As we awoke yesterday morning, it was to the developing news of a train crash in Bedfordshire where the driver was killed and some 100 people injured. It appeared that one train was stationery as a result of the automatic warning system and the other train crashed into the back of it. The last deadly crash occurred in October 2024 in mid-Wales, killing one passenger and seriously injuring four. Before that, a fatal crash involving two trains had not taken place in Britain for more than 25 years. So this indicates how are a tragic accident of this type is on Britain’s rail network. The authorities will be desperately hunting for clues as the cause which always narrows down to either a systems failure or human error (and of course it could be both) In the morning, I awoke to a gloomy day where it had rained during the night. Having woken up at about 5.30 I promptly went back to sleep again for a solid three hours so yesterday’s little ventures out and even the slow car journey back might have been somewhat more tiring than I thought at the time. In the evening before last, I was inclined to watch the Australia vs. USA match but once the Americans were two goals ahead, I lost interest and did not follow the rest of the match. Scotland were playing Morocco (late ) and conceded a goal when the match was only 70 seconds old from which they never recovered and lost the match 1:0. They will probably not proceed as they wished out of the group stage as they need to secure a very unlikely draw against Brazil in a forthcoming match. Now that we have approached the weekend, I have a quiet and ‘tidying up’ day in prospect but I am pleased to say that my patio now looks tremendously good after a shower of rain which makes the pastel colours in the slabs almost glow. For the price, I think I will have this patio cleaned up as an annual event as the eye is drawn to it and not necessarily to the overgrown nature of the rest of the garden which needs quite a radical pruning back after a year or so of relative neglect. I know we all like some sunny weather in June but you can have too much of a good thing. An extreme heat warning is in force for early next week as a high-humidity heatwave builds to a peak that could see temperatures top 34C (93F). The Met Office says the low 30s are likely in southern England on Sunday, before the heat is expected to ‘expand and intensify’ on Monday and Tuesday. Humidity is set to be higher than last month’s heatwave and the ‘tropical night’ threshold – where temperatures do not fall below 20C (68F) – will be met in some areas. So as one is at certain age, temperatures of this magnitude cannot be treated lightly so it is a case of keeping well hydrated and not venturing outdoors with good cause.
Later in the morning, I collected a copy of my daily newspaper and them sauntered along the High Street anticipating a coffee and a chat in my usual venue in the ‘Gifts of Love’ charity shop outlet but was disappointed to find that it was closed for the day. On the way back, I popped into the Salvation Army charity shop and bought a copy of Dr. Gillian McKeith’s book ‘You are what you Eat’ This was first published in 2004 and claimed to have sold a million copies but I wonder whether, when I dip into it, the advice it contains is still current more than twenty years later. On dietary matters, I did locate, read and then download a very interesting and scientifically well informed paper on how to reduce the starch element and thus glycaemic load of potatoes. The clue, apparently, is to soak the potato well in water overnight, then cook it in a lot of water preferably from cold and then let it cool down when a lot (but not all) of the starch load will have been released into the surrounding boiling water. I pt this into practice by boiling a cubed potato for my lunch which I then let cool. For my lunch. I had an extremely ‘healthy’ half tin of salmon, a broccoli-tomato-onion salad made palatable with a good dowsing of honey and mustard sauce and the now cooled potato. After lunch, I started to watch a war film which was ‘Battle of Britain’ which was so exciting I could not tear myself away from it. Evidently, the action documented the dog fights between the RAF (and allied squadrons of Poles, Canadians and others) The film was made in 1969, deployed the best of British acting talent such as Lawrence Olivier and was filled full of spectacular flying sequences. Although the film is well worth a watch, apparently it was a box office flop as anti-war sentiment was at its height as the Vietnam war was being brought to its conclusion and the budget for it to be made must have been spectacular. I did not fully appreciate that the initial attacks of the Luftwaffe were on British air fields in the South of England where the intention was to destroy as many of the English aircraft on the ground as well as degrading the airfield facilities. Moving away from my TV viewing, I have just read a press release from ‘The Guardian’ which has documented the fact that Brexit voting areas had a faster relative growth n foreign workers than ‘Leave’ voting areas which is not what the Brexiteers thought they were voting for. I also read a book review in today’s ‘Times‘ which brought together a collection of essays on the effects of Brexit some 10 years after the vote. According to the most definitive and authoritative studies that have been conducted to date, the UK economy has suffered a hit of between 6%-8% which explains why the ardent Brexiteers are so silent on this subject now. In other words, all of the deleterious consequences that the Leave campaign predicted have actually come about and, in the fullness of time, it will be appreciated what a disastrous mistake leaving the EU will prove to be. The early football match this evening is Netherlands vs Sweden so I think this will be fascinating match to watch. I will be supporting the Dutch but the have a reputation for being a little individualistic which may not serve them well.