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.

Today is our shopping day and I paid a visit to an ATM before filling the car with petrol and finally getting to my preferred store before 8.00am. Having completed the shopping, I picked up our newspaper, unpacked the shopping and then cooked breakfast for Meg. After we had had breakfast, I treated Meg to a rendition of my latest practice piece of Offenbach’s ‘Barcarolle‘. As the melody is relatively uncomplicated, I have learnt how to repeat the principal phrases by using a left hand to complement the melody an octave lower. This, together with the ‘Synth’ instrument selected on my Casio keyboard, make for a very pleasant and, dare I say, soothing sound and I actually find it quite relaxing to perform a little piece like this. As the notes are comparatively simple, I have also learnt how to linger just a little on each note to produce a nice, dreamy feeling and it is not hard to remember that this style of music was first performed upon the gondolas in Venice (presumably not by the oarsman himself). I find that I have now had my little Casio for about seven weeks and I quite like to alternate between both this instrument and the organ purchased about three weeks ago. I was expecting a telephone call later on this morning so Meg and I did not go for our normal walk in the park – besides, the weather was really rather inclement so we were quite happy to stay indoors until I had received my expected call.

Today has been rather dominated by a series of political stories. The one that has dominated the media, ad nauseam, for several days is the affair of the celebrated presenter Huw Edwards who is currently suspended by the BBC but ill in hospital. As the police have found no evidence of criminality, the spotlight really ought now to turn upon the role of the tabloid ‘Sun’ in all of this which, as a Rupert Murdock attack dog, takes every opportunity to have a go at the BBC. On the other hand, the real criminality which is Boris Johnson failing to produce his phone to provide evidence to the Covid enquiry in defiance of what, is in effect, a court order is receiving no media attention at all. This behaviour of ignoring the Johnson criminality whilst pursuing a vendetta against the BBC is certainly being linked by some commentators, not least by Alastair Campbell, the ex-Labour Press spokesperson. The latest news on this front is the UK’s official Covid inquiry has no immediate plans to take further legal action against the Boris Johnson for failing to hand over his WhatsApp messages, openDemocracy understands. Families of the bereaved say the inquiry ‘must be prepared to take legal action’ against Johnson if his WhatsApps are not disclosed in their entirety. Under Section 21 of the Inquiries Act, individuals must hand over any evidence demanded by the chair, with the failure to do so a criminal offence. The other major political story is the fact that the Government has, one imagines reluctantly, agreed to meet all of the Pay Review Bodies recommendations (varying from 6%-7%)in full. The teaching unions will probably decide to call off all their intended strike intentions – but what the junior doctors may decide is another matter. The government is saying that the pay awards, particularly for teachers, will be fully funded but that taxes will not rise and that borrowing will not increase. But this does make one wonder from where the money will be found and there is always the sneaking impression that our old friend ‘efficiency savings’ will be called into play again. Evidently, departmental budgets will have to be raided and it might be a day or so before it becomes clear where the funding will actually come from. One does get the very strong impression that there are only a few Parliamentary days left before the Government in effect packs up its bags and gets ready for a longish summer vacation. Of course, government as such must carry on but there is a real feeling that ministers are rushing to clear up their desks before going off on vacations, presumably with their families, perhaps for several weeks until the Conference season starts again in the Autumn. The last thing that ministers want is to have to man thir desks whilst industrial disputes linger on so I should not be at all surprised if there is generally an ‘end of term’ mood and the political elite wants to get on with the serious business of holiday making.

Last night, there was nothing much on the TV which attracted our attention so I idly went onto YouTube and we started watching a production of Mozart’s ‘Cosi van Tutte’ This turned out to be a particularly good production with some fine singing, produced by generally a cast of English singers but performed in Paris. As the whole opera is well over three hours long, Meg and I split it such that we watched half of it last night and, hopefully, will conclude with the rest of it this evening. Although we have got out of the habit of watching ‘Question Time‘ on Thursday evenings, it is always quite interesting to take the pulse of the nation, as it were, so we will probably give it a viewing this evening.

Today was the day when we had offered to help our son in getting his car serviced. His garage is in Redditch and we had an arrangement that he would drive there and drop off the car for a service and then Meg and I and our son would meet up in an adjacent Morrisons Superstore for a breakfast. All of this worked as planned and although I normally cut out breakfasts as part of my weight reduction routine, I must say that I really enjoyed the breakfast that was on offer. We then made our journey back to the house and my son participated in an online conference which had been organised for particular NHS analysts. Meg and I then made our way to Finstall where we were due to attend a monthly Age Concern meeting that we have been along to on about three occasions. If the weather was fine, there was a promise of a picnic but, in practice, we engaged in some indoor pursuits as we could not rely upon the weather. Today our numbers were slightly down as two regular attendees were experiencing bouts of illness but we had two tables with about half a dozen on each table. We played a type of bingo game but using illustrations of dogs rather than numbers and this provoked some comments from those of us who had experience of these or similar pets. Afterwards we finished our morning’s activities, we came home and had a light lunch of some soup because we were still feeling pretty full after our extended breakfast.
In the middle of the afteenoon, we conveyed our son to the garage where his car was being serviced so that he could pick it up. One of the joys of modern technology is the way that garages nowadays take a little video of the underside of the car being serviced with the amount of tread remaining chalked on the tyre and then videoed back to the owner.

This afternoon, as I had mastered the basic (and very simple) theme of the Offenbach’s ‘Barcarolle‘, I have amused myself by playing the theme on a variety of instruments offered by my Casio keyboard (bought a week or so before the organ) Of course, different instruments add the right degree of colour to a piece but I have discovered what Casio call ‘Synth-Path1’ which I supposed is a type of artificial synthesiser sound. Anyway it has a floating, dreamy quality with a certain amount of resonance built in and it makes even a simple rendition of the Offenbach ‘Barcarolle‘ sound out of this world. Wikipedia tells us that a barcarolle is a traditional folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers, or a piece of music composed in that style. A barcarolle is characterized by a rhythm reminiscent of the gondolier’s stroke, almost invariably in 6/8 meter at a moderate tempo. I am sure that most people will recognise this piece when played and it gets quite a frequent airing on ClassicFM.

In all of the row over the BBC presenter which is dominating the airways, another much more significant story is being crowded out. It does seem to be a field day for the Murdoch dominated press to give the BBC a real kicking which it does whenever it has the opportunity – and to extend the row for days on end. In the meanwhile, Boris Johnson has still not provided messages stored on an old mobile phone to the Covid-19 public inquiry as it emerged on Monday, with allies of the ex-premier claiming that he was still working with technical experts on the issue. The government was given a deadline of 4pm on Monday to hand over relevant material to the inquiry, and Downing Street said ministers had passed on all the information in its possession. This story is potentially of much greater significance than the BBC row but is not gaining any press attention. But Boris Johnson’s phone – and its encrypted messages – will contain material that is absolutely damning as it relates to the very early days of the pandemic crisis when all kinds of decisions were being taken (or rather not being taken) Without this material, the COVID enquiry will have a much harder time in establishing the facts, not to mention apportioning blame, and one is left with the distinct impression both that Boris Johnson has quite a lot to hide but also that he is ‘getting away with it’ Nobody is denying that the phone exists and it must fall with the competence of the police and the security servives to ensure between them that the messages on this phone get read and presented to the enquiry.

Boris Johnson and his wife have produced a third child between them and one’s jaw has to drop as to the name that the child will bear. For whatever reason, the child is called ‘Frank’ and one has to wonder whether this name has been chosen as a huge practical joke upon the public at large given the evasion of lack of frankness that Boris Johnson has displayed over much of his political career. Perhaps it might be considered unseemly to make comment on the private life of a politician and I have not as yet seen any public comment on the name given to the latest addition to the Johnson tribe.

Tuesdays roll around with a pleasant predictability and today we looked forward to our weekly (or sometimes bi-weekly) chat with the regulars in the Waitrose café. One of our number was missing today, possibly deterred by the really bad weather where one was threatened with quite torrential downpours every half hour or so. Nonetheless, four of us met to exchange the gossip of the last few days and after that it was returning home for a quick turnaround and then a walk down to my weekly Pilates class. Just before I set off, I got a friendly telephone call from a community pharmacist attached to our local medical practice. This has happened before so I was not unduly alarmed as one might be if the medical practice calls you instead of the other way round. He was calling to discuss a series of blood pressure readings which I had supplied to the practice last Friday and he was putting then onto the system but at the same time, he was taking the opportunity to review the blood pressure medication I was on. I asked him to give a sneak preview of the recent results from a blood sample I gave last Friday and he was a bit surprised that the one particular reading in which they were interested they had forgotten or neglected to test for. So he booked me another test and was generally quite full of generic advice. As it happens, I always used to enjoy chatting with the pharmacists when I was in hospital five years go as they have some interesting perspectives, in that they are involved in the ‘medical’ world whilst not actually being medics and sometimes you can have a discussion better than with a doctor. I consulted the pharmacist about the relationshop between weight loss and blood pressure and whilst some American websites will claim that you lose 1 point of blood pressure reading for every 1lb lost, a more conservative and probably more accurate view is that one loses about 1 point for every 2lb (or 1kg lost) I am keeping a little booklet with my regular readings and things are moving in the right direction.

Last night, or perhaps it was in the wee small hours of the morning, I taught myself a new piece to play on our newly acquired organ. After buying the organ I invested in a series of booklets purchased through eBay which were collections of classical works simplified for beginners and often adapted so that you do not have to master the complete work but just sufficient elements of it to recognise the theme. I have always been fond of Offenbach’s ‘Barcarolle‘ which easily evokes the image of a barge gliding slowly through the water of a canal with a beautiful slow rhythm. When you hear this piece of music you realise how few notes are deployed to produce an incredible effect so I turned to a book, recently purchased, in which 100 classical pieces were sold in a booklet for which I paid only £3.39. Luckily, I found the ‘Barcarolle‘ in this and quickly taught myself the basics of at least the first half of the piece. I have to say that this work is really very simple and many of the notes are literally next to each other which makes the whole piece pretty easy to memorise. So I gave Meg a rendition of what I had just learnt after we had breakfasted first thing in the morning. Of couse, there is still a task that lies ahead as I must practice the second half of the piece and then, even more challenging, add in the left hand but at the very least I have another melody available to me if I want to give mysef a quick burst of relaxation.

I read a tweet last night which really increased my revulsion at some of the antics of the modern generation of politicians. Our immigration minister is Robert Jenrick and he has oversight of the various detention centers in which migrants arriving by boat are typically accommodated. The ‘Daily Mail’ has reported that Immigration minister defended ordering the removal of Mickey Mouse artwork at an asylum centre for unaccompanied children. Murals depicting cartoon characters were last week painted over at a Kent facility used to hold those who arrive in Britain after crossing the Channel in small boats. Mr Jenrick was reported to have felt the murals gave the impression the UK was too ‘welcoming’ to migrants arriving from France after undertaking sea journeys. The mean spiritness of this approach when the centre was designed for unaccompanied childrn really takes one’s breath away. Meanwhile, the ‘Illegal Migration’ Bill was savaged in the House of Lords once it had passed through the Commons and 20 amendments were made. The Government having received this bill back from the Lords have made or or two small concessions but are busy voting to remove each of the Lords’ amendments. After that, the bill will be returned back to the Lords who will then have to decide whether to enforce the will of the (unelected) House of Lords as against the (elected) House of Commons. One of the most vociferous critics of the bill in the Commons is no less than the ex-Prime Minister, Theresa May, who feels that the current bill will facilitate much modern slavery – and as she had oversight of the legislaion outlawing modern slavery as Home Secretary and as Prime Minister, then she feels that some key parts of her legacy are being jettisoned before her very eyes.

Today was one of those rather gloomy days in which it looked as though as it was going to rain in little bursts right throughout the day. So after we had breakfasted we had to decide how to make the best of a rainy day. What we decided to do was firstly to collect our newspapers and then to go off and visit a little Age Concern shop, not on the High Street but about a mile or from the centre of town which is quite easy to access and often has some quite good little bargains. Whilst there, we did not find anything for Meg but I did pick up a little Bush DAB radio for less than £10.00. Once I got it home and gave it a good clean it was incredibly easy to scan and to set the particular presets that I wanted (which should be an easy task but is made a little difficult on some DAB radios) I managed to get the stations I wanted, had to replace one missing foot with some little round felt pads of which I had plenty in stock and then located a manual which is near enough for my purposes even though not the exact model number. I can see why someone has got rid of it as some of the Menu items cannot be accessed but this not concern me too greatly as I have got the DAB audio signal and quality of sound in the stations to which I listen to the most and therefore this is quite functional for me. I have found some batteries that fit inside it so it will be OK for the occasional use when I am sitting out on a garden bench.

Meg and I lunched on some barbecued chicken thighs which were pretty tasty and which we served up with a baked potato and some broccoli. The weather seemed to be brightening somewhat this afternoon but we still have some washing waiting to dry so I am keeping an eye upon the weather. We bumped into our next door neighbour when we returned from our little venture out this morning and he was busy sowing a bit of extra lawn seen and fertiliser upon his lawn what he hoped to be a few hours before it started raining again. As the gardening books say ‘Choose a fine day’ or ‘Choose a suitable day’ but this advice is more easily given than followed.

This afternoon, after we had our post-prandial cup of tea and a bit of a rest, I invited Meg to join me in our newly commissioned ‘Music Room’ as I had a little domestic job which I thought it would be nice for us to do together. When I was in the charity shop this morning, I was on the look out for some loose fabrics that could act as a sort of loose covers for the stools we have in our music room. I alighted upon what turned out to be a duvet cover, perhaps, for a child’s bedroom but in some rather classical looking blue stripes. Meg and I arranged these on a couple of adjacent stools to form a sort of impromptu bench and, in the fullness of time, I intend to have a variety of musical manuscripts arranged upon this arrangement such that I can quickly locate what I am seeking as the spirit takes me. When this little task was completed, and we were taking pleasure in our work, we decided to have a quiet sit down and listen to a CD of Sacred Choral Favourites that I had got loaded into one of our music centres. We then gave ourself an almost impromptu choral evensong with some of our particular favourites. These included the Fauré ‘Cantique do Jean Racine‘, Brahmn’s ‘How Lovely are Thy Dwellings‘ from his German Requiem and Mozart’s ‘Ave verus corpus‘ We followed this up with two other versions of ‘Ave verum corpus‘, one by Elgar and the other by William Byrd. So we had the most incredibly restful, not to say uplifting, little concert of our own choosing. This then led me to wonder how often choral evensong is broadcast and it only took a few seconds to discover that it is always traditionally broadcast at 4.00pm on Wednesday afternoons on BBC Radio 3 from a variety of churches and cathedrals. Also available, as it happens on Radio 3 today, was a choral evening song from Lincoln cathedral which I am playing now, as I blog, broadcast from Lincoln Cathedral and commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd. So one way or another, I feel that we have hit a rich seam of broadcast pleasure to which we can look forward week by week. I am reminded that one of my music and art teachers, a very close personal friend who died a few years ago now, used to listen almost ‘religiously’ to Choral Evening Song when he was working on a design in his work as an architect. I now realise that he had a point so that is one more thing for which I need to offer him thanks. He also introduced me to Mozart’s ‘Piano Concerto No. 23‘ and the Mozart ‘Clarinet Concerto‘, both of which remain my particular favourites even some 65 years after I was first introduced to them.