So when I got up yesterday morning, I set to work by amending the underlying HTML code so that the latest ‘classic’ and recently re-discovered photos of Meg now show in the correct sequence. I have not blended them into the main sequence just yet but have them as a separate little series – they were taken before the days of digital photography and therefore had to be scanned into the computer. They tend to be either official staff photos, in one case torn literally from a noticeboard or to be illustrating staff functions (and hence the group photos) but they are interesting because they show Meg at her best when she was climbing mountains during her Easter vacations and not yet assailed by her back problems. I suspect that most of the photos are the very early 1980’s when Meg would have been in her mid-30’s. After this bit of memorabilia, I ran off my etickets for my journey up to Yorkshire and ensured they were easily accessible on my iPhone as well. After I had breakfasted, I walked down the hill but thought I would pop in on my Irish friends who live down the road. The husband had been having an operation on Wednesday and I have been thinking about him a lot and hoping that all went well. He was discharged the following day and was evidently relieved that the operation that had been hanging over him had been performed and he seemed to be well on the road to recovery. We had a lot to talk about and I was delighted to show him and his wife the resurrected ‘classic’ photos of Meg showing her at her best when she was in her early 30’s and not struck down with ailments. Altogether I stayed about an hour and even let myself indulge in some delicious chocolate biscuits to accompany my coffee. Then it was down to Waitrose to pick up my newspaper and enjoy another coffee before I made for home. Then I cooked lunch ensuring that I used up some bits of meat and vegetables from a few days ago. After lunch, I got busy correcting the latest proof of the ‘Order of Service’ and to my frustration, some of the original errors had been corrected but some others seem to have crept in. So now what I hope is a final set of 4 corrections has been sent in and I hope we can now go to a print run of about 100 (half for the church proceedings and the other half to send to people who are away on holiday). I also ensured that the classic photos of Meg had been cropped (as, having been scanned, there was a lot of redundant white space) and tried to resize two or three of the awkward ones. Then in the late afternoon, I felt it was a good idea to go and get a can of ‘good’ petrol for the mower as, amazingly, I have been running on last year’s supply with no problems. So this has been done and the petrol safely in the garage waiting for the next cut. I sat outside on the garden bench, enjoying a cup of tea and listening to the Radio 4 statistical programme ‘More or Less’ that my University of Birmingham friend had mentioned to me.
I have received a couple of emails to which I shall have to give a considered reply. The first of these was from my very good life long friend in La Coruna (Spain) who, as a single daughter, is having all kinds of problems caring for her aged mother who has a flat in Madrid. My friend is going through he process of talking to social services organisations, both public and private, to arrive at what we would call a ‘package of care’ to try to provide for her mother’s medical and associated issues. The trouble is that Madrid is practically 600km from La Coruna and trying to organise at a distance can be a nightmare. As well as this massive problem, one of her best and oldest friend is terminally ill and she is also overwhelmed with masses of examination scripts to be marked. So my good friend is really feeling under the most tremendous strain and, of course, Meg’s death can only intensify these feelings as well. The other email is from a cousin who is wondering whether or not to turn up for the crematorium part of the proceedings next Wednesday but I will write and reassure her that it is absolutely how she feels about the situation. I now reflect that is four weeks since Meg died and I have never known a month pass so very quickly – but after people die, there is a tremendous amount to get done in any case. I am in the process of organising various appointments to look after my own health and I already have an appointment for an eye test and yet another, after a phone call, for a session of physiotherapy to work on my back a little and straighten it out after months of wheelchair pushing. But I am telling myself that once I get Meg’s funeral behind me, I can start to have some more positive thoughts and plans about the future.
On the political front, it seemed evident to most political commentators that it would not take long for the two ‘alpha males’ of Donald Trump (the world’s most powerful man) and Elon Musk (the worlds’s richest man) to massively fall out with each other. But in a strange way, each needs the other (Trump for the money, Musk to protect his business interests) so will some kind of reconciliation be on the cards? I am not sure that Donald Trump was implicated (as Musk claims ) in the Epstein scandal. However, on the balance of probabilities, I suspect that the Russians have incriminating evidence on Donald Trump after his visit(s) to Moscow. His inability to keep his trousers on and his susceptibility to Russian ‘honeypots’ makes it almost certain that the Russians have some secretly recorded video of sexual liaisons. If things got really bad between Putin and Trump, Putin could always threaten to release the video footage. This is all speculation, of course, but it would explain a lot about the relationships between the two men.