Yesterday, the day dawned cloudy and gloomy. I had a quick look at what the weather prospects might be and was informed that it was going to be a breezy day with the prospect of thundery showers. This makes the task of wondering what to wear more problematic because if you caught in a real downpour rather than just a slight drizzle you can easily be soaked to the skin. In all the time that I was pushing Meg in her wheelchair up and down the Kidderminster Road, we only got caught like this on one occasion but fortunately the minute we got home coincided with the visit of two carers who were quickly capable of stripping Meg of her rain-soaked clothing and getting her into some warm, dry clothing within a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, I have been turning my mind to a different topic altogether. My friend, the Seasoned World Traveller, with whom I had a conversation in Wetherspoons yesterday has enlisted my help in preparing a current CV in case he wants to move on from his present employment. But the whole jobs market and employment scene have moved on so considerably since I last had to prepare a CV for myself so any advice I might give might be outdated or inappropriate. Nonetheless, my friend has good spreadsheeting skills so I am going to give him the following advice. This is to make a full and comprehensive record of all the employment opportunities he has had in the last forty years. This is never going to be submitted but might be a way off ensuring that things are not forgotten or overlooked. I am also going to suggest that as well as details such as days, employers name and location, he constructs three further columns in the spreadsheet. These will be ‘Things I learned from that particular employment’, ‘Contributions made in that employment’ and finally ‘Reasons for leaving departing’ From this what might be called a ‘superset’ he then extracts what he considers to be a ‘subset’ which is especially relevant and tailored to the demands of the position for which he is applying. In the days when I used to consider applications for jobs that we had on offer, we often got applications that were generic and thrown at any jobs that were going – needless to say these were rejected almost automatically as they displayed a lack of serious effort and intent from the applicant. I am going to suggest two further facets to this process. This is to prepare a one page face sheet which is in fact a selling job – I am reminded of the fact that at Meg’s funeral I was given only 5 minutes (600 words) in which to summarise her life and achievements. My final suggestion is to prepare what I call a ‘discursive’ CV, unlike the usual list of dates and job details, but is an account of those facets of one’s employment experience (or life for that matter) that makes for a really good read. It will be interesting to see how my friend responds to my suggestions when next we meet, probably on Tuesday next.

After breakfast, I was delighted o receive an email from my University of Birmingham friend and we decided to go out to a leisure facility nearby which used to be sand, gravel and brine extraction area but which is now water filled and provides water based leisure facilities such as open air swimming, canoeing, kayaking and similar water-based activities. The attraction from the point of view of my friend and myself is that there is some attractive water to sit nearby and we can have a coffee relatively cheaply from the small cafe overlooking the facility. We spent a happy morning in conversation before my friend took me to collect my Sunday newspaper and then dropped me back at home. Then I went down by car as my Irish friends had very kindly invited me out for lunch and they had prepared a simple but excellent stir-fry for us all. As it happened, my friends had not been able to stay for the amusing anecdotes type speech I gave in the middle of Meg’s wake some eight weeks ago now so I as more than happy to retell the funniest of the stories for their benefit. I returned to a mess that BT and EE have between them created with my broadband connection, one having taken over the other and the two businesses not yet operating as one.

The start of the week looks busy as the car needs to be serviced (already booked in before the transfer of ownership to me) and I have some physiotherapy in the afternoon. As the weather is so threatening, I am a little loathe to start any gardening activities this afternoon but it is one of those days when the sky is constantly threatening but the rain never really seems to come. One has the feeling that a really good downpour would clear the air as well as being good for the garden. But the prolonged dry spell has meant that the grass has hardly grown at all which has meant that I have been spared mowing activities for a week or so now. Perusing the TV schedules, I am appalled about the amount of time devoted to Wimbledon these days – it seems that about 18 hours a day split between BBC1 and BBC2 is the order of the day whereas cricket gets one hour of a summary on BBC4. Of course, royalty regularly attends Wimbledon whilst attendance of royalty at cricket matches is rare. Nonetheless, I feel the attention given to tennis is disproportionate in the extreme this year. In the part of Yorkshire in which I grew up, we played cricket all year round including the winter using chalk marks on a lamp standard as our wicket. I have very few regrets in life but I do have one. If I had stayed on at the school I attended in Bolton, Lancashire whilst my mother as training to be teacher, then I would have been coached by a young West Indian cricketer who had come over to Lancashire to play in one of the Lancashire leagues during the summer (West Indian winter). The young but already famous West Indian cricketer was no other than… Gary Sobers!

As I was up during the night, I could not resist the temptation to discover what I could about the Monk’s Bench which used to belong to my father and was safely delivered to me yesterday in Bromsgrove. The piece is certainly quite large being some 1.45 metres in length (just short of 5′) and the seat forms a cover to a capacious chest as you would expect. The bench has three panels on the back and three on the front, five of them being the same which have the appearance of a ship’s wheel set in a framework and decorated with fern-line plants. But it is the central wood carved panel which arouses the most interest. It shows a couple in medieval garb (I would guess 17th century but it would take a more experienced historical eye to discern the exact period) and of the couple (man and female relative) the man is holding out his hand. Kneeling before him, and also extending her hand to receive what is being offered, is a woman also dressed similarly but in front of what appears to be a simple stone structure which could be a hermitage. There is a clue in the woodcarving because there is a type of rivulet between them which one might suppose is a flaw in the wood but was certainly carved in that way. I wonder whether the wood carver had found this way of expressing a sort of boundary line that was not to be crossed as the hands are extended across it. From my researches, it seems that mediaeval scenes were much beloved by the Victorians, perhaps recreating what they saw as a romanticised past golden era and this was quite a common motif in these monk’s benches. But the predominance of the ship’s wheel motif and the fact that my father had lived not far from the North Sea has made me wonder whether the whole piece might have been constructed from some of the oak remnants of a shipwreck and the bench was one way of commemorating the vessel. This is not entirely fanciful because I did read on the web of one’s monk’s bench constructed from this material. Looking at the superb hinges and examining the minute turnings of the elements of the ship’s wheels (if this is what they are) makes me believe that the whole is of oak, mid-Victorian construction but I realise that decoding the nature of the wood carved panel is calling for a lot of conjecture on my part. I think that when we have visitors to the house of a certain age, I will get them to cast their own critical eye on the piece of furniture and give me their considered opinion. But apart from all of these nocturnal investigations and musings, yesterday the day has started off gloomy and cooler than of late and I must ensure that I get down in time to see my Saturday friends (whom I missed last Tuesday as my X-ray appointment intervened)

In the morning, I walked down the hill and had a few minutes of conversation with my Italian friend. Again, I expressed to her my disappointment that she was selling up her house and leaving the area and I am sure that her mind is well and truly made up. I just repeated to her my regret that a long-standing friend would be leaving but I think the absence of a car these days is leaving her feeling a little isolated, coupled with the fact that her knee is continuing to give her some grief. Once I arrived in Wetherspoons, I eventually saw one of my two Saturday friends (it being still a bit too hot for the other one) We had our normal pleasant chat over breakfast and then I went to join my University of Birmingham friend and Seasoned World Traveller and we spent some time discussing such wonderful topics such as the state of our backs and the costs of funerals. Although this does not sound the most scintillating of conversations, it is quite important that we share common knowledge with each other. I showed both of my friends the photo that I had of the recently acquired Monk’s bench – one thought it looked absolutely marvellous whilst the other considered it a hideous monstrosity – well, you cannot legislate for people’s tastes. On the way back up the hill which seems quite a long walk without a wheelchair in front of me (paradoxically) I met up with our Irish friend and exchanged bits of news with each other, not least about the new priest who should be taking over at the start of September. I then cooked myself a lunch of quiche, salad and coleslaw and had a little doze before I ventured out to do my 20-minute stint of sweeping up and tidying of the patio at the rear. I expect we shall have some rain in the next day or so and then I may give the patio a special sweeping with an extra stiff long handled brush I have just located.

I attended the church service as I do, on my own these days, but we had no organist and therefore no hymns sung this evening, But at the end of the service, I was pleased to make contact for a few moments with my Irish friend from down the road and we may be seeing each for a little while the next day. When I got home, I cooked myself some scrambled eggs for a ‘high’ tea and watched England being absolutely massacred by India in the day’s play at the Test Match, here is Edgbaston as it happens. India were scoring incredibly freely and got over 600 runs on the board with the new Indian captain scoring over 250 runs in the first innings and then over 150 runs in the second. England having been fielding all day were put into bat and lost three quick wickets so the massacre of England, first with the bat and then with the ball continued. I then started to watch the much-billed match between France and England in the Womens’ European competition. England scored what appeared to be a good goal but it was disallowed because of an offside detected by the VAR in the buildup to the goal. France then scored an easy goal after a quick breakaway and so the score had France in the lead at half time. I cannot actually see the England team beating France and perhaps a draw is as much as they can hope for.

A quite surprising email popped into my Inbox last night from Worcestershire County Council, following the email of complaint that I sent to them complaining about the fact that they were charging for services for Meg 6½ days after she actually died. I have been informed that my complaint has been sent for allocation under the Statutory Complaints Procedure for Adults Social Care and that they will endeavour to get me a response within 35 working days (which is, of course, seven weeks) I must say that I thought that a complaint of this nature could have been deal with by a finance officer taking a simple decision and adjustment but this full bureaucratic procedure seems somewhat like overkill to me. As with other agencies, I shall just have to wait patiently to see what emerges out of the system. Yesterday morning, my son who is incredibly well informed about all things pension related, had a fairly lengthy discussion discussing the small proportion of Meg’s additional state pension that I may have inherited. We both of us are trying to backfill an explanation for the figures provided to us by the DWP and by the Inland revenue which do not quite agree with each other in any case but I think we are both of the view that it is probably wiser to let sleeping dogs lie and accept gratefully anything that appears to be on offer. My son popped around this morning and apart from sorting out the NHS app on my phone and installing the face recognition on it, we also make some adjustments in the car to the driver’s seating position and the Head-Up display that displays current speed and relevant speed limits on the screen in front of you. We adjusted this ]so that it was a little bit lower and a bit less b right thus making it somewhat less obtrusive whilst still remaining completely visible to the driver.

The government attempted a big launch of their new 10-year plans to ‘save’ the NHS although their announcements were completely drowned out by the reports of the death of the young Liverpool footballer, Diogo Jota. Surrounded by NHS staff for his announcement, the prime minister explained that his government will fix the health service by moving care into the community, digitising the NHS, and focusing on sickness prevention. The aim is to shift care away from under-pressure medical facilities and closer to people’s homes, while taking measures to prevent people needing treatment in the first place. One concept that is being advocated is that of the ‘Neighbourhood Health Team’ What is very unclear at this stage is whether this is going to be based upon new buildings (which will be expensive and take time to build) or whether the concept if a virtual/organisational one in which case not a great deal may actually change in the short term. One suspects that a lot of fine words are being written but this is a case where getting hold of the document (or a good summary of the document) may be worthwhile. Considerable play is being made of an expanded NHS app where people may be able to access services such as doctor’s appointments directly. But my own NHS app having seemingly worked correctly in the past is now just displaying a blank screen so I suspect that I may have to reinstall it (and this is not an easy procedure as several layers of protection are built into it and we never did get Meg’s app working before she died)

Before lunch, I thought I had better make a start on clearing up the patio that we have immediately to the rear of the house. I needed to tie up the large spreading ‘lavatera’ shrub which grows quickly with a profusion of flowers but where the stems are quite brittle. I wired together some of the branches to form a sort of screen and keep the flowers clear of the path and then had to remove a couple of shrubs in pots that had not survived the fierce heat of the last few days. Then I succeeded in tidying up some of the leaves, weeds and clutter thar accumulated in a corner of the patio and this should make the rest of the job easier to achieve now the most difficult part has been done. I probably spent more than a half hour doing my gardening allocation for the day but at least the weather has cooled down a bit and strong a strong breeze is blowing. I made myself a mackerel salad lunch and as soon as I had finished this, I got a most welcome call from one of Meg’s cadre of young workers. These young carers developed quite a deep bond of affection for Meg and myself and this was reciprocal so it is always delightful to see any of them when they pop in, often between calls that they might have in Bromsgrove.

I was tempted to go outside and do a bit more patio tidying but I stayed in because I was expecting a delivery at any time after lunch of a large oak chest which is a sort of family heirloom. My father had acquired this at some time and after his death and the clearance of his house, it found its way into my sister’s hall where it has stayed for what I would estimate is about thirty-five years. Now that my sister’s house is having to be sold after my sister has entered residential care, one of my nephews and hs wife have very kindly arranged for the transportation of the said chest where it is adorning my hall at the moment. The two guys who delivered it had hardly any English and could not really understand me when I asked if they had any difficulties with the SatNav in order to reach me. Once they had departed, I texted my nephew’s wife and then gave the whole chest a clean with a special silicone-free wood polish. I then took a snap of it and stitched it into the website that I maintain to keep a record of the furniture I have bought to populate the Music Lounge. Then I transmitted the link to my nephew and is wife so that they could see that the furniture had been safely delivered and now, when I have a moment, I will try to discern its provenance. The carved wooden figures on the back could be either Dutch or mediaeval and the ships’ wheels that adorn some of the panels suggest a maritime connection as well.

Yesterday dawned as one of those beautiful bright and clear days with the prospect of a fine summer day before one. This is my traditional day for a weekly shopping and I am just starting to get a little tired of a diet of salad which I have been preparing for myself in the past few days. No particular commitments beyond he shopping are looming so it is probably a day when I need to turn some attention to the gardening. But one task looms large and that is to give my newly acquired car a wash, Largely as a consequence of all of the building work that is going on all around us, the car is covered with a fine dust and is crying out for a wash. The last vehicle we had was a Honda which was quite an unusual honey or sandy colour which colour went by the marketing name of ‘Sahara Sand’ Now this vehicle had the marvellous advantage that it could remain unwashed for weeks and one really did not notice as the fine dust occasioned by things like building works blended beautifully with the colour of the car. Whilst Meg was so ill, this was actually quite a bonus because I could, and did, forget about the washing of the car for weeks on end but now I have a darker coloured vehicle I need to get used to a regular washing of it. This is no bad thing because it gets me out of the house and gives me some exercise – in any case, I do not feel that a car is really yours until it has been an intimate once over. It is true that I could take the car to a car wash to which I am not averse but I like to do what I can whilst I can.

Some extraordinary happenings are evident in the domestic political front. The media was replete the day before with images of Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, visibly in tears whilst she as sitting on the front bench. One suggestion was that she was suffering from a very personal trauma of which we are unaware but, if so, this has coincided with the absolute gutting of the welfare reform bill which Reeves had put forward primarily to save about £5bn. The markets are tumbling as international investors take fright at the sight of the Chancellor evidently not being able to cope and there are even some parts of the Labour party who are arguing that both Starmer and Reeves are doomed and ought to be replaced particularly as they incapable of shaking off from the threat of left wing parties such as the Greens in London and right wing parties such as Reform in he rest of the country. Politics it is often said is a cruel sport and not for the faint-hearted but political commentators are saying that they have never before experienced the sight of a leading government minister visibly in tears whilst occupying the front bench in the Commons. I received two telephone calls this morning, one expected and the other one not so. The first was one of the doctors from our practice wanting to discuss with me the results of a spinal X-ray I had performed the other day. The GP practice had tried to get into contact with me twice yesterday and I was slightly fearful that the X-ray was revealing some unwelcome news and this is why the GP practice was trying to contact me. But the X-ray revealed that although my spine was showing some deterioration this was described as subtle and about the wear and tear that could have been expected. So this will give me encouragement to carry on with my daily walks and to get the most of my physiotherapy appointments. The other telephone call I received was whilst I was doing my weekly shop and was not at all welcome. It was from my long-standing Italian friend who was informing me that she was putting her house up for sale and therefore intended to go and live in a smaller property but in the proximity of her daughter and grandchildren. In a way this was not totally unexpected news because my friend told me that she had been thinking about this for some time. Nonetheless, I had hopes that she would stay for some years more as I had hopes that we could have carried on giving mutual support to each other in the absence of our now departed spouses but the opportunities for this will now be few and far between once my friend has moved away. In a way, this has taught me that I should now take nothing for granted but must take every opportunity to forge new acquaintances and friendships whenever I am able. I am a little torn between going out and making this new life for myself but I am also conscious that there is a lot of work to be done in the garden but also in decluttering the house and bringing the double garage into a semblance of order whilst I am it.

After I had lunched, I received a call from one of the parishioners from our local church who collects for the Missions. In theory, one is meant to ask every visitor to the house to contribute but I just stuff some notes into the box and it gets collected once a month. The Mission lady and I chatted over the fact that we are to get a new and young parish priest at the start of September and we are both looking forward to the prospect if only because the relationships between clergy and parishioners can take some nurturing and in the case of the present incumbent, I think it is fair comment to say that we never gelled. As the new priest is going to be quite young, my parishioner friend and I were joking whether the older female members of he congregation would do their share of mothering and I was wondering whether to invite him round for a meal if only because I think that he spent some time in a seminary in Vallodolid (Spain) so it could be that he has some facility in Spanish. I then phoned my good Italian friend down the road to express my regret that she is leaving the community in which she has lived for the last fifty years to live near her daughter. I can understand this but part of me feels that she might be making a mistake as it not so easy to forge new relationships when you are in your 80’s. Reading between the lines, I think my friend lost confidence in independent living when she gave up her car following an accident which was not her fault but has left her with a slightly damaged knee. Then I set about giving the car a wash which according to my tried and tested system involves wetting the car with a fine stream of water from a long handled watering can, then a brush with a long handled car brush, then a hand wash with a car washing mitten followed by a final rinse off and drying. As the weather was quite warm, I came inside for a cup of tea (and a little doze) before going outside again to clean with windscreen and windows of the car.

A lot of any idle moments that I may have had yesterday was taken up with trying to work out the impact of my state pension following Meg’s death. I had been previously told by a DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) official that one had to wait until a spouse died before ‘the state’ would attempt to work out the subsequent pension implications. These are so complicated and relate to past schemes, now abandoned years ago of which the principal was SERPs (State Earning Related Pension Scheme). The fundamental idea was quite a sound one, but here is an official explanation. The State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) ended in 2002, being replaced by the State Second Pension (S2P). While SERPS operated from 1978 to 2002, it was no longer possible to contribute to it after 2002. Contracting out of SERPS, which involved paying reduced National Insurance contributions in exchange for building up benefits in a private pension, ended on April 5, 2016. In very general terms, a surviving spouse could inherit a proportion (depending upon their spouse’s date of birth) of their spouse’s SERPS. But teachers, local authority workers and NHS were ‘contracted out’ of SERPS as they had their own pension schemes and so it becomes horrendously complicated to ascertain what actual SERPS contribution a ‘contracted out’ individual might have actually paid and therefore what was the quantum (if any) that could potentially be inherited. Now following Meg’s death, my own pension has gone up a smidgeon whilst my teachers’ pension has reduced as I am now paying the tax on the miniscule increase I may or may or may not have inherited from Meg. We have not been given any letters detailing the calculations and probably these are spat out of a computer in any case but I have received a not very helpful letter from the DWP stating ‘we note that your circumstances have changed’ So a lot of yesterday, after a phone call to the DWP, I have been left trying to backfit an explanation to the miniscule increase that I have been awarded. I did have an inclination to write a formal letter to the DWP asking for a detailed breakdown of the figures involved but I am a little cautious in this respect. This is because it is always possible that a mistake had been made in my favour and a further investigation might uncover it and withdraw it. So leaving well alone in the face to figures spat out of the government machine can be a sensible policy. I am very much reminded of my own brother-in-law who has now died but at the time of his retirement got a much larger pension than the one to which he thought was entitled. As the owner/manager of a small business, my brother-in-law would have been no slouch in working out what was due to him and making the necessary calculations but as the actual figure awarded to him exceeded his expectations he just kept quiet about it (so he told me at the time) and I am sure this was a very sensible policy. So, at the end of the day I think I should probably be very grateful for any small amounts of pension received and as I calibrate everything by the price of a bought cup of coffee these days, it could be that Meg’s enduring contributions will sustain me in my Wetherspoon’s expenditure on coffee twice a week. Evidently financial affairs are always regarded as exceptionally private affairs -I am reminded of a ‘Sunday Times’ survey in which couples revealed all kinds of details of their sexual practices in a survey but thought that questions on their earnings were far too intrusive! But one of my Tuesday/Saturday friends had some accountancy expertise and used to work out the payroll for the Holiday Inn down the road when she was at work so I might ask her for an opinion on what might be going on in our case.

Yesterday morning was always going to take on a different pattern as, in the absence of our domestic help on holiday, I decided to go down to the Methodist Centre to which venue I used to take Meg in the days when I could get her into a car and then into a wheelchair to access the centre. We always found the crowd to be very chatty and supportive, particularly when you located yourself on the ‘chatty’ table i.e. willing and able to talk. Eventually, I got into conversation with 3-4 ladies, all widowed I think and one who had lost her husband to Parkinson’s disease about a year ago. We chatted about some local matters and, in particular, the building that seems to be taking place all around us. At the moment, I have to endure huge earth moving vehicles in the field behind the house which used to be used to fatten up lambs and they have just constructed an access road for a huge development shortly to commence in front of us. Bromsgrove is due to build 12,000 new houses increasing the present stock of 40,000 houses by 30% with no commensurate increase in roads or facilities. I suspect that Bromsgrove may be the first town in the country to be completely gridlocked as each house will probably generate an extra 2.5 cars (Mum, Dad and teenage children) but the emphasis is on building houses at all costs and not sustainable communities. So my chats at the Methodist centre took up most of the morning after which I came home and prepared myself yet another salad lunch. My acquaintances in the Methodist centre were telling me about U3A (University of the 3rd Age) and there seem to be some interesting local groups. I have sent off an introductory email to a coffee morning group who meet in a local garden centre and there are a couple of other (exploring the history of local churches and another which appears to be a dining club) that might be worth an explore. And there is no doubt that I probably need to work on my Spanish a little and might join an Adult Education class in the autumn if not before.

So yesterday I survived on what well could have been the hottest day of the year by being sensible. So I did not have a walk in the sun but went by car to collect my newspapers and a few provisions. I deployed a fan which we acquired in the last year or so but rarely need but it came into its own yesterday. As I was doing my routine finances, I had a massive shock when I discovered that my state pension was £750 down this month and I had just received a not very helpful standard letter from the Pensions Agency stating ‘we note that your circumstances have changed’ I did manage to get through to a bereavement section of the Pensions Agency and did manage to speak to a ‘live’ person who thought that the payment into my account was not a normal payment but some arrears, So I experienced a fairly anxious day until I could consult my online banking later in the evening to discover that my ‘normal’ pension had not been affected and was paid in on time as it should have been – I can do without shocks like this. Although the weather was extraordinarily hot yesterday, I managed to do a quick 20 minutes tidying up of the weeds on the patio ad even sneaked out in the (relative) cool of the early evening and did another 15 minutes. I am keen to get my patio into some sort of reasonable state because I would be ashamed to entertain any guests in the garden until it is reduced to a semblance of order but I am gradually getting it right. But with the incredibly hot weather and the absence of rain, the grass does not seem to be growing.

When I was with my relatives in Yorkshire, I wondered out loud to one of my nephews and his wife who are now running the family business what fate had befallen a rather magnificent carved chest which is the one thing that my sister had inherited from my father’s estate. My nephew and his wife are selling the house in which my sister lived for so long and had attempted to sell the chest on eBay but without any takers. When I mentioned that I would rather like it, they were delighted that it could be kept within the family as it were and earmarked it for me. So yesterday, I got a text from my nephews’s wife to say that they were organising for the chest to be transported to me (they are in the transport and haulage business and have useful contacts) so we are organising some dates when I might arrange to be in to accept delivery. That reminds me that whenever I have acquired a new piece of furniture, principally to furnish our Music Lounge, I have posted photographs and details on a little website that I maintain. So, when the new piece arrives, I must give it pride of place, stitch the details into the website and pass on the link. The evening before, ClassicFM were advertised a new program in which between the hours of 9.00pm-10.00pm they are going to devote to the life of a single composer and they stared off with Mozart. They are going to follow this with Clara Schumann of whom I know very little but I might make this a regular part of unwinding each evening before I go to bed.

The day was still going to a hot and humid one so I decided to go down into town by car, not least because I needed to go on to our local community hospital for an X-Ray of my spine. I had requested this at my initial physiotherapy assessment who put it to our doctor who readily agreed. This way, I hope to avoid any nasties being discovered but at the same time the physiotherapist should have access to the X-rays which might help better in working out what exercises to do and therapies to recommend. After that I came home and worked on some emails before I went down for my Pilates session. This was a jolly affair as always but I went down by car and parking was a nightmare after which I came home and made myself another salad lunch which was easy to throw together. I then finished off quite a long and complex email which I sent to a County Councillor and also to a Worcestershire Council financial officer complaining vociferously against what I perceived as the gross inhumanity of being charged for services to Meg when she had been dead for 6½ days. I will leave this for half a day or more to say what response it evokes. Then I went outside and finished off my weeding of the outside patio. It still needs a good vigorous brushing and some more tidying up but at least the basics are now done. During the course of the morning, I send a text message to Meg’s Cheltenham cousins to see if I could pop over and see them for a lunch. They were going to be away for a few days but we will arrange something for when they get back. Cheltenham is less than 40 miles away and quote accessible at the end of the M5. I also go a text from one of Meg’s ex-cadre of carers who has just moved with his partner into a new house so it will be interesting to pay them a visit when they are happy to receive me. I always look at the TV schedules to see if any good films are available and I am amazed about the attention given to Wimbledon. There seems to be a continuous transmission from about 2.00pm until about 8.00 or 9.00pm with only a one hour break for news. In addition, BBC2 has a sizeable chunk of time devoted to Wimbledon and surely this must be overkill as some of us want to watch anything except tennis.

Another political ‘U’ turn on welfare reform is taking place this evening. It looks as though just before the vote, the government have concluded that any changes that were scheduled to be made will now wait after the Timms (ministerial review) which is due to report in a year’s time. It looks as though the government is panicking and thought that it might lose the vote but we shall be able to see within the hour. The bill was eventually passed with a majority of 75 but with all of they controversial elements of the bill removed or ‘kicked into touch’ and with the authority of Keir Starmer as labour Prime Minister very severely reduced.

Yesterday morning, the sun came streaming through the window and I awoke at 5.45. I was in two minds whether to get up and have a cup of tea or turn over and have another half hour in bed but eventually the desire for tea proved to be stronger. I was in two minds whether to venture out to Droitwich today on a little shopping expedition but temperatures of 34C are possible in central and eastern parts of England according to the Met Office. UK temperatures in June have only exceeded this level three times since 1960. So I may just decide to play it really safe and stay indoors all day, apart of course from my statutory 20 minutes per day of gardening. I will probably turn my attention to the rear of the house where the patio needs some attention, not least because moss tends to accumulate on the roof on this side of the house and then roll off onto the patio. I know now that sweat glands function considerably less well as one ages and this is why the elderly are so susceptible when it comes to the very high temperatures we are experiencing. Part of me would have liked Meg to have enjoyed this burst of summer after the pretty terrible winter that we both had to endure. But a little thought experiment occur to me which is this. As Meg’s ability to take on fluids declined so rapidly in recent months, then this hot weather might have been too literally too much and she might have succumbed to the extreme heat with me being powerless apart from utilising a fan to do anything very much about it. So perhaps, as in so many different ways, her death when it did occur on 10th May proved to be extremely timely. Although I did have the Sunday newspapers to keep me occupied the evening before, I was quite happy just to lie in the coolest part of the house and listen to ClassicFM whilst also making sure I had replied to various messages on my phone.

Domestic politics are proving to be as interesting as ever. The BBC are embroiled in a debate whether they should have censured an intemperate outburst on stage condeminng the Israeli army for atrocities committed in Gaza- I always thought that the BBC had a ‘pause’ button built in so that a controller could immediately mute any offensive comments that were in the process of being broadcast. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer had admitted that the proposed welfare reforms went ‘too far’ particularly as so many disabled individuals currently in receipt of PIP would lose a substantial part of it. But the whips have been informing No 10 for months and months about the massive amount of discontent on the back benches but they turned a ‘tin ear’ to these reports and decided to press on with the reforms regardless. But the reading of back bench opinion is exactly what the whipping system is designed to be so the current operation of No 10 seems to demonstrate political ineptitude to an extreme degree. It as though No 10 thought they could suspend the normal operations of the political process and it has been obvious to almost everybody that a climb down or a ‘U’ turn was inevitable.

In the morning, as it was going to be an intensely hot day and there were even ‘amber’ weather alerts broadcast, I decided to go down into town by car. I picked up salad provisions for lunch and my favourite low alcohol beer as well as some cordial and tonic water so it was just as well I did not have to lug these provisions up the hill. Whilst I was in the store, I issued an invitation for one of the staff who I know particularly well (and who supplied me with sandwiches for my Yorkshire trip), together with his partner to come round for lunch in a fortnight’s time. I promised to make them a fish pie and I am sure it will nice to be entertaining again. It gives me an incentive to get the patio put to rights so hat we can eat outside if the weather is good but otherwise, of course, we have the dining room. I waited until past 3.00pm before I ventured out today and limited myself to a very strict 20 minutes – even so, the temperature was 30 degrees in the shade. Tomorrow will be a busy morning and with Pilates at the end of it but I anticipate that the weather might just be a tad cooler than today. The airwaves are rather dominated by Wimbledon at the moment and this is the opening day but I believe that the second test match against India is due to start this Wednesday. I had sent a text message to a friend enquiring whether the Methodist Centre would be open on Wednesday and have confirmed that it will be and in the absence of our domestic help who I trust is enjoying her holiday in Italy, this should give me a good focus of activity for this Wednesday morning.

An intriguing piece of research came to my attention from this week’s Observer. Researchers at MIT had taken a group of students and given them a demanding essay to topic. The first group were allowed to use ChatGBT used by many students and other professionals these days. The second group could use any internet resources they could find but with no Artificial Intelligence assistance whilst the third group had to rely completely upon their own native ability with the assistance of no internet resources of any kind. The students’ brain activities were monitored with the conclusion being reached was that the more AI (Artificial Intelligence) was used, the less engaged were key brain networks such as memory, attention and executive function. The authors conclude with the following sobering quote:’Once men turned their thinking over to machine in the hope this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them’

On the evening before yesterday, I attended Mass in our local Catholic church at the end of which the officiating priest who we know is leaving in a couple of months time announced the name of his successor. Now I may not have got the surname of the incoming priest correct but we were told that he is at the moment serving in a parish in Coventry, here in the West Midlands. I did a quick internet search and discovered fairly quickly who I think the new priest is to be. If I heard correctly and have managed to identify him from the internet source that I consulted, then he is fairly young priest having only been ordained some five years ago. But I actually saw a videoclip of him speaking about his new role and all of this bodes well for the future so we live in hope. The previous evening had been the final of the Under 21’s England vs. Germany and England scored two goals before even the first half was half over. I then turned my attention to other things but by the time I followed the match again, it was ten minutes from full time and Germany had pulled back a couple of goals. So then we entered a period of extra time and in about the first minute or so, a young England substitute had been brought on who scored a stunning header to give England the lead. What followed was a complete onslaught on the England goal with a German shot that beat the goalkeeper but was kept out by the crossbar. So a very tense, and absorbing half hour of extra time was eventually completed with England emerging as 3-2 winners. All of this delayed my going to bed time but I was not unhappy given the circumstances. For the forthcoming week, I would normally have seen our domestic help on Wednesday but she will be taking some annual holiday in Italy. So, I think I will take the opportunity to re-acquaint myself with the local Methodist centre and coffee bar although there is a possibility that it might be closed for summer holidays so I probably need to check via a friend whether this is the case or not. If so, I may go off to Droitwich to seek out a jewellers that our domestic help had recommended to me as I need a new chain for a medal that Meg used to wear constantly and I want to pass onto a family member. In the morning after I had breakfasted and seen some of the Sunday morning political programmes, my University of Birmingham friend phoned and we had our normal Sunday morning rendez-vous in the park. As normal, we chatted on a whole range of subjects some of them relating to motoring subjects upon which I was eager to obtain my friend’s view and advice. The morning was one of those gloomy but humid mornings and Waitrose had sold out of the Sunday Times. But on occasions like this, the local BP garage usually has a supply and I got my copy from there. Upon returning home, I cooked myself a lunch based around a supply of low fat beef mince. In the afternoon after a doze, I am going to make myself do 20 minutes around at the font of the house and then I shall treat myself to watching some women’s football (England vs Jamaica ) which is to be screened later in the afternoon.

I completed half of the weeding task I had set for myself and came in to watch the football match. After England had scored their second goal, I was just on my way out to complete the second half of my weeding task when a little red car drew up and it was one of the four young carers of whom Meg (and I) were so fond. So, we had a pleasant 15 minutes catching up on news before he had to depart for his next appointment. Naturally, I was delighted to see him and asked that he and his three companions drop in whenever they have a spare moment. I was nearing the end of my allotted task when my neighbour came out to water his roses so we had an extended chat over this and that. They had just been chatting over how devoted Miggles, our adopted cat, seemed to be whenever I was caught sight of because the cat would come running across the green area at the front of the house waiting to be let in. It seems so strange that I could have fed this cat for about seven years and then the creature just disappeared. I have a theory that its real owner might have moved away taking the cat with him but who knows. When I got back inside the house, I saw England add a 6th and a 7th goal to their rout of Jamaica and then settled down to a meal of peaches and ice-cream. My neighbours were very pleased that I seem to be keeping myself on an even keel which is now over seven weeks ago and the time seems to have flown by so quickly. I delight in telling everybody the story about how when I was leaving Meg’s coffin at the crematorium, I bent down to kiss the coffin and put my hand on the coffin at which point it started to roll forward. It was as though I had said ‘Cmon gal, get moving’ and everybody, including myself, saw the funny side of all of this. My post-Meg routine generally involves some kind of activity to absorb my attention in the mornings after which I am quite used to a quiet afternoon after a lunch which is my main meal of the day. So, for the forthcoming week, I have something ‘on’ for each day of the week until about Friday. I am staring to think about writing to one or two people to invite them round for a meal now that the coast is clear. Although initially I thought of going off to Spain at about this time, I am quite happy to let my new routines bed down a little and not to start to think about holidays and suchlike for a little time yet.

Yesterday proved to be an interesting day but the preceding evening was even better. I had been in a kind of ‘ping-pong’ of messages between myself and a South African Asian lady with whom Meg and I were friendly but who had moved to Droitwich ‘down the road’ as it were. We were trying to find a time when we could meet up for a chat but new work commitments were being sprung on her. We had arranged to meet on Friday which became Saturday but suddenly she was free on Friday afternoon so we both seized the moment. Anticipating that we might meet in a day or so, I had bought some little afternoon tea treats from Waitrose and when my friend called round as the day was so hot I treated her to the one remaining low alcohol beer I was keeping in the fridge. We spent a wonderful half an hour of so in each other’s company and as she was now living in Droitwich, I gave her the long and complicated account of how mother has actually been born in Droitwich in 1911. All good things have to come to an end, though, and I promised to cook our friend a nice fish pie for us to consume on another occasion and she particularly wanted me to see her new house in Droitwich, I have a feeling we may see more of each other as we enjoy each other’s company so much so perhaps, once my car situation is resolved, I will be able to pay a visit to Droitwich which is a little town that Meg and I used to enjoy so much.

During the course of the night before, I was idly checking my newly acquired RAC membership and was wondering whether it was worth the cost of the additional service whereby damaged tyres get replaced. These days, it is not uncommon for tyres with a certain amount of tread to pick up a nail or a screw and after one hears the inevitable ‘clicking’ sound a repair is necessary as soon as possible. But I re-discovered something that I sort of knew about but had forgotten which is the very quick and easy way to check whether the amount of tread on one’s tyres meets the legal minimum of 1.6mm across three quarters of the width. This is the ’20p coin’ test as all of our 20p coins have a band around them of approx. 3mm and so, if this is placed at various points in the tyres groove and the band is covered, then one’s tyres are evidently above the legal minimum. The RAC actually advises all motorists to check this out for themselves about once a month or before a long journey and it is such an easy check to perform. But my browsing around the web revealed a website devoted to tyre safety and the number of accidents that can be attributed to poor tyres is horrendous. Under the dual pressures of a squeeze on family incomes (where the expense of tyre replacement becomes a low priority) and poorly maintained roads, then the ‘tyre health’ of the nation has deteriorated alarmingly in the last year or so. So, the ability of tyres to shed water during wet conditions is critical and a new tyre can shed up to a gallon of water per second – as the tread wears down, this ability is reduced and the possibility of aqua-planing increased. Now that I am taking over my son’s car which is five years old but a low mileage, these things have suddenly assumed a new importance for me.

After breakfasting, I made my way down into town and met up with two of my Saturday morning friends in Wetherspoons. After our jolly chat, I made my way slowly up the hill but called in for a brief chat with my Catholic friends and we exchanged gossip about our priest who has announced his intention of leaving us in about 60 days. They kindly gave me a cold drink of apple juice and then I proceeded up the fill, chatting with some other mutual acquaintances who had turned up for Meg’s funeral a fortnight ago now. Then I returned home and contemplated doing my weekly shop at Aldi but I have never been at midday on a Saturday before. The car park was heaving but I managed to get parked and then proceeded with my shopping. The store seemed to be full of junky type stuff and some of the basics were lacking or hard to find. For example, I could not find basic non-diet tonic water but they were pushing some kind of soft drink for children which was advertised as ‘Guess what flavour this is?’ so goodness knows what kind of ingredients it had. After I got home and unpacked, I was disinclined to eat so I thought I would make myself a simple meal of fish and salad once I returned home from church this evening shortly after 7.00pm. I had a fairly quiet afternoon but in the evening, when I return, there is going to be the final of the Under 21 football competition in which England are going to play Germany. I have a feeling that I know who is going to win this particular match but I suppose I will put myself through the agony of watching it.

The latest idea emanating from government to ‘fix’ the NHS is to allow patients to have a say in what funding the part of he NHS they have experienced is to receive. But the chief executive of the NHS Confederation Matthew Taylor expressed concerns about the trial. He was of the view that ‘Patient experience is determined by far more than their individual interaction with the clinician and so, unless this is very carefully designed and evaluated, there is a risk that providers could be penalised for more systemic issues, such as constraints around staffing or estates, that are beyond their immediate control to fix.’ This sounds to me like a gimmicky, ill-thought through proposal and it will probably end up in the same dustbin such as hospital league tables a few years ago. Apart from anything else, poorly performing units probably require more money to be spent on time, not money taken away from them for ‘poor performance’

Yesterday morning after I had done some exercises and had a shower, I received a bit of a shock. Our domestic help calls around the day before and she has been excellent, gradually and carefully disposing of some of Meg’s clothing in a sensitive way, taking the best items to a charity shop for example. But yesterday when I entered the small room that we have adjacent to our bedroom and which acts as a store for clothing, then the rail upon which Meg’s best dresses had been hanging (e.g. those bought for 25th, 40th and 50th wedding anniversaries) was completely empty. Our domestic help had evidently, and rightly, thought it was time for these to go but it did precipitate rather a weepy moment when I saw the starkness of the empty rail. Our domestic help was quite correct in what she had done but it was just one of those moments that brings home to you the finality of the passing of a spouse. But I got over this as ‘life is for the living’ and the rest of the day proceeded smoothly particularly as my son had called around and we made final arrangements for the transfer of the car. Talking of this, about two cars ago, as it were, I invested in a couple of what are called ‘Car boot organisers’ and they have proved to be absolutely excellent. They are containers of sturdy plastic and fabric material divided into two equal compartments and, as such, are excellent containers in which to place filled shopping bags to make sure they do not roll all over the boot. Even if one does fall over and its contents spill, then this will be contained and not be spread by the motion of the car all over the boot. As I have found these so useful I have transferred them from one car to another but I have taken them and given them a through deep clean so that they start off life in the new car in good condition. I am delighted, by the way, that my son is passing onto to me a specialist boot-liner for the car, tailored exactly by the manufacturer to the dimensions of the boot.

One of my evening routines is to look at my accounts and evidently pay any bills as I did yesterday for both the hairdresser and the chiropodist. I was both intrigued and delighted to find a small amount of money had been paid into what used to be the joint account owned by Meg and myself and this was sent by the DWP with Meg’s National Insurance number and a strange code of ‘PSCS’ I went on the internet to discover what this all might mean and a found a forum in which somebody else had the same thing happened to them six weeks after their husband’s death (and as it happens this is just the period of time since Meg died) I am now pretty sure I know what this is because it will represent one week of state retirement pension which would have covered the period from the date of the last payment until the day of Meg’s death. This little payment had come at just the right time because I am counting off the remaining days until I receive my normal payment as well as my bank balance has been rather bashed with paying for the car insurance, road fund tax and breakdown cover for the car before I can actually legally drive it. On the issues of finance, I have one or two legacy accounts provided by a building society with about £1 in each one and I had completely forgotten my log on credentials. However, I have a little old diary squirrelled away with some legacy passwords in it and tried the one associated with an account called ‘Egg’ that I used to have decades ago. Yorkshire Building Society took over Egg ‘lock, stock and barrel’ (account and domain names) in 2011 so fourteen years ago. But my credentials still worked and I am going to use one of these legacy accounts in which to save any monies that I am going to put by on a monthly basis to find car expenses as they become due (in now a year’s time) So this was quite a pleasant little bonus with which to round after the evening.

In the morning, I had arranged to meet my son down at Waitrose so I walked down the hill and picked up my daily newspaper. If I am not prompt on a Saturday morning, the weekend editions of The Times seem to sell out pretty quickly as I have learnt to my cost. Then my son said he would treat me to a full cooked breakfast at Webbs which we both enjoyed and after that, used the wide open spaces of the car parking spaces provided for me to get used to the handling characteristics of the car I am due to inherit tomorrow morning. The most difficult thing to which I had to get used was the electronic parking as in my previous Honda you could almost ‘set it and forget it’ but the Mazda has a slightly different sequence so I had to ‘unlearn’ what I remembered from the previous car and get used to the settings. After a few practice stops and starts, we set off for the local garage from where my son will pick up his new car in the morning. He needed to go on and pay for it this morning (rather than at the weekend) and check that all of the optional extras had been included after which we came home. Once we had a cup of tea, we turned our joint attention to the legacy building society account(s) I had learnt how to access yesterday. Between us, we installed an app on my iPhone and then used this to rename one account to the name I had chosen for it and then deleted the few other accounts each with minimal amounts of money in them into my remaining account. So now I am all set up with a savings account so that all my car expenditure funds can be kept in one place and I can transfer some spare funds into it as soon as I have some spare cash.