Yesterday, we had a somewhat delayed start to the day as the care worker(s) were scheduled to start one hour later than usual at about 9.00 which is quite unusual - by contrast, the following day the 'getting up' call is scheduled one hour earlier than normal at 7.00am To a creature of routine, those changes are unsettling and annoying but they are a feature of life at the hands of the modern day care agencies where staff phone in sick at the last moment, cars will not start and other domestic circumstances intervene meaning that the rotas that we have supplied to us often change day by day and, sometimes, hour by hour. Yesterday, though, it meant that we had an extra hour in bed which given the rather grim weather outside is to be welcomed. I looked at the longer-term forecast on my phone and see that the present spell of cold, grey and sunless mornings may well persist for the whole of the forthcoming week. Looking at Sky News this morning, I have learned that in the USA, a federal court has paused aspects of a plan by Donald Trump to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and put roughly 2,700 of its staff on leave. Judges have temporarily paused other controversial policies, including one offering financial incentives for federal workers to resign and another ending American citizenship for anyone born in the US if their parents are in the country illegally. These injunctions might only be in effect for a week and those affected will apply for a longer term stay of execution but I think we can expect a slew of similar court actions in the days and weeks ahead. Whilst Donald Trump has followed a policy of a whirlwind of executive orders, measures of this magnitude and scale have never been experienced in the American political system before and hence the whole of the American polity is an unprecedented era, the likes of which have ever been experienced before. Some political analysts are seeing a method in this madness in that whist assailing the 'system' with a blizzard of executive orders, some will be challenged and perhaps delayed whilst others get through whilst attention is diverted. The immediate and tragic consequences are being observed in South Africa where clinics are being closed and people being offered life-saving treatments turned away and some of these will undoubtedly die prematurely, It is not too emotive to call this a sort of slow murder but it is what the American public voted for (one presumes) The weekly BBC 'Any Questions' came from Glasgow last Thursday night and it was interesting to see all politicians across the political divide condemn Trump unashamedly for the actions he has undertaken and in particular the policy of 'ethnic cleansing' of Gaza in which all of its inhabitants will be 'encouraged' to leave so that Gaza can be rebuilt as an international resort. The extreme nationalist Israeli Right can scarcely believe that this is now American policy because to them Gaza should really be part of Israel and should be resettled by Jewish communities. To the question whether Gaza was ever part of Israel, the answer appears to be that during biblical times, Gaza was part of the land promised to the Jews by God but never part of the land actually conquered and inhabited by them, said Nili Wazana, a lecturer on Bible studies and the history of the Jewish people at Hebrew University. It will be quite a fascinating watch to see what British politicians make of all of this when the Sunday morning politics programmes hit the airwaves because, so far, British politicians and to some extent the rest of the world have been extremely muted in their criticisms of Trump for fear of offending him and attracting sanctions. When an autocrat like Hitler or Putin invades or annex other territories there is always loud condemnation but the same stances are not taken of the invasion is undertaken by one's supposed allies.
Yesterday morning, I did what I have never done before but hunted the night before through all of our wardrobes and cupboards to find some extra warm clothing. We are due for a spell of several days of freezing cold weather with temperatures remaining stuck in the 0°-4° range so I thought I would pile on some extra clothing. For myself as well as a vest I put on a thinner sweatshirt followed by a thicker football shirt (actually an exact copy of the Malaga football shirt) I followed this up with a jumper bought for me by my son and finished off with an outside wool sweater making five layers in all. For Meg, I hunted through her wardrobe thinking of an additional layer of clothing and discovered a warm but sleeveless gilet in a woollen-type fabric so the carer and I put this on Meg this morning underneath her warmest jumper. So, as the Scandinavians say 'There is non such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing' After I had assisted the lone carer (but one who had nursed her own grandmother to her death and is incredibly kindly towards Meg) I gave Meg her porridge and it was then a 50:50 call whether to brave outside. I was glad that we did because although the weather was cold, the icy wind had abated so we made our trip to Wetherspoons. En route, I called in a Waitrose and collected not only a copy of our daily newspaper but also a bottle of white vinegar which I was delighted to see that they stocked and which I need to help to keep the microwave clean. The same carer called around after we had returned for Meg's late morning call and then, whilst Meg was dozing, I prepared some vegetables for lunch and started to play the Radio 4 'Any Questions?' programme on Radio 4. Later in the day there were the two Rugby matches to which to look forward, the one that might prove to be the most thrilling being the England-France match where I still feel that France might have the winning edge but in the other Wales were absolutely overwhelmed by Italy.
© Mike Hart [2025]