. We are just in the process of trying to coordinate dates when all or most of us can meet so, hopefully, in a few weeks time we can all meet again for a meal in Winchester and renew old friendships. Most of us are saying that we cannot wait, so hopefully, we are sitting by our email boxes to see what emerges.
Today was always going to be dominated by Lix Truss’s first appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions and as this is timed to start at 12.00pm promptly, Meg and I made sure that we fulfilled our normal morning routines in plenty of time. We went down by car to collect our newspaper and then popped into Waitrose to pick up some much needed supplies such as milk. Then we were home in plenty of time to witness the first of what will soon become the ritualised conflict between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Evidently, political commentators seize on such occasions to judge how each of the parties are performing. The general view is that there is now a pronounced change of style from Boris Johnson with less of the bluff and bluster and cheap debating points to which we have become accustomed. There now appears to be a clear ideological divide between the two parties. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, made the points clearly and forcefully that not taxing the excess profits of the oil and energy companies with a ‘windfall tax’ is, in effect, increasing the size of the borrowing the government needs to undertake and the rest of the working population will eventually have to pay the bill. For her part, Liz Truss made a clear and confident start repeating yet again her strong conviction that only by not taxing the profits of the energy companies, more investment from them will help to stimulate the whole of the UK economy. Neither side scored a ‘knock out blow’ on the other and so I suspect that we have to score this, like a boxing match, as a draw. Tomorrow will be an equally eventful day because the announcement is due to be made of the measures that the government are bringing forward to alleviate the hardship of the greatly increased fuel bills. The current rumour mill is suggesting something between 80 and 150 billion pounds. As there are approximately 28.1 million households in the UK then this would suggest that the average households will receive a subsidy (hand-out if you will) of over £4,000 pa. What is interesting is the political reaction to these enormous sums. To the Tory party right (i.e. the present PM and Cabinet) these are loans worth taking out so that as a society, we can survive another huge shock to the system in the same fashion as the pandemic. If the Labour party were to engage in such a policy, no doubt that there would be a lot of talk of there being ‘No Magic Money tree’ or of visiting huge bills onto future generations. The reaction of the city is fairly muted insofar as I can tell – after all, they are always friends with a right wing government and know that huge loans of in excess of £100 billion may well help to bring inflation down by about 4% points. In the next few weeks, if interest rates were to rise to help to combat inflation, this eventually might mean a rise in interest rates that would eventually feed through into higher mortgages. At that point, the reaction of the public may well become critical. I suppose that all we can say is the Government are committed to a wholesale adoption of that is popularly known as ‘supply side economics’ – the ideological position that we need a small state and a liberated and lightly taxed private sector to help to stimlate economic growth. It is possible that all of this might just work – but most economists and political commentators are of the view that the experiment will fail and perhaps, fail spectacularly, particularly if nobody wants to lend us the money any more and we have to approach the IMF for funds.
Today has been a day with some emails in my inbox. So close friends from South Oxfordshire have extended an invitation to visit them and suggested a journey by train. We have worked out some dates suitable for both of us and I have already got some tickets organised, at a good price, as we are talking about a journey in three week’s time, organised through my favourite supplier which is ‘thetrainline’. I communicated with a close family friend of Meg’s Uncle Ken, only to learn that he passed away in the small hours of Sunday morning with the funeral in about three weeks’s time. This was not unexpected and we are pleased that we have taken every opportunity to see Uncle Ken when we can over the years (pandemic permitting). We are hoping to avoid a clash of commitments but we shall just have to wait until we get a firm date for the funeral so that we can book accommodation, apart from other things. Just to complicate matters still further, we are all trying to coordinate days for a get together of our University of Winchester ‘Old Fogies’ so I can foresee a horrible clash of commitments coming up but that’s life, I suppose.
This has been quite a day, what with one thing or another. I went shopping to my local supermarket as I always do on a Thursday and then collected the newspaper. On my way into my driveway back at home, I reversed into the drive but unfortunately reversed into the corner of my son’s car as I was parking. I must admit I was a little proccupied with the sequelae of the demise of Meg’s one surviving relative, her uncle Ken, who was a ripe old age but who we have tried to see as often as we can over the years although we live 130 miles away. The damage to my own car which was a little scrape was quite ‘liveable with’ once I had given everything some attention with a sponge cloth but the damage to my son’s car was a bit more extensive to one bumper and possibly involvig one of the rear sensors as well. We wondered what was to be done and we decided to leave my car alone for the time being. In the meanwhile, my son drove his car to the garage from where he had bought it only to be told that they did not have a body workshop and the regional workshop only covered warranty repairs. Eventually, I got onto my own insurance company since I had dug out the details and ‘fessed up to the accident caused by more inattention (Incidentally, I absolutely hate reversing and I swear the sensor at the back of the car only sounded for less than a second before the collision occurred.) After feeling more than upset about all of this, I told myself that nobody had been injured, my sons car was in the system whereby the insurance company would take to the relevant repair garage and perhaps offer a hire car if necessary and things could have been a lot worse. Needless to say, I will not repeat this mistake again in a hurry.
The principal political event of today was the statement that the Prime Minister was going to make on assistance with rapidly rising fuel bills.The announcement in Parliament had been massively briefed in advance and therefore nothing was actually a great surprise. The support package is due to last for two years and although the total cost has not been mentioned,most informed estimates put it in the region of £130 billion.
In the middle of the Commons statements, tweets and notes were seen as being hurriedly passed around and the Speaker made an intervention that the Queen ‘ was under medical supervision and resting in Balmoral’ A air of despondency descended on Westminster and all of the current news channels (BBC, Sky) have immediately concentrated on the Queen’s health. Evidently something quite significant has happened to which we are not party but all of the members of the Royal Family, moreorless wherever they happen to be, are immediately making their way to the Queen’s side. Nobody is daring the use the verb ‘dying’ but the reaction of all of the members of the Royal Family in itself speaks legions. As this news is being broadcast all day long and commentators are anxious to fill up the space, as it were, then we are having things like reports of which aircraft bearing which Royals are within how many minutes of the nearest airport which is Aberdeen. Meanwhile, whilst the handshake between the Queen and Liz Truss was widely disseminated,it has been noted that the Queen has a large purple bruise on her right wrist/hand. This could have been the result of a fall or could be some trauma after receiving some medical intervention of some sort. So as the hours pass, we are receiving sources of concern from many parties such as all of the major religious leaders as well as political leaders from different parts of the realm. Still, all that we really know at this stage is that the Queen is 96, that her doctors are ‘concerned’ about her health, that members of the Royal family are rushing to be by the Queen’s side and there is a general agreement that this is a ‘significant moment’ – the seriousness of this is underlined by the fact that Buckingham Palace that does normally comment on the Queen’s health felt the need to issue a statement half way through the morning.
Returning now to the Liz Truss statement, there are lots of unknowns emerging. We do not know the total cost of the support, different arrangements apply in Northern Ireland but we know not what, the support package for business is vague. There is a promise for ‘equivalent support’ for businesses, charities and schools for six months based on a government guess of the excess they would have to pay because of the gas price increase, but it is unclear how or when further details will emerge. Beyond six months, only vulnerable industries will be helped – but will this turn out to be every industry? Evidently, a lot had to be worked out at short notice but there are an awful lot of loose ends which may take some time for us to learn.
The news of the Queen’s death came through to us just after I had completed yesterday’s blog and of course, this made it a momentous day. The fact that the Commons and the other members of the Royal Family moved with such alacrity made me wonder whether there was a coded message such as ‘London bridge is falling down’ as ‘London Bridge’ is the codename for the event of the Queen’s death and all of its consequeneces. As the Prime Minister was informed at about 4.30pm of the Queen’s demise, we can assume that the Queen herself actually died at about 4.00pm or even earlier. The strained faces of the members of the Royal Family when their limousines conveyed them from Aberdeen Airport to Balmorral indicates that they were probably already appraised of the grim news. I think a whole swirl of emotions presents itself at a time like this. First of all, there is the inevitable sadness which most of the poulation undoubtedly feels. But a second emotion is surely one that recognises the incredible devotion to duty and years of service given by the monarch. After all old people do die and 96 years is a ripe old age (my own mother died at the age of 95 and her death certificate merely read ‘Extreme Old Age’ as cause of death). As I was aged about 7 years old when George VI died, then for all of my adult life I have been familiar with Queen Elizabeth II, her images on our stamps, her cipher on Post Boxes, a national anthem of ‘God Save the Queen’ and so on. But, as of yesterday, we now have King Charles III and it now sounds less unfamiliar than it did yesterday. Late on last night, I indulged myself in watching a facinating programme made by Channel 4 which was entitled someting like, ‘The Queen: Power, Politics and Prime Ministers’ or similar. From this I learned that the Queen quite enjoyed her weekly audience with Harold Wilson, the Labout leader, but relationships with Margaret Thatcher were a lot more strained (‘who was going to be Queen Bee after all?’)According to this programme, the Queen and Thatcher fell out with each quite badly over two issues. The first of these was the Commonwealth and the Commonweath desire to impose sanctions against the Union of South Africe as the UK was the only country to oppose sanctions in order to bring about the downfall of the system of ‘apartheid’ The second source of disagreement was the whole Miners’s dispute of the 1970’s. The Queen apparently did not buy into the rhetoric of ‘the enemy within’ and did not enjoy the sight of watching the members of working class communities in the North and the Midlands quite savaegly beaten in defence of ther jobs. The Queen did recognise the transformation that Margaret Thatcher had wrought on British society and later gave her the appropriate honours and recognition.
Today is the long anticipated day which is our wedding anniversary, now that we have completed 55 years under the yoke. We had various plans for the day and hoped that the weather would not get in the way, which fortunately it did not. The day started with our domestic help arriving on a slightly different day this week and naturally we exchanged our reactions to the Queen’s death with each other. We then went down by car to collect our copy of The Times which, in common with all the other newspapers, had published special supplements commemorating the Queen’s life in pictures. I also bought a copy of the Daily Mirror as I noticed from last night’s TV that they had produced an absolutely stunning profile of the Queen not in full regalia but just in profile with the simple message ‘Thank you’. I thought this to be an example of photo journalism at its very best sand I was pleased to buy this edition for posterity. As we had previously planned, we went down to our usual park bench but taking with us a bottle of prosecco and some cupcakes. We invited any of our acquaintances to help us celebrate and/or assist in a toast to the Queen’ memory and all of this worked as intended. I regaled the dog walkers with the following little story, gleaned from the internet. Apparently, the Queen and her entourage spent a miserable Christmas in Sandringham in 2003 as Priness Anne had taken along with her her English bulldog and this had attacked, and subsequently killed, the eldest of the Queen’s corgis. This had, understandably, put quite a damper on that year’s festivities.
The highlight of the day was when we with our two sets of friends from down the road, we all went out to one of our favourite restaurants where we all had a meal together because, by happy coincidence, all of our wedding anniversries fall within a week of each other. I had bought each of our friends a personalised anniversary cake and we were delighted that the hotel allowed us to take one of these cakes into the restaurant and consume it as our dessert, supplying us with some cream to help it down. One of our friends had so kindly organised a taxi for us there and back so that we could collectively enjoy a little alcohol with our meal to make it all a really enjoyable, and memorable,occasion.
So today is very much the day after the day before – inevitably, it will seem as a bit of an anticlimax after the very enjoyable night out that we had with our friends when we had a communal wedding anniversary celebratory meal in our favourite restaurant near Kidderminster. This morning, as it was the first time it had ever been broadcast, we saw the ‘Accessions Council’ which is when the Privy Council formally declares Charles III to be king. There is some debate as to what the new era may be called – ‘Eizabethan’ era is easily derived from ‘Elizabeth’ but in the case of King Charles III we may have to go back to a Latin root for the name. It may well be that the term ‘Carolean’ comes into vogue but it might be a case of seeing whether a consensus is arrived at amongst the modern historians. Meg and I made our way to the park again today when we met with our two park regulars – our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller. As you might expect, we were swopping stories about what had engaged our interest in this transition period. We now know that the the funeral of the Queen has been fixed for a week on Monday. In the meanwhile, the airwaves are filled with ‘filler’ type programmes but this afternoon there is a programme on life in the 1950’s when the Queen ascended to the throne. I certainly can remember the music of the era, pre-rock and roll with recording artists like Dean Martin and Perry Como and where at school children were regularly hit with a jam spoon not necessarily for being naughty but for giving the wrong answers in our recitation of arithmetic tables. Being born in 1945, I was just at the start of what was known as ‘the bulge’ which typically occurs when there is a rapid increase in the birthrate after any major war. In the case of the UK, the peak of this bulge was in 1948 and of course the bulge hit the primary schools in 1953, the secondary schools in 1959, the universities in 1966, the housing market in about 1973 and then, of course, the retirement at the end of working life in about 2008. At university, we studied some demography as part of a course in ‘Social Statistics’ and I was always fascinated by the way in which demography affects our social lives as a kind of unseen force, a little like gravity. Having said that, I found my ‘Social Statistics’ one of the most informative and interesting parts of my university education.
At the moment, there seems to be wall-to-wall coverage of various aspects of the succession – and I have to tell myself that we are only two days into these events, the Queen having died on Thursday. I am not sure how more of this I can take, given that it is days yet even before the funeral and wherever one looks, there is blanket coverage of one aspect or another of the succession of the new King. These programmes are all very interesting and admittedly, events like this have not been seen for seventy years but I wonder whether the public should be given a little respite from it all. Today, the TV Guide to our copy of The Times seems to have missed out, so we are relying upon the EPG (Electronic programme Guide) to have a quick quide to some alternative viewing. Saturday is the day when we attend our weekly church service and after that, Meg and I feel the need for a little diversion. Although many sporting events have been cancelled, the cricket Test Match between England and South Africa have had one day off but I think are playing again today. It is being left to each sport whether fixtures are cancelled or not and in the case of football, some comments have been made that football matches have been cancelled as a mark of respect, but perhaps the opportunity could have been taken for a mass singing of the ‘revised’ national anthem and this might have filled some emotional needs. It might be stating the obvious but who is ‘looking after the shop’ whilst all of this ourpouring of grief is going on. We have to remember that we have not had any ‘normal’ politics all during the summer and were desperately looking forward to a new government, albeit shaped by the new Prime Minister but now ‘normal’ politics has been suspended for another two weeks or at least until the funeral has been held and the official period of mourning come to an end. Whilst it is important that the succession of the monarch is handled correctly, government has to go on as there are no doubt critical decisions that are still be taken concerning the way that our fuel bills are gong to be alleviated. After the Liz Truss statement on Tuesday last, there were still quite a lot of unanswered questions, not least an estimate of the total cost and these questions have not gone away.
Today being a Sunday, I got up fairly early and collected our copy of the Sunday Times before settling down for a viewing of the Laura Kuenssberg show, otherwise entitled ‘Sunday’. Normal politics is suspended but she had a panel of three ex-Prime Ministers (Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Teresa May) to discuss the developments of the last week and, in particular, how the new King Charles III will define his role. Of course, all monarchs effect subtle changes but there are indications that King Charles may develop a more ‘slimmed down’ monarchy. Apart from the working and very hard-working members of the Royal family, there are quite a lot of hangers-on and flunkery so perhaps a more slimmed down monarchy fits the spirit of the times. After we had breakfasted, we looked at some of the progress of the Queen’s coffin as it emerged from the gates of Balmoral and started its journey through various Scottish towns and cities, including Aberdeen and Dundee, before its destination place of Holyrood Palace in Edingburgh. Meg and I walked down to the park today and engaged one or two of our generation in discussion of the Queen’s passing. We were informed that that might be a display of flowers in the park’s bandstand so we made a detour on our way home to witness this. Many of the messages on the bunches of flowers were written by quite young children, interesting in itself, and apparently there is to be a book of condolence opened in the Town Hall centre as well as online.
This afternoon, I was determined to get the lawns cut as they were looking a little ragged and we have had a fair amount of rain in the last week. This got done with no threat of rain – but I notice that the damsons are getting more and more plump. Just before I went out to cut the lawns, I had a quick flash through the Sunday Times discovered something which has puzzled me for years and is now seeing the light of day (or, more accurately, may be re-emerging).
I have been interested in politics since 1963 when I was aged 18 and and important event took place then. The Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, resigned through ill-health and was succeeded by an aristocrat member of the House of Lords, Alec Douglas-Home. How did this happen? The process then in place waa that the next leader would ’emerge’ but the processes by which this happened were secretive. It is said that monarchs exercise no political power but that was not absolutely the case in 1963 because constitutionally, the Queen could send for whatever politician could form a stable government that could command a majority in the House of Commons. Normally, this would be the leader of the largest party but in the case of a leader who has resigned, the monarch had a degree of latitude which politician to send for. There were three outstanding MPs at the time – Rab Butler, the deputy leader, Reginald Maudling and Quinton Hogg (later Lord Hailsham) who was very popular in the constituencies. So how did Alec Douglas-Home emerge? Harold Macmillan who was of patrician stock sent out a lot of the junior whips with loaded questions to ask of MPs to get the result that he wanted – Lord Home. Having resigned, the Queen went to visit Harold Macmillan on his sick-bed (which was not constitutionally necessary) and although he had resigned by then, he advised the Queen to send for Lord Home. There was no constitutiomnal necessity to follow the advice or recommendations of a recently resigned Prime Minister but the Queen did so, even though in the car going back to Buckingham Palace from the hospital, the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Michael Adeane, advised the Queen that Macillans’s advice was ‘non-constitutional’ But the Queen knew Lord Home as a fellow aristocratic Scottish land owner and great friend of the Bowes-Lyons (the Queen Mother’s family) and so the rest is history. The author Ben Pimlott is quoted by Tim Shipman that Elizabeth’s decision ‘in effect to collude with Macmillan’s scheme for blocking the deputy premier (Rab Butler) must be counted the biggest political misjudment of her reign’ Interestingly enough, Enoch Powell said later ‘the Queen was a victim of a violation of the constitution. It is unthinkable that Macmillan should resign and tender advice on his successor’ Now all of this might have been documented and might be well known to political historians and constitutional experts but I certainly do not think it is widely known. Moreover, who is going to highlight all of this just after the Queen’s demise? Perhaps to criticise the Queen whilst she was alive might have been unthinkable but to do it just after her death is unseemly but it is a story that is fascinating. Incidentally, The Conservative party having lost the elections of 1964 and 1966 revised their procedures so that the notion that a leader should ’emerge’ from a ‘magic circle’ be confined to history and was judged to be not a worthy way to select a leader of a moden political party.
This morning turned out to be quite a busy morning. I had received an email from a close friend of Meg’s Uncle Ken informing us definitively of the date of her uncles’s funeral in two weeks time today. We thought long and hard about the logistics of our visit and have now decided to make the journey there and back in a single day. One of the factors that lay behind our decision was the fact that en-route to Colwyn Bay, there is a fabulous restaurant set in a country park just off the A55 dual carriage way. This means that if we set off at a reasonable time, we can have a good meal and a rest in a location which we have used on several occasions before. Then, we can progress to the crematorium well fed and refreshed, after which we have the crematorium business at 2.45, a Service of Remembrance in Old Colwyn and a reception to be held in the adjacent Methodist Hall (what a good idea!), after which we can strike for home. With a bit of luck, some of the heavy traffic will be off the motorways by then and Meg can sleep on the way back. The day after the funeral, I am scheduled to go by train to meet our friends in Oxfordshire so I am choosing whichever options turn out to be the least tiring. This morning, we collected our newspaper by car and popped into Waitrose to buy some tea and then hit the road for two more errands. The first of these was to get a parcel into a local ‘One Stop‘ shop which is the preferred method of returning items and this has worked out as intended. I have already had an email telling me that my refund has been issued and is in the system. Finally, I went to the railway station to pick up my railway tickets for my trip to Oxfordshire and this, too, worked without a hitch. Then as it was raining ‘cats and dogs’ we made our way for home and drank our elevenses in front of the TV.
This afternoon after lunch, we were engaged in watching some of the funeral rituals for our departed Queen. The most important event of the day was going to be a procession at a very slow pace from Holyroodhouse to St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. This takes place along the ‘Royal Mile’ which is a little steep and narrow in places and I was particularly enthralled by how well the various actors payed their parts. In particular, two policewomen mounted on horseback led off the procecession at a very slow i.e. walking pace, made this slow so that the Queen’s sons and daugther could walk behind the coffin. Evidently, the horses had to progress at a very slow pace and I was praying that nothing would go wrong, which indeed it did not. Then it came to the turn of the pallbearers who have to bear the coffin containing the Queen on their shoulders and having to negotiate steps on the way. One could only admire the concentration on the faces of the young soldiers who must have been thinking to themselves that this was one of the most important moments of their lives when the eyes of the world’s media was upon them and they could not afford to make even a simple mistake or stumble. This too was performed flawlessly and I am sure they were all mightily relieved when they had performed their duties without a hitch. Then there was a special service in St. Giles, not a funeral service, to commemorate the life of the Queen and one is always interested to see what music is played and what symbolism is deployed. For example, the wreath on the Queen’s coffin was made by flowers picked from the Balmoral estate. Afer the service was over, there was an interesting little discussion about the fact that the Queen had actually died in Scotland which is probably the place in which she would ideally wish to die. An official biographer, Penny Junor, was interviewed and she made the interesting point that if the Queen had died at Windsor or at Sandringham, then the whole funeral arrangements would have been so much more London-centric. This way, by dying in Scotland which she loved and where you might say her roots lie (The Queen Mother, a Bowes-Lyon, was an aristrocratic Scottish family), the Scots were well and truly incorporated into the whole of the unfolding rituals.
After yesterday’s political blog, I did a little more research and discovered the following opinion on the ‘Quora’ website. This was an opinion that Macmillan was so keen to stop Rab Butler becoming the Prime Minister because he thought he would far too liberal a prime minister for the Conservative party. At the same time, Reginald Maudling was adjudged to be too ‘light-weight’ and Quinton Hogg too ‘populist’ and hence with a divided parliamentary party (sounds familiar?), Alec Douglas-Home was ‘helped’ to emerge. The whole question now is whether the Queen was badly advised or whether she made a large (and not well publicised) constitutional blunder.
As it is Tuesday, Meg and I fell into our ‘normal’ Tuesday routine but of course the media coverage of the departure of the Queen’s coffin from Scotland is anything but normal. Meg and I collected our newspaper and then joined our happy band who meet in Waitrose each Tuesday for a weekly get-together. After we had had our normal chats and gossiped about the developing news of the Queen’s death, we returned home and I started preparing for my Pilates class later in the day. The new King was meeting with representatives of all of the political parties in Hillsborough this morning. In the afternoon, the TV was covering a Service of Reflection and Remembrance from St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast. From what I could tell, the service seemed pretty ecumenical which is surely fitting for the occasion. A hymn was sung to the tune of the ‘Londonderry air’ which is a tune which is used whenever Northern Ireland is represented at sporting events and I suppose is relatively ‘neutral’ given the schisms that have characterised Ulster’s politics in the past. Incidentally, it is quite an interesting fact that no doubt due to the smallness of the relevant populations, sport in the ‘island of Ireland’ has always been reatively united. Meg and I were once on a flight to Spain and found ourselves in the middle of a group of Irish deep sea fisherman who were partaking in an international competition of some sort and they seemed genuinely surprised when we asked the question whether they represented just Eire or the whole of the island of Ireland, when the lattern was in fact the case.
This afternoon, we were watching the departure of the Queen’s body from Scotland which involved evidently the progress of the hearse from Holdroodhouse to the airport in Edinburgh. I must admit that I found the actual takeoff of the flight from Edinburgh representing the absolutely last occasion when the Queen would depart from Scotland quite an emotional and poignant occasion. Meanwhile, attention is now shifting towards London where both the King has arrived back and where the Queen’s coffin is due to land shortly. I imagine, as I write, that the progress of the Queen’s coffin from RAF Northolt towards Buckingham palace might be quite slow and painstaking as the crowds gather to line the route. As many commentators are now saying, it is one thing for a person to die but the absolute fact of this is thrust to the front of one’s consciousness when you actually see a coffin for the first time. The police and security services are steeling themselves for what is to happen next Monday when the Queen’s body is to be taken in procession from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey. Around 500 dignitaries from around the world will attend the Queen’s funeral. For most countries, the invitation extends to the head of state plus a guest. Apparently, President Biden is going to be allowed to bring ‘The Beast’ heavily armoured car to transport him around London but it has been let known that many other Heads of state will not necessarily be allowed to bring their own transport for the funeral but will need to be escorted from place in buses. Some of them may never have been in a bus in their lives so I can imagine that this may prove to be a massive psychological shock for many.
Now for the political talking point of the day. Some protesters have held up a sheet of paper bearing the words ‘Not my king’ The police seem to have taken the view that this constitutes offensive behaviour so some more streetwise protesters of a republican disposition have taken to holding up blank sheets of paper. The police have often taken the view that is within the rights of individuals to protest and have generally not intervened – which I personally think is the right cause of action. But the BBC have noted that a young barrister was arrested by the police when he was holding up a blank sheet of paper because what he might write upon it. This really is police action that crosses the line in the wrong direction. The young barrister when interviewed said that even if he did write words like ‘Not my King’, he would have been within his rights and the case law is quite clear on this point. However, he conceded that he would not hold up a piece of paper upon which words had been written if it was actually at a funeral itself – in other words, he conceded that there is a place for legitimate protest. The Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire argued that the police might intervene for the safety of the protesters themselves if the reaction of the bystanders was such that they turned a highly emotional state into a physical attack upon the protester. In this case, are the police right to intervene to protect an individual or is this itself an attack upon our democratic rights? A court may well be called upon to decide the case of the young barrister quoted above but courts are not infallible, particularly when emotions are running high.
Today was rather dominated by the fact that half way through the morning, Meg had an optician’s appointment so whilst she was having her eyes tested, I availed myself of a wander through Poundland where I picked up some cut-price cleaning products. As it was a bit late for a park visit, we went home and had our elevenses at home for a change. Wednesday is the day our domestic help vists us and it was helpful that we could sort out Meg’s wardrobe for her Uncle Ken’s funeral which is in about ten days time. Whilst I was out on the road, I bumped into the wifely part of the Irish couple down the road and she managed to convey some good news to us about a health scare she had had recently. When we got home, we organised a sort of mélange of vegetables (onions, peppers, tomatoes, peas, mushrooms) to which mixture I added some sauce and the last of our chicken thighs which had been well and truly seared off. This made quite a tasty dish that turned out to be enormous but Meg managed practically all of hers and the rest of the mixture was gratefully received by our domestic help (who often relieves me of my excess food when I cook too much).
This afternoon was dominated by the solemn procession of the body of the late Queen carried on a gun carriage whilst her children walked behind it. Prince Andrew was, of course, present and had probably seen as much intense military conflict as anybody being a helicopter pilot during the Falklands war (if my memory serves me correctly) However, I have to say that he walked with a truly military bearing as he alone of the Royal Family was dressed in a morning coat as the Queen had stripped him of all of his military titles. However, he was still allowed to wear his military medals. The crowd was largely silent interrupted with occasional bursts of respectful applause. After the scenes of Diana’s funeral, I half expected some much more overt displays of public emotion but the crowd was largely silent. The procession ended with the Queen’s body borne aloft and placed upon the catafalque in Westminster Hall – as in Edinburgh, I had my heart in my mouth thinking about the soldiers who had to perform their tasks flawlessly, which they did. The commentator observed that even members of the military who have the concept of ‘stiff upper lip’ instilled into them exhibited the occasional tear or welling up. When Meghan came into view, joining Prince Harry, it appeared to ne that she had indeed been shedding some tears. I think all observers of the scene were struck by the solemnity and the poignancy of the whole occasion. As the Queen’s body will lie in state for four days, then members of the public are lining up to pay their respects. I have heard an estimate that the length of the queue is up to three miles long and official government advice is to expect a wait of up to 30 hours before your moment has come. People do seem to have come from various parts of the globe to pay their respects, catching flights at the last moment in order to get here on time. Actually, I do remember that on the occasion of Winston Churchill’s funeral, I was twenty years old and a young civil servant working in a ministry in central London. I went to the location (probably Westminster Hall) to view the coffin if only as it seemed the right thing to do. I mentioned this to my son and wondered if he would have done the same if he had been of my age and working in London at the time and he told me that he would. The service when the body of the Queen was received in Westminster Hall was beautifully chosen but I dare say that the plans have existed for years.
After lunch and watching the procession, I set to work in my long delayed bottling of the damson gin. This is slightly complicated until I get into my stride. It involves locating the bottles of the appropriate size and making sure that old labels have been removed after which the bottles have to be sterilised. After that, each Kilner jar of damson gin has to be decanted and filtered through some muslin clothes using a variety of vessels so that each small bottle is eventually filled. So far, I have managed about a third of the whole task and I suspect that the limiting factor may well be the bottles themselves. I do have some wine size bottles that I may have to use eventually and, of course, I can always store the excess in the original gin bottles that I bought when the damson gin was laid down about a year ago now. As is often the case, when the production line gets organised, these jobs can be done fairly quickly if all of the relevant supplies are in place to start with. Each little bottle will be ‘primed’ with a very few dropos of almond essence which is of the ‘tricks of the trade I have picked up over the years but one has to be careful to limit this to only 2-3 drops which is not always easy.
It was rather an overcast day but rain did not threaten so we were happy to make our daily trip to the park. Being a Thursday, I got to my favourite supermarket at about 1 minute past 8 in the morning and as usual I could do a quick whizz around unimpeded by other shoppers. Practically everything on my mental list was actually in stock, which removes frustration. There was an article in today’s Times which shows that Aldi have now overtaken Morrisons to move into the 4th position of supermarkets by market share. It is being said that some middle class shoppers can now find Waitrose quality at much reduced prices, but Aldi also has a secret weapon. This is the famed ‘middle aisle’ which is devoted to hardware, kitchen and clothing bargains. When I have done my regular food shopping, I treat myself to a trip up and down the middle aisle to see if I am tempted by anything. This is not just theoretical as about a month I bought a couple of ceramic saucepans which are a delight to cook with and are so easy to clean. I suspect that many of the items are ‘end of range’ items from reputable manufacturers but if an item sells out, that is it – it certainly cannot be relied upon to find it the following week.
In the park today, we met with a ‘doggy’ couple we have had conversations with before and to whom I told my Queen and corgi anecdote when we saw them last Friday. We also coincided with Inveterate Octogenerian Hiker whose daughter-in-law has presented him with an app on his phone which ‘pretends’ that he is actually walking a favourite route else in the world. When he has completed the required number of kilometres he is entitled to be rewarded with a commemmorative medal.Today, he was near the start of a new walk and was located on the Florida keys (an archipelago of small sandy islands on a coral reef). So we left him as he was starting on the next leg of his journey and will evidently see him again in a few days time to check his progress.
After lunch this afternoon, I set myself the task of getting the bulk of my damson gin/vodka bottled. This is not just a job of filling smaller bottles from larger ones but decanting the fluid part of the Kilner jars and straining the contents through some fine muslin dish cloths. As I suspected, my limiting factor was the number of small i.e. 200cl bottles and last night I was engaged in the time consuming task of soaking and scratching off some labels from old bottles. By the end of this afternoon, though, I had bottled two thirds of last year’s crop which was a bumper one. I have filled 42 bottles so far but unfortunately I forgot to label which was gin and which was vodka. However, I am pretty sure that I put the gin versions into the largest Kilner jars and the vodka in the intermediate size. I had to do a quick tasting to ascertain which was which but I do not imagine there is a world of diference between the two. I have to ensure that I have enough Ryman sticky labels of the design I like and have used over the years. I seem to have supplies enough for about two thirds of this years vintage but I have managed to order some extra labels which should be delivered to the Ryman store in a couple of days. After the bottling has been done, there is quite a mountain of Kilner jars to be washed up and eventually sterilised but I have made a good start on this and will certainly now have jars on hand to accommodate this year’s harvest once it is picked.
The news media is still dominated by the news of the Royal funeral and today is the opportunity for members of the general public to bid their last farewells. I have found it quite interesting to listen to the personal testimonies of those intending to join the 4-mile queue. Two recurrent accounts are typically found. The first is members of the armed services who feel almost duty bound to bid farewell to the monarch in whose name they have fought and may have been injured. A second category are people who have met the Queen in the past and have such long lasting memories that they almost feel obligated to pay their respects. There is a live camera feed of Westminster Hall on the Parliament Channel and people often do not know how to react until the moment at which they are in front of the catafalque. Many bow their heads, some make the sign of the cross, ex-military personnel tend to give a salute and others just have a few seconds of almost personal communication with their ex-monarch. Many are saying that they would not have missed the experience for the world, even though they have to queue for hours beforehand.
It was a beautiful and fine early autumn day but the temperature was certainly dropping by a degree or two and there was quite a sharp breeze. Last night, I completed the bottling of most of last year’s supply of damson gin and damson vodka but not having labelled the Kilner jars, I am not absolutely sure which was which. However, it was quite satisfying to get this job accomplished as it should have been done months ago. I add one or two drops (literally) of almond essence, leave the bottles inverted so that the almond oil diffuses and then store the bottles in a large cardboard tray in the garage. Once you get into gear, the bottling does not take too long but there is a fair amount of cleaning up of Kilner jars and general tidying up and putting away of equipment but all of this got done. As a finishing touch and to make sure that the bottles looked neatly stacked, I sorted them out to size, shape, type of screw cap and so on, only to realise that I now only had only the faintest idea of which was gin-based and which was vodka based. When we were in the park, the breeze started to intensify and I was conscious of the fact that if we had a stormy night, the low hanging fruit of the damson trees would be shaken loose and we would lose almost the entire crop. So I thought I had better go to my local Asda in search of really large bottles (1.5 litres worth) of really cheap gin. I was in luck and bought six 1.5 litre bottles (and 9 litres is just about what I have just bottled from last year’s crop) plus two big bags of sugar to supplement recently bought supplies and four of the largest Kilner jars which Asda often sell at this time of year. I had two large fabric shopping bags stuffed full of liquor and accompaniments so I thought I would avail myself of a shopping trolley and my car was parked about 200 yards away. All was well until I got to a point just beyond the supermarket when all of the wheels locked. Whether this is a special design feature or a complete coincidence, I really cannot say but I turned the trolley around and dragged it to the vicinity of the car so that I could load the precious cargo into the boot. Then the trolley got returned to the environs of the supermarket when the wheels magically unlocked themselves. I now have everything in place to process the next harvest which Meg and I inspected this afternoon and the damsons really are large and ready to fall, as well as being quite accessible. If the weather is fine in the morning, I may well have a picking tomorrow morning but I intend to leave some of the fruit on the trees if they will stay on the trees that long so that when our friends return from holiday on about next Tuesday, I will have a supply of damsons ready for them (as I promised) There is always a bit of a problem what to do with the ‘discarded’ fruit. I used a really large cooking vessel that we can occasionally deploy for large cook-ups and stewed the fruit for an hour or so with the modicum of sugar. Then to test it out, Meg and I treated ourselves to a dollop of the compôte, some vanilla icecream and some yogurt and the result was delicious. The cômpote was nowhere near as tart as I imagined that it might be so more – some obliging friends and relatives might even turn up some of my copious supplies (which I have now bottled) into a tart or a pie.
The incessant focus on the Royal funeral is getting to us both a little but, hopefully, after Monday it will all be over and we can get back to normal life – and politics. Whilst a lot of government activity is ‘de facto’ on hold until after the funeral, the new Chancellor of the Exchequeur has let it be known that he is considering lifting the ‘cap’ of banker’s bonuses. The rules, first adopted Europe-wide, put a cap on a bonus that limited the extent of the bonus to no more than 200% of the recipient’s salary – as though this wasn’t enough. The intention of the cap was to try to curb the reckless behaviour of bankers using weird financial instruments that brought about the financial crash that preceded the pandemic. The government reason that attracting international bankers will grow the economy and hence the tax take -but are not bankers of all people completely adept at siphoning off money into obscure tax havens so they are never taxed at the appropriate rate in any case? I wonder if the forthcoming funeral is just an excuse to bury bad news whilst the attention of the population is distracted. The government have only announced an intention so far and not implemented the lifting of the cap on banker’s bonuses but if this passes muster in the House of Commons, it will really show the population whose side the politicans are on.
Today was a much colder day but beautifully bright. As no rain threatened today, we took the opportunity to put a washing line’s worth of washing out to maximise on the opportunities provided by a bright September day. We collected our newspaper and then made our way into the park, a little later than usual. Then we got joined in the park by Seasoned World Traveller and we exchanged some gossip of the day. We never know quite what kind of topic we are going to end up but we got onto the topic of talking about job interviews we have had. We have both had the experience of attending job interviews that you know you are not going to get but go along for the experience. In circumstances like this, do you say what you really feel or do you try and preserve some semblance of being diplomatic. We have both had experiences of attending interviews when we knew that we would never succeed and have had the pleasure of walking out if we feel we have not been treated particularly well. Then it was home to a lunch of a beef mince stew, enhanced by onions and peppers plus a dollop of brown sauce which is a way in which I cheat slightly to get an enhanced flavour.
Now that I have all of the elements in place and it was a fine day, I decided immediately after lunch to pick the damsons. Looking at the records I have keep over the years, I have generally picked at about this time of year or sometimes a few days earlier, by date. It was just as well I picked today, though, because a few had already dropped off the trees but those remaining on the trees very quickly dropped into my hand. I like to count the number of fruits that I have picked because this is quite a reliable way of measuring out final quantities rather than weighing them out. I knew that last year I had picked about 550 fruits and I picked the same quantity this year which is about 10 Kilner jars worth which should give me about 7 litres worth of prepared gin/vodka. To help me keep count, I have a collection of 1p pieces which I transfer from one pocket to another after I have counted to a hundred. When ultimately bottled, this should give me about 30 bottles worth of small 220cl bottles which is the size I prefer when I eventually make presents of them all. This year, it only took me about an hour or perhaps a little longer to collect the fruit – needless to say, the ‘low hanging fruit’ is easy and quick to pick but then I use a long handled rake to pull down the taller branches within reach so that I can pick the more inaccessible fruits. The tedious task that lies ahead is to put about five gashes in each fruit to allow the gin/vodka to penetrate it but I have found over the years that one of those really old-fashioned tin openers that used to leave a really jagged edge on the tin is an excellent tool for making these gashes in the fruit. After this tedious ask which will take several hours, the actual preparation of the gin itself is a simple enough procedure.
This evening and I think tomorrow evening as well, the BBC have pulled off a master stroke which is a repeat showing of Paddington followed by Paddington 2. After the Queen had participated in a really humorous sketch featuring Paddington (bear), last Christmas, this is fondly remembered as the way in which The Queen shows that she had a tremendous sense of humour. So amongst many of the floral tributes, it is not unusual to find a ‘Paddington Bear’ complete with the words ‘Thank you, Ma’am’ which was one of the closing scenes of the sketch. Some even go as far as leaving a couple of marmalade sandwiches (again, part of the sketch and the whole Paddington story) in their little sealed bag. The authorities are having to gently point out that this is not a good idea as straightforward floral tributes in their thousand are compostable whereas Paddington Bears are not. I can imagine, though, this has proved to be a completely unplanned but innovative way in which young children brought up on Paddington and the recent sketch can make a connection with the death of the Queen and the funeral tributes.
The queue of people wishing to pay their last tribute to the Queen is now 13.5 hours long – this, itself, is down from a high of 24 hours earlier in the day. Most people are saying that their wait is well worth while. A common sentiment that I have heard expressed more than once is that of the Queen can reign for 70 years, what is a few hours of waiting in order to make a final farewell. Once in the queue, people seem to exchanging their life stories and making friendships that will endure. The normal ’rules’ that Londoners have (do not make eye contact with strangers, do not talk to other people on public transport and so on) seem to have been completely swept away and the queuing population has found the pleaure of actually talking to each other.
Today was an interesting day. Yesterday, Meg took a bit of a tumble in the garden whilst she was helping to bring the washing in off the clothes line. I ascertained that no bones were broken or things displaced so I sat her down and gve her a banana and a cup of hot, sweet tea to cope with any potential shock. She was insistent that she wanted to attend church in about half an hour’s time so this we did. However, this morning, Meg took a bit of extra bedrest and I kept her warm with a bit of electric blanket and dosed her up on ibuprofin to deal with any inflammation. She has some slightly sore ribs and pulled muscles but is basically OK. Once I made sure that she was warm and comfortable, I shot off down to the park and was fortunate to coincide with both of my regular park buddies. I had taken a flask of coffee and I drank this quickly as well as giving my park friends a quick update on what was happening to Meg (coupled with a bad joke) and then got home within three quarters of an hour. Then I cooked a lightning lunch with some beef that I had had cooked and saved half in the freezer so I managed to turn out a ‘normal’ Sunday lunch fairly quickly.
I had allocated this afternoon to bottling my damson gin and this went all quite smoothly once I got my production line all set up. First, though, I had the tedious part done which is pricking each fruit with a special old-fashioned can opener I use for the purpose and I managed to get all of this done before lunch. I sterilised the Kilner jars with baby sterilising solution and then dolloped 450 grams of damsons into each jar, complemented it with 350 grams of sugar and then filled up with 0.75 litre of gin – this combination of ingredients happens to exactly fill a 1.5 litre Kilner jar excellently. The I give each a quick stir, an equally quick shake and finally I invert the whole jar to help the sugar, gin and damsons to adequately mix. I store the completed jars in some cheap plastic washing up bowls which I keep in the agrage to assist with light leakages that sometimes occurs when the jars are inverted. After a day or so, I will turn the jars the right way up and then give each a shake which I will repeat at weekly interevals. This means that the damson gin will be ready for bottling just before Christmas. I see from my record book that I bottled 550 pricked damsons last year on 18th September and this year is an almost an exact repeat of last year. I have bottled 560 damsons this year which has produced 7.35 litres of damson gin altogether which should give me 30 miniature sized bottles once I have persuaded friends and cafes to donate any of those little bottles that come into their possession.
Today is the day before the formal funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth and I will tune in at varous points of the day tomorrow, if only to listen to the music and observe the reactions of the crowd and the congregation. By reading Sky News, I have just learned as well that the crown, which now rests on her coffin, is made of gold and set with 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls and four rubies. It contains jewels including the Black Prince’s Ruby, the Stuart Sapphire and the Cullinan II diamond. St Edward’s Sapphire, set in the centre of the topmost cross, is said to have been worn in a ring by St Edward the Confessor and discovered in his tomb in 1163. At 8.00pm his evening, there is to a minute’s silence across the whole of the country. I must say that I would not like to be that part of the diplomatic service and funeral organisers who will have to work out who is seated next to whom. Also, the transport arrangements are going to be ‘original’ given that practically every head of state apart from Jo Biden who will travel in ‘The Beast’ (heavily armoured vehicle) will have to rub shoulders with each other on a fleet of buses. At least by the end of tomorrow, all of this will be over and we can get back to normal life and politics. The government has been promising a welter of announcements including a financial statement scheduled for next Friday which is being deliberately not being called a ‘budget’ I suspect to avoid the scrutiny of the Office for Budget Responsibility which would otherwise give a formal forecast of public finances. This represents a break from all budgets since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 and displays an unfortunate authoritarian tendency to not expose the projected financial plans to a proper independent scrutiny.
Today has been dominated as you might expect by the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II which, as Britain’s longest serving monarch, is a truly historic occasion. There were various elements to today’s proceedings. First the Queen’s body was transported on a gun carriage from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey, all with due ceremony. Then came a service before about 100 heads of state which was not overlong in accordance with the Queen’s wishes but was of the order of 45-60 minutes. The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a short but moving sermon and I wondered whether his words to the effect that those who cling to office for the sake of it and are quickly forgotten were directed to the Boris Johnson’s of this world. The next part of the proceedings was the tranportation of the Queen’s coffin on the gun carriage through central London from the Abbey to Marble Arch, also known as the Wellington Arch. This part was accompanied by seemingly hundreds of armed services in every shape and livery. Then the coffin was transported by a hearse along roads that led to Windsor with the crowds very much in evidence but generally silent apart from the occasional round of applause. The procession through Windsor and up ‘The Long Walk’ seem to take an age as the hearse moved so slowly and the Queen’s four children walked behind it. Then one or two moments of either deep symbolism (or ‘kitsch’ if you wish to be impolite) was the Queen’s pony, Emma, standing with its handler on a green area on the approach to Windsor castle. A similar touch was two of her corgis, Mick and Sandy, again brought out to witness the final procession of their sovereign. In the service of committal itself, there were two moments of great symbolic importance. The first of these was when the regalia of the monarch, the orb, sceptre ad he Crown itself were removed from the coffin and placed upon the high altar of St. George’s Chapel. The second symbolic act was the Lord Chamberain deliberately snapping his ‘wand of office’ and then placing it upon the monarch’s coffin. This symbolic act was last performed 70 years ago at the funeral service of George VI but has never before been filmed on television. I did wondered, though, whether the wand of office had been ‘doctored’ by a fretsaw to make it sure that it broke when it was intended to. When it did come to the actual committal, I was mildly surprised to see that the coffin was actually placed on some type of lift and actually descended at the appropriate moment into the vault. There will be a private ceremony just for members of the Royal Family itself at 7.30 from which the TV cameras are justifiably excluded. Although I am not a great hymn singer, when it came to the service in St. George’s chapel, one of the hymns sung was ‘Christ is made the sure foundation‘ which is one of the hymns sung at my own wedding in 1967. I happen to know this because when I was digitising the wedding photgraphs in preparation for my 50th wedding anniverary celebrations, I found the organist’s original notes with details of all of the music played. This hymn was a Latin hymn dating from the 7th century although I did read somewhere that Henry Purcell might have revised it. It was deployed when Pope Benedict, one of the first popes to visit the Abbey in centuries, processed down the knave with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The video of this is quite notable as an errant order of service which had been inadvertently dropped during the procession was expertly kicked out of the way by a nun, perfectly in time with the music, at a later point in the procession. One piece of pure theatre after the coffin was lowered into the vault was a lone piper playing a lament and gradually walking away so that the congregation just heard the sounds of the lament fading away into the distance.
The whole of this operation has been planned for decades. We heard a Deputy Commissioner of the Met, one Steve Roberts (who we happen to know as our next door neigbour but one in Leicestershire when he was only 18) explaining that these plans had been in existence for about 30 years but are constantly revised and updated under the code name ‘Operation London Bridge’ So we do this ceremonial stuff incredibly well and I suppose is one of the UK’s contributions to world culture. To the inexpert eye, everything seemd to work to perfection but I suppose there is always room for things to go wrong. The reason why the monarch’s body is pulled by a team of naval ratings is because at Queen Victoria’s funeral service, one or more of the horses got restive, a crucial trace broke and the gun carriage itself was practically overturned. A quick thinking German prince saved the day by suggesting that the naval ratings be deployed to pull the gun carriage and hence a tradition was born.
Today is the day when we are finally ‘funeralised out’ having had ten days of official mourning for Queen Elizabeth. When I have chatted with various people in the park, we were all generally of the view, even the pronounced monarchists, that we have had our fill of wall-to-wall media with coverage of practically nothing else and we all feel it is now time to move on. As with many things, I have conficting emotions and feelings about what we have just experienced. On the one hand, we have to pay tribute to the longest living monarch in British history and probably one of the longest serving in world history. Also the Queen had touched the lives of thousands of her subjects and there was a general upswelling of emotion and justifiable mourning. On the other hand, normal life must carry on and one wonders what might be happening with currency and energy markets whilst our gaze had been averted elsewhere. Today, The Times has published a very detailed souvenir edition with lots of stills from yesterday’s processions and funeral rituals but the details of these I blogged about yesterday. However, by way of ‘closure’ on this subject, I will mention an article in ‘The Times‘ by Caitlin Moran on the subject what the queues, the tears and the pomp has taught us all. Reading the reactions to this article, it appears that it has struck a chord and expressed beautifully what many have thought about the last few days – in fact, you could say that it was Times journalism at its best. One interesting facet that comes out in the article is the observation that nations display their innermost character at times like these and of course a characteristic of the British, is that we know how to queue with style, humour and a degree of stoicism. I think that one estimate is that up to 250,000 might have queued to pay their final respect to the Queen. Other nations no doubt will display their national characteristics in their own particular ways but the British ability to queue is a thing of wonder – but if one attempts to ‘queue jump’ the ire of those observing the unwritten rules will be visited upon one with a vengeance.
Today being a Tuesday, we go down to Waitrose and meet with our regular group of Waitrose ‘buddies’ This is now becoming a regular fixture for Tuesday mornings and I met with Seasoned World Traveller on one table whilst Meg was communing with three other elderly ladies whilst I flitted, as is my wont, from one table to the next. Naturally, we discussed the state funeral to a particular extent but also got onto the subject of ‘forbidden’ or rarely displayed verses of familiar hymns or anthems. We started off discussing the second verse of the National Anthem which hardly anybody knows and contains lines like ‘Confound their politics/Frustrate their knavish tricks’ which may have been directed against the Scots for all I know. Apparently, the second verse was meant to be sung yesterday but hardly anybody knew it – this was not surprising as the version printed in the Order of Service reprinted in The Times of yesterday actually printed the first verse and then the fifth. There is even a sixth verse that talks about sending a general to crush the rebellious Scots and this, too, is hardly known. In fact, once you get beyond the first verse, the verses that constitute our supposed national anthem become obscure or contentious – but certainly not well known. After our Tuesday get together, Meg and I went home and I changed into my track suit bottoms and attended my normal Pilates class at midday. In fact, I complimented my Pilates teacher that no doubt due to all of the stretches that we do regularly, I had managed to cope with the rigours of damson fruit picking with no adverse consequences (all one and half hours of it but with quite a lot of stretching involved)
There are two particular bits of political news, the consequences of which will apparent as the days unfold. On the domestic front, Liz Truss has announced that she is prepared to put up with short term unpopularity as a price worth paying to stimulate economic growth. It is being said that the US President, Jo Biden, has publically opined that trickle down economics, as espoused by Liz Truss, just does not work. On the international front, Putin may well be announcing this evening that rapid referenda that have no international status may be announced to formally annexe some recently occupied Ukranian provinces (oblasts) into the Russian State. It also appears that a ‘de facto’ mobilisation of the entire Russian male population may be on the cards but if this proves to be the case, then the excuse that this is just a ‘special military operation’ will be blown asunder and the Russian population may realise that they are actually in a war with the Ukraine.
Today started of as a fairly gloomy day with a lot of low hanging cloud but rain did not seem to be particularly imminent. By the time we were were ready to collect our newspaper and go for a walk in the park, having exchanged news with our domestic help who calls around on a Wednesday, the sky had turned a brilliant blue and we had an hour or so of very pleasant sunshine. This was not to last and when we eventually returned home, the skies had clouded over again. In the park, we met as we often do with Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was still making progress across the Floria Keys, according to the app on his smart phone. We also chatted with several dog owners that we know reasonably well by sight and speculated whether the dogs were even more keen to meet with each other in the park than their human owners were. After we returned home, we raided the fridge to see what kind of a meal we could rustle up and eventually settled upon making a risotto with some low carb rice that we had in stock, some kippers for the protein element and enhanced by vegetable stock, fried onions, petis pois and grated cheese. This all went down very well, I am pleased to say and then I proudly displayed to our domestic help the 42+ bottles of last year’s damson gin that I had recently bottled as well as the 7.35 litres of damson gin that I have just prepared from this year’s harvest. There is no need to panic just yet but I will be eagerly collecting some thirty 220cl bottles which I will need before Christmas for this year’s bottling. I still have a few smaller Kilner jars of damson vodka which I will get round to bottling in the next week or so but in the meanwhile, I thought it might be quite a good idea to sample some of this year’s vintage. So I took a smallish bottle, as yet unlabelled, and we cracked it open to see how it tasted. Meg, our domestic help and I all shared a little tipple and I am delighted that the quality this year is probably as good as ever and may even have exceeded last year. Last year’s preparation had been slowing maturing for a year now, rather than the more conventional fifteen weeks, and this extra maturation time may account for the perceived superior quality. I normally have a bit of a panic on just before Christmas to ensure that I have adequate supplies to provide each of my Pilates class members and some of the staff at the physiotherapy centre a little surprise Chrismas present. This has become a regular event now over the years so I suppose the word ‘surprise’ is a bit of a misnomer. Most of the damson gin is given away to friends anyway, so the amount that I drink myself is fairly minimal but having established a tradition, it is a little hard to break.
This week is a fairly quiet week, socially but next week will be far busier for us. On Monday next, we will be making a one day visit to North Wales for the funeral of Meg’s Uncle Ken. However, we have a good meal booked for us in a country club that we know well from previous visits that will ensure that we arrive at the crematorium reasonably rested and well-fed. Aterwards there is a church service and a post funeral ‘bash’ in the Methodist hall near to the church. Then on Tuesday, I shall be going off (on my own) at the invitation of some friends who live in South Oxfordshire and have invited me down for the day and I will be travelling to them by train. We also have a visit to the dentist next week and also our COVID vaccine booster jab.
Today has been the day when all the businesses in the country have been waiting to see how the government are going to help them with thir escalating fuel bills. Provision has already been made for the ‘capping’ of energy bills for domestic consumers and from 1st October, business customers (including schools, hospitals, voluntary organisations) will have their bills set for 50% of the wholesale price with the government responsible for any further increases. This will hold for six months but a review will be held after three months to see if there are any particular sectors under extreme stress. I think the general view is that we must ‘wait and see’ as it is reported that the energy costs of some businesses has been increasing five-fold. I am not sure why the rates for businesses should have such a dramatic increase compared with domestic consumers but without some financial support from central government, we would have seen business closure on a massive scale. As it is, the costs for supporting the business commnity will run into tens of billions of pounds and may be at least half of the costs of the furlough scheme which paid the wages of workers in the economy during the pandemic. Meanwhile the value of the pound has fallen to a 37-year low which will stack up even more costs for future generations (or ourselves) to bear.
Today dawned somewhat duller and certainly cooler so we must get gradually used to the colder days of autumn. As we have now passed the date of September 21st yesterday, we are just more than half way between the longest day and the shortest day. In general, I quite like the autumn probably because it was always the start of something new such as a new university term or the start of a new job. October, which is nearly upon us, I quite enjoy but November is just a month that has to be ‘lived through’ before we start to think about the celebrations of Christmastime. However, we group of ‘old fogies’ who were due to meet for a get together in Winchester chose a date which unfortunately for us the railway unions did as well as they announced a strike on Otober 5th. So we have postponed our get-together until November which does have the bonus of alleviating what would otherwise be quite a dull month. Meg and I popped into the park not expecting to see anybody in particular but we did commune a little with Inveterate Octogenerian Hiker and then a few minutes later with Seasoned World Traveller. We put the world to rights, as we normally do, and then discussed the geopolitics of the moment which inevitably means Putin. We had both seen on the news that up to 1,300 Muscovites had come out onto the streets to protest against Putin mobilising anybody who had some military training in his war on the Ukraine. Considering that this might result in a severe beating following by up to 5 years in gaol in the most squalid of conditions, these protesters must be brave indeed. Waves of young men, often strongly encouraged by their parents have headed out of Russia as fast they can with Georgia being a particular favourite as there is no need (yet) to secure a visa. I think that many politically informed young men are calculating that the reservists might be called up first and they will almost certainly follow and they have no desire to be used as cannon fodder in Putin’s war. I heard a military analyst on Radio 4 this morning as I was getting ready to go shopping who was saying that the extremely low rate of morale in the current Russian front line in the Ukraine was all pervasive. This being the case, Putin’s hold on the areas that he has invaded must be a little tenuous to put it mildly. Perhaps, and this is being optimistic, things might come to such a pitch that the Russian soldiers might capitulate quite easily and the army collapse rather like a dam being breachd. Most predictions, though, are for a long slog in which it takes months, if not years, for the conflict to be resolved.
This afternoon was rather dominated by the fact that I walked down into town to fulfil a doctor’s appointment arranged a week or so ago. I joked with the doctor that whatever symptoms you have seem to diminish once you were actually sitting in the doctor’s waiting room. Actually, I was not unpleased to be making a visit down into the town because I needed to pick up some of the labels that I use to label my damson gin bottles. I had ordered some of my favourite design that I had used for years and they had been delivered to the Ryman’s store in Bromsgrove. Having picked up my ordered labels, I paid a visit to the carousel where the labels are usually stored and Sod’s Law sprung into operation as the store happened to have plenty in stock. Nonetheless, I bought several extra packets of labels so I now have sufficient not only for this year but for some years ahead. I also took the opportunity to get an important letter posted – it is quite rare for me to commit anything to the post these days. Then it was a walk home thrugh some gentle rain – Meg and I treated ourselves to an an ‘autumn’ type tea in which we make a thick mushroom soup combining the remainder of last week’s mushrooms with a tin of mushroom soup.
The international news is of course dominated by the news from Russia that Putin is going to try and mobilise 300,000 reervists to fight in the Ukraine. Our own Ministry of Defence (MOD) is arguing that the Russian president is likely to struggle with the logistical and administrative challenges of even mustering the 300,000 personnel. They are also saying that it is unlikely to be combat effective for months and the move is effectively an admission that Russia has exhausted its supply of willing volunteers to fight in Ukraine. The MOD continuedby saying that even this limited mobilisation is likely to be highly unpopular with parts of the Russian population and that Putin is accepting considerable political risk in the hope of generating much needed combat power. Although the censorship in Russia is incredibly pervasive, in these internet days many young Russians are undoubtedly discounting whatever Putin has to say and relying upon other news channels to find out what is going in their own country.
Today dawned quite bright so after our showers, Meg and I were keen to get into the park for our daily walk. We went by car to pick up our copy of The Times and then made our way to our usual park bench. We were joined by Seasoned World Traveller and then a few minutes later by an elderly Irish couple who we know through being the friends of our other Irish friends. After all of our chats we returned home to view what has been happening with the Chancellor’s mini-budget about which more later. When I go out in the open, I have taken to wearing an Australian style black leather hat. This hat has been my constant companion for some years now and in the past, people have stopped me in the street to mention that ‘I don’t recognise you but I recognise the hat’ Actually, this hat was the second of its genre that I have owned – the first in the series was actually bought in a charity shop for about £4 whereas the second was actually replaced, after I left the first in a pub in Winchester. As part of the ordering process, I actually spoke with the suppliers who informed me that when this style of hat is inadvertently left behind somewhere it is never, never handed in – an action I can understand, even though I do not sympathise with it. To keep these hats in good condition, I give them a fairly generous polishing with black boot polish which, after it is polished up, certainly both repels and sheds the rain after a brief shower. Now to get to the point- I have actually lost my hat somewhere. Family and friends have kept infuriately saying to me ‘Where have you lost it?’ which, if I knew, would mean that the hat was no longer lost or was in a general location where I could look for it. Needless to say, I have looked at every likely place in the house where it is liable to be and even looked around our regular park bench and also in the clinic where I do my Pilates at midday every Tuesday. Yesterday afternoon as the hat was well and truly lost, I had to put into operation ‘Plan B’ which is to start to wear the identical hat which I had previously bought and placed into reserve, knowing that it could only be a matter of time before its predecessor was lost, abandoned or stolen. The replaced hat I do admit although it is the same colour, size and style of the previous one does looks newer and dare I say, somewhat smarter as well. When my son called round and remarked that I had evidently found my hat, I confessed and told him it was a brand new one. He wryly remarked that no doubt I would get round to ordering a duplicate so when my new hat was lost (hopefully many years into the future), I would still have a replacement in store. However, he knows me too well as I was able to inform him that a replacement, reserve hat was already on order (courtesy of a quick search on the internet where I found a quality replacement at what I thought was a very reasonable price).
The ‘mini-budget’ (so called rather than an ‘actual’ budget in order to avoid any scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility – interesting!) has actually turned out to be anything but ‘mini’. The Chancellor has announced the biggest tax cuts for about half a century, the effect being to shovel enormous amounts of money towards the already wealthy whilst the poor who pay practically no income tax, or none, will not benefit at all. This is financed by absolutely enormous borrowing estimated to be some £45 billion. This is pure ‘supply side’ economics in which economic growth is prioritised over every other economic aim. The government argues the action being taken will help bolster economic growth and increase the tax to fund public services. But critics argue the measures are a risk when public debt is already high and the cost of borrowing is rising. What the public reaction is going to be to such an unprecedented redistribution of wealth towards the already wealthy is going to be fascinating. When commentators have remarked to government ministers that these tax reforms are not ‘fair’ then a response has already been agreed. This is to argue that as the wealthy already pay more than their fair share of taxes then it is not unfair to hand some money back to them. The consensus view appears to be that the government has engaged upon the most enormous gamble – it is not impossible that ‘trickle down’ from the very wealthy might occur but it is extremely unlikely. The reactions of the stock markets i.e. those who actually lend us the money is interesting. The pound has fallen below $1.09 for the first time in 37 years. It was down by more than 3 cents on the day after US bank Citi declared the currency was facing the prospect of a confidence crisis. Even some Tory MP’s are unhappy as the Tory’s reputation for financial prudence is called into question. One cynical view is that the Tories know they are going to lose the next election so they are enriching themselves and their rich friends whilst they can and before they may be out of power for a generation.
This was a fairly normal Saturday for us. I ws pleased to have given the lawns their routine haircut yesterday because today it was certainly gloomier and chillier. By prior arrangement, I took along a pile of old nespapers which an acquaintance of mine needed for a decorating job in he was about to engage. Then we were joined by our University of Birmingham friend and we reminisced a little about the days when we were employed and when, at our level of seniority, we actually had a room to ourselves. Our friend had paid a visit to see some of his former colleagues and discovered that they had been relocated into a new building. However they now had to share three colleagues to a room to which the majority of staff had responded by promptly working as much a they could at home. The few who did not work at home often enjoyed the facilities affored by a whole room if colleagues were absent for a lot of the time. However my friend felt that in modern patterns of working, quite a lot had been lost. In the University in which I worked, there was a staff common room which was a tremendously useful facility for bumping into colleagues from other departments that you might not normally see but with whom you may have shared some common interests. In the fullness of time, then then management decided that this staff common room was a 'waste of valuable space' and commandeered it for their own purposes thus, at a stroke, reducing the benefits to the college as a whole that came from these type of social interactions. Of course this was not measurable as such and it reminded me very much of the dictum associated with Albert Einstein,I think, to the effect that 'Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.' I personally think that this is a brilliant quotation and alerts us to the fact when measurement and performance indicators abound, one has to be aware not to be absolutely overtaken by the metrics of the situation, I used to feel this particularly when students were choosing subjects for their Final Year Projects. Some choices were relatively safe asuch as 'Green Business' but other subjects were inherently much less researchable, despite being of great interest. Together with a few colleagues, we felt that we ought to reward intellectual bravery for those few students who chose intrinsically more challenging topics but, needless to day, 'intellectual bravery' does not figure in the normal rubric associated with marking schemes and degree classifications.
As we were in the car for our visit to the park, we took the opportunity to call at our local BP garage in order to utilise their tyre testing facilities. Before today, I have generally concentrated upon the 'beep' to tell you that the air pressures were equalised between the machine and your own tyre but glancing at the monitor on the machine, I realised for the first time that you could actually measure your progress in getting the correct type pressure by observing the gauge on the machine as well as waiting for the auditory signal. This afternoon, as autumn is approaching, I decided it was time to prepare a root vegetables soup. I prepared far too many vegetables and therefore saved two thirds of them but tonight's soup is based on fried onions and a parboiled mixture of parsnips, carrots, swede and celery. This lot gets thrown into the soupmaker to finish off but I add half a jar of tomato or balti sauce,half a tin of coconut milk and a dash of some sauce which glories in the name of chip shop curry I had bought quite some time ago. When we return from church this evening, which is our regular early commitment on Saturday evenings, the soup will just have a quick heat up served with some toast as croutons and a dollop of plain yogurt. As I was preparing the vegetables for the soup, I listened to 'Any Questions' on Radio 4 which I always like to think of the voice of middle England. This program is followed by a companion program known as 'Any Answers' and I know that the BBC tries very hard to ensure that that which is broadcast is a fair representation of the views that have been received. The interesting thing is following yesterday's 'mini-budget' which turned out to be the greatest dash for growth since the infamous Barber budget of 1972 (in which a boom was followed by a resounding crash, the budget stimulated a series of responses in which listeners seem to be incandescent with rage about the inequities it contained. I do not think that a single opinion in support of the budget was received by the BBC and one wonders what the opinion of the world-wide institutional investors will be once the stock exchanges open again next Monday morning and whether the pound will continue to fall against the dollar.
For some reason that I cannot quite put my finger on, I have been incredibly tired all of today – in fact, so much so, that I actually took the car down to the paper shop breaking my normal Sunday morning habit. I think that perhaps Meg and I had got a little chilled because we have tried to delay putting on the central heating until the very last moment. But today, as the temperature was dropping quite markedly, I thought that the hour and the day had actually come. As soon as I got up this morning, I heard the familiar ‘squawk’ emitted by the smoke alarm and this is the signal to renew the battery. However, the battery was one of those rectangular types so I decided that before we paid our visit to the park, it would be a good idea to pay a flying visit to Asda but this proved quite beneficial because I bought few extra things that I know that I can only get in Asda and that we actually needed. Once we got into the park, having put on some extra clothing against the cold, we sat on our normal park bench and wondered if we might meet with our regular park friends. As it turned out, we did not meet with either of them but we were joined on the park bench by ‘Alfie’, quite a good looking labradoodle (if that is the correct term) and his father. This is a gentleman of about my own age and in no time we were swapping stories about the kinds of tricks that we played upon apprentices when we were both working in an industrial context. Apart from having worked in a nightclub, my own industrial experience is limited to working in a cardboard box factory and in the following summer in a rubber company (not that kind of rubber – we mainly put the rubber around huge industrial cables that were destined to go under a second tunnel under the Mersey, then just being built). Whilst I worked in the cardboard box factory, Meg was working in a factory next door which was the McVities biscuit factory and to this day, she still has a slight aversion to the chocolate coated ‘Home Wheat’ biscuit line. Meg used to come home to tell me that many of her fellow workers on the production line really wanted to marry a ‘chcolate man’ if they could. This occupation was confined to men because it involved the quite dangerous manipulation of huge vats of hot chocolate. The process of my getting a job at the cardboard factory was interesting because it involved turning up at the office of the Personnel Manager and saying ‘Are there any jobs going – I am a friend of Jimmy Nolan who can recommend me’. The response was ‘Oh, we know Jimmy and he is a good worker so that is good enough for us’ When we eventually got home, I had a quick read of the newspaper and then a bit of a doze before I cooked a very simple dinner which was the remains of the pork slow cooked yesterday, some broccoli and a baked potato. That was quite enough for Meg and myself but straight after dinner, I treated myself to yet another long snooze.
This afternoon, after our mid-afternoon cup of tea, I spent some time getting all of the postcodes ready for our long journey to the funeral of Meg’s Uncle Ken tomorrow. We are journeying first to a Country Club just off the A55 (otherwise known as the ‘Chester expressway’ as it supplies access to many of the small towns and villages that lie along the North Wales coast). After a good meal and a rest it is then another thirty miles to the crematorium and from this point on, the Methodist church to which we will repair after the crem is only about seven miles away. I have a slight ‘thing’ about turning up to a funeral in a dirty car and although our car is not very dirty, I nonetheless gave it a quick splash so that it will look respectable. In any case, it will get a little dirty on the journey tomorrow in any case. Tonight, we are looking forward to a restful evening so we first have a dose of Andrew Neil whose show on a Sunday evening is always worth a watch. Then we have two hours of classical music on BBC4, first of cello music and then a programme devoted to Yehudi Menuhin which fortunately will be finished at 9.00 this evening. As we are going to make a fairly early start to a long day tomorrow, we are going to take the opportunity of a nice early night. To finish of with some foreign news, in the flight of young men from Russia eager to avoid any kind of conscription to a war against Ukraine which they regard as illegitimate, it is reported tonight that Russia is going to stop the exit of any men whatsoever of fighting age from next Wednesday onwards. It is an open question how many can escape in the two days remaining to them as the queues at some of the border is reported as 18 miles long.
Today is the day of the funeral of Meg’s Uncle Ken and we had made good plans to get there and back in one day and forgo a night’s stay in a hotel which was our initial intention. We set off at 8.30 in the morning and decided to go by a slightly shorter and more direct route but avoiding some of the other routes which seem to bend round and curve a lot. The route that we decided upon was to cut north from the A5 on the A41 that headed directly for Chester. We got to just over the half way point and Meg was indicating that she could do with a loo visit. Just south of Whitchurch, we came across a huge old hotel that looked as though as it had seen better days and which advertisd all day coffees. However, the hotel was undoubtedly shut and looked as though it might have been for some time. But we espied nex door. a homely looking cafe called ‘Ma Bakers’ or something similar. They were open and gave us a steaming hot mug of tea and some toasted fruitcake at a very good price. It looked and felt very much like a biker’s café judging by the photographs around the walls and, just as we were finishing, a couple of bikers walked in. What was extraordinary about our little rest stop was that we indicated as could be seen by our apparel that we were on our way to a funeral whereupon the proprietor and his wife informed us that we were the third funeral party he had seen this morning – and it was only about 10.30am as well. We made our way to the Country Club off the Chester Expressway that we know well but as we had made good time and had no significant delays, we thought it be OK for us to turn up somewhat early. We got there about 40 minutes before our booked restaurant slot and were a little dismayed to find the whole establishment closed. Anyway, after we had tried the door a kindly member of staff let us in, for which we were grateful, and we indicated we just wanted to sit quietly in a corner until they were ready for us. However their coffee machine had broken down but the member of staff made us both a cup of tea for which we were grateful and we drank this whilst reading our copy of The Times purchased earlier in the day. Then a good hour before the crematorium slot allocated to us we set off and the SatNav got us practically to the door of the crematorium but was defeated by a series of roadworks in the vicinity. Eventually, we drove away and then reprogrammed the SatNav having dome some hairy U-turns to get ourselves back into the traffic flow. When we did arrive at the crem some other mourners were amazed that we had managed to get there having performed some near miraculous manouvres to get there but arrive we did. The crematorium committal service was fairly brief but dignified – we had expected that the crematorium chapel would be full but in actually the congregation was only about 15-20, being mainly family and relatives. Then we needed to SatNav our way to the Methodist chapel but there were some horrendous traffic jams and when we arrived in the vicinity of the chapel, the SatNav did not locate it correctly for us, as we could not specify a house number. After several attempts to find the chapel and asking some passersby we did manage to locate the chapel. One of Ken’s close friends who we knew well was waiting for us outside attempting to locate us and when we did arrive, the congregation was half way through the first hymn but fortunately, we had not missed too much. Again, the chapel was not as full as we thought it might be but of course at the age of 96 most of Uncle Ken’s family and closest friends were dead. Again, the service was quite short and dignified and practically all of the obituary speeches mentioned Ken’s incessant good humour when, in all honesty towards the end of his life, he must have been in terrible pain from a knee that really needed an amputation. After the service, fortunately we repaired to the adjacent hall for cups of tea and a spread of sandwiches and funeral fare. We managed to have words with all of the relatives that we knew who were welcoming and very supportive of Meg who was feeling a little doddery by this time.
We left at about 5.40 and thought we would get a fair bit of the journey home underway before the evening light faded. But there were some extremely heavy showers following us nearly all of the way. I had intended to come back by a different route but which had more dual carriageways and stretches of motorway in it. Instead, we had about fifty miles of quite slow roads to cope with, including at one point a tractor pulling a heavy load that progressed at 30mph and behind which a most enormous queue built up. Some took their lives in their hands and attempted a risky overtaking manouvre but there were no straight stretches of road to help us, the white line was generally against us and the rain was tremendous, so we took no risks but I thought to myself that I would never take that route again in a hurry. Eventually, we got home at about 8.30 which was not too bad, all things considered.
Last night, I had a rather disturbed night as I suspect that I was a little 'over-tired' after the long drives of yesterday. Nonetheless, I had my little alarm on and got up at at about 6.45 ready to make preparations for my day-out in South Oxfordshire. Today, I was going to make a journey by train and on occasions like this, I find it sensible to go from Birmingham International (which seves both the airport and the National Exhibitions Centre) This means that instead of a journey to a nearby local station and then a journey into Birmingham New Street and then the ride out to Birmingham International, I save about an hour and a half of journey time at each end of the day if I go direct to Birmingham International. The only snag is that access via the M40 can be a bit problematic if the traffic is incredibly busy and the traffic can be stopped on the mototway several times which can be a bit scary if you are trying to get to the train station on time. But today, everything worked perfectly and I got to the station 20 minutes before my train departure which was on time. As I got an 'el cheapo' ticket, I had no seat reservation but this was not a problem and I got to Reading station about three minutes late. I was meeting my friend outside a local Aldi store which I accessed by going out of the back of the station and this rendez-vous arrangement worked out well. We went for a gentle stroll alongside the river (Thames) and admired a huge flock of swans, geese and other water fowl. We then repaired to a local pub which was pleasant enough for our needs and did good pub group but there was quite a noisy group of young women already in situ so we had to train ourselves to 'tune them out' so we could carry on with our own discussions. Eventually a young mother and colleague turned up complete with fairly small baby so this was passed from hand to hand and 'gooed' over. This calls to mind an experience we had in Spain where in the small market town of Almnuñécar, Meg and I discovered a little coffee shop off the beaten track which served some of the best hot chocolate we have ever tasted. The last occasion we were there, there was a group of locals sitting around in a circle and being passed round them from bosom to bosom was a young male child with a beatific smile on this face (I wonder why) I espied an elderly gentleman propping up the bat so I asked him in Spanish if the child was his (I knew it wasn't) He replied to me that the child 'belonged to all the world' which to all intents and purposes was absolutely true on that particular occasion. My friend and I treated ourselves to some good pub food and whilst my friend had a tasty oriental dish, I indulged in some Lincolnshire sausages, onions and mash. After we had put the world to rights, we went to our friends' farmhouse and enjoyed an after-dinner coffee. By way of a very slighht little token, I had taken along a largish bottle of my recently bottled damson vodka. As I had not tasted this prior to the bottling, we all had the smallest snifter in the name of quality control and I am pleased to say that it did not disappoint. Soon it was time to get dropped at the station hoping that the Reading rush hour would not detain us and the train journey was very punctual and I only about 3-4 minutes late on arriving back at Birmingham International. I was pleased to say that the day's daylight had not completely faded by 7.00 pm when I got clear of the carpark -given the complex of motorways near to this station, I am always anxious to pick the correct one when the rest of the traffic seems to be racing past you.
I am looking forward to a bit of rest after two fairly full days and tomorrow morning, we will have our domestic help to chat with. Thursday is a visit to the dentist for both Meg and myself and we also have our COVID booste jabs lined up for this Saturday so it will turn out to be quite a busy week. Tonight, there are signals coming from the Bank of England, via its economist, that signicant rate increases are probably quite imminent. This will effect not only those who probably thought that a low interest rate such as we have experienced over the past few years was here to stay. In the meanwhile,there are landlords who have bought houses when interest rates were low. As the interest rates rise, so will the mortgage repayments rise which means that rents may rise sharply as well. So many families who cannot afford a mortgage may find that the next few weeks brings the possibility of eviction if they cannot pay the increased rents, which is a direct result now in prospect.
This was a type of ‘recovery’ day after the early starts of the past couple of days so Meg and I allowed ourselves a smidgeon of a lie-in and determined that we would have an easier day. By the time we had our got volumes of washing sorted out, dried and put away and had a chat with our domestic help, we were fairly late in the morning. So we decided to forego our walk in the park but after we had collected our newspaper, we decided to treat ourselves to a coffee in Waitrose. Whilst we were on the road, I called in at a big store nearby that sells not only food but also a range of toiletries and domestic cleaning products. All I wanted was something really simple which was an old-fashioned tin of black shoe polish but this now seems as rare as hen’s teeth. I manage to locate one of those ‘roll-on’ shoe wax type of products which I dare say are easier and cleaner to apply but needless to say they only had brown in stock. So I came home fulminating about the types of esteric crap it was now possible to be in shops like this whilst good, old fashioned products just seems to be asking for the moon. Once we got home, we made ourelves a pasta/curry as we often do on a Wednesday. As we go shopping first thing on a Thursday morning, we tend to use up the onions/tomatoes/peppers bought last week to form the ingredients of today’s meal. Having fried up this combination, I threw in the bits of cubed meat left over from last weekend’s joint and then made a pasta for Meg and a curry for Mike. In my own case, I wanted to avoid the carbohydrates associated with rice and so I tried a bit of an innovation which was to crumble a cream cracker into squares and ditto with a couple of rice cakes and the curried vegetables were then poured over the top. This proved to be eminently successful so I certainly do this again.
This afternoon, I set myself the task of putting some black shoe polish on my leather hats – current and reserves. When I explored the inner recesses of a cupboard, I found that I actually did have some black boot polish in stock which I was delighted to find. Having carefully applied the polish, I have then put the hats into a warmish place (underneath our central heating boiler) where I will let them stay until tomorrow morning. Then, after the polish has had a chance to soak well into the leather, I will polish off using soft cloths and kitchen paper and might give a slight veneer of black liquid wax polissh if I can acquire some tomorrow morning. In the late afternoon, as it is the evening to put our refuse bins ready for emptying in the morning, I noticed my neighbour’s car was on her drive so I rang the doorbell to enquire afer my neighbour’s heart procedure which was undertaken yesterday. A previous attempt to insert stents had proved unsuccessful but an eminent Japanese heart surgeon was visiting the UK and my neighbour was scheduled for the procedure yesterday morning. This took several hours during which he was conscious all the time which sounds quite an ordeal. However, the procedure had proved to be a complete success and our neighbour now had four stents inserted into his corony arteries which ought to keep his blood supply flowing. Although he was still in some discomfort after yesterday, he felt ‘over the moon’ that the procedure had achieved such success and,for our part, we were absolutely delighted for him.
The financial crisis has come to a sort of crisis point today when the Bank of England has been forced to intervene to prevent some of the major pension funds investments (which rely heavly upon the 20-30 year old gilt markets to function correctly) from going belly up – and possibly even insolvent half way through the afternoon. The government are denying that this ‘market dysfunction’ is anything to do with them and is claiming that the Bank of England intervention is just part of a general turmoil affecting all major economies. In practice, Liz Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng are nowhere to be seen (but reported to have had a massive row in the meantime) and junior ministers have been sent out onto the airways to blame Putin, the rest of the world economy and anybody but themselves. In private (but not on the record) many Tory MP’s are incandescent:inept, humiliating, naive, reckless are just some of the words that have cropped up. What is so irritating to many of them is that this financial instability was predicted – by none other than former chancellor and leadership candidate Rishi Sunak. If Parliament were not to be in recess, it is an interesting question whether this ‘mini-budget’ would even pass through the House of Commons without some significant climbdowns and amendments – and perhaps not even then which would be tantamount to a vote of no confidence.
Today being Thursday, it is my normal shopping day. I set off five minutes early both to avail myself of an ATM in the wall of a larger supermarket. I also took the opportunity to hunt for some shoe cleaning products and eventually I had to ask for assistance. Going up and down the ‘normal’ shelves proved to be fruitless and eventually I had to ask for assistance because all of these products are stored on a carousel at the end of an aisle. I located what I wanted which was one of those wax-based cleaners that ‘flow’ onto a surface and eventually got I wanted and then managed to find some leather conditioner to go with it. Then I went off to do the normal shopping and bought myself a new pillow that Aldi were offering that I thought I might bring into use immediately. Then it was a case of getting home and doing an unpack before Meg and I had to get ourselves ready to go to the dentist. When we got there, we discovered that we should have filled in two forms on line on our mobiles. However, as we arrived several minutes early, I was quite happy to fill in two sets of forms (one set for each of us) before our treatment. The dentists did not appear to be particularly busy and we were seen promptly. Meg required no further treatment but I am going to require a filling and a crown so that is a pleasure to which to look forward. Then we got home and had some delayed elevenses in our own home. We followed the political news which is rapidly developing and then lunched on haddock fishcakes which is one of our favourites.
I have been trying to put the huge political row going on about the recent mini-budget which has handled out shed loads of money to those who already have quite enough of it. To try and simplify the essential elements of the mini-budget, I imagined the following scenario. Let us say that I approached my local bank manager and asked for a loan of, say, £1000. The inevitable question would be ‘what do you want the money for?’ to which I reply that I wanted the money to give as a birthday present to an extremely rich uncle who did not need it. On the other hand, there was a possibility that when he died, he might remember me in his will and I might receive a small inheritance. To the question ‘How do you intend to repay the loan’ I would reply that no doubt something might turn up and perhaps in the future I might have a better job to that would help with any repayments but I could not be sure. The bank manager would no doubt give me short shrift and refuse the loan within the space of seconds. It is not fanciful to suggest that this is a microcosm of what is happening in the wider financial markets. When the government have requested loans of £45 billion and then asked ‘for what use?’ and the answer becomes ‘to provide more money for the very rich in order to reduce the top of tax from 45% to 40%’, then it is no wonder that international investors have in effect said ‘Well, we will give you money but at a price’ which equates to much higher rates of interest. It is for this reason that even loyal Tory MPs have started to say ‘this inept madness hss got to stop’ and this is the more printable of what they are prepared to say in private but not on the record. In the meanwhile, the Government has a defence of its budget and are adamant that the turmoil in the financial markets is anything to do with them. Instead, Putin is often cited as the most immediate cause followed by the rider that most major western industrial economies are experiencing some jolts to their financial and monetary systems. But tbis very denial is lowering the credibility of the government in the eyes of international investors. Some defenders of the government, of whom thre are very few, are blaming ‘left-wing hedge fund managers determined to do the government down’ or even erstwhile ‘Leavers’ who are intent on destabilisation. The right wing ideologues, in whose eyes Liz Truss is a hero for breaking the financial orthodoxy, in the person of John Redwood, have even suggested that the Bank of England was the architect of its own misfortunes and unintentionally ‘started’ the run on the pension funds. In the meanwhile, the ordinary ‘man in the street’ particularly if employed in the public sector has endured a decade of less than inflation wage settlements. Moreover, he/she is faced with a further wage cut when inflation is of the order of 10% but wages do not keep up- and the government has decreed that every government department is faced with an inflation rate of 10% with no increase in budgets and is being forced to make efficiency savings that translates into loss of jobs and/or services or both. And, of course, a mortgage taken out at 2% will now be 6% when replaced by a variable rate mortgage and this is unaffordable.Today dawned rain-filled and gloomy in line ith all of the weather forecasts. Meg and I took our time to get ready this morning but were preparing a rendez-vous with our University of Birmingham friend in the park for later on in the morning. However, after we had received a quick telephone call we decided to meet in one of the High Street coffee bars that we have frequented in each other’s company because there was a little anticipated joint project that we wished to discuss. Accordingly, we met for coffee and toasted teacake after which we discussed our business and then treated ourselves to even more coffee and teacakes. Why our friend and I like each other’s company so much is because we are actually very similar in our approaches to academic work and life. We identify ourselves as competent but not ‘top flight’ academics, to which status we do not necessarily aspire. Nonetheless, we both some some regrets (and our friend more so than ourselves) that we had accumulated decades of experience which could then have been utilised to assist in the life work of younger academics but this was not necessarily to be as we both retired before the age of 65. Nonetheless, neither of us would want to belong to the uber-casalised life of the modern university and there are some things (marking masses of student assignments until the wee small hours of the morning) that we positively do not miss. There are some times, though, when Meg and I who truly espoused the polytechnic style of higher education based in no small part around the sandwich based degree have some regrets that this style of education seems to have been abandoned for ever, burnt on the altar of successive economic crises and cuts. We sometimes speculate that if we had been local jobbing builders, we could have driven around an area pointing to examples of edifices that we had help to construct. However, we have little to show by way of academic legacy as even the papers that we had written in the course of our careers may now be out-of-date and mouldering in the recesses of our respective university libraries. After a very pleasant morning, though, we got home and cooked ourselves some sea bass served upon a bed of crispy lettuce – our traditional Friday midday repast and then settled down for a lazy afternoon.
Today, it has been widely reported that the Prime Minister and her Chancellor of the Exchequeur have met with of the Office of Budget Responsibility and it was felt that an earlier forecast and critical review of the government plans would help to allay investor fears. But the government has rejected demands to bring forward publication of assessments of its growth plans and the impact of planned tax cuts and indicated that we would have to wait until late November for this. When the stock market volatility and turbulence is taken into account, this delay seems dangerous in the extreme and it is no wonder that the pound has immediately lost ground. The late Enoch Powell, a classical scholar quoted in his now infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech that ‘those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad’ one can only think that this must apply fully to the present leadership of the Conservative party. Liz Truss’s trip around several local radio stations yesterday was an absolute disaster. Local journalists are not afraid to pull their punches as their Westminster and national counterparts are liable to be in a ‘cosy’ relationships with the political elites and they are muted in their criticisms. Liz Truss was immediately faced with comments such as ‘Where have you been?’ and ‘Are you taking a fire extinguisher to a fire that you yourself started’) and, no doubt, this exercise will not be repeated. To show how out of touch the Tresury is with the lives of ‘ordinary’ people, the Treasury posted a tweet saying in the post that a ‘typical first time buyer in London moving into a representative terraced house’ would save £11,250 on stamp duty, £1,050 on the household’s energy bills, and if they earn £30,000, almost an additional £400 on tax. But various commentators have been pointing out that a person on that salary would not be able to afford a mortgage on such a property in the first place.
The Sky News commentator, Adam Boulton, has posted a fascinating piece in which he argues that the autumn has traditionally been a time for economic crises – which he documents in great detail. He argues that is certainly a time of year for stocktaking in Western market economies after a break or slowdown over the summer holiday period. Autumn, mid-October this year, is when the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank hold their annual joint meeting. With the year’s three-quarters done, it is natural to look back and to assess whether things have gone well or badly. If there are problems, governing politicians and markets are likely to take steps to correct them, which sometimes only lead to bigger mistakes. The Tories are in conference next week but as soon as Westminster returns there will be plots galore with some feeling that Truss will be gone by Christmas (to be replaced by Rishi Sunak as a safer pair of hands) We shall see.
Today was the day when we were scheduled to have both a flu jab and also an updated COVID jab (one in each arm). We were scheduled to have these in our local surgery and they were all geared up for a mass vaccination event – the nurse who administered the jabs told me that they were anticipating vaccinating 500 people today so I suppose that they were timing people at 2 minute intervals or even less. The vaccinations went smoothly but then our frustrations started. I wanted to get a particular kind of cream for Meg from the pharmacy adjacent to the doctor’s practice. However, we then found out it was closed on a Saturday. Not deterred, we visited the pharmacy across the road only to discover the cream that we wanted they had run out of. So as we were in the car, Meg and I made for the large Morrison’s supermarket knowing that they have a good range of pharmaceutical preparations. But they did not have any of what we wanted in stock so we struck for home, thinking that after all, we would have to order supplies online. Fortunately, we managed to order several tubes of the cream and this ought to be delivered to us shortly. Meg and I had our elevenses at home and then we read the newspaper and watched some of the rolling news programmes until lunchtime. We had a half quiche for lunch, supplementing this with some sprouts (which we finished off in oil) and some carrots (which we always glaze with a little honey) After we had our lunch, the effects of the injections we had had earlier in the morning were starting to manifest themselves and although Meg and I did not feel actively ill, we did both a little ‘off-colour’ and with a headachy and dazed feeling so we decided to both have a doze. However, Meg starting to feel a lot worse so she got herself off to bed and then had a doze/sleep for a couple of hours, afer which she started to feel a smidgeon better. Whilst Meg was asleep, I busied myself with preparing some of our special ‘root vegetables’ soup. Fortunately, last week I had done a lot of the hard work in cutting up my vegetables into little cubes so it was a very easy job to get these parboiled. Then I fried off some little onions which then occupied the base of the soupmaker into which I then poured the vegetables and their water. To this I added a half tin of coconut milk, half a jar of tomato pasta sauce and a big squirt of some low low-fat ‘chipshop curry’ to add just that little touch of piquancy. The whole took about half an hour and then I saved a big jar of it for our domestic help when she calls round next Wednesday. The soup we will probably have at lunchtime tomorrow. As it is Meg’s birthday on Monday, we are treating ourselves to a roast in a local restaurant which we have not frequented for some yers now (after a bad experience) but whose current reputation is riding high. Our meal together with son and dughter-in-law is timed at 4.00 in th afternoon which is not our favourite time, but there we are. So the homemade soup will fill a gap until we eat later on in the afternoon.
The Tories are assembling for their annual conference in Birmingham this weekend. The conference might be quite interesting on this occasion – one expects rows and splits in the Labour Party but here the roles are reversed and there may be a lot of disquiet, if not actual infighting, done at the conference. In general, ministers displike having to attend the conference. If there is such a thing as a middle-of-the-road minister in a Liz Truss administration, then they feel obliged to make a blood curdling speech in which they do not necessariy believe in order to satisfy the delegates who are always to the right of the parliamentary party. One wonders on this occasion when Liz Truss has made such an appalling start to her premiership how the Tory rank-and-file are going to react and whether any of them will exhibit any buyer’s remorse. But in the wider world, some interesting currents are afoot. The Tory party has been absolutely spooked by an opinion poll showing the Labour party some 33 points ahead and were this to hold until the general election (which it won’t), then the Tory party might be reduced to about 3-5 MPs only. Matthew Parris, a liberal ex-Tory MP is writing in today’s Times that the only hope for the Tory Party is to ditch Truss the minute they get back to Westminster, install Rishi Sunak unopposed without an election and then they might have a fighting chance of winning the general election in two years time. It could happen – you read it here first!
Today is the eve of Meg’s birthday so we have things planned for later on in the afternoon. But first, I dragged myself out of bed and walked down to pick up my copy of the Sunday Times. After I returned home and made Meg and I some breakfast, I was settling down to watch the Laura Kuennsberg Sunday show into which I tuned at 9.00am as per usual. But it was half way through an interview with Liz Truss and I realised, a little too late, that the programme must have started at 8.30 to take into account the London Marathon. However, I was in time to get a Liz Truss ‘gaff’ in the interview which is already going viral on Twitter and, no doubt, elsewhere. Liz Trus was asked a simple question of who had voted for the present package of measures which is causing so much economic and political chaos. After a few seconds of seeming incomprehension, she replied ‘I do not know what you mean’ whereupon Lura Kuennsberg then repeated exactly the same questions. Liz Truss dared not say it was only Tory members out in the constituencies (who had voted her in) and instead argued that the whole of the population when they voted in a Conservative governmnt in the last election had actually voted for this package of measures. This answer as well as being ridiculous and inaccurate will no doubt be played over and over again in opposition parties campaign broadcasts to expose Liz Truss persuing an agenda with no popular support. After breakfast, Meg and I slowly got our act together although, in truth, neither of us are feeling particulary bright and sparky after the vaccinations we received in each arm yesterday. To make us feel a little better though, we did make contact with our University of Birmingham friend shortly to be joined by Seasoned World Traveller. As always, the conversation turned to politics and Seasoned World Traveller and I made a made a bet with each (in chocolate bars) as to how long Liz Truss could survive as Prime Minister. I was exceedingly rash and thought (and bet) that she might be gone within three weeks. I actually think this is unlikely but quite possible because Tory MPs are apt to panic when they think they are shortly to be wiped out so there will be some feverish days at Westminster once the Tory party conference is over. The Chancellor of the Exchequeur, Kwasi Kwarteng, is not covering himself in glory by immediately the mini-budet statement had been given, attending a champagne cocktail party thrown by wealthy Tory donors, many if not most of whom would benefit enormously from the abolition of the 45% tax rate. At this cocktail party, he was overheard to ‘badmouth’ the present governor of the Bank of England whilst at the same cocktail party one of those assembled referred to Kwasi Kwateng in less than complimemtary terms. Two hedge fund managers at the event reportedly called the chancellor a ‘useful idiot’ and a senior Tory who advises business leaders said the phrase was in widespread circulation. For her part, Liz Truss is already preparing to throw her Chancellor under a passing bus by saying that the abolition of the 45% rate was his idea in the first place. As we sitting chatting, we were overtaken by Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was busy getting his circuits done. As we were leaving, we also chatted with a couple of church friends sitting on the adjacent bench. We explained that we were both still feeling a little rough afer our injections yesterday and our friends told us that quite a number of people known to them had felt the same after the latest virus vaccination. In the past, Meg and I have had the AstroZeneca and Pfizer vaccines but today we had the ‘Moderna’ version which is designed to be effectve against both the original strains of COVID and also the Omicron variant.
After Meg and I returned home, we had a very simple lunch of yesterday’s homemade soup because we knew that we were going to have a meal later on in the day at a local restaurant. We met with our son and daughter-in-law and had an enormous meal that we could not completely finish. We requested a doggy bag from the restaurant which they were happy to supply and got in home in time to watch the Andrew Neil political show which is generally quite penetrating, needless to say, The Prime Minister was invited but knew she would only receive a mauling and so declined, sending the Conservative party chairman along in her stead. By this stage in the day, we are both feeling a little worse for wear so Meg retreated to bed early and I will join her in due course. We managed to get Bach’s tremendous B-Minor Mass playing in the background which is nice if you just want the music to ‘wash over you’ Although tomorrow is Meg’s birthday, we are going to have play things by ear and see how we feel.
Today is Meg’s 76th birthday so we were determined to make it a pleasant day. But the whole of the news was dominated both at the start of the day, and throughout, with the announcement that the proposed abolition of the 45% tax rate was now indefinitely shelved – in other words the 45% tax rate would remain and the government would now be £2 billion to the good. But more of this later. After Meg and I had breakfasted at our leisure, we had in mind to visit Droitwich just some 7 miles down the road. However, we got to a roundabout to the south of Bromsgrove and we noticed that there was a queue of cars already in existence and apparently, there was a traffic jam of cars along the entire length of the road. So we decided to abandon this plan and to adopt ‘Plan B’. We filled up the car with petrol and then doubled back to treat ourselves to some goodies in our local Waitrose coffee bar. We had an enjoyable little repast there, made even more by a beautiful present of some fifteen roses, very kindly presented to us by some of the regular staff in Waitrose who know us well. Needless to say, this is one of many reasons why we are loyal to Waitrose and to its café. When we got home, we had two wonderful presents left for Meg on the doorstep. One of these was chocolates and wine, given to Meg by our friends down the road whilst the other was even more wonderful chocolates to keep us well and truly addicted. We have also received through the day a couple of telephone calls, one from one of Meg’s cousins and one from my sister, to convey their birthday greetings to Meg and this was highly appreciated.
During the morning, I could not resist consulting Twitter to which I do not contribute but which I like to follow when political events are moving very rapidly, as they are today. I liked the comment made apparently to Robert Peston from a wealthy banker who had stated that ‘we did not want the extra money, we do not need the extra money and all of this is just bringing us all in disrepute’ What is undoubtedly the case is that whilst there is a very widespread hardship across the country, coping with a 10% inflation rate, falling real wages, mortgages going up from about 2.5% to over 5%, there is a truly widespread revulsion about shovelling money to the already extremely wealthy. Of course, it is not just the policy which is extreme and obnoxious in itself, but it is the fact that the present Prime Minister and Chancellor have tried to avoid any real scrutiny of their plans by a triple attack on the institutions that have given Britain a degree of financial credibility. For a start they sacked the respected and immensely experienced senior civil servant at the Treasury the day after they were appointed to office. Before becoming prime minister, Truss railed repeatedly against what she called ‘Treasury orthodoxy’, notably the predictions that her plan to make large and unfunded cut taxes could raise inflation and increase interest rates. Therefore, in their eyes Scholar had to go. Secondly, they threatened to undermine the independence of the Bank of England who they also suspected of undue caution and financial orthodoxy. But finally, and most heinous in the eyes of many Tory MP’s, is that they sidelined the offer of the Office for Budget Responsibility but not accepted their offer of an analysis, saying that the rest of the country would have to wait until end of November to receive an analysis. Naturally, the wider financial markets are not impressed by all of this, sensing an incompetent and reckless government, throwing over all of the traces in a mad ‘dash for growth’ and this reckless behaviour is responsible for lowering the credibility of the government as a whole. There has been been an interview by Liz Burley of Sky News of Chris Philp, a junior minister pushed into the front line to defend the government policy and the adjective most used is ‘eviscerating’ as the minister gave the most abysmal defence, at several points saying he was not prepared to admit whether or not he had any part on the formulation of the policy to abolish the 45% tax rate. Language is of considerable importance in politics so government spokesmen in great variety have all day been saying that they wished to remove the ‘distraction’ of the 45% tax cut. So no spokesman will admit that the policy was a ‘mistake’ or even a ‘miscalculation’ or an ‘error’ and are seeking to minimise the enormity of the mistake they have made but constantly calling it a distraction. Some parts of the Twittersphere are suggesting that many Tory MPs are now going to exert pressure to ensure that benefit are uprated in line with inflation because the Truss team has hinted that this is one way they are going to fund the £43 billion ‘gap’. As this means that those on benefits are going to fund the tax rises of the rich, if not the super-rich, then this is also being judged as equally toxic and politically unacceptable so some Tories, lead by Michael Gove, may carry on trying to reverse elements of this mini-budget.
Meg and I always look forward to Tuesdays if only because it is the day when we typically meet with our friends in the Waitrose coffee bar. Today, having collected our newspaper, we popped round to Waitrose where we met up with Seasoned World Traveller, as we expected, and also one of our pre-pandemic Waitrose coffee bar friends. We also caught sight of one of our Irish friends from down the road so Meg popped out to thank her for the birthday presents left outside our front door last night. I also fleetingly made contact with the teacher of politics at Bromsgrove school with whom we used to share political stories. In particular, I wanted to convey to her what I had discovered and blogged a week or so ago, the story of how the Queen, perhaps through inexperience acceded to the illegitimate request of her recently resigned Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, that the leading candidates from the Commons be ignored and that an aristocratic Scottish landowner, Alec Dougls Home, known to her mother, be ‘sent for’ to form the next Conservative administration. So we had our merry little chats, did a spot of shopping nd then returned home after which I walked down into town to attend my normal Pilates session.
Tonight, a Scottish solicitor has died who was one of the last of group of students who in 1950 succesfully removed the ‘Stone of Scone’ from under the Coronation chair and transported it back to Scotland, admittedly in two pieces into which it had been broken. Then it stayed in Arbroath for 130 days after which it was successfully located and then returned to England. The full and fascinating story of the theft has been made into a film and is fully documented in Wikipedia but there are some twists to the story. One rumour is that a local stone mason made several copies of the stone, one of which was substituted for the stolen stone so the ‘Stone of Scone’ now residing again in the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey could be a copy. There are even further twists to this story. After some good detctive work, the perpetrators and location of the stone were discovered but although the police interviewed the four students, none of them was actually charged. This is because by the time it was judged to be too politically sensitive to go ahead with a prosecution. In another twist, the ‘original’ stone was actually returned to the Scots in 1996 on indefinite loan, on the understanding that when it is required again (which it will be for the coronation of Charles III), it is returned temporarily to London. There are two stories of a similar ilk that I have come across. One of them is caught inadvertently on the soundtrack of the film that was shot of the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. Towards the end of the film, there is a muffled ‘crumple’ sound which the Welsh police have identified as the home-made bomb of a Welsh anarchist/nationalist. The police had this well known character under close surveillance and made sure he and his device were kept well away from the ceremony – hence they were not surprised when the home-made device exploded prematurely but whether the anarchist died or not is not known. The oher Welsh event that I happen to know about is when the TV transmitter serving South Wales and adjudged to be an English propaganda tool was bombed and destroyed. I was at a small and rather exclusive dinner party provided by the Director of the Open University in Wales and certainly a man of nationalist convictions. He reckoned that the entire Welsh police and judiciary knew the identities of those responsible but they all chose to look the other way. Hence no-one was arrested, let alone prosecuted.
After I returned home and had a delayed lunch, we tuned into the rolling news programmes to see the latest civil war erupting in the Tory party. The latest dilemma is whether to uprate benefits, such as Universal Credit, in line with inflation which is of the order of 10% But were this to happen, the benefit recipients would have had a greater increase than those in work which is of the order of 6-7%. The dilemma for the Tories is that the small print of the agreement to abolish the 45% tax rate is a commitment to find £18 billion in public service funding. Leaving aside the NHS and the Ministry of Defence and pensioners protected by the triple lock, this only leaves the recipients of UC (Universal Credit) to go after. The Tory dilemma is that the rank and file and many of the Cabinet have a feeling that UC recipients are nearly always ‘undeserving’ or ‘feckless’ and hate providing any more money that is necessary. On the other hand, not to upgrade UC in line with inflation will mean a real cut which will be the largest real-time cut that UC recipients, some of the poorest and most handicapped in our society, have ever had. The arguments are raging back and forth and Liz Truss is saying that they are not ready to take a decision yet. But ultimately the decision might be made on the calculation of whatever benefit increases are chosen will pass a vote in the House of Commons. Interesting times!
Today was one of those days when you wake up and are glad that there is nothing of any real import that we have to do today. Instead, we look forward to our domestic help coming because we always have a nice chat and do litte things for each other. Today, for example, I have some excess soup that I have put by on one side for her. I also buy large 5L containers of rapeseed oil which is locally grown and produced in Staffordshire so after we have bottled this which is a job I did later on in the morning our domestic help assists in consuming this. We collected our newspaper as usual this morning and though it was ‘touch and go’ whether a walk in the park would be viable this morning, we managed to squeeze one in before the more persistent showers set in. There was quite a blustery wind blowing that was pretty mild so we had a fairly pleasant sojourn in the park to have our elevenses. Late yesterday afternoon, when I was hanging up one of my coats, I thought I espied something that had been lost. In the space under the stairs, we have two clothes rails of outdoor clothing, some of which we use occasionally if the weather happens to be very bad and some of which is lighter outerwear where we hang the more frequently used anoraks and outerwear. Now my beloved and much used leather hat had a few days ago unexpectedly got lost and I had absolutely no idea where it might be. It transpired that the hat had slipped down between the two rails but had not fallen to the floor and therefore was all extents completely hidden and therefore ‘lost’. Even our domestic help who had a good hunt around it a couple of weeks ago had not managed to find it so I was very pleased to locate it and bring it into use once again. Now on its second life, as it were, I was pleased to give it a careful waxing with the shoe polish in an applicator that I purchased recently and it now has an appearance which looks somewhat restored but complete with a slightly ‘lived in’ look. Now that this is resurrected, I managed to put its replacement which I had been using for the last week or so back in its box and the newly purchased ‘reserve’ hat was also put in a safe place so that it can quickly be located when required (hopefully, years hence).
Today was the day when Liz Truss gave her conference speech and this was duly delivered with little gaps put in after every sentence or so that the party faithful can applaud. One of the rhetorical devices used today was to say that she had three priorities for her premiership which were ‘growth, growth and growth’ This rhetorical device sounded quite good when Tony Blair used it years ago to say his priorities were ‘education, education and education’ but by now seems an incredibly tired rhetorical device which has lost its effectiveness. I also learnt from the Liz Truss speech that when an economy grows, everybody benefits from this. This is logically and demonstrably untrue but once you start to enter into a debate wih ideologues, then evidence is unimportant compared with the place taken in the value system of ‘belief’. I have been followed Twitter quite closely in the last few days and two particular contributions caught my attention. One of these was to suggest that Liz Truss, as an ex-Liberal Democrat, had really entered the Conservative Party to destroy it from within – and had succeeded. Another contribution that made me chuckle was that the robot that had been programmed wih the same twenty sentences and which came out with the same utterances time after time (e.g. Putin’s war, 45 tax rate was a ‘distraction’ and so on) needed to be reprogrammed with a more up-to-date set of responses. A letter in yesterday’s Times from Peter Kellner, the founder of YouGov public opinion polling, made the interesting observation that as it was argued that the 45% tax rate was necessary to achieve the target 2.5% growth rate, now that the 45% tax rate had been abandoned, should the aspiration of a growth rate of 2.5% be correspondingly reduced (which of course it has not, by the way). Sky News has invited viewers to submit questions for a special program tomorrow afternoon, so I have submitted a question on similar lines and wonder whether or not it will be one of those selected for answer and discussion. Research conducted by J.L. Partners showed the word people thought of the most when asked about Liz Truss was ‘incompetent’ and this is to contrasted with the word most commonly said to describe Keir Starmer which was ‘boring’ Other words that were commonly used were to describe Liz Truss were ‘useless’, ‘untrustworthy’ and ‘clueless’.‘Unreliable’ and ‘dangerous’ were also among the more common answers.
Today is my shopping day so it is a case of getting up early, getting some money out of an ATM and then proceeding to the supermarket before it opens at 8.00am. I joined a small queue of 2-3 people and shopping was quite a breeze so as soon as this was done, it was a case of collecting the newspaper and then heading for home. We did a slow unpack but did not rush around unduly because our hairdresser calls around today so this rather puts paid to any plans that we might have for a walk this morning. There were two items that caught my idea as I went round the supermarket this morning. The first of these was a new line in ‘meatless bacon’ which is made essentially with a pea protein. I might try this at some time but instead my attention was attracted to some beetroot burgers which I used to buy when I shopped in the larger Aldi but has escaped my attention in the smaller store in which I shop. I thought it would be good to try these today, which I did and we had them for our lunch, complemented by some baked potato and broccoli. I felt, though, as some sort of sauce or gravy was called for so I made a sort of intense ‘jus’ as the French might called it out together with one of those jelly like stockpots, a bit of extra gravy granules and then a shot of regular brown, fruity sauce. This was then whisked together and given a quick microwave blast and I must say that it did everything intended of it, so I shall certainly try this again for next week. I always treat myself to an extra peregrination up and down the middle isles in Aldi to see if any of their hardware or household goods caught my eye but none did today so I was not tempted to spend any extra money. Meg and I had a fairly early and tasty lunch because this afternoon we were going to get a call from our financial adviser to discuss one or two things with her. In the event, it was a bit of a non-conversation as we decided to carry on with the ‘steady as she goes’ plans we drew up some time ago and do not need to take any actions before we have a scheduled meeting in December.
Needless to say, the increases in the cost of living is worrying millions of people and animating much discussion in the MSM (Main Street Media). The highly regarded Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) believe that for every £1 awarded to workers by cutting main tax rates – such as National Insurance contributions – £2 will be taken away by the government. It explains: ‘In every income decile, the average impact of gradual roll-outs and freezes outweighs the impact of the explicit discretionary policy changes.’ The think tank points out that Truss’s headline tax changes, new policies and the ongoing freeze for taxes and benefits work out to be ‘broadly regressive’. The root of the problem here in these inflationary times is that if the allowances given in the tax system do not rise with inflation, then more and more people get dragged into the higher tax brackets, a phenomenon known as ‘fiscal drag’ In more normal times, Chancellors of the Exchequeur uprate these allowances in line with the rate of inflation but there is a massive temptation, to which many modern Chancellors have succumbed, not to appear to do ‘anything’ and the actual tax take goes up without having to increase rates at all. So the IFS calculates that the average worker may still be worse off and claims that £2 will be taken because of tax and benefit threshold pauses for every £1 gained through the government’s personal tax cuts.
The other interesting bit of news today is the forward planning by the National Grid for the forthcoming cold winter months. If we have an incredibly mild winter, then collectively we might be OK whereas if we were have a harsh and prolonged winter than some power shortages and disconnections are becoming inevitable. I was surprised to see that even some right wing commentators (who say they despise the ‘nanny state’) would not be hostile for a call to the nation as a whole to save power. One practical suggestion is that domestic washing machines and dryers be run during the night when demand for power is generally low and there may well be some monetary rewards forthcoming for those who postpone their laundry activities until the wee small hours of the morning. I personally will be very interested to see how these plans are formulated and disseminated so I will scour the newspaper in the days ahead to see what concrete plans are being laid before us. I wonder as well,for example, what would be the effect of having a winter long temporary speed limit of 60mph on the motorways to save petrol. After all, some of us have lived though the economic disruptions of the three day week in the 1970’s when we had many dislocations to energy supplies. The Conservative goverment of the time urged us all to ‘bath or shower withn a friend’ to save power which is about the only time I have ever enthusiastically followed the advice of a Conservative government.
Today was a day without too many commitments but it seemed to be set fair but with the expectation of some showers late on in the day. When I collected my newspaper from my normal newsagent this morning, I received the comment that now I was wearing my normal and somewhat ‘lived in’ leather hat, I had returned to the world of the normal. The newsagent, his wife and I all had a little giggle about this and then we proceeded to the park to have our coffee. Several dogs came to befriend us (or in search of food) but we are quite well used to this by now and one particularly friendly collie sat down near to us implying that we were to be friends for life. We then made tracks for home but on the way back up the hill espied one of our church friends assiduously pruning and weeding whilst the weather was set fair. We commiserated with the slight accident that she had had which left a cut on her face, fortunately missing her eye region but it was close (I think whilst she was engaged in some of the preparation of the flowers for the altar in the church, something heavy had fallen on her but thank goodness her injury was comparatively slight) We also received the not very pleasant news that the French widow who is a near neighbour of hers had been rushed into hospital with chest pains but she had been given a thorough check in hospital and all seemed to be well, for which we were all extremely thankful. Then we prepared our typical Friday midday meal which was sea bass served on a bed of lettuce and this week I had managed to find some tartare sauce which added that little touch of piquancy. I looked again at my emails and one of my Hampshire friends was going through a stressful time as he coped with the upheavals of adapting and updating his bathroom. Of course, this involved plumbing and electricals and always seems to be a longish and complicated job but when the rush is over, we will look forward to having a videochat to update each other.
There are two political stories this evening. The first concerns the Trade Secretary, Conor Burns, a close confident of Boris Johnson but still a member of the Truss administration. He has apparently been sacked ‘on the spot’ for allegations made against him during the Tory Party conference. All of the news media, including Twitter, are not indicating what they may know of the allegations but what do you think that Tory politicians get up to away from home and with lots of available booze? Liz Truss has acted with commendable speed in sharp comparison with Boris Johnson who often delayed and prevaricated when faced with similar scenarios. The second story running throughout the day is incredulity that No 10 has banned any public information campaign indicating to the public at large how they might save energy (and money) and also assist in the fuel crisis. The word from No. 10 is that such a campaign would be seen as ‘nanny state’ The Business Secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, is understood to have backed a £15m ‘light touch’ initiative, according to The Times, encouraging households to reduce their use of gas and electricity by taking a series of simple measures. However, Liz Truss is said to be ‘ideologically opposed’ to such an approach as it could be too interventionist. Needless to say, less ideological and more pragmatic countries like Germany already have their campaigns well underway, which surely is sensible. Other European countries seem to be converging upon very similar measures. There seems to a growing consensus to keep the temperature at 19 degreees, reduce heating and lighting in all corrdors and unused rooms, cut the temperature of swimming pools plus a whole range of measures to reduce public lighting. Of course, this is just on a limited basis to get us through the winter – but will it indirectly help to keep European growth rates above ours?
Before the start of the colder weather in the autumn and the winter, Meg and are starting to review our stores of clothing and are working out what needs to make the ultimate journey to the charity shop(s). Anything has not been worn for a year or so or is looking incredibly dated, then we are taking the opportunity to ‘let it go’ Of course, some clothes that used to fit a year or so ago are now somewhat on the tight side but we will not go down that road. On the other hand, sometimes you find an absolute gem from which you are not willing to be parted. In my own case, I have a very ‘late 1960’s tie that absolutely screams ‘pychedelic’ at you and I still wear it when the occasion demands such as I did the other day when I went by train to visit my friends in South Oxfordshire.
Today when we woke up and drew back our bedroom curtains, we witnessed a beautifully clear blue sky and so it remained all of the day, with practically no wind to boot. Our adopted cat, Miggles, came around to see us this morning which was a welcome sight as we have not seen him/her over the past few wet days. We spotted the moggy out of our bedroom window as she settled down in one of her favourite sunny spots underneath our pear tree. But, true to form, she responded to the sound of the back door being opened and engaged in her usual practice of rolling all over my outdoor clogs and slippers whilst I was preparing her half portion of cat food which is her breakfast. Then Meg and I got ourselves breakfasted, washed and dressed before we went to pick up our copy of the newspaper. Then we made for our favourite park bench and in no time at all, we were joined by two of our park regulars – our University of Birmingham friend as well as Seasoned World Traveller. The latter informed me with a certain amount of glee that I was in great danger of losing my bet of a large bar of chocolate now that Liz Truss has survived one more week and there are another two weeks to go before our bet comes to fruition or not. On our way home, we knocked at the door of our Irish friends and were invited in for a cup of tea which we readily accepted. We had a little clutch of some church as well as purely domestic issues that we wished to share with our friends so we spent a very pleasant half hour or so in their company. When we got home, it was just before 2.00pm and I was particularly anxious to have a lightning fast lunch as I wanted to get out and give the lawns a mow whilst the good weather was with us and before we went to church this evening. This is where our standby of a tin of chicken pieces came into its own as I quickly prepared a chicken-and-vegetables mixture whch I served on a bed of pasta for Meg and on broken up cream crackers and rice cakes in lieu of carbohydrate rich pasta for myself. This was both quick to prepare and tasty to eat so I managed to get the washing up done and out to mow the lawns by 3.00pm. Despite being a little moisture-retaining, the grass which had been left for a couple of weeks mowed up quite nicely so I was relieved to get this job done in plenty of time without undue rush before we get ourselves for church this evening. We missed lst weeks service as we were both feeling a little under the weather as we had both had a COVID and a ‘flu jab earlier in the day.
Monday onwards is going to be interesting politically. This is because Liz Truss was only in power two days before the Queen died and then we had ten days ‘off’ normal politics, followed by a brief parliamentary return and then it was a week off for the Tory Party conference. So we have hardly had any ‘normal’ parliamentary politics until the forthcoming week. To understand the various ‘tribes’ (or ‘warring factions’ if you like) I turned to Peter Walker of The Guardian who has quite helpfully for us divided the current Tory party into several groupings. These are not really factions as such because they coalesce around particular issues and agree on some issues whilst disagreeing on others. Walker discerns the following groups of which the most influential are the ‘Free Market Ultras‘ (Brexit nd Liz Truss to a man) Then we have the ‘Red Wall Statists‘ who represent seats that have traditionally been Labour but captured by Johnson in the lest election. A third group are the ‘Country set/green‘ who are concerned with environmental issues writ large. Then we have the ‘Malcontents/Big Beasts’ epitomisd by Michael Gove, actually sacked in a fit of pique by Johnson. Finally we have the ‘Culture warriers‘ who feel that the youth of the nation has been coruupted by a liberal/woke/politically correct agenda. It is slightly difficult to find out how many MP’s actually voted ‘Remain’ as Boris Johnson kicked the majority of them out of the party before the last election. Remainers are now a very minority and I suspect the figure is approx 35% of the whole parliamentary party but they dare not make their voices heard. There are, I think, no Remainers in the Truss cabinet and certainly none in senior positions. Paradoxically, Liz Truss herself is the only prominent ‘Remainer’ in her own cabinet (because she changed her mind and became an ardent ‘Brexiteer’ although video clips exist of her in the EU Referendum campaign explaining to the Food and Drink Federation, I think, what a disaster Brexit would be for them).
This morning I hauled myself out of bed fairly early and made my trip down to collect the Sunday newspaper. I decided not to treat myself to my normal weekly dose of Bach and Mozart on my trusty old iPhone because instead I wanted to reflect upon a little computing project in which I had successfully engaged or rather re-engaged. I wanted to let one of my friends in the park have access to a document which I have stored securely on the web and only accessed via a password. Now passwords are normally held on a server in an encrypted form and when the user supplies a password, then this is encrypted using the same algorithm – then the two encrypted ‘hashes’ are compared and assuming a perfect match, the user is then allowed access. However, the technique that I have used for years works in a completely different but incredibly effective way. At the client end, you use a Javascript program that asks you to supply a password. Then the Javascript program looks at the (truncated) ASCII code for the first character of the password (which will generate a number between 1 and 80 – the alphanumeric characters plus some punctuation marks). Then the software takes the very first character in the file you wish to encrypt and swops it with the character calculated using the ASCII ‘positional’ number. If you think about it, no information has been gained or lost as two characters have just swopped position with each other. The program then proceeds with each succeeding character of the file you wish to encrypt swopping with the ‘positional’ character suggested by the second character of the password. If your password is 20 characters long and you file is 2000 characters long, then this means that, on average, each character in the file will have had its position swapped 200/20 which is 100 times. As you can see, you finish up with an undecipherable ‘soup’ of characters in your encrypted file – in other words, the whole file becomes its own password and vice versa. The encrypted file and associated javascript is stored like this – but when the encrypted file is run and asks you for the password, then the software ‘knows’ where the program ended and just completely reverses each of the swops that were used to encrypt the file and you end up with the original. Needless to say, you cannot afford to forget the password with this scheme but it is massively secure. I calculate that if you tried to decode this scheme using a brute force attempt to guess it and you tried 1 billion attempts per second, it would take you a million, trillion years to do it i.e. never. If you do not understand a word of this, don’t worry! A very simple analogy might be that if you had a large fish that you cut into an incredibly large number of small pieces then you could make a good fish soup. But if each piece was connected to another by an incredibly fine thread and you knew where the end was (analagous to knowing the password), then in theory all you would have do is to pull on one end and you would eventually end up with a whole fish again. It keeps my brain active thinking about such things (as well as being incredibly useful on occasion)
Meg and I walked to the park and made contact with Seasoned World Traveller to whom I offered access to my encrypted website complete with password. Then we made our way for home not tarrying too long in the park as the wind was getting a tad cool this morning. Then we treated ourselves to a dinner of roast beef (cooked yesterday in the slow cooker) and enhanced with some parsnips (parboiled and then roasted in the oven) accompanied with sprouts complemented with a bag of chestnuts I espied in the supermarket recently. We have our usual quiet Sunday afternoon preparing ourselves for a long musical evening tonight. It is the finals of the BBC ‘Young Musician of the Year‘ and the winners of each of the five categories (at a guess piano, strings, woodwind, brass and percussion) each perform a full concerto for the title. Past winners have included Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), Nicola Benedetti (violin) and Emma Johnson (clarinet) each of whom has gone on to make sparkling international careers for themselves.
As a politics footnote the recently sacked minister, Conor Burns, has apparently been recommended for a peerage as part of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours. It is said that Liz Truss is powerless to prevent this honour (and seat in the House of Lords), but if it were actually to arise, it wuld be an enormously sad commentary on the status and values of public life in Britain today. The Commons will resume on Tuesday and that is when I assume that some of the darker plots to unseat Liz Truss might either be shown to have some substance or just be shown up as Westminster tittle-tattle.
Today dawned as another, beautiful autumn day with quite a clear blue sky and only a modicum of wind. This will no doubt persist as long as we have some high pressure but we are trying to enjoy it whilst we can. Meg and I got going this morning changing (with my son’s assistance) the battery in the smoke alarm battery which was beginning to ‘chirp’ at us to tell us that the end of its life was nigh. After we got ourselves down into town and our newspaper collected, we made our way to our normal park bench. We were not surprised to find it unoccupied as it was very wet fom the night’s rain before. But we come prepared with an old tea towel and some wads of kitchen paper which we keep stored in one of the pockets of the rucsac for such a contingency. We never expect to see any of our park acquaintances on a Monday morning and so it proved today but nonetheless, we always feel better for a breath of fresh air and some coffee to revive us. When we got home, we updated on some of the rolling news and then I went on to prepare our midday meal. This wwas extraordinarily easy because we had quite a lot left over from the superfluity of vegetables that I had cooked yesterday so it was a simple case of heating these up and munching away. I made some routine telephone calls and sent a few emails and looked forward to a relaxing afternoon.
I am pleased to say that belatedly, some reporters are starting to be less craven towards our political leaders and are starting to ask the questions that are on everybody’s lips. This trend may well have been started by local journalists who gave Liz Truss a very hard time when she went on a ‘tour’ of local radio stations. Local journalists have less investment in maintaining the cosy ‘status quo’ between Westminster based policitians and metropolitan journalists – if you persist in asking challenging questions and/or insist that politicans answer the question asked then you get excluded from ‘the lobby’ and, like Channel 4, politicians will never agree to be interviewed by you. One of those Westminster based correspondents rising to the challenge is Sky New’s Beth Rigby who, in the middle of an interview with Liz Truss, listed the various ways in which the economy ‘tanked’ and then said directly to Liz Truss – ‘Did you listen to the warnings? Rishi (Sunak) was right, was he not?’ Needless to say, we got the typical, by now robotic-like response which is to reply that ‘I do not accept that analysis’ which we must have heard several times before.
I must confess that I normally skip quite quickly over the financial and business news in the newspapers but an article which I read today in The Times gave me pause for thought. A recent research report has found that more than 21,000 limited liability partnerships bear all of the hallmarks of companies used for financial crimes. More than 21,000 partnerships, some 14% of the total (i.e. one in 7) share these suspect characteristics known to be used in corruption and money laundering schemes. The report by Transparency International UK argues it is the first to expose the scale of abuse of this type of company with a conservative estimate putting the economic damage to be hundreds of billions of pounds. Almost 950 of these ‘partnerships’were registered at an address in Cardiff which alone should have been a cause of suspicion – are these things not checked at Companies House? The particular structure of limited liability partnerships is particularly favoured by those who set them up because they allow multiple levels of secrecy making it difficult to identify the true owner. A bill to regulate some of these issues is before Parliament at the moment but it may well be a case of too little, too late.
An interesting debate is taking place in the letters columns of The Times whether economic growth, particularly as measured by GDP, should be the overriding aim of government economic policy. With increasing growth, it is possible for the ‘haves’ to allow the ‘have nots’ to have a little more of the cake without damaging their own economic position. But a counter argument beuatifully expressed in a one sentence letter to The Times is that ‘if economic growth means the unsustainable consumptions of the worlds natural resources and unstoppable climate change, should we not be all in the anti-growth coalition?’ It is also argued that a completely respectable counter-proposition is to put ‘justice’ at the heart of our economic policies and that we might erect a principle that everybody has the right to a basic means of sustenance (a ‘Citizen’s Income’) and that part of the national income, for example a quarter, should be shared equally between all citizens regardless of age. Even as long as 1967 in university, our economics lecturers communicated the view that an all-our pursuit of ‘growth’ however measured, was not always to be desired.
Tuesdays always have a particular ‘flavour’ and today was no exception – although it was to prove quite a full day. This morning having collected our newspaper we visited the Waitrose coffee bar which is our regular haunt on a Tuesday. In it, we met with Seasoned World Traveller who is a regular attendee on Tuesdays. We also met with one of our pre-pandemic friends and discussed various family matters with her as we usually do. I was also pleasant to bump into the Politics and History teacher at Bromsgrove School with whom I used to have quite long chats in our pre-pandemic days and even off-loaded a series of my politics books for which I had no further use and I thought would be better off in her hands, or her students, or the college library rather than just being thrown away. Once we got home, I made some preparations for lunch eaten after the return fom my Pilates class and then started on my journey down the hill. En route, I met our old Italian friend who had actually called round a week ago whilst I was in Oxfordshire but nobody had told me. We are trying to organise a little tea/coffee get together in the next few days as soon as our diaries are free. On my way back from Pilates, I popped into Asda to get supplies which I know that only they happen to have and then bumped into acquaintance who lives half way down the Kidderminster Road. A few days ago, I had observed an ambulance half parked outside her house and trusted it was not my friend or her husband. The ambulance was actually calling for a neighbour who was in his 80’s and in rather a bad way wuth skin cancer so I hoped for all of the best for him. After our meal and a best of a rest, I ran off some documents that I need for our meeting at our church this evening. I need to attend these meetings only about once every three months but they seem to come around with great rapidity – tonight we are discussing our documentation and some refurbishment issues but I reckon that this must be the some all over the world in meetings of this type. Hopefully, our meeting will be over by 9.00 so there will still be some of the evening left for a bit of relaxation.
On our way back to the house at lunchtime, we bumped into our next door neighbour who gave us some wildlife news. She had found at least one hoglet (= baby hedgehog) wandering down our shared drive and had a fair idea that it had probably emerged from some of the secluded spots in our garden. Having been rescued, the hoglet was now in the care of the local vets who were going to build it up a bit before releasing it back into the wild. At some stage, the hoglet needs to put on sufficient weight to be able to hibernate but as things stand, it probably needs some assistance to gain weight before the hibernation starts. About a couple of weeks ago, we saw the (same) fox parade up and down at the bottom of our garden early in the morning so I suppose this might be a natural predator for our young hedgehog. We think that between us, our neighbours and ourselves will manage to do what it takes to allow the hedgehog to survive and to achieve maturity.
Some interesting political news is emerging this evening. The Bank of England is signalling that its support for the pensions industry will cease within a few days. On this news, the pound has collapsed again tonight, so it looks as though international investors are losing all all faith in the present government. This may be a sort of game of ‘chicken’ played with this section of the financial market. Something suspiciouslly close to a windfall tax on the profts of large scale energy companies may be on the cards as well. Of course, it would not be the first time that a governing party has taken some of the ideas of its critics and to have claimed several of them as its own. Rather than a windfall tax, the government is imposing a cap on the revenues of some oF the renewable energy utilities ‘enjoying’ the rapid rise in profits which sounds like a profits tax in all but name. The government is faced with two alternative strategies both of which are anathema to them. One is abandon the cut in taxes and in practice to increase them to fill a projected 65 billion pounds deficit in the public finances. The other alternative is a very strict reduction in budgets of most of Whitehall (i.e.a period of austerity Mark II) and this sounds equally unpalatable. A decision will have to be announced towards the end of the month, but several of the Main Street Media are also sensing that at least one ‘U’ turn and perhas more than one, is still quite possible.
Today has been quite an unusual day. For a start, we got up a little late after we had (for us) a late-ish night for us after we had had a quick goodnight drink with our friends down the road, after my evening meeting at the church. Actually, we were awakened by the door bell ringing as our friendly driver from the Honda garage from whom we purchased our car getting on for some two years ago, was calling to pick up the car for its annual service. Things are made so much easier thse days than they used to be because our garage will come in a car that they leave with you whilst your own car is whisked away to be serviced, only to be returned to you later in the day. Also the benefits of modern technology means that the garage make a little video showing the remaining tread depth chalked onto the tyres together with a quick visual inspection of the suspension and exhaust systems (or the bits that are open for visual inspection) This video is then sent direct to your mobile phone and is incredibly reassuring. Upon the return of the car later in the morning which had been both washed and valeted, I noticed a small area of stain left behind evidently by a bird dropping. As I know this can etch into the car if left untreated, I did a quick search on the web to see if there were any readily available ‘tips’ to remove the potential etching. Amongst several home made solutions to this problem, one suggestion was to squirt a little WD-40 (of which I have a good supply) onto the bird dropping ‘etching’ and I have to say this worked actually like magic. Watching a ‘YouTube‘ video, I now realise that you need to wash off the WD-40 which has a slightly etching effect of its own on the clear layer which lies over your primer and base paint layer. Now for the car care tip Mark II. I have the most minor of bumper scuff marks after, I suspect, an unknown car park collision but I think that after a WD-40 treatment such as I have just detailed, I am prepared to live with the almost indiscernible visible part of the scuff mark that still remains. I seem to remember that when I moved into my present house some fifteen years ago, I had a white Honda Accord which had finished up with minor bumper scuffs on each corner of the car and not one of them caused by myself. But after the period in which one is ‘new car neurotic’ and parks one’s cars way away from any other vehicles in, for example, a supermarket’s carpark, you learn to live with these little irritants, annoying as they are at the time.
There is a great deal of turbulence in the UK’s financial markets at the moment, as well as elsewhere in Europe. In particular, the financial markets are acutely interested in how our Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, intends to fund the £65 billion of tax cuts and energy prices support announced in the mini-budget. Basically, the markets are holding their breath and believe that either the tax cuts have to be abandoned (and therefore do not need funding) or there will have to be swingeing public sector budget cuts. Liz Truss in the Commons today completely reiterated her pledge of ‘no public expenditure cuts’ and so the financial markets, the political parties and the public at large have no idea how the chancellor is going to fund the tax give aways. There are two deadlines upon which everyone is focused. One of these is when the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is going to deliver their own independent assession of the viability of the Chancellor’s stated intentions on 31st October, but that is still nearly three weeks away. A much more immediate deadline is next Friday which is the date upon which the Bank of England say they are going to withdraw support from, in effect, the pensions funds industry which is a major investor in government bonds. If the pensions industry have to, in effect, have a ‘fire sale’ of some of their assets in order to satisfy the banks from whom they have borrowed the money to buy the government bonds, then this might start a massive downward spiral in which the pensions industry causes a contagion in other parts of the financial sector. We have, of course, been here before in the financial crisis of 14-15 years go. Channel 4 news were interviewing a very respected financial journalist and international investor, Gillian Tett, who let it be known that she thought that Rees-Mogg’s defence of the government that it had no culpability but was merely the victim of wider international turbulence was ‘spherical objects’ (although she did use the Anglo Saxon word in her report) This took the Channel 4 reporter by surprise and they immediately issued an apology in case the Anglo-Saxon word actually used caused any offence. However, in the text version of the report given for the hard-of-hearing viewers, the actual word used was transliterated as ‘bullocks’.
Thursday is my shopping day so as is usual I get up early, get some money out of an ATM and then get lined up outside my supermarket of choice at 8.00am promptly. The shopping having been done, I collected our newspaper on the way home and then had a leisurely breakfast. I then made a couple of routine telephone calls booking services of varying types before Meg and I made our way belatedly to the park. In the park, we met one of our Catholic friends from down the road and we exchanged news about our comings and goings – I have some spare damson compôte saved from the last bottling of last year’s damson gin and I am hoping my friend can turn it all to good use. We also bumped into one of our regular dog walkers who we know well by sight – she is the spitting image of one of my Hampshire friends so it is always a bit of a surprise when we see her in the park. When I worked at De Montfort University in Leicester, one of my colleagues swore that I had a doppelganger which was a milkman in Worcester. If you research this term on the web, you will find the observation that statistically there are six other people in the world who look exactly like us. All of this sounds extremely fanciful but Meg and I once had an uncanny experience at work. De Montfort University appointed a new manager of student housing and the first time Meg met him in a meeting, she practically fainted as the new manager appeared to be an exact image of her own (dead) father. I also met him in a meeting and had a similar experience but the minute he spoke, one knew at once that he was indeed a radically different individual so you knew you were not seeing a ghost.
Today is one of those days when you know that a lot is going on politically but the actual chages have not broken surface as yet. The Chancellor is in the USA meeting with members of the IMF and, according to all accounts, they are telling him that the UK economic policy needs ‘recalibrating’ (a polite way of saying a ‘U’ turn). Back in Downing Street, they are apparently working frantically on some kind of policy which is both a ‘U’ turn and not a ‘U’ turn at the same time, but news is yet to emerge. The cruel dilemma for the government is this – if the revisions to the policy are minimal, then the markets will not be satisfied. If, on the other hand, the reversals are quite major, then the Prime Minister and the Chancellor will lose all credibility – and their own survival is threatened. One solution is for the Prime Minister, Liz Truss, to ‘ditch’ her Chancellor and to blame all of the government woes upon his head. But this is very difficult as the two politicians are soul mates and ‘bound at the hip’as they say. This friendship is forged in the fact that they both contributed to an extreme right-wing manifesto a few years ago entitled ‘Britannia Unchained‘. Some of the flavour of this polemic can be gleaned from the opinions broadcast in the book which asserts that the UK has a ‘bloated state, high taxes and excessive regulation’. It then goes on to say that ‘the British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor. Whereas Indian children aspire to be doctors or businessmen, the British are more interested in football and pop music’. It also says the UK should stop indulging in irrelevant debates about sharing the pie between manufacturing and services, the north and the south, women and men. I found the following article last night which was entitled ‘It’s now more likely than not that the mini-Budget will be withdrawn and that the Chancellor may have to go’ You would think that this article would be on website of the Labour Party or in ‘The Guardian‘s opinion pages. But it is actually the lead article in the website dedicated to the fortunes of the Conservative party called ‘ConservativeHome‘ We cannot know when any decisions are to be announced but tonight,I shall probably watch Question Time to get some of the views of ‘Middle England’. I stopped watching this program during the pandemic and still believe its radio cousin of ‘Any Questions‘ is a more interesting program to follow. Nonetheless seeing government minister squirm when under pressure from a live audience is always pleasant to behold.
Tonight, our visiting cat Miggles was in attendance outside our door, to which he/she responds when the sound of the back door being opened is heard. The cat tends to pop inside and get over-familiar with my slippers whenever the opportunity presents itself. I gather from a cursory consultation with the web that this behaviour is not uncommon with our feline friends. They are evidently responding to whatever ‘scent’ is left behind in one’s slippers but I must say that when we had family cats in the 1950’s and 1960’s we never witnessed behaviour of this kind.
Today, we anticipated a day of political news because late last night it was evident that Downing Street were working on a ‘U’ turn (in other words, reversal) of government policy and the Chancellor of the Exchequeur was flying back fom the United States a day earlier than he had planned – had he been ‘ordered’ home? It was quite a pleasant day today and it was possible that Meg and I could have enjoyed a good walk in the park. But as it rained heavily during the night and the weather indications did not look good, we decided to treat ourselves to a coffee in Waitrose. They had two new girls on duty who were pleasant enough but made a bit of a mess of our drinks but we did not complain as, in general, the level of service we receive is excellent. Today is the day when we treat ourselves to a meal of sea bass served on a bed of lettuce. The news media informed us that there was to be a press conference from Downing Street at 2.30 – upon hearing this, we ensured that we had our lunch and washing up done in plenty of time so that we could look forward to an afternoon of ‘blood sport’ After a lot of speculation, it emerged that the Chancellor of the Exchequeur, Kwami Kwarteng, had been unceremoniously sacked. Reading between the lines, it appeared that he had been summoned home a day early so that he could be sacked. Even this was more interesting than you might expect as it is traditional at times like these for a letter of resignation to be published immediately and for its ‘acceptance’ letter to be published as well. The letter from Kwami Kwarteng made it absolutely clear that he had been sacked (‘You have asked me to stand aside as your chancellor.’) In reply Liz Truss stated that she was sorry that he was leaving the government as though he had decided to resign on his own initiative. But any sacked, or resigning minister, is allowed to make a personal statement in the House of Commons at an early opportunity (say, next Monday) and this speech might be especially interesting. Will Kwarteng in effect feel that ‘if I go, you are going to be pulled down with me’ and make the kind of speech heaping blame upon the Prime Minister who had sacked him. Close observers of the political scene will never forget the resignation speech given by Geoffrey Howe and how he sunk the knife into the shoulder blades of Margaret Thatcher from which she never really recovered. The visible pain on her face as the attack in the House of Commons was taking place has been the object of a myriad of video clips, as you might imagine.
Now we come to the much anticipated press conference itself, starting at 2.30pm and to a room packed with political journalists. The Liz Truss statement to press conference itself lasted less than nine minutes and was a rather typical and robot-like Liz Truss performance. Before the much anticipated press conference, it was beng said that Liz Truss, not a naturally good communicator, would have to give the performance of her life to convince the financial markets, her own Tory MPs and the public at large. Well, the performance of her life it was not. Liz Truss allowed the collected journalists only four questions (each of which was both short, direct and brutal) and after that, she turned on her heel and swept out of the room. This left the whole room astonished as it was fondly imagined that Liz Truss would want to seize the opportunity to ‘reset’ the whole of her government, particularly as Jeremy Hunt was now appointed as her new Chancellor. But her unwillingness to face more detailed scrutiny went down extremely badly with the journalists who are not uninfluential in helping the government to restore its credibility and this unwillingness went down even worse with many of her MPs. This latter group were not slow in making their feelings felt to whichever journalist was available to hear them. I personally feel that Liz Truss sealed her own fate at the second at which she turned and walked out of the rooom (already being widely interpreted as ‘running away’) I remember to the second the point at which Margaret Thatcher’s defenestration started and this was at the point when the ‘Spitting Image‘ portrayed her as absolutely mad with staring eyeballs and shrieking voice. After the programme was aired, many Tory MP’s were convinced that Margaret Thatcher would not lead them into the next election and the plotting and lack of support started. I have a similar feeling tonight. I have a bet with a park friend that Liz Truss will be gone by next Sunday. This bet, a large bar of chocolate, I may lose by a few days but I am going to tease my friend when I see him over the weekend by putting a large bar of chocolate with a piece of string attached to it and slowly pulling it along the park bench and out of his grasp.
It was a most beautiful autumn day today so Meg and I had no hesitation making for the park as soon as we had collected our newspaper. On our way down, we spotted Seasoned World Traveller also making for the park so we decided to alter our routine a little. We parked our car on the lower car park nearest to the park cafe and when we went in search of our friends, we found the two of them enjoying the beautiful autumn weather outside the park café. Needless to say, we were full of excitement about the political news of the last twenty four hours. For once, we shared the same view that Liz Truss had quite probably ‘blown it’ as conservative Prime Minister and her remaining period of office may well be measured in days. So the bar of chocolate which is our wager for the period of time that Liz Truss can remain in office is increasingly starting to look like a 50:50 bet. After we had had a fairly full discussion, Meg and I then made for for home so that we could start to prepare a lunch of mince and onions.
Saturday afternoons are always a little attenuated because it is part of our routine that we go to church in the late afternoon. But today is the start of the Rugby (League) World Cup being played in England so we thought we would tune in and watch one of the first matches in the competition. Incidentally, the competition is going to be interesting for viewers as the competiton will be a triple hander as there are male, female and wheelchair competitions being held in the same tournament. The game this afternoon is between Samoa (one of the pre-match favourites) and England and I am impressed by how fast and free flowing the game is compared with the Rugby Union counterpart. In the latter, a lot of time is spent scrummaging with scrums often collapsing and having to be reset, not to mention the lineouts when the ball goes out of touch. So not having watched Rugby League very much, I have quite grown into the game that I saw this afternoon.
We are in the most interesting political situation as of this morning. The new Chancellor of the Exchequeur, Jeremy Hunt, was interviewd on Radio 4 and gave a calm and reassuring performance. He indicated that two major errors had been made by the previous Chancellor, namely offering tax handouts to the already extremely wealthy on the one hand and not making the mini-budget available to the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) for scrutiny on the other. Of course, it is now widely appreciated that Jeremy Hunt is in an extremely powerful position as he can go ahead and dismantle some of the more noxious parts of the mini-budget within the next week or so. Liz Truss is not in a position to sack her newly appointed Chancellor in his first two weeks so he can, in effect, do whatever he thinks is sensible and which will reassure the markets. He has made a start by indicating that the public sector will have its budgets restrained (have we heard that before?) and that some of the planned income tax cuts may not go ahead and there may well be tax increases as well. What this means, politically, is the entire strategy upon which Liz Truss campaigned and was elected is now being comprehensively dismantled. For this reason, serious political commentators are now suggesting that Liz Truss is not only a ‘busted flush’ but also the mandate that political parties have with the electorate is well and truly broken and therefore there is a very strong case politically, if not constitutionally, for there to be a General Election. The only way for this to happen is for Liz Truss to resign and be replaced by a successor ‘by acclamation’ or for a vote of confidence to be lost in the House of Commons which is possible but not as likely. There are two particular time events in the next day or so. One of these is to see what the reactions (and opinion polls) reveal when the Sunday newspapers are published tomorrow. This might be enough to persuade several of the famed ‘men in suits’ to advance upon Liz Truss and tell her that the game is up. Probably, more crucial even than this, is the reaction of the markets when they reopen on Monday morning. I suspect that Jeremy Hunt has said enough and given enough signals to calm the markets which will give Liz Truss a few days of respite but it will not save her.
As a footnote to today’s Rugby League World Cup news, as I blog England are leading Samoa by 60 points to 6 and it looks, as though in the second half, the Samoans have just about given up the ghost. Needless to say, the commentators are going ecstatic about the England performance but one can well and truly understand why this is so given the scoreline.
For the last few days, we have had a good start to the day with clear-ish, blue skies and an absence of wind. I got up early and went off to collect the Sunday newspapers after which we had our normal cereal-based breakfast whilst we watched the Laura Kuennsberg show. This generated no real surprises as the new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, reiterated his by now well rehearsed script that the previous government had done well in helping consumers with their energy bills but had made two enormous mistakes in their dash for growth. Those with long political memories may recall that other Conservative Chancellors have also attempted a ‘dash for growth’ and these attempts have nearly always ended in failure. It may well be that the Brexit-loving and libertarian right who have taken over the modern Conservative party have not read enough of our own recent economic and political history and hence it is not surprising that classic mistakes are being repeated. William Keegan, the economics commentator, has indicated that ‘the ghosts of British economic crises past are raising their spectral heads. Memories are being evoked of the ill-conceived and ill-fated dashes for growth under Conservative chancellor Reginald Maudling in 1962-64, Anthony Barber in 1972-74 and my old friend Nigel Lawson in 1988-89.’ These sentiments were also enunciated by a prominent Tory, Robert Halfon, former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and an education minister under Theresa May, who said he believes Liz Truss needs to apologise to the public for the economic turmoil caused by the mini-budget three weeks ago. He told Sophy Ridge on Sky News ‘I worry that over the past few weeks the government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as laboratory mice on which to carry out an ultra-free market experiment’.
After breakfast, Meg and I made for the park where we met up again with our two park friends, Seasoned World Traveller and our University of Birmingham friend and we shared a coffee together as we could sit around a table on the terrace outside the park’s cafe. We wondered collectively whether Jeremy Hunt’s announcements would serve to calm the city jitters when the stock exchange opens tomorrow morning. Two of us thought that Hunt’s announced measures and promises to ditch even more of the Truss budget might do the trick but one of us thought that this was unlikely. We will find out tomorrow morning who is correct but certainly the next few days are going to be critical. At the end of the day, though, if we are going to fund some part of our budget by borrowing, then we have to convince those who lend us the money i.e. international investors, that we are a good proposition. Another factor to be borne in mind is the operators on international stock markets have no loyalty to anybody except themselves so if it is worth their while to speculate against the pound, no doubt they will do it. As long as the markets are moving either up or down then somebody can make some money out of it. After we had discussed economics and politics, we turned our attention (goodness knows why) to the modern rifle and when the notion was first developed that the accuracy of both bullets and guns could be radically improved by adding a degree of spin to the bullet which is what, I believe, the modern rifle does. It looks as though it was during the American War of Independence that it was realised that a more accurate weapon could kill British commanders and this was a more efficient use of firepower. Not being particularly interested in militaria, I will leave this debate for those who are interested in such matters.
Meg and I lunched on one of those ‘spatchcocked’ chickens that are split open and laid out on a tray that you just have to put into the oven, which we did whilst we were out. Then we lunched on that before setting down to watch the World Cup rugby match between Italy and Scotland. Italy proved to be the better team and nearly completed the whole of the match without having a try scored against them. In the event, though, this match did not hold our attention as much as the match of yesterday when England overwhelmed Samoa so I may need to be a bit more selective about which of these contests I watch in the days ahead.
A UK spy chief is reported as saying that in the conflict in the Ukraine, Russia is losing ‘staggering’ numbers of both men and materials. This may or not be the case but I well remember the sage words of the Labour minister, Denis Healey that ‘in war, the first casualty is truth’ Of course, this was particuarly true of the Iraq conflict and probably the number of losses on the Ukrainian side are likely to be under-reported. Nonetheless, there are now quite a constant drip of stories indicating how ill-prepared and under-motivated the soldiers are on the Russian side, so it might be that before the winter starts to bite in Northern and Central Europe that the Ukrainians are starting to turn the tide.
Today was one of those best described as frustrating because we knew that a visit from an engineer to examine our BioDisk was due today and we were anxious not to be away from the house when the engineer was due to call. But the frustration increased throughout the day when, despite staying in on what was quite a beautiful morning, the planned visit from the engineer did not materialise. I made a lightning visit down into town by car to collect our newspaper and some much needed supplies fom Waitrose but after that we knew that today was going to be a day of political announcements and debate so we were not unhappy to park ourselves in front of the TV to see what transpired. As we were waking up this morning, the newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequeur was busy hitting the airways to bring to the nation (and to the markets) some advance announcements about the rapid deconstruction of the disastrous ‘mini budget’ for which Liz Truss was responsible. I was slightly reassured to learn that the Chancellor had sought the permission of Mr. Speaker to make some announcements in advance of his statement to the House of Commons scheduled for 2.30 this afternoon. The results of the early morning announcements followed by a more formal 5 minute statement delivered at about 11am were one of the most startling ‘U’ turns in the whole of our economic history. The most incredible announcement today was the planned 1p cut in income tax was not just delayed but parked ‘for ever’ so the abandonment of the 45% tax rate cut, the rescinding of the corporation tax cut and abandoning some of the more egregious income tax avoiding measures for the self employed meant a a truly comprehensive dismantling of the previous mini-budget. Even more surprising was the fact that the ‘bed rock’ of Liz Truss’s policies which was the energy support package designed to last for two years was now going to cease in April. Incidentally, this now aligns with the Labour party policy. What happens after April depends upon a Treasury review but it is probable that universal help will cease and that a more targeted approach will be used after April.
The House of Commons this afternoon provided a most entertaining spectacle. Keir Starmer had put down an ‘Urgent Question’ for the Prime Minister to come to the House of Commons to answer and this was to give an account of the reasons that lay behind the sacking of her previous Chancellor. But Liz Truss found that there other unspecified reasons that detained her in No 10 and prevented her appearance in the House of Commons. So the Urgent Question was answered by Penny Mordaunt who is the new Leader of the House of Commons. Given a terrible brief she battled on gamely to attempt to answer the questions from all parts of the House following the Urgent Question and indicate that there were ‘very important reasons’ why Liz Truss could not attend the House of Commons but was not at liberty to discuss what these were. To all intents and purposes, it looked as though Liz Truss was too afraid to come to the House of Commons and was actually hiding away. As soon as the Urgent Questions session had ended, it was time for the scheduled statement of Jeremy Hunt to make as the new Chancellor of the Exchequeur. At this point, Liz Truss did appear and sat through her new Chancellor’s statement with a sort of fixed grin and she then disappeared again, immediately the statement was over.
In terms of raw politics, it has become increasingly evident that the present Conservative party is beset by many competing factions and although there is a recognition that the days of Liz Truss are numbered, it is by no means clear how she might be dislodged and even more unclear who might succeed her. Having said all that, Jeremy Hunt seems to have played quite a canny political game and his actions seems to have restored a degree of credibility and brought some stability to the febrile markets. But whilst a lot of the unfunded tax cuts have now ‘gone’ there is still quite a chunk – £30 billion? – that still remains and has got to be funded somehow. Public sector ‘cuts’ are not the evident answer as all of the ‘low hanging fruit’ was already addressed in Austerity Mark I when Osborne was Chancellor so how much remains to be cut now? It is increasingly being said that Liz Truss is ‘in office but not in power’ and some Labour MPs were asking in the Commons what was the point of having the present Prime Minister when all of her flagship economic policies had been both discredited and then dismantled. Jeremy Hunt’s stock has risen as that of Liz Truss has fallen but how many Conservative MP’s would see him as a future leader is open to question, given his poor showing in the early rounds of the elections for Tory Leader. But one has to concede that his touch so far has been deft and one suspects that his political potential may be open to reassessment.
Today dawned bright and fair but the minute after I got and breakfasted, I needed to phone the firm that services our BioDisk (sewage treatmnt apparatus) to complain that the visit planned for yesterday had failed to materialise and, moreover, they had failed to return my call during the day. I was then informed that the engineer was on his way only to get a telephone call a few minutes later to inform me that their engineer had phoned in sick and then they would try and get somebody with me tomorrow. Later in the morning, I received a telephone call from the engineer himself who told me that he had been injured the day before at work but now promised me that he would be with me at about 9am in the morning. We shall wait and see but I am not holding my breath. Nonetheless, Meg and I collected our newspaper and then made our normal Tuesday morning trip to Waitrose café where we expected to meet up with some of our long standing acquaintances. We were not disappointed and met up with Seasoned World Traveller on the one hand and one of our pre-pandemic Waitrose friends on the other. Seasoned World Traveller left me with an interesting, but cynical, observation that ‘every man has his price’ What I did not appreciate until I did a bit of Googling is that there is a massive argument in moral and social philosophy which particularly well discussed by Kant. The origins of the expression can be traced back to Greek thought but it seems that the modern expression of this sentiment can be traced back to Sir Robert Walpole in 1734 was castigating corrupt members of Parliament, whom he called pretended patriots, and said ‘All those men have their price’. After we had made our way home, we tuned in to ‘The Politics Programme‘ on BBC2 starting at midday which I watched for a few minutes before I walked down into town for my usual Tuesday Pilates class. Then it was home and our usual meal of haddock fish cakes which are easily and quickly prepared for when I get home at just about 3.00.
This afternoon, I had a fairly pleasant surprise. I walked down the steps into the lower bit of garden which I call ‘Mog’s Den’ because I suspected that some of the apple trees I had planted down there might have come to fruition. The apple trees were hardly expensive at about £2.00 each but were planted some years ago now. But one of them was absolutely laden with apples and although I think from the greenness of the fruit they might all be cooking apples rather than eaters, we can always make them into a nice compôte which we can eat either with ice cream and/or some yogurt or custard if the weather turns out colder. I always try to keep the apples on the trees as long as possible but mid-October seems a good time to pick my crop as I am anxious that after a really stormy night it is possible for most of the crop might fall and I lose the major part of it. I quite like to go down to Asda at this time of year and ‘liberate’ one of those large shallow cardbox boxed in which the Asda fruit is often supplied. I find that this type of cardboard box disappears like snowballs in June so I need to make that a priority tomorrow.
Some interesting poll news has just been published by Sky News. A YouGov poll of Tory members found 55% would now vote for Rishi Sunak, who lost out to Lizz Truss, if they were able to vote again, while just 25% would vote for Lizz Truss. The poll found 55% of members think she should resign now, while 38% believe she should remain. So this is a fairly massive case of ‘buyers remorse’ but I am amazed by some of the ‘vox pop’ I have heard with Conservative party members when the news media have descended upon them. More than one has said that they liked and approved of Liz Truss and her policy stances which only goes to show, I suppose, that members like this are as economically naive as their chosen candidate was. I wonder, though, whether there is a growing realisation in both the Conservative and the Labour parties that putting a choice before the constituency parties means that an extreme left candidate like Corbyn or an extreme right candidate like Truss will always be voted in (as the constituency parties tend to be populated by the extreme left in the case of Labour and the libertarian right/Bexit supporting in the case of the Tories). Tomorrow will be fascinating as it is Prime Ministers Questions at midday and if Liz Truss performs poorly, then pressure to replace her will surely only increase, perhaps beyond the tipping point for the majority of Tory MPs.
This morning, we hoped that the engineer would call round to check over our BioDisk and I was mightily relieved to see that just after 9.00am he was there and working on the control panel. He seemed a nice young mn and I always offer a cup of coffee to anyone calling round to do a job either indoors or out. As it turned out, it looked as though it was a transient electical fault that had caused the alarm lights first to flash and then to turn themselves off, so it did not look as though there any serious malfunction or signs of damage. Naturally, we were relieved by all of this so then Meg and I made a trip into town to pick up our newspaper. We had a slightly artificial timetable this morning which precluded a trip to the park. Instead, we went to park near Asda so that I could make a hunt within the supermarket for cardboard boxes. I was successful in locating one of the types of fruit storage boxes in which I was interested so I secured this one and one or two more. Then it was a case of getting home and settling ourselves in front of TV to watch Prime Minister’s Questions and, in particular, to rate the performance of Liz Truss after after her recent reversals of policy. Keir Starmer made quite an effective attack with one or two jokes at the PM’s expense whilst Liz Truss herself tried one or two of the old attack lines such as Labour’s support for striking workers which is not at the forefront of voters’ minds at this very moment. However, one surprising concession wrung out of the Prime Minister was a firm commitment that next April all pensions would be uprated in line with inflation (announced this morning as 10.1%). The new Chancellor was floating the kite that if pensions were only to be uprated by the average rise in wages rather than inflation then this would save several billions. The average pensioner might have lost up to £400 if pensions had not been fully uprated so no doubt this would be highly appreciated by pensioners most of whom probably vote Tory in any case. Today is the day when our domestic help calls around so just before she left, we descended together into Mog’s Den and picked a selection of apples. Some of these were a magnificent size so we selected some apples that we believe to be eating apples and some that are almost definitely cookers and our domestic help is going to work her culinary magic on her supply. For myself, I was delighted that one of the largest eating apples was a lovely and crisp, slightly acidic flavour and I ate this in slivers with a little cheese. For lunch, I used up the leg meat from last weekend’s spatchcock chicken which I made into a type of fricassée and it made for a delicious meal.
After lunch, we decided to give ourselves a break from the surfeit of news so I idly surfed through the TV channels and on ‘Film 4’ stumbled across the 1956 film of the career of Douglas Bader named ‘Reach for the Skies‘ Bader was a wartime hero who had lost both legs in a flying accident before the war and proved to be an inspirational Wing Commander during the war itself. Ar first, I thought that the dialogue in the film was a bit of a pastiche (RAF types saying ‘Jolly good show, old chap’ and that sort of thing.) The film was made in 1956 and I probably saw it first in 1958 i.e. some 64 years ago and when I think about it, the dialogue in the film was probably quite accurate and people actually did talk like that. The film has some quite dramatic highlights (Bader was shot down but the Germans allowed another artificial leg to be flown out for him, one having been lost when he was shot down).
The breaking political news this afternoon hs been the resignation of the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. She had apparently communicated an official document (or a draft of a document) to a ‘trusted parliamentary colleague’ using her own personal email. This is a breach of the Ministerial Code and so Braverman realised that she had no option but to resign. In her resignation letter, she admits to a ‘technical’ breach of the Ministerial Code but this wording seems designed to minimise the nature of the offence and the nature of the security breach. Also, I ask myself how an official document came to be in her own private email account before she could transmit it – this, itself, must also a breach of the Code but nobody has mentiond it yet. But the resignation letter contains stinging criticisms of the PM saying that it appeared that several manifesto commitments were not being honoured. Braverman also says in effect ‘I have made a mistake so I resign’ with an implication that perhaps Liz Truss ought to be doing the same. The word that is being used is ‘destabilising’ and having replaced both the Chancellor of the Exchequeur and the Home Secretary within days, that seems like a massive understatement. Finally, there was a vote in the House of Commons tonight on fracking which was supposed to be ‘whipped’ but a Government minister on instructions from No. 10 contradicted this and the Chief Whip promptly resigned. This is a government disintegrating before our eyes.
Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister in the 1960’s, coined the memorable phrase that ‘a week is a long time in politics’ This in undoubtedly true but probably needs updating to ‘a day is a long time in politics’ After the debacle of the resignation of the Home Secretary yesterday which was followed by disgraceful scenes in the House of Commons where it was reported that Conservative MP’s were manhandled and bullied ino a vote in favour of fracking, today we had the resignation of the Prime Minister, Liz Truss. It looked as though last night’s shenanigans was absolutely the last straw for many Conservative MPs and no doubt several more letters found their way into the postbox of Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 backbenchers committee who had a meeting with Liz Truss half way through the morning. Then came an announcement in the late morning that there would be an announcement at 1.30. The lectern was duly wheeled out and just after 1.30 Liz Truss emerged from within No. 10 to announce that she had not need able to fulfil the mandate upon which she had been elected and hence she had tendered her resignation to the King. This made Liz Truss the shortest serving Prime Minister in UK history. She has clocked up 44 full days in the role – a long way behind the next shortest premiership, that of Tory statesman George Canning, who spent 118 full days as PM in 1827 before dying in office from ill health. Even the 44 days appears flattering as a whole chunk of normal ‘political’ days were removed as political activity was suspended during the duration of the Queen’s funeral. The idea of a ‘mandate’ is interesting in this context because Liz Truss argued that she could not fulfil the mandate given to her in her election as Conservative party leader. On the other hand, several politicians, not least the recently resigned Suella Braverman, the ex Home Secretary, have referred to the mandate given to them by the election victory of 2019. So which should have priority in cases where they conflict?
Liz Truss did indicate in her resignation statement that the intention was to elect a new leader by a week on Friday i.e. withn 8 days. The very short-lived hope is that a ‘unity’ candidate may emerge that can be elected leader by acclamation. But the modern Conservative party is both so fractured and fractious demonstrated by the fact that eight candidates have so far thrown their hats into the ring and it is rumoured that Boris Johnson is flying back from holiday in the Caribbean and will probably seek relection as well. Quite surprisingly, Jeremy Hunt has already indicated that he will not run. To elect a new leader in just over a week, then Sir Graham Brady may well set the nominations ‘bar’ quite high as well as the percentage needed to progress to the next round of voting. All of the opposition parties are clamouring for there to be a General Election but in order to get this, the Tories would have to bring down their own government by not supporting them in a vote of confidence which is rather like turkeys voting for Christmas. The commentators are making the observation repeatedly that the modern Conservative party may well be ungovernable. As well as being divided by age and by geography, the Tory party is riven by factions of which the most influential is the ERG (European Research Group = extreme Brexit loving right wingers), the ‘One Nation’ group (old fashioned, quite liberal and left of centre Tories), the Red Wall (recently elected into ex-Labour seats in the North and the Midlands), the Blue Wall seats (traditional Tories from the South of England), the libertarian right, some Remainers, those loyal to Boris Johnson, those who loathe Rishi Sunak seeing him as the architect of Boris Johnson’s downfall and I could go on. From the outside, the party looks almost ungovernable.
Trying to predict the outcome of the election requires a brave pundit. The bookies are already putting Rishi Sunak as favourite but I suspect that this does not take into account the depth of hostitility to Rishi Sunak. On the other hand, Penny Mordaunt only came eight votes behind Liz Truss in the leadership elections and seems to have performed reasonably well as as Leader of the House of Commons, even deputising for Liz Truss the other day. I suspect that the final two will be Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt and, if I had to stick my neck out, I would back Penny Mordaunt to eventually win through. This is because I suspect that Penny Mordaunt has fewer enemies and may be better placed to bring various factions of the party on board. One of Liz Truss multiple crass errors was to appoint a Cabinet absolutely in her own image giving no seats to supporters of rival candidates, irrespective of their merits (a mistake even Margaret Thatcher did not make). In addition, she only had the support of less than a third of the parliamentary party, making her the ‘mirror image’ of Jeremy Corbin on the Labour left. In order to expedite the election, it appears that candidates to replace Liz Truss as Tory leader will need at least 100 nominations from Conservative MPs, 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady has said.
Today was, as predicted, a really gloomy and rainy day so after we had got ourselves showered and breakfasted, we surveyed the weather and thought that we treat ourselves to a coffee in Waitrose café. This turned out to be an inspired choice of location because just as I was getting my car parking token, our University of Birmingham friend turned up in his car, evidently with the same thought in mind. So we spent a very pleasant hour having a coffee together and, at the same time, we bumped into one of our pre-pandemic aquaintances as well. Whilst in the café, I received a phone call from one of my oldest (in every sense of the word) friends (who is 95 years old). We worked together in the Central Office of Information in central London (now abolished by a previous Tory government) during 1964-65 so our friendship extends back some 58 years! Before the pandemic, we used to meet, together with family members, in central London but evidently got out of the habit in the past few years. However, we now want to see if can get together some time in November so we need to try and arrange a day and a date, probably on a Saturday, when we can meet again with our friend, her son and daughter-in-law and of course my own son and daughter-in-law. To make life a little easier on the organisational front, my friend has now moved from Devon to be within a mile or so of her son in Surrey. As a link with history, my friend who has had the most interesting of careers one worked with (well, in the same room as) Alan Turing, the legendary mathematician and WWWII codebreaker. I must encourage her, when I see her, to make a tape of some of her reminiscencies as her history goes back such a very long way.
When we eventually made it for home, we decided to have a rather experimental fish lunch which turned out fine in the end. I had bought some Basa fish fillets which I cooked in the oven in tinfoil and then finished off adding to a heated lasagne type white sauce in order to give it some flavour. Together with a baked potato and some cavolo nero kale, this provided a very nutritious Friday midday meal. However, I had not heard of Basa fillets but when I did a bit of research, I discovered that it was fish farmed in South East Asia and perhaps liable to industrial contaminants. Therefore, it might be a bit too cheap so I think that in future I may avoid this and revert back to the sea bass we generally eat on Fridays. This afternoon as it was so gloomy, I decided it was probably a good idea to bring our trusty soupmaker into use. Fortunately, I had a supply of frozen root vegetables stored in the freezer so it was quite a simple job to get these parboiled and then added to some fried onions, coconut milk, lasagne type sauce and some curry sauce to finish off in the soupmaker.
This afternoon has been dominated by feverish speculation as to who will run for the now vacant Tory party leadership (and Prime Minister) The bar has been set deliberately high by the 1922 committee as each candidate must have 100 nominations to enter the first round of voting. This limits the number of candidates to 3 as there are 357 Tory members at the moment. The front runners are Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and, of course, Boris Johnson. As I write, only Penny Mordaunt has formerly declared her intention to stand. It may be that Rishi Sunak has more support at the moment but it is difficult to tell as there is a lot of ‘spin’ and false optimism in evidence. The arguments in favour of Boris Johnson are that he is the only one of the three with a clear mandate having won a huge majority for the Tories in the 2019 election and, of course, he has an almost mythological characterisation as a vote winner. But even his supporters admit to his flaws (partygate, lying to parliament, acting unconstitutionally in attempting to prorogue parliament to mention but three) but are prepared to overlook these. If Boris makes it to the final two, he will probably win with the wider Tory party electorate. But on the other hand, there is a ‘leak’ from the Privileges Committee which is investigating a claim that Johnson deliberately misled Parliament which points towards a conviction. Were this to happen, then he would be suspended from Parliament and his seat would be liable to a potential ‘recall’ vote by his electorate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Here he has a majority is 7,200 which, on present voting intentions, he would almost certainly lose. So will the Tories elect a leader who they have previously rejected and may well within a week or so of winning the race to PM have to resign? The support for Boris is so rabid amongst some that many Tories would be prepared to take the risk whilst significant others are absolutely appalled by any chance he may regain office and are wondering about strategies about how he may be upseated.
As the weather forecasters had predicted, today dawned as a beautiful bright autumn day which is just as well in view of what we had in mind for today. After we had breakfasted, we went to collect our newspaper and then made our way to the park where we anticipated that we might meet up wih some of our park friends. This we did and we met up with Seasoned World Traveller first of all and then our University of Birmingham friend secondly. As we settled down for a coffee, the former reached into his rucsack and pulled out the bar of chocolate which I had now won in a bet. I predicted a few weeks ago that Liz Truss would be gone in three weeks time and won my bet. I divided the chocolate into two and was about to offer half of it back to my friend but he wouldn’t take it as he is abstaining from chocolate as part of his healthy life style so the rest of us shared the chocolate between us. Naturally, we had a lot of discussion how the next day or so was going to pan out politically as the three probable candidates for the Tory party leadership are busy securing nominations to attempt to reach the high threshold of 100 nominations each by 2.00pm on Monday. We decided to cook a fairly early lunch as I particularly had in mind that I wanted to get the lawns cut today if I possibly could. Fortunately, we got the lunch prepared and eaten and the washing up done so that I could start the lawn cutting promptly at 2.30. I was pleased to get this done by 4.00pm which gave me a little bit of time to descend into Mog’s Den and to liberate one or two of the larger apples to eat during the week. Having got the lawns cut this late, there will be one last cut this year which I generally time around November 5th or bonfire night. On the the last cut of the season, I take pains to drain the petrol tank completely and also to empty the oil from the oil sump. Normally speaking it is getting dark when I do this as I have to run the engine of the lawn mower until the petrol tank is exhausted but I will try and short circuit the process a little this year by getting myself a petrol siphon.
The whole day today has been dominated by the rumours of how the various contenders for the Tory party leadership are doing to secure their nominations. It looks as though Rishi Sunak has easily reached the minimum required for the nomination of 100 supporters. But the really critical question is whether Boris Johnson can reach the required minimum number – there are some commentators who felt that he might not. But now in the late afternoon, some of Boris’ supporters are claiming that they have the required number ‘in the bag’ but this does not match up with the numbers reported on the various spreadsheets in the Main Street Media. Of course, there might be a certain amount of ‘spinning’ in all of this but less us assume, for the purposes of argument, that Johnson does exceed the required minimum. We could end up a scenario in which Rishi secures the nominations or votes of one half of the party but Boris Johnson only about a third. When these two choices are put out to the wider electorate in the constituency parties, the received wisdom is that Boris Johnson will almost certainly win and therefore be back in Downing Street by Friday. This prospect is filling various parts of the political elite with both fury and dismay. The editor of the Conservative party website, ConservativeHome, is of the view that the Tories may be engaged in a ‘spiral dance of death’ as a Johnson election could lead to the total annihilation of the Conservative party. Having been rejected by a majority of the party quite recently and ejected from Downing Street, the prospect of a PM voted for by only about a third of the Parliamentary party means that we are in a Jeremy Corbin/Lix Truss type of scenario again. The Conservative party may well be ungovernable and it could be that a chunk of MPs might vote with the Opposition to precipitate a General Election (which three quarters of the population want, by the way) Any legislation might be impossible to pass as rebellions will be widespread and a period of massive instability is the prospect before us which can only be alleviated by the calling of a General Election. The Tories are trying to avoid this like the plague as it will mean the practical wiping out of the Tory Party which it will take some two or three parliaments to reverse, if ever. The ultimate irony about all of this is that the greater the mess that the Truss administration is judged to have left behind and more the Labour Party pulls ahead in the opinion polls, the more there is a call from some (uninformed) sections of the electorate to ‘bring back Boris, to sort it all out’
As soon as I was awakened by my alarm this morning, I realised that it was raining quite heavily. Early on Sunday mornings, I walk down in order to collect our Sunday newspaper but was soon brought to realise that it was not only raining with intensity but I was shortly to get as wet as the proverbial drowned rat. In fact, it was raining so hard that you could hear the water gurgling down the drains which, in places, failed to cope. You have thought that walking down a pavement would have been unproblematic but the excess of surface water in various places meant that you had to keep a careful eye on the traffic lest a passing vehicle send a ‘whoosh’ of water all over you. Nonetheless, I consoled myself with some of the tracks on my trusty old iPhone which gave me a selection of old favourites. One of these was the Halleluja chorus from Handel’s Messiah which always puts me in mind of the Huddersfield Choral Society and how Meg and I used to whiz through the environs of Hudderfield on our scooter when we made the journey on our trusty old Lambretta scooter from Manchester to Leeds in the 1960’s. At the same time, I heard ‘Zadoc the Priest‘ first composed as a coronation anthem played for George II and I believe played at every coronation since then. The ‘anthem’ starts with a lot of ‘tum ti tums’ which you can imagine as background music whilst everyone was waiting in their seats in the Abbey until the choir bursts forth. When I did eventually reach the newsagent, it was a frustrating time both for him and for myself as his supply of newspapers had not been delivered. He was feeling somewhat upset (and with good reason) as when he phoned his suppliers to ask/complain, all that happened was that the phone was put down on him. When I got home, I had to strip off most of my clothes which were wringing wet and I put them straight into the washing machine before a drying out. After this thorough soaking, it was especially nice to change into some nice dry clothes. Then Meg and I had breakfasted and watched the Sunday (politics) programme, after which I popped down to Waitrose to pick up the Sunday Times and I also took the opportunity to replenish some other supplies.
Attempting to comment on the ‘race to No. 10’ rather puts me in the positon of a sports reporter who is having to predict the result of, say, a Rugby match which is only two thirds played. Concentrating on what we do know, though, it is the case that Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson had a long meeting last night, starting at about 8.00pm and going on for a couple of hours but what was decided between the two, if anything, has not been revealed by either side. Perhaps each was playing a game of ‘chicken’ with the other to see who blinks first. Johnson may have felt that his strongest card was that if he were to reach 100 nominations, he would probably win when the vote goes to the constituency associations. On the other hand, Rishi Sunak is piling up nominations for himself and probably feels that he has to say nothing, and to concede less. As today has progressed, Rishi Sunak has gained the support of influential figures on the right of the party such as Steve Baker, ex-chair of the ERG (European Research Group who are composed of Eurosceptics in the vanguard of Brexit) and Suella Braverman, the ex-Home Secretary (also from the right of the party) As I write, the declared figures seem to be 142 declared for Sunak (well over the 100 bar), Johnson on 59 (well under the bar). Also the Johnson camp are claiming that they have 100 nominations in the bag, it seems odd that they are not publishing these names or figures so perhaps there is a certain of ‘spin’ going on. There is also an account of a telephone call from the Johnson camp to Penny Mordaunt (who is a long way behind) asking her to swing her supporters the Johnson way in return, no doubt, for a lucrative top cabinet post. The Mordaunt camp have refused this outright, adding that most of the supporters will not be ‘delivered’ to Johnson but would probably break for Rishi Sunak anyway. There is also the issue of the Committee of Privileges investigation of Boris Johnson which is really hanging over him because were Johnson to be elected as Prime Minister then within weeks he might have to be suspended from the House of Commons, his constituency seat subject to recall and he will probably lose the bye-election. Another factor to be taken into account and which will be revealed in the Andrew Neil Politics programme tonight is the threat, in the face of a Johnson victory, to side with the opposition and either cross the floor of the House of Commons or simply to refuse to support a Johnson government in the face of an Opposition confidence motion in th House of Commons which would certainly generate a General Election. More will be revealed hour by hour but that is the latest state of play.
Today was going to be the crunch day for the election of a new party leader for the Conservative party but more of that later. It did not look as though there were any imminent showers forecast for the morning so after breakfast, we set off to collect our newspapers. Unfortunately, there was a sign on the newsagent’s window to indicate that he was closed for the moment to deal with a crisis of some sort so Meg and I went to the park and had our elevenses, admiring the beautiful autumn colours as we went. We always have a cloth buried deep within the rucksack to wipe the park bench clear of any rain water, after which we thought we would circulate back to the newsagent to see if he had opened by then. As it happened, it was but he was still unsupplied with newspapers as his distributor has once again let him down. It appears that a crucial employee has gone sick and that leaves all of the regular clients of local newsagents in the lurch. So we popped around to Waitrose where we knew that we could pick up our copy of The Times and took the opportunity to buy some extras. We got back home just after the Politics programme had started on BBC2 because it was interesting to see what Penny Mordaunt was going to do, now that Boris Johnson has withdrawn from the race. We knew that an announcement was to be made by the Chairman of the 1922 Committee at 2.00pm and at one minute before the appointed hour, it seemed that Penny Mordaunt had withdrawn, having failed to make the minimum of 100 nominations. What was interesting about all of this was that one of her most loyal supporters on the Politics programme was adamant that Penny Mordaunt had definitely reached the required minimum of 100 so she was obviously either lying to us or lying to herself. Evidently, her credibility is now in tatters but that is what happens when you are over-enthusiastic in your support.
After lunch, the news media was dominated by the news of the ‘election’ of Rishi Sunak as his was the only valid nomination received by the 2.00pm deadline. Although Boris Johnson and even the Mordaunt camp claimed that they had met the 100 threshhold, one of the Channel 4 reporters revealed that the number of pledges exceeded the number of MPs by about 30. In other words, the figures had been inflated by the various camps and given that politicians of all stripes are constantly manipulating figures to tell favourable stories (and dare I say Tory politicians more than most) it was hardly a surprise that the figures did not add up. But now we have the first Hindu PM elected and also the youngest for two centuries which was quite a surprise. All the formalities will occur tomorrow when Liz Truss formally attends the Palace to tender her resignation to the King, shortly followed by Rishi Sunak who will be asked to form the next administration. All of the talk at the moment is one of ‘unity’ and bringing the Tory party together but I dare say that this will least for about a week before the factionalism and infighting will start again. Rishi Sunak will avoid the self-evident error of not appointing people of talent across the party (both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss only appointed people they thought were ‘one of theirs’ and this was particularly evident in the appointments made by Liz Truss) Nonetheless, there is a deep well of hatred not to say resentment amongst erstwhile Boris Johnson supporters who feel that Rishi Sunak was the person who dealt Johnson the fatal blow by resigning from the Johnson cabinet when he did.
This afternoon, I received a telephone call from my friend in South Oxfordshire and we are going to arrange a ‘dinner date’ in his house, probably in about a month’s time. This we will look forward to but like other things we have to agree mutually convenient dates. In this morning’s emails, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from one of my Hampshire colleagues who is going to attend a family event in Liverpool in late November. We are in the proceess of arranging a date in Novenber when we might meet and my friend hasn’t quite decided whether to make the journey by car or by train. If he decides to travel by train, then I can arrange to meet him at Birmingham International which is quite an easy journey for me to make by car (M42 permitting). There is also the possibility that he might have the time available to make an overnight stop with us as well. In the second week of November, we are due to have an ‘Old Fogies‘ lunch in Winchester so I am pleased that the social diary is filling up quite nicely for November. November is one of those months without the charms of October on the one hand yet Christmas is still some way off in December so it just a month to be lived through. Nonetheless, it looks as though Meg and I will have quite a few social engagements to which we can look forward.
Today is the day when Rishi Sunak has been formally appointed as the Prime Minister and so the rest of the day is going to be devoted to the comings and goings in Downing Street when new Cabinet positions are offered and then accepted or rejected. According to the weather forecasts, today was going to be a beautiful fine autumn day and so it proved. Although Tuesdays are my usual Pilates day, this week it is half term so we knew that there were no Pilates classes scheduled for today. So I offered Meg the opportunity to go out somewhere for the day as the weather was so fine. We went down to Waitrose and had our normal jolly conversations with three of the (by now) Tuesday crowd. One of the older ladies that I know quite well, I asked if she would like to live in a society where she could have three or four husbands. After a moment’s reflection, she replied that would not be a first preference because ‘I could not handle two husbands at once!’ I thought this was an interesting reply. In the past few days, I have been sent a WhatsApp picture of Larry, the Downing Street cat, who is technically a ‘Brown and White Tabby’. He looks as though as though he could be the father of Miggles, our ‘adopted’ cat who visits us regularly. In the WhatsApp photo, Larry is shown sitting outside the door of No. 10 and the following words are attributed to him : ‘I am getting another one today – it is another rescue. I take them in for a few months until I can find them a permanent home. I hope this one will be OK but the last one was a nightmare!’ When the reporters are queuing up outside 10 Downing Street waiting for an important announcement or arrival of a visiting head of state, the cat is often the subject of much attention. Larry’s most recent appearance was with Liz Truss when she was greeting the Danish prime minister on the steps of No. 10. As she bent down to stroke Larry, he shrugged off her approaches and walked briskly away which is probably how the rest of the population felt. The assembled reporters and photographers thought this was probably an omen for the future – and events were to prove them right. Larry outlasted prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and, as of Thursday, the six-week tenure of Liz Truss.’The King has asked me to become Prime Minister because this nonsense has gone on long enough’ Larry the Cat wrote in a now viral tweet from an unofficial account hours before Truss announced her resignation.
After our jollities in Waitrose, we set off to visit Alcester, a pretty little Georgian town which we particularly like and is only about 15 miles distant. It is characterised by a range of superb charity shops and, true to form, we bought a new skirt for Meg and a new shirt for myself. Alcester also contains one of those wonderful little hardware shops that seems to stock everything you could possible think of and I bought the three bottles that they had in stock of a ‘scratch’ cover. These were the light, medium and dark varieties so with a little judicous mixing, you could get an almost exact shade for whatever you wanted to treat. I have found this product particulatly useful in the past for restorative work on dark furniture not confined to scratches but any little blemish. We had already booked a meal in one of the local hotels which does a most magnificent ‘pensioner’s lunch’ and we both had a root vegetables lasagne complete with a generous side serving of salad. This is always a most satisfying and enjoyable meal, after which we were happy to journey home.
This afternoon, we have passively watched the comings and goings on Downing Street which always makes the political journalists drool with excitement over who is in/out or up/down. As expected, Rishi Sunak has made a very conscious effort to draw a cabinet from all sections of the party and not just reward his natural and loyal supporters which was the mistake made by both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss before him. So far, the Cabinet seems to have been filled with people of some talent. Beth Rigby, the Sky News chief political correspondent did repeat the oft-repeated comment that Boris Johnson filled his cabinet with ministers best described as ‘B formers’ whereas the Liz Truss cabinet was said to be composed of ‘C formers’ The only appointment that I think is a great political mistake is to offer the recently resigned Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, the post of Home Secretary again. Suella Braverman is not known for the quality of her intellect and is a ‘rabid’ right winger who has confided that her secret dream is to see a plane load of asylum seeker and refugees transported to Rwanda and never seen again. As a historical footnote, we used to transport convicts to the then colonies from approx. 1700 until 1850 but one of the definitions of a true Conservative is that they are always ‘looking backwards into the future’.
We are still enjoying a spell of weather which is about 2-3 degrees warmer than the average for this time of year as a plume of warm air from the Sahara is being swept northwards. I suspect this is going to last for a day or so at the most, so it is a case of enjoying the mild weather whilst we can. Today is the day when our domestic help calls around and we always help each other with little gifts of food if we have an excess whilst cooking. Today, we have received a little present of some brioche which we are going to enjoy with some suitable accompaniments for our supper this evening when we come to prepare it. Meg and I made our usual trip to pick up our newspaper and then made for our usual bench in the park. There we communed with a variety of dog walkers as is our wont and then returned home to prepare a simple lunch of fishcakes.
This afternoon I busied myself with one of the more mundane but necessary tasks which is to get the labels off a collection of 200cl wine bottles with which our domestic help keeps me well supplied. These bottles are the ideal size for containing my damson gin when it comes to bottled in about mid to late December (in time for Christmas) This apparently simple job has its complexities. The neck of the bottle often has a little metal ring that needs to be cut off. As for the main labels, they do not just float off but have to be tackled with tough thumb nails and a variety of other implements. There are a variety of glues used and even the labels themselves sometimes separate into a top plasticised layer and a lower paper layer to which the glue has adhered. But over the years, I have learnt how to get a supply of really clean bottles that are ready for bottling when the time comes.
Now that one conservative prime minister has had to resign after a few disastrous weeks, there are a variety of articles to put the recent economic debacle into context. One that I have read helps to contextualise what is been happening : ‘The Brexit cult that blew up Britain’ and there are several others explaining how Trussonomics (Liz Truss version of economic theory) has failed so spectacularly (as, indeed, Rishi Sunak constantly predicted in the Tory leader election hustings but only a minority of conservative members believed him). The article explains how in the course of a decade a group of little-known politicians, fringe think tanks and outspoken media figures helped to drag the Tory Party to a Brexit-loving, free-market embracing,low-tax juggernaut. In this analysis, Brexit itself was only a stage in a much wider libertarian vision and the Brexit referendum would have been a defining moment. But the Brexit success only emboldened the libertarian right and then Boris Johnson had delivered Brexit into their laps, they were not unhappy to ditch Johnson and to enthusiastically to endorse Liz Truss who had espoused liberterian ideas for a long time. As Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University, London has observed ‘They felt their moment at come at last.. This would prove that Brexit had not been a ghastly mistake but a fantastic opportunity. But, of course, as it was always based on fantasy, it was bound to collide with reality’ Now that this experiment has been shown to comprehensively fail, some of the extreme libertarian right are just saying, like a millenial cult, they feel that their theories have not been disproved but just badly implemented by an incompetent political operator (Liz Truss). Like other cults when asked to explain why the ‘spaceship’ did not arrive, they explained that they had just got the timing wrong and the ‘spaceship’ would arrive later.
Now that we have a Rishi Sunak cabinet in place, I was a little puzzled when Suella Braverman, the disgraced Home Secretary who was forced to resign by using her own personal phone to transmit government documents (strictly against all of the IT protocols for how government communications should be handled). However, we now have the full story. The Rishi Sunak government, rather than being a model of integrity, has shown itself to be the beneficiary of a squalid back-door deal in which Braverman promised to support Sunak and to bring votes with her in exchange for being reinstated as Home Secretary. The cabinet secretary, Simon Case, as well as Alistair Graham, former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said there were questions over whether her appointment was appropriate, especially because the breach was not examined by an ethics adviser. I have a feeling that this one is going to run and run – but already there is an air of sleaze hanging over the new government. As he was appointed the UK’s 57th prime minister behind closed doors by 200 or so Conservative MPs, this will invariably raise questions about his democratic mandate – for this reason, Sunak is sticking very closely to the 2019 electoral mandate.
Thursday is my shopping day so I got up early, got some cash out of the ATM and then stayed in the car whilst it was raining heavily until it was time for the supermarket to open at 8.00am. Then it was the normal whiz around and I collected the newspaper on the way home and finally made it home just after 9.00pm. After we had breakfasted and unpacked the shopping, the weather started to brighten somewhat so we made up our coffee and elevenses snacks and set off for the park a little later than normal. As today was quite a wet day, we had not expected to bump many of our regulars and indeed we did not but nonetheless we appreciated the fresh air, the walk in the park, the changing autumn colours and so on. I suspect that the full glory of the autumn colours may well come in a week or so after we have had some frosts. Yesterday afternoon, our University of Birmingham friend called round with an offer of some cake which may well have been some birthday cake – we made an arrangement to meet in the park tomorrow, weather permitting, but if the weather is absolutely terrible we do have a favourite coffee bar (not necessarily Waitrose) to which we can repair as we have done on Fridays in the past.
The Suella Braverman saga rumbles on, as you might expect. In Parliament, requests are being made to the Speaker that Suella Braverman attends the Commons to answer questions about inconsistencies in the accounts that have been given of the security breach. In particular, was there was one breach or multiple breaches? Were the papers that were shared totally to do with immigration or did some of them involve security matters? Did the Home Secretary volunteer the breach (as she indicated in her resignation letter) or was she hauled before a group which included the Cabinet Secretary as well as the Chairman of the Conservative Party? There is a little twist in the story this afternoon as David Blunkett, a one-time Labour Home Secretary, is of the view that members of the security and intelligence services may feel disinclined to share secrets with their nominal ‘boss’ if they fear that these secrets may leak. This worry is shared by some Conservative MPs as well and the smattering of Tories concerned about Braverman means this is is not simply just confined to the opposition parties. The point is being made that some of our allies and information sources may be reluctant to share information with us if the Home Secretary has a poor reputation for probity. Another question that I have asked myself is this. Surely at the time of her appointment some senior security staff have given her a briefing (read ‘tutorial’) on how to conduct communications when you yourself are in charge of Britain’s intelligence and security communities. Was this initial briefing, refused or waved aside? Assuming that Braverman was properly briefed upon taking up her post, then has she either forgotten it or has she chosen to ignore it? The Bravermans and the Patels of this Conservative party have in the past shown a scant regard for the niceties of ministerial behaviour and they may both have been promoted beyond their competence. In addition, reports have emerged (on the BBC website) suggesting that, as attorney general, she was investigated over the leak of a story involving MI5. So it looks as though she may have ‘form’ in this respect. But the ultimate protective factor is that they belong to the extreme right of the Conservative Party and therefore Sunak may wish to hang on to Braverman in order to appease the right of the party.
This afternoon, I decided to repeat my recent soup making activities and so I have made some carrot and basil soup. I was a little short of coconut milk but have substituted some soya milk in it place. I have just had the briefest of tastes of this and am moderately pleased with it but despite starting off with some fried onions, as most recipes suggest, I feel that it is a little on the thin side. So having transferred it from the soup maker into a saucepan, I think I am going to try a little powdered potato as a thickening agent and see how much of a difference this makes. When I went shopping this morning, I bought some celery as well as a swede so in the days ahead I know I can prepare a traditional ‘winter root vegetables’ soup which I have tried often in the past and where I have always achieved good results. If I see any celeriac on the supermarket shelves, then this has a wonderful reputation as a warming winter soup. Also, of course, there must be masses of pumpkins around ready for the autumnal festivities so this is something else with which to experiment in the days ahead. If I want to be more adventurous, there is also a pumpkin and ginger soup for which Jamie Oliver has a recipe which I have seen on the web.
Today started as a rainy and blustery day where a storm was evidently working its way up the country. Meg and I had made a tentative arrangement to meet with our University of Birmingham friend in the park today but after a quick text and telephone call, we decided to meet in a cafe aong the Bromsgrove High Street to which we often repair when the weather turns foul. So we met in the cafe and had a good old natter about some of the students we had known in our teaching careers. I told our friend the story how one of my students, a very bright nurse who worked in the Infection Control/Quality Control unit at Leicester General Hospital, offered me some consultancy which was to lay the groundwork for what was to become my PhD. At the time, John Major had just taken over from Margaret Thatcher and he was actively searching for his one ‘big idea’ which would delineate his premiership from that of Margaret Thatcher. Major’s idea was ‘the Citizen’s Charter’ and its sibling ‘The Patient’s Charter’ (the position of the possessive apostrophe is significant but we will not go into that just now) A major source of discontent was the amount of time that patiemts had to wait in outpatient clinics before their appointment started and so this was one area in which quality improvement might be implemented. I devised a short but sharply focused questionnire which was administered to every single patient in all specialities and my job was to analyse the data statistically and to provide a series of reports by consultant so that hospital managers could implement some quality improvement strategies. This led to a series of papers and when De Montfort University changed its PhD regulations allowing a member of staff to write a PhD around a series of published papers, this was an opening that I could not afford to ignore. So the papers were written, presented to international conferences, a PhD was written around them and this led eventually to a new job at the University of Winchester. The point of all of this is that the initial opportunity was opened up for me by one of my students and to her, I shall be eternally grateful.
After we had our coffee, I took the opportunity to get some printer paper from the stationers on the High Street and also to get some cleaning products from one of the cut price stores. The weather had turned absolutely glorious by this stage in the late morning and as it turned out, we could well have enjoyed a turn in the park. But we are always happy to chat with our friends. Then it was a case of getting home and cooking our usual Friday meal of sea bass served on a bed of lettuce which is both quick and nutritious. In the afternoon, I went through a series of newspapers most of which seemed important at the time (all the events surrounding the death and subsequent funeral of the Queen) but could now safely be junked. However, I did find one or two health-related articles at the bottom of the pile which are certainly worth a good re-reading, filing away and then to be consulted regularly. One of these related to a recently published book in which the authors (who had worked in Worcestershire as it happens) were advocating a way in which one’s ‘hunger hormones’ could be tamed that would eventually help to tackle related problems of obesity, diabetes and related health conditions. From the account and four page excerpt given in ‘The Times’, this sounds a very interesting and no doubt evidence-led approach so I have orderd my copy of the author’s book which should be arriving tomorrow and which I shall study with some care and perhaps attempt to implement.
Halfway through the afternoon, I read my emails and am delighted that one of my Hampshire colleagues has accepted my invitation to stay overnight with us on a night in late November whilst he on his way northwards to engage in a little research into family history. With the pandemic, we have not seen each other for years and have a lot to catch up so we are looking forward very much to his visit. A week later, Meg and I will hopefully to be attending an ‘Old Fogies’ lunch time get- together which will be the first for several years after an pandemic-induced abstinence. This meeting, too, has to be re-arranged twice as every time we settle on a date on a Wednesday, a rail strike seems to be announced for the same day so that efforts to find a communal date for us together has been frustrated. One video clip which is emerged this afternoon is the new Prime Minister, visiting a South London hospital in which one of the patients berates him and tells him that he should pay the nurses more and then he replies that the government is trying to achieve this is then told ‘Then you must try harder’ I suspect this clip will ‘go viral’ and I would be surprised if it did not find its way into the major news broadcasts this evening.
Today was dull and overcast but not particularly cold. We were a little delayed this morning because I had some problems updating the payment system on a photos website which acts as a host to our 50th wedding anniversary photographs and videos. Fortunately, I found a solution to this as well as eventually locating the specialised and personalised name that I have acquired in order to access the website and which I had temporarily forgotten. Whilst I was at it, I thought I would have a dig around my system and my websites to discover some of my original wedding photos and music. Some five years ago now, I retrieved our book of wedding photos (all in black and white in 1967) and successfully digitised them all. But I had a massive stroke of luck because out of the photo album fell a little page of lined notepaper which was the organists original notes of the music that was played. We had remembered some of these pieces but not all. But, armed with the list of music, I could then go onto the web and find MP3 tracks of music that could have well been the original so this, at the time, was a very successful venture. However, by putting the music tracks on one website and the wedding photos on a rolling display on another website, it is possible to see the original wedding photos with the ‘original’ music playing in the background. This is evidently not the same as a video of the original but is a very good substitute which means that if anyone is sufficiently interested, they can see the original photos of which there are only 13 in number but accompanied by the mp3 ‘soundtrack’ with some program notes on each of the six pieces of music that we had chosen and some background to each one. I do not make a habit of looking at these websites very often but it does mean that I tend to forget the URL’s so it is rather good to refresh my memory once in a while. To sort of test this out, I got J S Bach’s ‘Wachet Auf‘ to play along whilst I was writing this blog but I still have to remember how to move from track to track.
Once we had eventually got ourselves going, as it were, we picked up our newspaper and made it to the park. We didn’t bump into of our regulars in the park but this was not a great surprise to us so after our elevenses we got home and made a pasta type meal out of bits and peces that we had in the fridge. Saturday afternoons are always a little quiet because we start to go to church at 5.30 and then have a bit of supper when we return at about 7.00pm before we settle down to either watch an opera or another video that takes our fancy. Tonight is the night when the clocks go back and this means that in the afternoons and the evenings it will be really dark, to which I do not look forward. At this time of year,though, I cannot wait until December 21st has come and gone as it is means it will then be getting lighter at 1-2 minutes a day. We have quite a few social engagements throughout the month of November to help the autumn pass a little more quickly. Thinking ahead to Christmas, though, I have managed to secure a booking at our favourite hotel in Harrogate not in the week before Christmas which would be horrific but in the week before that. We have decided to extend our stay from our normal three days to four so we may be able to see more family members this time around. In fact, given the success of the ‘family tea’ which we had for my sister’s 80th birthday, we could do worse but repeat this little event but I will consult a bit further on this.
Earlier in the day, I had been in email correspondence with one of my Hampshire friends who had accepted my offer to stay overnight with us in late November – he is breaking his journey in order to pay to visit to Leek in Staffordshire to research some family history. Because a distant cousin of ours who lives in Australia and has a lot of reseearch on my father’s side of the family, we will probably have quite a lot to share with each other. My mother’s side of the family tree is somewht murky but I can disclose the interesting but tangled story of my mother’s side of the family tree when my friend come to visit.
The Chancellors Autumn Statement has now been upgraded to a ‘full budget’ and will take place on November 17th. It will be a model of financial rectitude, not to say austerity. One way or another, the Chancellor is going to have to find at least £40bn to fill the black hole and another £10bn to reassure the markets. Rumours at this stage is that nothing – Defence, NHS, pensions – will be spared so we shall shortly experience Austerity Mark II (Mark I being the Osborne version some Chancellors ago)
Today was the day when the clocks go back one hour, so a certain amount of clock adjustment is required around the house. Some appliances such as our computers and the DAB radios fortunately adjust themselves but some do not so I have to trail around the living rooms to get our clocks adjusted. This went off without a hitch, after which I walked on down into Bromsgrove to the newspaper shop in order to pick up my copy of the Sunday Times. This having been done, Meg and I breakfast in front of the Laura Kuennsberg show where the Suella Braverman episode received a certain amount of attention but the interrogation could have been more intensive- after all, bringing back a Home Secretary who confessed to a breach of security after six days (when they themselves are in charge of the security services)is quite something, after all.
Yesterday, I had a bit of a brainwave and decided to undertake a bit of a reconfiguration. I took the mini hifi stero system which used to inhabit some space on a kitchen table and relocate it, and some of the attendant CD’s, into a quiet corner of one of our downstairs living rooms. This has made a pleasant area to relax if one wanted to just play CDs and/ or listen to ClassicFM in a different living space to the television. I have ensured that I have the CDs to hand but may well get them into an alphabetical order and record them in a little book. When I have some spare time, I will get the CDs catalogued so that we can lay our hands on what we may wish to listen to with the minimum of searching. I cooked and ate the Sunday lunch on my own as Meg was not feeling particularly well and took to her bed in the middle of the day. After some hours of rest she got up and I got her to try out my newly created music corner so that she could have some relaxation that did not involve manipulating the Sunday newspapers or watching the television.
The attack on the house of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives in the US Congress continues to horrify. The assailant is reported to have cried out ‘Where is Nancy?’ after breaking into the Pelosi residence and subsequently fracturing the skull of her husband with a hammer. This ‘shout’ is rather redolent of what the mob said when the Capital Building was stormed and it was intent on locating both Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence, the then Vice President. Did they intend to kill them, if they had been caught, I wonder? I can predict that the Democrats will argue that this is what happens when political consensus breaks down and there is no middle ground in American politics any more. I would predict that the Republicans will argue that the intruder was mentally deranged and ‘nothing to do with them’. We will see in the days ahead, which account has most salience or ‘traction’ as the modern political analysts would say.
In the late afternoon, a middle aged couple knocked on our door and were seeking some information about our immediate environment as they were thinking about buying the bungalow across the communal green area. This was actually quite useful as I could give them first hand information about how the BioDisk system worked and how it is maintained by the Resident’s Association. They seemd quite impressed by what they had seen but they still had another property to view so how close they are to coming to a positive decision, I cannot really say. I gave the couple one of my business cards and indicated that I would be happy to answer any further queries that might have if they wanted to email me. In a case like this, I suspect the agents are not particularly helpful to would-be purchasers so I was happy to give them whatever information they needed in order to come to an informed decision. Of course, people look at properties in different ways but I think that one thing that impressed them was the amount of space afforded by the loft which is practically the same as the footprint of the entire house.
The political sphere today is full of gossip. In the Suella Braverman case, a lot depends on how quickly she reported the breach of the regulations as she tries to give the impression that this was fairly rapid. But an email has come to light in which some two hours after the original transgression she had asked the unintended recipient of the message to ‘ignore and then delete’ it. Whether the breach was self-reported or whether it was enjoined upn her by the Cabinet Secretary,amongst others, is a contended question. Meanwhile, in the Sunday Times, there are some jaw-dropping accounts of the behaviour of Liz Truss when she was Foreign Secretary. By all accounts, she made it her absolute and overriding priority to make a photo opportunity in which she figured prominently, even if, for example, this meant leaving the leader of New Zealand waiting to greet her on the airport’s tarmac whilst Liz Truss was scurrying around trying to get her photoshot taken.
After a dullish start, we thought today was going to turn out to be quite a mild day. We popped into our local, friendly newsagent and I opined to the newsagent’s wife that I really didn’t like the month of November and although tomorrow is the first of the month, in my mind November is always the month to be lived through rather than enjoyed. But she informed me that it was her husband’s birthday towards the end of the month so that was something to which she could look forward. When the couple were getting me my newspaper, and thinking of our previous conversation, I remarked ‘Towards the end, then’ – but the newsagent thought I was referring to his life as a whole and remarked that he intended to live for a few more years yet! We all had a giggle at this misunderstading and then we progressed on to Waitrose where I needed to pick up a few things. I noticed that in the self-service coffee machine area, they had a notice informing customers that the ‘free to Waitrose customers’ was due to resume at the end of the week. I expressed my pleasure to one of the long standing staff members and they told me that although it involved more work for the staff keeping the machines topped up and maintained, they knew that it did pull the customers in. In the past, some customers had abused this system just popping in for a ‘free coffee’ so when the service resumes, one is going to have to swipe one’s Waitrose card to legitimise the free drink. Obviously, this was good news for us and the pandemic had evidently caused the demise of the service a year or so back but it is always good to see things resume. We had our normal comestibles and drink of coffee in the park and admired the autumnal colours, which is always a source of delight. On the way back home, we called by the house of our Irish friends on the main Kidderminster road as we had not seen them for a week or so. They had been away on an ‘instant’ holiday on a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi – a trip in which Meg and I intended to participate before the pandemic and the travel restrictions put paid to our plans. But our friends told us that we had been saved from ourselves as the trip had proved quite arduous for some of the elderly and disabled members of the pilgrimage. Apparently, there was a lot of walking involved and in Assisi, in particular, up some quite steep hills which was too much for some. So Meg and I were relieved that this was a potential disaster avoided and, for once, home might be the better place to be.
We had our lunch at midday,finishing off the beef which we started yesterday. To make a change from the almost daily baked potato, I prepared some carrots and the portion for Meg I glazed in some honey just at the end of the cooking process so she was highly appreciative of this. This afternoon, I finished off the little projectI had set for myself which was to catalogue and document the CDs that I have relocated into our little ‘music room’. Last night, Meg had gone to bed early so whilst I was on my own, I took the opportunity to arrange all the 50 CD’s in alphabetic order and to write the composer and their composition into a little booklet I was saving for the purpose. Then I typed up this information into a HTML table I had composed on the computer in order to create a type-written version. This all worked out fine and I did literally a ‘cut-and-paste’ job from my printout into my little booklet which is now residing, ready for reference, on top of the CD’s. In order to make sure that the glue had done its work, I took the whole booklet and put into under one of the legs of our (heavy) kitchen table for half an hour to make the pages were well and truly stuck.
This afternoon, Suella Braverman is having to appear in the House of Commons to asnwer questions about the deteriorating situation at Manston processing centre in Kent, described by the chief inspector of prisons as ‘dangerous’ and inhumane. It appears that Braverman has been ignoring the advice of officials and may well have acting illegally by detaining asylum seekers more than the 24 hours specified by the legislation, all of this in order not to move the asylum seekers onward to hotels which is a policy she privately deplores. At the same time, if the Speaker of the House of Commons allows this, Braverman may now have to answer questions about the reasons for her resignation. She has now admitted to six further occasions of transgressions and has issued a long letter to MPs and the media to explain her past activities. All we can say at this stage is that the storm clouds are rapidly gathering over the head of the Home Secretary and critical, of course, is the reaction of the Tory backbenches where there is already some unease.
November was heralded last night by some exceptionally strong winds and heavy rain and much of this persisted throughout the day. Having picked up our newspaper, we battled our way through the rain in the Waitrose carpark and even had to resort to an umbrella to ensure that we were not absolutely soaked on our way into the cafe. There, we met up with seasoned World Traveller and one of our regular pre-pandemic regulars and we enjoyed our weekly chat. We chatted about how our friend quite regularly played bowls and she was telling me about a recent match with a team from Solihull which the Bromsgove team expected to lose but actually won, much to the disgust of their opponents who responded by handing out a heap of sarcastic comments. They also say that croquet can be a vicious game with many undercurrents but I have never played the game so all of this is news to me. Finally, we made our way home and then I prepared for my weekly Pilates class which involved battling with the elements again. It was not too bad walking down to my class but the heavans seemed to open when the class was over so it was a pretty unpleasant walk home. The afternoon turned out not to be a restful one because as soon as lunch was completed and the dishes washed up and put away then our hairdresser came along, quite promptly, and Meg was due to have a perm which actually takes up a lot of the afternoon. We commiserated with our hairdresser whose father had died yesterday afternoon. Hw was a ripe old 96 year old and his death was anticipated but it is always a bit of a shock when the event actually occurs.
There is some news emerging this evening which suggests that Boris Johnson is courting several ‘speakers circuits’ which, if he is engaged and carries on with a variety of speeches for several years, could generate him an income of millions of pounds. I suspect that as he a supreme narcissist, Boris Johnson would not welcome a re-entry into the British political scene if it were not possible for him to be top dog anymore. Given the likely defeat of the Conservatives in the next election in two years time and then a possible ten years in opposition, I do not see Boris Johnson as being at all attracted to this type of political role so it would not surprise me if he were to walk away from British politics. Meanwhile, in the domestic British scene, a lot of attention is bing directed towards the feisty performance of Suella Braverman in the House of Commons yesterday. She actually gave vent to an infamous phrase the effect that the public needs to know which party is serious about ‘stopping the invasion’ of migrants on the southern coast of the UK. The use of the word ‘invasion’ has generated howls of protest but there is a massive political divide at work here. Members of the ERG (members of the European Research Group) who crowded in to the Commons yesterday to give support to the Home Secretary were ecstatic about the use of the use of the phrase whereas the counter-reaction was that this was deliberately inflammatory language designed to appeal to certain sections of the electorate. Even Braverman’s own deputy, the immigration minister Robert Jenrick has argued that he would not use language like this which has the effect of demonising some very distressed migrants.
The population as a whole are being ‘softened up’for some very wide ranging tax increases in the forthcoming budget in just over two weeks time. The Treasury has let if be known that they have ‘agreed on the principle that those with the broadest shoulder should be asked to bear the greatest burden’ and this effectively stamps out Liz Truss’s trickle-down economics. A further warning is being given that ‘given the enormity of the challenge, it is inevitable that everybody would need to contribute more in tax in the years ahead’ So it is pretty evident that a fairly hostile reaction is going to be expected from the nation’s elite but they have had it pretty good during the last twelve years of a conservative governnment and can probably stand the pain. One way or another, the country has got to find some £40-£50 billion and evidently this has got to come from somewhere if it cannot be borrowed. Although the public sector has already been cut to the bone, there is chatter of still more public sector cuts, probably to be achieved by only offering pay rises of 2% (when the inflation rate is 10%, so an effective 8% cut in pay).
Attention next week will switch to the American mid-term elections in a society which is bitterly divided. It is possible that the Republicans will be able to take control of both the House of Representatives and also the Senate which will make any Democratic legislation almost impossible to achieve in the next two years. The Republicans, many of whom believe that Trump was defrauded of the last Presidential election, are also seizing control of the electoral machine in various states which means that the Reublican party will control all aspects of the eletoral processes and even deny their own State legislators any oversight in the case of either fraud, malfeasance or voter suppression (which is quite likely in Republican controlled areas)
We are really into the typical November weather being wet and blustery - but not particularly cold as yet. We are always pleased to see our domestic help whose day it is each Wednesday and I gave her a little present of some homemade soup (carrot and basil) for her to try. We went off to collect our newspaper and then started on a couple of visits that we needed to make. The first of these was to a furniture store which is set up so that individuals wishing to furnish a home can do at a minimal cost. Most of the furniture and household artefacts is donated by individuals who wish to de-clutter their own house but are more than happy to see any unwanted goods go to a good home and not end up in landfill. I particularly wanted to acquire a small occasional table to go into the corner of a room and as soon as Meg and I walked into the cavernous type rooms in which the furniture was stored, we saw something that caught our eye. This was a miniature drop leaf table which was oval in shape but the two sides folded down to create a small rectangular top. The wood was a mahogany or rosewood type of wood and it was in pretty good condition but with some minor scuff marks. What was particularly attractive was a tooled leather insert for the table top so this added to its charm. I needed this table to put a little table lamp upon it so after a little hunt around, we discovered a smallish table lamp but with an attractive 'autumn leaves' lampshade. I put the lamp on the little drop leaf table to see how they looked together and was then delighted to purchase the two of them together for £20. Then we went on the road to collect a purchase for the George store internal to Asda where I had ordered and paid for a little item on line and could pick it up at out local Asda store. As soon as I got the little dtop leaf table home, I could gave it a really good wipe down with a clean sponge and some warm soapy water and was pleasantly surprised by how restored it looked. I do have a little bottle of one of those special 'scratch remover' types of fluid which I have very successfully used in the past to renovate furniture and remove minor scuffs and the like. I then hunted around in my box of old light bulbs and discovered that I actually already had in stock a 60 watt mushrrom shaped bulb which Marks and Spencer had sold some years before calling it a 'peach' light. I wanted these items for a particular place in the corner of the room where I have created a little music and relaxation centre for the benefit of both Meg and myself when the occasion arises. The overall effect of the renovated little table with an interesting design of table lamp upon it, complete with its 'soft light' bulb, have created an effect far in excess of what i could possibly hope for when I woke up this morning. So I now have a little occasional piece which absolutely fulfills the function I had intended for it which was to create some warm and welcomingly looking relaxation space. The purchase from Asda was an occasional lamp with a small wooden base and a linen look shade of which I actually have another to illuminate a spare corner and this has now been pressed into service to illuminate the CDs which now have pride of place in an adjoining bookcase. So I have now managed to achieve what I wanted at minimal expense and hardly any 'running around'. There was also a bonus to this in the mid afternoon. My son was just leaving the house and I mentioned to him that the CD component of the miniature hifi systm I had inherited from him seemed to be on its last legs as whether it started to play a CD disk or not was decidedly 'iffy'. With a thumb he wiped clean the plastic lens cover to the laser unit with the player. This seemed to work short term but to make sure, I popped into the garage and located an absolutely brand new, and therefore clean, paintbrush which i use to give the lens cover a good clean. This has evidently been effective because I had a Renato Scotti (Italian soprano) disk in which the first track would not play but it would from the second track onwards. After my cleaning efforts, it now worked first time so that was another bonus to the afternoon.
This afternoon, Meg and I had a regular i.e. timetabled, telephone appointment with one of the doctors from our practice. We spent a lot of time discussing some of Meg's medication which seems to be unavailable so he is going to try to expedite this or prescribe another. His advice was all a bit general but I was pleased that he seemed as concerned about my health as well as that of Meg as it is important that I am kept going to keep 'the whole show on the road'.
Today is my shopping day so I arrived at my favourite supermarket a few minutes before it opened. All went as would be expected but the ‘eggs’ shelves was completely bare – members of staff informed us that the outbreak of avian flu was impacting upon their supply chain but in the next few days we will find out whether this a localised or a more widespread problem. After I had got home, breakfasted and then unpacked the shopping, the weather seemed to set fair so we decided to sally forth to Droitwich is almost just down the road. In Droitwich, we had our coffee and toasted teacake in a little cafe quite near to the Waitrose store because I wanted to go in search of a little antiques/jumble/curios type shop to see if anything caught our fancy. But it had unfortunately gone out of business so we proceeded to have a quick saunter through a charity shop which was just around the corner. We finished up buying a new Jaeger woollen top for Meg as well as a hat whilst I bought a shirt for myself which is just my size and colour. Then we went for a whizz around our favourite hardware store which is Wilko but I found the shelves a little empty of the things that I had hoped to buy. However, I bought some electrical supplies and some stationery. In the kitchen department, I was intrigued to find a couple of non-stick silicone egg poachers. As we have started to poach our eggs for our morning breakfast (although we have currently run out of eggs upon which to trial it), we will have to see if this lives up to its promise or not.
Before we went shopping this morning, a pleasant surprise turned up by the morning’s mail. On a whim, I had done a quick trawl on ebay and discovered a copy of Brahm’s ‘A German Requiem‘ which I always enjoy but I don’t think we have it anywhere on disk. This I had ordered about a couple of days ago not least because it was on offer for less than £3 with postage included but also the quality of the performers. It was Elizabeth Schwartzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau conducted by Otto Klemperer, which trio must be considered the finest performers in the classical world at the time of the original recording in 1962. EMI had digitally remastered this recording in 1986 and all in all, the performance was about 70 minutes in length. Last night,I had located a Sony CD/DVD portable recorder which I think I must have purchased at about the time of our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations to play our wedding music but I had put it in a bookcase and forgotten about it over the years. Meg and I spent a very pleasant hour listening to this outstanding recording in the new quiet music corner I have just created and it played equally well both on the Sony sound system inherited from my son and the recently discovered CD player. I was intrigued by the firm that had sold us this outstanding CD at such a reasonable price and it turned out that they were a small, specialised Scottish charity that specialised in reselling second hand goods (many of them donated?) and giving the proceeds to local charitable causes. I wondered if there was more where this came from and although the organisation itself did not seem to have other CDs available, I did find a superbly good recording of Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto‘, again for less than £3 and so this, too, was promptly ordered. However, later on in the morning, another pleasant surprise came along. I was doing an experiment to see if a tiny little notebook speaker that I had would increase the volume of the sound somewhat as the maximum volume on the CD player is adequate but could do with being a bit louder. In the course of my experiments, I relocated the player and turned it on forgetting that I had not connected the AC power supply. To my amazement, it actually started playing and I then realised that it must have an internal rechargeable power source which gets topped up, much like a laptop, every time you connect it to the mains. Naturally, the original manual had long since been mislaid but the day before I had managed to locate the manual on the web and downloaded it into my ‘Manuals’ folder. A quick consultation of this showed that the whole CD player would take about three hours to fully charge but this ought to give about 4 hours of play time. This was designed way back, I suppose, so that those taking long train journeys or European flights could watch their own DVD or listen to CDs to alleviate the tedium of the journey. I honestly did not know (or had forgotten) that the player had this play facility but am naturally delighted to have discovered it. It did cross my mind whether to go on the web and get a pair of really cheap notebook speakers but resisted the temptaion as the occasions that I might actually need a bit of enhanced volume might be few and far between.
Today had been forecast as the finest day of the week which was just as well giving that I wanted to give the lawns their last cut of the season this afternoon and for this, I certainly needed a fine day. Meg and I had quite a busy morning because there were a collection of things we needed to get done on the High Street. Having picked up my newspaper, our first port of call was Waitrose in search of eggs that were unavailable in our regular supermarket yesterday. To my pleasant surprise, Waitrose seemed qute well supplied with eggs and there did not seem to be an evident panic to buy the available stock so perhaps our experience of yesterday was just a ‘one-off’. Then we went looking for the stall that is normally there on Tuesdays and Fridays where the stallholder sells leather goods, watches, watch straps and watch batteries. I was disappointed not to find her and, having used her for years, hope that she has not ceased trading. So then I proceeded to our next port of call which was to buy some cosmetics at a shop which also sells lady’s knee-highs of which I needed a supply for Meg. Fortunately, what we particularly wanted they had in stock so we purchased what we needed and proceeded to a pharmacist at the far end of the High Street. As our normal pharmacy could not supply some medication for Meg which the doctor had prescribed, a community pharmacist attached to the doctor’s practice had rung around to find some supplies for us and had issued a new prescription and all we needed to do was to collect this. On the way back, we called in at our usual cobbler’s shop which sells watch straps and watch batteries and had a new watch strap fitted, the previous one having dropped to pieces. It has been quite disconcerting to go around with my watch in my pocket rather than on my wrist so now it is almost back to normal. On our way down the High Street, we popped into an Age Concern shop which is selling recycled and reconditioned furniture so this is always worth keeping a eye as I am looking for a small but elegant corner table upon which to place a corner light in our hall. This place in the hall took over from the Christmas tree last year and it will be not too long before the season starts again but I refuse to contemplate anything ‘Christmassy’ until the month of December is upon us. When we got to the park, we felt well in need of our coffee and we were delighted to be soon joined by our University of Birmingham friend which is quite a typical pattern for Fridays. Our friend had joined a University of the Third Age (U3A) goup in Kidderminster and had joined a discussion on ‘Moral Mazes’ (after the Radio4 program of the same name, I wonder?) Recently, the group had been discussing the role of grandparents in families and I was reminded of the role of the community at large. In particular, I rather like the expression originating from the Indian culture that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and I reminisced about the time when Meg and I lived in Hampshire and bought a house in a cul-de-sac in which there several childrn aged 3-11 or thereabouts and the parents seemed to take a collective approach to the children’s activities – for example supplying a plaster and a bit of parental support if a child had had a tumble from their bike. I shared with our friend the anguish that I feel that some grandparents must feel if their own offspring divorce and separate and contact with beloved grandchildren is lost if they move away or are absorbed into their ‘new’ families. Under these circumstances, I suspect that grandparents have very few, if any, legal rights and these might be difficult to enforce.
Meg and I had a fairly rapid lunch because I was anxious to make a start on the grass mowing in plenty of time. We had made a risotto out of some basa fillets which I had steamed and then cooked with a cauliflower (=low calorie) rice, tarted up with a bit of seafood sauce as an experiment. After lunch, Meg and I had a wonderful half hour or so relaxing in our newly created ‘relaxation’ space where we put on Brahm’s Requiem and just dozed with the strains of the music coming over us in waves. Then it was time to jump and start mowing and everything went to plan – the grass had certainly grown apace in just the last two weeks. Halfway through, our next door neighbour emerged for a chat and it was good to get his latest news. He is recovering from having three stents inserted into an heart artery by an eminent visiting Japanese surgeon and is making good progress so far. The mowing having completed, I got the residual petrol emptied and this season’s oil removed in record time and was mightily relieved to get my trusty machine put to bed for another winter’s rest before we start again next March.
It was just as well that we got the lawns cut and the mower put away yesterday because today was gloomy and overcast with the occasional shower. We had a provisional arrangement to meet with our University of Birmingham friend in the park today but after a swift telephone call between us, we both concluded that Waitrose coffee bar was a far better place in which to meet and so we did. After we had said our farewells to each other, Meg and I had a brief saunter along the High Street in which we met a couple of our Kidderminster Road friends who were in generally good heart, except that that the local authority had ordered them to cut back some of the conifers fronting their garden on the basis that they were occluding the pavement. They were not best pleased about this as, in strict legal theory, their conifers did extend across the line adjudged to be the pavement border but in no ways could the vegetation be said to be an obstruction. I wondered to myself if an envious or malicious neighbour had telephoned the council to lodge a complaint but we shall never know. Just to demonstrate how we are entering a sort of ‘silly’ season, I saw in my local supermarket when I went shopping on Thursday an advent calendar for dogs – no doubt there is a big pent-up demand for this amongst the barking mad. For their part, ClassicFM are putting on a special service of quiet and contemplative music this evening so that household pets are not unduly distressed by the sound of fireworks going off this evening (perhaps) They even have listeners emailing in with stories of how calming the ClassicFM policy has been in the past at bringing sanity to their pets but methinks that they might have a pruduction assistant in one of their back rooms busy composing emails (much in the same way that it is said that people fake but glowing reviews of products on Amazon).
By this morning’s post, the CD arrived of ‘Rigoletto‘ which I had ordered from Ebay at the incredible price of £2.99. But when I totted up the cost of the postage of the chap who had sold it to me, it had cost the sender about £2.55 so he only made about 45p on the deal. The CD,though, was wonderful and I enjoyed listening to it whilst I prepared our elevenses for later on in the day. After we had lunch, we entertained ourself with the Rugby League quarter-finals in which England were playing Papua New Guinea, often abbreviated to PNG. In theory, this should have been a very close contest but in practice the English team through some excellent play absolutely ran away with the first half so I did not bother with watching the second half. I decided to do some soup ready for when we return from church later on this evening – fortunately, I already had some root vegetables prepared and already frozen in the freezer, so it was qute a simple job to fry up some onions and then put the parboiled vegetables into the soupmaker.
The enquiry into COVID-19 and the nation’s preparedness for it hs just opened – no doubt this will take months and perhaps evn a year or so. What, though, is interesting is that the enquiry has asked to see Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp correspondence. If our memories stretch back that far, Boris Johnson did not even bother to attend the first COBRA briefings which was examining the seriousness of the pandemic shortly to hit the country and this delay may well have cost hundreds or even thouands of lives. A more contemporary narrative is that Johnson got the pandemic ‘sorted’ and takes massive credit for getting the vaccine programme under way. One has to wonder whether more comprehensive and balanced judgements may hold sway once the enquiry report is published but an awful lot of water will have flowed under the bridge by then and the public may not be particularly interested in attributing praise or blame to Johnson for his role in the pandemic.
Tonight is Bonfire Night but there is not much evidence of celebrations anywhere. If the weather is clear, then this is generally an occasion when youngish children can enjoy a bonfire and some fireworks but tonight is wet and squally. Furthermore, I suspect that family finances are a little too stretched to let some of them go up in a puff of smoke. There were a few fireworks last night when the weather was better and some families may be hoping for better weather tomorrow. But as a sign of the times, Waitrose were selling their pumpkin carving kits marked down to 15p a throw. In the little village where I lived in Yorkshire from the ages of 9-14, the whole village contributed towards the communal bonfire whilst the menfolk brought along (and drank) beer whilst women were expected to povide some homemade parkin (sticky gingerbread?) We kids had a fantastic time seeing if we could trace where the rocket staves had landed once they had ‘whooshed’into the sky.
I got up early this morning and walked down into town to collect my Sunday newspaper, as I normally do, treating myself to a little Mozart concert as I walked. But when I got to the shop, there was a bit of disappointment as the Sunday Times had been left off the delivery pattern to the newsagent, although there was a possibility it could be delivered later. So I walked home empty handed and listened to the Laura Kuennsberg program whilst having breakfast (and then dozing). After Meg and I had got our act together, we decided to make a trip to the park even though it was gloomy. When we started off, there was the finest of drizzle that did not bother us greatly but by the time we were sitting on the park bench, the rain had intensified quite a lot. We were just finishing off our coffee and deciding to cut our losses and get home quickly when we had a phone call from our University of Birmingham friend. It did not take us long to decide that we should all like to treat ourselves to a coffee in Waitrose so we got there as soon as we could, braving the elements as we went. After we had made a rendez-vous with our friend inside the café, Meg and I treated ourselves to a bowl of chicken and vegetable soup which was delicious. We spent the best part of two hours altogether in Waitrose as we seemed to have a lot to chat about. We were exploring regional dialects and regional accents and, in particular, whether people felt held back in their educational or occupational careers if they had a marked regional accent. Of course, sometimes regional accents seem to be in and out of fashion but we were both fascinated by the way in which accents can change over quite a short distance. For example, the distance beween Manchester and Bolton is only about 11 miles but there is a distinct change of accent to be found as one moves from the orbit of one to the other. The same thing can be found more locally as the Black country accent (for example found in Dudley) is distinct from central Birmingham, even though the distances involved are only about 8-9 miles. One suspects with greater degrees of geographical and social mobility some of these regional differences may be lessening. On the other hand, there are always those who like to play upon and possibly play up a regional accent if they think they might add to their political image – I am thinking of particular Labour Party politicians at this point. After we had coffee in the park and soup in the café, Meg and I did not feel the need for a further cooked lunch, so we made ourelves some cheese and biscuits which we consumed with a cup of tea when we got in.
Sunday afternoons were devoted to a good read of the Sunday newspapers – in the event we had called in at our usual newsagents and a copy of the Sunday Times had been delivered to them by then. Half way through the afternoon, we received a delivery from Amazon and it was the notepad speakers I had ordered a few days ago to interface with my newly resurrected CD/DVD player. These were a small pair of German made cubes which stood about 7cm tall whilst the actual speaker diameters were about 3.5 cm. At first, I thought these were not going to work and then I remembered that they needed their own independent power supply and this could be provided by one of these ‘power brick’ chargers that you can utilise to give your phone an emergency boost of power should it run flat. I paid £8.00 only for these speakers on the grounds that I did not need anything too big and bulky and were they to fail to work, I would have not wasted a great deal of money. Once I had connected the power brick, the whole rig exceeded my expectations. Often connecting external speakers will disconnect the unit’s own internal speakers (as it does on my laptop, for example) But in the case of the CD/DVD player, the external speakers with their independently provided volume control worked in tandem with the internal speakers, making four speakers all in all. I tested my configuration by playing my recently acquired copy of Brahm’s German Requiem and it filled my kitchen with as much sound as I could possibly need without any discernible distortion when it came to the highest and lowest notes at near maximum volume. I might try it out on my son whose hearing is much more acute than mine and who used to be a bit of an audiophile in his time but at the end of the day, I am very pleased with both my purchase and the results I have achieved.
Some late breaking news is that the Argentinians have beaten narrowly beaten England at Rugby for the first time ever and by a single point. I suppose that that if this trend continues, there is a case for expanding the Six Nations rugby to the Seven Nations and this may come about in the fullness of time.
Today was rather dominated by both the weather which was showery and blustery and also by the fact that I had a dental appointment in the early afternoon. This morning after Meg and I had breakfasted, I treated her to a mini-concert which was a playing of Cecilia Bartoli singing Mozart arias played on my speaker-enhanced CD player. We must have played this CD in the past but I do not remember hearing it before and the singing was superb. It was a Decca recording, made in 1991, and with Vienna Philharmonic as the resident orchestra and so one would have expected a fine recording. Having said that, I was delighted by how my little newly configured system performed and I can forsee some hours of pleasure ahead when doing Christmas cooking or even Damson gin bottling. As the weather was evidently unpleasant and time was a little limited, Meg and I decided to forgo a drink sitting on our normal bench in the park but confined ourselves to a circuit of the park with the pool in the centre. This gave us the opportunity to have a breath of fresh air before we returned home to have our elevenses at home. Sometimes, we drive past our friends on the Kidderminster Road to see if anyone is around but today (and tomorrow) they are relaying and re-tarmacing the whole of the side road so this was denied to us. We lunched on some chicken legs which I made sure were well done and served with baked potato and green beans. And so it was off to the dentist which was scheduled to start at 2.15. I got there about 10 minutes early and was almost immediately whisked into the dentist’s chair. Our dentist is a very personable Irish lady who is evidently very skilful. Having had years since I can last remember needing a filling, today, I needed quite a lot of work doing and this resulted in three fillings plus a temporary crown fitted. I must say that the modern dental anaesthetics are brilliant because I have vivid memories of the times I used to go the dentist in the early 1950’s. There were a couple of aged dentists (who appeared to me then to be in their 80’s) who operated an old fashioned belt driven drill which they operated by pressing pedals on the floor. They refused categorically to give anyone an injection for the pain as they declared, emphatically, that if they did they could not tell if they were drilling on a nerve but without an anaesthetic, they would soon tell. A visit to the dentist was like a scene from a horror movie because as you sat in the waiting room, you heard the howls of agony from the dentist’s surgery and you knew that it was your turn next. Things have evidently improved beyond recognition and I thought my own particular dentist was very skilful because all of the procedures were completed within about twenty minutes and very expeditiously as well. I am due to return in about three weeks time to have the temporary crown replaced by a more permanent one. As the anaesthetic has worn off, I have the slightest of aches but nothing that a good night’s sleep will not put right.
This afternoon, I finally got around to booking the train tickets for Meg nd I to make a trip to Winchester in about 9 days time. This is a meeting of the ‘Old Fogies’ who are a group of colleagues who all retired some 12-15 years ago and used to meet regularly twice a year to have a lunch and a reunion. But with the pandemic, we have not managed to meet for about three years and even this year’s meeting has been thwarted on two occasions by the rail strikes. We are hopeful, though, that we are now set fair. After the meal, we may end up in a local hostelry where we can have a beer or two until it is time for our train to depart. Meg and I are going to travel from Birmingham International which saves the time of having to get into Birmingham and then out again which saves up about an hour and a half at each end of the day.
Tomorrow is the day of the American mid-term elections which are particularly important on this particular occasion. It seems likely that the Republicans will capture both houses of the Congress and there is little, if any bipartisan spirit left in the American legislature. Republican gains may well result with plans to ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Jo Biden’s ability to push through any new laws in his remaining two years may be severely curtailed. Trump has endorsed nearly 300 candidates and a large measure of success for them would embolden Trump to push ahead with a further bid for the presidency. Finally, the enquiry into the 6th January, 2021 attack on the Capitol which was, in effect, a right wing insurrection designed to restore Trump to the presidency by force will be terminated. Any one of these outcomes would be pretty bleak but if the Republicans succeed in all of their aims then the results might mean an America so bitterly divided it is not an exaggeration to say they may be on the brink of a civil war.
Tuesday morning is the day upon which we typically repair to Waitrose and meet with some of our pre-pandemic friends in the coffee bar. Today was no exception and we met with a couple of them and exchanged gossip of the day. We do not spend too long over our coffees as it is my Pilates day so we need to get home and then I change into my track suit bottoms before I walk down into town. Despite the fierce winds and rain that swept across the country in the last few hours, the weather had cleared and we were treated to some blue skies and quite mild weather, so the walk down to my class was not unpleasant. On my way down into town, I just managed to sneak into Poundland and managed to purchase one of those units used to supply power to a mobile low on power – I believe that the generic term for these is a ‘Power Bank’. When I got it home, I set it to work to charge up (although the first charge takes some hours) and am going to use it to power a little portable bluetooth speaker which I had purchased some years ago but had fallen into disuse. Being ‘Bluetooth’ means that I can play some of the 200-odd classical tracks on my old iphone through an audible speaker so this, too, is going to add to my range of music options in the days ahead.
This afternoon, I have been quite enjoying myself as the Labour party are debating a motion of their own choosing which is a motion critical of the appointment of, and actions, of the current Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. The latter had been appointed to the role of Home Secretary by Rishi Sunak six days after she had been sacked by Liz Truss for breaking the Ministerial Code for transmitting government documents using her own private email. Of course, there is a certain amount of posturing by the Labour Party and the Conservative members of the Commons are sustained by the fact that Suella Braverman’s harsh, if not draconian, treatment of asylum seekers meets with the great approval of Conservative Party members. Of course, there is also the issue of Gavin Williamson who is similarly under a shadow, not least for telling a senior civil servant that he should ‘slit his own throat’. One has to ask why Rishi Sunak appointed these two errant ministers to his government in the first place. The short answer is that in the case of Gavin Williamson, he was dependent upon him to (successfully) run his election campaign. The case of Suella Braverman is less transparent but is probably a case of keeping the darling of the Tory right wing in the ERG group more or less on side as he attempts to unite the Tory party, currently riven by many competing factions.
Today is the day of the mid-term American elections, the importance of which is almost impossible to overestimate. The results of the elections will not start to percolate through until the very late evening and probably the wee small hours of the morning. According to reports, though, Donald Trump has been dancing on stage in Ohio, all smiles and clenched fists. Trump has labelled Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, an ‘animal’. This is despite the fact that her husband was recently attacked by an intruder with a hammer inside their home. One has to wonder if there not new lows to which political discourse has fallen in the US and no wonder that all Democrats and some Republicans fear for the future of democracy in that country. But some news emerging through this afternoon is due to the tightness of the election in several states and the varied arrangements, state by state, for both the counting of votes and the possiblities of recounts, the definitive results may not be known for days or even, in extreme cases if the courts get involved, for weeks. Of course, this will only happen if the Republicans are deemed to have narrowly ‘lost’ because if they were to get their noses ahead in various states, there will be no problems of recounts or recourse to the courts.
Some sports news with which to conclude today. The regional news is informing us that ‘Perry’ the huge mechanical bull which was a symbol of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham is being ‘weather proofed’ so that he can can go on a permanent display in central Birmingham. Mowever, these games are in credit and are donating used equipment to local sorts clubs. On an international level, the Qatar football world cup is to start in a couple of weeks and I could not be less interested. The whole choice of venue was the result of a corrupt process and tonight an official amabassador to the games has been spouting forth homophobic nonsense that many feared. More positively, the England women rugby team are playing New Zealand in a final on Saturday evening so this will be a match well worth watching – I think it’s going to be shown live on ITV.
Meg and I look forward to Wednesday because it is the day when our domestic help comes round to work her magic and after a cup of tea first thing, we exchange news of each other’s week. I showed her the improvements that we had made to our little music corner and, in particular, how I had interfaced my old iphone (with about 200 tracks on it) to an external Bluetooth speaker. We knew that Prime Minister’s Questions would be especially good today after the resignation last night of Gavin Williamson (who had previously been sacked as one of the most incompetent Education Secretaries of all time) We enjoyed our coffee in the park and just got back in time, having bought some essential supplies in Waitrose, to make us all a nice cup of coffee and settled down to PMQ. In this, Keir Starmer had some excellent attack lines which he delivered in a fashion described by some as ‘brutal’. For example, Keir Starmer referred to Sir Gavin as ‘a sad middle manager getting off on intimidating those beneath him’ and a ‘cartoon bully with a pet spider’. Williamson, I think it is fair to say, was known across the House of Commons as a ‘nasty piece of work’. As an ex-Chief Whip and a record of incompetence as a defence and latterly education secretary he had practically no friends amongst fellow Conservative MPs. It could be that Sunak employed him as a type of enforcer over recalcitrant MPs but eventually the costs of keeping him far exceeded the costs of letting him go. Once the tirade of foul epithets with the Conservative chief whip became public as well as other damning remarks to a senior civil servant that he ‘should slit his own throat’ then it was only a question of time before he had to go. Indeed, Sunak did not even have to sack him because other parts of the Tory party indicated him that it was time to go and his future is bound to be oblivion (and it would not surprise me if he left politics at the next general election).
After lunch, we knew that I had to go to a routine annual monitoring after my operation of a few years ago and for this, we needed to make a trip to the local hospital some 11 miles distant. Compared with the last time I visited, I now needed to take a ticket to gain access to the car park and when we got to the outpatient clinic a wait of some 45 minutes ensured. I had taken Meg with me so that she was not left on her own for too long and when we left, having paid a £4 fee for an hour’s visit, the barriers were open so the £4 payment proved not to be necessary after all. Then it was home and a quick tea before we caught up with the news.
The Channel 4 analysis of the American election results was illuminating in the extreme. The Republicans had been predicted to do incredibly well as inflation is hitting American society hard and Trump was on the rampage. But the ‘red wave’ turned out to be a ‘red trickle’ and although the Republicans will take the House of Representatives, it should be by a much smaller margin than was predicted. This still means that the enquiry into the insurrection and invasion of the Capitol building will be called off, however, as they go after Jo Biden’s son. But the Senate race is still far too hard to call. There are three more results to be declared but one of the most critical is Georgia. In this state, there is a third candidate who will take away sufficient votes for either Republican or Democrat to cross the 50% line, so it appears that there will be a run off election between these two top candidates in the first week of December. So the ultimate result may not be known for several weeks. In the meantime. the Democrats have even taken the state of Pennsylvania from red (Republican) to blue (Democrat) But of much more significance is the fact that the especially endorsed Trump candidates seem to have fared less well than those not so endorsed- in other words, Trump’s influence has been negative. He is reportedly livid about this and is ‘throwing his toys out of his pram’ There is no great love for the Democrats but the abortion issue has harmed rather than helped the Republicans. Also the American electorate seem to have failed to have voted for the mediocrity of some of the Trump candidates. This may play into the hands of DeSantis, the Florida senator. While Republican candidates across the country met unexpectedly tight races, Mr DeSantis, 44, swept to a nearly 20-point landslide victory over Democratic challenger Charlie Crist, including a clear majority among Latino voters. Four years ago, by comparison, he won by less than half a percentage point. No doubt, there will have to much more analysis in the days ahead but it looks as though the ‘MAGA’ (Make America Great Again) brand of conservatism may just have had its day.
Thursday is my shopping day and for some reason, things seemed very quiet this morning so I got my money out of an ATM and whizzed around the supermarket in record time. After I had got home, breakfasted and unpacked, Meg and I treated ourselves to another little mini-concert on our newly resurrected CD player and then decided to make a trip to the park. The weather was a little indeterminate but we thought that a breath of fresh air would do us good, which I am sure that it did. Upon our return, I noticed that a little bundle of CDs had arrived, all courtesy of Ebay. One of these was Vladimir Askenazy set of the five most popular Mozart piano concertos which came on 2 CDs and for which I paid less than £3.00. The bigger bundle was a 12 disk set of Murray Perahia playing almost every piano concerto that Mozart ever wrote (1-27 but missing Nos. 7 and 10 for some reason) and this bundle came in at less than 40p a disk. I cannot say how much these would have cost when they were just released but, for whatever reason, they are now being sold at almost give away prices, particularly once you subtract the cost of the postage. We have played some of the Asknenazy disks and the quality seems fine but evidently it will take me many hours of listening pleasure to work my way through the entire collection to see if they are all play as they should.
The American election results continue to fascinate but some of the final votes seem to be incredibly slow to declare. This may be because postal votes are not counted until the day after the election and are counted by hand rather than by machine but the final results are better than the Democrats had dared hoped and worse than the Republicans had come to expect. The latest estimate from NBC News has the Republicans winning 222 House seats compared with the Democrats’ 213, meaning they would still take control but with much less authority. And a Democrat win is still within the margin of error. As I write, the latest estimate from NBC News has the Republicans winning 222 House seats compared with the Democrats 213, meaning they would still take control but with much less authority than the 40+ gains anticipated by some pollsters. A majority of 9 is still sufficient for the Republicans to follow much of their own agenda but in today’s climate, how many independently minded Republicans are left who may defy how the rest of the party are voting? The race for the Senate is also very much in the balance, with just three seats left to declare. Georgia’s race is set for a run-off on 6 December so we may have to wait until then for the final result. Whichever party wins two of the three outstanding contests in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada will control the Senate. With about 70 percent of the vote tallied in Arizona, incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly maintains a 5-point lead over Republican challenger Blake Masters. But election officials in Democrat-heavy Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, have said it could take until at least Friday to tally the hundreds of thousands of remaining votes. About 80 percent of the vote has been tallied in Nevada, where Republican Adam Laxalt has a slight edge over Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto. But late-arriving mail-in ballots, especially in Democratic strongholds of Clark and Washoe Counties, that have yet to be counted could still tip the scales in the incumbent’s favor. Election officials are saying that the results of these votes might not be known until Friday. The US newspapers owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch make brutal reading for Donald Trump today. Once again, the two flagship Murdoch titles – the upscale conservative-leaning Wall St Journal (WSJ), which is influential with deep pocketed Republican donors, and the tabloid New York Post – have united to tell their collective readership that it is time for Republicans to move beyond Donald Trump. New York Post columnist John Podhoretz wrote a blistering editorial, saying: ‘After three straight national tallies in which either he or his party or both were hammered by the national electorate, it is time for even his fans to accept the truth: Toxic Trump is the political equivalent of a can of Raid.’ While Republican lawmakers are so far loyal to the former president in public, the debate emerging from the Murdoch-owned press reflects the conversations Republicans are having in private.
In the Ukraine, the fact that the Russians seem to be abandoning Kherson might appear to be good news for the Ukraine but the military command is being very cautious. It may be that several ‘traps’ have been laid by the retreating troops. The fact that they are retreating to the east bank of a river means that they can still shell Kherson at will and may be difficult to attack. But it does appear that the Russians had little choice but to abandon the city as their supply lines had been so successfully disrupted by the Ukrainians seeking to liberate their own territory.
Today dawned as a gloomy day and, indeed, it was gloomy all day but not actually raining. Meg and I got ourselves going by degrees and eventually got to the park, but a little later than we had planned. However, we were fortunate to bump into our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller who were just on the point of departing just as we were arriving. Nonetheless, we took the opportunity to sit down on a bench and have a natter, not talking about politics for a change. Then it was a case of getting home and cooking our normal (for us) lunch on a Friday which is sea-bass pan fried and then served on a bed of lettuce. This afternoon was quiet and I spent some time reading The Times in some depth, allowing myself a quick burst of Sudoku ( a ‘difficult’ one which proved rather too easy) and finally a computer session in which I get all of my financial accounts up-to-date.
Most of the media this afternoon has been dominated by news of the Russian withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. Whilst there have been scenes of locals ‘liberated’ and celebrating by allowing the Ukrainian flag to fly again, the actual military are being a lot more cautious. On the one hand, they fear that the Russian withdrawal might be designed to lure them into a trap. On the other hand, there will almost certainly be mines and booby traps all over the place making the city itself quite a dangerous place to enter. Some of the journalistic accounts from the moving front line are quite illuminating but not surprising. The Russian soldiers by all accounts were tired and hungry and looted almost at will from Ukrainian households. There are accounts of Russian soldiers begging for food from the locals and indicating that were it not for their commanders they would have deserted by now. There are also reports of ‘many’ Russian soldiers drowning whilst they were attempting to retreat across the River Dnipro (the river can be as much as 1km wide in places) Meanwhile, Kherson might be quite a dangerous place in the days and weeks ahead. Firstly, Russian saboteurs trained to work behind enemy lines may be doing their worst to disrupt the life of the city getting back to normal. But now the Russians are no longer a military presence in the city, there will be a certain amount of reprisals in prospect where some of the citizenry who collaborated with the Russians meet some rough justice handed out by loyal Ukrainians. Once the Russians have retreated to the east of the River Dnipro, they will be well dug in and reasonably secure but they have the armaments to shell the parts of Kherson at will, knowing all of the coordinates of critical locations within the city. It is rumoured that Putin may be unwilling to make any foreign trips abroad lest a putsch is organised against him whilst he is out of the way.
At home, the news is that we are about to enter a recession that will last about 8 quarters (two full years) and we are being told it may be the longest recession since records began. The population as a whole are being ‘softened up’ for the budget announcements next week in which there is the prospect of tax increases for almost everybody, a massive cut back in public services (which were already cut to the bone) and general misery all round. The country as a whole is suffering from the cumulative effects of Brexit, the pandemic and paying for the furlough scheme which cost £69 billion, the energy crisis and the tremendous rises in the costs of fuel after Europe disengages from dependence on Russian oil supplies. Any one of these would be a significant cost in itself but in the case of the UK economy these various factors are almost reinforcing each other. After some years of recession it is almost possible that we become similar to the Japanese economy where the GNP has been stuck at the same level since the 1990’s. I heard a statistic this morning that the UK alone amongst the G7 nations is the only country where economic activity has failed to return to pre-pandemic levels.
There is a big sporting weekend to which to look forward. The England women’s rugby team are in a final against New Zealand and I believe that it might start at 6.00am in the morning if one wants to watch it live. This is going to be shown on ITV so I may wake up to watch the 2nd half of it. On Sunday, there will be a final of the the cricket T20 match in which England are taking on Pakistan. This too may prove to quite an exciting contest as the Pakistan bowlers (best in the world) take on the English batsmen (best in the world?) I believe this is scheduled to start at 8.00am on Sunday morning (better than 6.00am the day before) but two finals within 24 hours is quite unusual.
Our day started off early this morning because at 6.30am, there was a live broadcast of the Women’s Rugby Union final between England and New Zealand. England were coming to this match with 30 straight wins behind them but New Zealand had beaten them on four previous occasions. The England team played pretty well and their rolling maul from a lineout was superb and resulted in at least two tries. However, an English player was red-carded half way through the first half so England were generally playing with 14 rather than 15 and it showed on one or two critical occasions. England were leading by two points some nine minutes before the end of the match and then New Zealand scored a try (not converted) which put them three points in the lead. The clock turned red and England won a lineout only a few metres from the try line. All they had to do was to catch the ball, push on with another successful rolling maul at which they had excelled all during the match, score a try and victory would be theirs. But New Zealand poached the ball and therefore won the match, leaving the English players so distraught as they had been so near but in the event failed.
Meg and I collected our newspaper and coincided in the park for a minute or so with our University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller. The former had to motor off to Lichfield on a Rugby connected event so we said ‘hello’and ‘goodbye’ but thought that we might meet in the park tomorrow. Our stay in the park was absolutely wonderful today – there were hints of autumn sun and the park was starting to look at its best. Whilst sitting on the park bench, we chatted with a near neighbour who was walking her little dog and then, on the path on the way home, we were overtaken by one of my Pilates classmates (and we think that we go back in the same class about eight years) We chatted with our friend and her husband who we had not met before. He said to me archly ‘I have head a lot about you’ which does make me wonder what possible reputation I have that has been spread abroad. They were there with their two greyhound dogs, one of whom was friendly but the other of a somewhat more nervous disposition. Not for the first time, we were immensely grateful for the pleasure that the park provides for us.
I have been following the last three states in the race for the Senate in the US elections. The three left to decide are Arkansas, Nevada and Georgia. In the course of the day, the Democrats edged sufficiently far ahead for CNN to ‘call’ the state of Arkansas which has the status of an extremely confident prediction. The situation in Nevada is much more on a knife edge – the Republicans are leading by about 0.1% and the Democrats need to find that little bit extra to win the race. It may well be that the counties yet to report are Democrat inclined and there is quite a huge postal vote to be counted – one election official has even ventured that a result might not be known for another six days at the current rate of progress. Meanwhile, Georgia has to wait for a run-off vote between Republican and Democrat in the first week of December so the nexy day or so will be an anxious one for election watchers.
This afternoon, a long awaited parcel was eventually delivered which was a reconditioned Polaroid BoomBox integrated CD/radio once my own Grundig had been consigned to the bin. I got this this at an unmissable price and quickly brought it into use. The CD function plays correctly and immediately with no errors but with outstanding sound as the speakers are so relatively large. The FM radio is subject to the normal FM background ‘hiss’ which I can live with as I shall hardly be playing the radio in any case. It has a Bluetooth function on it as well so tomorrow when I have a bit more time I will experiment with sending the output from my trusty old iPhone (with its 200+ tracks). This afternoon, I decided to do some soup and so I spent a fair amount of the afternoon chopping up parsnip, carrot, swede and celery to form a ‘winter vegetables’ soup. To this mixture in the soupmaker, I added some almond milk (in the absence of coconut milk), some tomato pasta sauce and a goodly dollop of some sauce which is called ‘Chip Shop curry’ sauce to add a little bit of spice. This ought to keep hot in the soupmaker until we get back from church at about 7.00pm this evening and we generally serve it with a good dollop of yogurt and some croutons. To cut down on my carbohydrate count, whilst Meg has a slice of toast to make her croutons, I make do with a couple of cream crackers which are very low in calories. Tomorrow we have the T20 cricket final to which to look forward and I trust we shall not lose two finals in two days.
Today being a Sunday I got up early and walked down into town to pick up our Sunday newspaper before returning for the Laura Kuennsberg show at 9.00am. This contained an interview with Jeremy Hunt who evidently could not speak in great detail about his forthcoming budget, due to be delivered in the House of Commons on Thursday next. Meg and I took the opportunity to visit the park and the weather turned out to be beautiful – the effect of the warm sunshine was complemented by the glowing colours that the leaves are starting to exhibit just before they fall. There seemed to be a wonderful and relaxed atmosphere in the park today – I suppose that unusually clement weather was making people feel relaxed and at peace with the world. We noticed that one mother was playing with her child (who looked about 3) by getting hold of bundles of leaves and throwing them into the air so that they fell on the child like a snowstorm. After this had been repeated a number of times the child got the idea and started trying it out on their own. We generally have in our rucksack a sponge and some spare kitchen paper which we use to wipe excess moisture off the park bench before we sit down. In the spirit of bonhomie, a lady saw us wiping the bench down and offered us her own ‘Marks and Spencer’ bag which she reckoned that she typically used if the park bench was wet. Ths was a kind gesture and I wondered why I had not thought of this solution before.
The day was not very old before the Nevada result came through in the race for the US Senate. Here the Democrats held off a challenge from the Republicans as the latter had been predicted to gain the seat. In practice, although the Republicans were hanging onto a 0.1% lead with only about 3% of the vote yet to be counted, most of the to-be-counted votes came from Las Vegas and other urban areas which seemed likely to deliver their votes disproportionately in favour of the Democrats which enabled them to retain the seat. According to CNN, the Republicans anticipated that they were heading for defeat and the mood in the Republican camp turned sullen and hostile as the recriminations started. This result, together with the Arkansas result yesterday meant that the Democrats had gained control of the Senate as in the event of a tie, the (Democratic) vice president always has a casting note. If Georgia goes Democrat when they have their run-off election in early December, then the Democrats will have a 2 seat majority in the Senate which means that they may be able to block Republican generated measures. But the Republicans are currently 7 seats ahead and are inching towards a very small majority in the House of Representatives and even a majority of 1 means that they will be in a position to block any further investigation into the insurrection and invasion of the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden will have important decisions to make in the days ahead. Donald Trump had pencilled in next Tuesday as a day for a ‘great announcement’ but whether he will decide to pull this in the face of many of his endorsed candidates performing badly is a moot point. The Democrats have equally severe problems as Joe Biden is very unpopular and many are arguing too old for a further attempt on the White House. One informed American commentator was suggesting that Joe Biden’s wife may well be a critical influence upon his decision making and she may urge him to ‘quit whilst he was ahead’ This decision would be easier if a clear successor was apparent but at this stage, the Democrats appear in some disarray. But there are two years left for a candidate to emerge and build some support, not to mention to garner the enormous amounts of money involved in a presidential bid.
Today, the English men’s cricket team were in the T20 final with Pakistan. I think that the game was due to start at about 8.00am but as this game would take several hours to complete, I did not attempt to watch it as I had the Women’s Rugby yesterday morning. England eventually won by 5 wickets and although the match in Melbourne looked set for a tight finish, Stokes hit a flurry of late boundaries, including a six, to break Pakistan’s hearts and to win the match. I assumed that some of the highlights would be shown in at least some of the news bulletins. However, the news items did eventually show a five second clip of Ben Stokes scoring some of the winning runs but most of the report was on exuberant fans both before and after the match. I suppose that there must have been TV rights involved which prohibited any showing of the match even as a news item but given that this was England’s first victory since 2010, you would have thought that we have been given more than just a snatch of it.
Today was one of those horrible misty type days in which the rain seems to be constantly hanging in the air but not actively raining. My morning was brightened up, though, by the arrival of a present to myself which I could not resist, courtesy of Ebay. After I had made an offer and accepted a counter offer, I purchased a set of the complete works of J S Bach on 160 CDs for £29. In order to make sure this was not inordinately bulky, the publishers had put each CD into a simple slip sleeve and then grouped the works into boxes : Orchestral/Keyboard/Cantata 1/Cantata 2/Vocal/Organ. This then takes up 45cm of space in a storage cabinet but stored in the conventional jewel cases, it would have been so much more. Fortunately, I have managed to find quite a long review on the web which details how, and how well, the publishers went about their task. They have tried, where possible to record on period instruments or on instruments as near to a period instrument as can be found. Much of the Cantatas have been especially recorded for this collection and the orchestras and performers are generally well known and not obscure in the extreme. In a collection as large as this, there are bound to be some ‘turkeys’ but the review I have found does an extremely good job in signposting the excellent, good and just satisfactory parts of this collection. Well, the long autumn and winter evenings might seem less gloomy now that I have plenty to which to listen.
Meg and I had a bit of a run round this morning. After we had picked up our newspaper, we popped into Waitrose for some essential supplies – then it was onwards to the railway station to pick up the tickets for our journey to Winchester next Wednesday. These I have still to check but I would be surprised if they were not all OK. When we got home, we watched a little of the Politics program which is always aired on BBC2 at midday and then I went off to prepare lunch. Whilst I was preparing this, I decided to play the next CD along in the little collection I have just filed and catalogued – and, in addition, I am still glorying in the excellent quality of reproduction in the BoomBox I have just purchased. The CD that fell into my hands was a special one celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of Palestrina and when I played it, I was transported by both the beauty and the quality of it. I remember my music master at school telling us that Palestrina was the father of modern music or at least the father of polyphony but in one’s mind’s eyes, it would have been easy to have imagined yourself inside a cathedral whilst the sound reverberated around you. This I will especially remember if I want a CD to play which is completely relaxing. We must have had this particular CD for years but I do not remember actually playing it before. Possibly it was one of a ‘job lot’ that we often buy in a charity shop which we shop in regularly when we visit Harrogate but it was an absolute find for us, in any case.
This afternoon after lunch, I started to tackle the pile of junk mail which had built up rather in the last week or so – it is certainly a good habit to throw away junk mail day by day if you get into the good habit. Quite a lot of it, I need to open if only to make sure that the pre-printed name and address inside are cut off the enclosure and then shredded and I finished off the afternoon with two piles of paper. The much smaller and leaner one is the bundle of things that definitely need to be filed whilst the larger, fortunately, is just for the outside paper bin which is due to be emptied shortly.
I cannot resist an occasional consultation with the CNN website to discover the latest election update in the US elections. Quite amazingly, the gap between Republican and Democrats is only 8 seats as the Democrats have 204 and the Republicans 212. So the Republicans are only 6 seats away from the ‘magic’ number of 218 which would give them control of the House of Representatives but I suspect that a week ago nobody would have predicted a result as close as this. Normally, there is a big swing against the governing party in the mid term elections but the ‘big swing’ has not materialised this year as it appears that voters have recoiled from the prospect of electing Republicans, avid Trump supporters, who are still denying the validity of the last Presidential election which was won fair and square by Joe Biden.
The British and French have signed an agreement that will allow British border officials into French control roooms (and, presumably, vice versa) in an attempt to reduce the impact of asylum seekers crossing the channel in a variety of dinghies. Nobody thinks that this will prove to be a ‘magic bullet’ but with the addition of more UK cash and the impact of worsening seasonal weather, the flow across the Channel might be slowed somewhat.
Today started off as a dull, miserable day with a smattering of rain which by now we have come to expect. Nonetheless, we knew that today was the day when we generally bump into people that we know when we pop into Waitrose, once we had picked up our newspaper. It was raining pretty heavily by the time we got to the car park but nonetheless we made our way indoors when, in no time at all, we were joined by one of our park friends and another of our pre-pandemic Waitrose friends. We spent a pleasant half an hour chatting and then saw one of our Irish friends who lives down the road and pops into Waitrose as though it were a local corner shop. We got updated about some building work that our friend was having done and true to form, the builder seems to have started his job and then shot off to attend to several other jobs that he seemed to have on the go. For some reason I have yet to discern, builders typically display this manner of working – I suppose it is sensible if you anticipate a delay in getting some much needed supplies or materials but it seems to make an apparently simple job much more drawn out than you thought it was going to be. Whilst in the Waitrose coffee bar, I received a very interesting telephone call from one of the senior doctors in our local medical practice. He quickly reassured me that there was nothing wrong but was seeking to enlist my help in the training of young medical students. Students have to be exposed to ‘real’ patients at some time in the later stages of their training and my role is to act as ‘the patient’ whilst they get a history of medical and attendant social conditions. I did this some years ago before the pandemic and, on that occasion, it was a long telephone conversation with, I think, a female medical student. Although I volunteered to do a session over the telephone or on the web, I shall actually be paying a visit to the practice premises where I will be ‘interviewed’ by one or more students. Actually, I remember the senior doctor very well because when I was recovering from an operation some years ago, he paid me a house visit and dressed the operation wound for me. I remember this well because I often think that doctors do not have a lot of these hands-on skills themselves as things like wound dressing are performed by nurses rather than doctors themselves. I remain poised to spring into action next Thursday afternoon when is the time for the scheduled session.
I have spent some time this afternoon messing about with a Pure DAB radio which seems to be playing up recently – it seems to get stuck on one station and nothing you can do will switch it to another station. Although it sounds hard to believe, the radio does not actually have an off-off switch but a Power switch (labelled ‘Bluetooth’ just to confuse the average user even more, even though the Bluetooth function which I have not tested out is actually accessed through another button ‘Source’) The Pure H4 power switch actually switches the radio into a very low power ‘Standby’ mode which displays the date and time whilst the radio part itself is switched off. By some experimentation and consulting the manual (the original having been lost but it was fairly easy to locate on the web), it now does appear that the Power Switch is not what you might think of as a normal on-off switch so I have resorted to unplugging the power lead from the back of the unit and looping around the aerial when the radio is not in use. Although as the American computer scientists might say this is a ‘kludge’, of which the official definition is ‘a software or hardware configuration that, while inelegant, inefficient, clumsy, or patched together, succeeds in solving a specific problem or performing a particular task.’ Actually, whilst being very wordy this is an exact description of what I have performed but at least it worked for a time before finally going wrong again.
Every so often, there is a news story the impact of which might turn out to be enormous. A case was being discussed today of a two-year old who had died and the coroner had stated that an important contributory cause of his death was the black mould found throughout the flat where the child lives. The TV pictures made the mould problem appear to be enormously bad but this is not an uncommon problem in badly built and madly maintained housing, some of it in the public sector. So the impact of this coroner’s report may mean that literally thousands of families throughout the land can argue much more strongly with their landlords that the mould problems that they may be experiencing really do need to be remedied and, presumably, there is now a good legal precedent to reinforce the tenant’s right to live in a mould-free house or flat.
Today was the day, twice postponed because of rail strikes, when the collection of former colleagues known as ‘The Old Fogies’ met for a meal in Winchester. Meg and I got up early and left the house at 7.45, prepared to zoom around the M42 motorway to get to Birmingham International railway station. Because the motorway can so congested first thing in the morning, we left an extra haf an hour to cope with the anticipated crawl due to motorway congestion. In the event, we got there about 40 minutes early which was time enough to get the car parked and ourselves into the system ready for our train at 9.30. We found our allocated seats and had to turf out some people who were occupying them but hadn’t made a booking. The journey was very straightforward and the weather and countryside looked beautiful in the late morning. Towards the end of our journey, we got into conversation with a young man whose job was computer security and had a fascinating little chat – our only regret was that we had not started chatting to him earlier rather than the last 15 minutes or so. When we got to Winchester, we were an hour in advance of our booked meal time so Meg and I strolled down the hill into town and the restaurant proved quite easy to find on the High Street. We got there half an hour early and instead of hunting for a another coffee bar nearby, we stayed in the brasserie and drank coffee until the rest of our party arrived. We turned out to be nine in number all in all and we were delighted to see our friends after an absence of about three years. We had a decent meal and as were dividing up the bill at the end of the meal some of us were reaching for cash but the whole brasserie was cashless so we paid on credit card (which I must say made life a lot easier) Towards the end of the meal, at my suggestion, we each took the floor to explain in a few minutes what significant event had taken place in our lives. For example, one of my previous colleagues had sold his house and was moving into a flat to be much nearer to children and grandchilden in South London. Others mentioned things like pacemakers being fitted (three of us, as it happened) and as you might expect, the years had taken a certain toll of several of us over the years but none of us had had a serious illness but just enough to slow us down somewhat. After the main meal, Meg and I and two other colleagues departed to a local Wetherspoons which has the advantage of nice round tables around which it is so much easier to have a conversation where we can all take part and without too much ambient noise but with a noggin of some nice ale to make the conversation flow. We drank and chatted until half an hour before our train was due to depart and so we took our leave and walked back to the station, although by this stage the weather had turned a little squally. As we approached Birmingham International and we standing around in the vestibule ready to alight from the train, we stopped at an intermediate suburban station. After a halt we crept along at an incredibly slow pace and the train manager informed us over the intercom that we were experiencing severe speed restriction (for an unspecified reason) After these halts and creeping along, we took about half an hour to limp into Birmingham International all in all. By the time we did get out, it was raining cats and dogs which meant locating the car in an ill-lit carpark an unpleasant experience. The heavy rain persisted all the way home and fortunately we did not make a wrong turn around a roundabout which is not a difficult thing to do when the weather conditions and visibility were so poor. So we were very pleased to get home and enjoyed a nine tin of mushroom soup which always seems appropriate on occasions like this.
Tomorrow is going to be quite a full day as I cannot afford the luxury of a lie-in but need to get up early to go for a (routine) scan in one of our local hospitals. Again, the road system between Bromsgrove and Redditch is bound to be quite congested. After that, I am going to postpone my normal weekly shopping for a day as in the early afternoon I am due to go down to our local GP practice to play the part of a ‘patient’ in a practical session designed to allow medical students in training interact with with some actual patients before they have to do it for real once they are in post. Tomorrow, of course, the Budget is due to be presented to Parliament but most of the major elements of this seem to have been systematically leaked in order to prepare public opinion that I doubt we will be surprised by very much. First thing in the morning, I heard that Donald Trump had decided to stand again but it will be interesting to see what the reaction to this is going to be in the USA as the recent elections leave Trump no reason to celebrate as most of his endorsed candidates fared less well in the elections than their unendorsed counterparts.
Today was another early start but fortunately not quite as early as yesterday. Nonetheless, I was up with the lark and set off for a neighbouring hospital an hour before my appointment time, knowing that the rush hour could be terrible at this hour of departure. But my fears were a little groundless because I arrived at my appointment slot for a routine scan half an hour before my allocated slot. The ward clerk informed me that I would not be seen for quite some time so I went off in search of some reading matter as I had not picked up today’s newspaper on the way out. I found in the hospital’s coffee bar a bookcase of donated books. In the midst of the usual trashy novels, I did find a James Herriott ‘All Creatures Great and Small‘ which was a book full of episodes each only a few pages long and where you could dip into and out of it quite easily. This suited my purposes very well and eventually I was seen a little before my appointment time. I have had several of these scans before so I am well used to the routine by now and it seemed over and done with pretty quickly. So I shared a quick joke with the radiologists and was then on my way home, collecting my daily newspaper en route. When I got home and had a mini-breakfast, we learned that it was going to be the Autumn (ie. Financial) Statement at 11.30 so we did a few emails and things before it was time for the broadcast. So much of this had been leaked in dribs and drabs there there were hardly any announcements that were in, in fact,new. But the data analysts evidently looked at the published OBR press releases which, in its way, tells its own story despite what political spin the politicians manage to deploy. What was revealed was that ‘Household Disposable Incomes’ are heading for their biggest fall on record. Also it appears that the long-awaited analysis of the public finances by the OBR suggests it will be 2028 before incomes recover to their 2021-22 level. So the country as a whole is in for a couple of really hard years. To ‘sugar the pill’ a little, both pensioners and benefit recipients, should be getting increases next April which are raised in accordance with the current inflation rate which of the order of 10.1%. So we are in the position where some people might appear in money terms to be getting better off whilst in real terms inflation means that real incomes are falling for many. So in just eight weeks, the government has shifted from wanting to roll out the biggest tax cuts in 50 years to taking the country’s tax burden to its highest level since the Second World War. The point being made by some commentators is that the Budget appears to be more like a Labour budget than a Conservative one but the the £55 billion budget ‘hole’ is being paid for by tax increases (largely financed by allowances being held steady which actually increases the tax rate as inflation takes hold) and spending cuts. A bit of extra money (in money terms, not in real terms), is being found for both the education and the health budgets.
We had a fairly early lunch and then I walked down to the doctor’s surgery to play my part in the education of medical students. I was ‘interviewed’, if that is the right word, by a couple of young female medical students, both in their first year of their studies. They were meant to be taking a sort of social history but I think the intention is to get them used to real patients before they actually have to treat them. We chatted for more than half an hour about some of the things in which I been engaged since my own retirement and some of this entailed me going down memory lane about our pleasurable experiences, both working and on holiday, in various parts of Spain. The senior family doctor came in after about half an hour in order to bring our session to an end – I hope the students got out of it that which was intended by the session and I trusted that they would give a good report to their supervising doctor of our discussions. When I got home, I found the house deserted which worried me not a little before I realised that Meg was probably next door with a neighbour. So it proved to be, so I stayed next door chatting with our very kindly neighbour before returning Meg to our own home.
Returning to the Autumn Statement which is monopolising the news headlines this afernoon, there is a jaw-dropping change of tack. There are big immediate tax rises that many including Tory backbenchers will hate (£7.4bn worth in the next financial year, for example). But this is offset by an incredible £9.4bn of additional spending on energy help, school budgets, social care and the NHS. But at the same time an enormous ‘elephant trap’ is being placed before a potential, incoming Labour government. Many of the really savage cuts are scheduled for a date immediately after the next election so the global figures for cuts may help to reassure the money markets. But will an incoming Labour party feel obliged to honour these huge spending cuts or not – if not upheld, then a Labour party may be crippled by the financial markets before it even starts to put its own policies into effect.
Today was a cold but bright day but first thing I had to get the weekly shopping done, postponed from yesterday. I had always assumed that in my regular supermarket, Thursday mornings would prove quieter than Friday mornings but this morning I found far less traffic on the way there and the store was pretty quiet when it opened at 8am this morning. Once the shopping was done, I collected our newspaper on the way home and then had a leisurely unpack once I had got home and cooked our normal poached egg for breakfast. As the day seemed fine, we suspected that some of our normal park friends would be lurking around and indeed one of them was. Whilst we were busy having a chat we were joined by our Lickey friends who proved a mine of useful information. This is because the ‘husband’ part of our friend has probably forgotten more electrical and audio knowledge that I ever possessed in the first place so I managed to tap his brains about one or two little audio/electrical things in which I have been engaged. It is always good to chat with people more knowledgeable than yourself so that you can pick up tips and hints about things that you could never sort out on your own. After a pleasant chat we struck for home and after watching a little of the ‘Politics’ catchup on the week’s happenings, I cooked our normal Friday meal of sea-bass served on a bed of salad and this worked out as tasty as always. Whilst I was cooking the meal and as we were eating it, we treated ourelf to a listen of Bach’s ‘B-Minor Mass’ which just arrived on a CD through the post this morning. This was part of a boxed set with the Matthew Passion, John Passion and the Christmas Oratorio all under the baton of John Eliot Gardiner, one of the foremost conducters of baroque music. This is the last of my current ‘splurge’ of buying really cut-price CDs but the boxed set of nine quality CDs (Deutsche Grammophon)was offered at a price that I felt I could not afford to ignore.
A seasonal item is reported on the Sky News website which is quoted below. The average cost of a Christmas dinner for four people comes in at £34.28 – based on an average of ingredients across five supermarkets (Aldi, M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Morrison’s). Ingredients included: Turkey, potatoes, pigs in blanket, stuffing, gravy, brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, cranberry sauce, peas. For all of the above, M&S came in as the most expensive, at £58.60 – with Aldi the cheapest at £23.53. But as data also found that Brits waste around 27% of their food, and with 73% of the UK enjoying a Christmas dinner last year, this means UK households are spending £107,024,533 on wasted food.
As might be expected, there is still a massive amount of comment and discussion about some of th economic pain inflicted upon the population in yesterday’s Autumn Statement. Real disposal income is due to drop by 4.3% in the next 12 months, followed by a further cut of 2.8% the year after that. So there should be an average cut of over 7% in the next two years which will wipe out the increase in living standards that has occurred over the last eight years. The government itself is arguing that the recession should be shallower by postponing some of the cuts in public expenditure until after the next election (itself, as massive ‘elephant trap’ for any incoming Labour government) What is very uncertain at this stage is how the various public sector unions will react, given that many of them have strike plans in place for the autumn. The mood of the country at the moment is quite understanding as the real pay of personnel working in the public sector is lagging behind the private sector and indeed there has been a cut in real wages dating from the ‘austerity’ years of George Osborne. So it is not inconceivable that that there might be a ‘de facto’ type of general strike if many of the public sector unions decide to strike at the same time. It is fairly evident that Christmas is going to be grim time for many and the New Year even more grim for most of the population. The Institute of Fiscal Studies is of the view that the UK has entered a ‘new era’ of higher taxes. One might think that the current drop on living standards might be as temporary as a couple of years. But Paul Johnson of the IFS is saying that ‘The truth is we just got a lot poorer. We are in for a long, hard, unpleasant journey; a journey that has been made more arduous than it might have been by a series of economic own goals’ It is no wonder that we have arrived at this point when a combination of the damage done by Brexit (according to the OBR), the costs of the pandemic,the dramatic rise in energy costs following Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine and the disastrous consequences of ‘Liz Truss’ economics are all combined together.
Today dawned as a beautiful bright day with a clear blue sky but I think we will have to make the best of it today because for the few days we can expect a succession of squally type weather being driven across the Atlantic. I think it is true to say that New York is feet high in snow at this very moment. So having collected our newspaper, we made for our normal park bench and had our elevenses and then wandered down to see our usual park friends who were having a coffee in the park’s own coffee bar. The weather was quite fine enough to stand around and chat which we did before making our way home for Saturday lunch of quiche. Just before lunch, I decided to give some of our CD collection a good examination to see what might be lurking there that we had forgotten about. We have some discreet little CD units which hide away in one corner of our living room but access to them is rather occluded by a settee and other items of furniture so it is not particularly easy to browse without a good light and making space for oneself. Having said that, I had a very successful 20 minutes or so because I managed to locate a cooy of Beethoven’s 9th which I thought I had somewhere but could not immediately locate. Having found this, then by the act of searching for it, various other CDs came to light which I was pleased to rescue. Some of these were Bach CDs but there were also examples of Mozart operatic arias as well as several items of baroque which I pleased to let see the light of day again. After lunch, I managed to locate in our garage an empty cardboard box the dimensions of which happened to be almost exactly right to press into service as a way of keeping my newly rediscovered CDs in one place. So I spent some time covering this in some (grey) ducktape which gave it a sort of neutral appearance and then filed away the CDs taking the opportunity to create some index cards to remind me of the various categories and now I have it sitting available but unobtrusively on one of our kitchen working surfaces. After lunch, I played some of the Bach CDs on our newly acquired little Boombox CD player and I still continue to be amazed how a piece of equipment for which I paid so little is giving us the quality of the sound that it does. I surmise that the size of the speakers has a lot to do with it but certainly the reviews of the product when I was contemplating its purchase often mentioned the good quality of sound that it produces. As I was making us a swift cup of tea before we paid our weekly visit to Church, an extraordinary little thing occurred. I happened to turn on ClassicFM and the music track that was being played was the Bach double violin concerto. I stared at the machine in some disbelief as the last track I had played on the CD was the same Bach double violin concerto. For a few seconds, I wondered how it was possible for the CD to be still playing although it was tuned to Classic FM and then I realised that it was one of the extraordinary coincidences that sometimes occurs when a piece is broadcast which you have just played a few minutes before.
I would not say that I was one to revel in the misfortunes of others but some news did emerge today that gladdened my heart. The chief executive of Rochdale Boroughwide Homes which was the social housing organisation in which the two year old died after exposure to black mould was today forced out of his post. Only a day or so, he was refusing to resign and the housing assocation were even expressing complete confidence in him until it was announced today that his position had become ‘untenable’. If one was of a cyncical bent, however, one could argue that the Board had sacked their chief executive in order to save their own skins. There is now a pressure group building up to argue that after this incident, black mould should be treated as just as hazardous as escaping gas with a concomitant duty to make repairs within hours rather than weeks.
The football World Cup is starting in Qatar tomorrow and, I must say, that I could not be less interested. Controversy has erupted again before the competition has actually started. The president of football’s international governing body FIFA says the West should not criticise Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup – adding that European nations should instead apologise for their own histories. The president of FIFA attempting to buttress the choice of Qatar is adding fuel to the flames with a comment that ‘For what we Europeans have been doing around the world in the last 3,000 years we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.’ I have a feeling that all of this is going to end badly, even including the football.
It was quite a fine day today and although there were expectations of rain later in the day, we could still enjoy quite a fine morning. I walked down into town early to collect my newspaper, as I always do and then we made our way to the park. There we bumped into one of our regular friends but missed the other one. The park café had suffered a small fire and as the fire crew complete with appliance (one must learn not to call it a fire engine anymore) had cleared the café and its environs of all customers then our friend had abandoned his walk early. We had a chat with our regular friend and then made our way up to our ‘normal’ bench where we enjoyed our coffee and had a chat with another couple that we meet quite regularly in the park. Then it was a journey back to the house where I had a Sunday lunch to cook. We had some beef cooking in a slow cooker but there is always a certain amount of extra clearing up to do once I have washed out the (gravy) slow cooker container and prepared some onions to make a decent onion gravy. We typically cook the whole of a small joint but when it is removed from the slow cooker we usually halve it. One half, when cooled, goes into the freezer for another week whilst the ther half provides us with 2-3 days of meals. This pattern that we have evolved ensures that we have sufficient protein for our needs but at the same time means that we are not consuming too much red meat which the health professionals tell us we should only eat in moderation.
This afternoon, I spent a certain amount of time searching through some of my CDs so that I can have a choice selection of Mozart to have by my side in the kitchen. The various first Mozart Piano Concerto that I have heard in its entirety was Concerto No. 23 which was bought for me by an old friend (who has since died) some time in the early 1960s. Since then I am particularly fond of Concertos 20 and 21 but it is is possible that I already some CDs of these but I have to some hunting around to find them. But I found the Mozart Clarinet Concerto which again is a favourite and I also discovered the Horn concertos and the Oboe concerto so these, too, have been added into my little boxed collection which is already about two dozen long.
I have not taken any interest in the World Cup but I have noticed, with a certain grimace of pleasure, that Qatar lost its opening match against Ecuador, 2-nil. Apparently, it is the first time that a host nation has ever lost an opening match of a World Cup and I suspect that the host nation will not survive. I wonder how long the football competition can take place before some politics intrudes with a vengeance. The England team are going to wear rainbow arm bands and perhaps even ‘take the knee’ but I wonder whether the extreme heat, despite ‘air-conditioned stadiums’ will eventually take its toll and make a mockery of the competition as a whole. I might make an exception of not taking much interest in any of the football when I see that Wales are playing the United States in their opening game tomorrow evening. If Wales could possiby eke out a draw, then this would count as a moral victory at least but I am not holding my breath.
There is not much in prospect for Meg and I this week although we are expecting a close friend from Hampshire to come and see us on Thursday and to break his journey ‘up north’ by staying the night with us. If the weather is fine on Thursday, we can always do a little tour of Bromsgrove and the park but if the weather is windy and squally, we will have enough time to entertain us with filling in the news of what has happened to us in the past few years. Our friend is going to research some of his family history and, in return, I might show him some of our own researches in this area. I always thought of myself as ‘born and bred in Yokshire’ but in practice, a distant Australian cousin on my father’s side has devoted a lot of time and energy to researching that side of the family. I find now that rather having my roots in Yorkshire, my forebears actually can be traced back to a West Midlands bicycle manufacturing company who prospered in Wolverhampton. I have even a photograph which is incredibly valuable because it shows the family name prominently displayed above an exhibition stand in which the latest models of bicycle were being put on show. So I discover that I am actually a Midlander through and through which means that I have had to have a sudden reversal of self-identity since the information has been known to us.
As we anticipated, today was wet and windy and, I suppose, we had plenty of warning that this was going to be our weather for the next few days ahead. Before we went out, I busied myself with taking an old shoe box which fortunately was narrower than most and happened to be exactly the right size, to the millimetre, to accommodate a collection of CDs. So I prettified this up by covering the sides in a grey ducktape so that it exactly matches the other cardboard box I have similarly processed. Then I went and rounded up the other Mozart CDs I have in the normal storage units and populated the new CD box I have just created. As I have about two dozen Mozart CDs, I made some little index cards dividing the whole into piano concertos/symphonies/woodwind concertos/operatic arias and I finished off with a compilations section. With the two little CD boxes sitting side by side on the kirchen unit and nicely indexed, I can rapidly put my hand on a suitable CD as the spirit takes me. We ventured out and collected our newspaper and then popped into our local Waitrose to pick up a few supplies. After that, we wondered whether to make a trip around the park but we bumped into our Irish friend so we chatted for a few minutes in the rain and then decided to go home and have our elevenses there. Then we decided to have a fairly early lunch (which was easy to prepare)and thought that when it was over and we were all washed up, we might devote putselves to the second half of the football match between England and Iran.
When we tuned in at what we thought was half-time, the first half was still in progress as the Iran goalkeeper had been injured in a clash (with one of their own players) and they had evidently tried to treat him on the pitch instead of making an immediate substitution. England were leading 3-0 at this stage and we assumed that the second half would be anything but exciting football given the half time lead. In the event, England won the match with a scoreline of 6-2 but the second Iran goal was awarded in injury time after a video review and looked doubtful to put it mildly. But politics had made its influence felt both before and during the match. The England team had wanted to wear a ‘one love’ LGBT+ armband but afer a lot of tense and fraught negotiations with FIFA, the ruling came down that the wearing of such an armband would result in a penalty to the players or at least the captain by the issue of a yellow card before the game had actually started. Then a second yellow card during the match would mean the automatic issue of a red card which would mean the offending player would be sent off and would miss the next match. In the face of this pressure the England team and probably the Welsh also decided to forego the armband but they did ‘take the knee’ without an objection from FIFA. The Iran team were even more conflicted, however, and they made the symbolic protest of not singing their own national anthem and refusing to celebrate the goals that they did score. These actions might be severely sanctioned once the World Cup is over so, I believe, the Iran players showed a lot of bravery in the stance that they took. Tonight, we have decided to break our resolution not to watch much of the football because it is Wales versus the USA and we would like to see a bit of giant-slaying take place.
Immediately after lunch, we took delivery of a piece of furniture I had espied in our local Age Concern shop and which I had noticed last Friday on my way to Pilates. This piece was rather hidden away in a corner and I suspect that if it had been given a more prominent position, it would have been snapped up very quickly. The piece was designed, I think, to accommodate a music centre or similar and inside had three shelves with two decorated glass doors which have given the whole quite a quality look. I gave the whole a good rub down with a damp sponge cloth and then finally gave it a treatment of furniture polish and it now has a pride of place in our music room. The intention is for me to store CDs and other associated audio equipment inside. The top of the unit had evidently been marked by having a music system placed on because you can still discern th marks made by the loudspeakers. But I have ameloriated this by putting a nice piece of crochet work on the top of the piece and relocating a little lamp onto the unit so that we now have aa array of occasional lighting which gives the whole music room a quiet and relaxed air. Meg and I celebrated all of this by listening to Janet Baker singing Bach cantatas (recently redicovered in the raid on my other collections of CDs)
We are truly into November-ish type weather this morning as the wonderful autumn spell that we have been enjoying has finally come to an end and we return to what we might term more normal autumnal weather. As it is a Tuesday, we have fallen into our normal Tuesday routine which involves having a coffee in the Waitrose coffee bar. There, as we expected, we bumped into one of our Tuesday regulars where we have our customary chat and contemplate the fact that the Christmas is almost upon us where we will be assailed on all sides to buy perfume, chocolate and goodness knows what else. Once we had our elevenses, we made for home where we caught up with some of the news of the day. Then it was a case of getting into my Pilates ‘gear’ (in other words my track suit bottoms) before I walk down for my regular class each Tuesday – our class is a small but regular group of four with myself and three ladies. Fortunately, the showers held off whilst I walked down and had my class bfore I walked back and we had a late lunch at about 3.0pm. At home, I am engaged in a a little project in which I am having some success so far. I am trying to create some open boxes/containers which hold the CDs I have relocated to populate our newly commissioned music room. This involves trying to find a narrow shoebox or any box which is just a tad over 5.5 inches wide. I then do a certain amount of covering with grey duct tape to give the CD boxes a more uniform appearance as well as strengthening any parts that have needed to be cut or adapted to shape. So far, I have successfully made three of these storage boxes and am half way through adapting a fourth – it is one of those kinds of activities which is reasonably satisfying as you can do it whilst watching TV which is showing any content that is less than riveting in the background.
There are two bits of news which are attracting attention this afternoon. The first of these is a YouGov national opinion poll of public opinion which is showing that only 32% of those polled think that Brexit was a good idea and 56% think it was wrong. This is particularly interesting as it puts both major political parties out of step with the public’s view. There is a growing realisation that Brexit ‘is not working’ and, perhaps the feeling as well, that it is not likely to work either. If a trade deal with the USA could be negotiated, then this might give the Brexit project a fighting chance of success but at the moment, most of the deals negotiated amount to pretty small beer. A trade deal has been negotiated with Australia which many commentators are predicting will be a bad deal for the UK. It is widely acknowledged that most of the trade deals negotiated by Liz Truss when she was the Foreign Secretary were really ‘cut-and-paste’ jobs for deals that were already in place but were just repackaged and had a ‘Brexit’ label stuck on them for presentational purposes but nothing all that substantial had actually been renegotiated. Why all of this matters is because of the disastrous failure of the Liz Truss ‘experiment’ to borrow out way into economic growth and where international investors refused to lend us the money. One of the most evident ways to achieve economic growth is to allow for more immigration to fill skill shortages and to establish a new trading relationship with the nearest big economic blog i.e. the European Union. But when the Sunday Times indicated that some in the UK Treasury were contemplating an arrangement with the EU such as Switzerland enjoys, there were immediate howls of protest from the Brexit press and Rishi Sunak was forced to make an instant statement to the CBI (which he happened to be addressing the next day) that anything like the rumours were remotely being considered. Nor would such measures pass through the House of Commons as presently constituted.
The second big new story is the news that in the World Cup, Saudi Arabia – a rank outsider, ranked as No. 51 in the world – has just beaten Argentina 2-1 when Argentina was one of the fancied teams to actually win the competition. The delight in Saudi Arabia, a neighbouring country to Qatar with easy access to it, has just declared a day’s public holiday in celebration. This ranks as one of the biggest shocks in the whole history of the World Cup, although every single World Cup produces one or two surprises. More disturbing news was that a female Welsh supporter was actually denied entrance to the match against the USA just because she was wearing a multistriped hat in favour of LGBT+ rights. I think that the supporter managed to smuggle herself inside the match anyway but it does tell you something about the mindset of the Qatari/FIFA footballing authorities to take action as draconian as this.
Today was a blustery type of day but we did not hasten to get down into town because it was the day when our domestic help calls around and there are always a few things for us to chat over. One of the things that we needed to do was to check over the ‘systems’ for our small guest bedroom in anticipation of tomorrow when our frind is coming to visit us from Hampshire and is having an overnight stay with us. Once we were good and ready, we collected our newspaper and then went to Waitrose primarily to provision ourselves with some wine and beer in anticipation of tomorrow. As we were in Waitrose, Meg and I availed ourselves of the ‘free coffee’ facility that is starting again for its own customers (but was withdrawn for the duration of the pandemc for understandable reasons). In the late morning, a package arrived courtesy of the Post Office which was a Panasonic mini hifi system which I bought from a seller on eBay. I had previously bought a Pure DAB radio replacement for one of my defunct ones from this same seller on eBay and hence had every confidence in him as a seller. After lunch, it was quite an easy job to wire up the speakers and I soon got the CD and the Bluetooth functions working as they should. The sound quality is excellent for my ears and although several reviews of the system (and even the seller himself) said the volume was not particularly loud, it was certainly loud enough for us where the system is located on one of kitchen work suraces tucked away neatly into a corner. The one slight disappointment was that I could not get the radio functions (FM + DAB) to work because it evidently needed an aerial/antenna which was not supplied with the system. This is ‘nice to have’ but not essential to me as I shall be using the CD or Bluetooth 90% of the time, if not more, but I dropped a quick note to the vendor to see if the aerial had been omitted by mistake. It turned out that it had not as this was how the system was supplied when he acquired it during the pandemic so I shall pop down to our local radio/TV store to get a working aerial. At the same time, the vendor had inadvertently left a copy of a ‘Dire Straits’ CD in the tray and thinking this might be precious to him (it as!) I promised to get it back to him in the post. This afternoon, as you might imagine, Meg and I have listening to opur new ‘toy’ and having treated ourselves to some masses/motets by Byrd and Tallis, we then followed it up with some renditions of the Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21 which was needed to fill a slight ‘hole’ in our collection and which arrived this morning.
I will not go into the minutiae of what is happening upon the Parliamentary front except to make the following observation. The public as a whole, if they think of what happens in Parliament, think of the ‘Yah-Boo’ of politics which is exhibited in Prime Minister’s Question Time and other occasions when business is discussed ‘on the floor of the house’ But much more significant are the Select Committees which have a membership proportional to the voting strength of the political parties in Parliament but with Chairs some of which are drawn from the Opposition parties. When MPs are working in committee, they are capable of questionning ministers in much more forensic detail than is possible in the whole House and Ministers and civil servants often squirm under the impact of detailed questionning, much of it coming from their ‘own’ side. Today both the Chancellor of the Exchequeur and the Home Secretary have have to endure sustained and detailed questionning at the hands of select committes and neither,by all accounts, acquitted themselves particularly well. Suella Braverman, for example, could not explain how ‘safe and legal routes’ are actually working.
Giant-slaying is back in vogue in the football World Cup as Japan have beaten West Germany 2-1. There are enormous parallels, which must surely be just coincidences, between Argentina’s defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia and Germany’s defeat by Japan. Both Argentina and Germany scored first and through a penalty in both cases. Then, in another coincidence, their oppenents scored two goals in quick succeession only to hang onto their lead with desperate efforts until the full-time whistle was blown. Every match seems to have extended way beyond its allotted time as officials have added on extra minutes not just for injuries but for red and yellow cards, substitutions, excessive goal celebrations, VAR interventions and so on. In fact, the England game against Iran went for almost 30 minutes beyond the normal 90 minutes. Evidently, FIFA has made some policy decisions but it does not look as though the effects of this have not been properly modelled. Rugby League has a hooter that sounds on the dot which seems eminently sensible.
I was ‘up with the lark’ which is my usual pattern for a Thursday morning and went on my way bright and early to do our weekly shopping. This was finished quite expeditiously but as usual for this time of year, the Christmas stock of cakes and chocolates is starting to crowd other items off the shelves. I was not tempted by anything in particular but I did eye up an absolutely plain fruit cake which I have bought from Aldi before and is, in effect, Christmas cake without icing, marzipan and other adornments so I might succumb in the weeks ahead. I am of the mindset not to buy anything Christmassy until at least we are in the month of December and Christms Day is so much closer. Having got the shopping done in a resonable time, I managed to park the car not too distant from the town centre and proceeded to the Post Office where I managed to post back the CD of ‘Dire Straits‘ which the vendor of my recently acquired music centre had inadvertently left in the tray of the CD unit. This happens to be of some emotional significance so I was pleased to get it into the postal system. Then on my way back to the car, I did a quick ‘dive’ into Poundland which proved to be fortuitous as within the portals of that shop I managed to buy a couple of plastic storage baskets which will be almost perfect for storing CDs in my new unit. I think that each basket will contain about 20-22 CDs which is just right for my needs. All I really have to do is to affix some little felt ‘feet’ to the underside of the basket- after that, I am resolved to buy some more in the next day or so so that I can acquire storage baskets that are all of the same design and hope that the design does not change when the shop restocks. It was then a case of getting home, cooking breakfast and an unpacking of the shopping.
Today, our old Hampshire friend was motoring up to see us and to stay with us overnight before he proceeds to the Potteries in the morning. I busied myself with making some soup of the winter root vegetables I had previously prepared and popped into the freezer. Once these had been parboiled, it was a relatively simple job to add some fried onions,coconut milk, pasta sauce mixture and a quich dash of ‘chip shop curry’. Then I let the soupmaker work its magic whilst I went around preparing the ingredients of a risotto we were going to have for our main meal. This was really just to ensure that we had a supply of chicken stock, some mackerel which was eventually going to end up in small squares and finally some yogurt and some grated cheese as well as some well-rinsed Basmati rice (arborio being better if I had managed to locate some in time) Then just after 12.0pm I got these ingredients under way and we received a welcome telephone call to indicate that our friend was in the vicinity of the Webbs garden centre which is only about 4 miles down the road from us.
After we had lunch and washed down the meal with a little white wine, we had our post prandial coffees and then decided to make an excursion into the town. We made a quick tour up and down the High Street and then we treated ourselves to a coffee and some cakes in the Waitrose café which is the end of the High Street. Tomorrow our friend has an appointment in the churchyard in Leek, Staffs, to meet with a local history expert. He is hoping, if is lucky, to locate some of his Quaker forebears. So a bit more of our friend’s family history may be revealed if all goes well in the search. After we got home (in the dark by now) we spent an hour or so in pure reminiscences of the times and the shared experiences that we had together in Winchester. Soon it was time for the TV news (dominated by news of the RMT ) and then it was teatime in which I could heat up and serve the homemade soup I had prepared earlier in the day. This turned out to be fine and in accord with expectations and we treated ourselves to a kind of ‘nursery tea’ finale which was Sticky Toffee pudding purchased on the spur of the morning in Aldi this morning, served with custard and washed down with some wonderful Beronia rioja wine. As you might expect, we chatted and chatted all night long until it was a little past our normal bedtime and we made for our respective beds at about 11.00pm. Tomorrow we anticipate being a nice quiet day and hopefully the Panasonic antenna I have ordered for our new music centre will have been delivered. If this works as it should, then I should be able to tune/retune the FM and DAB radio stations which, in theory, should be quite a simple job.
This morning Meg and I had company for breakfast as our Hampshire friend had stayed with us overnight after a very pleasant time yesterday evening with general chat about family matters and some of our reminiscencies from when we were work colleagues together. Because our friend had a drive and quite a long day in front of him, I cooked a breakfast of ham and eggs followed by some toasted fruit loaf, all of which was very satisfying. Then we had a brief session on our computer where I managed to show him the photographic evidence that some of my forebears on my father’s side of the family were bicycle manufacturers located in Wolverhampton. A distant family cousin in Australia has devoted years of work to trace some of our common ancestry as far back as he can and he has actually traced back to an ancestor whose dates are 1531-1601 and then the trail runs cold! However, to get back to the best part of 700 years is a considerable achievement but before that date will take no doubt massive amounts of investigation with no guarantee of eventual success. So our friend left us on his way to a Quaker Meeting House and associated cemetory in Leek, Staffs where he had enlisted the help of a local historian who might be able to fill in some of the gaps in his own researches so far.
After our friend was on his way, Meg and I went down by car to collect our newspapers but we parked the car in such a place that I could a lightning visit to Poundland – here I managed to purchase some of the extra plastic storage baskets with a handle which will almost exactly accommodate some CDs that I intend to store in our recently acquired little music cabinet. I now have five of these incredibly useful little baskets but as each holds 20, then I have enough for 100 CDs which gives me some excellent room for expansion. After our errands, we decided to do a quick tour of the park although we did not have any prepared elevenses with us. Nonetheless, we were delighted to just about meet up with our University of Birmingham friend and we spent a very pleasant 20 minutes discussing a recent TV programme which had given our friend considerable food for thought (particularly as some of it was relevant to his own life-story) As it happened our views on the subject were almost completely aligned – perhaps that’s why we are friends in the first place and like to discuss this and similar issues with each other. Then we popped home to have a lunch of sea-bass which we cooked with ‘normal’ vegetables rather than salad as we felt the need for some hot food on a day which proved bright and clear but quite cold.
I spent a little time this afternoon putting some little circular felt ‘feet’ on my boxes as otherwise being quite a hard plastic they could scratch whatever surface they were located upon without some modification. I was expecting to take delivery some time of the recently ordered antenna for my new music system, only to be informed by Amazon that the item was ‘undeliverable’ whatever that means and I would get a refund for the cost. So then I tried to hunt round to find this exact Panasonic spare part and did manage to locate a source at a reasonable price which I have ordered but it will tke about two weeks to arrive which is rather frustating. I then spent some time trying to get the exact manual for the system I have recently acquired as the documentation I have downloaded is for the version without DAB which is the one I actually need. I have tried to view some of the relevant sections of the documentation on line (or even downloaded) but the sections on DAB are not susceptible to being copied from a protected pdf file. So I needed to take the downloaded pdf and use an online facility I found to unprotect the pdf so that I could copy just the section that I needed. This is both somewhat complicated and frustrating but eventually I have found a solution that gives me – more or less – what I require.
In the World Cup today, Wales put on a lack-lustre performance here they were well beaten by Iran. The Iram team had a goal disallowed, hit the bar on two occasions and were judged to be worthy winners even if one of their goals was in the dying seconds of the game. Incidentally, I was amazed that all of the schoolchildren in Wales were given the morning off schoool so that they could stay at home and watch the match. But the real contest this evening is between England and the USA and I think it is correct to say that England has never won a match against USA in the World Cup. I must say that my money is on the USA but both teams are quite ‘young’ sides so the difference between the sides may turn out to be a single misplaced tackle which produces a freekick that in the event will prove decisive.
Today was an interesting day as it turned out. Meg and I treated ourselves to a special little extra at breakfast as we added some chorizo that we had left over to our breakfast poached egg and this made it extra special. When we eventually got to town, we picked up our newspaper and then navigated toward the park where we bumped into one of our park regulars and we had an interesting chat this morning about the friendship groups (and the parties) in which we had participated when we were so much younger. We were all getting a little bit cold so we bade each other farewell and headed home for lunch. However, we had a special little mission to undertake because I needed to make a trip to the one and only Radio/TV and audio shop in town to see if I could get some advice, and possibly even purchase, an aerial of the correct type for my newly acquired little music centre. I had taken the precaution of taking a very detailed photo on my iPhone on the type of aerial connector on the back of the music centre as I felt that if I had tried to make a guess and purchase something over the internet, this would probably be the wrong thing so I needed to seek some advice from a really knowledgeable person. Fortunately, the technician on duty in the shop upon looking at my photo immediately recognised what I needed and was able to supply both it, and a more specialised little adapter, the two of which should work together to give me a functional aerial. This turned out to be an ‘Indoor FM VHF Aerial FM Radio Hi-Fi Dipole Flat Ribbon Antenna’ and I also had supplied an extra little adapter which screwed into the aerial fitting on the back of the music centre and also accepted the new cable. I was very pleased to part with my £5 as I was assured that that it ought to work absolutely correctly. As soon as I got it home, I put it into the approximately correct position and found that it gave me a good signal. By hook or by crook and with a not very helpful manual, I managed to get the DAB+ to locate ClassicFM (whih is nearly always all that I would ever want) and then left everything whilst I went off to cook a lunch of chicken legs.
After lunch, I set to work getting the aerial installed. My music centre is on a work surface in the kitchen immediately next to a power supply and a tall kitchen cupboard. As the aerial is a ‘T’-shape, I figured that I could put the ‘T’ section on the top of the kitchen cupboard where it could occupy two sides, here it would be out of sight if not out of mind. Then, in order to keep the whole thing stable, I used some ‘map’ pins to make sure that the cable did not stray from the top of the cupboard surface and then had to turn my attention to the vertical section. Again, I used some map pins of an unobtrustive colour to hold the aerial in place but the trouble is that the ariel had a few slight kinks in it and getting the map pins into position was not easy and I could only manage the slightest of taps from a very lightweight hammer. Having got the ribbon antenna vertical in the corner formed by the back wall and the cupboard side, I them prettied it up with some masking tape to make the whole thing look as neat and unobtrusive as possible. Obviously, I had ClassicFM playing the whole time during the installation to make sure that the signal did not degrade with any change in position and when I had finished, the whole was firmly in position and fairly (but not very) unobtrusive. At least using the masking tape which was the same as the wall colour was an improvement on the bare cable. I must say, I was absolutely delighted with the quality of the sound I was getting from ClassicFM broadcast on the DAB+ system. When the installation was complete, the presenter of the ClassicFM slot played an excerpt from Mozart’s Clarinet concerto and I also played the same using the Pure radio that I had on the opposite wall – this gave me the effect of sound coming from three speakers and was incredibly good. So I was very satisfied with the late morning and afternoon’s work.
This afternoon, whilst idly looking at the TV transmissions, I realised that ‘Dr Zhivago’ was being shown – this was ‘our’ film and I think that Meg very much identified with Tonya played by Geraldine Chapman at the time (and had a very similar hair style). Of course, the film is very emotionally compelling as Yuri Zhivago is torn between the two women of Tonya (Geraldine Chapman, a brunette) and Lara (Julie Christie, a blonde) I only saw about the last third of the film as we missed the first hour and I was busy with my aerial fixing for the second hour but I really enjoyed the snatches of it that I managed to see (for the umpteenth time, I think)
Today being Sunday was a day upon which I leapt out of bed fairly early and then walked down into town in order to pick up my Sunday newspaper. As I walked down into town, I was turning over in my mind why my newly acquired little mini hifi system which I have recently brought into use in our kitchen seemed to give such high quality sound. One little thing that I did last night was to tidy up the masking tape which held the aerial in place and the whole thing now looks quite neat. But listening quite a lot to ClassicFM I am very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sound I am experiencing. Thinking about this and pushing aside completely subjective factors for the moment, I suppose the quality of the sound in a system must be a combination of the design and quality of the individual components in which the loudspeakers are critical and the quality and positioning of the aerial/antenna. I then noticed that the front of the unit referred to DAB+ so I did a bit of research to discover what the ‘+’ element stands for. I now appreciate that DAB has evolved over the years since its introduction in the 1990’s and DAB+ ought to deliver more stations and of higher quality than its predecessor. I wondered how many broadcasters are actually transmitting in DAB+ mode and I think that some of the bigger players are not in the market such as the BBC and ClassicFM itself. I suppose that the broadcasters are nervous about cutting out part of their market as many of their audience may only have the older version of their technology, including myself. As I purchased the Pure DAB radios that I do have, this was on average about ten years ago and only radios purchased within the last year or so will be DAB+ radios. So one of my initial hypotheses about why I should be getting the sound quality that I have on my new hifi system bit the dust as ClassicFM is not transmitting in DAB+ mode insofar as I can tell. But just to satisfy my curiosity, I found a website that aggregates evaluations of my little Panasonic system and I noticed that about 60% of nearly 300 customer reviews all specifically mentioned the quality of the sound produced by the system. The terms ‘excellent’ and ‘amazing’ were very prominent, so it is not just my own subjective opnion that the system produces a quality sound. Many people seem to have purchased this system not as their ‘main’ hifi system but as a smaller unit which is ideal for a teenager’s bedroom, a kitchen, a conservatory or even a garage. One or two brave souls even mentioned that they were so delighted with the system they were going to purchase a second one to utilise in another part of their house.
The footballing World Cup is transmitting matches during the morning, afternoon and evenings and this is playing havoc with certain of our well known television broadcasts. So, for example, some of our favourite programmes such as the Andrew Neil show are transmitting half an hour earlier than would otherwise be the case. However, there is one football match which even for those only mildly intererested in football such as Meg and myself is a clash that is well worth watching. That is the match tonight between Spain and Germany, neither of them the footballing giants that they used to be but nonetheless, probably well worth a watch. I tend to support Spain whichever opponents they happen to have but one is always fascinated to see if the Germans might be beaten. Several years ago, I was in Spain on my own, as it happens (I think part of an exminations panel for a PhD at the University of La Coruña) and Spain was playing in, I think, a European cup match. I went to a bar that I knew quite well here they served an excellent dark beer. The bar owner, seeing I was on my own, beckoned me towards the front where I could have a seat next to the bar and with a good view of the TV. As it happened, the Spanish scored first and the bar went wild and I think their opponents then equalised. I had a chat with some of the fellow drinkers about what good goals they were and then the Spanish went on to have nightmare of a match where they eventually got defeated about 4-1 or a similar margin. When the second goal was scored against the Spanish, after a collective groan the bar went quiet – but this was to be followed by goal after goal as the Spanish were being soundly beaten. The bar got more and more quiet and when I turned out to go at the end of the match, I realised that most of the audience could not bear to watch any more so they had abandoned their drinks on the table and walked away in disgust. So a bar that had been full of joyous, gregarious Spaniards at the start of the evening just emptied as the evening wore on. I suppose this was an understandable reaction but it makes me wonder why may happen this evening?
Today seemed pretty cold when we woke up and got ourselves going so it was one of those days when an extra jumper went on at the start of the day. After breakfast, I took a few minutes to tune the DAB on our newly installed music centre into Radio 3. Some radios make the tuning process very easy but this one does not – however, once you have pressed the appropriate buttons and got the station that you desired, it is then not too difficult to put it into your list of favourites. The left and right double arrow keypad key then sends you backwards or forwards through your pre-selects which is as simple as it could be. The fact that this is not really explained in the sparse instructions in the manual but is something that you discover after a few days of use is something that is a joy to discover. After we had picked up our newspaper, we called in at Waitrose because we needed to pick up some supplies and then we made our way to the park. It was quite a fine morning although fairly sharp and cold. As usual, the bench which is our favourite was deserted but we do come supplied with a variety of sponges, kitchen paper and the oldest of old tea towels which we use to wipe the bench dry so that we can sit down on it. We never really expect to see many people in the park on a Monday and,indeed, we had to get our skates on because I had a dental appointment at the rather awkward time of 1.30. After we had got home and had another hot drink, I got busy preparing a ‘quick’ lunch so we could have this in plenty of time and then get washed up before I departed for the dentist. The visit to the dentist was actually in two parts and the first one was a visit to the hygienist. This all went well and I got seen the minute that I arrived. After this treatment, I was then going to have a permanent crown replace the temprary crown affixed some three weeks beforehand. For this, I had to wait about 40-45 minutes and I even got up from seat in the waiting room to enquire whether or not I had been forgotten in the system but it was just a case of running late. The actual procedure of affixing the new and permanent crown only took some 5-10 minutes and I soon returned home after the procedure.
There are all kinds of ‘off-the-ball’ events surrounding the current World Cup, of the sort that one has never seen before nor expect to be seen. One of the latest is that the USA have taken the Iranian flag and ‘doctored’ the image so that the emblem of the Iranian Republic is actually removed from the flag before it was posted on social media. The Iranians are incensed (as any other nation be, I imagine, if the image of their national flag is altered). They are demmanding that the USA be kicked out of the World Cup or subject to a 10-match suspension which is a penalty laid down in FIFA regulations. Evidently, FIFA will not act in any meaningful way against the USA (which I am sure it would against a small struggling third world country who particiapated in flag desecretion) I am just left open-mouthed at the arrogance of the Americans, who feel that they can perform actions like this with impunity.
A much more significant and serious story concerns the current actions of the Chinese authorities who are trying to stem the most recent outbreaks of COVID-19. The Chinese have practiced a policy of ‘total lockdown’ whenever and wherever an outbreak of COVID-19 is identified. The population in several parts of China is starting to react very strongly against this policy and protests were to be found in several Chinese cities where the crowds were chanting ‘Down with the Chinese Communist Party’ as well as ‘Down with Xi Jinping’ These are the greatest protests since the time of Tiananmen Square in 1989. I had not fully appreciated that the vaccines that have been developed in China do not work particularly well and that levels of vaccinations in the society as a whole are below the comparable figures we have achieved in Western Europe. This then means that the level of immunity in Chinese society also fails to match those in comparable western societies – of course they could import ‘better’ vaccines from the West but of course the Chinese, for political and ideological reasons, would never go down this route. Meanwhile, many in China have watched the World Cup on TV and wonder why the rest of the world is getting on with life, gathering unmasked in large stadiums, while they risk being locked in their homes at short notice or having their businesses shut down and unable to trade. The Chinese are even showing the World Cup with censored images of crowd scenes so that the Chinese viewers do not see unmasked crowds enjoying the football as otherwise, the population may ask serious questions of the ruling Communist Party.
Last night, as I now have a perfectly functioning little music system in our kitchen (useful when I have to do a lot of food preparation and/or cooking, let alone eating) I decided to turn my attention to our main living room. Here when I surveyed a little bookcase that we have underneath a window, I realised that we were still storing a clutch of operas recorded on VHS for which we have absolutely no use as we do not have the technology to play these upon, so they were just occupying some valuable shelf space. Once the shelf was cleared, I found that it would just neatly accomodate the Boombox (CD player with integrated radio) I had acquired recently and was very impressed by its sound quality. A few experiments, though, revealed that although the Boombox plays CDs beautifully and in the kitchen the FM radio could pick up and play our three favourite radio stations (including ClassicFM), this was not the case for the lounge. Here, the unit could pick up and play ClassicFM, the little inbuilt aerial for FM could not pick up either Radio 3 or Radio 4 in this particular location. I was not too distressed by this, however, as the Boombox plays both CDs and the 200 classical tracks from my old iPhone and I only paid £15 for it about a month ago in any case. I then relocated a DAB radio which I had purchased over four years ago and scarecely used – there was a type of logic behind all of this as after a serious operation some four and a half years ago, I imagined that I would spend a lot of time recuperating in the garden and I would probably value the companionship of a portable DAB radio. But I made a much more rapid recovery than anticipated and hence the radio was underutilised. Now, though, I am bringing it into much more constant use as I can use it together with the BoomBox as a ‘de facto’ little music centre, located at the other end of the lounge to our main HiFi system and the TV. Also, the little bookcase contains some boxed sets of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart (the latter a collection of some 40 CDs) so we not only have another little music centre but also all of the music that we would want to play in a proximate location. To finish off this little reconfiguration of our audio within the household and did a little hunting around and found a pendrive (USB stick) which I had just labelled ‘Bach’. When I examined it on the computer, I think there are about 60+ tracks which I think is the equivalent of about three or four music CDs. I then tried this out on our new little Panasonic music centre in the kitchen and found that it played this beautifully. So this wonderful little system, can now play music from four sources (the DAB+ radio itself, the CD unit, Bluetooth from wherever (my old iPhone) and now a pendrive. So this makes this little sysem incredibly versatile. Now that I have rabbited on so much about all of this audio, I suspect that I won’t mention it again – once you have little systems set up that functioning well and need no further enhancement or improvement, you can just forget all about them)
Meg and I went down to Waitrose this morning where, quite unusually, we only bumped into one of our usual Tuesday morning crowd. Undeterred, we had our midday coffee, did a little shopping and then made for home so tht I could get ready for my Pilates class later on in the day. When I walked down into town, I bumped into our Italian friend with whom I chatted for a brief 4-5 minutes and then passed one of our Irish friends and then later on passed some of our older Irish friends, to all of whom I could only make a quick ‘Hello and Goodbye’ as I did not want to be delayed for my Pilates class. The class contained the usual five members including myself but one of our number is a regular horse rider and had experienced quite a disturbing, not to say frightening, incident the day before. She had been out riding when a dog let off its lead shot in front of the horse and barked its head off – the horse took fright and bolted, with my classmate hanging on for dear life until it had calmed down from its gallop to escape. I asked her how long she had been hanging on and she replied that it was for about a mile! Fortunately, she had not fallen off but was a little sore in various places having been astride a bolting horse and I think may have been experiencing a little delayed shock. We all expressed our concern and relief that she had not been injured but had come of this little incident completely unharmed. After that, it was return to home, a lunch of fishcakes and ‘instant’ vegetables and a quiet afternoon waiting for the all important England-Wales match in the World Cup this evening.
Last night, I remembered how I used to play music on an pendrive through my little portable – it was just a case of connecting up the speakers and inserting the pendrive into a ‘spare’ USB port. The trouble is that although I have a variety of little USB extenders they are always a little messy and I try to avoid too many things hanging off the computer at once. Still, my newly rediscovered pendrive with 60+ Bach tracks on it was recognised by the computer (not always the case) and I can now play Bach as loudly I like in this corner of the room. This is unlikely to happen often but it does complement the adjacent DAB+ radio as well as the Boombox so in this corner of the room I have the choice of four input sources (radio, CD, Bluetooth and now a USB pendrive)
This morning our domestic help arrived and, as always, we seem to have a lot of family news to impart to each other. She arrived fairly early in order to leave promptly so that could take her husband for a medical appointment and we evidently wished them both well. After that I urgently needed to get my accounts up to date, something I like to do as soon as my pensions are paid into in the middle of the month but a little delayed this month. This delayed us somewhat so we stayed in to watch Prime Minister’s Questions which is a bit of a Wednesday morning routine and then we set off to collect our newspaper and just have a quick tour of the park minus elevenses that we had already had. So it has been one of those days when we have been a bit like a dog chasing its own tail as we overslept a little this morning and his has rather put pressure upon the rest of the day. We returned home for a lunch of quiche and then a quiet afternoon. We decided to forego a bit of TV watching this afternoon in order to enjoy some of the CDs which we have recently rediscovered and this little experiment worked out well for us as well as I found that I could do some routine emails whilst listening to music in the background.
The World Cup football which I vowed to boycott might become somewhat more interesting in the days ahead. Last night was the England versus Wales and it had all the elements of a boxing match. After a few rounds of ‘softening up’ i.e. the whole of he first half, two ‘killer punches’ came quite early on the second half when two goals were scored in very quick succession with a third goal somewhat later (and almost a fourth towards the end). So England have won their round and then go into the last 16 to meet Senegal who are a bit of an unknown quantity to the England team. I think that one can expect surprises as happened in the France v. Tunisia game where Tunisia expectedly (and controversially after a late VAR decision) beat France 1-0. Whilst, no doubt, many England supporters may mistakenly believe that Senegal is a walkover, I would not be astonished if England were to come a real cropper. Afer all, we have a clash beteen European football styles (slow patient build up) versus a much more adventurous and free-flowing African style of football. On Sunday, we shall see which style prevails.
Prince William’s godmother Lady Susan Hussey resigns from palace duties after asking black visitor about her origins. Lady Susan Hussey, 83, quit after asking Ngozi Fulani, chief executive of Sistah Space, where she ‘really came from’ during a reception at the palace on Tuesday. What is extraordinary about this story is that we have a very detailed, not to say practically verbatim account, of the questionning and answer. Lady Hussey was forced to resign on the spot and to offer an immediate and fulsome not to say abject apology but Buckingham Palace have acted with the necessary degree of rapidity. This story has a certain degree of ‘backwash’ as the several (black) invitees were made to feel uncomfortable and not as genuine ‘guests’ at the reception. Additionally, it tends to add a layer of credence to all of the complaints that Meghan Markle used to make of the Buckingham Palace hierarchy and one suspects that this story will cause the monarchy a degree of harm.
We are in for a few days of quite cold weather over the next few days as really cold air is being sucked in from the Artic. As a strategy, I am trying to get into the habit of wearing a thin layer of clothing (a thin jumper) before a heavier one. The same policy is being applied to feet (two pairs of socks) and I am encouraging Meg to wear multiple layers as well. I am sure the Scandinavians have been doing this for decades and, of course, the trapped layers of air between inner and outer garments is a wonderful insulator. Gloves are also coming to play because although I dislike wearing gloves, I dislike the cracks in my fingers even more if I do not wear them.
Last night and first thing this morning, I decided to align the tuning on two DAB radios and our new music centre. I preset 10 stations on each radio with four national BBC stations, two local BBC stations, two music stations and finally two talk stations. I have been meaning to try out one of these talk stations (‘Times Radio’) for some time now and spent a few interesting minutes listening to some discussions of the issues of the day whilst I was waiting for Meg to get herself ready.
Today is my shopping day and I get to the supermarket front door about 30 seconds before it opens which is fine. After my ‘normal’ food shopping, I always allow myself the luxury of a little trip up and down the famed ‘middle aisle’ of Aldi which features a variety of household and other goods not immediately associated with supermarkets. Last week, I was tempted to buy Meg a spare pair of pyjamas and this week, as they were on special offer, I treated myself to a pair of men’s pyjamas. Having said this, I had to hunt through a pile of stuff to find a pair (the only pair?) of the appropriate size. After the shopping and as I am in that part of town, I return via the newsagent to pick up my copy of ‘The Times‘. On the front page, there was a photograph of the singer/songwriter Christine McVie not particularly well known to me who had died yesterday and worthy of the front page of the newspaper. The newsagent’s wife informed me that she used to meet with her quite often when she visited the restaurant they use to run in California – so it is a small world. Then it was a case of getting home and a slow unpack, after which we made our normal trip to the park. We had our elevenses sitting on a park bench which was raw but not bitterly cold but did not tarry too long as we knew we had to be home in time for our hairdressing appointments. As this was at 12.00pm, I busied myself getting some of the loudspeakers attached (occasionally) to my laptop to receive some attention. For a start, I was not sure which speaker was ‘left’ and which was ‘right’ so needed to access a program on the web which allows you to access a test to ascertain which is which. I had got my units the ‘wrong’ way round and so this necessitated some reorganisation of the cabling involved to make sure that everthing would stretch to where it was intended. Having got my speakers in the right position, I was then able to access some tests which are designed to make sure that things are set up correctly. Whilst I was doing all of this, I bookmarked the sources for the speaker tests so I know where I can find them and copied the whole of the Bach folder from my pendrive onto a 128Gb flash memory drive which was only about 50% full. The memory manufacturer, Sandisk, sell some of these little ‘thumb’ drives that fit into a USB port and which only project 7mm from the edge of the computer. As such they can be left in place and act as a useful additional memory source for laptops. So all of this means that whilst I use the computer, I can now have a gentle ‘flow’ of Bach playing in the background whilst I write or email.
As the hairdressing for both of us rather got in the way of our normal lunch times, by the time we had both been done we were feeling pretty hungry and in need of a quickly prepared lunch. We tend to always have a tin of chicken and a tin of steak in our pantry that we can rustle up a quick meal on occasions such as this. So we made a meal in little more than 5 minutes by adding our (heated) tin of chicken to some instant rice supplemented by some microwaved petit pois. After lunch, I spent some time putting to rights the parts of furniture disturbed whilst I was adjusting the cabling to the loudspeakers. As I was doing this, Meg popped round to see our next door neighbours to return some little dishes in which they had treated us to some spare desserts (cherry pie and custard as I remember it). I followed Meg to next door and we learnt the sad news that there had been a death in their family as one of their in-laws had succumbed to cancer. The death was not unexpected and in some ways was a blessed relese but it did explain why our next door neighbour’s house looked a bit ‘closed down’ in the last day or so. When we returned home, we tuned into the closing minutes of the Croatia vs. Belgium World Cup match. As the score finished 0-0 at the end of the day and despite the frantic attacks that the Belgians made upon the Croatian goal, Belgium did not survive to enter the knockout stage. As they are the team ranked as No. 2 in the World, this is a considerable blow to them and, as you can imagine, the Belgian players were utterly distraught at the end of the game, although it must be said that they missed several chances fronm which they could have scored.
So here we are at the end of the week with a typically gloomy day – the weather was best described as ‘raw’ in that it was cold with a bit of a damp edge to it to add a little bit of extra discomfort. As I was getting ready this morning, the telephone rang and it was the service engineer who had come to attend to the flashing lights on our Biodisk, which normally indicates a fault on the system. The service engineer who called round, though, was unsure how the electrical control panel worked so he was managed to indicate that the mechanical bits of the system seemed to be working correctly but he was not sufficiently knowledgeable or trained to deal with an electrical malfunction. We encouraged the service engineer to photograph and then consult with his base for technical support but to no avail. At the end of all this, and despite the gratefully accepted mug of tea, it was concluded that the servicing company had better send around someone who did know how their own unit worked (and which we assumed was all covered by our maintenance contract) So the day did not get off to the best of starts. Meg and I eventually made it to the park and we had prepared some elevenses which we consumed on the park bench, once it had been suitably dried off. We did not stay too long as it was getting a little cold and miserable but we did bump into some of our church friends and spent a few moments chatting, until the damp cold encouraged us all to move on. Once we got home, we had a meal of sea bass served on a bed of salad and then settled down for some afternoon jobs.
This afternoon proved to be one of those frustrating ones, as it turned out. I needed to gather some documents together before a visit to a bank which my son and I are due to make next week. One of the documents entailed a visit to the Teachers Pension Agency which required an email (OK) and a password (now forgotten) Several attempts to use it and then use these credentials led to the website locking out with a ‘website error – please contact us’ So this then involved a telephone call, going through several protocols to establish credentials and so on, just to get a link to reset the password. But after a frustrating hour (it seemed a lot longer) we got the link we needed and therefore the document we needed so now we all have all that is required. However, the last time we did this, the bank’s own upload facility was about as friendly as a cornered rat and we succeeded in doing this by hook or by crook but need to make to do it once again before we meet face-to-face.
Last night’s football was incredible (as was todays) It was the last matches to be played in the ‘group’ round where only the first two of the four teams go through. Germany was playing Costa Rica whilst Spain were playing Japan and, at one stage, about ten minutes before the end of both matches, it looked as though both Japan and Costa Rice would go through. In the event, Japan beat Spain who failed to equalise but they still both qualified as the ‘top two’ whereas Germany beat Costa Rica but neither of them made it out of the group stage. Whether one got through this round was often dependent not just one’s own game but what was happening in the other game, being played at the same time. Germany felt particularly robbed after an incident where a ball in the Japan v Spain appeared to all of the naked eye observations as if it was over the dead ball line. But apparently the technicalitie are such that of the VAR can prove that the finest sliver of a ball’s curvature is judged to be not over the the line, then the ball is judged to be ‘in’ and this proved to be critical. The last few minutes of both games proved to be so exciting that we were flicking backwards and forwards across the two matches to see if a last gasp goal was possible (which it often is when both teams are playing their hearts out to score/prevent a goal). We had similar histrionics this afternoon when Uruguy were beaten by South Korea who now progress to the knockout stage. In summary, we are witnessing a situation in which long established, often European, teams are being defeated by Asian up and coming footballing nations. Hence we see Germany, Belgium, Portugal out of the competition, their places taken by the likes of Japan and South Korea. The other massive talking point is the role of VAR which is now causing as many problems as it appeared to solve. We are arriving at a situation such as the infamous Japan ball (in the ball ‘may’ or ‘may not’ have been judged to have crossed the deadball line) that would have been called ‘out’ by 99% of referees, linesmen and casual observers is now being being ruled ‘in’ with devastating consequences. But it does make the whole of World Cup both interesting and unpredictable.
Today as soon as we woke up, we realised that the weather had drifted somewhat colder, so we had to ensure that we had lots of warm clothing to face the day. We picked up the newspaper and then made our way to the park, wondering whether it was too cold to actually sit down. On our perambulation through the park, we met with some of our park friends we had not seen for a few weeks and we chatted about her neighbour who we both knew. The neighbour had been widowed just before the pandemic struck and we went along to the funeral of her husband to whom we tried to give some advice and consolation about the cancer which killed him all too quickly. Anyway, the neighbour had met a soulmate in the golf club which she attended regularly and despite the 16 year difference in their ages, we were informed that they were to be married in the spring. We carried on our way and eventually decided to brave the park bench but it was decidedly cold so we kept our sit on the bench to a minimum, gulping down our coffee and then walking quite rapidly to seek the comfort of the car. As soon as we got in, we made ourselves a ‘cuppa soup’ of some packet soup we already had in stock and this was very welcome and filled a gap before lunch.
Just before lunch, I made contact with the Bank with whom we are having dealings and (eventually) got through to a person who was quite helpful and who promised to send me a link to submit the documents that the Bank still needed. No email arrived which I thought was suspicious but we broke off to have a lunch of largely curried vegetables (well, my mixture of onions. tomatoes, peppers and petit pois) served on a bed of low-calorie rice. Once I had a hot lunch out of the way, it was back on the phone to the Bank to enquire why the promised email failed to arrive. After negotiating all of the security protocols once again, eventually I got through to a person who after some serching located my details and it became evident why the promised email had failed to arrive as a mistake had been made in the email details I had supplied to them. So whilst I was on the phone, I checked that the email had now arrived and, fortunately, it was quite a simple job to upload the various documents that were still needed. Then they had to be electronically signed and all seemed to be safely transmitted. I also sent an email to our contact in the bank, telling her what documents had been submitted and that we were loooking forward to our forthcoming appointment in the middle of next week.
After getting all of this necessary task completed, I thought I would treat myself to watching the second half of the USA vs. Netherlands match in the World Cup. I tuned in one minute before the end of the first half and said to Meg that I would watch until the end of extra time before I made a cup of tea as things ‘often happened’ the the last minute or so of a half on a football match. There happened to be one minute of extra time and about 45 secods of the way through it, as I thought might happen, the Netherlands scored a second goal, doubling their lead. I then thought I would watch the whole of the second half, knowing that the USA would have to score three times to win. In practice, the USA did get one goal back after the Netherlands had played a little dangerously but then the Netherlands scored a third goal and that sealed the fate of the Americans (I am pleased to say)
We hear tonight that the footballing legend, Pele, is in hospital after the chemotherapy he was having to combat colon cancer was failing to have much more effect. Although he reports that he is feeling strong, nonetheless it looks as though he will now be receiving end-of-life palliative care in a Brazilian hospital. He is receiving good wishes from all over the world, including the English captain (and, no doubt, many others) This reminds of me of a story that I read in a book called ‘Great Footballing Anecdotes’ which was being remaindered in a local bookshop. In a local football match, one player received a blow to the head and was being treated by the side of the pitch with about two minutes left to play. The manager was desperate to get the player back on the pitch to either win or save the match and urged the trainer to get the player back on the field. The trainer replied that the player had only just recovered consciousness and didn’t know who he was, to which the manager had responded by saying ‘Tell him that he’s Pele and get him back on the pitch‘ To true footballing fans, Messi has just appeared in his 1,000th game and won the game for Argentina (against Australia) with what is being descibed as a moment of true magic.
It really was quite bitterly cold when I got up this morning, but nonetheless I thought I still persist in my usal routine of walking down early to collect the Sunday newspaper. I did take the precaution of wearing at least two jumpers and an extra pair of socks and I put on my boots rather than my usual walking shoes. When I got back, it was time for the Laura Kuennsberg politics show which was focused almost entirely on the ‘Online Safety Bill’ which is being introduced back into Parliament tomorrow, having been several years in the drafting. The bill is likely to have a rocky passage through both the Commons and the Lords because some of its provisions smack of censorship and are bitterly opposed by the libertarian lobby whilst others feel that provisions that have been dropped to make internet companies responsible for ‘harmful but not illegal’ have certainly weakened the bill as a whole. So, we shall have to see how this bill progresses and whether it will prove to be a toothless tiger.
Meg stayed in bed whilst I was getting the newspapers this morning and slept in somewhat so the rest of our morning was a bit delayed. Whilst Meg was eating her breakfast in front of the TV, I was busy trying to stitch together some music .mp3 files into a composite whole. I had prevously downloaded some bits of Mozart piano sonatas which I assumed would play as a group once I had the files highlighted and put in the direction of the Mac’s Music Player but for some reason, the list of files stopped playing after the first. I tried two online resources that advertised that they would ‘stitch’ together .mp3 files into a composite whole and both of these appeared to fail (i.e. they did produce a composite file which did not actually play). But my efforts were rewarded with the third source that I chose so I now have achieved what I wanted, which was a continuous play of the sonatas. We then pressed ahead with cooking the Sunday lunch of gammon, cavolo nero and baked potato and settled down for what I thought might be quite an entertaining afternoon. I had seen a 1940’s film advertised which was ‘The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp‘ and we thought that this might be quite entertaining – in the event, it was completely ‘missable’ and we abandoned the TV altogether and had a search for some films tht we could watch during the afternoon. I should add that most of the population are in effect waiting for the England v. Senegal match which starts at 7.00pm this evening (and where I have some foreboundings that England might be dumped out by a more innovative style of play)
This afternoon, we have been watching some clips from the ‘Yes, Prime Minister‘ series which is still funny despite being made years ago. There is a story that many of the episodes which are the most memorable for this series have more than element of truth about them. Apparently Marcia Williams, later Lady Falkender and another policy wonk whose name I have forgotten used to meet with the scriptwriters over a liquid lunch each Monday morning. The guts of the story having been communicated to the scriptwriters, they then wove a story around them and the rest is history. One of the most famous, of course, is when there was a visit to a middle eastern country where alcohol was banned – but the civil servants kept a secret supply of ‘hooch’ hidden away in the outer office. When the occasion demanded, they would burst in on the British minister explaining that the Russian Ambassador wanted an urgent interview – a Mr. Smirnoff. Another favourite was to say that an aide-de-camp sought an urgent interview with the Prime Minister and when asked about his name, the PM was told that a Mr. Walker, a Mr. Johnny Walker (or additionally, A Mr. Gordon) was available outside the office.
We learn from the weather forecasters that there is going to be a sharp drop in the temperature next week with cold blasts of about -8 degrees in the middle of the week. I must say that I am not looking forward to this with a great deal of enthusiasm but if the temperature falls to this low level, then it might be too cold to snow which is a sort of bonus. Of course, we have had cold winters before and I remember 1963 because at that time I was travelling on a scooter between Leeds and Boston Spa (near Wetherby) and came off my bike almost everyday. In fact, one got quite used to sliding down the road and then picking up the pieces and proceeding on my way. The first house that Meg and I bought was a terrace house in Fallowfield, Manchester and that had no central heating but we did have a sort of coke stove in the kitchen downstairs and, I think, a couple of gas fires downstairs. The upstairs bedrooms had no central heating at all but we did have a stone hot bottle which regularly dropped out of bed in the middle of the night, waking us both up.
Today is what I would describe as an ‘itsy-bitsy’ type of day. We thought that the weather was going to be quite a lot colder this morning so Meg and I made sure that we had plenty of layers of nice warm clothing on before we got going for the day. To get us going, we raided our supplies and had a nice hot bowl of porridge which as we all know is slow-release carbohydrate and therefore helps to sustain you right throughout the morning. We tend to have treacle on our porridge and supplies of this were soon exhausted but as we will be going to Waitrose tomorrow morning, we can soon replenish these. We collected our newspaper and set out for our constitutional walk through the park. We had decided to give sitting on the park benches a miss as we assumed that the benches would be wet (as usual) not to mention cold so we thought that we just do one large circuit of the paths surrounding the pond in the park which I would guess is about 400 metres long but I feel need to measure it accurately one of these days. Upon our return, we made our elevenses but had them at home in front of the TV and waited for the Daily Politics show just after 12.00 on BBC2 which is always lively debate and exceeding well chaired by Jo Coburn. Why I think she is so good is that not only is incredibly well-informed but incisive and analytical to boot. Moreover, by inclination or because of her training, she does not let her personality intrude over into whatever interview or story she is covering and this is all to the good. Anyway, we generally enjoy this show each day from Monday to Thursday and after it, I go off to cook our midday meal. We noticed that when we got back from our walk this morning, two of our neighbours had got round to giving us Christmas cards which I had hardly started to think about this year. When I complete this task, I tend to get the ones to be posted, particularly the overseas ones, out of the way first and then do the neighbours and the ‘delivered by hand’ copies of cards last of all. However, I suspect that this year I shall be sending fewer Christmas cards than usual not least because of the cost but also because many of our friends will be sending email versions if any at all.
Through the post this morning, I had delivered one of those ‘thumb sized’ USB drives which I am going to fill with music and put it into our little music centre which, as it is so unobtrustive, can be an almost permanent fixture. My first attempt did not achieve success as I had two large folders (BACH and MOZART) and perhaps the little system did not know how to process these. So I tried putting everyone onto the root, but this failed as well. Eventually, I put two large composite .mp3’s onto the root directory and the little system seemed to cope with this quite well. Not being a computer but only a ‘music player’, it depends what software ‘firmware’ is baked into the system, I suppose, but by a system of trial and error I am finding out what will work and what will not.
The cold weather snap will be with us for about a week as cold Artic air is being drawn across the UK. There is official advice being given to the general population, namely ‘Try to heat the rooms you use most, such as the living and bedroom to at least 18C if you can, and keep your bedroom windows closed at night.’ I would thought that in this cold weather, the advice to keep your bedroom windows closed is somewhat superfluous but I suppose there are always some people who are used to having the bedroom window open at least a little and are loathe to break the habits of a lifetime. The temperature today was about 6 degrees when we set forth in the car but we need to spare a thought for those surviving in the Ukraine. I read today that ‘civilians in parts of the country will be left without power, heating or water as a result of Russian attacks on infrastructure, and could face frostbite, hypothermia and pneumonia. Temperatures will get as low as -20C.’ So if we think we are going to suffer in a cold snap, we need to think about what is happening in the Ukraine where hostilities are going to go into a ‘winter phase’ as both sides find it difficult to fight when the weather is as cold as this.
The Labour Party are announcing plans to ‘abolish’ by which I think they really mean ‘reform’ the House of Lords. Whilst being committed to the concept of a second, revising chamber and loathing the hereditery principles which holds sway in the present House of Lords, the alternative is not completely clear. If there is to be a degree of democratic accountability, then a second chamber cannot completely frustrate the mandate of the lower house – the present system of practically ‘no whipping’ in the second chamber is actually an admirable one.
Today being a Tuesday, it is our Waitrose day as well my Pilates day. As we are by now accustomed, Meg and I went down to our usual haunt to see if we could hook up with old friends. We are well ahead of ourself this morning so we wandered down the High Street to get another opticians’s appointment for Meg and this was arranged without undue fuss and bother. We popped into a local ‘Health and Beauty’ type shop to buy some of the things we cannot get in our local supermarket. Then we eventually made it into Waitrose and did, indeed, meet two of our pre-pandemic regulars whose company we always enjoy. When we arrived back home, we found two magnificent wreaths laid out in our porch. These were two that we had pre-ordered from a friend who who lives down the road and who specialises in making them, primarily for those in the church congregation who would particularly want one. I am not sure but it may be a local tradition for some people to buy wreaths and then put them on the graves of loved ones, particularly if quite recently departed. Then it was a case of walking down to the Pilates class where the class was joined by another male class member who generally attended at another time. We men at Pilates classes always seem to joke a fair amount and today was no exception with me at at one end of the class and the other male class member at the other. I had to be a little bit cautious with some of my Pilates ‘stretches’ because my neck has provd to be a little problematic. However, it is just possible that an hour of stretching and other exercises, including shoulder exercises, might have eased it up somewhat.
What follows now is a World Cup story but not of the usual type. The match between Croatia and Japan, which we did not watch, had run to full time and then to extra time. As the scores were tied, it was evidently penalty time so we decided to tune in to watch the exciting part of the match. The Japan players looked both young and exceptionally nervous when they came to take their penalties. As one of them approached the ball, I remarked to my better half that he was going to miss as indeed he did. The Japanese did not score in three of their first four penalties and, in general terms, it was evident that they had not practised the art of penalty taking. The Croations on the other hand seemed to be quite relaxed (and in one case, over-relaxed as his casual shot hit the post) so it was not a surprise to see that Croatia won the game on penalties. But it was part of the crowd reaction that I found particularly amusing. The Croation flag (and colours) is a series of red and white chequered squares and some of the (male) Croation supporters had attired themselves in what looked like completely Arab dress and head-dress but the material being the same that makes up the Croation flag and national playing colours. This looked so incongruous that it impossible not to let out a loud guffaw when the camera panned over them in the course of filming the ecstatic crowd reactions to the victory. I wonder if the same crew will show up again when Croatia play Brazil in the next round on Friday. I might watch part of the match although I am sure that Brazil will quickly sweep Croatia aside. Mind you, they were finalists against France in the last World Cup and so far, a very small nation certainly punches above its weight. And as a little footnote to this story, in a second penalty shootout, Morocco has just beaten Spain which is quite a turnup for the books. it confirms the reputation of this particular World Cup as the revenge of the underdogs (or the up and coming nations, in any case)
No sooner had I got back from my Pilates session and was in the course of dishing up our delayed lunch, than I got a telephone call from the Bank which my son and I will be visiting tomorrow. Some of the documents that I submitted to the bank recently needed sone revision and when I got back onto my computer, I could see where the problem lay. As I was attempting to download various documents, I used the ‘Print to PDF’ option and assumed that the ensuing PDF would be the complete document and not just the first page of it. So I had to go and re-do several of my documents to get the desired result and am going to take them along as hard copy tomorrow as well emailing them to the Bank (their own ‘secure’ system not working as it should) I could have done without this extra work all afternoon but at least the efforts were eventually crowned with success and I am a little older and wiser than I was. We are having an early night tonight as I do need to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to brave the vagaries of the Bromsgrove rush hour on the way to the train station.
Today was quite a full day, as we always suspected it was going to be. My son and I had made plans to go into Worcester by train to visit the local branch of a bank to get a financial transaction completed. The meeting had been set up for some time and we had made great efforts to ensure that all of the relevant documents were in place before we started our meeting proper. The train station in Bromsgrove is only about two and a half miles from our house but we knew that getting through the town at rush hour was going to be time consuming. We had allowed ourselves three quarters of an hour to get to the station but in practice were about 5-10 minutes late as I did a final check though all of the documents I had run off. In the event, it was touch-and-go whether we were going to make it to the station on time as the traffic appeared particularly horrendous this morning. Then of course we had to get the tickets bought and the car parking ticket sorted out. It was a case of running through the car park and running for the train – we arrived on the platform some 30 seconds after the train was due but as it happened to be one minute late, we caught it on time. When we arrived in Worcester, we dived into a Tesco and bought some plasters so that a cut on my finger did not open up and drip blood over all of our documents and then we treated ourselves to a coffee and a cake near the main shopping district and arrived on the dot when the bank opened its doors at 10.00am. Our transactions were not particularly complicated or problematic in any case but it seemed to take a long time to complete all of the formalities. We had a little break half way through the morning and had to visit my own bank for one particular document and then returned to discuss the options we were offered (what the financial services industries calls ‘products’) and then completed all of our formalities. As this had taken most of the morning, my son and I bought a sandwich and a drink which we consumed in the waiting room in the station (out of the cold) whilst we were awaiting our train back home. I collected our newspaper from our local, friendly newsagent and then went home for a cup of tea and a debrief. Then I made a lightning visit down into town to make arrangements with a solicitor who we needed to complete our legal work. I took lots of ID with me but I needed to return home and make a phone call, which I did and now have an appointment set up for a few days time. So all in all, we have a good day and have a lot of confidence in the bank’s personnel who have given us a very good and professional level of service.
Tonight is the night in the week when we take out our dustbins and haul them to the end of our drive which is necessary as technically we are a ‘private’ road and hence local authority refuse collection vehicles will only collect from the end of it. I did take the opportunity, though, to throw away about a dozen VHS tapes that I still had, which were practically all operas that we had recorded or bought a least a couple of decades ago. Just out of interest, I decided to see when video cassette recorders (VCRs) had ceased to be manufactured and got the answer that the last date of manufacture was 2016. `The same source informed me that if you had a collection of valuable videotape that you still wanted to play, you could probably find machines offered for sale on eBay. I was in no way tempted to buy one of these vintage machines and have absolutely no regrets about junking the tapes I had which had not been played in years but, if I had really been tempted in this direction, then there offers of pre-owned machines on the web with prices ranging from £20-£40. I can well understand that some people may have some really precious material recorded on tape (which we do not) and for those individuals, I suppose the price is not too high if you want to keep alive a memory of a deceased loved one or a wedding video.
Another bit of sleaze is swirling around the Tory party this evening. A Tory peer, Baroness Mone, has been accused of vigorously advancing the interest of a company to bid for and obtain a large contact to supply PPE at the height of the pandemic. The allegations of impropiety have been denied but nonetheless, Baroness Mone is absenting herself from the House of Lords in order to ‘clear her name’. Meanwhile, in the Commons today, Rishi Sunak said he was ‘shocked’ to read allegations about Baroness Mone, adding it was ‘absolutely right’ that she is no longer attending Lords. So it does look as though she is being hung out to dry by the Tory party who did not oppose a Labour move to demand that all of the documentation surrounding the granting of the contract be made available for examination by a Commons select committee.
Today was a really cold day with temperatures at the start of the day some way below freezing. It was a day when before I went shopping, I had to engage in the really cold weather routine of pouring a watering can full of warmish water over the car windows to melt the ice and then driving off quite quickly before the water has a chance to freeze again. I got to my local supermarket a few minutes before it opened and then did a more or less routine shop conscious of the fact that next week is going to be a little forshortened as we are to see our friends on Tuesday and depart for Harrogate on Wednesday next for a little pre-Christmas break. Once breakfast had been eaten and the shopping put away, we prepared our elevenses and then made a trip to the park as things have intervened in the last day or so to interrupt our normal pattern of walks. It was particularly cold out in the park today but there were clear blue skies and hardly any wind and we made our way to our normal bench. For the first time ever, we had to spend some time removing ice from the bench before we could dry it off and then proceed to (eventually) sit down. The minute we had finished our elevenses, we were glad to retreat back to the car and then decided to drop by some of our church friends who had kindly supplied us with a couple of wreaths for our front porch. We were delighted to see them because, apart from actually paying for the wreaths, we had not actually seen them for a week or so and so we were delighted to catch up with some news. We exchanged quick updates about our respective plans for the Christmas period and we mentioned the fact that we were due for a short break but promised each other we would get together once we had got our immediate commitments out of the way.
The media this afternoon hs been dominatd by the sentencing (broadcast live in this country) of former US spy Anne Sacoolas. She has been sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for 12 months for causing the death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn by careless driving. Whether she was a spy’ or not is unclear but she was certainly the wife of an American CIA officer who was working on an airforce base in Northamptonshire in 2019. The facts, which are not disputed, is that the American woman drove out of the base and immediately started driving on the wrong side of the road – shortly there was an encounter with a young British morotcyclist who died of his injuries. Mrs Scoolas seemed to be granted immediate employment status by the US base and she then fled the country back to the USA within a day, claiming diplomatic immunity. The American system is that very, very rarely if ever, does the USA allow its citizens to be extradited in order to be charged. So Americans do not convicted of any crimes that are committed abroad and Mrs. Sacoolas refuses to return voluntarily to the UK, even though she admitted her guilt. After protacted legal wrangling, she was charged in a UK court and appeared by videolink from the United States where she was received a suspended prison sentence. We have come to expect this lack of symmetry in the relationships of USA with the rest of the world – the Americans cannot conceive of any of their citizens, however guilty, being extradited and then interred in a foreign gaol. So much for the special relationship! What was particularly galling was that after the video appearance, Sky News reporters tried to question Mrs Scoolas and her lawyer to which the galling response after the admited manslaughter of an innocent UK citizen through dangerous driving was to reply ‘Have a nice day’. No wonder the British family of the young man who was killed are absolutely incensed.
The country as a whole seems to be in a parlous state as there are strikes threaned wherever one looks. There seems to have been ongoing train strikes for months now with many more planned over Christmas. Of much more concern to the general public are the planned strikes by the ambulance service which would mean that if an elderly person were to sustain a fall at home, no ambulance would be available. However, a suspected heart attack and stroke victims could still request, and perhaps receive an ambulance service. Nurses on the NHS have voted to go on strike as have border control staff at our ports and airports. Trying to avoid a miserable Christmas could land you with an even more miserable Christmas stuck in an airport with massive queues and cancelled flights. The root of the problem is that for years and years, public service workers have received pay increases less than the cost of living (and therefore real wages have been cut) This year, on top of these cuts, they have been threatened with an even more savage cut as inflation hits anout 10%-111% and the government are trying to offer about 4%. Public sympathy has been mostly with the striking workers but thus may soon dissipate as the strikes bite really hard.
So we survived another cold night aided, of course, by an electric blanket, but Meg and I ensured that we had plenty of warm clothing on as we still have several more days of this really cold spell to survive. Before we breakfasted and at the most inconvenient time (I was dripping wet having just emerged from the shower) I got a call from the Fraud department of the company of the one and only credit card that I possess and only use occasionally. I was asked to verify whether the charge to the card from an organisation whose name was a jumble of letters and numbers and which turned out to be a ‘dating agency’ was genuine or not. The charge to the crdit card had been attempted at 8.29 this morning and was for £31.92 in total. This had so many ‘dodgy’ elements to it that it was no wonder that the Fraud department had managed to pick it up and refused payment. After ensuring that neither myself or anyone else in my household could have used the card to pay this organisation and for this amount, the credit card company immediately put a block on that number and are going to issue me with a new card immediately. Naturally I was both relieved and intrigued. I was pleased that the credit card company had intercepted this payment and prevented it quickly but I asked myself what kind of services one could possibly buy from a dating agency for £32, whether it included VAT or not. On the other hand, I was intrigued how it was possible for my card to be ‘scammed’ by whoever and how they managed to pick up whatever details they did possess. The last time I used the card was to pay for a Pilates group of sessions so I hope that it was nothing to do with that physiotherapy clinic where the Pilates sessions were held. However, this delayed us somewhat this morning.
After we had breakfasted, we made a quick telephone call to our University of Birmingham friend to consult where we might have our customary coffee together. We settled on the Waitrose coffee bar and had our customary friendly chat for nearly an hour, treating ourself to some discounted mince pies en route. Then it was a case of getting home and thinking about our Friday lunch – rather than having sea bass as we generally do, we had some cod in parsley sauce that was cooked in the oven for us. This afternoon we knew that it was going to be one of the first World Cup quarter-finals matches, nmely Brazil vs. Croatia. We tuned into this match about 15 minutes before the end of the first half and it seemed a pretty entertaining match – not the slow, patient build ups that we have witnessed in teams like Spain and even England but rather long range, adventurous passes upfield with plenty of brave runs at the opposition. This being so, we decided to watch the second half of the match which we did in its entirety. At the end of full time, it was a score of 0-0 so extra time was evidently called for. Brazil managed to scored quite a dramatic goal towards the end of the first period of extra time but the Croatians came to the match with a ‘never say die’ attitude and scored an equally good equaliser towards the end of the second period of extra time. And so it came to penalties in which Brazil missed their first but the Croatians missed none with the result that Croatia dumped Brazil out of the World Cup and march on towards the semi-finals. They will be a hard team to beat because in the face of adversity, they never, ever give up. The critical match for everyone here in England is the England-France game tomorrow night which starts at 7.00pm, just about the time that we return from Church but we will watch the match in any case. Tonight, we are going to watch the Netherlands-Argentina match which may well prove to be entertaining.
It is very, very rare for politicians to admit that they were absolutely wrong but that has certainly happened tonight. The former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted he and Liz Truss ‘blew it’ and got ‘carried away’ with bringing in sweeping economic reforms (from which we are suffering the pin, even now) Apparently, as soon as she became Prime Minister, Ms Truss said she did not want any opinion polling as she felt politicians were obsessed with ‘optics’. But despite advisers warning her and Mr Kwarteng that their plans would be seen as a ‘budget for the rich’, they were ignored. I do find it an extraordinary mindset to be surrounded by all kinds of intelligent, well-informed and knowledgeable people who tell you that you are mistaken but you think that you actually know better than all of them and press on regardless (with the dire consequences from which we are all now suffering) I suppose ideologues always think that they have all of the answers but the arrogance of it all still amazes me.
Yesterday was the first day of the quarter-finals for the World Cup and both of them ended in penalties after extra time. During the afternoon, we watched the Brazil-Croatia match where the Croations snatched a very late equalising goal and finally won the penalty shootout at the end of extra time. This may well have been due to the fact that the Croations are used to penalty shootouts and the experience may be embedded into their collective memory whereas the Brazilians are used to winning matches (and not being taken to extra time and then penalty shootouts) It was an exciting match with genuine end-to-end stuff. The evening match was Argentina versus Holland and was a much more dour affair. The Dutch were very well organised but hardly had any shots on goal but when they did, they scored. It looked as though Brazil would sail through after they went ahead about 7 minutes before the end. But the Dutch scored in the 83rd minute and then actually equalised in the 11th minute of stoppage time. This second Dutch goal was completely extraordinary. The Netherlands were awarded a free kick in the 11th minute jut on the edge of the penalty area and the Argentinins formed a wall to prevent an easy shot on goal. Two or three Netherlands players took their place in the wall (this often happens) after which the Netherlands free kick taker rolled the ball towards his own player in the wall who promptly turned around having received possesion of the ball and then shot it into the net to equalise. Eventually, the game went through extra time and then it was onto penalties where the Netherlands players missed two of their penalties of their own and eventually the Argentinians won the entite match on penalties. The Argentinians seemed to have masses of support within the ground which may have had an impact on the penalties as the Netherlands players were subjected to a loud crescendo of boos and jeers whilst the Argentinian players took their penalties in silence. Today, it is the Morocco-Portugal in one quarter final and the big clash between France and England this evening.
As the weather is so cold at the moment, Meg and I are not in the mood for sitting on an icy cold park bench so we decided, when we met with our University of Birmingham friend yesterday, that we would meet in Waitrose cafe again this morning. There we met with two of our pre-pandemic friends who we know often frequent Waitrose on Saturday mornings. So we had nice ‘catching up on things’ chat before they departed to do their shopping and we resumed our conversations with our University of Birmingham friend who we will probably meet in the same place tomorrow. Then it was home for a lunch of quiche, after which there was more World Cup football. In this match, Morocco were playing European champions, Portugal, against whom the Moroccans scored a goal about half way through the the first half. Then the Moroccans hung on for dear life, nearly scoring a second in a breakaway and repelling the repeated assaults on their goal. So this game did not need to go to extra time and the celebrations were wild in the extreme. Morocco is the first African (or Arab) side to get through to semifinals and is probably a turning point as well established footballing nations such as Germany, Belgium, Holland, Spain have all been knockd out but small and emergent footballing nations (Croatia, Morocco) march onwards into the semi-finals. To round off this footballing section, England have just lost thir match 2-1 to France (as I thought they probably would a week or so ago) The match, though, was a little bizarre – France had the better of the first half and England the better of the second, in general. But there were some bizarre refereeing decisions throughout the game which often worked to England’s disadvantage. One example was a clear foul in the penalty area on an English forward which was initially dismissed and only the intervention of the VAR referee persuaded him to change his mind and award a penalty (which Harry Kane unfortunately missed) Also, the English forward Bukayo Saka who is a player who dribbles the ball and twists this way and that and who is often unplayable and the French players seem to kick him off the pitch whenever he had the ball without much intervention by the referee.
I have found a website often some searching which allows me to download classical and royalty free .mp3 files to put on my little thumb drive and then play in the kitchen. Having downloaded the file, I often have to tidy up (shorten) the name and then use an additional online resource to ‘stitch together’ the various movements of a concerto into the total work which can then be saved on my thumbdrive. In the last day or so, I have managed to download some of my favourite Mozart being the Clarinet Concerto and the Piano Concertos no. 20 and also 21. This means that as I write I have about 3 hours of music on my thumb drive which will prove especially useful when we go on long car journeys (which we will be doing next week, as it happens).
Assiduous readers of this blog might realise that this is ‘Blog No. 1,000’ which is about two and three quarters of a year’s worth of scribbling. I have never been a diary keeper as such but when I was in Madrid, I did write a daily bulletin (‘Carta de Madrid’ or ‘Letter from Madrid’ vaguely based upon the veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke who used to write ‘Letter from America’ for a weekly broadcast on the BBC. I did a similar thing when I spent a month in Jakarta, Indonesia teaching IT on De Montfort University’s distance MBA program. Whether anybody ever read any of these documents I cannot say but as the years roll by, it can be reasonably interesting to remind oneself of the practical day-to-day concerns that you had probably decades ago. So perhaps the same will happen (or perhaps not) to this blog in the years to come.
Today being a Sunday, I get up early and make sure I am warmly attired before my walk down into town to pick up the Sunday newspaper. As I got out of the house, I checked that the couple of wreaths that we had commissioned from our friend down the road and which were delivered to the house the other day were securely in place in our porch. These are the only Christmas-like decorations that we have put up this year and some time in the next few days, I am going to make an excursion into our loft area to rescue the Christmas tree. We generally keep all of the Christmas stock in one place so that they should be quite easy to locate when the moment comes. When I returned from town, I settled down in front of the TV with a bowl of cereal to see what the politicians on the Laura Kuennsberg program have to say for themelves. When asked to justify why the Secretary of State refused to talk to the nursing union, due to go out on strike shortly, the response was to hide behind the mantra ‘It is for NHS Management to negotiate, not the Government’ which is sidestepping the issue that the Government of the day holds all of the purse strings which could be loosened if they were so inclined. By prior arrangement, we met two of our park friends in the Waitrose coffee bar – I think that we had decided that in this particularly cold spell, we were going to meet in the relative warmth and comfort of the coffee bar instead of shivering in the cold park. Naturally, we talked about last night’s football and then onto a ridiculous discussion about our little techniques in our day-to-day to save pennies (if not pounds)
After lunch, it was time to start thinking about the annual task of writing the Christmas cards. The first thing I had to do was to see if I had any of the sheets of labels of the requisite size and type and fortunately, we had enough in stock to run off this year’s supply of labels. Whilst I was at it, I ordered an extra supply of labels so that next year I will not have to beat about the bush but I will have the materials I want to hand. I also have a page of ‘news’ largely updating family nd friends about the changes in Meg’s health and finally I have yet another set of labels which extends the details on my normal address labels by showing a mobile number, web home page and blog addresses. So every card I write, particularly if I have not been in touch with people for a year, have an individual message as all as the three sets of labels mentioned above. I made a start on this quite large task because we really need to get cards into the postal system quite early on this week as we are away seeing friends the whole of Tuesday and then off to Yorkshire the first thing on Wednesday morning (weather permitting) The first tranche of cards did not go particularly well as people had moved and I did not have an up-to-date address or in the case of Meg’s uncle died. Incidentally, it is always quite a poignant moment when you come to the actual task of crossing people off your Christmas card because they have died in the last year – this does tend to happen once or twice a year at this stage in our lives.
A fairly terrible accident seems to have occurred in a local lake in Solihull. Although reports are still emerging, it looks as though people were ‘playing’ on the ice on a local lake and the ice, which could not have been very thick, had given way and several people were dumped into the freezing cold water. The emergency services have pulled various people out of the water and they required medical attention and some are reported to be in a ‘critical condition’ but whether there any fatalities at this stage has not been reported. By the way, it seems to have been a particularly foolhardy thing to do to skate on the ice which could only be of sufficient thickness to sustain people’s weight if it had been below freezing temperature for several days now.
Today I knew it was going to be a ‘crunch’ day for our Christmas cards as time is rapidly running out for us. Tomorrow we are going on a lunch-date to Oxfordshire whilst from Wednesday onwards, we shall be in Yorkshire. Thinking about all of this, I appreciated quite early on that it was an absolute priority for us to get the Christmas cards written and despached as soon as possible. Consequently, I decided to make this my major task this morning and I did thank my lucky stars that at least I had all of the materials I needed for the task. For many people,it would seem quite a simple task and I suppose it is possible that I am making it somewhat complex than it needs to be. Often though a Christmas card is the one way to keep in contact with lots of friends and neighbours and I feel the need to supply a minimal amount of information about what has been happening to us over the past year. I have one particular label which gives details of how Meg’s health is progressing and this I have done for the last year or so. Then I have another label whih gives all of those details that cannot be fitted onto a normal address label such as my mobile number, web home pages and blog addresses. Finally, I attach a simple address label that lets people have our current address details. I write an individualised little message which often runs along the lines of ‘I hope that we can meet again in 2023 as soon as the weather improves ‘or similar. There were some frustrations en-route, becase occasionally an address has not fitted in its entirety upon the gummed label and I have to rescue the missing part from an adjacent label and then cut it off with a pair of scissors and do a careful lining up and afixing job. I was delighted to get the bulk of the Christmas cards written and ready for despatch by 1.00pm but then I have to go and prepare a mega fast lunch before we are due to go out this afternoon.
This afternoon, Meg and I fulfilled an appointment with a large legal firm here in Bromsgrove in order to process some legal work that we are having done. This firm has been recommended to us but we have not used them before but nonetheless, we took along our two forms of ID which is increasingly necessary these days. We had a very fruitful appointment and were dealt with by friendly and professional staff who instilled some confidence in us. From this point on, everything will probably be handled by email and/or text message but evidently the first ever meeting has to be ‘in the flesh’ as it were. This transaction being successfully undertaken, Meg and I then joind the long (but not extraordinarily long) queue in the Post Office in order to buy our Christmas stamps. We had three Christmas cards destined for Spain and although, in theory, Saturday was the last day for guaranteed posting for them, we are pretty confident they will arrive on time (assuming that Spain dos not have the number of pending strikes that we do) In the meanwhile, we bought our quantum of stamps and were delighted to get them into the system. It is rather an off-putting, though, to hand over £10s of pounds, then stick them on a series of envelopes and finally dispose of the envelopes via the large posting bin. The number of Christmas cards that I have posted is somewhat down this year, more because of deaths and ‘lost’ addresses than any other factor but I am sure that the total number of Christmas cards in the system will be quite radically reduced by now, particularly after the last price increases making a first stamp stamp in the region of £1. Today seems to be the last ‘official’ day for the postage of Christmas cards so we are delighted to have our cards into the system as it were – hand delivered ones can now wait until a bit before Christmas Day itself.
The local news media has been filled with news of the tragedy when four boys fell through the ice in a lake in the Solihull area. It seems that one boy got this leg stuck in the ice and three friends came to his assistance. In the event, all four of then fell into the water and the extremely cold temperatures meant that they all suffered cardiac arrest, of whom three could not be revived and the fourth is still in critical care. I am just waiting to see if in the days ahead there will be calls blaming the local authority for not putting up signs warning people against the dangers of walking on thin ice in freezing conditions. This has not happened yet but I am waiting to see if this emerges in the days ahead. One has to ask whether the children in question were being adequately supervised by parents but more details will no doubt emerge in the days ahead.
Today was the day in our diary when we were scheduled to go and see our friends in Oxfordshire for a pre-Chriustmas lunch date. We set off in time and got ourselves well prepared yesterday so that the car was filled with petrol and, as we normally do, we took along some bottles of wine and also a specialised little cactus plant in its own little mini greenhouse which rather took our fancy when we espied it yesterday. All went reasonably well on the trip but we did have a holdup on the motorway with massive congestion on the M42. We did not bother with SatNav as we were pretty sure of our route of the A34 after Oxford in the direction of our friends. In the event, we thought we had missed our turning and got of the A34 early. But after a bit of fishing round, we fortunately located our friends postcode so that the SatNav could ride to the rescue and, in the event, we got quite soon again back on track. The journey on the way back is always so much easier as the M40 being a major arterial route between the South and the Midlands is on the roadsigns from about 30 miles out, meaning that you can navigate back in your sleep. Fortunately, the weather was kind to us and although we started off at 0 degrees and it became -1 as we progressed along the route, we did not have any ice or snow to impede us, even on the country lanes in the environs of our friend’s house. We had a delicious dinner of some specialised meatballs with cranberries embedded within them. Our hosts told us that this was one of the specialist Waitrose recipes so we must go and try it some time. After a marvellous meal and a chat, it was time to go – our friends had some business with a bank so they needed to leave in time for their appointment. On our part, although we are always sorry to take leave of our friends, we were quite pleased to make some progress whilst we had some daylight left as it can start to get dark from 3.30 onwards at this time of year. We managed to get well onto the M40 before the shades of twilight started to close in on us and it is always plain sailing once we get onto this motorway and we have motorway all the way to within about three miles of home.
Before we went on our journey this morning, our son who had arrived early to work in the study he still maintains in this house, located the Christmas tree and decorations that we keep accessible in the loft and we safely rescued them. Last year, instead of a family ‘genuine’ Christmas tree, I bought a tree which is made of entirely artifical silver branches. Although this sounds a bit tacky, the overall effect is very pleasing when it is compared with thoe artificial trees that attempt, and fail abysmally, to emulate the real thing. So after we had arrived home and had our obligatory cup of tea after journey home, I decided to erect the tree and put it in a customary spot in the hall (near a power supply) At first, it did look a little straggly as one had to bend some of the branches into a particular position and then, of course, there were the lights to disentangle. When I gave the lights a cursory look, it appeared that they were unifom ‘white’ colour but upon my testing of them before I put them on the tree, I was delighted that they were actiually multicoloured. From this point, it was a simple case to drape the lights around the tree and make some adjustments to cover any evident gaps and then admire the overall effect. I must say, the overall effect was very pleasing and tree requires no more adornments (being silver anyway) to look more than respectable, particularly when illuminated. I cannot now remember whether we did actually put any more decorations on the tree as we used to do with our ‘original’ Christms trees but am sure that our domestic help, when she arrives on Wednesday, might be more than happy to give it one or two little tweaks, Incidentally, although it sounds a little killjoy, we no longer stack family presents under the tree as we did years go. We feel that to do so might be an invitation for someone to break into the house and steal them. When my son won a scholarship and spent a year in a Mexican university, the family actually did some last minute shopping in the days before Christmas and their car was broken into and all of the presents were ‘liberated’
Whilst we are getting well and truly fed up with the current spell of cold weather, it looks as things may improve for us from about Saturday onwards. Meg and I have got into the routine of wearing ‘two of everything’ and so today, for example over my norml vest and shirt I have three sets of jumpers called into use and I still feel that I am only just about warm enough.
Today was the day on which we were scheduled to depart for our little 4-day break in Harrogate, North Yorkshire primarily to see the members of my Yorkshire family but also for a little pre-Christmas break. We had done a certain amount of packing last night but we judged it better to get up early this morning and finish off the rest of the packing whilst we were fresh, as it were. So I set an alarm for 6.15 and immediately leapt out of bed to get washed, dressed, packed up and then a bowl of porridge prepared. Then we managed to get everything done and set off at about 10 minutes later than our intended departure time of 8.30. Then it was case of battling through the Bromsgove rush hour (to which we are not particularly accustomed), collecting our newspaper and making it onto the M40 just after 9.00am. There was quite a queue to get onto the motorway system around Birmingham but this is not unusual. Although we had given the windscreen a good dousing of hot water to free of it of ice this morning, the temperature was still -3 degrees and when I tried to give my windscreen a ‘whoosh’ to keep it clean, I only succeeded in making the windscreen a smeary mess.I soldiered on, thinking about a place where I could stop if necessary to utilise a spare bottle of water I was taking with us with which I could have got the screen clear again. Having circumnavigated the M42 travelling north to the point where it starts to link with the A42(M), I was relived when I dared use the windscreen wipers again and by this time the temperature had risen a critical 2-3 degrees and the washer bottle now functioned, to give me a good clear screen. Needless to say, I was mightily relieved by this and we hit our half-way point, the motorway services at Tibshelf which is one of our favourites. There we had a quick drink of coffee and some jaffa cakes as well as a toilet stop and then we got on our way for the second and easier half of the journey. We aim to be in the little market town of Wetherby immediately after 12.0pm and we got there by about 12.05,parking in our preferred spot incredibly fortunately as a car was just leaving the row of car parking spaces which meant that we could visit our fish restaurant shortly after its opening. As a creatures of habit, we have the pensioners ‘three course luncheon’ which a homemade soup, fish of your choice on salad which we had asked for in place of chips, a round of bread and butter, a pot of tea and finally a sweet of ginger sponge and custard – all of this for a price of less than £15 per head.
Before we left Wetherby, we did a little tour of some of the charity shops but, in general, we saw nothing that we particulrly fancied. What we did note, though, that the prices of most goods were approximately double what we would have paid in Bromsgrove or Droitwich- I suppose it is a function of the fact that Wetherby has always been quite a prosperous little market town. However, just before we left we called in at the Oxfam shop and there Meg saw a lined woollen skirt that she rather fancied. For my part, I happened to see a trio of little oak nesting tables that I think will go perfectly in our little newly equipped music room, so the shop proprietor helped me load it into the bck of the car and then we journeyed on to Harrogate. We got booked into ‘The Crown’ and are gradually getting our little hotel systems installed. The room that we have been allocated is ‘interesting’ – on the positive side, it is pretty large and warm but on the negative side, the bathroom is down a series of two little steps which I am fearful about Meg negotiating in the middle of the night on her own. So if she makes a toilet visit in the middle of the night, I have told her that she must wake me up to accompany her so that she does not have a fall in the hotel bedroom.
Some of the dangers of migrant crossings of the English Channel were vividly illustrated tonight. A local fishing boat managed to rescue 33 people from a craft in distress and by all accounts there were several people in the water screaming for help. The official estimates are that four people have died but it is actually quite likely that the death toll is larger than this. Rishi Sunak has been busy unveiling plans to rapidly return migrants back to Albania and to his end he is securing the help of the Albanian government. There is a a great volume of media noise, not least from the government, decrying ‘illegal’ immigration but all asylums seekers and/or people fleeing modern slavery are presumed innocent in law until the point at which their claim for asylum is rejected.There is a lot of playing to the ‘right wing gallery’ on this issue but whether these latest attempts to wield meaningful results will prove successful remains to be seen.Today is the first full day of our holiday and we both had a reasonable night’s sleep after our journey of yesterday. Having fallen asleep, I found that the TV was still broadasting but the control did not turn it off, from which I concluded that the batteries in the control must be exhausted. I found a way to do this manually and was not, therefore, kept awake all during the night with a recalcitrant TV. So Meg and I made our way downstairs to have a breakfast before the rush although there is no way of knowing how busy the hotel actually is this week. We called in at reception with our remote who fairly promptly inserted some new batteries for us which means that now we have one tribulation of life removed. Then we had a traditional cooked breakfast, such as we have had on our previous two stays here so we know what to expect. The last time we stayed in the hotel, a Japanese guest was evidently intrigued by the toasting machine, the like of which he had never seen before. It was one of those machines where the toast makes a slow jouney under infra-red lights only to be disgorged a minute or so later in various stages of over or under-doneness. I explained to my fellow guest that whilst the Jananese culture to world culture were excellent motor vehicles and electronics, that of Great Britain is the design (if not the manufacture) of machines to make breakfast toast. After we had breakfasted and prepared to sally forth, I made a visit to the newsagents (McColls) recently taken over and saved by Morrisons and bought some iron rations (milk for our cups of tea, biscuits for the occasional nibble and so on) Then we departed to see my sister who lives in Knaresborough which, although only three miles distant, can take some time to reach if the traffic is very severe. We spent a couple of very happy hours with my sister mulling over family matters. When I was about to sit on the settee, my sister exclaimed ‘Be careful not to sit on Bruce’, Bruce being what is now in the terminology is called a ‘Remembrance bear’ of a ‘Memory bear’. I do now know how or when the concept of memory bears started but the basic idea is very simple. You send off to the firm that specialises in these products some sample of the much loved or familiar clothing associated with the loved one (spouse, child) and the firm then make suitable items of clothing for the bear. In my sister’s case, her husband’s name was embroidered onto one of the bear’s feet. The bear can then sit in a favourite armchair and part of the loved one has a visible presence. This is particular salience because it is a year and a week since my sister’s husband died and therefore the Remembrance (or Memory) Bear has a particular pride of place at this time.
After lunch, Meg and I visited an ‘eating place’ on the outskirts of Knareborough. What started as a garden centre now has a restaurant attached to it selling really good meals. We have visited this establishment once before with my sister and a niece the last time we stayed and thought we would give it another visit. As it is so popular, one often has to wait, but in our case it was only about 10 minutes and we spent some time chatting with a Geordie couple also here on a family visit I imagine. They were talking about a local cultural hero, Grace Darling, who was Victorian heroine. She achieved great fame for the part she played in the rescue of survivors from a wrecked merchant ship in 1838. Born in 1815, Grace heroically helped to rescue survivors from the Forfarshire, a vessel travelling from Hull to Dundee, which was wrecked on the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland. Together with her father, who was a local lighthouse keeper, she rowed out in a tiny boat amidst the most turbulent of seas and eventually rescued nine people in total – tragically, she died of TB only about three years later. Now my first girlfriend when I was about 15 had the surname of ‘Horsley’ and she always maintained that she was a distant relative of Grace Darling. I must confess that at that age I di not pay as much as attention as I should to this story as my attention was directed elsewhere. But today, with the benefit of Wikipedia and other internet resources, I have discovered that the maiden name of Grace Darling’s mother was indeed, ‘Horsley’ and one of her brothers was given that as a middle name. However, I am now pretty certain that my first girlfriend’s recollections of the family history passed down to her was not at all fanciful but seemed rooted in a strong historical reality. I think that when I consulted the web this afternoon,my first reaction to myself was to say ‘Well, I never!’. We had a wonderful meal in the restaurant and then returned to the hotel to spend a quiet afternoon before we venture forth tomorrow morning, probably into the streets of Harrogate town itself.
Meg and I had a pretty comfortable night last night. What absolutely ‘saved our bacon’ was that we espied in a little space next to the wardrobe in our hotel room one of those oil-filled portable radiators which I pressed into use in the centre of the room. In a large room this certainly helped to supplement the one radiator we had in the room underneath the window and it meant that by the late evening the warm, if not hot, room was certainly warm enough to make sure that we had a pleasant night’s sleep. So we woke up just before 7.00am which is a perfect time to have a cup of tea and slowly get ourselves into gear for the day. We had our customary filling breakfast for the day and then set forth to see what the streets of Harrogate had to offer. We could not resist the lure of some of the charity shops and noted that the prices were of the order of 50% greater than we are used to in the West Midlands but perhaps that is a reflection of Harrogate life. We made our stages to a coffee shop run by Italians which is almost ‘creme-de-la-creme’ but in a more folksy way. We made our way up a very steep flight of stairs to the upstairs room but were greeted by what looked a huge television screen which was just showing the detail of a burning log fire. It certainly made you feel warm, although the effect was evidently psychological. We treated ourselves to some capucchinos and home-made pastries, served to us by an interesting Polish lady. We exchanged our observations of what it is like to feel Polish cold as opposed to Yorkshire cold but we are both relieved that better weather is on the way by Sunday. Then we found our way into a ‘Scope’ shop where we wondered which of two jumpers we might buy for Meg. Another customer and the shop assistant were extraordinarily helpful and eventually we settled on one of those jumpers which looks better on than off and which is a longer length than normal so it helps to keep one’s nether regions warm. Then we made our way to Marks and Spencer where we bought a gift voucher as a Christmas present for our loyal and hardworking domestic help. As we were making progress through the store, Meg admired the look of a jumper and it did look rather fetching but at £175.00 per item we were not unduly tempted. We did, on our peregrinations throughout the charity shops, buy one interesting item from an Oxfam shop which is going to be a surprise present and which we are sure is going to be appreciated. We made our way to a little Chinese restaurant we have have often frequented in the middle of Harrogate as we wanted just a simple, light meal as we knew we were going to have a more extensive afternoon tea this afternoon. After we had relished a simple sweet and sour pork, we started to make tracks for the hotel but on the way home, I wanted to buy one particular cosmetic item which I had forgotten to pack last Wednesday morning. Vanity prohibits my mentioning the nature of the item but when we enquired in Boots, the chemists, we were quoted a price of £27.00. When we exclaimed that this was far too much, we were directed to a cosmetics and beauty shop across the road where we bought the desired item for 69p! Then we made our back to the hotel for a swift cup of tea before we set out for the afternoon.
For my sister’s 80th birthday last August, I treated her and several other family members to a speial ‘afternoon tea’ in ‘The Crown‘ which is the hotel in which we are lodged in Harrogate. By way of a Christmas present, we thought we would repeat the afternoon tea idea and once I had secured my sister’s assent to this idea, we made a booking with the hotel. This afternoon, Meg and I set off in plenty of time to pick up my sister in our car from Knaresborough. We arrived on the dot of the appointed time and then got my sister and her ‘wheeled walker’ into the boot of the car and then set off for Harrogate. Fortunately, the reserved parking space is incredibly useful for us at the hotel and so we all sat down at the appointed time and enjoyed out tea of Earl Grey, tasty little sandwiches and an assortment of dainty pastries and sweetmeats. Munching our way though this little lot took us some time and when we had eaten our fill, it was time for us to transport my sister back to Knaresborough and for us to return to the hotel. I must say that the hotel was full of Christmas spirit as there were Christmas trees and Christmas decorations whereever one looked in each of the public rooms. I wondered whether the volume of Christms trees deployed in the hotel including those outside might approach the number of 100. Tomorrow, we will see my sister for the third day running (which must be some sort of record) as we are due to go round to one of her daughters in the afternoon where we have been invited to a family ‘at home’ of mulled wine and mince pies and we should see a lot of other other family members there as well. So the whole concept of extending our stay from three nights to four nights so that we have a complete three days of seeing family members has proved to be well worthwhile.
Last night, in our hotel room, Meg and I were watching the last of the Hannah Fry (= well known mathematician) series on the science that lay behind every day objects. Last night, she was exploring the history and science of the running shoe. Naturally, they started off with the utilisation of rubber and the development of rubber technology with vulcanisation. All of a sudden, up popped on the television one of my former colleagues from the University of Winchester who I will call ‘Tim’ and whose forebears had been some of the founding fathers of rubber technology. This was all absolute news to me because when ‘Tim’ pops up onto our TV screens, it is nearly always something to do with the history/archaeology of Hampton Court Palace in which is a national (or even international) expert. But here he is talking about rubber technology and there was no mistaking his voice though his countenance has changed slightly after he survived a near fatal illness a few years ago. So you never know what surprises the TV is going to reveal. This morning, we wanted to have a very gentle morning as Meg was starting to feel the strain somewhat. So we had a hearty breakfast to set us up for the day and then wandered slowly into town to our favourite Italian eating house where we made the journey up the steep stairs if only because the upper storey is so indivualistic and comfortable. There was only other couple upstairs so Meg and I ‘bagged’ the beautiful old leather settee and comfortable armchairs before settling down to enjoy our coffee and pastries (which they warm for us, by the way). I mentioned the comfortable seats because on leaving, we offered the couple on the next table to chance to enjoy our newly vacated comfortable spot and got into conversation with them – it is that time of year when people are feeling a little more relaxed and inclined to chat. It transpired that the wife came from Manchester and actually knew the two districts of Manchester in which we had lived and in the second of which, we bought a terrace house overlooking Platt Fields park. She informed us that she had worked in Owens Park which was a large residential tower block used primarily by Manchester University and the street where we lived (which she knew) was in a little block of streets of terrace housing on the other side of Wilmslow Road and facing the park. We exchanged reminiscencies about we how much we had paid for our first house (£1,995 in our case, but only a few hundreds in the case of the lady to whom we were talking)
As we left the coffee shop we espied a really convenient ATM from which we could replenish our dwindling supplies of cash and then could not resist a tour around the very large Red Cross charity shop which was nearby. We located a dress of the appropriate type but with a flowered design and ex-Edinburgh Woollen Mills which was reduced to 50% of what was actually a pretty cheap price. So we availed herself of that and Meg now has one more thing added to her wardrobe. We knew that for lunch, all we wanted was a simple bowl of soup and we intended to go into one of the little coffee shops that serve light lunches near to the hotel. But as we passed one of the large Anglican churches in the centre of Harrogate, they were advertising soup and sandwiches so we decided to partake of this whilst sitting in a area in front of the pews and below the altar – rather a strange experience. The meal was so cheap that we could make a donation to the church becaue they distribute free food to those who need it in the late afternoon so we could feed ourselves and others at the same time. Then we went back to the hotel and had a rest and a cup of tea before we set off for a family gathering at my niece’s house in the afternoon.
We had a wonderful afternoon at my niece’s. Relatives came from both my niece’s and my husbands branches of the family and we had a table groaning with Christmas food. We took the opportunity to catch up on news with lots of family members, who treated Meg very kindly and we were both made welcome. We all dispersed some time after 5.00 and Meg and I made our way back to the hotel to have a quiet evening of packing up and relaxation before we start the journey back tomorrow. I always find packing to go home so much easier than packing to go away because one’s choices are effectively very simple – everything in the room (wardrobe and cupboards) has got to find its way into the suitcase or similar. Although we missed the football this afternoon, we should be at home in time for the World Cup Final tomorrow afternoon if there are no holdups on the journey. The weather forecast is pretty nasty for first thing but there ought to be a massive improvement throughout the day.
Last night, after we got back to our hotel, I realised that I had left a couple of crucial carrier bags round at my niece’s house so an urgent text message was quickly despatched. As she was out on the road giving her own daughter a lift to a baby-sitting session, I felt slightly less bad about her offer to bring them both round to the hotel so that we could have yet another goodbye. As her birthday and that of our son is in March, I am thinking of some plans so that we can meet for a meal in a place which is mutually accessible to both of us. I did a certain amount of packing last night by emptying the wardrobe, leaving the rest to be finished off this morning. We both had a reasonable night’s sleep, aided I think a little by the fact that I tune in the TV to ClassicFM and have it playing very softly all through the night. So we had our customary cooked breakfast – the last in a while – and then had some chats with some of the regular restaurant staff before we completed our packing and set off for home just before 9.30. We had our customary coffee break at the service station which is almost exactly at the half way point. We got home to a rather cold house but soon got ourselves more or less unpacked, the washing put in the washing machine and a bowl of soup consumed before we settled down to watch the World Cup between France and Argentina.
Before the game started, I thought I was reasonably well disposed towards the French team. As the first half progressed, though, my sympathies started to evaporate as the Argentinians played much the better football and the French team looked as though they had hardly turned up. By half time, the score was 2-0 to the Argentinians and we thought that the French would never score three goals in the second half to win the match. But 10 minutes before the end, the French striket Mbappe scored a goal and then added a second some 90 seconds later. So the game went to extra time and the scores were still level at the end of the first period of extra time. But half way through the second period of extra time, the Argentinians score a third and we all thought that was it – but towards the very end, Mbappe scored again for the French and so the score at the end of extra time was 3-3. So the match proceeded to penalties – then one of the French penalties was saved and another was missed whereas the Argentinians scored with every one of theirs. So Lionel Messi was extremely influential in scoring one of the Argentinian goals and being actively involved in the other two so at the end of a really exciting match, I was pretty pleased that the World Cup went the way of Argentina. Some of the commentators are billing this afternoon’s game as one of the ‘best’ foootball finals of all time which I suspect is a bit of an exaggeration but the final stages were certainly gripping.
Now we have one week before Christmas proper and I can start to pay some attention to what needs to be done before Christmas day itself next Sunday. For a start, I need to do the ‘hand-delivered’ Christmas cards to neighbours and friends but this ought to be relatively straightforward. On Tuesday, I need to take Meg for an optician’s appointment and also have to play Fr. Christmas which is an annual tradition for my Pilates class members. I have the supplies of damson gin/vodka bottled and all it needs is labelling and wrapping up in Christmas paper which is a job I will do tomorrow. At some stage, with having been away for several days, I will to get some food shopping done and we also tend to have a family meal some time just before the end of the week.
The weather conditions at the moment are a little bit contrary. After about a fortnight of freezing weather conditions as a result of cold air being drawn across the country from the Artic, there is forecast to be a rapid change of temperature as warmer air sweeps up the country originating from the Atlantic. But this might bring a very rapid thaw so it may be that road conditions become particularly treacherous with a lot of melting ice everywhere. Certainly, when we stoppped for our coffee break, the weather outside the service station seemed so much colder and icier than we had experienced on Harrogate which surprised us somewhat. Meanwhile, conditions on the industrial front seem to be equally glacial.There is a complete standoff between the government and various groups of workers, not least ambulance workers, border and control staff and the nurses who were on strike last week and will probably strike again next week. The government are, I think, seriously concerned about the action to be taken by ambulance workers and the army are being drafted in as well as hospital wards being emptied as rapidly as possible to try to avoid the impending chaos.
This has been a chewey type of day if you know what I mean – some things have gone right and some things have not. First thing this morning I had to do some work for the bank with whom we are in contact as they needed one extra page of a document. Actually, the extra page was not needed at all as it only contained general information which was not germane to the rest of the document but nonetheless I had to hunt it out, make a new PDF and sent it onwards and upwards. After Meg and I had breakfasted, we made our way into town where I picked up the daily newspaper and then we paid a visit to our local TV and radio shop in town, only to find it closed. It looks as though they close on Mondays as a rule but I thought that on the week before Christmas they might open to catch up on some of the Christmas trade but not so. The reason for my visit was to pick up another aerial similar to the last one that they supplied to me. I have espied on the web a system exactly identical (or so I thought) to the beautiful little Panasonic music system I had so successfully installed in our kitchen. As this has given so much pleasure and the sound quality so superb, I thought I would duplicate the system and upgrade some of my other audio, particularly as one of my Pure DAB radios has turned belly up after about 10-12 years. With the assistance of my son we got loudspeakers successfully wired up. So far, so good but then things started to go a little pear-shaped. I couldn’t tune in the radio part of the system without the relevant aerial and I can’t get hold of this until tomorrow. But on examining the system, I found the supplier had made a mistake and sent me the version of the music system without the DAB radio. I needed to look carefully at what the ebay details had specified and what I ought to have received and then sent a message to the seller. In view of the parts of the system that worked perfectly, I decided not to return the system, even though it was not as decribed but to ask for a rebate as the system received was not as described. Then I received an ‘out-of-office’ reply to my email, indicating that the earliest I could get any kind of resolution to my problem might be Wednesday at the earliest. Hence, one of those frustrating type of days. Later on this afternon, after lunch and a desultory viewing of ‘Young Victoria’ I labelled up and then wrapped up some bottles of damson gin. This is because tomorrow, I have to play my Father Christmas routine at my weekly Pilates session. This tradition is about five years old by now and it involved a surreptitious change into a Father Christmas outfit followed by a distribution of supples of damson gin and Christmas cards.
Tomorrow might turn out to be quite a busy day. Meg has a trip booked at the opticians earlier in the day and then I have course I need to try and acquire an aerial and get my Pilates session done and dusted. We noticed this afternoon that one or two large removal vans had turned up outside the bungalow that faces us across the communal green area so it looks as though the house that has been on the market for about nine months now has been well and truly sold. Later on tomorrow, once the new neighbours have had a chance to turn themselves around, I am going to pop over and make some introductions. When I have a few moments spare, I must turn my hand to writing the ‘local’ Christmas cards but this job should not prove to be too onerous.
Today’s big political story is the Government’s victory in the High Court, which ruled that the Government’s Rwanda policy was legal. The Government expressed extreme satisfaction on hearing this result which resulted from the last minute halting of the very first flight to Rwanda with eight deportees aboard. But it is one of those judgements in which both sides can claim a measure of victory. The campaigners against the Rwanda policy can only have been pleased that the High Court ruled that the individual cases of the eight deportees had not been fully considered by the Home Secretary and ruled that a further reconsideration should take place. No doubt this will go to the Court of Appeal and to the Supreme Courst and will no doubt run and run. Although Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has claimed that the High Court completely vindicates the government’s policy, the actual deportation of individuals to Rwanda may be weeks or even months away. Finally, the Government has started legal proceedings against the firm allegedly linked to Baroness Michelle Mone at centre of PPE supply row and it appears probably that this particular Tory peer has now been hung out to dry. Again, this might be a case where the government appears to talk tough but resolution of the problem may be weeks or months away.
Today has been a full day but we have managed to pack a fair bit into it. The most important thing is that we had an appointment with the optician fairly early this morning and this appointment went well, with no significant changes to report. Fortunately for us, the optician knows us very well and has been testing the eyes of both Meg and myself for at least 10 years now, so it is excellent to have that continuity of care over the years. He was able to provide some words of reassurance and so will see us again in about one year’s time. After this appointment was concluded, we popped into one of the charity shops in order to augment our supply of Christmas cards – I thought that we had boxes a-plenty but I needed an extra supply not least to give to my Pilates fellow class members when I see them later on in the day. One of the boxes of cards was of quite a stunning design and I wish I had seen them before but it is always possible to be wise after the event. Then we paid a visit to our local television and radio dealers to see what they had to offer the way of FM antennas for my newly installed system. Late last night, I borrowed the very simple wire aerial from one of legacy sysems and put it onto the newly installed Panasonic and was amazed at the quality of the FM transmissions that even this simple wire aerial managed to produce. Considerably heartened by this, I was happy to purchase another copy of what is technically called a flat-ribbon FM aerial for my new system. At the moment, I have it draped over a radiator to give it a degree of warmth to remove any residual kinks in the system before I install it later on this evening. Then I received a call on my mobile from our University of Birmingham friend who was happy to meet us for a coffee in the Waitrose coffee bar as his usual ‘Men in Sheds’ (participation in running repairs to whatever people put in front of them) had packed up their toolbags as this is the week before Christmas. Whilst in Waitrose, we met with two more of our pre-pandemic friends and we exchanged Christmas cards and Christmas greetings with each other before promising each other that we meet again next Tuesday (the day after Boxing Day) and we just might manage to squeeze in another visit there this Friday as well. Whilst I was in Waitrose, I noticed a bottle of Prosecco that was being made available in the middle of all the other Christmas stock. As I know all of the members of staff so well, one of them kindly wrapped the bottle for me in a combination of red and white paper which was folded around the bottle and decorated with a huge bow – it really did make the whole into a very attractive gift. This is intended for our new neighbours who just moved into the bungalow just across our communal green area and we will pay a visit to them later on today.
When we got home, there was a bit of a race around to get things ready for my Pilates class. Fortunately, I had already labelled up and wrapped in Christmas paper all of the damson gin bottles to be distributed later. Then it was a case of writing Christmas cards for all of my fellow class members and then I pulled on some of my Santa Claus kit which I wore underneath my track suit bottoms. The journey down into town is a bit burdensome on this occasion because I have a rucksack with some Pilates gear in it, a Pilates mat, a bottle bag with seven bottles of damson gin inside and then a Santa Claus hessian bag with all my other Santa Claus gear inside. The routine is well established over the years. We always have about 5 minutes of ‘relaxation’ in the session before Christmas and I take the opportunity to creep out, change into the rest of my Santa Claus gear and then come back into the studio as the relaxation session ends to play Fr.Christmas, distributing my cards and gin to my fellow class members, my tutor and the two administrative staff as well. Then, of course, there is a frantic change back into more-or-less normal gear before it is time to walk home and cook a belated lunch (traditionally fish cakes on a Tuesday)
After lunch and a rest, we went round to introduce ourselves to our new neighbours who, as it happened, were just turning up in the family car as we wandered across the green to see them. We took with us not only the bottle of wine but a business and a Christmas card. As it was cold and dark by this time, we had just enough time to exchange names, make brief introductions and then make a promise to have a proper Christmas-time mince pies and sherry session (traditional with neighbours in any case) where we can get to know each other a little better and I can fill them in on any of the practical arrangements of our communal living arrangements. Then we knocked on the door of our next door neighbours where we exchanged news and were invited in for a very welcome glass of sherry.
Last night, I thought I would install the new flat-ribbon aerial I had just purchased from our local radio and television shop. This apparently simple job has its complexities as it involves putting the arms of the ‘T’ in the top corner of the room. I tried a variety of methods first involving drawing pins and then masking tape until I achieved the results I wanted. But the end result was no better and in some ways worse than the very simple and inconspicuous aerial wire I had purloined from another system. So I pulled the wholly erected edifice down and surmised that I was better off using a simple wire aerial that worked rather than a more complex and extensive aerial that did not. As a sort of compensation, I seem to get almost perfect fidelity on ‘ClassicFM’ to which I listen the most with the minimum of FM hiss (but reception not quite as good on Radio 3 and Radio 4) So after all my exertions of last night that came to naught not to mention the rest of the day’s activities, I was somewhat tired this morning and could easily have spent a bit more time in bed but as our domestic help was to arrive quite shortly, I leapt out of bed and got myself showered. When she arrived, we thanked her profusely because, in or absence last Wednesday whilst we were up in Yorkshire, she had put out some Christmas decorations for us and finished dressing the silver Christmas tree. Meg spent a bit more time in bed so after we had breakfasted we popped down into town, picked up our newspaper, made a lightning visit into Waitrose and then decided to go to the park for a quick walk around the lake before we returned home for lunch.
This afternoon was a quiet afternoon in which I busied myself writing the Christmas cards for local friends and neighbours. I then realised late on in the afternoon that I had to put the bins out and took the opportunity to hand deliver the Christmas cards to our immediate neighbours. Later on tonight, I need to do a little bit of labelling up of supplies of damson gin and vodka which will be distributed as little Christmas presents during the morning. Tomorrow, I need to get up fairly early and get myself outside the supermarket the minute it opens for a weekly shop necessarily enhanced by all of the extra Christmas shopping that needs to be done. Today is the date on which we experience the winter solstice which is when the earth’s tilt away from the sun is at its maxium and hence the year’s longest night and shortest day.I console myself that once Christmas is well and truly over, it starts to get lighter by about a minute or so a day. I was always fascinated by the way in which our very earliest ancestors managed to compute when the winter solstice was experienced so that the mid-winter festival and feasting activities could begin. Incidentally, I seem to remember that at some point in the 1950’s there was a concern about the increasing commercialisation of this festive period and a campaign slogan, used across the front of the mail that we received, was an imprecation to ‘Put Christ back into Christmas’ Whilst this sentiment is understandable, it is undoubtedly the case that early Chrisianity somehow commandeered Christmas and the Christmas story was superimposed upon earlier festivities. Christmas owes its roots to the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which was a pagan festival which was celebrated from December 17-25 each year. This custom was altered and absorbed into Christmas, and this allowed early Christians to gradually erase these old pagan holidays. Whilst the tradition of Christmas trees owes much to the Victorians and particularly to Prince Albert, there has always been a much older tradition of bringing green branches into houses and decorating them. I did know but had forgotten that in the Middle Ages, Advent like Lent was a period of fasting and self-restraint, all of which came to a glorious end on Christmas Eve and midnight mass. As we were coming home from the park at lunchtime, we passed some of our Irish friends who had their grandchildren with them, taking them for a walk. I asked the grandson who is aged about six if he knew how many ‘sleeps’ he had to count before Christmas day itsef and the answer of ‘four’ sprang immediately from his lips. I engaged in that adult thing of sustaining and reinforcing the Christmas myth by asking whether he and his parents had a ready supply of carrots ready to feed to Santa’s reindeers. I also pointed out that Santa appreciated a good big class of sherry to be left out with the carrots and the grandfather almost gave the game away by observing that if Santa did not appreciate a glassfull of sherry, then the adults in the household most certainly would. I reminded my fellow Pilates class members that when I was very young, I used to shout up the chimney to indicate my desires for Christmas presents but what to do if one lives in a house without a chimney, I am at a loss to say.
Today was a day for getting up early and getting all of the Christmas shopping done. So I arrived at the supermarket door at 7.55 only to discover that the supermarket doors had already been open for an hour to accommodate the Christmas shoppers. Nonetheless, the store was not particularly busy and so the shopping was relatively straightforward, apart from the fact that the extra Christms stock tends to mean that some regular items get displaced. Nonetheless, I got almost everything I wanted save for the fact that chestnuts were nowhere to be found and the store had completely sold out of its excellent and award winning mince pies. Tomorrow, Meg and I are probably going to pop into Waitrose in any event to have a rendez-vous with some of the cafe regulars, so that will be the opportunity to buy any last minute ‘forgotten’ items. Needless to say, the shopping always takes a certain amount of time to unpack and one has to hunt the space for the ‘Christmas overflow’ but I suspect that Christmas Day being on a Sunday this year somehow makes the food buying less of a deviation from one’s normal pattern. What struck me this year was the fact that some of the veg prices seemed ridiculously cheap – for example, a swede, parsnips and a cabbage were all being sold for the price of 19p. I seem to remember a few years ago that one of the local supermarkets had evidently massively over-ordered some of their Christmas stock and were actually giving away free pre-packed bags of parnsips as you entered the store. I must say tht I have known some horrendously crowded supermarkets stores in the day or so before Christmas probably in the 1980’s and I happy that those days have gone.
This afternoon was the type of afternoon when all of the normal TV schedules have been abandoned and the Christmas season is well and truly kicking in. This afternoon, for example, we were offered a choice between ‘Casablanca’ on one channel and ‘Paddington’ on another. We chose ‘Paddington’ which we have seen several times before but I love the jokes contained within it. I have always thought that ‘Paddington’ was not just for children but can be enjoyed by adults at another level. In the late afternoon we watched a ‘spoof’ Nativity play (in which everythng was designed to go horribly wrong and it did not disappoint) I just wonder of any fervent Christians will send in letters of complaint, though. Whilst watching the TV, I wrote up some of damson vodka/gin labels and later on tonight, they can be affixed to the bottle which can themselves be wrapped up. Wrapping up bottles is not a favourite activity of mine but you get better at it once you perform it multiple times. Tomorrow will be the day when all of these bits of Christmas spirit get distributed to friends up and down the road and after that I may be able to relax just a little as all of my Christmas preparation will have been done.
Yesterday , we witnessed the first of a series of strikes by ambulance men. There were indications that the government were secretly very worried about this particular strike (people dying is never good publicity) but it looked as though members of the public thought long and hard before calling an ambulance and hence demand in the system was down yesterday. However, today we have seen some of this pent up demand pushing up calls to the ambulance service and the next few days will be critical as well. The volume of rhetoric is increasing as well – the government (or rather Barclay, the Health Secretary, was particularly trenchant in his criticisms of the ambulance men in effect accusing them of allowing people to die to make a political point. Needless to say, the unions involved have hit back equally hard arguing that the government has allowed this situation to develop by refusing to discuss pay, indirecly therefore cutting the real wages of ambulance staff. So far, public opinion has been supportive of paramedics, ambulance staff and nurses but the government may be waiting until they feel that the public has had enough and the pressure of public opinion forces a change in the union’s stance. This is not at all likely and two further and more intensive strikes have been called for January so the New Year may well start off in an even more hostile industrial environment than we have at the moment.
I have just a final note on my newly installed audio system where I am getting really good reception on ClassicFM (to which I listen a lot) but some interference on Radio 4 and occasionally Radio 3. Last night, I conducted a little experiment and managed to improve the FM reception on Radio 4 to quite a large extent (i.e. elimination of FM hiss in the background) by the simple expedient of moving the aerial to a new position some 6″ to the left of where it was (and held in place by a map pin) Why this should be so I do not know and do not really care so long as I get reception within acceptable limits.
Today has been quite an interesting day. We allowed ourselves a little bit of a lie-in this morning and then realised that we were probably going to meet up with friends in Waitrose cafe so decided to get our skates on. It was raining this morning and not the best morning for delivering Christmas presents – nonetheless as we made our progress down the road, we delivered two lots of damson vodka and damson gin to some of our nearest neighbours and another three lots of the same spirit to some of our more distant frinds before making for our newsagent. I had written a Christmas card for him but although I remember writing it, I do not remember actually delivering it. The message that I put inside was something like ‘Thank you for all of your magnificant service during every day of last year’ and suddenly I got smitten with a degree of self-doubt.If I had actually written this, to whom had I actually delivered it? I just hope it wasn’t one of my female friends or acquaintances who was the recipient of the message. To show I am not the only one going a little ga-ga during this Christmas season, we actually received two Christmas cards from our Italian friend down the road. One was a huge and magnificent card received about ten days ago whilst the other was a more conventional card popped through the letter box just today so our friend, too, was getting confused about whether we had been the recipient of a card or not. I was pleased to be lightened of the delivery of my bottles of cheer even through the pouring rain and then Meg and I made for Waitrose cafe where we were soon joined by our University of Birmingham friend. We had an interesting chat about some films and other programs we had seen on PBS America. This is broadcast on Channel 84 Freeview and, according to Google, ‘PBS America showcases the best of Americas Public Broadcasting Service, with a rich factual schedule including landmark history series by Ken Burns (Vietnam War, Jazz, The Civil War), FRONTLINEs in-depth current affairs investigations and NOVAs science documentaries.’ When we have tuned into it for the sake of anything better, there seems to be a preponderance of material relating to past world conflicts and I do not recall any science documentaries but perhaps better luck in the future. After our friend departed, we took the opportunity to buy some extra Christmassy type things like extra supplies of sherry in case any of the neighbours pop around, some French vermouth which I needed to make myself a good dry martini on Christmas day morning and I found some chestnuts as well.
Meg and I had a fish-based ready meal which we enjoyed with ‘cavolo nero’ kale which seems to go particularly well with fish and then we settled down to watch some afternoon Christmas TV, We had just started watching a modern day version of ‘Call of the Wild’. I had not realised before that this book is one of quite deep meaning. It is a story of transformation in which the old Buck— the civilized, moral Buck— must adjust to the harsher realities of life in the frosty North, where survival is the only imperative. Although not a true story, Jack London’s novel is a fictional adventure novel. However, London did spend time in the Yukon area before writing this novel, so his descriptions of the area are accurate and realistic. The novel is now 117 years old but a cuddly, animal story it is not, nor is it meant to be. The novel is quite a savage commentary on modern life but we did not have time to digest any of the deeper significance of the story because after about ten minutes or so, the doorbell rang and it was one of our new (Asian) neighbours coming to introduce herself. Yesterday afternoon, we had bumped into her husband and givem him a bottle of wine and a Christmas card. Today, she was reciprocating but with a wonderful box of biscuits which we enjoyed over a cup of tea. When time permits after Christmas we promised ourselves a more intimate sherry-and-mince pies type of get together where we can get to know each other better. I think we are going to have an enjoyable set of new neighbours. They have three grown up sons all working in the area but spend a certain amount of time back in India where they spend some 2-3 months a year. In the meantime, when we intimated that we had aways enjoyed a good curry once a week when Alastair, one of university friends and flatmates, had shown us how to prepare a ‘proper’ curry, the offer was made to come round and enjoy a good authentic curry which they will make for us so we are looking forward to this. The biscuits which were the gift were a most interesting flavour – at first taste, I thought they were just ginger but they have another spice and I think that they actually might be a ginger plus cinnamon mixture. Later on this afternoon, I got our little cribs put into operation – one is modern, Indonesian made balsa wood whilst the second is a beautiful creation in a curved wooden design (vaguely like the palm tree in the Koranic version of the Nativity) which we bought in Chester cathedral a year or so back.
Well, Christmas Eve has arrived and in some ways this is a day of blessed release in that what has not been done will remain undone for the time being. The only remaining task today was to post various Christmas cards through the letter boxes of friends who live down the road. The card should, in all honesty, have accompanied the bottles of damson gin distributed yesterday but they had been ‘forgotten’ in the rush. Halfway through the morning, we got a telephone call from our domestic help who indicated that one of her senior elves (aka her husband) was on his way round to deliver a Christmas present to us, some of which consist of some of home baking for us to enjoy. At the same time, I managed to share some of the supplies of vermouth with her which was desperately needed for some cocktails but could not be got for love nor money at short notice. I also let her have some of the special biscuits which our new neighbours kindly gave us us a present. I trust her judgement in helping to decode the interesting flavour but I have a feeling is probably a combination of both ginger and cinnamon. After this visit, Meg and I made our towards town, delivering the last of the Christmas cards and picking up our daily newspaper. Of course, tomorrow being Christmas day it is a non-publishing day but I always think it slightly strange that the production staff on newspapers have to work on Christmas Day to produce a newspaper for Boxing Day. We had not visited the park and sat on the park bench for what must a couple of weeks but as it was a fine day, but cold, we prepared some elevenses and sat in the park to consume them. On our way out of the park, we met up again with a lady who we know by sight but whose name I did not know until I enquired further. She said that she had not seen us in the park for some time but we pointed out that with the spell of cold weather, we had tended to avoid the park and to drink coffee in the warmth of the Waitrose cafe as well as having been away for a few days. We exchanged some gossip about the huge new housing development which is now taking place on a bare hillside not far from her house – why this area was never designated as ‘Green belt’ in the past I do not know. We were both wondering whether when hundreds of new houses are built but the road network remains substantially the same, whether an additional 2.5 cars per household (both parents and eventually teenagers when they acquire a licence) might mean that Bromsgrove becomes one of the first towns in the country to be absolutely gridlocked in the rush hours with nobody going anywhere.
We had a simple lunch this lunchtime and then at 3.00pm I engaged in the traditional task of preparing the vegetables for the Christmas meal tomorrow, accompanied by the annual service of carols and readings from King’s College, Cambridge which is always broadcast at 3.00pm on Christmas Eve. My mother, whem she was alive, used to say that Christmas started at this point of time and on this occasion, I agree with her. The preparation seemed to be be concluded quite quickly and I do not think I have forgotten anything vital. I have tried to make the Christmas dinner not too big this year which is a constant fault of mine to which I admit being prone. We are going to leave a quarter of an hour earlier to attend the church service this evening as I suspect a full house for a change. The church was eventually filled to the rafters, as you would expect at Christmas and Easter. But we had a duo (guitar + vocalist) who were playing/singing Christmas carols. As you might expect, the service was longer than usual with several of the usual Christmas additions. Most Christian services at this time are heavy on symbolism and even to the convinced atheist or agnostic one can always appreciate the symbolism of the transition from darkness into light. In our church, this is evidenced by the church in semi-darkness until such time as the child Christ is taken from the crib at the back of the church and brought up to the altar (symbolising birth)and the lights are gradually restored. We were delighted to see two old friends who used to attend the Saturday evening service but have now transferred their allegiances elsewhere. One is a Geordie and the other a Liverpudlian and they are both great chatter boxes. I had the forethought to take some Christmas cards with me (signed inside but not addressed to anyone) and I was pleased I could pass them onto old friends. We returned home to a really nice soup I had found in the supermarket (chicken and smoked bacon) and then we finished off with ardennes pate and roquefort cheese so we felt we had had a rather superior homecoming to our normal fare on a Saturday evening.
Well, Christmas Day has arrived and I must say that it almost seems like reaching an oasis in the desert, once the pre-Christmas rush has completely subsided. We got up at about the normal time and sent text mssages principally to our family to wish them well. Once we had got breakfast out of the way, we spent a certain amount of time FaceTiming first our own son and his wife and then my sister. I must say that in our initial messages, my sister seemed a little down as she is feeling the loss of her husband quite keenly. Although she lost him about 13 months ago, last Christmas felt like a bit of a blur to her but this Christmas, she was feeling her loss so much more keenly. However, I hoped that in the contact with my sister, we managed to cheer ourselves up a bit. In particular, my sister gave me details of an advance copy she has just received of her grand-daughters soon-to-be published novel, which is due for an official launch in late January. I was read some of the acknowledgements and dedications in the book in which various members of the family received copipous mentions. To some extent, this was a source of consolation to my sister and quite an interesting Christmas present in in its own right. After getting detail of it, I got onto Amazon and ordered a pre-publication copy of the book guaranteed delivery and price after the official launch) My sister is going to journey up to Newcastle where there is going to be an official launch by Penguin Books, probably in a bookshop. So it will be an interesting read when it arrives – to what extent is there a bit of autobiography baked into it, I ask myself?
Cooking of the Christmas dinner is always a question of logistics. Fortunately, the veg had been prepared yesterday afternoon and the beef (our preferred choice on Christmas day) was started in the slow cooker at 7.30am this morning. After that, it just a question of when to start off what. Meg and I finished off our last little drop of genuine Manzanilla (type of Fino sherry) and then I started food preparation at about 11.30. I was assisted by recently discovering a CD of ‘good’ Christmas music by which I mean music especially composed for or relevant at Christmas time but not carols as such. I particularly enjoyed some Bach, Handel, Palestrina and a Berlioz favourite, often played on ClassicFM, which is ‘The shepherds farewell’. On the spur of the moment, I decided that we would eat in our dining room instead of the kitchen where we often eat when there are only the two of us. So I set the table with our special cutlery and lit some little electronic type candles to add to the atmosphere. My recently liberated little inherited Sony music centre sits nicely on a black plastic tray and is such is highly transportable. So I popped this into the dining room and we had some of our favourite music playing to accompany the meal. Christmas dinner worked out absolutely fine with nothing either under or over-cooked and no culinary disasters. However, I do have a failing to which I freely admit and that is that I tend to prepare Christmas dinners that are just a tad too large. To complement the beef, Yorkshire pudding, parsnips, carrorts and sprouts with chestnuts I did have some ‘herby’ type pre-cooked potatoes that just need a quick microwaving. But in the event, there was not space enough on the plate so this will will have to wait until dinner tomorrow (ingredients of which are all already prepared)
Later on this afternoon, I fitted out a spare wire aerial I had to the Sony system (having ‘liberated’ its own aerial to make the Panasonic system usable) and it worked very well. I then spent a certain amount of time getting the presets the way that I wanted – this required a quick consultation with the manual but in the event I got it working just fine. To be honest, I tend only to listen to three stations regularly so I am pleased to have this system working the way I want. I am now in two minds whether to keep the system transportable as it were or make a more permanent location in our lounge but I will have a think about this. I have to say that the fare on the TV today has been particularly dire – many of the comedy programms are half a century old and whereas in the past there was often an opera or a ballet on the TV at this time, it looks as though this year is going to be a disappointment.
I have not seen the new King’s Christmas message to the nation but only excerpts of it on the news. But already there is talk that praising the role of the public services at this particular time is straying into the ‘political’ I always thought that subtle political messages were conveyed by the monarch’s broadcast although not party political. It may be that the new King had decided to be somewhat less anodyne but a pity if the powers that be get offended at this stage.
Well, we survived Christmas Day all right. As the results of most of terrestial TV were so poor (and for some indiscernible reason our television refused to let me have access to any programs over the net), we finished off on the Drama Channel watching ‘The 39 steps’ adventure film. Although we had seen this twice before, the plot is full of twists and turns and also worth a look even for the umpteenth time. Today, the sky was beautiful and clear but there was quite a sharp nip in the air. We collected our newspaper and then made for the park. Meg was feeling the cold somewhat so although we had prepared a hot drink for our elevenses, we did one circuit of the park and then retreated home in order to enjoy our comestibles in the comfort of our own home. Lunch today was very easy to prepare as I had a lot of vegetables cooked yesterday that just required a re-heating in the oven and we had the remains of the beef to work our way through. After lunch, I actually quite enjoyed one of the many black and white war films which the channels are wont to show at this time of year. This one was ‘Sink the Bismarck’ and it was quite an interesting watch. Much praised for its historical accuracy when it was made in 1960, it focussed as much on the background planning as it did the actual operations in the theatre of war. Several of the actors who featured in the film had actually seen service during the World War II. One thing, in particular, that struck me about the film was that at the moment of destruction of the Bismarck, there was no overt triumphalism either amongst the crew of the attaching British frigates nor in the backroom planners, directing the operations. The film also portrayed that the conflict was not without loss as HMS Hood, then the biggest British warship, was sunk in the early stages of the conflict. Also, I had not realised that aircraft carriers were deployed during WWII and they carried a big cumbersome biplane called the Swordfish which, nonetheless, proved quite effective in softening up the Bismarck before the warships moved in for the final kill.
Almost inevitably, when the days are short and the nights are still long, the festive period is still quite reliant upon the TV to provide the population with some entertainment. Tonight, though, is is going to be the first of the Royal Institution Christmas lectures aimed at teenagers but still of interest to the adult population. The series of three programmes are to be given by a forensic scientist so these might prove quite interesting given the advances that have taken place particularly in the fields of DNA analysis. The newspapers at this time of year are inevitably a little on the thin side but one particular feature in ‘The Times’ caught my eye. Readers had been asked to send in alternatives to the King’s message and the published contributions were hilarious. The ones that particularly caught my eye were the contributions from Larry T. Cat, the resident Downing Street moggie wth gems such as ‘That man and his dog had to go. They were loud, feckless and sometimes flatulent’ Other contributions were published from Paddington Bear, Dylan the Dog, Meghan Sussex and Vladimir Putin amongst others. There was also a fascinating article which also gave one pause for thought. There was an account of a British biotech firm which is attempting innonative new approaches in modern healthcare. They take as their starting point that often in medical science, one has a person has become sick then there is an attempt to explore what it is that is making them ill in the first place and then search for a cure or a remedy to combat the disease/illness. The approach of the biotech firm was to turn this paradigm on its head,as it were, by posing the question ‘What is it about those are who are long-lived or well into their old age that keeps them so fit?’ They raise the possibility that they are attempting to explore that perhaps some infection that they had acquired earier in their life had so tweaked their immune system that more serious illnesses, even including various cancers, can be repelled or mitigated? This appears to be an extremely interesting and novel approach and I wish the firm every success if it starts to nibble away at what might be said to constitute ‘the elixir of life’ There is also the paradox that some people lead particularly unhealthy life styles instead of diet and exercise and survive into ripe old age whilst yet others try to look after themselves but fall at an early age.
At this time of year, there are often ‘review of the year’ type programmes and Sky News, for one, is attempting this kind of analysis. There used to be a programme broadcast called ‘photograph of the year’ or something similar and month by month the photogapher who had taken a particularly iconic photo explained the circumstances that lay behind their fortune in being at the right place at the right time to capture the mood or story of the moment.
Today being a Tuesday, we normally have two regular commitments but I have no Pilates class today, as my Pilates teacher is having a well-deserved break with her family. Instead, we knew that we would probably bump into old friends in our local Waitrose coffee bar, which indeed we did. First, though, we took the opportunity to pop the car into an adjacent car washing lot run by a group of Kurds and, anticipating that they might be very busy, we did not mind leaving the car with them for an hour whilst we had our coffee. In the event, the car wash was practically empty so we made our way into Waitrose where we met two of pur pre-pandemic friends, to be joined a little later by our University of Birmingham friend. At this time of year, many people were in a relaxed state and our friends were no exception so we spent a very jolly hour laughing and joking over goodness knows what. Some of our collective memories go back to the 1960s so we regaled each other with stories of some of the exploits of ourselves and our friends when we were young and fancy free. Eventually, we made for home and a rustled together lunch, some of which was the final consumption of the vegetables excess to Christmas Day and just requiring a quick heat up in the oven.
The quality television viewing for today starts at about 5.00pm with a filmed Jane Austin (‘Persuasion‘)which has good reviews in ‘The Times‘. This afternoon there seems a diet of ‘Carry On’ films in which innuendo is displayed to excess and which one does not particularly watch as such but have on in the background whilst one engages in reading or other activities. As I write, there is a transmission of what can only be ‘Carry On Up the Jungle‘ ridiculous in the extreme. For example, out of the corner of my eye, I can see a nubile young woman divesting herself of her clothes in order to go for a swim whereas they are are appropriately appropriated and then worn by a passing gorilla. On wonders what the audience figures might be but I suppose they were relatively cheap to make even half a century ago and there must be some people who have never seen them before and find them even faintly amusing. Incidentally, a very quick Google search did reveal that Barbara Windsor and Sid James had an affair that started off with ‘Carry On’ films that lasted for about ten years altogether. In her autobiography, Barbara Windsor confesses to quickies with a string of men including gangsters Reggie and Charlie Kray, Ronnie Scott of jazz club fame), entertainer Anthony Newley and Bing Crosby’s son Gary. She also had a one night stand with George Best about which she kept silent for at least ten years.
I have got to say that I rather like this time of year when Christmas Day has both come and gone and one is free to relax from the pressures of having to prepare for Christmas but before ‘normal’ life returns just after New Year’s day. I know that our University of Birmingham friend feels just about the same and Christmas has no particular attractions for him. I can well understand how he feels and I promised to buy him a ‘Bah! Humbug’ Christmas hat if I happen to see one. I only mention this because when we were up in Yorkshire recently, a photo was being passed around of my brother-in-law who died just over a year ago wearing a cap, complete with slogan, so I suppose he felt the same way. I seem to remember a few years ago, Channel 4 which is meant to provide a more alternative form of TV, provided an alternative form of Christmas entertainment for those for whom Christmas is a period of the year to be got over with as quickly as possible. This seems to have been a very good idea and I wonder why the idea did not achieve a bit more permanence.
There are some traditions, though, that persist over the course of time. One of the most famous is a short British cabaret sketch from the 1920s that has become a German New Year’s tradition. Yet, although ‘The 90th Birthday or Dinner for One’ is a famous cult classic in Germany and several other European countries, it is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, including Britain, its birthplace. This has become so much of German culture that it is shown every single year without fail but the interesting thing is that hardly anybody in the UK knows about it. No doubt a Google search will reveal it and a link to it. In the meanwhile, we have traditions of our own such as Boxing Day sales, not to mention the Boxing Day meets of ‘the hunt’ One observation that I read on this was words to the effect that if members of deprived, working class communities went rampaging through the streets hunting ‘vermin’ such as ‘foxes’ then the full force of the law would be brought against them. But somehow, the norms are different when it is the British upper middle classes, mounted on horseback and doing essentially the same thing.
The weather today has been wet and windy all day, but not particularly cold although unpleasant enough. After Meg and I had breakfasted, we made a little excursion along Bromsgrove High Street to buy a few things not available in the supermarket. We made a trip to the Age Concern furniture shop wondering if they have a small occasional table for which we have a need. As is often the case, the only thing we really fancied was already sold (and at a very good price just to rub salt into the wound) Undeterred, we pressed onto the well known Cobblers shop which had sold me a replacement watch strap a week or so ago. This had never functioned exactly as it should have done as the central spigot was just a tad too short which meant that it would not engage properly in its intended ‘hole’ thus popping out and rendering the watch strap (and hence the watch) unusuable. In the shop, the assistant confirmed our diagnosis that there was probably a manufacturing fault but rather than suppling us with a new watch strap just replaced the buckle at the end (which I did not know you could do). This now works perfectly and the shop replaced the buckle free of charge to us (they have an excellent reputation for quality service – I use them to glue back the leather band which runs around the rim of my leather hat when it works its way loose after a year or so) We then proceeded on our way and bought some cosmetics from one of the stores we use regularly in the High Street. So we proceeded back home to warm ourselves up with a packet soup in a cup before we started to prepare lunch. On our way into our house, we noticed that our new neighbour was bobbling about doing some outside work and so we seized the opportunity to ask him amd his wife around for the traditional Christms tea-with-neighbours (mince pies and sherry?) and they confirmed later in a phone call that they can pop around on Friday, to which we can look forward.
This afernoon, there was broadcast the full length feature film of ‘Dad’s Army’ with the original cast and although we had seen this several times before, it was the kind of film in which you can read in the background or what have you if you did not want to give the film your undivided attention. The scene in which two German airmen parachuted out of their stricken plane reminds me of story that I was told whilst I was resident in Hampshire in the South of England. The story was told that in the Battle of Britain a young German airman was shot down and the location of the parachute was located on neighbouring moorland by the local group of fierce women who provided a type of territorial defence source. These doughty women made their way rapidly to the location of the young airman who who was obviously terrified and knowing that he could not evade capture, he put up his hands as the universal signature of surrender and cried out ‘Don’t shoot’ The reply from the monstrous regiment of women was quintessentially English and was to the effect ‘We do not do that kind of thing – we are British. Would you like a cup of tea?’
A fairly extraordinary event is unfolding within the confines of China, with the rest of the world looking on in a kind of fascinated horror. With China’s strict zero-Covid policy scrapped, the virus has swept through the country, leaving over 50% of the population of Beijing thought to have been infected – and the city’s hospitals are feeling the strain. There are a few videoclips of patiets lying on the floors of hospital wards as there are insufficient beds and there is an assumption that 50% of the patients will die of COVID. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the Chinese relied upon an exceptionally strict lockdown policy in order to contain the virus, trying to stamp out transmission by effectively confining people to their houses for weeks at a time. As this was the major thrust of policy, comparatively little effort was paid to vaccinating the population – the elderly were left very unvaccinnated compared with us in the West and the Chinese elderly population were in any case a little suspicious of Western technology, favouring of course traditional Chinese medicine. The Chinese authorities are now reaping the whirldwind and one wonders whether they import much superior vaccines developed in the West at the risk of losing considerable face or whether they are prepared to watch their population die in hundreds of thousands. Presumably, this is quite a risk to the rest of the world as well and several countries are already insisting on a COVID free certificate before it will admit visitors from China. The Chinese, paradoxically, are soon to relax all of the controls upon their citizens travelling abroad so we have the possibility of a significant source of infection to the rest of the world. The attitude of the World Health Organisation seems unclear and I have not heard of any announcements from them to date.
I got up at an early hour this morning and spent some time getting all of my Christmas card impedimenta (spare cards, envelopes, news labels, address labels, address books and so on) neatly put away for next year. Because getting the Christmas cards is always done in rush, then I find that all of this has to be tidied up at a later date and that later date is today. I need to ensure that everything is ship shape so that when the season comes along next year, I will be ready for the off. Today was my normal shopping day at Aldi’s but when I got there at one minute to eight, I witnessed an extraordinary sight. There was a queue of about 20 people (mainly young men) and the minute that the store opened, there was a dash for one particular carousel in which a special sports drink, called ‘Prime’ was being made available in a special promotion. The special drink advertised as a ‘hydration drink’, contains mostly water added with vitamins and minerals and has few calories with no added sugar. I was told by a staff member that the drink sold at £10 but was retailed at Aldi for £1.99. This appears to have been a demand completely artifically created by social media (TicToc for example). It seems incredible to report this but according to Google, some people have been queuing since 6.00am this morning at some stores to acquire the drink and the queue has amounted to hundreds in other stores. The regular shoppers and I exchanged some mutters in which the common sentiment was that the world had gone mad, that people had more money than sense and similar sentiments. This should have been a fairly light week after the heavy Christmas shop of last week but as we are having neigbours around we needed to buy some types of party food and some extra alcohol such as a white, a red and a Prosecco to cater for all tastes.
After breakfast, Meg and I went on the road to a furniture warehouse which both receives and sells second hand furniture. We need a small occasional table for a particular use but when we got to the warehouse, it was evidently closed. It looks as though they may not start normal business for a few days so shall have to keep my desires in check for a few days yet. Then we returned home to have our elevenses at home. This afternoon, our son and daughter-in-law are due to call around so we did a bit of a tidy up before they arrived. Then we had an interesting afternoon, consuming some of a special sweet they had brought with them whilst we showed them some of the ways in which we had equipped and now use the room which we have now christened as ‘the music room’ My daughter-in-law and I spent some time discussing two outstanding documentaries that we just happened to see on the same channel last night. The first of these was an examination of the Bayeux tapestry in the light of modern knowledge and scientific research. By examining the tools of the craftsmen, for example, one can learn by what methods their long boats were constructed. The second program was fronted by Chris Packham (the naturalist) on the subject of Tyrannosaurus Rex. We now have the accumulation of much more scientific research that argues that this dinosaur’s history needs to be re-thought. For example, the absolute crushing force of the dinasaurs jaws has now been convincingly calculated. It is also probable that the dinosaur’s gait owes more to birds than to mammals and the huge tail was probably used as a counter-weight to the enormous head whilst it was running.
We have a situation in which travellers coming from China are not, as yet, tested when they enter the UK. It is now known that the main airport in the Italian city of Milan started testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai on 26 December and discovered that almost half of them were infected. So are we risking missing new variants by not testing people from COVID hotspots? The UK, which was led by PM Boris Johnson when the pandemic took hold in 2020, has been criticised for its handling of the public health crisis, having been slow to spot the infections arriving and late with a lockdown compared to other major countries. The big worry for scientists and officials is new variants entering the UK which could be more virulent and more contagious than the ones already circulating. My own guess on all of this, and it is only a guess, is that the UK will impose restrictions but maybe it is a case of ‘too little – too late’
Tomorrow will be quite a full day for us as we have accepted an invitation for coffee in the morning with our French friend down the road. We have a slight clash of engagements as we also got an invite to visit our Irish friends who happen to live next door but we will have to seize another opportunity whilst we can. We are then entertaining our new neightbours from across the green who only moved in a week ago so this will prove to be a useful ‘getting to know each other’ afternoon tea.
It was a busy day, one way or another. Very early in the morning, I rationalised one of those corners (is there one in every house?) where various things needed sorting out and putting away. I managed to rationalise a whole series of charging cables for mobile phones/iPads as well as a variey of plugs, adapters and other diverse charging cables. By and large, these are not interchangeable with each other so on another day, I will have to work out what cable works with which device. Then as it was a case of throwing our clothes on, collecting our daily newspaper and then heading for a friend of ours who is a French widow who had invited us for a ‘Christmas’ We were equally delighted to discover that our good friends, the Irish couple who happen to be the next door neighbours, had also been invited so we made up a very happy group of six. The conversation, jokes, reminiscencies and discussions about recent TV programs carried on apace for at least a couple of hours and then we popped home at about 1.30 in the afternoon. As we had been comsuming nibbles most of the morning, we did not need nor had we any real desire for much lunch so we did make do with a cup of packet soup before we started to think about the elements of our entertainment in the afernoon. On the spur of the moment, I did a last minute switch of two small occasional tables we have recently purchased to populate our newly commissioned ‘music room’. As a result of these switches, my heritage mini hi-fi system which I have relocated to our dining room to be used when we are entertaining now has its own little specialist table which is exactly the right size, and which occupies an unobtrusive niche and is a much better match with the surrounding furniture. The specialist little tables which I bought from the Oxfam shop in Harrogate now populate the ‘music room’ and the little table lamp which has an ‘autumnal’ look and feel shade now goes perfectly on the little oak tables. So all in all, although I was full of trepidation whether the switch would achieve the desired results, now that it is complete I am delighted I was bold enough to have performed it and I am more than pleased with the overall net gains.
This afternoon was devoted to a Christmas entertainment of our new neighbours who have been in their new house for about a week now. We had already bought a selection of party food when I visited the supermarket on Thursday so preparation was as simple as it could be. Instead, though, of balancing food on our knees, we decided to have our preliminary chats in our dining room and then, at an appropriate juncture, move into the dining room which we have recently tidied up considerably and where we can sit and chat with each other across the table whilst we eat. This revised plan was a great success, enhanced by the fact that I could have our newly music hi-fi playing some quality Christmas music gently in the background. When you meet new neighbours for the first time, there is always quite a lot of background information to impart and some of the questions we can answer whilst some (who is responsible for which fence) we cannot. I gather from the conversation at the end of the afternoon that they might be quite good soup makers as we were promised a sample of some parsnip soup enhanced with a bit of a specialist curry. Stretching back into my memory, I seem to remember that Baxters used to create a parsnip soup enhanced with a curry type spice but I may be mistaken in this. Anyway, I feel we have got off to a good start and I suspect that in the months ahead we may be sharing bits of our culinary tradition and delights with each other.
The media is naturally filled with the news of Pelé’s death who seems, by common acclaim, to have been probably the greatest footballer the planet has ever seen. The pundits are talking of Pelé, Maradonna and Messi but comparisons between them is difficult as they were of such different footballing styles. In 1958, he became the youngest goal scorer in the whole history of the World Cup and then scored twice in the final for the first of the three World Cups in which he played. Although the world’s greatest every player may have died, his legacy lives on. Neymar, the Brazil forward who moved level with Pele’s record of 77 international goals during the last World Cup, said: ‘Before Pele football was just a sport. Pele has changed it all. He turned football into art, into entertainment He gave voice to the poor, to the blacks and especially: He gave visibility to Brazil.’
This year, we have carried on with the tradition, well known in Yorkshire, to serve Christmas cake with a slab of cheese (preferably Wensleydale) on top of it. In my teenage years, in the the pub, the landladies used to serve this regularly to the patrons but I doubt the tradition survives to this day.
We wake up today to the last day of the yer of 2022 and I imagine that for many people, it is a year best forgotten. The New Year is always a time of good intentions, wonderfully expressed on some sports gear whch I saw advertised in the Aldi supermarket middle aisle a few years ago. I think that the caption read that ‘Exercise is for all year, not just for January’ and one wonders how many good intentions actually persist beyond the month of January. According to the long range weather forecast, we should prepare ourselves for another spell of freezing cold, Artic air during the month and we could well have several public sector strikes occurring at the same time and reinforcing each other. Many will have credit card bills to pay now that Christmas is almost well and truly over and one would anticipate that the amount of footfall that the average High Street will experience will be radically reduced and quite a few retailers may well go to the wall. Today, Meg and I picked up our copy of the newspaper (about which more later) and then made for Waitrose coffee bar. Here we met up with a couple of our pre-pandemic friends and then our University of Birmingham friend turned up by prior arrangment. Fortunately, I had taken with me some spare bottles of damson gin/vodka and a big slab of Christmas Cake which we had taken with us but which we did not want to have hanging over us indefinitely over the New Year. So we distributed our little presents according to who wanted what and then indulged ourselves in some of the luxurious Waitrose large mince pies which they originally sold at a price I cannot imagine many people paying but they seem to keep halving the price every day until their supply is exhausted so at that greatly reduced price, we thought we would say goodbye to 2022.
The edition of ‘The Times‘ is always particularly interesting at this time of year. They devote a lot of the Saturday supplement (which today conveniently falls on the last day of the year) to some of the outstanding political cartoons of the year, as drawn by Peter Brookes, the cartoonist for ‘The Times‘. Reproduced are the one or two really prescient cartoons that are a commentary upon the political events of that particular month. What makes the cartoons so interesting is that Peter Brookes tries to combine the element of two current stories into one cartoon – if you have followed all of the political events of the year quite closely, then you can discern the connection between the two stories. Fortunately, a little commentary is added below each cartoon to jog our memories and remind ourselves of the events in question. This is a publication not just to be flipped through idly but lingered over with real pleasure because each cartoon always contains some little details to bring a smile to the lips.
We seem to have had quite a few little presents lately. Our Irish friends from down the road gave us some little Christmas treats both to eat and to drink so we have something with which to toast the New Year. And when we eventually returned home, our new neighbours had very kindly donated some of their freshly prepared parsnip soup to us to we will have this when we return from Church this evening. We are not quite sure what to expect in the church service this evening. I am not sure if New Year’s Eve has any real liturgical or religious significance in the church calendar. On the other hand, the death has been announced of the Pope Emeritus Benedict at the age of 95. It had been evident for some days now after the announcements of the present Pope that the life of Pope Emeritus Benedict was slowly slipping away and so I wonder whether any funerial elements will be present in tonight’s service. As it happens, Meg and I were in Spain with a cousin at the death of one of our recent Pontiffs – it may have been Pope Paul II. We heard solemn tolling of church bells at a most unusual time which may have been about 7.40pm in the evening and assumed that it must be an event such as the death of a Pope. The following day, the Spanish seemed to have organised an impromptu procession (a ‘romeria’ it may be called) and the local population had all got dressed up in their national costume and then processed under a succession of banners and candles (which, mysteriously, seemed to be suddenly available for sale) and we all processed from the cathedral church in Santiago to the city boundary (at which point we left so we do not know how it all ended)
New Year’s Eve has a tradition well known amongst the North British known as ‘first footing’ but when we lived in the South of England, people had not heard of it. Just after midnight, a tall dark man is meant to run through the house, entering by the front, bearing a lump of coal and leaving by the back, probably consuming a glass of whisky en-route. As I was part of a single parent household, my mother used to simulate this by tying a lump of coal round the cat’s neck and throwing it out of the front door – through which it would hastily reenter.
Today has been quite an interesting day for a variety of reasons. I have quite accustomed to watching the New Year in on my own, complete with a small glass of whisky and my mobile to message New Year greetings to family and friends. Meg is normally tucked up safe and sopund in bed but on this occasiopn she decided to stay up and watch the proceedings. So we saw the New Year in together, drank our whisky and then I installed Meg in bed whilst I pootled around a little before finally coming to bed. First thing this morning, I decided to embark on a little audio experiment. I have discovered a CD hidden in my collection with two of my favourite choral works upon it and I wondered how well it would sound on the little BoomBox (CD player) I bought recently and installed in the bottom of a bookcase. The volume control was turned up to maximum and did not distort the sound but I wondered if I could give things a little tweak by moving the BoomBox to sit on a little stool nearer to our settee which actually gives me an extra metre and a half which certainly improved the volume of the sound somewhat. I was just wondering what the effect of a longer power cable would be as the existing one is a fairly standard 1.4 mtres long. My glance fell onto the bookcse and on one of the shelves was a bit of coiled wire and wondered what it might be. It turned out to be a power cable which was 2.9 metres long i.e. exactly my heart’s desire and I had no idea I actually possessed it. (How does one explain that, by the way?) So my little audio experiment ended with complete success and Meg came to join me on the settee whilst we listened to ‘How Lovely are they dwellings’, probably the most famous and certainly the most played track of Brahm’s German Requiem. By now, the morning was advancing somewhat so we made a quick oats-and-bran type breakfast as we we had intended meeting our University of Birmingham friend in the Waitrose coffee bar. However, our breakfast was (pleasantly) interrupted by our friend who suddenly had the thought that Waitrose might not actually be open so we decided to meet on our usual park bench, each bearing a flask of coffee. This we did and I brought along a container of Stollen which we put between us and all enjoyed. We must have spent a good half hour or more chatting away before the chill started to get to each of us (an occuptional hazard of sitting on a park bench rather than walking) so we all struck out for home. Once we did reach home, Meg and I enjoyed one of those fish meals that cook in the oven and I have to say that we really enjoyed it after the surfeit of Christmas fare to which we have subjected ourselves over the last few days.
The afternoon brought two particular treats, completely different but delightful in their own ways. I must confess that I am not a great listener to Radio 3 which can be completely esoteric much of the time but we do enjoy a rendition of either The Messiah or a Matthew/John Passion broadcast typically over the festive seasons of Christmas and Easter. But I noticed in the listings that there was going to be an hour long programme illustrating the music of William Byrd (Elizabethan contemporary of Thomas Tallis) with commentary from seasoned choristers who had an intimate knowledge of Byrd’s work. This was one hour of relaxing and uninterrupted pleasure (and justified the relocation of one of our DAB radios so that we could listen to it easily) Shortly afterwards we viewed a very well reviewed animated cartoon entitled ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ which was inspiring and philosophical and designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages. Some people do not have favourable impressions of this film but the artwork was stupendous and I personally found it absorbing and inspiring. So we had two bonuses this afternoon. In the late afternoon and frustrated by an inability to watch any internet-sourced TV (I only got a blank screen when I tried to access it) I pulled out the television to see if there were any evidently loose connections. I did not not find anything but I made sure that every connection was well seated and when we got the TV back into position, we found that things were now working. So absolutely delighted by all of this, we promptly got onto YouTube and got a broadcast of ‘La Traviata‘ up and running, sung by Renée Fleming and Rolando Villazon. This we have seen several times before but we never tire of it so we are basking in the tunefuleness of it all whilst we have got everything working as it should. Occasionally I have buffering issues when accessing YouTube but we are hopeful of no interruptions today and so far, so good. What an audio/TV filled day but one that has made today both super relaxing, enjoyable and memorable.
Today is one of those strange days when one is not quite sure whether the Bank Holiday associated with New Year’s Day has been transferred to the following day or not. Meg and I decided that we would make a trip along the Bromsgrove High Street but before we got there, we made a call to see our Italian friend who lives just down the road to see if we can get together for a coffee and some nibbles. She has had a bad cold of late but we are hopeful that in a few days time we can get together as we have a fair amount of news to impart as we have not seen her for an extended chat for quite a long time now. When we eventually made it to the High Street, it was no surprise that some coffee shops were open but there was a very mixed pattern in the remaining shops with most actually being closed today. We had just about got to the far end of the High Street when I received a telephone call from our chiropodist. To my chagrin, she was waiting outside the house for us as although we had her appointment on our planning board, I had forgotten to look at the appointment this morning and assumed that we had a completely free day. So we raced home and had our feet done, by which time we needed to prepare lunch in any case. I was feeling a little fortunate this morning as a day or so ago, I had made a speculative offer on a set of 6 classical CD’s (Beethoven symphonies, Fauré’s Requiem, some Nigel Kennedy and that sort of thing) for the princely sum of 99p and nobody else had bid so I won the auction. Admittedly I have some postage to pay on this lot but I am still very pleased with what I had got. This afternoon is one of those nondescript, dull afternoons where nothing much seems to be in prospect but now that we have the internet working on our TV we can browse the net to see if anything takes our fancy.
The media is rather full of scary health warnings this afternoon. There are now 100 times as many people requiring hospitalisation and critical care for flu then the equivalent time last year. It looks as though we are now seeing a double whammy of both ‘normal’ flu as well as new variants of COVID. One of these new variants is called XBB 1.5 and is causing some significant concern. Some studies have found that the strain is capable of evading antibodies from previous COVID infections or vaccinations so will this sweep the country? Meanwhile, hospitals throughout the country are reporting that they are absolutely in a critical state and two authoritative sources are saying that the number of ‘excess’ deaths due to delays in admission to hospitals may be causing up to 500 ‘excess’ deaths a week. This figure is a disputed one and undoubtedly, it is a difficult job to disentangle the relevant statistics. However,Parliament is still in recess and although the Liberal Democrats have been calling for an urgent recall of Parliament, it looks as though nothing much will happen on the Parliamentary scene for a few days yet.
Denis Healey, the veteran Labour politician used to say that ‘in war, the first casualty is truth’ This is particularly true in the case of the Ukraine, I suppose, but there is a report that the Ukrainians have struck at an army battacks in the Russian occupied Donetsk region. The Russians are publishing a figure of 63 soldiers killed whilst the Ukrainians are suggesting that ‘up to’ 400 may have been killed and another 300 injured. But a former commander of pro-Russian troops in east Ukraine who has emerged as one of the highest-profile Russian nationalist military bloggers has said the death toll was in the hundreds. Whatever the truth of the situation, it appears that the American supplied missile system which is incredibly accurate has actually wrought the damage.
Christmas time always brings with it the messages written inside Christmas cards (and occasionally emails and text messages) and it always good to get the latest news from those who you normally communicate with at this time of year. However, one rather depressing feature in 2022 is the number of our friends who have experienced quite severe illness recently. Of course, we are all aging together collectively and a certain degree of deterioration is only to be expected. But even making allowance for this, it appears that many of our friends have been particularly hard hit. I remember with some affection when Meg and I used to go off on Saga holidays for a two week (and occasionally a four week) break in January each year, to pull the teeth of the winter. One met many interesting people and in general our fellow guests were always lively and interesting company. But there seemed to be an unwritten rule that one never discussed health isssues because we were all of the age when things were going wrong with each one of us so there was no point going on about it. Those days, and holidays, are behind us now but we have a lot of happy memories of the times that we had.
So a Tuesday has dawned which means that we enter into our Tuesday routines. After we pick up the daily newspaper, Meg and I go to our local Waitrose because, in normal circumstances, we meet up to three of our pre-pandemic friends here each Tuesday morning. But today, everything seemed unusually quiet and none of our normal friends made an appearance. The counter assistant remarked how quiet the store was and the rest of the town as well, so that it appears that after the New Year holiday and celebrations, it is taking a little time to settle down and things to get returned to their ‘normal’ routines and rhythms. The weather was not particularly cold today but it was certainly wet and blustery and it seems that these conditions would be similar across much of the country as a huge band of rain sweeps its way across the country. So I made my way down to my usual Pilates class and, needless to say, after a gap of a week and filled with lots of Yuletide goodies, we all found that what comes easily to us took that little more effort this week. On my way home, I popped into our local Asda because I wanted to buy one or two of those ‘thin’ type calendars, one of which we hang up in the kitchen to record birthdays throughout the year and the second of which we have in our bedroom more because of custom and habit than any other reason. There was not a great deal of choice but avoiding Disney/cute kittens/puppies, settled on a National Trust ‘Coast and Countryside’ for one location and ‘Baby Animals’ for the other. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the day when our domestic help calls around and very welcome she will be as we have not seen her for a fortnight. Tonight, I might do a quick scurry around removing some of the Christmas decorations and tomorrow our domestic help and I can ‘undress’ the Christmas tree and this, too, can be put away until next year. I normally spend the minimum of time necessary to decorate the house so that clearing away the decorations can also be done expeditiously when the moment arrives.
At the top of the political agenda today is the most enormous pressure under which hospitals and particularly their A&E departments are facing at the moment, with a flood of potential patients even exceeding those at the height of the pandemic. The political commentators on ‘Sky News‘ are making the point that this is not a sudden emergency but one in which the demands upon A&E has been increasing steadily over the past ten years or so. The point is also being made that up to a third of the hospital inpatients have been certified as medically fit but with the absence of social care provision, there is no place to which these patients can be discharged. A lot of social care was technically provided by local authorities but their budgets have been squeezed and squeezed so much after years of austerity that local authorities can no longer afford to pay. In fact, many workers in the social care sector now find it much more worth their while to leave their employment in social care and enjoy higher rates of pay as a supermarket checkout operator. Meanwhile, much of social care has been privatised and is run by rather nebulous private equity firms who engage in a variety of financial dealings. One such is for the residential homes themselves to be owned by a separate company, often with headquarters in a tax haven, whilst the care home operators have to use a large part of their budget paying ‘rent’ for the use of the residential home building. The story is told, and not offically denied, that in the early days of the pandemic when it was thought that the NHS would be completely overwhelmed that the government called an urgent, top level meeting with the care home industry. The chiefs were told it was imperative that hospital wards be emptied as rapidly as possible with the social care provision providing the care places needed. The are home chiefs replied to the government that they would comply but it would cost (probably in the millions) The government agreed and paid over millions of pounds to the care home operators. Within minutes of receiving large cheques from the governmnt, most of this money was siphoned off into obscure off-shore private equity companies and tax havens never to be seen again. So the solution to this problem is to allow local authorities to run the residential care that they used to do decades ago, fund them properly, pay the staff the relevant rates to constitute a career structure and to fund all of these through increases (steep if necessary) in National Insurance rates. Of course, none of this is going to happen and the sector limps on from crisis one winter to an even more severe crisis the following winter and so on. Meanwhile, the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, is blaming ‘flu, COVID and Strep A cases which does nothing at all to address the underlying issues outlined above and for which the government have been responsible for the last decade.
Today was the day when our domestic help calls around and together we set to in order to take down the Christmas decorations. Fortunately, it was a case of ‘many hands make light work’ and the major work was probably the ‘undressing’ of the Christmas tree. We have managed to get everything we needed in a neat pile and tomorrow my son and I will make a venture into the loft where we store everything in a neat pile such that it is instantly findable next year when we repeat the exercise. In fact, last year once the Christmas tree had gone, the hall seemed so bare and denuded of light that I almost immediately went out and bought a plain but very tasteful occasional lamp which runs on an incredibly economical LED-based light bulb where the costs even at today’s inflated prices are a few pence a year. We tend to leave this on during the night time and as a daytime security light when we leave the house so it has resumed its place and its role in dark corner of the hall. Today, we got several Christmas cards which may either have been posted late or else got delayed in the stike-prone Christmas post. But another thing that arrived by today’s post was a little solid but extendable conventional solid aerial to go on our legacy Sony system to replace the white cord that looks a little unsightly, even if disguised. The new little aerial works like a dream and had a variety of connectors supplied with it to maximise the chances of a successful fitting. I find that in particular location, I get the best possible connection on Classic FM (fortunate!), followed closely by Radio 4 but Radio 3 tends to be quite a challenge (presumably because of the paucity of people who listen to it and therefore low transmitter power?) Because this aerial has worked so well, I immediately sent off for another one as they were cheap enough and this can then replace the one remaining wire aerial we are still using.
Eventually, although it was quite late by this time, Meg and I set off to collect our newspaper and then go for a saunter the length of Bromsgrove High Street. We called in at our neighbourhood Poundland and as well as buying some cleaning products, we found two more of the little plastic containers that they stock which has the advantage of having a little handle and also happen to be just the right size to accommodate about 20 CD’s. I have some more CD’s arriving in a day or so after an offer of mine was accepted on eBay and so any ‘currently played’ CDs are available quickly to us. Incidentally, whilst hunting around my other CD stocks which I have in about three places, I discovered a set of three called ‘Classical Calm’ and so these have become an addition to the stock I have in the proximity of our kitchen system. We did have a browse in some of the charity shops and bought a stunning and stylish looking little fabric utility bag, well protected with a lot of zip compartments and complete with a couple of matching purses. We did not see anything else that took our fancy and therefore made getting home a priority so that I could get on with cooking a late pasta meal.
Rishi Sunak has been receiving a lot of press coverage this afternoon as he attempts to give the current government some degree of vision for the future. The current pledges are to to halve inflation, to grow the economy, to reduce debt, to cut hospital waiting lists, and to stop migrant crossings. Many of these will happen anyway such as inflation coming down- and is growing the economy of 0.01% next year really worth the paper it is written on? Some commentators, such as Beth Rigby of Sky News, have pointedly asked the Prime Minister why when the NHS is on its knees and there is a massive cost-of-living crisis, an unelected Prime Minister and the third in a row should be believed or given any credibility for a moment? Given the scale of problems that most families in the country are facing at the moment, the impression is rather being given of ‘the boy who stood on the burning deck’ This is a literary illusion which is quite well known but the full reference is ‘The boy stood on the burning deck. Whence all but he had fled.’ It is the story of Louis de Casabianca at the Battle of the Nile, a boy sailor who remains at his post until it finally explodes in a deluge of smoke and flame. The other story this afternoon is the news that as people are desperately trying to fight off seasonal coughs and colds not to mention ‘flu, the common over-the-counter remedies seem to be in very short supply. There must be a story within a story here but apart from factors being quoted such as ‘supply line deficiencies’ and ‘heavy seasonal demand’ I have not yet managed to find a plausible explanation why the country seems to be running short of such basic commodities. It all adds to the sense that the whole counry is falling apart before our very eyes.
Today was always going to be quite a busy day but everything worked out OK. Firstly, I needed to go and get the shopping done and whereas a few weeks ago, there only used to be one or two people waiting for the store to open, today I was eighth in the queue so the habit of early shopping seems to be catching on. Fortunately, though, a lot of the Christmas excess stock had been cleared away so this made the whole shopping process so much easier and this was what I call a ‘light’ week in any case. After I had picked up the newspaper en route, I got home and cooked the breakfast and got most of the unpacking done before it was time to get Meg to the dental hygienist in about three quarters of an hour’s time. This worked out fine as well and our friendly hygienist made some appointments for us so that Meg and I can synchronise our visits (as they had got out of sync after I had a special session just before I had a crown fitted) Then it was a case of getting home and having our elevenses before our hairdresser called around. She was slightly late but this is par for the course but it did mean that it was all rather late before we could have our lunch of quiche and some fried vegetables.
I started the reconfiguration of the audio that I have in various parts of the house when I purchased a reconditioned Polaroid BoomBox for the princely sum of £15.00 which included postage. I was very impressed by this product and I still am because the quality of the sound was superb from fairly large speakers and as well as the CD player, one could Bluetooth music over from an iphone and there was, of course, an FM radio available as well. I was idly looking through the listings of eBay to see if other Boomboxes were on offer at a similar price and then stumbled across a little technology company in Cambridge who trade under the name of OakCastle. Following some links, I discovered a firm called XSonly and they evidently specialised in selling off ‘overstocks’ as well as refurbished products. What took my eye was the fact that one could buy a model similar to the Polaroid but with a USB port that could evidently play music files stored as MPs on a pendrive (USB stick) and the model sported an aerial for the FM radio (which the Polaroid lacked) But the company also advertised a product that was advertised as ‘Opened – never used’ and this seem to indicate a unit that was not refurbished nor of the Quality A,B or C which is often used to describe goods with some cosmetic damage. This product was advertised as £19.99 and, if it were absolutely new, then it would be possible to extend the warranty of one year to a manufacturer’s warranty of three years. I have two projected uses for this Boombox. The first and most important use is that with a memory stick inserted, one has hours of music of one’s own choice available and there must be occasions when this is superior to ClassicFM to accompany one through the night. My unit arrived today and I am delighted with it. The colour is a more subtle shade of blue than the images on the web tended to convey. But most importamtly, it was supplied in the manufacturer’s box with the manufacturer’s packing and accessories. Naturally I have given it a bit of a workout and I was delightd that the USB stick was recognised immediately and started playing shortly afer it was inserted. I have only used a small fraction of an 8GB memory stick and already an experiment had indicated this has given me more than two hours of playtime. The FM and CD player work as anticipated but the Bluetooth function has not been tried out yet. As soon as I had ascertained that all of the basic functions worked, I got onto the manufacturer’s website and got an extended warranty for three years with absolutely no problems at all. So all in all, happy days and I can use this little bit of technology to give me whatever music I could like whenever I am doing a kind of job, for example in the study, when I want more than ClassicFM can provide. Just as a final piece of technology news, my computer mouse ‘died’ on me yesterday. Naturally, I thought about changing the batteries but the fault could lie in the nano-receiver which occupies one of the USB ports or in the mouse itself. I got onto Amazon and bought one of their standard wireless free mice, manaufactured by Trust and it arrived today. I am pleased to say it worked immediately (once I had removed the cellophane from the battery they had supplied with it) The laptap I am using in the lounge does have a track pad which is always useful when a mouse dies on you but after years of using a mouse, I am rather set in my ways and much prefer it if I have the choice.
By this morning’s post, I received the collection of 6 classical CD’s for which I paid 0.99 and for which I assumed I was going to be outbid but in practice I won the auction. I did pay £3.50 for the postage but when I glanced at the stamps that had been used, the package had cost £4.50 to post. I did feel a tang of regret for the person who had sold it to me because with the low auction price being all used up to assist on the postage, I had, in effect, received the CDs for nothing – and, by the same token, the seller had received nothing for his CDs. I have started playing these CDs and one was a series of violin concertos played by Nigel Kennedy. I did notice that the performances seemed particularly arresting and when I read the program notes booklet written by Nigel Kennedy himself, the information was given that the performance was under the baton of an oustanding Dutch conductor. All of this suddenly became extremely relevant because when one of the concertos ended, there was a burst of applause so the performance had evidently been recorded live. This helps to explain why I was particularly struck as I listened to the recording for the first time as live performances always have that extra ‘something’ that helps to enhance the overall listening experience. This morning, after we had breakfasted, we collected our newspaper and made our way into Waitrose to treat ourselves to a coffee. Eventually, our University of Birmingham friend turned up and we spent a good half hour chatting before we needed to go on our prospective ways but with an agreement to meet again tomorrow. When we got home, we had a cook-in-the-oven fish based meal complemented with some Cavolo Nero and then wondered what the afternoon had to bring.
There are some interesting parallels between the shenanigans of both British and American politics at the moment. In this country we have suffered the trauma of three Prime Ministers within the last year and seen an experiment in far-right, libertarian politics which almost immediately blew up and which ultimately forced the resignation of Liz Truss. But on the other side of the pond, we are experiencing quite a drama in the ranks of the Republican party. Although they lost control of the Senate, the Republicans narrowly gained control of the House of Representatives. What should now happen is that Republicans select a Speaker from amongst their ranks and then the ‘normal’ business of politics, which includes the swearing in of newly elected members, can then proceed. The Speaker of the House of Representatives is an entirely partisan figure. In practice they are the leader of the majority party, which makes them the equivalent of prime minister in UK terms. But there is a small ultra-right wing group of Republicans who refuse to endorse the current Republican Party leader Kevin McCarthy who has failed in every round to secure the 218 votes needed to win. The House will now carry out a 12th round of voting later today and, as things stand, it has been about one hundred years since the Republicans last failed to agree a leader. It is difficult to see how this impasse is going to be resolved as the extreme right will brook absolutely no compromise and, as the Republican majority is so small, the recalcitrant right wingers hold the whip hand. It is possible that the process of ‘democracy in action’ may see America lose all moral authority in the world as it is hardly in a position to lecture others on the princples of sound government when their own version of democracy is such a shambles.
On the home front, there is now a report that many voters for Brexit are now experiencing ‘buyers remorse’ Among Leave voters who now regret voting for Brexit, the top reason given for their change of heart is a general sense that things have got worse since the 2016 referendum, according to a new poll. Before Christmas, pollsters at YouGov asked 616 people who voted to leave the union but have since changed their minds for their reasoning. It came after the pollster found in November that a record 19% of Brexit voters now think it was wrong to vote for Leave. Instead of providing options to choose from, people were free to give their own reasons. Of those surveyed, the most popular reason – held by a quarter of people – was that things have got worse since 2016. The next most popular answer – given by 19% of respondents – was the state of the economy or rising costs. A total of 11% felt they were lied to or things haven’t gone as expected since then. But the present attitude of the Labour Party, which has not opposed Brexit, means that both of the major political parties are out-of-step with the majority of public opinion. Could it be that the ‘red wall’voters (ex Labour voting MPs from declining industrial areas who voted Tory in the last election) are now such an important group that they are still wooed by Conservative and Labour like? At some time, we must draw closer again to our major trading partner which, of course, is the EU.
Today was a fairly typical Saturday apart from the fact that it was wet and blustery most of the day with only the occasional intermission. We got ourselves off to town eventually having breakfasted and then picked up the (voluminous) Saturday newspapers. As you might expect, many of the newspapers are full of health related issues at the start of the New Year when,no doubt, a lot of the population have over-indulged themselves on a surfeit of carbohydates and are full of good intentions about exercise and fitness regimes. But there was a very interesting article by an eminent neurosurgeon on the subject of how to improve your memory and brain at any age. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has argued in a recent book that the brain ‘is the most enigmatic three and a half pounds of flesh in the known universe’ The Times has published an easy guide to the 12 easy steps to achieve your brain functioning and this advice seems to be well-rooted in the science so I might be tempted to go ahead and buy (and intensively read and absorb) the whole book. Some of the advice is sort of intuitive (such as not only avoiding sugar but also artifical sweeteners) but other advice less so, such as the importance of brushing and flossing teeth daily or even twice daily. We made for the Waitrose café because we had arranged to meet up with our University of Birmingham friend and we also encountered one of our park friends that we have not seen since before Christmas. I suspect that there is a universal sigh of relief that we have Christmas and the New Year behind us so that we can get on with our more conventional daily and weekly routines. Having said that, we were delighted to get a telephone call from some of friends down the road who are inviting neighbours in for a drink and nibbles next Monday evening so we are looking forward to this as it may be the last of this round of Christmas get togethers.
We returned home to have a lunch of some chicken, ham and leek pies which I decided to sample when I bought them and then froze them before Christmas. These turned out to be pretty tasty and I just served them up with white cabbage and some tomatoes. This afternoon, apart from a good read of the newspapers, I spent some time getting my accounts up-to-date. I entertained myself whilst I was engaged in this task playing a CD on a little portable CD/DVD player I had bought several years when I was seeking to illustrate both the music and our original wedding photos using the USB port when we were putting on some little demonstrations on the occasion of our 50th anniversary (now wih another six years further on). This is a very useful bit of kit but because I have not used it a great deal, I need to keep consulting the manual online to find out how to utilise certain functions.
As of yesterday, it looked as though the Republican party would never elect a new party leader/Speaker of the House of Representatives but it took a total of 15 votes to do it. However, this is only the start of what is going to be a very ddisruptive period in American politics. It is being said that Kevin McCarthy had so make so many concessions that perhaps he has to feel whether he still possesses two kidneys. Donald Trump himself was telephoning some of the ultra conservatives to get them to support Kevin McCarthy. The latter had offered so many concessions to the small cohort of ultra-conservative Republicans who had blocked him for days as he had promised them plum, hugely influential committee positions, and promised to change the rules governing his stability. A certain amount of manhandling og some Republican congressmen could also be seen. So it looks as though the whole of the american machine is in the hands of these ultra conservatives, may of whom supported the physical insurrection and rampage through the Capital building some two years ago now.
The Prince Harry saga rumbles on and on. Many quite sympathetic observers are making the point that all families can recall occasions when there might have been severe rows and disagreements at some time over the years. At the same time, the well known saying to ‘not wash ones dirty linen in public’ comes to mind and the commitment and the slagging of the members of one’s own intimate family is hardly the way to effect a reconcilation. Certainly, all of the outpourings does have all of the indications of a very troubled mind. But polls for American news organisations have indicated there is more sympathy for Harry and Meghan’s plight with the US public than the UK. However, this sympathy may be shortlived as one headline has dubbed Prince Harry as the ‘Prince of Wails’ which might be hardhitting but accurate. Personally I think that too much attention has been paid to this saga and a dignified silence on the part of Buckingham Palace is probably the best response.
Today was a different kind of Sunday. As I had rather a disturbed night’s sleep last night, I did get up at a reasonably early time and then walked down into town to pick the Sunday newspapers. There was quite a sharp cold feel to the day but it was not actually raining and I had regaled myself with one of those little packets of ‘instant’ porridge oats before I ventured out. But when I got back, I tuned into the Laura Kuennsberg show but probably as a result of last night’s interrupted sleep I very promptly fell asleep and slept for the best part of a couple of hours. Meg had slept in whilst I was walking down into town but then we had to get up, dressed and breakfasted before we could make the best of the day. Our University of Birmingham friend phoned up to ask whether we intended to coffee together but I explained that we both felt a little rough today so we would postpone our next meeting until about next Friday. So the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon was left to a slow and lesiurely read of the Sunday Times which I rather enjoyed. We had a light lunch of some pork loin which was already cooked and deep frozen so it was just a job of making some onion gravy to make it spring into life again.
We are all awaiting for tomorrow when the Government announces a plan to release the log jam caused by ambulances queuing up ouside A&E departments across the length and breadth of the country becuse there is ‘nowhere’ to go for those adjudged medically fit for discharge. At this stage, all must be speculation but a plan, which Mr Barclay will announce on Monday, is understood to be aimed at block-buying up to 2,000 care home beds in Care Quality Commission-approved facilities over the next four weeks. There may well be other parts of this strategy as well but these may be longer term. One of these is called the ‘virtual’ ward. Virtual wards are in place in many parts of the country, for example, supporting people with frailty or acute respiratory infections. The NHS is introducing more virtual wards to support people at the place they call home, including care homes. In a virtual ward, support can include remote monitoring using apps, technology platforms, wearables and medical devices such as pulse oximeters. Support may also involve face-to-face care from multi-disciplinary teams based in the community, which is sometimes called ‘Hospital at Home’. Whether all of this is to be seen as just a sticking plaster or the start of a much more sensible strategy remains to be be seen. There is often a mantra put about that ‘you do not solve a problem just by throwing money at it’ but in this particular case, the government is doing exactly that at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds (and I suspect that eventually if this policy is to have any chance of uccess we are actually talking about billions i.e. thousands of millions).
One of the things that I enjoy about the New Year, is that once we get over the winter solstice on 21st December, the nights are getting lighter to the tune of about a minute and a half a day. In the past, I have actually searched the web where it is possible to find a calendar which details sunrises and sunsets for each day of the year. I have just consulted a quick on-line version which tells me that sunrise is one minute earlier tomorrow and sunset two minutes earlier making tomorrow three minutes longer than today. Of course it is true that some of the population suffer from ‘SAD’ (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and, in severe cases, I believe that people have recourse to light boxes, although this is not true in my own case. But as January proceeds, it is possible to think about some seeds that take a long time to germinate and are best planted out in early March. Parsnip is the seed that most springs to mind and I do not think that the seed keeps well from one year to the next so I may have to think about sourcing some as soon as they are in the shops and think about getting them going a window sill. After we had several Christmas card with messages inside to the effect that we must meet up as soon as we can in 2023, Meg and I are thinking about friends and relatives that we really must must make an effort to see and thinking about what emails we need to send and in what order. We still have a couple of our Christmas wreaths hanging outside our front door and these have not yet been taken down. One of them will probably end up on the grave of our domestic help’s relatives whilst the other we have, in the past, put on the grave of Tolkein’s mother, who happens to be buried in the churchyeard of our local church.
Today dawned bright and clear and it has all of the potents of being quite a fine day. I had a good night’s sleep last night, partly due to the fact that I tried an experiment which worked really well. I have a little legacy Sony DVD/CD player bought many moons ago but not really brought into much use until now. But last night, I had Brahm’s German Requiem playing gently in the background. The trick always of course is to set the level of the music sufficiently high to hear it if one wants to but at a sufficiently low level to fall asleep and this seems to work like a dream, so to speak. The little Sony is rechargeable so there are no cables involved to trip over and it just gets recharged in the morning. Before breakfast, I tried to contact a bank (nameless, but a High Street brand) in order to activate and solve a query but I was informed that there would be a wait of about 20 minutes so I followed their advice to try again later. After we had breakfasted and seen to some routine emails, we went down into town to pick up our newspaper and also made a lightning visit into Waitrose to pick up some last minute supplies. Then there was a walk round the lake in the park but, as it was such a fine dy, it might have been better for us to have prepared a flask of coffee and occupied our normal park bench. Over the last week or so with the interruption of Christmas and the New Year, we have rather got out of our normal park walk activities as we have sometimes succumbed to having coffee in the Waitrose coffee bar. So we had our elevenses back home and then cooked ourselves a conventional Monday type lunch. As part of the more general New Resolutions package, I am trying (and not for the first time) to train myself to do without sugar (evidently) and sweeteners in any tea or coffee drink that I make for myself. I have to say that the tea I usually drink just tasted like so much hot water so I looked at the contents of our pantry cupbaords and discovered that I had some different teas to try out. We happened to have quite a large jar of ‘Rooibos’ tea (presumably Dutch/Afrikaans for ‘red bush’) which is not really a tea at all. It is caffeine free and a host of health benefits are claimed for it but these all tend to be at the anecdotal level rather than backed by any authoritative science. However, it probably does no harm and once you get used to the flavour, it is unquestionably superior to the alternative. So I will stick with this for a week or or to give it a good trial.
The Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, announced that the government intended to block book 2,500 places in residential homes and in hotels at a cost of about £200 million. Even in Parliament, Steve Barclay, was attacked by members from his own side when it was pointed out that other countries were coping with these winter pressures so why could not the UK? Another question raised in Parliment to which there was no real answer was that given the known shortages of staff in the care sector, where the extra staff was going to come from to cater for the needs of of those occupying the 2,500 places? There was some vague talk of increasing recruitment from overseas but presumably this would run foul of the Brexit philosophy and the notoriously underpaid social care sector would not meet the quite high income ‘bar’ that would be migrants would have to face. Another part of the policy that appeared farcical was the announcement that A&E departments could be augmented my ‘modular units’ which sounds suspiciously like a ‘PortaKabin’ solution to expand A&E bit without any plan to deal wth the staffing issue. The talks with the health sector unions to halt the next wave of strikes came to nothing and was not even mentioned by the Health Secretary in his statement to Parliament. This does sound more like a bit of sticking plaster to close a gaping wound. As the government are even now publishing plans to make certain industries (such as health) agree to Minimum Service Levels or to be sacked, then the prospect is being raised that instead of increasing staff levels, the Government solution to the crisis is to talk of sacking the striking nurses and junior doctors. Will this ever come to fruition, one asks oneself.
The other big story, largely as the result of an initiative by Sky News, is the publication of a large database indicating the sources of extra ‘income’ that accrue to MPs other than their Parliamentary salary. The information released is jawdropping as in the current parliament some £183 million has gone, quite legally, into the pockets of MPs. In one case, Sky News discovered that nobody had heard of a company donating hundreds of thousands to Labour MPs on a visit to its registered address, while the office of another company that donates to 24 Tory MPs was shut and apparently out of action. As Sky news say ‘More than £183m has flowed into the British political system during this Parliament, straight from wealthy individuals or companies, and into the bank accounts of political parties, all-party parliamentary groups, and the campaign funds and constituencies of government ministers and MPs from all political parties.’
Last night, Meg and I had been invited out to have some ‘nibbles’ with our Catholic friends who live down the road and it turned out to be quite a gathering all in all. We have three sets of friends who live in close proximity to each other and another acquaintance who lives half way down the Kidderminster Road and with whom I have often discussed all things relating to Honda (principally cars and lawn mowers) So we formed a jolly little group and our hosts had laid on the most wonderful spread for us – I joked with her that if this was nibbles, I did not know what a full scale banquet would look like. So we spent a wonderful three hours with good company, good food and good drink – it was the kind of evening to which one looks back with a glow of pleasure. This morning we breakfasted as normal and having picked up our newspaper went for our regular Tuesday morning Waitrose coffee bar treat. Whilst we were there, we were soon joined by one of our pre-pandemic friends who is a Tuesday morning regular and finished off having a fascinating conversation with her. In the course of our conversation, it transpired that we both have a love of Brahm’s ‘German Requiem’ and then our friend told us some fascinating things about her own musical history. She had been part of a regular choir in Kidderminster until only few years ago but told us an interesting story about her son who had a career as a music editor with Decca. When Decca was winding up that side of the music business some years ago, her son had acquired a fair quantity of classical CDs which found their way into the possession of his mother i.e. our friend. She also let slip a fascinating story about her brother who served in Germany at the end of WWII – presumably BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) There her brother was friendly with a young Welshman who had a very good singing voice and to to whom he gave every encouragement to have some professional training and subsequently to pursue a singing year. This young Welshman was Geraint (later, of course) Sir Geraint Evans who was one of the most outstanding singers and teachers of his generation. I vividly remember a master class that he gave to young singers of one of classic Mozart operas – probably Don Giovanni but I do not remember exactly which opera it was. On our way out of Waitrose today, we met with a couple of ‘park’ friends with whom we often used to chat when they busy exercising their dog. We have not coincided for several weeks now as our park walks have diminished a bit from the everyday affair that they used to be. But we had an interesting little chat and a joke or so – so much that the Waitrose staff knew that we were back in town (and actually quite liked the sound of people laughing and enjoying themselves in the vicinity of the cafe as they reckon it reminds them of the pre-pandemic times and is good for business).
Today is my regular Pilates day which is only one hour in the whole week, I know, but one that I very rarely miss. Our instructor is quite gentle with us and once or twice in a six weekly session we have the luxury of a complete session of relaxation for the last five minutes. I generally succeed in almost falling completely asleep but a just a little of my brain keeps watch over the rest of me so when the five minutes is up, I know it is time for the session to end. The receptionists in the centre where the Pilates session is held let me know how much they enjoyed the damson gin so kindly provided by Fr. Christmas at the last Pilates session before Christmas and word has been passed down the line that at least one of my Pilates class members who has moved to a different day would quite appreciate some gin which she always used to get each year. So there are now at least two extra people who have let me know how much the gin is apprciated so I may always have a bottle or so kept ‘spare’ in my rucksack in case I happen to bump into people who would appreciate it.
The ambulance workers are due to strike tomorrow and some talks are proceeding in the HQ of the TUC to have some degree of coordination of all of the public sector strikes. This might mean that we are heading for a general strike in all but name. Meanwhile the Government is pressing ahead with legislation to ensure minimum levels of service agreemnt, in effect denying the ability to strike of certain groups of workers. William Rees-Mogg was interviewed in the House of Commons but refused to admit the proposed legislation would lead to nurses, ambulance workers and junior doctors getting the sack which is the whole point of the sanctions that lie behind the legislation. This legislation may never see the light of day but ‘timing is everything’ so it is pretty evident that the government is trying fairly crude tactics to bully the striking workers into submission which is only likely to inflame the situation and not bring it to an early end.
Exactly as the weather forecasters had predicted, today was a showery and blustery type of day which was unpleasant enough without being thoroughly miserable. Our domestic help calls around on a Wednesday so we always have a good chat after the obligatory cup of tea as soon as she arrived. She had bought us some extra Christmas baubles with which to decorate the tree again next year so we need to put them away in the loft adjacent to all of the other Christmas paraphernalia. Eventually, and a little bit late, Meg and I decided to make up a flask of coffee and make our way to the park, sitting on our usual bench. The park was practically deserted and although the sky seemed sunny enough when we set off, by the time we were sitting on our bench it was pretty cold and unpleasant. So we drank up our coffee fairly quickly and decided to beat a hasty retreat to home where we regaled ourself with a cup of chicken soup which is always a good way to warm up and fill the gap before we cook lunch. This was a simple affair of quiche, white cabbage and a tomato+onion mixture which was actually quite tasty. Later in the day, some much delayed purchases arrived from ebay, originally scheduled for last Saturday but only actually arriving today.
In the Commons, a very prominent Brexiteer (and hard right winger) has lost the Conservative whip i.e. been suspended. Prominent backbencher Andrew Bridgen is no longer a Conservative MP after he compared the COVID vaccine to the Holocaust. Mr Bridgen claimed COVID vaccines ‘are causing serious harms’ and said the programme was ‘the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust’. This statement has been condemned on all sides of the House so although he has been making anti-vaccination comments for some time, now it is evident that he has crossed the line of acceptability. Andrew Bridgen was the MP who led the fight against Theresa May’s attempts to reach a workable Brexit solution and is generally regarded as the moving force behind installing the hardest of Brexists possible, going far beyond that which was actually required to follow the wishes of the electorate as expressed in the referendum. What I think is interesting is the way that loud-mouthed self-opiniated populists such as Andrew Bridgen ever got elected to the House of Commons in the first place and should be allowed to wield the degree of political influence that they have. It seems remarkable that any MP could put himself at odds with the whole of the scientific community and then deny the evidence that thousands of lives have been saved by vaccines all over the world. To try to be fair to the MP, he must have a logic or a line of reasoning to come to the conclusions that he has but on the face of it, it seems to be a bizarre and extraordinary outburst and expelling him from the Tory party seems the only cause of action. One wonders whether the existing PM is actually quite glad to get rid of one of the coterie of extreme right wingers who have wrought so much damage on the country (and who John Major once in a famous outburst publically called ‘the bastards’ and then faced them down with a ‘back me or sack me’ election to cement hs own position as Prime Minister).
A huge statistical argument has been rumbling on for the last few days concerning the number of ‘excess deaths’ that are are being recorded over recent months. The College of Emergency Medicine has put out the figure that between 300-500 people a week (more than the average death rate per week) are dying but this figure is hotly disputed by the government (I wonder why?) Most independent data analysts are doing their own calculations and these are largely supportive of the figures published by the medics themselves whilst The Times this morning, in their headline figure, suggested that excess deaths may actually be nearer to 1,000. The reasons are not hard to see as during the COVID pandemic there was a huge backlog of undiagnosed and untreated conditions that are now coming to their grim conclusion. In addition, the enormous pressures that hospitals are now facing including waits in ambulances sometimes exceeding 24 hours almost inevitably are taking their toll on the population. These figures roughly approximate to a jumbo jet or a trainful of people dying every week – what is perhaps surprising is the absence of a huge outcry over the implications of these figures. Steven Barclay, the Health Secretary, has admitted that the situation of perhaps 50,000 excess deaths in 2022 is ‘extremely concerning’ but will only admit to the fact that the situation is very difficult to analyse (true!) and that other European countries are also experiencing post-pandemic excess deaths. But at the end of the day, it does look as though the pandemic on top of years of underfunding has contributed, as The Times has argued today, towards the worst excess deaths totals since 1951.
Today is my supermarket shopping day and I aim to get to the supermarket about one minute before it opens. However, it had been raining heavily for most of the night I would guess and the traffic on the roads seemed horrendous this morning, with queues at very single junction and ‘pinch point’ So having got some money out of a nearby ATM, I was quite fortunate to be only one minute late when I got to the supermarket and it seemed to be extremely quiet compared with past weeks. Fortunately, I found practically everything that I wanted but the delay in getting to the supermarket and then back home again meant that I seemed to be running late most of the morning. We were delayed by another event but this was quite a pleasurable one. Knowing that I can generally browse ebay and get a classical CD for only £2 or so, I had decided to get myself a ‘good’ version of Handel’s Messiah. The version that caught my eye, and which I bought, was Georg Solti conducting, with Kiri Te Kanawa as the lead soprano and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. When this arrived a few days ago, I really enjoyed it as the rendition was bright and vivacious (befitting of a baroque piece) and Kiri Te Kanana exhibited her usual brilliance in the recording. Once I had bought this CD which was recorded in the mid-1980’s I noticed that another rendition was available (and even cheaper) and this was the version conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1959. So I did what I have never done before and bought another version of the same piece of music. Beecham had written some of the program notes and he pointed out that the original score of The Messiah has been lost so no one really knows how large the orchestra was likely to be but it is surmised that it would be principally strings with a small woodwind section of oboes and bassoons and even less brass and percussion. So Beecham had used the score adapted by Sir Leon Goossens who is regarded as one of the finest woodwind players (on the oboe) that the country has ever produced. But this version of The Messiah was so different from the later one. For a start, it seemed much richer in texture, played at a slower pace and evoking adjectives in one’s mind such as ‘majestic’. The ‘Alleluja’ chorus in which the brass and timpany are given full rein is a wonder to which to listen. Although the two recordings are both fine but so very different, how does one choose between them? I suspect that I will do on the basis of mood and if I play it around Christmas or on a Good Friday, I will choose the Beecham version but the Solti version if my mood if somewhat lighter.
As it was raining pretty hard throughout the morning, Meg and I decided to eschew any walks in the park and we lunched on a curry kindly provided for us by our domestic help yesterday. After lunch, I decided to give a good trial to the little Bush CD-player which was advertised as ‘jogger proof’ and which I got brand new at a knockdown price from my peregrinations throughout eBay. This took 2 x AA batteries and it performed flawlessly. I had imagined, in my naivety, there would be a couple of plastic tabs built into the unit through which I could thread a tape and hence around my neck for when I walk into town on my own and require some diversion. However, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ so I did a good raid of our bathroom cabinet where I found a stout plastic case with dimensions very conveniently just a centimetre or so wider and longer than the dimensions of the player. This I have threaded onto a belt which I rarely use and it now means that when I undertake a walk on my own down into town, I can have the player performing away effortlessly in the little bag hanging from my waist (and covered by a jumper in any case). I then did some research to see how long the batteries would last and the answer was about six hours which is long enough for every train journey or even flight I am likely to undertake. But details were given of the power supply that should be used and I raided my supply of two Nokia phone chargers, differently rated as it happens, to see which would be safe to use. I did a bit of research on the web to see if I could could a charger of higher or lower amperage and assumed that a smaller amperage would be safer but this is not necessarily so. Apparently devices will only draw as much power as they need but attempting to draw ‘less’ might make the unit overheat which is not a good thing. The idea now is that I can use a DC power supply when I am listening to whatever I want to in bed (and to which I can fall asleep) whilst I will reserve the batteries for my (musical) forays into town.
It is always rather nice to get to the end of the week and, moreover, the weather was relatively kind to us today. Once Meg and I got ourselves turned around, we got into the groove of a more normal routine which involves collecting the daily newspaper, popping into Waitrose to pick up some supplies before we finally made it to the park. We had taken some coffee with us but to be honest the park was a little on the chilly side so we drank our coffee pretty rapidly and then made a hasty retreat for home. There we resorted to an old standby which is a mugful of a packet chicken soup which helps to restore us if we feel a little chilled. Today, for lunch, we had some fresh sea-bass (well, bought yesterday) and just served this on a bed of salad leaves. The beauty of a lunch like this, apart from being healthy, is that it only takes about 10 minutes to cook and there is a minimum of washing up to do as well. We treated ourselves to half a glass of white wine which goes particularly well with the fish and the salad but there are times when these screw top bottles come into their own if you only want to imbibe a little. Last night I experimented with falling asleep to the sound of Brahm’s Requiem on my newly acquired little Bush CD player and this seemed to work well. Later on, I hunted aound in my supplies of little electrical ‘gubbins’ and tried the experient of a small standalone speaker designed to work with a laptop which I had acquired some years go. This worked fine and although the maximum volume that be achieved is not high, this is fine if the intention is to have a just-audible system whilst you are drifting off to sleep. So this, too, was a bonus because even though the earphones are fine, they do tend to drift off your head (out of your ears) as a result of the ways in which we move around as we sleep.
This afternoon, it has emerged that Donald Trump’s Corporation (but not Donald Trump himself) as been fined $1.6 million which is the maximum allowed by the New York legislation. This will seem like a fleabite given the size of the other assets owned by or controlled by Trump himself. By itself, this would not seem much a setback for Donald Trump. A judge could only impose a fine on the Trump Organization after its conviction last month for 17 tax crimes, including conspiracy and falsifying business records. However, there are several other legal battles in the offing including one in which Trump has been charged with some of the responsibility for the death of a police officer who had died attempting to delay or obstruct the mob which rampaged through the Capitol building some two years ago. Donald Trump is facing a host of legal actions and naturally is claiming that every court case against him is just a witch-hunt or a Democratic party conspiracy but it seekms likely that all of these legal actions will damage him in his bid to regain the White House. Evidently, although he has declared himself a candidate, the Republican party will need to adopt him as a Presidential candidate and this well prove to be problematic if a series of adverse court judgements are hanging over him.
After lunch, I spent certain amount of time trawling through some of the Pilates books that I possess to see if any of them have a chapter on ‘relaxation’ tecnniques. I did find one chapter which may well prove fruitful and it only took a few seconds with a search engine to discover more fruitful sources (but I am slightly wary of these given the amount of rubbish found on the Web) However, these might prove useful if they are well ilustrated and if one or two techniques will work for me, if not for other people. Meanwhile Sky News is full of dire news from the NHS ‘battlefront’ Patients are dying and staff are broken – as workers say it doesn’t get much grimmer than this. The human toll at the sharp end of the worst health crisis in Scotland’s NHS history continues to escalate to dangerous levels. Families, who have lost loved ones on trollies in overcrowded hospital corridors, have told Sky News that it is like a ‘disaster zone’ where staff are fighting a losing battle and the ill are treated like ‘animals’. It is estimated that between 40 and 60 lives are being lost every week as a direct result of this emergency.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson is still lurking around, making money and positioning himself for a come-back as Conservative party leader. But he only has a majority of 7,200 in his Uxbridge constituency and some of his allies are suggesting that he may agree to give an undertaking of ‘good behaviour’ in return for being awarded a much more secure seat. But it has also been suggested that he would prefer to stand in Uxbridge and fight and, were he to do so, then it is anybody’s call whether or not he would be defeated if the opposition parties form a united front to attempt to remove him.
Today has been a wonderfully enjoyable day so far. The weather was a bit cold and miserable outside and in view of the occasional showers, we were not at all tempted to go for a daily walk. Instead we had a leisurely breakfast aided by our morning ‘concert’ Since I have installed my new Panasonic mini hifi system in the kitchen with easily accessible CDs by the side of the unit, we often treat ourselves to a ‘de facto’ concert whilst we are preparing breakfast, eating it and then washing up afterwards but Saturday morning is a bit of an exception as the presenter on ClassicFM is Aled Jones. I must say that I knew him as the famous boy soprano but according to the Wikipedia entry, Jones became famous for the cover version of ‘Walking in the Air’, the song from Channel 4’s animated film The Snowman, based on the book by Raymond Briggs. The record reached number five in the UK charts in 1985. I don’t know how much influence the presenter has in conjunction with the producer but I found Aled Jones choice of music and presentational style completely consistent with my own tastes. I do not have many dislikes apart from what I call ‘te-tum-te-tum’ type music and there is a bit too much William Walton as well, but generally I am pretty content with what ClassicFM has to offer during the day (and occasionally during the night as well) Today we met with our University of Birmingham friend by arrangement in the Waitrose coffee bar and had over an hour of really informative chat with each other. We both had some little pieces of electrical equipment we are going to let each other have use of when we next meet, which is probably tomorrow. We also had the opportunity to chat with one of our pre-pandemic friends who used to be a very serious fell walker before some of the infirmities of old age struck us down. We exchanged experiences that we both had in our youth (me on one occsion only, our acquaintance much more often) of ‘skinny dipping’ – so called because the only bathing suit you have on is your own skin. Meg and I treat ourselves to whatever is on special offer from the Waitrose bakery and today we had chocolate muffins which turned out to be absolutely delicious so we must repeat the experience when we can. When we returned hom, we had some tomato and pepper packet soup and then I got cooking the lunch time meal. On a Saturday, this often is what emerges from the depth of the freezer and on this occasion it was some beef mince, mixed with some fried onions and then made a bit more moist with some onion gravy and a dollop of the cheap brown sauce that I frequently use to tart up what stews or mixtures I am cooking at the moment. The bit of rioja we had left over from a few days ago also went down pretty well.
Today being Saturday is the day when we attend church, leaving the house at about 5.30. I am looking forward to the day when we can do this in the light rather than the dark. But first, we treated ourselves to some more classical music tracks this afternoon. Because our ‘normal’ CD storage racks are quite full, when we buy new CDs we tend to put them in a bundle in some of our numerous bookcases and here it is easy to forget all about them. So it proved to be today and we found two CDs which we thoroughly enjoyed. The first of these was ‘Duets from Fmous operas’ whilst the second was similarly famous operatic arias so this proved to be a wonderful little bonus for us. By the way, as though we do not have enough classical CDs, I have recently developed a real liking for Mozart piano sonatas (as well as the well-known concertos) and last night was lucky in an ebay auction where I acquired a CD for 99p plus postage. I suppose that certain music lovers have in the past acquired huge libraries of classical CDs but now they have the technology to have digital versions which are much more space saving as well as searchable in a way that CDs are not- hence they are disposing of them at prices that might be a fraction of what they initially paid for them.
In about a fortnight’s time, no doubt, the ‘6 Nations’ Rugby season will start and at weekly and fortnightly intervals, we can be treated to a feast of matches. On ‘playing’ weekend, we can have two matches on a Saturday and one on the following Sunday and I still enjoy this so much more than football which I rarely watch. I find the arm wrestling and shirt pulling totally off-putting and in my view (evidently not widely shared) I would give a yellow card for the first offence and a red for the second every time I witnessed this. Incidentally, I think the women’s game might be more enjoyable to watch as it is a bit more ‘positional’ and a bit less of the brute physicality that characterises the men’s game.
Today being a Sunday, I got up reasonably early and ready for my walk alone down into town to collect our Sunday newspaper. But I had a special reason for looking forward to this morning as I was going to test out out the CD player for which I had constructed a special little carrying case attached to a spare belt. So I put in the two AA batteries that are needed to make it truly portable and set off on my journey. The reviews that I had read of this particular piece of kit ranged all the way from ‘Brilliant’ to ‘The worst thing I have ever bought’ but with many more favourable than unfavourable reviews. One of the more negative reviews opined that the volume of the player did not drown out the noise of passing cars and this quite a bad fault. But with my rather limited experience of listening to music on the go, the very last thing that a sensible pedestrian needs to have is a unit that drowns out sounds of an approaching car and I would have thought that this is a recipe for a disaster in the making if pedestrians were to cross road oblivious to the sound of an oncoming car. Anyway, I found that the player worked beautifully and its claims to be ‘jog proof’ were fully justified as it dod not skip or miss a beat. I thoroughly enjoyed Brahm’s ‘A German Requiem‘ which is not really similar to the traditional requiem which follows the format of the liturgical mass for the dead. In the case of ‘A German Requiem‘, the text is written in German and draws from texts from a Lutheran Bible and does not follow the more usual format of a requiem at all. In the main, though, I shall deploy this unit by by bedside attached to a DC power supply and loaded with a favourite CD for when I need it. This morning we did have a plan to meet up again with our University of Birmingham friend in Waitrose, but we got a text before we set off saying that he could not make it this morning. So being all prepared to go somewhere, we made for the Lickey Visitors centre to avail ourselves of a little walk. This was not a bad idea in itself but being a fine day at about 11.00am on a Sunday, the car parks were full to bursting and we only manged to get parked, afer some peregrinations, when another car conveniently left a space for us. So we decided that this would be a reasonably place to visit (and the large cafe adjacent to it) but only on a nice quiet day.
We lunched on some chicken thighs which I had previously seared in some hot oil and then cooked in the oven supplemnted with a tin of chicken soup and some white sauce. When we have a meal of chicken thighs like this, we always cook them ‘whole’ but then remove the leg bone and the fatty skin before we dish it up. Although the skin can be delicious, I prefer to keep our meal relatively fat-free and today, the meat seemed full of flavour so I will do the remainder of them tomorrow. I had also bought some sprouts but after a parboil, I popped them into the oven with a drizzle of cooking oil and some poured-over honey to make them a little less ‘sprout like’ and these, too, fulfilled their potential. Tomorrow I intend to experiment with a bottle of some honey mustard which I bought on spec to tart up a chicken meal somewhat.
Although not receiving a great deal of publicity, I was intrigued to come across the following. A former Conservative minister has quit the party and thrown her support behind Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘competent political leadership’. Claire Perry O’Neill, who was part of Theresa May’s cabinet and an MP between 2010-2019, said the Tories are too ‘beholden by ideology and self-obsession’ to deliver the change the country needs. I suppose the story has not received much publicity as it did not come from a serving cabinet member or even an MP. But is is an interesting reflection of the fact that the Labour Party has a large lead in the opinion polls and many Tories are now resigned to the fact that there is no way in which the government can ever claw its way back sufficiently to win the next election which must take place within the next 18-24 months. I find her comments interesting in that the Conservative party has not, until recently, been an especially ideological party and you could say had at their heart a type of pragmatic managerialism. But with various sensible MPs being driven out of the party by Boris Johnson and their place being taken by those of a proven Brexit purity, the present Conservative government seems to be a UKIP party in all but name, having adopted the hardest of all hard Brexits. Research by the Centre for European Reform, a think tank, estimates that over the 18 months to June 2022, UK goods trade is 7% lower than it would have been had Britain remained in the European Union. Investment is 11% weaker and GDP is 5.5% smaller than it would have been, costing the economy £40 billion ($48.4 billion) in tax revenues annually.
Everything got off to rather a delayed start today. Our next door neighbour called round to explain that a large van was due to be delivering some furniture to him today and whilst the van was in place, it would block the exit of our car. This did delay us for about half an hour but we did eventually get underway and made our trip to the park. Today we christened a new coffee flask as our old and battered one has been in almost constant and daily use for the past three or four years and was quietly giving up the ghost. Some of the internal insulation was evidently breaking down as the exterior was getting warm (which it should not) and I also felt that the contents seemed to taste a bit strange. I have had a spare in stock for a long time now so it was a case of ‘out with the old and in with the new’ The new flask performed flawlessly and the coffee seemed to taste good as well so the replacement proved timely. Although the sky was fairly clear, the temperature had plummeted a fair deal and it was 3 degrees when we left the house. Sitting on the park bench subjected us to the occasional icy blast so we drank our coffee quickly and made for home. The park was deserted apart from a few, brave dog walkers but Monday is normally a pretty quiet day even in the best of weathers. Although Meg and I were wrapped up fairly warmly, we had not availed ourselves of any woolly scarves of which I am sure we have enough but we have not got into the habit of wearing them whilst the weather has not been particularly cold. But we are having a sharp ‘snap’ for the next day or so, so we are resolved to wrap up normally when next we need to.
So it was case of getting home and getting some warm soup inside us as soon as we could. Then we finished off the chicken legs that we started yesterday. I did a bit of an experimentation today and it worked out fine. After searing the chicken, I popped it into the oven for a good hour and a half doused in a tin of chicken soup, supplemented by some white lasagne style sauce. Then towards the end of the cooking process, I removed the meat from the thighs, leaving behind the skin and bones and then doused the meat with a goodly dollop of honey and mustard sauce that I espied in the supermarket when I last went shopping. This was then finished off in the oven and served with some Cavolo Nero and a baked potato. I think I must chalk this up as one of my success stories and I almost certainly will try this recipe again the next time we have chicken on the menu. This afternoon was a quiet afternoon in which I was engaged in getting my household accounts up-to-date. This fairly tedious task was accomplished with no undue problems and as always, I resolve to attempt to do my regular ‘book-keeping’ every few days instead of leaving it for a month.
Meg and I have started watching operas on YouTube, ‘Endeavour’ on the IT hub and some series on the BBC I-player. However, we are finding that we are having quite a lot of buffering problems after an hour or so which could be due to a host of factors or could be a case of ‘throttling’ to prevent overuse. However, a little search of the web has found a website called ‘FireStickTricks’ and the first thing they recommended was a simple ‘restart’ of the Firestick which I have tried and I will see if that cures any of the problems we have been experiencing (which needless to say, are frustrating in the extreme when you are half way through a long program) There are other suggestions which involve the use of a VPN (Virtual Private Network) but I will not go to the expense and trouble of doing this unless I absolutely have to.
The teachers have today voted for strike action – some 90% of teachers voted for the strike and they exceeded the 50% turnout equired by law for a ballot to come into force. The teachers have voted to go on strike on 1st February and thereafter one day per fortnight for the next month or so. But the headteachers’ ballot only achieved 42% threshold and therefore their ballot does not count. However, the union representing headteachers may well rerun their ballot as the initial one may well have been adversely affected by the postal disputes just before Christmas – and, of course, the mood is worsening all the time. Both teachers and nurses seem to have very similar complaints apart from the real cut in their standard of living now inflation has reached 10% and that is a toxic mix of low pay and excessive workloads. One imagines that the government may be more worried by the impact of striking teachers which is bound to affect more members of the public than a train strike or a border staff walk out.
Last night was the culmination of the waiting period for a job lot of 46 classical CDs that were being sold on eBay and in which I was particularly interested. Firstly, these CDs almost exactly mirror my own (classical) musical tastes and preferences which is remarkable in itself. But secondly, this was not just an assembly of CDs but were very evidently the work of a very discerning collector as all of the performers were absolutely top rate and many of the performances could be regarded as definitive in their genre. The starting bid was £15 for all 46 but I tried to be a little streetwise but did not submit my bid until about 3-4 minutes before the ending time for the auction. The eBay auction system works by automatically upping your bid in about £1 increments until you emerge as the winner of the auction (or have been outbid). In my case, there was one other bidder and evidently his top limit must have been lower than mine otherwise he would have won the auction. The system normally tells you when you have won but last night I got a rather strange message to say that ‘eBay was trying to determine who had won the auction’ followed by an invitation to pay, from which I concluded that I had won the auction for only a little over the initial starting price. Needless to say, I paid on the spot and now await the results of my successful bid in a few days time. I have already worked out the storage area because I have in the past spotted some little plastic baskets with a carrying handle on the side (rather as though it were actually a jug rather than a basket) in which some 22-23 CDs fit absolutely beautifully. So when the CDs arrive, I have a home already prepared for them but today, on the way down to my Pilates class, I popped into our neighbourhood Poundland to see if I could replenish the couple I already had in stock. I was in luck and also managed to secure some of those little felt ‘feet’ that you pop onto the bottom of items to make them effectively scratchproof.
Today the temperatures were well below freezing at about -4 degrees and before we could get the car out, we needed to resort to our ‘warm water in a watering can’ treatment to de-ice the car before we got on our way. It looks as though the cold snap will be with us for a few days yet, as well. Of course, this little system of ours has worked OK but we still have the ice on the inside of the car windscreen to cope with which we did successfully. When we got to Waitrose which is normal every Tuesday morning, none of our usual friends were there and we suspect the bad weather might have deterred some of them from venturing out. But as we were on the point of departure, one of our friends turned up and we spent an interesting half hour, discussing amongst other things the kinds of strategies in which has to engage when either moving or clearing a house. One typically has to take the decision to either keep, throw away or donate items either to friends and relatives or, in some cases, donate to the local charity shop. I recall with a certain amount of horror when we moved house some 15 years ago and, in those days, old credit card statements were paper versions not online) and often contained full details of name, address and credit card number and therefore could only be junked at one’s peril. Hence every single piece of paper had to be read to ensure that no personal information should fall into the wrong hands and the sifting process is time consuming in the extreme. When we were due to leave, our friend was having a little difficuly rising from her chair (as she has mobility difficulties) but two of the staff rushed to her aid and helped to get her onto her feet and hence on her way. Our friend is extremely independent and generally self sufficient but there are always times in which one needs a little bit of help. So incredible service from the Waitrose staff but, of course, we are all known to the staff as regulars and our particular Waitrose does have an incredible service ethic.
The major political story today is about the conflict between the Westminster and the Scottish parliaments over the Gender Recognition issues upon which the Scots have recently voted – and which the Westminster parliament will not pass through for final signature by the monarch. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the particular legislation which will be fought out in a variety of courts over the next year or so, perhaps a massive tactical mistake is being made by the Westminster Parliament. When the public opinion in favour of a second referendum is on a knife-edge in Scotland, a dispute between the Scottish and English parliaments can only reinforce the case that the SNP are making for a fully independent Scotland.
Today has been an interesting day. On Wednesdays, our domestic help calls around and we are always pleased to see her and exchange news with her. Last night, we had listened quite carefully to the weather forecast and although the weather was still freezing, it looked as though there was going to be quite a gusty wind which, at this time of year, equates to an icy blast. So we decided to give the park a miss for today and perhaps wait for the weather to improve a little. As it turned out, our domestic help had walked to our house (to make sure she had plenty of exercise) and informed us that it was quite a beautiful day to walk so we revised our plans and then determined to go for a walk around the lake in the park but not engage in a sojourn on a park bench. After our walk we make straight for home and warm up on some soup. Meg and I dived into the chest where we keep scarves, gloves and similar items and discovered a beautiful warm scarf for Meg. At the same time, I located my University of Manchester scarf at the bottom of the pile which I had not worn for about 20 years but today was surely a good time to press it back into service again together with a good pair of gloves which are also sorely needed. So Meg and I had quite a pleasant little walk in the park and muffled up to the eyebrows, we did not allow the cold to penetrate too far. We got back in time for the Wednesday ritual of Prime Minister’s Questions which was full of the usual knockabout stuff and one gets the feeling that both the PM and the Leader of the Opposition have their attack lines well rehearsed and it shows. After the initial exchanges, there is always the cringeworthy spectacle of government MPs asking self-congratulatory questions which are not really questions at all but very often contain an invitation for the PM to visit their constituency which request is always granted (but I wonder how often honoured) Just before we went out, we had a delivery from the postman which was meant to be the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas that I had bought for 99p + postage but what turned up was very different. It turned out to be a complete box set in 10 CDs of Mozart’s 50 symphonies which was actually a surprise to me as the last one he wrote is No. 42. However, I did see an explanation on the web to the effect that Mozart actually wrote 41 symphonies but No. 17 was written by his father, No. 18 by another composer and a third was one to which Mozart only added a few bars to a Michael Haydn symphony. This makes 38 but if we add in 14 early sinfonias this brings the total to 52. In any case, this was evidently a mistake by the well-known firm who specialise in selling off ‘job lots’ so I have accepted the complete box set with a degree of pleasure.
We are contemplating where to go tomorrow for a little trip out. We have been recommended a magnificent local restaurant which sounds good for a special occasion but we are still deciding whether to splash out on it or not. We may well go to our usual haunt in Droitwich where I can can call in the TV shop that sold us our TV kit a few years ago so ask some advice on the Firestick buffering problems we have been experiencing (which, incidentally, our son has also experienced but our domestic help has not)
Today in the Hpouse of Commons, Keir Starmer pressed the PM on waiting times for ambulances, starting off with a hypothetical question (looking at the Commons clock, if a person had heart attack symptoms now, how long would they have to wait for an ambulance at various locations throughout the UK?) The PM response was to attack Keir Starmer for not supporting the Government’s attempts to force Minimum Service Level agreements – the legislation for which has only just started its journey through the Commons and the Lords and may take months to come into force. Then Keir Starmer followed up his attack by mentioning the case of a 26 year old cancer sufferer who died before she could be transported to the hospital which was only a few miles away. The House of Commons heard this in complete silence and I wonder how much the clip will be replayed on the news bulletins later on today. Whilst the Government appears to be desperately playing for time, public sympathy is still with the striking nurses and ambulance drivers so the stalemate may well continue right throughout February and March. On 1st February, teachers will strike to be joined by other public sector unions. But today, a junior transport minister has admitted that settling the rail dispute would have cost less than the costs to the society of the strike. Having admitted this, I wonder how long the Rail minister, Huw Merriman, will keep his job as it seems true that the strike is being prolonged just for the government to ‘hold the line’ on pay.
Today we decided to break with our normal routine somewhat and delay our weekly supermarket shopping for a day, assuming that the weather might have improved a bit by tomorrow morning. We decided to go instead to Droitwich which is just ‘down the road’ and have a toddle around our normal haunts. So we picked up our newspaper, filled up with petrol and then made our way to Droitwich to begin our peregrinations. We start off by going to one of the most popular coffee bars in the town which happens to be our favourite because the coffee is good as well as being hot and they serve a magnificent (buttered) teacake which we share between us. After we had eaten and drunk our fill, we stagger next door which is a Cancer Relief charity shop with generally a good range of clothing inside. There seemed to be an interesting pricing policy going on in this particular store because I normally take a 15½ size of shirt but if you moved up to a size 16 the price dropped by a half. I bought myself a ‘Brookes Brothers’ shirt which normally retails at anything from £50 upwards so this moving half a size upwards might be an interesting experiment for me. We generally look for a skirt for Meg but these to be in very short supply as there stores are generally overflowing with tops but very light in the skirt department (as so many women now wear trousers rather than skirts I imagine) We were also tempted into buying a small barometer/hygrometer/thermometer hanging unit which seemed neat and relatively inobtrusive. When I got this home, I gave it a clean-cum-reconditioning with some furniture polish and it is now hanging from a spare picture hook which is in our newly refurbished ‘music room’. Then we progressed onto my favourite hardware/toiletries store which is ‘Wilko‘ and from here we replenished some of our stationery supplies and did a quick tour to see if anything else happened to catch our eye which it did not. Then we got back into the car and reparked it so that it was nearer to the eating place at which we had booked lunch but made a trip to the TV and white goods store which had sold us our television setup a few years ago now. I asked them for some help with the buffering problems to which our Firestick is subject and they told me things that I already know i.e. have I checked the WiFi access speed and so on. Last night, when we are accessing some of the previous series of a programme we are watching on the BBC iPlayer, the Firestick ran into a buffering problem and froze within 20 minutes. I then performed my now, usual trick of disconnecting and then re-connecting the Firestick and this made it perform without problems for the next 1 hour and 40 minutes. So long as I have a quick and ready solution to the buffering problem, I can live with this but I am wary of spending on WiFi extenders which may not be necessary and which might not cure the problem anyway.
We finally got to our appointed lunch slot (in a kind of ‘Olde Worlde Teashoppe’ type cafe) where they do an enormous roast each Thursday and got there at 1.00pm. We waited for 30 minutes for our lunch but the cafe clientele are generally regulars who know each other so there is a fair amount of general chat and banter flying backwards and forwards. Once our dinner arrived, it was absolutely enormous slices of lamb and piled up with vegetables – the sort of ‘Christmas dinner’ type meal that you think you are never going to finish. But Meg and I ploughed onto the end but as it was a much bigger meal than that to which we are accustomed, we may well eat very light meals for the next day or so to rebalance ourselves. After that, it was a case of getting home, unpacking our shopping and collapsing in front of a warm fire and with a warming cup of tea. The shopping trip which should have taken place today is now postponed until first thing tomorrow morning but the weather should be several degrees warmer by then.
In the political world, the ‘levelling up’ agenda is having some interesting developmemts. Apparently, the phrase ‘levelling up’ is to be officially dicouraged. According to ‘The Times‘, terms such as ‘stepping up’ or ‘enhancing communities’ is now the official terminology. But even more cynically, some so-called levelling up funds are now being directed to the South East rather than the North East. The Tory West Midland mayor is furious at the process for allocating levelling up funds, calling for an end to Whitehall’s ‘broken begging bowl culture’. In an angry statement, Andy Street said he wanted ministers to justify why ‘the majority’ of bids in his region had been rejected.The West Midlands received £155m from a £2.1bn pot of levelling up funds whilst the PM’s constituency (Richmond in North Yorkshire) as received a large allocation of money of £19 million whilst £151m is going to London, the North East gets £108m and the Humber is getting £120m.
This morning I leapt out of bed sufficiently early for me to get myself washed, dressed and ready to enter the supermarket as soon as it opened. Although we had a frost last night, the car was not as iced up as it was a few days ago so it was relatively easy to get onto the open road and the traffic was generally quite light as well. Before I went out, my son kindly donated to me a Pure Radio which is almost an exact replacement for one that I already have except that it is ‘stuck’ on one station (which happens to be Classic FM) and is therefore almost non-functional. The Pure DAB radios are really easy both to tune and to save favourite stations to presets and also has the feature of displaying the time in a bright, digital display so I am glad to have a nice functional unit in place once again. Last night, I received a special delivery from Amazon which was a copy on the actual publication day of my great niece’s first novel. This seems to be rather a ‘dark’ oevre but reading the dedications and acknowledgements to family and friends was interesting and as far as I have got at the moment. My great niece has always shown a great talent both for acting and also for creative writing – it is said that many novels have a degree of autobiography about them and I feel that this is probably true in this case as well. Once I had got back from shopping a largish prcel had arrived which was the collection of 46 classical CDs for which I had placed a successful on eBay a few days ago. Unpacking and carefully organised the CDs into some special plastic containers (already judiciously purchased from Poundland) was a pleasure that had to await our return from our visit to the Waitrose cafe where we met one of our regulars who even at her age is still a keen bowler during the winter months. I knew almost exactly what the collection of CDs would contain and, no doubt, the pleasure that they will give will unwind during the days ahead. Whilst we were having lunch, Meg and I treated ourselves to some famous Bach choruses sung by The Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists under the baton of John Eliot Gardiner which must rate as as definitive a performance as it is possible to get. In fact, I was so delighted with the collection that I wrote a special note to the chappie on eBay who had sold them, explaining how these CDs were ones that were very consistent with our own musical tastes and how the CDs had gone to a ‘good’ home. Although a seller just wants to complete a transaction, the whole collection had evidently been been carefully thought about and assembled by a real aficianado so I felt he/she deserved to learn of their ultimate fate.
Quite a chilly air is still very much in evidence and despite the wearing of two sweaters, both Meg and I felt as though we could do with something a little hotter than our seabass served on a bed of lettuce. The dilemma was solved by serving the fish on one of those low-carb packets (sweet potato in this case)and the result was both delicious and warming.In fact, this combination reminded me of the days when at Leicester Polytechnic, the then Medical Officer of Health (who is the local government official charged with public health responsibilities)used to give a talk once a year to Health Visitors and Field Work Teachers. One, in particular, was concerned even in the 1980’s about the importance of good diet and the avoidance of obesity and junk-food generated disease patterns. His standard line of argument always used to be that we needed here in the affluent West to adopt the ‘poor man’s diet’ of fish and rice which seemed somewhat ‘way out’ when he was giving his advice but somewhat less so now that we are one or two decades down the track. Last night in the evening, Meg and I settled down to watch some back episodes of ‘Happy Valley’ on the BBC i-player in which we have become completely engrossed. I was psychologically prepared to leap up every 30-40 minutes to overcome the buffering problems that have plagued our FireStick since we have started to use it much more to catch up on past episodes. As I was poised in readiness, the technology performed flawlessly for an hour of the repeated programme – which I suppose is a sort of Sod’s Law in operation. Half way through the afternoon, our next door neighbour called around to tell us that her brother has died last night in a hospital in Wales. This was not at all unexpected but of course, it is always a bit of a shock when it occurs however prepared one feels one is. We gave what words of comfort we can and resolved to have the neighbours round for a cup of tea and a chat once the immediate turmoils are behind them. When a relative dies, there is always quite a lot to be done but her employers are expecting her back at work on the dot first thing tomorrow morning.
Today being a Saturday, we are always in a bit of different routine. Meg and I slept in a little this morning but we got our act together once we actually got up, had breakfast and then repaired to our Waitrose cafe hoping to see some of our regulars. We made contact with one of our pre-pandemic Waitrose regulars and spent an interesting half hour chatting with each other, mainly talking about the health needs of our respective partners and we how we were both managing to meet them one way or another. When we got home, I read my emails and we had received one from one of the sons of an eminent professor of publc administration in Spain, who died about two years ago. His name was Mariano Baena and he actually helped to frame the modern Spanish constitution after the death of Franco. As the Professor of Public Administration at the Complutense University in Spain (roughly equivalent to our Cambridge) he made contact with us at Leicester Polytechnic and, cutting a lot of history short, helped to form an exchange relationship under the then Erasmus scheme, designed to facilitate students (and staff) to spend a certain portion of their study in a partner university. We sent several students to Spain once we had given them a crash course in Spanish and received several back, some of whom are now amongst our oldest and closest friends. I spent a term teaching Information Technology to Spanish public administration students and Mariano Baena was immensely kind to me, generally offering me a trip at the weekends to other Spanish cities such as Avila and Burgos, usually centering upon monasteries. I have one abiding memory of one trip out which we made with some of his trusted, postgraduate students. We were parked in a very tight space and even though our own car was small, it would prove difficult to get it out of the tight space. Mariano Baena’s solution was to edge his own car forwards and bump the car in front about a foot. He then adopted the reverse procedure and bumped the car behind him a similar distance. And so this proceeded until it was judged that we had space enough to get out of the parking space without more ado. All that I can remember about this particular incident is that the postgraduate students and myself were absolutely helpless with laughter. I have to add that Mariano Baena was a distinguished academic and an equally esteemed High Court judge who, at one stage, required round the clock protection lest he get assassinated by ETA, the Basque terrorist group, who had a penchant for killing High Court judges when the occasion arose.
Late on this morning, the postman delivered nearly the last of my acquisition of classical CDs, bought through eBay. I must say that I could not resist a boxed set of all 9 Beethoven symphonies on six CDs with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic recorded by Deutche Grammaphon. This is about as perfect a combination as it is possible to get for which I paid £5.60 and so again, like my other recent acquisitions, hours of listening pleasure remain. I tend to give Meg and myself a breakfast time concert as we are preparing, eating and then washing up after breakfast – and ditto at lunchtimes. Although I haven’t done a count, I suspect that I now have a collection of about 120 classical CDs so that it certainly enough to keep us entertained and relaxed over the weeks ahead. Saturday afternoon is always a fairly relaxed affair as we attend church late on in the afternoon and when we return, we already have the good tin of soup organised for when we return, as well as scoping out the TV we intend to watch for the rest of the evening.
Politically, the big story today is how Nadhim Zahawi, a one time Chancellor of the Exchequer of the many we have had recently, has reportedly paid a tax bill of at least £5 million if not more. He says that the tax error was found to be ‘careless and not deliberate’ after calls for his sacking by the Opposition parties. But it is evident that he has paid a penalty of some 30% of the overdue tax so there is an evident lack of transparency, not least to officials of the Inland Revenue, in the past. Zahawi has repeatedly indicated that he had nothing to hide when enquiries have been made of him by journalists but it now looks as though events are overtaking him. How long he can survive as Chairman of the Conservative party remains unclear because although he has the reputation of being a good communicator, every public appearance from now on will be dominated by questions about his tax affairs. This means that he either keeps quiet on futue occasions (thus rather making a mockery of his present role) or he has to face persistent and potentially embarrassing questions. If questions about his tax affairs persist for more a week, then I suspect that like other Tory politicians who have been found out, he will soon become toast (as Alastair Campbell, ex Labour party spokesman was wont to say about other long lasting scandals)
The weather was supposed to be getting a trifle less cold this morning but it seemed to maintain the pattern of the past few days. I got up early as I typically do on a Sunday and then walked down into town. I was greeted by the most magnificent of layered sunrises, so much so that I succumbed to the temptation to take a photo and a video of the panoramic sky. But whether the full beauty of the different layers of colour can be appreciated in a photo, I cannot tell. The cold morning was punctuated by four ambulances, one jogger and one intrepid dogwalker, after which I was glad to get home to watch the Laura Kuennsberg (Politics) programme. For once, I thought that Laura Kuennsberg was relatively penetrating and persistent in her questionning of James Cleverley, the Foreign Secretary, who had been despatched across the airwaves knowing that much of the questionning was going to be on the subject of Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chairman. The story of Zahawi’s tax affairs goes back quite a long way and there have long been persistent rumours that he was under investagtion by HMRC for a large underpayment of tax. The latest facts, insofar as they can be ascertained, is that Zahawi owed a tax bill of £3 million and paid a penalty of over 30% making a total payment to HMRC of practically £5 million. The story of this tax avoidance (which is what it appears to be) is tangled but it involves the distribution of shares between Nadhim Zahawi and his father, the subsequent appearance of £99,000 and and an off-shore account in Gibraltar. The MSM (Main Street Media) have restricted themselves to the reporting of facts as admitted by Zahawi himself but the contributors to Twitter have no such inhibitions and several other facets of the affair have received a good airing. According to these accounts, Zahawi should have paid tax on a total of £17 million. When other journalists and commentators have tried to pursue this story, Zahawi’s lawyers have threatened them by the issue of a libel writ (a favourite device used by the rich and powerful when they are trying to prevent full disclosure of their affairs) Another rumour is that Zahawi was on line for a knighthood but the Cabinet Office advised against this because of the ongoing rumours about his tax affairs. From the viewpoint of the members of the public, we have a situation in which the Chancellor of the Exchequeur, ‘de facto’ head of HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) is investigating a department of which he is the titular head. But another financial type scandal has also broken in the last day. It appears that the person appointed as head of the BBC also acted as a ‘contact’ person to help arrange of loan to Boris Johnson of some £800,000 when Johnson was running into financial difficulties. Although it is being mooted that the Chairman of the BBC was the best applicant for the job at the time, the proximity of helping to arrange a huge financial loan to the Prime Minister and shortly afterwards being appointed Chairman of the BBC is noteworthy. The shadow culture secretary, Lucy Powell, has written to the Commissioner for Public Appointments, William Shawcross CVO, asking him to investigate the appointment process. Meanwhile for us bystanders there is an enormous air of sleaze hanging over the present Conservative party and one wonders whether Zahawi, for one, will survive as long as Wednesday which is the day for Prime Minister’s Questions. Of course, the whole premiership of Rishi Sunak himself which pledged high ethical standards and a professional deportment from his ministers is seen to be so much empty rhetoric as these scandals swirl around him.
Today has been a quiet day for Meg and I. We were not particularly tempted to go for a constitutional walk today as a freezing fog was still in some evidence. In addition, our University of Birmingham friend sent me a message to the effect that he had a heavy cold and did not want to inflict it upon us. So we stayed in and had a leisurely lunch of some unsmoked gammon which had cooked for several hours in the slow cooker this morning. The afternoon was devoted to a leisurely reading of the Sunday newspapers and a viewing of ‘Endeavour’ on ITVX (the new name for the ITV hub). Tomorrow morning, I suspect that Meg and I need to make a little foray along the High Street in search of a condolence card for our next door neighbours. They have recently had a bereavement of a brother and this comes hard on the heels of another family member who died about a fortnight ago. This remnded me of a terrible year which we had some years ago in which there were about eight bereavements in almost a few months but these were people unrelated to each other and in various parts of the country. Our close friends from down the Kidderminster Road were also setting forth today for a funeral tomorrow down in London so it is one just wishes that all of these individuals has a relatively peaceful end (and for which in my teenage years we used to pray for a ‘good end’ without fully appeciating what was meant by the phrase).
Today dawned a little less cold although the high pressure/cold snap is persisting a little longer than the weather forecasters initially predicted. This morning, though, we treated ourselves to a good bowl of porridge which, as all of the health experts tell us, is full of good, slow release carbohydrates and sets one up for the day. This morning, after we had breakfasted we had picked up our copy of the newspaper and we trundled along the High Street making our way towards a card shop. There we located the section for ‘In sympathy’ cards but, as I suspected, they were both hard to find and stuck at the end of a carousel and very few in number compared with the yards of space devoted to birthday cards suitable for practically any age. This task having been completed, we made our way past our local Poundland where we popped in to see whether any of our favourite little plastic containers (that are exactly the right size for storing 20+ CDs) were in stock – and they had a goodly number in stock. We purchased three of them which ought to be enough for our needs and also bought the little felt ‘feet’ that we stick on the bottom so that they do not scratch surfaces. Finally, we visited our local Waitrose where I wanted to buy a little something as a little bereavement present for our next door neighbour who has just lost her brother. Our neighbours are now in that twilight period where they are waiting for the funeral in about 10-12 days time after which, no doubt, they can start to adjust to life without their relative. As I write, we are playing a CD of a compilation of Mozart tracks and the one playing at the moment is the aria ‘Soave sia il vento’ (‘Softly blows the wind’) which I always associate with my mother’s funeral. This is because on the night before the funeral when the coffin was present in the church all night and we had just arrived in the church car park, this aria was playing -it represesents a sort of ‘goodbye’ when the two young girls in the opera are waving goodbye to their lovers. As a sort of spooky coincidence, when we were visiting Harrogate about a year later and went past the road leading to the cemetory where my mother was buried, this track was being played on ClassicFM.
This afternooon, after we had our post-prandial cup of tea, we popped around to our neighbours with the little gift and the condolence card. She was bearing up quite well but I am sure must be feeling the loss of her brother quite keenly. I busied myself in the afternoon looking up at the stocks of CDs that we have in various places to try to pull together the various bits of both Hayden and Handel that we have as I think I will now keep them altogether and much more accessible. I rediscovered part of Hayden’s ‘The Creation’ which I had in for some time and was particularly delighted that my favourite cantata (‘The heavans are teling the glory of the Lord’) was on this particular CD but as the various parts were given their German titles, I had not immediately recognised it. By today’s post came the John Eliot Gardiner rendition of arias and choruses from Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ which we particularly enjoyed playing whilst we are having a relaxing read during the afternoon. I have relocated the Panasonic ‘BoomBox’ which I purchased incredibly cheaply a few weeks ago in a more proximate location in our living room so that we can enjoy afternoon concerts whenever we want. As I am writing this, Meg and I are engaging in an interesting type of social experiment which I think is being tried across the country. If you have signed up for this experiment as Meg and I have through our utility supplier, then you are encouraged to turn off as much power as is possible to save a certain degree of energy during a period of what may well be maximum demand. With the introduction of smart meters, it is possible to calculate exactly how much less than normal your power consumption is for this particular hour (from 5pm-6pm) and then your utility company will reimburse you some money (of the order of £2-£3). In this way, the National Grid (who may well be the ultimate funder of the scheme) may be able to tunnel through this period of maximum demand without having to rely upon some coal-fired power stations that are being kept on standby in case power supplies dip below the normally accepted safe levels. Although we can import power from continental Europe, they may not be able to supply it as their own domestic customers will evidently take some priority. A few hours later when all of the sums have been computed, I am hoping that my utility provider (‘Octopus’) will manage to compute for me how much power I have actually saved and how much money I have ‘earned’ It does feel quite exciting to engage in a national project like this, the first of its kind I think, and I will report in future how successful it has been.
So Tuesday has dawned which is the day for our regular weekly visit to the Waitrose coffee bar, where we hope to bump into some of our regulars. No sooner had we got ourselves in place and enjoying a repast of muffins and coffee, one of our pre-pandemic Waitrose friends turned up and we started chatting again about musical topics as in a previous conversation, she had revealed to us that she used to sing regularly in a choir and that her son had been a music editor with Decca records. I know from another friend, not with us today, that our friend actually had her 89th birthday last week so I am going to note down the actual date of her birthday so that hopefully, I can remember it next year and, as it a ‘big’ birthday, reward her with a cake or something similar. Our friend indicated to us that she had been invited back to sing in the choir now that the Covid restrictions are no longer in force. When I asked her if she knew what the choir was going to practice in their next session and did you need any sheet music to participate, she informed me that she knew the piece already as it was Brahm’s requiem. It also emerged in the conversation that she had sung Mozart’s Requiem and was very familiar with Handel’s Messiah having, in the past, sung some of the solo mezzo/contralto cantatas. We must have known our friend for some three years now and she has the demeanour of a quiet and unassuming person, so I was amazed to discover that she was so talented. The popular expresson, not much heard these days, is not to ‘hide ones light under a bushel’ which seems rather a strange expression until you go back to its origins in the New Testament (Matthew 5:15): ‘Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick.’ which is drawn, I suspect from the King James Bible.
After the experiment of last night in which some sections of the population were attempting to save all available power between 5.00pm and 6.00pm, I got onto my account with my energy supplier to see if, in these days of SmartMeters and accounts that can be calculated by the minute, I could tell how much energy I had saved (or points accumulated). I was a bit disappointed to be thanked for my participation and then informed that it would take them ‘some days’ to calculate the actual contribution I had made, which was disappointing. Then came the news that the National Grid was going to repeat the experiment his evening but over a longer period of time – not an hour this time but an hour and a half from 4.30pm until 6.00pm. I decided to try a somewhat different strategy this evening, in view of the longer time period. So I decided to turn off all of our major consumers of which the greatest at this time is a Baxi electric fire which supplements the central heating on really cold days. But I did leave on a really low energy lamp in our living room and the TV itself and I did dig out a blanket which I threw over Meg and for myself, I put on a extra thick jumper. Apart from the electric fire, it is actually quite difficult to save energy whereas for other people, it just a case of rescheduling activities. For example, in the TV reports of how this experiment was proceeding, the case was given of a nurse who typically came home and threw her uniform (and other family washing) into the washing machine when she got home at 5.00pm and I would imagine that this particular family could save quite a lot of energy in the relevant time slot by just using the washing machine an hour later than was her custom. It will be interesting to see if the experiment will run for several more days and whether, in fact, the combined efforts of many of us will have succeeded in averting the use of either or both of the two coal-fired power stations that are standby in case they are needed. Perhaps a large advertising campaign that just encourages people to move activities away from the pressured 5.00pm-6.00pm slot would be a good way forward.
In my walk back from my Pilates session, I took particular care to look at some of the trees and shrubs in the gardens that I pass on my walk back home. I noticed about three trees/shrubs where, if you looked carefully, you could just about discern some buds that are waiting for the advent of spring. Although no biologist, I get the impression that some plants do an initial budding from deep within their stems and then put the process into abeyance once the cold weather starts. But then, when we get some spring like weather, the trees and shrubs can get off to a flying start. It is also possible that we shall have another high pressure/cold weather snap in February which is not unusual in the winter months. Meanwhile the temperature had been up to 16 degrees in some parts of Scotland whereas the cold artic air means that Oxfordshire has experienced -9 degrees last night.
Today is the day when our domestic help calls around so, as always, we have a good chat and a cup of tea before she starts on her weekly round. This morning I showed her the little German weather station which I purchased when we were in Droitwich last Thursday. The weather station deploys a thermometer, the barometer which is the largest dial in the centre and finally a hygrometer and my researches on the web show that it is a fairly well known make of West German manufacture and identical versions are still on sale via eBay. We were quite keen to watch Prime Ministers Questions today at 12.00pm so we had a brief walk in the park, once we had picked up our daily newspaper. We bumped into two people in the park who we know quite well by sight. As they were regular dog walkers they were having a chat whilst their respective dogs had a romp around. Eventually, though, we got home and we were wondering whether the Prime Minister had forced the resigation of Nadhim Zahawi after the tax avoidance scandal where he paid nearly £5 million to HMRC in past taxes including a 30% penalty. The attack on the PM by Keir Starmer was fairly effective but there was no knockout blow and, as we suspected, the PM by instituting an enquiry into the tax affairs of the Conservative Party chairman, was either buying himself some time or kicking the ball into the long grass (possibly both). There was no rush to defend Nadhim Zahawi and it is reported that Conservative MPs may be losing some faith with their parliamentary colleague but as often happens in politics, a certain amount of playing for time may work to the advantage of the government. A new development has been added to the story this afternoon as No.10 has refused to say whether Rishi Sunak has ever had to pay a tax penalty arguing that an individual’s tax affairs should remain confidential. But the same question has also been asked of Keir Starmer the Labour Party Opposition Leader, and the reply has been received that this is not known but the spokesmen would get back to the enquirer in due course.
The foreign news is dominated by the decision of West Germany to let Ukraine have some Leopard 2 tanks. This policy shift has occurred after a great deal of soul searching and some understandable ‘angst’ in view of their past history. However, it may well be that a certain log jam may well now be released. There are rumours that if the US contributes some of its Abrams tanks after the West German decision as now the Poles may commit some of their Leopard 2 tanks (as the manufacturers and the West German government have to give permission) and other European governments may well follow suit – and a number as much as 100 has been mooted but this may be optimistic. The Ukrainians are saying that they need 300 tanks altogether but once they have a goodly number, then the Leopard tanks can probably outrun, outgun and prove to be generally superior to their Soviet counterparts. So if we have an old fashioned tank battle (like the North African theatre in the Second World War) then the Leopard tank is likely to prevail. The military implications of all of this is that the Ukrainians can move from defense to a more aggressive strategy which can gradually push the Soviets out of Ukraine altogether. But all of his will not happen immediately as the critical element is the training of the tank crews and this takes a certain amount of time. In fact, it is said that the American Abrams tanks are so bristling with technology that the training times are likely to take perhaps months rather than weeks before they cen be deployed. So committing American Abrams tanks may be more of a political support move as Joe Biden has just announced that training troops to use this complex technology may well take a long time.
A new report released today has documented the stark differences between North and South in our country – and why levelling up may never be achieved. The North of England receives one of the lowest levels of investment among advanced economies, a think tank (Institute for Public Policy Research) has said. Greece would be the only OECD nation to see less public and private investment, if the region was a country, according to a new IPPR North report. Researchers found the UK as a whole ranks 35th out of the 38 OECD countries in terms of receiving the least investment. Slovakia, Poland and Hungary all enjoy more investment than the UK. If the OECD average was applied to the UK for 2017 to 2020, £397bn more would have been invested. Meanwhile, the exisiting ‘levelling up’ shows all of the examples of what the Americans term ‘pork barrel’ politics. Pork barrel, or simply pork, is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to an MP’s constituency (e.g. Richmond in North Yorkshire which has received funding and which just happens to be the constituency of the Prime Minister himself)
Thursday is my shopping day and I was pleased to get going well before 8.00am without having to defrost the car’s windscreen – I think that the temperature overnight was exactly 0 degrees so not cold enough for a heavy frost to form. After I got the shopping home and unpacked, Meg and I breakfasted whilst listening to Hayden’s ‘Creation’ which disks arrived this morning. The version I got must have been the fullest version as it came on 2 CDs and I felt that I was supporting home industries as a (very youthful looking) Simon Rattle was conducting the Birmingham Philharmonic. I found the program booklet extremely informative as Hayden wrote it intending it to be sung in eiher English or German. I think it might have been first performed in Vienna (to rapturous acclaim,evidently in German) but apparently the Englist text was not so easy to adapt to the natural phrasing of the musical score and the first attempt tranlating from the German was a rather botched affair – subsequently, this has been worked upon and the English text now seems to sit nicely within the musical parameters. By the time we had breakfasted, the morning was progressing somewhat so we decided just to have a wander up and down the High Street in Bromsgrove instead of doing a circuit of the park. When we go to the end of the High Street, I looked inside the Age Concern furniture shop as I am on the lookout for a little occasional table and have, in the past, been extremely successful in a delightful CD cabinet/display case which they had on offer and is now sitting in our ‘music room’. After that, it was a case of getting home, having a cup of warming soup and then progressing on with our quite simple lunch of quiche. I prepared some cavolo nero and I had some tomatoes spare which, after a quick microwave, I dressed with a little mayonnaise (on one) and spicy chile sauce on the other. I only mention this because the results of what might be quite a banal lunch turned out to be exceptionally tasty so I must have done something right.
This afternoon as been a ‘musical concert’ afternoon which drags us away from the TV for an hour or so. In the spirit of experimentation, I have now relocated my (not so little) Polaroid Boombox on a chessboard (made, I believe by my father) and this sits on one of those fabric storage units bought with our suite decades ago. I am not sure if these are properly called a ‘pouffe’ or not but they are relatively large and contain things such as CDs and DVDs. I think they were manufactured to be exactly the same height as the sitting position of the settee and the chairs so that they form a natural extension to the furniture if you want to use it in that particular way. We have two of these which sit snugly on either side of the fireplace and fortunately, they are both on castors the more easily to be wheeled about. My point here is that I can pull out the unit for want of a better term with the CD player on the top of it and thus gaining a metre and angling the CD player somewhat means that we can have the volume of sound we would get from a full scale HiFi. It must be a tribute to the quality of the electronics design and/or the speakers that even at maximum volume (which is not needed) I cannot discern any distortion of the sound even when the volume is turned up to a maximum. I have been enjoying Cecilia Bartoli singing Mozart arias and as well as being a source of great pleasure, her incredible phrasing and high notes helps to test out the capabilities of the Polaroid to its maximum.
The Zahawi affair is rumbling on and is likely to do so for another ten days or so. It is reported that Rishi Sunak wants the whole enquiry process (‘to establish the facts’) to be cleared up as quickly as possible but this affair is not going to go away. The media and the news bulletins are running the story constantly and occasionally there are some contradictory accounts- so there must be some ‘porky pies’ (= lies) going on somewhere. The Times reported that the PM was ‘livid’ that he not been properly informed of Zahawi’s tax affairs when appointing him as Conservative party chairman but this has just been flatly denied by No. 10. However, in a meeting with MPs on a select committee, the chief of HMRC has stated that ‘there are no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs’ But the concept of ‘carelessness’ in tax law is equivalent to that of ‘negligence’ in other spheres of life and from this we can conclude that Nadhim Zahawi has not just made a simple mistake but committed a transgression for which a penalty is payable and which he has, in fact, paid. So this would appear on the face of it to be an admission of guilt even before any enquiries are actually concluded.
So the end of another week and we were looking forward to see which, if any, of our acquaintances would turn up to Waitrose for a morning coffee. We did coincide with one of our pre-pandemic friends and as we did the last time we met, we exchanged some words of mutual support for how to care for ailing spouses. Our friend seems to be having a particularly hard time at the moment as she herself has health problems of her own and the assistance that she often needs to give to her husband does not fall within the window of time slots afforded by the care slots allocated to her. I told her the story of my mother who, when she was recovering from a broken hip and needed a care package at home, often had some difficulties with the care assistants who had been allocated to her. Her increasing deafness undoubtedly made for all kinds of communication difficulties. The thing that she found distressing (and I suspect that this is a very widely shared feeling) is that she was never quite sure when the care workers would make an appearance. There never seemed to be a regular care worker and therefore it was difficult to establish any kind of social relationship. I suspect that my mother had great difficulties in making her needs felt and from what we know of accounts of care workers themselves, they only have small increments of time in which to perform whatever duties thay have been allocated in the care plan. The question always remains, of course, whether we walk exactly in the footsteps of our parents when we approach their age. It does seem, though, as though we come to inherit the worst rather than the best of the characteristics of our parents but hopefully we can all learn from their example either positively or negatively. When we got home, we cooked a very nice dinner of smoked haddock with mangetouts and a baked potato and, as an experiment, tried a small smidgeon of sweet chilli sauce to see how it would work out (which, in the vent, was very well indeed).
This afternoon, we had a quiet afternoon as we were were expecting the visit of our chiropodist with whom we have a monthly appointment to help to keep us both super mobile. Before she was due in the late afternoon, though, we did enjoy a little concert of some Palestrina of which we just happened to have a CD. We both find this baroque music extremely relaxing. Primarily known for his masses and motets, which number over 105 and 250 respectively, Palestrina had a long-lasting influence on the development of church and secular music in Europe, especially on the development of counterpoint. This may well not be everybody’s ‘cup of tea’ but once in a while, it is an extremely good listen. I am still experimenting with all of the facilities on my Polaroid BoomBox and one which is extremely useful is the Bluetooth option. This means that I can play any of the hundred or so tracks that I have (somewhow) stored on my very much outdated iPhone selectable from anywhere in the room. The actual range of Bluetooth is some 10 metres or 33′ but I have never experimented with anything other than a few metres.
I follow Beth Rigby, the Sky News interviewer and analyst quite closely because she often seems to get to the heart of a story way before the BBC or other channels. She is now saying (as are many other commentators) that Rishi Sunak’s integrity is taking a hit as he prolongs the pain over the Tory party chairman. As one minister pointed out to her on Wednesday, what really mattered here was not the conflict of interest of Mr Zahawi being the chancellor while he was in dispute with the HMRC or what the PM knew when. What matters here is the naked optics of a cabinet minister receiving around £27m that he did not initially pay tax on when people were struggling to make ends meet. It is always interesting when fellow Cabinet ministers do not rush to the support of any of their colleagues when it evident to practically everybody that there is no long term future in the government. Meg and I tuned in to ‘Question Time‘ on BBC1 last night to get the view of ‘the man in the street’ (which happened to come from Scunthorpe on this occasion) and all of the panelists and the vast majority of the audience wanted Nadhim Zahawi to go now – one or two audience members thought we should wait until the results of the enquiry are known (like Rishi Sunak’s desperate effforts to play for time) but the general mood of the public is clear by now. Sir Rod Stewart, a prominent Conservative party supporter until hitherto, has now had enouh and has got into contact with Sky News to indicate (yesterday) that he had changed his allegiance as he said: ‘Change the bloody government.’ Naturally, this is like manna from heavan for the Labour Party and for us most of us observers the question is not ‘if’ but ‘when’ the resignation and ultimate fall from grace will happen.
Once we had got ourselves up and breakfasted and enjoyed our weekly diet of Alan Titchmarsh on ClassicFM, we make our way down to Waitrose and met up with the same pre-pandemic friend with whom we had had a chat yesterday. She was telling us of the frustrations that she was havng with the ‘Power of Attorney’ document which she was trying to register with some of he appropriate financial institutions. In one of them, which I shall not name, the institution should have taken a photocopy for their records but only succeeded in losing one of the pages of the original document (which required another visit to the solicitor to replace the missing page) after which the financial institution in question did not succeed in making a legible copy of the document in question and our friend had to be called back again with her document for fresh photocopies to be made. Whether the whole of this transaction has ended with a happy resolution I am unable to say but the root of the problem always seem to be that personnel do not pay sufficient atention to detail and hence errors occur and accumulate. Certainly, if one were to take a survey of the transactions that ‘ordinary’ people have with the financial entities with which they have dealings, I am pretty sure that most of us would have some tales of woe to recount. I would surnmise that with the prevalence of financial fraud not to mention outright money-laundering that quite obsessive bureaucratic procedures have been put in place which are onerous in the extreme for us, the law-abiding, whilst probably not deterring the professional money launderers that the procedures are designed to prevent. That London is at the centre of dirty money is quite widely accepted, but the crisis in Ukraine has once again put the issue in the spotlight according to Thomas Mayne, visiting fellow at Chatham House, an independent think tank that focuses on international affairs. Transparency International UK recently reported that such ‘questionable funds’ could be to the value of GBP 6.7 billion. Properties in the central London areas like the City of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea form a huge part of this value. After listening to our friend and her travails, our University of Birmingham friend turned up by prior arrangement. We are swapping little bits of electrical equipment with each other but nothing extremely exciting (a battery tester and a little transformer power supply) There are several little technical questions I wanted to ask my friend as his technical engineerng knowledge is evidently far superior to mine. We will probably meet again tomorrow in Waitrose and start off here we left off today. We both share an interest in rugby (football) and as the Six Nations will start off next weekend, no doubt we will have a lot to discuss.
There are several stories doing the rounds at the moment about some of the turmoils happening within the BBC. In both TV and radio, the story is more or the less the same. Under the pressure of rampant inflation, the license fee model under threat and a feeling that the BBC is top heavy, then a series of reorganisations seem to be taking place. This is having the effect that even seasoned and well-respected journalists and presenters are having to reapply for their own jobs. It will come as no surprise that any presenters that come into the categories of being white, male and middle aged do not fare well in these interviews even though their careers have been exemplary. I share some feeling for these personnel because even in my last post I was constantly being told how expensive I was with the implicit message that two junior and inexperienced saff could be appointed at the bottom of the respective salary scales for the same amount of money as my salary. If this is happening all over the country, it may help to explain why there seems to be an exodus of staff aged in thir fifties who have either been given the ‘heave-ho’ by their employing organsations or decided that there is a better life out there once one reaches the stage where the mortgage has been paid off and children have passed through university.
I always have the same feeling on Saturdays that big political ‘exposés’ are often revealed in the Sunday newspapers and evidently Saturday is the day when the political journalists are sharpening their quills, as it were. Sometimes it happens that the revelations are such that the politician feeling the heat feels that that they have no option but to resign sooner rather than later. Evidently Nadhim Zahawi is awaiting the results of the investigation into his tax affairs which may well take a fortnight to conduct, but I have a feeling in my bones that he will be gone long before then. Apart from his tax affairs, there is information that his wife received a £30 million unsecured loan (from whom?) which was not declared in the Register of Members Interests The loans were made to a business called Zahawi and Zahawi, and reportedly used to fund part of a large property portfolio including commercial and retail units in Birmingham, Brighton, London and Walton-on-Thames in Surrey.
Today being a Sunday my normal habit is to get up quite early and go down to collect the Sunday newspaper before settling down to watch the politics programme on BBC1. However, we knew that later on today we were going to meet our University of Birmingham friend in Waitrose (as we had arranged yesterday) so this morning I allowed myself the luxury of an extra couple of hours in bed. Then we collected our newspaper just before popping into Waitrose where there appeared to be lots of families enjoying a Sunday morning treat. Our University of Birmingham friend always has lots of topics of conversation to discuss and today we settled upon sporting issues. As he is a keen supporter of our local rugby team here in Bromsgrove, we were discussing the likely impact of the rule changes in rugby that we may see come into effect in the Six Nations competition which starts on Saturday. The new rule, which has been introduced for the best of reasons to reduce or minimise the chances of head injury, is not to allow any tackles above the waist. How this is going to be interpreted and put into effect by referees might actually prove enormously difficult, with the best will in the world. On a rugby field, opposing players are likely to be running at speed and/or be in a semi crouched or a bent forward position so the new rule change might be very difficult both for players, coaches and referees alike. So after this, we both discovered in the past that we had been followers of Leeds United football club which is not a much followed team outside Leeds these days. But back in the 1960’s the half-back line was Jack Charlton (Bobby Charlton’s brother), Billy Bremmer and Johnny Giles. In addition, Paul Reaney played at full back as well as Bell (first name forgotten) and Norman Hunter whilst Peter Lorimer often took penalties as it was reckoned that he had the hardest (and therefore fastest) shots in football and penalties were almost completely unsaveable, even if the goalie dived in the right direction. The legendary half back line and defence were so good as it was said by some of the Leeds supporters that Gary Sprake (the Leeds goalkeeper) was regarded as somewhat fallible even though he was good enough to play for Wales and therefore the half backs ensured that the ball never got anyhere near him. The legendary nature of this defence (and Leeds were not a pretty team to watch) is that occasional supporters such as myself and our University of Birmingham friend can still remember the names of the players some half a century later.
Before we even got as visitng the Waitrose cafe the news had broken, two minutes into the Lorna Kuennsberg program, that Nadhim Zahawi had been sacked earlier that morning. The report from the Prime Minister’s adviser on ministerial ethics had reported to Rishi Sunak that Zahawi had committed several severe breaches of the ministerial code and therefore Rishi Sunak found it easy to dismiss him immediately. Perhaps conscious of the fact that he has been judged as weak and indecisive, Rishi Sunak did not give the minister the chance to resign but there was an immediate and decisive sacking. Most of the commentators and members of the politicl elite thought that this should have happened days, if not weeks, ago, The interesting question now is where Zahawi will resign as an MP or be deselected by his Stratford consistuency – in ‘vox pop’ interviews aired over the last few days, he has little to no support locally so I should not be surprised if he stands at the next election and then leaves politics altogether.
This afternoon, Meg and I watched Jane Austin’s ‘Emma‘. The only reason that I mention this is because it was the book that I studied for my GCSE ‘O’-level in English Language. The opening sentence of ‘Emma‘ and I quote, runs as follows: ‘Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her’ I remember at the time going through an ‘angry young man’ time in my adolescence and upon reading this first sentence my lip curled and I wondered how on earth I could find anything remotely interesting given this start to the novel. In particular, I could think of nothing in the ‘handsome, clever, rich with a comfortable home’ with which I could possible identify. I think when you study a book for ‘O’ level, you have read the text minutely several times and then built up a mental image of the characters in your mind. So it is especially interesting to see how all of this is portrayed on film because, in my day, you never had the opportunity to see a film of the classic novel chosen for you. In retrospect, I still sometimes wonder whether Jane Austin can be fully appreciated by 15 year old male students of whatever ethnicity and I am unsure whether Jane Austin is still on the curriculum for school pupils of this age.
Today being a Monday and a day when we did not anticipate much social contact, Meg and I decided that we would try a walk in the park as we do not seem to have done this for several days. Whilst we have taken the opportunity to meet up with friends and acquaintances in the Waitrose cafe we have done so but today seemed as good a day as any to resume what has been our normal pattern of activity over the past year or so. Today beckoned fair and the weather seemed to be a lot milder than of late. However, by the time we were installed upon our customary park bench, an especially icy wind seemed to spring up from somewhere so we drank a hasty coffee and then beat a hasty retreat home. We were not particularly sorry to do this as I could get Meg warmed up with a bit of buttered toast and apricot jam and we were just in time for the daily Politics show at 12.15. As might be surmised, the analysis was very much upon the sequelae of the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi and the response of the PM, Rishi Sunak, who seems to acted decisively. By all accounts, the report landed in the PM’s inbox by 7.00am and within the hour Zahawi had been sacked for multiple breaches of the Ministerial Code. When you read the account of the Prime Minister’s advisor on ethics, Sir Laurie Magnus, (his letter/report printed in full in ‘The Times’) then seven breaches of the Ministerial code were detailed and they are nearly all repetitions of the same principle i.e. the failure to inform either the Cabinet Office or the Permanent Secretaries of various ministries in which he had held office of the fact that his tax affairs were under active investigation by HMRC. Zahawi’s defense is that he thought that he was just having ‘discussions’ with the Inland revenue but not being ‘investigated’ – but this defence has cut no ice with the independent investigator or with media commentators. It is a strange feature of modern politics that the offense of actually hiding £27 million in an offshore account and then failing to declare it to the Inland Revenue was not in itself the sacking offence but it was the cover-up or the failure to come clean about these investigations. So like the Watergate enquiry that was to prove the downfall of Richard Nixon, it was not so much the original offence but its cover up which was to prove the decisive offence. Students of British political history may well remember the Profumo affair in about 1962 when Jack (John) Profumo was having relationships with two ‘good time girls’ Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, whose favours were also being shared with a Russian spy. These relationships were not to prove the decisive events that led to Profumo’s downfall and subsequent resignation – the actual offence was the fact of lying to the House of Commons about it.
This afternoon we are having a quiet afternoon, playing some of our favourite music. We have just listened to Mozart’s ‘Grand Mass in C minor’ This was written for his newly-wedded wife, Constanze, but Mozart never wrote all the sections needed for a mass, and the first performance—with Constanze as soloist at the Abbey of St. Peter’s back in Salzburg— may have used supplemental music. Yet even in its unfinished form, says Zohn, ‘The music is Mozart at his most dazzling. You get Mozart the opera composer, Mozart the composer of sacred vocal music, and Mozart the explorer of Baroque counterpoint…all wrapped into one.’ Tomorrow is going to be quite a busy day for us one way or another and I am spending some time running off and reading some documents for a meeting that I have at our church tomorrow evening.
Some recent research has just revealed how people are coping with the cost of living crisis as inflation has exceeded 10% although it may now be down very slightly. The very first economy to make has been streaming services and Britons cancelled £2 million of streaming services last year in order to make ends meet. It is also reported that young people are struggling more with the cost of living crisis than the COVID pandemic and the younger generation are anxious in particular about the costs of having children. But we are living in times when people have grown up to accept a certain standard of living and may not be very knowledgeable about the ways in which one might economise. As a university student, we all know that the secret to live economically was to invest in things like a bag of rice or a sack of potatoes to keep you going for weeks and we all knew how to prepare a cauliflower cheese for one meal a week. A small joint of meat would be cooked for the Sunday joint and then quite a lot was reserved for meals for two more days in the week. The remaining small fragments of meat (or bits of a chicken carcass) would be thrown into a curry much later in the week. In fact, having prepared curries in our student days, we are still in the habit (half a century later) of preparing one each week using the small amounts of protein provided by the meat or chicken fragments.
Meg and I look forward to Tuesday mornings because we typically meet some of ur pre-pandemic friends in our regular visit to the Waitrose cafe. When we arrived, I saw one of the regular Waitrose staff who is regularly in charge of the flowers and shrubs section and wondered why today they seemed to be overflowing with all kinds of products. She informed me that they were starting to get ready for Valentines day which will be in two weeks time or so. In common with many other outlets, they were getting ready in plenty of time. I suggested to her that we should rename it to ‘hanky panky’ day, which term I gather dates from about 1841 so is nearly two centuries old. I do not think the store will take up my suggesstion but my contact within the store expressed surprise that I had never engaged in sending valentines (apart from to my old friend who has since died when I pretended it came from his very first girlfriend whose name he indisceetly imparted to me. I sent him disguised valentines for several years but he never let on that he knew that I was the sender although the card that I sent him did do the rounds of his family) Once we sat down for our coffee, it was like a gathering of the clans because eventually three of the old regular i.e. pre-pandemic crowd turned up and we had a good laugh and joke with each other. As locals from the same part of town, more or less, we were discussing some of the local issues to do with car parking and the nuisance that it causes. One of our number was highly indignant because she lived in a property at one time under the control of the local authority and for the last fort years there have been large stones situated outide her house which might have been decorative but have the function of stopping casual parking in front of her house. But a van had reversed into one of these stones and then complained to the local authority even though he was technically trespassing onto their property. Some ‘jobs worth’ in the local authority had arranged for the stones to be removed even though they had been there for decades whereupon people now started to park half on the road and half on the grass thus allowing their vehicles to transgress on the area previously occupied by the stones. I suggested that she write to the council suggesting that they restore the site to the ‘status quo ante’ and also try to enlist the help of her local councillor to whom this ought to be a bread and butter issue but I do not hold out much hope. After a jolly hour together, we all went on our way and I prepared for my weekly Pilates class which is a regular fixture on a Tuesday. On the way down into town, I left five minutes early so that I could go to an ATM and also dive into our local Asda from which store I buy one or two items not easily obtainable elsewhere. As I had not visited the store for a few weeks, some of the things I wanted either could not be located without a great deal of searching or were in a different place because they had reorganised where things are on the shelves and therefore they took some searching which took the time I did not have. I located three of the four things I wanted and abandoned the search for the last item – I suppose it is one of the frustrations of life that stores reorganise themselves on a regular basis but I personally do find it frustrating, particularly for items that you buy very infrequently.
There has been an important report by the IMF this morning which has coincided more or less exactly with the third anniversary of Brexit i.e. the date upon we formally left the EU. In the latest update of its economic forecasts, the IMF says it expects the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 0.6% in 2023. To add further humiliation for the chancellor and prime minister, most other countries around the world saw their forecasts upgraded. Downing Street has insisted that the UK’s economy is strong despite the International Monetary Fund’s warning that Britain’s economy will go into reverse this year and will fare worse than all other advanced nations – including Russia that is in the middle of a war and subjected to many international sanctions as a consequence. In its latest World Economic Outlook update, the IMF downgraded its UK gross domestic product (GDP) forecast once again, predicting a contraction of 0.6% against the 0.3% growth pencilled in last October. In the media discussion today, the reaction of Tory MPs and others on the extreme right is fascinating. Almost to a man (and a woman) they just refuse to accept the report of the IMF because it does not conform to their world view. An important factor in the IMF downgrade was the damage done to the UK economy by the disastrous premiership of Liz Truss who tanked the economy and had to be ejected after six weeks. Ater journalists put the report to Liz Truss asking for her to comment, she just refused point blank – that is to say, she literally had no answer to the criticisms made of her.
Today has seemed an odd day in many ways. It is the day upon which our domestic help calls around and we are always pleased to see her. She had walked to our house because there was a beautiful clear blue sky when she set off from home so it seemed as the day was going to be good for a pleasant walk. But by the time Meg and I were ready for our walk, the sky had clouded over and there was quite a biting wind. Nonetheless, we were determined to make the best of the day and hence we prepared our flask of coffee and our elevenses and set off for the park. Having got there, it was not pleasant sitting in a cold wind to drink our coffee but nonetheless we did do so before home beckoned. On the way home, I knocked on the door of a friend who lives down the road and is the principal flower arranger/organiser at out local church. She did not happen to be in but I would like to have a quick discussion as an item occurred in the church meeting that was held last night where she might like to learn the flavour of the discussions that were aired in the committee last night.
In the late morning, we had just started to prepare vegetables for the midday meal when the doorbell rang as it was the appointed day for our hourdresser to call. We have a planning white board board in our kitchen and on this we record all of the forthcoming events which is particular useful to us. The problem today was that the last time I had updated the board, my fingers must have rubbed out the dry-wiper entry for the fact that our hairdresser was calling around today and hence when she arrived at the door, she was completely unexpected. Today was quite a long session because Meg was having a perm and this process takes the best part of a couple of hours. But Meg is very pleased with the results of the perm and I get my own hair cut in some of the pauses within the various stages. Eventually, we had our dinner which was partly prepared and cooked but had to wait until the hairdresser was finished – so this created quite a large hole in the middle of the day.
Today was the day when several categories of public sector workers were on a one day strike in a semi-coordinated move. Up to half a million workers, including teachers, train drivers, airport, university staff and civil servants, went on strike on what was nicknamed ‘Walkout Wednesday’. The UK faced its biggest day of mass action for more than a decade. There is an evident trial of strength last seen, probably, in the government vs. the mineworkers in the 1980’s. In disputes like this, both sides appeal to the public and, in the long term, which side seems to get and retain public sector support will gain the upper hand. What is amazing about the current set of disputes is that, despite the evident inconvenience, public support for the striking workers seems to have been quite constant – and according to the latest opinion poll may well have increased by a degree or so. But this is the first time that the education sector has been hit in a really big way so it would not be surprising if public support starts to ebb away from this point on. The point being made by the striking teachers is that we are not just talking about the massive blow to living standards in the past year but a decade of less than inflation pay rises. In addition, particularly in the case of teachers, the increasing work pressures and bureaucracy as well as shortage of teachers in key areas are additional sources of contention. It is hard to predict how this particular dispute will play out but there are not even glimmers as to which side might ‘blink’ first.
After the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi for breaking the ministerial code, a lot of attention is now being paid to the Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab. Some two dozen complaints of bullying have now been laid againt this minister and they are being investigated at this moment. The sheer volume of complaints and the new ‘mantra’ of ensuring that due process is completed means that that a decision in this case may well be some weeks off. There is a briefing war going on on both sides with one side claiming that Sunak must have been aware of these allegations of bullying before appointment but the counter-argument is that No. 10 claims that the PM was never formally told. And, as a complicating factor, we have the case of the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, who was sacked by Liz Truss for a breach of the ministerial code (using inappropriate i.e insecure methods of electronic communication for government business) only to be reappointed by Sunak some six days after the initial sacking. It is inevitable that commentators are observing a common thread in all of the transgressions, which is that there seems to be an inability to comply with any kind of rule-governed behaviour. The impression given (as with Johnson’s ‘partygate’) is that there one rule for most of the population which is blithely ignored by Cabinet Ministers.
Today has been an interesting day. As I normally do, I got up early and got myself to my local supermrket one minute before it opened which is my ideal. I decided to make this week a ‘light’ week so whereas I might be tempted to buy the occasional thing that was not on my mental list, I tried to restrict myself today to only those items that were strictly necessary. As a consequence, I finished my shopping ten minutes early, saved the best part of £10.00 and then, having collected our daily newspaper arrived home before normal and got the packing unshopped in almost record time. As I was on the road, there was a not particularly pleasant sort of stinging rain hanging in the air. Consequently, it was quite easy for Meg and I to decide on an activity rather than walking in our local park. As we did a couple of weeks ago, we set off for nearby Droitwich and immediately to the coffee house which is our usual haunt. By the time we got there, the place was absolutely heaving but we were fortunate in finding a little table to ourselves near the back of the shop. On a neighbouring table, there was a threesome with a couple of Jack Russell dogs and we had an entertaining conversation with them about ‘doggy ‘ matters, even though we are not dog owners ourselves. After coffee, we piled into the Cancer Research charity shop next door pursuing the shop for kitchen odds and ends without finding nothing that we wanted or needed. However, in contrast to a couple of weeks ago on our last visit, they had a good supply of shirts in the 15½” range and I quickly selected a couple to replace some of the shirts I have in our wardrobe that are by now getting a bit threadbare. Finally, we popped into our latest hardware store – Wilko– in search of a simple kitchen tray which I have in mind for a particular purpose and it took a lot of finding. Even the store staff did not know where in the store they might be found one or whether they had any in stock. Eventually, I found a supply of what I wanted and the dimensions were absolutely perfect. In the past, I had bought a lot of plastic/melamine type trays that this store used to stock but that was years ago and times have moved on. However, I found a wooden tray (actually, in bamboo, it was said) and was pleased to have located what I wanted. As I was taking it out of the car when we got home, though, I was delighted to discover that that what looked like a tray actually had folding legs on the back to convert it into a low table if you want. This fits my purposes even better so after I got it home, it had a quick treatment of some furniture polish to keep it looking in good condition and then I will store it until I bring it into use.
When we got home, it was fairly late by this stage but I threw together a meal (onions, tomatoes, peppers, some peas) which I served on a bed of pasta (for Meg) but cream crackers for myself. For protein we resorted to a standby of some tuna enhanced by 1000 Island sauce and the whole meal proved to be quite quick to prepare as well as being tasty. We had a quiet afternoon but treated ourselves to listening to the outstanding Canadian pianist Glen Gould playing some Mozart sonatas. We have a boxed set of this performer playing every piano sonata that Mozart composed and the whole set came along as part of the bid I successfully made for the 48 strong collection of CDs about three weeks ago now
.Two stories caught my eye this evening, one national and the other more local. The national story was highlighting the activities of British Gas who were employing some agents to force pre-payment gas meters on consumers who had run foul of their systems and who installed meters for these really poor payers. What was shocking, though, was the way that British Gas (or the agents they deployed) used a local locksmith to gain access to a property in which they were going to install a meter and the video clip showed the pleasure that they showed when gaining forcible access in this way, coupled with brutal attitudes towards the poor (in every sense) customers who had this treatment foisted upon them. The local story concerned a statue known as the ‘Knife Angel’ which after a tour of several towns is going to be installed outside Gloucester Cathedral. The statue is contructed from knives that have come into the possession of the police and rather than being destroyed, they have been used to construct this dramatic statue. Meg and I have actually seen this when it was located outside Chester Cathedral about a year or so ago and we can only hope that the prominent display of this statue has the desired deterrent effect. The local news item focussed on a local youth who had been prominent in the Gloucester area in trying to get knives off the streets of the city.
Today being the end of the week, Meg and I had nothing really in prospect so it was a toss-up whether we went to the park or visited Waitrose in the off-chance that we might bump into any of our pre-pandemic friends. Eventually, we decided on the off-chance to visit Waitrose and we were really glad that we did because sitting there waiting for us was our University of Birmingham friend. We were both pleased to see each other and we had one of those chats where one thing leads to another. One amusing topic of conversation was the disjunction that is apparent between the normal speaking voice with which we are familiar and the sound of your voice as captured on a tape recorder, for example. As we hear the sound of our voice mediated somewhat by the bones of our skull, then what we imagine to be our normal speaking voice is not what what others hear. This then led onto one of the insights of social psychology which I have always found fascinating. This is the self concept that individuals have of themselves and an early social psychologist at the turn of the century dubbed this ‘the looking glass self’ The essential idea behind this psychological contruct is that we form the perceptions that we have of ourselves from the way in others perceive us – on other words, other people in their interactions with us constitute a type of mirror or ‘looking glass’. There is subtlety attached to all of this because it is actually our perceptions of other people’s perceptions of us that get built into our own self-identity. I remember that as boys playing football in the school yard during playtime, as a rather cruel joke we use to take the kid that happened to be the least skilful at football and then all pretend to him that he was absolutly brilliant, even allowing him to score occasionally to add to his self belief. The young ‘victim’ (as they were in reality) then started to think of themselves as really talented which I suppose is rather a cruel joke but that is what children sometimes do to each other in the playground. Allied to this story is the other one I blogged about the other day when the world famous footballer Pele had just died. The story is told of an amateur footballer who had been knocked unconscious and was being treated by the trainer at the edge of the pitch. But the manager was desperate to get him playing again in a very tight Cup match and when the trainer explained that, after the concussion, the footballer was confused and could not remember who he was, the manager retorted ‘Tell him he is Pele and get him back on the pitch!’ The conversation with our University of Birmingham friend then flowed on to the topic of the level of musical education we had both received and how we all have to find our natural level of ability before we realise that we were never going to become concert pianists or performers.
his lunchtime we raided the freeer and found one piece of frozen white fish that was going to constitute our lunch. The frozen fish is nutritious enough but not particularly flavoursome, so it needed a bit of ‘tarting up’ for our meal. I discovered that I had a half packet of Hollandaise sauce powder left which I then enhanced with some ‘mixed Italian herbs’ I discovered in our spice rack and all of this had the desired effect as our lunch turned out to be quite tasty and was complemented with a baked potato and some green beans. After lunch, we enjoyed a little concert of some Mozart piano sonatas and then tuned in to an old version of ‘Morse’ being shown on ITV3. The theme of this proved a little ‘dark’ for Meg (teenagers dying after taking ‘E’ and similar laboratory manufactured drugs) so we abandoned this and tuned into an animal type program that was more of Meg’s cup of tea. I read the newspaper from cover-to-cover and successfully completed a ‘difficult’ Soduka which I rarely do these days. Meg and I are looking forward to this weekend because it is the start of the 6 Nations rugby competition – some of it collides with our visit to church on late Saturday afternoon so we shall have to make a judicious use of our Personal Video Recorder to record the matches (or even the whole series) for later viewing.
The first hint of a breakthrouh in some of the public sector strikes was seen this afternoon. Nurses in Wales with the Royal College of Nursing have called off planned strike action next week after a pay offer this afternoon. Pat Cullen, the union’s general secretary, observed that if the other governments can negotiate and find more money for this year, the prime minister can do the same. This puts the presssure upon health ministers who refuse to negotiate on the nursing dispute in England to come up with a similar offer but somehow, I think that they will still hold fast and not accept the precedent of the nurses in Wales.
Today was the start of a weekend to which we had been looking forward for some time as it was the start of the 6 Nations rugby competition. Rather than a walk in the park this morning, we decided that we would pay a visit to a large multi-product store on the edge of town in order to buy some medicaments and also a couple of little storage baskets. This having been done (and a certain amount of work to remove the extra sticky labels from the same) we returned home to have our elevenses in the comfort of our own home and to have a bit of a read of the newspapers. Then it was a case of having a simple lunch of quiche and vegetables before we settled down for an afternoon of rugby. We are able to watch the whole of the Ireland-Wales match at our leisure but the Englnd-Scotlnd game is another matter. We should be able to watch most of the first half of this match but then our normal church attendance intervenes. We have programmed our PVR on a ‘series record’ and, in theory, we should be able to catch the second half of the match but I am not holding my breath over this.
The news media is dominated today by the massive police search for the woman walking her dog in Lanacashire who has disappeared without trace when walking quite near a river bank. After extensive searches, the police ae working on the theory, but it is only a theory, that the woman had slipped into the river and been swept away. It is possible that as the river had quite steeply banked sides that the dog’s ball rolled into the river and that the missing woman may have been trying to retrieve this which accounts for her slip into the water. But all of this is conjecture and it is that is causing some discomforture to her family and friends. A enormous amount of technology seems to be being deployed in the search for the missing woman. We have seen police helicopters, drones, underwater sonar, police frog divers and probably much more that I have not mentioned. So far, not a single clue (such as the dog’s ball?) has been revealed but, in theory, the sonar unit dragged behind the police launch should be able to detect underwater shapes including a body. The police efforts and resources are all concentrated upon this but it may take some days to discern whether this is good police work or whether there may be other explanations. The disappearance of the woman is quite baffling to everybody but in the fullness of time, we may discover what has happened. Just out of interest, I Googled to see how common drownings are in the UK and came across the latest annual figures that suggested that each year there are some 80 drownings by ‘falling in’, a further 73 which are alcohol related and 34 due to swimming in all waters. The point here is that there are nearly 200 drownings a year but hardly any attract the attention afforded to this particular case.
When we returned from church this evening, we had the bowl of soup which is the repast that we always tend to have upon our return and then took our chances with the PVR to see the second half of the England-Scotlnd match. The PVR performed flawlessly and the series record seeme to have worked as it should. Scotlnd won the match in the dying minutes of the game and, I think, deservedly so but in truth there was very little between the two teams. We have some more rugby tomorrow but France vs. Italy is not going to be particularly exciting although next weekend will see France v. Ireland which may well prove the match of the series. Whilst on the subject of TV, the whole nation is on tenterhooks to watch the final episode of the third series of ‘Happy Valley’ at 9.00 tomorrow evening. We have only come lately to the joys of this series based upon a doughty policewoman based in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. Tomorrow night is the last episode of three series and there will no more after tomorrow night. I did read one comment in a newspaper that all actors and producers of TV dramas ought to be made to watch a series of ‘Happy Valley’ to show how the job ought to be done. It is also rumoured that several alternative endings have been filmed so that if any on them is inadvertently leaked, another ending can be substituted.
Tonight it has reported that the Chinese ‘spy’ balloon which has been making its way across the landmass of the United States has been succesfully shot down once the balloon was safely over water. Informed commentators are arguing that this Chinese balloon was a spy mission that went wrong – as for the US shooting it down, it is hard to see any military in a northern European society to allow a transgression of their airspace as egregious as this to go unpunished. One does wonder, though, what parts of the downed balloon the United States will manage to get their hands on to learn exactly what games the Chinese military are playing.
Today we knew that we were going to see our University of Birmingham friend later on in the morning so I did not feel the complusion to leap out of bed and walk down to get the newspaper early on in the day. So we had a fairly leisurely breakfast before we hit the road this morning. After we picked up the newspaper, we had a little bit of time before we were due to meet with our friend so we paid a quick visit to the hardware store that I visited yesterday as I could do with one more of the little containers that they had in stock. I thought that this was going to be a quick ‘in and out’ job as I knew exactly where the little baskets I wanted were shelved. Hoever, that was yesterday and today I could not immediately find them as the store had already re-shelved some of their stock and therefore they needed a bit of hunting around for them. However, they were located at last and I purchased what I wanted. We then spent the best part of an hour with our friend in the Waitrose coffee bar and the store was particularly full of flowers and related ‘romantic’ items as Valentines day is early in the week just after next. Then it was a case of getting home and having some quiet time with the Sunday newspapers before we started to cook the Sunday lunch. This was simple but tasty affair of ham, primo cabbage and a baked potato but although it was simple lunch, we nonetheless enjoyed it. In the afternoon, we tuned into the France vs. Italy match which everybody, including ourselves, assumed would be a walkover for the French. But the Italians were enterprising in the extreme and about ten minutes before the end, the Italians were leading by a single point. Then the French scored a try which was not surprising and the Italians needed to score a try to overhaul them. They were awarded a penalty at the very end of the match and ‘all’ they had to do was to kick for touch right next to the corner flag and then in the resulting throw-in organise a maul to get the ball over the line (a frequent tactic) But the Italians made rather a mess of their kick for the corner, made a bigger mess of their own lineout and so the French ran out as winners. But for Italy to push the French as hard as this was amazing and made for a really exciting afternoon of rugby. As the Italians are to play Englnd next weekend, then this match too might be too close to call.
In the political sphere, Liz Truss the ex-Prime Minister who trashed the British economy (for which many of us are now paying in the form of higher mortgages) has written a long, 4000 long article to which the Sunday Telegraph has given prominent position. Liz Truss is arguing that ‘a left wing economics establishment’ foiled and frustrated all of her plans to borrow a lot of money to give handouts to the rich, hoping that this would kickstart the economy. All kinds of media outlights are giving Liz Truss as much time and spce as she wants to defend her premiersip, reckoned to be on of the most incompetent in British political history. It is an interesting reflection upon the media in this country that if Jeremy Corbin had tried a similar defence of his economic philosophy and politics, nobody would have given him the airtime or the print space. The Liz Truss polemic was discussed on the Andrew Neil Show (which has as part of its regular contributors George Osborne and Ed Balls) where it received a predictable mauling. As was mentioned on the programme, the Tory party believes in the operation of free markets and it was the bond market that ‘did for’ Liz Truss when the economy tanked. Professor Danny Blanchflower, who was previously on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, was more damning in his criticism as he said the article was the ‘most appalling nonsense I have ever read’ and rubbished her claim nobody warned her the economy would suffer under her plans. After all, she did sack the senior civil servant in the Treasury who had decades of experience, refused to put her plans before the Office of Budget Responsibility and implied that the Head of the Bank of England had no crediblity. So although Liz Truss claims that ‘nobody warned me’ that is because she had sacked, ignored or sidelined them all.
Tomorrow will see tens of thousands of NHS workers including nurses, in England, and GMB union ambulance workers, in England and Wales, taking industrial action in a dispute over pay and conditions. It is being billed as the biggest strike of NHS personnel in history and there is not the slightest sign that the government will follow the lead of the devolved government in Wales in an attempt to resolve the crisis. It may be that we all have to wait for Budget Day, which will be on Wednesday, 15th March when the rate of inflation may have reduced somewhat and the government feels it can make a pay offer.
The weather forecast warned us that today was going to be one of those clear and bright days as we are subject to a high pressure system at the moment. Actually, the Spanish have an expression for this which is ‘febrero loco’ or ‘Mad February’. I have some first hand knowledge of this because in my working life, I spent a term teaching at the Complutense University in Madrid. Here I would typically set off to catch the metro and then a bus to get to the relevant University campus and the days always started off being crisp and cold and pretty dark at that hour in the morning. I taught from about 9.00am to 11.30 and then after some coffee returned back to the Hall of Residence in which I was lodged. As I returned home, the sun had arisen and there was quite pleasant, almost warm sun by midday which made the journey home very pleasant. I seem to remember that in the metro journeys that I had, first thing in the morning the carriages were silent as people were contemplating the day’s work ahead of them. But by midday they had relaxed and the carriage was full of chatter as some people returned home for lunch (but they would return back home for an afternoon shift from about 4.00 until maybe 7.00pm). The other thing that I particularly remember about those metro jouneys was that the trains were full of Madrileños i.e. people who were born in or near the capital and were predominantly white with just a smattering of Latin American hispanics. But there is a massive contrast with the London Tube which is about as cosmopolitan as it is possible to get, with a massive diversity of ethnicities, skin colours and languages. Returning to this country, though, Meg and I were happy to get to the park once we had picked up our newspaper. The air was pretty cool but completely still which meant you could simultaneously feel the cool of the air but also get a hint of pale spring sunshine on one’s forehead. As we have by now come to expect, the park was full of dog walkers and one of the regulars is a ‘labradoodle’ or a mixture of labrador and poodle. But the fine looking dog looks more poodle than labrador and when let off the lead, he has a series of similar doggy friends and they love chasing each other in huge circles around the park. Evidently, the dog owners know each other well and ensure that their dogs do not get out of control but there was a great deal of yapping and barking which was just the doggy equivalent of ‘joie de vivre’ on a morning like this. We had some pleasant elevenses and chatted with seveal of our acquaintances, all of us appreciating the weather for what it was.
When we returned home we cooked ourselves some lunch and then watched, with a degree of fascinated horror, some of the unfolding stories of the huge earthquakes that have hit Turkey and Syria. Sky News are reporting that nearly 3,000 people have been killed and thousands more injured after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks caused widespread destruction in Turkey and Syria. The earthquake struck at 4.17 in the morning when most people would have been in bed and this has contributed to the enormous death toll. Very often when earthquakes strike, deaths are reported in their hundreds but on this occasion the deathrate was immediately reported as in the thousands so it was known within minutes that this earthquake was huge and extensive. The fact that it was quite shallow within the earth crust adds greatly to the destructive power and I heard the gographical impact of the earthquake being likened to a tear in a piece of paper and the resultant destruction extending over hundreds of kilometres. There were, in fact, two earthquakes, one of 7.8 magnitude followed by one of 7.7 magnitude impacting not just Syria and Turkey and the impact has been felt further afield, including in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The reaction of most countries to this apocalyptic earthquake has been an immediate offer of assistance from a host of European countries but it is now nighfall in Turkey which will hamper rescue efforts. Another factor in the destruction is that the first earthquake may well have weakened some already shoddily constructed buildings which the second eathquake soon caused to collapse. One particularly dramatic of mobile phone footage shows the whole of a block of flats collapsing in about 10 seconds flat.
Meanwhile, back at home the largest number of NHS personnel on strike has had a big effect upon the hospital sector. Some 80,000 appointments and 11,000 operations have been cancelled on the biggest NHS strike day and the nurses are to to strike for a further day tomorrow. This is a massive trial of strength and it is hard to predict the outcome as of now. I have a feeling that the bad feelings generated by these disputes may last for quite a long time. The strikes are not just about pay – the failure to recruit sufficient staff in the past few years for whatever reason (Brexit? low pay?) has entailed massively increased workloads and workspace stress.
Today seemed to be a day a little like yesterday except that the temperature might have drifted a degree or so lower. But Tuesday is the day when we looking forward to having some chats with acquaintances and friends in the Waitrose cafe. As soon as we got in, we noticed a couple with whom we used to be in regular contact both before the pandemic and also during it via FaceTime. We had heard via a mutual friend that they had moved from one flat to another and their most recent abode seems to meet their needs somewhat better as the husband is a wheelchair user and therefore things like ease of access is very important if not crucial for them. The move seems to have gone fairly smoothly but they did have to spend a week or so in a hotel in the transition from their former flat to their present one and the conveyancing firm that they used seems to have been problematic for them as well. We quickly brought each other up-to-date with our various bits of news but they could not stop for a longer chat as they had other things to do. We saw another of our friends that we regularly see on a Tuesday morning, but this too proved to be a ‘hello and goodbye’ affair. On the way home, we called in to see one of our Kidderminster Road friends as there was a church related issue that we needed to discuss. Again, we conducted our business on the doorstep because on a Tuesday, I always need a fairly quick turn around as it is my Pilates day. I had a pleasant walk down into town followed by a period of slight frustration when an item of clothing that I wanted to purchase for Meg did not seem to be in stock where we had bought it previously – thus was it ever so but it is surprising how often the shelves are filled with lots of things that you do not want but empty of the things you are actually looking for. My Pilates class which is small (there are four of us regulars in this particular class) ran true to form and then I return home for a somewhat delayed lunch of fishcakes and microwaved vegetables.
The Turkey-Syria earthquake continues to appall as the images fill our TV screens today. There are always some heart-warming stories of children being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building but these will evidently lessen as the days roll on. One aspect of this particular earthquake is particularly distressing both for the participants and also for us viewers. It seems to be the case that relatives, standing besides the remains of a collapsed building, can often hear the cries of people from inside the ruins crying out for help but the scale of the destruction is so enormous that there are no resources to help to locate them and to dig them out of the rubble. Evidently, people do what they can with their bare hands but I imagine that knowing a family member is calling out for you but is unrescuable must surely only intensify their grief. The latest estimate of the deathtoll is about 7,000 but some estimates are that the eventual toll may be 20,000. One particular dramatic story was the rescue of a baby born in the collapsed ruins and still attached by the umbilical cord to its dead mother. Hopefully there will be other ‘miracle’ chidrn extracted from the rubble and chunks of concrete. Here at home the media is still reporting the desperate search for the woman who disappeared when walking her dog besides a river in Lancashire. The most sophisticated underwater sonar is now being deployed and it is being said that such technology can identify even sticks and stones on the river bed. The specialised firm who are deploying this technology think that if there is a body of the woman within the river, they should be able to locate it after about three days of searching. So far, no clues of any kind have emerged and the police say that they are acting on 500 separate pieces of information but there is nothing that as yet is worthy of note. Properties bordering the river have apparently been searched and the police are tring to keep an open mind but so far, they seem to have precious lttle to go on.
It seems that most of the nation, including ourselves, were gripped and engrossed in the concluding, and final, instalment of ‘Happy Valley’ based upon the life and work of a police sergeant in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. The concluding episode did resolve several of the outstanding, intertwined story lines in an interesting and unpredictable fashion but I will say no more at this point. But the point has been made that perhaps the police themelves could do well to study the series and the way that policing was deployed to see if there are any elements of good practice from which they could learn. This may be a tall order but the writer of the series, Sally Wainwright, did a magnificent job in making her story lines both credible and absorbing.
Today we chatted for a while with our domestic help whose day it is each Wednesday. We were swapping stories about the emerging news from the earthquake zone in Turkey and Syria and how devastating it is for those lucky enough to have escaped the falling buildings only to helplessly stand by whilst they can still hear family members trapped inside the ruined buildings, calling for help of which there is never enough. Then, after breakfast and more or less on the spur of the moment, we decided to visit Marks and Spencer in Longbridge (the site of the old Austin-Rover factory which is now a large retail park) We had not visited Marks and Spencer for several months now and as usual the departments that we visited were generally very quiet whereas the cafeteria was heaving. Meg and I treated ourelves to a coffee and a sandwich as soon as we arrived as by now, it was quite late on in the morning. Then we paid a visit to the women’s lingerie deprtment where after a degree of searching, we managed to locate and to buy the underwear for which we were seaching. Finally, we paid a visit to the Food Hall to pick up an item that our domestic help particularly wanted and finally we returned home. Once at home, we immediately started to prepare our lunch which was a curry/pasta type meal and our domestic help took a little lunch with us. I asked her if I could borrow a particular item of clothing which I need for my Pilates class next Tuesday – all of this will be explained in the fullness of time.
A private underwater search company has been using sonar equipment on the River Wyre in the search for the woman missing from a Lancashire village. The news this afternoon is that the underwater search expert looking for missing mother Nicolla Bulley has said his team is pulling out of the hunt as she is ‘categorically not’ in the area of the river where detectives believe she fell in. All of the experts involved in this search describe themseves as ‘baffled’ by the disappearance of the woman and one wonders what form the search will take from this point onwards. The police has been assiduously checking all of the videocam evidence that they can lay their hands upon and are wondering if she could have left the area without being caught on any video cameras at all. After the passage of some days, the trail, if any, gets colder and colder and at some point, I imagine that the police will have to scale down their operations and declare the whole incident as an unexplained missing person.
The Turkey-Syria deathtoll is now of the order of 12,000 and research fforts are bcoming increasingly frantic. A team from Britain got to work within minutes of their arrival upon Turkish soil but even with a vast army of volunteers, the scale of the problem is so vast that the chances of being rescued is diminishing by the minute. The more one learns about the complexities of this particular earthquake, the more horrendous it becomes. For a start, the earthquake footprint falls across both Southern Turkey and Northern Syria so two governmnts are involvd. But Northern Syria has been an area in conflict for some time now and the remit of the Syrian government does not run as far as the earthquake footprint – the Turkish army control some of the area, as do Kurds and some rebel militias. So trying to negotiate the politics of all of this sounds like a nightmare. In addition, many of the roads serving the area have themselves been destroyed in the earthquake. Whatever roads are open, there is an army of refugees trying to flee the area presumably trying to get to the safety of other family members who live outside the earthquake zone. So trying to get heavy earthmoving equipment along these damaged and refugee packed roads is problematic to say the least. And finally the weather is particularly bad at the moment with temperatures several degrees below zero and with heavy snow much in evidence. Those who survived the earthquake only wearing the clothes they were wearing when they ran out of their collapsing buildings are pullings bits of wood out from the rubble with which to light or sustain a fire so that they can keep themselves warm.
The Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has making a surprise visit to the UK today and is addressing members of both the Commons and the Lords in Westminster Hall. Naturally he has been asking for jets from this country and the response from the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunk is to say that ‘nothing is off the table’ which is a meaningless form of words that means nothing and commits you to even less. Supplying jets is not a simple question either as jets have to have support and maintenance and refuelling even before we get onto the vexed question of training Ukrainian pilots. Following the speech, Mr Sunak asked Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to investigate what jets the UK could give to Ukraine – I do not expect the reply will be a straighforwrd one and may be an interesting way of saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ at the same time.
Today dawned bright and clear and I got up early in order to get my weekly shopping done whilst Meg stays in bed until I return. Typically, I pick up my newspaper afterwards but today my newsagent had not received their copies of ‘The Times‘ so this necessitated a further trip to Waitrose in order to avail myself of it. Then it was a case of getting home and getting the breakfast cooked, the washing up done and the shopping unpacked. After all of this, we readied ourselves to pay a visit to one of our favoutite little market towns which is Alcester. We made a booking in our favourite restaurant in one of the hotels which is centrally located and where they put on a special pensioner’s lunch during the week. As it was such a beautiful day, every man and his dog had evidently decided to visit the town and parking was at an absolute premium. Nonetheless, we managed to park fairly centrally for an hour which was time enough for us to have a coffee nd cake in our favourite coffee establishment before we sampled some of the excellent charity shops along the High Street. But first, we visited one of those hardware shops that seems to sell ‘everything’ including things you never know that you needed. We departed the shop once we had a thorough look round and availed ourselves some black duct tape which I always seem to need for a variety of purposes. For example, if there is a manual that I wish to keep I will run it off on the printer, staple it, flatten the staples with some heavy duty pliers, pop the booklet in between some transparencies to form a cover and finally finish off the whole thing with some black tape that covers the staples and makes the whole thing look more professional. I am endebted to the Reprographic manager at De Montfort University who had to deploy this procedure when multiple copies of degree submissions were required for an imminent reapproval. I have used these techniques to professionally produce copies of any paper that I have published and I am eternally grateful to Anne for instructing me how to do it. In the charity shops we were not tempted by any items of clothing but we did avail ourselves of a couple of useful looking Denby ware dishes that looked as though they were really intended for the making of a steak and kidney pudding but which we shall deploy to give a final oven roasting to vegetables when required. And so it was on to lunch a few minutes before our allotted time but we enjoyed a beef lasgne and a roated vegetable lasagne, both with salad which we shared with each other when we were two thirds of the way through our respective dishes. After that, it was a pleasant drive home through some glorious sunshine and we prepared to have a quiet and restful afternoon.
An extraordinary polical story has just broken this aftrnoon but I wonder whether it will see much light of day in MSM (Main Street Media) The story is that the UK has paid £2.3 billion having lost a trade dispute with the EU. It was claimed the UK had failed to prevent the undervaluing of these goods imported from China, letting criminals evade customs duties by making false claims about the clothes and shoes. In March last year, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) found against the UK ‘on most liability points’, according to John Glen, the chief secretary to the Treasury. On the face of it, it looks as though he UK government is not unhappy about criminal trade activity so long as it keeps the cost of living down. There is another story in a similar vein which I read about recently and which my blood run cold. After the BSE crisis a few years ago, you would have thought that we had learnt the lesson of not maintaining the highest of standards in the way in which our meat is processed and then traded. But in the bonfire of (EU) regulations that we are promised, it will become an adulterer’s charter for all kinds of contaminants to be added to meat products with practically no checks or regulation. This means that as a society, we may be laying ourselves open to the most horrendous of food scandals several years down the line and all in exchange for a lighter regulatory regime. The inspectors of the meat products entering the UK are privately very worried but it looks as though a governent hell bent on de-regulation will stop at nothing.
The story of the missing Lanashire dog walker is still not producing any definitive results. But the focus of the investigtions now seem to be shifting towards seeing if a body might have drifted out to sea so coastal patrols are intensifying in the search. It may well be that a body will never be found or the mystery of her disappearance solved so one can only imagine how difficult it is to have any normal sort of grieving process under these circumstances. At some point as well, the police will have to scale down their search activities which must be a profound moral dilemma for them as well.
Today we got going eventually after rather a slow start to proceedings. Once we had picked up our newspaper, we made for Waitrose anticipating that we would bump into one or two people that we knew but we were to be disappointed because none of the regulars showed up this morning. So we enjoyed our coffee and cake and then bought a few things that we needed before we made for home. I cooked a lunch of a (bought) cod pie which we enhanced with some of our own vegetables and enjoyed a tasty lunch. Then we settled down for a lazy afternoon but I copied a few Mozart tracks onto a USB stick so that we can stick that into our devices and play them as and when desired. I was half way through this task when the doorbell rang and it was the firm that regularly services our burglar alarm who was scheduled to call this afternoon but I had comletely forgotten about it (despite it being entered onto our planning board) This was all quite satisfactory but I do not neglect to have the intruder alarm serviced on an annual basis because were this to be neglected, it would probably invalidate our home insurance where the relevant box is ticked to indicate that that the intruder alarm hs been serviced within the last twelve months.
During the week, I saw one of those Panorama programms which really made one stop and think. This program was upon the enormous environmental effects of what is popularly known as ‘the cloud’ but is, in practice, massive banks of computers forming a data farm probably but not exclusively, in the Unites States. Theae data farms consume massive amounts of power and the excess heat generated necessitates a lot of cooling water. Data storage is climbing the ladder of sectors responsible for the largest carbon footprints. In fact, data storage now accounts for more carbon emissions than the commercial airline industry – and a single data centre uses the same amount of electricity that can power up to 50,000 homes. All of this was news to me but then you consider the vast amounts of data that each one of us generates and then crucially no one disposes of, then it all gets stored somewhere. Trying to find out how much extra data is being stored year by year would appear to be a simple question to ask a search engine such as Google but the answers that are given are reflected in the following response to a query how much cloud storage is increasing: ‘starting at around $12 billion in 2010, revenues are predicted to exceed $623 billion by 2025.’ This answer is illuminating because storing increasing mounts of data is just seen as an economic opportunity. Of course in the early days of computing, memory was both limited and expensive so there was much pressure to reduce and eliminate data (old emails and files) that were no longer needed. These days have now absolutely gone and there is every encouragemnt not to prune and to delete but to store ‘in the cloud’ but at a cost, needless to say. Some kinds of data one can understand people wanting to store ‘for ever’ such as photos but there is no real encouragement to dispose of the computer rubbish as it were and, of course, it is quite time intensive to work one’s way through, for example emails, to determine what is to be saved and what is to be junked. The panorama program gave out a statistic that I have no way of checking that 5 minutes of internet searching may consume as much power as, say, boiling the kettle to make a cup of tea.
Tonight there is going to be a program especially devoted to the disappearance of the Lancashire dog walker, Nicola Bulley, who has now been missing for two weeks. It is informative that the authorities are now searching the coastal areas around the Wye estuary, assuming that that Nicola Bulley slipped into the river and was swept away. But if the program is well constructed this evening, it may be that alternative possible explanations for the disappearance may be aired.
The UK economy was officially ‘not in recession’ as the latest batch of economic statistics reveal that the country was basically flatlining. But the case remains that we are the only G7 economy that whose economy is lower than at the start of the pandemic. Of course the ‘elephant in the room’ here is the impact of Brexit because the effects of the pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine and the consequent steep rise in energy prices have to be statistically disentangled from each other. It does seem remarkable that both of our major political parties are still in favour of Brexit whilst an often quoted research finding is that every constituency in the UK except one (Boston in Lincolnshire?) now has a majority of voters who are not in favor of Brexit. We shall have to see what happens after the next general election when it comes but some form of closer association with the EU customs union would seem to be the most sensible economic policy even though no-one in our present political leadership dare mouth it.
Today we slept in a little late for reasons that I cannot fully explain but it is a Saturday and we were not due to meet anybody in particular. Nonetheless, we picked up our copy of the newspaper (even though ‘The Guardian’ was handed to us by mistake but we did not realise that until we got home) We decided to visit the park today as the weather was quite mild and we do not seem to have visited the park for a few days. As we were leaving the park, one of the ‘park regulars’ who knows us by sight enquired after a fellow park regular that neither of us had seen for a week or so now. This is Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who, in his late 80’s, always managed a walk of about 8-9 kilometers per day, aided by his walking stick. We have not been in the park quite as much recently whilst the weather has been rather icy but we trust that our acquaintance has not been ill in the meantime. When we got home, it was a case of a simple lunch of some ham, cabbage, baked potato and cooked tomato but although this seems a simple meal, nonetheless we enjoyed it greatly. We had a bit of a rush round to get everything washed up and our post-prandial cup of tea made before the Ireland-France rugby match which may well be ‘the’ match of the series as these two teams are regarded as No 1 and No 2 in the world at the moment. The match proved to be what in the headline writer’s vocabulary might be described as ‘scintilating’ or ‘pulsating’. The Irish ran out as the winners in the end but the levels of skill and commitment showed by each side were exemplary and for the Irish in particular, the win must have been especially sweet because as well as the tries that they did score, they got the ball over the line on two further occasions only for the try not to count as a French thigh (the same in each case) prevented the ball being ‘grounded’ and hence a no-try is the inevitable result. The refereee was Wayne Barnes of England and I think that he played a ‘blinder’ in getting all of the major refereeing decisions completely correct (in my view) We shall watch the first half of the Scotland-Wales match before we go to church later on this afternoon and hope that the technology recording ‘series record’ is going to do its bit so that we can watch the second half of the match this afternoon.
Once we had returned from church and had our traditional bowl of soup upon our return, we turned our attention to our PVR to see the second half of the Wales v Scotland match. For some reason which I cannot explain, every other match in the series seems to have been recorded or are scheduled to record apart from this one. So I changed tack and managed to get the whole of the second half via BBC-iplayer. Needless to say, once I got this located and then running, we ran into our buffering problem with the Firestick but I know how to cure this so it was the typical 3 minutes or so of delay until we got going again. Tomorrow will be England v Italy and this should prove to be no pushover for England as somewhat more intelligent play from Italy could well have created a victory over France last weekend.
There is a certain mount of informed speculation that we are seeing some interesting trends in the recent by-elections that have been held recently. In the last of these held in West Lancashire this week, the Labour Party pushed up its share of the vote to 62% whilst the Conservative share slumped to 25%. These results can tell us what we might expect in the local elections this May. To become the largest party of local government in England for the first time in 20 years, Labour must pick up 500 council seats. To dodge a crushing defeat, the Conservatives must lose hundreds not thousands. The local elections are to be held in May and the latest by-elections are the best predictor for what the local results are likely to be. The point is often made that by- elections are no predictor to any forthcoming general election and indeed, people may vote differently at the local level to their vote in a general election. But there is an interesting ‘twist’ to local election results. This is that the local party is likely to be energised by a good local result and hence a victorious local party is likely to have a goodly band of motivated and enthused supporters ready for the forthcoming general election contest. On the other hand, local parties who have just lost many of their local counsellors are likely to be demotivated and lacking the raw number to put supporters on the ground. So it could be that the connection between local results and national results is somewhat more complicated than the conventional political wisdom would indicate. Moreover, since Rishi Sunak became PM, the average Labour poll lead over the Conservative Party has been 21.5 points.
Today being a Sunday is the day upon which I used to get up early and walk down to collect my Sunday newsaper. But we have changed our routine slightly on Sunday mornings so Meg and I have a more leisurely start to the morning but we make sure that we are sitting down in front of the TV for the Lorna Kuenssberg ‘Sunday’ program. Today there was quite a significant part of an interview because the DCMS select committee (Digital,Culture, Media and Sport) Select Committee have recently called as a witness before them Richard Sharp who is the BBC Chairman. The committee were questionning whether there had been complete transparency in the evidence given to the committee as he had had some influence in the arrangements by which a distant cousin to Boris Johnson had acted as a guarantor for a loan of £800,000 to be arranged whilst the latter was Prime Minister. Richard Sharp himself argues that he was only acting as an intermediary, had nothing to do with the financial arrangement as such and reported the same to the Cabinet Secretary. But the cross-party Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has said in a report that Mr Sharp should ‘consider the impact his omissions will have’ on public trust in the broadcaster and has also said his actions ‘constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals’ applying for prominent public appointments. A very significant part of their findings is that Richarp Sharp had made a ‘serious error of judgement’ On the face of it, whatever the dancing on the point of a pin is made by Richard Sharp and even members of the government, the ‘optics’ of the affair look incredibly sleazy. To cut the story down to its bare essentials, someone who has donated £400,000 to the Conservative Party is then named by the government as a ‘preferred candidate’ and then helps to arrange a loan to the serving PM of £800,000 whilst he is in the later stages of his application to chair the BBC. The Labour spokesman, Lisa Nandy, the opposition DCMS spokesperson was on record as saying that the position of Richard Sharp is ‘increasing untenable’ which is about the nearest to a public call for his resignation as it is possible to get.
After our early morning shot of Sunday politics, it was time to wander down to Waitrose, which we did after we had picked up our Sunday newspaper. No sooner were we there but we were soon joined by our University of Birmingham friend who we were especially pleased to see because we had missed each for a few days. The flower section of Waitrose was absolutely bursting with banks of flowers and particularly with roses not to mention accompanying boxes of chocolates, all in preparation for Tuesday which is St. Valentine’s Day. I had always assumed that this was an over-sentimentalised 19th century innovation but the earliest mention of it in Englnd was by Chaucer. Writing in 1382, Chaucer celebrated the engagement of the 15 year-old King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia via a poem, in which he wrote: ‘For this was on St. Valentines Day, when every bird (fowl) cometh to choose his mate.’ Of course origins of this can be traced back to some ancient pagan ituuals which were then taken over by the Christian church, sanitised from rather bawdy traditions and sanctified by the celebration of the Feast of St Valentine, declared by then Pope to be an offical feast day in 495. We joked with the staff about the various activities associated with St Valentine’s day and I wonder how many of them send cards and presents to each other. Meg and I and our friend discussed some of the programmes that we particulatly enjoy on Radio 4, or current favourite probably being ‘More or Less’ which is a program about statistics in our lives and how they can be interpreted, properly utilised or more often mis-used these days. The program manages the difficult task of taking what might be a dry-as-dust subject for many (except for a few of us geeks) and making it both informative and entertaining. After about 45 minutes of chat we parted to go on our various ways, our friend for another coffee date and ourselves to cook the Sunday lunch.
This lunchtime, we treated ourselves to a traditional Sunday lunch of roast beef (done in a slow cooker) but complemented by some parsnips finished off in the oven, broccoli, Yorkshire pudding and a glass of red wine. We knew that we had to get everything over before we settled down to watch the England-Italy 6-Nations Cup match. England secured an anicipated victory with an improved performance over that of last week when they were defeated by Scotland. But having secured a good lead in the fist half, the Italians came back strongly in the second half and I got the feeling that the England team stepped off the gas a little. We shall now have a break of two weeks bfore the competition resumes. I have often wondered whether a two gap is put into place at this stage so that players on both sides can ‘lick their wounds’ after the intensity of the collisions which they have dealt out, and had to endure, since the competition started just over a week ago. This break is actually coming at quite an opportune time because next week after Church, we are going into the Parish Hall for a little bash as an auxiliary bishop is due to make a visit and the message has gone out that our attendance is expected.
Today dawned as quite a bright,but cold, day and it is pleasant for us to enjoy this spell of high pressure whilst it persists- which may not be for very much longer. Meg and I went off to collect our newspaper and we took back with us a copy of ‘The Guardian‘ which was given to us in error the other day but the newsagent is going to restore it to its rightful owner. As we often do on a Monday, we popped into Waitrose to buy one or two things and the staff delighted us by giving us a small bunch of daffodils which look as they might bloom within a few days. They were evidently getting prepared for a big rush later on today ready for St. Valentine’s Day which is tomorrow. I did read somewhere on the web that if we look back to the pagan origins of St Valentine’s Day, then it was characterised by naked men, running throgh the streets with a leather whip and swishing at the posterior of any maidens that they espied as a way of guaranteeing their future fertility. I somehow think that I had better not emulate this example for fear of being arrested and I do not think that following an ancient tradition will be much of a defence in court.
The situation in Turkey/Syria is becoming more dire by the day. Live people are still being pulled from the ruins over a week since the earthquake struck at 4.17 in the morning. However, the task of searching is becoming inceasingly unpleasant as the stench of decomposing, but unreachable, bodies fills the air. In the streets where the houses have not completely collapsed, the remainder are in such an unstable condition that nobody dares to go back inside them. Meanwhile for the rescue and medical authorities, the most difficult of balances has to be struck. Does one carry on searching for hours to rescue any more survivors or does it make more sense to preserve more lives by devoting resources to those who are rescued and injured but may not survive without some extra care and attention. At some point, and this point may only be a day or so further off, then might one preserve more lives by caring for the survivors than by an inceasingly futile search for those trapped in the ruins of the collapsed buildings? The total death toll is now put at nearly 36,000 and fears are rising that infections of all kinds may ravish a very weakened population. It is also being reported that the Turkish authorities have ordered the arrest of 131 builders or developers who may have been responsible for the erection of buildings that have evidently not survived the earthquake. Although it is well known that Turkey lies abreast a massive earthquake fault and therefore that quite severe earthquakes are not unknown, nonetheless building materials, design, construction and maintenance have been routinely ignored over the years. But before we start to point the finger, we still have the scandal of Grenfell Towers hanging over us after which no building firm has yet been sanctioned yeas after the event. One has to ask the question, which is not easily answered, which is why the construction industry should so ofen prove to be found wanting in the case of national disasters? One reason may lie in the fact that one relies upon first a strong moral and professional ethic on the one hand coupled with a strong and effective state which is properly resourced to police the design and the construction of building projects. But we live in an age where regulation is decried by the right wing media as the ‘nanny state’ which is said to be a brake on the operation of ‘free enterprise’. A related example is to be found on the front page of todays ‘Times‘ where it is reported that the water industry that has been routinely polluting our rivers and waterways should be subject to absolutely massive fines. But the story today is that these fines are being lessened by the present Government on the grounds that they are disproportionate. Once we go down this road, then a fine for non-compliance with legislation is merely seen as an additional and occasional business cost which will be passed on in any case to the customers.
Very strange things seem to be happening over the skies of North America. Shooting down a Chinese do-called weather balloon (which was quite likely to be a spying venture that went wrong) is the comparatively easy part. But now, the American military have attacked and destoyed three other ‘objects’ flying over North American and Canadian skys. In all probability, it is likely that these ‘objects’ which are the size of a small car may well be spying-related entities but, as of now, and until some pieces have been recovered, we could classify these entities literally as ‘Unidentified Flying Objects’. It seems likely that in a day or so, sufficient fragments of these objects will have been found for more definitive information to emerge. There is a very heightened state of tension between the USA and China at the moment and the existence of these flying objects can only add to the growing sense of unease.
Today being a Tuesday, it is the day when we pop into Waitrose to see if any of our regular acquaintances turn up. We were not disappointed because one of our pre-pandemic regulars turned up and we were pleased to see her. We got talking about things musical and in particular, Brahm’s German Requiem, myself as a mere listener but our friend as a performer in it until quite recently. On the way out, we had a word with one of the dog walkers that we used to see quite regularly in the park when the weather was a little more fair. In the past, when we had time for more conversation it emerged that she was a native of the former Yugoslavia and she certainly knew of the towns that we had visited in the halcyon days before Yugoslavian society seemed to implode. One acquaintance that we met whilst we were staying in a beautiful hotel in Dubrovnik used to write in the morning and then go out on trips in the afternoon. Only towards the end of our stay did it emerge that he was a Professor of Areonautical Engineering and together with a colleage was part of a two-man team that designed the whole of the Fokker Friendship aircraft between them. This was a turbo prop that seated about 25-30 people and regularly did short hop trips e.g. across the North Sea to Amsterdam and Meg and I actually flew in one when we went on our honeymoon to Amsterdam in September, 1967. When we got home, we had plenty of chats with our domestic help whose day is normally a Wednesday but came to us this Tuesday as a ‘one-off’. Our domestic help had kindly loaned me a pair of bright red, extremely high heeled ladies shoes which I needed for a little practical joke about which more later. Then it was time for me to change into my Pilates gear and walk down to our session which was going to be a bit special this week. I need to explain that last week as we were lying on our backs and doing some floor stretches, we could hear some heavy footsteps that may have been from the floor above. We joked with each other that it was probably the ghost of Joe Pilates (the guru and founder of Pilates in the 1930’s) One of our number (and not me!) suggested that he may have been walking in red high heel shoes and so for a dare, I indicated that I would emulate the ghost of Joe Pilates when our session had ended the following week. So when our instructor had her back turned to us, I tottered onto (rather than into) a pair of exceptionally high-heeled bright red stilettos and made my way across the studio floor before handing out some little high quality, Belgian chocolate bunnies to my fellow class members. Our instructor was worried to death I would fall over and injure myself and wondered what on earth she was going to have to write in the accident book if I were to be injured (but it was not going to happen) and we had a few moments of collective mirth to help us celebrate St Valentine’s day.
After Pilates, we get home to a delayed lunch. This week I had forgotten to purchase our customary fish cakes but instead I had bought for ourselves some rope-grown Scottish mussels in a white wine and cream sauce. We had this on a variety of carbohydrates (toast for Meg, rice cakes for me) with a sprinkling from those packets of microwavable vegetables that cook in about three minutes so the whole dinner only took five minutes to prepare. I found this to be quite a delicious change and although mussels are often used just as a starter, it seemed enough for lunch for us today. After lunch, I pottered about getting various bits of audio cabled up and eventually succeeded in what I was trying to achieve.
The Work and Pensions Secretary has admitted that ‘it was taking a bit of time’ for businesses to benefit from Brexit and it is now said that the ensuing political turmoil has hindered investment in the UK. Moreover, the former head of the Confederation of British Industry also blamed former prime minister Boris Johnson’s threats to breach international law over Brexit and his unlawful prorogation of parliament as issues which have scared businesses away from the UK. There was also an interesting high level meeting the other day which Michael Gove attended speculating about the ways in which Brexit might be made to work. An influential study by the LSE argues that evidence of the UK’s economic performance since the EU Referendum is clear: GDP growth has slowed down, productivity has suffered, the pound has depreciated, purchasing power has gone down and investments have declined. This kind of analysis is now broadly accepted by practically all of the non-ideological commentators. But whilst most of the analysis shows that Brexit has ‘not worked’ at least not as intended, the way forward is considerably less clear. The America economy is progressing in leaps and bounds by massive investment in ‘green’ technologies under the impetus provided by the Joe Biden presidency so this may represent one possible way ahead.
The weather looks somewhat on the change this morning and the high pressure that we have enjoyed over the last few days is gradually being nudged aside by, I presume, some wetter weather. Meg and I overslept a little this morning which is not a particularly bad thing but it meant it was a little bit later than normal by the time we had picked up our newspaper and replenished some supplies in Waitrose – which, in all truth, we treat rather as though it were a little corner shop. In the park today, we ran across the regular gaggle of dog walkers nearly all of whom know each other quite well and stop and have a chat whilst the dogs have a chase around, rather like young children. Once we got home, we cooked the remains of our beef from the weekend with a baked potato and some broccoli and then settled down for a leisurely afternoon.
The political news today has been dominated by the shock resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s First Minister. Although the resignation came as the proverbial ‘bombshell’ there had been some indications that Nicola Sturgeon was finding life at the top increasingly burdensome and the big row in Scottish politic over the ‘trans-gender’ issues (which I shall not even start to unpick at this point) may well have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. She herself in her resignation statement reminded us that she had been eight years as the SNP deputy leader and eight years as leader and sixteen years is a long time in such demanding roles. Certainly, there is no really evident successor at this point of time and it may well she is a hard act to follow. I do wonder whether the female leader of the New Zealand Labour Party who resigned quite recently might have preyed at the back of her mind. At the height of the COVID pandemic when she was giving daily press conferences, she seemed to stand head-and-sholders above Boris Johnson when one compared them having to give similar annuncements and progress reports. It seemed to me at the time that the Scottish leadership was always a day or so in advance of that provided at Westminster but in the world of Machiavellian politics, I wonder whether amidst the sentiments of genuine regret about Nicola Sturgeon’s departure, there might be a certain amount of glee in the Scottish Labour party who might espy the opportunity for a bit of a comeback in the face of the SNP dominance over the past few years. One shadow minister is even saying that ‘It is all over for independence’ and that ‘After 15 years they have run out of road.’ Another suggested the SNP would now be split between its traditional base and its more moderate voters.
The search for the missing Lancashire dog-walker, Nicola Bulley, has had a slightly different gloss put on it this afternoon. The police are now saying that Nicola Bulley was listed as a ‘high risk’ missing person due to a ‘number of specific vulnerabilities’. The police, out of respect for the family, are not giving out more details at this stage but the admission that the missing person was ‘high risk’ adds a whole new complexion to this intriguing case. Now that the police have revealed this new information, it is quite possible that further bits will drip feed into the story. The Lancashire community has been subjected to all kinds of amateur detectives and sleuths working on any number of theories and I would imagine that this is making the work of the police more difficult. I just wondered for how many years a person must be missing before they are presumed ‘dead’ and the most common application of a rule is seven years. One can see why this period of time has to elapse – after all, it is quite possible for individuals to have an attack of amnesia and turn up years later and events like this turn up from time to time. But seven years is a long time to wait until a person’s affairs can be wound up and I can only imagine for partners, relatives and friends this can only serve to prolong their agony.
As regards the Turkey-Sria earthquake, I am wondering whether it is all sensible to try to rebuild these communities over an admitted geological fault line. If one has to start building from scratch, I wonder whether it would be sensible to take the whole swathe of land affected by the earthquake and turn it into a massive park and nature reserve. After all, thousands of people are probably still buried beneath the rubble and I wonder whether it would be a fitting memorial to those who have died and to their surviving relatives not to rebuild as an urban community but to landscape and to think of alternative land use? Of course, this is for the Turks and Syrians to decide but I am not sure that rebuilding on top of what is actually a massive cemetery needs some careful thought. It would take some skilful political leadership to put such a radical plan into effect, though, but surely the time to think such thoughts is the present and not several years hence.
Thursday is my shopping day so I was up bright and early to join the little queue of 2-3 people who wait outside the store, waiting for it to open. One or two of the things that I buy regularly were missing from the shelves this morning so I have to make a mental note of the extra things I need to top up with the next time I go to Waitrose in a day or so. The morning was a little foreshortened by the time I had got the shopping unpacked and the breakfast cooked, eaten and everything washed up. Meg and I did not bother to venture out today as the weather was a little overcast and both of us felt a bit knocked out so we just had a quiet morning in.
If an announcement is imminent from No. 10 and nobody is sure of the exact timing, then it is quite common for there to be a gaggle of reporters and photographers who have to while away the time somehow waiting for the forthcoming announcement. The comings and goings of Larry, the Downing Street cat, is then often the subject of much press attention. Incidentally, Larry in appearance looks as though he could the parent of Miggles, the cat who visits us every day, today being no exception – I think he spots the car arriving back from shopping and then makes his presence felt. It is rumoured that Larry is a bit of a bruiser and certainly has spats with Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat, with whom he is a fierce rival. But you can always tell when a journalist is sitting in front of his word-processor and wondering ‘What shall I write about today?’ and, in the absence of any breaking political news, it is always possible to put words in the mouth of Larry who comments upon the comings and goings in Downing Sreet. We had one such piece yesterday when Robert Crampton was writing in ‘The Times‘ giving us such offerings as ‘that dog Dilyn (the stray adopted by Boris and Carrie Johnson) could not control his bodily functions’ After commenting on a range of recent Prime Ministers came the observation that ‘there was that other peculiar woman (Liz Truss). I had forgotten about her. Barely moved in and then moved out again’ and so on and so forth. Putting words in the mouths of animals owned by politicians is not a new venture as Roy Hattersley, the veteran Labour politician and one time Home Secretary wrote a book called ‘Buster’ which was the political world as seen through the eyes of Roy Hattersley’s dog. ‘Buster’rather disgraced himself as he caught and killed a duck in St.James Park for which offence Roy hattersley, even though he was Home Secretary at the time, had to lead guilty by letter and then pay the ensuing fine.
In the disappearance of Nicola Bulley, the missing Lancashire dog walker, the local police seemed to have made a massive blunder. After revealing to the press that Nicola Bulley was a ‘vulnerable person’ and refusing initially to divulge further details for the sake of the family, the police seemed to be working quite professionally. But then they had a complete ‘volte-face’ and put out a statement stating that Nicola had in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause and that these struggles had resurfaced over recent months. These medical details seemed to go way beyond that which was necessary to inform the public of the progress of the police investigation and Lancashire police are now themselves subject to quite a degree of criticism. The independent Office for Police Conduct have now got involved and, no doubt, the story will further develop from this point on – I wonder if eventually heads might roll?
There has been a ruling in the High Court today that the UK scheme to settle millions of EU citizens risks creating illegal migrants overnight is unlawful. There was the possibility that millions of EU citizens did not apply in time and they could be declared as illegal immigrants and then deported (forcibly, I wonder?) In a highly critical judgment, the court said the scheme breached the UK’s Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. The watchdog for EU citizens’ rights argued the scheme could strip people of rights if they did not register in time. Quite unusually, the Government have admitted that they will not appeal against the ruling and so this is yet another example of a Home Office which is completely dysfunctional and seems to run from one disaster to another. The scandal of Windrush is still fresh in the minds of many people. Descendants of the Windrush which arrived from the West Indies in 1949 bringing many West Indians to the UK to solve severe labour shortages were declared to be illegal immigrants even though they had lived and worked in the UK for decades. As children, some people might have been entered on a parent’s passport but if this had not been retained after the death of the parent, the children were assumed to be ‘illegal’ After the scandal was exposed, the Home Office was meant to be offering a compensation scheme but even this initiative has run into the rocks.
Today was a beautiful fine day and the kind of day that made you want to get up and get outside to enjoy the almost spring-like sunshine. Meg and I were just having breakfast when we received a telephone call from our University of Birmingham friend, enquiring whether we might meet for cofffee in Waitrose, which invitation we readily accepted. Once there, I had brought along with me my trusty battery charge indicator which I find a most useful bit of kit. There we tested out a range of batteries that our friend had brought with him and then divided the batteries into left and right coat pockets to distinguish the good from the dud. I then attempted to show our friend the bouncing battery test (it seems fanciful but dead batteries bounce quite a lot, charged batteries only a little – it is all a matter of the chemical composition of the ingredients and how they change during the act of being discharged.) Our friend was completely sceptical but a chap on the next door table was quite intrigued so I resolved that when got home I would ‘Google’ this strange effect to email onto our friend. This I did and indeed, it is all a matter of chemistry and the bounceability of zinc oxide as well as the distribution of fluid throughout the battery. When we next see our friend on Sunday, I will claim a free cup of coffee as recompense for his sceptism. Mind you, as a born empiricist and experimentalist, I did tell him about various experiments I had conducted as a teenager – this involved electrolyis (a total failure), the action of concentrated nitric acid on an old ‘penny’ (a total success) and an attempt to dissect a one-legged frog which had been chloroformed by a science teacher at school and which I had assumed was dead. It was only when I saw a beating heart I nearly dropped my rusty old scalpel whilst the rest of my classmates looked on, munching their sandwiches. There is an explanation attached to all of this. Immediately after our GCE ‘O’-levels, there was no point teaching us anything until the term ended so we were allowed to do almost anything that took our fancy. One master encouraged us to give a lecture on any of our pet interests and as I intended to follow a career in surgery (thwarted by an initial failure in ‘O’-level physics) I gave a ‘state-of-the-art’ lecture in the plastic surgery of the human female breast. How I researched this at the age of sixteen and without the benefit of modern technology or any books published within the previous twenty years I do not know. I think the lecture went down fairly well with my contemporaries (it was an all-boys direct grant grammar school) but certainly more succesfull than my rejected offer to perform an ovarectomy (spaying) on my next door neighbour’s cat. As it was such a beautiful day, I persuaded Meg to walk with me down the Bromsgrove High Street where we popped into Poundland to buy a piece of electrical equipment and some little plastic storage containers of which I have a need.
I had a bit of a lunchtime dilemmma because on the spur of the moment, the last time I went shopping I had bought some smoked haddock for our Friday meal. Althoough I enjoy the taste of smoked fish, it is always a bit of a dilemma how to cook it without smelling the whole of the house out. Today, I decided on a strategy of poaching it gently in some hot milk, supplemented with some dried potato and a leek and potato packed soup to act as thickening agents. I made sure I had the over the hob fan working as well as the window wide open and this combination of strategies had the desired effect. We really enjoyed our meal which we ate with a baked potato and some green beans and marked this down mentally as a ‘success’ story for the next time.
Sky News has an interesting little story about Vladimir Putin – but it may just be Western propaganda. It is reported that Putin will ony travel around the country in an armoured train, fearing an assassination attempt as Nato may try to bring down any jet plane in which is is travelling. It is said the Russian president believes the armoured train is a more secure way to travel and that nobody will know where he’s going. The train is so heavy that it needs three locomotives to pull it, and it has special equipment for secure communications. In the same post, it is said that of the convicts released from Russian gaols to man up the Russian front line in the war in Ukraine, approximately one half have already died or been injured – in other words, put out of action. We know already that convicts have been seen as expendable in this conflict but it does reveal a cynicism and lack of respect for human life that does leave one practically speechless. Nonetheless, what we know about the biography of Putin would indicate that this lack of concern for fellow humans is a consistent trait of his personality.
Today dawned a little gloomy and overcast but nonetheless we were determined to make the best of it. Next week is going to be rather a strange week as it is a half-term week over most of the country. Consequently, many of our friends are drawn into grandparenting duties or similar and domestic arrangements are probably adjusted in many households. Last night, we texted our Italian friend who happens to live down the road and were delighted to get a reply back quite rapidly accepting our invitation to coffee next Wednesday morning. Apart from bumping each other as we walk down the road (my mother used to call these quick encounters ‘like ships passing in the night’ but I am not sure why), we have not had the chance of a good chat for quite some time now. We have quite a lot to catch up on as I am sure things have happened in our respective families that we would like to share with each other. At the same time, we also texted one of Meg’s cousins from whom we have not heard from some time and we know, via a Christmas card, that she had a serious operation last year. So we are anxiously awaiting some communication that all is well and that perhaps we can meet up for a lunch in the near future. It is always slightly ominous when one doesn’t get a reply within a day or so, but I am sure there is quite an innocent explanation.
This morning, we decided to give Waitrose a miss so that we do not get over-habituated to it and made for the park instead. The weather was quite mild and a little blowy but as soon as we started to drink our coffee, a very fine drizzle started to descend upon us. In the distance, I saw a figure that I could have sworn was one of our friends from down the road but as he had a little dog on a lead, I dismissed him from my thoughts. But spotting people in the park is a little like aircraft recognition in WWII where the population was taught to quickly recognise aircraft shapes to work out if it was ‘one of ours’ and therefore wished the equivalent of ‘Godspeed’ or an enemy aircraft in which case it was prudent to dive for cover. But as the figure with a dog approached, it turned out that it was our friend from down the road and hence my recognition of his shape and gait had been quite accurate. The dog belonged to his son and whilst the younger members of the fanily were off skiing somewhere, our friends were left dog sitting. The weather very gradually cleared up but we had a good long chat over a whole variety of topics which proved to be very pleasant. Eventually, we felt impelled to go as we were a little cold and wet and had acquired ‘square bottoms’ from sitting too long on the park bench. Once we got home, we partook of the obligatory cup of tea and then proceeded to cook a fairly typical Saturday lunch of mince and onions, a baked potato and some broccoli. Then we had a quiet afernoon reading before we start to prepare ourselves for the outing to church in the late afternoon and a little ‘do’ in the Parish Hall immediately afterwards when we will be meeting with an diocesan bishop.
Although I do not follow football affairs at all closely, two footballing items have attracted my attention today. The first is the fact that the Quataris have emerged as potential bidders for the club of Manchester United at a price which may be in the region of £5 billion. I must confess, I am uneasy about one of our iconic football clubs becoming the plaything of extremely rich men and not even English investors either, if that does not sound too xenophobic. I am sure that in some sports, the governing bodies demand a degree of local fan involvement so that the ‘fan base’ is sold as as a commodity like the football club itself. Another footballing story is that Brexit may mean that the UK clubs cannot bid for promising yoongsters until they reach the age of 18 but European countries have no such restriction upon their activities and can therefore snap up young talent at will. Whilst on the subject of Brexit, it was interesting that on the ‘Any Answers‘ program broadcast as a follow-on to ‘Any Questions‘ on Radio 4, some prominence is now being given to voices of callers who admit to voting Brext in the referendum but are now starting to realise that this was a terrible mistake. Normally, the BBC tries to keep clear of voices like this but the issue was raised in connection with the Northern Ireland protocol which Rishi Sunak may be inching towards a resolution. It is also interesting that pressure groups on the extreme right want the Sunak initiative to ‘fail’ as if it were to succeed, then Rishi Sunak will gain immense credit for it and those on the extreme right really want him to fail so that Boris Johnson (or someone similar) can be recalled as Leader of the Conservative Party.
Today being a Sunday, we enter into our Sunday morning routine which is to get ourselves up and showered and sitting in front of the Lorna Kuenssberg program by 9.00am. Today’s program revealed nothing particularly startling and Penny Mordant was evidently the face to go round the TV studios this mornimg. I do not know whether the Sky News and BBC studios are adjacent to each other but whoever is designated to speak for the Government, or the Conservative party, seems to pop up on one channel and then the other at lightning speed. Last night, Meg and I had an entertaining evening as after the church service we trooped into the Parish Hall to chat with other members of the congregation that we knew and also to have a word with the bishop who was visiting the parish. I was not at all sure what topic of conversation I could enter into with the bishop but in a moment of inspiration I told him that we had one son whose patron saint was St. Martin de Porres who was one of the first Latin American saints (although he was actually of mixed race being the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a woman of mixed African and Native descent.) Our son spent a year in a Mexican University, having been awarded an international scholarship before he attended his university course in this country. He informed us that the mothers of girls to whom he was particularly well disposed were always incredibly pleased that their daughters were friendly with our son because they assumed that someone whose patron saint was St Martin de Porres could only have the best of intentions towards their daughters. In any case, our Spanish friends used to inform us with a wry smile that illustrations of this saint who had to accept a lowly position as a cleaner in a monastery before he was accepted into the Dominican order in Lima, Peru always showed him with a sweeping brush in his hand. From this, there was always an assumption that any house with a devotional aid to St Martin who be kept free of mice. Whilst we were at the reception in the parish hall having a cup of afernoon tea with the bishop, Meg and were cajoled into being part of a rota (one week in four) to act as ‘meeters and greeters’ for the evening service on a Saturday, which we attend regularly. Evidently, we shall have to see how this works out.
This evening there is going to be a broadcast of ‘La Bohème‘ which is one of our favourite operas. We met up with our University of Birmingham friend in Waitrose coffee bar as we had agreed and then gave him a brief synopsis of the plot of the opera, as well as locating and playing a rendition of ‘Your tiny hand is frozen’ on our iPhone so that our friend could recognise it. Althpugh not a fan of opera, we told him at which point in the first Act this aria is likely to be sung so that he could tune into it and see if he enjoyed the rendition. We also got into an extended discussion of some classic films that our friend had seen (one about Saladin and story of the Crusades) as well as aspects of French culture. Our friend has a French conversation class once per week and I suggested several topics that might prove interesting, one being the term given to those who supported the Vichy government during WWII and also the famous film about Martin Guerre. He was a French peasant of the 16th century who was at the centre of a famous case of imposture. Several years after Martin Guerre had left his wife, child and village, a man claiming to be him appeared. He lived with Guerre’s wife and son for three years.The false Martin Guerre was eventually suspected of the impersonation. I thought that this might be an interesting film to attempt to track down and see as being a topic of conversation in the French class.
This afternoon, the media has been dominated by the discovery of a body in the River Wyre in Lancashire and there is a very high probability that it is the body of the missing woman, Nicola Bulley, which has attracted so much media attention since she seemed to have vanished without trace some three weeks ago. No formal identification has yet taken place but no doubt the story will drag on for several more days whilst formal procedures (identification, followed by a post-mortem) will have to be undertaken. When all of the media interest had subsided, which it surely will, Lancashire Police will still have some difficult questions to answer to a variety of bodies why they decided to release quite sensitive medical details into the public domain when such details did not seem to be relevant to any further searches. Many commentators are saying, and with justification, that analagous medical details would not be released if the missing person were to be a male rather than a female. Given that the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister have all jumped in to comment on the police procedures in this case, I would not be surprised if resignations or ‘early retirements’ will not ensue quite shortly.
Today dawned as a beautiful bright and clear day. Meg and I enjoyed very much the production of ‘La Bohème‘ which was shown on BBC4 last night. This was an English National Opera production and the quality of the acting was absolutely superlative – probably the best we have seen and the singing was of a very high order as well. We shall have to wait until Friday to see what our University of Birmingham friend makes of it all, as we had encouraged him to watch particular the scene in Act 1 where Rudolfo and Mimi ‘become an item’ in popular parlance. Today, I wanted to go to a local hardware store to pick up some little storage containers but the kinds I wanted and had purchased only about about a couple of weeks ago had totally vanished. The store had also been reorganised to make way for an influx of gardening gear so after a fruitless search, I left empty handed. So we made our way to the park which was absolutely teeming with cars by the time we got there. A combination of fine weather and the arrival of half term meant that the park was full of grandparents with their grandchildren in tow. For the first time in three years, we found it very difficult to park and had to make several turns around before we could find a parking space of our own. We had not taken any elevenses with us so we had a brief sojourn on our normal park bench before turning for home and enjoying a cup of coffee in our own home. I know it sounds a bit curmudgeonly to say this but half-terms seem to cause quite a large amount of disruption to the ‘normal’ rhythms of life. We knew that our chiropodist was due to call at some time today but I pressed on making a type of ‘Spanish chicken’ for our mid-day lunch (seared chicken added to a mixture of fried onions, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms) to which we add a white sauce and baked in the oven for an hour and a half. I always tend to overcook chicken on the basis that raw chicken may be contaminated with salmonella and rather a somewhat overcooked chicken meal than a stomach upset – or worse. The cooking turned out to be nice and tasty and we even had some of the cooked ingredients left over to form the basis of a curry later in the week.
The news has been rather dominated in the early afternoon by the news of Joe Biden’s surprise and previously unannounced visit to Ukraine to demonstrate American soldarity after practically a year of war. By appearing in Kyiv and filmed within the city, Joe Biden has scored quite a propaganda visit over the Russians. They, in turn, are no doubt arguing that Ukraine is only a kind of ‘Trojan horse’ for America’s imperialist ambitions and are spreading their own messages around some their own friends in Africa and Asia (but not Europe, needless to say). As the war grinds on, it is becoming quite evident that we might be in for a long haul. Russia seems to have vast supplies of (rather ageing) military equipment and, via conscription, of manpower as well. The story is told and probably with a high degree of accuracy, that when raw recruits from Russia were captured in the early days of the war, their Ukrainian captors would sit them down with a cup of tea and a mobile phone and tell them to phone their mothers to inform them what was happening. Although it has to operate clandestinely, we do know that groups of Russian mothers form a source of quiet opposition to the Putin regime. It is also evident that their sons have no idea what the war in the Ukraine is all about.
The breaking news this afternoon is that the junior doctors have voted to take strike action at a date in March and for a full 72 hours as well. Some 77.5% of those eligible to vote had in fact done so and an astounding 98% had voted in favour of strike action. Unlike the ambulance drivers and nurses, it does not appear at this moment that the junior doctors are making provision for any emergency cover – no doubt, the junior doctors feel as though the full consultants can provide the necessary cover. A full 72 hour strike might be an immense blow to NHS management and given the amount of work that junior doctors perform, the impact of this strike might be immense. The junior doctors have long felt they they have had a grievance as workload and waiting lists are at record highs whilst junior doctors’ pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008. There has been a scurrilous book written by a junior hospital doctor named Adam Kay a few years ago (‘This is going to hurt’) but the book leaves one in no doubt about the stress involved in being a junior hospital doctor nowadays. The book was made into a TV series which somehow did not convey the full picture of the stresses involved revealed in the wards and I believe that Adam Kay himself has subsequently left the medical profession.
Today being a Tuesday is the day to which we look forward because we meet with some of our pre-pandemic friends in the Waitrose coffee bar. As it turned out, there were four of us today and we formed a jolly little group, exchanging all of our gossip of the week. In fact, some of the Waitrose staff came over and had a chat with us as well – I think they rather enjoy seeing some of the old crowd back together again and although we try not to be especially noisy, we do tend to have more than our fair share of laughter. I suspect that one of the reasons why we all look forward to these Tuesday morning gatherings is that three of us are all looking after spouses with similar conditions and needs, so it is a bit of therapy time for us carers so that we can have a bit of a chat and a joke and it helps to get us through the week. Tuesday is also my Pilates day so I have to ensure that after we have got home, I have got my Pilates kit ready and that Meg is well supplied with food, drink, TV, newspapers and music if necessary so that she can look after herself adequately whilst I am out of the house for a couple of hours. All worked well today and I had put some food in the oven so when I return there is a hot meal waiting for us which can be dished up within minutes of my return. The local cat who has adopted us, Miggles, tends to espy me from a great distance and come running towards me when she sees that I have returned from a journey out. I encourage him/her to leap over the (tall) back door gate at the side of the house but being opportunistic, the cat will seize the opportunity to sneak in through the front door and generally make for the kitchen where there is a sachet of cat food to which he/she can look forward. Miggles also takes the opportunity to have a roll around on the ‘runner’ that we have leading to the back door in our utility room outside the main kitchen and has a particular penchant for head rubbing my gardening and other outdoor shoes which are housed there. Miggle never had a very loud or distinctive purr. As purring is such a distinctive thing, I thought I would find what the internet has to say on the subject and discovered that ‘The purr of the cat originates in the brain. The brain sends neurological messages to the muscles of the larynx (voice box) that causes them to twitch at a rapid rate – 25-150 vibrations per second. Then, as the cat breathes, the vocal cords separate and create the purring noise. Every cat has a unique purr sound – some purrs have a high pitch, while others are just a low rumbling. Some purrs are so very faint you can hardly hear them, while champion purrers sound like miniature engines. The act of purring releases endorphins within the cat’s brain…‘ Well, all I can say is that Miggles did not use to audibly purr and now does quite a lot, so I must be doing something right.
Tomorrow is going to be an interesting and intensely ‘social’ day for us. For a start, our domestic help calls around and this is always the occasion for the exchange of much chat, often involving family members. Then in in the morning, our Italian friend is going to call around for a coffee and this will be a great time for all of us. Then in the late afternoon, after an email this morning, I am going to videochat with a University of Winchester friend with whom I have not been in contact for some time and we have a lot of news to exchange with each other (principally about family members that we are helping to cope with various afflictions).
The political news today is rather dominated by the efforts of Rishi Sunak to come to a final resolution of the ‘Northern Ireland’ Brexit problem in which the hardliners of the DUP and in the UK, the hardline Brexiteers organised into the ‘European Research group’, seem determined to try to wreck any deal in which they perceive that UK sovereignty is not paramount. To my (simplistic) mind, once any group or government engages in any collaborative activity, one’s freedom of manouvre is always ceded somewhat in order to achieve the common good. In the Brexit case, though, one gets the impression that hatred of anything ‘European’ is so visceral and deep-rooted that no compromise or deal will ever be sufficient. The Times this morning is reporting that several Ministers are threatening to resign if they do not get their way over the Northern Ireland protocol and this ‘threat’ is making negotiations more and more difficult, although it is reported that a deal is very near but not quite achieved. Rishi Sunak could always say ‘Good – I will accept your resigation’ and then if they vote against the Government, the whip is withdrawn and they are effectively thrown out of the Conservative party. This is exactly what Boris Johnson did to the likes of Anna Soubry, David Gauke, Dominic Grieve and several others so why not use exactly the same tactic against the extreme Brexiteers?
Thursday being my normal shopping day, I arrived at my local (Aldi) supermarket expecting to see the shelves denuded of tomatoes, peppers and the like. To my amazement, the supermarket was better stocked with these products than normal and there were no signs informing custmers that they should limit themselves to only two of the shortage items per customer. The supermarket appeared to me to be better stocked than usual, which is amazing under the cirumstances. One does not think of Morocco as having early falls of snow at this time of year so the TV images are quite dramatic. There was a discussion of the reason for the present shortages of certain food stuffs on Radio 4 this morning and I was surprised that the correspondent who was discussing the supply chains that were under pressure mentioned of course the adverse conditions affecting Northern Africa and Southern Spain but also mentioned the contribution of Brexit to collapsing supply chains. I heard one government minister when asked to comment upon the shortages of foods in British supermarkets argue that this was a great opportunity for British suppliers to step in. One can only imagine the world on which certain government ministers must live of they imagine that there is a ready supplier of English tomoto growers who can step in (with sufficienty large and ripened tomatoes) within days. Then it was a case of collecting the daily newspaper, getting home to cook the breakfast and finally unpack all of the shopping.
We had decided yesterday that as today might be a bit of a wet and windy day that we make a small excursion to Droitwich as we quite often do as it is just down the road from us. We frequented our favourite coffee bar and indulged in one of their enormous teacakes which we evidently shared between us. Then we paid a visit to the charity shop which is just next door and we were quite fortunate on this occasion. We found a very elegant lined skirt for Meg which she is yet to try on but is the right size and tomorrow morning will be soon enough. I was also fortunate in acquiring a shirt in my size and favourite colour. Finally, by way of a bonus for both of us I perused the supply of CDs and acquired a double album collection of Maria Callas which cost me the princely sum of 50p. This has 2 x. 12 tracks on each of the two compact disks and we happen to know practically every piece. They were recorded between 1953-1956 when Callas was probably in her prime and aged in her early 30’s. After lunch, we played the first of these disks to ourselves and really enjoyed the clarity of the performance. We had a lunch of quiche, leeks and tomatoes and then settled down to a little cleaning and restoration job that I had scheduled for myself. In the late afternoon, we entered into a Skype video discussion with one of our former University of Winchester friends and, as we had not chatted for a bit, we had quite a lot to share with each other. Our friend’s wife is due to undergo surgery in about ten days time so the couple are making sure thay are not exposed to any COVID which would delay the operation. All in all, we chatted for about an hour and a half altogether, some being political discussion and wth the recounting of amusing incidents that we had both experienced in the course of our teaching careers. Naturally, we are full of hope that the surgery will assist my friend’s wife to get back more to a degree of normality and we are keeping our fingers crossed that none of the disputes affecting the NHS will cause the operation to be cancelled or delayed.
There is news this evening emerging from the Tory party which may well be a sign of the times. Senior Tory MP Damian Green has been rejected as the candidate for the newly created Weald of Kent constituency. The move has fuelled speculation that grassroots Tory campaigners are targeting parliamentarians seen as responsible for Boris Johnson’s departure from No 10. Mr Green was effectively deputy prime minister under Theresa May until she sacked him in 2017 after an investigation into claims that pornographic material was found on his Commons computer. An MP for Ashford since 1997, he currently chairs the One Nation caucus of centrist Conservative MPs and has been critical of Mr Johnson. If this tendency is repeated across the country, it means that any moderate or Centrist MP may find it difficult to retain their seat. Constituency associations are always on the extreme wing of their respective parties – the left in the case of the Labour Party and to the right in the Conservative Party. Eventually, the Tory party will become a more and more anti-European, Brexit inclined party and the ultimate outcome of all of this might either be the re-instatement of Boris Johnson as the Tory Party leader and another period of sleaze-ridden and incompetent government (as ministers will be chosen for their ideological purity rather than native ability). Evidently, the lesson of the Liz Truss experiment for which we are still paying has not cut much ice with the Tory party faithful.
Here we are at the end of another week. When I announced to the wife of the newsagent that for the Lenten period, I was abstaining from fast cars, loose women, gambling, alcohol (and chocolate for good measure) she laughed and told me that she would believe it when she saw it. Bearing this insult with good grace, Meg and I progressed to Waitrose where by appointment, we met with our University of Birmingham friend. For whatever reason, we chatted and chatted and when it was time for us to go realised that we had spent the best part of two hours in conversation. I must say it is more pleasant than sitting on a windy park bench and our topics of conversation ranged over science, family matters, our educational experiences and goodness knows what else. We were both speculating that having got to a certain stage in the life cycle, we are both relieved that we do not have to shepherd adolescent children through the times of tribulations of the modern world. At least when we were young, we participated in the sorts of activities, hobbies and past-times typical of the day. One that I remember was a firm called ‘Keil Kraft’ and when I went onto the internet to ensure that I was not suffering from false memory syndrome, there is a fascinating film on YouTube largely shot in the 1950’s and early 1960’s of the Keil Kraft factory. The video is about 15 minutes long but I only indulged in watching the first few minutes of it and if time permits I may indulge in the rest a little later. One of the more amusing bits of commentary that accommpanies the film announces that ‘no fingers were lost in the making of this documentary’ and when you saw the chunks of balsa wood fed into a circular saw with unprotected fingers only inches away from a fast revolving circular blade, you get a real feeling for how things were then. The models were just printed designs on sheets of balsa wood which you then cut out with a craft knife and glued together before covering in tissue paper, ‘doping’ it to shrink the tissue paper and finally painting it. The first one I made of these was the ‘Hurricane’ WW2 fighter aircraft and there was a brief glimpse on the video of the kit I purchased in about 1960. The firm did diversify into plastic models but it never quite captured the imagination in the same way.
Once home, we cooked ourselves a lunch of a pre-bought fish pie which I supplemented with carrots and sprouts, par-boiled and then fished off in the oven glazed with a little honey (a trick to stop sprouts smelling out the whole house) This was delicious and although I had bought some white wine to accompany the meal, I did not serve any of it up because I had forgotten when I bought it that I was going to give alcohol a miss for the next six weeks. This intention may not survive any social engagements that we have from now until Easter but at least I will have made a little bit of effort.
Today the media has been dominated by the news that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is one year old. The staff in Waitrose had put up notices asking for a miniute’s silence at 11.00am which we observed whilst having our coffee this morning but how widely observed it was in the store, it was not easy to tell. At the United Nations, there was an effort to get all of the delegates to observe one minute’s silence to honour the dead in the Ukraine but the Russian delegate interrupted the one minute to argue that all of the dead, i.e. including the Russians, should be honoured by the one minute silence. Whoever comes out with most credit from these parlour games, it is hard to day but Russian support throughout the world is limited to a handful of nations. The Chinese may be about to announce some peace proposals that may just amount to a ceasefire which would leave the Russans ‘in situ’ as occupiers and this would be rejected out of hand by the Ukrainians. Which way the Chinese jump may be critical but of course one never knows in the world of high-level diplomacy that there might be a position taken in public whereas behind the scenes other factors might be in play. If the Chinese were to supply the Russians with significant miliary aid, this might prove to be a serious escalation. It is rumoured that the Chinese may be about to supply a new generation of drones to the Russians but again it is possible that like governments in the West, the Chinese might be saying that will supply military assistance but without doing anything very much. Some other political developments are brewing as Tory MPs are being put on alert to expect an announcement over the Northern Ireland Brexit renegotiations early on next week. So the next few days might prove to be a critical test of the Rishi Sunak premiership and thus it may be ‘make or break’ time for the Brexit rebels in the European Research Group.
Today after a leisurely start, Meg and I decided that we would go for a walk in the park, given that we are tending to use the Waitrose coffee bar somewhat more these days (if only to meet up with friends and acquaintances) But when we got to the park, although the weather seemed bright enough, there was a particularly icy wind blowing and whilst we had our flask of coffee in our rucksack, we decided that the last thing that we wanted to do was to sit down on a park bench and get thoroughly chilled by a cold wind. So we decided to do a circuit of the park round the lake and we thought we then make for home and enjoy our coffee at home. This we did and then we had a leisurely look at all of the supplements in the Saturday edition of ‘The Times‘ For lunch, we cooked ourselves some chicken mince which I found in the recesses of the freezer and then cooked some Primo style cabbage and a baked potato to accompany the meal. We knew that today was going to be another Rugby weekend and so we made sure that we had got all lunched up and then washed up before the Ireland-Italy match. One might have thought that this was going to be one of the most one-sided matches of the series, as Ireland are probably the stand-out team and the team most likely to win the tournemant whilst the Italians will probably not win a single game and finish up at the bottom of the table. But whereas a few years ago, one wondered whether the Italians could field a sufficiently good team to participate in the competition, today was entirely different. The Italians have a young and very fit team and they now play with a free running adventureness which makes for a thoroughly entertaining match. The Irish won the match now having an unbroken run of success so far in the competition but the Italians made them work really hard for their success. At one point, three quarters of the way through the match, the Italians were only four points adrift from the Irish so the game actually turned out to be a fairly tight one. The Irish did get the ball over the line on two other occasions, one in each half, where the TMO ruled (in the event, quite correctly) that that the ball was not properly grounded and therefore a try was not to be awarded. The other match this afternoon is the England-Wales match but we shall be able to watch about the first 35 minutes of the first half before we go off to church. Hopefully, we will pick up the second half when we return from church provided that our PVR has recorded the series correctly or, failing that, we hope that we can get it on i-player.
This morning, whilst browsing on the web, I happened to see a spare remote for one of our little micro HiFi systems that I have acquired through eBay recently. Remotes, particularly for older systems, are evidently lost quite easily and it can be quite hard to match up the original. It is possible to buy other remotes that advertise themselves as ‘compatible with’ but there is always an element of doubt whether although these will work with the full functionality of the original. So seeing a remote that was an authentic duplicate of the original, I successfully submitted a lower bid than the asking price on eBay. I know from a study of the relevant manual that there are certain things for which the remote is essential. For example, on my existing remote I can press the ‘FM’ button for a second occasion and this switched from stereo mode into mono which as it happens is an excellent way to almost completely eliminate the FM hiss if this should prove to be troublesome. But having ordered this remote, I then studied the details more assiduously and it became evident why my lower offer had been accepted as the vendor did state that the battery compartment cover was missing. I was a bit dismayed by this but decided to improvise a battery cover for the remote when it arrives. I was using a metal ruler to precisely fashion my duplicate cover when I had a stroke of luck in that the width of the ruler was the exact width of the missing cover. So after successfully cutting a bit of the ruler off, I successfully made a metal replacement cover the correct size for the remote. The original cover I will then use in the duplicate copy when it arrives. So all in all, I was very pleased with my little bit of handiwork which worked far better than I could possibly have envisaged and in which I admit I had a little bit of good fortune to assist me.
I am looking forward to the next few days in the political sphere to see whether Rishi Sunak successfully sees off the Brexit ‘rebels’. Matthew Paris in ‘The Times‘ was urging Rishi Sunak to be bold and isolate the rebels by making a vote for the revised Northern Ireland a vote of confidence in the government and see if the Brexit rebels dare to bring down the government and precipitate a general election.
This has been an interesting day for Meg and I. It turned out to be quite a nice bright day with a modicum of wind. We received a telephone call from our University of Birmingham friend to say he was going out for the day (quite understandable when the weather was so fine) so we would not have an assignation in Waitrose as we sometimes do on Sundays. Accordingly, I made up a flask and some comestibles and we set off for the park anticipating a little walk although Meg was a little unsteady on her feet this morning. Although it seemed fine when we set off from home, we picked up our copy of the Sunday newspapers and then made our way to the park. When we got to our ‘normal’ bench, the icy wind seemed to have intensified somewhat so we did not anticipate too long a sit down. So we drank our coffee in a hurry and had a bite to eat but decided to cut our losses and get home where we could have a warming drink of some packet soup we reserve for occasions such as this. Upon sitting down to read the newspapers, the Sports supplement fell out of the pile where the sports writers were celebrating a good victory of England versus Wales last night. This put me in a state of absolute confusion because when we got home from church last nigt and had a little bit of supper upon our return, we settled down to watch the second half of the England-Wales match. The Welsh ground out a good and deserved victory against England, or so we thought. But when I saw the result in today’s newspaper, evidently something had gone amiss. I turned to our PVR upon which I had recorded the Wales-England match and then by closely consulting the date realised that we had actually watched last year’s match – which happened to have the same refeee and the same score after about 35 minutes. I had set the PVR to ‘series record’ all of this year’s matches so it was a sort of understandable mistake. What has happened to this year’s recorded match is still a bit of mystery to me but as I do not record much these days, I am never very confident about the procedure working as it should or myself being able to retrieve what I want. So late on this morning, I turned to the iPlayer instead of the PVR and did get yesterday’s match and so we could enjoy today the second half that we had missed yesterday. After that, it was a case of preparing a Sunday lunch of smoked gammon, broccoli and baked potato and then a fairly quick turn around to watch the France-Scotland match. This turned out to be entertaining in the extreme. Before the match was 11 minutes old, both teams had lost a player as a result of a red card issued after a head collision. This is the new rugby protocol to try to avoid the damage that can be done to players as a result of head injuries. After the referee, linesman and third match official had consulted with each other and looked at video replays of the two incidents, a red card and a sending off seemed to be the correct decisions. The head collisions were probably a result of over enthusiasm and micro-second misjudgements rather than foul play with intent. Nonetheless, the Scots found themselves 19 points down quite early on in the game. You would imagine that many teams would have thought that the game was lost at this point. But the Scots, to do them credit, played adventurous and sustained rugby and clawed themselves back into the match. They tended to dominate the second half in terms of possession and about five minutes before the end of the match, were only a converted try away from overhauling their French opponents and winning the match. Bt the French managed to score a try of their own and this put the whole game beyond doubt. However, the commitment shown and the skills deployed on each side really made this rugby at its best and a delight to watch.
It is now being widely reported that tomorrow may be ‘make or break’ day for Rishi Sunak and his attempts to find a solution to the problems created by Brexit and the Northern Ireland border problems. It is said that the government is ‘on the cusp’ of a deal with the EU on post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland. Sam Coates, the Sky News political correspondent has been told that an announcement over post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland could come within hours. Whitehall sources have suggested Rishi Sunak is set to ‘put his deal on the runway’.Coates is reported ministers as saying that ‘We could get some form of statement. We could get some form of telephone cabinet meeting so they get updated on the content of the deal then it will be rolled out to parliament tomorrow’. What is critical is the reaction of the Ulster Unionists, the DUP and the members of the hard-right Brexit faction known as the European Research Group. I suspect that within a day we may have some high level resignations from the cabinet but that Rishi Sunak will get his deal done and members of the ERG will have been ‘seen off’. Or it is quite possible that there will be a massive revolt within the Conservative party but Rishi Sunak can always put it to the Tory MPs that they vote for any renegotiated settlement which will be regarded a vote of confidence. Should the Brexiteers revolt ‘en masse’, Sunak could threaten a general election which would wipe out most of the present Tory party (which may help to concentrate minds)
Today is one of those rain besmattered days throughout most of the country. As we know that we will be going to Waitrose tomorrow, we decided on a different course of action for this morning. I needed to access an ATM before tomorrow and so we decided to visit our local Morrisons which is quite a large store and has a range of goods within it. So this was our little venture out for this morning and once we had got hold of our cash we wandered around some of the shelves to see if anything caught our fancy. We did end up buying some ‘knee highs’ for Meg which she can always make use of and, whilst we were in browsing mood, I bought myself some good quality black duct tape of which I can never have too much. We availed ourselves of some pharmaceuticals and then made or home where we enjoyed our normal cup of coffee. We know that today is going to be quite a big day, politically, so we were not sorry to get ourselves parked in front of the Daily Politics program at 12.00pm on BBC2.
After lunch, I did a little sort of repair job using a wonderful little product called ‘Scratch Cover’. This is basically a wood stain, sold normally in three shades (light oak, mid oak and dark oak) and although scratches on furniture are rare, they do occasionally happen. But the product also helps to cover up other slight imperfections and helps to rejuvenate anything which is basically looking a little tired and in need of a face lift. I apply this product very carefully and so far, I am pleased with the results I have achieved.
Today we knew was going to be a huge day, politically, for Rishi Sunak. As I write, Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission President, have agreed a new deal which is to be known as the ‘New Windsor Framework’. We know that the EU and the Sunak regime have been working quietly on this behind the scene for some weeks now. So the first part of this process has been ‘hard pounding’ but fairly straight forward as these things go. However, there are two critical hurdles to be faced in the days ahead. First of all is the reaction of the hardline Brexiteers in the present day Tory party who are probaby quite desperate for the deal to fail so that Boris Johnson may return in triumph as their leader once they have helped to organise the defenestration (literally ‘throwing out of the window’) of Rishi Sunak who they hate and despise. The other signiicant player is the reaction of the Northern Irish DUP themseleves who may not be satisfied with anything less than the complete capitulation of the EU to their agenda – which is not going to happen. The Brexiteers on the Tory party, in the shape of the European Reform Group, will probably take a cue from the DUP. If the DUP completely rejects the new agreement, then the ERG will probably follow suit and there will be a massive rebellion within the Tory party. But it must be said that the Tory party has been at war with itself for decades over the whole European issue. The reaction to the agreement is developing as I write. Firstly, Steve Baker, an ex-Chairman of the ERG but now a junior government minister has given the deal the thumbs up. On Sky News he was reporting that Rishi Sunak as well as securing a Green lane for goods destined only for Northern Ireland and a Red lane for goods destined for Eire has also secured a democratic ‘lock’ for Northern Irish politicians. Once a new Northern Ireland power-sharing executive is in place, then any new European legislation to which the Northern Irish took exception would have to go through a process of litigation in the Northern Irish courts and then the UK courts before it got anywhere near the ECJ (European Couurt of Justice). This democratic lock, though, could only be triggered in the most exceptional of circumstances. This is almost like a judgement of Soloman. It means that the EU can claim that the ECJ will ultimately have primacy – on the other hand, there are so many trip wires that have been put in place then it is doubtful whether any cases would ultimately get that far. So this is a situation in which each side can claim a type of victory. The DUP themselves have not as yet rejected the deal but given a ‘holding’ statement in which they say they accept that progress has been made but significant issues remain. No doubt the DUP and ERG lawyers will be going through the text of the new agreement line by line. What the reaction of the Tory party in the House of Commons may well emerge later on today. It does seem, though, that Rishi Sunak has secured an agreement that eluded both Theresa May and also Boris Johnson. Basically,Rishi Sunak has generated a degree of trust not accorded to other UK Prime Ministers. The UK may well have taken the view that Theresa May was too weak politically to make a deal hold whereas Boris Johnson was outright duplicitous and could not be trusted to break his word.
Today was both wet and gloomy so we were quite pleased that today is the morning when we traditionally meet in Waitrose to have a coffee with friends and acquaintances. We were joined, as we usually are on a Tuesday, with one of our pre-pandemic friends whose musical career we are following with interest. This lady of quite advanced years has taken up again one of her past-times which is singing in a choir. Every week they are rehearsing Braham’s Requiem in its totality which must be quite demanding as the whole performance must be about an hour in length. Mind you, our friend started singing this piece back in 1961 so I should imagine that about sixty years of singing the piece, she ought to know it by now. But of course, the pandemic meant that all choir-type activities had to be set aside for a few years and of course one’s voice ages and changes with time. Whilst on the subject of singing, we tend to sing about three or four hymns at the service on Saturday evening. Typically, we would have an organist and sometimes we evidently have a chorister who knows the hymns well and sings them with a quite a degree of gusto so that the rest of the congregation who typically do not know the tunes can start to contribute more from the second verse onwards and any refrains of course. Last week, I found myself having to sing higher and higher and I am sure I was attempting to sing in a counter tenor range. Perhaps the organist starts off in a key that she thinks is within the range of the female members of the congregation but I was finding the range far beyond me. Eventually I had the courage? temerity? to start singing at least one octave lower and possibly two octaves lower in the equivalent of a bass voice and this I found I could manage a lot more comfortably so once I get settled on the correct starting notes an octive lower, perhaps I shall make this my default mode from now on. We chatted on with our friend for about half an hour, mainly about musical topics such as the instruments upon which we had been encouraged to play as youngsters. I suspect that most young girls of a particular age and generation tend to have a combination of piano lessons and/or ballet lessons to see if they have any natural talents. I suppose boys are pushed in the direction of football teams each Saturday morning but of course many school playing pitches have been sold off over the decades which cannot help youngsters develop any of the skills they may have. When we visted small Spanish towns in the decades when we wished to visit Spain regularly, it was quite common for each smallish town to have a football pitch arond which there was a running track which always seemed an excellent idea. But athletics and football because of their different historical roots have scarcely ever shared faciliies in this way which I have always felt was a geat shame. When you listen to young athletes in competitions, it is interesting how many of them start in one discipline and decide to have a dabble in another at which they find they are very much better. Do most long jumpers always start their athletics careers as sprinters I ask myself? And when it comes to rugby, the young men (and women) who start off in Rugby League and then change codes to Rugby Union nearly always seem to be excellent sprinters and show the opposition (and their team mates)) a clean pair of heels.
I walked down to my Pilates class in the middle of the day and by chance bumped into one of our Irish friends who invited us round for coffee and a chat next Sunday, to which we shall look forward. We had a few snatched words as our friend was enquiring about Meg’s health these days and gave us some useful advice. Then it was my Pilates class as usual but there were only three of us today so we were a little bit dowwn on our more normal four – which is still quite a small class. On my way home at this time of year, I like to spot in people’s gardens what appears to be budding. There are daffodils bursting out all over, as you might expect and a goodly number of snowdrops often found in clusters underneath some trees. But I was particularly looking out for crocuses which I think are quite sparse at this time of year. I know that certain birds play havoc with young crocus flowers but one expects to see a real abundance of both the orange and also the purple varieties at about this time but perhaps I am not looking at a very representative sample of gardens.
Today, it is interesting to see what the reaction of the Tory party is going to be to Rishi Sunak’s New Windsor Framework to deal with the Northern Irish border problems post Brexit. The reaction so far has either been positive or neutral and the Tory MPs on the extreme right of the party are merely putting it about that they are studying the text of the agreement and the deal before they are coming to a judgement on the deal as whole.
Today is the day when our domestic help calls around and this is always the opportunity to have a laugh and to catch up on family news. As it still one of these days when the rain seems intermittent, Meg and I waited until we were showered and breakfasted before we decided how to spend the rest of the morning. After consultation with our domestic help, we appreciated that we needed to buy some cleaning products and we also needed to buy some cosmetic products. We decided to limit our activities to a walk along the High Street in Bromsgrove where we popped into a couple of shops to replenish our supplies of toiletries and cleaning products. This having been done, we made for home and had our coffee and biscuits in front of the TV anticipating that we would watch Prime Minister’s Question. We actually got home somewhat later than the start of this but I am not sure that we missed anything of real significance. There is the expression that ‘nothing succeeds like success’ and Rishi Sunak seemed buoyed up by his recent success with the renegotiation of the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol and the enthusiastic support of his supporters in the House of Commons. No doubt, many Tory MPs feel that they have something to cheer about after all of the Tory infighting that has occurred in the last few months and Boris Johnson, so often a seeker after the limelight, has been conspicuous by his silence.
A big story that has broken politically is the release of thousands of WhatsApp messages from the phone of Matt Hancock which suggests that he ignored scientific advice that elderly patients be COVID tested before they were released from hospital and into the care sector. Sky News reports that Matt Hancock allegedly rejected COVID-19 testing advice for residents going into England’s care homes while he was health secretary during the worst of the pandemic, according to a report based on thousands of leaked WhatsApp messages. The Daily Telegraph claims that chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty had told Mr Hancock in April 2020 that there should be testing for ‘all going into care homes and segregation whilst awaiting a result’. But the leaked messages suggest Mr Hancock rejected that advice, telling an aide that the move ‘muddies the waters’, instead introducing mandatory testing just for those coming from hospitals. Today the Hancock camp is claiming that some of the relevant emails were read out of context and that some of the reporting in the Daily Telegraph articles is factually incorrect. The Prime Minister is trying to wash his hands of the whole affair by saying that any investigation of the veracity of these claims should be left to the official inqury into COVID which has only just started. The Daily Telegraph, for its part, is indicating that it has a lot more material that will be released on a sort of drip-feed basis for as long as they feel that the story has currency (and helps to sustain the leadership) From this distance, we can say that the Government was desperate to clear the wards and get elderly people into care homes. We also know that it was too early in the progress of the pandemic for medication to prove its efficacy and, of course, vaccines were still to see the light of day. One gets the feeling that this stpry will run and run, so long as the public are still interested in it. Certainly, the relatives of elderly people who died having contracted COVID from infected patients recently discharged from hospitals into the care sector are unlikely to let the matter rest.
Tonight, Channel 4 reports that after an investigation which they had undertaken, the Acting Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police had used the phrase ‘regretful sex’ when referring to the ways in which rape investigatins are pursued. The individual concerned has made a vehement denial that he had ever used a phrase such as ‘regretful sex’ in one particular meeting a year ago. Two other participants in the meeting have been contacted, one of whom has admitted that the phrase was used whilst another had no recollection of it. So the Channel 4 charge is that there is a massive degree of misogyny embedded in the Met. The whole issue has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and I wonder what kind of evidence they will seek in order to investigate this matter. From the point of view of the outside observer, it is hard to ascertain what has really gone on in this case but what does remain true is that the proportion of accusations of rape that eventually lead to a successfull prosecutions remains abysmally low. In England and Wales, more than 99% of rapes reported to police do not end in a conviction. This is the result of a criminal justice system that makes prosecuting rape extremely rare, lengthy and difficult. This is undoubtedly an area where there is a need for radical improvement but it does appear that statistics for successful prosecution for rape are at an all time low. We are told that the police are taking this crime much more seriously but there is little hard evidence that this is the case.
Thursday is my shopping day so I presented myself bright and early at the doors of the supermarket, which opened a minute or so early for a change. Then I got home and got the shopping unpacked and the breakfast cooked. Meg and I felt like a little toddle out rather than a full scale walk in the park and I had a little venture in mind. Meg came with me and fortunately, I managed to get parked fairly near to the shop that I wished to visit. This was the Age Concern furniture shop on the Bromsgrove High Street where there was a little piece that I have been wondering about. This was a delightful little mahogany side table but you could see why it had not been sold and was constantly rejected by people who walked past it. This was because in one corner there were was a fairly bad ‘white ring’ stain evidently caused by a hot cup of some kind and there were some very minor little scratches on the top as well. Nonetheless, I had a word with the furniture manager and I pointed out that she had it in stock for weeks and that it might be possible (or it might not) to alleviate the damage to it. We agreed a 30% reduction so I bought the table for £3.50 (the price of a cup of coffee, which is my unit of currency these days) and then, after lunch, I set to work giving it a general clean up and tackling the damage. At first, I tried my simple stain cover which I have used successfully in the past but this was not sufficient for the job, which was no surprise. So I went on the web to see that others had suggested. Apart from the hairdryer suggestion which I rejected there were two other home-made remedies. The first of these was to use a vinegar and olive oil mixture to rub into the stain but this was pretty ineffective. But then I tried another solution which was to try rubbing with toothpaste and a rag dipped in boiling water. After an appropriate amount of elbow grease, I managed to reduce the bad stain by some 80-90% which I think is about the best that can be achieved. I gave the finished product another slight coating of stain and followed it up with a bit of polishing up using a wet wipe designed for cleaning windows. This actually works by spreading out the stain to a beautiful fine and glossy patina so now was the time to get the table into position in the corner of the room lit by a small table lamp. I had a spare set of quite elegant coasters with a floral design that are a pretty good match for the lampshade so all in all I am quite pleased with my afternoon’s work and the effect I have been trying to achieve.
This afternoon there have beem several stories competing for attention on the airways, not least the discovery of the dead child born to the couple who have been avoiding the attention of the police for the last few weeks. The police have also indicated that the baby might have been dead for several weeks. But at last Boris Johnson has given his reaction to the deal that Rishi Sunak has negotiated and this has presented Johnson with a bit of a dilemma. In view of the favourable reaction of many Tory MPs and the fact that the DUP (Unionists in Northern Ireland) are still considering their position, then outright opposition is likely to leave Boris Jhnson out on a limb. Instead, he has given a rather nuanced response in which he is simultaneously arguing that ‘we have to hope’ that the deal is successful. On the other hand, he has indicated that he himself could not bring himself to vote for the bill and would find it very difficult to back it, not least because the bill of which he was the author to unilaterally suspend part of the NI Protocol will now have to bite the dust. In all probability, Johnson desperately wanted the Sunak initiative to fail and its very relative success is a constant reminder to him that Sunak had achieved with the EU a deal which had eluded both him and Teresa May. Some commentators are making the point that this refusal to back the bill presents Rishi Snak with a dilemma – does he withdraw the whip from Johnson which,in effect, expels him from the parliamentary party? There are some voices that are saying that Johnson has been well and truly ‘put in his box’ which is probaby a very accurate assessment of his position. The view in the Twittersphere is that Johnson is ‘toast’ and good riddance but of course the contributers to Twitter are hardly a reresentative sample. Again, this story may develop as the days unfold.
The final report into the Manchester Arena bombings some five and a half years ago has been published today and whilst criticism of our security services is rare, it does look as though MI5 have really taken their eye off the ball in this instance and the whole bombing episode should have been anticipated and averted.
Being a Friday, it was a day when we might meet up with some of our Waitrose gang. We were delighted to meet one of our pre-pandemic friends and, shortly afterwards, our University of Birmingham friend turned up and we spent a hilarious half hour or so. I am not sure what we find to laugh about but laugh we do. We spent a certain amount of time talking about the films and TV series in which we have taken particular enjoyment and then it was time for us to leave, but not before we had done a little bit of shopping for extras. When we got home, we watched some of the political news of the day on the BBC2 Politics programme just after midday and then it was time for lunch. As we cooking a bought haddock pie in the oven, I parboiled some sprouts (which I wanted to use up) and a carrot cut into sticks and then finished them off in the oven with some oil and a dollop of honey. All in all, we had a very pleasant meal. After lunch, we used the BBC i-player to catch up up the next episode of a series that we are starting to watch and which has been recommended to us by several people.
Feeling refreshed after lunch, I decided to have a further little ‘go’ at the occasional mahogany table which I restored yesterday. There was still the faintest sign of a circular ring so I attacked this with a kettle of boiling water, a tube of toothpaste, some stain, some furniture polish and a hairdryer in various combinations. To my dismay, but not complete surprise, I succeeded in dispersing the original stain somewhat but to a wider area of the table so being somewhat perfectionist, I had a an imperfect renovation now made somewhat worse. However, I did various rubbings way of the stain I had used and the furniture polish and then reverted to a warmed dishcloth with quite a wide weave and a drying off on paper towel. It now did not look too bad so I put it back into place, complete with a little coaster mat in each corner and table lamp the design of which is a near perfect match with the coasters. Once I had got everything back into place, to my amazement I could scarcely tell in which corner I had been trying to effect improvements. Perhaps the hairdryer had faciliated the removal of some stain inducing water vapour from underneath the varnish but in any case I now have a table which is completely ‘fit for purpose’ which does not look evidently damaged as was the case when it was purchased and which is now renovated to my satisfaction. I think I draw three morals from this little saga. The first of these is undoubtedly to ‘quit whilst you are ahead’ and know when to stop improving things. The second is not to try to be too perfectionist in one’s little activities but try and find a sweet spot between the ‘this will do’ point and the point where the repair is as good as it can be. The third point is that in any handicraft or do-it-yourself activities, one can be beset by a host of misfortunes (when things do not go quite right) and fortunes (when things, by chance, turn out just right and sometimes better than anticipated)
There are two big political stories today which the Tory party are desperately trying to link together. The Committee on Privileges is the House of Commons committee investigating Boris Johnson for misleading the House of Commons over the illegal drinks parties held at the height of the pandemic in Downing Street. Today the committee has published its initial report, saying the Commons may have been misled multiple times. For his part,Boris Johnson has taken to the airways claiming that the interim report vindicates his account that he was not informed of the illegality of any social gatherings. The second story is the fact that the senior civil servant who investigated and then reported upon ‘partygate’ (Sue Grey) has now been appointed by Keir Starmer as his ‘Chief of Staff’ – an enormously powerful role if and when the Labour party forms the next government. Some members of the Tory and in particlar Nadine Dorries, an ecstatic Boris Johnson supporter, is arguing that Sue Grey was evidently a closet Labour party supporter, was not therefore impartial and therefore the whole enquiry which led to the resignation of Boris Johnson was in effect a stitch up. Most of the informed comment is that these two events are not connected but the timing of the two events within 24 hours of each other is unfortunate. Boris Johnson will give oral evidence in about three weeks time and they wil have to determine whether Johnson knowingly misled Parliment. ‘Knowingly’ wil be hard to prove – and does the Committee on Privileges use the criteria of ‘balance of probabilities’ or ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ Even if the Committee does find him ‘guilty’ the sanction imposed will be interesting – beyond a suspension of two weeks or so, then Johnson could be subject to recall by his own constituency association where he does not have a huge majority in any case.
Today we had to think what we were going to do as a late morning activity because now that the weather has turned a little more wintry again, neither of us particularly fancied the icy blasts afforded to us in the local park. I spent a certain amount of time messing about with my audio to get it absolutely the way I want and then Meg and I had a delayed breakfast. We then jointly decided that it would be a good idea to visit Droitwich again but the bottom end of town instead of the top end so that we could access some charity shops and do a quick whizz around the branch of Waitrose. I needed to fill up with petrol which I did on the way to Droitwich and then we parked outside Waitrose and hit the charity shops. I bought a new shirt in one and a couple of oven-proof vegetable dishes in one of the others before we set for home and had delayed elevenses as soon as we got in. Then I started cooking a curry meal for us as we have not made one for some time. It was a mix of the usual ingredients – onion, pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms supplemented by a diced apple, some sultanas and a modicum of brown sugar. I dish up Meg’s before my own because I only put the curry into the mixture afterwards and then Meg gets hers served on some white rice whilst to keep the carboydrate count down, I utilise a rice cake and a couple of cream crackers in place of the rice. We always add a dollop of plain yogurt to the top of the mixture to finish off the meal.
This afternon, I had an unexpected burst of pleasure. Whilst doing the delayed washing up, I turned on ClassicFM and when I tuned in, the transmission was half way though the first movement of the Mozart clainet concerto. To my delight, the broadcast carried on playing both the second (slow) movement followed by the third movement. Whether ClassicFM do this quite regularly (ie. play the whole of a work instead of just a movement from it) or whether it was just a one off, I cannot say. The combination of the DAB mode in the kitchem hifi and the wonderful reverberations in the kitchen (as there are no soft furnishings to absorb the sound) made the perfomance particularly enjoyable. This particular piece has quite a lot of significance for me. I first heard it when my art/music teacher who had a cubicle in the dormitory (as all the dormitaries had in those days) smuggled in a record of the concerto and played it on a little portable record player which he had acquired from somewhere. As it happened, about two or three of us in the small attic dormitory were in bed because it was the height of the Asian flu epidemic in 1957 and, as I remember it, as many as two thirds of the class could be absent when the epidemic was at its height. The second and slow movement of the clarinet concerto is particularly memorable because our son won the school music competition for his renditon of it when he was aged about 14. The adjudicator, who was a Professor of Music at York University, awarded the prize to our son because of the degree of expressivity and feeling for the music of Mozart – our hearts swelled with pride upon hearing the news. But after that a combination of enthusiasms of Deltic locomotives, photography and young women (in which order I cannot say) meant that the clarinet playing became a thing of the past. But then Meg and I were on a brief half-term break with our son in the city of Bath- and as we passing the small Georgian theatre in the town, we noticed that the famous clarinetist Jack Brymer was to be playing the Mozart clarinet concerto and also on the bill was Marisa Robles, the world famous harpist. We enjoyed the concert enormously and even managed a few words with Jack Brymer after the performance. More recently, a local orchestral player of real talent played the concerto in our local church which acts as a venue for concert performances for the Bromsgrove festival held in the summer months.
Although the news broke yesterday, the media is today taking the Committee of Privileges report into Boris Johnson’s possible misleading of Parliament as very serious news. But allies of the Prime Mnister are trying to minimise the impact of the interim report from the Privileges Committee. Mr Johnson has also said it was ‘surreal’ the committee proposes to rely on evidence ‘culled and orchestrated’ by Sue Gray, who was a highly regarded top civil servant. The committee has defended its probe insisting it is ‘not based on the Sue Gray report’, which last year detailed lockdown-breaking, booze-fuelled parties in Downing Street during Mr Johnson’s leadership and played a role in his downfall. As always on a Saturday evening, one awaits the full in-depth analysis provided by the Sunday papers and whether Johnson receives any support (or fails to gain support) from the trawl around the TV studios on a Sunday morning. Evidently, the oral evidence that Johnson will give to the committee may well prove interesting viewing as the Committee have already decided that Johnson probably misled the House of Commons on about four occasions.
Today the weather is turning noticeably colder and we need to get ourselves braced for a cold blast which may be the last that we have to endure this winter. The weather forecast is indicating a snowy belt that is going to afflict some northerly and easterly parts of the country but how quickly it is going to spread is an open question. Meg and I got upselves up and prepared to watch the Lorna Kuennsberg program which is part of our Sunday morning routine. Boris Johnson was being defended to the hilt by one of his acolytes but some other influential conservatives were not convinced by the linkage of the Sue Grey appointment as Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff and whether this might cast doubt upon the integrity of her report into ‘partygate’. I do not normally comment upon my television viewing but last night after we had returned from church and had a little supper, Meg and I channel-flipped to see what remained for the rest of the evening. We stumbled across the PBS (American) network that was running a big feature on ‘Hiroshima – the Real Story’. Although we got to bed later than intended, this documentary was riveting to watch. I learned that the Americans knew that Hiroshima was not a military but a civilian target (nowadays a war crime in itself), that the Americans moved heavan and earth to make sure that the suffering endured by the Japanese people did not see the light of day and even set up a special research facility to study the effects of the radiation (but not to attempt any treatment regimes). This is just a handful of the issues explored in the programme but I felt much better informed after the programme than before it.
In the late morning, we popped down to see our Irih frinds who live down the road and who had invited us round for coffee at midday. We were also delighted to be joined by a near neighbour who is French and very jolly and we repeated the good time that we had had at Christmas time. As a group we were all glad to be getting the winter behind us and to be rejoicing in the extra daylight that presages the start of spring. We all know that we have a bit of winter yet to experience but the end is in sight. We discussed some local affairs including a house along the road that had just gone on sale recently. This stimulated a disscussion between us that in decades gone by, when we were so much younger, then there generations of children that we were collectively raising and who formed a type of natural community. But now that the children have fled the nest years or even decades ago, such a sense of community is being lost and we face the prospect of all of us growing older gracefully (or disgracefully) together. We particularly remembered the good ten years that we had in Hampshire where there several children aged about 4-10 years old and became almost the collective responsibility of us all. Meg and I evidently no children of that age when we lived there but we were regarded as quasi-grandparents by the younger generation and baby-sitting was no real chore for us. But, of course, those days have gone as sixteen years have passed and the children of yore have grown up, gone to university and are not living in the locality any more.
In the various politics programmes that we have seen today, two little ‘facts’ stand out in my mind. The first of these was a graph shown I think on the Sky News programme which showed that whilst the Conservative party earnestly desire the ending of the immigration of asylum seekers and others in the small (and dangerous) boats that cross the channel. The graph that was particualy striking was since the Conservatives had been in power, the number of deportations had shrunk from 10,000 to about 2,000 whilst more and more legislation hs been passed in an attempt to ‘solve’ the problem. Next Rishi Sunak is going to annoounce even more legislation to ‘end’ the Cross-Channel immigration in small boats but declaring everybody illegal and instantly deporting them (even though this is contrary to international law) So judging by the evidence of the past few years, passing more and more legislation is not going, by itself, to solve the problem. The second statistics concerns the release of 10,000 WhatsApp messages which emanated from Matt Hancock and which has found its way via a biographer/journalist into the eager arms of the Daily Telegraph. The Andrew Neil show reported that the total number of words in the messages was equivalent to 2.5 times the entire collected works of Shakespeare. The Daily Telegraph is a long standing opponent of the policy of ‘lockdown’ to combat the COVID pandemic and so is milking this hoarde of emails and releasing one damaging story after another for as long as the story will run. I must say that using social media such as WhatsApp for policy discussions and the like does not strike me as the most appropriate vehicle, even in this modern age, by which policy discussions should be conducted.
Today was the first day in what may be a particularly cold snap and the weather forecasts show the cold air descending from the north and the east. A cold weather alert has been issued for all of England as much of the country braces for snow and icy conditions. The Met Office has already issued a yellow warning for snow and ice which is set to come into force tonight for Midlands, much of Wales and the Southeast, including London. Being a Monday, we never expect to bump into any of our park friends nor did we fancy exposing ourselves to some icy blasts. Nonetheless, we decided to make the best of a bad job and, having picked up our newspaper, we did journey to the park. There we decided to walk towards our normal bench but we had not provided any coffee to take with us. So we sat on the bench just long enough for Meg to eat her customary banana whilst I had a small orange. Then we retraced our steps back to the car and our little strategy has worked, in that we had taken some fresh air and exercise but not tarried too long to get chilled by a long sit down. Then we got home, had a packet soup to warm ourselves up and then I proceeded to make lunch.
Yesterday, the news came through that the United Nations has finally, after some fifteen years, decided on a new law of the sea which will protect some 30% of the earth’s oceans from predation by fishing, mining, or other polluting activities. I think I heard it correctly that the migration routes of whales are similarly protected. This is extraordinarily good news for the planet and the UN delegations seemed filled with justifiable emotion at their success. When this new UN resolution was discussed in the media, I saw a contribution from Dr Hannah Fry who is a British mathematician, author and radio/TV presenter and well known to most TV viewers by now. She used a phrase which struck me as being amazingly prescient when she mused that ‘Life is lived forwards but understood backwards’ I was intrigued by this expression and wondered whether she was the author of it or whether she was quoting another authority. The exact quote is this: ‘Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.’ and the author is the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. I must admit that I prefer the juxtaposition of the two sentiments that Hannah Fry gave voice to yesterday. In a similar vein, I remember once being told that ‘you always try and take the correct decision at the time’ which, again, is a bit of a truism. We none of us attempt to take incorrect decisions at important junctures in our lives but some decisions (e.g. shall I move house this year and to where?)may turn out to be extremly fortuitious and on the face of it a ‘good’ decision whereas it is possible that you make a leap out of the (proverbial) frying pan and into the fire. So sometimes our decisions turn out to have been very good ones, others may turn out not as would have liked but none of us ever tries and wants to make an incorrect decision.
This afternoon, we spent a certain amount of time listening to music on Radio 3 and ClassicFM whilst doing some routine tasks, such as making sure our accounts are up to date and going through some saved copies of newspapers to make sure that interesting items are cut out and filed away. These are often health-related issues and one that I came across was the recent research on how to keep your concentration levels and focus high throughout the day. Not surprisingly, it was a judicious combination of diet and exercise which constitute the recommendations here.
There seems to be a bit of a bitter row going on within the ranks of the Tory party this afternoon (but I suppose this is hardly news any more). The scale of the rancour and emotion over Boris Johnson and the decision by top official Sue Gray to work for Labour was on display today in a WhatsApp exchange obtained by Sky News. In a series of messages on a group chat this morning, allies of Johnson clashed with other Tories who warned against criticising the decision by Sir Keir Starmer to hire the author of the partygate report. The leaked WhatsApps show the depth of division between allies of Johnson and the rest. In case one might have thought that British politics could not get more disreputable, a story is emanating that in his resignation Honours list (the right of every ex-PM) Boris Johnson is nominating his own father for a peerage. He has already done the same for his own brother who was briefly in the cabinet but who then resigned. Apparently Johnson has submitted a huge list with about 200 names upon it and this is still bein ‘considered’ within the Cabinet Office. Rishi Sunak may have a word in it as well – but this is certainly on the ‘murkier’ side of our political life as pure nepotism would appear to be the order of the day.
Today is always a day to which we look forward because it is the day when we tend to meet up with old friends in the Waitrose coffee bar. We were delighted to meet up with two of our pre-pandemic friends and, as usual, have a fair amount to chatter about. We always take the opportunity to buy some bits and pieces whilst in Waitrose and to that extent, we treat it rather like a corner shop instead of using it for our main weekly shop. After our weekly get-together, it was time for us to get home and I needed to get myself turned around for my Pilates session later on in the day. It was quite a pleasant walk down into town and I found the time to dive into a little charity shop and avail myself of a little insulated flask which I found on the shelves. The idea here is that in these cold days that when Meg and I venture out into the park we do not sit down for a prolonged rest as we have become accustomed over the months. Rather, we might have a smidgeon of tea/coffee in our little flask and then have a quick snifter of this coupled with a banana or similar whilst we have the briefest of rests but carry on walking. This way we hope we can get the fresh air and exercise but generally keep walking to keep ourselves from getting frozen.
I went down to Pilates as usual and the numbers were depleted by one today so there were only three of us. However, I do remember to turn my phone off these days which is only courtesy to my teacher and fellow class members. As I was walking home, I was surprised to see that our Italian friend had her front door open and was waiting for me to walk past. I was even more amazed to see that Meg was with her – she had apparently taken it on her own iniative to walk out of the house (with her outdoor shoes on but without a coat) and half a mile down the road where she recognised our friend’s house and presented herself at the back door. Apparently all kinds of frantic telephone calls had been made between our Italian friend and our son and my phone should have been red-hot with messages as well but I had failed to turn it on again afer my Pilates class. We stayed with our friend and her companion for about three quarters of an hour, accepting a very welcome cup of tea and biscuits before I walked Meg back to the house. When I know how unsteady Meg is on her feet these days and so prone to stumbles and trips, all I could do was to offer a silent prayer that she had not come to any harm in her venture down the road. Naturally, I gave profusive thanks to our friends and am now exercising my mind how I can keep Meg a little more safe and secure in the future. As soon as we got home, we started to think about a delayed lunch of fishcakes but suddenly realised by looking at our planning board upon which we record all our imminent engagements that our hairdresser was due round at 4.00 and it was already past that time. We realised that she is often a bit delayed and wondered if she had tried to call around when the house was empty. At 5.00pm, our hairdresser turned up to our very evident relief. One or other os us had made a mistake with the appointment which was at 5.00pm and not 4.00pm. We were evidently very pleased that we had not missed each other so we had both of our heads shorn before we cooked a somewhat delayed evening meal which was the meal that we intended to have at lunchtime.
With the events of the day, we have evidently not been following the TV news but it is the day when the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary are proudly announcing the latest measures to deter the migration in small boats from across the Englsih Channel. The new policy is to declare everybody who arrives by boat an illegal immigrant and then to deport them as swiftly as possible (and we are talking here of a week or so and not months) back to their country from whence they came or else to a ‘friendly’ third country such as Rwanda. Once here, any person so deported would be automatically denied any further attempt at immigration whether it be ‘legal’ or not. The legislation is being dated from today to ensure that a huge backlog does not build up, as has happened in the past, whilst the new legislation is being put in place. The government, when publishing the bill, admits that international law may well be tested to the limit and the Human Rights Act will in all probability be violated. The response from the opposition parties and a variety of bodies concerned with immigration is that the new proposals have not been thought through and are unworkable. Where is the accommodation to be found for those who do arrive? And the migrants cannot lawfully be detained indefinitely where there is simply no prospect of removing them. So after the specified 28 days is it suggested that they may well have to be released and then left destitute on the streets?
You never quite know what a day is going to bring. This morning it looked as though there were flurries of snow and that these might intensify. What a good day to have a good bowl of porridge with which to start the day, I thought to myself, and looked in the cupboard for my supplies of oats. To my dismay we were quite out of them so I decided that I would leave Meg in bed whilst I threw some clothes on and hurried down in the car both to collect the newspaper and also to avail myself of a goodly supply of oats. Waitrose had a special offer on oats which is just as well because I do not want to be without them when the weather is cold. By the time we had had some breakfast and got ourselves ready, we had a look outside and although we intended to pop down into town to pick up a purchase, we decided to abandon that particular activity at least for the morning. By the time we had some delayed elevenses in the comfort of our own home, it was not too far off 12.00 and Questions to the Prime Minister which was the usual knockabout stuff. The impression is quite strong abroad that Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman (Home Secretary) are actually relishing a fight over the Illegal Migration Bill. The Tories are arguing they are in touch with popular public opinion, not to mention thir own right wing, and whilst they privately may think that none of their provisions will actually work (and hence the absence of detail),nonetheless thay are more than happy to electioneer on a populist stance. I often think that when the Tories are up against it, they always fall back on the outright xenophobic dog whistles to act as a vote winner for them. Hence there were jibes against ‘Lefty lawyers’ and Suella Braverman even went as far as to argue that the opposition was assisted not only by lefty lawyers but the civil service as well. Naturally, this has incensed some of the civil service unions and when challenged, there was a certain amount of backing off. The Labour party for its part is arguing about the sheer unworkability of the new proposals and the track record that shows that ‘illegal’ migration has soared whilst more and more restrictive legislation is proposed. A loophole has already been spotted in the published Bill because although migrants should be returned to their country of origin or Rwanda, the provision of ‘habeas corpus’ still applies. This is a tremendously old and well established legal principal as Habeas Corpus – which means ‘you may have the body’ – is the right not to be unlawfully detained. This principle is regarded as so important that the High Court will hear an application of ‘habeas corpus’ immediately and the idea that the state can just detain people without charge is regarded as abhorrent, and rightly so. So this particular argument will run and run as the Tories will milk it for all it is worth whilst practically everybody else protests againsts its immorality, illegality and impractability.
In the late morning, I read my emails and was particularly interested in news from one of my University of Winchester friends whose wife was having an operation last Monday. I was relieved to be sent a photo of his wife smiling and waving once she had come round from the operation. On the spur of the moment, I decided to give him a phone call because it looked as though the hospital were quite keen to discharge his wife as soon as they could after the operation and would have done so except for a phyiotherapist who considered it was too early to consider a discharge. I communicated with my friend some of the experiences that I had had after a spell in hospital nearly five years ago by now. In particular, I stressed the importance of communicating with his doctor as all of the support services that he would need to assist in his wife’s recuperation are actually under the control of the doctor. But primary care services are under strain in all parts of the country and the patient, and the carers for whom the services are intended, have to be active in making sure that the intended services and care packages are actually delivered.
As the weather improved somewhat after lunch, Meg and I made a lightning visit into Bromsgrove town in order to pick up my purchase of a suite of three nesting tables, purchased recently at the Age Concern furniture shop on the High Street. These proved to be a more difficult to transport to the car than I anticipated as they are glass-topped tables which, of course, adds to the weight. I did the first stage of the restoration process including a little touching up of worn elements with a cotton wool bud soaked in scratch cover stain. I think I have effected quite an improvement as the furniture itself is a pleasant shade manufactured in yew. However, it will need a good examination in tomorrow’s daylight to ascertain whether I need to undertake a few finishing touches and, at the end of the day, I can live with a few blemishes so long as the furniture seems restored.
We knew from the weather forecast that we could expect a fall of snow overnight. Sure enough we did have a few centimetres but it was not quite bad enough to deter me from doing the weekly shopping. Admittedly, I did not feel inclined to get at the supermarket door on the dot of 8.00am so I delayed everything by about half an hour. The main roads were fine but the traffic was horrendous with lots of delays on a journey of a couple of miles. Whizzing around the supermarket when I know where everything is was straightforward and then it came to the journey home. For whatever reason, the journey back seemed choked up with traffic although the other lane of the dual carriage way seemed almost deserted. But this was one of those occasions when I was really pleased to get home with a carload of provisions for the forthcoming week. Before I attempted to unpack, I immediately got busy preparing a bowl of porridge after which I unpacked all of the shopping. When I picked up the nest of tables from the Age Concern furniture shop yesterday afternoon, I did a very quick perusal of their CD section and picked the six classical CDs that they had displayed. This is primarily because I really wanted the empty cases rather than their contents but eventually I finished up with six CDs for the princely sum of £1.25. One of these was a recording of the most well-known of the Beethoven piano sonatas and we really enjoyed playing this and savouring it whilst we were doing the unpacking. Then we got Meg ready to face the world and we got busy with our little project for the rest of the morning. By this stage of the morning, the snow flurries had finished for the day and there was some pale winter sun in evidence. I sat Meg down in our Music Room and put on a CD disk which we both enjoy tremendously entitled: ‘Ave Verum’ This is a CD of sacred choral favourites and was recorded at St. John’s College, Cambridge. It contains some of our especial favourites with pieces by Fauré and Brahms so whilst I had Meg (and myself) at peace with the world, I set to work putting the finishing touches to my restoration of the suite of nested tables. This consisted of a judicious polishing of the yew woodwork and a final cleaning of the glass inserts with some wipes especially formulated for the cleaning of glassware. Once this was all done, I had a bit of a brainwave and positioned the tables in the corner of the room recently occupied by my last renovation but one, which was the mahogany table whose bad ‘white ring’ stain I had all but eliminated. The effect was incredibly pleasing because now all of the furniture in lighter colours (maple, yew, perhaps walnut I would guess) are now on the same side of the room and the tonalities are nicely consistent with each other. Meanwhile, the mahogany table now looks quite handsome on the other side of the room where it sits besides one of the two comfortable armchairs. I raided the bottom drawers of a large unit in our dining room to see what bits of linen and ‘table dressing’ we could liberate and whilst this was largely Christmssy type things, we did remind ourselves where we kept a supply of scented candles and I liberated one small table decoration that we can immediately bring into use.
As is often the case when the government tries to avoid the fallout from making an unpleasant announcement, the Transport minister has announced a sigificant delay to a section of the HS2 line by making a written statement. The section from Birmingham to Crewe and then onwards to Manchester is to be delayed for two years in what appears to be a desperate attempt by the Treasury to save money. Long term critics of the HS2 project will be emboldened by this announcement and will still attempt to get the whole project dropped. In the meanwhile, it looks as though the concept of ‘levelling up’ will have received a severe knock by this announcement. But we know that similar projects e.g. in Spain, tend to benefit the capital city rather than the more distant cities served by the line. But in the London area, we have had both CrossRail and also the Elizabeth Line. Although these two projects were subject to significant cost overruns, the prospect of cancellation or deliberate delays was never on the cards. Meanwhile, in the murky world of Westminster politics, it has emerged recently that Boris Johnson is understood to have privately warned deputy prime minister Dominic Raab about his conduct. This long running investigation into allegations of bullying may well report fairly soon and Raab has suggested that he will resign if the complaints against him are said to be substantially correct. At the risk of a bit of ‘pop’ psychology, I wonder whether Ministers who feel intellectually inadequate are liable to resort to bullying behaviour in a desperate attempt to appear to be in charge of events. Senior civil servants tend to be highly educated and long standing in their positions and it is no wonder that ministers who may, in the famous words of Sir Robin Day, be ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ privately feel their inadequacy.
The weather this morning still showed flurries of snow but not quite the intensity of yesterday. Our domestic help had to switch her day this week to be with us this morning so I messaged her to offer to pick up up in our car if that would make her journey to us any easier. But she showed up at the appointed time so evidently the snow had not been sufficiently severe to make her think twice about the journey. As always, it was nice to see her and she had brought along a little present of a uniquely shaped colander that she had seen in a kitchen shop. For my part, I tend to buy cooking oil in bulk from a little company that grows its own rapeseed and then processes it and sells it on bulk containers which I then bottle and put into my own bottles on arrival. I then encourage our domestic help to take a bottle from our stock whenever she needs it. Today being a Friday, we anticipated that we would see our University of Birmingham friend in Waitrose which is becoming a Friday morning tradition for the two of us. Our friend is particularly fond of the ‘Moral Maze‘ programme broadcast every week on Radio 4 and one issue that emerged this week was whether it was legitimte to ‘break a confidence’ and report serious nefarious activity to the police. I wondered out loud whether a Catholic priest hearing something in confession could refuse to divulge something heard in the confessional to the police in serious cases. I always understood that what was heard in the confessional was in absolute confidence and should never be disclosed even under the pain of imprisonment or death in the most extreme of cases. But it may well be that things have ‘moved on’ since I was at school and taught the rudiments of theology because the more modern position seems much more sensible. On consulting the web, it appears that the church’s guidelines say that if someone discloses in confession that he or she has committed a serious crime such as child abuse, ‘the priest must require the penitent to report his or her conduct to the police or other statutory authority. If the penitent refuses to do so, the priest should withhold absolution.’ After a brief while, we were joined by one of our pre-pandemic acquaintances who has a lively sense of humour. I reminded her of the response that she made to one of my observations a month or so ago. I asked her whether she would like to live in a society where she was married to three or four husbands at the same time (technically known as ‘polyandry’ which is still to be found in Bhutan, Nepal and parts of Tibet) Our friend thought about this for a moment and concluded that she did not think she would enjoy living in a society such as this. When I enquired why, her reply has resonated with me for a long time as she stated that she did not think that she could ‘handle more than two men at once’. The part of this reply which tackled my fancy was the implications of the phrase ‘more than’ and the imagination can only boggle. Eventually, the elderly lady had to leave us to engage in sone chauffering duties and after she had left, another lady who we did not know passed us by and observed to us that we had evidently had a good time as so much laughter was emanating from our table. So then we left for home and cooked some Basa fillets for lunch. As Basa has only the mildest of flavours, I made a mixture of some seafood sauce and 1000 Island dressing which I heated in a glass to provide a hot sauce to accompany the fish and this worked out as intended.
An argument has broken out this afternoon over the ‘Gary Lineker’ affair. Lineker opined on social media that the tone of pronouncements from government ministers (particularly Suella Braverman) were redolent of the type of language which reminded one of Germany in the 1930s (in other words, the Nazi era). Opinion is quite sharply divided on this issue but the BBC feels that it cannot have a very prominent broadcaster (although on a freelance and not an employee status) to issue opinions that appear to compromise the duty of the BBC to strive for complete impartiality. Actually, I think that the BBC are handling this quite well and are saying that Gary Lineker is to step back from his role as presenter on ‘Match of the Day’ until such time as there is an agreed and clear position of Lineker’s use of social media. Actually, I think that both parties can learn from this episode. Lineker had used language that was capable of misinterpretation and was probably unwise. On the other hand, the BBC probably needs to refine its policies to make it clear to even freelance presenters that they have to ‘have regard’ to the BBC quidelines on impartiality. The wider point here is that Lineker is a sports presenter but should not be using the prominence afforded by his position to let his views be known (however morally correct or praiseworthy such opinions might be)
It looks as though the current really cold snap may well be petering out. So this morning, after breakfast, Meg and I decided that we would brave the park today but not stay too long sitting down so that we did not get too cold. We decided on a slightly different strategy this morning and took a flask of coffee with us but in a smallish little bag instead of the more normal rucksack. There was a slightly icy wind but we sat down just long enough to have our customary coffee and then decided to return home fairly rapidly. Then we got home and we treated ourselves to a packet tomato soup and then read the paper quietly until it was time for lunch. As a treat, I had bought ourselves some venison meatballs and these were delicious, heated up initially and then complemented by some fried onions and a little gravy left over from past meals. We were anxious to get all fed and washed up before the rugby match (Italy vs. Wales, the two bottom teams both striving to avoid coming bottom of the table) but Wales won this match with ease. This afternoon, we shall watch the first half of the England vs France match, then go for church and, upon our return, we may be able to pickup the second half of the match on our PVR. This we did upon our return from church only to witness a massive win for the French, 53-10, and complete humilation for England.
I think it is fair to say that the Lineker/BBC row absolutely exploded this morning. It loks as though the BBC suspended Lineker at least for this week (using words like ‘stepping back’ from Match of the Day). Once this news had percolated through, all of his co-commentators immediately withdrew, as well as the presenters of other sports programmes this afternoon. I do not think for a moment that the BBC had anticipated this mass show of support from Lineker’s fellow commentators and what had started off with a dispute with one (admittedly well paid) presenter has become a major problem for the BBC. In this situation, the BBC may feel that they cannot possibly ‘back down’ and will not be in a mood for compromise as it looks as though they are abandoning the policy of impartiality. For his part, Lineker has no intention of backing down either, has the support of his fellow commentators and can probably increase his remuneration by going off to another network. It may be that the BBC and Lineker part company in which the BBC as a whole will be the ultimate loser. The wider picture of all of this is that the BBC is trying to operate impartiality in a political climate where the language used even by Government ministers is both extreme and inflammatory. Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, accused her own civil service of trying to thwart her cross-channel migrant policy which even the Bill that she is sponsoring admits may break the convention on Human Rights. Then Gary Lineker steps into the breach and complains that the language being used is redolent of 1930’s Germany which can be proven to be correct. However, the Lineker contribution to social media could well be (and has been) assumed to be a direct comparison of the present government with Nazi Germany, which, if this was the intention of the tweet, would be quite dispropotionate. There is a great difficuly in the climate in which the BBC is operating. Much of the press is exhibiting a marked right wing flavour and, as such, Brexit is lauded and hostile language against migrants coming to these shores is the order of the day (encouraged and sustained by a right wing government) The BBC finds itself in a position where right wing influences on the BBC are allowed or even condoned. Gary Lineker’s suspension for expressing political views set off an avalanche of comparisons with other BBC stars who have not been similarly sanctioned for lacking impartiality. Some of these were obvious: Lord Sugar of The Apprentice, whose 18 years of firing people have been punctuated by political outbursts, from newspaper interviews calling on people to vote Conservative to tweeting a mocked-up image of Jeremy Corbyn sitting next to Adolf Hitler. But Lineker has been suspnded whilst the recently appointed Chairman of the BBC is only under investigation (and not sanctioned) for his part in organising an £800,000 loan facility for Bris Johnson. So the BBC has regrettably got itself into a situation here it is loathe to criticise those on the right of politics but immediately jumps upon anybody who expresses opposition to present government policy on migration – largely because it fears the wrath of the right wing media (and calls for its disbandment)if it takes no action on the views expressed by Lineker. The backdrop to all of this is a massive threat to the independence of the BBC which has often in its history not seen eye-to-eye with the government of the day of whatever political persuasion. There are hints this evening that the BBC realises this, belatedly, and is rowing back on its previous decision and may be seeking an early resolution of the Lineker affair.
After a delayed breakfast, Meg and I watched the Lorna Kuennssberg show to glean the latest from the BBC/Lineker affair. It seems to us as though the BBC is moving rapidly to repair whatever damage has been caused and hopfully we shall see ‘normal service will be resumed as soon as possible’ which is always the message put about when the BBC had a break in transmission. Incidentally, it is interesting how rarely that takes place these days. We had a quick mobile call from our University of Birmingham friend to confirm our meeting in Waitrose just before 11.00pm. Altogether, we spent the best part of two hours in each other’s company which cannot be bad. There was quite a lot of going down memory lane, I am afraid, but our friend and ourselves tended to have similar experience and the resolution of issues when we were at work – which was 15½ years ago in my case. Then he asked me various details about this blog such as ‘Why do you do it?’ to which there was no definitive answer. I think that the short answer is that I started this blog at the very start of the pandemic lock-down (as I thought it might be an interesting social history) but when the pandemic ended, I just carried on. Anyway, after our pleasant bit of socialising, it was case of getting home and cooking the Sunday lunch which today was relatively straightforward as we used the other half of a cooked gammon joint which I had frozen about a month ago and just needed thawing, slicing and adding to some of my onion gravy.
This afternoon was rather taken up by watching the Ireland-Scotland 6-Nations rugby match. This match was surprising close and very hard fought in the first half with only one point separating the two sides at half time. But then as you might expect from the top team in the world at the moment, the Irish gradually extended their lead despite some injuries and forced substitutions but as a match it was entertaining and far from the foregone conclusion that you might have thought before the match started. We have a good evening of entertainment lined up for this evening and we always enjoy the Andrew Neil show which is normally on about 6.00ish as the level of questionning and analysis tends to exceed that on some of the political shows over the weekend. In this evening’s show, for example, I saw Andrew Neil comprehensively take apart Victoria Atkins who is a Tory Treasury Minister. Neil kept pressing his question why it was that the UK economy had failed to reach pre-pandemic levels and we were alone amongst the G7 economies in not being able to recover lost ground. When asked a series of more technical questions (e.g. debt to GDP rtio) she did not know the answer and had to confess to not knowing. Eventually in sheer desperation,she volunteered that we had the NHS to pay for and this was why the UK was doing so badly. Andrew Neil reminded her that Italy, too, had a national health service to which answer was there none. I should imagine that the politicos at Conservative Central Office must have been squirming in their seats at Atkin’s absysmal performance and I predict that she will never be allowed near a TV studio ever again this side of an election. As we have been so busy what with one thing or another this Sunday, I have scarcely got round to reading any of the Sunday Times but no doubt this will wait a little, unless overtaken by events.
This week we have the budget on Wednesday which does not have the level of interest that it used to do. It is interesting that two particular issues have crept up the political agenda about which ‘something needs to be done’ but it is not really a question of dispute between the political parties. The first of these is childcare costs in the UK which are the highest in Europe and twice the European average. These costs are now so enormous that childcare is completely unaffordable for many couples. The average cost of sending a child under two to a nursery for 25 hours per week (part-time) has risen to £7,729 per year (52 weeks) and this figure would wipe out the part-time earnings of many young women. The deterrent effect of this is hard to overstate and is acting as quite a drag on the UK economy. Another major factor is the fact that many older workers have disappeared from the labour force even though they are not yet of retirement age. It looks as though half a million workers, predominantly in their 50’s and early 60’s, have now left the labour force. Some of this is due to redundancy of older workers who then fail to find unemployment. But a major factor is a sharp increase in health-related conditions, some of them associated with the pandemic, as a result of which work is increasingly difficult. Budget watchers will no doubt see that the Chancellor may announce some measures to alleviate these two problems but they are very likely to be of the ‘sticking plaster’ solution rather than anything more fundamental.
This morning dawned wet and windy and it was not the kind of day that naturally welcomed you outside, but the weather was surprisingly mild once we eventually did venture out. After a leisurely breakfast, Meg and I went in the car to pick up our newspaper and then ventured onwards to a ‘Home and Garden’ type store. Here I was hoping to find something that would act as little miniature speaker stands and I did find some small, clear perspex-type containers that would suit the purpose for which I had them in mind. My first thought was to add a level of tape to them but eventually I thought they would look all right in their natural condition so I have put them in place and can now forget about them. Just before we left the house, the news came through that Gary Lineker and the BBC came to a ‘modus vivendi’ which seemed to be very sensible. On the one hand, the BBC committed itelf to reviewing its guidelines and how the issue of non-salaried, freelance presenters should be handled. Gary Lineker, for his part, indicated that he would refrain from any tweet that might be seen as controversial until the BBC review is completed and new understandings were in place. Incidentally, this might be extraordinarily difficult to draft but the BBC has to make the effort. Meg and I started to watch the Politics program chaired just after midday by Jo Coburn. I have the greatest respect for her as a journalist and as a presenter because she does not allow her own personality to become part of the debate (a common failing, it has to be said). But the whole panel discussion started off with the question ‘Did the BBC cave in to Gary Lineker?’ which question was no doubt framed to be a good discussion point but to my mind completely reduced a complex issue to a sort of boxing match in which there had to be winners and losers. I felt that the BBC for its part was taking the view that guidelines cannot be set in stone but have to be adapted to changing environments (not least one in which the social media is so much more prominent). On the other hand, I am sure that Gary Lineker may have felt that he could have had a wiser choice of words and had not fully appreciated how the thrust of his tweet against the rhetoric that was being deployed (not least by our own Home Secrtary) could be weaponised. Long term opponents of the BBC (and some who are not) feel that Lineker might have been making a direct comparison between the present Goverment and the Nazi regime of 1930’s Germany. So each side to this particular dilemma probably realise that they need to move closer to each other and to find a common, negotiated position and this is what has transpired. The attention may now shift away from Lineker and towards Richard Sharp, the chairperson of the BBC who is currently under investigation for his role in securing a huge £800,000 loan to Boris Johnson and whose future may now be in doubt – and we may be talking says here rather than weeks or months. Keir Starmer describes Sharp’s position as ‘increasingly untenable’ as Rishi Sunak offers lukewarm defence of BBC chair so the omens do not look good.
This afternoon, we had a quiet afternoon watching a wild-life film on BBC2 (which makes a welcome change to the ‘Dream Home in the Country’ type programs that seem to be on every single day) One of our congregation called round from the church to collect our box in which we are meant to collect contributions for the missions but which we make sure has some contribitions inside before it is emptied. Then we had a good read of the Sunday newspapers which we did not have time for yesterday as well as today’s Times. The problem is, though, that a lot of current concerns have been rather taken over by events as the Lineker affair becomes resolved.
We may just have averted another bank collapse. This time, it is a small bank specialising in loans to hi-tech companies (Silicon Valley Bank) whose parent company has just gone belly up in the United States. For the short term, a buyer has been found (HSBC who are buying the bank for £1). The Bank of England has given certain assurances i.e. that it would not face onerous anti-money laundering checks for its new customers and that it would not have to take responsibility for any previous misconduct at SVB UK. However, these are the public assurances, but I wonder how much secret money has sloshed through the system but disguised from public view. This is not difficult for the Bank of England to disguise in that HSBC will be the technical owners but the Bank of England might have given HSBC hidden assurnces that helps to finance the whole deal. Also, the question must be asked as to how many more ‘unexploded bombs’ are lying around in the financial system, because whereas one bank may have got into difficulties, it is a fair bet that other banks in these troubled financial times might be experiencing similar problems.
Tuesdays come around like the proverbial clockwork and we always look forward to our Tuesday mornings. Meg and I were a little delayed this morning but nonetheless we had our breakfast, picked up our newspaper and then got ourselves into Waitrose at our usual time. There we met up with two of our Tuesday morning regulars and quickly engaged in our normal chat. One of our friends has a Dutch sister-in-law. We asked if she would ask her sister-in-law about ‘Black Peter’ who is a traditional companion to St. Nicholas, but the Dutch feel a little ambiguous about him these days. According to Wikipedia ‘The Zwarte Piet character is part of the annual Feast of St. Nicholas that is celebrated on the evening of 5 December (Sinterklaasavond, which is known as St. Nicholas Eve in English) in the Netherlands and elsewhere. This is when presents and sweets are traditionally distributed to children. The holiday is celebrated on 6 December in Belgium. The Zwarte Piet characters appear only in the weeks before the Feast of Saint Nicholas, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (generally by boat, having travelled from Madrid, Spain).‘ In the past, characters used to dress up as ‘Black Peter’ donning medieval garb and blacking their faces but, as with the Black and White Minstrels show in the UK, probably the Dutch feel that this tradition has had its day in these times when we celebrate diversity and is best forgotten. After our normal jolly chat, though, we went on our way around the store, each of having little bits of shopping to get done. Then it was a case of getting home and, in our case, getting prepared for my Pilates class which takes place at midday on Tuesdays. As I walked down into town, it was a delightful, almost spring-like day and I noticed that several of the flowering cherry trees were just on the point of bursting into bloom. I suppose that in biological terms, when there is a mild spell following a much colder and frostier period, this stimulates part of the plant to start the blooming process. The most likely time to reach peak bloom is between the last week of March and the first week of April so I suppose the second week of March for flowering cherries to start to bloom is about right. In any case, it is a real harbinger of spring. Being interested in the origins of words, I wondered about the origins of ‘harbinger’ and I discovered that ‘harbinger’ has been used in English since at least the 1100s. It comes from Middle English, from a variant of the Old French herberg(i)ere, which meant ‘host’ and was equivalent to the verb herberg(ier), ‘to shelter.’ Harbinger was originally used in English to refer to a host or someone who provides lodgings.
We are due for a couple of interesting Wednesdays. Firstly, we have the budget tomorrow in which it has been trailed that the pension pot limit of £1 million may be raised to £1.8 million. If this pre-release of information is correct, then it may have a considerable impact upon the relatively well-paid consultants within the NHS. These may be persuaded not to take a premature retirement from the NHS as,if they were not to retire early, they may well have been adversely impacted by the pension cap limit of £1 million (reduced in a George Osborne budget from £1.25 million in 2015). But the following Wednesday may be the real date in our calendar. Boris Johnson is due to appear in person before the Privileges Committee at 2.0pm in the afternoon and the committee hearings will be broadcast live. The Committee already has sufficiently documentary, witness and photographic evidence to come to a conclusion that Boris Johnson probably misled the House of Commons but it may be a fight for his political life. The Committee have to decide, though, whether Johnson ‘knowingly’ misled the Commons and this is a very hard thing to prove. Even if the decision goes against him, the MPs will to have to decide on the penalty. In most cases this would be an apology to the whole House of Commons, held in silence and with no interruptions. But in severe cases, the committee can decide an expulsion for a number of days from the Commons. If the days are 10 or more, then the electors in a constituency will have the right to demand a ‘recall’ elction, and given his smallish majority, he is likely to lose this in the present climate. If I had to make a prediction at this point of time, it would be that the Privileges Committee find him ‘guilty’ but pull their punches somewhat by suspending him from the Commons but for a number of days less than ten when a recall might be triggered. There are some further technicalities in that the Privileges Committee will have to report back to the whole House of Commons for ratification. All MPs will then vote to ratify or disagree with their conclusions and any recommended sanctions. Now this might be gripping television in just a week’s time but the Committee itself may take some to argue amongst themselves before a conclusion is reached.
Today was the day before we made our little trip down to Oxfordshire tomorrow so we picked up our newspaper and then called in at Waitrose to take along one or two little offerings for our friends. We settled upon a bottle of liquid sunshine and some interesting succulents in a very original (heart-shaped) container. Then we journeyed on to the park where we were determined not to stay too long, even though the weather was not particularly unpleasant. We stayed on our usual bench just long enough to have a swift cup of coffee from our flask and then immediately struck for home. We know that today was Questions to the Prime Minister immediately followed by the Budget statement so we ensured that we were sitting in our places, warmed by a cup of chicken noodle soup, before proceedings kicked off at 12.00. PMQ was fairly unexceptional with the usual knock-about with the sequelae of the Gary Lineker affair still rumbling on. The Budget statement had been well trailed and so did not contain many surprises as the provisions for extra support with child care costs had been by and large released to the media for a day or so now. In years gone by, it used to be the case that the Budget was kept well and truly under wraps until it was delivered on Budget day. But a practice seems to have grown up over the years whereby any news that was considered to be ‘good’ is comprehensively leaked a day or so beforehand. I suspect that all of this is part of a deliberate strategy to make a budget more attractive by making the same announcement in effect more than once so that the government can get the credit several times over. One of the features of Budget day is that a very full and detailed document, full of graphs, diagrams and statistical tables, is made available online as soon as the Chancellor of the Exchequeur gets on his feet and starts to deliver the Budget. There are some MPs, and an army of other analysts, who are well used to burrowing away into the ‘small print’ and the fine detail of Budget statements and there are often little time bombs ticking away that somehow did not get included in the full speech delivered to Parliament. Sometimes this news can take hours, or even days, to trickle out when MPs and others have had the chance to read and digest the full import of the Budget statement. For example, the Chancellor had made great play of some of the measure deployed to get people back ino work. But the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) has published figures that show that over five years, some 110,000 people may be encouraged to rejoin the labour force. But given the amunts of money that are to be spent, this policy may prove to be a case of spending quite a lot to achieve only a little and there may well be similar instances of this type that get slowly revealed. As you might expect, there was one provision which is already exciting some attention. By abolishing the limit on the size of pension pots (the current limit being £1 million!), then there will certainly be a benefit to quite well paid hospital consultants. On the other hand, the extremely wealthy will benefit enormously from this as the numbers of people who can accrue more than £1 million in their private pension pots must be extremely small.
Meanwhile, there are some economic storm clouds that are gathering as a result of the failure of the American bank, Silicon Valley Bank. It looks as though a certain amount of contagion is spreading across the Atlntic already. The FTSE 100 and other major European stock markets have taken a beating as concern over the health of US banks crosses the Atlantic. London’s blue chip index lost £75bn in combined market value by the close after suffering its deepest fall, on a points basis, since the early days of the COVID crisis. One would hope that our banking system should be sufficiently resilient to withstand these shocks, but we can never be quite sure given the interconnectedness of financial institutions these days.
I see from a display stand in the newsagents that next Sunday is the day when the nation is to celebrate ‘Mothers Day’. Over the years, I have thought that the whole impetus behind this day was largely driven by an unholy alliance of greetings card manufacturers, chocolate makers and florists. However, if I think back to my childhood in the 1950’s, we lived in a largely uncommercial environment but our primary schools encouraged us to make our own Mother’s Day cards. Also we were encouraged, particularly if we lived in or near the countryside, to pluck some early spring flowers (if there are any) and to make a small bouquet and this I am sure we did. Towards the end of the month, though, we have the Eastertime sporting events which tells us that the year has turned. I think that on very rare occasions, it was quite possible for the Boat Race and the Grand National to fall on the same day but this a pretty rare occurence.
Today was a day to which we had been looking forward for some time because we were scheduled to visit our close friends in South Oxfordshire for a lunch time appointment. We picked up our newspaper and then made steady progress along the M40 and A34 towards the point at which we pick up the road tht runs close by our friends. But then I missed the ring road link around Oxford which always a little tricky to negotiate. So then we had to have recourse to our SatNav and finished off with a detour around Dicott until the SatNav route coincided with one that we already knew. So we were not delayed by much either in terms of miles driven or time elapsed but only our coffee break was a little delayed and was taken only a few miles short of our destination. Our friends were as friendly and welcoming as always and we had a wonderful meal of chicken. But the thing which is always interesting to observe is that friends live in an area where some red kites are often to be seen. They have quite a large conservatory built onto their farm house and as well as being delightfully restful, it is always possible to observe the local wildlife. So after each meal, the left over bones are left out on a bird-table and the sharp eyed red kites note this and then swoop down with unerring precision to avail themselves of the bones with hardly a pause in their trajectory. After a wonderful lunch and chat, it was reluctantly time for us to start our journey home but our friends very kindly donated to us a couple of lanyards for which we will now have a use. In the course of our post-prandial chat, it emerged that our friend had written a biography of his own father and I was lent a loan copy of the book. This I am sure I will find fascinating because I already know a fair bit about my friend’s interesting life but his father was (literally) a ‘closed book’ until now. Whilst on the subject of artificial intelliegence, our friend demonstrated the use of his Google smart speaker. I have never used one of these before but my friend let me have a go. I asked for the salient features of Wittgenstein’s philosophy only be told that, regretfully, the system could not understand my question. The journey home was uneventful and fairly straightforward apart from the fact that half way through the journey, the rains started and this intensified as we proceeded northwards. We arrived in Bromsgrove almost on the dot of 6.00pm and it was really raining hard when we got home. Nonetheless, our arrival home was greeted by one bedraggled Miggles (neighbourhood cat who has adopted us) and who no doubt thought that a lttle titbit might be forthcoming.
As we drove home, we heard the news on the BBC4 PM programme that a settlement had been reached with the health service unions. The offer consists of a one-off payment of 2% of their salary plus a COVID recovery bonus of 4% for the current financial year 2022/23, and a 5% pay increase for 2023/24. It will apply to key NHS workers including nurses and paramedics but not junior doctors, who are involved in a separate dispute over pay and conditions. From the government point of view,framing the offer of a one-off payment has the advantage of ths sum not being consolidated into the worker’s basic pensionable pay. It also means that it is possible to disguise what has actually been paid in settlement of this year and therefore allows the government a certain degree of face saving. But tonight, on the Channel 4 news, we learnt that a settlement had been agreed between the Department of Health (as quasi-employers) and the unions. On the other hand, it has emerged that despite the fact that HM Treasury was present throughout the negotiations, they have not agreed to fund the £2.5 million that this will cost. There is some talk that the NHS itself might be asked to cough up some of the money (even though it cannot be afforded) but it is also possible that the Treasury may be able to fund some of the bill from ‘departmental underspends’ at the end of the current financial year. This does rather sound like the Treasury equivalent of finding some money that has fallen down the back of the sofa but the fact that a settlement has been agreed at all cannot be unrelated to the fact that we had a national budget yesterday. Sky News reports that the walkouts in the NHS have also created a very specific political problem for the prime minister who has made reducing waiting lists one of his five key pledges – a target he will not be able to hit whilst workers are on the picket line. So, it is no surprise that this is the area that has been the focus of the most intense negotiations. There is also the prospect that a similar deal can be negotiated with other groups of workers such as teachers and, in the fullness of time, striking junior hospital doctors who are just ending their three day strike the impact of which must have been traumatic.
Today we leapt up relatively bright and early even though we still felt a little tired after the journey of yesterday, but it was not a stressful one. As we had not done our normal weekly shopping yesterday, I went off and did it this morning. After this was unpacked, we cooked our breakfast and then received a mobile call confirming that we were due to meet our University of Birmingham friend in Waitrose at the usual time this morning. So we made our way there and sent a very happy hour or so, discussing amongst other things the contribution that radio has made to popular culture. There was a reason for this because our friend goes off to a French discussion class once a week and this week he had been designated to lead a discussion group, in French naturally, on this topic. Of course, it is difficult to disentangle the effects of any one medium historically but in discussion we did the best that we could. I suggested that one might start to address this topic by looking at the continuum that can be observed when we had a monolithic broadcaster and only a few channels to listen to (the early days of the BBC) whereas today we have a multiplicity of stations, methods of listening to them and massively divergent messages emanating from each. Then when we returned home, we cooked a bought fish pie complemented by some vegetables and cooked in the oven.
This morning as I did my weekly shop I bought some plums, shipped from I know not where, but evidently what the supermarkets tend to somewhat coyly declaim ‘Ripen in bowl’ which means that the fruit was picked unripe and they hope that within the passage of time and the absence of a cold store that they may, with a bit of luck, ripen sufficiently to be edible. To be honest, the plums were reasonably edible of the one we tested so the rest might turn out OK. When we were students, we rented a maisonnette on top of a row of modern shops, one of which was a Spa supermarket. Evidently, we did not have to go far to do our shopping but in those days, in the mid 1960’s, one used to await the very earliest potatoes of early spring which I think were sourced from Egypt. Then we progressed as the crops came to fruition first from the Canary Islands (off the coast of Africa) and then I think to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles and eventually these would give place to our own ‘First Earlies’. Of course, nowadays the potatoes are kept in a cold store, sprayed with a chemical to inhibit early sprouting (or ‘chitting’ if you were a gardener) before they are released on an all the year round basis. So being nostalgic, I did prefer the days when fruits and vegetables were only available in their own season and not all of the year round.
Some interesting news about the settlement of the NHS unions and the government have emerged today. Yesterday, the story was being put about that the whole deal would cost £2.5bn. But today Downing Street has admitted that the one-off payment offered to frontline workers on Thursday will cost £2.7bn, while the 5% pay rise will cost £1.3bn. It is also being said that a 3.5% pay increase had already been factored into the existing budget before a new deal was put to health unions, leaving ministers scrambling to find the rest. When asked where the money will come from, the PM’s spokesperson said ‘areas of underspending’ had been identified but I would expect that the NHS will squeezed to fund some of the settlement via so-called efficiency savings. As a result of the talks yesterday, the same model is being used in the teachers’ pay negotiations so it looks as though after weeks of refusing to come to the negotiating table, the government have already concluded that inflation is on the way down and therefore they can afford to actually start talking to the unions after some weeks of delay.
There is also news this afternoon that the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin on the grounds of the illegal transportation of Ukrainian children into Russia itself. It may be years, if at all, that Putin is ever brought to trial but there are some practical implications. The most important impact of the warrant is that Putin could, in theory, be arrested as soon as he leaves Russia, although countrries to which he travels may be reluctant to actually hand him over. No doubt, the ICC is hopeful that the issue of a warrant and therefore the labelling of Putin as an international criminal may be a litte lever to assist the Russian people in ejecting him as President. But given the hold of the media and the absence of meaningful ‘normal’ opposition to Putin, such a hope may be a vain one. The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, is to visit Moscow shortly but as China does not recognise the ICC, then this warrant will not trouble the Chinese in any negotiations they have with the Russians. So far the Chinese have supported the Russians but it is possible that their support may wear a little thin.
Today was one of those days when we knew we did not have to dash out for anything in particular, so we each had a leisurely shower followed by our normal cooked breakfast. The weather looked gloomy and a little rainy so we decided that it might be a good idea to make a lighning visit into Droitwich to Wilko, my favourite hardware store. After we picked up our Saturday newspaper, we did make a trip into Droitwich and the fates must have been smiling upon me because the little tray/table that I knew that Wilko stocked and of which I needed to make use was in stock. So this was one of those occasions when Meg stayed in the car whilst I made a quick dash to get what I wanted from within the store and then it was a case of getting home amd having our somewhat delayed elevenses at home. After this, I gave my newly acuired little tray/table a quick dab of polish and then installed it where I wanted it to be and it slotted into place exactly how I intended and wanted. We knew that today was going to be the final day of the 6-Nations rugby and the two critical matches were Wales against France during the afternoon and Ireland vs.England in the early evening. This latter match only starts at 5.00pm in the afternoon so we have decided that we would not even start to watch it but we would rely upon the PVR recording the match in its entirety and we will watch it when we get home after church. I had temporarily forgotten about the earlier Scotland vs. Italy match and after we had made our ourelves a pasta/ curry lunch, we thought we would watch the last 10 minutes of it. Italy were only five points behind Scotland and in the closing minute or so of the match, the Italians were only inches away from the try line. If they had scored a try under the posts and then made a simple conversion, this would have been the first match that Italy had won in the 6-Nations championship. After being awarded a series of penalties and then deploying the tactic of ‘tap and go’, the Ialians assaulted the Scots try line again and again but eventually a technical penalty went against them. From this, although the clock had gone over the 80 minutes but in Rugby, the match does not end until the ball goes out of play, we saw the spectacle of a Scotland breakaway try in which the backs and wingers ran the full length of the pitch and scored a try at the oher end. So the final score did not reflect how close the Italians had come to actually snatching their first victory. As I remember it, something rather similar happened in the Italy vs. France match as well.
As I flicking through the channels, I noticed that on BBC2 they were showing the film of Dr. Zhivago. Now alongside Amadeus, this is absolutely our favourite film of all time. I think we first saw it in about 1967 in Leicester Square in London so the film is now over a half cntury old but still compelling in its story telling, cinematography and the quality of the acting, not least from Omar Sharif, Julie Christie and Tonia Chapman as I remember them. So this is going to be a real treat for us to watch tomorrow afternoon. Before lunch, there was a ring on the doorbell and it was our friendly next door neighbour, just popping round to see how we were were doing. We have a long standing invitation for them to pop round for an afternoon tea but so far, things seem to have happened for both of us to get in the way of this happening. Our neigbour had one of his wife’s relatives staying with them for a few days, but we promised ourselves that as soon as their little engagement was over, we would both really try and find the time for our long planned cup of tea and a chat. Tomorrow, if the weather is as fine as it turned out to be this afternoon, Meg and I will make a visit to the park which has been a little neglected by us these days. If however, the weather is really wet and rainy, then we shall see our University of Birmingham friend in the Waitrose café as we often do on Sunday mornings. In the last few days, we have noticed that two sets of bloom can be witnessed. First in the hedgerows, there is plenty of white blossom of what I think is hawthorn but when I mentioned this to friends in Oxfordshire the other day, she thought that in that part of the world it was probably blackthorn. But there are several flowering cherries up and down the Kidderminster Road and this is really a sign to us that spring is well and truly on its way. Next weekend will see a combination of the clocks going back, the start of the lawn mowing season and my son’s birthday all of which almost coincide with each other. I must remind myself to get some freshly drawn petrol so that the lawnmover gets off to a trouble-free start as well.
Today proved to be an interesting day for a variety of reasons. After listening to the obligatory Lorna Kuenssberg politics programme whilst having our Sunday morning breakfast on our knees (a Sunday morning ritual), we were in two minds about our Sunday morning excursion. One option was to prepare a flask of coffee and go the park if the weather was quite fine whereas the second option was to frequent Waitrose. Our dilemma was solved for us by a timely telephone call from our University of Birmingham friend inviting us to meet with him at Waitrose which invitation we readily accepted. Altogether we spent a couple of hours in each other’s company and one of the topics of conversation was to the extent to which languages with which we are familiar have words within them that are not susceptible to a ready translation whereas some other popular exressions may well be misinterpreted. The prime example of the former concept is the German word ‘schadenfreude’ whih is best rendered into English by the phrase ‘a malicious delight in other persons misfortune’. The second instance we heard on the TV the other day when the French president Macron met with Rishi Sunak and called him ‘mon cher ami’ A literal transation of this, word by word, would be ‘my dear friend’ which would apper to imply some degree of intimacy which should not be conveyed by the words. A good translator would translate ‘mon cher ami’ as ‘my good friend’ which could well be used by friends all over the world. And, of course, the example sprang to my mind when one of our former Spanish students asked us what the English equivaent was of the political concept ‘coup d’etat’ only be told that we use the French phrase in English as we do not have an exact equivalence. By the time we got home, it was all rather late to cook our chicken legs which I always prefer to be well-done to keep any potential salmonella infection at bay, so we raided the freezer for a quiche which we had instead with carrots glazed with honey and some broccoli.
After lunch, I sat and read the Sunday newspapers at my leisure but we had on in the background the classic film, Brief Encounter, shot in black and white in February, 1944 (i.e. before the end of WW2) but premiered in November after the war was over. Whilst I listened to the dialogue in the background, eventually I allowed myself to watch the last fifteen minutes which are emotionally intense and riveting. I think critics will argue for years about the characters and the scenarios captured within the film but I will admit that it is always worth watching from time to time, even if it has been seen before. We have a good prospect of natural history films, not to mention Rugby catchup, which is going to keep our attention until well on into the evening. One way or another, the Ireland vs. England match did not get recorded on our PVR yesterday afternoon so I will enjoy the summary a day later.
All eyes will be on Westminster on Wednesday afternoon when Boris Johnson will appear live before the Committee on Privileges. The interesting question is whether Boris Johnson, in David Cameron’s words, will eventually escape ‘like a greased piglet’. First of all, this committee has already, in an interim report, concluded that Johnson ‘probably’ misled the House of Commons i.e. lied. But Johnson is Houdini-like in his ability to escape from almost impossible political situations. He is likely to be helped by the fact that Sir David Pannick, a top lawyer funded by us, the taxpayers, has produced a large dossier with several counterclaims. The Sunday Times reported he will point to a series of previously undisclosed WhatsApp messages from senior civil servants and members of his No 10 team showing that he had relied upon their advice when he made his statements to Parliament. He will also publish messages which show that other senior figures in Downing Street believed the gatherings were covered by the ‘workplace exemption’ in the lockdown rules. By itself, this may be enough to allow Johnson to escape. An important actor is not whether Johnson misled the House of Commons (which he did) but whether he ‘knowingly’ misled and this is incrediby hard to prove. The committee may try to have it both ways by finding Johnon guilty, as it were, but by issuing sanctions which fall short of the expulsion for the number of days necessary to trigger a potential recall by the electorate. I still think that on the balance of probabilities, that this will be the most likely outcome.
We may be on the verge of another banking crisis. Credit Suisse is being taken over by UBS, another giant Swiss banking group, but given the inter-connectedness of the banking sector, one always gets the feeling that there are several other banks feeling the pressure but keeping their heads under the radar as it were. A number of small banks in the USA have already gone under but once a contagion starts and investors in banks panic, where does it all end? I fear that there is quite a lot more to this crisis that the authorities are desperately trying to contain.
So Monday morning dawned as a generally gloomy day but we thought we would get ourselves up and breakfasted before we made any more explicit plans for the rest of the morning. Eventually, as it was inclined to drizzle, we decided to make the best of the morning and a little trip out by making a visit to our local Morrisons. This is a store that we used to frequent before the arrival of the Aldis of this world and it is still worth the occasional visit for the variety of produce and household goods on sale there. Once we made our way there, we bought a few food items that we know are not stocked in our normal shopping haunts and then came home to have some elevenses at home. It was soon time for the Politics show that is broadcast on BBC2 after midday and one of the items dominating the airways was the forthcoming appearance of Boris Johnson before the Privileges committee next Wednesday afternoon. Boris Johnson has submitted a dossier of evidence and I have heard stories that it is both 50 and also 500 pages long. Assuming it is 50 pages long, it is said to contain the text of various WhatsApp messages which appear to reinforce Johnson’s claim that he was acting ‘legally’ at the various parties that he undoubtedly attended. But this claim might not be all that it seems as the context of the WhatsApp message is significant. It has been mentioned that one of the messges indicated ‘the line to take’ which is scarcely the same as the strict adherence to the lockdown policy. The Committee of Privileges has said that it intends to publish the Johnson evidence in full but this has not been done so far and may not even happen until tomorrow. No doubt, members of the committee and perhaps even the lawyers advising them, will ensure that the document is well and truly perused before they contemplate releasing it to the public. Although Wednesday’s hearing will no doubt be compulsive viewing for many of us, it is predicted that the whole hearing which is televised live may well be 4-5 hours in length altogether. This is evidently going to be quite a marathon session for Johnson who will no doubt have his legal advisor (Lord Pannick) sitting by his side but the responsibility for answering the questions will be Johnson’s alone. One of the contributors to the BBC2 Politics progrmme this morning made the observation that Johnson is notoriously poor in mastering the details of a brief. It may well be that his, by now traditional, tactics of bluff and bluster may convince some of the committee for some of the time but in the course of a 4-5 hour examination by MPs which will be quite unlike the exchanges found across the floor of the House of Commons that Johnson may well make a crucial slip or, at least, display a lack of openness and integrity. In all probability, Wednesday may well be a bit of an anti-climax unless a real ‘smoking gun’ is revealed because the committee may well spent some weeks of discussion and wrangling before a decision emerges. There are three factors that may work to the eventual undoing of Boris Johnson. The first of these is that the committee may not wish that it is guilty of some kind of whitewash, particularly after it has published an interim report indicating that there may well have been four occasions when Johnson misled Parliament (whether intentionally or not remains a matter of conjecture) The second factor is that in the country as a whole, Rishi Sunak is generally reckoned to be doing a reasonable job having secured the Windsor agreement on the application of the Brexit conditions to Northern Ireland. By contrast, Boris Johnson’s star is fading and it is probably the case that apart from fervent supporters, he is losing support for his cause overall. The third factor is one of the mot interesting. This is that Rihi Sunk is going to allow Tory MPs a ‘free’ vote (i.e. unwhipped) which means that MPs can vote according to their conscience. This factor, along with the votes of all of the opposition parties, is likely to be the undoing of Johnson.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Donald Trump appears to be in more than a spot of bother. It could well be, that as he warned his supporters the other day, he will be liable for arrest next Tuesday because of payments long denied to ex-pornstar with whom he may have had a brief fling – if that is the right word. Trump’s supporters have indicated that they might surround his residence to attempt to prevent any arrest being made. There is also news on the street that Trump supporters are arming themselves with the type of rifles that would enable them to shoot down any police helicopters that may be brought in to arrest the ex-President. In view of the mob that ran amok through the Capitol building about two years ago, this seemingly mad activity might yet come to pass. The legal authorities are still to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant and how it is to be served so the news from across the Atlantic may (literally) be explosive.
Today is the first day of Spring and it did not feel particularly spring-like as there was a bit of a blustery wind coupled with some pale sunshine. Nonetheless, one gets the feeling that the year is definitely ‘on the turn’ as the various flowering cherry trees are on the verge of bursting out all over. Meg and I were looking forward to what our local Waitrose staff call the ‘Tuesday morning glee club’ which is a fairly accurate description. We were delighted to meet up with two of our pre-pandemic friends in what is looking like a regular Tuesday morning fixture and we exchanged gossip on a variety of topics until it was time for us to do our little bits of shopping and then go on our way. When we got home, I ensure that Meg had her fair supply of food, drink and medicines before I changed into my Pilates gear and walked down into town. The class went as normal with only three class members altogether but we had a relaxation period at the end of our session as we typically do half way through and at the end of our six weekly group of lessons. Getting home in a blustery wind proved a little troublesome as I was manipulating a rucksack, my Pilates mat, my hat and two light bags of shopping but all’s well that ends well. When I got home I prepared my typical Tuesday lunch of fishcakes and quick-cook vegetables and then settled down for a newspaper read and a rest.
The Boris Johnson dossier has at last been published so now the battle lines are drawn for the mammoth committee meeting tomorrow afternoon. In the dossier there is an admission that Parliament was misled but the whole thrust of the Johnson defense is that this was not done knowingly or recklessly and that all his statements were made ‘in good faith’ It is also argued that he always followed the advice offered to him and to suggest otherwise is to impugn the integrity of anyone who advised him. As Johnson himself argues in his written evidence to the committee, published today, it was ‘unprecedented and absurd’ to claim that relying on assurances from ‘trusted advisers’ was ‘in some way reckless’. So the stage is well and truly set for a piece of remarkable political theatre which will occupy our TV screens for about four hours tomorrow afternoon, starting at 2.00pm. No doubt, each side is incredibly well rehearsed and all of the arguments are well known by now but will there be one damning moment of truth revealed tomorrow afternoon? We shall all have to wait and see.
The Johnson affair was totally outshadowed this morning by the Casey report into the Metropolitan Police, whose findings are about as damning as it is possible to be. Baroness Casey was appointed to review the force’s culture and standards after the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens, in 2021. During the course of her review, another Met officer, David Carrick, was convicted of a series of rapes, sexual offences and torture of women. The 363-page report condemns the force as institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic, referencing racist officers and staff, routine sexism, and ‘deep-seated’ homophobia. Some of particular findings of the canteen culture make one’s jaw drop. For example, a fridge which contained samples which were critical for the successful prosecution of rape cases was lost when the fridge was not maintained and the samples were effectively lost. In addition, some of the initiation rites described were enough to turn one’s stomach, such as urinating on new recruits as an initiation ceremony. Young female police cadets were regarded as fair game and as ‘easy conquests’ and hence hd to repel repated advances from fellow officers. Both the Commissioner of the police and also the Home Secretary though have distanced themselves from Baroness Casey’s view that the racism, sexism and homophobia were ‘institutionalised’ and the failure to accept this word may well mean that any root and branch reform of the Met is doomed from the start. The Met was also accused of institutionalised racism at the time of the Stephen Lawrence enquiry (black teenager killed by a white gang decades ago) so nothing much appears to have been learnt in the meantime.
Now that the meeting between Putin and Xi is over, the analysts are busy examining the sequelae of the meeting. The two leaders are both frustrated with America. Putin has felt betrayed by the US for a decade since NATO’s intervention in Libya. President Xi is fed up with America’s decades-long dominance of the world order and eager to replace it with something more congenial to China’s interests. But although there was a lot of carefully orchestrated bonhomie on show between the two leaders, there is now an acknowlegement that Putin is in effect a vassal state of China and that Xi undoubtedly holds all of the aces. There is some evidence that the Russians are seeking a supply of Chinese weapons but the Chinese are sitting on their hands at the moment, conscious that they have to play quite a careful political game, appearing to support Russia but not actually doing very much.
Today was an interesting day, dominated as it was by the committee appearance of Boris Johnson about which much more later. Knowing that the afternoon might be quite engaging, Meg and I seized the opportunity to have an excursion into the park after which we had picked up our newspaper. It was a fairly fine day and we made our way to our normal bench to have our coffee and elevenses. It is true to say that our ventures to the park are somewhat less these days because we tend to frequent the Waitrose coffee bar on about three occasions per week, once on our regular Tuesday meeting with friends and on two further occasions over the weekends when we met up with our University of Birmingham friend. Today, though, in the space of about twenty minutes we actually had conversations with four acquaintances that we have come to know over the past few years when we have made regular walks in the park. The first person that we came as was Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who we do not seem to have met for some weeks now. The latter has a special app on his watch which takes the steps that he is undertaking and maps these over onto a simulated walk somewhere in the world. Today, our friend was two thirds of a trip through The Rockies in the USA, after which he could no doubt claim a medal to add to his extensive collection. Then we met one half of a couple who we know live in The Lickies and quite regularly come for a walk in the park. Then we met up with a man who regularly walks his Labrapoodle dog who, we know, comes to the park most days of the week and is always a fund of good stories. Finally, we were joined by a Police Community Support Officer who knows us all quite well from the days when she used to semi-patrol the park at the height of the Covid pandemic. So what is remarkable about this morning was that in quite a sporadic appearance in the park, we should bump across so many acquaintances.
And so we came to the main entertainment of the day which was the Boris Johnson appearance before the Committee on Privileges of the House of Commons. I think that a fair summary of the whole afternoon is that Boris Johnson gave quite a feisty and combative performnce, maintainly doggedly to the line that he thought that all of the ‘parties’ held in Downing Street were within the guidance and the rules as they were ‘workplace events’ in which, on more than occasion, he was giving thanks to staff on what was a ‘leaving do’. But although there were three places in which Boris Johnson might be said to have really difficult time. Firstly,trying to maintain consistently that every single party was an absolutely necessary in order to maintin morale and to give thanks to staff who were leaving strained credibility to the utmost. There as no reason why staff could not be bid farewell in a ‘Zoom’ call or with a personal letter. A second, but related point, is that according to the guidance in force at the time, all work colleagues should maintain a distance of two metres from each other – however, this distance of two metres could be reduced to one metre if there is ‘mitigation’ e.g. a perspex screen. Johnson maintained that staff tried to keep within the guidelines at all times but the distances that were kept were approximate at times. A more ludicrous point was that mitigation measures such as perspex screens were deployed but not actually in the rooms where the social events took place but ‘in the rooms next door’ A third point, when Johnson was pressed on who proferred the assurances that the guidelines were kept at all times, the sources of advice seemed not be civil servants or lawyers but party political appointees such as a communications director. The committee will now take weeks to make up its mind and I do not expect a result until mid-April i.e. way after the Easter recess. To the principl charges, Johnson may well get away with the charge that he ‘knowingly’ misled Parliament as proving Johnson’s state of knowledge must be almost impossible. But on the charge of being ‘reckless’ then the committee would be on much stronger ground on the basis of written evidence already received and some of the revelations that came out of the committee hearings this afternoon.
Half way through the committee hearings and as expected, MPs needed to take a vote on the ‘Windsor’ agreement (a new protocol for Northern Ireland trade, post-Brexit) Labour voted with the government and there was a rebellion of 29 MPs, 22 Tories, all of the six Democratic Unionists MPs and one independent. So this was quite a small rebellion as the total number who support the ERG is about 34 MPs so it looks as though one third of them did not follow the ERG line to vote against the government but followed a fairly large number of MPs who abstained. Incidentally, as the attention of the political class was focused upon Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak chose today to release the details of his tax returns when the hope was that nobody would be watching i.e. a good day to bury bad news.
Well today has turned out to be an interesting day. It was the day when I was scheduled to have a routine checkup at the hospital after the surgery I had nearly five years ago and I don’t intend to bore anyone with the details of all of this apart from the fact that it was necessary for our son to stay with me and bring me home after the sedation I received. Everything went well and we were home soon after 10.00am after a very early start. But it was a day when I needed to keep fairly quiet for the rest of the day and fortunately, I had a treat planned for the afternoon. We made a lunch of rice and some of the left over chicken stew from yesterday and then we settled down for our treat. This was a delayed viewing of Dr Zhivago, first seen by Meg and I in Leicester Square some 55 years ago and watched regularly about once a decade over the years. Almost the last scene of the film is incredibly poignant as the aging and sick Zhivago thinks he espires Lara (one of the two loves of his life) when aboard a Moscow tram. Zhivago struggles to get off and runs to catch up with Lara but he dies of a heart attack in the street before he can get reunited with her. So what with ‘Brief Encounter‘ the other day and ‘Dr Zhivago‘ today, I have had a full ration of poignant film endings for quite some time.
Now that all of the shenanigans of yesterday’s political events are over, it is a possible to have a degree of reflection on the two events together. One view if that the respective bandwagons of both Brexit on the one hand and the Johnson era on the other hand are disappearing over the horizon. This is not to say that there will not be the occasional squirmish and last-ditch stand within Parliament in the months and years ahead but there is now a feeling that we are moving on towards a new era in politics. One factor is undoubtedly the fact that there will be a general election in the not too distant future and both parties are trying to make sure that they look forward to a period when internecine debates have to be a thing of the past and policies are adopted that may appeal to the wider electorate. Attention may well shift to the American political scene because Donald Trump is facing multiple legal challenges of various kinds – these generally started off some months ago but some may be coming to fruition. In the next few days, it could well be that Donald Trump is arrested for making illicit campign contributions to buy the silence of a pornstar with whom he may (or may not) have had a relationship just before he started to run for office. Some of his madder supporters are even arming themselves with rifles so that if the police come to try and arrest him, they will attempt to shoot police helicopters out of the sky.
Now that spring is practically upon us, we have the ritual of putting the clocks forward one hour this weekend. As usual, one hour less in bed is not a great tribulation but we seem to have a fair number of clocks to adjust which is a job for Sunday morning. Normally, on the weekend around the last week of March, my thoughts turn to grasscutting and related activities. But the weather forecasts are indicating that we might have a run of cooler and windier weather which does not sound ideal for grass-cutting, particularly as the first cut of the season is a bit longer and more troublesome than subsequent cuts. I may well get the petrol and oil all in place but delay the actual cutting for a day or so until the weather warms up. Over the weekend, though, we now have the women’s 6-Nations Rugby competition to which to look forward, so now doubt this will occupy Meg and I for Saturday afternoons for a week or so.
I am not a great fan of the BBC TV programme ‘Question Time‘ these days and nor have I been since the Brexit debates. However, it can still be an interesting spectator sport to see a government minister occasionally howled down or jeered by a Question Time audience. I think that tonight’s broadcast might prove to be partiularly interesting because those who lost relatives and could not be present at the death of a parent or other relative may feel particularly anguished and may well vent their anger when a ‘Johnson’ type question appears at the top of the agenda this evening. As these events are live, there is alwaays an unpredictability about how a live audience is actually going to react, so I think I shall look forward to tonight’s broadcast with a fair degree of anticipation. Public opinion can be fickle and difficult to guage at times. It could be that the public have generally made up their minds about Boris Johnson and want to move one and find other things to concern them. On the other hand, the recent well publiicised committee proceedings may be igniting a slow burn of resentment against the evident breaking of the rules whilst the rest of us were observing them.
Meg and I were looking forward to today for several reasons. Our domestic help was due to call around today instead of last Wednesday which was her usual day – she had swopped in order to keep a doctor’s appointment which is quite difficult to arrange these days. As I was preoccupied with a hospital visit yesterday morning, today I did my delayed weekly shopping,managing to get to the store just before the appointed opening hour of 8.00am. It was then when I studied the ‘Easter Opening Hours’ (much the same as every other day apart from being closed on Easter Day) I realised that Easter Day was only two weeks away this Sunday. Easter seems to have crept up on us somehow this year, even though it is not particularly early. We were pleased to have a chat with our domestic help but then our University of Birmingham friend phoned up to arrange a coffee date in Waitrose. As soon as we got there, we bumped into one of our pre-pandemic friend who is now in her 80’s but still going strong. She has been rehearsing, as part of a 60-70 strong choir, to sing Brahms ‘A German Requiem’ which is a particular favourite of hers as well as ours. We wished her well for the performance which is due to take place tomorrow afternoon – I wonder if the choir will have a big celebratory ‘afternoon tea’ after the weeks and week of rehearsal which they had been undertaking. We were both appalled by the fact that the BBC Singers who seem to have going since the word ‘dot’ are threatened with being disbanded as part of a BBC economy drive. We both agreed that this must be an act of cultural vandalism. The latest news this afternoon, though, is less gloomy as it appears that the BBC has paused its decision to close the BBC Singers, after ‘a number of organisations’ came forward to offer alternative funding. The group, which is the UK’s only full-time professional chamber choir, was targeted by budget cuts shortly before celebrating its 100th anniversary. We chatted awhile with our University of Birmingham friend before he, too, had to dash off for a lunch engagement in central Birmingham. As the showers were coming along as though on a conveyor belt (a phrase actually deployed by the weather forecasters) we had to judge when each of us needed to make a dash for the car to avoid being rained upon. When we got home, I realised with some dismay that I had forgotten to buy my usual fish pie for our Friday midday meal. Nonetheless, I raided the freezer and liberated some smoked haddock fillets which were delicious (when carefully wrapped in foil and then baked in the oven) and served with a baked potato and some mange-touts.
After lunch, Meg and I had a quiet read and a sort of some old newspapers which we gut for really interesting articles we wish to retain. Then as the clouds had rolled away this afternoon, we made a lightning visit into town to see if we could purchase a nice looking little corner occasional table which I had spotted in the Age Concern furniture shop the other day. Fortunately, it was unsold so we were pleased to get it into the car which was parked not a great distance away. After our, by now, well-deserved afternoon cup of tea, I set to work giving the newly acquired piece of furniture a clean and polish up. Fortunately, for us this was quite easy as it was only slightly dusty and we now have it installed in our ‘music room’ alongside the other pieces of renovated furniture.
We have by now got used to the lighter evenings which is so welcome to us in the spring. This is the weekend when the clocks go forward so we have to look forward to it being temporarily a little darker in the early evenings although this will soon not be that noticeable. In the pre-Brexit days, there was a proposal to adopt ‘double’ Summer Time in which we put our clocks forward two hours and are then in step with the rest of Continental Europe. The argument at the time was very much related to the extra trade opportunities afforded by being in step with our continental neighbours but in the present political climate, one would imagine that a similar idea would be sunk with trace within minutes. Nonetheless we are certainly into grass-mowing season by now which I will attempt the minute the weather gets just a tad warmer and less showery.
In the United States, the Manhatten District Attorney is on the brink of bringing charges against Donald Trump. He is responding with blood curdling threats and practical appeals to a violent resistance. Trump has said of his potential arrest ‘Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely [sic] hates the USA!’ This may be an interesting test of the American concept that they are have a ‘government of laws not of men’ because what we have in prospect is the possibility that an arrest warrant is not capable of being served if the recipient is rich, powerful and an ex-President of the USA.
Today was my son’s birthday which is not a date which is easily forgotten. When I woke up this morning I sent him a text wishing him Happy Birthday and suggesting that I call around with some birthday cards that he could do with today. I got a reply that he and his wife could call around after breakfast which they did. We had an impromptu and celebratory cup of tea and some little fancy cakes that they had brought around and then they departed to go off and do some shopping and then have a birthday meal in what I suppose you could describe as a gastropub. We used to frequent this often but had a terrible experience some years back, pre the pandemic where our order was mixed up with some one elses and they were served with our meal as they had ordered the same. We waited for about 40 minutes and the manager was nowhere to be seen during the whole of our dining stay. But we have never been back but there is now a new chef, and possibly new management as well, and we have heard good recent reports of dining there. However, a bad experience lingers in the mind sonewhat but no doubt we can find an occasion in the future when we can frequent it again. By this stage it was getting to late morning so we collected our newspaper and felt disinclined to walk in the park, even though it was a fairly warm day. After we had dined on meatballs baked in the oven, we thought we would look forward to the Six Nations Womens’ teams as the competition starts today. The first match was Wales vs. Ireland but it was only broadcast ‘live’ in Wales – nonetheless, it was available on the iPlayer so we enjoyed watching a very convincing Wales victory. At one stage it looked as though the Irish team would not get any points in the match at all but they redeemed themselves with a try late on in the second half.
After we returned from church, we tried to watch the Scotland vs England women’s match on iPlayer just to be met with the label ‘not available’. This all seemed a little strange as we were able to watch the Wales vs. Ireland only half an hour after kick-off whilst we were trying to watch the Scotland vs. England game some four hours after the kickoff. Bit I tried accessing this match via the iPlayer on my laptop and it seemed to work fine and I turned again to the TV and now everything worked as I expected. The England vs. Scotland match is being played in Newcastle at a much faster pace than the match during the afternoon so that makes it even more enjoyable to watch. The women’s game seems to involve much more running through the centre rather than using the long kick or even as much of the wingers but tbis is only an impression on my part and I may be mistaken. The game concluded with a massive England win who generally mauled their way for a total of ten tries, demonstrating massive power.
The political news this weekend concerns the discussions that are taking place regarding the ‘resignation honours’ lists which have been submitted by both Boris Johnson and also by Liz Truss. Each is controversial in its own way. Johnson’s list contains his own father so this is an unusual nomination to put it mildly. The extraordinary thing about the Liz Truss nomination list is that it has been submitted at all. The Liz Truss premiership lasted for about seven weeks and she was the shortest serving prime minister of all time. Althpugh she is stricly speaking, entitled to submit a list, it does rather have quite a nasty smell about it all. There is an obscure committee which has oversight of the honours system and I believe that the final decision lies with the Prime Minister of the day. If Rishi Sunak wanted to demonstrate that he was a man of integrity, then using his prerogative to not approve or to massively restrict the numbers of those expecting some retirement ‘goodies’ might prove to be a sensible policy.
This morning, as I was waiting for Meg to get ready for our little venture out to collect the newspapers, I popped into our newly commissioned little music room and tuned into my favourite radio stations which are, in order, Classic FM, Radio 4 and then Radio 3. From the little system that I have in that room, I always get excellent reception for Classic FM whilst Radio 4 is almost as good but Radion 3 is a little ‘iffy’ with what I suppose you might call stereo hiss. I have my FM aerial hooked vertically up the wall because practically every source (on the internet) indicates that a vertical orientation is always the preferred alternative. But as a tiny little experiment, I unhooked the FM aerial and laid it out in a horizontal orientation. This improved my Radio 3 reception enormously and the other two stations still had eception that was just as good. So quite by accident and without any theoretical understanding as to why this should have occurred, I now have a situation in which my FM reception is all I could hope that it could be. Perhaps that is why the FM aerials that are sold in electrical retailers often have a ‘T’ configuration and you are advised to install both the vertical and the horizontal arms. So you live and learn.
Today was a slightly blustery day with a fairly cold wind and did not really invite a walk in the park. But we had always intended to meet with our University of Birmingham friend in the Waitrose café which we did and enjoyed a really pleasant hour and a half in each other’s company. We agreed with each other that we had been meeting quite a lot whilst the weather was inclement but as the weather improves (hopefully soon!) we shall resume our normal rendez-vous in the park. A lot of time we were with each other, we told each other jokes and amusing stories – once we both get ‘on a roll’ then one story leads to the next. Eventually, the time came for home and after we had arrived home, we regaled ouselves with soup-in-a-cup which we often do when the weather is a bit chilly outside. We decided to postpone our normal Sunday lunch and thought we would use up the meatballs of which we cooked half yesterday and we had some of the onion gravy left over for today. In our kitchen, we have a planning whiteboard upon which we write our appointments so that we can see the whole week, or month for that matter, at a glance. We have nothing at all in prospect by way of formal appointments this week but tomorrow we will go out on the road and pick up some petrol (and perhaps mower oil) so that I can make a flying start on the lawns as soon as the weather improves. I have been paying careful attention to the weather forecasts for the next few days and it may well start off frosty and with temperatures below average for the time of year. As soon as we have a hint of dryish and reasonably mild weather, I will get the trusty old mower into operation and get the first cut of the season performed. The grass is always a little high and the mower needs to be on its highest setting for this very first cut but afer that, we tend to cut at weekly intervals and any stray bits of grass get well and truly mulched in after the first week.
I absolutely love it when a ‘sting’ operation is performed upon MPs to expose their greed and venality. What has happened recently is that the anti-Brexit campaign group, ‘Led By Donkeys’, had created a sham company before approaching 20 MPs from different parties asking if they would join the phoney firm’s international advisory board. Former Conservative cabinet ministers Matt Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng were told that a fake overseas company was looking for MP advisers. Mr Hancock and Mr Kwarteng both set out five-figure sums for what they would expect to be paid to advise a non-existent firm in South Korea. There is no accusation of wrongdoing, with MPs permitted to seek employment outside of parliament. But when asked whether he had a daily rate during an online ‘interview’, Matt Hancock indicated that his daily rate would be £10,000 sterling. The amazing thing about this story is that Parliament only has the weakest of controls over this kind of behaviour. We have seen something a little similar to this when Boris Johnson was the Prime Minister because a Conservative minister, Owen Patterson, was forced to resign after he broke the rules on lobbying for a client. MPs often attempt to justify their taking of outside employment whilst also being in receipt of a parliamentary salary. This argument would have a lot more moral force if MPs provded their services for nothing or ‘pro bono publico’ (for the public good) On the other hand, they could charge an appropriate fee and then immediately donate it to a worthy charity. But somehow, these ‘pure’ motives never seem to be very much in evidence. In practice, the defense that MPs deploy when they say that they need to keep in contact with erstwhile trades and professions in order to make them better parliamentarians is actually so much hypocrisy because all of the large payments made always seem to end up in the back pockets of the MPs themselves. Some give a certain amount of cash to their own constituency association but this itself could be seen seen as a type of corruption in that constituency associations may feel disinclined to deselect a sitting MP who happens to supply them with oodles of cash. So any payments could be seen as a sort of ‘insurance policy’ to keep an MP sweet with his own constituency association.
To show that spring is here, it was Boat Race day today that I did not watch as I was watching the Italy-France Womens Six-Nations rugby. But I have a ‘thing’ about the Boat Race because I have never seen one yet in which the eventual winner is not clear after about the first ten seconds. There must have been instances of how one team pulls ahead and is then overhauled by the other – but it is just I have never actually seen it. The Grand National will be in three weeks time, though, which is still quite a long way off because occasionally the Boat Race and the Grand National happen to be on the same day – this occurred in 1981, 1992 and again in 2015.
So Monday morning dawned nice and bright after what would have been quite a frosty night, I imagine, as the skies were so clear. After Meg and I got ourselves showered and breakfasted at a fairly leisurely pace, it was time to venture forth. We had to get our logistics right this morning for reasons that I shall explain. After we had picked up the newspaper, we went straight to the park where we enjoyed a pleasant little sit in the sunshine. Some of the flowering trees in the park are already in full bloom whereas others will achieve that happy state in only a day or so now. We have a flowering cherry in our back garden which we planted about 12 years ago now and which has matured nicely. When viewed from our bedroom window it looks so magnificent that I made a mental note to myself to go and get a photo of it on my iphone in the next day or so whilst it is at its best. In the park, we exchanged greetings with Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker who was now nearly completing his (simulated) walk across the Rockies and we also had a quick chat with some old Irish friends of ours. We also bumped into the couple we know who live in the Lickeys but they/we did not stop for a chat as we were already deep in conversation with our Irish friends. Then we set forth to buy some coffee of which commodity we are nearly out and finally called in at the garage to get 5 litres of the highest quality petrol for the lawnmower. I finished up buying ‘E5’ which 5% ethanol rather than the cheaper ‘E10’ which is 10% ethanol. As I suspected, and a quick search on the web confirmed, it is always a good idea to get fuel with the lowest possible ethanol rating and the highest possible octane rating for the lawnmower. Ethanol can attract water vapour making the engine difficult to start or to run erratically. I bought my fuel as the last call in the morning because I thought that there was a fair possibility that I might give the lawns their first cut of the season this afternoon and I wanted to get the fuel home as soon as I could so that I did not want to smell the car out. As soon as we got home, I started preparing the midday meal and I started off by making an onion gravy (as per usual) But when I went to the slow cooker with the joint of beef inside, I had set the timer but in my haste this morning neglected to actually start it. Hence when it came to dishing up the meat, I found myself staring at an uncooked joint. Fortunately, I had something in the freezer which is helpful in the case of emergencies like this. A few weeks ago, I had bought from my local Aldi supermarket some cooked sliced chicken and so I liberated some ‘fingers’ of these to add to my onion gravy and this saved the day.
This afternoon, the weather was set fair and it seemed a glorious spring day so it was a great opportunity to give the lawn its first cut of the season. At the start of the season, the mower needs to have its quotient of oil of which I nearly had enough but I can top it up if ncessary in a week or so. I ensured that the air filter had been soaked in oil as per the insruction manual then fueled it up with the good petrol bought this morning. Then there is always the moment of trepidation whether or not the mower will start after a four month sabbatical. To my delight, it started on the first pull of the starter cord and then proceeded to run sweetly for the rest of the afternoon. I set the mower on its highest setting and then reduced it by one notch for the second cut (which I perform at right angles to the first one) and both the front and back lawns were done in the normal time. I do give myself a little break in between the mowing of the communal area front lawn and our own individual back lawn but I know that once you start the mowing pocess, the act of cutting releases a hormone in the grass shoots which encourages them to grow again. So once the cutting season starts, it will be a weekly job between now and the first week of November when the season finishes.
The political news has been dominated by the news that the vacant leadership of the SNP has been won by Humza Yousaf who was the ‘continuity’ candidate but is the first ethnic Asian (and Muslim) candidate to occupy that role. I suppose that the rest of Europe may be a little surprised that we have a Hindu PM of Indian extraction resident in Downing Street whereas in Scotland we have a Muslim First Minister of Pakistani heritage. As Yousaf gained about 53% of the vote and some of these were second preference votes, then he may have quite a hard job in front of him to unify the SNP after a fairly rancorous election campaign.
I do not know whether it makes one feel better or worse that the wet, windy and blustery weather is being experienced over the whole of the rest of the country. But Meg and I did not mind too much because on Tuesday morning, we always treat ourselves to a visit to the Waitrose café where we hope to meet up with people. We met with one of our pre-pandemic friends and exchanged news about our various comings and goings since the last time we met. An interesting little incident occurred when a women who had been occupying a seat in the café and was working on her laptop was eventually challenged by the store manager and was politely asked to move on as she had not purchased a coffee to ‘justify’ her existence. Her excuse was the lamest I have ever heard and was to the effect that she could not find anything that she wanted to buy. As she left, one of the other customers exclaimed with an audible ‘Well Done’ to the manager as he walked past. There was no rancour or raised voices in this particular exchange but I wonder if the woman will bother to return to Waitrose again after this little incident. When we got home, I got my Pilates gear together and then walked down without getting wet, I am pleased to say. Our Pilates teacher always asks us how we are feeling at the start of every class (the benefit of having a small group) and then if necessary she can amend the exercises for any one of us if we happen to have a little niggle. I observed that I ached a little after the exertions of the lawnmowing yesterday and two of my fellow classmates had also taken advantage of the fine weather yeserday afternoon to start their lawnmowing as well. The class proceeded at its normal pace and then it was home for a fairly delayed lunch of quiche complemented by some plum tomatoes.
Rishi Sunak is appearing before the Liasion Committee of the House of Commons this afternoon. This committee is composed of the chairs of all of the other select committees so the Prime Minister can expect to be questiond in detail and at length about any aspect of government policy. To say that one has to be at the top of one’s game must be an understatement because to be grilled by this committee must be a daunting prospct. Boris Johnson was badly mauled by this committee but then Johnson’s lack of attention to detail was well known. Rishi Sunak, by contrast, has the reputation of being a master of detail but he did not exactly cover himself in glory in his showing before the committee today. During questioning on migration, Mr Sunak also rowed back from suggestions that flights carrying migrants to Rwanda will take off this summer. He intimated that flights to Rwanda will take place as soon the legal proceedings have been completed. This seems to be a watering down by the commitment made by Suella Braveran, the Home Secretary, that flights to Rwanda would commence by the summer. On other subjects despite intense questionning, Sunak seemed to revert to a broad statement of government policy whereas the committee wanted some more meat on the bones.
We have seen quite a lot of bare politics ‘in the street’ in the past few days. In particular, the sights of violent confrontations in Paris reminds us that the French seem able to turn up on the streets once in every generation or so. I think this was first very evident in 1968 when students were the leaders of insurrectionary politics in France. But today, I must say that I cannot quite remember what was the actual reason for the riot. I needed to consult the web to remind myselfof the traumatic events of 1968 which, incidentally, was the year in which we graduated. In the decade preceding May 1968, the French student population had nearly trebled, from about 175,000 to more than 500,000. It was an era of international ‘youth culture,’ yet French society remained autocratic, hierarchical, and tradition-bound, especially in the eyes of French youth. What is perhaps surprising to us these days is that it was the French Communist party who organised the transition off the streets and back into the factories. No doubt, the French Communists felt that they were losing their position as the party that spoke for the organised working class in France and were thoroughly upstaged by the students. Of course, the French authorities at the time made matters worse by sending police into the Sorbonne whist the rest of Europe watched at the time in a kind of fascinated horror. But over the years, we have seen French farmers often taking militant action in support of their demands – the nearest equivalent that we have ever seen have been the demonstrations against the poll tax which helped to bring down the then Conservative government. There were enormous demonstrations in the UK against the invasion of Iraq under the premiership of Tony Blair but somehow the French seem to have a lot more flair to living their politics on the streets, approximately once in each generation or so.
This was one of those days with its fair degree of frustrations but everything worked out OK in the end. When I got up this morning, I knew that I needed to make a doctor’s appointment to review medications for myself and also for Meg. I really wanted a face-to-face appointment and remonstrated with the receptionist who would only offer me a telephone consultation and, only then, at the doctor’s discretion, could I have a face-to-face consultation. I was unhappy about this and went on the net to see if I could demand a face-to-face consultation. I found out that when Matt Hancock was Health Secretary at the height of the pandemic, he had ordered all doctors’ surgeries to only offer telephone consultations and this practice has continued after the pandemic. Apparently the government and the healh service chiefs are reported to be ‘very worried’ about the difficulty of not getting face-to-face consultations and not without cause as there have been one or two celebrated cases of misdiagnosis over the phone. Having accepted a telephone conversation, the phone rang when I had just got into the shower but as I emerged and got to the phone before the ring tone had ceased and I was still too late. I suspected that this would really mess up my morning because Meg and I would probably have to stay near a phone all the morning and I suspected that we had gone from the front of the queue to the back. In the event, the phone rang again after about half an hour and we got one of the doctors from the practice that I did not know and I could not remember whether a fellow patient at the practice had not had a good experience with her. However the consultation went pretty well. Meg is going to be put on to two types of medication that may suit her a lot better – the doctor indicated that she thought the existing medication prescribed by one of her fellow GPs was not very suitable. Then having got Meg sorted out it was my turn and I managed to get some reassurances after my routine investigation last Thursday. So at the end of the morning, we felt not displeased with the outcome. As the morning had advanced somewhat by now and weather outside was raining fairly hard, we decided to cut our losses and pay a quick visit to Droitwich which is only eight miles down the road. This was fine and we enjoyed our usual coffee and toasted teacake before visitng the charity shop next door. The only thing that attracted our attention was their collection of CDs which were being sold off for 50p apiece. I had a spare £2 coin so I selected four classical CDs that were all recorded by very good artists and I looked forward to playing them later. The only thing to mar my enjoyment was that I was looking forward to playing a world class rendition of a Chopin piano concerto only to discover that there was no CD inside the case. I often find that a CD case has gone missing somewhere so I am not unhappy about now having an extra one. We then turned our attention to the Wilko hardware store where I can be relied upon to buy something I did not know I needed until I saw it in the store. Then it was a case of getting home and having a delayed lunch of beef, carrots and sprouts.
There are a couple of interesting stories about the Royal Family whose affairs, I must admit, I do not follow at all. But apparently on a recent walkabout when asked whether Harry would attend the coronation of Charles III, he is heard to reply that ‘it would be nice’ At the same time, some new stamps are being released with the King’s portrait and this breaks with tradition by showing the monarch uncrowned. These are just two tiny little straws in the wind, but perhaps they are an indication that the King wants to start his reign by having a coronation that unites rather than divides the family. The portrait on the stamp reflects the fact that Charles had expressed a desire that any portrait should be ‘simple’ i.e. without the evident symbols and trappings of monarchy.
This afternoon, Meg and I were enjoying listening to the CDs which we had just purchased when into our lounge sauntered Miggles, our local adopted cat. She wandered across the room to greet us as though this was the most natural thing in the world. I then realised that we had opened the kitchen window a little as we were cooking sprouts for lunch and although I take some culinary precautions to ensure that a ‘sprouty’ smell does not invade the house, I had evidently not closed the window. Miggles, who is however the optimist as far as titbits are concerned as well as opportunistic, had evidently jumped up though the slightly open kitchen window and then made himself at home. Naturally, the cat was soon shooed outside but when I had to venture out of the house to drag the dustbins to the end of our little private road (a weekly chore), the cat observed my moves and followed me back to the house, no doubt hoping to repeat the past little adventure.
Thursday is my regular supermarket shopping day so I was happy to liberate some money fron an ATM before I go to my regular supermarket before it opened its doors at 8.00am. Today seemed a heavier shop up for one reason or another but then it was a case of picking up our newspaper and trekking home. Here I cooked breakfast for Meg and myself and then started the unpacking process which seemed to go on for ever with five bags of shopping. It always amazes me that two little people can consume so much over the course of a week although we tend on the abstemious side. Meg and I had intended a little trip out today but thought we would wait until we got the shopping unpacked and ourselves all showered for the day before we made a final decision. Eventually, we just had a quiet morning in the house but I did engage in doing a long delayed job which was to gut a pile of newspaprs for some interesting articles so that we could have a throw out of old newspapers and a tidy up before our domestic help arrives in the morning. We lunched on the remainder of the beef left over from the weekend, together with a baked potato and some ‘primo’ cabbage. We thought that the weather looked as though it might improve in the afternoon so we aimed to get our post-prandial tea out of the way before we ventured out this afternoon.
This morning as I was shopping, I bought a greetings card with no message inside with the intention of writing a ‘welcome home’ message inside which would then be dropped into our new Asian neighbours who have spent the last couple of months back in India. The minute they had returned, they were having heir inherited kitchen ripped out and a new one installed. Meg and I thought we would try and undertake a riverside walk at the Webbs garden centre just down the road and would drop the card off at our neighbours on the way out. After we had rung the doorbell we were warmly invited inside so we quickly abandoned our initial plans and accepted the offer of a cup of tea and a biscuit and a chat. They told us of some of their interesting visits within India – the knowledge that we have of India is confined to what we have gleaned from various novels like Passage to India and Midnight’s Children as well as films and TV series such as Gandhi and Jewel in the Crown. Of course, our knowledge base is likely to be incredibly fragmentary based upon our reading and viewing history plus litle fragments of what we may have learned at school. In primary school in the 1950’s we were told about the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ which must have been an incredibly partial and one-sided account of history. The English are not very good at revealing past atrocities (the Amritsar massacre come to mind) and when we taught about the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ we were not informed of the antecedents for which the ‘Black Hole’ was a reprisal. I wonder if modern curricula are much better at explaining these darker periods of our colonial history but I have my doubts. In my teaching days, when the opportunity arose, I asked students if they had ever heard of the (now infamous) Triangular Trade. I don’t think that any of the students that I taught had ever heard of this so I explained how the British used to export manufactured goods even including railways to the West coast of Africa, then of slaves from here to the West Indies and finally sugar and molasses back to Britain. This, of course, is why sweet making manufacture was located in Liverpool as supplies of raw sugar were transported across the Atlantic. It goes without saying, of course, that the British made a profit on every leg of the triangular trade. However, it is true to say that towns such as Bristol in particular as well as Liverpool are coming to terms with the uncomfortable fact that a lot of the prosperity that they had once enjoyed were a direct consequence of the slave trade.
Meg and I received our notification the other day that we had postal votes for use in the forthcoming local elections. Normally, it is said that performance in local elections is no real guide to what would happen in a general elction. But this time around, it is a little different as we know that a general election has to be fought by the end of 2023. There is plenty at stake for both sides. For the Labour party, the local elections may well be a big springboard for an eventual push towards a general election campaign. For the Tories, it will be an opportunity to judge whether Rishi Sunak is actually turning the Conservative vote around after the traumas of the Johnson and Truss regimes. The interesting question here is one of momentum and the ability of local elections to motivate one side towards further campaigns or to dishearten the other side to campaign in a general election. It can be difficult to campaign wholeheartedly for a party if the local party has just been trashed in the local polls.
We slept in for quite a while this morning – after an early morning cup of tea, we both fell fast asleep and consequently were running to chase our tails for most of the morning. Our domestic help called around today and we always seem to have a lot to chat about. Eventually, Meg and I got ourselves together and breakfasted and then went out on the road to collect our newspaper. This having been done, we then went in search of an out-of-town Age Concern shop which our domestic help told us about as being incredibly friendly as well as reasonable. So we found the shop without very much ado and thought we would see what they had to offer. The shop was absolutely teeming full of people, perhaps because it was such a wet day outside. In any case, although we did not find new clothes of Meg’s size, there were several designs of skirt that we could eaily have bought if they had been of the right size. My eye did alight upon quite a stylish mahogany table lamp which we purchased. When we got it home, our domestic help and I gave it a good polish up and a minor running repair before we installed it on a similarly shaded mahogany table in our newly refurbished music room. It already had a ‘soft light’ very low energy 3W lightbulb and so provided a beautiful occasional lamp source that fitted in well with our existing scheme. I must add that our domestic help and myself share the same weakness if it be such, which is to locate an item in a charity shop which looks a little neglected but is more than rescuable and with only a little tender, loving care can be rapidly turned around. So that was quite a productive morning’s work on a day when it was raining cats and dogs at sporadic intervals and was not the sort of a day where much of a walk was in prospect.
An interesting political development is coming to us from across the Atlantic where Donald Trump has been indicted by a Grand Jury in New York and will probably appear in a court next Tuesday. There are many curious parts of the American legal system which is a bit difficult for this on this side of the pond to get our heads around but here goes. For a start, th exact nature of the charges against Donald Trump will not be revealed until they are ‘unsealed’ by a judge next Tuesday. Negotiations have already taken place so that Donald Trump will not appear in handcuffs when he makes his court appearance next week – the interesting question is whether he will be fingerprinted as well which is part of the normal procedure. One would have thought that it might have been an ‘open and shut case’ given the known mendacity of Donald Trump but the inside story is that it might be quite difficult to get the charges to stick, particularly if the lawyers drag out the proceedings. Even if convicted, there is nothing in the US constitution that would debar Donald Trump frrom making another bid for the presidency. It seems that Donald Trump and his supporters might even be relishing the indictment as it is feeding into a narrative that it is a politically inspired witchhunt typical of the technigues used by authoritarian regimes to hound anybody who dares to oppose them. If America was not divided enough politically, then this case will serve a culture war of the highest intensity between the Trump supporters and his detractors. There does not appear to much of a middle ground in the contemporary USA. The Democrats for their part and the rest of us neutral observers are not really throwing our hats into the air at this stage. Trump has a multitude of legal actions still pending against him, many of which (such as mis-stating his income in order to evade taxes) and there are some of Trump’s prosecutors who are privately worried that if Trump successfuly evades this particular legal action, he may well be able to use it as a precedent to argue that every one of the charges against him is politically motivated and hence it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that he may escape legal sanctions. One is tempted to think of other miscreants in high office such as Silvio Berlusconi who managed to somehow come up smelling of roses despite a multiplicity of evidence and legal charges against him. Those on the extreme right of politics (Berlusconi and Trump) with expensive lawyers and a conservative minded judiciary can often evade the justice that one would imagine would be meted rapidly to lesser individuls i.e. the rest of us.
An interesting report into the workloads of teachers has been commissioned by the Department for Education (dfE) but not released – for fairly evident reasons. Almost a quarter of teachers in England are working 12-hour days, according to a leaked government report. Some 22% of teachers said they were working 60 hours a week or more. The research, commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), was carried out in Spring 2022 and has not yet been made public. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has said a new taskforce will be created to help reduce teachers’ workload by an average five hours a week.
Today is evidently the 1st April upon which, traditionally, people used to play practical jokes upn each other, this being the one day of the year when such japes were allowed. The practice was known as an ‘April Fools Day’ joke and there have been one or two famous examples. The best known of these was performed by Sir Richard Dimbleby, the revered broadcster on 1st April, 1957 in the BBC Panorama programme. The ‘item’ started with reports from Switzerland, where the combination of a mild winter and the virtual disappearance of pests like the spaghetti weevil, has resulted in a bumper spaghetti crop. It showed a family carefuly cultivating the ‘spaghetti harvest’ which through the aid of a selective breeding programme had produced lengths of spaghetti of a uniform length. The film showed a family carefully cutting the strands of spaghetti and then carefully preparing the crop for resale. The spoof was carried forward because the programm assistants had laid strands of ‘spaghetti’ carefully over the branches of some convenient bushes and of course, in 1957, the whole sequence was shot in black and white. Thereafter, large sections of the population and perhps even a majority went round discussing what they had seen on television chatting with each other that they never knew that spaghetti actually grew on trees. There are some cultural factors to be borne in mind at this point. First of all, Richard Dimbleby was the most serious and respected of broadcasters and nobody imagined that he would have ever had fronted up a spoof such as this. Indeed, some complained to the BBC that a serious programme such as Panorama should only be engaged in serious television and not this sort of practical joke. In 1957, of course, the era of mass flights and cheap continental holidays had not yet got underway and so most of the population was not exposed to spaghetti apart from the squiggly little red bits in a tomato sauce sold by Heinz. So it was quite easy to pull this particular stunt which has been talked about for years.
Last night, we received a telephone call from our University of Birmingham friend setting up another rendez-vous for the three of us in the Waitrose café and so we met there this morning, together with one of our pre-pandemic friends who is often there on a Saturday. After a chat of over an hour, we all then disappeared into the shop to buy some bits and pieces. In our own case, we wanted to buy some mint sauce from which we could make a mint yogurt to accomany some onion bhajis that I had bought the other day to make for a more interesting Saturday midday meal. This actually did turn out to be quite a different meal because it comprised mainly salad elements that I had assembled but the onion bhajis were heated in the oven for 20 minutes. We finished up, though, with a much fuller meal than we had intended. For most of the afternoon until it was time for us to attend our normal church service, we had a quiet afternoon listening in the main to ClassicFM but also processing the diminishing pile of newspapers, the past copies of which we gut for relevant articles.
Just when you think that COVID had gone away, we will all receive a reminder of it next Wednesday as that is the date upon which the next round of vaccine is to be rolled out. Initially, this will be ofered to all in care homes, the immuno-compromised and anyone aged 75 and over. As Meg and I fall into this latter category, we might expect a reminder on our NHS app some time from Wednesday onwards inviting us to make our appointmemt. Just to show how the seasons are rolling along, today we are experiencing the most horrendous traffic jams through the port of Dover as would-be holiday makers are desperately trying to flee this sceptered isle seeking a little continental solace. One word that has been used to describe the situation in Dover is ‘carnage’ and a critical incident has been declared, with some coaches delayed for about 12 hours. The delays seem to be caused by the total volume of traffic (and I wonder whether are sufficient staff to cope with the holiday rush in any case) and much longer time checks, following Brexit, to check on British passport holders. Some travellers may not fully appreciate that a certain of unexpired time is needed on your passport before you can pass easily through the system. The rules seem complicated and vary from one country to another but unless you have six months remaining on your passport, you may run into difficulties. Of course, the population voted for this when they voted for ‘Brexit’ but I wonder whether the delays and difficulties were ever fully appreciated. Having said that, some of those who voted for Brexit may well have died by now leaving the possibility that Brexit is now regretted by the majority. Even though we have had a mild-ish winter, I am sure that mnay people may be relishing an Easter break but if the journey has got off to a really harrowing start, you probably need a day or so to recover once you reach your destination.
Today started off in a fairly tranquil fashion although it did not end that way as we shall see. This morning, Meg and I got up and treated ourself to our Sunday morning ritual breakfast which was a bowl of cereal together with some diced apple seated in front of the TV for the Lorna Kuenssberg Politics show. Nothing was at all dramatic but we did have Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, who was busy denying that any of the massive holdups in the port of Dover had anything to do with Brexit at all. I have noticed this particular trait of right wing politicians that they will deny that any adverse effects ever flow from any of their actions in the past. In the case of the Dover stoppages, I have noticed a consistent trend all the way through supposedly neutral Sky News presenters through a variety of right wing politicians consistently denying that any of the delays occasioned by extra passport checks had anything to do with Brexit at all. I find it very strange that something can be denied which is plainly obvious to all of the rest of the population. Of course, it is always said that the situation is much much more complicated than this (but most events are caused by a multiplicity of factors, some being necessary conditions and some being sufficient conditions) so I think this ‘but things are more complicated than that’ excuse is a good way of denying what you do not want to admit.
By prior arrangement, we met up with our University of Birmingham friend for our Sunday morning chat. We discussed with him the Richard Dimbleby ‘Spaghetti Harvest’ which was supposedly set in in the Ticino district of southern Switzerland – which actually does exist and which he knew about. As it happens, he had seen the famous/notorious Richard Dimbleby broadcast originally broadcast on 1st April, 1957. There is a slight twist to this story, though. The BBC did receive some complaints at the time by listeners who felt that an august body like the BBC should not be engaging in ‘spoof’ news. The BBC also received a large number of enquiries from listeners who wondered where they might either see or even obtain some of these fabulous spaghetti plants. The BBC kept a straight face by informing listeners that they could obtain some spaghetti and stick some of it in a bottle of tomato sauce and then ‘sit back and see what happens’ Afterwards, we discussed with our friend some much more weighty matters. He had recently been chairing a lesson on philosophy in a U3A (University of the Third Age) group of which he is a part and had done somne background reading in order to prepare for his chairmanship. For my part, I promised that I would dig out one or two of the ‘elementary’ philosophy books that I have hiding somewhere in my collection of academic books. In my final years at the University of Winchester, I taught a course called ‘Thinking About Management‘ and the initial part of this course was a section entitled Thinking about the Thinking process. Some of this drew upon some of the elements of Aristotelian logic with which I happened to be familiar because I actually have a GCE A-level in Logic. This was a course which was completely self-taught although I did purchase some rather ancient duplicated notes from a correspondence college called Wolsey Hall, Oxford (which I knew about from my mother because she too had used their notes when she was amassing the qualifications to enter Teacher Training College in the mid 1950’s) I studied Economics in a similar way (because I was so desperately short of mony) and Logic (because it was the shortest syllbus I could find). To cut a long story short, I had absolutely no idea, not having had any tuition in either subject, whether I wuuld pass or fail but in the event scored ‘A’ in Economics and a ‘B’ in Logic which grades effected my entrance into Manchester University.
Now for the events of this afternoon. Having preoared and eaten our Sunday lunch, I prepared cups of coffee for our post-lunch drink which I took through into our sitting room. Meg had evidently also come into the room with a glass cup containing cordial but then had a stagger and a fall leaving a trail of coffee, cordial and masses of blood all over the living room carpet as the crockery had broken into a myriad of shards. I then had in short order tried to wipe off the worst of the blood from Meg’s hands (and the rest of her body), somehow get her into a chair (but this was not easy with a prone body). I then set to work attacking the blood stains which seemed to be everywhere and the coffee stains whilst, at the same time, assessing and plastering up the wounds that Meg had inflicted on herself. It seems that most of the cuts were located on the fingers of her left hand and so tomorrow I will take her along to the ‘Minor Injuries’ unit of the local hospital in order to get a more professional assessment and wound treatment that I could manage.
The day dawned cold and bright so we anticipated that eventually it might be a fine day for a walk in the park. But first thing this morning, I needed to check on the condition of Meg’s hand which she injured on cut glass when she had a fall yesterday. I had put a cotton white glove on her left hand so that if any plasters became detached during the night, we would not a seepage of blood all over the place. By the cold light of day, the injury to Meg’s hand seemed to be confined to one particularly deep cut on her little finger but the other abrasions were sufficiently superficial to ignore and let them heal themselves. I found a variety of plasters and so I plastered up Meg’s hand sufficiently well so that she could wash and dress without too much difficulty. Although I had originally intended that we would visit the local Minor Injuries unit in a local hospital, on reflection I thought that they would probably take off one plaster and put on another so there was not a lot of point in spending hours in a local hospital, particularly as Monday morning would have to be a bad day for minor injuries. So Meg and I breakfasted and then set off for the local park, via the newspaper shop where I picked up our reserved copy of our daily newspaper. In the park, it was pretty cold so we drank our coffee and were preparing to return home when we were greeted by a lady who recognised us from our walks in the park throughout the months and years. As is often the case, the dog always bounds up looking for treats which then leads on to apologies for the pet’s intrusive behaviour before the conversation leads on to other things. It transpired that we had a shared interest in damson jam and damson gin. As I have several bottles of ‘spare’ damson gin in the garage, waiting to be drunk, I said I would bring one along with us next Thursday, on our next park visit. Our new found friend promised some damson jam in return and we discussed whether we both might try our hand at making some rhubarb gin. This is something that neither of us has ever done but if we are donated sticks of rhubarb, then we both might try our hand at it.
After lunch, the weather was still set fair and may even have warmed up a little since this morning, so I thought it would be a great afternoon to give the lawns their second cut of the season (the first being exactly a week ago) I made sure that Meg was wearing a nice warm coat plus hat so I sat her down on our bench at the front of the house so that she could observe my progress whilst I cut the communal grass at the front of our house. I must have been gone about a couple of minutes to don my gardening trousers and boots but when I returned, Meg was nowhere to be seen. I made a quick ‘reccy’ up and down the main Kidderminster Road to see of she had decided to visit our Italian friend again but then found her, safe and sound, inside the house of our next door neighbour enjoying a cup of tea and a biscuit. Naturally, it was good to be reunited with one’s wife but we spent a pleasant hour in our neighbour’s company before we had to take our leave of each other to get our jobs done. So the lawn mowing was started fairly late and our newest neighbours, recently returned from a two month sojourn in India, offered to lend a hand. He has a gardener calling around tomorrow so there is always the possibility that this gardener might be able to spare us some hours each month, particularly as his van and tools will all be immediately to hand. The lawns having been successfully cut for the second week, it was time to come in and immediately prepare a light tea for Meg and myself.
We are hoping that the weather stays fine for the next few days as tomorrow is our Waitrose+Pilates routine for a Tuesday and the day after that, if it is not pouring down, we intend to pay a visit to Alcester which is a pretty Georgian town some 15 miles distant. If the weather turns out to be rainy and blustery, we may have to revise our plans but, as we all know, April can be the most fickle of months. Still, it is rather fairly heartwarming to know that the seasons are on the turn and we are more than likely to bump into, and to chat with, neighbours as we all start to think of the outdoor jobs that needed to be started now that Spring is here. I like to give all of the gullies separating our lawns from the adjacent flower beds a really good working over at this time of year because apart from improving the appearance of the garden, it also gives the opportunity to attack any large perennial weeds before they start to proliferate again.
Today was a brilliant day and would have been a good day if we did not have other commitments. Although it was a beautiful day, we looked forward, as always, to our trip to Waitrose where we met up with one of our regular pre-pandemic friends. We had not seen her since she had performed in Brahm’s ‘A German Requiem‘ in a local school to quite a large audience. The accompaniment was a couple of pianos which, as this was a choral work, seemed to work quite well and our friend who has sung this piece on and off for decades reckoned that whilst not perfect, it was nonetheless a good performance. We wished her well for future choral highlights and wonder whether we could perform as well when approaching our ninetieth year. We both needed to be off before too long as we had other commitments. In our case, our son was calling round to offer assistance in the sequelae following Meg’s little tumble last Sunday. In my haste to clear blood and coffee stains off the carpet, I had failed to notice similar stains and splashes down the walls, on a mirror, down the radiator and so on. Fortunately, my son attacked these with some gusto before any permanent damage was done. Then, after a family consultation, it was decided that I would go down to Pilates and back again by car, breaking my usual practice as I rely upon the walk there and back to give me some necessary exercise. But going by car saved over half an hour from the period in which I was out of the house and my son stepped into the breach to sit with his mother and ensure that she came to no more harm.
After lunch, I thought that it would be a good idea to give Meg a change of scene so I organised our afternoon cup of tea outside the house where we can sit on a garden bench overlooking oour communal green area, the lawn of which received its second cut yesterday. It is interesting the things you notice when you are sitting down and not rushing round from pillar to post because I noticed in one of the borders fronting our communal area a great mass of white blossom. A closer inspection revealed that this was actually our plum tree which last year yeilded practically nothing but the previous year was laden wih fruit. So I am hopeful that this year as we have plenty of blossom we do not have a late frost that nips the young fruit in the bud so that we can get another good crop this year. Whilst gazing around in front of us, I also had the idea that we could possibly acquire one of those free-standing, fairly tall rectangular planters into which we could plant something really colourful so that when we sit out in the future, we have a floral treat with which to delight the eye. My next door neighbour has affiliations with Webbs, the huge garden centre whose head centre is just down the road. I know that he had recently acquired several of these planters acquired as a job lot so that next time I see him, I must remind myself to ask him if there are any more where his own collection came from. Once I got inside the house again, I made a telephone call to see if I can get a medical overview of Meg’s health which I feel needs some face-to-face observation and not just a telephone consultation which is the default mode of access in our GP practice these days. I need to phone up at 8.00am tomorrow morning to try to secure this but am not particularly hopeful. I also phoned our Irish friends who live just down the road for some practical advice and got some useful information with which I ought to ply the doctor.
A lot of things seem to be on hold this afternoon whilst we all wait to see what might happen in the Trump appearance in a court in Manhatten. There are a lot of indications that Trump, a supreme narcissist, is absolutely relishing being the centre of attention as the courtroom drama plays out. But the interesting thing is that the court only ‘unseals’ the actual nature of the charges against the defendant. In the case of Trump, there might be as many as 37 ‘counts’ with which he is charged and whilst I am sure that many of these can be evaded, I am asking myself whether the credibility of the American legal system is challenged if Trump manages to evade conviction in each one of these cases. But the New York laws are very strict on the role of the media so we shall not see Trump in handcuffs and almost certainly no video of Trump actually in court (although one or two stills may appear) The Trump campaign has received a great boost to their coffers since it became known that Trump was due to appear in court. Whilst fervent Trump supporters are reinforced in their belief that Trump can do no wrong, the (few) uncommitted will probably not feel inclined to give Trump the benefit of any doubt at all.
The weather forecasters indicated to us that a band of rain would sweep right across the country and they were surely correct. It was one of those days today when it seemed to be spattering with rain for most of the day and although not cold, it was not really the weather for a walk in the park or a day out. First thing in the morning (well, at 8.01m actually), I telephoned our doctors to get an appointment for Meg to be seen and was fairly surprised not to have an engaged line. I did secure the position of No. 14 in the queue but the queue advanced fairly rapidly and I secured a telephone appointment with the same doctor who had adjusted Meg’s medication the other day. So Meg and I got ourselves up and dressed and breakfasted and then the dotor phone at about 10.00am in the morning which was OK. After an initial round of questions, I indicated that I really did want Meg to be seen in a face-to-face consultation with the doctor. This was agreed to and we had a slot allocated to us at 12.10 in the late morning which was quite good by today’s standards. So Meg and I had a quiet morning and then set off to collect our morning newspaper and also popped into Waitrose to top up our supplies. We got to the doctors just in time and had quite a fruitful consultation, all things considered. The GP conducted some tests to rule out certain ‘nasties’ and then gave us some some useful advice so we felt that we had not had a wasted morning. Then it was home and a lunch of quiche, broccoli and tomatoes.
This afternoon, we had a quiet time both reading and listening to ClassicFM and we are getting ready to go out for the day tomorrow once I have got the weekly shopping done and put away. Much of this is weather dependent but all of the indications are that we should have a reasonable trip out tomorrow. If all goes to plan then we quite enjoy ourselves having a coffee in an excellent little coffee shop and browsing through a range of absolutely excellent charity shops from which we rarely return empty-handed. To complete our day out, we go to one of those large and frankly quite old fashiond hotels which always puts on a superb ‘pensioners lunch’ with all of the ingredients freshly prepared and a very satisfying dish – normally a lasagne or something similar. This afternoon, I took the opportunity to take out our green and brown bin ready for emptying first thing in the morning and, whilst I was at it, I also take our neighbour’s bin along the drive to the kerbside (necessitated as we live on a private road and the dustbins have to be dragged to a particular location so they can be emptied.) Our next door neighbour called round and we had a nice little chat. I consulted him about the planter that we intended to install straight in our eye-line when we are enjoying a warm summer afternoon sitting on the bench in front of the house.
Our pleasure, if that is the right word, at the Trump indictment and the sight of him being put before the courts is a little short-lived. The informed commentary today is to the effect that Trump’s army of well paid lawyers may well find ways of delaying or dragging out the proceedings. In any case, the ‘trial’ proper is not scheduled to start until December or even January which seems quite a long time gap in any case. But there are some legal experts who have opined that any trial might be delayed until 2024 or even 2025 and the prospects for a prosecution success are far from certain. Even if convicted and fined, Trump’s potential candidature for the nomination of the Republican party has been considerably boosted as have the donations to the Donald Trump cause. One of his aides has said that Trump has received $7 million in campaign donations since the indictment and even if this is an exaggeration, there has certainly been a massive boost to campaign funds. I should not be surprised if, with incredibly weak systems of accountabiliy, a lot of these funds find their way into the pockets of Trump’s lawyers as well.
Yet another home grown scandal has emerged today. A Conservative MP has been caught indicating he would be willing to break parliamentary lobbying rules for money in an undercover sting operation by The Times. Scott Benton, the MP for Blackpool South, met undercover reporters posing as employees of TAHR Partners, a fake company lobbying to influence government policy, at a central London hotel in March. The newspaper contacted a number of MPs offering paid work as an expert adviser. Mr Benton responded and suggested he would be happy to be paid between £2,000 and £4,000 a month to help the fake company. Surprisingly enough, none of this is regarded as newsworthy for the BBC Newsdesk. What saddens me about this malfeasance is that it feeds into the popular feeling that ‘politicians are all the same’ and whilst there is venality amongst all MPs, I do think that the levels are higher in the current governing party.
Thursday being my shopping day, I got up reasonably early in order to get to my supermarket of choice about one minute before the doors opened. This I did and reminded myself to buy a couple of Easter eggs for my son and his wife as it is Easter Day on Sunday in only three days time. An interesting philosophical question that arises from this is: how old do your children have to be before you stop buying them Easter Eggs? Whenever I have posed the question, the answer appears to be ‘Never’ which might mean that in some time in the future the 90-year olds in our society will be buying Easter eggs for their 65 year old offspring. As Easter approaches and this is probably, together with Christmas, the greatest of the Christian festivals, I wonder how many children in our society know what Easter is all about? As there seem to be quite a few websites published which explain the meaning of Easter to children, I can only assume that there is a lot of ignorance out there. It is probable that most 5-6 year olds know all about Easter Bunnies and probably Easter eggs as well but that is probably as far as it goes. To be fair, the name ‘Easter’ was derived from ‘Eostre’ originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honor of whom sacrifices were offered about the time of the Passover. Another explanation is the Norse eostur, eastur, or ostara, which meant ‘the season of the growing sun’ or ‘the season of new birth.’ The word east comes from the same roots. In this case, easter would be linked to the changing of the season.
This morning, Meg had intended that we pay a visit to Alcester, a pretty little Georgian town not too distant from here. Although there were plenty of rain clouds first thing this morning, there was every hope that these might roll away and we might finish up with a fine day. I attempted to make a booking at the hotel where we normally dine but the telephone rang for a long time before there was a message that the line was out of order. I did not really believe this so tried again half an hour later when I got through and made the appropriate booking. Then we set off in plenty of time but ran into a massive problem into one of the little towns en route where the main route was blocked and traffic was diverted. Once we had gone all the way round the houses, it was unclear in which direction to travel so I chose the route which was not signposted Birmingham and the M42 and promptly found myself going round the same diversion again. I then switched on the SatNav but it too failed at a point where another exit route from a roundabout was blocked off. This time I followed the diversion signs again but at one point where it indicated that I should turn left, I went in completely the opposite direction. This turned out to be an inspired, intuitive guess because I found myself on a road which I knew which bypssed the town and then got me on the correct road into Alcester. Although we were too late for a coffee, we had an element of luck because we found a parking place, against the odds, and went straight into the hotel for a meal. This was as excellent as usual and we avail ourelves of the special ‘Pensioner menu’ After lunch we did a tour of about three of the excellent local charity shops and found two extremely good tops for Meg which, when we got them home, both proved to be an excellent fit and interesting design. Just before we left, we could not resist a little tour round a local hardware shop which is full of the little things that you suddenly realise you can make use of. In the event, I bought a couple of stationery items but as we were prepared to leave, there was a cloudburst punctuated by hail. Together with many others, we had to dive into another charity shop which we did until the weather had abated sufficintly for us to get back to the car. After that, it was a very rainy drive home but and as is often the way with these things, as we got into Bromsgrove the clouds rolled away and we experienced a really bright and sunny afternoon, just about as we got home.
More about the scandal of the Tory MP offering himself ‘for hire’ as an advocate of a company with gambling interests which was actually a ‘sting’ operation mounted by The Times. Apparently the gambling industry had learnt somehow(!) of provisions that were going to tighten up the regulation of the gambling industry and had succeeded in getting some of these measures adjusted in their favour before they come into effect. Apparently, Westminster has been aware that the gamblong industry must have some ‘insider’ knowledge and now we realise how and why. The Tory MP involved just happened to be the Chair of the Select Committee on the Gambling and Gaming industry and has been shown to be well and truly ‘nobbled’
Today dawned bright and clear and just the weather for a day out – more is the pity that we had our day out yesterday but nonetheless, we had things to look forward this morning. After we had got ourselves ready and hastily breakfasted, we made our way to Waitrose, via the paper shop, where we were due to meet with our University of Birmingham friend. Once esconced in front of a cup of coffee and a round of toast, we got onto the subject (I do not know how) of the way in which cities grow and develop. When I was at university, one of the most interesting courses that I undertook was one in urban sociology. If this sounds very esoteric, this is not really the case as much of the same subject matter is shared with another academic discipline but in this case called human geography. As our friend was an engineer by discipline and eventual employment, I spent a certain amount of time explaining the Burgess model of city growth which is now well known to countless generatons of students. These theories were originally formulated in the 1920’s in the Chicago school of urban sociology and conceived of the city as a ‘natural’ biological mechanism in which certain principals could be seen as being worked out. Two of these are ‘invasion and succession’in which land use changes as one ‘species’ drives out another (in the urban case, read populations) Another pair of principles are ‘commensualism’ in which similar organisms cluster together (in the urban case, think of financial institutions) and ‘symbiosis’ (in which unlike ‘organisms’ are to be found adjacent to each other such as restaurants adjacent to theatres, flower/fruit sellers to be found outside hospitals and the like) All in all, my friend and I spent about an hour discussing how these principles apply to cities that we knew well, Birmingham in my friend’s case and Manchester in my own.) We also spent some discussing the kinds of self-tuition language courses that might be of particular use to both of us because I have in mind that a lanuguage refresher in Spanish might prove to be of particular interest to Meg given her past level of proficiency in languages. Incidentally, the Spanish have rather a nice phrase because whereas we would say that we ‘proficiency’ in a language, the Spanish use the noun ‘dominion’ (almost literally the usage we have in English) which tends to imply a certain amount of struggle followed by eventual ‘mastery’.
I consulted the radio guide published in today’s newspaper to see if the BBC would maintain their tradition of broadcasting a ‘Passion’ (typically Matthew Passion or John Passion) this afternoon, as it is Good Friday. I found that Radio 3 was broadcasting St John Passion rather than the better known Matthew Passion. This Passion is shorter than the Matthew Passion and is not as well known and has somewhat fewer choruses, although the ones they do have sound similar and are rather derivative of those from Matthew Passion. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the clarity and superb exposition of the singing and so enjoyed this during the afternoon. Incidentally, I have confirmed but still do not know why this should be the case but FM recption on Radio 3 is certainly improved if one places the aerial wire into a horizontal rather than the vertical orientation that most sources would suggest. My limited reading around the subject suggests that it depends upon the polarisation of the transmitted signal and that vertically aligned aerials work better placed next to a wall but horizontally oriented ones when mounted adjacent to a ceiling. Perhaps that is why many dipole aerials are sold in a ‘T’ shape so that some of the aerial is vertically whereas the arms are horizontal. Anyway, all of this is somehat of a black art but I have found out empirically what suits my system(s) and I will stick with that, evn though there is a theoreticl reason for the results I am achieving.
Meanwhile, British politics is fast descending into the gutter. A Labour Party ‘tweet’ is implying that Rishi Sunak would not want to send either child molestors or armed criminals to gaol whereas Suella Braverman (and Boris Johnson before her) has also attacked Keir Starmers record as Dirctor of Public Procecutions on similar grounds. I am pleased to say that voices are being raised to the effect that a party confident of its own values and policies has no need to engage in this kind of ‘gutter politics’ and condemnation of the tweets and the consequnt debate is coming from all sides of the political divide. But, of course, politicians are in full electioneering mode now that parliament is in recess, the local elections are about 3-4 weeks away and Easter is a traditional time to get one’s message out before the electorate. But perhaps it is self evident that these sorts of ‘tit-for-tat’ attacks upon political opponents are ultimately self defeating and probably harm the perpetrator more than the intended target. I have always rather like the riposte, first used I think by Adlai Stevenson the American Democratic politician, that ‘if (political oppenents) stop telling lies about us, we will will refrain from telling the truth about them’ This is, in my view, political repartee at its best.
© Mike Hart [2023]