Yesterday being a Saturday is the day traditionally when I go down and visit my two friends in Wetherspoons which I did ofter several trips around the car park in Waitrose which was absolutely teeming. After the conversation that I had with my niece the evening before, I received a photo of Meg and my great-niece (i.e. the daughter of the niece) who had come to stay with us at the age of about 14. I did not remember much about this visit except the photo was taken on a train and I suspect that we had taken the opportunity to go into Winchester by train and to show my niece sights such as Winchester Cathedral and the site of Jane Austen’s house. Incidentally, here is a stunningly good piece of biography on Jane Austen which is being repeated on BBC2 and which I shall enjoy watching. After I had taken leave of my Saturday morning friends, I struck out for Asda because they had, in the past, stocked a very nice semi seco Cava and the supervisor that I know there had promised me that she would apply some staff discount for me. But my search for semi seco was fruitless and none of the other supervisors claimed to know of a Gloria although I was only speaking to her a couple of days ago. Perhaps she has left Asda and had some kind of loyalty card to discount goods from there. So then I made for Morrisons as our domestic help has said that I had bought her a very nice semi seco from there some time ago. Morrisons had a fair selection of Cavas although there are acres of space devoted to Prosecco at the moment. As I suspected, Prosecco has seen a significant increase in popularity and sales, and it has arguably become a dominant force in the sparkling wine market, particularly in countries like the UK. While it has not necessarily flooded the market by displacing other sparkling wines entirely, it has become the preferred choice for many consumers. After engaging the attention of a supervisor (eventually) I did buy ten bottles of bubbly for our celebrations. They are split into three types – a Freixenet Vintage Rose 2022, a fairly standard Brut Cava and some semi seco of unknown provenance so I hope that I can cater for everybody’s taste. My intention is that about 3.00 in the afternoon, I am going to recount a few amusing anecdotes from Meg’s life, that we can toast her I some Spanish Cava and that anyone else who wishes to say a few words in appreciation of Meg can take the floor. This has to be timed quite carefully because those who have made long journeys will be naturally anxious to hit the trail back home again. Some people will be staying in the hotel in any case so I can join them later and we can polish off any champagne that happens to remain. I do not know whether this is traditional at funerals or not but it seems to me to be entirely appropriate to give Meg the type of send off she would have preferred. After I cooked myself some lunch, it seemed a little dull and although at first I was disinclined (but then the weather brightened) so I made myself cut the front grassed area so as to keep myself on schedule. These days, after the first cut, I make myself a cup of tea and enjoy that sitting on the bench at the front until I can face doing the second, transverse cut which is always quicker. In the morning, my son and daughter-in-law had very kindly called around and whilst I was out (buying champagne) they finished off the cutting of the high hedge around the biodisk which they had half done a couple of weeks ago and now completed for me.
Having lived in Leicester for twenty six years, I still remain interested in events occurring in the city. Leicester was in the news yesterday, the principal one being that in a quiet street adjacent to De Montfort University there had been an altercation during the night and it appears that a motor vehicle has been used as a ‘weapon of attack’ to settle off an argument. There must be a demonstration effect here after the events in Liverpool recently but I fear that it is a trend that may be spreading. The other story relates to the foundation of the Leicester economy which is the fashion industry. There have been many stories about Leicester’s clothing industry in recent years: grim labour conditions, pay below the minimum wage and ‘dark factories’ serving the fast fashion sector. What is less well known is what happened next ,as in short, the industry has been hollowed out. In the wake of the recurrent scandals over sweatshop conditions in Leicester,the majority of major brands have now abandoned the city, triggering an implosion in production in the place that once boasted that it ‘clothed the world’. And now Leicester faces a further existential double-threat: competition from Chinese companies like Shein and Temu, and the impending arrival of cheap imports from India, following the recent trade deal signed with the UK. Many worry it could spell an end for the city’s fashion business altogether. When we first moved to Leicester in 1971, one of our near neighbours was an ex-Mancunian probation officer and we naturally became friendly with him and his two children (and I think the sweet little pre-pubescent daughter we knew shocked her parents by running off to become an ‘exotic dancer’ on a cruise liner) The story our Mancunian friend told us about the inhabitants of Leicester within weeks of our arrival in the city was that the inhabitants of Leicester ‘were so dedicated to making money and with so little sense of history or culture that if they had been present at the Crucifixion, they would have been offering cut-price nails to the Roman soldiers’ Despite this cruel jibe, Leicester did have a small town mentality and I was told more than once that the principal concert hall in the town, the De Montfort Hall ‘had only cost us £14,000 to build in 1919 and we have not spent a penny on it since’ De Monfort University held its Degree and Diploma ceremonies in this hall but things had to rapidly give way to the wrestling which was scheduled for the day afterwards.