The evening before last, I went out for one of my monthly ‘curry club’ nights with other members of the U3A group. The restaurant was a recently reopened/refurbished one in the High Street of Bromsgrove and the food was of a high quality and service quite attentive. We were a party of about 16 split over two tables and the company was pleasant but it was slightly unfortunate that a large part of about 16-18 came to occupy a long adjacent table and they were naturally chatting excitedly with each other. Consequently the noise levels were tremendous and we could hardly hear the conversations going on in our own table. The lady sitting immediately on my right was evidently a keen gardener and she had been busy undertaking pruning activities in her garden. So she had brought along a bag full of both bay leaves and rosemary which she distributed to those of us who could make use of these herbs in our cooking. I think I will hang them up for several days to dry and then either put them in a glass jar or freeze them. I returned home to witness the second half of the England-Czech Republic match in which England were 2:0 ahead at half time and finished the match as easy winners, scoring an additional goal in the second half. I slept in a little this morning as I thought that I might as I was somewhat tired after the day before filled first with Pilates, then then with lawn-cutting and finished off with a restaurant visit. As I awoke, it was to lots of news that had been happening overnight. The most dramatic news was that Christa Pike who had survived a bodged execution attempt by the state of Tennessee had recovered consciousness and had managed some words of communication with her lawyers. The available medical details are exceedingly sparse and the eventual long term outcome very uncertain as there may be a long and tortuous road to recovery which may take several months. We do know, however, that both arms have been severely damaged as the result of the bleach-like agent drug not entering her veins to kill her but into the surrounding tissues. Quite apart from the drug, I think it was 1¾ hours that her brain was oxygen starved from the time when the execution was first attempted to her transportation into the ambulance to convey her to hospital so a degree of brain damage must have been done – which, in a paradoxical sense, preserves her according to the US constitution from further attempts at judicial execution. English newspapers are still bereft of any news at all of these events whilst the American liberal press is awash with it. But another development overnight were the rantings of Donald Trump who invited the Iranians to ‘take out’ the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego which, as Trump went on to argue ‘is a small price to pay’. The White House is saying that these remarks were meant in a jocular fashion and were delivered in the course of a campaign rally. If the words are taken at face value, then Trump has not only violated the Presidential oath of succession but this must be an act of pure treason. As the liberal commentators are pointing out, if a Democratic president had uttered these words, then impeachment would have followed within hours but somehow different rules seem to apply when Donald Trump is involved so great is his hold over the minds of the Republican party, none of whom dare to contradict him.
In the mid-morning, I went for a coffee and a chat in the Methodist Centre and listened to a long account of the pleasant experiences that one of my fellow U3A members when she had been on a recent cruise which had called in at Madeira as well as other places. After we had broken up, I did my normal shopping for the week making sure that I had bought some extra spices, including ginger, to aid my culinary activities. In view of the meal I had yesterday evening, I was not particularly hungry today so just had a bowl of soup enhanced with some spices and with a few little cubes of ham thrown into provide a slightly more satisfying repast. Then, after lunch, I entered into a ‘one thing leads to another’ scenario occasioned by what happened on my TV set yesterday. In the course of my viewing yesterday evening I got a ‘Software Update’ invitation on my fairly aged Toshiba and with a degree of trepidation I accepted the update invitation. But on this occasion, the update took place just once instead of the about ten times that I had to repeat he procedure the last time I updated. Rather subjectively, I feel that accessing YouTube via the internet is a little crisper than it was but I also noticed that most of the apps that I view regularly had not been re-activated. But I now know that you have to go into ‘Settings’ and choose the apps that you require (principally, the BBC iPlayer and ITVX) and this seemed to work as it should. But amongst the apps now available to me was ‘TED’ which my son and daughter-in-law have told me about as a series of informative lectures and presentations. So I now have TED in my list of apps and decided to give it a go. I did stumble across and the enjoyed a presentation called Kasley Killam who was presenting the thesis of a book she had written and was evidently promoting called ‘The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier and Happier’ and after I had absorbed the message of the presentation I have ordered a second-hand copy of her book which cost me £5 and should arrive by next Tuesday. Killam’s thesis is essentially very simple : we concentrate on our physical health and then our mental health but our social health is often sadly neglected. According to some of the ‘blurb’ advertising the book, research shows that people with a strong sense of belonging are 2.6 times more likely to report good or excellent health. But people who lack social support are up to 53% more likely to die from any cause. Now this has struck a particular chord with me because one of the ways to prevent the onset and progression of dementia is to build strong social relationships and since Meg’s death from dementia, I have tried via U3A and other means to develop and strengthen my own social relationships.