Yesterday was dominated by one important visit that I needed to make. Eight years ago I was successfully treated for a polyp in my colon which had turned cancerous but was itself picked up by routine monitoring and subsequently the NHS had offered monitoring of my GI (gastro-intestinal tract) One such monitoring event took place about a month ago and as a result of this the endoscopist has identified another polyp which looked a little suspicious. Yesterday, I saw a colorectal surgeon who explained to me that the offending polyp was not cancerous but the histology (tissue examination) indicated that it might become so in the yeas ahead. So I was offered the option of doing nothing and leaving it to chance or having it removed in a few weeks time. I must have taken little more than half a second for me to choose the latter option and the words of the surgeon were to the effect that I was still a young man but if I chose to ignore it, then I might have problems in later years that I would choose to regret. But I have to say that this is the NHS at its finest i.e. monitoring and treating conditions before they become much more serious. The weather yesterday was the hottest June day ever recorded and I was in two minds whether to cancel the appointment but, in the event, was very pleased that I did not cancel my appointment but instead received the news that I did. The weather forecasters are indicating that it is possible that it is possible that yesterday’s record June temperature may even be exceeded today so we have about a couple of days more of extreme weather through which to navigate ourselves. My Tai Chi has texted each member of her class to take soundings whether or not to hold a class this week, as a result of which the class has been cancelled as I suspect that most of us want to stay safe indoors. My American friend and I decided in a conversation that it was too hot even for an early evening walk in the park as the temperature was still in the 30’s (C) and she also informed me that the Ukrainian lunch time event, normally held on the last Friday of each month, had been cancelled as the Ukrainians themselves did not feel inclined to cook in a hot kitchen and felt that the meal would probably be badly attended in any case. So my friend has decided to come round to my house midday when we can prepare a salad lunch together and keep cool with the assistance of a large fan that I keep in my lounge in the bottom of the house. At her suggestion, I have even located a copy of the Scrabble board game that had hunted out in a trip to a charity shop in the hope, vain as it turned out, that Meg and I would be able to share in this game in her declining few months. Last night’s football turned out to be less than entertaining. After a pedestrian first half, Canada and Switzerland finally made something of a game of it with the Swiss eventually running out as 2:1 winners. I was disinclined to watch the Scotland vs. Brazil game but as I was going to bed in a hot bedroom decided to watch a few minutes of it only to see the Scots make a huge defensive error and give away the softest of goals to their Brazilian opponents within the first five minutes, after which I decided that I would rather sleep than watch the rest of the game.

The hot weather, having  scrubbed out my Tai Chi class this week, left me with the prospect of a nice quiet morning but I decided to make the best of it. The back lawn was in desperate need of a cut and I know this only takes about 20 minutes. So before the sun got too high and whilst the inclination of the sun was such that much of the back garden was shaded by the bushes, I ventured out to give the lawn a mow at 9.30 in the morning when the temperature was a ‘mere’ 25° C. I have never cut the lawns so early in the day before but, there again, we are experiencing record temperatures day by day, I rather expected that work might cease in the building site at the bottom of my garden in view of the extreme heat but the activity and associated noise seems to be just the same.  As I was cleaning up the mower, prior to putting it away, I heard the sound of another lawn mower from a distant neighbour so the same thought must have occurred to both of us. We have been warned to expect some spectacular thunderstorms probably within day and so this was another incentive to get the lawn cut before the downpours begin. A rather macabre thought occurred to me which I will discuss with my American friend when she calls around. If her aged 95 year old mother had been alive as well as Meg with her rapidly declining health then both of us might have been faced with the most difficult time keeping both of them hydrated and cool and it is not beyond the possibilities  that our respective loved ones might have succumbed to the extreme heat and would we have blamed ourselves for it? I have just read the horrifying statistic that in France there have 40 drowning deaths recorded in the last week alone. Whilst we all have to ‘tunnel through’ the current heatwave, the much more pressing questions is how much more we need to invest as a society to counteract the heatwaves of the future which, with rampant global warming are only going to intensify. I would really like  to see our media dragging prominent climate-change deniers in front of the TV cameras and asked to justify their denial claims in the light of all the scientific evidence and the evident distress of millions of us across Europe. Because of its land mass, the heatwave seems to be much worse in France. At least 101 million people in Europe are expected to experience temperatures in excess of 35C on Thursday, including 50 million in France, as an intense heatwave sweeping the continent continues. Spain is reporting an excess of 200 heat-related deaths as well.

It was no surprise to me in the England vs. Ghana football match that this was certainly not going to be a pushover. The Ghana team were superb in their defence and whenever an England player seemed as though they were about to be in a position to shoot for goal, they immediately seem to be surrounded by 4-5 Ghanian shirts. So the England team found that there was literally ‘no way through’ and the traditional tactics of a slow patient buildup remained just that – a buildup with no finish. The commentators  on the match were practically screaming at the English team to play ‘through’ the Ghanaians i.e. run at opponents with the ball. But this can be dangerous because if you lose the ball, a Ghanian opponent can make a quick breakaway to score a goal at the other end of the pitch. The English substitutes did make a little difference and the last ten minutes of play, England attacked quite well and nearly scored but it was a case of too little and too late. Looking at domestic politics, the ‘coronation’ of Andy Burnham looks all but certain but before everyone gets carried away on a wave of emotion, the economic problems surrounding the government severely limit the locus of action of even an incoming Prime Minister.  If we are to look at problems one by one, the most prominent is the under funding of our defence budget but in the very simplest of terms, where is the money to come from? The answer may lie in some imaginative new funding streams such as special ‘Defence Bonds’ as in the second world war but all of this has to be thought through. The Conservative answer is to ‘cut the welfare bill’ and devote the released funds to defence but this is not as easy as it sounds. It is true that that there is a huge problem of NEETS (Not in Education, Employment or Training) There are approximately 1.01 million young people (aged 16 to 24) in the UK who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET). This figure equates to 13.5% of all young people in this age group but about 60% of this figure are people who are disabled or otherwise unfit for work. For the remainder, there probably needs to be a joint policy involving government and employers but hard-pressed employers will not do this for nothing  and will require some economic incentives – and this of course, costs and does not save money. The traditional Labour answer  to problems is to borrow the money but here we are at the mercy of the bond markets or, as it is popularly known. ‘the kindness of strangers’ In other words if foreign investors are not convinced of the probity of UK politics, then they will simply not lend the money to us. At the risk of a very simple economic analysis if in times gone past one approached a bank manager  for a loan to buy a car without which it was impossible to get to work, the bank manager might give one a sympathetic reply. But if you wanted to buy a car simply as an enjoyable consumption good, then the same bank manager would probably refuse a loan. I am aware that one should not treat Government economic activity as though it was a huge domestic household but I think it is often not appreciated on the left of politics that that they may not be people in the world who wish to lend to you unless the price in interest payments is extraordinarily high. The total amount the government owes is called the national debt. It is currently about £2.9 trillion. That is almost as much as the value of all the goods and services produced in the UK in a year, known as the gross domestic product, or GDP. The current level is more than double that seen from the 1980s through to the financial crisis of 2008. The combination of the financial crash and the Covid pandemic pushed the UK’s debt up. But, in relation to the size of the economy, UK debt figures are still low compared with much of the last century. They are also less than the equivalent figures for some other leading economies. Even so, just paying the interest on this huge debt costs the economy over 8% of total government expenditure so just borrowing more money may not be the answer. In the meanwhile, the NHS always seems to be desperately short of cash and most of our public services have been starved of investment for decades now so who would want to be in charge  of a government faced with al of these unpalatable choices. The traditional answer is ‘economic growth’ but for decades now the UK economy has seemed to grow if anything by the most miniscule amounts and hence the tax take does not increase by very much. One answer may lie in innovative new forms of taxation. I personally would put a £1 levy on every parcel or package delivered to households in the UK and this would rase A £1 levy on all parcels and packages in the UK would raise between £4.2 billion and £5 billion annually. By way of comparison, increasing the basic rate of income tax by 1p raises approximately £6.9 billion a year.

I went shopping yesterday morning and the supermarket was very crowded but perhaps this is because it was so cool inside – I wonder whether some people had discerned this and so had gone shopping to help to draw the sting of what is proving to be the hottest June day on record. Yesterday was officially the hottest ever June day, breaking the 1976 record. A temperature of 35.7C has been recorded in Charlwood, Surrey, according to the Met Office. This year marks half a century since the 1976 heatwave: a summer when people put foil over windows to keep out the sun and were forced to use standpipes in the street as water supplies ran short.  The UK’s all-time high is 40.3C, recorded in July 2022. I may meet my American friend in the park later on in the evening if we both need feel the need for a bit of fresh air. We have about one more day of really hot weather to negotiate and then things might break down with multiple thunderstorms towards the end of the week. I think a lot of people would really welcome a good thunderstorm and a downpour to help to clear the air after recent days.

The day before yesterday, I was very conscious of the need to keep cool throughout the day – nonetheless, I had made an arrangement to meet my American friend in the park at 5.00pm for a constitutional walk. We texted each other half an hour before, both of us being in a 50:50 state of mind whether to stay in or meet for a walk. We decided  that the fresh air might be good for both of us and so it proved. So we made it to our ‘normal’ park bench which, we have discovered we both used to utilise regularly myself with Meg and my friend with her mother but at slightly different times of the day which is why we never actually met in the park. Nonetheless, this was a remarkable coincidence. As we chatted, we made casual conversation with the inevitable dog walkers and then started to experience a few drops of rain which I did not know was forecast. Eventually though, the rain intensified so we had to seek the shelter of a nearby tree which sheltered a bench underneath it. When I go home, I realised with some dismay that I had a line full of washing outside which had now been rained upon so  had to take it back inside the house wetter than when it was put out. I knew that in World Cup, Argentina were playing Austria so I tuned in for the last 15 minutes. I was glad that I had done so because  I witnessed the second of two  brilliant goals that Lionel Messi scored for Argentina which have now made Messi the most prolific goal scorer in the history of the World Cup. With a hat-trick in the opening game, two goals and the record broken in the second, and a third game against Jordan to come, he is a strong contender for the Golden Boot, awarded to the top goalscorer at the finals – one individual prize he has never won. Messi has now scored in six consecutive World Cup matches, a feat only achieved by two other players – France’s Just Fontaine in 1958 and Brazil’s Jairzinho in 1970. No player has ever scored in seven straight matches. What is remarkable is that success has come late in his career as Messi is now 38 years old and he has scored most of his World Cup goals since turning 30. At the end of the match when winners typically embrace each other in celebration, I noticed that several of the Austrian players also came forward to embrace him as a testament to his remarkable footballing achievement. Later I watched a little of the France vs. Iraq game only to see Mbappe score with an unstoppable shot. Then in a remarkable development, at half time there was a threat of lightning and a thunderstorm so FIFA delayed the start of the second  half for a full two hours before the game resumed. Mbappe added a second goal and Iraq were defeated 3:0. Meanwhile England are preparing for a second match in the competition with Ghana as opponents and I think that this might prove to be quite a tough and very physical match with the outcome in doubt. The political agenda at home is dominated by the resignation of Keir Starmer and the possible ‘coronation’ of Andy Burnham. There are some in the Labour Party who think that in a modern democratic party, there should be a contest for the leadership but I suspect that the majority of Labour MPs just want to see a smooth transition of power and not a summer of political hustings and some inevitable bloodletting. I came across an extremely informative article in todays ‘Times’ written by William Hague, a one time Tory ‘wonder child’ and one team leader of the Tory party. He was arguing that Andy Burnham may prove to be a more effective prime minister if he hadn’t been subject to an electoral process in his own party.  Hague’s argument was. that a policy of which he was an advocate in the past but now regrets, is the giving to members  of the wider political part a say in the election of a new leader. Tory constituency parties are notoriously more right wing than the parliamentary party and, in a mirror fashion, the Labour members are much more left wing. So in order to get elected, candidates are pulled towards either a rightward or a leftwards extreme and we can see. what happened in the case of Liz Truss who was only voted for by 45% of Tory MPs in the final round of voting. So Haigh argues that in any leadership election in which members have a substantial say, we get ultimate winner such as Truss or Corbyn who then adopt policies to fulfil promises made in their election campaign. I always seemed a bit counter-intuitive to me that MPs could be saddled with a leader for whom less than 50% have voted so I think I wold endorse Haigh’s misgivings about this recent trend in the election of leaders (of either Tory or Labour)

I often spend some time in extended chats with our domestic help whose day it was yesterday but I had been up since 7.00am and as part of my daily routine I now water the plants and sweep the patio to keep it clear of the moss (which occasionally drops from the roof and will stain if left) Then I left in the middle of the day for my Pilates class but fortunately found a parking place under the shade of some trees which was just as well as the temperature was 30°C (which is  84° F).  The evening before, I had returned from my little outing to get some fresh air in the park and was subsequently raised upon only to be reminded upon my return to be reminded that  had a line full of washing that was made damp by the rain. I took pains to keep the top of the house cool with several windows open and even a small fan brought into operation half an hour before  went to bed. In the evening, there is the England vs. Ghana match in the World Cup and I am filled with a certain foreboding. Firstly, the English defence is a little suspect and secondly, there is a real contrast in styles here the English prefer a slow, patient build-up whereas the Ghanaian’s seem to have perfected quick lightning strikes after long balls punted up field. Although a lot of English fans are somewhat ‘gung-ho’, I have the feeling that this might be quite a hard fought contest with the outcome by no means certain.

The football story in town yesterday morning was how plucky little Cape Verde islands managed a 2:2 all draw against Uruguay scoring their first every goal in the World Cup and standing a fighting chance of getting beyond the group stage of the competition. Meanwhile here at home, the whole country is gripped by  two huge stories. The first of these is the extreme weather warning as temperatures are due to exceed 38° C (100° F)  across large swathes of the country and this may well persist until about Thursday. Now all of this is serious stuff because temperatures of this size become life threatening. An analysis of the heatwave of last June revealed that there were about 600 ‘excess’ deaths last year and the same metrics will apply this year. 600 deaths is equivalent to two jumbo jets crashing into each other with no survivors and imagine the impact that that would have. Of course, it is the elderly who cannot cope with these extreme temperatures but at the other end of the life cycle, youngsters get tempted to swim whenever they see pools of cold water and despite the warnings, the same might happen this year. Now my American friend and I are keeping an eye on each other and making sure that we both wear appropriate cotton clothing, keep out of the sun and keep ourselves well hydrated for the next few days. The heatwave is even worse across continental Europe with France being particularly badly affected. A significant temperature rise is expected across France from Sunday until at least Tuesday, with around 53.5 million people, or more than three-quarters of the French population, affected by the red and amber warnings on Sunday, according to an AFP count based on population estimates of the departments concerned. Monday could see average temperatures across mainland France reaching their hottest ever, while top temperatures in many areas could peak between 37C and 42C (99F-108F) – levels which in some places would be unprecedented for any month of the year. Apart from the extreme temperature, the other big political story is whether  or not Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister later on in the day. Some of his closest advisers are publicly calling upon to go but if he were to stay, he would be a ‘lame duck’ Prime Minister and no significant political decisions may be taken. My own view is that if the Starmer and the Burnham camps were to get together, then a deal might be stitched together whereby Starmer steps down, Burnham takes over but Starmer immediately takes over as Foreign Secretary. Now this would have several advantages for the country as Starmer is so well known from his Prime Ministerial trips abroad that he could, as the say, hit the ground running. Just because this is a sensible thing does not mean that it is going  to happen but there would be several advantages. The role of Foreign Secretary takes the incumbent out of ‘domestic’ politics for a while but the global world is in such turmoil at the moment that the UK could exercise a lot more influence in keeping Starmer in office as Foreign Secretary. He would also enjoy the ‘grace and favour’ weekend home of Dorneywood which might make the transition from No. 10 easier to bear. Much will unfold during  the day but it is a case of watch this space.

After I had done a few little outside jobs such as watering the plants and sweeping the patio, I had an inkling that something might be afoot politically. Sure enough, the cameras had been assembled in mass outside No 10 and soon a lectern was brought out and it was evident that an important political statement was shortly to be made. At about 9.30 Keir Starmer stepped out and then in a brief speech recounted some of the successes of the present Labour government. He then indicated that his soundings amongst the Parliamentary Labour Party was that he was not the right person to lead the party into the next general election and therefore he intended to reign. The speech as a whole was dignified but Starmer got understandably emotional towards the end of it when he acknowledged the support of his wife during his Premiership and they then embraced. The 9th July was then indicated as the opening date for the nominations for a successor. If no-one seeks a nomination other than Andy Burnham then he will become the next prime Minister before the end of July. If other people do nominate themselves  there will be an election process and the result will not be announced before September. Wes Streeting, a potential contender, has already indicated that he would not put himself forward against an Andy Burnham and so other challengers are unlikely. Although some may complain about the absence of a democratic process, a smooth transition of power is probably in the best interests of the country. The point is being made, though, that we are on course for our seventh Prime Minister in ten years and so the traditional UK reputation for political stability is being shredded. One explanation that I have heard put forward is that MPs themselves and public egged on by the media and especially social media have generated a climate in which instant results  are expected.  But policies have to be worked out,  put into legislation, implemented and then given time to work and so change can take years and not months. There is quite a lot to the argument that we have as a nation grown to expect instant results but frequent changes of the Prime Minister are not necessarily the best way ahead. After this breaking news, I went down into town by car to pick up a newspaper and then when I got back, I had a long chat with my next-door neighbour. Although it was hot outside, it was a little  breezy and the front lawn looked badly in need of a cut. So I took the ‘brave decision to get it cut before the temperature rose to an intolerable, not to mention unsafe, level and whilst  there was still quite a pleasant breeze. So I go this job pulled in before lunch after which I had a doze and then a salad lunch. I got a load of washing out to dry in the hot sunshine and then settled down for a cool afternoon, making sure I was taking plenty of cold drinks on board.

Last night’s World Cup football proved to be exceptionally entertaining. In the first match that I watched, Netherlands vs. Sweden, the Dutch put the ball into the net five times to win the match 5:1. It may have been that in their previous match they had been a little tentative and their coach had evidently given them new instructions. In their match, they frequently got the ball to the byline and then made a fast pass across the mouth of the goal with which the Dutch strikers  frequently intercepted. In the case of the first goal. the striker hit the ball with such force and was coming forward with such momentum that he himself finished up in the back of the net as well. So this match, as you might imagine from the scoreline was incredibly entertaining – if I popped out of the room for a moment, the Dutch seemed to have scored. The second match was equally entertaining but it was in a different way. It was Germany v. Cote d’Ivoire who are actually one of the leading teams in Africa. The Ivorians scored first and maintained their lead for most of the match and seemed to be heading for a win when Germany equalised late in the second half. At this stage, it appeared that the match was heading for a well-earned draw but then Germany, in a superb goad, blasted home a winner two minutes before  the end of the extra time added onto the second half of the game and thus ran out as 2:1 winners. My sympathies lay with the African team and it was a cruel twist of bad luck for them that they were defeated at the very end like  this. There is a massive controversy behind the innovation of hydration breaks half way through each half because the flow and momentum of the game is definitely disturbed, coaches run on to give mire detailed instructions and a score often takes place immediately after the break. We have noticed something similar in cricket as after having had tea, the concentration of the batsmen has to be re-built and they often succumb immediately after a tea interval (or a break for rain for that matter. The domestic news is rife with speculation as to whether Keir Starmer after a cabinet meeting will announce a date for his retirement and a ‘de facto’ handover to Andy Burnham who has just secured his seat in the House of Commons after a thrashing of the Reform party. Although it is just speculation at this point, the odds seem to lie heavily with Keir Starmer announcing a date for his departure thus leading to an orderly transition of power. Andy Burnham will become prime minister as the herd is ‘not just moving’ against Sir Keir Starmer ‘it is stampeding’, Harriet Harman told Sky News. Speaking to Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast following Burnham’s win in the Makerfield by-election, she said: ‘Well, I hate to quote Boris Johnson, but do you remember what he said, when he realised that he had to leave government? And he said about his ministers and his MPs, the herd is moving. Well, I have to say that it is not only that the herd is moving, they are stampeding.’ In the morning, I had been asked by my Italian friend if she could accompany me to the 8.30 church service so I have arranged to give he a lift. Now that she has decided to stay where she has lived for over thirty years, I suspect that she is very keen (as was I) to build upon and sustain her social contacts and going o church and having tea and coffee in the parochial hall after the service is one way of doing this. I particularly look forward  to this little social gathering because one meets  people of a whole variety of ages whereas the U3A activities are evidently dominated by the retired.  After set the alarm first thing in-the morning, and them dozed off again, I made sure that I had switched the slow cooker on to cook my gammon and after my new found knowledge of yesterday I had already prepared a potato which had been cubed and was sitting in as jug of cold water in the fridge, ready for lunch later in the day with my American friend. She was reading the lesson at her Methodist church this morning and had given me a phone call to check on the pronunciation of ‘Beelzebub’ (a name given to the devil) Beelzebub is a name for the chief devil or Satan. Originating from ancient Philistine texts, it translates to ‘Lord of the Flies.’ In literature and theology, it represents a high-ranking fallen angel or a symbol of chaos, corruption, and the embodiment of evil. But some Jewish texts have given the name as ‘Beelzebul’ and so the name is translated in some versions of the Bible (but not the King James version)

Later on in the morning, my American friend came round and although  I ad got some of the elements of the dinner prepared, I needed the sprouts and the broccoli to complete the veg. I had already roasted a gammon joint in the slow cooker but I finished it off with a good dollop of thick honey smeared on the outside and finished off in the oven together with the Yorkshire puddings. So it turned out to be quite a large but a very satisfying meal. After the meal, we entertained ourselves by watching a succession of Rowan Atkinson monologues, of which ‘The Devil’ is one of my favourites. One of the most excruciatingly funny is the monologue of the headmaster of a private school explaining to a parent how his son had been beaten to death because he had been taking out library books  without permission. Another series that most doubt might ring many chords is the story of the best man, followed by the bride’s father. Following a light supper of cheese and biscuits we decided to put on an opera video of Rigoletto (Verdi) but we thought we would split our viewing into two halves with one half this evening and the second half next weekend. Next Friday  is our Ukrainian meal day which is held on the last Friday of every month and which we really enjoyed on the last occasion. I am going to take my Italian friend down there and my American friend, although she will be doing some serving out, will probably be able to join us for a few minutes as well.

As we awoke yesterday morning, it was to the developing news of a train crash in Bedfordshire where the driver was killed and some 100 people injured. It appeared that one train was stationery as a result of the automatic warning system and the other train crashed into the back of it. The last deadly crash occurred in October 2024 in mid-Wales, killing one passenger and seriously injuring four. Before that, a fatal crash involving two trains had not taken place in Britain for more than 25 years. So this indicates how are a tragic accident of this type is on Britain’s rail network. The authorities will be desperately hunting for clues as the cause which always narrows down to either a systems failure or human error (and of course it could be both) In the morning, I awoke to a gloomy day where it had rained during the night. Having woken up at about 5.30 I promptly went back to sleep again for a solid three hours so yesterday’s little  ventures out and even the slow car journey back might have been somewhat more tiring than I thought at the time. In the evening before last, I was inclined to watch the Australia vs. USA match but once the Americans were two goals ahead, I lost interest and did not follow the rest of the match. Scotland were playing Morocco (late ) and conceded a goal when the match was only 70 seconds old from which they never recovered and lost the match 1:0. They will probably not proceed as they wished out of the group stage as they need to secure a very unlikely draw against Brazil in a forthcoming match. Now that we have approached the weekend, I have a quiet and ‘tidying up’ day in prospect but I am pleased to say that my patio now looks tremendously good after a shower of rain which makes the pastel colours in the slabs almost glow. For the price, I think I will have this patio cleaned up as an annual event as the eye is drawn to it and not necessarily to the overgrown nature of the rest of the garden which needs quite a radical pruning back after a year or so of relative neglect.  I know we all like some sunny weather in June but you can have too much of a good thing. An extreme heat warning is in force for early next week as a high-humidity heatwave builds to a peak that could see temperatures top 34C (93F). The Met Office says the low 30s are likely in southern England on Sunday, before the heat is expected to ‘expand and intensify’ on Monday and Tuesday. Humidity is set to be higher than last month’s heatwave and the ‘tropical night’ threshold – where temperatures do not fall below 20C (68F) – will be met in some areas. So as one is at certain age, temperatures of this magnitude cannot be treated lightly so it is a case of keeping well hydrated and not venturing outdoors with  good cause. 

Later in the morning, I collected a copy of my daily newspaper and them sauntered along the High Street anticipating a coffee and a chat in my usual venue in the ‘Gifts of Love’ charity shop outlet but was disappointed to find that it was closed for the day. On the way back, I popped into the Salvation Army charity shop and bought a copy of Dr. Gillian McKeith’s book ‘You are what you Eat’ This was first published in 2004 and claimed to have sold a million copies but I wonder whether, when I dip into it, the advice it contains is still current more than twenty years later. On dietary matters, I did locate, read and then download a very interesting and scientifically well informed paper on how to reduce the starch element and thus glycaemic load of potatoes. The clue, apparently, is to soak the potato well in water overnight, then cook it in a lot of water preferably from cold and then let it cool down when a lot (but not all) of the starch load will have been released into the surrounding boiling water. I pt this into practice by boiling a cubed potato for my lunch which I then let cool. For my lunch. I had an extremely ‘healthy’ half tin of salmon, a broccoli-tomato-onion salad made palatable with a good dowsing of honey and mustard sauce and the now cooled potato. After lunch, I started to watch a war film which was ‘Battle of Britain’ which was so exciting I could not tear myself away from it. Evidently, the action documented the  dog fights between the RAF (and allied squadrons of Poles, Canadians and others) The film was made in 1969, deployed the best of British acting talent such as Lawrence Olivier and was filled full of spectacular flying sequences. Although the film is well worth a watch, apparently it was a box office flop as anti-war sentiment was at its height as the Vietnam war was being brought to its conclusion and the budget for it to be made must have been spectacular. I did not fully appreciate that the initial attacks of the Luftwaffe were on British air fields in the South of England where the intention was to destroy as many of the English aircraft on the ground as well as degrading the airfield facilities. Moving away from my TV viewing, I have just read a press release from ‘The Guardian’ which has documented the fact that Brexit voting areas had a faster relative growth n foreign workers than ‘Leave’ voting areas which is not what the Brexiteers thought they were voting for. I also read a book review in today’s ‘Times‘ which brought together a collection of essays on the effects of Brexit some 10 years after the vote. According to the most definitive and authoritative studies that have been conducted to date, the UK economy has suffered a hit of between 6%-8% which explains why the ardent Brexiteers are so silent on this subject now. In other words, all of the deleterious consequences that the Leave campaign predicted have actually come about and, in the fullness of time, it will be appreciated what a disastrous mistake leaving the EU will prove to be. The early  football match this evening is Netherlands vs Sweden so I think this will be fascinating match to watch. I will be supporting the Dutch but the have a reputation for being a little individualistic which may not serve them well. 

The evening before last, I settled down to watch some football and viewed the Switzerland vs. Bosnia game. The first half was pretty tame and pedestrian and the score of 0:0 persisted until the now mandatory hydration (= drinks) break half way through the second  half. Then the Swiss brought on a new young striker and the game was transformed as the young striker scored twice whivh is the first time an under 21 year old has done so in the history of the World Cup. The score finished up at 4:1 to Switzerland and a boring match was completely transformed into a really exciting spectacle. Earlier, after an afternoon that had proved pretty disastrous as I failed to make a rendez-vous for my Classical Musical Appreciation group, I had cut the back lawn and then had a terrible few moments as I thought I had mislaid the bunch of keys upon which is the garage key that I use to access the petrol mower. The keys were not in their mug which is their usual home in our kitchen and so I was distraught hunting out where they might be. After a frantic search which seemed to go on for ever, I discovered that I had put them into the second mug in which I keep keys and bits-and-bobs but they had sunk out of sight which is why I failed to see them in my initial search. Earlier in the evening, I had received a text from my very dear friend in Spain reminding me that I had promised to send her a long email detailing the life I was making for myself after Meg’s departure so I wrote a long, long email to my friend describing my U3A activities and my new American friend and expressing the hope that we might  manage to come to Spain in February (as a break in the horrible British winter) and asking for the most convenient two weeks in which to make our trip. I also took the opportunity to send practically the same email to my equally dear Madrid friend who had come over to say her farewells to Meg and managed to arrive (via Paris) just an hour and half before Meg actually died. The political news was dominated by the news of Andy Burnham’s outstanding win in the Makerfield by-election which means that as now an MP. he is in a position to challenge Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party. Burnham secured about 25,000 votes and his nearest challenger the Reform candidate got about 16,000 votes so the margin of victory was huge. What is sometimes ignored, or at least underplayed by the London-based media, is that traditional Labour voters will complain that they have not left the Labour Party as they vote for right wing alternatives such as Reform but that the Labour party has left them. It is extraordinary and mentioned in this blog before that the last ‘Northern’ leader of the Labour party was Harold Wilson half a century ago. In the meantime, the Labour party has been led either by Celts or by a London based metropolitan elite as it took its traditional base for granted (to its eventual cost) and pursued the more affluent middle-class voter in the South of England. So, the Burnham victory is a vindication of the theory that the traditional base of the Labour party had been ignored for decades but now traditional voters could ‘return to the fold’ as there was a very real possibility of a Labour party leader with Northern roots for the first time in living memory. Now the media is pre-occupied with the speculation of the exact time at which Starmer will make a strike for the leadership of the Labour party but this is bound to happen, either sooner or later. Most political commentators will argue that the Labour party could not hope to win the next election under Keir Starmer but with a newly elected leader they are now in with a fighting chance.

In the morning, my American friend journeyed to Solihull and called in a very beautiful and well-heeled town called Knowle in order to find a wonderful coffee shop which Meg and used to patronise but some years ago. This had now gone and was replaced by an inferior establishment but we sauntered around  some of the specialist shops and then finally had a coffee in what was dubbed a French bakery, which also served coffees. We then successfully navigated our way to the John Lewis carpark in the centre pf Solihull and once securely parked made for the TV department. There, my American friend and I received some very good specialist advice and are almost decided upon what model my friend would like to replace her 17 year old Panasonic Then we made our way to the restaurant where we both had a simple meal of quiche accompanied by salad and bottle elderflower pressé to wash it down After we had our lunch, we wandered down one of the main thoroughfares of Solihull which was now populated by a series of stalls selling a whole variety of ‘street food’ finally ending up in the hardware store of Robert Dyas. These stores are like an Aladdin’s cave of kitchen and hardware goods, and we both treated ourselves to a series of four coloured cutting boards (differently coloured to avoid cross contamination between meat, poultry, fish and vegetables) In addition, I could not resist buying. a heavily discounted bamboo cutting board to replace my nylon one which must be well over ten tears old by now. After another mocha coffee, we trekked back through the Touchwood centre (where my friend could not resist acquiring some samples from some of the perfume shops) and then we picked up the car and made out way back home. The journey back was very slow, dominated by end-of-the-week slow moving traffic and it took us well over an hour to get home. Once home, we treated ourselves to a pleasant sit in the back garden and cooled ourselves down with some ice-cream as the weather was pretty hot and humid. My friend and I then finalised some plans for the vegetables to accompany a joint Sunday lunch where I had already bought an unsmoked gammon joint. I promised her that I would not forget the Yorkshire puddings on this occasion as I did when we had a roast beef meal but the weather threatens to be very warm so the joint will probably get the slow cooker overnight treatment.

The evening before last, I met with my American friend as we have an arrangement where we meet in the nearby park and do a couple of circuits of walking for the good of our health – as well as having a chat, of course, and informing each other of the day’s news. Fortunately, there are a couple of benches placed at strategic intervals and if either of us feels out of puff then we can avail ourselves of a little sit-down. This late afternoon routine (we meet at 5.00pm) is actually good for both of us because the weather is generally fine by then and the day’s business has largely been conducted – of course, we are surrounded by a plethora of dogs and their owners but we have a chat with them. My friend’s opening gambit is always to tell owners what a magnificent pooch they have which always makes them want to stop and chat. Then it was a case of coming home, having a light tea and thinking about the forthcoming opening match between England and Croatia. The first half was a little scrappy, but England went ahead by a penalty, the Croatians equalised by unstoppable volley from outside the penalty area, England scored a second goal and seemed to be cruising before half time. But then the English defence switched off for a moment, and the Croatians scored an equalising second goal ten seconds before the end of the extra time of the first half. The English manager evidently read the riot act to the England team (a bit like  the French manager had done in a previous game) and England came out like a team possessed and restored their lead with a third goal very early in the second half with a magnificent solo run and shot by the winger Jude Bellingham and from then on, an English victory always seemed to be the most likely outcome. the England forward line looked magnificent, but the defence is a little shaky and one wonders how they would fare against an opponent such as France and Mbappe. In my youth, I followed the fortunes of Leeds United who were an effective but never a pretty team to watch. But the Leeds United half back line was considered to be the finest in the country – in the centre was big Jack Charlton (the brother of Bobby Charlton), the terrier-like Billy Bremner who chased every opponent relentlessly and the incredibly agile and skilful Johnny Giles. The rumour amongst the Leeds fans was that these three had great doubts about the ability of the then Leeds goalkeeper, Gareth Sprake who actually played for Wales, and so as a half back line , they were absolutely determined never to let a ball get anywhere near Sprake. I think we could do with a bit more like that at the moment as the English defence seem to be relying on a lot of passes back to the goalkeeper – and far too many in my opinion. I have quite a busy day in prospect today but with a day out to Solihull at the end of the week to which I am looking forward.

When I returned home from my weekly Tai Chi session and general chitchat at the Methodist Centre, I was delighted to see that my son’s car was on the drive as he had arrived whilst I was out. We had quite a lot of news to exchange with each other as I had not seen him and his wife for about ten days whilst they down visiting the in-laws in Watford. I needed to have a fairly quick turn around because I was conscious of the fact that I needed to attend a meeting of the U3A Classical Music Appreciation group at a member’s house. I had not visited this member’s house before but the street name was given as ‘New Road’ of which there happen to be two in Bromsgrove. Now my nightmare afternoon started because although my son had looked up one of the ‘New Roads’ the SatNav directed me to a nearer one which matched the address I had been given  and was on my mobile phone.So having got the correct house number about 15 minutes before the meeting was due to start, I waited and waited but nobody turned up. The house was evidently locked and nobody turned up so I assumed that I had been the recipient of ‘duff’ information and thought I would make my way to the other ‘other’ ‘New Road’ Once I got there, the relevant address was a main road with a yellow line outside and nowhere to park and, to make  matters worse there was no house with the exact number that  had been given but only two houses with an ‘a’ and ‘b’ suffix so I assumed that this too was incorrect. So I made my way back to the first of the ‘New Roads’ and confirmed that the house was locked, nobody was answering the door and there were no visitor’s cars parked I the vicinity. Needless to say, I kept checking and then re-checking my phone, as well as my SatNav to ensure that I had not made a stupid error with the address, time or date. I am sure that Amazon delivery drivers must have this happening to them all of the time but it was one of those occasions when the SatNav appeared to have worked but I was not at the right place at the right time. So I had spent over an hour checking out these two addresses and despite text messages and at attempted phone call, I got absolutely nowhere so I came home to a well-deserved cup of tea. Although my phone has been silent during the afternoon, I thought after a bit of a rest I would cut the back lawn do that could salvage something from the abortive afternoon. In the evening, an exit poll indicating the result of the tremendously important Makerfield by election may be announced when the polls have closed but I suspect that the actual result will not be available until the wee small hours of the morning and I think I would prefer my beauty sleep as the implications of the by-election, whatever the result, will consume the entire bandwidth of the media outlets tomorrow. My American friend and I exchanged a quick conversation in the late afternoon as we had both experienced a frustrating time with appointments falling over for no fault of our own.

Whether we have a lasting peace in the Middle East now depends upon the actions of Netanyahu and the Israeli government. Donald Trump seems to have lost patience with Netanyahu by calling him ‘f*g crazy’ and had in effect instructed him to scale back operations in Lebanon. It is very rare that I agree with a sentiment that Donald Trump utters but I do agree with his observation that ‘you do not have to bomb the whole of an apartment block (and kill many civilians) when you are pursuing one Hezbollah fighter’ So Netanyahu can press on and risk American wrath and possible withdrawal of American support or he can fight on Lebanon potentially putting the whole peace process at risk. The world is almost holding its breath to see what might actually ensue. The country may well be consumed with World Cup fever later on in the day when England play their first match against Croatia in Dallas. Most big footballing nations are desperate, if not to win as to not actually lose, their opening match as was evident the other day. The mighty Spain actually drew their match 0:0 against the miniscule Cape Verde islands which are off the coast of Africa and have a population of about 1/2 million and an area the size of Cornwall.  Their goalkeeper made a series of really impressive saves and thus helped his country pull off the most incredible draw. The evening before Senegal had the better of France in the first half of their match against France who then ‘woke up’ and cruised onto an eventual victory. I did not think that this World Cup would seize my attention but sometimes the most unlikely of contests can produce some intriguing and unpredictable results which adds to the fascination of the whole competition. Although the day is starting off gloomily, it should be a conventional mid-week day in which I will pay a visit to the Methodist Centre where I can always find people with whom to chat followed by my weekly shopping which I now do when I know that the supermarket of choice (Aldi) is fairly quiet. These days, apart from when I have days out with my American friend, I am settling into a routine in which I generally engage in some sort of activity in the mornings followed by a lunch and main meal in the middle of the day followed by a doze and perhaps some light gardening. Yesterday, I watched Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart in their podcast on YouTube (‘The Rest is Politics’) in which Rory Stewart in particular was informing us how the mood in America was one of complete isolation and almost complete indifference to what was happening in the rest of the world. He was saying that even opponents of Trump did not fully know, or even care that much, about the suffering caused in the rest of the world and the economic price that many countries (including the UK) are having to suffer to pay for the Iran conflict and although there is some impact on petrol prices at the pumps, the American oil industry has been transformed in recent years. The United States relies heavily on shale oil and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which have propelled the nation to become the world’s largest oil and natural gas producer. This ‘shale revolution’ uses horizontal drilling and fracking to extract petroleum trapped in deep shale rock, fundamentally altering domestic energy markets. So to the average American, the Middle East (and the rest of the world) has diminished in strategic importance and this, according to Rory Stewart, helps to explain, at least in part, American indifference to the rest of the world.

Thinking about the extremely positive reaction to the distribution of stems of deep red, scented roses to my fellow Pilates class mates yesterday, I thought I would continue in a similar vein together. Most of the roses on this rose tree/bush ave now been cut but I managed to cut off 5-6 more stems  and then cut off the lower leaves and wrapped the bottom of the stems in tin foil. Then it was off into town and I picked up a copy of my newspaper before heading off to the Methodist Centre.  distributed the roses to those serving the coffee one of whom I know very well as she used to attend our church and knew Meg well. The other roses I distributed to those on the chatty table after which I left to go and do my weekly shopping. After this was unpacked, I set about preparing lunch which was going to be some quiche which I had previously defrosted. I thought I would experiment with a new type of accompaniment and so I prepared the following. Firstly, I cut off some florets from a head of broccoli (calabrese) which I cut into quite small little portions, even slicing their stems into thin slices. Broccoli  is said to contain a very good quantity of micronutrients many of which might be degraded in the cooking process so I wanted to keep the broccoli raw. To this I added a tomato cut into small sections and an onion diced small. Then I doused this mixture in a good dollop of honey and mustard sauce which I had just bought from the supermarket. I would rate the overall effect as crunchy and pretty tasty and would rate it as quite a successful little culinary adventure giving myself some 7-8 marks out of 10. After lunch, I popped outdoors to give my lavatera a little more pruning and I also swept my back path, taking particularly care to et rid of the moss which the rain brings down from the roof and which can leave a nasty black stain if not removed immediately. Later on in the afternoon, I am due to meet my American friend in the park for us to walk a couple of circuits together hoping of course that the threatened showers do not interrupt us. Later in the evening, we have the England vs. Croatia football match in the World Cup and this is going to be played in the sweltering heat of Dallas, Texas. I always find that rather being swept away by the hype, I am convinced that England are going to lose their first match or at best draw. In this way, I am not disappointed by the outcome but am always open to being pleasantly surprised in the case of a victory. In football, as in other sports, the better team does not always win (if, for example, the opposing team scores a quick goal in break-away against the run of play)

The news which is emerging yesterday morning is to the effect that Trump has, in effect, been defeated in the conflict with Iran and the Sky News American correspondent is posting to the effect that this whole venture was one of the most strategic American blunders of all time. The Iran ‘deal’ is a tacit admission of strategic defeat by the Trump administration and of a failure to achieve nearly all of his war aims. The US and Iran have agreed to stop fighting and to open the Strait of Hormuz. Everything else is being kicked down the road over 60 days of ceasefire and beyond. Given that the Strait was open before the conflict was started by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, reopening it is no great achievement. It simply restores the status quo ante bellum. No doubt, there will be acres of newsprint devoted to this story and an endless degree of spin but, at the end of the day, the conflict has revealed that Iran can exert a chokehold on one of the world’s most critical shipping routes (the Straits of Hormuz) almost whenever it chooses. But the evening proved to be an interesting one in many unanticipated ways. When my American friend and I were taking a late afternoon ‘constitutional’ around the park, we sat on our favourite bench. We were soon to be joined by one of my immediate neighbours of whom I do not see a great deal because they spend an enormous amount of their retirement time cruising around the world and visiting various parts of India. They hail from the Punjab  and my American friend who is vehemently anti-racist soon got into an earnest conversation with my neighbour about her life and experiences in England. Rather embarrassingly, my neighbour told my friend of the admiration of her and husband as they observed me pushing Meg up and down the Kidderminster Road almost whatever the weather. We got onto the subject of religion and, to cut a long story very short, my Asian neighbour invited us to go along and visit the local Sikh temple, perhaps on a forthcoming Wednesday. A Sikh temple, known as a Gurdwara (meaning ‘gateway to the Guru’), is a place of worship, community support, and education. Anyone is welcome regardless of background, and they are recognised for the langar—a free, vegetarian communal kitchen that serves all visitors. A Catholic is completely welcome to visit a Sikh temple, or Gurdwara, out of respect, curiosity, or for a social event and the Catholic Church encourages respectful inter-religious dialogue and engagement. However, Catholics should avoid participating in actual religious worship of another faith, such as taking religious vows or praying to other deities. Now my American friend jumps at any opportunity to experience new cultures (one of the reasons why we get along so well with each other) and so I am resolved to go and get a visit organised in about a fortnight’s time. I have also found, with minimal searching, a website indicating the ways in which a visitor to a gurdwara should conduct themselves so I may avail myself of a suitable little head covering other than my big Australian style bush hat and I can buy a ‘patka’ style skull cap very cheaply from Amazon which I will do. But the other significant event of the evening was that, after that the telephone conversation with my niece when we agreed dates for me to visit my Yorkshire relatives on the occasion of my sister’s birthday, I should browse the availability of hotel rooms in Harrogate. Now the end of August is a bank holiday and obviously many people use these dates for a long weekend break which impacts upon the availability of rooms at a reasonable price. But I have managed to secure some rooms which were the last available at a good price by acting immediately and I am delighted to have done so, even though it is some 10 weeks before the event. This  will be a ‘mini holiday’ for my friend and I so I have already sketched out in my mind visits to both York and Ripon whilst we are in the area (the first being very accessible by train and the second by bus)

I spent quite a long time this morning chatting with our domestic help as we seemed to have a lot to say to each other, mainly on the subject of family matters. I had noticed from our bedroom window that we have one particular standard rose tree/bush (which is at least 10′ in height) and with the recent sunny weather there was quite a proliferation of beautiful scented deep-red blooms on the top of the tree. I located some tree loppers from the depths of the garage  and with the assistance of these cut off about eight blooms with quite long stems. As it is our domestic help’s birthday next Sunday,  I put together a birthday card, a present  and one of the roses to complement the same. I also put a beautiful red rose in front of  Meg’s picture (which I keep replenished with a flower) and then made a collection of the remainder to distribute to my Pilates fellow class members by wrapping the stems in some tinfoil to avoid scratches and to make them easier to carry. Then I gave a red rose to each of my fellow class members ( only three in number) and  to our Pilates instructor, explaining that last week was the anniversary of Meg’s funeral and the distribution of the red roses was an act of remembrance. As it happened, on the way to my Pilates class I bumped into one of our ex-Waitrose coffee club gathering who is now in a residential home but was pushed out by her son in a wheelchair and she was also the grateful recipient of a red rose. I must say that the gift of roses to my fellow class members was very much appreciated and our tutor gave the whole class a reward by allowing us to have a special 5 minute relaxation period at the end. After I returned home, I heated up some risotto saved from a previous week followed by an inevitable little doze. Then my lavatera decided to lurch over again (which is not surprising as the wood is so light, soft and pappy) so I popped out and pruned a few more branches of it and added some extra support.