Yesterday after Meg was soundly asleep, I set myself the task of a tidy up in our Music Lounge with the primary aim of finding my mislaid TV remote. In this respect, I was successful after about ten minutes of my tidying up operations which pleased me no end and I lost no doubt on making a note of its mode number so that I can quickly replace it were it to go missing again. In my tidying up which still needs a degree of refinement, I not only threw away a lot of out-of-fate junk but carefully preserved four piles of material which is anything related to Meg’s condition, general articles on fitness and health which are quite commonly produced by the quality newspapers at this time of year, articles run off from the internet which helps to make my computing efforts more efficient and finally articles and magazines that I traditionally keep such as the Peter Brookes cartoons of the year produced for ‘The Times’, Now that I got to this stage, I can further refine each collection of material in the days ahead, probably at the rate of one per day.

Also yesterday, I heard a new theory announced about the imposition of trade sanctions on both Canada and Mexico. An American spokesman explained that the position of sanctions was deliberately designed to get the countries to which they were applied to shift their position, a strategy that also worked well with Colombia. But Mexico has now agreed to utilise an extra 10,000 guards alongside its border first and foremost to crack down the supply of fentanyl (artificial opiate, some 50-100 times stronger than heroin) and secondly to stem if not stop the flow of international migrants. Donald Trump give the 25% tariff increase some days to come into effect and this helped to clarify the mind of the Mexicans who have buckled. Almost the same deal was offered to the Canadians who, likewise, have agreed to increase border security by about 10,000 guards. Now all of this is quite interesting because it looks as though America has used its brute force to enjoin its will.But a slightly more nuanced picture s that all of the parties can gain some credit from these instruments of foreign policy. The Canadians and Mexicans can claim that by taking the requested actions on the flow of drugs, disastrous tariffs have been averted. Trump, of course, can claim that his strategies have indeed worked and he is in a position to apply other sanctions as and when he feels the need. The fact that fentanyl is so easy to manufacture and so potent that over 80,000 USA citizens die of it each year is a powerful argument in its own right, though. But the traditional use of sanctions against China might be a harder nut to crack because the Chinese have naturally engaged in a tit-got-tat sanctions regime designed to hurt American exports in certain areas. Again, these sanctions have even delayed for several days which gives some time for some hard fast and furious negotiating. However, the outcome of the tussle between the two world economic super powers is hard to predict at this stage and the world’s trading exchanges are experiencing real jitters as we may be on the brink of a huge trade war.

Although it was a little late in the day, Meg and I breakfasted on porridge and then made our way down the hill to make our usual assignation with our wheel-chair bound friend Wetherspoons. On the way down, we bumped into our Italian friend but did not tarry as we were running a little on the late side. In Wetherspoons, I had more normal egg and bacon crumpet which was freshly cooked and tasted especially nice to me this morning. But Meg was sound asleep nearly all of the time so I did not rouse her to take on food and drink she did not want. Then it was back up the hill because we needed to het back before the next scheduled visit of a carer at 12.00pm which we did with five minutes to spare. Although the weather was said to be fairly temperate this morning, it did not feel that way as there was a fairly strong biting wind to add in a wind chill factor so I was very pleased to get hone (as well as being extra tired out by my exertions this morning). Then we seemed to have a plethora of carers – one arrived to do the Tuesday morning sit and we talked over family matters and funerals. Then two more carers arrived for Meg’s lunch time call, one of them lives locally and I have seen quite often recently and the other I have not seen since before Christmas. To this band was added a ‘shadowing’ worker who is in the first stages of training and learns, hopefully, by a close observation of whatever does with each client and why. After they had departed and our ‘sit’ carer had come to the end of her stint, it was time for me to prepare some lunch which I did fairly rapidly. I had some cheese and onion bakes which I heated up together with those micro-waveable vegetables in a pack so that I could prepare lunch to save some time. Meg was so soundly asleep that I did not attempt to wake her up but left her dinner on one side so that I can try to get some food into her later.

Straight after lunch, the engineer called by appointment to check over that the bed was functioning correctly, as it has to be every twelve months. After the little mishap of yesterday, the engineer showed me how to fix this simple problem should it reoccur and, more importantly, instructed me in the use of the Reset function. He also put a very helpful sticker on the bedpost so that is malfunctions were to reoccur, I would know immediately who to phone. All of this was very useful and relevant information and good to know. We regaled ourselves with some black humour about the fact that it was quite possible (and had happened) that animals could be crushed to their deaths if a sleeping pet were to be present underneath the ‘floor’ type of bed when it was being lowered to the floor.

Yesterday, we are having our roof checked over by one of the carer’s partners and his ‘roofer’ mate who we have employed before when the garden needed a blitz in the autumn. To complete the ‘outdoor’ picture some heavy earth moving vehicles have moved into the field at the back of our house and have started making progress on yet more building work which seems to be taking place around us. Gone are the days some seventeen years ago now when we used to wake up to the sights of rabbits and their young grazing on the grass on our back garden lawn (where I imagine the young shoots of grass were more tender than the field beyond, devoted to sheep) In the past, we also had visits from a golden pheasant, several foxes and a green woodpecker but of course had an ancient old apple orchard to one side (lost after three planning appeal to housing) and now building is starting at the rear. Although I used to fight these developments, these days I have given up the unequal fight and let what will be, will be. On the political front, we are waiting to see how developed the trade war will be between the USA and its immediate neighbours to the North (Canada) and the South (Mexico), What has fuelled the Trump anger against trade deficits (which in his mind is a kind of subsidy to countries exporting to the USA) is the following. Where once goods would flow directly from China to the US, there is evidence to suggest many of them are instead flowing, mostly in the form of components, to ‘third countries’, including Mexico, and then being assembled into finished products and sent into the US, and this process might accelerate in the coming years. But negotiating with Trump has its dangers as the Colombians found to their cost where they tried to refuse a planeload of migrants and immediately were subject to such punitive sanctions that they backtracked almost immediately. One of the basic tenets of politics (or deal making) is not to utter a threat that you do not intend to carry out. But in the case of Donald Trump, it is not just bluster but he does intend to carry out what he threatens, and if this is a case of destabilising the whole of the world’s financial and economic foundations, then so be it. In the Trump world view, all international bodies are stacked against the USA preventing his ‘Make America Great Again’ by which is meant total American dominance in every sphere of activity. Hence the phone calls with Canada where 20% tariff is due to applied in a day or so if not immediately and where in the Trump world view, Canada should be annexed as the 51st American state. When you have a neighbour as rich and powerful as the United States and the neighbour turns on their supposed allies, then where do they turn? The latest draconian Trump move is to close down the whole of $40 billion United States Aid agency with some unimaginable consequences for the poorest in the world. Tromp has tweeted that the agency is ‘broken beyond repair’ and is staffed by ‘radical left lunatics’. Earlier in the day, Elon Musk who is Trumps efficiency tsar asked to access secure files held by senior staff of the Aid agency, When they refused, they were promptly sacked and Musk, an unelected political force, called in US Marshalls to evict the executives denying access to secure files. These tactics are reminiscent of the Nazi bully boys in the 1930’s, but who in the world is going to gainsay them. We might ask what has happened to a ‘government of laws, not of men’ but there is an interesting debate to be had whether and in what context the word ‘laws’ implies ‘legislation’

The two carers came at the scheduled time this morning, including one I had not seen for some time. But as he was attempting to tidy up the hospital bed before leaving, he lifted up one corner of the mattress and the new bed got ‘stuck’ with the foot of the bed in a raised position. Everything we tried on the control failed to work and so we were resigned to telephone the only number that we had which was the manufacturer’s number to explain our predicament. So, I was not a happy bunny this morning, but my son happened to be at work in his office and he crawled under the bed and found a ratchet which had been displaced and managed to correct it manually. As it happens, the engineer is due around for a maintenance visit some time tomorrow so I can take the opportunity to ask him questions about the correct operation of the bed, a reset procedure and, most importantly, a telephone number to ring in case there are emergencies some time in the future.

In view of various comings and goings this morning, I decided not to take Meg for a walk. We lunched on chicken legs which I bought (more cheaply) with skin on and bones in and then discarded these after cooking as I believe you get the flavour but without the fat. Having seared the chicken well, I cooked it in a tin of chicken soup enhanced by a cheese white sauce and then also cooked alongside it some oven chips which I have had in the freezer for ages but not actually consumed for as long as I can remember but the result was suitably tasty. I got about one half of the intended quantity inside Meg but she can pretty difficult to feed if she slumps in the chair and turns her head to one side (away from me) occasionally not even opening her mouth when prompted. All of these latter are sequelae of the dementia which, of course I have read about and know about but it still makes life to deal with. Another irritation of life as that have mislaid the TV remote but fortunately I had spare standing by just in case of emergency because with a remote the TV seems inoperable. I know misplacing the remote is symptom of tiredness but I will have to wait until Meg is asleep before I turn the room upside down later on (although I hunted for it for over an hour last night.)

On Saturday in the late afternoon, we watched the England-Ireland rugby match which was one of the first in the series when the outcome could not be predicted with any certainty. The England team made a roaring start, almost playing the Irish at their own game with lightning-fast tackles and a ferocious efforts in the breakdowns. By half time, England had a lead of 10-5 which they sustained in the early part of the second half. But the Irish gradually got their act together and eventually overhauled England with a fairly convincing victory. So, on present form, the two teams that will slug it out for the head of the table will be Ireland and France and England, despite a promising start, will probably end up in the middle of the table. I think there are more games next weekend and then a fortnight’s break, probably to lick wounds and to recover from injuries. Naturally the press is seizing upon every word of analysis of the horrendous air crash in Washington and the other night there was a press conference held b the National Transportation and Safety Board who have the responsibility to investigate the cash for probably causes. An anomaly has come to light which is, as yet, unexplained and that is the altitudes at which the two aircraft collided. the ‘black box’ recovered from the airliner shows that the airliner was travelling at a height of 325 feet, plus or minus 25feet. But preliminary data in the air traffic control tower showed the Black Hawk helicopter at 200ft at the time and the discrepancy has yet to be explained. Any explanation must be speculative at this time, but a possibility is that either one or even both of the recording instruments was incorrectly calibrated and perhaps giving false pictures for years. Having said that, one assumes that the airliner’s data has to be the most accurate but if I had to make a guess at this stage it is that the airport’s own radar navigational aid giving a reading of 200 feet is erroneous. This story will run and run and no doubt will dominate the media all day long.

After I had breakfasted Meg this morning on her customary porridge, I was pleased to have found a slightly different way of getting fluid into Meg which is so problematic these days. Some time ago when Meg and I used to roam the charity shops I picked up a dinky little coffee cup which was only 6cm tall and 6 cm wide at the top. This was adorned as a ‘Present from San Francisco’ but I picked i t up form 50p and have tended to use it, for example, to convey pills from to place or to give her a little yogurt, I have found that if I fill up Meg’s feeder cup, I then use it as a ‘source’ cop for the tiny little one which, as it so small and fine, Meg finds easier. Using this, I managed to get some soup into Meg this morning and later on some fruit juice. Shortly after 10.00am, I popped down in the car to pick up a copy of the Sunday newspaper and in the course of my journey get a phone call from our University of Birmingham friend. He popped around in half an hour and we spent a very happy hour and a half talking over our favourite subjects which includes statistics, cosmology and various scientific subjects in between that happen to take our fancy. Then it was time for the carer to call so our friend took his leave, and I assisted the carer (her ‘double up’ having gone home sick) Then it was a case of cooking dinner, and I had some chicken legs to prepare but I was a bit short of time. So, I resurrected some pork mince from the freezer, fried this with some onions and added an onion gravy enhanced by brown fruity sauce and I was delighted that I managed to get the whole of Meg’s portion into her. Immediately after lunch, Meg and I watched a sort of travelogue about a couple traversing the Yorkshire Dales and looking at the traditional industries in some of the Dales villages (such as rope ,manufacturer and curd making) Then Meg and I started to watch again the Austen production os ‘Sense and Sensibility’ which was punctuated by the rugby yesterday and during which I managed to sleep a good portion. When Meg was in bed last night, I notices a little advertised film version of ‘Emma’ which I have seen before but for which I have a particular feeling (not always favourable) as it is the play I studied for my GCE in English Literature from 1960-1961.

Since Donald Trump has instituted trade sanctions against both Canada and Mexico, both have responded with trade sanctions of their own. The conventional wisdom amongst economists is that one sanctions have been exchanged on a tit-for-tat basis, then all parties to the sanctions end up being the poorer. Whether this will be so in this case will take some months to resolve but for the moment, the UK seems to have escaped the wrath of Donald Trump. Also on the economic sphere, we are now at the fifth anniversary of Brexit and what opinion polls have been collected seem to indicate that the majority of Britons now regret the decision to leave but are unsure what any new and more sophisticated with Europe is likely to be. Keir Starmer is very nervous about the public reaction if the UK were to enter into any closer association with Europe, but closer ties are now being explored such as the possibility of some student exchanges. But the current Labour government will not endorse any move that could be interpreted (by the right-wing press, naturally) as a betrayal of Brexit and the reintroduction of the mobility of labour provisions. It is a particular irony, though, that since the implementation of Brexit, many of the migrant workers who have returned to Europe are white (Poland, Latvia etc,) whereas the majority of the newly arrived and quite legal immigrants who are staffing our care services are from countries such as Nigeria. Is this what the xenophobes who fuelled the Brexit debate actually had in mind?

So I treated myself to watching the first of the rugby matches in the ‘Six Nations’ competition but, as widely predicted, gallant little Wales were blown away by a much superior France team. It is not that the Welsh played particularly badly but the first two French tries were brilliantly executed with a full frontal engagement of the French forwards and then two brilliantly executed curling balls out to the wing that enables the two wingers to score. Dupont was,as usual, brilliant and most unselfish often making an ‘assist’ pass when he could probably have scored himself. The economic news this morning is the unwelcome news that AstraZeneca is pulling out of the investment that it was going to make in a modern pharmaceutical plant near Liverpool producing, probably vaccines which we shall surely need when a new pandemic strikes us. The previous government had issued what appears to be a subsidy of some £90m towards the building of the £450m but the new Labour government only offered £40bn and hence the AstraZeneca pullout. But this is part of a strategy on the part of the big multinational companies who often go round from government to government extracting bigger and bigger promises of support from competing governments until they extract the best deal that they can (and probably built the plan where they intended to in the first place but with an even greater subsidy than before. This raises the interesting theoretical point that a government can make any industry profitable or unprofitable according to the size of the subsidy they manage to extract from the government of the day. Is this ‘standing on your own two feet’ (an important refrain from the Right) or not? The weather started off at about 3° today, cloudy but with a light breeze and may well repeat the pattern of yesterday when the temperature was above freezing but it nonetheless felt quite cold all day long.

After breakfast this morning, I had in mind that we wrap Meg up warmly in her blankets and proceed down the hill, which we did. We met up with two of our friends in Wetherspoons, partaking of our normal breakfast fare and immediately afterwards, I knew that I wanted to visit our bank to take out some cash. When we got inside the branch, we utilised the ATM machine inside which functioned as far as as returning my card and was about to dispense my cash when the machine malfunctioned. I called over to one of the two members of staff to attend to the machine which she did once she had finished with another customer and then I needed to see the other member of staff working behind the counter to get my own cash out. So I was relieved when eventually I got my hands on the money and then we made for home. Getting inside our house is always quite a complicated procedure because I first have to use some brushes to get the external ‘road dirt’ of the wheels of the wheelchair and, generally speaking, Miggles the cat who has adopted us is lurking eager to gain admittance and to be fed. Then I have to get Meg inside, clean off the wheels with a sponge, de-blanket Meg and finally get some warm drink ready for her. I needed to see what to prepare for lunch and I found a goodly portion of risotto which needed to be resurrected from the freezer and to which I added some green beans. I had just about eaten my portion of dinner when the carers arrived for Meg – one of them is the young Asian boy who we see nearly every day whilst the other on this lunchtime was a college student who is studying ‘A’-levels and aiming to get into medical school. She gave me the good news that she had a very successful interview last week with the University of her first choice, which was Birmingham, and had shortly afterwards received an offer of a place upon achieving the grades of A,A and B which she thought was quite within her grasp. Perhaps it is because of the young carers but Meg seemed to be in a very good mood with them whilst they were attending to her and I have noticed this before with young carers who seem to have the facility to make Meg relax with them much better than with some of the older ones.

In the afternoon, I started to watch the Scotland versus Italy match which is turning out to be quite a pulsating one as the Italians draw level with the Scots in the second half, although the Scots then took the lead again Then with some of the exigencies of programme scheduling, there is going to be a film of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ which I think I shall watch by abandoning the second half of the (admittedly) quite exciting Scotland-Italy game. There seems to be a viewing of a Jane Austen film about once a fortnight which suits me down to the ground. This particular production is one with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman and is bound to be one of the better productions in this genre. I appreciate Jane Austen more and more these days and suspect that I was first introduced to the novelist via ‘Emma’ at the age of 15 when I was rather in an ‘angry young man phase’ that I did not really appreciate Austen to the extent that I do now. We have the treat of England versus Ireland in the rugby later on the afternoon and, hopefully, and I shall have to abandon ‘Sense and Sensibility’ after an hour to watch the start of the match. Watching the Austen production, I am always forcefully reminded of the dire position of women at the time that Austen was writing when basically women were almost like property at the disposal of men and marriage, if one was asked, was one’s only route out of poverty. I suppose that most people know that Jane Austen herself did accept a proposal of marriage herself late one morning but in the morning, changed her mind and informed her intended husband of the fact.

The end of the week and the weekend is a period to which many people look forward in their working lives but, of course, it is a little different for Meg and I now that we have been retired for so long. Nonetheless, this is a weekend to which I am looking forward for a variety of reasons. One of these is that Saturday is the 1st February and is a 28-day (i.e. exactly 4-week month) and marks the start of an experimental period for us. Many people engage in a ‘dry’ January and sometimes February, after the alcohol consumption over the Christmas period. This is not so in our case, but I am embarking on an ‘Amazon’ and ‘eBay’ free month to see how I manage. When I have managed this casually to some of the care workers, none of them seem to think that I can possibly manage it as they themselves feel they could not – but I think hey have underestimated my resolve in this matter. Every so often it is a good idea to review one’s expenditure and particularly to review those pesky subscriptions that come around about once a year and, for which, can be quite difficult to budget. So this will be an interesting month ahead starting this Saturday. Also, by Friday the week’s shopping has already been done (typically on a Thursday) and our domestic help calls around, an event to which we always look forward. This weekend, starting on Friday night, is the start of the ‘Six Nations’ rugby competition and Meg and I have typically enjoyed this. On Friday night, we are going to witness Wales vs. France which happens to be one of the weakest teams in the competition against probably the strongest. The Welsh rugby team is undergoing the worst period in its long and illustrious history and has a run of about seventeen straight defeats and there are fears in Wales that if they do not turn their fortunes around, spectators will drift away and follow other sports. The opening games are always fascinating because whilst there may some international matches in the autumn, the winter is a time for team building, new personnel selection ad the formulation of new strategies and tactics. So the opening games are always fascinating to see how these plans come to fruition. f Wales do not lose very heavily to France, then this might be an important marker for the rest of the season. Meanwhile, the first England match against Ireland is on Saturday and Ireland aim to be the first team to win the series for three years in a row. To add a little more incentive to the competition, the Six Nations has developed a series of bonus points. These are a point for scoring four or more tries in a single match (a try bonus), a point for teams that lose by seven or fewer points (a losing bonus) and three points to a team that wins all five of their matches (a Grand Slam bonus). This weekend, we see all six teams in action (one match on Friday and two on Saturday) so this is a pleasure to unwind for us.

This morning after we had breakfasted and we had caught up with our weekly news with our domestic help, we awaited the arrival of the Eucharistic minister who comes from our local church to provide Meg with some spiritual comfort. She herself seemed to be surrounded by family and friends experiencing a spate of funerals as was indeed our domestic help who was going off to a funeral later on in the morning. Although the day started off at a reasonable temperature, it was one of those days when a low cloud seemed to trap the cold air and make the whole day rather chilly. When we have had fine weather and clear skies, the temperature had warmed up somewhat by the end of the morning but today the weather app on my phone tells me that it is 8° but felt like 3° In the later part of the morning, we looked on to the Channel 4 catch up channel and decided to watch ‘Brian and Maggie’ which was a series built around the television interviews that Brian Walden held with Margaret Thatcher which is now said to be very hard hitting and contributing to her downfall but that does not accord with my understanding at the time. Earlier in the morning, I had made a contribution to my family finances by telephoning the Subscriptions department of ‘The Times’ indicating that I was minded to end my subscription. Initially, I was offered a reduction of one quarter of the entire price but this was then increased to a reduction of one half which I accepted for the next three months ahead. What I will do after that, I will have to wait and see.

The air crash in Washington is continuing to surprise us, not least with the interventions of Donald Trump who is trying his hardest to make political capital out of the tragic event. One fact to emerge is that one air traffic controller was allowed to leave his duties early only leaving one to handle the business of the current shift. Another point that has emerged is that the helicopter may have been flying at 400′ rather than 200′. But it would be better all round if the competent safety authorities were left to go about their investigations rather than have the speculations of journalists on the one hand and the ramblings of Donald Trump on the other. The black boxes from the airliner and the helicopter have been recovered and they will require as rapid an analysis as possible to avoid future problems. The most important single bit of information is what the two Black Hawk helicopter pilots were saying to each other and whether they were performing a normal or an extra-ordinary manoeuvre at the time. The indications at the moment, though, although fingers of blame are pointed in various directions, it does appear that the military aircraft (the helicopter) must shoulder the major share of the blame.

When I awoke this morning, there was quite a dramatic news flash that made one’s stomach turn over. This was the news that Donald Trump was not only going to extend the military detention centre at the now infamous Guantanamo Bay in Cuba but also that a further facility was to be constructed that would hold 30,000 detainees as the Trump regime processed the illegal migrants into the USA. But this news was itself crowded out by even more dramatic news about a horrendous air crash in Washington, DC in the vicinity of the Potomac river. A military helicopter seems to have been flown straight into the path of an incoming jet and the casualties are reported to be very heavy. As the crash took place at night and the weather conditions are very cold as is usual for Washington at this time of year, then rescue attempts are proving to be very difficult. No doubt as daylight dawns, this event will dominate the news media throughout the day, but it could be one of those crashes in which there are no survivors. The political news from home today is that water bills will rise by about £123 a year (£12 a month) from April which is the largest price hike since privatisation is even more than the £86 predicted by Ofwat as companies add inflation on top. It seems ironic that this is happening when a Labour government is in power and will no doubt be accompanied by howls of protest. The companies say themselves that this price increase is necessary to fund the investment programmes that the water supply and drainage industry so critically needs but of course so much money as already been siphoned off (if I can use that phrase) to fund the bonuses of the executives who run the industry and have regarded it as a gravy train for years. The day before Rachel Reeves had announced her growth ‘reset’ and announced the intention to build a third runway at Heathrow. The chancellor says the expansion of Europe’s busiest airport is ‘badly needed’ – but the Green Party’s Sian Berry calls it ‘the most irresponsible announcement from any government I have seen since the Liz Truss budget’ with which judgement I must concur here and there also mutterings that in all of the recent growth agenda, the North of England is being relatively ignored. One has to say that with the correction of an Oxford-Cambridge ‘arc’ announced yesterday and the Heathrow announcement, then the announcement of plans to renovate Old Trafford, the home ground of Manchester United, have received public support from Chancellor Rachel Reeves but must seem pretty small beer. Last week, the Government approved plans to revitalise the region surrounding Old Trafford, citing it as ‘a shining example’ of its ambitions to foster economic growth.

Yesterday got off to a very slow start as the care session was scheduled for 8.40 but the pair of care workers did not urn up until nearly 9.15. I have a fair idea of what happened as one of the young carers who arrives by motorbike had picked up a spike in his tyre which causing him to have a slow puncture. So unable to use his own means of transport, the young worker had to rely upon another colleague to bring him and she is generally late anywhere. As soon as Meg was up I gave her normal breakfast of porridge followed by a banana and then immediately went off to the weekly shopping. Fortunately, this went fairly smoothly but I had to race around because I wanted to get back before the District Nurses were due call to check over Meg’s pressure points. The sit finished and soon afterwards, the two care workers called around for mMg’s lunchtime call. They had not long departed when the District Nurse called around and this meant that she and I had to utilise the hoist, once again, to get Meg into position on her hospital bed so that her pressure points could be checked over. The District Nurse did bring with het two ‘gel’ cushion type arrangements to fit under each heel and we discussed the best ways in which myself and the carers should manage this aspect of Meg’s care. After all this, it was time for a very late lunch so I fried three small onions and then added some low fat pork mince to them. When this mixture is softened and half cooked, I made an onion gravy which I enhance with a dollop of brown sauce. This stew I then serve with a baked potato and some of the last remaining bits of Cavolo Nero kale. I was pleased to see that Meg had her (normal for her) ration of this and followed it up with some Coconut yogurt so although I did not much succeed in getting much fluid into Meg these days. After the District Nurse called around, I continued with writing my blog in plenty of time so that it can be posted into the WordPress system and Meg and I were listening to the last of the Simon Sharma programmes on ‘The Story of Us’ which is like a modern cultural history. Simon Sharma was born almost a couple of months earlier than myself so we are almost exact contemporaries.

Asa we might imagine, the US plane crash is receiving so much media attention. It looks as though the military helicopter was definitely ‘in the wrong’ but, of course analysis and blame will continue for the days ahead. In the meanwhile, Donald Trump is doing his best by being unpresidential and blaming ‘diversity’ training’ as the case of the cash. He now appears to be ad-libbing and is using the briefing to make political points. He says he will ‘restore faith in American air travel’ but hits out at the Federal Aviation Administration, criticising what he says are rules on who can work in air traffic control and government diversity efforts. ‘My administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety,’ he says, adding you need a very special genius to coordinate air traffic. Instead, he says the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) was ‘actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions’.

I had a much better night’s sleep last night for the following reason. As Meg has now been supplied with an ‘Airflow’ mattress which is specifically designed to reduce the incidence of pressure sores, the old mattress was requisitioned. with the tacit approval of the District nurses. to put on my own camp bed which sits alongside Meg’s hospital bed. My own back is in a fairly parlous state dating from the days when I was pulling Meg off the floor up to four times a day but is just about recovering its equilibrium. So I explained this to the nurses who were not unhappy that I try and protect my own back by having a slightly better mattress. I had already bought an electric over blanket for Meg to help her through the coldest days of the winter when we were experiencing temperatures of -6° Celsius and I have requisitioned this as well as I felt that my need is greater than Meg’s if I have to get up in the middle of the night (which is every night, these days) So a combination of a much better mattress plus an electric blanket is adding to my comfort level considerably. I had kept falling out of the bed as I put the ‘new’ mattress on top of the previous one which was not a very stable combination. Now with the help of one of the young male carers who often ask if I need any assistance with anything, we totally made up my bed from scratch the evening before so now I am much more comfortable as well as being warm.

In the US, Donald Trump through his Presidential Decrees is trying to implement his pledge to dramatically roll back immigration through the use of what is now as the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) regulations. The effect is that many migrants who used to sleep outdoors are now doing what they can to sleep indoors so that they do not come to the attention of the enforcement officers. Cities like Chicago ( a staunchly Democrat city) are publishing posters informing migrants what they should do if they should come to the attention of the authorities. As well as being told to stay indoors, they are being advised to say nothing and to sign no documents. Whether these strategies will help to prevent their enforced removal remains to be seen but certainly the streets of Chicago which had a fair share of migrants on its streets are now practically empty.

Yesterday was quite a busy morning for us. We had no particular commitments in the early morning so decided to transport Meg down the hill in order to pick up the copy of our daily newspaper and had only just got back in time when two workers – both Polish ladies – came to do their midday checks on Meg. At the instigation of the care agency manager, we are now examining and treating Meg for any possible pressure sores that may be developing as a result of several hours of immobility in her chair and were nearly at the end of this process when the SALT (Speech and Language Therapist) arrived to do an assessment on Meg. He particularly wanted to observe me getting some food and drink inside Meg so I prepared a warm fruit juice for her to drink and then a coup of thick soup to see how more solid food is handled. In general, the specialist agreed with my own observations and I showed him how I could get Meg to partake of some soup but fluids were a more difficult matter. All I really leant was that I was already doing the right thing and just needed to persist along the same road but be prepared for it to take some time to get food and drink inside Meg. The specialist made a succession of notes and I asked him if he could take his hand-written notes and send them onto me in an email. From here, I can circulate the suggestions to the care agency manager and he can then ensure that some of the most important bits are incorporated into the care plan for Meg and also communicated to all of the staff. It might be that in the middle of the day when the tasks are not quite so pressing, some of the care staff can take some of their allocated time getting fluid into Meg. I discovered in our cutlery drawer a deep type of teaspoon which I think is better known as a jam spoon and whilst the worker was with us and taking notes, I used this spoon to ladle at least half a mug full of juice into Meg.

Just after lunch, our hairdresser called around but Meg was fast asleep so there only me to be processed. Our hairdresser has experience of dementia in her own family and so is very understanding about these issues. She and I have agreed a regime to see if, in future, the hairdresser can come around midday itself and get Meg’s hair done without colliding too much with the carers’ lunchtime slot. We then agreed a time slot for the next visit so that the hairdresser can cut Meg’s chair whilst she is in her wheelchair and can be wheeled onto the kitchen floor (where I have my hair cut as well so mch easier to sweep up the clippings afterwards) In the late afternoon, although Meg was sleeping, we witnessed some of the Senate committee hearings into the confirmation of J F Kennedy as Trump’s pick as Health Secretary. The meetings were at times tetchy and at other times fiery. One Democratic senator says committee staff have examined thousands of books, podcasts and statements in a review of Kennedy. ‘The receipts show RFK Jr has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans – especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines… He has made it his lifes work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids lifesaving vaccines.’ The Democratic senators will vote ‘en bloc’ to oppose the appointment, but how many of the Trump supporting senators will break ranks and vote with the Democrats although Kennedy, from his past speeches and writing, must be one of the most unsuitable presidential nominees for many a long year.

After the experience of Holocaust Day yesterday, I was a little intrigued by another holocaust event which is scarcely mentioned, or even known about these days. This is the case of the Armenians who also suffered a genocide at the hands of the Ottoman empire. The Armenian genocide was the mass murder of at least 664,000 and up to 1.2 million Armenians by the nationalist ruling party of the Ottoman Empire, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, also known as the Young Turks), between 1915 and 1916. The Armenians were a primarily Christian ethnic group who had lived in Eastern Anatolia (modern day Eastern Turkey) for centuries. At the turn of the twentieth century, approximately two million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire, primarily in rural areas although there were also small communities in large urban areas such as Constantinople. While life was often unpredictable and unjust, under the empire’s millet system in the nineteenth century, the group did enjoy significant administrative and social autonomy, and had their own language and church. As the First World War loomed, the Ottoman Empire was in a state of decline and as a result had become increasingly polarised. Between 1912 and 1913, the Empire lost 83% of its European territories during the largely unsuccessful Balkan Wars. This led to increase in anti-Christian sentiment and amplified the nationalist desire of the Ottoman leaders to create an ethnically homogenous community. It was hoped that this community would then strengthen the empire through shared beliefs and, as a result, ensure its survival. As the majority of the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire were Muslim, the Christian Armenians were increasingly seen as outsiders and a threat to the harmony of the empire. Armenian genocide survivors were Armenians in the Ottoman Empire who survived the Armenian genocide. After the end of World War I, many tried to return home to the Ottoman rump state, which later became Turkey. The Turkish nationalist movement saw the return of Armenian survivors as a mortal threat to its nationalist ambitions and the interests of its supporters. The return of survivors was therefore impossible in most of Anatolia and thousands of Armenians who tried were murdered. Nearly 100,000 Armenians were massacred in Transcaucasia during the Turkish invasion of Armenia and another 100,000 fled from Cilicia during the French withdrawal. By 1923, about 295,000 Armenians ended up in the Soviet Union, mainly Soviet Armenia; an estimated 200,000 settled in the Middle East, forming a new wave of the Armenian diaspora and about 100,000 Armenians lived in Constantinople and another 200,000 lived in the Turkish provinces, largely women and children who had been forcibly converted. Though Armenians in Constantinople faced discrimination, they were allowed to maintain their cultural identity, unlike those elsewhere in Turkey who continued to face forced Islamisation and kidnapping of girls after 1923. Between 1922 and 1929, the Turkish authorities eliminated surviving Armenians from southern Turkey, expelling thousands to French-mandate Syria. To complete this little potted history, by the 1920’s nearly 818,000 had made their way to the US.

In the morning, once Meg and I had breakfasted, I got her warmly wrapped in her normal swathe of blankets and we made our way down the hill to our customary venue of Wetherspoons. There we met up with one of our regular friends but not the other as she was afflicted by quite a bad cold so was going to give today a miss. We chatted about some of the items in this day’s blog as well as indulging in an egg and bacon breakfast crumpet, accompanied by hot chocolate. In the morning, the care manager had put himself on duty and bin a little concerned about the treatment and analgesics that Meg was (not) getting from the nursing medical teams. So messages were sent off to nurses in one direction and to doctors, in the other. The nursing team were not scheduled to arrive until Thursday whereas I could have done with then somewhat sooner. But later in the day, I received two telephone calls, of which the first was especially welcome. We are due a visit from the SALT (Speech and Language Therapist) specialist who is going to come tomorrow at a time when Meg is trying to eat some food so that he can observe her swallowing reflexes and give us some recommendations. In the early afternoon, I received a phone call from the same Physician Associate who saw Meg about ten days go and we discussed two particular items of concern. The first of these was to discuss what elements of pain relief Meg should be receiving where plainly there is a divergence of view between what the care agency manager is seeing in most of his patients and what the doctor calls ‘the start of the analgesic ladder’ So we are being prescribed co-codamol which may or may not be effective but will almost certainly be constipating. I am due to give this medication about an hour before the care agencies are starting to handle Meg. The second issue if the contracture in the muscles of Meg’s legs which are a consequence of sitting in the same position for hours each day as well as the prevention of bed sores occurring on Meg’s back. The care home manager and myself adjusted Meg’s specialist seat supports and this may help to keep Meg’s legs in a more horizontal position which might assist in subsequent manipulation and handing. The bed sore issue will addressed most fully by the District Nurses who be calling on Thursday which rather clashes with my ‘shopping sit’ but I will probably need to ensure that I am here one way or another when the Nurses come to call. Now that we are at this stage, I feel as though I am in a large leaking bucket rushing to stop one leak rather than another but I suppose it is inevitable that Meg’s needs will grow more and more complex as her overall mobility declines.

I am quite enjoying the Brian Cox programmes on comparisons between the planets in our solar system. Preceding this was a programme on wild life in China where I discovered that China actually has its own supply of elephants in the wild (the ‘Asian wild elephant’ no less) China has cracked down hard on poaching and, as a result, the wild elephant population in Yunnan province has gone from 193 in the 1990s to about 300 today.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day and is quite natural that the attention of the world is focused upon the terrible events of 80 years ago when the Soviet troops discovered the terrible sights to behold at Auschwitz. But is also the case, but not particularly well known, that apart from the 6 million Jews murdered in the concentration camps. the Nazis also had other victims in their sights. It was the explicit aim of Hitler’s regime to create a European world both dominated and populated by the Aryan race. The Nazi machinery was dedicated to eradicating millions of people it deemed undesirable. Some people were undesirable by Nazi standards because of who they were, their genetic or cultural origins, or health conditions. These included Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other Slavs, and people with physical or mental disabilities. Others were Nazi victims because of what they did. These victims of the Nazi regime included Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, the dissenting clergy, Communists, Socialists, ‘asocial’s, and other political enemies. Those believed by Hitler and the Nazis to be enemies of the state were banished to camps. Inside the concentration camps, prisoners were forced to wear various coloured triangles, each colour denoting a different group. The BBC showed the film of ‘Schindler’s List’ late the evening before and we would normally have liked to have watched this. But Meg and I saw it fairly recently, just before Christmas I think, and as it was so long we viewed it in two tranches. I am not sure that Meg could follow it at all in her current state of health, though. Apart from all of this, two other items caught by attention although I have not investigated them fully. The first of these was a suggestion that a fast railway line be built between Oxford and Cambridge in an attempt to create a UK version of ‘Silicon Valley’ along it. No doubt, there would be a selection of science parks and a collection of dormitory suburbs with suitable access to the enhanced railway line but this has always struck me as a particularly good idea. I do wish that the Labour Party would adopt as a policy the creation of new communities rather than just the building of houses ‘per se’ because this means that the much needed infrastructure would be provided from scratch. Here in Bromsgrove, there seems to be new housing developments in every direction that one looks. The road improvements are promised after the houses have been built but if and when it happens, it is too little and too late. The second news item that caught my idea is the idea floated by the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, that A&E patients be treated ‘at home’ Although no doubt there needs to be access to diagnostic facilities, I am sure that quite a lot can be done for patients at home with drips provided and some smart technology deployed for some diagnostics. Some of this must be preferable to spending 10-12 hours on a trolley in a hospital corridor. Incidentally, the NHS is now advertising for ‘corridor nurses’ so there must be an expectation that the A&E crisis will be with us for some time.

This morning, I pushed Meg down the hill and we met up with our two Irish friends that we had agreed to meet in Wetherspoons. We actually had quite a lot of news to catch up upon with one thing or another but had a really enjoyable chat. Whilst in the queue for the coffee machine, I bumped into another close acquaintance – Seasoned World Traveller – with whom I used to have long and detailed discussions mainly of an political and economic nature when we were both habitués of the park during the COVID days. He now has a logistics job of some sort in one of the local supermarkets and is is enjoying the experience of work once again. We were just on the point of having to leave our friends when we all bumped into some other friends of friends, an Irish couple in their 80’s who used to run a pub but are still very active in getting out and about. So it was great to see them once again. The husband of our Irish friends helped me to [push Meg back up in the hill in her wheelchair and whilst in the vicinity of their house ran into yet another of our Catholic friends who we have not seem for some time. We are all delighted to learn that another of our little circle who has often entertained us to coffee and cakes and has decided to sell her house has now decided to stay within Bromsgrove. Although she has her house on the market, she has changed her plans which were initially to move to be near her daughter in Sandbach in Cheshire, which is quite understandable. But now she has decided to stay in Bromsgrove where she is near to a range of social contacts and medical facilities. I am delighted she is not moving away and therefore ‘lost’ to us but will still remain in the area when no doubt we can meet up from time to time.

Starmer and Trump have had a long conversation with each other over the weekend and it is always difficult to know what the outcome of this conversation has been. Starmer no doubt flattered Trump’s ego by telling him what a good job he has done securing a peace agreement in Gaza and has also extended an invitation to visit the UK officially which no doubt Trump will lap up (strolling with the King in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and the like.) Whatever the rights and wrongs, I think that our Royal Family is well used to buttering up quite obnoxious heads of state if it is seen as in the long term British interest to do so. The case of President Xi Jinping of China visited the UK in 2015 and David Cameron promised a ‘golden era’ in Sino-UK relationships. The definitive statement on all of this was enunciated decades ago. Lord Palmerston, one of Imperial Britain’s most distinguished prime ministers of the 19th century, is remembered as a liberal at home, but a hardliner in promoting British interests abroad. He was a firm believer in the maxim that in foreign policy, the ends justify the means. His clearest elucidation of the conduct of foreign policy came when he stated: ‘I say that it is a narrow policy to believe that this country or that has marked out the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy. We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual and these interests it is our duty to follow.’ In the present day and age, every nation professes to observe the highest principles and moral standards. But are values like love for democracy or ideology really respected or observed, in the conduct of foreign policy? If I had to paraphrase all of this, it would be that the UK state has no principles but only interests.

For reasons best known to itself, yesterday is the one day of the week when the care agency decides to come along one hour early at 7.00am. One hour is not quite enough for me to get some of my early morning routines undertaken so I got up at 5.30am this morning which is not my preferred start to the day. However, I am a little relieved that the weather forecast has indicated it is starting 2° higher this morning and one is always thankful for small mercies. I looked ahead to see what the weather is going to be like and it seems that a succession of squally showers is going to sweep up the country but not the hard frost or the dreaded snow to which I never look forward these days. It seems that the exchange of prisoners and hostages is now taking place more or less smoothly although as I write there seems to be a holdup with the release of one Israeli hostage who be being held by a group other than Hamas. But by releasing four IDF soldiers, as Hamas did today, they secured the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners, including many high-profile detainees. This is many more prisoners than if Hamas had released civilians. The media is dominated by the scenes of ecstatically happy reunions with the Palestinian prisoners, in particular, being treated as returning war heroes. Many, if not all of these Palestinian prisoners were held in what the Israeli’s called ‘administrative detention’ and were not brought to trial or charged but. held in gaols, some military and some civilian, in Israel. This makes their situation almost analogous (but not completely) with the hostages that the Palestinians have been holding. Of course, what we are seeing now is the exchange of live prisoners but in the weeks ahead we will see the exchange of the bodies of those who have died whilst detained by the other side and this is bound to the focus of much mourning anger at the point when it happens and is going to be a very tense for the whole peace process.

On the recommendations of one of Waitrose friends, I hunted out and bought a packet of jelly from the shop. This is to aid me in my efforts to get fluid into Meg and as jelly is mainly water and a little gelatine, this sounded to be a good idea. I have managed to live the best part of 80 years without ever having made jelly but it really is simplicity itself (half a pint of boiling water, dissolve the jelly, top up with half a pint of cold water and then when cooled off, store in the fridge to set) I am not in possession of a jelly mould but I emptied the contents into an earthenware cooking dish and will give some to Meg later on today. Having bought Meg some Horlicks the other day, I am mow making this as a mixture of three quarters Horlicks powder and a quarter hot chocolate drink powder and the drink is a very pleasing and good alternative to the tea and coffee I generally ingest throughout the day. I popped out to get a newspaper from the local garage and then our University of Birmingham friend came around mid-morning who is always nice to chat with. But he had not been with us that long when he received a phone call which meant that he rather to dash away to see a friend who had been taken ill.

In the late morning, I fed Meg some jelly and this seemed to go down OK. I then followed this up with a mini-bowl of a thick vegetable soup which I buy in my local supermarket and is very versatile. The mini-bowl is actually I believe an oven proof steak and kidney dish and I bought a couple about a year ago in a charity shop. As well as being ovenproof and microwave safe, they fit beautifully into one hand and this excellent for a carer such as myself. As well as the bits of food, I got Meg to eat her half of the dinner which was particularly good today as it was part of a beef joint cooked a month back and one half put into the freezer, supplemented by some Cavolo Nero kale and a baked potato. I have been forced to experiment to get food and drink inside Meg but my recent efforts have been fairly successful. I am also continuing my experimentation to find the optimum level of heating including hot water provision but I am slightly frustrated because the most definitive picture is provided by my energy supplier, Octopus, whose website is generally very good but that say that the data for the next day or so is not yet available although it must be sent hour by hour if not minute by minute.

In the afternoon there was a spoof film ‘Horrible Histories’ being broadcast on BBC1 but unfortunately, I seemed to doze during most of it. But I always peruse the schedules to see if there is anything broadcast that date that I can watch on catchup the following day and I am delighted that the ‘Six Nations’ rugby cup is going to start next weekend starting on Friday evening. Reading what the rugby journalists have to say, it looks as though the French team, although beatable, has so much talent that they will probably win the championship. In the meanwhile, Wales and Italy may fight it out to see who takes the wooden spoon i.e. comes bottom of the pile whilst the England team will probably end up in the middle of the table. When Meg and I used to go on holiday to a particular hotel in Salobreña in Southern Spain, the Brits always used to monopolise the TV lounge to watch the Six Nations rugby and if there were any Welsh guests in attendance, they would sing ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ (Land of my Fathers) with great gusto. Any Spanish or fellow Europeans would watch on in astonishment to see the Welsh singing their heads off and watched the Brits enjoying themselves with an amused detachment. I think they were intrigued by hearing the Welsh singing in Welsh which they had probably never heard in their lives before.