So having bought my new trowel from the hardware shop yesterday, I thought I would be very clever and condition the wooden handle to soaking in some cheap corn oil which I keep in the kitchen if I need a cheap oil for oiling purposes (e.g. for my kitchen shredder which is often forgotten about) So I put the trowel handle down in a narrow glass of oil and left it outside for abut a day. Then I consulted the web to inform myself about oiling the wooden handles of gardening tools to keep them in good condition. The advice that I got on the web was that I was doing exactly the wrong thing as these oils are non volatile, can go rancid over time and can oxidise and break down creating a bad smell. Unlike drying oils, cooking oils do not harden, creating a surface that attracts dirt and becomes unpleasant to hold. All the advice is to use a specialist oil such as linseed oil, Danish oil, teak oil and so on. The difficulty is that these oils can cost several times more than the implement they are designed to protect and one has to wonder if they worth while unless you have a real quality hand tool to protect. So I looked in my garage and happen to have some teak oil around so I have decided to let the cooking oil treatment soak in for about a day and then finish  off with a really good protective volatile oil as all of the sources of gardening advice recommend. It is always a good idea to clean and oil tools after every single use but normally one is quite weary after a session’s gardening and one is desperate to get inside and have a well earned cup of tea. But now that I am well and truly back into gardening mode again, I am filled with good intentions to keep my gardening tools in good condition. I used to find that  the old fashioned soap-filled ‘brillo’ pads were excellent in removing a light rust or staining but I find these much more difficult to find in the kinds of shops that I frequent and I am loathe to make a special journey just to find them. Having said that, they are always useful to have in stock, not least if you have a burnt pan in the kitchen to re-condition but a short term expedient are those foam pads with an abrasive side that can be laced with some cream cleaner. I suspect that the old fashioned engineers used to make constant use of the proverbial ‘oily rag’. Engineers and mechanics traditionally used an oily rag for cleaning greasy machinery, protecting metal parts from rust, and applying lubricants or finishing oils, with old cotton clothing favoured for being lint-free. They also serve as a staple for wiping hands and managing service fluid spills in workshops. Key reasons for using an oily rag are that a lingering layer of oil from the rag protects metal surfaces, tools, and equipment from moisture and oxidation, They are an inexpensive, reusable, and efficient tool for wiping down machinery and removing oil residue. White rags, in particular, allow engineers to see metal shavings or dirt in hydraulic fluid, aiding in diagnosing equipment problems. I wonder if these old fashioned skills and practices are now dying out completely? For this reason, I never throw old white cotton vests but deploy them when I can remember as garden tool cleaning aids. I am also asking some of my close friends if they can cast any abandoned cotton clothing in my direction for the same purpose.

The morning turned out to be reasonably entertaining. Having picked up my newspaper, I made a quick saunter into Wetherspoons where  I thought I would meet up with ‘Seasoned World Traveller’ from my park-roaming days and we exchanged a few pithy observations about the state of world politics. A day later than is normal, I turned up at  my ‘Gifts of Love’ cafe where I bumped into one of the volunteers who I know quite well and another  whom  I may have seen before as she worships in the same church as do I. I generally purchase enough car parking time for a couple of hours and this gives me time for a slow peregrination up and down the High Street. I was just on the point of purchasing a shirt in exactly my size and the colour I would have chosen when I realised it was one of those without buttons on the sleeves but relied upon cufflinks – this being the reason it wasunsold, I suppose. I then purchased a floor cleaning preparation that I know that my domestic help particularly likes also bought of the ex Marks and Spencer ‘Harvester’ range of butter dishes with covers  which I intend to use for the hard cheeses that I buy. Having texted my American friend, she accepted my invitation to come and share a roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner with me tomorrow i.e. quite a traditional Sunday meal and we will prepare the veg together. I had promised to play her a copy of the Puccini opera of ‘La Bohème’, courtesy of YouTube, and have found a production in which the stage design was by Franco Zefferelli and Mirella Freni sings the part of Mimi. I am by no means an avid watcher of TV but the offerings this weekend seem particularly dire. I have the stimulating choice of watching  hours of snooker on one channel with ‘Top of the Pops’ from 34 years ago on another and, of course the mindless game shows. Even some of the films date back to the 1940’s and it no wonder that TV watching is declining into an almost death spiral. These days, I am often quite contented listening to Classic FM and giving the newspapers a slow read although I have bookcases of serious books into which I ought to get stuck. Looking along my bookshelves I found a book I never knew I had by Francis Wheen entitled ‘How Mumbo Jumbo conquered the World’ I opened it at random and found some  passages in which American politicians berated those who they thought were doing them harm – in this case the Japanese. But the book was written in 2004 ie. 22 years ago and could have been written by Trump yesterday  – I even found the phrase in it to ‘Put America First’

So there is something rather special now that e have actually arrived at the month of May. This for me, and I suspect for many others, is a month of intense social activity in which birthdays feature prominently. When I was working in the University of Winchester, it occurred to many of my close colleagues that five of us had birthdays in this month and so it seemed sensible to pick a day in the middle of the month and to have a joint celebratory birthday meal. We started doing this about 21-22 years ago now and have tried to maintain the tradition over the years if it is at all possible. Two of us (including myself) have birthdays practically in the middle of the month and we have generally organised a meal in the middle of the month in the Winchester areas. I dubbed the group of us as the ‘Old Fogeys’ and as erstwhile colleagues, we sometimes chunter on about how excellent things were when we were in harness and how terrible they are now. We each of us have personal news to convey to us and, unfortunately, with the passage of time a very few of us have gone to meet our Creator and most of us, whilst keeping ourselves pretty fit are bearing some of the ravages of time. We tried to have another meeting before the Autumn started so that we could eat and meet twice a year but COVID and other national exigencies has generally reduced our meetings down to one. Of course some of us are now approaching the age when we have 80th birthdays to celebrate (my own being last May year) and the tradition is being kept alive by the special postponed 60th birthday party (now a 65th birthday party) being thrown by one of our number in about ten days time in a gastropub in the Berkshire area to which I am looking forward tremendously. This month is going to be especially poignant for me as my wife of nearly 60 years, Meg, left us on 10th May last year, the day before my 80th birthday (with exquisite timing, so that my birthday celebrations were not adversely impacted) But there are lots of other things going on as well. In the forthcoming week there are two U3A (University of the Third Age) events taking place and about a fortnight later, we have a coach trip organised for us to go o Bakewell in Derbyshire and also a viewing of Kedleston Hall which to National Trust members is a ‘free’ visit. Now that the weather has improved, I am sure that many of us will seize the opportunity to hold little impromptu garden parties in our own houses – once I have my patio professionally restored to some of its former glory and I am not so ashamed on my neglected back garden, I will also almost certainly invite all and sundry to visit so that we can enjoy the fine weather. It will also give me an incentive to do some judicious clipping back and restoration of some of the flower beds. I always used to reckon that if you were on top of the gardening activities in April-June, then the rest of the year was plain sailing but if anything happened to disrupt getting the garden into good shape during these three months, it was very hard to catch up during the rest of the year.

The day started off with some lengthy telephone calls with my Bank as they had intercepted a possible scam raid upon my banking account which their own fraud department had intercepted. Nonetheless, it took the best part of an hour and half to completely get the issue resolved which we did, after which I went to collect my American friend for our trip out to Alcester.  The weather was glorious and we spent a delightful time ‘doing’ a selection of charity shops before we finally alighted upon one of those ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ type of shops that sells a whole range of ironmongery and household requisites. My friend was absolutely bowled over by this store and we spent quite a lot of time in it and I finished  up buying some stationery, a sewing kit of threads and needles to help to reattach some missing buttons and a very reasonably priced trowel. We visited the local Anglican church which has roots back to the 12th century and we enjoyed the simplicity of the interior. My friend and I were minded to light candles for our loved, departed ones but there were no candles available to be bought (next time, we visit, we will bring our own little tea lights) But they did have a delightful little ‘prayer and intentions’ tree in which  worshippers could write their messages and them affix them to one of the branches of the tree (which I did) Then we managed to repark the car into a designated space and went for our lunch where I had not been for a couple of years but where the waitress remembered me (and I was pleased that I remembered her first name as well) Afterwards we hit the charity shops again and I found a 100% glazed cotton shirt by Next and superior to the run of the mill shirts in that it actually had insertable collar stiffeners and was exactly the right collar size. From another charity shop I espied a glass decanter which I thought would be useful to me for middle-of-the-night drinks in and, egged on by my American friend  who had spotted a minute chip, successfully negotiated the price down from £3 to £1. We then made our way home on what was a blazing afternoon and enjoyed some of our own flavours of ice cream in the garden. After a bit of a rest, my friend enjoyed a light tea of melon, brambles and original Greek yogurt  and than watched the catch-up edition of Question Time before I ran my friend back to her own house after what had been a really delightful day for the two of us. The Bank Holiday looms ahead for both us and neither of us has much inclination to roam very far afield so we are going to keep in touch by text and then decide what other little ventures we might undertake once we have got our various domestic tasks undertaken.

So a new bright day has dawned and I took a minute or so to gaze admiringly on my newly cleaned up patio from the vantage point of an upstairs landing window – I must say that it looked great in its de-mossed state and I think I probably need to give it a good stiff brushing once per week to keep it in good condition. The first thing I did this morning was to send a text to a specialist steam cleaning company recommended to me by my domestic help who spoke very highly of their work. I think the whole patio needs a re-pointing/re-cementing and will then be in a condition to have a specialist clean but I need the advice of an expert whether this is the right way round in which to do things. In the meanwhile, there is some lawn edging to be done and general garden restoration work in the vicinity of the patio but now I won’t be ashamed of its condition when  or if guests come round to visit. After all, what is the point of a nice garden if you never have the chance to enjoy it. As soon as my finances stabilise a little, I need to employ a good regular gardener, but these are hard to find so I may have to ask around some of my immediate neighbours for a recommendation. I know that the husband/partner of one of Meg’s carers did what I call ‘rough and ready’ garden restoration work so it might be time to give him a ring as well. Although it is true to say that the back garden is overgrown at the moment, there is so much building work going on all around me so, up to a point, I have been not displeased to let the garden grow on for a bit to provide me with some shielding from the sights and sounds of the incessant building work. Fortunately, Meg was not aware of this during her lifetime and it might have distressed her so that is a bad thing avoided. Actually, I have just  found a UK-made 7-minute video of the restoration of a garden path/patio which looked in the same condition as mine and it was very instructive. Mind you, there was an  initial jet washing, followed by sodium hypochlorite solution  to kill of weed seedlings, followed. by another  jet wash, followed by a specialist repointing followed.  a third jet wash so I need to get used to a multi-stage process if the whole job is to be done correctly. When Meg and I had this done in Hampshire, I think a specialist sort of thing glaze was applied last of all to help to keep  the driveway in a really good condition – and it did help to sell the house because  our drive way looked magnificent compared with that of my immediate neighbour. There are so many ‘cowboys’ in this business that I must take care to find a good restorer who will do a good job at a reasonable price and so I might need to take my time and plenty of advice before I commit myself to having this whole job done.

My Tai Chi class proceeded as planned but when I went to have my customary teacakes-and-coffee,  I was served by my American friend who I was not expecting to see but who had evidently just taken on a volunteering role in the kitchen of the Methodist Centre. I had quite a jolly chat with some of the ladies present, including two new additions to the class which is always welcome to see. We chatted about holidays, airports and some of the normal crop of travellers’ tales. I left after about an hour when others were leaving to do their shopping. It was beautiful day and I knew that the car was very dirty but I had enough time on my hands so thought I would go and assess the do-it-yourself car wash facilities at our local BP garage. They had two unoccupied units side by side and you could purchase a variety of rinses and washes at the price of £2 for 4 minutes. I thought that 4 minutes would not be time enough to clean a car this dirty so I payed £4.00 for a variety of rinses, foam washes and final rinses. As it turned out, eight minutes  was just about enough time to do the car justice, so I was pleasantly surprised. I think at that price and availability I might try and build this up into a weekly routine because the price for the car wash was not much more than the price of a cup of coffee these days. The windscreens is a left a little smeary but I don’t mind the little job of doing a quick clean of this when I get the car home and the weather has cooled down. Then I had a chat with my neighbour about this and that and made myself a salad lunch. After lunch, I was delighted to get a text from the owner/proprietor of the patio cleaning company and we have agreed a time of 9.00am tomorrow morning for him to call around and give me a quote. I was equally delighted to discover  that his firm might do the entire renovation for me which is just what I want. In the late afternoon, I went out to cut back the lawn which had crept over the years over the side of the patio and several inches of turf needed to be removed. These took a combination of half moon tools, lawn edging shears and brushes and, of course I had to renovate (.e. sharpen) the steel instruments as they had not been used for a couple of years. Under normal circumstances, I am quite meticulous about cleaning my gardening tools before putting them away and generally giving them a protective spray of WD40 or its equivalent each time.  Many of us are savouring that the King managed to deliver a subtle barb to Donald Trump in his recent visit to the White House. During a state dinner at the White House on April 28, 2026, King Charles III jokingly told U.S. President Donald Trump that if it weren’t for British ancestors, Americans would be speaking French. This comment was a humorous, witty retort to President Trump’s earlier assertion that without American intervention in World War II, Europe would be ‘speaking German’. The king could rely upon the fact that with an abysmal knowledge of early American history, Donald Trump would have no idea what the King was talking about and whilst the joke was lost on Trump, it was fully appreciated by all of the other guests at the dinner.

All eyes at the moment are on the Royal visit to the USA to commemorate the 250 years of American independence and it is probably far to say that both sides were trying to stick to their prepared scripts which might make a faint reference to present disagreements between the respective governments but were emphasising special relationships, unique bonds and all the rest of it. But then Donald Tump decided to go off-piste and refer to the Iranian conflict implying that King Charles was fully committed to the American involvement in the conflict. The British diplomatic team must have been holding their breaths wondering what else Trump would say as our King was trying to keep as non-political as possible. I am sure that the British officials will be so relieved when all of these junketings are over and the King and Queen are safely back home in the UK. I am sure that ing Charles was playing his part as well as he could but with an unpredictable American president almost anything can happen. As soon as this American adventure is over, attention will turn to domestic British politics because all of the indications are that the Labour party will be put to the sword in the local elections in a week’s time and they will lose many of their voters both to the right (to the Reform party) and  to the left (the Greens) I suspect that it is quite probable that Starmer may well be toppled at this point, the only massive stumbling block being that there is no evident successor to assume the role of Prime Minister as Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Manchester, has yet to find and win a seat in Parliament.  My son called around this morning after his early morning swim and we dissected world politics a little – he has told me about a couple of really informative programmes about the Suez crisis that I really must make time to watch. Perhaps because I was a little over tired I had a rather disturbed night’s sleep last night but the day is dawning brightly with the prospect of first shopping and then a bit more gardening in store in this week which  actually is rather a quiet one. Both my son and I are getting ready for two ‘big’ weekends in about ten days time. I am looking forward to my trip down to South Oxfordshire to attend my friend’s birthday party (and it happens to be the anniversary of Meg’s death). On my son’s part, there is going to be a massive school reunion to be held in York where my son can meet up with many of his generation who seem to all have had successful careers but are now themselves approaching retirement age. My son is recalling some of the escapades which are part of schoolboy life and they have even located one of their old masters who is to come along to share in their celebrations (hints of ‘Goodbye, Mr, Chips’ at this point) When you meet people  after a gap of decades sometimes people are unrecognisable wheres others look as though  they have scarcely aged over their lifetimes. 

Aa it is the middle of the week, I make my way down to the Methodist Centre where I indulge in a cup of coffee and a toasted teacake, I was joined by the extremely lively 95 year old who hails from Manchester (and we had both worked in Oxford Road, Manchester in the 1960’s) and has just returned to the UK from Spain where she had lived for many years. This lady has led a very energetic life – in her younger years she had walked most of the Lake District fells and mountains whilst in Spain where he lived near the sea she used to swim across the bay every day to keep herself fit. In fact she has invited me round for a meal when we can both spare the time but she has to fit in another visit to Spain first. I bumped int one of the original coffee crowd who used to meet in the Waitrose cafe. In fact there were six of us altogether and sometimes more when other friends and acquaintances joined in. But Waitrose closed its coffee bar and many of us transferred our allegiance to the adjacent Wetherspoons. `But now three of the original six are living in residential accommodation and Meg, of course, is no longer with us so I am left with one remaining friend from the original group. But we do tend to bump each other on a Wednesday when it is my friend’s turn on the rota to open up the Methodist Centre and get things prepared  for the keep fit classes and the coffee bar. After I had spent an hour here I departed to go and do my weekly shopping which, fortunately, is extremely quiet at this time of the week. When I got home, I prepared myself a salad lunch and then watched some of the news programmes. I went outside in the mid afternoon to finally finish off the moss scraping from the patio at the back of the house and it looks so improved. However, I need to get in touch with a firm that will do the necessary re-grouting/re-pointing of the slabs (a lengthy job) before I have the whole thing pressure washed. The remainder of the afternoon was spent going through the newspapers to see if anything needed to be saved before the great ‘throwing away’ of the newspapers where the local authority collects our green bin once a fortnight. This task was assisted by the consumption of ice cream, necessary when the weather is warm. I also made a booking at the hostelry in Alcester which I am going to visit on Friday and anticipate having some of their magnificent home-made lasagne. Alcester is a pretty little Georgian town with lots of independent shops and  an array of charity shops which nearly always contain some superb merchandise. In the past, I bought some of Meg’s clothes there and the kitchenware is always well worth a look. The town also contains one of the old fashioned ironmongers crammed to the rafters  with all kinds of utensils and kitchen aids which are always  tempting and one doesn’t see in the run-of-the-mill supermarkets. In the past, I have bought some of the stationery items as well such as large packs of different sizes of envelopes which I like to have in stock.

When I woke up yesterday morning, it was to a cloudy and blustery day which I had not been expecting, as we had had a succession of bright  blue skies and early morning sunshine. I had wanted to complete some of the clearing work on my patio and this task is not unpleasant if the weather is fine but not to be fancied if the weather is somewhat inclement. It always use to amuse me when  read in one of my gardening books, principally about the sowing of seeds in the springtime that the gardener should ‘Choose a fine Day’. When browsing on my system  I found a series of abot a dozen photos of Meg that I had forgotten about and some of them are duplicates but most of them ae of Meg taken when she was in her 30’s at the Scraptoft Campus of De Montfort University bt one of them is my favourite of Meg where the original had been rescued from a staff noticeboard and another holiday snap of a group taken in Pisa with the leaning tower in the background. Meanwhile, the war (or rather ceasefire) of attrition is rumbling on in the background. Iranian officials revealed yesterday what is in the phased deal that Tehran has apparently offered to Washington. The basic idea is to negotiate an opening of the Strait of Hormuz first and set aside the stickier issue of Iran’s nuclear enrichment until the war is ended and disputes over shipping from the Gulf are resolved. The Americans just see this as playing for time and thee is zero trust between the two sides. Given the number of broken promises, not to mention deadlines, one can well imagine the Iranian frustration with the current Trump regime and although Pakistani diplomats are no doubt making their best efforts in the background, the omens are not good. Isn’t it interesting though how the whole revelations from the Epstein files has been completely forgotten about by the media whilst our attention has been distracted by a war, an assassination attempt and finally a royal visit of the King and Queen to America. But we may have a dramatic developments on the domestic political front, though, as the Commons may well vote today to refer Keir Starmer to the Committee on Privileges  on the basis of a claim of having misled Parliament – the greatest Parliamentary sin. How the vote will go is unclear, but Labour MPs may well vote reluctantly in support of the Prime Minister saying to themselves that after disastrous by-election results anticipated in just over a week’s time. he may well be forced to resign anyway. I am reminded in the final rounds of elections for s French president, deputies may well have had to vote for a candidate who they did not endorse but the alternatives, usually from the far Right, was infinitely worse.  To make their point, the Deputies used to vote with a clothes peg on their noses  which was a dramatic manifestation of their feelings and demonstrated both reluctance and distaste for voting the ways in which they did. The vote may well be influenced b various Downing Street aides who are due to give evidence before the Foreign Office Select Committee this morning and teir evidence might  be especially revealing.

I took the car int town this morning to collect my copy of my daily newspaper and, upon my return set to work to complete the rest of the moss clearance from my rear patio. I an anticipated this would only take half and hour but actually, it took the best part of an hour and a half one  had undertaken some additional weeds clearance and tidying up. It was now time for me t attend my Pilates session and, to be honest, I felt a little like ‘death warmed up’ by this stage. But despite feeling all in at the start of the session, I actually t somewhat better a the end of it and then made progress home. Jere I was disinclined to cook myself a full scale lunch so made do with half a can of soup. Then, by prior arrangement. my American friend called round and neither of us felt 100%. But after some relaxing chat and a bit of TV we both felt better. and speculated whether or endorphins had been stimulated to make s feel better. As the afternoon gave way to evening, we entertained ourselves by watching the American liberal political podcasts (which my friend finds fascinating, by the way) before we started to think about some tea for the two of s. My friend had brought along some nice Italian ham so we finished off preparing a meal of ham, cheese, cottage cheese and beetroot which  was high in protein and low in carbohydrates and therefore good for both us. I lent my friend my book entitled ‘Guts’ which I found incredibly informative when I first purchased it about eight years ago and where I have been reliably informed, the communication between specialised cells (similar to brain cells) and  he brain itself remains one of the last unexplored areas of science. The media is full of the visit of the King and Queen to America ad Trump appeared to me to be a little doddery both in reading out a prepared script and also literally holding himself together but of course the conventional Main Street Media does not concern  itself with personal details.

An interesting but theoretical question has arisen as a result f the latest assassination attempt on Donad Trump. Although the would-be assassin did not actually penetrate the assembly hall containing thousands of distinguished journalists. But if there had been a concerted effort on behalf of a group instead of one ‘lone wolf’ then Trump, his wife and at least one half of the cabinet could have been wiped out in one fell swoop. Further military style planning might have to be thought about when this annual event is staged again bt postponed to later on th ear and aalso looking to the years ahead as this is an annual event. In the House of Commons, it looks as though Kei Starmer narrowly survived a vote which meant that hos conduct would not now be referred to the Committee on Privileges which is what did for Boris Johnson at the end of the day.

After the recent quasi-assassination attempt on Trump in the USA and the impending visit of our King and Queen, the inevitable question arises about their safety and the probity of the visit.  I happen to think that allowing the visit to go ahead is probably a wise course of action for a variety of reasons, not least that the King is in a unique position to help the repair the bad state of relationships into which we have fallen with the USA. I keep saying to myself that the Trump era is surely limited if only because of the state of Trump’s health but, there again, a post-Trump regime in the USA might be almost as unfriendly as the current one, particularly if J D Vance takes over. Trump is already turning the shooting into what he hopes is a massive political advantage by saying that this shooting would never have happened if the venue had been his ‘big and beautiful’ (i.e. hideously garish) huge new ballroom he is intent on building in the White House. There are some voices in the States who are arguing that the whole thing was stage-managed and, although I would not go that far, there are some curious aspects of the whole affair. Normally, the American security services would have shot a potential assassin dead on the spot but the gunman appeared to be completely uninjured. As with so much in the current political scene in the USA, there is more here than meets the eye. I am pretty sure that our King and Queen should be safe enough in the USA and security  may well have been tightened even further but who knows? The week ahead is going to be a quiet one but the week after that promises to be rather frantic with a Spanish conversation class, a ‘Curry Club’ meeting  and then a trip at the weekend to South Oxfordshire. In the meanwhile, I am trying to get on with bits of gardening but not sufficient to wreck myself which is quite possible at this time of year. I have started to think a little more about breakfasts in a desire to start off the day healthily. If I am a little pushed for time, I have an avocado with some Thousand Island dressing in the hollow created by the removal of the (large) stone. More recently, I have started to mix together some maple syrup (of which I just happened to have some but now exhausted), Greek yogurt, full cream milk and then finally some porridge oats all the ingredients being mixed up well and then placed in the fridge overnight for the various ingredients to blend with each other. Although it is only the start of the week, I realise that there are several things that I am running out of so I probably need to make a lightning visit to the supermarket later on today. Now that that the weather has turned sunny, some ice-cream becomes a necessity rather than a luxury- I try and buy better ice-cream but I do realise that the cheaper brands are probably full of junk ingredients these days.
 
Language is the meat-and-drink of politics and this is why a few ill chosen words can end a political career. I was reminded of this on the James O’Brien LBC show when he reminded us of the gaffe made by Dominic Raab, the Brexit Secretary,  which probably ended his political career – or certainly destroyed his credibility, In a surprising admission, the Brexit Secretary said he had not realised how essential it was in getting food and medicine into the UK. Speaking at a technology conference, Mr Raab also admitted that the range of goods in British shops could be scaled back if a frictionless trade deal with the EU is not struck in time for Brexit. He indicates that we want a bespoke arrangement that recognises the peculiar, frankly, geographic economic entity that is the United Kingdom. ‘We are, and I hadn’t quite understood the full extent of this, but if you look at the UK and how we trade in goods, we are particularly reliant on the Dover-Calais crossing, and that is one of the reasons why, and there has been a lot of controversy on this, that is one of the reasons why we’ve wanted to make sure we have a specific and very proximate relationship with the EU to ensure frictionless trade at the border’.  MPs and pro-EU campaigners said his comments were proof the Government cannot be trusted to handle Brexit. Labour’s Shadow Brexit Minister Jenny Chapman asked how are we meant to trust this government to deliver a good deal for this country when we have a Brexit Secretary who doesn’t even understand the very basics of Brexit? Jo Stevens, a Labour MP and supporter of the Best for Britain campaign, said: ‘We finally have an admission of what we have known all along – that the Brexiteers had not really thought through any of the impacts of leaving the EU. British jobs, supplies and services rely on key border crossings like the Dover strait and the fact that the Brexit Secretary is only just realising this is a serious cause for concern’ Another political gaffe was that made by the Agriculture junior minister, Edwina Currie, who opined ‘Most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella’ and this, whilst  being quite true, sank her without trace. This statement caused a massive public outcry, a 60% drop in egg sales, the slaughter of 4 million hens, and led to her resignation. That provoked James O’Brien’s recollection of the Dominic Raab gaffe was the statement by the American White House Press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, that the Straits of Hormuz lay adjacent to the coastline of Iran so it is hardly any wonder that they now control them. I am reminded of the tart remark made to the effect that ‘War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography’ and indeed American lack of knowledge of this traditional academic discipline is legendary. In the morning, our domestic help called around a day earlier than usual and, after a chat, I shot into town to get some provisions. On Thursday, it is our domestic help’s 30th wedding anniversary which is also known as the ‘pearl’ anniversary. Then a really extraordinary thing happened because  our domestic help, in retrieving a roll of kitchen paper knocked behind a cupboard found a plastic bag containing some of Meg’s pearl jewellery (probably cultivated or river pearls) Delighted by this find, I evidently was delighted to make a gift of them to our domestic help to help her celebrate her anniversary in style and I also bought a bottle of rosé Prosecco and a card with which to celebrate the day. In the afternoon, after a salad lunch, I cut our back lawns which is not too big a job and then, after a bowl of ice-cream spent another ¾ hour de-mossing he patio at the rear of the house. I think this process is about two thirds completed and means that I will not be ashamed to sit out at the back once I have finished  the ‘clearance’ part of the job, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

I had a rather disturbed night, the night  before  last, largely struggling with technology again. Buoyed at my success in restoring access to the iPlayer and other channels on my Toshiba TV, I thought I would have one more attempt to see if I could locate the browser which appeared to have been removed since the last update. Although not listed in the apps list directly, i found that by searching for the term ‘browser’  could locate the primitive browser which had originally been installed – I think it might be an obscure one called ‘Silk’ So this means that I can now access my video speeches and photos from out 50th wedding anniversary on the big screen at which I am delighted. So I decided to stitch in the details of my ‘Mozart’ web site and this seemed to work up to a point as the actual web page would display. But clicking on any of the links to access the music (the whole point of the website) just generated a message which said ‘This browser is no longer supported – please update’ I was an offered three alternatives of Firefox, Chrome and Opera but in each case after the file had been loaded to the TV, I got a system message (‘Cannot open file’ as it was, after all, a TV to which I was downloading and not a computer) So after fiddling about with this for ages, in the middle of the night, I came to the view that  I could not ever get this to work on such a primitive installation of accessing the world wide web on this particular TV.  But later on in the morning when my brain had had a chance to think things through, I undertook another experiment which was to put some of the rolling displays of photos of Meg’s life on the TV and I got this to work without  a hitch. But this is because  all of the photos/videos are stored on my own web-space whereas the Mozart clips were having to work through YouTube so I have concluded that the ‘Update your browser’ message emanates not from my TV but from YouTube which I was using to play the Mozart videos and soundtracks. At least, now I know (or think I knw)

In the morning, I was due to pick up my Italian friend and take her to church in time for the 8.30am service but she texted me to say that she did not feel well enough to attend the service this morning. About once a month, we have a sort of ‘folk’ mass where instead of having an organist we have a trio of parents playing their guitars and leading the hymn singing. Today, after the service, I wet to the parish hall to have mu coffee and biscuits. There one of the parishioners is due to give birth to her second child within the next week and as she was feeling a little uncomfortable, I took her other child and jiggled it up and down on my knee (and I have the photograph to prove it) I must say I had forgotten just how heavy a 2½ year old can be but I a can astonish some of my friends and acquaintances by showing them my ‘Catholic’ baby. After the service, I go and get some money out of the ATM whilst it is quiet, fill up the car with petrol and collect my newspaper before coming home to have a ‘treat’ of a breakfast which is fried eggs on a slice of toasted sourdough bread. I was particularly pleased to receive a text from my University of Winchester friend whose birthday party I shall be attending in a fortnight’s time. So I now have complete instructions how to get to the party as well as giving in my choices of food for the sit-down meal. As the birthday party is on the actual anniversary of Meg’s death, I shall attend an early morning Mass on that day and then make tracks straight away for the 85 mile journey to South Oxfordshire.  I made myself a large curry type meal for lunch will last me for a couple of days and then, after that, I made myself give the front lawn a cutting which it needed and the weather was fine. To be honest, I was getting a bit fed up with the constant news obsession of the latest assassination attempt upon Trump and the back  awn which is easier to cut can wait until the next day. I am not an avoid follower of football but every so often a footballing story arises which grabs my attention. Now Southampton have been struggling at the bottom of the premier League all season and are in constant danger of relegation. But this year, they are having a good run in the FA Cup and were drawn against the very successful Manchester City. Yesterday, they managed to score a goal against City to make the score 1-0 and only had to hang on for 10 minutes to secure victory.But City scored equalised three minutes later and then scored a decisive extra goal towards the end of injury time to knock Southampton out of the Cup. But Manchester City have been in the final about four times in four years, and I was desperately hoping that Southampton could hang onto their lead and enjoy their place in the final. A parallel story is also happening to Leeds who are about fifth from the bottom and are today  playing Chelsea for a place in the final. I must be careful not to hear the score in any news bulletins because highlights of the match are to be shown on terrestrial TV at 10.30 this evening, so I shall watch them whilst being tucked up in bed. If Leeds do make it the final, they will almost certainly be put to the slaughter by Manchester City but in the FA Cup strange things can and do happen. When Leeds did make it the FA Cup Final in their more glorious days, they were always defeated by ‘inferior’ teams, one of them from the then (then) Second division as I remember it. Next week does not hold out any particularly exciting prospects except that on Friday, I intend to take my American friend to experience the delights of Alcester, a little  Georgian town not too far distant. The High Street is packed full of independent shops and some excellent charity outlets. In addition, one of the local hostelries always does a special pensioner’s menu home-made lasagne which is always beautifully prepared and delicious tasting but we have to ensure that we have made a booking for this two or three days in advance.

Last night, I awoke having had a dream about Meg in an incident in her life which was completely untrue – but could well have been true. They say that often the dreams you remember are ones a few seconds before you wake up and perhaps it was evoked because I had been recalling fondly some of my times with Meg to my American friend the day before. In my dream, Meg and I were on a day trip out somewhere with friends and had stopped off for refreshments. Just before we left, Meg popped into the adjacent loo so our friends said to Meg ‘Do not forget your hat!’ So, Meg made a quick visit to the loo and came back wearing a hat which we did not recognise. So, we told Meg she had got the wrong hat, and Meg was despatched back to the loo to find the correct one. When she re-emerged it was wearing a different hat which none of us recognised so my Friends exclaimed to me ‘Surely you can remember which hat she was wearing?’ to which I had to reply that I could not (to be fair, Meg did have a fair selection of hats and head coverings) So in the dream Meg was making visit after visit to the loo emerging with a different hat on each occasion and then I woke up before anything resembling the correct that had been identified. Now, I must repeat that this dream is not at all true but as Meg’s memory started to fade in her latter years, it could well have been a true story. But to return to a more brutal reality, we know that Donald Trump has a massive streak of vindictiveness against people who I think has wronged him and his ire is particularly directed against Britain who he feels failed to support him in the Iran conflict. Trump is saying that he is minded to punish Britain by withdrawing American support for our recapture of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas to our Spanish and Latin American friends) in 1982. The Argentinians are already starting to make belligerent noises about the return of the islands to Argentina and despite the fact that the Brits built an airstrip on the island immediately after their recapture, it is an interesting question whether Britain could mount a repeat capture if the islands were to be invaded again but this time with tacit American support for the Argentinians. To use a popular expression, it could be that Margaret Thatcher whose popularity shot up immediately after the recapture of the Falkland islands would  be turning in her grave. Whether the Trump view that any island laying adjacent to a much more powerful neighbour automatically ‘belongs’ to the neighbour must be a chilling thought for the inhabitants of Taiwan. Taiwan (officially the Republic of China, ROC) is an island located roughly 100 miles (160 km) off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The two are separated by the Taiwan Strait. While geographically close, they have been governed separately since 1949, though Beijing (People’s Republic of China, PRC) claims sovereignty over the island. Later on today, I have a series of Women’s international rugby fixtures to which to look forward so may try and squeeze in some patio cleaning activities around the fixtures. In the morning, I undertook a walk down into town to pick up a copy of my daily newspaper and the Saturday edition also has a supplement containing all the details of the TV broadcasts during the forthcoming week, so I was relieved that they were not sold out. When  got back, I made myself do 30 minutes patio clearing ad made a bit more progress but it was actually pretty warm outside.

The afternoon turned out to be rather a curious, not to say fraught, one. I lunched on some salad and ham and had this so that I could watch the whole of the England vs Wales Women’s rugby. As might  be expected, England dominated Wales in this match but the Welsh played some entertaining rugby and even managed to score four tries against England which they have never done before. So the Welsh team took heart from the fact that they shown improvements over recent performances  and provided an entertaining game. The Italy vs Scotland match was due to start a few minutes later and that is when  my troubles started. I knew that my Toshiba in the Music Lounge had had an automatic software update recently but I scarcely believe my eyes when access to the BBC iPlayer seemed to have been removed completely whereas there were 150 other apps, all unwatchable and devices to extract money out of you to watch the channel. I think that over the years, I have come to dread the words ‘Software upgrade’ because  problems always seem to occur immediately after un upgrade on whatever device. So I went onto the web and found that the removal of the iPlayer was quite a common problem after a software upgrade on a Toshiba. To try to rectify the situation, I eventually  got onto a Chat website (which charged £1 for the privilege) and there you could describe problems to an online TV engineer. This evidently called for the Toshiba model number which meant locating the manual which I did after a search. The TV engineer did suggest that this happened after a manufacturer’s upgrade and perhaps I might consider a FireStick. I had ignored another website popping up asking me for £22 to solve my problem which I ignored. Eventually, I solved the problem for myself  after a lot of messing about but it involved going into ‘Settings’, finding a list of ‘Apps’ and then activating/deactivating the apps with either a long or a short press on the remote. None of this was easy but at the end of the day, I did get access to the BBC iPlayer. In any event, Italy was massively defeating the Scottish women which I did not particularly  want to watch. But later on tonight, on the iPlayer there should be France vs. Ireland which might be a better contest and worth watching. As I am finishing off today, it looks as though the final attempts to secure a meeting to resolve the Iran conflict have broken down and Donald Trump has not allowed his negotiating team to leave the USA to journey to Islamabad. Trump is saying that ‘he holds all of the cards’ which of course is not the case as Iran still controls the Straits of Hormuz and there is evidently zero trust between the two main protagonists and perhaps we shall shortly see the resumption of overt hostilities.

The principal activity in which I engaged in the late afternoon before last was to carry on clearing the moss and weeds from the patio that we have in our back garden. This is actually quite a mammoth task because with Meg’s lingering illness, the task had not been completed for a couple of years and perhaps even longer. The patio is actually constructed out of reclaimed paving stones of which there are a great variety in colour and (rectangular) shape and is therefore well worth some attention to restore it to a better condition. But there is no substitute to kneeling down and performing a painstaking stone by stone  clearance. I am using a variety of tools which include a narrow pointed trowel, a wire brush, a scraper and a more standard brush. I devoted an hour to this task which was quite enough but it as to be done on a fine day and not with a cold wind whistling around you. I estimate the initial clearance is about 50% done and then, after that, there are two major tasks to be performed. The first of these will be a major re-grouting work as much of the existing cement work has perished. After that, my domestic help knows of a very good stone and patio cleaning company who will do an excellent job – but there are many ‘cowboys’ in this business o which one must be aware.  I am devoting attention to this because one could not really invite guests to sit I the back ha=garden until the patio has been restored, a complicating factor being that moss accumulates on the roof of our dormer bungalow on that side of the house and some of this tumbles onto the patio, making even more  mess to be cleared up. But some patience and devoted hard work will get the task completed before I turn my attention to other gardening activities. In the evening before last, I viewed some of the American liberal podcasts on YouTube and saw a video on the massive corruption in which Trump and his family are engaged. Much of this involves investments by the UAE (United Arab Emirates) into a crypto-currency venture established by Trump and his immediate family. As I write it looks as though the USA government are due to shovel barrowloads of cash towards  the UAE as ‘compensation’ for the Iranian war and much of this will find its way into the Trump family coffers. Donald Trump has been accused of corruption, plain and simple after it was revealed that a member of the Emirati royal family was behind a $500m investment into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company. Ethics experts say the deal – struck just days before the US president’s inauguration last January – amounts to a deep conflict of interest for the White House, amid calls for a congressional investigation into the transaction. Months after the deal, the Trump administration announced that the United Arab Emirates would be allowed to import 500,000 of Nvidia’s powerful AI chips – overriding concerns that the deal could eventually allow China access to the technology. Donald Sherman, president of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a powerful government watchdog group, said the deal is a ‘blatant, disgraceful conflict of interest and a possible violation of the Constitutions Federal Emoluments Clause. Thanks to this latest monetisation of the White House, the American people will have to question whether Trump administration policies affecting the UAE … are in the best interest of the public and American workers, or a foreign nation that padded the president’s bottom line,’ Sherman said. Four days before inauguration, Tahnoon’s emissaries agreed to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company co-owned by the Trump family, for half a billion dollars, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the deal. Normally the American Department of Justice would have a watching brief over these kinds of illegal activities but the Department of Justice is now little more than an extension of the White House and subject to Trump’s biddings. So the video report I read indicated that the level f corruption and personal enrichment of the rump family is both astounding in its scale and in pain sight as Trump and his family do not even bother to conceal the extent to which the war has enriched. By announcing the end to the war or its continuation, Trump and his family are aware of the subsequent movement of the stock markets and hence the opportunities to ma money lies in their own pronouncements. Of course, all of this flows from the Trumpian view that the law applies to other people and not to him and his family  and is used as an instrument to pursue political enemies. If liberals were to think that a day of judgement will surely come when the Trump regime falls, which it must, this ignores the fact that Trump through presidential pardons to excuse any wrong doing before he actually leaves office, distant though that date may be. 

I went into town by car and visited my ‘Gifts of Love’ venue as I usually do at the end of the week .It is not you typical coffee bar where you greeted with a hug and a kiss, have some homemade cake and coffee and leave with another hug and a kiss but that is why it is part of my normal routine  by now. I had made an arrangement for my American friend to call around and we had agreed a very simple dinner of gammon steaks, cabbage and baked potato but tis was fine for both us although  I did prepare a starter of melon and ham. After lunch, our son popped round  and soon my son and American friend were engaged in discussions about the delights of the Severn Valley railway in general and diesel electric locomotives in particular. We then settled down and watched the film ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ which  is a particular favourite of mine. This is a love story, a war story and plenty of funny as well dramatic incidents in between and my friend enjoyed it tremendously not having seen it before.We enjoyed a little  supper of melon. blueberries and yogurt and  played my friend my videoclip of Me at her best over eight years ago now in a 50th wedding anniversary speech.

As so often happens in these grim times, the cartoonists have been busy at work. Two in particular  have found their way into my Inbox, the first of which depicts Trump standing in front of a row of furled, black sun umbrellas with a strap line that for six hours, Trump thought he was negotiating with the Iranians. The second depicts the personnel on an American warship one saying to the other that new orders had been received to the effect that they had to wait until the Stock Exchange opened before launching the next attack. And right in the middle of a war, the Trump regime has removed the head of the US Navy, on what grounds it is unclear. The head of the Army was replaced about a week ago so I suppose this balances things up. What is particularly interesting about the Iranian conflict at this moment of time is that the Iranians possess two key negotiating cards and potential levers against the Americans. The first of these is that my reasons of geography, the Iranians are in de facto control of the Straits of Hormuz immediately proximate to their shores (a little like the English Channel) and short of a really massive ground invasion there is nothing that American military might can do about it. The second critical factor is just the passage of time as Trump’s support (as well as his health) are ebbing away day by day and week by week and Trump is feeling the need for a deal. In the meanwhile, the Iranians have to do nothing except wait until such time as the Americans are forced into ‘de facto’ concessions. In our domestic politics, we are also in a countdown situation after the enquiries into the Mandelson affair. We are in the period before the May 7th local elections in which it looks as though the Labour party will be put to the sword and calls for Starmer’s resignation will become overwhelming. So whilst desperately unhappy, Labour MPs are just biding their time, a little like turkeys  the run up to Christmas. An evident leader in waiting, Andy Burnham is not yet in Parliament which prevents him being portrayed as the ‘prince over the water’ so I suspect that the Labour party are wondering if their weakest MP might do the decent thing and die soon so that a by-election can be called in a safe Labour seat (but in the present, febrile mood of the party, perhaps there is no such thing as a safe Labour seat) Later on in the day, I anticipate doing my Tai Chi and having a chat with one or two of the regulars at the Methodist Centre which I have not visited since my return from hospital but I am pleased to have the week’s shopping out of the way, having moved my weekly shopping day from a Thursday  to a Wednesday (when the stores are very quiet anyway – a fellow shopper and I were chuntering away to each other because there were no manned tills but only the self-scanning tills which evidently we both wanted to avoid)

In the morning, I had my normal Tai Chi session in which our instructor was concentrating today upon our breathing techniques. This was followed by the normal coffee and toasted teacake and a chat with some of the regulars. There was a considerable amount of discussion about  a report in a local newspaper that there are dozens of individuals in Worcestershire County Council who are paid in excess of £100,000 a year. As you might expect, the report was greeted with universal horror but I wish we had more information about which roles were attracting these salaries and some  justification for the monies paid. Leaving aside the Chief Executive although I have some doubts whether these salaries are justified in local government the argument is that for certain roles (for example an IT director) this is the rate for the job and one has to compete with the private sector to attract and retain individuals of the right calibre. It could be that there are some roles that are self-justifying – in the past could be paid a high salary of a large amount of money had been extracted from European and similar funds. Trying to talk around a subject when you only have the newspaper headlines and not the detail can be frustrating. I left the Methodist Centre and paid a quick visit to the supermarket where I bought some melon and ham for tomorrow’s lunch and then returned home to make a conventional meal of ham in in onion gravy, a baked potato and beans. Trying to care of myself as the years advance,  I am always interested in recent research findings on the most effective forms of exercise. Regular exercise can help to manage blood pressure, because it makes our hearts stronger. But according to a huge 2023 study, which looked at 270 trials from 1990-2023, isometric exercises might be the most effective at the job, with ‘wall sits’ the best performer among these. Researchers found that isometric exercise was more likely, on average, to lower blood pressure than aerobic exercise training, dynamic resistance training, combined training, and high-intensity interval training, though all forms were still immensely helpful. Isometric exercise, sometimes called static exercise involves keeping your body still while you tense specific muscles for a set period of time. You don’t move your joints during the movement. It is the opposite of dynamic, or isotonic exercise, which involves little load and consistent pressure on various muscles, for example, running and swimming. Most forms of exercise involve a combination of isometric and isotonic exercise, though some are 100% one or the other. Wall sits are generally held for 30 to 60 seconds for beginners, aiming for 1–2 minutes (intermediate) or up to 3+ minutes(advanced) to build serious leg strength and endurance. The goal is to maintain a 90-degree angle with knees over ankles for 3–4 sets, 2–3 times a week. I happen to know that my Pilates teacher is very keen on this particular exercise so I may well attempt to incorporate it into a daily routine. First, though, find a good piece of wall that it important not to get it marked whilst it gets leant against and the skirting board always gets a little in the way.