I suppose the middle of the night ranks as being of today’s contributions but the day did not get off to a flying start. Last night, my University of Winchester friend and I had a planned Skype conversation, where we had to lot of communicate to each other as we are both immersed in the care that we need to give to our wives who suffer from different ailments but whose symptoms appear to quite closely match each other. We give each other some advice and helpful support but have to Skype at a time when we are free from caring responsibilities. So I was a little later to bed than is usual for me because I needed to do some financial updates but when I eventually got to bed, I found the bedroom light on (an ominous sign) and Meg on the bedroom floor. Getting her up is no easy task but perhaps superior to calling out the specialist Falls service where one has to wait hours sometimes. So getting Meg up, toileted and back into bed again with an arrangement of my own devising to prevent her falling out of bed took the about three quarters of an hour which is evidently so much less sleep during the night. So this morning, I was pretty tired (as Meg had had a total of four falls in the previous 24 hours) and after Meg was up and breakfasted, I promptly fell fast asleep in my chair. Then I woke up with a start, realising that we only had about 20 minutes to get off to our social engagement this morning. Every second Wednesday of the month, we go off to an event organised by AgeUK in the Bromsgrove rugby club premises and today the highlight of the morning was going to be a performance given by some musicians called the Midland Sinfonia. In the event, it was a violinist and a cellist and they played some light classical pieces as well as some fairly well known tunes that lend themselves to being played on stringed instruments (for example, ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’) After we had had our little concert, the musicians mingled with us and Meg and I finished up being photographed with the violinist and another club member (who I suspect was the oldest of us attending there today) We were told that the photo would be published on the group’s website as part of their ‘Outreach’ programme so this will be interesting to look out for. Whilst I was in conversation with the violinist, she informed me that the whole ensemble conducted informal and ‘open’ rehearsal sessions in a church in a neighbouring village. I think this was followed by tea and cakes and a chance to mingle. The violinist told me approximately when the other rehearsal sessions were to be and she promised to email me with some of the details so we could turn up if the spirit moves us. One date that she mentioned happened to be my birthday in May so it might be worthwhile getting a ‘free’ concert and some tea and cakes on that particular day.

Tomorrow we will need to be juggling several commitments at one. At the start of the day, someone is going to pop by from a firm in Droitwich to give us a quote for the installation of a stair lift. We are also due to visit the dental hygienist and the dentist phoned up mid-morning to ask if we would mind if our appointment was brought forward by half an hour. Although last time we visited the dentist, things were all on the ground floor, I am not sure if some specialised arrangements are going to made when Meg and I attend tomorrow because there is normally a steep flight of stairs to negotiate which would actually be beyond us. Even getting into the dentist is going to prove problematic because the premises has a very steep step at its entrance so I suspect tat we have to dive inside and ask for an access ramp to be deployed so that we can actually get in. I normally have shopping to think about on a Thursday but given other commitments this will necessitate some rearrangement.

Prime Ministers Questions should have been an open goal for Keir Starmer but he seems to have flunked his attack. The case in question was the biggest Tory donor, Frank Hester, who is reported to have said Dianne Abbott (the first black female MP) made him ‘want to hate all black women’ and that she ‘should be shot’. This was so evidently a racist comment and was roundly condemned by all sides of the political spectrum but it took an intervention from Kemi Badenoch, the Trade minister, to spur Downing Street into action and after quite some delay and prevarication to admit this comment was racist. The Rishi Sunak ‘line’ is that the donor in question had shown some contrition and therefore the debate should move on. But there is an evident line of attack that the Tories should return the donation from such a dubious and questionable source but the money might already have been spent.

Today was one of those days with more than its fair share of frustrations but days like this come along every so often. The two car workers turned up almost on cue although one was a little delayed but when she arrived helped me with some bed making. We knew that after breakfast a couple of OTs (Occupational Therapists) were due to show up at about 10.30 and for this reason, we had forewarned our Waitrose friends that we would not be able to see them for coffee this morning. Of the two OTs who came long this morning, one was a ‘Falls’ specialist nurse and the other an occupational therapist. As always, they tried to be super helpful and brought along a piece of kit which may prove its worth in the days and weeks ahead. This was called a ‘handling belt’ and you put it on the patient much as weight-lifters put on special belts to ensure that the vertebrae in their backs do not ‘pop out’. This belt has some special handles around the sides and the concept is that you have more points of contact if assisting a very frail person (which is what Meg is these days) The two OTs and myself made a trip into the bedroom so that we could discuss how Meg is to be handled getting her out of bed and into the en-suite shower room and then back again once washed and dressed. They also brought along a special little sheet which may help to get Meg into the right position once she is finally settled into bed. Coming downstairs we hd some discussion as whether the armchair that Meg sits in is suitable – on the one hand it is superbly comfortable but tends to slope backwards and is a little difficult to get out of. From my point of view, this is fine as if Meg gets out of a chair on her own, she tends to stagger and then fall and I am left to pick up the pieces, as it were. So I was just saying to them that whereas Meg tended to fall about once a day, this frequency had ben reduced recently so Meg’s lack of mobility has a type of bonus. Needless to say, I spoke too soon because Meg has had three falls today and we are not near the end of the day yet. After the OTs had left, I received a telephone call from the representative of a stairlift company who had been scheduled to come along some time in the late afternoon but had had a cancellation and wondered if he could squeeze me in some time just after 12.00pm. So this visit came and went and the representative was a non-nonsense ex-footballer with whom I struck up a rapport. He assured me there would be no hard selling as that is the last thing in the world that I wanted or needed so I am left with a quote wondering whether the somewhat higher price than competitors might be worth it in the long run for the extra quality. I have another two options still to be explored. One of the OTs mentioned to me a family firm in Droitwich which I contacted and got a good response from one of the owners. He is going to fit me in on Thursday morning on his way to a much bigger installation job in this part of the world so that will give me another option to consider. Finally, there is a firm located on a trading estate in Bromsgrove which I located to more sure it was ‘findable’ when Meg and I were coming back from Droitwich yesterday so that provides me with a third supplier whose quotes I can then assess. I have been told by two sources that if you were to wait for the local authority to perhaps install a stair lift there would be a wait of 18 months and given that the need is immediate then perhaps I will not even bother to explore this. However, I did have a contact at Age Concern that I am trying to contact (although she is process of handing over her role to another volunteer) which might be able to access some funds to help defray the cost. I am coming to the view, also, that social services have been completely hollowed out by the present government who have totally denuded the social services budgets at a time when demand is going through the roof. Today, I tried to contact social services through their Worcestershire hub and was in a queue of 10 and told that if I did not get a reply within 45 minutes, I should try again tomorrow (when the result will be the same) I then managed to locate the area team responsible for Bromsgrove but after waiting for about 15 minutes received a curt message to say that no-one was available to take my call and the call was terminated. I got the same result when I tried again about an hour later. I mentioned this to the OTs who said they even though they sent through urgent requests to social services via email, this too failed to elicit a response.

Tomorrow, Meg and I have an event to which we can both look forward. Age Concern runs a special cafe for people in the same category as Meg and we meet on the second Wednesday of every month. Tomorrow we are going to be treated to the ‘Midlands Sinfonia’ which is probably a group of musicians of quartet or quintet size who will probably play us some well known classical favourites. But it is is always good to listen to a live performance so I am sure that whatever is played, Meg and I will derive some enjoyment from it tomorrow morning.

Last night, after Meg was safely tucked up in bed, I started to do some of the outstanding tasks. The most important of these was to respond to a communication from DVLC to renew my driving licence – this has to be done every three years once one has passed the age of 70. Fortunately, I am able to tick the box that requires you to certify that you can read a number plate at the requisite number of yards. We go to the opticians on a regular basis each year and whereas a few years ago, our optician informed me that I met the standard due to advancing years and the long sight that comes with it (presbyopia) I now easily meet the standard. Most of the online form was easy to complete as I have my NI number off by heart for decades now but my passport number, I have only just committed to memory. So I had to creep into our secret cupboard to retrieve my passport number half way through the exercise but at the same time gave permission for any of my organs to be used for whatever reason when the appointed day arrives. The form submitted OK and although DVLC informed me there were still some validation checks to be done, I am reasonably confident that all should be plain sailing from this point on. As time goes by, the various government agencies seem to talk to each other reasonably well and in this case, the DVLC can retrieve the digitised photo which appears on my passport to also appear on my driving licence. All of this was done at no charge as well.

This morning has been a rather frustrating experience but we all occasionally have days like this. Making some preparations for the eventual installation of a chairlift, I found the address of an organisation that seems to act as a managing agent, managing the transactions between the local authority on the one hand and the supplier of equipment on the other. The address seemed to be near our usual route into Droitwich so I thought I would make this the prime focus of our visit this morning. Ominously, the SatNav did not give me the chance to enter a house number but in my search for a No. 22 I found 21 and 23 and no idea here 22 might be (as there were no other houses on the other side of the road) So Meg and I went off to for our normal cup of tea and a bacon butty and then resumed our search afterwards. During our coffee break, I consulted my notes and realised that I should have been looking for a No. 9 which you would think was straightforward. But in the row of retail outlets, generally unnumbered, I found a Chinese takeaway with the number ‘7’ put on the door with some yellow insulating tape but the Asian run fish-and-chip shop next door told me they were number 13 so what had happened to Nos. 9 and 11, I have no idea. After I had got home, I telephoned the two numbers which a website had given to me. The first resulted in my call being terminated with a a few seconds whereas the second resulted in an automated BT message telling me that I had dialled an incorrect number (which I had not, as I checked on the internet) So we gave all of that up as a bad job and I returned home, a little grumpy and frustrated and commenced to cook the dinner (largely pre-prepared for yesterday’s meal and so easy to rustle up).

The political news this afternoon is rather taken up by the defection of Lee Anderson to the Reform party, thus completing a journey from the centre (where was a Labour councillor) to the far right, where he is the first MP of the Reform party (i.e. ex-Brexit party) Nigel Farage has welcomed him with open arms and many Conservative MP’s are shuddering with fright. If the Reform party stand in every single constituency, which is their stated intention, then they will probably not gain a single seat as their support is spread too thinly. But by peeling off votes that would otherwise have gone to the Conservative party, this opens the door for a Lib-Lab candidate to take the seat. To some extent, we have seen this before decades ago because Margaret Thatcher was successful by having the opposition to het split between the Labour Party, the Liberals, and the newly formed SDP. Margaret Thatcher, who is still revered today, regularly gained about 40% of the available vote but if the turnout was about 70% then the maths indicated that only about 1 in 4 of the electorate actually voted for Margret Thatcher at the height of her power. The Reform party have an interesting long term agenda which is to splinter the Conservative vote so they undoubtedly lose the next election and then push as hard as they can for PR in whatever political situation emerges. This argument only works if the electoral arithmetic means that any incoming administration such as a Labour one has to rely upon the votes of smaller parties. But if the Reform ‘strategy’ is successful, then the Conservative party will probably be out of power for at least one election so we are taking about ten years in total. So we live in interesting times!

Today started off with the carer for Meg arriving 15 minutes before her allotted slot when we were still rubbing the sleep out of eyes. But we got Meg up, washed and dressed acting as a duo and therefore we were in plenty of time to settle down in front of the Lorna Kuenssbery show on Sunday mornings. This had the Chancellor-in-waiting, Rachel Reeves, acting as the very model of financial proprietary by promising that every Labour commitment would be costed and be affordable before it was put into effect. In other words, an incoming Labour government would not borrow to finance current expenditure but would only borrow for longer term capital projects. Rachel Reeves worked for the Bank of England and as a civil servant and is evidently part of the push to reassure voters that a Labour Party would be the model of financial rectitude. After what Liz Truss did to the economy this is not surprising but does make the Labour Party seem like a paler version of the Tory Party. The Lorna Kuenssberg show was enlivened by a wonderful clash between the food campaigner, High Fearnley-Whittingstall and Victoria Adams, a Tory Health Minister. Hugh Fearnleigh-Whittingstall was allowed to put a question directly to the minister which he did to devastating effect. He briefly recounted the enormous costs to the health service (and to the nation as a whole) of the effects of obesity, much of exacerbated by the junk food to which the country as a whole seems addicted. He asked Adams why in her period of office amongst the many levers that she could pull to try to combat the obesity crisis, she had pulled none of them i.e. basically done nothing. Her reply was so lame and ran along the lines of (a) I have only been in post for a short time and I have not had time to do anything about it (b) I intend to do something about it once I get round to it eventually. This was so lame a defence as to be unbelievable. But Victoria Adams is married to the Chief Executive of ABF Sugar, one of the biggest sugar producers in the country and sugar, by common medical consent, is a major contributor to obesity being added unnecessarily to soups, confectionaries and all manner of foodstuffs.

Meg and I had thought that we might go to the park this moment but we survived a moment of panic when it looked as though our house alarm was playing up. An unusual light was sounding and the keys sounded extra loud when pressed but this problem was solved with the aid of a magnifying class so that I could discern which of the buttons on the alarm’s control panel was the reset button after which order was restored. We collected our Sunday newspaper and then made for the park but it was one of those kinds of days where the mist/rain just seemed to hang in the air. Once we got ourselves installed on what used to be our ‘usual’ park bench we were soon surrounded by diverse dogs, some yapping and others being a bit more sensible. We got into conversation with one person who we used to see quite regularly when we visited the park practically every day at the height of the COVID pandemic. One particularly yappy little dog did not enamour itself to me by putting its muddy paws on my lap, thinking that some food might be in the offing. After this group had moved on, we met another dog owner who owns quite a good looking labradoodle and we spent some time catching up on his news. His partner seemed to be pretty poorly with a lung condition that the GP and various specialists could not identify – the latest line of thinking was that it might be something that was a remnant of COVID caught in the past. Then we made our way for home. As soon as we got back into the house, I received a telephone call from a French widow that we know well and who lives down the Kidderminster Road. She had heard from our Irish friends that we might be considering a stairlift so she told us about a local company that she used when her husband was in hospital and may well have needed a stairlift when he came out of hospital. A local company sounds quite interesting so Meg and I might well make a trip there tomorrow morning so that we can help to negotiate the various options of purchasing new, purchasing refurbished or renting. At the same time, we are exploring sources of finance to see if any assistance is available but a little trip down the road might prove fruitful for us. For lunch today, we availed ourself of the half of a beef joint which was cooked and have frozen some weeks ago. I hunted around the freezer and found some honey-glazed parsnips left over from last Christmas so these got popped into the oven and made a delicious lunch with the beef brought back to life in some onion gravy and with some broccoli.

As might have predicted, in the Six Nations rugby competition the strong and powerful French forwards overwhelmed the plucky Welsh who, at the end of the day and even though playing in Cardiff, eventually succumbed. But they did a reasonable job in holding off the French for about three quarters of the match and led the French for much of the first half.

So we enter our Saturday morning routine this morning, having woken up to quite a gloomy kind of day but at least the weather promises to be a tad warmer than some of the frosty starts we have just had. Meg’s carers arrived on cue this morning and so everything went fine but tomorrow, as they are so short-staffed, I agreed with the care agency that we make do with one carer tomorrow morning. I reckon that a little bit of give and take on both sides is always a good policy. One of the carers was telling me of her baptism of fire as a care worker. Her very first assignment was to a 60-stone 20 year old who suffered from fluid retention issues. Eventually, it took a team of eight workers coming in three times a day to cater for his extensive needs – the fire brigade needed to remove a window and goodness what kinds of lifting equipment on the occasions that it was necessary for him to visit hospital. After we had breakfasted, it was time for us to get ourselves down to Waitrose which we did and met up with two of our regular coffee drinking companions. We all look forward to these little Saturday morning chats (as well as Tuesdays) and we informed our two friends that we might miss next Tuesday. The ‘Falls’ nurse plus a physiotherapist colleague are due to visit us at some time next Tuesday but as we are not sure when, then we need to ensure that neither our morning coffee session or even Pilates class gets in the way of what might be quite an important assessment meeting. After we had got back, Meg had a bit of a rest and I got things organised for lunch which was a simple but tasty affair of quiche, fine beans and microwaved tomatoes.

We were gearing our timetables today around the Six Nations Rugby match. We got settled down to watch the Italy vs. Scotland game. Scotland have the reputation of being fast out of the blocks and they had a tremendously good first half, scoring a handful of tries and being quite reasonably ahead at half time. But Italy have a reputation of coming good in the second half of their matches and so it proved today. With about five minutes left to play, the Italians were nine points in the lead but then the Scots made a massive effort and scored a try to come within two points of the Italians. Then we have an absolutely nerve wracking final minute or so because if the Scots conceded a penalty, then the Italians would have won. But if Italy had conceded a penalty, then victory would go to the Scots. Hence, as the cliché goes, there was everything to play for. In the event, after the clock had gone red, the Scots knocked on and so the Italians won the game. They were absolutely ecstatic because they only narrowly lost the game against England, actually drew with France (but would have won if the conversion kick had not hit the upright post and failed to go over) So here they actually had a victory by two points which was their first victory in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome for eleven years. These tight matches are not only absorbing but they are good for the game as a whole and all fans really want to enjoy skilful and fast rugby being played. In the England vs.Ireland game, the English made a surprisingly good start but the Irish still managed to be ahead at half time having seized their opportunities better than England. At the end of the day, nobody really expects England to beat Ireland but they are certainly making a very fierce context of it. In the end, as a result of a fired-up performance, the English played like the Irish and won by a single point, kicking a drop goal in the closing seconds of the game.

Just when we thought that Joe Biden was too old for the job, the old-timer made a fiery ‘State of the Nation‘ address to Congress. These speeches are generally not overtly partisan but on this occasion Joe Biden really had a go at Trump, not referring to him by name but only as ‘my predecessor’ Biden made the powerful point that ‘Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today. What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time.’ So here we have the old campaigner coming good, as it were, and giving some heart to the Democrats who are not entirely enthused of Biden who appears to be both gaffe-prone and probably somewhat too old for the job. But Trump himself has made several gaffes recently and both Biden and Trump seem to be in the habit of getting the names of presidents of other countries mixed up with each other. Whilst Trump appears to be riding high at the moment, there are a lot of law suits still to be decided over the coming weeks and months. But we are faced with the bizarre prospect that an American contender be a convicted felon and even sent to gaol but by itself this not disqualify them from becoming a President elect. There may be some moves in Congress to rectify this apparent anomaly but this will probably not come to fruition. Trump has managed to delay some of the court proceedings against him and this playing for time is probably par for the course.

This morning did not run as smoothly as one would have liked. I got Meg all up and ready for the care workers who turned up at 8.45 rather than at 8.00am this morning. After I had left Meg some undressed and therefore cold in the bathroom, I finished off everything myself. When the care workers arrived, they explained that they were scheduled for 8.45 but whoever had scheduled them forget to inform me. Later the manager of the agency phoned me on another matter and then I informed him of the lateness on this occasion. It looked as though one of his staff had done some re-scheduling without him knowing anything about it. I can put up with these inconvenient changes of time so long as I am informed in time and can make the necessary adjustments. So after a delayed breakfast, we entertained ourselves for an hour until we received a visit from our local church parishioner which is generally a weekly event on each Friday. When her visit was over, Meg and I motored down to the Waitrose car park where we picked up our newspaper and then made another venture along the High Street. I particularly wanted to have a chat with the charity shop proprietor whose plight we learned about yesterday and which was regarded as sufficiently newsworthy for it to merit quite a large spread in the local newspaper. The ironic thing about this whole affair was that one of the ‘culprits’ was another charity (a ‘Primrose’ charity) which seemed as though they had the money to outbid and to oust out a smaller charity. The advice that I wanted to pass on was that I thought that the cafe proprietor was in urgent need of some legal advice. More specifically, I wondered whether the ability to terminate a lease after only two weeks, although written into the lease, was actually legally enforceable or not. If it were, then I suggested that a counter claim be submitted for thousands of pounds spent on upgrading the decor of the shop which was adding to the value and desirability of the property, thereby handing a bonus to the landlord. The cafe proprietor was grateful that I had given her the advice that I had. Although she had not engaged a solicitor for the initial signing of the lease, she was now in contact with some very good legal advice who were working along the lines that her lease ‘was a public good’ and therefore, not as I suspected, susceptible to an abrupt termination. In any case, she was having to leave her premises tomorrow but agents were looking for somewhere similar for her along the High Street and she promised to let me know as and when she had found somewhere else suitable. Our walk along the High Street proved to be quite fruitful in other ways as well. We bumped into an erstwhile ‘park friend’ who I used to see almost every day and to whom I referred to as ‘Seasoned World Traveller’ but who I have not seen for a month or so since Meg and I are so much less frequent visitors to the park. He informed us that he now had taken a job in a local supermarket in what I think was some kind of quality control function. I was delighted to hear his news since our COVID walks in the park and I think his health had improved somewhat and I am sure that a new job would be beneficial to him in all kinds of ways. Also whilst walking along the street, we met one of our Waitrose Tuesday crowd who we did not see earlier on this week as she was busy bowling. So the whole little trip along the High Street was entertaining in itself. We found a stall (over which we did not linger) which sold all sorts of animal parts normal not edible by humans but no doubt a treat for household pets. We noticed some pig’s ears, hen’s feet, duck necks, ox bones and all kinds of otherwise unimaginable animal body parts no doubt relished by the dog population of Bromsgrove but sufficiently gruesome for the human population.

There is a most extraordinary story of the type loved by the popular press. Apparently, a caravan was stolen near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. However, with the aid of tracking technology, the police apprehended the ‘thief’ who was driving a BMW Series 5 which was towing the caravan. From tools and other objects found by the police inside the car, it looked as though the boy himself had executed the theft and was driving the towed caravan down the motorway. There are several intriguing questions behind this story – for a start, where was the boy heading or when driving down the motorway? What would have happened when he ran out of petrol? Did he have any parents or other adults who were responsible for him?

It been announced this afternoon that the one time Prime Minister, Theresa May, would not stand for Parliament at the next election i.e. later on this year. One wonders whether history will treat Theresa May kindly or not. She says she is going to concentrate upon a particular interest of hers which is the abolition of modern day slavery. One must say that Theresa May was dealt the most difficult of hands whilst PM, torn between the demand of the ardent Brexiteers on the one hand and some equally ardent Remainers on the other. Boris Johnson ‘solved’ the problem by engineering a vote so that prominent Remainer critics such as Anna Soubiry and David Gaulke had the whip withdrawn – that is, effectively being thrown out of the party to enable the Brexiteers to have their way.

Today has turned out to be quite an interesting day, as we shall see. The principal event on Thursday is my shopping day and for this event, the care agency supplied a care worker to sit with Meg whilst I go shopping. This morning, the two care workers turned up on cue including one who is a middle aged Polish care worker who is incredibly jolly and hard working. She is one of those people who does not hang back but immediately tackles whatever task is before with gusto and Meg and I have a very good relationship with her. She is very kindly and helpful to Meg and helps to jolly her along to get the morning routines accomplished. One of the pieces of kit that we had delivered the other day was a sort of basic wheelchair that we can use to quickly transport Meg from bedroom to bathroom and the carers appreciated the utility of this aid. So after we had got Meg up, washed, dressed and breakfasted we only had an hour to wait until the Polish carer, who had been allocated to another client, came back to care for Meg whilst I did my shopping. This took three quarters of an hour and I managed to buy all of the things that I had on the list (in my head) and when I got back, Meg had evidently had a bit of a wobbly so the kindly care worker had sensibly got her onto our little settee, put a (heavy) therapeutic blanket round her which was exactly the right thing to do and Meg was soundly asleep upon my return. The carer still had an hour left of her allocated slot so whilst Meg was sleeping, the care worker and I exchanged some of our life histories. She had a hard time in her life, losing her mother when she was only 18 years of age and largely left to her devices together with a brother and sister. I had put some of our favourite baroque music concerts (YouTube) on whilst I was out of the house and as the care worker had been exposed to classical music for an hour, I felt she needed a bit of a change. So searching YouTube I managed to find some Joan Baez (classical Mexican-American folksinger, one time ‘amante’ of Bob Dylan, who established her reputation singing protest songs in the 1960’s) Of course, the Polish car worker had never been exposed to these musical influences so we mutually enjoyed listening to Joan Baez tracks whilst Meg was asleep. If there had been a routine domestic job to share such as clothes folding, we would have done this but as it happened the washing was up-to-date. Afterwards we finished off the chicken thighs which were the remainder of last week’s ‘joint’ as it were and had a delicious lunch, complemented with baked potato and broccoli.

The afternoon turned out to be quite entertaining for us. As Meg had not had any fresh air and I had not had the opportunity to pick up my newspaper, we parked in the Waitrose car park and then went for a little trundle along the length of the Bromsgrove High Street, popping in at some of our favourite charity shops to see if anything tickled our fancy. We did not see anything we particularly wanted or needed but noticed that a new charity shop had opened, the proceedings from which were to be used to help the running costs of a horse sanctuary. We decided to pop inside and discovered it only been open for a month. As it was deserted and the owner/proprietor was very chatty, we had a look around and saw that they had supplied about three or four tables beautifully laid out for those who were tempted by a coffee and a cake. Meg was feeling a bit chilled at this stage so we decided to succumb to temptation and sat down with hot chocolate (for both of us) and then a nice piece of cake for Meg. As there was no-one else in the shop, the proprietor came and chatted with us and she explained how they had spent several thousands tastefully redecorating the interiors. Then some other customers came in and informed us that this brand new shop was going to have to close at the end of the week. Then we got the full story from the proprietor who explained that they had taken out a lease for three years and wanted to make it into a little community hub where groups could come and have little impromptu meetings. Then we learnt of the bombshell that had befallen then. After they had been in the store for only two weeks, the landlord decided to serve them notice of eviction as he had been offered more money than the horse sanctuary could afford to pay and was turfing them out. Having just discovered this wonderful little place we were horrified that this could happen. We left with hugs and kisses all round (yes, really!) and I left one of my business cards asking the owner if she could contact me the minute they had found a new place so we could come and patronise their new venture and to help to spread the word and help their little business to grow. When we got back home, Miggles, our favourite adopted cat, was sitting patiently waiting for us having observed us leaving about an hour and a half beforehand. Had the faithful animal been sitting and waiting patiently for our return, we asked ourselves but of course we shall never know.

We were looking forward to three or four things happening today, of which the first was greeting our domestic help who is now calling around each Wednesday. The carers called this morning about 15 minutes early whilst we were both still in bed having woken up and then dozed off again. So after Meg was got up and breakfasted, we started to turn our thoughts to our second little venture of the day which was to eventually get to the Methodist Centre coffee shop which is our regular routine for a Wednesday. We picked up a copy of our daily newspaper from a local garage and then went to access an ATM to get out next week’s living money. Accessing an ATM is a little problematic these days but I pop onto the Asda carpark without paying for their charges as I only intend to be there literally for a minute or so. This particular car park operated by the District Council used to have a 15 minute ‘grace’ period so that you could pick up things from the local store but I gather from talking to a car park attendant that this policy does not operate any more and one has to pay if only for a stay of a minute or so. Once we had got our money out we went to the Methodist Centre where we were quickly joined by one of our Waitrose friends and her next door neighbour who had walked down to the centre together. When we had met last Tuesday, our friend described to us how she had mislaid her front door key but her daughter-in-law had fortunately found them just outside the house. I recommended to her that she should purchase the type of chain that I deploy to make sure that I lose the keys from my back pocket which has happened before today. I suggested a local firm called ‘Bromsgrove Cobblers‘ where the proprietor always tries to be very help in helping people with the kinds of things that shoe repair shops sell these days. Our friend was delighted to have found a chain which the shop owner had carefully fitted her keys onto to make sure that she should keep them safe in the future. We had a very pleasant chat with our friend and her neighbour and then set off for home as today is Budget Day and we thought we would get home in time to see a lot of the Budget speech. For lunch, I was in and out of the kitchen whilst I was searing some chicken legs which I wanted to be well cooked before I added them to our stewpot for a lunch. I was attempting to get snatches of the Budget speech and do some cooking at the same time which proved to be a little difficult. Eventually, I got Meg to the kitchen table and we started to have our lunch.

I was about half way through our lunch when the ‘Falls’ nurse showed up as we knew that she would some time in the afternoon but we had no exact time. She was alone as the colleague who was meant to accompany her had phoned in sick today. Nonetheless, she is an incredibly helpful Falls nurse and once we had completed our lunch, we get Meg to the bottom of the stairs and I started to show how I helped to support/push/encourage Meg up the stairs which normally happens once a day only when we are preparing to get Meg to bed. I think it is fair to say that Meg is having a particularly wobbly day today and the nurse covered her hands in horror as in our efforts to get Meg up the stairs we only managed a couple of stairs. The nurse expressed complete amazement that I had been coping with getting Meg up the stairs unaided for months now and thought that a stairlift was an absolute priority. She had brought along some leaflets for me to peruse and, as it happened, I had already made a tentative internet search and discovered what may be a good, if pricey, local supplier. I have the option to buy brand new, to buy refurbished or to rent and each of thee options comes with attendant advantages and disadvantages to be considered. The Falls nurse said she would discuss Meg’s case with colleagues and would return next Tuesday (i.e. in six days time) – although this is normally my Waitrose/Pilates day, I think the appointment with the couple of physiotherapist from the ‘Falls’ team has to take complete priority over everything else, as things stand at the moment. We briefly discussed the option of a bed downstairs but the Falls team nurse explained that if we had a hospital type bed, we could not have rests fitted down the sides as disoriented sleepers might get up during the night and injure themselves. So between us, we discounted this possibility which makes the stairlift appear the only viable option. I probably need to re-activate links with the social work team (having just been ‘signed off’ by the existing social worker) so we would start again with a new social worker and, perhaps have further reviews and discussions of options.

I have not had much time, if any today, to absorb details of the Budget except to note the details of the cuts to national Insurance contributions pre-announced yesterday. There was some speculation that the Chancellor might try to pull a rabbit out of the hat i.e. spring a Budget surprise right at the end of his speech. But this Budet led one minister to remark privately that this is the Budget that could well have been produced by a Labour Chancellor. In line with speculation, the ‘non-dom’ tax status relief is to be abolished which may not please the wife of the Prime Minister very much but such is the magnitude of her wealth, she might not feel it that much.

Today being a Tuesday, we swing into our Tuesday routines which will turn out to be coffee with the Waitrose friends at about 10.30am followed by my Pilates session in the middle of the day. I got myself showered and then Meg’s carers did their bit to get Meg washed and dressed. One of the carers in particular is pressing that I ask for extra equipment to help Meg (and them) in their tasks. She is arguing along the lines that her grandmother had greater levels of mobility than Meg is exhibiting at the moment so we should press for a stairlift and other quite expensive mobility aids. But more of this later. After we had breakfasted, I got Meg ready to meet with our coffee bar friends and whilst the youngest one was busy playing bowls, we met with our other two regulars. Our friend who was a keen fell-walker has lost her husband (who was quite a lot older than her) to dementia and the funeral was held about a fortnight ago. Since then, she has busy with the things that are consequence of the death of a partner, such as the adjustment to joint bank account details. She was telling me of a government website called ‘TellMeOnce’ which, in theory, is a portal in which you communicate a person’s death to the portal which is then meant meant to inform all other relevant government departments. But I think she had run foul of one agency, probably I think the Benefits Agency, who when asked to cease the payments of one particular benefit, then required the completion of an eight page form including such details as the bank account details of any executors (presumably to pay any monies due into their bank accounts) Our friend had quite a row with them, refused to fill in the form and slammed down the phone. I am sure there there must be a simpler and easier way of dealing with this particular benefit but this is bureaucracy running mad for you. Before I left for my Pilates, I had a couple of welcome telephone calls from a nurse who works in the ‘Falls’ team and is part of the Occupational Therapy service. I had telephoned her yesterday to thank her for the piece of kit which she left with us on Friday which is helping to transport Meg around the house. She returned my message today, as she was out of the office yesterday, and said that she would see what she do about my request for a second and parallel piece of kit which would be used exclusively upstairs. A second phone call informed me that would manage to get the second piece of kit round to me some time in the afternoon. In addition, she was going to set up a visit in which she would call round with another OT/physiotherapist colleague to see how Meg was able to cope with stairs and how she managed the journeys she made (one at the start of the day when she comes downstairs and one at the end of the day when I get her off to bed) I must say I am delighted with the rapid and timely response of the team but I think that as Meg falls about once a day she is just an accident waiting to happen and we want to avoid these unpleasant possibilities. This is not just an idle speculation. One of my life-long friends who was both my art master, music teacher, dormitory supervisor at boarding school and boy scout troop leader (I knew him in several roles) would send us a Christmas card and verses of his composition every year without fail. When one did not arrive a year or so back, I sent another urgent letter which eventually passed into the hands of his daughter. She informed me that her father had fallen down the stairs of the cottage in which he lived in Northern France as a result of which he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage from which he died within the day. So potential falls down the stairs of a house are to be taken very seriously and evidently everyone concerned with Meg’s care is going to try to ensure that this does not happen to her.

It is budget day tomorrow and the media are their normal feeding frenzy in the day or so preceding it trying to ascertain what tax cuts are to be implemented in this most strange of years when the country cannot afford anything but it is going to be an election year, probably in October/November. There used to be a time when the Chancellor ‘went into purdah’ communicating with not a soul until he could announce good news in his budget statement that would be treated with wild applause on his own side of the house. Budget leaks used to be treated with the utmost seriousness, requiring ministerial resignations in the past. But we have had a ‘pre announcement’ (or is it a government leak of its own Budget) that there will be a cut of 2p in the rate of National Insurance contributions. This announcement, though, has a degree of political thought behind it. Firstly, a 2p cut in National Insurance will not benefit the extremely wealthy, nor the pensioners who do not pay NI contributions. But pensioners do not need any more largesse to be handed out to them as they benefit from the ‘triple lock’ policy in the first place whilst the extremely wealthy do not need a tax cut and will vote Tory anyway. So a cut in NI insurance contributions benfits those still at work who may be persuaded that the Tories may be worthy of some support after all. So there is quite a lot crude political calculation at work here.

After yesterday, I thought that today might be a much better day and so it has proved so far. The carers turned up around ten minutes late but there were horrendous traffic jams right through the centre of Bromsgrove so I was sympathetic to their plight. I know from an early doctor’s appointment that I had some years ago that at 8.00am it is possible to walk down the Kidderminster Road faster than the line of slow moving traffic. After breakfast, we contemplated our shopping and itinerary for the day. We started off at the Aldi supermarket to buy a toilet requisite that they stock and nobody else does so we were fortunate that they had some of this particular item in stock. Aldi sells it for about the price of other supermarkets and so that people in the know tend to snap it up whenever it appears on the shelves so you are never sure whether the shelves are to be bulging or completely bare. After this little venture, we picked up a newspaper and motored to Droitwich where we parked fairly easily. Then we had our usual fare of a pot of tea and a bacon butty in our favourite cafe which was fairly quiet this morning. Droitwich used to be the home of my favourite hardware store, Wilko, which went ‘belly up’ a month or so back. The store space has now been overtaken by Poundland who I suspect have inherited a lot of Wilko’s stock and supply lines. In short, it does not feel like a Poundland store as things are displayed at their normal discounted prices but with I suspect about two thirds of the lines that Wilko used to have. So Meg and I had a very useful trip around the store picking up those bits and bobs that you know you are going to find useful. I was also delighted to find that they stocked a range of mens’ underpants which I was on the point of buying online, anyway. I think the price I paid probably beat the online price anyway and I was delighted to see one of those little folding step-stools that are so useful for reaching into high cupboards so that went into my shopping basket as well. So after our successful little shopping trip, we called in at a Cancer Relief charity shop that we now well and usually carries a good range of items. I bought myself a Marks and Spencer shirt in the size, colour and style that I would buy if I were in a M&S store and some Easter cards of which we only send a very few these days. But I espied a wall clock in a classic pine hexagonal style design which was being sold for a song. I suspect that the price may have been discounted even further than normal because the label on the back informed one that you required a battery. But it was a standard AA battery of which I have a copious supply at home. I have wasted no time in getting the clock mounted in such a position that it can easily be seen when sitting in our little two seater settee – and it just so happens to match the surrounding furniture perfectly so that meant a piece of good fortune for us. Whilst we were paying for our purchases in the charity shop, I enquired of one of the assistants whether they had dominoes sets available – I have hunted for some dominoes for what appears to be months amidst the myriad of jigsaws but to date have been unsuccessful. But the assistant went into the back of the shop and appeared with a traditional box of dominoes which I was more than happy to acquire for a small sum. I am hopeful that Meg and I might be able to play this simple game at some suitable point in the afternoons if there is nothing to grab our attention on the TV and/or YouTube. Meg is getting into the habit of having a little doze after lunch and I am convinced that this helps her to cope with the rest of the day more easily.

This afternoon, just after Meg had rested, I made a FaceTime contact with my sister who lives in Yorkshire and who I have not seen for quite a long time now. Whilst being conscious of the fact that we are trying to organise something to see Meg’s cousin in Derby, I have also turned my thoughts to seeing my own family in Yorkshire. A year or so back we would have stayed in a hotel in Harrogate without a moment’s hesitation, but these days I have to think a little more carefully about the logistics involved. I am playing with the idea of staying overnight with one of the family overnight if this at all feasible but otherwise it might be logistically better just to one long extended day when we make the journey by car. The journeys would be principally by motorway but there are rush hours, traffic congestion and roadworks to take into account so what might seem to be a simple journey might prove to be a little more arduous than one would have thought.

Some of the breaking news late this afternoon is that the Government have been dealt a ‘spanking defeat’ in the House of Lords over the Rwanda bill. An amendment has been passed by a majority of 102 to the effect that if the bill comes into operation, it must comply fully with our obligations under both national and international law. As it is the intention of the Rwanda bill to try to avoid UK litigation this is a tremendous spanner in the works of the passage of the bill. Eventually, of course, the bill will emerge heavily amended by the Lords and then a game of ‘ping pong’ might emerge in which the Commons will have to try to reverse the amendments made in the Lords.