By the time I had some pleasant beers with my nephew, unpacked and got my laptop hot-spotted with my iPhone ,the blog completed and had a spot of food, it was after 1.0 so I settled down to sleep but I ensured that I had ClassicFM playing softly in the background to lull me off to sleep. I actually did sleep in for an hour which was no bad thing and when I opened my hotel curtains this morning, noted that I had got a room actually in the front of the hotel. The sun streamed in through the windows so it looks as though we are going to have a pleasant day. The international news this morning looks particularly bleak this morning. The UDA has blocked Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and a delegation of some 80 others from attending the United Nations Assembly in New York by denying them an entrance visa. As the Palestinian state has not been recognised as a full-blown state by the UN but this may well come, the Palestinians are attending as observers and so the USA can block visas if it wishes to. This looks like an act of extreme vindictiveness an although the USA may be acting within its legal rights, this is hardly the way in which to make friends or to influence people. But one has to say that the US has very little regard, if any, for the deliberations of the UN and regularly ignores its votes in any case. The Ukraine conflict rumbles on with massive air strikes against the capital but the USA does not appear to care and it does not look as though Trump will do anything to offend his ‘friend’, Putin. Meanwhile in the USA, Donald Trump’s tariffs have been ruled as unconstitutional, but they can remain in place for now, the US Court of Appeals has said. The court ruled that the US president was not legally allowed to declare national emergencies and impose import taxes on almost every country, as it mostly upheld a decision by a specialised federal trade court. However, the court struck down a portion of the previous ruling that would have immediately cancelled the tariffs, allowing the Trump administration time to appeal to the US Supreme Court. As the Supreme Court is stuffed full of Trump nominees, there is no doubt that they will reverse the judgement of the lower court even though it is a specialised court dealing with trade matters. The decision could limit the speed and severity with which Mr Trump could act, despite having alternative laws for imposing import taxes. Mr Trump’s tariffs, which reversed decades of US trade policy, increased fears of higher prices and slower economic growth after they shook the global markets. However, they also alienated US trading partners and allies, as Mr Trump used the levies to pressure the European Union, Japan, and other countries into accepting one-sided trade deals. One wonders where all of turmoil will end but the depressing fact is that even if Trump were to be declared mentally unfit, then J D Vance the Vice president would take over and most of the Trump ‘legacy’ would be preserved.
In the morning, I walked into town and met up with my niece promptly at 10.00am, as arranged. We went to the upstairs of the cafe and ate some tremendous home cooked Italian food and I gave my niece the medallion of the ‘Virgen de Guadaloupe’ (the patron saint of Mexico) given to Meg when we visited our son in Mexico in about 1987. Meg wore this medallion constantly right up to the day that she died and her niece felt very grateful and thankful to accept this piece of family jewellery which has almost acquired the status of a family heirloom by now. We were joined by my niece’s daughter who is part way through her training to be a physiotherapist and in view of Meg’s recent experiences, we had some interesting conversations about the work and role of physiotherapists as well as about our university experiences in general. My niece had gone to university in her early 20’s when she already had a daughter from her first marriage and therefore, like Martin and myself in our own ways, felt so much older than our immediate classmates and were eager to acquire as many of the benefits of our higher education experience as it was possible to glean. Then we made our way round the corner to Marks and Spencer where they selling some magnificent orchards in a pot so I bought one for my sister knowing that she would appreciate this. Having bought this and a card, my niece drove me to the residential home in Knaresborough (some three miles distant) where my sister is now lodged and I spent a couple of hours of so with her before it was time to depart and catch my train back to Harrogate. You would have thought this journey would be unproblematic but I had to roam from platform to platform via a subway to search for a ticket office which did not exist as the station was now unmanned. Eventually, I was directed to an automatic ticket machine where the option to buy a ticket was greyed out and unavailable unless you first downloaded an app which I did not inclined to do. So, I travelled to Harrogate ticketless and explained my efforts to buy a ticket to a station employee. To all of my complaints he replied that it was not his problem but he took the cash for the train journey, reduced because of my Railcard without demur and so I walked down the hotel which did not take too long. I visited a little ‘open all hours’ store just opposite the hotel to buy some milk and comestibles and then lay down for a nice cup of tea and a well-earned rest.
I looked at the TV schedules just a little too late this afternoon and see that I have missed the first half of the England vs. Samoa Women’s International Rugby. But when I eventually tuned in, it was half time and England were leading 47:0 so presumably the second half is going to be a try fest as well. So this is going to be an interesting 40 minutes of Rugby and I may be able to watch USA vs. Australia later on this evening. I am well equipped with food and drink so am quite happy to have a lazy evening in and on my own before I meet the family for my sister’s birthday’s birthday celebrations tomorrow afternoon