Yesterday morning, I had set my alarm to get me up at 6.00am rather than 7.00am and my Droitwich friend and I exchanged some motivational texts to get ourselves up and running as we both feel a little like death at this hour in the morning but we both have commitments that mean we cannot really afford to luxuriate in our respective bed, much as we would like to. There are a few glimmers of hope as a way of resolving the Greenland scenario although this might be in the manner of a drowning man clutching at straws.  Firstly there is the prospect that Trump’s advisers might persuade him that the European troop enhancements in Greenland on recent days was a way of deterring the Russians, not aiming to attack Americans. Secondly, there is to be a meeting of world international leaders in Davos, Switzerland (an annual event) where other world leaders may be ably to influence Trump. Thirdly, there is recently breaking news that tariffs are having a devastating effect on America’s agricultural economy. Fourthly various Republican members of the US Senate are now getting seriously alarmed and are speaking out against Trump so we may see some of the tectonic plates shifting. Domestically, the Labour government is becoming notorious for its ‘U’ turns in policy. Two are happening before our very eyes. In the first, it looks as though the so-called Hillsborough law which enforces a degree of candour on all public officials following a disaster my be pulled so as to protect our own security services – for whom candour is the worst possible policy, preferring their own clandestine methods of working. But a more significant ‘U’ turn may be a consideration whether or not to follow the Australians and ban all mobile phone use for under 16’s. Even if the UK does not follow Australia, there are various bits of tightening that can be dome immediately such as a legal ban on phones in all type of educational establishments. Some schools are already making pupils deposit their phones in a specially built cage and these are only released when the children are ready to leave school and to go home and this may be an interesting compromise as many parents will use phones to make a rendezvous with their children when children are leaving school. The trouble with the Australian scheme is that enterprising children are already finding their way around restrictions and are sharing this knowledge with fellow pupils but personally I am of the view that there needs to be a massive campaign, along the lines of a health  education campaign, instructing school children about the ways in which the internet and social media can be force for bad just as much for good. But as I know from my own day-to-day interactions with the internet, it is easier to get an answer to an intellectual query than it is to look up the same in a reference book. I am afraid that there are no easy answers in this sphere and I do not think that I would like the challenges to be faced on a hourly basis if I were still involved in an education profession. Already in any kind of interaction with a government bureaucracy, a phone call will direct attention to an internet resource which is written at such a level of generality that it never answers the question about which one is phoning in the first place. Even speaking to a ‘human’ can take anything up to half an hour and many of these transactions tend to end in failure as well.

At about breakfast time, my Droitwich friend popped in having dropped her boys off at the school just down the road. She looked at the pile of items that I was due to take down to the charity shop and relieved me of the cagoules and waterproof leggings that we used to use on really wet days in the Lake District but I have doubt we have worn for abut 25 years. But they were still in good condition and my friend thought they could be put to an incredibly good use when her boys are doing the trekking and orienteering section of the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme. I was delighted to see these go to a good home as it were and that just left two bundles of single bed bedding and coverlets and a bag of bathroom associated goods such as some spare wall grab handles (which I no longer need as  got a permanent one fitted whilst Meg was alive) These three bundles of things I trundled along to the Salvation Army shop where they were placed on the pile of other unwanted goods. Once sorted through, some of the bedding materials they might display in the shop to be sold for cash but I imagine that the Salvation Army would never turn away good quality bedding which it could use in its own hostels or even given directly to some of the poor souls sleeping rough on the streets. Then  spent a fair bit of the morning going through some past issues of ‘The Times‘ to retain anything of interest before I set out for my scheduled appointment at the dentists in the middle of the day. I have been given two more appointments, one to fix and replace some of my fillings and the other a date with the dental hygienist some time next month. When I got home, although it was late, I cooked myself a ‘meat and two veg’ meal with the ham I had cooked over the weekend.

If Donald Trump does go ahead with his stated aim of acquiring Greenland and adding it to the United States, then of course this is an invasion of a European country by the US as well as an attack on one of the allies in the NATO alliance.In theory, Trump argues that this is to prevent the Russians from taking over the island and one would have thought that the Russians would have been highly offended.But actually the Russians are delighted with the Trump moves and are almost encouraging him on. This is because from the Russian point of view, NATO is being fatally weakened and perhaps even destroyed from within. At the same time, a Trump ‘capture’ of Greenland could be seen as a parallel of the take over of adjacent territory  which is what Russia is attempting to do with the Ukraine. Incredible though it may seem, Putin has been invited to be a member of the ‘Peace Board’ to administer the territory of Gaza in the future. Other countries may join the Peace Board if they pay Donald Trump (NOT the US Treasury) 1 $billion from whence the money, or may not, be used in the reconstruction of Gaza.

The evening before yesterday, a programme was broadcast which may have been a repeat but was well worth a watch. The programme was about the life and career of Albert Wainwright who wrote a series of seven books detailing all of the walks and routes to the Lakeland mountains and fells. The books were incredibly distinctive because each page was beautifully handwritten with excellent illustrations of the routes and topography of the mountains themselves. The books were incredibly well research because  Wainwright himself used to go off very early each weekend and for a particular mountain or fell took copious notes and then returning home would condense these down to one or two pages per mountain in his guide These guides were self-published by Wainwright and probably took the best part of a decade and.a half to write and research. It is unlikely that they will ever be paralleled because it is very unlikely that we shall ever see again a person with the dedication, illustrative skills and comprehensive attention to detail which are exemplified in the books. All dedicated walkers in the English Lakes will know about and treasure their copies of ‘Wainwrights’ for the tops of the mountains do not change very much over time apart from the occasional rock fall. In fact, it was not unknown for walkers (such as my wife and I) to have two copies of the same Guide, one of which was to be kept in a pristine condition at home and to be studied in detail the night before a walk whilst the other copy as to be taken on the walk itself and despite being protected was likely to get a little sodden with rain drops whilst it was being consulted. It has been said that the Wainwrights were the first handwritten books since the Middle Ages but I do remember that I learnt using the computer language BASIC by using a book hand drawn in the style of Wainwright. Of course, nowadays one can use a computer font such as the much derided Comic Sans MS to simulate a handwritten book but Wainwright started writing his books in the early 1950’s so computer font technology was in its infancy.

The new week started in a busy way with long messages and texts from a couple of close friends which are always nice to receive but take some time to compose a commensurate reply. At the same time there are a series of domestic activities that need to be attended to this week of which one is getting some of the excess clutter removed from our hobbit holes into the hands of the charity shops. As Bromsgrove High Street is pedestrianised, getting a big volume of material into the hands of the charity shops calls for some logistical thinking but perhaps it has to be done a few items at a time. I imagine, though, that the charity shops are overflowing with goods of all kinds as people will have taken the Christmas break allied to New Year resolutions to declutter their houses. Having said that, I still have a temptation to explore charity shops and am always on the lookout for those kinds of kitchenware goods that were manufactured decades ago I which the quality seems so much higher. One of my friends, for example will never heat up anything using a plastic container in the microwave but will always empty it into an glazed earthenware container first and there may be a point to all of these, Scientists have recently discovered that microplasticised particles can travel to all parts of the human body. Recent research confirms that microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) can migrate to the human brain, entering via the bloodstream or directly through the nasal passages, potentially bypassing the blood-brain barrier, leading to neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and neuronal damage, with studies showing increasing concentrations and concerning links to neurodegenerative processes, although the full health impacts are still being investigated. 

This morning I had a wonderful surprise as I was drinking coffee (alone) in Waitrose where I go to collect my copy of the newspaper. I bumped into an old Pilates friend who was just recovering from a hip operation which explains why our paths had not crossed recently – we have both lost our respective spouses in the past year or so sand so we both understood where we were both coming from. She used to teach Maths, Physics and Chemistry on an individual tutorial basis and I taught some Statistics and Research Methods so we sort of understood each other’s professional worlds. She used to lay on the mat next to me. as it happens and we were always joking with other about one thing or another during the class. These unexpected meetings are always such a pleasure as well – I informed my friend that one of our classmates that we had known for about 10 years was leaving the area to live nearer to her daughter in the South of England. Meanwhile, some of our attention has been distracted by the horrendous rain crash in Southern Spain. Two trains were involved, one train carrying around 300 people and had just left the historic city of Cordoba. Its speed at the moment of the accident was 110 kph, well below the maximum limit of 250 kph on that stretch whereas the oncoming train, carrying 187 people, was travelling at a speed of 205 kph, Renfe said. It now looks as though a broken fishplate or rail joint may have been the cause of the derailment which flipped some coaches onto the opposite set of tracks and into the path of the train travelling in the opposite direction. It seems a most terrible coincidence that the derailment of the first rain should have occurred so class to the imminent arrival of the second and had the second train managed to brake in time then practically all of the casualties might have been avoided.  As it was, the trains were only 20 seconds apart from each other and hence the second train could not stop in time. Casualties are already at 39 but expected to rise once heavy lifting gear can be put into place along the embankment down which some of the carriages rolled. The drivers have been complaining, though, for a long time that there were problems with the track and the overhead power supply on this section  of track.

Now that all of the celebrations and festivities are well and truly over, it is time to return to ‘normal’ living as it were. My son and daughter-in-law are due to call around later on in the morning and I am cooking them a very conventional meat-and-two veg meal of ham with baked potatoes and some Cavolo Nero kale. I must remind myself to call on my next-door neighbour who I have not seen for days as the wife is still recovering from a hip replacement operation, but I think she is still at the shuffling around the house stage. The only really exciting thing in prospect this week is a visit to the dentists to replace a temporary filling with a permanent one. These dental appointments are now like gold dust and I think the planning cycle for these appointments is about three months ahead and perhaps even longer. 

EU leaders are now gathering for a ‘make or break’ summit over the future of Greenland. Although this phrase is often over-used, on this occasion it might be completely accurate as Trump seems determined to acquire Greenland in his own words ‘by one means or another’ The ironic feature to this whole episode is that under an agreement dating from the early 1950’s the Americans have the right to build whatever military bases they want anywhere in the island (although this is theoretical rather than real as much of Greenland is ice-covered rock) But for the Europeans, we are talking about the survival of NATO as a real and practical military alliance and the invasion of Greenland would be seen as unacceptable. But it does appear that Europeans are inclined to resist Trump by force and a certain amount of ‘playing for time’ might be the order of the day. Opposition to the Greenland plan is growing in the US Congress with calls for Trump’s impeachment and moderate Republicans are wondering where the Greenland fiasco is likely  to lead them. Those of a somewhat more internationalist outlook (and there are not many Republicans of that persuasion) are disturbed about the wider geo-political implications of the Trump doctrine which seems to give the green light to big and powerful countries to invade and then annex their neighbours and all of this we thought had been ended by the second World War. In domestic politics we also to be at a turning point as well. Some are predicting that the Reform party will be emboldened and strengthened by defections from the Tory party and Reform could well replace the Labour party at any general election. But another view is that Reform will be actually weakened by being seen as the home to Tories who made a hash of things whilst last in government and many of whom lost their seats anyway. So this fracturing of the right might be a mirror image of what happened in the 1970’s when Thatcher was successful primarily because the opposition to her was divided between the Labour party and the breakaway SDP. In round terms, Thatcher only won just over 40% of the popular vote and if you take into account  the 70% voting rate in general elections, then only about 3 in every 10 people actually voted for her. It is quite possible to see a similar result being played out in future years when the Labour Party (just about) secures a little over one third of the popular vote whilst the Liberals, Tories and Reform fight over the remainder. I think it seems probably that we have seen the end of one-party governments and need to et used to the idea of coalitions which has been the norm in continental Europe, particularly Germany, for decades now.

In the late morning, my son and daughter-in-law called around and evidently it was good to see them. It was my turn to cook them a Sunday lunch so what I prepared was very simple being an unsmoked ham joint cooked in the slow cooker and then we did some potatoes par-boiled and then tossed in oil) and Cavolo Nero kale to complete the dinner. My family had brought around some little pots of mousse for our sweets and then we started to relax for the afternoon. Somehow we got onto the issue of quality measurement in education and this encouraged me to go and resurrect from the filing cabinet the classic photo I had taken of some 127 boxes of evidence that we had populated during our preparations for the last Quality Assurance visit in which I was engaged more than 20 years ago. I also resurrected the report from the assessors which I have not read for twenty years but was of particular interest to my daughter-in-law as just before her retirement she achieved an ‘Excellent’ in every category in an Ofsted report on the school of which she was a headmistress and was therefore intrigued to see what had been written about our department two decades previously. At the time, we scored a 22 out of a possible 24 points which enabled us to pass over the threshold of a ‘Qaulity’ institution on the strength of which we were invited into a multi-university consortium to investigate Quality in Business Studies education. So some of this invoked trips down memory lane but my daughter-in-law was informing me about the changes in the way in which modern universities, post-Covid, had changed recently particularly as the teaching world is now dominated by the mobile phone, the internet and the prevalence of Artificial  Intelligence which is transforming the ways  which subject is delivered, assessed and the subsequent quality monitored. My daughter-in-law and I are both of the view that education is a world which we are both glad and relieved to have left behind us and, even if successful in today’s degree programmes, there are enormous challenges to be faced in getting one’s first professional job, acquiring a foot on the housing ladder and thus acquiring a degree of economic independence. In retrospect only, it is probably the case that the generation in which my wife (when alive) were brought up must seem like some kind of golden age because the jobs market was expanding and one’s first house could be acquired for about two times the average salary instead of about ten times, often involving a deposit of some £60k which takes a lot of acquiring. There may well be some inter-generational transfer of wealth from grandparents whose major economic commitments such as mortgagee and the costs of having their own children may have diminished.  The modern ‘apprenticeship’ may be the way forward for many young people but evidence suggests that competition for certain high-quality apprenticeships, particularly degree-level roles, has become as fierce as, or even more intense than, that for top university places. While university applications are generally high, the limited supply of apprenticeship opportunities compared to high demand has created an intensely competitive market.

So yesterday dawned with that air of anticipation (and a little  dread) because this was the day of the ‘housewarming party’ Actually, this term is a little misleading because the event of the day to which I have been invited, and for which I have helped my Droitwich friend prepare is actually a Puja (Griha Pravesh).  This a Hindu religious housewarming ceremony to bless a new home, inviting positive energy with prayers, rituals (like boiling milk, breaking coconut), and offerings to deities like Lord Ganesha, while a housewarming party is the broader social celebration, often incorporating these sacred traditions to share the joy and seek blessings for prosperity and happiness in the new space, with the puja being the spiritual core. So there are a lot of preparations to be done within the house before the arrival of the ‘pandits’ (Hindu priests) who will perform all of the ceremonies within the house. So the evening before last, I joined with my friend to do some last minute shopping (mainly fruit and flowers that really need buying at the last moment). We made a trip to a specialised Asian shop in Birmingham to by some particular delicacies which are the required food for such occasions and we sat down at a little table in the shop to try some other delicacies.  Then we needed to make last minute trips to both Waitrose and to Lidl which are local supermarkets in Droitwich and there were various last minute preparations to be undertaken such as table setting. I even helped with constructing some garlands out of fresh flowers which must be a first for me. I must say that my friend and I really enjoyed doing this together and she had been involved in last minute cooking, apart from other  things.  There are various social conventions to be observed and as this is the first (and maybe the only) of these events to which I have been invited and  have learnt what these are. My friend will evidently be dressed in her finest, traditional clothing whereas for males the convention is to wear white if possible. Now when I dashed into town the other day, I ventured into the Salvation Army store and actually found a pair of white cotton trousers  which was fortunate indeed. The minute I got home, I tried them on and they were a perfect fit and my domestic help who is very knowledgeable about clothing affairs thought they were perfect. I know I have a pristine white shirt (last worn on the occasion of Meg’s funeral) but  have also hunted out some white socks to complete the ensemble. This later is quite important because shoes are never worn in such ceremonies but left at the door so my good fortune with my white clothing attire has continued – is this auspicious, I ask myself. At the last moment, the timings have all changed  so after an urgent text I need to be ready by mid-morning (which I will be) rather than midday. Now another quite extraordinary thing has occurred. One of my favourite tracks of music, much played  on ClassicFM, is from Brahms ‘How wonderful is thy dwelling place’ and of course, although a different musical tradition, the words are so appropriate to the occasion. So I have put a link to it on my phone so it can be played one a suitable occasion such as before the Hindu pandits arrive.

So I arrived at my friends house just after 11.00am and the Hindu pundits had already arrived and were setting out all the things started for an elaborate ceremony which started at about 11.30. Much attention was paid initially to Ganesha who is one of the most revered and popular deities in Hinduism, easily recognised by his elephant head and human body. He is primarily worshipped as the Remover of Obstacles (Vighnaharta), the patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and their close relationship parallels that of ‘God the Father, God the Son..’ in Christian  theology. The ceremonies involved seeking divine approval by the offering of incense, sounds (a tinkling bell) and a variety of foodstuffs. Eventually, a sacred fire is started and then the family members add grains of rice, ghee (clarified butter), milk and flower petals to the flames while the priests intone some sacred mantras. After the main ceremony had concluded, there was a quick procession through the major rooms of the house with more invocations to Hare Krishna and then a final and probably quite important blessing of the family car which given the state of today’s traffic is probably sorely needed. After we had partaken of some lunch my friend took her eldest son to a school football match I which he was committed  to play. Whilst they were out of the house, the younger son and I did a certain amount of clearing up and washed up what we could. Then after the tidying up, we spent quite a lot of time talking about cricket and then rounded after the afternoon with one of these programmes, much beloved of Channel 5, on the best adverts in place during the 7190’s and 1980’s Then when my friend and her eldest son returned it was time for me to leave but I had been at the house-cum-ceremonies for a good eight hours.

The situation in Greenland continues to evolve a  Trump is threatening 10% (growing to 25% in June) on some of the major European economies and  the Baltic stated. Several European states, including  the UK,  are sending some troops to Greenland perhaps not to engage in any real military conflict as to send a symbolic message to Donald Trump. Some analysts are arguing that supplying troops to Greenland is indicating to Trump that a military conflict would  be a disaster and therefore he using the imposition of tariffs as a political weapon to force other countries to comply with his wishes. But it does appear that Starmer has found some backbone and is now not averse to telling the US what a mistake the imposition of heavy tariffs would mean for the alliance. As Trump only understands and responds to the threat of force in international affairs, it is more important  than ever that Europe as a whole if prepared to take on rump even it comes to European states being prepared to confront USA militarily.

I awoke up a little later yesterday morning and realise that I have a certain amount of shopping to do as I forgot one or two important items yesterday. I have watched on ‘Sky News’ some of the first hand reports of the situation in Minneapolis where less than a week ago a woman was shot dead by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers who act almost as a private army for the Trump regime. The situation on the streets is incredibly tense as a second person has been shot but not killed outright and there is almost a running battle between the citizens of the city and the ICE agents who themselves deploy pepper spray and flash bombs quite freely. It looks as though the ICE agents actively search out anybody who is non-white and bundle them into their vans (i.e. arrest them) until such time as they can prove to be legitimate US citizens. The BBC correspondent on the ground is reporting  that one would think that tis is 1936 in Germany here the Gestapo lifted Jewish people off the streets merely on the grounds of appearance. But this is a massive stand-off as Trump is deploying more and more agents whilst the Minneapolis citizens are arming themselves and resisting with all of their might. Never was the word ‘flashpoint’ more accurately used and the very presence of the ICE agents, extremely heavily armed. Trump is threatening to use some legislation called the Insurrection Act which would enable him to send in actual  troops to attempt to quell the situation although it is hard to see how much better armed regular troops might be than the IC agents themselves. It could be the case that ‘regular’ American troops are more disciplined than the ICE agents themselves but, of course, troops of every stripe are not particularly well trained or accustomed to dealing with their own citizenry and one fears that further bloodshed is inevitable. This whole scenario does not the criteria to be labelled as a ‘civil war’ but it certainly feels that way in Minneapolis at the moment. Absorbed by our own political domestic news, replete with defections and back-stabbing within the Tory party the issue is relatively unreported n the British media. Sky News does a good job  but the American unrest is low on the priorities of the BBC who one feels dare not to make it their headline news for fear of offending the current Trump regime. Trying to curry favour with rump is the Nobel peace prize winner, Maria Machado who has ‘given’ her medal to Donald Trump in order one suspects to gain power in Venezuela. Trump for is part has indicated that the offer of a medal is a ‘nice gesture’ but is in no hurry to instal Machado or anything like a democratic regime in that troubled country. It is another sign of the corruption of the American political system  that Venezuela has had its past dictator removed by the Americans but they themselves are not minded to restore democracy even to a leader who by all accounts actually won the last election held there.

Yesterday was a running around kind of day. I picked up my newspaper and then popped into my local Aldi to pick up some provisions which I forgot to buy the day before. I also wanted to buy some particular little presents for the house-warming party in my friend’s house tomorrow and this involved re-parking the car and making a flying visit down the High Street. Then I came home and did not feel particularly hungry so had a little doze and then made myself a fish-on-bread type meal which I always find both nutritious and sustaining. Then I decided to bite the bullet and make the round trip to the tip to dispose of my three large old suitcases which the bin men refused to take yesterday. To be fair, the round trip was about 12 miles and took me only half an hour but the road diversions en route do not help. I spent some time wrapping up my little presents ready for tomorrow and my friend and I exchanged texts and may need to make some final, final tweaks before tomorrow. If this sounds very mysterious, all be revealed  in a later blog.

Just when you think things  could not get worst over the Greenland issue. Trump threatens tariffs against countries that don’t go along with Greenland. Donald Trump has said just now that he may put tariffs on countries that do not support his plan dor the US to control Greenland Trump said ‍at a rural health roundtable at the White House. Trump has repeatedly said that the US “absolutely” needs to acquire Greenland, increasing pressure on Denmark, which the island formally belongs to. This latest comment follows a high-stakes meeting at the White House on Wednesday between Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, along with US secretary of state Marco Rubio and vice president JD Vance. Te Europeans are already escalating the situation  and France has already  sent along the first of a contingent of French troops to support the Danes inn the face of an imminent invasion and the Germans may not be far behind. I cannot see the UK being bold enough to put boots on the ground in the present conflict because it could mean UK soldiers being asked to fire upon and kill American troops. But there are moves afoot in the US Congress to impeach Trump over the Greenland issue and some Republican senators are getting seriously alarmed. A meeting between the Danes, Greenlanders and Americans failed to resolve the issue and it now appears almost certain that Trump will attempt to get his way ‘one one way or another’ The message that sends to the rest pf the world is lightly too horrible to contemplate. The impeachment issue is given additional force by the way in which ICE is acting as a private paramilitary force and the moment may soon be approaching when parts of the American political system say that ‘Enough if enough’ and realise that the global interests of America are best served by the de-fenestratipn (‘throwing out of the window’) of the American president.

The evening before yesterday was filled with a visit, with my daughter-in-law to our local arts centre (The Artrix) to view a live feed of ‘La Traviata’ direct from the Royal Opera House in London. When we booked the seats all of the balcony seats were indicated as sold so we did not have a lot of choice half way up the stalls. But when we got to the theatre, there was hardly anybody there and there must only have been 30 people at the most in a 300-seat capacity theatre. The staff explained to us that when the theatre shows tribute bands they are almost completely full but they know that opera will be nowhere near as popular) but, after all, this is Bromsgrove. So, they indicate all of the balcony as being ‘sold’ to give the impression of a much better filled theatre, but they use the profits from the full capacity tribute band audiences to cross subsidise less popular offerings such as opera. My daughter-in-law and I were really enjoying the performance but the sound levels had been set incredibly loud so at the first of  the two scheduled intervals, we had a word with the theatre manager and he moderated the sound to a more acceptable level for us. We really enjoyed the performance and in the last scene where Violetta dies (slowly) in the arms of her  lover, I was weeping copious tears but silently so that nobody would notice in the dark. During the first interval, we had a word with another couple who told me about a Bromsgrove community choir which meets about once a week at the Methodist Centre on Thursday evenings. As men are in short supply (outnumbered about 3:1 by the women) I might be tempted to join this choir, particularly if there are opportunities to socialise afterwards. However, I am not convinced that my singing voice reaches choir standards but it might be worth a try. Both of the lead singers in the opera performance were older than we might to led to expect and the singer who played Violetta had performed the role more than 300 times and this only enhanced rather than detracted a virtuoso performance. Violetta has a huge part and is singing her heart out for most of the opera, but she realises that she is destined to die (from tuberculosis) and so a vein of sadness and impending doom runs through the whole of the opera. When I got home, I texted my Droitwich friend to see if her boys would like one of my spare briefcases as they are both college students and texted over photos of the same before engaging in a little computing before bedtime. I had discovered another little program which manually, rather than automatically, flicks through a series of photos and this had a footprint which was 40% smaller than the previous one to fulfil this function for me and, again, was easy to tweak. So this adds to my little repertoire of useful programs so  need to document it in my software book so that I do not forget how to tweak the program to fit my needs.

Our domestic help called around today rather than two days ago and we had quite to discuss after we had cleared out some material which had been stored under the eaves of the house. This delayed me somewhat so that I  missed the slot for my Tai Chi class but turned up at the very end hoping to make contact with my friendly retired bank manager. He was not there this morning  but four others who I know by sight and myself inhabited the ‘chatty table’ and entertained ourselves with travellers’ tales and the like.  I needed to buy some cleaning products for our domestic help and so left once my hours of parking was due to expire but probably on account of the rain, trying to secure a parking place nearer to the centre proved impossible. At one point, one of the nearby car parks had a queue of six cars waiting to park so eventually I trusted in the faithful  Waitrose car park and walked down into town to secure some cleaning products for my domestic and an (impulse) buy pair of casual trousers for myself. Then I returned home and prepared myself a huge lunch with bits and pieces left over (onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and some greens and made into a huge Spanish omelette. After a delayed lunch, I went for our weekly shopping at Aldi and when this was concluded met up with my Droitwich friend where we discussed some of the practical arrangements for a housewarming party she is organising for a couple of day’s time. After our clearing out activities the other day, I had rather hoped that I was to be spared a long journey to the domestic refuse tip particularly as the old and empty suitcases had disappeared and I made the assumption that the crew on the disposal vehicle had taken them away. But when I collected my wheelie bin from the kerbside, I realised that the removal men had emptied the wheelie bins and then put the abandoned suitcases back inside the wheelie bin. So they are forcing me to make a long and time expensive round trip to try to eventually dispose of these items and it seems a very churlish attitude to refuse to dispose of any additional unwanted items.

There has been another high defection from the ranks of Tory ex-ministers. to the Reform Party. Robert Jenrick has joined Reform UK, Nigel Farage has today confirmed at a press conference in Westminster. The ex-shadow justice secretary was sacked by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch this morning, after she allegedly got wind of his plan to defect – and booted him out of the Conservative Party. As that news broke, Reform leader Nigel Farage played down expectations of Jenrick joining the party, confirming that he had been in talks with the top Tory – but denying that a deal was ‘signed… and sealed’. But events clearly move quickly – as Jenrick has now become the latest, and biggest, high-profile signing for Farage’s outfit. Farage describes it as the ‘latest Christmas I have ever had’. Jenrick then joins him – after a minor panic due to his late arrival. One is very tempted to use the expression ‘rats from a sinking ship’ but that is how appears to most of us. Robert Jenrick was excoriating on the attacks that he made on other Conservatives who until a day ago were fellow members of the Shadow Conservative cabinet.

The previous day and evening had been one of complete frustration as I could not manage to adapt the HTML code with which I had been working to give me my desired rolling automatic display of photos on a particular website. But then just as I was on my way to bed, I had one of those ‘Let us just see?’ moments and went on the web only to find a program that fitted my needs perfectly. This program was beautifully but simply written with some CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) elements as well as Javascript which all give the program its functionality.  Whoever had written the program had evidently done so with ‘maintainabilty’ in prospect because well written programs always have a line of comment so that users such as myself can see what each portion of code does and therefore how it can be tweaked to fit one’s needs. So  I was delighted to find this program which is just what I was looking forward to and was quickly and easily adjusted to my exact needs and served as the perfect end to a day which otherwise had been filled with a certain degree of frustration. So naturally, I will write this up in my book of ‘What have I learnt today?’ so that I can utilise this program whenever I feel the need. Although technically, I did not really need to spend time on this, I like to keep whatever coding skills in relatively good order and reminds you that in the computing world, whatever problem you have or need to fulfil, someone out there has already been there, done that and acquired a solution. But of course, one has to ask the question in the right way to get the solution that one wants.

I was reasonably surprised upon consulting my smart speaker this morning that the initial temperature was -2° because  it did not feel that cold. I think the answer to this conundrum was that in the past few days we have had a fairly icy wind which has made the temperature feel lower than it actually was. I went onto the BBC website and consulted their weather section where they had an extremely good presentation of the week ahead. This was well illustrated with appropriate maps and representations of the weather to come so that now I know that today, is going to be dry and cold, tomorrow a huge band of rain will sweep across the country so good weather clothing is indicated whereas after that the picture is one which is cloudy and showery but with the kind of regime and temperatures  which are about typical for mid January. This particular bot of forecast is so well done I may get into the habit of consulting it quite regularly. In the political news this morning, there is an announcement of a new rail line to be built connecting Birmingham with Manchester but work only to start in the next decade. However, no timescale for when it would be built has been provided – or any other details, such as how it will be funded. The Treasury says it wants a new Birmingham-Manchester rail line, but it will not be a reinstatement of HS2. Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government scrapped a planned extension of HS2 between the two cities in 2023 to save money. Land obtained for HS2 between the West Midlands and northern cities will be kept while the project is developed. A new line would ease pressure on the West Coast Main Line, the government said. This seems like one of those announcements in which the government can claim a lot of credit but any expenditure implications will be left for future governments. I imagine that having already acquired a lot of the land in anticipation of HS2, it was sensible to retain it and use it to eventually enhance the network.

In the morning my son and daughter-in-law came around to help clean out the second of ‘hobbit holes’ giving access to the eaves and used as storage space. This particular hobbit hole had a collection of old suitcases, travel and holiday associated things and a collection of old briefcases. We have evidently retained the best of the suitcases whilst disposing of the remainder and a lot of packaging material and empty boxes have now been disposed of. Contained in one of the briefcases were quite a lot of Meg’s old medical records and it was a little sad to see these scribbled over with lots of notes in her own handwriting. I resisted the temptation to look at these in detail but there was also quite a lot of correspondence from the time of Meg’s enforced retirement which records were now more than 30 years old and well disposed of.We even discovered one or two greeting cards from our wedding which was 58 years ago now. We are now left with two large storage spaces but after we have given them both a big clean out, we shall only store a few select articles there well secured inside plastic boxes and well labelled to boot so we know exactly what is retained. As this was the day when the normal domestic rubbish is put in wheelie bins at the end of the drive, I managed to dispose of several black plastic sacks only to be left with three old but large suitcases ready to be taken to the tip. I have actually placed these on the top of our wheelie bins trusting that the reuse disposal crew who come very early in the morning (at about 8.00am) will take pity on me and throw the empty cases into their vehicle as otherwise I have to make quite a long journey to the tip which takes both time and petrol money. My son and daughter in law brought along some delicious home made mushroom soup as well as home-made mackerel paté so we lunched on these items complete with sourdough bread and this was all delicious. In the afternoon, I needed to go to our local hospital for a routine appointment and, as I was there for a minute or so over the hour paid a car parking fee of £4.40 for a stay of about 65 minutes and it is always incredibly difficult to find a car parking space any time after about 8.30 in the morning.

The evening before yesterday, I finally managed to refurbish some of the skills I used to possess in getting various photo collections online in the form that I wanted. I do have a book which I call ‘What I have learnt today’ and in this book, I document any procedures that I have used in the past but some details may have been forgotten in the meanwhile. By consulting this book, I managed to ascertain that the website that I used both to resize and also to label photos is still in operation as well as another website useful for cropping photos and these websites are now safely stored in some bookmarks for when I need them next. I also succeeded in ensuring that all of the photos that had taken of the cat that used to visit me (Miggles) are all now resized in the same aspect ratio as the originals and this means that I can now give my friend with whom I was in email contact recently the link to the website that displays the photos. I must say that messing about with photograph collections can suck time out of you, particularly  if you do it irregularly and forget some of the key details. The email client that I use allows one to store photographs in the webspace that they provide and, in theory, these are available to be viewed either as a film strip or as a slideshow. Some photos I have uploaded in the past are shown in one mode and some in another so I need to do a certain amount of fiddling about and experimentation to get things the way that I actually want them. Actually, my email client webspace reveals some quite interesting historic family photos but I need to get these displaying  a slideshow mode before I can construct a website that would tie them all together into one access URL. I think that the younger generation probably just take a photo and then make it available on Facebook without all of the messing about with which I am currently engaged. But I have no desire or intention to use Facebook in this particular way, particularly as one’s security details are always potentially at risk. There is a huge row going at the moment because Elon Musk’s ‘X’ social media (formerly Twitter) is now giving users to opportunity to undress and then to publish photos using some of the latest artificial  intelligence models. The British government is pushing back quite vigorously against this development but is being accused of ‘Fascism’ and ‘denying the rights to free speech’ by Elon Musk and the ‘X’ corporation, even though these developments are evidently falling foul of the latest and still rather weak legislation in the Online Safety Act, passed in 2023 but already being overtaken by the marches of technology. In theory, the whole of ‘X’ could be banned in the UK but no government wants to take on the media giants such as Musk who now possess enormous social and political as well as economic power. I am sure that the average users of ‘X’ have no real idea of the uses to which their data will be put once they have been seduced in parting with some of their personal data which can then be manipulated or abused in all kinds of ways. Savvy parents may try and shield their adolescent offspring from these dangers but they are no match for the huge corporations that now dominate the social media scene.

My son called around this morning and he was a welcome visitor as I had not had any social contacts over the weekend, as the bad weather had put paid to some plans that we had to have a meal together over the weekend. At the end of the morning, I attended my Pilates class but it proved to be rather a sad occasion as one of our ‘old faithfuls’ is leaving us to go and live near to her daughter in Dorset, I believe. This makes a total of four of my acquaintances and near neighbours who are selling up to live nearer to their daughters, and all of this is quite understandable, of course but it is always an occasion of sadness when a long-established friend moves away. It was raining hard when I attended my Plates class but upon my return I cooked myself a lunch of quiche and readily steamed vegetables, before continuing working on getting some of my software to work to provide me with rolling displays of some of my collections of photographs. This contained some sources of frustration as some of my collections of photos give me a wonderful rolling display but others do not and I cannot work out why the same software appears to act inconsistently. I struggled it with a bit more in the evening having thought that I had discovered a ‘work around’ solution only ultimately to be thwarted.

We have seen some interesting political news domestically as the former Chancellor (for a few days), Nadhim Zahawi, has now defected to the Reform party. Normally, the defection of a big scalp like this would be seen as a source of celebration but this is not the case today and reaction has been decided mixed. This is because of the move made by Zahari is being perceived as naked political opportunism, devoid of any ideology and only reinforces the nation that firstly, Zahari is only looking after himself and that secondly Reform is becoming a resting place for ‘spent’ Tories. Reform are finding that now having a prominent place in local government is no bed of roses as they are having to manage services which  have to be provided by law but with a funding regime that has been systematically squeezed over the years. Interestingly, Reform-led councils seem to be putting up council tax at the same rate as other political parties and this calls to mind the aphorism of a prominent American  politician of the 19th century that one ‘campaigns in poetry but has to govern in prose’. On the subject of politics, there is now almost daily speculation in the liberal American media about the state of Trump’s mental acuity which seems to be declining fast. He was asked by a fairly friendly reporter when each member of the American public was going to get the $1,000 that he promised as a’bonus’  coming from the tariffs he as imposed. Trump had apparently forgotten that he had made the promise and it is quite evident that it is not going to be honoured. Trump is quite notorious in constantly changing his mind according to the last person that has spoken with him so even close allies are having to factor in that what Trump may promise today may well have been forgotten about by tomorrow.

I awoke yesterday morning to a little nightmare (Meg and I were in a cafe we didn’t know and Meg wandered off and was lost, as was I) from which it was good to wake up and discover that the dream was not true. Fortunately, when Meg was alive this never happened but it is interesting how the subconscious retains these memories and even fears. The temperature this morning was an almost unbelievable 8° and this is predicted to rise to 11° throughout the day, although a lot of rain is forecast to accompany this rise in temperature. The evening before, I was all scheduled to have an early night and to start getting to bed at about 9.30 but I did quick consultation with my emails before retiring. Then I discovered that a long lost friend had sent me a long and informative email so this evoked an equally long reply and what with one thing  or another it was nearly midnight before I finally took to my bed.  During the cold spell, I had invested in a couple of hot water bottles and these have proved very efficacious but I wondered if I could make some covers for them. In one of our kitchen drawers, I located a couple of small kitchen towels which, to be frank, we hardly ever use so I pressed these into service, putting a strip of ‘gaffer’ tape to keep the cloths in place. I expected these to unravel during the night but they did not and actually kept warmer for longer so the plan worked very well. If I can find the time later in the day, I may try to do a little  sewing job on these to make the tea towels into permanent covers but I might be able to prevail upon a friend who I know has a sewing machine to do a quick little job for me as this stitching job might take seconds on a machine or, mote likely, I might scour eBay for some bargains.

In the mornings, I tend to have a quick look at the political news and discovered this morning news that economic protests had broken out in various parts of China. These events are quickly stamped down upon by the authorities and the censors make sure that nothing ever reaches the internet. But in this era of smart phones and the ability to take instant video, then details are leaking out of workers walking out of factories to appeal against low wages which the kind of protest that you associate with the capitalist West rather than China. Perhaps this is a sign that the world economy as a whole is running in trouble and one wonders whether the Trumpian policy of tariffs everywhere is acting as a dampener upon world trade. Now that we are in 2026, I wonder if there will be any commemorations of the General Strike in Britain which started on 3rd May and lasted only for a total of 9 days. I suspect that this event will hardly receive any media coverage although plenty of archive film exists from that time. The (upper class) university students thought it was quite a jolly jape to run the buses and the trains although they probably did not have the skills to do either – after all, to be a train driver was to be a king of the working class in those days. 

Yesterday morning I devoted quite a lot of time to getting an .html program working the way I wanted to display photos of Miggles, the incredibly beautiful tortoiseshell cat who sort of adopted me/us and who I fed night and morning for the best part of seven years before he/she mysteriously disappeared just before Meg’s death. I am in email contact with an old friend who is quite a ‘cat’ person and I wanted to put some of the photos I had into some of my own webspace. I have an .html program which is about ten years old which I have used in the past to display both holiday snaps and wedding photos and it uses some very clever html way beyond my capabilities to display photos with a little index bar so that any particular one can be chosen to view. If the original photos are in a landscape mode then the images are resized to a pretty standard 3:4 aspect ratio but if they were taken in a portrait mode then adjustments have to be made. I have got the images available on the web for my friend to view but I need to go back to some of the originals, discern the original dimensions and then make some adjustments either to the images or the code that displays them (or both) This took up most of the morning so I was pretty late getting down into town for my newspaper and then cooking myself some lunch later in the afternoon  than normal. I am on Day 1 of a regime in which I am moving slowly towards a 16:8 diet regime in which I eat nothing after about 6.30pm at night and then see if I can hold out until 10.30 the following day for breakfast. I managed it this morning and it will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes – but cups of tea are allowed at any time. 

Not being a pet owner, I have no real idea of the cost of vets’ bills but I gather they are pretty enormous these days. BBC are showing a Panorama programme asking the question why these bills are so high. In the trailer for the program, the information was given that about half of the households in the UK  own a pet and that, increasingly, big business have moved in so that now we have a situation in which 60% of the market is controlled by just six large companies. Vets have told BBC Panorama they feel under increasing pressure to make money for the big companies that employ them – and worry about the costly financial impact on pet owners. Prices charged by UK vets rose by 63% between 2016 and 2023, and the government’s competition regulator has questioned whether the pet-care market – as it stands – is giving customers value for money. One anonymous vet, who works for the UK’s largest vet care provider, IVC Evidensia, said that the company has introduced a new monitoring system that could encourage vets to offer pet owners costly tests and treatment options. A spokesperson for IVC told Panorama: ‘The group’s vets and vet nurses never prioritise revenue or transaction value over and above the welfare of the animal in their care.’

I am so relieved that the intense cold spell now seems to be over – my Smart speaker which is interrogated each morning as I make my early morning cup of tea tells me that the temperature today is 2° but predicted to rise to 11° throughout the day, which is surely to be welcomed. I have started off the day in a really positive mood so that that even a little mishap with a lampshade is not going to perturb me.  Incidentally, the positive march of technology strides on. I have a flashlight which is incredibly useful in case of emergencies/peering into dark corners but I cannot find the recharging cable for it anywhere – I suppose it will turn up but a frantic search of all of my cables used for charging phones and the like has not revealed it. I think a flashlight like this is quite an essential household commodity so I ordered a new one, hoping that the new cable supplied would fit both but the old flashlight was ordered 10 years ago in any case. My newly arrived flashlight arrived yesterday and I could not be more pleased with it. It had a 2 year warranty, cost one half as much as I paid ten years ago but is three times the brightness. As a bonus (if I lose the cable again which I will not, as I am going to find a little bag to keep the requisite cable in – rechargeable like a phone). Then I can also put normal AA batteries in rather than the re-chargeables. So I am mega pleased with this purchase, as you might imagine. 

A bizarre international story has emerged this morning. We know that Donald Trump earnestly desires the Nobel Peace prize which is particularly ironic given his warlike intentions towards Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, Syria, Iran etc. etc. The organisation that oversees the Nobel Peace Prize has dismissed claims that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado could give her recent award to President Donald Trump. The Norwegian Nobel Institute said Friday that once a Peace Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, transferred, or shared.’ The decision is final and stands for all time,’ it said. The statement comes after Ms Machado said she would like to give or share the prize with Mr Trump, who oversaw a US operation to capture Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

This is the time of year for New Year resolutions and these nearly always revolve around four themes which are diet (including drink), exercise, better habits to develop and finally new skills to acquire. I am certainly on board with the first three of these but I suppose I now have no excuse not to try to develop some keyboard skills, given that I have my Casio upon which to play (not to mention the organ acquired through eBay for £15.75 but hardly played) I suspect that I need to devote 30 minutes or so each and every day at about the same time to develop my musical skills but I am never going to make concert pianist standard. I have concentrated in the past upon slow and reflective pieces such as Offenbach’s ‘Barcarolle’, Shenandoah (the traditional American folk song dating from the early 19th century but actually of unknown or at least disputed origin) Even ‘Ode to Joy’ can be very simply played with just one hand and hardly anything to remember.  My son and I had some plans that he and wife would pop over for some Sunday lunch but it was not to be. The area to which he has moved which is only some five miles away is in the lee of the Lickey Hills (between Bromsgrove and Birmingham) and although not being very high, it certainly means that the area as a whole catches the snow and it had frozen on top of that as well, so digging one’s way was an impossibility. I was philosophical about this but it did make for a much longer and lonesome weekend as my other nearby friends seem to be either away on holiday or confined to the house with cold symptoms. In the evening, there was a film about the pilgrimage routes across Europe by Simon Reeve and he focused on the Camino de Santiago, and the pilgrimage site of San Giovanni Rotondo which is devoted to the Italian Saint Padre Pio in which the Italian authorities have invested enormous amounts of money in the construction of modern buildings to make this pilgrimage site a centre for internal Italian tourism. Naturally the program had to finish with a trip to Rome and to the Vatican seeing the shots of pilgrims in the square outside the Cathedral of Santiago earlier in the programme brought memories flooding back, given that Meg and I used to visit this cathedral every year that we visited in friends in La Coruna. After viewing this program, I had every intention of having a relatively early night by going to bed at about 9.30pm. But before I went to bed, I consulted my emails and discovered a very long and informative email from an old friend of whom so I felt constrained to answer at equal length so it was practically midnight when I actually limb up the wooden hills.

The liberal American media outlets that I access on a daily basis on ‘YouTube‘ are still filled with righteous indignation over the shooting dead of an an American woman who was attempting to flee in her car from the clutches of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Despite the efforts of the Trump establishment who are attempting to denigrate the woman and called her a ‘domestic terrorist’ a whole volume of video clip exists which proves pretty definitively that the American woman was shot in the head with three shots by an ICE officer who may well traumatised by a previous incident some six months earlier. The Trump regime have already announced that the ICE officer will not be charged with any offence or otherwise investigated and the FBI have announced that they will conduct their own investigation which is a bit of a farce because the ICE officer has already been declared innocent by the president, the vice-present and the head of Homeland Security. It appears to many that the ICE force, using heavy handed tactics and often with no identification marks and masked to boot, are acting as Trump’s own private army to spread fear through all of the cities which are Democrat controlled and where immigration, both legal and undocumented, is high.