When I woke up yesterday morning, it was to a cloudy and blustery day which I had not been expecting, as we had had a succession of bright blue skies and early morning sunshine. I had wanted to complete some of the clearing work on my patio and this task is not unpleasant if the weather is fine but not to be fancied if the weather is somewhat inclement. It always use to amuse me when read in one of my gardening books, principally about the sowing of seeds in the springtime that the gardener should ‘Choose a fine Day’. When browsing on my system I found a series of abot a dozen photos of Meg that I had forgotten about and some of them are duplicates but most of them ae of Meg taken when she was in her 30’s at the Scraptoft Campus of De Montfort University bt one of them is my favourite of Meg where the original had been rescued from a staff noticeboard and another holiday snap of a group taken in Pisa with the leaning tower in the background. Meanwhile, the war (or rather ceasefire) of attrition is rumbling on in the background. Iranian officials revealed yesterday what is in the phased deal that Tehran has apparently offered to Washington. The basic idea is to negotiate an opening of the Strait of Hormuz first and set aside the stickier issue of Iran’s nuclear enrichment until the war is ended and disputes over shipping from the Gulf are resolved. The Americans just see this as playing for time and thee is zero trust between the two sides. Given the number of broken promises, not to mention deadlines, one can well imagine the Iranian frustration with the current Trump regime and although Pakistani diplomats are no doubt making their best efforts in the background, the omens are not good. Isn’t it interesting though how the whole revelations from the Epstein files has been completely forgotten about by the media whilst our attention has been distracted by a war, an assassination attempt and finally a royal visit of the King and Queen to America. But we may have a dramatic developments on the domestic political front, though, as the Commons may well vote today to refer Keir Starmer to the Committee on Privileges on the basis of a claim of having misled Parliament – the greatest Parliamentary sin. How the vote will go is unclear, but Labour MPs may well vote reluctantly in support of the Prime Minister saying to themselves that after disastrous by-election results anticipated in just over a week’s time. he may well be forced to resign anyway. I am reminded in the final rounds of elections for s French president, deputies may well have had to vote for a candidate who they did not endorse but the alternatives, usually from the far Right, was infinitely worse. To make their point, the Deputies used to vote with a clothes peg on their noses which was a dramatic manifestation of their feelings and demonstrated both reluctance and distaste for voting the ways in which they did. The vote may well be influenced b various Downing Street aides who are due to give evidence before the Foreign Office Select Committee this morning and teir evidence might be especially revealing.
I took the car int town this morning to collect my copy of my daily newspaper and, upon my return set to work to complete the rest of the moss clearance from my rear patio. I an anticipated this would only take half and hour but actually, it took the best part of an hour and a half one had undertaken some additional weeds clearance and tidying up. It was now time for me t attend my Pilates session and, to be honest, I felt a little like ‘death warmed up’ by this stage. But despite feeling all in at the start of the session, I actually t somewhat better a the end of it and then made progress home. Jere I was disinclined to cook myself a full scale lunch so made do with half a can of soup. Then, by prior arrangement. my American friend called round and neither of us felt 100%. But after some relaxing chat and a bit of TV we both felt better. and speculated whether or endorphins had been stimulated to make s feel better. As the afternoon gave way to evening, we entertained ourselves by watching the American liberal political podcasts (which my friend finds fascinating, by the way) before we started to think about some tea for the two of s. My friend had brought along some nice Italian ham so we finished off preparing a meal of ham, cheese, cottage cheese and beetroot which was high in protein and low in carbohydrates and therefore good for both us. I lent my friend my book entitled ‘Guts’ which I found incredibly informative when I first purchased it about eight years ago and where I have been reliably informed, the communication between specialised cells (similar to brain cells) and he brain itself remains one of the last unexplored areas of science. The media is full of the visit of the King and Queen to America ad Trump appeared to me to be a little doddery both in reading out a prepared script and also literally holding himself together but of course the conventional Main Street Media does not concern itself with personal details.
An interesting but theoretical question has arisen as a result f the latest assassination attempt on Donad Trump. Although the would-be assassin did not actually penetrate the assembly hall containing thousands of distinguished journalists. But if there had been a concerted effort on behalf of a group instead of one ‘lone wolf’ then Trump, his wife and at least one half of the cabinet could have been wiped out in one fell swoop. Further military style planning might have to be thought about when this annual event is staged again bt postponed to later on th ear and aalso looking to the years ahead as this is an annual event. In the House of Commons, it looks as though Kei Starmer narrowly survived a vote which meant that hos conduct would not now be referred to the Committee on Privileges which is what did for Boris Johnson at the end of the day.