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.

Today we had in prospect a day out with our University of Birmingham friend, as we planned to visit Clevedon, a North Somerset seaside resort just south of Bristol accessed quite easily via the M5 motorway. Our friend texted us early in the day wondering whether or not we should make our planned trip together as the weather forecast on the app seemed to suggest a 50% chance of showers and heavy ones at that. I suggested that we should still go and after I had picked up our newspapers from town, we were picked up by our friend and then proceeded to Clevedon. We set off at about 10.15 and the sun smiled generally on us on the way down, so we felt vindicated in our decision to go. When we arrived in the town, we went straight for our friend’s favourite cafe and eating place which has a good view over the sea and where there is seating both inside and out. Our friend has been a frequent patron of this establishment over the years and is on first names terms with the staff. We treated ourselves to a really nice meal and enjoyed the relaxing atmoshphere and mood that the cafe engenders. After this relaxed lunch where we talked over the recovery that our friend was making after his bout of illness, we decided to have a venture along one of the best preserved Victorian piers. The pier won the ‘Pier of the Year’ prize in 2021 was dubbed by John Betjeman, the one-time poet laureate and Victoriana expert as ‘the most beautiful pier in England’ and was designated a Grade I listed building in 2001. The pier is interesting in that along the wooden restored benches that form the pier sides one can buy little brass plaques that mark the passing of a loved one. One can purchase a variety of size of brass plaques with commensurately more space available for messages and evidently this had provd very popular over the years and was no doubt a good source of fund raising. The pier was immensely breezy when we stepped out on it and the weather had changed for the worse with both thunder and lightning – at this stage, Meg turned a little wobbly and we turned back before completing our journey to the end of the pier and back again. I think that our friend has a plaque enscribed with a message for his wife located at the pier head and we were not able to see it on this occasion, but I am sure that occasions will arise in the future when we will have the opportunity to view the same. After this little pier walk, one could not fail to be impressed by the variety of shades represented in the waters of the estuary and this was echoed by the layers of clouds that were shunting cross the sky before our eyes. We retired to the cafe, this time for a pot of tea and, again, enjoyed the relaxation of nothing else much to do apart from to soak up the atmosphere of the place. The weather was definitely worsening by this time in the afternoon so our friend went off to locate the car which had to be parked some distance away whilst Meg and I braved the light rain to walk along the sea front. Then we left for home and, in contrast with this morning, we ran into some really heavy rain showers in the late afternoon. Of course by this time, we had had a happy day in each other’s company so we were not too concerned about the vagaries of the weather.

We got home just in time to see the conclusion of the Test Match betweem England and Australia. Engand required 251 runs in a low scoring test match where the previous three innings all had had scores in the 230-250 range so it was very ‘nip and tuck’ whether England would manage to reach tis 251 total and not have a spectacular collapse. In the event, although England lost some vital wickets during the afternoon, they managed to achieve the required total with three wickets in hand. This makes the series 2:1 to the Australians in the current series which means that to retain the Ashes, England have to win both the next match at Old Trafford and also the final one at the Oval. It was always known that this series of test matches was going to be incredibly tight with little to choose between the two teams and with the fortunes of the game swinging both this way and that within the course of an innings. Two quite important considerations when the difference between the two contestants is so small is who wins the toss and elects either to bat or to field. Also the state of the weather can be critical as well because damp and humid conditions might just work to the advantage of England and vice versa for Australia.

Tomorrow, as we have no real pressing commitments so we may devote our time to domestic activities such as clothes washing and household tidying. One would really like to put the completed washing on the washing line outsides to dry but we have been caught in the last few days with leaving some things on the line only to have them wetter after an intense shower than when they were first pegged out.

Today dawned with one of those little domestic accidents in which things have been spilled which needed some clearing up but once all of this was done, the washing was put in the machine and then pegged out and Meg was breakfasted with her usual fare. We knew that this morning should be quite an interesting morning because not only was there a gaggle of four old ladies (including Meg) in the Waitrose café but our University of Birmingham friend turned up by prior arrangement. I greeted him with the plea to come and help me out because I felt that I could handle two or three old ladies at once but four was a bit of a stretch, even for me. Naturally, he obliged and in no time the conversation was flowing and the jokes were flying. I told them the story of the hospital in South Africa where all of the patients seem to to die on a Friday morning and that just a few minutes after 10.00am. To understand what was going on, a nurse was put on observational duty and for several hours, there was nothing to observe. But shortly after 10.00am, a cleaner came into the room and unplugged the life support system in order to plug her vacuum cleaner into the socket – thus the mysterious death rate riddle was solved. Later on, the conversation turned to buses and I asked the question what was the earliest ticket issuing machines utilised when we were all very young. The machine that I was used to in Yorkshire was an affair with several buttons or levers on it, laden with pre-printed tickets such as 2d and so on. By pressing a little button on the bottom, the machine would issue 2 tickets so this took care of a fare that cost 4d. When I first made a journey into Lancashire at the age of 11, I was absolutely intrigued by the very different technology deployed on the other side of the Pennines. The machine there was a series of circular dials which could then be set to the correct fare. Then a handle was wound once or twice after which a ticket, printed for the paid fare, emerged from the machine. To my eyes, this was totally different to anything experienced before but reflecting upon it after all of these years, the Lancashire system must have been much more versatile and, of course, did not rely upon supplies of pre-printed tickets. For the very saddest people in our midst, you can even go on eBay and buy of these (Lancashire) style machines from prices that vary from £50-£100 and I suppose to some people they are really prized possessions. Whilst on the subject of antique machines, I well remember the amusement that I felt when I first supervised an accountancy examination in my Leicester Polytechnic days. In 1971, the electronic revolution had yet to get really underway so in the accountancy exams, the students would leave their examination desks and form a queue in front ot a primtive hand-driven calculating machine. They would punch several numbers in, turn the handle for a few ‘whirrs’, and then emerge with a little slip of paper with their results upon it which they included in their answer books. Of course, all of this was swept away when cheap electronic calculators became available in the 1970’s but a prescient colleague of mine made a collection of these ancient machines once they were literally thrown away and then used them as teaching aids (to illustrate the march of technology, the diminution in the number of working parts and so on). Later on in my own teaching career, similar things happened when students asked ‘What is a 5¼” floppy’ (when they were only used to the more modern 3½” floppy disk) A colleague of mine even flashed an antiquated 8″ IBM floppy disk in front of me on one occasion so I have only seen one for seconds. Of course, before there were floppy disks there were punched cards which had the virtue of being readable not only by a card reader but also by a human (even without characters printed along the top if you were quite knowledgable)

Tomorrow our University of Birmingham friend and we two have decided to go on a little trip out together. Our friend knows Cliveden pretty well including some interesting eating places so we are being picked up by car in the morning and look forward to a nice day out. I must say it is a very long time since I have actually seen any seaside so if the weather is not inclement, that should be an interesting little venture for us. After one or two text messages, I have also put the wheels in motion for a little meeting of like minded individuals to meet in the park next Friday so perhaps we can all have a pleasant time in each other’s company. We have noticed, by the way, that there are often groups of a good half dozen or so mothers with pretty young children so I suspect that these young women have got themselves organised in a WhatsApp group which must make it easier to organise. They seem to turn up with blankets to sit on, some treats for the children but evidently this will only work when it is not bucketing down with rain.

Today we were particularly intererested in the arrival of our domestic help becase I was anxious to get her opinion on my newly acquired piano stool. Her opinion was that it was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship and I had probably acquired quite a bargain – so to celebrate this I played her the part of ‘Lead, Kindly Light’, the Cardinal Newman hymn which is actually incredibly easy to play once realises that the key of F has a ‘B flat’ in it so you have to remember to press this black key when needed. I had to have quite a quick conversation with our domestic help because I had an appointment with a nurse in the doctor’s surgery. This turned out just to be just the routine taking of a blood sample but I also handed in a series of blood pressere readings that I have been keeping on the instruction of the surgery and which will be scanned and appended to my record. I have a little book in which I (sporadically) make a record of things like blood pressure readings and when I glanced back over some of my historical records, I discovered that my blood pressure is lower than it was about eight years ago so this is quite good news. As the appointment at the surgery hardly took any time at all, Meg and I made up a flask of coffee and made our way to the park where it was certainly pretty warm compared with the last few days. We drank our coffee but did not linger as we might have got uncomfortably hot in the midday sun but instead came home to coook dinner. Our domestic help had very kindly made a special tuna paella for us so we were more than happy to add a variety of salad ingredients to this and to enjoy a communal meal, once I had heated up the paella in the oven.

This afternoon, we had a pleasant surprise half way through the afternoon. Our domestic help had left us and then called in at her favourite little charity shop, not on the High Street and not too far away from us. There she had found an incredibly useful tool for the bathroom which is actually called a ‘safety step stool with handrail’ These devices are evidently to be used to assist people getting into/out of a bath or shower but I also gather they have another use which is to help people negotiate quite
a steep step in a caravan. Our domestic help thought it would be tremendously useful to assist Meg and I getting into the shower and she grabbed it for us whilst she could. Naturally, we have accepted this with a profusion of thanks and got it installed in our bathroom where we can give it a good roadtest tomorrow morning. It was a brilliantly sunny afternoon so we had a line-full of washing left out until it was well and truly dry and then it was a case of folding it all up and putting it all away. I know that some people put their washing outside almost whatever the weather and we are not quite as assiduous as this but evidently we must make use of the sunshine whilst we can.

Surveying some of our social committments in the next few days, tomorrow is going to be a definite Waitrose day. This is because we will in all probability see our University of Birmingham friend tomorrow morning. We also think that several of the gang that meets on Tuesday mornings may well be there tomorrow so we are looking forward to all of that. Of course, in the late afternoon, we go off to church and then it will be a case of racing home and installing ourselves in front of the TV in order to see ‘Today at the Test’ as the England v. Australia is very finely poised and could go either way although the pessimistic side of my nature tells me that the ability of the English cricket team to throw away a potentially winning situation by rash shots or failing to hold catches is unparalleled. Next Friday, we are going to have the daughter of some of the friends we recently made at the Age Concern club (which we attend on a monthly basis) to call around so that we can give each other a bit of mutual support in the care that we can offer to our family members (parents in her case who are getting a little frail)

There is a now infamous incident in which a Berkshire headteacher with an unblemished record when her school was suddeny regraded from ‘outstanding’ to ‘unsatisfactory’ committed suicide. Her family believes stress associated with the inspection was a major factor in her death. The tragedy prompted many teachers to call for changes to the inspection system and the end of the one-word grading system. The school was reinspected on 21 and 22 June and assessed as good in all categories, the second-best rating. But the whole point of the controversy is whether Ofsted is justified in giving a ‘one word’ overall categorisation to a school such as ‘good’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ I am sure it is possible to do what was done in Higher Education quality assessments a few years ago in which the course was given a quality score (from 1 to 4) across each of six dimensions, 24 being a ‘perfect score’ (and anything in the range 22-24 being regarded as excellent)