My study de-cluttering activities are proceeding at the rate of one shelf or so of a bookcase at a time. Yesterday, I discovered some duplicates of books (ones in which I had a paper published) so these duplicates could evidently go, releasing some valuable space. Then I started work on the groups of files stored in the bookcase and the procedure follows this routine. I examine the content of the file quickly to see if the whole can be jettisoned and, if so, the actual file envelope retained but with its labels scratched off. In the course of doing this yesterday, I discovered two files with quite interesting content The first was a claim made against an insurance policy for a holiday flight that had been missed. Meg and I were on the M40 flying to Heathrow where there was an evident traffic jam. With police helicopters circling overhead there had evidently been a major traffic incident the upshot of which was that after a delay of more than two hours, the whole section of motorway was closed and the police and road authorities encouraged us to turn around and escorted us off the motorway in a single file going in the ‘wrong’ direction. The flight was well and truly missed but the minute we got home, I booked an emergency flight for the following day. But being stuck in the car for hours on end played havoc with Meg’s back which was in a fragile condition at the best of times and the following day she was in such pain we were in no condition to travel. I claimed against the insurance policy and my claim was refused. Incensed, I went onto the web and found a practically identical case in which, eventually, the insurance company paid out. Armed with this information, I informed the insurance company I was going to take out a claim against them, probably in the small claims court, and armed with the precedent I had found, I would almost certainly win the case. The insurance company agreed but there was a lot of hassle involved with firstly the claim having to be submitted digitally and then again with the actual originals of the documents. I had totally forgotten about this incident, the likes of which I have never heard of before or since. The second interesting file relates to my PhD in which I was reminded that De Montfort University changed its Higher Degree regulations, allowing a PhD to be written around a series of already published papers. The file revealed the information that I made formal application to the relevant committee with approval letters from Heads of School and the Dean on 16th January, 1995. I wrote the PhD and submitted the completed work in December so I had evidently written the whole thing in 11 months. Then followed a gap of three or months or so until the ‘viva voce’ examination in which the principal external examiner was one of the most prominent figure sin the field of public administration in the UK. All seemed to be going well until the examiner made the remark ‘Mike, I looked in vain in your bibliography for evidence of 4th Generation evaluative methodology’- the other two examiners, my supervisor and I looked at each other and it was evident that absolutely none of us had ever heard of this in our lives at all. So I did a bit more fieldwork, incorporated an extra chapter including the afore mentioned methodology, resubmitted the whole and after another three month gap was awarded the PhD in about May of 1997. I was to learn later from another ‘conference buddy’ who was also submitting a PhD late in life that this particular external examiner always made his examinees go the extra mile and do more work so what happened to me was not unusual, after all. But I think the quality of a PhD depends upon the reputation of the external examiner for the thesis rather than the university that awards it so eventually I was more than happy with the result.

This afternoon, I received an unexpected visit from a nurse who, I believe, was sent to us after a referral by the care agency. She needed to check on Meg’s pressure sores and I also gave her the information received yesterday that I help out with manual handling and social care needs if one care worker was present. This I have formally refused to do and the nurse was going to escalate the request that had been made of me as the care agency was not fulfilling its contracted duties of two carers per visit. I fear that there may be organisational consequences that emerge out all of this but I will do my best to pour oil upon troubled waters because I do not want the care for Meg to deteriorate whilst, theoretically, improving the quality. My son and daughter-in-law called round this afternoon – we spent a lot of time discussing the consequences that might flow from the visit of the three district nurses yesterday and a further one today. I think a long telephone call with the care agency manager may be necessary to ensure that any fences are mended because I desperately want Meg to retain the relationships she has made with the care staff over the last year.

A fair spell of warm weather is forecast for the forthcoming week so I must try and make the best of it, whilst I can. Saturday will see the first venture of Meg out in her new ‘super’ wheelchair and whilst I am assured this will be very comfortable and safe for Meg, it might be that the heavier weight is more difficult to push up the hill (going down hill, though, ought to be even easier) Saturday morning is the morning scheduled for the Pope’s funeral, which other things being equal, I would quite like to watch but on the other hand there is a clash of commitments with our visit to see our friends in the centre of town. I showed my daughter-in-law the way in which our dining room had been restored to its former glory ad also the progress I was making in putting right the study. She herself is due to retire at the end of August so is being pretty ruthless about the things to be thrown away between now and then.

After the death of the Pope yesterday, there was no clear consensus on the lead stories of the day yesterday. No doubt, a bit of journalism has hit the popular imagination but Pope Francis is now being called ‘The People’s Pope’ and his concern for the poor and underprivileged will remain his constant epitaph. In death, as in life, the deceased Pope has chosen to be buried in a simple fashion avoiding being buried in the Vatican vaults like so many of his predecessors but instead being buried in his favourite church on a not very fashionable part of Rome with the simple attribution ‘Franciscus’ (the latinised version of his name) If his successor choses to be known as ‘Francis II’, this will be taken as a signal that the reforms initiated by the past will be continued. Nonetheless, some of the ‘vox pop’ conducted both in Rome and in London revealed that some of the Catholic community wish to return to more traditional and probably conservative) forms of Catholicism. On the domestic front, I am now returning to the task of tidying up the bookshelves and removing some of the clutter they contain. The dilemma I face is that in front of the books, I used to have a collection of little but essentially useful things such as receptacles for the receipt of various coins. £2 coins are not as common as they were and I tend to save them these days but always have a collection of £1 coins which I keep in case a coin was needed at short notice for car parking or a shopping trolley – so any new home needs to be both accessible but clutter free. After Meg has gone to bed, I spend a certain amount of time in the study doing things like making sure my accounts are up-to-date, reading emails and so on, I utilise this time to let my mind gradually suggest solutions to storage problems instead of forcing a ‘there and then’ solution. In the days when I was doing a lot of statistical programming, sometimes I used to run into a little problem that needed to be solved. I would literally ‘sleep’ on the problem and it was often the case that the next morning (sometimes whilst having a shower in the morning) my brain had worked on the problem overnight and a solution had suggested it itself. The first time that it happened, I assumed it was just a fortunate solution to my problem but I came to realise that this was one’s brain actually working on a solution overnight. Research suggests that ‘sleeping on it’ can indeed help with problem-solving. Sleep allows the brain to consolidate memories, process information, and identify meaningful patterns, potentially leading to better problem-solving the next day. There is a certain amount of subconscious processing overnight. Some theories suggest that the brain continues to work on problems even during sleep, potentially leading to insights or solutions that might not have been apparent while awake. The subconscious mind may process information and generate new ideas while you are asleep, leading to a more creative solution.

Yesterday morning had long been a date on our planning board when the Wheelchair and Mobility service were due to come along and see how Meg was coping with her wheelchair. The service sent along a technician to work on the wheelchair itself which he did whilst his colleague, an Occupational Therapist who specialised in wheelchair use, engaged herself with getting Meg in her hoist ready to be seated in her existing chair. This pair, who were excellent, understood completely why I had been making ad-hoc adjustments to the chair to keep Meg secure and appreciated how Meg’s lack of body strength meant that her existing chair was not now suited for her needs. They came to the view, fairly quickly, that Meg needed a superior chair and had had the foresight to load an enhanced model on their van. This was a German made OttoBock wheelchair and to my untrained eye seemed like the BMW of wheelchairs. The minute we got Meg hoisted into this chair, we appreciated how suitable this was going to be. It was larger and a framework that enable the whole rear to be slanted backwards (so that Meg could be semi-recumbent if necessary) as well as a sculptured seat, a headrest and generally superior fixtures and fittings. It evidently took some time for Meg to be seated in the new chair whilst assessments were made and some adjustments made as well as giving me instructions how the new chair was to be used. I wheeled Meg down int our Main Lounge to make sure that all angles and doorways could be navigated safely and to cut a long story short, I am completely delighted that this new chair has now been supplied for Meg. It means that I can take her down to town with much more peace of mind and I am happy that if she were to be in the chair for a few hours, which is typically the case on Tuesdays and Saturdays, then she will be so much more comfortable and secure.

In the morning, we awaited the arrival of the District Nurse team and it is anticipated that it will take a couple of nurses to address the increasing problems that Meg is now experiencing. She now has pressure sores in about five or six locations on her body and this is a direct consequence of the fact that she has no body strength or the mobility to adjust her seating positions. The OT who specialised in wheelchairs was very supportive and helpful and all seemed to be well. Then three district nurses arrived in a flurry and, looking at Meg’s newly developing bed sores, declared that they were probably caused by the sling to the hoist which the care workers often do mot remove. They were pretty horrified by this and by the fact that often only one worker turned up when there should have been two. They suggested I phone social services (some hope!) and demand the agency be replaced by a better one. This would have been cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face and just as they were leaving, a solo care worker turned up. The three district nurse vented all of their spleen on this unfortunate individual so this necessitated calls to the manager and a difficult conversation about the care that Meg should have been receiving (and, in the opinion of the district nurses), was not. So it looks from now on as there will have to be a change of procedure so that the sling is removed every time it has been used (which typically it is not, because this is fiddly) and that there should be henceforth a rigid application of the ‘2 carers for each attendance’ for Meg from now on.

After the Pope’s death yesterday and the multitude of tributes that were paid to him, we now enter a period of religion, politics and sheer intrigue. Already there are discussions of who might be the next Pope and the Italians have a special word – ‘papabile’ which is applied to those who are considered to be capable of being elected the next Pope. In this process, although in liturgical theory God-bestowed, there is often a lot of politics involved and often a person who is chosen who surprises is all. This happened with Pope Francis who was not considered to be a front runner but who ‘came up on the rails’ to use a horse racing terminology. I also remember the case of Pope John XXIII who at the time was not initially on the running but was elected as it was thought that he was a ‘safe pair of hands’ but turned out to be one of the most reform minded Popes of recent times. This time around, many new cardinals have been elected from regions and states previously under-represented so nobody is quite sure how these will vote. Insofar as one can discern, the currents of thought at the moment seem to in favour of a candidate who would carry on the reforms initiated by Pope Francis and it could be the case that the person elected will be theologically conservative (to help maintain existing theology) but socially progressive. Donald Trump has announced that he is going to attend the late Pope’s funeral and one wonders about his motivation – I think the last time a serving US president attended a Papal funeral was in 2005. Donald Trump had some differences with the late Pope principally on issues such as climate change and does Trump therefore believe that he is capable of supplying a ‘nudge’ towards whom he considers to be a suitable candidate?

I continued with my study refreshment and one of the changes I have made is already bearing fruit. I have various groups of files located on the tidied-up bookshelves and I am making an HTML page for each group of files. These are then linked together with navigational links to move forwards and backwards between the pages and the first or type of index page indicates in which location the group of files is to be found. I have already run off some three pages of HTML which I put in a transparency and this considerably simplifies the process of finding what I want. So to locate any particular file, I consult the list on top and think that, for example, I might need to consult the fifth file in the pile which is green in colour. Eventually, when the process is complete, I will then have complete lists of the files in the study, and each group of files will have on the top an index indicating which file houses what. I should, of course, once I have a complete list of files in the entire study be able to re-arrange them into a better functional order so that all of the health related files are in one location, the IT/computing related ones in another and so on. My efforts to neaten up the study able borne fruit because I have discovered a little electronic clock I bought some years ago the batteries of which had run out. Fortunately I had some ‘AAA’ batteries to replace the dead ones and although a little fiddly to set, the clock has a mechanism whereby the large screen clicks forward to reveal the date or the temperature of the room so this timepiece has been recommissioned, as it were.

I was delighted that Meg seemed much more lively than she did yesterday, when she slept for most of the day and I was full of foreboding. The care workers and I got Meg nice and secure in her existing wheelchair so all seemed to be well and we made our way down the hill and met up with our three friends in Wetherspoons. It was a beautiful fine spring day and so much of a contrast with the day before when it had been so showery. On our way up the hill, I popped in to see our Italian friend who had previously texted me to tell me about an Easter card she had written for me. We exchanged news about our various ‘gammy’ knees and then I made for home to prepare for ‘sit’ session with the young male Asian care worker in the morning. We lunched on a meal of smoked haddock, potatoes and petit pois where I had some left over from an earlier day’s cooking so this made the meal easy to prepare. In the afternoon, our son called around and it gave me some pleasure to show him the progress I was making in restoring the study to rights although there is still a fair way to go. I asked my son to reflect on the bits of his working life which were likely to ensure way past his actual period of employment because both myself and some University of Winchester colleagues discovered that systems that we had set up decades before in previous places of employment were, paradoxically, still in use.

Britain’s economy will be among the hardest hit by the global trade war and inflation is set to climb, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned – as it slashed its UK growth forecast by a third. In a sobering set of projections, the Washington-based organisation said it was grappling with ‘extremely high levels of policy uncertainty’ – and the global economy would slow even if countries managed to negotiate a permanent reduction in tariffs from the US. Echoing earlier warnings about the risks to the global financial system, the IMF said stock markets could fall even more sharply than they did in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs announcement, when US and UK indices recorded some of their largest one-day falls since the pandemic. Although Rachel Reeves is set to visit Washington to negotiate a better set of tariffs for the UK, it is hard to predict that she will return with any degree of success.

Now that we have Easter Day well and truly out of the way, I must say that I have enjoyed having a selection of chocolates to help me through the day. I offered chocolates to all of the care workers and generally we had a quiet Easter Day apart from the fact that our Eucharistic minister had called around early in the morning, I delayed the cutting of the lawns because having got up about an hour and a half earlier at the weekends as the care workers visit times had been scheduled, I felt rather too tired to undertake that task in the afternoon. Today is going to be quite windy and showery but if the weather brightens up this afternoon, may well attempt the task then. We have not had a really good downpour for ages and hence the grass is not springing up at the rate that it usually does in April. Yesterday, I completed the task of pruning the large group of files which had previously been housed on the floor and have now relocated them to a more rightful place in one of our bookcases where they are more accessible. This task was assisted by removing the dictionaries and associated reference materials to a new location and I am pleased with the result. Last night before I came to bed I had a bit of a brainwave and located a large and heavy box of teaching materials that I really do wish to retain for the time being to an inconspicuous location underneath one of the desks. This in turn has released further space on a bookshelf I not which I can now relocate another group of files that were not where they ought to be. I spent some time composing some linked HTML pages so that when I have filled in all of the details I should be able to put my hand on a particular file pretty quickly. For example, I should be able to peruse my list which I will have on the computer as well as in printed form and locate a file by looking for example, for a yellow folder which is 10th in the list and in a particular bookcase. Of course, it is one thing to set up a system (at which I am pretty adept) but I need to ensure that I keep using it and keep my lists up-to-date and that I keep things much more ship-shape from now on. I have always used differently coloured folders for various documents ever since my teaching days and the habit has stayed with me. But why things were not put away in the first place was because the various locations were ‘full’ so it is important to throw away as much as I can to ensure some empty filing space is always available. Today, I need to go through and prune another set of relocated files so if the morning is a little wet and windy, I will still feel I am making some good progress.

This morning, as soon as the carers had left, I turned on Sky News where the news was flashed about the death of the Pope. Needless to day, this has dominated the news agenda for practically the whole of the day as world leaders have rushed forward to pay their tributes to a man of peace. My own emotions were a mixture of sadness (that a good Pope be taken from our midst) but a degree of happiness that he was suffering no more. He died at 7.30am this morning (which will be 6.30 as the Continent are an hour ahead of us) and I suppose it is obvious to now that the celebrations of yesterday must have been the most enormous strain upon him. An official cause of death is due to be announced this evening but it seems a bit self evident as recently spent five weeks in hospital and, by all accounts, was near to death whilst he was being treated. He was a man of 88 years of age and had already had one half of one lung removed as a young man. Yesterday, he appeared on the balcony of St. Peters. said a few words and then went on a ride in his Popemobile across the square in front of St. Peters. Actually, he was the only one of the recent popes that I would dearly liked to have met and, almost a few years, almost did so. A small bespoke pilgrimage was being organised to go to Rome and Meg and I actually put down a deposit, which in the event was returned to us. The pilgrimage was to be organised by an agent with a lot of inside contacts so a meeting with the Pope in a small group was quite feasible. He was a man of great humility and love for his fellow men and avoided the trappings of office preferring to lead a simple life like some of the inhabitants of Argentina. I knew he was the first Latin American pope but also the first Jesuit pope which amazed me (that it had not happened before) Had he lived and had another decade of life then I think that the issue of gay men and Catholicism would have been resolved and perhaps, even giant steps taken towards married priests which is surely overdue. In the afternoon, the sun started to shine after a dampish morning so I pushed myself and got the front grassed area cut. I knew this had been delayed for a day or so and tomorrow if I push Meg down in Bromsgrove and back, I may feel too tired to make the effort. Meg has not managed much solid food today which is bit worrying for me. Nor did I manage to get any lunch inside Meg either but she did succumb to some small servings of Tiramisu and I will try later to get some solid food inside her not least because I cannot force food and drink on Meg but sometimes the disease process if such that her appetite seems to wane.

Continuing with my file de-cluttering and pruning activities yesterday, I discovered another little gem. On the occasion of our 50th wedding anniversary nearly eight years ago now, I had looked at our collection of wedding photographs, taken in black and white in those days, and scanned them all into the computer. Leafing through the pages, a single lined sheet of paper fell out and this was the organists original note of what he was to play at our wedding. At the time I scanned this precious document but could not recall where I had filed the original. I found the document in a ’50th wedding anniversary’ file and very pleased to have rediscovered it – I have now made a note of it on the front of the file (which I have pruned but am retaining) so this precious little document is not lost again. In the same file, I also discovered that whereas at the time we invited contributions on place of gifts to go a water project in the Sudan, some monies flowed in late and these went to fund a water project in Uganda. My only slight feeling of disappointment about all of this is that, in the last few years, the Sudan has been wracked with internal conflict and we can only hope that our donation of a water project as had some lasting benefit and has not been destroyed or mis-appropriated by the armed militia who have roamed around that unhappy country in the last few years. Of the 50 files that I needed to process, only 8 now remain and these are mainly old travel files. I seem to spend as much time scraping old labels off the front of the file with a thumbnail excellent for the purpose as I do emptying the file in the first place. I think I have discovered a sort of container in which I can store my old file cases for reuse and this is the container part of a previous shredder machine. In the corner that had contained the files and in the past a little Windows laptop, long since junked, I am wondering what might go in this space in which there is a high stool which itself houses some files which I am retaining. I have in mind to relocate some big dictionaries and associated thesaurus and style-related type of books to make a specialised little mini-collection apart from, but abutting, the bookcase and this would also release space for some other books which need to be housed properly, as it were. I have made a start of reading my Swedish ‘decluttering’ book but have not yet found any particular pieces of advice I can deploy myself but there is time yet. Yesterday was the second of my 7.00am starts to the day which actually starts at about 4.30 as I want to get up at 5.00am and do not wish to oversleep. I shared this thought with one of my Wetherspoons friends and she told me that if she woke at 3.30 am, she sat in an armchair and did not go back to bed because she, too, did not want to oversleep and have the subsequent day messed up. Incidentally, I asked the smart speaker ‘Alexa’ what was special about the day, being Easter Sunday and was informed that the machine could not help me with the question – so much for ‘smart’ artificial intelligence.

This morning, I carried on with my file pruning until the Eucharistic minister arrived to give us a benefit of a short service for Easter Sunday. I was pleased to see her and we commiserated with each other that we had both lost a significant number of both family and friends throughout the past year. After she departed, I went on a trek for a Sunday newspaper but, of course, many of the usual outlets are closed. The places that were open had all sold out of their copies of the ‘Sunday Times’ so despite the fact that I had a prepaid voucher, I needed to splash and get a copy of ‘The Observer‘ for a change. When the care workers arrived in the late morning, one of them was suffering from a poorly foot from an unknown cause but I managed to locate a bandage so that she could self-treat herself to a bit of compression which seemed to help. This is now two carers who I have looked after by supplying bandages of their poorly feet and this act of first aid evidently supplements what I was doing during the winter when I was dishing out Flu and Cold Remedy remedies to whoever needed them. I cooked a beef dinner for lunch time but Meg was fast asleep in the middle of the day so I will try and get her portion of food inside her later in the day. I completed my file pruning and then filed away bits and pieces that I knew I wished to keep. Then I needed to somehow clear some books of the bookcase to make way for the files. As I thought I might do, I have created a ‘dictionary corner’ on top of a tall stool and on this I have relocated my two big Chamber’s dictionaries and various other style aids and English reference materials. You would think that tidying up a bookcase would be easy but it is made more difficult by ensuring that books on the same subject matter are adjacent to each so any particular book can be found again. Some of the manuals may be somewhat out of date so I am not quite sure that charity shops would accept them but I will persist in the efforts to re-home them. One little housekeeping trick I thought I would perform is a series of linked HTML pages with the files in each pile and the file colour listed and if I take pains to keep the files in the same order that finding material again should be so much easier. So I spent a certain amount of time today getting my a series of linked HTML pages together and these will not go on the web but will serve as an internal indexing system so I can locate (and file away) what I need quickly. Of course, it is one thing to set up a system but I must maintain it and use it regularly to keep things in a more accessible form in the future.

I was not a particularly happy bunny when I looked at the schedule for the care workers to arrive at the weekend and saw that the more normal time of 8.30 had been pushed back to 7.00am.This means that to get my morning jobs done, I need to get up at 5.00am and if I happen to wake up at about 4.30 (which I did yesterday)then I have to stop myself falling into a deep sleep so keep myself awake and the whole of this makes for a very long day with an hour’s extra heating and so on. The fact this pattern is repeated on Sunday as well as on Saturday compounds my unhappiness. I think I know the explanation for all of this which is that one of the clients of the care agency likes a lie-in at the weekend which means that someone (i.e. me) now has to have the earlier care slot as they cannot be in two places at once. Having got this sorted out once, it looks as though the old pattern has been repeated.

Our attention has been diverted from the war in Ukraine with the tariffs crisis but of course, the Russians feel they have the upper hand in military terms so have no inducement (and in fact the reverse) to come to secure a deal. Negotiations have since taken place with both Kyiv and Moscow, the latter of which Mr Trump has been accused of being soft on, but the war has continued well beyond its three-year anniversary. Asked what it will take to secure a deal, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House he needed to see ‘enthusiasm’ from both sides as otherwise he will ‘pass on’ i.e. abandon any efforts at peacemaking. Of course Trump famously boasted that he would end the war ‘in a day’ and then made the ridiculous claim that if he had been president, the war would never have started. Finding the problem of ending the war is. a difficult one as Trump refuses to sanction the Russians and so Trump had just decided to wash his hands of the whole affair. This is a ‘de facto’ withdrawal of support from the Ukraine and the handing of a victory to the Russians but we Europeans are dedicated to support the Ukraine ‘as long as it takes’ which means the war will drag on, perhaps for years. This a war that Europe cannot afford to lose as Putin evidently wishes to recreate a ‘Greater Russia’ as in the situation before the collapse of the Iron Curtain so the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia and even Poland must be feeling nervous in the extreme.

Today, I will carry on with my study cleaning. Yesterday, I knew that I had a pile of 50 old files (largely travel documents) to go through and I made reasonable progress so only have 21 still to go. I did have some poignant moments, though. In one of the files, I found some of the ‘pen and paper’ tests that Meg was asked to do when her dementia was being diagnosed and this was October, 2020 so this puts a type of date on the start of things. I also discovered some sorts of articles with titles such as ‘Does my cat understand me?’ which I had evidently downloaded in my early relationship with Miggles when the cat was a little on the neurotic side (pleasure turning to scratches once stroked more than twice) But Miggles has walked out of my life despite the fact that I had fed the animal night and morning for about 7 years and as the cat always looked the picture of health, I still think that her owner must have moved away taking the cat with him. I must give away the stored cat food I have to a cat owner after I have had a chat with various of the care workers who often have a dog or a cat in their home. Meg and I had a fairly leisurely breakfast as we had made an early start to the day and then I took Meg down the hill for our Saturday meeting in Wetherspoons. On the way down, I hand delivered four Easter cards (two actual Easter cards, two cards of illustrations of flowers rather than actual Easter cards). Easter is practically as late this year as it can possibly be – the latest date for Easter is April 25th and Easter Sunday this year falls on Sunday 20th) The weather was rather overcast but not really cold but has brightened up in the afternoon as we were told it would. I was pretty tired today after the journey up and down the hill and I suspect that getting up the best part of two hours earlier has taken its toll. We had a simple lunch of quiche and fine green beans which was simplicity to cook in the microwave.

At last, it looks as though the UK is learning from other societies. The health secretary is taking inspiration from Japan in his bid to change how Britons are treated by the NHS. Wes Streeting has said he is interested in the idea of ‘health MOTs’ for Britain’s older citizens, evoking how the Asian island nation relies on personalised medical plans for its ageing population. Japan combines genomics and AI machine learning to offer hyper-bespoke programmes for individuals, helping to predict and prevent illnesses before they really take hold. Mr Streeting said such an approach could be a ‘game-changer’ in the UK, as he prepares to publish his 10-year plan for the health service later in 2025. He has repeatedly spoken about his desire to move more of the NHS’s work out of hospitals and into local communities, focusing more on preventative care than more expensive and invasive emergency treatment. Last year, NHS England – which is due to be scrapped – announced patients over 65 or those with frailty-related conditions would be given health MOTs outside emergency departments to avoid unnecessary admissions. The tests checked for blood pressure, heart health and mobility. If this is going to work, though, it will have to be properly staffed and resourced. I fear the government may attempt to do this on the cheap and whole thing might turn into another expensive fiasco.

Yesterday, in the mid afternoon, our chiropodist turned up to care for our respective feet. We are always very pleased to see her and I am sure that both of us benefit from having our feet checked over with the application of appropriate creams as necessary. In addition, the chiropodist does a quick sort of manicure which is very helpful to both of us and so much easier when you have the appropriate set of sharp implements. We see her once every 4-5 weeks and she has been coming to us seemingly for years now. She has just had her first holiday for years to see some family members in Barbados but the holiday had actually flown by. At about the same time, the two Asian care workers arrived for the last afternoon call and I persuaded them to try a little sample of the food I had prepared earlier. They are both, in their own ways, ‘foodies’ and enjoy cooking and so I wanted them to pass an opinion on the curry I had made earlier in the week. This started with an onion and peppers, had some very small fragments of left over cubes of meat in it and was then bulked out with some finely chopped string beans (normally, petit pois), some onion gravy mixture, an apple chopped finely, some sultanas and a spoonful of demerara sugar, It is served with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt and a bit of the samosa which our Asian neighbours had bestowed upon us the other day. I think they enjoyed it but some samples of their own cooking have been promised to us so we can expect a little treat in the days ahead. These days, Meg will have her porridge in the morning and a ‘nursery type’ tea at the end of the day such as some apple pie and custard. In the middle of the day Meg will have a little of what have prepared for myself but of course, as her disease progresses she wants to (and needs) less and less so do not force food on her that she does not want. On more mundane matters, the book arrived from Amazon (‘The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning’) and it is a slim 158 page volume but there again the price was low in the first place. I have read the first introductory section but the rest should be easy to follow. I seem to remember from my sociology days that there was a special kind of analysis where the analyst built up an image of their subject’s life style from which that was thrown away. So in my case, thee are papers n gardening techniques, furniture restoration, some computing related matters and a lot of old files on holidays taken in the past which seems quite an accurate indication of my life style. When you think about it, modern archaeology consists of a lot of this ‘residue analysis’ but, of course, only the ‘solid’ bits like bone and pottery remain. Near the ancient monuments of Stonehenge, archaeologists have uncovered huge mounds of pig bones from which they have concluded that there must have been large gatherings of ancient peoples who gathered together for celebratory purposes and perhaps to assist in the construction process. From a DNA analysis of the pig bones, it could well be the case that they brought their pigs with them as an ambulant food supply which suppose was the ancient equivalent of used to be a ‘Party Seven’ type can in which you took beer along with you for a party in the 1960’s. Now that Easter is practically upon us and rather too late I must dig out what few Easter cards I have and distribute them to the diminishing circle of family and friends who exchange Easter cards at this time of year.

Yesterday morning was wet, cold and blustery and not the sort of day to venture out – for once I was glad it was not one of the days when we make an excursion with Meg in her wheelchair and it is a little bit touch-and-go what the weather will be like tomorrow. This morning I turned the TV onto BBC2 and stumbled into the second half of the biblical epic which was ‘King of Kings’, basically a telling of the standard gospel story. Most of the sayings attributed to Jesus seemed to come straight from the gospel narratives and to that extent, the film had a degree of authenticity. Not content with one biblical ethic, BBC2 followed it up with ‘The Robe’ which my mother took me to see when I aged about 8-9. I realised a little too late that I had better despatch the Easter card to our friend in Leicestershire bit as I posted the card on my way out to collect a newspaper, I realised with a sort of sickening thump that the card would probably sit in the pillar box from now until Tuesday and it will probably take a further two days to get delivered to our friend as well.

I proceeded in my study clearing activities and have started work on a pile of some fifty files which I have located on a stool in the corner of the study. Some of the files e.g. those relating to travel arrangements of about 10 years ago and can be emptied completely. On the other hand, I have the odd file which I want do want to keep (such as a manual for the WordPress blog program which I may need to consult from time to time) I did discover a file entitled ‘Recent Humour’ and this gave me several moments of pleasure as I re-read them. Some of the more biological examples I may even try on the care workers when next they call. I used to have a classic file of ‘Examination Blunders’ and some of them I read out to students at the end of the year to put them in a good mood. One can see how some pupils have struggled but often with hilarious results. One that remember is the definition of ‘Migration’ to which the answer was ‘It is a headache that birds get when they fly South for the winter’. And in response to the history question ‘In Mediaeval times, what was the meaning of a red cross painted on the door’ to which the answer came ‘There is a fully trained Red Cross nurse standing inside the door’ and so on and so forth.

Last night, the two carers putting Meg to bed were the young Asian male worker who we have got to know very well over the months and a new recruit who was assisting him and was on only her second visit to our house. However, she is the mother of three young children so there are practically few problems that she not yet encountered and although she was learning the intricacies of her new role, we thought she was a ‘natural’ and did all of the right things. Now I am asking all of the carers who come to the house if there is any of my book stock that might interest either members of their own family or nieces and nephews a generation below them. As part of the shelving that I am shortly to clear, I found two little books, one a pocket-sized encyclopedia and the other a ‘Little Book of Facts’. I also had in my possession an absolutely beautifully illustrated children’s encyclopedia which I bought from a charity shop for Meg over a year ago now and which I thought would engage her interest in her then state of health. But, sadly, this book is now beyond the comprehension of Meg and so, with a slightly heavy heart, I added this book to the other two and then offered all three to the care assistant for her children. She told me that all of her children were avid readers and she looked absolutely delighted at the gift of the books and thought that her children would really enjoy them. Needless to say, it gives me a great deal of pleasure that these books will be removed (unread) from my bookcase and put into the hands of a younger generation who will appreciate them so I am off to a start with my book disposal activities. I roughly estimate that we have about 700 books in the study and another 300 split around various locations in our main lounge so now only another 997 to go. I think one of the newer care workers who is due round later on in the day might be interested in the odd one or two. The last time I got rid of a whole series of books was when my collection of sociology books had been relegated to the garage where we used to live in Leicestershire. It always amused me that in the garage, one of my social policy books which might be regarded as ‘soft and pappy’ by some academics had been well and truly chewed by a mouse but the much harder and more analytical hardback book on the principles of Marxist economics had proved indigestible to the said mouse who had left it unscathed. I made a start on tackling one of the corners of my study where I have several files of papers stored on a high stool. Making some progress in this direction I even went out to where I had dragged my paper collection bin at the end of our drive, ready for collection the first thing the following morning, to ensure that even more redundant printouts could join the almost overflowing bin.

Yesterday morning, I was just about finishing breakfast with Meg when the carer turned up as the ‘ sit’ session whilst I go out and do the shopping. Whilst I was out, she entertained herself a little by reading ‘The 100 – a ranking of the most influential persons in history’ written by a certain Michael Hart. After she had departed, I put on YouTube to see what they had to offer and started to enjoy the first selection that the channel had made for me which was a rendition of Bach’s Matthew Passion. This was playing when the two carers came to make Meg comfortable in the late morning and, as we had some time to spare, I pointed out to them that I was introduced to Matthew Passion at an early age of about 14 and explained how we had two music lessons a week, one being standard musical theory and the other being a life of a great composer. I explained how the school I attended had a reasonable but certainly not outstanding musical tradition and that I was in the choir and ‘de facto’ leader of the 2nd violins in the school orchestra. But the outstanding part of the school’s musical tradition came from the brass band of which I was not a member. I explained how the band used to participate in the ‘Whit walks’ held in all of the Lancashire cotton towns. Not having heard of the Whit walks, I took the two carers into our study to show them the illustration of the Whit walks in a Lowry print that we had, explaining the Lowry style (adored by some, hated by others) This led onto the explanation that our son played the clarinet (cue a quick YouTube rendition of the Mozart clarinet concerto) before his interest in the clarinet waned under the combined influence of young women, railway engines and photography. I explained also how in the 6th form the all boys school Martin attended joined forces with a nearby girls school to produce a play one year and an operatic production the next. Our son had a part in an Offenbach production where much to the horror of some of the more prudish mistresses the highlight of the girls contribution to the opera was a performance of the can-can. The masters of the boys school, the male pupils and the female pupils all enjoyed this tremendously whilst the prudish mistresses of the girls school had to endure the sight of what they imagined to be the pure and virginal girls under their charge perform a high kicking can-can. All of this was eye-opening to the two carers, one quite young and other in her thirties and I appreciate now how very non-uniform of the different cultural influences at work in the UK. I honestly did not want to be a show-off but just to provide an explanation of how one’s tastes came to be formed. And so, we came to lunch which was an interesting combination of various elements being some Ravioli (from Italy), some ‘Spicy Chorizo and Chilli Cheddar rollitos’ (from Spain, ex-Aldi) and supplemented by an Indian samosa ( donated to us by our Asian neighbours).

We learn today that the White House is negotiating ‘trade deals’ with more than 15 countries, including the UK and after the USA vice-president J D Vance issued some helpful comments, there are fingers crossed within Whitehall that something better than the 10% general tariff announced for the UK might emerge as trade between the USA and the UK is approximately in balance anyway. But proper trade deals take months of detailed negotiations so one wonders what is being cobbled together at great haste by the current American administration. What we do know is that the Republican party had been spooked after the initial announcement of sweeping tariffs which led Donald Trump to announce a 90 day pause after the new policy had only been in effect for a week. All of this might sound very remote from our shores but it is real British jobs and the British economy that is being impacted so it is no wonder that a degree of nervousness abounds. It s being said by some commentators that here in the UK we have a strategic choice to make which is whether to ally ourselves with our nearest and biggest trade partner (which is the EU) or rely upon negotiated with a widely unpredictable USA. The word ‘on the street’ is that, despite Brexit the UK’s best interests are served by a quiet alignment with EU standards so that our trade with the EU can be consolidated and attempt a more distant relationship with the USA. After all, economists and analysts at Cambridge Econometrics found that after Brexit, by 2035, the UK is anticipated to have three million fewer jobs, 32% lower investment, 5% lower exports and 16% lower imports, than it would have had been had we not withdrawn from the EU. If one wants to be truly pessimistic, hen there is no point wishing for an end to Donald Trump and what we might term ‘Trumpism’ There is quite a strong feeling that in four years time, the current USA vice-president J D Vance, who is a real nasty, will carry forward the Trump agenda with a vengeance and may well serve for two terms meaning that we have about eleven years of Trumpism to endure. Although we like to think of a ‘special relationship’ with the USA, this is not readily manifest.

I am still in my ‘decluttering’ mode and have turned my attention to the study, now that my desk and the neighbouring ‘stationery’ bookcase have been tidied up. I think that is best to tackle this task one shelf at a time on a daily basis and I may take the opportunity to prune some of books (approximately 700) I have accumulated after nearly 40 years in Higher Education. I did once throw an academic book away (entitled, as I remember ‘Local Government in England and Wales’) which was dated as 1946 assuming it to be worthless. But it is possible that there are historians who might found things of value and some of the books, for example in statistical theory will still have valid content. I did have a thought that a nearby university might have some interest in some of the book collection but I need to do some investigations to ascertain whether this would be the case or not. I have already given away any of the psychology books that I have to any of the carers studying psychology as part of their BTEC courses and I think I should see of any of them would be interested in any of the management books that I have. After a very rapid Google search, I think I have discovered a source that is interested in collecting the library of ex-academics (for a fee) with a promise that no books will end up in landfill but I will investigate this further when I have a chance.

The morning started off quite frantically as our domestic help called around this morning and this coincided both with the visits of the carers and also with our son who popped around. I was pleased to have purchased the Easter chocolate for him and his wife before they journey south for the weekend. In the middle of the morning, the hairdresser called around and as I had this well and truly calendared, I ensured that the care workers washed Meg’s hair before the hairdresser had called around. Then Meg was wheeled in her chair into the kitchen where it is easier to sweep the hair clippings off the textured flooring. After I had lunched, a district nurse called around but after a quick consultation, it became apparent to both of us that Meg needed to be hoisted (by the care workers) onto the bed so that the district nurse could do a proper examination and reapply any dressings that proved necessary. So we agreed a time that the nurse would return to coincide with the afternoon visit of the carers, which she did and reapplied three dressings to pressure sores

This morning, I received a text from our friends down the road indicating that they had not forgotten that next month is a significant birthday and they were thinking about organising a meal for us at a local Holiday Inn which does Sunday lunches and only a few hundred metres away i.e. within walking range of a wheelchair for Meg. I discussed this with my son and our domestic help, and we think it is a marvellous idea – as my son is now retired, it could be that we have a family meal on one day and another meal with friends on another day. Falling on a Sunday actually gives us some good options – sometimes restaurants are closed on a Monday if they have been open during the weekends, for example. Thinking about my age reminds me that we should really think of ourselves as being three ages (at least) The first of these is the chronological age dating from the year in which an individual is born. A second way of looking at age is biological age which is the condition of your internal organs were a pathologist to perform a post-mortem on your dead body. Finally, we might add a mental age – some people think of themselves as being much younger than they actually are. No doubt we could extend this further with things like emotional age but three ages is enough for most people.

Yesterday, I was completing my tidying-up activities by going through a cardboard box containing some Christmas cards from years before. Why I had retained them, I am not sure but I did glance at each one before throwing them away. Towards the end of the pile, if not at the very bottom, one particular card caught my eye and it was not a Christmas card but a card some 8″x 4″ in landscape mode and on the front was a pen-and-ink illustration celebrating the 1000th year anniversary, and some of the classic buildings, of the town of Krems in Austria. But what I found inside amazed me. It had evidently been signed by all of the participants in a linguist’s ERASMUS (= European Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) conference. It had been signed by 20 participants which I should imagine was everybody attending the conference and was addressed to Meg and apart from English, there were messages in German, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish. What brought tears to my eyes, and made this find so remarkable, is that so many of the conference delegates said how much they missed Meg and they hoped she would soon be restored to health. I think that Meg realised, even at the time, that her back would get her in the end and it did indeed force an early retirement. At a previous conference, held in Thessaloniki, Meg had even engaged in the Greek custom of dancing on the restaurant table (a local custom) after the conference dinner and one of the contributors to the card made reference to this. Meg even informed me at the time this event was photographed but I think neither Meg nor I ever saw the photo. What I found so incredibly poignant about the card, which had lain at the bottom of this box for about thirty years, was the evident affection and esteem with which Meg has held by these conference colleagues. The group was incredibly supportive of each other and I know that Meg was particularly friendly with a Flemish delegate (called, as I remember Martine) and Meg had helped to care for her when her friend was confined to bed with a stomach upset. So I shall treasure this card and will, perhaps, with write out each of the contributions (with a translation) in such a form that family and friends can read it. Looking back on these times, I suspect that Meg was really in her element with this international group. The Erasmus network organised exchanges pf students and sometimes staff (including myself on one occasion) organised and the ‘rules of the game’ were that there had to be a network of universities participating in any particular scheme to avoid too cozy an arrangement if only pairs of universities were involved. And, as a reminder, when the invitation came to Leicester Polytechnic (later De Montfort University) to participate in an Erasmus network, it was Meg who translated the letter as it was written in Spanish. Later Meg was to organise the Erasmus scheme for our students which generally involved getting them up to a working knowledge of Spanish after a year’s intensive study and this was an addition to her ‘normal’ job of a placement tutor of the Polytechnic’s sandwich degrees. I am glad now that I had glanced at each card as part of my clearing up activities because had I thrown away the whole bundle without perusal, then this really valuable artefact and reminder of Meg’s life would have been thrown away- as it was, it had lain hidden at the bottom of a box for the best part of 30 years.

After we had breakfasted, I tucked Meg well into her chair and we set forth down the hill. The weather was a little overcast and cloudy and cooler than of late but not really cold. We met up with our friends in Wetherspoons as we normally do each Tuesday and I told them about the discovery of the signed card for Meg that I had made the previous day. We had a little time in hand so I bought some cosmetics as well as Vitamin D and calcium tablets and then made off for Waitrose. It is an interesting philosophical question how old one’s children have to be before they become offended by not receiving an Easter egg so I made for the Waitrose selection that I knew would be expensive but of high quality. I bought a couple of innovative chocolate products for my son and daughter-in-law and was also treated by one of the staff (known as ‘partners’) who knows us so well with a gift of yellow roses for Meg and then we made our way slowly up the hill. We had not been in for very long before the lunchtime carers turned up and we made Meg comfortable in her specialist chair. We also put on Meg some specialised therapeutic boots which I have christened Meg’s ‘elephant feet’ because they keep her ankles and feet beautifully cushioned whilst she is in her chair. I did not feel particularly hungry today and did not feel like starting to cook our normal risotto as it was getting a little late so I made do with a baked potato and some melted grated cheese.

Trump has a policy of seizing people who he wishes to deport and entrusting them to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Some days ago,, because of an administrative error, a US citizen was deported to this gaol and the Supreme Court has ordered that Trump should facilitate his release. But Trump and his lawyers are arguing that the USA has no legal power to order the release the inmate of an El Salvadorian gaol even if there because of an administrative error that caused the inmate to be there in the first place. So now we have a situation in which Trump can consign to an El Salvadorian gaol whoever he likes and, once they are there subject to no trial or legal process, they could remain for the rest of their lives. One can imagine this happening in the most autocratic and totalitarian of regimes but the realisation that it is happening in contemporary America makes the blood run cold. After a recent onslaught by Russian missiles of a city in the Ukraine, Trump is now saying that ‘Ukraine started the war’ and therefore must accept anything that Russia throws at it. Modern warfare is dominated by drones (on both sides) and one can predict that the warheads that they carry will only get more powerful as the technology advances.