Today being a Sunday, Meg and I usually get up and watch the political programs whilst having our breakfast on our knees. But we both overslept a little this morning, so the politics programs got a miss. Instead, we breakfasted in the kitchen and then prepared to go out for our morning assignation. We picked up the newspaper and then headed for Webbs which is a large garden and I suppose what you might call a domestic furnishings centre. We always used to have a Webbs member’s card and this we used to use typically at Christmas time when Webbs run a scheme to offer members a Christmas tree at a heavily discounted rate. The scheme is that you pay the ‘full’ price of the tree but are then refunded with the cost of the tree in Webb’s vouchers. On addition, Webbs run a recycling scheme once the Christmas tree is ready for disposal. I hunted around for my card which I had not used in ages but eventually found it. When we got to Webbs, I approached the Customer Services Desk to work out whether my card was still current. As it happened, it had expired last Autumn but I quickly got it renewed with the bonus that a Member’s coffee card is offered to you with a dozen free drinks available on it. We met up with our University of Birmingham friend, exactly as planned and had a very pleasant coffee and chat. Neither of us had been to Webbs for quite some time but we have to say that the service we received was excellent. For a start, our next door neighbour was on duty on the Customers Services Desk and promptly got my card renewed for us. The restaurant staff were very welcoming and attentive so we felt that we had a good customer experience and will probably return on other Sundays. We discussed when we might meet for a luncheon date with each other and then departed for our respective Sunday lunches. After we got home, I made some onion gravy in which I heated some of the slices of a ham joint I had cooked last month and saved half of it after cooking. This we had with some green beans, tomatoes and baked potato before we settle down to a conventional Sundy afternoon of newspaper reading and occasional sessions watching athletics on the TV.

The fallout from the surprise victory when the Tories retained the Uxbridge and South Ruislip parliamentary seat last Thursday continues. It now seems that the Labour party high command have met with Sadiq Kahn the mayor of London and architect of the now infamous ULEZ (Ultra Law Emissions Zone) and a policy rethink is underway. The next few days will reveal whether the policy is to be completely abandoned (unlikely) or radically refined (more likely) but this, by itself, is not the particular source of worry to the Labour Party. But what is concerning them is the fact that the Tories successfully focused on one key issue to the exclusion of everything else (the so called ‘wedge’ theory defined as a political or social issue, often of a controversial or divisive nature, which splits apart a demographic or population group.) The Labour Party fears that despite all of the concerns about the cost of living, mortgage increases, the fragile state of the NHS and so on can effectively be sidelined if a political party finds one particular issue in a particular constituency which really manages to divide and confuse the opposition. The feeling is that this may be unlikely across the whole country but if sufficient ‘wedge’ issues are found on a constituency by constituency basis then this may be sufficient to deny the Labour Party victory at the general election whenever it comes.

Meg and I had been looking forward to watching the final day of the Test Match at Old Trafford where England were in an extremely dominant position but needed some time to complete the job – which was almost a foregone certainty. We are now left in a situation where the rain-affected match is technically regarded as a draw which means that England cannot now win the series and thus the Aussies have won the Ashes. Even at this stage, there are mutterings that this is the most unsatisfactory to end a match. In County Cricket, where the rain in England can affect many county matches there is a complex method known as the ‘Duckworth-Lewis’ method for determing who the winner ‘ought’ to be in the event that a match has to be abandoned. Named after the pair of statisticians who came up with it—Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis—the system is a formula designed to calculate corrected totals after an interruption. I am wondering whether this – or a variant of it – might be used to determine the outcome of Test matches when so much time is lost because of weather or other conditions. Tonight, Meg and I will no doubt watch ‘Today at the Test’ with a heavy heart knowing that there is no exciting cricket, or indeed an England win, in prospect. On the other hand, there may be some very informed discussions with commentators and ex-captains (such as Michael Vaughan) whose discussions tonight might set a climate of opinion as to what might happen in the future.

Today dawned as a miserable, wet and drippy day which threatened to last all day long. After we had got ourselves up and breakfasted, Meg and I made tracks for Waitrose, via our customary newspaper shop. I joked with the proprietor that the wet weather was probably the result of a malign influence of some ancient Australian deitities who were were conspiring to ensure that no play was possible in the Test Match, thus forcing a draw and giving the Australians the series (as this is a ‘must win’ match for England) Meg and I sat in the café having our coffee in isolation because none of our usual friends turned up. We were not totally surprised by this as one of our friends only tends to venture out when the weather is not inclement and another is having a bout of rheumatism to contend with. Nonetheless, we gave everybody a good half hour or so and then decided to call it a day. No sooner had we reached our car, then we got a phone call from our University of Birmingham friend wondering if we were available for coffee. Naturally we were, so we trundled back inside for our second drink of the morning and then had a wonderful pleasant chat with our friend when he turned up a few minutes later. We had quite a deep conversation when we were speculating whether some of the phrases that had been adopted some years back such as ‘post modernism’, a social ‘narrative’ and so on had the same meaning for all of the people who adopted the phrase. We shared the view that often people might use a phrase but not be entirely sure how it should be used or even what it means. A case in point is the word ‘decimate’ which had the specific meaning, in ancient Rome, of killing one of every ten soldiers, as a form of military punishment. There are, it must be said, some problems with the argument that this is the only correct meaning today. A problem is that even if decimate did refer to the practice of killing one of every ten soldiers in Roman times, it did so in the service of Latin, not English. We have many words in English that are descended from Latin but which have changed their meaning in their travels. We no longer think of sinister as meaning ‘on the left side’ even though that was one of the word’s meanings when it existed in Latin. So when our friend and I were in agreement that the word ‘decimate’ had strayed from its original meaning, it has to be argued that often words do travel away from their original meaning to their current one. So ‘decimate’ is very often used today to indicate that a large proportion of a population may have been been destroyed such as ‘the epidemic of avian flue decimated the tern population of the island’ (not actually true, but that is not the point) Eventually, the hour had come for us to depart but we agreed to meet tomorrow in a different venue just down the road to give is a bit of change where no doubt we will find an equally esoteric topic of conversation with which to amuse ourselves. Meg and I made tracks for home and cooked ourselves a steak and kidney pie for our Saturday lunch. We always tend to have a quiet afternoon on Saturdays as we go to church in the late afternoon.

Meg and I are quite glad that the Proms have resumed since this gives uf some relaxing listening in the evenings when we can either pay attention to the concert and/or read at the same time. There seems to be a bit of a Beethoven ‘fest’ at the moment because last night they played Beethoven’s 5th symphony. When I was the unofficial ‘leader’ of the second violins in the school orchestra we seemed to constantly to be playing the finale to Beethoven’s 5th. We must have sounded terrible becaude when I hear a proper recording it is played so much faster than ever we achieved in our school performances. I must at the age of 13 been able to play and read the music perfectly adequately but I had completely forgotten all of this. In my present organ-practising mode, I am still trying to ‘lock’ into position the notes that I see on the score in front of me with the actual keyboard keys. But I do have something to assist me. Immediately after I had acquired the organ I did scour the web and managed to secure a cut price complete set of organ tutors. The first of these had complete inside the front cover a set of cardboard templates that one could cut out and carefully place into position at the back of the two manuals so that each note was actually labelled. These days you can get buy as a tutorial sticker for learners little stickers to label each note but these run the risk of messing up one’s keyboard so this little cardboard template (think of a small size toblerone triangle with appropriate notches for the black keys) are an absolute bonus for me at the moment. I have now got fixed in my memory the opening sequence of the Bach cantata ‘Wachet Auf‘ but still have to learn the trickier sections that follow.

Today, or even the wee small hours of the morning, was when the results of the three by-elections held on Thursday would be announced. Initially, it was said that the results would not be announced until about 3.00am which then become 4.00am so having watched the initial part of the panel discussions, I resolved to make myself a cup of cocoa and then go to bed. Then, much earlier than anticipated, the results of Somerton and Frome were announced quite a lot earlier than anticipated. The Liberal Democrats announced at the start of the evening that they had won this seat and, indeed, they took it with a large majority. But their candidate was a local woman, a farmer’s daughter and local councillor who had been acting almost as a ‘de facto’ MP in the absence of the disgraced Tory who held the seat so it was no real surprise that the Liberal Democrats resumed their traditional presence in the South West of England. For the Lib Dems, winning Somerton and Frome is their fourth consecutive by-election win this parliament, a feat not achieved since the days of Paddy Ashdown in 1992-1997. It has given the Lib Dems belief that they can rebuild in the West Country, having been nearly wiped out by the Tories after five years of coalition government in 2015. And then, shortly after this result, the ex-Boris Johnson seat was announced (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) and this was quite a surprise as the Tories held onto the seat with a majority cut from 7,000 plus to 500. But the result became a lot less surprising when one was appraised of the back story. Apparently, the whole of the by-election campaign was dominated by one local issue which was the implementaion of the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) charge, affecting all motorists except those with totally electric cars, and costing motorists a £12.50 daily charge. This charge has become deeply unpopular, even though it is an extension of the policy for inner London first introduced by Boris Johnson. But central London has the Tube and fiendish car parking charges which between them serve to deter motorists using their car in central London but the outer suburbs are a different matter altogether. All of this presents quite a dilemma for the Labour Party as supposedly marginal outer London seats may be ‘saved’ for the Tories by the unpopularity of the ULEZ charge associated with the Labour major of London, Sadiq Kahn. To my mind, though, this problem is easily solved with a modicum of political intelligence. Acknowledge that motorists need a period of transition (say 7 years) to adapt to the new zone and then have a heavy subsidy in the initial years tapering to practically no subsidy in seven years time. In the meantime, many of the older cars will have been traded in for electric alternatives and then in seven years, the problem will have resolved itself and no more expenses will have been incurred. It is just possible that the Labour party is starting to think today about such a ‘solution’ as the shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry herself a London MP, is already calling for a rethink. After all of this excitement, I dozed a little until the result of the Selby and Ainsty result came through just after 4.00pm. This turned out to be quite a stunning scalp for the Labour party because I intially thought it might be a very marginal victory – in the event, a majority of more than 20,000 was turned into a win by more than 4,000 and this, the Labour party is claiming, is the largest majority ever overturned by the Labour Party in its history. In addition, the new MP is only 25 and the ‘baby of the house’ which is generating some snide remarks by some on the Tory benches. But an an alternative commentary is made that the youngest MPs are often those who have made quite a profound contribution to the House of Commons and a young Charles Kennedy comes to mind. In the end, this Yorkshire result may well turn out to be much the most significant result of the three by-elections and probably the one of the three that has the most predictive ability for the forthcoming general election. Selby is the Conservatives’ 249th most vulnerable seat and losing in a rural Tory stronghold like this will make Tories with majorities of 15,000 feel very unsure.

More political news is that the report that technical experts have now recovered the messages on Boris Johnson’s discarded mobile phone. But although all of the relevant messages have now been recovered, it is the case that a ‘security check of this material’ was now required by the government, so ‘the timing of any further progress on delivery to the inquiry is therefore under the Cabinet Office control’. So one suspects that there may be be some back office skulduggery before the complete set of messages is handed over to the COVID enquiry who had demanded this material in the first place. We may now be entering a politics free zone for the next few weeks as Parliament will be in recess, the politicians will be off to their favourite holiday haunts and the rest of the political system will remain in the hands of duty ministers who have to hold the fort in case a crisis blows up in the meantime.

Today was always going to be an interesting day for Meg and I although it proved a little tiring as things worked out. After we had got ourselves up and breakfasted, we started our journey to South Oxfordshire where we were due to lunch with some of our oldest friends. We picked up our newspaper and all was well on our journey until the point at which the A34 intersects with the M40. The traffic was so heavy at this point that we were practically queuing on the motorway in order to leave it. We were not long into our journey when I received a telephone call which was Bluetoothed from my phone onto the car’s audio system so I was able to press a button and respond to the message. This was quite an important one because after the blank starts I had drawn yesterday and my calls for help from a friendly adviser within Worcestershire Association of Carers, I was actually contacted by a member of the social services team who is going to call around in a week’s time to assess what technology might be useful to us to help out with Meg’s health. So this phone call was gratefully received and I was glad not to have missed it – and to make contact with a human being rather than a voicemail box and/or a website. As we were proceeding along the motorway, I received one of those irritating low tyre pressure warnings. As the last time this occurred was only a few days ago, it might be that I have a slow puncture somewhere. We called in at a service station and fortunately there was not a queue for the airline so we just checked this out and then had to go through the rigmarole of reinitialising the low pressure warning light which does not disappear once the tyres are the correct pressure and this procedure is a little fiddly on this model of a a Honda. This meant that we were 15 minutes late for our lunch date but given the length of the journey this did not inconvenience our hosts. I had taken along a bottle of Uruguayan Alabariño white wine which turned out to be pretty decent when we sampled it immediately. The other source of satisfaction was that I had also brought a little bay tree I had purchased for our hosts and I knew they would be able to find a space for it somewhere in the garden. As it happened, they already had a little bay tree but it had just turned up its toes and died so the plant I had taken along with me was a welcome replacement. We dined out in the garden which is always pleasant and there is one particular feature which we always find fascinating. This is because where our friends live there is a local settlement (if that is the right word) of some red kites which are now breeding very successfully in the area. The kites with their magnificent eyesight have quite quickly learned that if any titbits of meat are made available to them in residents’ gardens they can swoop down and have a quick meal. So this happened today when some of the leftovers from the meal were put on a special birdtable and the red kites swoop down, avail themselves of it and fly off, all in the twinkling of an eye, as it were. Just before we left and having regaled our hosts with a little video of our new music room and its collections of electronic organs, I prevailed upon my guests to let hear the opening bars of J.S. Bach’s ‘Wachet Auf‘ (Sleepers Awake) whch I have been practising and now commtted to memory.

We set off for home at about 4.00pm in the afternoon but as go around Oxford and got towards the M40, the queues started. So we had one of those portions of the journey where you proceed for a little at 20mph and are then stationery. Of course none of this is helped by the fact that various crash barrer upgrades are taking place along the M40 and this too, slowed things down. We go home after a two and a half hour journey and immediately regaled outself with some tinned fruit and icecream. Also, one of our particular delights is to watch the highlights of the current Test match between England and Australia on ‘Today at the Text’ which is edited highlights. One of the particular sources of surprise and pleasure was to watch one of the Englnd openers (Zac Crawley) score 189 which should help to put England in a commanding position in this ‘must-win’ test match. We are hoping that the bad weather does not swoop in and turn a deserved vistory into a draw. For this reason, I think that the England team are actually trying to score runs quickly and build up a good score, battling both the Australians and also the British weather.

Tonight, if I manage to stay awake long enough, the results of the three by-elections should come through in the wee small hours of the morning. If they produce some exit polls predicting the results, then this will be good enough for me and I already have a bottle of my favourite, and non-alcoholic, brown ale resting in the fridge but yearning to be opened on a suitable occasion.

Today our domestic help called around after a break of about 12 days and we were particularly pleased to see her and seemed to have a lot of things to chat about on both sides. Meg and I breakfasted fairly late, having spent a lot in chatting before we actually got around to eating after which I made a lightning visit to the supermarket whilst our domestic help was busy working around the house. We are doing things in a slightly different order this week as tomorrow, Meg and I are due to make a trip to see our friends in Oxfordshire and as this is a longish journey, I did not want to make a long day even longer by shopping first thing tomorrow morning. We are quite well provisioned at the moment so I only needed to do a light shopping. To take down to our friends tomorrow, I intended to take down a chilli plant laden with developing chillis until an email revealed that our host already has masses of these already so I thought I had better move onto a ‘Plan B’ So instead I bought a little bay tree which can always be tucked into an odd corner of the garden and is useful (in cooking) as well as being ornamental. I also bought some Uruguayan Albariño which might be excellent or mediocre. Albariño is a wine grown in North Western Spain and is drunk in great quantities to accompany the abundant seafood in that part of the country. Meg and I do not have well developed tastes in white wine and have never rated in highly when we drank it in Spain. But a year or so back, we bought a bottle in Waitrose (in the UK) and it was stupendous so we will have to see how this Uruguayan version shapes up if our host offers us some tomorrow.

Having got the shopping done and then our lunch cooked, I decided to make a telephone call to a part of Worcestershire Social Services to which I had been directed in an email. At this point, though, a familiar story unfurled. The email indicated that any referral had to be through a specified route and then one was given the (preferred) option of the ubiquitous website and then a telephone number. Trying to contact the person whose name I had been given sent me to a telephone number which automatically redirected to a personal phone which then went straight onto a voicemail. So having given my message and followed the instructions I was faced with complete silence so whether my message has been received is a moot point. So then I tried the website and filled in a form which then informed me that my application to make a direct referral had been received – but no indication whether it was acceptable or when I would get a reply. Later, though, I did receive a reply to my registration form trying to sell me someone I may not need – so I am not a happy bunny at the moment. Incidentally, one sometimes hears that when particular cases of child neglect and cruelty hit the media, it is sometimes said that ‘concerned neighbors heard the baby’s cries and relayed their concerns to social services’ I ask myself how on earth they ever got through to talk to a human to express their concerns because under the pressure of low and diminishing resources and soaring demand, our welfare services seem just to erect barriers to bounce off demand.

On Wednesday evenings, I take the refuse bins out to the end of our access road so that the refusal disposal vehicles can empty them first thing in the morning. I usually take out my neighbour’s bin as well and he reciprocates by bringing them both back in the afternoon. Today, we just happened to coincide and spent some time in discussing the outcome of a public consultation exercise which some building developers were hosting in order to gather opinions on a huge new housing development. This is going to be 430 houses and the intention is that they re-route the major lane that connects us to the Kidderminster Road with a meandering curvy road, making its way through the yet to be built estate and full of chicanes and traffic calming measures to reduce speeds down to 20mph. Whether all of this is actually going to happen or not, I do wonder. When we lived in Leicester we were frequently told that the broad green area separating two lanes of a dual carriageway was the designated route for an inner ring road – but this was planned in the 1930’s and they only got round to it about 80 years later on. However, the bad news from our point of view is that the next phase of development is scheduled to start absolutely at the back of our present house and one shudders to think about the noise and disruption whilst this takes place around us. I suspect that nothing will happen for a year or so but I am refusing to get too upset about these developments because there is very, very little that can be done about it. Local residents can object as much as they like but the local authority is always thinking of the potential increase in the rateable revenues that extra housing might bring as well as potentially extra revenues to be spent in the town itself.

Today being a Tuesday is the day to which we generally look forward as it is the day when ‘the gang’ generally meet in Waitrose for our weekly, or even twice weekly, natter. Today, though, we were confined to just one friend in the café as one of our number was having her boiler serviced and another had a bad bout of rheumatism that was keeping her confined to the house for a day or so. We were just on our way out of the house when we received an important telephone call from Worcestershire Social Services. As it is difficult to make the appropriate contacts, I did not want to do anything that discouraged the call so we did delay our venture out of the house whilst I received some inportant information. It looks as though one referral has led to another referral who, in turn, are suggesting yet another referral and navigation of an online form before you eventually get through to the heart of the service that you require. I suppose all of this makes sure that trivial enquiries do not get beyond the first ‘fence’ as it were and we know that Social Services are under the most pronounced of pressures but it certainly ensures that to make the contacts that are needed, it takes a certain amount of patience, persistence and comprehension of the system in place all in equal measure. I have, though, received an email with some important contact details contained within it so tomorrow morning I shall attempt to get the wheels in motion. Incidentally, my Waitrose friend who herself is suffering from a long standing health problem and is caring for an aged husband with dementia, informed me that if I was expecting some help from an occupational therapist, I might have a wait of several months and it was probably best to approach them with very low expectations that anything much might be provided.

After my Pilates class this midday, we always have a fairly swift lunch of fish cakes and easily microwaved vegetables but typically we do not eat until about 3.00pm so the afternoon is often quite attenuated. This afternoon, there was nothing on daytime TV to attract our attention but a day or so ago, there was a late night repeat of the story of Georgiana, Duches of Devonshire (‘The Duchess‘) We saw this when it was broadcast several years ago and it was released as a film in September of 2008. Even after 15 years, the story was gripping in places, poignant in other places and in the best traditions of a costume drama (but I think the original film was based upon a book of that name and the portrayal of events was probably pretty accurate) So Meg and I were quite diverted by this offering this afternoon which I accessed via the BBC iPlayer. In practice, we have to make a mental note of things that we want to watch and use the iPlayer to view those programmes that are generally broadcast late or in a clash with something that we do want to watch.

I read an item with a wry smile late on this afternoon. Two giant cruise ships that were set to house 1,000 asylum seekers were unable to find anywhere to dock and have been returned to their owners, a senior source told Sky News. In June, Rishi Sunak announced the government acquired two more vessels, alongside the Bibby Stockholm barge – which arrived in Dorset today – as part of continued efforts to cut down on hotel bills of £6m a day for those coming to the UK via small boat Channel crossings. There is a bit more to this story than meets the eye but ‘being unable to dock’ sounds interesting. Wherever ships, barges or what have you are commandeered by the government to house asylum seekers, there is always an enormous amount of opposition by locals who argue, with some justification, that other local public services cannot cope with the additional strain. Sometimes, though, the opposition is unadulterated xenophobia. There was a rumour that a hotel local to us might be used to house asylum seekers and there were local voices to the effect that the barricades had to be manned to prevent the incursion of what was said to be ‘murderers’ and ‘rapists’
Meanwhile the government’s flagship bill on ‘Illegal Migration’ has passed through the Lords and will shortly receive the Royal Assent. But already the UNHCR is arguing that the Act when it comes into force will be a ‘de facto’ breach of international law so no doubt, before any asylum seekers are actually removed, there will appeals to the international courts to test out the legalities of all of this.

From ‘across the pond’ comes the news that Donald Trump has been notified that he is a target of investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election. This notification often comes before an actual indictment and a trial, if any, may well be months or even years away. Meanhile, Donald Trump is becoming the firm favourite of the Republican party and the more legal challenges that appear, the more it seems to build up his popularity with sections of the Republican party. But this there is no evidence that the ‘middle ground’ of the American electorate will be convinced by Trump on a second occasion were he to be actually to secure the republican party nomination.

This morning, I started to learn a new piece for my organ which is the simplified version of the introduction to J.S.Bach’s ‘Wachet Auf‘ (Sleepers Awake )This piece is very well-known to the UK public, particularly after Lloyds Bank decided to make it their signature tune for an advert in the 1980s, featuring the famous black horse. This piece also long been a particuar favourite of Meg and myself since our earliest days and we even had it as the organ solo to which Meg walked down the aisle on our wedding day in 1967. What I think is so distinctive about this particular piece is that it is well and truly underway, the right hand plays one melody and the left hand plays another both of which harmoniously complement each other. I have always been full of admiration at the way in which orgnists can play this piece keeping two melodies going at one and the same time i.e. not just the main theme with chords as accompaniment but independent melodies whih blend harmoniously with each other. So far, I have only learned one half of the simplified chorale so I must practice the second, and trickier half, before I can stitch the two together. This chorale is played slightly faster than some of the other pieces I have learnt to date so there will be some challenges ahead of me – but I am sure I will find it very rewarding once I have accomplished it. I can only find time to practice in short snatches, though.

Meg and I had a little venture planned for ourself. Last week, my son had his car serviced in a dealers in nearby Redditch and to assist him getting the car dropped off, Meg and I went to a very large Morrison’s superstore at which our son treated us to an excellent breakfast. Whilst there, I noticed that they had some wheelchairs provided near the entrance for the use of clients and I made a mental note of this. This morning, Meg and I made a trip to the same supermarket and, given Meg’s mobility issues, I popped her into the wheelchair so that we could make progress throughout a large store with the minimum of stress. All of this worked out very well and I bought a bag of groceries of the type of things where you think it might be useful to have something in reserve for when it was needed (a good tin of ham springs to mind) This all worked out incredibly well and Meg and I treated ourselves to a hot chocolate in the cafe which was really excellent, as I remembered from a week ago.

This afternoon, I had arranged a Skype call with one of my University of Winchester, Hampshire colleagues. After some initial difficulties, we got ourselves connected and then had a wonderful chat for the best part of an hour and a half. As it happens, both of our wives are suffering some health problems so my friend and I are eager to share information with each other as to how we might perform our ‘caring’ roles. Of necessity, we are both handling a mix of medical appointments plus interactions with those parts of local authorities who may be helpful sources of help and advice. Inevitably, we are both finding that we have to negotiate our way through some of the complexities involved but we are hoping that we may be able to offer practical advice and support to each other.

The political scene this week is rather ‘on hold’ as Parliament may shortly be entering a recess for the summer but Thursday is likely to be a critical day in the body politic as it is the day in which there are to be three by-elections held. One of these is Boris Johnson’s previous seat and, even before his resignation, this seat was considered as being winnable as the majority was only 7.000+ But the other two seats have Conservative majorities of about 20,000 (Selby and Ainsty, Somerset and Frome) so the wee small hours of Friday may prove to be fascinating. If the Conservatives were to lose each of these three seats, then a similar result in a general election would reduce the Tories to a complete rump in Parliament. In private, many Tories regard the next election as already lost and not many of them relish the prospect of five years (or even ten years) in opposition, without the ministerial cars and the perks of office that the Conservatives have learnt to take for granted over the years.

The extreme hot weather in Southern Europe is no doubt a blow to the climate change deniers although, I understand, there are still many of this breed represented in the US Congress. Apart from the danger to the human body caused by some of these extreme temperatures, of course what tends to follow are the massive fires across heaths, woods and moorland. These fires themselves devastate communities as well as livelihoods and the hot weather is due to continue for a predicted two more weeks. It is also having an impact upon holiday destinations with many in the UK wondering whether it is worth visiting the southern halves of Italy and Spain with temperatures as extreme as these.

Today is proving to be an interesting Sunday. After we got ourselves up and dressed, Meg and I watched the politics programs on Sky News and BBC 1 whilst we had breakfast on our knees (a Sunday morning tradition). We knew that we had arranged to meet our University of Birmingham friend at 11.00 so after we picked up our newspaper, we made for our venue only about three miles distant. This is best described as a reservoir or at least a man-made lake in wich there is a variety of birdlife as well as various boating activities and other water-based sports for a younger clientele. Meg and I had a coffee and then met up with our friend as we migrated towards an outside bench which afforded quite a pleasant view over the water. The weather was quite variable with some bouts of sunshine interspersed with some showers – weather which we suspect is shared with a lot of the country. We spent a couple of hours with our friend and discussed ‘the meaning of life’ as well as other matters of mutual interest. Eventually, we departed and we made our home for a lunch of meatballs where, fortunately, I had done some vegetable preparation earlier on so it was quite easy to get our lunch underway. This afternoon is the Men’s Final at Wimbledon and neither Meg nor I have a tremendously emotional investment in the outcome but it looks as though it is going to be a classic of the youth of the Spaniard, Alvaraz against the experience of the Serb, Djokovicz. All the indications are that a tense five-setter is in prospect.

Tonight is a Promenade concert broadcast on BBC4 which promises to be interesting and innovative. It starts with a review of the life of Vivaldi but continues with an innovative approach to a performance of the ‘Four Seasons‘ in which the well known pieces are interspersed with some folk songs and perhaps some poetry. The Proms always tries to be innovative to keep its appeal alive and these innovations sometimes work and sometimes they do not. Several years ago, they did have Norah Jones playing both some traditional sitar music like her illustrious father, Ravi Shankar and also some fusion of jazz, pop and country music. This, I thought at the time, was quite riveting stuff and I enjoyed it tremendously. When Meg and I were students at Manchester University, Ravi Shankar came along to play the Free Trade Hall but unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to see him then, which I wish now that I had.

On the political front, there has been a slight surprise that our defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has announced his intention to resign at the next reshuffle and moreover, to leave politics altogether by not standing as an MP in the forthcoming election. What is surprising about all of this is that Ben Wallace is considered to have been one of the most competent of the present clutch of ministers and was even spoken about as a contender for the job of Prime Minister. It is unclear whether he has just been worn down by one of the most demanding jobs in modern politics, particularly as we have a ‘hot war’ taking place upon European terrain. Certainly, Ben Wallace was in contention to be the next Secretary General of NATO but the Americans very evidently took against him and it looked to outside observers that a big sulk was taking place when the it became evident that he was out of the running for this top job. He certainly committed quite a ‘howler’ when he informed the Ukrainian president that he ought to show more gratitude for the military assistance that was flowing in his direction and, if he was not already damned in the eyes of some, then this unfortunate remark certainly finally put paid to any lingering hopes that he might have had.

Meg and I have an interesting social week in prospect for ourselves this week. On Tuesdays, of course, we have our normal weekly Waitrose session with our regulars, followed by Pilates. Then on Thursday all being well, we are going to make a trip to Oxfordshire to see some of our oldest friends for a meal with them. We always enjoy these trips to Oxfordshire even the trip is quite a long one and we just have to hope that the M40 does not have any unfortunate jams on it to delay us. Then on Friday, we intend to have a meeting in the park with two of our park friends, delayed from last Friday because of the poor weather. What with one thing or another, we do not visit the park with the some frequency that we did at the height of the pandemic. But the next time we do go, I have just purchased for Meg what is techically called a ‘Rollator’ which is a three wheeled device to assist with her walking. I am hoping that this device may well assist Meg’s walking by taking larger strides. I have ensured that the actual model I have purchased is the aluminium rather than the steel version which makes it so much lighter and thus easier to get into and out of a car boot and I have checked that this actually the case.

Today is the day of the Bromsgrove Carnival so we expect that town might be very busy and also that that our local traffic systems would be disrupted as a consequence. We decided to pop into town to pick up our newspaper before the roads might be blocked off and we were unable to get access. We had made tentative plans to head out of town whilst we could and let the carnival take care of itself. On the way down into town, though, we noticed that the local information signs said that the roads would be blocked off between 12.00 and 4.00 and not between 10.00 and 4.00 as I thought. So we had a quick change of plan and decided to pop into Waitrose (if we could) where we bump into our normal café crowd. I also texted our University of Birmingham friend to tell him of our change of plan and so we all ended up in the cafe, enjoying a customary Saturday coffee together. Earlier in the day, I had wondered to myself whether it is was possible for my iPhone to make a sound recording and given that little video clips are possible, I was sure this would be be built into the iphone’s capabilities. After a quick Google search, I discovered that I needed to access my Utilities folder and then automatically download a utility called ‘VoiceMemos‘ after which I was all ready to go. So I sat down at my Casio keyboard, got it into the appropriate instrument mode, and then recorded myself playing the Hoffman ‘Barcarolle‘ first with the right hand and then with the left hand duplicating the right hand but an octave lower. Now that all of this is committed to posterity, I was able to bore my Waitrose café friends with my rendition whereupon I was informed, in no uncertain manner, that in a year’s time they would demand a fully featured concert. On leaving Waitrose, we bumped into one of our Irish friends and caught up with some of the news we wished to share with each other, after which I prepared a fairly light lunch of quiche, carrots and peas. When we arrived back from our little venture into town, I could see that a package that I had ordered had been delivered as I knew that it would be there this morning. What I had ordered was a special alumunium ‘rollator’ which is the name that the manufacturers give to those kinds of three wheeled walkers that we sometimes see in the park. One of the market leaders in the manufacture of these walkers was selling their product at a discounted price, discounted still further if you filled in a little certificate form that allowed you to order the product ex-VAT if the intended recipient was a disabled person. So this product was quite easily assembled and at 4.5 kg (about 101bs) was light enough to quite easily load into the boot of a car. Once assembled, I checked that the product would quite easily fit into the boot of our car which it did and this means that when Meg and I walk any distance in the park, this product will make Meg’s progress so much easier. It may be a day or so before I can give it a good trial but all of the indications are favourable so far.

Meg and I always have a fairly lazy Saturday afternoon, knowing that we will be out in the late afternoon to attend our weekly Church service. But this afternoon, it was the Ladies Winmbledon finals so Meg and I started to watch this. The match turned out to be quite interesting although not of tremendously high quality. However, it was noteworthy because the Czech,Marketa Vondrousova beat Tunisian opponent Ons Jabeur in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in the final. This made her the first unseeded woman to ever win Wimbledon. The nearest precedent that we have was Billy Jean King who was a finalist in 1963 (sixty years ago) but who did not win the title. What was quite fascinatimg about this game, apart from the fact that both players had runs where they lost several games in a row, was the body language displayed by Jabeur, the Tunisian. She had been a finalist last year and prhaps understood the pressure of a Wimbledon final but from about halfway through the match her self belief seem to drain from her and it was no surprise to me that she eventually lost the match. The whole match rather reminded me of those matches where an under-par England meet an equally under-par Australia in the Test Match and it is unclear who is going to prevail.

What may the final instalment of the Boris Johnson mobile phone saga may be resolving itself. The government has apparently found its own version of the pin number. According to Politico, the inputting of the password will be done by government-appointed ‘technical experts’ rather than Johnson himself. So the COVID enquiry may well have access to these materials but a much wider question is whether we have to wait until the committee reports to reveal what these messages reveal about Johnson’s preparedness (or lack of it) for the pandemic. Of course, it is always possible that an ‘unattributable’ leak from the enquiry might take place – there again, it might not.

The weather forecasters were absolutely correct when they predicted that it would rain practically the whole of the day, as indeed it did. This morning there were three little errands to make whilst we were on the road. Firstly, we picked up our newspaper after which we paid a visit to our local hardware store to purchase a common sink plunger – this latter to assist a slow draining sink to drain somewhat more quickly. Then I popped into a local carpet store in place of either a mat or an offcut which I can pop under the piano stool which I have to complement my Casio keyboard. I waited until a previous customer had finished buying £100’s worth of carpets after which I explained my need for a little mat or off-cut. The shop proprietor showed me a little bound offcut, formed into a mat but I really didn’t want to pay £15 for it. Eventually, the proprietor took pity on me and let me have a large 2′ x 2′ in a mingled black and white shade for nothing as they were going to throw these samples away shortly. This just happens to tone in with the colours of the keyboard (black surround, white keys) so it was very gratefully received. We had planned to meet a couple of friends in the park at midday but at 10 minutes to the hour the heavens opened so we surmised that our friends would think the better of an assignation in the rain. We got a telephone call from the one and a text message from the other to the effect that we are going to try again in a week’s time, assuming that the weather has had a chance to settle down by then.

The saga of the Boris Johnson phone continues, with a new twist. It transpires that Boris Johnson did remember his password but is not completely confident that he has remembered it correctly. A ‘version’ of the password has been found in a drawer somewhere in the Cabinet Office but the story now unfolding is that security officials are wary about using it because after a (small) number of incorrect attempts to unlock the phone with the PIN, it is possible that the phone might lock out and erase the whole of its contents automatically. Security experts seem fairly confident that the contents may be retrieved, even if only back up versions of the text messages but an additional complication is that as phone entrusted to the Prime Minister, additional security features may have been implemented which makes it tricky to access even for the industry professionals. How much of all of this saga is Johnson attempting to obfuscate and how much is a genuine security of access protocol is hard to tell at this distance. But it does seem to be a particular irony that some of the most incriminating evidence just happens to be on a mobile phone which is hard to access. It has been pointed out that one could go through the list of Boris Johnson’s contacts (available from somewhere) and acquire the ‘de facto’ list of messages by this indirect route but we shall have to see how the story unfolds in the days ahead.

This afternoon, we played host to a friend we have made via the Age Concern cafe which meets monthly. Our friend’s husband had been taken quite ill and his already fragile health status seems to not to have been helped by a particularly adverse reaction to an antibiotic. Our friend could not stay with us long because her husband fretted in her absence but nonetheless we managed to pass onto her a range of useful telephone numbers for which she was grateful. The rest of the weekend is likely to be quite a disrupted affair, however. Tomorrow is the designated day for the Bromsgrove carnival when there are a going to be a lot of floats and processions. The High Street and much of our local highway down into town is liable to closed for most of the day so that means that our anticipated visit to Waitrose where we can meet up with friends is is going to have to be cancelled for the simple reason that we cannot actually get to the store (except, of course, on foot) The rain itself is probably going to mean that tomorrow’s festivities are liable to a washout and whilst there are some who may relish walking and parading in the rain, no doubt many others will be deterred. In order not to get tangled with both crowds and diverted traffic, Meg and I may well spend the day completely at home but we will probably be able to venture out in the early evening to attend the church service.

The heatwave affecting southern Europe has been building for months and is predicted to get much worse. Temperatures have been consistently above 40C since mid-April in many areas. But on the Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia they are expected to climb to 48C in the coming days, and could even break the continent’s record of 48.8C set in August 2021. These temperatures are likely to contribute to a ‘spike’ in excess deaths as some people do not appreciate the risks associated with such extremes.