The start of a New Year is always one of good intentions, not to mention resolutions, as it is evident that we metaphorically and literally turn over a new page when we dispense with the last year and start with the next.  Personally, I am not immune from these influences and do enjoy the occasional inspirational quote when I come across one, which I did a day or so ago. My Droitwich friend supplied me with a quote (which she, herself, was going to find useful) and it ran along the lines ‘Don’t let your happiness lie in other people’s hands’ and is an apparently very well known aphorism which is deployed to help people to sustain their own emotional health and well-being. A bit of research on Google revealed quite a number of accounts about the relevance of this particular quote and I somehow feel that I will not forget it in a hurry. Sometimes, I am reminded of the bitter comment by the French philosopher Satre that ‘Hell is other people’ which one can feel quite often after a bad day at the office, but I have read a quote before which I rather like that ‘Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.’ – Soren Kierkegaard. On New Year’s Day evening, I did rather indulge in the long and drawn-out serialisation of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in which all six episodes were broadcast – I wonder which of the words attributed to the characters in the book they left out, if any. Incidentally, I think quite a lot of people know the story that Jane Austen herself accepted a proposal of marriage on one evening and then thought about it overnight and had changed her mind about it. Women in the 18th and early 19th century were almost regarded as chattels and were very much at the disposal of their male relatives who bequeathed and inherited property from each other and hence the constant theme in the Austen novels about marriage as that was the only way that a woman could generally avoid destitution and the ultimate degradation of the work house. Modern day women, of course, have careers and a degree of economic independence and Austen herself was enjoying (unusually, for the time) success as a female author so she probably valued her independence over the married state – particularly if all of her earnings could be expropriated by a future husband.

Sky News is reporting this morning that Rachel Reeves is ‘quietly hammering’ workers with stealth taxes as a result of her budget last year, a think-tank has said. While the chancellor did not increase income tax, national insurance contributions for employees or VAT, avoiding a manifesto breach, her November statement did see her extend a freeze on the first two until 2031. It means people face being dragged into paying higher rates as their wages rise over time. The Treasury has defended the policy as ‘fair and necessary’. It is expected to raise £23bn in 2030-31 to help the government ‘deliver on the country’s priorities’ like cutting NHS waiting lists and debt. Sir Keir Starmer has promised people will ‘feel positive change’ in their pockets this year. According to the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), someone earning £50,000 today will be £505 worse off in real terms come 2031 despite their salary being forecast to increase by more than £6,000. On the flip side, pensioners and those on welfare are set to be better off. Thanks to the triple lock guaranteeing increases in line with inflation, earnings or 2.5%, whichever is higher, a pensioner could expect to be at least £306 better off in real terms in 2030-31. If people relying on the state pension are exempted from paying income tax even once the payment crosses the personal allowance threshold, they could be £537 better off. And increases to the standard rate of universal credit will mean someone on unemployment benefits will be £290 better off.

This morning my son called round which is always nice because I was not quite sure that he planned to come round today.  We discussed the problem of the car battery that had failed after only a year’s use and then I started to get ready to take the car into Bromsgrove. We knew it had been very cold during the night and my son’s car (five miles away) had snow on it this morning. I looked for some cold weather gear in a piece of hall furniture called a Monk’s Bench in which we store hats, gloves and scarves. This turned out to be quite a painful experience because I came across a lot of the woolly hats and gloves that Meg used to wear and they were a very vivid reminder of her absence. I suppose I ought to bundle them all up and take them to a charity shop but today was not the day. The Bromsgrove High Street was in a half open, half shut mode – my favourite little cafe where I am greeted each Friday was shut, for example, but I went off to a supermarket and bought the minimum of needed supplies as I still have a fridge stuffed full of Christmas food. The supermarket had run out of stocks of ‘The Times‘ and my favourite TV listing programs magazine was not yet on display but I managed to secure a copy of my newspaper at the local garage. Some of the charity shops were open and some shut but I did manage to snaffle up a winter weight shirt (as the weather is so cold) and the charity shop were selling every item of clothing within the store for £1. It was quite late when I got home and I just had a ‘fish-on-bread’ type lunch. not being particularly hungry. In the afternoon, I ran off some ‘free’ calendars for 2026 but I was really looking for one  downloaded years ago which had all of the sunrise/sunset times on it for each day of the year. I did manage to locate a website, though, with sunrise/sunset times centred on Bromsgrove but each individual month needed printing off individually and the cartridge in my laser printer ran out half way through. Now, I need to take my various calendars and make then ‘hangable’ by judicious holes and perhaps string but I might leave this task for another day.

So the evening before yesterday was evidently New Year’s Eve and it turned out to be an evening of pleasant surprises. After a day that had been pretty fraught what with my escapades with the car’s battery and my tribulations in dealing with mobile phone companies, I received some pleasant surprises. My Droitwich friend turned up with her son and we spent the early part of the evening together cooking a meal for the three of us – the other son was away in London adjacent to the ‘London Eye’ eagerly anticipating the end of year celebrations. My friend had specially commissioned a Christmas gift which failed to arrive by Christmas Day but did arrive in time for New Year. It was a glass/acrylic medallion designed to be put on a Christmas tree but could be deployed anywhere. Our friend had surreptitiously taken a photograph of the wedding photograph which displays Meg and I looking at each other on our wedding day in 1967 and this had been incorporated into one side of the medallion. On the other side was the inscription ‘Those we love don’t go away- they walk besides  us every day. Meg and Mike 2025‘ This was the most thoughtful and imaginative gift and it will give me a tremendous amount of pleasure as well as reminding me of the generosity of my friend who had it made for me/us. My friend and her son left my house to conclude their own Christmas Eve celebrations at home and, just as they were departing, I received a phone call from my Italian friend down the road with New Year best wishes. My Italian friend and I made a tentative arrangement to see each over this New Year period but she had the most terrible cold and felt flu-like symptoms coming on so was retreating to her bed without seeing New Year celebrations. I did stay up until the magic hour but did not to be honest see much of the fireworks as I was too busy texting ‘Happy New Year’ greetings on my phone to a range of family and friends. my longest standing Spanish friend texted my greetings for the New Year and I tried to reply to her in Spanish using the words ‘Y para ti tambien!” which means ‘and the same to you as well’ Unfortunately predictive text wrought its worst and I finished up with the terrible greeting ‘And for your tampon’ which I did not stop until it was too late (the predictive text had turned ‘tambien’ into ‘tampon’) I immediately sent a corrective message and I am sure my Spanish friend so well versed in English will understand and be amused by what happened. I did have a vey small liqueur glass of whisky with which to see in the New Year but one of my resolutions is to have a ‘dry’ January which should be not too difficult for me. New Year’s Day will see me renewing contact again with an old friend and I hope that in 2026 I can extend and consolidate my social circle which shows ominous signs of fast diminishing around me.

To start of the New Year, as I intend to carry on, I had arranged to meet a long lost friend in the Webbs Garden Centre down the road as it is easily accessible for those coming from further afield via the M5. As we both arrived, it was pouring with rain but after a coffee and a catch-up, we went our separate ways. On my way home, I picked up a copy of the newspaper and popped in to offer New Year Greetings to my Italian friend from down the road but she was still feeling pretty poorly and even asthmatic and may need to make a doctor’s appointment to get one of those puffer decongestants that asthmatics use to keep their airways clear. I had prepared some risotto earlier in the day so this meant that there was a fairly instant meal awaiting for me after my return. After lunch, I spent a frustrating degree of time trying to watch the Channel4 film ‘Hidden Figures’ about the contribution made by young, female black mathematicians to overcome all kinds of prejudice and the contribute to the space programme in the early 1960’s. To my dismay, this film did not seem available via catch-up for Channel4 but eventually it transpired that the system wanted me either to rent or to buy it, neither of which I was inclined to do. Then I had a long conversation with my Droitwich friend as we are both, in our own ways, looking forward to some order and consistency in our day-to-day lives, the patterns of which have been disrupted by the Christmas festivities. 

A major question overhanging the recent political scene is the nature of the Trans-Atlantic alliance. European allies worry that the Trump administration will push for a quick and easy peace in the Ukraine war, which as a result will not prove a lasting one. One pressing question for the year ahead is can European leaders find a way of living with an unreliable partner in Washington who does not share their values, whatever they claim to the contrary, or is some kind of deeper split increasingly inevitable? There is an ebb-and-flow in the nature of this relationship but an impending issue with Ukraine may well bring the issue to the fore once again.

I looked rather too late at the TV schedules to discover that ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was being broadcast during the whole of the afternoon in six episodes starting quite early in the afternoon and going on until 9.00pm this evening. However, most of the real action and drama of the novel comes in the second half of the book so I was not unhappy to start viewing from episode 4 (of 6) onwards. Later on, there is comedy in abundance with a review the life of Dave Allen (the celebrated Irish comedian) as well as an episode of ‘Outnumbered’ which I have always found excruciatingly funny. My TV viewing is quite likely to be interrupted by telephone and/or video calls at this time of year which is always a good thing, of course, and certainly takes priority over a TV programme. Tomorrow of course, is a ‘back to work’ day for some whilst others are squeezing the last bit of vacation out of the festive season before back to work with a vengeance on Monday next week.

I had to ensure that I awoke in plenty of time for the very last day of the year. Most importantly, the car needed to be taken into the garage at a scheduled time of 8.30 as a consequence of a message appearing on the console saying ‘Engine malfunction – get technical support’ (but this message has now, even more mysteriously disappeared) So once the car has been taken to the garage, I know that there is a fairly adjacent large store where I can go and treat myself to a breakfast which I will if only to occupy a little of the morning until the car is fixed (or not)The evening before, I had entertained my Irish friends from down the road with a little Christmas get together – we had both eaten our meal earlier in the day so I just rustled together a few ‘light bites’ to accompany our drinks. But I did introduce our friends to a little delicacy which I only tend to enjoy at Christmas time. In Yorkshire, there is a tradition of serving a slice of Christmas cake with a slab of Wensleydale cheese on top of it and the local publicans will tend to dish this titbit out to their regular customers (or they did in the past) Now it just so happens that Aldi sell a simple unvarnished slab of fruitcake not adorned with marzipan or icing but just sold as a slab of cake. This is absolutely delicious so last night I introduced our friends to a little bite of this Yorkshire delight that they had not tried before. My neighbours used to have an extremely likeable neighbour who was a French lady who in her professional career had been a teacher of both French and Spanish. She was always game to celebrate anything that needed celebration and was great fun at any of the little parties that we used to hold. But, with advancing years and a large house to maintain, she has now moved off to Sandbach in Cheshire to live in an annexe to her daughter’s house which is completely understandable but we all feel her loss quite keenly as the people to whom she has sold her house do not seem to have the same community spirit of ‘joie de vivre’ exhibited by our French friend. My Irish friends were looking forward to a two week cruise of the Canary islands upon which they were due to depart in a week’s time and, no doubt, this will help to pull the teeth of some of the worst of the January weather. We are having a cold and icy start to the New Year with an initial temperature of -2° predicted to rise to a dizzying 5° later on in the day. I have not studied the offering to be had on the TV for this last day of the year but I know there is a good film to be viewed as a catchup from yesterday during the afternoon and then we shall see how the rest of the day unfolds. I am looking forward to catching up with an old (musician) friend whom I have arranged to meet on New Year’s Day and I am sure that we have got quite a lot to catch up on between us. Having listened to ClassicFM for several hours each day since its inception nearly thirty years ago now, it does not surprise me that I recognise most of the tracks that are played. I used to think that listening to my favourite composer (Mozart) would be incredibly difficult once Meg had died as we shared the same musical tastes but, fortunately, that is not the case. As I type, I am listening to Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 which, written in a minor key, expresses a degree of melancholy but there are always rays of hope bursting through. When I reflect upon it, I think I was incredibly fortunate to have attended a grammar school (Thornleigh College in Bolton) with a good, but by no means outstanding, musical tradition which taught me so much at an impressionable age that has stayed with me throughout life. I do wonder whether this type of musical education which I was fortunate to experience has been entirely squeezed out of the modern curriculum. I remember being played the overture to the ‘Marriage of Figaro’ at the end of my third year in the school with the message that this was going to be the piece to be analysed in real depth for our ‘O levels ‘which were still two years off but we might as well make a start now so that we could get off to a flying start when our fourth year in school commenced. I then moved schools as my mother had completed her teacher training course and I then attended a school in Leeds with no musical traditions whatsoever (apart from a few singing lessons taught only to the 11 year olds) and this was a massive culture shock for me at the time.

Well, I had a feeling that the day was not going to run smoothly and so it proved. I got to the garage at 8.15 and, fortunately compared with the last time I took this road to Redditch it was just that little bit lighter making for easier navigation. Bur then the receptionist dropped a bit of a bombshell telling me that the message ‘engine malfunction’ meant that they could not release the car until about 5.00pm in the afternoon. I walked to the nearby Morrisons and treated myself to a large English cooked breakfast, not least to while away the time. I had availed myself of a copy of ‘The Times‘ and as the restaurant was uncrowded occupied myself with doing a ‘Seriously Fiendish Sudoko’ for half an hour before doing a wander of the store. I made for the stationary section but everything in which I was interested was either sold out or not stocked but I waited until three hours had elapsed and then walked back to the garage. Here I was informed that the battery was faulty and leaking even though I knew it was a fairly new one. A quick call to my son revealed that it was a ‘MazdaCare’ replacement but they had subcontracted to another firm who had supplied and fitted a battery that they claimed was superior to that supplied in the original Mazda (which it plainly was not, having failed after thirteen months and just, of course, out of the warranty period) So the Mazda garage explained that thy were just a franchise and had no record of what MazdaCare had done who, in turn, had subcontracted out a part pf the repair business. So we seem to have a business model here in which organisations take whatever profit they can and then subcontract out parts of the business so they do not have take any losses. Even the battery could not be replaced in the main Mazda dealership because they were ‘out of stock’ having had a run on them recently but I am booked in for next Monday when they should have replenished their stocks. So I have a diagnosed but not repaired car but was still glad to get home. Then I had an extremely frustrating afternoon trying to get the credit transferred from one Tesco Mobile phone (an ancient Nokia, where they are discontinuing 2G as from tomorrow!) to a more modern iPhone with a TescoMobile Sim card inside but the number of hoops through which I had to jump were incredible. They say it has been done but I shall have to wait 48 hours to see if the credit has transferred over (and I suppose that will exclude New Year’s Day and the weekend)

The evening before yesterday, I engaged in a small but important task which was to go carefully through each of the Christmas cards that I have received and to mark off on my master list those that I have received. I am much more concerned, of course, to work out those from whom I have not received a card and whilst some might be distant neighbours, others are life-long friends or distant family members from whom one might normally hear at Christmas. So I am a little worried about one or two people and, in particular, my son’s godfather who I have known since my university days and who I know was not in the best of health. So now I have a little ‘mini-list’ of people to whom I can send a sort of New Year’s card with a gentle enquiry wishing them the best for the New Year and hoping that all is well. I have all of my ‘Christmas card writing’ gear in one or two places cross-referenced to each other such that I have spare cards, address lists, labels for the computer and the like so that I can make a flying start next year. At the same time, I know that I am a little short of those occasional notelets that are so useful to send to friends or acquaintances on occasion but I have managed to locate about a dozen of the same acquired probably decades ago from a National Trust outlet. So I decided to augment my collection so I went onto Amazon and have ordered a pack of 30  of  floral design but complete with envelopes so now I can be confident that I have I have a good stock of these and, of course, when  am next in the stationery department of a suitable store, I will probably buy even more. My very well organised daughter-in-law always keeps a stock of birthday cards to hand and this really seems to be an excellent idea as it is quite easy to forget, or even not know, about an imminent birthday. I have decided to engage in another seasonal activity which should be relatively easy for me as, although I have a stock of alcohol in the house, it would never occur to me to drink alone. So  thought I would engage in a ‘dry’ January and this is what is generally thought of the idea. Dry January is generally considered a good idea for many, offering significant short-term health benefits like better sleep, more energy, weight loss, and improved mood, while also helping people reset their relationship with alcohol for long-term moderation, with studies showing lasting reductions in drinking. It helps identify triggers, saves money, and lowers health risks (blood pressure, diabetes, certain cancers). However, it is for resetting, not for those with severe alcohol dependence who need professional help. It has always struck me as a little counter-intuitive that one starts off New Year with celebrations that involve imbibing a little alcohol and although I have regularly done this, it has generally been with a minute amount of whisky. Meg, when she was alive, was normally fast asleep in bed and asleep so I have actually seen in the New Year very often on my own. Although the fireworks seem fantastic, they really have to be appreciated in the open air and not just on a TV screen.

In the morning, my son called around and I discussed with him some tentative plans that I am making for a somewhat more active social activities once we have the Christmas festive season out of the way. Part of the trouble is that from early to mid December onwards, forthcoming Christmas seems to dominate everything. So my Pilates class and my Tai Chi classes have ended for the Christmas break, all U3A (University of the 3rd Age) classes are in abeyance and the social networks in which  participated were filled with the preparations that were being made for the visits of children and grandchildren. Of course,  I was caught up in all of this as well with going to visit my relatives in Yorkshire, decorating the house, getting Christmas cards written and delivered, shopping for Christmas food and present and so on. And so in many ways, I am really looking for ward to Monday, January 5h because that is the point at which that more ‘normal’ life resumes and we can get back to the routines that are part of our more normal mundane existence. Allied to this, of course, we have New Year Resolutions with which to comply and I am going to try to have a ‘dry’ January. Here towards the end of December, I got to get the imminent car service out of the way. I am seeing different friends on both New Year’s Eve and also New Year’s Day and for this I have needed to go out today and do a minimal bit of shopping to make sure that I have the requisite supplies. At this time of year, I do enjoy watching the Royal Institution Christmas lectures for young teenagers and I have missed the first couple so far as they are broadcast at 7.00pm and I have forgotten to turn over in time. This year, the theme is ‘Is there life on other planets?’ but the first was devoted to fairly space-related things such as how the International Space Station works, interviews with astronauts and so on. There is going to be a very good film on later on today which my University of Birmingham friend has told me about entitled ‘Hidden Figures’ and it is advertised as a fact-based drama featuring the contributions of female African-American mathematicians and the prejudice they had to face as they worked on the US space programme in the early 1960’s. The transmission time overlaps with a little Christmas ‘at home’ I am holding with my Irish friends but this will be a treat for me to watch in the next day or so. These days I often study the TV schedules for the day before in case a very good film has been transmitted late at night the evening before and that I can then ‘catch up’ on the next day. I made myself a ‘quickie’ lunch which was to parboil some potatoes, carrots and sprouts and then add them to a tin of a chunky lamb and vegetable soup which actually translates over into a ready-made stew. Needless to say these days, I inevitably make enough for two days so one half is saved for a later date.

The end of the year is bringing to us a blast of cold air with temperatures only just above freezing and with a fair bit of cloud to boot. The weather forecasters predict that the cold snap will continue until well into the New Year. Here in Bromsgrove, the temperature is currently 4° but the breeze is predicted to make it feel colder than this. I think it is one of those days when a scarf is mandatory and I may well invest in an extra pair of socks as my heels are inclined to crack in spells of cold weather like this. I have just bought via Amazon some special heel plasters because I am in need of one at the moment and I will probably need a good supply for the days and weeks ahead. If anyone was holding their breath expecting to see a break through in the Mar-a-Lago talks concerning the future of Ukraine, then there is nothing much to report. Zelenskyy is saying that a peace plan is 90% agreed but this is only between the Ukrainians and the Americans who, in the last analysis, will always side with Russia. Part of the peace plan is suggesting that the contest areas of Ukraine, the Donbas area much of which is occupied by Russia shall be de-militarised and perhaps made into a special economic zone (it is rich in coal and minerals), But such a plan would have to be monitored by ‘boots on the ground’ and who is going to supply such forces? America always prefers to drop bombs on the ground rather than commit troops to a ground war with the risk that body bags will be shown live on American TV which is a real ‘no-no’ for the Americans after their experience in Vietnam. So it it going to be other Europeans whom Putin will argue are just Nato in another guise and intent on seizing what Putin regards as Russian territory. So what is decided between the Ukraine and Trump will subsequently have to secure the agreement of the Russians. For their part, they have gained some territory at an enormous cost in lives but had to concede nothing and will never agree to any monitoring forces from what country that might impede their own territorial ambitions. So perhaps the Ukrainians have to fight on  wishing for an end to the Trump presidency or at least its emasculation following the Congressional elections later in 2026 and a desire that a similar administration (such as one headed by the current Vice President J P Vance) does not follow for the next eight years. So there is no prospect of a real and lasting peace and all of the Russians have to do is to say ‘Nyet’ and consolidate the gains they have made since the start of the war. This is all rather depressing but perhaps the future lies in ignoring the Americans altogether and the European nations increasing their defence expenditures and doing what they contain to contain the Russian threat (which is all rather reminiscent of 1930’s Germany, but do our collective memories stretch back for practically a century?) 

The day turned out to be quite a ‘domestic’ day what with one thing or another. There were several texts that I needed to send so that I could keep in touch with families and friends over this festive period before work pressures start to intrude upon us one again the minute we have New Year out of the way. It would be nice to see my Yorkshire family a little bit more than I do as I tend to confine my visits to things such as birthdays and the Christmas season itself and, of course, bad weather makes travel by road a little more problematic than in the summer. But I noticed that in Leeds there is going to be a production of Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ which is one of my favourite operas so I need to think whether I can combine an opera visit and a family visit into one trip. My Irish friends are due to come round to share some Christmas festivities with me and then the following day, the car is booked into the Mazda garage because I got an ominous message on the console saying ‘Engine fault- arrange for a technical examination’ or something similar. I have the car booked into the Mazda garage at 8.30am and no doubt they will plug the engine into their own diagnostic computer and  then we can find whether the fault is a very trivial one, a very serious one or something in between. But whereas a normal service can take a predictable amount of time, I have no way of knowing how long the car is to be out of action. I know that there is a local supermarket with a breakfast where I can go and have some breakfast whilst I while away the time but evidently I am hoping that whatever is wrong can easily be fixed. On Thursday, which is New Year’s Day I am due to meet up with a friend I have not seen for some time at the Webbs superstore down the road and I checked that they are actually open on New Year’s Day, which they are. I suspect that a lot of the population are going to regard the whole of this week as a ‘holiday’ week as there is only on working day i.e. Friday, January 2nd and many will have taken this is annual leave. Then the whole country will try to properly return to work next Monday morning which is January 5th. 

The Epstein release of files is proceeding slowly and the Department of Justice has already broken the law passed by Congress to release all of the files before Christmas. It is said that a million other files have just been found but how you lose a million files in the first place defies imagination. The American liberal media are already crying ‘foul’ because in the most recently found material including a letter associating Trump with underage girls, it is claimed that a handwritten letter is a ‘forgery’ But if the letter has only just come to light, then it takes a fair amount of time of detailed investigation (of the paper, ink, signatures,  provenance) so it does appear that the Department of Justice have just called it as a ‘forgery’ (to not implicate Trump) without a full investigation. 

You can always tell that there is no overwhelming news stories when each of the Sunday newspapers chooses a different headline. But the international news seems unremittingly grim in one way or another. In Gaza, despite being practically flattened to the ground children as young as 8 years old are being regarded as suspects should they inadvertently stray near to the Israeli army (IDF – Israel Defence Force) positions, There is also a report than a young Palestinian baby died not from a disease process or injury but just of hypothermia ie, the cold. the Ukrainian situation also does not look very hopeful. The Ukrainian leader, Zelenskyy is due to meet with Donald Trump in his Florida hide away but despite a peace plan being reportedly 90% ready, Putin appears to have made n o concessions of any kind and the Russian leader knows that as long as Trump is in the White Hose, then all he has to do is to sit tight and slowly consolidate the military gains made on the ground. Meanwhile, Kyev is being bombarded with hundreds of Russian drones on a nightly basis and at least a third of the city is without power. But the Ukrainian leader is going to present a plan to Trump which seems eminently sensible (and one, incidentally, which I suggested in this blog some months ago) Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has given details of an updated peace plan offering Russia the potential withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east and the creation of a demilitarised zone in their place. Detailing the 20-point plan agreed by US and Ukrainian envoys in Florida at the weekend, Zelensky said the Russians would respond on Wednesday once the Americans had spoken to them. Describing the plan as ‘the main framework for ending the war’, he said it proposed security guarantees from the US, Nato and Europeans for a co-ordinated military response if Russia invaded Ukraine again. On the key question of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, Zelensky said a ‘free economic zone’ was a potential option. He told journalists that as Ukraine was against withdrawal, US negotiators were looking to establish a demilitarised zone or a free economic zone. Any area that Ukrainian troops pulled out of would have to be policed by Ukraine, he stressed. A critical point is the offer of a referendum in the Russian speaking Donbas region in the East but this approach has already been rejected by Putin. But from the point of view of the Ukrainians, it could be argued that is a majority of the population on a ‘fair’ referendum want to go off and become part of Russia, then as a good democrats they should let them go.  The fact that Donald Trump would not agree to a referendum speaks volumes about the mindset of an American president who is supposedly upholding the values  of the free and democratic west and it is probably not going to happen. But it would be a way in which the Ukrainians could reconcile themselves to a loss of a region which the Russians have largely, but not completely, captured in the war so far. Meanwhile, on the more domestic front I have issues an invitation to Irish friends down the road to join me for some Christmas festivities in a day or so and so we shall look forward to that and then start to think about taking down all of the Christmas decorations at the end of next week and once New Year has been celebrated. There is one Christmas related task which sound a little calculative but which I still think needs to be done. As part of my ‘mechanisation’ of the Christmas card writing process, I have run off a master list of those to whom I have sent cards this year and I need to remind myself of those from whom I have not received a card in return, In the past, this has sometimes meant severe illness or even worse but I shall not know until I have engaged in the process.

Yesterday had been a somewhat unusual day. There were several domestic jobs such as washing to be attended to n the morning and then I popped down in the car to collect a copy of the newspaper (fortunately, not sol out) and some supplies of sweetener.  When  got home I needed to attack some bird droppings on the cat before they hardened and etched their way into the paintwork. Then the dryer started to give  some messages that ‘something’ needed cleaning and I worked my through the four ‘cleanable’ bits which are the water repository, the large main filter and then two subsequent filters housed i the base of the machine. I managed to sort out the problem but I think i need to make this into a routine on about 1st of each calendar month so that the problem does not build up over time.   My son and daughter-n-law were due to come around at 3.00pm in the afternoon  and  entertained myself until they came with a viewing of the classic film ‘Casablanca’ which is always watching for it is multi-layered, multi-layered towards the end and then ultimately quite exciting and poignant (although my family arrived half way through) Then we had various family matters to discuss but one of them involved the putting to sleep of my daughter-in-law’s mothers dog which was upsetting for all  concerned. My family stayed with me until quite late and then I made some telephone calls as there was nothing to engage my attention for the rest of the evening.

It is too early in the day to judge the success of the talks at the Trump retreat into the future of the Ukraine and, even they have concluded, it is unlikely that a breakthrough will have been achieved. Trump is desperate to add Ukraine to the list of conflicts that he has boasted that he has resolved but the attitude of Putin and Russia is unbending in the extreme. This is the time of year when may programmes are taking a backward over the lives and careers of prominent figures in politics and the arts who are no longer with us. I knew that Robert Redford was tremendously respected as an actor but the tributes pid to him revealed that he was much admired and loved when he turned his creative energies to directing as well. the news has just emerged of the death of Brigitte Bardot who was ‘the’ pin-up girl of the early 1960’s but who devoted her latter years to campaigning for animal welfare (but also lent her weight to some rather nasty right wing politics as well)

Almost inevitably at this time of year, one has got Christmas Day and Boxing Day out of the way and most of the population are enjoying a few days of rest but also reflection. The reflection part of consists of looking forward to the New Year which is now only a few days away and because of the sense of renewal and ‘turning over a new leaf’ one’s thoughts turn to New Year resolutions. It is interesting that many people make New Year resolutions and then these might be sustained for days or weeks and then one reverts to patterns of life and behaviour that the New Year resolutions were meant to avoid. In my own case, I resort to a little acronym where each letter of the word relates to an activity or behaviour pattern and, depressingly, this seems to be the same year after year. The middle aisle of the Aldi supermarket is often stuffed full of ‘keep fit aids’ such as weights and personal training aids and I remember with wry amusement seeing one piece of kit which was adorned with the slogan ‘This is not just for January’ or something similar. Many people start off the New Year with very similar goals and a brief search of the web reveals that the most common resolutions are to exercise more, lose weight, get organised and learn a new skill or hobby. Some of these are negative (things to avoid} and some are more positive (things to do) but I suspect that the secret is to have a series of essentially quite small steps which are eminently achievable. For those addicted to nicotine, for example, the resolution to ‘Stop Smoking’ is probably a huge change in their lifestyle and it is not surprising that many people fail in these endeavours. The advice available to the population on the internet is not only to make ones resolutions a series of quite small steps but also to have some kind of accountability such as a diary in which one can record and perhaps take satisfaction from some successes. It is also important not to let the occasional lapse throw one off track band and not to abandon the whole of the resolution but acknowledge than an occasional ‘wobble’ is quite understandable.

There is a huge dispute going on between USA and Europe which seems difficult to resolve. The row between Europe and Washington about what you can do online just ramped up. On Christmas Eve, the White House imposed visa bans on five public figures in Europe. It is all about what European officials describe as the regulation of online harm and what America’s officials consider censorship. ‘If you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you are unwelcome on American soil,’ said Sarah Rogers, the US under secretary of state for public diplomacy, as the bans were announced. The highest profile figure facing travel restrictions is Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for regulating social media and a key architect of the Digital Services Act (DSA) – a piece of legislation that is very unpopular in the White House. The Trump administration has accused the EU of placing ‘undue’ restrictions on freedom of expression in its efforts to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation. It argues the DSA unfairly targets US companies and cities, who it is not elected to represent. Of course, this reflects the fact that huge organisations that dominate our commercial and online life are American corporations (the Amazons, Google, Twitter or ‘X’) and their power and influence are extremely difficult to regulate or even to curb. Naturally, my sympathies lie with the European side of this debate but even looking forward to a post-Trumpian world, it is hard to see how these differences in world view can be resolved. American power and hegemony are such that the USA refuses to recognise the World Court, will generally not allow the extradition of US citizens to face justice even when crimes have been committed abroad (one particular example being the young British motor cyclist who was killed by the wife an of American military officer who ‘forgot’ on which side of the road to drive when she drove out of an American military base in the UK and, being on the wrong side of the road, killed the young motor cyclist).

There is a great source of pleasure at this time of year and it comes in the form of a collection of cartoons by ‘The Times’ cartoonist, Peter Brookes. He often ties together two events happening at almost the same time into one cartoon but of course one has to be completely up-to-date with all of the current news stories. At the end of the year, some of the most noteworthy cartoons (66 this year) are brought together in a special supplement entitled ‘The Year in Cartoons’ In order to decode and fully understand each cartoon, Peter Brookes supplies a paragraph of information giving he context and other relevant information so that the cartoon can be appreciated to the full. Actually, the supplement takes some time to read as the cartoons have to be studied in some detail (for the interesting little touches and flourishes e.g. Donald Trump’s enormously long red tie which he often used to wear) and can be viewed several times over especially with the accompanying commentary.

Now that Christmas Day and Boxing day are over, normal life resumes as it were and in the evening I shall attend a church service which is part of my normal routine for. a Saturday. Instead of repeats of decades old comedy programmes (such as repeats of Morecombe and Wise) there is going to be a very interesting programme detailing the career of Judi Dench and tracing out some possibly real Shakespearean connections. But at this time of year, there are only a few jewels of programmes that stand out amidst the dross. It used to be the case that either an opera or a ballet is broadcast at this time of year but if that has been the case, I may have blinked and missed it. But I have just managed to secure a couple of tickets for our local Arts Centre where, in about two weeks time, there is going to a live transmission via video link of a production of ‘La Traviata’ from the Royal Opera House. I have been to one of these before and it is a way of enjoying a good operatic production on the cheap as it ere without having to journey to London.

The evening before yesterday i.e. the evening of Christmas Day itself, turned out to be quite eventful. My Droitwich friend had an arrangement to have Christmas lunch with one of her best friends but, in the event, this had turned out to be quite a large party by the time families and friends had intermingled. We had an arrangement that I would pick my friend up from her friend’s house so that the party could proceed apace without fear of any subsequent motoring being involved. Now my SatNav gave me the road but not the number of the house and given that the road is an extraordinarily long one with numbers proceeding I the hundreds I suspected that I might have quite a lot of hunting around to do in the dark to find the correct house. So when the SatNav announced ‘You have arrived at your destination’ I knew that this was probably only an approximation to the truth. So I pulled in at the first block of houses that I saw which formed a little cul-de-sac off the main road and, tentatively, approached the very first house to discern its number so that I could navigate from there. Imagine my amazement when I discovered that this house was the very one for which I was looking – how amazing is that! So my friend stayed with me overnight in one of our spare bedrooms and we are planning a really lazy day crashing out together. We know that the meal is already sort of prepared from the leftovers from yesterday that we can turn into a really delicious stew so that is the midday meal sorted out and we will probably both take a turn in the park to clear our heads and to fall in with Boxing day traditions. Needless to say, I have not really studied the TV offerings today but I do notice from a cursory glance that Paddington 2 is to be broadcast in the ate afternoon so this may be a treat in store. An extraordinary musical incident happened to me this morning. In the kitchen, I asked my smart speaker to play first Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and then Handel’s Messiah. In the latter they were playing ‘For unto us a son is born’ which has proved to be rather emotive in this year of Meg’s passing for both theological and personal reasons. Then I left the kitchen and entered my main lounge where I get things going, one of them being putting on ClassicFM where they were playing – ‘For not us a son is born’ My brain initially tried to sort how the track from the smart speaker could possibly have transferred over to the ClassicFM broadcast at the other end of the house until I realised that this was a complete coincidence (although I think I have experienced something akin to this once before). Having got through Christmas Day and arrived at Boxing Day, I think that several quite relaxing days lie ahead and, in some ways, this is the most enjoyable part of the whole Christmas experience. The weather is particularly cold and bitter this morning so we are having to think carefully about what to wear before we brave the winter cold for a walk in our local park.

Today is meant to be a lazy day of relaxation and so it has turned out to be. In the middle of the day, I turned out to get a copy of my daily newspaper and was pleasantly surprised to find that my local ‘Asda‘ was open. This proved to be fortuitous because I managed to not only obtain a copy of my daily newspaper but also to purchase  two or three items of stationery (including one of those narrow ‘strip’ style of calendars that I use in one or two places around the house) When I got back home, I started to pay attention to the lunch that we were going to have, I started off by frying an onion and then gently frying it before adding  the remains of yesterday’s leftovers. I removed the meat from the remaining portion of lamb and then prepared some carrots and petit pois to provide a more balanced stew. My Droitwich friend provided some finishing touches and we then ate the resulting stew with some slices of freshly cut sourdough bread which we at well buttered.The whole was delicious and we still have a little left over for a future occasion.Then I needed to do a quick replacement of the bulbs in our electric fire which always seem to blow at the slightest provocation such as flicking on the on-off switch too rapidly (I suspect it is a design fault because I keep on having to do this about twice a year) The news takes on a back seat whilst the population as a whole is relaxing and probably getting ready for several days of respite from the Christmas onslaught. On ClassicFM they are playing the theme from ‘Doctor Zhivago’ (Laras’s theme) and this was the film that Meg and I regarded as ‘our film’ and we first saw it in Leicester Square in the mid 1960’s. Although I have watched the film on several occasions and it is re-broadcast fairly frequently, nonetheless I suspect it would be rather too painful for me to view it again in the near future as it would bring back too many painful memories. I always used to use these few days to transfer addresses from last year’s diaries to this years but this habit has fallen into disuse as I no longer need to use a diary in the traditional way. What is perhaps much more important is a large planning whiteboard that I have in our kitchen and upon which you can detail seven weeks of activities at a time. Every so often, it has to be wiped clean and repopulated with dates and one just have to be careful only to use the dry erasable and not the permanent marker pens. But today I was fortunate in obtaining a supply of dry marker pens  because even WH Smiths (as was) does not always stock them and, if it does, at an inflated price. The board really came into its own when my son and daughter-in-law were living in the same house as Meg and I so that we could all,  a glance, be informed of each other’s movements for the days and weeks ahead.  Even though I am the sole occupant of the house, though, it is still incredibly useful to see commitments for weeks ahead.

When I awoke yesterday morning being Christmas Day, ClassicFM had turned itself ‘off’ and Radio4 had taken over and we were treated to a service broadcast from St. Anne’s Cathedral in Leeds. Now despite the fact that our family moved from Harrogate to Leeds in 1963 I did not live in Leeds for a long period because I subsequently ‘escaped’ from my family’s orbit as it were to go off to London for a job at the Central Office of Information.  So my only connections with St. Anne’s cathedral are incredibly slight but I do have one abiding memory. The father of the girl who was my best friend in Leeds was to marry was a chorister at St. Annes and, at his daughter’s wedding and having a fine voice, he sang ‘Panis Angelicus’ and his rendition of it is one of those things that is lodged in my memory. I do get the impression that the broadcasters try hard on Christmas morning to transmit carols which reflect the ‘true’ spirit of Christmas and hence are carols reflecting the gospel story. At times, we also hear mediaeval carols which always have a particular and reflective character to them, a world apart from ‘God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen’ which I think is a carol that I least like to hear. We have woken up this morning to a particularly cold and icy blast which seems to be sweeping across the country. Some people of a particularly hardy disposition will have a traditional swim somewhere on Christmas Day but the weather conditions are so adverse in the morning that many of these events are being postponed. Blustery conditions have already prompted the cancellation of numerous swimming events planned for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Organisers of the Coverack swim in Cornwall said the annual event has been postponed until New Year’s Day to ensure everyone’s safety, while the Start Bay Inn, in Devon, said it was really sad to announce its Boxing Day swim had been cancelled due to rough seas. Elsewhere in the country, temperatures are expected to peak around 7C in the North East of England and 6C in the South East. On Christmas Day, it is traditional for political party leaders to transmit Christmas Day messages and, in the UK, these are generally of a not particularly partisan nature but like to reflect messages of goodwill and hopes for a more prosperous future.  But of course the USA is such a different country under the Trump regime and I was not very surprised when I read of Donald Trump’s message to the country. Donald Trump told children he would not let a ‘bad Santa’ infiltrate the US, as he took part in a long-standing Christmas tradition. Sat by a Christmas tree at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the president and first lady took calls from youngsters who had dialled into the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), which tracks Santa’s sleigh around the globe every Christmas Eve. When asked by two children, aged four and 10 from Oklahoma, why Santa is being tracked, Mr Trump replied: ‘We want to make sure that he is not infiltrated, that we are not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa.’ The notion of a ‘bad’ Santa could only have come from the distorted imagination of the current American president and no doubt will be seized upon by psychoanalysts across the USA as a further sign of Trump’s advancing dementia. Children of a young age (say 2-6) generally have a comprehensive belief in the Santa Claus myth and really do believe that their presents have been left by this itinerant figure but it must be older siblings who eventually spill the beans to their younger brothers and sisters that Santa Claus is not ‘real’. Having said that I have a sort of Christmas cad which I keep in my Christmas card collection and bring out each year as a source of amusement. It shows Rudolph on his mobile whilst the sledge has run into a rock and has broken one of its runners whilst Santa Claus is seen as kicking the ground in frustration. The card reads ‘What can I say? Weather’s crap, sledge is buggered, Fatty’s in a strop – just another Christmas really’ and always brings a smile to the lips each Christmas time.

Being Christmas Day morning, my son and daughter-in-law were with me as it was the first Christmas spent as a family since Meg’s death last May, My daughter-in-law and I are both attending Tai Chi classes so were spent some time with each comparing and contrasting the various moves that we make in our separate classes. Meanwhile, our son started seeing to the lamb shanks that we had decided to have this Christmas as a marked alternative to our normal fare of beef and evidently avoiding turkey altogether. I prepared a starter which was plain and traditional, being gravlax salmon on a slice of buttered brown bread with a few sald accompaniments and garnishes. Then for our main course we had the lamb shanks with some roasted potatoes, carrot and swede mash, honey roasted parsnips and the inevitable sprouts (incluing some novelty purple ones). This was all very tasted and worked absolutely as meticulously planned. For sweet, though, we had a bowl of dessert that has been bought from Aldi but this was actually a massive disappointment as it seemed to be masses of synthetic whipped cream on the top, with a serving of custard and what seemed to be semi liquid jam  filling on the bottom. As the other two elements of the meal had been pretty wonderful, we did not mind to much about the disappointment of the sweet but as advertised as a sherry trifle, it ran near to a contravention of the Trade Descriptions Act. My daughter-in-law had brought along a rather super collection of Christmas crackers that contained within them a series of pub quiz type questions and puzzles such as could be answered by 90%, 50%, 30$ or 10% of the population and we amuse ourselves by working through these as we finished off our meal. The rest of the day was finished off with rather standard Christmas fare on the TV with some classic comedy from dad’s army and the usual collection of one time block buster films like ‘Jaws’ . As always at this time of year, I quite like it when Christmas Day itself is actually over and can start to relax and enjoy the few days after Christmas either doing nothing of another real significance or keeping I touch with old friends though a combination of text calls, emails or telephone calls.

I awoke yesterday morning after a really good night’s sleep feeling pretty good with myself and with the world. I think that yesterday when my Droitwich friend and I spent some time together despite interruptions like Pilates (for me) and yoga (for her), we spent some quality time together once the day’s work had been done. Between us, we threw together a meal which involved cooking some prawns in a simple white sauce served on a bed of mashed (red) potatoes enhanced by some mustard and cooked together with both mushrooms and onions. But my friend added a small quantity of a couple of spices from the collection that she brought back for me when she visited her family on holiday recently in South Africa and the overall effect was brilliant. We are trying to remember between the two of us how we made the meal so tasty and enjoyable so we can repeat it for another occasion when we cook together. Christmas Eve having dawned, I thought that I would not need to hit the shops today but I have just remembered three or four prosaic little things that I need but I do know that I need to get some more cash out and to fill the car up with petrol as I hate running around on just petrol vapour. When my Droitwich friend was with me yesterday and I was preparing the potato mash, my Asian neighbour popped around with a card and a bottle of wine which was incredibly thoughtful of him. But I sort of introduced my immediate and my ex-neighbour to each other, but they already knew each other from the times when we used to walk down the Kidderminster Road when my Droitwich friend lived there so this was an interesting case of wheels within wheels as they say. I have not done my Pilates exercises for a few days now with the Yorkshire trip and other social activities crowding things out so I am going to have to make sure that I get back on track and do these regularly from now ow, including even Christmas day. I pull out a mat from underneath the bed and perform my exercises to the strains of ClassicFM and they take about 20 minutes or so but I know that the stretches in particular help to keep my spine in good condition. After Meg had died, I had developed a bit of a lean from pushing Meg up and down the hill in her wheelchair but I think I have got myself into a better shape (literally!) after this so I need to ensure that the festive season does not get in the way of my little keep-fit routines. I have not really kept up with the news over the last day or so but I gather that a really big extra tranche of Epstein documents have been released by the (American) Department of Justice but things are looking bad for the former Prince Andrew who looks as though he was much implicated in the Epstein circle than he has previously admitted. The British monarchy have probably been quite timely in stripping the former Prince Andrew of all of his titles and royal accoutrements before further revelations threaten to drag the British monarch into the mire of what is undoubtedly the biggest sex scandal in the world.

So yesterday afternoon, my son and daughter-in-law called around as prearranged and we discussed arrangements for the rest of the day and, indeed, the following day which was Christmas day. My daughter-in-law very kindly agreed to run me to the 5.30 start of the Christmas services which started formally at 6.00pm but was preceded by 30 minutes of carols led by a trio of guitarists. The church was actually packed to the rafters with people standing at the back of the church as it was full to overflowing. After the Christmas Exe service, my daughter-in-law came to pick me up which was especially useful as the car park was completely full and would have made parking of my own car impossible, When we arrived back home.my son had organised for a fish-and-chip supper tp be delivered to the house and this was made even more delicious with the addition of some Marks and Spencers ‘Fish-and-chip shop curry sauce’ After our meal we watched some TV (‘Connect’ for the younger generation, an episode of ‘Rising Damp’ for myself) and then engaged in a long discussion of the music and the university activities in which I was engaged in the 1960’s. I played some of my favourite attacks (Johny Mathis, Joan Baez) which we located easily enough on YouTube and then we had a lengthy discussion about the music and student involvement in the community when I was at university. In particular, I described Rag Week (in which, incidentally, Meg and I first really ‘got together’ and became a couple) when the university held mid-sessional examinations and the university authorities were quite happy for students to go off and engage in Rag Week whilst tutors marked the examination scripts as all teaching was suspended. In 1966, the university students raised £20,000 during Rag Week through the sale of the (very rude) Rag Magazine and lots of collecting tins. This is worth the best part of £½ million updated for inflation which was all spent on local charities in the community. I recounted to my son and daughter-in-law various of my university activities including the sequelae of having a letter published in New Society, our university wide campaign against the massive increase in fees for overseas students and the various forms of protests such as teach-ins against the perceived iniquities of the Vietnam war.

The Epstein case continus to evolve. It is now being reported that over a million documents have now been located and are being made available for download after readction. But this late release of cocuments still does not satisfy the legal requirment to have all relevant documents downloaded by last Friday and the Department of Justice indicates that it may be many more weeks yet until the entire mass of documents is actually downloaded. But some analysts are already pointing tha each document may have references to other relevant documents so the actual total may well be several millions altogether which will take time to locate, even more time to redact where necessary and even longer to analyse so the whole saga may rumble on for months.