The evening before yesterday, I picked up my friend from the hospital in Solihull where she was having a procedure undertaken on her shoulder. The hospital allowed me into my friend’s room where she was tucking into some food which the hospital had provided, Then it was  case of getting the post operative checks done and into the car to come home.  We drove home through the rush hour traffic,  pitch blackness and the rain and then it was a case of straight into bed and some medication to help her sleep. After a couple of hours of rest, she came downstairs and I served up a bowl of Thai soup with some Naan bread and I was relieved that her operation site was not proving too painful even though the procedure itself was. And then it was bed for the second time that evening and I think that sleep came fairly easily. In the course of our conversation, it was mentioned that a TV might be a good addition in that particular bedroom and so whilst my friend was sleeping, I busied myself thinking about the logistics of installing a TV in the bedroom. The very first thing to do was to hunt for the remote control which I was incredibly fortunate in being able to locate despite it not being any where near the TV which it controlled. Then I looked in my drawer of electrical communications gear and managed to find an extra bit of coaxial cable to extend the aerial lead including the appropriate connectors as well as an extension lead. I made sure that the whole set up worked by a trial run in the empty bedroom next to the one occupied by my friend. We had already agreed that I would make a check on her in the middle of the night and I think we were both relieved that she was fine when when morning came,  I aroused my friend with a cup of coffee and successfully installed the TV so that she could look at it without straining her neck. Then we had an extended chat, got ourselves ready and then had a light breakfast together. I introduced my friend to the nice healthy breakfast in which I indulge each morning which is basically a small, home ripened avocado, split in two and de-stoned and eaten with some seafood sauce. Then we planned out a nice leisurely day such that my friend could gradually effect her recovery Later in the morning we may enjoy the delights of Sanders Park together as well wandering down to Waitrose to pick up my newspaper and some free coffee. There is a good film on BBC2 this afternoon which we might well watch but I am sure most of the day will be filled up with the chatter of how we are negotiate our lives in the weeks ahead, including Christmas. I think that under the circumstances, church may well be given a miss this weekend but I am just filled with feelings of great relief that my friend is not in severe pain which was a possibility after the procedure that she endured yesterday. She slept for a certain amount of time this morning and then I proceeded to make a light lunch of salad and some Spanish chorizo. 

In the afternoon, I was delighted to see  what I think was almost a live transmission of New Zealand versus Ireland Rugby Union match. At half time, the Irish were in the lead but as so often happens, the All Blacks seemed to find hidden reserves of energy and inventiveness  in their play and eventually won the match quite convincingly. I watched some of the Winston Churchill film ‘Their Darkest Hour’ first broadcast some eight yeas ago and no doubt shown on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, I prepared a supper of some barbecued pork ribs bought yesterday in the supermarket as a treat for the two of us and the meal was accompanied by some mashed potato and green beans, spiced up with a little chorizo.

Sky News is reporting that the Home Office is looking at what Denmark is doing to cut illegal migration. Last month, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood dispatched officials to the Nordic nation to study its border control and asylum policies, which are considered some of the toughest in Europe. In particular, officials are understood to be looking at Denmark’s tighter rules on family reunion and restricting most refugees to a temporary stay in the country. Ms Mahmood will announce a major shake-up of the UK’s immigration system later this month, PA is reporting. Labour MPs are said to be split on the move. Some, in so-called Red Wall seats which are seen as vulnerable to challenge from Reform UK, want ministers to go further in the direction Denmark has taken. But others believe the policies will estrange progressive voters and push the Labour Party too far to the right. Certainly the rules that Denmark have adopted seem pretty draconian. In Denmark, most asylum or refugee statuses are temporary. Residency can be revoked once a country is deemed safeIn order to achieve settlement, asylum seekers are required to be in full-time employment, and the length of time it takes to acquire those rights has been extended. Denmark also has tougher rules on family reunification – both the sponsor and their partner are required to be at least 24 years old, which the Danish government says is designed to prevent forced marriages. The sponsor must also not have claimed welfare for three years and must provide a financial guarantee for their partner. Both must also pass a Danish language test. In 2018, Denmark introduced what it called a ghetto package, a controversial plan to radically alter some residential areas, including by demolishing social housing. Areas with over 1,000 residents were defined as ghettos if more than 50% were ‘immigrants and their descendants from non-Western countries ‘ I doubt that anything approaching this level severity will actually get through the House of Commons as presently constituted but the direction of travel is quite clear. It is almost certainly the case that the Reform party is settling the political agenda with the Tory Party and the Labour party in hot pursuit. I could be argued that the issue of immigration has dominated British politics for a decade up and including the Brexit campaign and will probably intensify for the next few years ahead.

I always knew that yesterday was going to be quite a busy day and so it proved to be. I awoke at 6.00am and got up, fairly promptly, because I knew that at 8.30a I was due to receive a routine monitoring call from a hospital clinic.I even got two reminders about this by ex, one of them in the evening before. Then I am scheduled to take my Droitwich friend to a clinic in Solihull where she is due to have a procedure conducted upon a nerve in her neck and this is going to occupy some of my own activities during the day.

It is evident that American politics have been absorbing a lot of my attention these days. It is now a year since Trump was elected and he has been celebrating with a crowd of the glitzy and we would say ‘well-eeed’ in Miami, Florida. Here, investors and the already wealthy still adore Trump who they feel is delivering to them the kind of largesse that they do not really need but are gratefully lapping it up. But America is an incredibly divided society and there are millions of Americans enduring the most incredible hardships at the moment. With the government effectively shut down at the moment, several government aid programmes are effectively suspended, The most important of these is called SNAP Established in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) , also known as food stamps, is the United States’ largest anti-hunger program, helping an average of 41.7 million —or 1 in 8—Americans per month. In the absence of anything  approaching an NHS, the USA citizenry rely upon MedicAid which is not shut down because it is funded differently from other government operations, and there is enough funding for it through the end of the calendar year. However, a government shutdown could lead to delays in processing claims and reduced staffing for functions like eligibility verification, potentially making it harder for some people to access healthcare services. If a shutdown were to continue beyond the end of the year, states might need to use their own funds to keep the program running.  But the greatest impact on poor Americans will be felt in the Affordable Care Act where health insurance premiums on the marketplace are projected to rise significantly due to expiring tax credits. Without these subsidies, monthly costs could double on average, with some individuals facing an increase of over $1,000 per year. This is causing concern among families who have come to rely on these subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year. This is the Act which requires Congressional approval in order to receive federal funding and is one of the reasons why the Republicans, in particular want the Congress to remain closed so that any legislation to extend the Affordable Care Act can be passed. So we have a situation in the USA at the moment where some Americans are getting wealthier by the day, particularly the large corporations whilst many more millions of Americans are literally starving and not knowing where their next meal comes from. All of this is the backdrop to the success that the Democratic Party received in the recent polls where the Party is getting poised to fight the mid-term elections in a year’s time which could alter the composition of the Congress, potentially wiping out the Republican majorities in the House of Representatives (analogous to our House of Commons) The framers of the American constitution in the 18th century tried to devise a system where there was a balance of powers. But they did not really envisage a situation in which both Houses of Congress and the Presidency and the Supreme Court were all controlled by one party, assisted by an overwhelmingly right wing media which is, of course, a recent phenomenon.

In the morning, I called in at a local supermarket to use their ATM and pick up a copy of my newspaper. Then I made my way to Droitwich to pick um my friend and take her to the private clinic in Solihull where she is due to have a procedure on a painful nerve in her neck. Both the procedure itself and its aftermath  are liable to be pretty painful so my friend and I have a plan of action to help her to recover. She will stop for a couple of days or so to get over the immediate trauma f the operation and in the bedroom which she will occupy I already have my spare electric blanket pressed into us and also have available a neck-shaped hot water bottle (shaped like a question mark or ?) which fortuitously I found in a. charity shop. I had planned to stay in Solihull and do some shopping in the John Lewis and the Robert Dyas stores but when we both realised that our friend might not be ready for discharge from the hospital until 6 in the afternoon, we had a rapid change of plan and I decided to come home. As she will not have eaten all day, when I returned from Bromsgrove I bought some readily consumed comestibles for my friend in case she is starving hungry and, whilst I was at it, bought quite a lot of extra things that I think we both might enjoy in the meals that I will prepare in the next day or so. Then  I got another message that my friend might be allowed to go home at 5.00pm so another change of plan was agreed that I arrive at the hospital half an hour early so that she could be whisked home without delay. Having looked after Meg for 30 years, I am sure that looking after my friend post operatively should provide no problems assuming no complications but we need to check that there are no wounds that need dressing or attention over the weekend. At least I know the District Nurses are at hand in case of emergency. I have a film lined up to watch on YouTube ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ which I shall enjoy watching for about the third or fourth time but my friend still has that treat in store. If the film fails to entertain I know that a lot of interesting and accessible music is available should the need arise for something more calming.

Looking at the planning whiteboard I maintain in our kitchen, I am reminded of the act that in just about a week’s time there is to be meeting of the lunch-time dining club which goes under the name of ‘The Old Fogies’ This all dates back to a period of time when several of us work colleagues realised that at least four of us had birthdays in May and mine just happened to be in the middle of the month. So we started to have a communal celebratory meal in  May and we complemented this with another meal in the autumn generally at about the time of the start of term and this tradition has carried on almost unabated for the last twenty years. We are a group of colleagues who all enjoyed each other’s company and retired more or less within a few years of each other. Since then we have carried on with this tradition but the experience of COVID was an evident huge interruption and the ‘gram reaper’ has taken its toll of a few of our number as well. But I imagine there are about eight of us who will enjoy a meal where we feel inclined to reminisce about how good things were when we were in charge and how terrible they are now. I am the farthest flung of the group so after we have had our meal and dispersed, I generally have an hour or so before I can catch my train back to the Midlands. So we have got into the habit of repairing to a local Wetherspoons in Winchester were we can sit around a table and extend the conversations not always possible when we are seated around a dinner table. I saw many of these colleagues six months ago on the sad occasion of Meg’s funeral but, that apart, I have not been able to attend many of the get togethers in later years whilst I was caring for Meg in her declining years. I must get cracking and get the train ticket booked whilst I can and often  go from Birmingham International or even Warwick Parkway as this cuts out the link in to Birmingham New Street and saves some time (and a little money as well). There is a survey reported this morning that Aldi has been knocked off its top spot for being the cheapest supermarket in the UK to be replaced by Lidl, particularly if special offers are taken into account. These days I tend to vacillate between Aldi and Lidl depending on whether I have a heavy or a light week and even ease of parking comes into the equation. Thursdays is my  usual shopping day but this is preceded by a session of Tai Chi and hopefully a cup of tea and a good natter with my (male) friend in the local Methodist Centre. This can mean that the whole of Thursday mornings are well and truly occupied by the time I have the shopping unpacked and the lunchtime meal cooked.

Thinking that I ought to act quickly, I went on to my favourite train tickets booking line (called ‘thetrainline’). I had almost made up my mind to got to Winchester via BNS (Birmingham New Street) instead of cutting off the corner by going via Birmingham International. But the train times seemed exactly right for me and I actually don’t mind undertaking the entire journey by train which, although it takes longer avoids the quite steep car parking charges and negotiating Birmingham International and the M40 in the dark, which  it will be when I return. I was amazed how cheaply I purchased the tickets and I am sure I only paid about two thirds of what I paid last time I undertook this journey. Of course going in November is helpful and I think the trainline app is utilising ‘split ticketing’ which is helping to lower the cost of the whole journey. My son and daughter popped by this morning as they told me that they would and we are discussing the kinds of Christmas food in which we are going to indulge. As a rule, I tend to avoid turkey and go for what I like (beef) but this year we are probably settling on some god lamb shanks. I promised to prepare the vegetables and intend to put the sprouts on at about 11.00pm the night before to ensure that thy are well done (family joke) My daughter-in-law just happens not to like any of the foods associated with Christmas so this year we are going to buy just what we want to eat and throw tradition to the wind. We have made a quick agreement not to buy each other presents this year but spend the money saved on the food that we happen to enjoy.

Whilst on the subject of organising things in advance, I have been contacted by one of Meg’s carers to see how I am am getting on and I suggested that we have a party again this year like we had last year. This suggestion went down very well and I was able to offer a house in which we could have singing and dancing and even a sleepover in a spare bed for those who might want to drink more than is safe for them to drive. There is a group of at least four of the ‘care’ youngsters who are great mates with each other and I am sure that there will be quite a few more who will take the opportunity to drop in. I knew in my heart of heart that last year’s party was likely to be the last that Meg attended and this, of course, it proved to be. Later in the morning I went down to the Methodist Centre and had my normal Tai Chi class with about a dozen other class members. Afterwards I was delighted to share a coffee with my new ex-bank manager friend and he told me that he was actually in the Centre yesterday but we must have missed each other, a bit like ships passing in the night. Anyway, we had a good old chat today that made up for the disappointment of yesterday and then I shot off to Aldi to do my weekly shop. Fortunately, the store is pretty quiet at this time mid morning and when I got home I had only forgotten a couple of things. 

Knowing it was going to be a ‘big night’ in American politics, I stayed up a little in the night to glean what was probably gong to happen in some important elections held in America – the first real test of public opinion in the mass since Trump started his new term. The Democrats were engaged in several races for governorships of states and were successful in three important contests. In the most important, Zohran Mamdani, 34, has won New York City’s race for mayor in a contest that rallied young voters and sparked debate about the future direction of the Democratic Party. The Ugandan-born Mamdani, a Socialist Democrat, beat former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent, to become the youngest person in over a century to lead the largest city in the US. A self-described democratic socialist, he made affordability the central message of his campaign, pledging to expand social programmes paid for by new taxes on high earners and corporations. Democrats also won governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, and in California voters backed a proposition to redraw the congressional electoral map ahead of next year’s midterm elections. These elections are important because they give Democrats a new impetus and fresh directions in which to attack the Trump presidency and are an important precursor of the important mid-term elections next year when the composition of the US Congress may well change. President Trump’s approval ratings have taken a nosedive. Once the honeymoon is over, presidents tend to lose popularity quickly. But no recent president has fallen so low so quickly as Donald Trump. At the start of his second term public opinion was nearly evenly divided between those who approved of the president and those who did not. Now his net approval rating—those who approve of the job he is doing less those who do not—is minus 18. That is three percentage points lower than any point in his first term. Mr Trump’s numbers are poor even on the issues at the centre of his political platform. Net approval for his handling of immigration is minus 7. On inflation and prices, it is minus 33. The biggest shift away from Mr Trump has been among Americans under 30 years old. His net approval among that group was positive  when he returned to the Oval Office but now it is -40. His ratings among Hispanic and black Americans, which began negative, have also plummeted. And white Americans, who approved of him on net by 16 points back in January, are now evenly split. According to analysis by The Economist, every state, save Idaho, has moved against Mr Trump. Oklahoma has swung hardest, from positive 27 net approval to minus 12. The president nw has a 37% approval rating and a corresponding disapproval rating of 63%. It is the lowest rating of his second term seen in CNN polling and stands just one point higher than the 36% approval rating Trump had at this point in his first presidential term.

I knew that I needed to get my skates on and get a hotel booked for the Christmas visit to my family in Yorkshire. I used Expedia who gave me a discount for being a former customer of those and secured a room at a very good, and what I would regard as a ‘pre-Christmas’, rate. I have booked for only three nights, a day less than I had anticipated because a hospital appointment came through the day before forcing me to revise my plans somewhat and to curtail my visit by one day. But then I went and booked some train tickets which I also got at a very good price and not a great deal more than I would have spent on petrol in any case. So I am very relieved to get these bookings made and in the bag by acting promptly before prices rise.

Today is a day in the week when I have no firm commitments so I have made it a habit to go down to the Methodist Centre in the centre of town were there is a ‘chatty table’ round which anyone can sit and engage in conversation with others around the table. Today, though, did not turn out to be the happiest of experiences as I found myself, as by now I am accustomed, to be the only widower (i.e. male) amidst a group of widows. Today turned out to be unfortunate because the entire conversation within the group and sub groups around the table was a discussion of he comings and goings of their grandchildren. To this, there was evidently not an opportunity to contribute nor was it possible to move the conversation onto other topics. So I felt fairly acutely that not only was in a minority (being the only widower) but the lack of grandchildren made me feel even more of a minority within a minority. If you were to apply nationally published statistics  then as a widower without grandchildren, I am outnumbered by the ratio of 20:1 and therefore feel my minority status quite acutely. So after I had drunk my coffee and when it was not evidently leaving in the middle of a conversation flow, I departed feeling rather sorry for myself. I have to evaluate whether I even try to participate in this group next week and, of course, my one male friend, an ex-bank manager, was not there today. So, I re-parked the car in a car park adjacent to the centre of town were I went to pick up the engraved tag which I had bought yesterday. When I got it home, I discovered that quotation marks around ‘Sunshine’ had been omitted by the engraver and I think this alters the symbolism of the whole, so I will have to take it back and ask them to do again properly this time and following the clear text I had provided for them. I did not feel particularly hungry and had run out of bread so could not have a quick ‘fish on bread’ quickie lunch but I made myself a meal utilising some chicken and rice which I did not particularly enjoy. The TV viewing tonight is going to be a science-based on the power of the algorithm and as this dominates our lives these days, I feel it is probably well worth a watch.

Yesterday, I had allocated myself some viewing time for a series on BBC on ‘The Great Philosophers’ which I thought would be both illuminating and instructive. But the whole programme of 45 minutes was a conversation between two talking heads on a sofa (both eminent philosophers) which was not what I thought I was going to view. In practice you had to know at least some of the elements of the philosophy which was the subject of discussion before you could make head or tail of the programme and, even so, I fell asleep during it. So the programme was a bit of a disappointment and I may try just one more in the series (the first being Plato, the second Aristotle) and may then abandon this little project in favour of a return of the Alice Robert’s paleo-anthropology programmes which I find much more interesting. Yesterday, I also typed up a series of notes I had made of a video presentation I had seen on YouTube, the theme of which was how to live longer by adopting the correct series of routines with which to wake up each morning. Some of this sounded sensible (rotating ankles for example), some wacky (using coconut oil to rinse out one’s mouth first thing) and some even bizarre (such as drinking a pint of water laced with some pink salt and lemon juice) Again, I am trying some elements of this but will probably end up with a subset which seems a lot more sensible. I am still continuing with my little snippets of reflections each day and am posting these on the web and have utilised one of those web-names shortening routines to a version which is not copy protected but whose name is adapted in such a way that people and even web-bots are unlikely to come across it by accident. I follow what the political commentator Beth Rigby has to say because she is often ‘spot on’ with her analysis. Later on today there is going to be an announcement the net effect of which seems to be to soften us up for imminent tax rises and income tax itself seems to be the simplest fiscal tool to raise large amounts of money even though it has a ‘totemic’ status and the Labour Party in opposition pledged not to increase it. As Beth Rigby reports there is no need to tell you how difficult and contested this is going to be.  Only a year ago, the chancellor unveiled the biggest tax-raising budget since 1993 and said it was a ‘once in a parliament event’. MPs will be fearing a massive backlash should manifesto promises on not raising income tax (and VAT and national insurance) for working people be broken. Government figures know how hard it is going to be but argue the chancellor has to level with the public about the hard choices ahead and what is driving her decision-making. In fairness to the government, the world financial scene has altered so much recently not least with the Trump administration of tariffs left, right and centre and the slow growth experienced by the UK seems to be the same across all of the other major European economies.

In the morning after a long and customary char with our domestic help, I walked down into town and had a coffee with my elderly chorister friend. One of our usual number is in hospital and although she went in with a chest infection, it now looks as though she has other problems  that they are attempting to resolve. My friend and I are a little fearful as to what the future holds once she is discharged for what prospects may be in store for her. My friend rather ruefully remarked to me that it was not so long when we used to be six in number (my friend and her husband, Meg and myself and two more regular friends) and now we are reduced to just the two of us to chat away as or numbers are diminishing. My friend’s husband had dementia, and this has progressed to the point where he doe does not recognise his wife any more which is always a painful realisation. Earlier in the morning, I had looked at my watch and realised that it had stopped and needed a new battery so after coffee I took myself to a local cobblers to have the new battery replaced – and the price for this seem to have shot up in the last year or so. Whilst I was waiting for the new battery to be fitted, I idly browsed through a display of what were probably dog tags and I found a plain, oval dog tag which I promptly purchased. This has been in my mind for some time so  asked the shop to engrave it for me with the inscription ‘Meg (“Sunshine”)’ and this will be ready in about a day’s time. Then I intend, possibly with the assistance of my University of Birmingham friend, to go down to our local park and when the opportunity arises to affix it with superglue to the back of the iron bench upon which Meg and I used to sit regularly in our trips to the park. Here it will not attract undue attention but I will know that it is there and hopefully it will remain for some time to come. I walked home and then after a brief rest went and had my usual Pilates class, after which I returned home to a lunch of mackerel fillets spread with some seafood sauce and eaten upon a bed of salad leaves which is a lunch quick and easy to prepare after my Pilates session each week. Then I typically have a restful afternoon after which I know there are a couple of vintage comedy programmes for me to enjoy (episodes of ‘The Good Life‘ followed by ‘Yes, Minister‘) which is always broadcast at this time in the week. I know that today there are some important local elections in the USA but because of time differences we may not get the results until tomorrow. The Democrat candidate for the mayoral race in New York is DeZohran Mamdani who calls himself ‘Donald Trump’s worst nightmare’. They are the words of a man living the dream. It is because the 34-year-old is the headline act in Tuesday’s referendum on Trump 2.0. A statement night in US politics, as Americans – some, at least – deliver a verdict on what they’ve seen so far. Of four electoral contests across the US – including in California, New Jersey and Virginia – the race to be New York mayor is the most compulsive and consequential. The polls have Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, as the frontrunner. If he wins, it would signify big change in the Big Apple. This would be a wonderful launch pad for a Democratic candidate to challenge Donald Trump in about 2-3 years time.

After terrible stories such as the stabbings on the train near Huntingdon over the weekend, other stories tend to emerge in the aftermath of the tragedy. What is apparent today is the immediate reaction of the train driver undoubtedly saved many lives. He had previously served in the UK Armed services and perhaps some of his military training kicked in. The driver, on receiving the news alerted, the signalling authorities so that the train could be diverted from the fast high-speed line onto a slower ‘stopping’ line so that the train could actually stop in Huntingdon station. From a platformed station, it was so much easier for the emergency services to access and treat the wounded passengers than if the train had been stopped in open countryside. One LNER staff who was severely wounded trying to apprehend the attacker is currently fighting for his life and the word ‘hero’ is rightfully being applied to him. Although the information as not yet been released, the whole incident looks at this distance as a mental health episode which will raise further policy reflections when the situation becomes clearer. My Droitwich friend recently returned from a holiday in South Africa to visit her family has brought me back a little present – actually we had discussed beforehand what this might be. I had asked for something that could not be bought in this country or Europe so my friend, with the assistance of her sister, had bought me a a collection of eight different African spices. These seem a wonderful present, but I am going to have to question my friend as well as other friends and relatives how I might deploy these spices to good effect to find out what the particular flavour of each one. My initial thoughts are to cook either a simple omelette or a vegetable ‘curry’ without the curry powder and then add the spices one by one to ascertain the flavour. Anyway, this is a pleasure that will unwind for me as the months go by. I had bought for my friend a little kitchen ornament which I thought she might not like but actually was quite tickled her pink and this was a little kitchen plaque with the motto on it ‘Wine improves with age but I improve with wine’. So that November is upon us, we are entering the long slow grind in the run up to Christmas and we are already starting to think in broad terms what our Christmas arrangements might happen to be this year. My immediate family have already agreed with me that we are going to have a Christmas this year, as it is the year in which Meg died, as a traditional family Christmas at home as it were and have started to think of alternatives to the traditional turkey which meat none of us particularly enjoys so we may have some lamb or beef instead. Somewhat later in the year but before Christmas, I might lay on a special little ‘at home’ party for Meg’s carers as I did last year and which proved to be a great success (and was, of course, Meg’s last social event)

One can never quite predict how the day is going to turn out and that was certainly the case yesterday. Firstly, I did attend church for a special service on the occasion of ‘All Souls’ day which is the day when the liturgical calendar enjoins that we pray for the souls of our departed and loved ones. Our church had ‘moved’ the celebration of all Souls Day which this year fell on a Sunday to the next day i.e. Monday. All Souls’ Day is focused on praying for the souls of all the faithful departed and a day to remember and pray for loved ones who have passed away. I felt that I really ought to attend in this year of Meg’s death and indeed the service was not devoid of emotion for me, particularly as I know that her name had been inscribed in a special book which is to be displayed in the Sanctuary during the whole of November. After the service, I went along to Waitrose to have a coffee and to pick up my newspaper. One of the ‘partners’ (e.g. Waitrose employees) was very happily displaying to anybody who wished to see it a photograph of her first and newly delivered grand-daughter born at just 4.00am this morning (I must admit it really did look a most attractive looking baby which is not usual as often new born babies look a bit on the wrinkly side) Then, over coffee I got into conversation with a Asian lady who was extolling a virtues of a special kind of Italian baked bread which the store happened to stock. She was explaining to me hew her Asian mother-in-law treated her terribly and this contributed to the breakdown of her marriage which is a story that I have heard elsewhere as well. I told her about Meg’s passing and showed her a photograph of Meg and, emboldened to ask the question of how old she thought I was, she replied that I was probably in my early 50’s!

I had rather been looking forward this afternoon to see if I could watch the whole of the England vs. Australia Rugby (Union) match played last Saturday at Twickenham but which did not seem to be broadcast by any of the major TV networks. However, I did find some highlights i.e. the four tries that England scored in defeating Australia 25:7 and this was better than nothing. Also a source of particular pleasure was watching Scotland defeat the USA 85:0 which was probably Scotland’s greatest ever margin of victory.  There is a series of rugby internationals this Autumn but the rights to the broadcast are held by obscure channels such TNT and I think only one match may be broadcast and that on the BBC iPlayer as well. Only the keenest rugby fans are going to subscribe to these channels so the rest of us shall just have to wait for the ‘Six Nations’ broadcast in the spring. I have discovered, though, that the BBC has published a series of 15 programmes on the history of Western Philosophy starting (naturally) with Plato and concluding with Wittgenstein so I may start to watch these on a daily basis probably in the afternoons when I shall not fall asleep watching them.

Yesterday I awoke contemplating a fairly busy Sunday ahead of me for a change. Firstly I am due to visit our former Eucharistic minister who called round to give Meg spiritual comfort in the last few months of her life ad was excellent in her role. But she herself is now experiencing some illness so I am going to pop around with some bits and pieces which I hope will give her some cheer. Immediately afterwards, I have been invited for Sunday lunch with some Catholic friends from down the road and also invited is our new parish priest so this should make for an entertaining lunch and I wonder how the conversations will flow around the dinner table.  Some terrible domestic news has emerged late in the evening before when an horrific stabbing incident has occurred on a train neat to the town of Huntingdon. The minute the communications cord was pulled, the train driver acting with great presence of mind drove the train onwards into the station where evidently the emergency services could board the train and deal with the nine seriously injured people who were immediately transported to hospital. Two men were arrested and our various emergency services acted with the speed and professionalism one would expect of them. Although people often denigrate the state of he country and complain that ‘nothing works’ in general terms we as a society are exceptionally good, if not world-beating, at the way in which we respond to emergencies. This does not happen by chance by there is always a plan and rehearsals do take place but in this particular case, the emergency services have been excellent in every way. Fortunately, the principal suspect was disarmed by a taser rather than being shot dead by the police and this means that the motives of the attacker may well be revealed which would not be the case were he to be shot dead. So far, the incident is being treated as a terrorist incident but if I had to speculate at this juncture I would say that a more realistic explanation is a severe bout of paranoia as part of an ongoing mental health crisis but no doubt news will emerge in a day or so. I have all of the technology lined up to continue with my ‘Reflections’ journal but am finding it a little difficult to think of some pithy reflections that I would wish to record. When on BBC Radio4 used to broadcast ‘Thought for the Day’ I was always extremely impressed by the contributors often drawn from the complete range of religious persuasions used to cram some really interesting observations into the space of only three  minutes. I used to wonder whether I  could lecture in such a way that the lecture contained the equivalent of 20 ‘Thoughts for the Day’- the ‘slot’ is still present at 7.45 each day but I generally have the radio tuned to ‘ClassicFM’ whilst I am doing my daily exercise routine at that time.

In the morning, I collected the copy of my Sunday newspaper and then proceeded to try to find my friend’s house in order to call around and have a coffee.  Because of the extensive roadworks around the town, the entrance to the estate was completely blocked off and the SatNav and I were forced to take the most circuitous route imaginable to reach my friend’s house – fortunately, I was only delayed by a few minutes. She was holding up pretty well to her chemotherapy and was having another round of it in the next few days. After about an hour and half I had to take my leaver to arrive at the house of my Catholic friends down the road where, together with our new priest, I had been invited out for a Sunday lunch. We had a marvellous chat not to mention a very good lunch and the conversation ranged freely over a whole range of topics. I knew that I had to leave some time before 3.00pm because my Droitwich friend was scheduled to pay me a flying visit in the afternoon. She arrived quite promptly just about 3.00pm and I had thought of preparing an instant meal for her which was a prawn omelette. I had hunted out a pretty good video on the best way to prepare such an omelette and it started off in a way that I would not have predicted which was to fry off on very finely chopped onion together with some ears of garlic. Then when all of these softened, the prawns were added and then all cooked, all of these ingredients are taken out of the pan. Then the omelette is cooked in the oil mixture which is left around the pan and then the prawns are added slowly and carefully in strategic places within the omelette. All of this only takes a minute or so to cook and I then served it up complete with some oven chips and salad leaves, Naturally, this was washed down with some Prosecco as well. my friend and I had quite a lot to discuss, not least was a minor operation which she was due to have on Friday afternoon. Afterwards her physicians  have suggested she needs to keep herself stable and monitored for 24 hours after the procedure. Having looked after Meg for years and years, I made the offer to look after my friend in the immediate post-op period to which she readily agreed. So we have made arrangements  for transporting her to and from the hospital as well as making some practical caring arrangements. This afternoon, after a fairly hectic day, I am going to have a pleasant time relaxing to music on ClassicFM as well as having a leisurely read of the Sunday newspapers. It seems a pretty dire night on the TV this evening so I may hunt around the BBC iPlayer and see if there are documentaries in which I might be interested. As I enjoyed the Alice Roberts biological anthropology series so much I might just watch the whole series of three for a second time. There are no particular commitments in the week ahead but I may attend the special ‘All Souls’ service in church on Monday morning and, if the weather holds up, seize the opportunity for the very last grass-cutting of the season.

The night before last, I engaged in a long and always very enjoyable video link conversation with one of my University of Winchester friends. We tend to prearrange a time by text message and then chat away happily at the appointed time for an hour or so, usually talking about the care (past and present) of our respective spouses and also having reminiscences about the so-called good old times. As it happens, we will be meeting up in Winchester for a communal meal and there should be at least eight of us there. We all retired anything up to 16-18 years ago but enjoy each others company tremendously and therefore meet up once or twice a year when this is possible. As it is quite a long journey and parking can be a nightmare, I always go by train and therefore I can enjoy a dink with friends as well. Domestically, the news of the stripping of the peerages and honorific titles from the former Prince Edward are still dominating the news headline. The public supports Charles, poll shows a poll has revealed the public supports the King’s decision to strip Andrew of his titles and remove him from the Royal Lodge. Of the 4,739 people surveyed by YouGov, 79% answered ‘the right decision’ to the question: ‘Do you think the King has made the right or wrong decision to strip Andrew Mountbatten Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew) of his prince title?’ But when asked about the speed of King’s response to the Andrew-Epstein revelations, 58% of those asked indicate they feel the monarch moved too slowly. But other interesting question are now emerging. For example, should Andrew be encouraged to go to the US to give evidence about his involvement in the Epstein affair. And perhaps more to the point, should he be investigated for sex offences committed in the UK (as Virginia Giuffre claimed in her biography) or is there no proof that would make for a successful prosecution? Later on today, I hope to meet up with my ex-chorister friend for a coffee on the High Street. I am always tremendously impressed by her resilience as she manages at the age of about 92 to bobble about the High Street to do her shopping. We date back to the Waitrose days when I used to meet with her and her husband but he is suffering from dementia and is in a local residential home where he appears to be happy and well cared for.  I am still carrying out with my experimental ‘Reflections’ journal in which I am only 2-3 sentences being a pithy thought for the day. I already have some webspace allocated but will post the file on a weekly basis when I have sufficient contributions for a worthwhile read. As this is quite personal information, I am going to password protect the file and already have a longish (20 character) password phrase which whilst being long (and hence super secure) just happens to be very memorable. All be revealed in due course!

This morning I went into town by car and picked up my newspaper which was in copious supply for a Saturday morning (as it often seems to sell out) Then I made my way along the High Street and met up with my nonagenarian chorister friend in the coffee bar we now frequent. One of our regular number was away at a bowls competition and the other is in hospital. My friend remarked to me, somewhat ruefully that there used to be six of us meeting regularly when Waitrose had its coffee bar but our numbers keep declining over the years as our spouses have gone off to pastures new. After we parted, I took the opportunity to go to Aldi and buy a few things I had forgotten but also bought some roses for my visit to a poorly friend tomorrow.

A Reform UK councillor has defected to the Tories after becoming ‘uncomfortable’ with Nigel Farage’s party. James Buchan said he wanted to be able to look my family in the eye and say, ‘that is not who I am’ after his former party announced plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain. The Dartford Borough councillor, who won his seat for Reform in a by-election in July, said the policy creates a ‘huge amount of fear and anxiety’. He also accused the party of having ‘a pretty unfortunate way of treating people. I stood for election with the sole aim of working for my community and getting things done for local families. Having had the opportunity to see Reform from the inside, I have concluded that the party does not really have the experience or ambition to do that. Relying on rhetoric and slogans is not going to help real families in communities like his and the more I saw of Reform UK, the more uncomfortable I felt to be part of it Things like a proposal to remove indefinite leave to remain from all non-EU residents who are working here perfectly legally is an example that could be devastating for decent people who have built a life here and contribute to our country’ he added. Earlier this year Reform announced it would axe indefinite leave to remain and replace it with new visas that would require migrants to reapply to live in the UK as part of plans to tighten immigration. The interesting thing about this defection is that generally speaking people who switch parties tend to drift further and further towards the extremes, normally the right. The last published figures indicate that 10 Tory MPs or typically ex-MPs and 20 local authority councillors have defected to Reform but these figures are probably not up-to-date and probably greatly understated. So to move leftwards in actually quite illuminating and tends to reveal some of the draconian policies that Reform have indicated that they would implement. One recently announced policy is to remove Indefinite Leave to remain (ILR). Ending the granting of ILR divides the public – and most are opposed to removing it from those who already hold it At the beginning of this week, Nigel Farage announced proposals to abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR), instead requiring migrants to reapply for a visa to stay in the UK every five years. The move has come in for significant criticism from the party’s opponents, and a new YouGov survey finds that the prospect of ending the granting of ILR divides the public: 44% say they support doing so, while 43% are opposed. If ending the granting of ILR is divisive, removing it from current holders is downright unpopular. Support for removing ILR from those who have already been given permission to reside permanently in the UK falls to 29% – even among those who support ending the granting of ILR, only a minority (41%) agree with stripping permanent residency rights from those already granted them.

The evening before last proved to be quite an eventful one as half-way through the evening, the announcement was made from Buckingham Palace that the King had formerly stripped his brother, Edward of all of his titles and privileges and hence he was to be known as simply ‘Edward Mountbatten-Windsor’ Moreover, he was being made to relinquish the lease on the 16 room mansion known as ‘Royal Lodge’ and would henceforth be accommodated in other accommodation on the Sandringham estate. This was a very swift and comprehensive action on the behalf of the King but it appears that he and the rest of the family had simply had enough and it looked as though further revelations in the posthumous biography of Virginia Giuffre (with whom it is alleged that Edward had underage sex when she was 16) looked as though he had sex with here on three occasions. Despite earlier denials that he had ended an association with the convicted paedophile, Epstein, an email has come to light that Edward maintained a contact with him at least a year after he had claimed to have stopped their association. So Edward was himself shown to be a liar and public opinion was very much indicating that the King and the rest of the Royal family needed to take decisive action to protect the monarchy. The general reaction seems to be a sigh of relief and amazement that this has not actually been done before now. I was listening to ‘Question Time’ in the late evening and the programme had been recorded a couple of hours earlier. When the presenter, Fiona Bruce, received the news over her headphones and paused the programme whilst she informed the audience, then only after the first sentence of the announcement the audience broke into spontaneous applause which was an excellent indication of the public mood. In all of the subsequent analysis following the announcement, there is no-one who has suggested that the King has not made the right move stripping Edward of all of is titles and, in effect, banishing him from the Royal family. During the remainder of the evening, I composed what might be the file in which I keep some daily reflections (technically, I suppose a journal) and experimented with some techniques how this might be password protected should I decide to post it on the web for friends to read. I am going to compose a couple or so of sentences a day and then post the file to some webspace about once a week as there is no need for a daily blog but I already possess some webspace with a URL which is easy to remember, as well as an accompanying password which although long is also quite memorable. I decided not to buy any special journalling software as I am still at the experimental stage but it appears that my own home-made solution is more than adequate for what I have in mind. It could be that I run out of reflective material but a couple of sentences should be child’s play to compose each evening.

In the morning, I went down to town by car and having picked up my newspaper and some porridge oats walked along to my favourite café that I frequent on a Friday. There were two other people in the cage being husband and wife and whilst the wife browsed around the shop, the husband and I got chattering about steam trains. He had worked at the Didcot railway centre for well over 30 years and was a real steam enthusiast so we got talking about the kinds of locomotives with which I was familiar from the 1950’s and early 1960’s when I used to go ‘train spotting’ with an older boy who lived around the corner from me. From Harrogate we go to Leeds or to York to do this but our real local ‘Mecca’ was Doncaster where thee were some engine repair works. Provided you kept to the perimeter and did not interfere with any of the work being undertaken, one could wander around the repair sheds which was always a fascinating and eye-opening experience. Doncaster also received and repaired the rarer engines located in Scotland so this was an additional bonus. After a pleasant half an hour’s chat, I shopped for some cosmetics and then returned home to make myself a lunch out of bits-and-bobs. The afternoon was dark and gloomy but later on tonight I am going to video chat with a Hampshire friend which is always welcome. This afternoon proved to be one of those frustrating afternoons where for some unexplained reason my text editor of choice (which I use to prepare this blog) decided to stop functioning. It took several resets pf my laptop to restore it to some kind of functionality and one could have done without that. But in the late afternoon, I got a call from my Droitwich friend and we have arranged to meet on Sunday afternoon which will be a good catching up time for both of us.

Today a YouGov poll found only 26% of people said immigration and asylum was one of the three most important issues facing their community. Only a quarter of people think immigration is an important issue locally – and concern about it is a manufactured panic, it has been claimed. This was half the 52% who said it was one of the biggest problems facing the country as a whole, and put immigration seventh on the list of important local problems behind issues like cost of living, health, crime, and housing. Saeema Syeda, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said the poll ‘proves what we have been saying all along – there is no immigration crisis. It is a manufactured panic, pushed by some politicians and parts of the media to distract from what actually matters to people. Across our communities, we share the same priorities – making ends meet, accessing healthcare, decent schools and secure homes. We need to end scapegoating and look for solutions.’ I suspected that this might be the case but immigration/asylum seekers seems to be prominent in every news broadcast and the issue is being exploited to the full by all of the right wing (Conservative and Reform) parties for all it is worth. If you include the Brexit campaign (in which the last week or so were filled with arguments about immigration) then this issue has been forced up the political agenda for years.

Recently, when I was doing some wider reading around the subjects of ‘contemplation’ and ‘mindfulness’, I reminded myself of a concept which was very much in vogue a decade or so ago and is still present in much professional practice. This is the concept of the ‘reflective practitioner’ (which, broadly speaking, indicates that, in our personal and professional lives, we should take a certain amount of ‘time out’ as it were to reflect upon the events of the last time period (which could be a day, week or a month) and come to some kind of conclusions as to the level of our performance and our reactions to it.  We could conclude that some of our ventures had worked out well and we might reflect upon why this may be the case whereas others were less successful and perhaps there are lessons that can be learnt from the future. Taken to excess, this can result in a spiral of introspection which is not healthy for us all and could become, as I can almost hear an ex-boss of mine snorting, that we become involved in excessive navel gazing. On the other hand if kept within reasonable bounds, then this can help to improve our performance as professionals and can probably assist in our personal and emotional lives as well. Fundamentally, it gives the opportunity for an occasional pause to ask questions about whether we should blindly carry on doing what we have always done in our ventures or are there lessons to be learnt? The concept of the reflective practitioner is now widely embedded in a whole range of professions and we used to require it of our students when they had to write up their final reports of their experiences of ‘supervised work experience’ that they spent the third year of their four year degree course gaining practical experience in the work environment. It is widely used in therapy circles as well when people are suffering from a trauma such as an addiction, or a major transforming life event such as a bereavement or a divorce and are learning to reconstruct and make sense of their lives typically by chronicling their thoughts perhaps in a journal. One technique that I have come across is to write a sentence or so each day in a journal kept for the purpose and I suppose this can either be a private or even a public document to be shared as the writer wishes. I cannot quite decide whether this would be a useful activity for me these days as well as this daily blog but it may be that I just have one long file which I augment if not on a daily basis, then when the mood takes me. One organisational practice which I thought was excellent was embedded in the culture of the last university in which I worked. When all of the examinations had taken place and results considered in multiple Boards of Examiners, the whole university had what was termed a ‘washing up’ day or half day in which we collectively reflected upon that which worked well in our procedures and those that needed some tweaking or improvements for future years. This worked well, was not time-consuming or filled with any sort of blame culture and I thought was an excellent way to maintain the quality of our procedures.

In the morning, I have to make a fairly early start as it is my ‘Tai Chi’ class, conducted in the same Methodist Centre which I attended yesterday. These sessions are 45 minutes long which I find long enough because, as opposed to my Pilates sessions, the exercises are conducted entirely in a standing position and I find that both my knees and hips start to feel the pressure after the passage pf a certain amount of time. But I was delighted at the end of the session to have a coffee with a new-found male friend, a one-time bank manager, who attends both the ‘Strength and Balance’ class on a Wednesday as well as this class on a Thursday. So we spent a very pleasant time in other’s company, enjoying a coffee and some-made drizzle cake before we have to go on our separate ways. In my case, this entailed a weekly shop where I frequent the Aldi store if money is a bit tight in that particular week and I know I need to keep a careful watch on my expenditure. By the time I have got home and unpacked, it is generally about 1.00pm or later and then I bustle about both unpacking the shopping and cooking lunch (quiche today) at the same time. On consulting my phone, I received a couple of texts one being from one of my University of Winchester friends setting up a video-call between the two of us for the following day – this we do about every three weeks or so. The other text was from an old ‘Pilates’ class friend who apologised for not being I touch to arrange a coffee together. She had been quite poorly with a really bad cold but at the same time was hobbling about the house, trying to get herself in reasonable shape for a replacement hip operation which is scheduled in a week or so’s time. Then I received a telephone call which was welcome in the extreme from some of my Catholic friends who love down the road, inviting me around for Sunday lunch this weekend. Also coming to lunch would be our newly installed priest so that might make for an interesting conversation over lunch – I wonder if we shall steer clear of religious/moral issues altogether and confine our conversations to social issues. I feel pretty sure that the topic of how Meg and I were introduced to each by the Jesuit Catholic chaplain at the University of Manchester might find its way into the conversation, although in all fairness Meg and I did know each other by sight before this meeting and actually only really ‘got together’ as they say during the Rag Week celebrations in the following February. The whole university had mid-year examinations at this point and as our tutors were busy marking our scripts, the University in effect  said ‘go out and play, students’ which we did, raising £20,000 for charity in the process (probably worth £500,000 or £0.5 million at today’s prices)