These days I tend to wake up just before 6.00am and during the summer was in the habit of instantly getting up. But as the nights are going longer and the days are getting colder, I do stay in bed for an extra half an hour and get up that little bit later. I will nearly always have ClassicFM playing gently in the background and I generally recognise all the tracks that are being played but occasionally I do drift off to sleep again. I do find this is a wonderfully contemplative time of the day, though, as sometimes I reflect upon the events of the past day as well as thinking ahead to my commitments for the day ahead. Thinking about the events of yesterday, I am quite excited about the prospects afforded by the interest groups which comprise the U£A (University of the Third Age) here in Bromsgrove. There are several of these that I feel inclined to join including a two-day trip (and overnight stay to Yorshire) next Spring as well as a Christmas meal. But the thing which is a bit of a challenge for me, but one to which I may be able to rise, is to become the group convenor and tutor for a course in conversational Spanish. Now this does not yet exist but the organiser yesteday seemed to think there would probably be quite a demand for it so I may have to do some preliminary preparation by choosing an appropriate learning text for example. I have to say that the audience yesterday was overwhelmingly female rather than male but this just reflects the facts of human biology where women tend to out-survive their husbands and the women who have joined U3A (the recognised abbreviation) are getting on with the rest of their lives as their husbands or former partners have died (or some of them) and their families have grown up. Now my University of Birmingham friend had found a couple of groups in U3A but he travelled to Kidderminster for them, one of them being a French conversation class (at which he is very adept) and the other a sort of moral philosophy course in which great ethical days of the day are discussed. He has suggested to me in the past that I join U3A and I might even recruit him into the not-yet-formed Spanish course.
Today some economic news has been announced which may well have an impact upon my personal finances. The state pension is likely to rise by 4.7% in April, after the latest official figures showed this was the pace of wage growth. The pension is determined by the triple lock, which means it will rise every year by whichever is highest: inflation in September, average weekly earnings from May to July or 2.5%. Inflation in September is expected to be 4% by the Bank of England, meaning wage data, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday, is set to be the highest figure. Government retains control of pension increases and, despite commitments, could decide not to abide by the triple lock. But the actual, rather than the anticipated figure will actually be announced in about the third week of October and will reflect the September figures upon which the April pension increases will actually be calculated.
Today was the day when our new washing machine was due to be installed but first I had a corner in our utility room which needed a really good clean out. In the past, I had stored bird food and nuts and even some fat-balls in this corner and there was a lot of gardening associated clutter stored in what in a former life were vegetable racks. So I had to work like a demon to clear this corner out because I suspect that it was the birdfood that had attracted a mouse which had chewed through the washer outlet cable. I was pretty exhausted by lunchtime but my son called around to help with the new washer installation because we had been given a time between 2.25 and 4.25. The John Lewis crew did not turn until 5.00pm and were with us for practically an hour as the clips on some of the hoses needed some adjustments before they could be safely attached. So, this meant that my son and I were waiting around the whole of the afternoon but we are pleased to get the new machine installed at last. Consulting the web, with some care it should last for 10 years and the old one had lasted nearly seven years but the John Lewis staff thought that five years was about average. So, there was a certain degree of tidying up and mopping up of water dribbles to be done and I am trying to keep the relevant corner clutter free in future. I have a tub of fat balls which I might have to throw away if I cannot give them away.
So today we have had all of the pageantry it is possible to imagine to appease the alteady enormous ego of Donald Trump. So we have rides in state coaches, inspection of the massed ranks of soldiers and a flypast by the Red Arrows. I found it mildly interesting to note that the UK planners could not allow Domald Trump on the streets of London for fear that he might see fist hand the opposition to him and his policies. So, the rides within the state coaches were all within the grounds of Windsor Great Park without a single member of the British public in sight. Tonight, there is going to be a huge state banquet after which there will be speeches which may or may be interesting. But the real political discussions will come tomorrow after a day of pomp, pageantry and obsequious flattery. Some forms of protest have been in evidence as four people have been arrested after projecting images of Trump and Epstein together onto the walls of Windsor castle.
Tomorrow, I may well follow the promptings of my domestic help and to shop at the Lidl store in town which happens to be just across the road from Aldi. The principal thing that attracts me is the fact that, by all accounts, Lidl sells off boxes of vegetables at a very low price. I have downloaded the app onto my iPhone but I must confess that I do not like the first visit to a new (to me) supermarket because one has to spend time to locate one’s favourite foodstuffs and other items.