The evening before last there were some good TV programmes which engaged my attention but I had to ensure that I was in bed by 9.00pm so that I could watch them on my bedroom TV and fall asleep during them if need be. The first of these was a science programme about the end of the universe as we know it in about 7 billion years time. Ay that time, the sun will expand greatly in size becoming a ‘red giant’ and swallowing up both Earth and Venus, also providing more life as the sun’s generated heat now spreads out to Saturn, Neptune and even Pluto. Some of Saturn’s moons, now frozen may be able to sustain life as we know it before eventually our sun transitions from a red giant to a white dwarf. We know that this is the fate of our own sun by the astronomical observations of thousands of other stars visible to our telescopes and radio telescopes. The other programme started at 10.00pm and was a programme about Mozart, the entrepreneur. This programme detailed the ways in which Mozart broke free from his being engaged as a court musician at the age of 17 in Salzburg under Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. Here he felt his pay was far too low and he was treated as a mere servant so he broke this period of employ and became what we would nowadays term ‘freelance’ in cities such as Paris and particularly, Vienna. Here he would organise subscription concerts as the concert hall as we know it today simply did not exist. In the subscription concerts, Mozart would perform the pieces that he himself had written for a fee and the venue would be the largest rooms available in a private house. Thus we have Mozart the entrepreneur and whilst being innovative in purely musical terms, Mozart assisted the transition to the more public form of concert with which we are familiar today. So, this Sky Arts programme was interesting but cannot be recalled (unless one has a Sky subscription which I do not) when a programme like this broadcast, it has to be watched at the time of its first transmission. After yesterday’s news about Larry the Downing Street cat having his own website, I scoured the web to see f I could find it but actually Larry’s internet presence is in the form of ‘X’. Instagram, or Facebook accounts which are the species of social media to which, for a variety of reasons, I do not and will not subscribe so in the immortal words of Basil Fawlty in ‘Fawlty Towers’ this is ‘another avenue of pleasure denied’ However, there are enough stories about Larry that leak out into the more accessible media should the urge actually take me. Meanwhile, on the political front some local authorities are still having to come which are terms to reinstate the council elections that are due to take place in early May which is only about 11 weeks ahead. Elections take some to get organised not least with the selection of candidates and the printing of ballot papers and the hiring of venues so several local authorities will be having to engage in a mad, last minute scramble and both they and the local political parties have their work cut out for the weeks ahead. I happen to think that the original decision to postpone the ballots (as some councils would be in the throws of reorganisation) was not a sensible one although one could understand how the decision came to be taken. Nonetheless, it hands a massive propaganda victory to Nigel Farage and the Reform party and further reinforces the feeling that our present Labour government seems pretty incompetent.
Yesterday morning was the day when our domestic help calls round and this is always a chance to catch up on news. In addition, my son called round after his swim to have a chat. I pop down into town as I generally do to collect a copy of my newspaper and get some cash out of the ATM. Afterwards, I attend my normal Pilates class and then returned home to make a lunch around bits and pieces I wanted to use up from the fridge before I engage in my weekly shop tomorrow. We have heard today of the death of Jesse Jackson, one of the towering figures of the American centre-left and nowadays remembered as the last of the great civil rights campaigners. Donald Trump gave a luke warm appreciation which told us more about himself than about Jesse Jackson. Jackson tried on two occasions to get the nomination to run for president and some say that campaign paved the way for the successful one offered years later by Barak Obama. As we are on the verge of Lent, it is traditionally the season when some Christians engage in the traditional habit of abstaining during the Lenten season from something they traditionally enjoy. The two favourites tend to be alcohol on the one hand (not a big problem in my case) and chocolate (which is a bigger privation) Actually giving up the latter makes the eventual consumption of Easter Eggs or the chocolate equivalent so much more enjoyable. I have often thought, with a wry smile, the tradition of Lent just happens to coincide with the period in Northern Europe when food supplies gathered during the previous autumn harvest were running short. Hence, particularly in mediaeval times, there was a theological injunction to engage in some abstinence which just happens to coincide with the belt tightening necessitated by the dwindling food supplies. Personally, I have always wanted to follow the advice of the great Manchester United and Northern Ireland footballer, George Best, who drank himself to death. A saying attributed to him was that ‘I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered’ and I often think at this time of year that I do shall give up this same list of life’s pleasures (alcohol, birds and fast cars) for Lent as well. Nowadays, we are often enjoined not to give things up but to do something extra to gain a little theological credit. If I pop down to the Methodist Centre tomorrow which I sometimes do to help to populate their ‘chatty’ tabl, I shall try and spin out some of these ideas and see what reaction I get. I suspect, though, that given the age profile of those that attend the coffee morning are past the stage of giving up anything for Lent in any case.