So I treated myself to watching the first of the rugby matches in the 'Six Nations' competition but, as widely predicted, gallant little Wales were blown away by a much superior France team. It is not that the Welsh played particularly badly but the first two French tries were brilliantly executed with a full frontal engagement of the French forwards and then two brilliantly executed curling balls out to the wing that enables the two wingers to score. Dupont was,as usual, brilliant and most unselfish often making an 'assist' pass when he could probably have scored himself. The economic news this morning is the unwelcome news that AstraZeneca is pulling out of the investment that it was going to make in a modern pharmaceutical plant near Liverpool producing, probably vaccines which we shall surely need when a new pandemic strikes us. The previous government had issued what appears to be a subsidy of some £90m towards the building of the £450m but the new Labour government only offered £40bn and hence the AstraZeneca pullout. But this is part of a strategy on the part of the big multinational companies who often go round from government to government extracting bigger and bigger promises of support from competing governments until they extract the best deal that they can (and probably built the plan where they intended to in the first place but with an even greater subsidy than before. This raises the interesting theoretical point that a government can make any industry profitable or unprofitable according to the size of the subsidy they manage to extract from the government of the day. Is this 'standing on your own two feet' (an important refrain from the Right) or not? The weather started off at about 3° today, cloudy but with a light breeze and may well repeat the pattern of yesterday when the temperature was above freezing but it nonetheless felt quite cold all day long.
After breakfast this morning, I had in mind that we wrap Meg up warmly in her blankets and proceed down the hill, which we did. We met up with two of our friends in Wetherspoons, partaking of our normal breakfast fare and immediately afterwards, I knew that I wanted to visit our bank to take out some cash. When we got inside the branch, we utilised the ATM machine inside which functioned as far as as returning my card and was about to dispense my cash when the machine malfunctioned. I called over to one of the two members of staff to attend to the machine which she did once she had finished with another customer and then I needed to see the other member of staff working behind the counter to get my own cash out. So I was relieved when eventually I got my hands on the money and then we made for home. Getting inside our house is always quite a complicated procedure because I first have to use some brushes to get the external 'road dirt' of the wheels of the wheelchair and, generally speaking, Miggles the cat who has adopted us is lurking eager to gain admittance and to be fed. Then I have to get Meg inside, clean off the wheels with a sponge, de-blanket Meg and finally get some warm drink ready for her. I needed to see what to prepare for lunch and I found a goodly portion of risotto which needed to be resurrected from the freezer and to which I added some green beans. I had just about eaten my portion of dinner when the carers arrived for Meg - one of them is the young Asian boy who we see nearly every day whilst the other on this lunchtime was a college student who is studying 'A'-levels and aiming to get into medical school. She gave me the good news that she had a very successful interview last week with the University of her first choice, which was Birmingham, and had shortly afterwards received an offer of a place upon achieving the grades of A,A and B which she thought was quite within her grasp. Perhaps it is because of the young carers but Meg seemed to be in a very good mood with them whilst they were attending to her and I have noticed this before with young carers who seem to have the facility to make Meg relax with them much better than with some of the older ones.
In the afternoon, I started to watch the Scotland versus Italy match which is turning out to be quite a pulsating one as the Italians draw level with the Scots in the second half, although the Scots then took the lead again Then with some of the exigencies of programme scheduling, there is going to be a film of 'Sense and Sensibility' which I think I shall watch by abandoning the second half of the (admittedly) quite exciting Scotland-Italy game. There seems to be a viewing of a Jane Austen film about once a fortnight which suits me down to the ground. This particular production is one with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman and is bound to be one of the better productions in this genre. I appreciate Jane Austen more and more these days and suspect that I was first introduced to the novelist via 'Emma' at the age of 15 when I was rather in an 'angry young man phase' that I did not really appreciate Austen to the extent that I do now. We have the treat of England versus Ireland in the rugby later on the afternoon and, hopefully, and I shall have to abandon 'Sense and Sensibility' after an hour to watch the start of the match. Watching the Austen production, I am always forcefully reminded of the dire position of women at the time that Austen was writing when basically women were almost like property at the disposal of men and marriage, if one was asked, was one's only route out of poverty. I suppose that most people know that Jane Austen herself did accept a proposal of marriage herself late one morning but in the morning, changed her mind and informed her intended husband of the fact.
© Mike Hart [2025]