Meg and I had a good night’s sleep last night, which was very good news for the two of us. Yesterday, I had a rather inconclusive consultation with one of the GPs from our practice because I wondered whether there might be some medication to help Meg sleep better given that she is awake all of the day and is tending to have rather broken nights of sleep. The GPs seem reluctant in the extreme to prescribe any kind of sleeping tablet and made the suggestion, that I considered a little fatuous, that I try to keep Meg entertained for an hour after she had been put to bed at 7.30. Nonetheless, I tried to follow the advice of the doctors and after Meg had been put to bed, I rigged up a little bedside table upon which I placed one of my laptops within an easy viewing distance. Sitting also by the side of the bed, I managed to get the Sky News Politics Hub programme that runs from 7.00pm-8.00pm running via the internet. When this was concluded, I followed it up with the repeat of Channel 4 news which is broadcast an hour later 9 from 8.00pm-9.00pm (on Channel 4+1) So I followed the doctor’s advice and managed to access these two programmes which would be normal viewing for us in any case. By the most supreme of ironies, Meg fell asleep within minutes of my accessing the first programme and stayed asleep all during the night as well. But as a ‘proof of concept’ I was pretty pleased that I got this ‘diversionary tactic’ in place and tonight will be even more critical as England are due to play their final group stage match this evening, the broadcast kickoff being from 8.00pm.
This morning, Meg and I trundled down the hill to meet up with our usual Tuesday crowd. We knew that we had to get back in time to coincide with our carers which we did with about half a minute to spare. One of the carers was due to stay on for a two ‘sit’ stay with Meg whilst in theory, I go off and do Pilates. But I got Meg and the carer installed outside the back of the house as the weather was so beautiful together with some soothing cold drinks before I departed for town. There were two things I needed of which I managed to avail myself of the first whilst the second was ‘out of stock’ – these things are always annoying when I have made a special journey to obtain the same and access to the shops is so limited for me. But I got home to find Meg and the carer engaged in reading some children’s books and they seem to have had a reasonable time together. As the weather was so warm this morning, cooking was the last thing on my mind so I had already taken some frozen mackerel out of the freezer and then threw together a mackerel salad which Meg and I ate outside. The carers made their mid afternoon call ridiculously early which extend the time that Meg as to spend between now and bedtime but we got Meg comfortable in front of the TV and we are watching a bit of a Mozart piano concerto this afternoon. I am expecting a delivery of certain items from Amazon which I could do with this evening but they are indicating a delivery time between 5.30 and 7.30 which may be a bit too late for me to bring them into use. One of the anticipated deliveries is an extra pair of blackout curtains which I could really do with this evening but I suspect will arrive a little too late. Tomorrow we need to prepare ourselves for an early start (vagaries of the scheduling of the care company) but we are also anticipating a review visit by the Social Worker who has not seen us for several months now and the manager of the care agency. There are a few things to be discussed but I trust nothing too contentious at this point of time.
Tonight, England are playing in the final in their final group game against Slovenia. After the pedestrian and somewhat faltering start that England have made so far, the English fans and the English public are hoping that England play with a bit more fire in their bellies. It is only when you observe the approaches of other countries to their football do you realise how cautious and indeed boring the current English game happens to be. The Scots were beaten with only 20 seconds to spare the other evening after ten minutes of injury time. A very similar occurrence happened last night when Croatia were playing Italy. Although the two sides seemed fairly evenly matched, it is probable that the Croatians had the edge. But then there was an Italian break away in the eighth minutes of injury time and a stunning Italian goal was scored which resulted in a rather unlikely Italy win. Croatia now come bottom of their group and are eliminated but of they had managed to hang on for a few seconds more and not have a crucial lapse of concentration, they they might still be in the competition as part of the last 16.
The Tory High Command have finally decided that will disown their two candidates caught on trying to bet on the timing of the General Election before its announcement where they are arguing an ‘error of judgement’ rather than a malfeasance. But it looks as though this latest revelation of Tory sleaze might be finally being reflected in the opinion polls although we may have to wait for a day or so before we can be a bit more definitive about this. One of the dropped Tory candidates is vowing to fight on and to clear his name but a dog fight between a local candidate and the Central HQ must be music to the ears of the opposition parties. We have today received a manifesto from the Labour Party which is a bit late as it is only nine days before the election and the postal votes were sent out about a week ago. But this is part of a pattern – as long as I can remember, the Tories have got their manifesto out first and the Labour party manifesto is always on the late side.