Well, it really feels as though the weather is on the change today. Yesterday afternoon, the sun was shining fairly brightly and Meg was dozing so I took the opportunity to dash out and cut the front lawns in a series of tranches as I normally do so that Meg is not left too long unattended. But I could feel the weather changing even as I was mowing and therefore I was heartily glad to get this weekly job done before a deluge started. But the threatened downpour did not arrive and we had a slight shower of rain whilst today is cloudy – and threatening. Two things have happened recently which require more attention. The first of these is that one of the wheels on the transit chair that we use to transport Meg from stairlift to bedside upstairs has somehow got irreversibly jammed and a few hefty blows with a hammer did not resolve the issue. So I needed to phone the OT service to report the issue and indeed, later in the day, I did get a message from them that they would try and deliver another chair tomorrow, if possible. The second issue was a medical one in that the carer and myself notices that Meg’s left ankle was quite puffy with evident fluid retention so I needed to get this reported to the doctor. This necessitated filling in an online form to request some doctor’s advice from the surgery and I received a text back saying that i would receive a phone call from a doctor some time before 6.30 this afternoon. In the event, one doctor did phone at about 3.00pm and evidently I had to go all through Meg’s history with someone who only had Meg’s notes in front of her. She did request that I bring Meg down to the surgery where I had to suppress an evident snort of indignation indicating that as it took the combined strength of two carers into a more or less standing position to get onto the Sara Stedy, coming down to the surgery was hardly a viable option. So, rather reluctantly (I sensed) the doctor indicated that they would try to put in a house call in the late afternoon or early evening but I am relieved that these symptoms are receiving some attention.
This morning, Meg having been loaded into her ‘going out’ wheelchair we went down the hill to Waitrose where I intended to buy some ice cream and some smoothies to help to get some fluid into Meg. I was dismayed, though, once we got inside the store to find all of the ice cream section completely empty which seemed to be Sod’s Law in operation as that was one of the purposes of going down the hill this morning. So I had a word with one of the staff I know well and they told me that their ice cream freezer had packed up (on the hottest day of the year so far) but they had some ice cream in their storeroom bridges upstairs. So I was delighted to get some ice cream which Meg enjoys a lot, together with two bottles of exotic sounding smoothies. So then we made for the park and sat on one of the lower benches overlooking the lake before we started off up the hill striking out for home. Half way home, we bumped into our Italian friend briefly and then got home in plenty of time for the late morning call of the carers. After this was completed, I started to think about lunch which I do in a slightly different way these days. I tend to cook slightly more than enough for one person and then I load up my plate and eat my dinner on my own but only consuming about one half of it. I then heat up the remainder in the microwave and feed it to Meg in fairly small fork fulls which is all she seems able to manage these days. Later on this afternoon, it is possible that I will get a call from an Admiral nurse (specialist in Meg’s condition), a call from the doctor and a late afternoon call from the carers. In the meantime, I have to concentrate upon getting some more fluid into Meg as the doctor is again threatening a hospital stay which I am anxious to avoid.
The Donald Trump road show carries on today. According to the few snatched accounts that I have come across today, it looks as though Trump has been sounding off today with his usual vituperative rhetoric and later today, Michael Cohen who was Mr. Trump’s lawyer who helped to organise the payment of hush money to the porn star, Story Daniels, is due to take the stand later on today. Michael Cohen is the prosecutions star witness and his evidence will be crucial – and damming. On the other hand, he comes with considerable baggage and Donald Trump’s lawyers will argue that as a proven liar, Cohen was sentenced to prison in December 2018 after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, among other crimes. In all, he spent about 13 1/2 months behind prison walls and a year and a half in home confinement. His time was further reduced through good behaviour. So the Trump defence will certainly be that as a witness Michael Cohen is so unreliable that every bit of testimony he gives needs to be disregarded. So the important question at this point is how Cohen responds to cross examination and the impact this has on his testimony, and his responses under cross examination, hold sway with the jury. No doubt, some of the juicier bits will be reported on Sky News later on today.
Some interesting domestic political news is emerging this afternoon. It seems that the law allowing asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda has been disapplied by court in Northern Ireland. The reasoning of the court that this legislation breaks some of the fundamental principles which underlie the Good Friday agreement, which brought peace to Northern Ireland. The government is going to appeal this ruling but already there is an indication that there are legal rocks ahead for the Government’s Rwanda legislation. Tomorrow morning, I am also going to see if there any are more interesting developments in the Post Office enquiry, which is proceeding apace. It is not often that you see people actually held to account in the way that the Court of Enquiry does but at times it can make for absolutely fascinating TV when one wonders what prevarication, absence of memory or denial is going to emerge next from the lips of the witnesses.
© Mike Hart [2024]