I must say that it feels rather good to be in the month of September when something similar to ‘normal’ life reappears after summer vacations and the disruptions to a more normal routine. I have always throughout my life started either new jobs or new ventures such as attending university in late September/October so I always associate this time of year with new beginnings or a fresh start. Now that the summer vacations are over, I am hopeful that the cafe area in the Methodist Centre in town which is one of my regular haunts will re-open after its summer refurbishment and the same applies to the parish hall which is adjunct of my local church. To complete the sense of ‘new beginnings’ Parliament is to reassemble and Andy Burnham is due to meet MPs, both supporters and opponents in the new session with a host of urgent problems on the agenda, not least in the prisons crisis. I am always reminded when one political figure was asked about his ‘enemies’ in Parliament, he reflected upon the fractious nature of politics when he opined that ‘it is my opponents who are in front of me, my enemies are behind me’ (i.e. in the same party but perhaps in a different wing of it) It is interesting to observe the domestic political scene at the moment because one does get the impression that with their long history as the governing party, the Conservatives naturally much more take to being in power than they do to the role of opposition. This feeling has its obverse in the Labour Party who one feels are very good at Opposition but much less sure-footed when it comes to the business of actually being the governing party, despite their huge majority. In their attempt to solve the short term problem of the absence of enough prison cells in the system, the government are resorting to the expedient of throwing a certain amount of money at the prison estate and asking prison governors if they can identify some spaces such as laundry rooms or storage cupboards into cells. I happen to think that this is quite a good idea even though temporary solutions have the habit of becoming more permanent ones as happened with income tax. There must always be some prisoners in any particular prison who are  old or infirm but can be regarded as trusty and would never think of anything such as an escape. For such individuals, the amount of security could be appropriately light and perhaps their ‘trusty’ status could be rewarded by their own cell converted out of a store cupboard or odd space somewhere. I am always reminded of the days when I used to teach the BASIC programming language and when one was concerned with sorting an array of data,  one always had to have one spare unit of storage space (analogous to a prison cell) whilst numbers were being swapped in the sort process. My niece in one of our recent coffees together was telling me about a book which I think I must both buy and read. I am pretty sure it was called ‘Counterfeit Gods’ and according to the publisher’s blurb it details the following:’ Success, true love, and the life you’ve always wanted. Many of us placed our faith in these things, believing they held the key to happiness, but with a sneaking suspicion they might not deliver.’

Our domestic help called around this morning and we always seem to have a lot of things to discuss with each. She had discovered a very friendly and heart-warming little cafe in a district away from our High Street so this might be worth a look, particularly as they do a good line in bacon butties. There is also a good nearby charity shop run by AgeUK where they seem to always have an extraordinary range of goods so this, too, is worth a visit after an absence of several months. Half way through the morning I got a telephone call from my Italian friend who lives down the Kidderminster Road and I have accepted her invitation to have a nice cup of coffee in the morning. In the past, I have taken my Italian friend to join in the chatty table in the Methodist Centre. When I was out on the road collecting my newspaper I called around to remind myself via a note on their door when normal service is to be resumed and was delighted to learn that it is going to be next week after a summer refurbishment so I am pleased to able to share this good news with my friend. n the middle of the day, I attended our normal weekly Pilates class but our number was diminished to just three of us today. After I returned home, I made myself a mackerel salad and then settled down to watch the statements to be made in the House of Commons by both Andy Burnham and also Kemi Badenoch who are squaring to each other for the first time. meanwhile, an intriguing London by-election may be in the offing. Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that he will step down as an MP for the London seat of Holborn and St. Pancras. Now this is a seat in which the Greens made a strong showing in the last election and Zak Polanski who has lived in London for decades evidently has ambitions to become elected to give the Green party a seat I Parliament for their elected leader. Now it is too early to say whether Polanski will rise to the challenge but in politics, you have to seize the opportunities whilst you can. Polanski is a very erudite and accomplished speaker who can think quite quickly on his feel but has made a couple of gaffes recently upon his opponents have seized. Under the leadership of Zack Polanski, the Green Party of England and Wales experienced a historic and rapid surge in membership and polling support following his election in September 2025. Membership climbed from around 68,000–70,000 in September 2025 to over 200,000 by March 2026. The massive influx allowed the Greens to overtake both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party, establishing themselves as the third-largest political party in the UK by membership numbers. If the Burnham government tries to embrace a form of electoral reform (which is unlikely but not impossible) then I imagine the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens could form a coalition, either loosely or in more formal terms, that would keep the right out of power in the UK for a generation.

Most of the packing got completed satisfactorily and then I watched one of the repeated ‘Pilgrimage’ programmes normally broadcast on a Sunday morning. In sharp contrast to the evening before, when I went down to the bar/lounge area, I find it practically deserted so perhaps most people are having a meal and then going straight to bed. I anticipated meeting up again with the American actor with whom I had socialised so much throughout the late morning, but he was not in evidence – or anyone else for that matter. I have to complete my packing first thing in the morning and so I had to content myself with an early night hoping that the Bank Holiday trains run true to timetable for my return journey. It now looks as though the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has bowed to the public outcry by ordering changes in the ‘Early release of Prisoners’ scheme. Two of the men in prison for the killing of PC Andrew Harper are set to stay behind bars after the prime minister this morning revealed changes to the planned early-release scheme. Andy Burnham said people convicted of unlawful killing, including manslaughter, would now be excluded. Eligible prisoners are due to start being released from October in an effort to ease chronic overcrowding. However, the prospect of Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole being freed caused an outcry, and they are now no longer set to be released at the halfway point of the 13-year-sentences they received in 2020. The excuse for not having done this early was the possibility of appeal under the ‘Human Rights’ rubric and it is hard to see how a challenge that could have been made yesterday is so suddenly nullified today, I awoke yesterday after not a particularly good night’s sleep, perhaps a little concerned about the journey ahead of me back home but it promises to be a bright day. My niece is giving me a lift to the station which will be quite a boost as the journey from the hotel to the station is up quite a steep hill so this is welcome. The political news is dominated by personalities this morning. Priti Patel has lost her position in the Shadow Cabinet and her services dispensed with by Kemi Badenoch so there is no sisterly love shared between  these two female, black right-leaning politicians. But the bigger news is that James Cleverly, a Londoner, is to resign from the Shadow cabinet in order to run in the next election for London mayor. He is the biggest hitting candidate on the Tory side since Boris Johnson and although the capital city inclines towards the left, I would rate his chances as fairly high because I am not sure who the Labour party would put up against him. Sadiq Khan took office as mayor on 9 May 2016, and was re-elected in 2021 and 2024 so has already run two terms of office The position had been held by Ken Livingstone from the creation of the role on 4 May 2000 until he was defeated after two terms in May 2008 by Boris Johnson, who also served two terms before Khan was elected. Cleverly immediately becomes the front-runner for the nomination. He is, as one admiring senior Tory in London puts it, ‘Well liked, experienced, good on the media and can connect with London Conservatives.’ He previously served as a member of the Greater London Assembly in 2008 and 2016, in which capacity he drove through a difficult reorganisation of the capital’s fire services. Among some Conservative colleagues, there was a feeling at times that Cleverly was not across the detail in various briefs he held. Yet he can plausibly claim to be more experienced and tested than any of the three mayors who have held the post since its creation in 2000 and so I would rate his chances as fairly good.

My niece phoned up a good half an hour before she was due to pick me up from the hotel so we popped into a nearby coffee bar for some quick refreshment before she dropped me at the station (which was very welcome) the train that transported me to Leeds was a LNER Kings Cross bound train and seemed much superior to the Cross Country trains offering. The very helpful travelling ticket inspector on board the train found the platform to which I was heading in Leeds which was useful as I only had about thirteen minutes to effect the transfer. In the event, I made this with a few minutes to spare on board the Plymouth bound train which became hideously crowded in the journey through the Midlands from Derby onwards. At one stage there were about eight or none people standing in the carriage  in which fortunately I had a booked seat although I had to ask for it to be vacated when I boarded the train. The train was rerouted through Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield but arrived in Birmingham only about 5 minutes late and so I had plenty of time to get to the Bromsgrove train which, Hereford bound, turned out to be faster than the normal service. So the overall journey like  the proverbial ‘curate’s egg’ was good in parts. I was delighted to see my son who gave me a lift home having only got back from his own travels earlier in the day. Then during the course of the afternoon, I was unpacking, restoring things to their rightful resting places and getting the washing underway. I have a few set things that I like to take away with me which make hotel life a little more liveable of which the most important is an extension cable for the laptop I take away with me and a spare cable and batteries as well some items when I breakfast in my room. Tonight, I shall probably indulge in Paddington 2, being transmitted, no doubt, as today is a Bank Holiday and the film ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ is always  worth another look but as the transmission time is late, I will save that for ‘catch-up’ the next day. I am contemplating my larder to see what meal I can prepare from my tinned stock as I tried to run down supplies before I went away (five days ago) less they go off. Now that this mini-Yorkshire vacation is over, I feel I probably need to re-establish an exercise routine for myself (some daily walks, for example) but I have a Pilates session tomorrow which might be a good start. Some people swear by a walk after a light evening supper and my local park always has a fair sprinkling of dog walkers as well as other more purposeful walkers at about 7.00pm.

The evening before  last turned out to be extremely entertaining but in which ways that I could never have predicted. My niece had popped into the hotel to see me for a brief half an hour and afterwards I contemplated how I would spend the rest of the evening. As I had only a bacon sandwich for the rest of the day and was starting to feel in need of some food, I decided to venture out to my favourite Chinese restaurant which I have patronised on many occasions before when I have made trips to Harrogate. In the restaurant I ordered a house special fried rice meal for myself which was delicious and very filling. The only other diners in the restaurant were a group of youngish people who were engaged in talking politics, principally Liberal Democrat politics. As I would be tired of my own company, as I was paying my bill I asked them if they would like  to hear some good political jokes/stories of which I had quite an abundance. They were more than happy for me to share their table and we exchanged as many good political jokes as we knew until the restaurant decided they were going to close, quite early at about 7.30pm. I made my way back to the hotel and thought I would just casually have a look around the really good pub that serves the excellent locally brewed dark mild beer just across the road. It was quite a fine summer evening and several people were outside the pub and a a group observed me looking around and engaged me in conversation, asking me to join them. They were a group of two young men and a sister celebrating their parents 30th wedding anniversary and seemed in a very jovial mood. They asked me to guess from their accent which part of Yorkshire they were from and although I am not very good at discerning varieties of Yorkshire, I made a stab at Hebden Bridge which was only 8 miles away from their home town of Halifax. They seemed intrigued by my back story which I readily gave and we spent some time discussing the Yorkshire film of ‘Brassed off’ which I had seen on the TV recently with my American friend. How we got onto the subject, I really have no idea but they wanted to guess my age giving estimates of 68 and then 73 and could not believe my actual 81 years of age. They were extremely good and jovial company. evidently really enjoying themselves and were joined by some cousins before they all set off for a family meal somewhere in the vicinity. I must say that I never before experienced such camaraderie, after all, I was a complete stranger to them but they are staying in ‘The Crown’ like myself so it is quite possible I will run across them on another occasion. After they had had gone off for their meal somewhere, I returned to the hotel and buoyed up by the experience of two lots of friendly chats decided to have a beer and see who else I might happen to meet rather than returning to an empty hotel bedroom. After about half an hour, a family group of about six and their 4 year old grand-daughter turned up and whilst the little girl ran around playing an imaginary game of hide-and-seek with her mother, the rest of the family invited me to join them in a drink. They were from Kent and were absolutely enamoured with Yorkshire life and Yorkshire people having stayed at ‘The Crown’ before. So I stayed in conversation with them until about 11.00 when they decided that the night was young and they decided to go off as a group and seek other perhaps musical entertainment in the Harrogate night-time scene, once their little girl and the mother had gone to bed. So this was my third encounter of the night and was completely unpredictable but it was certainly better than sitting alone in a hotel bedroom all by myself. It rather put me in mind of my stay in Jakarta, Indonesia, when my birthday coincided with an early teaching session – the students had got wind it was my birthday and had brought along a range of delicacies and sweet meats to try. Being an Islamic society there was no alcohol involved but when I returned to the alcohol in the early evening, I felt the need for a little celebration and did not want to drink on my own. I espied a couple of men, one in their 20’s and the other evidently older. They were Australians as were many other guests in the hotel but I remember marching up to them and saying to them ‘My name is Mike – its my birthday – what would you like to drink?’ to which the response was a couple of beers and this was the start of quite a friendship, particularly with Tom the younger man who was Brit who intended to go round the globe, got as far as Australia, met a girl and then married her and stayed on in Australia and was employed as a mining engineer. So feeling the need for company, I not averse to having a drink in a bar and then seeking out some enable company. Yesterday was quite easy as the little three year practically bumped into me as she was running about and the conversation and the camaraderie flowed from that point onwards – I know that I will probably meet the Kentish family in the bar again in the evening.

I received a telephone call from my niece and we arranged to meet with her and her sister (i.e. my two nieces) in my favourite coffee bar in Harrogate named ‘Lago di Como’ which has a very friendly and homely upstairs lounge for those in the know. My nieces and I had some delicious coffee and portions of home cooked spinach pie served with a few bits of salad and had a wonderful period of time in each others company before we had to part. I called in at an Oxfam bookshop which had all kinds of interesting books arranged by subject matter and I bought a little trinket box as. present. Upon my return to the hotel, I resumed a long and extensive conversation with a very engaging American actor (although he was born in Harrogate) who was over here to arrange some long term care for aged relatives who I had met briefly in the morning and with whom I continued our conversation about diverse matters before I needed to go up to my hotel bedroom and get packed up. I have a feeling that the evening might be quite busy so I thought I had better get the bulk of the packing done this afternoon.

So the little tea party arranged for my sister at the home of one of my nieces went off as planned. I caught a taxi to get to the address and had taken along with me a beautiful 30″ high orchid for my sister which I am sure will adorn her room, a hand crafted birthday card bought from an Oxfam shop and a magnum of Prosecco for all of the members of the family to share. This latter proved not to be the best of buys as everybody was drinking tea rather than consuming alcohol during the afternoon and there was no point in opening the Magnum bottle. But we agreed that this could be stored until a bigger and perhaps boozier family  gathering perhaps at Christmastime if not before. The party started to break up in the late afternoon as young children were taken away to be put to bed and the adolescents had other things to do so eventually I was transported back to the hotel armed with some extra scones which proved to be useful to me. I was not particularly hungry but made myself some packet soup in a cup which was sufficient for me. I watched some of the Test match on the bedroom TV and then turned in and had a fairly early night, wondering about the next couple of days. After doing some research on the internet, I decided that a trip to York would not be a good idea as the trip to the Railway Museum added an extra mile onto the journey as they are doing some reconstruction work so I decided to go to the small market of Ripon the following day. I am pretty sure that I should be able to board the relevant coach just around the corner from the hotel but I will check with the hotel reception staff first. I spent a certain amount of time messing about to download and install the relevant bus app but eventually decided I would be better off paying the bus driver in cash as the website informed me this this was possible. First I will get a newspaper and then negotiate my way to the point where I can catch the bus if the information provided on the website proves to be accurate.

The joining point for the bus I located after some fishing about. But I was fortunate in that a young woman with her six month old baby were waiting for the bus and as she made this journey regularly and was a Harrogate resident, she was a fund of local knowledge. We chatted all the way to Ripon and then as the bus station was located just round the corner from the principal square, this was easy to find. But as there is a Bank Holiday on Monday, some extremely noisy fairground rides were occupying the centre of the square and to the noise of the fairground rides was added the screams of the children rather ruining the ambience  of a quaint market town.  I did a complete circumnavigation of the square and found a store that was amazingly popular because not only was it huge but it sold every type of hardware item one could imagine. I located the special charging cable that I know my iPhone 16 deploys ( a ‘Type C’ which is oval and will work whatever direction it is plugged in) and I paid only a quarter of the price that I paid for one in the specialist phone shop the other day. It seems to be working fine as my phone is being recharged as I write and spare cables are always useful to have. Having circumnavigated the square, I espied a little arcade which I suspect (rightly) lay in the direction of the cathedral for where I was eventually bound. Down the arcade was a little independent coffee shop which I was happy to patronise rather than one of the national chains and in which I ordered a bacon sandwich (which turned out to be huge) and a cup of tea which in the event was a teapot of tea containing three cups. So this really set me up for the day and from then on it was quite easy to locate the cathedral which one approached via a variety of short cuts.

I have  visited Ripon cathedral on about three of four varied occasions, the first time being when I was a teenager aged about 17 or 18 and I journeyed there on my Lambretta scooter from Harrogate. I visited with Meg on at least one or possibly two occasions and the last time was an invitation to an impromptu performance by a Russian soprano that an old schoolboy acquaintance of mine had smuggled out of Russia and was seeking to reestablish her career in the West. As I remember she sang ‘Exsultate, jubilate’ in a manner which equaled some of the best performances of which I have heard recordings after which we had a magnificent banquet in a large mansion reminiscent of ‘Gosford Park’ In the cathedral, I lit a candle in Meg’s memory and then went onto study the wooden misericords. Ripon Cathedral features 34 rare medieval misericords in its choir stalls, carved between 1489 and 1494, which are celebrated as some of the finest wood carvings in the UK. The word misericord comes from the Latin misericordia, meaning ‘act of mercy’ and the small hinged wooden ledges allowed clergy to rest discreetly during long periods of standing required for monastic services. Attributed to master woodcarvers of the late 15th century, the seating area showcases intricate, surreal, and sometimes humorous medieval artistry. After my visit to the cathedral, I knew that some heavy showers were forecast for the afternoon  so retraced my steps but called in at a local Sainsbury’s to replenish my supplies of fruit and caught the bus back to Harrogate. Then I bought myself fresh supplies of milk and rested on the bed having a quick conversation with my American friend as although we had texted we had not spoken for some days. My niece called in to the hotel for a flying visit and we had a nice catch up until her parking time expired and then I contemplated going out later on in the early evening to my favourite unpretentious but excellent little Chinese restaurant for a meal. In the later part of the evening, I can either choose Paddington 2 or yet another viewing of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and I am not sure which way to go as I have them seen them both several times before.

The evening before last, I went out for a meal in a really authentic Spanish restaurant in Harrogate which was less than a five minute walk from the hotel in which I was staying. A table had been reserved for us and so I dined with my nephew, his wife and their two children aged about 22 and 17. We had the most beautiful meal out and there were many Spanish delicacies in which to indulge. To go with my chicken, I chose a side order of ‘pimientos de padron’ which are a small, bitter-sweet peppers fried in olive oil and served with a liberal helping of sea salt. All of this was helped down by a couple of bottles of rioja, needless to say, and we had the most wonderful of conversations as we ranged over family affairs, our social activities, and every topic on earth besides. What emerged at the end of the evening was that my nephews were in the habit of organising a ‘ceilidh’ at regular intervals. These are traditional gaelic folk festivals with singing, dancing and no doubt some drinking and once they had engaged a top rated band and hired a venue, invitations were distributed liberally to family and friends. Now to cut a long story short, my nephews would very much like myself and my American friend to attend the next event they are going to organise, probably in mid-October and accommodation will be no problem because they can rustle up some sleeping arrangements for the two of us. So, this sounds like a most marvellous event to which to look forward and I earnestly hope that it all comes off. I have invited as many members of the family as feel inclined to come and spend a few days with me in Bromsgrove as, again, accommodation will be no problem as we have bedrooms to spare. Later on in the day, there will be an afternoon tea party in celebration of my sister’s 84th birthday and I hope that many family members will be able to attend that gathering. I have one or two little  surprises planned for that event about which I shall be silent until the events have taken place and then all be revealed. In the morning which I have free, I shall concentrate my attention upon a walk into  town and buying a birthday present for my sister and then the festivities will take place during the afternoon. As well as my iPhone, I shall take along my iPad which has on it several family photos which I think may be of interest to members of the family and which I doubt they have actually seen before. I am trying to make connections with the younger members of the family who are now in their late schooling or higher education phases of their lives and to whom I may appear as a rather distant great uncle (one thinks of ‘Great Uncle Bulgaria’ of the Wombles fame and I think that Paddington bear’s relatives are Uncles and Aunts rather than grandparents) Meanwhile, more mad things seem to be happening on the other side of ‘the pond’ as they say. Donald Trump has said he will rename Lake Ontario as ⁠Lake America in the US following the escalating trade war with Canada. The US president signed an executive order on Thursday and said the change would take effect immediately. It will only apply in the US, as Mr Trump cannot force Canada to follow the renaming. Signing the order in the Oval Office, Mr Trump told reporters that Canada is the worst to deal with on trade, adding that they feel entitled and we can’t have that. Last year, he said he would be renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America – a move that was rejected by the Mexican government. Whether these international re-naming’s will have an effect upon the world’s cartographers remains, of course, to be seen.

After I had got myself up, showered and breakfasted I collected a copy of my regular newspaper and then made my way slowly into town – actually, rushing is not an option as I have to ascend pretty steep inclines to get into town. But passing an Oxfam shop, I purchased a handmade birthday card for my sister which she can keep if she feels so inclined. Once there, I made for Marks and Spencer and eventually located their flowers and plants section. It was quite easy for me to choose a stunning orchid as a present for my sister and although I think it was about 30″ in height, the checkout have a specially designed triangular-shaped carrying bag for the safe transport of flowers and plants. I also purchased a magnum of Prosecco for the mutual enjoyment of everyone at the party and this is the first time I have ever in my life purchased a magnum of any sort of wine. As I traversed the Harrogate streets, I came across a specialised phone accessory shop so that I could always ensure that I had a spare charging cable of the relevant type for my iPhone. I made my way towards a very special kind of coffee shop which some have claimed in the past to be the best in Harrogate. The original owners were Italian and they always have a range of excellent pastries all crafted on the premises. I made my way up some steep stairs to a beautifully comfortable lounge furnished with settees as well as tables and chairs and with the bonus of a stunning TV display showing drone generated images of continental landscapes. Meg and I, as well as my niece, know this upstairs room well and always made a beeline for it. I enjoyed a cappuccino and a very tasty almond pastry, warmed and then delivered up the stairs for me, I got into conversations with other groups of visitors, the last two being a Yorkshire man and his wife who had left Harrogate to settle in Brisbane, Australia but had returned to Harrogate to settle up some property matters. As I was in no rush to go anywhere this morning, these conversations were very welcome, after which I returned to my hotel bedroom to have a cup of soup for lunch as I had brought some packet soups with me for such a contingency. After lunch and a wash-and-brush-up, I know there is a direct link with a local taxi firm to arrange my transport to the afternoon’s tea party. I had been in contact with one of nieces who informed that her sister (another niece) would be attending, together with her two girls.

Apart from stories of a natural disaster in Nepal in which many Britons may have died, news percolated through of the results of a massive court case in America. Meta has agreed to pay up to $18bn (£13.2bn) to dozens of US states to settle claims that its social media platforms harmed children. The landmark trial – the biggest ever of its kind – saw Meta accused of knowingly and deliberately designing features that get children addicted to its platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. According to court papers, the company has denied wrongdoing while agreeing to the settlement. Alongside the payments, the company has agreed to make major changes to Facebook and Instagram, including daily ​usage limits and a restriction of nighttime usage by children who use Facebook and Instagram. The company will also enhance measures ‌to prevent children from accessing age-restricted content. The settlement ​resolves claims brought by 29 US states and ends a federal trial that had been one of the highest-profile tests yet of allegations that social media companies harmed young users. The settlement will be paid out over 10 years. California will get the largest sum of at least $1.5bn, but several other states will still collect hundreds of millions of dollars each over the decade. In order to put this seemingly enormous sum in con context, in the last full fiscal year (2025), Meta Platforms generated $200.97 billion in total revenue. After deducting all operating costs, taxes, and expenses, Meta brought home a net income (pure profit) of $60.46 billion. So the payout sum which extends over several years is less than a third of one year’s profits. Personally, I am surprised that Meta succumbed so quickly in this court case which I thought would drag on for months or even years so the case against them must have been pretty overwhelming. Turning to domestic issues, the evening that I arrived in Harrogate, I went out for a long anticipated drink with one of my nieces and her husband in the pub immediately opposite the hotel which serves a magnificent and locally brewed dark mild beer. We had a wonderful evening together and I had taken along with me two little items of Meg’s jewellery to pass onto my great nieces. At the same time, I had brought along with me the card that had been signed in a variety of European languages by members of an international linguists conference that Meg had attended in the past before her bad back put paid to international travel. But one of the early testaments on the card mentioned about Meg dancing on a table on a restaurant in Thessaloniki (Greece). Meg had mentioned this to me and she knew, even at the time, that it was going to be her ‘swan song’ and the extraordinary sequel to this story is that whilst my daughter-in-law was going through mountains of family snaps, we actually managed to discover ‘the’ photograph which is the definitive proof of Meg dancing an a restaurant table. By the way, exuberant acts like dancing on tables are much more common in diaspora communities (such as Greek-American celebrations) or entertainment-focused tavernas than standard domestic dining. Just as our evening was concluding and my niece and her husband were on their way home, I discovered another piece of the jigsaw that is my family history. I mentioned that I thought that it was probably the case that my mother had worked briefly in WW2 in the Crown Hotel (in which I am staying) when it was commissioned as an operations HQ for the Air Ministry. I had known that my family had moved from a small village on the North Yorkshire moors (Levisham) to Harrogate but why Harrogate? Apparently, a lot of research has been done locally and during the location of ministries to the large Harrogate hotels, there was a massive demand for trained secretarial labour so my mother (and my grandmother) probably moved to Harrogate as my mother being Pitman shorthand trained would have some of the skillset which was very much in demand at the time. This, of course, is conjecture rather than proof but I think the chances of it actually being the case are probably very high.

In the morning, I caught the train to Knaresborough actually missing one by 2 mins but there was another half an hour later. My sister seemed to be quite in good spirits and we reminisced about family matters. The residential home provided me with a lunch which was good of them and then I left in giving myself 15 minutes before the rain back. But this had a fault on it and the running of it was delayed so after a wait of 45 minutes we limped into Harrogate where they immediately took the train out of service. And it was raining when I arrived back so I was thankful for the shelter provided by my broad brimmed Australian style bush hat. My sister had been taken out yesterday by the residential home where she is lodged and had been to an art exhibition which was ‘so-so’ but afterwards had been taken for tea at Betty’s Cafe in Harrogate which is almost a national institution by now. The care staff were also talking with my sister about another ‘day out’ but this time to Harewood House which  is a very well known day trip out in the Harrogate/Leeds area. Naturally, I am every pleased by this because it means that my sister had some existential stimulus instead of staring at her own four walls. Meanwhile I have just been contacted ‘urgently’ by a local hospital to enquire whether I still am in need of an ENT appointment which was requested more than 12 weeks ago – I was informed that failure to fill in the online form would mean that my place on the waiting list would be forfeited and the pending appointment cancelled. I just wondered to myself how many of the ‘information poor’ in our society may be adversely affected by such waiting list management practices and, however good the intention, I do get the feeling that all of this reflects a political imperative to see what can be  done by getting waiting lists ‘down’ by hook or by crook. Now that I am safely back in my hotel room, it has stopped raining but I suppose we can hardly complain as the rain is so badly needed. Although I had put a light raincoat on one side before I left home, I did forget to pack it which I now regret somewhat. But the restaurant to which I shall repair in the evening  to dine with nephews and great nephews/nieces is only a few minutes walk from the hotel and I think should be quite easy to find.

So the evening before I was due to travel, I made a journey to one of our local supermarkets to see if late in the day, they were discounting any of their sandwiches. As it happened they were not, but I did pick up a triple chicken and bacon wrap, a little bowl of fruit, a tray of sushi and a small bottle of mineral water which was all discounted by about a quarter if you bought them together as ‘meals deal’ So these were popped into the fridge and will be transferred into my food bag in the morning. During the course of the evening, I had a brief conversation with my American friend  now recovering from the virus which had afflicted her but she has a doctor’s appointment in the morning. I spent some time filling in an insurance claim for the travel ticket which my friend cannot use but they needed documentary proof of a medical condition which, of course, we were not able to provide. Quite unusually for me, I intend to turn in and have quite an early night tonight and will set the alarm to get up at 6.00am in the morning to finish off my packing. I am relieved that my son is giving me a lift to the station which alleviates the overall stress of the long journey somewhat although I generally enjoy travelling by train if the carriages are not too bulging with people and/or noisy and the direction in which I am travelling there may, of course, be holiday makers returning from the South coast to the North of England. The death has been announced of the Country and Western singer Dolly Parton who, it must be said, was a national icon in the USA. She died at the age of 80 and it always comes as a bit of a shock when well known figures pass away who are younger than you are. Although it must be said, the repertoire and stye of Dolly Parton is hardly my cup of tea but one can only admire the philanthropy. It is said that she earned about $600 million but gave almost all of it away. She had a passion for helping the youth. The Dollywood Foundation was created in the 1980s during her career peak, helping children in Sevier County, Tennessee – where she grew up – to achieve educational success. Through it, she created the Buddy Program, which gave $500 to every seventh and eighth grader who finished high school. The foundation’s website claims the initiative saw the dropout rate go from 35 per cent to just six per cent. Parton also began a scholarship program in 2000, giving $15,000 to five high school seniors from Sevier County who wished to go to college to follow their dreams. The Dollywood project became one of her most incredible legacies, and as of 2025, it gives over 3.4 million books per month to children in the USA and internationally. Practical philanthropy on this scale is almost unparalleled and can only marvel at the good that she did, and will continue to do. She was the 4th in a family of 12 children but never had any children of her own. Returning to practicalities, the Chinese have a saying that a ‘journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step’ so I got up an hour earlier than normal and will concentrate on the final packing of toiletries, food and important things like daily medication (which I have forgotten before) and things like spare batteries which the remote control in the bedroom inevitably needs.

And now for the story of my journey. I caught an earlier train into BNS (Birmingham New Street) and all seemed to be going well as the platform for the departure of the train for York was just around the corner from which I had alighted. At first, the York train seem to have been delayed by about eight minutes but this grew and grew until the delay was of the order of 25 minutes. Then 5 minutes before the train was due to arrive there was a sudden platform change and I was fortunate not to board a Leicester bound train that has just ‘snuck’ into the gap. When the train arrived it was a five coach train and I was one of the first to board the correct carriage but the luggage compartment was already filled with huge suitcases. So I located my seat but there was no way or indeed room that I could have hoisted my large suitcase aloft so it occupied my seat space and I sat on a seat next to a young lady who turned out to be a PhD student at Oxford University. The train was having to go quite slow in case any of the rails were damaged and so the train actually got into York about 1 hour and 50 minutes behind schedule. When I started to speak with the yong lady next to me (actually we were both having a little meal break, sushi on my part which was delicious) we found we had quite a lot in common. My travelling companion was either Ukrainian or Serbian but spoke these two languages as well as Russian and Spanish as well. We exchanged a lot of linguistic stories as well as stories about submitting a PhD but when we were getting up to get off at York, a rather extraordinary thing happened. Another young lady smiled broadly at both of us and told us that she hoped we didn’t mind but she had overheard a lot of our conversation and was absolutely enthralled by it! She herself was a student at Henley Management College in Oxfordshire but that was all we gleaned in a quick snatch of conversation. I had to locate a train to Harrogate but this was easy to find and I only had a 20 minute wait. When I got to Harrogate, I immediately went and bought my ticket to go to Knaresborough in the morning to see my sister and then got a taxi to go to Crown so that I didn’t wear myself out. Having got myself installed in me temporary home for the next five nights, I went shopping to the little store across the road where I bought some milk and, as it cold from their fridge, immediately transferred it to some vacuum flasks that I had brought with me. Thinking  about the things I had forgotten to bring with me, one is some light rainwear so I hope to dodge the showers in the next day or so. 

More and more news is emerging of the horrific crash at the weekend – and in fact, so many new details are emerging that Sky News has paused some of its reporting in a very responsible fashion so as not to prejudice any trials that may be forthcoming. But one or two details that are in the public domain have emerged. One of these is that four of the five young men killed in the crash had previous convictions and some for assaulting police officers as well as motoring offences such as stealing a car for later joy riding. It is also extremely likely (and there is an audit trail to this effect) that the teenagers who lost their lives were engaged in an activity that was going to be filmed and posted onto TicToc which has hosted such footage in the past. I learn that a highly dangerous social media trend has sparked international outrage after multiple teenage joyriders were killed while filming reckless driving videos to gain popularity online. The phenomenon, heavily present on TikTok, involves groups of young men stealing high-performance cars, taunting police officers, and driving at extreme speeds. The crisis peaked following a series of fatal head-on collisions caused by teenagers driving the wrong way down major motorways. The deadly ‘wrong-way’ driving craze linked to social media has caused 12 deaths across the UK and Ireland. This terrifying subculture, fuelled by groups like the ‘Lucky Dip’ gang, involves masked teenagers hot-wiring high-performance vehicles, provoking police chases, and filming the reckless stunts to secure online kudos and likes. The escalating crisis has triggered severe international outrage following two catastrophic head-on collisions. Five teenage boys were killed instantly near County Kildare while driving a stolen BMW at extreme speeds on the wrong side of the motorway. The crash also critically injured a family of four travelling in the opposite direction. Less than a week later, five young joyriders speeding the wrong way down a dual carriageway near Middlesbrough slammed head-on into a police armed response vehicle, killing all five occupants and two police officers. Once again, we have an activity to which TicToc has given free exposure but the damage has been done before the offending material is taken down. The evening before last, I started packing for my Yorkshire trip which I will now be undertaking alone. My packing nearly always consists of a three stage process i which the first  part has already been done. This is is to pack enough for the six days of my absence, The next task is to assemble together a range of household goods of little things that make my stay so much comfortable. For example, I must remember to pack a little alarm clock to have by my bedside and I always ensure that I have packed an extension cable so that I that  can take my laptop with me and carry on blogging whilst I am away and one is never sure until you occupy a hotel bedroom what the distribution and accessibility of available wall-mounted plug sockets is likely to be. Finally we have extra toiletries and foodstuffs but the latter is largely a last minute affair. I will also be reliant upon the discounted sandwiches which  I can pick up when I pay a visit to a supermarket store in town late in the afternoon. There are some photos that I have put by on one side to take with me and to show to other family members during my visit.

Today has been one of those days with a fair degree of frustration but I attended Pilates in the middle of the day. There I was sorry to learn that one of my class members was coping with a horrific set of domestic circumstances in which her own son had experienced appendicitis but she was having to cope with her ageing parents who were starting to exhibit signs of dementia and some of the sequelae which goes with all of that.  I really did empathise with the problems that are assailing her and so far she is keeping her head above the water, as they say. In the last month or so, my own son had attended a reunion of the Psychology  class of which he was a apart in the 1980’s When this little group met, they went around the table giving each other a quick résumé of their lives over the past 40 years and, if my memory serves me correct, practically every one of the group meeting up with each other for the first time in decades had had the experience of dementia afflicting their own family members. I am still thankful that Meg had a fairly peaceful and tranquil end, dying with her family and friends surrounding her but only about 12% of dementia patients actually die in their own homes. I suppose given the level of care needed, most patients end up in a hospital ward or a hospice so part of me is eternally grateful that Meg could have an end of life in she which she gradually drifted away (and she was asleep for most of the time towards the end)

A lot of the day has been spent not on the packing which I promised myself but trying (unsuccessfully) to negotiate a refund for the room which my American friend cannot now occupy as she is too poorly to travel. All I will say at this point is that hard lessons have been learnt which I shall apply in the future. On the advice of one of the Waitrose staff that I know well, I made a journey down at the appointed time to pick up sandwiches for tomorrow  only to be told that the reduced (‘stickered’ items) were at the manager’s discretion and nobody could tell me when this was likely to be. So most of the evening will be spent completing the packing which is now more than half done and ensuring that I have the necessary cables and chargers for everything that I will pack in the main suitcase. The trick is to ensure that you have everything that might be needed but without overloading the case and making it burdensome to trundle around. My plans for the trip are in a certain amount of disarray at the moment but I shall probably make a journey to see my sister on Thursday morning in the small market town of Knaresborough and I have a nice dinner to which to look forward with my nephew and family. Whilst I am about it, I might pack one or two books to read because I have the feeling  that I may have some time on my hands rather than making the trips out which I had anticipated. 

A new week is dawning in which I travel up to Yorkshire to see my family but I wonder what else is in store. My American friend is undergoing a bout of illness at the moment so will not be able to accompany me on my journey which is a source of great disappointment to both of us – but then there is never a ‘convenient’ time to be ill. The evening before last, I was not particularly enamoured of the choices before me on the TV although the film on Churchill’s life was very well made but I did not feel in the mood to watch it again. Instead, I trawled through what the BBC iPlayer and YouTube had to offer and came across the ‘Evening with..’ series and discovered a delightful hour with Peer Ustinov, the famous British actor and raconteur. He told some wickedly amusing anecdotes and this was one transmission even though I had seen it before was well worth another look. I had a look ahead to see what the weather might hold for me this week and although the next day or so will be fine and dry, we might look forward to some wet, windy and squally weather towards the end of the week. There is an interesting snippet on Sky News about the fact that UK is not building reservoirs at a period in our history when our need for water is increasing. I was a little shocked to discover that due to planning hurdles and financial constraints, the UK hasn’t completed building one since 1991. Water supply is a major problem facing the UK, with the Environment Agency estimating we will experience a shortfall of 5 billion litres a day by 2050. But the winters have been getting wetter at a time when our summers have been getting dryer and so far, we have just managed to muddle through.  As with so many other areas of our national life, we seem to have lost the foresight and the will to invest in long term infrastructure planning as the HS2 disaster shows us, But when the cost of living is so high and national finances are so stretched, then planning and providing for infrastructure seems to be a luxury which we cannot afford but the paradox becomes that these essentials become more expensive the longer a decision is delayed. We in this country always seem to have a very short term view compared with Germany for example. It is sometimes said that the typical British company is up for sale every single day as investors in the UK want to see a return after only two years whereas the German view might be to only expect a return after five years i.e. there is a much longer timescale as part of the national consciousness. Britain struggles with infrastructure due to chronic underinvestment, a slow and litigious planning system, frequent political shifts that disrupt long-term strategy, and exceptionally high delivery costs compared to European peers. Projects frequently face severe delays, scope changes, and budget escalations and the ‘Nimbyism’ (Not in My Back Yard) seems to have taken over a pernicious hold of our national life. One is forced to the sad conclusion that once communities have established a pleasant environment for themselves, they will fight tooth and nail to preserve their advantages in perpetuity and the idea of the common good has disappeared over the horizon. But I am conscious that as I write the house into which I moved some nineteen years ago is now faced with new housebuilding on literally ever side and by every side, I mean that literally and adjacent actually means to the north, south, east and west of the plot of land upon which my house sits. 

Late in the morning, I thought I would walk into town although most of the morning had gone. On my way down into town, I reflected upon the fact that in the almost nineteen yeas that I have lived at my current address, a lot of people around me have ‘moved on’ The most extreme form of ‘moving on’ is dying, of course, and I reflected upon the fact that including my wife, Meg, some eight of my near neighbours have actually died and another two have moved out of the area. On my walk down  managed to have a chat with one of my church  friends who lives down the road, as he was about to contemplate giving his car a wash (although it looked immaculate to me) In Waitrose, I picked up a copy of my daily and then availed myself of a ‘free’ cup of coffee. I asked one pf the staff that I know pretty well by sight at what point they start to either mark down or even throw away the day’s sandwiches (because nobody would want yesterdays) and was given some useful information so in the next day and before I travel down to Yorkshire, I shall equip myself  with some sandwiches which may be my main sustenance for  the day. On my way back up the hill, I thought I espied my Pilates session member who was wheeling her very poorly dog in a special wheelchair down to the park. The dog itself had experienced a repair to one of its ligaments and could not walk very far but it was a good opportunity for us to discuss her pet’s condition outside a few snatches of conversation in the Pilates class tomorrow. As I got nearer to my own house, I bumped into my Italian friend again as she had been doing some gardening and so we extended our conversations of the day before. After I returned home, I made sure I was well hydrated with a big glass of cold fluid (as the weather was quite warm outside) before I cooked a ham omelette for myself and started watching a BBC programme on the history of AI before I got interrupted by a couple of nuisance telephone calls which I have now discovered how to report and to block in future. Tonight I really must start packing in earnest as tomorrow will be the last day in which I can actually buy anything  that I need before I go away. I have tried to think ahead to the things that I might need for a 5 day stay and have already ensured that I have some little presents destined for family members put adjacent to the suitcase so they do not get forgotten. I have also ensured that I have some lightweight rainwear packed away in my rucksack in case I get overtaken by a sudden sharp shower whilst I am on the road.

So the day before yesterday panned out in a rather unexpected direction. My American friend, who was unwell, decided to come and spend some time with me in my house and this turned out to be quite a good policy instead of sitting for hours in A&E with the possibility of acquiring an infection. After a sleep and then a light meal that we prepared between us, we watched a very good podcast of the type that we both enjoy because it was the British pairing of Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. After this was finished, we started to browse the TV channels and found that we were half way through a transmission of ‘Paddington’ which we both thoroughly enjoy. Disappointed that we had missed some of it, we turned to the BBC iPlayer and were delighted to find that we could enjoy the whole film from the very beginning which we promptly did. This film has many visual gags within it and also some quite apposite political themes (such as how the UK reacts to ‘strangers’ in its midst) and is always fascinating to watch over and over again. One of the jokes that I particularly enjoy is when Paddington (bear) sees a notice on an escalator in the Underground that ‘Dogs must be carried’ and thinks this must be taken quite literally as an instruction. So Paddington goes and finds a pet dog to carry on the underground. I also enjoy the ‘ride’ that Paddington undertakes in a bath down the family staircase after he has flooded out the bathroom. On consulting the internet, I find that Paddington in Peru (the third movie) is not the last film in the franchise. StudioCanal has officially confirmed that Paddington 4 is in active development, alongside a planned television so these are pleasures left to enjoy – I wonder whether Paddington in Peru will be shown this Christmas alongside other Christmas classics? A domestic story that has rather filled the nation with a degree of shock and horror is the news that two policeman lost their lives whilst pursuing a group of teenagers who drove their car the wrong way down the A66. Two police officers were among seven people killed when a car travelling the wrong way down a dual carriageway crashed into a force vehicle. A Volkswagen Passat with five occupants said to be in their late teens struck an oncoming marked Cleveland Police vehicle on the A66 near Middlesbrough. A pursuit of the car had ended before the crash, with the police vehicle just happening to be in the South Bank area. The occupants of both cars were pronounced dead at the scene. My American friend is quite emotional about all of this news as her own father was a policeman and she can imagine the devastating effect upon the families when the police leave for their shift and do not then return home. Meanwhile, Trump is still issuing dire warnings about what he will do in Iran but we have heard this story before so a well known joke is that we have a ‘TACO’ situation, the initials standing for the phrase ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’ The tariff talks between USA and Canada have broken down and so we are entering a period of ‘tit-for-tat’ sanctions in which we know that all Californian wines, as well as other imports,  are being shunned like the plague.

Yesterday did not exactly turn as I intended. I went to church at the normal time and was delighted, on my way out, to see my Italian friend who I have not seen for a few weeks now. We had quite a few bits of news to impart to each other so I readily accepted her invitation to pop into her house for a delicious cup of freshly brewed coffee. Our friendship goes back well over fifteen years now, I should imagine, and I have promised her that when the Methodist Centre reopens in about mid-September then I shall take her down in the car each Wednesday where we can join the ‘chatty table’ and re-establish old acquaintances, attenuated whilst the centre has been closed for its summer renovation. After our coffee, I ran the two of us down to Waitrose and then returned my friend to her home before going off and giving the car its weekly wash.  I had been contact with my American friend who had been sick during the night and I wonder if the meal I had prepared for her yesterday had proved to be a too heavy on the olive oil, I consulted the web and cooked what I hoped would be a bland dinner of some (tinned) salmon in a creamy mushroom sauce and this worked out pretty well except I think I may have over estimated the strength of the garlic that I deployed. So after my American friend phoned up, I told her about the portion of lunch I had prepared for her but concluded it was too rich for an upset stomach. So instead, I made a special journey down to Asda to pick up some bland foodstuffs and Evian water to deliver to my friend and then returned home for a bit of a doze. Following the international news, it now looks as though the UK is losing patience with the very right wing Israeli government and a war of words has commenced. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and the Israeli government were in dispute over a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank. Mr Miliband summoned Israel’s charge d’affaires – the country’s top diplomat in the UK – on Wednesday to set out the UK’s profound objection to Israel publishing a tender for the construction of about 1,200 homes, as part of the E1 programme of expansion. He called it an unacceptable and destructive act and said the UK would not stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution, as he demanded an immediate reversal. Israel for its part had indicated that it was no business of the UK to determine in which part of the Occupied West Bank Israeli settlers choose to live. Even the name of the territory itself alters according to who is speaking because  the Spanish refer to the territory as cis-Jordania (literally ‘the other side of the Jordan river’) whilst Israelis refer to the northern part of the West Bank as Samaria and the southern part as Judea, combining them as Judea and Samaria. These biblical names date back over 3,000 years to the ancient Jewish kingdoms, whereas the term ‘West Bank’ was popularised later, during Jordanian control from 1948 to 1967. Whatever it it is called, international law is in no doubt that the occupation of what we term the West bank is illegal having been subject to Israeli occupation, whereas the term ‘West Bank’ was popularised later, during Jordanian control from 1948 to 1967. The West Bank was captured by Israel from Jordan during the Six-Day War in June, 1967. Before that, Transjordan (later Jordan) had occupied and annexed the territory following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.