Before I went to bed the evening before yesterday, something made me look in the bedroom drawer where I keep precious cards that I do not wish to put into my wallet in case they got lost. I noticed, with some dismay that used to be called the EHIC card which facilitates parallel health treatment was due to expire at the end of December. At the time of our leaving the EU, the former EHIC card needed to be renegotiated and it is now called the ‘Global Health Insurance Card’ although it is not, of curse, global but all references to the EC had to be expunged) So I decided to stay up late and see if I could order a replacement card to run from the previous one. The process was a pretty straightforward one and needed details such as National Insurance number and other details such as current address and so on. I was informed that my application had been successfully submitted and was now awaiting approval and that in a few minutes I should receive some notification in my email. I waited for a few moments and then looked in my ‘Spam’ folder where I was delighted to be informed that my application had been approved and that I should expect my new card to arrive within fifteen working days which means I should get it just before Christmas, provided it does not get snarled up in the Christmas card traffic, so this was some relief to me. The Christmas carol season is now in full swing on ClassicFM and, so far, they have been pretty tasteful ones but I admit to a hearty dislike of carols like ‘God bless ye merry gentlemen’ But at this time of year I am reminded of a humorous take on Christmas carols that o heard some time ago. A comedy programme was harking back to the days when extra wide cinema screens were introduced into the UK n about the early 1960’s, Often if the projection equipment was not completely up to date then a film was shown wide screen but with the extreme left and right margins cut off. So, the comedy programme was surmising what Christmas carols would sound like if a generation of children had been taught but with the initial and last letters of the first line erased. So we would end up with classic lines such as ‘(A)way in a mange(r)’ and ‘(H)ark the herald angels sin(g)’ and similar truncations. So Meg and I were amused by all of this and would often sing the truncated (funnier) versions to each other. Of course, it is tugging at the heart strings that this is no more for Meg but as a family we will have to navigate the first Christmas without he with some fortitude, which I am sure that we will. On Christmassy type things, I have all of our all of our Christmas decorations taken down from the loft but I am going to leave it to our domestic help to do some of the heavy lifting next Tuesday (she particularly likes dressing Christmas trees and is very skilful at it as well)
Later in the morning, my University of Birmingham friend phoned and we decided to go out as we often do on a Sunday morning to the water sports centre where we have a coffee overlooking a particularly tranquil stretch of water on which there are sometimes water sports such as caning and kayaking but not today. So I returned home having picked up a newspaper from a local garage and then started making some preparations for the meal I was going to share with my Droitwich friend later on in the afternoon. As it turned out, she was quite delayed after a long conversation but eventually we coincided and coked a steak meal between us. Then as my friend had experienced a late night the night before she decided to turn in and have a really early night so that she was refreshed and ready for her next week’s work which she generally commences at about 6.30am each morning. During some periods during the day, I have tried to get to the bottom pf the story of whether or not Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has lied to the nation and to the Commons. We seem to have been told for months now that there is a deficit in the public finances of some £20bn-£30bn and this reason, Reeves introduced a budget in which taxes to the tune of £26bn were raised by not indexing income tax allowances. But now we have learnt the OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility) actually predicted a small budget surplus of some £5 br so perhaps no tax rises were necessary at all. The Chancellor has responded by arguing that the figure of£ £5bn was artificial n that it did not take account past governmental decisions such as the restoration of the winter fuel allowance and other measures taken in the Spring budget. It is difficult to make head or tail o these transactions where £bn appear to appear, disappear and reappear within days. No wonder the Opposition is indicating that Reeves is guilty of a lie and the deception of the Commons but the role of the OBR seems equally duplicitous – had they been leaned upon by the Treasury one wonders?
As the 1st December is a Monday, it does feel that the winer has reached a particular turning point. Some people, without families, do not look forward to the enforced jollity of the Christmas season in any case and my mother, when she was alive, wryly observed that she saw more conflicts within the family over Christmastime than any other period of the year and one an appreciate why. Although there is a lot of Christmassy trash on the TV, there is the occasional little gem which shines out and this year, Channel 4 shows the delightful ‘The tiger who came to tea’ which can be appreciated at any age. I rather like those programmes that have a review of the year, either in photographs or in news stories broadcast at this time of year. Also, in three weeks time we will have experienced the longest night and the days will start to lighten at the rate of 1-2 minutes day. Thos week I have the party to think about for next Sunday but my son and his wife are away in Spain so I shall not see them during the forthcoming week any my Droitwich friend has a ‘works outing weekend’ with her professional colleagues over next weekend.