The night before last, I had a rather ‘up-and-down’ night which was ended prematurely by my alarm going off to get me an hour earlier than is normal so that I can be ready for church. It is certainly noticeably darker in the morning these days as the year advances and what we are witnessing is what the poet Keats describes as the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ Last night I had a brief and very early walk in the park with my American friend. Part of the park’s car park is cut off whilst it is being extended, a process that will take a couple of months. In the meantime, my friend and I were astonished to discover that there were practically no spaces left at 5.00pm on a Saturday afternoon as no doubt the dog-waking fraternity was out in numbers. The Sky News channel are putting forward a revamped politics show each Sunday morning which I will miss as it collides with my church attendance/car washing routines in the morning but I will see if I can watch this later in the day although catching repeat of Sky News programmes is very much a hit-and-miss affair. No doubt, when I catch up on some of the Sunday morning comment programmes later in the day, I will hear again what Nigel Farage has to say by way of an excuse when he was caught as part of a Channel 4 News sting operation which showed him in his Clacton constituency enjoying a breakfast of oysters and champagne and discussing how Reform might receive a large donation by being channelled through a supposedly American billionaire ‘father’ to his UK resident ‘son’. Nigel Farage has said he ‘frankly was not listening’ during a conversation with his former chief of staff and an undercover reporter discussing what appears to have been a scheme to funnel foreign money to Reform UK. His former chief of staff Dan Jukes and ex-head of policy James Orr have both been removed from their jobs after an investigation recorded them talking about how to get money to the party from an American donor and asking a fake company to pay for polling. Jukes has denied doing anything wrong. Orr has told Sky News he will co-operate fully with Reform’s internal investigation. In an interview with the BBC, the Reform leader said he was not listening to the discussion. Now this must be the weakest excuse offered by any politician to any revelation of damning evidence and must rank with the mythical schoolboy’s ‘Sir, the cat ate my homework’ It rather put me in mind of the excuse offered by James Maxwell during the Levison enquiries into nefarious practices by the British process to obtain details of celebrity comings-and-goings via telephone taps. When faced with incriminating emails into which he had been copied, James Maxwell indicated ‘that he had not bothered to read that far’. Having said that, although the excuse was not believable I do not recall Maxwell being sanctioned as a result. Although I have no social engagements scheduled for today the week ahead is going to be quite a busy one as I have a trip out to Shrewsbury gaol on Wednesday, a Curry Club outing on Thursday and I anticipate a meal out with friends next Saturday. Meanwhile, after a summer of enforced absence from lawn mowing, these now require some attention so I need to refresh my petrol supplies and get busy after the grass (and weeds) have regenerated themselves somewhat after the much needed rainfall. After I had attended the church service this morning, I was delighted to see that the parish hall was reopening again after its redecoration during the month of August. This meant that could I avail myself of the coffee and biscuits which is on offer immediately after the service and this opens up the opportunity to have a chat with acquaintances, one of whom is probably to going on the U3A trip to Shrewsbury next Wednesday. Afterwards I made a trip to the garage where I pick up a copy of the Sunday newspaper, filled the car and my mower container with petrol and give the car its weekly wash. After I returned home, I watched a catch-up version of the Laura Kuenssberg Politics programme which included an interview with Nigel Farage in which I shared the opinion of a subsequent reviewer that Kuenssberg had failed to press on some ridiculous statements made by Farage, principally the comment that Farage made that he was ‘not actually listening’ when a supposed prominent American millionaire was suggesting a mechanism by which he could channel a substantial (illegal) donation in the direction of the Reform party.
After I had lunched on pork ribs, I was watching YouTube in which an amazing programme was broadcast which was the way in which we kept ourselves and our houses warm in the huge snow of 1962-63. I was only aged 17 at the time and made a journey to the National Lending Library for Science and Technology by scooter but I remember slithering off practically every day. A scooter was on some respects safer than a motorbike because the scooter went in one direction and you went on the other as you were not sitting astride the bodywork. This program then gave way automatically to another in which I was actually enthralled. It was entitled ’25 Brilliant Things British Homes Had in the 1960s That We Stupidly Got Rid Of’ and I am going now to do a rather eccentric thing and to list them all in case any of them evoke any memories in readers of this blog. So here goes: -Teak sideboards -fireplace -Kitchen dresser -Radio Gram – Belfast (i.e, deep porcelain) sink -Eiderdown – Dansette record player – Pressure cooker – Victorian floor tiles -radiators (heavy, cast iron) -front doors with coloured glass inserts -Mangle -String bag -Candlewick bedspread -Paraffin heater – Formica drop-leaved kitchen table -‘Constellatoon’ floating vacuum clear -Canteen of cutlery -Kenwood chef -Cast iron enamelled bath -solid wooden shutters -a ‘Spong ‘(mechanical) mincer -Donkey Stone (for keeping one’s front step in good condition) – Display cabinet (in the front parlour). The whole and evidently nostalgic commentary pointed out that all of these items were ripped and out and thrown away but they command prices of hundreds of pounds when people try to buy them back to create a retro look. It was pointed that may items e.g. the Kenwood Chef were solid metal appliances and could be in use in use for 25 years or more whereas their modern replacements were plastic based and tended to wear out and have to be replaced much more regularly (which practice is known as ‘planned obsolescence’) Advancing this argument, then modern appliances might appear to be cheaper but probably turn out to be expensive when their purchase price is spread out over the years of actual usage. But in the 60’s there was a great seeking after the ‘modern’ and up-to-date and the artefacts of the late 50’s and early 60’s were seen as large, ugly and old fashioned.