Tuesday, 11th January, 2022 [Day 666]

Today was always to be one of those days when there was a certain amount of running around to do and things to get packed into the day but in the event all ran smoothly. The prime event this morning was I due to attend one of the local hospitals for a routine monitoring and afterwards there was a Pilates session to fit in. I got to the hospital in plenty of time and was seen fairly promptly, with only three of us in the waiting area. I do think that in these pandemic days, the occasions when one had an outpatient appointment and joined a clinic of anything between 30-50 people jammed in like sardines are well and truly over. (I remember a fracture clinic which Meg had to attend which was somewhat like this in the pre-COVID days) Having been seen, I needed to have a blood test but for this I was ushered into a room next door, had the blood taken and am then to have a telephone appointment in some six weeks time. I asked the HealthCare assistant if she knew the original Tony Hancock sketch often associated with blood tests and blood transfusions but she had not. This was a particularly famous Tony Hancock sketch in an episode called ‘The Blood Donor‘.  Tony Hancock had a pin prick in his finger in order to supply a smear of blood, presumably to determine a blood group. Having been so pricked, Tony Hancock exclaimed ‘Can I have my tea and biscuits now?‘ in the belief that this was the end of the procedure. When informed by doctors that in a blood donor session, one was expected to donate a pint of blood, Tony Hancock exclaimed ‘A pint – that’s an armful!‘ (incidentally, as there are eight pints of blood in the human body, then a pint of blood being an armful is approximately correct). In my experience, many people of my age will say to the haematologist ‘Are you going to take an armful?‘ and many personnel know about the joke but not many have seen the original sketch (a videoclip of which has been shown on numerous occasions)  Having emerged from the hospital relatively quickly, I got home as rapidly as possible and prepared myself a cup of coffee and a rice-cake biscuit. Then it was down into town to call by my bank to get some much needed cash out of an ATM. I approached this task with a certain degree of trepidation as both Meg and I have had to be isssued with new debit cards, the previous ones not being accepted into the machines (although the chip driven contactless payments seem to have worked OK) Both of these cards have worked as they should on their first occasion of use. In order to make sure that that cards do not rub against each other or the magnetic strip gets compromised, out of an old diary I have constructed a special card holder which can accommodate two cards securely but safely and this little system, too, has worked very well.

Today’s political news is dominated by the seqelae to the ‘drinks party’ held in the Downing Street garden on 20th May, 2020. The few clips I have seen of the Labour-called debate in the House of Commons have been fascinating. The Labour benches are full, the Tory benches are practically empty as the Tories do not seem to relish the prospect of turning up to defend a Prime Minister who has not denied the allegation that he attended this party (at which attendance was then illegal, a crminal offence and with a potential fine of £10,000 for the organisers of a large event). Some of the contributions of MPs were heart-rending, particularly from one Northern Ireland MP who broke down in tears whilst making his speech, distraught at the death of a near relative). Tomorrow Boris Johnson did not even turn up to Parliament to face the music but tomorrow he has no option as it is Prime Minsiter’s Questions. Meg and I intend to watch this live in tomorrow’s transmission as it promises to be a blood sport. The ‘resignation’ word is now being used  and the Leader of the Scottish Conservative party has called for the Prime Minister’s resignation if any illegality is proved. The rampant hypocrisy is really cutting through with members of the public who are painfully recalling their experiences in May, 2020 when they were not allowed to be present at their relative’s demise under the then current COVID regulations whilst the Downing Street personnel seem to be enjoying themselves in a totally illegal drinks party. The rules at the time were that one should only meet with one person in the open and keep them at a distance of two metres. Athough we are awaiting for the report into the Downing Street parties by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, it also seems that the police may (at last) be taking an interest although it was evident from the last Downing Street transgression that they are not interested in ‘historic’ transgressions.

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Monday, 10th January, 2022 [Day 665]

Today we decided to try out an alternative way of accessing our local park. After a delayed start, we went down by car to call in at Waitrose to pick up a copy of our newspaper and to buy a few much-needed supplies. Then we drove to the park and occupy a position in the lower car park whilst we undertook our constitutional walk to our favoured spot on the top benches. We had not been sitting too long, enjoying our coffee, before Intrepid Octogenerian Hiker strode into view. He was on the first of several circuits that he makes within the park and we saw him a day or so anyway. We chatted for a few minutes about this and that before he went on his way and we started to make for home. Whenever we go to the park, we take with us an incredibly useful folding stool. This used to be (and perhaps still is) sold within  National Trust shops. It is made of aluminium which makes it incredibly light and also has a very robust construction. The seat folds down from a vertical to a horizontal position and we utilise it not as a seat but as a miniature table upon which we put our coffee cups and flask as we pour out the coffee. Naturally, we have with us a variety of cloths that we use to dry the park bench before we actually sit down but the folding stool has attracted many an admiring glance and comment.We have the feeling that if ever we left it behind outside a shop (which has happened once or twice) then we might never see it again. Today, we ‘experimented’ by seeing how much of a use it is to Meg to use particularly when traversing downhill sections of our walk which has proved a little problematic. We shall continue with these pragmatic experiments to see if is useful as a quasi-walking stick although it is intended as a temporary stool for weary travellers.

After lunch, I took my Community Bank file along to my neighbour who acts as Treasurer to our Reidents Association and secured his signature on a document designed to reset the security on our account. The staff in the local branch informed me that when the document had been received, those in charge of security at the bank would consider this and then and then email me to arrange for us to have a chat so that I can answer future security questions.  If I get through these series of hurdles, I might then be able to talk with (or at least communicate with) the safeguarding procedures of the bank who I still have to satisfy. At this rate, the saga will rival ‘War and Peace‘ and I have an uneasy feeling that it might all end in tears – but all we can do at this stage is to wait and see.

The latest Downing Street ‘sleaze’ event was first leaked by Dominic Cummings – and it concerns a ‘socially distanced’ drinks event held on 29th May in the Downing Street garden. Dominic Cummings has blogged that he and one other SPAD (special adviser) had advised against but they were ignored. When Boris Johnson was asked whether or not it was true that he had attended together with Carrie, his then fiancee, he did not deny that he had attended but referred to the ongoing investigation into  multiple Downing Street parties being conducted by senior civil servant Sue Gray. The Sunday Times yesterday cited three sources stating Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary Martin Reynolds emailed officials with an invite to the event on 20 May suggesting attendees ‘BYOB’ (bring your own bottle, or booze). All of the indications are this evening that Martin Reynolds, a civil servant, is being lined up to carry the can for all of this and indeed may only survive for a day. This may be a way, of course, that the politicians hope to deflect criticisms from themselves. The fascinating question tonight is whether this transgression by the PM just by attending is sufficient to bring about his resignation. In the past, motions have been passed by the Commons to reduce a ministerial salary by £1 as a symbolic gesture but, of course, the Gray report is still to be published. If it does see the light of day, I suspect that it might be released the day after there is a Parliamentary recess for Easter (or another natural disaster occurs so it is a good day to publish ‘bad news’ as it may be overshadowed)

I was interested to see an analysis of which countrties had fared best and worst in the pandemic crisis. According to The Economist, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are all near the top, and America has also performed reasonably well. Many big European countries, however, such as Britain, Germany and Italy, have fared worse. Spain has done worst of all. What needs further analysis, though, is to ascertain precidely which features of a society enable to fare well (or badly) in international comparisons.

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Sunday, 9th January, 2022 [Day 664]

Normally on a Sunday morning, I leap out of bed at an unearthly hour in order to walk down to my friendly Asian newsagent and then get back in time ready to have a breakfast in front of the Andrew Marr show. Today was a little different, however, as my newsagent has closed for a few days in a period of self-imposed isolation so I knew I would have to wait until Waitrose opened before I could pop in for my copy of the Sunday Times. So we watched the successor to the Andrew Marr at our leisure, learning nothing very much. Eventually, we got ourselves into gear and started to trek down into the town. Meg is finding it increasingly difficult to walk downhill these days so I have to keep her arm firmly linked into mine to make sure she does not stumble or fall. When on the flat or walking uphill, Meg seems to cope somewhat better so we are thinking of making some adaptations to our daily routine. Next week according to the week-long weather forecast, it appears that we may be in for a spell of dryish weather with some clear skies all of which helps to make walking more pleasurable. It may be, though, that we need to adapt our routine somewhat to make sure that Meg gets some exercise as well as a burst of fresh air and the other benefits of walking. One thing that we will probably do is to take the car down into the park and park in the lower car park and then take a walk up to our ‘normal’ benches in the upper regions of the park. This will cut the amount of walking down somewhat but I may need to take whatever opportunities there are to walk on my own to make sure that I get the exercise I need to keep myself in reasonable condition. Early on today, our University of Birmingham had phoned on two occasions. In the first of these calls, he explained that he had a very sore throat and a bad cold and did not want to come and possible infect us (and any of our friends). Then we received a second phone call from our friend explaining that he had just administered a ‘Lateral Flow’ test to himself and this had tested negative – so he wanted to pass on this bit of news to us so that we not to worry. In the park, we did meet, though, with Seasoned World Travellor as we might have expected and without excessively dwelling on the matter exchanged news of hospital appointments that were forthcoming for both of us in the week ahead. Although Meg had a somewhat difficult journey on the way down to the park this morning, she nonetheless did find it easier to walk uphill on the way home. We had hoped to bump into some of our Catholic friends on the way home to exchange news and views of the new priest who has just taken charge of our parish but no doubt we can seize the opportunity some time later on in the week.

The COVID news is a little confusing, as I read it. According to some sources, there are some slight indications that the incidence of the Omicron variant may have peaked in London, whereas the rate is still rising dramatically in the Northwest of England, where 17 hospitals are declaring ‘critical incidents’ as they struggle to cope. There is also some talk emanating from government that we may be passing from the stage of a ‘pandemic’ to an ‘epidemic’ and we should look forward to living with the Omicron variant for the foreseeable future – much as we do with flue each year (from which, incidentally, some people will die). The emerging data tends to suggest that the  hospitalisation rate and even more, the death rate, is dramatically different with the Omicron variant – the death rate may be 21 times lower than it was during the country’s second wave. For this reason, following a large wave of cases in the U.S., some experts say that the variant could lead to even higher levels of population immunity – meaning that future surges will be even less severe. To make sense of this, I am speculating as follows. Firstly the metropolitan effect may mean that our decision makers assume that what is true for London may be true everywhere else. Also, in a polity in which stock exchange philosophies predominate (discounting the present, anticipating the future), perhaps our decision makers were thinking as though they were dealing with an economic trade cycle in which a boom will follow a slump. Therefore, the reasoning goes, we are over the worst and all we have to do is to ‘tunnel through’ the hump. There are masses of assumptions built into all of this anaylsis but I wonder if we are relaxing our grip a little too soon (just as we did before the Omicron variant hit us) and we shall have to live with the consequences.

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Saturday, 8th January, 2022 [Day 2022]

We were looking forward today to a fairly quiet and relaxing day and so it turned out to be. The weather was rather playing ‘ducks and drakes’ so we were in two minds to take a walk down to the park which is always our preference, or to make a journey by car. As the weather was overcast when we were ready for our excursion, we decided to walk down to the park but within a short time we encountered a very fine drizzle which rather put a damper upon things. We called in at Waitrose to collect our newspaper (our usual newsagent is still in a self-imposed isolation) and some milk and then made our way to the bandstand in the park – our normal ‘refuge’ when the weaher turns a little nasty. There we drank our coffee and ate our biscuits fairly rapidly and then had a fairly miserable walk home as the drizzle persisted. But when we did get home, a little late in the day, our dinner of fresh-seabass did not take long to prepare (3 minutes on the skin side, 2 minutes on the flesh side) and then served on a bed of lettuce.

We scoured the TV schedules for anything diverting during the afternoon but nothing really appealed to us. So I decided to ‘turn out’ one of the cupbaords in our outer kitchen which was threatening to become a little jumbled. I turned up both an iron and a travelling iron which promptly went to the back of the cupboard again. Then we organised some soups (both in tins and in packets)  so that we could equally put our hands on whatever we fancied and then tidied up our supplies of potato and onions that we keep in the cool of the outer kitchen. Then a good job having been done, we got ourselves ready for our departure to church in the late afternoon. We have a new priest in charge of the parish after the retirement of the Monsignor more than a year ago and then one or two ‘stand-ins’ followed by a more permanent ‘stand-in’ who looked after the parish for about 10 months. The new priest is Indian and is a member of a missionary society in the Indian state of Kerala. Meg and I feel that it might be difficult to quickly establish a report with a traditional, but largely white population in Bromsgrove – however, the new priest is still finding his feet having been in charge of the parish only for a matter of days.

The COVID-19 pandemic has passed a symbolic milepost today as the number of deaths from the virus has now passed 150,000. A further 146,390 COVID cases have also been reported, according to the latest government data, taking the total number since the beginning of the pandemic to 14,333,794.  Saturday’s figures compare to 178,250 coronavirus infections and 231 fatalities reported yesterday. The Omicron variant seems to have gone its peak in London but the concern is now that the NorthWest region of the country is seeing a sharp increase in hospitalisations.  As well as this regional effect, there is also an ‘age-related’ effect and the elderly are now beginning to feel the effects of the Omicron wave, which will send shudders through the NHS. The latest COVID surveillance report from the UK Health Security Agency shows a steep rise in the number of over-85s being admitted to hospital in England. Hospitalisations in the age group doubled from 62 in every 100,000 in the week leading up to Christmas to 121 in every 100,000 a week later. How should the government respond to such alarming trends? It does look as though the number of new hospitalisations is already ‘baked in’ as any current hospitalisation rate is a lagged function of the infection rate of some 2-3 weeks previously. It looks as though the government strategy is to try and ‘tunnel through’ what is going to be a really tough 2-4 weeks during the reminder of January and then hoping? trusting? that the figures will start to move past their peak at that point. Apart from sending in army medics which has already happened for some London hospitals, there seems to be precious little that can be done at this stage. 

There is some speculation that later in 2022, we as a society will move into a ‘post-pandemic’ phase in which COVID-19 settles into place as an endemic disease, in much of the same way that we currently experience colds and the ‘flu. Of course, this presupposes that another variant does not come and out-compete even the Omicron variant. Although a new variant has been identified in France, it does not seem to have the infective propensity of Omicron and might not make too much headway.  However, I do get the impression that as COVID-19 has been with us for nearly two years there is a certain ‘world-weariness’ and even complacency has settled in. 

 

 

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Friday, 7th January, 2022 [Day 662]

Well, today is the day when I am scheduled to visit the bank which looks after our residents association affairs  to attempt to get through their Safeguarding procedures. As it was the day for our domestic help, we did spend a certain amount of time catching up on our post-Christmas news. We both expressed the view that it is quite a lot of hard work for not very much pleasure at the end of it and although it sounds a little curmudgeonly to say so, it is rather nice to have it all over and done with and everything put away. Once we had got ourselvs sorted out I walked down to the bank and enlisted their help to get through to the SafeGuarding unit – and then the problems started all over again. My passport was checked and so far, so good. Then could I please supply evidence that our business address is where it says it is (yes – the address to which they send letters and statements of account) by supplying a tax demand (we do not pay any tax), a council tax demand (we do not pay any council tax) or a bill (our only regular bills are paid by a couple of direct debits). In extremis, a driving licence would do (even though it does not tie me to the Residents Association) So I walked home and Meg and I had an ‘instant’ type meal. Then I went  down in the car, raced down to the bank and let them have my driving licence (to scan), a communication from the company that services our BioDisc (even though it said ‘date as postmark’ and was probably not valid) and finally a duly signed form which I had downloaded from the relevant website and then filled it and signed. But when this was submitted, it also needed the signature of our Treasurer (ie neighbour) on it but of course, he wasn’t in. On checking my documents, I found I had lost my driving licence – so I raced down to th bank for a third time that day to see if I had left it at the bank. After I had paid for my parking fee and was returning to the car, I discovered my driving licence had escaped from the file and was nestling on the passenger seat so there was huge sigh of relief. I have to admit to saying my prayers than for a long time to secure its safe return and so it proved. So I need to get my neighbour’s signature over the weekend and then to return to the bank for the fifth time to try to make progress. I did say to the local counter staff (who were sympatheric but helpless under these circumstances) that I had in mind to bring a camp bed down on Monday morning, plus an invoice for £4,000 (20 hours of work at £200 an hour). They grimaced but did not demur. When I got home, I made sure that the driving licence and the passport were returned to their proper homes, waiting for the next time.

Today, Meg and I took our first ‘Lateral Flow’ test. We had in stock two boxes of 7 tests which I had pre-ordered a few days ago, ready for when we might need them. The impulse to use them this morning was the fact that we had visited some relatives yesterday. Also, when we called in at our normal newsagents before setting off for Derby, the newsagent was closed for a few days with the note that he was self-isolating for a few days. When I use the store, I always use the COVID app on my iphone before I enter the store and the system has not informed me of any potential contacts. Does this mean that the ‘Test-and-Trace’ app was not working as intended or does it mean that the cause of the self-isolation was so indirect that there was little to be worried about? However, it is always reassuring to test negative and I have ordered another box of tests so that we have a supply in stock. The government website tells me that I can order a new set every day  so I trust I am just being prudent and am not contributing to any shortages. 

Having been ‘boosted’ there is a natural feeling that we might have that we are ‘protected’ against the virus. However, protection wanes fairly rapidly. On the positive side, protection against hospitalisation is about 90% for people aged 65+. But protection against mild symptoms is more short-lived and drops to about 30% by about three months ago. As our booster jab was on 7th October, our booster jab is now exactly 3 months old. When will a 4th jab be rolled out (if at all)?The Government has set its face against so far so I am not very hopeful.

 

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Thursday, 6th January, 2022 [Day 661]

Today was a day to which we had been looking forward for some time, although it was going to be quite a busy one. Initially, it was a case of getting up early and then making sure that I could set off in good time to get to the supermarket before it opened. It was one of those mornings where we needed to resort to our well-established routine of pouring a watering can  of hot water, equipped with a long spout (designed for treating inaccesible plants and hanging baskets) over the car windscreen and windows to defrost it. Although the car was frosted, I have known worse and we were quickly (and safely) on our way. I made sure in my shopping that I bought some Cava and some houseplants for Meg’s cousins who we were shortly to motor off and see in Derby. We set off only 15 minutes later than the time we had set for ourselves and had to make a slight detour to get our newspaper from Waitrose as our regular newsagent was in a ‘self isolation’ COVID mode for the next few days. We got to Meg’s cousins just about on time but the SatNav whch is normally very reliable finds it difficult to cope with the last 100-200 metres where we have to navigate a sort of semi-made up road. Using a combination of the SatNav and our own memory from over two years ago, we managed to get there only a minute or so late to see Meg’s cousins and her daughter and husband. We had quite a lot of news to catch up even though we have ‘Zoomed’ each other quite a lot over the months – news is so much easier to convey face-to-face, though, rather than electronically. Once we admired the masses of decorations, we sat down to a magnificent meal of beef-and-game-stew with masses of beautiful vegetables (some home grown and retrieved from the freezer) This was followed by a rhubarb pie and lashings of custard so we felt replete after this magnificent meal. Naturally, we talked a lot about family members and there was opportunity to tell the odd story as well. My cousin had moved up from Cheltenham to be nearer to her daughter last summer but because of COVID restrictions we had not managed to pop over and make contact before now. Now we admired the bungalow which is a tad larger than the house Meg’s cousing had had in Cheltenham and I think will suit her needs down to the ground. She had more kitchen space and ‘utility’ space in an adjoining utility room so we were amazed at how well settled in she was in her new home. We had not wanted to pay a visit whilst she was busy settling in – it is always a slightly odd experience when you see furniture and pictures you associate with a former house now in place in a new location. Meg’s cousing had done a grand job in making it really festive (even down to ‘Santa Claus’ toilet paper which I had never seen before) and then we set off for home. Although bad weather had been forecast and indeed a flurry of snow passed overhead whilst we were busy eating, the journey home was mainly rainy but tolerable. In the dark, despite the SatNav we made a slight error but quickly corrected ourselves and got back on track quite quickly. When we got home, it was a case of a quick bowl of soup and then ‘passing out’ in front of the TV for the night.

Today is the anniversary of the days that the mob (what other name is appropriate) of Trump supporters who invaded the Capital building. What seems absolutely amazing to us on this side of the ‘pond’ is the act that a majority of Republicans (53%) believe Trump’s claim  that the election was ‘stolen’ from them against hardly any Democrats who believe this (3%). These proportions have not moved a great deal in the last year which is a sign of how divided American politics has become. ‘Republicans did not conclude from the 2020 election that the experiment with Trumpism had failed. On the contrary, most Republican elected officials and the clear majority of Republican voters consider Joe Biden and the Democratic presidency as fundamentally illegitimate and they remain united behind Donald Trump‘ argues  a German observer of the American political scene, Thomas Zimmer.

The PM came under fire from Lord Geidt for not being clear about how his Downing Street flat refurb was funded and has tonight issued an abject apology, claiming that his requests for money to refurbish the flat were ‘on an old phone’. All of this comes just a month after the Conservative party were fined nearly £18,000 for failing to declare the contributions to the Conservative party (to pay for the refurbishment of the Downing Street flat).

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Wednesday, 5th January, 2022 [Day 660]

Today was one of those ‘intermediate’ type of days when you know there is a lot to be done before the day that follows. We knew that we had to ‘stay in’ all this afternoon because I had received an intimation from one of the local hospitals that a consultant was going to give me a routine ‘telephone’ conversation some time this afternoon – could I hold myself in readiness some time between 1.00pm and 5.00pm.  So in order to save a bit of time, we went down into town by car (again) in order both to pick up our newspaper and to get to the park more quickly. On our way into the park, we bumped into Seasoned World Traveller but he had been in search of a coffee from the closed cafe in the park so was heading off to the High Street in search of a decent cappuchino. So we went up to our normal bench, the weather being reasonably fine but pretty cold. Nonetheless, we bumped into an elderly Irish couple we know fairly well (friends of friends) and we exchanged seasonal greetings and chatted about things meteorological. Then they walked on and we met anothet couple that we know quite well by sight and so another interesting chat ensued. By now, the time was pressing on so we raced home and made ourself a fairly quick dinner of quiche and quick cook veg. Now we were all set up to do our jobs for the afternoon but no sooner had sat down when our near neighbour came round to the house with even more intimations from the bank that manages our community affairs that there were going to discontinue our account.

Then followed an unbelievably frustrating afternoon. First we had our Treasurer’s credentials restored and this we managed at the 3rd attempt. For the first two attempts, our generated key code would not be accepted so we had to enlist some online help who could only suggest that we log out and then log in again as the problem may be due to a time-out problem. So eventually we got our Treasurer reinstated leaving me to try to tackle the bank once again to get through their safeguarding procedures. This is when he frustration (on my part) reached unbelievable levels because the voice on the other end of the phone wanted to go through my security credentials. I pointed out I had already had two long vists to the bank and supplied them with an updated form on two occasions which they were ‘considering’ but they needed to be told the exact date upon which I had last visted the bank. Because I could not remember the exact date upon which I had at last been in the Bank, this was regarded as a ‘failure’ of their security procedures and so do the SageGuarding Unit of the bank could not unlock my previous correspondence with the bank as I couldn’t prove who I was. I was advised to go along to the Branch (with passport etc,) to follow their procedures to identify me even though this has been done on two occasiopns before. After I had had a cup of tea, it occurred to ne that I could consult past issues of this blog which I did and discovered the exact date of my visit. I then telephoned the Bank again, feeling pleased with myself, but they refused again to allow me hrough their security procedures on the grounds that I had just failed to get past their security procedures – until I had filled in a form, printed it off, signed it, made a .pdf of it and then go down to the Bank (for a third time) so that the bank staff can verify my identity and submit a form which verifies my identity before they will even start to look at the ‘locked’ file which details what I have done to comply with safeguading proedures. So this will have to wait until Friday.

Now it was time to take down the Christmas decoration. This was a multi-stage process. First I removed the Chrustmas cards in time for a careful read and a note of news and any new addresses. Then the actual decorations came down. Then I disassembled the little fibre optic Christmas tree I have in our living room and put away the little cribs that we get out at Christmas time. Then it wad time to disrobe the Christmas tree and that did not take too long. Then this has to be split into sections and packed away in the box it came from. Then all of this lot had to be got into the loft after which I hoovered the floor, reestablished the location of our Monk’s Bench in the hall and breathed a sigh of relief that all was put away for another year – and on 12th Night as well!

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Tuesday, 4th January, 2022 [Day 659]

Today the weather has taken a decided turn for the cold – whereas we have been used to a mild spell with temperatures of above  9° or  10°. Under clear skies, the temperature could drop to -3° tonight and could rise to about 6° tomorrow in the sunshine so we need to acclimatise ourselves to near freezing temoperatures and not much more than that in the few days ahead. Meg and I collected our newspapers today, journeying in the car. When it is my Pilates day on a Tuesday, we tend to make our excursions out by car if only to save enough time for us to get turned around in time for me to start my walk down. Today as it so cool we decided to walk round the lake but did not really fancing sitting down on a freezing cold park bench. So we had a reasonable little walk arond the park lake and then turned for home and had our coffee and elevenses, already prepared, by the warmth of our own fireside. Then it was a walk down into town  for our normal Pilates session. Our Pilates teacher is always kind to us after two weeks of inactivity,not having performed our stretches for a fortnight now because of the Christmas break. I am sure this was much appreciated because we all felt a little creaky after the break. In little breaks between the exercises, we discussed how many professions used Pilates as part of their professional exercise regime, with professions as diverse as football, rugby, tennis and ballet dancers always incorporating  Pilates routines into their own. As our Pilates teacher explained, most exercises tend to get muscles to contract and to shorten whereas the Pilates techniques are more geared to stretches of a variety of kinds and this acts as a kind of corrective.

Now home to what I hope what was going to be a quiet afternoon. I did have a plan to do do a little repurposing job this afternoon. I had an old (but unused) diary with a leatherette type cover which I decided to make into a credit card holder. This involved removing all of the pages with a craft knife, using tape to cover the rough margins and then incorporating some envelope sections (with the bubble wrap on the inside) and then a combination of ex-punched cards, band elastic and superglue to hold it all together. I have to say that I never seem to have good experiences with superglue but today was no exception. However, using a combination of materials I managed to get more or less what I wanted even though the cards do protrude by half a millimeter but I managed to engineer a type to solution to all of this. The whole is held together with I call a girly band (used by young women to hold their hair in place) which I tend to use in place of a crude elastic band. Having got most of the artefact made according to my satisfaction, I think I will leave it until the morning to make any refinements.

A lot of the media attention has been focused on the outcome of the court case which may or may not go well for Prince Andrew. What I think I had not fully appreciated was that if Prince Andrew loses the case, then evidently he will have to face a full scale trial in the autumn which will not go well for him, one feels.  If however, Prince Andrew loses the case the fact that he got ‘let off’ by a technicality in which a convicted sex-offender paid $½ million dollars to one of his victims in order to buy her silence and Prince Andrew was semi-protected by a document which should have been kept secret but was only opened by a court order will not serve him well in the years ahead. It looks as though the Royal Family are trying to distance themselves as much as follows from the fallout which will inevitably follow.

The NHS is now being put onto a ‘war footing’ now that the level of infections has risen to nearly 219,000 cases. The bigger problem is, of course, how many key workers in excess of the 10% already off sick within the NHS will get the virus or have to self-isolate. It is admitted that the next 2-3 weeks are going to be critical for the NHS. On the one hand, the Omicron variant shows the slightest sign that the curve may be ‘flattening’ but on the other hand we have not had the full set of figures coming through from the Christmas and New Year celebrations – which will surely boost the infection rates. Multiple hospitals are now reporting that they are experiencing ‘critical incidents’. The government, though, is firmly committed to ‘Plan B’ which is basically no change from the ontardictory advice given out e.g. it is OK to attend football matches but everyone is encouraged to work from home.

 

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Monday, 3rd January, 2022 [Day 658]

Today is Bank Holiday Monday and is one of those rare occasions, which happen once every seven years I suppose, when the Bank Holiday associated with 1st January is shifted not to the day afterwads (which is a Sunday) but the day after the day after. Now I come to think of it, I started work in my very first job on 1st January, 1962 – New Year’s Day was not to become a Bank Holiday until 12 years later in 1974. My wages in that first job was the princely sum of £3 17s 6d which translate to the sum of £3.86 a week. My second job, though, was to triple my wages at the National Lending Library for Science and Technology, Boston Spa in Yorkshire. But today was one of those days in which, although it was a Bank Holoiday, many shops including our local Waitrose were open whereas many shops were actually closed last Saturday (which was New Year’s Day itself) Meg and I made our trip to the newspaper shop and then detoured slightly on way home to call in at Waitrose to buy a little ‘something’ before we go out for tea this afternoon. On our way back home, I called in to see our neighbour because I wanted the name and telephone of his electrician so that he could do a little repair job for us when next he is around. Chatting with our neighbours is always pleasant and I tapped his musicological memories to try to assess the relationship between folk singers and their typical political leanings. I was given a present of some Christmas cake which actually turned out to be extremely timely. This is because we were running somewhat short of time as our chiropodist was due to call at 2.00. We made a shortcut of lunch by consuming a slab of the recently donated Christmas cake with a large slab of Wensleydale cheese. This is a little delicacy often given as a treat to customers of public houses in Yorkshire. When I was a youth, it was not uncommon for the publican and/or the publican’s wife to offer a slab of Christmas cake  with a slab of Wensleydale cheese upon it to all of the pub’s customers, many of whom would be regulars at this time of the year. Then our chiropodist called round and made sure that Meg and I had properly manicured ‘trotters’ so that we could proceed with our daily peregrinations. Incidentally, we find it always useful to keep our feet in good condition and hopefully with hundreds or even thousands of serviceable miles left in them. 

This afternoon, we had been invited to have a Christmas ‘afternoon tea’ with a neighbour of a friend who we have to go quite well over the last few months. She is French by origin and taught the language for many years locally although we discovered today that her first foreign language, studied at University, was actually Spanish. We did discover something in the course of our very lively and informative conversation that we had not appreciated before. Our French friend’s university course was rather punctuated by the fact that many male members of the course were constantly being called up to provide conscripts for the French-Algerian conflict. This is formerly known as the Algerian War for Independence and  is formerly dated as 1954-1962.The height of the conflict was known as the Battle of Algiers (1956–57). French forces (which increased to 500,000 troops) managed to regain control but only through brutal measures, and the ferocity of the fighting sapped the political will of the French to continue the conflict. Apart from our conversations about some matters of French history and geography of which we were a little bit ignorant, we also discussed both French and British politics. We also have some acquaintances in common via our Italian friend who we saw the other day. We left our friend after a fascinating afternoon and perhaps we might explore the possibilities to see each other a bit more often and not just at Christmas time if the winter days turn out to be indeterminably long and miserable.

The political news today is the revelation that Epstein agreed to pay $½ million to Virginia Roberts/Virginia Giuffre. The file having now been ‘opened’ and made public, it is up to a judge to decide tomorrow whether its wide-ranging provisions to extend immunity for further legal actions applies to Prince Andrew or not. Tomorrow is probably the only thing that can save Prince Andrew and as I see it at the moment, which way the judge will decide is really too close to call. In domestic politics, the government is so desperately anxious to keep schools open that it has already been announced that all secondary school students in England will be required to wear facemasks in class as well as in communal areas when they return. Pupils will also be expected to take lateral flow tests on-site and take a test twice a week from home. In the event that there are not enough teachers, then head teachers are urged to ‘merge’ classes to avoid school closure. 

 

 

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Sunday, 2nd January, 2022 [Day 657]

It was a bit of a wild and stormy night last night so whether that made Meg and I sleep in a little later this morning I cannot say. We knew that we were going round to see some friends from 11.00am onwards and we also got a casual arrangement to meet with some friends in the park. Before we set out on our normal venture, I suddenly thought that I had no idea what was the modern terminology would be for ‘Negro Spirituals‘ – as you might imagine, this terminology is no longer used but I think if you were browsing in a music store you would head for any section called ‘Gospel’ or even ‘Gospel and Blues’ Many of the outstanding black American female singers, of both opera and popular music, have probably been noticed at an early age in their local church choir where no doubt the talent of the youngster was spotted and they were set on the right track early on. Whilst browsing around, I put ‘Gracias a la vida’ as a search term into Google and quickly came up with two outstanding Latin American singers – Violeta Parra (Chile) and Mercedes Sosa (Argentina). At a concert in La Plata in 1979, Sosa was searched and arrested on stage, along with all those attending the concert. Their release came about through international intervention. Banned in her own country, she moved to Paris and then to Madrid. Their recordings of ‘Gracias a la Vida‘ (‘Thankyou to Life’) are both incredible – Parra has an incredibly pure voice whilst Parra adds a sonority and a depth that has to be heard to be appreciated. My little diversion for a Sunday morning.

So to save time, we went out by car this morning once we had indulged ourselves on the internet and picked up our newspaper and then went onto the park where we made a lightning visit to meet with some of our normal park friends. Then we were to leave them to pop into our friend’s house along the Kidderminster Road for a little Christmas nibble. We spent a wonderful 2-3 hours with our friends and we talked over a lot of things, including family histories on both sides. We admired their wonderful display of Christmas decorations and the illustrations of some of their parents and grandparents were fascinating. As it happened, I had a photograph (colourised) of my grandmother taken in about 1908-09 on my phone and we wondering exactly how commercial photographers got colour into their photographs in those days. Anyway, the time just flew past and we made our way home, ready for a sustained reading of the Sunday newspapers. To my mind, there was not very much analysis in the papers this weekend although the ‘juicier’ stories were the aftermath of the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell and the various political dilemmas now facing Boris Johnson. It appears, though, that the next few days might prove of critical interest. On Tuesday, Prince Andrew is having to navigate some court proceedings in which he is trying to argue that his accuser Virginia Giuffre has no case as she was not a US resident at the time. If Prince Andrew loses his case, then he will certainly go on trial in the autumn and this is a case he may well lose.

More COVID developments are taking place now that Christmas and New Year are out of the way. For a start, the education secretary has declared that masks are to return in England’s secondary school classrooms to help curb spread of Omicron. This in itself is a sign how seriously the government takes the view that school children may be a ‘reservoir of infection’ – this might prove very difficult to teaching staff to operationalise. The government is also drawing up contingency plans over fears  that a quarter of public sector workers could be absent due to Omicron. This coupled with the fact that substantial numbers of medical staff may be absent due to COVID related reasons means that the NHS may find it increasing difficult to cope in the next few weeks ahead. The leader of Britain’s A&E doctors said on Tuesday that Omicron could lead to high numbers of hospital staff having to take time off ill just as the NHS was grappling with winter pressures. Soaring Covid cases could cause major shortages across industry, hospitality and healthcare, ministers have been told, as rail companies cancelled services and Royal Mail said it was experiencing high staff absences. West End shows have been cancelled because of the surge in suspected Omicron cases, while waste collections, deliveries and schools are all under threat from shortages. There is also evidence that not only public services but several other parts of the economy are under severe strain as the infection continues to rise. The government appears to be playing a terrible game of ‘chicken’ trusting that a policy of offering boosters will hold the line and that hospital admissions do not rise to unsustainable proportions. Nonetheless, 4.000 emergency COVID beds are being supplied via COVID pods attached to hospitals throughout the country.

 

 

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