So Monday morning dawns again and we had plans to go and visit Droitwich just down the road from us. But I had a slightly traumatic morning trying to get the NHS app to work on Meg’s iPhone in which I have installed a new SIM with a nice, easy to remember number. The NHS app required Meg’s email and I could not remember which variant of it I had used, or the exact password – I suspect that I got part way through the process some time ago and then something intervened. To cut a long story, I tried to cancel the existing account and start off a new one but evidently the NHS system takes some time to update itself because attempting to create a new account only informed me that we had an account already associated with that NHS number and so please put in the email address (forgotten) and the password (forgotten) and so on and so forth. I am going to leave the whole of this for at least a whole day if not two days to give the NHS app time to update itself and then delete itself before I start again trying to reinstall the thing. All of this started because I needed to see when a hospital appointment was for Meg and, after a telephone call, it transpired that it was this Thursday. Conscious of the fact that we have a long journey to the funeral on Friday and then another journey to our lunch date on Saturday I asked the system to give me another appointment which the helpful(!) personnel at the booking service said I might now have to wait for months. So be it – this is probably the best way round to do things in any case. Once I had been delayed by all of this, Meg and I went off to collect our newspaper and enquired after the health of our newsagent. He has already had two episodes in a local hospital draining fluid off his lungs and his wife informed me, with some evident worry, that they are now talking about admitting her husband to the large teaching hospital in Birmingham for a lung biopsy which all sounds a little grim. I have sent off my very best wishes to him amd hope fervently he gets over this episode, if that is what it is. We then progressed to Droitwich where I managed to get a parking place some 100 yards or so away from the Post Office (which they still have in Droitwich, unlike Bromsgrove where an incredibly busy local post office was reduced to a copunter in the local WH Smiths) The queue in the post office was both long and slow moving but I managed to get my parcel posted off and got my Certificate of Posting to prove it all. Then we made our way to our favourite cafe which was absolutely teeming but the proprietor found us a table and we treated ourelves to a teapot full of tea and a round of toasted teacake between us. Then we had a quick trip into the Waitrose in Droitwich after which we immediately set to cooking the lunch. This we needed to do and get all eaten and cleared up by 2.00pm because we had someone call round us to see us (a long standing appointment). This visit proved to be a pleasant enounter but not particularly productive as suggestions were made for us to try for some activities during the day which we have already considered and then decided not to proceed with.

In the last month I had acquired very cheaply from a local charity shop a simple little light with a silver base and a silver vertical section. I assumed that I had bought a dud because this seemed very reluctant to turn on and off but I did notice that occasionally if I put my fingers around the vertical section it would come on. I assumed that this was a fault but I am now a little bit wiser. I seem to have acquired ithat is known as a ‘touch’ lamp and they are evidently designed as bedside lights for those who find fumbling in the dark for a switch particularly onerous. After a bit of reseatch on the web, I have now discovered the following. These lamps, called ‘touch lamps’ work in the following way. In circuits, components called capacitors store varying amounts of charge and are used to tune circuits like radio receivers or smooth out fluctuations in voltage. When we make contact with a touch lamp, we alter its capacitance. The lamp detects this and switches on or off accordingly. All of this was new to me but I now understand how the lamp operates. After a certain amount of trial and error experimentation, I now realise that I turn the light on simply by touching the base. One touch leads to switching the light on, a further touch increases the brightness of the light and a further two taps turns the whole appliance off. This all sounds very logical and straightforward but in the absence of instructions and prior knowledge or experience of this type of technology, it has all been a bit of learning curve for me. It now occupies an otherwise dark corner in our Music Room but why it appears to switch itself on (and off) after a period of inactivity is all a bit of a mystery to me.

Today dawned bright and clear after what had evidently been a cold and frosty night. This was all to the good because we had a day out planned with our good University of Birmingham friend. We had made provisional plans to visit Clevedon which is a delightful unspoilt Victorian style resort to the south of Bristol with views overlooking the Bristol Channel. Our friend picked us up at 10.30 and then we picked up our newspaper and got on our way. We decided that it might be quite a good idea to reserve a table so I made a reservation from my mobile phone whilst in the back of the car. The restaurant was going to be particularly busy today and you could see why – today may well be the last little bit of summer that we have in place before Autumn strikes with a vengeance and days out to the sea will have to wait until next year. In the event, we had a delightful meal and did not have to wait for too long a period for our meal. The staff know our University of Birmingham friend very well and we had a magnificent dish of pulled beef, avocado, sour cream and specialised chips. After our meal, we thought we would take a turn around the pier which advertises itself as the only Grade 1 listed pier in the whole of England. It is certainly an elegant structure and we had Meg in her wheelchair so a walk along it was pleasant. It has one particular feature which is quite interesting. All along the planking of the pier and especially in the type of rotunda that graces the pier at its end, there are a series of little brass plates where you can commemorate a loved one – or any other special family occasion that is worthy of mention. Our friend especially wanted us to se the little brass plate inscribed to and dedicated to his wife and whilst we were there, our friend went to the office to collect a special cleaning kit which is made available to those family members who are visiting a previously affixed plaque and wish to keep it in pristine condition. It really was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed the views over the estuary (but noted the strange absence of sea birds and waders that I imagined would have been there in abundance) After that, it was a case of a gentle trundle back home but we did call in for a toilet stop at Gloucester services staion which is relatively new and pretty well designed as motorway service areas go. We watched the last 10 minutes of the England vs. Fiji match. England appeared to be in control but then Fiji scored a quick couple of tries and some penalties and at the close could have beaten England with a converted try – but England prevailed and won what had been a thrilling match by all acoounts and are now in the semi-finals next weekend. The match tonight will be a real cracker which is France vs. South Africa and England will meet the winners in the semifinal. The world of rugby tends to divide nations into Tier 1 nations (the four home nations, France and perhaps Italy) in the northern hemisphre and Australia, New Zealand and South Africe in the southern. But the World Cup has lead to the emergence of so-called Tier 2 nations (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina, Georgia etc) The Fiji team have done particularly well. They have beaten France in a pool game, actually did beat England in the round of preparatory matches played before the World Cup began and, of course, pushed England really hard today. Although England appeared to be comfortably in the lead at half time, the Fijians scored two tries and were awarded several penalties – at one stage, they had drawn level with England. So perhaps the World Cup has revelled that the former distinctions into Tier 1 and Tier 2 national rugby teams is beginning to lose its salience. I have just watched the first half of the France vs. South Africa rugby match in the World Cup and each side has scored three tries each. This was a most explosive start and raises the questions whether this was the best half of a rugby match that the world has ever experienced. At full-time a massively tactical second half, likened by the commentators to a game of chess, was won by South Africa by a single point.

I have a couple of portable cassette players at home, bought cheaply at end-of-the-range prices, and popularly known when they were first manufactured as ‘boomboxes’. I think the name was popularised because they tend to look a bit like bug-eyed monsters gaving a couple of stereo 8-9cm speakers and were popular with urban youth in the US who played them extensively in parks. I have a couple with the name ‘Panasonic’ on them and they are both equipped with Bluetooth. This means that it is quite easy to locate good music on one’s phone (Amazon Prime and Youtube) and then play back with enhanced volume and quality of sound via the Boombox speakers. Meg and I have an iphone apiece, that of Meg’s being recently re-equipped with a Tescomobile SIM so now I have a system in which I can easily play back these good bits of music in almost any room in the house that I choose.

We always knew that we were going to have an early start this morning but not quite as early as it turned out. I woke up at about 3.30 and thought I should attempt to locate an appointment letter that I was pretty sure was on the pile of ‘to do’ on our kitchen table. Not being able to find it, I set to work clearing out much of the accumulated rubbish, circulars and some correspondence that needed to be filed. By the time I had reduced the pile to a reasonable ‘to be filed’ portion and thrown away the junk, I still had not found the critical appointment letter. On Monday morning, I shall phone up and confirm the time of the appointment, which I shall then try and postpone for a fortnight. At the end of next week, we have two days in which we are engaged on journeys. The most critical of these is next Friday when we need to journey up to Bolton, in Lancashire, to attend the funeral of Meg’s cousin Gwyneth was unfortunately died a few days ago. Although the journey is quite a long one, it is one we have made before and practically the whole of it is motorway so we will set off at about 10.00 or a little earlier and stop for a lunch on the way before we attend the funeral at 2.30. Then there there is a funeral bash after the crematorium and we will start the journey home. Hopefully, though, at that time on a Friday evening, the traffic should not be too heavy and there is a fair probability that Meg will sleep a lot of the way back. So that is Friday but on the day afterwards we have a lunch date with two very old friends that we have not seen, I think, since before the pandemic. They live in Leicestershire but there is a venue of a good restaurant in the country which is approxinately half way between our two respective homes, to minimise the travelling for both of us. Our lunch date is at 1.00pm so this should nopt be too heavy a day but, of course, it is only a day later than the long journey of the day before. We also have another appointment on Monday afternoopn so next week is going to prove to be quite a busy week for us. But today, Meg and were due to have our COVID+ flu jabs appointment which was timed at 9.18. Whilst in the surgery, we met one of our jolly Waitrose crowd but the whole operation is organised a bit like a military operation with people getting jabs every two or three minutes. Meg and I had an injection in each arm so there is a possibility that both of us might have two sore arms for a day or so. There is a rumour that some individuals are feeling a bit more under the weather after this current round of jabs. We started off with Astra-Zeneca and I think then received the Moderna variant but today we are on the Pfizer variant. So far, Meg and I have been fully vaccinated to date and haven’t suffered any great reactions in the past, although I seem to recall a slightly sore arm the last time around.

The rugby continues this weekend and the really big match is going to be Ireland vs. New Zealand starting at 8.00pm this evening. But tbis afternoon, we are watching the Wales vs. Argentina match which is a tense, tough affair. At half time, Wales are narrowly in the lead but Meg and I will be attending church starting abut two thirds of the way through the second half so it is quite possible that we miss the most exciting 15 minutes of play towards the end. We had the interesting spectacle today which I have never quite seen before of the referee suffering from a groin strain so he had to retire hurt as he was not able to gallop up and down the pitch at speed which is called for if one team has a quick breakaway. The South African referee is being replaced by an English one and perhaps the Argentinians are less than happy if they feel that an English referee might be more favourably inclined towards the Wales team.

There is a great feel of impending doom as the Israelis are assembling their forces before what is going to be a massive push throughout Gaza city. The Israelis have given an ultimatum to 1.2 million inhabitants of Gaza City to retreat (where?) to the south, with the indication that if they do not comply then they may have to suffer whatever the Israeli army throws at them. Yesterday, there was a hint in the American media that the US was asking the Israelis to delay their push by one day and that, indeed, seems to have happened. Despite leaflet drops and videos to warn the civilian population what is in store, there is a feeling abroad that we might be seeing a type of ethnic cleansing in operation. The situation in Gaza city must soon be beyond dire as all supplies of food, water and power have been cut off by the Israelis. To some, this itself is seen as a war crime but we have probably enough evidence of war crimes on both sides of this conflict.

Today has been an interesting day to date, although following a predictable pattern. Firstly, it is the day when our domestic help calls around and we always enjoy her coming round tremendously, not least for the little household hints and tips that we share with each other. Our help has a very keen sense of internal decoration and things that ‘go’ with one another, so we treat her as our personal design consultant and and are happy to trust her judgement about things, but perhaps more of this later. After we had breakfasted and absorbed some of the latest grim news from the Israel-Gaza conflict, it was time to set out onto the road. We first collected our newspaper and received news of our newsagent, when we picked up our daily newspaper. In the shop was one of the faithful assistants who knows the business well and was actually ‘inherited’ by the present owners, and she gave us the latest news of the newsagent we now regard as a friend. He had had a second spell in hospital getting his lungs in working order after a serious lung infection and is now at home, feeling slightly better but still a little weak from it all. As he is now in his late 70’s and in order to run his business has to get up tremendously early, we wonder how much longer he and his wife will continue to run their business or whether he may decide (and why not?) to call it a day and to sell the business on. We shall see but often these little bouts of illness can cause a reevaluation of life’s priorities and I think it is a ripe old age at which to be still active in business. We then made our way to Droitwich to what is now our favourite cafe and had our mid-morning coffees there in nice and comfortable surroundings. I have a slightly vested interest in going to Droitwich in any case because about 150 yards from the cafe is a large shop run by the Worcestershire Association of Carers (in which I happen to be a member in any case) This shop always contains some interesting bric-a-brac and I think is a cut above some of the normal charity shops. I had my eyes upon on a little plain white ceramic lamp, with a matching shade, which I thought would illuminate a dark corner in our music room. After a certain amount of dithering, I bought this and was absolutely delighted with the results once I had got the lamp in place which fulfils the function I had in mind for it perfectly and has the bonus of a little in-line on-off switch on the cord, which I always find more convenient. But whilst in the shop, I espied a pair of teak hand-made teak candle sticks, some 27cm (10.5″) in height for which I may well have a future use. When Meg is no longer able to attend our local church, then what is termed an ‘Eucharistic Minister’ will call round to the house with a little truncated service, which may well give Meg some spiritual comfort. So I can put these candle sticks when needed on a little table with a lace table cloth and other devotional objects in position and this should help to create the right kind of atmosphere when required. As soon as I got home, I applied some of my precious beeswax to them, left them for some 25 minutes which is the recommended amount of time, and then gave them to a polish which resulted in a wonderfully delicate sheen. So this was an unexpected little bonus and I felt that both the lamp and the candle sticks were well worth the £5 each that I paid for them.

To make our diet a little more interesting, I decided to cook a risotto meal this Friday, which used to be our usual pattern but I have got out of the habit over the months. I think I was trying perhaps a little too hard to cut out excess carbohydrate calories and this is why we got out of the habit of cooking our Friday risotto. However, I remembered the core elements (start off with fried onions, add some chicken stock, the fish which was actually half a pack of mackerel, some ‘arborio’ rice,a cup of petit pois and finished off with a handful of grated cheese). Meg and I were actually delighted with the result so I happily gave a mini-portion to our domestic help who was going to have it as her break once she was half way through her shift in a residential care home which she runs off just after seeing to us on a Friday. Her husband and mother are apparently often asking after us and think that the pattern of going out to have a range of social contacts in 3-4 of the local cafeterias an excellent way to cope with the frailties that Meg has been experiencing in recent months. Today followed a predictable pattern of the James Martin cookery program, one further episode of ‘Outnumbered’ on BBC iPlayer followed by hopefully a period in which I am attempting to get Meg to have a good rest in the afternoons. This is aided today as it is raining cats and dogs outside, the afternoon is naturally dark and this helps Meg to get the nap in the afternoon and from which she can only benefit.

Thursday being my shopping day I engage in my normal routine which is to get to the shops just as they open and then home as soon as possible. It must have been a lighter week this week because I managed everything so much more quickly and then it was a case of getting home, getting Meg up and dressed and breakfasted before we ventured forth this morning. We thought that we make a visit to the drop-in centre provided by the large Methodist chyurch in the centre of town – we visited there for the first time last week and found a couple of faces that we already knew. They have a wonderful concept which they call a ‘Chatter and Natter’ table which is part of a national scheme. Chatter & Natter tables are where customers can sit if they are happy to talk to other customers. Hundreds of venues offer Chatter & Natter tables, in cafes, pubs, libraries, hospitals – anywhere that people can sit and chat over a coffee. The concept is explained on a little information stand which they have on the ‘Chatter and Natter’ table and the whole idea is that instead of individuals being seated at a table by themselves (which of course, you are quite at liberty to do if you want a bit of peace and quiet) then you occupy a place at the ‘Chatter and Natter’ table. I found that this concept works exteremely well even though this was only our second visit because when people joined the table, we found something to talk about in no time at all. We were quite rapidly joined by one of our Waitrose Tuesday crowd who we had a fair idea may well have been there on a Thursday so we carried on where we left off last Saturday. Towards the end of the morning, we were joined by yet another person that we knew who is a fellow parishioner at the church we normally attend each Saturday evening. She, like us, had crossed a denominational divide and seemed to be a regular member of the cafe. To cut a long story short, we are resolved to make a visit to the cafe once or twice a week, hopefully on a regular day each week. Attendance is also encouraged by the fact that a cup of coffee is available for £1.00 and a round of buttered toast for 30p and of course costs are kept low because the whole is staffed with volunteers. There are two parallel halls, one large and one small in which there are ‘Keep Fit’ classes, Mother and toddler mornings and the like so the whole centre is actually quite busy. There is a very large local authority car park immediately adjacent to the Centre if all of the spaces in the Centre are occupied by cars as they were this morning. Meg and I felt that we had a pretty entertaining morning and came home to cook a conventional lunch of quiche and green veg. Afterwards we had a ration of the James Martin cookery programme, today visiting Norfolk and I learned one or two things such as shredding parts of a lettuce to add to a pan of other ingredients bubbling away – that would never have occurred to me.

I do not wish to sound very po-faced about all of this but I read recently of two court cases that really made my blood boil. The first of these was the case of Bernie Ecclestone, the millionaire F1 boss, who has admitted lying (i.e. concealing) monies held in trusts and escaping the attention of the Inland Revenue. Anyone else would have been gaoled but Bernie Eccleston was given a suspended sentence because of his age. I think he eventually had to pay £653 million to the Inland Revenue but I wonder how much of his wealth is still intact, despite the fines that he had to pay. The second case was Captain Sir Tom Moore’s daughter who has admitted keeping £800,000 from the three books he wrote before he died – despite the prologue of one of them saying the money would go to the charity in his name. It seems that the richer and more famous one happens to be, the less proportionate the eventual day of reckoning eventually becomes. It was not uncommon for judges to remark to miscreants in the lower levels of the class structure that ‘an example has to be made of you’ whereas higher up the class structure, an offender might be told ‘You have already suffered enough’ There are now quite strict sentencing guidelines to avoid such rampant discrepancies but one is still left with the feeling that the very rich, even though found guilty of fraud, do not always receive the penalties owing to them.

The Israel-Gaza conflict is absorbing a tremendous amount of media attention, as you might expect. There is no doubt that the most severe atrocities have been committed by Hamas but the thought occurs to me that may well be that the Israelis have a vested interested in exaggerating the atrocities committed. For example, it is probably that in at least case an Israeli baby has been beheaded but I heard a spokesperson for the Israelis claiming that this had happened to 40 babies, a claim which it it almost impossible to verify. The thought that occurs to me is whether such exaggerations are given the prominence that they are in order that ground offensive currently in an advanced state of preparation by the Israelis can be unprecedented in is savagery?

Today dawned with a band of rain sweeping across the country as the weather forecasters had predicted so we quickly ruled out plans to go very afar afield and instead settled on somewhere local. Our minds were made up for us by a text from AgeUk reminding us of the monthly meeting held in a local village hall. So we made our way there and were entertained, for over an hour, with ‘Memories of Old Bromsgrove‘ which was a topic with which we felt we would not have a great deal of resonance. But the the topics that we tended to centre around were more of the kinds of goods (and sweets) that we remembered from our childhood and evidently there was a lot more common ground in this. We got back at about 12.30 and busied ourselves preparing an early lunch. We had previously been in contact with our University of Birmingham friend who was unexpectedly free later on today so we decided to meet for an afternoon cuppa early on in the afternoon as we have matters of mutual interest to discuss. We did meet in the Waitrose cafeteria only to be greeted by a massive squall of rain when we emerged in the late afternoon, so we were glad to get home out of the wet weather. We discussed with our friends some possible trips out in the days, and possibly weeks, ahead and then went on our own merry ways. There is quite an autumnal feeling in the air at the moment but having July style temperatures in the early days of the month has got ourselves lulled into a false sense of security, no doubt.

Meanwhile, the BBC is involved in a new culture war with the government about whether it should use the word ‘terrorists’ to describe the Hamas militants who have been responsible for the latest Israel/Gaza conflict. A BBC spokesperson said: ‘We always take our use of language very seriously. Anyone watching or listening to our coverage will hear the word terrorist used many times – we attribute it to those who are using it, for example, the UK Government. This is an approach that has been used for decades, and is in line with that of other broadcasters. The BBC is an editorially independent broadcaster whose job is to explain precisely what is happening on the ground so our audiences can make their own judgement.’ John Simpson, the veteran BBC war and foreign corresondent has argued ‘British politicians know perfectly well why the BBC avoids the word terrorist, and over the years plenty of them have privately agreed with it. Calling someone a terrorist means you are taking sides and ceasing to treat the situation with due impartiality. The BBC’s job is to place the facts before its audience and let them decide what they think, honestly and without ranting. Among other broadcasters, neither Sky News nor ITN – which provides news for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – have fixed policies and let their newsrooms decide on a case-by-case basis. Stories on the Sky News and ITV News websites mainly refer to Hamas militants or fighters, although ITV has also described them as terrorists. So we have a case here which is depressingly familiar that the BBC is attacked by politicians on all sides by those who wish it to use a different terminology – but other broadcasters such as Sky News are following almost exactly the same policy as the BBC without attracting opprobrium. It does appear that the government of the day always seems to want the BBC to toe the government line and therefore have no desire for a truly independent medium – perhaps turning them into the UK equivalent of the ‘Pravda’ and ‘Izvestya’ infamously associated with the former Soviet Union and now carried on under Putin.

Meg and I are trying to settle into a new pattern of spending our days to ensure that Megs frailties do not impinge too much upon our daily lives. We are trying to ensure that each morning, there is a venue (often, but not invariably associated with cups of coffee) after which, if we return home just after 12.00 there is always the Politics Today program on BBC2. We always lunch in the middle of the day and then try to pick some relaxing/entertaining/diverting TV for the afternoon. In this we have been considerably assisted by taking out a subscription to YouTube in which there are often a selection of programs tailored to our own tastes and past preferences. For example, at the moment we are listening to a superb performance of some of the Mozart piano sonatas. During the afternoons, I am encouraging Meg to have a nap or extended rest but this does not happen as often as I think would be good for her. After watching the early evening news, we have our little bits of supper and have then started watching the Sophie Ridge Politics Hub programme which has replaced the Channel 4 news on our preference list. We are then into a pattern of getting Meg ready for bed some time between 8pm-9pm and, if there are any good programmes on after the watershed of 9.00pm, we start to watch that in the chairs we have in our bedroom. That way, if Meg is particulartly sleepy I can quickly get her into bed or she can watch the programme through to its natural conclusion. I would not say that I was completely rigid about these routines but a certain amount of predictbility and order in the day makes Meg’s condition somewhat easier to manage.

Today being a Tuesday, it was time to look forward to the first of our twice weekly get togethers and I arrived in plenty of time to await the arrival of the normal crowd. Even though you think you know people well, new things emerge. This morning, Meg and I arrived in plenty of time having collected our newspaper and news of the health of our newsagent. Then we arrived in plenty of time and started off by pushing tables together (they know us in Waitrose so the staff are not unhappy with us doing this) Then our friends turned up one by one and it transpired that it was the wedding anniversaries off two of our friends i.e. exactly the same date although separated by a few years. We gave congratulations to both of our friends but to be truthful as the husbands of both concerned have Alzheimer’s, then it was not clear if their respective partners had much idea of the significance of today’s date.

The most important thing for us today was a visit that we were due to have made by a nurse who specialises in Meg’s health condition. She was due to see us at 1.00pm and indeed, when we met, she thought she had probably seen Meg at least five years earlier or certainly well before the pandemic burst upon us. We had a very productive meeting and one of the outcomes is that Meg will be prescribed some new medication which may be helpful to her in controlling or moderating some of the symptoms. Time will tell, though, and we shall just have to wait and see what medication. works and what does not. There always seems to be a massive empiricism in the way that the medical profession works these days, very much on the theory ‘Lets try this and if it fails to work, lets try that’ Nonetheless, despite the fact that we had a very successful meeting with the calming words ‘do get in touch with us at any time you need to’ I realised that, although I had a generic telehone number, I did not have an email address to utilise. So I searched the leaflet that I had been given but no email address was evident. I searched the web for the units involved, but again no email address was evident. So I phoned the unit and asked if I could be given the email address of our contact only to be told that individual email addresses were never given out. So to contact the nurse who had been seen us this afternoon, I had to sent off a generic email to the team of which she is a part with a request that it could be forwarded to her. I can sort of see the reason for this caution but it does not help communication from me to them in the short term and I wonder whether they could be somewhat more transparent in their policies – particularly when the ‘How to contact us’ page does not indicate how contact by email is at all possible. We had lunch very late in the day after our extended lunchtime visit and the afternoon was thus somewhat truncated. Nonetheless, we enjoyed aother excruciatingly funny episode of ‘Outnumbered’ in which the harassed mother/wife was trying to to take three hyperactive children, as well as a parent with Alzheimers, to a fun day out to the zoo but all wanted to visit the loo, whilst in the middle of a massive traffic jam. At the same time, the husband was being ‘disciplined’ for racism at the school in which he was a history teacher by making a jocular remark to a Muslim child whose father just happened to be on the Board of Governers – and so on.

So far, I have avoided comment on what the BBC is labelling the Israel-Gaza conflict but after a couple of days, some terrible things are starting to emerge. The first thing that strikes me is the way in which side is completely dehumanisng the other, almost regarding the other side as vermin to be exterminated. So the Hamas fighters who made incursion into the townships in Israel just beyond the Gaza border got to the venue of a youth pop festival and seemed to slaughter everybody on sight – I think up to a total of nearly 300. Those who were not killed in some of the other villages were abducted as hostages including babes in arms. Meanwhile the Israelis are cutting off all water, food and power to the residents of Gaza which must amount to a war crime. This is warfare as we have never seen it before – the rules of war were generally observed with enemy combatants regarded as fair game to ‘kill or be killed’ and whilst tanks and armed soldiers battled it out, civilians were not deliberately targeted. But in the present conflict, it is as though the rules of war had never been promulgated and even describing it as a war is a bit of a misnomer where one side has tanks and armoured vehicles but the other side has none. The rest of the world is watching with a kind of fascinated horror but I have seen no attempt by any side to the conflict to even begin a peace or mediation process of any kind. One can only hope that things do not get worse beore they get better but I am not holding my breath.

Last night, Meg and I watched the Portugal vs. Fiji World Cup match and it proved to be enthralling. The scores were tied with about 10-15 minutes to go but then Fiji were awarded two penalties which put them six points ahead. Then with about two minutes to go, Portugal scored a try which then made them just one point behind Fiji. Portugal then converted this try which gave them an additional two points, meaning that they had secured a victory – their very first in World Cup competition- by a single point. What made the match so gripping is that the viewer really had no idea who was going to win. My sympathies were with Portugal, some of whom are amateurs and nearly all playing in the lower divisions of the French rugby league. Fiji go on to play England in the quarter finals and although Portugal does not progress beyond the pool stage, it does leave the World Cup with a most satisfying win under its belt. They had previously tied with Georgia and at one stage in the match, appeared to be the only team in the history of the World Cup about to experience two draws in the competition.

Today, Meg and I decided we would visit our friendly cafe/restaurant in Droitwich which is never too busy and they have plenty of comfortable chairs as additional recommendations – I think the regulars are the ‘oldies’ in Droitwich in the cafe we have started to frequent recently and where we are treated so well. After cappuchino and home-made scones, we also paid a visit to the Droitwich branch of the Worcestershire Association of Carers who have a large shop quite nearby. It was full of quite tempting things but we confined ourselves to the purchase of a couple of classical CD’s at 50p a throw. We popped inthe Droitwich branch of Waitrose to pick up some supplies and then made it back to view the Politics programme at 12.15. In truth, I didn’t see much of this because the programme was devoted to speeches at the Labour Party conference and then it was necessary for me to start cooking the lunch. This was a straightforward affair of ham, a baked potato, some mange-tout and a roasted tomato and Meg seemed to relish her meal very much. In the afternoon, we got rather diverted by putting on the BBC iPlayer and stumbling into some of the early episodes of ‘Outnumbered‘ which we always found to be achingly funny (the parents always being ‘outnumbered’ by their three children who present them with all kinds of challenges) Then it was a really beautiful afternoon so we spent a bit of time enjoying the warm autumn sunshine by sitting on a bench that we have at the front of the house. Our adopted cat, Miggles, espied us from a distance and came and sprawled on the bench next to us which is quite extraordinary as he is not even our cat. Having enjoyed the sunshine for a little, we then repaired inside and were halfway through a wildlife programme featuring the wildlife of the Serengeti National Park when we received some not very pleasant news by email. We were informed that Meg’s cousin on her mother’s side of the family who had been ill recently and had a spell in hospital had actually died last Friday. Although news of a relative’s death always comes as a bit of a shock and a blow, we had to sit down and work out how old she probably was. Meg’s cousin was an opera singer but almost entirely on the Austrian circuit. Just to make life confusing, her name was Gwyneth Jones but she had to insert a middle name of Maud to differentiate herself from the very famous Gyneth Jones who was probably born at almost the same time and therefore the two singers were exact contemporaries of each other. Meg told me how before we knew each other, she had travelled to Austria to stay with her cousin and must have heard her sing on several occasions. She probably sang in what you might call the second tier of opera houses and her repetoire seemed to be Offenbach, Strauss and the like rather than what is termed grand opera. This news, unfortunately, came as quite a shock to Meg but we had to sit down and work out how old her cousin actually was when she died. We suspect that Meg’s cousin must have been some 8-10 years older and that must have made her late 80’s at the time of her death. Naturally, I sent off an immediate condolence to her daughter who we have met for meals, together with Gyneth on two or three occasions when the pandemic did not get in the way and asked that we be given details of the funeral arrangements as soon as they have been finalised. Meg and I will certainly make the journey up the M6 to Bolton in Lancashire and, fortunately, although the distance is quite long it will be motorway (the M6) all the way so we will certainly make it there and back in one day. In the meanwhile, we have to reflect that as Meg and I are getting older, it is almost inevitable that some of our relatives will be meeting their end before us.

Last night, we watched the Ireland vs Scotland rugby world cup match in which Scotland did not play particularly badly in the opening stages until they were overwhelmed by the technical brilliance of Ireland who were clinical in their execution of how rugby ought to be played. The Irish won the match with great ease and it was not until half way through the second half of the match that the Scots managed to get any points at the board at all. This sets up a quarter final in which Ireland will play the All Blacks which, pitting Northern hemisphere against Southern hemisphere may well be one of the best matches of the whole tournament. This morning, Meg and I ensured that we we were up and breakfasted, absorbing some of the terrible news emanating from the latest war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza strip. What is absolutely amazing about the whole of this conflict is how it ever managed to occur in the first place. The border between Gaza and the rest of Israel is one of the most fortified on earth, bristling with razor wire, defences in depth and electronic sensors beyond count. But the Hamas fighters had somehow broken through in several places (using paragliders in some cases) and then invaded several small towns in Israel taking hostages in the process, including some Israel Defence Force troops. The psychological shock of all of this is immense and is the greatest offensive movement made against Israel since the 6 day war in 1967 in which the Israeli and Egyptian armies were pitched against each other in what now seems to be quite a conventional style of warfare. The military analysts are puzzling over how the Israeli intelligence services can have taken their eyes off the ball so much that they seemed to have no inkling that an attack of this magnitude was imminent. No doubt, some elucidation will occur in the next day or so but it may well be that there will be unbelievable savagery wrought by each side on the other.

Meg and I had made a prior arrangement to meet with our University of Birmingham friend at a local museum called Avoncroft and we intended to meet in the coffee bar there. We were both somewhat dismayed by the fact that we were denied admission to the cafeteria only and not the other facilities which in our friend’s experience they had been able to do for years but now wanted to charge us £14 entrance fee, so naturally we got into our respective cars and drove away. I was slightly amused by all of this but our friend was annoyed and suggested that the personnel on duty indicate his displeasure to senior management and they revert to their previous policy. We made instead for the sporting centre that overlooks a large lake used for water sports purposes which has a simple cafe but where we can overlook a stretch of water. We must say that we were almost uncomfortably hot this morning in the direct sunshine but nonetheless had a very interesting chat, including opinions on the current war in the Middle East, before going our respective ways for Sunday lunch. After lunch, we watched the last half hour of the Argentina vs. Japan rugby match which was quite entertaining with good rugby played on both sides. Tonight we have the Fiji vs. Portugal match in which my money is actually on Fiji although my sympathies will rest with the Portuguese. After this weekend’s matches, we shall be moving to the quarter-final stages of the tournament in which the quality of the games should improve as the weaker teams have been removed and, of course, everything is a knockout from this point onwards.

Now that I have got Meg’s iphone fully functional again, I am determining how much data I need to buy as I will probably do a fair bit off music streaming on it, not least because I am delighted with the little CD player complete with BlueTooth functionality upon it and so acts as a pair of ‘de facto’ larger speakers. Also I can control which items of music I want from the iphone which is excellent. I have been trying to work out what amount of data I need to buy and fortunately there are some websites and utilities available on the web that allow you you to specify how much time you spent on various phone related activities after which you can make a more informed decision. My best guess at the moment that I may be needing anything between 6GB-8GB of data a month. As Tescomobile is selling me bundles of data which, once the special offers are taken off, should cost me about the equivalent of three cups of coffee a month (my new unit of currency) for 10GB, I am quite content with the SIM I have installed and the facilities offered. I asked our University of Birmingham friend about his own experience but he felt that he was locked into far too expensive a contract until next May which is the earliest at which he feels he can exit it – an experience shared by many, I would think. This afternoon, Meg and I are enjoying a really excellent concert which is Mozart’s so-called ‘Great Mass’which is really enjoyable, whilst getting through the Sunday newspapers and enjoying the bursts of late afternoon sunshine on what is turning to be a brilliant Indian summer for October.

Today is going to be quite a rugby filled day but first we have our little Waitrose get-together to enjoy. After we were up and breakfasted, we made our way through heavy Saturday morning traffic to pick up our newspaper and to head for the cafeteria. Once we got there, one of our regulars was sitting and reserving a place at a table for us and it was later to emerge, in the course of our chat, that she, too, was a regular at the Methodist drop-in centre that we sampled for the first time the other day. Not only that, but in her younger days, she had actually manned the coffee bar within the premises and still, at the age of practically 90 and with some health issues, managed to do her rota and to man the coffee bar when her turn in the rota came up. She was explaining to us how in pre-Covid days, the centre was even busier and with a greater range of food and produce than it it is nowadays. We suspected that afer the COVID experiences, when many of these types of facilities were out of bounds, that all kinds of social events are a little slow to pick up and to get going again. We were amazed to discover, though, that our friend still participated in some of the keep fit classes which we could see taking place in the adjacent space in the hall even though she is practically 90 years of age. In Waitrose as well, we were very touched when one of the young female shop assistants volunteered to help me to get Meg to the front door whilst another gave her a small bunch of flowers to help her on her way. Is it any wonder that we keep frequenting this store whrn we are the recipients of little acts of kindness like all this?

This afternoon, Meg and I watched the Wales vs. Georgia match in the rugby World Cup. Wales won this match which was never really in much doubt but the win was not entirely convincing. At one stage during the second half, Georgia scored two quick tries and it did look as though it might just be possible for Georgia to win. In my mind, they played some quite enterprising rugby but the speed of the Wales wingers finally did for them. Wales scored one try which upon replay, the TMO (who monitors the match via video replays) might have misjudged whether a ball was properly grounded or not. At another stage in the match, deep into the second half, there appeared to be something like a mass brawl with masses of players having an altercation with each other and both teams practically fighting each other off the pitch. So Wales finished top of their pool group but not entirely convincingly.

On tuning into Sky News throughout the day, we seem to be in the middle of yet another war between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The news broke this morning that some 5,000 rockets had been fired from the Gaza strip into Israel and the heavily fortified border may well have been breached in several places. Israel are bound to respond with an overwhelming degree of force and firepower but, as I write, there appears to be hundreds killed on both sides. It does look as though the Israelis have been taken completely by surprise and the media are reporting that this may well be a massive security failing on behalf of the Israelis as it looks as though this attack has been planned for some time. Periodically, they neutralise threats with military operations in Gaza, reducing the capability of Hamas. Breezily, they call it mowing the grass. This is such a rapidly developing situation that it is not possible to predict how things will turn out but there do not apppear to be any natural peacemakers in this process. The latest indications are that this conflict will last for some days but the phrase ‘blood bath’ is probably not an inaccurate term. One interesting twist at this stage is that it appears that Hamas might have taken quite a lot of hostages including some officers from the Israeli Defence Forces but as often happens on a Saturday afternoon, we await a deeper analysis in the Sunday newspapers. There is a talk of a ‘shoot to kill’ policy on each side which actually does make it sound like an actual ‘hot’ war.

Meg and I are planning to watch the first half of the England vs. Samoa match late on this afternoon and then to go onto church, which we normally do on a Saturday early evening, if Meg feels up to it. The really big match which might prove to be the most interesting of the day is going to be Scotland vs. Ireland broadcast from 8.00 this evening. Scotland will probably lose but it will be interesting to see what gallant losers they manage to be against the Irish who are currently one of the strongest teams in the world. We will probably adopt our normal pattern these days which is to get Meg ready for bed before 8.00pm and watch the match in the comfortable chairs we have in our bedroom. This way, Meg can roll into bed at 9.00 if she is very tired or stay up and watch the whole of the match.