Yesterday was dominated, as you might expect, by my plumbing misadventure when the sink in my en-suite bathroom refused to drain away and despite my best efforts with both a plunger and a drain-cleaning tool (a long piece of wire to insert down the outlet pipe), there was nothing I could do to alleviate things. My local central heating boiler/plumber firm could not come to me for at least a week so I had to consult the web to find someone. I did find a firm which I suspect what actually a franchise although my search term was ‘Blocked sinks in Bromsgrove’. On the phone, I was informed that I would receive a visit later on in the day so I cancelled my other regular commitments and waited in until the firm arrived at 2.30. The plumber who came (who, as it turned out, was ex-army) was incredibly good and allowed me to watch him work whilst he went about his task. What proved to be a life-saver was a wet-dry vacuum with which he sucked all of the non-draining water and the powerful suction of this machine solved the problem completely. Now this would not have occurred to me but the plumber explained that these machines were readily variable at a price starting at £40 and going up to over £100 so a mid-range machine could be got for about £70-£80. Now that I know bout these machines, I am not tempted to actually get one but having read some Amazon reviews, I think I will wait until I ever get another problem and then get one pf these ordered and delivered the next door. The plumber also showed me what he considered his most useful tool and these were drain rods which he used regularly and always with complete success to unblock a toilet. Now these are available for about £15.00 and might be worth having in stock were a toilet to become blocked. Actually, this has happened in the last year or so when one of the are assistants looking after Meg put something inappropriate down the toilet and I think my son and I had to resort to unblocking it by hand. So, as well as paying the fee to get my basin cleared, I feel that I have been a mass of practical advice from a ‘pro’ as it were how to stop problems building up in the first place and the how to cure them when they do go wrong.

Donald Trump has just given a one hour long, confused and confusing tirade at the United Nations Assembly where he was met with smirks. The president, who has clamped down on migrants coming via America’s southern border and ordered immigration raids, warned the UN that immigration and the suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe if something is not done immediately. He also said Europe was being invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before which made it sound like an invasion from Mars. But most importantly, Trump seems to have completely switched his position on the Ukraine conflict and now thinks that Ukraine could win the war and even win back all of the territory gained by Russia (which most UK military analysts think unlikely by the way) but in his desire to win the Nobel Peace Plan, Trump wants to back a winner and the fact that most of the financial support to the Ukraine is now being provided by the Europeans may have been a decisive factor. We even have Trump, who always vacillates on almost any issue, is now not averse to Russian jets being shot down if they continue with their violations and probing of European air defences. This would not be American jets doing the shooting but the complete change of stance must me very welcome both in Ukraine and Europe as a whole. 

The morning turned out not as I would have predicted. Firstly, I got up a little later than usual as the dark mornings mean that I jump out of bed at about 7.0am rather than 6.0am. Today is the day when in the last week or so I have left the house fairly early for a Tai Chi session but I decided to gave this a miss as I knew that my son and his wife were due to call around just after 9.00am which they did.  My son gave the fridge a good clean out as the drain screen has a habit of getting blocked so I need to make sure this is regularly maintained. After a long chat with my son and daughter-n-law, I started to walk down into town but bumped first into my Irish friend and then my Italian friend. With the latter I had quite a long talk as she was telling me all about the relationship which she had formed with a fellow bereaved person when they both attended counselling after the death of their respective spouses. This friendship had been going on for at least ten years now but what will happen when my friend moves house to be near her daughter, I cannot say (nor is it any of my business, anyway) but long-established friends often talk about relationships in any case. Then I popped into Waitrose to pick up my newspaper and to buy some ingredients for a meal I am going to cook the next day. On my way back up the hill, my Italian friend was still bobbling about tidying things in her garden and we took the opportunity for another longish chat, carrying on where we had left off about half an hour previously. By the time I did get home, it is way past my usual lunchtime so I made myself my favourite ‘quickie’ lunch which is a tin of tuna with some butter, mayonnaise and Thousand Island dressing all stirred into it and then served on a couple of slices of toast. Idly flicking through the TV channels, I chanced upon the quite famous film of ‘Educating Rita’ which is the story of a working class girl in a not particularly happy marriage who embarks on an Open University course and enters into a relationship with her tutor where in the early stages, they are each struggling to make sense of the other’s worlds. I looked on the web for a summary of the ending and found this. The play deals with the ideas of social class and what it means to be educated. For Rita, education offers an escape from what she considers to be a lacklustre life, but for Frank, it is a rigid system that squelches everyone’s personality. It is up to the reader to decide if Rita was changed for the better by her lessons or if she became exactly what Frank hated about academia. It is also up to the reader to decide if what Frank thinks is truly important. The play is an insightful look into the ways that social class and education can shape who we are. It is also a careful study in the uncertainty of transformation as we go through life wishing for something we do not have.

The night before yesterday I awoke feeling a little restless in the middle of the night. So, I popped downstairs, read an article I had run off the web for a minute or so and then settled down on the settee with a blanket over me. I must have been supremely comfortable because I fell asleep within seconds and did not wake up until 5.00am. Then I popped back into my bed upstairs and, with the electric blanket on, spent the last hour and a half of the night upstairs until  got up at 6.30 The mornings are definitely decidedly chilly these days and the day before yesterday was very bright and clear and quite a pleasant autumn day once the sun had got up. I heard a weather forecaster say that the air was so clear over the UK that at one point in the UK it was possible to have a view for 40 miles. There is not a lot in prospect apart from my regular Pilates class. After the UK formally gave recognition to Palestine as a state, the move was followed by other important states such as Canada, Australia and France. I am somewhat annoyed by the coverage given to this UK recognition as most of the Main Street Media is taking the view that all that the UK is doing is appeasing its own left wing back benchers rather than the merits of the case and this explanation can hardly hold for the other countries they have followed the UK in recognising Palestine. The key to all of this rests with the Americans who fund and arm Israel and who alone have the power to exact some sport of peace. As the United Nations Assembly is gathering in New York, it looks as though Donald Trump may hold the key to any resolution. Over the next 24 hours in New York, he will meet key Arab and Muslim leaders from the Middle East and Asia to present his latest plan for peace in Gaza. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan will all participate in the meeting. Whether anything will come of this is unclear but Trump is fairly desperate to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize and this alone might be his motivation. But more sanguine commentators are not holding of any prospects for peace until elections are held in both Israel and the USA next year at which point crucial power balances may alter. Part of the problem is that the Israeli government only survives because of the support of two really fanatical nationalist members of a minor party who are giving him a majority and without these two players in place, the Israeli government would fall and Netanyahu would be finished. Meanwhile Trump is doing untold damage by giving prominence to a medical report that claims to have found a link between autism and taking paracetamol in early pregnancy. The medical profession as a whole is denying any such link, pointing out that not taking paracetamol could be dangerous to an unborn foetus if the mother was suffering from a rise in temperature that the drug would reduce. But Trump’s MAGA supporters believe that every word he utters is gospel so following Trump’s medical advice could have dire consequences for, as yet unborn, American children.

In the morning, I had a problem which I could have well done without as the slowly draining basin in my en-suite bathroom became a non-draining basin. I did what I could to fix the problem with things like plungers and a more specialist drain unblocking wire (which I keep handy) but without success. I feared that my efforts might make the problem worse rather than better by compacting any residues blocking the drain so decided to abandon my efforts and message our local plumber. Bit he could not come for at least a week so I went on the web and found a firm that specialised unblocking sinks at rates that did not seem extortionate so made contact at them. They were due to call around at about 2.30 in the afternoon but I had to change my plans for the day so I walked down in to town to collect my newspaper and then decided to abandon thoughts of Pilates for the day as I needed to keep myself available within the house. Whilst waiting in for the plumber, I turned my thoughts to my YouTube history because using search terms such as ‘grief’ and ‘relationship’ the YouTube algorithm had locked me into a series of linked videos all across the common theme of ‘how to succeed with women’ To show how this is advertiser driven, one of these was actually sponsored by an organisation selling a Viagra substitute! I did not want my choices littered up with this American rubbish so took the bold step of deleting all of my history (as I could not find a way of deleting individual clips).  I did this with a certain amount of trepidation but managed to re-access some of the things important to me (principally some tracks of classical music, some of the American liberal political podcasts castigating the malfeasances of Donald Trump) and so I am now back on an even keel as I can now rely upon the algorithms deployed to only serve me up with material that is cognate to the selections I have already made. The plumber turned up and was helpfulness personified. He had a ‘wet -dry’ vacuum which removed the water that was not draining away and the accumulated ‘gunk’ which had caused the sink to become blocked in the first place. He gave me some very useful tips about what ‘unblocking’ tools to buy and what I should pay for them as well as useful tips and hints about to keep things clear in the first place. So, at the end of the day I was pleased not only to get the problem fixed but also by people who specialised in this rather than your average run-of-the-mill plumber. As soon as this was completed, I went and mowed the back lawn which badly needed a cut and then settled down to process some of my emails and text messages.

Yesterday turned out to be quite a ‘curate’s egg’ of a day i.e. good in parts. I had anticipated that in the middle of the day, my Droitwich friend and I were due to go to a nearby restaurant for a special birthday treat but some work commitments had reared their ugly head so we had to abandon this plan and come up with another. Knowing how difficult can be to find a restaurant that was open on a Sunday evening, we decided that I should go to Waitrose and buy some special food and then we should mount a little birthday party here in my house in the evening. This plan worked out beautifully and we had a really enjoyable evening together, first eating and then watching various video clips on YouTube.  I also played my friend the precious video clip that I have of Meg and myself giving our speeches to our Yorkshire relatives on the occasion of one of our 50th wedding anniversary celebrations. Our friend had shared coffees with Meg and I several years ago as we had all first met walking up and down the road together and we quickly became friends with each other, all sharing the same, internationalist, perspective upon life.

Yesterday was only the funeral of the assassinated American polemicist, Charlie Kirk who recently was murdered at the hands of an assassin. The funeral was attended by 70,000 including President Trump himself and the whole event took on the significance of a Republican state funeral, which it was in a way. ‘I forgive him….The answer to hate is not hate’ These were the words, perhaps, the message America needs to hear most and the one it has heard least. In a stadium packed to capacity, Erika Kirk’s address to an assassin was delivered in tears and received with silence until the crowd grew into applause. I think it is no exaggeration that the mood in America is practically at a turning point and it would not take much for an open civil way to break out between Trump and is MAGA  (Make American Great Again) supporters and the rest of American society. I was tempted to write the ‘centre ground’ of American politics but this is fast disappearing in the culture wars sweeping the country. In view of Trump’s failing health, it could be that the days of the current presidency are numbered. But the Republicans have done so much to grasp control of the levers of power, that a more likely scenario might be a vista of Trump policies without Trump but the future of American society is unpredictable in the extreme.

British politics rumbles on and we are left with the sequelae of the huge marches recently held in London. Police have appealed for help to identify an additional 18 people suspected of public order offences and assaults on emergency workers on the day of the Unite the Kingdom march. Between 110,000 and 150,000 people attended the rally in central London on 13 September, the Metropolitan Police estimates. Protesters heard a number of speeches, including from far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who organised the rally and called it the ‘biggest freedom of speech’ event in British history. An anti-racism counter-protest, attended by about 5,000 campaigners, also took place, with the two groups clashing on Whitehall and Trafalgar Square, separated by lines of police. Police previously said 24 people were arrested at the protests, 23 of whom are believed to have been involved in the Unite the Kingdom rally, while one was believed to be involved in the counter-protest. The force launched an appeal to identify 11 people last week, one of whom was identified. Officers now want to speak to a further 18 people in connection with a range of public order offences and assaults on emergency workers and have released 16 new images.

Later in the morning, I walked down the hill and into Waitrose to pick up the copy of my newspaper and then have a ‘free’ coffee. Quite by chance, I bumped into each pf the three friends I normally have coffee with on a Tuesday and then started my journey up the hill. Then my Irish friend was out in the autumn sunshine washing his car and that was an occasion for another, but more extended, chat. I have noticed that if I have several of these conversations,  aways have a ‘feel good’ factor and am wondering whether these chats have the effect of some dopamine or endorphin release within my brain as I have some transitory feel-good moments afterwards. Then I made myself a conventional lunch with some ham, baked potato and broccoli knowing that I would have to prepare and eat this in plenty of time for the physiotherapy session later in the afternoon. The physiotherapist recommended some exercises  with a tennis ball so that I could myself some self-massage to get rid of some knots of tension in my shoulder but did not think that I would need any more courses of treatment so I shall to ry to master and then complete these exercises once or twice a day (which is a little easier said than done) As it was such a beautiful fine afternoon,  cut the grassed area in front of the house but need to cut the back lawns tomorrow as they appear much more in need of treatment. I haven’t had time to select any viewing options for this evening but I think the schedulers try to ease you into the week with quite a good range of programmes.

One of my favourite cosmetics stores in which I have shopped for the last 18 years – BodyCare- has now collapsed into administration, At the moment, Bromsgrove High Street is dominated by coffee bars, vaping and charity shops but I do not suppose this makes it much different from other High Streets up and down the country. A combination of low footfall during the week and high rents and business rates has probably contributed the downfall of BodyCare. In the domestic political agenda, I notice that the Reform party is suggesting that ‘Indefinite leave to reman’ for migrants should be replaced by a system of 5 yearly renewable visas. Given the rightward drift of politics both in the UK and across Europe/USA, I would not be surprised if this new Reform policy on migrants would be copied by the other political parties, keen not to be seen as being outflanked on the right.

Yesterday morning, I awoke an hour later to be greeted by the news on the radio that it was the Vernal Equinox which means we are in the mid-point between the longest and the shortest day and we enter the period of the countdown as the days get shorter and shorter until December 21st.  The evening before, I went to church as I always have done on Saturday evening and managed to have a quick chat with my Irish friends at the end of the service. We were speaking about a mutual friend who is quite seriously ill and hoping for the best. Then, after returning home, I treated myself to a tin of soup recently purchased from Lidl. After I had done some domestic jobs, I settled down to listen to a long tribute to a singer one of whose songs I knew very well in my youth. The BBC had put on a special tribute compilation to Jonny Mathis who is now aged 90 but who only gave up his singing career two years ago. The track I particularly remember starts off with the lines ‘Let it rain, let it pour – I just do not care any more!’ and I think I must have bought this as a 45 (single record) in about 1961. For whatever reason, it is one of those songs which I used to sing to myself whenever it was a cold, wet autumnal day and I can actually remember all of the lyrics. I think the song has stuck in my memory because it one of those songs that is full of teenage ‘angst’ which was probably composed, and played, on the occasion of the breakup of probably a first relationship and it really does evoke the memory of a mournful teenager, probably stuck in his/her bedroom and being sorrowful and depressed whilst the rain pours down. So I watched the whole programme which was the best part of an hour and a half wondering if they would play this track but it was not included. So, I turned to YouTube and eventually I found and played the track which I intend to play to one of my friends who was due to call around in the morning. Straight after this track was played, the YouTube algorithm presented me with some Joan Baez tracks which I equally enjoyed so, all in all, I had a very different but still enjoyable evening taking me down memory lane.

There has been quite a significant cyber-attack on an organisation called Collins Aerospace which provides the software for many European airports and many airports across Europe were affected yesterday. A travel expert was shown on Sky News indicating that it was deeply concerning that an organisation of this size and complexity could be penetrated by hackers and there is even some speculation that a ‘large state’ actor such as Russia might be behind it all. Personally, I had never heard of this organisation but it is a third party to both the airlines and the airports and the disruption to flights across and through Europe is immense. At one stage, I thought I might have been in Spain at this time and so would have been caught up in all of this but I deeply relieved that I changed these plans and will probably now visit Spain in early February (when the UK weather might be bad)

The UK, together with Canada and Australia, has recognised Palestine aa a state in its own right. Starmer used the impending recognition, in advance of a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly as some kind of bargaining chip to attempt to nudge Israel into accepting a cease fire. But the total destruction and de ‘de facto’ emptying of the Gaza strip has proceeded apace and a figure has been published that more 65,000 Palestinians have lost their loves, many of them women and children. This must be one of the few occasions, if not the first, when a state has been recognised but there is no agreement as to exactly what territory the newly recognised state is meant to occupy. The Israeli government and a sizeable proportion of Israeli public opinion has now abandoned the whole policy of a ‘Two State solution’ Just out of interest, I looked up the whole of Balfour Declaration which reads ‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.‘ What is interesting to us today is the part of the Declaration which specifies that civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities should not be prejudiced yet what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank are clear violations of this part of the Declaration. This must surely be one of the most intractable of all of the worlds’s geopolitical problems. What I think is so distressing to fairly neutral observers is that a ‘peace’ between the Palestinians and the Israel state must be so difficult to achieve when, in the view of the United Nations, acts of genocide are being committed against the Palestinian peoples. Even if the entire population of the West Bank and Gaza were to leave and take up a home in other Arab countries, then the resentments and hostilities would continue for years making a ‘peace’ solution along these lines impossible. My own solution, which is never going to happen, is to establish a Palestinian state on the West Bank making Israel withdraw to its pre 1967 borders . Meanwhile, a huge peace keeping force needs to be installed along the entire new borders and all f the substantial aid given to the new Palestinian state immediately withdrawn if as much as a single rocket is fired. But this is never going to happen and would require America to enforce it, which of course given the power of the Israeli political lobby in the USA is impossible. The trouble is that nobody in the world is trying to imagine how this conflict which has now existed since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 (77 years ago) can possibly ever be resolved.

I awoke to quite a dull day yesterday and slept in a little longer than my usual getting up time. The highlight of yesterday was the women’s rugby semifinal between Canada and New Zealand and I was not to be disappointed.   Six-time world champions New Zealand were undefeated in the Women’s Rugby World Cup for 11 years – a winning streak that spanned 4,063 days. None of the match day 23 in Bristol on Friday had lost a World Cup game. They had not lost a knockout game in the competition since 1991. They had only lost twice in 42 World Cup games.Their record now reads: Played 43, lost three. Canada, who had to set up a £530,000 (C$1m) fundraising drive – titled Mission: Win Rugby World Cup – to help them reach the tournament, delivered an incredible semi-final performance in Bristol to end New Zealand’s bid for a third straight title. A sensational first-half performance, including three tries in the opening 25 minutes, saw the number two ranked side in the world gain control of the game right from the opening whistle. When lock Sophie de Goede knocked over a conversion for her own try after striding clear, the half-time scoreline read 24-7. It is true that New Zealand looked to be the classier side and some of their rugby was superb as always. But the Canadian team seemed to have strength in depth and took every opportunity that presented itself, with some incredible running angles to score their tries. Their line-outs were superb and I think they only lost one towards the end of the game when the game was already lost and won. Their sheer speed forced the New Zealand players into uncharacteristic handling errors and this was one of the major differences between the two sides. In particular, when the Canadians entered a maul after a throw in near the try line, it was pretty evident that they would eventually score. By the end of the first half, the Canadians were three tries to one up and they added another try early in the second half. It was obvious to seasoned observers of the game that the Black Ferns would stage a comeback in the second half which indeed they did and the Canadians, anticipating this, defended staunchly. But the lead built up in the first half was too big a total to overhaul and hence the Canadians ran out as winners. They will be formidable opponents when they meet either England or France in a week’s time and may well emerge as eventual overall champions. 

As well as all of the Donald Trump generated news emanating from the UA, one of the latest snippets is that the Trump effort to sue the New York Times for $15bn has been thrown out by a judge. US District Judge Steven Merryday described Mr Trump’s complaint as a ‘decidedly improper’ attempt to attack an adversary. A complaint, he said, should ‘fairly, precisely, directly, soberly, and economically inform the defendants… of the nature and content of the claims A complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective – not a protected platform to rage against an adversary’ the judge added. He has given Mr Trump 28 days to submit an amended complaint of no more than 40 pages. Of course, people of immense wealth like Trump will often go to law to silence their opponents but in this case, he has met his match. There are other disturbing stories emanating from the USA that the administration wants to effectively ban any news networks that opposes Trump by removing their licenses. One cannot imagine a greater attack on free speech than this and even some Republicans are appalled by the latest developments.

The morning turned out to be a very interesting one. I started to walk down the hill ready to meet my usual Saturday friends but my Italian friend was out in her garden doing some tidying up. So we had a long chat for about 20 minutes which was a bit delightful but my knees were playing up a bit by this stage with standing (and not moving) and I doubted whether I could get down and see my other friends in time. So I turned back in order to collect the car so that I could collect my newspaper and have a ‘free’ coffee in Waitrose. Then I got a call from one of my nieces up in Yorkshire who was driving up the A1(M) to see one or both of her children who are working in the Newcastle area. So this was a wonderfully welcome conversation and we always have long and deep conversations with each other, giving each mutual advice when we can. Then when I returned home and surveyed some of the roses still growing in our front garden So I thought I would pick some yellow roses to give to my friend as a birthday treat when I see her tomorrow. On the spur of the moment, I knocked on my neighbour’s door to see if I could ask her permission to pick some of the roses in her front garden to complement my own.  This permission she readily gave and then we popped into her lounge for a few minutes chat. Her husband was actually in hospital for a scheduled operation on his knee but was going to be discharged within a day or so. I said I would pop around to have a chat with my neighbour’s husband as he was bond to be a little immobile for a day or so until his new knee (if that is what he has been given) has a chance to settle down.

So England beat France, as many had predicted by 35:17 but this was one of the most unconvincing wins of all time and if the French mad made one or two slightly more sensible decisions in how they passed the ball, they could have scored at least a couple more tries in the first half. But at half time, England had a narrow lead pf only 2 points but gradually overhauled France who just faded in the second half. In terms of sheer rugby, the French sometimes played the more attractive rugby but English strength in the rolling mauls told on at least a couple of occasions, The English Meg Jones won a stunning try where she ran a beautiful diagonal lone to beat the French defence. But on this showing, I would hardly give England any chance against Canada next weekend.

Quite unusually, I slept in for an hour longer this morning but this is of no particular consequence as there are no pressing engagements for me today as I contemplate the weekend. I have a great deal of time for one of Sky News’ correspondents who is Beth Rigby and reports with a great deal of acumen about the positive results of the visit of Trump to our shores in the last day or so. Starmer went all out to flex all the soft power he could deploy to garner some hard results and she reports on some real wins. The show-stopper US-UK tech partnership was hailed by both sides as a new phase in the special relationship, as Trump gathered some of the world’s biggest tech billionaires – Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and Apple’s Tim Cook – to attend the signing of the deal at Chequers. Number 10 added up a series of planned commercial decisions to tout the prospect of £150bn of inward investment. Nonetheless, I think that Beth Rigby missed a trick yesterday, when at the press conference she posed a series of questions to Donald Trump. These had been very carefully framed and were penetrating, asking questions about Gaza, the Ukraine and finally Peter Mandelson.  But by asking about three questions in one and citing the Peter Mandelson question as the last one, Donald Trump managed to evade giving an answer to the first two questions and replied to the part of the question about Mandelson (who was the British ambassador, after all who Trump had met only a few days before) by giving the most cursory of replies that he scarcely knew the man and over to Keir Starmer to answer the question. The news about all of this inward investment must have sounded like music to politician’s ears but the cynical part of me wonders whether it is actually going to happen. After all, they are only words and it would certainly not be the first time that flows of money would be promised that would never materialise. In the past, I am certain that there have been occasions when large sums of money were promised (and I am thinking of Gordon Brown’s attempts to alleviate 3rd World debt as well as the climate change promises) but a year down the line and nothing seems to have been forthcoming. Before I was well and truly up by which I mean my Pilates exercises done and then showered, my son called around as he often does after his early morning swim in which he engages several times a week. I abandoned my session on the laptop to go and have a chat with him. We put the new washing machine through its paces which I did not want to do yesterday morning when I was out of the house. So, we put the machine through a simple cycle and everything worked out fine with no leaks from the new connection which was reassuring. Then we had a long discussion about things technological as he was having his breakfast (fish on bread) which is part of his routine when he calls around. Just before he left, I solicited his help to put a navigation setting in the car’s SatNav which I did not know exactly how to do. Somewhat naively, I assumed that once within the SatNav system I could save a route but I actually needed to save it an a ‘Favourites’ which also stores things such as music stations and goodness knows what else besides. So, I was delighted to get this onto the system because in the past when I have navigated this route it has always been a bit hit and miss but now, I have safely stored and accessible within the systems of the car.

Later in the morning and quite a lot later than usual, I took the car down into town and then visited my ‘Donkey sanctuary’ cafe which is  a regular slot for me on this day of the week. I had an interesting conversation with one of the volunteers I the shop I know well. I then visited several shops on the High Street to make some purchases before eventually returning home quite late. I made myself a lunch of turkey meat in an onion gravy served on some salad before having a little doze in the afternoon. The major event of the day to which I am looking forward is actually the women’s rugby semi-final match between New Zealand and Canada and I suspect that New Zealand will prevail in this contest. The other semi-final will be between England and France but that is the next day.  For a bit of light relief, I look at some of the liberal political websites to which YouTube gives a platform and some of these are focus considerably on Donald Trump – one regular slot is even called ‘Inside Trump’s Brain’ Several of these websites are convinced that Donald Trump is quite seriously ill or, at least, has travelled some way along the road of a diagnosis of dementia. All of these websites demonstrate the fact that Trump is frequently mistaken in his public utterances including the speech that he gave at the banquet held for his honour where, once again he claimed that the election that Biden won was actually ‘stolen’ from Trump and he was unfairly deprived of the presidency. But the American websites all make the absolutely fair point that the Main Street Media just overlooks these lapses and Trump is never challenged directly about them. But one thing that the cameras do pick up is the small but noticeable changes of Trump’s physical appearance. One item is the President’s right hand which shows signs of perhaps some bruising (where a canula might have been inserted to administer some drugs?) but the appearance of which appears to be disguised with some crudely applied makeup. Abot a week or so ago, some commentators even claimed to have detected a slight droop of Trump’s mouth as though he had suffered a slight stroke. If I had to make a guess of my own, it is that the president will show some marked signs of deterioration in his health status within the next six months. To forestall any overall rejoicing at this point, then the Vice President Vance would take over and he appears in his policy stances to be as much ‘Trump Mark 2’ as it is possible to be. The Democrats are in some disarray and appear to be holding out for the mid-term elections which are still some 14 months away and are scheduled to be held in the United States, in large part, on November 3, 2026. In this U.S. midterm election, which will occur during Republican President Donald Trump’s non-consecutive second term, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate will be contested to determine the 120th United States Congress. Thirty-nine state and territorial U.S. gubernatorial elections, as well as numerous state and local elections, will also be contested.

I awoke to a Mozart Horn concerto and whenever I hear one of these, it always seems to remind me of the days when we were motoring up to York from Leicestershire taking our son to his boarding school (which he really appeared to enjoy) Later on this morning, I must give our newly installed washing machine for its first trial run but the exterior and controls seem very similar to the previous one, I am pleased to say. Yesterday, I did run off a piece of ‘care of washing machines’ which I really do intend to do with this particular model. In truth, Meg and myself always used to take meticulous care of our washing machines, cleaning the filter regularly and running through a washing machine cleaning programme every month or so. But in the latter stages of Meg’s illness, all of this got sadly neglected but now, of course, I have no excuse. The Donald Trump banquet seems to have gone off as planned and a day of pomp and the lavish display of Britain’s ‘soft power’ evident for all to see. But correspondents who are used to state visits of various kinds are remarking that this visit seems so very different because every effort is being made to ensure that there are no crowds lining the streets to jeer, rather than cheer, the president. Donald Trump is remarkably thin-skinned and the government have felt that they could not bear Trump’s exposure to a potentially hostile British crowd and hence the itinerary yesterday through Windsor was confined to the grounds of Windsor Castle and Windsor Great Park. The real political talks are due to take place in Chequers (not London) later on in the day and we all await and wonder what the press conference will reveal at the end of the day.

Meanwhile, all of the economic news in the run-up to the Autumn budget seems to get more dire by the day. The pound is sinking rapidly in the world currency markets and government debt continues to climb. Inflation seems to be embedded within the system, particularly as food prices rise and any growth appears minimal and measured only in tenths of a percentage point, if any is in prospect at all. This is not entirely a UK problem as many European economies seem to be displaying similar characteristics and, if it possible, the French economy seems to be in an even more parlous state than the British one. One phrase that runs round my head though is the fact that the economy is very much subject to international forces and investment intentions and, to that extent, any inward investment is subject to ‘the kindness of strangers’. Putting ones self in the mind of an international investor, then who would be tempted to invest in the UK economy at the moment? Some tax rises are widely predicted at the moment and some taxes on wealth may well be being considered. That having been said, apart from taxes on land which is fixed and very visible, many wealth taxes fail to generate the required income flows as the wealthy are generally in a position to move their assets around or even offshore in such a way that the effects of a wealth tax are often minimal. Personally, I would favour a move away from our current rating system towards a system based upon occupied land (bigger houses paying more as they have a bigger ‘footprint’) but this reform would take years to put onto effect before any benefits would be realised. As it is, even our current rating system is hopelessly out-of-date.

After breakfast, I made my way down to my Tai Chi class which is now my third. Although the class was a series of very gentle exercises, I did feel quite tense this morning so perhaps did not get the anticipated immediate benefits but nonetheless I will continue. Afterwards, I had a cup of tea and some chocolate cake (naughty but nice) and then made my way to the local Lidl. Although I had been into the store before, this was the first time I had done a weekly shopping trip there and evidently took some time to locate the items which is a part of my normal shop. However, at the end of the day I think the price of the shopping compared favourably to the prices of Aldi but I had bought a couple of bottles of wine and a weekend joint which made comparisons a little difficult. Bit I had downloaded the app and the check-out assistant showed me how to activate various elements which meant that I got my sourdough loaf and a bag of clementines at no charge which worked out as a sort of 4% discount. In the late afternoon I had a surprise and very welcome visit from a friend from Droitwich and we had an extended chat telling each other what we had been doing during the week.

The Trump visit to the UK has now ended and I am sure that Keir Starmer and the rest pf the Labour government must have expressed a huge sigh of relief when they saw Trump’s flight actually take off. There seem to have at least a couple of places where the USA and the UK have ‘agreed to disagree’ but neither side seemed at all keen to rock the boat so the final press conferences, which must have been feared by many in case it all blew up, with any disagreements kept within manageable proportions. On Air Force One on the way back to the USA Trump seems to have been somewhat more forthright with the American reporters on board but all of this will be directed towards American consumption and public opinion. Normally the weekends can be a little empty but this weekend we have two things to which to look forward. The first is the women’s rugby semifinals and the first match is to be played on Friday  evening. On Sunday, I am taking a friend out to a meal for a birthday treat and I am sure this will make the day a nice one as well. So suddenly there is an intensification of social life and activities because I learned today of a sort of club for fairly recently bereaved individuals who meet twice a month on Saturdays at the Methodist Centre where I do my Tai Chi so I might just give this a go as well.

These days I tend to wake up just before 6.00am and during the summer was in the habit of instantly getting up. But as the nights are going longer and the days are getting colder, I do stay in bed for an extra half an hour and get up that little bit later. I will nearly always have ClassicFM playing gently in the background and I generally recognise all the tracks that are being played but occasionally I do drift off to sleep again. I do find this is a wonderfully contemplative time of the day, though, as sometimes I reflect upon the events of the past day as well as thinking ahead to my commitments for the day ahead. Thinking about the events of yesterday, I am quite excited about the prospects afforded by the interest groups which comprise the U£A (University of the Third Age) here in Bromsgrove. There are several of these that I feel inclined to join including a two-day trip (and overnight stay to Yorshire) next Spring as well as a Christmas meal. But the thing which is a bit of a challenge for me, but one to which I may be able to rise, is to become the group convenor and tutor for a course in conversational Spanish. Now this does not yet exist but the organiser yesteday seemed to think there would probably be quite a demand for it so I may have to do some preliminary preparation by choosing an appropriate learning text for example. I have to say that the audience yesterday was overwhelmingly female rather than male but this just reflects the facts of human biology where women tend to out-survive their husbands and the women who have joined U3A (the recognised abbreviation) are getting on with the rest of their lives as their husbands or former partners have died (or some of them) and their families have grown up. Now my University of Birmingham friend had found a couple of groups in U3A but he travelled to Kidderminster for them, one of them being a French conversation class (at which he is very adept) and the other a sort of moral philosophy course in which great ethical days of the day are discussed. He has suggested to me in the past that I join U3A and I might even recruit him into the not-yet-formed Spanish course.

Today some economic news has been announced which may well have an impact upon my personal finances. The state pension is likely to rise by 4.7% in April, after the latest official figures showed this was the pace of wage growth. The pension is determined by the triple lock, which means it will rise every year by whichever is highest: inflation in September, average weekly earnings from May to July or 2.5%. Inflation in September is expected to be 4% by the Bank of England, meaning wage data, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday, is set to be the highest figure. Government retains control of pension increases and, despite commitments, could decide not to abide by the triple lock. But the actual, rather than the anticipated figure will actually be announced in about the third week of October and will reflect the September figures upon which the April pension increases will actually be calculated. 

Today was the day when our new washing machine was due to be installed but first I had a corner in our utility room which needed a really good clean out. In the past, I had stored bird food and nuts and even some fat-balls in this corner and there was a lot of gardening associated clutter stored in what in a former life were vegetable racks. So I had to work like a demon to clear this corner out because I suspect that it was the birdfood that had attracted a mouse which had chewed through the washer outlet cable. I was pretty exhausted by lunchtime but my son called around to help with the new washer installation because we had been given a time between 2.25 and 4.25. The John Lewis crew did not turn until 5.00pm and were with us for practically an hour as the clips on some of the hoses needed some adjustments before they could be safely attached. So, this meant that my son and I were waiting around the whole of the afternoon but we are pleased to get the new machine installed at last. Consulting the web, with some care it should last for 10 years and the old one had lasted nearly seven years but the John Lewis staff thought that five years was about average. So, there was a certain degree of tidying up and mopping up of water dribbles to be done and I am trying to keep the relevant corner clutter free in future. I have a  tub of fat balls which I might have to throw away if I cannot give them away.

So today we have had all of the pageantry it is possible to imagine to appease the alteady enormous ego of Donald Trump. So we have rides in state coaches, inspection of the massed ranks of soldiers and a flypast by the Red Arrows. I found it mildly interesting to note that the UK planners could not allow Domald Trump on the streets of London for fear that he might see fist hand the opposition to him and his policies. So, the rides within the state coaches were all within the grounds of Windsor Great Park without a single member of the British public in sight. Tonight, there is going to be a huge state banquet after which there will be speeches which may or may be interesting. But the real political discussions will come tomorrow after a day of pomp, pageantry and obsequious flattery. Some forms of protest have been in evidence as four people have been arrested after projecting images of Trump and Epstein together onto the walls of Windsor castle.

Tomorrow, I may well follow the promptings of my domestic help and to shop at the Lidl store in town which happens to be just across the road from Aldi. The principal thing that attracts me is the fact that, by all accounts,  Lidl sells off boxes of vegetables at a very low price. I have downloaded the app onto my iPhone but I must confess that I do not like the first visit to a new (to me) supermarket because one has to spend time to locate one’s favourite foodstuffs and other items.

I awoke yesterday morning reflecting upon the fact that September was half gone by now and the months seem to be flying by. I have quite a busy day what with one thing or another so was to keen to make a good start. I have run off the portion of the lyrics of Danny Boy reproduced in yesterday’s blog where the person who has died is calling to her spouse/lover from the grave and is poignant in the extreme. For good or ill, I am trying to commit these eight lines to memory because I find them very beautiful and I find it is my way of coping with grief by not avoiding it but occasionally confronting it. I found the book by the neuroscientist of ‘The Grieving Brain’ easily enough on Amazon and ordered a copy of it although I did manage to find an extended summary of it on the web which I have printed off. The domestic agenda is filled with the forthcoming visit of Donald Trump to these shores. Only a British prime minister can offer what Trump is about to enjoy this week as a result, three days of peerless pomp and ceremony in castles and stately homes hosted by royalty. For an Anglophile who craves the spotlight, the idea was irresistible. Trump beamed with delight as he received the King’s letter, becoming the first elected leader ever to be invited for a second state visit. Some said the prime minister moved too quickly. This was something Trump should have had to have worked for, dangled as a reward for favourable treatment. Instead, the critics said, he got something for nothing and has abused that generosity ever since. The levels of security that are being put in place are unprecedented – the thought of Trump being shot at on UK soil is too terrible to contemplate (but, of course, cannot be ruled out) So we are dolloping out flattery and pomp in equal measure and are anticipating some big USA hi-tech investment to accompany the visit. This is itself can be a very two-edged weapon as ‘The Times’ have been reported that the huge big pharmaceutical companies are withdrawing investment from the UK as our beleaguered NHS cannot afford to pay the sky-high prices for some of the new drugs on offer. Some of these are new cancer treatments but do not offer a ‘cure’ but only to extend a person’s life for a couple of months or so at a cost of tens of thousands of £ per patient. It is true that the UK pays a smaller proportion of its health budget on drugs than comparable European societies but even so, the question has to be asked whether the prolongation of life for a few months is worth the enormous costs involved. It is one of these ‘the greatest good of the greatest number’ questions because it could be that more lives are saved if money within the NHS is not diverted to add to the profits of big US pharmaceutical companies.

Later in the day, I went down by car to attend my Pilates class. This I needed to cut short by a quarter of an hour as I needed to dash off to a U3A (University of the Third Age) large group meeting which was to be held in the afternoon. This large meeting was very well attended with I suspect at least 70 people in attendance and we were being presented with talk about the origins of the Gun Powder plot which lasted for about an hour and a quarter. Right at the end of this discussion, I took to the floor and recounted the story, first aired by Lucy Worsley in a recent BBC2 TV programme about the radicalisation of Guy (Guido) Fawkes. This part of the Gun Powder plot is not known definitively but it is almost a racing certainty that Guy Fawkes may have been radicalised by witnessing the cruel death of Margaret Clitheroe in York who was put to death for harbouring Jesuit priests. The manner of her death was gruesome as she was forced to lie on a sharp stone between two doors which were then piled high with stones to make death as agonising as possible. Upon her death, the local Catholics cut off one of her hands and this is reserved (miraculously?) in the Bar Convent in York. As my sister was attended the Bar Convent school, my mother, sister and I were allowed to view this relic. But over tea at the end of the meeting, although most people rushed away, I managed to have a conversation with some interesting people. For example, a newcomer to the U3A group and myself exchanged telephone numbers so there is always the possibility of meeting up for a coffee or a drink later. I joined the group and now have to decide in which of the about 15 groups I will participate. I am a bit undecided about the local history group but there is a group that visits local churches and places of worship, followed by tea and cakes, a walking group, a local history group, a curry club and so on. I saw that there was a French conversation class but wondered if there might be a Spanish one.  The local group organiser prevailed upon me to act as convenor/tutor for such a group but if there is a demand for it (about  3-4 bystanders announced that they would join one) then I might take this on as, after all, ‘in the land of the blind, one one-eyed man is king’

Donald Trump will soon land upon these shores and already we are being treated to the obsequious flattery which seems to surround Trump wherever he goes. He is staying at Windsor castle which, to American eyes, is a real castle and is going to be treated tomorrow to lines of soldiers in traditional dress, a ride in a horse-drawn carriage and a formal white-tie dinner. I have the strong feeling that if there is to be a press conference, it will be so heavily stage managed that a question on the Epstein affair will not pass anyone’s lips. In the meantime, there has been an emergency debate in the Commons on the Mandelson sacking I the light of his affiliations with Epstein and it appears that Starmer himself did not attend the debate (‘running scared’ as critics on all sides of the House will say).

The weather this morning was stormy and windy, exactly as predicted by the forecasters but although awoken by my radio just after 6.00am I stayed in bed for half an hour which I suspect I will do every day now that the nights are longer and the days are gloomy. It was delightful to have the company of my son and daughter-in-law yesterday afternoon as we watched the rugby together and shared some family jokes and reminiscences with each other. Last night I was delighted to see there was a compilation of some of the best performances from this season’s Prom concerts and a piece that gave particular delight was the one given on the sitar by Anoushka Shankar, the daughter of Ravi Shankar who did much to bring the particular instrument of the sitar to the ears of Western audiences. Later on today, I have an appointment for some routine medical monitoring to which I will certainly go by car but beforehand it is touch and go whether or not I decide to go for a walk on foot because I have no real desire to get drenched. Having said that, when I started walking down to town years and years ago, I did not really look at the weather but followed what may be the Nordic maxim that ‘there is not bad weather, just inappropriate clothing’ I think as well that the weather gods must have smiled upon me because on all of the occasions when I pushed Meg up and down the hill in her wheelchair, I can only recall one when we got absolutely soaked to the skin. But even on that occasion, our return home coincided with a visit of a couple of carers who quickly divested Meg of her wet outerwear and dressed her in some nice warm clothing.

In the women’s rugby, the Irish team must be really licking their wounds this morning and wondering if the outcome of the match would have been different. Some video footage had emerged on a French player appearing to bite an Irish opponent and this was reported to the referee. If the referee had acted upon this information and referred back to the video referee, the French player would almost certainly have been sent to the ‘sin bin’ for at least 10 minutes if not 20 and, under these circumstances, it is quite common for one team to score against their weakened opponents. So, the Irish can feel somewhat aggrieved and that the eventual outcome of the closely fought match could well have resulted in their victory, rather than the French. France is now playing England in the semifinals next weekend, the other semifinal match being between Canada and New Zealand. The world athletic championships are also taking place at the same time, I think in Tokyo, but this is not evoking the same amount of attention that it normally does, perhaps because of the transmission times. But I gather that the Jamaican men are re-establishing the dominance that they used to enjoy in sprinting and the closely fought contests are often between the Jamaican and the (black) American sprinters.

Knowing it was to be a colder day today, I donned my ‘Malaga’ football shirt, bought from a street market in Spain and brought into use when I know the weather is turning colder. In the  morning I turned my attention to getting some dental appointments sorted out. Normally, I would see a hygienist followed in three months’ time by a visit to the dentist herself. But I am rather out of the run of appointments as things were rather neglected as they had to be whilst I was caring for Meg in her dying months. But I was considerably dismayed to discover that the earliest appointments I was offered to see both the hygienist and the dentist were in five months’ time. I accepted both of these appointments but the evident thought crosses my mind whether I can be seen earlier by another, more locally based dentist.  So, I may be forced to make some enquiries to see what is available more locally. In the middle of the day, after collecting my newspaper I attended my local surgery for a routine medical monitoring appointment. When this was concluded I went off to Droitwich to have a coffee and a walk around with my Droitwich friend. I handed over some health-related internet material that I thought might helpful, although with the proviso that one had to treat any material found on the web with the appropriate degree of caution.  In the course of our walking around, we decided to visit the cafe which Meg and I often attended in Droitwich where we would take coffee once a week and occasionally a light lunch. But we were dismayed to discover, via a notice on the door that this cafe was in the throes of closing which was a source of some sadness and regret as Meg and I were well known and made to feel welcome by the proprietor in our weekly visit this news coming on top of the announcement that my favourite cosmetics store in Bromsgrove is also in the process of closing.  Before I actually went out on the road, I discovered quite by accident a video on YouTube which I found both informative as well as quite helpful. This video was by a neuroscientist who had made it her specialty to look at the effects of the grieving process on brain chemistry. Utilising much recent science on the biochemistry of the brain, she argued that when a couple become committed to each over a long period (as in a marriage) then this actually alters their brain chemistry. So when the couple are separated e.g. by death, then the brain has to go through a process of reorganisation and this involved time as a learning process. We are so used to thinking of grief as just operating in the ’emotion’ parts of the brain and not on the cognitive functions so this approach is thought provoking. The neuroscientist had written a book called ‘The Grieving _‘ and one would have thought, intuitively, that the missing word was ‘Heart’ but it was actually ‘Brain’ not ‘Heart’ I rather liked her no-nonsense, scientifically based approach and may well hunt out and then purchase (and naturally read) her book.