Today has turned out to be one those busy but interesting days. Having collected our newspapers and drank our coffee in the park, we got into conversation with an Irish lady who was busy entertaining her two small children in the park (or rather putting away their buggies into her car). We told her tales of the Irish/Scottish landlady we had first experienced in Manchester. She ‘didn’t believe’ in baby sitters so gave the children aged about 5-6 a good 4″ of whisky in a glass to knock them out so they would sleep soundly all evening. The following morning, the children would have flaming red cheeks and would be wailing ‘Mummy – I have a headache” which of course the had, experiencing a horrendous hangover. Her husband, Seamus, drank a good eight of pints of beer a night and he explained to us that as his job was to undertake the electrical work upon cranes and they were obliged to crawl out to the end of the jib without any lines or safety harnesses, that he was so frightened that he only dare do it if he was still a little hungover from the night before (that was his story anyway). Then, as it happened, we bumped into our Irish friend and her husband who we will probably see at church tomorrow night and then her next door neighbour (a French lady – as her husband is of an artistic temperament, they have named their cat after Vincent Van Gogh). On the way home home, Meg were thinking to ourselves that in our little coterie we have an Irish couple, an Anglo-Indian couple, an Italian lady and a French lady. So altogether I suppose we form a little cosmopolitan ‘bubble’ contained with the Brexit-supporting majority which is the rest of Bromsgrove.

 On Fridays, I often make a risotto with some kind of smoked fish (kippers or mackerel) rounded out with some softened onions, chicken stock, petit pois, yogurt and grated cheese. Our domestic help does not need much persuasion to help us to polish this off with a smidgeon of white wine but then we had a kind of logistics problem. I had previously picked up our domestic help whilst her own car was in for service today but now I needed to drop her back at her house, wait 5 minutes whilst she had a quick tooth clean and then whisk her off to the dentist by 3.00pm. As it happened, there were several reasons for me to visit the High Street in Bromsgrove this afternoon. Firstly, I needed to buy a new pair of rugby trousers from a men’s outfitters in Bromsgrove (the zip having given up the ghost on the previous pair rendering them useless) This was fine as they exactly my waist and inner leg size and then I went on hunt for a wreath (to replace the one that had recently met with an unfortunate accident) I had previously ordered a supply of Christmas cards from Oxfam but they have failed to arrive after several days so had to be chased with an exasperated email after 10 days and having banked my money. I decided to tour the charity shops to get a supply of Christmas cards so that I can start some addressing work over the weekend and managed to get the selection I wanted (some religious, some quasi-religious, some secular). I managed also to also obtain some ‘stocking filler’ presents whilst I was in the charity shops and finally topped up my supply of Vitamin D tablets (now recommended for all of us over a certain age – perhaps even available on prescription although it is more ethical to buy them directly and save the NHS some money).

Boris Johnson has said a no-deal outcome from Brexit trade talks is “looking very, very likely” ahead of Sunday’s deadline for a decision on the negotiations. Instead of using the term ‘no deal’ the Government have resorted to using the term ‘Australian’ deal (which is the same as a Turkmenistan deal – or no deal at all). For the purists, the deal Australia has with the EU even has some advantages for both which not be available to us if Britain accept ‘no deal’ and reverts to WTO terms. The thinking behind using the term ‘Australian’ deal is that it resonates much better with the public and has a positive glow to it (as in Aussie beer, cricket, rugby, and so on). Boris Johnson is increasing upbeat about the situation facing the country if we do crash out with ‘no deal’ , but this apparently upbeat public face does not square with the governments own Cabinet Office assessments of a 2% drop in GDP and a very severe jolt to the British economy as a whole. Many sheep farmers are in absolute despair and there is a well-founded prediction that a no-deal Brexit at the end of this year could lead to the premature slaughter of ‘millions of lambs’. We shall see!

We seem to have been on a much more even keel today with no early morning appointments apart from the weekly delivery from Waitrose, which has become a weekly fixture in our calendar. The weather had improved just a tad so we worked down the hill with only a little adverse breeze in our faces. At our little newspaper shop, I was delighted that our new little ‘system’ seems to have worked because the minute I walked in, I was presented with our two daily newspapers of choice. We then popped into Waitrose to get some eggs that had been missed off the main order  and so on to the park. Although we started off in some wan sunshine, the weather had all turned quite cold by the time we got to the park so we drank our coffee in some haste and did not tarry before we struck off for home. We knew that we had to have fairly quick turn around because our regular hairdresser was coming to the house to give Meg a perm (and I get a haircut that is fitted in the intervals between the rituals of a perm). On way or another, these hairdressing activities seemed to occupy a lot of the afternoon. I always ask our hairdresser if she can only snip up the grey hairs and leave the rest intact and she tries to oblige.

The COVID-19 news today is interesting if a little disturbing. Hospitals have been receiving more and more cases and it could just be that we are at the start of a third wave of the pandemic. I might add that the second wave is only just past its peak. In the meanwhile, the whole of London is right on the verge of being moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 (the highest Tier) and perhaps next Wednesday is the critical date when the distribution of areas between Tiers will be adjusted. There is also some evidence that schoolchildren may be transferring the virus from one section of the community to another – there is a suggestion that mass testing will be rolled out for all school children aged 11-18  across London, Essex and Kent (well, I suppose it makes change from the declining areas in the Midland and the North). The news from the USA is similarly chilling as today, for the first time ever, deaths have exceeded 3,000 and 106,000 people are hospitalised with the virus across the country. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) in the USA are predicting another 72,000 deaths in the next four weeks. Meanwhile 10 counties in California have run completely out of critical care beds – California is the richest state in the richest country on earth but there again, the Americans do not have our NHS!

Boris Johnson is now softening up the population for what appears to be an inevitable ‘no deal’ with the EU by announcing that there is a ‘strong possibility of no deal. The interesting question now becomes what the Brexiteers will make of all this because there is a strand of Brexit opinion which really does not want to leave with a ‘no deal’  One can almost hear the excuses for a ‘no deal’ that are already being prepared i.e. all of the fault of the dastardly EU not to mention the French who will not allow the English to trade with them on an ‘unlevel playing field’ i.e. the UK wants to trade with a competitive advantage by offering lower wages and conditions than the rest of the EU. When the reality of ‘no deal’ hits the general population, there may well be adverse reactions. One of the first of these is that medical insurance at massively inflated prices may make European travel too expensive for many who wish to take a holiday in continental Europe, now that the EHIC card will no longer apply. Phone charges for data roaming will also increase rapidly. We haven’t started to think yet about the food and medical shortages, traffic jams across the whole of Kent, ports brought to a standstill and so on. Of course, there is sways the possibility of a really last minute deal (as in the Greek case) but it looks more and more like the typical Greek tragedy when one can see the inevitable unfolding before one’s eyes!

Meg had a visitor this morning who was a little delayed in getting to us and so most of the morning seemed to be taken up with these activities – whilst we were waiting for our visitor to arrive I spent some time quite productively getting my household accounts up-to-date. So we needed to alter our daily routines a little and decided to do things a little differently. We got to the newspaper shop in the early afternoon and wondered whether our favourite newspapers might be sold out. However, we happened to be in luck and got our copy of The Times and The Guardian with no problems at all. Now that we have been customers of the same paper shop for the best part of nine months, I was speculating to Meg whether or not we could ask the proprietors to always hold back a copy for us. As I was busy handing over my tokens to the boy in the shop, I indicated that I thought that I was lucky and the newspapers might have been sold out. ‘Well – we will put a copy on one side for you, if that’s what you would like‘ was the comment made to me and it felt as though my prayers had been answered. From there, it is just a short stroll to our local Waitrose so we thought we would pop in and replenish our supply of mince pies which is in danger of being depleted. Whilst there, we bumped into one of our regular staff who we remember from months past. We asked how she was keeping and were informed that she had been quite ill and just had a gallbladder removed. As the local hospitals were all concerned with COVID-19 cases, she had the operation performed privately and had only just returned to work in the last few days. Anyway it was good to see her again after all of these months. That remind’s me – I generally buy all the staff in Waitrose a huge box of chocolates for their staff room (and they, in return, tend to make us gifts of running-out-of-date flowers, sandwiches and cakes so there is a rough kind of equality involved!)

Later on this afternoon, I was exploring WhatsApp which I have installed on my iPhone and quite often use to send text messages, photographs and even video clips to friends. Evidently, I hadn’t explored this app to its full potential because as soon as my one of my Hampshire friends suggested that we share some communications over WhatsApp, I decided to test it out and, of course, it worked like a treat. I’m sure it doesn’t have the range, facilities or sophistication of a  FaceTime or a Skype but for a quick chat between friends, it is more than adequate (as well as being free) As my friend had just sent me a WhatsApp message, I knew he was at the end of a phone, so organised another quick video call between us. Afterwards, I was sent some hilarious clips of video (which I am sure is probably the main use of the app so that amusing clips can quickly be shared across the globe)

Tonight is the night when Boris Johnson is in Brussels for a critical dinner with Ursula von de Leyen, the president of the Commission. All of the ‘mood music’ tends to suggest that the differences in philosophy between the two sides is so great (the EU wanting to keep the integrity of the market, the UK insisting that UK’s new sovereignty is to be respected’) that we really have reached the end of the road. The only slight prospect that some might hang onto is whether the two sides are inclined to give a little compromise to the other leaving the way open for further negotiations. If Boris Johnson really wanted a deal, it would not have been impossible to have engineered one. But where we stand tonight is a complete clash of ideologies in which neither side feel they can give an inch. My Hampshire friend was speculating whether Boris Johnson dare return from Brussels waving a piece of paper in his hand (redolent of Neville Chamberlain) but we are both agreed, gloomily, that we are on an irrevocable path to a ‘no deal’ by now. Even if we were to get a deal, it would be so thin and minimal, we would still remain outside the Customs Union and times ahead look bleak. Apart from anything else, the hard core Brexiteers seem to drive the whole business of government and nothing short of a complete withdrawal will appease them (I have a mental image of the British government on a sledge being pursued by a pack of ravenous wolves – the ardent Brexiteers) Even throwing them chunks of red meat from the back of the sledge will not satisfy their appetites and they will keep pursuing the sledge for even more – in short, they refuse to be satisfied by anything.

Tuesday is always quite a busy day and today was no exception. As we walked down the hill towards the park, we called in at the house of one of our friends who had kindly supplied us with a wreath. I was hoping in the off chance that she might have had a spare to replace the one that finally mets its demise when it crashed (twice) to the floor, but alas it was not to be. Bromsgrove has an open street market on Tuesdays and Saturdays so I will try and get a replacement either later on today or, failing that, at the weekend. We collected our newspapers and enjoyed quite a pleasant day in the park. We suddenly realised that we were running a bit short of time so we had to put on a bit of a turn of speed to get home and get myself turned round ready for Pilates. My Pilates class had not met during the lockdown but our Pilates teacher had been keeping things going via her ‘Zoom’ classes. It was nice to be back in a class again (with a lot of jokes and banter) but we are restricted to four only – one in each corner of the room. As I was going through my Christmas card box, I discovered a card I must have bought some time ago. It showed two middle aged ladies observing a grossly overweight torso whilst one remarked to the other ‘It reminds you of our Pilates class on a Tuesday’ (Actually it doesn’t because we are all fairly slim and in good shape but the joke arises from the fact that it mentions Pilates on a Tuesday – so I was very pleased to hand it over to my Pilates teacher for her collection of other joke Pilates cards)

No sooner had I got in after my Pilates class had some lunch and got the washing up done when it was time to Skype one of my closest friends in Hampshire. This went ahead at 4.00pm and we chatted for well over an hour, mainly chatting about the things that had happened to us as academics. One way or another, the hour absolutely flew by and we will have a chat again in about a fortnight’s time.

The news agenda today is dominated by the first injections of the new vaccine at various hospitals throughout the country. As it happens the second person along in the queue happened to be a certain Mr. William Shakespeare from the county of Warwickshire. Whilst the press and the politicians have had a field day celebrating ‘the start of the fight back’ there have also been some words of warning as well. There are some legitimate fears that now the vaccine is here, the general population may relax their guard but there is still a long way to go. For a start, after the first dose of the vaccine a second dose has to be administered in about three weeks time and then full immunity occurs seven days after this – which means that full immunity only occurs some 28 days after the first dose of the vaccine. There are also encouraging reports about the success of the Oxford University/AstraZenica virus and, of course, this will be the really big one once it has been approved. This is because the government has ordered 100 million does of the vaccine and the cost for each dose it about the same as a cup of coffee.

The Brexit Dara is drawing to a conclusion. Boris Johnson is due to meet with Ms von der Leyen, president of the EU commission for some ‘very last minute’ attempts to reach a deal. There is some tittle tattle in today’s The Times that the French have suddenly become very hardline and have insisted that a tougher line has to be taken with the British. The UK has offered a small olive branch indicating that the clauses in the Internal Market bill that would break the Withdrawal Agreement (which has the force of international law) will be withdrawn if there is a trade agreement. But as the gap between the two sides is so wide and with only about one day left to negotiate, it looks extremely likely that we will slide out with a ‘no deal’ . The fact that the rest of the Johnson cabinet is prepared to countenance a ‘no deal’ irrespective of the consequences does not bode well and I fear that this is the fate due to befall the UK in the next day or so. 

Today we needed to make one of rare excursions onto the High Street in Bromsgrove and we decided to take the car for reasons I shall explain later. On the High Street, we visited Boots opticians in order to get a slight adjustment made to Meg’s glasses. This was all very straightforward and then made a trip round a cut-price cosmetics shop  to get some bits and bobs of which we were short.  We had a quick perambulation around the park but it was too cold for a stay on a park bench so we made our way back to the car and thence to the house of one of our friends. We had previously arranged to buy  couple of Christmas wreaths (proceeds going to aid our church) and as I had chosen them previously, all I had to had to do was to and pick them up from a pre-arranged spot in their garden and then transport them home. I must say we were glad to get home today because we felt pretty well chilled so it was good to have our coffee and comestibles sitting by our own fire. After lunch, I surveyed our porch and gathered to gather a range of materials to help to hang them in the porch – a job I though should only take about 15-20 minutes. After that, our intention was to treat ourselves to watching ‘The Belles of St. Trinians‘ (the 1954 Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell version) although I vaguely remember that a much more up-to-date version has been made recently in about 2010 (when the girls were notably more street-wise than in 1954). So now to little Mike and his saga of how to hang two wreaths on the brick wall in our porch. The original idea was to hang them on other side of the downstairs (loo) window and to do this, I utilised a couple of stick-on-hooks with their action assisted by some strips of gaffer tape. As I was putting up the second wreath, the first crashed to the floor shattering into 2-3 pieces. So I abandoned the idea of sticking them to the brick wall and plan 2 was to stick them onto the plasticised? surround of the window frame. This resulted in as much failure as effort no. 1 so I needed to think of a third solution. Raiding my box of supplies, I found some picture pins of various sizes. The intention was to put the pin into the space between the mortar and the brick but this attempt, too, ended in failure as the pins bent upon attempting to hammer them in. So onto attempt No. 4 which was to attempt to put a screw again in the ‘weak point’ where the mortar meets the brick. This attempt, too, ended in failure. And so on to Effort No 5 where I had to think imaginatively. I made a small indentation between the mortar and the brick using a bradorl. I then enlarged this somewhat by hammering in a very small nail. Finally, I took a very small screw and using a bit of brute force and ignorance managed to get the two wreaths finally hung on the wall. I need to point out at this stage, that the wreath that had previously shattered into 2-3 pieces was repaired with some gaffer tape – when my daughter-in-law returned home, this too had crashed to the floor (for the second time, I might add) completely disintegrating it. But at least my wall-screw had held so I may be able to get a replacement. Overall, a 20 minute job lasted an hour and a half.

I have started to think that I must try and get my Christmas cards organised – fortunately, this task has been made much easier  because a couple  of years ago  I  ‘computerised’ my Christmas card list (i.e. made a text file of names and addresses) with the spacing between the entries so organised that I can easily print off some address labels on the printer. I have ordered a supply of Christmas cards from Oxfam but they tell me that it may take a few days to arrive so I went to my Christmas card box to see what I already had in stock. The first thing to do was to make sure that I had envelopes of the requisite size for each spare card (and I seem to have ended up with more cards than envelopes). I have these sorted into three piles (a) religious (typically an illustration of Madonna + child) (b) quasi-religious e.g.anything with angels or shepherds on it (c) secular, in that there are no religious themes in it at all – typically robins and snow-scenes. Then I have to make a guess as to the degree of religiosity or secularism before I choose a card appropriate to the recipient. Whether other people share this Christmas card dilemma, I do not know but I do not want to wish religiosity upon people who rather be without it.

Today we entered into our normal Sunday morning routine which involves running down to the newsagents in the car to pick pop the Sunday newspapers in order to get back for the Andrew Marr show (which never quite manages to fulfil its promises these days). Our sit-down in the park was a little on the cold side but not really unpleasant. Whilst sitting on the park bench we were visited by a friendly dog (this is not at all unusual as their magnificent olfactory organs can sense the presence of food from a long way away and hence we are the target of their attentions). Once we got into conversation with the dog’s owners, we ascertained that it had been a rescue dog from the RSPCA. I opined to the owner that you were never quite sure what you were going to get if you acquired a rescue dog but we were informed that before a dog was entrusted to a new owner, it had a ‘behavioural analysis’ done on it. I suppose with a knowledge of the breed and some acute observation, the veterinary personnel who perform the behavioural analysis can have a fair idea whether the dog is going to be OK with children, other animals, not to mention human kind (all of this I didn’t know) On the way home,  I got a telephone call from one of our friends whose wife was busy preparing the Christmas wreaths that we had already pre-ordered. As it happened, we were only two minutes away from their house so we called in had our choice of wreaths. Tomorrow we will pass by and pick them up and then when we get them home we will have to decide how and where we are going to hang them. As it happens,I have reel of fishing line wire which is very fine but has a 50lb breaking strength so no doubt I can utilise this when I choose a display point for the wreaths. Our friends also informed us, much to our delight, that they were going to make application to go on the pilgrimage to Rome next September. All of this means that there will be a group of some 7-8 of us who all know each other and it may well be that we can hire a minibus to take us all down to Bristol airport which seems to be our best accessible airport if we wish to avoid Heathrow.

The afternoon was dominated by our watching the England-France rugby final which turned out to have a pulsating finish. Two minutes before the end, England after concerted pressure all during the second half of the match eventually scored a try (and converted it) which managed to make the scores level. From then on, it was extra time and a ‘sudden death’ finish i.e. whoever scored would win the game. England appeared to have won the match only for a penalty kick to hit the upright post, traverse the goal and then not, in the event,  go in. So with hearts in mouths, we watched England eventually get a penalty from which they won the match but it certainly, in the words of the Duke of Wellington, ‘a damned near-run thing‘ (said of the battle of Waterloo) Without it sounding too fanciful, I wondered idly if this result would have a deleterious effect upon the current increasingly tense EC-UK trade negotiations in which the French are said to be maintaining a very hard line. I was wondering whether the French might be stiffened in their resolve NOT to yield to the UK having just had victory just snatched from their grasp in the dying seconds of the match this afternoon.

There is no news yet of a COVID-19 negotiation outcome, as yet, as the negotiators have resumed their negotiations for ‘one last throw of the dice.‘ It looks as though day, or even some time tomorrow, might be the critical end-point for the negotiations. If and when the UK reinstate the clauses from the legislation governing the operation of the internal market (removed by the House of Lords) then the EU will probably walk away from the negotiations indicating there is no point in trying to reach and agreement if the UK government intends that it intends to break past agreements (the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’) which has the force of international law.

Meanwhile, there is quite a lot of excitement in the press over the imminent arrival of the recently developed vaccine. This looks as though it is going to be delivered to various hospitals and distribution points over the weekend with final preparations on Monday next and possible start of the injection programme on Tuesday. Various political leaders have indicated they are quite prepared to publicly receive their doses of the vaccine so as to increase acceptance of the virus in the wider community. Even the Queen has indicated she is willing to receive the vaccine (although not in public) and apparently there is a precedent for this in the early 1950’s when the monarch ‘did her bit’ for the acceptance of the polio vaccine.

Today was a fine, bright day (eventually) and we strolled down to pick up our newspapers and have our sojourn in the park in relatively good conditions. In comparison with yesterday when the biting wind gave a really raw edge to the morning, today was quite mild with quite a clear sky and a breeze that whilst cool did not have the cutting edge of yesterday. We walked home to our by now traditional Saturday lunch of sausages, knowing that we had three rugby matches in prospect. The first of these was Georgia vs.Fiji, two ‘second flight’ teams but who turned out to be a very interesting contest. The trouble is that I only saw about two-thirds of the second half of the match as it had started early and I had to fit in cooking lunch at some point. The matches were being provided over the Internet as a live stream on Amazon ‘Prime’ and this has proved problematic the last time we accessed it to watch rugby. The problem appears to be a live-stream, there is quite a degradation of internet quality, occasional freezes and a need for pausing for buffering. When it came to watching the second match which was Ireland vs. Scotland this problem became acute and I was on the point of abandoning the whole of the second half after I had been treated to several minutes of the screen saver. Eventually, I switched Amazon Prime back off and then back on again and this actually helped to ‘solve’ my problem. Having had a delay for several minutes and then restarting, the program re-started from practically the start of the second half. The program was now adequately buffered so I managed to watch the whole of the second half adequately. Then onto the third match which was Italy vs. Wales. We only managed the first half of this as the second half coincided with our visit to church, which had started to resume after the lockdown of a month. When we returned home from the service, we managed to watch the whole of the second half that was evidently provided a kind of ‘catch-up’ service from Amazon.

Our attendance at church was not exactly filled with unalloyed joy. Attendance was limited to a maximum of 36 and I doubt that there were that many of us. The necessity to socially isolate, a freezing church (as the boiler still had to be repaired) and the inability to meet with other parishioners all made for a somewhat bleak experience. Our mood was not exactly lightened by a chat we had in the car park as we were leaving with one of the parishioners whom we know well. One parishioner who we know and usually sits near us was ill in hospital with the COVID-19 virus. To compound difficulties, she had had a fall in her home but was not discovered where she had fallen on the floor for 24 hours. Another acquaintance had fallen and her glasses had caused her to have an eye injury. Moreover, the parish weekly newsletter informed us that our parish priest was stepping back from active ministry due to personal and private reasons. As he recently had a bout of colon cancer, we can only fear the worst and hope that his absence is only a temporary one. As I wrote to him on the occasion of his last illness offering him whatever support I could (as a recent sufferer myself) so I will do the same again in the next day or so and hope for the best.

The political news tonight seems to indicate that a stalemate has been reached between the UK and the UE over a new trade. I suppose it is theoretically possible that two savvy political leaders could agree to meet and resolve all outstanding issues by splitting them down the middle and then no side would be able to claim either defeat or victory. But I suspect that the issues that divide the parties are so deep and intractable that such a ‘splitting of the differences’ is im[possible. For example, the EU is very keen to have a level playing field i.e. we all stick by the same rules and trade within them. But the UK wants to have an ‘unfair’ playing field such as abandoning common standards of protection for the workforce (such as the minimum provision of holiday pay, maximum hours worked) so that we could have a competitive advantage vis-a-vis other EU states. How it is possible to ‘square the circle’ in such fundamental issues of principle is difficult to say – it is quite possible that playing games of brinkmanship such as we have experienced recently can result in a bad outcome almost by accident. As they say, the next 48 hours should prove critical.

Today was the kind of day for which the adjective ‘raw’ was invented. Meg and I had a rather uncomfortable walk to pick up our newspapers and thereafter, we went to the park and shivered whilst drinking our coffee. We then had a really uncomfortable walk back home with our fingers as cold as ice – I suppose having had such a mild autumn has made us, in a very old-fashioned word ‘nesh’ (OED definition:’weak and delicate, feeble’) but it does also have a rather pejorative overtone. Still, it was nice to get home and shortly afterwards I needed to go out in the car to the physiotherapists in our local health centre to whom I had been referred for an episode of ‘trigger finger’ in my left hand. I was given a range of strength and other exercises to perform and will be seen again in about six weeks time to assess my progress (or lack of it). After I got home, I cooked a special risotto (which our domestic helped to to consume). Then we made an interesting excursion around our garden to find suitable kinds of leaves and holly berries from which our domestic help can utilise her magic to create some nice autumnal displays. In the late afternoon and early evening, we engaged in some video-calls with some of our Hampshire friends. In the first of these we used Zoom but I always find this a bit difficult to get going and end up with a meeting in which I am the only person present until others are invited to join me. The ‘Zoom‘ link was pretty ropy with a lot of internet drop out- we weren’t quite sure whether this as due to the technology itself or the fact that is was an early Friday evening and we might be having bandwidth problems. The second call to a friend using FaceTime was much more successful but of course you both have to have Apple technology to communicate across this link.

The news concerning the EU and UK trade talks is not at all encouraging: it seems that some kind of stalemate seems to have been reached and the talks have been put ‘on hold’ for the time being. Saturday (i.e. tomorrow) will not be used for any more negotiations but rather for a briefing of principle (political masters). In a joint statement, Lord Frost and Mr Barnier said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson would ‘discuss the state of play’ on Saturday afternoon. The deadlock could be interpreted in two particular ways. The pessimistic way of viewing this deadlock is that there no meeting of minds and therefore in the absence of an agreement, the deadlock must point towards a ‘no deal’ outcome. However, there is another way of viewing the situation which is this. If the negotiators on either side have gone absolutely as far as they can go without breaking their mandates, then the ultimate ‘bridging of the gap’ can only take place as a result of direct political decision making. In other words, if Boris Johnson is determined to have a deal, then he can help to create one – but if is determined to leave with no deal, then all of the negotiations will have been in vain. It could be said that Boris Johnson is really on the horns of the most acute dilemma. If he ere to choose ‘no deal’ then the economic consequences will be dire for all kinds of industries in the UK.The compounding effects of COVID-19 and a ‘no deal’ Brexit will plunge the country into a massive economic crisis.On the other hand, whatever kind of minimal deal he manages to live with will be classified by the ardent Brexiteers and the right wing of the Tory Party as a complete betrayal and Boris Johnson will soon be ‘toast’ and will be dumped by the Tory Party as soon as possible. Of course, in the past, Tory Prime Ministers could rely upon a supine and generally supportive right-wing press to hail any kind of deal as  a ‘triumph’ and could then could claim to have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.But the press has been much less supportive of the present Conservative Government which has hardly covered itself in glory after its maladroit handling of the pandemic. Watch this space!

Today was an ‘interesting’ sort of day! It was raining cats and dogs, as they say but we were determined not to let it deter us. After we had collected our newspapers (our lucky day – the very last copy of both ‘The Guardian‘ and ‘The Times‘) we had intended to go into the park to have our coffee. But as it was raining so hard, we decided to go on our trip to a distant Waitrose on the outskirts of Worcester which we had been given to understand was huge and therefore full of choice at Christmas time. Although I had taken down the postcode, I had already looked at the directions via Google and it seemed to be just a straight run down the M5 to junction 7 and then a couple of miles along the main road into Worcester. But then we started to run into problems – the road which we though we wanted signposted us to Evesham and so we thought to ourselves – ‘No, not that way-  it must this way’ Having gone for several miles long what was evidently a new ring road in the course of construction with massive digging vehicles and traffic jams all over the place we decided to trace our steps, take the road pointing to ‘Evesham’ and finished off where we wanted at the huge Waitrose. This really was like a cornucopia and we filled a trolley full of Christmas goodies (mainly death by carbohydrate such as puddings, Christmas cake, mince pies, stollen) and a quite a lot of alcohol most of which are intended as presents for close family. But we did treat ourselves to a nice Rioja and Cava for Christmas Day, not to mention replenishing our supplies of gin and sherries for when/if people call round. We did feel a little ‘Waitrosed out’ as a result of all of this because e had received our weekly online order from the said store which we are now scheduled to receive between 8.00 and 9.00am each Thursday morning. At this time of year, we have to find extra space in our cupboards and squeeze items in whilst avoiding the temptation to overflow things into our garage (nice and cool – but also a temptation too far for the local mice who have invaded us before)

In this morning’s email, my friend from down the road had sent me detail of the pilgrimage to Rome next September which he had mentioned to us in the park the day before. At the end of the details was an application form which I assiduously filled in at the end of afternoon but there were some questions it that required some chasing around in order to complete e.g. what was the policy number of the travel insurance it was anticipated that you already had, complete with the emergency telephone number to contact them which had already been supplied to you. But I managed to get it all filled in and got it put into an envelope ready to be despatched first thing in the morning. We will need to fly from Bristol Airport which is some 85 miles away but the access will be fairly fast via the M5 and A4 so that should not be very problematic for us – and better than Heathrow. We are hoping that by getting our application fairly early the tour as a whole is not over-subscribed and that our application to join the pilgrimage will be accepted.

Later on in the early evening, I was hunting for an envelope in which one of our Yorkshire friends (in whose guest house we used to stay and who has written a book about his experiences in which we figure) had sent us a Christmas card but with his address written on the back of the envelope – which I now couldn’t find. Somewhat distraught, I rang the contact number I had in my iPhone and was delighted to be able to make contact with our old friend again (who at the same time as myself was having some medical problems) To cut a long story short, we had an incredibly good chat catching up over our plans fo the immediate future – or rather the ways in which both Brexit and COVID-19 had laid waste to them. Anyway, we are now in WhatsApp contact with each other which means that we can use a video call facility to each other in the future. (I have never used this facility in WhatsApp but now is the time and the motivation to learn how to do it) It could be that we meet up in Spain for an extended holiday together when the coast clears, but of course until the E111 status becomes clarified as the result of the Brexit deal/no deal we are both  little stuck. Nonetheless, our friend has assiduously been polishing his Spanish grammar (and he is a natural linguist and ardent anti-Brexiteer) so whoever we meet is bound to be a good trip down memory lane for the both of us! 

Today will go down as those truly momentous days. It was announced first thing this morning that Britain’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, has ruled that the vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech which offers 95% protection against COVID-19 has been approved for use. Of course, this is tremendously good news. This is exactly how the new vaccine works:

BNT162b2 uses messenger RNA that describes one of the spike proteins that stud the outer surface of SARS-CoV-2. Though human cells don’t make spike proteins, they can still read viral messenger RNA and follow its instructions. When someone receives a dose of BNT162b2, their body responds by producing the spike protein, but only the spike protein, and no other part of the virus. 

Since spike proteins aren’t normally found in human cells, their presence triggers the immune system, leading to a defensive response where the proteins are removed. Now that the immune system’s had some practice, it’s ready for the real thing. If someone who was vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 was exposed to the virus later on, their immune system is ready to react, and hopefully, fend off the virus. 

Messenger RNA vaccines are relatively new on the scene, but have the potential to be safer and more effective than other vaccine types. There is no risk of getting COVID-19 from a vaccine, as the virus is never present in the body.

There is a slight downside to this good news and that is that the RNA is so fragile that the vaccine has to be stored at a temperature of -70º which is often available in specialised biological facilities but not in the typical doctor’s surgery. So it looks as though the initial supplies of the virus will be distributed to hospitals where they have specialised facilities and from here, it will be used to vaccinate NHS and other care staff in the first instance, There is then a descending scale of priorities that run from 1 to 9 with residents in a care home and the carers the first priority, 80+ and frontline health and social care workers the second priority, 75 and over the third priority (I won’t go on but personally I shall be in the this priority order and Meg being a bit younger will be in the next priority zone down the list). I suspect that it may be mid-February at the earliest that I shall personally receive a jab (with a follow up three weeks later) but at least we can say that the end is in sight – but only if combined with more conventional measures such as social distancing, face masks and gels.

Today was a bit of a dull day but nothing to stand in the way of our walk for newspapers and coffee in the park – we did have the bonus, though, that we did not have to utilise our tea-towel that we bring with us to dry the park bench as it had been dry and cold overnight. As we were starting to walk home, we met with some of our oldest friends and received some wonderful news. We informed them that we had consulted the website for our local church and ascertained that church services, subject to the normal restrictions, will start again from this weekend. We will need to make a telephone call to book our place but all being well, we are set to resume our normal church attendance from Saturday onwards (but minus any hymn singing, of course) Then our friends gave us some marvellous news. They were in touch with a group of church members who were organising a type of pilgrimage to Rome in September of next year. This will involve deploying the services of a contact in the English College in Rome (a seminary used for the training of priests) Also involved is a trip to the Sistine Chapel and perhaps even an audience with the Pope. In short, would we like to go on this trip? It took Meg and I about 0.1 second to ponder all of this and to say ‘Yes, please!” but we will have to wait for further details to arrive by email and trust that we can well and truly booked up (and it is not massively over-subscribed)

Tomorrow, Meg and I are going to make a special trip to Waitrose in Worcester. This will be a journey of about 20 minutes so but as the store is a very large and well supplied store, we thought it might be a good idea to make it into a trip here we can buy some Christmas food and drink (some of which will act as presents for some of our friends and acquaintances in any case) We haven’t been to this store before but the directions make it appear simple enough to access and there is always the Sat-Nav of course (the first time in this new car but it ought to operate like the previous one).