Meg and I watched the England vs.Argentine rugby match last night and it was one of the strangest matches we have ever seen. For a start, there seemed to be no free flowing rugby on either side. The whole tone of the game was not helped by the sending of the England player, Curry, whose yellow card after a collision of heads was upgraded to a red so that England played for most of the time with only 14 players on the pitch. England won fairly easily after a succession of opportunistic drop goals by the English fly half, Ford, who actually scored the total of the England score which were all penalties or goals. Still, a win is a win and perhaps after the recent spell of poor form, it was good to see an English team with a bit more discipline (much more than the Argentinians) and sense of purpose.

After we had breakfasted and seen the Laura Kuennsberg politics program, we received a very welcome telephone from our University of Birmingham friend which help, as it happened, to resolve a huge mystery for us. Yesterday, after our friend left our little party to go in search of his lost credit card, I rescued his hat and brought that home, together with two slices of chocolate cake. These I put on a brick plinth in our porch whilst I was helping to get Meg out of the car and rescue other things.Later on, I searched in vain throughout the house for both the cake and the hat which I knew I had brought home but I could not find anywhere. What had happened was this. Our friend turned up to the house whilst we were having our family meal, saw the cake and his hat outside the door and assumed they had been left there for him to collect so he took possession of them without ringing the doorbell and shot off home. So when I looked all over the house thinking that in a moment of abstraction I must have put the items somewhere, it was no wonder that they could not be found. So today’s phone call cleared up a mystery for us. In view of the fact that it was either raining or threatening to rain, we decided to meet our friend in the Waitrose cafeteria is where we spent a very happy hour if not longer.

When we got home, neither Meg or myself felt particularly hungry so we threw together a salad from bits of pieces and some pork pie donated by a neighbour (who works in Webbs and sometimes gives us food items that would otherwise be thrown away) So we actually had a very satisfying lunch and then settled down to watch a variety of TV programs before we start watching rugby again. In the afternoon, we received a very welcome FaceTime call from my niece who had called in on my sister in Yorkshire and we had a long session updating each other of the various little tribulations with which we both had to deal over the last week or so. The video call was wonderful to receive, though, and was a source of great emotional support to us.

This afternoon in the late afternoon we were starting to watch the Scotland vs. South Africa rugby match with low expectations of Scotland given the world rankings of South Africa. But by half term, they were behind by only 6-3 so it will be an interesting second half. There is still a lot of discussion whether the red card given to England’s Curry was justified or not, one school of thought being there was no malice forethought but another being that head contact has got to be a ‘red card’ with the present interpretations of the rules and the desire to protect all players from head injuries. It was no surprise that in the second half of the game, the Springboks cut loose and scored a couple of tries against which the Scots had no real answer. The major contest this evening is going to be Wales vs. Fiji. As Fiji recently beat England, then this might be quite a mighty contest and I would not like to predict at this stage who might emerge as winners.

We have had several days of pretty hot weather which is so unusual for early to mid September. In fact, all of our married life I cannot recollect a period in which in the week in which we had our wedding anniversary, the weather should be so hot. We have rather got used over the years to a period of quite gloomy weather, as it was indeed on a wedding itself in 1967 when it threatened to rain the whole of the morning but then the sunshine broke through just at the point at which we were heading for our wedding reception. We have made a provisional arrangement with our University of Birmingham friend that he might pick us up and we all enjoy a coffee in the cafe/restaurant which we visited in Droitwich last week. Here we know that we will be able to get a table as it never too crowded and the staff are particularly attentive which as Meg gets a little more frail is actually quite important to us.

Today Meg and I slept in a little because last night we were a little late into bed, having stayed up to watch the opening match of the Rugby World Cup. France beat the All Blacks in quite a convincing display and this was a marvellous start to the tournament as a whole which does go on for 50 odd days. It looks as though we are going to have weekends permanently filled with rugby for weeks ahead but Meg and I do not mind, although we will need to watch a little selectively. After we had got our act together this morning, I made Meg some simple cereal breakfast and then we made haste for the Waitrose cafeteria. Here I bought a chocolate cake which turned out to be absolutely scrumptious (what an old-fashioned word) The staff divided it into eight pieces for us and we were soon joined by four friends, including our University of Birmingham friend. We had no hesitation is pushing the tables together so that we could have the makings of a pleasant little party. Our friends had bought for us a wedding anniversary card which they had all signed and we were just in the course of some jolly conversations when our University of Birmingham friend realised with some dismay that his credit card was missing. He knew that he had used it in a pub last night and I tried my best to reassure him that it was probably not ‘lost’ or stolen but in all probability he had put the card into a shirt picket or some other trouser pockets and that is where he would probably find it after all. But it is a horrible feeling when you know a credit card has gone missing so our friend shot off as rapidly as he could to try to retrace his steps and, if necessary, put a stop on the card before the worst could happen. The rest of us carried on munching chocolate cake and eventually realised that it was time for us to go our various ways. I rescued our friend’s hat for safe keeping and the remains of the chocolate cake and I am sure that I brought them home but I have put them down somewhere (I think) in a strange place and cannot find them. When we got in, I took the various bundles of Asian and Indian food out of the fridge in readiness for when our son and daughter-in-law were shortly to join us. Then it was a microwave job to get the starters going (onion bhajees and mini spring rolls) and then we had main courses of generally rice based foods, all washed down with rather a fine rosé wine I had picked up from Aldi. Normally, Meg and I are are not great rosé drinkers but with Indian/Asian food and a hot day, it made the meal into quite a little occasion.

Once we had got lunch out of the way, my son and I started to tackle the TV installation. The initial part of this seemed to be quite straightforward but we found we need to install a spare ‘gizmo’ to extend the WiFi through the electrical wiring of the house – fortunately, we had a spare one of these in stock but I left it for my son to install. The rest of the installation seemed to be pretty straightforward but I needed to go onto my laptop to feed into a code which the installation process demanded. This sort of thing only has to be done about once and we got the BBC iPlayer sorted out, as well as the ‘normal’ Amazon Prime to which we have had a subscription for quite a long time. A lot of the afternoon, we devoted to the watching of the Ireland-Romania match but, as you might expect with Ireland one of the stongest teams and Romania one of the weakest, the whole match was a bit of a walkover. The quality of the high definition images on the new TV seems superb to us and to my mind is superior even to the Panasonic which is our ‘main’ TV but is getting a little dated and long in the tooth by now. After we had got the rugby matches out of the way, my son, daughter-in-law and I (but mainly the younger generation) set ourselves the task of mastering the navigation of some of the facilities on the new TV. Certain apps are already ‘built in’, some of which we have be never heard of, but others tried and tested favourites such as YouTube (which we use extensively for watching opera) Here we ran into some intricacies as my Amazon Prime subscription gives me some access to some musical albums as part of the subscription but, at the same time, I have an individual subscription which I recently activated to ‘Music Unlimited’ All of this seems a little complicated and we discovered that we needed to download the Amazon music app and add it the apps already loaded on the TV. One way or another, we think we have the two kinds of apps downloaded and disentangled from each other. My daughter-in-law ensured that I knew what was I was doing with the TV control before we were let for the day. Meg and I intended to go to church this afternoon but as Meg was feeling somewhat wobbly again, we thought we would probably give it a miss today of all days, although it had been our intention to have made it if we could possibly could.

We are always pleased when Fridays come around and this Friday in particular because our very good Italian friend was due to pay us a visit for an 11.00am coffee. I had done a certain anount of record keeping work during the night and so we allowed ourselves the luxury of a mini lie-in this morning and were about an hour later getting going than is normal. Then I shot off into town to quickly pick up our copy of the daily newspaper, getting back just in time before the arrival of our friend. I had great delight in showing her the various bits of furniture in the Music room some of which we have enhanced since purchase and, of course, our keyboards. I managed to play our friend about three pieces, not quite note perfect but near enough and of course, they were recognisable. Then we had coffee and chocolate biscuits and I recounted some of the transactions that we had with the various parts of social services. We had a wonderful natter with our friend about all kinds of topics including family news fron our respective families. One topic of conversation with which we shared a common viewpoint was whether we should, as some economists have urged, sell the larger houses that many members of our generation are now inhabiting to release this housing stock for younger generations with growing families. But we both suscribed to the counter argument that we had worked hard all of our lives for the accommodation that we were now enjoying and if we wanted to retain our larger houses so that we had space for members of our family who might be visiting, our own friends or even to devote to alternative activities such as a craft room, then so be it. Just after our friend left, I received a wonderful email from the one member of our Pilates class that I know least well, offering her sympathetic support and I invited her round for a tea/coffee any afternoon that she was free, and to listen to a few musical offerings. It also gives me the incentive to try to perfect the few pieces of music that I do know and to try to hunt out some new pieces as well. After our friend left, I started to prepare lunch which was our usual fish pie with some appropriate green veg and baked tomatoes. I am resolved to give my wife slightly smaller portions than myself as she is smaller than I am and her energy needs are less – however, it is hard to abandon habits of a cooking lifetime in which I tend, after cooking the food, to serve up practically equal portions.

Whilst I was starting to write this blog in the afternoon, there was a programme on the TV about the industrial lives led by female factory workers in the 1960’s. This called to mind experiences that Meg and I had whilst we were at the end of our second year in university. We had the good fortune to be employed in factories which were absolutely next door to each other, which was a cardboard box factory in my case and the McVities biscuit factory in Meg’s case. She used to recount to me her experiences on the ‘Home Wheat’ production line (and I think Meg has had a revulsion against chocolate biscuits ever since) There was quite a rigid division of labour between the sexes and the work of handling the huge vats of hot and molten chocolate was the province of male workers. To the female worker on the production line, all that was ever wanted was that she could capture the attentions of a ‘chocolate man’ with a view to eventual matrimony. With the kind of innocence for which we were renowned in the 1960’s, Meg used to recount the story of how a young production line worker used to exclaim that all she wanted was a ‘chocolate man’ and if she were ever to capture the attentions of one she wanted to ‘cover him all over in chocolate and to lick him all over’ No further comment is required at this point.

The escape from Wandsworth gaol of the soldier who was about to be tried on terrorist charges is exciting a tremendous amount of media attention. There seems to have been a massive display of incompetence to perform elementary research procedures (not to mention counting how many staff were in the prison’s kitchens). One suspects that to cover up this incompetence and poor decision making, a ‘counter narrative’ is in the offing. There are two strands to this. The first strand indicates that as the escape seems so complete and there is no trace of him, then he must have had accomplices perhaps even within the prison itself. A second counter narrative runs that as UK trained soldier, he is full of initiative and perhaps low cunning that must explain his success so far. it is possible, of course, that both of these counter-narratives turn out to be the case but I find it slightly suspicious that these explanations are being pressed so hard, probably as a way of diverting attention from the evident failings of that particular gaol. There are persistent rumours that he may already be out of the country or have gone into ‘underground’ hiding to avoid detection by remote TV cameras but the fact remains that as long he is at large and remains uncaptured, the government is busy wiping egg of its face the whole time.

I started the day with a little experiment to see if I could use my iPad to compose my daily blogs – if I am successful this would be quite liberating because I could start off with my iPad in one room but do the finishing off, as it were, on my laptop in the living room. In my first little experiment, I have managed to compose a bit of text (this blog so far) and then save the file. This file I can send to myself via my own email and from this, on my laptop computer, I can copy the text composed so far into my working html file in which each blog entry is written. This has worked fine so far so I am just extending this entry and then sending it again to prove the first time was not a fluke.

We decided that it might be quite a good idea to visit Droitwich today but to visit one of our old haunts which was a large cafe that served light meals as well as lunches. In fact, we went there a month or so back but had a terrible time as there was an unaccompanied and unsupervised Tourette’s syndrome sufferer who made our meal intolerable to us as there was a constant stream of shouted imprecations in the background. Anyway, we were recognised and greeted in the cafe but it took me all my time to get Meg there as she was exceptionally wobbly again today and although she had not chosen the option of the wheelchair, this would have been the better course of action. We had nice hot cappuchinos and some homemade scones with cream and jam. When we had finished this, I realised that i would never get Meg around the Wilko store which was my initial plan but we had better make straight for home. There was a very friendly assistant in the cafe who offered to sit with Meg and talk with her whilst I collected the car from round the corner. This proved to be a life saver and I never turn down help these days. It transpired that she too was a Catholic and her mother-in-law had sufferered a frailty similar to Meg so she was incredibly sympathetic and even helped Meg out of the cafe and into the car which all proved rather troublesome. This is now the third occasion that Meg has had to be helped out of a cafe and into the car and I am not sure how much longer I have to rely upon the kindness of complete strangers.

After we made for home, it was so hot and humid that we decided to make ourselves a salad lunch. We called at a local ‘One Stop‘ quite near the the route that we have to take on the way home and bought some salad and coleslaw from which we made quite a filling salad to complement the quiche that we had scheduled for lunch. After lunch, we tried to have quite a restful afternoon but Meg found it difficult to settle. We treated ourselves to some ice-cream half way through the afternoon and we had a little spell outside on the garden bench to give Meg a bit of a change of scene and some fresh air. I read on the media that these few days in September are breaking all records as a mini heatwave and normally, we would expect much cooler and fresher air. Tonight, I think I am going to have to fling open some windows to allow a flow of air through the house to cool things down a little to make sure that we can have a restful night.

There was an amazing story that surfaced in the media this afternoon. Police interrupted a peaceful yoga class after people seen lying on the floor were mistaken for a ‘mass killing’. Officers stormed the Seascape Cafe inside the North Sea Observatory in Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire, after a concerned member of the public raised the alarm. But they were greeted by surprised and bemused people taking part in a meditation session on Wednesday night. Sky News is also reporting tonight that former Tory whip Chris Pincher has resigned his seat after losing his appeal against a proposed Commons suspension for drunkenly groping two men. It means the government will face another by-election. The Parliament’s standards committee found the Tamworth MP groped two men at London’s Carlton Club. It described his ‘completely inappropriate’ behaviour as an ‘abuse of power’. Mr Pincher, who had been sitting as an independent MP, had previously announced he would be standing down at the next election. However, on Monday he lost an appeal against the proposed eight-week suspension. I have started watching the Sophie Ridge show on the Sky News channel at 7.0pm instead of my usual diet of the Channel 4 news. This has got off to quite a promising start and her interviewing style is pointed without being too threatening to the politicians. Tonnight, we are promised some revelations of how a terror suspect dressed in a chef’s outfit has escaped jail by clinging to the bottom of a food delivery van. It sounds like the improbable plot of a film but there are masses of questions for the prison service to answer in this particular case.

Today we are slightly out of our normal routine. I set the alarm fairly early and then dashed out to get the shopping done early and one day earlier than is normal so that my son and I can coordinate various things. Going shopping on a Wednesday rather than a Thursday seemed a slightly unreal experience as the roads seemed so unusually quiet. I am sure things will get hectic later on as today is the day when many children will now doubt be starting or resuming school. As I was in plenty of time, I popped into Morrisons to get one or two things that I know that Aldi do not sell. I picked up a Chinese ‘meal for two’ to complement both the Asian and the Indian meals that we have already purchased ready for our little celebration on Saturday next. When I got home, I unpacked the shopping but Meg was feeling a little rough this morning – I don’t suppose it was the glass of wine I gave her last night which surely can only be beneficial. As I was getting the shopping unpacked, our University of Birmingham friend phoned up, himself out of a normal routine because his tennis partner was away on holiday and he was wondering whether we might make a joint trip to Waitrose. I explained all this to our friend and we had a coffee here in our own kitchen (supplemented by too many chocolate biscuits that were probably not good for us). Just before he arrived, I received a telephone call from an ‘Experienced’ social worker – or so the job title on the subsequent email contact revealed. After some preliminary questions, various forms have to be completed and documents forwarded but it is wonderful to say that at long last, a date has been agreed when we meet for a formal assessment a week on Thursday. Getting the documentation may or may not prove to be a little irksome but, nonetheless, I am delighted to be at this stage of the process.

We had a rather conventional lunch of the remains of the beef heated up in some extended onion gravy, french beans and a baked potato. But I did try an innovation which worked out quite well. To add a little colour, I sliced up a couple of tomatoes which I fried gently in some rapeseed oil. To this, I added a sprinkling of basil spice (out of a spice jar), a little squeeze of tomato purée and some garlic purée which I managed to find and impulse buy in Aldi this morning. This really made quite a tasty little side dish and helped to ‘lift’ what might have been quite a pedestrian meal. Today was a very hot day and perhaps even the hottest day of the year and a little muggy to boot. But I was desperate to get the lawns cut because for one reason or another, they got missed out last week. In a more normal year, one can often skip a week’s mowing but for a reason I cannot discern, the grass seems to have gone mad this year. So I did the big front greened area which generally takes about 40 minutes. Then I popped indoors both to keep Meg some company but also to avail ourselves of some ice cream. Then after a suitable break for refreshment, I raced around and did the back lawn which takes about 20 minutes but has a lot more curves to negotiate. I was ably assisted, or rather I should say supervised, by Miggles the local tabby who had adopted us and always like to observe whatever I am doing in the garden and does not seem to be unduly frightened by the mower unless he/she gets very close (is the noise below the frequency range of a cat’s hearing, I ask myself?)

Every so often, Meg manages to make a comment which is both witty and, I suppose, what the French might call ‘le mot juste’. In this particukar case, Meg’s contribution came about yesterday after we had joked with some of our Waitrose friends what kind of respite care should be made available for carers, such as myself. In a flippant remark, I suggested that ideally I should like to stay in a care haome staffed by a bevy of nymphomaniac 18 year old Romanians – and then ventured, I am not sure that I could cope very well with this situation. Meg’s response was to say ‘At least you would get plenty of practice’. As the week unfolds on Friday and Saturday we have several friends that we know that we are going to see but tomorrow is a day free from all social obligations and pressing things to get done. I have in mind to go to Droitwich down the road as our favourite store, Wilco, is having what might be called a distressed ‘fire sale’ as other large entities scrabble over its remains. I think there are reductions of the order of 30% of everything so there may be some bargains to be had (unless these have already been cleared out by the eagle-eyed) In a few days time, our new TV should arrive, courtesy of John Lewis and I suspect that delivery will be about next Monday. Given that we have a Rugby World Cup to enjoy in the days ahead, this might arrive just in time.

Today is the day when I normally have two commitments, the first being a meeting with the ‘granny gang’ in the Waitrose cafeteria and the second being my Pilates class. We got Meg and myself up, washed and breakfasted and then telephone calls intervened. I was just on my way out when I received a telephone call from Worcs. Social Services with whom I have been trying to arrange a formal assessment for Meg. I sometimes wonder why this should be a complicated procedure but it seems to be. First one passes through a ‘Portal’ system which seems like the electronic equivalent of a bouncer in a nightclub i.e. designed to fend off those who can be transferred off to other services if possible. Then I get through to what I presume is some kind of organiser or scheduler because having taken some particulars I am then going (eventually) to be passed on either to an assessor to a social worker who will then telephone me within a few days to arrange a date when Meg can have a formal assessment. What eventually got the wheels rolling of this particular wagon is the fact that I received a phone call from the ‘Falls Prevention’ team but I had not appreciated that if you were about to fall, or were liable to fall then you were the responsibility of one department but once you had actually fallen, you were the responsibiity of another department whose job it is to scrape you off the floor (unless you are bleeding or injured, in which case you passed onto the ambulance service to be whipped off to A&E.)

Once we eventually got to the Waitrose cafeteria, we had a jolly time with two of our friends who we hope to see again on Saturday morning. On the recommendation of our domestic help and other sources, I went in search of composite meals and chose two that were in date (One Asian, one Asiatic) for our little celebrations at midday on Saturday next. I wanted to get a Chinese one as well but the ones in stock only had a short shelf life in stock so I am going to have to wait until I get some that don’t expire before the weekend. On the way out of the store, Meg was incredibly fragile and, seeing that I appeared to be struggling, a very kindly onlooker gave me a helping hand so that between us we could get Meg to the car (which was only parked just outside the front door to the store in any case) It transpired that she had two elderly parents, both still alive and in their 90’s so she was well used to helping older people to make a necessary journey. I thanked her profusely but did wonder to myself how long I can rely upon the kindness of complete strangers. Once we got home, I put Meg in our Music Room and we watched a bit of telly (on our relocated TV) before I prepared a lunch of fishcakes. I was not sure if I would manage to fit in a Pilates session but, in the event, Meg was in too fragile a condition to be left so I left a voicemail of explanation for my Pilates teacher. Later on in the afternoon, she texted me to say that she was ‘gutted’ that I was finding attendance at the class so difficult after I had been attending her class religiously for about ten years or so. I am going to box and cox with arrangements so that I can get half an hour’s exercise in next week if not the complete hour. Earlier in the day, I received a wonderfully supportive text from one of my fellow Pilates class mmembers (we go back about 10-12 years, I think) saying she had read some of these blogs and offering condolences and support. I thanked her profusely for all of this and hope that we can meet for a cup of tea in the afternoons if the time can be spared. But other people have such busy lives and their own family concerns that have to take priority.

Half way through the afternoon some church friends popped around by prior arrangement – I had put things on our planning board and then forgotten to consult it. The husband suffers from dementia and was getting increasingly agitated after only a few minutes. So our friends stayed for about half and hour but I managed to pass on what I hope is some useful tips and telephone numbers. It may be that they can call around once a week or once a fortnight to provide some mutual support. This evening, there are some classic comedy programmes on BBC4 so I am hopeful that I can Meg all washed and ready for bed before they start so that we can both have about an hour’s relaxation before we start to have an earlyish night. I need to go shopping first thing tomorrow morning for a variey of reasons so an early night tonight and an alarm call for about 6.15 in the morning is in order. After some thought and measurement, I have ordered a bigger screen TV for Meg and I to enjoy in the Music Room. This is Toshiba technology, is a somewhat out-of-date model with an appropriate price reduction but with five years warranty from John Lewis so I thought that this particular package was too good to miss.

Today has been such a different day to yesterday, I am delighted to report. Whereas Meg was exceptionally ‘wobbly’ from the moment she woke up yesterday morning, today she felt a smidgeon better which is all to the good. During the night, I had sent a long-ish and heartfelt email to the Admiral Nursing team who I have to be an excellent source of support. Today, I received a phone call from the nurse who has been allocated to be our principal link with the team and who, in the fullness of time, will come to pay us a visit. Our contact was as supportive as ever and the thing she does which is particularly useful is that she somehow manages to get the email we have sent her detailing all of our woes actually into the hands of the GP. I suppose that this is what one might ‘wheels within wheels’ but I do mind how she does it as long as it is effective. This is followed up by a phone call to the GP surgery which does add a degree of prioritisation to the web-based request that we make for a GP appointment. We had particularly asked that a GP call round to the house and, lo and behold, we got a telephone call indicating that a GP would actually make a house visit between 1.00 and 2.00 other things being equal. We had been considerably heartened yesterday by a telephone call from our good Irish friends who live down the road and who had invited us for a coffee at 11.00. Whereas yesterday, I thought it would have been impossible to have got Meg into the car, today is what the Spanish call ‘otra cosa’ or another thing. Accordingly, after breakfast we bundled Meg into the car and went to collect our newspaper and then to see our neighbours, having a good chat with her French neighbour en route. We spent a wonderful hour and a half with our friends and Meg’s spirits were lifted considerably as a result. I must admit that I did have a lacrymose moment in the middle of the night, when one is not at one’s best, that if the doctor decided to hospitalise Meg and if she was not then judged to be well enough to be discharged back in to her own home, that that might be the last night we spent together after 56 years (practically) of marriage. Once we got home and had a refreshing drink, then one of the practice GPs turned up and did the range of tests you might consider such as blood pressure, heart amd lungs, palpating the abdomen etc. He then observed Meg getting up from a sedentary position and being very wobbly in the process. His judgement was that she was lacking in ‘inner core strength’ which is a judgement from which it was not possible to dissent and was going to make an onward referral to occupational therapy and perhaps also physiotherapy. This may well be treating symptoms rather than causes so who Meg fell so often yesterday may never be fully known.

As our friends had already given us some sandwiches as extended elevenses in the morning, Meg and I did not feel the need for a full scale lunch. So we treated ourselves to a bowl of icecream as it was quite a warm and sunny day. We FaceTimed my sister who had sent me a text message of support after she had read of our tribulations in last night’s blog and I was happy to update her with the news that the doctor had called and that Meg felt somewhat better than yesterday. We exchanged details of the experiences of packages of support that we had received (or rather not received) which differed markedly beween Yorkshire and Worcestershire. The principal difference seems to be that if have had a spell of hospitalisation, then upon discharge there is almost a ready-made package of support which follows once you are at home. But this is not the case for Meg and myself and we are starting to approach social services from a very different angle. My sister is very supportive of me and of course, our circumstances vary but we both struggle to discover why packages of support should be available in one county but not in another. Afer our long and supportive videocall, I
tried to activate what I was thought was a live link with the so-called ‘Enablement’ team only to be told that our case was now regarded as ‘closed’ and we should apply to an area social services team. This we did, only to be told that Meg’s falls did not come within their perview so they would refer us on to a ‘Falls Prevention’ team from which we have heard nothing as the afternoon progressed. Eventually, I got back to Worcestershire Association of Carers who I think were a little horrified by all of this buck-passing and promised that they would make a reference for a social needs assessment on our behalf.

I had one thing that worked out well for us today. Now we are using the ‘Music Room’ much more, we have inherited my son’s ex-bedroom TV which works perfectly but is only 13″ across and 8m away. Yesterday, I bought an extension ariel cable of some 15 metres which means that we can view this little telly in a position much closer to our usual chairs and this worked like a dream. We may treat ourselves to a bigger and better TV in this room now that we have the aerial access issue sorted out for ourselves.

Today has been quite a day, what with one thing or another. It did not get off to the best of starts because Meg required quite a lot of attention to get her up and dressed this morning. Even after a good night’s sleep, she is still exhibiting a lot of fragility and this is having all sorts of consequences. Eventually, I got Meg up, washed and dressed and made progress downstairs but we had a simple breakfast. I started watching the new Trevor Philips hosting of a politics program on Sky News starting at 8.30 and some parts of this seemed quite good but other parts of it I dozed through. The principal contribution of note was Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequeur, who was commenting upon the crisis caused by the aerated concrete used in a lot of schools from the 1950’s to the 1980’s and which now stands in danger of imminent collapse. This problem has been known about for some time and is like a slowly ticking timebomb for the government. The Department for Education (DfE) has newly identified 104 schools and sixth forms with problems, but it is understood a full list of them will only be released when all parents are informed and mitigations are in place. Initial press reports indicated that about 150 schools and colleges might be affected but there are some indications that this in itself might be a gross underestimate. During the day, I have seen an interview with a prominent Conservative member of the Public Accounts Committee promising that a survey of all of the potential schools affected might be completed ‘by the end of the year’ i.e. in four months time. So, it would not be surprising if the number of affected schools might rise considerably. There is an even more alarming dimension to this story, revealed by today’s Sunday Times. That is that scores of public buildings caught up in the crumbling concrete crisis are also likely to be riddled with deadly asbestos. Experts fear that the presence of RAAC also increases the danger of exposure to asbestos which kills 5,000 people a year in the UK. If this proves to be the case, then we are not just talking about the ‘remediation’ of a few concrete panels but the complete rebuild of a school. The dangers of asbestos are not to be underestimated. Whilst Meg and I were working at Leicester Polytechnic, we worked on the top two floors of a building called the James Went building. On the first floor, electricians undertaking routine maintenance work discovered the presence of some crumbling asbestos and this evidently required expert removal. The way that this was done was to completely seal off rhe affected floors and then put the whole of the area shrouded in thick industrial plastic under negative pressure i.e. air was gently blown in so that any asbestos fibres would be contained within the insulated area. To monitor that no escapes of asbestos fibre were taking place, a series of monitors were placed on every floor of the building. But when the system was put into operation, every monitor lit up like a Christmas tree indicating that there had been a regular escape of asbestos probbably over the years. So the whole building was evacuated as though there had been a major fire and according to the rest of my recollection, it probably took at least a year if not a year and a half to remedy the problem. So all of the staff offices were vacated with half eaten sandwiches and the like whilst specialist teams of operatives, complete with breathing apparatus, were designated to go and search for some of the critical files and student records. The disruption to the work of the Polytechnic was extreme as various departments, including our own, were relocated to temporary office accommodation whereever it could be found in the proximity of the Polytevnic and as staff, we all had to go to our doctors and request an X-ray to indicate that none of us were suffering from asbestosis, even though the results of this do not show up for about 30 years.

And so we revert to the domestic difficulties I have been facing today. Meg has lost the ability to stand unaided so it has been an ‘interesting’ day with four absolute falls, three just about saved in the nick of time because I happened to be in very close proximity, one glass smashed on the kitchen floor and one and half cups of tea spilt in our living room. During the night, I will contact Admiral nurses and first thing in the morning report all of this to our doctor who I suspect will do very little. I have received a very supportive email from one of my ex-colleagues from Winchester whose flat on the South Coast had been put at our disposal and which we intended to make use of for a night or so to help us celebrate our 56th wedding anniversary in one week’s time. But this is now out of the question for self evident reasons. One of our friends down the road invited us round for coffee tomorrow morning so I gave him a quick update on what had been going on. As things stand, it may be difficult even getting Meg into our car so trips to the park might be off the agenda for the foreseeable future. We will have to see what tomorrow might bring.

Today started off in an interesting way. Last night, during the night, I did a little experiment to see if I could still access Amazon Music on my main MAC computer in view of the fact that I now added a Single Device subscription to my Amazon account. The short answer is that I could, so I decided to expand this line of experiment to see if the same was true of Amazon Music accessed through my iPad. I found out that I could not but it was worth a bit of experimentation in any case. Finally, I played a track on the Macbook (laptop) which I have in the lounge and played a Mozart sonata which is very well known – Rondo Alla Turca or Turkish March. After I played this for about a minute to test that all was playing well, I left Amazon Music and could not believe my ears when the same piece of music could be heard in the distance – coming from our kitchen, actually. The explanation is simple enough but extraordinary in that ClassicFM was playing the same track at exactly the same time. This really was the most extraordinary coincidence but it has happened to me on one other occasionally within my memory. Eventually, we made it to the Waitrose car park and then inside the store where Meg and I treated ourselves to a bowl of porridge (less calories than a round of toast) topped off with blueberries. Two of our regular three old ladies were there, the enemy of sciatica detaining one of our number. Whilst I was feeling in a loquacious mood, I reminisced about life in the 1950’s and how all women used to keep a length of what was then called ‘knicker elastic’ in their handbags. This was because at some time in their lives, all women had experienced the failure when their knicker elastic broke and they could be left with the knickers falling about their ankles in the middle of a shopping street. According to the etiquette of the time, you should step gracefully out of the fallen garment, roll them up neatly and put them into your handbag and then go in search of the nearest lady’s loo (spending a penny in the process to gain access) where you undertake a temporary repair sufficient to get you home. Whist on the subject of knicker elastic, one of the most embarrassing commercial transactions occurred shortly after Meg and I were first married and living in a masionette in Manchester. In the units below us were some little stalls and we hunted out a little Asian lady wo knew kept a haberdashery stall. We asked if she had any knicker elastic and she did indeed have some which she indicated was 1½d a yeard. Actually, we said to her, we only needed a foot for some repair job or other but the lady replied that she would sell us a foot if that is all that we required. She carefully measured out 12″, rolled it up and put it into a little brown paper bag. The price was ½d so we offered her a penny and got ½d by way of change (this is about one fifth of the modern penny, by the way) Even Meg and I felt a little embarrassed by the whole transaction. The other little story that I told was a traveller’s tale when Meg was out in Spain doing an Erasmus trip and I was flying out on my own to join her. The chap occupying the seat next to the window it transpired was a native of Galicia (called a Gallego) and he was a farmer. I was anxious to improve my Spanish so we chatted to each other for the whole of the flight. Towards the end of the flight, the Gallego farmer suddenly put his face close to mine and uttered the immortal words ‘You really have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen’ The point of this story is that I may have no propensities at ‘pulling’ women but give me a gay Gallego farmer and that is altogether a different cup of tea.

When we came to leave, we had probably been sitting for far too long and Meg was very wobbly on her feet. A very kind stranger assisted Meg and myself getting to the door of the store whilst I went to collect the car into which Meg managed to slump. When I got her inside the house, she fell again (or rarher slithered) so I managed one way or another to get her to her feet and with the aid of a walker got her down as far as our living room. I texted my son with these happenings and I was relieved when my son and his wife popped over to see what assistance they could offer to Meg. Whilst I had the two of them in the house, we made some plans for a joint celebration of our wedding anniversary next Saturday. We have decided as Meg’s condition is a little unstable at the moment to celebrate at home with a Waitrose Indian meal which we will buy from the Droitwich (bigger) store during the week. Meg and I missed church this afternoon for the first time in years but, of course, there are quite a lot of holiday absences at this time of year so we probably will not be missed.

Today started off in the middle of the night, if you know what I mean. As I suspected, whilst I was playing about familiarising myself with Amazon Music, after a lot of promptings to take out a subscription and repeatedly pressing the ‘No’ button, eventually by mistake I had pressed the ‘accept’ button which meant that after a grace period of 30 days I would be charged £10.00 a month to access this service. As things go these days, this is not a great deal of money and we will be listening to a lot of classical music on Amazon music but I was unclear how much you get for ‘free’ without a subscription and therefore how much extra the £10.00 a month buys for you. But then I discovered that if I only wanted to play Amazon Music on one device (i.e. the TV with its FireStick) this was available for £5 pcm which did seem OK to me. I price everything in terms of ‘cups of coffee worth’ and for the sake of one and a half cups of coffee a month, this was quite acceptable and so I started to try to get my subscription changed. This proved to be so difficult, not least because the option to change to the lower rate was ‘greyed out’ and therefore unavailable. Eventually, I got onto one of those ‘chat’ aids which always gave me a somewhat oblique answer to what I was trying to do. I suspect it is a series of Artificial Intelligence inspired responses fired at you with intervention only by a human at a late stage. But to cut a long story short, in the middle of the night I managed to get my existing subscription of £10 a month cancelled, a £5 a month ‘Single Device’ subscription put into its place and so I eventually got to bed a happy bunny, making sure that the changes I had made seemed to register OK both on my desk computer and also on the TV FireStick app.

Today, our domestic help calls round and, of course, I always have things to show her. In particular, I wanted her to see the newly acquired Marzi and Remy steinware which arrived yesterday and now forms a collection of three (one larger one dating from the 1880’s and two slightly smaller pieces dating from the 1960’s) She thought I had made an excellent purchase as the three form a nice type of ‘unity’ and the light naturally falls upon them from a side window in our Music Room. I had also rearranged some other ornaments so that that ‘owls’ are together in one room. When our domestic help arrived, I helped her get settled in with her cup of tea by playing ‘Shenandoah‘ to her which I now nearly always play note perfect. After our breakfast, I got a telephone call from one of the doctors in the group practice in response to the web form that I filled in to request a telephone consultation and she indicated that she would prescribe some medication which may prove helpful to Meg in the afternoons. But she seemed somewhat cautious as sometimes the medication that they prescribe can make things worse rather than better but nonetheless some new pills should arrive in a few days time once they work their way through the system (we have our medicines delivered to us through the Lloyds system which is a boon) Then we made our way to the park, where we met up by prior arrangement with our University of Birmingham friend. This friend is keen to expand his circle of acquaintances and has joined several walking groups which sounds to us to be a very good idea because, in the course of a long hike, it always possible to find a kindred spirit. But the first walk at 8-9 miles long seemed to be rather demanding but you never know what you are letting yourself in for until you try it. So we gave our friend every encouragement to keep on walking and we trust in the fullness of time, he finds a congenial set of companions.

This afternoon, Meg and I listened to classical music streamed through our TV, courtesy of Amazon Music. Be delving around in some of the menu systems, I found it possible to access a list of the entire contents of the album which is called ‘100 Best Classics‘. Whilst Meg was busy listening, I was also passively listening but at the same time making a text file of the song particulars. A simple ‘cut and paste’ did not work when the screen contents scrolled upwards so I was reduced to getting a screenful of titles (of the order of 5-7 at a time) and then pasting them into a text file and text editor that I use reguarly for my blog. This was a little fiddly but ultimately rewarding because I finished up with a paper copy that ran to several pages long.I emailed the list from my laptop via email to my main computer from whence I could acquire a printed copy.

There is a massive scandal afflicting the schools which is just now seeing the light of day. More than 150 schools throughout the country have got to take steps to repair their buildings if afflicted by a specially light (and weak) form of concrete called RAAC – Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. The problem seems to have been known about for years and warnings were issued to schools some months ago. But making schools close only a day or so before the new term (instead of the start of the long summer vacation)points to government incompetence in the extreme. Also, slashing the school building program to one half of what it should be to ensure safety are the chickens of austerity coming home to roost with a vengeance.