The evening before yesterday I made a point of watching one of the series of ‘Wainwright Walks’ the subject of which was the little jewel of a mountain called Cat Bells which overlooks Derwentwater, one of the lakes nearest to Keswick. This little mountain is highly visible from much of Derwentwater and has attracted thousands of family visitors who have been attracted to it because it is quite accessible, not very high at 1500′ and, in theory, quite walkable by all members of a family. I have a photo somehow in my collection of having got my mother at an advanced age half-way up Cat Bells but there are some quite steep little scrambles on it, not least near to the summit itself. Once the programme had concluded I carried on watching a fascinating documentary on the Bermuda Triangle, an area of sea bounded by Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico. Some fifty ships and twenty aircraft have inexplicably disappeared without trace in the Bermuda Triangle and this has given rise to several lurid stories. But gradually it seems that the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle are being scientifically investigated and one of the latest theories is that a combination of strong currents coupled with strong winds can create monster waves that overpower aircraft. The initial loss of five aircraft without trace has now been analysed as pilots becoming spatially disoriented and seeing a landmass in a different direction to that anticipated assumed that their instrumentation was malfunctioning whereas it was, in fact accurate.
We have witnessed a massive climbdown by Donald Trump meeting with the worlds economic leaders in Davos, Switzerland. Trump has dropped tariff threats after NATO talks about Greenland and says he will not be imposing tariffs regarding Greenland after a very productive meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte. In his post on his ‘Truth Social’ platform, Trump declared that he had formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. The US president added that the solution will be great for the US and all NATO countries and based upon this understanding, tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st would not be imposed. The exact nature of the climbdown is somewhat difficult to discern at the moment. It looks as though the Americans may have promised access to whatever military bases they desire on Greenland in perpetuity but whether this amounts to a limited transfer of sovereignty may be revealed in time. Trump for his part is heralding the latest developments in his ‘Board of Peace’ to oversee Gaza but this seems just like a tactic to divert attention away from Greenland. What is now clear is that Trump uses brutish behaviour and warlike threats as a constant element in his approach to world affairs and now he is anything but an ally who can be trusted to keep his word. During the day, I had seen a programme by a forensic psychiatrist who had diagnosed what he terms ‘malignant narcissism’ in Trump’s personality. Psychiatrists are not supposed to offer diagnoses at a distance but occasionally they do look at evidence of what people have written about themselves to make a diagnosis. In Trump’s case, the letter sent to the Norwegian government complaining that they’ (i.e. not the Nobel committee) had robbed him of the Peace Prize which he thought was rightfully his after ending eight wars (supposedly) displayed all of the classic signs of malignant narcissism and this analysis seemed very sound. Other things that are quite momentous get revealed by the American liberal media who are following appearance of key officials before various Senate committees assiduously. There was one clip of film which I found to be literally jaw dropping. An American senator presented evidence to a committee in which Kash Patel was supposedly confronted by evidence that he had singlehandedly deleted 2.4 terabytes of FBI data covering issues such as Russian interference in US elections and the Maxwell and Epstein cases. But despite a YouTube clip which I have seen, it is also being claimed that this story is entirely fictitious and has been constructed i.e. made up for purely entertainment purposes. The Main Street Media such as the New York Times and the BBC seem to have fact-checked this story and have chosen not to believe it so perhaps it is true that some counter-propaganda is at work in the American liberal media and ‘truth’ is fast disappearing.
Our domestic help called around this morning and after a brief chat with her, I went quickly to participate in my Tai Chi session (which I actually missed a week ago) This was held by our normal instructor’s daughter and I appreciated her approach very much. Afterwards, I had a coffee with a bank manager friend of mine and we commiserated about such things as how difficult it was to park in the Worcester Royal hospital car park. This is fast approaching that of a national scandal. Parking at Worcestershire Royal Hospital is widely described as a ‘nightmare’ due to severe congestion, with visitors reporting 60–90 minute waits just to exit the site, particularly during peak times. The layout causes long tailbacks on Charles Hastings Way, with limited spaces and high demand leading to stressful, long-term issues. Things were just as bad when I had a stay in the hospital nearly eight years ago now and nothing has improved in the meantime. After our coffee which was very welcome as we had not bumped into each other since before Christmas, I returned home where our domestic help was hard at work. I mentioned to her how we are having great difficulty removing the shielding perspex cover to the hood light over the cooker because a retaining screw had become ‘stripped’ i.e. a screwdriver would only rotate and not grip it any more. Now my domestic help had solved this problem before and we managed to get the screw loosened a little using an elastic band and one of those micro-screwdrivers that are often sold in a pack of six. We could then unscrew cover, access the bulb and order a new one which we did via Amazon with a pack of two arriving the next day. So this will shortly solve quite a great problem as cooking without an overhead light is not to be recommended. Our domestic help also located a cup that had been missing for days and she has great ‘form’ in managing to find items such a these which might be anywhere in the house.