When I awoke yesterday, I could not resist how our newly steam-cleaned patio appeared in the early morning light (i.e. not glaring sunshine) The patio looked superb under these conditions of subdued lighting and I immediately took a photo of it and transmitted it on to my son. Later on today, when my American friend calls around, we shall painstakingly see how many different colours are represented and it makes me realise that whoever constructed it some 25 years ago had put a great deal of thought into the construction process so that each slab was surrounded by somewhat contrasting colours. When all was covered with a layer of grime and dust, these subtle details are lost only to be revealed on a deep clean. I feel resolved to let the excellent firm who did this give the patio an annual maintenance ‘steam’ clean as it lifts the whole appearance of the garden as one’s eyes are immediately drawn to it rather than the rather overgrown nature of the rest of the garden. My lavatera plant has bent over as the result of its own weight and profusion of growth and flowers and I recall that exactly the sane thing happened to the lavatera shrub that we had in our front garden in Thurnby, Leicestershire some thirty years ago now. I needed to make an early start to the day because I attend the 8.30 church service by getting there at 8.00am in the morning, to be followed by a coffee-and-biscuits and then a weekly car clean with do-it-yourself car cleaning equipment but if I work sufficiently rapidly, I can get the whole car cleaned with just one £2.00 treatment session. I ensured that the beef was started off in our slow cooker and have calculated that after I have cooked and then saved some of the joint, I should be able to get ten meals out of the joint (which is so expensive nowadays) In the World Cup, Scotland were scheduled to play Haiti in a match which started at 1.30am in the morning and I suppose that only dedicated Scotland supporters would wait up to watch this match. But I leaned in the morning that Scotland had beaten Haiti 1:0 and, after Brazil and Morocco drew their match, are now top of their group and stand a chance of progressing onto the next stage of the competition. On the world stage, Donald Trump is saying that a deal with Iran would be signed today which the Iranians are actually denying so it will be interesting to see if it happens. One part of the deal is that the Straits of Hormuz will be reopened immediately but we are not going to revert to the ‘status quo ante’ because Iran has now come to realise that it can effectively close the Straits at a moments notice with a cheap supply of ballistic missiles which gives Iran a post-conflict strategic bargaining power that was not evident before the war. But it is a sad reflection that we in the western democracies will be feeling the effects of this conflict for weeks if not months ahead and some would argue was a conflict that Israel bounced the United States into weeks ago and Trump has been outsmarted by all of the significant players in the region.
After the church service this morning, I partook of my usual cup of coffee in the parish hall but I am trying to cut down on unnecessary carbohydrates so I gave the biscuits a miss. One of the younger parishioners is a very keen cricket fan so we spent some happy minutes exchanging cricketing stories before which included the occasion on which in the middle of the Headingly Test match, served Fred Trueman a pint of beer – and the thing that I remember most about ‘Fiery Fred’ what he had a blonde in one arm and a brunette in the other and I am sure he would spent many a happy explaining some of the obscure points of the arcane rules of cricket to them. After that, I took the car for its weekly car wash (a do-it-yourself arrangement with a variety of lances dispensing either detergent-laden or cold rinsing water and you can switch between modes as well) I picked up my copy of the ‘Sunday Times’ and then had to busy myself when I got in cooking myself a little hot breakfast and then preparing the lunch. The beef we are going to have today was cooking in the slow cooker so I have to prepare some onion gravy and wash up the huge porcelain dish in which the beef was cooked in the slow cooker which is always quite a slow job. There are various World Cup matches being played today with Netherlands vs.Japan probably being the pick of the bunch.
My American friend popped around for the promised Sunday lunch and I had already prepared the beef and the onion gravy whilst my friend and I prepared the green vegetables and then cooked them rapidly. The meal was a great success but I did forget the Yorkshire puddings but after the meal was over we rested a little while in our back garden and I righted the huge lavatera bush that had blown over in the wind. We then tried to ascertain between us the numbers of different colours manifest in the paving slabs of our back garden patio and my estimate was at least thirty. I must try and discover perhaps from my very knowledgeable neighbour whether these flags were originally a form of cast concrete which was then coloured with a pigment or whether he is aware of other modes of manufacture. At this point, we decided to go and have a walk in the park and there was a cooling breeze but evidently the park had been quite heavily frequented because it appeared that there had been a brass band concert earlier in the afternoon. My friend and I did a couple of circuits of the lake and then stopped off at our favourite bench for a breather before returning home to have a spot of tea. We surprised ourselves by not turning on the TV at all today but we did each have a bowl of soup by way of a light evening meal and we made some tentative plans for a trip out next Friday and for some joint exercise walks in the local park during the week. We were both discussing to what extent we should take on any extra commitments and came to the view that we were both fairly busy with various activities during the week. For example, I have my Classical Music Appreciation group monthly meeting this Thursday and we both have a flat/houses to maintain and keep ship-shape. It looks as though Keir Starmer has heeded the many calls for tighter regulation of the social media by being ready to announce a ban on under 16’s using certain platforms. The trouble is that the Australian experience tends to indicate that tech savvy teenagers can find a way around such restrictions by using, for example, a readily available VPN (Virtual Private Network)