The evening before last, I tuned into Sky News before drifting off to sleep but found the news dominated by the blast-off the latest American space flight to the moon – the first for half a century. The count down went more or less as planned and the entire mission is planned to be about ten days in total including a fly-by of the ‘other’ side of the moon. To the obvious question which is asked why the Americas are doing this, there appear to be two answers. The first is a really old-fashioned space race as the Americans feel that they may be under competition from the Chinese (rather than the Russians) A second explanation is that the moon will be regarded as an essential staging post for a planned first visit to Mars (from which astronauts, by the way, will never return) It looks as though the explanation lies in the fact that a three year journey will so weaken bones, muscles and organs including the heart that astronauts, even if their vehicle could bring them back, would not be able to cope with the strains of returning to the earth and would die. So if ever we get humanity to Mars, it looks as though it may be a one way trip for the astronauts involved – in other words a suicide mission. This fact is hardly discussed though by the advocates of space travel. Later on today, I have a little project in mind which is to rethink what I have for breakfast every morning. Knowing that older adults need less protein rather than less as they age, I need to think of breakfasts that push up my protein levels first thing in the morning to avoid muscle wastage. I may start on a diet of Greek yogurt enhanced by nuts and other nutrient rich additions but in the short term maybe a meal of scrambled eggs continuing some salmon pieces might be a good way to start. Last night, I cooked myself a meal of salmon and scrambled eggs on toasted sourdough bread and it might be pure imagination but I think I feel the better for it and certainly slept better. Some of my preliminary investigations are extolling the virtues of oats and Greek yogurt but prepared the evening before and then enhanced at breakfast time with some toppings of fruit but this needs a bit more investigation. I certainly don’t want to spend 30 minutes cooking each morning but I may have to be put a little more thought and effort into food preparation, particularly for breakfast time. When Meg was alive, I did get into the habit of having a cooked breakfast in the mornings but this fell by the wayside as Meg could not eat these any more. The weather is still on the chilly and cloudy side and I am anxious for the weather to improve a little so that I can get on with some outside jobs. Later on today, Tai Chi beckons and I generally bump into some acquaintances with whom I can share a coffee upon its completion.
The day developed into a rather unanticipated direction. After I had partaken of an extensive coffee break and toasted tea-cake, the Tai Chi class having been cancelled, I made my way to Asda in order to try and return a light raincoat I had recently purchased from Amazon but turned out to be about two sizes too small. I have returned items to Amazon before but this proved to be complicated taking me deep into the depths of a Post Office app where the menu items did not match up with the Amazon instructions. Altogether I struggled for about an hour last night before generating some kind of QR which did not look right. At Asda, the QR code refused to scan so I had to return home and struggle again. This time, eventually got a QR code generated but it took 40 mins and interaction with an automated query system to get the correct code re-generated. This I did take down to Asda and the parcel is back into the system and also an email telling me my parcel was back into the system and to expect a refund in due course. Whilst I was in Asda, I took the opportunity to buy two reasonable quality chocolate Easter eggs for my son and daughter-in-law. I also took the opportunity to buy some ‘high protein’ things I can utilise to enhance my breakfast each morning. I bought some chicken pieces, ham pieces, prawns, Greek yogurt, blueberries and a special protein rich drink so now I think I have enough foodstuffs to give myself a healthier breakfast. I lunched on the remains of a curried something I found in the freezer and then in the late afternoon my hairdresser called around to give me a (delayed) hair cut. I have also ensured that I have the elements in place to give a rolling display of the elements of Meg’s life with the accompaniment of the Handel aria ‘Waft her, Angels, through the skies’ which was played at her funeral and seems to me to be an appropriate soundtrack whilst the photos are displaying.
There is some breaking news as I write that Trump has sacked his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, for way she handled/mis-handled the release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice. Her appearance before Congressional Committees has been disgraceful with a refusal to answer questions directly and instead engaging in the personal abuse of her interrogators. No doubt, the liberal American podcasts that I follow with be replete with details so I shall avidly see what they say later on in the evening. I think that even staunch Republicans were beginning to feel that Bondi was bringing the whole administration into disrepute and there are always those that felt that her days were numbered. The full story of her sacking will no doubt soon be revealed but she is to be replaced by her deputy who is scarcely any better. Meanwhile we have had a sacking on this side of the Atlantic as Reform’s new housing chief has been sacked over his comments about Grenfell Tower fire victims, which survivors and families called ‘deeply dehumanising’ Sir Keir Starmer and opposition parties had called for Simon Dudley to be sacked as Reform’s new housing spokesman after he said the 72 deaths were a ‘tragedy and a failure’ but ‘everyone dies in the end’. This shows political callousness and indifference to the plight of those who lost their lives in the extreme and am sure that his sacking will be welcomed all round.