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.
© Mike Hart [2022]